Chelsea and Kayla are doing their own version of the “favorite things” trend.

They’re covering the Canada Goose jacket Chelsea finally splurged on, the cozy duvet that transformed Kayla’s sleep, the color analysis hack that’s changing how they show up on camera, and a ton of books, shows, content hacks… All things that made 2025 an amazing year (despite being one of their busiest yet).

And naturally, they’re connecting it all back to marketing.

If you’ve been feeling guilty about investing in yourself, listen to this episode!

Our Favorite Books of the Year

Chelsea’s most recent favorite book is Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall. It’s heart-wrenching but beautifully done and different from anything else she read this year.

She also loved Sandwich and Wreck by Catherine Newman — both giving major Elin Hilderbrand vibes with their summer-on-the-Cape settings and food references. And even though Elin retired from her Nantucket series, she wrote a new book called The Academy with her daughter, which Chelsea loved just as much.

Kayla discovered something better than crushing 12 books a month (as she did last year): reading with her kids at night.

Right now, they’re reading Wonder by R.J. Palacio, which has sparked incredible conversations. Both Luke and Lottie have had new students join their classrooms, and after reading about kindness in the book, they’ve said, “I’m going to ask them to sit with me at lunch” or “I’m going to ask them to play with me at recess.”

Kayla’s other recent favorite is 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan & Dr. Benjamin Hardy. She’s gone back to it several times since reading it at the beginning of the year.

She also started To Hell with the Hustle by Jefferson Bethke, a book about slowing down and rethinking what you’re chasing and what you need to stop doing to hit your goals.

The Shows We Couldn’t Stop Watching

Chelsea’s feel-good show of the year was Southern Charm, and her other favorite was Ripple on Netflix — a show about how everything you do ripples into someone else’s life. It’s heartbreaking and beautifully done.

Kayla’s favorite is the Eras Tour docuseries. Hands down!

If you want to learn how to lead people and get them to buy in, take notes from Taylor Swift. In the first two minutes of episode 1, she’s telling her team, “You’re going to get your grandkids to sit on your lap someday and tell them what you did.” The way she treats every person on her team shows she’s completely aware that she couldn’t be where she is without them.

That’s leadership.

Why Reading 10 Pages a Day Will Change Your Business

Chelsea’s favorite habit that’s not really a “thing”: reading 10 pages of a business book every day.

It keeps you away from the doomsday mentality, makes trivial things stop entering your brain, and gives you sooooo much to talk about. You can use metaphors and examples from books to build credibility with clients. For instance, maybe your sellers want to overprice their house. Instead of just saying it won’t sell, paint a picture with a story that shows why it’s a bad idea.

Reading a business book every day builds confidence so you can talk better, show up on social media more powerfully, and always have something to say.

Favorite Content Creation Hacks

Chelsea’s favorite content creation hack is emailing herself ideas. When something comes to mind, she sends herself an email. Then once a week, she goes through her inbox and writes them down.

Naturally, she’ll cross off about half of them because they were just random thoughts. But it creates this never-ending bank of ideas that feels current.

From there, she uses a carousel template that repeats but looks a little different every time. It’s on-brand and cohesive, so she’s never starting from a blank Canva.

Sometimes, she’ll take her list and make a whole row in Canva with just the hooks of the posts she wants to create. She won’t even create them yet, but they’re there. That feels way better than letting ideas sit in a folder that she’ll never see again.

Her third tip is to always have a prop when you’re filming content because it makes you feel conversational and less awkward. You can hold a beverage, a glass of wine, or a cup of coffee.

Even the color you’re wearing or something that makes you feel good and put together is going to help so much when you’re creating.

Kayla’s hack: If you’re dressed and ready and feeling even slightly good about yourself, take 10 minutes and record.

Find a spot in your house with good natural light and a background that’s not too busy. Set your phone on a tripod and just start recording. Walk in the frame, turn, smile, walk out. Fix your hair. Put on a necklace. Pick up your cat. Do a bunch of different things for about three minutes nonstop.

Then you can use those clips in a hundred different ways. Take 10 seconds here, mix it with something else there. While you’re at it, take a few photos too — some farther away that are full body, some closer up.

And if you’re feeling good, change into another outfit you like while your hair and makeup are already done.

One more thing: record continuously. Don’t worry about stopping and starting over and over. You can chop up one long clip so easily instead of stressing about nailing 10 separate clips. You’ll have more to work with, and it’s so much faster.

How to Make Your Content Look More Elevated

Pick one to two fonts and stick with them. Have a header font for hooks that’s easy to read, then a subheader font that’s different. If your main font is Playfair Display, make the subheader Poppins or DM Sans. Use them in every single post.

Same with colors. Have a consistent color palette. If you love neutrals, wear black, brown, white, tan. Have your props be those colors. Maybe you’re putting white wine in your glass because it fits your aesthetic.

Consistent fonts and colors will instantly elevate your content. When someone scrolls past, they should know it’s yours without even looking at the handle.

And please, don’t use ugly Instagram fonts! The approved ones: Literature, Deco (take off the background border), and Classic.

The Confidence Builders We’re Investing In

Kayla heard a quote this year: “Of course you’re going to invest in yourself because you are your brand.”

One way she’s been doing that is by learning about color analysis — the idea that everyone has a sub-season of colors that are naturally more flattering based on undertones. She declared herself a bright winter (colors that are full of pigment like bright pink and blue).

People at church have stopped her every week to say they like those colors on her.

Whatever it is for you — getting your colors done, a spray tan, your hair colored, your eyebrows done — if you think you’d feel better, just do it. It’s an investment.

You are your business, you are your brand, and you are worth investing in.

What We Stopped Doing This Year

Chelsea’s biggest shift was letting go of the all-or-nothing mentality.

She used to think, “If I’m going to eat bad tomorrow, I might as well do whatever for the whole day.” Now she’s doing little things at a time instead of thinking she has to redo the whole room or wait until everything’s perfect.

Stop waiting to do something until you have it all figured out.

You can’t post on Instagram until you get brand photos? No. Take a photo of yourself right now.

You can’t do that until you get your colors done? No. Just wear the colors that feel better right now.

Kayla stopped drinking nearly as much pop this year. It wasn’t even about the Dr. Pepper; it was just out of habit. This year, she started thinking about healthier alternatives like Good Culture cottage cheese, iced coffee at home, and drinking more water. When she goes to Chick-fil-A now, she gets a small instead of a large and only drinks half.

It’s about being more intentional. Maybe you can’t post every day, but you could post twice a week. Maybe you don’t get your face on camera every day, but you do it once a week.

Above all, remember that you’re human and you’re allowed to not be perfect. In fact, your people want authenticity from you more than anything.

Our Favorite Tools of 2025

Chelsea’s favorite is ChatGPT because she’s learning all the things it can do to save time, like analyzing data, compiling information, handling mindless tasks.

One cool thing she did during Camp Modern Agent was save the Zoom chat every day, put it in ChatGPT, and ask it to analyze the most frequently asked questions and testimonials. If she’d done it manually, it would have taken hours.

For agents: Have Zoom calls with first-time buyers or sellers. Ask them questions, save the transcript, then ask ChatGPT to analyze their biggest concerns, what would surprise and delight them, how prepared they are, and their timeline. By month three, put all those transcripts in and ask what content ideas would make people see you’re the agent for them.

But, please don’t hide behind AI. Don’t use it to create a freebie that’s just copy-and-paste ChatGPT on a Google doc. Use AI to save you time and benefit your clients, but don’t pretend you came up with something it wrote entirely.

That’s icky!

The Splurges We Don’t Regret

Chelsea finally got a Canada Goose jacket after wanting one her whole life. Before a Packer game, she thought, “I’m not going to another winter game without the warmest jacket you can get.” She wishes she’d done it 10 years ago.

Kayla invested in a Cozy Earth duvet insert. When you have kids and a dog, you never want to invest too much in bedding. But she thought, “I’m an adult. There are perks to being a grownup.”

They worked hard this year. The duvet’s made their whole room feel good, and they’ll probably have it for 20 years. There’s nothing like a quality night’s sleep.

Why This All Matters

Last year, Chelsea and Kayla asked, “What’s most important to us?” They wanted to help their members reach their goals while living the lives they want to live. They nailed that this year. Everything feels in alignment.

You can do both. It’s not one or the other.

If you’re still here in 2025 in the real estate industry, you’re ahead of a large percentage of agents who have quit.

And if you need a reminder to treat yourself and your business like the worthy investment it is? This is it.

This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz.