Winning Women's Wednesday
Join Ashley and Michelle on their mythical quest for work life balance while navigating the choppy waters of female entrepreneurship!
Winning Women's Wednesday
When Jimmy Choos End Up in the Freezer: Our Guide to Summer Survival
Ever found designer shoes in your freezer? Welcome to summer with kids! As Mental Health Month winds down, we're diving into the beautiful chaos that arrives when school ends and the summer season begins.
The transition from structured school days to the free-for-all of summer vacation brings unique challenges for working parents and professionals. We unpack strategies for maintaining productivity when the house is full, the pantry is constantly being raided, and "I'm bored" becomes the family mantra. With candor and humor, we admit that balancing work and family during summer requires more than just scheduling – it demands a complete mindset shift about what productivity really means.
Summer also presents the perfect opportunity to reassess personal goals. Michelle shares her commitment to strength training over cardio, recognizing that fitness needs evolve in our 40s. We explore how physical wellness directly impacts mental resilience during stressful periods, whether that stress comes from family demands or professional challenges.
Speaking of professional challenges, we don't shy away from the current real estate market rollercoaster. One day brings multiple offers on properties that sat for weeks; the next brings complete silence on listings that should be moving quickly. This unpredictability creates what we've affectionately termed "puddles of tears" for agents and clients alike. We dive into an important industry debate around feedback – balancing honesty with professionalism in an increasingly personalized communication environment.
Join us for this candid conversation about summer survival, mental wellbeing, and finding moments of joy (and humor) in the midst of chaos. Whether you're a parent, professional, or both, you'll find practical insights and permission to approach this season with flexibility and self-compassion.
And sweet baby Jesus, we're on the air for real, I think. Okay, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Winning Women's Wednesday Take two, yeah, take two. The first one was really good, so you guys missed it. But I am here with my stunning co-host oh, stunning, stunning, stunning, miss Ashley Gentry, and we are live at Studio USA Plano. Well, you're my sh. I had to unplug all this shit because, oh, the TV, oh, okay, Got it. The big TV, got it. I mean, I'm good. Okay, now tell me if it's sharp. Are we real live? Okay, fantastic, I'm going to do it this time. I'm going to do it, you do it.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Winning Women's Wednesday for the third time. Third time, are we live? I'm checking, okay, we're checking, we're checking, we're waiting, we are, oh, my gosh, we're live. Yes, we're live, we're live. Okay, well, thank you. I am here with my fabulous co-host, michelle Ozimi. Why, thank you, thank you. Where am I? You are my stunning co-host, ohimi. Why, thank you, thank you, you're my stunning co-host. You're still stunning, still stunning, even the third time around, miss Ashley Gentry. Yes, so now we're good, we're good, success, wow, happy hump day everyone. Happy hump day, even to Rick. You know it was impressive, it was. It was impressive. Rick installed this massive television so we were captivated by our beauty. We walked in because he was playing a podcast, but apparently it unplugged a bunch of stuff, so then we had multiple takes before we became live to all of our fans. Our fan, yes, hi, dad, um, so yeah, here we are.
Speaker 1:It's been a crazy week. You've had a lot going on it. It's been a crazy month, like I'm like, are we still in May? How is it only May? Why is it May over? Like it's all things. It's all. It seems fast. And because then I think we did our throttle up thing on May 8th that was not that long ago, but doesn't it feel like it was ages? It does feel like it was ages. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you, you are going to officially be an empty nester. Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 1:Like August 27th, I drop her off. Wow, I'm so excited, are you? Yeah, okay, yeah, I know People keep telling me I'm going to be so sad, but like I've done this twice already, I'm good, I'm good. Third time's the charm. I'm just like going for four days. What was that like? Well, I found a Jimmy Choo in the freezer. I don't understand why Jimmy Choo pump was in the ice chest of the freezer.
Speaker 1:Is your foot bigger than whoever was trying to wear your shoe? No, no, and I did have to call. And now, speaking of that, the shoe closet blew up and there were all of these shoes in Gracie's room and I'm like, I think those are mine, those are mine, those are your dad's. Why do you have your dad's tennis shoes? I don't understand. It was so random. Okay, I'm pretty sure Kroger thinks I'm running my own grocery store out of my building because they delivered like twice a day, three days in a row. Hmm, yeah, is it like when my mom goes and tries to buy 120 pounds of chicken to make all the dog food. Yeah, you want to see some eyeballs and you go in there and say, can I have 120 pounds of chicken? Like, it was just so much. Like, yeah, and I sent you the picture of sweet little Tilly just belly up after they had all left. Like, done, mom, she was so worn out. Bless her heart, bless her heart.
Speaker 1:But now we're back into the grind. We are, we are so, which brings me to our topic for today, because I only lived it for the last three days. But, guys, the kids are home for summer, and so, with May being Mental Health Month and this is our last show for Mental Health Month let's talk about the kids being home for summer. What is Mental Health Month? Why do we have to have months? Shouldn't we just all try to be mentally well like year round? I think that's. The problem is that we're siloing our mental health, so 11 months out of the year it's like free for all. It's a free for all that's ahead of like my house over the weekend. Okay, yeah, got it. Yeah, make me do some mental health routines. What are we doing? Well, today we're going to talk about planning your schedule, keeping yourself organized and productive during the summer when the kids are home.
Speaker 1:Dude, I don't do that when the kids are home, not home whatever in between. We know, we know I am finding a lot about myself that is very charming in my personality and my skill sets, and I just think that everybody tries to make me operate in my anti-strengths, and I don't want to do it anymore. So what is your plan for summer? Oh, I love how you just derailed it so well. No, with your anti-strengths. What is your plan for summer?
Speaker 1:I'm going to continue to commit a little bit more to my health. Love it. In what way? Not mental, I'm fine with that. Okay, I'm fine with that. You've accepted it. I understand, I understand I need to firm up. That's where I'm at. Okay, like I have an amazingly healthy diet, you do, I'm good. Okay, like I have an amazingly healthy diet, you do, I'm good there.
Speaker 1:You know what I ate for dinner last night. I'm not telling you what I ate for dinner. Okay, I ate two like small sirloin steaks Like they were small, yeah, but I ate two of those. Then I ate a cup of Good Culture cottage cheese Nice, oh, my gosh, all the protein. And then I ate my homemade protein bar. Oh, I love your protein bars, if I ever get them again. My mom's now making them because I only get in modes and so, yeah, she's put them in, even like smaller squares, so like you can get just like a couple of bites. Mom, hook me up? Oh, okay, because Ashley sucks and she didn't bring me. I do suck, so I will get her to make you a batch and then you can have a little, yeah, the little squares, but love that. So it's just like a protein, you know, free for all.
Speaker 1:So here's, you know what I want to do. I want to signal to whatever, to whatever fitness coach out there that wants to tame this beast. I would try, like you would try with, because I'm going to start lifting. I lift three or four days a week. I love it. I go to this like total do gym. I don't want to go to Dallas, that's true, that's true. But I can come to Planet Fitness. There's hundreds of them. I like Planet Fitness. I have my do gym and then I have Planet Fitness. Okay, why don't you like planet fitness?
Speaker 1:It's purple, oh, it's very purple. I don't like purple. I don't either. It's purple and yellow. It's a lot. I feel like I'm fine with purple. I just think people pervert purple and so then it becomes like the one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people later. Right, fair enough, I know. Wow, can you say that again? I no, I took my much this morning, so maybe I don't know, maybe I could. It's a song, it is a song. So, yeah, that's showing our age here. Yeah, but no, I think fitness is.
Speaker 1:So I need to, I want to firm up. I'm in my 40s and so that's just something where, honestly, cardio, as much as women think that that's like fat burning and everything else. It's great for cardiovascular health. I just love else. It's great for cardiovascular health. I just love endurance. It's great for your endurance, yeah, but it's great for your mental health because typically, cardio is something where you're like out and about, like you're running and you're thinking that sort of thing, and I think that's why I enjoy cardio so much. Outdoor cardio, yeah, but most people do indoor cardio. That's true, that's true. So that's why I do pickleball, yes, which is amazing. Cardio, absolutely amazing. Yes, so I do all that, but I need to lift because I really I want to focus on getting firm. Yes, I like that, I like that.
Speaker 1:It's a shame that your pickleball gym doesn't have like a lifting facility, just what I've been saying. All right, I've had people that have said they want to like open up a pickleball facility. Yeah, I'm like, okay, if you actually had a cold plunge, a red light therapy booth, a dry sauna, hmm, and like a lifting center or whatever, that sounds like my building, I have all those things. But I'm saying you did that and put pickleball like all the, all the roads, because it's it's it's, it's going younger, it's having the fastest growing sport. Oh, absolutely, gen X Everyone. No, sorry, gen X, we're not thinking everyone Gen Z and everything else. And so if you did that because that wouldn't have to be mightily expensive, right, or take up a lot of real estate, right, but then you would actually have where, I would go there and I would do my lift and I would do weights and do anything else and play pickleball. Absolutely, how awesome would that be.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, we went off on a major tangent on my health goals. What are your goals? I would that be. So, anyway, we went off on a major tangent on my health goals. What are your goals? But I think that's huge. I know it's important. Those are great goals. Yeah, I like those goals. In turn, allow Christmas again.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm already wearing a bikini, but you, I wear shorts. I mean that's what I do. Look at you. So it's fine, love it. Yeah, I have like the remnants of a four pack. Like it's not like a solid one, but the definition's there. So it's there, and you've got this. Yeah, I've got it. Yeah, okay, and work on it a little bit, which in turn, will give me the bandwidth to handle the 42 balls in the air and all the stress of the real estate market. So what stress of the real estate market? What on earth are you talking about? I'm wearing a wig. Now I have, officially, I wear wigs because my hair is gone. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:Let's just all take a moment of silence over in the state market. Are we not gaslit? Because then over the weekend I get one under contract, I'm going to get one of my other listings potentially under contract, and then we're running an offer for a buyer that the house has been on the market for 40 days. This second time we've seen it the three offers in freaking day. And then we're writing an offer for a buyer that the house has been on the market for 40 days. We had the second time we've seen it the three offers in freaking day. That's amazing. No, but not on my listing, but for my buyer, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:And then, but it's like, okay, and then next week there will be nothing, no showings, there'll be nothing. And it's just like you sit in a puddle of your tears because then your sellers are like what's going? On, screaming, and then half the showings don't even show up and they certainly don't give feedback. Well, you already know where I stand on that. I just I completely disagree with you on that. You know what? Here's what's funny, here's why.
Speaker 1:So what we are seeing so like this house that this couple just put an offer on. They didn't get it, by the way, but I encouraged them that they needed to walk away Like they wanted to. They asked for resubmitting highest and best and we really went in our highest and best and I said it's okay to just be okay with losing the house. Like, be okay with losing the house if higher, go higher, but there'll be another house, right? Um? So, anywho, I was was sitting. What was I talking about? Frick, mushroom gummies did not kick in. No, I think it's the kids being home that kicked in.
Speaker 1:Um, you were talking about the real estate market and multiple offers and being okay with not getting the house. I know, and I don't know where I was going on that tangent, but it's okay. Puddle of tears, puddle of tears, just puddle of tears. No, it's absolutely fine. See, guys, even the sharpest text. Remember, I have a wig on now, so you know, but it is. It is a difficult market and we're trying to encourage and do everything that we can, but it is hard to advise and I think that's where you and I struggle is we want to fax our feelings. Oh, feedback, feedback, thank you, okay.
Speaker 1:So, like on that one, they had already seen the house and we were like, yeah, let's keep on looking. Right, we saw it a couple of weeks ago. Then it kind of stayed on the list that we had seen more properties and it's like let's circle back to that one. Yeah, and if I had given like super negative, like oh, we liked it, but we're going to keep looking or doing something else. So I always I teeter on how you want to respond, because I had another one on one of my listings, that on the. Are you interested? Yes, what do you think about the price? Too high, are you bringing an offer, maybe?
Speaker 1:And so I called the agent and I have really reasonable sellers on this one listing and she goes oh my gosh, they love the house. I was like, oh, ok, fantastic. And she's like it's not that it's too high, it's just you know this neighborhood, the comps are all over because you have multiple phases and everything else. And so I was talking with her. She was actually lovely, right, and they really didn't think it was too high. She just was struggling to find good comps because you have houses anywhere from 600 to 1.5 million. That's tough, and we're in the mid-sevens, and so I was trying to do that. So had I just taken it for face value, though.
Speaker 1:And then what if I had a certain seller which I don't release the feedback right away, and then they come and submit an offer because they want to actually submit an offer? Yeah, the seller could get persnickety and in their feelings and go well, they think my house is too high, I'm not budging, and that is exactly where the lawsuit arose from, and so I don't take it personal. I take it as an opportunity to overcome an objection. When I see feedback Exactly, most do not and if people release it directly to the seller, the seller's getting their feelings Overcome an objection and to be helpful. And to be helpful, like if there's an issue that we hear over and over and over again that a room is in horrible shape because the paint is green. I get that, but 20 years ago I can agree that that's how we would have. That's how we used feedback.
Speaker 1:Yeah, today, in this very hyperbolic world where everybody is it's me against you, yeah, and they get negative feedback, it becomes personal. It's me against you, yeah, and they get negative feedback, it becomes personal, and so I think that's where we're seeing. It's just like having to have the hot coffee warning on a coffee cup because somebody burned themselves. Duh, it was hot, right, so. But now it's the feedback yeah, like, ok, but we're giving candid feedback. So then you can use that and improve on your marketing or, you know, adjust your sales price to put yourself in a more marketable position.
Speaker 1:But sellers take it as you're offending me. And so that's where the lawsuit arose is that a buyer's agent put feedback in. It was released to the seller that the house was overpriced, came back two weeks later, made an offer. Seller decided they wouldn't move off a nickel because you thought my house was too high. And ultimately, when it all closed, the seller told the buyer hey, thanks for everything. And, by the way, the feedback that your buyer's agent put is the reason why we didn't negotiate a dime. And I get all that, and I've heard the lawsuit. And it's Coffee cup hot, coffee cup hot is all I'm saying. Yes, but it's almost like an old wives tale that we're all using as an excuse not to be helpful to other agents. It was one lawsuit. It's actually happening more and more.
Speaker 1:And here's the other thing I will tell you In a challenging market, that's where you have to be really careful. So, if your buyer gives you permission, that's all I'm saying is that we are going to get into a place where you really need to ask your buyer do I have permission to provide feedback to the seller, knowing that full-blown? So it's just taking a couple extra precautions. So, again, I derailed what you were talking about. You did, but I think that was valuable information because I just think that feedback is so crucial, even more so in this market as we're trying to educate our sellers and as we're trying to get our homes sold. Knowing what the people who've seen the house think, both the agent and the buyer, is extremely important and it's helpful. And it's helpful to both sides sides, because if you, the buyer's agent, your client, likes the house but would have and would have purchased it had it had these things or these updates or this price point and my seller is willing to do that, if you share that information, we're only helping each other in this situation and the client.
Speaker 1:So we're in mental health month. We are. How many realtors have their mental health in check? Well, that's yes, you are correct. So I'm just saying were you saying a lot of logic, michelle? If you and I were on, you know both sides of the deal. And that goes back to we as a community need to step up our game professionally.
Speaker 1:Well, let's be honest, how many agents actually do the business? Yes, and I think what we're doing is we're using that lawsuit as an excuse to just not do our job. Yeah, but my point is how many actually do the business? No, agreed, Agreed. What 1%? So, when we're talking about the lion's share of the business is done by a very small pool of people, yeah, however, the lion's share of the business is done by a very small pool of people yeah, it's the 80-20 pool. However, we're expecting all of the other buyers' agents that are one-off, showing houses that unfortunately cannot be professional if they're not doing their profession. Correct, agreed, I understand. So we have a volume problem, we have a training problem, we have a proficiency problem.
Speaker 1:It's not going to get any better. Thus the puddle of tears. Thus the puddle of tears. Yeah, or pickleball and vodka, fair enough, I know I'm drying out this week, just putting that out there Because I got to get ready for DC, because we're going to NAR.
Speaker 1:So goals for summer. Yeah, I know I got to be healthy. I know I got to be healthy. I'm going to get an IV this week. Wow, I know Well, because it's like pre-travel. Yeah, I just need to be on my tip-top game. Understood, because I got to be mentally well to go for like six days. I know, I've been looking at the schedule and it's brutal. Why is he going to talk about mental health?
Speaker 1:Everybody descend to DC. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, 31st, it's going to be something. Yeah, 31st. So it'll be great. We're all going to be. That'll be fun, it will be fun. It will be fun. You've never been. I've never been. I'm excited. There's some things I'm excited about. It's going to be a whirl Because I'm only there. I'm there the second, through the fifth. Okay, fly home on the fifth. Okay, catch a flight the very next morning at 6 am to Seattle for my son's college graduation. Oh, that's so fun, it is fun. It is fun. I'm glad I'm going to him, though, instead of him coming to me. Yeah, so you could leave him. So I can leave him and I can stay in a hotel without him. Okay, got it. Yeah, yeah, and my sweet little babies will be at Grandma's, so they'll be super happy. They'll be very well taken care of. Your fur babies, my fur babies, they will double in size while they're there. That's good they must do. Yeah, so it's fun. Okay.
Speaker 1:So this summer, as we're dealing with our lovely children at home begging for more food because there's nothing in the pantry and they're so bored and we're horrible parents, how are we going to stay in line with our productivity? So what's your plan? You, you say this, but I am not the avatar of the person you should know, because my no, all the time. It's true, it's all true. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So are y'all done with school for the season? Yeah, what is school? Do you ever think you would be so close to someone that is, quite honestly, so opposite of everything you do? I could eat all meat. You don't really like me, right? You have to run outdoors. That makes me gag. Yeah, I think school is dumb. You're a scholar. This stresses me out. I know it makes me gag. Yeah, I think school is dumb. You're a scholar. That stresses me out. I know it stresses me out. You love to travel, gross, yes, yes, oh, my gosh. But I think this is why this works. I think, maybe. So back to summer. How long is this show? I don't know. I mean, you got a few more minutes back to summer, okay.
Speaker 1:So seriously, summer goals, first thing. When the kids are home, it is distracting, and not only because they have needs that need to be met. Like you have to feed them is what my children have told me. It's the law. You have to feed them. They want to be entertained. How am I going to tell them they're independent and old enough to be fed? No, but you have to like keep the house stocked. Yeah, tendon and enough to be fed? No, but you have to like keep the house stocked. Yeah, you have to keep the house stocked. And there's just. Well, you've got busy kids, dude. I do have busy kids, I do, but in general, you have to feed your children and you have to spend time with them and, frankly, summer is fun.
Speaker 1:Summer is my favorite season. Are you a summer girl? No, because I don't like sweating in weird places. What weird places are you in? Like places that I don't naturally sweat if it's 70 degrees outside, like underboob sweat, Back of your knee sweat oh gotcha. Like things like that? Lip sweat, is that a thing? Yeah, huh. So I enjoyed it.