How to Talk to Investors: Positive Language, Surveys & Client Confidence

Are you a property manager — or a business owner and investor? The words you choose shape how landlords, investors, and your market see your property management business, and most of us are underselling ourselves.

In this episode, we unpack:

• Why "I'm a property manager" undersells you, and what to say instead
• Job titles that elevate your team ("Senior Property Manager," "Administrative Manager") — and the ones that make us cringe
• How we surveyed our clients after the federal budget, and why nearly 70% of investors weren't concerned despite the doom-and-gloom headlines
• What to say when a landlord is thinking of selling their investment property
• Why "adjusting the rent" beats "dropping the rent" — and other positive language scripts that build trust
• How to turn your own portfolio data into a local benchmarking report the media can't compete with

Whether you run a property management business in Australia or anywhere in the world, this one will change how you introduce yourself at your next networking event.

Guest: Anita Walker from Pearl Property in Western Australia

This podcast is kindly sponsored by Longreach

This podcast is sponsored by West Oz Trades.

West Oz Trades are the team to service and install your air conditioning systems in Perth Western Australia. WestOz Trades Air Conditioning Services | Perth, Western Australia

Transcript

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Why We Default To Labels

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We are going to be talking about language because language is something that you and I have spoken about and language that we're having with our clients and the use of positive words is really where we're going to touch on. But I also am going to actually want to touch on something first before I forget, because this has just come up recently. And I'm processing it myself because I struggle with it. So if someone says to me, What do you do? I would say I'm a property manager. But I'm actually not really a property manager because I don't do property management day to day, but I just that's how I refer to myself. And I had someone in here for doing her podcast. She was from a different, a different industry. And I hadn't met her before, and we're just talking. And I said, What do you do? And she says, I'm a business owner and investor. And I was like, really turned on. Because I'm like, I like that. Like a band pitch type thing, you know, that's awesome. And she actually is an accountant and she also owns a car auto shop. And she, but she loves business, she loves resie property, she loves commercial property, she's investing big. Really cool to listen to it. And but I said to her, I'm finding this really interesting because I'm a business owner and I'm an investor, but that is not how I would have introed myself. And then that got me thinking, why don't I use those words?

SPEAKER_00 1:27

It's very true, isn't it? And it's really interesting that you say that because I had this exact same thought, but I was filling in a form and I had to put my occupation. And I was like, do I write business owner or do I write property management? Or do I write real estate? I actually wrote property management.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

I write property management tree. That's what I do.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Yeah. But it I actually stopped and thought, I don't know if I'm like, if that really is accurate, because yes, I have a business focused around property management, but I'm not actually a property manager on the day to day. Yeah, I'm qualified to be a property manager, but I'm also a qualified salesman. Yeah. But I don't do, I don't do that. So I think if people ask me what I do, I generally say I'm the business owner of a property management company. Yeah, okay. But again, that's like a lot of big mouthwork. It's a lot of words. It is a little bit. Yeah. Business owner and investor sounds really cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

And so for me, I was like, so I've got investment properties, but I don't I don't live off the investment properties. They're set and forget, they just do their own thing. I don't, you know, when I retire, there'll be the passive income and there'll be the benefit. And when I retire, if I was living off the income of investment properties, I would be like, I'm an investor. Because that's how that is your income.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

That's my income. That's your income. And that's that's generally what your brain goes to when someone says, What what do you do? Is what what generates your income.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Yeah. And property management generates my income more than the sales. So I think that's why I default to property management. But I I it's not actually that accurate, is it? It's not really that accurate when you think about it. Yeah. And so it's just, I've just been really curious over that. And I feel like I'm gonna start changing my language a little bit around it. So, and I think I am gonna start calling myself business owner. And even I went to a networking dinner last night and it was with a great group of ladies from Perth, and I was in my mind, I didn't say it, but what how I was processing, I was like, I could say that I'm a podcast studio owner, but I don't, yeah, but I could, and why am I not using that language?

SPEAKER_00 3:38

And I think this is the interesting thing is it may depend on what context you're in. So if you're for me, if I'm at a B and I meeting, for example, and we have a visitor and they say, What do you do? I'd say I'm the business owner of Pearl Property Co. We're a property management company. But if you're at an event that's more casual, but it's you're still networking because you're not necessarily there with friends, you would maybe say, I'm a business owner. And that then leads to them to say, Oh, what sort of business have you got? And it keeps that conversation going. If you give too much away right up front, it could potentially stunt that conversation too. Yes. So the language is not just about identity, it's also about communication.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yes. Yeah, absolutely.

The Property Manager Stigma

SPEAKER_01 4:26

So then if we go to the next slate, which is property managers, and we have we've talked about this a lot. If you're a property manager and someone says, Who are you? I'm a property manager. And the when we say that to someone, unfortunately, those words negative connotations. Negative. And then nothing's worse when someone goes, I was one of your tenants. Like, I cringe, I'm like, was it good or bad? And they're like, it was good. I was like, hey, Phil, thank you. But but you naturally do that as property manager, and we need to start calling ourselves out and each other. And I need someone to call me out when I do it as well, because it's really hard. But to stop saying I'm a property manager, what are you? I look after, I look after investors' properties, or even that sounds better.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Yeah, 100%. And I think we're our own worst enemy because we downplay the value and the importance of what we do. And then you I don't I got an email from it when I was stepping into someone else's folio, and the email came in and it had investment asset manager, something like that. And I was like, oh, that sounds really swish. And I like I like in my head, I was like, sad to stop myself. So I was like, that's that's really my brain just went, oh, they're trying to make themselves sound really good. Yes, yes, that's exactly what it is. Why do we do that? Because it that literally sums up what we do very nicely. Yes. And it is very accurate, but we just put ourselves down.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Yeah, jungy junky on people's website when they have little wanky little titles in front of it. Yeah, and what are they called the director of first impressions as like receptionists I can't I can't. I know I can't do that. I know if you do that, don't let me see it. I I don't think I could keep my mouth shut if I still I just don't like it.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

I think it it can it has to tie in with your personality, your brand, and your clientele from when you're looking at it from a sort of a corporate perspective, I guess, from a business perspective. And if they are in Western suburbs and that is the language that is being used in those suburbs, then that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Is that used in any suburb?

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Should it be? Yeah, now maybe not first impressions manager. I feel like that's a little bit of overkill.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

I don't I I get where they're going. I get that they want to elevate because front-of-desk people they hold a very critical role. Yes, hundred percent. Really good role. And I get that, and it should be a valued role.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

There's a butt coming in. I've called mine administrative manager.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Yeah. I can handle that more.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Yeah. Yeah. So that that's what her title is on the website. Yeah. And that's what her email signature says because I feel like that does encapture what she does, but it also means that if someone sees that, they will regard her more highly because the word manager is there. Yeah. It's it is it's a perception thing. Yeah. And you, as a business owner, want to protect your team and your staff and you want them to get the respect that they deserve for doing their role.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

So sometimes it is it's finding something that resonates with your brand and with you personally as a business owner that works well, I

Titles That Signal Respect

SPEAKER_00 7:48

think.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

While we're on the topic, senior property manager, do you refer to senior as in the age of someone, how long they've been with the agency, or their experience? What's your version? Experience.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Okay. And to be honest, I use this to my advantage sometimes. I generally don't have senior property manager as a written in places. However, if I have, if I'm at a new business meeting and I know that potential client is it's really important to them that they've got someone with experience, I will refer to the property manager as a senior property manager.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

I like that.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

They actually are. Yes. But yeah, I will actually elevate their status by using the word senior property manager. To me, it's never been an age thing, but I have had staff in the past who have been senior property managers because of their experience. And they said, Don't you dare put senior on my signature or on the website. I do not want to have senior in front of property manager of my job title. Yeah, it makes me feel really old. And she was 25.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Yeah. So I have the opposite. My team like having the word senior. I'm I don't care if it's if it's important to someone, I'm happy sticking senior in front of it. They were all valid senior positions. So it's not that they're not, it's just that it's important to some people and not to others. I'm really happy just the word receptionist being under my title and leave me alone. You know what I mean? Like I don't hold those positions too highly. Yeah. But some people do, and that's fair, and that's their natural progression in their role. So now that we have combated all the problems of the world when it comes to personal money, I want to what we really wanted to touch on was the language that we're using with investors. And this came up with you and I, with a discussion we were having on how our clients are feeling with the budget announcement, with

Budget Anxiety And Client Sentiment

SPEAKER_01 10:08

the idea of potentially selling. There are people in the industry that are saying, you know, we're in for a really hard 18 months. All our clients are going to want to sell and businesses could go down. There's a lot of speculation, and everyone has their own idea. Like, and no one's right or wrong because we have no idea of what's going to happen. Yeah. But I think that it is really important to we talked about doing your own research and doing your own uh surveys on your portfolio. Yep. And really truly finding out if it is a stress point. So for me, I did this exercise in a WhatsApp group community, and we had 50 people respond in the poll. And of those 50 people, there was only one that was concerned by the budget, and the rest were either happy to continue buying and gonna nothing's stopping them. They're keeping that they're gonna continue with their portfolio plans. And then the others were, we're fine, nothing changes for us, and they were confident. And so with that information, I can very confidently go to my community when I do the annual investor audits or when I speak to clients and say, How are you feeling? And if they are nervous, I can say, Oh, interesting, because I've done a poll and actually my owners are pretty sophisticated and no one's really worried about it. So it's really good just to get feedback. And so by having that positive language with clients, and now we've got a client that goes, Oh, that's good that no one's worrying about it. And we can start changing the perception of it. And so, and it's not lying, it's not saying that the world's gonna end and try to be positive about it. It's really, it's really personal. So, for me, that's how I've dealt with it. So, I actually haven't got really any owners that are concerned by it. And if they are, I just assure them that's interesting because none of my other clients are, and keep that positive spin. So, how have you found that experiment? Did you end up doing a survey? I did, yeah, great.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

And the results pretty aligned with what you got back with your survey as well. And I was pleasantly surprised. And I think what was interesting is that just under 70% of the surveys that came back for me said that they weren't concerned about the future of property investment, and then 20% felt slightly less confident. There was only one that said that they were more concerned than they were pre-budget night. Yeah. So, and I know that specific investor is the place that they're renting out at the moment. It was their principal place of residence, and they relocated.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

So they're not an investor in the typical sense of the word. They're they're an incidental investor, as we've talked about before. Yeah. So it's interesting. And so it was great with that survey that I was actually able to then contact them and say, I can see that you're concerned. I want to reassure you, this is the information, da-da-da-da-da. So, and actually reassure them, while I know what the headlines are saying, and while I know there's a lot of speculation, you don't actually need to panic. And you're probably in the best position you could ever be in right now. Yeah. Because you already have the property. Correct. So it's really about you then go back to anyone that is concerned, and the question to them becomes what is the reason you have the investment property? And has that changed? Because if your why for having that investment property hasn't changed, the budget shouldn't change it. That's literally the short answer of it.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

If they've had a change of circumstances and their lifestyle has changed, or they're look, they want to upgrade their family home and so

Helping Investors Reconnect With Their Why

SPEAKER_00 13:49

therefore they need to release some buns from somewhere, that's a different circumstance. But when you have that conversation with them, it really is about, okay, do you specifically want, is there some reason that you want to get rid of the investment, or is it purely just financial? Is there a way that we can support you to get what you want to achieve without having to get out of the investment market? Because I remember you said in one of your podcasts that you were doing with Marissa, I've never met an owner that said, Oh, I wish I hadn't sold.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

And it's so true. Because you you look back over the last 30 years, more obviously, but 30 years is going to be the most relevant. When has the market ever not recovered? Yeah. It hasn't. Correct. How many people do you know in your friends and your network groups that go, I wish I had bought a property back then, or I wish I hadn't sold that property, or imagine if mum and dad still had that property, what that would be worth. Now, you hear that far more often. And yes, while there are ebbs and flows within real estate and investment of residential properties, at the end of the day, the ongoing trend is always up. You have these little micro bubbles and these retractions as they call them, but it always comes back. And everybody will always need a roof over their head. There's always going to need to be housing. So as long as you are smart about it and you're not just following the herds and just panic buying and not really researching the suburb or the type of property that you're buying, because obviously that is where it goes wrong, or you oh really overstretch yourself. You can't go wrong in property. No. I've believed that since the start of my like when I first got into investment, I was 21 and I'd seen my parents do it. And I it's I'm very privileged to have been in that position where my parents were able to invest. And I could see firsthand the result of that. Not everybody has that opportunity. But I'm here telling you it works.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

And I have put my money where my mouth is and done the same thing. Yeah. And it has paid off. Yeah. And it will continue to pay off. You just have to be patient.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Yeah. One thing that I hear a lot and is when people say, Oh, I've my property's down, I've I've lost 70,000 my property, for example, and their properties instead of 800, it's down to 730 or whatever. And I always say, you haven't lost money until you sell. So don't sell. 100%. I don't I don't I don't care how it's more complicated than that. Yeah. You and but equally and then the reverse. You haven't made the money until you sell it, and you haven't lost the money until you sell it. So if you're unhappy with either, just don't do it. Exactly. And just wait for it. But shares are the same thing. They go up and they go down.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Share, I would argue that shares are far more volatile than housing.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

For sure. And I think one of the other questions that I asked in the survey of our clients was about what their intent was with their investment. And over 30% of them, the main objective of having that property was for capital growth. And 20%, this is really interesting, were holding it to help their kids down the track because they're concerned about affordability down the track. But the fact that they're doing it goes to show how much faith they have in investing in property. Yeah. And there was only quite a small number. It was less than 7% that purchased property for cash flow. Yeah, okay. So really the main mentality of people who would who are investing in property is long-term capital growth or long-term benefit for their family to get their kids in the door because they know in 10 years' time the value of property is going to be far higher than it is now.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

And it's really hard to believe that the the average house is going to cost more than a million dollars in five, 10 years' time. But it is. I love that. I say that all the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Don't worry about the market. Don't worry about if it's getting the timing right. If it's a good time for you, you do it now.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Yeah. And if you're if you're someone that is wanting to get an investment property and get into the market, it's time to get smart. So I just did a post about this recently. But if you're if you have an invest if you have a property that you're living in now and that's your sole property and you really want to get in the into the investment market, think about buying yourself a new principal place of residence and using that current principal place of residence as your investment property. Yeah. Because not only do you get the capital gains benefit because you owned it before the federal budget night, but you can just really be smart. You can potentially get equity out of that property, et cetera. So there's lots of different ways that you can still get into the investment market if you're smart about it.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Talking to the right people, getting the right ideas.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

And giving those ideas to people, to your clients is really important. It it does breed confidence. But the information that you have captured from your clients, what's so important about that is it helps you as a business owner map out like where you need to spend attention, where how your asset is going to continue to be held, and any risks that you've got from having a

Turning Surveys Into Trust And Benchmarking

SPEAKER_01 19:38

rent role as well. And so we, there are so many people, so many businesses owners out there that just speculate. And generally they're the ones that don't have a love of property management. They're more sales, but they will just be doom and gloom and have all of this. And it's, guys, if you can just do what Anita's done and do a really good survey, you've got your annual investor audits, your touching base, you know the trend that's happening.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

That's gonna go a long way. Absolutely. That data is invaluable, and you can use that to share with your clients in your end-of-month newsletter. You know, you can show them using real data that you've collected. How much of an expert does that make you look like as well? How much trust is your client gonna now have in you because you have gone out of your way to actually get the real information, not just the headlines, and shared that with them. And you're going to reassure people and you're going to be the expert in their eyes. You have nothing to lose. And you we, for example, you might send that survey out to a hundred people, might be a thousand people. Like the audit, not everyone's going to respond, but it's still going to give you a pretty good coverage from your portfolio of what the sentiment is amongst your clients. And it gives you that opportunity to get in front of people who may be worried and really knock them down with your service and say, hey, I know that you had concerns about this. Can I introduce you to the mortgage broker? You can have a conversation about it. Are you concerned because are you worried about interest rates? You know, can we support? It's really about trying to find a way to genuinely help them succeed on their investment journey. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

I don't know if you've done this, but actually I'm just thinking that this might be a good idea. I might go do it as well, and this would be a good idea for you. Is with that survey results, if we did a bigger, a bigger, bigger pool of people. Yeah. And actually then having like Pearl Property Survey results or your SOCO Realty Survey results, and you send it out private, like that's your private data, which it is, that you're sending to your database. And it's, you know, how you get those big businesses like Macquarie benchmarking. Why can't we have Pearl property benchmarking or SOCO realty benchmarking? Yeah. Why can't we do that?

SPEAKER_00 21:58

We can.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

We can't. Absolutely. I'm going to stick that on my to-do list. And then you put that out to your clients. So, because the thing is that if we don't be vocal in the media and share all of those actual, because they are actual surveys and case studies, the only thing people have to rely on is the media. 100%. And the media is so generic, it's not specific for your market. And your market where you are is different to my market. Absolutely. So, but your data is going to be relevant. For your clients. My data is relevant for my clients, but probably not for yours. So it is very purposeful in that micro community that we need to get better at. So I think I love chatting and coming up with ideas like that. It's good, isn't it? Because I'm going to take from yours. I like how you had also asked the question about like likelihood to sell all that type of thing or the reasons for having it. I haven't done that and I think that's really cool. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

So it's it is interesting because there's so many angles you can take with with your survey and you can cater that survey to the information that you want to use and you want to know so that you can further help people. But yeah, when I one of the questions I had on there was Are you planning to sell your property in the next three to five years? Yeah. It was something like 70%.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Yeah, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

That's yeah. I mean, that's really good. It was really good. It was really interesting. I had 10 questions on my survey.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Uh, and it covered a range of different things. One was also, are interest rates bothering you? Are you concerned about how and again, it was like it was up near 65, 70% said, no, it's not affecting us at all.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Yeah. That's so good. So not only in my mind I'm now thinking, not only is that data good for confidence and positivity with your clients, even sharing that that data like with people like me, other business owners, I'm like, that's really cool data. And then that helps me with my positive language when owners or other even with other business owners are concerned. Listen, Anita did this report and actually came back with this. Maybe you should try it and see. Maybe you're just worried about something that's not actually, you know, worth it.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

And the other thing is, this is where collaboration is just is so cool within that industry. But again, when you're updating your clients, you can say, so these are the results that we got. And you can you don't obviously have to give them the whole survey. It's too much information. You just want to find like the bite-sized bits that are actually relevant. And you can say, we also spoke with SOCO Realty who are generally south of the river, and this is what they're finding. Because if you collaborate and you can share that information, yeah, it's just they can't get that anywhere else. It's not published anywhere. Where are they going to get that from?

SPEAKER_01 24:42

100%. And it's like your own intel. And there's we've got a few PMC members where you've got like some that are like very hyper-focused in certain south areas and then north areas. And so, yeah, they could collaborate. But there's also, for example, people like Deb where she is very hyper-focused in Baudivers. Imagine her doing an actual just Baaldivers report. Yeah. That would be cool.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Yeah, very cool. Yeah. And really useful information. And because Baldivers is one of those areas where a lot of over East investors have bought into. Yeah. Am I right? Yeah. Because I don't go down south. Yeah. So it would be really, really, really fascinating to see where they're sitting with that. Because if you it's really been probably the the big growth in Baudivers would say the last 18, 24 months, 24 months maybe, like post-COVID, but post-post-COVID. It's been about 24 months where the gross really happened down there, isn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:35

So it'd be fascinating to see where the sentiment is now that we're in this kind of spot where we're at. And then again, you can do another one in 12 months' time. You can just keep doing them every six or twelve months. And this is how you can really get a feel for what genuine emotions and genuinely what people are feeling about the market. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

I'm loving that. Very cool. Working that, working that out this afternoon. Yeah, really good. And so this is what we just want to recap on is the positive language, knowing exactly whether you are just speculating something based on the media and based on like your own opinion, or are you actually researching your clients? Are you actually worried about something that's not a problem?

Positive Language That Calms Clients

SPEAKER_01 26:22

And are your clients worried about something that you're not seeing in the investor market? That's really ultimately what we're trying to say to do.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

100% drawing back to that language, that point about the language. It's not about discrediting what your owner's feeling or shouting over them with your opinion.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

It's just delivering facts in a way that is direct but also positive. Yeah. It's when every negative has a positive, right? So what's the negative? And then how do you share that in a language that's positive? So it's not, you're not saying it's the same as me saying 70% of my clients said that they're not going to sell in the next three to five years. What are the other 30% saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it that that's like the perfect example of how to use the language. And when you're talking to clients about adjusting the rent, we always say we need to adjust the rent. We don't ever say we need to drop your rent, we need to reduce your rent, we need to increase, yeah, no. It's adjustment. Yeah. The language is so important. And particularly in this era where I think language has potentially got a bit lost with all the exposure to the internet, to AI, with social media, shorthand text and everything like that. I think language using the proper language and positive language is going to make you stand out as well.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

And not stress people out. We don't want to stress people out. Okay, so last thing for you. I have got these conversation cards, and the conversation cards are not anything industry related. They're very, what's the word? They're deep. They're deep questions. That's the way I are. So I'm just going to pick a random one out. I did these a while ago, so I have no idea what the questions are. And every time I have one, and I always go, Oh, that's a good question. So the question

Where We Feel Most Ourselves

SPEAKER_01 28:11

I've I love when I just I feel like a tarot reader. You just pick something out and you're like, Is it appropriate? Yes, yes. But every time I do it, they're appropriate. I think they're just really good questions. They're appropriate for everybody. My question is to finish off, where do you feel most like yourself?

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Ooh, do you know what's really interesting? I have multiple facets of myself. And so it's very difficult to answer just as one because I definitely feel like I have a work personality, I have a family personality, and I have a friend personality. I'm still all me, but the persona of me that is more present when I'm in those different circumstances changes, if that makes sense. So when I'm in a work environment, I'm quite direct. I am a lot more professional, obviously. I am more confident because I know what I'm talking about. And I don't necessarily think everybody is my friend. When I'm in a social environment, I think everybody is my friend. And I want to talk to everybody, and I'm not trying to be professional. I'm just genuinely trying to connect with people. And then when I'm at home and I'm a mother, that is usually when I'm just scrambling the most because I have some days feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. And there are days where I feel least like myself when I'm in that role. I'm like, great, I'm at work, I'm confident, I know exactly what's going on, I'm running the business. And then you go home and your kid comes home and says something's been going on at school, and you're like, I have no idea how to handle this. What am I meant to do? So it depends when you catch me as to.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Where do you feel that you thrive thrive the best? Would you say that you are a better business owner or a better friend? And I'll just say it soon before you do. I'm actually not a great friend. I'm a good business owner, but I'm not a great friend from the like I'm a good friend, but I'm not a friend that's gonna say, hey, we haven't seen each other for so long. Let's go out and have coffee. I'm not like I call you if I need something, you call me if you need something. If we haven't needed anything in the last three months, we'll catch up for dinner. But it's very like I'm not Yeah, I know what you're saying. I'm not I like I w yeah, stereotypically, yeah, like my sister, she would be a good friend because she's always just checking up on people. You know, when you get people that check up and call, I haven't speaking to you for ages, what's going on? She's great at that.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

I used to be like that. I'm not, yeah. Yeah, I used to be like that in my like late teens and in my twenties, not like that anymore. I think because business is so consuming and when you love what you do, it is all consuming. So to answer that question, which pretty much answers the first question you asked, probably when I am a business owner, when I'm wearing my business owner hat, that is where I really feel like I'm in my element. But not when I first had the business, not seven years ago. So it does, it evolves. And I think this is really important. That's it's a great question because it is important for people to realize that your life does change and things do evolve, and you change over that time. So just because you're not the person you were five years ago, it doesn't mean you're worse. Just because you're not as good at maintaining friendships now, that doesn't mean that you're a bad friend. It just means your priorities have shifted.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

So I think, and no doubt that's gonna change.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

Yeah, again and again. True, that's very true. I was in the office the other day and I I've been doing a bit of travel and I love meeting new people. I love networking, like I love in the moment all of that. But when I came back and I could just sit at my desk in the office with my team, that was like this is oh, it feels so good just to be back. Because my my team had been with me for a long time. So they had like a little mix of family and friends, and that was like my most comfort. That's all I wanted to do. I just want to be in the office around familiar, familiar faces, trust. You know what I mean? That was like my whole comfort zone. Yeah. So yeah, it's really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

That definitely makes sense and it does resonate because I have recently thought, because I haven't done a lot of travel over. I lived in South Korea and I had my second child there, and we were there for four years. And we came back in 2017, and on the plane coming home from South Korea, I said to my husband, I am not getting on another plane for

Travel, Priorities, And The FOMO Tease

SPEAKER_00 32:45

five years until the kids are both past five. You're not getting me on another plane because we had done quite a lot of travel with young kids, and my husband is not a good traveller, and it was so stressful.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

And we didn't get on a plane. But it's funny because in that time, obviously, my priorities shifted. We bought a business, I had young kids, lots of things changed. And I stop and I think, would I change that? Do I want to go traveling? I love seeing everyone else's travel photos on Facebook and I love hearing about what they've done. And I go, Oh, I want to go. You have that immediate FOMO, right? And then I stopped and I was like, Do I actually? I was like, no, I don't. I don't. That's not where I'm at right now. I'm actually not that interested. Yeah. And I know that in the moment when I'm there, I would be not mentally there. Yeah. So it's it's interesting that you stay, you travel and you were present and you enjoyed it. But there's an element of you that when you're back where you belong, you feel most yourself.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

Correct. That's exactly what it is. So I think we could next time we'll do another podcast on FOMO and like FOMO for events, FOMO for holidays, FOMO like anything for businesses, the other business like so much. We'll do that next time. Thank you for joining, and we'll talk to you soon.