From Real Estate to Motherhood: Tina Beliveau on Building a Thriving Business While Raising Little Ones

Welcome to The Thriving Mompreneur, the podcast that empowers ambitious moms like you to grow your business while showing up as the present and engaged mama you want to be. I'm Liz Kent, licensed therapist and mindset coach for mom entrepreneurs dedicated to helping you navigate the mental load, ditch the mom guilt and thrive in both your business and motherhood. Each week, I'll share mindset shifts, actionable strategies and inspiring stories to help you calm the chaos, boost your confidence and truly enjoy this season of life. For more tips and to learn how to work with me, follow me on Instagram at Liz Kent Coaching. Let's dive in. Hello and welcome back to The Thriving Mompreneur. I'm here today with Tina Belivow who I am so excited to chat with because we've gotten to know each other a little bit over the past year or so. And she is the founder and owner of a very successful real estate group in our local area in Lutherville. So, and a mom of two really little kids. So she's grown her business while having two littles at home. And so she's going to share more of her story with us. So tell us about you, who you are and how you got to this point. Well, thank you so much for having me. I am so glad that I met you and connected with you, a kindred spirit for sure. Yeah, I know I was trying to remember actually how we even first connected because I feel like we have all these mutual connections. I know, well, I admin the local Facebook group. And I think that might be where we connected. And then I think you messaged me and put yourself on my radar. And I was like, Oh, she's cool. And then here we are. Yeah, that's one of my favorite things about being a female entrepreneur in like the online space is just getting to meet so many amazing women who are like doing just so many amazing things. So yeah, I agree. Like one of the best things about the online space, even if it's augmented by like this in person interaction we get to sometimes have is it's so easy to just seek people out and be like, You're cool. I want to be like you. I want to be friends with you. I want to learn from you. And some of my favorite business friends are people that like I sought out because I liked what they were doing. And luckily they were, you know, open to having a conversation. So I just anyone who's listening to this, like, I come across a lot of people who were like, How have you gotten in, you know, in this stage or this, how have you gotten that PR? And I'm like, I just slowly developed a muscle over years of just asking just introducing myself to people and like taking the littlest bit of measured risk that I could stand to just be like the equivalent of like, will you be my friend? But you know, maybe a little more eloquent than that. And I feel like that's how I put myself in so many situations that I it's this day, I'm like, I can't believe I not like I'm so great. But like, I know a ton of people I've spoken at conferences, I've been on the news a bunch, I've got I've won awards. And a lot of it was just writing an email or like DMing someone to be like, Hey, like, I really like what you're doing. How can I be part of that? I love that you said that because I have a similar philosophy of like, you have to put yourself out there a little bit. And which is uncomfortable. But the potential of what can come out of that can be just so incredible. And so it is worth it. I like just talk to anybody anywhere, like the sidelines of the soccer games or the playground or whatever, because you just never know who you're going to like, enjoy talking, you're just hearing people's stories. And yeah, like last Monday, I had a zoom with someone who I've really been wanting to collaborate with. And she is very, very high level in my industry. And I was trading voice memos with one of my like business besties being like, I'm going to reach out to her, I feel nervous. I'm actually worried that she's going to like reject me. And then I'm going to have a bad feeling about her forever more. And she was like, Tina, like, just put yourself out there. Like, what did she say? You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. And I was like, Laura, you're right. And, and then I wrote to her, she wrote back within a day and was like, I'd love to meet you. And then we were on zoom. And now we're like going to do this thing together. That's kind of been a low key dream of mine for several years to like be affiliated with her. So yeah, that's my, yeah, that's what I'm up to right now. Because we get along so well is that we totally missed your introduction because we just, I know, I know. So okay, let me go back to the beginning. Let's backtrack a minute and then we're going to get into it. Okay, so I'm a Baltimore local. Thank you, Liz. I got into, I'm turning 40 in a couple days. So I am, yeah, thank you. So I'm at this interesting point where this month is also my 20th year as a real estate agent. So I got my real estate license when I was 20. So the very short version of my story is for anyone super local, I went to Towson University and then that my freshman year, I ended up working for a real estate agent as her personal assistant. Then I ended up becoming her business assistant. And pretty quickly that evolved to me getting my license when I was 20. And then I've just been in the real estate industry ever since for 20 years, half my life, which is wild. And, you know, with this, the audience of a lot of people listening to this podcast being entrepreneurs, like one of the best things about the real estate industry is it's way harder than it looks on selling sunset and way less dramatic too. But that being said, one of the best things about it is that you can, there's so much flexibility in how you set up your business, who you work with, how you market, are you solo, do you have a team, so on and so forth. So for someone like me, who is pretty kind of like a creative soul in a lot of ways. And I also like a lot of change. I've had many iterations of my career and the industry has changed a lot in the time, just like the internet and like Zillow and things like Redfin have like revolutionized real estate over the time that I've been in the industry. So I've done a lot of different things. I was a solo agent, I worked for that woman on her team at first, then I went off on my own when I graduated from college, the market crashed in 2008, a year into my being a full-time real estate professional. And that was like a great thing for me because I had to learn how to do everything in a difficult climate. And that ultimately gives you way more skills than when everything kind of gets handed to you by, you know, market forces. So did that for a while, I, you know, started hiring pretty early on because real estate, one of the worst things about it, honestly, is it seven days a week, it doesn't really stop. And if you're successful, people do need you what feels like around the clock. And I'm very clear, like we are not saving lives. I am not. But if your dream house comes on the market on Saturday morning, and like you need to see it, like there's a need to be on top of it. So the burnout factor is unreal. And that's something that I've been navigating ever since I got to like a moderate level of success. So first that looked like hiring an assistant, I had an intern at first, someone, a fellow TU student, she was a few years younger than me. So I had an intern, I had a part-time assistant, and I brought out a full-time assistant in 2013, I started building a team very intentionally with, you know, multiple agents, multiple administrative support, and had a lot of success and was, you know, just selling a lot of houses. And, but yeah, like even with great support, I got to kind of a pretty intense burnout point. And I took a little, I wouldn't say to break, it was more like I took a left turn and ran a local real estate brokerage for a couple years, which was an incredible experience in many ways because I realized I love helping fellow agents. And I really like that like business to business conversation too. So that was like a blessing in that I was like, oh, there's this other thing that I love even more than straight up selling houses. And I didn't really know until I got to try that and start like coaching people. And here's what I do, here's how you could apply it to yourself. So where my story is going, by the end of 2019, I, I got to a difficult point. I was working, although I had a love for what I was doing, I was not doing it in a healthy, female-friendly environment. And things kind of imploded. And I left that company and it was the kind of thing where real estate is such a strange industry, like it's just so relationship based. And there's a lot of like loyalty and ego. And there was no way for me to extricate myself from any of that cleanly. So at the beginning of 2020, it was like, I was in rebuild mode, kind of starting from scratch. Like I had a reputation and a book of business, but things just, everything changed. And then within a month of that, like COVID started. And then, and that was like the beginning of my like workaholism recovery phase of my career, because even that brokerage gig was like full blast. And I was still running my team at that time. So it was just different, but still very busy. So in 2020, I was like, okay, the way I've operated for 15 years is not really working for me. I have sacrificed a lot and I've succeeded and I've achieved and I've earned and I've saved. But my personal life and my health, my family, my husband have all paid a cost. And I was kind of blind to it because I was honestly like too busy to feel the full depth of the cost that I was paying and that people around me were paying. So the last five, six years of my life have been like this total, I still feel like I'm in the wilderness sometimes, like learning how to be a driven person without like just driving myself into the ground. So by the end of 2020, like my husband and I had been in therapy for a year and we were like doing great. And it was like, I was like, oh, I actually do want to have a baby because I was like, oh, I don't like kids. Oh, like I don't want to have kids. Like, don't put me near the kid. Like I'm the least likely mother. Like you don't know me before, but people know they're like, they just think it's hilarious. Not only my mom, like I'm a great mom. Yeah, that's always my kids, you know, love your kids so much. Enjoy them. And yeah, yeah. And I'm like present and I'm really there. But like that just was like, I don't know. I had different dreams. My dreams were all like professional ambition. So yeah, I had my son in 2021 and then my daughter in 2023. So their names are Sammy and Austin, they're two and four now. And yeah, so like these last five years have been me basically like, rising from the ashes, changing my, I still have my team, but I really changed how it operated went totally virtual, changed kind of the kind of people that I partner with everyone on my team is a mom. And there's this. And I feel so apologetic to anyone I employed who was a mom, pre me being a mom, because there was just a lot that I thought I understood and I like had no idea. So sometimes I feel like I'm making amends to my past selves and people around me of like, okay, like this is, this is hard. Like one thing that I feel like I've benefited from as a mom business owner is that I did build my business before kids. And that it is now like this very stable, highly functioning support structure. And I'm so glad that I had that before having my kids because it has made it, I want to say easier, but like easier, I've got a lot in place that I'm not also trying to hustle and be at networking events at night and open houses all weekend, plus, you know, everything else with my kids. So that's my story, I could say so much more, but that's like the high level of who I am and what I'm up to in my current life chapter. I love that. And I love just like your authenticity and sharing like all these pivots, right, because I think on the outside, we see the picture of the entrepreneur, successful entrepreneur, and we like don't see all these shifts and changes and like pulling ourselves up from, you know, by the bootstraps and like trying again and trying again and trying again. And so you sharing that and then seeing how you have been able to really make it work for your life and for your family and take like that framework, like you said, that you had before you had kids and make it fit around your family life, what you want for your life now. Yeah, yeah, I'm like grateful that I had, you know, an established business that doesn't require me to personally do everything and be everywhere at all times, especially in real estate, because it's like so geographically focused too. It's like, if you don't have someone to show a house for you, like you are showing the house, it's not like I can take this call from anywhere. So having that in place was huge and, you know, one of the other philosophical choices we made when having our first, at first, we had a nanny who came and started helping us when he was about two months old. And then she ended up kind of moving on quickly. And we were actually in a total bind of like, oh, like she gave us two week notice, but in the world of childcare, you know, that's like a drop in the bucket. And I ended up in this like, group of au pair Facebook group, and I basically found someone who like just needed a short term gig, and she like moved in with us for I think eight weeks, and it was a way for us to test the au pair waters. Yeah. And then we realized that like, that's a really good fit for us. And then I had just enough time to like interview and find someone long term. And she's now been with us three and a half years, coming up on four years, and she's like part of our family. And I do work from home since I pivoted to being like a completely like virtually run business. So she's here caring for our kids. I have like very reliable childcare, which I think is also, can you can you be an entrepreneur without it? Of course, it's just really hard. Especially I'm like a type A all in a touch of ADHD. I need my hyper focus time. I cannot like do multiple things at one. That little and they can't be left to occupy themselves. Yes, that that so like a game changer for us was, we had some stumbles with the first childcare attempt, but having someone like stable and reliable and, you know, in in home, au pair is not for everyone. It's not, you know, a good setup in everyone's home. But, you know, we have like a basement suite that we kind of set up thinking that may happen. And then it worked out that way. So I feel like it's been, you know, a combination of these practical things like having childcare that did make it possible for me to work the way I like to, which is with like with focus and with verb, but also to have lunch with them every day and to pump and nurse and like do whatever I needed to do, which is also, you know, a serious blessing that I have the like, you know, physical setup to be able to do that. Yeah. And then yeah, and then the rest is just like, I think that like the waters that I'm in now are just navigating my ambition and my dreams against this reality of what I, not just what I need to do for my kids, but what I want to do for my kids and the prices I paid in the past by overworking that I never want to pay again. And I think that I do just feel some natural tension many days where it's like, we had a really slow morning and I like, screwed around in the kitchen for way longer after my nanny started and like had coffee and played with the kids. And like, I like it, like I sometimes feel this like, oh, I could have been more productive. I could have this could have that. But like, if I look back at the end of any day, I'm like, no, like I put my time where my priorities are, it just doesn't, it feels good as a mom, but I feel sometimes this like itch of like, oh, like I'm just, I'm still, I think grieving this person I used to be, even though that's not who I want to be anymore. I don't know if you relate to that at all, but or anyone who used to be an overworker, but that's one of the things in my mind that still is not like totally settled feeling at all times. Does that make sense? Yeah, 100% Liz unpack me. Such an interesting point because particularly like a lot of entrepreneurs who have young kids are pretty high achieving ambitious women who are have lived most of their lives used to like being able to do all the things and be really productive and get all the achievements and and then like you have kids and that kind of throws everything out the window. Like you can't even get two kids to the car with their shoes on, you know, without a major hassle. And it feels, it can feel so like, who am I in all of this? And I think, you know, but I think you, you do an amazing job of balancing that. And I think it's probably just a constant process of reminding ourselves like, okay, what am I prioritizing today? And just taking one day to time and knowing some days are going to be less time with the kids, and some days are going to be less time focused at work. And we just like have to do the best we can and know that some goals are going to take a little longer to get to. Yeah, as you were saying that I'm like, yeah, it's like making peace with like lack of efficiency to a decent degree compared to my old standards. And yeah, like the goals I have take longer. And sometimes, you know, and anyone listening to this who's like in any sort of online space where you watch people who seem to like go viral overnight or have a really easy time of it, like, I think it's so easy to get caught up in thinking it isn't happening fast enough, or I'm not doing it as efficiently as I could be or I'm doing it wrong. And these are things I've dealt with in the past to like belief systems, and they can just kind of, they're easily like tweaked by comparing outward, especially like social media, some people that like I really admire, but then I'm like, yeah, but my kids come first to the, you know, kind of most maximum degree that's not, you know, like ridiculous for me to also be the breadwinner of the home and, you know, the house, etc. etc. be like push, pull, because you're also working really hard in your business to be able to provide the kind of life that you want to give them and have opportunities and be able to, you know, have that freedom and stuff. So it is, I think it's just like a constant bouncing act, which is a lot of mental work. Yeah, indeed. Like even this week, like, I, you know, I had one of those couple of days, it's like all cloudy out. I'm like, maybe it's just the weather, but it's just like, yeah, like lots of inefficient days in a row where I'm like, what am I really doing? And then I'm like, it doesn't matter. Like what matters is the big picture and what I'm building, even if it's slow. I'm still building something. And that's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's so helpful to like have community around you to like remind you, you know, people, other women who are in the same boat of building a business and building something that they want to be really proud of, but also being able to like table that sometimes to be the mom that they want to be. And just knowing that you're not in it alone, I have found to be really helpful. Yeah. And I think like I'm preaching to the choir, but it's easy to get isolated as a new mom. There's sort of the factual part of it of just like, you know, there's a lot to do and there's only so much time. And then also just like not always having the emotional energy to like make the outreach or show up to things that are like literally like a good friend saying, do you want to get dinner? And it's just the thought of having to get a babysitter or Colin, I would say like another chip with my husband of like, cover me this, but then I'm going to have to cover you when you want to go. Like, you know, it's just all of that. So, so I think that's something I feel like more cognizant of. I have this whole time, but as my kids get, you know, just a little older and past, at least like the infant stage where I'm like, yeah, it's just easy to be in a bubble, but it's been this like beautiful self protective bubble that's been so wonderful. And yeah, but I'm like slowly branching out more and more. And, and then the reality is there's only so much, you know, time and energy available for anything. And I've tried to be really creative about how can I meet people online? How can I grow what I'm doing through ways that are super sustainable for me and fun and like helpful to other people? So I've, you know, aside from my real estate team that I spend, you know, more than half of my time running and supporting. I also have a course for real estate agents. I have a community that they're part of. I coach one to two people one on one. And I've started basically kind of packaging what I do and teaching other people how to do it and just like leaning into community is like what you said. And there's a lot of ways to accomplish it, but it's critical. And I think that's really where I find like my biggest like professional meaning and purpose right now is having other people be like, Oh, finally, someone who doesn't say the same, you know, crap that all the male thought leaders in our like, there's such like an issue in real estate. It's like 65% female, but very male dominated in thought leadership. And in like the C suite of the brokerages and the names, there are big female names, but it's like, it's still kind of backwards. Yeah, even though women actually have so much power in my industry. So I love being a voice of like, I will tell you the actual truth. And I will, you know, be honest and candid about what's great and what about my business and also what isn't and what my struggles are, because it's also like a very egocentric business where people just want to act like they've got it all together. And and I wanted to act like I had it all together for a long time. It was a way to like not be vulnerable and feel safe. But it actually, you know, isolated me in it in its own way. So now I'm like, okay, how can I be a safe person? How could I be the person I wish I could have met 10 years ago? Yeah, although I met her, I don't know if I wouldn't even listen to her. I think that authenticity is what draws people to you and why you have, you know, such a big network and why you have a successful business and why it's easy to talk to you because you are honest and open and, you know, sharing about the struggle, the hard things and the good things and that, you know, I want to grow this and I also want to be present with my kids and I'm navigating all of that just like other entrepreneurial moms. Yeah, well, thank you for that. And I know we need to wrap up, but I was thinking about kind of the telling the truth thing. And we talked about this before we pushed record. I got sober when I was 17. So I've been in recovery and sober from all substances for 22 years plus. And one of my earliest lessons to be sober was that I just can't live a lie. I can't pretend I'm not. I can't sweep things under the rug or it will, you know, hurt me mentally and eventually like I may go back to doing things that are, you know, completely self-destructive. So and it's been a long time. It's like, I don't even recognize that person I used to be anymore. But I also do recognize her. And I think one of the great things about getting to be in any sort of recovery process or therapy process is like at some point, hopefully you get this truth that like the truth will set you free. It's not just like a trite saying, and there's nothing to really be afraid of to like be known and let people know who I really am. And then they can connect with me. I can connect with them. And that's where like true happiness and purposes not like outside the way you look or what your house looks like and all of that. But it's that like actual like humanity. So I think I'm no longer afraid to be found out, which was like one of my biggest, like people are going to find out like what? I don't know. Something's wrong with me. Something's bad about me. Something's unlikable about me. And that's all true. I have plenty of unlikable characteristics, but like I'm okay. Yeah. And I can be seen and known and then hopefully be someone that helps other people not feel so, you know, afraid of whatever it is. Yeah. Relating to generally like how other people perceive you or just hiding from things. Yeah. I think it's like being an entrepreneur is such a head game. And that's why I have felt like being someone who got into recovery like in my teens. It hasn't made it much easier, but I'm like familiar with the emotional roller coaster of like, it's so different than being a W2 employee where it's not on you. Yeah. And by it, I mean everything. Yeah. So much of it is mindset. Yeah. It's mindset and like having some tools to manage it no matter where you got them, whether it was like a 12 step thing or therapy or books you've read or really cool thought leaders you found on the internet or podcast, like whatever it is. But like having a toolkit as an entrepreneur makes it a heck of a lot easier to not suffer or not give up or get stuck or get stuck for as long. Yeah. Yeah. That's so beautiful. And I am like so appreciative that you are sharing that with people and just using your experience really to be able to like impact others and to better your own life and like taking those lessons forward with you, which is, you know, makes it all worth it. Thank you. And I think it's sort of full circle to where we started. It's like, I'm not anyone special with what I've accomplished. I, you know, I've been doing this a long time. So also, it's like, don't compare me to you if you started your business two years ago, like two years in, I was still figuring out how to just generate enough revenue to like support myself. I wasn't really, I was building, but it was just, it was the very beginning. And just putting myself on people's radar, putting myself in spaces or circles where I wasn't sure if I fit, but like taking these small calculated risks anyway. And then, and investing in relationships and trying to be a person of integrity generally to the best of my ability. And then, you know, I think pretty much everything in entrepreneurship reputation is, you know, it precedes you. And yeah, so like anyone listening where you're just trying to get somewhere beyond where you are now, it's just having that like patience and self-compassion and a little bit of courage to just go beyond what you're comfortable with. Just a little bit today, whatever that looks like percent. Oh, I love that. I wish we had more time to talk longer because I feel like we could always talk for forever. I could talk forever. So you cut me off. Thank you. Well, tell everyone for anyone who is local to the Baltimore County area. You are the go-to girl for Lutherville. Living in Lutherville is Tina's Facebook group, and she knows everything, all the best places to go in our little town or whatever we don't call them towns in this area. Our suburb, I guess. Yeah, specifically a town. Tell everyone where they can find you and learn more about you and follow you. Yeah, the easiest is my Instagram, which is @TinaBellevo, and you can find me there. Message me. Come say hi if you listened. I'd love to connect. And if you're a real estate agent listening, I have a secondary account just for agents called @HighPerformanceAgent, and that's the brand name. I have my own podcast too, so I love a fellow podcaster. So I have a podcast and some things to support agents as well. So welcome any outreach. And yeah, thank you so much for having me. You're amazing. You're just doing so amazing as a business woman and just as a kind human. Thank you. This is my ego boost for the day. I appreciate you. I'm so glad we got to connect. So thank you so much for being here today. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to The Thriving Mompreneur. I hope today's episode left you feeling inspired and equipped to take on your week with confidence. If you love this episode, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single one. And if you're ready to take your mindset and business to the next level, let's connect. You can find me on Instagram @lizkentcoaching. Remember, you're doing an amazing job, Mama, and I'm here to cheer you on every step of the way. Until next time, keep thriving.