Women in Real Estate Gaining Competitive Advantage?
Welcome to our Women's Series for Women's History Month! Today, Abigail has a conversation with Mandy McAllister. Mandy is a medical device sales representative who has a side-hustle of small multifamily syndications. Recently, she started a women's community on Facebook called, "Aspiring Women Achieving More." Today, she talks about the challenges and benefits of being a woman in Real Estate and how to use that as a competitive advantage.
Key Topics
What are some challenges you have face being a woman in real estate?
What are some benefits you have found in being a woman in the business world?
My mom and I are a part of your group, “Aspiring Women Achieving More,” what made you decide to create this group?
How has having this group of women as your support system helped you in life and your business?
Connect with Mandy McAllister:
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
women, people, medical device sales, American Dream, Mandy, mom, investing, feel, achieving, competitive advantage, boys club, Alison Armstrong, real estate, step, masculine energy, identify, moving, aspiring, girl, refinance
SPEAKERS
Abigail Thomson, Mandy McAllister
Abigail Thomson 00:01
Welcome to The Next Level American Dream Podcast brought to you by Thomson Multifamily Group. Your hosts, Abigail and Sean will discuss how you can take your American Dream to the next level, through real estate investing, business practices, and personal development. Join us as we share our experiences as a father daughter duo who are trying to accomplish our goal of financial freedom. We hope you learn more about how to define and achieve your American Dream. Here's another episode of Next Level American Dream. Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Women's Series in celebration of Women's History Month. We have a wonderful guest for you today, but first, please make sure you have subscribed, if you haven't already. We love getting your feedback through likes, comments, ratings, and reviews. Today, Abigail had a conversation with Mandy McAllister. Mandy is a medical device sales representative who has a side hustle of small multifamily syndications. Recently, she started a women's community on Facebook called, "Aspiring Women Achieving More." Today, she talks about the challenges and benefits of being a woman in real estate and how to use that as a competitive advantage. If you found any value from today's episode, then please share it with a friend and help us grow. For more information on our sponsor, visit: thomsonmultifamilygroup.com to start taking your American Dream to the next level through passive investing. Hi, Mandy, welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast. How are you?
Mandy McAllister 01:28
I'm just living the dream. Abbie, how are you?
Abigail Thomson 01:32
I'm wonderful. We were chatting earlier before we started recording and I can already tell you're going to have an amazing energy for today's episode. Can you tell the listeners a little bit about your background and your previous careers up until now?
Mandy McAllister 01:44
Yeah, absolutely. I so I grew up on a farm right, so I had that hard work ethic stuff is in my blood and both of my parents were entrepreneurs. My dad is a farmer, my mom's a small gifts manufacturing business. And then I ended up you know, working at the floor of the Board of Trade because your dad is a farmer plus Master's in economics equals Board of Trade. And you know, saw so many guys lose money like that, you know, it was you can make money quick; you could lose money quick. And that kind of made me feel like oh, hard assets like farm ground like actual stuff, rather than paper is what that's exactly is what investing means to me. And so, from you know, it, I saw the writing on the wall, like I'm pretty good at like adding and subtracting, you know, but like computers are way better, right? So, I made the switch to trading on a screen and ended up I didn't love it because it wasn't people oriented. It was just clicking a mouse. So, I switched to medical device sales in 2005-2006. And I've been doing that really ever since. But in 2016 I started you know, kind of a side hustle of real estate investing. And my wheelhouse is really small multis got a portfolio of my own, and then I've helped investors bring in some, you know, alternative investments to their portfolios as well. And I'm, you know, looking to continue to grow in the real estate space.
Abigail Thomson 03:15
Awesome! What attracted you to real estate? How did you find that opportunity to begin with coming from medical device sales?
Mandy McAllister 03:24
You know, it's a funny story. And it's, you know, like a lot of people it's like an idea that you have in the back of your head for a really long time, you know, so I was 19 years old on the porch of like, a house at a friend's like party in college. And she was explaining to me that her dad owned that house, and she rented the rooms to our sorority sisters. And I'm like, and you get the money.
Abigail Thomson 03:52
That is what I'm doing right now. That's so funny!
Mandy McAllister 03:54
Yeah. You are you set up for success in a significant way, Abigail, so that was like in the back of my head. And then I've heard other like, kind of friends talk. You know about things somebody mentioned, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," somebody mentioned the "Richest Man in Babylon," then, I dug in and I'm like, wait, I can pick what I do with my life, if I have money coming in, you know, so it was always a thing that was there. I did a ton of learning from my college to 2007 2008 until you know, 2016 I bought a condo to live in in 2008 expecting that the market would you know rebound really quickly, and I'd be able to refinance and go move in somewhere else. That didn't happen as planned. But in 2016, I bought my first small multi, a four Plex.
Abigail Thomson 04:48
Yeah, it's an easy steppingstone as to get your own place, maybe rent it out, refinance or like, settle it and then you just move on to the next one.
Mandy McAllister 05:00
You know, especially for someone your age, a book, I always I don't know your age, but you seem...
Abigail Thomson 05:06
I'm 21.
Mandy McAllister 05:07
You are on your stuff home girl, but you are at the beginning of adulthood, you know, totally check out this book called, "Set for Life," by Scott Trench, if you have not read that it is a brilliant, like, actionable step process of how to achieve financial freedom by doing many of the things that you're doing right now. Oh, my gosh, I'm 40. Like, where would I be? Had I been giving this action starting at 21? So yeah, it's a lot of learning. But it's, it's the academic stuff happens when there's action behind the learning? You know,
Abigail Thomson 05:42
I completely agree. Okay, so moving on to a little bit more of a little bit deeper question. But what are some of the challenges? You're a woman in sales and real estate? What are some of the challenges you faced? in both of those industries? And what are some of the things that you did to overcome them? How did you cope with those challenges?
Mandy McAllister 06:06
My gosh, that I love this. So, I, you know, I did my master's, I started undergrad in chemistry, and ended up doing a master's in economics, but you know, worked on the Florida Board of Trade, all of these things that I've done, our boys clubs, right? So, I'm very comfortable in a boy’s club. And I'll tell you that until I was like, 34, you know, I was like, Oh, well, so much of this, you know, women are held back and they, they, you know, this, we can't, the glass ceiling, all of that stuff. I, I kind of poo pooed it, frankly, because I hadn't experienced it myself. And then when I was 34, I was pregnant with my son. And I was told you can't interview for this management position, because of your baby. And I'm like, that's real. That's that happens. You know? So, I just I'll say that, you know, so much of Listen, one generation before me, there was one woman who was in the C suite. And I think, you know, obviously, like women, you know, we're in this situation, that there's kind of a seismic shift of women rooting for women versus women kind of, you know, being catty. And that's that that's the one who got that one seat, and you get it like if you think it through logically, you empathetically you get it, that That woman is the only one that's there, so you had to hate her one generation ago. But now women in my generation and leading into yours, like I feel like it's our responsibility to be lifting each other up in a bigger way. Because there's more than one seat at the table. Now, you know, and we get this chance to serve as mentors and service sponsors, talking great about people when they're not in the room. And that's actually part of the reason for this Aspiring Women Achieving More because women are communal, you know, so if we can identify with us saying that we feed off of, and we can you know, what, if you get to get Okay, you get a bunch of women together in a kitchen, you know, they get stuff done, you know what I mean? Like, why do we think it will be any different in the business world, you get a bunch of ladies together, they're going to talk a lot, but they're going to get stuff done, you know? And, and I just, I really feel, huh, learn some secrets, but you're going to learn some secrets, and you're going to get some stuff done, you know, and I'm going to hand you my baby, and we're going to just take care of each other. Do you know what I mean? So, I feel like if we harness that, like how our brains evolved over years and years, then we're going to get so much further, so much faster. And one an incredible example, we're going to be setting for the next generation that are going to, you know, not be strapped with this stuff that we're dealing with. And I'll say one more thing on that. So, in this commercial real estate investing world, there's not a ton of women. There's I mean, that's a very, you know, there's varying different levels of boy’s club, right. And commercial real estate is like a friggin bananas boys club, you know. So, what I did is that, you know, my first couple years trying to play the game, I kind of sat back and I thought, who, I don't I don't belong. I'm the only woman here this is weird. And then I thought, Oh, wait, I'm the only woman here. How easy is it going to be to stand out? Right? So, one thing that we did, you know, I just I realized that this thing that could be holding me back and I could use it as a crutch to be a reason that I'm not moving forward more quickly. I could reposition that in my brain to be my competitive advantage. You know, and now it's, I branded myself a cash flow, mom. And when I send out mailers to apartment owners, it's a picture of my kid picking his nose and it says, When, when it's time to sell your apartment building pick us, you know, you're going to remember that.
Abigail Thomson 10:00
That's cute. I like that a lot. You have to use what you have. If you're given difficulties, use it.
Mandy McAllister 10:06
Yeah, well, you can reposition it in your head, that's a choice, you know, and just choose to use it the right way.
Abigail Thomson 10:13
Exactly. Even some of them, let it motivate you, like, I can't be a competitive advantage, it can be lighting a fire under you. Exactly. which I love. So, moving on to the flip side of that, what are some benefits you found in being able to you mentioned earlier, you get to do what you want. Now that you have money coming in, you have a young child, what are some of the benefits that you found? And what you're doing now?
Mandy McAllister 10:43
The biggest one is, you know, in that last company, I subsequently switched day jobs, and I worked for an incredible mission driven company from by day right now. And I'm going to do that until it's not fun anymore, even though that I've, I could, you know, feasibly support myself with just my passive income. But that that job before I was a new single mom, I, you know, basically, long story short, my boss told me to do something that I knew was not okay. You know, he's like, you know, to identify patients to look in places that it would, it was not okay, you know, and I was, because I knew my mortgage would be paid, and my kid would be fed, I wasn't, I didn't feel pressured to make a decision to do something that fell outside my moral compass. So, you know, what I will say is if you, if you just know that your needs are taken care of, it's Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, you know, like, if you know that you have food and shelter, and you know, everyone is provided for with those basic things, you know, you get a chance to live a truer to yourself life. And that is the number one like, there's nothing more, you know, fulfilling than knowing that you're operating by your own decision versus what's expected of you, or because you're scared running from something.
Abigail Thomson 12:05
I love that definition of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It's so nice to know that you're taking care of and you can start doing the things that you feel are right for yourself, or that you want to do with your life. Like it's really nice to have that. That freedom. I've never considered money, happiness, but having money can give you the freedom to do the things that make it...
Mandy McAllister 12:33
Yeah, it's not money equals happiness, but money equals freedom, and freedom can equal happiness. You know what I mean? Yeah, totally agree.
Abigail Thomson 12:41
It's a whole different shift of perspective when you think. Okay, so you mentioned earlier, your amazing group of aspiring women achieving more, what inspired you to create that group in the first place?
Mandy McAllister 12:57
Yeah, so I had a real estate coach who also did kind of like a high-performance call, just like a personal development thing. And I'll tell you, I don't know, five, seven years ago, I dived headfirst into figuring myself out, you know, because I feel like you can go through your entire life without figuring out what you want, and what you stand for, and what you need, you can totally do that. So, I went kind of all in on that. So, in this kind of high-performance call with a bunch of other women, we were talking about this, you know, in multifamily real estate, you know, and in any type of like get stuff done role. It's kind of this masculine energy that's go do or fight, kill, eat what you kill stuff, you know, but then there's, you got to remember at some point that you're a girl, you know, because I, there's a, there's a difference between feminine and masculine energy. And it used to piss me off. When people would say that, like, come on, no, like, I get stuff done. Just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean I need to have some other woo energy, but it's now I completely embrace it. And I feel fuller because of it. But we had identified that we kind of have to show up with this masculine energy to get stuff done in multifamily real estate. And we started a book club reading stuff by Alison Armstrong, I adore her like I've such a fan girl, girl crush on this author, Alison Armstrong, who talks a lot about relationships and, you know, really, like workshops through like, our brains are, you know, 1000s of years old, they haven't evolved in the same way a lot of other stuff has. So, if you think through from that basic point, you know, it was really neat to identify with other women who were in a similar spot. And then we realized, Oh, wait, there's got to be more of us out there, you know. So, we started a little Facebook group right at the beginning of 2020. And we're at like 2100 people now in February of 2021. So, it's little doses of inspiration. And one thing that we're doing that's really cool that I think your mom joined us at and I would love to see you If you're interested, yeah, whenever you're working on anything, any goal anywhere you want to go, if you know the big endpoint, all your all you have to do is figure out that next right step to put you in that direction, right? And so, we have communally banded together feminine energy, right? Like women taking care of women lifting each other up. And we come together to figure out what's that next, next right step. And if you need a resource, if you need an introduction, if you need to talk stuff out loud, because that's what we do, you know, then we will help you with that. And you commit to that x rayed step, come back the next week and tell us how you did. It's been so cool to see the progress that a ton of women have made with that accountability stuff.
Abigail Thomson 15:46
I can even attest to that, my mom went on there last weekend, or last week, and I got you why one of my big goals was to finish my women's series, I got two extra people. And I finished it yesterday.
Mandy McAllister 15:59
Awesome. And I'll tell you what, do not discount the power of social media. If you want more women, Aspiring Women Achieving More is chock full of women doing big cool stuff, in all kinds of different aspects of life. Post a little thing you're going to get pinged by dozens, I'm sure!
Abigail Thomson 16:17
I am definitely planning on it. Which is really exciting. Because I am young, and a woman. So, I walk into rooms and everybody's like, yep, she's supposed to be here. I didn't know it was bringing your daughter to work day.
Mandy McAllister 16:34
And then the problem there is that informs how you feel. And then how you feel informs your energy of how you show up, which is actually how they're reacting. Do you know what I mean? I'll tell you what, I'm 40 I just now feel like I'm getting taken seriously. Just now. Understand you have a lot of years, you know, needing to know yourself and show up with your knowledge and your power. Like if you haven't watched it, Angela Duckworth, like her power posing stuff. Her book was grit. Yeah. But Amy Cuddy. I think if Amy Cuddy watch her TED Talk, Oh, it's so powerful on imposter syndrome. Because I feel like women really imposter syndrome hard, even more hard than men, and especially young women who are smart and making stuff happen. Because you know, just because you're young doesn't mean you don't know your stuff. It means that you haven't had an opportunity to have as much experience as some. But it doesn't mean you don't know yourself, like you got to show up like you've got like, you own this, and you get like the top.
Abigail Thomson 17:35
Thank you for the very empowering advice that really kicks off my morning. So, we mentioned your child and you're using him as part of your competitive advantage, you're using you being a mom as a target point to how you're getting people's attention. But how has it altered your family life? We mentioned a little bit of it, but has it? Have you seen amazing benefits with not just knowing that your needs are taken care of, but anything beyond that?
Mandy McAllister 18:06
You know, I'll tell you the struggle is real. You know, like any mama listening to this is going to, like, identify with mom guilt. And oh, my God, I should like, Okay, my nanny is helping my son fill out his Valentines for his class right now. Right. And I the thing is, like, I part of my brain, part of my heart is like, Oh, I should be doing that. However, when I take a big step back and define what I stand for, and what I want to be, he's cared for right now. Like, I had a chance to help him with the first two, you know, and now I have this chance to talk with you and maybe, you know, give a couple of words to somebody that might listen, it's going to make them think a little bit differently about what they can accomplish or do in their life, you know, so this is so important. So, what I will say is, yes, there are amazing benefits in terms of time freedom that I'm moving towards, because I don't necessarily need my day job anymore. However, the path to get there, I mean, it's, it's messy, you know, the middle is messy. And, again, the more you can define exactly what you need, and exactly where your time should be spent. I am ruthless, over managing my time and making sure I'm giving 100% focus to whatever I'm doing right now. It's just you and me, like we are just doing this to try to spread some inspiration to some other people who are going to listen right? But as soon as we're done here, your friend Mandy is going to go you know, make lunch with her son, right? And I'm going to be all in on that. So yes, there are amazing benefits. But one thing I think we need to give a little bit of, you know, tip our hat to is that if you are struggling and it's hard, you're not alone, because the path to you know the beginning is inspired and the end is beautiful. In the middle is messy and embracing the mess. And really getting there, I do a ton of time block. I've done a couple videos on my hacks around time blocking, which I'll send you. But embracing the mess is so incredibly important for especially a single mama with kind of two jobs. You know?
Abigail Thomson 20:22
You do have more than two jobs because you're also a mom, that's a full-time job!
Mandy McAllister 20:26
I mean, I've kept him alive almost five years. I'm real proud.
Abigail Thomson 20:31
I am impressed, I commend you on that. And that's another thing when your group comes in handy, I'm sure there's many, many women that are moms in similar places that can get you through the day when it's really hard or just kind of hype you up when it's really good. Great place.
Mandy McAllister 20:55
And I'll tell you this is a thing that I've learned in the past few years, is you know, whenever anything is going, the world has exploded, and everybody's world exploded in 2020. Right? But then everybody has different things that happen. It's honestly, it's not necessarily the pulling up a record that gives you the mental, you know, freedom to feel like everything's going to be okay, it's knowing you have a rip cord, there's a pole. And having this close network of women you can depend on to lift you up and to take your baby when you need them is that ripcord in many ways?
Abigail Thomson 21:32
Yeah. No, I completely agree. So, I've talked a lot about this in some sense. But my final question to you is, what does the American Dream mean to you? What are the steps? Or what are you doing? to now take that dream to the next level? Love it?
Mandy McAllister 21:53
Oh, that's, man, if I could have thought like that. It's funny, I'm so impressed by you.
Abigail Thomson 21:59
That's some of my dad, he's half of the show.
Mandy McAllister 22:02
Well, home girl you are, I can't wait to know you in 20 years. So, what I'll say is, I mean, the American Dream, I feel like what we looked at 1020 years ago, was get all of this stuff, have the biggest house keep up with the Joneses. And for me, and largely for many of the people that I am very close with, it's, it's more so the depth of experience, the depth of connection, the depth of everything, versus the stuff. I mean, I joke all the time, like, I drive a, you know, 100,000-mile pig cash Pathfinder, but I mean, the thing is, like, it's not in this stuff, it's in the experience. So, you get more experience, with more time, and with more like dependability of your needs being met. And those things for me are continuing to grow with my passive income and with you know, making other people's lives better, by having great communities for them to live in. So, that's what it means to me.
Abigail Thomson 23:10
I love it. Okay, follow up to that, what are you doing, to take it to accomplish that goal?
Mandy McAllister 23:18
I'm continuing to do more real estate projects, you know, this afternoon, we're going to, you know, vet out finally decided we're going to offer on a 66 unit in Ohio that we like, we're building, you know, passive investor lists of folks that we want to work with, I work with a ton of doctors, my brother is an emergency room physician, we're getting him on board, in terms of investing. So, we're working to bring this dream to help ourselves by helping other people realize their dreams and get their needs taken care of with passive income. So inspiring people along the way. I just I mean, I feel like you're given two arms for a reason, right? Once you pull yourself up and want to pull other people up, and I want to make sure that I'm doing both.
Abigail Thomson 24:04
I love that. I really do. So, Mandy, thank you so much for coming on. How can our listeners get in touch with you if they really touched with you other than aspiring women?
Mandy McAllister 24:17
Yeah, well, because I do a lot of stuff. By my investing arm is Good Fortune Capital that Aspiring Women Achieving More is the women's inspiration accountability group. I have mandymcAllister.com, which is kind of a hub for all of those things. and easiest way to find me is there.
Abigail Thomson 24:36
Okay, wonderful. We'll put that all in the description. And thank you so much again, I have loved getting to know you. I hope to continue to get to know you because I'm very excited to be joining this group and finally have some women around me!
Mandy McAllister 24:52
Love it. Thank you, Abigail!
Abigail Thomson 24:54
I'm so glad that I get to have you as one of my one of my series' guests. It's a real honor.
Mandy McAllister 25:00
Yeah, it's an honor for me too, thank you for the chance.
Abigail Thomson 25:03
Absolutely. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level American Dream. If you would like to learn more about what we talked about today, want to contact the team directly, or are interested in passively investing and being a part of our deal room, head over to our website at www.thomsonmultifamilygroup.com. Before you go, please leave a review! Your comments help us create more episodes for you to enjoy.