Spotlight on Hayya Lee-McDonald

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hi and welcome to this episode of Addisp Spotlight. I am Lisa. And I'm actually just sipping on some water with lemon and mint. And Agnes is over there. I don't know what she's sipping on, but she's a little like delirious. So I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_05 0:30

Okay, so I'm still in post-op recovery, so I can't drink alcohol. So I'm just dipping on plain old water. I don't have lemon on mint. Thank you very much. I'm not fancy like you.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

And today. Okay. Today we have another special guest. We are going to be talking to wife, mom, an entrepreneur. Haya Lee McDon McDonald. I'm sorry. And would you please introduce yourself and welcome to the show?

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Hi everybody. My name is Haya, like Lisa said, and I'm excited to be there. Thank you, ladies, for having me on SAFL 5th. I like you said, I'm a wife and a mom and entrepreneur, and all of those things really keep me busy. And um actually Agnes and I have known each other a really long time many years ago. You know, so it's been ages. Um, but you know, life has been its thing. We've all had journeys, and my journey has come to this point that um an entrepreneur, um, a wife, and all of us have been kind of trying to get everybody in my life to be in my business, but you know, whatever. Um you know, that's that's where I am. In my business, I do real estate investing, and so I teach people. I also do the real estate people. And I think that's about it in a nutshell, but um I think the whole point of my life is to make sure that everything I do in every part of my life means something, you know, because I don't want to leave this earth not having done something that is meaningful. So that is, I think, in some ways what I'm I'm all about. And I am sipping on chicken bone broth and water. Not the other way, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

I love that is the most unique anyone has sipped on. I love bone broth.

SPEAKER_05 2:21

I throw that, I throw bones and and my Instant Pot. Two hours later, I am all bone broth up. I try to keep them like stacked up in the refrigerator.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Oh, I love it. My daughter though, when she smells it, she doesn't keep that away from me. I don't like I'm the only one in the house that likes bone broth.

SPEAKER_05 2:42

And I bet you never get sick.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Oh no. Well, really. Well, look, listen. My daughter just got through kindergarten in a new school. So you know how that goes. They go to new schools, there's a new set of germs. So I have, you know, petered on the edge, but I haven't gotten sick because yeah, I'm all bone boss. Keep me going.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Mm-hmm. How did you get into real estate or you know, investing and all that? Did was that something that you were always interested in?

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yes, it's something I was always interested in. And um, you know, I just thought like a lot of people that I needed to have all this money stacked up before I could get into it. And funny enough, Agnes, I don't think I ever said this to anybody when I was in high school, but you know, our neighborhood, Port Green, it's now this really hippie, well, you know, yuppie place now, very expensive townhomes. But when I was going to school, when we were going to school there, there were a lot of boarding up townhomes. Those are now worth millions. And I remember telling my dad all those years ago when I was in school, I wish I could buy new townhomes because you know I'd have had those business, whatever, but I had no idea that the line of work that I'm in, the part of real estate investing is called wholesaling because that existed. So, you know, I got into it because I uh well I became an entrepreneur in 2010. And um 2014 is when I started real estate investing. And it was this guy had been on our mailing list for quite a long time since being an entrepreneur, and he the headline of the email never opened any of his emails, but this one said, I'm gonna be interviewing this real estate investor who got started with none of his own money and really bad credits. And having been an entrepreneur for four years, talking out of the corporate world, my credit was now shot because I took all these chances and did all these things. So that's right up my alley. And to go back even further, um, real estate has just been this thing culturally speaking. My family were families of immigrants, and but even so, you know, back home, it was still thrilled into our heads how important real estate was to have something um pass on and to pass in his lifetime. So it was always important to me. So when this guy that I'm gonna interview rather learn about this, I said, Oh yeah, that's not reality. I want to have no money, and two, my president's five. So um that's kind of how I got into it. And I started in real estate um wholesaling and didn't know what I was doing. But you know, one of the things about me is I'm just very confident. I'm willing to try new things, but I'm not afraid of failing. Um, and I think that's also where you are locked when you fail, um, theoretically, you know, but I did, and I think within my my yeah, my first six months. So my first deal was like eight thousand dollars profit that I split with my JD partner, joint venture partner at the time. And then six months later, my next deal was $93,000. So, like, yeah, I could do this, this works. So, you know, but it was just I had a natural interest there, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

I'm glad though that you followed your your um passion. Agnes' brain is rubbing off on me. Yes, your passion, thank you. And it worked out for you. I'm glad that you didn't fail though. I mean, I feel the same way about learning from your mistakes because I think that that's one of the best ways to learn. But we don't always have the benefit of being able to pick ourselves up and try again. And so I'm glad that it, you know, it it worked out for you though.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Yeah. Oh, well, you know, honestly speaking, I failed lots lots of times. And um one of my mentors always said, you're just not gonna look pretty when you're learning. And it did not look pretty for a long time. Um, but I think it's important. I'm not gonna say that it's just me because of my character and you know how strong I am internally. That's not why. I think it's really important to surround yourself with people, other people who can be your cheerleaders, because you're gonna be down in the dump someday. You're gonna need somebody else to help you see what you're not seeing, you know, or helps you reward a little bit more than I have that, which I'm really grateful for.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Yeah. People people tend to under rest underestimate how important support systems are for anything, really. You know, not just financially, but emotionally and emotionally.

SPEAKER_05 7:10

Because even if you have that fine, I think emotional support is probably one of the most important support that you can get. Because you can have other financial support, but if you don't have that emotional chill leader when you're not feeling it, you're like having all the money support financial support doesn't mean anything. Or the networking support, it means nothing. You don't have that cheerleader behind you supporting you. Like you can do it. Or go ahead, go in the corner, cry, it's okay. But pick your ass up again, we're gonna do this tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

And we'll come back. Yeah, exactly. Um, you know, I also think it's um it's really important, whatever you're doing. I'm not even just talking about entrepreneurship. You have to know, I think be self-aware enough to know your why behind the things you're doing. Because if you just have some really flaky reason of why you're doing something, well the moment it gets hard, you're gonna give up, you know, and I you have to have a why that's meaningful to you that is more than just you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

That's a good point, yeah. It's important and it makes a lot of sense. If you don't know why you're doing it, then why keep going when it gets hard?

SPEAKER_05 8:52

Yeah, because it's easy to get about it's harder to keep going.

SPEAKER_04 8:57

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

It is one of the things that we do on Spotlight is we ask our guests silly questions. So I'm gonna ask you my silly question. Are you ready? What characteristics would your nemesis have if you had one?

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Oh are we talking mental, physical, your dealer's choice. Oh my gosh. I don't know, I guess my nemesis would be tall because I'm not that tall.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Um you could be as silly or realistic as you want. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Yeah, I mean, okay, so another thing too is that I well, I'll just tell you the truth. I can't stand people who cannot find it within themselves to practice smile. So, like, give me my nemesis would be somebody who's just does not know how to laugh or practice smile. Everything in the world is serious.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

That I like that. I like that answer. A tall patty smile. A tall, crabby patty. Okay. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 10:15

Yeah, just tall grouch is now.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

You know what was funny? Um, and I say that I I guess I well, I don't know how tall the guy was, but my that second deal I told you I made all that money on, that guy actually cursed me out and hung up the phone on me. So he was a crabby, like really crabby. But guess what? By the end of the conversation that we actually had, he was laughing. I'm like, okay, we'll get them.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Are you are you the type of person who when someone is is around you and they are that person, are you the kind of person who walks away or who tries to flip the script a little, you know, who tries to help them smile?

SPEAKER_01 11:00

I I am the person who's gonna try to help them smile, but I might end up walking away in the end, too. Like if it's sometimes it's like my why in that is not deep enough for them to walk away.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Sometimes you have to. Sometimes you have not. I don't think so. Absolutely. And I find that the older I get, the quicker I'm walking away.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Oh, yeah, I feel people.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

It's funny. I hit 40, and I think every age, every decade, right? You you gain some more understanding about life. And I think I'm in my mid-40s now, and I've had some life experiences where I was like, you know what? Life is too short for me to stand around and wait for the chat, so I'm just not going to. Goodbye. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

I think it's an age thing too.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

I I I agree. I definitely agree.

SPEAKER_05 11:52

And I also think we we read people better now. Because you can tell, like, yeah, this person's not going to be accepted. This person does not want to do X, Y, and Z. I'm gonna move on to the next.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

Move on to the next.

SPEAKER_05 12:06

Okay. I always forget my question. Exactly. But I didn't forget my question the time. I'm just about to me. I know. Okay. If you were to be part of a flash mob, what song would you want to do it to and why?

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Oh, I just don't want to do it. No, my daughter and I just did a flash mob before before this.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Are you serious?

SPEAKER_01 12:31

So she's fine.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

I've never met anyone who's actually done one in real life. Okay, you're so cool. No, I just wanted to.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Well, we did one at home, right? So she's into the song. They play it's cool now, DJ Roffie, and it's a really like hyped up version of Head, Shoulders, Meat, is Knees and Toes. And I actually like it too. I'm like, I will go out on the street and do this. Like saying this and this, you know, and then yeah, so happening. So yeah, we did that just before this. So I don't even have to go back far in my memory or imagine because I just did it about 15 minutes before.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Oh, that's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

That is so cool.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Okay, seriously, like I is bringing the first over here for Spotlight. She what in your in your real estate investing, are you still in Brooklyn or have you moved to another location?

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Oh, I'm in the DC metro area now.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Oh, you're okay. Okay. So do you focus on that area or do you invest in other places?

SPEAKER_01 13:38

So for the first eight and a half years, this is where we focused in this area. But um, about a year and a half ago, we started doing deals in other places, and now we do deals all around the country.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Oh wow. Do you have a favorite place?

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Well, you know what I love? I don't actually have to go there to my heels. Um, but I I'll say that I don't really have any intention of going to the Midwest. Like it's not nothing against Midwest. It's just not on my top bucket list. Um, I'll go in the summer. I'm definitely not going in the winter. Um, so you know, um my favorite place. Well, I mean, I live where I live and I like warm places, but tourist-wise, you know, travel wise, I just love going abroad. Um, my favorite place I've gone to, my husband and I really love traveling. We've been to Thailand, and I think that's our favorite so far. Oh wow. Um yeah, so that was pretty cool. Um he won't remember the time that I was like, oh no, I got it. I'm backing up from the massage therapy place in Thailand, our little car and backed over the ledge of the um place. And so the little land who was there smoking his cigarette room, you know, not doing anything to come like get a big plank and lift us off the curb of the road because there was no way we would get. But my husband's like, let me back up here. You are not gonna be the one. But I'm a good driver.

SPEAKER_05 15:22

So I think it would be great if we had like a backing up into a head story for every country you've been in. I think that's to be like okay, I did talk about it. Yeah, yeah. Well, I am right.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

We I think after um college graduation, we went my family went to Portugal and we took the wrong exit. So, well, my you know, Europe has these really small cars. There were five of us, five, four adults and one child, teenager. All of our suitcases were trying to cram them into this little car. So we got them into the car, but we're now driving down the highway and missed our exit, went off the wrong exit. My dad decided to back down the exit. And of course, you know, that's when the police showed up. So we had to go like uh try to extricate ourselves from getting a ticket or whatever they were gonna do. So there was a bribe involved.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Um but uh you know, these are all police are here to tell the story, so that's that's my support. I would have been shitting breaking myself. Seriously. Because you have but the thing is, you don't unless you're familiar with the other country and the customs, you have no idea how police are gonna react to you, and you know, they're they're not always your friends.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

So well, when I was in high school, we went on a tour, my choir went on a tour to um the Czech Republic, and you know, they're you have to cross the border between Czech Republicans, Lovlack Republicans. I still had my Guinese passport at the time. I was the only one on the bus who was not an American. So uh the border police came on with their semi-automatic guns and they came to get me off the bus because I didn't have a US passport. And um I guess well, I had a visa, but again, I think that was one where our our chaperones ended up having to bribe to you know let us through. But yeah, I've had lots of travel experiences.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Wow. How old were you?

SPEAKER_01 17:27

I was probably somewhere between 14 and 16, somewhere around there.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

And how I mean, how scared were you on a scale of shitting my pants to dying because I would have been dead.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Oh yeah, I was definitely terrified, but thank God, you know, this the chaperones there, they held it together so that I didn't really know how bad it could have been. But um, you know, and mind you, they're not a whole bunch of people in the Czech Republic, uh, black people. So, you know, uh I think it was a little bit of a situation, but yeah, I was terrified.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

My heart is raced with just the thought of Seriously, I like I can't read me automatic weapons in my face.

SPEAKER_05 18:10

I feel like if that happened today, the fact that you don't have an American passport would have saved your life. That's I feel like that's how everyone views us. I feel like it would have been a totally different experience. Oh, you're not you're not an American. Okay, keep on going. You're fine. Like Yeah, you're good. You're good. Yay, we're winning, aren't we?

SPEAKER_00 18:35

I'm changing or something. Or something. I'm sorry, I'm having Yeah, my computer is just Well, for the first time you're actually in real time. So let's Yay, go figure, but it's not progress. That's gonna be that. Oh, you lost it again on my screen. How long have you been in DC now?

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Um I guess I left. I came here 2009. I came yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

What is this? Nearly 15 years? Yeah. Fifteen and a half.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

How does it compare living there to living in Brooklyn, New York in general?

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Oh, I don't miss it. Um look, uh I do miss the food. The food is getting better here, but it's it's not New York. Um, so one of the reasons I left is because I was coming out of the subway one day and I going to my office, and I just wanted to see the sun in the sky, and I looked up and all I could see was skyscrapers. And I was like, I need more space. Um, and that was the beginning of my mentally moving out of the area. Um so it's been a while. I still, of course, my parents still live there in New York, and I go back periodically to see them, but I do not miss things being so close, you know, to me. Um I like having my space. Um, yeah. And I used to say when I was younger, this is when I had less sense, I think. You know, when you're a teenager, you just have less sense. Um, I used to say, I want to live in the middle of the city in the skyscraper with all the action around me. Now I'm like, that is far away from me.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

I'm not the only one. I feel the same way. I am in one of my yeah, in one of my pipe dreams, I have enough money to maintain an apartment in Greenwich Village so that when I want to go into the city and catch a show, hit up a bar, you know, just walk the streets, I don't have to commute back home. But for the most part, I feel exactly the same way. We are in Jersey now, which is obviously not that far. But it's it's a completely different lifestyle. There is no hustle and bustle. The noise outside is people mowing their lawns, not trucks and and sirens and highways, and and I'm not that far. I technically my office is in the city, but I work remote. If I have to commute into the city and I'm on the east side, I work on the east side.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

So that's even closer. Well, well, no, that's the west side. Yeah, east side, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

But I mean, there's a bus a couple of blocks away from my house. I can get to my office in an hour if I need to. But I'm far enough away that I can open my window and hear birds chirping. The sun, I have the mint in my water is actually from outside.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Right? Yeah. It's great. Okay, so Lisa, are you one of those neighbors? Like, if there's a new car that shows up on the street, you're like a little bit, yeah. A little bit, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

A little bit. No, no, no. Wait, hold up, hold up, hold up. I have that neighborhood that will notice the new car, but I'm not like calling the cops because there's a car. I'm just gonna be like, who the fuck is there? Because I got kids in my house and I need to know who the fuck is up on my block. She's the quiet nosy one.

SPEAKER_05 22:18

Like, she's like the quiet nosy. She's like gonna make a big video, but she's gonna see it. Oh, yeah, no, I don't care. You can leave your life.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

We all get to that age. I think it's a 40 thing though. You get an age and you are looking through your window, like who's going on outside? I don't recognize that person. Why are they walking so close to my gate?

SPEAKER_05 22:36

I'm over here and I don't even know by checking my my ring camera. I'm like, mm.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

I understand why people sit in their chairs and say, get off my nose.

SPEAKER_05 22:50

Like three weeks. Get off my it's bad. I'm turning it.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

I'm like, I don't want to be a Karen, but and then the fact that I work remote and I sit next to the window that's facing the front of my house, it's like noise. Oh it's oh yeah. I I hear the jingling. I can tell whose car, who is getting into whose car. By the way, the alarm chirps because it's just not, you know, when I grew up in Brooklyn, there were I don't know how many houses on the block, right? How many houses, how many apartments in the house, you know, the brownstones. Here, there's like four five houses on each side of the block. There's not, and it's all single family. So you hear chirp chirp and you know whose car is chirping. And it's just the nature of the neighborhood. And these people are they're all honestly, they're except for some people, they're all really.

SPEAKER_05 23:43

Have you ever seen that movie when they're really great? Like I was like in the 80s, like the weird neighbor, like the weird neighbor, they think they're like, I don't know, serial killers. They like the like the suspicious. She has her own, like weird neighbor.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

And we're gonna do a whole They are the ones who came and called the cops on on me because we were in the yard having company, the nerve of us. I mean, it was late, the music was on, but whatever, I don't care.

SPEAKER_05 24:12

But they're the wisdom to cut the grass and scissors.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

True story. I think my my husband doesn't believe me, but I'm like, there are certain things. I'm a very calm person most of the time, you know, very uh peace loving as well. But there are certain things that if someone oversteps your phone, um they're going to see a side of me that no one ever sees. And your neighbor thinks probably thinks you don't have one of those sides. I'm sure if they went the wrong direction.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

I have that side right.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

I am they they are with I'm a Brooklyn girl. They are within reach everywhere. Don't come to my house, don't step over your boundary, and we will live happily ever after, all of us together.

unknown 25:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

But they are creepy as all hell. I don't know what they're up to, what they're doing in that house, but they are weirdos. And they don't talk to anyone.

SPEAKER_05 25:15

They're probably scared of their least problem. They probably think you're weird and they want to stay away from the weird one.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Can you imagine a thing? You're the weird one? Well I'm the weird one. You you know how it is. For the most part, you grow up in New York City, you do your daily life, you you focus, you're just focused on guard up, you know, head on a swivel type of thing. Do you, that's it. You mind your business, you mind your business. We have no problems. When we moved out here, people driving by will see you getting in your car. Hi, good morning. How are you? You don't know these people. They walk their dogs, they do their little power phones, you know, like they're all just like, good morning. And you know, at first it's like, Why are they talking to me? But then you realize that's just the neighborhood. Yes. So the literally the first morning that I saw the older man, I was walking my daughter to the bus stop for school. And so as we walk past him, I just said, Good morning. This man just I was like, oh yeah, no. No, we're not. Not that one. No. Nope. It it's just when someone gives you that bad vibe, it just it's it's really hard to shake off.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

So well, you know, your gut. I I believe your gut just never scares you wrong. Um sorry ladies, I don't know what I can like decided to tell me I have some updates, and if you can't see me right now, it's because it's thinking it's gonna be some update got it off my screen. But yeah, your gut never leads you astray. Um he's weird, if you got that feeling, then he probably Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

But you know, I was working on a um speaking of well, well, not really this one was a little bit weird, but anyway, a recent deal I was working on, I had to do a whole bunch of genealogical research on it. Or and um one of the things, so you know, people get old and everybody, you know, looks at an older person, like, oh, it's an older person, let me be respectful, etc. But in doing my research, I learned that the guy, this older guy had attempted to murder someone when he was 18. And I'm like, hmm, yeah, okay, well that's that's nice. But you know, the biggest thing was, well, he married his wife shortly thereafter, so I'm like, wait, did he not start any prison time? And where did all these feelings about wanting to murder someone go? You know? Um, but yeah, you never you never know what a person's background is.

SPEAKER_05 28:05

See, my first question. Wait, my first question is in what context? Because sometimes it's a good cause there's a good reason for things sometimes. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

So according, well, no, according to the story I read, because you know, there was a news article about it, the guy who was 18 years old and it was a former somebody that his parents knew, and he knew the guy had money. So he left from wherever he lives in Massachusetts and went to Boston for the singular purpose of robbing and killing this guy so he can get access to the money. So it wasn't any kind of selfie sense.

SPEAKER_05 28:41

It was just no difference of others, no okay. I was trying to like I was trying to give, you know, put a good spin on it. Like sometimes there's a good reason for stuff. No, but no, not this one. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

No, not really. And then yeah. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, I didn't mean to cut you off.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

I was just gonna say that family had a whole lot of stuff going on because I think the guy's dad had left Canada around 182, and apparently he had a wife there, and then he had like three other wives that he married over here, but some of them didn't know about each other. That whole family had some stuff.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

Okay, um, can you write a book so I can read it?

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Thank you, so thank you. I would definitely write a book about the the deals I've done because they actually find their way to me. So here's the thing before um becoming a real estate investor, my my business was life coaching, I'm certified life coaching. People have a tendency to tell me their life stories. Um, and so I I have heard and seen a lot in my line of business um that I could write a book about. I'll get to it one day.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

My my question is that you just mentioned that you were doing geo geolog genealogical research for a deal. How does that how do those two things come together?

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Well, you know what? I I love puzzles, I love research, and um, you know, I I just kind of found my way to my niche in this space. And I always tell people, go find something you love, like pulling all the things that you love about yourself, and go find something that uses all of it. And so I do deals that other investors don't really like to touch because they're really involved, and so I focus on what's called probate. So when someone dies and when they're unfindable sellers or unfindable heirs, so like maybe your neighbor, right? So someone dies and they weren't married, didn't have any kids, no self, and no one knows of any family member because no one ever came to visit them, you know, that kind of thing. So then I have to go look for who can sign my contract because legally there's gotta be someone who's next to the line to sign. So then me and my team will end up doing all this research going back and back and back for years, get a deal done. That's that's how it comes together. I love it.

SPEAKER_05 31:06

I'm intrigued.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Yeah, no, it makes it makes total sense now, but before I'm like, okay, but you know, it makes total sense. That sounds fascinating. Do you ever find it?

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Do you know your creepy story?

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Yes. Don't have the ass.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Of course we do.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Just one, just one.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Oh, well, let me see. I'm sure I have a I'll give you some. So we were uh we my husband and daughter and I, we went to take Saturday afternoon live when we were just driving through this other part of our neighborhood. And I was like, Oh, this person, their house, you know, their gutters are falling off. They need to really fix that. He's like, no, CD, nobody lives there. I was like, oh, well, in which case, let me look up this guy and call him and see if he wants to sell us in town. So my husband and a business partner. Um I did the research and I'm calling and nobody's answering the phone. Meanwhile, the Washington Post has been delivered, the chimney is still smoking, the front lights on, too many people gotta live there. So I decided to go back to the neighborhood and I saw a neighbor outside and I was talking to her and I was like, Yeah, calling this guy, I'm not even sure if he's alive. She's like, Well, he's no longer alive. They came and got him last Thursday. I was like, What do you mean we got him? Oh yes, they came and picked up his body because so he'd been in there about two months. And none of the neighbors they're like, Well, we thought he was in a nursing home. I'm like, so nobody bothered to knock on the door, maybe like he still lived in there because he was a longer. His wife had died about ten years before, and he didn't have any kids, no siblings, any of that. So he was by himself, and it wasn't until the neighbor across the street started telling a five ownership all the police was going to be came. So you know, um, I didn't go into the house until after we had sold it or were close to holding on it, but one of my um joint venture partners, he went in. Um we ended up by the way, we ended up getting three cars out of this house, the fourth floor, you know, four pickup trucks, um and two other cars, and the boat for the board got still. So anyway, I failed. Um but yeah, my my friend and JV partner would have been JV partner, he called me up one day. He's like, yeah, I went to take a look at the property and um I saw you had a gun closet downstairs, but it's completely empty, but I was looking around and I you know I found this handgun. It was on the sofa or in the sofa. He's like, Yeah, I had to dig down a little bit. It was a little mushy and wet. I was like, it was what? Like that happened to be the sofa where the guy died and sat for two months. And he's like, Yeah, I went up. I was like, you couldn't have left that gun there. You you really needed me.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Like, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

So yeah, that was that story. I mean, that was actually one of our biggest deals because we had to go back. I think I went back to the I don't know, early 1900s, but and then had to come forward to find a relative. So I first found a first cousin who remembered meeting him sometimes like 20 years before at a funeral, and only that time. And that was the person who was able to sign my contract and get the deal done. Yeah. So that was that's the other story. I was walking through a house with one of my team members, and he was upstairs, and I was downstairs. We were looking for like a water bill or something, and all of a sudden I heard him scream. By the way, we walk into this house, woman had she was a hoarder, and the thing I noticed about the hoarder houses we've been in, people start to hoard things when they don't have relationships.

SPEAKER_02 34:48

Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

So they hoard physical things. So this woman had um boxes and boxes of costume jewelry unopened, brand new, um, and she collected some receipts for them too, and she collected all these other things, and so she took these wines or she had a hand attached to the wall that looked like this, right? It was attached to the wall with like a key holder. She walked in, you see this hand attached like his house is dirty and filled with stuff. So I went there downstairs, like looking for this water bill, and all of a sudden I hear my partner up here scream. He's like, Yeah, are you okay?

SPEAKER_02 35:23

What's going on?

SPEAKER_01 35:24

So I run upstairs. Turns out the woman had sort of like a three or four foot down rolls all and it had a foot pedal, and he stepped on it by accident. He didn't know, and so it started singing, happy birthday. I mean, they're a worse thing. I think he's got tattoos down his neck and everything, and I think Hell yeah, we've been running aside from Marilyn Monroe in a squishy couch, craziest things that you have found in in some of these, you know, homes. Well, I don't know. Well, I told you about the finger on that one.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

Um yeah, the finger.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

But the second deal I ever did, I mean, going through this house, that was my other hoarder house, but she was a very well-off hoarder. Um, but I think we ended up finding something like $2,000 in cash just there. And you know, they forgot about it, they stole it somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

So it was your bonus, right?

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Bonus. I actually got two condos, owned two condos spring clear out of that deal too. So I like that deal.

SPEAKER_00 36:48

I know you did. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 36:50

Yeah, I'm still waiting for finding that house with the like the secret room, and then it's like who leads you to a murder mystery, and that leads to another rabbit hole. Like, I want the like the thriller book experience in my life. I'm I I need that.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

Yeah, I'm not thankfully, I I won't go into the houses anymore. Um, now that I'm a mom and married, you know, I did a lot of the going into the house thing when I was single, and my husband's like, he did what? Because he's a former police officer.

SPEAKER_04 37:19

He's like, Oh okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

Yeah, yeah, but um I don't do that so much anymore, but also because I don't really want to find that stuff you're looking for. Like, yeah, I'll be fine.

SPEAKER_05 37:35

Like, you know, listen, I my daughter's grown, she has her own family. I'm bored, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

Okay, I want to find it. When we moved here, when we bought this house and we moved here, the basement was finished. And by finished, I mean that there was a floor and there was drywall in front of the cement uh walls. But then there's all but the cement walls were curved behind them. So because of the way like the way the I don't know, I guess the way the foundation was. But so there are all these little access doors in the basement so that you can access um some of the uh pipes, I mean there's okay. The the cutoff valves, things like that. So when we moved here, we were like sticking our heads, and then it's not that much room. It's like maybe at its widest point, maybe like this wide between the drywall and the actual cement. So I guess what they did is they put the drywall just so that it can be flushed and straight and not be curved. So, you know, so we're sticking our heads in and we're like, do you see anything with the flashlights? It's like no. But then they had a bar uh in the basement, and so we're looking all in that because it was a built-in bar. And the most interesting thing that we found was a case of coronas that had to be from the 90s.

SPEAKER_05 39:16

And I'm like science experiment.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

This is not what I signed up for. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_05 39:21

You know, I like I I think the first summer, I think it's the first month I moved here. I live in Wisconsin now. So this is the urban area. This is a farm with cows around the corner. I'm like, okay, this is where I live. This is this is what and I think they found a body in like the cornfield somewhere. I'm like, oh okay, I am now in serial killer haven. Don't anyone tell me about New York? I don't want to hear it. This is what serial killers are morning bread. I don't want to hear about, don't talk any, don't talk shit about New York at all. Because New York ain't got nothing, you crazy people. So if anyone was to find a secret room with like this family secret, it'll be me. And I I would say no so you can sell the house after you can buy, you can invest in it after I go in and do all the fun stuff. It's a win-win.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

Yeah, the the guy was like ex-law enforcement, ex-military. So they're even, even actually right behind this wall, there's another little cubby. He had a door, he had his gun safe in it. So we were just like, he left here in a hurry. I don't know exactly the reason he left here in a hurry, but he was like up and gone weeks before we closed and everything. So out of state, everything. So we're just like, my God, like I wonder what kind of secrets he has in this house. So we were really, as we were um kind of fixing it up for ourselves, we were just really trying to find what secrets there were gonna be. And the only secret was that old beer that was still, it wasn't even good enough to drink. I wasn't gonna drink it. We tossed it, but I was like, oh, I really want to find something. I really want to have a story to tell where it's like, oh, I opened the wall and here was a hundred dollars or mint baseball. I don't know, something better than old beer.

SPEAKER_05 41:22

A map with the X on it, you know, a map or like totally natural treasure kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

Like I'm well, we we ended up having to take out all of those drywall panels from the basement because actually what we did find is that he was covering up leaks. He had raised the floor in the basement and put carp, like he had put tarp, put wood to raise the floor, and then put a carpet on it. So we didn't realize when we moved that it was a false floor. So we started to see that the windows were leaking, and of course, then they're going behind the drywall, under the floor. So by the time I mean we had it was it was a huge. And that's why he was gone three weeks before close. That's probably why he was out of here. But so we we had to pull up everything. So when we did rip out all the drywall in the basement, we did leave stuff behind the walls. Not anything valuable, but just fun stuff for that. If somebody ever moves here and has to, you know, wants to take off the wall, whatever, they're gonna find some fun little pranks behind the walls. Just just for fun, you know. I think that's my thought. I don't have enough money to leave anything valuable.

SPEAKER_03 42:45

It's right.

SPEAKER_05 42:50

And like a fake doll with your hair, you know, so they go like, what the hell?

SPEAKER_00 42:54

Is this not that, but something something not that creepy. Yeah. Do you ever find anything creepy like that? I mean, I know you said squishy couch, but because that's really up there.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

No, I mean, the last deal we did, I just, you know, had in my well, not the last one, a couple deals ago. The I was in the National Archives just doing some research, and I was coming back to town. I was like, oh, I'm just gonna stop by this property because I know um Paul is there, he was we were partnering on the deal. I was like, I just want to see how he is, and I want to lay my eyes on these houses. But I ended up going through the houses with him. And one of the houses, in addition to the roof caving in, sure it was a baby vulture living there and a dead rather. So I was like, Yeah, um, I'm gonna stay out here for a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

Yeah. That's a good plan.

SPEAKER_05 43:55

Smart move. Your husband would be proud of you for that decision.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Yes, he would. He was. Very proud.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

I never knew that real estate investing could be so exciting.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

It is. Yeah, I mean, there's so many different aspects of it. Um, the one I do wholesaling, I get to see a lot. I get to see a lot about people for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

So what made you decide to stop being a life coach? And move into real estate.

SPEAKER_01 44:28

So I am actually, I'll say I'm still a life coach even if I don't have a business anymore. I don't really want a life coaching business anymore. So people would pay me their money. And it got to a point where, you know, I was working actually on a government contract with senior level executives of the IRS. And, you know, these people paid their money, but I'd be running after them like, how did you get to this level in business? And you can't even do your assignment that you said you wanted to do. So I just got really tired. I got to a point where I um found myself not even wanting to answer the calls for my coaching client session. And that was a big um wake-up call to me because you know I really wanted to help people, but I was driving these calls, and it's because I have to like drag these people along through their sessions, and I didn't want to do that anymore. So I made the transition. But the funny thing is, um, and why I say I I am so coached, because it it is who I am, and the conversations that I have with people in real estate, and I think women approach this differently when we're talking to people who need to work out some sort of problem with their home. Uh we approach things differently, and as a coach, I approach it differently. So when I talk to people, we're like we rarely ever talk about the house. What is going on in your life that's creating this problem and the house is just a significant topic. Um so I really get to still use those things still here, but um really helping people who want to be helped versus the people I was working with who said they wanted to be helped, but didn't actually want to do any of the work to help. So you know that saying you could bring a horse to water, but he could get some drink.

SPEAKER_02 46:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:16

That's what that was when I got tired.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

I think it's brilliant though, uh because it's kind of like the intersectionality of different disciplines and being able to merge them, and that's what makes you unique because you have the knowledge of the investing and real estate business, but you also have that discipline of a life coach. And so you bring something so unique to your clients because your your perspective is broadened by having both of those. You know, not to mention, obviously, we as individuals, everyone has their own perspective, but I think that just a simple, unique blending of life coach and investing is probably what makes you so good at your job.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

Yeah, and I love it. Um, I absolutely, you know, love it. And I love that, you know, some people look at me, a lot of people who are new to the state, and this is a very male-dominated state. They'll say to me, How many videos do you do a month and a year? And I'm like, oh, maybe like three um deals in a month. Yeah, oh well, I see 50 deals. Well, first of all, you're doing 50 small deals. I would rather do 53 big deals, you know, and um spend the same amount of time so and make more money than that guy is going to be. But also it's like they're just turning through people because they're looking at people as money. Um, rather than because the whole premise of any kind of business, you have to be able to provide a service and solve a problem to generate revenue. And if you're just there to take, then half of the way you're gonna generate revenue is not there. And so for me, um in our business, and I always tell this my team, you need to be of service, you need to solve a problem. If the person doesn't have a problem, then why are you even like there's nothing for you to do, you know, like if it's if there's no problem to solve. So the focus for us and for me is solving problems and um providing a service. And you know, above it all, I think my whole purpose in life is to help people really figure out their own, like what makes them light up, what makes them shine. And so in doing this business, it doesn't seem like it's a direct correlation to people on the outside looking in. But when you can take a burden off someone's back, you know, something that's been weighing them down for so long, and now they're actually the sea life with a whole different lens, that's completely rewarding, you know, for me. Um, I a recent deal we did, the woman it was and we also see broken families all the time, right? So this guy, he collapsed on his front lawn, he was 70-something years old, collapsed on his front lawn, no one gave him CPR, so of course he ended up with some brain damage, and um they took him to the hospital and he died a few days later. So this was like a year and a half ago. I called a sister back in I don't know, April maybe, and I was the one to tell her he had passed away. So she had no idea because he had broken the contact with the family. All he had was his mother and sister. After the mother died of dementia, he just broke off contact. So she had no idea that her brother had died. Now the sister is 70 years old and a massage therapist, and she figured she'd be working until she died, you know, because well, she doesn't have like a backup plan, she didn't have a husband or a kid. So we did this deal. And she was, of course, the Mexican, so she signed our contract. But it turns out I had one of my team members go to the property and I said, I need you to pull anything you can find on bank accounts or you know, like retirement accounts, because by Thursday this house is gonna be sold and everything's gonna be thrown away. So we need to get that stuff so we can pass it on to her so we know what assets the guy has, that's really what she loans to her now. So she found my team member went there and she found paperwork and it said this guy had about $1.5 million in assets that would now belong to the sister, the sister who thought she'd be working the rest of her life. And funny enough, the week before we closed, the sister had an accident that totaled her car, and she's like, where am I gonna get the money and insurance and all this? So now it changed her entire life. Right. And that's you know, for me, it's like this is one of the reasons I do what I do, but I love that. Um, she and I have a really good relationship, even after we've closed the deals. You know, those are the kinds of things I love doing that I get to do. That's my little girl, I'm sure we've heard that.

SPEAKER_00 51:15

Yeah.

unknown 51:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:17

That's amazing though, because I I don't I'm not very familiar with real estate agents and investing and this business. But I can imagine that everyone is as thorough and as caring that as it sounds that you are. Because some people will probably go in there and say, that's it, like let's just let's just get the deal done, let's just close so that we can get paid. Not really giving another thought to the ramifications of what could be in the house and how this other people are about because I think I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like you and what your company does is you're a rarity.

SPEAKER_05 52:06

I feel like it sounds like it's quality over quantity. In 2024, everything is quantity, but there's no quality in much anymore. Um, how rare is what you do and the your the way you do it.

SPEAKER_01 52:23

And you know, I am thank you, ladies, for your kind words. Um, I'm just I don't like to keep my own horn, but this is to teach my students, it's like, you know, some of them are men, and this is why I said it's a male-dominated space and how I do business as a woman. It's different. Um, and so when there are men that come to me to learn, and I'll say to them, this is not like anything anyone else is teaching you about how you approach a conversation, the sales conversation, you actually have to care about the person. Um, so it is rare. Um, but I'm trying to teach other people how to do that. You know, like a lot of men, when I talk to them, they just can't tap into the place of feeling, right? And I'm not running business based on solely feeling, but you can't disassociate your heart from your brain.

SPEAKER_05 53:14

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 53:16

They're not mutually exclusive.

SPEAKER_05 53:19

The two aren't mutually exclusive. You can do both. I know. I mean, women have been doing it since the dawn of man. We I mean, we've managed to do both and succeed. Yeah, it's possible. Um yeah, and profitable at the same time. Wow, who would have thought it? Yeah, and you know why? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:40

Well, I'll give you some numbers. So the last deal, the one with the the vulture and the raccoon.

SPEAKER_00 53:48

Sounds like this is the deal to a story. The vulture and the racoon.

SPEAKER_01 53:51

Oh, yeah, it's a tons of stories, but um that one, I think for our team, that was a $300,000 profit. The one with the guy on the sofa, that was $120,000. I mean, like, I'm gonna do three deals while you do your five thousand, fifty-five thousand dollar deal. I'm gonna go to my one, you know, big deal. But these deals take more time, they take more heart and more caring, but they really pay off. Like, but it's the saying goes, if everything was easier, doing it. Yeah, yeah. So, but that sometimes the hardest thing would have the biggest reward.

SPEAKER_00 54:34

Absolutely. She's over here amazed. I'm not I'm sorry. I I really am like I had no idea that this business was just so fast. I know I said that before, but I'm still stuck on it. I really had no idea that it it was so involved and and that so much really went into it or could go into it. And yeah, I'm um honestly, if if you wrote a book, I would absolutely read it and I'd be like, you need to come back and talk about your books.

SPEAKER_05 55:04

All the books you're you're you have to be a business book, the um the book about the the raccoon and the hawk, the vulture, you know, that's gonna be yeah, that's gonna be, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:17

Yeah. But you know, what I tell people, I'm I'm just when I talk to people, I try to let them know I'm you know, I'm a real person. I've had life experiences, you know, you see me here, you see me smiling, etc. But, you know, I live the same life that everybody else else lives. You know, there are challenges, there are happy things, et cetera. But all of it comes together to make me who I am today and to have the experiences that I have. Um, you know, there there's more, and maybe we'll get to it, you know, as a mom. But my husband and I have also and my daughter suffered a lot. Like two and a half years ago, we lost our daughter, our second daughter. And so those these are experiences, I'm like, I can bring these into when I talk to people, when I work with people, because it's all a part of my story. And you know, I'm not gonna like alright, I'm gonna shield this part of my life because it's not pretty, you know. Or, you know, I'm not gonna say I can't use that part because it made me so sad and whatever. But no, I'm still here. I gotta use what I've got. Um and make it count because it's like so. Yes, I can write a book about a lot of things. Um I still know who can help me write it. So you know.

SPEAKER_00 56:34

Um I'm sorry to hear about your daughter. And I I do appreciate you even sharing that because I have three daughters. I can't I can't even imagine. Um I'm sorry. Um But I think I I think that that's that's what makes you so successful, it sounds like, is because you really just go go with your heart and and you care. You work hard and you are truly, truly bringing that quality to what you do. And that's I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_05 57:19

Um I'm like stuck. I did warn you that we are not professional interviewers, um because you know, so we do get sense.

SPEAKER_00 57:31

No, but just listening to to you sharing that very personal part. It through it just through me because um I appreciate that. And yeah. I think that that's important and and people don't feel safe enough to share sometimes. And it is our experiences and our our our humanness that make us successful sometimes. Because that's that's what makes us us. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:11

And um you know you're right, it does make this us and it's life, and you know, and people telling you, oh, you know, stuff is hard, I'm like what are you gonna do? You don't have con well, I guess you do have control over when your life ends, right? To some extent. If you decide you wanted to go that way, but you don't know you don't have control over that in the normal sense. So what are you gonna do? Crumble into the ground and just like give up?

SPEAKER_02 58:38

Right.

SPEAKER_01 58:40

You just kinda have to keep going and use what we've got. You know, like I used to say, I just finally had this realization recently. Um I used to say in my prayers, okay God, can't you just like give me one season where everything is just easy? Just one, just one. I don't yeah, just one I I really look, you've been testing me for the last however many years. I think I got it. You can just stop testing me for a couple months. But and I used to ask the question, well, why me? But then I realized, well, okay, well, why not me? And um the things that have tested me and tested my resolve, I heard I was reading it somewhere and it said, you know, when God tests you, it's to help you build up strength in an area where you might be lacking strength and to prepare you for the things that are coming that you're going to need more strength for. And honestly, um, if I hadn't had some of the experience or had them build up that strength, some of the things that I've experienced now, I would not be capable of dealing of withstanding it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, you just kind of have to go with it. Nobody ever said life was going to be a uh, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:03

No, for sure. And I hate that's kinda like oh no, and I hate when the way and I hate when people say it.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:09

But it's true. It's not what happens to you, it's how you deal with it. That can make or break a person. And God, I hate it. I hate hearing it, I hate saying it, but I know it's true. It's true. And I think I hate hearing it because I'm like, oh, you're right. And you're like, yeah. And it made me the person I am. And it's periods of life you're like, logically, you know, I needed that to become the person I am today. But if I could have become the person I am today without that, I would have been fine. I it's okay. I was okay with that.

unknown 1:00:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:47

Knowing and accepting are two different things.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:51

Yeah. It's like, so the day our daughter died, you know, people, a lot of people don't know what to say when they're seeing someone deal with grief. And people love to say, well, you know, um everything is for the good. I'm like, I don't want to hear that. My child just like I know God leaves everyone, yeah. That's not what I want to hear right now.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:14

Like, just say something else or something. Right, because sometimes there's a there's a time for positive and it's a time for pro-negative. That makes sense. Like, sometimes you want your people to wallow with you for a minute. Sometimes you and that's okay. Like, let's wallow, let's bitch, let's moan together. And then when I'm you're in when I'm ready, then we can start building up. Right now, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:45

It's okay, but it's hard to be able to do that. Because you know, you could say the same platitude to one person and it will make them feel better. And if you say it to the next person, it might not, they they might be like, get out of here with that. So you can it's hard to to know what to say to a person to make them feel better, but sometimes I I have learned that the only thing you need to say is it's okay not to be okay, and I'm here for whatever you need that I can help you with, I'll be here when you're ready. And I'm here for whatever you need. And grief is grief is really hard. We actually did an episode with someone, and it it talked a lot about grief and hearing her speak on it was I mean, Agnes and I were both getting emotional. Just I'm having like I'm like yeah, I'm having my moments. Yeah, but but it was so nice to hear someone from from the perspective of grieving to tell us and to speak without having to censor herself to say, this is how I felt when I was grieving, and this is what some people said, and this is what some people said, and and to just you know, to get it from that perspective because when the person, when you approach someone who is grieving, they're not gonna tell you the truth.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:28

Most often sometimes you're not know what you need. Be like, what can I do for you? I don't know who I am right now. Don't ask what I need. I don't know where I'm at. I don't know shit about Ginola. Don't ask because I can't, I just don't know. Sometimes it's like sit there and don't talk with we could be you could sit next to me and be silent.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:48

And sometimes I but also maybe don't tell the grieving person what they need.

unknown 1:03:55

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:56

And that's the biggie.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:57

Yeah. Because you don't know what they need. And and and like Agnes said, they don't know what they need. So you definitely don't know what they need. And just offer them love and be there for whatever they they realize that they they need. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:15

You know, I have friends, um, and this is this is something too. I think, you know, getting older, you forming new friendships, or you have old friendships over there and they will be there for a while. You guys understand each other. But during that time, you know, like the in the depths of the grieving period, I lost some friendships because there were some people who couldn't understand that I didn't have the capacity to call and have a chit-chat for like a year or more, you know. And so however they took that to me, maybe they took it as items care, but you know, not understanding that I didn't have the capacity, you know, to do that. Um but then again, you know, it's one of those things they always say there's I'm sure there's some thing around it. You see, when things get really difficult, truly difficult in life, that's when you see the people who are really there with you. Um, because they're not expecting anything from you, they're just there. Right. And those who aren't, who are only there for one purpose or whatever serves them, they will kind of fall off.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:26

It sucks that I have to take something so so terrible to so personal to you to make it about the best. Yeah. But I guess, you know, there's mysterious ways amongst us. Amongst us. I'm not even drinking and I can't say my words.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:46

Yeah, it's okay. You know, us moments we have a special like after you have a child if part of your brain goes, and then another one and your mother part goes, and then you're just left with whatever's left.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:58

You know, between the kids, the husband, the animals, I don't know how many brain cells I have left.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:04

So I'm borrowing, I'm borrowing her brain cells. I don't have any left to begin with. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:13

Oh, we we stare a brain on most days. I would never have left again. I try to keep it pickled.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:18

I just I preserved it. I do because I I started working part-time like two years ago. And let me tell you, I don't remember people being this stupid. And I'm not even talking about like generational. I'm talking about like this, like I'm like, all gins. I'm like, is this regional? Like what's going on here?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:42

Like, I don't like so look, even with your pickled brain, you still have more brain than some of these people that are in the workspace. I mean, we interviewed, I'm just like, what do they teach like these days? What's going on? And even there's some people who are older than us.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:00

Like, what I don't understand. It's on social media. We'll show you the same thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:05

And I and I think if I the more pickled I am, the more I can deal with this insanity. I'm like, I I'm not doing this. I'm going home like I'm dumb. I'm like, you know what? That's my time. Bye. Like I gotta tell you, it's fun because this is a totally different demographic. Um so they're the guys, they're up, it's a male-dominated job. So they're half afraid. I'm a black woman from New York, and living in Wisconsin. So they're half afraid of me, half turned on, and then half just like, I don't know what I'm doing. So I kind of have like free range. Because either way, you gotta use it to my advantage. It's fun. Um it's fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:58

Yeah, they don't know which way to go.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:59

No, and I'm like, you can go this way.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:02

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:06

Yeah, use it to your advantage.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:08

Whatever, whatever it takes. Whatever it makes. It's boring, you've gotta make it fun somehow. Yeah, yeah, keep them on their nose. I'm sorry, I'm having problems and still recover from surgery, so I'm starting to like cramp up, but then I can't move because that position hurts. But if I stay in the same spot, I get numb. It's fun. I'm sorry. It's a lot of age. Let's be honest. A lot of it has to do with age. A lot of it does. I'm not gonna. I blame the surgery, but I don't think it's the surgery.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:46

I have to do that.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:47

I think it's fun that way.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:52

Before before we wrap this episode up, please share any and all ways for people to get in touch with you if if that's something that you want, how they can find you if they want to reach out to you for business, life coach, maybe. I don't know. Let me not speak for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:12

No, it's cool. Look, if people you want to learn more about what I do, uh for wholesaleing, real estate investing. Um I think the central place to find me is on Instagram at Haile underscore McVeigh. And from there you'll be able, there's a link in my profile you can go to find a way to reach out to me. Um yeah, that is the best way to reach out to me. And uh I would love to bring more women into this space in real estate investing and wholesaling. And so that's kind of like one of my missions to bring more women into this. Um, because people, you know, don't know about it, don't know how they can get into it, and don't know how being who they are, they can make a difference. So I'd love if they're women listening, interested, reach out to me for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:06

And we're gonna put your links in our show notes also. So it'll make it easy for anyone who wants to get in touch with you, if you know they can find it in there. So just email us anything that you want us to include, and and we'll make sure that we get it in there. But yeah, we definitely want to say thank you for hanging out with us and spending time with us and you know, allowing us to get to know you and for sharing, even when it got really personal.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:34

I loved it. Thank you. I I like I said, I I'm all for these impromptu, you know, improvise chat, and I really enjoyed talking with the two of you. So thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:43

Thank you for thank you for responding.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:45

Yeah, yeah, I'm so glad. And I mean, if nothing else, this is the way we've gotten to catch up after all those years.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:52

Yes, because honestly, the reunions are a little daunting to me. Like, I like I remember like one percent of the entire graduating class. Okay, let me be fair. We probably knew like only five percent. Let's start with that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:07

So I'm like, I'm not going.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:08

No, it's good. I'm gonna sit there, I'm gonna be like sitting at the corner, like by myself. I'm like, yeah, I'm not everybody remembers you actually. I mean the five people that I knew.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:18

No, I think you were one of those personalities that everybody would remember. I don't remember that. But I'm like, I suffer the same thing too. I didn't go to the last two reunions. I mean, last time it was just after I had, but um, you know, I'll be going with my yearbook too, and and then you have that thing, you know, high school reunion 20 something years, next up to me 25 years down the road, and no one looks like they used to, or some people don't look like they used to. You're like picture what'd you say you were?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:52

Like I think the most the people that I do have on my friends list, everyone looks the same or better. Yeah, and I was like, oh, that's that's cool. I think, yeah, it's definitely not like the TV reunions that anyone it's like no, I don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:09

So my my high school did I haven't ever gone to one of my high school reunions either. And I think um, and not obviously not this year, but I was like last year that it was like the 25th or something for our graduating class or whenever the 25th was. Um I went tomorrow, so okay. But they they had they sent out the email and it's like, oh yeah, if you want to take part and it's gonna be here, and the tickets are only like $300 a person. And I'm like, miss me with that because $300. Are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:44

What are we getting?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:47

Um, yeah, so okay, I'll see you on Instagram or something.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:52

Instagram, right? I love like we get like the alumni emails, and they're like with the alumni in his own. They're like, Oh, we're having alumni dinner, $700 a plate. I'm like, yeah, sure. Take me off this list.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:09

You got the I mean, my I my husband and I both went to Murrow. He was not in my graduating class, but you know, I was like, oh, that might be fun, you know, see other people. Like we went to, you know, because he would know people too. And yeah, I was like, not for those prices, so bye. So I don't know if I'll ever get to go to a reunion because I simply cannot afford it. But yeah, why can't they just have it like in a gym, like on TV? Yeah, right, you know, with some crappy paper mache designs and some weird lady sitting at the desk with the name tags. TV has really warped our brains. This is not how it works on TV. Yeah, but then again, it's also New York, so you know, I guess things aren't that cheap in New York either. Well, no, and then the graduating class is not 40 people, it's 400 people. But you know, right. Was your graduating class really a thousand?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:14

Wow, I don't know how many mine was. Probably have 5,000 kids. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:20

That's right. Like they're like, after school, what the rush is too crazy. I laugh at them. I'm like, ha ha. No, you would never make it in New York, you would not survive.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:33

No. Well, look, I think about the babe. I know this this is meaningful to us now because we're I how many minutes did we have in between class and we had nine floors? You have to like four time the stairs.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:43

I feel like it was four minutes. And we had second having physics on the second floor and then dance on the eighth floor. I'm like, God, and you should run up those stairs. I need that workout plan now. No, I couldn't make it past the second floor. I'm like, you know what? Rock me is cutting, I'm absent.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:04

That's a lot of you guys had nine floors.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:07

I feel like there was more. There was the first floor, there was nine floors, and yeah, there was the nine floors, and then they had like the radio station.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:12

Yeah. But we couldn't go to above, but yeah, it's the nine floors.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:17

A lot of floors.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:18

Okay. Murrow was about 4,000. That's not yeah, that's a tip.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:22

I feel like a typical New York school.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:24

So I guess oh, yeah. So I guess uh, all right, I guess I was wrong. But we only had, I think, four floors, maybe five. I don't know. Definitely not nine.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:36

Yeah, we got our exercise for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:38

Yeah, no, yeah. And there was no, I mean, my school had an elevator, but you needed an elevator pass. Same. Even though I was asthmatic, I still was like, I'm not getting an elevator pass. I don't want to be one of those kids. You're gonna be late.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:51

Like a hundred letter, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:53

But you'll be late. There's so many people waiting for the elevator.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:56

I'm like, why bother?

SPEAKER_04 1:15:58

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:59

You're and there are like two elevators. I mean, how are you ever gonna get to class?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:04

I still have dreams and nightmares that I'm going to like, I'm like I'm back in school trying to look at my schedule and trying to make sure I get to my next class.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:15

Oh, and then Mo had and not periods, we had bands, so it was like A-band, F band, which on different days, such and such band didn't meet, and the times were not the same.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:28

Okay, that's confusing.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:30

So, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:33

Once you get there, you you adapt really quickly, like within the first week, it's fine. But to any outsider looking in, you see a pro the little program cards that we used to have, so like you could write your schedule on it. I I I'm gonna have to find one.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:49

I still remember my hype because I don't think I have any. ID numbers. Like we had like our number for like I still remember my student ID number. So I don't know, mommy brain.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:03

There are only certain things that are that have uh can stay in my brain now because there's limited space. So you know your computer says we're out of memory. Yeah, that's one of those things that has to go.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:14

And then it's funny because they since they're called bands instead of periods, the the little cards were called band-aids. Oh, that's hard. She actually googled it.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:31

Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:32

No, I'm Googling. So I don't know, it's you really can't see, but you could see enough to see that they're not linear. So different days, the period. They start at different times. They all yeah, they started different times, different lengths.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:48

Yeah, look, it was if you asked me as a a woman at this age to remember that schedule, like no, not happening.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:55

No, no, you're lucky if I made it in with clothes on. Let's start off with that. Like do your shoes my watch? No, no. I'm just like, let's but I'm just having like post-traumatic stress right now. Like, but high school was amazing, though. I gotta tell that I loved high school. I don't have bad memories.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:23

I loved high school, absolutely loved high school. We had to so you know, I really think it prepared us for me. College was easy, like after tech. But college was easy, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:33

I think there was so much pressure, like unspoken pressure. They're like, they're not gonna do this for you in college. They didn't college doesn't give a fuck.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:44

Well, that's and that's how Murrow was too. Yeah, we didn't have designated lunch periods, so you had just free periods during the day. So it was your responsibility to make sure that you ate something. And if you didn't want to go to the cafeteria, you go to the courtyard, you could take a nap in the hallway. Nobody cared, and so you could take a nap in the hallway on your free period, you could take a nap in the period on your period. Well, because you didn't but you didn't get a lunch, so that's that's my point. Your free period was your time to either lunch through the library, whatever. We were working, but the thing is that the teachers and the you know not whole monitors, but you know, the adults, they had no idea who had what period when, because the you know, and so if you wanted to take a nap, sit in the hallway, hang out with your friends, do your homework, whatever you wanted to do, you just everyone had spots. So you just had your spot where your friend group hang out, hung out, and then that's where you would go for the most part of your free period. You could be sitting there all day unless you were being loud or kind of drawing attention to yourself. No one cared. Teachers could walk by you unless you were being loud, then they were like, Oh, can I see your schedule? So class, optional, you know? And I feel like that was the biggest thing that prepared me for college was like, Wait, nobody cares if I show up. Nobody's gonna make me do my work if I don't want to. No, they're just gonna give you a failing grade later. So figure out when it's graduation time and you're not on the consequences. Yeah, yeah. They really did treat us like adults, and I think that's like just a New York City high school thing to do. Like, yeah, we're not gonna baby you anymore. That's it, you're done. Do it or don't do it. We don't care. We still get paid. We still get our paid.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:44

You'll be back here next year.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:46

No. Or not. You won't be you won't be here. You'll be somewhere else, or you won't be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:52

We'll be in night school. We'll be in night school.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:56

Oh, you gotta go home. We gotta get the hell up at this school. Hi, and I gotta say, I must thank you again for taking time out. You're extremely busy today, mom, wife, entrepreneur. So this time you took out was immense, and I really do appreciate it. I am definitely, I don't know. I might like do some mental gymnastics and maybe reach out in a couple of years. Yeah, my pleasure. I think you making real estate investing attainable for those who don't look like this should be real estate, you know, women, women of color. It's a people look at like old white men. We think about real estate investment. We think of like Midtown Manhattan, the suits, and you think of like you don't think of every anybody can do this with the right training and the right thought process and the right frame of mind. You have to have the right frame of mind for it with anything, but thank you. I feel I feel like I could do anything talking to you. Did that come out right? I think in a good way. You're like you put that on a good way. Like, oh, I could do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:12

Yay, I anything good. I was just gonna say it was it was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:21

Yeah, so for more for more on Haya and how to get in touch with her for more on Assassin's Sips or Spotlight, please visit us assassinsips.com. Please remember to not drink and drive, even though we were all actually really good today. None of us on alcoholic beverages. And until next time, I'm Lisa and I'm Agnes. We're out of here. Goodbye.