There was a time when I hand-made the Valentine’s cards.
I’m talking custom wrappers. Themed boxes. One year, I hand-drew every single Star Wars character because that’s what my boys loved.

Most people believe you learn by failing. And yes, failure is fundamental to growth. But …

What happens when your day job lives in a world of compliance?
Regulations. Audits. Oversight.

Thrifty. Fiscal. Elevated. The eternal business travel triangle.

Are you a hotel-buffet, free-coffee, watery-eggs person?
Or a sit-down, locally sourced, “Breakfast is the most important meal” person?

Everyone is talking about AI and innovation in housing.
Few want to talk about recertifications.
Or inspections.
Or Requests for Tenancy.
Or the daily, repeatable work.

A colleague asked me recently, “𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫?”

And I knew right away because two of my five vision board themes were staring right back at me: 𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐜𝐲 + 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.

Legacy.
Not the one I inherited, but the one I’m choosing to create.
- I get to define what I carry forward.
- Not everything in my trauma backpack has to come with me.
- Housing instability shaped me but now I work to create housing 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 for others.

Energy Preservation.
What worked ten years ago doesn’t work now.
- Living on caffeine isn’t a long-term strategy.
- Time off is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.
- When you see collisions coming, make a plan. Don’t hit snooze.
- Creativity needs calm. Be purposeful about scheduling time to manifest it.

To my fellow housers:
We have so much more to do.
But we can’t outrun burnout and still do the deep, mission work this industry requires.

Protect your energy.
Shape your legacy.

They used to say, “Never let them see you sweat.”
Turns out … sometimes they’re going to see it anyway.

No one tells you that public speaking is part preparation, part courage, and part trying not to visibly sweat.

There’s a meme trend that says: 𝘐𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 20𝘴, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 ___, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘺𝘦𝘴.

I laugh every time I see it.

Before racing into what’s next, I recently paused with my team to creatively vision cast and brainstorm.

Not - what are our goals?
Not - what is the stretch growth target?