S1 Ep14: Nancy Grace

Nicoa's friend and award winning realtor in Raleigh, NC, USA Nancy Grace is always LOOKING FOR THE GOOD! She brings a high level of CAFFEINATED ENERGY to this episode for all to enjoy! Nancy is skilled at designing her life seasonally including motherhood and then on-ramping back into work after kids! She is proud to share her PHILOSOPHIES around her marriage, her career, and the power of boundary setting when surprised by a CANCER diagnosis in creating a self care focus to thrive in her LIFE BY DESIGN! 

Buy your copy of YOUR LIFE BY DESIGN: A Coffee With Nicoa Self-Care Coaching Journal
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Transcript

Nicoa Coach: 0:01

Grab your coffee and join me Nicoa For a caffeinated conversation about life. I'll be talking to people who have chosen to walk their own paths and just like me, are creating a life by design. I hope that will give you the inspiration you need to do exactly the same. There we are. Nancy Grace. Hey darlin, how are you?

Nancy Grace: 0:27

I'm good. How are you? Nicoa.

Nicoa Coach: 0:29

I'm doing wonderful. And I am just so grateful that you've been patient with me this morning. We're trying out a new tool, everybody. We are trying Riverside FM. And I think it's actually a pretty awesome tool so far. So Nancy can see me. I can see her and here we go coffee with Nicola. Nancy, I'm going to do a quick introduction for you. And then I want you to just chime in and tell us anything that I have forgotten about your amazing self. So you and I went actually, we've known each other now. Actually, I realized the other day, I'm working with Lynne butter over at Pfizer. And she I said, Yeah, didn't we do our project together about four years ago? And she said Nicoa. It's been eight years. Wow. That's a long time. That's how

Nancy Grace: 1:16

I met you. Right? Yes. At her birthday party.

Nicoa Coach: 1:19

That's right, her 50th birthday party at your house or her and

Nancy Grace: 1:23

her house. And it was a surprise party.

Nicoa Coach: 1:25

That's right. Oh, my God, that was so much fun. Well, we've, and we've been connected ever since. And as I give this description review, I'll share how we've continued to stay connected. So you are really honestly one of the most dynamic and passionate women in my circle. I actually find you to be amazing. You're always upbeat, you're always engaging. You've got quite the Type A personality, which I can relate to that. Yes, yeah. You are a friend. You're a wife. You're a mother. And you're an award winning realtor. Yes. Right with Keller Williams. And I just read earlier today that you're also like a coffee shop investor?

Nancy Grace: 2:09

I am I support a local coffee shop that I'd love to talk about. Yes.

Nicoa Coach: 2:13

Oh, I hope you will talk about it. I noticed that that's a pretty unique investment and type of business model. So why don't you just take a moment and just give your personal description of you now that I've shared those high levels?

Nancy Grace: 2:28

Okay, sure. Thank you again, for having me on the podcast. And yeah, so as you mentioned, I am a real estate agent. I am a wife, our wedding anniversary is next month, and that'll be 27 years.

Nicoa Coach: 2:44

That's amazing.

Nancy Grace: 2:45

I am a mom, I've got two kids. They're adults now. One is 23. And one is 20. And I am an investor in a really cool coffee shop in downtown Perry called the steamed coffee and Nicoa. It goes right along with your theme of coffee with Nicola. So you do need to check it out.

Nicoa Coach: 3:03

Oh, I'm definitely going to check it out. And it looks like it's tell us about the model because I grew up in an environment with my mother being the executive director of New Hanover County Special Olympics. And when I saw that esteemed coffee and carry is leveraging some of the individuals with disabilities, how are they doing that?

Nancy Grace: 3:24

Exactly. So it was brought to life from a vision from two other women. And I just heard about it coming to downtown Cary. And for no other reason other than I wanted this in our community. I definitely saw benefit from it. I wanted to be a financial supporter of that. So it is a coffee shop in downtown Cary, North Carolina, and it's called a steamed coffee. And what it does is it employs adults with differing disabilities. So they actually I've had a couple of employees that have graduated, if you will, and have gone on to work at Starbucks. So it's a very warm, yeah, it's a very warm environment. They are just, everyone's just excited to be there. It's a really, really cool place and their coffee is great.

Nicoa Coach: 4:10

Oh, that's amazing. I'm definitely gonna check it out. It sounds similar to an organization here in Wilmington, North Carolina. So similar to

Nancy Grace: 4:18

exactly the MBAs and I know they were an award winning coffee shop too. So same kind of thing. Just a little smaller scale. And again, it's over in Cary, North Carolina. So I'm glad to be a supporter.

Nicoa Coach: 4:29

Well, you know, you being a supporter, it doesn't surprise me because you're very generous. You're very heartfelt in the way you approach your career and your life. And just I can when I'm with you, I'm energized by you. And a lot of people say that about me with them. But I don't there's not a lot of people like you. I just think you're pretty amazing. And I'd love to talk a little bit more about your life by design and how you define that life by design. And whether it's related to the real estate work or just, you know, in your own and home? How would you define it?

Nancy Grace: 5:02

I really think it has to do with doing something you love. And then having it kind of fund your life. They say, you know, the reason it gets you out of bed in the morning, I am genuinely excited to find that great home for my clients. I get these ideas. And then like, how else can I do this? What, what out of the box thinking or marketing can I do to fulfill my client's needs, and it really does excite me. I sleep very well. But in the morning, I'm ready to go. So

Nicoa Coach: 5:30

Oh, I know you're ready to go. So Nancy actually helped justice and John and I by the condo in downtown Raleigh together. And that was such a fun experience. And I have to say, though, Nancy, you're so overachiever committed? I worry, do you have a life outside of real estate? I mean, by design, just serving your people, because I felt like you were with us every second of every hour of the day. And I felt like a very special client, for sure.

Nancy Grace: 5:57

Well, thank you. That is one of my goals. It's funny, because a lot of clients think that they are my only client. And you're not. I usually don't have too much. You know, going I don't feel too overwhelmed. But it's enough that I really want to make my clients feel special. And I'd like to be available to them. I do have some boundaries, which I think are important. Unless I'm negotiating an offer. I usually will not answer my phone after say eight, eight o'clock at night. The weekends I do I try to take Sundays for myself. Easter Sunday, I was pretty much unplugged. So yeah, I just You just have to have to have boundaries. I think it's important, but no, I'm around. I love my job. I do have outside work things I like to do like to hang with my family and go hiking and, and explore different areas of our beautiful state with my husband. But I also really love what I do.

Nicoa Coach: 6:49

Oh, well, it's pretty evident. And did you always love what you did? And what were you doing before you guys moved to North Carolina? You're from New York, right? Yeah. And for rent go bills. Buffalo New York.

Nancy Grace: 7:01

Yeah. So I've actually been really blessed in that I've always kind of loved my my jobs, my roles. Right out of college, I was at a small advertising agency. So there's the communication degree in marketing background. Then I went into inside sales at a tech company up in Buffalo. I was there for about eight years. And again, I moved up the ranks. And then I was able to quit. I had got Mike there, my husband there. We got pregnant a few years later, and I was able to quit and stay home and be with our son. And but I loved it. I loved my job. I loved meeting people, you know, it was all it was all on the phone. And then I would have the opportunity to go and meet my clients in person, which was so awesome. So then I was able to like I said, Stay home then we moved to North Carolina. And I was home for about eight or nine years with the kids. We had Santana daughter and stayed home. And real estate just seemed like a really good fit for me at the time. Because it's that combination of marketing, advertising and then sales. And it still gave me the flexibility to pick up the kids from school, go to soccer practice, go, you know, to ballet, do all those things with the kids? And kind of make the fun money, if you will.

Nicoa Coach: 8:12

Yeah, you really prioritized and still put a set of standards in place for your life. And, and I think that's kind of the biggest takeaway for people who are trying to create a life by design is you got to know what kind of a lifestyle you want. And you onramp so we call it when women go off to take care of their sweet babies, and they come out of the workforce when they go back into the workforce is called on ramping. At what point did I mean did you might talk about that about you going back to work? Did you always know you wanted to go back to work? Oh, yeah.

Nancy Grace: 8:44

In fact, we even talked about maybe me even being part time, initially. And honestly, we did the math as far as daycare and my part time income and I would be working for daycare. So I'm like, it doesn't make sense. And again, that's not the solution for every mom, either. Not every mom wants to stay home. Happy wife happy life. Right. So. So, you know, it has to be a personal decision for me, it was a good decision. I'm glad I had that time with the kids. And you know, I mean, we go park hopping and just do lots of free, you know, adventures with the kids and lots of coloring on the driveway with sidewalk chalk and bubbles and you know, fun stuff. So I've got great memories of that. In fact, just if I can speak about Easter again, just yesterday. The kids are you know, on their own and not here. So we were asking them what were some of the funniest places that we hid their Easter baskets. And it was fun in the group chats we have a group chat and we have a text going and my daughter's like the dryer the clothes dryer I couldn't couldn't find that one forever. And then our son's like, nine was under the porch on the screen I'm sorry, under the furniture on the screen porch. And that took me forever so it was just really fun to reminisce those those times but um, but ya know, I love being I love being on Um, I loved the time I spent at home. So, yeah, but it's got to be the right fit. No, yeah.

Nicoa Coach: 10:07

Yeah, I agree. And, you know, by the way, I didn't know that we were supposed to be hiding the Easter baskets all these years.

Nancy Grace: 10:15

You weren't hiding? We don't

Nicoa Coach: 10:17

ask it. We hide the eggs. We do not hide the basket. What in the world? Yeah,

Nancy Grace: 10:22

we put toys and got, you know, candy or whatever in the basket. Easter basket. Well, actually, we don't do it. For those listening. It's the Easter

Nicoa Coach: 10:35

right, Easter Bunny hides the basket and fill the

Nancy Grace: 10:39

baskets. What's sitting on the kitchen table or something?

Nicoa Coach: 10:42

It's all displayed is all on the counter all three baskets for so a full confession about Easter this year. And my my brother is agnostic. And so he calls it zombie Jesus chocolate. So we chuckled about it. But this year, the Easter Bunny just brought a chocolate bunny and little gift cards wrapped up because we had six kids and there's not they keep taking their baskets home with them. There's not enough baskets in the house to write. Hmm, but next year, I'll hide. I'll hide the little gaps from the Easter Bunny, or I mean, thank you for that. Yeah,

Nancy Grace: 11:21

we've always and again, really hard places. I mean, yeah, like me where my basket is. I'm like, Okay, we'll tell you. But no, that's the whole fun thing.

Nicoa Coach: 11:31

Oh my gosh, yeah, we hide the eggs though. Okay, so we digress. But you know, I really love that you have created a life that you allowed yourself to do both working and staying at home. One of my daughters told me that although she well is Pippa, she said, I've got this job. But you know, one of my goals is to be a stay at home mom. And I was like, awesome. darlin, you can do whatever you want. And a lot of people you know, there's this big debate. Well, is that really? Are you a feminist? If you stay home? And I'm like, Yeah, the whole point was shortly. Yeah, cute. Exactly. So your life by design has been about choice. And you really have made some significant choices. But is it all you know, rosy and happy? Go lucky all the time?

Nancy Grace: 12:15

Is there anything that actually that and I mean, looking back at the time staying home, I mean, you know, the days were so long, but the years fly by? It's true. But some of those days Nicola, oh my god, I couldn't wait to get those kids.

Nicoa Coach: 12:29

The moments

Nancy Grace: 12:30

last forever. Exactly. Get a brush pajama in bed and just take a breath. So and Mike was traveling a lot to you when I was staying home. And it was a little lonely, right, because I'm here with the six month old, he didn't say much. We moved to a new state didn't have any GPS, barely any internet then. And I would just stick them in the backseat of the car. And off we would go we would just go exploring and make it kind of a fun adventure. But it was it was tough. You know, it was a lot of change. Because I had left corporate America, I had stayed home, then we're moving North Carolina, we just bought a house about 15 months earlier, sold the house came down here bought a house in a weekend actually over Easter weekend, which is kind of funny. So just a lot of change at one time, a lot of change.

Nicoa Coach: 13:14

And what did you do to really kind of keep yourself balanced and all that mean, that can be really stressful for moms and and you know, you go into a new location, no family around.

Nancy Grace: 13:25

I think the biggest thing is, we lived in a cul de sac, and we had great neighbors who would babysit for us. So we would have a chance to go out just Mike and I and just, you know, really pick up on, you know, our environment and our new friends and neighbors and just really kind of dive in. We have to, if not, it wasn't going to work. And we've never looked back. Right. really exhausted. Yeah, you

Nicoa Coach: 13:52

got to foster those friendships and foster you're in relationship. I mean, you wouldn't be celebrating 27 years if you hadn't had a lot of date nights along the way. For sure.

Nancy Grace: 14:00

Exactly. And again, a lot of those early friends that we made our neighbors are still really good friends of ours, which is cool.

Nicoa Coach: 14:07

Oh, that's good. Well talk to me a little bit about and I am going to bring up one little bump in your road. Yeah, just so you can share with us, you know, kind of if there's any life perspectives that you know, before and after this bump in the road. Tell us a little bit about that surprise diagnosis you had a while back.

Nancy Grace: 14:26

Yeah. So about five years ago, I was a little busy a little busier than normal. I was actually diagnosed with cancer. Not a lot of people know this, but it was something that I was never gonna let define me if you will. I had to give it my attention. I was becoming an expert on something I never wanted to become an expert on. I'm a little bit of a control freak. So of course I'm diving in. Although everyone's telling me to stay off the internet. Just just trying to figure out what my next steps are. Luckily, we are so blessed in this area with amazing health care. I totally trusted my medical team. Am I had just great, great advisors, my husband is a rock star, my kids are amazing. We had, there was so much good that came out of that. And it talked a little hokey. But even during it, I knew that there was good, you just had to look for the good, we would have been our friends bring us meals, when I wasn't feeling great drop off dinners. And you know, I had other agents picking up some of my workload for me. And it was just amazing. And they're still again, my really good friends. I mean, that's when you can really, that's when you really realized who you can count on in life? Um, for sure, you know, because I will just call call me if you need anything. No, these people showed up. And they didn't even like, yeah, let you ask what you need. Like they just show up and be like, if you don't eat this might stick in the freezer by and like, That's it, you know, just they didn't want anything. You know, they the only thing that was kind of cool was, it was around Christmas time, when you would normally get Christmas cards. And I was getting so many just cards. And I could tell I would get kind of excited because Christmas cards are usually in a white envelope or a red envelope. And I was getting cards that were in a yellow envelope or a pink yellow envelope or a purple. And I thought that's for me, that's for me only you know what he means I just thought that was so special that people just took the time. So again, and I do this with my work, if I can touch on this for a minute, with my real estate career, staying in touch with my clients, you guys the power of a handwritten note, I know the cost of stamps is really high. But we've got in this day and age of email and texts and everything just being so quick. If you see somebody at the store, and you haven't seen them in a while, drop them a note, it just means so much all we're getting in the mail these days are bills and you know, other tedious things. It just means so much to get a handwritten note. And also it takes five minutes just to you know, get a list of make a list of people, by the end of the week, write some handwritten notes and get it in the mail. I think just like it's a beautiful way to connect. And it really meant a lot to me during that time. Oh, I'm

Nicoa Coach: 16:56

sure it did. And you, my friend are known as a caregiver. Right? So you are the caregiver, you are the provider, you're the service provider. And so when you found yourself in that situation, how did you give yourself permission to receive all that love and attention? It's

Nancy Grace: 17:14

hard. I think it's hard just for women to ask for help. In general, especially, you know, being a caregiver, it's hard for us. It's easier for us to say no, I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, it really is. And it's funny, the big takeaway I've got from that is, I've gotten some people that have said to me, you know, I want to help, but I don't know what to do. Just do whatever you want to do. And just just do it, just do whatever feels good to you. If it means make a meal and drop it off, that's great. If it means get a gift card and run it over. That's great. Because people want to help and with you, accepting their help. They're getting a benefit from that they're feeling not only you know, they're touched emotionally by what you're going through, and everything else but allowing others to help you really does. It's a win win, it gives something for them to feel good about and you at least they feel like they're doing something. And again, we're all in this world together. And just accept I would just say be accepting to that, to that, to that giving that people want to do.

Nicoa Coach: 18:46

You know, you remind me of a time where my former mother in law, she was on a trip with us and she was using a walker. And so we needed to take the elevator, we got off an airplane trip, and we were gonna take the elevator down to go get to the car, and we go to the elevator. I push the button. And she's like, go ahead. I don't like no kid. Oh, like you go ahead. Good. And she's like, No, no, you go acid. Hey, what? Yeah, so I went ahead and she got on the phone. I said to her, why do you do that? And she said, it's because I she doesn't want to know, because it makes me feel good to do for others. And I said, Oh, I can see that. And then I said, you know, when you don't allow others to do for you. You're not giving them the chance to feel exactly. And just it's exactly your point. And it takes practice to realize that you receiving can actually be the gift.

Nancy Grace: 19:41

Exactly. That was a really big takeaway from that. Yeah.

Nicoa Coach: 19:45

Beautiful. Let's take a quick coffee break. And when we get back, I'd love to hear how it felt to be you then before and how it feels to be you now and then we'll take some lessons learned. Okay, thank you. We'll be right back.

Unknown: 20:01

We hope you're enjoying listening to this episode of Coffee with Nicola. Make sure to subscribe so that you never miss an episode and follow Coffee with Nicoa on Instagram to find inspiring content that will help you begin creating your life by design.

Nicoa Coach: 20:16

Okay, we're back and I was making faces and Nancy and she's like, What is she?

Nancy Grace: 20:20

She were you sorry, this is gonna be gonna be a blast. We should do this every day.

Nicoa Coach: 20:28

I think we should and we wouldn't have so much to talk about So let's let's start, what does it feel like to be you? So this is one of my favorite questions I've been playing with and maybe we could do it. What did it feel like to be you back in the day? And how is that different from how it feels to be you now?

Nancy Grace: 20:45

Okay, so, um, that's a that's kind of a tricky question. I think I would say, Can I do me now first? Yeah, go for it. Okay. Let me do that. So I think now, I think I feel a little bit more in control. Okay. I've built a business. I've been in real estate now for 16 years. I've built a business. It's all me. I have a transaction coordinator. I sold$20 million of real estate last year. Wow. And I had yep, I had 30 closings, elaborative bows were in July, July was a really long month. But so and also, I want some accolades and awards this year, and it's just feel like it feels like I'm kind of coming into my own. And I'm just I feel really grounded really good about what I've built. A lot of my business comes from referrals from people I know from, from you guys from, you know, past clients. I'm helping past clients, adult, adult kids. Oh, yeah. Now purchase a home, which is cool. You know, when you've been doing this long enough. It's just so that's what I would start by saying is that I feel really grounded. Really. I'm really happy with the business I built. I love my marketing my my little cartoon person love.

Nicoa Coach: 21:53

Well, we'll put her in the show notes so people can see her. Okay, yeah,

Nancy Grace: 21:57

I mean, that was a great idea. 16 years ago, and she's a registered trademark. went ahead and got her trademark. Yeah, she has a little circle around the corner. And then as far as like, in the past, I would say, when you're building a business, you're just kind of, it's kind of like throwing pasta at the wall, you just see what sticks, right? You see what works. A lot of agents will spend money before they make money. It's not an inexpensive career, a lot of agents, you know, see HGTV and some other programs and think, oh, I can do this. There's there's so much legal aspect to this job and just follow up and disappointment. You know, your neighbor list their house was someone else great. I mean, it's just, gee, okay, you know, your brother bought a house and like, I'm a realtor, I could have gotten a referral from that, you know, from that AJ reuse. So just little things like that. And you just have to look past it not take anything personally. As far as the cancer diagnosis, it's five years in my rearview mirror now, so I can talk about it a little bit more freely. It rocked my world. I'm not gonna lie. I sang with Keller Williams, there's a there's a wonderful leader we have at Keller Williams, and she always says, if it's not in your calendar, it doesn't exist. Nicola Nicola, that was not my calendar was really mad about that. So therefore, I didn't want to give it I'm gonna give it attention. And I did, you know, face it head on, I was very aggressive in my in my reaction to that, because I just want to be here. And my husband's not getting around me that quick. I feel good about the choices I made. There's, when you are faced with these words, it's cancer, you just don't know what your reaction is going to be. And there are no wrong decisions in my, in my opinion, you can do whatever feels right to you. Like I said, I was very aggressive because I just, first of all, I didn't have time, I just wanted to get on with life. You know what I mean? Get out this. And my intelligence even laughed at me. But I had a very big party, that my five year cancer Versary or second birthday, I should say. And I did invite my oncology team. And first of all, they said no one ever invites us to these things. So they felt really special. And it was just it was just great. And yeah, like I said, great health care in the area. And it's just did I answer your question? I kind of went down a little rabbit hole. That's

Nicoa Coach: 24:19

okay. I think one of the things I noticed about the way you just described all of that is, and I'm sure everybody could hear it, your energy shifts, right. You're super excited. And a lot of people who are caregivers have a hard time celebrating themselves. And you know, because you know, you you've got a lot to celebrate. I mean, you receive like carries carry livings 2022, gold Diamond Award for best real estate agent in western Wake County, you got the bronze Diamond Award for best customer service. I mean, you really have been the overachiever and over success, in no results. I've just I'm not surprised. I'm really not surprised. But I can tell you're passionate about it. You love what you do. And you give yourself permission to celebrate your wins and your successes. I mean,

Nancy Grace: 25:08

thank you. And again, a lot of it has to do to with my family is very supportive of me as well. They're my biggest cheerleaders. And so I think it just works, you know, because you do want to be surrounded by people that lift you up that see your progress that celebrate you as well. So it's a little easy to do that too when I'm around people that also celebrate me.

Nicoa Coach: 25:28

So when you think about ways to Celebrate yourself, though. just you by yourself, you're tired into the day? How do you muster up that energy? Do you always make it about the other person or, you know, I don't know a lot of caregivers, including myself, sometimes I become the martyr when I get a little tired and stressed out and tell me what your experience is like when you get a little burnout.

Nancy Grace: 25:53

Yeah, that definitely happens. So in real estate, if I got buyers in town, you know, from out of state or whatever, I might be out with them three or four days in a row. And I am just done talking to my family, I am just going to go, it's almost like you're on, right? Because as I'm driving down the road and think, oh, look to your right, it's not a blow to your lap, because I really want my people from out of state to really get a good feeling about the area that they might, you know, actually live in. So that's one thing I do is I kind of just decompress, and my family knows that I do like a nice bath. I like a nice cup of tea. I like to read and just really kind of disconnect. And I try not to only read business books, because then my mind will go and then I'll go that's a good idea. Whereas I'd like to read for pleasure to I'd like autobiographies a lot because people just really interest me. Right now. I'm reading, spare by hearing. I know.

Nicoa Coach: 26:51

I just read it. Yeah, it's

Nancy Grace: 26:55

just it's just kind of, you know, mindless reading. But again, it's interesting to me. And it's a little juicy a little bit, you know, but it's interesting, just hearing about his life, not that I feel one way or another about him him in, you know, tell me her name. Megan, thank you leave, leaving England and all that stuff. But it's just it's just that it's a nice escape, if you will. So,

Nicoa Coach: 27:17

Oh, for sure. And so what you're describing is, you know, you're really good at setting boundaries with your family, and they give you permission, not permission, but they understand that you need to regroup and re recharge. And yeah, I just read that book, too. And one of the big themes throughout that book, which if I may ask, I mean, you obviously picked up on it. It's a public topic around Harry, and we're talking about the prince of Prince Harry from the royal family in, in London, in Wales, whatever I don't even know how to describe, right. But they talk he talks a lot about his own mental health. And I'm curious, have you ever tapped into any resources outside of for mentoring, coaching, mental health counseling, Psych psychiatry, to help you continue to grow your business and your life by design?

Nancy Grace: 28:05

So I actually am seeing a counselor right now. Not so much cancer related, but I've gone to a couple cancer workshops, if you will, with with other women that have gone through the same type of cancer that I had. So that was very therapeutic. I am always happy to help anyone at all my friends know, if anybody gets a cancer diagnosis, I am more than happy to talk to them again. There are no bad decisions. It's just making the decision sometimes are a little difficult. You know, you're you're confronted with major life, these major life decisions. So, yeah,

Nicoa Coach: 28:42

yeah, well, good for you. I'm glad you're getting those resources. And that helping, not only from a counselor, but also from other women are going through the same. So people going through the same thing you're going through is pretty important. And I think that was kind of interesting to Harry, he he was alone. He really felt alone and may may continue to feel alone based on the way he wrote that book. Right. I do recommend it. I have to say his military service in the middle of the book was a little boring. I had to hurry. I was like scammed. I don't need to know about your helicopter. Right. You know, whoever whatever floats your boat. But yeah, I was proud of him for being so authentic. And I'm proud of YouTube for the way you're, you're probably pretty authentic with your kids to talk to me about those relationships and in any motherhood advice you share with other people who are running their own business and or have gone through challenges like that.

Nancy Grace: 29:40

So the kids were, let's say, My son was a senior in high school, and my daughter was a freshman in high school. When I had my cancer diagnosis. My daughter was just going into kindergarten when I got my license. So they were kind of already doing, you know, they had their own lives. They were doing their own thing. I think I blindsided them a little bit with the cancer diagnosis, but they were together Sure, which is great, which I'm thankful for. I'm thankful that they were at the same high school and that, you know, different colleges because they did at a time different colleges, because I'm just looking at each other. In fact, my son, our son drove our daughter to school every day that year, because he was a senior and he would say to me, my mom, I need you to talk to her because she cried every day on the way to school about you so just you know, but I didn't I wouldn't have known about that. Right? So just awful. Yeah. Oh, But no, the kids are good. They're both, you know, their own tracks doing their own thing. Yeah, so we'll see what happens.

Nicoa Coach: 30:39

I mean, I have to admit everybody, this is like, Do we really have to talk about the cancer thing that much? No. I can. I think about people that I think about it a lot, because my dad died last summer. And he was 84. But it was still a bit of a shock and unexpected, the way in which that all played out. And it's really given me this perspective on life. And I yeah, my mother's 83. And she's, you know, going through a tough time, right. Now, as you can imagine, it hasn't even been a year. And I've, it's pushed me back from what life looks like. And I thought if I had been given, now, I actually did have a cancer diagnosis. Back in the day, I had malignant melanoma. But I said to myself, well, they cut that out of my leg, so I didn't have to have treatment. So I didn't really have cancer. Like, I didn't even get my chance myself a chance to be afraid or grieving. I was like, well, that doesn't count. I mean, nobody did a walk for me. Nobody brought me food. Yeah, right. So I guess I didn't have cancer the way everybody else has cancer. So, but that's not really fair to me, in my own experience, nor to anybody else. So but I look at it now. Did it change the way you see your day to day? Or? Did it just make it more cemented as to your life choices?

Nancy Grace: 32:00

It did, because I tend to not hesitate. When I have a choice or an opportunity. I tend to take the vacation, buy the shoes, and in my career, buy the house, just buy the house people if it's going to be changing, and it's where do you want to live? Just by the house? So I have I have I've noticed I've made some some decisions quicker. I don't want to miss out on anything things may I may have said no to in the past, or I don't think I would even like that. I'm more. I'm more open to try new things. But it's really it though. I mean, I still think I'm the same person, you know, from, you know, ground groundwork up, but I definitely do make some changes that but I welcome them, I think they're positive changes. You

Nicoa Coach: 32:49

just is there an example you could share of something that you would have, like ruminated over or hesitated on that now you're like, oh my god, I always do that. Now, I would never second guessed that.

Nancy Grace: 32:59

So this is gonna sound kind of silly, but I always drive with my windows down if it's really warm out. And before I would just maybe just turn the air conditioning on. Now I'm all about just open the window, because I'm in my car a lot as a realtor, just especially at the end of the day, when I'm coming home from clients, you know, I don't need it, my hair to look perfect anymore. I just let my windows down and it's just a feeling of the day is over, I can just relax. It's just another way to just kind of wind down the day for me. I mean, as small as it sounds, but I never used to do that. I don't know why I'm that funny.

Nicoa Coach: 33:29

Because you maybe it was that's something to explore. So maybe before it was everything was more compartmentalized. And maybe now you recognize that there's some freedom, there's some freedom that should be it's like flow like we should enjoy our experience on this earth. And I love that you said roll the windows down because that's all about nature, right? And a lot of healing happens when we allow ourselves to feel the wind in our hair and go out and you know, go barefoot on the grass and the front yard in between calls. Oh my gosh, well, I just find your that your energy is so magnetic. Like I want more. And I would just want to give you a last chance to just share any pieces of advice for people any lessons learned in your very beautiful life by design. It's been easy except for that little hiccup but you got rid of that. That's overwhelming. So what's the words of wisdom and advice for everybody?

Nancy Grace: 34:30

I would just say live a big life whatever that means to you. Don't hold back Don't be so concerned about what other people think because they probably aren't even thinking anything. Just Ubu and love yourself give yourself downtime to read about Harry Reid about you know whatever to escape into that world. And you know roll the windows down.

Nicoa Coach: 34:53

roll the windows down and I do remember one note that you said when you sent me back some feedback initially before this interview, and I wanted to highlight this you also gave a piece of advice and you said Say I love you.

Nancy Grace: 35:09

Yes every day every phone call with all our with our kids everything. My family group chat yesterday Easter. I love you. I love you just Yes Just say it. You never want to leave this earth. Leaving that that question with anyone say too much. I would love to be remembered, you know in the in the 80 years down the road when I die. I would love to be remembered For saying I love you. What a beautiful way to be remembered.

Nicoa Coach: 35:37

I love that you're gonna be 130

Nancy Grace: 35:42

really far out into the future?

Nicoa Coach: 35:45

Me too, babe, we'll be doing a podcast when we're both 130 I can't wait. It would probably be holograms. I'm all about holograms. Like, I know that's coming. I my husband rolls his eyes. He's like,

Nancy Grace: 35:56

Oh my God, we will prove him wrong. And we will be there.

Nicoa Coach: 36:00

There's gonna be holograms, for sure. And I'm gonna be sitting right there next to you. Our 130 year old. Sounds good. Well, my friend, I love you. And I'm so grateful for you.

Nancy Grace: 36:13

You. I love you too. Thanks for asking me to come on your podcast. I hope people found it interesting. Honestly, if I can answer any questions about anything else, any of your listeners have, I'm more than happy to nothing is perfect by any means. We are all just doing the best we can but just take the time to roll down the windows. That would be my big takeaway.

Nicoa Coach: 36:31

Well, how can people get in touch with you? What would be the best way for them to reach you?

Nancy Grace: 36:37

Okay, so first of all, I guess we should make it clear that I'm not that Nancy Grace on TV. If you know that Nancy Grace that's on TV. I am Nancy Grace, the real estate agent with Keller Williams. So you can just Google Nancy Grace realtor. I'm on Instagram, I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on all the all the social media, you should be able to find me. And if you post my little cartoon person, that's me. You'll you'll find my little cartoon person. And yes, I do love her like that. So

Nicoa Coach: 37:05

you do yes, you are super cute with your brown hair and your glasses. And then you get this little purple dress on it standing next to your Keller Williams sign and super cute. And by the way, heads up. We think we're going to buy that condo out from justice. And then he's going to be shopping for

Nancy Grace: 37:21

someone. He knows how to get in touch with me.

Nicoa Coach: 37:24

He sure does. And he's we wanted that that house. We talked about the other day, that mid century modern, right, please go buy this house. I'll try to push for itself. It's like, too big of a piece of property. Because otherwise, oh my gosh, we would have swooped it up. And even if it took us a decade to renovate or restore. Right? House. Yeah.

Nancy Grace: 37:47

Well, I mean, the other phrases, you know, buy dirt, they're not making any more. So definitely if you see something, snatch it up, and even if you sit on it for a few years, you know that's

Nicoa Coach: 37:57

true. Yeah. Well, make sure you reach out to justice. Soon. See, see how he's doing? And we'll let you know. Of course when we get that off. That then thank you. You are my realtor and my friend for life and I will talk to you.

Nancy Grace: 38:12

Okay, thanks Nicoa Bye bye. Bye.

Unknown: 38:16

Thanks for joining us for a caffeinated conversation. Subscribe to Coffee with Nicoa for more stories from people living a life by design. You can also find inspiration on Instagram. Just follow Coffee with Nicoa and check out our website Coffee with nicoa.com and that's Nicoa N I CoA. We look forward to talking with you soon. And enjoy your coffee between now and then