Episode 27 Property Mommies

Gayla Bustos and Brittany Winn are the real estate agents behind Property Mommies, a team serving homebuyers and military families in the Colorado Springs area. Together, they strive to create a positive, transparent, and stress-free experience for clients as they settle them into their dream homes.

In this episode, get a glimpse into what makes this best-friend team unique: including juggling roles as professionals, mothers, and military wives and seeing how their personal stories allow them to serve their clients well.

Listen to our conversation to enjoy a dose of personality and vulnerability from the Property Mommies. For more inspiring stories, visit our full library of interviews.

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Joe: Hi there. I’m Joe Dudeck, president and founder of Keyhole Marketing.

Shannon: And I’m Shannon Jirik. I work for Keyhole as the assistant brand manager.

Joe: And this is Metaphorically Speaking, a podcast that explores the mysterious side of marketing.

Shannon: Well, welcome to metaphorically speaking. We are bringing the energy today, Joe, we had a lot of fun talking with Gayla Bustos and Brittany Wynn who are two local real estate agents to the Colorado Springs area, but they are more fondly referred to as the property mommies.

Joe: Yeah, it was definitely like another level of energy on this episode. It was so great to hear Gayla and Britt and get to kind of know their personalities. It’s always fun through podcasts to be able to really feel like you, you can pick up on their energy even through a digital media like this. And it was cool to just kind of see how they pair up with each other. You’ve got Kayla who’s just on another level of energy and you have Brit who’s much more reserved. And I think that’s probably a great combination in they’re in their world and they just really helped each other out in selling homes and connecting with the community.

Shannon: Absolutely. And I love they shared their real estate story with us, but I think what I really took away from this episode that I appreciated was just their vulnerability and kind of their home lives. Both of these women are military wives and mothers. And so a huge part of their identity is rooted in that. And I was just so grateful for how they kind of opened up to us about that and you know, their, their brand property mommy’s is just them being proud of being mothers, being, working mothers and being mothers of military families as well.

Joe: Yeah. The whole military community is so new to me, just moving out here a couple of years ago and it’s like, nothing I’ve experienced in any place we’ve lived, but it’s, it’s really unique here. And they, as military spouses have lived that life, they know the ups and downs that it’s very unique to that, to that arena. And I think like they’re able to really connect with other people in this area on another level, because they’re not just talking about military lifestyle, they’ve lived it, they lived in different areas of the country and they know the unknowns that, that comes with that whole setup. So it’s cool to hear that part of, like you said, it’s cool was so cool to hear that part of the story and see how they’re able to connect with, with, with the families like that around here.

Shannon: So not only are they real estate stars by day, but they are mothers and take TOK stars by night.

Joe: I saw them on social media. It was, they were putting out these Tik TOK videos. And I was like, ah, I’ve never known any real estate agents ever sent me a Tik TOK video. I definitely wish they were our agents when we first moved here because we would’ve probably had a much better experience than we had, but it was, yeah, it’s definitely unique to their brand to certainly fits well with who they are. And I think it sets a good, like just gets you prepared for who you’re going to be working with if you sign up to work with them. So definitely a great medium for them. They tried to talk me into it. I’m not quite there yet.

Shannon: Ooh. Maybe you should never be there. Just picturing you trying to do all the, you know, dances and all is a little bit uncomfortable, but you do you, I guess so. So Kayla and Brittany, thank you again for just your vulnerability, sharing your story and experience with us, and we really hope you all enjoy listening to this episode.

Joe: Well, thanks so much again for joining us today, Gayla and Brit. Thanks for making the time. I know your, your schedules are extremely busy as real estate agents to find some time. And I just make a thank you so much for taking the time today.

Gayla: We are so honored to be here. You have no idea.

Joe: That’s awesome. So maybe just give us a sense of like your own personal stories or your own origin stories. Where were you born? You don’t have to say, when were you born and maybe what generation do you fall into? Where did you grow up? That sort of thing? Gayla, why don’t you start us off?

Gayla: Okay, great. So obviously my name is Gayla Bustos. I am originally from Reno, Nevada. I, my husband was army for 10 years. So we went from Reno to Hawaii for five years where I ran a military gym. And then we got PCs here, I think almost eight, nine years ago, which is crazy to think. And I ran a gym here and then decided to get into real estate where I met.

Joe: Great. Awesome. Well, you definitely streamlined the story there. We’ll probably dive into that a little bit, a little bit more. Where, how about growing up? Did you have any siblings? Did you move around a lot? Did you kind of stay in, in Reno the whole time?

Gayla: Yeah, so I actually lived in the same house, my whole life. Oh, well my parents bought it in December of I’m going to age myself, December of 88 or sorry, December of 87, I was born January 12th, 1988. And they still live in that house to this day.

Joe: Nice, nice. Leave it to the real estate agent to know like when they bought it and how long

Gayla: Exactly. Well, I always count that I’m always like, aren’t you guys tired of this house? Like it, and my parents just will not move from it and I’m like, I can help you. Like I can get you in contact. Like I, yeah, it was just a big mess.

Joe: Yeah, for sure. Now my parents just moved out their house after 20 some years, it was the second house I grew up in, but it was a good time to do it this year. But yeah, they had, it was a lot to, to make the shift from a place you’ve had your, your roots planted for 20 plus years, for sure. How about you Brett?

Brittany: So I’m actually a native. I grew up in the white field security area. I graduated from Whitefield high school, my husband and I met when we were in high school. He went to Mesa Ridge. I went to Y field. So we’re high school sweethearts. My mom even grew up here. She graduated from Weifield as well as all of my aunts and uncles. Awesome. Yes. So I have two girls on my and Kai and they are not almost 9:00 AM. I turns nine tomorrow and Kylana is seven.

Joe: Perfect. Gail, how about you on your, your family? Current family set up as far as kids.

Gayla: Yeah, so same with my husband. My husband and I met in high school were high school sweethearts as well, been married for 14 years together for 15, 16 years. We have two boys. So Brittany and I are complete opposite, like complete opposite. She’s tall blonde. I am short brunette. She has girls. I have boys, I have a 13 year old cache and then we have a nine year old boy as well. And his name is Dante and he is my little hustler. I was calling him like he, right now he’s slinking Pokemon cards and making like $37 a day, slinging them. And I’m just like, hell yeah.

Joe: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. He’s he should meet my son. Who’s how old is he again? Okay. Mine’s seven. He’s just getting into the game, I guess maybe as a few things to learn for sure. What was, what do you recall about your childhoods? Any, any fond memories that come to mind? I dunno, where they overall fairly easy light. Was it a tough childhood? I mean, what comes when it comes to mind? When you think about that?

Gayla: So this is Gayla and I always make fun of my childhood, my parents. So English was their second language. So I do say things wrong all the time, because when my parents told me stuff, it was lost in translation. So I always have to ask Brett or my husband like, Oh, am I saying this right? Or my husband will take me to the side. Like, don’t say that ever again. Like you can’t say that my mom, I, my mom knows this. So it’s not like a big shock, but we used to call her mommy dearest. I don’t know if you ever saw that movie. And it’s funny now. Okay. So it’s about this. It’s a true story. Watch it on your own time.

The mom was kind of crazy. And so it was, it was a great childhood. I did so much stuff, but we obviously had to deal with their crazy mom and the way my sister and I got around it was we would laugh and make fun of everyone and always just figure out a way to have a good time. Because when you have a, she’s not, she’s not so crazy anymore. Now that she’s like older and wiser. But when you have, when you live with a crazy mom, like you, you have to figure out some way to find joy.

Joe: For sure. Yeah. What was your birth order where you oldest or youngest?

Gayla: I’m the youngest. I’m the baby. So I actually got out of my sister and I was probably the favorite. So like I was able to, like, I figured out a way to always outsmart my parents because, because maybe, I don’t know if it was because of the English was their second language or what, but I was always like, well, I was like my youngest son, like he’s always negotiating with us and I would always negotiate with my parents.

Joe: Yeah. That’s funny. Yeah. I definitely experienced that with our son as well. He’s I always know that the first response is just the first offer back to him. There’s going to be three or four more things that he’s going to throw at me. Right. It’s going to be, thanks, dad. That’s a good counter. Let’s go ahead and let’s have this conversation. You’re like, what am I doing? It’s a seven year old.

Gayla: Yeah. Especially like bedtime. They’re like, how about I go lay down, but I watch TV and I play with my Pokemon cards and I’m like, how about you just go to bed and he’s like, wait a second, wait a second. How about I just watch TV in my desk at my, you know, blah, blah, blah. And you’re just like, no, I’m the parent go to bed. Yeah.

Joe: He starts off. He starts off at the top of the top level. So he has room to negotiate down for sure. It’s hilarious. And I can relate to, to like the, the crazy mom and I was the youngest of eight total, but in our house we had six or we had four, sorry. And then there were four from my dad’s first marriage. But you know, as the baby of all of them, you just ended up being the jokester. And that’s the way you sort of make, make light of all the craziness around you and try to make sense of all the, all the badness of the house. But that was my role for sure. How about you, Brett? How about any, any memories that come to your mind?

Joe (11m 19s):
So I’m

Brittany: Actually the oldest of four.

Joe: You really are the opposite of yeah.

Brittany: Yeah. We always say that like plays a role in like her and my relationship as well. Cause I was the oldest and she was the youngest. My dad worked for CSPD my whole life. He still works for CSPD. So he was always gone. He worked nights. He slept during the day, my mom worked from home. She did daycares. So we were, we’re really, really close family. We scoped to stay home with my mom every summer. And my mom is probably the most person in the entire world. And like, not just with people, but with animals as well. So she kind of, she’s definitely passed both of those, the animals thing, definitely with me, like growing up, we’ve always, we always had like four dogs and two cats and fish and everything.

And at my house we have four dogs and a cat and chickens and ducks. And you name it. Yeah.

Joe: That’s awesome. So you both were met your spouses in high school. What was their education after high school? Where did, did you go to college? What was the next step?

Brittany: So this is Brett. I went to our, I have my associates degree in healthcare administration and I I’m like five or six classes for my bachelor’s degree, but I’ve kind of put that on ice since real estate started about six years ago. I wanted to be in the healthcare field just cause it’s something that was always there, but it wasn’t like super flexible with when my husband being gone all the time, he’s in the air force. So I decided to do something that I saw was flexible. That definitely is not as flexible as many things that it is. So I would just stop my daughter. My youngest at the time was two.

So I would just strap her on me. And she just went to listing appointments and showings and everything with me. Yeah.

Joe: That’s cool. How about you, Gayla?

Gayla: So my mom is a nurse and my sister’s a doctor, so my family wanted me to get into the medical field, but I decided to go the opposite route. So I got, I went to school for sports nutrition, and because I was in the fitness industry for so long. And then I decided, you know what, there’s not a lot of money in this and I’m going to have to be working for like a lot to make such little money. And then when my husband got out of the army, out of the active army, we were kind of like, Holy crap.

Like we have no money. We started getting like the past due bills, the ones that everyone hates. And I was like, I I’m running a gym and I’m making very little money. I need to figure this out. So I called my dad who ever since I was like, a teenager was like, you should be a real estate agent or you should get into real estate. And I called him and I said, okay, I’m tired of being broke. I need to get into real estate before I lose my house. And my dad’s like, I will pay for it. Like, let’s do it. Like I believe in you that much.

Joe: That’s cool. He saw the negotiation skills from an early age.

Gayla: Hell yeah. I still negotiate with them all the time. I’m like, how about you? They’re like, we’re going to visit you for like three, four days. I’m like, how about you stay here for seven days and you cleaned my house.

Joe: That’s all it is. So you both, I guess, at least at one time were both military spouses. You had spouses in the military help. Like I think the whole military lifestyle is new to me. Having only been out from out here from the Midwest for just about two years, but, and obviously it’s pretty intense around the Springs with all the, well, all the bases. And can you paint a little bit of picture of what military life family life looks like? Just to kind of get a sense of like, what does that even entail? And maybe it’s different for both of you, but I’d just love to hear like how that played out for the two of you.

Gayla: Yeah, of course. This is Gayla. So my husband was in for 10 years, active army. He deployed about six times, which was great. You know, it was just so easy and fun. No, it was definitely, it was definitely hard time. I grew up and lived in the same place my whole life. And then as soon as he joined the army, I had to move to an Island, which is landlocked and try to build my own tribe and try to find people that had the same morals.

And, and because it’s, you know, the army it’s so big, you meet people from everywhere. It was, it’s very difficult for young moms to find friends. I had to figure out. And again, I had a new baby as well. I, when we moved to the Island, I had a six month old. And so trying to figure how to be a mom was hard. It was definitely interesting. And he missed, I always say like he missed a whole pregnancy. So he was gone during the end of my pregnancy with my first child. And then he came on with our second child. He came back from deployment at the end of the pregnancy.

So he was lucky enough to miss all the wonderful moments of having a pregnant wife. But I would have to say, even though it is tough. And so if any young military spouses are out there listening, it’s tough. And I understand you’re just going to get through it, but just know there’s other people out there. And there’s so many resources to look into. It’s it’s, it’s actually, I think that has helped my business so much because we do work with military spouses. And I understand, like I remember my husband being gone, us moving into our house and him telling the movers the wrong address. So I’m watching my household goods.

I drive by my house and I’m like waving at them. Like, that’s my stuff. And like, so girls and guys like it gets better. And like, it might be hard now. And I don’t think they do deployments. Like they used to thank God, but it does get better.

Joe: That’s great. Thanks for sharing that. How about you Brett?

Brittany: Yes. So mine is definitely a lot different. I grew up with one of my uncles in the air force and I saw what it did to like my, my aunt and my uncle and my cousins. They were all over the place. We didn’t really get to have a relationship with them. And my grandma passed away when we were really little. So I, I, my husband wanted to go active. I, I wouldn’t let him go active. I’m like, you could either do that. Or you could like stay here and be with me. I just didn’t want to leave my family because like I said, we’re like, we’re really, really close knit family. I want my kids to be around like their grandparents and everything. And so my husband is active, reserved.

So he’s, he’s been in about 10 years. He’s almost been active the entire time. He he’s, he’s been on one deployment. He’s changed his job like three times. So that’s where we he’s been gone. Like all the time he was a load master. So everywhere the C1, 30 went, he went with him. So just it, and it’s even hard with just like him being gone. And like, I’m so blessed to have my family here. And it, I mean, it still sucks with him being gone for long periods of time. But thankfully I have my family and my friends that I’ve, I’ve had like my whole life. So that definitely has made it a lot easier.

Gayla: She also has me. So

Brittany: Yeah.

Joe: What about the term military wife and military spouse? Do you feel like that has a lot of misconceptions attached to that as way though people might perceive you in that role? Have you experienced that at all?

Brittany: So this is Brett. I definitely think there, there are different views on it. I know. So with Josh bean and the air force, like as a lot different than say, like the army. So our lifestyle is a little bit different. I think us as military spouses, we have to put ourselves on the back burner a lot and we don’t, they don’t get enough credit basically, especially when, you know, you move to a different state or country even, and you’re by yourself and, you know, the guys are, I mean, in women, they get all the credit and everything, but at the end of the day, you know, spouses are at home doing everything, you know, to make sure that their spouse who is serving our country, it like can do that.

I think some people have maybe not the best, like in the military world, as far as like go, they don’t move. I think they have like their little stereotypes and stuff like that. But I don’t, I, I think they are not given enough credit for everything that they do. Yeah. Yeah,

Gayla: No, I think she hit it on the head. I mean, of course they always make fun of us, military spouses within the military because we’re considered dependent. So they call it like the depend upon hummus, little funny things, which is, it is pretty funny. And we have like the stereotypical army spouses, like everyone else. But Bernie is, Bernie is right. Like, I don’t think this spouses do get enough credit. Like I knew as soon as my husband deployed, no matter how sad or upset I was, I had to suck it. Excuse my language, the F up, I was going to say that drop the F bomb, but I I’ll be professional.

Gayla: We had to suck it up and kind of still like life lifestyle goes on, even though these men and women that are fighting, probably I think the world stops over here and I still had to take care of my son. I still had to go to my job every day and then still catered like, Oh, he’s calling me at three o’clock in the morning. I have to get on the phone. You know, that kind of stuff. I also, my husband went to the Iraqi war a few times. He was actually one of the last, he was the last squad or unit that was there. They closed it down. And I remember just when they would have blackouts and that’s when all communication is shut down.

And that’s, that was the scary part because with thankfully we had technology and they did have internet, but when everything was shut down and you knew something was happening. So I think we, we all need to like really, again, give it up to these military spouses because I remember that and just my heart sinking, like, am I going to get that call? And I’ve actually been in my neighbor and it was, it’s so crazy. It, my knee, I went outside to go play with my son. And I saw that I saw the chaplain and a few other people in their uniforms come to her door and seeing her fall to the ground and me like just running over there, her husband was in a helicopter crash.

Didn’t it make it? And I think like she was a young mom and now she has to live her whole, like her whole life with, with that, like, yeah. And it’s, it’s just crazy. It’s a crazy lifestyle. It’s not for everyone, but I don’t know if, if he, if you’re in this lifestyle, like I said, it gets better. Like my Brittany says she did, you know, she didn’t want her husband to leave. And of course, no one wants her husband to leave. She had family, like a lot of us don’t have that. So we had again to create our own, our own tribe. So Brittany is my family here in Colorado Springs because I don’t have, my family is not here.

Joe: Yeah. Well, thanks so much for sharing that. Like I said, it’s, it’s a new group of people as far as what, what you all experience and the weight that you carry and yeah, there’s other spouses whose, whose husband or wife travels a lot. But the, as you just articulated the, the weight of not knowing sort of what’s going on and the timing of stuff and all those things, like that’s always playing in the back of your mind. And I’m sure in addition to all the other things that you’re having to keep on track. So thanks for sharing that story. I think I just, it’s been like really just hit me, especially during, you know, women history month of just not, not to say that only military spouses are women, for sure.

But I think that that was just something that I became very sensitive to since moving out here and understanding more about the journey that, that you, that you both face for sure. Are there any lessons from that time period that you think have been in from that, from that time when you were kind of heavy with, with the travel with your spouse and, and you’re still a card today, Brit, but like that carried into your business and, and, you know, created who you are as a business woman.

Gayla: So this is Gayla. Yes, absolutely. So we actually bought her or house sight unseen, so we never saw the inside of it. We just saw the outside and a few pictures are like, great. Let’s buy it while we were in Hawaii waiting to what they call PCs to Colorado Springs. Okay. And so I had a trust, my realtor, 150% to know that she wasn’t gonna just put us into a crappy house. And I think that has helped me learn how I want, like the communication is number one for me, especially for my buyers that are buying out of state 90% of my business when 95% of my businesses, military, and then 90%, they’re not even here until the day of closing or after closing.

So it’s helped me kind of understand the process more and why it’s important for us to, like, when I walk in, I do a video, I do video tours. I tell them the smells. If there’s cracks in the walls, go around the neighborhood. It’s kind of taught me how I didn’t get that. So I’m honored to be able to do that for someone else, just to give them a little ease of mind because they have, when military spouses are PCSE, it’s a hurry up and wait type of situation. They’re kind of, they’re not the army. I don’t know about the air force, but the army is not talking to the spouse. They’re talking to the soldier. And so I had to really on my husband to get all this stuff taken care of.

And we no offense to my husband or military guys. They’re not the best at like, they’re not the best at communicating the details and like

Joe: Civilian guys too. I’m sure. Oh yeah.

Gayla: Oh yeah. I mean, like I said, I was chasing my household goods because my husband gave him the wrong address. So, I mean, I don’t know. It’s, it’s definitely, it’s definitely a crazy lifestyle. And I hope that with my experience with PCs thing that I can give a little bit of hope and less chaos to the process.

Joe: Yeah. So we’ve talked a little bit about your own individual journeys. How did you two come together? How did you two meet?

Gayla: So we were on the same team. So we had, we joined a real estate team. I was there for about six months prior to Brett top. It was a great team top team. And then we kind of just it’s the real story is actually kind of funny and I don’t think Brendan’s going to let me share it. But basically we became friends. I don’t Bernie, do you want to share that story? I don’t know how professional you wanted this to be. No, we’re going to be professional. So basically in a meeting, I just was like, Hey, let’s be friends. Like I have no friends. Let’s be friends.

And she was like, okay. It was basically like that. We then became, we then decided, okay, well we want to have fun and real estate. And we want our, we want people to know that it’s super easy to buy a house. It’s not scary. There’s tons of programs. And we decided, okay, for new year’s of her new year’s resolution, let’s let’s make blogs. No, like it wasn’t even called blogs. Then they were just, they were just videos. And so, and again, this was like five years ago. Okay. So not a lot of people did blogs. And if you watch our first video, it’s terrible.

Like you see upside or nostrils. We are saying, we don’t know what the hell we’re doing. And we decided, okay, we’re going to do this for the whole year. Like, no matter what we are going to do this, we’re going to have fun with it. We’ll have terrible edits, like who cares? And that’s, that’s, that’s what we did. And we were noticing that with these like three to five minute videos, we were getting like 2000 views for free, for free. And we’re like, Oh, people are watching us. And we kind of were like, maybe we can do this by ourselves. Cause we were still on the team at the time we were realtor mommies.

But then we, because of trademarking, you can’t be called a realtor, mommy. So then that’s when we changed it to mommies and we became pretty popular for our, our advertising and, and like the way that we did our videos, even though again, they are terrible. So if you ever want to go watch them, cause you need a good laugh, you’re feeling depressed for the day. Go watch them.

Joe: The original video. Is that not anymore. You’re saying perfect. Edit down. Right. And so is that sort of, you had that’s how property mommies came together. It was sort of that whole vision and then it just, just became a dream into a reality. Yeah.

Gayla: Yeah. I think, and excuse me, in a lot of people were kind of doubting us like, Oh, property, mommy is how cute, you know, kind of being condescending and like, Oh, you’ll never have guys one, Oh, come work for you. Or want guys to come like be your clients. And actually our first client was a male. His wife was, he was a soldier. His wife told them like, Hey, will you call these girls? Let’s buy a house with these girls. And then we were like, , you know, like there was no stopping us from there.

Joe: I’m always curious. I would just love the way business names come together. What was your intentionality about calling him mommies? You know, you know, there’s obviously can have positive, negative connotations related to that as far as somebody choosing, choosing an agent. So w what was your intentionality and thought process behind that? Well, we were mom. Gotcha. I figured that

Gayla: Mommy’s always know best. Like we always say to our kids, I know Brexit’s that to her kids. I say to my, like, whether you think I’m watching or not, like I’m always watching, like, I have eyes in the back of my head. I know what’s best for you. I’m going to work like, and you want mommy’s want, most of the time want the best for their children. And so that was a huge, a huge thing for us is like, we are mom’s number one, but we’re gonna make this business work for us as moms, as working moms.

Joe: Yeah. Yeah. Britney, did you have something to add to that?

Brittany: Well, I, I think in any industry, like, just like nowadays, like working moms is, it’s obviously getting more popular for moms to work. Like when I first started my mom and my husband’s mom were like, what are you doing? Like, you need to stay home with the girls. Like they need you to be at home. And like, they, they were so uneasy about like me working, like outside of the home. And so I think just like showing, like, we are moms, we’re proud to be moms and our, our families do come first, but we’re also going to provide you the same treatment that we’re going to treat our kids and our family. Like, we have your best interests at heart.

Cause I know a lot of moms and maybe not so much in the real estate industry, but in some industries will kind of like hide out their moms. So just getting that out there, that we are moms, we’re proud to be moms. And like, I always tell my kids, moms know everything. So I think just the mommy thing definitely was just like who we were.

Joe: Yeah. That’s interesting. Thanks for sharing that because that’s, that was my upbringing too. My, I never knew my mom not to work. My, my wife has worked since the day we got married right out of college. And so it was, it never was odd to me to see that. And I don’t know, I just I’m I’m, it’s cool. How you have embraced that from the sense of, you know, ownership over what you have to do. You know, I was just listening to a podcast on, it was a Dax Shepard podcast. If you’re listening to that it’s armchair expert and he was interviewing Amy Poehler. And, you know, it was just an interesting story of sort of the, the criticism that women face in certain roles.

When many other people wouldn’t even need to have a conversation about it. You know, like your mother who works well, I’m a father who works. I don’t hear anything about that. You know, sort of that imbalance of, of criticism and evaluation over the things that you do. So

Gayla: I think with that, and also com it makes us as women. And I, I, again, my husband, he never got Slack for being gone. Like he was gone for six years just on deployments, not attending trainings. And, and of course he felt bad, but my parents to kind of do the same thing, like, Oh, well, what’s going to happen with the kids or, you know, that extra mom guilt. Like, I don’t think fathers and I don’t know, I’m not a dad. They don’t have that guilt because they’re made to believe that they have to go and they have to work in that’s just the way it is, where moms are made to believe that the kids, which they are the number one priority.

But obviously, especially nowadays, it takes two to run a household and having that mom guilt. And I still have that mom guilt. My oldest is 13 years old and I’m still having that mom guilt of like, Oh my gosh, over the last five years, did I spend enough time with him? Did I spend enough time with my youngest son? I only have so many summers left with them. Like, what do I need to do? And I, and I, we don’t talk about, we don’t talk about that anymore. It’s like, yeah, that mom guilt is real. And that can even spiral you into, I mean, I remember spot spiral spiraling into depression because I’m like, am I doing this right?

And then trying to carry it where all the hats and trying to figure out, okay. I, I just saw a post. It was like a memory on Facebook the other day. And it was me being like, Oh my gosh, I must be a bad mother. My children had macaroni and cheese, like Kraft, macaroni cheese yesterday. We had pizza the night before, and now I’m feeding them. McDonald’s like, what is going on with me? Like, how do people do this? And this was like a post from like four or five years ago. And I’m like, Holy crap. I still have those thoughts.

Joe: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it’s interesting too. I feel like some of those, at least I can speak to our family. I feel like some of those lines are, are blurred. Since I work out of the house, I walk Quinn our seven year old to school in the mornings. She, she picks him up he’s, you know, right down the street. And that those thoughts hit me all the time of just like how many more, how many more times is he going to want me to walk him to school is next year, the last year is not going to be cool anymore. You know, sort of those things of like how many more moments do I have left? And I think like, that’s definitely resonates with me, but I also would agree with you. Like my dad, I maybe that was on my dad’s mind, but he never indicated that he never showcased that.

Joe: And so I think like it is, it is things have changed quite a bit since our parents were raising us. And I just know, like, at least within our family structure, it’s much more balanced. We both work. We both balance the schedule. We take them to this thing, do this, that, that thing there, whereas it’s a little bit different growing up. Do you think that also won’t be the last question on the, on the name of your business, do you feel like that helps differentiate you as well from the competition? Was that a part of the decision-making as well as finding that name to help distinguish you from others?

Gayla: I think so. I think it’s very kind of like tongue in cheek. I don’t know if that’s the right word. Like it’s people, people will remember it. Like, I, I will be somewhere and they’ll see my name on my card and they’re like, Oh, you’re a property, mommy. And I’m like, yeah. You know, like that it does, it definitely helps because there’s the last name team or whatever. And we actually see people now copying us and, and like just trying to put their own little spin on it or like, eh, it’s been done guys.

Sorry.

Joe: Exactly. No, I love that. I love that. You’re right. I mean, there’s, everybody does tend to look the same, especially if you’re new to the area, it’s just another name. You have no history with that person. So something to be catchy to remember it on your drive home from when you drove past the sign and now you want to go check it out when you get home. Like that’s, I think that’s definitely a great, that was a great decision.

Gayla: Right. And then we also have, so for their military families, we have PCs thing with property mommies. We have cell with property. Mommy’s like we have, we really have made sure that we are like property mommy’s dot com every interview or every video that we do. We, we say the exact same thing of, Hey, this is Gayla Bustos with Property Mommies — that’s PropertyMommies.com you know, like, so, and then people are like, Oh yeah, property mommy’s property. Mommy’s I get it. I get it more intentional.

Joe: Yeah, exactly. One more question. Just related to, to mommies, to women. Yeah. Again, we’re in women history month. There are there other women who have inspired you professionally, whether in this industry, just personally as a whole, who would you, who would you label as that? Do you want to go first, Brett?

Brittany: Yeah. So one woman in my life that has really definitely like motivated me as my aunt, Julie, she she’s a single lady. She has had a couple rough marriages and she, I mean, she’s just checked through and she’s one of the strongest ladies. I know she went back to school. I think she was almost 40. She went back to school to be an endodontist. So, and now she’s an endodontist here. She, I think she was just nominated as the best female endodontist in Colorado, but just like seeing everything that she had gone through and like, just, and like, so one of my biggest things with my kids is like, I obviously love my husband with all of my heart.

I can’t imagine my life without him. However, like my biggest thing with my daughters is to just show them that they don’t need to be with the man because they have to be, you know, like they should be with him because they want to be in, like, you can be independent and strong and still have a really good marriage. So just seeing my aunt like go through that was like throughout her time. And then, and she even didn’t go to school until she was like almost 40 and she’s so successful and she’s so strong. So she definitely puts some fire underneath for the winter.

Joe: That’s awesome. Did you say her name is Julie? Yes. Does she work at endodontics specialist of Colorado? They’re a new client of mine. So I just, I didn’t even know that term like two months ago and I keep hearing it over and over. It’s funny. You said that. Sorry, go ahead, Kayla, did you have anything else?

Gayla: I would probably say my sister. She is the smartest person. I know. And she’s also the most like caring. She, she was a teen mom. She got pregnant. Her senior year of high school is still graduated. Still went to medical school, still kills it. She has kind of taught me in a lot of ways. Patience and love. She’s taught me. She, I feel like she’s taught me how to be a better mom in so many ways. Like she was the first one because I have boys.

It’s a little different. Like obviously I teach them to be independent because I’m like, Oh, that’s what boys are supposed to be. But she’s also taught me like, listen, you’re working at your work. And at home is still important. Like you still have other things to teach them like how to treat a woman. And not only that, but how a woman should treat that, which was huge to me because this was, you know, with my husband being gone it’s we always have to rebuild our marriage, like rebuild our relationship, rebuild this because they’re gone for so long. And I remember us, we were fighting a stupid fight. And then my sister’s like, would you ever want your boys?

Would you ever want a girl to talk to your boys? The way that you talked to your kid, to your husband? Sometimes. And for me, cause I’m a fighting type of girl. I was like, Oh hell no, I’ll beat that little girl’s butt. Like I will. And my sister’s like, okay, so you have to teach them how they, how to respect, how to respect women, but also how to be respected by women as well. Like, and I think that has, I mean, again, my oldest son is 13 that has stayed with me. Like I don’t, I, I try not, I try my best, you know, obviously I’m not perfect and I don’t do it, but like speak down to my husband because again, I don’t want no girl cause I’ll fight her to speak down to my boys.

And I tell Brittany about her daughters. I’m like, listen, if your daughter ever marries my son, she better speak to him with respect because she’ll have to deal with me one day, one day when, if they ever get married. So I think definitely my sister and she’s like the funniest woman you’ll ever meet. So definitely someone I definitely look up to as her and we’re six years apart. So it’s like, it’s a pretty big gap.

Joe: Yeah, for sure. For sure. One more question. Just related to the business, we’ll close up with a few more questions on kind of where, where things are headed. I feel like I can like have this conversation without getting your input on Tik TOK. That’s really what first got me connected to you too. Just somewhere we find each other on Instagram and you were doing Tik TOK videos and it was definitely, as you said earlier, sort of gave you something to laugh at in the middle of the day, for sure. In a good way, in a good way. Tell me kind of how that came about. Like why did you just, was that just sort of a continuation of your blog idea and just trying to create a ticket to a new platform and what kind of results or tell me why? Tell me why I should get on there today and start my own account. Give me your own sales pitch.

Gayla: First of all, if you’ve watched tic talks, I mean, every tech talk is different obviously, but there’s some really funny ones and I’m all, this is Gayla. I’m all about laughter. And if we can make someone laugh and change their mindset of the day like that, then we’ve done our job. We decided to do tick talk as one, another outlet to be funny and to show our personality sometimes with Instagram or Facebook, you have to be a little bit more professional and you start when you probably started the tick-tock where we were talking about how high are you? We live in Colorado, you know?

And then we’re like, hi, how are you? And that’s our personality. Like we were funny. Like we want the, we want all of our clients to have a great time while during the most stressful time, if we can make you laugh during the most stressful time of your life, we’ve done our job and you need to get on tech talk and you can say my son and I will, right before bed, we will lay down and we’ll watch like animals of tick-tock or you know, whatever. And they’re the funniest, like 30 seconds to a minute, like videos. It’s just like buying just hilarious.

And I think that was important for us to be able to show our personalities versus like Facebook, when you’re kid, you can’t really post that much. Cause you’ll get flagged. I mean, we’ve been flagged for so many things. We were flat. I think I did like an ad and I put you’ll let the way this, you let the way the space work, no dignity. We got the house to back it up and people flagged us. And while I can do that on Tik TOK and people are going to laugh at that and understand it, you know, or sicker than your, your average realtor and people are like, Oh, flag it, tick talk, people love it.

Joe: Or anus as you did the other day,

Gayla: Sorry, Brittany, Brittany was a little upset that I posted that I was like, but this is us. This is what makes us who we are, where we are professional. But like we’re not, we’re not those realtors with the stick up our butts. Like we’re not, I’m not driving a Mercedes or a range Rover and it’s okay if you do to my show and I’m just coming up, I’m showing up in my lifted white four runner, you know, like listening to hip hop and like coming in and be like, yo, yo, yo like,

Joe: Well, I’d say it definitely sets the stage of what you’re going to get. And a lot of you, if that doesn’t align with you, cool, there’s plenty of other options out there as well. But I think you definitely are creating a great expectation of, of what it will be like working with you. And even what we’ve talked about today, there isn’t like, wow, you guys are crazy on Tik TOK and now you’re so boring on this podcast. No, it’s a continuation of what you’ve presented there and who you are today is just the real life deal. And like I said to you on Instagram or somewhere that I definitely would wish we would have found you when we first moved out here because we didn’t know anybody and you get a ref reference from somebody and you’re just like, cool. I guess you’ll do the job. And it was fine, but certainly didn’t make the experience enjoyable.

It was just more bearable.

Gayla: Right. And how, how sucky is that? Like, this is such a joyous moment. Like you’re adulting so hard when you’re buying a house. And like when you don’t have that experience, it’s sad to me because again, like growing up, owning a house means you made it. Yeah. And like that still has stuck with me. And it’s like, why would I not Mo we’re going to pop bottles at closing. We’re gonna, if you need a torque in this house before we write an offer for good luck, we’re going to twerk. Whereas then I do what we can and that’s just the way we are. And I think also other agents that work with us, they see that and they also want to work with us.

So they accept our offers in this crazy market because they’re like, they’re going to get it done. They’re not going to be a hold ’em. And we’re going to have a good time for my sellers as well.

Joe: Exactly. We have fortunately had, this was like our fourth house we had bought. So we knew enough of the, of the process. But the challenge was like, I was asking the questions that the agents should have been asking. I was the one curious about this only because we had ups and downs experiences in the past, but had I not, that’s what you’re hoping to find, right? The representative who can be ahead of the game and asking those questions on your behalf. And I was like, I was doing all the work. I should’ve got it. Half percentage of that sale, for sure. It’s been a crazy year. I mean last year for everybody. And a lot of ways housing markets specifically, is that, how would you describe 2020 from your, from your perspective and your industry?

Brittany: So this is Britt. So last year was one of my best years. Surprisingly, the market was insane. Interest rates were so low that we, we were even, I mean, we’re doing showings virtually and selling houses virtually. So surprisingly the market didn’t slow down, like as I even expected it to. And I, and it’s definitely continued that fast pace. Inventory’s still super low and interest rates are still really low. Yeah.

Joe: Yeah. I think we’ve already refinanced twice in this house because they dropped so much. So we all been here two years. I just, couldn’t not take advantage of it. And you just recently shared just some big news. You’re changing. You’re moving away from Keller Williams to spring zone finders. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Gayla: So we were actually with Keller Williams for almost six years, it’s a great company. We would never say anything wrong about it. We just felt kind of stuck. You know, we kind of felt like we, we were just surviving nuts. I shouldn’t say surviving. Everyone just survived last year, but we were, we were complacent and we’re like, how do we take her business to the next level? Well, surprisingly we found am I allowed to cuss a little bit? Okay. So we found a bomb ass bitch who lined up with us.

Like she wants to have fun. She takes care of her clients beyond the sale. She, she saw our vision and she’s just like, I just opened up this brokerage. If you guys, you guys are welcome to come. And we were like, that’s what we need to do business with. And so blessed that she was there at the time that we needed her. We went through a few things with Keller Williams and they kind of disappointed us and some aspects where they didn’t have our back or they kind of just, we were kind of felt like we were just a number to them and no offense. We looked at our numbers and we looked at other people’s numbers and we’re a bomb ass bitches as well.

Like we, and it has taken me like what three, four years Brittany, to kind of really say that because I didn’t even believe that like Brett was the one that’s like, no, these are our numbers and this like, look how crazy this is. Look how good we’re doing. And I’m like, are you sure that’s good? And she’s like, yes. And so now I’m like, I see it now. Like, why didn’t we see this before? And Keller Williams is great new agents, great classes, all that. And we loved her office, but we knew it was time to change. And sometimes that’s all you need is that little bit of changing the office. And now I feel like we’ve even gone even bigger than what we were at.

And we just announced it like a few weeks ago or last week. Yeah. So how does that translate to home buyers and home sellers? What are some things they can maybe expect with the change we’re looking forward to?

Brittany: I would say like nine out of 10 of our clients. Like they aren’t like if you asked him who we worked for, they would say property mommies. So I don’t, I mean, Keller Williams and the difference between him and I mean, there’s not going to be any difference. They’re still going to get the best service possible. This Springs home finders. She has the same vision as us on keeping that relationship after closing, like having your friendship and, you know, being friends for, for years to come versus just, you know, closing the deal. And, you know, let me say, see you later until they want to sell. We definitely take our business more serious than there were we’re. We are friends with our clients.

We hang out with our clients, we babysat, we, we have client events, so we can see our clients like a few times throughout the years. So we don’t just like close the door with them. You know, when we sell them a house or sell their home, we just, we love building that relationship with them. I think our business is like 96% referral based either past clients or referrals. So we, I think it was what maybe two years ago, we kind of, in the beginning we had all these huge goals that we wanted to sell hundreds and hundreds of houses and, and we kind of took a step back and we’re like, but wait, like, are we giving our clients what they deserve if we’re doing like all these deals at the same time.

So we took a step back and were like, we’re going to focus on quality versus quantity. So we’re going to give our clients, all of them the best experience possible throughout the whole transaction, because we didn’t want to have a ton of transactions and not have happy clients. Yeah.

Joe: So that translates in referrals and longer-term business relationships. Yeah.

Gayla: Yeah. Well, and even last year, because obviously last year was a cluster, you know, whatever. And obviously I’m married to a military guy. Guys are an army guy. He, he cusses a lot, so I’m sorry. But we still figured out a way to create, to keep that connection. We had portrait Popeye’s where or porch portraits, where basically we hired a photographer. We went to every single one of our client’s house. They all took family pictures in front of the house that they bought with us. And then we sent it to them. So we could still be on the sidewalk, be like, Hey, beautiful baby bump. Like, you know, like, I, I mean, I just threw a baby shower for a client.

Gayla: Like, that’s the kind of stuff you’re going to get. And I think with Jennifer, she gets that and she’s like, hell yes, do that times 10. Let me show you how

Joe: That’s awesome. Just two more questions. You’ve been in business for what? Six, seven years. Okay. What are some, two other, maybe not in that particular space, real estate space, but just even young entrepreneurs, people who are starting businesses, what are some pieces of advice you would offer them based on experiences you’ve had personally

Gayla: Be consistent. I would also be authentic to yourself, but always know that you have room to grow. That was like, that’s been a huge thing for us is we also wanted to grow in our personal lives and we want our agents to grow in their personal lives. We don’t want people to be stuck. Do you have any Brit consistency, authentic being authentic.

Brittany: Definitely be true to yourself. I think in this day and age with like social media and things like everybody thinks they have to be a certain way, but you like, it’s the best to be yourself.

Gayla: We got, we got, sorry to cut you off. People liked us because we let them know that we are hot messes. Like we are like, Hey, we’re not perfect, but we’re going to have a good time. You might, we might not eat all day, but you’re going to still get the best quality of service. So, you know, I always tell my clients that are following me from like, in their cars. I’m like, stay back. You can follow me, but stay as far back as you can, because I’m a terrible driver. Like I, we put that all out there. Yeah.

Joe: How do you hadn’t thought about this question till you just said that. How do you though? I mean, that is the experience that I’ve had with working with agents and the houses we’ve bought. I mean, they’re just constantly on the clock. I’ve tried to be respectful of their hours, but there’s just, you know, an email has to go out. Something has to be dealt with. How do you manage that? Keep your own sanity, keep keeping, check with your kids’ lives, your husbands, all of those things. How or how would you grade yourself? They’re doing a pretty good job with keeping like a work-life balance. Is that even possible in your world? What would you describe that

Gayla: Possible? But I feel like I have told Brit probably like in the last few months, like this is the first time I’ve actually felt like I’ve had a great work life balance. I tell my clients, if you have a question, call me, email me, text me anytime. I don’t care. If it’s 4:00 AM. I don’t care. If it’s 4:00 PM, I will get to it when I get to it. Like I will, I might not, obviously I’m not going to reply back at 4:00 AM because I’m sleeping. But when I wake up, I’m going to make sure I wake up at 5:00 AM or 6:00 AM when you’re asleep and I’m going to text you back. And they all laugh at that.

But I, again, I tell them like, I promise you I’m, if I don’t get to you, I’m not ignoring you. I I’m going to get to you next. Like, but I want to make sure that you don’t forget your, your question. So make sure you get it to me, don’t be afraid to text me or email me or call me, obviously don’t call me at 4:00 AM. I definitely will be answering that. But I think having that conversation with them, like, or even if, if I’m going to be in Denver for my son’s football game, I’m like, Hey, I’m going to be in Denver. You can still text me. But if you, if it’s anything urgent, I’m going to send you to and Brits there too.

That’s what’s the great thing about being in a partnership. If I can’t do something right then and there Brittany will. If, if Brittany has ballet class with her daughters, I’m stepping in and making sure all her clients don’t miss any houses.

Joe: Yeah. So just that partnership, balancing, helping each other, stay in check. Yeah. Last question. What what’s what do you love most about working in the Colorado Springs area? Serving families, serving people, getting to know the neighborhoods, all those types of things.

Brittany: So this is Brett. So with me being a native, I definitely, and, and super knowledgeable about all of the areas. It’s been fun. Seeing maybe some areas that weren’t like the best places when I was growing up, like seeing them change into like first-time home buyer neighborhoods, or like, you know, like military family neighborhoods. I love that we get to work with a lot of military families. I also do a ton of first-time home buyers, just with me growing up here. I, I get to work with a lot of people. I went to school with my sisters, who my sisters went to high school with. So it’s, it’s fun seeing people that I’ve known since I was like, you know, six or seven and they’re like buying a home and I get to see their families grow.

And you know, right now I’m selling one of my friends from seventh grade. I’m selling her, her dream home right now and it, and she’s doing it all by herself. She’s single 30 year old with what’s an eight year old son. And it’s, it’s so fun just seeing that, like my friends grow and accomplishing, like buying their dream home when they’re only 30 years old. Like it’s really fun.

Joe: Yeah. No, that’s really cool. Awesome. Well, that’s just thanks so much for sharing your story. And I just loved hearing how you guys came together, what you guys are doing here in the area. So just, I just appreciate it. Thanks so much.

Shannon: You’ve been listening to the Metaphorically Speaking podcast. At Keyhole Marketing, we tell big stories for small businesses. If you’re in the Colorado Springs area and ready to tell your business story, we’d love to come alongside you and help you with your content, branding, SEO, social media, or photography needs. For an instant glimpse at your current marketing strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities, take our free marketing assessment at keyholemarketing.us/marketing-assessment, or send us an email at hi@keyholemarketing.us and let us know how we can help tell your story.