How To Build Wealth As An Entrepreneur
Want to SCALE your business?
Unlock the secrets to building wealth as we dive into the fascinating journey from business success to real estate investment. In this episode, we explore the strategies and insights that can help entrepreneurs and business owners transition into the lucrative world of real estate.
Join us as we share invaluable advice and real-life examples to inspire and guide you on your path to wealth creation. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting, this episode is packed with actionable tips to elevate your game.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn from industry experts and transform your approach to business and real estate. Watch the full episode and let us know your thoughts.
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Podcast Transcript
Introduction
0:00I like that you took the time to actually reflect on is it what you want and I know a lot of entrepreneurs go
0:06through it you know yeah they have a business they built the business and they’re overwhelmed by the business but
0:12they just don’t want to leave because either the feeling of obligation or orSerena’s Journey
0:17you know just the fear of losing the business like what are you going to do now and you know you’re known as
0:22something moving onto something else is like really scary
0:29[Music] hello hello thank you everyone for
0:36joining us today on today’s episode we have Serena Holmes with us she’s going
0:41to be sharing all her insights on investing business growth everything
0:47that makes her her and I’d like to welcome you here today and I’d like to start out by having you share a little
0:53bit about who you are what you’ve done and you know how you ended up from where
0:59you were to where you are now yeah of course so um I ended up kind of in my
1:04own business quite by accident I know that you and I had a a chat beforehand but essentially I was working part-time
1:10while as in University in events and I never intended to you know go into that field but I had an opportunity to
1:17basically come on board with the company and its infancy and started out part-time it led into full-time management and then I offered
1:24partnership shortly after and surprise surprise the uh founder of the business actually ended up leaving uh only reallyAgency Growth
1:30about four years into the company being started so I was presented with the opportunity where I could buy her out we
1:37could partner with another agency or we could just split what was in the bank and and walk away so I ended up taking
1:42the opportunity to buy her out it was back in 2008 during the recession so I I
1:48went through that process it took about two years for the bio to be completed and I ended up running that Agency for
1:53another 14 years on my own and I sold it um just about just over two years ago now awesome and that Journey for you I
2:01mean it ended up being an award-winning agency tell me a little bit about that yeah so we were primarily focused on
2:07experiential marketing and event staffing event staffing was definitely a little bit more higher volume in a
2:13bigger side of the business but um you know we’ been probably in business about
2:19eight years and I just thought you know I I’ve been winging it this whole time like I’m sure there’s a lot of things that I don’t know so I ended up hiring
2:25my first business coach and that led into a mentorship program and you know over the if many years had different
2:31coaches so that we could continue to build the business and learn about leadership and sales strategy SEO and
2:36all of those different things and then just started kind of putting ourselves out there for some of the different awards that are in existence um so we
2:44ended up taking home about 18 in total so kind of like joke that it’s one for every year I was running the business so
2:51the four years before and then the 14 years afterwards but um we definitely got a lot of recognition for our work
2:57and we work with clients all across Canada some clients that were in the states um even as far as Greece the
3:03government of South Australia so it was pretty wide reaching in terms of the businesses that we worked with and how
3:10do you think that having those Awards helped to boost the business like did it bring in new
3:16customers yeah I think at the end of the day like it’s a very competitive highly concentrated business not maybe as muchDifferentiating Business
3:23when we started But as time passed um there’s not really much of a barrier for entry when people want to come in it’s
3:29not like events industry is heavily regulated or anything like that so as long as you’ve got the internet and access to a computer and other social
3:35media like it’s I’m not going to say easy but you can definitely kind of get started so I think we were always
3:42looking at ways that we could differentiate ourselves so when we provided quotes we didn’t just like give
3:48a quote in an email like we had a very nicely designed template and it would talk about our business it would talk
3:53about the awards that you’d won and you know we just always want to have that distinction from other people that might just write back insights 25 bucks an
4:00hour like we were very very detailed in how we presented all the information based on what a client would want and a
4:07number of reasons for that like we want to set ourselves apart but we also want to make sure that we are you know
4:12understanding of what we need from each other um in terms of what the expectations are like and what we’re going to be delivering for an event okay
4:19and how do you think entrepreneurs in the space should use that utilize it do you think that it works for every
4:25industry or just specifically that industry yeah I mean every every business I think is different but I
4:32think at its core it really comes down to the kind of business systems that you have so I think having things templated
4:38makes it a lot easier for you like in the very beginning you know it’s not like we were overly busy but then when
4:44we started doing search engine optimization in 2012 like we started with maybe 100 quotes that year and
4:50every year we grew by a 100 more quotes So by I think 2019 we had done 750
4:55quotes so you can imagine just even the volume of quoting on business and propos and stuff like that would be a lot more
5:02tenuous if you didn’t have those kinds of templates so you would just kind of plug in all of that information and be
5:08able to kind of whip things off fairly quickly and and obviously there could be proposals that would be more timec
5:13consuming and things like that but um you know for the most part like having those things templated even event
5:20protocols feedback forms reports um even all of the um uh like systems and operating and and
5:27handbooks and stuff like that just so that when you are hiring new employees it’s a lot easier to onboard them
5:33because they have a visual representation of everything that you want them to do and um not only what they’re doing but like how they’re
5:38actually doing it and part of it was onboarding the other part is for consistency so if for example someone’s
5:44offsite at an event or they have to call in sick anyone can jump into their file at any one point in time and kind of beCoaching & Mentorship
5:50able to pick up where they’re at for that day and just continue along and I know in our business we use
5:57a lot of systems right and it’s really really important how did you get into that model was it mentorship did someone
6:03come in and say Hey listen this is the best way to grow it or yeah yeah going back to my point on coaching and
6:09mentorship there was one particular program that was called the executive Council and it was essentially a group
6:15of business owners that met every month for eight hours so I think we had a group of 10 or 12 of us and every month
6:21there would be a different topic sometimes there would be expert speakers brought in and things like that but we would learn about things like sales and
6:27systems and Leadership HR and like all these different things and we also
6:32learned about um you know one thing was like a green box exercise for example so when you run a business it’s not like
6:39it’s just you like there’s a lot of people that depend on you so if you get in an accident or you died unexpectedly
6:46like how what happens you know like how does someone pick up the pieces so just having that kind of information readily
6:52available so that in the very unforeseen situation something like that were to happen and and just really trying to
6:58understand and learn from each other on how to scale and grow and then we also provided support to each other where we
7:03go through things called ois which was opportunities challenging uh Oh’s I’m like What’s the other thing I was like
7:10opportunities challenges and issues but essentially you kind of go through it and outline what you were facing and
7:16everybody would give you feedback on how to tackle that because again they all have different levels of experience and
7:22you may not know what you don’t know and just having that different lens and that different perspective on things um can
7:27be really beneficial especially when you know for me I was the only person running the business after my partnerTransition to Real Estate
7:33left so it’s not like I could just talk about an employeers having issues with with my other employees you know like so
7:40it’s important to have that support and yes I could talk to my husband about it but it’s still not quite the same as
7:45talking to other business owners about it and how is that now that you’re in a
7:51different industry can we touch in that now and and see you know um what the
7:57transition was like selling the company and moving into what you’re doing now yeah for sure so back at going back to
8:04that first coach that I had two of the biggest takeaways that I had from her was uh managing kind of a dashboard to
8:09understand like where leads are coming in how to manage your margins and stuff like that and then the other side of it was investing so she said you know the
8:17average business only operates on about three months of cash flow and at that point in time I think I had like a year
8:22and a half and I was like you know I always just tried to be very cautious the money because sometimes you get big
8:28opportunities and if client was late paying a balance or a deposit like you always want to know that you can pay people on time so we were very committed
8:35to paying stuff bi-weekly you know in the beginning by check eventually that led into direct deposit so you always
8:40had to make sure you had that cushion and she said you know if you aren’t comfortable with taking that much out
8:46like maybe even take out half of it so I basically took that and ended up buying a short-term rental in Florida which I
8:53kept for four years and sold that did well and then you know continued to
8:58learn uh just from other Real Estate Investors and joining different groups so I ended up buying a couple more properties investing in Land Development
9:05and syndicated mortgages and things like that and a big part of that uh was that I wanted to be able to take a step back
9:11from my business and start a family and I wanted to be able to decrease the dependency I had to take my income from
9:17the company so I thought well if I’m doing some of these Investments and making some passive income then I can
9:22you know maybe cut my pay in half so I did that the year before I went on maternity leave and then we went into
9:28covid 3 months after my daughter was born so a lot of our work dried up because we were in events so we couldn’t
9:34really pivot into other things so I was actually able to kind of ramp up some of those Investments and you know live off
9:41of that while my company wasn’t necessarily bringing in any business during that period of time so ironically
9:47I listed the company to sell I think it was two to three weeks before we went into lockdown and it was just because
9:54the girl that I had promoted and trained to be by mat Le replacement that I’d had for six years resigned when my daughter
9:59was just a couple months old so at that time I just um I didn’t really know how I was going to run a business of that
10:06volume without having someone there as like my right hand because we had 10 of us full-time there was about 2,200
10:12part-time and I hired a mergers Acquisitions company they valed the company and then we went into lockdown
10:18so it’s kind of hard to sell an events company when you can’t even run events so you know I just basically kept it
10:24going for a couple of years and then the one employee that I kept throughout that period of time resigned in January of
10:302022 and I just felt like to scale back up as quickly as I would need to coming out of covid I
10:36wanted to be able to have like kind of one person supporting me because I just couldn’t see myself scaling back as
10:42quickly as needed on my own especially with like a two-year-old running around and stuff like that so I got a mutual
10:47release from the mergers and Acquisitions company and I basically just reached out to a bunch of agenciesSelling a Business
10:53in Toronto that I thought would see value in our search engine optimization and our website and I basically got four
10:59offers in a couple weeks and I had it landed on one and it closed a couple weeks after that wow well can you do me
11:06a favor and just walk someone through what that looks like you know if they’re
11:11in in that um area right now and you’re thinking about possibly selling what’s
11:17some of like some really good advice that you’d give them yeah so I mean just in terms of valuing the company there
11:23was different things that you know they generally would want to consider and I went through this when I was buying out
11:28my business partner as well is that you’ll basically look at a multiple of the business so you would to it take a
11:34look at the profitability over a span of a couple years maybe two to three years and determine what that multiple is so
11:40for us our multiple was lower because we were event to event based like if you have longterm contracts or like
11:46government contracts where you know that you’ve got a commitment of x amount of dollars coming in or a period of time or
11:52something like that then your multiple could be a lot higher and then as the business is in in business longer then
11:58obviously like that multiple can also go higher and things like that but I think our multiple was like three or four or
12:04something like that so that was essentially how they determine the value of it so I had some of that information
12:09like from going through that process with the mergers and Acquisitions companies so I think that’s a good place
12:15to start just to get a sense of what the company is actually worth um you know obviously covid had a big impact on our
12:21bottom line so that’s kind of like a bit of an anomaly where I think you know I probably could have negotiated maybe a
12:27little bit higher because it was an earnout but at that point in time I just you know I wanted to obviously walk away with something but I knew it wouldn’t
12:33maybe necessarily be as high as what it was prior to co right that being said we came out of Co with a little more money
12:40than we had going into it just because I was really smart about cutting our expenses taking advantage of subsidies
12:46and bseries and grants and stuff like that so I kind of look at that as a a wash but um the one route is going thatReinventing Yourself
12:53mergers and Acquisitions route uh otherwise you could probably hire them as a consultant just to come up with that value and if you’ll feel confident
12:59to approach different companies to try to sell it then a lawyer could probably transact on uh the paperwork and things
13:06like that and do you feel like it is easier to reinvent your or was easier to
13:11reinvent yourself after after that business since you’ve already done it or
13:16yeah so yes and no I think um you know I didn’t really want to be working that
13:22hard after I sold the business coming out of it because you know I felt like I’d worked really hard for 18 years and
13:28for the first time time I was like I didn’t have the pressures of client deadlines and things like that so I wanted to just take some time with my
13:33family and you know still kind of got things rolling because I did get my real estate license but I didn’t want to be
13:39you know at every night at in open houses every weekend and stuff like that um a couple of the things that I would
13:46say have been challenging is that when you’re starting over like I was surprised by the way that people
13:52perceive you like they almost act like oh well you’re new to this like well I’m not coming out of high school business
13:57for years you know but if have a relationship with someone they may still be like oh well you haven’t sold like
14:02100 houses or something and it’s like I feel very confident in my ability to sell the work and and how to do the work
14:08but I think you know there’s a lot of again competition in that industry so that’s one side of it and our business
14:14was very B2B driven so we’re used to working with corporate clients business budgets things like that and residential
14:21real estate can be very emotionally charged so I think I was surprised at the lack of professionalism in dealing
14:28with some clients yeah um and just you know that I can understand it’s a it’s a
14:33big decision it’s a big purchase or a big sale or something like that but I think I was just very surprised by the
14:40communication with some clients so I think my take away from that was just to try to pre-qualify people better to make
14:46sure that I’m working with someone that sees value and what I bring to the table because maybe I can’t say I’ve sold a
14:52100 houses but I’ve also done a lot of real estate investing and I can look at things from a different perspective than
14:58maybe the average average residential realtor that’s doesn’t even own their own home let alone have investing
15:03experience so I think you just have to try to focus on differentiating ourself in those different ways but I’m still
15:10kind of getting the lay of the land since um I’m just kind of started focusing on it more recently and it it
15:15sounds relatively the same instead in terms of differentiating yourself like
15:21exactly yeah you know and I think that you’ve been able to carve that out you know to show people that you are this
15:27brand you know how easy is it to create your own voice like when you’re thinking about it like I need to differentiate
15:33myself in the market like what should you look at first well I mean some things are different like when I had
15:39Tigress it was you know we were always presenting the events and our staff and our clients like they were the business
15:46that was our credentials like I I don’t think like my picture was in our sales deck like yes I ran the business but it
15:52was like it was very much about everybody else and I feel like when you’re in real estate it’s like you’re
15:57on the for sale side you know like you’re they want to work with you they want to see behind the scenes with you
16:03and it’s like I’ve found that to be difficult in some ways because I don’t
16:09want to be that parent that’s just like putting my daughter out there publicly on social media like the pictures I I do
16:15post a verts from the back like you can’t see her face I do have my personal Instagram that’s more for like closer
16:20family and friends and stuff like that but I feel like I’ve always had that you know disconnect between the two
16:26but I know with um at least this side of real estate like eventually if I segue
16:31into commercial that would be a little bit different but on the residential side it’s very much about the personal connections the personal relationships
16:38people want to know who you are sometimes even more so than like what your skill level is you know what I
16:45mean so it’s just it’s a different it’s a very different dynamic in that way yeah yeah I would definitely agree with
16:52that um yeah putting yourself out and putting your family out is definitely a hard decision especially when that not
16:59where you’re comfortable you know yeah and some people do it I mean they’re all about it but I mean yeah fine for some
17:06people but I I think I just try to be careful of that like like a young beautiful girl I don’t feel like I want
17:13to be putting that out there you know m i I agree with you I definitely agree
17:18with you and what are some of the challenges that you find outside of
17:23putting yourself out there um in the current market today well the current
17:28market today yeah I mean so it’s kind of ironic because when I you know was at the point
17:35where my daughter was in she started out in daycare part-time for a year and then went full-time and at the point where we just
17:41put her in it was like kind of perfect because the market was like at its peak things were selling very quickly it was
17:46kind of the perfect time to enter but then at the same time I found it very difficult because she was only in
17:52daycare three days a week so you’re kind of doing that starting and stopping and you know I thought people were really
17:58exaggerating when they talk about like daycare germs and getting sick you know I hadn’t been sick in a few years
18:03because of like the pandemic and then we were so sick so it felt like every time I was ready to get things going we were
18:09sick again and it was during a time when it was still very sensitive like we were still doing showings with masks on so I couldn’t show up like congested you know
18:17like it just it was very tough and it was like I’m gon to say like a good year to year and a half of that and it made
18:23it very very hard to really be working consistently like I still had my marketing and full swing and stuff like
18:29that but it made it hard in terms of actually like shadowing other Realtors or doing certain things or offering to
18:34do open houses because it’s like well I could be sick next week you know like it was no joke like I feel like it was just
18:41a revolving door constantly right so I think that uh presented some challengesCurrent Challenges
18:46and then the interest rates started going up so everything kind of slowed down and then we’re still kind of in
18:52that EB and flow where things are heating up a little bit but it’s still you know a lot of sellers have that
18:58expectation from a couple years ago still and that’s fighting with the reality of the current market and what
19:03people are willing to pay and stuff like that so I would say it definitely present some
19:09challenges and I I know you have a podcast as well right yeah that’s right
19:15on your podcast it’s primarily about investing and so how do you find that the podcast
19:22is helping you to to navigate this Market yeah so I wouldn’t say it really
19:28helps to like navigate the market but I do interview a lot of people from Canada and across the United States so
19:33initially um I started going on podcast I think at the end of 20 21 or something
19:39like that because I had a book that I published called The Accidental entrepreneur and I thought what better way to promote it than to get in front
19:46of other people’s audiences and then I think I was about six months eight months into that and one of the girls
19:52who was assisting on a podcast I recorded said you know you should really have your own podcast and I was like
19:57that wasn’t really something that I want wanted to take on and then I just had the idea for it so it’s called inspired
20:03to invest and I am part of a couple of robust real estate investing communities and I thought you know it’d be nice to
20:09tell the stories of people like where they were what the Catalyst was to investing how they got to where they are
20:15like all the challenges and stories and successes and stuff that kind of come along with that but I think it’s just
20:21such an important topic right now because as we’ve seen with inflation like you can’t just count on your
20:27paycheck necessarily anymore and you know $100,000 today is not what it was a couple of years ago and I think that if
20:33you’re not strategic in investing and creating that long-term wealth I think
20:38just getting by is going to be increasingly challenging for people I think retiring comfortably is going to be very difficult and I think it’s
20:44something that should be almost like a necessity for most people like even when I look at my family like there’s some
20:51people that almost treated like they’re their house is like an ATM you know they would spend all this money and then they keep refinancing refinancing and then
20:57they’re they’re more mortgages are like triple today than they were 15 years ago and now they’re finding very hard to
21:03keep up very limited retirement savings and never really thought about doing a
21:08whole lot of investing and I think it’s going to be a very scary reality for a lot of people just you know I never
21:14thought about food prices and now in the last year I’m just like what and they’re not small increases it’s not like a 20
21:21cent increase it’s like this was $5 now it’s $9 like they are very very significant increases right so I think
21:27for the average person the average family I think it’s it’s going to be
21:32more important now than ever and you know even for our daughter like we started her education funding like a few
21:38years ago and as that starts to grow like I want to move that over into some other options that will bring her that
21:45like nested kind of starting out when she’s an adult right right and you know
21:50it’s really an important conversation to have right and I think a lot of entrepreneurs too get caught up in in
21:57running their business and and as you were saying before keeping that money aside and not
22:03realizing that they need to use that to actually help because what things are today and the prices people are willing
22:10to pay they don’t relate so sitting in the bank you’re actually losing money
22:15like when you really think about the pace of inflation like it will technically be like worth less down theImportance of Investing
22:21road right so I think you still have to be very smart with how you’re investing and do appropriate due diligence and
22:27stuff like that but I think got to got to do something with it MH and it’s crazy right so you’re working all these
22:33hours whether you’re entrepreneur or you’re working 9 to5 but there’s only so much that you’re taking home right um
22:41and then the prices are ridiculous on the opposite end so I think your Mentor
22:46really helped you when they said Hey listen you should really invest yeah you know no I agree and I mean any any other
22:56advice that you’d give a starting entrepreneur yeah I mean when you’re just starting out obviously like you’re probably just
23:03trying to even pay yourself like let alone you know investing is kind of something you’re going to think about
23:09down the road but for me the couple things that I wish I’d done sooner like having mentorship earlier on I think
23:15would have been very helpful and for us like SEO earlier on like we started in
23:212004 and we met with someone in ‘ 05 that’s like you know I want to talk to you about SEO and like we didn’t even
23:27have a website and if I could go back to that moment like I would have like taken
23:33money off my line of credit and just paid to get that done because it would have really accelerated our growth
23:39tremendously like we would have been eight years ahead of where we were and you know we didn’t really start doing
23:44SEO until we lost our biggest client and at the time they represented maybe 60 to 70% of our business and it was kind of
23:51in a position where I was like if we don’t start bringing in more opportunities like we’re going to be out of business so we started doing that and
23:58went from I think you know one call from like net new clients every few weeks to like we started getting three calls a
24:04day like overnight and yes our closing ratio may not be what it was in the
24:09beginning like when it’s a warm referral like May we’re closing 80 to 90% so maybe we were closing 50 to 60% but
24:16that’s on like a couple hundred leads instead of like 50 you know so obviously every year we’re incrementally growing
24:22based on the exposure and the opportunities and things like that so I think you just have to put yourself in a
24:28position where you can be found and for us like it was a very Niche type of
24:34business so people would be searching like Calgary branded Masters or Toronto event staffing and you know they could
24:40be from another city or another country but they’re coming here for a trade show or they’re trying to promote a a product
24:45that they’re launching so that’s how people would essentially find us and you know totally transformed our whole
24:52business so if I had done that sooner like truly understanding the value a lot sooner like you know I’m sure
24:59our trajectory could have been a lot different and how are you using that in your business now now that you have the
25:06know how yeah so I mean things continue to change like I think that’s one thing is like my training and the stuff I did
25:13back in 2012 and 13 is not necessarily what it is now and again I think the
25:18challenge is that it is very competitive so for me walking in when there’s I think 880,000 licensed realtors in
25:24Ontario like the average like like my coach even said she’s like the Realtors are just hanging from trees like you
25:31know like yes people could be Google searching but I joined an agent accelerator program where people could
25:36be on Zuca or Zillow and they’re just checking out a property and then they put in inquiry so then we have internal
25:42sales agents that would introduce them to me if it’s in my area and then I would either take them out or explain
25:47things or whatever that is so it’s digital marketing in a different way and then obviously with social media like I
25:53think having the podcast has really helped Drive um my audience there like I
25:59think I’ve probably grown by about six or S thousand followers since I launched
26:04it and I think just because you are presenting that value you’re sharing other people’s stories so then they’re sharing their own stories you know it’sUsing Digital Tools
26:10kind of like the quote We rise by lifting others so by featuring everybody else it kind of like brings people back to you and stuff like that so I think
26:17it’s still early like I think I’m only on episode 48 this week so compared to
26:22people are in like the hundreds and stuff like that right um but it is a way I think that you can show you know what
26:28you’re talking about and you can kind of build that relationship with people before you have the chance to meet face
26:34to face and then beyond that I’m trying to find ways that I can connect more in my community because I’ve lived in the
26:39same place for 30 years but I don’t actually know very many people so you
26:44know even with my daughter starting Junior kindergarten this year like I can connect with other parents and stuff like that so I think you know in the
26:51long run it’ll be good it’s just obviously I’m starting a new chapter so
26:56yeah yeah yeah and um I really love like your story like the conversation we had
27:02before talking about just the transition and what that looked like you know I’m always inspired by people that can
27:09reinvent theirself themselves you know and I I for me I I know I’ve had to do
27:15it several times and you know as entrepreneurs you know what you start out in is not necessarily what you’re
27:20going to end up in yeah you know I mean I never would have thought that there would come a time when I would leave
27:26like I feel like you know I felt like I kind of grew it to this certain point when I think back
27:31to the business and even the office that we had even though it was a least space like the how we transformed it and what we turned it into like I just was so
27:38heartbroken to walk away from that it just didn’t make sense to keep it when we didn’t have the money coming in to
27:44support it and again I just I didn’t think I had it in me to literally rebuild it to to what it was and I
27:50didn’t want to necessarily work at that pace anymore like have like have a family like changes your priorities and
27:56you know forces you to slow down and um you know there was a period of time where I think what solidified it for me
28:03there was I think it was like the four or five months leading up to that employee quitting we had some work going
28:08on and we’re at the cottage and of course like everyone’s booking stuff on short notice and stuff so this client that we quoted on stuff booked a pretty
28:15big influencer event on like three weeks and I was sitting inside at the cottage just like buried in work and my
28:20daughter’s like outside playing with my husband I was like I hate this like this is not what I want to be doing like on a weekend right now because a client took
28:27so long just to conf confirm it like if she confirmed it like six weeks in advance rather than three like it
28:32wouldn’t have been like such a crunch right and I think just clients were getting it was bad before the pandemic
28:39but it was almost like getting notoriously worse after and I just had to take a step back and reflect like is
28:45this really what I want like you know I’ve spent wow half my life building this company but is it what I really
28:51want now and I think I just had to take a look at like what those priorities
28:57were like and what wanted in my life and again I had a lot of passive income as well so I didn’t necessarily need it so
29:03I just decided it was it was time and I like that I like that you
29:09took the time to actually reflect on is it what you want and I know a lot of entrepreneurs go through it you know
29:16yeah they have a business they built the business and they’re overwhelmed by the business but they just don’t want to
29:22leave because either the feeling of obligation or or you know just the fear of losing the business like what are you
29:28going to do now and you know you’re known as something moving on to something else is like really scary yeah
29:36you know how the unknown is scary but it’s not like I just sold it and didn’t have anything else no going on like
29:42obviously I had I had of Investments I had my real estate license like I had some other things I had worked on as a
29:48backup plan and stuff like that right but I think you know it’s it can be hard when you work so hard on something like
29:54you’re very attached to that with your identity and like there’s a lot of things it was nice to have have with having your own business and just having
30:00a team to delegate things to and like kind of building yourself up to that point like I can see why people would be
30:06very attached to that but I think it’s important just not to let yourself get swept away in that if it’s really not
30:12suitable to your life anymore you know I have a question for you after you made
30:17the transition did you have like friends or family saying hey but I know you as this like and now you’re telling them
30:24hey I’m listen this is what I’m doing now do you find that they’re equally supportive or do you feel like they’re
30:30like questioning it I don’t think anyone in my direct Network ever questioned itPersonal Reflection
30:36like I mean it just I think because it was such a transition you know what I mean like the whole world was in transition like with Co everything came
30:43to this pause and you know I was kind of like started to put out I got my marketing kind of going right after I
30:50got my license even though I knew I wasn’t going to actually start working for a while so it was kind of like this gradual shift like that was probably
30:57eight months before I sold the company so I’ve already been putting those things out there and stuff like that so
31:03I don’t think it really would come as a complete surprise to anybody but you
31:08know it is kind of what it is and I like that you said that right so that is a good tip right so if you plan on
31:15Switching or transitioning to actually put it out there you know so people get warm up to the idea yeah well I was just
31:22trying to build a foundation right so if anything it was like when I put it out there I was almost like overwhelmed
31:27because I there was a couple of people that reached out and they’re like hey can you help with this or help with that and I was like because I had started put
31:33it out there was like wait I’m not ready you know like there was a combination of things happening like my
31:38daughter was only I think a year and a half my mother-in-law was sick with terminal cancer and you know we were you know
31:46juggling a lot of things right so yes I was doing that but it was kind of funny because it was like right away a couple people reach I was like no no
31:53no so I kind of push I kind of regret maybe not taking some of those things looking back on it but you know again I
32:00just had to prioritize family at that point in time M and that’s good too right to know the here here’s the thing
32:07this is where I am this is where I want to be but I’m not really ready right now yeah and that’s okay too yeah you know
32:14yeah for sure and I I really really love the fact that you’re able to know who
32:19you are which I think is really important um and and also a really important message for people like you
32:25have to know who you are you know how you’re feeling and actually listen to that yeah and was that something that
32:32you learn from someone else or you just know yourself you know I think I’ve always been um the kind of person that always
32:40had to provide for myself to some extent just because my family was very
32:45complicated like my parents split when I was just four years old and you know my brother passed away shortly after and
32:51then I spent time living with my mom and then my dad and then an aunt and uncle and you know moved around a lot but when
32:58it came down to it and you know school was kind of nearing its end um I put myself through University got a
33:04scholarship to cover a little bit more than half the cost I was always out working like three and four different
33:09jobs and stuff like that just said yes to everything and I think it just I knew you know yes I had a roof over my head
33:15or like food in the fridge but it’s like at the end of the day I still had to provide a lot for myself like maybe more than the average person so I think I was
33:23always just used to kind of like those survival instincts just like you got to
33:28do what you got to do and you got to have money coming in and stuff like that so I think
33:33um my natural instinct would be to go at that break neck speed but I think now at
33:39the age that I’m at and again just going back to having my daughter and stuff it’s just not realistic to think that
33:45you can be a fabulous parent and then be out doing all that stuff as well necessary like I know there may be some
33:51people that do I don’t know if they have nannies or like maybe they don’t see their kids a lot but I just didn’t want to be like that I wanted to be a present
33:57parent with her and you know we’ve done a lot of traveling with her already and stuff like that so I think it’s just trying to understand again what is most
34:04important for you cuz she’s only going to be young once we only have her we don’t have any intention to have any other kids so I just really wanted to
34:11protect that time as much as possible like I’m I still have probably a good 20 years ahead of me if I want to be
34:17working so I can do that when she’s a little bit older but she’s only going to be young once yeah yeah and I I can
34:23relate I I remember um going really really hard it it’s business that we had
34:29and you know at the end of the business when it closed during Co you know like we had spoken about before my kids were
34:35like oldo and I woke up and I’m like I missed all that time you know serving other that so you
34:43know at this point now it’s just really knowing this is this is what I want to
34:49do and and if it doesn’t align with that then it just doesn’t align and I just
34:54can’t do it you know and I think it’s so important for people to understand that that you know the time outside that
34:59you’re dedicating to something doesn’t stop yeah you know and one day you wake up and you’re like wow all those years
35:06are gone yeah and I mean I think nowadays it’s a little easier with technology and stuff like that just a
35:11way that you know even with covid and the shift to remote working even though you know some people maybe are going
35:17back to the office now and stuff like that but I think it’s far more acceptable now than it was five years
35:23ago or 10 years ago right so I think it’s really shifted the dynamic and just open up opportunities for people right
35:29so I think if you can take advantage of that then so be it oh absolutely
35:34absolutely and how are you using the digital landscape right now yeah I mean
35:40I think AI is definitely one thing that’s been helpful because I you know I went from a team where I used to be able to delegate a lot of stuff and then now
35:47I’m doing a lot of things on my own so I definitely take advantage of you know things like chat gbt and even just to
35:53write my social media posts and stuff like that right like I’ll plan out my calendar for at least a week in advance
36:00and I’ll kind of design certain aspects to it but then I can be like write a post on this to go with the video that I have and it’s like that’s done in 30
36:07seconds as opposed to like half an hour of me like writing something and I think you just have to find ways to be as
36:12efficient as possible and I think that you know I just try to to batch a lot of the stuff that I do like I’ll get all my
36:19blogs done and posted and scheduled like a month in advance wow um instead of just natively posting a schedule like a
36:25lot of different posts take advantage of just different AI tools that you can um
36:31even just like there was an editor like with Opus clip for example it’ll chop up your episodes into smaller bite-sized
36:36chunks and stuff like that so you’re not sitting there like trying to get them edited or paying someone to edit them and stuff like that so I think you know
36:43when now I’m I’ve gone from having a business in a corporation to like a solo preneur right so I think you just have to be really smart with your time andConclusion
36:50even when I record my podcast like I batch record so I’ll do two half days of recording usually every few months but I
36:56have episodes recorded like months in advance so then the production is just kind of like a little bit month to month
37:02but it makes it far easier than just like doing ad hoc is really hard to focus right so right
37:09right and then that goes back to the systems right because the systems that you learned you’re bringing it over into
37:16this yeah yeah love it love it love it so is there anything that you would love
37:22to share with our guests anything that you feel would help them Inspire them
37:27yeah I mean I know we just briefly talked about my book but I think that’s definitely one thing that you know it felt like something I was really
37:34compelled to do and again going back to my childhood I had a lot of challenges and stuff like that growing up but I
37:41feel like it really paved my path into entrepreneurship and saying yes to those opportunities and stuff like that so I
37:46think it’s something that really resonates to people that have gone through personal challenges like even when I was promoting it in advance of it
37:53coming out you know there’s a lot of people that wanted to read it because they had lost a loved one or they’d gone
37:58through a divorce or they child of divorce and then it kind of leads into a lot of the business stuff and all those
38:03lessons so I think it you know kind of straddles two sides because it’s got the M side and the personal stories but then
38:09it also has all the business tips and the entrepreneurial challenges and successes and stuff like that as well so
38:15I think for someone that you know feels like they can take some of those things away then it could be a good read for
38:21them I love it I love it I love it I love it and obviously I’m going to share the links with everybody where they can
38:27find you but can you also share where can they find you yeah for sure so I have a few different things going on but
38:34um you know for my podcast it’s at inspired to invest podcast my real estate stuff is under Serena Holmes
38:39realtor I do have very robust link trees with links to like episodes my book like
38:45intakes and all of that stuff but um yeah that’s probably the easiest two two platforms to find me okay and if someone
38:53needed something really quick like and they opened your book and was like you know what I really need help in the area
39:00of my business what chapters do you think would be the best ones for them to like
39:06focus on yeah I mean there are a number chapters obviously I think there’s one where I talk about passive income
39:12opportunities so I think that’s definitely one that’s really helpful um there’s some stuff in regards to I think
39:19one chapter is called like two weeks notice and it talks about like employee management and things like that um but
39:24again they’re all they’re all different like a lot of it you don’t maybe think of adding something to your business
39:30until something happens so it has a lot of those lessons and challenges that you kind of learn along the way like I never
39:36would have dreamed I would need a lawyer as many times as I did having a business right like we had a service called prepaid legal that we paid 50 bucks a
39:43month for and like we’ll get it when will we ever need it and like my gosh I probably use that ler like 20 different times for like things that you never
39:50would even dream would come up right so I think um just when you’re in Business Like Anything Can Happen
39:57I love it thank you so much for coming on and you have to get the book I’ll have put the link there for you to be
40:04able to get it at the end of the show and thank you again Serena for being our guest thank you thank you
40:11[Music]