Build a Big Life, Not Just a Big Business: Advice from The Hosts of The Empire Building Podcast

J:
Welcome to the Bigger Pockets Business Podcast, show number 98.

Carol:
We are number one in multiple markets and it’s all because I allowed for other people. So, everything we say no to something, it’s giving someone else an opportunity to say yes.

J:
Welcome to a real world MBA from the School of Hard Knocks, where entrepreneurs reveal what it really takes to make it. Whether you’re already in business or you’re on your way there, this show is for you. This is Bigger Pockets Business.
How’s it going everybody? I am J Scott, your co-host for the Bigger Pockets Business Podcast, coming to you not so live, but coming to you from Sarasota, Florida. I am here with my lovely wife and lovely cohost as usual, Mrs. Carol Scott. How’s it going today Carol Scott?

Carol:
Oh my goodness, I am entirely grateful for everyone and everything that we have in our lives and very optimistic for what and who are and is yet to come. Life is so good right. Orange blossoms are on the trees. Kids aren’t in school and they’re playing tennis and piano and they built a desk on their own the other day. That’s amazing. I have incredible friends building new businesses. I have had family members here visiting. We are just incredibly fortunate and I am so grateful for this big, awesome life we have.

J:
I love that. I think you just picked up on the operative word, it was a great segue into our episode today. You talked about big life. Well, the guests we have today are going to talk all about living a big life, whether it’s your personal life, whether it’s your business, whether it’s your career, whether it’s your family. These four women have been tremendously successful, not just at creating their own big lives, but helping others create big lives as well. Today with us we have Sarah Reynolds, we have Seychelle Van Poole, we have Vija Williams and we have Wendy Papasan.
These women have independently been tremendously successful business owners, been tremendously successful in their own lives. They’ve come together and they’ve created a tremendously successful podcast called Empire Building, that tells us and teaches us how we can take, again, all the things in our lives and we can make them bigger and we can make them better. This is absolutely an amazing episode, just tip after tip, after tip, after tip for how we can take our lives and we can make them better and we can grow them and we can become more successful, again, whether it’s personal or business or career.
In this episode, we talk about how to better say no and why it’s so important to say no in our lives. This is something that I’ve always struggled with and these women tell us today… they explain in very simple terms why it’s so important to say no in our lives. I know we all know that, that’s true, but they really break it down in a way that, after you listen to it, you’re going to think, “I am going to finally start saying no more often.” They talk to us about how we can find our mission. Wendy has an amazing tip for any of us out there that aren’t ready to commit to something that we know we have to do one big thing, we need to focus on something, but we’re not sure what that thing is to focus on. Wendy gives us a great tip on how we can find our mission without committing too early and taking this leap of faith that we don’t necessarily have to take from day one.
We talk about going from ordinary to big. How we turn everything in our lives from ordinary into something bigger and how we can use leverage to do that. Then, we jump into how we can know our numbers, whether it’s our personal life, our business life, how knowing our numbers can help us go big. Finally, at the very end of the show, make sure you listen until the end where each of these women gives us an amazing tip on what we can do right now, today, to change our lives and help take our lives from what they are to something bigger. Just an absolutely amazing episode. If you want to find out about anything we talk about on this episode, we have links to have everything and links to everyone at our show notes, biggerpockets.com/bizshow98. Again, biggerpockets.com/bizshow98. Okay. Without any further ado, let’s welcome Sarah, Seychelle, Vija and Wendy to the show.

Carol:
Welcome to the Bigger Pockets Business Podcast. I’ve got to tell you, I have so been looking forward to hosting you. I’m a huge fan of your show. You are just an amazingly phenomenally fantastic foursome. You are individually, as well as collectively, incredibly accomplished, engaging and inspirational. I know our listeners are going to absolutely love learning from you today. So, thank you for being here.

Vija:
Thank you.

Wendy:
Thank you for having us.

Sarah:
Thank you for having us.

Seychelle:
Thank you for having us.

J:
Yeah. We’re really excited to have you. Since we have a large group today, I want to allow each of you to introduce yourselves individually and then we’ll talk about what you have going on together and what the focus of your podcast is, what the focus of your business is and your work is. But, let’s start with a little bit of an introduction. Let’s go around the circuit. Maybe Sarah, would you like to start?

Sarah:
Yeah. We are so excited to be here. Hi everyone. I am Sarah Reynolds. I lead a real estate business that is located out of the Washington DC metro market. We are also in four other markets. We’ve been building our empire here in all the other markets that we serve. I’m also a proud, young mom. I have three young babies and they’re pride and joy. Today is Olivia’s birthday, so that’s exciting. Of course, I’ve been part of this Empire Building podcast for a while now and it’s been awesome to really show people what it’s like, not just to have a big business, all of us run massive businesses, but it’s about also creating big lives. So, we are so happy to be here.

J:
Excellent. Thank you, Sarah.

Carol:
I love that.

J:
Let’s do this in alphabetical order. We have Seychelle Van Poole. Would you like to jump in Seychelle?

Seychelle:
Thanks J. Yes, this is Seychelle Van Poole and I run Van Poole Properties Group out of the Dallas, Fort Worth Metroplex. And, something we’re really passionate about with our team is, really creating a life where you’re happier, healthier, and wealthier for it. So, we have investment properties. And, we encourage our team members to do that. I’m a longtime listener and fan of your show. We have added a bunch of ancillary businesses that all together support the real estate space. And, so that’s kind of, our niche. That’s what we love to do. My husband and I live here in Dallas, and we have a six year old daughter as well.

J:
Awesome.

Carol:
Love it.

J:
Okay, next. Let’s see, oh, alphabetical order. I have to figure out W, X, Y, T, U. Okay. I think I’ve got it. This one was tough. I’m sorry. We have Vija Williams. Vija, would you like to introduce yourself? Let everybody know who you are and what you do and where you come from?

Vija:
Yes. We are so excited to be here. Thank you, you guys. You were the last voices I heard before I went to bed last night. I listen to you all the time. So, it’s really cool.

Carol:
That is so sweet. Thank you.

Vija:
I’m fangirling. So, yeah, well, my name’s Vija Williams, I’m in the Seattle Washington Market and I’m involved in the leadership of a dozen different entities. So, my day job, I’m the only hired gun of the group, is, I’m the general manager and director of growth for the Ben Kinney companies. So, what I do is, I lead eight real estate brokerages, Keller Williams franchises, I have about 1600 agents. I’m on the operating committee for our in-house mortgage title and escrow company called BKCO. Very creative. BKCO title escrow mortgage. I have the Vija group real estate team. I’m involved with these lovely ladies in an annual women and business event called Amplify Event. And, my husband and I have a property management company. I am an emerging out of state investor, thanks to Bigger Pockets by the way. And, lastly, I have the Empire Building podcast.

Carol:
That’s all.

Vija:
Oh, I forgot, I have three kids. [crosstalk 00:08:21]. I forgot about the kids, they’re going to kill me.

Wendy:
You always forget about the kids. This is a trend, Vija.

Vija:
This is a trend. I get so tired listing it all. So, I have an awesome husband and three amazing kids.

Wendy:
You need to start with your kids.

Vija:
Oh, my gosh, I need to start with them. I do love my family, you guys, I promise.

Wendy:
She’s a great mom.

J:
And, last but not least, we have a Wendy Papasan. I have yet to actually have the opportunity to meet you in person or even virtually, Wendy. I’m so glad to be able to do this. We actually had your husband, Jay Papasan, as one of our very first guests on the show a couple years ago. So, talking to him, he’s talked about you a lot and talked about the family a lot. So, this is very exciting that I finally get an opportunity to virtually meet you. So, Wendy, can you tell our listeners a little bit about you and what you do?

Wendy:
Sure. Well, the feeling’s mutual. I’m so glad to be here and, like everybody else, I’m a big fan. I love what you guys are doing. Yeah, I’m out of the Austin, Texas metro area. I run a real estate team called the Papasan Properties Group. We also have a few locations in Houston and Minneapolis, Minnesota. I have a home repair and handyman remodeling company that I run. And, then of course, my husband’s also a serial business owner and an executive at Keller Williams. He runs a couple companies. I’m in charge of our real estate empire. I started that when I was a stay at home mom and that was my first foray into real estate. I was actually an investor before I got my real estate license. And, that’s kind of, my passion.
And, like all these other ladies, I’m the mom of two wonderful children. They’re 14 and 16. I’m pretty excited because we just got our hot water turned on after 18 days of being off. And, if you live with two teenagers and no hot water, you can imagine, it just magnified the effect of having no hot water. So, I’m super excited. I’m here, I’m clean, I’m fresh, I’m ready to go.

Carol:
Anybody watching this on video saw that my jaw, literally, the floor. And, it took me about a minute and a half to pull it back up because I can’t even wrap my head around 18 days-

Wendy:
It’s been pretty stinky around here.

Carol:
Oh, my goodness, you’re a wonder woman. That is incredible. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of that info. I’ve got to tell you, my mind is a little bit blown right now, the four of you, again, separately, and collectively are no joke. You have so many things going on and so many of our community members face these same challenges. And, we try to figure out, how do we realistically make this all happen, right? I don’t know about each of you, but, I think, interestingly, the dynamics are even more challenging when you add more people into your group, right? So, you sometimes get your own flow going on and then you add one or two more people. But, you very cohesively built this amazingly beautifully functioning group together, in addition to all of your own ventures that you have going on.
So, I don’t mean to sound cliche, but I would love some tips for our community members on how do you do it all. And, I would love for you to look at it through two lenses. How do you manage it in your own personal lives and your lives at home and building your businesses, with your family and so on, struggling with being a parent, as well as how would you collectively manage it all together with these partners, with these team members, that you rely on and count on together?

Vija:
I love that question, Carol. This is Vija, by the way, you’ll get used to our voices, I promise. And, the reason I love it, is probably the number one question, I think we all get is, how do you do it? Right, ladies. Everyone, how do you do it all? And, we don’t? The thing is, we don’t do it all. What we do is, we constantly operate with a set of priorities. It’s like triage, constant triage. You filter it through your priorities, you have to be very focused, and you have to very clearly understand what your top 20% activities are in every circle of your life. So, that’s like your family life, your health, your spiritual life and, by the way, your business and multiple businesses. We all know that some businesses take more times than others at different junctures in different seasons. And, there’s just priorities. Wendy always says this great proverb. Let’s see if I get it right, Wendy. “If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one.”

Wendy:
I think that’s actually from The ONE Thing, but thank you for attributing it to me.

Vija:
I’m just going to go ahead and say you did it. The Wendy proverb.

Sarah:
We know you’re the brains, Wendy.

Vija:
[crosstalk 00:12:57] the Wendy proverb.

Wendy:
Yeah, well, I love that Vija, that’s 100% so important, is to have a very clear sense of vision and priority for your life. And, for me, that starts with understanding what your personal mission is. I believe that everybody is here on Earth. God put every one of us here for a reason. And, so taking the time to really understand your mission in life… So, for me, my mission is to empower and inspire big thinking leaders to create lives of abundance. And, so what that allows me to do is, it allows me to say no to the things that don’t align with my mission, and to really let everything else go. I think, for a lot of us entrepreneurs, that’s a big struggle, we’re yes people. We like doing lots of things, we like juggling a lot of balls. And, having that clear sense of vision that starts with a personal mission is just paramount.

J:
I love that.

Seychelle:
I think that’s so good, Wendy. And, every time I hear that, it’s still such a good reminder. Every time I hear it, I can’t hear it enough. I think, too, when you’re an entrepreneur, oftentimes you have to get good at a lot of things really quickly. And, that can be both a superpower and also one of our greatest weaknesses. So, as we’re growing our businesses, oftentimes we get so focused on growth and growing our business and building this empire that you really forget to stop and turn around and ask, what do I really want? Right? Whose life am I living? What really brings me joy?
And, I think that can often be some of the scariest questions, is really digging deep and internally asking and creating that vision like Wendy was talking about, because I think really digging into our deepest desires and building a business that funds and supports that, can be honestly some of the hardest part. The business parts easy, it’s the actual inner digging that we have to do to get there, I think, that can be sometimes the hardest.

Wendy:
That’s true.

Sarah:
Yeah, that’s so good, Sey. I think, that, that’s what has been so remarkable about our tribe of entrepreneurs and empire builders, right. It’s like, all of us have a lot going on, we just shared all that we have going on, and so many times we focus on so many yeses and our world gets crazy, right? People come up to us, how do you do it all, right, because they see all of these yeses. But meanwhile, we know that the really key to success is actually saying no more than you say, yes.
And, I remember, many years ago, about three to four years ago, when I first came into our tribe of entrepreneurs and females that help each other with this, Wendy asked, said, “What are you guys saying no to right now?” There was 11 of us in the room and I remember sitting there, and I was, “Well, I’m going to go last.” Because, I have been nailing it at this no thing, I’ve said no to so many things. I’ve been hiring people. I’m going to wait till Wendy gets to me last, right? And, I think she did one person and then she’s, “Okay, Sarah, you need a whole sheet. There’s so many things that we know you’re saying yes to too many things.” I said, “No, I’m saying no to a lot of things.” I hired all these different people to help me. Then, she started saying, “So what time are you getting home,” and things like that. And, I started reflecting, “Well, Monday through Friday, I get home every night at 10 PM. I missing every bedtime, but two times a night.”
I sat there and it really hit me that I am missing, basically, a key time of my daughter’s life. She was six at the time. A key time of my daughter’s life where I’m missing more bedtimes than I’m there for. I made the commitment that day to be there more for my daughter. And, honestly, that moment changed my life. Because, I realized that every single yes, we are saying no to something else. And, what we don’t want, is we don’t want the no to be to that bigger life. We don’t want the no to be to that bigger life, which is our family, which is our key relationships. And, so every time you say yes, just look, who am I saying no to in the process? And, then surround yourself by people that will encourage you to keep saying no. You should be saying no more than saying yes.

Wendy:
Well, and what I love about that story, Sarah, is, since then, can you just share with the listeners what your business has done in terms of revenue?

Sarah:
Yeah, so, at the time, we were doing about 5.7 million in gross commission income. So, we were in the top teams of Keller Williams at the time, but we literally have tripled our income. So, last year, we did 15.7 million. We now have 130 different team members. We are number one in multiple markets. And, it’s all because I allowed for other people. So, every time we say no to something, it’s giving someone else an opportunity to say yes, right. And, so when I said okay, guys, I’m going to start leaving the office every day at 5:30, it gave my team a chance to say, I’m going to sign up for the opportunity there to take some of the things off Sarah’s plate. And, so then it allowed for us to actually grow at a faster rate. So, sometimes we’re slowing our own self down, our business growth down, because we keep saying yes to too many things.

Vija:
Can I just give a little context there, guys?

Carol:
Yes, please, Vija, what you go?

Vija:
2% of women owned businesses have revenue over a million dollars. And, I just want to pause and amplify Sarah Reynolds, 15 million in revenue last year. It just can’t slide by because it’s so huge. When she introduced herself, she was so humble. I think she’s probably top three or top five women-owned real estate teams in the nation. And, I wouldn’t even say teams, I would call that a company, cross state. And, she is one of the best leaders and business operators I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. So, I just wanted to pause a moment because I was listening to your story and I’m like, God, you’re good. You are just [crosstalk 00:18:46]-

Sarah:
Thank you, Vija.

Wendy:
And, in the last few years, you took six months off for the birth of your third child.

Sarah:
Yeah.

Carol:
Great. And, that’s exactly how it should be, you’ve absolutely learned how to not only manage your time, but to, like you said, be absolutely selective on the things to which you say yes, and the things to which you devote your time, which is huge. J, did you want to follow up on that a little bit more? Because, I know that so many community members really need some actionable tips on this whole situation.

J:
Yeah, absolutely. I know I need some tips on this situation because I recognize the value of saying no. I recognize the value of, as Wendy’s husband, Jay would put it, picking that one thing that you really want to focus on. But, I’m not good at it, because saying no to me feels like I’m letting people down. It makes me feel like I’m disappointing people. I don’t want people to think of me as selfish. I don’t want people to think of me as not providing value and giving. I don’t remember who said it, but I wrote down a quote that one of you just said a few minutes ago, “every time you say yes, ask yourself who you’re saying no to.” Because, when you’re saying yes to some random person that has, hey, come on my podcast, or hey, let me take you to lunch or hey, let’s do coffee, you’re saying no to somebody that’s potentially much more important, like a business partner, like a spouse, like your children. So, I absolutely love and it resonates with me that idea of, every time you say yes, ask yourself who you’re saying no to.
And, that makes it a lot easier. But, I would love to get some really tactical actionable tips on when you have people coming to you asking you for favors, asking you to help them or to come on their podcast, or do something that you really feel like you need to say no to. How best do you say no so that’s a win-win situation for both sides?

Sarah:
I think when I went through through that, and it was such a life changing moment, I remember I sat down with my executive assistant, and I said, “Okay, nothing more can be on my calendar after 5:30 every night.” And, at the time, I was doing, what I call, conversion calls. So, I was calling sellers that didn’t say yes to my agent, and I was converting them over the phone. And, I was bringing in a lot of income to our business because I was able to convert the sellers. She looked at me and she said, “Well, who’s going to do the conversion calls? And, isn’t the business going to go down?” I said, “Yes, the business probably will go down. And, I’m okay with that.” Because, one of the questions I learned to ask myself is, when I say yes to this opportunity, who are the people in my world that matter a lot to me, that, to them, it’s going to feel like a no to them.
When I asked myself that, and I realized, well, that’s my daughter, my daughter’s the one that I’m saying no to when I say yes to those conversion calls, and is any type of business worth that, right? Now, the crazy thing about my story is the business went up, which is just insane. But, I think that’s what can happen is, we need to step out sometimes and make sure that the people that matter most to us… I love the in The ONE Thing book where it talks about our family’s the glass ball. Meaning, all the other balls in our life, they bounce back, but our family is a glass ball, which means at times you can drop in and it will break. And, that’s not a ball we want to drop, right.
I think, so many of us, at times, put our business above our family, which is that glass ball. And, for me, I did that for years. And, thankfully, because of the amazing tribe of females around me, they said, “Sarah, we see it and you need to stop. You need to look because you’re saying no to your daughter, and you need to say yes to your daughter.” So, at times, it takes courage to say no, because that means you’re okay with some things missing out on some opportunities. But the reality is, that you then can create opportunities for other people. And, that’s what I’ve gotten good at and inspired by, let me create an opportunity for someone else, because I’m going to say no to that.

Carol:
I love that.

J:
I love that, Sarah.

Seychelle:
And, what’s so beautiful that you’re hearing in that, right, is, both clarity around what is important to you. And, also you don’t hear that there was an ego involved in this. Sarah was willing to be vulnerable and to listen to the people around her and to have people in your life that are honest enough with you to tell you what they’re seeing and what they’re observing to help you get your priorities back in line. And, I think that took a huge amount of bravery on Sarah’s part because she could have just dismissed us a couple of years ago. And, she chose not to. Instead, she chose to say these people are saying this to me because they care about me and they care about my future.
And, so one thing that I know for me, personally, is, when I get tired, I actually don’t say no more, I say yes more. Because, I am a pleaser. I want to help people. It is probably my best and worst trait and that I’m a connector. My superpower is, I want to see people succeed, and I want to help them. And, so when my energy gets really low, I actually say yes. So, I’ve had to put a physical barrier between myself and my calendar. And, that’s a human. And, before I add something on the calendar, I have a human that physically is, Seychelle, do not. Is that really important? Is that something you need to do? Because, I enjoy people. That’s something that I love.
So, having, whether it’s a framework for questions, you need to ask around your priorities, whether it’s a physical body guard in front of your calendar, whatever it needs to be to help make sure that your priorities are in line, I think, is a really powerful thing to be able to do. And, then giving yourself the permission to know, like Sarah said, right, sometimes it means you might give up some revenue or you might lose some deals or you might be giving up something, but what are you saying yes to? And, is that so much more important, because that time, especially with kids, and especially with spouses, right, you don’t get that back.

Carol:
Absolutely. I could not agree more. So, I talk a lot, about when you really make that mindset shift, that affluence isn’t just about monetary wealth. It’s really about time affluence, right. It’s about having the time to do the things that you want to do, whether that’s hanging out with your kids more and making sure you can teach them how to bake chocolate chip cookies, whether that is committing to have coffee, even virtually, with a friend once a week, whether it’s truly having a date night with your spouse or significant other, once you start prioritizing so that the time is much more important than the money, then, amazingly, the money follows. It’s this fantastic concept, once you put everything within that framework.
But, really, to be able to do that, right, you have to figure out what that mission is, what that one thing is, that’s really important to you. And, each of you has done a fantastic job of defining who you are, of defining what your mission is. So, I know, a lot of our community members, we struggle figuring out what that thing is, what our mission is, the direction we want to go into. And, frankly, it’s scary to commit to just one thing, right, and really leading yourself down that path to pave the way for saying no to those other things and staying focused on that one thing.

Wendy:
Carol, I just want to jump in there. And, I would just say, for those of you that are feeling scared about committing to a mission, it’s okay to date your mission. I give everyone permission to date their mission. Because, for anybody out there who’s done any kind of dating, sometimes the best dates are the dates where you leave that date and you realize, oh, that’s what I don’t want my marriage, right?

Carol:
Wendy, talk with us more about that? Talk with us more about this whole concept of dating your mission? Has this been something you’ve experienced, or that some of your associates have experienced, and it led them in the right direction, ultimately?

Wendy:
Well, I’m involved with an organization called Keller Williams Kids Can. It’s one of Gary Keller’s 501(c)(3)’s. I’m the chairman of the board. I’ve been doing that for quite a few years now. And, we teach a class called Quantum Leap, which helps young adults, between the ages of 18 and 28, figure out their mission, and then also figure out ways to fund their mission through passive income. So, it basically aligns with every passion that I have. And, one of the exercises that we go through is, a figure out your mission exercise. I’m not going to go through it here, we actually talk about it on our podcast, if anyone wants to listen.
Life is a journey, right, so taking the time, even if your mission is basic, as I want to help people through x, that’s okay. Put that up on your vision board, or put that up on your wall, put it on your bathroom mirror, and look at it every day. As you look at it every day, you’ll become increasingly clear about the things that matter most and why you’re here on the planet. And, it’s going to change, right? It’s not something that it’s, when you’re 18, you come up with it, and then you live out that mission in every aspect of your life until you die at 98. That doesn’t even make sense.

Vija:
Yeah. And, can I just add to that, I coach leaders, I coach agents, I mentor, I have a lot of offices that I lead, this is a huge topic, and people put so much pressure on themselves, Carol, for their big why. They go see a Simon Sinek talk and their burdened by months, “I’ve got to figure out my reason that I’m on this earth.” They get really deep about it. And, you know what it really is? Sometimes, all it is, is that one thing that drives you to get through the hard stuff that week.
I remember, I had an agent that was on my team that I coached and she was, ” Vija, can I just be honest, you know what my big why is?” She was, “My sister is getting married at the end of the year. Honestly, all I care about”… she was Indian. And, Indian weddings are five-day affairs and you have outfits every day, right? And, she goes, “I really want to buy an outfit every day. I want to be the best dressed there. That’s really what’s driving me honestly, this year.” I was, “All right, is that going to get you through the hard stuff?” She said, “Yeah.” I’m like, “Dude, that’s your why. That’s what we’re going to use. That’s what we’re going to coach to. That’s what we’re going to attach to.” I don’t mean to make it sound like buying a bunch of clothes is your mission statement, but I do think that people sometimes overthink this concept. It’s like, what is going to motivate you to do the daily grind, to do the stuff you don’t want to do. Because, all of our jobs, you guys, it’s called work for a reason. That’s a Jay Papason quote. It’s called work for a reason. We’re not going to love 60 to 80% of it, it’s just part of the deal. It’s that 20 to 40% that we’re there for.

Carol:
Love it.

J:
I absolutely love that. Okay, so I want to dig in a little bit more, because I understand and I just want to highlight again, that each of you women have not just started businesses… a lot of us start businesses and a lot of us do okay. We make enough money to support our families and to have some time freedom. But, you’ve all taken it to the next level. You figured out how to take these efforts, these businesses, your lives, and make them big businesses and big lives and big efforts. And, we talked a little bit about how to do that. Prioritization, saying no, really knowing what your mission is. But, for those of us that might be, let’s call it, stuck. We’ve taken our business, we’ve grown it a little bit, and now we’ve hit a plateau, where we feel like we’ve found our mission in life and we’ve done a little bit with it, but we haven’t been able to take it big. Do you have any advice for us and for our community, on really how to take things to the next level, how to turn an ordinary business into a big business and ordinary life into a big life? What’s some advice you have for us on how to do that?

Sarah:
I think that the biggest thing, J, and this is Sarah, is that you’ve got to learn the power of hiring. You’ve got to learn the power of hiring the right people, hiring the right way. We use the term leverage in our community, which means having someone come in to do things for you that then allow for you to have your time freed up to focus on what’s most important. And, one of the things that we like to talk about a lot is, all of us are female empire builders. And, what that means is that we have, obviously, a lot on us with our business, we also have a lot on us at our homes, right? Females still lead the way in the home empire, right. And, because of that, one of the first things that we like to talk about a lot is, learning leverage at home.
All of our listeners right now, if you have a lot on your plate at home, we want to give you permission today to you know, get that cleaner, get someone to help you with cooking dinner. Find help in your business, in your home life, because that is going to help you with your business, right. We like to say, your kids don’t care who cooked the meal, but they do care that you eat it with them, right. So, you don’t have to do all the things at home. You don’t have to be the one doing all the things, but learning leverage. We want to give every listener permission to learn leverage in hiring first at home, because that will free you up to really focus on your business as well.

Wendy:
I would just add, it’s not easy. I come from a small town in Northern Minnesota, where now my great grandmother her own walk until she was about 98 years old. So, the thought of hiring a housekeeper or getting someone to mow your lawn, or especially getting help at work, is something that was so foreign to me. It was extremely hard. And, so if you’re listening out there, and you struggle with that, I totally relate to that and so does everybody here on this podcast. Yet, if you want to move forward with your business, you absolutely can’t do it all, you’ve got to get help.
So, what I tell people is, especially when you’re starting out, put a piece of paper on your desk, tape it to your desk, take a sharpie, and write, my not to do list. Every time you’re at home or at work, and you’re doing something that feels like a waste of your time… or, honestly, you know you’re not good at it, you put it off one time, you put it off two times, you put it off three times, write that down on your list, and then you’ve got your job description for your first assistant. And, you hire someone who wakes up every day and loves to do those things that you hate to do. Because, I think, sometimes as entrepreneurs, we can’t imagine anyone wanting to enter names in a database or create checklists, or, all those things that we as entrepreneurs we are just terrible at and we hate to do. But, there are lots of people who wake up every day and they’re, yeah, I get to update a database today.
So, it’s like Sarah said, you’re giving that opportunity to someone else and then you continue to run towards what you’re good at. And, you do that at home, you do it at work, and your job description gets smaller and smaller and smaller, and you fire yourself from every job that you’re not good at and you hire someone who’s better at that job. And, then, all of a sudden, you look up, you’re like, wow, I’ve got an empire here.

Carol:
Love that. Alexa, create my not to do list. Alexa, add, take the car in for an oil change, to my, not to do list. Right? Didn’t the last 12 months just bring this whole concept front and center, right? It’s like, I think, for so many years, you just do what you do. You just keep going and you keep going. You’re like, I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. It’s easier to do it myself than to have to find someone to do it, etc. But then, COVID. I don’t think we need to belabor that point, but I think it’s just added so many more facets of all these things that you’re already doing and turn them up to the billionth degree, right? It was crazy.
So, Vija or Sey, do either of you have any tips on how we physically go about… once we have this Alexa created list of 72 trillion things that are on our not to do lists, how we go about finding that person or those people that we’re going to use that leverage, so that we can focus on our other things that we’re working on.

Vija:
Yeah, I’d love to jump in, Sey, if that’s okay. Because, I love J’s question. I think so many times entrepreneurs hit ceilings, J, and Carol, and they hit the ceiling, they’re, I want to go bigger. I’ve stalemated you know, whatever the term is, right? I think, the way to think about it, and this is what Ben Kinney taught me, who’s my leader, and mentor, he said ” Vija, don’t think about how you can make a million, think about how you can make 10 people, their million, and you get 10% of it. And, that’s how you’re going to make your million.”
So, in other words, you’re focusing on other people hitting their goals, and you win together, right? That’s success through others. So, that’s, I think, the foundational key to this concept of leverage. To Wendy’s point, how can I really make someone win? Someone’s going to wake up every day and love to do this stuff I hate and they’re going to hit their goals through me. And, and actually, if I’m talented, and driven enough, and I’m the person that can make it happen, am I actually selfish for not making my world bigger? Am I actually not giving someone an opportunity to have that role and to make their life bigger, because I want to play small? I want to play it small. I don’t want to scale up, right?
Because, you think about, how can you bless people the most, in this realm, Bigger Pockets Business? Well, you can give them amazing careers and wealth building, and mentorship and income, right. So, I just wanted to say from a foundational thing, Seychelle can go into the tactics of it, but that mindset, that’s what you do, J. The minute you hit that ceiling, the minute you hit that stalemate, you need to think, how can I make 10 people, millionaires, and win with them, and then I’m going to hit my goals, and they’re going to hit their goals.

Carol:
Love it.

Seychelle:
I think that’s fantastic, Vija. I think something that all four of us have in common, is that building our businesses and building big businesses is not about us, it’s actually, we’ve grown it bigger, because our desire to help more people has forced us to hire more people to then fulfill our mission, whether it’s helping our clients, whether it’s helping our team members. So, think that’s something that brought the four of us together, was that servant heart of wanting to see people win, and that often includes leverage at home, that includes leverage at work.
I think, the other thing that I would say, too, is, this last year has really taught me some very humbling lessons of seasonality. And, to understand that we’re going to be in times, some times, when we’re feeling like we’re nailing it in a certain area of our life, and then COVID hits, or the market crashes, or something happens and the pendulum swings to the extreme on the other side. And, I think perspective is really important to understand that, just when you think you’re nailing it, sometimes the world can change. In my case, I have a dad with really advanced Parkinson’s. And, so I had leverage down, we had date nights every week, our team was rocking. And, then it was like, all the sudden, we had a huge turnover in our team in January, and then COVID hit and then all of my personal leverage that I had, had to go away. And, it was like this huge seasonality pendulum like, whoa, man, it was, within a month, total slap in the face.
I think it was a really good reminder that we have to get back to basics, we have to take a step back, we have to understand perspective. And, we have to then say no to a lot more things, build our not to do list and start the leverage game over. I want to encourage you guys, if maybe some of you have gone through this and, maybe the last year has changed for you that you might need to turn it back around. And, that’s okay.

Carol:
Super, absolutely love it. So, who has something for me, that is really tactical, around gaining leverage, that we can start doing right now? An action item we can put into place today to make this happen in our lives.

Sarah:
Yeah, Carol, I think that the big thing here is, a lot of us are talking about where we’re at right now with a lot of different leverage or a lot of different people. But, it didn’t just happen. We didn’t just wake up one day and we had all these people, right, that are coming alongside us and we’re impacting their life and they’re impacting our life. What really happens is it starts with one key hire, right? It starts with that first key hire, and when you hire talent, they will then bring also other talent. And, then what ends up happening is, you have this snowball effect, right? So, that one first key hire is so important.
So, making sure that you’re hiring that person that’s focusing on that not to do list, and then, all of a sudden, it’s going to snowball to the next person, and then the next person, then the next person. And, before you know it, you do wake up one day, and you’re, wow, I have impacted their life, they’ve impacted mine for the better. And, we are making an impact on our world all together. But, it all starts with making that first key hire and then snowballing from there.

J:
Yeah. The thing I think a lot of people don’t realize is, it’s terrifying to hire that first person. You’re thinking, okay, I have to figure out the whole tax thing, I have to figure out the whole liability thing, I have to figure out all the documents to keep things legal. But, your first hire, even your second or your 10th, your 50th hire, doesn’t need to be a full-time employee. It could be somebody that is coming in part-time, it could be a virtual assistant, it could be more of a partner or somebody that is coming in and getting ownership in the business, if what they’re doing is worthy of equity.
But, it doesn’t have to be a full-time person that you’re now responsible for their financial life. And, so you can start slowly, and you get that first 10 hours a week, or 20 hours a week, or you hire somebody on Fiverr or Upwork. Or, you hire a virtual assistant out of any number of places. And, then when you get comfortable with that, you ramp it up. Okay, now, I’m going to do a virtual assistant 40 hours a week, and now I’m going to do a 20-hour person. So, there’s a way to tiptoe into it, and start small and grow from that, right.

Wendy:
Yeah, I love that, J. I just would add that when I hired my first assistant, I put enough money in the bank to pay that person for three months. Because, I knew that if I hired the right person, we were doing the right things, they should be paying for themselves after about 90 days. So, don’t think of it as a $40,000 investment in an assistant who’s going to be working full-time with you for a year, it can be, I have enough money in the bank to pay this person. And, that just allowed me to sleep at night because you don’t want to hire someone and then not be able to pay them.

Sarah:
I was going to say very something very similar, Wendy. Great minds there. We give you permission that it can start at home. Don’t forget what we said in the beginning, that first hire can be someone at home that will free you up to do the business things, right. So, you have our full permission in focusing on your home life as well.

J:
I absolutely love this. Just some absolutely amazing tips for how to grow your business, how to take something that’s, let’s call it, regular, and make it huge. And, it’s all about leverage. It’s all about hiring key people. It’s all about figuring out how you can impact enough other people’s lives. I would love to add one thing because I really liked this. I feel like this is something I talked about, again, and I hate to keep bringing this back to Wendy’s husband, Jay, but I’m a bit of a fanboy of Jay Papasan, but, I think, something we talked about on his show and that I often tell people is that, all these people say I want to make $100 an hour, I want to make $200 an hour, I want to make $1,000 an hour. And, they want to know how to do that.
The easiest way to do that, is focus on the tasks that generate you $100 an hour or $200 out an hour or 500 or $1,000 an hour. So many people, they say they want to make $100 an hour… Carol and I are in the real estate business also and the investing business, I hear all these people that say, I got into investing to make $500 an hour and then they’re painting their own house, when they could hire somebody to do that for $20 an hour. And, if you’re doing a job that you can hire somebody to do for $20 an hour, you’re basically trading your time for $20 an hour. Any thoughts there? Vija?

Vija:
Can you see me raising and waving my hand?

J:
I do.

Wendy:
Call me, call me.

Vija:
We’re all jumping up and down. We love it. Oh, my gosh, J, you’re on fire. Okay, here are the dominoes. And, J, you said it so well, the first domino to master, is hustling, deal-making, selling homes, bringing in income. Master the art of bringing an income, that’s your first domino. So many people want to skip that step and they want to have all the rewards without any of the grit and grind and hustle. So, for our Bigger Pockets community, a lot of that is just deal-making. Master it, do the hard stuff, source it. Talk to the homeowners, right. For real estate agents, it’s go sell a bunch of homes, do the cold calling, do the whatever.
The second domino is reserves. Have business reserves. Your confidence level to do all of the things we’re talking about, are going to be helped so much when you have money in the bank. So, the dominoes are deal-making, income-producing, reserves, number two. Then, number three, learn everything you can about hiring and leverage and recruiting and keeping talent, right? It starts with recruiting. To me, it moves into learning about leadership and learning how to be a good leader that no one would want to leave. So, those are the four building blocks that, I think, our business owners can map in their minds for the process.

Wendy:
The hard part is, you got to run your business at this same time you’re doing that on the side. And, the reality is, most people just don’t want to do that. They want to continue to do their one job. And, they don’t want to master leadership, they don’t want to master hiring because it’s a whole other job, right? When you’ve got to hire that first assistant, you’re probably drowning. And, to take back and step back and take the time to really source and hire a good candidate. Because, what most people do is, they’re drowning. They look around, they point at someone and they say, hey, come work with me. It’s probably a friend and it doesn’t work out. And, then they say, you know what, I’m no good at hiring, I’m just going to continue to do what I do. And, so the pattern self-perpetuates. If you can take a step back, in order to take two steps forward, that’s really what business building success looks like.

J:
Yeah, and we should be thinking about this in all aspects of our lives. Again, I don’t remember which one of you said it, I apologize. But, there was an amazing quote earlier of, your kids don’t care who cooked the meal, but they do care that you eat it with them. It’s a good reminder that we can be doing the same thing in our personal lives. So, we need to get the dry cleaning done, but we don’t have to do the dry cleaning. We need to cook the meals, but we don’t need to be the ones actually doing the cooking. We need to go shopping and bring in food, but that doesn’t have to be Carol myself actually going out and doing the shopping.
So, yeah, maybe you’re not doing that on day one. Maybe you’re building, that’s the second domino, or the third domino, as Vija said, but, at some point, start thinking about how we can be outsourcing all parts of our lives, to focus on the important stuff, not just the stuff in our business lives.

Sarah:
Yeah, I think, J, that’s so good. I know that we want to move on here, but what I think the big difference here is, a lot of us are natural deal-makers, what Vija said, and what’s nice about that is, we can make things happen and we see the fruits of our labor quickly, right? When I was making those conversion calls, I felt like driving home, I did my job. I did what I was supposed to do, right? But, then it’s like, well, now, I’ve got to go raise kids. And, that takes 18 years to see the fruits of your labor. Or, now, it’s like, I’ve got to develop leaders. It’s like, oh, my goodness, that takes years and years to develop my leadership to develop them. A lot of times when people run towards what gives them the recognition fast, or the satisfaction fast, but the true joy comes of the things that take a long time, that we put our time and effort in and becoming masters of.
And, that is when you see true satisfaction, not in just that one deal-making, but if you can learn to master hiring, if you can learn to master making a lasting impact on someone’s life, yes, that takes a long time. But, the joy from that, that literally can change your life. Right, that joy from that versus the one deal. So, I think, sometimes you got to lean into the heart and the longer things, because that’s where true lasting satisfaction comes from.

Wendy:
Yeah, it’s delayed gratification. Well, it’s the same way.

Sarah:
Yes.

Carol:
It really is. Like you said, it’s the consistency. It’s being able to be nimble, it’s being able to hire, it’s mastering all of these different skills. Wrapped into that, around it and throughout it, I would suspect to take our business, to take our personal life, to take everything and just truly amplify it, make it huge. It’s not just mastering all of these soft skills. You also tactically have to know what your numbers are, in and out, in all areas of your life, right?
J and I talk a lot about, we run our home, in a lot of ways, like a business, because it’s necessary to keep everything flowing. You have those soft skills, and, of course, you take care of your babies and you take care of each other with those soft skills. But, in all areas of our world, knowing your numbers, knowing your processes, knowing your systems, inside and out, is just crucial. So, can any of you talk to that, and how that works in what you’re building?

Vija:
Yeah, I think the key word here, Carol, is predictability. When I look at my own businesses, and I coach a lot of entrepreneurs, they’re not feeling secure in that next commission or that next paycheck. And, that all comes from knowing your numbers. All of that predictability comes from knowing what your leading indicators are and what your numbers are to get you to your results. So, your lead generation levers. By the way, that can change. Seychelle so wisely talked about seasonality in life, in business, earlier. Every market is a little different. So, if you know you’re leading indicators and you’re constantly monitoring them, you can turn that spigot up and down depending on the market that you’re in.
So, understanding financials, understanding return on investment, the concept of having to do an ROI. Sarah, I’d love you to tell your story actually, on having to do an ROI on every budget item. I’m fascinated by that. I’m going to start coaching people, on copying your coach. Teaching the concept of thinking in terms of ROI on everything.

Sarah:
Yeah, V and I were having a conversation on Saturday. I have multiple coaches, that’s how big of a mess I am. But, one of my coaches, every year, has me go through my P&L, and, every line, I have to put what the return is. Vija was, “What do you mean? Just your lead gen? Or, just your marketing, right?” I was, “No, every line.” And, she’s, “But, how do you do that with space?” Or, “how do you do that with…” I said, “Exactly.” Then, you have to wrap your head around-

Vija:
I was, like, “Rent? How do you ROI on rent? What?” What if she bought the building?

Sarah:
No, but it makes you look at things and say, okay, well, how can I turn rent into a return? Right? How can I turn that into a return right? For us, in the real estate business, it’s like your broker fee, right? All of us pay a broker fee. A lot of times, we don’t hold that fee accountable. Well, now, I do hold it accountable. I look at it and I say, okay, what’s the return on that? For us, a lot of it is agent to agent referrals, right, come from that platform, which is a big return for many of us. So, but are you holding each number accountable to getting you a return, not just the lead gen numbers. I think that, that was a big moment with V and I on Saturday, which was fun.

Vija:
So, my mind was blown. I always thought of ROI as lead generation and business development. It didn’t even occur to me to go line through line. That’s a massive concept to me.

J:
You know what the crazy thing is, this all plays back into the discussion we’ve been having throughout this discussion, which is, our lives are essentially a P&L. We have revenue. Our revenue are the good things that happen, the love we get from our family, and, obviously, the money, is part of the revenue. But, all the good things that come into our lives is that revenue in our lives. And, then we have the expenses. We have the things we have to do. We may not like doing them, but they cost us. They cost us our time. They cost us our energy. They cost us, potentially, our relationships.
And, what Sarah just said, really can be applied to our lives as well. Go look at all those expenses in your life. Go look at all those things that you’re expending time and energy and social capital doing. And, then ask yourself, what’s the return I’m getting? And, if the return isn’t justified, or if the expense isn’t justified by the return you’re getting, well, that’s an expense you should be kicking out of your life. So, it’s funny, it really all comes full circle.

Seychelle:
That’s good. Yeah. Yeah, that’s really good.

Wendy:
I read a good book this year. I think everybody’s read it. But, it’s called The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. Fantastic book. Really made me think about finances different. And, it really talks about exactly what you’re saying, J, is, when we think about some of these personal things, we think about finance, we think about it as being, really, numbers-driven, but we have to equate it somehow to our happiness level, right. I loved the book for that. And, at the same time, we have to know our numbers in our personal life. I think about, my husband and I have committed to a weekly date night for probably 13, 14 years. We’ve gone on over 400, dates, 500 dates, in our lifetime, right. And, as business owners, a lot of times, we know our numbers in our business, but we don’t know our numbers in our personal life.
So, just to circle back around to the priorities and link it to that, what are the things that you’re doing on a daily basis that is going to lead you to the thing that you want to have happen in your families? Are you having dinner together as a family? Are you having breakfast together as a family? Are you going on a date night? Have you time blocked your vacations, right? Those are all numbers that turn into what you’re talking about, J, which is, those have that real return as opposed to buying a boat or… Nothing wrong with a boat, but that can lead to a different result.

Carol:
Love that. As we’re getting near the end of the show, I would love to learn a little bit more about… you talked about so many great things. Wendy just talked about a fantastic book. I’d love to get one last… before we talk about your upcoming events and before we talk about where people can listen to your awesome show. I’d love to get one amazing tip from each of you. So, just one thing from each of you. What is one thing, as entrepreneurs, that we can do in our life starting today that will be life changing for us, okay? We can go around whatever order. And, let’s wrap with that, and then learn more about how we can put this all into action at your event you have coming up later this year.

Seychelle:
This is a Seychelle here. I think, the biggest thing for me is, is that you’re never going to have arrived by the time you think you’re going to be there, right? The odds are your goals have changed, and something else is now a priority for you. So, wherever you are in your life, if there’s something big that’s on your heart, or that you want to change or that you want to go after, I would encourage you to start now. And, don’t wait for it to be the right time, the right season, the perfect scenario, because the odds are, by the time that happens, you’re going to have different priorities anyways. So, if you’re hoping to build wealth, or you’re hoping to find leverage, or you’re hoping to create your vision, and fulfill it, now is the time to do that. And, to really put that time on your calendar and protect it and go after your dreams and know that you have permission to do it. We give you permission today, go for it.

J:
I love that.

Sarah:
I love that, Sey. I think, the one thing I would encourage all of our listeners to do is, something that, honestly, when I first heard, to be very honest, I rolled my eyes. Not visibly, but in my head. Because, I was, I’m an achiever, why are we doing this? But, it was a question that Wendy asked, and you’re seeing a commonality with my stories right now, it’s just the impact that she’s had on my life. And, it was, what brings you joy? Sey mentioned it earlier, and we rushed over it, but, honestly, if there’s one thing that I could say to everyone is, take time, turn everything off, and make a list of what brings you joy, and then run towards that, right? Create your life, create your job, create your empire, around what brings you joy.
When you do that, you are passionate, you’re having fun, you’re loving it, you’re loving your world, you’re loving your life, you’re loving your job, people then become attracted to that, right, because they want that for themselves. And, then, it ends up, you’re impacting other people. And, then a big part of what was on my joy list was, of course, my family, right? Those special times with my family or traveling. Whatever the things that bring you joy, take a moment, shut everything off. I think a lot of us are just like achievers, let’s get this done and let’s go do this and let’s get that. We look at our list and, look at all I accomplished today. Right? And, meanwhile we’re miserable. Right? We’re not doing what brings us joy.
So, take time, write down what brings you joy, create your life and your world around that. And, you will just be happier. You’ll have that big business, you also have that big life because of it as well. So, run towards joy.

J:
Amazing.

Vija:
I think, for me, I froze when you ask that question, which is not like me, because it’s like, the one thing, what? There’s so many things, how can I give you one thing? But, I do think, for me, it’s come up a little bit today. And, we talk about my wealth building journey. I think we’re going to hear that episode soon. But, I’m pretty open with my wealth building journey. I’ve been very undisciplined with money, I’ve been a spender. I’ve made a lot of money and I’ve spent a lot of money. And, I’m just now, I started this investment property and really building assets at age 50. So, it is not too late, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, it is not too late. You can do a lot in a decade. It’s amazing how much you can do for your net worth in a decade.
So, here’s my big thing that, I guess, I want everyone to know, delayed gratification. Get used to delayed gratification in health and money. Sarah said it really well, in raising your kids. Embrace delayed gratification. The way to do that is to focus on the process and not the results. Really make sure that you are all-in on the daily activities, on the weekly activities and you’re not getting ahead in steps and the results will come. The results will come. If you’re really focused on the right activities that have been derived from a sense of very clear priorities, right, that you’ve really thought through and that you really think are the right activities, that’s what you do. You get comfortable with delayed gratification and you focus on the process, and you wake up one day and you go, wow, huge results.

Carol:
Love it.

Wendy:
Well, I’ll just echo what all these other super wise leaders have said, and that is that life is a choice. You absolutely get to choose what your life looks like. And, the only thing that we all have in common on this planet is, we all have a finite amount of time and how we spend our day, the habits that we create, is literally how our life looks at the end of our life. Right. So, the choices we make, the habits we put into place, every day. So, get good at choosing, right? Choose the habits that are going to serve you. Once you figure out the life that you want, figure out those habits that you need to put into place in order to look up someday and have all the things you want. A wonderful relationship, a partner that you love, a family if that’s something that you want, your business, right? You get to choose, right. So, make really good choices, and then put those habits into play.

J:
Absolutely love that. Those are just some amazing tips that, if people listen to nothing else in this episode, and hopefully they’ll listen to the whole thing, but if nothing else, just those four amazing tips on things we can literally start doing today to improve our lives. Ladies, I want to give you the opportunity to talk a little bit about your awesome podcast called Empire Building. I know you also have an event coming up in September, your Amplify Event. So, let’s just give you an opportunity. Tell us about the podcasts. Tell us about the event. Tell us about anything else you want to tell us about including where our listeners can connect with you or find out more about you. Sarah?

Sarah:
Yeah, so we have been doing our Empire Building podcast now for quite some time. And, it has been awesome and fun. And, you can come listen to us. Our focus on our podcast is not just about having big business. Now, all of us lead amazing businesses, and we are powerful leaders in our fields and in our industry, but, at the same time, our passion is about having a big life at the same time. So, there’s a lot of podcasts about big business, there’s a lot of podcasts also about big life, we combine them. So, how to have a big business, how to have a big life. And, we also share a lot about the tribe that we’re part of. The tribe of females that were part of. And, I would love for Wendy to jump in to talk about our Amplify Event because that’s a big part of why we do what we do on our podcasts as well.

Wendy:
Well, when I started building my business, I found that leadership can be quite lonely. Especially for women, often, as your kids grow, you’re friends with the parents of your children’s friends. And, it’s not always comfortable to be sitting on a play date and turn to the mom next to you and say, oh, what’s your net worth? Have you looked at your P&L lately? It’s kind of, awkward. So, about five years ago, I decided that I needed to network to really support that feeling of loneliness that you get as a leader. So, we created our Amplify tribe. And, that’s grown. We have a tribe of 11. But, a couple years ago, we created an amazing event, it honestly was the best day of probably the past two years for me. Incredible energy. And, we had a couple 100 women together for a three-day event. We call it Amplify Event. You can go to amplifyevent.com.
What I think is remarkable about it is, about 85% of the attendees registered for the next year’s event within three days. So, to me, that was proof of concept. And, we just want to continue to grow, help women, support women, and just create a tribe of amazing women who want to have a big business and an even bigger life.

Vija:
I just wanted to add, Wendy, that this event is designed for any women in business. If you’re an employee, if you’re an entrepreneur, it is designed for you to not know one person. I say that because I know that it can be intimidating. You hear this on a podcast and you’re like, what, I’m not just going to show up. You just show up. We actually would separate you if you knew someone. It’s really designed for everybody to come in and get a new tribe of women. 85% signed up right there on the spot. It was that special. We couldn’t do it last year because of COVID. So, this September, I am so excited. I can’t even tell you.

Wendy:
I would say, some of the tribes that were formed at the event were critical in supporting which leaders, which arguably was one of my hardest leadership years last year during COVID. And, these tribes were crucial for support.

Vija:
Crucial.

J:
Love it.

Carol:
Excellent. Thank you so much. I am so looking forward to Amplify events in September in San Antonio. It will be fantastic and I can’t wait to join. So, as we wrap up, where can our listeners find out more about you, connect with you, if they want to listen to your show, if they’d like to attend your events? Where do they sync up with you?

Sarah:
So, you can go to any podcast player and search Empire Building and look for the bright yellow, you can’t miss it. So, you can follow us there. Subscribe to our podcast that comes out every Monday. Then, for me, personally, you can follow me on Instagram @sarahreynoldsoji. O-J-I, that’s my married name. Then, of course, follow me on Facebook as well.

Seychelle:
I love that. Yep. Empire building is where it’s at. Definitely subscribe. We’d love to have you guys joining us. And, then on Instagram, you can find me @seychellevp. It’s S-E-Y-C-H-E-L-L-E-V-P. Or, on Facebook as well.

J:
Awesome. Vija?

Vija:
Yeah, I’m on Instagram, on viavija. Are you ready? V-I-A-V-I-J-A. Very complicated. Viavija on Instagram. And, vijawilliams.com. Just my name, dot com. I’m pretty easy to find. Not a lot of via spelt with a J.

J:
Awesome. Wendy?

Wendy:
Nice. I’m also on Instagram @wendypapasan.

Vija:
Super creative.

J:
Ladies, thank you. For anybody that’s listening to this that didn’t have an opportunity to write that down, please check out our show notes. Everything we’ve talked about and all the links that we discussed will be in our show notes. Ladies, this has been absolutely amazing. Literally an hour of tip after tip, after tip, after tip, after tip. We so appreciate you being here and, just, thank you so much. Carol, I’ll let you take us out.

Carol:
What a great hour. I cannot even tell you how energized I am, how inspired I am. Each of you have had so many great things to share. And, I know our community member completely appreciates your time. You are conquering the world together. I’m honored to have spent this time with you. So, thank you again for joining us.

Vija:
Thank you.

Wendy:
Thank you, guys.