They Call Me Mista Yu / One On One with Mista Yu
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They Call Me Mista Yu / One On One with Mista Yu
One On One with Mista Yu with Betsy Pepine - Breaking Boxes: Finding Freedom Beyond Limitations
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Betsy Pepine, real estate mogul and author of "Breaking Boxes," shares her journey of personal transformation and how she helps others break free from self-imposed limitations and societal expectations.
What happens when we confront the invisible boxes that confine us? Betsy Pepin, successful real estate mogul, bestselling author, and serial entrepreneur, knows this terrain intimately. After spending a decade in a career she disliked due to perceived parental expectations, she embarked on a journey to break free from self-imposed limitations that were stifling her authentic self.
During our conversation, Betsy reveals how recognizing these "boxes" - whether familial roles, professional expectations, or age-related stereotypes - transformed her approach to life and business. With refreshing candor, she shares her practice of intentional discomfort: taking ice-cold showers daily despite her preference for Florida's warmth, deliberately challenging herself to strengthen her "change muscle." This philosophy has made her remarkably resilient in both personal and professional realms.
Though her real estate brokerage ranks among Florida's fastest-growing companies, Betsy finds her greatest fulfillment in empowering others. Her nonprofit work building homes for at-risk families and helping her agents become debt-free reflects her core mission: "If my presence hasn't helped someone's life today, then why am I here?" Her bestselling book "Breaking Boxes" and companion course extend this mission, offering readers practical guidance for dismantling their own limiting beliefs.
For anyone feeling trapped by expectations or resistant to change, Betsy offers wisdom from experience: seek help sooner rather than later. "You don't have to go through this journey alone," she emphasizes - words that might just be the key to unlocking your own breakthrough. Ready to break free from your boxes? This conversation could be your first step toward authentic living and newfound freedom.
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welcome back to one-on-one with mr u. I'm your host, of course, mr u in studio with us today. Betsy P Pine, I believe I'm pronouncing that correctly.
Speaker 2:Pepin.
Speaker 1:Pepin, okay, a little French over there. I'm an author, serial entrepreneur and real estate mogul. I guess we can say but glad to have you on the show, so glad to have you. I meet a lot of successful folks in my time but rarely are they ever as nice as you are. So I just want to say that up front. You're successful and you're still nice, so I like that a lot. But I want to go into our conversation. But first, how are you doing? How's today for you so far?
Speaker 2:Everything. Well, I'm alive.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love your background. So arts, yeah, I love that. That's fantastic, all I love that. That's fantastic, all right. So there's a lot about you that I want to get into. I hope we have enough time to get into everything. We have a great pre-production meeting that we talked about a lot of things, so let's talk some stuff next. What I heard from you the first time was that you were moving from up north. I heard your accent so I knew you were from up north, like I was.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I heard your accent. I think you said New Jersey and Philly and then you moved to Florida. What prompted the move, if you can kind of break it down for us really briefly?
Speaker 2:what prompted that move. So originally so I was from Philadelphia and then my father moved us here when I was five and we were raised my sisters and I were raised in Florida. Then, at 18, I left for college and never thought I was going to come back, went for college and grad school and another career and then returned back to my hometown in 2001 because of a divorce I decided my husband at the time and I decided to get divorced and we were both raised here in Gainesville and just felt that it would be best to raise our children where we had so much family support and this was a home base for us. So we actually moved back to get divorced and live separate lives, but to live to really create a foundation for the children.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I was supposed to leave up North because they want to avoid the snow. That's not why I did it, but that's the story I hear the majority of the time.
Speaker 2:I don't miss it.
Speaker 1:That's weird. Okay, I love that I got to ask this question because some folks might want to know are you guys, pats or Geno's? I, like Pats, know they're both good nice diplomatic answer I like it I don't know what happened in our conversation when you talked about the divorce.
Speaker 1:I want to get into too much, but I realized that a lot of people who are successful, they're driven almost as a they're driven by a need to push past this stuff. You know, they don't just want to be successful in a field, they almost. And these people, these are the people who I've met. I'm not saying everybody who's successful thinks this way, things this way. But I, what I've seen, almost by a wide consensus, is that people are just highly successful so they can push past things in their life that have been unpleasant or or automatic, like we talked about in our pre-production meeting. Help me, help me, flesh that out a little bit more. Is that something that you recognize? Do you see that as a driving force behind your desire to be successful? Or is it something else that drives you?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:I feel like I've always been fairly driven, I think it's just, we're kind of born in certain ways and I was born to be driven, but yes, I do like to move past um hardships and perhaps to a fault in that, sometimes I feel like perhaps I don't process um the experience and outcome as thoroughly as perhaps I should and then have to revisit it later because it breaks, cause I have a, I have a great ability to just I don't want to say ignore it, but just perhaps underestimate the impact it's having on me and my body and my and myself, and then it will come back to bite you not bite you, but you know it resurfaces.
Speaker 1:So, yes, that makes a lot of sense, I think. And this is not. This is somebody who's getting giving out informal coaching. I'm not. I'm not a certified. Well, I guess I'm still certified, but I'm not a certified coach anymore. I'm not doing that anymore. But I get a lot of opportunities to still speak into people's lives and I get the impression that people are unable to live well because they don't want to deal or they can't, don't know how to deal with the trauma. What kind of advice would you give to somebody who may be listening today that know that it's a greater purpose in their life, that know that there's more they can accomplish than what they've been so far? On what people have said, they can do the limits that people have put on them. How do you encourage them to live well and still deal with the issues and still deal with it and not hide from it, but still face it and still have a mindset to live well, if that makes sense to you, hopefully, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:well, I think it depends on what kind of issues they're facing. I think what I have learned we talked about small t traumas yesterday, yeah, and I think, and everybody has them for me, my journey with journaling and meditation and therapy and emdr work and bioenergetic work and all of these different modalities have really helped me as a. You know, I'm in my fifties now. I wish I had done that when I got divorced. I left that marriage when I was 31 and I feel like, wow, how much more insight I could have had at that time had I known to do that.
Speaker 2:I didn't seek therapy right away at all and I read incessantly and you can learn a lot through books. But I do think there is some value in getting some objective opinions and people who are experts. I get it's funny because I feel like in my business life I am so quick to get mentors and seek opinions and get the best ideas and learn from the people who've come before me. I'm all about that, but in my personal life I had. I never even considered that until my fifts in terms of getting advice and seeking counsel and things like that. So my advice would be for folks who are dealing with things is to seek help and outside expertise sooner rather than later.
Speaker 1:That's great. By the way, I wouldn't guess the 50s. You look fantastic so I would never guess the 50s. You look fantastic, so I would never guess that. You definitely take care of yourself All right.
Speaker 1:So we talked about a lot of different things. I mean, you're a serial entrepreneur I think I can relate to that a lot An author I've done one book so I can relate but you're in so many other areas. You've got a real estate brokerage in realty and it's been known to be one of the fastest rising companies in Florida and on the top 50 companies to watch list. There's a lot of great things that are trending with the company. A great place to work. There's another ranking also it's a great place to work at. One of the best companies to work at. Talk to me about let's kind of get into what you said about seeking help outside of counsel and stuff, because you talked a lot about some of the incredible mentors you had and people who have endorsed you. How were you able to secure that mentorship and what kind of impact did it have on your trajectory, if you will, the mentorship you got?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I started out.
Speaker 1:I've always tried to seek out mentors, whether they knew it or not, that they were my mentors?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean some people. I just stalk online see what they do. If I like a facet of their life that I want to incorporate elements of that into my life. So, whether it's my spiritual life, my health journey, elements of that into my life. So, whether it's my spiritual life, my health journey, my financial path, all that. So sometimes it's that, sometimes it's formal, where I'll ask somebody hey, will you be my mentor? Or hey, can I take you out to lunch every quarter? I don't call it mentorship.
Speaker 2:But I just want to pick your brain on some ideas and especially, I find it most valuable for me getting insights from people, other entrepreneurs, outside of my industry. I think the best ideas and sparks come from collaboration and interactions with people who aren't in your space. But then the more formal relationships, you know, I was in a program where I was the mentor for there's a. I'm in a town where there's a university and they have a great entrepreneurship program, so I got to be the mentor for a lot of those students and that was a really rewarding experience to be able to give back as well.
Speaker 2:And then you know, I have another type of mentor for me is somebody who's way out there. So I've got kind of two sets of mentors mentors that are maybe a year or two ahead of me, three years ahead of me and I can see where I want to go. But then those ones that are way outside of your reach and you really think and admire. You think of them highly. You admire them and facets of their life and I I have blessed to be to have Barbara Corcoran as one of my mentors. Barbara Corcoran is the shark tank shark.
Speaker 2:And you know, she made her living in New York city as a real estate broker and rebuilt, built her company up twice, um, then sold it for the second time and then really rebranded herself in her. I think she was around 60 years of age and said hey, I don't want to just be known for real estate, I want to be known as a businesswoman and entrepreneur. And sought out Shark Tank and secured that position. She's been on it for 16 years, so it's been a real blessing that that relationship came from just connections. I had a gentleman, an agency that I work with in New York to buy my radio and television spots and he had that relationship with Barbara and offered me the opportunity and I jumped on it. Absolutely, I would like to learn from the best.
Speaker 1:Amazing. I love that you mentioned about being endorsed by a couple of people, some names that we are fairly familiar with. What does that mean, to be endorsed? Explain it in your best words. What does it mean? What's the impact of being endorsed?
Speaker 2:So it means different things to the different folks that I'm endorsed by. So, for example, dave Ramsey. So, for example, dave Ramsey, I've done a lot of coursework with Dave Ramsey. I teach financial peace, which is a course that he is his course teach, teaching people, debt free, living and then to get into his day. It's called they changed the name to it used to be called endorsed local providers, now it's called Ramsey trusted, but it's agents that he trusts in your marketplace and he has the highest level of criteria.
Speaker 2:You have to go through an interview with his team, you have to know his philosophy, you have to know his teachings. It's not because what happens is a lot of celebrities now are creating these endorsements with real estate agents to actually get a license and they can collect referral fees by getting agents. If they refer their sphere which is huge right to a real estate agent, they can collect a referral fee if they have a license. And so that's what Dave Ramsey has done, that's what Glenn Beck has done. That's what Dave Ramsey has done. That's what Glenn Beck has done, that's what Sean Hannity has done. A lot of popular celebrities are getting their real estate license because they see the financial impact.
Speaker 2:Now, dave Ramsey was always interested in real estate. I don't know the history about Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, but Dave Ramsey's always had a. In fact, I think he sold real estate at one point in his life, so that was a natural fit for him. Yeah, but he has the highest level of criteria in terms of getting to be into an endorsement from him. The others I'm not honestly sure of. They were arranged by my agent so I'm not sure what was required from those.
Speaker 1:No worries, no worries. You mentioned financial peace. How would you describe that in a sentence? Financial peace what does that mean? I feel like I know, but I want to listen to it a little better.
Speaker 2:So his course is called Dave Ramsey's course, is called Financial Peace, and so that's a specific program. He's got the baby steps and he walks everybody through. You know people, because the financial literacy is not something that's often taught in school, and so it really teaches you how to manage your household budget, how to stay out of debt and how to create wealth, and so Financial Peace. I think he's trademarked it and it's a. It's definitely his program. For me personally, I can sleep well at night. It's peace in my financial life, and I know that you can become highly leveraged and make a lot of money doing that, and that's one way to get wealth. But for me, I don't like to be highly leveraged, and so I sacrifice some wealth for peace, and I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's powerful.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I like that. I want to ask you a little bit about real estate, just a little bit. I think all of us seem to want to ride that wave because we understand how important it is to have land, especially in today's times. Explain to me some about the real estate shifts you know in a post-pandemic market. Kind of tell me about what it's like to do real estate in today's climate. What kind of challenges have you been facing? How are you Because I know a lot of folks that are listening are in the real estate or thinking about starting a little shift without thinking about starting it.
Speaker 1:How would you speak to that? If you can get into it a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So real estate is interesting. I don't recommend people. People sometimes a lot of people time the market and try to get into real estate when the market's high. I don't, I mean if you're truly passionate about real estate and you want to make it a career, that I don't recommend at all. You know you get in because you're passionate about helping people. The pandemic overall really helped people in real estate. Some markets, like Florida, never shut down. We in fact people flocked to Florida during the pandemic because they could work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so we we really benefited from it, and if you look at national data, in fact, people flocked to Florida during the pandemic because they could work remotely that's absolutely true, yeah, and so we really benefited from it. And if you look at national data, prices skyrocketed, so the real estate market thrived during the pandemic. Now we're post-pandemic and the rate of appreciation of prices is falling off, and the rate of appreciation of prices is falling off. We're not showing a decrease in prices currently, locally or nationally, but the rate of acceleration has markedly decreased and now is back to historic norms of around 4%. But during the pandemic we were seeing growth way well beyond that. So that's what I would say about that.
Speaker 2:I think I wouldn't try to time the market. We're more impacted not so much by the pandemic but by interest rates. Interest rates right now are six and a half 7%. We are not expected to see really below six and a half this year. Fortunately, buyers have, I think, come to terms with that. We're not going back to 2% and 3%, and so if you really want to move, you're going to have to move, and so even when you look at interest rates, historically, 6% and 7% is still great, but people are comparing it to the 2% and 3%, and we're not going to see that.
Speaker 1:Those days are gone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're more impacted by that than a pandemic.
Speaker 1:Okay, yes, and speaking of that again, that was probably one of the worst times in our country.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I know that housing was something that I saw a huge impact in during that time and even to some degree, since I think here locally there's a lot of issues in that regard. But you seem to be very passionate about that In our discussion. You kind of mentioned it a couple of times. About your nonprofit that you started, which I definitely want to hear about that a little bit. But why you started it, why you're passionate about helping at-risk families and children especially, kind of get into that a little bit. Share some of your desire for our listeners, if you don't mind.
Speaker 2:Sure. So I was so blessed to have the experience when I was in business school. One of the classes they were offered was to gut row homes in West Philadelphia, which is where I was studying, and we got to gut them to the studs, rebuild the homes and then sell them quote, unquote, sell them to cost burdened families, and the materials and the labor for the most part were donated. So the families got houses for very little money and it was very impactful for me to see how much a house impacts the trajectory of a family. It's really the foundation of family life, and that stayed with me.
Speaker 2:So when I decided to make a career move 10 years after being in the pharmaceutical industry and wanted to make a pivot, I decided to go back into real estate. And once I got my ground and realized that I was going to stay in the industry, I did start a nonprofit to help those cost burdened families. You know we live in an area, I mean there's costs. The median housing costs across the country have skyrocketed and they haven't kept in place with the median income and so we had just have a lot of people being shut out of home ownership. And so our nonprofit addresses that issue and helps build homes for at-risk families.
Speaker 1:Do you know anything about the aftermath of the program that you just mentioned? In West Philadelphia? We guys kind of brought the house down to the studs and rebuilt it. Do you know if that program is still functioning? How are the communities that you worked in? Are they doing better? Are they. Honestly.
Speaker 2:I don't know. That's a great question and now you've piqued my interest. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm just wondering. I mean, these programs sound awesome. When you first said it I had to pause and hope. I said they're going to tear the house down where people don't live, but then you followed up with saying that we rebuilt it and sold it to people at a multiple rate, I would guess. So I'm just wondering how that's been going. Is the program still active?
Speaker 2:Has it been?
Speaker 1:helpful. Yeah, I've seen this, but for example, back home in New York, it was a long time between visits. I went back to places where I would probably be fearing for my life back in those days, back in the 80s, walking in these areas. I have nothing to fear now except puppies and strollers and storefronts. I mean, it's totally changed. I'm just wondering okay, so are the people still able to live there? Can they afford it? I'm just thinking outside of the box a little bit. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think that's a great question and I should do that. I know here in Florida we've partnered with Habitat for Humanity and we do see the impact here, and what I love about that organization is that it's a hand up, not a handout. You know there's. They have to work, the families have to work alongside us. 240 hours of work, labor into their home yeah, and they have to qualify because we don't want them. The last thing we want them to do is be foreclosed on. So they have to make. They have to. They have to make a certain level of income to make sure that they can afford their payments. They also have to do educational requirements. They take classes in home finance, home budgeting and also ownership, how to maintain the home. So they really tee you up to be successful.
Speaker 1:That's how you can create ownership.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's ownership. I like that A lot of folks, you know this is just a general statement. Being from New York, I've seen it so many times the handout mentality. It's national, it's not really a New York thing, but that mindset is pervasive. So people who are invested in their own home, yeah, exactly that's fantastic.
Speaker 2:I love that, I love that, so okay, So's fantastic.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that, so okay. So let's talk about your book. I love the title Breaking Boxes.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:How'd that come about?
Speaker 2:That came about because a couple of years ago I found myself unsettled and you know it took me a while to even admit that to myself.
Speaker 2:I know that there are so many people who I know that I am blessed in so many ways, and so I kind of felt upset with myself for even feeling, you know, not well, but I was unhappy and discontent.
Speaker 2:And so I went on this journey of self-discovery and I found that the common thread of my source of discontentment was feeling like at certain times in my life I was in a box that I was. Either it was not me at all or it had served its purpose, but I was still in the box and I had not exited. So the book is my journey through these boxes, either successfully or not, and what I learned from that. And I wrote the book because when I was going through it myself and I would share my stories with others, it was a universal condition and I saw so many people stuck in their own boxes and I thought, gosh, if I could write this book and it helped just one person look at their life in a different way, see a box that may be holding them back and limiting them and giving them the courage to make small steps towards change, then the effort would have been worth it. So that's how the book came to fruition.
Speaker 1:I love it. What kind of boxes did you notice? I know that it's something that it's probably metaphorical to ask kind of weird to be in a box. What kind of boxes did you notice in your journey?
Speaker 2:Oh, I mean, I've had so many, you know the familial box. I mean we all have it. What know, what is the expectation of you and your family in your family unit? You know it could be birth order conditions. It could be based on some health status within your family and you become a caretaker. It could be you're expected to be this profession because you are a, you know, a Smith or a Johnson or whoever you know. There's so many just things that the way you're raised it could be based on your ethnicity, your religion, that you're raised in. It could boxes, could come from the roles that you play, whether it's, you know, the good daughter, the good wife, the good husband, the good son, all those kinds of roles. It could be from the industry that you're in and what are the expectations of the industry? It could be from age. I had a girlfriend who decided to go gray during COVID and stopped dyeing her hair and then I saw her about a year ago and I said what happened?
Speaker 2:Cause her hair was the color of mine, which is dark, dyed to dark Brown, and she's like Betsy, I was, I've I became invisible when, when she went gray, she was. She felt ignored. She felt like her opinions weren't valued. She felt like storekeepers didn't pay attention to her, people cut her in line Like she, she's like it was as though I didn't exist and I thought, oh, my gosh, that's. You know, sadly, in our country I don't think we respect our elderly and I think she just saw that so clearly that she dyed her hair back to Brown. So it could be an age, you know, box. There's just so many, so many boxes.
Speaker 2:You know, I remember a girlfriend of mine was telling me she had, we were, we were meeting. She's like, oh, I got to go because I'm I'm late for my dinner. And I was like, oh, what's that about? And she, she's in a dinner club. It's a wine club where you meet at someone's house and you pick a country and you cook the food of their country and you have the wine of the country. And I was like, oh, you know who's hosting that? And she said, well, this month it's Father John and I'm like what Father John Like, father John from St Francis Church, and she's like, yeah, and I was like putting Father John in a box, like I didn't envision the priest being a part of this wine club, dinner club thing, and I was like, well, why wouldn't he be?
Speaker 2:You know, he liked me, perhaps he likes what, I don't know, father John that well, but it was like I had immediately put him in a box and I thought, well, based on what his profession was, I made certain assumptions about him which I knew I had no basis of, other than what he did. So it's just, the boxes are everywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, absolutely Absolutely. You also mentioned some projects associated with your uh, your book. Can you get into that, or is it too early to talk about those?
Speaker 2:I'm sorry you. You you cut out the what in my book.
Speaker 1:Here's some projects associated with your book. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Projects. So yeah, yes yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, um, so I'm actually doing a lot of speaking regarding the book. I'll be in Tampa in April. I'm going up to North Carolina at the end of this month and then I just recorded a course that's a companion to the book, because the book is story-based. There's a little bit of how-to, but it's also very much heavily story-based and my stories and people were wanting. It resonated with them, but they wanted to know okay, well, how do I do this for myself? And so the course is more of a how-to journey to help you get out of your own boxes that you may be stuck in. So that was recorded a couple weeks ago and that should be launching in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:So that was recorded.
Speaker 1:A couple of weeks ago and that should be launching in the next couple of weeks. Okay, that's fantastic, I love this. I love this. So you kind of talked about a lot of different things, you know, kind of redefining yourself and living life on your own terms. You talked about, you know, being in a box and embracing change. I want to spend a little time on the embracing change part. I think a lot of the people that I get a chance to talk to, sometimes even in the course of these kind of interviews on this, show that embracing change seemed to be a challenge. I see we're very active and we have been in very specialized aspects of ministry that my wife and I do together and we see that embracing change seem to be a challenge from the youngest, even into the 70s. How have you gotten to a place where you've become comfortable with embracing change, if that's even a thing for you? I?
Speaker 2:agree, I think we, as humans, are very resistant to change, and it's it's can be frustrating because that's really the only thing that we're certain of is that things change, everything changes, and so I've I feel my position on change is that it's like a muscle, and the more you practice it, the better apt and more resilient you can become towards change, and so I try to either, every day, I have a goal of either making myself, putting myself in an uncomfortable situation, or doing something that makes me uncomfortable, or doing something that's new, so that I can build that muscle for being able to react and adjust to things that are uncertain or unexpected. And it might be as simple as I think I shared with you yesterday. I start every day with a cold shower, ice cold shower.
Speaker 1:I'm not a little bit.
Speaker 2:Highly unpleasant for me. I live in Florida, I thrive in the heat, I do not like being cold and I'm generally cold anyway, but I will stand in under a hot shower for five to seven minutes. I'm sorry, cold shower for five to seven minutes because I love knowing that I'm doing something that I'm very uncomfortable with and that it's okay, I'm going to be okay and I can regulate my breathing, I can enter in a mind of curiosity and not panic, and calm my nervous system down, and so if you just do that, I think you'll find your resiliency will build. But again, I try to put myself in uncomfortable situations every day. It's something that I track. I have a habit tracker and I track it every day because it's so important to me to be comfortable around change.
Speaker 1:I like that. I like that. Now you talk a lot about bosses. Your book is essentially about that. Yeah, I don't know if we tapped into it. Why are you passionate about that? Because this is something that's so common around us. People don't even seem to care. And this is happening. They just don't even recognize it's going on. They kind of just drifted in life. You don't even realize that why. Why is Betsy passionate about helping people break out of boxes?
Speaker 2:Because I feel that I really suffered by being in boxes that either I put myself in or I felt that others were putting me in for a long time and it created such discomfort for me and now I feel such freedom and it's still a journey. I wouldn't say I've conquered it. I've still find myself in boxes from time to time, but I feel that I recognize it much more quickly when it doesn't serve me. But you know, I spent a whole career, a decade, in a career I didn't want to be in, because I felt so much pressure to be in the industry that I thought my parents expected of me and I was so unhappy and that's so unnecessary. We don't have to go through life like that.
Speaker 2:And so I think that's what I'm passionate about is because it's so ridiculous that, whether it's in our own minds which a lot of these boxes I mean, they are mental constructs. You know, you don't see. You don't see dogs. You know I've got two dogs at home, you don't. They're not worried about being in a box today. They're not worried about being in the good dog box or if they're going to fail today by chasing that squirrel out there. These are all human constructs that we don't have to be chained to. There's so much freedom once we recognize that it's a choice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that familiar part. We talk about it a lot. I know I share about it a lot on one of our other shows. It's a powerful thing.
Speaker 1:And it's not just leaving New York, york. You know my hometown, where I, I knew everything and everybody to leave that it was. It was not an easy journey, but those, those, so those bonds are strong. It's like you got you know, four generations of a family who named their son john, and you and your husband are, are in line, so to speak, and you and me and John, that's a great one, that's a lot of pressure, yeah, and that's how we lived through when we did with those familial concerts like we were talking about.
Speaker 1:So that's deep stuff there. But answer this for me. I'm going to ask one question. I'm going to put you on the spot with a second one. But if you weren't doing real estate, what would you be doing today? If it wasn't for real estate, real estate in your life, what would you be?
Speaker 2:doing it would be I would own a giant farm and do dog dog rescue.
Speaker 1:Okay, are you doing that too on the side?
Speaker 2:so I I used to raise seeing eye dogs for the blind and I love that. And now I like the two dogs I have at home are from a rescue organization and I volunteer at the humane society, which is a organization that rescues um dogs and cats. Um, I, I think I would do that. I'm so, I am so empathetic. I don't know if I could emotionally handle it, cause there's a lot of um, I see a lot of loss too, so I, but that's what I would want to do.
Speaker 1:I see that the one, the one that I saw, I saw both dog the one I saw yesterday when you were uh were comforting. I wonder if he was a rescue. He or she was a rescue Cause, cause it didn't. Yeah yeah, you had to talk to them. Was that dog with the rescue as well? Yes yes, that makes sense to me. Okay, I'll put you on the spot here. You're very highly educated and I respect that about you. My mom is a full-time student. She's in her 70s and she can't stop going to school.
Speaker 2:I would do that too. If somebody would pay me, I would be in school full-time.
Speaker 1:Part of me. I fight against that, but it's in here. I love to be educated. I love to read. I'm an avid reader. I read a lot. I read several books a year A lot. What would you say to somebody who wants to be successful in certain areas and grow, but they don't truly buy into the traditional educational system, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Loans and all that goes with it. How would you treat them?
Speaker 2:I think that the educational system in our country is going through a drastic change and I think we're going to see the model, especially the traditional campus model, is going to go by. I personally think it's going to go by the wayside. I think if you know what you want to do, I don't. I've always felt this. I've always felt that the value of a college degree is what you learn about yourself, living on a campus, away from your family, in the setting. So if you take that piece away which the model is moving towards and it's purely the education I don't think the general liberal arts education is, I mean, you don't need that. If you know what you want to do and we get agents that come from us right out of high school, that is great.
Speaker 2:If you know you want to be in real estate right out of high school, you don't need a college degree. There's so many professions that you don't need that college degree for Now. If professions that you don't need that college degree for Now, if you're going to go into some professions like my daughter's in law school, you still you know you need that. If you're going to be a physician, yes, you need that, but there are so many professions that you really don't I don't believe you need the formal education for, and there's also so many ways to get free education online now.
Speaker 2:So I just think going into debt for your education I just don't think is Even with the physicians now they've looked at the salaries versus what it costs to when you graduate the amount of debt these kids have graduating from medical school, I mean it takes it can take decades to pay that off. So I just don't, I'm not a big believer in that. I know that that's my background, but I think that times have changed. I know personally, when I'm interviewing for, even for executive roles within our companies, I don't, I don't even look at their, their college degree. I don't, it doesn't. Their experience to me is much more important than where they went to college or if they went to college.
Speaker 1:No, I love that. Thanks for the transparency Cause I think that people are. We learned, like you said, that's those familiar constructs again, I don't think we can get away from it. We've been talking about it the entire episode. People kind of teach you know what. You got to do this. You got to do this. My mother, I love her. She's done that. Me and my sisters have done the same thing. You got to get education, like your uncle. You got to do this, yeah, but I'm not cut out for what you're trying to get me to do here. I can conform, but it's not going to be easy for me to do that, not where I'm inclined to go. But I get that, totally, totally it can open some doors.
Speaker 2:If you need those doors opened, fairly or unfairly, it can, you know, open some doors. But I don't think if you're driven, you don driven, you don't need, you don't need it.
Speaker 1:I agree with the medical side. I kind of want somebody to have to me but I get that lawyer too. Same thing I'd like to have somebody who understands the law. He's have a cursory understanding of the law, at least right in any way, shape or form. But uh, what would you say basically, is your goal for the for five years from now? What's your goal? What do you want to see happen and take place five years?
Speaker 2:from now? Um well, I would love so my, I've got goals for my business, but I'm for me personally. You know, my, my mission in life is to improve and empower the lives of others. So I wake up every day and to me, my day has been successful if my presence has in in helped somebody today. Because if my presence has has helped someone's life today, then why am I here today? Because if my presence hasn't helped someone's life today, then why am I here? So in five years, you know, I would just hope that I would have had a greater impact on people's lives. And so, personally, for me, it's through doing more of this doing my course, writing a second book, and doing more of this kind of a journey, as well as my real estate, Like that's I feel like I can handle both, but developing this side of my profession more is where I see myself going in the next five years.
Speaker 1:I have to have to imagine that you have a life of of a pretty strong disciplines because, like we talked about yesterday, you got four or five things going on that you have to manage and do excuse me on a daily basis and it keeps you busy. You know, and I know that just for my own life, I don't have as well. I won't say I have a lot. I have a lot of things that are not like those, but but but greater in number and have to do a lot of things.
Speaker 1:As far as my personal development, it makes sure. Make sure all my disciplines are taken care of early and make create a time to do things. How describe for us, uh, a great day for you. What would you say is a great day? Lay it out for me from start to finish. What would constitute a day we say where you say you know what, today was it, we did it. This is what I was shooting for.
Speaker 2:So like a free day or like a work day?
Speaker 1:No, I mean a day where you accomplish what you want to accomplish.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay. So I would say so. I actually don't interact a lot with the public anymore in terms of my day-to to day. I've set it up so that we have people that do that. So for me, where I have the most impact and where I get the most satisfaction is creating value in my agents and my staff's life. So for me, a great day is seeing them grow and seeing that I made a difference in their lives. You know, I've I've had agents that have become debt-free and that's like, oh my gosh, I, I, that to me is worth so much more than any sale I could make.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean just changing that. That person's and usually those, those people in my company that have become debt free. They come, they become debt free young, and that to me is just huge because it's like they're going to pass that onto their children now and you've really impacted their family tree. So that would be like a huge day for me If, if somebody came up to me and said that to me, which has happened before, you know. So something like that would be like a huge day for me if somebody came up to me and said that to me, which has happened before. So something like that would be pie in the sky.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's awesome. We're going to throw into the lives of other people. I get that from you. I like that. Last two questions and then we'll go ahead and close out today. What advice would you give those that are watching and listening, that face massive challenges like yours, and are kind of discouraged about moving forward, not sure how to handle that? What kind of advice would you give them?
Speaker 2:Well, if you're discouraged and not sure how to move forward, I would seek help, seek outside help, move forward. I would seek help, seek outside help. I don't think you know there's so many people that are out there that want to help and know how to help if we seek it. You know, I don't feel like I did that early on, and I wish I had done that when I was younger, and so I would suggest that you don't have to go through this journey alone, and so that's that would be my message to them.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. This has been an outstanding conversation. I'm so glad that I've met you. I hope this is not our last conversation. I'm excited about your book, brick in Boxes. Not sure how long it's been out, but just that that that premise is is the kind of thing that in in today's times. It's a book that's needed. I understand it's a bestseller, has received numerous awards, so it's definitely hitting the right spots for a lot of people. So thank you for writing it, thank you for standing behind it, and I'm excited about those things. Where can people find your book? Where can they find your work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my book is on Amazon, also on all the major book retailer sites like Barnes, noble Books, a Million those kinds of sites. Also on my website, which is BetsyPapincom. You can find my book there. You can sign up for my free newsletter and information about the course will be coming soon. I'm also on all the social channels at my name, betsy Papin.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Thank you very much and I always ask that, if you can, on the YouTube channel, where this episode is in the comments section, if you don't mind dropping your handles there, that'll help people find you. Also, In case they missed us during the course of the interview, they can go to find your site, find your newsletter and find your work with our brick and boxes, dismantling the metaphorical boxes that bind us. So I appreciate this conversation. It's fantastic. Thank you again for taking the time to be here with us.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I appreciate it. You have a great day.
Speaker 1:If all you got to listening and watching, of course, please jump on our YouTube channel, subscribe there, like and share as well. Keeps us going hearing engaging content like this episode today, so we appreciate your support there and thanks again for listening. Have a great day. We're out of here.
