Caitlin Messerschmidt

First and foremost, I would tell any young person they don't have to listen to the quote-unquote traditional path that society tells us to take. I learned so much about myself and the world, and it changed me in a way that I could never put into actual words. But I recommend everyone take an opportunity to travel the world, whatever that means to them. Whether that means going and volunteering your time, or you teach English as a second language, or you just go on a gap year and immerse yourself in other cultures, that 10 out of 10 will make you a better individual, not only to yourself, but to the people around you. So, always, always take that opportunity when you have it. And kind of double backing on what I said first, but you don't have to follow the traditional path. Through time and experience, following the non-traditional path has made me the happiest version of myself. So just because it might sound like the right thing to do, if there's that gut instinct you have, listen to it, because it's showing you that there's different options out there.

One of the personal challenges is building the right connections and the right community of people around me. I'm personally in that position right now where a lot of people are adapting or growing, so you gotta kind of find the next set of rooms, and at times that can be challenging for everyone in their own individual, unique way. As an industry standard, within the real estate path, there's a lot of moving parts and pieces with the popularity of real estate investing. That becomes a challenge in itself because you get people who are not serious, and then it gives other people in the industry a bad taste in their mouth around certain paths or avenues or strategies that are used. You gotta prove that you're serious about it, and you gotta do that by having the consistency, and you gotta have that repertoire and that background that people can say, Caitlin's reputable in this. From an entertainment perspective, one of the biggest things is capturing people's attention. We live in a world now where you don't have to necessarily put your butt in a seat to enjoy entertainment. You can do it from the convenience of your phone, whether you're in a taxi on your commute home, or whatever means you use to commute. So not only are you competing with other entertainment spaces, you're competing with every single creator on the internet, which makes it interesting because everyone's got their own perspective on it. But if you can use the right elements and tap into each other's creativity, everyone's gonna grow and expand on it. So, while it's a challenge, it's also one of the benefits.