[Music] Hello everyone and Welcome to another episode of Selling Greenville your favorite real estate podcast located right here in Greenville South Carolina about Greenville South Carolina I'm your host as always Stan McCune as you guys all know I am a realtor located right here in Greenville well technically I'm in Greer but I am on the Greenville County side of Greer but regardless I am in the upstate I am a realtor here and as you guys always know what I always say is that all of my contact information is in the show notes should you need to reach me for any reason particularly if you're looking to buy or to sell a house or a property or whatever the case may be or if you know someone that is looking to buy or sell real estate in any form I'm your guy reach out to me refer anyone that you might know that that's looking for a realtor I love those referrals I get people contacting me all the time that say Hey I just gave your information to such and so be expecting a phone call from them there is no greater compliment to me than to to get a referral from someone so I really appreciate that when you guys do that and please continue to do that as often as you can and as well with regard to the show as I always say please go ahead and subscribe to it to make sure that you don't miss future episodes we're on a lot of different platforms not just Apple so if you use other platforms go ahead and look for selling Greenville subscribe to it on there give us a rating and a review that really helps the show helps get it out to more people and if I'm not on the podcast app that you prefer to use let me know and I'll see if I can fix that if I can get on it up to this point I haven't had anyone take me up on that so I guess I'm on the correct platforms but I want to make sure that offer is always out there these next two weeks as we're going into Christmas and then New Year's and Hanukkah all of that happening right now I want to kind of end with a bit of a review of 2020 for the next two weeks and not be so focused on the specific real estate market but just for you guys to get to know me better and obviously I'll I'll take this kind of in a real estate Direction but I just want to kind of summarize 2020 with these last two episodes and and make it a little bit more personal than perhaps some of the other episodes that we've had I have a lot of listeners on here that don't know me super well some that do some that maybe know me well but don't know everything that's been you know going on in my life and this is an opportunity for me to kind of share that and for us to to reflect on 2020 together and so this episode is going to be what I'm thankful for from the past year or or what has in my mind what I've become more thankful for over the past year in 2020 which has been a crazy year for all of us right we we all know this as every single TV show or commercial or whatever says we're all in this together so and yes I well aware we are all in this together 2020 has been an interesting year for me personally not just because of covid and so I've got five things that I'm thankful for in particular for this year and I just want to discuss that real quick and then next week we're going to be talking about what I think is going to be several stories that kind of just summarize and highlight what me as a realtor what my job looked like in 2020 now with regard to this episode five things that I'm thankful for I want to start with my health I think that that this is an important thing that I need to address and not just because of covid obviously any of us that we are still alive right now to see the light of day despite all that's been going on I think we need to be grateful just for that but a lot lot of you might not realize that 2020 has been a challenging year for me healthwise even though I didn't have covid I started the year with a ton of sickness I actually thought that maybe I had covid at the beginning of the year I had a respiratory virus that doctors couldn't figure out what it was and it took me a long time to recover I was wheezing during the night having coughing fits you know in the middle of the night which is very unusual for me all indications are this was kind of before Co was really on on the map you know for doctors and whatnot but now that we know that it's been here in the US since at least probably December of last year it it was possible that I could have had it this would have been in January but all the tests that I've had when I've donated blood they've done antibody tests and whatnot it does not appear that I ever had it but that was how I started the year I started the year with a bang with several weeks of just feeling awful and then in February it kind of all came to a head when I had a grandma seizure I think in some circles it's referred to as a tonic konic seizure whatever the case may be I had a major seizure event that landed me in the hospital actually on a closing day I was literally in the hospital woozy sending text messages to my client to let them know that unfortunately I would not be able to attend closing that was in a few hours and that was a that was a a scary situation I didn't really know what was happening I actually I had the seizure when nobody was home my wife was taking the kids to school I was you know awake in bed as you know she got up and took the kids to school I was just catching up on emails notifications social media all that stuff and I got up you know after she left to to start getting ready and next thing I knew I was not ready I was actually on the couch interestingly in our living room and my wife was in my face saying Stan Stan with her very alerted voice and I felt like I was drugged I mean I it was the feeling that you have when you're coming out of anesthesia I was completely Delirious in a ton of pain just my whole body in pain my mouth was bleeding my tongue was bleeding all sorts of all sorts of issues and my wife was obviously very very scared and we went to the hospital and they said that you know I had a lot of telltale signs that I had a a major seizure event believe it or not this is actually a blessing in disguise because I've been having health problems since 2014 in 2014 which is a year before I became a realtor or maybe a couple of years before I became a realtor it was at work that where I worked at the time that I just collapsed and I had a seizure event at that point but having seizures and having epilepsy apparently is kind of hard to diagnose particularly in my case and so it actually was kind of misdiagnosed as a as a different condition a condition that's hard to treat that's related to to blood pressure and whatnot I'm not going to go into the weeds and all of that but the long story short is six years later here I am finally I had a I've been having issues constantly for six years now where I never know if I'm going to you know just not feel myself or possibly will just pass out which now we know wasn't me passing out it was actually me having kind of many seizures and so this event that happen in February actually finally was the the thing that all the Physicians that I've been going to for six years finally needed to conclude that okay you have epilepsy like this is the problem this is what we've been needing to treat this whole time I had some physicians in the past that I did not care for that probably should have caught this or should have at least explored it a little bit more but it is what it is at least now we know they put me on a medication in February and since then I've felt really good I still have some residual pains in my rib cage area from just apparently how much I tensed up from the seizure it is probably 90 90% good I'm able to to function physically at 90% there's just sometimes like when I'm sitting in the car for a really long time that I start to feel that pain in you know my body start to just feel pain just from being in the same position from a for a long time but in at the end of the day this is the best that I've felt in a really long time and I'm really grateful for that now again one thing that you may not know in fact some of my clients at the time didn't even know it I was told for 6 months I couldn't drive and that was because of seizures the risk of of having a seizure they they you know they come on you very quickly and I I do usually in the past when I've had them I could usually feel them coming on right before they would but regardless the medical professionals that I was communicating with they and that were treating me they said no we we need to make sure that this medication works that you go seizure-free for 6 months and so I had to have people drive me around for for 6 months as a realtor that's not easy I was made aware recently that there is a legally blind realtor who that's her life she has people constantly driving her and she she's found some pretty creative ways to get that done without having to pay a fortune in my case my wife did a lot of that and I had other people that that volunteered and that were really kind to to take me different places but it created a a pretty challenging year of of real estate for me but that's the way this is we have to persevere we have to to press through and actually Co made some things a little bit easier you know whereas I couldn't drive to a lot of places anyway it was more convenient for me to do things remotely now everyone was doing things remotely so in some ways it it made things a little bit simpler but that is when I think about 2020 honestly more than covid that is what comes to mind for me is my personal health and just how that impacted everything and I kind of already alluded to this but number number two and this is not this is not in order of importance obviously and there's a lot of things that I'm leaving out that I'm thankful for that I I just have a very specific list just for this podcast but but the first thing that comes to mind is just my health just because that's been something I've been dealing with all the time and just naturally out of that comes my family and you know they have been very supportive of me in this obviously it's it's difficult when you have a lot of health issues I mean there there was several weeks after I had my seizure that I was basically bedridden because I was in so much pain from the just how much I convulsed when when I had the seizure like I said nobody saw it but the the pain that I had afterwards testified to it just how bad it was and my family they went through a lot my wife big shout out to her driving me around listen we have very different driving Styles and also very different time management systems that we use and that we employ in our lives and there were some heated moments in there and some sometimes when I just wanted to get somewhere 5 minutes early instead of 5 minutes late and sometimes that can be a challenge and then we had to to bring our kids with us to a lot of places I was showing houses and I'd have my whole family with me and they were great Troopers my wife was a big Trooper neither of us could have been happier than when we eclipsed that six-month Mark and I could drive again I was I was given a green light by doctors to go ahead and and move forward with being able to drive again my family they they they went through a lot with this as well and and I am extremely grateful for them if I wasn't prior to this year I definitely am am now I've seen a different side of them a side of them where where you know I've always been the one that I feel like I've always been the provider for them and and always have worked for them and I and I had to see some of those roles reversed in a way that was humbling and also challenging for them and it just makes me more grateful for them thirdly comes to mind is obviously from a real estate standpoint my clients my clients have been great this year like I said there was a level of patience that they had to have with me as I you know was going through what I was going through this year and really the the most helpful thing for me was that they you know when they saw that my wife was driving me around some some of my clients didn't even ever know I I didn't make a big deal about it I didn't want to make any of them feel bad you know particularly if they clients looking at a lot of houses I had a lot of buyer clients right around the time that I had this seizure so that means that you know for me when I have a lot of a period of a lot of buyer clients that means I'm having to drive to a lot of places and do a lot of showings I didn't want to make any of my clients feel like they were inconveniencing me or make them feel like they needed to feel bad I didn't want them to feel bad for looking at houses that that was my job and if I couldn't perform my job to it's to my the entire ability that I have to my full of stability then I needed to be handing off my clients to to other people so I didn't bring it up my clients were were patient as they would see that I would be chauffeured different places and in some unique situations I would reveal to my clients hey this is this is what happened and and there would be some times where they would even you know drive me from one house to the next very unique I like I said this year has been about as weird as you could possibly imagine but I had some really great clients this year as I as I have my entire five-year career as a realtor they were patient with me we had a great year in a lot of different ways and I was able to help a lot of clients with their Investments with selling off homes as as they relocated to different areas people moving back to the area after having moved out of the area it it was there's so many stories that I could tell from this year of of all these different things that that my real estate clients were doing and in the end I'm I'm just grateful I'm grateful to be a part of all of that I'm grateful that I was able to to still work with them even as my life got complicated and it was a great year I have only gratefulness in my heart for for all that happened this year real estate wise and with my clients and similarly the fourth thing that I'm thankful for and I've thought about this a lot this year is that I'm self-employed being self-employed is not for everyone you have to have a certain mindset you have to be willing to go through a lot of uncertainty at different times you have to be self-driven in a lot of different ways and I was I I I've been working since I was I think 14 years old I think I might have been 15 but it was right on right on the edge of 14 or 15 I may have probably just turned 15 I was a first one in my class in high school or middle school School whatever it was that got a job and I have been working since I was a kid I wanted that that that wasn't forced on me I wanted to be able to work I enjoyed working I I it was liberating being able to make money in a way that I had never made it before and I was I was an employee of a company in one form or another all through high school all through college graduated College immediately got a job a job that I kept for 9 years roughly speaking and then I became self-employed after that and that was obviously me being a realtor and this is definitely the lifestyle for me when I go back and think about it it's like wow how how is it that I worked all those years for other people having quot all these different quotas and all these different you know responsibilities and ideas being thrown at me that for me having that self-employed mindset it rubs you the wrong way people that are entrepreneurial that are geared towards self-employment they don't like to to work for the man so to speak as the phrase goes they they want to be able to set their own agenda and do their own thing and when I finally went out and started doing that it was overwhelming at first but now that I've been doing it for however many years I'm I'm settled in and this now that I fully understand after having done this for five years the differences between being self-employed versus just being traditionally employed I don't think I could ever go back back I think Co has revealed that even more I have some friends that are in businesses that are really struggling right now and it's scary for them you know they might not necessarily know where that next paycheck is going to come from or if it's going to come at all and for me I'm in a situation where obviously nothing is handed to you when you're self-employed but I'm able to set my own course if my business is slow for whatever reason I have a lot of other things that I can be doing if my business is busy I know how to manage that I can manage that the way I want to and not have someone else tell me how to do that and I'm I'm with a great firm I'm with cedan Joiner Realtors which is a part of the Burkshire hathway Home Services Network at least I'm with them as of this recording I'm on a team the Morgan group that provides me a a lot of great resources marketing an assistant a lot of other things that that helps me to have my own team here as well and it is so dramatically better than anything that I ever experienced out in the normal Workforce and yeah I'm just really grateful for that and last but not least this is again putting a little bit of a real estate spin on this 2020 has really made me grateful for my house I had some people over recently that they hadn't been to my house before and for those of you that don't know I moved in here my family and I we moved in here last year and we decided to make that big move right you know a lot of people they they buy their first home and then you know they might do a little bit of an upgrade for that and then at some point they do like that that big move where they move into the the real big house with all the the amenities that that they want and whatnot and we just we decided to kind of skip that middle one and make what for us at least was the big move from our from our first home to kind of like the home that we wanted to be in really as our kids grow up and so we moved into a a big basement home we've got a full finished R finished Ranch Main Floor and then a full finished basement below you guys have heard me talk about it at different times and there there's a lot of cool things we have a game room a movie theater room we've set it up over the over the past year to personalize in a lot of different ways I've got an office down here that's where I am right now recording this never had an office in my house before all of this stuff has been clutch let me tell you it has been clutch in 2020 for me to be able to I I used to go into my real estate office which C Dan Jer has an office on North Pleasantburg Drive near Bob Jones I used to go there every single day now since since my seizure I've probably been there a total of maybe 10 times and it's not because now I I can't drive because I can so that's not the reason why I'm not going there it's because now I've got my whole office set up at home home and it is it's been perfect for me the the perfect setup for me to have for 2020 having different fun things to do in the house having fun spaces spaces specifically designed to to provide enjoyment has been really helpful as well as we've you know went for months where we kind of couldn't leave the house or couldn't do a whole lot we had fun spaces that we could enjoy Joy here we've got woods and a creek behind our house we have in our community a pool sidewalks and whatnot and all of these things I've I've really come to realize and I recorded a while back a an episode that was your house is your lifestyle and that came out of me coming to this realization that my lifestyle would be completely different if I were going through this year at the house that I used to live in and the house that we were able to get was able to dramatically improved different parts of our lifestyle that really came to a head here in 2020 and so I'm I'm grateful for that I I'm a a man of faith if you want to say that I'm a Christian and I don't think I don't believe in coincidences this house came on the market right at the right time for us and it's a very unique house for our neighborhood there's not another house like it in the neighborhood and we were just about to go under contract with another house at the time that this one came on the market and we were able to to move on from that other one and snatch this one and I'm just grateful for that I'm I'm grateful that I'm able to enjoy things without having to leave my home that I'm able to get things done without having to leave my home and it's it's been a real asset to what our lifestyle has had to be here in 2020 so that's what I'm thankful for just off the top of my head five things my health my family my clients being self-employed my house those things again there are far more things that I could talk about that I'm thankful for I'm thankful for a gazillion things but those are the five things that I'm going to leave you with next episode we'll conclude with part two we'll conclude 2020 how about that I think we're all ready to move on from 2020 we'll we'll conclude this year of podcast with part two of my summary of 2020 and I hope you listen to that I hope to hear from you guys again my contact information is in the show notes if you ever need to reach me for any reason please do I'll be available over the holidays I'm happy to hear from you R where you subscribe to the podcast to the show hope you guys have a merry Christmas happy Hanukkah spend some time with the family enjoy some time with your loved ones open some gifts eat some great food until next time stay safe [Music]