Everyone said, "Oh your life is going to change! You have no idea" and all of the other cliche things about having a kid. Blah, blah, blah right? I was like "pssshhhh, duh (with my best valley girl voice)." But...oh, ho ho, did I really have NO idea! I thought I was busy 'before Leah', (BL). I am a Realtor and for a long time I was also a bartender (moonlighting) at locally known hot spots such as Rick Erwin's West End Grille and Rick Erwin's Nantucket Seafood and last but not least Breakwater. To be honest, I used my bartending job to get where I am today and I am so grateful for it. Not only did it allow me to meet many of you and create a fantastic network of big names, socialites, business people, investors and just downright cool people in general, but it gave me a life outside of Real Estate. If you are not careful, you WILL get sucked in. All you will do is sit behind your computer and go show houses and before you know it month's have passed by and you have been nowhere and done nothing fun outside of work. This job of Real Estate will consume you and then spit you back out if you don't play your cards juuuuust right. For some reason I feel the need to insert the following thought "Feeeeed me Seymour".You absolutely have to be disciplined, motivated, aggressive and thick-skinned to be a Realtor. I jokingly compare it to modeling (which I have never done). People size you up, push you around and try to starve you. I can be a tough cookie, but on the inside I may have a teeny tiny almost invisible tear. Haha ok, you know what I mean, I don't want to have to get all detailed and soft on you. I take every job with every client very personally. I can't remember a time when I have not begun a friendship of some sort with each and every client.
So being a bartender was/is a tough job as well. Time management, patience and people skills are imperative. If you can juggle, that is a good skill to have as well, because quite often you are juggling a thousand things at one time with people flagging you down to add more to your load. I know a lot of you reading this were there at one point in your lives too. It is back breaking work and the restaurants I worked in were fine dining and insanely busy all of the time. I didn't have time to go to the gym, instead I just went to bartend. You run all night long with no dinner (while serving everyone else delectable dishes), on an approximately 9 hour shift (on top of my day job) and then when you aren't running you are lifting heavy things such as beer cases and drunk socialites off of the floor. Don't worry your names are safe with me =)
Back to my point, I have been in the service industry for as long as I can remember. I started in restaurants at age 16 and RETIRED two years ago at the ripe ole age of 28, phew. I began my Real Estate career in 2006 at age 23. For those of you counting, I am 30, or more importantly...this year is the first anniversary of my 29th birthday.
Little did I know at the time how important my bartending job would be to my Real Estate career. Being a Realtor is very expensive and it helped cover that tab and give me the network I needed in order to be successful. It also taught me people skills, how to read body language, how to be proactive, manage my time, juggle, budget on a commission only salary and how to live on little food and sleep. I'll tell you what, sometimes those bleu cheese bar olives were our dinner, no joke. Remember that next time you see your favorite bartender, behind that smile is probably a rumbley tummy and 4 hours of sleep. Side note: Don't judge a book by it's cover. So many of my restaurant co-workers were also in nursing school or starting a business of their own. Keep that in mind when you are tipping, because they may be the nurse taking care of you on your next doctor/hospital visit, haha. If I get in to the whole conversation about being nice to your server, I could go on for days. So, I'll stop there.
Once again, back to my point. I wake up each day, see my beautiful little mini me and her smiling face which is the reason I work so hard. Spend about two hours with her and send her off to daycare (sad face). Then around 9am, I begin my day with all of you lovely folks helping you create the life you have dreamed of. My phone is glued to my head and my laptop is glued to my fingertips. I live out of my car and sometimes that is a little too obvious. Someone once told me if a Salesman's car is clean, they aren't a good salesman. So, now I feel like I have the right to be a little lazy with that. Then I pick up the little princess, take her home, get her settled in and a lot of times I go back out for more evening appointments. More often than not, Leah comes to those appointments with me. We have dubbed her the 'Sales baby of the year.' She is a good sport, mostly because she gets spoiled by my clients and I have to say, I love it too! Then we come back home and I put her to bed hopefully by 8pm so that she and I are still on track for the next day. Throwing off a baby's schedule...oh man, I don't even want to go there. Then I get back on my computer until I can't see anymore. Around 11pm, I drag myself to bed. Oh wait...I forgot to eat dinner, did I even eat lunch? Back to the kitchen for a quick sandwich or some left over Vito's Pizza (my fave) and then back to bed. I enjoy my job and apparently working tirelessly for other's and helping them achieve their goals has always been important to me. It makes me happy to help someone buy or sell their home or condo to make things work for them and/or their family.
Now that I am a Mom, I get how difficult it is to get just about anything done when you are with your kids. When it comes time to find a place to live that works for your family, you want someone you can trust to help you along the way. Someone to make that transition as hassle free and smooth as possible. Someone that understands what your family needs to get through each day in this hectic world. I know I can't have it all, but I hope it means something to you that I have worked hard to educate myself in this business and give you the tools you need to have the home that fit's your lifestyle. Helping you buy your next home, keeps me in my home. I think my new motto should be something along the lines of "Buy with me or we are both homeless," What do you think? All of you other working Mom's and Dad's, I know you know what I mean. Let's do business together!
