Episode 9 - Between the Struggle and the Comeback

In this episode, we’re getting honest about what life really looks like right now.

We talk about the pressure so many people are feeling in this economy and what it’s like trying to stay afloat when everything feels a little uncertain. Erin shares the story behind stepping into a new job and what that transition looks like behind the scenes, while still balancing real estate, life, and everything in between.

We also dive into what’s happening in today’s real estate market, how it’s shifting, and why building trust with clients matters more now than ever. This isn’t the market for fluff… it’s the market for real conversations and real relationships.

Through it all, we talk about gratitude, perspective, and holding onto hope even when things feel tight.

If you’ve been feeling the weight of it all but still showing up anyway, this one’s for you.

Join us.

 Thanks for listening to Pour Decisions. If you enjoyed this episode, follow the podcast so you don’t miss what’s next — and join us next time for more real conversations and honest pours. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

You're not going to be able to do that. Let's begin.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

This is episode nine, if you can believe that.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Yeah. Welcome to Poor Decisions. I'm Aaron.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Yeah, I'm David.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

We are the Crumblies.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Yes, we are.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

And we have taken a couple of weeks off. Uh, we have a lot of things going on in life like most people do. David's been out of town taking care of his elderly father.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Who is holding on.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Yep. Then I went and visited uh three girls, uh, three of our girls that live down in the Daytona area, and uh seven grandbabies that are down there. And uh last week.

SPEAKER_03 0:46

Yeah, and I went away to go on vacation with uh our youngest, our our 17-year-old and our 26-year-old, who just turned 17, 26. So we went to celebrate their birthday at Universal Studios. Uh my older son, our older son, had uh had a free free three nights at a hotel. So we all got in queen size beds. There were six of us, so three and three. One first night he spent the night. I spent the night. And uh my daughter's boyfriend slept on the floor with a pillow. And uh he was a trooper. He was a trooper. He's a big boy, like he's like six three, six, yeah. Yeah, and um, and then he left on um we went we went to Universal on Tuesday. We did the epic the epic, the new epic.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Epic on Tuesday, and then I left uh Tuesday night and they went and did the other two parks.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

Yeah, and we enjoyed ourselves, yeah. We got to spend some time with the kids, and it was awesome, it was fun. So we've been out for two weeks, so uh we're trying to get back on track here and record our podcast. We're trying to do it very regularly, but life throws curveballs at you, like taking care of elderly parents or having to go see grandchildren. When you get to our age, I guess that's what happens, you know. Especially he's actually retired, you know, getting to Social Security and and doing real estate and social security being retired are two different things.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

Well, yeah, kinda. I think nowadays people don't get that option. I mean, social security doesn't really cover much of it.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

You can't live off social security, there's no way. I mean, you know no way in hell anybody could live off social security.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

It doesn't even cover our mortgage, and our mortgage is pretty good considering you know living on the water and everything. I mean, I don't know what that kind of social security that would cover. If you had to depend on one person's social security, forget about it. And I'm still like, let's see here, I'm 56, so I've got another eight years before or six years before I can collect, and God only knows if they're gonna have social security in another six years.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Might be gone. Thanks for our beautiful politicians, and yeah, they care about it so much that they wasted all of our money.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

That's what happens.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Quality learning center.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

So, yeah, um, so we've been out for two weeks, and here we are. And uh, we get back and we had another house closed. Uh, the real estate market is actually doing pretty well. Everybody's PCSing and getting ready to end school year, so people are starting to look. So we just put another one under contract. We've got two homes coming up that are gonna be going um probably in the about June. June 1st is one, and then we'll probably another listing on June for another home. So we've got real estate's doing very well. But as we were talking about earlier before we even started this podcast, it's been tough.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

It's just hit or miss, you know. It's a it's a tough, the tough market, it's a tough time for everybody, I think. There's a lot of people that are struggling right now, and you know, we could come up with a whole bunch of reasons for that.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

We've been, and then we and then we're the first to meet we've been struggling. I mean, we you know, we sold the wine bar and he got into real estate, and it was kind of at a it was dead uh back last year.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

This uh well, last year, I think it was from yeah, from the middle of the summer until late in the year, there was absolutely nothing going on. We didn't have any leads, we didn't we didn't close any houses. I think we closed one house, maybe two during that time.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

And and you know, when when you depend, you know, people think that being a real estate agent is very glamorous and that you only see what's what they put on social media, you don't see how hard it is. You've got to work your circle of influence, you gotta call expireds or for sale by owner, but you know, this area especially, everybody's a real estate agent because it's a service-oriented industry. When you live in a tourist area, you have to do service industries, like you know, either own a restaurant or work for a restaurant, do nails, uh, get facials, and you be a realtor. I mean, there's just not very many, there's not very many corporate America jobs out here, except if you're working remotely or you're up in Pensacola, so it's very competitive. And people throw on social media and they make it look so glamorous. You know, I'm closing here, I'm closing here, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. But I mean, behind the scenes, you don't know if they're really doing it because whatever they put on social media, a lot of people believe. And it's very tough.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Well, that's why you have to build trust. That's an industry that I like that part of the industry that you have to build trust. Um, you know, I was in customer service for many, many years, and you know, when somebody has an issue, somebody has a problem, I was always the one they ended up going to. I was the representative of the company and I had to make the final decision. But uh, you know, if I if I listened to them and they believed that I cared and I really wanted to solve their issue, they there was a certain level of trust there. And and sorry. My pump is about to go up.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

He if you didn't know now, you're gonna know now that he's also type one diabetic and he has a he has an insulin pump that talks to his little sensor. So when he starts going off, I tease him because I'm like, you're it's a ticking con bomb.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

And then when it goes dead, it flatlines, and so I always make a joke that I'm dead now because it'll go.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

Yeah. You know, before we get into all this, we forgot one thing. We forgot the wine.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

We didn't forget it, we just hadn't got to it yet. It's middle of the day, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 6:22

It's it is middle of the day because we have to work tonight. Yeah, tonight we're going to work for carbless, pouring drinks, um free samples of carbless over at Wanna's.

SPEAKER_04 6:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

So yeah, but before uh we get into more woe and woe is me.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Whoa is me.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

We've got um we've got Rodney Strong. I picked out some Rodney Strong. It's a Sonoma County wine. And tell a little bit history behind this wine winery.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Uh Rodney Strong is um we read it was the 13th, uh just a little bit for me. My stomach's been uh I'll let you drink the rest of that. My stomach's been kind of kooky the last couple days.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

Well, we haven't been drinking for the last few weeks.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Yeah, Rodney Strong is bought out by the Klein family back in the 1980s, and um it was one of the it was the 13th winery in Sonoma County that was actually uh was licensed as a winery, registered as a winery. Um so um Rodney Strong actually helped develop that whole area, the Sonoma area, uh, and and began farming it. So uh it's a delicious wine. We've had this one before. Uh it's got notes of black pepper, uh blackberry currant. Yeah, blackberry currant, dark fruit.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

It's aged in oak barrels.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 7:35

So you can't heavier, so his stomach may not be able to make it through this. He's been having some stomach issues last couple of days, too. Yeah, it's been a it's been a crazy couple of crazy, let's say last week, you know, a whole week. Yeah. So here's to here's to Rodney Strong. Hot Rodney Strong and poor stomachs.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Poor decisions.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

And poor decisions. This might be a poor decision. Him taking a taste one, or maybe his body's gonna be like, oh yay, I haven't had alcohol for a few days.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Maybe I'll spring back the lot.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Yeah, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Yeah, it's delicious.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

It was a good one. I did, though. It's very smooth smooth, it's very smooth.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

I I have eaten more today than I have the last couple days, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:19

Yeah. I was like, is your sugar off? And he's like, No, just not a sugar.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

But speaking of realtors around here, this is I got a funny story for you.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

So I couldn't sleep last night, my stomach. Anyway, so um, I got up, got out of bed, and I go sit in my chair, and it's I don't know, about five o'clock in the morning. And um, I'm trying to rock myself back to sleep because that's what I do. I rock myself to sleep. It's weird, but I've been doing that all my life.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

But um so does our son. He does that the same.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

DJ does that too.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

DJ does it too.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Um, but anyway, uh so there I saw it five o'clock in the morning. Somebody on uh one of the Navarre citizens pages said, um, in search of a realtor, I'm a first-time home buyer moving to the area, and there was no comments. I mean, she just put that on there at five o'clock in the morning. At five o'clock in the morning. So I'm thinking, I'll be the first one. Nobody else is up. So I go through my because I've got a picture of my business card in my phone. And I wanted to send her the picture, you know, and say, hey, I'd be willing to help or whatever. It literally took me two minutes to find that picture and reply to her Facebook post with my picture. There were already five people that chimed in, five realtors that chimed in and said, pick me, pick me. And then later on this morning, when we got up, I kind of looked through to see if you know, any she'd looked at my picture or whatever, and somebody had posted a picture of a train in India. And you know, there's trains like people hanging on top, people hanging out the side, people hanging out in the front of the train because there's there's just no room for all the people. And it said, This is what happens when you post you would need a realtor in Navarre. It's like everybody, yeah, everybody comes out of the woodwork.

SPEAKER_03 10:09

That's why I don't, I don't I don't respond to those because you know what, everybody's responding, or somebody's referring. Oh, well, I used this person, uh, or you know, it's just it's just it is a train wreck. It's a yeah, you know, and that being said, you know, the last few months I've been thinking about going back into the IT industry. I was in the IT industry for 25 years. I worked for an IBM business partner, I worked for a bank doing IBM off these portfolios, I worked for an HP business partner, uh, a laptop company. So I've been well-rounded in the IT industry. And when I left in 2019, I decided that I didn't I didn't want to do it anymore. I didn't want to do the rat race the nine to five. So I want went on to get my real estate license. And at that time, he was you were working at Planet Fitness as a regional director. You were working there, you were there for 13 years. This is before he even bought the wine bar, mind you. Yeah, so I bought we I I decided to be a realtor in 2019. We ended up having COVID in 2020. Then we bought the wine bar in 2020, and at that time I said to David, why don't you quit Planet Fitness or retire from Planet Fitness and go ahead and run the wine wine bar? And um, you know, we we co-owned it, but he ran the bar. I just went in and drank all the stock and had all the parties, which was a great way of having a wine bar. I just knew that if we worked together at the wine bar, we would probably kill each other. And um, so I haven't been doing real uh haven't been doing IT for seven years. Is it going on seven years?

SPEAKER_04 11:42

Seven years.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

So the last couple of months I kind of put out there on LinkedIn that I was thinking about going back in. I've been I've done it myself. I've bought and sold packages by myself, but you know, that's just you don't have an income. Being a real estate agent is tough. You've got to have somebody, if you're a married couple, have a regular paycheck because being a commission, two people being commissioned and not knowing when you're gonna get paid and how like it's either feast or famine. You either get a lot of closings and you have a lot of money, or you don't have any closings, and then you've got to save for that random day.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

And all of a sudden that money's gone, and you don't know when you're gonna get paid again.

SPEAKER_03 12:28

So it's it's uh it's you live on your credit cards basically. So you get the money, and you know, and then you run out of money, so you live on credit cards, and then when you get your money, you have to go back and pay off your credit cards. So it's like a vicious cycle because you, you know, if you're not getting any money, you've got to depend on credit, or you're not gonna be able to make your bills. So I threw out on eLinkedin, and I had a I guess he's a c as a consultant and um or a headhunter for a company out in California, and he and we've been talking for the last, I don't know, two months, and they made me an offer on Friday that I couldn't refuse. So as of Friday, May 1st, I'm going back into the IT world working for a company out in California. Yeah and circuitus means like full cycle, it's a recycling company. So we get in computers, we recycle them, we we pull the CPUs, the GPUs, the memory, the drives on machines that are almost absolute obsolete, and we resell them into a market that uses them to build machines. So it's a recycling company. But um, I start actually on Friday. I mean, I'll still be doing real estate. Well, we're still a team, but I'm going back to the nine to five world.

SPEAKER_04 13:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Uh, but I mean, it was a really good offer. I just could not refuse. I tried. I was like, uh, and I'm like, no, I think I should take it. So you know, at least there'll be a steady income for one of us. Because I think I, you know, I think nobody wants to talk about it right now, but with the cost of gas going up and the cost of groceries and insurance rates going up and taxes going up and everything going up. It's everything, everything. It is so hard for everyday insurance.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Insurance, especially, and especially like we were the grocery store. Yeah, health insurance is is insane right now. Or anyway, of course, Obamacare kind of blew a hole in that whole issue. So we're kind of paying for that right now. But you know, and then we just went to the grocery store yesterday, and you know, we walked past the beef section, and I was like, hey, let's grab a couple of steaks, maybe we can cook out this week. I look at the prices, I'm like, I'm not paying $13, $15 for a steak. That's crazy. But it's really not crazy these days. That's what they are. I just I haven't, it hasn't gotten into my brain yet that that's what it costs these days. I'm used to, you know, eight, ten dollars, you know, really nice steaks for ten dollars. That was just five years ago, three years ago, four years ago. And now the same steaks are $18, $22 a pound.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

It's ridiculous. I mean, and you know, I'm like, well, I guess we're gonna be having spaghetti and hot dogs and macaroni and cheese this week.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Hey, that's I'll pick up these little rice things for a dollar. You can make a whole I'm like, come on now.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

Like, come on.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Come on.

SPEAKER_03 15:04

I know he likes to like, you know, he I'm a penny pincher. He's a penny pincher, and I am not. Like I will pay the $24 for a nice piece of steak, but right now it's just been so tight. Within, you know, we get to a certain age, like after you're 50, you know, things start breaking down. Especially when I'm just saying, you know, with the diabet, like having diabetes and having them the medication, the insulin, the pumps, yeah. Um, you know, uh high blood pressure medicines, everything, you know. You start your shoulder. I had shoulder surgery not too long ago, and that was really expensive to get my rotator cuff uh done, but I had to do it. I couldn't even use it. So it's just it's just getting tougher.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

I'm sorry about that guy.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

He's just gonna beep until he flatlines and then you know he's done.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

So um I could turn it off, but if I do, I have to replace the pump.

SPEAKER_03 15:56

So yeah, so but yeah, it's just and I think that nobody really wants to talk about it. And we were having that conversation before this podcast. I said, you know, I think this is something that really needs to be addressed because people don't want to admit that they're financially having troubles, and or they try to hide that fact they're embarrassed by it. But you know, everybody is. You don't have to be embarrassed, we're the first to admit, you know, everybody thinks we we're just you know, oh, you must be hotshot realtors, oh you owned a wine bar, you you know, you you've got it going on, and like well, I'll give you an example.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Uh we've got a really good friend of mine, actually. I saw him this weekend too down in Daytona, and we had a bachelor party for him on Saturday, and uh we didn't do anything crazy, but um not that we're gonna tell anybody, but anyway, the uh he's having a wedding in South Bend, Indiana, and we've got two really good friends that we're we've all been a group of friends ever since we we all worked at Circuit City together, and they've all they've been successful and had businesses their own and and um are now working for other people now. But well, I've got two really good friends that can't make the wedding because they can't afford to fly up there, and um I mean it's a shame, you know. It's a but I think you know, if you look, if this is my opinion, my opinion.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

But should we put a put disclaimer on this?

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Disclaimer.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

Disclaimer, this is David's opinion, and only David's opinion.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

It's only my opinion, but I think you can back it up with the numbers. Uh when the Biden administration had that crazy uh reduction. What was it called? The uh deficit reduction act, which had nothing to do with the deficit reduction, by the way. I mean, they just blatantly lie. That's how little our politicians give a shit about us. They could care less, they just fucking lie to our faces and expect us to just take it. And we know they're lying, and they know we know they're lying, but they do it anyway. So the Inflation Reduction Act added about eight to nine percent inflation. And guess what? Your your payroll, your your income didn't go up eight to nine percent. Nobody's did. Everybody's income stayed the same, but the prices go sky high uh because they just flooded the market with money. They just flooded the country with money because they want everybody to stay home. Oh, well, we got to give, and guess who got all the money? All the corporations got the money. The little man that was supposed to get the money never got it. Um, but that was the whole problem, and because of that, inflation skyrocketed, and that's why prices used to be when inflation hit, um, it kind of went a little bit at a time. So you, you know, over time your income would sort of kind of keep up. It never really did, but it would sort of kind of keep up. So, you know, you could go into a grocery store and see something at you know, five dollars a pound, and then you know, six months later it's five and a half, and six months later it's six dollars a pound. But all of a sudden it went from five dollars a pound to ten dollars a pound, and um, and nobody it no, it's we just haven't been able to catch up. And I think the way our government's spending money now, we never will catch up, and it's always gonna be, and they're they're eliminating the middle class. The middle class is getting eliminated, and they're doing this on purpose, by the way. But um, they're eliminating the middle class because the middle class pays for the people that can't afford anything, and you know, people that are on Snap and on, and I'm not downing anybody that's on there. I've got family members that that have to do that, but when you do that, and that's the way of life, your way of life, and as opposed to just hey, I need some help to get through this period in my life, then that becomes a problem. Um, and all these people getting all these illegal immigrants that are getting uh subsidized and and that are getting Social Security and SNAP benefits, they never put a dime into it, and they're getting money that we it's just crazy. It's crazy to me. I could go on all day. I'm so pissed at our government. It's time to overthrow and start over. That's my opinion.

SPEAKER_03 20:06

Are you gonna lead the charge? I mean, just ask them.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

As soon as I get over the stomach issue, right?

SPEAKER_03 20:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Yeah, I mean that's what that's that's where it started, but it's it's just accumulated over time, and now everybody's trying to catch up, everybody's trying to uh to make do, and it's just getting harder and harder.

SPEAKER_04 20:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

But we're I mean, we shouldn't hit and bitch. We we really should be very thankful for everything we have, and we are thankful, but we thought we'd come talk about struggles because we know a lot of people right now they're struggling.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

And then we're right there with you. We are right there with you, you know. Um, I wish the real estate market was um doing so well that we were constantly buying and selling houses. I mean, we're doing granted, we are doing all right. I mean, our circle of friends are right now, are buying and selling, and the people that have referrals and stuff, it's we're doing all right. But to be able to make ends meet, you know, it's um something that I had to do. So May 1st, baby, I'm back in IT. So I'm maybe doing real estate with David and doing IT. I'm trying to move all my real estate over to him so I can just focus on IT because it's a back to 95 job with a boss. I haven't had a boss for seven years. I mean, I haven't been my on my own for seven years, you know.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

I had a boss ever since we got married.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

That's not true. Speaking of, we did do that show on Sunday. We did uh How Well Do You Know Your Boo, Navarre Friends, the Friends of Navarre. Uh had this thing on the beach over by the pier at Windjammer's, and um we competed what against like four or five other couples, and we came in second. And let don't even he's looking at me. So this is what happened. They they we got there and they separated us, and we had to answer questions. What we thought our spouse was gonna say, and uh he he nailed it on mine, and I nailed most of them. Um, but we were we got tied with another couple, and they were only married for six years. We've been married for 20, so we're like, okay. So we had to dance off, and the people were clapping for both of us, it was a tie tie, so it came down to a final question, and it came down to if your spouse was arrested, why would why would they be arrested? Or what would be their charge? And they had an A, B, C, D, E, like pick uh multiple choice questions, and one was you know, talks to talks to too many strangers, loves to talk to strangers. And I thought for sure everybody would pick that one because I never meet a stranger. Like I talk to everybody in the grocery store, I know everybody, right? I talk to anybody. Anyone wants to listen to me, like you guys? I'll talk to you. So I'm thinking he's gonna pick that one. No, no, no. There is one that says, or write in your own answer. So he decides to write in that I would say that I would be charged with being too sexy. I'm like, what are you thinking? Do you think I would ever say, Oh, I'm just too sexy. I'm being charged because I'm too sexy. No, so we lost. I was super disappointed because I was like, that was so blatant. Everybody in the audience knew that he should have chosen that answer, but no, he picked, I would be charged because I thought I was way too sexy. I mean, it was really sweet, honey, that you thought that.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

And that I would think that well, the the biggest problem was, you know, I thought we were just having fun. I thought we were just having fun, and she wanted to win, like nobody's business. I like to win. I mean I was just being silly. I thought it'd be funny if that I never thought it'd come down to a tie anyway, but um, but anyway, so that's what happened. I was just having fun, and she wasn't having fun.

SPEAKER_03 23:52

No, well, you know, I love to win or I hate to lose. Which one is it? You love to win or do you hate to lose? Because you don't like the win, you hate to lose.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

You hate to lose.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

Yeah, well, and there you have it. We came in second, and we didn't win anything, anyways. Nobody won anything, just the title. They didn't give us a crown.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

See, it was just for fun.

SPEAKER_03 24:09

It was not a crown, they didn't give us a crown or a sash saying that we were the you know that you knew your booty.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Didn't even get a free drink.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

We didn't even get free.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

No, not even a free drink.

SPEAKER_03 24:19

I know.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

A free tab?

SPEAKER_03 24:21

No, nothing, but it was fun, and we wanted to thank uh friends of Navarre to include us. That was a really good time.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

I had fun.

SPEAKER_03 24:29

I had fun too.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Until after we lost, and I heard about it.

SPEAKER_03 24:32

Yeah, well from then on. Yeah, I had to do it.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

And I heard about it again.

SPEAKER_03 24:35

Yeah, well, I'm sorry, I had to bring that up because I mean, you know.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

It'll come up a few more times.

SPEAKER_03 24:40

No, I think I'm done. I'm gonna bury that. No, yeah, I'm gonna bury that. So yeah, that was it. Um so is there anything else we want to talk about? I mean, you know, hey everybody, we're struggling. I'm taking a full-time job. I lost a contest. It's like Debbie Downer today. Oh, no, it's not. You know what? It's it's all in a mindset. That's what I tell David, you know, when you wake up in the morning, you gotta be thankful for what you have. You you I think you manifest things, you put out what you get back. And if you go out and think, you know what, I've got I'm healthy, I've got healthy kids, um, I have a healthy family. His dad's 98 and holding on. He's still trying to, he's he's he's holding on. I mean, like, you should be thankful for the things that you have because if you wake up and you think, oh, I don't have any money, or or uh you you don't, you know, it's like a fight or flight, you know, you the fight or you you fly. You gotta be positive because if you wake up negative, your whole day is just set because that's your mindset from the moment you wake up, you start thinking that way, and it ruins your whole day. So you gotta wake up every day and say, you know, I'm grateful. I'm grateful for David's beeping because it means he's still alive.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

That's not that I could be dead, and this thing would still beep, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

Probably. He'll be in his casket and that thing will be going off. It better not be on my arm in a casket. Yeah, well, I'll make sure I take the take that off.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

I better not be in a casket.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

But everything is a mindset, so you gotta be thankful for what you have, and you know, otherwise there's just no hope.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

And well, that's that's exactly what I was gonna say is that being thankful gives you hope. You know, if you don't have any hope, you don't have any motivation, you don't have any motivation, you can't go and change your circumstance. So, but being thankful all the time for everything that you have gives you that hope and that encouragement that you know, hey, it you can do something to you know fix this issue or get out of this hole. Um, so it's uh me and my son just had a long conversation about his motivation level, and um you know that um he was struggling for a long time with uh this one particular class that he just couldn't get through. He got he's an A student, but this one particular class, Spanish, I'll call it out, DJ. Um, but he just couldn't get through it. And uh we got talking about, you know, because you know, I hate to see you know Aaron having to go at him all the time. So I told her, I said, time out, I got this, I'll make sure he gets through this class. So we had a long talk, and he just basically admitted that he has no motivation. And um I kind of get that in a in a way for the younger generation because they've they've been told since grade school, remind you, that they've been told that the world's gonna end, you know, climate change is gonna kill everybody in 50 years, there's no hope for the future, nobody's doing anything about it, climate change is gonna kill everybody. So they've been told and just drilled in their head that that it's the world's just a horrible place, and it's they're not gonna be better off as they get older, it's gonna be worse off. So they don't have any motivation, which is really strange. And uh, so I told them, I said, you've got to be thankful for what you have, just be thankful, and that gives you the encouragement, the hope, and the motivation to make sure. So we talked about that. And so now hopefully he's a little more thankful for the things that he does have, and and uh he seems to be a lot more motivated. I don't know if that was me or he just did it on his own.

SPEAKER_03 28:16

He probably just lied to you and pretended he was motivated just to get the conversation over with.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Well, he did, he is saving money, he's looking for a job, and in uh starting May 9th, he's gonna start driving. I know. That's when we have him on our shot. So that's why I gotta go get a job. He's gotta get a job too, though.

SPEAKER_03 28:35

I know, I know. So anybody out there in Navarre, Santa Rosa County, and he's a bright and bright straight A student that you know doesn't like to do Spanish, but is pretty, pretty motivated. We're looking for I still have to go get a job over at like Publix or bag groups some groceries, like or you know what? Coffee. Dylan, our our 26-year-old, worked at 16 until he was like 21 at Starbucks.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

And that's a I he doesn't like he could do that. There's like 18 coffee spots here.

SPEAKER_03 29:05

Seven brews right down the street, and all he has to do is type in their order, and then they go and get their coffee, kind of like Chick-fil-A.

SPEAKER_04 29:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:12

So I told him that would be a great job. He just he's like, it's gonna be so hot in the summer, I don't want to be in the heat. And I'm like, okay, there's gonna be you know any job, you you know what people say. I know I say, not everybody says, but any job you get, even if you think you're gonna love it, you're gonna hate it eventually. I don't think there's much. I mean, even the dolphin trainers at like SeaWorld probably hate their job. I mean, I that's what I wanted to be growing up. I wanted to be a like a dolphin trainer, be with the dolphin swimming, you know.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Or uh yeah, I just just don't get with the orcas. Yeah, they don't do so well.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

Yeah, sometimes they don't, but they but I just say that you know any job you pick, you better love it because you gotta do day in and day out. And if you don't like it, good luck. But most people don't like their jobs, and that's the sad thing about it.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

Well, I was a manager for a long time, and uh I used to tell my my staff and my managers, you know, uh nobody really wakes up in the morning. I mean, unless you have just some crazy job that you fully love and you're you know, like you know, making music or something that you really, really enjoy that you you know you're good at and you can make money at it. Most of us, I'd say 99-98% of us, you get a job because you need the money. And but I tell my managers, like you people don't wake up and look forward to coming to work. They just don't. Who would? I'd rather have the day off than go to work. But you shouldn't loathe having to come to work, you know, you shouldn't you shouldn't dread having to come to work. And if you're creating an environment within your your business or your store or whatever where people hate coming to work, that's that's it, you've lost it, you know. Um, but as long as it's you know compatible and everybody's having a decent time and you know it's not a it's not a negative, bad atmosphere, people don't mind getting up and coming to work and doing their time and going home. Um, but yeah, you as soon as people start hating getting up and coming to work or loathing the whole process, then you you've lost it, you know.

SPEAKER_03 31:19

So I should be uh motivational speaker, TED Talk. He's coming to you.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Yeah, yeah. It's about the only thing I'm qualified for.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

Doing a TED talk about motivation and customer service.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Yeah, about customer service. I've thought many times about putting together a little thing about customer service, but I you know, uh all right, I guess we're doing podcasts, so we're honest here. I don't have a college degree, and that's one thing I feel bad about her not have having to go back to work um is that you know it should be me going back to work, but the only thing that I'm qualified for is is uh is uh working with the public, is you know, customer service. That's really the only thing I'm qualified for. I've been doing that all my life. And come on now, you know, but I hate it. I hate it. I hate customer service. I hate it with a passion because I've done it for so long. I'm good at it, I'm very good at it. But um and the wine bar wasn't so bad because it was my sorry, it was my our business. So if somebody came in there and it was really a problem, I just ask them to leave. And I would many times I did. Uh like, look, you're you're not being cooperative, I'm not gonna help you. You're asking for something that's ridiculous, just leave, you know. And um so that was not so bad. And and you got to meet a lot of great people, and you know, it's funny because like if you meet a hundred people a day, you know, 99 of them are gonna be great and just nice folks, and then you meet that one person that's just an a-hole and that just wants to piss everybody off, that's just a miserable person, they want to make everybody around them miserable. Those are the people that make you hate customer service. It is, it's just you you deal with those people from time to time, and it's like, wow, I I don't I can't believe these people live like that. How how miserable of a life it is to just complain about everything, and I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

There's lots of them out there. And the same thing in sales. I mean, I'm not I'm really good at sales, been pretty much doing it my whole life. Do I love it? No, I don't love selling. I hate living on commissions. It stinks, but I'm really good at it. But you know, there's that one person, that one realtor that's really hard to deal with when you're trying to negotiate a contract. Or when you're in sales, you got to cold call and you've got to try to get into the you know, CFO and they're hanging up on you, and they're I hate cold calling. It's like nails on a chalkboard for me, having to cold call people. I'm it's like nowadays, people are on my LinkedIn trying to sell me through LinkedIn, and I don't even read half of them because it's just the same thing over and over. But you you've got to do it and it's eat that frog, you know. You don't want to eat that frog, but you gotta do it. You gotta make that phone call. That's what they told you in real estate. It was a Keller Williams thing.

SPEAKER_04 34:16

Eat the frog.

SPEAKER_03 34:16

You don't you don't want to eat the frog, but you gotta eat the frog. I mean you hate it, but you gotta be done, you gotta eat it because you're not gonna get to the next level if you don't eat the frog. And I was like, that's kind of a weird analogy about eating a frog, but I guess I wouldn't want to eat a frog, but it's true. You you know, you gotta keep cold calling until you get your let yes. Every cell, you know, they say every nine knows there's a yes, but getting to that yes is so painful, it's horrible. So um, yeah, but that's my two cents, and I guess that's your two cents. It's getting close to closing time. We gotta go pour some carbless. Now that's a fun job. I got a new I got a new shirt. Yeah, like he got me a tank top, but we go out for carbless. We go to the various bars and uh package stores and we pour free samples for this wonderful drink. And um yeah, I enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

It pays good, it pays good for travel time.

SPEAKER_03 35:10

It does, it pays really good. We they pay us for travel and to go out there and and be a brand ambassador spokesmodel for the brand. And um, I love that job.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

It's easy.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

But it's easy.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

You want something free? You want something free?

SPEAKER_03 35:23

You want a free cocktail in a can? And then people talk, and then they say, Hey, I'm here on vacation from Destin. I'm looking for a house, and then I whip out my car and I say, I'm Emerald Coast Erin, and I will sell you a house in Destin. I'll get you a big, beautiful home on 38. Got you. So it's kind of a dual thing. Now I'm gonna be like, and would you like to buy a computer with that? Yeah, I'm still gonna be working for Carbists on the weekends when we get uh when I start May 1st or Circuitus.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

Um Circuitus.

SPEAKER_03 35:55

Circuitus. I'll be yeah, they're out in California.

SPEAKER_02 35:57

It seems almost like a circuit city.

SPEAKER_03 35:58

It does sound like circuit, yeah. And they're um they're out in California, so I'll be out in California in June with learning the whole dynamic of the corporation. So I'm the sales and marketing manager, so at least I'm I'm going up a level.

SPEAKER_04 36:12

So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

Anyways, I talk about myself all day long and bore these people. They probably already turned it off all day long.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

I'm sure it's been turned off for a while.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

All right, so that being said, we will be back next week with hopefully something better to talk about, except uh, yeah, something, something refreshing.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:32

During these podcasts, we've got to think about things about what we're gonna talk about.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Comment on some ideas that you like to talk about.

SPEAKER_03 36:39

And comment about if you're having a tough time, or comment about, you know, do you like customer service and sales, or you have any ideas of how you love your get your how you can love your job better? I mean, you know, just any insight is good, or yeah. I'm always looking for comments. And if you like this show, share, comment, like us, like us, follow us, follow us, whatever you gotta do. Yeah, and that's it.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

So here's poor decisions.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

Poor decision, Rodney Strong and my gorgeous wife. Yeah, and we gotta get his pump change. So see you next week.