We recently connected with Roschelle McCoy and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Roschelle with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
I grew up in a tiny town in central Illinois, the daughter of a farmer and teacher. I have six other siblings so our house was always full of people, laughter, noise and lots of commotion. Being the youngest of seven children teaches you a lot about life; everything had to be shared (even my sisters’ hand-me-down clothes from the 1970’s that were no longer in style in the 1980’s), hard work, how to get by on very little, appreciating the little things in life because sometimes that’s all you have, and of course, eating fast at dinner time or there was no chance of getting seconds.
I shared a room with my oldest sister who was most particular about keeping our room clean. But like any good sister she didn’t do my share of the cleaning for me, she made sure I did my part. And when I didn’t, oh boy. Any clothing or items I didn’t have picked up by her timeline would be stuffed into a garbage bag and taken out with the trash. It only takes a few times of ‘dumpster diving’ for my personal belongings until I learned to keep my room up to her cleanliness standards.
And speaking of sharing, I’m sure many people have had to share clothes amongst siblings. This loving thing we call ‘hand-me-downs’ was no strange concept in our home. In fact, hand me downs took on a whole new meaning for me. Did you know that bell-bottom jeans were no longer fashionable in the 1980’s? Ask me how I know! And do you recall when sweaters embroidered with your initials were the hip thing? Well, sweaters that had your siblings initials on it weren’t quite as cool when people had to ask you what the letters stood for (because they knew it wasn’t the letters of your name).
From the time I was very young I had chores to do. With a large family there is a lot that needs to be done, but also a lot of people to share in the responsibility. We had a traditional household set-up where the men of the household worked out on the farm and the women did the household work.
As you can imagine, with seven children there is a large age gap between the older and younger siblings.
By the time I was in junior high my older three sisters were going off to college and getting married. That left me home with my parents and three older brothers. And that meant mom and I were the only two women left in the house to take care of all the household duties.
I’m not sure if there’s such a thing as a pleasant smelling farm, but a pig farm is certainly not. Cleaning the smell and goo from the farm clothes was a never ending battle. But hey, at least I wasn’t the one out there having to scrape manure every day.
And oh, did my mom teach me how to clean! There shall ne’er be a cobweb or flake of dust or mud from shoes or hair from our head’s in my mom’s house. We cleaned and cleaned. And when company came over we stayed up most of the night before cleaning the (mostly) clean house. Before my dad was a farmer he was a mason, so when mom and dad built their home it had an all brick exterior with beautiful brick and rock walls on the interior. But bricks and rocks, like anything else, tend to get dusty. So we would literally vacuum off every brick and rock on those walls. For context, the wall in their living room, which also had a fireplace and hearth, was approximately 25’ long and extended all the way up 15’ to the vaulted ceiling of this grand room. And we vacuumed every single brick.
Taking these lessons of hard work into my academic and professional career, I quickly learned that those that succeed aren’t always the smartest people in the room, but those that are willing to work the hardest for it. It’s the people that have a passion for their work. It’s those that are resilient in their pursuits, those that never give up, and those that have the motivation to take the next step even when they don’t always know where the path will lead them.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Roschelle McCoy has a passion for helping everyday people understand the power of real estate investing so they can live a financially free life by design. She’s been investing in real estate since 2017 and currently controls over $25M in real estate assets in Florida, Oklahoma and Illinois. Initially focused on single family homes and small multifamily, appreciation and NOI on these properties doubled in the first three years due to consistent, intentional execution of her business strategy. Roschelle has diversified her real estate portfolio to include short, medium and long term rentals; and selectively invests in properties that are well suited to rent-to-own and fix and flip. Roschelle is now focused on multifamily investing; creating safe, affordable workforce housing in emerging markets across the US that provide excellent returns for passive investors while giving back to local communities and charitable organizations. In 2020, she helped build, brand and market McCoy Property Inspections, a residential home inspection company serving central Illinois.
Her 20+ year business career has been focused on building and executing strategic marketing plans, consulting on digital marcom technologies, communications, and influencing the adoption of a new content management system across a complex matrix of diverse, global marketing teams. She served on a committee for six years that has raised millions for the local Heart of Illinois United Way chapter.
In her spare time, she’s a mother of three very energetic boys, wife and dedicated advocate for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the St Jude Runs organization. She’s served as treasurer for the Chicago to Peoria St Jude Run since 2020 and team captain since 2015. She’s fundraised over $163K since 2011 through individual donations and special events, notably the annual River Bottom Country Runs for St Jude.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Consistency: Taking small steps towards your goals consistently will yield results. There will be days you don’t feel up to it, don’t think you have the time for it, or just don’t have the motivation to do it. But staying on the path (and giving yourself some grace when you stray from it) will keep your progress moving forwards towards your goals.
Resiliency: Building a business is hard. There’s a honeymoon period for every entrepreneur when they start. It’s full of hope and optimism, dreams of how fabulous life will be when you arrive at your goals. But business buildings isn’t a destination, it’s a journey with constant growth and change. Those that are able to adapt and keep moving forward when things get tough are the ones that will succeed.
Developing Systems & Processes: Every time I do something new for my business I pause to think: Will I need to do this again? If so, how can I make this easier or quicker next time? Or better yet, can I automate or outsource this so it’s get done better, faster or cheaper?
Our minds are amazing organs and can develop muscle memory just like any other muscle in our bodies. The more you can practice these or any other skills the more it becomes second nature and will start to be something that is inherent in all you do.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
Focus on your strengths and do what you are best at doing. Clifton StrengthsFinder is an organization that does evaluations to help people identify their strengths and then provides tools on how to make those stronger. If you manage a team of people, have the entire team take the test. Then do a ‘team blend’ to see how the strengths of each team member can compliment other areas that team members aren’t as strong in.
This concept is reinforced in one of my favorite books, “Who Not How” by Dan Sullivan. This book teaches you to focus on what you’re good at and how to find people that can do the things you’re not good at. Your ‘who’ will figure out how to do it so you can focus on doing what you do best.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.roschellemccoy.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roschelle-mccoy/
