Fear is normal when investing, but finding someone who can guide you and walk you through real estate investing helps in many ways. But how can you find the right real estate investing coach? Misty Flanagan-Hassenstab, the co-founder of the Houston Women's Real Estate Investor Alliance (WREIA), sits with Renee Williams and Camille Davis to discuss finding the right coach to guide you in your business. Misty shares how shifting the mindset and having the strategy, patience, support, and planning to build an actual business. Also, when we establish an alignment between an investor and the coach, you can see success, true results, and your business scales. She also explains that identifying your zone of genius and establishing roles and responsibilities with your partners creates an equal partnership in business. If you want to hear more of Misty's insightful ideas, tune in to this episode of The Wealth BuildHERS Podcast!
Connect with Misty - www.hermindsetmattersrei.com
Mentioned on this episode:
James Gatlin, Permit Expediter - https://www.jagpermits.com/
Gay Hendricks, Author - https://www.geniuszonebook.com/
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Listen to the podcast here
How To Find The Right Real Estate Investing Coach With Misty Flanagan-Hassenstab
We are talking to a good friend of ours, Misty Hassenstab. Misty is a full-time entrepreneur. She is a real estate investor. She's a business and mindset coach with years of experience in wholesaling, flips, rentals, and new construction. Misty is also a brand new mom that she just welcomed. You may hear some reference in the show to her being pregnant, but she has had the baby since then.
Misty is extremely passionate about helping other women create a life and a business filled with passion, positivity, and purpose. She is a managing partner in Guideway Investment Partners, Elevated Development, and Level Up Remodeling. She is also the Cofounder of the Houston Women's Real Estate Investor Alliance. We are going to have a fun conversation with Misty talking about everything in real estate investing, building an REI business, and having a CEO mindset, which is hugely important as you're building your business. Read on as we have a great conversation with Misty.
Welcome to the show. We are here with Misty Flanagan.
Hello, ladies.
Welcome to the show, Misty. Misty is a long-time friend of Cami. I had the pleasure of meeting you in 2019 on Facebook. You have a Facebook group. Tell us about you and what you have going on.
Thank you so much for having me, ladies. I'm so excited you're doing this show. This is awesome. We need more powerful ladies in the real estate investing industry. You two powerhouses are leading the charge. I love being on that train with you, ladies. This is going to be a fun conversation. Cami and I know each other. She is one of my buyers. We have done some deals together. We connected right out the gate. I'm so happy to be connected to you, Renee, joining forces and building our businesses together.
I got started in real estate investing in November 2016. My husband and I decided we were tired of the corporate rat race. It was his dream if I'm being honest. I was going to be the supportive spouse. He took me to a three-day event. I was like, "I can do this. I want to do this. This looks fun." We jumped in full-time to real estate investing in 2016, and have not looked back. We do wholesaling. I do that. We do some rentals and flips. Our primary focus is on new construction.
We have been building a lot of townhome communities in the Greater Houston Area, mostly inside the loop for those of you that know Houston. We are moving in a super exciting direction. We are starting to build build-to-rent subdivisions on the outskirts of Houston. We have two projects that were about to start underway in Cypress. We have a ton of amazing people moving to Texas, and not a lot of places for them to live. We need to continue building more homes for them.
Not everybody wants to be a homeowner. Not everybody can afford to be a homeowner, especially in a hot market like what we're seeing, but people want to live in brand new, nice, and beautiful homes. We have been doing our research on this build-to-rent strategy for a couple of years. We are beyond excited to pull the trigger and start building that out and seeing the potential. We're going to keep watching the market and pivoting as we go. That's what this business is all about, which is one thing I love about it. There's never a dull moment as you ladies probably know.
Cami, you're doing something similar with the development stuff.
We're building by the University of Houston. We have three. I bought another one a few months ago, but it has taken us over a year. We're trying to get a permit to build this building. We keep thinking any day, we will be ready to build but we have been sitting on it. It's very exciting. It's going to be three fourplexes. We will rent them.
That's a perfect location. If you were able to snag some land there for a good price, then you did well because it's tough now. In all of our projects inside the loop, we have been looking for land. It has been harder to buy. That's why we started looking on the outskirts. We have also seen a little bit of migration but you're still going to have tons of people coming and wanting to live inside the city as well. They're all coming to Houston all over the place or the Houston area. That's an amazing opportunity. I'm excited to hear more about that. I feel your pain on the permitting. I understand.
The longer we wait, the more I freaked out my husband gets, "Is this costing us way too much money?"
Are you working with a permit expediter?
I should have but I'm not.
It helps a lot. Try to do that. That's what we have noticed too. Part of the reason we started moving outside of Harris County is it has been getting a little more difficult to get permitting, inspection processes, and those sorts of things. There is still such a need for more housing in Harris County and the downtown area. It's tough because we need it, but they're making it a little more difficult for us to do.
I have a question about that, Misty. For the layperson and we've got a lot of ladies who are maybe newer investors, tell me what a permit expediter does. The next question is, what's the difference between Harris County and the city of Houston?
A permit expediter is somebody that already has established relationships with people in the city that help with permitting, inspections, and those sorts of things. You can hire a company or a service to help you facilitate that. We didn't start building until 2018. It was when we created Elevated Development. Being a newer builder, you don't have those established relationships.
We had met a permit expediter when we lived in Austin. Oddly enough, when Jason and I moved to Texas, we rented a room from an Airbnb host as we were looking for a place for us to live. He was a permit expediter. We learned all about that. He's still a very good friend of ours. It's James Gatlin. If you're in Austin and looking for a permit expediter look him up.
They help move that process along much more quickly. It is worth the money that you spend for that service because just as Cami has shared, the longer that goes on, the more holding costs you have, and the more nervous you're getting. The good thing for Cami is we're seeing the market continue to go up. You should be fine, but also the cost of materials is going up.
We're starting phase two on one of our projects in the Galleria area. Our lumber cost alone is going to cost us $200,000 more than what we originally budgeted for. Fortunately, we have a cushion in our pricing and everything but $200,000 is a big jump there. There are all these factors that are involved. You do want to get things built quicker. She wants to get them rented.
We have noticed in the cities that it does prove to be a little bit more difficult to get things pushed along, especially with COVID. You were trying to do that during COVID, Cami. People were scarce. There wasn't a lot happening. It was very frustrating for those of us trying to get permits, inspections, and all of that done. What we have noticed is in the smaller cities and the suburbs, there's less red tape. You have more opportunities to have relationships with people because it's a smaller setting.
My husband goes to city council meetings all the time, building these relationships, and letting them know what we're building. They're on board with what we're building. It has been easier to get things approved. It is a little bit easier outside of the major cities, but it still comes down to we still need more housing in the city of Houston.
It would be nice if they would work with us a little bit more than they do sometimes, but it is what it is. You have to learn to navigate it. Having people like that on your power team helps immensely push that along quicker. If you are building, especially if you're newer, I would look into some permit expediters and see if they could help you push that process along.
We started the first two a year ago. This new lot that we're doing has been a few months. Maybe we will do the permit expediter on that one, but then also I think of it as a mindset thing. I could get completely freaked out and think, "We need to sell this because we're holding. All the costs are going up. We're paying for all these things," but then you have to bring yourself back and say, "The market is also going up. This is also a long-term hold for us. Even if we're into it with too much money, hopefully, it will be worth more by the time we’ve finished anyway.” It's that thing where you have to stick to your guns.
Don't freak out.
Stick to your gut, and don't freak out because we will still cash flow.
It will be completely fine because we will still cashflow and have a 30-year loan on it. It will make sense because it's being paid back over 30 years, even if it's upside down when we finish.
It's because of the location that you're in and the long-term strategy that you're using. What I'm finding a lot with my coaching clients is they're buying new construction. They're Airbnb-ing it. Before, it would be like, "Why are you paying retail? Why are you buying new construction?" It’s because they know it's going to be worth more with the way the market is going, and it's a long-term play. They can pay retail now knowing they're going to keep it long-term.
Even if they're not making money right out the gate, they will. You have to remind yourself, "What is my exit strategy here?" Remain calm and patient, "What are the things that I can control?" Bringing on a permit expediter is one thing that you can control. How fast the city moves? Not so much, but if you can bring somebody in to help facilitate that process, that is something that you can control.
I'm so glad that you brought that in because that is super important. You don't want to get freaked out and miss an opportunity because you're having to hold a little bit longer. The market is going to shift and change all the time. You just have to know and be confident. Sometimes you do need to make those executive decisions, but if you're doing a long-term play, especially where you are, then that's not it.
That's the goal. Keep it. In the future, it will be my kids' college or retirement.
Let's talk about that a little bit. Real estate is very forgiving. That is the word that always comes to mind for me. You could have been in 2008 holding a property that you were upside down on, but if you were still making the payments and you didn't lose that property to foreclosure, that very same property is worth at least in certain markets $100,000 more now, depending on what market you're in.
Real estate is forgiving if you hold it through the storm, which means that you have to be well capitalized. That's a fancy way of saying you have to have money in the bank or you have to have some type of rainy-day fund to help you complete your projects and get them to stabilization. Once it's stabilized and you put a tenant in it, then it doesn't matter what happens to the market because the tenant is paying the mortgage every month. You don't have to worry as much. What are your thoughts on that?
Many women or people, in general, are like, "I don't want to get into this market. It's so competitive. It's so hot." I'm like, "That is the reason you should get into the market. This is a perfect time." When is real estate investing not competitive? Let's be honest. Even if there is a downward shift and if you are a good investor and you know how to navigate those waters, it's still competitive.
It's so important to understand what your goals are, what your strategy is, and what your marketing campaigns are doing for you, stay on top of that, and not get flustered and frustrated, and be like a squirrel or Shiny Object syndrome. If you stay the course, there is so much opportunity. You want to stay on top of what's going on in the market to know if you want to pivot and in which direction to pivot.
Even if there is a downward shift, it's still competitive even if you are a good investor and know how to navigate those waters. So it's important to understand what your goals, your strategy, and your marketing campaigns are.
A lot of my clients are going the Airbnb route where they were only wanting to do long-term and build regular rental portfolios. They see the opportunity with Airbnb. We're still building multi-units and townhomes, but we have shifted our focus to the build-to-rent subdivisions. You can shift and whatnot, but there was a lot of planning and a lot of strategy behind it. It wasn't just the Shiny Object syndrome, "Let's chase this and that."
It's like, "Why are you going to shift? What are you trying to achieve there?" It's knowing your numbers, knowing the plan, and understanding that. When you have that, it doesn't matter if there are 100 other people, 1,000 other people, or 1 million other people in the industry that you're in because you're doing things differently. You're prepared. You're confident.
The conversations I have with sellers are very different from the conversations most investors have with sellers. That's what separates me from them. I don't feel scarcity at all. It's staying the course, understanding what you're doing, and having patience. I understand also though because it gets advertised as, "Get rich quick. This can happen overnight." I hate to burst somebody's bubble.
It's a marathon. It's not a sprint.
That is one of the mindset shifts that I have to work on with my coaching clients. They're very frustrated when they find me because they have been trying to do this. They're not successful. For some of them, it has been years. They haven't had the plan and the strategy and haven’t understood what they were doing. Some of them got started and tried it for a month, and they're not rich overnight. It is a long-term play or plan in making it successful.
Are there people that come and go and make quick money on a quick flip or a wholesale deal? Absolutely, but if you're trying to build an actual business, you do need to have patience, strategies, and planning. That's so important in any business, not just real estate investing. We go to school for four-plus years to get a college degree, but then we become entrepreneurs and we think it happens overnight. Why is that? Why do we allow ourselves four-plus years there, but we don't allow ourselves four months at trying to be an entrepreneur? It blows my mind.
Having that patience is so important along with the planning, the strategy, and the support too. It's having people around you that can support you, a coach, a mentor, a program, or something like that to help you facilitate everything, bring it all together, and implement it correctly. Make sure you stay on track and hold yourself accountable and those sorts of things.
I want to come back to coaching in a bit. Right now, I want to talk to you and Camille about your team. There are a few key people you need to have because real estate investing is a team sport. You can't hammer the hammer, acquire the property, and get the tenant all at the same time by yourself. Tell me who are the key positions or the key roles on each of your teams.
I love that because power teams are something that is so important. I don't want to build these businesses by myself. I'm such a team type of player. It is important, especially if you're looking to scale. We talk about this in the Her Mindset Matters REI program. We dedicate a whole week to networking, building your power team, vetting people, and all of that because you bring in partners on a different level. Maybe you partner with a business. In our Elevated Development company and our Level Up Remodeling company, we have another couple. They're full-time investors that we're partnered with.
Jason and I are the boots on the ground. That's my husband. He has background and experience in new construction, building things, civil engineering, and all that. They both have an oil and gas background more in finances and whatnot. That's what they have brought in. That partnership has been very beneficial in helping us grow that business.
We have agents that are selling the units that we're building. We have lenders that we're working with that we built great relationships. They are giving us awesome interest rates on these loans. I'll be honest. We have passive investors that invest in our projects. They don't want to come out, swing hammers, and build things but they want a return on their money. Our goal is we give them a return, and they turn around and go, "Here you go. Do it again." We have people like permit expediters and subcontractors. There are a ton of people that help us facilitate these businesses.
When I work with preforeclosure people, helping them stop their foreclosures, I noticed that the number one thing was these people were not so much worried about their house and selling it. A lot of them didn't want to because their first question to me was, "Where do I go? What do I do?" I created a team around me of relocation specialists to help them find a new place to live, credit repair specialists to help them build their credit back up, and movers with moving discounts that could help them. It was creating that team so that we can provide more value to the people that we were working with.
In every one of my businesses, I've created these teams that have helped us do more, help more people, and build more opportunities. It's a lot more fun as well, but you need to vet all these people. You need to make sure you're aligned. You need to make sure you're on the same page with how you do business. That's why Cami and I have done deals together and worked well together because we're on the same page about how we do business, how we talk to people, and how we treat people. That's so important when you're building your team. I cannot stress that enough to vet people.
That's key. You can find people to do things anywhere, but it's to make sure that your values are aligned and that you get along as people too. I wish that something I would have done sooner is get people on my team because I didn't realize I was in the way. There's my bookkeeper. I did my books forever. I'm not good at books. I finally found somebody good at it. I was scared to let it go.
I was scared that if I let it go, then I wouldn't know what was going on in my business. I wouldn't know the finances, "What if they missed something up?" I didn't realize I was a control freak in a way but once I finally handed it over, I was like, "I should have done this sooner." It freed me up to do all these other little things that I enjoy doing, instead of the thing that I don't enjoy doing.
I didn't scale as fast as you. You grew fast. I was in the background watching you do this. I was like, "This is crazy." I'm better at getting people in place. I'm ready to expand and grow. Renee is part of this. She feels a need. She's good at what I'm not good at. We know that we don't want to do coaching. We have you on our team to help us do coaching. It's a team thing. The more you get good people on your team, the better you get.
I love that you mentioned that now, you get to do the things that you love. Renee is helping me with my coaching business. I'm doing everything. I need to start building a team there so I can focus on my zone of genius or what I'm super passionate about, which is truly coaching, hosting events, and talking to potential clients. All the background stuff can be done by somebody else. That's where you need to find key people to put in those positions because when you find them as you found Renee and the strengths that they have and you plop them in those positions, it frees you up.
You need to find key people to put in key positions. Because when you find the strengths that they have and you plop them in those positions, it frees you up.
It's like, "Look at my business." Your business grows way more. I'm sitting here struggling and trying to figure out email marketing. I don't know anything about that. Why am I spending time doing that? It's all failing anyway. It does make a difference. I hear you on that, Camille, because my coaching business is my little baby. I'm like, "Am I ready to?" Once you have the right person to help you, or people to join the team, and you let go a little bit, it does help.
I would have never done a podcast. I would have been scared to death to do a podcast. It's also the headshots, getting in front of the camera, and the attention individually. That was hard for me. She pushed me out of my comfort zone there. Once I did it, I was like, "That was great." I and my husband are like, "Let's get headshots together. Let's be the realtor investor team." She opened Pandora's box for me and I'm excited.
It is finding those key people and learning quickly to trust your gut and feelings because you're trying to fill a need so badly that sometimes you try to force somebody in that position. You try to make it work but then when that person comes along who does fit, then you're like, "It finally happened." It doesn't always happen the first time. You might try to get somebody to fill the position, and it doesn't work but that's how you know that the next one is the perfect one for the position. When it does come along, you know it.
It's important to fail forward in all of this. You may try to put people on your team. Going back to what you said earlier, they have to be aligned with your values and with who you are. That's one piece of it. The next piece of it is you have to be willing to step out of the way. You're the bottleneck that's keeping your business from growing. Sometimes we don't see that.
If somebody were to tell you, "Misty, you are the reason why you're coaching business is not huge," that's hard to hear but it's the truth because you are an awesome coach. You do great work with the ladies that you work with but you are one person. You can only do so much alone. As women, it's hard for us to find people that we can trust who are going to work as hard as we do. We don't always want to take the time to find people because we feel like it's a waste of time, "If they're as good as me, they're going to own their business. They're not going to want to work for me."
That is fear, which is false evidence appearing real, is not true. Misty, you were using the word zone of genius. That's my favorite term when it comes to business because there are people whose zone of genius is administrative. That's what they do. I am an expert at systems, operations, running things, profit and loss, team building and culture. That's what I do.
If you've got a platform that you need to be built out for your business, I'm your girl. I'm not going to be the person who's going to be on-site at the construction doing the development or working there at the actual location. Cami is a rockstar at that. She is going to be there with the builder and looking at stuff. That's not me. I wish I had that but I don't.
For me to grow my real estate investing business, which I love real estate investing, I have to partner with somebody like Cami who has the ability to get out there, deal with the contractors, be on site, and not be afraid to talk about it. I would be so scared that I'm going to mess up something or the house is going to fall down. She does not have that fear at all.
Misty, your superpower is coaching. You have other powers too but your zone of genius is working with women who are wanting to learn how to do what we do. I don't know if I have a gifting for that but I certainly want to help you grow your business so that as we three work together to do this, we are able to get you coaching clients and help you grow, scale, and 10X that business because it's coming with this show for sure. Ladies, if you need coaching, you are going to talk to Misty. Tell us a little bit about that. Tell us about your coaching business. What's it called? What do you do?
I love real estate investing but I love coaching and helping other women build their businesses. I always felt like there was something missing a little bit in my role in our real estate investing business. It's no surprise because I always wanted to be a teacher when I was growing up. I moved from small-town Nebraska out to California and thought, "I want to get into public relations." I ditched the teaching but I always thought I missed my calling.
I got into human resources. I loved developing people. That was the side of HR that I was truly passionate about. Being able to pull that into real estate investing, building businesses, and working side by side with these women is truly an absolute honor, the fact I get to do this every day all day. I've coached over 100 women in helping them build their real estate investing businesses, which is blowing my mind as I say it out loud because I didn't start coaching officially until July 2020.
I had been providing support and guidance before that, but structuring a coaching business around that is when Her Mindset Matters REI Group coaching program was launched. It was in July 2020. I originally started it with another cofounder. She was my life and business coach at the time. Her name is Deidrea Kiesling. She's amazing. We did some amazing work together. She helped me with my mindset.
We crafted a program where we combined mindset with real estate investing. That's what separates our program from the other programs that are out there. There are a million real estate investing programs out there. I love that because everybody learns differently. There are things that they want to learn that are different. Everybody is different in what makes sense for them in regards to a coach, a mentor or a program.
What we were finding was so many of the women that we were talking to were struggling with starting these real estate investing businesses. It was more mindset that was holding them back, the fear of failure, fear of rejection, and fear of success. "What happens when I get my first deal? What do I do?" That's a big one that people don't talk about. It's juggling being a mom and a wife, maybe having a W-2, and trying to do all of this with a real estate investing business on the side.
We incorporated a lot of that into the education and support along with teaching them how to build and launch a real estate investing business. I'm the one that has taken over the program. Deidrea is doing a different type of coaching now. I'm so honored to have her as a cofounder. She's still supporting the group but it's just me now. We're excited to be filling the next group. We have our eighth group that's going to be going through our eight-week coaching program.
We start with setting goals. We start with building business plans, and then we move to marketing campaigns, deal analysis, networking, and building power teams. The whole point is throughout the eight weeks, you're not just consuming this information. I'm holding you very accountable that you're launching marketing campaigns, talking to sellers, and looking at deals. We meet weekly as a small group. It's a very small group. I don't coach more than twenty women at a time because I like to keep it small and intimate.
That's where you can bring all of your questions. That's where you get that one-on-one coaching in a small group setting. It has been so beautiful to see the community grow. We have almost 90 women in that group that have gone through the program or are about to go through the program. That's what we call our tribe. They connect with each other and do deals with each other. They're doing marketing campaigns with each other. They talk about the struggles of being a mom and an entrepreneur, holding down a W-2, and building this business.
It has been beautiful to witness the support that we have for each other. We have seen the success of these women things happen. The results that they have been seeking for so long happen because they are given that support, that guidance, and those resources, not just with me as their coach but also, they're connected with active women real estate investors. It does make such a world of a difference. I know that is happening in your groups as well. When women come together, we can change the world. We lift each other up. It has been so exciting.
I have that program. That's an eight-week program. I also offer one-on-one coaching. Some of the women have already gone through small group coaching programs or big group coaching programs. They're looking for one-on-one. You and I sit down once a week and dig into your business and your mindset. I also offer that. You have an option there to do either/or. Some of the women do both. They go through the program and then do one-on-one with me afterward to scale their business.
It's fun because I get to craft a program around each client specifically. Whatever your goals and struggles are with the one-on-one attention, if it's me and Renee, I'm crafting Renee's coaching program. It's all specifically around her. I love doing that. That's where big results can happen even a little quicker because you have that one-on-one attention. We are building a program around you. It depends on what you're looking for and what you're ready for.
It has been an absolute honor to see these women grow and be by their side. I love that I get to do this every single day. It has been awesome. We do have a website that says everything about the program and testimonials. You can register through that. It's HerMindsetMattersREI.com. You can go there and find all the information. Find me on Facebook at Misty Flanagan. You can email me at Misty@GuidewayInvestmentPartners.com.
A lot of times, the women have questions about the program or about working with me, or they want to explore. Maybe they're not sure if it's a group or one-on-one. It makes sense. I encourage that. When I say, "Vet people," I'm talking about me too. Vet me. Let's get on a call or a Zoom. Let's make sure that you and I working together is a good fit. It's not about just having people sign up for my program.
I want to help you succeed. I need to make sure there that we're a good fit in working together, and you should too. I am more than happy. I jump on calls and Zooms all the time with women that are interested in learning more. If you're curious about it, let's do that and make sure the program is a good fit, or maybe one-on-one is a good fit.
We need to ensure that we're a good fit to work together.
Even if it's not. I had an amazing chat with a girl, Sarah. She is so motivated and ambitious. I'm so excited for her but she is wanting to do multifamily. That is not something I coach on. She's wanting to do large multifamily, syndicate deals. It didn't make sense for us to work together. We were both bummed because we enjoyed each other's company. We're going to stay in contact for sure. It's not about just signing people up. Let's make sure the program and the resources are right for you, and that I'm the right coach and mentor for you because that's where you can see true success and results.
It's the alignment of people that you're working with. You are sharing similar mission statements and core values. When you have that respect and trust with the people that are on your team, it's so much easier to scale the business, build the business, and see it come into what you want it to be. It's way more fun too. Reach out. I'm more than happy to jump on a call or a Zoom with anybody interested in learning more.
We're getting toward the end of our time together, but I want to talk about this. We have a gamut of ladies on this show. Some of the ladies are not moms. They have fur babies or they don't have kids at all, but then there are the ladies who are moms. I want to talk about looking generationally at who are on this call like the three of us. I have two kids who are 18 and 20. My son is eighteen. He's a senior in high school. My daughter is twenty years old. She is a junior in college.
For me, real estate investing was something that I was not able to do full-time until my kids got older because I had a W-2 job. The beginning of 2019 was when I started doing entrepreneurial stuff full-time. Before that, I had a W-2 job because I felt like I was not able to leave my job because of the demands of our household and what we needed at home like the income that we needed in our house.
We had some real estate investment properties but they weren't enough to retire me or my husband. With the kids at home, I wasn't able to give them the time that I wanted to because they had activities, things to go to, and so forth. I'm just getting into my real estate prime or my investing prime where I'm able to get into real estate investing as my kids have grown up. You two are polar opposites. You are the possibility of what can be done. Cami, tell us about where you are kid-wise. Misty, tell us about where you are kid-wise.
I have a 15, 13, 12, and 9. I started this when they were 4, 3, and 1 and a half. I didn't have the baby yet, but I was pregnant with the baby, the last one. Luckily for me, I quit my job to stay home because I knew I was having those kids quickly. I knew I wanted to have them before I would turn 35. I started having babies when I was 30. I had them all in five years, but I was already home. For me, it was a good outlet to keep my mind busy because I was stuck at home with kids.
It's not that I don't like that. I know it's valuable but I needed something for myself. For me, it was an outlet. I loved it. My husband thought I was obsessed but I also found this niche. It wasn't traditional real estate. It was creative. I would find somebody in trouble. I could solve the problem. I didn't realize that I loved solving problems. It's interesting. I started in nursing because I love helping people. I also have a background in psychology. With all of this, it all came together. Sometimes we don't know what we want to do.
Even in real estate, there are all these different options that you can do. You might not know until you get into it and you find your core genius and the thing that you're good at, and then it fits. Life is like that. We do these things. We don't realize that they're building to the next thing. You have to be patient. You have to try out these different avenues and move forward. It has been good for me because I've been able to have my children and be home with my children, but also have this thing on the side that creates income. I'm able to have this outlet that fulfills me individually and makes me a better mom.
It has been such a blessing. It was meant for my life. That's why I want to do this with you all. I want other women to know that this can change your life. You don't have to be good at every little thing. You find the thing that you're good at and do that, then find those people that are good at everything else, and get them on your team. This is the perfect thing for women. If they want to get into this, do it. It's amazing.
Misty, where are you on the baby journey?
I couldn't agree more with that, Cami. I love this question too because when I look at the women that I've coached, I've coached women as young as twenty. We had an amazing woman that's 65 that joined the next Her Mindset Matters REI Group round. She's like, "I'm ready. Let's do this." That's so incredible. It doesn't matter where you are in your life. If this is something that you want, you can make it happen.
I am seven months pregnant with my first child. There is about to be a huge life change happening. That is part of the reason that I need to bring people and more systems into my coaching business because I want to continue coaching, building that business, and helping other women do what I do and build their businesses exactly what they want them to be. That's the most exciting part.
I didn't start coaching until 2020. We started in 2016. For four years, I was doing real estate investing but something was missing. Thank goodness I was patient and was able to allow myself to discover what this is. I'm glad I had people in my life that said, "Misty, you should help other women do this. You should structure." I'm like, "I'm not that."
I'm so glad I finally did it. I joined a program to help me build a coaching business as well. We joined these tribes, communities, and programs to help us in a variety of ways. I have mindset coaches, real estate investing coaches, and coaching coaches. It does make a world of a difference. It shows us the possibilities that we can have for ourselves.
I was in Mexico in September 2022 for what's called the Kaizen Mastermind. It's an entrepreneur's mastermind. The whole theme of the mastermind was abundance. It was having an and-mentality instead of either/or. Why do we have to choose motherhood, entrepreneurship or a career? Why do we have to choose a W-2 or entrepreneurship? It's and.
Once you have that mentality, plan, support, and resources, and if you have a lot on your plate, maybe it will take you a little bit longer to get there but you're still moving the needle forward. That's what's most important. When you have all of that and you're not doing it alone, it does make such a difference. I love the and-mentality instead of the either/or.
I'll be honest. I used to think when I became a mom because I knew I wanted to be a very present mother that I was going to have to give up my career or entrepreneurship. I don't feel that at all anymore. I know for a fact I am going to keep this train rolling. I'm going to keep all of these businesses rolling. It's going to look a little bit different.
The great thing about being an entrepreneur is we're in charge of that. My normal is different from other people's normal. I don't believe in a work-life balance. It's what works for you. I've figured out what works for me. I'm going to navigate it as I go. I'm putting the proper systems and people in place to help me do that.
I got you, girl.
You have no idea how excited I am. I'm like, "I'm ready to do this." I had a moment where I was like, "How am I going to do this?" Everything is on my shoulders for my coaching business. Thank goodness, I truly believe people come into your life at the exact right time. I could not feel more excited about the opportunity and the possibility to do both. One of the things that came up while I was reflecting on all of this is I want to bring that type of coaching and support into my programs that is specifically geared towards being a mom and building businesses.
People come into your life at the exact right time.
Once I experience that myself, I'm going to look into joining a program or getting a coach that's going to help me do that. I want to incorporate that into the coaching that I provide to the women that I'm working with because there are so many people out there that think they can't do both or are having a hard time juggling both. I can talk about mindset all day long, but until I've lived it, breathed it, and experienced it, which I'm about to do, I didn't feel 100% comfortable coaching it.
That's something I'm super excited about bringing into the coaching. That's going to set it apart from all the other types of real estate investing coaching out there because we're different. We're women and that's good. It's an advantage. I'm beyond excited to become a mom and to continue building these beautiful businesses, power teams, connections, and relationships. It's all possible. I truly feel it from the bottom of my heart, core, and everything that it's all possible, which is so exciting.
I want to add something to that. I felt like I had to choose if I was going to keep my job or stay home with my kids. I remember thinking, "Why do I have to choose between these two?" I didn't realize it but I changed my mindset. I chose to stay home. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be with my kids. Plus, by the time I looked at it, it didn't make sense for me to go to work and still pay for daycare and everything. The difference is instead of a victim mentality. This is what you're saying.
We think we're dictated by the things around us like, "My husband has this job. I have to follow him to this job. I've got these children that I have to take care of. I'm stuck here in this place," but you're not. Without realizing it, I ended up creating. That's key. We create our situations. Even if we were limited in maybe some of those choices, we can still create something. It is a choice more than you realize. Sometimes we think we don't have a choice, but that's the difference. That's what you learn. This is about creating different situations and creating what we want them to be. It's planning.
It's taking responsibility and control. You can create whatever you want in your life. That also goes for if you want to remain a victim. You're creating that too. It is truly powerful. The mind is a beautiful thing. You create whatever you want. Sometimes you can get there quicker and sometimes not, but it's at least taking those small steps and doing what you need to do to get one step closer to what you are trying to create for yourself.
This is a whole other conversation that we're getting into. Misty, let's dive into this a little bit. I want to talk about two things. One, if you don't have a spouse who is not supportive of your real estate investing, we're not talking about abuse or extreme situations. That's a whole other situation that you need counseling for.
I'm glad you brought that up because there are differences and things that we can't control. That's going to affect us emotionally.
In relatively average or normal circumstances where you have a spouse who maybe isn't supportive and that doesn't help with kids, or your spouse is working too and they got their thing going, and you want to do this real estate investing thing, you may not necessarily have the money to do it. You're trying to figure out, "How do I balance all of these things?" In a normal relationship, evaluate if that's the right person for you to be with. That's strange to say but I'm just putting it out there.
That's something to think about, "Is this person supportive of me, my life, my existence, my hopes, my dreams, and the bigger things for me?" I'm not afraid to say that. That's a conversation my husband and I had to have. I've been married for 22 years. There are times in our marriage when we had to go to counseling to explore, "Is the marriage about both of us being fulfilled in the relationship?"
What I discovered is that it helps my husband because of his personality type to have a lot of analytical data and information that he needs to help him make decisions. Perhaps you would find, ladies, that your significant other is more supportive if you provided them with the information that they needed and not have a shiny object that you're trying to do every year. I was all over the place. I wanted to sell insurance at one time. I wanted to do real estate investing, and then I thought about starting this other business. There are all these businesses I'm trying to start.
He's like, "Last month, it was this. Now, it's this. You're wanting to put another $10,000 in that. Now, you want to buy houses." You have to get focused over a certain period of time so that your spouse or your significant other can see, "She's serious about this. She has done her research. She's got some data for me. She has been looking into this for the last 6 months, 12 months, or what have you."
Study and do what it is that you need to do so that when you present it to them, it sounds like a coherent thought. There's a group that you can both join together. My husband and I did this. We joined a real estate investing group. We took the lowest level or the cheapest level that they had, which was $250 for the year. It allowed us to go to all the events and activities.
He went to a few to see what it was, and then I kept going by myself but at least, he knew, "There are other men in the room. This is normal. People are making money. It's not fly-by-night and get-rich scheme type of thing." I pretty much built our real estate investing portfolio on my own. He has been supportive now because he knows it's a real thing, but I haven't had him involved. Both of you have a little bit different stories. Can you talk about your spouses and how they're involved in your business?
I love that you bring this up because a lot of the women that I coach are building their businesses on their own. They either are single. I'm coaching a lot of women going through divorces. To be honest, COVID opened a lot of Pandora's boxes and relationships. It's also exactly what you said, "What am I passionate about? What fulfills me? Are you aligned with your significant other?"
You can do this on your own. It's even more important that you find a group, tribe, community, coach, mentor, program, or whatever it is to help you not feel alone because entrepreneurship can feel lonely at times but it is possible. I've had so many women say, "Misty, you're so lucky because you do this with your husband." I do feel very fortunate. I have an extremely supportive husband. We have been together for eighteen years. I am truly fortunate.
It's important that you find a group, tribe, or community, whatever it is, to help you not feel alone. Entrepreneurship can sometimes feel lonely, but it is absolutely possible.
For us, it was his dream to build this business. I was along for the ride. As much as I loved real estate investing and doing the foreclosure side, that was my little baby. It was building that business, but when I discovered coaching, that business is all mine. He supports it. He's very supportive, but what I found is I love having my own little baby that I'm working on. He's focused on the development side of our business. I'm part of that but it's his baby. He's taking it and running with it.
One of the important things for us was establishing roles and responsibilities. Whether you're partnering with a friend, another investor, a family member or a spouse, understand your zone of genius. Mine is more on the people side of things. In our development companies, I help with the marketing, investor relations, and the more creative and people side of things. He's analytical. He's the engineer.
I remember when I had to present when I wanted to join this group coaching program to help me build my coaching business, I came to him with a dream. He's like, "I need to see numbers. I need to understand what this is." Bring it to them in a way that they're going to process it. That's a big part of when I jump on discovery calls or enrollment calls with women to see if it's a good fit. They're all gung-ho. They're like, "I have to go talk to my husband."
That's the first thing I say, "How do we need to present this to him? What do you need from me to provide to him to show him how this all works?" We are more emotional and they are more typically analytical. It's having that support and getting them to understand. I've had great conversations with husbands that joined the call. They're like, "I get it now. Thank you for explaining all of this."
It's presenting it in that way, but most importantly, it's those roles and responsibilities and understanding where each of you steps in because then that also creates an equal partnership. I used to feel like I was just following Jason, whereas now, I don't feel that at all even in the businesses that we have together. I have my coaching business. I feel like I'm an equal partner in all of that.
That has helped me and my self-confidence because I didn't want to just follow him wherever and not be true to myself. I want to understand what my role is, where my strong suits are, and where my zone of genius is, and play a big part in those areas. I do truly feel like that. That's what has helped me feel fulfilled in all of our businesses. That's my two cents on that.
I got a lot from what you two are both saying. Renee, our husbands are similar. I've watched Renee and how she does that. I'm like, "I should have learned this a long time ago," but it was pretty messy at first. I had this role of taking care of the kids, and now I'm all of a sudden transforming into this business person. It was a struggle. I didn't notice this at the time, but he may have felt like it wasn't his baby. It was my baby.
I was so into this but I kept pushing forward and kept going. Looking back, I don't know how I could have changed that. Maybe I could have presented things a little better because he saw it as I jumped into this thing that I don't know what I'm doing. It freaked him out. He's scared to death, but behind the scenes, I was studying and learning a lot. I was intrigued but he didn't see the preparation underneath.
I am an ideas person. I am the one that's like, "This can happen. Everything is going to work out." He's more of a, "I don't see it. I don't feel it. I don't know what you're talking about." Sometimes I wish we had a communicator in the middle of us translating. Renee stepped in. She's the communicator for the middle of us because I'll say something, and she can see Kyle's face like, "What are you saying?"
I fixed it for Kyle because he's the same as my husband. I know that guy.
I would get so frustrated and feel not understood. I would maybe blame him in some ways. He's the negative one and I'm the optimistic one, but it's not that either. We process and learn differently. It took six years for him to finally transform and see the vision. We're in it for ten years. Now, he's part of it. He got his real estate license. This is his role and this is my role. I see him but it took a long time like you're saying with these roles. I see him loving this more than he ever thought he would. It's fun to be in the same place but when you're not, it can be very hard. It took a long time.
Success helps too. My husband became a believer when we started making money on the houses. He was willing to buy the next one. We got up to ten before we started selling off properties to go into multifamily. At the time when we were making those purchases on those homes when he saw the cashflow and the money coming in, and belonging to that group that was mostly men, that made him feel a little bit more comfortable. Nothing says success like a check in the mail or direct deposit.
That squashes all the yin-yang you're getting out of your man or your significant other. You can do this as much as you can on your own but the proof is in the paycheck. If you start bringing in money, they will leave you alone, but until you're bringing in any money, you're going to hear it but you cannot give up. Do not quit. Join those groups and get coaching and all the free education you can. You can get a college degree on YouTube, not literally. YouTube has 1,000 hours of real estate investing information. You can become an encyclopedia of knowledge for free between YouTube and go to meetups.
Go to meetups, networking events, and all the free stuff you can. Connect with people and find private money. There's no reason why you can't start doing this even if you don't have the money to do it because private lenders will be willing to invest with you or let you do the work. You can figure that part out if you have the knowledge and if they see, "She's serious. She's got a great work ethic. She knows a lot." The private lender has money. You've got the know-how. Get it moving.
You have to implement. It's not about consuming the information. That's called passive action-taking. It's the consumption of information. We want massive action-taking where you implement. Be mindful of that because I do have so many women that are like, "I've educated myself on real estate investing for seven years but have not done anything with it." That's where we have to move the needle forward even if it's small. The proof is in the pudding there.
We must move the needle forward, even if it's a small step.
I remember my husband when I approached him about this coaching thing. He's like, "You know coaches only make $40,000 a year on average." I didn't know that because I didn't look it up because I'm not logical or analytical. I'm like, "This is the dream, babe. I can do this." I have far surpassed that. He's like, "This is a real thing here. This is a business." I've made more money coaching than I ever did in my career and whatever else. We have multiple streams of income through real estate investing and then coaching. The good thing is I've got to merge both of those worlds.
You're helping so many women.
That is my why, my purpose, and my passion in life. You can ask my mom from the time I was tiny, "Misty, what do you want to be when you grow up?" I want to help people. I don't care what you call me. I don't care what title you give me. I want to help and impact people. I get to do that on a level that I didn't even dream was possible. That's another thing too. When you find something that you're passionate about, it's so much easier to turn that into a business and make money.
When you find something you're passionate about, it's much easier to turn that into a business and make money.
When we talk about the zone of genius and being in that and tapping into that, I'm not the one that's on the job site, building these houses. That's Jason's zone of genius, but when it comes to having investor relations and talking to them and building those relationships to get people to invest in those projects, all day long. That's how we can understand that in our businesses together.
I'm starting to understand my zone of genius in my coaching business, and bringing on beautiful people like Renee to help me with everything else. It makes it so much easier. It's funny because then you make more money. You have more impact. You're doing more when you focus on the thing that you're better at and more passionate about.
Let everything else go and have somebody else in their zone of genius step in and dig in with the roles and responsibilities. It does take time. Jason and I were on each other's toes for the first two years of our investing business, "You're doing that. I thought I was doing that." It's having to figure that out. It was finally like, "This is what I'm good at. This is what I want to do. This is what you're good at." It takes time, but it does make a big difference for sure.
What I love too is we all align. We have this show or this time because we align and feed off of each other. When you find that, it's amazing. Thank you so much. You're amazing, all of you.
One last time before we go, can you give us your contact information once more for ladies who want to reach out to you?
Find me on Facebook. I'm on there a lot. I'm on the other platforms, but not as much. My email is Misty@GuidewayInvestmentPartners.com. Check out www.HerMindsetMattersREI.com to see more about the eight-week coaching program that we offer women. See if you want to join our tribe and our program. We can chat about doing one-on-one coaching if that's something that you're interested in.
If you're looking to get started in real estate investing or even scale, let's chat. I've coached women that are more experienced and want some help with their mindset and setting proper systems in their business to scale. If you're ready to go to the next level in your business, whether that's getting started or scaling, I want to help in any way that I can. I would love to chat with anybody interested in chatting more about that.
Thank you, Misty Flanagan. Thank you, Camille Davis. I'll see you next time.
Thank you, both.
Thank you.
Important Links
Guideway Investment Partners - Facebook
Houston Women's Real Estate Investor Alliance - Facebook group
Misty Flanagan - Facebook
About Misty Hassentab
Misty Flanagan Hassenstab is a full-time Entrepreneur, Real Estate Investor, & Business & Mindset Coach with 5+ years of experience in wholesaling, flips, rentals, & new construction. She is extremely passionate about helping other women create a life & business filled with passion, positivity, & purpose. She is a Managing Partner in Guideway Investment Partners LLC, Elevated Development LLC, & Level Up Remodeling LLC. She is also Co-Founder of the Houston – Women’s Real Estate Investor Alliance (WREIA).
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