Colby Harris: Welcome to the Grit.org podcast. My name is Colby Harris. Alongside me today is Brian Harbin and we are here with today's guest, Missy Cady-Kampmeyer. Missy, thank you so much for being here.
Missy Cady: Thank you for having me. This is a pleasure.
Colby Harris: Absolutely. So, born in South Dakota, Missy has lived through an interesting, trying, and exciting five decades. She's one of 5 kids and grew up in a very tightly-nit home where she learned a lot of the values and principles she still lives by to this day. Her dad has a PhD in English literature and in her high school years, her mother was a cheerleader on the swim team and the homecoming queen. Relocating to Florida in the eighties during her early teen years, her family started Cady Studios, a family-based photography company focusing on school yearbook photos and school-related lifestyle sessions. What started as a small family business grew to a massive photography operation servicing over 350 schools in 2021. Missy was there from the beginning, problem solving and working with the clients at Katie Studios while raising kids of her own.
In 2013, when she took in real estate, she saw as an opportunity to change directions while also still helping people and helping guide them to their forever home. After learning the ropes at prestigious brokerage, Berkshire Hathaway, she joined her brother's team here in Jacksonville. They create a top-tier real estate team using their passion for people and values learned from growing up in a work centric home. After her brother made plans to relocate to Atlanta, Missy bought out the team and in the next few years, turned it into her own brokerage, Cady Realty, still keeping with the family name and traditions. She spent the last few years’ growing Cady Realty into one of the top brokerages in Jacksonville through their integrity, personable personalities and never-ending care for the consumer. When she's not growing her business, she likes to spend her time hanging out with her husband and friends and enjoying out of the beaten path places to eat, working out at Orangetheory, running races, or doing yoga with her team, and meeting new like-minded individuals in our community.
So again, Missy, welcome. Very happy to have you here today. I had the pleasure of first meeting you during summer 2021 while I was out selling corporate sponsorship for those of you who don't know. For Grit Camp, we seek local corporate sponsorships from businesses to help send kids to camp who otherwise may not have the opportunity to and I was just so stacked to talk to you as you absorb the concepts and values of “Grit.org” so well. You also sponsored three kids to come to camp which we're so appreciative of but nonetheless, I'm so impressed with the things you've done in your professional career and what I love so much is you credit all your success to putting the consumer first which is something so rare to see in business these days but let's go ahead and roll into it. So, diving right in. I know you had quite an interesting upbringing through the 70s, 80s, and 90. So, we know you're born in South Dakota, but can you tell us a bit more about growing up in the position you and your family were in at that time?
Missy Cady: Absolutely. So, I never really even talked about it very much, but it shaped who I was and I grew up in the 70s and the 80s, born in 72 so you can do the math. In a very fundamentalist religious, Bible-based background. As my parents came out of the 70s, they were idealistic, great humans. But as time went on, that religion turned a course and became very restrictive and very rule based instead of Bible-based and it became a façade. To me, it was a façade, it became hypocrisy and the values did not line up to what truly my parents who they were. And over time, it became more of a restrictive type of way of living. It just never ever aligned with my soul. I grew up with parents that were hardworking and loved people especially the underdogs. That was just they would always reach out and be drawn to help others and religion took its course and left the basis of what it should be and became more fear based, more money driven, and I fought it. It was not me.
Colby Harris: Yeah, I can really understand that and can't really imagine what those years were like for you. As you know, you guys’ kind of were battling the certain principles and values that they were trying to place on you and I know you guys soon after end up living in Lake City. So, can we go ahead and start there as well? As you said, there were positives that came out of it. It wasn't all bad. You're blessed with amazing parents, amazing siblings, great family. What was it like once you moved to Lake City and can you share a little bit more with us about the inception of Cady Studios, the photography business?
Missy Cady: Yes, so when I was 13, my dad got a job offer transfer. He went from teaching in the university to selling yearbooks with Herff Jones and he taught journalism and yearbook classes. He got a job offer in Florida to be transferred with Herff Jones. Subsequently, it was also when the church that we were a part of was all transferring to one central location which was Lake City. He took that on opportunity and moved his entire family to Florida. Like you said, their hardworking background and their love for people is what kept us who we were, but my dad started with the yearbook business and then as my brothers and I grew up in that, it started to be where we would come up with the ideas of photos just were so boring. Everything was boring. It was flat. There was no life to the photos. Subsequently, my brothers were like, let's create the narrative of what yearbook should look like. Let's show the kids who they are. Let's create lifestyles. Let's tell their story of them. Thus started Cady Studios.
It was started with an idea that one of my brothers had. He went and I believe he was 18 years old and he signed four contracts here in Jacksonville. One was with Wolfson, Providence, and Bulls and we started Cady Studios. Didn't own a camera. Had never taken a photo but hard work and entrepreneurship created what it was. He sent my 16-year-old brother to New York City to go buy a camera, because there was a camera show and I was the problem solver. So, when they took the photos, they brought them to my house. I was able to take yearbooks from previous years, match names, faces, and thus was the start of what they created.
Brian Harbin: That's amazing and especially doing that as a teenager and the passion, the hard work, and learning a lot about business and the skills you need to run a successful company. So, can you tell us a little bit about some of your day-to-day back then and some of the key values you learned at that time?
Missy Cady: So, I would say no is not an answer. No is not in our vocabulary. The word can't is not in the vocabulary, and you just figure it out. Your problem solvers and when someone come, something comes up that you don't know what to do, you figure it out. You put your heads together and I was with my family is very collaborative and that is what goes into my business now to this day and that is bringing our strengths to the table. Everyone bringing their strengths and creating that team and that was what drove us to where we were.
Colby Harris: Yeah, I love that and it wasn't too much later in your life in Florida that you actually connected with your husband and married at just 15 years old, something.
Missy Cady: I did.
Colby Harris: Yeah, something really not too common for that time as my grandparents. My grandma, she married my grandfather just 16 years old. So, nonetheless, you married at a young age and continue to help it anyway you could at [8:12][Inaudible]. Like you said, solving and just refusing to say can't refusing to say no. Just always finding solutions for everything and by 19, you would have your first child. So can you tell us more about that time and what it was like for you to try to maintain a marital relationship, grow a business, and be raising kids your own as well.
Missy Cady: So that was when we're 15 and that was kind of the beginning of where the church, we were at started changing gears and when I got married when you're surrounded by that environment, it becomes that is just what it is. It's normal, it's natural. My motto in his life in life is to throw everything at something a 100%. So, if I'm going to get married at fifteen, I'm going to go all in on it. If I'm going to have children, I'm going to go all in. That truly was my survival and marrying my husband, he allowed me to be who I was. My identity was never taken away and in the environment that in. That was a very rare thing. So, I will credit so much to him for loving me that a million percent to allow me to be me. And it was never stifling my creativity. Never stopping my ideas. Backing me up a 100%.
And so having that we both had a very like-minded approach to life. Living life at 100%. Giving all, enjoying every moment living in the now, not always focusing on what it was going on over here. But if we were raising kids or if we were going on a vacation or whatever we were doing, doing it in the now.
Colby Harris: Being present is so important and I think the position you were in at that time as well to have a husband like that as you mentioned, it really worked out for you well. That's why you guys have had such a strong relationship. So, there was obviously a lot to get done. I mean, the business is rapidly growing like you said, you have kids your own now and you even work them in before they were even teenagers. Which I love and fully support, I've always said I would have loved to just have a family business to get involved in rather than running food at 14, 15, be on the inside of business running QuickBooks anything of that nature. So, can you tell us more about that time with your kids and kind of how you got all them involved at a young age?
Missy Cady: So, because we lived in Lake City, we worked in Jacksonville that was part of the criteria of the studios is we had to have a brick and mortar in Jacksonville. So, we would get up at 4:30 in the morning. I’d load all the kids up in the car and we did virtual schools. Fortunately, Florida Virtual Online was my salvation. We would go down to the studio at Kings and Prudential in San Marco and they had their little TV stations and they did school and once they were done with that, they integrated into the life of us at the studio. One of my sons ran the shipping department. One of my sons balanced all the money that came in. He was with math. My daughters, they were all, if they were too young to do anything in the studio, they were cleaning the bathrooms. They were running the printer. They were stuffing envelopes.
So, it was just that family hard work and if you ask them today, today, this they they're now 24 to 30. They have the fondest memories of those times because every day was an excitement. Every day was fun. It was let's go to the loop and get my dad had the one thing he only always ate and so we would say, let's go get grandpa's burger. Or I think I told you about once a week we pretended, we lived in New York City. And because the people mover which was right outside our studio, we would get on that, go across the river. There was this little I don't even know the name of it anymore, but it was a Brooklyn style pizza place and so we were eating New York style pizza. We would go to Hemingway Park which was our Central Park and then sometimes we would go up the Empire State Building to the top of the bank of America and sit up there.
It's just creating those feelings and living in the now but working hard. But the skills that they learned and the skills I learned doing those things are those are things money can't. There's not training for it. There is not schooling for it. It's that hard work working together, figuring it out, never giving up mentality that Creates what we have today.
Brian Harbin: Yeah, that's so amazing and to combine all of that into one, the hard work, the perseverance, the creativity, as a parent and you guys are full on in the trenches. I mean, you're putting in 18-hour days, running a business, running a family, keeping your marriage at center. So, I have to ask, I mean, how did you guys decompress or how did you stay centered at that time in your life?
Missy Cady: So, because of the lifestyle we had, it was either church or work, we also loved to travel which was kind of taboo with what we lived in. But we bought, we went to North Carolina on a vacation one year and we bought a cabin. Sight unseen at an auction on a Sunday on a rainy Sunday and we bought a cabin and we renovated it and it was our life saver for years and we would work hard all week. I mean, very hard but Friday, come roll around. The kids knew to do. They packed their bags. They had everything sitting by the door and when Steve got back from work, we loaded up in the car. We got our little Caesars for the road and we drove and sometimes we were only there for 48 hours. But that reboot was like life to us, but it also created a sense of family adventure of it's just our firewalls. We would have this saying what happens in our firewalls stays in our firewalls and this is our deal. This is lifesaver.
Colby Harris: It's awesome and you guys did in fact continue that routine for many years to come working hard through the week and taking the weekends to kind of decompress, focus your mind elsewhere, spend quality time with each other. I know you said it was kind of a fixer up or two.
Missy Cady: It was.
Colby Harris: Learned a little manual labor in the process which again is another one of those things you just can't put a price on. You put a kid out to fix a roof or fix a porch and they'll learn more in 12 hours than they might in 12 weeks.
Missy Cady: Absolutely. I mean, they complain a lot then, but now it's just fond memories. But they will say, do you remember we get up at six and mow the lawn before we could even go down to Jelly Bellies to get a treat.
Colby Harris: Yeah, earn a little reward. I think that's the best way to do it too but as mentioned Cady Studio is now just Cady, has grown over the years immensely. Now as mentioned again servicing 350 schools in 2021, which is just incredible after hearing where everything started and not even being able to work a camera So, you love the interactions you had. You love the impact you had while you were there and kind of the whole experience of it. You could really impact people but some point, you start to feel an itch for something new, a new road, a new routine but more importantly, a new challenge for you. So, can you tell us about what came next and really how you decided to break into real estate as a new career for yourself?
Missy Cady: So, I've always thought in my life that if something scares you, that's what you should probably do and it's really the hardest thing for you. Having being in a family business was a comfort zone. It was very challenging because family's challenging but also, I always had a desire to want to do something on my own always. I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I wanted to do something and like you said about the studio and the kids and making an impact. That always shaped me. I wanted to do something for people, because it's the interaction with people that make my heart sing truly. It's just people. It's the conversations. It's what I learned from them. It's getting to me guys and the organic authentic moments that happen in life.
So, I started to do a lot of thinking about what I should do. My brother in the meantime one of my brothers decided to go ahead and get out of the studio into real estate. My father retired and the dynamics of the real estate. I mean the studio kind of went from family to more corporate style. And I got a job, a part-time job at site sales, selling new home sales. And I think there be one person a week that was stopping to this center. I was like, I'll get my real estate license. So, I studied during that time, got my real estate license, put in my notice, and decided to become a single agent and had zero idea what that meant. Went online, put my name in, and landed with an interview with Berkshire Hathaway here in Jacksonville and it just grew from there. It was like I found what I wanted. I couldn't believe the people and it was like the universe had brought the people to me. Oh my God, all these people are helping me, thus was the start of that.
Brian Harbin: I love it and I can definitely relate to that transition of going from when I went from being an insurance for over 10 years to starting a domain brokerage from scratch. It's a big leap of faith.
Missy Cady: It is.
Brian Harbin: But what would you say would be some of the things that you started to learn as you were in real estate, what were some of the key takeaways from that?
Missy Cady: I think the things that I learned the most is listening to others and actually really hearing what they're saying and I have found that the things my life lessons have come from the people that my path is crossed. I will credit so much of my learning from what I've learned from others. I believe that if you're willing to open up to hearing what other people say, knowledge is power and I sure as I can't know everything and there's not even book learning. But it's the life skills you learn listening to people, understanding and it's the skills of taking situations that happen and really coming to the table with multiple ideas. Like, okay how can we, what can we do, how can we hold this together, what is the deal? And it's really not just a transaction. It might be a divorce situation where the husband and wife are at odds, but yet there's crushed feelings and there's emotions and there's children that have tears streaming down their face. Because they're leaving their home and it's like what can I do? What can I do as a human to make that better?
Colby Harris: Yeah, it's amazing and you definitely I feel like supply that and from everything I hear and everything that you've been able to do is that as you've said is just your favorite part about. It’s getting involved and being able to leave an impact in the people that that you get to work with and you always say they are more than clients to you. And after years there at Berkshire Hathaway. You end up joining your brother. You guys had built out a team here in Jacksonville and then he can kind of end up decide to move to Atlanta, a little bit on a limb but this was a great opportunity for you as you didn't want to settle for having a team as well. You slowly transformed the team into a brokerage company which then became Cady Realty. Can you tell us more about the years you spent taking Cady Realty into the brokerage stage, how that process went down even back to kind of how you acquired the team in the first place from your brother?
Missy Cady: Yeah, so he called me, it was a December 29th and I was a team member on his team and he asked me if I ever thought of buying the team out from him. Which if you knew my family, that meant he'd already decided I was going to buy the team and it was going to happen yesterday. So, I was of course no I had never thought that thought, but what do you have in mind. He said, ‘I've decided to move to Atlanta, the studios are going to open up start Atlanta studio and I was going to see if you want to buy the team out.’ I was like, ‘When are you thinking of this.’ And he said, ‘January 1st.’ It’s like of course so again the whole motto of if it scares you, you should do it. That scared me unbelievable because I first off didn't have the funds. My headspace said you can't own a team I'm just a team member I've always been a team member. So, I was talking to my husband. He was like, ‘What do you have to lose, but you have to gain. The worst-case scenario or the best-case scenario are all the same. Go for it.’
So, ended up buying a team, became a team leader and what I found was that I was able to take all the lessons and all the things that I knew as a team member and create my team from that aspect. The saying is, you're only as good as the leadership is. I found that because I was a team member in the trenches for so many years, taking all the things that wanted for myself created what I have today. And coming full circle, it was also my team that started to support me. Because I gave them back that value, they then started pushing me. And that was actually my office manager was the one that she was like you really should try to open a brokerage and become a broker. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I don't know if I should do that.’ Again, if it scares you go for it. So, doing that it from being a team member, a team owner, opening a brokerage. And that independence in creating what we really were and being able to be us was it was like the ultimate pinnacle of what I ever wanted.
Colby Harris: Yeah, and I think that's amazing to note that that's what you said that really, I think stands out to me is what makes great business owners and great leaders is when you take everything you've learned and compile it into something that you can pass on. Which I feel like Brian's done so well here through Grit University, the podcast, now a Grit Camp as well is to everything you've learned and be able to pass on the wisdom, the ethics, the values in a form that's really absorbable too. I feel like that's such a big thing in relating back to them. So, nonetheless, it really seemed everything was working in your favor. Amazing kids, successful real estate brokerage, residing in one of the fastest growing cities in the US where we get to thrive in the sun 9 out of 10 days.
So, like I said, it really seemed everything was going your way and when people refer to life as a roller coaster, I feel like it really makes sense. Your highest highs come with the steepest drops and to the lowest of lows. And in 2017, sure enough your husband was involved in a very serious car accident which is something I would love to talk about as I feel like it would probably resonate with a lot of our listeners. So, if you don't mind, I would love to hear more about that time and kind of how you went through it as I'm sure it just required a lot of mental physical and emotional resilience especially with your own kids around. So, nonetheless if you could kind of share more about that time few and really how you over that.
Missy Cady: So, yes roller coaster it was the most challenging thing I've ever gone through in my entire life. More than standing up for my rights in a cult, more than walking away from that was getting a phone call that he had been in a car accident. I was in New York City on a girls trip. My first ever girls trip. Had decided take some time out for myself for three days. I had called him the night before. We always call each other tell each other good night; I love you make sure everything's okay. I'd called him but he didn't answer and it was my first instinct, oh that's a little odd but I knew that he had been traveling. Figured he probably fell asleep; it was late for me. Next day I woke up never didn't really think anything of it. Got a call at about noon and he had had been a John Doe for 24 hours. He was crushed alive in a vehicle. He hit a deicing truck in Tennessee and from what the witnesses had told us that he hit the truck to avoid someone standing in the road.
So, he has no recollection, had no recollection of it, but the call I had was that he was on life support and there was no brain activity and that somebody needed to be there within the next several hours because he was not going to make it. I called my daughter who was in Nashville and she made it to the hospital first. And when we all got to the hospital, all of my kids, we flew there, we made it there. We were met with that I had to make the decision to stop the process because both Steve and I had signed a do not recess his hate and that we didn't want to be in that state. His mother, I'm sorry this is a little hard for me.
Colby Harris: Please take your time.
Missy Cady: His mother had been in a had had a horrible stroke and she was left incapacitated and he had said I don't ever want to be in that state. And same with me. We live life to full and we don't want that, we did not want that. But because of the accident his driver's license was not found and none of those instructions were given. So, they restarted his heart 5 times and if they had not and I mean it's just the way the universe goes I mean here we had signed we had already planned, but God had different plans for us obviously. When we got to the hospital they told us, we had to make this decision. And my children absolutely went ballistic over it to the point they laid on his bed in the hospital and said you will never pull his plug.
So, we gave it 12 days, I don't know why 12. There was no really reason for 12 and on day 11, my daughter said, dad just gave me, our signal and that that signal was when they grow up, he would always squeeze their hand three times. She's like mom dad squeeze my hand three times and I said, I don't know honey. I mean there's, and so the doctors came in. They were like, ‘Steve if you can hear her give him the signal.’ You watched his hand three times and the monitors went and everything. Fast forwarding to today they told me he would not walk, he would not talk, he would not remember, he would not our life as what is was over. And to this day, he walks he runs, he remembers. I mean there are there are definite things that have changed our lives. He's had 19 reconstructive surgeries, so his mobility is limited. He lives in pain every single day but I have him back. But I have a better version. We have a better version because now, if we thought we treasured life before, I just will never live in that space of when things just are not a big deal. It just does not matter if you don't get that parking spot. Just does not matter if you don't, it just doesn't matter. I think that for me has shaped even more so. It is I look at life with whole different eyes. And my kids have their dad. I have my husband and he’s, my person.
Colby Harris: I really love that and I really appreciate you sharing that with us. I think that's even something I've gotten just from spending the time around you that I have and to today talking about what that relationship has meant to you from being as young as you were and everything that you had to overcome. I remember being at the office with you and as we sat down and discuss your background, everything you had been through to get ready for the episode. I remember he had came in to the office, and I could just see this glow in your eyes to see him walking, communicating, carrying boxes for you. Doing small errands.
Missy Cady: He does all of the stuff now. I mean, he doesn't have a job. He lost all his job. He was a landscape architect, but now, we just work together. He does all the things that all the list of things to do. I tell him that it's his reward really for laying down his life for 30 years working blood, sweat, and tears and now it's my turn and we just do it together.
Colby Harris: And one thing I want to you about too is I know you said during that time and kind of ties back into everything you've always said about the clients and the people you work with are so much more than just a transaction and it goes so much deeper than that. So, can you kind of tell us about that experience as the people that surrounded you and helped you through that time.
Missy Cady: I believe that that has changed me, that whole situation and that experience changed me more than anything I've ever gone through. But when Steve was in the hospital, I had more clients reach out to me who are truly my friends. I sold a house to a doctor and his family here in Jacksonville. And he called every single day to the hospital. And he'd say, how are you doing? And I was a mess. I didn't know. I mean I was like my world was shattered and I couldn't even put anything together. And he'd say, give so and so the phone. So, I would hand the phone to the doctor or the nurse and they would give the rundown and then he'd get me back on the phone and he'd say, this is all I need you to hear. This one, two, three. I want you to think of this. This is all you need to hear. He listen to the other, this is all you need to hear and he would step me through what it would mean and what was going on. They didn't have to do that.
I had people that I sold houses to that would call me and say, ‘Just cry. Just ugly cry.’ I would just cry, my brains out and then she would say, ‘Alright girl, pull your big girl pants up. Time to go back in there.’ To me, it's about the relationships and those people literally saved my life through this and for me to give that back and I think I told you this. It is selling houses is the relationships that last beyond the transactions. It is not about selling the house. It's about what you can create, whose life you can touch, who the experience is. It's that. Its things money cannot buy. Bottom line.
Colby Harris: Definitely and that's exactly what I was going to say as soon as you were finishing up is it's just something money can't buy and you can never put a price tag on it. That's even something me and you've discussed before in real estate as somewhat of a sales position-based kind of a being a commission hound that's one of the things that hurts young real estate agent so much. But bring it back in the present day, again thank you so much for sharing that. Of course, we are so happy that he's doing well now and everyone still has him around and that we just get to keep pushing forward. I do love the saying you know things don't necessarily happen to you. And you never know what could happen had you been in New York that week. Something could happen to you and then the flights everyone just kind of the butterfly effect, so, to say.
So, nonetheless bring it back in the present day. I know you have a big exciting announcement about Cady Realty for 2022. Can you please tell us about this next big shift and why you're so excited for this new chapter for your brokerage?
Missy Cady: So, about nine months ago I was approached by Compass International to partner with them to grow my business. My first initial reaction was absolutely not. This was something I'd worked so hard at. I don't want to lose my independence. Me being the independent person I am or the Maverick that I am. I was like no. Not interested. But as they would continue to come back and talk with me. I found that it was the first big box company that my values aligned with. And it was not just what they said. It was what they did. And as you know I'm very big at that. It's not about the words that you say. I grew up in that. You can say all the great words. I can quote everything you want, but show me the action. I want to see it. I want to feel it and it was the same thing talking with them. They were genuine and what they said, their values match mine.
So, fast forwarding today, I actually signed an agreement to partner with Compass to grow my business. And what that will allow me is to get out of the minutia of the paperwork and all of the broker-style details that started to weigh me down and what I found was that those things were not my highest and best. My highest and best is being able to be creative, to talk with the people, to kiss the babies, to have lunch, to do the things that I love and when I wasn't having time to do that, my heart wasn't singing anymore and it was starting to affect my team. It was getting stressed in the office and life is a big pivot. You just pivot. I went down this path and said, nope. No, I'm going to pivot here. It's best thing I've ever done. The back-end support that I have, but I'm back to being able to be creative again and that I love.
Brian Harbin: Well, and such a big nugget of what you've shared so far today is that such a key part of your success has been houses have just been a byproduct of your bigger purpose is people. Missy Cady: Absolutely, yeah.
Brian Harbin: But we have to ask, I mean, with a new chapter starting, any idea as far as where you're going to pivot to next or your focuses?
Missy Cady: I mean, I always take life that when life brings me something, go for it because why not? Good or bad, you've had the experience. I am such a big proponent of experiences. Experience is knowledge. Where can you find what do you pay amount for the experiences that you get in life? If it's travel or if it's the people you meet or the homes you sell, knowledge in selling these many homes. I was just telling my team that this morning at our meeting. One of our gold is the amount of homes that we've sold in the situations of each home because not one home is the same. I mean, you can have someone say, I'll never clear that WDO and you're like, okay. So, how do we get around that? Someone will say, this is in probate. We're not. It's going to take a year. Alright, how do we get around that? Learn the probate system. Learn what is a powder beetle? What is this? The knowledge is power.
Colby Harris: Being a problem solver not a problem solve. Being a problem solver not a problem spotter. There you go.
Missy Cady: I love that.
Colby Harris: Working in everybody, I think that's a huge thing and.
Missy Cady: Yeah.
Colby Harris: Finding ways to overcome it. Again, back to not saying words like no and you can't. Just one thing that I've loved from a mental conditioning expert, Trevor Moad is he says, “limit saying stupid things”.
Missy Cady: Oh, I love that.
Colby Harris: Which is very basic in the sense of if you're in the office don't say, oh I can't sell this house or this house is a nightmare. By just limiting saying factors like that, you merely set yourself one step forward by just completely cutting out. You don't have to be positive; you don't have to be naïve. Just don't say it, keep it off the table.
Missy Cady: I love that. So, one of our cardinal rules at our office is if you have something come up an opportunity that you need to overcome maybe not even a problem, think about it for two First off, if you make too quick of a decision, it might be the wrong, it's might be the right one because it's your initial gut, 2 hours. Let's think about it. Let's talk about it but like you just said, if you just spout off something, what are you putting out in the universe? So, let's think about it. How do we, let's think about all aspects. Come to the table with solutions and then attack it with full force where no is not an option.
Colby Harris: Absolutely, definitely agree on that one. So, Missy you've led an Extremely successful professional career as well as just family life, as a mother and a wife, everything across the board. From being a member of Cady Studios to taking a leap into real estate and in 10 years creating a thriving brokerage here in Jacksonville and now collaborating with Compass as well. So, I have to ask, we've talked a lot of values and a lot of principles, but do you have any habits that you recommend anyone out there that you feel will help them have more value, bring more value to themselves, the people around them that you think have helped you excel through your career over the years.
Missy Cady: This is something very passionate about. Very very passionate about, because I believe that is the key and that is my morning routine. It is having that time for you. If you do not put yourself first and take care of yourself, you cannot lead others or help others and if this isn't right, this can't be right. I religiously get up at a certain time in the morning and I journal and I read and we go to the gym and I walk and get coffee and then I start my day. But I never leave my house without making my bed ever, ever, ever. Because it's one thing, it's the atomic habits motto. Just one thing and you come home and you're like, oh, I have already accomplished. If everything else goes wrong during the day, my bed is made but it really psychologically propels you. So, I've done this. I've got my coffee. I've worked out. I'm ready for the day and you greet people with that instead of that, it's like into the office. It's Monday morning. I love Monday mornings. It's like the fresh start of the week. Let's attack Monday mornings. So, my morning routine is critical.
Brian Harbin: I love that and totally echo the reading and journaling. I mean, with the clients we work with, that's the biggest thing we put, tell them about is that morning routine is just kick start the day. Actually, what you mentioned a minute ago, I just finished reading the surrender experiment by Mike Crusader. He talks about, face what's right in front of you and letting that kind of be your guiding light. But one of the things I wanted to mention too is like I've seen firsthand I mean you actually sold one of my properties for me we closed like what three months ago.
Missy Cady: Yup.
Brian Harbin: And I'd had another agent previously. We've been through three or four contracts. All of them fell through. My agent said, ‘Sorry, I don't want to work with, I don't want to try and sell this house anymore.’ So, I call you up and you came in. We staged it. We did some repairs. You recommended the contractors and got a full price offer, had a VA loan. So, we had some hoops we had to jump through, but I can definitely testify first hand that you guys are the real deal. I just loved your passion, your energy. The fact that yeah if there was a problem you were like okay how are we going to fix it.
Missy Cady: Right.
Brian Harbin: So, I just love that about kind of the way that you operate. John Maxwell talks about the law of the lid in terms of, in order for your team to get better you have to raise your personal lid. You definitely do that in your own personal life. But I wanted to ask too. So, for anybody going into real estate, sales, anybody running their own business, I mean, what would be some advice you would have for them kind of looking back on some of the things you've learned?
Missy Cady: I would say 100% join a team, because instead of trying to start out on your own and just create, you actually start creating habits that are incorrect. Join a team that already has it figured out and then you can mirror and match. You can learn from that and then as you grow if you've decided that you grow out of a team role into a single agent, that's great. But what you've done is created that basic, that groundwork of working together with a team. I feel that way with my own team. I say that to them all the time. I would just want to create and give them that basis of so they can go out and take on the world.
Colby Harris: Yeah. Definitely and for anyone wondering how to find a team, this is something I've thought about recently is seeking out a mentor is super important and you do have to do it yourself. You do have to find a person, find someone and give them a reason to invest in you. So, with that said that kind of brings me to another point of times we talk about younger people and I know like you said you just love pouring into people and adding value and really rooting for the underdog. So, something I want to talk about real quick before we wrap up is the current state of the real estate market. At the time of recording, we're about three months into 2022 here. We had a crazy year in 2020. Obviously, 2021 it seemed like the bull just kept running. And now into this market I know recently you've said, you see a lot of kind of these smaller players the underdogs so say struggling to find places to get into and stuff. So, what would you say for first-time homebuyers and stuff like that for people that are looking to buy homes right now? What type of challenges can they expect or what's the best way that they can try to find that first home?
Missy Cady: So, I think that obviously the 2020 changed our lives. It everybody's life changed. 2021 was kind of a continuation and now we're into the world being in such an uproar. People are unsettled. They're not certain in our life, in any job you do. If you can be that calm in the storm, if you can be the anchor, if you can be that person that says, okay, we're going to help you with this. So, as for first-time homebuyers, find an agent that is authentic and cares that is not looking just to make a sale that's not looking just to add more numbers to their pipeline but actually cares about you as a person and is willing to think of ideas to get you accepted. How are they going to take you to that finish line and to understand what they're going through, because it is not an easy market right now.
The first-time homebuyers, there's for every home that I put on the market, I get 30 offers so that means 29 people didn't get that home. So, it's those kinds of things. Find somebody that cares about you.
Colby Harris: Find a good agent to represent best as possible.
Missy Cady: And someone that is authentic and just truly cares to get you in home.
Colby Harris: Definitely. Well, if you're in the Jacksonville area, you know who to call. Of course, definitely though over at Cady Realty, they'll take great care of you. Help add that value that you'll be looking for. So, Missy, it's been a pleasure having you here today. We really appreciate you sharing your story and just not holding back and adding so much value to me and Brian and all of our listeners at home. Your attitude, your outlook on life is built off of these amazing values and principles that align perfectly with ours “Grit.org”. You've inspired me to really continue pushing and I'm sure you're all of our listeners at home today as well. Working hard and creating that success for yourself is awesome but not selling your soul in the process. Continuing to remember the way you were raised and remember who you have always felt you want to be and continuing to always chase that person day in day out. So, just one last question I have for you as we ask all our guests this question before we finish off but what part of the Grit Creed resonates most with you and why?
Missy Cady: I like, I don't find an excuse. I find a way. I love that and I'm not a problem spotter, I’m problem solver. I mean just, I was like yeah, those are mine.
Colby Harris: Yeah, really easy just to dive into those, again they really align with who you are and everything you've done. That’s a good question.
Brian Harbin: Yeah, appreciate you being on Missy, this has been fantastic.
Missy Cady: Thank you. Yeah, this is great. It's my first experience doing something like this and I love it. But like I said use I think, I'd like to add from the moment you guys you walked in, it's like values align. It's like you were authentic.You weren't just selling something you believed in it. I think that is what it is if you believe in something people know that. If you believe in, I mean think of Sarah Blakely. She believed in women's underwear. I mean she literally took her idea she believed in it so much she is a billionaire and the world after and she still wears her red backpack. But she believed in her product. She believed in herself. She believed in people. And I love that. She is my ultimate someone that, I mean she's amazing human.
Colby Harris: Absolutely. Well, if you don't know Sarah Blakely, please look up her story. That's an incredible one as well if you need some inspiration and really need to just as Missy said see what it really means to believe in a product. So anyhow thank you again Missy so much for being here. Thank you everyone at home. That's a wrap for today here at The “Grit.org” Podcast. Please check out our other episodes. Leave us a comment. Tell us something you about Missy's story. Share this with someone you think it would resonate with or impact and as always, we appreciate you tuning in for another episode of The “Grit.org” Podcast.