 Hey guys, I'm super excited that you've joined me tonight. I am here with Aaron Brown who is a really successful realtor in San Antonio, Texas I got a secret. He's also my younger brother I believe and I may be wrong, but I think he's 13 years younger than I am but anyway I've been in the house cleaning industry since 1991 he has been in the real estate industry for about 14 years now Who knew that realtors and house cleaners would come together. Well, I guess everybody, right? There are move-in move out cleans and the realtors call the house cleaners and the house cleaners are like Following realtors around and they're like, hey, do you have any move out business? I can have and it's a it's really kind of a lot of fun when they get together and they talk Well, I have a true confession because a few weeks ago I made a youtube show And I said as a way of getting business my favorite way was not with realtors Because it's not just the realtor that you have to please but it's also the home buyer And so I made this off-handed comment and I had a bunch of realtors go. Hey, wait a second We like working with house cleaners and truth be known house cleaners also like working with realtors But we got to get our heads on straight so that we know How do we please the the realtor and the customer, right? And so in the process of that this is a new year and everybody has the oh Let's put our act together and let's get happy and let's let's have some positive energy And I said wait a second. I have an untapped resource right at my fingertips I've got my brother who's been in the real estate industry for 14 years Wouldn't it be awesome if we had a conversation with him and we got our questions answered And so we decided together between the two of us that we would come together and we would have this little podcast Now this is kind of a practice tonight because I don't know if you guys actually Want this podcast or if this is something that I'm making up just because I want to spend more time with my brother Who knows? But I thought that if you guys are interested Please leave your comments in the notes because we're gonna we're gonna answer those as we go But I want to introduce you to my brother erin brown and have him give you a little background About who he is you guys know me and how he got in the real estate business And then we got some special stuff for you tonight Hey, erin. How are you tonight? Fantastic. Thank you so much for having me on your show um Yeah, so I got in the real estate industry specifically because I loved helping people and Helping people with investments and finding their dream home Quickly quickly became a passion of mine. And it's something that I feel like I will do for the rest of my life So super happy to be here and chat with you tonight and Helping people get into a house. Definitely. It's it's why I got in the industry. So So I got a question for you and this is kind of an interesting question that I know house cleaners have always kind of had a tug of war with and that's if I wake up in the morning And I am not in the happiest of moods and I have to go to a customer's house If I don't get myself in check when I get to my customer's house It's possible that my nasty attitude rubs off on them And I'm curious to know is there something similar like that as a realtor that you have to put on your happy face Before you go out and you talk to a customer and you kind of set the tone for the the sale Yeah, absolutely a thousand percent Your attitude definitely rubs off and it comes right through the customers and clients and so If you're not approaching phone conversations in person meetings, etc With a good happy positive attitude people probably aren't going to want to work with you So it's definitely that first impression and it's got to be a lasting one So what are some steps that you would have to take? Just to get your head in the right space if let's say maybe you're not feeling on top of the world and you Are like, hey, wait a second. I got an appointment. I don't have a chance or a choice I have to go out there and I have to put on my happy face and I have to perform if you will What are some things that you do or a process that you go through to get your head in the right space for that? There's some practical things that you can do walking right into that moment But the best way of course is to preempt it. It's to actually start your day outright And to start with some morning routine It would actually put you in the right mind frame or frame of mind Going into your day to communicate with clients Um, sure we all have our ups and downs throughout the day and sometimes we're going to walk into that appointment We just got off the phone and maybe a deal just fell through or something happened We've got to go in and meet that next client with a happy face Um, so definitely there's some practical things. I think we could do but Definitely starts out with how your day starts for sure at least for me Uh, I know that's true for me as well And one of the things that I've done as a house cleaner for the last 30 years And it's it's kind of become my my time of the day and I get up really early in the morning But the first hour of the day is my own. I don't give it to any clients. I don't give it to any customers I don't do any email. I don't do any social media That's just kind of my time and it's my meditation and my exercise time And it's the time where I'm working through things in my own head And I'm I'm going through my meditations and my prayers and stuff like that so that I can I can be in the right space for everybody that I have to work with and I'm in a unique situation where It's not just my customers, but I also have employees And it's been my responsibility over the years and I this is not a chore But it's my responsibility to kind of like be the cheerleader for them And I know that it's hard for me to be a cheerleader if I'm not cheering in my own head first And so in order just to make sure that I'm in the right headspace I make sure that I do that for myself so that I can be better for my team. Does that make sense? Absolutely, I would say that's the holy grail of entrepreneurship for sure is that first hour of the day That's going to set the preamble for the rest of the day So I couldn't agree with you more Well, I'm really super excited that you you've decided to do this with me This is really fun And I have put together a couple of affirmations and these are positive affirmations that at first glance It's going to seem like oh, wow That's really egotistical that you would you would think something like that, right? and the reason that I have put them together is Because I believe that if we have something to focus on Whether it is accurate yet or not and I say yet because even though we may not be in a situation where this is true for us yet I know that the more I focus on something the more real it becomes to me So in this particular situation it says I'm in control of my thoughts and my emotions And I know that this is not always the case. I don't always feel in control. Sometimes I feel totally out of control and so When I I look at this I just say to myself Wait a second. I do have a choice. I do I am in control. I choose to be in control And so this is kind of a an opening for me where I say Am I going to let the world control my thoughts or am I going to decide to control them on my own? What's your take? I would say definitely, uh, we have to be on the affect end of our emotions And so look if you If you want to be in control of your thoughts and emotions um You you've really got to start the day By not carrying your past day into today Is if you keep if you carry that past stuff in it's going to be really hard to control your emotions When you're so worried about that client from yesterday, right when you're so worried about those things that Are frustrating And do you have a way to get rid of that yesterday's client if that's still on the front of your mind? Yeah, so there's a little technique that I use and the technique that I use is I call it defragmenting the mind and what I do is I just run through my day backwards And I do this usually the night before When so when I go to bed or right as I wake up and what I do is I just run through my day Anything that happened throughout my day that was positive I just put in a little category in my mind of things that I want to save forever And tag that with a positive emotion And then the things that weren't so positive that run in with a client something might have happened It still might have fallen through I have a little prayer that I say and then I just let that go And the little prayer that I say is just simply I love you. I forgive you And then I end that with I love you and my angel blesses your angel And then I can just let that go and I'm not carrying those emotions into the next Business meeting into the next, you know our next two hours of the day And so really for me to stay in control of my thoughts and emotions It's it's coming from that place where I'm not going to carry that last conversation into this one unless it was positive I try to build a a positive neurological train Of good things going on in my life to carry that positive thoughts and emotions throughout the day Oh, I love that. That's just fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing that That's a that's a really great way to just stop and kind of reframe In order to let go of things that are no longer in your control I guess we could be worried about them and could fuss over them And I know as an entrepreneur there are plenty of nights where I've lied awake at night and I couldn't go to sleep and I was um Frustrated and it came out of a good place I was frustrated because I wanted to do right by my customers I wanted to do right by my employees And things are just maybe not a hundred percent the way that I wanted them And instead of letting it go before I went to sleep. I took it to sleep with me and so sometimes I I'm not as as Progressive I guess as you are in that I let it go before I go to bed But I have found myself getting up in the middle of the night And going in the other room and putting on a set of headphones and listening to a hypnosis tape That is in the same vein of I release this and I'm in a happy place And it's okay And you know the world is not falling in on me and I'm going to survive this I'm going to make it I'm going to make it out okay Just to the point where it kind of calms me down and I kind of realize oh, yes You know I've made this little mountain and this little molehill into a mountain And so I'm I'm in a better spot now to go ahead and get the rest of my sleep And then tomorrow I can try again and maybe do better, you know so I absolutely love that I think you hit on a key there and that's listening to something positive as you sleep As you're going into that sleep state having something positive playing And it makes all of the difference for a restful night sleep And approaching your next day positively waking up on the right side of the bed so to speak So I love that I'm glad that you brought that up because I know that we just over the holidays We released a sleep tape and it was for the the work that we're doing in the hoarding industry and We released it. I believe on christmas day and pat and I have been listening to it at night as we fall asleep And it has a lot of things in it Like we've created the a series of things that it walks you through I'm sleeping peacefully at night and I kind of added it in there knowing that I was going to listen to it myself And I was going to help me sleep better at night But then also why am I sleeping better at night? I'm sleeping better at night because It's it's a good way for me to be healthy and to get some early rest And then it goes on to when I get up in the morning I'm feeling better and then when I get up Then I make sure that I drink and I'm I'm I'm hydrated and I'm taking care of my body as well It includes things on exercise and if my day my night is right and my day is right My exercise is right and it kind of goes through progression of the day It hits on business it hits on success and a whole bunch of other things And one of the things that's in there was always choosing the healthiest of choices When you have a choice of things to eat because you're taking care of your body And we've been listening to this every night every night every night and I know it's the new year And I don't maybe it has something to do with it Maybe it doesn't but I noticed that right yesterday or the day before my husband's like wait a second I need to start exercising every day and I said whoa, okay And it's kind of like a week late if it was going to be a new year's resolution But then he's like and we need new food. He said I only want to eat whole foods this year And I was like, I think it might be that tape. I like move in listening to it every night for a couple weeks I'm thinking that maybe that's had some kind of an effect or maybe he's you know Paying attention or something So I don't know. What do you think? I I think you're absolutely right. It totally changes your mindset and as it as opposed to being addicted to That food hit that sugar high You wake up and say, yeah, should I have water this morning or a coffee with creamer? Yeah And again, it goes back to that mood, you know You know what we've never done Is we've never created a business tape for business people at night And I don't know if there's any interest there might be an interest if we created one for business people That are in the real estate business. What do you think is that is that even something people would be interested in? We could definitely find out I would I would be interested in that as a realtor for sure And I would listen to it every night. There's no question Um, real estate is a lot like a roller coaster for most agents out there so If you can imagine the adrenaline of getting on a roller coaster, that's most agents on a daily basis You get you know Your heart sinks half the day and half the day you're on cloud nine Um, and so there's there's a lot of things we could do to balance that out and I My personal opinion is as a realtor to try to keep that as uneventful as possible You're trying to keep that roller coaster as flat as you possibly can Um, if you want to have a really good quality of life Thanks for sharing that. Um, so I'm gonna I'm going to throw this out to you guys If any of you are listening to us now and you think that it is a good idea for a sleep tape We can make one I've got a realtor right here with me that can can give me all the prompts and all the things that we need To add in there so that it's beneficial to you and I'll add in everything that I know for my own personal experience And we'll create a new tape that we can all listen to as we fall asleep at night and wake up Positive and balanced in the morning. I love that. I think that's so great Uh, the next one is I'm surrounded by positive energy. I'll let you kick this one off Aaron Yeah, so I think this one is a big one. Um, me as a realtor specifically in getting the opportunity to be in people's homes On a daily basis and when I say people's homes I'm an average day. It's usually anywhere from, you know, four to 12 homes So I'm in a lot of people's homes every day and when it comes to positive energy So much of our energy has to do with our surroundings And I'm not saying you need to go buy a book on feng shui but Having your space clean Having things kind of picked up It helps so much with your daily energy the things that we eat the things that we put into our minds And so starting your day off Um from a positive place, but then even in your own environment, you know What are you doing throughout the day to either create chaos or order? And it can be something as simple as you get the mail out of the mailbox Are you going to take care of it right then or are you going to throw it in a stack on your desk? You know In a few days that creates chaos in your life and those things build up across the board So I would say staying surrounded by positive energy A lot too has to do with the company we keep As sales professionals We are around all different types of people on a daily basis And a lot of those people are going through a lot of turmoil We deal with a lot of probates and deaths and You know divorces and all kinds of things and People think that we're psychologists. We're not we're altars And trying to keep that positive energy Again the mentors you have in your life the friends that you have in your life the family that you choose to be around I think you need to be a little bit picky on Keeping positive people in your life because it's really easy to go down that road of You know shadow and despair Especially in the world we're living in where the news is pretty negative and a lot of people around us are like Oh, my world's falling apart. I'm getting a divorce. My kids hate me these kinds of things Because of that situation It's easy to get lost in that What do you think? I totally agree with you and I'm glad that you brought that up. There's a An employee that I had we won't say any names But there's an employee that I had an every day when she showed up There's this tendency to say like hi. How are you doing today? And she would go. Oh my goodness I just I had the sweats last night and then oh my head just is aching and it hurts so bad And oh the kids cried all night this and that and whatever that that that that that that And every time that we would try to have a conversation there was just this doom and gloom and it was just like this cloud And so we started this thing in our office and it was a little bit Woo-woo at first if you will But they showed up to work one day and there's a table full of people and I said hey guys new rules I said in this office I'm going to ask you in the morning. How are you doing today? And there's only one right answer And they said okay. I said here's the answer. I'm beautiful. I'm talented and I'm wicked smart And they were all looking at each other like oh dear. She's lost it now So, um, I would ask them every day. How you doing and I got this. I don't know if you can see this I'll make myself big here on the screen So you can see this I have this little happy bell and when I ring it. It's just a happy bell So I ask I ask everybody how you doing and they say I'm beautiful I'm talented and I'm wicked smart and I hit the bell. I'm like, yes. I knew it I knew it. I just knew it that this is who I'd hired right And it was kind of fun because having them say it out loud at first everyone is kind of like giggling and they're kind of like Oh, I saw stupid. I can't believe she's making us do this But then it got to the point where As you're getting ready in the day, you're saying to yourself man, I'm beautiful I'm talented and I'm wicked smart and you know, what is the worst thing that happens if you got up every day And you said that to yourself I mean, is that so crazy? You don't have to say it in a room full of people and we actually do say it in a room full of people But if you were only to say that to yourself What happens and you know, we tell ourselves bad things about ourselves over and over again like, yeah well, I'm never gonna I'm never going to be able to afford that or Um, well, I wish I had that, you know, we say these really guilty weird sad things to ourselves over and over again Why is that okay? Why is that okay? But it's not okay to say I'm beautiful. I'm talented and I'm wicked smart And so I said, well, let's do it And so now we've been doing it for probably three or four months now And I mean people just walk in the door and they are just shouting. I am beautiful. I'm talented I'm wicked smart and they've started adding other things on there like and I'm joyful And I'm like, yes, and we just hit the bell and away we go, you know, it's just this big This big moment of tada, you know I absolutely love that. That's phenomenal. And what a fun way to start out any meeting or any get-together It definitely sets you off on the right foot. I love that I'll definitely implement that into my life as well Okay, me posted. It's a lot of fun. I'm eager to hear if you guys use that and how that works for you Absolutely So tell me about this one you kick this one off You know, again, I think this goes back to the the my nightly ritual before I think originally it was the ripana shots that that Really did this but it's really just running through your day backwards and deciding what you want to keep and what you don't So you're not carrying things into the next day If you If you want today to be the best day of your life You can't go through your day with judgments and hurt feelings And stuff from the past and especially in the sales industry You know those difficult conversations you have with clients or things not working out the way you want it In order for today to be the best day You've really got to approach today as though today is a new slate And and then you can approach it with that positive mindset and every conversation is a new conversation in a positive light That is the only way I have found in 14 years of real estate to have a good day every day What um, you know, it's interesting that that you mentioned that because I I wish I could say that every day is like the best day of my life And I would love to go the whole day, but I have a tendency I think like a lot of people do where if the day starts off on the wrong foot Then I'm like, ah today's already gone. I can't I can't make it the best day because it already started off on the wrong foot So what I like to do is I learned this from my husband He's quite a character But do you remember in the movies like if you've ever been on a movie set how they have like those little clap boards and they do Like the clap Um, he'll just walk up to me and he'll do like clap like do a do-over because this is not working for you and so I Remind myself and this is one of those goofball things that when nobody's looking and I'll be in a room by myself I'm just like I'm starting over again. You know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna do a do-over starting right now And I'm going to make this day the best date from here forward And if I goof up it's going to be another, you know a clap board And I'm just going to pick up where I left off and keep going I absolutely love that Um, I personally reset all throughout the day as well Um, but I love the physical action of resetting Um is definitely definitely something I will implement The physical action of resetting your physiology is so important and I love that you do that Well, another thing that I do is uh, I have one of those little tiny mini trampolines That's inside my office and I know that sometimes if I'm sitting Or if I'm just kind of in a slump and I'm not moving physically I know that the best quick fix for me is just a little bit of oxygen to my brain And so there are times that I've I've I've literally Told somebody let me get back to you in five minutes And I'll just go jump on the trampoline for a couple of minutes just to get my my body moving again Get my you know kick my lymphatic system into gear get a little bit of oxygen through my blood in my brain And then I'm like, huh, okay. All right. I'm back I'm ready to I'm ready to rock and roll again. And I have to do that a couple of times I mean I'll do that three four five times a day Just just if I start feeling like I'm not quite on top of my a game I absolutely love that. I think it's so so important And we definitely have to remember to do that all throughout the day so that we don't carry that negative thing into the next meeting Yeah I learned from a business partner of mine We and this is not having the best day, but like keeping your attitude in check um If there was ever a cross moment where you just feel like you kind of want to like spout out at someone um, he would say take a block And this was kind of like a military directive meaning go out and walk around the block And it was it was a brisk pace walk that to get out there and to come back Um, it only took a couple minutes But by the time I came back then again, I was in reset mode I had reset everything and I was I was ready to you know kind of Come back and be myself again On that same note There was a little secret that we learned as salespeople And that is to over oxygenate the lungs To get that euphoric height if you can't leave your desk And uh, this this actually came out of a meeting of ISAs so inside salespeople Where you're sitting and making calls for six or seven hours at a time And the idea is you take the biggest deep breath that you can And you hold it for a few seconds and then you breathe in again on top of that And then you try to go for a third one. This is all before you've breathed out and it over oxygenates the lungs And actually you don't you don't actually have to breathe As long as you've got that oxygen in your lungs and it kind of permeates through your lungs And it gives you that kind of euphoric reset high Of just getting more oxygen into the blood into your brain And so if you do that a couple of times, it'll help you reset quickly And you feel really really good and you can't help but like smile and laugh and you're ready to go into the next Meeting or phone call by just simply taking a couple of deep breaths and holding that breath in for a minute and then breathing in on top of that so Something fun as well you can implement into your life That's awesome. Thanks so much for sharing that with us I think any little tip and trick helps and I I love where this is headed so far I mean, I've already learned a couple things here and I'm taking some notes And we've got several people here my song mary. It's so good to see you guys. Thanks for joining us here We have Joe and premier investments Premier investments asked a great question. He said what are some upgrades or materials you too recommend that would make areas easy To clean and maintain and increase or at least not decrease property value Um Let me say that again. What are some upgrades or materials you too recommend that would make areas easy to clean And maintain or increase not decrease property value Um, why don't you jump in and and tell us what you think here and then I have something that I would like to add If I understand the question the question correctly It's what are those things in a property that would increase the most value Or at least somebody walking in the most perceived value Um, that's super easy. The first one is your front porch and front door It's the first thing people see when they get to your home And they're usually standing there for a moment before either someone comes to the door Or before your agent opens the door And so standing on a front porch, they're looking around they're looking at the light fixture the cobwebs the front door They're looking at what it looks like from the road You know standing at the front door out towards the road, etc So that initial front porch area is key and then you're Definitely your kitchen and master bedroom Across the board in real estate that kitchen living room area Is going to be where people spend the majority of their time And so if you're going to do any upgrade to a house start there And when it comes to cleaning kind of say you you would be the one to talk about that But as far as having things clean and put away Um that living room kitchen area, it's immediately where people are going to go and congregate It's also where the discussions are going to happen about the home And if this is the right home Um, and so I would say those two absolutely and then the master bath and then Those are excellent, uh suggestions. Thank you for sharing that As far as the cleaning goes one thing that I would like to add is inside the showers Because showers have a tendency either people don't turn on the ventilation fans Or they don't open the windows or there's not enough ventilation in there and it's easy to collect mold The mold in the shower can be removed easily But if the mold for any reason any reason gets on the ceiling or the walls Drop what you're doing and call a mitigator to get out there immediately And have them do a moisture test in your attic and your crawl space and throughout your house To make sure that there's not mold climbing on the backs of your walls Because uh the the question is and not decrease the property value The mold will decrease the property value quicker than anything else And then it becomes a liability and it becomes a really big expense because they've got to bring in ice blasters It's like it's literally like dry ice where they come in and they have to blast the The mold away and then reset everything and reseal it So it's it's very expensive when it happens and that that will damage the property value of your home I mean it will just tank it So if for any reason you see any mold at all and it's not in the showers in the showers It can be cleaned and that's not a problem But if you see it on the walls or ceilings red alert Call somebody immediately because if you file a home insurance claim within the first 14 days They'll honor it. But if you let it go and you're like, uh, I need to get around to that and you don't If you let it go it's considered neglect and the insurance company will not cover it So I just wanted to throw that out I know that's not as as fancy as what erin was saying about pick up things and make it look beautiful But if you have by any chance Any traces of mold in your house take it take care of it at first at first glance and that that will help your property value So a quick note on mold It's about the fastest way to get an attorney Or a lawyer involved in a real estate transaction So it is good to take care of that very quickly Um, if a remediation company has ever been out to the home, it will show up in a clue report and More often than not that's when attorney gets involved in a real estate transaction Because they're you're dealing with perceived health issues And the person moving into the home if they get a cough or a sniffle they can come back for three years And so that becomes a big issue when it comes to mold So Definitely agree with you on that one wow I am grateful for all that I have And right now I am grateful that I have no mold on my walls and ceilings I did I did not know that about the attorney And I don't want any attorneys involved in the real estate transaction It'll be a whole lot smoother and a lot less expensive if that did not happen um But um, I I am grateful and I'm grateful for all that I have because as I look around I've been really really blessed in my life And I remember a time growing up where we're from a family of 19 kids And I think Aaron is 13 years younger than I am so he's my baby brother But um, we grew up in a home where we never lacked for food We never lacked for love We never lacked for a home or shelter over us or whatever And I've always been really blessed and I was talking to my husband the other night I said Is there something wrong with me because I never lived in a home where I had to suffer right? I was always kind of like Not on easy peasy street I mean there were times that we we were resourceful and we tried to stretch a dollar and you know I mean we were we were a middle-class family, but we did our best to Make ends meet if you will and I think anytime you have a home of 19 kids. I think that's the case, right? So it's not we weren't sent to fancy schools or any of those things But I've always been blessed. I always felt like oh, wow I've got the world of my fingertips and I don't know if it's just that that perpetuates itself I've been grateful and therefore more of the same just keeps finding me or how that works But uh, I really am grateful for all that I have. How about you erin? Yeah, um specifically when it comes to being grateful So much of being an entrepreneur is is usually directly tied to ourselves and the reason Is because we we dedicate so much of our life to the sales process When something goes awry We take it really personal We take it as a personal attack And that our life has now fallen apart because we've spent all of this time effort and resource on this particular thing And now it fell apart where it didn't go through or they didn't get the financing in place And now we feel like we have just completely tinked and I think the fastest way as an entrepreneur to stay grateful Is to truly just jot down throughout the day the things that you're grateful for If if i've done anything in my career, it has been this one right here where you just You know, you've got a few minutes in between a meeting and you physically write down I'm grateful for and anything you can think of i'm grateful for the meeting I just came out of the coffee i'm drinking the lunch. I just had and it keeps you in this Reset of a mindset Where you really go through the day like looking at things with a different perspective and it's that perspective of Not just grateful, but it almost in invokes the feeling of love And I don't know how closely those are related but being grateful You have this like different love for the world and and like the things you you see and the things you experience And so for me, it's just taking a minute here and there. There's no journal. There's no not writing it in a special place I'm literally, you know in between a meeting and jotting down on a napkin. I'm grateful for this coffee I'm grateful for the conversation. I just have and it is so powerful What do you do with the written image that you have? It's For me it's just getting it out and physically writing it down I used to try to type it up and it has a different physiological effect When you actually take the thought and put it through a pen onto a surface Um, and I found that's where the emotion really changes me just typing it out I could type i'm grateful all day and it didn't seem to make a huge difference When I wrote it down with a pen I would really feel it. I would feel it going into the next moment. I would feel it walking into a building and just like Being amazed at the architecture and just like i'm so grateful to be here. I'm so grateful to be in the industry, you know We uh had an interesting situation Where after our i'm beautiful talented and wicked smart moment in our mornings We went around the room and we asked everybody what are you grateful for and it was interesting because they're At first people were saying things like well I'm really grateful for the internet because I couldn't do my job without the internet people Like i'm really grateful for music and then people would say i'm really grateful for the artist that wrote the music And then it started getting more granular as the days went on And we'd already exhausted not that we weren't not still grateful for our families because everybody's grateful for their spouse And their parents and their kids and all that stuff But it started being really grateful for things that oh my goodness electricity. Yeah I am really grateful for electricity because without it like nothing in my house works And my computer doesn't work and I can't charge my phone and we started going through all these different things That our lives are so dependent on electricity for example And then everyone is like high five in each other's gratitude for the things that they were grateful for because How how life would be if we didn't have those those blessings that we so take for granted on so many occasions You know, I mean even if it's just the morning coffee maker 100% absolutely Um, I've I've even found with some of the people I work with that they'll approach a situation and just say hey I'm grateful for that situation. I'm grateful for what I just learned That I'll never do again. So love that All right, so tell us about this one. I'm focused and hard working Um, this one. Okay. So for me, um being focused as an entrepreneur and being hard working Um is these are going to be two of the toughest things that you will ever do as an entrepreneur Um, there is so much to take away our focus on a moment to moment basis The notifications going off on our phone the phone calls coming in the emails the non-stop interruptions To stay focused. I believe the only way to really stay focused and productive And work smarter and not harder Is really time blocking Getting into that time blocking where this is what I'm going to do for this set amount of time And nothing is going to interrupt it And it is amazing what you will get done and it's exponential, uh because you get something done here and Because you were efficient over here and it only took you a few minutes Your day is so much more maximized Even if it's only a few hours a day that's time blocked and really focused It's working smarter and not harder. What are your thoughts? Well, it's interesting because I've been in the house cleaning industry for 31 years And one of the things that I've noticed because I've often worked inside my own neighborhood And while I'm in my uniform and this is my uniform my blue shirt my hair pulled back in a bun This is my house cleaning uniform and all of my neighbors have come to know that when I'm in my uniform I'm I'm working Because I've worked in my own neighborhood But if I'm out in my yard and I'm cutting my roses and my hair is down or I've got a ball hat on or something You know come on over you're my neighbor come over and chit chat But my time blocking has been so specific that even if I'm inside my house And I've got 10 employees that work out of my house But even if I'm inside my house I'll put on an apron Because they see the blue shirt all the time and I'm always working So when am I actually not working? I'll put on an apron and the apron means Oh, she's gone into like serious cleaning mode now and they will like totally like ignore me like I'm not even there And it allows me that to focus and to do what I'm supposed to be doing because we all have jobs that we're supposed to be doing And it's not like I'm trying to it's not like I'm just wearing the apron so that you know I can have some free time by myself It's that I'm I'm actually trying to compartmentalize Those distractions because any question that they had certainly could be Kept on a on a note and then given to me when it's time to chat, you know So I think I think time blocking is incredibly important if you're going to stay focused and you're going to work hard because without that You're right the distractions are overwhelming and because of that I have started using a service that lives on my I say they live It's an AI service that lives on my Computer screen and so whenever anyone tries to call into the company It will go right over to them and they answer all of our calls for us And all my phones are like right now. I'm talking to you guys So I'm not I'm not answering my phones right now Someone else has to do that and because it's after hours all of my team members have gone home for the day And so it's a service and they are lovely. I mean they've been trained. They are very professional They'll answer all the questions and then they send me a transcript so that I I can Focus on what I'm supposed to be doing and then when I have time to answer the questions I can focus on just that and instead of having these weird random calls and distractions throughout the day Which only add in my world to chaos It kind of helps me streamline everything and it's kind of like that easy breathing feeling like I got this you know what I mean? It's it's it's kind of my my way of control It's something that really helped me as a realtor over the years as I printed out and stuck Above my computer at my workstation An emergency on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine That's good oftentimes what happens when we are in the people business Is that every time an email rate comes in or the phone rings or we get a text message We are in this headspace where we feel like we have to answer them right now And that's the most important thing In all reality most of those things are not an emergency on my part And it's something I can come back to in 10 minutes or 20 minutes or 40 minutes from now And it's not usually going to be the end of the world You know The only exception to that is um, you know, maybe an option period ending But otherwise, uh, you know I would I would try to approach your time blocking that way Um as an entrepreneur so that you realize you will get to that point You will help them out and you will be a hundred percent there for them Is that it doesn't have to be this second? I love that you said that and that is uh Takes us to our next idea, which is I believe in myself And when you give yourself permission to time block and to make yourself aware that other people's emergencies are not yours It gives you a chance to really focus on what am I doing today? Why am I doing it? What is my purpose here? And am I the right person for the job? And by framing your ideas at the top of the day and saying I I got this I got this I can't tell you how many times um I think I think it's human we go out to speak to a customer We go out to bid a job in the in the home cleaning business It's a walkthrough and I know in the real estate industry we have open houses and things like that But I know that there are times I might have felt a little inadequate either The wrong personality type or the wrong energy coming at me from the the person that needs my help And I just have to stop and say And yet here I am Right somehow amongst all of this here. I am I'm in this situation Whether they chose it or I chose it or however we got here here. We are both in this exact same moment I got to figure out a way to make this work And I remember telling myself it's kind of like my own little personal pep talk. I'm like I got this I got this. I'm gonna I'm gonna believe in myself. I got this You know In our industry we call it putting on your big boy pants um The idea in the psychology here is you've got to take care of yourself first so that you can help others And a lot of us were raised to believe that we needed to take care of The people around us and our clients before we take care of ourselves And so the way most of us have been trained Is we will do more for other people than we will ever do for ourselves And as a as a result of that we don't really give the most to people because we don't have the most to get And so I would say for myself to really believe in myself It's taking care of myself first and foremost so that I can be a hundred percent there for my client Instead of showing up with it with a tank that's empty You know and running on fumes going here. Let me try to help you plow through this life situation you're dealing with Um, and so for me, it's all about you've got to take that time first and foremost To make sure that you're in the right space so that you can give more to others Oh, I love that. I just that's that's so empowering. Thanks for sharing that um, I have a new attitude as And I don't know what age I came up on this But I decided that it was my it was my choice to change my attitude I do have a choice in that and I decided I remember the year was 1994 um I was miserable It's going through a really hard time in my life And I just lost a bunch of money in a bad business deal And I was really angry and I remember I remember cussing a lot and I was unhappy and it was everyone else's fault It wasn't my own fault. It was it was everyone else's fault. I was blaming everyone and I was really miserable and What triggered it for me was the business partner that I had at the time lost a really really big client I'd spent about six months putting a deal together and we lost the deal And it was a really silly move on his part and it could have been avoided And it lost about six months of my life and I was so mad and I was just I was young I was naive I was angry and I hauled off and I smacked him as hard as I could across the face and I'd never been violent before I mean ever And then I took off running because I was like, oh no, what happens next Is he coming after me and he didn't but I realized when I went out for my you know, take a block I went out for my walk and I was like, what just happened Like I just I just smacked somebody that how how demeaning is that? That's that's really shameful. Like don't ever do that again And I said to myself what what would have to happen for me not to ever do that again And I was like I I have to change my attitude right now. I have to I have to I have to get rid of this I've got a lot of hate and a lot of anger and a lot of anxiety and a lot of stress And a lot of frustration pent up, you know, I just I hauled off and I smacked another human right across the face just like bam And I I decided it was the year was 1994 I decided I'm going to go for one year and I'm not going to get mad. Can I do that? Like is that even possible? Is that even emotionally possible? What would that look like? And it was really an interesting year for me because I found myself just you know, my blood would turn red and cold and I just And I started wearing a heart monitor because it had an audible sound if you get past your your zone And so I said it so that every time I would start to get like my my heart would start pounding and I started getting really mad Now what would happen was It would set off that trigger and I would hear this alarm And in the process of the alarm going off, it was an audible sound and I was like, I'm I'm I'm Overreacting that that's it. I'm overreacting and if I'm going to have a new attitude What does this look like and I kind of did this thing like And I don't really know if there's any special magic behind that or whatever But it was just kind of this visible visible and an audible and like breathing thing that was like just calm down Take it easy And it was interesting because I went for about nine months without just blowing a gasket And what I found and this is the most interesting thing of it all I took on a new attitude in the process of taking on a new attitude Everybody around me that knew all the hot buttons to push to like spark my anger and my excitement Did not work I was watching it like it was a puppet show And they would do things and I'm thinking to myself don't react. Don't react. Just just walk away And it was a really interesting exercise because The good news and the bad news the good news is I went for nine months without blowing a gasket The bad news is I lost all my friends all my friends went away. You're like, oh, you're not interesting anymore You're just like very stoic. This is not fun for us anymore And they left I lost all my friends and I started attracting into my world a whole bunch of what I call really boring people And they were just really nice people. They were just calm people. They didn't have a lot of drama in their lives. They were just Normal And that became the new normal for me because I changed my attitude I absolutely love that Um, and that's a that's a fun way to change your attitude then I'm glad that you figured out a way not to blow up at people um in cells Specifically when we're in a people business, it's really hard not to take things personally When things don't go the way you're thinking like you said those deals that you've been working on for weeks months years Um when they implode it's really hard not to get upset Um, I think it was Andrew Heberman that talks about how when we go through a trauma like that It's stored in our emotional field And unless we find a release for that It will it will slowly fester until we explode or snap At some point and it usually when we snap or explode It's usually not at the person or the root of what created the problem Um, it was somebody said something and it set it you off and now rep said it someone had nothing to do with Um, so in our cells career what we've done is implemented what we call the three minute rule And specifically on this topic When we have a deal that's gone awry or a client something didn't work out We set a timer and we give ourselves three minutes To complain and moan and yell and scream not to anyone else you have to do this by yourself Uh best place I've found for this is in your vehicle. So go lock yourself in your vehicle For three minutes. You don't do this around your co-workers And you release all of that negative emotion as quickly as you can and at the end of three minutes You're done. You don't get to talk about it again. You don't get a vomited onto your spouse You don't get a vomited onto your business partners or colleagues. You have already released it And it's next you're on to the next one. So Um, that's what I would say that help has helped more than anything Helping release that and just let it go and move on to the next You know happy phase of your life You know, it's interesting that you bring that up because Pat and I have a rule that our home is a safe place And so when we are at home, we don't fight no drama is allowed and whatever But there are times as a married couple that Somebody wants to spark some excitement or something and it kind of looks like You know, so we have this rule that we walk and talk So if you're in one of those moods, hey, let's go for a walk And what we found was if we walk and we live at the end of this it's like a half a mile loop So we'll go out and we'll walk around the loop and then if we are still talking That means the conversation is not finished yet So we'll take a second loop or we'll go to the next neighborhood over and we walk around But as long as we're walking What's happening is we're talking and we're talking through the issues instead of just fussing at each other And you can't like yell at each other because like they're neighbors listening and stuff, right? So it kind of is like a contained environment how you said like do it in your car So you don't scare and embarrass people or embarrass yourself But this is one of those where we're walking and talking and also Which is kind of a trick to our our anatomy is as we're walking We're getting that oxygen then flowing through our blood through our body and all of a sudden when we come back It's like having a natural high And so the really cool part about that is when you think about What are you doing in your life that's actually causing those natural highs? You can take those moments and go from Um being really unhappy and being sad to being high on life and just when you get back to the house You're done walking you're done talking that is the end of that conversation Like onto the next onto the next thing and if you're not finished the next time you have a chance you can go for another walk I absolutely love that Daily walking I think is is one of the best things you could possibly do to stay high on life That oxygenating your blood and doing it with your loved ones I don't think there's anything that compares to that We we regularly go to the park To just walk with the dogs and just go walk We've made it part of our weekly routine. So Definitely I would say well, of course exercise in general But there's something about walking with your spouse walking with your dogs That gives you a natural high that I don't know that you can really get anywhere else Um, thanks for bringing that up I think that's really important that we do walk and that we do we do have some kind of physical movement I know that the whole emphatic system which Supports your immune system is it has no motor. It's not like your heart where it pumps by its own self It requires movement and momentum in order to keep going And so if we feel like we're starting to get sluggish and our bodies are starting to break down One of the quickest fastest ways in our home. We say movement begets movement And so it's just like you're having a bad day Just get outside get out and get moving and get that system running again because it's kind of like pulling the The the start on the lawnmower and it doesn't quite start It doesn't quite start and keep pulling it It's just kind of putters and putters if you're having a day like that Yeah, we're like get out and get going and and make make this day count This is all you got. We don't know about tomorrow Yesterday is gone. We don't know about tomorrow. All we have is today I want to stop for just a second and I want to say hi to unis and Crazy bird. We've got some fun some fun things that have just popped up here Let's see if I can do this so we can see it those first group of people. They really were not your friends That's really good that you recognize you had major issues and that you did something about it Yeah, I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed about that and that was 1994 and I will tell you this I had I had at one point along the way I had a withdrawal and I think our emotions go through what erin was saying you have a memory that you go through And your your memories are in etched inside your mind And I woke up one day and I wanted to start a fight with someone and there was no one to fight with I just had this feeling of like I should pick a fight with someone And I know that's not healthy and I said if I was going to do that How how would I get that emotional high of like having a fight or just world exploding or blowing up on me or whatever And I remember the the movie independence day had just come out And I said wait a second I could go to the movie and I never go to the movies like I never go to the movies And I was like What if I went down to the theater and I watched this like doom and gloom movie where the whole world explodes So I did I went down and at the time I shouldn't say this but like movie tickets were five bucks And that was a lot of money for me So I spent five dollars on a movie ticket and I went in and I sat there and I just watched the world explode There was fire. There was brimstone. There was all kinds of stuff And then I got the high that I was looking for I was like Then I got up and I walked out of the movie theater My five dollars was gone, but all of my relationships were still intact And I was like, oh wait a second I am on to something now and that is when I found my love for the movies I can just go ahead and I can get a movie fixed and I don't actually need to beat the world up or ruin any of my closest relationships Love that I love myself unconditionally tell us about this one Aaron I think this is going to be the toughest one for anyone out there in any walk of life And a lot of this has to do with Your own internal dialogue You know and not necessarily because of the way you grew up, but our internal dialogues are naturally negative We naturally talk down to ourselves and to love yourself unconditionally you really you've really got to get into that new mindset of You know something that's positive and communicating positivity to yourself And that also includes forgiving yourself For giving others in your life trying not to hold resentments It's really easy when you've worked with a client for four or five months And then they decide to go with a different person or they decide to back out or they decide to go a different way Not to take that really personal and not to hold a long term grudge Against that person not to feel bitterness when you think about that person or that situation Um, and if you're going to love yourself unconditionally you've got to figure out a way to let those things go And really not carry them into the next day There's nothing that will crush your soul faster than negative self-talk What would you say? I think you're on to a really interesting point there loving yourself unconditionally and it's giving yourself permission to To be the very best version of yourself And I remember I spent a lot of my early years and not because of my family or anything But it was just something in my head I spent a lot of time in my head and my my thoughts going through my head were kind of like i'm not good enough I i'm not like other kids. I don't have some of the same stuff other kids have I'm I can't afford that or whatever it was and I had all these weird Emotions that didn't serve me very well And I remember waking up one day. It wasn't just like tada. I woke up one day But I remember going through a series of things where I had to stop and check all of my beliefs And ask myself is this belief serving me right now? And then I was like no it really isn't And then like who is making me believe this And then I was like well no one but me Okay, so if no one but you is making you believe this can you believe something else? Well, yes, I can And I realized that while I grew up in a certain environment with certain ideas and certain beliefs and some of them served me very well And some of them didn't It was like wearing a pair of tennis shoes for me and the tennis shoes were really comfortable for a For a for a period of time. They had the support that I needed They carried me for a long distance and then at some point They started breaking down on the soles and I got holes in them It didn't negate the fact that it was a really good a really good support system for a while But then it kind of crumbled and fell apart either as I matured or as the world changed or as I saw the world differently And I realized wait a second me hanging on these old beliefs is like wearing a pair of old worn out shoes I'm going to give myself permission to take off the old worn out shoes get a new pair This is metaphorically speaking and get a pair that's supportive that has new art support That's going to carry me for the next several races that I run in life, right? I believe in myself enough that I'm going to do that And it wasn't it wasn't that anyone Had bad beliefs that they poured on me and it wasn't that I poured any negativity on myself unknowingly It's just that I did a stop and I I did a real deep check and I looked at my life and I said Do I still believe this it was like I kind of don't Is it okay for me to let it go like kind of is Okay, and then I started saying to myself. All right, so from this moment on I'm going to move forward I'm going to do something I've never done before I'm going to drive dangerously into the future and I am going to love myself unconditionally And I'm going to give myself permission every single day to get up and live My day to the very best of my ability and at the end of the day if that was my last day I will go out with no regrets. That's all I got That's all I've got is today and I wake up every single day and every single day I said did I give today my very best? I'm not going to feel guilty I'm not going to feel ashamed if I didn't accomplish all the stuff I was supposed to do whoop diddy do I gave it my very best and at the end of the day when I go to bed at night I'm going to go to bed with my head held high knowing that that's that's the best I got That's the best I got I love that I absolutely love that All right. Well our time is up for tonight. This has been so much fun I've I've really enjoyed our our chance to chat and to share some ideas And uh, I don't know is this something that you guys would like to see again And if yes, uh, leave a comment in the note or give us a thumbs up in the in the notes below because We would love to know if this is something that you would be interested in in the future We do have some really great friends on both sides of the house cleaning and the real estate industry And I think this is a really fun opportunity to kind of share some of those ideas So give us your thoughts and and let us know what you think Yes, thank you all for being here tonight and thank you for allowing me to be part of this and um A lot of fun. I can't wait to uh hear more from people watching and uh, maybe answer some questions I'm gonna take the thumbs up from crazy bird as this is good. Thank you so much for joining us You guys have a good night, and we'll see you again soon. Thank you guys Thank you