Small Business Bestie
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Small Business Bestie
24: From Classroom to Closing Deals- Trisha Weiderman's Incredible Journey
🏡 New Episode Alert! 🏡 Ever wondered how a high school English teacher transforms into a thriving real estate agent? 📚➡️🏠 Join us on this episode of the Small Business Bestie podcast as we chat with Tricia Weiderman from Keller Williams Commonwealth in Lexington, who takes us through her remarkable journey from the classroom to closing deals! 🌟
Tricia’s educational background provides her with unique tools to guide clients through the buying and selling process, and she shares how the COVID-19 pandemic and adopting her children in 2019 influenced her career shift. 👩🏫➡️👩💼 Discover the challenges and triumphs she faced while balancing family life with her professional ambitions.
We also dive into the fascinating world of real estate investment as Tricia recounts her transition from working with an all-female team to becoming a successful solo agent. 💪 Learn how mentorship played a crucial role in her early career and how she and her husband strategically ventured into property investments, from rentals to future property flips. 🏘️ Gain valuable insights on long-term planning, passive income, and financial security.
In this episode, we tackle the vital yet often avoided topic of personal finance. 💰 Trisha candidly discusses overcoming financial illiteracy and the tools she uses, like Monarch, to stay on track. 📊 She also shares her ambitions to build a legacy for her children and achieve work-optional freedom, emphasizing how embracing your unique qualities can be your superpower. 💖
🎧 Don’t miss this episode filled with valuable advice, heartfelt moments, and the inspiring journey of a remarkable woman! Subscribe, review, and share to support our growing community of empowered women entrepreneurs. 🌟
#RealEstateJourney #WomenInRealEstate #CareerTransition #FamilyAndCareer #PropertyInvestment #MentorshipMatters #PersonalFinance #FinancialFreedom #WorkOptionalLife #SmallBusinessBestie
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Welcome to the Small Business Bestie podcast. I'm your host, michelle. We are creating community and coaching women entrepreneurs, and we are so glad that you're here. Let's meet this week's Small Business Bestie. Let's meet this week's small business bestie. Trisha Weiderman is hanging out with me this afternoon, and I am really excited about this conversation because Trisha works in a field that I've always been super interested in, so I'm going to pick her brain for myself, selfishly, but hopefully you guys all get stuff out of it as well. So, trisha, take just a second and tell everybody kind of about what you do.
Speaker 1:I'm Tricia Weiderman. I'm a real estate agent with Keller Williams Commonwealth here in Lexington. I'm also a real estate investor. That's kind of what got my foot in the door and got me started along that path. I work with a lot of first-time homebuyers, a lot of families moving to the area or moving around the area, as well as several investors to grow their portfolios. Prior to getting in real estate, I was a high school English teacher for 12 and a half years and left that field to become a businesswoman, an entrepreneur, and see where we could go with this, and have spent four years as a real estate agent now loving the ways that I get to help people and help them reach their goals.
Speaker 2:I have to say I don't think I told you this, but when I was in college I was actually pursuing a degree in English. I did a very, very short, like student teaching stint and was like never mind, no. So thank you for your service to our children and our communities prior to the real estate career. And so thank you for your service to our children and our communities prior to the real estate career. And now thank you for your service doing real estate so real quick. Let's touch on that really fast. About your English history there Do you find that being a word nerd and having a great concept of writing and things like that have helped you in the real estate career.
Speaker 1:Well, if anything else, coming from that education and understanding has been huge for me because I try to base every I don't want to say transaction, but relationship that I have with my clients from that basis of education. Here is what the process is going to look like. Here are some questions that people generally have, whether you have those or haven't thought of those. But coming from that educational piece first, I've found, helps people really feel comfortable with it. But then, from the words aspect, I'm very detail oriented and I will go through that contract and if we have to do an amendment to a contract or anything like that, I will be the one to know. Really, this is how we're going to word this, because this is what will be in your best interest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. I never would have thought about how helpful it would be, coming from just the education perspective, to be able to present that information to your clients, to make sure that they do feel comfortable with everything that's happening and having you know, knowledge of what to expect.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, most of us, on average, will buy a home maybe five to seven times in our life, especially the first time or the second time. It can be absolutely terrifying. For a lot of people it's the biggest investment, the biggest amount of money they're ever going to spend in their life. So coming from a place of making sure they really feel comfortable, making sure their questions are answered, to me, is the basis of that entire relationship.
Speaker 2:That's incredible. I am so happy to know that. It was kind of like an easy transition for you to take something that you had been doing, that you love doing, and bring it into the next thing. You and I chatted just a little bit briefly before we started recording and you were telling me that, like a lot of the entrepreneurs that we chat with, covid-19 had a huge impact on your life, your decisions and your future. So walk us through kind of what COVID meant for you and your family in your future.
Speaker 1:When COVID hit, we had actually had a huge family transition the year before my children came to our family through adoption in 2019. So, being in a career that I loved and I could fully see myself doing for the rest of my life but I had spent 12 years dedicated to that I'm very much a type A do everything right, do everything above and beyond the basics, be a little extra in everything and in a field like teaching, you can spend 60, 70 hours a week to do it what, in my mind, is right. So, before we had the children in our lives, I was okay, spending 50, 60 hours a week doing what needed to be done and dedicating myself to that. Then, in 2019, when our children came, that was a huge shift for us. We went from not parents at all to suddenly, we had, at the time, a four and a seven-year-old in our lives and we wanted that. We went to classes for that, we signed paperwork for that. We worked really hard to make that happen. So that wasn't something that I was going to take lightly. That was something that we were absolutely dedicated to. So we were already kind of questioning some things of you know, what can we do to get more time with our family, to get our priorities back to where we want them to be, so that I'm not at the time working maybe 50 hours a week. My husband was working full time as well out of the home. So what does that really look like to prioritize our family?
Speaker 1:And then when COVID hit, it hit our family particularly hard. My stepfather at the time was very ill prior to COVID. So when COVID hit we were pretty much in a total lockdown amongst our family, even longer than some places were, and for us it was truly a matter of life or death that for my mom to come to our house and see her grandchildren and then go home to my stepdad who was very, very ill. We knew we had to protect our bubble, so to speak, right. So we went several months without seeing my mom at all, without seeing my in-laws-in-laws at all, so my children were not seeing their grandparents. We went through that and in a way it brought the four of us much closer.
Speaker 1:My husband and I, especially at the beginning, kind of had a few moments of you know, this isn't so bad. Yeah, we get to teach our kids to make homemade pasta instead of pasta from a box, and we get to play in the backyard in ways that we hadn't really always prioritized when you're in the hustle and bustle and the go of just life. So when we started coming out of that, we really had done some hard conversations of well, how do we prioritize this more, moving forward, how do we keep this? In a way, once the world gets back to normal and it became really, really clear that I had a choice to make, because I'm one of those people I will put 100% into everything that I do, and putting 100% into teaching did not leave me enough left for my own kids at the end of the day. So we had to look at ways. Okay, what will that look like if you're not teaching Because of our?
Speaker 1:At the time, we had investment properties and we'd already started that path. We had had some conversations prior of. You know, 2025 was our thought. If we build this investment property business, 2025 is our goal of. By then you can make the choice. I could leave teaching. I could do something else. That was our end goal. Covid-19 sped up that thinking yeah, absolutely. So I actually left in January of 2021, got my real estate license and was licensed by April, joined an amazing team and worked with them for several years and then, just this past January, have become a solo agent. Wow.
Speaker 2:That's really cool. I think a lot of people can at least relate to the idea of like COVID-19 being like, oh, this is terrible, but also look at these benefits, you know, like you said, like playing outside with our kids in the backyard, not worried about like, okay, it's time for dinner because then we get to get up and hustle the next day, you know. So, yeah, I think we all had kind of can't say all, but a lot of us had a shared experience and like finding the beauty in that chaos. I love that you just made the decision. You know, january of 21, you said, is when you decided to leave teaching.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had had a lot of conversations throughout. I was also a soccer coach as well, so there was a lot of feeling like I was letting people down. Would I let the teachers I worked with down? Would I be letting my students down? Would I be letting my players down? Would I be letting all of these people down? But at the end of the day, we have to prioritize our family.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah. So that was the decision. Well, I'm sorry that you had to struggle with that decision, but I'm really glad that you made the one that you felt was right for you and your family, and it sounds like it's working out really well. You said you at the beginning of this year, you became a solo agent. So I'm going to dig into that because that's, you know, kind of one of the tiny facets of the many enigmas of real estate. Right, I was like what is that whole thing? So you already said that you got your real estate license and you joined a team and just from knowing other real estate agents, my assumption is that that team is led by a broker. Is that?
Speaker 1:correct. To be a real estate agent, you have to be under a broker, correct? So I'm with Keller Williams Commonwealth. We have a broker who holds our licenses to be licensed, but then under that brokerage you could also be on a team. You would have a team leader who can serve in a lot of different ways depending on the team and depending on how things are set up. But as a mentor, as someone who helps you get leads that could turn into clients, that could turn into closings. There's a lot of different facets For me. I loved my team was all female. We had an amazing team leader who really empowered us to be able to take our business and run with it based on the tools that she gave us. So for me, having that as a beginning agent was huge. I had people I could count on. I had people I could turn to. I had people to kind of mentor me and guide me through the process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. So you mentioned that you guys have investment properties and that that was kind of like the door that led into this. So you've maintained the investment property business while also being a real estate agent, correct? Yes, okay, so tell me about on the investment property side of things. What kind of avenue are you guys using for your investment properties? Is it long-term investments or flips or kind of?
Speaker 1:what are you doing with your investments? We are doing long-term investments. We're not at a position to do flips yet, partly because my husband has said, no, you can't stick to a budget enough yet. But I'm hoping once I prove to him that I can, we can start going down that avenue. Yeah, but it started with long-term investments and that's what we're continuing to this day. It actually started with a home that my husband purchased when we were very first dating. In fact, we had only known each other for a couple months, so the fact that this would become a lifestyle for us was not on anybody's radar. But that's kind of what it turned into. He bought a house on foreclosure for about $85,000. So you can imagine the first time he showed it to me, so proud of. Look what I bought.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I was like, I mean, it's a house, but I don't know that I want to walk around barefoot. So he bought that house and put a whole lot of sweat equity and work into it and then, several years later, when we got married, I moved into that house with him and we lived there together and continued to fix it up even more. Then it came the crossroads of okay, we're married, now we need to buy our house. And we had a lot of conversations and I will give a shout out to him that he had a lot of convincing to do. But he gave me Rich Dad, poor Dad to read. He gave me several podcasts to listen to. He gave me several things to say.
Speaker 1:You know, if we want something long term, we at the time, albeit in Kentucky we didn't know what teacher pensions were going to look like and to some extent we still didn't know. So we had some conversations of what do we want our long term goals to be and he kind of spelled it out. You know, we can sell this house and buy a big fancy. We can afford it. Or what if we keep this house and then go buy a duplex instead? And that's what we went. That was our very first property was a duplex. Absolutely terrified Because, in my mind, if this doesn't work out, we now have no house because we were using the equity in the house we currently lived in to buy this duplex. So if this doesn't work out now, we have no house. Even if it does work out, I'm still. Well, when do we get our house? When do we get the pretty house? When do we get to be grownups and have that house? When do we get the pretty house?
Speaker 2:When do we get to be grownups and have that house, whereas he was coming at it from the money perspective Right Of.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's nice to have fancy't know that, that's the direct quote. But the idea of passive income and what can your investments do for you that don't keep you tied to a desk? Most of us we go to work and if we don't go to work we don't make money. But with real estate investing, I can go on vacation and still collect that rent check and go from there. I can go on vacation and still collect that rent check and go from there. That's great.
Speaker 2:So you guys are still in investing and it sounds like you have dreams of doing some flip properties.
Speaker 1:Eventually. Yeah, we're not going to rush into that, especially not maybe this year and the next couple years, but at some point, yeah. So what is it about?
Speaker 2:that prospect that excites you? Is it just the like, design and like making something new again? Or is it the money aspect, like, what is it that would be super exciting about that?
Speaker 1:to you is a long game. It's a long-term investment and you do get ROI, but it comes over time, whereas a flip you can if you do it well and you know your numbers, you can get that quickly and then be able to reinvest in something else. So that's my end goal of how can it get us to our goals faster that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. Okay, and then last question about your properties, just because I'm so interested in how all of that works. You and I talked before and you told me that you do long-term rentals and mid-term rentals, which I didn't even know there was a word for that. I thought there was just long or short, and I was just wondering what helped you make the decision to choose those types of rentals over the short-term rental, because that seems to be all the rage right now Airbnbs all of those get a furnished place, rent it for that.
Speaker 1:Those can be great and there are opportunities there as more communities do some more regulations on those of what those need to look like. Some areas around here are limiting how many can be within one, are limiting how many can be within one neighborhood, how many can be within one square mile, things like that. It becomes a little bit more difficult. But we got into it intending to do an Airbnb with the first property that we bought for that and kind of found out, hey, at the time there was this big market for travel nurses. So instead of renting on Airbnb which, let's be honest, in Lexington could be weekend warriors like we could book that place Friday, Saturday, Sunday. But we're probably not going to get a Monday through Wednesday in September type rental.
Speaker 1:Right, we were getting a lot of during Keeneland, we were great, but those other times, you know, do I really want to count on? Okay, I need to be booked all four weekends to make this work, to make our numbers work for this month, versus renting to a travel nurse who's going to rent it for three, four or five months and then we know, OK, we've hit our numbers for the next three months, Right. So that kind of led us to doing what's called the midterm rentals, where we'll rent for 60 days, 90 days, sometimes four months, to a lot of travel nurses, people coming to town for the university, things like that.
Speaker 2:So, with midterm rentals, are there websites devoted just to that type of rental, like there is for short term? Yes, there are several.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, say them. Yeah, absolutely, there are several. The one that we use is called Furnished Finder. It, I believe, started for travel nurses. But it's not just travel nurses. I've found people who are right now somebody visiting for the summer while their grandkids are out of school. Grandma and grandpa are renting one of our units right now, so they're close to their grandkids through the summer. Yeah, we're like great, enjoy our place. When they check, I don't want to say check in, because it's not necessarily an Airbnb, but I had some little goodies for their grandkids. For them Enjoy your summer, Enjoy our place. That's great.
Speaker 2:So with the midterm rentals, I'm assuming that for the tenants or the guests, that their rates are a little more favorable for them than if you went and rented something that was on Airbnb for, say, three months. Yeah, oh, that's so great to know that that exists, because I know a lot of people who, you know, are setting their lives up to have that passive income so that they can travel and go see new things. So I'm really happy to know that there's something that exists out there. And travel and go see new things. So I'm really happy to know that there's something that exists out there, because even when we've looked at going places for like three weeks, you know Airbnb is like that can get really expensive, and as an investor who's put properties on Airbnb, it can be very expensive on our end too.
Speaker 1:It's almost like they're double-siding this somehow. So to be able to do the midterm really worked out for us.
Speaker 2:Is there. I know that some of the like vacation rental property owners have their own website where they'll list their homes on there. Is that something that you can do with midterm rentals as well, and do you do that?
Speaker 1:You probably could. I have not Just Furnished. Finder has worked well for us. We hardly have any downtime, so if it's not broken, we're not going to mess with it. Absolutely. That's probably the best policy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you told me that your husband is an accountant. Yes, and he came to you with the numbers of investment in real estate and said, hey, this is a great plan. Let's look at it. How involved is he with the real estate side of things?
Speaker 1:With the properties. He is hands-on for most of it. Now we have a property manager who manages the day-to-day and tenants and leases and things like that. But we have spreadsheets for accounting for all of that. That has since transferred to my business.
Speaker 1:I, as an English teacher, I used to say I'm not a numbers person. Business I, as an English teacher, I used to say I'm not a numbers person, but I think now that I see how they impact my real life, I've become a numbers person. So he has given me spreadsheets and tools for my real estate business that I'm using on a daily basis. I'm doing a monthly profit and loss. I'm doing monthly and quarterly reflections on where am I, am I, where I want to be. We also do one for ourselves at home. We have spreadsheets and at the beginning of our I was like really, really, we're going to have a date night and sit down and go through our monthly budget.
Speaker 1:But it's become for me that anchor of what are we working for, what are we focused on, where are we going and are we on the right path to get there. So he has set up spreadsheets for me, for my business that I kind of do on my own. I think of it as okay. I have to be CEO Trish, who sometimes has to have a hard conversation with worker B Trish of what do you do, what did you spend this on and why was this ad really worth it? Was this marketing piece really worth it? And have those conversations. That also transfers to conversations that we have with our investment properties when are we going? Are we on track? And then it also carries over to our life when are we going? Are we on track and are we doing what we need to do to get there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that budgeting for a family, for a business, you know, whichever you're talking about is like you said, it is like an anchor. It is one of the things that you can do to bring you back to like I say this is my goal, but am I willing to do what it takes to make sure that I get to my goal? Because, let's be honest, to go where we say we want to go in life, it's going to take discipline and it's going to take money. Yeah Right, we've got to have the resources to make those things happen and if we're frivolously my husband used to say bleeding out money, you know, in our old business I was the worst about just, oh, we need new towels, buy new towels. Oh, we need this. Oh, I don't like the way that painting looks there anymore.
Speaker 2:Change it you know, or even just this came up on my social media and it looks really cute and I need to have it, so yeah, yeah, exactly, and if we're not holding ourselves accountable and creating a budget and sticking to it, we are going to bleed out our money and we aren't going to be able to fulfill the destiny that we have declared for ourself. You know, whatever it is for for any of us through my life.
Speaker 1:those were conversations that I didn't grow up being a part of in my family. We didn't talk about money. You don't talk about money. Who does that?
Speaker 2:No, you can't talk about money and if you do, you talk about all of the people who have money and what jerks they are because they have it, and I think I was one of those.
Speaker 1:I had a lot of credit card debt in my younger days, partly because I was one of those head in the sand. If I don't open the banking app, then I don't get the bad news and I don't need to see what's going on. But it doesn't work that way. You have to really be absolutely aware of what you have or you're not going to get where you need to be Right.
Speaker 2:I never thought when we sat down together today that you and I would be talking about budgets and things like that, but I do think that this is a very valuable conversation and I wanted to just throw out I previously had used Mint, which was an Intuit product for personal finance, so they had budgeting and transaction tracking and all of that. They since discontinued that product but a new one replaced it. It's not through Intuit anymore, but it's called Monarch. So if anybody out there is interested in trying to figure out how to set up a personal budget, monarch has been really easy to use for us.
Speaker 2:My husband would sit and do a spreadsheet all day long, but I, admittedly, am an accountant who hates spreadsheets. How is that possible? Well, because I wasn't an accountant by training. It was by accident, actually but I think that Monarch or tools like that there are several out there. You can Google personal budgeting tools but they make it so easy now because you can connect your bank accounts. You can connect so easy now because you can connect your bank accounts, you can connect your credit cards, you can connect your loan accounts and it will help you to set goals and budgets and help you track everything and if you spend too much in a category, it's going to send you a text message that says you spent too much on shopping this month, which I've never gotten. That alert that's not true?
Speaker 1:I get it all the time. I get that alert, that's not true?
Speaker 2:I get it all the time. I get that alert, yes, but yeah, I mean, those types of tools are very, very helpful and I think that holding yourself accountable and having that CEO self to worker self talk whether it's in your personal finances or your business finances you have to do it. You have to be willing to scold yourself finances.
Speaker 1:You have to do it, you have to be willing to scold yourself and say no, no, no, that's not what we're doing. So yeah, because head in the sand doesn't work. It exists whether you want to see it or not, and you're much better off once you see it and address it and figure out where to go next.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah Well, thank you for bringing that topic kind of to the surface. What a valuable piece of, you know, information to bring back to the forefront of our brains. So what is the goal for your real estate business, both the real estate and the investing Kind of? What do you see for Tricia in five years?
Speaker 1:When I came off the team, part of it was to see what I can do on my own. What am I truly capable of. So there's kind of that challenge aspect to myself. My goal this year is to match solo what I was able to do on the team. That's kind of the short term goal if I can just for this year maintain and then focus on growth after that. But I'll be.
Speaker 1:I don't know long term personally whether I will stick with sales and day to day or with. I might go into long term something like coaching and going back to that education of helping other agents. But for me and for us I say us because that's what it's all about it's about the long-term legacy Above all else. We want to when each of our kids turn 18 or maybe 21,. If they need some maturing in there, we'll see somewhere around there. We want to be able to have a property for them that we purchased it, but now you can live in it, you can rent it out and make money, you can manage it, but this is your starting point and be able to do that for them and give them that.
Speaker 1:Now we don't want to, and probably would not even if we could give them everything, because then they're not learning how to do anything themselves. But that's always been kind of our first target is what are we setting our children up for? What can they have and grow from Long term? Honestly, just like everybody, we want to be work optional sooner rather than later. Yeah, what does that look like for us? Maybe a beach, maybe a mountain, maybe somewhere else, who knows? But just the freedom of we can do what we want when we want, where we want, with who we want. I love that.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm like you, though, like looking for the future. I don't know if it's going to be a mountain, a beach, a river, you know, a desert, I have no idea. I just know that, like you, I really do want to get to a place in life where I'm doing what I want to do what I want to do it. So, ms Tricia, if you could leave everyone with a piece of advice or a word of wisdom or a funny anecdote, what would it be?
Speaker 1:I think for me, the biggest lesson for me has been about embracing change and not fearing change. I, for a long time, have come from a place of anxiety and concern and that focus on things I can control and things I can't. But when I finally get to a place of, this is the change that I need to make for me, and I do it. And then later I look back six months, nine months a year, whatever it may be, nine times out of ten my answer is I should have done that sooner. I shouldn't have let that fear, I shouldn't have let that anxiety keep me in a place that I knew was not what was best for me, or I knew I could thrive outside of that, but I almost stayed in that place of comfort and not push myself out of that Anxiety is a devil sometimes.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I have been through all of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I'm glad that you are finding a way to break through that and to take control of you know your own vision for your life. I think that that's very powerful. I appreciate you sharing your story today. Is there anything else at all that you want our audience to know about you or your business?
Speaker 1:I think for me. I think a lot of people who know me would describe me as extra and for a long time I kind of internalized that in a negative way. I heard it as oh, you're extra and you make us look bad. I heard that a lot. Or oh, you're extra and you come off like a know-it-all. When I was asked to share that information in the first place, you came off like you knew everything you were talking about and it's like you asked me to give the presentation. So I'm sorry, I don't know, but for a long time I got stuck in your extra. But it's a bad thing and I've decided that no, it's not, that's who I am. If we connect and you're my client, I'm going to be extra for you. I'm going to call you after you close and make sure everything's okay. If you're my friend and you need something, I'm going to be there and I'm going to be extra for you because that's who I am. That's not something that I'm ever going to let anybody tell me is negative anymore.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't know if clapping is allowed on a podcast, but I think that that is so beautiful, and you shouldn't be apologetic for your externals, because your extra is your superpower, right Like, you know things and you can share them eloquently and you care deeply, and that's what we all want in our life is people who are like that, who can help us and educate us and embrace us, and so, whomever it was that decided that you were extra and that that was a bad thing, well, good luck in life, ladies or gentlemen. Well, again, I have really enjoyed our conversation. I'm going to try to remain in contact with you and to become your friend, because you do seem very knowledgeable and you know a lot about things that interest me, so you're the kind of person I want in my life, so I would enjoy that. It has been declared we are going to be friends.
Speaker 2:I'm here for it, all right, tricia? Well, thank you so much. And to all of our beautiful besties out there, we will talk to you guys later. Thanks for listening. Friends, my name is Michelle Smock and I own Cultivate Accounting, a boutique accounting firm specializing in small business, and I own Small Business Bestie, where I help women entrepreneurs go from idea to launch and beyond. Check the show notes for links to my website and socials, and also please take a moment to subscribe and review. It really would mean the world to me.