I remember working as Marketing Director for a real estate team back in Virginia Beach, a roughly 2-year gig.

It was a predictable 9-5 office grind. Coffee and donuts at the desk, team meetings around the grease board, a dizzying amount of phone calls.

Although I gave the job my all, as someone who was always built to steer her own ship, I struggled to fully embrace the work and where it was headed.

One day my boss / the TL announced she was leaving to go walk her dog.

My hand shot up. “Can I do it?”

All I wanted was a splash of sunshine and an escape from gray walls.

Thus began a biweekly ritual of me walking my boss’s bouncy little Yorkie all about the neighborhood. On these walks I drafted a series of mental checklists and timelines, plotting a path to building my own agency.

The dog and I would stroll past houses with big screened porches in the back, and I’d think, “That’ll be my home office life someday.”

In the summer months it was the highlight of each work day — brisk walks with the sun on my face, and pockets of silence to listen to my own desires.

Today I own an agency and just came home from a 45-minute walk. As I write this post, I’m barefoot on my hot back deck. In a few minutes I’ll take a call from my screened porch, laptop perched on a blue throw pillow.

Sometimes in this WFH environment, I flash back to the Caroline who walked her boss’s dog and envisioned something different for herself. Maybe there’s a subconscious part of me that clinks champagne glasses with that person today — oh hey, cheers to you, you did the thing — every time I ring a client and lead in the convo with, “Hello from my back screened porch! And how are you today?”

You should clink glasses with your former self more often.

Because when we’re building businesses, there’s a lot of talk re: what’s ahead for us.

We don’t typically speak enough about where we came from — how dramatically we’ve already created change for ourselves.

I may not always own this agency and do this same work. In fact recently, I’ve let myself dream again in ways that surprise even me. But at that time of my life, back working the marketing gig, the corporate world made me semi-ill.

I didn’t have a choice but to quit.

Now eight years in as an agency founder, I’ve more than tripled my salary as a Marketing Director. And I get outside for buckets of sunshine any time I like.

Of course, this is not about entrepreneurship being the superior golden ticket. Last week I had dinner with a friend who is pivoting from running her own business to taking an office job; it’s what her mental health needs.

I raised my glass to her and this next good thing she has chosen for herself. A stable monthly paycheck. The ability to be a more present parent + spouse, with a work brain that can maybe actually flip off after 5 PM every day.

That’s her big win.

Regardless of what society teaches us about success, it might be enough for you to simply acknowledge you’ve already come far. You once had a different dream for yourself, something ached, you moved yourself forward.

Now today, you get to let your feet be proudly in one place if you choose.

Remember that in real estate, you’re conditioned to believe a lot of things, one of them being that no amount of production is good enough.

You did $8,000,000 in volume last year. But is that award-worthy?

You doubled your revenue from last quarter. But you’re still working solo. When are you going to grow a team and close more?

I hear this often on the phone with the Realtors who engage us. How’s business, I ask? Are you happy? What are your recent wins?

I’m not actually asking for the numbers crunch on production, but they usually tell me and there’s usually a qualification, sigh or apology around it:

“So, you know, it’s been a good year…but I need to do more. I know I can do more.”

If we’re not growing in business, we’re freaking DYING, or some such nonsense.

Thing is, I tell myself the same things. Do I need to increase childcare hours while my kids are so small + demanding? Hire more team members? Why haven’t I waded into paid advertising like everyone else? How to make more and be more impressive?

It’s hard to resist the conditioning that bigger doesn’t equal better. There’s always another goal post ahead and to add to the sting, hundreds of folks will arrive at that goal post long before you or me.

But what if our businesses had deeper roots that can receive our contentment and gratitude — even as we aim higher?

That’s where I am today. Enjoying my Screened Porch Moment.

There are many ways to love your work and your life, but wherever you are right now might be perfectly adequate for now.

There’s nothing immoral about us if we don’t “evolve” on a given day.

We don’t give enough glory to loving what we’ve already built.

So, cheers to you.

You made good on a promise made to yourself a while back. Now you’re really doing the thing.

Let it be good.

P.S — What’s BLUEPRINT, again? 

We’re a gaggle of designers, writers, and creatives on a mission to change the branding narrative in real estate.

We offer a signature branding service and the industry’s most elegant and high-converting digital products to help modern, stylish Realtors do three things:

➝ Communicate their worth;

➝ Become the obvious choice;

➝ Tell the right stories to stand out + SELL more.

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