May 26, 2025 • 46 mins
This week on Brown Ambition, Mandi sits down with the powerhouse that is Page Turner—real estate broker, single mom, and the magnetic new host of HGTV’s Love It or List It. Page opens up about her incredible journey from hustling as a single mom to owning her spotlight on national TV. She gets real about what it takes to bounce back from life’s curveballs, trust your gut, and pivot with purpose.
We talk motherhood, money moves, and why it’s never too late to bet on yourself. Page drops gems on building confidence, tackling fear head-on, and leaving a legacy for the next generation. Plus, she gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the wild world of home renovations—what really goes down when family needs, budgets, and dreams collide.
If you’re ready for a dose of inspiration with a side of real talk, this one’s for you.
Watch Love It or List It Mondays at 10/9c on HGTV or stream it on Max.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
What's up the A Fam. It's your girl, Mandy Money.
Welcome to another episode of Brown Ambition and this new
thing that I'm trying out called Motivation Monday, where I
bring you a highly inspirational one on one chat between
me and someone iconic, someone who is living their dreams,
but someone who has a real story to tell about
(00:25):
their journey. Someone who's not gonna give you the overnight success.
Someone who's going to show you the grit, the grind,
the resilience that they've had to capture. And my guest
this week is the page Turner. Paige was on the
show actually a couple of years ago, but when I
saw that she is the new co host of one
of the most iconic home improvement shows ever. I'm talking
(00:47):
about twenty seasons of this show on AHGTV. She is
now the co host of Love It or List It,
and Paige and I get into all of that, how
she got the opportunity to host this iconic show on
HGTV network. We talk about a bit about her background
raising three baby girls as a single mom, how she
uprooted her life, moved to Nashville to raise the girls
(01:10):
all on her own, no child support, doing her damn
thing and then move back to La in her forties,
and that's when her career took off. So if you're
a late bloomer or you're worried you might be a
late bloomer, if you're someone who is thinking about, Okay,
I had this idea, I really should have started that
five years ago when I had the idea the first time.
How far would I be if I had just done
(01:31):
it back then. You need to listen to this episode
because Page is going to motivate you and inspire you
with her own story, just by showing you that it's
not too late, that there is a plan for all
of us, that what is meant for us, it can't
miss us, and she's really a testament to just trusting
in the journey. I hope y'all enjoy this episode, So
I'll take a quick break and be right back with
more with my interview with Page Turner from Love It
(01:54):
or Listed. Page Turner, Welcome again to Brown Ambition Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Thank you man, I'm so happy to be back. It's
been a couple of years. But like you said, we
had a great conversation. I mean I was encouraged as
well on my side just seeing all you do. And
I can't believe it's been ten years. I don't think
I knew that a couple of years ago. So thank
you for having me back.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I'm like a geriatric podcaster.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I always Yeah, you were definitely at the helm of it. Wow,
I still haven't started my podcast. I've been saying it
for ten years. I have started on it.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You can't listen. You're doing enough, You're doing so much. Okay.
So the last time you were on the show, at
the time you were hosting another was it also on
HGTV another show?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Loo, did this opportunity come up for you to be
the host of this brand, this huge brand.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
A flagship? Right? So twenty twenty three, which I was
on your podcast to promote season two to fix my flip.
When that season was over and I was waiting to
hear back about season three, I didn't. I didn't hear
back about the season three. So you went, h h okay,
(03:07):
And then I was told, well, you know, I'll there's
some other ideas.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
For you, and I went, h.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
The challenge is this is where ego and you know,
my boyfriend mentioned I love an acronym he uses for
ego edging God out. My ego came in and said, well,
I'm co creator, I am executive producer, and I am
host of Fixed my Flip. I created this show Taylor
made for me, and you want to pitch me another show?
(03:35):
So you know this is my inside hit. But that's
where ego really has to come in. You have to think, Okay,
in this business, life happens and things change on a dime.
I've watched shows get pulled after the third episode, so
praise God that I got through a whole season, right,
So I have to kind of just sit in my
experience in business and on this network that I've now
(03:55):
had two shows on that spanned since twenty eighteen, and say, okay,
so let me trust what the network knows about their
audience and if they see a better fit for me, Hey,
that means I'm still going to be employed, right. It
means I'm still going to have a show if I
can connect with it. So a couple of weeks later
than hey, we want to get on a zoom with
(04:17):
you and pitch an idea, and I went, that's fine.
You know I don't have a show now, so why
not right? So but I get on in full glory,
like let's see, you know, and my attitude is great,
and I mean all you can expect is good things
when things kind of change direct direction. And one thing
about Page Turner is that I kind of call myself
(04:38):
the queen of pivot in life, in business, on television,
off television. I know how to pivot, to stay above
water and keep going, because what's the opposite, you think? Right,
So we get on the zoom with the network and
they're like, well, we think you may have heard of
the show, but you know, hosts of Change, and we
want to see if you want to do a chemistry
test for Love It or Listed. So I fall out
(05:00):
of my chair physically, physically, I fall out of my
chair and I pulled myself back up and I said, okay, well,
lover It Listed predates me even being on this network
by ten years. This is a flagship. And like you
already said, Mandy, iconic show, absolutely uh sure, duh, you
(05:23):
know I didn't say that part, but let's go. So
I went did a chemistry test with David. They said,
we already know we want you. We just want to
make sure that both of you can keep bubble gum
and walk at the same time, and so we did
it and they love the chemistry tests. I love the
chemistry test. It was funny. David is so amazing, Like
he's even more cool in real life than he is
on Love or Listed and now here we are new
(05:45):
co host.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Oh my goodness, well, congratulations, thank you really are the
Queen of Pivot. I'm trying hard not to just cut
touch back on everything that we covered the first time
you're on the show, but bafam, I'm gonna link. I'm
gonna link to it show notes because y'all need to
hear the full arc of Page's story. I mean, you survived,
like we meet me all, we're here today. We survived
(06:08):
the two thousand and eight recession. But you were working
in real estate at the time. I remember you're telling
me about how you were like, should I go get
like a job in retail and you again, Queen of Pivot.
You had two daughters at the time. You still have
two daughters, but three okay three babies, and they were
in school. You're a single mom. You're not getting child support.
(06:30):
You're worried about can I pay the mortgage and feed
my children? You talked about trying to figure out how
you were gonna let them repo your escalade that you
had got, But covertly, yes.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I did.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Can you meet me around that?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, it was at the rap gas station. I've missed
that Cadillac, but I've had many more cars since then.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And as a young mom myself, I have I've had
another baby since I last Man, he's the best, They're
the best.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Is he one two?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
He turns two in two weeks.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
What's his name?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Remy, Remy Raphael, Oh, my gosh. And then I has
big brother Rio Francisco, and they are just amazing. And
so as a young mom, I just really appreciate that.
And I think you were just sharing, you know, these
moments that have been really challenging for you, and you've
had all these different lives throughout your career, and I
just want to say it's nice to see you in
(07:32):
this season of thriving and winning. I mean, you're not
an overnight success, and I am hungry for stories like this,
hungry for you know the reality of like the grit
and resilience it takes. Yeah, that it's not like you
just became page turner and they plucked you out of obscurity.
(07:53):
Can you talk about like continuing to believe in yourself
and even as you've had these challenges that you kind
of knew you were heading towards something figure.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah you know, so, yeah, ego has a big planet.
But I think that ego, when you're talking about ego
as it aligns with pride and confidence are too completely
different paths and lanes. So God tells us we can
be confident, you know, and depending on what your belief is.
But there are so many universal nuggets you can pull
(08:21):
from whatever religion you believe in. But one is that
we have a confidence in God. God has given us
confidence as human beings to be able to plant our
own guardens and eat right, to be able to dwell
over the land and build houses. So there's a confidence
you have to have no matter what you believe in,
no matter what your source is. And I have that confidence.
And I have that confidence probably from birth, Mandy. I mean,
(08:42):
there's some things that you're just bored with. It doesn't
mean that I've always known how to operate in it,
because there's also this false humility that I've had to
work through as well, like, oh, I don't want to
be too much to people. Oh, she's too much, you know,
So I've kind of had to I'll say, it's just
dumb myself down a lot in my earlier years. Now
there's a different commences going on. There's nothing to do
(09:04):
with television and everything to do with let me show you.
My experience is proof that what I do works and
if I can do it, you can do it too.
So just with that as my anchor, because that's what
I had to have to raise three babies with just
me and my mom and no child support, Like I
had to have that confidence that, Okay, girls, we're gonna
eat today, and we're gonna eat because I'm gonna go work,
(09:25):
and we're gonna eat because I'm gonna go work, and
I'm gonna go get all of these clients and make
a lot of money in real estate because that's what
I've decided to do, and we're gonna do it because
what's the alternative being broke that makes me itch? So
we're not gonna do that. I've been there, I'm not
gonna go back. So there's a confidence that comes from
seeing God's plan and from seeing your prayers come to pass,
even what you think are small prayers. And like my
(09:46):
praise used to be just God, let me have enough
baby food for the week, let me have enough milk
for the week. I remember those prayers and I've never
gone nor my children without any of it. So with
that same confidence coming into this, you know world of
reality television in the home space, it's the same thing. Well,
and sometimes I don't always read the comments spoon I do.
(10:08):
I see them. She's cocky, Oh she's bossy, Oh she's loud.
I am absolutely all of those things. You know why,
because I work in a business that's filled with men,
and if I don't assert myself in a certain way,
it's always respectful, but always remembering who there I am.
And if you don't know you're about to find out
right then I wouldn't be where I am on TV
(10:31):
or in my career in real life business. So it's
now five decades of you know, life experience and working
and watching God work on my behalf, and you know what,
stepping outside of my comfort zone and completely walking in faith,
sometimes just trusting that everything's going to work out, but
(10:51):
also doing the work while I'm waiting for it to
work out. So I never sit idle like I know,
sometimes you have to just sit and watch and wait,
but there's always something to do.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Right, do you feel like I mean, I think fear
of failure is I think everyone's got that fear. No
one wants to fail, but there's a tolerance for it.
There's like being fearless, which I don't think actually exists.
But then there's fear proof, which is like you can
tolerate being afraid and continuing to do the thing. That
kind of feels like your journey that and it's the
(11:22):
mantra that I try to repeat to myself. I'm on
this entrepreneurship journey too, and yeah, at various stages and
often it's like what separates someone who is making moves
and accomplishing the thing and taking those like day to
day incremental steps in the grind is someone who gets
that this is not the toughest moment they're going to face.
This is a tough moment and you just got to
(11:43):
like push through because there's going to be another one
and you got to work that muscle.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I love how you said that fear proof because in
that fear proof, you know what fireproof is. It doesn't
mean you can't burn. It means that it has elements
to where hopefully you'll survive. Right, So it's the same
with fear. It's like you have to work through it.
In the book The Alchemist, which I try to read
every year, at least every other year, the glass Maker says,
(12:10):
you know, I wanted to go and make the same
journey and find the Alchemist and do all that, but
I'm I'm so scared that now my fear has put
me in a position that if I don't do it,
I'll never do it. But then I'll never know how
it feels to do it. So I'm just gonna stay stuck,
That's what he says. So my fear is the opposite, Like, no,
I am so scared to stay stuck and look back.
(12:31):
And I truly believe that you know, in this universe
and with God, that there's nothing new under the sun.
So and we've all been in a place where it's
like I had that idea twenty years ago. But what's
the difference between me having the idea and Mandy has
the idea, but Mandy actually getting it done. You did
the work. You press through that fear, you know, you
press like I'm fear proof. But I'm gonna keep you know,
(12:53):
pressing through, and that's what scares me the most, like
somebody else doing it because I'm competitive, So I'm like,
but I don't do if somebody else is going to
do it. And I've seen I've experienced myself passing over
myself by not moving out of fear so many times.
Then now it's like, come on, yeah, yeah, absolutely scared.
(13:14):
I might even feel a little foolish, but let's just
try anyway. Right, So thank you for saying the fear
proof part, because a lot of people stay in that
stuck place because they just don't take one step. Is
just what separates you from fear and getting the work
done and you doing it instead of somebody else.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Right, the a fan, the tea is piping hot. More
with my interview with Page Turner when we come back.
I'm just excited to learn about what you as a woman,
like how you have created these three young women who
are out in the world, and I want to know, like,
how is that legacy building and how is that going
for you?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Well, you know they're probably your age.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
How old are you, Mandy thirty seven?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Okay, Well they're close enough, they're younger. You guys are
the same decade you know, they're thirty and the twins
are twenty eight. The oldest one is married, you know,
probably right behind you, getting ready to have some babies,
which I'm not ready to do a grandma yet. But
that's crazy. I've just got a dog, Tupac. He stresses
(14:14):
me out. I can't imagine a girl baby, I know, right,
that's so la right.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
You know, it says all the time. She's like, you
guys have it so much harder than I did.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
As you do.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
There's too much information now, too many rules.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
You guys care. I mean, in my generation, my mom
was just like just there used to be a commercial
Mandy that said when I was little, I was like
twelve or thirteen and said, my like my parents' generation,
do you know where your kids are at eleven o'clock?
Because they didn't care. We were out as long as
we got home. By the time the street lights came on.
On the weekends, it was ten o'clock, we were good. So, yeah,
you guys have it a lot harder than we did.
(14:50):
But you know they're good. And you know, I guess
raising them with legacy in mind, and I used to
always drill into them we're life changers. You know, we're
living in full expectation of God's greatest skips through our license.
You know, turn your light on.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Oh lord, I probably made them crazy, okay crazy, But
now I see that the seeds I was planting is
now their fruit, and it's now their harvest because they're
they're degreed.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Up, and they have choices and they have opportunities. And
now it's time for them to go and catch their
own dreams. And it's not for me to keep living
in mind. Because I'm young enough, I feel great to
you know, go in like be on television. You know.
My first time I was on TV, I was forty seven,
so I didn't you know, you mentioned that I wasn't
an overnight success. But when I look back, like it's
(15:37):
never too late. I created a show and I pitched
a show and I got the show on accident on HGTV.
That was the first show. And I was forty seven,
and I waited until my last daughter got into college.
I was like, my time now. My mom made me
page turner for a reason, you know, so let me
go in catch those dreams. When I said I'm done
with the kids, thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I know, I just talked about it. Last time that
I'm like, is this your name on purpose?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Because yep, so good, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I mean you talked about your mom was an optometrist.
Did she own her own practice when you were growing up?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
My mom and my dad, my dad, they owned Page
Optical and they were in the Cringehaw community in Los Angeles,
and they did all of the glasses of big glasses
that were in Stoff back in the day with rhymestones.
They designed them all for Black Hollywood back in the
seventies and eighties, like the STEVIEE. Wonders and the Sammy
(16:34):
Davis Juniors and Tom Bradley's and the football players. So
they were bury in the black community. And they were
both optomicists, and my oldest sister's an optometrists and her
cousin's optomotrists. So they put everybody in the family on
that path.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Wow. I mean we talked about your early career and
working with Spike Lee Magic Johnson, which if you want
to hear all about that, go listen to the other episode.
It's really good. Go to the show notes and click it.
But I didn't realize it's kind of a different path
you were taking than your family. That's always fun to
be a little bit different. Were they supportive of that?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
No, no, no, it was because I had kids. That's
why my path changed. You know. If it were up
my dad passed away when I was eight, But if
it were up to him, I would have been an attorney.
I would have carried on the family business. It was
called Page Optical, you know. So once he died, our
whole family shifted. Dopplic the shop shut down, so everything
kind of just shifted. And my mom's a free spirit,
so she was like, you know, honeed, just go and
(17:29):
dance with the hardy Christians on the beach in Santa Monica.
If you want to be a butterfly, you'll find your way. So,
you know where my dad was a complete opposite. You know,
he would have been the He would have been like me,
how I raised my kids. Nope, you go to school
and I don't care. Once you get your degree, you
can go do what you want. You can go panhandle.
I don't care as long as you're degreed up. My
job is done, you know. And I don't have a degree.
I opted out of college and I went to a
(17:50):
private school, and I was like, but I was coming
up in a day where you can. You became successful
by who you knew, and I knew everybody because I
grew up in the entertainment industry, just my growing up
in Los Angeles. So no, I wish I would have
been on that path, but you know, there were other
ideas for me in this life. And I raised three
beautiful girls, which is how I got to Nashville. Couldn't
(18:11):
afford LA. I was like, I'm gonna die poor, all
of us. So my faith. It's another story for another day.
But we moved to Nashville and I raised them, and
when the last one graduate from college, I packed my
bags and came right back home to LA in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I know for sure a BAFAM somebody listening right now
really needed to hear you say forty seven really needed
to know that whatever they're dreaming about, whatever they think,
they should have started it five years ago. I should
have started it when I was twenty two or thirty two,
Like what if I had done it? You can start
it now. You know you can dream something now, you
can make that pitch. You can. I mean, I have
(18:47):
a career coaching community called the Mandy money Makers, and
One of the little tasks I gave a maker recently
was to just go open an LLC. She has a business,
she started to get clients. I'm like, you need an LLC.
There's tax advantages. And it's been like pulling teeth just
to push her in that direction. But it finally happened,
and I'm so proud, and I think she too, and
(19:10):
even me to a certain extent. You know, thirty seven
it's a little closer to forty than thirty six felt,
and I'm closer to thirty eight than thirty seven. I
need to hear that too, because I want to achieve
so many huge things in the next decade. And we
(19:32):
just got it. We got to hear more examples of that.
We need page turners. Viola Davis's like, Taraji pan since
we need these examples of women in the seasoned stage,
seasoned age of their life.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, that's why I call myself. I'm seasoned. I'm a
season I can't believe it, actually, but well, you just
imagine turning fifty two. I'm like, what the because I
remember like being thirty seven and fifty two was so
far off right, But look at what happen. I literally
had a dream at forty six, wrote it down, applied
(20:05):
to an email. Two weeks later, I'm shooting a sizzle.
Three months later, I'm shooting a pilot, and I just
turned forty seven, and now here we are on the
third show, same network. It's because I just did it anyway,
and going back to being fear proof, all of the
things I had to work through my mind at forty six,
(20:26):
just saying, first of all, who's gonna green light? I
even know what green light meant? Met then a green
light A show forty a whole forty six year old,
you know, I mean, like, how do you just say
I'm gonna I want to be on TV? I'm forty six?
Speaker 1 (20:41):
But who they thought you were? Probably thirty?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Well they probably they probably did. But the truth is
that I'm working, thank you. But the truth is that
I wasn't. And so you still go through in your
head like, Okay, I'm way too old to start my
career in TV. I've known people just being from Los
Angeles that have been trying to get a commercial since
we were eighteen in high school and they still haven't
made it. If you're talking about thirty plus years and
(21:05):
they're still trying to make it in an industry, and
here I am like, I'm going to send an email
and by faith, I'm just gonna see if it worked.
And it did. Now what if I if I didn't
have that confidence to push through that fear and I
never sent the email, I would have never been on
your show twice? And what a disservice I would have
done to myself.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
I do't to even think about it. I'm sure you
still would have been thriving because you were the queen
of hood. Remember we were the queen of talked about
that journey. But you're so right, Like people spend a
lot of time thinking about, well, what if I had
done this? Where would I have been? We'll also like
flip that what if you never do it?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Like what if you never do it? Like the alchemist,
like the glass maker never did it? And who knows
what he could have been going on that journey of alchemy?
Who knows what could have happened? And I think that's
where the regret and where the real fear and the
real failure comes in of not doing what you absolutely
had the strength, the purpose and the pathway to do.
I had all the goods, and had I not done
(21:58):
it just because Oh I'm forty six. Oh you everybody
on TV starts at twenty you know, Oh, I've never
been on TV. How canna have the audacity to think
that I can do something like television? That's a space
I'm in right now. I have the audacity to move
how I want to move and get what I want
and do what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Why do I So? I think about different personalities and
how much I would love to be at a game
night with you. I think you'd be.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
So much fun game night.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
You want because you want to win, like you're a winner?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Do you do?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
And part of Love It or Listed? It's the competition
of it. I know it's a bit I mean from
the you know, I'm sure, but if it is, like
you know, construed and like you guys have to feed
into those like you're on team Love It. I'm on
Team Listed. And there's that rivalry that kind of dance.
But that's what makes it fun to watch, is you
want to see who's going to outspart the other. So
does that competitive nature come naturally to you? Is it
(22:54):
just because like you want to be in your highest power?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
So I'm an LA girl. You were either going to
sink or swim. I literally didn't. Nobody taught me how
to swim. I think my parents just threw me in
the ocean and we just started swimming like I was there.
You have to learn that if you want to win.
If you in La, La and New York, those are
two cities that if you don't kick their asses, those
cities will kick yours. So you have to know how
to grind. You have to know how to win. You
(23:20):
have to know how to get ahead and massages your
journey with it too, because there's so many highs and
lows that a lot of people are like, I can't
do it, I'm out, you know, and they have to
move like I did it. I was like, I can't
do this. La kicked my butt with three kids. I
thought I was gonna die. So I was like, okay,
So I found Nashville and then I nested there. I
raised them there and then they slew the coop and
then I came back because now, all right, I can
(23:42):
do it again. So yeah, I'm very competitive. Now. I
don't watch Rock the Block because the people didn't like
me on Rock the Block because my true competitive not
even all of it just a portion of my competitive
nature came out. The people weren't ready for that, not
on this network. Maybe on another network, but on this
network they weren't ready for this.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Okay, so talk to me about the dynamics. So of
love it or list it, because for those who don't
know the show, I mean, I don't understand how you
don't know it, but love it or list it. You
have a homeowner couple who is for whatever reason, they're
not happy in their home anymore. Usually it's because it's
not enough space. Something has changed. They want this, they
want a deck, they want a laundry room, they're tired
(24:18):
of this. One of the one of the spouses or
the homeowners wants to stay and the other one is like, no,
I'm done with this house. We need to move. So, Paige,
you have assumed the Lovett co host seat. So you,
with all your experience of flipping houses and renovating, you
come in and your goal is to create the house
that will create the renovations and create the transformation that's
(24:41):
going to make this couple stay. That's how you win.
But then you got David what's his last name, David
Ryszantine Vyzantine. He is the listic guy. So he's the realtor.
He's the one who's like, oh no, I'm going to
find them their dream home. They're going to just get
this dream home and leave this mess behind. And then
you get how much time to turn over these homes?
Like what actually happens?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Well, there's no time line, you know, there's no on
one actual episode. I mean, the renovation takes as long
as it takes in real life, so it could be
three months. We've had I think our longest renovation last
year was when we were filming, was probably seven months.
It was a really big one. So that's just the
renovations are real time. But at the end of the renovation,
after David has shown the homeowners three different homes to
(25:26):
live in, they have to choose. Do they want to
list the house and it's already renovated so they love it,
of course, But listen, the thing is is that once
I have completed the redesign and the renovation, they have
a ton of equity. So they want to take that
equity and move or do they want to say, you
know what, we loved this house, we moved in. It's
just over the last ten years we've grown to not
love it anymore and now we want to live in
(25:47):
it as a love it space. So they pick in
real time while we're filming, and David and I do
not know if they're going to say love it or listed.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
So where are they when the house is being renowed?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
They go and live somewhere else, They go and get
an apartment or go with family. And they promised and
most I think ninety five percent of them. No I
know of one homeowner that did not to come in
and check on the house, so they don't see the
house at all. So once we get done and I
have staging done, it is a complete surprise to them.
And then we're when we're sitting in real time filming
(26:18):
and I say, okay, are you gonna love it? And
David says, or are you gonna list it? We do
that three times and on the third time they go
love it. So we're like, oh, okay, so you know
all of that.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Is real, Okay, it feels real. Okay, that's really good
to know. So the reason I fell out of love
with HGTV, like I said, is my husband and I
you're you're probably gonna be like uh huh huh. I
we we got our house. I had too much money.
I knew what to do when I was twenty seven,
twenty eight howl was I twenty eight. I had done
(26:50):
well in my career. I had I had a lot
of money sitting in my account. You knew we wanted
to do something with it. My husband was like, let's
get a house. Let's get a house. And I this
was pre kids, and we were living in a like
a luxury apartment building, and I was I loved my
commute to the city. And I was like, well, I
don't want to get too much house. I don't want
(27:11):
to get too much house. I don't want to be
I don't want to have too much yard. It's all
maintenance and stuff. So I compromised. I was like, let's
get a house, but it's going to be a cute
little house in the suburbs. And everything compared to New
York City apartments was like it felt big. So we
eventually we found this three bedroom, two bath, Cape cod
style rble in a neighborhood that is has actually has
(27:34):
a lot of history. We found a neighborhood that actually
is majority minority and has a lot of black culture,
a lot of like history here of black, middle income,
middle class families being able to thrive in this community.
So we did stuff that makes no sense because they
didn't have kids at the time. This is way too
much detail, but the point. Yeah, yeah, so we are
(27:58):
like busting out the seams. But I see the potential
and I want to just I love our neighbors, I
love our community, my kids in the school system. Now,
I ain't trying to move, Like it's real expensive. If
we sold the house at top dollar, I don't know
what we could afford, right, you know in this area. Yeah, yeah,
they's such low inventory.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Like, well, that's what happens with David. That's how his
job is so hard, because people don't want to change
their kids' school especially in your neighborhood. I just heard
about New York schools and how people have to fight
to get into these better schools, and like whoa, Like
one of my friends lives in Jersey but commutes to
New York. It's a lot to keep our kids in
a good school. And so that's that's his fight. Like,
(28:39):
people don't want to move, they have their kids, you know,
they just want to figure out how can we make
it work with what we have? But that's like me,
I'm like, I can make it.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Well, yeah, and you get in. How does a homeowner
like me, like, what would you say? Because I looked,
I watched your first episode of the show, and he
did such a beautiful job. And I don't know those
homeowners they're a bit sad for me. I'm like, could
you just chill? Are they really like that? Or are
they coached to be a little sassy?
Speaker 2 (29:05):
They I don't They may be coached, but I don't
hear it. When I watched the showback, I could tell
by my facial expression.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Like I have now, having gotten to know you a
little bit better, I know you weren't like, come on,
that one lady was a bit But if we don't
have Nya's room, I'm not I'm not staying. I'm not
like Okay. She cried. She cried real hard in that
walk in pantry.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Though she listened. She cried in the basement. She cried
in pantry. She was so happy she actually had those
babies in the house like home births, so oh my.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Gosh, yep, so she was.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
She wanted to move, but at the same time David
was showing them. They were like, actually, no, no, no, no,
I take it back on that. I think the second
house was really great for them. They would have to
renovate the kitchen and do some more work, but yeah,
I would have left. I was like I would have
even left because that was a good house. But like
in your in your case, I mean, you don't have
to pull out some money. You know, it's been a
(30:00):
little bit more money to if you guys are going
to stay, right.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
So it's like, I'm want to talk about the nitty
gritty of that because what's holding me back is like,
so we could do a home equity loan, right, I've
talked on the podcast about home equity loans, so you
tap into the equity you have in your home. We
are not as cash liquid as we were back then.
When I had one hundred and twenty K to invest
in the house, I wish I had just I mean,
I don't wish I had waited, but because we still
(30:27):
waited to have you know, we had kids a couple
of years later and all that. But now I feel
like I really know what we need. How many years
in seven eight years into living here.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Baby, give yourself some grace. You don't know until you
know with kids. You don't know until you know. That's
just give yourself that.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I kind of want a third which is another reason
we need more space.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, that third listen, I have three. That third change
is the game Mandy, Well, you.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Actually had twins. Were the twins older or younger?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
No, they were younger, So I was forced in the
change game. But three changes the game. Two it's been
like I would have been rich earlier. Three is another level.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
I know, I know. That's what I say all the time.
I'm like, I'm not rich enough yet. I need to
make more money because twenty five hundred dollars a month
for daycare is almost my mortgage.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Mmmm.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
It's cristy out here. So home equity loans like and
you and one of the things we talked about on
the show last time that you were kind of like
another episode is like, sort of when you're in a
tough situation financially, what tips you may have for homeowners
who do want to upgrade but I still can't. Part
of me is like we've already put one hundred k
in it. Almost. I think I'm being a little bit
(31:43):
too harsh on myself. I'm like, well, that was a
mistake and I don't want to. It's like throwing more
money at it is. Does it ever make sense to
do another you know, big reno versus just move on.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
So there's a few factors, as you know from you know,
teaching your classes and everything was home lines. Yeah, you
can pull money out, but that's another note. So let's
start with that's another note. In addition to daycare, in
addition to I think I want a third baby, in
addition to dot dot dot, it's another bill. So you
have to think a few things. Number one, how much
(32:15):
is that bill going to be extra until we pay
it off? Number two, how much value is it going
to add on this house? Should my husband wake up
one day and say we have got to move? Because
what you don't want to do is break even. What
you don't want to do is after you pay all
these reels or piece, it's like, well, what was the point?
All we did was add whatever second renovation you need
to make your family, yes, work better, But if you
(32:38):
think there is a small chance that you guys are
going to go, then don't use the equity because you've
already done an upgrade. So it might not fit your
family now, but it might hear somebody else's family. Because
if you max yourself out with your equity and with
the value of your house, then what then You're going
to go to the table, sell your house, break even,
and not have any money to go to your next house,
depending on what you want any to do. That's number one.
(33:01):
Number two, we're in a world where tariffs are nigh
and so that is real. So in new construction out gosh,
that's a whole other episode. But in renovation, you still
need lumber, you still need whatever else, your fixtures and
your flooring and everything. And we're talking about twenty five
percent markup. That's going to come down to the consumer.
It's not going to come down to the importer. I
(33:22):
mean because if I'm home depot, let's say, and I'm like, okay,
here's the twenty five percent on tariffs. Well, I'm going
to pass it along to Mandy who has to do
her renovation project. I'm not going to absorb that. In effect,
my bottom line is the middle man. I should but
I gotta make money just keep my business over open.
So Mandy, you and your husband go figure out, you know,
all this extra money we have to now have for
(33:44):
this renovation project and is it worth it now? Your
babies are so young, right now that you have some
time to figure this out, do it well? I mean
you're in a personality so maybe not your brain doesn't,
but in real life you do. In real life you do.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
There. I also I like some of the adjustments you
made to their home in terms of like adding built
ins in storage, because the fight is always around storage,
so like if I'm wanting to it's also has been
seven years. I forget even how we found our contractor
what do I what's the perfect person who can like,
do I need a designer? I just need someone with
(34:21):
a creative mind who can see the possibility for storage
space that I think is here. Is that a designer?
Is that an architect?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Well you don't, no, no, not for a renovation. You
don't have to hire an architect, but you do have
to find a contractor and sometimes contactors. They can do
a lot of times a new floor plan for you
and give you suggestions, or you can just call me Mandy,
we're friends. I can help you with that. But or
find somebody local who will walk it through with you.
Who is a designer that works with the contractors. They
can work in tandem and get it done. I mean
(34:50):
it is. It's a hard place. Oh, contractors, you have
to start with your sphere of influence. You have to
find somebody who has used somebody and not just by like,
oh yeah, my uncle's sisters brother can do it for you.
I need to see their work. How long did it
take and how much did you spend? Like I need
hands on references so that I don't get got especially
(35:11):
in the world of teriff where everything might be going
up and people are passing on that charge to us.
You know, I've always had a family home, so we
lived in the same I grew up in the same
house in LA and so that was my goal for
my kids. So many single mothers have to move around
every year, every six months. I'm like, I'm not doing that.
I bought a house when I got to Nashville. I
lived in that house for sixteen years with them. So
they had the same friends, same school, same cul de sac.
(35:33):
So when I came home, I wanted to move into
a high rise and I was looking I never had
a doorman, you know, I want to do all the
fancy stuff. So I was looking out my window on
the twenty sixth floor and I said, what if I
would have just taken one more day to fight a
little bit harder, to fight through that fear and stayed
in LA. Who would have my kids been, Who would
have I been? How much further would I've gotten in
my career? If any You know, there's always a divine
(35:56):
plan that works out. But I did think about that.
I think about all the time, what would I have
done had I just thought through one more day?
Speaker 5 (36:04):
But you know, you're living and learn and what ended
up happening is exactly what was supposed to happen. Because
I would have never been in Nashville to think of
a show called Flipping Exes that turn into Flip or
Fly of Nashville.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
It would have never never anyway, wouldn't have been the
top choice for a love better listed.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
Yeah, look at God.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
So with all the journey that you're on now, how
are you giving yourself space for self care? How do
you avoid burnout? Do you feel like you're still pushing
to achieve, achieve, achieve, or have you found space for
softness as well?
Speaker 5 (36:35):
Oh my gosh, Mandy, that is such a good question
because I am such like I'm so hard on myself
and just in the last three months have I found
myself in a very soft space, being very kind to
myself and being able to exhale and being able to
be loved and to be able to love like oh,
(37:00):
and it's lovely, but I.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
Still get up a storkout.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
I'm still like, okay, you know my to do list
is still looks like a maniac, right, But I'm just
in a space of so cliche, but a space of
grace now where it's like, girl, enjoy this, enjoy all
of this, like who you know, and I've been on
this show. I've been on that show. You know, I've
been on Dinnifer Hudson last year, you know what I'm saying.
But like I was so like ah, and I was
(37:26):
in a robotic mode that this year. Even a girlfriend
of mine said, Paige, watching you on Love It or Listed,
there's a new piece and you knew, like, eh, all
as well, you know it's okay, we're like on Fix
My Flip and the other show. I was more rigid
and more like you know, sitting at the negotiation tables
cross and you know, my leg crosson now. And I
(37:49):
feel that like my my heart and my soul and
my mind is just like all as well, even if
it's not all as well.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Well. You mentioned you know, you had to really take
on that, and I think any woman building their career
and you were in the nineties, like really like in
your formative career years, and you're taking in that masculine energy.
And I do feel like I've heard that often from
like the gen X, you know, generation of kind of
being forced to take on like that's how you survived,
(38:18):
that's how you were gonna make it, and that serves
you in so many ways. But at a certain point
we also have this like feminine energy that is powerful
as well, and like, I'm excited for you, and I'm
glad to hear that, because I think you deserve to
be in that soft era and it's not weakness. You
can still be a baddie and get shit done. Yeah,
(38:38):
but who knew take care of.
Speaker 5 (38:39):
Me because coming up in the nineties and into the
two thousands so strong excuse my friends. So that's when
boss bitch and bad bitch all that. And I don't
play with that B word. I've never referred to myself
as that. And if I say that word, it's because
we're in a different place in time.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
It just pulled off the tongue. Though I don't know
if I believe.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
You well because I know how to cuss, I know
how to I know many things.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
But you know, I woke up like I've been to
fibbing and energy classes, circles of soft girl era classes
like where is she? Because I go so hard with
I went so hard raising my kids. I'm so hard
in my business, so hard on TV, so hard, negotiating
so hard, working out so hard on my body. You
(39:26):
know what I'm saying in my brain and my heart
and just like h and I've been to classes and
classes and classes like no where does this soft girl live?
Because I have yet to meet her? And I think
I was lied to because I don't want to be
a boss bitch. I think I was This is this
is hard. There has to be an easier way to
life than this. And you being a single mom too,
(39:47):
like I had to wear this cape, this superwoman cap.
I always rejected though when men or anybody would say
to be happy, fathers say like I don't want that smooth.
I don't mean nobody's daddy, you know, just as being
a single mom, like you know you're doing both I'm
actually not because I don't know.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
I'm not a man. I don't know how to teach them,
you know, blah blah blah.
Speaker 5 (40:04):
But just in probably this last year, really finding her
and doing the work to find this soft you know.
And in fact, even in my design, probably starting two
years ago, I didn't realize I'm putting in soft edges
on islands. I'm really doing a lot of rounded work,
Like I'm softening.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
The spaces that I'm in, and even at home, I'm like,
I'm softening everything up.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
You know.
Speaker 5 (40:27):
I used to be like black, black, black, gold, gold, hold,
and I'm like pink yellow.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
You know, I'm here, thank you, I'm like cream and
I love this space. So thank you for saying that
it's a It's a beautiful space to be in.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
So what does that look like for you? What are
your go tos for when you want to tap into
that soft girl? Maybe someone listening now is also feeling
like you did, like where is she? You know, the
work I can't turn my brain off.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
Well, that's the thing, forcing yourself to meditate.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
I had to.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
I had to start buying the books. I had to
start doing the work books.
Speaker 5 (41:04):
I had to start literally my girlfriend does feminine energy classes.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
Heidi.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
I had to go to sound bowls and just retrain
my brain bath sound bath, sorry, sound bath, and I
had thank you. I had to and I still do
retrain my brain because, you know, just coming up in
the era of this gen X world, I bought into all.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
The hype, you know, because I had to be the hype.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
You know.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
I was living the hype. And I didn't know about
soft Girl anything. I didn't know I know.
Speaker 5 (41:35):
So now I do it by continuing to do that work.
I have to be in prayer, I have to be
in meditation. I have to keep my affirmations up. I
have to remember I'm responding and not reacting. What's funny
is that it's natural now like I don't want to react.
I just want to my piece. It actually started two
and a half years ago. I put up this boundary
called Peace and Plenty. It was a book that I
read ten fifteen years ago, and I remember who the
(41:57):
author is, but she wrote a book called Piece and Plenty.
But all I know, those were my two go to
words that I would say, Hey, you are interrupting my
piece and plenty.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
I can't do this.
Speaker 5 (42:05):
I'll be back you know, and I would go reset myself.
But I didn't realize until this very moment that was
my beginning of softening myself up, the soft girl era
and being like, oh boundaries, oh boundaries for myself, Like
I'm on page.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
If you do this, that keeps you feisty. You know,
try this, so you have to try to do things.
Speaker 5 (42:24):
You have to retrain your brain. And it's still you
still have to commit to do the work. So there's
still a work that has to be done. And that's
what I'm still doing.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Are your kids like, what's happened?
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Mom?
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Did they notice a difference.
Speaker 5 (42:36):
Yes, my youngest she lives in New York. She just
said when I was there a couplets and she said, Mommy,
you're so different now, like you're just calm because I
always been like, oh, let's.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Go, we gotta win, we can do it. Turn your
light on crazy. She was like, you were so chill,
and I was like, I me my soft girl era,
Like I'm good.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
That blood pressure is probably looking real good.
Speaker 5 (42:59):
I mean my doctor, it was like last year I
could go to my physical this year yet, but hey,
you're good.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
See next year. I'm like, thanks, Well.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
I hope that with the I hope the show is
super successful in his twentieth season. You must feel a
little bit of that, hopefully not too much, but the
pressure of carrying on the legacy. And I've just seen
the first episode and I think that you did a
killer job. I don't know what the commenters are on.
I don't think you should watch the comment read the comments.
Ie TV's audience is broad.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
When they're very feisty and coward.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Enough to be leaving comments, you know what I mean,
they could be cuckoo.
Speaker 5 (43:35):
I look every now and then pre show, and I
did look. Okay, okay, total chess mency. I did look
when the show was first announced.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
Oh they came for me.
Speaker 5 (43:45):
Oh my god, oh god, really they tore me to
shreds post premiere. It's huh, everybody give her a chance.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
He's doing really good. Now they're fighting for me. I'm like, well,
look at the look at this care and fight for me. Ah,
so you know.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
You do.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
The great Banter. That's the best part about the show
is I love Banter. And it's hard to find someone
who won't get their feelings hurt. And I just feel
like you guys have an understanding we're going to give
each other ship and we're each gonna just like we're
here to play, you know. Yeah, No, this is a
it's a bit of a it's a bit of a
show like an improv who can get the best zinger?
And that's always and he does so well with it.
Speaker 4 (44:25):
He does so well.
Speaker 5 (44:26):
And one thing about David, and I told him this,
there's there's many changes on the show from the original host,
who I give honor to.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
I wouldn't be here if it weren't for her, right,
And it's.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Feel bad I forgot Hillary Farr, Hillary Farr? Are you
going to love it?
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (44:42):
Listed exactly.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
You know, I had to stop watching the show because
I didn't want to accidentally take that on.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
I was like, I can't want it to because if
I said that, I would die. I would die. But
you know, just being able to this legacy on has
been pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
Oh well, I know you're the woman for it, and
I hope we get to chat again and this soft
girl era, I'm very very happy for you. Into everyone listening.
I think that we are trying to get is that
it's like, okay, so you went Boss b Ward, you know,
for all those years and now you're in your Soft Girl.
I think some of us are like in the Soft
(45:27):
Girl and we're like, oh wait, we got to make money.
Still wait a minute. Soft Girl era is expensive. It
is fifty for a sound bath. It's like I was like,
maybe I can just do Spotify and you know some
cereal bowls and like Tatham, I don't know the nails
(45:49):
of hair, like oh lord, it's a lot.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
It's a lot.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
But a walk will do a lot. A walk in
some nice some vibrations.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Yes, it does, it doesn't will it does it?
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Well?
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Well, much success to you, thanks again for sharing so
much of yourself with me on the show and for
taking the time. And everyone go watch love it or
list it. I streamed it on Max. I don't know
how the rest of probably you have HDTV on your
cable networks, but you know, thank goodness of streaming on
Max for my cut the plug girlies.
Speaker 5 (46:19):
Thank you for your time and your your continued interest
in me and my career and being so kind and
having such good conversation and being here and being here
for us brown girls.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
All right, va fam go check out page Turner. I'll
put her social in the show notes and the link
to the show and the show notes. Don't mess with
her piece or her plenty while you're at it. Okay,
Please positive vibes only the A fans, right,
What's up the A Fam. It's your girl, Mandy Money.
Welcome to another episode of Brown Ambition and this new
thing that I'm trying out called Motivation Monday, where I
bring you a highly inspirational one on one chat between
me and someone iconic, someone who is living their dreams,
but someone who has a real story to tell about
(00:25):
their journey. Someone who's not gonna give you the overnight success.
Someone who's going to show you the grit, the grind,
the resilience that they've had to capture. And my guest
this week is the page Turner. Paige was on the
show actually a couple of years ago, but when I
saw that she is the new co host of one
of the most iconic home improvement shows ever. I'm talking
(00:47):
about twenty seasons of this show on AHGTV. She is
now the co host of Love It or List It,
and Paige and I get into all of that, how
she got the opportunity to host this iconic show on
HGTV network. We talk about a bit about her background
raising three baby girls as a single mom, how she
uprooted her life, moved to Nashville to raise the girls
(01:10):
all on her own, no child support, doing her damn
thing and then move back to La in her forties,
and that's when her career took off. So if you're
a late bloomer or you're worried you might be a
late bloomer, if you're someone who is thinking about, Okay,
I had this idea, I really should have started that
five years ago when I had the idea the first time.
How far would I be if I had just done
(01:31):
it back then. You need to listen to this episode
because Page is going to motivate you and inspire you
with her own story, just by showing you that it's
not too late, that there is a plan for all
of us, that what is meant for us, it can't
miss us, and she's really a testament to just trusting
in the journey. I hope y'all enjoy this episode, So
I'll take a quick break and be right back with
more with my interview with Page Turner from Love It
(01:54):
or Listed. Page Turner, Welcome again to Brown Ambition Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Thank you man, I'm so happy to be back. It's
been a couple of years. But like you said, we
had a great conversation. I mean I was encouraged as
well on my side just seeing all you do. And
I can't believe it's been ten years. I don't think
I knew that a couple of years ago. So thank
you for having me back.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I'm like a geriatric podcaster.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I always Yeah, you were definitely at the helm of it. Wow,
I still haven't started my podcast. I've been saying it
for ten years. I have started on it.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You can't listen. You're doing enough, You're doing so much. Okay.
So the last time you were on the show, at
the time you were hosting another was it also on
HGTV another show?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Loo, did this opportunity come up for you to be
the host of this brand, this huge brand.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
A flagship? Right? So twenty twenty three, which I was
on your podcast to promote season two to fix my flip.
When that season was over and I was waiting to
hear back about season three, I didn't. I didn't hear
back about the season three. So you went, h h okay,
(03:07):
And then I was told, well, you know, I'll there's
some other ideas.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
For you, and I went, h.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
The challenge is this is where ego and you know,
my boyfriend mentioned I love an acronym he uses for
ego edging God out. My ego came in and said, well,
I'm co creator, I am executive producer, and I am
host of Fixed my Flip. I created this show Taylor
made for me, and you want to pitch me another show?
(03:35):
So you know this is my inside hit. But that's
where ego really has to come in. You have to think, Okay,
in this business, life happens and things change on a dime.
I've watched shows get pulled after the third episode, so
praise God that I got through a whole season, right,
So I have to kind of just sit in my
experience in business and on this network that I've now
(03:55):
had two shows on that spanned since twenty eighteen, and say, okay,
so let me trust what the network knows about their
audience and if they see a better fit for me, Hey,
that means I'm still going to be employed, right. It
means I'm still going to have a show if I
can connect with it. So a couple of weeks later
than hey, we want to get on a zoom with
(04:17):
you and pitch an idea, and I went, that's fine.
You know I don't have a show now, so why
not right? So but I get on in full glory,
like let's see, you know, and my attitude is great,
and I mean all you can expect is good things
when things kind of change direct direction. And one thing
about Page Turner is that I kind of call myself
(04:38):
the queen of pivot in life, in business, on television,
off television. I know how to pivot, to stay above
water and keep going, because what's the opposite, you think? Right,
So we get on the zoom with the network and
they're like, well, we think you may have heard of
the show, but you know, hosts of Change, and we
want to see if you want to do a chemistry
test for Love It or Listed. So I fall out
(05:00):
of my chair physically, physically, I fall out of my
chair and I pulled myself back up and I said, okay, well,
lover It Listed predates me even being on this network
by ten years. This is a flagship. And like you
already said, Mandy, iconic show, absolutely uh sure, duh, you
(05:23):
know I didn't say that part, but let's go. So
I went did a chemistry test with David. They said,
we already know we want you. We just want to
make sure that both of you can keep bubble gum
and walk at the same time, and so we did
it and they love the chemistry tests. I love the
chemistry test. It was funny. David is so amazing, Like
he's even more cool in real life than he is
on Love or Listed and now here we are new
(05:45):
co host.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Oh my goodness, well, congratulations, thank you really are the
Queen of Pivot. I'm trying hard not to just cut
touch back on everything that we covered the first time
you're on the show, but bafam, I'm gonna link. I'm
gonna link to it show notes because y'all need to
hear the full arc of Page's story. I mean, you survived,
like we meet me all, we're here today. We survived
(06:08):
the two thousand and eight recession. But you were working
in real estate at the time. I remember you're telling
me about how you were like, should I go get
like a job in retail and you again, Queen of Pivot.
You had two daughters at the time. You still have
two daughters, but three okay three babies, and they were
in school. You're a single mom. You're not getting child support.
(06:30):
You're worried about can I pay the mortgage and feed
my children? You talked about trying to figure out how
you were gonna let them repo your escalade that you
had got, But covertly, yes.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I did.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Can you meet me around that?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, it was at the rap gas station. I've missed
that Cadillac, but I've had many more cars since then.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And as a young mom myself, I have I've had
another baby since I last Man, he's the best, They're
the best.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Is he one two?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
He turns two in two weeks.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
What's his name?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Remy, Remy Raphael, Oh, my gosh. And then I has
big brother Rio Francisco, and they are just amazing. And
so as a young mom, I just really appreciate that.
And I think you were just sharing, you know, these
moments that have been really challenging for you, and you've
had all these different lives throughout your career, and I
just want to say it's nice to see you in
(07:32):
this season of thriving and winning. I mean, you're not
an overnight success, and I am hungry for stories like this,
hungry for you know the reality of like the grit
and resilience it takes. Yeah, that it's not like you
just became page turner and they plucked you out of obscurity.
(07:53):
Can you talk about like continuing to believe in yourself
and even as you've had these challenges that you kind
of knew you were heading towards something figure.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah you know, so, yeah, ego has a big planet.
But I think that ego, when you're talking about ego
as it aligns with pride and confidence are too completely
different paths and lanes. So God tells us we can
be confident, you know, and depending on what your belief is.
But there are so many universal nuggets you can pull
(08:21):
from whatever religion you believe in. But one is that
we have a confidence in God. God has given us
confidence as human beings to be able to plant our
own guardens and eat right, to be able to dwell
over the land and build houses. So there's a confidence
you have to have no matter what you believe in,
no matter what your source is. And I have that confidence.
And I have that confidence probably from birth, Mandy. I mean,
(08:42):
there's some things that you're just bored with. It doesn't
mean that I've always known how to operate in it,
because there's also this false humility that I've had to
work through as well, like, oh, I don't want to
be too much to people. Oh, she's too much, you know,
So I've kind of had to I'll say, it's just
dumb myself down a lot in my earlier years. Now
there's a different commences going on. There's nothing to do
(09:04):
with television and everything to do with let me show you.
My experience is proof that what I do works and
if I can do it, you can do it too.
So just with that as my anchor, because that's what
I had to have to raise three babies with just
me and my mom and no child support, Like I
had to have that confidence that, Okay, girls, we're gonna
eat today, and we're gonna eat because I'm gonna go work,
(09:25):
and we're gonna eat because I'm gonna go work, and
I'm gonna go get all of these clients and make
a lot of money in real estate because that's what
I've decided to do, and we're gonna do it because
what's the alternative being broke that makes me itch? So
we're not gonna do that. I've been there, I'm not
gonna go back. So there's a confidence that comes from
seeing God's plan and from seeing your prayers come to pass,
even what you think are small prayers. And like my
(09:46):
praise used to be just God, let me have enough
baby food for the week, let me have enough milk
for the week. I remember those prayers and I've never
gone nor my children without any of it. So with
that same confidence coming into this, you know world of
reality television in the home space, it's the same thing. Well,
and sometimes I don't always read the comments spoon I do.
(10:08):
I see them. She's cocky, Oh she's bossy, Oh she's loud.
I am absolutely all of those things. You know why,
because I work in a business that's filled with men,
and if I don't assert myself in a certain way,
it's always respectful, but always remembering who there I am.
And if you don't know you're about to find out
right then I wouldn't be where I am on TV
(10:31):
or in my career in real life business. So it's
now five decades of you know, life experience and working
and watching God work on my behalf, and you know what,
stepping outside of my comfort zone and completely walking in faith,
sometimes just trusting that everything's going to work out, but
(10:51):
also doing the work while I'm waiting for it to
work out. So I never sit idle like I know,
sometimes you have to just sit and watch and wait,
but there's always something to do.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Right, do you feel like I mean, I think fear
of failure is I think everyone's got that fear. No
one wants to fail, but there's a tolerance for it.
There's like being fearless, which I don't think actually exists.
But then there's fear proof, which is like you can
tolerate being afraid and continuing to do the thing. That
kind of feels like your journey that and it's the
(11:22):
mantra that I try to repeat to myself. I'm on
this entrepreneurship journey too, and yeah, at various stages and
often it's like what separates someone who is making moves
and accomplishing the thing and taking those like day to
day incremental steps in the grind is someone who gets
that this is not the toughest moment they're going to face.
This is a tough moment and you just got to
(11:43):
like push through because there's going to be another one
and you got to work that muscle.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I love how you said that fear proof because in
that fear proof, you know what fireproof is. It doesn't
mean you can't burn. It means that it has elements
to where hopefully you'll survive. Right, So it's the same
with fear. It's like you have to work through it.
In the book The Alchemist, which I try to read
every year, at least every other year, the glass Maker says,
(12:10):
you know, I wanted to go and make the same
journey and find the Alchemist and do all that, but
I'm I'm so scared that now my fear has put
me in a position that if I don't do it,
I'll never do it. But then I'll never know how
it feels to do it. So I'm just gonna stay stuck,
That's what he says. So my fear is the opposite, Like, no,
I am so scared to stay stuck and look back.
(12:31):
And I truly believe that you know, in this universe
and with God, that there's nothing new under the sun.
So and we've all been in a place where it's
like I had that idea twenty years ago. But what's
the difference between me having the idea and Mandy has
the idea, but Mandy actually getting it done. You did
the work. You press through that fear, you know, you
press like I'm fear proof. But I'm gonna keep you know,
(12:53):
pressing through, and that's what scares me the most, like
somebody else doing it because I'm competitive, So I'm like,
but I don't do if somebody else is going to
do it. And I've seen I've experienced myself passing over
myself by not moving out of fear so many times.
Then now it's like, come on, yeah, yeah, absolutely scared.
(13:14):
I might even feel a little foolish, but let's just
try anyway. Right, So thank you for saying the fear
proof part, because a lot of people stay in that
stuck place because they just don't take one step. Is
just what separates you from fear and getting the work
done and you doing it instead of somebody else.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Right, the a fan, the tea is piping hot. More
with my interview with Page Turner when we come back.
I'm just excited to learn about what you as a woman,
like how you have created these three young women who
are out in the world, and I want to know, like,
how is that legacy building and how is that going
for you?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Well, you know they're probably your age.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
How old are you, Mandy thirty seven?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Okay, Well they're close enough, they're younger. You guys are
the same decade you know, they're thirty and the twins
are twenty eight. The oldest one is married, you know,
probably right behind you, getting ready to have some babies,
which I'm not ready to do a grandma yet. But
that's crazy. I've just got a dog, Tupac. He stresses
(14:14):
me out. I can't imagine a girl baby, I know, right,
that's so la right.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
You know, it says all the time. She's like, you
guys have it so much harder than I did.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
As you do.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
There's too much information now, too many rules.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
You guys care. I mean, in my generation, my mom
was just like just there used to be a commercial
Mandy that said when I was little, I was like
twelve or thirteen and said, my like my parents' generation,
do you know where your kids are at eleven o'clock?
Because they didn't care. We were out as long as
we got home. By the time the street lights came on.
On the weekends, it was ten o'clock, we were good. So, yeah,
you guys have it a lot harder than we did.
(14:50):
But you know they're good. And you know, I guess
raising them with legacy in mind, and I used to
always drill into them we're life changers. You know, we're
living in full expectation of God's greatest skips through our license.
You know, turn your light on.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Oh lord, I probably made them crazy, okay crazy, But
now I see that the seeds I was planting is
now their fruit, and it's now their harvest because they're
they're degreed.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Up, and they have choices and they have opportunities. And
now it's time for them to go and catch their
own dreams. And it's not for me to keep living
in mind. Because I'm young enough, I feel great to
you know, go in like be on television. You know.
My first time I was on TV, I was forty seven,
so I didn't you know, you mentioned that I wasn't
an overnight success. But when I look back, like it's
(15:37):
never too late. I created a show and I pitched
a show and I got the show on accident on HGTV.
That was the first show. And I was forty seven,
and I waited until my last daughter got into college.
I was like, my time now. My mom made me
page turner for a reason, you know, so let me
go in catch those dreams. When I said I'm done
with the kids, thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I know, I just talked about it. Last time that
I'm like, is this your name on purpose?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Because yep, so good, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I mean you talked about your mom was an optometrist.
Did she own her own practice when you were growing up?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
My mom and my dad, my dad, they owned Page
Optical and they were in the Cringehaw community in Los Angeles,
and they did all of the glasses of big glasses
that were in Stoff back in the day with rhymestones.
They designed them all for Black Hollywood back in the
seventies and eighties, like the STEVIEE. Wonders and the Sammy
(16:34):
Davis Juniors and Tom Bradley's and the football players. So
they were bury in the black community. And they were
both optomicists, and my oldest sister's an optometrists and her
cousin's optomotrists. So they put everybody in the family on
that path.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Wow. I mean we talked about your early career and
working with Spike Lee Magic Johnson, which if you want
to hear all about that, go listen to the other episode.
It's really good. Go to the show notes and click it.
But I didn't realize it's kind of a different path
you were taking than your family. That's always fun to
be a little bit different. Were they supportive of that?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
No, no, no, it was because I had kids. That's
why my path changed. You know. If it were up
my dad passed away when I was eight, But if
it were up to him, I would have been an attorney.
I would have carried on the family business. It was
called Page Optical, you know. So once he died, our
whole family shifted. Dopplic the shop shut down, so everything
kind of just shifted. And my mom's a free spirit,
so she was like, you know, honeed, just go and
(17:29):
dance with the hardy Christians on the beach in Santa Monica.
If you want to be a butterfly, you'll find your way. So,
you know where my dad was a complete opposite. You know,
he would have been the He would have been like me,
how I raised my kids. Nope, you go to school
and I don't care. Once you get your degree, you
can go do what you want. You can go panhandle.
I don't care as long as you're degreed up. My
job is done, you know. And I don't have a degree.
I opted out of college and I went to a
(17:50):
private school, and I was like, but I was coming
up in a day where you can. You became successful
by who you knew, and I knew everybody because I
grew up in the entertainment industry, just my growing up
in Los Angeles. So no, I wish I would have
been on that path, but you know, there were other
ideas for me in this life. And I raised three
beautiful girls, which is how I got to Nashville. Couldn't
(18:11):
afford LA. I was like, I'm gonna die poor, all
of us. So my faith. It's another story for another day.
But we moved to Nashville and I raised them, and
when the last one graduate from college, I packed my
bags and came right back home to LA in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I know for sure a BAFAM somebody listening right now
really needed to hear you say forty seven really needed
to know that whatever they're dreaming about, whatever they think,
they should have started it five years ago. I should
have started it when I was twenty two or thirty two,
Like what if I had done it? You can start
it now. You know you can dream something now, you
can make that pitch. You can. I mean, I have
(18:47):
a career coaching community called the Mandy money Makers, and
One of the little tasks I gave a maker recently
was to just go open an LLC. She has a business,
she started to get clients. I'm like, you need an LLC.
There's tax advantages. And it's been like pulling teeth just
to push her in that direction. But it finally happened,
and I'm so proud, and I think she too, and
(19:10):
even me to a certain extent. You know, thirty seven
it's a little closer to forty than thirty six felt,
and I'm closer to thirty eight than thirty seven. I
need to hear that too, because I want to achieve
so many huge things in the next decade. And we
(19:32):
just got it. We got to hear more examples of that.
We need page turners. Viola Davis's like, Taraji pan since
we need these examples of women in the seasoned stage,
seasoned age of their life.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, that's why I call myself. I'm seasoned. I'm a
season I can't believe it, actually, but well, you just
imagine turning fifty two. I'm like, what the because I
remember like being thirty seven and fifty two was so
far off right, But look at what happen. I literally
had a dream at forty six, wrote it down, applied
(20:05):
to an email. Two weeks later, I'm shooting a sizzle.
Three months later, I'm shooting a pilot, and I just
turned forty seven, and now here we are on the
third show, same network. It's because I just did it anyway,
and going back to being fear proof, all of the
things I had to work through my mind at forty six,
(20:26):
just saying, first of all, who's gonna green light? I
even know what green light meant? Met then a green
light A show forty a whole forty six year old,
you know, I mean, like, how do you just say
I'm gonna I want to be on TV? I'm forty six?
Speaker 1 (20:41):
But who they thought you were? Probably thirty?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Well they probably they probably did. But the truth is
that I'm working, thank you. But the truth is that
I wasn't. And so you still go through in your
head like, Okay, I'm way too old to start my
career in TV. I've known people just being from Los
Angeles that have been trying to get a commercial since
we were eighteen in high school and they still haven't
made it. If you're talking about thirty plus years and
(21:05):
they're still trying to make it in an industry, and
here I am like, I'm going to send an email
and by faith, I'm just gonna see if it worked.
And it did. Now what if I if I didn't
have that confidence to push through that fear and I
never sent the email, I would have never been on
your show twice? And what a disservice I would have
done to myself.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
I do't to even think about it. I'm sure you
still would have been thriving because you were the queen
of hood. Remember we were the queen of talked about
that journey. But you're so right, Like people spend a
lot of time thinking about, well, what if I had
done this? Where would I have been? We'll also like
flip that what if you never do it?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Like what if you never do it? Like the alchemist,
like the glass maker never did it? And who knows
what he could have been going on that journey of alchemy?
Who knows what could have happened? And I think that's
where the regret and where the real fear and the
real failure comes in of not doing what you absolutely
had the strength, the purpose and the pathway to do.
I had all the goods, and had I not done
(21:58):
it just because Oh I'm forty six. Oh you everybody
on TV starts at twenty you know, Oh, I've never
been on TV. How canna have the audacity to think
that I can do something like television? That's a space
I'm in right now. I have the audacity to move
how I want to move and get what I want
and do what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Why do I So? I think about different personalities and
how much I would love to be at a game
night with you. I think you'd be.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
So much fun game night.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
You want because you want to win, like you're a winner?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Do you do?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
And part of Love It or Listed? It's the competition
of it. I know it's a bit I mean from
the you know, I'm sure, but if it is, like
you know, construed and like you guys have to feed
into those like you're on team Love It. I'm on
Team Listed. And there's that rivalry that kind of dance.
But that's what makes it fun to watch, is you
want to see who's going to outspart the other. So
does that competitive nature come naturally to you? Is it
(22:54):
just because like you want to be in your highest power?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
So I'm an LA girl. You were either going to
sink or swim. I literally didn't. Nobody taught me how
to swim. I think my parents just threw me in
the ocean and we just started swimming like I was there.
You have to learn that if you want to win.
If you in La, La and New York, those are
two cities that if you don't kick their asses, those
cities will kick yours. So you have to know how
to grind. You have to know how to win. You
(23:20):
have to know how to get ahead and massages your
journey with it too, because there's so many highs and
lows that a lot of people are like, I can't
do it, I'm out, you know, and they have to
move like I did it. I was like, I can't
do this. La kicked my butt with three kids. I
thought I was gonna die. So I was like, okay,
So I found Nashville and then I nested there. I
raised them there and then they slew the coop and
then I came back because now, all right, I can
(23:42):
do it again. So yeah, I'm very competitive. Now. I
don't watch Rock the Block because the people didn't like
me on Rock the Block because my true competitive not
even all of it just a portion of my competitive
nature came out. The people weren't ready for that, not
on this network. Maybe on another network, but on this
network they weren't ready for this.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Okay, so talk to me about the dynamics. So of
love it or list it, because for those who don't
know the show, I mean, I don't understand how you
don't know it, but love it or list it. You
have a homeowner couple who is for whatever reason, they're
not happy in their home anymore. Usually it's because it's
not enough space. Something has changed. They want this, they
want a deck, they want a laundry room, they're tired
(24:18):
of this. One of the one of the spouses or
the homeowners wants to stay and the other one is like, no,
I'm done with this house. We need to move. So, Paige,
you have assumed the Lovett co host seat. So you,
with all your experience of flipping houses and renovating, you
come in and your goal is to create the house
that will create the renovations and create the transformation that's
(24:41):
going to make this couple stay. That's how you win.
But then you got David what's his last name, David
Ryszantine Vyzantine. He is the listic guy. So he's the realtor.
He's the one who's like, oh no, I'm going to
find them their dream home. They're going to just get
this dream home and leave this mess behind. And then
you get how much time to turn over these homes?
Like what actually happens?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Well, there's no time line, you know, there's no on
one actual episode. I mean, the renovation takes as long
as it takes in real life, so it could be
three months. We've had I think our longest renovation last
year was when we were filming, was probably seven months.
It was a really big one. So that's just the
renovations are real time. But at the end of the renovation,
after David has shown the homeowners three different homes to
(25:26):
live in, they have to choose. Do they want to
list the house and it's already renovated so they love it,
of course, But listen, the thing is is that once
I have completed the redesign and the renovation, they have
a ton of equity. So they want to take that
equity and move or do they want to say, you
know what, we loved this house, we moved in. It's
just over the last ten years we've grown to not
love it anymore and now we want to live in
(25:47):
it as a love it space. So they pick in
real time while we're filming, and David and I do
not know if they're going to say love it or listed.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
So where are they when the house is being renowed?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
They go and live somewhere else, They go and get
an apartment or go with family. And they promised and
most I think ninety five percent of them. No I
know of one homeowner that did not to come in
and check on the house, so they don't see the
house at all. So once we get done and I
have staging done, it is a complete surprise to them.
And then we're when we're sitting in real time filming
(26:18):
and I say, okay, are you gonna love it? And
David says, or are you gonna list it? We do
that three times and on the third time they go
love it. So we're like, oh, okay, so you know
all of that.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Is real, Okay, it feels real. Okay, that's really good
to know. So the reason I fell out of love
with HGTV, like I said, is my husband and I
you're you're probably gonna be like uh huh huh. I
we we got our house. I had too much money.
I knew what to do when I was twenty seven,
twenty eight howl was I twenty eight. I had done
(26:50):
well in my career. I had I had a lot
of money sitting in my account. You knew we wanted
to do something with it. My husband was like, let's
get a house. Let's get a house. And I this
was pre kids, and we were living in a like
a luxury apartment building, and I was I loved my
commute to the city. And I was like, well, I
don't want to get too much house. I don't want
(27:11):
to get too much house. I don't want to be
I don't want to have too much yard. It's all
maintenance and stuff. So I compromised. I was like, let's
get a house, but it's going to be a cute
little house in the suburbs. And everything compared to New
York City apartments was like it felt big. So we
eventually we found this three bedroom, two bath, Cape cod
style rble in a neighborhood that is has actually has
(27:34):
a lot of history. We found a neighborhood that actually
is majority minority and has a lot of black culture,
a lot of like history here of black, middle income,
middle class families being able to thrive in this community.
So we did stuff that makes no sense because they
didn't have kids at the time. This is way too
much detail, but the point. Yeah, yeah, so we are
(27:58):
like busting out the seams. But I see the potential
and I want to just I love our neighbors, I
love our community, my kids in the school system. Now,
I ain't trying to move, Like it's real expensive. If
we sold the house at top dollar, I don't know
what we could afford, right, you know in this area. Yeah, yeah,
they's such low inventory.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Like, well, that's what happens with David. That's how his
job is so hard, because people don't want to change
their kids' school especially in your neighborhood. I just heard
about New York schools and how people have to fight
to get into these better schools, and like whoa, Like
one of my friends lives in Jersey but commutes to
New York. It's a lot to keep our kids in
a good school. And so that's that's his fight. Like,
(28:39):
people don't want to move, they have their kids, you know,
they just want to figure out how can we make
it work with what we have? But that's like me,
I'm like, I can make it.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Well, yeah, and you get in. How does a homeowner
like me, like, what would you say? Because I looked,
I watched your first episode of the show, and he
did such a beautiful job. And I don't know those
homeowners they're a bit sad for me. I'm like, could
you just chill? Are they really like that? Or are
they coached to be a little sassy?
Speaker 2 (29:05):
They I don't They may be coached, but I don't
hear it. When I watched the showback, I could tell
by my facial expression.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Like I have now, having gotten to know you a
little bit better, I know you weren't like, come on,
that one lady was a bit But if we don't
have Nya's room, I'm not I'm not staying. I'm not
like Okay. She cried. She cried real hard in that
walk in pantry.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Though she listened. She cried in the basement. She cried
in pantry. She was so happy she actually had those
babies in the house like home births, so oh my.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Gosh, yep, so she was.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
She wanted to move, but at the same time David
was showing them. They were like, actually, no, no, no, no,
I take it back on that. I think the second
house was really great for them. They would have to
renovate the kitchen and do some more work, but yeah,
I would have left. I was like I would have
even left because that was a good house. But like
in your in your case, I mean, you don't have
to pull out some money. You know, it's been a
(30:00):
little bit more money to if you guys are going
to stay, right.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
So it's like, I'm want to talk about the nitty
gritty of that because what's holding me back is like,
so we could do a home equity loan, right, I've
talked on the podcast about home equity loans, so you
tap into the equity you have in your home. We
are not as cash liquid as we were back then.
When I had one hundred and twenty K to invest
in the house, I wish I had just I mean,
I don't wish I had waited, but because we still
(30:27):
waited to have you know, we had kids a couple
of years later and all that. But now I feel
like I really know what we need. How many years
in seven eight years into living here.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Baby, give yourself some grace. You don't know until you
know with kids. You don't know until you know. That's
just give yourself that.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I kind of want a third which is another reason
we need more space.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, that third listen, I have three. That third change
is the game Mandy, Well, you.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Actually had twins. Were the twins older or younger?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
No, they were younger, So I was forced in the
change game. But three changes the game. Two it's been
like I would have been rich earlier. Three is another level.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
I know, I know. That's what I say all the time.
I'm like, I'm not rich enough yet. I need to
make more money because twenty five hundred dollars a month
for daycare is almost my mortgage.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Mmmm.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
It's cristy out here. So home equity loans like and
you and one of the things we talked about on
the show last time that you were kind of like
another episode is like, sort of when you're in a
tough situation financially, what tips you may have for homeowners
who do want to upgrade but I still can't. Part
of me is like we've already put one hundred k
in it. Almost. I think I'm being a little bit
(31:43):
too harsh on myself. I'm like, well, that was a
mistake and I don't want to. It's like throwing more
money at it is. Does it ever make sense to
do another you know, big reno versus just move on.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
So there's a few factors, as you know from you know,
teaching your classes and everything was home lines. Yeah, you
can pull money out, but that's another note. So let's
start with that's another note. In addition to daycare, in
addition to I think I want a third baby, in
addition to dot dot dot, it's another bill. So you
have to think a few things. Number one, how much
(32:15):
is that bill going to be extra until we pay
it off? Number two, how much value is it going
to add on this house? Should my husband wake up
one day and say we have got to move? Because
what you don't want to do is break even. What
you don't want to do is after you pay all
these reels or piece, it's like, well, what was the point?
All we did was add whatever second renovation you need
to make your family, yes, work better, But if you
(32:38):
think there is a small chance that you guys are
going to go, then don't use the equity because you've
already done an upgrade. So it might not fit your
family now, but it might hear somebody else's family. Because
if you max yourself out with your equity and with
the value of your house, then what then You're going
to go to the table, sell your house, break even,
and not have any money to go to your next house,
depending on what you want any to do. That's number one.
(33:01):
Number two, we're in a world where tariffs are nigh
and so that is real. So in new construction out gosh,
that's a whole other episode. But in renovation, you still
need lumber, you still need whatever else, your fixtures and
your flooring and everything. And we're talking about twenty five
percent markup. That's going to come down to the consumer.
It's not going to come down to the importer. I
(33:22):
mean because if I'm home depot, let's say, and I'm like, okay,
here's the twenty five percent on tariffs. Well, I'm going
to pass it along to Mandy who has to do
her renovation project. I'm not going to absorb that. In effect,
my bottom line is the middle man. I should but
I gotta make money just keep my business over open.
So Mandy, you and your husband go figure out, you know,
all this extra money we have to now have for
(33:44):
this renovation project and is it worth it now? Your
babies are so young, right now that you have some
time to figure this out, do it well? I mean
you're in a personality so maybe not your brain doesn't,
but in real life you do. In real life you do.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
There. I also I like some of the adjustments you
made to their home in terms of like adding built
ins in storage, because the fight is always around storage,
so like if I'm wanting to it's also has been
seven years. I forget even how we found our contractor
what do I what's the perfect person who can like,
do I need a designer? I just need someone with
(34:21):
a creative mind who can see the possibility for storage
space that I think is here. Is that a designer?
Is that an architect?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Well you don't, no, no, not for a renovation. You
don't have to hire an architect, but you do have
to find a contractor and sometimes contactors. They can do
a lot of times a new floor plan for you
and give you suggestions, or you can just call me Mandy,
we're friends. I can help you with that. But or
find somebody local who will walk it through with you.
Who is a designer that works with the contractors. They
can work in tandem and get it done. I mean
(34:50):
it is. It's a hard place. Oh, contractors, you have
to start with your sphere of influence. You have to
find somebody who has used somebody and not just by like,
oh yeah, my uncle's sisters brother can do it for you.
I need to see their work. How long did it
take and how much did you spend? Like I need
hands on references so that I don't get got especially
(35:11):
in the world of teriff where everything might be going
up and people are passing on that charge to us.
You know, I've always had a family home, so we
lived in the same I grew up in the same
house in LA and so that was my goal for
my kids. So many single mothers have to move around
every year, every six months. I'm like, I'm not doing that.
I bought a house when I got to Nashville. I
lived in that house for sixteen years with them. So
they had the same friends, same school, same cul de sac.
(35:33):
So when I came home, I wanted to move into
a high rise and I was looking I never had
a doorman, you know, I want to do all the
fancy stuff. So I was looking out my window on
the twenty sixth floor and I said, what if I
would have just taken one more day to fight a
little bit harder, to fight through that fear and stayed
in LA. Who would have my kids been, Who would
have I been? How much further would I've gotten in
my career? If any You know, there's always a divine
(35:56):
plan that works out. But I did think about that.
I think about all the time, what would I have
done had I just thought through one more day?
Speaker 5 (36:04):
But you know, you're living and learn and what ended
up happening is exactly what was supposed to happen. Because
I would have never been in Nashville to think of
a show called Flipping Exes that turn into Flip or
Fly of Nashville.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
It would have never never anyway, wouldn't have been the
top choice for a love better listed.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
Yeah, look at God.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
So with all the journey that you're on now, how
are you giving yourself space for self care? How do
you avoid burnout? Do you feel like you're still pushing
to achieve, achieve, achieve, or have you found space for
softness as well?
Speaker 5 (36:35):
Oh my gosh, Mandy, that is such a good question
because I am such like I'm so hard on myself
and just in the last three months have I found
myself in a very soft space, being very kind to
myself and being able to exhale and being able to
be loved and to be able to love like oh,
(37:00):
and it's lovely, but I.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
Still get up a storkout.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
I'm still like, okay, you know my to do list
is still looks like a maniac, right, But I'm just
in a space of so cliche, but a space of
grace now where it's like, girl, enjoy this, enjoy all
of this, like who you know, and I've been on
this show. I've been on that show. You know, I've
been on Dinnifer Hudson last year, you know what I'm saying.
But like I was so like ah, and I was
(37:26):
in a robotic mode that this year. Even a girlfriend
of mine said, Paige, watching you on Love It or Listed,
there's a new piece and you knew, like, eh, all
as well, you know it's okay, we're like on Fix
My Flip and the other show. I was more rigid
and more like you know, sitting at the negotiation tables
cross and you know, my leg crosson now. And I
(37:49):
feel that like my my heart and my soul and
my mind is just like all as well, even if
it's not all as well.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Well. You mentioned you know, you had to really take
on that, and I think any woman building their career
and you were in the nineties, like really like in
your formative career years, and you're taking in that masculine energy.
And I do feel like I've heard that often from
like the gen X, you know, generation of kind of
being forced to take on like that's how you survived,
(38:18):
that's how you were gonna make it, and that serves
you in so many ways. But at a certain point
we also have this like feminine energy that is powerful
as well, and like, I'm excited for you, and I'm
glad to hear that, because I think you deserve to
be in that soft era and it's not weakness. You
can still be a baddie and get shit done. Yeah,
(38:38):
but who knew take care of.
Speaker 5 (38:39):
Me because coming up in the nineties and into the
two thousands so strong excuse my friends. So that's when
boss bitch and bad bitch all that. And I don't
play with that B word. I've never referred to myself
as that. And if I say that word, it's because
we're in a different place in time.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
It just pulled off the tongue. Though I don't know
if I believe.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
You well because I know how to cuss, I know
how to I know many things.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
But you know, I woke up like I've been to
fibbing and energy classes, circles of soft girl era classes
like where is she? Because I go so hard with
I went so hard raising my kids. I'm so hard
in my business, so hard on TV, so hard, negotiating
so hard, working out so hard on my body. You
(39:26):
know what I'm saying in my brain and my heart
and just like h and I've been to classes and
classes and classes like no where does this soft girl live?
Because I have yet to meet her? And I think
I was lied to because I don't want to be
a boss bitch. I think I was This is this
is hard. There has to be an easier way to
life than this. And you being a single mom too,
(39:47):
like I had to wear this cape, this superwoman cap.
I always rejected though when men or anybody would say
to be happy, fathers say like I don't want that smooth.
I don't mean nobody's daddy, you know, just as being
a single mom, like you know you're doing both I'm
actually not because I don't know.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
I'm not a man. I don't know how to teach them,
you know, blah blah blah.
Speaker 5 (40:04):
But just in probably this last year, really finding her
and doing the work to find this soft you know.
And in fact, even in my design, probably starting two
years ago, I didn't realize I'm putting in soft edges
on islands. I'm really doing a lot of rounded work,
Like I'm softening.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
The spaces that I'm in, and even at home, I'm like,
I'm softening everything up.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
You know.
Speaker 5 (40:27):
I used to be like black, black, black, gold, gold, hold,
and I'm like pink yellow.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
You know, I'm here, thank you, I'm like cream and
I love this space. So thank you for saying that
it's a It's a beautiful space to be in.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
So what does that look like for you? What are
your go tos for when you want to tap into
that soft girl? Maybe someone listening now is also feeling
like you did, like where is she? You know, the
work I can't turn my brain off.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
Well, that's the thing, forcing yourself to meditate.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
I had to.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
I had to start buying the books. I had to
start doing the work books.
Speaker 5 (41:04):
I had to start literally my girlfriend does feminine energy classes.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
Heidi.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
I had to go to sound bowls and just retrain
my brain bath sound bath, sorry, sound bath, and I
had thank you. I had to and I still do
retrain my brain because, you know, just coming up in
the era of this gen X world, I bought into all.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
The hype, you know, because I had to be the hype.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
You know.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
I was living the hype. And I didn't know about
soft Girl anything. I didn't know I know.
Speaker 5 (41:35):
So now I do it by continuing to do that work.
I have to be in prayer, I have to be
in meditation. I have to keep my affirmations up. I
have to remember I'm responding and not reacting. What's funny
is that it's natural now like I don't want to react.
I just want to my piece. It actually started two
and a half years ago. I put up this boundary
called Peace and Plenty. It was a book that I
read ten fifteen years ago, and I remember who the
(41:57):
author is, but she wrote a book called Piece and Plenty.
But all I know, those were my two go to
words that I would say, Hey, you are interrupting my
piece and plenty.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
I can't do this.
Speaker 5 (42:05):
I'll be back you know, and I would go reset myself.
But I didn't realize until this very moment that was
my beginning of softening myself up, the soft girl era
and being like, oh boundaries, oh boundaries for myself, Like
I'm on page.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
If you do this, that keeps you feisty. You know,
try this, so you have to try to do things.
Speaker 5 (42:24):
You have to retrain your brain. And it's still you
still have to commit to do the work. So there's
still a work that has to be done. And that's
what I'm still doing.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Are your kids like, what's happened?
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Mom?
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Did they notice a difference.
Speaker 5 (42:36):
Yes, my youngest she lives in New York. She just
said when I was there a couplets and she said, Mommy,
you're so different now, like you're just calm because I
always been like, oh, let's.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Go, we gotta win, we can do it. Turn your
light on crazy. She was like, you were so chill,
and I was like, I me my soft girl era,
Like I'm good.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
That blood pressure is probably looking real good.
Speaker 5 (42:59):
I mean my doctor, it was like last year I
could go to my physical this year yet, but hey,
you're good.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
See next year. I'm like, thanks, Well.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
I hope that with the I hope the show is
super successful in his twentieth season. You must feel a
little bit of that, hopefully not too much, but the
pressure of carrying on the legacy. And I've just seen
the first episode and I think that you did a
killer job. I don't know what the commenters are on.
I don't think you should watch the comment read the comments.
Ie TV's audience is broad.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
When they're very feisty and coward.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Enough to be leaving comments, you know what I mean,
they could be cuckoo.
Speaker 5 (43:35):
I look every now and then pre show, and I
did look. Okay, okay, total chess mency. I did look
when the show was first announced.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
Oh they came for me.
Speaker 5 (43:45):
Oh my god, oh god, really they tore me to
shreds post premiere. It's huh, everybody give her a chance.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
He's doing really good. Now they're fighting for me. I'm like, well,
look at the look at this care and fight for me. Ah,
so you know.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
You do.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
The great Banter. That's the best part about the show
is I love Banter. And it's hard to find someone
who won't get their feelings hurt. And I just feel
like you guys have an understanding we're going to give
each other ship and we're each gonna just like we're
here to play, you know. Yeah, No, this is a
it's a bit of a it's a bit of a
show like an improv who can get the best zinger?
And that's always and he does so well with it.
Speaker 4 (44:25):
He does so well.
Speaker 5 (44:26):
And one thing about David, and I told him this,
there's there's many changes on the show from the original host,
who I give honor to.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
I wouldn't be here if it weren't for her, right,
And it's.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Feel bad I forgot Hillary Farr, Hillary Farr? Are you
going to love it?
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (44:42):
Listed exactly.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
You know, I had to stop watching the show because
I didn't want to accidentally take that on.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
I was like, I can't want it to because if
I said that, I would die. I would die. But
you know, just being able to this legacy on has
been pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
Oh well, I know you're the woman for it, and
I hope we get to chat again and this soft
girl era, I'm very very happy for you. Into everyone listening.
I think that we are trying to get is that
it's like, okay, so you went Boss b Ward, you know,
for all those years and now you're in your Soft Girl.
I think some of us are like in the Soft
(45:27):
Girl and we're like, oh wait, we got to make money.
Still wait a minute. Soft Girl era is expensive. It
is fifty for a sound bath. It's like I was like,
maybe I can just do Spotify and you know some
cereal bowls and like Tatham, I don't know the nails
(45:49):
of hair, like oh lord, it's a lot.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
It's a lot.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
But a walk will do a lot. A walk in
some nice some vibrations.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Yes, it does, it doesn't will it does it?
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Well?
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Well, much success to you, thanks again for sharing so
much of yourself with me on the show and for
taking the time. And everyone go watch love it or
list it. I streamed it on Max. I don't know
how the rest of probably you have HDTV on your
cable networks, but you know, thank goodness of streaming on
Max for my cut the plug girlies.
Speaker 5 (46:19):
Thank you for your time and your your continued interest
in me and my career and being so kind and
having such good conversation and being here and being here
for us brown girls.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
All right, va fam go check out page Turner. I'll
put her social in the show notes and the link
to the show and the show notes. Don't mess with
her piece or her plenty while you're at it. Okay,
Please positive vibes only the A fans, right,
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