The Conscious Investor

Ep504 Circumstances or Conviction? Which Wins?

July 08, 2024 • Julie Holly

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What if your circumstances didn’t have the final say in the quality of your life? Join me, Julie Holly, on this inspiring episode of the Conscious Investor Podcast where we uncover the secrets to holistic investing for personal growth. I'll share how my journey with Three Keys Investments has taught me the incredible satisfaction that comes from investing in assisted living facilities. Discover how these investments create a win-win for both investors and residents, and why uninterrupted quality time with loved ones is so vital for emotional well-being.

Breaking through obstacles is often like cracking the crust of a crème brûlée—deceptively tough but manageable once you know how. We'll discuss the common barriers that hold us back, from superficial excuses to deeper fears like rejection and embarrassment. By being patient and persistent in self-inquiry, we'll explore how to identify and overcome these challenges to achieve clarity and determination. Tune in to learn how you can rise above your circumstances and unlock your full potential.

Access Julie's calendar, the investor club, Conscious Investor Growth Summit, social profiles and more when you CLICK HERE

Episodes referenced in the introduction:



Speaker 1:

Hello, conscious Investor, and welcome back. I'm your host, julie Hawley. For over four years, I've paired my background in real estate, investing, education and coaching to create powerful content for you each week. This podcast is where we take a holistic approach to investing by focusing on three ingredients to a life of personal freedom health, mindset and wealth. We'll talk about everything from passive investing through syndication and how to use your retirement accounts to boost your investing, to mineral balancing and gut brain health, and into topics that cultivate your inner strength and resilience so you can thrive regardless of any of life's current events. And yes, those are all episodes currently available and linked in the show notes below. Join me each Monday for a mindset episode and later in the week for an interview with expert investors and health professionals, so that you can experience your greatest health, strongest mindset and build the wisest wealth.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back, or welcome to the Conscious Investor Podcast. It is Monday, conscious Investor, and I love Mondays. I love Mondays because you and I get to have this space just the two of us. We get to discuss a concept of philosophy, a way of thinking and living out life that creates meaning and substance, and I absolutely love that about every single Monday with you Today. We're going to be talking about how our circumstances are surely not an excuse. And well, how do we live a life so that we're not subordinating the best parts of our life to our circumstances? Surely there are so many reasons that we, you know, outside of our control, that should be guiding and directing us, or should they? And that's what we're going to talk about today. I'm going to give you the backstory on that, but before we do that, I just wanted to share something so exciting that I discovered.

Speaker 1:

I recently was going through our investment portfolio at Three Keys Investments, a company I founded years ago, a company that I built in a very slow, very methodical, very painful way, and by painful I mean it was painful because I watched so many people speeding along, going so fastly, acquiring more and building out these ginormous portfolios, and I trusted my intuition, even when it was painful. And I was jealous. Yes, I'm admitting it and I've admitted it to some of my friends I was jealous of the growth of their portfolios, as mine was growing so slowly. But I love that the portfolio has grown slowly, because it's really like the tortoise and the hare. It has been very methodical and it's delivered very strong results and a lot less headaches you always have headaches in life A lot less headaches, and definitely not the heartaches that other people are experiencing in the investment space at this time. I'm grateful for that.

Speaker 1:

I was especially excited because we now have 208 units of assisted living and I absolutely love the assisted living demographic. I love that our investors have really strong returns, with tons of risk mitigated upside to it, but that we get to serve this demographic in such a powerful way. I love that. A couple of months ago I was on site, you know, visiting what we own currently and what we're acquiring and and just the interactions with staff and with residents. It's such a beautiful thing. We're making a difference and to me, that's great investing. Great investing is we're delivering strong returns and we're doing something for humanity. And don't worry, our apartment, our multifamily portfolio is doing equally strong and I'm so excited about that. But I just wanted to share that element about assisted living. We love it. Our team is constructed in a way that we can be effective at acquiring and really optimizing. And when I say optimizing, that doesn't mean displacing people. It means supporting people even more powerfully. That's what we mean when we say optimizing, and so I love that myself.

Speaker 1:

Three Keys Investments, my investors, my partners we're all part of something beautiful and powerful. If you're interested in learning more about something like that, just reach out to me. You can head on over to threekeysinvestmentscom and even schedule a time to talk. We welcome to make it really simple and go to juliehollycom and find all things, julie Holly, including a way for you to connect with me to talk about this further. But wow, let's go ahead and dive back into how our circumstances are not an excuse. I'm going to be very transparent with you and I know, conscious investor, you're used to that and that, I think, is one of the most important things about being someone on this side of the mic, because this isn't a. I'm talking at you. I have it all figured out. I have a lot of cool things figured out. Yeah, that's true, and so do you, conscious Investor. This is more about us shouldering this together, us supporting each other, us walking in lockstep together, right, us supporting each other, us walking in lockstep together, right. And in doing so, I'm going to share the good, the bad, the ugly, the all of it. And here's where this conversation stemmed from, this conversation and this episode that we're creating together right now, because you're going to leave a rating and review, or you're going to send me now because you're going to leave a rating and review, or you're going to send me a message. You're going to let me know more of your takeaways that are going to expand my space, and I always love that conscious investor.

Speaker 1:

Superad Steve and I we realized that. Well, I think my whole family realized that I was getting cranky, and this wasn't just hormones talking cranky. This is a crankiness that comes when the sacred space of spending time with just super rad Steve and I going out, being away, uninterrupted conversation. When that gets dismantled, our world implodes. I'm a person that one of my needs is that deep level of contact. That's how I connect with Super Ad Steve. It's like we have to have these conversations, we have to talk, we have to, you know, have uninterrupted grownup conversation. It is a life source for our relationship. But by way of our travel schedules and our family schedule and our life schedule, our travel schedules and our family schedule and our life schedule it just didn't lend itself to that.

Speaker 1:

Granted, we went camping and we were doing things as a family, so it wasn't that we weren't connected, but I needed that. Just, do you see me, do you hear me? And and what are we? What are we kind of working with? I always think about a tangle of yarn and just kind of trying to pull it and find the end. I like doing that, and Super Rad Steve and I do that quite often in conversation, for fun, for pleasure, like wow, what does that mean and how would that affect the world? Right, that's kind of our jam. It's totally, totally nerdy and I always say I wish that we could just record all of our conversations because I's totally, totally nerdy and I always say I wish that we could just record all of our conversations because I think that people would think we're totally nerdy.

Speaker 1:

And also there's a lot of insight that comes from these Superhot Steve. He has a passion project on his heart and I was getting really frustrated because he was looking at outside influences as excuses for not moving forward. And for me as a high performer, I just like it gives me the heebie-jeebies. It's like, oh my gosh, how can you even consider that? We're at very different points and I think this is important.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes you'll reach out to me, conscious Investor, and you'll ask me questions about Super Rad Steve and I, and sometimes there is this time where we're in very different spaces. And this is one of those areas where we're in different spaces and that's okay. And I know, conscious, investor, that oftentimes you feel at different spaces with your spouse, with your kids, with close friends that were really close at one point. Sometimes we just feel these different distances Like wait, I feel like that seems like the kindergarten level. Why aren't you understanding that? And what happens when we experience this is that it creates, or it should create, right, a deep posture, a deep level of humility where we can say like maybe I believe I have that figured out and maybe I have deep conviction, and I am a person of deep conviction and passion and you and I know this but and I can have that deep conviction and that passion, but I cannot talk down to this person, I cannot make this person move forward. I simply need to communicate in a patient, loving, kind, caring way that is going to help that person maybe see something different, and maybe the different that they see isn't even what I see. Maybe they're going to add a whole different dimension and facet into my world through their own personal discovery.

Speaker 1:

I'm not sure Super Ed, steve and I. We were out. We decided to drive almost an hour to one of our favorite restaurants. It's a gas station and in this gas station it's actually converted. It's not well. There's like one pump out front and it's just this kind of rickety old building, right, but it's right beside the river and it has the best food ever. If you want to buy a beer or something like that, you actually go to the refrigerator unit just like you would in a convenience store and you go there. You go to the counter, you buy it and you go sit back down at your table. It's a really odd setup and it's a long drive to get there, so we don't go there often, but the food is so worth it, it is so good. So we decided that we're going to drive this distance sans children, teenagers, so that we could have that conversation. Here's one of the cool takeaways.

Speaker 1:

The reason we chose that versus going a different direction, going someplace new, was because we wanted something familiar. We wanted to go down a path that we were familiar with. We wanted to go down a road where we weren't going to get confused about which way do we turn, how do we get there, what's on this mini? We wanted to just go somewhere where it kind of is on autopilot, because when it's on autopilot, guess what? Now we get to have this conversation, he and I get to talk. Yeah, the Julie passion definitely got kicked up several notches at different points, because super rad Steve is uniquely gifted with what he wants to embark upon, but he is allowing these outside circumstances to prevent him from pressing play, from moving forward.

Speaker 1:

And I assure you, conscious investor, I'm not throwing SRS under the bus at all. You know that he and I are very much about being transparent because we know it supports other people. And the reality is is that everything that I was telling him was like a mirror back to me. We play small, conscious investor, and we were not created to play small. So here's what he was doing. He's like well, I, I just can't move forward with that because I haven't learned how to, and he rattles off a list of things. So let me give you an example, because I don't want to. I don't want to share what he wants to do, because that is his precious space. That'd be like sharing the gift with you and not allowing him the joy of being able to share that experience. So I'm not going to tell you what he's up to, but it would be the equivalent, let's say, of you and I wanting to go, and maybe we want to make creme brulee. Well, we've never made creme brulee before, and so now we need to go.

Speaker 1:

Okay, well, what are the steps? Oh, the steps just seem so overwhelming. Sometimes that's life right, and so that's one of those circumstances that we allow to hinder us. We say, oh, my gosh, it's so overwhelming, I can't, I just can't. And we stop and we subordinate that purpose deep inside of us that we really long for. We subordinate it to oh, it's just too much, I can't. We have to do better than that conscious investor. Those are outside circumstances.

Speaker 1:

Most of what we could do if we were going to make creme brulee. We can head over onto the internet, we can download a recipe, we can watch videos on how to go about creating the perfect creme brulee. We have tools and resources that can take care of the circumstances. The shells, the scaffolding, those are just the novelty items, and the question becomes far more important. This is the question becomes far more important. This is the question. We have to go deeper. So I'm thinking about a funnel coming down At the top we have all of those top superficial things that I mean. Like all we need to do is a couple hours of research online and boom, we've got it figured out. It's just that we have to do the little bit of legwork right. That's the top layer, that's the crust.

Speaker 1:

I want you to think for a moment right now, conscious investor, what is it that you are putting off in your life? What is it that you were saying? Like, I don't know, it just seems so complicated. Maybe it's your nutrition plan. Maybe it's actually your workout plan, which, by the way, my friend, ashley Beeman, who spoke at the growth summit this last spring, she's doing body bliss. You should go check it out. She's, she's hosting it. She'd be a wonderful person for you to learn any of those things from. See, look, check, boom right there. But we can go. We can learn about nutrition. We can learn about our exercise plan. Oh, I need to grow my investment portfolio, but I don't really know all the steps.

Speaker 1:

No, that's a top level problem, top of the funnel, like every single person. Just go into LinkedIn and you could find a million people who will gladly give you the information on how to get started. Don't go there, though. Just go over to 3keysinvestmentscom, right? Or you can just shoot me a text message. I'll give you at the end and I will send you successful syndication made simple and break it down for you, right?

Speaker 1:

So do you see what the common denominator here? It's a high level problem. It's an easy solvable problem. It's a circumstantial problem that we make an excuse for and we put it off and we're okay with that. That's the crazy thing is like oh yeah, that's totally okay. No, it's not okay.

Speaker 1:

Conscious investor, it's not. And we have to do better than this. So we have to go down, let's dig deep, and that's what I did with Super Ed Sleep. I said hey, listen, all of these are top level problems. And guess what? Conscious Investor, when he moves forward with this, which he's going to, when he moves forward with this, you are going to do a little face palm. Because I did a face palm, I'm like, oh gosh. I said, honey, when people realize why you were putting this off, I said you might have some people frustrated with you. Just, we'll leave it at that.

Speaker 1:

It's comical, it is absolutely comical, okay, and so so all this is, we want to take that, that top layer crust, and actually ask ourselves why am I, why? Why am I subordinating myself to these superficial, easy to check off problems, challenges, little things I need to learn. Challenges, little things I need to learn. The car got quiet and this is where you have to be patient and you wait. And you need to be patient and wait with yourself why you might be asking yourself why is it that I'm actually not, um, giving a hundred percent at work? Why am I not showing up a hundred percent in the relationships? I say matter to me? We can, we can start with that superficial, the crust. That's the easy. Whatever the easy answers are, that's not the answer you're looking for. You want the answer that is going to make you say like huh, and you're going to need to think and you're going to have to work for it. Super rad.

Speaker 1:

Steve said well, I'm scared of rejection. I'm scared that what I'm going to do is not going to be received and I'll have put myself out there and I'm going to be embarrassed. I'm going to be embarrassed. Conscious investor, can you feel that? Can you feel the difference between that top level? Well, I can't do it because I got to do the little research task. Okay, no big deal.

Speaker 1:

But when we give ourselves space to actually go the elevator down to the depths of our soul, that part, and if it's not a part where it kind of like feels like somebody touching a bruise, like ah, or your sunburn, since it's summertime, if it's not, if it doesn't have some level of sensitivity to it, if it doesn't kind of make you like hesitate, cause maybe you might just tear up ever so slightly because it's that tender, then you haven't reached it. Okay, like that's the reality is you need to go deeper, deeper, deeper, ask yourself that question. So what you can do is you can say, okay, well, top level questions, yep, there is my internet research. Okay, now, I need to schedule some time to actually take action and do those things. And now, and we, we just work ourselves down the rung and keep asking ourselves about those excuses that we are making based on our circumstances.

Speaker 1:

Our circumstances are not or I'm sorry, let me reverse this Like the best of us should not be subordinated to our circumstances. That's not living, that's just going through the motions of life. That is what leads people to burnout. That is what leads people to just that hamster wheel life where they just they're going through the motions and they feel disconnected and dissatisfied and life just doesn't have the sparkle and the glitter dust that it deserves, that it was created with. What's really fascinating is that our circumstances can change so quickly, so drastically. We can do that quick top-level research real fast and boom, boom, boom. Down the rabbit hole we go. Those things can change, the scenery can change, the weather can change. I'm looking out my window and I've had like every type of weather come through, every type of different cloud come through. I'm waiting for the rain. Now I've had blue skies, cumulus clouds, stratus clouds and now I've got some rain clouds and I've got right. That can change. Our.

Speaker 1:

Our circumstances can shift very, very quickly, but who we are does not change quickly. So we can't look to the outside world, the circumstances around us, to interpret ourselves. We have to be saying, okay, who am I Because? Who I am on the inside, who am I Because who I am on the inside, my convictions, my character, that is going to be how I interpret the world around me. Case in point if we're concerned about being rejected, being embarrassed, putting ourselves out there and facing all of those feelings, putting ourselves out there and facing all of those feelings if that's the nucleus of everything. Then as we look up that funnel, as we look upward, we're going to be interpreting all of those different layers, all of the circumstances, through that very lens. We have to do the deep inner work inside and if we can shift those perspectives, if we can remove ourselves from FOPO fear of people's opinion thank you, michael Gervais, for that it is amazing when we can remove ourselves from that posture, when we can replace that fear of rejection with a. It's going to be okay If we can replace all of those thoughts and the sentiments. Now, when we're looking at the tasks ahead, it's looking at it with a very different lens and it's a lens that allows us to be successful in everything we do. But this takes time.

Speaker 1:

I think about it like a towboat. Or if you're at the airport and you have I don't know the name of it forgive me, conscious investor, but you have that little machine, the little driver that will take the plane to the terminal, to the terminal and you know kind of reposition the airplane, you know, bring it close so that you can get on and you know, board the plane and such I'm not good with the terminology of the airport. Apparently All that to say is that those move quickly and nimbly. Towboat, that little machine you know, car at the airport and think about the size of what they are hauling is disproportionate. And the potential is also disproportionate If you think about a tow boat. They're so tiny but they will tow a gigantic barge, a huge freight liner, and they can navigate it and move it around.

Speaker 1:

Our circumstances are like that. They can quickly move us around and guide us and direct us in ways that aren't going to serve us well. We are like that barge and we're going to move slowly and we're going to recalibrate at a different pace. So we have to give time for those calibrations to take place. I wrote down here in my notes I said we have to be focusing on internal change and notice how you respond to your circumstances is also going to change. Another like on my phone in the moment thing I wrote was I said you know circumstances change quickly and drastically, but who we are is deeply moored and needs coercing. Who we are is deeply moored and needs coercing.

Speaker 1:

Focusing on the shifting parts of distraction I'm sorry, focusing on the shifting parts is a distraction from the greater opportunity. I'm going to read that last part again because it's so good. It's so good. Focusing on the shifting parts is a distraction from the greater opportunity you have, a purpose calling and contribution unique to you and your DNA. Conscious investor, don't allow top of funnel loosey-goosey, easy solution things to distract you from your greater purpose and contribution in life.

Speaker 1:

One of the ways that all of this gets resolved is when we align ourselves with that conviction, when our belief is so truly intensified, when we know what we're doing is so important and it doesn't have to be important to everybody in the world, it just has to be important to us. If we know that that is important and that conviction is grounded deep in our hearts, guess what? You'll be unstoppable, because conviction will quiet the circumstances. Conviction is so powerful. I'm going to talk more about conviction in another podcast episode soon, so stay tuned for that, because conviction is one of the greatest superpowers we can possibly have at our side, at our disposal. We don't have to have our circumstances all perfect. The economy is never going to be perfect. I mean, it's like people talking about the weather. People talk about the economy. Nothing's ever exactly as it should be, and if it is the only way you'll know it is if it already happened. In hindsight. You know what, make great decisions, live into that purpose, calling a contribution that you were uniquely created for.

Speaker 1:

I want you to remember, conscious investor, that your greatest life is not tied directly to your net worth. Sometimes we can be so wrapped up in chasing after our financial freedom and, golly, money is great. Never hear me say, never hear any of this podcast is saying like, don't go after financial freedom. But we have to keep our wits and our perspective about us and we cannot subordinate the best of who we were created to be to chasing after financial freedom. In fact, my goal, purpose of the conscious investor is very clearly to emancipate people. It's like we want to have free lives. We don't want to be shackled to chasing after money. We want to be shackled deep in our convictions, tied to our convictions for life, creating that in purpose, and I happen to be a person exemplifying that.

Speaker 1:

I definitely live that out over 500 episodes in and, if you're interested, I actually have a PDF, and the PDF that I have for you is Beyond Financial Freedom. Beyond Financial Freedom is actually a super condensed version of my upcoming book, and so if you'd like to download that and just kind of bolster yourself up, give yourself some really strong fuel. Then you're going to text the word freedom F-R-E-E-D-O-M freedom text freedom to 208-944-1836. I'll say it again because I know I need that when I listen to podcasts. You'll text FREEDOM to 208-944-1836. When you shoot that text to that number, I will send you the Beyond Financial Freedom PDF download. It's a magazine style little. What do we call it? Booklet? It's a short, condensed version of what does this mean?

Speaker 1:

To live in personal freedom, because personal freedom is greater than financial freedom. Financial freedom is awesome, but we don't want to continue on that hamster wheel of life chasing after money. We want to live a life of conviction that leads to that fulfillment and satisfaction. I appreciate you, conscious Investor. Thanks for taking time this Monday to hang out with me to wrestle with this. And remember, don't be a stranger. This isn't supposed to be a monologue. This is a dialogue, but it's only a dialogue. If you reach back out and communicate with me, you can do that. You can head on over to LinkedIn, instagram or Facebook and connect up with me there. It's probably at the Conscious Investor Podcast or Julie Hawley, possibly. Happy Julie Hawley, but make sure you do that because we don't want to be strangers. Let's link arms. Let's serve the world in a powerful way. Let's go emancipate other people so that they can enjoy the gifts that they were uniquely created with. Until next time, cheers to your health, your mindset and your work. Thank you.

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Julie Holly

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