Empire Building

Sue Adler is the #1 real estate agent in the entire state of New Jersey. Not only is she a kick-ass business person, she’s also a kick-ass person with a kick-ass life. She’s living proof that if you are talented and a hard worker, you can start over in any market in your chosen craft and succeed. And even with all of that success, she travels three months out of the year and when she’s gone she is...

When you’re busy and you’re stressed, things are going to end up going askew. We’re going to talk about what’s stressing us out right now, what we’re going through, and how we’re processing and tackling it. We’re all emerging from the pandemic era and there’s so much changing. The stresses of that are underlying everything else that’s happening. We talk about admitting that you need help, recalibr...

Growth is great, but if you’re not purposeful about growing and scaling your culture alongside your business it can quickly deteriorate. So how do you grow your business while simultaneously protecting your culture? Come alongside our journey as we struggle with this as well. We talk about what company culture is, what’s working, and what we’re still figuring out. What’s working for us: Define com...

When you’re an entrepreneur, you need to let go of the things you’re not good at or that can be done by someone else in order to grow and scale. What many people don’t understand is that hiring starts at home — especially at the start of your business. We’re going to talk about what hiring at home means, how to determine your hourly wage, ways to overcome leverage guilt, and provide you with ways...

For most small businesses, the founder and CEO is the brand. No matter what you do, if you own a business or you’re an employee, it’s essential to have a personal brand and focus on growing it. When you build a brand around yourself instead of your career, it will serve you well in whatever you do. It is your job to tell your story, and that’s what building a personal brand is all about. We have s...

Without relationships, there is no trust. People do not come to work day after day just to punch a time clock — they come to work for a person or group of people. For them to give it their absolute best, and for us to get the best out of them, they must have relationships with their leader. As your empire grows bigger this becomes harder and harder, so it's continually  more important to give...

So many people — women especially — struggle with confidence in the workplace. We still have a long way to go when it comes to gender stereotypes, and one of the more pervasive ones that women face is that they can’t be too aggressive or confident without appearing to be abrasive. This programming starts in childhood when boys are encouraged to be competitive and take risks while girls are encoura...

“In the school of life, difficult people are the faculty. They teach us our most important spiritual lessons, the lessons that we would be mostly unlikely to learn on our own.” —Mark Rosen When you’re growing big businesses, dealing with difficult people is a necessary skill to learn. You can't control how other people act, but you can control how you respond and how you let their actions affe...

If you don’t take time for your wellness, you’re going to be forced to take time for your illness. If you listen to the hints your body is giving you, you won’t end up having to bear its screams later. Both your health and your finances are going to affect your life, whether you focus on them or not. So why not focus on them and make everything better? We’re going to walk through our hacks to focu...

When you’re building big businesses and big lives, that can lead to excess amounts of stress and anxiety. We’re going to discuss coping mechanisms for dealing with stress, anxiety, and overwhelm as we are all actively going through it ourselves. We have six steps we’ve been using to cope: Figure out your problem list Prioritizing competing values and interests Do it, delay it, delegate it, or dump...

Tiffany Fykes is the perfect example of leveraging a big business to create a bigger life. She entered the real estate industry in 2009, and within just four years, built a million dollar producing team at Fykes Realty Groups — all while doubling the size of her family. On top of that, all of this happened while Tiffany was living in a different city and traveling with her family! We talk about wh...

In their book “The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance,” Shannon Goodson and George Dudley explain that call reluctance is the reason why 80% of new salespeople fail in their first year. We’re going to explore what call reluctance is, why people experience it, and the top 10 ways to overcome it. 10 Tips for Overcoming Call Reluctance: Make a lot of calls Know how everything works Ask really good q...

When it comes to managing your business, there’s a topic that most people don’t like to talk about: Firing people. It’s probably the hardest part of being in business. But in order to make sure we know how to fire people the right way, we have to be willing to have conversations about it. We’re going to offer our experience and approach to this, and how to get in the right mindset about firing. We...

We know leaders should be good at motivating and communicating, making decisions, delegating, and holding people accountable, but there’s one skill that has the potential to make or break a leader and often gets overlooked: emotional intelligence. You’re going to learn the definition of emotional intelligence, why it’s so important in the workplace, and four ways you can improve it. The four ways...

Communication is essential, both in your business and your personal life. Whether you’re succeeding in one area but not the other or you could use a little help with both, it’s an important topic to cover. We’re going to talk about some of the big rocks around this topic: cadence of communication, the tools you can use, and the rules of engagement. Creating a cadence: What you should talk about an...

When you’re building an empire, all of your time is valuable—including the time spent at home. We’re going to give you some quick and easy tips for making your home life more efficient so that you can make the most of all of your time… whether it’s work or recreation. We go over the topics of: Finances Cooking Meal prep Health Organization Household management Connect on Instagram: Seychelle Van P...

Did you go a little overboard on your holiday shopping this year? Or maybe you’re struggling to make ends meet due to a difficult business year or job loss? Whatever the case is, we expect a lot of people will be focused on knocking out debt this year. We have six easy steps to help you pay off your debt. Think about how you feel about money Get clarity around your financial situation and own it C...

As children, the world is full of rules and boundaries. Being raised this way trains our brain to seek permission for the things we want to do—for days off, to get a raise, to move up the ladder. It’s a part of our society. But the one person we never ask permission from is the most important person in our lives: ourselves. Last year was a wild one collectively, but no matter how it was for you pe...

There’s something about a new year that’s so refreshing. People often use this time to look at themselves, examine their lives, and try to fix things… or they talk about doing that, at least. 60% of Americans make New Year’s Resolutions, but only 8% of those actually follow through with them! We want the Empire Building community to be a part of that success, and true resolutions are all about cre...

Earlier this year, Wendy declared that she was going to “win” the pandemic. And the four of us, in our own ways, can say that we’ve won this thing. We’re going to share lessons learned from the pandemic and the year, and how we’ve applied them to our businesses and lives—and how you can, too. Resources: 29. 8 Communication Skills That Will Change Your World Connect on Instagram: Seychelle Van Pool...

There were so many lessons this year — and so many great books to help teach them to us. Where you put your focus is where you put your time, so, if you’re focused on growth and personal development, you’re going to spend a lot of time reading. We’ve compiled the top three books that each of us has read this year, and we’re going to share the most important lessons we learned from them. Books we t...

You need to be the authority on who you want to attract in your business and your life. Gary Keller often tells us that you are five years or less away from massive success, and for this to happen, you need to attract amazing people into your life that are in alignment with your vision and goals.  We’re going to dive into five key things you need to do in order to attract the right people, and ult...

How do you ensure you’re hiring people that align with your company culture? Last week, we discussed how to define your company culture and values, as well as the importance of cultivating an intentional culture. But once you have that, you have to find people that match with those values, your mission, and what you’re about. The people in your company are your most valuable resource, so it is ess...

Do the people in your organization match your culture? Company culture is a mixture of vision, mission, and values—and it’s important everyone’s on board with these three things. Culture is more than a pool table and free snacks. To start developing your culture, you have to start with your mission. We’ve already covered how to define your vision, now we’re going to dig into how you can identify y...

As we head into Thanksgiving season, there’s one thing that most of us struggle with that our family and friends are too afraid to tell us—and no, it has nothing to do with your weight. It’s that you aren’t fully present. You’re stressed, your mind is elsewhere, and your head is often buried in your phone. Often our friends and family only get what’s left over after all the work is done, and even...