It’s OK to Change Your Mind About Your Business

You have heard the saying, “Never give up”, many times in your life.  You have heard the saying, “Winners never quit”. So when you begin to have thoughts about quitting your job or closing your business you may get pangs of guilt coming at you from yourself and those around you. There is a stigma that quitting is what losers do.

But what if we don't put the label of “quitting” on the action? Perhaps we are on a journey and now your path is leading you in another direction. Or maybe you want to change your mind. Maybe you thought this was what you were destined to do but now are having second thoughts. Does that make you a loser? Does that make you a quitter?

For instance, you might be a nurse. You became a nurse because you love helping people. You love nurturing and taking care of people. You like to help people heal from injuries and traumatic diseases. Plus, the pay is not bad. The shifts are long but you can work with more flexibility than many other careers. Think back to why you became a nurse. Now, fast forward to your current feelings. You may now feel burned out. Your cup is empty and there is no time to refill it. You are getting fatigued working long shifts and graveyard shifts or swing shifts. You end up getting 3 hours of sleep on those days.  We can go on and on…

You may be at the crossroads. You still want to help people. You still want to assist in their healing. You still love to nurture and take care of people. The vehicle just needs to change. There is nothing wrong and everything right with that. You are not quitting. You are just changing vehicles.

In this time it is also very normal to change careers at least 3 times in our working lives because we are living longer, it is easier to learn to work in another field or career and our lifestyles change to fit our next path.

You might be a Real Estate agent who is wondering if showing and selling houses is really what you are being called to do. Perhaps you became a real estate agent because you enjoyed being with people, you enjoyed the smile on a  new family's face when they purchase their first home, or maybe you got into real estate so that you could invest in properties to build wealth for you and your family. Maybe you became a real estate agent because you like to serve others, help others, make a difference in their lives.

But now you may be wondering… while you love to serve others you also have bills to pay. Maybe you are not making the amount of income you need to make to support your family. And may be you are suffering from burn out because you have been burning the candle from both ends, not delegating your tasks, not creating systems that can be delegated, and not taking right action to reach your financial goals.

I have seen agents who are miserable, barely making enough to pay their bills, struggling with lead generation and getting enough business and yet, they tend to defend their decision to stay in real estate because of the stigma connected to quitting real estate. After all, being altruistic is something you want to be admired for. Being in real estate is not a career but a business. The mistake I see most often is agents who don't treat their businesses like businesses. They treat it like a job. That will never work out. Employee mentalities don't work in entrepreneur settings.

Perhaps you are working in corporate America putting in long hours and climbing the “success” ladder. You chose this path as the vehicle to reach security and have a great retirement. However, years into this grind, you start to see you are giving up too much of yourself and time away from your family. Something is going to have to give.

While the 3 of these scenarios are pretty different, what they have in common, is a chosen vehicle and a road to drive that vehicle on.

Now, maybe you have been thinking about how much you would love to start your own business and leave the 9 to 5. Maybe you are passionate about skiing and want to teach skiing instead of selling real estate. Maybe you are a nurse that knows natural healing alternatives and believe starting an online business coaching parents in how to deal with their child who has ADHD naturally is going to be much more rewarding while still fulfilling your desire to nurture and help others.

As long as you are changing the vehicle on the path you want to be on, that is perfectly fine. I have been hired by real estate agents, business owners and corporate employees to help them get more business only to discover they are not passionate about their business at all and they wish they could be doing something else. If your heart is not into it, the drive and tenacity you need to succeed will not manifest for you.

Interested in having a discovery session to go through your options? If you are contemplating changing horses ( vehicles) the best thing you can do is get an objective opinion and expertise to help assist you to make sure you are making the right decision.

Schedule your session today!

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Jackson Hole Wyoming- A Bit of Heaven on Earth

Jackson Hole Wyoming is one of my favorite places in the world. It is a touch of heaven here on earth. After we stayed at Yellowstone we drove around, up and then through the Tetons into Jackson Hole. 

As we drove around the windy roads we stopped at this overlook. The views were outstanding. From the viewpoint I was able to take this photo looking into the valley of Jackson Hole. What an amazing vista, a feast for the eyes. 

There is this friendly western atmosphere when you drive into the town. I could hear the ‘awe's from our family members in the car as we entered into the town. It is one of those places where you want to stay a while. Like my dream is to be able to stay there through late spring after the snow is melted to the end of fall before the snow falls again one year and spend time soaking it all in and writing a book and doing a bunch of online marketing:). Tristan asked if we were going to stay for a week in Jackson :). 

The locals are so friendly. I talked to shop owners all along the downtown area to find out where they were from, if they were seasonal, etc. Every person I spoke with lived in Jackson Hole full time and loved living there. The attrition rate of move outs is super low, like less than 6% per year. That means people don't leave. 

We were there in October of this year but before that I had not been to Jackson Hole since 1988. The same shops were still there. The streets looked the same. There was some new build out towards the outskirts of the town, like a new Walmart and some other newer stores and shopping centers. But the downtown area looks like time has stood still. 

Parking downtown is free, no having to pay those meters which helps with the sense of a slower lifestyle. Across the street from where we parked was a local bakery and next door to the bakery I saw a Raw Juice shop. It was the first time on our road trip I found fresh beet juice:). These were old homes that were converted to businesses. I love to talk with entrepreneurs about their dreams and businesses so it was fun meeting the business owners. 

Wort Hotel is a National Historic Landmark and you can stay at the hotel to get a great western feel of this part of the country. 

Life is easy to enjoy in Jackson Hole Wyoming. You can take a stroll through the town center park or rest on one of the benches as this couple is doing. The weather was awesome! The air was fresh and the water tasted like natural spring water. 

Going shopping is the big event for tourists that come to Jackson Hole Wyoming but locals shop here as well. You can spend an entire day shopping the downtown area shops. You can find high quality leather goods, western hats and boots, belts, well, all things western. 

We stopped by this real estate office in the middle of the tourist area of the town square. I am sure that nearly everyone that visits Jackson Hole wants to know how much it would be to buy their dream home there. Since land is very scare the properties, ranches and homes are on the higher end of the market. Most of all the land is National Forests so private land is not easy to come by. Only 3% of the land in the area is privately owned. 

The population of Jackson Hole is around 9,500 full time residents. 

Jackson Hole is a business friendly town. If you are thinking of starting a business Jackson Hole may be worth considering. While retail and tourist services have been popular in Jackson Hole, a new breed of entrepreneurs are moving to Jackson Hole – website developers and internet marketers because they can easily work from home. The following is a list of reasons that Jackson Hole might make the list of most friendly to businesses and entrepreneurs: 

 

• No state personal or corporate income tax
• No state inheritance tax
• No state gift tax
• No state tax on retirement income
• No state franchise or excise tax
• No state tax on real estate sale proceeds
• Low real estate property tax
• No state tax on mineral interest ownership
• No state tax on intangibles

Wyoming is a great state to retire in. There is no tax on retirement income and no inheritance tax. Mind you, the IRS and the FEDs still have taxes that you have to pay. Wyoming is one of the best states to create a family trust in according to the Bank of Jackson Hole trust division. There is also protection from creditors. 

If you are going to move to Jackson Hole Wyoming contact Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset today at 561-753-0135. We will assess your needs in housing and place you with one of our colleagues who is licensed to sell real estate in Wyoming who will represent your interests in your home or business purchase. 

 

 

Lessons Learned from Being Unplugged

Lessons Learned from Being Unplugged

This was the first vacation that we went on since I started blogging where I did not blog. It is the first vacation where I even left my laptop at home. I brought no work with me other than my goals journal and my regular journal. I did bring my phone but I used it only for staying in touch with family, using the GPS we like (MotionX) and for keeping tabs on the rest of our family members that we were on vacation with. 

I checked my emails while at the airport on the way out and on the way back. I did not even post on Facebook. If you are thinking of doing this I encourage you to just go for it. 

Our vacation was for 9 days. It would have been better at 14 days but our son could not miss pitching that many baseball games for the teams he is on. Here in Florida baseball is year round. 

1. The emails will still be there when you get back. You can delegate your email duties to your assistant. My virtual assistant takes care of mine. 

2. The clients and customers will still be around when you get back. Let the key people know that you will be away. Have your virtual assistant or personal assistant take care of any important tasks, etc. 

3. For safety reasons- I did not even post on FB the exact times we would be on vacation, etc. I did not check in either on foursquare or anywhere where else online. Since I have a public facebook profile- it is not wise to share this kind of event until after the fact. 

4. Enjoy the eye candy! There is so much visual stimulation when you leave your normal surroundings. When we are at home so much or in our communities, our eyes are so used to our surroundings that we rarely pay attention or give much thought to the scenery around us. When you change the scene- your eyes and brain get stimulated. Soaking it all in is like accepting an amazing gift from God. 

5. Treasure the fun with your family. 

6. We did discuss real estate with members of our family and different investors and business owners in each of the towns we stopped in. It is very interesting to learn about the way the cultures of each community differ and what we all have in common. We also stopped in local real estate offices to check out their marketing and listings. 

We flew into Minneapolis and drove to Fargo North Dakota where our oldest son lives. Our second oldest son and his fiance went on the vacation with us. Our youngest son, 12 year old, said this was the best vacation even over our Disneyworld vacations. Our second oldest son has not seen his oldest brother in over 20 years. And we had not met our oldest son's 2 year old baby boy and his 4 yr old daughter. ( I did meet my granddaughter when she was a baby.) We celebrated her 4 year old birthday. 

We then drove from Fargo to Mt Rushmore in South Dakota and stayed in Custer South Dakota. The next day we drove to Cody Wyoming.

 

The day after that we drove to Yellowstone National Park. We stayed in West Yellowstone Montana for a 2 nights and spent the time in Yellowstone Park being totally amazed at all the majestic nature it has to offer. 

Then we drove into Jackson Hole Wyoming one of my favorite places on earth. Jackson Hole is like heaven on earth. As we drove through the Tetons winding our way around, and then down into Jackson Hole, I heard everyone in the van taking a breath with awe. If you have never been to Jackson Hole- it should go on your bucket list now. I have been there many times but it has been over 25 years since I have been there. 

After we spent the morning and early afternoon in Jackson Hole we drove into Salt Lake City to stay for a couple of days. I wanted Tristan to see Temple Square. We spent the afternoon at Temple Square and then some time in the Deseret Book store where Tristan picked out his new scriptures and we had them engraved with his name for him. 

The pinnacle of our vacation was the last night enjoying dinner at “The Roof” restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building overlooking the Salt Lake Temple at night all lit up. 

 

Enjoying Spring in Wellington Florida

Enjoying Spring in Wellington Florida 

I love spring. It is the sign of new birth, rebirth and wonderful weather before we get into the heat of summer. 

I am currently sitting out on our patio listening to the birds chirping away as I write this post. Of course here in Wellington we get to hear the birds chirping all year round. The birds from up north fly here in the winter and congregate in large masses on telephone poles, in the trees and atop buildings. 

We have a much more subtle changing of the seasons. The spring here brings a renewed freshness in the air and less rain. Our rainy season is in the summer. Our hurricane season starts in late spring and goes until the end of fall. 

Spring is a great time to go to the beach but the water is still a bit chilly for our toesKaterina Gasset SEO Consultant: What do you love most about spring? I hope you're enjoying the season as much as I do here in Wellingon FL! here. The snowbirds don't mind however for compared to the beaches up north- this is warm. It is all relative. 

But still, the word, “spring” itself conjures up wonderful feelings and fills my mind with thoughts and visuals of new life being born and springing up around the world in the spaces where spring happens at this time of the year. 

Spring abounds on the internet as you are welcomed with wonderful pastel colors in design and objects to feast your eyes upon. 

My collard greens are fully mature and ready to harvest and I hope my cabbage is ready before it gets too hot:). 

So wherever you are, whatever your climate is like, I hope that you are enjoying the season of spring whether it manifests for you in boldness or very subtly like it is here in Wellington Florida. 

Reflections of 2013 ~ Can I Handle the Seasons of My Life?

Reflections of 2013 ~ Can I Handle the Seasons of My Life? 

“Time makes you older, children get older, I'm getting older too… Can I handle the seasons of my life…. ” Stevie Nicks might have written these words in contemplating her choice to make song writing her life however, the words to this song are quite poignant. 

Enjoy the song and Stevie's beautiful voice and person as you read my reflections of 2013 ~ 

 

Joy and sadness seem to appear on the scene close together. The span of rising up with emotion to the heights of euphoria watching Tristan emerge as undoubtedly the best pitcher in his age and the best short stop in Palm Beach County, most likely also the state of Florida and surely in the top 10 in the country, to the lows of two fathers passing and a dear friend all within months of each other bringing us to diverging underneath a bedrock of grief. 

Where does our life take us? While much of life is based on our own choices and the paths we choose to take we are met up with processes in life wherein we seem to not have a choice. After all, I did not wish for my father to die the day he died, Nestor did not ask for his father to die the time he did and Mary's two small sons did not every choose that their mother would die on Christmas Eve. 

Yes, we get older and so do our children. Mortality has a way of showing up. 

While flashing back through 2013 ~ it was a great year in many respects ~ such is the ying and the yang in life. You would never know success if you never experienced failure. You would never know joy without every feeling sorrow. You would not revere life if we could deceive death. 

Tristan is amazing. He is such a great son. We are so honored to have him in our family. All the adult children are working and being responsible. Joshua went to China this year. He is our second oldest son and is a Chef for the Fairmont Hotels. He was offered a very good Chef position in Shanghai for the Fairmont and then just a couple months later they asked him to go to Nanjing to start a new restaurant for the Fairmont. Kaleb is our third oldest son and he is the Chef at Kon Tiki in Wellington. 

The grandchildren are all doing great. They are all happy, safe, learning and growing. 

Our real estate brokerage – International Properities and Investments LLC had a great year. We hired two agents, one in Wellington and one in Fort Lauderdale. We expanded delegating more tasks to our virtual assistant team. We shifted some goals around and worked on purpose. Listings is still the forefront of priorities for Nestor and we continue to work more on our business instead of in our business. 

Coaching and consulting grew during 2013 and I was afforded opportunities to speak at events to brokers who own their real estate brokerages which has really helped to grow the income of our coaching company. I developed a new course called, Listing Experts Academy and I am so excited about the success and the value of this program already. The company increased in revenue by another 20%. I found out recently in one of my entrepreneur masterminds that I participate in that if your company grows by 20% a year for 5 years in a row you are considered a “gazelle” company. 2 more years to go:) to see if I earn that status for our company. 

We are continuing to develop new products and support systems for REALTORS®. But life is not all about real estate and we have a lot of interests and experience at our ages wherein we can touch lives, empower others to follow their dreams, help people live happy lives and more. We are expanding the companies, hiring and training and moving forward. 

So can I handle the seasons of my life? I believe I can with the help of my Heavenly Father, Nestor and our family. 

Creating Outside The Box- In Your Business

Welcome to another podcast episode with Katerina Gasset. This is my first podcast. Be patient with me as I learn this process. In this episode I was using an app on my iPhone called ‘Podcast'. When I started to record,  I had  already said a few words before the recording actually started. So you're not missing anything.:)

 

Creating outside of the box is a form of marketing that you need to embrace in order to achieve your full potential in your business.

 

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Thank you for listening to another podcast. Subscribe to my podcast channel so you never miss an episode.

 

Are You Doing what You Always Dreamed of Doing?

The greatest human tragedy is not living the life of your dreams. It is a sad day for many people when they look at their past years realizing that all they have been doing is working to keep on working. They were not working for a living.   

  We want to work to make the life we dream of having not to rack of the debt and then be a slave to working to pay each month the debtors we owe. That is not working for a living. That is working for others. That is not living life on your own terms but rather someone else's terms. 

Are you doing what you always dreamed of doing? 

I was watching some surfers the other day and following their stories. I was impressed by a man who had wanted to surf since he was young but never did. When he reached the age of 50 he decided to buy a surfboard and learn the sport. He became very good at it. 

Now the question of course is: did he save up his money and then at the age of 50 he could do what he loved to do or did he just take the risk, dust off his dreams and go for it? 

I was just coaching one of my favorite clients who happens to hate real estate sales. She does not want to be doing this when she is 60 years old. Unfortunately she has done what most of us do and has debt. Since she is not debt free she has to make money now to pay off that debt. She is SUPER successful in real estate. She is one of the top producers in her company which is a large company. But she works a lot of hours and does not get to go and do the things she dreams of doing. 

I am passionate about helping you to realize your dreams. Dust off your dreams! Take the risk and go for it! For some of you that is getting rid of your corporate job and getting into real estate to be your own boss. For others it is to get out of real estate and go and do what you love to do whether that be surfing or going to help the homeless. 

When you reach the age of 50 you have lived half of your life. Hopefully you will be one of the many centurians as their numbers increase. That is my goal too. You realize at this stage of your life that you are no longer going to live forever. You are not the immortal you once thought you were. 

One of the ways to figure out what your passion is, is to think back to your childhood. What did you dream you would be when you grew up and why? What was it about that dream that got you excited? As you grew up what tugged at your heartstrings? When I was a little girl I was a really good speller and writer. I wrote poetry. A lot of it. I loved to write and speak. Asking me to give a book report in class would make my day! Since I was very shy this was my way to reach out and connect with others. But what did I really want from all of those abilities, skills and talents? Deep down I wanted to make a difference, I wanted to inspire others and to help others. 

But I also love to travel and hang out with my family. Sometimes we need a vehicle to get to the destination of our dreams. The vehicle may not always be what we love to do. As long as you don't get stuck in that vehicle on the side of the road out in the middle of nowhere with no chance of reaching your destination you can use the different vehicles that appear before you. 

Please watch this video, it is only 3 minutes long, it may be the best 3 minutes you have spent in a long time: 

Are You Doing what You Always Dreamed of Doing?

The greatest human tragedy is not living the life of your dreams. It is a sad day for many people when they look at their past years realizing that all they have been doing is working to keep on working. They were not working for a living.   

  We want to work to make the life we dream of  having not to rack of the debt and then be a slave to  working to pay each month the debtors we owe. That is  not working for a living. That is working for others. That is  not living life on your own terms but rather someone else's  terms. 

 Are you doing what you always dreamed of doing? 

 I was watching some surfers the other day and  following their stories. I was impressed by a man who  had wanted to surf since he was young but never did.  When he reached the age of 50 he decided to buy a  surfboard and learn the sport. He became very good at it. 

Now the question of course is: did he save up his money and then at the age of 50 he could do what he loved to do or did he just take the risk, dust off his dreams and go for it? 

I was just coaching one of my favorite clients who happens to hate real estate sales. She does not want to be doing this when she is 60 years old. Unfortunately she has done what most of us do and has debt. Since she is not debt free she has to make money now to pay off that debt. She is SUPER successful in real estate. She is one of the top producers in her company which is a large company. But she works a lot of hours and does not get to go and do the things she dreams of doing. 

I am passionate about helping you to realize your dreams. Dust off your dreams! Take the risk and go for it! For some of you that is getting rid of your corporate job and getting into real estate to be your own boss. For others it is to get out of real estate and go and do what you love to do whether that be surfing or going to help the homeless. 

When you reach the age of 50 you have lived half of your life. Hopefully you will be one of the many centurians as their numbers increase. That is my goal too. You realize at this stage of your life that you are no longer going to live forever. You are not the immortal you once thought you were. 

One of the ways to figure out what your passion is, is to think back to your childhood. What did you dream you would be when you grew up and why? What was it about that dream that got you excited? As you grew up what tugged at your heartstrings? When I was a little girl I was a really good speller and writer. I wrote poetry. A lot of it. I loved to write and speak. Asking me to give a book report in class would make my day! Since I was very shy this was my way to reach out and connect with others. But what did I really want from all of those abilities, skills and talents? Deep down I wanted to make a difference, I wanted to inspire others and to help others. 

But I also love to travel and hang out with my family. Sometimes we need a vehicle to get to the destination of our dreams. The vehicle may not always be what we love to do. As long as you don't get stuck in that vehicle on the side of the road out in the middle of nowhere with no chance of reaching your destination you can use the different vehicles that appear before you. 

Please watch this video, it is only 3 minutes long, it may be the best 3 minutes you have spent in a long time: 

Are You Doing what You Always Dreamed of Doing?

The greatest human tragedy is not living the life of your dreams. It is a sad day for many people when they look at their past years realizing that all they have been doing is working to keep on working. They were not working for a living.   

  We want to work to make the life we dream of  having not to rack of the debt and then be a slave to  working to pay each month the debtors we owe. That is  not working for a living. That is working for others. That is  not living life on your own terms but rather someone else's  terms. 

 I was watching some surfers the other day and  following their stories. I was impressed by a man who  had wanted to surf since he was young but never did.  When he reached the age of 50 he decided to buy a  surfboard and learn the sport. He became very good at it. 

Now the question of course is: did he save up his money and then at the age of 50 he could do what he loved to do or did he just take the risk, dust off his dreams and go for it? 

I was just coaching one of my favorite clients who happens to hate real estate sales. She does not want to be doing this when she is 60 years old. Unfortunately she has done what most of us do and has debt. Since she is not debt free she has to make money now to pay off that debt. She is SUPER successful in real estate. She is one of the top producers in her company which is a large company. But she works a lot of hours and does not get to go and do the things she dreams of doing. 

I am passionate about helping you to realize your dreams. Dust off your dreams! Take the risk and go for it! For some of you that is getting rid of your corporate job and getting into real estate to be your own boss. For others it is to get out of real estate and go and do what you love to do whether that be surfing or going to help the homeless. 

When you reach the age of 50 you have lived half of your life. Hopefully you will be one of the many centurians as their numbers increase. That is my goal too. You realize at this stage of your life that you are no longer going to live forever. You are not the immortal you once thought you were. 

One of the ways to figure out what your passion is, is to think back to your childhood. What did you dream you would be when you grew up and why? What was it about that dream that got you excited? As you grew up what tugged at your heartstrings? When I was a little girl I was a really good speller and writer. I wrote poetry. A lot of it. I loved to write and speak. Asking me to give a book report in class would make my day! Since I was very shy this was my way to reach out and connect with others. But what did I really want from all of those abilities, skills and talents? Deep down I wanted to make a difference, I wanted to inspire others and to help others. 

But I also love to travel and hang out with my family. Sometimes we need a vehicle to get to the destination of our dreams. The vehicle may not always be what we love to do. As long as you don't get stuck in that vehicle on the side of the road out in the middle of nowhere with no chance of reaching your destination you can use the different vehicles that appear before you. 

Please watch this video, it is only 3 minutes long, it may be the best 3 minutes you have spent in a long time: 

authored by Katerina Gasset