Episode 18: Erin Bradley | Build Your Dream Business and Life

We just had an amazing conversation with my girl, Erin Bradley. She always inspires me to to build a life that I don't need a vacation from. And I I I really think that she will do the same for you. So let's dig in with Erin.

She is a dynamic speaker, a best selling author, and the host of the Pursuing Freedom podcast. As a young entrepreneur, she quickly learned how to challenge, how challenging self employment in sales can be. From flat broke to 6 figures and then burnout, Erin discovered that overwhelm can be just as painful as financial stress.

After redesigning her business to support her dream life, that's my favorite part, your dream life, she made it her mission to help follow entrepreneurs do the same. She believes that you should never give up or settle in life or in business. With the right mindset, solid systems, and a great team, she knows that everything is possible.

Here's Erin. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Power Up Your Life podcast brought to you by GoBundance Women. I'm Mandy McAllister.

And I'm Kelly Resendez.

And today, I could not be more excited to have our girl, Erin Bradley, with us. Erin, hi.

Hello, friends. This is so fun and exciting. I'm so excited for your show.

Awesome. Well, we're so glad you're here and the impact that you're gonna have on all these listeners. So why don't we start at the beginning? Tell us a little bit about your journey.

Sure. So I had you know, I had the youngest of five kids, went and followed in my siblings' footsteps and my dad's advice and got a business degree, went to college, got good grades, and was, like, on track to do the corporate career as all my siblings had. And then as I was graduating college, I noticed, my older sister actually was eight years older. She was leaving her corporate career to start a family. And I remember thinking to myself, okay. Well, that's probably the path I wanna be on too. Like, someday, I'm probably gonna wanna be a stay at home mom. I just think I don't know what I thought at 22 years old. I definitely didn't think I was gonna be an entrepreneur.

And so I did know that I had a little bit of wanderlust, and I wanted to travel. So I decided that I would postpone the quote, unquote real world and go live like a hobo in Barcelona for a couple years making, like, $900 a month cash under the table, sometimes selling beers on street corners to get rent money because I saw other people do that. I figured, why not me? And I think that was the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey.

And so I came back to The States, and I found my way to Colorado via Philadelphia where I'm from. And I was just piecing jobs together, and I knew at this point that I really wanted the flexibility to be able to travel and work from anywhere. And so I fell into working in the mortgage business in o six, and I thought for sure that this was not the path for me because it felt a little bit corporate, and I was already on this path of, like, footloose and fancy free bag bag of bond. You know? But I saw the salespeople who would come to work in jeans and a t shirt and then go to yoga in the middle of the day and then put on their suit and go to closing, come home with a big check. And I was like, that's that's it. That's my path.

I'm gonna be self employed, and I am gonna forego the steady paycheck, go a 100% commission, and be a loan officer. And I did so with no financial safety net, no game plan, no systems. I promptly fell flat on my face, like, so badly that within a year, I was maxed on all my credit cards and riding my bike to a client meeting because I didn't have enough money for gas. And then I got there early to let the sweat dry off before the client got there. I had to figure out what to wear to, like, ride a bike and be professional and not sweaty in the middle of summer. And the client got there early and introduced himself to me as the credit card was being declined for a $2 cup of coffee. Oh, no. And that's the card I thought would work. So I didn't wanna try another one.

Anyway, financial rock bottom, I asked my dad for advice. He was like, look. If you think you're gonna be good at this someday, do whatever it takes. And so for several years, I did that. I opened more credit cards, opened hired coaches, you know, just refused to quit. And then I found, quote, unquote, success. And when that success came, it was like a tidal wave. My business more than doubled just immediately overnight. I had no game plan for that earning more than I had ever hoped for, which seemed like a great problem to have. Right?

But I was completely drowning. I was pregnant with my second child. I was working twenty four seven, and those who are ahead of me in the game admitted they worked until ten, eleven, 12:00 at night. And I just remember coming home to my husband saying, I'm not cut out for this. I have finally gotten to this financial sustainability or significance, and I'm miserable. And I almost quit the business in 2013, but luckily, a former manager gave me advice not to quit and to get help.

And so I started to scale the business. And from there, I started to see that for the previous seven or eight years, I had been my own bottleneck. And I started just investing in myself, you know, hiring coaches, joining masterminds, attending conferences, just absorbing anything because I really believe that deep down inside, you can have the best of both worlds. And that's just kinda become my mission. I started teaching it to other real estate professionals, and it led me to to publishing a book and starting a podcast all around this idea that the goal is to go to life you don't need a vacation from.

And so it's not the there's no easy route. Right? There's no easy button, but I don't think it's easier to stay playing small and convincing yourself not to go for it or not to grow and expand because it's scary. So that's kind of it in a nutshell.

You know, I think so many of our listeners and members of GoBundance Women are looking to scale their businesses. And I think you have this really unique perspective that you did it in a way that was full grind and took so much out of you, and then flip the script and did it in a way that there was a lot of ease. And now also, you get to observe a lot of people that you work with.

Walk me through some actionable stuff, some patterns that you see that help people scale their businesses in a way that they really want to scale their businesses.

Well, I think I need to start by saying that when I look back to when I was a solopreneur and I see it with friends, colleagues, clients, whatever, and we are so afraid to put the pieces in place that can free us up in time, energy, and enthusiasm. And when we have more time, energy, and enthusiasm, we have more impact, more reach, more more engagement, more visibility, more love, more energy, all the things we're seeking. Right?

And in that interim, what I call messy in the middle, before we take the step to scale our business, and we're just surviving our own success. And we all have been there where we have this narrative of, I I'm I'm drowning right now, but when it slows down, I'll come up for air. So we're we're essentially asking the universe to slow it down for us. And when it slows down, we don't come up for air and feel relaxed. We panic. And then we allow that slowdown to to affirm, not just feed, but affirm our fear that this is not consistent enough or to warrant me needing help.

And so we put our foot on the gas and we grow the business again, and we start to approach that personal capacity and potentially burnout, which is a dangerous place to be where you lose all enthusiasm. Right? And as we start to approach that that threshold of our personal capacity, we think we're doing our very best. We have this story of it's fine. It's fine. I can do it. Why would I hire someone to do it? What if I hire someone and it slows down again? So it's fine. We talk ourselves into sucking it up and just surviving our own success.

And we're living an illusion. That's what I wanna say here, is that we are living an illusion that we're doing our very best when we are giving from an empty well, running on fumes, paralyzed by the fear of what if it falls apart? What if I hire somebody and they mess up my business? What if I can't afford them? We allow the fear to convince us we're better off here, and we're not because that's not what we signed up for.

And so I usually just say to people, go back to the day you started when you took that leap of faith and you went a 100% commission. What were you after? And then how does that resemble your current reality? Do you feel free? Do you feel present with your loved ones? Do you feel engaged and focused and energized? Or are you just drained and overwhelmed and spread thin?

Because I think our clients deserve better. And that's the thing is we have to we have to reframe these narratives and even use a little bit of tough love, like you're living an illusion that you're doing your very best, and our clients actually deserve better. They deserve a professional who's well rested, has a clear plan, has a system in place, and support to help make that system run smoothly. And from there, we can actually enhance the overall client experience while also enhancing our own personal lives and how we show up for our loved ones.

I love that. And, I mean, fellow mortgage person here. So I, like, get the audience of real estate agents and mortgage, people that are out there that you help so much, but it really it transcends any business.

I think what what many of us need to realize is that the productivity becomes addictive, and it becomes part of our identity. Like, oh my gosh. I'm doing all these things when really if you were to build a team or if you were to put those systems in place, there's a much different way.

How do you help guide somebody through that? Like, I want to change. I want to. I have a desire. I wanna create a different life, but I also don't know anything different than what I'm doing today. Well,

people hate this response, but the the only way to move through and beyond this state of being that we've been perpetuating and persisting of just get up and hurry up, off to the races, not enough hours in a day, so many boxes to check, always in a state of overwhelm, always over connected, you know, over connected, over committed, overwhelmed, running on fumes. It's like the only way forward is to slow down and pull back. And we have to learn how to slow down in order to speed up.

So many solopreneurs that are out there just trying to they're trying to steer the ship. They're trying to row the ship. They're trying to chart the course. They're pulling people overboard. They're jumping in the water to patch the holes to keep the ship afloat. Everything's falling apart. It's sinking. We're drowning. We're exhausted. Right? And I'm telling you to pump the brakes. Right? You can't hear it. It's so hard to hear that.

However, would you take a job let's say that the goal is predictable income. Right? Would you go take a job working for somebody else who doesn't give you a plan and doesn't give you a schedule? No. Like, we take a job because we think that's the solution to having consistent income. Right? And we expect that the business owner or the manager has a game plan for productivity and profitability, and they're gonna tell us what time to come to work and what to do. And as long as we show up to work on time and do what's expected of us, we're gonna get paid.

But business owners who are solopreneurs, who haven't slowed down in a while, are tethered to their phone from the moment they wake up till the moment they fall asleep at night. They're terrified of slowing down to access the clarity of the next right step and who they need to enlist and where they are spending time and losing energy and effectiveness in the process.

So what I encourage them to do is start by just protecting your mornings. Like, the biggest change for me ten years ago was that mornings are for me. I used to say yes to appointments at 07:30, 8AM, 09:00. And so it was always get up and hurry up. And I think we've been programmed to that since preschool. And instead, we wanna think like a business owner that's willing to slow down and evaluate what's working here. Where am I energized? Where am I drained? Where am I excited? Where am I in dread? There's likely areas of opportunity there that we can start to enlist the help of others, and in doing so, we buy ourselves a life.

Like, the first ROI you get with the right fit team member is energy. When your energy is high, we call it curating vacation energy. Like, you know you go on vacation and your phone rings and clients find you and opportunities find you and it's so annoying and people are like, do you want your business to grow? Go on vacation. It's like, what the hell is that? So so we say, curate vacation energy. Well, when you're running on fumes and you're living in a state of perpetual uncertainty, overwhelm, exhaustion, etcetera, your energy is low and depleted. And you're not attracting or seeing all the opportunities that are all around you.

But when we can slow down, we can treat our business like a business owner. We can create a schedule and a plan, and we show up to work on time and do what's expected of us. We can create consistent income and typically far more than we would get working for somebody else's plan. So it's a little bit of reverse engineering from the inside out. And as you both know, it's where business and spirituality collide. Right? Yeah. It's just recognizing where you are and then having to bring it down so so you can get clarity, so you can go forward with the right amount of energy and enthusiasm.

Love it. I don't know if your answer will be slightly different, but we're filming this in April 2025. Everything is uncertain in the markets. Right?

So, you know, people looking to get into entrepreneurship or in entrepreneurship that are looking to scale, like, there's systemic base level, uncertainty. I'm curious if if for your clients, if you're recommending any, proactive steps to plan around or deal with the the systemic uncertainty that's happening around us, what would those things be?

One of the things I like to do is highlight those that are thriving in this environment And look at them and say, what's different between those who are thriving and those who are struggling? And typically, the only difference between us and the people we admire is their decision to do it and their willingness to continue to get up and try and likely fall down on their face and get up and keep going, and what they focus on.

Because what they focus on expands. So if I wake up in the morning and I look at all the things I can't control, it's going to dim my light. Right? It's gonna drain my energy. I'm gonna find myself knowing what I could be doing or know what I should be doing and not really feeling like it. Like, I'm not in the mood because I'm paralyzed by the uncertainty because that's what I'm focusing on.

So instead of looking at what I can't control, I wanna look at what I can control. What's one small thing I can do today to make an impact on someone else's life in a positive manner? Because typically, if I can make an impact, if I can bring some value to somebody today with no agenda, not needing anything out of it, usually, the ROI is that I will start to feel better by having a positive impact on someone else's life.

And so my challenge for everybody listening is get up and get into conversation with people that you care about, take your work hat off, and go only from an intention to be of value to every person you meet. And in those conversations, you will find new ideas, creativity, potential collaborations, and a ripple effect. And it will inspire you to that next conversation because every interaction can breed your next action.

But most people, because they wake up and they look at everything they can't control and they look at where they are, which isn't where they wanna be, Well, where you are is just the byproduct of where you've been. But we've seen it time and again. People create quantum leaps in all kinds of markets and coming out of all kinds of adversity. So how do they do it? They decide. There has to be a moment where you say enough is enough. This is my point of no return. I'm done with this reality. I'm ready to create my new one.

And the fastest way to do it, and we know because we're in GoBundance, the fastest way out of where you are is get in the room with people that remind you of your future. Hang around people that are looking for opportunities, not talking about problems we can't control. And let them inspire you to believe differently, and your beliefs will inspire your actions. But you've gotta be spending time with the people that are looking for opportunities, not looking for problems.

You're gonna find whatever you look for. I tell my kids that. Like, you two could find a reason to get along today because you're both pretty cool people, or you could find a reason to be annoyed with each other because you're both kind of annoying.

Yeah. And, Erin, I think I think boiling it down, it's like, if you believe uncertain markets are gonna create challenges, that's what's gonna happen. If you believe uncertain markets are an opportunity to really just kinda, you know, innovate, do different things, take different actions, you know, you've gotta be around the right people that also believe that. I mean, so important, especially in, you know, mortgage and real estate where we have interest rate highs and lows. We also have price and and inventory highs and lows, and there are so many variables that are uncertain at all times.

So, I mean, so such such amazing information there. You know, for some people that might get stuck in their business a little bit, like, what do you do to get yourself unstuck? Because that's definitely part of the journey. Because I know you've made a big transition. You run, you know, coaching organization now and have amazing events as well for people that are that are interested in that. But, like, how do you get unstuck when you're not feeling it?

Well, the first thing is what I've already said. I hang around people that are bright lights in my life. I look for energizers, and I get in the room, I get in conversation with them, and I allow that to be the beginning of a shift. That could look like listening to podcasts, reading books.

For sure, I start my day with intention every single day. I I do not give myself away to the external world, not even my family, until I've done the work for myself to evaluate where am I on the emotional spectrum. And if I'm in a place of fear, because I'm a human being, we are all human beings. There's nobody we admire that doesn't experience fear, worry, self doubt, overwhelm, all the things. Right? So if I notice that's where I'm at, I'm gonna take a little bit extra time today to do what I need to do, which looks like meditation, journaling, looking at my goals, looking at my vision board, reading something inspiring, listening to something inspiring, getting into nature until all of a sudden I noticed myself shift from the negative side of the emotional scales to the positive side of of peace and contentment and hope and satisfaction.

There's also one thing tactically that anybody listening can do, and it's something we do in our business planning workshop every year, but it's really something you can do anytime. So when you feel down and you know you're in fear and you think you're gonna run off into action from a negative state, don't. Don't go start checking boxes and logging hours from that negative state because everything you do will be permeated with that negative vibration, and it won't fall flat or it will take you backwards. So we've got to figure out how to tend to our vibration so that we are in peak energy before we engage with the external world.

So what I like to do is I'll write the names of a bunch of people that I've met in the last twelve months. So make a list of at least three new relationships you've made you've developed. Then make a list of a couple of relationships you've deepened. And then acknowledge what was the biggest risk you took in the last few years and what was the smartest decision. Just a couple questions in my journaling. Right?

And what that does for me is it shows me how many new relationships have come into my life that I did not make happen. I didn't conjure you up in my fear based analytical brain and then hunt you down so that we could have a relationship. It's like the stars aligned, our paths crossed. Mhmm. And for the three of us, it was in Cinnamon Shores in April 2021. Right? Didn't know you existed in the world. Yeah. Then you plop into my life, and it's like, my life got better and has been better ever since. Right? But I didn't make that happen. Yeah.

So when we can acknowledge that, we can then chill out a little bit, lighten up, because you haven't even met half the people. They're gonna show up on the trail between here and the destination you seek for yourself. And you also have relationships that have been there all along that seemingly out of the blue just are revived and are supporting you in new and unexpected ways. And I get the chills thinking about that.

Me too. And then the last thing is that the biggest risks often became my smartest decision, which empowers me when I'm in fear. Mhmm. Because we're always on the leading edge of the foreign territory, which is our newest desire. And we're we're here to expand and grow. So instead of being fear in fear of the unknown, let's get a little bit curious and let's use the evidence of the past to remind us that we are being led to that desire for a reason. And while it might feel scary and unfamiliar, there's so many dots that we can't connect until we just start taking that next step.

So it really is a beautiful journey, and I wanna encourage people, and I tell myself all the time, just lighten up. You don't know how long we're here. Life is short. Look for a reason to have fun today. Look for a reason to have a positive impact on somebody's life today, and I promise you, you will start to attract more in reciprocity than you could possibly imagine, way more than we can imagine. I think we've only scratched the surface. I love it.

Erin, so much wisdom here, so much brilliance. A couple of things that you said that hit me, how do they do it? They decide. You you just decide and you go do it and then get in the room. That has really changed the ball game for me in terms of how I think. Kelly, what were a couple of your favorite parts?

Yeah. Erin, I mean, I think just just really understanding the power of belief that you have the ability to choose. Are you gonna focus on what is amazing, or are you gonna focus on all of the crap in the world that's not? And so that was super powerful.

For all of our listeners, I know they might be interested in connecting with you, finding more out about your programs. What's the best way for them to do that?

Yeah. So you can reach me on Instagram at pursuing freedom official, and I always ask if you had a takeaway DM Mandy or Kelly or me because I know from having my own podcast, which people can check out pursuing freedom podcast, but we have these conversations that we hope that someone's listening. So if you are, we'll ask I love it. Hear from you.

I love it. I love hearing from people, and it's me answering the DMs, and I I love connecting with people. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm Erin Bradley, and my website's pursuingfreedom.com. But I'm an open book, and I'm here to be of value in any way I can as often as possible.

You are such value, and to to me and to everyone who's been listening. So everyone who has been listening, thank you for joining us on the Power of Your Life podcast brought to you by GoBundance Women. You wanna know more about GoBundance Women, gobundancewomen.com. Don't forget to like and subscribe this episode. We will see you on the next one. Thanks for joining us. Thanks, Erin.