Multiple Things Can Be True at Once.
An eight-month life update on growth, burnout, setbacks, and everything in between.
Well, hello again. Apparently, the last time I posted on here was February. FEBRUARY. And here we are in October.
I’d love to tell you that I’ve been off doing something fabulous, finding myself, and living my best life. And while parts of that are true, the reality is that I’ve mostly been doing what I do best: building a business, overthinking absolutely everything, and occasionally wondering what in the world I’ve gotten myself into.
So, I figured it was time for a little life update.
And there’s something I’ve been thinking about lately that pretty much sums up the last eight months of my life.
Multiple things can be true at the same time.
You can be completely and utterly exhausted and still be ridiculously excited about the future.
You can love your business and occasionally want absolutely nothing to do with it.
You can be incredibly proud of your team and still recognize that there are a million things you need to fix.
You can feel like you’re making more progress than ever while simultaneously feeling like you’re taking three steps backward.
And you know what? I think that’s just part of it.
The Double-Edged Sword of Growth
I’ve always been a big believer that setbacks aren’t necessarily a bad thing.
Actually, I’ll take that a step further.
I think setbacks can be one of the fastest ways to accelerate your growth.
Which sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, doesn’t it?
We’re conditioned to believe that when something doesn’t work out, we’ve failed. That we made a bad decision. That we should’ve known better.
But I see it differently.
When something goes wrong, you have an opportunity to learn something you probably wouldn’t have learned otherwise.
Maybe you discover a hole in your process. Maybe you realize you have the wrong person in the wrong seat. Maybe the structure you’ve spent months building isn’t actually working the way you thought it would.
And yes, sometimes you realize that you were the problem.
Fun, right?
But here’s the thing. If you can approach those situations with a willingness to learn, keep a positive attitude, make thoughtful decisions, and communicate effectively, I genuinely believe you’ll grow faster than you ever intended.
Not because you avoided the hard things.
Because you went through them.
That’s the exciting part.
Now, let’s talk about the other side of that sword.
Because Burnout Is Very, Very Real
Here’s something I don’t think we talk about enough as business owners.
Sometimes this stuff is just freaking hard.
Not the kind of hard where you have a busy day and need a glass of wine.
I’m talking about the kind of hard where you wake up in the morning already knowing you’re going to have to deal with something you really, really don’t want to deal with.
For me, the hardest part of owning a business has always been the people side.
And it’s not because I don’t like people. Quite the opposite, actually.
I care about people. Deeply.
I care about how they feel, how they’re treated, whether they’re happy, whether they’re growing, and whether I’m doing right by them.
Which is a wonderful quality to have as a leader.
Until it’s not.
Because when a people issue comes up, I don’t just look at the issue.
Oh, no.
I go down the rabbit hole.
I think about their personality. Their motivations. Their performance. How they interact with others. What the team is experiencing. What I’ve observed. What I might have missed. Whether I’ve communicated expectations clearly enough. Whether there’s something I could have done differently.
And then I think about it some more.
And some more.
And before you know it, I’ve mentally dissected the entire situation from approximately 47 different angles.
Usually, somewhere in that deep dive, I uncover about twelve other things that need to be fixed.
Because of course I do.
And when it’s someone you genuinely like? Someone you care about and want to see succeed?
It’s even harder.
At the end of the day, I have to make decisions based on what’s best for the company, the team, and the people we serve. And sometimes those decisions are painful.
I can know with complete confidence that I’m making the right decision and still feel terrible about having to make it.
See? Multiple things can be true.
And all of that emotional energy is happening on top of the other million and one things that come with running a business.
So yes, burnout is real.
And sometimes, the very things that make you a good leader are the things that exhaust you the most.
So, What Have I Actually Been Up To?
Well, quite a bit.
For starters, Milestone Premier Properties hit 350 doors!
That’s a pretty exciting milestone for us. We brought on a significant number of new properties at the beginning of the year, and with that growth came all the things you’d expect.
More people. More moving parts. More processes. More opportunities for things to go sideways.
And boy, did we have some sideways moments.
This summer was busy. And if I’m being completely transparent, a little chaotic.
We made the difficult decision to part ways with our Project Coordinator, and it happened pretty abruptly.
I knew immediately that we were in for a ride.
We had several newer team members, our Maintenance and Operations departments had recently been separated, and I was spending a significant amount of time trying not to let things fall through the cracks.
At the same time, I was developing a new leadership team.
Our biggest bottleneck quickly became projects.
And while we were working to improve that process, we somehow managed to make it more complicated.
Ever done that?
You start with a problem, build a process to solve the problem, realize the process created three new problems, and suddenly you’re questioning the entire operation.
That was us.
And because projects touch so many other parts of the business, the challenges didn’t stay neatly contained in one department.
They started affecting other departments, too.
There were days I felt like we were making tremendous progress.
And days I wondered how we’d managed to make something so complicated.
But here’s what I’m most proud of.
My team showed up.
When things got difficult, people stepped in. They took on responsibilities that weren’t necessarily theirs. They learned new things. They worked through the chaos. They supported each other.
Was everything perfect? Absolutely not.
Did we make mistakes? Of course.
Were there moments when I wanted to throw my computer out the window?
I plead the fifth.
But we kept going.
And somewhere along the way, things started coming together.
We wrapped up the third quarter in a place that I’m genuinely proud of. We have a stronger leadership structure, a clearer picture of where we need to go, and a team that continues to impress me.
We’re not perfect. Not even close.
But we’re learning. We’re improving. And we’re building something I’m incredibly excited about.
And that’s what matters to me.
Oh, and There’s Life Outside of Work, Too.
A lot has happened personally over the last eight months as well.
My fiancé and I moved in together, and his son joined us, too. We’ve been settling into our new normal, made renovations to the house, and to add another fun twist to the mix, they’re both now working with me, too!
We spent a lot of our summer weekends on the lake with the kids, which has become one of my favorite ways to unplug.
There’s something about being out on the water that makes the rest of the world feel a little less urgent.
I’ve also done quite a bit of traveling, both personally and professionally.
Between Broker Owner and other industry events, I’ve had the opportunity to connect with some really incredible people. People who understand the weird, wonderful, occasionally maddening world of entrepreneurship.
Some of those connections have turned into genuine friendships, which has probably been one of my favorite unexpected parts of this journey.
But life hasn’t been all lake days, house projects, and fun trips.
We’ve also had some really difficult family things happen.
There have been moments when I’ve felt a little lost.
Moments when I’ve felt really sad.
Moments when I’ve questioned things I thought I had figured out.
And I’ve learned that you don’t always have to make sense of every season while you’re living through it.
Sometimes you just have to keep showing up, do the best you can with what you know, and give yourself a little grace.
Which, for the record, is much easier advice to give than it is to take.
Grateful. Exhausted. Excited. All of It.
If I had to sum up the last eight months in three words, those would probably be them.
Grateful.
Exhausted.
Excited.
And for the first time in a while, I feel pretty peaceful.
Not because everything is figured out. It definitely isn’t.
Not because there aren’t more challenges ahead. There absolutely are.
But because I’m starting to see the results of some really hard decisions, difficult conversations, and months of work that didn’t always feel like progress at the time.
I’m incredibly grateful for the team I have. For the people who have stepped up, stuck it out, and continued to believe in what we’re building.
I’m grateful for the life we’re creating at home.
And I’m grateful for the lessons, even the ones I really wish I could’ve learned an easier way.
But I’m also learning that growth doesn’t always have to mean doing more.
Sometimes it means doing things differently.
Sometimes it means letting go.
Sometimes it means admitting something isn’t working, even when you were the one who came up with the idea in the first place.
And sometimes it means taking a moment to appreciate how far you’ve come before setting your sights on what’s next.
I’m still working on that last one.
And One More Thing…
I redid my blog!
If you’ve made it this far, you’ve probably noticed things look a little different around here.
I’ve been wanting a space to share more than just property management tips and business advice.
I want to talk about leadership. People. Building the business. The psychology behind why we do the things we do. The lessons I’ve learned, the mistakes I’ve made, and the random rabbit holes my brain decides to explore.
And sometimes, I just want to talk about life.
Because there’s a whole lot more to building a business than the business itself.
So, here’s to more writing, more conversations, and hopefully not disappearing for another eight months.
No promises, though.
Until next time. ♡
