Ever wondered about the power of resilience and choice in shaping one's life?
This episode invites you on an intimate journey of Aimee` Ashley, a well-loved member of our Bowie, Texas community. From her early life in Bowie to moving away for college and then finding her way back, Aimee` navigates life’s surprises and challenges with a remarkable spirit. She shares her experience of uncovering her Attention Deficit Disorder as an adult and how adapting her learning style has empowered her to thrive despite it.
But that's not all. Aimee` lays bare her voyage through marriage, motherhood, navigating mental health issues, divorce, and finding her true calling in real estate. She speaks candidly about life-altering conversations, forming the Free Bird Group, and the trials she faced on her path to achieving personal goals. Her story of resilience, faith, and self-love after divorce is a testament to the strength of the human spirit. Hear how Aimee's faith, her supportive community, and her dedication to self-reflection played vital roles in her healing process and her journey toward success.
As we uncover Aimee's story, we reflect on the significance of listening to your inner voice and pursuing your purpose, no matter what life throws your way. We delve into how the Bowie community rallied together during difficult times and the sense of belonging and security a supportive hometown can provide. Aimee's journey is a stirring reminder of what can be achieved when resilience, faith, and a supportive community come together. So, tune in, and be inspired by Aimee's incredible journey of faith, resilience, and success. Don't miss this powerful tale of transformation and triumph.
Music by: Kim Cantwell
Bowie Mural: Located at Creative Cakes
Connect w/Aaron: www.aarondegler.com
Ever wondered about the power of resilience and choice in shaping one's life?
This episode invites you on an intimate journey of Aimee` Ashley, a well-loved member of our Bowie, Texas community. From her early life in Bowie to moving away for college and then finding her way back, Aimee` navigates life’s surprises and challenges with a remarkable spirit. She shares her experience of uncovering her Attention Deficit Disorder as an adult and how adapting her learning style has empowered her to thrive despite it.
But that's not all. Aimee` lays bare her voyage through marriage, motherhood, navigating mental health issues, divorce, and finding her true calling in real estate. She speaks candidly about life-altering conversations, forming the Free Bird Group, and the trials she faced on her path to achieving personal goals. Her story of resilience, faith, and self-love after divorce is a testament to the strength of the human spirit. Hear how Aimee's faith, her supportive community, and her dedication to self-reflection played vital roles in her healing process and her journey toward success.
As we uncover Aimee's story, we reflect on the significance of listening to your inner voice and pursuing your purpose, no matter what life throws your way. We delve into how the Bowie community rallied together during difficult times and the sense of belonging and security a supportive hometown can provide. Aimee's journey is a stirring reminder of what can be achieved when resilience, faith, and a supportive community come together. So, tune in, and be inspired by Aimee's incredible journey of faith, resilience, and success. Don't miss this powerful tale of transformation and triumph.
Music by: Kim Cantwell
Bowie Mural: Located at Creative Cakes
Connect w/Aaron: www.aarondegler.com
What happened to my hometown. It seems so different when I look around. It's funny how things have changed since. I was young, what I wouldn't give to go way back and take a long look into my past.
Speaker 2:I remember this town, the way that it used to be. Welcome to my hometown, our little town on the map and home to the world's largest Jim Bowie Knife. To show you around our beautiful town is our tour guide, erin Degler. Erin has a love for road trips, taking the opportunity to stop along the way in small towns across the US, just like our very own Bowie, texas. Spend a little time with Erin each week as he takes you around Bowie, sharing the value of the small businesses, the organizations, the history and, of course, the people that make up my hometown. After this podcast is over, make sure you give it a like, a share, and please subscribe and review this podcast. I would now like to introduce to you your tour guide for today in my hometown, erin Degler.
Speaker 4:Welcome back to my hometown. Thanks for taking the time to join me today. Please welcome my guest today. She is a member of our community since 1983. She is a mother of three. She has a background in marketing, has spent 10 years being a personal trainer and for the past four years has been in real estate. She is a real estate broker with Parker Properties. Also has the free bird group under Parker Properties. Please welcome my guest today, ms Amy Ashley.
Speaker 3:Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 4:I probably butchered Parker Properties and free bird group, but we're going to get all of that so you can explain how all that works together. As we were talking briefly before you explained it and it's still confusing to me. We're going to get to that. I said member of our community since 1983, so it makes you sound like you're really old, but you're still young.
Speaker 3:I was young, you're a child. I was in elementary school when we moved here from Irving, so I don't really remember life in Irving. We started my childhood years here and I moved away and chose to come back to raise my family here.
Speaker 4:So you graduated from Bowie 1994, Bowie Jackrabbit. And then moved away, then went to college. Yes, so where'd you go to college yet?
Speaker 3:Well, several different junior colleges didn't ever graduate. That's a part of my story. Never obtained a degree, but I got married when I was young and had Dylan, my first son, at 20. So then moved back home.
Speaker 4:Where'd you move to after when you moved out of Bowie?
Speaker 3:Well, we first moved to Decatur and I was married to Dylan's dad, my oldest son, and he's a graduate as well. But we moved to Decatur and then his father and I divorced and I moved to Fort Worth to go to school, work, spread my wings, oh gosh, that was a fun, hard, scary, mortifying time.
Speaker 4:So then, how long were you in Fort Worth? So, after you divorced, you moved to Fort Worth, fort Worth.
Speaker 3:Yeah, pretty, pretty sketchy part of town. Now when I drove back by we were there two years, I think, right at two years.
Speaker 4:So what made you want to move there? Because I mean, as a young mom moving away from family to. Fort Worth.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, I thought I needed to get a job. I had been working for my father and did accounting type work, and then I got a full-time job.
Speaker 4:Because your dad had an electrical business always. Ashley Electric.
Speaker 3:He was a different name, younger, but he always was an electrician and I worked for him and then I was needing to spread my wings, so I got a full-time job, started going to school at Tarrant County College.
Speaker 3:It was Tarrant County Junior College at the time and was a single mom and an apartment and I just thought that you know that's what you do and it did not take me long to appreciate small town rural living and the security of Bowie and I could easily drive to Fort Worth. I could easily go drive to do something that I wanted to do, but I loved the security that Bowie offered. So I came back, luckily with the help of my parents, and we had a little rent house and, yeah, we were alone. I was a single mom with Dylan and I was going to school here. The college here had just opened.
Speaker 4:NCTC has just opened. It was.
Speaker 3:I think it was the first year, maybe it was the second, but I feel like it was the first year that the campus was open and it was a great experience for me. First real positive learning experiences. I never felt like I was a good student in school. I did not learn my learning style until much later in life and I always just thought I'm not a good student, I'm not very bright, I have to work really hard, so how did you figure that learning style out?
Speaker 4:Because I think that's important, because I think a lot of kids go into college or in high school and think I just can't get this, I'm not bright enough, I'm not smart enough.
Speaker 3:I think it's a big deal. I really just feel like I was not the traditional learning student. I learned as an adult that I definitely suffer from attention deficit disorder and it's almost debilitating. But I didn't know that's what it was because our generation didn't. We didn't have that diagnosis.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you just couldn't pay attention.
Speaker 3:I could not pay attention.
Speaker 4:Parents would say you just can't pay attention.
Speaker 3:But you know what? I think I was, I guess, a decent enough student that no one really ever said that either. I just knew I was just skating and I would see that my friends seemed to have so much easier of a time, but yet I just didn't feel like I wasn't unequal. I felt like our intelligence levels met. We just learned differently. I see that with hindsight so clearly now, so clearly. But I just really went through my whole life not feeling like I was the best student and that was not an avenue. I just needed to dive down because it was always a struggle until I learned my learning style, which was much more tactile hands on. I can't typically read something that's 20 pages long and then just regurgitate answers. I need a lot of different, just tactile ways to put things together. Real estate, I think, really unleashed some of that. So I know we're kind of jumping forward, but that's how I learned I'm actually really intelligent. Like I didn't realize that.
Speaker 4:So is that when you really realized your learning styles when you got into real?
Speaker 3:estate 100%. That was just four years ago, studying for the coursework and testing and then having to go. There was prerequisites and then you qualify to go take your test to obtain your license. So when I'm getting back into school after such a long break, which we skipped, some work history, but I'm getting back into school and I'm having to learn how to learn. There was so much more at risk and at stake. I had to complete this. I felt extreme pressure that there was no option to not, and so I just started really working on the content and the material. Then, when I fast forward and I'm working into real estate, I'm learning.
Speaker 3:I am almost debilitated by having the brain issue of attention deficit. I had no idea that this, with this, was. I feel like I suffered from anxiety so long in life as a result of so much going on in my mind and not being able to slow it down and my brain actually running so fast and having so many thoughts congruently and being really able to accomplish so many things at the same time. I didn't identify. You're like over exceeding in a lot of areas, but you're not giving yourself credit that you have the ability to do this. When I started connecting some of those dots. I just thought, what do you? I'm just working.
Speaker 3:You know, then I could put it together. This is probably where I'm shining, and had I known this in school, had I had some of just the learning skills that I use now. A lot shorter increments, just different things that I put into place make me realize I can do anything if I try and my children have heard that since I have obtained my license is that is the story for anyone in life. I learned that through training and watching people feel so defeated and that they couldn't do things, and the joy I would feel watching someone achieve something, then me what the joy and trying to really take in what I just achieved in a short amount of time and giving myself a little bit of grace Like you can do anything.
Speaker 3:Anything's possible, like anything is possible, but you have to try, because that's the worst if you don't even try and put that first foot forward.
Speaker 4:You're not getting anywhere. I mean, whether you fail or not. If you don't try, you have 100% chance of not making it 100% 100% chance.
Speaker 3:And didn't you feel like when? Because I've trained in the past, I feel like almost anyone can do any exercise at about 30 days If they just work at it every single day like almost anything there's not anything they really can't do. Baby steps.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:You know, eat the elephant one by at a time kind of thing. There's literally nothing you cannot do. And when I feel like I really started to meditate on that, I focused what I want my business to look like and every single day I just started making action to make that come true, to come to fruition.
Speaker 4:One little thing at a time.
Speaker 3:One move every single day.
Speaker 4:That added up over time and there's a lot of things that have added up over time. I think. So many times people see us where we're currently at and they may think, man, I wish I could do that or that, but they don't see the journey that went with that 100%. They just see. They just see where we're currently at and want that. They sometimes want what we have, but they don't want to do what we did 100%.
Speaker 3:I feel we all are like that to some degree. It's so easy to envy something, but then when you see the plan laid out, it took that person to achieve it. You may not be that you're like no, I'm going to pass. Like that's not for me. I don't need to invest that much time in that. So then, don't be a hating, you know.
Speaker 4:Encourage them to go out. You know, good for you, but that's not for me.
Speaker 3:Yes, but it was that person's path and they put in the work.
Speaker 4:So with having Dylan newborn moving back to Bowie, you know, going back to school a little bit, where did you? Were you just kind of jumping around from jobs, did you?
Speaker 3:you know, kind of just helping out your dad at the electric business or so I did work full time when we lived in Fort Worth, and then what brought me back to Bowie was my dad was like come back home, you can work for me. And so you know, that was not a strong arm, I was ready. It was like I tapped out. Like.
Speaker 3:I was like, okay, I've tried this. I need the support of family. Why would you not? You know it's crazy to think about. I'm sure my parents were mortified when I think about it.
Speaker 4:As we get older, my kids listening to this, so they'll know the secret. But as we get older, we go and our kids do certain things. We go our poor parents. That's what we did to them and they didn't strangle us. So we have to have the same grace on our kids and not kill them.
Speaker 3:The same and I have feared that all along. Some of the choices I've made, like Dylan would say, because I got married at 17, because I felt certain that that was the right choice in the moment.
Speaker 3:I was so convinced and when Dylan turned 17, he would say, mom, how on earth were you married at this age? And he would just laugh. Then it would be he turned 20. I can't even imagine that you had me at this age. So every time, okay, my, I have a. Dylan will be 27 this week and then Aiden is going to be 19. I'm like, okay, two kids. They made it past that mark. They did not repeat my mistakes and I'm not saying mistakes, but choices. I made that with hindsight was not the best choice for myself, but you don't know that in the moment.
Speaker 4:Right. You only know with the knowledge and wisdom you have up to that point. That's why I think, sometimes we look back when we should rely more on our parents and more a mentor that is going to direct us in the you know cause I got married at 19 and Kobe he got married at 19. And I thought that is too young, that's crazy. You know what are you doing, but when I got married 19, I'm like let's.
Speaker 3:What are you talking about? I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm grown, so move back. You got married again.
Speaker 3:How long was it after you moved back that you got remarried, terry and I, so I moved back when I was 21. And I think Terry and I got married when I was 25. So it was about four years.
Speaker 4:Did you date for a long time, or A year and a half?
Speaker 3:A year and a half and we got married and Dylan was three and we were married, I guess about four years. And then Aiden came along, yeah, and so Terry went back to school. He went to school and I worked full-time and I was working in healthcare, in marketing. Now I can see so clearly how those jobs served me so perfectly now in aligned relationships and ideas and understanding of what I needed my business to be was. From those days in marketing, I loved it. It was a chance to connect with people, but on a much broader level, and it helped the geriatric population, and that was something I was so uncomfortable with, and so then it broke down that barrier and it was a growing experience. I made a lot of great relationships and then we had Lily in 2008, and so we are rocking along and you're still working in healthcare In healthcare.
Speaker 3:Okay, so then I'm walking with my friend Kim and she's like Aaron's going to open a gym and he's going to need another personal trainer, and at this point I'm at home with Lily, you know, full-time and I'm like I can't even explain it. It was like I'd been praying about what I should do and what God had for me. And while we're walking and I always pray for frying pan moments because I'm really dense and I don't get subtle hints- from God.
Speaker 4:You gotta whack me hard yeah.
Speaker 3:Like you gotta like give it to me where I know it's you, we're walking, and as clear as a bell, it's like the clouds parted and the sun shone on my face. Like this is what you're supposed to do. And I'm not making that up, it is exactly how I remember the moment, because that was so outside of anything I would have done or who I was, or confidence. It was so outside it. And then you encouraged me and I went to Cooper Institute and I felt this whole world opened up for me. I'm still so grateful for that knowledge and that base and then the gift of connecting with people one-on-one, and the relationships formed over those years. Just there's so much greatness that came from me working in that industry, all because Kim and I were walking that day. She shared her heart. I shared that aligns with what I need for my life and it unfolded into so much.
Speaker 4:And that one conversation lasted a span of 10 years. Yes, of a business.
Speaker 3:One conversation, two friends out, power, walking, speaking their minds Like that, set a whole trajectory for my life and you never, ever know the power you have over someone, not in a bad way, but like in a powering, strong way. That one conversation put me on a path that I firmly believe led me here to where I'm at today and that I mean that leads into Terry and I are married at this point for a good amount of time and I'm saying I think I want to do real estate. I've always thought about it. I guess you're supposed to do something that's always on your mind, always on your heart, always burning inside you. And I needed to increase my income for my family and I was thinking on it and praying on it and my friend, jennifer Harris said, hey, my sister Tracy works for Parker properties. You should give her a call and just talk to her about it. And I did and we had like an hour long conversation. She felt so good about it, she shared so many things and I thought it was so good. But again, my faith is strong.
Speaker 3:And, side note, in the meantime Terry worked for the wise health and he said hey, I see that they have a PRN position for a personal trainer and it's for when they open up their new facility at Fenton wise. And so I went and interviewed and I just was like at a crossroads, like what am I going to do? Am I going to try to go into real estate? Am I going to take this job? And I prayed about it and I just felt so strongly that I was supposed to go to Fenton wise. Had no clue why, but a lot of it was my confidence and feeling like I couldn't do real estate at the time. I see that that unfolded great relationships.
Speaker 4:And when? What year was this? That? Probably that you had that first conversation about Parker properties?
Speaker 3:Okay, so Okay, I got my license in 2019. So that was probably 2016.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a few years before, when you had that first conversation. Three three, and it was only a conversation.
Speaker 3:But again, like you just never know, and I feel like if I could share anything about that time period and reflection is don't ignore something that is always on your mind, don't ignore something that's always spurring you interest. God doesn't sew things in your life that are meant to fall void, and I think that if you're feeling it, if you're thinking on it all the time, it is a path you are supposed to explore. It's not just like a crazy idea. You know it's not so.
Speaker 4:So, and how that interview go it, fenton wise.
Speaker 3:Great. We really connected. It was an amazing human and she opened so many doors for me mentally.
Speaker 2:She was a great spiritual leader.
Speaker 3:She could pray like no one else and again it was like God aligned me with exactly who I needed in my life in that moment, because she believed in me and she helped build my business there and Prayed over me and spoke truth in life over me and help me hold my head high and whenever I was going through a divorce, because fast forward.
Speaker 4:So on the outside, all those years, a lot of things look good. Yes, everything is.
Speaker 3:I'm like to pass forward, we divorce and so it's like wait a minute.
Speaker 4:Everything like. A lot of times things seem to be going well, you know, move from you know in the healthcare industry into personal training, and that moves into working for wise, regional and everything on. Kids are doing good in school, playing sports, all is looking good, smiles on your face, but there's other things going on that aren't being seen.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:And there aren't things that you know not everybody. We're not transparent with everybody because, like a lot of times, if we walk around with a billboard that said what was going on in our mind, people, we'd never having friends.
Speaker 3:They would question you and think that you're not saying except for the jokes on us, because everyone has the same billboard with different words on it.
Speaker 4:Yes, we just have a have it a curtain over. So so what's going on during those years that lead up to that divorce? Well when you, and the reason I ask is because I think it's a story and a testimony that many need to hear and that you can share with that. Sometimes people are in those places and can resonate with with where those things are at in your life and how they have served you.
Speaker 3:I agree.
Speaker 4:And I have served you for their party story of where you're at 100% it served me.
Speaker 3:I can see with hindsight 100% how that experience served me for where I'm at right now.
Speaker 3:But you know, our marriage was hard and May Day, like to parents, never underestimate pouring into your children and loving your children ferociously, because when you don't have that as your foundation and then you go start a life and don't have a solid loving foundation, it makes for a very rocky life and a very rocky marriage. If you don't have the tools to navigate that and we really are just now in a time where we talk about this and we talk about our feelings and we talk about the traumas from your past and how they affect you today and how they affect you tomorrow and how, if you don't address them, that is really, to me, what generational curse is is seeing your children have to go through what you went through and there was brokenness, and mental health always is the word that comes to mind, because we are all struggling with some form of mental health issue.
Speaker 4:And just in recent years has that become a topic that people can talk about.
Speaker 3:Yes, like it's been so taboo. When I went through my separation, that was not a topic we discussed, and actually Kim is someone who brought some things to my attention, because that's just not something that was as prevalent. We have come a long way in discussing mental health in the past few years, so while I only want to discuss my story but again, when you are in a home, that is not blissful, there is a lot of strain and that always causes a demise in your mental health, and I was coming from a place of being very broken and low and trying to motivate people.
Speaker 4:So at the time, like you said, you are empty and you're trying to get the energy to pour into other people, to motivate them, to encourage them, say you're doing this, you're doing great.
Speaker 3:You're seen, you're enough.
Speaker 4:There's nothing refilling that cup.
Speaker 3:Desperate to hear that for myself and telling people you can't pour from an empty cup and you must give yourself grace and all the things I wanted for myself I could pour into others, but I didn't have the ability to give it back. With hindsight I see that now.
Speaker 4:So at the time, what are you thinking about yourself, like I just can't get together. What's wrong with me that I can't get out of this?
Speaker 3:Well, I didn't know. I didn't have the language to say this is what's wrong. I have it now. I had the ability to walk out an unlocked door for years that I didn't walk through, so I hold the accountability that that was an option and that took a lot of work to be able to have the language to say that. But it took almost everything out of me every single day to pour into someone when I had nothing to give. But in return as well, I got so much poured into me by seeing others succeed and be successful and depend on me and need me and that relationship it just becomes so strong and intimate on a friend level Like, because when you spend an hour, two days a week with anyone, you're sharing parts of your life and your story, and so the gift of being able to connect with humans is beautiful Most times. You know most of the time.
Speaker 4:So what you know? You mentioned that it's an open door. You can walk out that door any moment you want. It's your choice. What are the thoughts that you're having that are keeping you from walking out that door?
Speaker 3:Money being able to provide for yourself, the trauma and the stigma of going through a second divorce. That was huge for me. I did not want to put my children through a second divorce and I say a second, as in. Dylan had to endure being from a broken home and I wanted to do anything to not put that upon my children. And I think he did as well, and I don't think ever that that was the end goal or the want or the desire at all. I think I learned when you walk away from something that is not working, it doesn't mean you stop loving the person. And that was very confusing for a very long time because you think that you are divorcing someone and that it means there's no love there. But it took so much like mental work to understand. Just because you love someone doesn't mean it's what's best for you to be with them. So then you have to choose you for your sanity, and it's been a process.
Speaker 3:And as a mom, sometimes that's really hard to choose you it was the hardest decision I've ever made, but I know that I stayed Until I physically couldn't any longer. I Was able to share with Aiden. Recently, I can tell you still to this day I stayed until I could do not one more thing. And there's no blame. There's zero, blame, zero. I Just can see with Better eyes now mm-hmm. I can see the places that should have pivoted and hindsight and do overs all of it. We are human mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:But when I knew my mental health was about as out of control as I could let it be, I was just so low and I was Able to Move in with my parents and that was humbling and Hard, but it was a sanctuary of healing and at the time are you thinking what are people gonna say?
Speaker 4:Yes, I was growing, graduating, living here. Being a small community, everybody knows your business, whether we want them to or not, or they're gonna make it up if they don't yep.
Speaker 3:That had to be a concern of what people don't think I was a business owner.
Speaker 4:I was still yeah, my parents.
Speaker 3:I lived in my childhood bedroom. I Built two custom beautiful homes, you know. But that was a better option and I had to get to the point where it didn't matter what other people thought, because it did for a long time and that's why you stay for a long time, because it's all of it, it's all pieces of it, but in the end that was not mattering anymore and so I Moved in and I thought it would be a short time, but turns out, oh my gosh, it's so hard to rise above, you know, and it turned into three years. And I'm not saying what was me. I'm saying had I not had that, I don't know where I would be, because I would have had to have rented, I would have Struggled, struggled. You know, it was a sanctuary. It was a place of healing and Love and support, and your parents should be done once they've raised you, but they've just accepted me back With so much love. I can only hope I can do that for my children, no matter what, mm-hmm, then I'm always in a place to give them love, because I know that's a gift.
Speaker 3:And a lot of people who were in my situation Did not have a place to land, and I have spoke to so many people. As a result, god aligns me with them almost on the daily and Again, I see 100%. I Walk through that because I love to minister to women and to love on them and help them see their value and their worth. I Struggled with staying for so long partly because of my faith. I Was always raised in church and have always had a strong faith. Obviously, like any human, you wax and wane in any relationship, but I've always known my base and my core and I pray God align me with who you want me to serve and who you want me to speak to, and it's like I will pray that and by lunchtime somebody will ring my phone so.
Speaker 4:So how do you make that decision being raised in in faith and make that decision that Now's the time to Walk out that unlocked door?
Speaker 3:It was very difficult. I prayed and prayed and prayed, and prayed and prayed and when I finally made the decision, I remember feeling like a thousand pounds had been lifted off of me and I Was so afraid I had no clue what even the next baby stuff looked like. But then I had to work through it, like because I struggled, because I had been divorced. I just didn't want to put that on my children. I didn't want to be divorced twice. I Didn't want the label of any of that. It was such crushing weight in a small town and I had to just work through it. I was just something I prayed through and then I realized I cannot stay here anymore because I couldn't even function in my mind daily because of where things had gotten and it was not healthy for anyone.
Speaker 4:And through those years, as you mentioned, you start to lose your sense of value and worth. You, you're out, you move in with your parents, that's you know. You walk out the door. The next step is where I go now and it's with mom and dad. Kim and I always talk about that. Kids, when they're little or way easier parent than adult children.
Speaker 3:They're way more challenging.
Speaker 4:How did you go about working on rebuilding that sense of worth and value? Because that's not a? I Think we we don't fully understand that. It's not a quick fix. It can take months, it can take years to rebuild that, and sometimes it's up to us to rebuild that. So how did you go about Rebuilding that in yourself?
Speaker 3:Well, at this point, right now, I'm six and a half years post divorce, I think, and Are six years, and I'm not saying I've arrived. A Wonderful relationship has has shown spotlights on all the ways I have not arrived, but I'm saying I've come so far. So there, um, my faith, my faith, leaning into my faith, because it was like an exhaustion lean into it. I had nothing, I could just pray and then every day I could start finding the baby step, adding things. Obviously I was in counseling, a Big book reader.
Speaker 3:I have really focused with some disciplines, on my prayer life, with reading God's word, with being active for my mind, with, I always say, cardio is my mental health. It's has zero to do with exercise, zero and everything to do with that's kind of when I solve all the world's problems, you know I can work it out. It's a process, it. I had to put myself out there in a lot of ways, even through dating and being in a relationship and Allowing vulnerability, because once you have felt so hurt and so scorned, it's Surprise so hard to open that door. Like you think that you're willing because you go on a date and then you just don't realize how vulnerable you are and how you block yourself off in so many ways.
Speaker 4:It just takes so much time to you don't realize those things have built walls. You have the years. It's one little like, say, a little Lego block and another little Lego block before you know. You look back and you go out on a date, you get in a relationship and you now you have this wall. That like where did this come from?
Speaker 3:things that would prick me. I would be like Very overreacting to something. Then with hindsight I like to fast forward the overreacting part and then With hindsight you can realize that was a little bit crazy, because that was not about this person at all, had zero to do with them, disrespecting me, hitting my boundary, anything like zero. That was all me and how I reacted, because it made me feel a certain way.
Speaker 4:And that's a challenging place to get to it is because a lot of times we want to say it's that person. Yes, they said this, they did that when and again. Sometimes it does come back on us about. It is based on my Traumas before yes, my relationships before, my thought process.
Speaker 3:I have worked very hard at Rewriting this story. I'm telling myself. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:I mean I've spent a lot of work on my self, talk Myself, love, my giving myself grace. About four or five years ago we did this Bible study. It was Jensen Franklin, it's totally a part of my story. Love like you've never been hurt and it hit. I Was struggling with forgiveness and I have 70 times seven tattooed on my forearm because it's literally like a post-it note To forgive. It's a reminder to give grace and I think when I got the tattoo I thought it was about my past relationship and needing to work through forgiveness. And it's funny how it's morphed because in my mind it's more about forgiving myself and giving myself grace daily, because Nothing I could hear from someone else could ever be as harmful as what I'm telling myself and the story that, the Criticism and the level of scrutiny that's replaying in my mind on repeat so loud Like anyone who could criticize me.
Speaker 3:They don't have anything on me like what I'm doing to myself daily and learning that. That is what that is, and I do the work. Mm-hmm. I'm all about showing up and figuring out what the work is, but it's a process. I'm not there, you know. Is any of us right? It's a?
Speaker 4:very challenging process that I think we don't. We want it to be fixed, but sometimes we don't want to put the time into it. You know there's probably women that are listening to this that may be in the same position that would say you know, I can't, you know, can't believe you did that, that you left. But I think it's an individual choice, no matter what your faith is, that they but they also might find that strengthen, that go. She's saying there's, she didn't know the next step.
Speaker 4:But part of faith is stepping when there's no stone there to step on 100% knowing that as soon as your foot hits the ground, there will be a stone for that next step 100% and for sure, like my faith.
Speaker 3:My grandfather was the southern Baptist preacher. Like this has just always been ingrained in me and Feeling like I was going to let him down, even though he had passed already. Just that was a lot, it was a lot of pressure, but I, I the faith, the religion, not the faith the religious portion indoctrated, indoctrated in me kept me there. My faith is what saved me, because it was stepping out in faith that, no matter what, god would protect me and provide and and every single step of the way I have seen provision. I have seen him Part the Red Sea for me, literally poor knowledge into my brain, do things over and abundantly. I Feel like I can set a goal and it was an Amy says a goal, not a. God says go, because he'll come in and crush it. Like I just feel like I've seen him do all of these things in my life because I stepped out in faith and Listen to his voice and I just kept trying to seek what the next step was. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4:But is that the scariest, most crazy thing to say out loud yes, 100% and and you kept pouring time into finding understanding what he wants for you and, as you point out, you're in the relationship for a long time. You're really struggling to what do I do? But I also want to point out that it wasn't one thing happens up, I'm out, I'm gone. No, a lot of things happen, and but also there were times where you're you were quiet to try to listen, and sometimes maybe he didn't speak to you, maybe there weren't times you were getting the frying pan.
Speaker 3:Moments moments.
Speaker 4:But I think it's important to point out this we have to still be quiet and Let him speak. And sometimes our mind gets in the way of that and say, well, this is what I should do and that's not really what. What was his will. So, in order to follow that that moment, we have to be quiet and Understand so we know what the next step is. And that next step looks different for everyone. Everyone has an individual story and I feel like everyone needs to, needs to be quiet and listen for what that next step is 100% because that that next step Creates another step and all those you know.
Speaker 4:If we have put those steps in a line and we had a pathway, it wouldn't be a straight pathway to where you are now. No, it would be. There would be moments of there's a cliff you're about to fall off of, there's nothing there, kind of like Wiley Cody when he goes over the cliff, he realizes where he at and go straight down. But every time there's something else there to catch you, and that's God with the next step. But the important thing is the first one and not letting all those outside factors influence. What are people going to think, what are they going to say? Because those are strong things.
Speaker 3:I was terrified. It felt like there's not an adjective I can think of to think about the fear that was driving me at that point in my life Complete fear. I was terrified. I just did not know how anything was going to turn out and I feel crushed, like in that moment, like I can't even function, have my parents to land and so many people open their homes for me I had a friend get her shop ready and like spray foam it and put air and heat in it so that I could work and support my children. Just seeing God like that was God working through someone else, giving me that gift. Like I've just seen so much good from so many different humans in the right moment, in the perfect timing, and I just pray every day that I don't let it fall void and that I'm being the same hands and feet, because had those people not been the light for me in those moments, I wouldn't be successful, I wouldn't be doing anything right without having everyone just give me a little boost.
Speaker 4:And your stories is part of other story and their story is part of your story. But we don't get that unless we interact with other humans and tell each other about it and share those, sometimes share our pains.
Speaker 3:Yeah, our burdens. I feel super convicted to share because I know that it the story connects. There's no blame. There's no somebody did something wrong. It's like we're all at some area in our life struggling and trying to be better and we don't have the tools. But why are we not talking about it and why are we walking around with the smiles which it's human nature? And we do it? That's in us because we think people don't care. But at the core, people don't want surface level, they want to know the meat.
Speaker 4:They want to know what, what tools helped you, what worked you through it. Because it is six years and it's a process and, as you mentioned, it's still a work in progress.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:You step out and you move in with your parents. You know you're still training at the time.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:Have a shop that somebody opened up. I mean that's a big thing to go into, huge that's a big thing for them to allow it. And again, that's God's interim prayers, him.
Speaker 3:Like in a way.
Speaker 4:Yes, and you being open for the opportunity because he provides for us. Sometimes we're just not open for that opportunity.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:And we go, you're not doing anything. Well, he said you weren't open for the opportunity.
Speaker 3:Yes, seeking, seeking.
Speaker 4:Yes, and so during that time, you're working on mending and a lot of you kept mentioning yourself. I have to work on myself. I have to do these things for myself, and I think that's so important. We wait for somebody else to do it for us, or we want to do it for somebody else, but we have to do it for ourselves, because when we felt, when we can work on ourselves, we can do so much more for others 100%.
Speaker 4:It makes us a better mom, it makes us a better boss, it makes us a better daughter, coworker, whatever it is All of it, yes.
Speaker 4:It starts with me and sometimes we get selfish about me, like, well, we don't want to work about me because it's about everybody else. And you're working on this all this time and it is part of your story because you've could have said I'm going to go do something else, I'm just going to keep training. But when did that come about? Again that you know? Real estate came about again and like it was 2016 when you had that first conversation. And it comes again in 2019.
Speaker 3:Yes, and I was like it's time, like I've, you know, figured out how to make it work for this, you know, next year and a half, and it's time I'm saying I'm, you know, human again.
Speaker 4:I'm pulling myself together and you're starting to function a little bit better.
Speaker 3:Yes, healing, because no matter the situation, no matter what, divorce wrecks you. It absolutely wrecks you in all the ways. So I'm putting myself back together, I'm raising my children and I'm like I'm feeling that A I'm not going to be able to support my kids doing this at this level, like it's just not going to happen for me. So I'm still working at Fittin' Wise, I'm still working out of my beautiful friend's shop and I start the coursework. It takes me a while because I'm figuring out life. I'm really having to figure out how to study again all of these things and already, when I see agents go through, they've already made the curriculum more user friendly where it was even more dry you know, so you're trying to learn and I'm getting through the coursework and go and test and then all of a sudden, I got my real estate license.
Speaker 3:Like how did that just happen? You know what I mean? I'm just working every day trying to check the boxes.
Speaker 4:Just doing a little bit at a time A little bit at a time.
Speaker 3:Going to work on this when I can it took me, when I went back and looked, six months to take all the courses and you can do it in a much shorter amount of time, but it took me six months. I made it through.
Speaker 4:Working a little bit of time.
Speaker 3:I was doing it Still working on six years. Yes.
Speaker 4:Mental health, find that value, find that worth. It's a little out of time but, looking back, you did it in six months.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like, oh my gosh, I just did that in six months, but now I'm also like I could have been faster.
Speaker 2:I'm so worried about that I could have done that faster but it did.
Speaker 3:It took all of that because my mental health was so low and you know it's not like just because you leave that the situation is resolved anyway. So there's a lot going on in my life still that I'm working through and I get my real estate lessons. I decide to work with Parker properties because in my mind, after speaking those years ago with Tracy, I just kept watching that brokerage and it was like that looks like where I want to go, like there was really not words to say why. I just did my research and I'm like that's where I want to work and that's how it started.
Speaker 4:And so then you worked for Parker property. We still work for Parker property, but as your business grows you have an opportunity to get a group. How does that? Because you currently have free bird group.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:And so we'll talk about how that group came about. And then we'll also want to talk about the name, because I think names are so important and they usually have lots of meaning. So I want to get to that too. But how does a group come about? How does that work?
Speaker 3:So in real estate, as the brokerage grows, it's common when the broker would allow for a group to be formed, because then the person who's running the group is in charge of those agents and it relieves the burden from the broker. Even though his liability is the ultimate liability, it gives him a break from managing as many people. So when an agent starts a group they bring in agents they want to work with and then the head broker does not have to provide the management. Everything goes through me. It's kind of how a group works.
Speaker 4:So is that new agents that you go and recruit per se, or is it agents that we're in? It can be all of that.
Speaker 3:New agents usually are the ones for sure that need a mentor, because you obtain your license and you have zero idea, zero idea how to become a real estate agent or how to work a transaction that's just a test.
Speaker 4:That said. You read it and you know what.
Speaker 3:You know how not to get sued, right? Yeah, so that's really what that is. And so then you have to go about learning how to work in real estate. So that's how a group is formed, and so you need a lot of mentoring and a lot of shadowing, and so it's very common for new agents to come on. But now that I'm seasoned, many agents want to work that way because the phone is ringing and there's an opportunity for them to have referrals off of your group.
Speaker 4:And so your group now consists of how many?
Speaker 3:Well, right now, active license it's me, dylan and Courtney, I have an assistant, I have a transaction coordinator who's also licensed, and I have another agent whose license is inactive at the moment. Just because she needed to pivot. And then we're going to re circle the wagons. I've had a couple of other agents in the meantime. They're off doing different things at the moment, but you learn really quick if you're going to be able to do it. You know and hang with it. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work.
Speaker 4:And so how did, when you decide to become a group and kind of be under take, manage those under you and become a group, you had free bird free birds free bird bird. So how did that name come about? What?
Speaker 3:So I was. This is weird, but I was working at the hospital and we had our own emails and I needed to change the password at the time of my life changes and at the time it was weird. You had to call it. You did tell them what your password was and I had not thought anything about it other than I needed to change my password. He was like okay, what do you want it to be? And it was as loud as a bell, free bird. And I just said that and I was like that's my password. And then it never left, Like it just kept free bird, free bird, Like it was so loud in my ear.
Speaker 3:I felt like a free bird. I feel that way today. Like. I feel free from something that was at a time, very oppressive to me, and so free bird is how that came about. It was an email password that never left, and then just one thing, one question what's your password?
Speaker 4:Free bird.
Speaker 3:Like it literally just I heard it in my head. It came out my mouth Like free bird.
Speaker 4:Where'd that come from?
Speaker 3:And then people will say are you a fan of Leonard Skinner? Yes, but that is not where that came from. It was a feeling that became palpable. That would be how I would describe what is free bird. It was a feeling that came out of my mouth.
Speaker 4:And do you feel it still has that energy and that meaning as your business grows?
Speaker 3:Yes, because there are so many areas in my life I feel free yeah, like, I just think, anyone when they're walking down a path that is not meant for them. You have a lot of cloud cover. You know there's so much cloud cover so that when that is changed or you change what path you're on, you see the sunlight comes through. You know, and there's still so many cloudy days. That is just not to.
Speaker 4:It's not all sunny days, it's not sunny days.
Speaker 3:It's not all sunny days, but it's like the ability for the light to come through. You know, is the feeling of being free.
Speaker 4:Clouds are a little thinner.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Some sunlight can get through and about your business, so have a marketing background and work in healthcare. You know, sometimes we get used to the way things are and things you know, especially in a small town, and I always like to share these things because, you know, part of my hometown is about understanding why our business owners and people in our community do the things they do.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:And to change ideas. Change thoughts, come up with new ideas and you know you changed a little bit when you started doing real estate and selling houses. You know your face is all over town.
Speaker 3:It is so embarrassing, it's everywhere.
Speaker 4:And it's on big signs, little signs, yard signs everywhere, which is marketing genius. Because when you think of Parker Properties, free Bird Group, think of Amy, which is the subtle idea. It's a, you know, give you an insight to marketing. That's what you want, without saying, you know waving hey, it's me over here. You just get used to seeing that name, that face, real estate sales. If you see a sign with your name, your face all over tennis is sold, sold, sold, sold. What's the underlying thought? That person is going to sell my house. So that's something different that some weren't doing. Taking videos, taking, walking in and doing a tour of the home is not something that everybody does, doing a drone of the home and surrounding. So what gives you those ideas? Go like, you know, this isn't the way it's being done in town, but I'm going to do it.
Speaker 3:Well, I did not invent the will by any means. I've been in real estate for years. I saw other real estate business thrive under that umbrella and it was never an option for my business to look different, like I knew that's the way my business needed to look, and of course, everybody has their own branding and specificity that they want for their business, or their color palette or their whatever they're executing. And I, like, had a vision. I just had a vision of how it needed to look, and then I made my business look like that and prayed for the business to come so that I could market it, because marketing was my strength, and so I had not a lot of real estate strength when I started.
Speaker 3:So, I'm like I've got to build off of my asset, and my asset was I was marketing minded. I saw the way it I wanted it to look and I just tried. Now did I feel vulnerable naked? Was I terrible all of it? Yes, it was the heart, one of the hardest things I've ever done. But because I was a personal trainer, I had to do something for my hometown residents to think of me as a realtor and not as a personal trainer anymore you have to change your brand.
Speaker 3:So I had to rebrand myself and put myself out there to say think of me, this is what I'm doing. And it felt so scary and so weird and so foreign. But I just knew that that's what I was supposed to do, and I've heard this said by from someone else, so I really want to share it because I hope that it makes someone else realize, oh, like people would come to me and say, oh my gosh, you're so natural at that. I'm like well, I'm not because I'm struggling so much to get it done. But that is the difference between like greatness I'm not saying I'm there, but it's having the confidence to just do it anyway.
Speaker 3:You're scared to death. You're terrified, but if you know that's what you're supposed to do, quit listening to that voice and listen to the voice that says you can do it. This is the way it needs to look. This is the way you're supposed to go. Go this way, like don't listen to the other voice, because that voice is always going to be there, no matter what. But I just did it, scared.
Speaker 4:And this is at a point where you're two years out of your relationship, your marriage, when you're starting this inter-real estate and you're putting it out all out there, coming from a place of not feeling a lot of worth, a lot of value, but yet you put yourself out there and says look at me.
Speaker 3:It was a lot.
Speaker 4:And on the outside of the world, who does she think she?
Speaker 3:is yes.
Speaker 4:But again, we don't know what's on the other side and we don't know the challenges that person has gone through to do that and it's still going. I don't want to even look at that. I'm putting it out there, but I don't want to even drive by and see that.
Speaker 3:Thank you for saying that, because that is like the number one thing I would hear in my head Like do I need an assistant? Who does she think she is? Why would she need? Why would her business need an assistant?
Speaker 3:And then I realized, after hearing that for so long hiring an assistant, oh my gosh, why did I not do this sooner? Like I was silly that I didn't go down this path, I was silly that I didn't listen to that. Like I just keep hearing those things over and over and just do it anyway, fearful or not, do it anyway.
Speaker 4:And hold your head up high and move forward, because a lot of those people naysayers that are having those thoughts and opinions oftentimes aren't moving forward. They're the ones standing on the sidelines watching.
Speaker 3:Heckling.
Speaker 4:Heckling.
Speaker 3:Heckling.
Speaker 4:I always share a story about one of the triathlons I did and it was one of the first ones I did. I was coming out of the pool overweight, have a lot of things bouncing and jiggling when you're running. You just got swim trunks on tight swim trunks and I'm running past these guys and I didn't hear them. But Kim tells me they were laughing at me and so for her, like it made her mad yes.
Speaker 4:I think that's the time it did, me too. But as I look back on that, because hindsight is so great, think they were spectating. They were not in there doing the work 100% so if you may not have always have the right look, the right feel, but you're out there doing it and, just like you know, if you're going to share on social media it's going to be scary for your business. But the more you do it, the better you get at it.
Speaker 3:The easier it gets.
Speaker 4:You're probably way better four years later at selling a home real estate, commercial property than you were for your. You don't bumble and fumble your words.
Speaker 3:It's like just comes natural Muscle memory.
Speaker 4:Right, yes.
Speaker 3:Right, yes, I've taught muscle memory.
Speaker 4:Yes, it's the same thing. For sure, we're going to be lousy at it first.
Speaker 3:It's going to suck. Really that's the word for it. Like everything, when I go back and look at some of the beginning stuff, I'm mortified that I really put that out there. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:I hit post on that. What was I thinking? But it's what I did. It's where I went and it's how I probably got a little bit better, and I still, my gosh, have so far to go. But I just realized that at the end of the day, I need to support my family. And if that is what I think supporting my family looks like, that's what I'm going to do and I'm going to shut out the voice in my head along with any glimpse of another voice I might hear from someone else. Like I just got to, I just got to feed my family. That's really what I feel, and I just have to put the brave face on, because it doesn't ever not feel scary. It doesn't feel good to stand in front of a video and talk and then watch it back and not crucify yourself. It's very difficult.
Speaker 4:I should have done that. I should have done this In the early days when I did. I've done YouTube and I'm like I watch them and it's hard because I'm like get it out, brother, Spit it out, Get out those words. But the quicker we do it, the quicker we get those bad things out of the way.
Speaker 3:Yes Because you're on your way to your yes or you're on your way to your success. When you said about them laughing at you, it makes me think, because I'm a big Brené Brown and I like have read every book, I think, and all of her social media.
Speaker 3:She has encouraged me with leadership. If you don't know who she is, you need to. She's a fellow Texan, but she always, always quotes the Teddy Roosevelt quote of the man in the arena. You need to put it up at the end of this podcast. It's in my office, it's on my refrigerator. I have the best.
Speaker 3:I have a post it note, have a mirror in my closet that says man in the arena because, like I need the reminder all the time If I'm worried about critics or naysayers, I'm the one doing the work and I'm not going to ask advice from someone not in the same arena. Is me not doing the same work I'm doing? If you criticize, you criticize, but I'm just doing the work. I'm just getting up and trying to work every day, my bills have a good life and not have fear that I can't support myself next month, like that's literally my goal.
Speaker 4:I'll have another month.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm just trying to ensure that I can have a safety net for my kids and pay my bills, survive. That's what I'm doing, I don't know what anyone else? Is doing, but I'm just getting up and trying to do that.
Speaker 4:And because you have that bigger vision and that bigger vision leads you to do the work and do those things that you're scared about, that other people are going to say what is she doing? Why are they doing that? All those reasons because it's easy to criticize when we're not in those shoes.
Speaker 3:Yes, so it looks a whole.
Speaker 4:it's a different point of view when you're standing in those shoes, as it is, from standing on the outside, and I think that's one thing that's important to remember. As customers, as community members, as business owners, we can say, well, it should do that, it should do that, but until we're standing in those shoes, we can never fully understand the enormity of what is going on with that person.
Speaker 3:And the hours of work behind it, yeah. I know.
Speaker 3:You know that because you have several things going on. You don't ever understand the amount of hours someone is working to produce some desired result and especially when you're new, everything takes longer and it's harder for your brain and I just feel like I have worked so many hours the past four years, but it's been worth it. And then I was able to get my brokers lessons, which was a whole other. It's a whole other God story and I'm not going to go there, but it was a big accomplishment, because you have to hold your lessons for four years before you're eligible to apply and because I had not graduated college. They then require you to have 900 hours of continuing education, not to mention all of the sales requirements that you have to meet. Well, I had met all the sales requirements by year two, but I had to have all of those hours completed and I decided in year two that I was going to get my brokers lessons at the year four mark and I did all of that 900 hours.
Speaker 4:And that's a lot of hours for continuing education to stay awake through.
Speaker 3:It's a ton.
Speaker 4:Because we all know that continuing education, in any field, is not always the most riveting information.
Speaker 3:It's not and it's pretty dry and it's time consuming and I was running a business and I'm a single parent and I was managing my children and my life and dating and I did the 900 hour requirement because my goal was that on my four year mark that I would have my letter that I could test. But right at my four year mark I had to get my stinking gall bladder and appendix out when I had seven hours to go, seven in the hospital I was scheduled for that last seven hours. That killed me, like I'm telling the surgeon I need to be like log in. And in fact it's why I put off my surgery because I could feel something was so wrong with my body. But they kept trying to get me in and I was like no, I have a class that day, like I just was at the end.
Speaker 2:So, focused.
Speaker 3:I finished my education requirements at four year and one month, and then I was able to obtain my broker's license at four years and three months. So it was just a weird goal I set for myself.
Speaker 3:that meant nothing to no one like zero, but meant everything to you To meant everything to me and I got so focused on getting there and accomplishing it, and it means everything to me without it changing my life greatly. As in I just needed to say I accomplished this. It's always bothered me. I never obtained a degree. I needed to hustle for my worthiness and it I don't know why, but it was. It made me feel worthy or I have a seat at the table If I have my broker's license. I don't know why I put all of this weirdness on myself to feel like I was owning of my spot.
Speaker 4:And I'm the same way with you know my goal was to finish my degree made no difference in my life. I didn't see any pay increase, nothing changed in my life. But again, it was a goal that I set forth. But I think it's a good example too that you show your kids that you know you set a goal. It may mean nothing to anybody else, but it means the world to you. So if it does, then go for it, do it, work hard for it. You know, spend those hours doing it, working hard.
Speaker 3:You know, maybe neglecting some things, maybe not always the healthiest things, but you know I did neglect a lot of things to achieve that goal, because that's what we do. You have, there's a lot of plates.
Speaker 4:Yes, and there's a sacrifices.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:Sometimes we make the right sacrifices, sometimes we make the wrong ones.
Speaker 3:But we're always just hopefully operating at our highest and best, you know, and that we're trying to make the best choice. But I made a lot of sacrifices in the last two years of fun and health priorities for me, of exercising like I want to, all of those things to get that goal accomplished because it was such a high priority for me, like one day it will mean something, I will go on my own and that will be great. But, as in today, it didn't change anything other than I needed to accomplish it for myself.
Speaker 4:And it could again. The choices you make today will change the future. All those choices you've made years ago moving out of, out of buoy, to only realize that buoy is the place you want to be, to getting remarried, to having a family, that kids that you love and experiences that you went through and a life that has shaped for the next part of your life, the next season. Everything that has happened to us for a reason is part of our. We're supposed to go through it for whatever reason. We don't understand it and may never understand it, but it's the season we were in 100% and if you can learn from that season and then grow in the next season.
Speaker 4:But it's up to each of us to decide how we're going to grow. You know to to see where you're at now versus six years ago.
Speaker 3:It's a big change.
Speaker 4:It's a big change and to say that, and for you to admit that you still have work to do, that there's still triggers, there's things, there's still stories going on your head, there's still those words going on your head that Daily that nobody sees.
Speaker 3:But I think there's more positive days than not. But I think that I feel super convicted to share, because I think that we're also crippled by not comprehending. We're all battling something and we are all so victim to looking at what the polished version is, but I'm always like I'm an open book. You asked me anything, I'm going to share it with you because I think we should share. That is the human experience. It doesn't mean everyone needs to know all the intimate details, but, if me, sharing one thing about what I shared today encourages, motivates, makes the ripple.
Speaker 3:I just want the ripple, the ripples. What I'm going for, I told Jeff, my boyfriend, recently I want to be a map maker.
Speaker 4:What do you mean by that?
Speaker 3:I want to say she did something different that no one else did.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I'm not saying that even remotely happened yet. That's what I want my legacy to be in life with anyone who loved me or any life I touched, was that I imparted something different, and I think it's so scary to be different. But if we can all just lean into our own self, I've shared that with you. In my mind, no one else can be. Aaron Degler, you are the most amazing human at it, and if you stop doing it, who else is going to do you? And let God put you here to do you All the goods and the bads.
Speaker 3:All the goods and the bads. I feel like all the time we're walking around trying to be small, not be ourselves, so we ought this. The me we were supposed to be like gets dim when you listen to that voice. If you can quiet the voice and hear your purpose through the noise, it's going to work out like there's going to be sunshine for you. Just listen to it.
Speaker 4:Because every one of us are born with a purpose 100% we don't.
Speaker 4:Every one of us don't find it out, unfortunately. But when we do, when we say life is perfect, when we find our purpose, because sometimes our purpose can be challenging and it can put up a lot of things, but when we like to say, when you know what your purpose and you know what your thing, you keep hearing it, you keep thinking about it that's the thing you have to go after, because what happens if we end life and we didn't, what lives did we miss out on touching what of our own life we missed out?
Speaker 3:All the threads that were left un-pulled because you didn't listen to what was in your gut. Please let that be your takeaway, because had I not started my journey in real estate, what if I would have never had the lift up Like the light, you know? What if I had never felt any kind of confidence or being able to move forward. I just I think that's the takeaway is just listen to what is inside you, because it's there for a reason.
Speaker 4:And don't shove it down. Yes, what? I'll wrap up. What is one of the things about Bowie, about our community, that you make it, that you call it my hometown?
Speaker 3:I think what I feel most drawn to Bowie is I keep hearing myself say this when I'm talking about Bowie is it feels insulated. I think always I've felt this way, but I didn't have the language to identify that. That was the feeling I'm expressing. But post COVID, in real estate I always see, you know, our property values were a little bit lower. Nobody that people weren't, you know, just pouring in. Post COVID, where the cool kids you know, everybody wants rural living.
Speaker 3:Everybody then saw the value of being insulated when we had the tornado. You know that was during COVID, early on, and everybody was obliging and following the rules. But we had the tornado and we were able to come together to help with cleanup and it was almost like and I'm not being disrespectful, it wasn't that we forgot about COVID, but it was that had to be paused because we were helping our community re-gather and restructure. Nothing can feel better than your neighbor showing up to help you.
Speaker 3:You know that's insulation, that is safety, that now, with all the unrest in the world, I just went on a trip and was in Boston, my favorite city. I always say I love that, it's the most magical place. But I had this sense of unrest and fear because there were all these protests and police were everywhere. I don't like the way that feels, like the feeling of being safe and secure and buoy is home. That is safety, that is what lifts you up. You know when you can feel your community can support you and I do feel my community has supported me and lifted me up and helped me have a new start.
Speaker 3:It is because of great relationships in my community and, gosh, why would I want to live anywhere else? You know it's a great place to live, Great humans that we have ties to for years and Aaron and I haven't really even got to connect or chat in years and he didn't even know I was going to say and he was a part of my story. You know, it's wonderful to have that history with people.
Speaker 4:It's a gift. We don't always get that in other places. No, it does make our hometown special.
Speaker 3:And when people move here from out of town and I can tell them about all the love this community has shown me through the years and other friends who have had trials, and how the community has rallied and supported them. It is an easy sell to say this is where you want to live. This is a great community, it's a no-brainer.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it tells itself, yeah, yeah, this is the place. Well, thank you for joining me today. Thank you, I'm your heart, sharing your story that others need to hear, that we need to be open sometimes because they're, because our stone is sometimes hard to throw into the pond, but the ripple it makes is wonderful. Yeah, it's very challenging sometimes, but taking that scary step, the next step and I appreciate you taking those baby steps over and over and over again, because we're blessed to have you and to share your story and be part of our community and encourage others that move into our community to be part of our community, because that's what helps our community grow. Is you that other people now find a safe place, a place that's insulated, to live? So I appreciate that.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you, you're welcome and thank you. Thank you for your time, yeah.
Speaker 4:Thank you for joining me today. Thanks for stopping by, and we're looking forward to seeing you around my hometown.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If you would like to connect with Aaron, you can do so by going to AaronDeglercom or find him on social media as Aaron Degler on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Once again, we greatly appreciate you tuning in. If you have enjoyed this show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcast. We greatly appreciate that effort and we will see you around in my hometown.