Show Notes
Have you ever made a career change that scared you?
How about after 17 years!
We spoke with Tonya Walker of The Walker Group about her unconventional career change and how she turned her real estate business from a start-up to a thriving business.
Tonya is the owner and head real estate agent of The Walker Group and has dedicated her time as an agent to making sure her clients receive superior customer service and the best deal possible. Tonya is a relocation specialist and goes above and beyond to make her clients feel special at ease when they are making their biggest life purchase.
In this episode, we cover:
- Racing cars; how that’s related to real estate
- Tonya’s 17 years as a paralegal before becoming an agent
- How she continues to sell top dollar for her clients
- Her outlook on failure
- Meeting Vanilla Ice
- And what she attributes all of her success to
Connect with Tonya Walker:
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What do you think about this episode? We’d love to hear from you! Share us your suggestions, comments or questions. And we’d love to include that on our next show.
Connect with us:
Hope y'all enjoyed this episode! We'll see you guys next week for another episode of The Marketing Natives!
Transcript
Christian [00:00:14] Hola And welcome. We are excited today because we have a special guest. But before we begin I want to say thank you for listening to our show. We really do appreciate that. Today we have Tonya Walker with the walker group the walker group are a devoted to servicing the needs of real estate buyers and sellers throughout North Dallas. Tonya is a race car collector entrepreneur a business owner wife and mother of three. Welcome to our show.
Tonya [00:00:42] Good morning. Thank you. I appreciate it.
Aaron [00:00:44] Thank you. Awesome. And we've added something as of recently. And by way he recently I mean we recorded two episodes this time and for those who are listening maybe a month or so later we recorded Larry's and we added this special section. So this is a this is a really good way to do kind of like icebreaker and also for you guys to get to know Tonya a little bit more. And this is kind of like a blast from the past and we're going to use Christian to kind of show you Tonya picture and does also on video too. What you guys see that as well. But we just wanted to get some questions answered about a particular picture. And so Chris I'm going to pull it up for you real quick. So it's a little blast from the past picture. So can you let us know about who this is and what this is.
Tonya [00:01:23] Oh my. Well that's Ice Cube.
Tonya / Christian [00:01:30] Not ice cube vanilla. He was in concert over in Frisco and actually he is a cousin of a client of mine. Really.
Aaron / Tonya [00:01:42] So you guys went to the concert hang out there and then obviously met Vanilla like nice guy super nice guy.
Aaron / Tonya [00:01:49] Dang that's cool. Yes. Does he still perform like Wow OK. He asked me to say this wasn't necessarily a blast from the past from like you know 10 years ago. This is like probably three or four or five years ago or something was like four years ago.
Tonya [00:02:04] Like I said there was a place that there's little place in Frisco that used to do. Bands that would come back and then some more they call it the bands are not bands anymore but they tend to be like during or whatever cover bands.
Tonya [00:02:21] I guess let's just call them. I don't go to concerts very often. Anyway it was very cool to meet him. Awesome.
Aaron [00:02:27] Yeah I saw that. I saw that picture I was at.
Tonya [00:02:29] Oh we should definitely ask totally much do you guys somebody so.
Aaron [00:02:37] Like I said this was just an ice breaker and I wasn't trying to be funny at all. So that's as we won't be able to use it again. So all right. So but for real. Tell us a little bit about the Walker group.
Tonya [00:02:48] Well I would call a banker Apex here and Allen I have been with Coldwell Banker since I was got my license in 2012 and chose Coldwell Banker because they are will worldwide. They're not just local. They're not just international or regional or whatever. They are truly worldwide. And because I've moved around because we've traveled around the globe. I was really impressed with the fact that their homes that they put on sale in any state. It really does go worldwide. So I was pretty impressed with that. I want to be able to provide that to my clients.
Aaron [00:03:29] So how did you get started in real estate then.
Tonya [00:03:32] Oh wow. OK. So my background is I was in the legal field for 17 years as a legal assistant paralegal loved loved loved it. I still miss it. It was very rewarding and I worked with some amazing law firms and amazing lawyers very brilliant minds. And we were moving here through one of our many moves. And after sitting in a car 15 hours every day by myself. Looking for properties. Some pivoting if you will like it's got to be better than this. And now because the other modes were pretty systematic. We had kids so everybody said you got to move here you got to move there to make sure that we were within a a good sell area. And anyway it was kind of just a piffany. And I called my husband and I said I think I mean I'm changing careers.
Aaron [00:04:37] So how did he respond to that.
Tonya [00:04:40] Really.
Tonya [00:04:42] So I have to say he was so supportive and so supportive I hadn't had the mindset of that I was gonna do real estate or anything like that but I just obviously with my background. I'm very into contracts. No no. In understanding the importance of a legal document. And just that people deserve a better service. Not just to be let in I literally was left on the front lawn at a property in Plano. What. Yeah. They showed me one house and I said OK so where are we going next. The agent says oh I don't have any more today to show you. I thought I gave you a menu. There was a list you know. Anyway my girlfriend and I were standing on the front lawn watched her drive off and we both looked at each other like this really just happened. And so at that point that's when I started looking for myself. Mm hmm. Wow.
Aaron [00:05:40] That's that is a ridiculous to me. I don't understand. Oh yeah no you know this person wants to buy a home. I'm like This is a client of mine and I'm just going to you know whatever. Just we'll see you tomorrow or see you another day. I'm guessing you didn't keep you didn't continue to hire that person.
Tonya [00:05:59] Well no.
Tonya [00:06:00] So it just you know that's how it come about just making sure that we take care of people and that's the biggest thing with our with our group is our people our clients. It's not. I mean our clients are our everything. But it's also our vendors. It's also the people that we work with. I think you got to take care of people and if you've got the right people and you're on your team because it's not just who's in my office is our team. I think that it's the people that we surround ourselves as our team because they help whether it's a contractor whether it's a lawn guy whether it's you know whatever whomever it may be insurance if you find the right group and people that I trust if I would trust them for my own then then I'm I'm okay with learning more about them and then helping other clients. So I think it's a it's a big team effort in making sure that I take care of all of them.
Aaron [00:06:56] And jumping into real estate. I mean that's a big jump especially like said likely your husband was very supportive because sometimes that's actually a lot of times I don't feel like that's the case with a lot of people are like hey look this this job brings in money. This one's kind of an unknown. So jumping in and starting your own business have you always wanted to like start your own business or was this kind of like you know, I like security.
Tonya [00:07:19] OK highlight very systematic secure organized you know. So this was huge for me.
Tonya [00:07:26] I had no idea really what I was getting myself into. And there's really not anybody that tells you when you start getting into it there and when you talk to people about how do I go about finding someone to mentor me. And that word was it was a deer in headlights. People don't understand what a mentor or they didn't seem to me at the time to understand what a mentor was and I struggled and I don't know how people do this. Business because I run it as a business. I don't know how they do this and not have one that the means to get into it or the support.
Tonya [00:08:12] Because I would have been eating ramen noodles soups wasn't for the fact that my husband and I planned and he supported and it was great. You know if it wasn't for him and my kids mom you got this. You can do this you know because there's a few times like I gave a really good career you know. It. It was tough. It was tough. And I support any body that wants to get into doing their own business because it is hard to make that vision into a reality. And to make it profitable.
Aaron [00:08:47] Right. I was gonna say that's the one thing like taking the leaps one thing and then to be able to sustain it. And it's you've been doing now for seven years. Is it seven years ago. It's good. You're getting close to it. So.
Tonya [00:08:58] And in between there I mean it was quite a few hurdles I ended up with a dissection of the carotid artery away. Yeah I was really sick there for a while and it actually the artery split. Yeah it's kind of crazy.
Aaron [00:09:15] Yeah. Yeah it does for watching a little big you see our faces for those who can't you can guess on our faces.
Aaron [00:09:24] This is not it. How does how did that happen.
Tonya [00:09:27] It's crazy headaches. Anyway I won't go through all of it but you know just like in anybody else's life you have. Trials or you know things happen with life. When you own your own business you don't have that luxury of calling in sick. And so that was really tough not to have anybody that and I had a platform of clients that I was working with and I am a very private person when it comes to certain things but you know and I couldn't get over the headaches. They just weren't going away. Anyway long story short my admin at the time she did a quick class and got her license. Like she went through the course whatever just to get licensed so that she could help me.
Christian [00:10:21] That's dedication right. Right. That's really cool. So you've been doing it for a while now. What do you think it's some of the things that you enjoy most about what you do.
Tonya [00:10:31] Right now I'm meeting people in and in meeting their family that they refer me to or their friends that they refer me to or being invited to their home to have a cup of tea. Or to call me and have me go out to dinner with them.
Aaron [00:10:51] I think maybe this is after the fact or during and after.
Tonya [00:10:57] I think doesn't it. To me it's a huge huge high honor. To be remembered. And then just to get the hugs whether it's from the kids you know saying thank you for their new bedroom you know or just helping them get through. The process you know in bringing some comfort to.
Aaron [00:11:19] Thing that's Yeah. I was going to say that what you are doing is I mean it's the biggest investment most based purchase father that most people make. So that's huge freedom then like I said many switching from an apartment I like yes this lady helped us get a bedroom which is very impactful time for people's lives as far as being an entrepreneur. Like you mentioned earlier you know you didn't necessarily you kind of forced yourself outside of that you were happy you were comfortable in one spot so you couldn't be if you couldn't go back to be a paralegal at frame this to where you have to answer certain way or a different way. If you couldn't go back to being a paralegal and you couldn't be an entrepreneur what would you be what would you want to do.
Tonya [00:12:02] Oh. Good question. There's so many things to. Probably work on either planning plants because I like to work in the yard or working on cars. Know kind of broad spectrum.
Aaron [00:12:22] Yeah that's completely different spectrums there that we enjoy.
Tonya / Christian [00:12:26] Yeah we enjoy it. I enjoy being at the lawn yard. No no there's no we did that we enjoyed garage time. I think the very first time that.
Christian [00:12:38] Aaron talked about you. The artist was the cool lady and she loves race cars. I'm like what that was like such a weird thing like I never heard of anyone collecting race cars but I was like one of the vaguest things that I think impacted like Aaron when he met you the first time. Yeah. It's a really good idea. And he was like does she like race cars and collected them. Can you tell us more about that. How did that start.
Tonya [00:13:06] Well would we call the. We don't technically collect them. We raise them. I've got my husband and our middle son actually build them. Well they I mean. They are amazing to watch. If you ever want to watch people just do things that you just go wow that's something that a big production company would do but they they have built like they have. We have a lead which is a machine that can actually cut medals. And so they will build pieces and parts and you know and my husband is a engineer.
Tonya [00:13:45] He is very down to the Mellow. You know where I'm the one to hammer something. Oh I got no worry about measuring it doesn't seem right up there. Right.
Tonya [00:13:58] And but my head's I grew at. With motorcycles I was my dad's shadow and whatever. So I've raced and rode motorcycles my whole life and and I have this real problem with speed DFW is a bad place to be.
Tonya [00:14:17] I will hence why I drive a mama mama mobile now because I don't want him in trouble.
Tonya [00:14:24] But we took it to the tracks. You know we've had drag bikes motorcycles. We've both had street bikes we've had. But now our kids have never had motorcycles really. We've we've. Given them the opportunity to learn and watching. No we said no you don't have it either you have it or you don't. It's not something that you you can take classes and courses and all of that but either you have it or you don't. A motorcycle is a complete. It's a machine. Mm hmm. And you got to learn You've got to know there's just so much more to it. So anyway, we took it to the tracks.
Tonya [00:15:05] AND SO WE BEEN we drag raced motorcycles all over the country Florida Kansas and Atlanta. I mean we were all over the place.
Tonya [00:15:16] Some little bitty Kodak little areas that didn't have a around.
Tonya [00:15:22] So anyway we he decided that in his whole dream was always to have a drag cars. And so we got rid of all the motorcycles in the last couple years and now we've got two race cars.
Christian [00:15:36] Has there ever been a.
Christian [00:15:39] Always a hobby not necessarily like a hey let's make a business out of this.
Tonya [00:15:43] No it's a hobby is a hobby. Yeah. There's not a I mean a great few years ago if we could have turned it into something more business wise but. And you could guess but it's just not. It's more of a hobby. You just enjoy. Doing it. That's the relaxation I get.
Aaron / Tonya [00:16:02] My husband and my son right at that point it probably turns into like now this seems like work. I don't enjoy it as much versus once a little different out here.
Tonya [00:16:11] It's 100 degrees.
Aaron [00:16:12] Yes it can be a hundred degrees ninety one right now and it's barely noon.
Tonya [00:16:17] It's 90 here. It's even more so on the track now. Yeah. You know so usually.
Tonya [00:16:24] And here in Texas in Dallas area if you will. We don't start racing until 6:00 p.m.. Oh you go until 1:00 2:00 in the morning. Because it's the heat is so hot.
Aaron [00:16:38] Much. Well even at six o'clock it's still pretty damn warm. I know. Dang. so.
Aaron [00:16:43] You said you did some quotes over here of the mama mobile. Like what did you use to drive or what would you be driving if you if there's nobody else on the road knew it was just you driving.
Aaron [00:16:54] You know you're afraid you could be a Cadillac B ESB.
Aaron / Tonya [00:16:58] Yeah I know very well the Corvette 06. Mustang. Judy. That's what my kids grew up in.
Aaron [00:17:10] That's what you're trying to dropping them off at school.
Tonya [00:17:12] I can't. That's what they grew up in. And then all of a sudden you know I Change Careers now. Try to cross over.
Aaron [00:17:21] But that's true though you put on a lot of miles with real estate just taking people to a location and stuff. So but don't make it feel safe.
Tonya [00:17:28] And more importantly comfortable. And then you got to make sure that every. Person can get into the car.
Aaron / Tonya [00:17:37] I don't have a right flip up the seat and it's gonna be comfortable form butterfly doors right. See that's very comfortable. We definitely have control. No I do. They're fast. Yes.
Aaron [00:17:50] Don't worry we're gonna see all these listings within and probably about two or three hours. How is that possible. Don't worry just jump in. Don't worry. Now I've driven or I've rode with you and I felt very safe. But we only didn't go about a mile and we went a mile and a half may now maybe a mile it was just like from your office to the shoot.
Aaron [00:18:06] So now that I know this I didn't know that about you before. So I'll be I'm safe.
Aaron / Tonya [00:18:12] Yeah I always put on my seatbelt so I feel like you know I'm not a an aggressive driver and a defensive driver. Know were you watching other people. That's how we raise our voice. You know you always watch your mirrors always watch. You know I it's just paying attention and I am president whether you're driving and life or whatever.
Aaron [00:18:30] Yeah. That's very true. You just have more of a lead foot with it as always.
Tonya [00:18:36] Well we're gonna take it. What.
Aaron [00:18:39] All right we'll not go. This is not real wood. It says knock on something. Wow.
Aaron [00:18:45] Never. I don't know you have been pulled over it's just right. What.
Christian [00:18:51] There's like the complete opposite spectrum right here and Aaron gets tickets. No I haven't.
Aaron [00:18:56] Hey not going to have one for like seven or eight months okay.
Tonya [00:18:59] I don't know how or you know that's the only time I've ever had a ticket was when we moved here. It's a matter of fact I didn't change. I didn't realize I had to have a sticker in my window. Mm hmm. And I'm real finicky about things being on my car. Mm hmm. Yeah. And in other states they're on the back of the license plate.
Tonya [00:19:20] Yeah. Right. And I don't like them on the window because I think it's a strict view and it just doesn't look pretty.
Aaron [00:19:27] That's a real day and just doesn't like to fold.
Tonya [00:19:29] They did. I assume you know that they gonna get on TV then and when I explained it to them they laughed at me and says well you have to have it. So I had to go goodbye and I didn't pay anything. I just a look at my little window sticker.
Aaron [00:19:43] Dang. All right. So you guys we'll have her back on the episode. If she if so maybe 10 or 20 years from now if she ever gets a ticket we're gonna have to come back on so we can we can talk about that experience as far as 2019 where we're about halfway through 2019 and you can answer this question for the first part of 20 20 what is what is the rest of 2019 early part of 2020. What does that look like for the Walker group. What do you guys envision.
Tonya [00:20:08] Good question. Well I'm looking to grow. I would love to expand with a couple more people on our team.
Tonya [00:20:19] It's going to be the right people like agents or. OK.
Tonya [00:20:22] I would love to have a couple of agents on our team. That want to be on our team. Yeah. No I'm not looking just for warm bodies but somebody that truly wants to be a part of what we believe in. And that's the client.
Aaron [00:20:39] Very good. Yeah definitely in this market. I think it's hard to find. It's not hard to find. It's just. Yeah it is harder. It's harder to find the right people on the right people to stick around because most places they're hiring are most places you're doing this I'd like to find the right people. I mean I know that we had the same issue of like OK how many people do we have to interview to be able to really hire one person and then are they the right person right.
Tonya [00:21:04] Right. Just got to be the right fit and somebody that wants to work. That's what I you know my the admin that I am so blessed to have. We're on our team. She's been with me for over three years. Mm hmm. You know and she she understands why I do what I do and how we do it and why it's so important. We're just a godsend for her to understand that. And when you're interviewing people or just having that conversation with people and whether it's in real estate or in other facets of professions you kind of get the sense that. It's a me. Conversation is about what's in it for me. Mm hmm. And that's just not how I roll. Yeah I don't I that really is a turnoff to me when I'm me when I'm discussing the opportunity to bring somebody on board.
Aaron [00:22:08] Yeah. So shout out to Kat. We interact with Kat a lot. She's amazing. So there you go.
Aaron [00:22:14] Kat as your one shout out for he show. this want to ask this.
Christian [00:22:20] What do you think it's something that you've either I mean you've failed at. And how did you learn from it can be business could be life could be anything.
Tonya [00:22:37] I don't know if I would call it failures. I call it like you know or learn lessons. I mean Phil as a parent sometimes you know rethink you do.
Tonya [00:22:51] Now all of a sudden you go oh my gosh who are you. You know. But as far as business goes I think.
Tonya [00:23:01] One thing that I had a hard time with in this business was staying in my line. So when you get in and you've got all these voices talking to you you need to do this that you. This will. I'm very naive so I don't know what all this is but I'll things that I've got to do it and I've spent thousands of dollars listening to everybody else. And it didn't generate. Opportunity.
Tonya [00:23:29] Or.
Tonya [00:23:32] Just provide the right platform. And then just being bullied by people in whether it be another agent or someone looking for a quote unquote discount. Mm hmm. I had a hard time with that because I want to give my I'll give the kitchen sink away if I think that it's going to help you. Mm hmm mm hmm. And I had to learn that I was being taken advantage of quite a bit.
Christian [00:24:01] It seems like a very cut throat industry to be in. I mean we've you talked about mentorship and earlier in the show and how difficult it was to to get that going. So we've had the same struggles but it is something that's important to us as well.
Christian [00:24:19] It's you know being educated on those things and how to actually do them properly which are we.
Christian [00:24:26] I mean we've had some sort of mentorship at the same time we've had to go through different things and learn and trial and error and figure out what's actually going to work what's going move the needle compared to other things.
Tonya [00:24:38] So I think everybody has to. In every profession I think that. And this is my own personal opinion but I think in a sense I have learnt in this realm of profession. I don't know a lot of people look at it as a profession. What do you think. What do you that it's just quick. It's just we don't have a choice whether it's the professionals themselves or the perception of others looking at a real estate agent as somebody just. There for us to do a document or open up a door. Really. Well which I was a little offensive. You know. Yeah. When I first got it know what. What are you doing. There's a lot to it. You know I'm putting my neck on the line every time that I help somebody whether I am opening up a door but it's in the contract and all the documents they're after. It's a legal binding document. It's not just something simplistic to me right. And you got to really pay attention to it. And then just making sure that you're you're protecting your client in all facets but in covering and carrying yourself as a professional.
Aaron [00:26:02] Let's I guess I've never I haven't looked at it that way just because when I've gotten to the age of even looking at real estate I've already talked to people or seen people that were a good guess a good role model and then just learning a lot from just talking with you about the way that this is supposed to be done. And I don't know. That's it. It's good to hear. It's good to I guess see a reality check that you know that's the way that some people look at it. But at least you've done a good job of educating me of like how. I mean that's is a rough position I guess but to be in play you said and putting yourself out on the line and showing people's homes and all the hours and you have to showing after this episode. So if anything it's I mean more than a job that's like a I mean it's literally a a lifestyle. You have to really love it to be able to stay in something like this versus having to do one real estate deal a year and you know I'm just going to sell one home. That's not I mean that's probably the people that I would consider like OK you have your license but you're not really doing anything like that.
Tonya [00:27:10] There's some amazing agents out there. I do want to make sure I make that clear. There are some amazing. Agents whether they're new whether they're veterans. I mean there are some people that are in the community that are that are in the state that are you know. And that's one thing that I did when I was struggling is I kind of just started researching people. Mm hmm. And it's like OK everybody can't just be yeah.
Aaron [00:27:36] Not everybody is the best right.
Tonya [00:27:38] So I just started researching and I really put on the the hat of what I would do when I was in a law firm. So how did I put together a team when I was getting ready for a big project or how did the attorneys have me do. You know so different things. I actually started developing. My company as I would love our interests. And then I started researching other agents and in. Really paying attention to how professional they were or weren't just again. Like I said it's not just justice not just real estate. It's in every profession. Mm hmm. Good bad. Not everybody who graduated to top their class.
Aaron [00:28:22] Right. Well I think that structures the ending that like helped you to create a successful agency just because it's like having that structure like are the people that you're talking about I guess who are good. They figure out a way that there is a structure. There is a way that they do things that are consistent for their clients and that's what you know being the experience that you had allowed you to set forth to be successful from the beginning because there were certain systems in place the certain consistencies and I feel like that people who don't put those in place those are the the ones that are going back and forth and you know you may have a great experience over here and then three other customers are like no this is the worst person ever. So maybe that paralegal is just a prep before you had it before you got into this.
Christian [00:29:08] So this question I have that we have to what do you attribute your success.
Christian [00:29:14] Do you think your background helped with that or is there something else that you think.
Tonya [00:29:20] The number one. Yeah. Lord. I don't do any of this by myself whether my husband whether it's my kids you know because sometimes I. I honestly go How am I doing what I'm doing. Mm hmm. You know I read I study and I go to schools and I'm constantly educating. But the amount of hours that I pulll.
Tonya [00:29:45] Even just understanding what to do on certain situations but just in general I can I can do any of this. I wouldn't be doing any of this if there wasn't a plan yet.
Aaron / Tonya [00:29:55] You. That's the best part is like you don't necessarily know the plan you're kind of following. I just do as I said stay in your lane.
Tonya [00:30:01] That's my biggest thing when I talk to anybody but just especially agents. So annually if this is what you're supposed to be doing. It worked out. Yeah. And I always tell Catherine you know because you know the market changes. Life changes things happen. Roll with it. Mm hmm. You know. You know it'll work out the way it's supposed to. As long as we're doing what's right for the right reasons not for self but for the right reasons and our clients number one you know it'll work out and it has. Yeah we have we have double and triple every year. Awesome.
Aaron [00:30:44] I did not know that but that's very cool. I mean I think that's that's true with almost anything. Most people are like or would answer and say the exact same if they if they believe that. But I think when people start running into a problem it's when they say like oh it's a we're gonna do the right thing. Ninety eight percent of the time or ninety five percent of the time instead of like no literally every decision you make. It's not that hard to choose the right option.
Tonya [00:31:06] It's not. So the hardest thing for me is to make sure that I am choosing the right not for, for I'm not choosing the right option because it's never. It's making sure. Am I doing everything I can. You know that's when I lose sleep.
Aaron [00:31:20] All right. So for this section this is this is something that I get the most out of because it's very interesting and probably it's something that we spend the most money on but we're going to kind of shift gears doing something that's more knowledge. What is the right word. I'm thinking of like tools or innovation what is a. I don't know. No idea.
Aaron [00:31:42] I can't think of the word we have we'll figure it out later anyway so the question is would purchase of one hundred dollars or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months or recent memory. Hundred dollar hundred dollars or less.
Tonya [00:32:00] Mm hmm.
Tonya [00:32:01] Oh you're ready for that one.
Tonya [00:32:03] Is there anything that I could buy further for you can almost get it we'll take a guess.
Tonya [00:32:10] Oh that's a good one.
Tonya [00:32:12] Mm hmm.
Tonya [00:32:17] Impacted my life or people around me.
Aaron [00:32:20] It could be anything so anything that you've purchased.
Tonya [00:32:26] My Starbucks impacts my life quite well.
Aaron [00:32:30] Starbucks. Please let us know whenever you make some ad royalties off of this.
Aaron [00:32:34] Thank you.
Tonya [00:32:42] That's a really good question. I am stumped on this and I'm sure that I'm pretty frugal.
Aaron [00:32:51] Right see you had like 20 purchase of 30 dollars or something. Oh oh well you can think about that and come back.
Aaron [00:32:58] Think about that. All right. So this is another one is another good one. You may be all that this gives you a little longer time span to answer this question. All right. In the last five years what's a belief behavior or habit that is most improved your life.
Aaron / Tonya [00:33:17] He get five years to go back for this one. My faith is stronger. And. Making sure I take the time for. For studying. Reading. And. Paying attention to my family. You know those are those are huge. Just because you get so wind up with. Work. Mm hmm.
Tonya [00:33:48] And I was always a good mom when they were younger but now that they're older. Every kind of goes their own their separate way and you kind of forget that your mom right.
Aaron [00:33:57] So you're an empty nester at this point. Very much so. It's. Nice. She loves you guys.
Tonya [00:34:07] But no I let our family you know. But just you know as far as.
Tonya [00:34:15] For me it's spending that time. Studying the Word in the mornings. That's made a huge impact on my life. It keeps me grounded and helps me be fresh and in and know that whatever comes our way that day. It's good.
Christian [00:34:36] Have you when you were speaking earlier and I mean you do work a lot of hours and there's a lot of work. How do you manage. All these aspects of your life I mean you love gardening for example. We're just talking about that earlier. How do you make time for the important things for the things that are important for you in your life.
Christian [00:34:58] Do you have any tips tricks or anything like that.
Christian / Tonya [00:35:00] Or is it just kind of just having a really good husband and just very supportive. You know is kind of funny. Well we enjoy each other's conversation and he's a professional and he travels and he works you know so we both work a lot but when we're together it's kind of funny we we vent talk. And then we're just there.
Tonya [00:35:25] So it's just nice to be here.
Tonya [00:35:28] But he just he's super chill. So if I need to go put something into like I've got a tree or a plan or something I need to go repot I just go run out and repot it and then I'm back out the door and I was like. So there's not like a whole lot of. Hours that I have days off that I necessarily have. But if I can have a couple hours whether he and I run to the movies on a Saturday evening that's kind of cool and bonus for us. I can spend a little bit time with my boys you know come over for dinner. I don't cook as much as I used to but I do every so often. Or if we just grab something and we're just together right. That's kind of where we're really excited just to.
Tonya / Aaron [00:36:16] I want to hear about their days and their lives and what they've got going on which is so you mentioned that time of like you know the conversation back and forth and then you're just chilling which made me think of like Netflix. You guys have Netflix. We do have Netflix. OK. So what what's something that you guys are like currently binging right now.
Tonya [00:36:37] Sneaky sneaky Pete.
Tonya [00:36:39] Yeah I've heard of it. What is sneaky things in three seasons are you just going out. What is sneaky Pete. You to watch it. You tell me any plot.
Tonya [00:36:49] I have kind of a card shark. You know what you want to call him but he's just very. Manipulative kind of guy. All the sudden he was in jail some time ago with this guy that told him all about his family in Connecticut or wherever it was. And so he found out that there was money. So he was going after the money ends up. Seemingly in love with the family and so they've he's helped bail out of quite a few jams in the midst of trying to get this money back in a certain time period. Now it's like okay now but there's all kinds of crazy twists and turns.
Aaron [00:37:34] Is it like a Netflix original or was this on TV somewhere and then Netflix just kind of picked it up. You're asking me questions.
Tonya [00:37:40] Well I'm not any of these probing questions to be able to see. Now I have to text one of my sons. I go What is this. And how do I turn this off. So I go to Netflix and I watch Niggyti. That's all I know. That's what I do.
Tonya [00:37:52] I can get it on my phone or drive here or whatever. Yeah.
Tonya [00:37:57] I don't. Billions. We've watched that.
Aaron [00:38:01] I've heard. That's really good.
Aaron / Tonya [00:38:02] I've actually been that's been on top of my list for our binges they're not like everybody else's. Everybody else can get like hours and days to watch them.
Aaron / Tonya [00:38:11] Oh yeah. And now we may watch one and then three weeks later we'll watch it whether you know or something like that. But to recap.
Aaron [00:38:19] Oh that's what happened last season there were.
Aaron [00:38:23] This is great. Plus the show if it has like four seasons like this is great for the next couple of years we're going to be awesome. Yeah.
Aaron [00:38:32] Is far it the the business rather are jumping back to the business.
Aaron [00:38:38] What is something that you wish you would have known before you jumped into real estate made that leap of faith. What is something you would like oh I should have done this. I know you said that you should have stayed in your lane but was there anything else you were like OK. If I would have just known that hey if I just showed these types of houses or just work with these kind of people or anything. Was there anything that you wish you would have known before you jumped into that.
Tonya [00:39:00] I wish that I knew that I wasn't gonna make any money literally. I interviewed with the manager and asked OK so I understand that part of it's a commission.
Tonya [00:39:12] So what is the salary. And he goes there's no. Any salary. I'm like huh.
Tonya [00:39:20] So that tells you how naive I was. Zero dollars zero dollars. Yeah.
Tonya [00:39:26] And so I kind of wish I had you know. Even though I was top in the class and all that. I still somewhere missed the fact that no one will make any money.
Aaron [00:39:37] And they kind of they probably didn't really talk about that too much.
Tonya [00:39:40] I'm right through that we were into all of the logistics about everything.
Tonya [00:39:49] I don't know that I would change a whole lot because I think that's what got me where I am. You know when I first started out on me I really didn't. We're not from here. I don't have a sphere here.
Tonya [00:40:03] I didn't come. You know my kids aren't in school so I don't have that network no connections that way.
Tonya [00:40:09] I have no friends. I had no body. You know it was kind of like oh this is how this. Yeah. Anybody else you know has a schools or there or just fear. So that was that was probably a.
Tonya [00:40:24] When the really tough ones is figuring out. How to make that friend thing going on. But I think that. I don't know that I would change a ton. Because to me if I got into it too quick I don't know that I would have appreciated it as much as I do now.
Tonya [00:40:44] A good point. You can't really necessarily do anything about not being from the area. Like that's said I can't. I mean it's just always I would have known that I had to move to a new area sooner.
Tonya [00:40:52] Like you know that just learning how to deal with that you know. And then again watching people like you do that. Are you doing those you know kind of thing but. Probably taking a load having a little bit more courage or a little bit more confidence and in that I could go out and do things that I did.
Tonya [00:41:14] I can't lag that first year because I was a little nervous because they're everything to me was very again legal minded and it needed to be ducks in a row. Everything had to be precise. Before I would even go out and talk to anybody right away like OK you got to get out there and like but I don't want to go there right.
Aaron / Tonya [00:41:35] I'm not ready. Well your paperwork was like pristine. The people the most organized like you to come over to my house.
Aaron [00:41:43] You should pick somebody based off the office come over check it out.
Tonya [00:41:46] I had binders and everything was all you know but perfect. I am having clients right.
Tonya / Aaron [00:41:52] I'm like Oh then I'll have to mess with you know real people messy people so it's like their life could be you know make them more of their ad kind of what I was buying with all of that.
Tonya [00:42:01] I just want to make sure I had the right answers.
Tonya [00:42:04] That was where my hesitation was. I didn't mind meeting people I didn't mind getting out there and getting my hands dirty or anything else I need to do. It was if somebody come at me with a question you know I don't go.
Aaron [00:42:17] Let me get back to you. And that was always what they said to get back and I'm going. How many times I got to tell you I got to get back to you know because I didn't know anything. Just give me your list of questions prior to us meeting and I will I'll make sure to have them written out to you.
Aaron [00:42:31] All right. So we're gonna come back to this question. The one hundred dollar question. Well it's not one hundred dollar question. It could be. I mean it's worth we could give points in this in this podcast episode you read it about 900 right now. This will hit you over a thousand if you answer the question but. OK. So one hundred dollar purchase or less. That's most positively impacted your life in the last six months. I'll just give you some cues or like some things that other people have said. One guy actually told us that he bought something for his kid that saved him on potty training. So how has a very impactful thing. Yeah. Another person has said something like a book book do we give it. And one other person was their debt free now so they did like a Dave Ramsey course and did that. So he's really good tennis shoes tennis shoes on. So it really could be anything new just like wow this just makes my life better. And I'm glad that I bought it.
Tonya [00:43:29] Still waiting. But when I don't go shopping a whole lot.
Tonya [00:43:39] Usually if anything I buy anything it's for the kids or somebody else. I guess I would have to say probably my last shopping spree my most inexpensive was my son and I went down to Dallas and we spent a few hours together and.
Tonya [00:43:55] It cost us minimal to get on a train and we went to the art museum which was zero. The art museum the Dallas art museum. Oh yes awesome. So yeah that was under definitely way a hundred bucks.
Tonya [00:44:11] Yeah. That was so impactful and impactful.
Aaron / Tonya [00:44:14] And as your son lives in the area then all three of them you know I've got two sons that live here.
Tonya [00:44:20] Okay but just again spending that time together and I haven't had and get to do that in years. I mean we see each other for dinner and everybody else is around. So that was a that was a bonus.
Christian / Tonya [00:44:33] That's cool. I think that has been the most economical purchase that we've heard on the market yet. No that's great. That's now. Yeah.
Aaron [00:44:41] All right. Thank you guys for listening. And Tanya how. What's the best way how can our audience find out more about you.
Tonya [00:44:49] We have a Web site. Tanya@Walker DFW dot com. We're also on Facebook and usually it's much easier to get hold of it because you can messages when you always call or text or email whatever's the most convenient. And again it's Tanya at Walker DFW dot com.
Aaron [00:45:08] Awesome. And we'll have the show now. We'll also have her her social media her Web site. We'll give you her text or her. Yeah. Her Web her phone number on there. So just make sure you text her 2:00 3:00 4:00 a.m..
Aaron / Tonya [00:45:19] She would love that. Just kidding. I have. OK. We can edit this part out. You don't know but just how.
Aaron [00:45:28] But if this is your first time listening thank you we really appreciate it. This is a special episode. Most of the time we're doing topical tips on what to do with social media or marketing. So make sure you hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on anything that's timely and you can stay ahead of the competition. We do want to give a special shout out to Tanya with the walker group and coming on here. These are really fun episodes for us. And if you liked this episode please go over to iTunes and leave us an honest reading your interview. Give a shout out to Tonya there so we can continue to bring you guys quality podcasts. All right we'll talk to you next week.
