Yeah. So I I had a a real estate and wedding photography business in Austin, and I was doing it part time. I knew I didn't wanna work more than part time because I do really enjoy spending time with my kids and I do really enjoy home homemaking activities. I have a lot of hobbies like so and I play piano and garden and and like to play sports and just do all those those kinds of things, but at the same time I have this thing where I want to go outside and and build something, build a business, build in my community. And so I really like the idea of part time homemaker and part time business person. And I realized when I was so bored, after my husband laid off and then he got his new job, part of the reason that we weren't living the passive income lifestyle where, we my kids were homeschooled and I was home, and he wasn't. And he didn't work that far away. I think it was like a five minute commute. But at the same time, it's like we couldn't go wander around and travel and do the things because he was still working. And at that time, I wasn't really thinking that I was gonna retire him. It It was more like I was trying to protect us from the layoffs, protect us from the the hardship. And when that mindset kind of shifted around to this business have the possibility to not only protect us from hardship, but also lead us into abundance, that was where it really changed. It wasn't like now I need something to do to keep myself busy because whether inside the home or outside the home, if I can free him from the need to be making money and to go into the office, then that's when I don't actually need a part time job inside outside the home anymore. We can go do all of these things together. And so that was when I realized I don't really wanna build this huge business. And I think he put it best, when I was struggling with this this thing. Should I scale or should I not? And he said, well, I don't wanna just get to the point where I'm ready to quit my job, and we just replace my job with your job. He goes, then I'm the one Right. On board.

Right. We just traded problems, basically. Basically. Gotcha. Okay. So we'll get we'll get into that some more, but, let's back up kind of into your your story a little bit more. You know, historically, You can pick it up wherever you'd like. We touched on several things before we hit record the first time. I'm just kidding. And

How so? Sorry. So, I

mean, we I think a lot of the things you've dealt with and and this is not me trying to judge. It's just just I think a lot of people will be able to relate to several of the things you've gone through. Right? So pick it up where you'd like to. You mentioned a couple you you mentioned your parents, before we hit record. You mentioned your husband's, you know, I guess, instability with with his employment. And, I mean, just homeschooling six kids, and that's that's that's enough adversity for me right there, just that. But, yeah, pick it up where you'd like to, and and we can dive into some of the challenges that you have faced personally and with your family, and kind of your mindset in getting through those those obstacles and challenges.

Well, last fall, my sister's teenage son passed away from cancer, and he had been battling with it for about two years. And, at the end with which is common with cancer, it was very, very sudden. It went from he's he's having a new round of chemo. He has this chance of survival to getting that phone call. He's going home, and it took probably three days at that point. Wow.

Wow. Very, very sorry to hear that.

Yeah. So that opened an opportunity for me to just take a closer look at my life and spend some time with some therapists. And it opened some doors that I didn't know needed to be looked at. And so sometimes that's that's the experiences we get from those. And the year before when my father passed away, that was difficult. That was obviously extremely difficult. But at the same time, he was eighty three. And we had the experience where he had had a heart attack a month or or two months before he passed away where we all gathered into Seattle. It was before the pandemic. It was, the fall of twenty nineteen, and so we were in his hospital room. We were in the nursing home with him. We had wonderful experiences. We said what we needed to say. And even though we could have continued to enjoy great times together, we didn't feel like there was anything unsaid. And so it was a beautiful experience that I felt like was really bonding for my siblings and me. And we were able to to say goodbye to him in a way that had dignity and celebrated his life. It was very it was very different watching, my nephew battle cancer during COVID. He isolated in the hospital and then eventually at age seventeen, lose that battle. And so, afterwards, I you know, when I was talking with my therapist and she was just asking about trauma experiences, and I started talking about things that I never really let bother me before. And I would see her eyes widen, her eyebrows go up, and she would start scribbling notes. I have a brother who's a quadriplegic from a cycling accident. He actually lives near me. He he we moved here four years ago, and he he's been here a couple years before us. And so I I hadn't had like up close and personal his battle with with, you know, his new life basically. And seeing it more close and personal now and realizing it's not just the fact that you can't walk. It's it affects every part of your physiology and your mental health. It's, it's

Right. Yeah. I, and this this is in no way. It's just me relating on some level. Right? But, I guarantee some of the my friends are gonna make fun of me for even bringing this up again. But I ruptured my Achilles last year, and and there and this is not a sympathy. It's not for me, but but the point is it affected. I couldn't drive for three months. Mhmm. Right? And it affected our family in so many ways that I never even thought about. It was just like, oh, my leg is the problem. Right? Well, no. It's really that was the start of all the problems. Right? And so point being, it I mean, it it created a lot of stress for our family. My wife had to drive the kids everywhere, and it's just a lot of things I couldn't do. And, I mean, just so that times ten or a hundred is is what, you know, what your brother has been dealing with. I it's just so much more than just the physical, ailment. So, yeah, that's that's that's a lot. And I think and it sounds like you're you're kind of like me in that we were talking beforehand that, you know, we don't I I at least I will speak for myself. I I tend to, like, keep things at a distance, you know, emotionally to which I think sometimes is is the right move on some level, but, and not if it's not front and center, then that's like it's just easier to move forward, you know, without really facing someone else's adversity. And sounds like it sounds like this is now you've had some things kinda very much front and center whether you like it or not. And, so it the I mean, that's a lot right there. And then, again, with the instability from the employment side and then just homeschooling to me, that's I mean, you may think that's no big deal, but I I think that's a lot of adversity. I Just, being from a big family myself, like you said, you are. I can only imagine how much work that is in and of itself. And I know you mentioned some of the challenges with, I think one of your your sons as well. So, yeah, I did is there anything else you wanna dive into as far as, kind of challenges you've you've had to work through?

Well, I think that, like I said, who we are and how we deal with these with these things that happen to us in our lives really has really speaks a lot to who we are on the other side of it. I think it's funny that you brought up the Achilles because it's it's one of those little things. So I've I have actually an Achilles disorder too if we wanna name it that. And it actually stems from I mentioned earlier back from when I was a kid. When I was a teenager, I had a sudden, appendix rupture, and it it was just rapid onset. Nobody knew what was wrong. Got into the hospital and I I'm gonna use the words almost died. It was it was it was really, really bad. Emergency surgery. I was I was out. I was down for for quite a while and, had some pretty extensive, antibiotic use afterwards, which that does a number on your joints. And so I've had, since that time, really a lot of problems with, my joints. I've had some knee surgery. I've got an an Achilles. I think they're just wearing out. I have a lot of pain. And so, I wouldn't call it chronic pain, but, it's nagging. And so one of my favorite hobbies is is hiking. It's how I relax. It's how I like to spend my time. And so I just spent a lot of time working on working on my joint issues and it's just kind of funny because when you have a situation like my my brother's situation and my sister has the same problem with her heels. So it's partially genetic, and it's partially from the antibiotics. She also had cancer during COVID. And so we're complaining about our heels, but I feel like I'm not even allowed to talk about it because she has cancer. So our heels and our Achilles are just we just don't bring it up. And so I think that that sometimes, the denial that we're in that that something is going on and that's why I think working with a therapist was actually helpful because I don't it's not like I'm at my brother's house helping him in the morning get transferred to his wheelchair. It's not like I'm over there. I we don't even we don't even see each other all that often Mhmm. When there's a crisis or a holiday or something. And I there's a lot of guilt there that I'm not able to, you just kind of feel helpless. And so I think that that that dealing with these things there's there's just a lot and we have a tendency to just bury it and ignore it or on the flip side to develop a victim mentality This is gonna hold us back and here's why I can't do all the things I want to do because of all these hard things that have happened. And sometimes I even feel like inspiring stories from people who've overcome adversity is, in a way, demotivating because what's wrong with me? Why can't I do this? And

Yeah. No. Absolutely. You're right. I mean, it's it's just like anything else. It's like either extreme is is not good. Yeah. So pretending you don't have problems or pretending you don't have emotions is is not healthy. But staying there stuck and wallowing in is not healthy either. Right? And so and, again, I'm not preaching to anybody. This is, applies to me just as much as anyone else. But, and so that's an individual thing. I mean, as far as where's the, you know, the healthy zone for for each person, I think. So, I mean, that's that that's that's a lot. I mean yeah. And and as far as, like, the and this show, it just gets into, I mean, some of the things I didn't necessarily see coming were, one was that it it kinda sets us up to compare ourselves to other people

Yeah.

Yeah. So that's interesting. Yeah. I mean and and you can't I I think for people who are in debt and, for, you know, many people, Dave Ramsey has a lot of quality principles that should you know, should you should apply to your life. But

Yeah.

Yeah. He's very anti leverage. He's very anti infinite banking, which is a whole different story, which has to do with leverage as well. But, yeah, so you you pivoted your mindset and you were able and then you moved more toward the rich dad, kind of approach. What does that mean for the for the listener out there? What does that mean?

Sorry. It's w w w dot highrise dot group. It's h I g h r I s e. And, basically, after we did our first couple of deals, we realized we had something pretty cool here, and it was able to fulfill a lot of, holes in the industry for people who were really struggling to to build this business and were really frustrated. And we recently just got to the point where I can't run it by myself anymore rather than starting to charge money for it and create all this. I said, you know what? I'm just gonna I'm just gonna run it like I run my home school and you don't have to run it. So we basically formed committees and created, people with jobs, and I basically get to function inside of my area of of expertise and control what I'm good at controlling. And the rest of it I I got to delegate. And, I'm really, really enjoying what the club is turning into and how people are building, building what they need to make their businesses successful. And That's

really cool.

That's what I'm Yeah.

And part of. And it it came out of, like you said, just reflecting on a failure. I mean, you know, whatever you don't wanna call it, a learning lesson. People have different names for it, but it's not something you, you know, you had something professional go sideways, not the way you wanted it to, and you but you didn't just quit. I mean, you were talking to someone who's plugged in in the industry, and that speaks to networking and just, you know, being a part of something, a mastermind or something bigger than yourself because I don't I don't know everything. You don't know everything. So, so that's really cool. And now now you feel like you're moving. You're able to focus more on using your strengths Mhmm. And, your skill set from your previous experience. Yep. And and then let other people who are really good at raising capital or whatever else

Underwriting.

Run with run with that. Underwriting. Yeah. That's really cool. I'm I'm really curious. I know there are some other, groups like that out there, but, I feel like those are it's only gonna grow because as people get I mean, just, you know, people are lots of people are looking for alternative investments just for numerous reasons. And but but they don't most people don't have the time to you know? And I found with notes, we were talking about this before, is at the end of the day, most people end up deciding whether they wanna be an active or passive investor. They might be both. I'm both. Right? But, but and there certainly is a middle ground there, but, but you don't always know. And that's what you were talking about before is is you don't, you know, the the push is to scale. Right? Oh, you gotta scale, scale, scale. Well, maybe there's an in between there, and it sounds like that's what Yes. Your, investment club, can offer as well. Right?

Yeah. For people like me who I'm I just realized I wasn't cut out to be a principal sponsor because to do to do that, you have to be really great asset manager, and you have to be building a business and put people in key key players in place to be running a business. And I just didn't wanna build a business again. Like you said, trading out, the same problem where now I have a job even though I retired. And it just it wasn't a good fit for our lifestyle. And so in order to scale back and stop being a principal sponsor, but not just go straight to being a limited partner, and and really operating a fund would have just been the same thing. It's running a fund business instead of a syndication business. And so that wasn't a good fit for me either. I actually took my partner's dad out to lunch and just grilled them for a couple of hours and just said, like, tell me the life of an institutional fund manager

Right.

CEO, and just tell me what this is like. And at the end of the meeting, he just sat back and he said, no. You know? Maybe maybe this isn't for you. And I was like, good. That's all I need to do.

I think that's that's very good advice right there because we just we just follow sometimes, and we don't take the we don't create the space to think about where do I wanna be? What do I want my life to look like in five or ten years or even next year? So okay. Go talk to someone who's doing it and see if you wanna do it. And and chances are the answer might be no. You know? So that's really good. Alright. I'm gonna I'm gonna rapid fire, go through some questions, and, then we'll wrap it up.

Yep.

What's one thing that people misunderstand about you?

I people assume that because I talk a lot and I'm actually not a very good conversationalist that I'm not a good listener. But, I'm actually a really good listener. It's just I do better, if I'm in a situation where I can listen to you on a podcast, or I can watch your YouTube channel, or I can read your stuff on social media. Face to face, I tend to take over and dominate a conversation. And so people will laugh a lot about how my husband must be a really good listener to continue. But I I guarantee I know the names of your kids and your dogs and and and this type of thing. I know a lot. I'm always watching. I'm always observing. I'm always listening, but Mhmm. It doesn't always come out in

across that way. Got it. If you could have coffee with any historical figure, who would it be and why?

I don't know if I wanna admit this one. Probably Elon Musk, honestly. He is he is a conflicted, human. When I first was exposed to him, years ago, I was watching a video, and they were talking about some of the things that he was working on that we're gonna change the world. And they actually referred to him as our lord and savior Elon Musk. And I was like, who is who is this guy? And the stuff he was doing was just off the wall fascinating. But as time goes through, especially when they were looking at removing him from the Tesla board and he was having to say, like, I have a problem with time, and I have a problem with admitting timelines for things. And he started looking at his own shortcomings, and then he goes and just spews it all out on Twitter and his his relationship issues with his and you're just watching him be this incredibly complex and conflicted kind of person, but he's the kind of person that I could just sit down with and talk for hours about. He's he's kind of an unschooler. He knows a lot about human behavior and relationships. We could talk about business all day long. Obviously, he'd turn my head in circles, but science, data, like, all of the things that I'm a a dilettante. He could just Yeah. Really fill my fill my call. So

No. That's a good one. He's take him out and

have a conversation.

Absolutely. No. And I love it because it's whether you talk Sorry. My mic cut out there. Thank you. Just gonna get paid a good he's gonna earn his money on this one. So, yeah, I mean, that that's a really good one. I like that. He's, I mean, he's Elon's brilliant, and, I mean, yeah, I'm curious to see where the Twitter thing goes. Twitter thing. No. That's a that's a good one. And, yeah, I know he's had a lot of relationship failures, I guess, we would say. Right? But,

Amber Heard.

Like you said, he's he's he's a human. Right?

Yeah. He's just

a brilliant, complicated human. What's your favorite meal or one of your favorite meals? Doesn't have to be your favorite meal.

Oh, I'm not allowed to talk about food.

No? Why not? Okay. We can fast forward.

Yeah. That's another adversity right there. Okay.

Gotcha.

Yeah. So that's a loaded that's a loaded question.

Got it. Alright. How about, in your opinion, what's one of the most important personality traits for someone to be successful in entrepreneurship or real estate? What's it doesn't have to be the number one thing. There's obviously multiple things, but, I guess it's kinda like the bigger pockets question. What separates people from, you know, the successful from those who give up or fail?