Transcript

0:01
What's up, everybody?
0:02
Welcome back to another episode of the Faithful Agent podcast.
0:05
I am thrilled that you're with me.
0:07
We're going to jump right in because I have a feeling Kristen has some pretty amazing things to share with us today.
0:12
So Kristen, I'm just going to launch us off.
0:15
I have not read this before, so let's see if this is good.
0:19
I'm terrified.
0:20
OK, Kristen, on the Ark, Noah probably got milk from the cows on board.
0:26
What did he get from the ducks?
0:29
Quackers.
0:30
uh That's surprisingly funny.
0:35
I've not read that before.
0:37
That's actually, like that.
0:38
So you'll appreciate this, Kristen.
0:40
I feel like now, uh anywhere I go where someone actually listens to the show, the three people that actually listen to the show, if it's someone that I know or someone that knows me, they're like, all right, Garrett, you need to tell us a Kristen Dab joke.
0:53
And I'm like, I can't really do it on command.
0:55
mean, I kind of can, but that's a joke I feel like I could remember.
0:58
You could remember, yeah.
1:00
from the cows and quackers from the ducks.
1:03
But Kristen, I'm so glad you're here.
1:04
And you know, we were talking pre-show and the beauty of not only your story, you scaling with the team and all the things you've been able to do in the Lord's kindness, but I love that you specifically said you've been able to pick up your kids from school and you don't work on the weekends, right?
1:19
So jump right into that, Kristen, because our audience knows that's something I'm passionate about too.
1:23
I wrote about it, right?
1:24
Coming out in November.
1:25
So talk to me about that, Kristin, your business, what does it look like and how are you able to do that?
1:31
You know, um I was just like everybody else, running, running, running, answering the phone at every given opportunity, showing homes till 10 o'clock at night.
1:40
And I remember my husband saying like, hey, are we going to have kids?
1:43
I didn't sign up for you never being home, but that's what we do as agents.
1:48
you know, years of trying to balance business.
1:51
And one day one of my son's teachers at the Christian school said, hey, uh I had my mother picking up the kids from school and she made a comment to me that basically made me feel like a really bad mom and she was like, you know, you should be picking up your kids from school and I was like, uh here I thought I was, you know, making money and grinding and like providing for the family well and we, you know, but what I wasn't doing is being present or, you know, doing the things that were important that you only got to do for a limited.
2:24
amount of time.
2:24
And so at that moment, I was like, you know what, I'm not okay with that.
2:28
And thank you for hurting my feelings a little because I'm going to go figure that out.
2:32
And so, you know, I hadn't leveraged people nearly as much.
2:36
uh And I thought, you know what, how I'm going to set the schedule.
2:41
And no matter when business happens, this is going to be the time when I'm hands on and all the other times I'm going to have the people around me pick up and I had a fear of loss, like, oh my gosh, what if I lose business over it?
2:55
What if they only want to talk to me?
2:57
All the things that go through your head.
2:58
But the truth is that clients just want good service.
3:01
They just want to be taken care of.
3:03
And so when I shifted my mindset to realize I was providing agents around me an opportunity for them to.
3:12
you know, get some experience.
3:14
Right now, the thing that's working best is having showing agents.
3:18
A lot of agents that are newer in the industry or burned out on negotiating are like, hey, I'll open doors for you.
3:25
They know my expectations.
3:26
They know my heart.
3:27
know, uh you know, like we work and we communicate well and they love opening the doors and I'll negotiate the contract.
3:35
So right now...
3:36
uh We've got a transaction coordinator that takes great care of all of our paperwork.
3:41
We've got a marketing person that takes care of the stuff that I would get caught up in.
3:45
I love being a creative, but it's not the most productive use of my time.
3:49
And then...
3:52
Some of my agents will show houses for me and we split commissions.
3:57
And so we have that in our team agreement to where they go out, they show homes, they get paid, I get paid.
4:02
And once I started sharing, instead of coming from scarcity, I started coming from abundance and just realizing there's so much business out there.
4:11
And they did too.
4:12
uh God has just really provided for us and just the momentum just keeps coming.
4:17
We've been super blessed and grateful.
4:20
That's amazing.
4:20
Well, I love all that.
4:21
There's so many things that I wrote down.
4:24
And but I'm going to read.
4:25
I'm going to go back to the beginning, right?
4:26
Because I do want you to hit on this.
4:28
I have talked many times.
4:29
I find it fascinating.
4:30
I'll tell you a quick story, Chris, and that our audience has probably heard.
4:33
But when I started talking about the stuff I wrote about in the book, too, so a couple of years ago, the very first time I ever shared it, a woman came up to me and she said she introduced herself.
4:42
She said, Garrett, I'm a mom.
4:43
I'm a solo agent and a mom is what she said.
4:45
I sold 55 homes last year, my best year ever.
4:48
And everyone keeps asking me what am I going to do this year.
4:50
And so I tell them 60 or 70 because we're just supposed to do more.
4:54
And she said, but after hearing your talk, I'm going to intentionally sell 30 homes and it's going to change my life.
4:58
And I thought, well, I didn't mean to tell you to sell less.
5:01
Right.
5:01
That wasn't the point of the call of the of the talk.
5:04
But she said, Garrett, here's why I got into the industry.
5:07
I got in to pick up my daughter from school.
5:09
Guess what?
5:09
I've never done because I've been so busy selling homes.
5:12
Right.
5:12
And so, you know, and I always say and I wish I'd gotten her information.
5:15
I wish I could follow up with her, hold her accountable or encourage her, whatever it was, you know, and scenario.
5:20
But I think it's it's uniquely true.
5:23
You know, it's definitely true for I'm 38.
5:25
I've got five young kids, right?
5:27
It's definitely true for me to don't get me wrong.
5:29
But I think it's more true.
5:31
And I think it's uh the weightiness of it is more on the mom, right?
5:37
The mom in real estate is trying to build something who's how do I balance the picking up my kids to taking them to soccer to making dinner to also selling homes and how do I do all of those things?
5:50
can you just speak specifically to that agent who is struggling with that particular thing thinking, cool, good for you.
5:57
You did it, I gotta sell these homes, gotta do whatever.
6:00
Talk to that mom who's maybe in that moment right now struggling.
6:05
Yeah, I would say it all comes back initially to being super consistent at lead generation.
6:10
And I know that's so obnoxious and so basic and so boring.
6:14
But if you get boring and you get consistent, what happens is you create enough business that you have more than you can handle.
6:20
And when you have more than you can handle, you get to share.
6:23
And when you can share, then you can control your time.
6:26
And I think really just...
6:29
That consistency creates the momentum, the inconsistency of lead generation for a little while and then get some deals in the pipeline and stop lead generating.
6:40
And now we got to start over again.
6:41
That's what creates that scarcity where you feel like you can never give up and leverage because you never have consistent business flow.
6:50
So.
6:50
you know, and what is lead generation, right?
6:52
That's the next question is it's all different to everybody.
6:55
To me, I built my business face to face loving on people, whether that was being the mom at all the field trips.
7:05
was an and going to the workout classes.
7:09
I intentionally, anywhere that I place myself, make sure that everybody, by the time they leave, knows I'm in real estate.
7:17
And I don't do it obnoxiously, but I might run in the door five minutes late on purpose and be like, whew, just got done showing homes.
7:25
So glad I could be here.
7:26
Nice.
7:27
So never, you know, there's a lot of people that, you know, will dial a thousand people.
7:32
That was never my strategy.
7:33
My strategy was like sincerely loving people, listening to the changes in their lives, and then seeking to understand how with my skills and my knowledge, I can help them.
7:44
But...
7:45
If I wasn't interacting with enough people, then there wasn't enough of those conversations going on.
7:51
just wherever you're at in the business, going back to being consistent at the conversations, because you can't give it away until you have enough to give away, right?
8:02
And so there is a point in the business where you have to just hustle, hustle.
8:06
But, you know, even if you don't have a team, you could have a partner that, you know, picks up everything after a certain time of day and I did that for years before I had a team, is I had another agent in the office that we shared workload and I worked certain hours and she worked certain hours.
8:22
um But you can't do it if you don't have the consistency on the business generation.
8:28
love that.
8:28
think that is the absolute we're basically the same person, Chris, and we just didn't know it.
8:32
ah I agree with you 1000 % right?
8:35
Everything comes down to lead generation and your willingness to just do it consistency consistently enough to have the business.
8:42
That's my story too, right?
8:43
Same same idea.
8:44
But I do you know the the encouragement of it's possible, right?
8:49
It's totally possible and I love what you hit on to it's you're a mom.
8:52
Don't be shy of that.
8:54
You don't be an agent sometimes and their mom sometimes you know, I was just on a show.
8:58
Christian you'll appreciate this.
8:59
was on a show, it wasn't a Christian show, they were interviewing me.
9:03
the interviewer at beginning said, hey, we know you started Faithful Agent, like we know you're a Christian, but if you could just like don't talk about that.
9:10
And I laughed and I said, well, I just need you to know it's not a backpack that I take on and off, right?
9:15
Like this is who I am, this is who I show up at.
9:18
And if that's going to not work for you, I respect that I can leave, right?
9:21
And we ended up having a great conversation, but same thing, you're a mom, you're not a mom and then an agent sometimes and for us, then believer and sometimes a wife, like you're all of those things all at once.
9:31
And so how do you turn that into a superpower as opposed to always apologizing for being those different things?
9:37
Right.
9:37
It's exactly what you said.
9:39
It's well, I'm to be showing up to whatever the PTA event or the soccer event or the field trip or whatever it is.
9:45
I'm to be showing up to that anyways.
9:47
And I'm going to be connecting with the other moms that are there, too.
9:50
I'll just let them know I'm an agent.
9:51
Right.
9:52
And they people want to refer people like them.
9:54
So let them know who you are.
9:56
And that's a way to do it.
9:57
How do you show up now don't make your whole life is about it's not about real estate right but that's a way for you to be the mom be the dad show up to where you want to right like i coached soccer last year christen for my my then five-year-old son which i'm a terrible soccer coach by the way we lost every game we only scored twice the entire season i mean i'm a baseball guy like played football and baseball I don't know anything about soccer, but thankfully chat.
10:20
GPT does.
10:21
so anyways, I was like, okay, this is going to take time, but I'm going to turn this into when I'm going to pour into these kids, right?
10:28
Well, who's there with the kids?
10:29
I made a point to go meet the parents and then say, Hey, we do a bunch of fun client events.
10:34
If you don't have an agent, invite them to those, right?
10:36
Just get into those relations.
10:37
You're already showing up.
10:39
It's okay.
10:40
We're not separate things at this time of day and that time of day, right?
10:44
That's not it at all.
10:44
So I love that you said that I wrote it down, get boring and get consistent.
10:48
That is a great tagline just to do the work, do the work and it's gonna pay off.
10:53
So you start doing this consistent work, right?
10:56
This teacher offends you in a really good way and you realize, I gotta figure this out.
11:02
and you started to get leverage.
11:04
So get tactical from me for a second, because I do find that there's a roadblock for people.
11:08
Well, I can't get leverage.
11:09
I'm not going to have a team.
11:11
That's not even what we're talking about, right?
11:12
You said showing assistant, TC, whatever it is, a partner who was taken over at different times.
11:17
So strategically and tactically, how did you go about doing that?
11:22
Well, systems are also leveraged, so it doesn't have to even be a person, right?
11:26
Calendar is leverage.
11:27
um Just creating systems and rhythms that you can stick to.
11:32
um Initially, actually, initially my story's a little funky because initially I got thrown into...
11:40
um Well, let me back up.
11:44
When I first got into real estate, I came from a nine to five career as a teacher or an eight to three career, like every day, same thing, show up, clock in, clock out kind of job.
11:54
So when I got into industry, in this industry, I told myself, I'm going to treat it just like if somebody else employed me and I'm going to show up from this time to this time.
12:03
And I'm going to make sure that I'm doing productive things while I'm there.
12:06
And I'm going to ask myself at the end of the day, would I fire me?
12:09
And so I would every single day create a system and a rhythm.
12:12
um of, Kristen, you have to add five people to your database.
12:16
Kristen, you gotta follow up with five people.
12:18
Kristen, you gotta write five handwritten notes, and Kristen, you uh gotta preview five homes.
12:23
And that was all I knew to do, and I had this little tiny three by five card on my computer, and every day if I did those things, then I could leave, because I had accomplished my day.
12:32
That created momentum that actually turned into great, like as simple as that is.
12:40
That year, I outsold in units the entire office.
12:44
Now, if it's that easy to win, I wasn't doing anything.
12:49
I was just showing up on time, doing these five things every single day, no matter what.
12:56
If I have lulls in my business now, I'd literally go back to those things.
13:01
Hmm.
13:02
That card was leverage.
13:04
told me what to do every day if I focused on that and did it.
13:06
Then it went into a CRM and somebody told me, I actually got into the industry before we had CRMs.
13:13
So, you know.
13:14
Don't worry about it.
13:15
Yeah, yeah, we got you.
13:16
Yeah, so then it was okay use the leverage of a CRM make sure all these people are getting in there make sure that I'm following up with the ones I haven't followed up with make sure I'm adding new ones so the system became the leverage um after there was enough momentum it was hire a transaction coordinator and the brokerage had one I didn't have I didn't I have learned in life I am not the best at hiring people and hiring talent and holding them accountable.
13:41
My heart is too big and I let them walk all over me.
13:43
So the best thing was hiring the person that's already held accountable, already trained by somebody else.
13:49
And so I did that and went that path for a while until it grew again.
13:54
And financially it made more sense for us to have an onboard TC.
13:57
And so just incrementally over time growing and realizing that business is alive.
14:03
It's gonna move.
14:04
It's gonna morph.
14:04
uh It's not like once you get there, you've got there, right?
14:08
Like it's not like you've made it.
14:10
Like it's a constant moving, changing thing.
14:13
um But starting with systems and rhythms and leveraging those tools and then starting to leverage people as you could afford it and always leading with revenue um is sound advice that I followed and was grateful for.
14:29
Somebody was kind of coaching me through those things as I was growing up in the industry.
14:34
Amazing.
14:34
I think, you so it seems like you told me, Chris, and it seemed like you had a very clear vision in mind of you get offended.
14:42
You got to pick up your kids from school.
14:43
Right.
14:43
You're like, oh, man, you're right.
14:44
I need to pick them up.
14:45
So this very clear vision of I need to make that happen.
14:48
You said that to me pre show.
14:49
You're like, I had to figure out how to make it happen.
14:50
So I went and figured it out.
14:52
You know, that that is where I see a lot of challenges in this industry of we kind of just assume we can do it all.
14:59
then.
14:59
because we can't actually functionally do it all, we start to feel bad about ourselves, right?
15:03
We start to feel burnout or the shocking amount of things left undone in a day is overwhelming to us, which, you know, success is like do two things really well, find that 98 are on fire.
15:13
You know, that's kind of what this looks like, especially in our industry, right?
15:17
And so this reality of you had an idea, I need to get there, right?
15:21
And you just went and figured it out, right?
15:23
You just solve that problem.
15:24
I think a lot of agents aren't asking the right question.
15:26
Yeah, please go ahead.
15:28
You know, there was a season where I was like, I feel guilty paying somebody to do my paperwork because like that's a bougie thing.
15:36
That's a spoiled thing.
15:37
Like I don't deserve that.
15:39
And then realizing and shifting my mindset to Kristen, you're blessing somebody and providing somebody an opportunity.
15:45
You have a responsibility to make more and to do more so that others are blessed by, you know, the abundance that you have to overflow to.
15:53
Like God gives you...
15:54
uh a talent or God gives you, like.
15:59
God gives you the gift and it's your job to go multiply it such that it can also bless others.
16:03
And so as a mom, realizing, gosh, that might mean I don't go to the grocery store all the time.
16:09
I use Instacart a lot because it's leverage.
16:13
I have a gal that actually was my children's preschool teacher years ago who has been just an awesome human and love her.
16:22
And she comes over once a month and cleans our house.
16:25
I felt so guilty for giving up that mom job um But then in reality, I'm like, wait, I'm giving her an opportunity.
16:33
She loves us to her.
16:34
She's like, Kristen, thank you for letting me bless your family.
16:37
This is my talent.
16:38
This is my gift.
16:39
And I love having the consistency of knowing that you're going to show up to help me take care of my family too.
16:45
And so stop thinking of leverage as, uh what am I trying to say?
16:52
Like a.
16:52
right?
16:53
It's like something that have leverages laziness.
16:56
Yeah.
16:56
being a mom.
16:57
And I shifted my thinking to no, I'm offering other opportunities.
17:02
I'm focused on what I'm good at and I'm generating revenue and what I'm good at.
17:06
And I'm going to give off the things that I'm not so that other people can have an opportunity in this big world too.
17:14
But it took me a while to get to that mindset without feeling like it was a luxury and I was being, know, spoiling myself.
17:21
However, however.
17:23
I say that with the time you get back from leverage, whether it's housekeeping, Instacart, things like that, my job is to go generate more revenue in my space.
17:33
So I can't just take that as like, well, I'm not going to work today because they're doing it for me.
17:38
It's like, no, my job is to go do more of what I do that generates revenue such that this whole wheel keeps turning and everybody continues to have opportunity.
17:48
That's good, yeah, I love that you are just so honest about it too.
17:51
It just feels like a luxury.
17:52
I've never thought about it that way, honestly.
17:54
The agents that I coach, it feels so hard sometimes to say, you're crushing it.
17:59
Why aren't you hiring this?
18:00
Why are you still running around putting the lock box on?
18:02
Even if you're not crushing it, I paid an intern at my church 20 bucks an hour.
18:06
I don't need to be going to do that.
18:08
It's the mindset of not thinking like an agent, but thinking like a business owner.
18:12
That's not an easy transition, but we need to make that transition.
18:15
If we're gonna steward the opportunity the Lord has granted, to us, we've got to understand leverage.
18:21
We've got to understand how to make those kinds of decisions.
18:24
Right.
18:24
I love that you said, though, that honesty of I didn't feel like I was worthy.
18:28
Right.
18:28
It was too bougie for me to have people that were going to be there to do the things I didn't want to do.
18:33
Well, first of all, anybody listening, you're in business.
18:36
That's how business works.
18:38
Right.
18:38
That's just what a business looks like.
18:40
It just we happen to be an industry where you also could just be a solo agent running around.
18:45
But that's not what a business owner would ever do.
18:47
Right.
18:47
Look at any other business.
18:48
That's not how this works and the businesses that do if you go to a coffee shop Whatever and the owners running around like crazy No offense that that business is probably not going to survive very long You need people to step in and help you right and who are going to be good at it And so I even love that mentality.
19:05
This is not about being bougie It's about survival and giving to your point giving people opportunities Around you instead of being obsessed that you got to be you know, everything to everybody.
19:16
Yeah, please go ahead Kristen And accountability, I mean, you just made a good point.
19:20
You have to hold God's money accountable, right?
19:22
Like you can't just let it flow out and have no knowledge of where it's going to or what the return is for you.
19:27
You have to, and I find so many agents like don't have a P and L, they don't really know what they're making.
19:32
They don't really know what they're spending.
19:34
And it is your responsibility when you are generating this revenue that is yours for a moment to make sure that you're spending it on things that generate more so that you can give more.
19:48
challenges just in watching businesses over the years, I would go to conferences and truly faith-based conferences that were full of amazing hearts that just wanted to bless.
19:58
And the only way that they knew to fund their mission was asking for donations.
20:03
And as you know, donations have gotten really hard over the years.
20:07
People don't want to give donations anymore.
20:09
And it fired me up because I've always told myself I can have anything I want in life as long as I can make it pay for itself.
20:19
And so when I'd go to these conferences, I'm like, you can do that, you can have that life, but you need to have passive income such that it pays for it so that you're not sitting around and your mission isn't dependent on somebody else's donations.
20:31
And it just made me realize that the church often has this mindset of money is evil or it's bougie or it's, and really like you can't go bless and go.
20:44
multiply the mission if you're constantly stuck begging and waiting for donations to come in.
20:50
Mmm.
20:51
Mmm.
20:51
It's so good.
20:52
I mean, it's...
20:53
First of all, again, I appreciate just the honesty, transparency of that.
20:57
As we record, I don't know when this comes out, but yesterday was Charlie Kirk's memorial service, And my wife and I, with our eight-year-old, our oldest, we watched, it was long.
21:07
It was five hours.
21:08
But one of the things that consistently struck me, well, number one, all those amazing people that worked with him, like you talked about, right?
21:15
Yes, you see the passion of this man who loved Jesus and his pursuit of trying to bring people to know Jesus.
21:23
conservative movement as well, whether you like some of the things he said or didn't, I believe absolutely he was a believer and he's with Jesus.
21:30
But the reality of it's because, they kept talking about it, right?
21:34
Christian is like, he was really good at finding talented people and then he let them do their thing and it continued to multiply this mission, right?
21:42
They were raising like a hundred million dollars a year or something like that.
21:45
And if he had thought small, right, if he had stayed there and said, you know what, this is not supposed to be because what if I pursue blah, blah, blah.
21:53
this and that and that, and I don't know, should I hire people, whatever, it would have stayed small.
21:58
And I think that, and I'm gonna ask you this question because it's something that I constantly wrestle with, Chris, and I'm super curious your perspective, is I constantly wrestle with this idea of submission versus ambition, right?
22:10
The Lord has created us to be ambitious.
22:15
He gave us that, right?
22:16
It's not a sin for us to have ambition.
22:19
but it is first and foremost our responsibility to submit to the will of the Father.
22:24
so how do we be, I find myself, right, transparently, Kristen, I find myself playing smaller than I probably should, because I don't want to get so far out in front of the Lord thinking, wow, man, now you just unshackled ambition and this is not good, right?
22:42
Let's just stay here and kind of wait and see what the Lord wants to do.
22:46
And I tend to fall on that line.
22:48
I've certainly met people that go way above the line that maybe they should too, right?
22:52
And so there's scriptures and flat out say, here's what to do.
22:55
I wish you did, that'd be really easy.
22:56
Maybe the Lord, if you want to write that down for me, I'd appreciate it.
22:59
That'd be really helpful.
23:00
How do you like think about that concept?
23:02
Submission versus ambition.
23:04
How does a believer pursue that?
23:08
There's gonna be tension, but how do we pursue that?
23:10
What do we do with that?
23:12
Gosh, that's such a good question and I still wrestle with that all the time and I find that um making sure you've got your morning to be with God and having quiet time to pray and to listen, like we're in such a busy world that we often don't listen.
23:25
uh However, I think, you know, I always operate from faith, family, and business in that order.
23:34
And if that's the case, then if my faith is being taken care of and my family is being taken care of, and there's still capacity to keep generating in business, as long as it's in the direction that I'm intending to head with the talents God gave me.
23:52
then I think I should keep pursuing and building bigger.
23:54
um As long as it's blessing people around me and giving them opportunities, then I think it's my responsibility to keep building bigger.
24:01
Now, the second that I get off track and I've got irons in the fire all over the place that are unrelated and I'm a scatterbrain, then I need to go back and simplify what I've said yes to.
24:13
And if I'm in a place, and I feel like it's...
24:18
It's not balance, it's counterbalance, right?
24:21
If balance is the center and you're kind of on this pendulum, your goal is to stay as close to balance as possible, but I think the reality of balance is not really, I mean, you're moving.
24:32
everything is moving and happening around you.
24:35
And so the goal is to stay close to balance.
24:37
But sometimes we get super far off on the business side, super far off on the family side or the personal side or whatever.
24:44
And I think it's the intent, you know, and my mission is always just stay somewhere close to middle.
24:48
And when you get off, come back.
24:50
And when you get off, come back.
24:51
um But my first priority is my faith in my family.
24:55
So as long as I'm doing that part well, then I can keep experimenting and growing and pushing on the business.
25:02
um But again, it all goes back to accountability, right?
25:05
And making sure you're checking in with yourself and checking in with your spouse and checking in with your kids and the people around you that matter to say, are we good?
25:14
And that's what he did really well.
25:16
em You made a really good point.
25:19
Like, look at all those people that were impacted by a young kid's life.
25:26
like that didn't even live that long.
25:28
But look at all of the people who wouldn't have been impacted had he played it small.
25:33
But he and his wife were close and they knew what the mission was and they kept on mission and they communicated and they both held their roles to where they could support the same mission and moving it forward.
25:45
And I think that that's the key and that that's what God wants you to do.
25:48
Yeah, so, you know, it's a...
25:51
obviously tragic what happened, but I think in the, and only the way the Lord can, His mercy in His, the way He's changing people through it.
25:59
And even you and I as believers, it's not a time where I became a believer, it's a time where just causing me to think about, you know, what is it that we're called to?
26:09
What is this life?
26:10
You know, I, and I think that there's an aspect, Christian, I think there's one of two things going on here.
26:14
I loved your thoughts.
26:16
There's one of two things going on here.
26:18
And I think there's either the person that's totally He uh believes that they just pursue and there's no sin that's there waiting to devour them like the devil says that he is or scripture tells us that he is.
26:31
And then there's the other person that's so afraid of falling over that line, which is often me, right?
26:37
know, what I think the Lord wants me to do and me building myself in my own kingdom are like neck and neck, right?
26:44
Side by side, let me say it that way.
26:46
And it's really easy for me to fall into, whoa, you're building your own kingdom and not even And so the check-in or and I've got great friends and the co-founder of this podcast Tyler's my best friend and he calls me out constantly right and like bro leave me alone, but you're right Okay, but still leave me alone, but don't leave me alone because I need you but you know We need those people to say hey, let me just I don't know your heart But let me check you for a sec, right?
27:09
Because it is easy for us especially in this industry to just pursue what the world is doing and say no It's just how this works and that's both true.
27:19
There's a big but right there, right?
27:22
But what is it that the Lord is calling you to?
27:24
Does it don't necessarily align?
27:26
It doesn't mean they don't, but it doesn't mean that they do.
27:29
And so we need each other there.
27:30
But I do think there's the person that's like, I'm just going to charge ahead.
27:33
I'm not even going to think about it.
27:34
I'm just going to do whatever.
27:35
You know, I used to work at the university I graduated from, Chris, and the former president was a US senator.
27:41
This brilliant man, an amazingly brilliant man.
27:43
But he always used to say, I never think about failure.
27:46
I only look ahead.
27:47
And I'm like, that's kind of weird.
27:49
You know, you don't ever stop.
27:50
to just think that maybe I did that wrong or you know, maybe I could do something.
27:54
Benny claimed to be a believer.
27:55
I don't I didn't know him well enough to know his heart, but you know, it's just I always look ahead.
27:59
All I'm doing is looking at the vision, looking at the vision and thinking that's an incredible trait.
28:04
But also again, as a believer, where's our responsibility lie?
28:08
So as you move forward, right, you've got a lot of things happening.
28:12
You've got a team, you've got investments.
28:14
You're coming out to Virginia to speak soon, which is amazing, right?
28:17
You're helping place, which is awesome as you guys grow and.
28:20
and go public, a lot of really cool things happening.
28:24
How do you keep yourself grounded?
28:27
How do you pursue, Lord, what is it that you want?
28:32
And really pursue that and understand how do you do that?
28:36
You know, number one, I've taken a lot of reflection time to say, what are the talents that he gave me from the time that I was a little kid?
28:43
What have I been good at?
28:45
And how can I use that to solve problems for other people?
28:49
Because, and if I can take just that lane and let other people do the other things, can we get further?
28:57
Which is why we joined Place, Place is leverage for us.
29:00
um But.
29:02
like truth be told, it is constantly checking in and constant and not being heartbroken when something doesn't work out.
29:09
Like I've been uh working on a Christian business university for a couple of years and the, the gal that was heading that was like, you know what, this is too much for me.
29:18
I have to call it off.
29:19
And my first response was, we've put so much time into it.
29:22
was teaching real estate investment.
29:24
It's my passion.
29:24
I love it.
29:25
But also just knowing that like, Hey, that's okay.
29:29
Cause God's going to do something different with your time.
29:31
It's okay that you.
29:32
use those moments for learning and building relationships and just going with the flow and not being tied to the outcome if something doesn't go your way.
29:43
um And just lots of check-in.
29:46
mean, there are seasons where I get a little more on the hustle side.
29:51
Usually when that's happening, I find that it's because I'm looking at...
29:55
somebody else and their hustle and I'm even maybe not even with knowledge comparing myself to their hustle and just getting myself back on my mission that I don't need to look at somebody else and see if they're ahead or behind.
30:08
I don't need to, you know, do a thousand transactions for me to feel validated.
30:12
Like God made me who I am.
30:14
My job is to show up as the best version of myself and to be light in this world and to help other people uh see light.
30:22
And I love to tie it back to Charlie Kirk last night I love that Elon said, I mean I hate the situation, but Elon said last night he said he was killed because he was coming to the table with truth and he was being light and the darkness, you know, the dark killed him and you know just realizing that that's our job every day regardless of whether we're a realtor at the moment or a mom at the moment or whatever at the grocery store at the moment is to show up and be light and to, um I live by this practice of being living proof of a loving God.
30:58
Like if I show up every day, my production doesn't matter.
31:02
If every day I'm living proof of a loving God, all the other things are gonna fall into place.
31:07
And quite honestly, the business has been built from being that light and attracting people and people wanting to be around somebody who's being light to them.
31:16
The business is just a vehicle um that helps to create a tool called money that can multiply opportunities.
31:28
So good, Kristen.
31:29
I I say all the time, the mission of every agent and every believer is the gospel.
31:34
Our method happens to be real estate, right?
31:37
Whether that's investing, whether that's a team, whether that's a solo agent, whatever, but even whittling it down further, again, so many things you said are just so spot on.
31:46
you're going back to the beginning, if you're a mom, your mission is first and foremost, love the Lord, love your husband, love your kids, right?
31:53
Lead your kids, serve your kids, all the things, submit to your husband who needs to be submitting to Lord right in a godly way that those are the things that matter and like you said when you take your eyes off of your mission and you look at what they're doing it's challenging right I mean my best buddy again Tyler to talk about him again we played high school ball together love this guy he went on and played professional baseball for 10 years and it absolutely crushed it he's 6'2 and I'm 5'6 and three-quarters because that three-quarters matters when you're my height Kristen and it's different you know people can tell if I asked which one of us was a pro athlete, they'd know it's not me.
32:31
And so, but I, and sometimes I look at that, right, most of the time I'm just joyful, He's such a great brother.
32:36
Sometimes I'm like, why, why didn't I get to earn that money, right?
32:40
What was that not my opportunity?
32:42
And instead of looking and saying, Lord, what's the mission that You have for me?
32:46
You know, I remember reading in the Old Testament, I've talked about this, Chris, and I want you to take us out, but is the, well, many stories, right, the story of King David.
32:54
And it talks about the people that the Lord had assigned to be his cupbearer, right, to be his shield holder, I don't know, shieldbearer, whatever it was.
33:02
Right.
33:02
And I keep thinking about it.
33:03
And I was reading that.
33:04
was thinking about, I how many of us read that and think, no, I'm supposed to be King David?
33:08
Well, there was one King David, right?
33:11
And now that's Jesus, right?
33:12
He was just an example of Jesus.
33:14
And those around him were assigned a job.
33:16
wasn't to be King David.
33:17
Charlie Kirk was not to be Jesus, right?
33:20
He was to point to the King David.
33:21
and that's Jesus, that's our responsibility too.
33:24
And maybe you're the guy in the kingdom washing the toilets or whatever they had, right?
33:29
Maybe you're the person, right hand man holding the cup for the king.
33:32
How amazing.
33:34
But if I'm holding the cup and I'm looking, or let's go the other way.
33:36
If I'm washing the toilets, looking at the guy holding the cup, all I'm doing is complaining to the Lord to say, you gave me the wrong job.
33:44
And he can't do that.
33:46
That's not who he is.
33:46
He decides what role we play.
33:48
So I love that you're talking about being on mission and paying attention to your mission, right?
33:53
again, if you can, I mean, you've shared so many good things, Kristen, we could talk about this forever.
33:59
But if you would leave, again, I'll just keep my heart for that mom, right?
34:03
That is working their butt off.
34:05
And the industry keeps telling them, why aren't you selling more homes?
34:08
You could be doing more.
34:09
And they just feel like they should do everything, you know, and they can't, you just can't.
34:12
So just one more, give me one more thought for them.
34:15
Let's encourage that mom right now who's selling homes.
34:18
And then I want them to learn how they can connect with you.
34:21
But yeah, just one more thought for them.
34:23
I think create a rhythm and the word rhythm might sound silly.
34:28
I used to try to follow somebody else's time clock and do their best practices and all the things.
34:33
And what I found is in my crazy life where I'm all these different hats is I needed to identify a rhythm that would work for me.
34:40
So sometimes that's not lead generating right at eight in the morning when everybody else is sometimes, you know, and so whatever rhythm you can get into as far as lead generation.
34:52
um Follow-up like taught your business rhythm and then your home rhythm and your health rhythm if you can get into rhythms and also Understand that different seasons have different rhythms.
35:06
It's okay to shift I used to beat myself up if My calendar didn't look like they told me it was supposed to look but I realized when I could be consistent on a rhythm that worked for me I would win and sometimes family problems.
35:22
My dad had a head injury and I spent two years teaching him to walk and at the hospital and at doctor's appointments, but I still had a job to do.
35:30
So I then had to shift my calendar and create a rhythm that would work in that season.
35:36
So, you know, I hear a lot of people say, I can't because this season that I am in, you can, you just need to shift your rhythm and find a time when you can do it, when you can do it consistently and just start to create a rhythm because a rhythm becomes a habit.
35:49
And just also know that If a different season occurs down the road, you can shift your rhythm, but you need a rhythm.
35:56
I love that.
35:57
Kristen, if they want to connect with you, learn more about you, from you, I mean, how would they go about doing that?
36:03
You'll spell my name wrong, but Kristen Kingsbury.com will get you to my link tree and it's got.
36:09
Okay.
36:11
Okay, cool.
36:12
Or Facebook.
36:13
um I'm a pretty good Facebook messenger kind of person too, if you find me there.
36:18
Love it.
36:19
That's awesome, Chris.
36:19
And seriously, thank you so much.
36:21
mean, I there's so many good things.
36:23
I have a bunch of notes, but just the the idea of being in pursuit of the mission and what the Lord has called you to and then bringing people alongside of you so you can accomplish that.
36:33
Right.
36:33
I mean, I if you think about Paul or any of us, if the Lord had flat out written down, hey, Gary, you need to whatever build a business, sells a thousand homes, you're better bet.
36:43
I bust my butt to figure that out.
36:45
And I need people to get me there.
36:46
There's no other way.
36:47
Well, guess what?
36:48
All of us have a mission.
36:50
It's not written down.
36:50
We don't maybe know exactly what it is.
36:52
You all are on mission.
36:54
Brother and sister in Christ is listening.
36:55
You're on mission first for the gospel, but the Lord has given you a very specific role to play.
37:01
You're probably not going to accomplish that without people along the way.
37:04
So look around you, right?
37:06
How do I be a blessing to those around me?
37:08
Give them opportunity to those around me because the Lord didn't make me a mouth and an arm and a foot and all the things.
37:13
We need one another.
37:14
And so I love Christian.
37:15
You're such an example of that.
37:16
So agents go connect.
37:18
with her.
37:18
It'll be in the show notes.
37:19
Don't worry about how you spell it.
37:21
You'll be able to connect with her there.
37:23
But Kristen, thank you so much for coming on.
37:25
It was such a blessing to have you.
37:26
Faithful agents, I love you and I will see you next week.