May 13, 2025 • 50 mins
What happens when two neighborhood moms completely reinvent themselves in midlife—and end up redefining the luxury real estate game?
This week on Live Your Extraordinary Life, I sit down with Carrie Spurlock and Allison Williams, friends turned business partners, who built Portland, Oregon’s premier boutique real estate brand—from scratch. With legal backgrounds, a flair for design, and deep community roots, they created more than a business. They created a movement.
From their start as school volunteers to building a white-glove, concierge-level real estate experience that transforms homes into modern sanctuaries, Carrie and Allison share how they leveraged friendship, creativity, and authenticity to disrupt the market. And they did it all while navigating motherhood, burnout, boundaries, and the bold decision to pursue what truly lights them up.
We go beyond business in this episode. You’ll hear the truth about partnership, the power of emotional intelligence in marketing, and how building a values-aligned life and business isn’t just possible—it’s the new standard.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This episode of the Live your Extraordinary Life
podcast is brought to you byTransformational Coaching with
Michelle Rios.
Created for high achievers justlike you who've checked all the
boxes yet still wonder is thisreally it?
You've built success, but deepdown, you're craving more, more
(00:22):
meaning, more freedom, more joy.
You're ready for your nextchapter, one that feels fully
aligned, deeply fulfilling andunapologetically yours?
Through my transformationalcoaching, I'll help you break
free from the patterns andbeliefs keeping you stuck,
clarify your vision for life andbusiness in this next chapter
(00:42):
of life, build unshakableconfidence and self-trust, align
your mindset, energy andactions so success feels
authentic and easeful, andcreate extraordinary results
without sacrificing yourselfalong the way.
If you're done playing smalland you're ready to rise, visit
michelleriosofficialcombackslash coaching to learn more
(01:06):
and apply your extraordinarylife is waiting.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Are you ready?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
If you work hard and you're nice to people, those
connections that build upon eachother and they lead to the
magic moments.
And it's brought me so much joyseeing the positive things
build upon each other and cometogether and benefit our clients
, our vendors, the team we workwith.
It is awesome and I didn't haveany idea how much joy that
(01:32):
would bring me.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Hi, I'm Michelle Rios , host of the Live your
Extraordinary Life podcast.
This podcast is built on thepremise that life is meant to be
joyful, but far too often wesettle for less.
So if you've ever thought thatsomething is missing from your
life, that you were meant formore, or you simply want to
experience more joy in theeveryday, then this podcast is
(02:01):
for you.
Each week, I'll bring youcaptivating personal stories,
transformative life lessons andjuicy conversations on living
life to the fullest, with thehope to inspire you to create a
life you love on your terms,with authenticity, purpose and
connection.
Together, we'll explore what itmeans to live an extraordinary
(02:23):
life, the things that hold usback and the steps we all can
take to start living our bestlives.
So come along for the journey.
It's never too late to getstarted, and the world needs
your light.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Welcome back to another episode of the Live your
Extraordinary Life podcast.
I'm your host, michelle Rios,and today's episode is a
masterclass in reinvention,resilience and bold
entrepreneurship.
I'm joined by two powerhousewomen, keri Spurlock and Allison
Williamsattorneys-turned-luxury realtors
(03:02):
, moms and community leaders whodared to leave behind
conventional success to buildsomething extraordinary.
In just over two years, they'vegone from friends and neighbors
to co-founders of Portland'spremier real estate brand,
redefining what's possible inbusiness, motherhood and
partnership.
But their journey wasn'twithout twists, personal
(03:23):
upheavals, some risks and someunexpected rewards.
This conversation goes deep.
We'll be talking about lifetransitions, trusting your gut,
building a business with soul,the power of saying yes to a
bigger vision.
If you've ever wondered what itreally takes to step into your
next chapter, this episode isyour permission slip.
(03:44):
Ladies, welcome to the show.
Thank you, michelle.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
We're so happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
All right, let's delve in.
I think where I'd love to startis actually a question that I
start with all my guests, andthat is what does it mean to you
to live your extraordinary life?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I have a sense at this point in life that I am
truly in alignment with what I'msupposed to be doing, what my
daily actions are and how theyrelate to what I am supposed to
be doing, and I've never felt itas strongly as I do right now.
It was something I pushed upagainst early in my career and
(04:25):
didn't really know what thatfeeling was.
I wasn't quite living up to mypotential or doing what was the
best thing for me to do.
And living up to that potential, living my authentically, what
I'm good at, what brings me joy,what puts joy out into the
world I think that's living myextraordinary life.
(04:47):
I'm right.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
what I'm good at, what brings me joy, what puts
joy out into the world?
I think that's living myextraordinary life.
I'm right where I'm supposed tobe.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
I love it.
Alison, you want to addanything to that?
Yeah, I do want to add a littlebit.
Joy is a big component of mebecause there are many jobs and
professions out there and I'vehad some that didn't bring me
joy.
So when just looking at thecareer that I wanted to have, I
wanted something that wasadditive to my life and fun and
(05:14):
additive to the lives of thepeople that I work with, and I
think that's probably good.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I think that point around joy Allison is so
important because so many of usand Carrie and I have had this
conversation before start outwith the premise that life is
hard and so if you pick the hardcareer, that's going to be more
rewarding on multiple fronts.
And this idea that you can picksomething that brings you joy,
you can choose to step into joyand have that be what leads, is
(05:44):
not usually what we're taught.
Certainly it's not what we weretaught.
I think it's something we'retrying to instill in our
children now, but it is somewhatnovel for women of a certain
age and I really appreciate youreminding us just that.
The essence of if you're nothaving fun doing it, you're
probably not going to be greatat it, or if you're really good
(06:05):
at it but you're not enjoying it, what is the point?
Right?
Yeah, absolutely All right.
So you both were verysuccessful before you got
together.
You both are attorneys bytraining, you're moms, and now
you're in this real estatejourney.
When did you first feel thisnudge, that, okay, we're ready
(06:25):
to explore something new.
Go down this path, worktogether.
Even when did that all comeabout and how did it all come
about?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Oh, it's a bit of a long story.
Carrie and I met about 10 yearsago and we were.
She had just moved into theneighborhood.
I had been in our neighborhoodfor a couple of years already.
Our children our oldest weregoing into kindergarten and we
met in our local play group andwe became best friends, as
pretty much everybody who meetsCarrie becomes her friend.
(06:57):
And I had been kind of ropedinto taking a board position on
our local PTC and Carrie seemedwilling, so I roped her in with
me and we became co-volunteerstogether that year and over the
next several years we workedtogether in volunteer roles very
often and so we knew that wewere very different people and
(07:20):
that we had very differentpersonalities and sets of
strengths and weaknesses, butthat those that our
personalities were verycomplementary and our skill set
was very complementary.
And then COVID hit and we, likeeverybody else, were in our
homes and a couple things weregoing on for me A, my kids were
(07:43):
getting a little bit older andso I was starting to face that I
have twins, so I have two thesame age.
I was starting to face thattransition of they're not going
to be here always.
What is my life going to looklike after they're gone, and I
think that is for many motherskind of a long process, you know
with there's some grieving init and just the questions that
(08:07):
we have to answer about our ownselves.
But I had been feeling verystuck professionally and wanted
to figure out what was the nextstep going to be?
Something that was beyond thescope of, you know, raising my
children and being in myhousehold, just something that
was for myself, as I kind oflook to A get out of my house
(08:27):
and do something that was joyful, and then to also think about,
you know, the future.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I love that I have a 18 year old that is graduating
high school this year, so theemptiness feelings are deep and
big, but probably not unlike you.
Right around middle school itstarted to really hit me hard,
like these years are flying andI'm really grateful to have that
sort of epiphany of what areyou building for you?
(08:56):
You've put all this time intoyour children, what are you
building for you.
So it resonates deeply.
All right, tell me how you guysdecide, of all the things you
could do, that real estate wasgoing to be it and that you're
going to do it together, thatyou weren't going on these
individual paths, that youdecided to partner.
Tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
So Allison roped me into our PTC board, but I roped
her into real estate so addingon the journey to getting here I
had.
I hit this point in my lifewhere I had so many things going
on that were growth directed.
So I was doing a lot.
I served on the school board,was elected there.
(09:37):
Being the board chair during apandemic on a school board was
not the most fun thing.
I was doing a lot of therapyand counseling.
My marriage was not thriving.
There were some health thingsgoing on with my parents.
It was just like everything washard but everything was
something I was learning from.
So it was this period of growthfor myself where I hit this
(10:00):
point and realized that I hadbeen living my life for other
people.
I had always done the thingthat I thought that somebody
wanted me to do, whether it wasgoing to law school because my
dad wanted me to, or being astay-at-home mom for the most
part because I felt like I wassupposed to do that for a while.
And I just hit this point wherea few personal things came
together and I was done and itwas around the time that my
(10:24):
marriage really hit its roughestpatch and out, like Allison
said she and I have done somereally hard things together and
we had also been talking aboutthe fact that, hey, why don't we
do something we get paid for,that brings us joy, that we can
continue to serve our communityand we can really kick ass at
like, what is it that we'regoing to have fun doing and that
(10:45):
we can make really big.
So then we started aspreadsheet which we look back
on occasionally because wedidn't know what the thing was.
We were confident that ourpartnership and the way our
brains work together.
One thing about ourrelationship is that it is
incredibly trusting andrespectful and challenging,
(11:05):
which it's like a securelyattached marriage should be,
which I actually think I learneda lot about interpersonal
relationships, even like,hopefully, a future spouse
relationship, with myrelationship with Allison,
because when you know thatsomebody sees you and respects
you, you can really challengeeach other in a healthy way and
(11:25):
it both grow from the process.
It might look awkward to somepeople because she and I get a
little feisty sometimes, butthat's just our process.
Anyway, I had somebody comeinto my life on another board I
was serving on.
I serve on.
The Oregon Museum of Science andIndustry board was set up with
this woman, yonette.
Fine, she's a realtor in thearea.
We didn't know each other atall and she was like, lady, what
(11:48):
do you do with your life?
And I'm like, you know, I don'tknow.
I do a lot of things, but I'mlike there's something I'm
supposed to do.
I don't know what it is.
And she looks me dead in theeyes and said you're supposed to
be a realtor or something likethat.
And I was like, really, that'swhat I'm thinking.
I've thought about it before.
I love you know, I've boughtand sold and been very involved
in many real estate transactionsof my own and I'm a take the
(12:12):
bull by the horns kind of personand did a couple off market
sales of my own house.
And so it was just thislightning moment where I was
stalking the Yonet.
I'm like, yeah, man, I'm goingto be a realtor.
And so in the car ride home,yonette and I had this amazing
conversation just talking aboutdreams and how to manifest what
you want and how to get it byjust dreaming it into an
(12:34):
existence.
She was talking aboutjournaling things and she was
like you're going to think I'mcrazy, but just listen to this
and do it.
I just be authentic to yourselfand what you're feeling.
Write down all your feelingsand follow it.
So I call Allison in the carride home and I'm like Allison,
dude, guess what?
We're going to be realtors.
And she was like we are and Isaid yeah, she's like okay.
(12:57):
And so it was November orDecember and we started studying
for our exam in January and wejust kind of took it off from
there.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Amazing.
So, Allison, that was, it wasjust okay, we're doing this.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Yeah, it was.
I mean, if you look back at ourother ideas, it was dog
boarding God, what else wasthere?
Realtor was our best idea byfar.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Funeral industry was a big one.
I'd had I think I'd been veryclosely involved in about five
funerals in the years leading upto this, and it's another
industry if you've been involvedin one that is very inefficient
and could be just so muchbetter.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Less cheery than real estate, I'd say the design
aspects are limited.
All right, let's talk about thefact that you are two very
different women, which adds to alot of, I think, the strength
of the partnership.
But how do you divide the rolesin a business partnership like
this?
What makes it work behind thescenes?
Tell me a little bit about thedynamic.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
So that has evolved over the last few years.
It wasn't something that wasclear cut from the beginning and
it's something that we're stilltweaking as we go.
I tend to take on more of theorganizational aspects,
process-based aspects of thebusiness, and Carrie does more
of the creative.
(14:20):
She does all of our socialmedia, et cetera.
That said, either of us can doanything.
It's just that those are theroles that we seem to be more
comfortable in, and then we eachshare the actual real estate
work.
So one of us will be theprimary listing agent on every
house.
However, we are both in theloop on every transaction all
(14:42):
the time.
I think there is something to besaid for having a partnership
where both people can do all thethings, because one of the
things that I loved the very,very most about our business is
that I can take a vacation, Ican take a day off and there's
(15:04):
somebody always to cover for me.
If somebody gets sick, it's nota catastrophe because there's
always one of us, and thathaving a partner I mean it is.
It's like Carrie said, it's alot like a marriage.
There are challenges in it, butI can't imagine doing it alone.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
All right.
So tell me a little bit aboutthe values or the vision that
you use as an anchor from thebeginning, that you believe,
with sort of non-negotiables andbuilding your brand.
What are the things that youwalked into this, knowing about
yourselves and how you wanted tobuild this business, that have
become your non-negotiables?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
highest level of integrity was so important to us
.
We will always put our clientsfirst.
We always wanted to do thingsthe right way.
(16:04):
We're rule followers mostly.
I mean everybody's got a littlewiggle room.
But being good people and beingsuper ethical in an industry
where there's a lot of buzzaround those topics was really
important to us.
And I love this about ourpartnership too is that if one
of us gets kind of out ofalignment on any value, the
other one is like so quick toremember, like no, that is not
who we are, we don't operatethis way.
(16:24):
And then also, we were deeplycommitted to our community.
We started as volunteers ondifferent boards and things and
as volunteers on differentboards and things, and nothing
brings me greater joy thanserving Portland through my
science museum board and mysmaller community and our school
community and our neighborhoodand continuing to find authentic
(16:48):
ways to partner with peoplethat we value and we can help
support through our business wasreally important to us.
And being the absolute best atwhat we do, we were committed to
doing this better than anyoneand we knew that that was going
to take cost up front and be aheavy lift to get going, because
before you get good atsomething, you have to just say
(17:11):
here is what I am doing, but youhaven't actually done it yet.
Right?
You're like this is what whiteglove service looks like, and
we're just kind of making thisup as we go.
But those were our values and Ithink it was really important
for us to spell that out at thebeginning, because it was fun
when we described what our leveland caliber of client care
looks like.
And after we had done a fewtransactions and we went into a
(17:34):
listing appointment andAllison's like wow, I'm like
talking the talk here, but we'veactually done it now, and so it
was like we spoke what wewanted value wise into existence
in our business and it's it'sreally important to know what
drives you.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I love this and we have a funny story that we'll
save for another day of how wemet.
But essentially, a friend ofours, a mutual friend, sent me
one of your listings and saidthis just seems like you.
And I saw the house and I waslike, oh my God, this is where I
need to live next.
So now I'm going around withthis photo on my vision board,
(18:09):
going don't sell that one yet,Wait for me.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
We'd love to sell it to you, Michelle.
Yeah, are you?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
moving Are.
Wait for me.
We'd love to sell it to you,michelle.
Yeah, are you moving?
Are you moving here?
Yeah, I'm moving to Riverwood.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
But things in perspective.
Reminding everyone, I live inNorthern Virginia, right outside
of Washington DC, the nation'scapital.
These ladies are living inDunthorpe, right outside of
downtown Portland, and it's abeautiful part of the country
and I had the opportunity to goand lead an entrepreneurial
retreat out there not too longago and I just fell in love with
(18:38):
it.
It's absolutely gorgeous.
So I understand why you guyslove it, and I didn't know
initially that you weren't fromthere originally, carrie.
You're actually from California, correct?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, I was born in California, in Central Valley,
allison's from Central Valley,the Bay Area, and Allison's from
Texas.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, it's a beautiful part of the country,
and so I had visions that itrained every single day.
And, of course, carrie nowjokes and says it's sunny for
the entire week and DC hasrained for the entire week ahead
.
Y'all just pretend to keep allof us away.
All right, let's talk a littlebit about your marketing,
because what really pulled me inwhen I saw that listing was how
(19:19):
you were doing your marketing,which I think is emotional, it's
creative, it's detail oriented,the music was very compelling,
it's a very sophisticated lookand feel and, frankly, it's so
such a departure from what yousee, typical real estate
advertising and marketing.
So I don't know who got theidea, but it was so on brand for
me that I was like, oh my God,I have to follow these ladies
(19:41):
and see what they're doing.
But what brought that about?
And was that just somethingthat you both, being much more
luxury oriented, said we'regoing to bring this into the
business field?
What just made you decide thatthat was the route to go?
I think it was.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Maybe Carrie has a different thought.
We both love houses and realestate in general, so before we
decided to go down this path, weboth looked at many listings
probably every house that cameup in our area.
We put eyes on it, at leastonline.
God, there's just so much roomfor improvement, right.
And so we went into thisthinking we want our listings to
(20:21):
look like they just came out ofArchitectural Digest, and
finding the vendors to make thathappen has been a challenge.
At times.
We have had some swings andmisses, but we have worked
really hard and are alwaysreassessing and evaluating.
We have worked very hard tofind the people that can give us
(20:42):
make what's in our headsactually materialize in our work
.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Tell us a little bit about the team, because I know
that you don't pull somethingoff like this without help and I
have a little bit of an inklingof all the different things in
the pipeline.
But give our listeners anunderstanding of what it takes
when you have a premier property, a luxury listing, to really
bring it to life for thepotential buyer.
(21:08):
What is it that you do and howdo you enlist the help of really
this extensive team that you'veidentified, that's sort of
available to you as you need,and how do you decide to bring
these folks together?
Tell us a little bit aboutwho's on that extensive team.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
It ties back to what is our goal, what is the end
product.
Back to the marketing point.
And a house is not a house.
I think about this sometimeswhen we're writing listing
descriptions.
You're interchanging the wordhouse from home.
They're different words and ahome is like one of your safest,
most emotionally connectiveplace.
(21:46):
You live your life with yourfamily and there is this
emotional connection that wereally want people to have to a
house.
That makes it feel like a home,and so we try to do that.
We build a story around eachhouse and property.
This is on the listing side.
We do both listing and helpbuyers.
You want the person, when theywalk in this house, to have an
(22:09):
emotional connection and a wowfeeling, and it takes a whole
lot to get to that point withmost houses.
So if you, michelle, I, walk inyour house, it's going to feel
like you and you will probablyhave some things you've put off
because nobody likes to do allthe minutia around their house.
You know garbage disposal,broken, that sort of stuff.
(22:31):
So, allison and I, when we walkin, we do this mostly on our
second, like after we've signeda listing agreement.
We look for the things that areyou may not notice, for example
, that your light bulbs are notall the same.
Kelvin and Allison gets realtired of me talking about
Kelvins but there are littlethings in your house that are
not.
(22:51):
They're changing the way youperceive it or a stranger would
perceive it that you can't quiteput your finger on.
But we've gotten pretty good atidentifying those things that
distract you from that fallingin love with the house feeling.
So we have a team of people Imean it's kind of like a three
ring circus at this point and wehave dozens and dozens of
(23:13):
people on our team that arecontractors.
We have a true generalcontractor and we have had him
remodel 3,000 square feet of ahouse once we can pull that off
in a couple of weeks and we aregood at finding inexpensive ways
to completely change the feelof a space and make it feel from
(23:33):
80s to now.
We do landscape.
We partner with one of the bestlandscape designers in Oregon,
I would say on the West Coastand he just has fun working with
us and while he absolutelyshould not be helping us with
our small projects because hedoes like billionaire winery,
huge estates and we're just herelike, hey, can you help us with
some pots or zhuzh things up,and we, instead of staging,
(23:58):
we've gotten creative.
Of when you're working with anultra luxury home that's already
been designed by a renownedinterior designer, you have to
figure out how to make thattranslate to real estate.
And so we found this amazingstylist who does major magazine
shoots and she happens to livelocally and travels for her
shoots.
And so Kira had never done realestate before.
(24:20):
We're like what would you thinkabout coming in and like moving
things around and doing whatyou do for magazines, but
helping us get that shoot inreal estate?
And she was like I've neverdone this before, but we'll try.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
So dozens and dozens of people.
Sometimes we've got 40 peopleon a job site at once, pulling
it all together, the surroundingareas and then swooping in.
It was pretty spectacular andyou don't see a lot of folks
doing that.
So it really adds to theambiance of understanding what
the potential of that.
I think of it as modernsanctuary.
Every time I see something thatyou guys put together, it's
(25:10):
like Erica is another modernsanctuary.
I love that.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
The other thing we've learned is that you have to we
pay for it.
I mean, you should have arealtor who is willing to put
some bucks on the table becauseit's expensive.
We hire the best videographer.
We'll hire the stylist.
I would say that we put a lotof our own capital on the line
to make things the very best andpulled off as they should be,
(25:36):
and we could be making moremoney.
But we also think that that'sour brand and it will pay off in
the long run.
This is why I'm not the numbersperson in our business.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
No, but I agree, I do agree, we do it better and you
do have to pay for that.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
So talk about maybe an obstacle or two that you
didn't envision coming down theroad with this business, and how
did you adapt or grow throughit?
Speaker 4 (26:02):
I think that if I had to do it over from the, or if I
got to do it over from the verybeginning, one of the things
that I would have sat down withCarrie and brainstormed was what
are our boundaries and how canwe communicate those to
everybody our clients, ourvendors, other brokers, people
(26:24):
on other sides of transactionsand we want to do everything for
everybody.
But there has to be space forus each day and we have to
maintain our mental health or wearen't good for anybody.
So at times maybe it has beenan obstacle, but maybe more of
like a growth opportunity andlearning experience over the
course of being a business owner.
But just making sure thatnothing is depleting my
(26:51):
emotional and mental resourcesand what is the best way to do
that and to meet everybody'sneeds, but while keeping an
actual focus on exercising,eating well, getting enough
sleep, having mindfulness,practice all of those things
that I want to do every day.
Maybe I don't exactly, but justkeeping space for myself and my
(27:13):
family, of course.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I love that and I can only imagine, having bought and
sold a few homes of my own, thestress that happens, not just
with all of the people that youhave helping you, but with
buyers and sellers, the emotionaround that transaction, and
you're absorbing that as theperson who is really at the
(27:35):
center of all of it.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Yeah, and Carrie and I are both more sensitive people
and when our clients getstressed which everybody does in
every real estate transactionthere comes a point where it
gets a little bit spicy.
And we have had to work and, Ithink, remind each other to
separate that from our ownemotions.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
One of the things we talk about and we say this all
the time and I think it's sotrue in life and it's one of the
ways that I think back on howtherapy and marriage counseling
and my experience on the schoolboard relates back is that you
have to know that when somebodyin front of you is having a
panic attack or they're angry, Ijust always remind myself it's
not about me and it is.
(28:21):
Everybody's dealing with stuff.
It's really interesting, itholds true a lot and we work
with a lot of friends or clientswho become friends and all just
as they're saying what theyneed to say and I'm listening,
I'm thinking back how I knowthis person has a baby at home
who's not sleeping.
Or if somebody texts firstthing in the morning with
(28:42):
something they're frustratedabout or anger, I always think
back to oh well, I wonder if thebaby wasn't sleeping last night
and I'm just trying to think ofwhat that thing is and not
taking offense to it, but beingempathetic to everybody's got
something and I am the face ofsomething.
That's really hard for them todo right now.
You know, I'm with them a lot.
It's inconvenient, but keepingthat perspective is important.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Oh, that's so good.
You just hit on something,allison, I want to go back to,
and that is about what is itthat keeps you grounded.
How is it about what is it thatkeeps you grounded?
How is it and what is it thatyou do on a regular basis that
becomes part of again what keepsyou centered in the middle of
what is a really chaoticbusiness at times?
I'm sure, and I think you know,we all sort of understand the
(29:29):
real estate market is cyclicaland when people buy I'm assuming
right now is a heavier timetypically right, spring time is
when a lot of people buy summerswhat right now is a heavier
time, typically right,springtime is where a lot of
people buy summers.
What is it that you arepracticing?
You mentioned a few thingsexercise.
I'd love to hear more aboutwhat it is that you all lean
into.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Oh man, this is my favorite topic.
I love this.
So this is something I alsowish I had done more of for the
last 20 years.
And it is being okay with notdoing everything, and so I have
gotten really disciplined, whichis a complete 180 for me this
year.
Like, I don't do my laundry, Idon't take out my dry cleaning,
(30:09):
I don't go pick up myprescriptions, I don't grocery
shop Anything that takes awayfrom the things that are most
important in my life that I canoutsource and is taking away
from either my kids, my businessor my volunteer work and, to
some extent, my friends.
It's not worth it.
And our business coach that wehired right when we started
(30:30):
which was a wonderful thing Isuggest to anybody he said that
you guys, you have to outsourcemore, and I'm a DIY watch too
much HGTV.
I can do anything and itdoesn't matter if you can.
It's not worth it if it'staking away from things that you
value more.
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Allison.
Anything else you want to add,I love that.
So, carrie, tell me what you'redoing to outsource all of this
stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
I don't know it's going to sound a little
embarrassing, but you've got toown it.
Like you know, I have a familywho helps keep my house clean.
I've had them for a long time,but I was spending half a day
the day before because I'm not atidy person Allison knows this
(31:24):
and I was like you know I needsomebody to actually help me
around the house on a dailybasis, and so now I have
Caroline, who is the mostwonderful person, who is like my
right hand that keeps my housein order, which also keeps my
brain in order, because I'm notthinking about having to do the
things, but also I'm notdistracted or stressed out about
the mess in the corner and thelaundry that hasn't been put
(31:45):
away.
But yeah, keeping your carclean.
Everybody likes a clean car.
It's not that expensive to havea detailer come and keep it
clean.
Also important when you'redriving people around Food
service delivery.
It's pretty easy now withDoorDash and all of the online
delivery things.
I don't go to Costco anymore.
I love going to Costco, but ittakes a long time and then
(32:06):
you've got to unpack all thisstuff.
I do Instagram.
There's a lot of things youdidn't really need.
That's.
The other thing is I think youend up saving money because I'm
not buying like whatever beautycream is on the end dial, you
know.
But if you there are so manythings like that, allison, what
else am I doing?
Self-care is huge.
I have a masseuse that comesonce every couple of weeks, and
having somebody that is going toshow up and do these things for
(32:29):
you, that you don't have tocall and book and just have
another task to get the thing tohappen, is amazing, and that
self-care that I need.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Yeah, another thing that you do that I'd also do, is
therapy, which I think isreally important.
We happen to see the sametherapist, but on different days
no-transcript but it's funnyand I would just like to add in
that exercise is reallyimportant for me and because if
I'm not exercising enough, I'mnot sleeping well and something
(33:01):
about being like mid-40s age.
It's like if I don't sleep I amworthless, and even worse than
worthless.
Sometimes you know like you'reso grumpy and it's so negative.
So doing what I need to do tojust kind of get that peace is
really important to me.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
I love that.
Yeah, we talk a lot about theimportance of just maintaining
your body's physical fitness,whether it's just going for a
walk, exercising, eating healthy, all of these things therapy.
They all add to your ability tothink clearly, function better,
and all of the work that we'redoing on one level or another
requires great executivefunction.
(33:37):
A lot of people don't realizethe ability to make a decision
is predicated on your ability torest and be able to be sharp
and to be able to see clearly,and if you are not sleeping or
moving enough, you're not.
None of those things arehappening.
So amen to that.
All right, what's something youwish someone would have told
you at the start of this journey?
(33:57):
Allison, you sort of talked alittle bit about it with
boundaries.
I think boundaries are a bigone for sure.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Boundaries.
I was going to say we havelearned that you do not have to
take every client and sometimesyou meet with people and we have
a process.
We think we know we have a lotof proof at this point that our
process works really well whenpeople don't value what our
company is, the values that wehave as business owners, and
(34:25):
doing things a certain way,which is the right way, not the
right way, but it is like theright way to sell a house
Everything from pricingstrategies and how we consider
what improvements need to bemade.
You can tell right off the batif you're going to be fighting
an uphill battle with somebody,and the amount of emotional
(34:45):
bandwidth it takes when you'renot gelling with a client isn't
worth it.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yeah, have you had to fire a client?
Speaker 4 (34:54):
We have not had to fire a client, but we have had a
client's contract expire anddecided that that was enough for
us.
Yeah, it felt good actually tomake that decision.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yeah and to walk away .
You did what you could.
All right For women.
You may be feeling stuck intheir career currently, but
craving something more.
What's your message to them?
Speaker 3 (35:22):
It's never too late.
I mean, it's kind of like theJulia Child story, right.
I mean, how old was she whenshe started chefing?
It was like in her 40s or 50sand you can do anything.
And I think at this age and youcan do anything.
And I think at this age we knowwho we are and people trust us
more than you would trust a22-year-old.
So there's some value in that.
(35:42):
Find something that brings youjoy and that you are good at,
because I've always heard thisthing.
It was like it doesn't matter.
The old thing of find a careerthat isn't something that you
really like doesn't matterbecause you have to be good at
it.
I think it is both.
And, as in, something that youreally like doesn't matter
because you have to be good atit, I think it is both.
And just don't be afraid tostart something totally
(36:03):
different.
And Allison and I have had she'sa very successful prosecutor
and had her own law practice andyou have to also be confident
in not caring what people thinkabout what your selection is.
If it brings you joy, go afterit.
You know, taking Allison'sfancy legal career and then
becoming a realtor, whicheverybody has feelings about
(36:24):
realtors, and whether we addvalue or not, and is it a
serious career or not.
And you just have to not carewhat people think, and that's
part of the joy about being 46.
One of the things I love themost.
I really don't care what otherpeople think.
It takes a long time to gethere, but just think about what
you want, what drives you, haveconfidence in yourself and go
for it.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
So even before I don't even know if I've ever
told Carrie this so even beforeshe and I started talking about
starting a business together, itwould have been actually I
remember exactly when it was.
It would have been just beforeCOVID hit.
So, like in the first months in2020, I was in my therapist's
office and I was a new client atthe time.
I still see him now and I wascrying because I felt stuck in
(37:07):
my life and I think I was having, after some digging down, a
crisis of confidence and maybeself-worth.
For many years I was anattorney and then I had my own
practice and I wound that downfor a few reasons, and so at
that time that I was crying inhis office, I was, we were
working just a little bit, but Iwasn't living up to my
(37:31):
professional potential and Iwasn't sure why.
I didn't feel like I could,which was such a departure for
me in my 20s, where I felt likeI could do a lot of things and
all of a sudden, I should havebeen super confident in my life,
but I just didn't feel goodenough.
And so I think, if you'refeeling stuck, I would say,
(37:53):
really dig into the why, becausewe all have, maybe, things that
we can point to like oh well,I'm stuck in this job because I
need to make this money, forwhatever reason.
But I do think that there can bebigger reasons and things that
we can address with justintrospection and really getting
down into the why.
Like, why do we need to feellike we are committed to a job
(38:17):
or a career that doesn't bringus joy?
Like to your earlier point, itdoesn't have to be so hard.
What are the things that we arekind of assuming as true inputs
that might not be true?
And what if we did decide to dosomething different?
And so actually I reallyappreciate Carrie for this,
because she is an eternaloptimist and idea haver, and so
(38:39):
I don't know if I would havegotten into real estate without
her.
But just being in that stuckposition, having somebody that
helped me to kind of thinkoutside the box and to say, yeah
, like maybe we can't do it, butmaybe we can, we should try,
and reframing my mindset reallyhelped me to get unstuck.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
That is really powerful, allison, thank you for
sharing that.
I think when people understand,particularly in this
entrepreneurial journey, andyou've done something else, and
people are going to look at thetwo of you and say, oh my God,
they're so uber successful,these are women that are very
highly educated.
They figured out what theywanted To be able to like, break
(39:20):
it down and say not every dayof my life has felt like certain
.
There are moments where I gotstuck too.
It's just so powerful and atumbling, so thank you for
sharing that.
I want to talk a little bitabout the unexpected gifts,
rewards, things that you didn'texpect on this journey, moments
(39:41):
of surprise that you didn'tanticipate.
Obviously, I think one of thethings that I and I don't know
you as well, allison, but one ofthe things I get to observe and
carry as a new friend is justthis space to envision what's
possible, which is really niceto witness.
I would love to hear from bothof you, though, over the last
(40:02):
few years, what are some ofthose unexpected gifts that have
arisen for you that maybe youdidn't anticipate were even
going to come at this point inlife.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
Well, you, for example, it's like real estate
brought us together.
Well, you, for example, it'slike real estate brought us
together.
We're sitting here talkingbecause of my listing and our
mutual friend.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
And our love of houses and all things luxury.
Let's just be clear.
I was like I think, and one ofmy skill sets is I really, truly
love people.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Allison knows this.
My friends always tell me Ilike people a little too much
and give people too much benefitof the doubt sometimes.
But I do.
I like seeing the positive ineveryone and everything.
I think you can choose to seethe positive and try to
(40:53):
understand why something hashappened or why something is
going on in your life, and ifyou can think about the what am
I learning from this, it'll leadto something else If you take
that minute to think about okay,well, this isn't ideal, but I'm
learning from it.
But kind of following theselittle breadcrumbs of life that
I don't know come your way andbuilding upon them.
(41:13):
For example, I found this pieceof furniture.
Alison's heard this story amillion times on Facebook
Marketplace that I loved and Iwent and met this woman in
Northeast Portland and boughtthis credenza from her and we
had a lovely chat in herbasement and we, let's see, a
month later we sold her house.
She's a very talented interiordesigner.
(41:34):
We ended up building arelationship where she helps our
clients envision what'spossible in houses before they
buy them, which is great,because you know, I'm not a
designer.
I can say, hey, if you paintthat blue wall over there, white
, you're going to like it more,but I'm not seeing that we're to
move the walls and that sort ofstuff.
But Sarah will meet with ourclients and do that sort of work
(41:57):
and then how each of theserelationships that we have and
things that aren't obvious andhow they're going to benefit you
in your business.
But if you're, if you work hardand you're nice to people,
those connections that buildupon each other and they lead to
the magic moments.
And it's brought me so much joyseeing the positive things
(42:17):
build upon each other and cometogether and benefit our clients
, our vendors, the team we workwith.
It is awesome and I didn't haveany idea how much joy that
would bring me.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
I love that.
Yeah, People don't know Carrie.
She is a people person.
No one will ever deny that atmeeting her instantaneously.
All right, well, let's talkabout the flip side of that.
So the unexpected rewards ofthis what were some of the
avoidable or maybe unavoidablepitfalls and how did you learn
from them?
Speaker 4 (42:53):
I think one of the biggest pitfalls I think that I
can think of right now is whichCarrie hit on a little bit
earlier is not having enoughhelp in the beginning because we
were afraid to spend the moneyto get that help conservative
with finances, and that wasn't agreat idea.
(43:15):
It was mentally exhausting andI think that in all cases our
business would have been betterhad we hired an assistant, hired
a good accounting firm, hired abusiness coach, hired all the
people that we need to keep thewheels turning and not worried
as much about the money to keepthe lights on, because at the
(43:36):
end of the day, we can do abetter job with the things that
we do if we have that base ofsupport.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Another thing that has been challenging is drawing
the boundaries in our personallives.
For me, it's friends, as youmentioned, michelle.
I love people.
I love saying yes to people.
I will always tell people thatI'm going to this event or I'm
going to do the thing, and Ialways have the intention to do
it.
And then life piles up and Idon't feel good when I cancel
(44:06):
things, and it's still somethingI'm working on is saying no to
things I really want to dobecause I have to, things I
really want to do because I haveto, and it's it doesn't leave
me feeling my best to say nodown the road after committing
to something, and it's hard.
We have limited time.
There's only so much bandwidthwe have to give, and it's been
(44:28):
challenging to balance that.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
You know I appreciate you saying that like my former
life was, you know, as anexecutive and a public relations
firm on a global basis for 20some odd years and I was always
traveling and I got invited to alot of things.
You know, when you're in thatbusiness it's inevitable.
You're just always on andalways going.
And people didn't reallyunderstand that after being on
(44:51):
the road and being with clientsand being in front and
presenting all day and being onmy feet and talking in front of
people, that when I got home Iactually wanted to turn it off
and I didn't want to go to thenext party all the time.
It just seemed that was part ofmy personality.
And it's been an interestingjourney.
Now where people are like yousay no.
(45:12):
Often I was like, yeah, I'vegotten very good at it because I
recognize that my time isfinite.
In a way, I didn't even havethe ability to do when I was
running 24-7, 150 miles an hour.
Now that I've taken a step backand have a much more
intentional business set up, itsometimes is heartbreaking
(45:33):
because you're saying no tothings that you actually might
want to do, but you're like Ican't be in all places and I
know right now I need toconserve some of that energy for
the next thing.
So I appreciate that it's hard,but then you know when you show
up and when you're presentyou're giving all and you're
pouring in to everyone.
That's there.
So I think people will forgiveyou.
(45:54):
Let's talk about the legacyyou're building.
I love your brand.
I love everything you stand for.
I love all the work that you'repouring into the real estate
market in Portland and beyond.
But talk about the biggerpicture.
You know, not just as realtors,but as women, as mothers of
boys and girls and communityleaders as mothers of boys and
(46:17):
girls and community leaders, Iknow you love your town.
I know you guys have given alot.
That's, I think, not a givenfor everybody.
Not everybody has that spiritand heart of being of community.
What do you think and have yougiven any?
Speaker 3 (46:36):
thought to the bigger legacy that you are creating.
Part of the answer is that wedon't know yet.
We're kind of at a growth phasein our on the business side
where we want to do somethingreally big and something really
different and we want to make alasting change in our industry,
because there are so manyinefficiencies and ways, things
that could be done better.
(46:57):
It feels a lot like we're stillplugging along in AOL mode and
could be so much more efficient.
We haven't figured out whatthat big thing is, but stay
tuned because we're constantlytrying to figure that out and we
hope we leave some kind oflegacy in our industry and our
focus and dedication and genuinecare for our community.
(47:18):
I think as business owners, isreally important.
We watch a lot of people in ourindustry focus more on the
bottom line and less on how youget there, and we're literally
giving people houses in acommunity and if they value
where they live, they're happierand they're moving here,
oftentimes not knowing how theycan get plugged in.
(47:41):
There are just so many naturalconnections between giving back
and community and home, and wewill always work towards
bettering our communities.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
I love that.
All right, what are you mostexcited about right now?
I know there are a lot ofthings that you're working on,
and then I know you're sort ofat that inflection point.
You just hinted to that, carrie, but what do you think is next?
What's the next level forSpurlock and Williams?
I'm excited about this onebecause I have so many ideas for
(48:15):
you.
I can't wait to be out therebrainstorming with you.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
I think we have a fledgling idea right now that
involves getting a group ofreally awesome, primarily women
but it doesn't have to only bewomen brokers together and maybe
setting up some kind ofcollective or collaboration and
just doing our business a littlebit better.
(48:40):
I think the servants level andthe product that we turn out
will stay the same, althoughthat's always on an upward
trajectory.
I hope that we're alwaysimproving our process, but doing
our business in a way that isbetter for us personally, and
collaborating and drawinginspiration from other people.
I think that's what's ourimmediate next.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
I've loved all of this conversation.
I really appreciate both of youjust coming on and sharing this
journey.
It is really inspiring whatyou've been able to do in just a
few years' time.
What other people have takenreally lifetimes to get to,
you've done in a very shortamount of time and I think that
really speaks to both of you asindividuals, but also to the
(49:25):
specialness of your partnership.
That can't really be overstatedhere.
So thank you for coming on, forsharing journey, for inspiring
all of us to really go out andlive our extraordinary lives and
take that chance and understandwhat it's taken for you to go
on this journey together.
Thank you so much, michelle.
(49:47):
All right, until next time,everyone, go and live your
extraordinary life.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
Thank you for listening to today's episode.
If you enjoyed this podcastepisode, please take a moment to
rate and review.
If you have recommendations forfuture topics, please reach out
to me atmichelleriosofficialcom.
Lastly, please considersupporting this podcast by
(50:18):
sharing it.
Together, we can reach, inspireand positively impact more
people.
Thank you.
This episode of the Live your Extraordinary Life
podcast is brought to you byTransformational Coaching with
Michelle Rios.
Created for high achievers justlike you who've checked all the
boxes yet still wonder is thisreally it?
You've built success, but deepdown, you're craving more, more
(00:22):
meaning, more freedom, more joy.
You're ready for your nextchapter, one that feels fully
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Through my transformationalcoaching, I'll help you break
free from the patterns andbeliefs keeping you stuck,
clarify your vision for life andbusiness in this next chapter
(00:42):
of life, build unshakableconfidence and self-trust, align
your mindset, energy andactions so success feels
authentic and easeful, andcreate extraordinary results
without sacrificing yourselfalong the way.
If you're done playing smalland you're ready to rise, visit
michelleriosofficialcombackslash coaching to learn more
(01:06):
and apply your extraordinarylife is waiting.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Are you ready?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
If you work hard and you're nice to people, those
connections that build upon eachother and they lead to the
magic moments.
And it's brought me so much joyseeing the positive things
build upon each other and cometogether and benefit our clients
, our vendors, the team we workwith.
It is awesome and I didn't haveany idea how much joy that
(01:32):
would bring me.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Hi, I'm Michelle Rios , host of the Live your
Extraordinary Life podcast.
This podcast is built on thepremise that life is meant to be
joyful, but far too often wesettle for less.
So if you've ever thought thatsomething is missing from your
life, that you were meant formore, or you simply want to
experience more joy in theeveryday, then this podcast is
(02:01):
for you.
Each week, I'll bring youcaptivating personal stories,
transformative life lessons andjuicy conversations on living
life to the fullest, with thehope to inspire you to create a
life you love on your terms,with authenticity, purpose and
connection.
Together, we'll explore what itmeans to live an extraordinary
(02:23):
life, the things that hold usback and the steps we all can
take to start living our bestlives.
So come along for the journey.
It's never too late to getstarted, and the world needs
your light.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Welcome back to another episode of the Live your
Extraordinary Life podcast.
I'm your host, michelle Rios,and today's episode is a
masterclass in reinvention,resilience and bold
entrepreneurship.
I'm joined by two powerhousewomen, keri Spurlock and Allison
Williamsattorneys-turned-luxury realtors
(03:02):
, moms and community leaders whodared to leave behind
conventional success to buildsomething extraordinary.
In just over two years, they'vegone from friends and neighbors
to co-founders of Portland'spremier real estate brand,
redefining what's possible inbusiness, motherhood and
partnership.
But their journey wasn'twithout twists, personal
(03:23):
upheavals, some risks and someunexpected rewards.
This conversation goes deep.
We'll be talking about lifetransitions, trusting your gut,
building a business with soul,the power of saying yes to a
bigger vision.
If you've ever wondered what itreally takes to step into your
next chapter, this episode isyour permission slip.
(03:44):
Ladies, welcome to the show.
Thank you, michelle.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
We're so happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
All right, let's delve in.
I think where I'd love to startis actually a question that I
start with all my guests, andthat is what does it mean to you
to live your extraordinary life?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I have a sense at this point in life that I am
truly in alignment with what I'msupposed to be doing, what my
daily actions are and how theyrelate to what I am supposed to
be doing, and I've never felt itas strongly as I do right now.
It was something I pushed upagainst early in my career and
(04:25):
didn't really know what thatfeeling was.
I wasn't quite living up to mypotential or doing what was the
best thing for me to do.
And living up to that potential, living my authentically, what
I'm good at, what brings me joy,what puts joy out into the
world I think that's living myextraordinary life.
(04:47):
I'm right.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
what I'm good at, what brings me joy, what puts
joy out into the world?
I think that's living myextraordinary life.
I'm right where I'm supposed tobe.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
I love it.
Alison, you want to addanything to that?
Yeah, I do want to add a littlebit.
Joy is a big component of mebecause there are many jobs and
professions out there and I'vehad some that didn't bring me
joy.
So when just looking at thecareer that I wanted to have, I
wanted something that wasadditive to my life and fun and
(05:14):
additive to the lives of thepeople that I work with, and I
think that's probably good.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I think that point around joy Allison is so
important because so many of usand Carrie and I have had this
conversation before start outwith the premise that life is
hard and so if you pick the hardcareer, that's going to be more
rewarding on multiple fronts.
And this idea that you can picksomething that brings you joy,
you can choose to step into joyand have that be what leads, is
(05:44):
not usually what we're taught.
Certainly it's not what we weretaught.
I think it's something we'retrying to instill in our
children now, but it is somewhatnovel for women of a certain
age and I really appreciate youreminding us just that.
The essence of if you're nothaving fun doing it, you're
probably not going to be greatat it, or if you're really good
(06:05):
at it but you're not enjoying it, what is the point?
Right?
Yeah, absolutely All right.
So you both were verysuccessful before you got
together.
You both are attorneys bytraining, you're moms, and now
you're in this real estatejourney.
When did you first feel thisnudge, that, okay, we're ready
(06:25):
to explore something new.
Go down this path, worktogether.
Even when did that all comeabout and how did it all come
about?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Oh, it's a bit of a long story.
Carrie and I met about 10 yearsago and we were.
She had just moved into theneighborhood.
I had been in our neighborhoodfor a couple of years already.
Our children our oldest weregoing into kindergarten and we
met in our local play group andwe became best friends, as
pretty much everybody who meetsCarrie becomes her friend.
(06:57):
And I had been kind of ropedinto taking a board position on
our local PTC and Carrie seemedwilling, so I roped her in with
me and we became co-volunteerstogether that year and over the
next several years we workedtogether in volunteer roles very
often and so we knew that wewere very different people and
(07:20):
that we had very differentpersonalities and sets of
strengths and weaknesses, butthat those that our
personalities were verycomplementary and our skill set
was very complementary.
And then COVID hit and we, likeeverybody else, were in our
homes and a couple things weregoing on for me A, my kids were
(07:43):
getting a little bit older andso I was starting to face that I
have twins, so I have two thesame age.
I was starting to face thattransition of they're not going
to be here always.
What is my life going to looklike after they're gone, and I
think that is for many motherskind of a long process, you know
with there's some grieving init and just the questions that
(08:07):
we have to answer about our ownselves.
But I had been feeling verystuck professionally and wanted
to figure out what was the nextstep going to be?
Something that was beyond thescope of, you know, raising my
children and being in myhousehold, just something that
was for myself, as I kind oflook to A get out of my house
(08:27):
and do something that was joyful, and then to also think about,
you know, the future.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I love that I have a 18 year old that is graduating
high school this year, so theemptiness feelings are deep and
big, but probably not unlike you.
Right around middle school itstarted to really hit me hard,
like these years are flying andI'm really grateful to have that
sort of epiphany of what areyou building for you?
(08:56):
You've put all this time intoyour children, what are you
building for you.
So it resonates deeply.
All right, tell me how you guysdecide, of all the things you
could do, that real estate wasgoing to be it and that you're
going to do it together, thatyou weren't going on these
individual paths, that youdecided to partner.
Tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
So Allison roped me into our PTC board, but I roped
her into real estate so addingon the journey to getting here I
had.
I hit this point in my lifewhere I had so many things going
on that were growth directed.
So I was doing a lot.
I served on the school board,was elected there.
(09:37):
Being the board chair during apandemic on a school board was
not the most fun thing.
I was doing a lot of therapyand counseling.
My marriage was not thriving.
There were some health thingsgoing on with my parents.
It was just like everything washard but everything was
something I was learning from.
So it was this period of growthfor myself where I hit this
(10:00):
point and realized that I hadbeen living my life for other
people.
I had always done the thingthat I thought that somebody
wanted me to do, whether it wasgoing to law school because my
dad wanted me to, or being astay-at-home mom for the most
part because I felt like I wassupposed to do that for a while.
And I just hit this point wherea few personal things came
together and I was done and itwas around the time that my
(10:24):
marriage really hit its roughestpatch and out, like Allison
said she and I have done somereally hard things together and
we had also been talking aboutthe fact that, hey, why don't we
do something we get paid for,that brings us joy, that we can
continue to serve our communityand we can really kick ass at
like, what is it that we'regoing to have fun doing and that
(10:45):
we can make really big.
So then we started aspreadsheet which we look back
on occasionally because wedidn't know what the thing was.
We were confident that ourpartnership and the way our
brains work together.
One thing about ourrelationship is that it is
incredibly trusting andrespectful and challenging,
(11:05):
which it's like a securelyattached marriage should be,
which I actually think I learneda lot about interpersonal
relationships, even like,hopefully, a future spouse
relationship, with myrelationship with Allison,
because when you know thatsomebody sees you and respects
you, you can really challengeeach other in a healthy way and
(11:25):
it both grow from the process.
It might look awkward to somepeople because she and I get a
little feisty sometimes, butthat's just our process.
Anyway, I had somebody comeinto my life on another board I
was serving on.
I serve on.
The Oregon Museum of Science andIndustry board was set up with
this woman, yonette.
Fine, she's a realtor in thearea.
We didn't know each other atall and she was like, lady, what
(11:48):
do you do with your life?
And I'm like, you know, I don'tknow.
I do a lot of things, but I'mlike there's something I'm
supposed to do.
I don't know what it is.
And she looks me dead in theeyes and said you're supposed to
be a realtor or something likethat.
And I was like, really, that'swhat I'm thinking.
I've thought about it before.
I love you know, I've boughtand sold and been very involved
in many real estate transactionsof my own and I'm a take the
(12:12):
bull by the horns kind of personand did a couple off market
sales of my own house.
And so it was just thislightning moment where I was
stalking the Yonet.
I'm like, yeah, man, I'm goingto be a realtor.
And so in the car ride home,yonette and I had this amazing
conversation just talking aboutdreams and how to manifest what
you want and how to get it byjust dreaming it into an
(12:34):
existence.
She was talking aboutjournaling things and she was
like you're going to think I'mcrazy, but just listen to this
and do it.
I just be authentic to yourselfand what you're feeling.
Write down all your feelingsand follow it.
So I call Allison in the carride home and I'm like Allison,
dude, guess what?
We're going to be realtors.
And she was like we are and Isaid yeah, she's like okay.
(12:57):
And so it was November orDecember and we started studying
for our exam in January and wejust kind of took it off from
there.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Amazing.
So, Allison, that was, it wasjust okay, we're doing this.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Yeah, it was.
I mean, if you look back at ourother ideas, it was dog
boarding God, what else wasthere?
Realtor was our best idea byfar.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Funeral industry was a big one.
I'd had I think I'd been veryclosely involved in about five
funerals in the years leading upto this, and it's another
industry if you've been involvedin one that is very inefficient
and could be just so muchbetter.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Less cheery than real estate, I'd say the design
aspects are limited.
All right, let's talk about thefact that you are two very
different women, which adds to alot of, I think, the strength
of the partnership.
But how do you divide the rolesin a business partnership like
this?
What makes it work behind thescenes?
Tell me a little bit about thedynamic.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
So that has evolved over the last few years.
It wasn't something that wasclear cut from the beginning and
it's something that we're stilltweaking as we go.
I tend to take on more of theorganizational aspects,
process-based aspects of thebusiness, and Carrie does more
of the creative.
(14:20):
She does all of our socialmedia, et cetera.
That said, either of us can doanything.
It's just that those are theroles that we seem to be more
comfortable in, and then we eachshare the actual real estate
work.
So one of us will be theprimary listing agent on every
house.
However, we are both in theloop on every transaction all
(14:42):
the time.
I think there is something to besaid for having a partnership
where both people can do all thethings, because one of the
things that I loved the very,very most about our business is
that I can take a vacation, Ican take a day off and there's
(15:04):
somebody always to cover for me.
If somebody gets sick, it's nota catastrophe because there's
always one of us, and thathaving a partner I mean it is.
It's like Carrie said, it's alot like a marriage.
There are challenges in it, butI can't imagine doing it alone.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
All right.
So tell me a little bit aboutthe values or the vision that
you use as an anchor from thebeginning, that you believe,
with sort of non-negotiables andbuilding your brand.
What are the things that youwalked into this, knowing about
yourselves and how you wanted tobuild this business, that have
become your non-negotiables?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
highest level of integrity was so important to us
.
We will always put our clientsfirst.
We always wanted to do thingsthe right way.
(16:04):
We're rule followers mostly.
I mean everybody's got a littlewiggle room.
But being good people and beingsuper ethical in an industry
where there's a lot of buzzaround those topics was really
important to us.
And I love this about ourpartnership too is that if one
of us gets kind of out ofalignment on any value, the
other one is like so quick toremember, like no, that is not
who we are, we don't operatethis way.
(16:24):
And then also, we were deeplycommitted to our community.
We started as volunteers ondifferent boards and things and
as volunteers on differentboards and things, and nothing
brings me greater joy thanserving Portland through my
science museum board and mysmaller community and our school
community and our neighborhoodand continuing to find authentic
(16:48):
ways to partner with peoplethat we value and we can help
support through our business wasreally important to us.
And being the absolute best atwhat we do, we were committed to
doing this better than anyoneand we knew that that was going
to take cost up front and be aheavy lift to get going, because
before you get good atsomething, you have to just say
(17:11):
here is what I am doing, but youhaven't actually done it yet.
Right?
You're like this is what whiteglove service looks like, and
we're just kind of making thisup as we go.
But those were our values and Ithink it was really important
for us to spell that out at thebeginning, because it was fun
when we described what our leveland caliber of client care
looks like.
And after we had done a fewtransactions and we went into a
(17:34):
listing appointment andAllison's like wow, I'm like
talking the talk here, but we'veactually done it now, and so it
was like we spoke what wewanted value wise into existence
in our business and it's it'sreally important to know what
drives you.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I love this and we have a funny story that we'll
save for another day of how wemet.
But essentially, a friend ofours, a mutual friend, sent me
one of your listings and saidthis just seems like you.
And I saw the house and I waslike, oh my God, this is where I
need to live next.
So now I'm going around withthis photo on my vision board,
(18:09):
going don't sell that one yet,Wait for me.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
We'd love to sell it to you, Michelle.
Yeah, are you?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
moving Are.
Wait for me.
We'd love to sell it to you,michelle.
Yeah, are you moving?
Are you moving here?
Yeah, I'm moving to Riverwood.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
But things in perspective.
Reminding everyone, I live inNorthern Virginia, right outside
of Washington DC, the nation'scapital.
These ladies are living inDunthorpe, right outside of
downtown Portland, and it's abeautiful part of the country
and I had the opportunity to goand lead an entrepreneurial
retreat out there not too longago and I just fell in love with
(18:38):
it.
It's absolutely gorgeous.
So I understand why you guyslove it, and I didn't know
initially that you weren't fromthere originally, carrie.
You're actually from California, correct?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, I was born in California, in Central Valley,
allison's from Central Valley,the Bay Area, and Allison's from
Texas.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, it's a beautiful part of the country,
and so I had visions that itrained every single day.
And, of course, carrie nowjokes and says it's sunny for
the entire week and DC hasrained for the entire week ahead
.
Y'all just pretend to keep allof us away.
All right, let's talk a littlebit about your marketing,
because what really pulled me inwhen I saw that listing was how
(19:19):
you were doing your marketing,which I think is emotional, it's
creative, it's detail oriented,the music was very compelling,
it's a very sophisticated lookand feel and, frankly, it's so
such a departure from what yousee, typical real estate
advertising and marketing.
So I don't know who got theidea, but it was so on brand for
me that I was like, oh my God,I have to follow these ladies
(19:41):
and see what they're doing.
But what brought that about?
And was that just somethingthat you both, being much more
luxury oriented, said we'regoing to bring this into the
business field?
What just made you decide thatthat was the route to go?
I think it was.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Maybe Carrie has a different thought.
We both love houses and realestate in general, so before we
decided to go down this path, weboth looked at many listings
probably every house that cameup in our area.
We put eyes on it, at leastonline.
God, there's just so much roomfor improvement, right.
And so we went into thisthinking we want our listings to
(20:21):
look like they just came out ofArchitectural Digest, and
finding the vendors to make thathappen has been a challenge.
At times.
We have had some swings andmisses, but we have worked
really hard and are alwaysreassessing and evaluating.
We have worked very hard tofind the people that can give us
(20:42):
make what's in our headsactually materialize in our work
.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Tell us a little bit about the team, because I know
that you don't pull somethingoff like this without help and I
have a little bit of an inklingof all the different things in
the pipeline.
But give our listeners anunderstanding of what it takes
when you have a premier property, a luxury listing, to really
bring it to life for thepotential buyer.
(21:08):
What is it that you do and howdo you enlist the help of really
this extensive team that you'veidentified, that's sort of
available to you as you need,and how do you decide to bring
these folks together?
Tell us a little bit aboutwho's on that extensive team.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
It ties back to what is our goal, what is the end
product.
Back to the marketing point.
And a house is not a house.
I think about this sometimeswhen we're writing listing
descriptions.
You're interchanging the wordhouse from home.
They're different words and ahome is like one of your safest,
most emotionally connectiveplace.
(21:46):
You live your life with yourfamily and there is this
emotional connection that wereally want people to have to a
house.
That makes it feel like a home,and so we try to do that.
We build a story around eachhouse and property.
This is on the listing side.
We do both listing and helpbuyers.
You want the person, when theywalk in this house, to have an
(22:09):
emotional connection and a wowfeeling, and it takes a whole
lot to get to that point withmost houses.
So if you, michelle, I, walk inyour house, it's going to feel
like you and you will probablyhave some things you've put off
because nobody likes to do allthe minutia around their house.
You know garbage disposal,broken, that sort of stuff.
(22:31):
So, allison and I, when we walkin, we do this mostly on our
second, like after we've signeda listing agreement.
We look for the things that areyou may not notice, for example
, that your light bulbs are notall the same.
Kelvin and Allison gets realtired of me talking about
Kelvins but there are littlethings in your house that are
not.
(22:51):
They're changing the way youperceive it or a stranger would
perceive it that you can't quiteput your finger on.
But we've gotten pretty good atidentifying those things that
distract you from that fallingin love with the house feeling.
So we have a team of people Imean it's kind of like a three
ring circus at this point and wehave dozens and dozens of
(23:13):
people on our team that arecontractors.
We have a true generalcontractor and we have had him
remodel 3,000 square feet of ahouse once we can pull that off
in a couple of weeks and we aregood at finding inexpensive ways
to completely change the feelof a space and make it feel from
(23:33):
80s to now.
We do landscape.
We partner with one of the bestlandscape designers in Oregon,
I would say on the West Coastand he just has fun working with
us and while he absolutelyshould not be helping us with
our small projects because hedoes like billionaire winery,
huge estates and we're just herelike, hey, can you help us with
some pots or zhuzh things up,and we, instead of staging,
(23:58):
we've gotten creative.
Of when you're working with anultra luxury home that's already
been designed by a renownedinterior designer, you have to
figure out how to make thattranslate to real estate.
And so we found this amazingstylist who does major magazine
shoots and she happens to livelocally and travels for her
shoots.
And so Kira had never done realestate before.
(24:20):
We're like what would you thinkabout coming in and like moving
things around and doing whatyou do for magazines, but
helping us get that shoot inreal estate?
And she was like I've neverdone this before, but we'll try.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
So dozens and dozens of people.
Sometimes we've got 40 peopleon a job site at once, pulling
it all together, the surroundingareas and then swooping in.
It was pretty spectacular andyou don't see a lot of folks
doing that.
So it really adds to theambiance of understanding what
the potential of that.
I think of it as modernsanctuary.
Every time I see something thatyou guys put together, it's
(25:10):
like Erica is another modernsanctuary.
I love that.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
The other thing we've learned is that you have to we
pay for it.
I mean, you should have arealtor who is willing to put
some bucks on the table becauseit's expensive.
We hire the best videographer.
We'll hire the stylist.
I would say that we put a lotof our own capital on the line
to make things the very best andpulled off as they should be,
(25:36):
and we could be making moremoney.
But we also think that that'sour brand and it will pay off in
the long run.
This is why I'm not the numbersperson in our business.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
No, but I agree, I do agree, we do it better and you
do have to pay for that.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
So talk about maybe an obstacle or two that you
didn't envision coming down theroad with this business, and how
did you adapt or grow throughit?
Speaker 4 (26:02):
I think that if I had to do it over from the, or if I
got to do it over from the verybeginning, one of the things
that I would have sat down withCarrie and brainstormed was what
are our boundaries and how canwe communicate those to
everybody our clients, ourvendors, other brokers, people
(26:24):
on other sides of transactionsand we want to do everything for
everybody.
But there has to be space forus each day and we have to
maintain our mental health or wearen't good for anybody.
So at times maybe it has beenan obstacle, but maybe more of
like a growth opportunity andlearning experience over the
course of being a business owner.
But just making sure thatnothing is depleting my
(26:51):
emotional and mental resourcesand what is the best way to do
that and to meet everybody'sneeds, but while keeping an
actual focus on exercising,eating well, getting enough
sleep, having mindfulness,practice all of those things
that I want to do every day.
Maybe I don't exactly, but justkeeping space for myself and my
(27:13):
family, of course.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I love that and I can only imagine, having bought and
sold a few homes of my own, thestress that happens, not just
with all of the people that youhave helping you, but with
buyers and sellers, the emotionaround that transaction, and
you're absorbing that as theperson who is really at the
(27:35):
center of all of it.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Yeah, and Carrie and I are both more sensitive people
and when our clients getstressed which everybody does in
every real estate transactionthere comes a point where it
gets a little bit spicy.
And we have had to work and, Ithink, remind each other to
separate that from our ownemotions.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
One of the things we talk about and we say this all
the time and I think it's sotrue in life and it's one of the
ways that I think back on howtherapy and marriage counseling
and my experience on the schoolboard relates back is that you
have to know that when somebodyin front of you is having a
panic attack or they're angry, Ijust always remind myself it's
not about me and it is.
(28:21):
Everybody's dealing with stuff.
It's really interesting, itholds true a lot and we work
with a lot of friends or clientswho become friends and all just
as they're saying what theyneed to say and I'm listening,
I'm thinking back how I knowthis person has a baby at home
who's not sleeping.
Or if somebody texts firstthing in the morning with
(28:42):
something they're frustratedabout or anger, I always think
back to oh well, I wonder if thebaby wasn't sleeping last night
and I'm just trying to think ofwhat that thing is and not
taking offense to it, but beingempathetic to everybody's got
something and I am the face ofsomething.
That's really hard for them todo right now.
You know, I'm with them a lot.
It's inconvenient, but keepingthat perspective is important.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Oh, that's so good.
You just hit on something,allison, I want to go back to,
and that is about what is itthat keeps you grounded.
How is it about what is it thatkeeps you grounded?
How is it and what is it thatyou do on a regular basis that
becomes part of again what keepsyou centered in the middle of
what is a really chaoticbusiness at times?
I'm sure, and I think you know,we all sort of understand the
(29:29):
real estate market is cyclicaland when people buy I'm assuming
right now is a heavier timetypically right, spring time is
when a lot of people buy summerswhat right now is a heavier
time, typically right,springtime is where a lot of
people buy summers.
What is it that you arepracticing?
You mentioned a few thingsexercise.
I'd love to hear more aboutwhat it is that you all lean
into.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Oh man, this is my favorite topic.
I love this.
So this is something I alsowish I had done more of for the
last 20 years.
And it is being okay with notdoing everything, and so I have
gotten really disciplined, whichis a complete 180 for me this
year.
Like, I don't do my laundry, Idon't take out my dry cleaning,
(30:09):
I don't go pick up myprescriptions, I don't grocery
shop Anything that takes awayfrom the things that are most
important in my life that I canoutsource and is taking away
from either my kids, my businessor my volunteer work and, to
some extent, my friends.
It's not worth it.
And our business coach that wehired right when we started
(30:30):
which was a wonderful thing Isuggest to anybody he said that
you guys, you have to outsourcemore, and I'm a DIY watch too
much HGTV.
I can do anything and itdoesn't matter if you can.
It's not worth it if it'staking away from things that you
value more.
Oh, I love that.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Allison.
Anything else you want to add,I love that.
So, carrie, tell me what you'redoing to outsource all of this
stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
I don't know it's going to sound a little
embarrassing, but you've got toown it.
Like you know, I have a familywho helps keep my house clean.
I've had them for a long time,but I was spending half a day
the day before because I'm not atidy person Allison knows this
(31:24):
and I was like you know I needsomebody to actually help me
around the house on a dailybasis, and so now I have
Caroline, who is the mostwonderful person, who is like my
right hand that keeps my housein order, which also keeps my
brain in order, because I'm notthinking about having to do the
things, but also I'm notdistracted or stressed out about
the mess in the corner and thelaundry that hasn't been put
(31:45):
away.
But yeah, keeping your carclean.
Everybody likes a clean car.
It's not that expensive to havea detailer come and keep it
clean.
Also important when you'redriving people around Food
service delivery.
It's pretty easy now withDoorDash and all of the online
delivery things.
I don't go to Costco anymore.
I love going to Costco, but ittakes a long time and then
(32:06):
you've got to unpack all thisstuff.
I do Instagram.
There's a lot of things youdidn't really need.
That's.
The other thing is I think youend up saving money because I'm
not buying like whatever beautycream is on the end dial, you
know.
But if you there are so manythings like that, allison, what
else am I doing?
Self-care is huge.
I have a masseuse that comesonce every couple of weeks, and
having somebody that is going toshow up and do these things for
(32:29):
you, that you don't have tocall and book and just have
another task to get the thing tohappen, is amazing, and that
self-care that I need.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Yeah, another thing that you do that I'd also do, is
therapy, which I think isreally important.
We happen to see the sametherapist, but on different days
no-transcript but it's funnyand I would just like to add in
that exercise is reallyimportant for me and because if
I'm not exercising enough, I'mnot sleeping well and something
(33:01):
about being like mid-40s age.
It's like if I don't sleep I amworthless, and even worse than
worthless.
Sometimes you know like you'reso grumpy and it's so negative.
So doing what I need to do tojust kind of get that peace is
really important to me.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
I love that.
Yeah, we talk a lot about theimportance of just maintaining
your body's physical fitness,whether it's just going for a
walk, exercising, eating healthy, all of these things therapy.
They all add to your ability tothink clearly, function better,
and all of the work that we'redoing on one level or another
requires great executivefunction.
(33:37):
A lot of people don't realizethe ability to make a decision
is predicated on your ability torest and be able to be sharp
and to be able to see clearly,and if you are not sleeping or
moving enough, you're not.
None of those things arehappening.
So amen to that.
All right, what's something youwish someone would have told
you at the start of this journey?
(33:57):
Allison, you sort of talked alittle bit about it with
boundaries.
I think boundaries are a bigone for sure.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Boundaries.
I was going to say we havelearned that you do not have to
take every client and sometimesyou meet with people and we have
a process.
We think we know we have a lotof proof at this point that our
process works really well whenpeople don't value what our
company is, the values that wehave as business owners, and
(34:25):
doing things a certain way,which is the right way, not the
right way, but it is like theright way to sell a house
Everything from pricingstrategies and how we consider
what improvements need to bemade.
You can tell right off the batif you're going to be fighting
an uphill battle with somebody,and the amount of emotional
(34:45):
bandwidth it takes when you'renot gelling with a client isn't
worth it.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yeah, have you had to fire a client?
Speaker 4 (34:54):
We have not had to fire a client, but we have had a
client's contract expire anddecided that that was enough for
us.
Yeah, it felt good actually tomake that decision.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yeah and to walk away .
You did what you could.
All right For women.
You may be feeling stuck intheir career currently, but
craving something more.
What's your message to them?
Speaker 3 (35:22):
It's never too late.
I mean, it's kind of like theJulia Child story, right.
I mean, how old was she whenshe started chefing?
It was like in her 40s or 50sand you can do anything.
And I think at this age and youcan do anything.
And I think at this age we knowwho we are and people trust us
more than you would trust a22-year-old.
So there's some value in that.
(35:42):
Find something that brings youjoy and that you are good at,
because I've always heard thisthing.
It was like it doesn't matter.
The old thing of find a careerthat isn't something that you
really like doesn't matterbecause you have to be good at
it.
I think it is both.
And, as in, something that youreally like doesn't matter
because you have to be good atit, I think it is both.
And just don't be afraid tostart something totally
(36:03):
different.
And Allison and I have had she'sa very successful prosecutor
and had her own law practice andyou have to also be confident
in not caring what people thinkabout what your selection is.
If it brings you joy, go afterit.
You know, taking Allison'sfancy legal career and then
becoming a realtor, whicheverybody has feelings about
(36:24):
realtors, and whether we addvalue or not, and is it a
serious career or not.
And you just have to not carewhat people think, and that's
part of the joy about being 46.
One of the things I love themost.
I really don't care what otherpeople think.
It takes a long time to gethere, but just think about what
you want, what drives you, haveconfidence in yourself and go
for it.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
So even before I don't even know if I've ever
told Carrie this so even beforeshe and I started talking about
starting a business together, itwould have been actually I
remember exactly when it was.
It would have been just beforeCOVID hit.
So, like in the first months in2020, I was in my therapist's
office and I was a new client atthe time.
I still see him now and I wascrying because I felt stuck in
(37:07):
my life and I think I was having, after some digging down, a
crisis of confidence and maybeself-worth.
For many years I was anattorney and then I had my own
practice and I wound that downfor a few reasons, and so at
that time that I was crying inhis office, I was, we were
working just a little bit, but Iwasn't living up to my
(37:31):
professional potential and Iwasn't sure why.
I didn't feel like I could,which was such a departure for
me in my 20s, where I felt likeI could do a lot of things and
all of a sudden, I should havebeen super confident in my life,
but I just didn't feel goodenough.
And so I think, if you'refeeling stuck, I would say,
(37:53):
really dig into the why, becausewe all have, maybe, things that
we can point to like oh well,I'm stuck in this job because I
need to make this money, forwhatever reason.
But I do think that there can bebigger reasons and things that
we can address with justintrospection and really getting
down into the why.
Like, why do we need to feellike we are committed to a job
(38:17):
or a career that doesn't bringus joy?
Like to your earlier point, itdoesn't have to be so hard.
What are the things that we arekind of assuming as true inputs
that might not be true?
And what if we did decide to dosomething different?
And so actually I reallyappreciate Carrie for this,
because she is an eternaloptimist and idea haver, and so
(38:39):
I don't know if I would havegotten into real estate without
her.
But just being in that stuckposition, having somebody that
helped me to kind of thinkoutside the box and to say, yeah
, like maybe we can't do it, butmaybe we can, we should try,
and reframing my mindset reallyhelped me to get unstuck.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
That is really powerful, allison, thank you for
sharing that.
I think when people understand,particularly in this
entrepreneurial journey, andyou've done something else, and
people are going to look at thetwo of you and say, oh my God,
they're so uber successful,these are women that are very
highly educated.
They figured out what theywanted To be able to like, break
(39:20):
it down and say not every dayof my life has felt like certain
.
There are moments where I gotstuck too.
It's just so powerful and atumbling, so thank you for
sharing that.
I want to talk a little bitabout the unexpected gifts,
rewards, things that you didn'texpect on this journey, moments
(39:41):
of surprise that you didn'tanticipate.
Obviously, I think one of thethings that I and I don't know
you as well, allison, but one ofthe things I get to observe and
carry as a new friend is justthis space to envision what's
possible, which is really niceto witness.
I would love to hear from bothof you, though, over the last
(40:02):
few years, what are some ofthose unexpected gifts that have
arisen for you that maybe youdidn't anticipate were even
going to come at this point inlife.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
Well, you, for example, it's like real estate
brought us together.
Well, you, for example, it'slike real estate brought us
together.
We're sitting here talkingbecause of my listing and our
mutual friend.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
And our love of houses and all things luxury.
Let's just be clear.
I was like I think, and one ofmy skill sets is I really, truly
love people.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Allison knows this.
My friends always tell me Ilike people a little too much
and give people too much benefitof the doubt sometimes.
But I do.
I like seeing the positive ineveryone and everything.
I think you can choose to seethe positive and try to
(40:53):
understand why something hashappened or why something is
going on in your life, and ifyou can think about the what am
I learning from this, it'll leadto something else If you take
that minute to think about okay,well, this isn't ideal, but I'm
learning from it.
But kind of following theselittle breadcrumbs of life that
I don't know come your way andbuilding upon them.
(41:13):
For example, I found this pieceof furniture.
Alison's heard this story amillion times on Facebook
Marketplace that I loved and Iwent and met this woman in
Northeast Portland and boughtthis credenza from her and we
had a lovely chat in herbasement and we, let's see, a
month later we sold her house.
She's a very talented interiordesigner.
(41:34):
We ended up building arelationship where she helps our
clients envision what'spossible in houses before they
buy them, which is great,because you know, I'm not a
designer.
I can say, hey, if you paintthat blue wall over there, white
, you're going to like it more,but I'm not seeing that we're to
move the walls and that sort ofstuff.
But Sarah will meet with ourclients and do that sort of work
(41:57):
and then how each of theserelationships that we have and
things that aren't obvious andhow they're going to benefit you
in your business.
But if you're, if you work hardand you're nice to people,
those connections that buildupon each other and they lead to
the magic moments.
And it's brought me so much joyseeing the positive things
(42:17):
build upon each other and cometogether and benefit our clients
, our vendors, the team we workwith.
It is awesome and I didn't haveany idea how much joy that
would bring me.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
I love that.
Yeah, People don't know Carrie.
She is a people person.
No one will ever deny that atmeeting her instantaneously.
All right, well, let's talkabout the flip side of that.
So the unexpected rewards ofthis what were some of the
avoidable or maybe unavoidablepitfalls and how did you learn
from them?
Speaker 4 (42:53):
I think one of the biggest pitfalls I think that I
can think of right now is whichCarrie hit on a little bit
earlier is not having enoughhelp in the beginning because we
were afraid to spend the moneyto get that help conservative
with finances, and that wasn't agreat idea.
(43:15):
It was mentally exhausting andI think that in all cases our
business would have been betterhad we hired an assistant, hired
a good accounting firm, hired abusiness coach, hired all the
people that we need to keep thewheels turning and not worried
as much about the money to keepthe lights on, because at the
(43:36):
end of the day, we can do abetter job with the things that
we do if we have that base ofsupport.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Another thing that has been challenging is drawing
the boundaries in our personallives.
For me, it's friends, as youmentioned, michelle.
I love people.
I love saying yes to people.
I will always tell people thatI'm going to this event or I'm
going to do the thing, and Ialways have the intention to do
it.
And then life piles up and Idon't feel good when I cancel
(44:06):
things, and it's still somethingI'm working on is saying no to
things I really want to dobecause I have to, things I
really want to do because I haveto, and it's it doesn't leave
me feeling my best to say nodown the road after committing
to something, and it's hard.
We have limited time.
There's only so much bandwidthwe have to give, and it's been
(44:28):
challenging to balance that.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
You know I appreciate you saying that like my former
life was, you know, as anexecutive and a public relations
firm on a global basis for 20some odd years and I was always
traveling and I got invited to alot of things.
You know, when you're in thatbusiness it's inevitable.
You're just always on andalways going.
And people didn't reallyunderstand that after being on
(44:51):
the road and being with clientsand being in front and
presenting all day and being onmy feet and talking in front of
people, that when I got home Iactually wanted to turn it off
and I didn't want to go to thenext party all the time.
It just seemed that was part ofmy personality.
And it's been an interestingjourney.
Now where people are like yousay no.
(45:12):
Often I was like, yeah, I'vegotten very good at it because I
recognize that my time isfinite.
In a way, I didn't even havethe ability to do when I was
running 24-7, 150 miles an hour.
Now that I've taken a step backand have a much more
intentional business set up, itsometimes is heartbreaking
(45:33):
because you're saying no tothings that you actually might
want to do, but you're like Ican't be in all places and I
know right now I need toconserve some of that energy for
the next thing.
So I appreciate that it's hard,but then you know when you show
up and when you're presentyou're giving all and you're
pouring in to everyone.
That's there.
So I think people will forgiveyou.
(45:54):
Let's talk about the legacyyou're building.
I love your brand.
I love everything you stand for.
I love all the work that you'repouring into the real estate
market in Portland and beyond.
But talk about the biggerpicture.
You know, not just as realtors,but as women, as mothers of
boys and girls and communityleaders as mothers of boys and
(46:17):
girls and community leaders, Iknow you love your town.
I know you guys have given alot.
That's, I think, not a givenfor everybody.
Not everybody has that spiritand heart of being of community.
What do you think and have yougiven any?
Speaker 3 (46:36):
thought to the bigger legacy that you are creating.
Part of the answer is that wedon't know yet.
We're kind of at a growth phasein our on the business side
where we want to do somethingreally big and something really
different and we want to make alasting change in our industry,
because there are so manyinefficiencies and ways, things
that could be done better.
(46:57):
It feels a lot like we're stillplugging along in AOL mode and
could be so much more efficient.
We haven't figured out whatthat big thing is, but stay
tuned because we're constantlytrying to figure that out and we
hope we leave some kind oflegacy in our industry and our
focus and dedication and genuinecare for our community.
(47:18):
I think as business owners, isreally important.
We watch a lot of people in ourindustry focus more on the
bottom line and less on how youget there, and we're literally
giving people houses in acommunity and if they value
where they live, they're happierand they're moving here,
oftentimes not knowing how theycan get plugged in.
(47:41):
There are just so many naturalconnections between giving back
and community and home, and wewill always work towards
bettering our communities.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
I love that.
All right, what are you mostexcited about right now?
I know there are a lot ofthings that you're working on,
and then I know you're sort ofat that inflection point.
You just hinted to that, carrie, but what do you think is next?
What's the next level forSpurlock and Williams?
I'm excited about this onebecause I have so many ideas for
(48:15):
you.
I can't wait to be out therebrainstorming with you.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
I think we have a fledgling idea right now that
involves getting a group ofreally awesome, primarily women
but it doesn't have to only bewomen brokers together and maybe
setting up some kind ofcollective or collaboration and
just doing our business a littlebit better.
(48:40):
I think the servants level andthe product that we turn out
will stay the same, althoughthat's always on an upward
trajectory.
I hope that we're alwaysimproving our process, but doing
our business in a way that isbetter for us personally, and
collaborating and drawinginspiration from other people.
I think that's what's ourimmediate next.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
I've loved all of this conversation.
I really appreciate both of youjust coming on and sharing this
journey.
It is really inspiring whatyou've been able to do in just a
few years' time.
What other people have takenreally lifetimes to get to,
you've done in a very shortamount of time and I think that
really speaks to both of you asindividuals, but also to the
(49:25):
specialness of your partnership.
That can't really be overstatedhere.
So thank you for coming on, forsharing journey, for inspiring
all of us to really go out andlive our extraordinary lives and
take that chance and understandwhat it's taken for you to go
on this journey together.
Thank you so much, michelle.
(49:47):
All right, until next time,everyone, go and live your
extraordinary life.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
Thank you for listening to today's episode.
If you enjoyed this podcastepisode, please take a moment to
rate and review.
If you have recommendations forfuture topics, please reach out
to me atmichelleriosofficialcom.
Lastly, please considersupporting this podcast by
(50:18):
sharing it.
Together, we can reach, inspireand positively impact more
people.
Thank you.
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