Free stuff I wish I knew about sooner

👩🏻 Top insight to share with you

As a business owner, I'm always on the lookout for a good deal. Even better if it's free.

I used to spend so much money on books.

Physical books, Audible, whatever caught my eye at the airport. My shelves were stacked with things I was absolutely going to read. Chicken Soup for the Soul as a kid, then all the self-help and autobiographies in my 20s.

Then I had two kids and started building Openroom and... I just stopped.

The only books I was reading were the same 100 children's books on repeat at bedtime. Over and over and over. My kids had them memorized. They were reading them back to me. I started speed-reading just to get through the pages faster.

At some point I brought the kids to the library just to get some new books into the rotation. Nothing fancy but let's try something different.

Team, let me tell you - I was not prepared!!!

Every two weeks we'd walk out with 20 books. Twenty! Books had fallen off the stroller! My kids loved scanning the books like the grocery self checkout.

Standing there in the library one afternoon, I started thinking about the beach. My old condo balcony. A 6AM wakeup meant a walk, tea, and a quick read. You know...pre-kids, pre-company, pre-nonstop-instagram-messages.

I tried to get back into reading for myself. Bought a Kindle. Grabbed a few books. Read them once, felt good, then they just... sat there. My house is basically a self-help museum at this point.

Then I remembered Libby.

If you haven't heard of it: Libby connects to your public library card and lets you borrow ebooks and audiobooks for free.

Something super interesting happened. Since I wasn't spending money, I started picking books I never would have paid for. Genres I had zero interest in.

I started reading mysteries and thrillers. ME - the gal who only read self-help books and autobiographies.

I read 8 audiobooks in 19 days between May 3rd and May 22nd.

People keep saying get out of your comfort zone and here I am, doing it through fiction apparently.

It's FREE.

Oh, and your library card also gets you free or discounted passes this summer. ROM. Toronto Zoo. Aga Khan Museum. Black Creek Village. Reptilia Zoo. Art museums.

As a business owner, I'm always on the lookout for a good deal. Even better if it's free.

Most people think it's just books. Your library card also gets you access to:

• LinkedIn Learning (think Udemy or Coursera) - Courses on business, sales, real estate, social media marketing, and most definitely AI. It's $240 a year when you pay for it. My friends, it is included with your library card.

• Databases, digital magazines, newspapers, market research tools, and academic journals.

• Free (or very low cost) in-person programming like baking, 3D printers, video editing, etc.

• booking film studios for your social channels, wood engravers, or Cricut machines to make trinkets

There is no excuse to not level up.

There are over 3,300 library branches across Canada, all funded by the government.

Oh hey, tax dollars - it’s so nice to meet you.

Also, you can get cards at multiple libraries. If you're in Vaughan, you can get a card in Richmond Hill, Brampton, Caledon. You just need some ID with an address. We have a whole collection of library cards in our house now and I am totally not embarrassed about it.

I’ll be honest, running Openroom, raising two kids, loving every chaotic second of it. Most of you are doing some version of this too. Business owners, property managers, realtors, tenants, landlords - you’ve probably have six things going at once. You know how thin the time is.

Marie Kondo always asks "does it spark joy?"

Yup, the library is sparking lots of joy in me this year.

Maybe a trip this weekend to your local library? Find a branch near you right here (across Canada). Search your local library →

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Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

p.s. if you reply back to this email, I try to read everything and respond back to as many emails as I can. I welcome you to try!

Weiting Bollu
Mom, Rental Housing Provider, Rental Housing Advocate, Educator, and Openroom Co-Founder & CEO

Openroom collects public tenancy records and connects them to the broader financial credit system to help you make informed decisions on who to rent from and rent to.

We enable you to screen tenants or future landlords, help you report rental debt, give rewards to great residents, or bundle it all into BureauEdge.

We also educate about rental housing and we advocate for a more transparent and connected rental ecosystem to support both responsible housing providers and residents.