Latest / The Faithful Agent | Christian Realtors | Realtors of Faith | Top Real Estate Agent Strategies | Sell By Referral | Work Life Balance | Real Estate Systems | Realtor Coaching / 231 | Are You Forcing Growth? How to Scale Real Estate Business by Surrendering Control and Leading With Faith w/Jess Munsterman
Transcript
- 0:00What's up everybody?
- 0:01Welcome back to another episode of the Christian Agent Podcast.
- 0:05We've got an incredible guest for you today.
- 0:08I'm excited to hear what Jess is going to share with us today.
- 0:11But before we dive in, a couple quick housekeeping announcements as always.
- 0:15If you haven't joined the free community, the school SKOOL, where we're teaching Christian Agents every month, every week, excuse me, how to sell three to four homes a month.
- 0:24Go check it out.
- 0:25It's in the show notes.
- 0:26I would love to see you there.
- 0:27It's been a blessing to me.
- 0:29It's been a blessing to others.
- 0:30We want to help you grow, thrive, and succeed as a believer.
- 0:33So please join us there.
- 0:35We have our nonprofit, The Faithful Asian.
- 0:38If you're not part of that Facebook group, go in the show notes and join us there as well.
- 0:42The Lord in His kindness is growing that community to bring more Christian agents.
- 0:47No matter what company you're with, it doesn't matter, right?
- 0:50Kingdom affiliation will always trump.
- 0:52Brokerage Affiliation.
- 0:53So I hope you'll come join us there because like our guest here today, we are encouraging Christian agents to stand up and be bold about their faith and that's our hope.
- 1:02just excited that y'all are here as we talk today about surrendering to scale.
- 1:06But before I introduce Jess, I asked Jachie BT, because I don't know why actually, I asked Jachie BT to roast me, Jess.
- 1:15And so a quick caveat.
- 1:17So I put in transcripts of every Not every but a lot of the podcast I've done so kind of I guess kind of knows me I don't know the whole thing still weird to me, right?
- 1:26But it kind of knows me and so I hope that what it says is somewhat applicable to me.
- 1:32I'm a little worried Jess I'm reading this with you right now.
- 1:35So, uh, let's see what chat gbt Says I just said I want you to roast me.
- 1:40So here's what it says.
- 1:42Oh, you want to roast?
- 1:43All right, buckle up You're out here juggling for kids homeschooling running a business meal prepping like a Michelin star chef and still somehow finding time to work out.
- 1:52Are you trying to make the rest of us look bad or are you secretly a cyborg powered by sourdough discard and protein powder?
- 1:59You're writing a book, teaching kids entrepreneurship, running a real estate empire and probably folding laundry while you sleep.
- 2:05Meanwhile, the rest of us are just trying to remember where we put our keys.
- 2:09You've got more daily structure than the US military and yet I bet your toddler still runs the house like a tiny dictator in a tutu.
- 2:15I feel like they're being nice to me.
- 2:17Hold on, let's try a different one.
- 2:18kind of like building you up a little bit.
- 2:20this is not a roast.
- 2:22This is okay.
- 2:23Let's try something different.
- 2:24That was not funny.
- 2:26I'm like, they're being really nice.
- 2:28I told you to roast me.
- 2:29So here's what we're gonna do Jess live on the show.
- 2:33I'm gonna ask it to roast me and we're gonna read what it says.
- 2:36And I hope it's not nice to me because I feel like it shouldn't be.
- 2:39Okay, here it goes.
- 2:41Here comes the friendly fire.
- 2:42You probably still, okay.
- 2:45You probably still use your phone's flashlight to look for your phone.
- 2:48That's awesome.
- 2:51You're the kind of person who sets 14 alarms and still wakes up late and blames the alarm like it personally betrayed you.
- 2:59Your idea of meal prep is cooking a frozen pizza and calling it Italian night.
- 3:04Not not wrong.
- 3:05You said I want you to roast me like this was your first time willingly walking into a roast.
- 3:10Bold move.
- 3:11You sure you're ready because you give off.
- 3:13uh...
- 3:14you give off quote tries to one up google in arguments energy uh...
- 3:19let me guess you've got a gym membership you treat like a netflix subscription you pay for it but you're not really using it out uh...
- 3:25any prescription were or it procrastination war in olympic sport gold medal every time but you probably wait until the last second to collect it want to go another round are you tapping out i think i would have to have out but that was way better then it being nicer to me like they really went all out on ya Yeah, that was kind of fun.
- 3:45I'm gonna do I encourage all of our listeners to go have chat GBT roast you and see what it says and you know Humility, that's what we're about here Jess on the show and that will keep you humble Not the first one.
- 3:57The first one was great.
- 3:58But anyways, just musterman is here We are so excited that you're here Jess.
- 4:02You are about an hour west of Denver She has a family with four kiddos ages 3 4 12 and 14.
- 4:09She is a community cultivator and what i love that she said what we're to talk about today surrender uh...
- 4:16surrender to scale is that you integrated faith into your business and you've seen that it's allowed you to be a mentor for other christian agents and i just saw what you're doing on instagram and reached out and now we're here and i'm super excited for that so just thank you so much for being on the show i'm super excited that you're here please give us an introduction we're going to dive right into this concept of surrender scale Thank you so much, Garrett.
- 4:39I am just, I love how even just that app, Instagram, like such a platform like that has connected us and to hear about what you're doing too, it's really uplifting and really exciting.
- 4:54Thank you for having me here today.
- 4:56I am so glad that you're here.
- 4:57So we were talking pre-show, right?
- 5:00That in 20, so you were living and I don't want you on it back, but you're building a business, right?
- 5:05You had your own brokerage, you're building this out, but you felt like you weren't really living out your faith day to day in your work.
- 5:11And probably like a lot of us, and I'm totally guilty, it's Christian on the weekends, right?
- 5:16And business owner on, during the week or whatever, we're agents.
- 5:20So business owner 24 seven and Christian occasionally, right?
- 5:23So you started to just feel this conviction, I think, and you tell the story, right, of you kind of walk this out every single day.
- 5:30And in 2024, right after you were willing to just give away your entire business, asking the Lord what you want to do, the Lord says, no, I want you to stay here.
- 5:38And you quadruple your business, which is amazing.
- 5:41And you started to see that other Christian agents wanted to know what you were doing.
- 5:43And now you've been able to mentor them.
- 5:45And now you're creating content to help them.
- 5:47And it's just really cool what the Lord's been doing.
- 5:49Just unpack that a little bit, like walk me through your real estate story and how we got to where we are.
- 5:55Yeah, absolutely.
- 5:56So I've been in real estate about eight years.
- 6:00Really came into this industry out of a place of survival.
- 6:06I was divorced.
- 6:07I had two young kids.
- 6:09I had recently been evicted.
- 6:12I mean, I was like...
- 6:14absolutely at rock bottom and I had no other choice.
- 6:18Like this was out of survival to create a life for my sons and I at that time.
- 6:24We even moved into a little camper when I first got licensed and I gave myself a year and I said I'm going all in and I'm doing this.
- 6:34And eight months later I bought us a house and the rest of history but.
- 6:39this Jess, like what's the timeframe here?
- 6:41Yeah, so that's when I first got licensed in 2017.
- 6:45Okay, wow, so pretty recent, that's awesome.
- 6:48Okay.
- 6:49And then, you know, went several years just building my business, you know, taking all the advice, doing all the things that we're supposed to do as agents.
- 6:59And I believed that starting my own brokerage was the next best step.
- 7:05And so a few years ago, I did that.
- 7:07I opened up an office here in Conifer, Colorado, with an additional co-working space.
- 7:14And it opened so many doors and it was everything that I thought I was seeking for like that fulfillment in my career.
- 7:26And two years in, I realized I was so out of alignment and I was working harder than I ever had, but I was not seeing the fruit.
- 7:37And I was spending so much time away from my family.
- 7:41I just felt so disjointed.
- 7:44And I realized that I had a Christian, I've been a Christian for many years, but I had not given God my business.
- 7:55It was something that I think came out of so much striving early on and out of that survival place where I dug in and I worked so hard that it became something that I just completely relied upon myself to fulfill.
- 8:13And I got to a point where I couldn't do that anymore.
- 8:17I was completely just burnt out and I could not go any further, feeling like I was striving and that I wasn't walking out anything that was like truly purposeful to me in my life.
- 8:33And so really that came, that brought me to 2023.
- 8:40And I wrestled with God for probably six months of just back and forth, like, where do you want me?
- 8:49Is this where you want me?
- 8:50Should I be doing this?
- 8:52Should I walk away?
- 8:54And really just battling, I think, that inner self-reliance of how do I give this away?
- 9:01Like, I want to surrender this to you, God, but how?
- 9:05How do I do that?
- 9:06How do I let this go and give this to you?
- 9:09And it really came down to just this desperation of, I can't do this, I'm giving it to you, Whatever that looks like, if I'm closing the doors of my brokerage come January 1st, then that's what I'm doing.
- 9:27Say the word and I'll go.
- 9:29And I kid you not, to the day January 1st, as soon as I had reconciled in my mind, I was willing to do whatever God.
- 9:39led me to at that point.
- 9:42January 1st, my phone started ringing and it didn't stop all year.
- 9:47And it was like just this confirmation after confirmation that God's like, okay, now we can work through this.
- 9:55Now we can work together.
- 9:57And now you finally have the right foundation strong enough to go the distance.
- 10:03And it was, I mean, it changed everything.
- 10:09My family saw me more.
- 10:10I didn't feel this emptiness inside.
- 10:15Like I finally felt fulfilled and like I was where I was supposed to be and helping and like interacting with the people that I was meant to be helping.
- 10:27It really did.
- 10:27I mean, it changed everything 2024.
- 10:30And then, you know, come to the end of the year, my business had quadrupled.
- 10:36I felt...
- 10:37just such a piece and a shift from where I had ever felt in my business.
- 10:43And through that, I just, got really loud about my faith and it opened up so many conversations with other agents like, hey, I've been watching you, you know, like asking questions, even people who were not believers or like have questions about faith.
- 11:04I am talking to like, and being able to witness to people and share my testimony because I finally gave that to God.
- 11:15And I feel like that's where we're supposed to be, right?
- 11:18Like we are supposed to be a light and to be able to share our testimony and give that gift that we've been given to other people.
- 11:29And so, you know, it's, that's really where it led.
- 11:33this last year and then just trying to figure out a way to package that up and make it scalable, make it duplicatable for specifically Christian realtors who are experiencing that same gap in their life, really.
- 11:54So what is that gap?
- 11:55Is it the gap of not acting in congruency with their faith and living that?
- 12:01Is that what you mean?
- 12:01Yeah, okay.
- 12:02how does an agent know?
- 12:04Cause I love that.
- 12:04We're going to come back and unpack some of that story, but how does an agent know that they have a gap?
- 12:11Well, I mean, for me and my transformation, came to, you feel it.
- 12:17You feel so out of alignment.
- 12:20And I feel like it comes to the true definition of integrity, right?
- 12:25Like we think of integrity as like doing the right thing when no one's watching or being trustworthy and honest.
- 12:32But in the true essence, integrity is being the same person all the time or being the same thing or like that continuation.
- 12:40And when there's a gap between who we are and how we show up in different areas of our life, if we are put in faith in just this little box over here, and we have not integrated it into every aspect of our life and how we show up and who we are, there's a gap, and that's how you identify it.
- 13:02Yeah, I I think that's absolutely true.
- 13:04you know, I've never labeled it as such, right?
- 13:07But I felt that way before we launched the faithful agent was I just went out looking for it was like, I don't want to keep going to all of the non-Christian conferences.
- 13:16And it doesn't mean they're not good, but there's a piece of it where it's always about money and deals.
- 13:20And like, that just doesn't align with my worldview.
- 13:23And so, you know, felt the gap, asked a buddy who ironically is in Colorado.
- 13:28And he was like, I've never heard of a Christian conference, just go do it.
- 13:31And so we just did.
- 13:32Right.
- 13:33And the, the unbelievable amount of joy to just be in the room with other believers who are seeking after the same thing, right.
- 13:42And are seeking to grow their business, but do it in a way that is godly is so different, but so refreshing, right.
- 13:50It is so helpful.
- 13:51It is so real, uh, because surrender can take different forms, right.
- 13:55Cause I, and I'm going to ask you a question here in a sec, but You know, like you said, you might have been surrendering your business in an actual, tangible way.
- 14:04It was done.
- 14:05That could have been one thing the Lord asked you to do, right?
- 14:08It could have been surrendering your business and saying, it's not about you anymore, Jess, and your business might have struggled and you might have been totally reliant, had to be totally relied on the Lord, which we do anyways.
- 14:17But like you said, sometimes we convince ourselves we aren't, or it might have been surrendering and all of a sudden the Lord said, I'm going to bless your surrender, right?
- 14:25And I'm going to blow up your business, which is what He has done.
- 14:28But how, right, because one of the challenges I think that I've run across in the Christian agent space is we hear a story of somebody who becomes a believer and their business explodes, or they start prioritizing their family and all of a sudden the Lord brings them a bunch of business, which is totally true and impossible, but it's like we don't accept that there's an alternative that you might surrender and the Lord might take most of it away.
- 14:53And so how do we avoid assuming I'm just going to surrender and then the Lord's going to grow my business, Versus maybe scale means something completely different than what you're thinking.
- 15:05How do we enter into a space Jess where the surrender is not just a step to success.
- 15:11The surrender is the act itself.
- 15:13Like how do we, how do we walk into that purposefully?
- 15:16Absolutely.
- 15:17Yeah, that's such a good question.
- 15:18And I feel like it really comes down to that heart posture, right?
- 15:23Like there's no way that we can do something or be arrogant enough to believe that something we do or choose is going to force God's hand to bless us in an area of our life.
- 15:33Like, that's not how this works.
- 15:36And that's not, that's not what we're preaching here.
- 15:39Yeah, it's, it really is that heart posture and that understanding that As followers of Jesus, this road is not easy.
- 15:49And being okay with whatever that outcome looks like, wherever he's leading us through, for me, this just happens to look like my winning season, but I've spent many, many years in the wilderness walking that out with the Lord.
- 16:08And for me, in my testimony in that story, I've walked through and that perseverance and all of that has built up my faith to a point to know that God's got me no matter what.
- 16:25I've gone through the darkness and I've gone through all these difficult things and I know without a doubt that that's what has affirmed my faith.
- 16:37And so although it can look like abundance and blessing sometimes, Our joy and our faith is built in the struggle.
- 16:49And there's such a beautiful piece that comes together when we are willing to surrender, no matter what that's Hmm, that's good, yeah, that's so good.
- 17:03Yeah, I think it's, in the Lord's kindness, right, like he'll keep chasing us until we just give it to him, you know?
- 17:11And it's so funny, my wife and I just finished watching like two nights ago, there's this, it's funny that Chad TV talked about Netflix.
- 17:18Unfortunately, we do watch Netflix, sorry Lord.
- 17:21But we're watching this documentary, Jess, on this massive tornado that came through Joplin, Missouri.
- 17:28I think it's just called Twister, I don't remember.
- 17:30But anyways, there's this moment where this girl that they're interviewing who had lived through it and then just terrifying, I mean, just terrifying footage and all this stuff.
- 17:39She had lived through it and she's sharing the story.
- 17:42This was, I don't know, 20 years ago.
- 17:44And she's sharing the story.
- 17:45She said, you know, I realized that at that moment, like I knew this was true, but I realized for the first time in that moment that I'm not in control of anything.
- 17:53she didn't say she was a believer, didn't sound like she was a believer necessarily, but it was her recognition.
- 17:59that I realized in that moment, I was in control of anything and I never was.
- 18:02And that hit me thinking of, you know, one of the reasons I don't want to surrender is because to your point, I think if I surrender, means I don't get to have a say in what the outcome is now.
- 18:14And guess what?
- 18:15You didn't anyways.
- 18:17Like we never did.
- 18:18That was never my decision.
- 18:19It's never going to be what I decided to be the Lord, the Lord of the output.
- 18:23My job's the input.
- 18:24He's going to determine what happens from that.
- 18:26And so But we live in this world of false control, right?
- 18:32We live in a world, and I think the devil tries to tell us, hey, you can be in control.
- 18:37You can be like the Lord, right?
- 18:38The initial sin in the garden.
- 18:40You can be just like Him.
- 18:41And so we kind of buy into that idea, and surrender is this great idea that we're like, yeah, as Christians, we should totally surrender.
- 18:51But when it comes to, you know that means?
- 18:53You gotta actually let the Lord just take it away from you.
- 18:56then it's, I don't know that I want to do that.
- 18:58Right.
- 18:59So get into this idea.
- 19:01I mean, and you've talked about it so well, but this was years of you holding tight to something and the Lord, I think in his kindness, ripping it out of your hands, essentially.
- 19:11Right.
- 19:11So talk to the person right now who kind of feels like they need to enter that state of surrender, but they just don't want to.
- 19:19What would you say to that kind of person or that person going through that right now?
- 19:23Yeah, I think you know if you're that person because the Holy Spirit is whispering that into your soul and into your day-to-day life.
- 19:33And I think, you know, surrender is one piece of this, but our input required to surrender comes out of obedience.
- 19:45And we can let go, we can release that control.
- 19:50but then God's gonna ask us to do something.
- 19:53And it's up to us at that point, are we going to obey and step into that calling, whatever that looks like.
- 20:03And I think that's where we like grip back up, right?
- 20:07And it's like, we might like toy with the idea, okay, God, I'm gonna give this to you until he actually requires something of us.
- 20:17And then we try and grab that back.
- 20:20And I believe that that full surrender comes from the act of obedience and actually following that through.
- 20:27So unpack that a little bit because I agree completely but unpack that the act of obedience from a from a tangible perspective and agent listening says yeah I totally want to follow through that act of obedience that surrender what does that look like like where would you point them to get started?
- 20:47So I actually created what I called the faith audit.
- 20:53And it was seven days of going through and really diving in and evaluating each area of your life and each aspect, starting from, are you in alignment?
- 21:09Are you walking out your calling right now and your purpose and using your testimony to glorify the kingdom?
- 21:16Like, are you walking this out?
- 21:20And it kind of goes through several days of, you know, we go into finances.
- 21:26Are we being obedient?
- 21:27Are we being good stewards of?
- 21:30resources that we've been given.
- 21:33You know, our time, our rest, our Sabbath, those are things that as believers our soul needs and are we being obedient to that?
- 21:48And so that faith audit can be found on my Instagram and it's been really helpful I think for many people just to get real and very scriptural based on, am I doing this?
- 22:03Like, how does this feel?
- 22:06You know, is the Holy Spirit speaking through this and exposing where I need to let things go?
- 22:14And that's where the obedience part comes in.
- 22:17I love that.
- 22:17mean, is this, you know, just like the Ten Commandments now, they're a mirror to show us the areas that we're sitting here, right?
- 22:24I mean, and our need of a savior and faith audit, obviously not the Ten Commandments, but a tool, right, to get really clear, like what's actually going on right now.
- 22:35I mean, it seems like part of your story was just coming to the realization and not the realization, the honesty of where you actually were.
- 22:44the area where you felt like I just wasn't being authentic.
- 22:47Like you said, integrity.
- 22:49I wasn't the same person, you know, when I was at work versus when I was whatever, at church or with your family or whatever it was.
- 22:56if you're a follower of Jesus and you're truly a believer, how do you do anything different?
- 23:01Right?
- 23:01It's the same conversation.
- 23:03And in the political world, a lot of times like, well, leave your faith at the door.
- 23:07Let's just come have a conversation.
- 23:08Like, how do I do that?
- 23:09That's literally who I am.
- 23:11Right?
- 23:12I can't, there isn't, there's no two parts to this.
- 23:15But to your point, Jess, I mean, I've found myself too, and I know many people, but I've found myself that we would get to a point, I've talked about this a lot on the show, but I'd get to a point like, man, I need that deal.
- 23:25And so I don't want to say anything because what if I say anything about the Lord and then it becomes weird and they're like, all right, we don't want to work with you anymore, whatever.
- 23:33And then it's, but it's me.
- 23:36not surrendering, right?
- 23:37Thinking that my action is going to determine the outcome.
- 23:41And again, I don't understand in the Lord's economy how that works because we do got to take the right actions.
- 23:45And like you said, after the surrender, there's a calling to take action on something.
- 23:49I don't know how that works, right?
- 23:50I know the Lord determines the outcome.
- 23:52I know we're responsible for actions.
- 23:54Again, I have no idea if someone could figure that out for me and tell me that would really help because I'd like to understand how all of that works together.
- 24:00But the point is, it's so easy to Be in a community, right?
- 24:05I fall prey to this.
- 24:06So easy to be in a community of believers and then talk and act like a believer and then go outside of that and talk and act like whatever they want you to talk and act like.
- 24:14We are in an industry where mirroring the personality of the person across from us is effective sales tactic.
- 24:21And so I go out there and I mirror what they do.
- 24:24And guess what?
- 24:24It works as opposed to, like you said, have the integrity to, hey, Lord, this is your business.
- 24:30I'm going to go be who you want me to be in this moment.
- 24:33And if they walk away, they walk away.
- 24:35they want to work with me, they want to work with me.
- 24:37And I can't say the right thing to the wrong person and the wrong thing to the right person.
- 24:41Like there is, that's just how this works.
- 24:43And so there's freedom in that movement and that recognition, I think there, but we struggle with that, right?
- 24:50So you get to this point where you say, okay, Lord, I'm willing to shut it down, but if you want me to leave it open, I'll leave it open.
- 24:57And it hits.
- 24:58And then it just never stops, right?
- 25:002024.
- 25:01while you started to just continue to grow, I mean, you quadrupled, right?
- 25:05So there was a lot of growth happening.
- 25:07Praise God for that.
- 25:08There was a lot of growth happening.
- 25:10There had to be moments in that season where you're like, great, I surrendered.
- 25:14Now I'm good.
- 25:15Let's take control again.
- 25:16How did you, no way you did it perfectly, right?
- 25:19None of us can, but how did you seek to maintain that attitude of surrender when it feels like you probably need a grasp because it's moving so quickly?
- 25:28How did you maintain that?
- 25:30So much prayer.
- 25:33So much prayer.
- 25:36Really, that's what it came down to.
- 25:39It completely changed my prayer life in the meantime and my reliance in that conversation with the Lord because it became this all-encompassing faith as it should have always been, but...
- 25:56I was now reliant upon the Lord for every step in my business and every decision that I would have always made on my own was now consulted and prayed through.
- 26:09And so there was a lot of, a lot of prayer.
- 26:14And then God just bringing the right people in at the right time.
- 26:19There was a lot of delegating, bringing in people, systems, and that allowed that growth to continue and really be duplicatable beyond just that one year.
- 26:35I love that you said earlier, right?
- 26:38After the surrender, there is this, and I don't remember exactly how you worded it, sorry, but there is then an action that is required, right?
- 26:46It's not just surrender and sit still.
- 26:48It's surrender, now go do something.
- 26:50You know, I've been studying through first Chronicles and King David is telling his son Solomon, right?
- 26:56King David wants to build the temple and the Lord tells him, no, too much blood has been shed on your watch.
- 27:01Basically, your son's going to build it.
- 27:02Well, so King David's getting everything ready and he's telling his son, you're to go build this.
- 27:07And he says, uh, he says to him, go and do it.
- 27:11Right.
- 27:12That's literally like one of his, uh, commands to his son is now go and do it.
- 27:16Right.
- 27:17Be strong and very courageous.
- 27:18He says that like a chapter later.
- 27:20And I think of it as, know, David being, uh, King David being the typifying Christ and now we're getting into theology, but whatever representing Christ, right?
- 27:28He's this federal head of the Israelites.
- 27:29And so now Christ.
- 27:31looking at us and saying, hey, this is what I have for you.
- 27:34Go and do it.
- 27:35Go and do it.
- 27:36Be strong and very courageous.
- 27:38And there is this requirement of action.
- 27:41It is this weird balance of surrender and now go act.
- 27:45What is it?
- 27:46The surrendering, to your point, and I want you to define, to me feels like just this release of an assumption of control.
- 27:53mean, that's really what we're kind of doing.
- 27:55But when you think about surrender, and I want to go from surrender first, so I'll ask you to define what does surrender mean?
- 28:02Right?
- 28:02And then how do we get ready to take that action?
- 28:04What does that look like?
- 28:05So what does surrender mean to you when you say that word?
- 28:08Because it is this like buzzword in the Christians, I want to surrender to the Lord, whatever.
- 28:13What does that actually tangibly mean?
- 28:14What are we surrendering?
- 28:16What are we doing?
- 28:19Surrender to me is a whole body, mind, and spirit release of control and expectation.
- 28:29Anything that I would dream of my own or expect to achieve, letting that go.
- 28:38Hmm.
- 28:40So have you, I think about this a lot too.
- 28:43Do you set goals still?
- 28:45Right.
- 28:45That's a question I commonly come up with as believers.
- 28:48Well, I don't know what the Lord wants me to do anyways and what the outcome is going to be.
- 28:51I don't know that to set a goal.
- 28:52So do you still operate in that or how do you, how do you, like what shifted since you've, you've really felt like that's the render.
- 28:59Yeah, so the last two years, feel like through a lot of prayer, there has been a clarity brought to my dreams of just the desires of my heart and just Lord exposed, is this of you or is this of my own wanting?
- 29:18And through that process, it's really shed so much of my own desire, you know, whether that be for admiration or fame or, you know, success, any of that, like, Lord, remove that from me and show me how you want to use me through this.
- 29:41And I've really come to just this picture in my mind, and that's the goal.
- 29:49That's the goal that I work toward every single day.
- 29:52And it includes a homestead for my whole immediate family and retiring my mom and having the kids together.
- 30:01And it's this dream that then you reverse engineer to how we worked toward that and the mission behind that.
- 30:13And for me, so much of that is creating a legacy and breaking these generational chains and curses and sin and being that chain breaker for my family line.
- 30:26And so that's the purpose and those are the goals that I have.
- 30:32And God's just confirmed that that's the path He has me on.
- 30:39And so that's what it looks like for me.
- 30:42That's so cool.
- 30:43Yeah, I think it's in you again touch on it so well We can surrender the Lord can place these things in our hearts But then there is still this requirement for us to go be excellent at making it happen, right?
- 30:55You know if if the Lord told us you know anybody listening if they Lord told you that in five months This is what was gonna happen But you got to do X Y and Z first we would go do those things right cuz like, okay Well, I want that thing to happen and therefore you whatever I gotta knock down these tiles what I don't know whatever you dominoes maybe that's is it dominoes yeah dominoes okay I'm old I don't remember things anymore okay so but we got to knock down these dominoes but but is that not what is actually happening just the Lord hasn't told us other than Ephesians 2 10 I have good works for you that I prepared beforehand for you to walk in okay if that's if that's there because he promised I know that's there should I not then seek excellence so that I can knock those dominoes over so whatever it is the Lord has for me, I'm ready, right?
- 31:41I'm ready to walk into that.
- 31:44And so I love that you talk about systems and people and because there's excellence on the other side of surrender.
- 31:49And if there isn't, again, I don't know how the Lord works, but it's not likely that it's going to come about, right?
- 31:55He could do whatever he wants.
- 31:56But part of what he wants is us to honor him with our excellence, with our desire to be good at what we're called to do and what we're living in right each and every day.
- 32:06And part of how we measure that for you is did you get your family homestead?
- 32:10Right?
- 32:10Did you retire your mom?
- 32:12It's how part of how we measure.
- 32:13Did I succeed in the way that, you know, the Lord, the opportunity the Lord had put in front of me.
- 32:17So I just anyways, I love your heart in that when, when someone comes, cause hopefully by the time this comes out, your, your course will be outright surrender scale.
- 32:26Um, and they'll be able to find it on your Instagram, which I'll make sure it's in the show notes, but What is that about?
- 32:32Like what can they expect to learn?
- 32:34What can they look for?
- 32:36Why should they go check that out?
- 32:39Yeah, so I think when we moved over and talked about obedience and what you were saying, you know, that's the call to go.
- 32:48When we don't know that outcome, I think that obedience, we often want it to be this passive act, but it is so proactive.
- 32:59And I believe that's what you're saying too, like through this excellence in that.
- 33:05desire and that work ethic and still all of these traits and characteristics that God has given you.
- 33:14I want to make sure that when people go through this course that they know what God is calling them to through their own relationship with the Lord.
- 33:26And really just giving the steps for that transformation on proactively being obedient and what that release is gonna require because for me and my transformation, being a Christian prior to this point, it didn't cost me much, right?
- 33:48It just didn't really cost me a whole lot.
- 33:52But what changed and threw that surrender into that obedience was me becoming so loud about my faith.
- 34:02And I think you touched on this before, Garrett, with we're so afraid to offend anybody.
- 34:08We're so afraid of the natural law of polarity that we want to just make everyone happy, right?
- 34:18And we don't want to turn any sales away.
- 34:20We don't want to lose out on anything.
- 34:24But what happens when we start obediently walking this way in our business and our life is that God's bringing the right people to you, whether they're believers or not.
- 34:37He's been working in their life and he's just gonna use you as a tool to be able to speak into their lives.
- 34:44And so for me, that felt like a requirement that then I need to be speaking out about this.
- 34:54I need to be sharing my faith openly because how will they know?
- 34:59How will they know, right?
- 35:01They'll know me by my fruit and what I share and what I show.
- 35:07And I think that's so much of the tangible transformation that can happen as people surrender in this way is what does the fruit look like in your life?
- 35:22And that's not necessarily blessing and abundance in your best year ever, but what is that tangible piece?
- 35:31That's my hope is to really be able to give that to agents as they kind of walk through that journey.
- 35:38Super cool.
- 35:39I love that concept.
- 35:40So where do they go get it Jess?
- 35:42I think you said on your Instagram, but what is that?
- 35:44How would they connect with you?
- 35:46Yeah, my Instagram is just.m.monsterman.
- 35:49Link in the bio right there.
- 35:51The faith audit is also in there.
- 35:53That's a free resource that people can grab.
- 35:57And then the course, Surrender to Scale.
- 36:00That's awesome.
- 36:00I love it.
- 36:01And I encourage you all to go check it out, right?
- 36:02I mean, I think one of the challenges in our industry that I talk a lot about Jess is we just don't know how to be still and silent anymore, calm, right?
- 36:12I mean, and I'm guilty.
- 36:13I want to move.
- 36:14I want to be active.
- 36:15I want things to happen.
- 36:16And so a couple of things I love you just kept talking about prayer.
- 36:19How did you do it, Jess?
- 36:20Prayer.
- 36:21What about this time?
- 36:22I prayed, right?
- 36:23Like just this constant reminder of prayer and the necessity of us communing with the Lord.
- 36:28which admittedly is something that I don't do often enough.
- 36:31I mean, you could do it forever and always have something to surrender and talk about, but then to slow down long enough agents and say, where am I maybe moving in a way the Lord doesn't want me to move, but I've just never asked.
- 36:43When was the last time that I stopped to say, this is yours anyways, and take it, like, is this even what you want me to do?
- 36:52Who created the world?
- 36:54Who created the story of this universe he did?
- 36:57And so don't we want to stop and say, Lord, I would just want to play the role that you created for me.
- 37:01You wrote this book.
- 37:03You made me a player in this book.
- 37:05Tell me what you want me to do.
- 37:06And that starts with this act of surrender.
- 37:09And then the encouragement, like you said, Jess, once we figured out that go play that role, right?
- 37:13And do it with joy and do it with gladness and do it to the best of our ability and excellence.
- 37:18And we need spurring on in that, I think.
- 37:21And so I would encourage agents to check out the course, to check out the faith audit, to Follow Jess on Instagram.
- 37:27It still feels weird to say that.
- 37:28Like, I don't know.
- 37:30It just feels weird to say that.
- 37:31Follow me on Instagram, and I don't know.
- 37:33I'll post random things.
- 37:34I hope you like it.
- 37:35Right?
- 37:35But that's my encouragement, agents, is none of us have surrendered perfectly.
- 37:41We all need help in that encouragement.
- 37:44And so go check it out.
- 37:45Right?
- 37:45I hope that this episode is a blessing to you all.
- 37:47I hope that this story is.
- 37:48There's so much more we can unpack.
- 37:50But Jess, I'm just so grateful you came on and were willing to share your heart with us.
- 37:55I mean, I took a bunch of notes.
- 37:57That's why I was looking down and writing because it's just impactful to think about this idea of what does it look like to surrender to the Lord and then be ready to take action in what He calls us to do.
- 38:06just appreciate you so much.
- 38:07Christian agents, we love you.
- 38:09We're grateful for you and we look forward to seeing you next week.
- 38:12Thanks so much, Gary.