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Kathi Burns  0:04  
Hi there, I'm board certified professional organizer Kathi Burns. I'm really glad you're here. This podcast is designed for busy entrepreneurs just like you who want to take better control of your business and move forward with less stress and more success. If this is your first time listening, then thanks for coming. The Organized Energized podcast is produced for your enjoyment and show notes are found at ThePodcast@OrganizedandEnergized.com. Come back often and feel free to add this podcast to your favorite RSS feed or iTunes. You can also follow me on Twitter at organized energy and Facebook. All links are in the show notes. Now let's get into the show. Hi everyone, I'm here with Sheila Mac. She has over 20 years of experience in sales, leadership and personal development. She's a reboot consultant, Team Leader and mastermind facilitator. Sheila Mac has a passion for helping businesses, teams and individuals achieve their goals. And I am so excited to talk to Sheila about how she gets those teams to meet their desired results. And with online courses and trainings and all the things that she does, she is a busy busy girl. So thank you, Sheila, for joining me on this show. I so appreciate your time.

Sheila Mac  1:21  
All right. Thanks for having me, Kathi.

Kathi Burns  1:24  
Yeah, absolutely. So tell me about how you a little bit about your journey. How did you start doing what you're doing now? What do you do before you started leading teams and that type of thing?

Sheila Mac  1:38  
Okay, well, we go way back to when I was 23, which was a few minutes ago, and I opened my first gift store in Montrose, California. And the next thing you know, I ended up having five gift stores. The first one I leased out for $5,000 a month, which was so much money when you're 23. I don't even know how they gave it to me. And I had negotiated this six month free rent. And when you're 23, six months can be like six years, so and all of a sudden the rent is due. And I had to figure out how to make the rent. By the time I hired a marketing consultant, I redid everything in the store. This is a 5000 square foot store. So dollar square foot. And so I had to learn everything. And by the time I was done, I decided okay, when this lease ends, I'm going to start buying my own buildings. I was very successful. And I started purchasing other buildings. And that was paid for by the sales in the store. And so that was my first first thing. And I was in this Montreux shopping Park. And I remember, everybody was two, three times my age, right, obviously. And they would say, now how is it you're buying a building? What do you do? What are you doing? And I didn't even know there was such a thing as coaching or consulting, or I didn't even know the term and I was like, let me show you how. And then for me to get paid, I got my real estate license, and I would help them buy their buildings. And I'm still running my stores and buying another building and doing a 1031 exchange. And so that's how I got into consulting before I even knew I was consulting.

Kathi Burns  3:25  
That's pretty amazing story. You were doing what you knew how to do and people were paying you for it, which is the ideal entrepreneurial story, right? Amazing. Okay, so when you got your very first paying coaching clients, to show them how to do it, what did it feel like? Where were you in your life at that point? And how did you feel when it happened?

Sheila Mac  3:47  
When I you know, it was just a dress owner, she had a dress shop. And she asked me for help. And she was probably two and a half times my age. And she said I will pay you. I just need your help. How do I market this store better? How do I, you know, display things? How do I actually buy a building one day? And that was that was how I started and I was like you're gonna pay me? For me to talk to you. I mean, like, I've been doing this for free for a while. I had no idea. So that was it was pretty cool. It's like, you can't believe this lady's gonna pay me that. So I didn't even know. I didn't even know what I was like, Okay, I don't know what to charge what's fair, you know, and I did a percentage deal. Like, I didn't want to charge her. I was like, Okay, you make so much and I want a percentage because I didn't even know how to figure out what do you charge? Yeah, we didn't have Google business back in the day. Okay, we are going from dos. Like I had a point of sale, maybe the second year in the store. And so it was a different time. And he couldn't just go figure things out in a second.

Kathi Burns  5:01  
It's still taking a piece of the bottom line is also then residual income, which was kind of SmartView. Way back when to.

Sheila Mac  5:08  
Yeah I needed all that income because I was buying the buildings, and I was paying them off as quickly as possible. And so that was my goal was the ownership.

Kathi Burns  5:19  
You are so smart. Wow, that's very, very exciting. So if you were to do it all over again, starting from nothing, what would you do? Or what would you change?

Sheila Mac  5:30  
Um, oh, I would do business credit right away, I kind of fell into that. And I was like, Oh my gosh, by the time I was 25, I was able to like buy a van for the store, buy the property with the business credit. So it was like the lowest interest rate. And having this S Corp. And somebody had told me get into the s corp for protection. If somebody falls in your store, oh my gosh, you could lose whatever. And so that it would it would just be getting the business credit and separating that. And that was one thing with my clients. They didn't know. So I had another very popular store, they sold clothing for like, maybe teens, and they made a fortune in town, they were there for probably 25 years. I shopped there when I was a kid and got the shin men differs in the Georgia dash jeans, they're you know, $50 a pair back in the day. And it was no. And so they did really well. But they were using personal credit. So when the husband got sick, and they needed to retire, they didn't have the ability to like sell their business, or move forward because they kept taking money out of the house to pay for and they didn't buy a building or anything. So they took the money out of the house to pay for the holiday season to buy all your merchandise in June. And then for the holidays, you would make all your money back for the year, and then you pay down your house again. And then when you get when they got caught sick and needing to retire. They lost their home to, it was tough. And so what we thought were you were such a young young one that didn't know what she was doing. But we should listen. So it was like, Oh, I didn't even know what I was doing. I just I just knew that I needed to cover myself and figure out a way to not pay this rent, because rent just kind of goes and it's right. You have to rent it. You know it Beverly Hills 20 30,000 a month for a story. You know, you're gonna rent, maybe versus buy because it's way too expensive. But is it worth you being there? So that's when you have to really see if it pencils for you to have a business where the location is so important.

Kathi Burns  7:53  
Yeah, absolutely. for retail. Yeah, that's been retail is tough anyhow. Yes. normal, normal circumstance.

Sheila Mac  8:01  
Yeah. So now we're online and the game changed again.

Kathi Burns  8:05  
Yeah, yeah, that's the one thing about change is something you can always count on, isn't it?

Sheila Mac  8:11  
Really interesting, because I saw the the change, and things going to online. So I put my stores online. And I was able to make that income plus rent all my buildings that I had paid for off. You know what I mean? So I was able to just be a landlady and travel full time. So I did that when the kids were older and had a blast.

Kathi Burns  8:37  
Yeah, that's when I met you traveling around being the Vagabond that you are.

Sheila Mac  8:42  
I had to learn how to travel. It was so different for me.

Kathi Burns  8:47  
Yeah, absolutely. So what do you think, you've been an entrepreneur for a while, and I'm sure you've been up and down and rocky road. And if you had a piece of advice for entrepreneurs who want to create, create more freedom, what would you tell them to do?

Sheila Mac  9:04  
I would say to diversify to have that, you know, invest in something and diversify your investments to create some passive income, and that business credit is the greatest place to start. Because without that business credit, then then you're back to that other story I had, where you're gonna go ahead and use your personal credit and that, to me, personal credit is like for emergencies. It's yeah, to help your kids or build or something like that, but it's not really what you want to fund your business with.

Kathi Burns  9:39  
And that's really, really good advice. Definitely. So when you start you're busy girl you have how many companies do you have? How many do you have going on here?

Sheila Mac  9:50  
Oh, my gosh, well, I you know, the gift stores, they're online now and I have somebody that runs those, pretty much one of the kids and so that provides for his house and his family, and everything going on with that, and gives me income as well, and then the properties. So I switched over to Real Estate. Because that's something that I was doing, I had my license, and I was helping other people to buy and do these 1031 exchanges. So you can have, you can build up and change and exchange without paying the capital gains tax. And so with that, I didn't even know again, I didn't realize what I had, or what I was doing was such a big deal. I doesn't everybody know this. So I was invited with exp Realty, to go ahead and teach an online course on commercial investing in 1031. exchanges. And to me, it's like, oh, well, that's like the back of my hand. I know how to do that and make money. Like, that's easy for me. That's like zero effort. And so I'm teaching online real estate agents, how to invest for themselves and how to help their clients. And then later, I transferred over and work also with Keller Keller Williams in Beverly Hills, and in Vegas, as well. So that's just fun and it's mostly referral work and teaching classes right now.

Kathi Burns  11:20  
Yeah, that's so when you you're doing all this stuff, and you're busy, busy, busy. What do you do to de stress whenever you feel overwhelmed, and burnout and just ready to just say, I've got to do something? What's your go to hack to de stress and be?

Sheila Mac  11:36  
Alright, well, first of all, everything I do is like fun for me. So I'm like, Hey to socialize, and help people and talk to people, okay, like, I could do that. It's not a problem. That's fun for me. And then I created a lifestyle based on what I wanted, and what makes me happy. So my lifestyle design is I have two homes, and a beautiful Wellness Center to go to. And so that's my destress is to go to our events, have fun, go dancing, do fun, things like that. And it's like better. It's like a five star resort and one of my homes and you know, you can do paddle boarding and go on the boat. And so that's my destress. And then family time is really important too. And I find it and so that, like my book is all about something happens in life. And it always does, whether it's the Coronavirus or some other fun thing going on. You know, it's some kind of life shift happens. And you get to it's really about your identity. At that moment. It's like, okay, now I get to reinvent myself and my life on my terms. How can I have fun? How can I make life work for me, because in the end, all it matters is you're happy with family and friends and everything else is just a bonus. And so that's, that's what I did is just design my life on my terms and help other people do that.

Kathi Burns  13:08  
That's a fantastic piece of advice. That's never been heard yet on this podcast. So design the life of your choice, because comes back to we are our own boss. So ladies and gentlemen out there, if you feel like you don't have freedom, you're the one that created that. So you can reinvent you can recreate to create more freedom, if that's what you're really craving. And what I find is if you don't have freedom, it's because you're probably not on purpose. And like you said Sheila, what I do I love it's fun. It's still is so it's not work. So you have less likelihood to get burnout. Oh, absolutely.

Sheila Mac  13:45  
Social time working with my clients. I mean, I get things done. And it really does change there. The return on investment is very good. And in fact, it's an incredible usually and it's easy. But for me, it's fun. And to see that shift happen. Is is everything. I'm just having fun. It really is. And if I wasn't I wouldn't I don't need to do it. So I wouldn't do it.

Kathi Burns  14:10  
Yeah, absolutely. So tell me about your book. Okay, so how did it start?

Sheila Mac  14:15  
Oh my gosh, my book started. I had just stopped traveling. I was like kind of I had burnout from traveling full time for seven years. I had a blast, learn from all the masters. And it was wonderful. And then I was like, I need to have a home again. And so I bought this beautiful home on the beach. And it was in Ventura. Well, I designed the house I made it beautiful. And it took me about a month and finally I had my daughter was going to move in and we were going to live at the beach and have this wonderful life. And the night that I was moving in clients kept me late. And I was like okay, you know, I just want to go I had Airbnb rentals that they had problem was this whole long story. So when I'm driving home, fire everywhere, and it was the Grow fire, and I was the home, and the investment and the car and my cat, and I was like, that was a rock bottom for me. And it was a chat, I got demoted. I was like, I don't have my clothes. I don't have my house. I didn't, you know, talk about cleaning clutter. There was no clutter left. I mean, paperwork, important pictures. Luckily, I had backups of a lot of them, but not everything. And so it was hard. And everybody else was going through the same situation in my area. So it's not like you could just ask for help. Because everybody needed more help than I did. I got to stay in this little rental, my vacation rental was full. And so I stayed in the little kind of like the the maids quarters, I guess a cleaning where you have all the towels and all. And there was like a little bathroom and a little sink. It was 400 square feet. And I'm like, This is not cool. And then I borrowed a car from one of my sons. And it was like this car that drove sideways. Why this is so stupid. And I'd have to like lease out from Turo, I'd leased out a nice car for my real estate clients. And, you know, to figure everything out, and it took about a month and a half. And then I was invited to Beverly Hills to work and I moved there. And so that's and then I got this great deal on this home. So it was all perfect and even better than what I imagined. And I got to redesign things. I was like, wow, I didn't even know that I wasn't supposed to live in Ventura, I guess. Okay, cool. I'm supposed to go to Beverly Hills, and you know, and this beautiful lake vacation home. So that was the shift. And I thought, what would I tell my best friend, if they were going through a tough situation like this? How would I help them? So my chapters use a formula for whenever life happens, and we have a shift, whether it's the first chapters on grieving, and getting back on track through that, and then I go into if you're getting a divorce, or relationship, that chapter shift or get off the pot, and it's all day, or do you go? And if you go, how do you reinvent yourself, and there's parenting, and then our whole shift that happens when our children grow up, and our identity shifts again, and we don't have the same responsibility we did. Then there's parenting, our parents elder care. And that's the time in life where a lot of us are facing that now. And maybe we can't even have them in a care facility and got to have them home. I took care of all my relatives, until they passed away grandparents and this and that. And so that was something I went through that I was able to speak from my experience in how to do that. And there's so many resources you don't know about until after the fact or you've spent way too much money trying to help mom or dad. And so there's all these different things that happen in life, and they happen to everyone. And so it's how do you get through it? So I use this formula and the the end, the last chapter is lifestyle design. So whatever happened or is happening is really okay, let's redesign your life. reinvent yourself on your terms.

Kathi Burns  18:30  
Yeah. Wow, that's an amazing book. Everybody should pick that up. We're gonna put the link to it down below the shownotes so that you can buy it, what's the website where they could go to to also check it out?

Sheila Mac  18:42  
Okay, yes, so I have a free gift for all your listeners. So if you go to www Sheila sh E, I L A Mac ma c, so Sheila mac.com/free gift, and there you will have a free introduction to the boots formula, as well as a boots meditation.

Kathi Burns  19:02  
I love it. I love it. It's funny that you talk about shift a lot. I almost mean this podcast shift happens. And yeah, because it's really about change, like what do you do when when things happen? And you have to change? How do you change with grace? How do you reinvent, and just like in my background, which we talked about a little bit when we lost our company and you lost your house. It's like, okay, so now you have this space, you have this vacuum of free space and free time and free freedom in your mind, actually because it's all like a boom, okay, reset. It's actually a gift that is given to us. I think at certain times during our life when we need it. We need that little clickety shift to pop us into action. And I highly recommend that all of you grab that free resource because she knows what she's talking about. She walks her talk, girls and guys, she totally knows how to help you go up from your bootstraps, and and regain and reset and revitalize your life. Obviously, you're walking your talk because you love your life and you're cranking out and you're doing amazing things.  Well, I really appreciate your time on the show. Make sure to grab the resource and I wish you no more fires. Oh, yes, reinvent and reinvent and reinvent. That's what it's all about.

Sheila Mac  20:27  
Mm hmm. Thank you. Thank you again, Kathi, for having me on the show.

Kathi Burns  20:31  
Absolutely. Sheila, take care of yourself. And for you, listeners. I will see you next time around and thanks, Sheila.

Hey, thanks for listening to this podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you want to hear more, feel free to subscribe on the platform of your choice. Also, if you feel so inclined, I would truly appreciate a good rating from you, to me. Have a stellar day.