Luxury Buyers Want More Than a Beautiful Home with Allison Richards

But here's today's real hook. Allison is a competitive equestrian and a serious student of wellness. And she's become the agent other top agents call to understand how wellness is reshaping what luxury buyers actually want. Home gyms, recovery suites, entire neighborhoods built around how people want to live. She's even organizing a wellness salon to get the top names in luxury real estate talking about it. And that's exactly where we're headed today. Please welcome Allison Richard.

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Go to 10xarch.com/ownit. That's the ad. Let's get into it. >> Hey Allison, thanks so much for being here. >> Hey Ross, it's awesome to see you. My guest today is proof that you can build a serious real estate business without burning through relationships to do it. Allison Richards is the founder and principal of the Richers Group at Compass 3A. Picture Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Alice Beach. Some of the most sought-after beach real estate in the country.

Since 2020, she and her team have closed more than $450 million in sales, and nearly half of that comes from referrals and repeat clients. That's 25 years of relationships, not lead genen, from Palm Beach to the 38 corridor. Allison is a certified luxury home marketing specialist and this year her peers at Realm voted her the 2026 Realm Crown Award for Marketing Excellence. No panel, no committee, just top advisers recognizing one of their own. But here's today's real hook. Allison is a competitive equestrian and a serious student of wellness.

And she's become the agent other top agents call to understand how wellness is reshaping Please welcome Allison Richards. >> Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here with you. >> Awesome. Well, I want to start with this. So, I know that you started as a top producing solo agent and now you're the founder and principal of a team that's closed more than $450 million since 2020. So, the first thing I want to know is what made you decide to stop being the best individual producer and build something bigger?

I think as we evolve in our careers, anyone who really has a drive to grow and to expand in their business knows they can't do it by themselves. What is the phrase? We're a master of all but not of one thing. So, we all have superhuman talents, but then they're talents that we don't have. And my talent is being front-facing, interacting, educating, coming up with creative concept, creating a vision for people that may not know what their vision or destination is in real estate, but I'm not good at training or I am not patient.

So, those are the things that I know are not in my toolbox, and I need a support to surround me with all of those details and tools that aren't at the top of the list for me. So, we could not do this business with all of the innuendos and all of the details that go into it without our team and our support staff. >> This is so true. I You've been doing this just a few years more than I have. >> Mhm. >> But I also started long ago when we had to wear, let's say, 10 hats. Now, I feel like it's 25 hats.

And there's just there's just no way to have incredibly high levels of of success alone. And if you do, you may have no life outside of it. So I think it's it's really crucial to have an amazing team around you. >> That's right. So that I think that came into play even well before AI, you know, came into the picture.

So AI has added so many more layers that make it more detailed on how we advertise, on how we get the word out, on how we curate our websites, on how we prompt our listings, on what the little details are under each photo so that AI is recognizing it. So I think to your point, instead of wearing 10 hats, it's added 15 more hats because of technology and the way the market is trended and that just makes our jobs much more layered.

>> Now, now are you when when you're talking about AI and making sure that everything is able to be recognized by AI? Are are you doing that alone? Did you hire somebody to do that? You know what's interesting is I started with um chat GPT and just giving it little commands and questions to ask who's the top luxury agent in the 30A market. And I just wanted to test to see what our saturation was and what our access was to the general public.

And what I noticed was probably last year I was getting hits directly from people that found me through whatever they use. So chat GBT or Claude or um Perplexity and they had already researched me and could tell me my whole bio. And so that became very apparent to me on how powerful AI was becoming to basically drive how traffic was finding us. And so it made it even more imperative for me to be able to follow how they were searching who the top agent was in a luxury market. And other agents realized that.

I'd say for about 6 months they're like how did you get yourself in the top three or how do you do that? But it's over time and it's over many years of experience and it's over consistency and delivering the same message consistently on multiple platforms. >> And so it I don't do this on my own but it's really fascinating to me to watch how things change. So about four months ago, I used that prompt again and I didn't come up in the top three, but another Allison with an A L L I S O N came up.

>> And so somehow she had gotten herself into the market and doesn't have, you know, almost 25 years of experience, hasn't been in the area as long. So I realized it's really important to be able to understand and how to navigate this. >> Yeah. And I mean it's it sounds like we potentially have similar businesses as far as far as our client base which which I want to get into. >> Okay. >> I understand that nearly half your business comes from referrals and repeat clients.

And then it sounds like you're also really leaning into the new world of AI in all of this. So we're doing we're doing something similar because I've also noticed that one of the things that's changed in the past two decades is you know 20 years ago when I would get referred by someone that was it. I was their agent. We're done. Yes. >> Now they're still researching us online after they get the referral and so we better show up. >> That's right. >> Yeah. >> So I want to know about your um referrals and repeat clients.

Okay. >> How do you you know what did you build to to to make sure that they you're always front of mind and they come back to you? >> Sure. So it's really about cultivating a continued relationship.

So we all talk about transactions and at some point in our career evolution we were probably transactional as we were learning the business and as we did not have as much depth and experience and knowledge and there's a certain point in your career where you shift from transactional to relationship based and once you shift into that you really become even more of a servant and wanting to be there to assist with anything that you can possibly help with because the clients become your friends. They become like your family.

You're meeting their family members. They're calling you and saying, "Hey, what are you up to when I come into town? Are you around?" Or we're reaching out to them. Some of them aren't as want as much wanting to engage. Some of them are a little more private. So of course those relationships I think are based more on professional education and sending them knowledge about the market and letting them know what is trending and what's happening in the market or where there's opportunity in the market.

So my morning ritual is really to get a feel for what is happening as far as which properties are pending, which properties are new, which properties are coming soon, was there a prominent sale that just happened? And then you almost have all of these people in your brain as a memory or a moment and you think about them each morning.

And if there's something relevant that comes up in the real estate market or it could be even something that let's say they have a child that goes to Auburn and the child is playing on professional team and you see Auburn one or let's say their business is trending and they're diversifying into China or Japan or Europe and you're keeping an eye on their market then you're kind of conversing with them about what you saw happen in the market and is their business impacted by this.

So you try to find a common talking point that they want to connect on and you build the relationship on that and that's really when I realized it's not a transaction. It's about having a continued long-term evolution. And that's where we become the advisor. We are not just someone who's selling real estate. We're actually advising them on where their next best investment is.

And then what I've had some great experience with is when CO hit and we had people that wanted to move completely out of their states, they came first, but then shortly thereafter came the mom and dad and then after the mom and dad came the brother and then came the sister. And so that's happened several times within our sphere in our client relationships. And I think that's how you evolve repeat in referral business. We have a really big feeder market in Houston and a lot of these people all come to vacation on 38 together.

And when I say come together, it's something like 50 people. So I remember we were at a dinner. >> That's amazing. That's like they all know each other. >> Like a group of friends, >> right? And all >> our friends, all different generations are friends. the grandparents, the parents, the children, and we said, "We want to come and hang out with all of you and meet all your friends, and we want to buy you dessert for like the whole group." And so, we did that. We did that at the Old Florida Fish House on 3A.

And it's like these people had so much fun, had so much love and enjoyment of this area. And you almost see it through a different lens because when you're living in a resort destination, you're living here, but you're working here. And so sometimes you're not having the resort experience. And sometimes it takes you a moment to step back and start hanging with your clients and seeing how they're looking at your area through their lens.

And then you get a little better perspective on how much they appreciate and enjoy it, which gives you more appreciation and enjoyment. >> Well, it sounds like you become part of the resort experience. You're like, I need to deliver a fun experience for you as well. >> Yeah, exactly. >> And I love that. It's it's like um extreme creative relationship building. >> It is. And my husband's on my team, Scotty. So, he's a retired BAE executive. And BAE is an independent contractor for the defense industry.

So, his career was contract negotiation with Boeing. So, if you look at one of those contracts, that's like a 300page contract. And he got into real estate and he's looking at the contract. He's like, "Is this it? Is is this what the contract is?" >> That's amazing. And I was like, "Yes, that's what it is." But Scotty's morphed into the business over the past six years. And he had a really creative, cool way to invite this family to the area and and really get to understand it. They had a mountain house.

They lived in an urban location in Atlanta and they just bought a beach house within walking distance in Blue Mountain Beach, but they really hadn't experienced it with their family together. So, they had 12 people come down and we were able to partner them with the yacht company locally that does yacht tours all over the Gulf of Mexico. So, you don't have to just go fishing, right? You could go and have uh cocktail sunset on the bay. You could have it on the Gulf.

But what this couple decided to do is invite 12 of their family and then they're making an 8-day excursion. So that's just kind of trying to bring memories and and lifetime experiences to the people that you really appreciate and are grateful for. >> I love that. So I want to know more. You you talked about your morning ritual. >> So it tell me if I have this right and and tell me what I'm missing. So it sounds like cuz I just I just love how we are all our own bosses. Everyone's got to be self motivated.

Everyone's got to lean into whatever direction they're personally going in. And everyone's wildly different in this in this business. So, it sounds like you were saying that every morning the first thing you do is you look at I'm assuming it's your MLS, but I know there's a lot of offmarket stuff which I'm going to ask you about too. >> Sure. >> To see what's been going on and use that as a jumping off point to connect with your database.

Now are the when you see things that just let's just talk about the MLS for a second or or what >> you know things that have changed for actual properties when you see that are people just popping in your mind or are you relying on some kind of like CRM tool that's saying hey call these five people today >> so it fascinates me on how to become successful at continuing to stay in touch with your database and it can be very scientifically driven and I've taken Ninja and that is something I keep in the back of my mind.

So, it's 10 touches a day for me is is what my number is. And that's usually six days a week. So, in my mind, I want to touch 10 people a day, whether that's a new client, a new lead, a repeat client, or a family member of a repeat client, but in some way touching that sphere. I also have a couple different CRM. So, I have one CRM, which is Compass. And so I always look and see who who's opened the collections and who's engaging and who's interacting. And then I have another CRM which is follow-up boss.

So it's like I'm it's like when you're cooking, you know, you have a recipe, but you're really not going to follow that recipe exactly what it says in the book. You're going to follow the recipe that actually works for you. So it's like a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and that's how you create who you're touching and how you're following up in your database. And I have an admin on the back side.

And so anything that's data entry oriented, if you think about taking your let's just say your net income and you're going to divide that by the number of hours that you're working and you figure out what is my hourly rate and what what is my hour hourly time worth. I've figured out how to extract the things that really don't best serve what my hourly rate is qualified to do and to bring in others that are good at that and that's what their skill set is.

And so I have a pretty strong dialogue with my back end and it it could be anywhere from 10 hours a day that we're interacting and and emailing and WhatsAppapping and doing all these things, but I have someone running with me all day long and then tapping whatever notes I need to put in, pushing out other comments, sometimes dual texting for me. I have Ring Central and I have another line where we reach out to people through that. So, it's just bringing in every tool that you can possibly bring in. >> I love this leverage.

This is fantastic. So, how I think I want to talk about what you just what you just talked about as far as figuring out what your hourly rate is because I think that that can really be the key for people to realize that they shouldn't be doing certain things. There's a lot of fear when people start to leverage. They're like, "Oh my god, I don't want to pay someone. I'm this and that." And they don't realize that when they start to do that, their business will take off. It just will, >> right? I relate to that.

I had a lot of fear when I first started to do it and then was it blew my mind that the things that started to happen that grew my business and and free time were things that I couldn't have predicted. So, >> you said you figure out how many hours you work. I think that that's probably challenging for a lot of people because a lot of agents just feel like they're worth all the hours. Is there a number that you think somebody could start with to divide by to figure that out? >> Like for the number of hours you'd say? >> Yeah.

Yeah. And are you doing it like as are you dividing like your net income in a year by the yearly hours or like how are you doing it? >> Yeah, you would have to do it by the yearly hours. So you have to figure out like 2080 because I was in the HR business is an annual amount of hours that an average person works if they work 40 hours. >> Okay. 280 hours. >> And so what you have to do is figure out I I mean realistically we're working seven days a week, right?

I was going to say, so the real estate people should do 10,000 hours. Is that what you're saying? >> I know. Like I I I think you just have to come up with that number and then >> do you give yourself permission to go on holiday? Like last year, no, last year was the second year I gave myself permission to take 19 to 21 days in a row out of the country.

That was the goal for me because I wanted to be able to take the success that my team and I had had and take it and experience something that was really meaningful to me that allowed me to step away from the business. I wasn't totally disconnected from the business, but I was able to leave the country.

You don't have cell service in a lot of these places and you only have so many hours a day that you can actually communicate and you have to figure out how to be very efficient and how to weed out all the noise that you don't need to be a part of. And so that's helped me reshape it. So I would say when you first start off in the business, that number you're going to divide into your net income is going to be substantially higher.

But as you evolve your business and you fine-tune where your time is best serve, that number should trim down and become smaller and you're more effective and you're spending more time doing the task that you should do that allow you the most impactful business. But the other thing is mentally. So the reason I shifted into the wellness aspect was you can only run full steam for so long and for so many years. So I think you have to figure this out like how do I have longevity in the business and how do I pace myself and what are my goals?

What are my five year goals and my 10 year goals? Am I wanting to bring someone in and that person, you know, is going to transition into the business and I become more of an adviser in 5 to 10 years? So all those things kind of cross my mind as I business plan every year. >> So what what sort of moved you in that direction? Were you starting to experience burnout or was it just your your interests as an equestrian as into wellness?

>> You know, I think I have started to look at, you know, what what do I want to accomplish from this moment in my life for the next 10 years? And I spent probably since 2017 completely focusing on growing my business and being in the business. The equestrian was more like someone goes to the gym and they're going to take, you know, 2 hours out of the day and this is for your mental well-being and your physical well-being.

So I took that to a different level and I moved my horses out of this area to Ocala because that's where the World Equestrian Center is and basically that's where the highest level of training is and I have horses that compete at a high level. So I had to put them in that environment because I wanted to scale towards that. So it's all about setting these little micro mini goals of where you want to see your life unfold and how you want it to unfold. But we also have a timeline and also tomorrow's not promised.

So, we don't know that we're going to be able to get to where we want to go if we don't make the goals and we don't make it happen. And so, I think it was just a general shift in my mentality of tomorrow isn't promised. And I don't think it was any one thing that catapulted me into that way of thinking, but I felt like I needed to take better care of myself and I needed to be able to step out of the business to get more creative and to get more mindful and to get more inspired to grow in my business.

love to know you you you talked about for a long time you were working in your business. I want to know what what that means to you versus working on your business. >> In your business means like running the roads. So I think like having to do everything, having to chase every connection, have having to chase every opportunity. It's almost like a drive where like a superpower takes over and you just can't get enough of the business and you just want to keep doing more and more and more. But I also realize that that's not a long-term play.

That doesn't really make sense for you to be able to keep that pace up. And at some point in time, you should try to decide how do I want to focus my business. Every time someone comes to you and says, "Hey, Ross, you know, I'm interested in engaging you for a listing appointment." You decide whether you want that listing appointment. Now, 10 years ago, I wasn't deciding that. I was taking all of them. And sometimes I was letting them decide whether they wanted to have me as their listing agent or not.

And now I realize I'm not going to chase my business that way because when we go down paths that didn't turn out the way we wanted to or wasn't a relationship that was respected on both sides, maybe something happened in the relationship and you weren't respected as the adviser and things just did not end up the way you wanted to.

So I think by falling down and by making mistakes that made me think more about how can I craft and create a business that I want to live in and I want to get up and do every day that makes me excited to be doing what I'm doing. >> I think I think a lot of people don't realize when they're first getting into it that it can it can become your money or your life. >> Right. It's like if you're successful then you're just like, "Oh my god, this is amazing.

this is, you know, what an amazing and then you keep being successful and then the next thing you know, well, your bank account's fantastic, but your life is completely consumed >> and we I think we've all seen over time the agents who decided to do what you're talking about >> and the ones who just kept doing that until they burned out, >> right?

>> And I I really love you sharing this because this is I mean this is one of the things that I want people to talk about on the podcast is how to build an incredible business and an incredible life. I have one more business question. I probably have a hundred more business questions, but I have one more right now and then I want to ask you about the wellness stuff.

But >> one thing that I thought was really interesting was this idea that you've been actually going to other cities like Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville to get, you know, to get clients. And I want to know that never has never occurred to me to do that, to leave my my area and go to other cities and be like, you need to come here. So, can you tell us about that? >> Of course. So, 2025, that year was like a really strange year. It started off like eerily quiet. I mean almost like business wasn't happening at all.

And that was a very pivotal time in politics and in our world. So people were holding, you know, their cards close to their their heart and not just spending. They were watching what was going on. And I knew the pace was going to be off for 2025. And so what I try to create in my mind is if I feel like my pipeline is is low, the the gas in the tank is low, then I want to figure out how can I fill that pipeline.

And if that pipeline isn't filling organically or it's not filling in the ways that it normally fills, then we have to start sort of priming the pipeline and find a way to get infiltration into the pipeline. So, I looked at my feeder markets and I looked at all of my past sales in the past three years from 2025 and I said, "Where are the top cities that are coming to 3A and where am I seeing the most connection?" And [clears throat] those cities inevitably are Houston, Atlanta, and Nashville, Tennessee in general.

And so the Assads and I have been just engaging and connecting and hanging out at RGC and hanging out at retreat and they're just super energetic, welcoming, creative people. And so we had been talking about this for a while and I finally said to Mark, "Hey, do you think we could do a panel? Can we do a panel in Dallas?" And so Dallas is a feeder market as well and they have four offices in Dallas.

So Mark and Kim set up a panel in their office in Dallas and then Tanya Delos from Breenidge came because that's another big feeder market to Dallas and then there was a South Lake office and then two other offices. So I reached out to the sales managers and if there was an opportunity for a panel I said could I introduce myself in your weekly meeting and then talk a little bit about 30A and connect with all your all your agents. So when you panel, you're you're getting up in front.

They're inviting all their agents and it's it's sort of >> sort of this sort of format, but you you guys are up there talking having a conversation about 30A and >> you are you're talking about 30A. The Assads are talking about how Kim come comes and plays tennis in a tournament every year on 30A, how how they love Rosemary Beach. And what you do is you educate the agents.

And if you're at a cocktail party or you're at a function or you're playing tennis or you're hanging out, you're going skiing, I guarantee you if you have a client in one of those markets and you ask them about the feeder market and in in this example, it's Dallas to 38, they know someone or they've already been there or they already own a home there because that's how tight the feeder market is.

And and all it has to do is about creating a connection that's there that you didn't know was there and untapping it and partnering with your agents that are your friends and your support team and your cheerleaders and these other markets to help you out. And within that year and it's fun. I'm sure it's a great time. It >> it was. And then within that year, I had a listing referral from Kim and Mark from someone on 3A. They weren't able to sell their house with another agent. She met me at the 30 in May party.

The client came to the party. Kim and Mark were there. Um, and that listing unfolded into another referral to Ocala and then I was able to sell her niece a lot, a a bayfront lot next to a house in their neighborhood because they wanted their niece to come hang out with them. And so it all it all unfolds that way. And and I know you've probably experienced this in your business. >> Yeah. But but I've never traveled and to another city and said, "Hey, let's do a panel. I love this. This is fantastic.

So, is that basically what you've done in all the different cities that you mentioned? You either a compass a compass. Your compass compass agent or a or a realm agent and you put that together, >> right? I did it more from a a compass. No. Did I do it from a compass? No, I did it more from a realm centric push, but it just so happened Mark and Kim were compass. And then Atlanta, that was with Meg Gerrio, who's now in Breen. No, she's in Veil now. So Meg had a women's conference and I attended an event that she had there.

So it's just kind of chipping away at the feeder markets, you know, and your partners in the feeder markets. And sometimes it really is a great like return like you see the return right away. And sometimes it's just a relationship that's opened a door for people to stay in touch with you and think of you. And so it's not always directly quantifiable, but I guarantee you another relationship or a solidified relationship comes out of you going to those other markets and you remaining top of mind and in person. >> I love it.

We never know what ripples from. That's right. Doing something like that, what it's going to lead to. >> And we just have to be in the moment and do it. >> You do not worry about the outcome. >> No, you can't worry about the outcome. And um that's kind of the same thing with realm.

like I went into it the first year and I was like okay what's my ROI going to be on this and I was like why would I even think of it this way but but that's how I was thinking and I realized in the first year I was like great I got this referral but then in the second the third the fourth year I'm like this is such a bigger play and and the play that realm gives you I mean it's really even hard to describe what that is and how it gives back to you and your life as a whole but that's really what started me down my wellness journey was because there is such a wellness opportunity for education and knowledge within Realm.

And I I kind of played off of that and used all of the support and the advisors that Realm uses to kind of expand my interest in the wellness arena, so to speak. >> So, in the wellness arena, buyers are asking for wellness suites, recovery rooms, right? Like in the way they used to ask for like a chef's kitchen. And so I want to know like like how do you like what has been driving that? And you know tell me about how this has changed over the years. >> Yeah. So for me personally what's changed is peptides. That's number one.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean like every time I go to something you know at Realm there's a wellness room and you're like do you want to try this peptide this peptide? I'm like what is this? >> Right. But in reality I'll tell you what what really drove the wellness. So I have two horses that I compete and we were going up a level. So the level that I'm in now is a level that's not like F FI rated. So FEI is the Federation Equestrian International. So you can grow in that level to get to the international level.

So I was showing these horses back to back in the same day and I'm like I don't have the stamina. Like I don't have what I need to like perform at my peak performance. And so that made me dive in even deeper. It's like how many mornings was I waking up tired or how many mornings was I not allin on what I had to get done for the day. Not only personally but also business-wise. So it's kind of across the board in general.

So when you wake up, you want to be your best self and you want to be your best self to your partner, to your family, to your business, to your clients. And I don't think I was coming to the table with my best self. Like that's really what started it. And I think that all has to do with physical energy, but it also has to do with emotional energy. And if your emotional energy is tapped out, then you are not going to be the best version of yourself that you can be.

So that started me down a journey of what is it that I can do to shift my energy level, my mental focus, my stamina, and my ability just to excel across the board in all aspects of life. And so I think that's what started it. >> Do you would you be willing to share like for you personally, I know it's going to be personal for different for everybody, but what wellness practices really worked for you >> um to show up as your best self in those ways? So, I removed a guest bedroom in our house and we don't have we don't have children.

So, we also don't have a lot of visitors right now because most of the other siblings children have grown and they're going off to college and they're doing their own things. So, I thought I'm not using this guest bedroom. The dog is sleeping on the bed. He doesn't need another bedroom. Like, so what can I do with this room? >> You don't have a bedroom for the dog? >> Yeah. Well, he has one, but I took it away from him. So, he basically has every surface you could sleep on. That dog has has has all the surfaces.

>> I'm sure it's the dog's house. You guys just live there. >> That's right. That's exactly That's right. It's his house. >> Yep. >> So, I got a individual sauna tent, which is infrared lights, and it's like this little cocoon that you can go inside, and it it's portable cuz I thought if I need to take this with me somewhere, I want to be able to take it. And then I got a PMP mat, which is pulse electromagnetic field. And so pimp can be put on 12 different settings. And I've used this on horses.

I've used this in recovery for injuries on myself, but it actually pulses into your body. It's almost like you can't feel it when you're on this particular mat. But I set it in the morning. I first set it on pain and assist because I'm working out pretty heavily. I'm training pretty heavily. The two weeks I'm at home. And when I go and do a 72-hour turn in Ocala, I'm riding back to back for 72 hours. and when I come home, I need recovery. So, I carry this pimp mat with me and it's portable.

And so, I have that on a massage table in my wellness room. And then I have Zen, like a Zen music going on there. And so, now, like I said, I get on, I check out the inventory, and I think of my clients. But I may do that room first depending on where I am mentally when I wake up. If I wake up mentally and physically tired, then I'm not going to go straight to I'm checking the MLS, I'm checking the off markets, I'm checking what I can pair my my clients with.

I go and I feed my soul and I get on my pens mat and I just kind of zone out and I take it from pain and assist once that's done and then I flip it to energy to get myself started for the day.

This is it's like you put your own oxygen mask on first and that's something a I think people really struggle with especially in our business a lot of us you talked about you used the word servant earlier >> and I think the best have like a servant's heart and sometimes you can the the sort of the shadow side of that is you don't take care of yourself >> right that's right and a lot of times what I find is at the very end of the day let's say you're getting home at like 6:00 to 7:00 and you have clients that are sending you messages at 7:30 that just send your cortisol levels to the roof.

Like, that is the hardest part about being available 24/7 and having them think that it's imperative that they get hold of you at that hour immediately. I've learned, you know, to respond quietly and kindly, hey, let's touch base on this in the morning because if my brain starts racing and I start hypervalating, I'm like, I'm I know I'm not going to be able to wind down, right?

>> I love I love hearing that somebody at your level is not answering the phone and jumping at every call immediately after a certain hour because I really believe in that >> right >> now. I mean, I'm sure everybody's I'm sure, you know, people are different, but that is something that does send my cortisol through the roof. I need to turn it off at a certain point.

And I've also found that if you answer once at 9:30, you've just trained them that you that you will you will always be available anytime, 2:00 in the morning, not a problem. >> Exactly. It It's true. And the other thing that I learned to do is take the phone out of the room. So, out of the room where you're sleeping, like that phone is in three rooms, you know, on another area where you can't hear it. It's not on.

I also do not turn on my ringer ever because I find that when I had my ringer on, when I was in more of a transactional business, it's wiring your brain. Your brain is wired like Pavlov's theory. It's like if you ring the bell, then this happens. And so, it's almost like deprogramming your brain. So right now I'm in the process of still figuring out how to regulate how my brain reacts from 7 to like 9:30 at night. It's still wired to respond and to engage with business.

So I'm just starting to like change the code that's in my brain and and and I'm like I like things happening instantly and immediately. And so Chelsea Kim Kimc from Realm is helping me. She's like no no no Alice. She's like, "That's not going to happen overnight for you." She's like, "This is a journey." And I was like, "Okay." Like, I put my >> It's like we're all on narcotics. Like, >> yeah. >> I So, I started doing the same thing where I would keep my ringer off. And then I started getting phantom vibrations on my leg.

>> Oh my gosh. >> Right. Where I was like, "My phone's ringing. Is it in my pocket?" You know, and I'd be like, "Oh my god, it's not ringing." But my brain is feeling vibrations that aren't there. >> Yes. >> And and so, okay. So, I definitely I will admit uh my name is Ross. I have a giant phone addiction, >> So, I want to know like when you first decided to keep the phone out of your room at night. >> Was Was that um I mean, how long did it take you to not feel like panic? You're missing something?

>> I know. And well, and the other thing is when you have a spouse that's in the business as well and they don't really know what you're doing, so they're still doing what they thought you were doing and you're like, "Why is your phone on?" Like, "Can can you move that light to the other like side of the room?" Cuz I was like so like traumatized by it because I I was like so proud that I had moved it to another room. I mean, that probably took me several months to do that. It's it didn't happen overnight. >> Sure.

Uh so speaking of Scotty, do you have any advice for people who work with their spouse or sign significant other from a wellness perspective [laughter] to keep that relationship in a good place? >> Yes. I I highly encourage travel like travel in in in whatever way that you want to travel for yourself. And so I do a lot of the RGC things and sometimes I do other events and other engage. When you say travel, you mean on your own. Is that what you mean? >> On my own. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah.

Because I was single forever. So, I was divorced and single. And then Scotty messaged me on FaceTime in No, he messaged me on Facebook in 2012. He messaged me happy birthday. And we were both on the same website together. It was Walton Outdoors in Walton County on 3A. And I also had a horseback riding school at that time when I moved here. And I taught and he's a wildlife photographer. So, he's a shooter and he shoots wildlife.

And so, he found me on the website and when he messaged me, he had like a hoodie on because he goes out early in the morning and shoots with like a hoodie and a ball cap. And I had my helmet on for horseback riding. And he's like, "Is there something wrong with this girl?" Like, he didn't know. He like thought I was special needs. He's like, "I don't know what's happening, but she seems like a cool girl. I'm going to like wish her happy birthday." >> So, it took me 2 years to meet him.

So, we messaged back and forth and got to know each other through Facebook. Like that that was still Instagram wasn't a thing then. So was Facebook. And then we actually met in 2014 and then we're married a year later in 2015. So the relationship didn't morph into a business relationship right away. He didn't come into real estate until 2019ish. And so he's evolved in his skill and his business and who he is. And he basically mirrored me.

Like that's how he said his best training happened because he lived with me and he mirrored my scripts and he mirrored what my daily activities were and he mirrored different things that I would strategize with and negotiate with. I would say that you have to take a part of yourself on an independent journey and give yourself a break from having family in the business because there has to be autonomy.

And so when you're constantly working together and you live together, you're not giving yourself enough time for you to have your internal spiritual time, your internal downtime, and your internal recovery time. And so that's where the horses, it wasn't meant for me to go to Okala and like be separate, but then it morphed into that because Scotty ended up covering the business when I was gone. And then he's very like in tune and in sync with animals.

So he'll go next week and he'll go by himself for four or five days with our dog and chill and hang and like go hang with the horses and do his thing and shoot photography. So I think it's just knowing how to balance the relationship. And I think that's in in personal life too like you just have to know how to keep healthy relationship overall. So I think I think me time and like on my own time is is a true recipe for me at least. >> Is is there ever a struggle when you guys are together to not to not talk too much about business? Yes.

All the time. >> Yeah. Because as you said, your business can become your life. And that's why we plan these trips. We go to Africa. We're we're big fans of the country of Africa. We also went to Rwanda last year. >> We went to track with the gorillas. So, >> and the photography there is incredible. >> It It was unbelievable. So, we're very naturriven. were very supportive of countries like Africa and that gave us something to hold on to together that we could look forward to.

So on our calendar on August 9th, it's 5 months until we take off to go back to South Africa. And so that kind of sets the tone for the relationship and how to keep the conversation going away from the business and not just in the business. >> It's inspirational. I love I love to hear couples able to make that to make that work and balance it because it's that's really difficult. >> A lot of practice. >> Yeah. So tell us about this wellness salon that you're organizing. >> Yeah. So I hope you can come.

I would love to have you. >> Love to it. >> Yeah. So it'll be September 30th there will be a realm dinner. So that's for people who fly in and can make it early enough for that night. And then October 1st, we've cured an experience on 30A to show people that don't know 30A really what the vibe is here. There's so many different aspects of 30A. It's a 26 mile stretch with about 15 little micro communities and they each have their own personality. So Greatton Beach is kind of like the surfer dude o OG vibe.

And then you've got Alice Beach, which is very much like Greek architecture and very bougie. So that's another location. And then Rosemary Beach is more like the British West Indies, the cobblestone streets, bicycles, pedestrian outdoor markets. It's European restaurants. So it there's such a different ambiance all across 3A. So, we're going to host a golfront listing with a movement and sound bath class from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and just kind of get your zen going.

And then we're going to shift over to the lakehouse at watercolor, which is this really cool vibe around one of the lakes on 30A. And then we're going to dive into wealth redefined. And really, that's with an undertone of wellness. So, my conversation will be with one of our renowned architects, Jeff Chick, who's designed all of these really cool wellness spots for different people that live on 3A within their house. And then Chelsea, who's also installed and created and made really impactful wellness locations um all across the West Coast.

And we'll talk about that journey. And then we'll shift into Julie, a Mercer advisor coming in, Kristen Ko, and then one of our local owners of the rental management company called Southern Holiday, who really understands the market because he owns in the market. And he also sets the tone for the highest paced and the highest level return on rental income in the area.

and we're going to talk about how wellness is defined and how you could find yourself on 3A, whether it's a second home, an investment property, or maybe it's a legacy property that you want to give to your family over time. And I just want to introduce everyone to the area and share it with them. >> Sounds amazing. I would love to be there. And when you talk about wealth redefined, it sounds like it we're really moving beyond money and net worth and owning things.

It's more about being able to define wealth as a certain lifestyle for yourself. >> Yes, that's right. And and because this area is so natur, so much of the land here is put aside into state parks. So much of the whole ambiance here is being outside, being healthy, farmtotable, farmers markets, artists, music, sand, water, trees, like all of those organic elements exist in this location. And you can experience it in any way possible.

You can go to one of the highest tech gyms in Zumba at Alice Beach and have the air AC cranking and not even touch, you know, the sand or the dirt if you don't want to get dirty, that's fine. But if you want to get out there on a paddle board, you want to run the trails, you just want to hang and start experiencing mother nature, you can do that as well. So, I think it'll meet all different personalities. >> It sounds amazing. Looking forward to it. >> I'll I'll mark you down, Ross. >> Okay, mark me down.

And um Allison Richards, thank you so much for doing this. I've learned a ton from you and I've been inspired talking to you and I want you to tell everyone how to find you because you're the go-to person for 3A. >> Yep. So you can visit www.allison richchards3a.com. That's the best way to check me out. That's my website and also Allison Richards 3A is my Instagram handle. So those are the two best ways to connect. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. >> Thank you for having me.

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