Candice Bakx-Friesen is a Top Performing Realtor, Entrepreneur, Money Coach, and Speaker

Episode
Candice Bakx-Friesen (www.candicebakxfriesen.com) is passionate about helping people reach their financial dreams. She is a highly motivated woman who has...
Key takeaways
- Success as a real estate agent requires running your own business independently, including marketing, bookkeeping, and client management, rather than relying on leads from your brokerage.
- Building a support team is essential for entrepreneurial success, whether that's hiring help for bookkeeping and marketing or having family support to manage work and home responsibilities.
- Consistency and showing up every day is the hardest but most critical part of building any successful business or achieving personal goals.
- Financial literacy should be taught early to children, starting with lessons about the value of hard work and trade-offs as young as age four, rather than waiting until high school.
- Work-life integration is more realistic than work-life balance for entrepreneurs, requiring intentional planning of important personal time like date nights and one-on-one time with family while fitting work around those priorities.
Transcript
Full transcript page · Interactive episode
============================================================ TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS ============================================================ [00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's podcast, the number one podcast for entrepreneurs by [00:06] SPEAKER_01: entrepreneurs. Hello and welcome to Manitoba's podcast with Mario Toneguzi on Canada's [00:13] SPEAKER_01: podcast network. Joining me today is Candace Bax-Friezen who is a realtor, an [00:20] SPEAKER_01: entrepreneur, a money coach and a speaker. Thanks for joining us today Candace. [00:25] SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Mario. Well you do a lot of things. Let's focus on a couple [00:29] SPEAKER_01: of things. Let me first talk about being a realtor and how long you've been a [00:35] SPEAKER_01: realtor and Manitoba. I also see you do some training of realtor is in there. [00:40] SPEAKER_00: Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah definitely. Now so I've been a real [00:44] SPEAKER_00: estate agent for both 13 years and it's one of those careers that I think a lot [00:49] SPEAKER_00: of people look at it and they think from the outside, wow that's exciting and [00:53] SPEAKER_00: you get to drive around and show houses but you know you sort of see the tip of [00:58] SPEAKER_00: the iceberg like so many jobs and careers. That's just the tip of the iceberg. [01:03] SPEAKER_00: So yeah it's a pretty evolved career. It's something that you obviously work a [01:08] SPEAKER_00: lot of evenings a weekend and so the biggest struggle with that I think in that [01:13] SPEAKER_00: type of business is just be able to manage home and life and integrate all [01:19] SPEAKER_00: that right. So I've got four kids and obviously a very understanding and [01:25] SPEAKER_00: helpful has been to make that all work but yeah so that's what I do [01:29] SPEAKER_00: mainly and then do some coaching as well. So the coaching really came from [01:35] SPEAKER_00: giving back and wanting to help others find success as well and so I help agents [01:41] SPEAKER_00: get started whether that's you know from day one or whether they're looking to [01:46] SPEAKER_00: sort of take their business to the next level. Okay maybe again you talk a [01:50] SPEAKER_01: little bit about that of being a realtor. I think a lot of people have the [01:54] SPEAKER_01: nice notion in their head right? You know they get the real estate license and [01:58] SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna sell properties and I'm gonna make a lot of money [02:01] SPEAKER_01: but it truly is a business isn't it? Because there's everything involved with [02:06] SPEAKER_01: being a business and you're on entrepreneur. Can you talk a little bit about [02:10] SPEAKER_01: that and just the business of being a realtor? Yeah for sure that's a great [02:15] SPEAKER_00: question. So many people think is that you know as a real estate agent the company [02:20] SPEAKER_00: must give you leads and they help you do all this but it really isn't it's [02:25] SPEAKER_00: it's sort of like having a franchise where there's a name right? There's [02:29] SPEAKER_00: Century 21, Remax, Ruella Page in my case but you are really running the [02:34] SPEAKER_00: business so they don't give you anything in terms of they think of you software [02:40] SPEAKER_00: and support in different ways but really you're running your own business so [02:44] SPEAKER_00: you have the marketing hat one day and you've got the running around showing [02:48] SPEAKER_00: properties you know the next minute but you also have to do yours to teach [02:53] SPEAKER_00: you climbing you have to do your bookwork and everything else that's involved [02:57] SPEAKER_00: much like any other entrepreneur where you're wearing all the hats. You know [03:01] SPEAKER_01: that's an S great point because I remember there was a friend of mine who's an [03:05] SPEAKER_01: artist a well-known artist and Calgary does very very well but I remember him [03:11] SPEAKER_01: telling me that one day saying you know what he said Mario I've got two jobs he [03:16] SPEAKER_01: said I've got the job of being an artist and painter but I also have the [03:20] SPEAKER_01: business job right and I think a lot of people really don't understand that [03:25] SPEAKER_01: when it comes to entrepreneurship right is that you do wear a lot of different [03:31] SPEAKER_01: hats as you mentioned so how do you do that like how do you I guess find the [03:36] SPEAKER_01: time in 24 hours to basically run two jobs? Yeah well the big thing is that I've [03:43] SPEAKER_00: got a team of people helping me and that's another thing is that nobody finds [03:48] SPEAKER_00: success on their own right there's always people that will help you in [03:51] SPEAKER_00: different ways in your business whether that's somebody who's saying hey I've [03:55] SPEAKER_00: got somebody who's looking to sell their house and they're sending you a [03:58] SPEAKER_00: referral or hiring people to help you so a bookkeeper or somebody who's [04:04] SPEAKER_00: helping me with marketing and obviously running my household and then the kids [04:09] SPEAKER_00: and all that stuff being a working woman you know you still have to run all [04:15] SPEAKER_00: that as well and like I said I have a husband who's very on board but some [04:19] SPEAKER_00: people don't and or they're doing it by themselves and that presents its own [04:24] SPEAKER_00: challenges when you're an entrepreneur for sure yeah no you also mentioned [04:28] SPEAKER_01: in your in your bio that you're a money coach can you explain that what is [04:32] SPEAKER_00: that? Yeah so a lot of people they you know you don't really learn a lot in [04:38] SPEAKER_00: school about finances a lot of people it was kind of a taboo subject growing up [04:43] SPEAKER_00: and so you're just kind of expected to figure this stuff out and yet money is [04:49] SPEAKER_00: everything in life right you know it's part of all facets of life and so you [04:55] SPEAKER_00: have you know not really knowing what to do and not really knowing how to ask [05:00] SPEAKER_00: people you know it's not a topic that comes up over dinner you know hey how you [05:04] SPEAKER_00: know what kind of work it should you get or what are you investing in it's one of [05:08] SPEAKER_00: those topics that people just kind of go wide eyed like what do we talk about [05:12] SPEAKER_00: this so you're supposed to kind of figure this all out but most people don't [05:16] SPEAKER_00: really know where to turn investment people who sell investments will do some [05:23] SPEAKER_00: of that as part of their job but sometimes people are like well do I trust [05:28] SPEAKER_00: this do I know whether they're just trying to sell me investments and so it's [05:33] SPEAKER_00: just somebody who can look independently at what you're doing and offer advice so [05:39] SPEAKER_00: it's sort of that peace of mind so it's whether it's budgeting to looking at [05:44] SPEAKER_00: you know some different investment opportunities and and then sort of making a [05:48] SPEAKER_00: bit of a plan right because so often in life we just kind of go through the [05:52] SPEAKER_00: motions but if you could make a plan of what what you'd like to actually [05:56] SPEAKER_00: accomplish in life what are your dreams what are your things that you're working [06:00] SPEAKER_00: towards then you have a better chance of making it to you know having those [06:05] SPEAKER_01: come into fruition yeah and when you look I guess this becomes even more [06:11] SPEAKER_01: important and increasingly important these days right all the economic challenges [06:16] SPEAKER_01: we have out there with pandemic and other things depending on what part of the [06:20] SPEAKER_01: country you're in and there's specific economic challenges there you know when [06:26] SPEAKER_01: you look at the whole financial thing from the from a personal standpoint [06:32] SPEAKER_01: even actually for entrepreneurs where do they find information like we're you [06:37] SPEAKER_01: know you know you mentioned talking about school should we start teaching this [06:41] SPEAKER_01: stuff at a young age to to kids so that they're not forward when they they [06:46] SPEAKER_01: enter the real world and they're thinking about you know what's a mortgage and [06:51] SPEAKER_00: type thing yeah yeah definitely and I think sooner the sooner the better because [06:56] SPEAKER_00: sometimes this stuff will come up in high school years in school yeah but that's [07:01] SPEAKER_00: not really early enough you know like at that point already a lot of teenagers [07:05] SPEAKER_00: kind of zone out or they're like I really need to know this but when when I [07:09] SPEAKER_00: started with my own kids you know we started at age four talking about not [07:13] SPEAKER_00: necessarily money but like what's the value of working hard you know you could [07:18] SPEAKER_00: pitch in too because as a household we run as a team everybody helps out and you [07:23] SPEAKER_00: know trade-offs like okay well I can buy you another like I said but does it [07:27] SPEAKER_00: make more sense that we give to a family who needs food right now right so [07:31] SPEAKER_00: there's these life lessons that you can teach and sort of sprinkle along the way [07:35] SPEAKER_00: so what's your background in this area so I was one of those nerdy kids when I [07:41] SPEAKER_00: was like 12 years old I came from an entrepreneurial background and when I was [07:45] SPEAKER_00: about 12 I was like okay I can see people around me successful but how am I [07:50] SPEAKER_00: gonna figure this out and so I just I started buying financial books and and [07:55] SPEAKER_00: just figuring out on on my own and then I went to university and got my [08:01] SPEAKER_00: bachelor of commerce as well from the university in Lentoba and so again this is [08:07] SPEAKER_00: just gonna all come full circle which happens so often in life but you know [08:11] SPEAKER_00: with helping people with houses some people are like you know what you know [08:15] SPEAKER_00: stuff about money I can tell so and then they start asking me these questions and [08:19] SPEAKER_00: I just realized there's such a need out there for people to figure out the [08:23] SPEAKER_00: money piece and like I said it affects everything like you know you want to have [08:27] SPEAKER_00: strong relationships you want to have a great marriage or partnership you want [08:32] SPEAKER_00: to and so part of the biggest issue in marriages is usually finances right so [08:37] SPEAKER_00: helping to have strong relationships impacting the next generation coming up [08:42] SPEAKER_00: and when you can have strong families you also have strong communities as well [08:49] SPEAKER_01: Candice what do you like about being an entrepreneur? I love that every day is [08:53] SPEAKER_00: different and you never know what you're going to get every day is just it's a [08:58] SPEAKER_00: new challenge it's new opportunities to help people to to impact people's lives [09:04] SPEAKER_00: what what don't you like? Well sort of the same thing right? The challenge can be [09:11] SPEAKER_00: that you don't know what you're going to be doing and a couple hours later so [09:15] SPEAKER_00: that can be challenging you know if I'm just looking at myself in a bubble that's [09:19] SPEAKER_00: one thing but when you have kids and you know our friends of ours they know [09:24] SPEAKER_00: Candice might not be at dinner tonight when you know when we have a get together [09:28] SPEAKER_00: with friends and things like that so yeah it can be challenging that you're [09:32] SPEAKER_00: constantly putting sort of other people first in this business being a real [09:36] SPEAKER_00: through your always kind of running for everybody else so it's challenging but at the same [09:42] SPEAKER_01: time the rewards are greater. Yeah when you when you look back at say your professional life [09:48] SPEAKER_01: is there anything that's stuck with you in terms of advice on being a professional being a [09:54] SPEAKER_00: business owner? I think the biggest part of anything that's tough in life whether that's [10:01] SPEAKER_00: business or personal life is the consistency and making sure that you're showing up every day [10:07] SPEAKER_00: that's not it really is the hardest part you know I compare it always to somebody working out at a [10:11] SPEAKER_00: gym because that's easy for people to kind of recognize and to see that but you know if I want [10:16] SPEAKER_00: to have a great body I can't go to the gym once right and it's the same thing in life right if you [10:21] SPEAKER_00: want to have great relationships if you want to have a great business you have to show up and be [10:26] SPEAKER_01: consistent every day. No that's that's true you know and we have one of the things I think that many [10:33] SPEAKER_01: entrepreneurs learn as they travel through this journey is the I guess the lessons learned in failure [10:41] SPEAKER_01: right? What about yourself have you learned a lot of lessons when you know when things you know [10:48] SPEAKER_00: when things aren't going so great? Yeah definitely and like we're always growing as human beings too [10:55] SPEAKER_00: right? Well like I'm not the same person I was when I was 18 and so you know your business changes [11:00] SPEAKER_00: and you have just different challenges so you know when you're just starting out you've got a lot of [11:05] SPEAKER_00: time as you get really busy then you have less time but you now need to hire people to help you out [11:11] SPEAKER_00: and so now you're dealing with employees and different challenges around that and you know you go [11:17] SPEAKER_00: from well I've never had somebody working under me to figure that out while you're still running [11:23] SPEAKER_00: your business and scaling and all these different things so I think it's yeah it's definitely [11:29] SPEAKER_00: ongoing challenges and you know as much as you try and do your best you're never going to say the [11:34] SPEAKER_00: right things you're always right and so just trying to figure out all those different pieces and [11:41] SPEAKER_00: people that work with you grow over the years you know my assistant's been with me for 11 years [11:47] SPEAKER_00: and so she's also changed and so we grow together just just like any relationship. [11:52] SPEAKER_01: I'm curious you know over over that time is there any books that you read that then help you [11:58] SPEAKER_00: in terms of your business life? To come up with some names off the top of my head I'm not sure [12:05] SPEAKER_00: that I'm constantly looking at different business books there's also things like TED Talks [12:13] SPEAKER_00: and their school past and there's so many amazing resources podcasts it's a very new one right now [12:20] SPEAKER_00: just over the last couple of years of course they've been growing leaps and bounds there's just [12:25] SPEAKER_00: so much information out there so I think part of the problem is that it's not hard to find information [12:32] SPEAKER_00: but it's actually implementing it and making sure you do right? So I guess it's important as an [12:38] SPEAKER_01: ought to pre-nerd to stay on top of things and information whether you know obviously you're a real [12:44] SPEAKER_01: you have to know what the market's like right and and for me to know about that and just general [12:49] SPEAKER_00: economic trends right? Yeah and in any business you know you're you're working in the business [12:55] SPEAKER_00: because you're the entrepreneur but you're also need to make sure you're taking that time [13:00] SPEAKER_00: for working on your business like you said you know what are the strategies where what do we want [13:05] SPEAKER_00: to accomplish in the next few months setting goals and accomplishing that and yeah okay well [13:13] SPEAKER_01: you know these days everybody talks about sort of work-life balance right and out there how would [13:19] SPEAKER_00: you say or your work-life balance is these days? So I hate the word balance so I use the word [13:28] SPEAKER_00: work-life integration I use that phrase because I think that's a little bit more appropriate for [13:33] SPEAKER_00: people and I think work-life balance can give people that guilt you know that everything's not [13:39] SPEAKER_00: this perfect piece of the pie so it's definitely important to make sure that you're that you have [13:45] SPEAKER_00: all the different areas of life covered right that you're taking care of your health that you have [13:50] SPEAKER_00: great relationships with others and with your family and I think part of it is just being really [13:55] SPEAKER_00: intentional and so often we want life to be exciting and sporadic and fly by the seat of our [14:02] SPEAKER_00: pants but then things don't work out as well right so it whether that's planning date nights you know [14:07] SPEAKER_00: we can go out and actually go out to eat or it's planning a one-on-one date with our kids or whatever [14:14] SPEAKER_00: that looks like but planning the dates and the times that matter and then trying to work the work [14:20] SPEAKER_01: stuff around that and what about in terms of your interests yeah what other interests do you have [14:27] SPEAKER_01: obviously beyond besides your your business and professional life and your family life? [14:31] SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah so much of the time is taken up with the kids because they're just you you want to [14:38] SPEAKER_00: make them a priority and their interests become what you know you sort of sent to your life around [14:43] SPEAKER_00: but a big part of what really fills my cup I sort of say would be just to get together with others [14:49] SPEAKER_00: and so I do a lot of coffee dates with friends and going out with friends and stuff so that's [14:55] SPEAKER_00: that's kind of a big one for me obviously spending time in the gym is important to me too and [15:00] SPEAKER_01: again taking care of yourself okay super then well thanks for joining us today Candice thank [15:06] SPEAKER_01: you so much for the invitation okay great that was Candice back's reason who is a realtor [15:13] SPEAKER_01: entrepreneur money coach and speaker based in Steinbeck Manitoba this has been Manitoba's [15:21] SPEAKER_01: podcast with Mario Tarnaguzzi on Candidus podcast network thanks for joining us today
