Creating Wealth and Balancing Family

So we were just talking about the new year , because we're on the 9th January , 9th right now and it feels , you know , like we shouldn't be creating goals right now and like New Year's resolutions and all that and just talking about how that does come in spring .

But we're also talking about reflecting and being grateful for what you always had wanted that is now true and how that feels and to not be obsessed with what's coming new .

So and so get on this same level . It's never like . It never feels like a level of contentment . It's just always this level of searching for more and more .

But it's funny because I watch other people like if I'm making a purchase on something and it could be as simple as like a new pair of shoes , I will buy like the first thing that I like and I'm OK with that , and I move on . I'm content with it , I'm happy with it . As a matter of fact , today I went and purchased some glasses .

I went to Walmart and I was like these look good , I'm fine with that , with that . But if it's something that's like to a to a business level or an achievement level or , like you know , just expanding myself on something else , it just seems like it's never . It's never . I'm never fully at the point where I want to be . I just always want to be more .

It's always more and more and more . I think that goes well into many aspects of my life . It's , it's , it's a hard place because you're you're always thinking about the next best thing .

That can be true too , though , like I do feel that you can have , if you kind of rephrase it instead of saying I have anxiety , like I am my anxiety , instead of like reframing it to I have bouts of anxiousness , but I know that's not like what you're saying , but yeah but that's true because that's how it comes in waves for me of where I like I I do

get excited about certain things , but then so much of it has created such anxiety for me of where I don't like feeling that way .

Like no , I'm just , I'm having anxiety , yes , about these things where , like , they're a big deal to me , maybe they're not a big big deal to someone else , and it can be very simple things like thinking of a vacation , you know , or how , how am I going to spend that money ? Like where do I want to go as a family ?

Or things to , like you know my kids and things going on with them , or especially in in my business businesses , and you know this is coming up . How am I going to handle this ? And it will create a true like I don't . I don't know if I've ever had a panic attack , but it feels that way where I'm just like , oh my God , my heart's racing .

Or you know everything happens for a reason and we're , we're , put in these positions for a reason . So just kind of looking at the whole picture of you know why am I here , what decision is best for me and those around me , and just to kind of help get myself through .

And the other thing , too , is I'll tell people all the time , like you can't control , you can't control everything , like there's many things you can control , but there's a lot of things you can't control , and those things you you can't control , you can't stress over . Well , it's funny , because it's exactly what I do .

I think if we put our minds to it , we truly can do anything . But I think there comes a point where you have to realize , like we're all human and we need breaks and we need rest periods and we need to take care of ourselves .

And when you're constantly doing things , whether it's something for yourself or other people , you are on this go and you're not focusing on you . And a big thing , like we say , we say at our brokerage , is like you know , if you don't pour into you , if you don't pour into your cup , how can you pour into others ? And that's so true .

And if , if I don't stop and realize like , hey , that would be great if I could do that , and I probably could , but do I have the time and the ability right now ? No , I'm very guilty of that .

But then saying , oh , but you know what , I know someone who does um , or I can help you out at a later point , kind of thing . And that's a hard thing to do , like especially in real estate , you know , and I I had already told myself I was wasn't going to fall into that this year , cause I have some pretty big , some pretty big plans .

And then I found myself doing it last week . And then I came home and I was talking to Chris about it and I was already , I was angry , I was angry at myself . I'm like I'm falling back into the same things . I said I wouldn't . It's so hard . It's so hard because I can't say no , it's like I want to help everyone .

My mom had said something to me this year or last year . She said you're not superwoman . Yes , you can do it all , but you don't need to do it all and you're fine the way you are .

see you like next week .

I've way too many times like double booked myself , especially in my business , like , but I will , I do have too many things that I'm doing right now , or at least I have , that I stack on top of each other , but each different thing needs a different boundary . I boundary , I feel like , too absolutely .

I've never had any dreams of like a movie star or music , except for , like you know , when I was seven , lip syncing to NSYNC and thinking I would one day meet them , kind of thing .

But I think I've always had this vision for myself that I would be someone that people looked up to and respected and was like a go-to for them , like , oh , I need this , I can call this person . And I think , I think , honestly , I've kind of become that over the years .

You know , yeah , it might just only be in the field of real estate , but I think to know that I'm those clients of mine , that I'm that person like if and it's a little bit more than that too but to always want to be that person where they call .

But the other aspect of that , because sometimes I feel that the burnout is real , sometimes , when people need something , I feel like I can't give it my all because I've already given so much .

. And then do you have , do you get that like annoyed resentment type feeling where you're like why are you calling me , leave me alone , oh , alone , oh yeah , I had someone say to me just yesterday she I thought you know , and this is , this is text .

And she read it as like I was mad at her because you weren't adding smileys , I guess , and I was just like I'm like I'm so sorry . But then it's this like I gotta apologize , yeah .

But I always think I have to explain myself . Um , but then it's like I get into this long tangent and I , what I usually do is I'll type it out and then I'll erase it all and I'm like just keep sweet and simple , I don't need to explain myself . And I say that to Cooper all the time . He's my son , by the way , but he'll ask me why , you know why ?

And I'm like I don't need to explain it to you . Just the answer is no , okay , like I don't need to have an explanation for everything . But then I find myself . I'm like Laura , you don't need to explain yourself , like you're allowed to say no , yeah , and then just be like , yeah , that's it .

Ask for what they want , or like manifest what they want , or be intentional about money or think they can make any , but like , is the hustling about the money ? Absolutely ?

The big thing to me is like I don't want to . What's retirement age ? 63 ? 68 ? Something like that To me ? I'm like at that point you retire and then you have maybe 15 years , hopefully more , but you might get 15 good years to go do stuff . That's not nearly enough time to go do everything I want to do .

But a part of my goals is like I want to retire from real estate , but that takes a lot of self-discipline to set back the money because you're self-employed , so I'd have to set back a good amount of money . And then I just want to . I want to be free , like my kids will be adults by then and I want to go enjoy my life .

I don't want to be tied down to any kind of location . But a part of that too is I want to have a business , which now they're like everywhere . But I always said I want to have like an event center to have events , but I want to have someone run it .

Yes , I want something that's not going to not going to suck the life out of me and is fun but still has things where , like I can help other people or do good things for them , still bring in some revenue , things that maybe my kids can get involved in too . That would be really nice . So I want that .

But I think the the big thing that I'm always working towards is more Like . I think even two years ago , my word for the year was more , because I just wanted more and more and more and more . And I got . I got to that point of where I was . I think I got more than I ever thought I could have gotten .

But I did so much and I exhausted myself so much that in the end I was like this isn't worth it . And I've I've kind of lingered in that throughout last year and this year . It's like okay , I need to remember that and then I need to work more on like the less no , yeah , the less the less , because sometimes truly less is more I .

I'm striving now for like a simple life , yeah , like simplicity , simplicity , yeah , yeah , less stuff . What stuff did you take off the table after ? I'm striving now for like a simple life , yeah , like simplicity , simplicity , yeah yeah , less stuff .

It was always kind of a joke amongst my clients and my peers and where they'd be like , yeah , you know , we'll hear from you all the way from 7am to like midnight because I I could not shut off . I would lay down and try to relax and be like , oh my gosh , I've got 30 emails that need responded to right now .

And it's like I had to tell myself , okay , the world's not going to end if I don't answer this email at 9 pm at night or this text . You know that's a big thing . So I started doing less of that and being like OK , you know what , after 6 pm you might not hear from me until the next day . And guess what ? That's OK .

You know certain situations are different , but for the most part just kind of shutting off and spending that time with my kids , trying to have dinner every night with them at home , enjoying the time bath time , story time , play time Because the problem is is when I'm constantly just on the phone , trying to respond to other people and take care of my family and

be present . One of the things is getting more of me , and it's usually the phone and the clients . And then it's like when I go to bed at night , you know I'm laying there and I can't turn off , so I don't get rest , you know I'm , I don't get recovery , I don't take care of myself , you know . So I I worked a lot of that last year .

I would say last year I was really good about it , like really good with taking care of my body , understanding things like why do I feel this way ? This is like the anxiety , part of it , kind of opening that up and being that in my feelings I'm not a big person , that's . I have many feelings , but I'm usually my personality .

I'm more of like , ah , so I'll just ignore them , it's all good , it's good , everything's good , everything's fine . And I would say more so in the last year like if someone approaches me and they're like , hey , how are you ?

I've become more honest about like , eh , I'm okay today , or you know what I'm great today , or you know what I'm not doing so well , so probably shouldn't even talk , Just becoming more real in that sense .

And I remember sitting in my car and I was like man , I'm feeling these crazy chest pains , like it just started my arm tingling , and that was in January . And then by like May May I was already setting up doctor's appointments because I'm like something is wrong with me , like something is going on . And then I want to say it was end of June , early July .

I had a whole episode one night where the kids I went to bed . My blood pressure was insane , heart attack level insane . I went to the ER , which was a terrible experience , but they didn't know what to do with me . They were like we don't have any rooms , but you obviously have some kind of episode going on .

We're going to put you out in the waiting room with an IV and hopefully you don't die out there , but we don't know what's going on . So , long story short , my blood pressure was very high , but it had nothing to do with my actual , my overall health .

It was almost like I think part of it's genetic , but the other part was like you're not taking care of yourself . All your other labs look great , but this is obviously a problem . So that kind of started it and where I'm like , okay , I need to take care of me , because if I don't , I'm not gonna be here to do anything , you know .

So that kind of that kind of was the the starting point for me to understand what my body was telling me . And then I'd say in this last year of like especially doing the lemonade business and being on my feet for long periods of time , and like I've done a lot . My goals in 2023 was to drink less . I think kicking off a dry January started that .

It was a really good way to start the year for me . Doing that , but drinking less and just looking at how things make me feel like oh , I'm eating donuts , I love donuts , but my body doesn't love donuts .

Oh , I love beer , but my body doesn't always love beer , those kinds of things , just just being more aware of it , where I think I , I think your body always tells you those things . It's just whether or not you choose to listen to it .

You're like , if you think about it , you could probably and probably were you just like park your body in a chair and your mind is doing all this work for you and you're not really in your body at all or really checking in in , like you could just not check in with your body for weeks if you really wanted to , because you're just like living in your brain

and like working and all that kind of thing . So I would assume that , yeah , eventually you're . If you're not going to think of it yourself , your body's going to be like hey , oh , yeah , we're tired .

I think , though , there's two things that I want to say about that is that do you kind of feel like , though , that , well before that , tell us everything that you do or that you have been doing in the past couple of years , so like even like marriage , kids , businesses , what the businesses are like .

Tell us a little bit about what your life looks like and what your priorities are and where your time is spent .

. Cooper is a kid where he's diagnosed with ADHD , odd , he's got sensory processing disorder . He's a boy . He's got a lot of energy , you know , and he takes a lot of energy when you're around him . He takes a lot . But he's just got this amazing . He's so smart , so incredibly smart . He's so funny . So that's a good priority .

And then Liviaivia she's three and she's got kidney issues that require she's had hospitalization . She had a surgery . We're having another surgery come up . She has a lot of big things that are like very , very worrisome to us , that I always just look at her and I always just wonder on the daily basis is she sick , is she okay ? You know how does she feel .

So , yeah , that's my number one priority . I got my husband , chris , which we've been married for seven years . We've been together for 17 some breaks in between there , so that takes a huge chunk too . And then I've got real estate , since this is I've been doing it for eight years , over eight years now .

So that's my main business , and then probably I think it was 2018 . Another aspect of real estate that I do that not a lot of people know is I'm what's called the cruise director at our brokerage at Marketplace and I kind of head it's like what I would consider client care and helping other agents , and I've taken on a lot of roles with that .

It's been , it's been a lot of fun . And then I started the lemonade business this year . That kind of came from an idea in 2022 . And then in 2023 , I was like I'm just going to do it , let's start it , and I would say that going into this year , that's going to take a lot of my focus and I'm very excited for that .

But I have to take away from another category . So I want to say it'll probably be a little less real estate because the burnout has been real , but I need to find someone that can help me fill those gaps . And what I really , really want to do , I want to be even more present with my kids . This year coming up , I just want to .

I want to be there with the kids more , even more , like I'd love to spend the whole summer . Cooper doesn't go to school . I'd love to be able to spend the whole summer with them . I understand I have to work , but I even more things that we can go and do .

We had so much fun this past summer by doing those things , so , yeah , I want to hone into that even more this year .

I'm sure that there is a balance that I don't know about , but I think that sometimes , in businesses like mine of like hairdressing and trying to build clients and yours are real estate and trying to build clients and get your name out there Like there is an aspect where , unfortunately , you do kind of have to make it your life for a minute .

Oh , yeah , absolutely , and I think that we talk a lot about balance and I think balance is important and I think that you can do anything for a short amount of time and then you know , hopefully you get successful and you can back off a little bit .

But I think that people forget that sometimes you do have to be kind of obsessed with your business to have a business like you kind of do .

Like it's not , you're not just there , Like you don't have the clientele that you have , just simply because you're just a hairdresser . Like people like what you do and they enjoy it . They like the final product , they're willing to pay for it .

And I feel like I've worked up to the same thing where I know , when they think of a real estate need and they call me whether it's something involved with buying and selling or just a simple question they know I'm that person in their corner and I want to be that person . But it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of time to get there .

Oh , absolutely Okay , this is a perfect example , and this is such a funny story and I think you'll enjoy this because you know this person well .

So I was sitting with Brittany at Piccadilly's and we had this whole conversation where I was like , well , if you could make this amount more and not be at your current job that you don't like , but yet your routine's got to get mixed up a little bit , would you do it ?

And she's like no , I get to tan outside at my house , which I love , I hate my job . It doesn't mean anything to me and I it that way . Like to me , though , I was like wait , what like ? There are people living like that and they that are genuinely like no , I I don't need .

She's like I don't need more money , I have a house that I like , I don't need nice things , I don't need vacations . I'm like wait , what like ? That's insane to me . It's wild , but inspiring , I'm not gonna lie so inspiring , so free .

So for me it's like when I , when I think about the ultimate goal this has crossed my mind a lot I'm like I at this point in my life I would be happy if I was living in like a camper . It has to be a nice camper that's big enough for my whole family and my dogs , but a nice camper on some land . And like I don't need a crazy nice vehicle .

But you know things are paid for , things are okay , and you know I can have a garden , I can , we can raise some cattle , like we already have a ton of chickens . But it's like a much more simpler life . But then I'm like how do I go from where I am to that ? And would I even like it ? And would I even like it ?

I might get there and be like well , now I need to do this and this .

I have this , this and this and I wish I did it . I have so much I have to do . I have this , this and this and I wish I did it . And then it's like the other side of me wants to be so grateful that I do . But it's hard to feel that gratefulness when I'm just swarmed by this .

Like you know , I got to do this , I got to do this , I got to do this , I got to do this , you know what mine is .

I don't know if you've ever done this , where I lay out all my bills and I try to play the game of how much money do I actually need , oh yeah , and then think that I'll say no to stuff because I don't need . But it's not even about the , I don't even know that it's about the money at this point , maybe .

You know , I bought my first car and Chris and I were joking the other day about how , like we didn't really have cell phones until him and I got a cell phone playing together . I was still in high school , like all these crazy things . You know , college I paid for on my own , but I don't think that I could number one .

I feel like I can never rely on anyone but myself to take care of me and now my kids . You know , of course I trust Chris with my whole heart , but it's like financial wise , I I just not that anything's ever been said , but I just feel like it's up to me .

It's up to me to take care of all that and everyone who needs it , like if somebody needed something in my family . You know , if there was a situation where someone was gonna be homeless , well , I gotta , I gotta take them in . I got to take care of them . I got to help them , I got to get them to a point and I've done that for people .

Like I've paid people's that's why I sound crazy but clients like I've paid their car bill , I've paid , you know , to have certain things done in a transaction . I've paid people that I know because I'm , like I need to know that they're OK , you know , but having that money and having being able to do that for people feels so good to me .

And it feels good too to know , like my kids are going to have a roof above their heads , because I couldn't imagine living a life where , like , I don't know where your next meal is coming from and people live that way .

That , to me , is mind bottling , like like I couldn't do that , and I'm sure part of it is freeing , because it's like well , I don't got to worry about the stress , like not to bring politics in it , but the government will take care of you . But it's like I , I don't , I can't do that . That's not me , that's not I .

My parents , like you know , we got stuff for like Christmas , beginning of school , birthdays , those kinds of things and , of course , like if we needed clothing or shoes , they'd always go out and get it for us . But like I grew up like my mom took us to Walmart and our clothes went on layaway or Kohl's , you know we didn't get to go to name brand stores .

So when I saw things that I really wanted that were a lot of money , they would that's a lot of money , we can't afford that right now . Or , you know , you can have that for your birthday or , you know , ask Santa for it , kind of thing .

But I , very early on , was like I want that , I'm going to work towards it , I'm going to figure out how and I'm going to get it . And I I wouldn't say that I expected things to happen overnight , but I would almost obsess over it until it happened . And as an adult , I find myself in those same things .

So it's like I think something in my mind , and for a long time I didn't . I didn't really have a lot of money , especially starting out years ago , you know . So it was like I wanted something . Well , I'm going to really have to work hard to get , I'm going to get to a certain point .

But then , now that like I've gotten to a good place , it's like if I want something I just go and get it , which I can't say is necessarily the best thing , because it's I don't always need it . But I would say that like I've learned to work hard , hard for my money and the value of it from my experiences as a teenager . Yeah , totally For sure .

You know , we had a great time , we enjoyed ourselves , the food was good , the drinks are good , but I'm not going out and I'm not buying crazy things like this . I'm pretty sure the shirt is like five or six years old . These pants are like old Navy . I don't . I have a hard time spending money on things Like . I have a hard time spending money .

That's crazy right , yeah , yeah , yeah , you'd have to pry a facial from my dead hands and that's what I , and I feel this like longing , like my mom had said something about you know what do you want for your birthday ? And I was already thinking like that would be really nice Some money for a facial Cause . Then I'm not buying it myself .

Yeah , yeah , totally .

When it is like a weekend and I have to go work , I feel really guilty about that and the lemonade business has been kind of tough with that and Cooper's asked a lot too to come help and this year I think I'm going to let him , depending on the event , so I can have time with them .

But I'd say , like you know , weekdays where if I'm not there for dinner , I feel I feel like a terrible mother and I'm not . I know I'm not and I know that they don't think that way , but I think that way , you know , like Friday night this year . Another thing I want to do is I want to say yes a little bit more to things .

Um , my mom had asked me to go to dinner and just her and I , which I haven't done . Gosh , six months , maybe a year it's been a long time because it was Friday evening and I'm like I spend the time with my kids .

I spend every evening with my kids , but it's like I felt so bad for just not having dinner with them and it tears me up inside and and I feel bad too , just simply working and it's like I think about some of the challenges that we faced over the last year , like with Cooper in school and then Livia's health , and it's like , should they just stay at home ?

And I stay at home with them 24 seven , homeschool them and just put all my energy and effort into that , and then a big part of me feels like that's not me , but I also feel good to you for feeling like it's not you .

Yeah , yeah For feeling like you know , there's moms out there that do that and I give them the biggest applaud ever because I feel like I can't do that from a mental and emotional , like , and financial standpoint I can't do that , but I wish that I could and I feel kind of bad because it's not necessarily my , my dream to do that .

But then the other part of me kind of feels like , well , maybe that's what I should work towards , getting to that point , like if I work toward , maybe if I save up enough or start working on like learning things to help them and become kind of like a teacher Because that's one of the things I'm like what in the world would I teach them ?

How would I teach them ? How do teachers do it ? Like I don't know .

do think a lot . Yeah , cooper has struggled so much because , you know , and I think too , is the school system that we're in it's Hampshire County it's not the best . I don't think they've ever really been known for being the best . But you know , he is kind of a kid with special needs and truly like truly he is , and he requires a lot of attention .

He requires a lot of patience . And the thing is is when you're , when you're a teacher and you're dealing with so many children at once , you can't , you can't hone in on that one kid . You know right it's hard .

You know I'm always reluctant to do anything , but I'll always do it and I feel better . Whereas , like you know , chris could stay home , he could live under a rock and talk to no one . He'd be totally content . That's not me and that's not Cooper either . Cooper is a social butterfly like .

He thrives off that and he , he enjoys that stuff and I don't want to take that away from him . Libby's a complete opposite . If she never had to go back to daycare ever again , I don't think she'd mind she'd be . She would be so content with just staying at home with us , like she says she's . Like you guys are my best friends .

It's so sweet it doesn't bother her yeah exactly , yeah , so I feel like there's benefits to it more . The benefits probably would outweigh the negatives , um , which is why I've thought so much about it .

And two , I feel like if I , if I had that simplistic life of like us , living in a camper on some land and just doing things on the land , just us we could have more of that life .

And and I feel too which I don't know if other parents feel this way , but I feel like school restricts us from a lot of fun things that we get to do like I was looking last night at planning vacations for the year and I'm looking at like , okay , the first time we can go to the beach , why , if we wait till cooper's out of school , oh , we want to go

back to tennessee , but we love to go in the fall , but shit , he's , he's back in school . I hate , I hate that side of it . Yeah , I hate that side of it , but I don't know , I do feel kind of at a crossroads with it at this time .

I don't think that I can step away from real estate fully because I've I've invested so much of me and I would feel it would keep me up at night if I knew that people that I know and I love and people that have really become close with me over the last eight years , that they couldn't call me and be like , hey , I need this and I can't help them , that

that would really bother me . So I can't step away from it fully , but I think , maybe to go into a new venture that might align with what , what I think I want my life to start changing in the direction of , is worth trying out . Um , that's how I felt about lemonade at the beginning of last year . I had no . I've beginning of last year , I had no .

I've never done anything like that before . I've never done events . I've never . I've never worked as a waitress . I've never , like , done food industry . I've never done anything like . So the first event was at West Oaks and I said I was like this could be really awesome or it could really suck .

And I was like and if it really sucks , I'm just not doing it anymore . I'm just returning everything and saying it was fun for the one day , but we're done . Um , but I felt the complete opposite it was . It was almost like a high like . I felt this like , oh my God , what can I do next ?

This is great , you know , but the big thing is is they are events on the weekends , um , majority of them . I did have a couple weekday things which were so much fun , but the weekend stuff and then , as the kids get older , I'm like I think they would enjoy going with me yeah , you know right .

Or do you feel like you stay in your brain for a long time and say you're going to do this , you're going to do this , and then it takes forever to actually do it ? Or do you feel like you're the type of person that's like no , I want to do this . I don't . I'm not afraid of failing .

Ooh , yeah , like you're not directing your energy in the right place because we only have so much time .

I don't ever like to put things in like a negative aspect , but there are times when I feel that way yeah , exactly

.

I wanted to have kids , but I always envisioned my life that I would have a boy and a girl which is funny because I did . You know , you can't choose that but I'd have two kids and it would just be me and the kids . They'd have a dad who was present . Yeah , when I was a child , I didn't know who that would .

You know how that was going to work out , um , but I always pictured myself in this role of like breadwinner . You know , I'm gonna . I'm gonna have , I'm gonna have a successful life . It's gonna be a meaningful life . I'm gonna have money , I'm gonna be able to take care of them and myself and those around me , and this is what it's gonna be .

And I feel like a part of that too , like Chris's . Chris has fallen into into my life , like I sought after him when we were teenagers and as we've gotten adults , it's like I tell him hey , these are the things I want to do , and he is the biggest cheerleader , the biggest supporter for me in anything I want to do . He's also very real too .

So if it's something dumb , he's going to tell me like I don't think it's a good idea , but he'll still support me . But it's like it , it . It feels very good to be in that position , was your ?

When they had me , um , my mom was 20 , my dad was 23 and I've got two younger siblings and you know , back in the 2004 , 2005 era , I watched this as a teenager where everyone around me it was like they were buying things , they were being told that they had money that they didn't have , my parents being one of those people . So we lost everything .

I think it was 2007 , 2008 . And basically to the point of being homeless , my mom was like nope , not having this , like I will go out . She , she got a really good job , like executive level at the hospital , she's making really good money and but she was raising three kids . I'll say this the first year that we we she ran a townhouse .

It was us and her , my dad lived on his own , they had split up and we got I think it was Thanksgiving dinner brought to us . I think it was us and her , my dad lived on his own . They had split up and we got I think it was Thanksgiving dinner brought to us , I think it was like by a church because we didn't have enough money for Thanksgiving dinner .

Like I was helping her pay bills . I worked at the hospital while I was like in the 11th grade .

I worked like it wasn't full-time but it wasn't part-time , just to help , you know , have a car , make ends meet , um , and I watched my mom rise into this like person where she she'll say now , like I don't need a man , like it hurt my dad , or back together .

And I'm I'm so grateful that it happened , because all of our relationships have really blossomed over the last , you know , 10 years or so . And I , you know the parents that I thought I knew . I , yes , they're still the same people , but there's so much . Our relationships are a lot deeper , which I appreciate .

But , yeah , I watched her just turn into this badass woman that was like nope , I'm going to take matters in my own hands , I'm going to make sure that my kids are taken care of and the only person I can rely on is myself .

And then I've had that mindset ever since that then , yeah , it would be very hard for me if Chris came home and said hey , you know , I want you to stay home and I want to go out and I want to work and make all this money , I think part of me would be like I want to be a cheerleader , I want to be there for you , let's do it , let's try it .

And then the other part of me would be terrified .

Chris worked every night , so it was Cooper and I every single night , just the two of us , for the first three years of his life , and it was like if I had to work , that's fine , come with me . I got to go do this , I got to do this , I do this . Now , two kids is totally different , like it's not that easy at all .

But I think over the last couple of years I've developed more of that mindset of like you know what ? I kind of wish I could do less of this so I can have more time with them . And I've made , I've made more time . You know I'm I'm being intentional with it . That's the big thing , being intentional .

So , yeah , so I've , I've already got one . Uh , I have to pay for it and then I see , brought to my house but it's already supposed to be here on saturday but the lady that was gonna bring it was sick and it iced and snowed . But it's a a , it's a horse trailer , which is what I really wanted . So it'll kind of look .

The idea is that it will look similar to like the renovated horse bar trailers , but with lemonade it's a little different aspects . So it'd be really neat . I'm so excited for it . So that's going to be a big thing . It's going to take a lot of my time to get to that point and Chris is all on board to help me and I trust him .

He's a researcher , so I am not someone that will sit there for hours on YouTube and research something . I'm more of the kind of person that's like we'll do it and we'll figure it out along the way , where he's like I'm gonna YouTube it and we're gonna figure it out to the T and do it . So I trust him with that . That's amazing .

That's one of the big things , I would say . The other goal is to find someone that I really align with in real estate that can help me kind of take some of the load off . Over the last year I had I'd say , like last year and a half , I had my sister she was my assistant and now she's taken on a quote unquote real job with benefits and steady pay .

I totally understand that . You know I she needs that . She's still finding her way . But , um , I feel like if I can find someone that can kind of align with me and help me , it'll take less of the burden of feeling constantly like I need to be on and available for everyone all the time , cause I just can't be .

So I want to do that and I'm really going to work on understanding myself and the way I feel about things and honing into that .

But I think it's so much easier sometimes to just live in your brain and be like yeah , I can do that . Oh , yeah , it's easier for me to just do this myself than ask you or whatever .

Is it a prideful thing ? And it's because in my mind I think it's easier not to Like I'll just do it , I'll just do it , I'll take care of whatever .

But then that resentment grows and grows , and grows and then it kind of manifests into this , either like a huge blowout , like an argument where it's like this came out of left field , or it's like , you know , I start to get angry about the things that I'm doing and I don't enjoy them , or , in the moment when I want to be in the moment and be present ,

that I can't , because all I'm thinking about is how much I don't want to be there , how much I don't want to be doing this , had I just said no , well it's .

I did a million freaking things , a million things like a million things around the house to care the kids , cooked three meals , did laundry , did the dishes , ratified a contract like talking on the phone , on my phone 20 times that day . But it's like , it's like I hadn't .

I had started off the day thinking , okay , I'm going to have this day just to sit back and relax and do a puzzle , read you know what ?

we went to ashville , north carolina , and spent a couple days there . I worked the whole time Like we , we enjoyed ourselves , but it was like , okay , I got to go back to the hotel and I got to write up this offer , you know I was working all the way till the day before our wedding .

Like showing property and I was telling people this 2016 , so I would have been 26 , okay , yeah , and I , it didn't feel , it didn't feel like a bad thing , it was like this is great , I've got this business that's really kicking off and I'm getting married and you know , I'm just businesswoman , businesswoman , businesswoman .

And then now , like we go places and you know , we took a couple vacations this year , and not once I . I take it back , I think once I had someone cover for me , but what I'll always tell them I started off with . I've got my phone on me , I've got my laptop on me .

If you need me , call me I've actually told all my clients just to call me and if I need paperwork or something like that , I'll have them call you . So it's like I'm still taking care of everything because I can't turn myself off so that's even like last

year . Yeah , wow , yeah and then I , and then I regret that I'm like man , I didn't get . I didn't get to fully enjoy that time . And I think you know , all the vacations we took in this past year were awesome , like we had even like somewhere .

They were like two or three day mini vacations were so much fun , yeah , but it's like if I didn't have to be on , have my phone on , have people relying on me , I could have fully engaged in everything .

It's like , if I stop hustling , is this all going to go ? Am I going to not ? Am I going to be a failure ? Is it all going to go away ? But like there's no way .

I don't aspire to be that person , but to do less than what I'm doing now is inspiring to me . Like I don't . I don't need , I don't need to do it all yeah , exactly , I think a part of that too is getting older .

Um some , I had actually two people tell me in the last year that 50 is like this golden age , like coming of age , because they were both like you just don't give a shit anymore about what anyone thinks it's so freeing and I'm like that does sound kind of Like there's still .

There's many things I don't care what other people think about , but then there's many things where I'm like man . If I stopped doing this , what would they think of me ? They would think I'm a failure . They would think like I couldn't live up to this kind of thing . You know , just yeah , so I do care .

I do care what other people think and I care about how they feel .

A lot of people don't know all that goes on in my life and I'm , I'm totally okay with that . They don't need to know and I don't think they really care , you know it's just this .

And if , if they want to ask me like well , what's going on , I'll tell them . But if they don't , I'm okay with that too . Yeah , exactly . Or you just be like , oh , yeah , I'm great really I'm not .

doing that anymore . It sounds like you have some great goals for 2024 . It'll be interesting to see , even in like five years , how like this all ends up like changing a little bit for you and what you uncover you know I'm excited for that .

And getting way more like aligned with that because I only do have so much time and like what's actually really important and , you know , maybe even switching out of like sort of like a more masculine energy into more of like a feminine energy , of like having more time to just like . Yeah , I'm just gonna like I have the whole day .

I'm gonna go for a walk today . Yeah , I just want to like sit here and like organize this thing and not feel bad about that . That's just what I want to do , like not having so many like have tos .

Yeah , and in in your solo podcast you were talking about like aligning with your cycle and looking at the calendar and all , and when you said that , I was like , oh my gosh , like I really need to do that , because I find myself like I get easily overwhelmed because I commit to too many things and it's like my body's telling me Laura , no , this is not we're

, we are not feeling this like you should not be doing this , but I do it anyways . But I feel like if I looked at the whole picture in the calendar month , like leading into the next month , I'd be like , well , this makes sense . You know why I'm feeling the way I am and I just need to take that time off and take the time for me .

But then there's all the other stuff that , like I want to like build in the menstrual cycle , coaching and the podcast and , like you know , all that other stuff too , and just trying to figure out , like what's important , cause I also want to , like you said , like take care of myself and , like you know , my family has certain needs that you know they have ,

that they need from me , and like , just like cooking meals and like being active like all , of that is a huge part of being human . Yes , you know , and that like needs to be attended to . It can't just be like , oh , I just don't focus on that and only focus on this one part .

I don't know what all we got in there . Yeah , exactly .

Okay , so the yeah , so go in there and check it out , yeah it's really cool , it's really beautiful .

Because I was like so for the lemonade stuff I am required when I do certain events , like for health department regulations , some of my simple serves have to be make it made in a commercial kitchen . And I was like man if I could have a commercial kitchen space over there that would be awesome , but I don't , I don't even .

I'm like again , again , I have so much to do . Yeah , that's down the line . Yeah , because I think , I think that I can get the trailer permitted to a point where that can be the commercial . I don't know .

Like , and then you're like I don't want to be picky and be like I only want to align with people who are like this , but like yeah , that's kind of the truth .

You know , of course you have to build the clientele , but the goal in mine is , like you know , you're never going to see my face on a billboard because I work with the people that I know and people that refer me to people that they know that they think I want to work with and that's the aspect of it I love and that I don't think I could ever walk

away from , because I do love that , um , but it's kind of the new people that come in that , just , you know , they call me off a sign , you know , and it tends to be those people that don't know me are the ones where my gut will instantly tell me , like , is this a good thing or is this a bad thing ?

And if I really listen to it , more often than not it's like this is not a good fit , it's not a good fit , this is not worth your time , and that , and that's okay to say , and that's those are the things I need to follow .

And if you want this , here it is , but if you don't want it , then like I don't care like I just I cannot deal with like bad attitudes or just things that I've .

But I just don't . I just I feel like I don't have the time to get caught up in that . So I just always try to look at , like , the bright side of things and even when things are bad , I'm like'm like okay , well , what's , what's the good in this and what can we learn from here and what can we do ? What , what can , how can we move forward from this ?

You know , and I'm a big person , I always sure put myself in other people's shoes , so I'm always like you know well , how does so-and-so feel about this ? Or you know , and I try not to be sad about it yeah , because I feel like , feel like if I really looked at the whole picture , I'd spend a lot of time sitting around being sad .

Yeah , covid was a time for that . I had so many crazy things happen . That year , like , my dad had a massive heart attack . You couldn't even go into the emergency room with him . My mom got diagnosed with breast cancer .

I got pregnant with Livvy and then found out like I don't know if Billy had ever told you this story , but I went for my 20 week ultrasound and at the gender reveal , which I had to be at alone because it was COVID , nobody could be with me , and I thought I was going in for this really happy , great thing .

And the doctor comes in and he's like like I don't really know how to like tell you this , but here's what's wrong with your baby and you know , she's just either she's going to die in the womb or you're going to give birth to her and she's going to die within hours . And it was like what it was , this whole thing .

He he said she had no renal function , none at all , which I trust in my gut , which my gut was that she was going to be okay and going to be healthy . And , thank God , I did follow my gut . Um , you know , brought myself to UVA , had a bunch of extra testing done , you know , and she wasn't .

She wasn't born perfectly fine , but she's here and she's great and she is like the best kid ever and so and I always say her demeanor is that she's happy to be here .

But in that , in that time of like that whole year , if I really sat around and like and especially the state of the world , the way it was , like I , I think I would have gotten lost in all of it .

I love , I love alcoholic beverages , but , um , I am very good at like . Well , this sucks . I'm just gonna go have a drink oh yeah , yeah , and I've done less of that , which has brought the feelings to light even more .

But I think I am the kind of person like I'm okay with apologizing and saying I'm wrong on something and I'm okay too with understanding , like not everything's gonna be . Not everything in life is gonna be great .

You know there's going to be hard parts , there's going to be great parts , but I think going through the hard parts makes you appreciate the , the greatness even yeah exactly . So yeah , we'll see .

well .

Laura's lemons is on facebook and I do do a decent amount of social media stuff on there not on the daily , but you do . I try to like , yeah , a couple things throughout the week . Um , I actually probably do less on my personal page . Um , real estate that's you find me on facebook there .

Um , laura king realtor , laura king at marketplace , something like that . I just post more on my personal for that aspect of things . But I am going to try to get back on Instagram for Laura's . Lemons because I have some really cool stuff I want to share yeah .

And then what I do is I infuse the flavors . So I like to use real sugar , real lemons , none of the like pump syrup kind of stuff . I mean you could make some simple flavors that way , but I'm looking beyond the simplicity , which is ironic , but the simplicity of lemonade , and I want to make it something that like is unique to its own .

You know like I've had some flavors . The number one is lavender . Everyone loves lavender . I love lavender . Classic is probably my second bestseller . People just like keeping it classic . I don't mind that at all . Strawberry rose is a big one . Strawberry basil is another big one . I had the blackberry and then rosemary vanilla was another .

Like that's one where people are like rosemary vanilla lemonade and then and then they try and they're like , damn , like it's so good . Apples are really good one and that that one's a crazy one to make apple and peach because they're they're fruits that hold a lot of water , so trying to get the sugar balance in them is a little difficult .

Um , and then I've had mold lemonade here towards the end of the season . That one's's one of my favorites , like it's so good . So , yeah , expanding that , I'm trying to do um some bigger events this coming year , because what have you already done ? I've done . Let's see here . I did the Shepherdstown street festival . That was probably the biggest one .

I've been at two um events in Jim Renette park for , uh , the Kevin Riley foundation . I've been at West Oaks Farm Market . I've been at Willow Moon Farm a couple of times , which is an awesome place to be . I've been out at the Browntown Community Market outside of Front Royal , which was another great place . I was like surprised by that place .

I mean , this place is so cute , so many people came through . I've been out at the Homestead there off 522 , another adorable farm market . There . They've got some great stuff . Oh , I did a really big event for Shenandoah University that was so much fun , like so it was . It was insane . Like we did it for the .

They don't call them freshmen , they call them first years now , so for their first years that was . I would love to do that again , but this year , um , I do plan on being back at Shepherdstown . I'll probably hit up all those same places again , but I tried to only do one event like

a month .

Or if I was doing two events , I tried to space them out when this year I'm going to be a little bit more intentional and I think I'm going to try to do one like every week and maybe have like three weeks on one week and off , three weeks on one week and off and possibly going over to northern virginia so there was the one place that you had told me

about , um , I can't remember the name , but I remember looking into it and they like wanted a commitment from someone , like for their farm market , where you had to be , you had to be there like every weekend . And then there's , like , the berryville Farm Market .

They're the same way , I think the Winchester , downtown , winchester one's the same way , so , but I want to do some bigger events . Stuff that I don't have to be committed to every weekend , but stuff where like you're going to see me . Yeah , my cute little trailer .