Jay Papasan:
This week I’m chatting with my friend, Sarah Reynolds. Sarah is an amazing entrepreneur. She’s built one of the largest, most successful real estate businesses in the world and Power Homes will serve over 2500 families this year, which just kind of boggles the mind. She operates in 10 different markets with about 180 agents. It’s a huge business, lots of revenue. And they also – her and her husband, George – own other businesses as well, while they’re also managing the demands of a family with three children.
So, you know the drill. How do I find the balance between my work success and my home success? And for Sarah, there was a third part, her health success as well. Her health journey is absolutely inspiring. She lost over 110 pounds and she used a lot of the concepts of The ONE Thing to get there. She also will tell us how she looked up, found herself miserable, near burnout in her business, and found a path forward by replacing herself and doing the jobs that she’s truly called to do. I hope you’ll enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed capturing it with Sarah. Here we go.
I’m Jay Papasan, and this is The ONE Thing, your weekly guide to the simple steps that lead to extraordinary results.
Sarah, welcome to The ONE Thing podcast. I’m so happy to finally get you on the show.
Sarah Reynolds:
Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Jay Papasan:
You and your husband, George, have been regulars at our Goal Setting Retreats. You obviously are a student of the book, working so closely with Gary Keller as well. And I think the way we can start this is maybe through the lens of health. You know, in the book we wrote, if you’re going to accomplish extraordinary things, you’re going to need energy to do it. So, you shared with me, in preparation for your own podcast, you were preparing to write a show on habits. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about that?
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah. So, I’m a co-host on the Empire Building Podcast, and I was prepping the content for a show about habits, and my entire lens at the time were I had amazing habits around business building and even family and a lot of great habits overall. And I’ve always struggled with weight for the last two decades of my health. And I was about a hundred pounds overweight at the time and I was prepping for this podcast and it was about what’s better than a New Year’s resolution, habits. And my whole goal was to make habits sexy. I guess that’s the whole goal of The ONE Thing podcast too.
Jay Papasan:
Yeah, yeah, we try our best.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes. And so, it was the first time I legitimately studied habits. And I know that sounds crazy. I’ve read The ONE Thing. The ONE Thing had impacted my life on many different fronts. I never tied it though to like the habits of my health for some reason. I’m not sure why. I think maybe I was living in a non-reality of where I currently was at the time in terms of my health. And so, I started doing research and came across the concept of, like, habit stacking or the domino habit that leads to the rest of habit building basically. Before, I always thought about habits as like, I have to be healthy overall in terms of every part of my life. And then, I started realizing through research that my issue had been, I wasn’t working on one habit at a time.
Jay Papasan:
So, I think they call it, like, a keystone habit.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes.
Jay Papasan:
Right. So, a lot of times, there’s a habit that if you form it, the rest comes a little bit easier. Just for people who are listening. So, habit stacking, yes, you’re doing more than one thing. But it’s kind of like the other habits get to take a cab ride. They get to hitchhike with the first one. If you focus on it, the other ones come a lot easier. So, what did you end up focusing on? What did you identify?
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah. So, for me, it was actually all about drinking water as the first habit that I would build.
Jay Papasan:
That’s so crazy. I love that. I mean, so yeah, water.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes.
Jay Papasan:
Right. It feels like, how does that lead to, because now, let’s just go ahead and skip over the journey. So, people who are not watching this, they’re listening to this, you’ve lost 110 pounds since then. And it started with drinking water.
Sarah Reynolds:
It did. It did. And so, I’ve always struggled with emotional eating. So, the stress of the business and the people, stress of leading a big team. My outlet wasn’t alcohol or drugs. It was food. That, sort of, has been my struggle. It has been emotional eating. So, like that would help me feel better after the end of the day
Jay Papasan:
I’m just gonna jump in here because I’ve met George. He’s a very big man. I don’t mean that as an overweight He’s like what? Six four or something?
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah. He’s over 6 ‘2 and lifts very heavy weights. He’s in the gym every morning at 5 a.m.
Jay Papasan:
If you’re treating yourself, but you’re treating yourself with, basically, like a college linebacker.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes, true. Yes.
Jay Papasan:
So, I can only imagine if y’all are doing that together, like you do a lot of things, like the portions are going to be out of alignment and all kinds of things.
Sarah Reynolds:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so that was our life for the majority of our marriage. And at the time, we had been married, over a decade when I started this journey. And for me, it was I needed to start building a habit of health. And after doing the research, I was like, let me start with water, just one thing. I’m gonna focus on one thing for a quarter. I’m not gonna worry about what I’m eating. I’m not gonna worry about exercise. I’m not worrying about what the skill says. What I’m gonna focus on is drinking half my body weight in water.
Jay Papasan:
What’s the research around water? Why did you settle on water? Was it because you were drinking sodas instead or you just needed to hydrate?
Sarah Reynolds:
I was drinking some soda, and I knew that if my belly was full of water, I would most likely probably not eat as much. And when I was emotionally eating, I wouldn’t be doing it as much as I would if I wasn’t drinking water.
Jay Papasan:
That makes sense. I’ve actually heard some people say a lot of times when we get that little hunger cue, it actually means we’re thirsty.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes.
Jay Papasan:
So start there.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yep. And I mean, even now what’s funny is like, that’s how I started the journey. I went to a health retreat, and I met with a nutritionist, and I need more protein because I’m now doing a lot of muscle building. And she was like, “Your water is the issue.” Because I’m drinking too much water still, and I need to be making sure my stomach can get protein and not get full so fast. It’s just like the reverse now. But that’s what happens when you build these habits, it’s like they become so ingrained in you. And so, I did that for a quarter. I ended up losing like seven-eight pounds just from that. So, didn’t change food, didn’t work out. I had one quarter.
Jay Papasan:
How did that change your attitude or how you felt about the journey? Like you got eight or nine pounds, which is not insignificant. Did it feel like, “Oh, I can do this”? Or was it like, you’re not sure yet?
Sarah Reynolds:
I did the research. We recorded the podcast and I wanted to prove it right too, in my own life because I hadn’t ever seen it happen exactly how, in terms of like the foundational domino for health. And it was like, wait a second, if this worked for one quarter, what would happen if I now tackle the next habit, which for me was intermittent fasting.
Jay Papasan:
Let’s explain that just in case someone doesn’t know. So, there’s a lot of different ways. How did you choose to do the intermittent fasting?
Sarah Reynolds:
I did one meal a day, which is sort of extreme. Like, some people would say that that’s extreme. I had done a lot of research on it and understood the science behind it, right? So, anything over 16 hours. So, every time we eat, our glucose goes up. And then, if we eat a lot right after, our glucose just stays high. So, for us that have a lot of… like, diabetes is a big thing in my family history and health history. And so, for me, a lot of my weight had to do with maintaining… like getting my sugar levels lower. And I was so busy, like, back to back schedule, that also one meal a day really fit. I was like, “This is actually super convenient.”
Jay Papasan:
Did you take morning? Midday?
Sarah Reynolds:
Lunch.
Jay Papasan:
Lunch. So, you fueled at lunch.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes, and it was a big meal.
Jay Papasan:
You got three kids.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes.
Jay Papasan:
So, like, you sit down to dinner at night and you just drank water?
Sarah Reynolds:
I drank water. And then, sometimes, would have a vodka soda.
Jay Papasan:
Okay.
Sarah Reynolds:
Just keeping it real.
Jay Papasan:
There we go. There we go.
Sarah Reynolds:
And there were times when I was talking to one of our Her Best Life Empire Circle members about this the other day because I was encouraging her to be okay with loneliness for a period of time. And I know that sounds weird, but those were some lonely times in my life and journey because I would remove myself. So, if they were eating something I really loved, my dad always says, “If it gets near you, it gets in you. And so, don’t get it near you.” So, there were times where they were eating something I enjoyed and I knew, okay, I need to sit in our room and work.
And then, George would text me saying, “Everything’s put away, come downstairs.” And that wasn’t fun, like being away from the family, being away at times with friends. And it was a blessing because I saved my life through it.
Jay Papasan:
You started with water, you start intermittent fasting. That’s one way to just kind of control how many calories go in your body. It also can switch your body from using glucose as fuel to actually burning fat.
Sarah Reynolds:
Correct, yeah.
Jay Papasan:
So, you start that journey. So, you look up, how much weight did you lose in that period? Do you remember?
Sarah Reynolds:
That was over 20. So, that was a bigger quarter for me. That was the first quarter that I actually ever lost 20 pounds with habit building, basically. So, it was really starting to get momentum. And I also was feeling great. Intermittent fasting, for me, really fuels me. It has helped me a lot because of what it does to your body. It really is good for you to have a period of time, at least 14 hours, to where you have that time for your body to rebuild.
Jay Papasan:
Cleanse it all up.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah, exactly.
Jay Papasan:
So, let’s go back to the… like, you had to deal with the emotional cost of this choice. So, I mean, you obviously have George. Y’all are very close. You’ve got an amazing life partner that makes you laugh and have fun. He’s obviously supporting you by helping you. Like, he’s texting you, so you have some connectedness. But how long did it take to get past that part?
Sarah Reynolds:
It was part of it for well over two years.
Jay Papasan:
Wow!
Sarah Reynolds:
So, I did one meal a day for two years consistently. Even traveling with conferences, and I would go and sit, and I would pray before, like, “God give me the strength not to give into the temptation that’s around me,” because food was such my temptation. It is still my temptation today. Like, it’s never something that I’m going to like, be like, “Oh, I no longer emotionally eat.” Like, that’s my thing that I struggle with. And I was able to get through it.
And for me, I think the why of understanding the impact that I was having on other people, because if you looked, I remember when Wendy, you know, I’m really good friends with your wife, as you know, and she visited our office. This was like maybe seven or eight years ago, and my entire team reflected me. So, my entire team was sacrificing their family for work, they were sacrificing their health, they were all overweight, and they looked like me.
And I started seeing that as I started making my health a priority, like, at times, if I didn’t get my workout in, the team knew, like, I’m not gonna be on the huddle this morning. Instead, I’m gonna be on the peloton, and someone else is gonna lead. And before, I would never do that. I would never give up a work thing to work out.
But I started teaching through just my choices, my team, “Guys, health can be our number one. It impacts every facet of our life. Like every facet.” And all of a sudden, everyone around me started also losing weight, and they started taking laps around the building, and I started seeing energy levels go up. And it was all because of like, I as the leader, was doing it for me. And when you start seeing that, it makes those lonely feelings worth it.
Jay Papasan:
Well, you’re connected to them. You’re being their role model. And one of your top values is impact. You’re making an impact and you’re feeling it. Your health impacts every area of your life and also your self-image, your self-talk, and you’re helping them as well.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah. And it was all through just doing one thing at a time and realizing it’s not selfish to make your health your number one. That’s not selfish. That’s actually the opposite of selfish.
Jay Papasan:
I just want to emphasize for a lot of people that are going on the journey, a lot of times we start doing the thing we need to do. And there is this indeterminate amount of time before we start getting the rewards. You know, a lot of us have been on a diet and it feels like nothing’s happening. We’ve given up all the things we enjoy. We’re making ourselves suffer in the gym or whatever our little journey is. And then, maybe eight weeks later, someone says, “Oh, you’ve lost weight.” And we get that first validation. And that’s a long time to wait.
So, you had to wait for the validation that you were getting healthier. Probably took longer for you to see your behavior reflected in your team. What advice would you give another leader out there that’s in that in-between space?
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah. So, I think most leaders and probably the majority of our listeners of the podcast probably struggle with perfectionism, like I do, in terms of like, I used to do all these. Like every diet you can name, I tried. Like every single diet. And I would try it. And the minute I cheated or did something wrong, I was like, “Forget it.” Like, this isn’t perfect. Like, I messed up. Like, I’m not doing it right. Like, I’ll never be able to do this. And I always put perfection over progress in my life with health. Like I felt like I needed to be perfect. Like healthy people are perfect. That’s what I had in my mind as like-
Jay Papasan:
That was the story you were telling yourself.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes, that was the story I was telling myself. And that if I couldn’t do it perfectly, then that means that I shouldn’t do it at all. And it was actually, I took this test that said I was a perfectionist, and I always viewed perfection –
Jay Papasan:
No!
Sarah Reynolds:
I always viewed perfection with the disc types. And I always viewed, “That’s how I see it is perfection.” And then, when I read the report, I was like, “Oh my goodness, I really am a perfectionist. I want perfect,” right? Like, I think Gary, when he first talked about me publicly. He said like there’s never been someone he’s seen that’s on the path to excellence or that prioritizes excellence. Well, that’s perfectionism.
Jay Papasan:
Okay.
Sarah Reynolds:
Right? And what I realized is I needed to reward myself for progress, not perfection. You know, it was a four-year journey of losing 110 pounds. It did not happen overnight. I had multiple plateaus. Like one time, it was six months. The scale did not move-
Jay Papasan:
Wow.
Sarah Reynolds:
… for six months. And that was the hardest thing of not seeing, because I’m so results-oriented. So, it was like, “I’m not seeing a result. What’s going on?” For me, though, I would always view myself as like, five years ago, like, have I made progress? Like, am I making progress with the choices? Like, many times we don’t reward ourselves or give us credit for each choice we make. And for me, it was each choice had value. I mean, the choices is what led to the actual result in the end, but it was all the little choices along the way.
And so, rewarding myself, like, if I were to go to a dinner and sit there with a vodka soda with my friends at a big event and didn’t eat, I would give myself a point in my head. Like, “h, my goodness. The old Sarah could have never done that.” And so, the fact that I was making progress and rewarding myself in my head. Before, it was I was only giving myself credit if the scale moved. And I had to change what I gave myself credit for. It wasn’t a result. I had to give myself credit for the choices I was making. And if I made good choices that day, I won.
Jay Papasan:
Yeah. We can’t result our way to the finish line.
Sarah Reynolds:
We can’t.
Jay Papasan:
And I think that’s really an easy thing to fall into the trap of just always focusing on results. And if we can turn our attention and start celebrating the activities. So, you know this in sales, right? You do a lot of activities that result in nothing. But if you don’t do those, you don’t get the outcome you want. And so, we can understand it in one area of our life.
I’m sure you’ve coached a thousand salespeople through that. And here you are finding that inner monologue to coach yourself through it on this journey. I gotta give myself grace. I’m doing the right things. The results will follow, but it’s like a slot machine. You don’t know when it’s gonna show up.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah. And I think too, health is ultimately a lifestyle. So, lifestyle means at birthday parties, sometimes, you have cake. You’re not living this perfection life, which is what I thought before. And now I’m like, “No, health is a lifestyle.” You will have moments where you go on vacation and you let loose, and you have freedom to choose the foods that you love. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, and it’s not perfection. Perfection actually is a lifestyle of health over time and that you’re winning in that versus it being not eating one bad thing or not drinking one bad thing.
Jay Papasan:
I’ve seen that pattern a lot. And before we go to break, I’ll just punctuate it. I think that when we pursue perfection, it’s a momentum killer, right? Because we stop, we judge, we say, “Am I doing this right?” And a lot of times, we start over. So, “Oh, I’m just going to do this other thing that maybe I can be perfect with.” And the results almost always come from doing the consistent thing over time that’s really boring. At times you’re not even sure it’s working, and it takes a little bit of faith and grace to make it through. So, we just have to remember that the pursuit of perfection is maybe a noble thing in some – like, I really want to be the best I can be but we can’t let that get in the way of progress and momentum.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah, so well said.
Jay Papasan:
All right, let’s take a quick break and we’ll come back.
Sarah Reynolds:
Sounds good.
Jay Papasan:
All right. Well, welcome back, everybody. Let’s wrap up the health conversation a little bit, which is just totally miraculous. I mean, you showed me a picture of you how many years ago? When we sat down?
Sarah Reynolds:
So, that was six years ago.
Jay Papasan:
Six years ago. And the transformation is absolutely stunning, Sarah. 110 pounds, and the health, the glow, it’s all there. And all through this, you were building a business, you had a family with three kids. They’re not like college-age kids, these are young kids with sports and everything else that goes on. And you and George, your husband, I know that y’all have been students of the one thing, and y’all have learned to set goals together and identify your values together, how did that start to kind of… you go from health, you start seeing the one thing work in other areas of your life?
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah. So, it has made such a big impact on our marriage, and on George as an individual, and on me as an individual. And I think the biggest thing that has really impacted us is being on the same page of our family’s goals and what we’re trying to accomplish as a family while also reaching what we want to accomplish individually. So, being unified. Because we’re both like drivers. Like he definitely holds the family front and home front down and we’re a team. Like, we have built this together, we have done everything together from college all the way till today. And before, we weren’t on the same page in terms of the direction we were going in.
Jay Papasan:
And he’s an entrepreneur too, doesn’t he run?
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah, he runs our mortgage company.
Jay Papasan:
Right.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah, so he-
Jay Papasan:
Which is extra strain, like a two entrepreneur family is a different level of chaos than most people imagine if they haven’t lived it.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes, for sure, for sure. And thankfully, we have an amazing team, a home team outside of each other that also helps us. We could not do that without them. And so, I think one of our biggest moments or the biggest moment for me with The ONE Thing was we were in the goal setting retreat and there was a question that was about our core values. And our core values as individuals and understanding them was so impactful, so, so impactful.
And one of his core values is mastery. Another one is leadership. And it was a fill-in-the-blank question, and it was, my core value is blank, and that’s why I need blank. And at the time, our business at Empower Home was skyrocketing. We were up 54% year over year for the last like six years. We had gotten to where almost a hundred plus employees. Like we were in this like the hockey stick of growth in terms of our business.
So much so to where I would come home, I would be exhausted for my day. He would want to talk about my day in terms of what I was learning and what was going on with work. And I felt like these conversations, like I would go from these marathons at work of back-to-back with our people and lots of problem solving. And then, I come home and he wanted me to relive it. And I was tired. And I was like, “I want to just be with my husband. I don’t want to re-talk about… like, why do you keep asking me all these questions about how did I solve this problem, or how did I…” you know. And I was frustrated and I’d be like, I don’t want to talk about that. And he’s like, “But I want to know, like, I want to come with you on the journey.”
And I didn’t understand it until that goal-setting retreat. Because he said, two of my core values are mastery and leadership, and that’s why I need to learn with you. Like, “If I’m holding the fort,” I’m going to tear up talking about it. He said, if I’m holding the fort down at home and I want to learn too, I want to grow my leadership, I want to master the things you’re mastering, I need to come with you and why I’m asking you at night these questions is because I want to learn too. Because of these being my core values. And it was such this like, aha. Like our entire relationship shifted because I understood that.
Jay Papasan:
Yeah. When you know why someone needs something, it really changes your ability to deliver it. So, how did y’all make space for that? Because building the team that you’ve built and running it, it is exhausting. So, how did y’all navigate that where you can also pour into him and find that space?
Sarah Reynolds:
We were like most like young family couples where you’re literally like ships in the nights, and like not really talking that much. ANd had date night but date night then becomes about like the kids and not like what we were originally right. And he said, like after we put the kids to bed, like I was in the habit of going back to work for like an hour in terms of on my computer. And he’s like, “If we could just have a drink together. We put the kids to bed, I’m gonna make you a drink, we’re gonna have a drink together, 15 minutes to 30 minutes of just us time, talking about our days and making sure we stay on the same page.” And he’s like, “If we can incorporate that into our schedule, that would really help me.”
I think about it now, I’m like, “My poor husband asking for 15 minutes a day.” Like “Oh, wow, I have such a great wife, I’m going to give him 15 minutes a day.” It was a simple request, but it was like, it has worked beautiful for us. And so, we have our Sunday night meeting where we talk about the schedule and we’ve now, our girls meet with us where we’re planning the week.
Jay Papasan:
Oh, that’s cool.
Sarah Reynolds:
And we’re unified as a family, which I learned being a producing realtor, like making sure he knew my schedule and that it was gray. Realtor schedules are gray. They’re not black and white because you never know when you’re going to finish with clients. And then, incorporate that now into how busy our life is with the 12-year-old, 10-year-old, and 6-year-old. And so, we have that. And then, we have our date night Thursday nights. But then, every night, after we put the kids to bed, we have us time and just staying unified as a couple.
Jay Papasan:
So, you do your work, you transition to family time, right, the kids’ time.
Sarah Reynolds:
Dinner together.
Jay Papasan:
So, that actually probably creates a little bit of a buffer, whether it was intentional or not. And now y’all can have your couple time.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes.
Jay Papasan:
And if you have to pull out the laptop, you can.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah.
Jay Papasan:
Do you find that you do?
Sarah Reynolds:
No, I actually don’t, I mean, I shouldn’t say ever.
Jay Papasan:
Of course, not.
Sarah Reynolds:
He’d be like, you’re like, wait, babe.
Jay Papasan:
Realtor life is great.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes.
Jay Papasan:
We established that.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes. If there’s something like a crisis, a legitimate crisis, which I now know what that means, then I focus on that with him. Like he’s involved with it, ’cause he’s always been… I’m a big studier believer of the Strengthfinders. And I have not one strategic thinking theme strength in my top 10.
Jay Papasan:
Really?
Sarah Reynolds:
Which people are like, “Wait, what? How can you lead the number one team without any strategic thinking?” I’m like, I strategize but I’m not like a planner, think ahead. Like I do have futuristic as number 11. But anyways, he has three of his top five are strategic thinking, which I realize that’s how we’ve built it, is like, we complement each other. And so, like, he can help me. Like, when I’m in a crisis, he’s like my sounding board. He can, like, think through, like, “Okay, what impact will that have on this person?” Because he also has a lot of relationship building in him. And so, we navigate together now in the times when the laptop has to come out. So, he’s not removed from it.
Jay Papasan:
Got it.
Sarah Reynolds:
He’s part of it.
Jay Papasan:
So, what, your strengths are going to be people.
Sarah Reynolds:
Influencing, number one, themes. Number two is executing, and number three is relationship building.
Jay Papasan:
And then, he brings people again and strategy. Strategic thinking. That’s a pretty powerful combination.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes.
Jay Papasan:
So, once you all found your rhythm, so everything has been a little different now.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah, I mean, it’s been, we’re happier, he feels like he’s learning too. He’s growing his leadership through coming along with me versus him being like siloed, like I don’t want to talk about it. And so, we definitely have-
Jay Papasan:
Well, that’s the only way you can tap into his strategic thinking is to make space for it. And now you know both his personal reasons and you also know the business reasons for involving it. And that awareness, I’m sure creates even more space for it. So, I’m aware that you brought on or raised up another shift in your day-to-day role, and that has changed a lot for you as well. You want to walk us a little bit through that thinking?
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah. So, about a year ago yesterday-
Jay Papasan:
Wow!
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes.
Jay Papasan:
Okay.
Sarah Reynolds:
I was talking with George, it was a Saturday, said I’m miserable. Our numbers were down, we had growth for about 10 years, year over year, never went backwards, and then less people started moving, and I didn’t navigate it the best in terms of my leadership at the time. This was a few years ago. And we started declining. And really, a lot of it had to do with like, I got further and further pulled away from my joy and what really is my core competence in my heart, which is serving agents. I love to lead realtors. Like love it. Like I’m good at it. I love who they are. Like I love their entrepreneur spirit. I love that there’s no rules.
Jay Papasan:
What were you doing instead of that?
Sarah Reynolds:
So, Empower Home had built this like services company that serviced our agents, but it was a hundred employees. We had an HR department, and we had attorneys on retainer, and we had a finance team, and it became sort of a corporation, is like the best word I could… like it turned into.
Jay Papasan:
A hundred and ten employees is a very good mid-size company in today’s terms. Like literally, it’s not a small company anymore. It’s not a giant company because we see those. That’s not a small thing.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah. So, we had HR issues, not issues, but making sure that everyone was taking the HR classes and doing all these things that we never had to worry about before. And I was pulled into these conversations and meetings, and I was like sitting there trying to navigate leading, like the CEO of Empower Home Services. But I built Empower Home Services because of my love and passion for realtors and for my agents.
And so, like the inside sales department, and the lead gen department, and all of those things was so that agents could do what they love best, which is serve buyers and sellers. But I looked up a year ago, and I realized like I had gotten pulled further and further away from the agents. We had a hundred and plus employees, but then over 120 agents at the time.
Jay Papasan:
You said HR and you said it with some emotion, but I’ll just point out, if there’s a 1% chance of a person having a problem on any given day, you have 110 people. There’s a problem every day that may or may not pull you into it, but there’s probably awareness and all of that. So, that’s a lot of moving parts.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yes, yep. And also the money piece, right? Like millions of dollars coming in, millions of dollars going out. Like my grandparents, blue collar workers, like we don’t come from money. So, also the stress level of money leading. And I love numbers and I’m good at managing the money of Empower Home, and it’s a lot in terms of stress.
And so like all of that just kept getting pulled further and further away from, if you looked at my calendar, like my heart is my agents. Like your calendar should reflect your heart or else that’s not true, right? If you looked at my calendar, like they would not tell you my heart is for my agents. I actually looked up and I didn’t know it at the time.
Three months in, George and I were having a conversation. And he’s like, “Babe, I think you were leading from an ivory tower,” ’cause my agent started telling me, “Welcome back.” And I was like, “But where did I go?” I was like, “I’ve been here.” But that’s from their view. They were like, “Welcome back. We have our leader back.”
Jay Papasan:
But tell me about the transition.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah. So, I said, “I’ve got to get back. I’m miserable. The numbers are down. I’m miserable. I’m not doing what I love and I’m gonna do what I love.” Like, I’ve got leaders that I know can step up and lead. So, at Megacamp a year ago, I sat down with my mom first, and I told her, and she said, “I support you. Let’s do what you think we need to do.” I said, “I want to lead the leaders of our agents, and I want to lead our agents. And anything else other than the review of the financials, I want other people to do. And we have other people to do it. And so, let’s empower them to lead. Let’s get out of their way.”
And then, after talking with Debbie, I sat down with Matt, who is my chief growth officer, and I said, “This is what I want to do.” And he said, “It’s about time you admitted that,” ’cause he’s like, “I know that’s what you want to do. That’s what lights you up. Like you are a different person when you’re talking and teaching and training our agents. Go go do that.” And he’s like, “I’ve got the rest.”
Jay Papasan:
You smile just when you talk about it.
Sarah Reynolds:
Yeah. Yeah.
Jay Papasan:
So how long did it take to make that transition happen?
Sarah Reynolds:
At the time, it felt like a long time but I was looking at the calendar and it was a month when we made the announcement to the entire team of that I would no longer be leading the executive team of Empower Home Services, I would lead the executive team of Empower Home Team, which is the agents. So, we made the announcement. Everyone shifted their focuses and calendars and focused on one thing. So, Matt was focused on appointment making happen, which is all of what Empower Home Services at the foundation does. I was focused on when the appointment happens, we convert.
Jay Papasan:
Got it.
Sarah Reynolds:
Okay, we serve families. Within a month, our leading indicators were back up for the first time, like over 50% growth in a month of listings taken.
Jay Papasan:
And where was your joy meter?
Sarah Reynolds:
Oh my goodness. Everyone. Like even to today, everyone’s like, “You’re so happy.” And I’m like, “I’m so happy.” Like I just love what I do every day. It’s just when problems come up that before I used to be the one solving, I’m like, “I’m not the best person to do that and I would be miserable fixing it.” So, I know I can do it. I’m not going to.
Jay Papasan:
There are a lot of leaders out there listening to this. And I think that because their title says CEO or founder, they feel like a lot of those jobs are theirs and no one else’s. What would you tell them?
Sarah Reynolds:
I would say your mission needs you to be in your joy zone. Like, literally needs it. And yes, it’s hard. Brene Brown talks about the fear of irrelevancy. And I struggle with that. Like I’ve always viewed my relevancy tied to appointments, like in terms of like booking but really what I realized is the whole reason why that was relevant in my life was for agents being able to do what they love and to serve more families. So I had it all backwards that if I could have another leader focus on the appointments and I focus on the people that make it happen. Then, I, in turn, will actually grow the appointments.
And that’s actually what has happened, which has been so fascinating. Part of why that’s growing and what they’ve said to me, like one-on-one, is, “Well, we’re seeing more result from our appointments. We’re more motivated to book more appointments because we’re now getting more listing agreements signed from the appointments we book. We now have more contracts from the appointments we book.” Because I chose to focus on what I do best and also what brings me the most amount of joy, the company, both EHS and Empower Home Team, are growing. And I would encourage every leader listening, the closer you can get to how you’re innately gifted, that’s my strength.
Jay Papasan:
That’s your one thing.
Sarah Reynolds:
That’s my one thing. That’s my innate gift, right? Like right after this, I’m hopping on with my agents, coaching them, right after this. And my company would lose if I wasn’t doing that today. In an HR meeting.
Jay Papasan:
So, you went through a season, you found the space to make it happen. Congratulations-
Sarah Reynolds:
Thank you.
Jay Papasan:
… on the courage to do that, especially with those voices in your head.
Sarah Reynolds:
Well, I just want to say you have greatly impacted that.
Jay Papasan:
Oh, thank you.
Sarah Reynolds:
The book, your family, your wife, you, I would not be where I am. When I think about the people that are the dominoes of impact in my life, you guys are so high up there as a family, and the book and everything. So, thank you.
Jay Papasan:
Well, we love you. You know that.
Sarah Reynolds:
I love you. We love you. I love you guys so much.
Jay Papasan:
Unfortunately, we have to bring this to an end. We could talk about so many things because you live this in so many ways. At the end of our episodes, we often give our listeners a little tiny challenge, so that over the next week, maybe they can ask themselves a question or they can take one small step in the right direction. Kind of based on this conversation, what advice or what challenge would you give them to try to tackle?
Sarah Reynolds:
I would love to challenge every listener to have the courage to run after your one thing, which also typically means you’re running after your joy, and then watch what happens.
Jay Papasan:
Bravo, I love that. Thank you so much, Sarah.
Sarah Reynolds:
Thank you.
Jay Papasan:
Well, that’s a wrap for my conversation with Sarah. Tune in next week. I’m gonna continue these conversations with powerful people. I also, at that same event, recorded a live in-person interview with author and entrepreneur Liz Bohannon. Liz Bohannon started a small company, literally as someone in their, gosh, 20s, with no resources in another country that helped serve women around the world. It was called Sseko Designs that has later been acquired by Noonday Collection.
She’s a successful entrepreneur and an author of a book called Beginner’s Luck, which I loved and read from start to finish. Our conversation is about the power of connection. Your connection to your dreams, your connection to your loved ones, your connection to the community at large, and how we can enhance that and feel less alone.
The thing that I took away from this interview and I went on to write about it, it just haunted me afterwards, is the idea that for us to get the connection that we want, we have to look on the other side of the rejection we fear and we have to go first. So, listen for those words, go first in this interview. I think you’ll have a lot to take away.
Disclaimer:
This podcast is for general informational purposes only. The views, thoughts, and opinions of the guest represent those of the guest and not ProduKtive or Keller Williams Realty LLC and their affiliates and should not be construed as financial, economic, legal, tax, or other advice. This podcast is provided without any warranty or guarantee of its accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or results from using the information.
