March 14, 2024 • 31 mins
#050 Embarking on a career change is not for the faint of heart, and that's exactly why our guest for today is Lindsay Walston, whose leap from physical therapy to real estate is nothing short of inspiring. With the heart of a caretaker and the mind of a savvy investor, Lindsay shares her journey to career happiness.
In this episode, we will talk about the 'sunk cost fallacy' and the courage it takes to align passion with profession. For anyone wrestling with the desire for change, this dialogue serves as both a mirror and a map—reflecting your potential anxieties and giving you a new perspective.
We will also talk about the real estate business, and Lindsay will share with us the details for first-time homebuyers and new agents. Our discussion offers valuable advice on navigating the agent vetting process, understanding the bond between buyers and agents, and the importance of preparing yourself before entering a new field. For those considering a pivot in their careers, Lindsay's narrative provides both inspiration and a roadmap to success in the world of real estate.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:01):
Welcome to the Rehab Rebels podcast.
Are you a rehab professionalready to transition to an
alternative career?
Hear inspiring stories fromothers just like you and learn
the best ways to bridge yourcareer gap.
This podcast has you covered.
Now here's your host, doctor ofphysical therapy and podcaster,
tanner Welsh.
Tanner Welsch (00:21):
Lindsay, I'm really excited to have you on
the show and talk to you aboutyour journey and your story and
just hear about you and yourtransitions and how you made it
all possible.
So what I'll have you do isjust introduce yourself, what
you're doing now, maybe whereyou're living, where you went to
PT school, and then we'll fillin the gaps from there.
Lindsay Walston (00:44):
Well, I'm Lindsay Welfson.
I am based out of Atlanta,Georgia, and I am now fully
transitioned into real estateand have been for just over
three years now.
Originally, I went to physicaltherapy school at Emory and
graduated in 2014 almost 10years ago, did a neurologic
residency at Emory right afterand then didn't orthopedic
(01:04):
residency about two years afterthat, so I was working in
outpatient private practice whenI made that transition.
Tanner Welsch (01:13):
You held some director roles.
Lindsay Walston (01:15):
Yeah, I built a residency program a neurologic
residency program at theorthopedic practice I was
working, so I managed that, forwe had just gotten accreditation
and it happened in the midst ofall the COVID stuff, so it's
really interesting.
So did that ran in acoordinator role, so a lot of my
job at that outpatient practicewas geared towards improving
access to care for people withneurologic injuries, just
(01:38):
because traditionally it's veryuniversity hospital-based, which
can be really limiting forthose people.
So I was running we're calledimbalance centers, so that was
geared towards integratingpeople with neurologic
conditions into traditionallyoutpatient orthopedic practices.
Tanner Welsch (01:53):
Very cool.
Let's start at the beginning.
You graduated from PT school.
What was your first role afterthat?
And then how did you go fromthere leading up into some of
these director roles, and Ithink you're even the APT of the
year or something.
Lindsay Walston (02:09):
Yeah, a resident of the year.
Yeah.
So I graduated in 2014, wentstraight into the Emory
Neurologic Residency Program,which was just being developed
and going through accreditationat that time, and I ended up
staying at Emory for a yearafterwards, working day program
and outpatient neurologic rehab,and I, through my husband's
(02:32):
company who's not my husband'scompany, the company my husband
worked for, who's also aphysical therapist I got the
opportunity to they called it aneuro program coordinator role.
So through my time at Emory, Igot a taste of some of the
barriers to care a lot ofpatients had when trying to seek
rehab for neurological injuries, and so a lot of my patients
(02:55):
were driving hours and theburden on the caregivers and it
was a really big problem withaccess to care, and so that is
what led me to shift into a moreoutpatient orthopedic type
style clinic If you can likevisualize what that looks like
and then, through thattransition, as a physical
(03:15):
therapist, I felt ill equippedto deal with a lot of the things
that come with more chronicneurologic injuries that tend to
be more orthopedic in nature.
So tons of chronic pain, tonsof orthopedic injuries, maybe
from lack of use or whole gambitof things that was going on and
a lot of my focus and trainingto that point had been
(03:36):
addressing that neurologicalinjury, whereas it might have
been the pain that was limitingthem.
So about two years after that Idecided to pursue an orthopedic
residency, graduated from thereand then was working there
building the balance in ourspare a couple years and then
decided to take that model ofbuilding orthopedic and
neurologic rehab into creatingan outpatient neurologic
(04:00):
residency program.
So we went through theaccreditation process, got
accredited and we got throughone class and that's when I left
the ball gets dropped.
So you know, in the back ofyour mind maybe something isn't
where you ultimately want to be.
But I convinced myself, once Iaccomplish this next goal, once
(04:20):
I get to shift practicelocations, get more information,
learn more, teach more, build,do everything that I
theoretically wanted to do, Iwould be not necessarily happy,
but fulfilled in my career.
It's not that I wasn't happy,it's just when you go to work
and you spend so much time atwork, you want to feel good
about it.
You want to enjoy going to workevery day, ironically, through
(04:44):
accomplishing all of thesethings and checking all those
boxes that I had in my head.
If this, then I'll be fulfilleddoing what I'm doing.
We got to the end of that and wegraduated our first class and I
was just this is it?
I don't know where to go fromhere.
My husband and I sat down andmade a exit strategy, but it was
all a couple of years down theline.
We're going to keep doing thisfor a while, and then COVID
happened.
(05:04):
I was furloughed and I had alot more time on my hands.
This could be an opportunitywhere I can pursue this at the
same time I did.
Then, as I got going, Irealized this is legit and
really what I want to do.
Tanner Welsch (05:20):
What are you pursuing at this time?
You're talking about, I think,working with your husband and
pursuing something on the side.
Lindsay Walston (05:25):
Switching over to real estate.
Luckily, with COVID, everythingtransferred online for the
training to get my real estatelicense.
Previously, most of the timeyou had to go nine to five, sit
in a class and get the amount ofhours that you needed to be
able to sit for the real estateexam.
But there was a real big pusharound that time because
(05:46):
in-person events just weren'tfeasible to shift everything
online.
It was a totally self-pacedcourse.
I was doing that on top of workFive AM after the kids go to
bed.
Where I could fit it in, wewould do it.
It just moved a lot faster thanI think anyone anticipated.
We ended up making that fulljump.
I guess it was February of 2021, is when.
(06:09):
I stepped away completely fromphysical therapy.
Tanner Welsch (06:15):
Time out.
Let's back up a little bit.
I love this story, by the way,because I think it applies to
many people in the profession,especially back when you were
talking about okay, if I reachthis point, I'll be completely
happy and satisfied.
Then you did it a few timesbefore you mentioned.
You got to this point where itwas just I've done everything.
(06:35):
I'm still feeling these things,something needs to change.
Can we dive deeper into that?
What was that like?
How did you know for sure thatPT was not the field for you and
you needed to make a change?
It sounded like this was thestraw that broke the camel's
back, so to speak, because youtried this a few times.
This was the last time that youwere going to try it and then,
(06:58):
if not, you were going to leave.
Can you just walk us through alittle bit more about that and
what that was like?
Lindsay Walston (07:04):
I remember the first time I was second-guessing
myself about the physicaltherapy profession, career
Choice.
It was right before Itransitioned and it pushed my
transition out of the hospitalsetting because I just was not
necessarily burnout, but it's alittle bit of fatigue from
seeing people struggle and soheavy burden that's put on a lot
of our patients and it's justyou just internalize that I'm
(07:25):
going to fix this problem, I'mgoing to do what I can do to
make this better, and then maybeI will feel this way.
And so that was the initialpush.
And then I kept convincingmyself that I've already
invested so much time and moneyinto this.
I went to Emory I am, and myhusband did too, so we are deep
in student loan debt.
Then few residency programsdeveloped into things that I did
(07:47):
.
It's hard to get past that sunkcost thought process because
I've already worked so hard,I've already done so much.
Surely if I just do a littlebit more or shift this thing,
then it'll be better and I won'thave to make this crazy radical
left field career change thatseemingly probably to everyone
else came out of completely leftfield.
(08:08):
But at the end of the day, aswe move through each of those
landmark moments and nothingchanges.
You're just convincing yourselfthat, oh, it's not this, it'll
be this.
The person that you need tolook out for is.
You have to listen to yourself.
It doesn't matter on thesurface if you look wildly
successful in your careerTheoretically, when you work
(08:31):
through what you want yourcareer to look like, if you
check every box and you're stillnot where you know in the back
of your mind, you know thatyou're not where you want to be.
At some point you've got to stepaway.
You can't keep doing the samething and expect different
results.
That last push where Iliterally checked every box,
that I ever thought thatresidency program, graduating
that residency class, gettingaccredited, doing all that stuff
, if not now, it's never goingto be this way.
(08:53):
And so that was the final push.
But there's a lot of pointswhere you convince yourself you
just push the landmark down theroad a little bit.
We're almost there, it'll befine.
I've already invested a lot oftime and resources here and I
got to see this through.
So where your breaking point isessentially and how far you're
willing to push it, because Forsure.
Tanner Welsch (09:13):
I love those because it's so real and I
completely agree with everythingthat you said and it's.
I think there's two big thingsfor Sure and you talk about the
sunken cost policy would justcome up before and Another thing
is is we're really comfortableand secure in the jobs that we
have, even if we may notnecessarily like it or really
Believe in the back of our mindsthat this is something that's
(09:34):
good for me, but I think it's.
It's that security, thatfamiliarity, and Trying to
imagine shifting into somethingcompletely different is a huge,
unpredictable, uncertain task,but I think it can be done.
I mean, I know it can be done.
Everybody on the shows talkedabout it and they talked about
their journey and they've madeit happen and it's possible.
(09:55):
You know, and that's a big partof having these conversations
and getting this stuff out thereis to show that it is possible
and people can do it.
And Even if there is a sunkencost fallacy, well, would you
rather stay in the career thatyou're in now and not be happy
for the rest of your life, orShift and take maybe a year or
two Maybe depends on what youwant to do to get into a career
(10:18):
that you like and hey, the restis history.
And something that you pointout which is really important as
well is, if you're notSatisfied with your primary job
or there's that thing in theback of your mind that's just
this isn't right for you, atsome point along the line it's
gonna come out in other aspectsof your life, and that's
something you really pointed out.
That's very true.
(10:38):
So I'm glad we're having allthese conversations and talking
about all this.
I love it.
Lindsay Walston (10:43):
I mean I'm not a big finder passion type thing,
but you should enjoy what youdo on a daily basis.
I don't think that you have tolove it.
There's gonna be pros and consto any job.
You're not gonna love every dayof any job that you have but on
the whole, you doing somethingyou enjoy, doing something that
you want to continue to learnmore about and you would like to
invest time into Grow yourexpertise is so critical.
(11:04):
We see the burnout rates inhealthcare specifically that are
just through the roof and it'sa lot of fatigue from everything
that's been going on from ahealthcare perspective.
And then just all the strugglesthat the physical therapy
profession as a whole is goingthrough right now.
But the thing is from a sunkcost perspective but never gets
any easier.
You keep loading on the timeand investment so at some point
(11:25):
it becomes harder and harder towalk away, I think because you
keep sinking more and moreresources or time or whatever
into it.
So I mean it is just taking theleap and plan the best you can.
Plan for the worst, hope forthe best.
Tanner Welsch (11:37):
Yeah, I completely agree out of
everything.
When you were at that pointwhere you knew you wanted to
change, I think you guys startedhaving a plan for a general
direction that you were gonnachange, and then you're gonna
plan all out and then code, Ithink, fast-tracked all that.
Did you try other things, orwere you testing out different
other career options orpositions, or was it just you
knew for sure that you wanted todo something in real estate?
(11:59):
And here's the back storybehind it?
Can you walk us through that?
Lindsay Walston (12:03):
I knew.
I knew for sure I wanted to doreal estate.
That was something that I hadhad that in the back of my mind
since we bought our first home.
That was the initial push.
I think that I could do thisand I could do it better than
our personal experience Becausewe had our first time home
buying experience.
It was one of those things thatthere can be a negative
perception from the real estatefield.
(12:23):
What do you need a real estateagent for?
We were doing everything new.
This was our first time doingeverything you're investing.
I mean it was not a lot ofmoney, probably to somebody that
sell a luxury real estate, butit was $250,000 at the time.
How often do you make a quarterof a million dollar investment
and they're just sign here, goodluck.
I mean it was no guidance, noeducation, no training, no
(12:44):
nothing.
And it was such a stressfulprocess that the day before
closing I wanted to back out ofbuying this house and that was
my first experience with realestate.
This is what most people'slargest investment is is their
home, and there's a lot ofbarriers Just to getting into a
home specifically for first-timehome buyers, for a lot of
(13:05):
reasons.
People need someone To guidethem through the process, to
educate and teach and train andjust reassure and walk them
through the process thatgenuinely cares about them.
And so that was my initialthought and then also, my tastes
always exceed my budget and sowe Bought this fixer upper
(13:27):
because that's what we couldafford.
We both went to Emory.
We had a whole bunch to getloan so we weren't buying this
night's house, we bought thisnasty Smell like cat urine.
It was straight out of it.
In 1982 we started fixing it up, doing a lot of work to it, and
then we would sell it.
And so we, every two years wewould buy a house, live in it,
checks it up, sell it.
And so that was a secondaryexperience to real estate, while
(13:51):
all the physical therapy stuffwas going on, and it allowed us
to go from this dinky, nasty$250,000 home to one now that
we're in a seven figure home.
And it wasn't because we hadsuch a huge increase in salaries
, because we made goodinvestments and Bought and sold
and fixed up over time.
(14:11):
So I think being able to guidesomebody that wants to do that
through that process and knowthat it's possible, you don't
have to have millions of dollarsto be able to get into a home.
There's ways we can do it.
I can teach people how to Getto their goal wherever they're
starting places for sure.
Tanner Welsch (14:28):
I'd like to talk to you about two different sides
of the home business I'mcurious about, you know, the
side where you are now as arealtor, and then also I think
we'll save this question forlater what are some things to
look out for as a first-timehome buyer and I don't see any
better person to ask than youand I have never bought a home,
so I am curious about this aswell.
(14:50):
But let's start with the careerside, and you have to take this
Licensing exam.
What are some things after that?
And let's say there's somepeople interested in maybe doing
what you've done.
Can you tell them maybe some ofthe steps, some of the
processes and the reality ofwhat it is that they're getting
into?
Lindsay Walston (15:08):
The barrier to entry for real estate is pretty
low, which is an issue, but soyou really only have to take two
week eight hour nine hourcourse, five days a week.
You have to get a certainnumber of hours to be able to
sit for an exam and the exam isvery much like the PT board exam
.
It was a lot of a rotememorization of things that you
probably won't actually ever use.
(15:28):
It's a multiple-tooth test.
I can only spit out so manytimes how many square feet or in
an acre, so a lot of it isstudying to take the test.
You get your past your exam.
That's the initial barrier andThen you have your license.
You go put your license with abroker.
Tanner Welsch (15:44):
What's a broker and how do they fit into this if
you can give us a crash coursehere?
Lindsay Walston (15:50):
So, basically, you sit for your exam.
You have to get a certainnumber of hours in training, sit
for your exam, pass your board,your license, and you become a
real estate salesperson.
In PTE terms it's being a PTA.
You are able to make decisions,but you have somebody over,
with a supervisor that you go toif you have questions or
(16:14):
somebody that's over you andmaking sure that everything is
where it should be.
You function autonomously,which is really nice, but you
are a part of a brokerage oressentially a real estate
company, and then there'soptions to take advanced
training to become a broker, ifthat's what you choose to do,
and then you can act fullyindependently.
You can open your own brokerage.
(16:35):
You can do a lot more thingswithout that direct supervision,
but as a salesperson which iswhat my license is I can go meet
with clients, write offers, doall the list houses, do all that
stuff with the license that Ihave.
But there's a tier above thatas well.
Tanner Welsch (16:51):
Okay.
So if I'm understanding thisright, if you have the license
to sell, you need to partnerwith a broker in order to
basically complete all of theservices from A to Z, right,
okay?
And if you want to do your ownthing, you have to go and finish
the brokerage, licensing andstuff.
How do you know who to partnerwith or what brokerage to go
(17:14):
with?
How do you manage all that?
Lindsay Walston (17:17):
You interview just like you would for any
other job.
I mean a lot of it depends onwhat your goals are.
My focus was more on the luxuryreal estate companies and
brands not necessarily because Iexclusively sell luxury real
estate, but the bar is so highwith groups like that.
You want to surround yourselfwith the people that have been
(17:38):
doing this for a really longtime, that are wildly successful
.
You want to find somebody thatcan mentor you and you can learn
from, and you surround yourselfwith people that are very
successful and also very seriousabout their job.
There's a lot of people that doit part-time.
There's a lot of people thatmaybe do it on the side that are
still working.
I wanted to get into a groupthat I knew was going to have
(17:59):
the highest quality of training.
There's a lot of differentoptions, so it just depends on
what you're looking for as areal estate agent.
That was my specific desire,but a lot of the companies have
different projects.
Tanner Welsch (18:13):
Sounds good.
When somebody's starting outwith this, do they have a lot of
structure guidance, somebodyover them to tell them what to
do?
Lindsay Walston (18:21):
Nope, you have to create your structure.
That's the other thing.
When you're in a salary job, alot of people have some autonomy
.
You might have a little bit ofcontrol of your schedule, but
you have general setexpectations about what your
hours are, how much money you'regoing to make, Just following
up to make sure you did what yousaid you were going to do or
what you're supposed to be doingIn an independent contractor
(18:42):
world which is how real estateagents function is still on you,
and you can createaccountability through
mentorship and through yourbroker, potentially, but
otherwise your day-to-dayschedule, how you advance, how
you train yourself, how youbuild your career, is very much
on you.
It can be difficult to go froma hyper-structure environment to
(19:04):
something where it's just Idon't know figured out.
There's not necessarily a tonof built-in guidance.
You have to create it foryourself through your
environment and through your ownwillingness to adhere to a
schedule.
Tanner Welsch (19:17):
That sounds like a pretty big jump and a
challenge for sure that peoplewould have to overcome.
How did you go about overcomingthis?
What are some things thatreally helped you get through
this transition?
Lindsay Walston (19:27):
I think one of the big why's other than the one
I shared of pursuing a careerin real estate is the autonomy
I'm honestly really seeking,that I'm a very structured
person.
Baseline that's how I functionfor the most part.
Having a career like that itwas something that I liked to be
able to do because it gave methe freedom to create my own
schedule, build-in clientdatabase, do all that stuff.
(19:51):
But you have to be veryintentional about how you do it,
because if you decide you wantto do something else or skip
what you told yourself you weregoing to do, there's nobody
falling behind you to make sureyou did it.
There's no accountability builtin.
You have to create your own.
Tanner Welsch (20:05):
For sure Makes sense.
Just curious, was there amentor that you found, or a
coach, or maybe through yourbrokerage or some sort of groups
online that really helped youget all this together and get
more of a structure?
Lindsay Walston (20:17):
So it's funny.
She knows that I tell the storybecause she tells it too.
My patient was actually theperson that I called.
I was a former patient that Iwas working with when I was in
clinical care, who I knew was inreal estate, and you know, you
spend so much time with yourpatient, so you just get talking
and you build a relationship,and so she was the first person
that I called as, hey, I'msitting for my real estate
(20:37):
license, what do I do?
And so she helped me set upinterviews with the company that
she worked for and helped guideme through the process, and she
helped pave the way to get mewhere I wanted to go.
We all have those connections,so it's just being able to tap
into them.
Tanner Welsch (20:53):
What is your day-to-day life like, or your
week, your structures?
You've been talking about a lotof autonomy, so can you share
with us what that's like?
Lindsay Walston (21:01):
Sure, it's a little bit all over the place.
Real estate, theoretically, isa super flexible job, except for
the fact that you're workingaround other people's schedules.
So I work a lot of nights andweekends, which can bleed over
into everything else, and so myThursday through Sunday tends to
be my busiest time.
I have to be very intentionalabout building in a break into
(21:25):
what used to be my traditionalwork week.
I'm an early morning person, soI usually get up early, get
what I need to get donepersonally done, and then sit
down and do some admin work andthen my afternoons, evenings,
showings and interacting withclients and being out and moving
in the community.
It's the polar opposite of atraditional clinical role.
(21:45):
The bulk of your work is nineto five, with some variation in
that, but it's a ton of nightsand weekends.
Tanner Welsch (21:52):
Let's go back over to the customer, the buying
, purchasing, a home side ofthings.
What are some things that yousee that's pretty common for
first-time buyers that would begood to share with those that
are interested in buying a firsthome.
That would be good to know whatthey're getting into, or ahead
of time.
Lindsay Walston (22:08):
I think if you are thinking about buying a home
in the next six months to ayear, it's good to start a
little bit earlier than youthink you need to.
A lot of times people come tome and they're I'm ready to buy
tomorrow.
That's fine, but there's a lotof background work that can make
the process a lot smoother forpeople.
That doesn't usually getconsidered Because you think
(22:28):
about I'm going to go shoppingfor a house, I'm going to put an
offer in and then I'm going tomove in, and there's a buildup
time period to that to make sureeverything tracks smoothly.
Being able to get everything inline, make sure your budget is
what you think it is.
Talking to people interviewingdifferent agents, different
lenders.
There's a lot of legwork thatis required before you actually
(22:50):
get to the part of where you'rewalking through doors and trying
to pick a house.
I think the most stressfulthing about the process can be
the sprint that's required ifyou haven't done that initial
legwork.
So I usually recommend peoplestart interacting and engaging
six months to a year before theyactually think that they're
(23:11):
going to buy a house, because itgives you time, it gives you
the ability to do research, itallows you to really sit down
and think about what you'relooking for and what your
priorities are.
Which really cuts down on thatbuyers, or more of having to
make a rash decision?
Give yourself time more timethan you think you need to ease
into the home buying process soyou know you have the best real
(23:34):
estate agent, you have the bestlender, you're getting the best
rate, you're choosing the areathat fits you the best, instead
of just jumping in with bothfeet and just running.
That's where I see a lot moreof their regret is people that
just go for it.
That, and knowing that you havea choice, you should interview
multiple real estate agents.
You should interview multiplelenders.
(23:55):
You want to be sure that youlike the people that you're
working with, because we will bespending a lot of time together
Making sure that you genuinelyfeel the people that you are
working with are on your teamand not there to just push you
down the road as fast as theycan so they can catch out and
move on to the next one.
Tanner Welsch (24:15):
For sure.
Does a lot of the legwork haveto be done by the home buyer and
it's the realtor's job to makesure that this checklist is done
by the buyer, or what is thatrelationship like?
Does the realtor do some of thelegwork too, or Everybody works
differently.
Lindsay Walston (24:31):
There's some buyers that want they want to be
a little bit more hands off andthey just want to know where to
go, what to do to setthemselves up for the process.
And there's other people thatwant to be more involved and to
make every decision.
So it just depends on theperson.
To be honest, it's in the bestenvironment.
It's typically a little bit ofback and forth dynamic.
I can give suggestions, butit's good to talk to your
(24:53):
friends, talk to your familymembers, get your own
recommendations too, so that youfeel you've got a wide scope of
opinions to move forward withthe best.
To me, my job is to helpfacilitate that and help guide
through each individual step sothat it's a nice smooth process.
So just making sure we're notskipping steps, making sure
everyone is giving what theyneed, guiding them through that
(25:15):
process so that it's asenjoyable as spending that much
money can be.
Tanner Welsch (25:19):
Sounds good.
What have you realized fromthis journey you know, from
graduating PT school to gettingto where you are now Life
awareness.
Maybe have you gained, or whathave you realized from all this
that you maybe didn't knowbefore?
Lindsay Walston (25:32):
My biggest takeaway point from this whole
experience was that what mattersmost is you and those people
that are immediately close.
I had a lot of opinions aboutwhat I was doing and why.
There are a lot of people thatwere thrown off and had thought
but at the end of the day, whocares what they think?
I think it's my biggest take onpoint.
People can have opinions andnot understand why you're doing
(25:54):
what you're doing, but at theend of the day, you're the one
that has to live the life thatyou're living.
And if you're generally nothappy doing something, bob over
there who thinks you should keepdoing it shouldn't be the one
that you could say in that.
So if you do a 180 and dosomething completely unrelated
to physical therapy and for youspent who knows how much it's on
school and all your training,there will be people that have
(26:17):
some things to say, but they'renot coming home with you
Genuinely.
You want to do what's best foryou and the people that
immediately surround you, likeyour family.
Plug your ears and do what'sbest and they'll chill out
eventually.
But it's hard to listen topeople.
Oh, real estate, really.
I don't know how many times Igot that.
Who gets a doctorate and thenturns around and goes into a
(26:38):
career that requires a GED, whodoes that, who cares, and I
think that the thing that I tookfrom physical therapy that I
didn't realize would be assetsin the profession that I have
now because you don't generallythink patient care, physical
therapy, real estate really worktogether.
You can apply it in ways thatyou maybe didn't expect.
(27:01):
So a lot of my job is customerservice, which is what you do
every day at the clinic.
So I think that it doesn'tmatter what other people think,
and you will be surprised at howthe skills that you have
actually translate pretty well.
Tanner Welsch (27:16):
For sure.
I'm glad we transitioned tothat, because that was my
follow-up question was what haveyou learned from PT?
That applies to real estatestuff.
Lindsay Walston (27:24):
It's just customer service.
Yeah, yeah.
Tanner Welsch (27:26):
I hear it all the time those interpersonal skills
that we learn in the healthprofession are really valuable
anywhere else, in whatevercareer you want to go down.
So absolutely On, bob.
What I'll say about the Bob'sout there is if you're doing
something that threatens amindset of people or a belief
system of people, they arelikely to say those things
(27:49):
because it goes against theirreality and their framework and
their mindset.
Right, and I think it's anatural human thing.
Okay, I'm not saying Bob's lessthan I just think it's a human
instinct or how we are.
And if they see you going outand doing something that they
said that they couldn't do,surely they're going to have
(28:10):
some internal conflicts.
There's going to be somethinggoing on there.
So I think you're a hundredpercent right about it's so
important to just let Bob, justyou can go do whatever you want
to do over there.
I'm going to go do what I,what's best for me over here,
and ignore those people.
What really matters is you,number one, and then your family
and those that are close to youand who you want to build a
(28:30):
life with, completely agree.
Do you have any bookrecommendations for anybody?
It can be about anything.
It can be about real estate.
It can be about careertransition.
It can be about life.
Lindsay Walston (28:41):
I'm a big Mel Robbins fan.
Five second role I really likethose types of books mostly
audio books, because I drive allthe time but the five second
role was one of my favorite.
It was related to change.
Essentially, your brain willtry and stop you from doing
something that's different andyou have to take action before
your brain says, oh no, that's agood idea, and so it's counting
down.
(29:01):
I think the whole idea with heris that she was in a state of
depression and she was justtrying to get out of bed in the
morning and she watched a NACAlaunch and it was counting down
from five, four, three, two, one.
Take action before your brainstops you, before you sit there
and think of all the reasons whyyou shouldn't do what you
inherently know that you need to.
I think that was one of myfavorites.
I also really like I'mcurrently reading Never Split
(29:23):
the Difference.
Tanner Welsch (29:25):
I can't remember his name, but I think he's.
Wasn't he an ex FBI Negotiator?
Yeah, I'm dipping into thatsomehow to you.
Lindsay Walston (29:31):
I love it.
The reason I like that book isyou don't realize how much of
your life is a negotiation, howto engage and get what you
you're looking for, but not in asteamroll way.
In any profession the world issmall.
If you burn bridges, it's goingto come back to you.
But you also want a win from aprofessional perspective.
(29:52):
I want to win for my client,but there is a way to do that
that doesn't just steamrollothers, because you're going to
have to work with them again andif you get that reputation of
just steamrolling everyone,people will start to hide from
you.
I've read that one now.
I think two or three times.
That's one of my favorites too.
Tanner Welsch (30:09):
Yeah, I really dig it.
I just opened it up and startedlooking at it in the middle of
the book and I was this isbrilliant, Awesome.
Well, Lindsay, thank you somuch for coming on the show.
If people are looking to reachout and connect with you and you
know, let's say they maybe wantto buy a house for me, when are
you located?
Where are you at If they wantto buy a house in your area?
Lindsay Walston (30:27):
It's about 30 minutes north of Atlanta.
I work all around the Atlantaarea.
Instagram is probably my numberone and it's just my first name
and last name, but call, text,email Even if you're not in the
Atlanta area.
I've called and interviewedagents all over the country for
my friends that are moving toTexas or California, so if you
need help finding someone, I'mhappy to vet people for you also
(30:52):
.
So that is something that I dofor my friends all the time.
Tanner Welsch (30:55):
And we'll include all the links and stuff in the
show notes too, so they canreach you.
Thank you so much for takingthe time to come on the show and
show your journey and storywith us.
Lindsay Walston (31:04):
Thank you so much for your time.
I really appreciate it.
Intro (31:07):
Thank you for listening to the Rehab Rebels podcast.
If this podcast was useful,make sure to hit that subscribe
button and leave a review.
For more information abouttransitioning to alternative
careers, head to rehabrebelsorgor follow us on Instagram at
Rehab Rebels podcast.
We'll see you next time.
Welcome to the Rehab Rebels podcast.
Are you a rehab professionalready to transition to an
alternative career?
Hear inspiring stories fromothers just like you and learn
the best ways to bridge yourcareer gap.
This podcast has you covered.
Now here's your host, doctor ofphysical therapy and podcaster,
tanner Welsh.
Tanner Welsch (00:21):
Lindsay, I'm really excited to have you on
the show and talk to you aboutyour journey and your story and
just hear about you and yourtransitions and how you made it
all possible.
So what I'll have you do isjust introduce yourself, what
you're doing now, maybe whereyou're living, where you went to
PT school, and then we'll fillin the gaps from there.
Lindsay Walston (00:44):
Well, I'm Lindsay Welfson.
I am based out of Atlanta,Georgia, and I am now fully
transitioned into real estateand have been for just over
three years now.
Originally, I went to physicaltherapy school at Emory and
graduated in 2014 almost 10years ago, did a neurologic
residency at Emory right afterand then didn't orthopedic
(01:04):
residency about two years afterthat, so I was working in
outpatient private practice whenI made that transition.
Tanner Welsch (01:13):
You held some director roles.
Lindsay Walston (01:15):
Yeah, I built a residency program a neurologic
residency program at theorthopedic practice I was
working, so I managed that, forwe had just gotten accreditation
and it happened in the midst ofall the COVID stuff, so it's
really interesting.
So did that ran in acoordinator role, so a lot of my
job at that outpatient practicewas geared towards improving
access to care for people withneurologic injuries, just
(01:38):
because traditionally it's veryuniversity hospital-based, which
can be really limiting forthose people.
So I was running we're calledimbalance centers, so that was
geared towards integratingpeople with neurologic
conditions into traditionallyoutpatient orthopedic practices.
Tanner Welsch (01:53):
Very cool.
Let's start at the beginning.
You graduated from PT school.
What was your first role afterthat?
And then how did you go fromthere leading up into some of
these director roles, and Ithink you're even the APT of the
year or something.
Lindsay Walston (02:09):
Yeah, a resident of the year.
Yeah.
So I graduated in 2014, wentstraight into the Emory
Neurologic Residency Program,which was just being developed
and going through accreditationat that time, and I ended up
staying at Emory for a yearafterwards, working day program
and outpatient neurologic rehab,and I, through my husband's
(02:32):
company who's not my husband'scompany, the company my husband
worked for, who's also aphysical therapist I got the
opportunity to they called it aneuro program coordinator role.
So through my time at Emory, Igot a taste of some of the
barriers to care a lot ofpatients had when trying to seek
rehab for neurological injuries, and so a lot of my patients
(02:55):
were driving hours and theburden on the caregivers and it
was a really big problem withaccess to care, and so that is
what led me to shift into a moreoutpatient orthopedic type
style clinic If you can likevisualize what that looks like
and then, through thattransition, as a physical
(03:15):
therapist, I felt ill equippedto deal with a lot of the things
that come with more chronicneurologic injuries that tend to
be more orthopedic in nature.
So tons of chronic pain, tonsof orthopedic injuries, maybe
from lack of use or whole gambitof things that was going on and
a lot of my focus and trainingto that point had been
(03:36):
addressing that neurologicalinjury, whereas it might have
been the pain that was limitingthem.
So about two years after that Idecided to pursue an orthopedic
residency, graduated from thereand then was working there
building the balance in ourspare a couple years and then
decided to take that model ofbuilding orthopedic and
neurologic rehab into creatingan outpatient neurologic
(04:00):
residency program.
So we went through theaccreditation process, got
accredited and we got throughone class and that's when I left
the ball gets dropped.
So you know, in the back ofyour mind maybe something isn't
where you ultimately want to be.
But I convinced myself, once Iaccomplish this next goal, once
(04:20):
I get to shift practicelocations, get more information,
learn more, teach more, build,do everything that I
theoretically wanted to do, Iwould be not necessarily happy,
but fulfilled in my career.
It's not that I wasn't happy,it's just when you go to work
and you spend so much time atwork, you want to feel good
about it.
You want to enjoy going to workevery day, ironically, through
(04:44):
accomplishing all of thesethings and checking all those
boxes that I had in my head.
If this, then I'll be fulfilleddoing what I'm doing.
We got to the end of that and wegraduated our first class and I
was just this is it?
I don't know where to go fromhere.
My husband and I sat down andmade a exit strategy, but it was
all a couple of years down theline.
We're going to keep doing thisfor a while, and then COVID
happened.
(05:04):
I was furloughed and I had alot more time on my hands.
This could be an opportunitywhere I can pursue this at the
same time I did.
Then, as I got going, Irealized this is legit and
really what I want to do.
Tanner Welsch (05:20):
What are you pursuing at this time?
You're talking about, I think,working with your husband and
pursuing something on the side.
Lindsay Walston (05:25):
Switching over to real estate.
Luckily, with COVID, everythingtransferred online for the
training to get my real estatelicense.
Previously, most of the timeyou had to go nine to five, sit
in a class and get the amount ofhours that you needed to be
able to sit for the real estateexam.
But there was a real big pusharound that time because
(05:46):
in-person events just weren'tfeasible to shift everything
online.
It was a totally self-pacedcourse.
I was doing that on top of workFive AM after the kids go to
bed.
Where I could fit it in, wewould do it.
It just moved a lot faster thanI think anyone anticipated.
We ended up making that fulljump.
I guess it was February of 2021, is when.
(06:09):
I stepped away completely fromphysical therapy.
Tanner Welsch (06:15):
Time out.
Let's back up a little bit.
I love this story, by the way,because I think it applies to
many people in the profession,especially back when you were
talking about okay, if I reachthis point, I'll be completely
happy and satisfied.
Then you did it a few timesbefore you mentioned.
You got to this point where itwas just I've done everything.
(06:35):
I'm still feeling these things,something needs to change.
Can we dive deeper into that?
What was that like?
How did you know for sure thatPT was not the field for you and
you needed to make a change?
It sounded like this was thestraw that broke the camel's
back, so to speak, because youtried this a few times.
This was the last time that youwere going to try it and then,
(06:58):
if not, you were going to leave.
Can you just walk us through alittle bit more about that and
what that was like?
Lindsay Walston (07:04):
I remember the first time I was second-guessing
myself about the physicaltherapy profession, career
Choice.
It was right before Itransitioned and it pushed my
transition out of the hospitalsetting because I just was not
necessarily burnout, but it's alittle bit of fatigue from
seeing people struggle and soheavy burden that's put on a lot
of our patients and it's justyou just internalize that I'm
(07:25):
going to fix this problem, I'mgoing to do what I can do to
make this better, and then maybeI will feel this way.
And so that was the initialpush.
And then I kept convincingmyself that I've already
invested so much time and moneyinto this.
I went to Emory I am, and myhusband did too, so we are deep
in student loan debt.
Then few residency programsdeveloped into things that I did
(07:47):
.
It's hard to get past that sunkcost thought process because
I've already worked so hard,I've already done so much.
Surely if I just do a littlebit more or shift this thing,
then it'll be better and I won'thave to make this crazy radical
left field career change thatseemingly probably to everyone
else came out of completely leftfield.
(08:08):
But at the end of the day, aswe move through each of those
landmark moments and nothingchanges.
You're just convincing yourselfthat, oh, it's not this, it'll
be this.
The person that you need tolook out for is.
You have to listen to yourself.
It doesn't matter on thesurface if you look wildly
successful in your careerTheoretically, when you work
(08:31):
through what you want yourcareer to look like, if you
check every box and you're stillnot where you know in the back
of your mind, you know thatyou're not where you want to be.
At some point you've got to stepaway.
You can't keep doing the samething and expect different
results.
That last push where Iliterally checked every box,
that I ever thought thatresidency program, graduating
that residency class, gettingaccredited, doing all that stuff
, if not now, it's never goingto be this way.
(08:53):
And so that was the final push.
But there's a lot of pointswhere you convince yourself you
just push the landmark down theroad a little bit.
We're almost there, it'll befine.
I've already invested a lot oftime and resources here and I
got to see this through.
So where your breaking point isessentially and how far you're
willing to push it, because Forsure.
Tanner Welsch (09:13):
I love those because it's so real and I
completely agree with everythingthat you said and it's.
I think there's two big thingsfor Sure and you talk about the
sunken cost policy would justcome up before and Another thing
is is we're really comfortableand secure in the jobs that we
have, even if we may notnecessarily like it or really
Believe in the back of our mindsthat this is something that's
(09:34):
good for me, but I think it's.
It's that security, thatfamiliarity, and Trying to
imagine shifting into somethingcompletely different is a huge,
unpredictable, uncertain task,but I think it can be done.
I mean, I know it can be done.
Everybody on the shows talkedabout it and they talked about
their journey and they've madeit happen and it's possible.
(09:55):
You know, and that's a big partof having these conversations
and getting this stuff out thereis to show that it is possible
and people can do it.
And Even if there is a sunkencost fallacy, well, would you
rather stay in the career thatyou're in now and not be happy
for the rest of your life, orShift and take maybe a year or
two Maybe depends on what youwant to do to get into a career
(10:18):
that you like and hey, the restis history.
And something that you pointout which is really important as
well is, if you're notSatisfied with your primary job
or there's that thing in theback of your mind that's just
this isn't right for you, atsome point along the line it's
gonna come out in other aspectsof your life, and that's
something you really pointed out.
That's very true.
(10:38):
So I'm glad we're having allthese conversations and talking
about all this.
I love it.
Lindsay Walston (10:43):
I mean I'm not a big finder passion type thing,
but you should enjoy what youdo on a daily basis.
I don't think that you have tolove it.
There's gonna be pros and consto any job.
You're not gonna love every dayof any job that you have but on
the whole, you doing somethingyou enjoy, doing something that
you want to continue to learnmore about and you would like to
invest time into Grow yourexpertise is so critical.
(11:04):
We see the burnout rates inhealthcare specifically that are
just through the roof and it'sa lot of fatigue from everything
that's been going on from ahealthcare perspective.
And then just all the strugglesthat the physical therapy
profession as a whole is goingthrough right now.
But the thing is from a sunkcost perspective but never gets
any easier.
You keep loading on the timeand investment so at some point
(11:25):
it becomes harder and harder towalk away, I think because you
keep sinking more and moreresources or time or whatever
into it.
So I mean it is just taking theleap and plan the best you can.
Plan for the worst, hope forthe best.
Tanner Welsch (11:37):
Yeah, I completely agree out of
everything.
When you were at that pointwhere you knew you wanted to
change, I think you guys startedhaving a plan for a general
direction that you were gonnachange, and then you're gonna
plan all out and then code, Ithink, fast-tracked all that.
Did you try other things, orwere you testing out different
other career options orpositions, or was it just you
knew for sure that you wanted todo something in real estate?
(11:59):
And here's the back storybehind it?
Can you walk us through that?
Lindsay Walston (12:03):
I knew.
I knew for sure I wanted to doreal estate.
That was something that I hadhad that in the back of my mind
since we bought our first home.
That was the initial push.
I think that I could do thisand I could do it better than
our personal experience Becausewe had our first time home
buying experience.
It was one of those things thatthere can be a negative
perception from the real estatefield.
(12:23):
What do you need a real estateagent for?
We were doing everything new.
This was our first time doingeverything you're investing.
I mean it was not a lot ofmoney, probably to somebody that
sell a luxury real estate, butit was $250,000 at the time.
How often do you make a quarterof a million dollar investment
and they're just sign here, goodluck.
I mean it was no guidance, noeducation, no training, no
(12:44):
nothing.
And it was such a stressfulprocess that the day before
closing I wanted to back out ofbuying this house and that was
my first experience with realestate.
This is what most people'slargest investment is is their
home, and there's a lot ofbarriers Just to getting into a
home specifically for first-timehome buyers, for a lot of
(13:05):
reasons.
People need someone To guidethem through the process, to
educate and teach and train andjust reassure and walk them
through the process thatgenuinely cares about them.
And so that was my initialthought and then also, my tastes
always exceed my budget and sowe Bought this fixer upper
(13:27):
because that's what we couldafford.
We both went to Emory.
We had a whole bunch to getloan so we weren't buying this
night's house, we bought thisnasty Smell like cat urine.
It was straight out of it.
In 1982 we started fixing it up, doing a lot of work to it, and
then we would sell it.
And so we, every two years wewould buy a house, live in it,
checks it up, sell it.
And so that was a secondaryexperience to real estate, while
(13:51):
all the physical therapy stuffwas going on, and it allowed us
to go from this dinky, nasty$250,000 home to one now that
we're in a seven figure home.
And it wasn't because we hadsuch a huge increase in salaries
, because we made goodinvestments and Bought and sold
and fixed up over time.
(14:11):
So I think being able to guidesomebody that wants to do that
through that process and knowthat it's possible, you don't
have to have millions of dollarsto be able to get into a home.
There's ways we can do it.
I can teach people how to Getto their goal wherever they're
starting places for sure.
Tanner Welsch (14:28):
I'd like to talk to you about two different sides
of the home business I'mcurious about, you know, the
side where you are now as arealtor, and then also I think
we'll save this question forlater what are some things to
look out for as a first-timehome buyer and I don't see any
better person to ask than youand I have never bought a home,
so I am curious about this aswell.
(14:50):
But let's start with the careerside, and you have to take this
Licensing exam.
What are some things after that?
And let's say there's somepeople interested in maybe doing
what you've done.
Can you tell them maybe some ofthe steps, some of the
processes and the reality ofwhat it is that they're getting
into?
Lindsay Walston (15:08):
The barrier to entry for real estate is pretty
low, which is an issue, but soyou really only have to take two
week eight hour nine hourcourse, five days a week.
You have to get a certainnumber of hours to be able to
sit for an exam and the exam isvery much like the PT board exam
.
It was a lot of a rotememorization of things that you
probably won't actually ever use.
(15:28):
It's a multiple-tooth test.
I can only spit out so manytimes how many square feet or in
an acre, so a lot of it isstudying to take the test.
You get your past your exam.
That's the initial barrier andThen you have your license.
You go put your license with abroker.
Tanner Welsch (15:44):
What's a broker and how do they fit into this if
you can give us a crash coursehere?
Lindsay Walston (15:50):
So, basically, you sit for your exam.
You have to get a certainnumber of hours in training, sit
for your exam, pass your board,your license, and you become a
real estate salesperson.
In PTE terms it's being a PTA.
You are able to make decisions,but you have somebody over,
with a supervisor that you go toif you have questions or
(16:14):
somebody that's over you andmaking sure that everything is
where it should be.
You function autonomously,which is really nice, but you
are a part of a brokerage oressentially a real estate
company, and then there'soptions to take advanced
training to become a broker, ifthat's what you choose to do,
and then you can act fullyindependently.
You can open your own brokerage.
(16:35):
You can do a lot more thingswithout that direct supervision,
but as a salesperson which iswhat my license is I can go meet
with clients, write offers, doall the list houses, do all that
stuff with the license that Ihave.
But there's a tier above thatas well.
Tanner Welsch (16:51):
Okay.
So if I'm understanding thisright, if you have the license
to sell, you need to partnerwith a broker in order to
basically complete all of theservices from A to Z, right,
okay?
And if you want to do your ownthing, you have to go and finish
the brokerage, licensing andstuff.
How do you know who to partnerwith or what brokerage to go
(17:14):
with?
How do you manage all that?
Lindsay Walston (17:17):
You interview just like you would for any
other job.
I mean a lot of it depends onwhat your goals are.
My focus was more on the luxuryreal estate companies and
brands not necessarily because Iexclusively sell luxury real
estate, but the bar is so highwith groups like that.
You want to surround yourselfwith the people that have been
(17:38):
doing this for a really longtime, that are wildly successful
.
You want to find somebody thatcan mentor you and you can learn
from, and you surround yourselfwith people that are very
successful and also very seriousabout their job.
There's a lot of people that doit part-time.
There's a lot of people thatmaybe do it on the side that are
still working.
I wanted to get into a groupthat I knew was going to have
(17:59):
the highest quality of training.
There's a lot of differentoptions, so it just depends on
what you're looking for as areal estate agent.
That was my specific desire,but a lot of the companies have
different projects.
Tanner Welsch (18:13):
Sounds good.
When somebody's starting outwith this, do they have a lot of
structure guidance, somebodyover them to tell them what to
do?
Lindsay Walston (18:21):
Nope, you have to create your structure.
That's the other thing.
When you're in a salary job, alot of people have some autonomy
.
You might have a little bit ofcontrol of your schedule, but
you have general setexpectations about what your
hours are, how much money you'regoing to make, Just following
up to make sure you did what yousaid you were going to do or
what you're supposed to be doingIn an independent contractor
(18:42):
world which is how real estateagents function is still on you,
and you can createaccountability through
mentorship and through yourbroker, potentially, but
otherwise your day-to-dayschedule, how you advance, how
you train yourself, how youbuild your career, is very much
on you.
It can be difficult to go froma hyper-structure environment to
(19:04):
something where it's just Idon't know figured out.
There's not necessarily a tonof built-in guidance.
You have to create it foryourself through your
environment and through your ownwillingness to adhere to a
schedule.
Tanner Welsch (19:17):
That sounds like a pretty big jump and a
challenge for sure that peoplewould have to overcome.
How did you go about overcomingthis?
What are some things thatreally helped you get through
this transition?
Lindsay Walston (19:27):
I think one of the big why's other than the one
I shared of pursuing a careerin real estate is the autonomy
I'm honestly really seeking,that I'm a very structured
person.
Baseline that's how I functionfor the most part.
Having a career like that itwas something that I liked to be
able to do because it gave methe freedom to create my own
schedule, build-in clientdatabase, do all that stuff.
(19:51):
But you have to be veryintentional about how you do it,
because if you decide you wantto do something else or skip
what you told yourself you weregoing to do, there's nobody
falling behind you to make sureyou did it.
There's no accountability builtin.
You have to create your own.
Tanner Welsch (20:05):
For sure Makes sense.
Just curious, was there amentor that you found, or a
coach, or maybe through yourbrokerage or some sort of groups
online that really helped youget all this together and get
more of a structure?
Lindsay Walston (20:17):
So it's funny.
She knows that I tell the storybecause she tells it too.
My patient was actually theperson that I called.
I was a former patient that Iwas working with when I was in
clinical care, who I knew was inreal estate, and you know, you
spend so much time with yourpatient, so you just get talking
and you build a relationship,and so she was the first person
that I called as, hey, I'msitting for my real estate
(20:37):
license, what do I do?
And so she helped me set upinterviews with the company that
she worked for and helped guideme through the process, and she
helped pave the way to get mewhere I wanted to go.
We all have those connections,so it's just being able to tap
into them.
Tanner Welsch (20:53):
What is your day-to-day life like, or your
week, your structures?
You've been talking about a lotof autonomy, so can you share
with us what that's like?
Lindsay Walston (21:01):
Sure, it's a little bit all over the place.
Real estate, theoretically, isa super flexible job, except for
the fact that you're workingaround other people's schedules.
So I work a lot of nights andweekends, which can bleed over
into everything else, and so myThursday through Sunday tends to
be my busiest time.
I have to be very intentionalabout building in a break into
(21:25):
what used to be my traditionalwork week.
I'm an early morning person, soI usually get up early, get
what I need to get donepersonally done, and then sit
down and do some admin work andthen my afternoons, evenings,
showings and interacting withclients and being out and moving
in the community.
It's the polar opposite of atraditional clinical role.
(21:45):
The bulk of your work is nineto five, with some variation in
that, but it's a ton of nightsand weekends.
Tanner Welsch (21:52):
Let's go back over to the customer, the buying
, purchasing, a home side ofthings.
What are some things that yousee that's pretty common for
first-time buyers that would begood to share with those that
are interested in buying a firsthome.
That would be good to know whatthey're getting into, or ahead
of time.
Lindsay Walston (22:08):
I think if you are thinking about buying a home
in the next six months to ayear, it's good to start a
little bit earlier than youthink you need to.
A lot of times people come tome and they're I'm ready to buy
tomorrow.
That's fine, but there's a lotof background work that can make
the process a lot smoother forpeople.
That doesn't usually getconsidered Because you think
(22:28):
about I'm going to go shoppingfor a house, I'm going to put an
offer in and then I'm going tomove in, and there's a buildup
time period to that to make sureeverything tracks smoothly.
Being able to get everything inline, make sure your budget is
what you think it is.
Talking to people interviewingdifferent agents, different
lenders.
There's a lot of legwork thatis required before you actually
(22:50):
get to the part of where you'rewalking through doors and trying
to pick a house.
I think the most stressfulthing about the process can be
the sprint that's required ifyou haven't done that initial
legwork.
So I usually recommend peoplestart interacting and engaging
six months to a year before theyactually think that they're
(23:11):
going to buy a house, because itgives you time, it gives you
the ability to do research, itallows you to really sit down
and think about what you'relooking for and what your
priorities are.
Which really cuts down on thatbuyers, or more of having to
make a rash decision?
Give yourself time more timethan you think you need to ease
into the home buying process soyou know you have the best real
(23:34):
estate agent, you have the bestlender, you're getting the best
rate, you're choosing the areathat fits you the best, instead
of just jumping in with bothfeet and just running.
That's where I see a lot moreof their regret is people that
just go for it.
That, and knowing that you havea choice, you should interview
multiple real estate agents.
You should interview multiplelenders.
(23:55):
You want to be sure that youlike the people that you're
working with, because we will bespending a lot of time together
Making sure that you genuinelyfeel the people that you are
working with are on your teamand not there to just push you
down the road as fast as theycan so they can catch out and
move on to the next one.
Tanner Welsch (24:15):
For sure.
Does a lot of the legwork haveto be done by the home buyer and
it's the realtor's job to makesure that this checklist is done
by the buyer, or what is thatrelationship like?
Does the realtor do some of thelegwork too, or Everybody works
differently.
Lindsay Walston (24:31):
There's some buyers that want they want to be
a little bit more hands off andthey just want to know where to
go, what to do to setthemselves up for the process.
And there's other people thatwant to be more involved and to
make every decision.
So it just depends on theperson.
To be honest, it's in the bestenvironment.
It's typically a little bit ofback and forth dynamic.
I can give suggestions, butit's good to talk to your
(24:53):
friends, talk to your familymembers, get your own
recommendations too, so that youfeel you've got a wide scope of
opinions to move forward withthe best.
To me, my job is to helpfacilitate that and help guide
through each individual step sothat it's a nice smooth process.
So just making sure we're notskipping steps, making sure
everyone is giving what theyneed, guiding them through that
(25:15):
process so that it's asenjoyable as spending that much
money can be.
Tanner Welsch (25:19):
Sounds good.
What have you realized fromthis journey you know, from
graduating PT school to gettingto where you are now Life
awareness.
Maybe have you gained, or whathave you realized from all this
that you maybe didn't knowbefore?
Lindsay Walston (25:32):
My biggest takeaway point from this whole
experience was that what mattersmost is you and those people
that are immediately close.
I had a lot of opinions aboutwhat I was doing and why.
There are a lot of people thatwere thrown off and had thought
but at the end of the day, whocares what they think?
I think it's my biggest take onpoint.
People can have opinions andnot understand why you're doing
(25:54):
what you're doing, but at theend of the day, you're the one
that has to live the life thatyou're living.
And if you're generally nothappy doing something, bob over
there who thinks you should keepdoing it shouldn't be the one
that you could say in that.
So if you do a 180 and dosomething completely unrelated
to physical therapy and for youspent who knows how much it's on
school and all your training,there will be people that have
(26:17):
some things to say, but they'renot coming home with you
Genuinely.
You want to do what's best foryou and the people that
immediately surround you, likeyour family.
Plug your ears and do what'sbest and they'll chill out
eventually.
But it's hard to listen topeople.
Oh, real estate, really.
I don't know how many times Igot that.
Who gets a doctorate and thenturns around and goes into a
(26:38):
career that requires a GED, whodoes that, who cares, and I
think that the thing that I tookfrom physical therapy that I
didn't realize would be assetsin the profession that I have
now because you don't generallythink patient care, physical
therapy, real estate really worktogether.
You can apply it in ways thatyou maybe didn't expect.
(27:01):
So a lot of my job is customerservice, which is what you do
every day at the clinic.
So I think that it doesn'tmatter what other people think,
and you will be surprised at howthe skills that you have
actually translate pretty well.
Tanner Welsch (27:16):
For sure.
I'm glad we transitioned tothat, because that was my
follow-up question was what haveyou learned from PT?
That applies to real estatestuff.
Lindsay Walston (27:24):
It's just customer service.
Yeah, yeah.
Tanner Welsch (27:26):
I hear it all the time those interpersonal skills
that we learn in the healthprofession are really valuable
anywhere else, in whatevercareer you want to go down.
So absolutely On, bob.
What I'll say about the Bob'sout there is if you're doing
something that threatens amindset of people or a belief
system of people, they arelikely to say those things
(27:49):
because it goes against theirreality and their framework and
their mindset.
Right, and I think it's anatural human thing.
Okay, I'm not saying Bob's lessthan I just think it's a human
instinct or how we are.
And if they see you going outand doing something that they
said that they couldn't do,surely they're going to have
(28:10):
some internal conflicts.
There's going to be somethinggoing on there.
So I think you're a hundredpercent right about it's so
important to just let Bob, justyou can go do whatever you want
to do over there.
I'm going to go do what I,what's best for me over here,
and ignore those people.
What really matters is you,number one, and then your family
and those that are close to youand who you want to build a
(28:30):
life with, completely agree.
Do you have any bookrecommendations for anybody?
It can be about anything.
It can be about real estate.
It can be about careertransition.
It can be about life.
Lindsay Walston (28:41):
I'm a big Mel Robbins fan.
Five second role I really likethose types of books mostly
audio books, because I drive allthe time but the five second
role was one of my favorite.
It was related to change.
Essentially, your brain willtry and stop you from doing
something that's different andyou have to take action before
your brain says, oh no, that's agood idea, and so it's counting
down.
(29:01):
I think the whole idea with heris that she was in a state of
depression and she was justtrying to get out of bed in the
morning and she watched a NACAlaunch and it was counting down
from five, four, three, two, one.
Take action before your brainstops you, before you sit there
and think of all the reasons whyyou shouldn't do what you
inherently know that you need to.
I think that was one of myfavorites.
I also really like I'mcurrently reading Never Split
(29:23):
the Difference.
Tanner Welsch (29:25):
I can't remember his name, but I think he's.
Wasn't he an ex FBI Negotiator?
Yeah, I'm dipping into thatsomehow to you.
Lindsay Walston (29:31):
I love it.
The reason I like that book isyou don't realize how much of
your life is a negotiation, howto engage and get what you
you're looking for, but not in asteamroll way.
In any profession the world issmall.
If you burn bridges, it's goingto come back to you.
But you also want a win from aprofessional perspective.
(29:52):
I want to win for my client,but there is a way to do that
that doesn't just steamrollothers, because you're going to
have to work with them again andif you get that reputation of
just steamrolling everyone,people will start to hide from
you.
I've read that one now.
I think two or three times.
That's one of my favorites too.
Tanner Welsch (30:09):
Yeah, I really dig it.
I just opened it up and startedlooking at it in the middle of
the book and I was this isbrilliant, Awesome.
Well, Lindsay, thank you somuch for coming on the show.
If people are looking to reachout and connect with you and you
know, let's say they maybe wantto buy a house for me, when are
you located?
Where are you at If they wantto buy a house in your area?
Lindsay Walston (30:27):
It's about 30 minutes north of Atlanta.
I work all around the Atlantaarea.
Instagram is probably my numberone and it's just my first name
and last name, but call, text,email Even if you're not in the
Atlanta area.
I've called and interviewedagents all over the country for
my friends that are moving toTexas or California, so if you
need help finding someone, I'mhappy to vet people for you also
(30:52):
.
So that is something that I dofor my friends all the time.
Tanner Welsch (30:55):
And we'll include all the links and stuff in the
show notes too, so they canreach you.
Thank you so much for takingthe time to come on the show and
show your journey and storywith us.
Lindsay Walston (31:04):
Thank you so much for your time.
I really appreciate it.
Intro (31:07):
Thank you for listening to the Rehab Rebels podcast.
If this podcast was useful,make sure to hit that subscribe
button and leave a review.
For more information abouttransitioning to alternative
careers, head to rehabrebelsorgor follow us on Instagram at
Rehab Rebels podcast.
We'll see you next time.
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