Transcript

0:00
What's up, everybody?
0:01
Welcome back to another episode of the Faithful Agent podcast.
0:05
I am thrilled that you're joining me today as we dive into how do we integrate biblical principle into business success.
0:12
And it's really timely, actually.
0:14
We've got an incredible guest, but it's really timely because I just finished up a Faith and Word call for those of you who know what the 210 Collective is.
0:21
Just finished up the Faith and Word call and literally one of the agents in that organization with us asked, How do we build a business on biblical principle and stay away from or not get consumed by all the self-help, the gurus, all the crazy stuff that some of it helpful, some of it is really gonna lead us off a dangerous path.
0:39
So super excited, Leland Gross is here to help us and he's gonna give us every answer that we could possibly need, right Leland?
0:46
No pressure, man, everything that we need.
0:48
Yeah, yeah, zero pressure.
0:50
But I'm excited, you know, you guys are, like we just had a great conversation pre-show.
0:54
He's the founder and leader of PeaceLink Financial Planning and Accounting.
0:58
And we're gonna talk certainly some about money, but really about the heart posture of biblical principles.
1:02
So before I introduce Leland, let me give you this.
1:05
And I told him, Bree Show, that I don't know if you're the only one, Leland, that will think this is funny, uh but hopefully our audience does too.
1:11
Who was the greatest financier in the Bible?
1:15
Noah, because he was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation.
1:20
That's funny, right?
1:22
That is so cheesy.
1:24
I do love it.
1:27
I appreciate the clever.
1:28
It's so good.
1:30
I just Googled it, but you're welcome.
1:32
uh I feel like I lost the entire audience on that one, because I almost lost myself in that too, but yeah, it's always there.
1:41
But then when I don't do it, they're like, hey, why aren't you doing the jokes anymore?
1:44
My wife actually told me, Leland, you'll appreciate this.
1:47
said, she came to me, I don't know, a couple of months ago.
1:49
She was like, hey, it's okay.
1:51
You know it's okay if you don't keep doing the jokes.
1:53
because I, know, transparently I shouldn't, but I complained about how long it would take me pre-show to find a joke because I've done, you know, it's like 260 episodes I've been doing way too long.
2:03
It's just like, it's okay for you not to do it.
2:05
Well, nobody ever says anything really about the episode until I stopped doing the jokes.
2:09
And finally the audience came out of the woodwork.
2:11
It's like, hey, where are those jokes, man?
2:13
I'm like, all right, built the brand engine.
2:16
It's like now you can't skew.
2:18
I'm just the Christian dad.
2:19
You know, the funny part is, Leland, I'll meet some of our faithful agents in different areas, whatever, that I had never met before.
2:25
And one of the common things like, hey, can you tell us a joke?
2:28
And I'm like, I'm not a joke machine, but absolutely, I'd love to tell you a Christian dad joke.
2:33
man, so it's great.
2:35
We have fun, man.
2:35
But brother, I'm excited that you're here.
2:38
And again, as we talk about integrating biblical principle into business success, one of the things you said to me pre-show, I want you just to jump right in, is...
2:46
You said one of things you guys do is you gotta ask yourself how are you checking your own heart and your staff's heart in a comparison world where maybe someone has more money than you or has a bigger inheritance, whatever it is, man.
2:57
So elaborate on that, buddy, and again, thank you for being here.
3:01
Yeah, well, first of all, thank you for having me.
3:03
I'm very excited and honored to be here today.
3:05
um Yeah, one of the things that's really interesting that uh I have to check in myself and in my staff's heart is we are just as human as the people we serve.
3:15
so, you know, money has this innate pull on us in lots of ways.
3:21
I feel like it's one of the major things that are talked about in scripture is, you know, the love of money being a warning.
3:28
And...
3:28
um Jesus, mean, more than half of the parables are about money.
3:35
And so I feel like it's a really big topic.
3:37
And so we have to practice a lot of these principles in our own heart, but one of the main ones is just comparison.
3:43
Is, you know, when I'm sitting across the table from a client, you know, they may be saying, hey, I received this, you know, gift from my parents.
3:51
It's just so lavish or this inheritance, or I make this much money or I have this much money.
3:55
um Or the opposite, they have less than us or.
4:00
Maybe they don't give charitably like I would personally value on that.
4:04
And one of the things that we have to work on is our own comparison because we all know this comparison is the thief of joy.
4:11
um Like our true joy has to come from Jesus and Jesus alone.
4:15
if you know either I'm sitting there comparing myself to someone and saying, man, I wish I had that much money or I wish I could do these things that I'm helping my clients do.
4:24
Well now I'm coveting.
4:26
Now I'm coveting my brother or my sister.
4:28
Now I'm you know.
4:29
giving into envy and greed and my joy is being stifled from that.
4:34
Or the opposite, I'm finding pride in myself for giving more, being more faithful in certain things and that's not it either.
4:43
I'm not gonna get true joy by comparing myself to someone positively or negatively.
4:49
And so it really takes a place where I have to come before the Lord each and every day and just thank.
4:57
thank the Lord, give myself a posture of gratitude for all the ways he's blessed me and my business and my family.
5:03
eh And kind of work on that with my staff and just really talk about that at our staff meetings of like, hey, we are here to help folks steward.
5:12
We are here to help others build a more abundant life, free from the love of money and to be able to align their money with their values and really kind of fuel the kingdom that way.
5:24
And so it can get really easy for us to compare our own situations for better or worse, but we really have to start on our knees before the Lord and say, know, this morning we were in our team meeting, we were reading Deuteronomy 8, and it's like, you know, don't give into the lie that, you I work harder and therefore I make more money, and I had the power to build my own wealth.
5:47
Like it's a warning against that, and it says, remember, it's only the Lord that gives you the power to gain your wealth.
5:53
Hmm.
5:53
led the Israelites through the desert.
5:56
The Lord, you know, blessed them.
5:57
The souls of their shoes didn't wear out.
6:00
They had manna, they had water from flinty rock.
6:03
And then the Lord's like, I'm bringing you into the promised land where you're gonna have, you know, bread in abundance, water in abundance, this beautiful land of pomegranates and honey.
6:12
But don't forget, you did not build this with your own power.
6:16
Like, the Lord gave you the power to do this.
6:19
And...
6:21
It's a good reminder for us, especially anybody in a commission field can say, I put in more inputs, I'm gonna get more outputs.
6:29
I'm gonna earn my own money.
6:30
I'm gonna be as successful as I make myself.
6:33
It's like you cannot forget that it's really the Lord that gives you the power to gain wealth.
6:37
so, yeah, I just feel like that's a big part of, I've committed myself to studying the heart of money with the Lord, because that's just a place where the Lord's seated me.
6:48
I want to be faithful in it, but the thing that I feel like first with me and my staff is we have to be in scriptures.
6:53
We have to be talking through, you know, how are we doing, how are we going to be faithful in our own finances and how are we not going to compare to our clients and let that steal our joy or, you know, help like make us covet or build resentment.
7:09
Like we have to kind of check ourselves first.
7:11
So good, man.
7:12
And it is, you know, the real estate agents, we never compare ourselves to anybody, right?
7:17
We are perfect at that.
7:18
I've never done that ever.
7:19
I don't know what you're talking about.
7:21
ah We don't.
7:24
Exactly.
7:25
We don't constantly say who's better than everyone else.
7:28
That's right.
7:29
Yeah.
7:29
I mean, it's crazy because You know, a couple thoughts that I love that and I love, like you said, the idea of you said very early on, essentially, you've got to check your own heart first and live out those principles that we're going to ask other people to live out.
7:42
And that's really hard.
7:43
Right.
7:43
And we I mean, we can be so two faced and man, you better be doing this.
7:47
Why aren't you doing this?
7:48
And then if I looked at my own life with the mag, not even a magnifying glass.
7:51
Right.
7:52
And it'd be like, man, you're not even living this out either.
7:54
And so, man, check in our own hearts first.
7:56
But I love the idea.
7:58
Well, I want to come back to Deuteronomy because I love that concept.
8:01
But the crazy thing, one of the things that struck me as you were talking was, the comparison doesn't work both ways in the sense that, at least for me, and I don't know about you, but at least for me, if someone is doing better than me, it makes me feel bad about myself.
8:15
If I look and say, look how far the Lord's brought me, and I have somebody else that I know that maybe is struggling, I'm like, okay, whatever, I need to do more.
8:24
At least for me, there's rarely a time of contentment.
8:28
there's almost always a time of I need more, I need more, need more.
8:31
I was sitting across, I was in Arizona last week at this ESP mastermind, the guy sitting in front of me was making easily 15, $20 million a year, right?
8:41
Amazing, everybody knows who he is, big deal, whatever.
8:44
And I remember thinking like, man, I should be doing more, I don't understand, why am I not doing more?
8:49
And that question alone is inherently flawed, right?
8:53
I don't know him personally, but I know he's not married because he's out there.
8:56
He's not married.
8:57
He doesn't have kids.
8:58
I'm married with five little kids, right?
8:59
Like I can't be if I'm going to be present with them, I can't be doing the kinds of stuff that he does.
9:05
yet, and then at least from people that know him, I don't know him, but he's not a believer.
9:10
He's not a professing believer.
9:11
so, man, what am I coveting of what this man has?
9:15
Right.
9:15
Like he could be the nicest dude ever.
9:16
He needs to know Jesus.
9:18
Right.
9:18
And maybe the Lord will bless him with a family if that's what he chooses.
9:21
But You know, we just compare in this small way and we look and say, well, they must be better than me.
9:26
I should be like that, too.
9:27
Right.
9:27
I just thought that, we just don't ever look the other way and say, Lord, thank you for where you brought me.
9:32
But even real quick, you talked about Deuteronomy.
9:35
It's such a good point and such a good reminder.
9:37
And it's crazy to think because, you know, imagine you're in the Israelites or you're in the Israelite clan and that family and you're born like the year before you go into the promised land and you grow up in the promised land.
9:50
And so you're like, This is great.
9:52
I should have more.
9:54
Like this is this can't be all there is, whatever.
9:56
Or you're the grandparent that was in Egypt, went through the Red Sea, lived the 40 years in the desert and still saw the Lord's provision.
10:05
But now you're in the promised land.
10:06
You're like, man, what a kindness of the Lord that has brought me to this promised land.
10:10
Right.
10:11
It's it's this perspective.
10:12
It's this perception that we have that is impossible to have unless you lived it out.
10:17
Right.
10:18
Like.
10:18
That person who was born right before the promised land can't know what it was like to live pre-promised land, but we just forget the Lord's kindness and His mercy in all of these different ways, right?
10:28
So you talk about checking your own heart and your staff's heart as you guys go in and try to advise people well, right?
10:36
And maybe they just got a bunch of money, maybe whatever is going on and it's like, dude, if we just sit there and desire what they have and aren't thankful for the Lord, who knows what kind of advice we're gonna give, man?
10:47
Mm-hmm.
10:47
love that you guys are showing up and doing that.
10:49
What does it mean?
10:51
You talked about this too.
10:51
Like it's this concept of stewardship.
10:53
But what does it mean to even be faithful?
10:56
And then how are you seeing that played out?
10:58
Maybe in the lives of some of your clients.
11:01
you know, money, you talked about that half the parables are about money.
11:04
What does it even mean to be faithful as you've studied this?
11:07
Right?
11:07
You said to me, money becomes a false God very quickly.
11:11
Like, how do we steward?
11:13
How do we stay away from those things?
11:14
Like, give us mindset there.
11:17
Yeah, I mean, it's a loaded question, again, because God really harps on this.
11:23
He says, you know, godliness with contentment is great gain.
11:28
And so you can be godly and discontent and still not have a lot of gain.
11:33
And he says, for the love of money is the root of many evils.
11:37
Money itself is inanimate.
11:39
It's not good or evil.
11:40
But our heart is so sensitive to it because it can become a false God very quickly, like you said.
11:47
And so em the way that I see that is money can quickly become our provider.
11:53
It can quickly become our, you know, provision, our safety, our security, our relationships, our social status, our worth.
12:04
And it really takes this place of like, I'm okay, like okayness.
12:09
And which is really the idea of Sabbath, right?
12:12
Like the true spirit of Sabbath is not just rest and have fun, it's rest in your spirit.
12:17
Know that you are provided for, that you are okay.
12:21
God has done it all and get to enjoy just being, being a human being and not a human doing.
12:27
And so money can quickly kind of replace that, but it never does it fully.
12:32
It always leaves us needing more, feeling discontent.
12:35
There's not even faith-based studies, but secular studies that one came out last year.
12:40
said at every income level, they studied thousands of people.
12:44
At every single income level when asked, do you have enough?
12:46
Every person said no.
12:48
And when asked how much more, every person said 25 % more.
12:52
Meaning if someone made $50,000, they just wanted to make like 65 more.
12:58
100,000, they just wanted to make 125,000.
13:01
If you made a million dollars, you felt if I just had one and a quarter million dollars, I'd be okay.
13:06
And it's how we're wired because it's never gonna fully satisfy us.
13:11
And that leads us into discontentment.
13:13
It leads us into coveting others.
13:15
It leads us into materialism, wanting certain things that we feel like once I have that, then I'll be happy or okay.
13:22
Rarely do people use that language, but it's how they posture themselves.
13:26
It's like, once I can have the house on the water or this boat, we all just want more, more, more, more.
13:32
Because we're trying to feed that hole in ourselves that the Lord is saying, you have enough.
13:37
You can rest.
13:38
I am providing for you.
13:40
Hmm, it's good.
13:41
And so when I think about like, does it mean to be faithful?
13:44
There's lots of tools that we talk through our clients with on like, hey, this is how we're going to kind of align your money to your values and help you be faithful in these things.
13:54
But they really only work if we're touching the heart piece.
13:57
So I think of tithe or charitable giving in the finance world.
14:03
uh But this idea of like, I can give money.
14:09
I've seen it over and over again.
14:10
If you are not faithful to give a thousand dollars on ten thousand dollars of income, you will not give ten thousand dollars on a hundred thousand dollars of income.
14:20
We see so many people.
14:22
We have people who don't make very much and they give a lot of money away, a huge portion of their income.
14:27
And we have people who make millions of dollars who don't even get close to giving that.
14:31
And I don't I personally don't think God needs our money.
14:36
Right.
14:36
Like I think Ministries would go on, people would be provided for, should we not give.
14:43
But I view tithe as a way that we get called to enter into that with the Lord, and we get to lay down our money.
14:49
We get to hold it loosely and say, like, this was yours first.
14:53
I'm to Caesar what is Caesar's, I'm giving to God what is God's, and I'm recognizing everything I have comes from you, Lord.
15:02
The earth is yours and all who lies within.
15:05
And so like tithing half or most of the time in my mind, that's more for our heart.
15:12
It's more for me than it is for whoever I'm giving the money to because God doesn't need my money.
15:17
are, God's got a lot of other resources other than Leland Gross's checking account.
15:21
he's not worried about it.
15:24
But I get the joy of coming and holding this loosely.
15:28
And sometimes it's scary.
15:29
Sometimes I'm like, oh, I don't want to give that much.
15:32
But that's my heart clenching.
15:34
That's my heart holding on tightly to money.
15:37
And I get to work the muscle that says, all right, Lord, I'm going to be OK.
15:41
There is an abundance you can provide for me like the Israelites in the desert.
15:48
great, we're going to give lavishly and we're going to be generous.
15:51
So I think that's a huge piece of it.
15:53
think being faithful to steward your money in a way that not just gives, but I think savings is honorable.
16:01
know eh one of the parables I come back to a lot is the parable of building bigger barns, which is essentially like this guy put his whole worth in building enough money to essentially retire.
16:12
And then the day before he retires, he dies.
16:14
And Lord's like, you fool.
16:16
What is all this for?
16:18
You could have used it while you were alive.
16:20
So we talk a lot with our clients about like, how do we live your life well now and live aligned to your purpose now, as well as being faithful to prepare for the future?
16:28
Because the Lord is giving us, you know, tools and provision in a way that says like we're not going to be a burden to the state or to our families.
16:42
But we don't want to over prepare and over like hold on so tight to that.
16:45
We want to live our life well now and bless our families now and bless our communities now.
16:51
So there's always this tension, right?
16:53
It's like how do we what's the balance of like are you over saving?
16:57
We see people all the time.
16:57
It's like you are just building bigger barns.
17:00
You are just storing up so much.
17:04
you know, yet you're not taking your family on a vacation or your wife doesn't feel like you can, you know, she can buy herself a nice dress or whatever it is, you know, like we see the examples a lot and it's like, how do we get people to honor the Lord in both their giving and in just holding their life loosely and enjoying the gift that the Lord's given them, not just holding it up to make themselves feel safer and be able to enjoy it later.
17:33
I don't know if they, there's so many thoughts like that.
17:36
I don't know how much I'm just rambling.
17:38
no, no.
17:39
It's good because that's such a big question.
17:42
Right.
17:42
What does it mean to be faithful?
17:43
One thing that I want to hone in on that you started talking about too was this reality of everybody says, I just need 25 % more.
17:54
curious your thoughts, right?
17:55
As we think about biblical principles and how do we integrate that into business success is The definition of success first is if I said in my world, hey, this person was successful, the first thing they're gonna think about is, well, they must have sold a lot of homes and made a lot of money.
18:12
But if I said, well, yeah, they did, but they got divorced and they no longer talk to their kids, is that still success?
18:19
Like, absolutely not.
18:20
But we've got this small, tiny, limited view of when I say success, we all think the same thing pretty much.
18:27
And so we need to broaden that scope.
18:30
but this reality for us of I just need 25 % more, right?
18:34
Then I'm gonna be okay.
18:35
I need 25 % more than I'm gonna be okay.
18:37
I find it fascinating, because as business owners, right?
18:39
You're a business owner.
18:40
As a business owner, we are wired to be ambitious, and that's good, right?
18:45
That like, we honor the Lord in our ambition, but we dishonor the Lord, and I say this a lot, if submission has to come over ambition, but we do need both.
18:56
And so, man, brother, how?
18:58
How do we do that?
18:59
As you study even this idea of money, which is a principle that applies to so many things, right?
19:04
Is this money idea of I need more, I need more, and then I'll be satisfied, right?
19:09
In the business context, it could be I need more sales, I need more deals, I need more clients, right?
19:14
I need a better ranking, or I need to finally make that million dollar producer list, whatever it is, and then, and then I'll get there.
19:21
It's the same thing with money.
19:23
It's this lack of contentment with what the Lord has.
19:27
But as business owners, it's that interesting piece, be content, but not all the way content, because there's more for you to do.
19:33
It is a challenging space for us to live in, I think.
19:36
And so as you've studied money, how would you answer that or help counsel somebody through that of yes, be ambitious, also be content, and you're like, I don't know how to do both of those.
19:49
Yeah, yeah, right.
19:50
How would you help somebody with that?
19:52
Most of our clients are business owners.
19:55
Like most of our clients are in real estate, honestly.
19:57
So we see it a lot.
19:59
There's, you know, a vast majority of our clients are realtors.
20:02
And so you've got this like built in comparison.
20:08
Like it's just a field that is uniquely, you know, selling Sunset, Sirhant, like, you know, just even like the shows on your field are like the most comparison driving things ever.
20:20
And I feel it myself, like again, I'm not above any of this.
20:24
It's stuff that I have to work on daily is my own drive to become bigger or compare myself to other advisors or things like that.
20:32
em And I would just say like ambition and contentment are not mutually exclusive because I think we are built into a world.
20:42
The Lord created a world that's filled with a dynamic tension, right?
20:46
Like We see it in Genesis 1, like he created a land that is just movement and opposites, like land and sea, sky and earth, night and day, good and evil, man and woman, like we're put in the middle of these opposing truths, like both sides are true and they're coexisting, and that's really hard for us, because we like, it makes us feel uncomfortable, because we want to find the like, here's it.
21:11
Mm-hmm.
21:12
And I do think entrepreneurs and self-starter, self-activating, commission-based, variable income professionals, whatever you call it, are uniquely in this contentment and more challenge.
21:25
Because if, you I was just a salaried employee and I knew like this is how much I make, it's the same every two weeks, I go to my desk, I sit down, I go home, there'd be other things that I'd want more of.
21:37
Like I feel like that is a heart piece that would just...
21:40
manifests itself differently, but for us, it's uniquely around production, money, success, being seen more, status, whatever it is.
21:50
And in my podcast, I always ask people, you know, at the end, like, how do you define success?
21:56
And one of my favorite definitions that someone gave me that I thought was really profound was, you know, if I can just be satisfied with my life each day, even if it's chaos, even if it's you know, I wish there was more, I wish there was less.
22:12
If I could have that contentment, that godliness of the contentment, you know, then I would be satisfied.
22:19
And yet we all, we have this uh monastic fantasy that says, you know, if I just had more time in my life, if I had more freedom in my life, if I had less toddlers screaming at me all day, then I would be able to spend more time with the Lord.
22:37
Hmm.
22:37
be able to volunteer more and I'd be able to do these things that I value that I'm not doing and I'd ultimately be more connected to the Lord.
22:44
If I just have this, then I'm better.
22:47
And what that does is it just seeds shame, it seeds frustration and it seeds this belief that God isn't innately in the space of life that I'm in right now.
22:59
He's in this life where I miraculously just have kids who when I come home, from work at the end of the day are so well behaved and not like covered in feces and running around like feral creature.
23:12
And so it's like, you know, we do this in our business too.
23:16
It's like, if I just made more money, if I just had more clients, if I just had a marketing engine that worked on repeat automatically, if I just hit these milestones or this million dollar, whatever it is, then I will be okay.
23:31
And it just seeds frustration, it just seeds shame, and it just seeds this idea that God is not with me in the messy middle where my business stands right now.
23:41
And so I really do feel like God didn't put us in a corner of the world that is like, oh sorry, you're just an ambitious human.
23:50
I built you that way.
23:51
You're in a field that actually suits the way I wired you, but I'm not here, right?
23:57
And so I think when we work with a lot of agents, it's talking through like, how do you then have contentment?
24:03
This beautiful internal like, Lord, you are right here with me.
24:06
I'm making the calls.
24:08
I want my business to have more.
24:11
And yet I'm so thankful for what you've given me.
24:15
And yet, like, you know, even though my business doesn't look like I want, I personally want it to be right now.
24:21
It looks exactly how you want it to look right now.
24:23
And ultimately, I can submit to that.
24:25
Like you said, submission over ambition.
24:27
And I really do think there's a place where when God says, blessed are you, for you have been faithful in a little.
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Now I can make you faithful over much.
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Cursed are you who were not faithful in a little.
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For now you will not be faithful over much.
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It's like, okay, yes, I've got the 10-year vision and I want PeaceLink to look a certain way, and I want my days to look a certain way, and I want my money to look a certain way.
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But right now I've got this little sliver of the kingdom that the Lord has given me.
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And what does it mean to be so faithful?
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If I can't be faithful and excellent and work unto the Lord with the clients I have now, and the book of business I have now, and the employees I have now, and the family I have now, I'm not gonna be faithful when I finally do get to the place that I want my business to look like.
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So we talk in my firm with just among the staff, like we are going to work like it depends on us, but we are going to pray because it depends on the Lord.
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And we're gonna have to carry that tension.
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And if a client leaves, it's like, thank you Lord, that what they weren't a fit.
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Like that's not, you know, we're just gonna keep trusting the Lord that there's another advisor out there for that person.
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If we get a client, that is a huge blessing.
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That's not because of our strength, it's because of the strength of the Lord.
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And ultimately every step along the way of where PeaceLink goes, we're going to practice gratitude, we're going to practice faithfulness, and we're going to work really hard and we're going to pray even harder.
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Because ultimately I believe the work we do is really impactful on people's hearts.
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And it's really impactful on my heart.
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And I don't want to covet this.
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Like I don't want to fall into covetousness.
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Because you can imagine, like, in a field of people who work with people's money all the narrative coming out among financial advisors is just money.
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How much money do you have?
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How big is your book?
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What car do you drive?
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Where, you know, I've been told so many times I don't dress up well enough to serve millionaires.
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I'm like, I don't care.
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But it's totally like you have to look a certain way.
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You have to act a certain way.
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And, you know, I'm just trying to be faithful and I'm going to try.
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I'm trying to be grateful and I'm trying to be content and I'm trying to be ambitious.
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Like I'm such a competitive person.
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I want to beat every other advisor out there all day long.
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I want to be the best.
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I am such an achiever.
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And at the same time, I can recognize, hey, there's an abundance.
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If another advisor gets a big client, praise the Lord.
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Hopefully they serve that person well.
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I'm going to be so faithful with the people I serve and just continue to work on my own heart.
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And like I said, just work really hard as if it depends on me, but really pray because at the end of the day, it depends on the Lord.
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That's, we're neither of us are holding mics, but that would have been your mic drop moment.
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uh you are?
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well, well, don't drop it.
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But, that's, yeah, that's right.
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No, I mean, that's so good, man.
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It's such a reminder of, you know, so many things, but I'll just say, I love that last point you made of a way for us to check our hearts is when we hear that the seller that we tried to get went with the other agent.
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What is our reaction to that?
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Is it, and I'm not saying you should be throwing a party, right?
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Cause we don't lose, but is your reaction, okay, Lord, they weren't for me and they were for them.
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Praise you for that.
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Right.
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You've given you take away and man, is that never by reaction almost, right?
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It's like, we're just like, why did I not get that person?
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You know, I needed that.
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Or I thought, but I actually see, and it's a misunderstanding of, and in our world and yours too, But man, if we could really understand, I love that you talked about it's just this tension.
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There just is tension.
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It doesn't go away.
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It's there, right?
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It's this reality of if we could learn to work from the foundation of the Lord has promised He will provide.
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So that is no longer what our pursuit is.
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It's not for provision because He's going to do that.
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Now our pursuit is excellence in what He's called us to steward.
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Another word is faithfulness that you used, right?
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Faithfulness to what he's given us to steward.
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And if we can do that well, then maybe if he chooses, he'll give us something greater than that as well.
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Right.
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But if we can work from I'm not working to earn my provision because he's promised to provide it doesn't mean that you don't show up and do a good job.
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Right.
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Like being a poor steward of it is sinful and being less excellent is sinful, too.
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But it is that it's a different mentality.
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Right.
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We are people, because you use the Israelites as an example, I find it fascinating that the Israelites, you know, they escape from Egypt, they walk through the Red Sea, the Lord is literally raining food down from heaven.
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And they're like, yeah, but what have you done for me lately?
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Right.
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They're like, yeah, need some.
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And you're like, golly.
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And you can look at them and say, what is their problem?
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But man, that is our hearts too.
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Right.
29:30
And so it's this pursuit of, man, how do we understand it?
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One of the things I appreciate, and I want you to tell people how they can connect with you, but one of the things I appreciate about so much of what you shared is it was It was riddled with scripture, right?
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It's like, you know what the word says and therefore that's what we fall back on, right?
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Cause our hearts are deceitful and wicked.
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We will pursue the world because it's right next to what we're trying to pursue.
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And the devil's going to try to distract us as long as he can.
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And that might mean that you start crushing it and making a ton of money.
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And you're just like, I'm just going to keep doing this because it's working and it's what the world wants and blah, blah.
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We have to check ourselves against scripture.
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We have to hold ourselves accountable with scripture.
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I love that your team is doing it.
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We need to live inside community, right?
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Real estate agents often are isolated.
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We need to live inside community where other people are helping hold us accountable and sharpening us in these areas as well.
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And then I think we need people like financial advisors that know and love the Lord to help hold us accountable to that too.
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And audience, you've heard me say, I'm gonna have Leland share how you guys can get in touch with him, but I'm a huge believer.
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that if someone, if you need somebody in a certain field, in this instance, financial advising or accounting or mortgage or whatever it is, and you know someone who's a believer who is also excellent at what they do, you should go work with that person.
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Because this is, I want the advice I'm getting to be biblical, right?
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Leland's not perfect, neither am I, we're not gonna be spot on every time, but to pursue the Lord.
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And I also wanna know that when I help Leland win, that that money's not circling back to Planned Parenthood.
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Right, like I wanna know that I believe that that money is gonna go to the work of the kingdom like you talked about earlier.
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uh agents, if you're looking for financial advisor, here's a great one right in front of you or you got friends that are doing that.
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So Leland, brother, how could they get in touch with you?
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Where should they go if they wanna learn more?
31:20
Yeah, I appreciate that.
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yeah, you can find PeaceLink Financial Planning and Accounting.
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do, you know, both the financial planning, forward projection, business and personal, along with the accounting.
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So bookkeeping, tax prep, we kind of bring it all in house.
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You can find us at our website directly, which is peacelinkfp.com.
31:39
You can also find us on any major social media, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, at PeaceLink FP.
31:45
So it's kind of all the same.
31:46
And you can find me personally at just Leland Gross.
31:50
em So, would love a chance to connect with you.
31:53
I love the real estate market.
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love working with realtors and agents.
31:57
It's just a dynamic world with lots going on in your heart around your money and lots going on with your money in general.
32:03
There's a lot of feast and famine and a lot of principles there that we really love to dive into with folks.
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So, would love a chance to connect.
32:11
Awesome, amazing.
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All that will be in the show notes too, agent.
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So go check that out.
32:16
Connect with him.
32:17
Again, we want to be equally yoked in real estate business, in our financial planning, in our mortgage, whatever it is.
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There's a reason Paul told us to be equally yoked.
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And we want to pursue the Lord in all the ways that we can.
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So Leland, brother, thank you seriously for coming on.
32:31
I mean, there's so much good wisdom in there and just, you know, I appreciate your humility too.
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When we first got on and you're like, man, how do I implement?
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biblical principle, right?
32:41
Like you just kind of live it.
32:42
uh It's not an on-off switch.
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And man, I appreciate that.
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And that's something we should all pursue.
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So Faithful Agents, we love you.
32:49
I hope this episode was an encouragement to you.
32:51
If it was, go check out what Lila is doing.
32:53
Share this with a friend who you think might benefit from this.
32:55
Leave us a five-star review.
32:57
We can reach more people.
32:58
But we love you and we will see you next week.
33:01
Dude, well done, my friend.
33:03
Whoops.
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Not leave.
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Stop.