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Show Summary
In this conversation, Carolina Parker shares her transformative journey from a corporate job to entrepreneurship, emphasizing the importance of work-life balance, community empowerment, and authentic storytelling. She discusses her passion for helping the Latin community in real estate, the challenges of establishing her own business, and the rejuvenating effects of finding personal fulfillment. Through her podcast, she highlights the power of sharing genuine stories and the resilience found in life’s unexpected moments.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Carolina Parker (00:00)
I quit my job, I said to my boss I need something remote. He couldn’t believe it and I said I’m just going to find something. I don’t know what but I’m going to. So I put my resume on LinkedIn and I just said I was open for work but remote work. And then this company reached out to me and it sounded so good to be true that I actually thought it was a scam becauseThe pay was great. I could do my own hours. I could work from anywhere. I couldn’t believe it. I thought this was like surreal. I said, how is possible that people actually have a job and life like that?
Kristen (02:13)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with Carolina Parker. She’s a loan officer and we’re going to talk a lot about work-life balance, of course loan tips, but also transferring from a W-2 employee to 1099, which is really exciting. So thank you for being here.Carolina Parker (02:29)
Thank you, Kristen, for having me. How are you doing today?Kristen (02:32)
I’m doing well, how are you doing?Carolina Parker (02:35)
Well, as I was telling you of the recording, I’m doing amazing. I feel like I’m finally living my life to the fullest without having the hassle to just go to work and get something done and then coming home exhausted. I feel like finally I’m starting to live my life in a enjoyable way.Kristen (03:01)
That’s incredible. I love to hear that. ⁓ Let’s talk about kind of what led you there. Let’s talk about, you know, getting to this place where you feel so secure. And I know this career has given you a lot of freedom in your life.Carolina Parker (03:13)
Yeah, well by trade I’m an engineer, I’m an industrial engineer and I was working for one of the Fortune 500 companies here in the US and even though it was very rewarding, ⁓ I had a very good career, a very good salary, ⁓ I still needed some more time with my family and my days were long.but my kids days were longer. Like I had to be at the office at 7 a.m. and then some days I was leaving 8 p.m. So my little one was in the daycare from 6 30 a.m. till 8 30 p.m. 9 p.m. And one day when I pick him up he said mom I’m so tired I don’t want to go to school tomorrow and that day I said I need to make a change it’s too much for
family to be like we were not even having family time we were they were in the daycare I was in the office and then Saturdays we were doing their activities Sundays at church and then start over so we never even have time our family time was very seldom so I said I’m going to do something different and I went
Kristen (04:30)
Yeah.Carolina Parker (04:33)
I quit my job, I said to my boss I need something remote. He couldn’t believe it and I said I’m just going to find something. I don’t know what but I’m going to. So I put my resume on LinkedIn and I just said I was open for work but remote work. And then this company reached out to me and it sounded so good to be true that I actually thought it was a scam becauseThe pay was great. I could do my own hours. I could work from anywhere. I couldn’t believe it. I thought this was like surreal. I said, how is possible that people actually have a job and life like that?
So it took me a while. And finally, when I did it and they did the background check, the fingerprints, I said, man, this is like harder than being a federal agent. Like so.
Kristen (06:14)
Yeah.Carolina Parker (06:15)
Iknew it was real. So then I shared my information and here I am. And it has been so rewarding that I’m about to embark. Like if you want, we can talk about that. ⁓ I saw so many opportunities in this industry that there’s something that I can do also on my own now that instead of being a W2 employee, I can start.
working as a 1099, be entrepreneur and maybe even have my own team in the long term.
Kristen (06:48)
That’s incredible. I think that’s a really inspiring story that a lot of people relate to. I think it’s so hard to balance. mean, as a parent, just balance a full-time job and then your family life. That’s amazing that this has given you such flexibility. Talk more about kind of making that transition to working for yourself and kind of what you’re aiming to, what services you’re aiming to provide for people.Carolina Parker (07:13)
So my goal in this industry we do loans for real estate. My goal is to expand into the Latin community because I’m bilingual in Spanish, but I have done some transactions ⁓ like amazingly enough, I have done some transactions in Portuguese and Italian. Like I don’t speak those languages, but they are so similar thatWhen they talk to me, I understand and when I speak to them in Spanish, they understand what I’m saying and we’re able to close the deal. So ⁓ apparently I need to add that to my resume, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish. So, and I speak a little bit of French. So my goal is to get to the community that is coming because I came as an immigrant from Colombia. So I want to give the opportunity to other people.
Kristen (07:50)
Yeah.Carolina Parker (08:05)
that are coming to get a better opportunity for their lives. And maybe sometimes they don’t speak the language, but they do wanna have a roof for their family. They wanna have stability. So I want to be able to, one of my coaches, he said, when you find your true purpose is not when you are doing something for yourself, but when you are doing something to help others. And I feel like these, ⁓embark this new journey that I’m embarking on it’s giving me the opportunity to help other people in a bigger way because I will do it in church with my friends with people that I met on the streets but this is giving me an outreach like actually give a house to a family that were 20 years renting and it’s that their faces and the gratitude
I can’t believe that I’m helping in such an amazing way.
Kristen (09:03)
Amazing. Well, that’s awesome. I think going from a W-2 employee to really going off on your own, it takes so much courage and tenacity. What have been the difficult parts about that kind of establishing your own vision?Carolina Parker (09:52)
So I think the security, not having the luxuries of health insurance, dental insurance, ⁓ their retirement account. So I have to be more purposeful for where my money goes, where I choose my own providers. And now I have to…foresee for my future on my own instead of relying on a 401k Now I created my own Roth IRA that I’m funding on my own. So it’s like changes that You don’t think that you have to do but it’s some other things that you have to think about and in the beginning it’s scary because you had the Security that you had all those things, but now you don’t
Kristen (10:43)
Absolutely, yeah, that’s a that’s definitely difficult part about it. Can you talk about so I know that work-life balance is a huge It’s a big part of this for you. I know it’s a big passion that you want to kind of inspire other people can you talk about how you know going from that corporate job and Not being able to have that balance and now, you know finding a career that allows for that flexibility Can you just talk generally about the quality of life and you know how you’ve been able tojust have more personal fulfillment.
Carolina Parker (11:16)
So I wanna give you an example that it was actually funny. I went to ⁓ play date to pick up my son at a friend’s house that I hadn’t seen in three years. And when I ring on the doorbell, they have a camera and she didn’t wanna open the door. And I called her and I said, Heather, I’m here to pick up my son. She said, who are you? And I’m like, his mom. And she’s like,I don’t recognize you. And she said, something happened to you. You have age backwards. Like you don’t look the same person. I said, and now that I look at myself, like if I show you a picture of when I was 20 years, I look even younger now than when I was 20 years old. So just the life work balance has given me, it took away my wrinkles. Now I don’t have gray hair. It’s like it has given me life back.
I’m getting rejuvenated. I’m having time with my family. I was like these things under they were like purple. Like I was like like with the purple bags. I was tired all the time. I didn’t have energy. Now I have I’m swimming in the mornings. I go to the gym. I swim. I have time to do that in the afternoon. Sometimes I play peek-a-boo.
Then at night I’m dancing and I’m going, I’m learning to play golf in the weekends. And those are things that I didn’t have time before. Like I’m actually finding time for myself, which is one of the biggest parts as a mom, as a parent and a worker. I had put myself in the back burner. I had forgotten about me. And now I’m finding like the little girl that used to like to be free.
and I’m finding time for herself. So just letting her be free and finding what she wants is giving me happiness to spread across with my family, my friends, and even my friend that didn’t recognize me. It’s funny, but it’s like I can see it. Like ⁓ I’m full of energy now.
Kristen (13:24)
I know it is funny like the physical ramifications of stress. really do wear stress and it makes a big difference on the way you look and the way you feel and all of that. ⁓ I think that’s such a good message for people. So another thing I want to touch on is I know you have a podcast yourself. You talk about overcoming obstacles. I would love for you to get into that podcast.Carolina Parker (13:30)
transformation.Okay, so the obstacles I have found in the podcast actually has been monetizing because I don’t know how to get it to monetize. So maybe off camera we can talk about that. But for me, it started more like as my own therapy. Like I had so much to get out of my system, getting divorced, being a single mom.
going back to the workforce it was daunting and then I had to do everything on my own so I started doing that for my own thoughts to clear my head and then I started sharing it with my friends and family and they were like I love your story I love how genuine you are like my podcast I don’t edit anything like
Sometimes I do them from my car so you can hear the GPS on the background turn right, turn left, turn right. So it’s like real, like the real thing. So my friends were like, I also wanna, I also have a story to tell. Like I also wanna tell my story like in a real way. It’s like raw, like we don’t put mask or we don’t cover anything and it’s giving them opportunity.
for other people to be genuine when right now with social media, everything is like fake. Like everybody’s just trying to put a facade, like a mask of like the perfect life. And in this podcast, they can be real. ⁓ They can be who they are and they can tell their story, whatever they want.
Kristen (15:18)
Right. ⁓Carolina Parker (16:11)
And when I’m interviewing and I tell them that I’m not going to ask them anything that they don’t wanna talk about.they just talk anything that they want to talk about. So it has been very ⁓ like a relief for me and the people that has been in my podcast that they get interview they feel like they got a load of their shoulders because they were able to be real for the first time now that we cannot be real in everywhere.
Kristen (16:43)
Yeah, it’s so true. feel like, you know, social media, it’s everyone’s highlight reels and you compare yourself to others and you start to feel bad about yourself. But I think the reality is that everyone has a story to tell, just as you said. And that’s great that you’re able to highlight stories from different people.Carolina Parker (17:00)
Thank you, yes.Kristen (17:02)
Yeah, that’s incredible. So talk about maybe an interesting story that you’ve learned from your podcast.Carolina Parker (17:08)
So I felt like even though it might be a little bit selfish, but it was the one that I did with my sister. She’s my blood sister, but she’s like my best friend. And when I started my podcast, I did it because I was getting divorced. But the day that I did, that I told everybody that I was going to get divorced, that the whole process started, my sister said,Kristen (17:19)
Yeah.Carolina Parker (17:34)
after the court, want to go with you in the car and then we’ll go get something to drink with my mom or something. And when we got to the place, she said, I have something to tell you, I’m pregnant. And I was like, and she couldn’t have kids. She was diagnosed with a variant cancer. So we never thought she could have kids. And that day my life was ending.her life and the whole life of our family was taking a whole turn and it made me so happy. I believe a lot in God and I said, how is it possible that the day my life is collapsing, she gives me something to hold on for the rest of my life because he’s my nephew. Like we’re about to celebrate his birthday this Saturday and I can’t believe that she gave me hope.
even though in that moment my life was coming to an end so I felt like what she did to me even though it’s in the podcast it was like a life saver for a lot of people that will hear that podcast to know that even though you’re in your darkest moments something can come out beautiful even when you don’t see it
Kristen (18:52)
Yeah, I think that’s such a great story to share. Just the, yeah, the circle of life, the resilience of life, and even at your lowest moments, you can, you know, you can come out of that and there’s still beautiful things around you. Well this has been so inspirational. I think that you have such a great outlook on life and your business and I’m so excited for you to go off on your own. Tell everybody where to find you and how to work with you. ⁓Carolina Parker (19:19)
Okay, they can find me in social media as my name is Carolina Parker, loan officer, or in Instagram or TikTok, they can find me as Carolina Parker mortgages. And stay tuned where I’m going to be creating my own website for my own business. And if you want to come to befree and have the best life of your time, you can come work with me and embark in this journey together.
Kristen (19:53)
Amazing. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. I think that you gave people a lot to think about and a lot of inspiration. So thank you everyone for listening. Please reach out to Carolina if you have any questions or want to work with her. I think that she has a lot to offer. So thanks everyone for listening. We’ll see you back next time. Bye.Carolina Parker (19:54)
Thank you, Kristen, for having me.
