Why Chasing Dollars While Creating Change Isn't Ideal

You're working hard, but it seems with every dollar earned, another two dollars are needed. It can be frustrating especially if you feel that you've put off having fun, going out, travel, starting a family, dating, getting married, or just getting a massage. If you are feeling exhausted from chasing dollars, then know that I completely understand. So let's talk about it.

Heads Up! This episode was originally released on YouTube May 17th, 2025

To watch the video visit Get Real Rae

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Music: One Fine Day by Keep Calm Podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:21

That's good advice. You should take that advice. So I should take my own advice.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Craving real advice.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Tired of feeling like every other small business owner or solopreneur is raking in the dough, well, you just seem to be raking, secretly looking for a reminder that starting your own business is not as glamorous as others make it look. Whether you're looking to change the game in your relationships at home or at the workplace, you come to the right place. Mine was Ray. I went from corporate America to running my own small business to becoming a solopreneur. I'm a professional actor, and you're also a professional busybody. Because this body is about to be busy all up in your bills. So let's get it real. Hey, what's up? This is Ray with Get Real Rey, a place and space for life and business tips from this creative soul. To hopefully inspire you on your journey, or at the very least, provide you with some laughs. Oh my gosh, let's get real. Did you see that dog that was like smacking me? Doggy, Zito. Come here. Come here, baby. Come here. This dog was over here smacking me as I was acting. Okay, so you guys, I am outside, clearly, and I was recently going through some old videos. Um I just, you know, work has been slow right now, and I am trying to reduce the to-dos. I feel like I just have so many things on my plate that are unfinished, incomplete, and I always complain, oh, if I have the time, I'll get back to that later. All these things, right? All the excuses. And well, I have the time now. So while my channel is not monetized, um I created these videos for a reason, right? I didn't create these videos going, I'm gonna make millions of dollars. I created them because I wanted to offer some kind of help to someone else out there who might be going through something similar. I am so into the power of storytelling. I think it's amazing. I love connecting with other people's stories, whether it's through books or podcasts or YouTube videos. I don't do Instagram anymore, y'all. I don't do Facebook anymore. I tried TikTok for all of like five days. I was like, nope, I'm out of here. I can't do it. Um so I love connecting with stories, but I purposefully choose this as one of the mediums in which I connect with people. And yes, this channel has a bit of variety, it has business life advice videos. We've got some uh food focused videos, and then um this travel thing has become a part of my life recently, so now I've got some travel things happening uh with my own style of and um oh, and then there's my little movie clips because I'm an actor. And acting is storytelling. Look, am I an actor? Maybe I'm just a big old storyteller. Maybe I'm just a black blah. Anyway, so as I was going through saying I just either use it or delete it. No more get back to it. And just if it like my fingers came across of it, I'm gonna either use it or delete it. Do something. Make a choice right now. Airbnb, right? And I came across a video, and I this is like the third time I'm like, I'm gonna delete this video. I'm gonna delete it because I don't I don't even remember what I was talking about there. I just like greasy entire. I'm just gonna delete it. I decided to watch a little bit of it. I'm like, oh this video isn't what I thought it was. I thought I was like gonna do some big home tour, and I actually wound up doing like a proper video. And yeah, there's some home footage that I took towards the end, but I've I've deleted that. It's really not necessary to show. Um I have kind of asked myself, would I want someone else showing my home on YouTube if I didn't know that they were a YouTuber or they were showing my home? I got mixed feelings about it, right? I probably would be like, no. Uh another part of me says, Well, if you're protecting people's privacy, people, you know, no one should know where you are when you're doing these videos. Make sure you don't record things like addresses and and doors and all this stuff. But for now, my I'm just a I'm just a hard no. I mean, yeah, you'll get video of me in somebody's living room, but if there's something super, super cool, like the pot filler in that kitchen, right? Right, then I'm going to definitely share that with you guys. But those are like really small things. I was recently in a shower that blew my mind. I I think I deleted that video. I might have to uncover it just so I can share what a shower should look like for every human on earth. Um of course, this shower used a lot of like technology, so I guess if it's every human on earth who embraces technology that wants to have a shower like this. Anyway, I liked the video, um, or at least the message at the end of the video. So you can totally fast forward my 19 minutes and then listen to the advice, which I thought was good advice. And there's even a little trick I put in this video. Uh-huh. Which I saw, oh shit, I don't think I tried that. Um, so now I'm gonna definitely have to like try that trick that I came up with only because of this video. Sometimes you guys you help me get the ideas to get unstuck and whatever it is I'm unstuck stuck on. So getting the unstuck with the stuck and stucks. Okay. Uh take two. No. Well, anyway, um, I hope you find this content worth your time and energy. And keep in mind that this was a video I did after a very intense drive. Um, these dogs are gonna go bark. You might hear some barking. So, anyway, thanks so much for um watching and for encouraging me to keep storytelling. And if you have a channel, put it in the comments below. Because I love finding new channels to uh connect with and hearing new stories. So, anyway, hope you find this advice useful. Enjoy. Hey, this is Ray with Get Row Ray, a place and space for life and business tips from this creative soul to hopefully inspire you on your journey, or at the very least, provide you with some laughs. And so let's get real. Let's get real about this. It's the last day of my house sit in Colorado, and my gosh, it's so pretty here, and I haven't had time to discover the city, and so that is something that I am struggling with. Are you feeling the struggle today? Okay. So I am doing this house city thing, and part of it is allowing me to really explore different areas and figure out where do I want to live. Um, if you've seen some of my previous videos, and you will know that the last place I rented, I was renting a house in Indiana, and it wound up being a complete disaster, which made me very sad. And um, yeah, I I'm still going through the legal things with that debacle. Um okay, I am not even gonna go down that lane. I'm gonna save those feelings for a different video. And so let's focus on the here and the now. Um, and so on the here and the now, being mindful, being present, being in the moment, I'm sitting in Colorado in this little like swinging chair thing that's making my back feel good. And I am, so I don't have to leave for a few more hours. I'm watching some of the bedding. The dog puked on the comforter was like, oh no, but the dog ate something that I didn't realize the dog ate. So I'm glad that he puked it up so his owners weren't being like, um, what is that? That just came out of our dog. So basket it, I guess. Um, so I'm doing a little laundry and I packed up my car. I'm gonna do a little work on the laptops before um I head out. But I'm kind of just in this holding pattern. I'm gonna go for the walk with the dogs, but I don't really want to like mess up anything. Like I ate my breakfast super early um because I just wanted to get the garbage out and then not create more garbage. So I won't be having lunch here, um, even though I'm leaving like at in the afternoon. But anyway, okay. So this house set, this house has been incredible. And one of the things I'm on in like this Facebook group, and someone used the term luxury house set, no pets. And me and a other few other people like posted luxury house set. And one person was like, um, they posted something and they're just like, house it, no luxury. And I thought that was really funny. Um, just because most of the houses that are out there are gonna be regular homes. They might be nice homes, but they're they're regular people with regular homes. Um you know, to expect some sort of fancy pants mansion every time you house it is kind of unrealistic. Um because there's only so many fancy pants mansions out there that are going to be looking for a house sitter. Um, yes, fancy pants mansion people do go away on trips. However, you have to remember that once one reaches a certain income bracket, they kind of just expect to pay for certain services. So that multimillionaire who needs to have their home watch while they're away for three months shooting some amazing film in another country, they probably have an assistant that they could, they probably have more than one assistant. So one assistant goes with them to that other country and the other one can stay um and mine the house. Or they have already have somebody that resides at the house that cleans the house, maybe cooks for them, and so that person can mine the house. Um estate managers, there are such things. Uh, so I know that there's only so many house sets I'm gonna get, especially when it comes to house sits that don't include pets. Most of the house sets on these online sites do include pets. Um, I'm really liking my time with dogs. I am I am loving it. I I like the time with the cats also. I've only had, so to be fair, I've only had two house sits that only have cats. So I've had dogs and cats, and then I've only had two that just had cats. And um one of them, the cats were super cute, super fun, but they were they would sometimes be very vocal at night, which made it difficult for some of my work. Um, and that that made me very sad just because I'm like, great, now I'm losing out on work. I can't do that work because these cats, you never know when they're gonna sing, and that became a problem. Um, it wasn't a long house sit, so um, and then the rest have just been dogs, and I think I've done six or seven house sits now, so that's not like a huge number. Um, I like that the dogs want to cuddle with me at night, and to be fair, the singing cats did want to cuddle too, so that was nice. Um, but for me, it just kind of makes the whole thing feel a little less lonely if the pets welcome you enough where they'll be like, Yeah, I'll sit with you, I'll hang with you, I'll sleep next to you. I'm like, Yay, thank you so much. So that's so nice. Um, but being in really nice homes has made me really think of it, it wasn't like this wasn't planned, but it was part of the plan in terms of me thinking, well, gosh, what do I want for myself? I mean, I've had these dreams and I've had these goals, but remember, in order to get what you want in life, you have to be willing to turn those dreams into goals and then turn those goals into actionable steps and make things happen. So it can be one thing to say, I want to own my own house one day near a beach, and I want to be able to have a warm, loving place where friends and family are feel comfortable enough to stop by, and I am happy to cook for people and entertain people, um, and just feel like when I go home, it's relaxing. And so here I am in reality, and I am not house sitting by a beach right now, but I am um in a beautiful mountainous area, and you know, this house has really high ceilings. It's the kind of ceilings that I want for my dream home. I've always wanted really high ceilings. What's the problem with really high ceilings though? When the dogs bark, it really echoes. Oh, yeah. So there has been some work where I'm like, I'm not going to do that work here because if FedEx comes to drop off a package, the dogs will bark, and then that's gonna echo throughout the whole room, and that's gonna bother clients. So I just can't do that work here. So that is a downside to this house sitting thing, is that um getting to know these animals, and so I might put myself in a situation where I have to adapt my work to the behavior of the animals. I mean, I had one animal who would get really excited when I did jumping jacks for one of my classes, and so I had to learn to teach that class in a different room away from that dog because then the dog wouldn't get excited, and then I wouldn't have to like try to get the dog out of the way while doing the jumping jacks, and it wouldn't be disruptive for class. So there's that. Um, but being able to think about not only where I want to live, um, but also to just kind of have this visual representation of hey, this person was able to do this, you can do it too. Now, obviously, the person that managed to um have such a beautiful home did not do so, um can I say it, but did not do so housing and running their own company and all that stuff, right? Um and so I really have to look at can I get what I want um within a reasonable amount of time? Like if I'm 80 and then just like I finally able to afford my dream home, that to me just doesn't feel like the ideal life because by that point I am gonna be older and less mobile and um just won't be able to do all the things that I would have wanted to do. And by that point, I'm probably just like I don't want people coming over, I'm I'm tired, I'm annoyed, leave me alone. And you might be like, Ray, that's not true. There are a lot of active older people. Yes, there are. I know a lot of active older people. I have a lot of friends in their 70s, and you most of the time they just kind of want to be left alone. Like, yes, they're happy to hang out, and then when they're home, they're like, No, I'm home, leave me alone. I just want to watch my TV, I just want to relax, you know, do my crossover, read a book, whatever. Just leave me alone. So I I see that as part of my path. I'm gonna be in that leave me alone camp. And so, um, and also I don't really want to house it around, okay. So, for you know, well over 20 years. Um a friend of mine is driving trucks right now as part of her financial game plan, and she doesn't have to pay rent. Um, you know, she's got benefits and health insurance, and I believe her company has like a 401k match and stuff, so she's really setting herself up to um build financial stability, and I believe her game plan is to save up enough money so she can move out of the US and like retire out of the US. Um, I definitely want to spend some time living outside the US. I don't know if I'm gonna retire outside the US, but point being, I have to. I've been in this holding pattern where I'm taking action to um rebalance the ship, is what I like to say. It's like I'm in this boat and there was a leak in the boat, and so I was bailing out water, and then I managed to get out enough water where I can repair the hole of the boat. So now we have um no more water coming in through a hole in the boat, which is great. Um, but now we've gotta really move forward. And is that me rowing with little oars? Is that me hoisting a sail and letting the wind take me? Um is that me building a motor, strapping it onto that boat and getting it going? What am I doing? And so I've really been just trying to keep the boat afloat. Um the boat can be a metaphor for my life or my business, but now that we're no longer hemorrhaging money, okay, um, I've really scaled things back. I um I am no longer working with contracts that don't financially favor the business's current status. Um, because we used to make a lot more money than we do now. I am no longer spending time teaching classes that don't have enough students to really make it worthwhile. Um, you know, for a while I was just saying, yeah, I'll teach, I'll teach that one student. It feels like a private lesson, but I just need the money. And so um now I'm cutting back on that, and I've really been trying to work things to have my direct consumers purchasing for me in order to make that flourish. Now I have a list of contacts for um educational institutions that I want to reach out to, but I this whole nightmare with my living situation um took up so much of my time and resources that I haven't been able to take action on that list. So now I'm back at this place where I'm like, okay, what's the next step? I need to make sure that I set a plan in motion that's going to allow me to triple my income. Really, I need to triple it within the next three days. Um, and then once that happens, triple that. And that can be a four-month period or something like that. But I really need to make strong decisions. And I have some things in mind where I'm like, okay, I think I could do this. This used to work for me. But there is some hesitation on my part. I'm like, oh my gosh, what if it doesn't work? And there's also this thing of, well, I have limited resources financially, so I want to make sure that whatever decision I do make, I'm making the right decision. Like, is this the best place to put my money? I need the biggest thing for my buck right now. So, how am I handling all of this? There's supposed to be a lesson in here somewhere, I think, right? Okay, um, the lesson is you need to, like me, every so often just take a moment and ask yourself, is the life that I'm living the life that I want to live? And more importantly, am I surrounding myself with representation of the life that I want? Am I taking actionable steps towards getting the things that I want if I don't already have them? Yeah. Um and so I am Being very picky in choosing houses right now. Um, it is one area where I am able to surround myself by visual representations of the things that I want in life. So I don't really need to, I'm I'm set up for maybe next five months or so in terms of places to stay. And so um I'm still looking for where to stay after that, right? Because I don't want to have these gaps where I'm staying in Airbnb's or having to like, hey friends, hey mom, hee hee, can I come across with you? Like, I don't want to do that, so I am still looking to continue to book out more places to stay, and it's really important for me right now that I get a little picky and choose places that aren't just based on the length of the stay, but the quality of the stay. Um, does the home have so many knick-knacks and things that I'll feel a little uncomfortable? Um, because I'll I feel like I'm completely living within someone else's personality. Does that make sense? And for some people, that's okay. I I like exploring other people's tastes and interests. But if I'm gonna be there for a couple of months, which is the goal right now, because I don't want to keep moving around so much that it's disruptive for my work. I do need to still be able to work and earn money. And if I have to save a day to travel to my next location, it's it's a little it can be problematic. Um, and for some of these, uh changing from one house to the next, you know, I try to keep them close by, so maybe just be needing a few hours, but it is a little um inconvenient if someone says, Well, hey, I'm gonna be home in the afternoon, and so you can take off in the afternoon, and you know, I'm thinking, well, great, I teach in the afternoon, so it's not exactly easy for me to just be like, Oh, perfect, you're home. I can I can go ahead and accommodate your schedule. Um, and so that is hi don't. Um that is something that I'm keeping in mind. I'm putting up my availability for um work, and I'm looking at my calendar going, okay, so what are the days right now where I'm more likely to need to be able to change between house sets? So there's that. Um, but all the same, I can't allow myself to not take action. Um, I can't allow my income to get any lower. I have um a little side work that I like to do. Um, but I really get in my head about it. So sometimes I'm just like, yes, I can do this. And once I always once I see that I've made more than $50 and I feel better, and I'm like, yeah, I can keep going. But getting going for me, just knowing that I'm online, waiting for someone to call, and if someone doesn't call right away, for me it's just kind of annoying because then I feel like I can't get up and go do other stuff. If I'm working on something else while I wait for someone to call, I'm in the zone on that, and then someone calls and I get all annoyed because I'm like, oh, someone called me, and now I have to do that work to get these pennies. Um, is it really worth it? And for the fact that you know I need immediate cash, yes, it is worth it. It is very much worth it. Um, but I do get in my head about it, and it's annoying to know that I could easily um make a couple hundred dollars if extra, right? If I just would suck it up, buttercup, stop being such a brat, and really focus on dedicating some time to this work. And then I say to myself, well, uh the time I'm putting into that work, I could be putting into making sure that my business actually brings me more money. So there's there's that whole thing. But truth is right now I have a lot of time on my hands because I'm not working as much as I usually do. Um I think the number of hours I'm working a week is down like by 50% of what I would usually do this time of year. That's not a good feeling. Oh my goodness. But um, I'm just trying to take it and try, reminding myself that I know I need it this time to um rebalance physically, emotionally, um knowing that's pushing through while dealing with this whole legal situation, while dealing with um trying to, you know, relocate cross-country, um would just lead to me not doing very good work. I don't even want to do my best work, just not doing very good work. So there's that. Um are these all just excuses? Maybe I'm just making a ton of excuses for the fact that I'm not marketing as much as I need to right now. And so, my friends, um, wherever you are in your life, whether you are a business owner or you work from somewhere else, you're gonna have moments where you're just not feeling like putting in the energy. Um, and it's not because you're like burnt out, it's just because you got stuff going on. And there's gonna be moments where you feel like I'm putting in energy, and yet am I really where I want to be? Am I getting will I really want it? Um, so yeah, take a moment to look around and then take a moment to figure out what will be your next best step. And then this is what I'm gonna try, okay? This is what I'm gonna try. I'm going to try setting this up as giving advice to a friend. So I appreciate when someone comes to me and says, Hey Ray, what do you think of this? I'm like, oh my gosh, hey, I've been there, I'd be more than happy to help you with that. Or I'm I'm not too familiar with that, but what are you thinking? Let's talk it out. I'm just a talker. I like to talk in case you can't tell through these videos. Um, I'm gonna put down some options and then I'm gonna turn this around as if a friend. Ooh, okay, I'm gonna try this. I don't know if it's gonna work, but I'm gonna try this. I'm gonna email myself some questions, and I'm gonna create a response to that friend and give them some advice. And then I'm gonna see which really is the actual path for me. Because I just have to take some kind of action, even if it's not the best, even if it's not like the most money-making type of action, or if it's completely bombs, at least that took some action. Because if you don't do anything, then you're not gonna have anything. So, anyway, there's a bug that's driving me crazy right now. Okay, so um, I'm gonna go ahead and get out of this chair, um, do some things around the house and then take a walk with these dogs. But maybe I'll show you just a little bit, just a little bit of this house.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

You want a head hanging in your home? Let me know in the comments below.

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Thanks for listening. If you think this podcast would help a friend, then please feel free to share it with them. If you want to check out some more of Little Roe or just see me hang out with cute dogs, then feel free to visit me over on YouTube. Get Little Roe 4273.