10/29/2026
Random Reflection: Embrace the Unwind
What a year it has been.
Looking back at the end of 2025, I made a pivotal choice to step out on my own and leave the team I started with.
I will always be deeply grateful to Jesse Jessie McCracken . Without her mentorship, guidance, and the foundational systems she helped me put in place, I would have been a fish out of water trying to navigate the absolute whirlwind of the real estate industry here in Slave Lake.
She taught me early on a hard truth: without good systems, you can’t handle the volume, and you certainly can’t provide a seamless experience for your clients.
If I had to start over a thousand times, I’d do it the exact same way. That gratitude and the friendship forged along the way stays with me.
Armed with those lessons, I made a promise to myself at the end of last year: sit down at the desk every single morning, be consistent, and work with purpose.
Well, by March, the business exploded.
From spring straight through to mid-October, it was a full-out sprint. The calls, listings, and buyers kept coming. Hobbies took a back seat. My amazing wife held down the fort through countless evenings away when I couldn't be there for the kids, both of us knowing you have to strike while the iron is hot because markets inevitably shift.
Having owned and operated a fitness business for nearly a decade, wearing every hat from owner and accountant to coach and cleaner, I know what hard work looks like.
I love being busy. Even on days when the pipeline looked quiet, I’d log my 8 to 10 hours at the desk, 5 to 6 days a week. It paid off in a massive way.
The Shift from the Sprint to the Stillness:
Now, we’re seeing the market naturally slow down. Honestly, I low-key hoped for it. After running flat out for months, I could feel the early edges of burnout creeping in, a feeling I know all too well from my gym-owner days.
So now it's quiet. And I'm loving it. I've had an incredible year, and I feel like I've more than earned the right to kick back and take a breath.
Except that's not the whole story.
There’s always that little voice whispering in the back of the mind, trying to stir up trouble:
Did all your leads dry up?
Will people still call?
Are you still a sought-after agent, or has your time passed?
It’s the classic real estate rollercoaster. The eternal dance between the ebs and flows. You desperately crave downtime when you're in the thick of the grind, but the moment the phone stops ringing constantly, those stressful little thoughts creep in trying to convince you that you should be busy, that rest isn't earned, and that quiet equals failure.
Finding the Peace:
Why is there this constant duality?
Peace is something you have to actively learn to cultivate within yourself. It’s finding peace with being busy, and finding equal peace with being quiet. It’s about feeling contentedness wherever you’re at in any given chapter of your life.
You have to enjoy the ride when the market is roaring, and you have to embrace the calm when the waters flatten out.
At the end of the day, the only thing we truly control is how we look at it all. To be completely honest, mastering even that is still very much a work in progress.
Here’s to embracing the quiet, trusting the foundation, and enjoying the ride.
And as usually, if you ever feel compelled to make me busy again, do call...I am here to help and thrive on hard work and helping people's dreams come true.
Robbie Cote
REAL Broker
780-849-1427
[email protected]
www.robbiecote.ca
