Lost everything in real estate - then discovered her biggest asset

Rachael Resk thought she had it figured out. After a childhood of raising herself and her brothers, she built a real estate empire to finally feel secure. Then the market crashed. Every property. Every safety net. Gone.

But in that devastating moment of financial loss recovery , Rachael discovered something that changed everything: "I realized I am my biggest asset."

This raw conversation takes you through her journey from financial setback to unshakeable inner strength. If you've lost everything and need hope for starting over financially , Rachael's story will show you that true security was never in your bank account it was always within you.

Her breakthrough moment: When external safety disappeared, she found the one thing that could never be taken away.

Key Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:35 Rachael's Early Life and Family Background
03:27 Challenges and Overcoming Stuttering
06:29 Finding Confidence and Purpose
09:51 Career Struggles and Lessons Learned
14:47 Embracing Authenticity and Self-Acceptance
18:21 Financial Setbacks and Resilience
22:57 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Rachael's Journey to Discovering She Was Her Biggest Asset:
From a neglected child who became the family caretaker → Building rental properties for financial security → Losing everything in the market crash → Realizing external assets were never truly safe → Discovering that real security comes from self-acceptance and inner strength → Understanding that "you are your biggest asset" when everything else falls away.

Hit subscribe if you're ready to rebuild from the inside out.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meeting Rachel Resk
• 3:55 Growing Up Without Guidance
• 6:23 Living with a Stutter
• 10:16 Finding Courage in Authenticity
• 13:57 Life's Greatest Regrets
• 18:31 Losing Everything, Finding Self-Worth
• 22:58 Final Thoughts and Takeaways

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Rise From the Ashes podcast. I'm your host, Baz Porter, and it is a pleasure to be here today with my next guest. Her name is Rachel Risk and she is an awesome human being. Hell of a story, Rachel. Please say hello to everybody and tell everybody who you are and a bit about what you do. There's two questions there who you are and what you do. They're not the same thing.

Speaker 2: 0:30

How much time should I take? I don't want to go over Take as much time as you wish.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Okay, first of all, thank you so much for the opportunity to be on this podcast. My name is Rachel Resk. I'm a life and confidence coach. Quick note I do have a stutter, not a big deal If I pause or I'm in awe, just a little bit more. It's just part of me and who I am, where I came from, I don't know. I'll just start. So I'm actually one of three kids and stuff, the only girl and the youngest. So I have two older brothers. Each of us are approximately one year apart.

Speaker 2: 1:16

Ma raised us as a single mom. Though dad was there, he wasn't really there present and unfortunately actually, as we found out about 13 years old or something from dad, ma didn't really want kids. So I guess I grew up in. I mean, though we obviously had food and stuff, you know, water, everything else. What we did not have was was guidance, love, hugs, anything, basically. So I was like I was the person who would go home and stuff like to ask mom if we could go out to eat or out to a friend, and mom wouldn't even be home at all. So us three kids we raised ourselves. I think kids and stuff like fall into two roles. So my role out of verse three.

Speaker 2: 1:56

David was the oldest kid and stuff. He was the, the golden child. So Ma really liked David and stuff, and David was full of charm and stuff. Kevin was the, the unfavored child. I was not there, but Myro actually became the caretaker, leader, guider, protector and everything else keeper of secrets, like how to get things done, because, like I mentioned I mean, though, we live with Ma Ma wasn't really there at all. We didn't have family dinners or anything, but anyway, I went away to college. I actually went away as far as I possibly could. Now, though, mom wasn't really there for us and dad wasn't present in our orbit. Dad actually was a doctor, so dad had funds. I, being the smart, bold one or whatever else, felt that there was a need to use those funds, so I basically went to school as far away as I possibly could from home. That was actually. It was Washington DC. I grew up in Illinois, which is, in fact, where I'm still at. I feel like I'm rambling a little bit. Where do you think I should go with this?

Speaker 1: 3:18

No, I think that's a good way to come into it. What were the challenges of you when you were growing up with two elder siblings? Because I'm part of it, I'm the elder. I'm the opposite around, I'm the eldest of two and I have two other sisters, so it's just an interesting contrast.

Speaker 2: 3:36

I think, and, like I mentioned, we didn't really have a great time as kids, and so I we had. What we had, basically, was the absence of so though I had two brothers, they weren't really home either, right, so Ma wasn't around. They weren't around, so I really don't think that they had much of an influence and, unlike some families, we didn't necessarily band together. So we each raised ourselves. If something hit the fan or whatever, they would come to me, but outside of that we were on our own.

Speaker 2: 4:11

But I think perhaps one of the major influences on me was my stutter. Dad unfortunately said that he was embarrassed. Ma didn't really talk about it, but they certainly spent quite a lot of money and stuff to fix me. That was definitely top of their mind and stuff, but I could not be fixed, at least as a kid and stuff. So I guess what I did was I shrunk myself, right, so I shrunk myself at home. I certainly shrunk myself at school and out, and I think when you have something and, by the way, I don't like to call it a disability or something big or anything, right, so I tend to call it my speech, but when you have something that is not visibly apparent, I believe that it's harder. And it's harder because you can make like a great impression right, get good grades, look good, laugh and joke and everything else right. But then boom, it'll pop up and you get caught up with Rachel or like a full block where we can't get anything out, and I think that was very difficult.

Speaker 2: 5:26

And in Iceberg, I actually got involved on the board of a group it's called the National Stuttering Association. I used to run job search workshops there. I wrote like a job search pamphlet and I think, and we used to talk about something it's called the iceberg and iceberg is like for covert which would be me, by the way stutterers, who can often hide it, or it's not that bad. We are so in our head all the time oh my god, when is it going to pop up? And when it does, I'm going to try to hide it, try to insert it or pause no, it's just so true stuff or change a word, and it becomes exhausting. I would almost rather be some days in in overt stutter, so you don't have to constantly mask or feel like you have to mask. I think.

Speaker 1: 6:26

I think that had a big influence on me I love this topic because the my old the audience I know can relate to this and not feeling as if they were being counted or heard. I've spent, I can relate to it, certainly going up through the era that I grew up in the 90s and 80s and the rest of it, where we were looked, I was just called thick and I don't stutter. I do stutter but we I have adhd and dyslexia. Back then that was just a lethal combination and I went through the stigma. I know lethal combination and I went through the stigma. I know lots of people that have gone through the stigma of you're just thick, you're stupid, they don't relate to you, but it's not because you are any less than any other person in the world. It's because you're not the normality that they were taught to be. I view that as a good thing.

Speaker 2: 7:24

Can I add something? I think I know you're from the UK and stuff, but I think both here and there, and probably like the whole world, we are encouraged right to think that the norm is more perfect than it is. So I think that we right and perhaps whoever's going to hear this are more the norm. Right. We all have something, whether it's my speech or your dyslexia that's a hard word to say because it's got all like those letters going on there but we all have something. Or we're shy, or we tend to gain weight, or we're awkward or all sorts of crazy stuff.

Speaker 1: 8:01

People, people yes, completely, rachel. And people don't fit in the box that they're used to. So you become the problem. Well, in fact, personally, that they're the problem because they're not allowing the expanse of humanity to come in and say you're different. I want to explore that difference and understand it. So there's common ground there and people aren't aware to have that. They don't want to have them conversations because they don't know how to approach it.

Speaker 1: 8:35

It's when someone says to you a few months ago, hours ago, I was speaking to somebody and they said I didn't want to, I didn't want to tell them. Well, why not? What's preventing you from telling somebody your truth? And it's the confidence that normal or average society has implied on them to be in a way of being to suit their narrative, whether it be corporate, whether it be childhood narratives, whether it be adolescent narratives, gen X, gen Z, whatever they've come up with next, I know, but it's not allowing people like yourself to step into who they are and people like you and me being afraid because of what other people think. Only as we become older do we realize hold on a minute, I don't care what anybody else thinks. And it's a different power stance to go from there and service in the world, now growing up. What happened in your? How did that form who you are in your early years and what you went into?

Speaker 2: 9:46

well, there's the thing what was it in your job? The inverted my job. Okay, I think I really hit sort of a wall and stuff after our college get it, because it got real like you had to go out and actually find a job and stuff and and my house was like the kind of house where once, like you left for school, they double and triple locked and all sorts of stuff like the front door, so you couldn't come back. So I had to get a job. But anyway, I think again I just shrunk, I lowered my standards. And actually one thing comes up when I was probably about 30. Of course I'm not that much older, it's a little joke.

Speaker 2: 10:23

But I was going for an interview and there's this guy. He had a worse stutter than I did, but he was the interviewer and I was like the interviewee and what I saw was that even though his stutter was overtly worse, right like he would block and repeat words and do all sorts of runabout, substitute a word here and there, which I could tell, because I do the same thing sometimes he was confident and I learned well actually in school I learned very quickly that no matter how smart you are, how great your grades are, if you do not speak up in class or speak up in life. People do not think that you are that smart. So I always wanted to make a point, to speak up. But, yeah, so in work I basically shrunk myself over like the first few years. But then I got out of it. In fact, I was going to write a post, have not written it yet, and I was going to say something like they were never looking at you. You're always free to do what you want, right? Because we always think or at least I'm always thinking oh, somebody's looking at me, I don't have the right outfit on, or they heard me pause or say, and you start to shrink for fear that you're going to be judged or ridiculed or whatever else.

Speaker 2: 11:45

But really most of the world, even if you fall flat on the street, you just want to keep walking. Life is short. I think that's what was drilled into me as a kid not by somebody, but based on how I was raised, was that life is short, and I have a quote. It says fortune favors the bold, so just go out there and do it. If you fall, it's okay. You only fall nine times. Pick yourself up ten. And then as a kid I used to work in I guess not a kid. I couldn't really find a real job, so I went to work in social work, in hospice. The biggest regret of people was not what they did, it's what they did not. And there would be these heartbreaking stories about like things would seem simple nowadays, that they just didn't try Right, they didn't call that guy or that girl, or they didn't effort business or go on a trip. It's like heartbreaking stuff.

Speaker 1: 12:56

It reminds me of a book I cannot remember what it was called or the author, but it was written by a girl who was in a similar line of work and it was all about the regrets of what people on their latter hospice care years, for whatever reason, were there. And she actually interviewed people and read a book about it. And what you're bringing up gives me goosebumps. True, because what you're delving into here, rachel, is the regret of what if? And it's the book actually explains the intro to it I have read it, just can't remember the name of it where they have all of these opportunities and they're sat in the bed or they're laying in the bed their final sort of days or weeks and they're like what if I had have done this? What would have my life been like?

Speaker 1: 13:55

And you have stepped into that in a lot of ways. Instead of the what if thing, you've gone, I'm going to do it anyway and find out. Yeah, that's courage, that's commendable, because you're walking the walk which other people are so scared to take. Yeah, and you're not going to be as one of these people looking back and then saying what if? Because you've done it. And that's why I like people like you because you're really stepping into the authenticity of who you are at your core. Despite what others said, despite the upbringing and the naysayers and your parents trying to fix you, you realized at some point along that journey you don't need fixing because there's nothing broken. What was that part like for you, that epiphany moment?

Speaker 2: 14:52

I think I did go. I did do all sorts of crazy stuff. I went around the world, I bought rental properties, did all sorts of I actually spoke me, by the way, in front of 400 people. I started two Toastmasters groups. When I worked full-time, I used to be a team lead and stuff and talk all the time.

Speaker 2: 15:14

But I think what came to me I have a very strong faith is that God doesn't make junk and we all have gifts that are all unique to us and to the rest of the world and our purpose in part is to use those gifts right and we set our goal and God directs our steps. So, whatever we've gone through, our purpose is to get through that thing and to look back, learn from it and pick it up and help other people. So I guess when I hit a hard time which I certainly have, by the way I don't see it as bad and it doesn't reflect on me, right. I'm like like, oh my god, I must be a failure or horrible person or whatever. It's just us how you learn, and I found when you don't learn something the first time, it'll keep on coming up. But I guess, yeah, that's, I feel I accept me as I am. Actually I teach in parts confidence. There's no confidence if you do not have self-awareness and self-acceptance. So there's no confidence without that. But with that you can do whatever you want, right? Because it really doesn't matter if it doesn't work out that time, because you'll just go on and learn.

Speaker 2: 16:42

I have a quote. I work once a week on a suicide hotline I think I shared this with you last time and they have a great quote. It's on the wall. It says it'll all be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end. And that is how I live my life and it's a knowledge. So I know that and believe that. I just want to say one more thing, right, Because I know you want to say something. But I think there's a big difference between a knowledge and belief. When you believe something, it changes how you act, right. When you know something, it can just be recite some facts or whatever else. But I know that it'll all be okay in the end, and so I just keep on going.

Speaker 1: 17:26

This is one of the things I was going to say. This is one of the things I love about you, because you're taking learnings that you've experienced through your journey and you're not just applying them to help other people. You're self-applying them. They're your principles within your life. Quotes for a powerful thing, but they're only powerful when they're actualized. They're not powerful set on a wall, looking pretty framed. They're only powerful if you apply them. One of the quotes that I love and you know you've heard this one what is seeking? What you are seeking is seeking you. Yeah, and it's true if you apply it and allow the law of reciprocity and the natural laws that follow that to actually actualize in your life. Otherwise, it doesn't work. What's been your biggest challenge in your journey so far?

Speaker 2: 18:23

because I want to go into a pivotal challenge so, by the way, I think this is shared challenge right several years ago and stuff, I had all these rental homes. So just a quick backstory. So the mom wasn't really there and dad wasn't there at all. Dad had funds. We didn't get any money from him, but dad did pay for college and things like that. But I learned early on that money buys freedom of choice. So as a young adult I bought all sorts of rental properties and stuff like this and then I didn't buy them correctly.

Speaker 2: 19:06

A market downturn happened and all my properties went into foreclosure and that was a defining moment because it basically pulled the rug out from under me and I realized it was a very frightening thing and my, I realized that all of my safety was like tied up into what I had asset wise or income wise or whatever else and it was a rude awakening right. But I learned that really I am my biggest asset and I don't need to grasp on to all these various things. And I think that was actually one of the times where I really started like to look at me and turn to self acceptance. I've since. I've since built it all back, but it was to have it all ripped away from you right your safety and security and then like to realize that it wasn't really there in the first place, that you have safety and security inside. So I think that was one of the things.

Speaker 1: 20:21

I love that. That's a huge message for people, For those listeners who are now listening to this going. What the hell had just happened. What Rachel was speaking into is the safety and security of her own well-being, but was outside the reliance, was outside of her control right so anybody with assets, property, land. That's never safe. It's assumed safe until you have something like it was in 2008 by any chance it was 2008, 2009, 2010 yeah, all my assets basically just zipped away yeah, we there's a lot of people in the world experienced, yeah, a massive crash.

Speaker 1: 21:08

It was the last big recession ish that was had a global impact and it was very much unexpected for the majority of the world. Some people knew about it or had inklings of it. The majority of people didn't, and I certainly wasn't in the space that I'm doing now when that happened, so it didn't really affect me. But it's the safety. So, if you can relate to the safety of something that is not truly safe, but then come back into the journey of what is safe, what safety is, what confidence is and set yourself up every single day for that, that's an empowerment message and you've got to remember. It's rachel's journey from being a disregarded sibling with two other brothers who are both older than her into self-awareness, calmness, confidence.

Speaker 1: 22:09

But a lot of entrepreneurs these days, everything's stacked against you. The corporate world is stacked against you. Finance world is stacked against you. The marketing world is certainly stacked against you and we won't even go down that road. But what rachel's done is remarkable and these are why I like interviewing people and having conversations with people like rachel, because she is the result of everything that's been stacked against her and, in part. I want you we're going to go into the ascent and what's really going on, what all these lessons applied actually look like. Do you have any advice before we leave today for part one, for the audience and what the biggest takeaway you want people to have from this part?

Speaker 2: 22:57

My biggest takeaway is that it'll all be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end, right? So just fall down nine times and get up 10. And I think also is that it's so easy not to get up if you are alone, and I encourage people right to reach out. Nobody's perfect. Everybody has something. Everybody's going through something.

Speaker 1: 23:21

what the world needs more now is raw, real, authentic talk I love that message and I you are 100 correct from my listeners. Thanks very much for tuning in. Please download, subscribe and share this message. It's not for me. It's about rachel and her ascent into the world, and I promise you, when this lands in the right place, you will change someone's life. Rachel, I will see you on part two my audience. Thank you very much, it's a pleasure and I will see you very shortly. Have an amazing day on purpose. I'm bass porter and this is rice and ashes podcast great, thank you.