Working Girl

Thought that title might grab someone's attention. Ha! I never stopped working per se when I had Campbell. I am still a realtor and I had a couple of listings that were on the market before I had the baby. But over the last few months, 99.99% of my time has been spent as a Mommy. My old firm was great in some respects, but I needed a change of pace. After interviewing last week and thinking it over, today I made it official and switched real estate firms! I'm very excited about it. Just having the interview and putting the thought into it to make this decision has re-energized me. I feel focused again and motivated, and at my new firm, I think I'll be more successful. It's not like switching firms means I'll instantly have clients beating down the door to work with me. BUT...it gives me a new angle and a new perspective and tons of new resources. For one thing, this new firm is minutes from our house. Score! It's also a much larger office and I'm excited to have coworkers again. There were definitely perks to working for a small firm on the other side of town - I had total autonomy. But in order to be more successful, I think I need the support of other agents nearby. I'll still work from home 100% - it's just that I'll have an office minutes away that I can go to for help, for adult conversation (ha!), and for more resources. It turns out that this office has five agents with babies under six months of age, something that was totally attractive to me when I was looking. My plan for childcare was just to figure it out as appointments came up. Occasionally Travis can work from home and could stay with Campbell while I had meetings. Or my mother-in-law is only just over an hour away and always happy for an excuse to babysit. Well I was pleasantly surprised in my interview when the broker-in-charge told me that there were two babies at the last sales meeting! Babies are totally welcome in the office. Wow! Obviously when I have meetings with clients, I'll fly solo. I don't think anyone wants to schedule their home tours around their realtor's baby's nap schedule! But how convenient to be able to have a job that I can have baby in tow for sales meetings or if I need to run in the office for a minute. I took Campbell with me today when I stopped by to fill out some paperwork. Of course she was a little fussy at her big debut...but that's OK. She managed to smile at a few of the women and won some hearts already. Don't get me wrong - I'm LOVING my job as Mommy and I'm sure that it will continue to occupy a lot of my time. But how lucky am I to have a career that is so flexible and completely on my own terms?!? I'm excited to have a fresh start at a new firm. I think this is just the boost I needed to really step it up a notch. I'm ready to bring home a little more bacon!!