Pursing Freedom with Erin Bradley

So excited to have the truly inspiring Erin Bradley joining us.  Erin is a speaker trainer, bestselling author, and the host of the Real Estate podcast: Pursuing Freedom and she's here to share her transformative journey and her mission to empower others. Get ready to be inspired by her story and insights, as we dive into the world of personal growth, and the pursuit of freedom.

Pursuing Freedom Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pursuing-freedom/id1385086390

Erin's Website:

https://www.pursuingfreedom.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/pursuingfreedomofficial/

Transcript

Theresa Cesare: 0:06

Hey guys. Welcome to Heart to Talk the podcast. I am the host and creator Theresa Cesare My intention for this podcast is to deliver to you wisdom, inspiration, and consciousness. Through solo episodes and conversations amongst insightful people. It is my greatest honor to bring to you talks that come from the. Welcome to another amazing episode today. We have a truly inspiring guest joining us. Erin Bradley. Erin is a speaker trainer, bestselling author, and the host of the real estate podcast, pursuing freedom. And she's here to share her transformative journey and her mission to empower others. Get ready to be inspired by her story and insights. As we dive into the world of personal growth, and the pursuit of freedom.

Erin Bradley: 0:56

Welcome to the show, Erin. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here, Teresa. I love your show. I love your energy.

Theresa Cesare: 1:03

This is such an honor to be here with you today. Oh, the honor is mine because I love your show. I love your work. I love the way you show up in the world. And I'm just so excited just to share you with this audience. So I want to dive in. Go ahead and tell us like who you are today and give us the backstory. Of how you became, the podcaster the bestselling author and leading others to pursue their freedom.

Erin Bradley: 1:26

So right where I am today, we're recording this in 2024 is I have an organization called pursuing freedom, which is the name of my real estate podcast, as well as my book that I published in 2016. And it evolved into a career in speaking and coaching and. The evolution started very rocky. So, uh, as the youngest of five kids, I grew up on the East coast in Philadelphia and I went to college and like all my older siblings, like my dad, I studied business because that was sort of the thing. My dad was a stockbroker and financial advisor. And so I checked the box for finances. I went into college having no idea what that meant. And not, it didn't take me long to realize that I wasn't cut out for corporate America, but all of my siblings, they followed that track, you know, get good grades, get a good job. Most of them ended up in Philly, New York, DC, whatever. So I think I assumed that was my path until by the time I was graduating in college, my older sister had quit her corporate job because she was having her first kid. And I had this feeling of maybe. That might be my path too, that I might want to have a family someday. And that maybe there's a window here to be selfish, if you will. So my first few years out of college, I decided to. Postpone what some might call the real world and do some adventuring. And much to my parents chagrin, I graduated and got a job at Outback Steakhouse as a server to fund my adventures. And I started traveling, kayaked the coast of Mexico, went on safari, lived in Barcelona for a couple of years. And anyway, long story short is I find my way to Denver, Colorado, through my travels and I ended up falling into the mortgage business. And when I did, I was thinking, I don't want to do this. This feels like corporate America. They're like, no, no, no. Trust me. It was the small Latino mortgage company. They were all really good friends. Everybody came to the office in jeans and a t shirt and then went to yoga in the middle of the day and put on their suit for closing. And I thought, Oh my gosh, that's the life for me. It's footloose and fancy free. I should be self employed. I should go 100 percent commission. So I decided to take the leap in 2007, go 100 percent commission as a salesperson, a loan officer. And I did so with zero financial reserves, zero systems, zero confidence. I just had a desire to be free. That's what I thought. So the pursuing freedom, that's kind of where it was founded. I fell flat on my face. And by the summer of 2008, I'm riding my bike to a client meeting because I don't have enough money for gas and I'm getting there early because I need the sweat to dry off before he gets there. Try to figure out what's what's aware to look professional for a meeting with a mortgage client and be able to ride my bike in the summer. And anyway, I get there early. The client gets there early as well. And he introduces himself to me. As my credit card is being declined for a 2 cup of coffee. And the worst part was I thought that was the card that would work. So I didn't want to try another one. So I felt like I was at financial rock bottom and I remember calling my dad for advice and he just said to me, do you think you're going to be good at this someday? And I said, yes, I think I could be. And he said, well, just do whatever it takes. And so fast forward a couple of years, I kind of, Started devouring books, attending seminars, pouring myself into it. I was refusing to quit and I hired my first coach and I literally was desperate and just said, tell me what to do and I'll do it. And I did all the things they told me to do, but the issue was that it never really felt authentic because all of the, Actions I was taking were about getting something to solve my problem and today what I'm really passionate about helping others understand is that if we come from a place of I have a problem to solve, I'm in scarcity. I have a void that needs to be filled. And so I've been told take this action. Everything feels like a grind and everything felt very self serving to me as well Like I need to do this thing make this call set this appointment so I can get something and when I get something Then i'll have permission to feel better And so it was this whole I call it like paddling upstream energy, right? And it wasn't until four years into the business that someone gave me the book the go giver And I read it and it clicked for me where I I had this idea that, okay, if the concept is that the goal is to be more of value, then you hope to receive in payment or be a value above and beyond what you get paid to do. I can get behind that. I can resonate with that. And so I created a strategy that ultimately allowed me to double my business over and over again. And it was simply coming from a place of what's going on with you. What's the problem that you're trying to solve? Because what keeps you up at night? When you wake up at three in the morning, you can't fall back asleep. It's definitely not my mortgage. It's not my bank account. Right. So I decided to just table my agenda and stop focusing on my need and my void and my problems and start coming from a place of contribution. And I found that if I chase the contribution, the dollars followed. Right. And. Coming from a place of contribution and being a value to others actually fills your bucket it fills your soul and so i started to feel amazing as i showed up in my interactions rather than mustering up the energy or digging deep for the motivation to do the activity so i could get something to solve my problem there listen the destination is the same right we want you Financial stability, significance, financial freedom, abundance, right? We all want these things for ourselves, but the journey can look very different. The journey can be very need based and very uphill, upstream, or it can be joyful. It can be coming from a place of contribution. It can be where curiosity Squashes your insecurity and love can conquer fear. And all of a sudden you find yourself engaging easily with the external world or your target market or whatever it is. Right. And you find yourself in flow and it's, it's almost counterintuitive. And I feel, I know from your show that your listeners probably are used to the woo. Oh yeah. We get a little woo. Yeah. Yeah. But what ended up happening, Teresa, is that. After I experienced this initial external success, okay. Meaning the business grew extra exponentially, right. And the money was coming in and the credit cards were paid off. And I was so, so, so grateful for the money, but I started to feel out of alignment. Like I had built the structure on a faulty foundation and I found myself working 24, seven, just trying to survive the success. And I remember. Talking to some coworkers back in 2012, who were what I would consider ahead of me in the game, like I was pregnant with my second child. Their kids were a little bit older than mine. They were doing more business than me. And I remember asking them, how are you doing this? Because I am just treading water over here, just barely surviving, trying to come up for a breath of air. And it doesn't feel good. The money's good, but I'm not. And they admitted that they worked until 11, 12, one o'clock in the morning, sometimes just trying to keep up with the demands of their career. And so again, coming back to the. The title of the name of my business pursuing freedom that didn't feel like freedom either i was just a slave to my business and my business was like this whale in the bathtub with my life trying to squish in around the edges and i was just becoming a shell of myself i was never present. I was always distracted, always preoccupied, always trying to move at a breakneck pace and never giving myself permission to experience the joy that I was really craving. Right. And so it just comes back to this idea of when we come from a place of need and scarcity. And we think when I get there, I'll feel better. Right. And then sometimes I know people that are in burnout. They're in survival mode, but surviving their success, which is an interesting form of survival mode, and they say to themselves, once this thing slows down, I'll feel better. And so everything we desire is then the idea that we're going to feel good in the having of it. And so I just try to reverse engineer that and focus on feeling good. And it's scary because it requires you making decisions. Which ultimately was learning to scale my business, learning to hire help, getting out of my own way and starting to do things that felt terrifying and finding out that on the other side of fear is often Extraordinary growth. And it's just been this evolution. So as I learned to scale the business, as I learned to create predictable growth, I started teaching others and I started teaching real estate professionals. And I really found joy in that space of teaching. So for many years I kind of straddled the teaching and then the managing of the mortgage business until I finally retired myself in 2022 from the mortgage side so that I could pursue this. This place of teaching and contribution full time. And this is the thing that fills my soul. And it was terrifying once again, but here we are. So everything's going great. And that's a long winded answer to your question, but it kind of paints a picture.

Theresa Cesare: 10:19

I love it. And you're so authentic and all the wisdom that you just spewed out. I'm just like, Oh, so incredible. What would you say is your biggest mission in the space that you're in now?

Erin Bradley: 10:33

My mission, what I love is that I have this visual, I guess, that everyone has a light within them. And I believe this to the core. And I know because you can see it. So what I mean by that is when your light is When you're, it's when you're having a good time, it's when you're feeling inspired, it's when you're feeling connected, engaged, alive, right? Energized. And when the light is out or dim is when you're feeling in fear, in self doubt, in overwhelm, exhaustion, burnout, right? And the truth of the matter is that There's an emotional scale there, right? From fear and panic to confidence and contentment and satisfaction or from anxiety to enthusiasm and as human beings, we all know what it feels like to be anywhere on that scale, right? So we've got lights on and lights out and throughout our day, certain things can dim our light. It could be circumstances that are external to us. It could be What's going on in the political climate, it could be what's going on in the market. It could be what's going on in your relationships, right? That can just rob you of that light. And so what I try to help people recognize is that before you take action, you need to have an awareness of where you are on that scale. And you need to be okay with the fact that as human beings, we're going to vacillate. Right. If I'm in a place of uncertainty, fear, overwhelm, burnout, exhaustion, et cetera, I'm going to do whatever it takes to move myself along that emotional scale to hope and expectation and excitement and enthusiasm and contribution so that I can come from a place of inspired action rather than, like I said, motivation, they're two different things. Same destination, but if we get ourselves to the positive side of the scale, we can hear and receive impulses that we can follow that will lead us to potential quantum leaps in the desires that we have for ourselves, right? And the other way is kind of like crawling our way out of the darkness. And I believe that if we can access the control switch of the dimmer on the light within us and, and I wouldn't want to say master, but practice. Certain activities that we can do when we recognize where we are emotionally or mentally or energetically and we can do some work to move ourselves along that scale life just becomes juicier there's more clarity there's more ideas there's more creativity there's more connection and I genuinely have been a witness to this in my own life that from that place magic happens. And again, it sounds woo, but we've all experienced miracles. We all have things in our now reality. We're once either a pipe dream or if you look back at some of the most beautiful relationships or opportunities even just meeting you Teresa It wasn't scripted. I didn't find you on Instagram and then Strategize on how to get to know you I have to figure out a way to network with this person, right? We Met because our paths cross because the stars aligned and here we are connecting and having the beginning of a beautiful relationship right so a year from now when I look back you're going to be one of those examples of the beautiful unscripted and I think that I want to help more people believe in the fact that we don't need to have all the dots connected to take the first step and that when we feel an impulse and we can hear our brain start to chatter and talk us out of it because of that fear and uncertainty. Thank you. That we can be a witness to it first and foremost, and then make decisions on what to do in spite of it and how to, how to access that control switch ultimately. So it's just this, this feeling that I, I mean, I'm not, it's not a feeling I've been a witness to it in myself and I'm a witness to it with my, my friends, my coaching clients. You can see when somebody shows up on a call and they're fired up and they're excited and they have a new idea and it's like, boom, lights on. That's what I'm about. I mean, I'm about seeing that. Like, be ignited so that you can go ignite the flames of others and create a wildfire of opportunity and unexpected surprise and delight and all the things that are out there waiting for

Theresa Cesare: 14:45

you. That is a powerful mission. And it is so true. You can't fake energy. So can you give the listeners kind of a, an example of what moving from inspired action being in your light to move forward? What does that look like?

Erin Bradley: 15:02

Yeah. So it's very counterintuitive because we have been trained since preschool to get up and hurry up and that achievement is the byproduct of action. So hurry up and get doing, get going, get going. Right. And as we become. Adults. And we move through the seasons of life and we have this deep programming of just get up and hurry up. It feels counterintuitive for me to say, slow down in order to speed up like a slingshot. You have to pull it back. And the farther you pull it back, the farther it will catapult farther, farther. You can launch right. And so many people in this world are moving so fast on autopilot. Or just on this hamster wheel of go, go, go that they haven't taken the time to evaluate if they're even Headed to the right island like I remember Having achieved a really high level of success externally. I always say that because I don't define success by money I define success by Unlimited present moments with the people I care about personally and professionally the fulfillment and present moments and joy, right? So I had achieved a lot Externally, I had my, my biggest month ever made the most amount of money in one month I ever could even imagine as a child and I called my coach and I said, I feel like I just moored a ship to port and I'm on the wrong island. Wow. Because I had been like racing to this destination and I got there and it. It didn't really feel that happy, so I am a huge proponent of encouraging people to slow down and do some reflection and evaluate where you are without judgment on that scale and then do the work for as long as it takes until you are feeling better because once you're feeling better, you'll be more clear headed. You'll be more focused, more energized, more present, and ultimately more capable of achieving the desires you want, again, in sometimes the most unexpected fashion. So what that would look like is. Number one, I made a rule for myself many years ago that mornings are for me. And this went against everything I had done previously, which was get up, hurry up, get to the gym, check the boxes. Even when I was doing my morning routine back in 2015, after I read the miracle morning, even when I started doing the morning routine, I remember like, It felt like I was checking boxes. Okay. I meditated for 10 minutes. I wrote my gratitudes. I then read 10 pages and then I worked out, you know, it was like everything was so scripted and it was a good start. Right. But over time I started to recognize how impactful that time Was for me and how well it set me up to be my best version of me that day and when i was my best version i started to attract more like you said like a magnet right so nowadays i don't take any appointments for ten which gives me as much time many hours as i need to get myself to the positive side of the scale because as human beings i could wake up. And still have that default anxious energy of I got so much to do today. I just have to get going, right. Or I'm frustrated at something or I'm exhausted because my dog woke me up in the middle of the night or whatever. Right. And so when I'm there, I take as much time as it needs. And there's a couple of different activities you can do. Number one, I'm a huge fan of this book called the black belt of the mind. I forget who wrote it, but black belt of the mind. And he talks about Doing a little activity where you measure your level 10 moments, level 25, level 50, 75, and a hundred. So your level 10 moments, you look back on the day before. And you look for simple pleasures. How many simple pleasures did you have yesterday? Did you watch the sunrise? Did you enjoy the coffee? Did you snuggle with your dog or your favorite person? You know, what little simple pleasures that you can have in every single day. And when you start it, you might look back and realize, I don't, I don't know how many I had because I wasn't really paying attention. And so then you make it a goal for yourself to have a 10 out of 10 day. So today I'm going to look for 10 simple pleasures. Like when I was getting ready for this podcast, I was looking out the window and I saw this symphony of birds and my bird feeder's not even full and I was like, Oh my God, look at all those birds. They're so pretty. You know, that's a level 10 moment, right? But you're looking for them. So you're waking up to the goodness, simple goodness in your life. And then your level 25s are something that maybe happens once every couple of weeks or once a month. And if you're so busy trying to maintain this. Friend frantic pace that you've created for yourself, you may not slow down enough to put those in your life, right? So then it's about having intention around making sure that I have some level 25 moments That could be like getting a massage it could be like a really cool date night or Lunch with a good friend or whatever and then level 50s are going to be something that might happen every couple months So maybe like a weekend getaway or so up and up it goes and then level 100s are bucket list You things once in a lifetime. And so it helps you to look back and see those. How many level 100 moments have you had? How many times have you blown your own mind with some experience in your life? Right. And you start to settle down. Like when you do this reflection and in my lifestyle design workshop, I do this. It started out as business planning every year in December. But it evolved into lifestyle design because what's the point of having success in your business if it's not going to fuel your epic life. So I want life to be the whale in the bathtub and I want business to be simplified and strategic in such a way that it creates the life, right? So as I look at my life for the year ahead and I tap into the daydream before I can do that, I do the reflection to say what were the greatest happenings of the last year? Which is gonna give me an indication of what really matters to me for me it's experiences the money can afford the experience so i need the money but i'm focused on the experience of the money can afford because that's gonna inspire me and then what are the new relationships that i developed and that's a reminder that. As I look at my daydream, I haven't even met half the people that are going to show up on the path to get me there and so there's just this work that you can do and you can do it, it can take you 10 minutes and we do this a lot in my workshops where it takes, we do this for 10 minutes on and a live, you know, virtual masterclass or in a live setting and they answer these questions that I provide specific to their personal life. And before we do it, I asked them to drop a word in the chat about how they feel right now. And some of them are feeling great. Some of them aren't. Right? But by the end of 10 minutes, the words that come in are things like grateful, centered, calm, hopeful, excited, enthusiastic, eager. And so you can see how it's capable. That's accessing the dimmer switch of the light within. And it's like, all right, so from here. What feels exciting to imagine for yourself, right? So we can tap into our heart in spite of the chatter in our head, because we've learned how to quiet the chatter so that the heart can be heard.

Theresa Cesare: 22:17

Beautiful. Yeah, such a great tip. And I've never read that book, but I'm putting it on my list. That being said, how can people find you? and work with you.

Erin Bradley: 22:32

Sure so, I love just connecting with people. Even if you don't want to work with me, I love hearing from you, I love connecting with people. So you can reach out to me, follow me, DM me on instagram at Pursuing Freedom Official. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn at Erin Bradley. Um, you can email me erin at pursuingfreedom. com I genuinely Get high off of getting feedback. If there was something that spoke to you and you had an aha moment and you send me a DM, I will make my day. And in making my day, hopefully it makes your day too. I love

Theresa Cesare: 23:02

that. And I'll drop all of that in the show notes. And for those listening who are like, Oh yeah, I'd love to connect. But those who are like, Hmm, I wonder if I would be an ideal client. Do you have an ideal client who would be the best person to work with you? Yeah.

Erin Bradley: 23:16

I specialize in helping real estate professionals, realtors and mortgage lenders to redesign their business. You know, I mentioned earlier how I felt like I had built a house on a faulty foundation and even though some things were working out, other areas of my life were crumbling. So I like to help people take it down to the studs and really evaluate the foundation of the business and design a future in spite of the past. So not carrying along old ideas and beliefs and expectations and habits, foundation Into the future, but really doing the reflection and the evaluating and the design of the landscape of the future that feels beautiful to you so that you can have goals that you want to run towards instead of goals that feel like a problem solving decision. I love

Theresa Cesare: 23:59

that. And before I pivot to the ending questions, is there anything you feel called to share, want to talk about before we wrap up this episode?

Erin Bradley: 24:09

The only thing I'll say is that. My motto is say yes to life and be curious about what might come up for you. Because if you're curious and you're awake, you might be surprised by the amount of doors that are waiting to open for you rather than trying to figure it all out. And, and I also like to say, if not now, when, so. Not like a lighthearted cliche. I've actually experienced a ton of tragic sudden loss from a very young age and five of my best friends before the age of 22. Like I've been through a lot. So I really believe life is short. And so when I have an impulse and I follow that with why I can't do it, I catch myself and say, Okay, just a reminder, if I say I can't, it means I won't, because I'm not willing to explore how. And if I have that impulse, and I notice my brain speaking up and saying, no, I can't, that's the moment at which I'm going to pause and say, wait a minute, if not now, when? So how do we make that happen? And that's going to open your mind to the solutions and the doorways. So powerful.

Theresa Cesare: 25:12

Oh my goodness. We're going to pivot into the ending questions. So per tradition, the first one, what is your favorite affirmation?

Erin Bradley: 25:22

Oh my gosh. One of my favorite affirmations is the less I chase, the more I attract. I love that.

Theresa Cesare: 25:28

I love that. I love it. And the second question, what is your favorite book?

Erin Bradley: 25:34

Oh, that's a loaded question. I have so many. You can get more than one. If

Theresa Cesare: 25:38

there's enough, if there's like two,

Erin Bradley: 25:42

I will give a few, I would have to say the go giver was one of my favorite books because it truly became a turning point in my life. And I was blessed to have the author, Bob Berg on my podcast. And he is the real deal. Like he is an actual go giver. And so I just honor him for that reason. And then funny enough, one of the best books I've ever read is something I read very recently. And it's called 10 X is easier than two X by Benjamin Hardy. And it sounds, I had it on my shelf for so long and I thought it was going to be the opposite of what it is. I thought it was going to be this hustle culture book. And so I just, I kept hearing about it. Everybody kept talking about it. And then I finally read it and I was like, Oh, yes. This speaks to me. And I catch myself in that 2x identity mindset of like, Oh, I'm going to cling on to this little opportunity that might be the thing that solves the problem today. And then it's like, hang on a second. That's so 2x. 10x is limitless. And it levels up the whole way you see things and the filter through which you determine yes or no to things. And I just love it. I geek out on it completely.

Theresa Cesare: 26:46

I love it. You just gave me goose bumps because I just listened to it, the audio book, and I love it. I'm like, the less, the less I do, the more I achieve thank you for sharing those two, books. Okay. And the last question, what do you want to be known for?

Erin Bradley: 27:01

I want to be known for someone who helped someone else see. In themselves that light and believe in their ability to literally design a life that they love and to say yes to life and to live the most joyous fulfilled version of themselves and then again be surprised and delighted by how everything seems to work out for them. I just want people to look back and be like, I heard her say something one time on this stage or on this podcast or whatever. And it woke me up. It shook me inside. And since then. I've just felt belief in myself that I too can do anything I set my mind to like I'll just share one last thing is that the only difference between us and the person living a life that we desire for ourselves is their decision to do it. And each and every one of us has the free will to decide that doesn't mean that it looks pretty and I don't like to compare myself on chapter one to someone else on chapter ten because I don't know what transpired between one and ten but if I can be inspired by them and then actually learn from them. put myself in the room with people that remind me of my future, I might get to their chapter 10 by my chapter four. And so that's my challenge for everybody listening is get yourself in the room or in the environment or in the books or in the podcast with the people that remind you of your future. And you might just be surprised by how quickly your own life elevates through association.

Theresa Cesare: 28:32

Thank you so much for tuning into this episode. Please download, rate, subscribe, and share this podcast. Also, be sure to visit my theresacesare.com to check out my inspirational merch, connect to my social accounts, and much more may you continue to be filled with wisdom, inspiration, and consciousness. Otherwise, friends, I will be back in two weeks for another episode of Heart to.