July/august 2022
read on page 12
DETERMINATION RULES INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTINE HANDY
read on page 25
365 DAYS OF ABUNDANCE
06. CREATING OPPORTUNITIES
12. RESILIENCE
THROUGH RESILIENCE
IN LIFE AND LEADERSHIP
Anna Primiani is an award-winning
Christine Handy is an International
actress, writer and filmmaker. Originally from Italy, Anna resides in Canada. Her award-winning script Weight has received official selection in five festivals best short screenplay, winning one.
Model, Best-selling author, Breast Cancer Survivor, Motivational Speaker, Humanitarian, Harvard student. Christine’s story is in production to become a film called Willow, written and directed by Ziad Hamzeh.
15. THRIVING IN A CHANGING MARKET Kimberly Caruso- Fast is a story of resilience and integrity. As a real estate agent working with home buyers and sellers in Phoenix for over a decade, Kimberly exudes client centric work ethics.
04. OG ORANGE SALAD 05. LISTEN UP: JULY/
09. WHERE'S KIM BEEN?
E D I T O R ' S L E T T E R Women are resilient, as historically we had to overcome many hurdles and sometimes the same hurdle more than once! As former Prime Minster of the United Kingdom Margret Thatcher put it, “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” You can read into that quote how you want today, but know that resilient women are not brought down by challenges, setbacks – or sometimes even a fight for what's right; instead they thrive on them because it brings new learnings, new opportunities and growth. Coming up next month on August 26 is Women's Equality Day—a day of celebrating women of all shapes, sizes, races, ethnicities, and backgrounds, just how far we have come, and looking ahead at all the importance work there is left to do.
F E AT U R E S
AUGUST LIVE GUESTS
Kim Hayden Chief Editor
25. HOW TO CREATE ABUNDANCE IN EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE After finding true happiness and abundance, Judy Balloff is sharing her secret with the world. 365 Days of Abundance is her first book, a labor of love, and she hopes you'll join her on your own unique journey to abundance.
First recognized in 1973 by U.S. Congress at the effortless campaigning of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), August 26 commemorates the 1920 certification of the 19th Amendment, which finally granted women the right to vote. Now, so many years later, we're still celebrating the women in our lives on this very special day, all while acknowledge the work that still needs to be done in order to achieve true equality. We hope you feel inspired with these stories from resilient women entrepreneurs who have fought for their success and have learned how to cope when business and life gets crazy.
OG
orange salad Perfect for backyard parties or to your next potluck… We're pretty sure no one else is showing up with this crowd pleaser! CREAMY VERSION
JELLO RING VERSION
1 box orange Jello (3oz box)
Same instructions as above only exchange the regular box
1 cup boiling water
of Jello with the large box (6oz box).
5 cups mini marshmallows ½ lb of grated sharp cheddar cheese
Pour final mixture into a Jello mold or bunt cake pan. When
1 can drained pineapple tidbits
completely chilled and firm run warm water on outside of
1 cup whipped cream or cool whip
mold/pan and turn upside down onto serving plate. Garnish
3 tbsp of miracle whip
to your liking.
INSTRUCTIONS
NOTES
Mix powdered Jello with boiling water. Add mini
*Crushed pineapple or other fruit can be used instead…you
marshmallows and combine. Chill until it starts to set.
could even change up the Jello flavors for more variety!
Combine grated cheddar cheese and pineapple. Fold in Cool Whip (or whipped cream) and miracle whip. Mix well. Chill until firm. You can also portion into individual desert cups and chill. Garnish with grated cheddar cheese or pineapple rings.
in July&August
L IS T EN UP:
Join the conversation live on Tuesdays! Kim Talks LIVE with guests on podcasts Kim Talks Resilience and Kim Talks Real Estate. Find the livestream on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Guest
Date
Time
Christa Hiebert
July 19 2022
7:00pm MST
A soulful advocate who approaches life with open arms; no challenge is too mighty.
Vikram Deol
July 21 2022
9:00am MST
A serial entrepreneur turned real estate & business coach, helping realtors scale and create Predictable, Profitable Growth.
Karen Dean
July 26 2022
12:30pm MST
Speaker, coach, and author who shares her own personal stories of resilience and inspires with an amazing sense of positivity.
Kelly Bohnhoff
July 26 2022
7:00pm MST
A victim of sex trafficing, Kelly has a deep devotion to vulnerable children, teens, adults, and families.
Alicia Butler Pierre
Aug 2 2022
12:30pm MST
Founder of Equilibria, Inc., a 16-year-old global operations management consulting firm.
Sonja Wasden
Aug 8 2022
9:00am MST
Helps individuals and organizations create open, inclusive, and educational conversations around mental health.
Antonia Banewicz
Aug 8 2022
12:30pm MST
Happiness Coach and owner of Brighter Better Days, Antonia helps people who are feeling low or depressed find better days.
Carrie Nerbonne
Aug 15 2022
9:00am MST
Game Rental Owner, a Tote Rental Owner, Course Creator, Business Coach, and a mom of 7!
Michelle Seiler Tucker
Aug 16 2022
12:30pm MST
Founder and CEO of Seiler Tucker Inc., Michelle is the leading authority in merger & acquisitions.
Jas Takhar
Aug 18 2022
9:00am MST
A Canadian top residential realtor, investor and influencer, Jas has helped thousands of families buy, sell, and invest.
Linda Lee
Aug 22 2022
9:00am MST
A unique look at the thought process and motivation of a CMO.
kimtalks.club
M @KimTalksca P @resilientseries V channel/
UCowz4fs2_3aPu8D5d1NAmQw
S kim-hayden-74a203181
6 RESILIENT MAGAZINE
CREATING OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH RESILIENCE
HOW CHANNELLING EXPERIENCES PUSHES YOU FORWARD By Anna Primiani
One of the greatest pieces of advice I ever got came in the last two years, during the global pandemic that impacted and transformed us all in various ways. Like many who turned to their favorite streaming services to find laughter, drama, or action/adventure to distract from the doldrums of pandemic life, I chose to revisit one of my favorite series, Sons of Anarchy, by writer/creator, Kurt Sutter. As I re-watched the series, my appreciation of its compelling story led me to follow Kurt on Twitter and get a better understanding of his creative process and tell stories that spoke to pain, loss, and overcoming obstacles in the human experience. His advice to writers, “Don’t worry about what’s going to sell or what’s popular…write from pain. Write from shame. Write from the places that scare you. If it’s not a risk, then put down the f***ing pen and do something else.” As an actress, producer, and award-winning writer, this spoke to me. Not everyone is going to love what you create, but it’s important to pursue things that fulfill you. Whether it be acting, writing, cooking, fitness, parenthood, work, etc., do it because it makes you happy. We only have so much time in our days, and it’s difficult to balance it all. I say this as I’m also a mother, daughter, wife, teacher, and friend, and I know that women play many roles in Anna Primiani Actress and writer
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everyday life. However, it’s also important to find the time to dedicate to yourself and the things you’re passionate about, and this is where channeling your experiences can push you forward. I lost my father to cancer at a young age. We were also moving, and I was often the target of bullies. These moments can either break you or make you stronger. For me, it taught me compassion, understanding, and not to fear failure in the pursuit of dreams because there is no promise of tomorrow. As an actress, it’s hard to wait for that call from your agent that you have an audition, then you pour your time and soul into it, followed by a waiting game to see if you’ve booked the role. I’ve been fortunate to play some interesting characters, from Cleopatra in Disney’s Treasure Buddies to a grieving mother in She
Could Be You (based upon a true story), but I know the cycle of agonizing feelings from waiting or rejection in trying to book a role. It can be crippling. You can’t live in that headspace or let it define you. We need to be lifelong learners – to evolve – and continue to challenge ourselves. This is where I believe you can create opportunities through your resilience. I’ve always loved writing and telling stories. In the past few years, this motivated me to write what I want and about topics that I find interesting and relevant. Leveraging my life experiences – the moments that have added to my resiliency – has made it easier to write about difficult topics. When I conceived the story for the short film, The Choice, I was intrigued by a tale of heartbreaking yet beautiful, sisterly love, and how illness and caregiving can have a ripple effect upon our choices. It showcases how a shared experience can create a differing resilience that leads to drastically opposed decisions despite best intentions between people who love one another. Having co-produced, wrote, and acted in the film, I’m excited to see the response of audiences to the film’s contentious question and what it says about resilience of the human spirit. The film is entering the festival circuit this year. Another example is Weight, my award-winning script about a woman who is tormented by the death of her father but must return to her distant family, looking for the courage to move forward with or without them. While the characters, the setting, the plot, in both are works of fiction, the feelings and emotional journey is not. As a woman in writing, I create characters that are for women and speaking through a woman’s voice and experiences, in hopes of resonating with the female spirit.
8 RESILIENT MAGAZINE
Recently coming on as Producer of Queens of Resilience with Kim Hayden, has made me further realize the importance of resilience and that there are many amazing women out there with resilient stories to share. Kim connects with women across the world that have faced adversity, illness, or abuse, and yet find a way to succeed in life, both personally and professionally. The show is energetic, uplifting, and inspires women by showing them that no matter what happens in our lives, we can all be Queens of Resilience. As I move forward, I look forward to growing my own resilience and sharing these stories with others to inspire and grow as well. Anna Primiani is an actor, producer, and awardwinning writer. Her film credits include Disney’s Treasure Buddies, She Could Be You, and Abducted (2021). Her award-winning script Weight has received official selection in 5 festivals best short screenplay, winning one. Her new short film The Choice will be seen in upcoming festivals. Connect with Anna IMDB: www.imdb.com/name/nm2420726/ Instagram: @annaprimiani
9 RESILIENT MAGAZINE
WHERE'S KIM BEEN? Attended event hosted by Axis Connects Calgary along with (l-r) Calgary Stampede
RESILIENT TV!
Princess Jenna Peters, Brenda Thompson, Director of Community Engagement
Watch full interview with founder of
Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School, and
Transforming style!
Calgary First Nations Stampede Princess Sikapinakii Low Horn.
NATIONAL PUBLICITY SUMMIT I was asked to sit on the media panel for authors, speakers and entrepreneurs. WOW! Some truly talented people share their zone of genius and passion.
THE COURAGE TO LEAD PODCAST Interview with Coach Harlan From The Courage To Lead Podcast on The Courage to Quit Waiting and Take Action.
CREATIVE SIDE BUSINESSES FOR WOMEN Interview with Carrie Nerbonne about start a side hustle or build a business that feels fun, is profitable, and gives you a flexible schedule.
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MACKAY'S ICE CREAM IN COCHRANE We had a lockbox to pick up in Cochrane for real estate so we made an adventure out of i and stopped at MacKay's for ice cream!
TOO LEGITIMATE TO QUIT PODCAST How are you showing up in your business - as an expert, as an advocate, as a supernova? Or are you playing it safe? Putting yourself out there dayafter-day is freaking HARD - it requires
FASHION SHOW TRANSFORMING STYLE
so much of us: courage, confidence, grit,
Transforming Style provides support,
marketing efforts and misplaced
faith. But we can so easily undermine all these traits with spray-and-pray
beauty & styling services and wardrobe
humility. What would change if you fully
to 2SLGBTQIA+ community members in
owned your expertise and took up more
Canada who face barriers to access.
space? Kim talks Legitimacy, Tenacity & The Wizard of Oz on the Too Legitimate to Quit podcast with Annie Ruggles toolegitimatetoquit.com
CALGARY PETROLEUM CLUB AT STAMPEDE Kicked off the Calgary Stampede at Petroleum Club member's evening. Enjoyed great food and company including Obrey Motowylo, World Professional Chuckwagon Association Champion.
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RESILIENCE IN LIFE AND LEADERSHIP Christine Handy is a mother of two, a breast cancer survivor, an international speaker, and an accomplished model. She is also a student at Harvard, a mentor board member of two nonprofits and a nationally recognized humanitarian. Christine is a popular social media influencer and Fox News breast cancer expert. Christine has seen it all and has overcome all odds. Her motto is, that there's always a purpose and pain. Christine is also a best-selling author of the book Walk Beside Me A Story of Hope, Faith, Friendship, Hardship, and Taking a Closer Look at What Truly Matters.
Kim: Christine, please tell us a little bit more about who you are. I'm a mother, which is my most important job. I'm an avid tennis player, which will be shocking to you after we talk about my story. I live in Miami, Florida, because I'm a beach girl, not a mountain girl. And I'm from Saint Louis, Missouri, so I'm forever a Midwesterner. And I'm from Kansas. So we've got that in common. But you got the beaches, and I'm from the mountains. Can you tell how white I am? So I blend in winter for you.
Kim: Share with us what you do. I get to wake up every single day and serve in some capacity, whether it's with my book. Whether it's with my speaking career, whether it's modelling with a concave chest in New York Fashion Week or the year in Miami Fashion Week, if it's mentoring cancer patients or mentoring prisoners, or working with brands on social media, giving people hope and sharing my
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purpose and even with my children. So pretty much from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to bed, I'm doing what I'm serving, I'm inspiring, I'm giving people hope in some regard. So I do a lot of different things. But altruism is what I do.
Kim: So what does mentorship look like for you? What is that around mentorship that is part of your purpose? I started to speak in the prisons in the state of Florida about four years ago. When I started to speak in the prison system, I had no idea that would be kind of a passion of mine. I was chosen as a motivational speaker and I wasn't chosen to be in a women's prison. I was chosen to be in men's prisons, which, in my opinion, is rare, I've historically only spoken in women's organizations. And so that was kind of a surprise for me. But I'm always up for a challenge. So I said, no problem. And when I started to speak in these prisons, there was an app called JPEG, and you can e-mail the prisoners back and forth. So what they asked me when I'm at that prison, if I will e-mail them, then I always say yes. So I have a lot of people in the prison system who e-mail me and expect a response. So I do that. I mentor a lot of prisoners, and that's how I do it. But I also have had the opportunity to mentor some of them since they've gotten out of jail. A couple specifically one reached out to me about four years ago, and he reached out to me on Facebook, I think originally, and he said, Would you mind meeting me? I have an idea. And I thought, Yeah, no problem. A couple of my friends said You're crazy. You should not go meet somebody that just got out of prison for 30 years for murder. And I said You know what? Everybody has a story. Everybody has a story of forgiveness. And if we can't forgive people that come out of jail, then that's our problem. And that's my heart. I'm not going to live like that. So I went to meet this gentleman, and we showed up in a red suit, like a red jacket, a red shirt, red pants, red shoes and a briefcase. And he said, I think we should start an organization in Palm Beach County, which is a big county in Florida. And we should try to change the rate of recidivism, which, by the way, was 97% four years ago. If you don't know what that word means, it's the rate of people going back to jail. In the United States, it is the highest globally. Unacceptable. So I said to him, you know what? Let's
talk through this. And it took several months. But three years later, four years later, we have a full board of people. We have raised a ton of money. We have great resources for people who come out of the prison system in Palm Beach County. And we're helping to teach them how to fish. Like we're not giving them handouts. We're trying to teach them. And so I said yes to this prisoner. So that's kind of what I mean by mentoring. There are a lot of women who have reached out to me on social with breast cancer. I mentor them. So in any regard that I can, I'm helping other people, giving them hope, because I know how much despair costs you. I know what feeling like paralysis emotionally feels like. I've been in that position. I don't want people to be in that position. I want somebody like me. If it has to be me, it'll be me. I want somebody to give somebody help. The other board that I sit on is called E Beauty. E Beauty is a wig exchange program. It's for women going through treatment who cannot afford a wig. I went through chemotherapy. I did not have any hair. I was privileged enough to be able to afford many wigs and my children needed to see their mother with a wig. They wanted me to look as much as I could like myself. But so many women cannot afford a wig and they're expensive. So we have partnered with L'Oreal and the Paul Mitchell salons. L'Oreal gives us grant money and the Paul Mitchell salons wash and style our wigs. And then we ship them out our biggest cost per e beauty of shipping these wigs out. But it's a free resource for women. And so I'm always constantly trying to promote it because people don't know about it. So if you go to E Beauty dot com and you're going through treatment and you need a wig, you can pick out the colour, and the style and we will ship it to you.
Kim: So you talk about being disabled, do you mind sharing with us what the disability is? So let's go back to the self-esteem that was nonexistent before my cancer diagnosis. I had a torn ligament in my right wrist. And I went to see three great doctors. I picked one of them to stand for grad, you know, I picked the pedigree guy and he performed the surgery. And because my self-esteem was low, I'm not blaming this completely on myself,
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but he missed after the cast came off, my I had some all these other issues, and he misdiagnosed what that was. He sent me to a physical therapist far away from his office. He bullied me emotionally and told me that all the pain and swelling was in my head. And I believed him. And after seven or eight months of him bullying me and calling me a hysterical housewife, although I'd never shed a tear in his office, I finally got up enough courage because I didn't have very good self-esteem and saw a second
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opinion at that point. My arm that almost lost all the cartilage in my right arm and right wrist was destroyed. There was not any left. The bones in my right wrist were broken. There was not one bone that was not broken. So I had to go into immediate surgery and they dug out as much infection as they could. And then they put a pick line in my arm. Then I flew up to New York City to a hospital called SS, which is a hospital for special surgery. And a very kind doctor took my case. Oftentimes, doctors won't
take other doctors' botched cases. That's a liability. Yep. And he took out my wrist and he fuzed it with cadaver bones, a cadaver Achilles tendon and bone graft and stitched it up. And I came back six weeks later for my six-week post-arm fusion appointment I was in the shower trying to wash my body with a bar of soap, and I felt a lump in my breast. Five days later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and so because my arm is fuzed, I have no wrist. I'm in constant pain and I couldn't even start chemotherapy because of the bone grafts. And the cadaver bones would have dissolved if I'd started chemotherapy. So I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer and then couldn't even start treatment for a month because of what the doctor did to my arm. Talk about learning how to forgive. That was a real struggle for me, but I, I don't give that man any weight in my life ever. So I'm disabled in my way.
Kim: You're a student at Harvard, so not that you have enough going on. What are you studying? So after I completed chemotherapy, I had terrible chemo brain. Chemo brain exists it's your brain is foggy. Your short-term memory socks and your cognitive skills are impaired. So I would drive down the road to go pick up my children. And if there was not somebody driving, if I turned and there wasn't somebody on the road, I would forget which side to turn on. That's how much chemo has affected my life. And I knew at that point I had rebuilt my selfesteem. I knew at that point I could not depend on other people to fix my brain. I had to fix it. And so it was all about it, kind of empowerment. I can do this. And so I said to myself because I was not meditating on the outcome anymore, I was meditating on the courage that I could show myself every day. And so I said to myself, You know what? You should apply to Harvard. You should go back to school. You should get your master's degree in writing and literature and try to fix your chemo brain. So I said to myself, Okay. So I applied to Harvard, and I also said to myself, if I don't if they don't accept me, who cares? You can never win if you don't try it. And so but that, like so much of my life, was so insecure and my self-esteem was so low that I wouldn't even put
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myself out there. I would try. So at this stage of my life, I was like, okay, tomorrow is promised to no one. I'm sure. Try everything I can to help people to make my life better, happier and less pain and better cognitive skills to be a resource to more. Right. I wasn't a resource with a chemo brain, so I applied to Harvard. They took me and I've been in the master's program for three years. I have one more year and my chemo brain is completely gone. Kim: If you're doing everything for a nonprofit, how do you pay for the roof over your head? And I know for you, it's not just money. It's not just about being financially rewarded although that is a part of it. What is your monetization model around your speaking and your coaching or anything along those lines? So I think the best way for me to describe it is I felt at a certain point that I had value and that value should be monetized because whether it was modelling and getting a paycheck from the modelling or getting a paycheck from speaking and not giving all of my speaking gigs away for free, which I did in the beginning because I needed content. But I think it goes back to self-esteem. I'm worthy of a paycheck. I'm worthy of being compensated for what I do. And so whether it's speaking or whether it's being on a nonprofit or whether it's modelling or my book or my book becoming a film or whatever it is, I'm setting myself up for success, financial success, most importantly, for emotional success. That's number one. But that doesn't have to exclude financial success. We shouldn't be compensated for our hard work. And that's a self-esteem issue, I think. I think that the biggest struggle women have is that imposter syndrome. I see that repeatedly. Credibility, confidence and relevancy are the biggest challenges they face and it's really easy to get sidelined by those that you've grown up with or have been around in your life. And they still view you as the nine-year-old that threw up on your cousin's payday game. They don't view you as the 49-year-old who's crushing it. Right on. You know, you've got one person in your life that goes I one.
Kim: Can you share with us the time of your life that without resiliency you would not be sitting here having this conversation? So many things. I think the breast cancer diagnosis on top of my arm was my breaking point. I was almost buried in despair. I just didn't know how to move forward. I now was a thriving mother-wife model self-proclaimed athlete who became a sickly woman needing constant care and attention, whose husband didn't want to change the model that they had made right she's an independent girl. She's just like a really strong, tough girl. I was not the strong, tough girl when I was diagnosed with cancer. I was depleted after this whole arm situation. And after this man bullied me, I felt so low about myself. And the physical pain and the emotional pain were burying me. And I had a lot of friends show up for me. And I had a lot of people say to me, I will not forsake you. But man, without faith and faith in God and without shifting my measure, from society's accolades to saying to God, I'm just going to surrender and you're in charge, I would have never made it. And that was the best shift in my life. There was like there was so much despair. And, you know, the suicide thoughts that engulfed me. And those are kind of normal thoughts when everything that you believed was your value is taken away and I didn't know if I was going to be a mother anymore. I didn't know if my kids were going to be raised by somebody else. I didn't know if I was going to make it through chemotherapy. I didn't know if I was going to make decisions with healthy self-esteem because I'd made disastrous decisions from low self-esteem. I didn't know how I was going to ask my friends and family to help me after they'd just helped me for a year with my arm. All my pride and my ego were teetering, my decision-making, right? And I was afraid of asking for help. That's insecurity. And when I started to have more compassion for myself and I started to let go and surrender, then I was able to ask for help. The help that I needed but that's letting go of pride, of ego. And I can say this with certainty, in the 40 years that I lived before this trauma I accomplished things. But from 40 till now, never in a million years would I have ever imagined that I could have accomplished anything in those beginning
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days. I have accomplished more in my life since my cancer diagnosis. Diagnosis does not have to paralyze you. They can be just step ladders to your ultimate success and your ultimate dreams coming true. And that has been apparent in my life. But it's hard work and it's great. It's great and it's determination and there and resiliency and courage. Those things can wane in your life. But if you have people around you that are lifting you and encouraging you your resiliency will never stop.
Kim: Tell me a little bit about your book. And what's the correlation between it and a movie? My book, Walk Beside Me is a fictional depiction of my life. When I was going through breast cancer, I was gifted a lot of very important self-help books, but I could not find a book, a fictional novel on The Good, The Bad, the Ugly about going through this kind of tragedy. And I thought that it was important for people to read it because I needed it. And so I decided that I would write it myself and the book is also really important because it talks about the power of women coming together versus women negating each other. This constant comparison and judgment in our society are not healthy. And so I talk in my book about the women that showed me forward and said to me, When we're done with caring for you, then we're going to send you out to the world and you're going to care for other people. And I took that very seriously, and they modelled that beautifully for me. So there are a lot of examples of that in the book, and there are a lot of great takeaways for people. How to show your friends love going through illness, difficulty or divorce, whatever it may be. And so that's the reason I wrote my book and my book in 2018 was picked up to be made into a screenplay, and it's subsequently being made into a film. So a guy named Ziad Hamzah is an Oscar award-winning screenplay writer, and he wrote the screenplay for my book, and it does mirror my book. Oftentimes books are made into films and they don't always resemble the book. This screenplay looks like my book, and so it's a beautiful story of women. Like I said, caring for each other. It's a movie about breast cancer, which I
think is important because there are too many people being touched by breast cancer. And so it's slated to be in production later this year.
Kim: Can you leave us with a quote, an inspirational quote? Something that on your dark days helped you. Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself. Connect with Christine Website: christinehandy.com Instagram: @christinehandy1 Facebook: @ChristineHandyAuthor
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THRIVING IN A CHANGING MARKET Kimberly Caruso-Fast has been working as a real estate agent for over 10 years now, and during that time she's learned a lot about the industry and the everchanging real estate market. As a top realtor in Phoenix, Arizona, Kimberly gives her insights about the changing economy, real estate investors, expansion and solar power.
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Kim: So top 1% realtors in Arizona. So first, tell us exactly where you're at and what's the market you're working at? I've been a realtor for about ten years in the Greater Phoenix area. I work all of Maricopa County. I'm from Los Angeles, so I'm used to working far and wide. Many realtors just kind of work in their neighbourhood and that's their niche. I work in Phoenix. I'm an expert in every neighbourhood. I've been working, as I said, for about ten years. A few years ago, I took on a licensed realtor assistant, and with her, we've been able to do about 15 million in sales per year. And boots on the ground. As you said, I'm out there and anything I work on, I touch from start to finish. My licensed assistant is my backup. She does my transaction coordinating. She's able to get into properties if I'm not available. And together we get it done. Kim: We know that real estate itself right now is like I jokingly said the other day, I think I could sell my doghouse in the backyard for triple digits. When we look at this, what are some of the strategies? Are you working with many buyers? I typically work with buyers. Nothing I love more than a listing. So easy to put that sign out there and get it sold. The hardest part about being a listing agent is saying no to the 25 people who put in over-asking bids. I work with lots of buyers. I've had to change my entire marketing plan. I always worked with entry-level buyers. That was my passion. It was my wheelhouse. My kids are in their early twenties. I moved to Arizona eight years ago from Southern California. So friends that I grew up with in California, all of their children want to buy homes, but they can't buy homes in California. So they started moving to Arizona as my kids graduated college, I found a nice little niche, and started encouraging young kids, don't buy a car when they graduate college, but to buy a house with down payment assistance. We can get you into a house for less money than you can get into an apartment. So that was my wheelhouse. I did a lot of small-dollar volume transactions every year. Very rewarding. Unfortunately, our market has changed and some parts of
our market went up 32%. November, November night, 20, 20 to November. 20, 21 housing prices went up, up to 32%. So entry-level buyers, there's not a lot for them anymore. So last year, I kind of struggled and looked around at the craziness in our market and realized survival of the fittest is being adaptable. So I had to kind of reformulate what I was doing. As much as I love the entry-level buyer, there's just not enough there to sustain my business. So I started looking at, you know what is selling in our market because prices have gone up so high. Who's buying we have a lot of out-of-state money and we have a lot of investors. So I've kind of restarted and I'm now marketing more towards the buyer. And a lot of investor buyers. Kim: I know that in our market here in Calgary, where we're seeing people who say there are investors, but they're not really investors, so the deals aren't going through and such. How do you do that? Who is a real honest-to-goodness investor? Investors have changed. You know, it's interesting. I don't know if it started with COVID, but people have reassessed money and what they've done with money and people seem to have a little bit more free income these days. So what I would consider an investor is somebody who owns their own home, whether they're in state or out of state, and then they have investment properties, usually anywhere between one and ten properties. I have a few investors who are just getting into the investing market. I try to provide them with the pros, the cons, and a bit of a prospectus on what to expect and what your return on investment is going to be. So this is where my marketing has had to change. I have to put together all of this data now, but also I need to vet my investor, of course, and no offer goes in ever without proof of funds and then decent earnest money and a decent amount of earnest money and typically waiving any repairs and inspection. So there are only a few days to do an inspection and I have yet to have an investor back out of anything. Investors are so grateful when they finally secure a property, they're happy to take it. Our rents have gone up significantly. Our market here in Phenix has
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gone up far higher than the rest of the nation. So this is an excellent place to be investing right now. So there's no shortage of investors. There's just a shortage of properties that we can get them into. Kim: I'm originally from Wichita, Kansas, and my brother-in-law owns 19 properties there. And they've seen in the last six months which to go up 25% year over a year So needless to say, with 90 properties, He's been in this for a long time and he's a professional investor and a professional landlord. So it is absolutely a great space. With the United States having such strong welcoming immigration policies, where do you see the real estate going? A lot of people go, when is this going to stop? What are your thoughts on that? I focus on Arizona's real estate and we are a bit of an anomaly. We don't follow the national trends typically. I belong to a group where we look at Mike Orr's database and its real-time data. It's the oldest and largest database of real estate transactions in the nation. And Arizona is, as I said, an anomaly. We don't follow the typical trends, although I think things are changing for us. And that is thanks to COVID. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but we've seen so much of Silicon Valley move to Arizona. People are working remotely now. My four clients right now are from Seattle. Again, people are working remotely. They're not quite ready to retire. A really interesting dynamic group that's not quite ready to retire, but I can work remotely, so I'm going to move to Arizona and that's who's buying right now. That seems to be my new wheelhouse. So, you know, we were a state that was driven by tourism back in the day. So when, you know, things like Nine-Eleven happened, this economy crumbled. But we're no longer driven by tourism. I think we are the new and what, three the second largest tech community we have, Taiwan Semiconductor is just a couple of miles down the road here, building one of the largest chip manufacturing plants in the world. So our dynamics are changing. And I believe that because our median incomes are going up, I think we have a very healthy economy here in Phoenix. And regardless of what happens with the rest of the nation, we're watching the inflation right now in the rest. I mean, everyone is suffering right now with
inflation, but our market here in Phoenix still seems to be thriving. And I think we will continue as the rest of the nation is hurt and reeling from high prices, they're escaping to Arizona, which still is affordable. We're one of the most affordable markets in the nation. So I think for now we're in good shape. Kim: Boise, Idaho is one of the most elevated pricing in North America in the last 12 months. And that is all you had already mentioned about the market in Seattle which is all due to the influx from San Francisco Portland and Seattle. One of the things they're hearing is that the locals are getting priced out of the market. They can no longer afford to live there, and now they're pushing outward. What are some of your thoughts around that and how do you help, especially from the listing side, you get a call and somebody like I can't afford my taxes anymore because my taxes have gone up three times or, you know, I'm not making the money I need to make an or to live now in this neighbourhood. What are some of the ways that you help the locals navigate and still feel connected to the city that they've lived in and supported and loved? Expansion is the big thing here in Phoenix. I live on the west side of Phoenix. People who grew up here would turn their noses up at the west side. It was all orange groves back 25 years ago. I came from Los Angeles. I thought it was beautiful, so I decided to settle here. People don't even realize I had a client that grew up in the Chandler area last weekend, and I met her at an investment property in the West Valley and she is in her mid-fifties and early sixties. And she was shocked that people lived out here and were so taken back and so impressed at how beautiful the homes were and the area that has been in her backyard for years. People don't realize the expansion in Phoenix. So where are we expanding? East Valley expanded maybe ten years ago. I'm really big on expansion in the West Valley and the Northwest Valley. I've kind of speculated on that, and I've bought my investment properties and done very well on them. And that's where I tend to put my investor clients and also my neighbours whose children need to buy or neighbours who just need a different house. But as you said, they're priced out of our market or they just want to take some equity
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out of their home. And, you know, downsize, which usually means more square footage in one story, by the way. But so I'm finding you know, through my background is marketing. I went to USC. I have a degree in marketing, so I read a lot. Phoenix Business Journal is my go-to I get alerts on my phone all day long about who bought land and what they're doing with it. So between the businesses that are buying the land and developing jobs and the builders who are mowing down those mountains and putting up new homes, there are still opportunities to buy in Phoenix that you talked about in the $400,000 market. I know our dollars are a little different, but that's a market that you know, I used to get people into homes for $180,000 and that wasn't that long ago. Kim: The very first home I sold in this market was $137,000. That same house today is about four 50 in Calgary. I used to call myself the Queen of the $89,000 condo. It no longer exists. It's about a $400,000 condo now. There is a new build going out west. Some of the communities have prices in the mid 300 thousand, but they've got waitlists of 300 people for those homes. They're not doing a lottery. The systems are kind of weird. It's hard to get in but now and then I'll find a friendly community. So opening day in the new community is where you want to get in. You're going to get entry-level prices for that community. They will continue to go up every time there's, you know, a release of ten homes over the year. So by the time your new build is done in a year, you'll have $100,000 equity in that house before you even sign the papers. So that's where I'm taking my clients. But it is a matter of educating them as to the beauty and the value of the Northwest Valley people. It's a little stigmatized. People don't understand what's going on out here but everything's new and it's shiny and it's great and it's less traffic. I think that our younger generations are less about name brand, a more about value, and they also do their research. They will know that if it's good value and it's a safe community it is worth putting their money there. It's funny because I am seeing chefs away I always joke that I'm not. I'm more like a bowl-
ing bag. It's bright, it's colourful, it's fun, you know, and I have never been able to understand and I've always been to survey knows very clearly. I have always been a mid-market agent and I've always worked predominantly as a listing agent in singlefamily homes. And I think part of the reason I never truly transitioned to the luxury market is that I am pulling back and I'm cool with that. But I think our next generation is looking at what is useful, what is safe, what is, you know, affordable. They're not they're not as swayed by you must have this because of this name brand, they're going, this couch is good enough. I don't need a chancing company couch. I don't need it. Ethan Allen couch. This one's good enough. So on that note, I'm going to do a little game because I've got this whole thing around modular homes and carry gated communities that are financial bridge communities, but more so for the like 45 and over. Okay. So if you were to be in your market if somebody came and said, I have money, we're going to develop a modular kind of RV type of thing because we have this whole thing happening with no nomadic lifestyle. Right? What would that look like? How would you design it for the people in your community, the people, you know, that thing that is somewhat fascinated by that? If the money was not an issue and you could design a cost-effective modular nomadic style community to fit the 50 plus that wants to travel and move and own what would it look like? Interestingly, you brought that up because this is such a big topic right now. First off, I have a girlfriend who's an investor. She's a neighbour here in the community. And she developed a modular home community in the Costa Grand area, which is east of Pheonix going towards Tucson. The homes were sold before she finished the community. So there is a huge demand simply because it's affordable housing and the nomadic lifestyle is huge. Everybody here has big mobile homes and they're buying land in places where everybody can park them and they can go on vacation. I'm not quite on board yet with this kitchen. I like my creature comforts, so but I have a feeling it's in my future, you know, it's I think it's in all of our future. Here in Phoenix, as I said, housing still affordable land is pretty cheap. People are taking plots of land and they're developing them
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more into multifamily, maybe four and eight plex, as opposed to the modular home community. It's something that we're where we talk to a lot of people. We're looking at all the different building products and concepts and everything because the United States is quoted to be 4.8 million homes short for servicing affordable housing. So on to one. Kim: I know that they do it in Pheonix, where they do an energy reading. With the cost of living and with inflation hitting, I believe that this is something we're going to see because I believe I believe Arizona is at the forefront of this. And it does affect your mortgage rate and what you qualify for and such like that. Can you share a little bit about that for me? Electric costs have gone up 30% in the last year. I was looking into solar and opted not to do solar. The payback just wasn't there. And we have a huge electric bill and we don't have a pool and I can't quite figure out why it's so big, but it's just huge. But because our prices have gone up so significantly in the last year, the return is there now for solar. So it's something we're just starting to look into. Solar is huge here in Phoenix some leases are predatory. You find them in a lot of retirement communities. When people go to sell a home, the leases are in and the homeowner is at a complete disadvantage. They're paying more for the lease and the electricity than they would be without solar. But what we can do now, as realtors, as listing agents, is renegotiate those leases for the buyers. So it's not making deals fall apart any longer. So solar is huge. New homes are going to have the high energy rating that you're referring to. That's another reason that I pushed for new homes simply because everything from your appliances, you know, through your windows and the insulation, everything is the highest rating possible for energy efficiency. And in Arizona, with the heat, that's huge. That's important. It's good for the environment. And it's good all the way around. So we are a state that's very proactive with energy conservation, but we are seeing a big, huge push for solar here in Phoenix. Kim: We have communities that are being built here in Calgary. And when you talk about energy bills,
ours have doubled here in Canada. And the reality is Calgary, where I'm where I live, we sit on one of the largest natural gas pools globally. And our delivery, it's for us, it's all the taxes that go into the delivery of energy. And so we have some communities being built in that 45 minutes out of core that is wired and the roofs are all solar. Tesla is doing the solar roof and I'm fascinated by it. Kim: Elon is crazy. He's such a forward thinker and visionary. To think that at 16 years of age he decided to leave South Africa, go to Canada, go to school out East and then go to the United States like he's done all this on his folks. So anybody out there who says they're afraid to branch out or do something on their own is you know think about it. Some of the greatest minds out there work on their own. And do it from a very early age. I'm going to look up more information on this because we're starting to see that here in Calgary because like I said, it's -16 today. Oh, I've got a heating pad on my floor that I put my feet on. So my toes don't get cold, so I'll swap this weather. I may have to sell you a house here in Arizona! Kim: As you know, I always like to have inspirational quotes that we can share. So Herman Cain is who this quote is by, but I believe it goes back to Einstein, and it's been said by many people with different variations of it, but it's about success. It says success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. You are doing it when you're if you're doing what you are, what you love, you'll be successful. It's just that simple. You have to love what you're doing. Kim: Stats show that 62% of all residential real estate agents are women. Ladies, we have to support each other and celebrate each other. Watch the interview now! youtube.com/c/KimTalks Connect with Kimberly Instagram: @kimberlycarusorealtor Twitter: @kimberlycaruso2 Tik Tok: homes_of_phoenix
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HOW TO CREATE ABUNDANCE IN EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE How do we how do we live a bigger, bolder, better life? We've heard a lot of the word around resilience, but what about abundance? Judy Beloff has been a nurse and an aerobics instructor, a Lamaze coach, a retail manager, banker, financial advisor, and an author or a speaker and a teacher. She is happiest in a stack of books that excite her as they are waiting to be read. She is the author of 365 Days of Abundance with a foreword from Bob Proctor.
Judy Balloff Wife, mother, grandmother, financial advisor, author, and entrepreneur.
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Kim: Bob Proctor, how do you get a forward from a top author like that? Bob Proctor was my mentor of sorts. I met him through my company. They offered a class that he was giving called Principles of Prosperity. I, I took that course, and that's what inspired me to start studying the 12 Universal Laws and really become an expert on them both for my own life and for other people's lives. And then I took a master class with him, and I got my courage up. And in one of the Q&A sessions, I said, Bob, I'm writing a book right now. If I send you a copy when it's finished and you like it. Would you be willing to write a forward? And he said you should stay at your regular career and just do writing as a hobby. You're very successful as an agent. And I'm a New York Life agent. And he said, You're very successful as an agent. You should do that career and do the writing as a hobby. He. So I took him at his word, but I wasn't looking at it as a hobby. I was totally inspired, driven and a little bit of resiliency because I had to get up at five 30 in the morning. I decided to do this, get up at five 30 every morning and write from five 30, you know, take your shower and everything too. But get down to writing so that you'd be writing until eight 30 when you started your day job. And I said, I'm going to finish this book to launch in November of 20, 21 in time for Christmas. And I did it, finished it in eight and a half months, got it edited, got the cover done everything. So that's how Bob and the day literally the I sent the approved to Bob Proctor to read and it took him so long to get back to me, I got nervous. We have to go. We have to go to print. We have to go to print. We've got to have it back. And so we designed the book two ways without Bob Proctor with Bob Proctor the day I got the e-mail that said, hi Judy, please see a text. Bob Proctor's forward. If I weren't almost 70 years old, I would have done cartwheels. Kim: Can you share with us a little bit of your origin story? I think the most important part of the origin story would be from you mentioned all my careers. I've had, you know, two husbands, four kids, six grand-
kids, you know, a lot of adventures in a life when you get to be in those upper years. However, the biggest change came when I had open-heart surgery and woke up and had five strokes. So the doctor said, I'm sorry, we can't tell you if you'll ever recover from this. And what I had lost was my ability to read and write. I think complex thinking. They said I lost. I wasn't sure I ever had complex thinking, but I had to I lost my balance. I couldn't drive at night. I still can't drive at night. I never got that back. And I'd lost the use of my right hand. So I couldn't write. I couldn't read or write. I couldn't recognize letters. That is a really scary place to be if you're a reader. And that's where your joy comes from and you're like, I couldn't read the letters on my phone. And so I used the very principles I ended up writing about. Have you ever notice something about yourself and realized, Oh, that's what I did that was so successful? Like, sometimes you don't even know that the person you are is living that way already. But when you can put language on it means more and you can share it, then you can say to people, This is what I did that was so successful in recovering from five strokes, which people don't usually recover from. And so the way I got through was through gratitude, through faith, through you know, resilience, through getting up every day and walking those three miles three times a day, like the cardiologist said, and doing the homework from the occupational therapist and being so grateful for the doctors, the family, that just a life of gratitude. And so when I discovered thinking grow rich for the second time, because didn't all of us read it once and stick it on a shelf because we weren't rich when we got done with it, we're like, okay, that didn't work. It's sort of like if something comes at the right time in your life that's called having a sixth sense. That's one of the 13 principles and thinking Grow Rich is the 13th one. And what Napoleon Hill says about it is you can do the other 12 and get rich, but you have to do the other 12 to get the 13th, which is the sixth sense. Because that sixth sense, that intuition, when that intuition says to you, I'm the person that's supposed to write this book and I'm supposed to get up at five 30, I didn't even I'm not a morning person. I
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don't know if you are. I like to stay up late and read and watch my favorite shows or whatever. I got up at five 30, I jumped out of bed like I was going to a parade. I was so excited. Every morning I'd say a prayer, I'd say, God in heaven, give me wisdom. Inspiration, whatever I need to find for this day. And I'm not kidding. I could tell I could do a movie about every day of the 365 days of inspiration that I got to write this book. I read this book now, and I don't think I wrote it because it's so good. It's really good and valuable and rich and beneficial. And I read it every day with my husband, every morning we read one of my posts with our devotions. So it's just been an amazing I just literally just got the proof back from my editor on my second book. Kim: Tell us about the second book. The second book came out of the first book because as I was doing talk shows and interviews and talk radio talk radio is really fun. Like you get interrupted by the news in the weather. And people kept saying to me, they'd say, What are what are some of the ways people can control their thoughts? Like you control your thoughts when your recovery from your surgery? And I'd say, Well, I actually developed a seven pieces of thought control, and they said, Oh, tell us the seven piece of fault control. And so I tell people and they're like, Oh, I'd like to use those for my kids. So they kept asking me to put it in a book or put it in a pamphlet or put it in something. So I called my editor, who's my daughter. My youngest daughter is actually an editor. You need to have an editor that makes you cry or otherwise they're not doing a good job. They have to do a good job. Anyway, I called her and I said, Can I do a mini book? And she goes, What kind of mini book? I said, Well, it just needs to be sure. It's just the seven pieces of thought control so we decided to name it Your Miraculous Mind. And I told her, I said, I want to put a cute picture of a brain dancing on the front like that. Now they control their thoughts. They have a happy life. She goes, That brain you sent me looks absolutely silly. She goes, I'll find a decent brain for you. So she's so it's literally ready to go to print, probably in the next week.
Kim: That is amazing. So your daughter's your editor, a mean editor. A mean editor. That's okay. I'm, I'm here and that. Wow. Okay, so you've had you've had a really robust life. You're 70 you're not slowing down at all because you're really actually you're chronologically 70, but you're 42. Judy, you have a spark. You have a natural optimism, don't you? I always did. But it's been like on steroids since I found out about the universal laws and what abundance can do for your life. Because this is what I discovered writing the book. Kim, I got to about that about the fourth month. I was about halfway through writing it, and I realized you know, I took principles of prosperity. We're always all about the same thing. We're like, okay, if I could make $1,000,000, if I could
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do this, you know, it's God. We always think it's more things, more money. I discovered I was having such a crazy, abundant, joyful life and it wasn't anything about money. It was about the joy of words and research and meeting people in history that I never knew. But that said something to my heart that I would be typing it. I'd be sitting there with tears running down my face, and I'm like, Oh, my gosh, it's so beautiful. It is so beautiful. And so I realized the name of the book, 365 Days of Abundance. It's exactly. Abundance has almost nothing to do with money. Yeah. Haven't you ever met somebody who's got all the money they'd ever need and they are so depressed. Kim: Something that you mentioned earlier that tweaked me into your original mindset, though, is that you took a course. So you are a lifelong learner. Lifelong learner? As a matter of fact, I have five steps for finding love after 50, and it's based on what I did to find David. Guess what I did? One of the steps is study. Study what you study, what went wrong the first time, study what good relationships are made up. I've read every book on relationships by Cosmo for two months I don't care. Find a way to learn about male female relationships. It's really the universal law of polarity, opposites, the male female, not because you're a man or a woman. We all have male characteristics and female characteristics and they attract each other. And if, you know, if you study the universal law of polarity and you learn about the male and female characteristics, you can build stronger marriages, relationships, whatever, because you understand the way the world works. You know what Albert Einstein did? This is a cool thing to know. Albert Einstein was a big, big fan of gratitude. He said grateful. He he said he was grateful 100 times a day. So he suggested, just say thank you every time you take a step. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the beautiful day. Thank you for my food. Thank for my house. Thank you for my friends. Thank you for my job. They isn't that cool? 100 times. Imagine how happy we we'd be if we said thank you a hundred times a day.
So 365 days of abundance. What is your hope for people who get this book? My hope for people who get this book actually I'll quote Jack Canfield because he interviewed me. And at the end of the interview, he said everybody should go out and buy a copy of this book, read it once a day for 365 days. And at the end of the year, your life will be changed. Kim: my favorite quote is an African proverb, and it is if you want to go fast, go along that if you want to go far, go together. And I believe in absolute collaboration and I'd love to know I'd love to close this call out. I'd love to close this podcast out with what your quote is. What is it quote that sings to your soul that when everything is maybe not aligning, that you kind of go to. That's a great question because I have so many and I don't have one I think I'm going to quote a meal coo because this is the mindset I want to have every day that I would give as a gift to anybody on this podcast. Every day in every way I'm getting better and better. Every day in every way. Watch the interview now! youtube.com/c/KimTalks Connect with Judy Website: judyballoff.com Facebook: @judymarieballoff LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/judith-balloff-1633045
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