How to get started in rental property management with Krista Reuther Episode 506

Postmodernism says that there are structures in place that are invisible to us day to day throughout how we move through this world. But the moment that you see them is the moment that you can either challenge, change, or accept them. And so I, I use that idea. I very much exist in that lens throughout my entire life. But professionally, that means that when I'm researching a topic, I am trying to pay attention to the structures at place. And then boil those down so that even if someone has never heard of postmodernism, if they would like turn away from the very phrase because it sounds academic and perhaps strange, they can still get what they need to.

Welcome to Streams to Impact and be inspired to engage passionately in the work of your calling while achieving financial prosperity through multiple streams of high-yield returns on investment to bring your dream of making a meaningful impact to reality. I'm your host, Dr. Allen, and I am delighted that you are joining us today. If you haven't yet, get a complimentary copy of our exclusive guide, High Yield Investment Blueprint: Secure 18%+ Returns in 60 Days. Go to our website, highyieldblueprint.com. That is www. highyieldblueprint.com. Just provide your email address and we'll send you a copy today. Hello, enlightened investors. Thank you for being back with us again today, and I am excited to have a wonderful guest with us on Streams to Impact. Our podcast delves into the heart of creating wealth through passive income streams to make a meaningful and lasting impact in the world. At the heart of our podcast is the spirit of Equus, a symbol of strength, freedom, and the boundless potential to transcend limitations. Much like the mythological footbeats of Equus, which were said to strike the earth and create flowing streams, our conversations are designed to spark streams of inspiration. These streams represent the opportunities that financial freedom creates. Time to focus on what really truly matters and the resources to leave a legacy of impactful transformation. And with us, we have a guest today who exemplifies everything that Streams to Impact is about. Krista Ruther is the Senior Education Content Manager at TurboTenant, and she crafts data-driven, actionable resources that empower landlords and renters. With decades of writing and editing experience spanning real estate, SaaS, and survey design, Krista excels at simplifying complex topics and highlighting the power of human connection. And So Krista, in that spirit, your journey, much like Ekua's, has been one of the transcending boundaries and inspiring others through your work. So can you share with us the moment or the experience that first sparked your passion and set you on the path to creating streams of impact in your life and the lives of others?

Well, first I have to acknowledge that that is a very kind and warm introduction. Dr. Allen, thank you. You are so sweet. Also, I just, I love this question. Thinking through, you know, trying to pick out one of my earliest memories of realizing that I could have impact on others, I have to take you all the way back to a really dinky roller rink in the heart of Denver. When I was about, I wanna say 7 or 8 years old. It was a school field trip where all all of my friends were roller skating around, and there is this really mean bully who whose mom happened to be a para pro. Now I have nothing against para pros. There is a certain dynamic that exists when you're when your child is a bit of a terror, and you are in charge of the group. And I remember that this particular bully he had been really mean to my friend and I. He'd been chasing us around, trying to trip us, trying to cause us.

harm.

And it made me really upset. And I was a very sensitive, soft-spoken kid. I did not— I didn't want to rock the boat. I was very polite, you know, just trying to get through and make sure that everyone liked me. And then this boy tripped my friend when she was trying to get out of the roller rink, and it made all these other people hit into her, and she got hurt. And she was so upset.

Hmm.

And so I went and I found his mom. And I was like, you know, Mrs. I won't say her name, but Mrs. X, like this, this thing happened. And instead of acting like an adult should, where she, you know, wanted to see the child who was injured and all of this, she got really mad and she raised her voice at me. And I felt myself shrinking down and getting smaller. And she, she, I don't even remember what question she asked, but I tried to answer and I was so nervous that I was stumbling over my words. And she looked at me and she's like, what, don't you even speak English? And I remember in that moment, something switched inside of me. It was like a flip was just turned on. And I looked up at her, still crying, still choking a little bit on my words, and just saying, that is not very nice, and you should not say that to people.

Man.

Um, and I flagged down a different parapro, and I got her to help my friend. But that moment of having an adult, an authority figure, talk down to me when I was trying to help someone else made me realize the importance of speaking up and of being very true to my morals, my values, and letting that shine a path. Now, there was no grand ending to that story, no climax that is thrilling that I can share with you other than, you know, my friend was fine at the end of the day. And I got a little bit of ice cream on the way home from my mom, who was really proud that I felt emboldened to stand up for someone else.

Yeah.

But that muscle memory, that knee-jerk reaction of saying, no, I see what you're doing to these other people, and I don't have to be party to it. In fact, I can say something about it, has impacted my entire life since. And the lives of others, hopefully in a positive way.

Well, I would disagree that that wasn't an earth-shattering moment. Obviously, it was. It could have turned out the very opposite of that because adults talking down to children more frequently than not is going to— Place shame upon that child, and that child is, rather than being emboldened to speak out more, is going to, because of that shaming experience, is going to go into a shell. And so that was a meaningful moment and a powerful, powerful moment for you, obviously, or you wouldn't have— it wouldn't have come to mind for you to share that with us today. So I'd like to expand on that a bit more now that you have had some time to reflect upon that and reflect upon that as a positive moment and a transformational moment in your life. Expand on that a bit more. And it wasn't— I mean, thank goodness you had a mother who— who helped you to realize that you were not the one in the wrong here and that there was something to be proud of. But talk to us about your life after that and the trajectory that, that, that helped you to come to where you are today.

Absolutely. Um, I think that it was really one of my first glimpses into a core value, something that had been instilled in me and fostered and continues to be a guiding light throughout my life. I have, you know, I will say in the years since, there was a lot of turmoil in my young personal life, right? From— not to get too heavy on your podcast, but from being the victim of childhood assault, to, you know, my parents divorcing, to trying to figure out where my place was in a world that's ever shifting underneath my feet. Mm-hmm. But having this innate drive to protect others, to make sure that I could help others, and really leaning into the idea of being a helper. There's a really good Mr. Rogers quote that says, you know, when you're in an emergency, look for the helpers. And I wanted to be that person. And so with every action that I took cognitively, I would try and put that toward the front of everything. And it led me to create a suicide prevention blog when I was like 18, 19 years old that I ran completely without any training. I do not recommend people do that. It was, it was a massive undertaking. And I was really trying to fuel this piece of myself that found self-worth in taking care of and protecting others. And over time, you know, I ran that blog for a few years, I'm still friends with so many of the young people who reached out to me younger than me, right? It's kind of funny to say that when I was 19 at the time. But One such gal, she actually, her kid just turned 7. So getting to see these people who were in peril and at a very dark moment, such a dark moment that I just want you to imagine reaching out to a stranger on the internet thinking that they're your only way forward. To now, people are thriving, people are living, they're creating families, they have really beautiful lives that they crafted. It's not because of me. I was just a jumping off point.

Mm-hmm.

But getting to serve that purpose has underscored how I like to move through life. And I really look for those opportunities. And some of them are so small. Some of them are just noticing when people do something well and being the first person to celebrate it. And some of them are big, like being willing to drop everything and be on the phone with someone for 12 hours while they figure out a really difficult chapter of their life. There is no such thing as a small impact, because we can't tell what those impacts are for often years to come. And there are so many different interactions that I've had and so many kindnesses that I've experienced that like I would struggle to put into words. But at the time, it just, it, it was everything. And it continued me on this trajectory of really looking to serve others. And I'm, I'm proud of how that's turned out in my life.

Well, and I think rightfully so. I'm wondering, you have found writing to be that avenue of empowerment for you and yourself, and at 18 years old without any suicide prevention training or any training in terms of running a blog, you open up this blog for suicide prevention. I mean, I think that's amazing.

Thank you.

Amazing for an 18-year-old to be doing anything with that magnitude. So tell us how— obviously, writing has been a theme. Did you connect writing to that initial experience that you shared with us? And if you did, was it just in a personal diary, or was there really any connection to writing at that moment?

You know, I probably did write something down. I've been keeping a diary for a very long time. I have tomes of of thoughts from across the ages. But when I was a kiddo, I was actually so afraid of someone reading my diary that I would write very sanitized versions of my thoughts and very quick summations because I was, as an avid reader at the same time, I was reading a lot of memoirs from kids my age or fictionalized history. And I wanted to be a good historical representation of the time, which, you know, no pressure on myself as a As an 8-year-old. But I will say writing has always been so critical in my life. And when I figured out that I could combine my love of words with this drive to help others, that's really when the magic happened and when I fell into my purpose. I think it was there all along. I just didn't put the pieces together, you know?

Yeah. You know, I think we all have innate aspects of us and, and sometimes it takes some of us longer than others. When we were talking Before, you know, I told you that I didn't come into really my purpose until I was, you know, in my, in my 40s. I was like, well, I was 38 years old when I really tagged into that, but I didn't really put it into effect and practice through my profession until I was 42. But you found your, your purpose and your calling much earlier in life there. You had mentioned why you don't want to get too dark on this show. Well, this show is about Uh, is about real lives and, and real people and their real, uh, journeys. And, uh, you mentioned, uh, that your life was, uh, your young life was full of trauma. A lot of people can relate to that. And so tell us— not— you don't need to go into anything you don't want to go into here, but what was it that led you at 18 years old to, uh, to establish a suicide prevention There are really 2 major components, the first of which actually ties back to writing really beautifully.

So when I had been assaulted at around 8 years old, I, I very much buried the memory fast. I didn't think about it. I just developed a whole bunch of chronic conditions, pain, things of that nature.

Mm-hmm.

Then I was in a theater class in high school. And we were, we had an exercise where we were to write monologues. We were going to perform these monologues in front of the whole school, in front of everyone. And I sat down to write, and the experience of the childhood assault came through in force, to the degree that I'm writing and I'm crying, and I'm so confused by everything because I just— I hadn't thought of it for, at that point, 9 to 10 years.

Wow.

And I remember finishing up that monologue and running straight into my theater teacher's office and just being like, I don't understand what I did, but it's here and I need to, I need to share this. And I ended up performing that monologue in front of probably around 300 people over the course of a couple nights of this original production, including my parents. And that was the first time that my parents knew about this situation.

Hmm.

And so it was a very eye-opening experience. I started talking more about mental health In my AP English class, I had a whole presentation on suicidal ideation, because now that I had to contend with this memory and some of the other things that had been buried alongside it, I was having all of these big intense feelings. But at school, I was known as like this smiley, like warm person.

Yeah.

So I remember, you know, one of my opening lines in this speech is that, I bet you as my peers would never have guessed that this whole story is about me. Like this is all, all of the things that I'm presenting to you today things that I've experienced. And I, I had people come up to me afterward and thank me. And that felt so strange. I didn't consider the reaction to having this presentation, just having the innate need to do it. So that was the first thing that really got me started on talking about and being very forthcoming about mental health. And the second thing are actually just some other family struggles. I had a family member who's very close to me who was struggling with suicide attempts at that time. And so when he was going in and out of the hospital, I had all of this energy and all of this desire to save him. And when I, when I had reached the limit of what I could do for him, I said, fine, then I'll save everyone. And I opened up the doors and I said, come here. If you, if you reach out to me, no matter where you are in the world, no matter how late it is for me, I will stay up with you. And I don't know how many people I stayed up with, but it was so many nights and so many hours. And some people I never spoke to again. But I always told them, like, I will be here, you reach out. And that blog, while no longer serving that purpose, it does still exist. And I'm happy to say, for whatever reason, you know, it hasn't had someone reach out for suicide prevention in a long time. But if they did, I still would, you know, knowing the cost, knowing the toll, that matters less to me than having someone who's brave enough to say, hey, I need help in this moment. Well, then I'm there. That's why I'm here. Yeah.

Well, thank you for sharing that with us. And what I'd like to just point out, and you were so surprised when people came up to you and were thanking you, and, you know, that to me is just— speaks volumes to that aspect of authenticity and how empowering it is for us as individuals to, to come into our authenticity and how I think oftentimes, I mean, you know, it took me a long time to come into my authenticity and finally doing that and, and realizing that people appreciated that was in and of itself something I never expected and And would never have seen— never would have foreseen the power of that. Well, Krista, you are here to talk about not just your personal being, which I think is extraordinarily important to your overall story. So tell us how this connects with the work that you are currently doing now, with the work that you do in terms of supporting landlords and not only supporting them but educating them so that, that their endeavors are financially profitable.

I will say the major through line here is that desire to help others, and I think so often, especially with things like investments, it can feel like for the uninitiated or those who have never had, let's say, familial wealth It can feel like it is an insurmountable goal, like you can never get through these obstacles to get to the point where you want to be. And so having the opportunity to give people guidelines and to, in a way, hold their hands and say, no, anyone can do this, especially you, has been a really empowering experience.

Mm-hmm.

I've gotten to create everything from ebooks that walk you through exactly how to get started as a landlord to a webinar series where we've produced over like 50 hours worth of content. I just surpassed 10,000 live attendees of those webinars, which is really exciting.

Thank you. Exciting. Yes, for sure. Thank you.

And having the opportunity to have conversations like this and just point people to these free resources and say, hey, yes, we would love for you to use TurboTenant. You can sign up for free, create an account, manage your portfolio yourself. But even more than that, here are the tools, here is access to everything you need to know to start your own journey and figure out how investing can really work for you and your unique goals, whatever that might look like. And that is truly the catalyst for why I do what I do. I want people to be able to achieve a life that feels meaningful, that feels safe, that feels comfortable, particularly those who have otherwise often been left out of the conversation. But now it's free to access. Anyone can do it. If you have the drive to find it, you have the drive to make your, your goals actually happen.

I liked what you had mentioned about particularly those individuals who do not come from wealthy families. You know, our families have so much to do with how we form and grow and develop, and they have a tremendous amount of impact upon our mindsets and how it is that we perceive ourselves and what it is that we're capable of and where it is that we can go. And because of that, you know, we put a ceiling upon a lot of our expectations, and I think that is particularly true In conjunction with wealth and wealth development. We've never seen it. We don't really know what it's like. Of course, we all want to be wealthy and have all kinds of financial resources, but without role models and without actually having somebody there who has been on that path, it's challenging to even begin that process. And you as a helper, what are your words? How do you put your words together to help people shift that mindset, to break that, essentially, that self-imposed glass ceiling?

I will say first and foremost, I'm very much guided by postmodernism, which is a literary concept Which I will boil down here. Forgive me, all of my college professors who I'm sure are tuning in, but apparently postmodernism says that there are structures in place that are invisible to us day to day throughout how we move through this world. But the moment that you see them is the moment that you can either challenge, change, or accept them. And so I, I use that idea. I very much exist in that lens throughout my entire life. But professionally, that means that when I'm researching a topic, I am trying to pay attention to the structures at place and then boil those down so that even if someone has never heard of postmodernism, if they would like turn away from the very phrase because it sounds academic and perhaps strange, they can still get what they need to.

Mm-hmm.

Because I have seen the system and I have stripped it down and I can deliver them the core of what they need. And then by being open to that kind of information, it removes that structure as an obstacle. It simply is a fact, right? So for example, if we look at homeownership rates between different classes of people or different types of people, you can see that there is a very clear system in place. But once you understand, okay, yes, that is the system as it, as it is, but that's not how it has to be, and these are the tools I can So I can get my first property, then you've acknowledged the structure, but you're moving beyond it. You're not letting what has always been stop you. So that ceiling no longer becomes a cage. It becomes a place for you to continue building on top of. And that is what I want everyone to take away from the work that I've done.

Brilliant. Well, that, you know, that's right in line with Dr. Dweck. Who writes about mindset and as opposed to a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset. And much of her work has been done in elementary school and working with teachers in school systems. And teachers who put into their students' minds this aspect of growth mindset, their academic performances just explode as opposed to teachers who themselves don't really understand. I mean, all teachers want to believe that they take a growth mindset to their courses, but we don't. I mean, the whole system is based upon pass/fail kinds of situations, and if a student And if not doing well, they're failures. But with a growth mindset, a growth mindset is, I'm not there yet. Here's the challenges in front of me. And I can look at those challenges and I can develop strategies to overcome these challenges. And that's exactly what you were presenting to people. And so I'm happy to see that you are doing that. So tell us, as we— before we end up here, the Turbo Tenet program that you have, where do we find it and how do we take advantage of that?

Yes, we've made it super easy. Super easy. So you can just go to turbotenant.com. You will have the chance to look over our product, which is for self-managing your rental properties. But if you go up to the dashboard or the— I'm blanking on the word. You'll see—

The menu.

Thank you.

Menu.

My goodness, I am a professional writer. Go up to the menu and hover over landlords. You will see a list of different resources that you can access, from our podcasts to our videos, which will get you to the webinar program. You can see all 50 hours. They're uploaded for free. You can even download the deck if you'd like to and parse through it yourself. And we, we are always cranking out more. I have the best team. They are constantly creating and constantly surprising me with the different ways that they want to engage you and help you. So help us help you. Head over to turbotenant.com, look at the menu, you'll be able to find anything that you need to, whether you're already an investor or you're looking to get started.

Well, thank you so much, Krista, for being with us. It has been a delight having you and delving into your life and what inspires you to make the impact that you are making. And Enlightened Investors, this is just another example of the wide and broad possibilities in real estate investing. And our program at Streams to Impact is for individuals who essentially already have some assets and some capital in order to invest and to To expand on those investments, Krista presents opportunities to begin those investment journeys. So if you do not have any assets under your belts, Krista has a lot of good information for you and a place to begin that and to start that. Thank you, Krista, for being with us.

Thank you.

And enlightened investors, I hope you have enjoyed this conversation as much as I have. And if you did, please take a moment to like, to subscribe, and to share. And if you would also please give us a positive rating and a review, they make so much difference. Thank you for being with us, and I'll see you all in the next episode.

Thank you for tuning into Streams to Impact, brought to you by Steedtalker Capital, a company empowering passionate professionals like you to develop multiple streams of passive income built on solid passive real estate investments. As a significant part of our endeavors to make a cosmic and meaningful impact for this world, Steed Talker Capital contributes significant portions of our profits to activities and organizations committed to better understanding the equine. These endeavors attempt to enhance the treatment of horses worldwide. Steed Talker Capital, working for a world where all creatures great and small flourish abundantly. If you are ready to learn how our passive investors have earned an average 33% annual return on their investments, schedule your complimentary Passive Income to Prideful Impact consultation. Obviously, we cannot continue indefinitely to offer these valuable consultations for free, so grab your Passive Income to Prideful Impact consultation while you still can. Go to steedtalker.com/passive.