Bodhi Babes Wonder Women - Zoë Van Gundy
- louisehewison
- Jan 18, 2015
- 6 min read
Meet our Bodhi Babes Wonder Woman #BBWW - Zoë Van Gundy
Entrepreneur, Real Estate Agent, Singer and Super Mom & Wife.
I am so excited to share this wonderful interview with you....
Zoë is a dear friend of mine, her and her family are gorgeous!
When you were a little girl, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A famous singer, definitely. What better way to make a living than by singing for people? It’s still my very favorite thing to do.
What do you do now? For work? For fun?
I help people buy and sell homes, and I LOVE it. For fun, I play music with my husband, Peter, and we go on a date night once a week. We usually pick one of the great restaurants in town and share some fantastic San Luis Obispo wine. I love to read and am secretly working on some writing. It’s too crap to share it with anyone yet, but maybe in ten years it’ll be readable. I also recently picked up yoga, and while I wouldn’t necessarily call it fun, it definitely feels great afterward!
How did you get into your area of expertise?
It started with the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, which Peter recommended to me because it changed his whole life perspective when he read it. The premise is basically that most people are financially illiterate, and he gives a very simple explanation of how one can become literate when it comes to money. Our retirement plan, developed after reading this book and several others, is not to put money into a 401k (which fluctuates with the ever-roiling stock market), but to own rental homes. After the crash in 2008, we were working diligently to try to acquire some homes, but fresh out of college, with no financial backing from family or elsewhere, and expecting our first child, we didn’t have the funds to beat out the cash investors. Peter had started a cleaning service when he graduated from Cal Poly, and we were still in the building stages. Since we were keen to get into the Real Estate industry, we figured going the agent route couldn’t hurt! I never knew that I was going to love it so much! It’s such a great feeling to represent homebuyers and sellers and help them with their needs.
What obstacles have you faced in following your dreams and how have you overcome them?
Where to begin…. The biggest obstacles are also my biggest joys: Our 3 daughters. We didn’t mean to do it so quickly, but we had 3 kids in 3 years, our first arriving only 11 months after we got married. With two small businesses, the last 5 years have been the toughest I’ve been through. Keeping family and work life in balance is our biggest priority, which is why we have a regular date night, and I only work “part time,” about 25-30 hours per week (although during some transactions, the clients want to talk only in the evenings and weekends). Luckily, we have the GREATEST nanny in the world, who has become a member of the family. I couldn’t do what I do if we didn’t have Chelsea.
Our work is also seasonal, especially our cleaning service which focuses mainly on windows. We have had some pretty tough winters, especially in the beginning. I’m talking rice-and-beans-or-chicken-soup-everyday tough. To overcome those difficult times, we’ve worked hard at giving the best customer service to build our word-of-mouth client base, and tried several different types of marketing until we’ve honed it down to what really works. Sometimes in business, it just takes time.
What’s the best part of what you do?
I’d say that what I do is pretty evenly divided among Real Estate, raising our girls, and playing gigs with Pete. The best part of Real Estate is the satisfaction of successfully serving our clients; the smile on their faces when I hand over the keys to their new home, or the joy in their voice when they confirm the sale proceeds are in their account… There’s nothing like it! I also really love the variety I experience: No two days are the same!
Our girls: Cleo (5), Violet (3), and Dagny (2) are amazing everyday. While the day-to-day things like meals, snacks, picking up toys, baths, picking up more toys, trying to keep them from fighting, crying, and drawing on the furniture can be difficult, watching them learn something new fills me with pride and joy. It’s true when they say the days of parenthood are long, but the years go by fast. Also, the cuddling is great.
We try to play more gigs now that the girls are a little but older, and everything is fun when it comes to playing music! Peter and I usually play at pubs and wine bars, but we’ve also played at weddings, and we were commissioned last year to write a song for our friends’ ten year anniversary/vow renewal. That was a really special event to be a part of, especially because one of them is a cancer survivor.
What advice do you have for other women who might want to follow suit?
Balance is the key, but you have to be willing to work really hard and forgo material wants (and even needs in some instances) if you want to succeed. Also, kindness and positivity win the day!
What’s your morning routine?
We usually try to sleep until one of the older girls sneaks into bed with us, usually around 7am. Then I go get the baby (the youngest is called “the baby” FOREVER) out of her crib and we all snuggle together for a couple of minutes before we have breakfast together. Pete makes a mean fried egg for me every morning (I know, I’m a spoiled wife), and scrambled eggs for himself the girls. Our nanny, Chelsea arrives around the same time as our co-owner and employees do, and everyone grabs coffee from our giant pot. Without fail, someone quotes Dave Grohl’s infamous “Coffee coffee coffee!!” bit, and Chelsea and I get the girls ready for school. She stays home with Dagny while the others go to preschool. It’s always a mad rush and our house is full of people! I’m one of nine children, so the craziness doesn’t really phase me. Then, we all go off to our various appointments, school, or jobs, which can vary every day.
3 things that are on your ‘to do’ list today?
Morning yoga class.
Finishing the application to get our eldest, Cleo, into the local charter elementary school.
Completing and sending Comparative Market Analyses to our internet/radio ad leads for the day and following up by phone to see how we can serve them.
What are you working on at the moment? Next project?
For Clearview, we are working on annual service contracts, with monthly payments to make it more affordable and easier for our clients, and to help even out cash flow during our slow season. This will also help increase the value of the business, because we will have contracts, in the instance that we ever decide to sell.
For Real Estate, we are working towards saving any extra income toward down payments on investment properties. And next month, we are taking a second round of classes offered by Brian Buffini that focus on referral marketing. For music, we are working on building up the number of gigs we play, and also recording our first original album.
One woman you admire and why?
My Mom, Christine Cipperly. She had a great career in public health, then worked for the church, and then decided to go back to school to become a Marriage and Family Therapist. She just opened her own practice! And all this after raising 9 kids, too!
Three wishes?
I don’t think I can honestly say I’d wish for anything different than what I already have. I wouldn’t wish for easy money or to be more successful without having to work for it, because when we succeed, the taste of it will be so sweet when I know we’ve really earned it. I guess I wish for world peace and that wine didn’t have any calories.
Who do you turn to for advice?
My mom or my Auntie Den. Denise is actually my mom’s first cousin, but our families our very close. Her daughter, Katie, was one of my bridesmaids.
Who do you turn to for a shoulder to cry on?
My sister, Mary, or Pete. Mary is 9 years my junior, but we are BFFs.
Favourite book?
It’s a tie between Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
Favourite movie?
Oooh, that’s tough, I have so many. Pride and Predjudice? The new one. Can I just say I love Downton Abbey?
Favourite childhood game?
Clue the board game.
Fantasy career?
Professional musician. It’s never too late, right?
Words for Monday motivation?
Keep your day job and start a business on the side! Entrepreneurship is so important in the world economy, but even more important for your own life. It forces you to learn time management, self discipline, service, people skills, and so much more. You learn to value yourself and your skills, fostering self worth and a sense of accomplishment. If you are already an entrepreneur, keep it up, ladies!! The world is your oyster.
#FeelGoodFriday song?
For this week, Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off.
Favourite quote?
“The miracle is not to fly in the air, but to walk on the earth.” Chinese Proverb
Contact Zoë
For specialist cleaning services in San Luis Obispo, CA :
For SLO Real Estate:
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