048 | I Just Bought My First Fix-and-Flip Property!

Speaker A: Mhm. This is She's Equipped with Jennifer Allwood a podcast for Christian women in business who want to earn more from their God given talent, grow their impact and lead with faith. Hey there friends. Welcome back to the podcast. Jennifer Allwood, this is She's Equipped with Jennifer Allwood. We're going to talk about speed in business today and how speed normally wins in business. Um, and I'm actually super excited about this topic because have you ever noticed that like some people in business just seem to make progress so much faster than everybody else? Like after 20 some years of being in business and coaching 22,000, I need to get an accurate number on that of women in business. I've noticed a pattern, right, because you know, 20 some thousand women, you start just kind of seeing things well before you hit 20,000. But I can often predict with the women that I'm coaching how they are going to do based on how quickly they move, how quickly they make decisions, how quickly they implement advice that they're paying me for. I mean, especially, you know, if, if they're one of my voxer coaching clients and I'm giving them advice like how fast do they actually put that into motion? Um, and how quickly do they obey God when they feel like God is prompting them to do something. So speed is a competitive advantage in business, friends. And this conversation is going to make some of you ladies super uncomfortable because you don't like to go fast, you like to think about things. You like to move slowly because to you, speed equals danger. Okay, so let me just tell you something. Speed in business is different than speed on a highway. When it comes to a highway, Jason says I drive like a grandma. That's okay. I, I don't even know what that means. By the way, uh, slow and steady wins the race. But when it comes to business, I feel like I move relatively fast. Now listen, before you say, well Jennifer, that's easy for you to do because you have the cash to be able to make mistakes or you've been doing this for a long time or whatever you know, you want to assume about me, let me just say this. I moved fast. Even when we were in a different financial position, what we're in today, I moved fast, um, years ago, before I was even married to my husband. And I do think that I probably have a little bit higher of a risk tolerance than some people. But it's also because I have walked with the Lord for a long time. I know that God will never leave me nor forsake me if I make stupid decisions. Quickly. I trust that my God in heaven will let me learn from the consequences. He'll still be with me. He will reroute my route, whatever. Um, but I like to go fast and not crazy fast. Not, um, uh, risky fast, but fast enough that momentum is able to be made, fast enough that I'm obedient, fast enough that there's just an edge to it. Okay. But most women in business want to move slow. They want to overthink things to death. Literally, overthinking strangles the life out of some of your best ideas. And some of your best ideas could be the very thing that just blows the roof, blows the top off of your business this year. Go back and listen to the last episode that, um, I just did. The topic is, uh, what did we title that? Something like your next idea might be your best idea. It is. Or the next thing you try could change everything. That's what it's called. And that was episode 47. Go listen to that when you're done here. But most women in business want to overthink things to death. And you are killing good ideas by overthinking. You want to research everything to death. You want to look things up, your ideas on ChatGPT, but then you want to go over and ask Claude. Then you also want to Google. Then you also want to ask your couple of best business buddies. You want to ask your 15 closest friends who aren't even in business. You want to pray about something continually that God's already told you to do. But the truth is you don't like what God told you to do. So you just keep praying about it, hoping that God will tell you something different. And some of you move slow just because you want to wait until you feel confident, which, by the way, is never going to happen. You can never feel confident about making a decision that you have not made before. You make the decision, what you're actually wanting is for God to give you a guarantee that something's going to work out. And we are not guaranteed a, ah, guarantee of anything on this side of heaven other than that God is with us and anything that else, uh, that lines up with the Bible. So women are moving slow. They're overthinking over researching, over talking to people, overanalyzing over all the things. Meanwhile, their competitors are moving fast. And in business, business rewards movement. And I would like to say pace of movement, momentum is so much easier for God to do something with than someone that's standing still. And so when it comes to business, you've Got to figure out how to force yourself to move quicker, probably, than what you are. And so after coaching this many people, I can often predict who's going to succeed because I've watched it happen over and over and over. I can give the same advice to two women in business. One person's going to implement it very quickly. They're going to have that sucker rolled out in 24 hours. They're going to do the thing in 24 hours while another person is still thinking about it six months later, still in my coaching group. Six months later, still, still barely asking any questions, still, you know, pondering, still praying on it. And I'm using quotation marks if you're watching on YouTube. Um, not to be a jerk, but listen, there is a time for prayer and there's a time for doing, because faith without works is dead, is what the Bible says. And so sometimes you gotta come out of your, you know, prayer closet, if you will, and start doing some things so that God has something to work with. And so, you know, when you've got these two people that I'm coaching, who do you think usually gets the results? It's the woman who moves quickly, who takes action, who maybe doesn't trust herself, but trusts God, who trusts m. The advice that they're getting from me as their coach, who don't require confirmation from 15 different people who aren't in their line of work anyway. Listen, stop asking questions to your friends who are not even in business. Stop. Stop asking other people what to do. When you have a gut, you have an intuition. If you're born again, you have the Holy Spirit, you have a God in heaven who is rooting for you. Why are you asking 20 people. If you're making your pros and cons list? Quit. I can remember, um, you know, my mom before she was saved and things doing that when I was growing up. Let's make a pros and cons list. Let's make a pros and cons list. I. I haven't made a pros and cons list since I got saved. You don't need a pros and cons list because the truth of the matter is often what God's going to instruct you to do is not going to line up on paper because everything you know is kind of upside down. It's like the upside down world when you serve the Lord. In order to go high, you got to go low. In order to be exalted, you got to be humbled, you know, in order to, um, reap. You've got to sow. It's, you know, it's contrary to what we think. And so, so many women are thinking that the waiting is going to reduce risk. It's not. Often waiting just delays. Your learning. Often waiting just delays dollars. Often waiting just delays, um, breakthrough. And so I wanna give you just a couple examples of ways that I've tried to move quickly. Um, and by the way, like, I'm not perfect at this. Okay? So. But let me give you a couple examples. Um, a couple years ago, I had a coach who told me I should start selling software. It's my equip360 software. You can go to shesequipped.com or equip360.com, see my software there, sign up for my coaching and software there. But I had a coach who came to me and said, um, and I talked about this on the last episode of the podcast. What is it that most of the women in your coaching groups are needing? What is something that a lot of them, like a whole, you know, that they have what could. And I'm like, they need an email, uh, list. They need a website. He's like, well, you need to start selling software. Okay. I came back and told the team we need to figure out how to sell software. I didn't spend a year researching. I didn't put together a committee and have 20 meetings on whether or not we should do it. I didn't ask 15 people what they thought. I moved. I don't even think I asked my husband, maybe other, you know, than just out of, uh, sharing with him what I was planning on doing, because he trusts me. And so we moved on it. And that decision is a major revenue stream. It's a valuable asset. But what would have happened if I'd sat on that for a year, two years, whatever? Okay, let me give you another example. Several years ago, when I coached with Stu McLaren about membership groups, this would have been in 2018. I was looking. I was in his group because I wanted to build my membership group, which at the time had 700 people at $47 a month. I went to a Mastermind event with him. My question was, how can I get more people in here? Stu said, I need you to shut down your group so it's not open all the time. And I'm like, okay, uh, clearly, Stu, you're not hearing me. What I said was, I want to get more people in the group, and you're telling me to shut it down? He's like, yes, Jennifer, you tell people they have the next couple days to sign up and then you're shutting it down. You're not sure when you'll open it again. And I'm like, okay, what? And he's like, jennifer, like it was almost like a double dog dare. Do this. Put a date on your calendar. Came back to Kansas City, told my team, okay, we're going to shut down at the time. It's called inner circle. And we're going to try to get, you know, as many people as we can in and whatever time we have. And so we added 1100 people, 1100 new people at $47 a month in a 10 day time frame, which took that to a $2 million a year group. Okay? It. I didn't overanalyze. I didn't go and ask six other coaches, by the way, because when you're coaching with something, we stick with that coach for the love. Find a coach who's living a life that you want. Okay, notice I didn't say find a coach whose business is what you want it to be. That's not what I said. Find a coach who's living a life that you want. Because those are the receipts, seats. Those are the byproduct of having a business that's working well. Find someone. And I'm not saying me find. I mean, you can't be me, but find somebody who. You look at their life and you're like, I want that freedom. I see how she gives, I see how she travels. I see how she doesn't work much. I see how she, uh, boasts about whatever, like whatever it is for you. Find somebody where you're like that. That's what I'm looking for. Not the money, but the freedom that the money brings. Does that make sense? And go all in with that coach and quit trying to be in 15 free groups and getting coached by two people. You're paying 15 coaches that you're not paying. Like, stop. Go all in on somebody. Let me give you one more example. And God told me to shut down my painting business. And I was like, what are you doing, Lord? I had delayed obedience for a year, friends. And delayed obedience is, is disobedience. It just is. And obedience is supposed to be fast. And so I can remember. And I've told you guys this story 100 times, especially if you're in my coaching group. I was going out on a walk. We call that a walk. Jog. A walk is what Jason and I call it. And the Lord told me to turn off M and M. And he gave me three Things I needed to do that day, one of which was go home and shut down your painting company. And I've been hee hawing about it for a year. And I was like, yes, sir, yes, sir. And it was after that that my coaching business exploded within 6m months. I'm not saying it was because of that, but I'm saying it could have been because of that. Okay, let me give you the most recent example I have. Right now I'm under contract to, um, close on my first fix and flip house in Kansas City. I told Jason, we have purchased three Airbnbs out of state. We had two in Florida, we had one in Arizona. We, we are looking for a fix and flip at Lake of the Ozarks. And I wanted to do my first fix and flip here in Kansas City. Um, if I can do Airbnbs in other states, I can certainly flip a house in Kansas City quickly. So, you know, conversations with Jason were something like this, this is what I want to do. Um, thoughts, feedback, et cetera. Because that matters to me, of course. I'm just not out here running crazy, you know, doing what I want. But he's like, I support you. Okay? And so I put three offers in in a four or five day period a couple of weeks ago on three completely different properties. I ran the numbers, I went and looked at all three. I put offers on all three. One of them I'm under contract for. Okay, listen, if I had spent months analyzing, uh, you know, comps, and of course I looked at comps, um, what do you think? What do you think? If I'd had that spirit of hand wringing, you know, I would have missed out on all three of those, the opportunity would have disappeared. And by the way, the houses, the two properties that we have in Florida, um, and the one we had in Arizona, all three of those I found came to my husband, um, and said, gut feeling, I think we should buy, you know, each of these. And this was over the course of four years. And we did sight unseen, all three of them. I did walk through, um, the last one, the big one in Miramar Beach. Bougie on Miramar Beach. But, um, it's funny to me because I put on social media one time, you know, Jason didn't see any of them till they were closed. And somebody reminded me that that is so in line with Proverbs 31:Woman. Because in there it says she considered a field and she bought it. It didn't say she considered a field. And she went and checked with 9 million people on if this was a good idea. She didn't say she considered a field and went home and made sure her husband was on board. Although I'm sure she had, uh, the blessing of one if she was married. Does it say that? Proverbs 31 Woman's married. It doesn't, does it? No. Yes, it does. Cause it says the. That, um, he's, ah, something in the gates of heaven and his heart is safe with her. Okay, so she is married. And I'm not saying to not have your spouse on board. I'm saying Jason knows that I have a good gut feeling. He trusts me to not make horrible decisions with our money. Um, he also knows that when it comes to, like, buying a flip property, you have to move quickly on, uh, all three of those houses. I had to make an offer the same day. There wasn't time for me to call. And, you know, so I'm going on gut feeling, what God says, hunch, et cetera, et cetera. Opportunities, I believe, often come to those people who will move. I really do. And so, you know, so often in business, we think, I have a great idea, but so many people have great ideas. I wrote in Fear's not the Boss of youf, my book that came out in 2020, um, I quoted the gentleman who invented the Atari. For those of you that are my age, remember the Atari. And he said something along the lines of, everybody has a great idea in the shower. It's the person that gets out of the shower and actually does something with the idea that's gonna be successful. You know, years ago, I had an idea. Um, it was before 2020, I had the idea of creating a day planner because I am such a lover of day planners. I've used a since I was 19 years old. Um, I know a lot of people use their phones. I am not one of those people. I use a day planner. I like to see things in front of me in writing. There is a little bit of an endorphin rush every time I cross something off. It's just not the same on my phone. Okay, so I still use a day planner today. Uh, I have jokingly said I would rather lose my purse than my day of planner. And I honestly, there's some truth to that. Okay, so years ago, I had this idea. What if I created a day planner specifically for Christian businesswomen, specifically for Christmas businesswoman. So they can plan out their business day, uh, they can plan out their social media. So they have, you know, some encouraging biblical words, scripture, et cetera. And I just kept Thinking about it. I kept thinking about it, Kept thinking about it. I sat on it. I sat on it way too long. I did not act on it. And then I saw a lady who's a friendly competitor of mine. She launched hers. Similar, similar thing. I had not shared, like, my idea with her. I'm sure there were plenty of people already doing it. My point is, she beat me to market with it. Good for her. And it did well. I should have executed on it. I didn't. I sat on it. She launched, she executed, she made money. Good for her. It wasn't that she was necessarily smarter than me. She just moved faster than me. Because the marketplace rewards execution. It rewards speed. Everybody has ideas. But so few women are willing to execute. Most business regret comes from people not launching, not trying, not acting, not moving. And so often we see somebody else build something that we thought of. They just did it first. So listen, overthinking it may feel productive, friends. It may feel like. I'm looking at this from every angle. I'm looking as. Because you're thinking, you're hedging your bets. If I see this from every stinking side, then the chances of this falling apart, the chances of this going sideways. One of my kids, when they were little, used to say side words. The cost of this going sideways. Um, you know how sometimes they also used to say under puppy instead of underdog when we go to the park? Some things I just like to say because my kids used to say it, but we think if we think a thing to death, that maybe then things won't go sideways. And it's just not true. It's just not true. If you're telling yourself right now, I'm researching, I'm m planning, I'm praying, I'm gathering information. You're just avoiding decisions. And every delayed decision has a cost because you think not making a decision is a neutral thing, but it's not. It's costing you something. You're delaying hiring, you're delaying firing, you're delaying your launch, you're delaying raising your prices, you're delaying hard conversations. And. And the cost is going to be in your revenue, it's going to be in your energy level, it's going to be in your piece, and it's going to be in momentum. One of those examples I just gave is that you're delaying firing someone. Listen, fire faster. The saying is, hire slow, fire fast. Because most leaders wait way too long. I have done this many times in business. Most business owners tolerate way too stinking much from the People who work from them, you know, long before you actually let someone go. But you should have let them go a long time ago. You know, in your knower, when it's time and it's costing you. Okay, so stop waiting for perfect conditions. If you're listening to this podcast right now and you're like, jen, okay, I'm going to do what you're saying, but I'm going to wait until after, you know, summer is over, after vacation, after summer starts, after the economy improves. Wait, what if it doesn't improve, friends? I mean, what about that? We have no guarantees on this side of heaven. After I feel confident, after I feel better, after I feel whatever. After I know more. You don't need to know more. You need to do more. In Ecclesiastes 11:4, it says, Whoever watches the wind will not plant. Whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. If you're waiting for perfect conditions, more than likely, you're just never gonna do it. You're never gonna do it. Let me just say this too. Any woman who's been in my coaching for any amount of time has heard me say, there are very few things, so few things that are permanent on this side of heaven. So few things. If you are thinking to yourself right now, what if this is gonna be a huge mistake? What if it is? Then you learn. Then you don't do that again. I could sit and say, okay, what the heck am I doing? I just bought a house. I, after walking through it for 15 minutes, that has an in ground pool that has not had water in it for 12 years. I don't know if that thing can be salvaged. I don't know if I'm gonna have to fill it in with dirt. I don't know. Um, if you don't follow me on Jennifer Allwood Home, I will start posting about it in the next, uh, week and so post pictures and stuff there on Instagram, so be watching. But I could be, you know, have that spirit of hand wringing. What did I do? What did I do? What did I do? Well, you know what I did? I. I saw something. I considered a field. I bought it. Is what the Bible says in Proverbs 31. Except this was a house. I considered it. I thought, Lord, what you think? My gut, uh, feeling was make an offer. I made an offer. Can I tell you something really interesting about this? I made an offer. Well, let me save the story for another time, because it's really a God story. God told me to bounce my offer up, and I did. And then the Holy Spirit told me to add $100 to it. And guess how much I bet out? Bid out, bet out. Uh, what am I saying? How much? I beat out the next person that put in an offer right behind me. The next closest offer, A hundred dollars. So it was a gut feeling, friends. And if it's a money pit, if it's awful, if it's whatever, I will have some very costly, um, lessons that I learn. But it's not life or death. And neither are your business decisions. Most of them can be adjusted. You can pivot, you can change course, you can learn, you can come back from them. And so listen, friends, it tells us in the book of James in the Bible to not merely listen to the word, but to do what it says. It says in Proverbs that all hard work brings a profit, but mere talk will just lead to poverty. Some of you have talked your business ideas to death. It's time to actually do something and do something with some speed. You know in Genesis when it talks about Abram, um, it's. It literally says, so Abram went as the Lord had told him. God spoke. Abram moved. He didn't ask 15 people what to do. He didn't do his pros and cons list. He didn't go to Claude Chatgpt anything else God said he did the end. And so, friend, you probably already have a great idea. You don't need a better idea. You just need to move on the idea you have. You just need to act before you feel ready. You just need to implement what you've already been taught. You just need to trust God with this step and the next 10. And so listen, your speed does not guarantee success, but I can guarantee you that your hesitation and your being stuck is the very opposite of what you want to happen. And so if God's already told you what to do, like, don't delay, don't overthink, don't negotiate, just obey. Obedience moves things. Speed does things in a business. And I honestly believe that so often speed wins. Not because you execute an idea quickly or rashly or foolishly, but because you're willing to just take some chances and you're never going to get to where you're wanting to go in life, in business, by playing everything safe. If you're waiting on the assurance that your idea is going to work, you probably are not going to get it. But I encourage you, move quickly, make some decisions, implement some things. Let's see what happens. I feel like I had a lot of words just now, did anybody else feel like that was a lot of words? That was a lot of words. But I hope that this was helpful for some somebody. This was not the podcast I was going to record today, so I always know that when the Holy Spirit changes the idea last minute, that is specifically for somebody listening. Would you let me know if this is you today? Will you send this to someone who you already know has a great idea about business? Send this podcast idea to her or, um, him. I appreciate you friends so, so much. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. Well, hey, thanks for joining me today on, um, she's equipped. And remember, growth in your business is coming from action, not just intention. So I want you to take what you heard today, pray about it, and then put it to work in your business this week. And if today's episode encouraged you, please make sure you hit the follow button so you never miss a strategy that helps you to scale your business. And for more resources to help you grow, head on over to shesequipped. Com. We'll see you there.