EP 6: Juggling being a realtor and a mom at the same time
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Welcome to the B-Word, the podcast for women who want to unlock the clarity needed to put your big girl panties on and rock your real estate career like the true boss you are. I'm Joanne Bolt, your host, and together we'll dive into the things your broker doesn't teach you in order to own your own truth, disown the things getting in your way to finding your place, and stop apologizing for the obstacles you have to overcome along the way.

Hey everybody, and welcome back to The B Word. I'm your host, Joanne Bolt, and I have got a super, super special guest with me here today, Rozzy Taylor. Rozzy is from the great state of Georgia, and even better, she is a mom of young children.

children in real estate. So Rozzy, let's go ahead and dive on into all the good stuff. Tell me a little bit about you. How'd you get into the business? What's your year been like? Let's just, let's just get peek behind the curtain just a little bit on Rozzy. Okay. So I am Rozzy. I'm married, been married five years. I'm

We've kind of moved all around the country in that time. And we've settled in Georgia and it's been our favorite place. We've got two young kids. I had two kids in two years. Holy cow. Yes.

It was finding out when my daughter was 10 months that I was pregnant again and thinking, what in the heck am I going to do? Because surprise, whoops, there's baby. So yeah, we had two under two. It's been crazy, hectic, but yeah, we are here in Georgia. We love it.

And we are surviving the toddler and baby years. Oh my goodness. That those, I can remember those years also well, like when everything was,

around the almighty nap schedule. And at any given time, there was 15 to 20 different variations of snacks in my car. Oh, yeah. My car is a mess of empty wrappers of snacks and Cheerios. And we actually just went on a road trip. And I told my husband, you're going to need to take the leaf blower to this car and just like blow out all the Cheerios. Yeah.

Cheerios, mom's best friend. Yeah. Which is amazing now because if you asked me to snack on Cheerios, I would look at you like you were crazy. Exactly. All right, girl. So tell me, how did you, what did you do in your former life and how did you get into real estate? That's a loaded question. In college, I actually went, I kind of have an all over degree because I ended up online. Okay.

So my degree is a mix of communications, entrepreneurship, and graphic design. Ooh, interesting. So I thought I wanted to go in the wedding industry. I wanted to make wedding invitations. I love graphic design and I love weddings. So I was kind of thinking that. I was working on getting into that when I was pregnant with my first child. And then we moved four months later and

So that kind of got put on hold. And during that time, I also taught English to kids online. They were in China and I was here and it was kind of like this. You get over like a Zoom and they'd have a lesson plan and I'd just teach. And about probably when I was like six months pregnant with my son,

I was doing my English class. And I was like, hmm, I kind of want more. It was like the pandemic. Classes were going down. You know, teachers weren't getting booked as much. My paycheck went down considerably because they cut our pay. And I just remembered a conversation my husband and I had a year ago about me doing real estate. And I was like, huh, I wonder if I could do that.

So like anyone, I got on Instagram and I started searching realtors who were moms. And I came across a few and I was like, you know what?

If they can do it, I can do it. So yeah, I told my husband, I signed up for a licensing class, got licensed in three weeks, did my licensing class in three weeks because I was pregnant. I was about to have a baby and it wasn't going to get done if, you know, once the baby came. Go ahead and do it. Let's dive into one thing. Cause I find this really interesting. Most people think, oh, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to go into real estate, right? Like

Why? Because I like to show homes. I mean, whatever their reasons are. And they just Google how to get a license. And you instead went to the gram and Googled moms in real estate. So you already understood like right from the get go that if you're going to do this, you needed mentors and help from other moms because we have to do business a little bit different than the average guy who can work nine to nine or, you know, without a baby on their hip. Right. Yeah.

Right. So I went and I looked for moms who are in my, you know, situation, you know, husbands at work, which is great. And, you know, they're providing for us, but I wanted to do that too. There are things that I want to do in my life. Like I want to travel. I want to get my nails done every month. Like there are those materialistic things that I want to do. And of course I want my kids to do activities and I want to be able to support that.

But, you know, I wanted more for myself and also for my family, which I don't think it's selfish to say I wanted more for myself. But yeah, so I just went and I looked for moms who are doing it and I was like, OK, I can do this. So specifically when you're looking at how do I do this as a mom? Like what are what are some of the things you were looking for?

So juggling showings, you know, pretty much every time you have to go out as a mom in real estate, you can bring your kids, which is great. It all just depends on your client or you have to find childcare. And so, you know, seeing how they juggle that.

how they juggle, you know, school. If my daughter has a activity at school, I want to be at like, how do you make your schedule fit it? And how do you work around nap times and, you know, heaven forbid, not heaven forbid, but if you do have to take your child to a closing and they have a tantrum, what are you going to do? You know, so trying to keep like professional, you know,

Yeah. But like, Hey, I've got a kid and. And it is what it is. Yeah. Okay. So what has been your biggest like learning moment in your first year and a half as real estate with the babies? Um, I would say my husband and I working together to make it happen.

Because with the pandemic, he has been home, which has been amazing. And I don't think I could have really dived into real estate if he wasn't home. Okay. So just learning how to, you know, how he can work at home with a child and how I can work at home with the child. If I have a closing or a showing, you know, can he make it work, you know, with the kids watching Toy Story or, you know, whatever.

So what I'm hearing from you is communications, probably like the number one key aspect. If you're going to be a mom of young kids and dive into real estate, A, you got to have help and B, you got to communicate with your help. Yep. I would agree with that, by the way. So I think one of the struggles that my husband and I, we had was,

when I was in real estate. And so, you know, so I got into real estate and then had my kids. But one of the struggles that we had was we kind of forgot about the communication piece, right? Like he works his job. I worked my job. And all of a sudden we would find that he always expected if he needed to go to a business dinner, I would be the caretaker and, or I would provide, you know, I would find the babysitter if I needed to go out. And it really got frustrating for me because

to always be the one to have to hunt the babysitter. And so it took me probably two years into the business with kids before I finally figured out that I needed to sit down with him and say, what calendar can we work out? What system can we work out where, you know, I automatically know I need to find the babysitter or it's on you to find the babysitter friend because it shouldn't, it shouldn't always fall in my lap. Right.

And it caused a lot of stress for us when we first had kids in real estate. So super proud of you for figuring that one out way before I did. Yeah. And we're still figuring it out. Like there's still times where it's frustrating on both ends and, you know, where I'm either hurrying home because someone's woken up from their nap and my husband's in a meeting and, you know, we can't, he can't go get

our baby because, you know, he's on a call. And so I'm like hurrying home and, you know, there are those frustrations and we're still trying to figure it out, but it's, you know, it's continual. And even you just saying you sat down with your husband and worked out a calendar. I'm like, Hmm, I think we should do that. Well, and let me be really clear. It wasn't like a written down calendar because that is not going to happen in our world. It was more of a

We, we worked out that if it was during Monday through Friday and he was traveling, the calendar meant he couldn't. And therefore it was on me if I needed to go out to find childcare. However, on the weekends, when he just wanted to go golf, play tennis, go watch a football game, you know, at the university of Georgia, if I needed to work, he was on kid duty and he had to provide childcare when he wanted to do the fun stuff.

And so that was kind of our calendar. And then we had to work out like how far in advance I really did need notice that he was going to be traveling because gone were the days of Wednesday morning. Hey, Joe, I'm flying to New York. You know, I just couldn't do that anymore because we had the kids. So yeah.

Yeah. Maybe a real calendar would have been better, but let me just clarify there for a second. All right. So what's your other number? What's your second bit of advice for our young mommies? I would say, just be honest with your clients. Like, Hey, I've got kids and you know, we're going to have to do a work around with that. I can remember going out searching for land with one of my clients and I

I said, hey, I'm going to have to bring my son. And they were totally cool with it. Well, they wanted to drive with me, which is totally fine. But as we were going, like, seriously, the drive there, my son did great. After our first stop, I'm not kidding. He cried the whole time in the car. And I'm sitting there stressed thinking, oh, my gosh, these people are never going to want to work with me again.

But that's not the case all the time. They were so cool about it. Did not care. They're in the phase where they're like, oh, you know, our kids are grown. We're hoping to get grandkids soon. So we just love this. I don't know who loves sitting in a car with a screaming child because it's not me. But just like, okay, being flexible and being authentic with your clients and saying, hey, I've got a kid and

Like, yeah, you can come with me, but you might hear crying, setting those boundaries. You might want to follow behind me because it's a better experience for you. Yeah.

So now I know like, hey, if you want to drive with me, might not be the best thing. And so just learning from your mistakes, being flexible, being authentic with your clients and setting those boundaries. Oh, I love the setting the boundaries piece. And that also may mean, and I think you and I have talked about this, like how do we find the right clients to work with? I think sometimes, especially when you've got little ones,

that you can't just leave at home or, you know, they, they do need to be attached to you a little bit more setting the boundaries with our clients and the expectations that this is how I work. So if you want to work with me, you got to roll that way. That is perfectly acceptable. And it's okay to say no to the clients who say no. Yeah. Right. Like you don't need them in your life and it's okay to let that commission go. Yeah. And I think for next time, if a client did say, Hey, can I drive with you?

I know like from the experience, like, you know, that might not be best for you because I have a child who doesn't like to be in the car sometimes. Well, and let's be honest. And if your clients are in the car with you and the kid is crying, you as the agent are now stressed out.

Because mom mode is an overload, not only for why is our child crying, but what can I do to prevent this because I've got clients in the car. Yep. I'm a stressed mom and I'm a stressed agent. Right. And then if that stress bleeds through, the child will respond and continue crying even more. So maybe it is better to not have your clients in the car. Yes. So I would really for sure say setting those boundaries is,

You're just going to be stressed and have a kid crying in the back of your car for your first client. All right. So we've talked about communication with your support person and setting boundaries with clients. What's the final piece of advice? If you could give a third piece of advice to our young mommies who have decided to go into the real estate gig. I'm going to say you can do it. It's hard.

But you can make it work. I mean, there's nothing you can't do if you set your mind to it and you have all the pieces working for you. Find a great support. I knew, like we were talking about earlier, I knew I needed moms to be my mentors. I wasn't going to relate to...

you know, someone who's got kids grown and out of the house. I wasn't going to relate to the dad who's doing real estate. I was going to relate with the mom with young kids.

who has been here, who has been in my shoes right now, whereas who's currently in my shoes, like Lizzie, who is my team leader. And I think that was a big game changer for me when I switched brokerages and I did get that support. And I was all of a sudden surrounded by all of these moms who are doing real estate and who are succeeding in real estate and

And I think that's really what pushed me and helped me start to succeed in real estate. Love that. You know, I can tell you that when I first met you, we were talking goals or one of the points we were talking goals. And, and I said, Rozzy, what is your financial goal? And you told me what that was and you were kind of almost embarrassed by it, right? You were like, oh, it's just this. And I thought it's not just that.

It's so much bigger and you don't know it yet because you were still figuring out how to do real estate and be the mom. And it's interesting to me to watch, like, I guarantee you, if we have that conversation again today, your financial goal would be tripled because now, you know, you can do it. But back then you didn't know if you could. Yeah. Um, and another thing on that, we had that mastermind a few weeks back about setting your business for how you want your life to look. Um,

If anyone doesn't know what she's talking about, we do have a private community here at the B word and Rozzy is a member of it. And so we do have weekly masterminds. One of them was with our team members, but another one is with our moms. And so Rozzy has been sitting in on some of the masterminds and that's what she's referring back to.

Yeah. And so I thought that was such a great mastermind where we talked about what do we want our business to look like and how do we align that with our life? And one thing is I don't want to work on Sundays. I want to keep that strictly for my family, you know, for my kids. Like I'm with my kids all the time, but I want that solely to be for me and for my family. Another thing is I hear a lot of

make this amount in your first real year of real estate. And for me, that's not what I'm looking for. Make this much money in your first real year of real estate as a mom. That's not what I'm looking for. My husband makes enough to support us. I'm looking for, I want to be the mom. I want to go take my daughter to her activities, be there for when they have things going on.

but I also want to do my thing and I want to succeed in that, but I don't need to make all that money in bucks. Yeah. I mean, who knows? Maybe that'll change when my kids get older, but for where I'm at right now,

You want to balance your time with your family and the financial piece of it. Establish the business so that when the kids are a little bit bigger, you can grow the business as you want it to. Yeah. And what I love about you, Rozzy, is you have given yourself permission to do that. You know, I think a lot of us get into the business and we either set our financial goals based on, yes, what a book tells us, what a broker tells us.

Or what we think the industry says that we should make. And the reality is your financial goals need to be set around what you and your family need. And that includes your time and how you're going to show up for them. Yep. 100%. And that, so that must mastermind was really eyeopening. And I was already kind of starting to think those thoughts and

But sitting in and listening to how all these other amazing realtors have done it in their life was like, okay, I can do that too. I can implement this now.

So that in five years, if I do want to grow more or even two years, if I do want to grow more, I already have the structure to allow me to do it within my boundaries. Well, you're building your foundation right from the start instead of having to crumble it down and restart it. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. So if you...

We're to leave one lasting thought for our audience. What has been your biggest boss mom moment? We ask everyone this. Like it could have been, heck, it could have been this morning that your kid decided he knew how to tie his own shoes. And you were like, amen, now we can get out the house faster. I don't care what it is. But that moment when you looked around and went,

I own this. I've got this. I'm going to say, so the thing that sticks out to me most is when, so my son, he's been with me through like my whole first year in real estate, my journey, he's popped up, he's gone to showings, he's gone, he's gone to classes. But so the first thing that pops into my mind is when I was newly licensed and I went to my 25 hour post-licensing class and it was a four week program.

three classes a week, four hours long. I had to find childcare for my toddler, but I was breastfeeding my son and he was brand new at that point. And I couldn't leave him. Right. I couldn't. And so I took him to every class. I fed him a bottle and of pumped milk and

Honestly, like looking back, I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I did that as like a brand new mom. And like, I was literally standing, holding him in the back of the class, like rocking him, feeding him. And I didn't know how people would perceive it. Like, I didn't know if they were going to be like, you can't have your child here. And if I would have gotten that, I probably would have been like, okay, I'm out. Like, I'm not,

I'm leaving your brokerage. It's not possible.

But people like loved it, which again made me realize, okay, I can do this. Like, it's okay. Like people wanted to hold him and people were like, I can't, he's such a good baby. I can't believe, you know, you're doing this. That's awesome. It was a big step for me. And I'm not going to lie. I felt kind of guilty looking for the childcare for my daughter. Like I felt like I was a burden, someone having to watch my daughter every week.

But everyone I asked was so nice about it. Everyone loved that I had my son at the class. That's actually where I met Lizzie and started all of that. And so, yeah, I thought, like, looking back on it now, I can't believe I did that. Yeah.

But it was your boss moment. I mean, you were like, no, I have to take this class and the baby's coming with me. Yeah. And it was, you know, I was going to, I learned, I'm glad I did it because I met my team leader now through it. I think just so many things snowballed into where I am now. Awesome. All right. So I think what I'm getting out of all of this is a,

If you've got young kids in real estate, you need to have really good communication with your support group about scheduling and help. And you need to be open to the concept that you got to establish boundaries and have the right clients. Not everyone's going to want to go look at land with you and your toddler, but the right ones will, and they will come and they will refer you again and then see or three,

Be open to just not worrying about what everyone else thinks.

And showing up with the kid in tow, showing up how you need to be in order to make it work, own it, be a boss and say, listen, it's, it's take your kid to work day. I'm going to, I'm going to do this and not worry what everyone else is going to think because chances are it's really you freaking out and not them. Exactly. One last thing is my husband always tells me is like, why do you think about yourself so much? Like no one else is thinking that. And it's so true. Like

I don't know if it's a woman thing, but we constantly think all eyes are on us at all times. Like if you're at the grocery store and your kid's acting up, you're thinking, oh my gosh, everyone is looking at me right now. But you know, the truth is, is that no one cares. No one cares. I think you're right there, Rozzy. I think that is a girl thing. My husband has said kind of the same thing. He's like, Joanne,

If two guys get in an argument, they may say something to each other and walk away and they really never think about it again. And women think about everything that you've said, seen, looked, you know, they think you give them the stink eye, the side eye. Like you have already before you walk in a room, determine what everyone is saying and thinking before it even happens.

So I think you're right. I think that's a girl thing that we do. And if we could get past that, which I don't even know if that's possible, but if we could get past that, man, our whole lives would be so much easier. Yeah. I'm working on it with the real estate and my kids and just, you know, Hey, no one's thinking about you as much as you're thinking about yourself. So just let it go and, you know, be authentic and be you and, and,

If you show up to closing with a kid, rock it and make it happen. And just be okay with it. All right. So Rozzy is...

Not only a agent in real estate, she is an amazing mentor, just like she found other moms in real estate to mentor her. Her goal right now is to help those moms of young kids also get into real estate to be their mentor. So, Rozzy, how does your prospective audience or mentees get a hold of you?

So you can find me, number one, on social media. My Instagram is at heyrazietaylor. So it's just my name, which is R-O-Z-Z-I-E and then T-A-Y-L-O-R. And so you can send me a message there. I'd love to chat. I'd love to help you and, you know, see how...

We can get you going in real estate. She'd love to be that idea bouncer for you. Yes, because I have lots of them. Well, you know, do one, see one, teach one, right? Like, so you found your mentor. Now you've been in real estate. Now it's your turn to help someone else. Exactly. All right. Rozzy, thanks for being on today. I know our audience loved it and we will chat with you again soon. I know. Sounds good. Thank you.

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