Ep. 587: Erin Bradley | How to Grow in Real Estate Without Burning Out | #InvestHER

A lot of women in real estate know how to grow. The real challenge is growing without carrying so much of it themselves. And I think a lot of women know this feeling. You're underwriting deals, managing contractors, teams, making decisions, solving problems, and holding everything together behind the scenes. At some point, growth feels really heavy, and the question becomes, how do you keep growing without doing it all yourself? Today I'm joined by Erin Bradley. She helps entrepreneurs build businesses that support the life they want. So let's get started. A lot of women in real estate are not lacking ambition or even capability. The real challenge for so many women is that they're, as they're growing, they're holding on too much by themselves. So Erin, what are the early signs that you've seen from women when they're, it's obvious that they're just carrying too much their backs themselves.

Oh my God, this is such a hot topic, Liz. I swear to God, this is the, this is the conversation that's had in every room when women are willing to be honest. There is a theme right now with successful women that there is overwhelm, there's exhaustion, and there's loneliness, frankly. Because when we get to this place of overwhelm, which I'll come back to the word successful in a moment, but this idea of over-functioning, over-performing, giving from an empty well to the point of depletion that we assume is the only way. And so if we even start to question it, like we're so used to powering through, it's just part of the nature. I honestly think it's a primal thing for females to just be so servant-hearted that they give and give and give to the point of this depletion and overwhelm. And the thing is that successful, the word we, what we hear when we hear the word successful is we hear the word money, right? And so we're all in the achievement of the money, so to speak. And in the process, we accidentally compromise our sanity, our values, our presence. And really the whole purpose of the money is so that we can feel a certain way, right? Like we imagine that freedom has a feeling. It's the feeling of ease. It's presence. It's, you know, enjoying time with our loved ones, but We see so many women that sort of go astray from the feeling of freedom in pursuit of success, and then we just assume that's just how it's gotta be.

Yeah. So is it, is it, do you often see, and you said like you're seeing this as a hot topic, how do you know if someone's carrying too much themselves? Is it the words they use? Is it, is it their way of being? Like, what's the, what's the sign for you? Like, what's like, whoa, they're carrying way too much. Just what they're saying, how they're saying it. What comes up for you as a kind of a sign and even for women listening, what's a sign for them to being like, hold on, I am caring way too much?

Oh yeah, it's 100% the same across the board. So anyone that I work with, they'll start the conversation with, I know what I need to do. I know what I need to do.

I know what I need to do.

I just need to. I just need to. I just have to. I should. Right? And I jokingly say, Stop shitting all over yourself. Right?

Yeah.

The, the thing about this whole overwhelm problem, the epidemic of overwhelm, is that it stems from great intentions. We have a goal that we wanna achieve, and so we seek the guidance and we start doing the things, right? But we often start from a place of scarcity or lack or uncertainty, and we've been conditioned since we were little to measure our worth in productivity. So we think to ourselves, well, I just need to do this so that I can get that. And once I get there, I'll give myself permission to what? Rest, feel peace, right? But there's a great book called The Gap and the Gain, and it talks about this epidemic that we get there and then the goalpost moves. And specifically in our society, in the US, like most of us are living in the gap between where we are and where we wish we could be. So I highly recommend that book by Benjamin Hardy. Instead of living in the gain, which is the distance from where we started. And typically when you get to that place where you know, and I've been there, trust me, like many times, and I usually, I joke that my superpower is to create the space out of desperation and then fill it till it overflows again. So when I'm in that state, and we all can relate to this, it feels like we're treading water. Like we're just coming up for a sip of air with all the hats that we wear, all the responsibilities. And it doesn't matter if you have kids, you don't have kids, like Women are just primally designed to, to give to the point of depletion. And it's kind of like walking around with your battery at 5%. It still works. It's fine. It's just not fully charged.

Yeah. I love that. You've experienced both burnout and breakthrough in, in your journey, right? So what was happening for you in your business and, and life really? Cuz it's not just our business, it's usually the, it's everything that's coming up for us when you realize that the way that you were growing wasn't working for you anymore?

Oh my gosh. Well, I'll start by saying that I went 100% commission in the real estate space on the mortgage side in 2007. So perfect timing, right?

And that was excellent timing. Exactly. Just like I wanted to fix and flip properties around 2008 in, uh, yeah, not a great market. It was great timing. Yeah.

Yeah. And it was so funny because I think back to that time and You know, I was young and I thought, oh my gosh, entrepreneurship, that's freedom and flexibility, right? Like everybody thinks I'm gonna become self-employed and then I'm gonna have freedom and flexibility. Well, I did so with no financial safety net, no systems, no game plan, and I promptly fell flat on my face. By the summer of 2008, I was maxed out on tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, and I was terrified of being seen as salesy. So I was really struggling with all the antiquated sales tactics. And I ended up getting a referral for a client and I had to ride my bike 5 miles across town in the middle of summer 'cause I didn't have enough money for gas. And when I got there, I got there early to let the sweat dry off. And unfortunately, so did the client. And he introduced himself to me at the counter as my credit card was being declined for a $2 cup of coffee when coffee was $2. So I didn't know what to do because I thought that was the card that would work. So I lied. I was like, that's so weird. That's my debit card. I'm gonna have to call the bank. Anyway, my card was declined. He paid for my coffee. I was mortified. And here begins the process, right? So here I am at financial rock bottom and I'm desperate. So my dad says, if you think you're gonna be good at this, just do whatever it takes. I open another credit card, I hire the coach, and I'm like, tell me what to do and I'll do it, right? And so that's what I'm talking about, right? From this place of fear and a problem to solve, I looked for the action plan and I started plugging away, right? Just powering through the insecurity and the awkwardness, whatever. And eventually I got traction. But it wasn't until 2011, 4 years later, that I read the book The Go-Giver. And it was a hope, just a total paradigm shift for me because up until then I was the quintessential go-getter. Like I was hustling, I was doing what they told me to do to get the leads, to get the deals, to get the money, to pay my bills and feel safe. Right? And I, I redesigned the way I wanted to show up in my business and the business more than doubled. And it was 2012. When the business blew up and I was pregnant with my second child, found myself working 24/7. I was making more money than I'd ever dreamed of and I was miserable. I really was second-guessing all of it. And specifically at the end of that year, right before I had my daughter, I went to a company dinner and I asked my colleagues, other women in the business that were ahead of me in the game, like, how are you doing this? Because I'm drowning over here. and they admitted that once they put their kids to bed, they worked until 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night. And I remember coming home thinking like, maybe I'm not cut out for this. Like, this is it, right? I wanted freedom and flexibility, hence the name of my book, Pursuing Freedom. I didn't feel free when my credit card was being declined. I didn't feel free when I was making more money than I had dreamed of, which by the way, was really only scratching the surface of the capacity for earnings because I was fully maxed out, right? Yeah. I couldn't go any further. And that was when I almost quit the business and luckily got some advice that it was time to get some leverage. And so through more coaching and investing in myself to be in the room with people that were done tolerating burnout, I started investing in my business, investing in myself. And I really, like, I love the name of, I think it's Dan Martell's book, Buy Back Your Time. Like, I just started buying myself a life. I wanted time freedom and presence more than I wanted anything else. And so even though it was scary, I was like, I have to do, I have to do this. I'm either gonna quit. I tried to shrink my goals. That didn't work. Or scale. And that became the pathway and it became the thing I'm most obsessed with helping other women see is that on the other side of the scary decision of what could go wrong is where everything goes better. Like everything goes right.

So what specifically did you do? Because there's a lot of things you can do. I know that, right? It's, it. And it could feel a little overwhelming, you know, hiring people, buying back your time, leveraging, you know, getting processes, systems, automations. We can make a long list. I'm sure you've done all those things. What specifically though is like, and is it, I was gonna ask this question, but what's like the right thing, like the right first thing to do when that feeling of overwhelm is, you know, sitting in for someone? There's a lot they can do, right? That they've heard they should do. What's the right next step though for someone one to do that's simple, actionable, and like real?

Yeah, so the very first step is grab a piece of paper, set a timer for 20 minutes, and start writing everything that's on your mind, everything that's on your to-do list, everything that is what you intend to do and don't get done, everything that you would do if you have more time. And then track everything you actually do from the moment you wake up till the moment you fall asleep. And once you've got that, do that for like a week or two, really, so you have a super comprehensive list. And then start to evaluate, of all the things I do, including checking email, checking social, doing the laundry, going to the grocery store, everything we do, right? Just simply evaluate, is that energizing or is it draining? Does it, does it light me up or does it suck the life out of me? Then simply evaluate, is it necessary? Right? A lot of us unknowingly spend a lot of time in distraction, not realizing that our energy is leaking and it's compromising our ability to enjoy our life and be present in all the things, right? But it's also compromising our effectiveness in everything we do. So is it necessary? If not, try to reduce or eliminate, right? The next thing I would say is, if it is necessary, Am I really the only person who can do it? And do I enjoy it? Okay. So from there you can start to evaluate what could be outsourced possibly. And this is a funny thing, Liz, because with the women I work with, they're often like, well, I'm afraid someone's going to like drop the ball.

And I'm like, yeah, you're already dropping the ball. Yeah. Give it to anyone else.

But so the funny part about though is that we, I mentioned earlier, you know, women, we're, we're primarily caregivers. And so. The only reason any of us became good or even mediocre at all the things that we do is because we care. So we do, we do it because it has to get done. So there's no point complaining about it. Like it just has to get done. And so we start living through life as it's fine, it's fine. I can do it. I can do it. And I remember a mentor saying to me years ago, just because you can doesn't mean you should. Like, just because you can doesn't mean you enjoy it. And when you do this energy audit, what you'll find often, and I do this again and again and again, like, it's an evolution because sometimes when we're trying something new that's challenging, it can also be energizing because it's interesting because you're learning. But once you've achieved a level of mastery, in most industries, you get that promotion and you move up to the next level and you become challenged again, right? There's things that used to interest you that bore you now, and that's okay. That might be time to graduate from. And so when you do this energy audit, oftentimes you'll find that like 75 to 80% of your time is spent in energy-draining activities, which is why we feel so overwhelmed. And we also have a tendency to keep adding to our brain, like, oh, I should do that. I should do that. I should also do this. I need to do that. And our brain isn't meant to store the information. It's meant to compute. So doing this brain dump is also powerful because it gets it out of the mind onto paper where clarity can be found, because from there we can start to make different decisions.

I like that. So, you know, auditing where you are and, and being honest, I think that's also part of it. 'Cause we can audit something and, and just say, yeah, I'm, I'm good at this, or I, I've always done this and it's really hard for me to let go. It, it, it, we have to get really honest with ourselves. So I like, I like that a lot. The outsourcing part is a, is nothing new that, you know, nothing new for, for women to hear, But what is the success in outsourcing? Is it a, is it, are you, what do you suggest? 'Cause these, some of these women listening here aren't gonna go hire a W-2 employee, right? They may not be at that, that size, that scale. And the thought of hiring people, right? A lot of women in our community, same, sometimes their first hire is that VA. They're like, why didn't I do this 6 months ago?

Yeah.

Right? Why didn't I do this sooner to get an assistant? So for, for those listening and even may have that VA, they may even have a team member, but they still know they need to outsource more, especially as they grow. Um, you know, what, what are some of those steps in that process that they should, should do and look at and really be mindful of?

Well, I think it's a loaded question because there are a lot of different ways that you can bring leverage into your life and business. You know, interestingly enough, some of my high-level coaching clients that are just like, they're just, they're operating in their business at a very high level. One of their first hires might be a house manager. and it's life-changing. Somebody that comes into the house a couple days a week, organizes, you know, cleans, meal prep, shopping, you know, that can be like such a relief. That might be one of the biggest energy drains. And we just kind of continue to do it because we feel silly outsourcing something like that. So what we outsource can be really different depending on the thing that you are most drained by. And certainly virtual assistants. I'm sure you've had Adrienne Green on here and she's like the master of virtual assistants in the real estate investing business as well as her sales business. And so I personally, I also really enjoy the relationship of people in person. So when depending on my business, you know, I have virtual assistants for sure. I also have, you know, local team members and I find a lot of joy in raising leaders inside of my business. Like if, if my business could change my life, what if it could change somebody else's life? What if introducing someone to your business becomes the conduit to transformation in their life. And sometimes we have to rethink this idea that oftentimes when we go to hire somebody, we think of it as an expense and we, and we think from a place of fear. What's it going to cost me and what could go wrong? And we, I really encourage people to reframe that to like, this is an investment that expands the vessel to allow us to process more, receive more, contribute more. And what, how cool could it be? Like, how much fun could I have letting someone in on this really cool growing organization? And what can I do for them as much as what can they do for me? It's a totally different mindset because I was, I was one of the odd ones that hired one of my best friends first and then my nanny after 2 and a half years, who's like a little sister to me today. And then another friend of mine who lived next door, like I was, I joked that I was dragging bodies onto a speeding train and I was hiring my loved ones. And so my experience of leverage, I think, was unique in the sense that I loved these people so much before any business transactions were happening. And it did, you know, for the time that they were in the business, it was, it was a gift for them and it was a gift for me, I think, you know.

Absolutely. And I, I think is, I, I like the holistic approach, right? So you're looking at what energizes me, what depletes me on both ends, right? My personal life, my professional life, but then getting in back to grow— growing a real estate portfolio and investments and, and in their businesses and saying, okay, what excites me, what doesn't, but what also what's necessary to grow the company. And, and so often we're, we're doing $20 tasks when in reality we should be looking for new markets, new partners, new money, right? The things that actually grow an investment portfolio. So how does, how does So once you kind of write the list of what you are doing, how do you bridge the gap with women and those listening saying there's things I should be doing that I'm not doing right now, right? They're not even on the list of to judge with our— whether it energizes me or not. I feel like too many women are in it and they're not working on it, right? They're not working on the business.

And part of that's growth.

So how do they, you know, is that another list? Is that like, okay, the growth list, okay, what's gonna get me to the next level? Or what do you, what do you say on that? Side of it?

No, that's such a good question. I love how you said the $20 an hour job is because, you know, depending on where someone is in their journey, it is important to do the math and really evaluate what is your hourly rate, right? And there are times when we figure out that someone's hourly rate is $150 an hour, maybe it's $400 an hour. And when we do the math, every hour you spend doing something you could pay someone $20 an hour to do. It could be costing you $400,000 a year. It could be costing you $1.2 million a year. Like the, the cost, the opportunity cost is so significant.

Yeah.

And to your point, maybe I could be doing this and I should be doing that, but if I'm not doing it, there's a possibility it's because that's not the highest and best use of my time, but it would be beneficial to the business. And so sometimes these investments are in those things that will drive revenue in some capacity. So, I like to start with investing in, in team members that could drive revenue in some capacity. So in the real estate investing world, that could look like research, prospecting, right? Like even making calls to sellers, whatever it is, depending on the asset class or what you're doing from an investing perspective, because that's gonna bring opportunities your way. And then you don't feel like it's costing you because it's, it's ultimately opening you up to more opportunity. And then start to, you know, backfill with the admin stuff. Now that could be one person. It just depends. Like I find virtual assistants tend to be pretty specific. Like they're either a creative person that's going to help with my brand and social media, or they're really good on the tech behind, you know, the operational stuff. So with virtual team members, I feel like there's an almost a necessity to piecemeal where I've found that. I don't know, a true full-time executive assistant that I've had sort of as my right arm in the business, almost like a director of operations. They sometimes can be a jack of all trades and they can help with prospecting as well as behind the scenes like accounting or, you know, bookkeeping, whatever, you know. So, um, it really, it just depends on the individual. There's no one right answer, but, but for sure looking at where am I spending time that's cost that I could be investing $20 an hour here, but what would be my ROI if I was spending time doing what only I can do, which is the $150 an hour task? And when you look at it from a mathematical perspective, it's like, holy cow, I can't believe I waited. You know, I think so many people just run themselves ragged and give from the empty well for so long because it's all they know. And it's, it can be so much lighter. And if it's not going to be lighter, then what's the point? I mean, we're really after the freedom, right? So yeah, we sometimes have to be willing to take that leap. And it is scary at times.

I wanna add something that you said because driving revenue is something that obviously is necessary regardless of what business, right? Especially we're talking about real estate investments, but it doesn't matter what business you're talking about, right? Driving revenue is, is critical. The other part that I see a lot of women neglecting that they should be looking at is driving revenue through their existing assets, meaning like just squeezing more lemonade, if you will, out of the lemons. That doesn't make any sense. You don't really get lemonade out of lemons, but that's okay. You know, lemon juice, whatever the analogy is. You know, I'm always screwing up my analogies. But the point is that you could be driving revenue with what you already have. So many women in our community, so many women that are part of our network have properties, and then they're on to the next thing. They're on to the new thing, and they're building, you know, they're hiring someone to help them find more, more deals or more money or partner. Yet they have 3, 4, 5, or even 10 properties that they could be increasing their revenue by 10% that they're not even doing right. And there's ways to do that, right? Reducing expenses, increasing maybe their rents or, or what are their business, their business plan. So I just want to mention that I, I find so many real estate investors are just on to the next deal. And then when you start asking questions about their current portfolio and their current properties, Like, oh, they're okay, they're doing okay. What's okay, right? What are, what are your numbers? Is it helping you move the needle on creating more financial freedom, passive income, etc.? It seems obvious, but it's not always. So, you know, I think that's also part of the leadership, right? The management of what I have and also the growth opportunity. You don't have to be the one property managing. I'm not trying to say that because that may not be the highest and best use of your time. But you got to be overseeing it, right? You got to be overseeing it and making sure you know what's important for that property and what those KPIs are or whatever business plan you have for that property. So do you find that, that, you know, the revenue generation is just always on the new people think versus really what they have and just getting more out of what they have in terms of— and that's part of the overwhelm too, is because they're literally all over it and they're not outsourcing some of those key pieces versus looking at it and managing it. Does that make sense?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I always use the analogy of a slingshot, you know, sometimes we have to pull back to evaluate in order to launch, right? And so many people as they share their stories, you know, I'm sure on your show and for sure, you know, just people I meet, it's, they'll, they'll talk about these periods of time where they may experience a lot of growth and sometimes it's like a quantum leap and. It's exhilarating, right? And then once we've had that kind of thrill of the growth, we often, you know, look around to see what more could we do. And it's a fine line, right? Like, I think there's so much power in proximity, in hearing people's stories and being in the room with people that remind you of your future, you know, and hearing other people's strategies and stories and being really conscious of Understanding that everyone's on their own individual journey. So, you know, the comparisonitis factor can get a little dangerous because sometimes it's like, well, she's doing this and she's doing that. And I could be doing that. And I could be doing that. We start adding and adding and adding when to your point, we could also slow down to evaluate now, where am I here? And then is there opportunity that's right in front of me hidden in plain sight?

Yeah.

I'm so busy looking outside myself. For the answer, so to speak, when—

It's like the path of least resistance, right?

Right here.

And I completely agree. And I think I was on a call the other day, a mastermind call, and one of the women was talking about she's got like 7 single-family homes and she's over time converting these single-family, they're long-term rentals, and she's converting them to co-living and she's seeing her revenue go up significantly as a result, obviously, because it's a you know, you're renting out by the room versus having a long-term tenant in this particular market that she's in. And she's like, it's a process, but she's like, my revenue is increasing and obviously I need to put management pieces in place. However, that's a lot easier to do than, than, you know, now I have to just focus on these, you know, adding another 2 or 3 or 4 properties to the mix. I may do that, but if I can increase my, my passive with what I have, Right, and I think we often don't realize that that's even just under our noses. I always say to women, I'm sure you see it, is just to have a pulse on your finances. What are your finances? What do they look like? What's working? What's not? One of the biggest things to outsource from an overwhelm perspective is bookkeeping.

Yeah.

Especially if you have a handful of properties. Bookkeeping is hands down the one of the most important you know, team members, but then obviously process to put in place because you can really buy back a lot of your time.

Yeah.

Yeah. So bookkeeping is key. What are the other first systems or, you know, systems or processes that hands down, besides finding someone, this is like core to freeing up yourself once you've, once you've audited what energizes and doesn't energize you. What are some key systems women should be looking at to implement for their own businesses?

Well, I think whether you have someone in place or you don't have someone in place, you know, I, I don't love the word time management because I feel like it sounds a little suffocating and I'm a, I'm a freedom seeker. So for me, you know, tracking and systems and time management always felt a little suffocating until I understood the power of it and realized that a little bit of structure and a little bit of systems is actually liberating and it's, it's where the simplicity lies. So once you've evaluated, okay, here are all the things, right? Like these things have to be done. These things I really enjoy doing and are probably the highest and best use of my time. And these things maybe drain me energetically, then I'm going to create containers of time throughout my week where I focus on executing the things that need to get done that I know sucks the life out of me. So a perfect example is like just theming out the days of your week and You know, depending on whether you have another full-time job and you're investing on top of that, or whether this is your full-time career, you know, it's gonna vary, of course. But when we moved from Denver to this little ski town in Colorado, the kids were, my oldest was going into first grade and they don't have school on Fridays. And I very quickly pivoted to, I wanna go to that school. That sounds fun. It's so awesome.

It's so, that sounds awesome. I wanna come to that school.

Yeah. And it was 2016. So for the past 10 years, we just, we've had 3-day weekends and, You know, we're recording this on a Friday and it's, it's a, it's spring break anyway right now. But, um, but anyway, so I just decided Fridays are for fun, family, and friends. You know, we drop our kids off at the ski mountain to do their lessons at 9 o'clock in the morning. And I'm from the Philadelphia area, so I still feel like I'm in the honeymoon phase. Like, is this real life? I'm dropping my kids off at a ski mountain on a Friday morning and picking them up at 3:30. But anyway, Fridays are for fun, family, and friends. And so since I know that, then I know that I don't need to be energetically on, so to speak, in working in my business or on my business or anything like that. So personally, I save Friday mornings for finishing up. So I say Fridays are for finishing up and then fun, family, and friends, because it's okay if I spend my morning doing the minutia that needs to get done that's going to be energy draining because I'm not expected to perform later on in the day. Now, if I was going to be doing something where I'm working on my business, which might be making calls or prospecting or anything like going to a networking event or anything like that, right? I know that I'm not gonna like quickly check my email before I go into that event, cuz checking my email sucks the life outta me. So I'm intentional about when I do energizing things and preparing myself to show up as peak performance versus just bouncing from one thing to the next haphazardly on autopilot where, like I mentioned earlier, we don't even realize, yes, we're still functioning, but we're at 5% battery. I just think it's important to evaluate how do you wanna show up in the interactions that matter most to you? Personally and professionally? And are you really putting some intention behind that, or are you just going through the motions expecting that someday life's gonna slow down and you're gonna regain your, your energy?

I've never heard it explained like that, Erin, over my time. And I've, you know, been at life for quite some time. What I really love what you're saying right now, and I really want every, I wanna, what they say, double-click. Is that the terminology? When you double-click, it means you really wanna zone in on what someone's saying. I love what you're saying in the sense of, okay, You're gonna make this list and there's things that this, you're gonna learn that, hey, this is, this is something I gotta buy back my time, something that de-energizes or energizes me. However, we're continuing on as entrepreneurs, we're continuing on as business owners. There are gonna be things that give us more energy and they give us less energy. And to be very intentional with blocking those times, we, we've heard of time blocking, but theming out when you do certain things, especially if you're in charge of some of your schedule. Makes just a tremendous amount of sense. I never thought of it in that sense. I've heard, I've heard like the idea of de-energizing tasks, but I never thought, okay, being mindful of when I'm doing those so I can show up more fully in the next theme, whatever that theme is, and I, or next segment of my day, if you will. And I think that's so smart to do because we are, We don't just have roles, we have literally different, different, different hats we wear within our business, let alone in our life. So that's just smart to do. And I would imagine really brings more peace and you're not shifting gears so quickly. It's like, hold on, I'm on a podcast and now I'm mom and now I'm this. It's very overwhelming. And that's where the overwhelm comes from. I don't know what you've experienced, but it's really good insight for even the things we are doing and that we are going to keep. How to be very intentional and strategic.

I had someone say this the other day. I thought it was brilliant. And it was around that whole shifting gears, but she referred to it as whiplash. And I was like, oh my God, that's exactly what it is. When you're like, you're in mom mode and then you're in like friend mode and then your daughter mode and then sister mode and wife mode or whatever modes you have in your life, right? Not everybody wears all those hats, but like, and then we're supposed to like sit down and read an important email and give it the attention it deserves. And then we're supposed to evaluate this and then And like, it's like you're just getting slapped, right? And knocked down the whole time. And like I said earlier, I don't love the word time blocking because there's a truth to the fact that there is a lot of reaction there. You will never have a day that you will not have alerts coming at you, emails, text messages, DMs, phone calls, whatever, right? Sure, sure. There is reaction, right? But I think it was Tim Ferriss who said, we have to learn to not treat— we have to learn to not treat non-time-sensitive items as urgent. And I think when we get into a state of overwhelm where we feel like there's not enough hours in the day and there's just stuff coming at us all the time, it feels most effective to just quickly handle that thing and then quickly handle that thing. And that's where the whiplash comes in. But the truth of the matter is that thing, that alert, it doesn't actually have to happen in real time. And the only reason we're handling it in real time is because we're anxious and overwhelmed. If we could start to create a system of simply making a note of that, like I'm an old school pen and paper girl, so I always have running lists of unchecked boxes, right? And then I carve out buckets of time to handle the reactivity. So there's plenty of white space. It's not about time blocking every hour of every day because that sounds horrible too, right? That sounds exhausting. It's just about like, all right, for example, I say Mondays are for me, money management, mindset, marketing planning.

Okay, so, so you got the M's going. I like that.

I know what they think it's called.

Finishing and fun. Is that like the—

is it called alliteration? What is that word?

When you use the letter?

Yeah, you're like Mondays are for me, Fridays are for fun and finishing up. Yeah, I guess I'm a nerd for that. But, uh, yeah, so with Mondays Are For Me, like this, that was a really big shift in my life because we've been programmed since we were in preschool that we should get up and hurry up on Monday morning. I mean, if you have kids, you know, it's like Monday morning is like, get up, hurry up. Let's go. We got to go. We got to go. Right. Unless you homeschool your kids. So that's just been ingrained in us for such a long time. If you're an entrepreneur, And you wanted freedom and flexibility. Are you claiming it? Or are you expecting that the world's going to deliver it to you? Because the world's job isn't to give you your peace. It's for you to prioritize it. And so I just happen to know that I'm not peak energy on Mondays. It's not my peak energy day. I juggle a lot on the weekends and I used to fill my Mondays with busyness because it made me feel productive. And now my Mondays are empty. The only thing I will do on a Monday is have a mastermind call where I just feel like it fills my cup, right? Or I just go slow. I reflect, I look at the numbers, I plan out the week. And then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I know are my peak performance days. And I prime myself, like I jokingly say, if you were to sign up for a race, right? If you sign up for a marathon, I don't run, so I don't know why I use this analogy, but If you signed up for a marathon, you would show up to the race, right? Even if you feel out of shape or underprepared, you'd probably like do your best. You'd hydrate, you'd wear the right outfit, and you'd go do the thing. You do your best. And we have to do the same with our business. We need to know like, when are the peak performance days? When am I peak energy? So that I then decide to make myself available to share my energy when I'm ready for it. And then on other days, I protect my energy or I give myself grace because I'm not expected to be peak energy 7 days a week for every waking hour. So there's so much, I mean, there's so much power in understanding all of this because it actually improves every aspect of our life and it gives us access to the thing we think we're after at some future date. It gives us access to peace and ease today. And then as we show up, we show up differently from that that vibration or that frequency. And it's, it just makes the whole journey much more enjoyable, right?

I love that. And I love the full circle. When you're auditing, you're saying, okay, bringing me energy, depleting my energy, whether we want to begin to outsource some of those things or outsource, systematize, or even eliminate some things sometimes. And there's a lot of choices you have. Then more importantly, how to structure our days. So we thrive when we are doing things that are high energy versus the things that we need to still do. We haven't outsourced it yet or we haven't completely removed it, but how do we do it in a way that works for our life? And I love what you're saying too, Erin, is like, you know yourself. And I think the more and more as women we know ourselves, if you're not a morning person, you don't have to be a morning person. I feel like there's so much guilt in even being a morning person. I am a morning person. I love the morning, actually. However, if I didn't, I probably would feel bad that I wasn't. Because there's so many books written about it. And then I feel bad about that. And so many women are walking around trying to fit a mold versus what's gonna work for me in my life and be really honest with yourself. And I think if we just start to do that, the overwhelm will, will decrease, right? Just because we're being honest, let alone high productivity all the time. Cuz women get a lot of shit done. That's not the, that's not even what we're talking about today. Yeah, but it's at what cost, right? So I love this. I think the theming out what we're doing based on high energy, low energy tasks and kind of segmenting our days in a really strategic way is brilliant. I have never heard it that way before, and I've interviewed a lot of people, so I love that, Erin. I'm so excited to see you soon at InvestHerCon. You're going to be there with, with us and want to make sure everyone knows and everyone knows they're invited to come be with us to transform their life. We're gonna have 2.5 days of, of real estate investing, business, self-care, uh, June 14th to the 16th. So I'm really excited to see you in Scottsdale, Arizona. But where can everyone listening learn more about you, get connected to you, and, uh, hopefully meet you at InvestorCon too?

Yes. Oh my gosh. Please come say hi. And yeah, shoot me a DM if, if there's value in anything you've heard here, uh, or just to say hi. I, I love, you know, the fact that we both have podcasts, Liz, and we put this content out in the world and sometimes we don't know if anybody's listening. So whenever we get a message, like you said, Liz, a message is so nice to hear from people because I love moving from like internet friends to real life friends, you know, the magic happens when you get in the room with people. So yeah, you can follow me on Instagram at Pursuing Freedom Official. Check out my website, pursuingfreedom.com. I genuinely, all the time, I move from like someone follows me on Instagram and I go to your thing and I'm like, hey, you look fun. Let's meet. Like, let's just connect. So I love Being a support and a resource to anybody out there and, and seeing women grow and thrive and—

Absolutely.

And enjoy it.

Like we always say with every episode, with everything we're doing with the InvestHer community is do, do one thing, uh, from what you've heard today. Even if you start to theme out your day, your week, that's a win, right? Just do one thing, one small thing, because it really allows us to celebrate and create momentum in our brains. And then our brain gets a little like, whoa, we did this, then we wanna do more. Versus beating ourselves up and, and, and really feeling less than, right? That's not what we want for any woman. So thank you for listening, Erin. Thank you so much, so much for your, your, your great insight, and I'm so excited to see you in a couple months. All right.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for listening. I hope you found today's conversation valuable, and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes, and share this with the women in your life that needs to hear it. I'll see you next week.