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 / 255 | Why Realtors of Faith Win by Choosing Obedience Over Fame and Industry Approval w/Linda Baylis-Spence
Transcript
- 0:01Hey everybody, welcome back to an episode of the Faithful Agent podcast.
- 0:05I am glad you joined me today.
- 0:07I met our guest, Linda Bayliss-Spence, just a week ago as we were doing a Faithful Agent mastermind.
- 0:13If you all aren't in tune with the Faithful Agent Facebook page, go check it out or part of the Christian Real Estate Network.
- 0:19Go check that out.
- 0:20We're doing more live trainings, more support, trying to encourage that community.
- 0:23But Linda came on and blew me away, honestly.
- 0:26And I think her story is a story that is going to be encouraging to many of you of how her years and years of loving on people, serving in ministry.
- 0:35Now she is reaping what she sowed, right?
- 0:37The godliness of pouring into other people and now how that's growing her business by being herself.
- 0:43And I think it's going to be an encouragement to all of you.
- 0:45So I'm excited to dive into that.
- 0:46Before I do.
- 0:47uh...
- 0:48let's see linda uh...
- 0:49you know there's so many jokes and i don't know if any of them are funny but let's try this one uh...
- 0:54why didn't know ago fishing so cheesy he only had two words walk on that's that's kind of funny right idea these leprechaun thank you linda i knew i was glad you're here uh...
- 1:08but so let's talk right into linda because uh...
- 1:10you are in your second year but crushing it already, right?
- 1:14Which praise God, and it's only by his kindness, as you said to me pre-show, but crushing it already.
- 1:19Since 2001, you've been the executive director of your local pregnancy resource center, which is awesome.
- 1:25You've served in your church.
- 1:26You've had an incredible presence in your community.
- 1:30And now all of a sudden you get into real estate and it's like all of that time that you poured into other people is now coming back and helping you.
- 1:37grow your business.
- 1:38So give me a snapshot.
- 1:40What does your business look like year two going in?
- 1:42And then we're just going to dive into why it matters for you to be yourself and authentic in this industry.
- 1:47You don't got to go cold call three hours a day.
- 1:50You can show up and be yourself.
- 1:51Give me a snapshot Linda of where your business is right now.
- 1:54Bye.
- 1:55The beginning of the year, I always say that real estate is like an emotional roller coaster.
- 2:00And the beginning of year, it started out really slow for me.
- 2:03And I was starting to get a little concerned because I had nothing.
- 2:07Everybody says I have nothing in my pipeline.
- 2:10So I had nothing in my pipeline.
- 2:12And then it was April and then boom.
- 2:16I mean, in a matter of weeks, I had like 10 houses under contract.
- 2:20But I want to say that I work really hard and I work long hours.
- 2:25uh And I put a hundred and ten percent into what I do here but I just I had an incredibly busy spring and summer so far and It just it has blown me away that I know that the Lord has blessed me through my business.
- 2:44There's no other explanation for that.
- 2:47And anytime that anyone calls and asks me to represent them or list their house or whatever, I have considered an honor.
- 2:55And the other thing is that I've had some nice, larger price sales, and I've had some that are not, but I don't care.
- 3:04I'm gonna treat people the same.
- 3:07Someone buying $500,000 houses uh Fabulous, but somebody getting their first home, and it's two hundred and fifty thousand dollars or whatever I treat them equally because that person they're both as excited as the other one you know and I just think it's important to uh celebrate every person and Try to make it the best transaction I can and be excited with them and just walk them through it and Let them know that they can trust me and have confidence in me to get us to the closing table.
- 3:42It's good and I love you know We when you were on the mastermind how we connected right in the mastermind last week and you graciously agreed to be the kidney pig and so we started having that conversation right what I what I love and appreciate I think will be encouraging to Agents is you aren't systematic right?
- 4:00That's not by nature.
- 4:02You're not like hey, this is what I do than this is blah blah blah It's I show up and I love people well, right as I think about them.
- 4:07How do I serve them?
- 4:08How do I you know minister to them?
- 4:11And through that, now you could be more systematic, sure, cool, awesome.
- 4:15But through that, through sowing into people's lives, again, now you're able to reap.
- 4:22talk to me about, your executive director, you're running this crisis pregnancy center, which is an incredible thing, an incredible, important work in this ministry.
- 4:32You get into the industry, the industry, a lot of the pressure is you got a cold call, door knock, open houses, all these things, right?
- 4:39How do you show up and say, you know what, I'm gonna be me.
- 4:42Like talk to me about that.
- 4:43Was there a lot of pressure for you to do those other things you feel confident of?
- 4:46I'm just gonna be me, it's gonna be okay.
- 4:48Like what was that experience like for you coming into the industry?
- 4:51it's a faith walk for me.
- 4:53um It's trusting God that he's going to open the right doors for me and each person that um I get as a customer or client, I look at them as divine appointments and oh I am not disciplined enough to do the systematic thing.
- 5:13too out of the box for that and um I just think that you know, just...
- 5:21doing things the way that I was created to do things.
- 5:24I mean, I can always do things better and there's always room for improvement, but I just don't have the time to sit down and do these types of things that everybody else says you have to do or whatever.
- 5:39I just, I can't do it.
- 5:41And I mean, I have to be flexible.
- 5:43Now, fortunately for me, um I've been the center for so long, I was able to sit down with my board of directors and say, look, I want to do this.
- 5:51and um I need you all to support me.
- 5:54And they actually let me hire someone to take part of my job at the center.
- 6:00So I'm only here a few days a week now, um and it's very flexible.
- 6:05And my staff at the center, they are like my best friends as well.
- 6:09We've all got each other's back here.
- 6:11So if I say, hey, you guys, I've got a closing today, you know, they're gonna cover for me.
- 6:17And if I have to go show up probably they're like, go, the board has been 100%.
- 6:21uh supportive of this and so it's worked real well and it will sit down me and the staff and I will sit down and Talk about you know, is anybody ready to move on and we're all like no This is working and we're all able to do there.
- 6:37I'm into doing real estate We're all the same age bracket.
- 6:40They're traveling all the time.
- 6:42So We just cover each other and it works well for us.
- 6:46It may not work for other people, but it just it's working Yeah, I love it.
- 6:51You know, again, it's the I talk a lot on the show when we talked in the mastermind, but is the the willingness to be authentic, right?
- 6:59And it's not the weird, you know, words of the day of like, be you do all these things.
- 7:04I don't mean that.
- 7:05I mean, the Lord wired you a very specific way.
- 7:09Go be that be excellent at that, right?
- 7:11Be who you are.
- 7:13You know, you, Linda, would not succeed in this industry if you said, well, the industry told me success is you know, cold calling two hours a day and door knocking and all this, like maybe it would work because your personality, but you would burn out from that, right?
- 7:27Operating counter to the way the Lord wired you to what fires you up.
- 7:32And so you just living out, right?
- 7:34First of all, the way the Lord wired you.
- 7:37But also again, I love this because there's so many people, I think, who as believers should be treating people the right way, because that's the way the Lord would want us to.
- 7:46And they're maybe looking at this industry, maybe coming into this industry, maybe listener, you're the kind of person like Linda, who's just been loving on people.
- 7:54Well, you've been serving in your church, doing all those things, but your broker or whoever came in and told you, Nope, be on the phones, do that working by referral relationship doesn't work and all those things.
- 8:04And hopefully this story is going to help you say that's not true at all.
- 8:08Right.
- 8:08I'm going to go love people.
- 8:10the way that I was called to love people.
- 8:12So what does that look like for you, Linda?
- 8:14it specific things that you do?
- 8:16What are you doing to get out in that community and engage with the community?
- 8:20Well, first I have to say that my broker, I'm so grateful he has a good sense of humor because I do use humor a lot in real estate.
- 8:29And on TikTok, I have done videos like, oh gosh, there was one of my first ones was I was talking about, I finally found an affordable home for you and it's a playhouse.
- 8:40And I'm showing the playhouse, I'm inside and I can hardly fit in that, know, and it was just really silly.
- 8:46you know, I thought, gosh, how is he going to take my silliness but he's been very supportive and loves it.
- 8:53I always want to make people feel special and celebrate with them.
- 8:57So when I do my closings, I do what I call red carpet closing.
- 9:02I literally lay down red carpet.
- 9:04I've got these aisle things that I line up.
- 9:06have balloons.
- 9:07I want them, no matter how much they spent or not, to know that this matters.
- 9:15And I think...
- 9:17The one thing that we can let everyone know in life is that they matter and how important that is.
- 9:22And I've always said that.
- 9:23And other things that I do, okay, for instance, again, people have a lot of patience with me because somehow I don't want say I get away with things, but um I think people find me so um interesting or entertaining.
- 9:39Like we have the trunk retreat at church every Halloween.
- 9:43Well, what did I dress up as?
- 9:45Garrett.
- 9:47real city did you that's fantastic which what did that look like what what what did you wear Well, I had a laser and my name and I had a playhouse that I set up and then but my my little space was one of the favorite ones because the kids came in and played within the playhouse and and then I had sold pictures I sold signs so I took pictures of the kids holding my soul times somewhere upside down and you or they were in their house and I interviewed them I made them sign the buyer's agency agreement before they went into the house so it's like this whole big thing in a video that you know posted it and you know tried to sell them the playhouse and and then I gave them candy and the parents candy as well and there were Smarties and I made a card that said be a Smartie and call me for all your real estate needs.
- 10:40You know just little things like that I like to do.
- 10:42ah I told you that I branded a golf cart and I ride it around town and especially if I have um the houses in my town that are listed which has been the majority of my say.
- 10:54sales have actually been in my hometown.
- 10:56I'll ride it around.
- 10:57My husband rides it in the day.
- 10:59It's got my picture on the side and it's got silly decals on it.
- 11:04The front of it says the realtor and um just fun.
- 11:07So I'm going to use that for my trunk retreat this year is going to be my golf cart.
- 11:11I'm going be in the Christmas parade, of course, uh with lights on it.
- 11:16Just that.
- 11:17I think I lay awake at night thinking of things that I can do that are out of the box.
- 11:22um What else have I done?
- 11:27I've done...
- 11:29We haven't really affected...
- 11:32Yeah, so...
- 11:35I want to draw everyone I can to my Facebook page and I know it's not what other realtors do.
- 11:40They have a Facebook page that is just for their real estate business.
- 11:45But see, my life is all-encompassing.
- 11:48It's real estate.
- 11:49It's the pregnancy center.
- 11:50It's family.
- 11:51It's helping people in the community.
- 11:53And so I use my Facebook page for all of that and it draws people there and then I'm throwing in, you know, I've got this listing or pick me as your, to list your property, you know.
- 12:04I go, I try to go above for my clients that have uh clients that were trying to sell oh a more a market that they had and they decided to sell all their equipment.
- 12:15So I went down and I did a little video of all the equipment they had to sell and it was nothing fancy.
- 12:21I just posted it so that people would go and buy the equipment to help them out.
- 12:26And a lot of people did.
- 12:27You know, I just want to serve people without any expectation of anything in return.
- 12:33And the other thing that I've gotten to in the second year that, and I'm not going to say it's going to happen every time, but there are times that contracts don't go through.
- 12:42And I had to to a place of peace about that because my first year that tore me up if my contract I mean I would just be devastated now I'm not I don't know if I become numb or just trusting the Lord this was not his will for these people and I don't look at the fact wow I just lost a commission I really I don't I want to make as much money as I can but at the same time I I have to have the peace that this just wasn't God's will for these people and I can live with that and not be devastated when that happens anymore.
- 13:16First year was rough on the back.
- 13:18I mean, and I remember that too.
- 13:19mean, you enter into those emotions.
- 13:22One of my buddies who started before me, he would always talk about like, man, I was up all night wearing, and I'm like, what is your problem?
- 13:28And then I get in, I'm like, oh dude, I totally understand.
- 13:31Cause you do, enter into these situations and it's not numbness.
- 13:35I think there is a reality of trust in the Lord for sure.
- 13:38But there's also reality of like, but I can't do anything.
- 13:40So me worrying about it doesn't help.
- 13:42mean, there's literally nothing that can change.
- 13:44i feel for these people but trusting that the lord has whatever he has a store for them like you said so i want to go back real quick so i love that you said uh...
- 13:53i know that it's not that uh...
- 13:54this is what i should do this would agent say you should do have your own business page whatever and i love your story because it's bucking what the industry says to just say path i'm gonna do this you know i i was teaching earlier today and i was telling someone i've been a hundred percent referral now someone Because I realized, I didn't know anything when I started, was 27, but I realized that in five years, if my business had grown through cold calling, I wouldn't even want that business, right?
- 14:21Even if it was working, I wouldn't even want it.
- 14:24And so enough understanding, at least to say, if this is going to work, it's got to work the way that I was wired.
- 14:29And that's exactly what you're doing.
- 14:31You're having fun with it, right?
- 14:33Now, agent listening.
- 14:35This doesn't mean you need to go get a golf cart and put your name on it.
- 14:38It could, right?
- 14:39If that's your personality and you're stuck in a room, cold calling three hours a day, maybe you should get the golf cart, right?
- 14:45Or whatever the equivalent should be.
- 14:47If you're the agent that is not as outgoing and enjoying those things, Hey, that's okay too.
- 14:53You also can thrive in this industry by being yourself.
- 14:56Don't try to be Linda.
- 14:57Don't try to be me.
- 14:58Don't try to be your coach, your broker, whomever.
- 15:01Try to be who you are and how the Lord wired you.
- 15:04And so you play into that really well, like this is me.
- 15:06I'm just going to be who I am and the Lord's going to bring what he brings.
- 15:10Now, I do think that maybe unintentionally you follow a really powerful practice of you just give and give and give, right?
- 15:19And ultimately the desire of people who are like, man, Linda has poured into my life.
- 15:23She's sewn into me.
- 15:24She's done all these things.
- 15:26When they get the opportunity, they want to support you back.
- 15:29Right, I agree.
- 15:30for that reason.
- 15:31It just happens to be a byproduct of serving people well.
- 15:35Right.
- 15:35And that's an incredible thing.
- 15:37They've seen you in the community.
- 15:38They've seen you show up on all of those, all of those things.
- 15:41love the creativity, by the way of you have the house and the civil science and all those things.
- 15:45You're just being yourself, right?
- 15:47You're, you're doing the T you're doing tick tock cause you want to, you're doing Facebook cause you want to, there's no have to in this industry.
- 15:52In my opinion, it's be who you are and figure out how to do that.
- 15:56Right.
- 15:57So for you.
- 15:58As you've gone about building a business, right?
- 16:00And you're, I would say your business has been building, right?
- 16:04You are just loving people.
- 16:05You're not even necessarily saying, how do I get to a hundred deals a year?
- 16:08It's like, how do I love people?
- 16:10Well, Lord's going to build it.
- 16:12How does your faith in Jesus influence the way that you approach your business, influence the way that you approach the relationships that you have.
- 16:20Well, I don't want to call it my brand, because that's not the way.
- 16:26But that's what I want people to know me as.
- 16:28I am the realtor who is a Christian.
- 16:31I don't know if it's appropriate to go with the Christian realtor, but I am a realtor who is a Christian.
- 16:36And that is who I am, and that is the most important thing in my life, that I love the Lord with all my heart and soul, and that family matters to me.
- 16:50Helping people have a better life matters to me.
- 16:54And so if I can do that through the Pregnancy Center, which our ministry absolutely does, if I can do that to help a couple find their first home, I love first time home buyers because you're helping them reach a goal and make dreams come true.
- 17:08And I love that so much.
- 17:10ah I'm not here to become a millionaire.
- 17:14I just love the opportunities that I have to work with people and show them that they can do this and just...
- 17:22have abundant life and sometimes that includes a house.
- 17:27So I'm grateful every time I get to be a part of that.
- 17:30so cool.
- 17:31it is again, it's this idea of, you know, there's two, two Lindas could have been right.
- 17:36There's the Linda that followed the way that the industry told you to build.
- 17:40mean, I, and you know, for those who have heard my story, Linda, I had sold 50 homes a year for a couple of years by referral.
- 17:47I hire a coach.
- 17:48I had a coach.
- 17:48I hired a new coach, get on the phone with, with her.
- 17:51was super nice.
- 17:52And I said, here, here's my stated goal.
- 17:54I'm good with 50.
- 17:55I just want to work less.
- 17:56Right.
- 17:56Like I'm trying to go home.
- 17:58And she said, well, look, here's what I want you to do.
- 18:00You need a cold call 300 people this week.
- 18:02You need to door knock a hundred people.
- 18:03I'd never done that ever.
- 18:05And I just said, I don't want to do that.
- 18:07And she said, well, Garrett literally said, Garrett, if you don't do that, you're not going to succeed in this industry.
- 18:12I'm thinking like, I feel like I'm already doing a pretty good job.
- 18:14Whatever we get on the call the next week, Linda.
- 18:17And she says, did you do your homework?
- 18:19I said, no, like I told you, I wasn't going to.
- 18:21She said, you need to do it again this week, or you're not going to succeed.
- 18:24Anyways, we ended up.
- 18:25you breaking up.
- 18:27And that was a good thing.
- 18:28But the point is, it's like, you know, there's one way we feel like there could have been this Linda who bought into the idea that you had to do X, Y, and Z, because that's what the industry talks about.
- 18:39That Linda maybe would have succeeded.
- 18:42It's possible, right?
- 18:43Your personality maybe would have worked, but you would have not enjoyed yourself, right?
- 18:47You would have been operating counter to who the Lord wired you to be.
- 18:51There's not joy.
- 18:52There's burnout.
- 18:52That's that's grind.
- 18:53That's burnout.
- 18:54frustration, people around you would feel that the pregnancy center would suffer because you're operating out of alignment.
- 19:00And then there's Linda who's like, you know what?
- 19:01I'm just going to be me and the Lord's going to build what he builds and he could take it away.
- 19:06He can give it to me.
- 19:07He can do whatever he wants.
- 19:09But what my responsibility is, is to say, who am I?
- 19:12How do I control the input?
- 19:14Cause he's the Lord of the output.
- 19:15So what do I need to do?
- 19:17Who am I already?
- 19:18How am I supposed to show up?
- 19:20These are questions that I don't think we ask enough.
- 19:23in our industry in general, especially as believers.
- 19:26How did the Lord make you go be that right?
- 19:29Linda's an example.
- 19:30Just go be that Linda doesn't need to be anything else.
- 19:32I don't need to be anything else.
- 19:33You don't need to be anything else.
- 19:35Your measurement is faithfulness, not success in the eyes of the world.
- 19:40Faithfulness is Lord, I'm going to be who you want me to be.
- 19:42Now, one thing that you mentioned, a pre-show, which I love too, is one of your hearts and desires for getting into the industry.
- 19:50was you've seen what a blessing it's been that people have supported the ministry of the crisis pregnancy center.
- 19:56You thought I want to be able to do that for other ministries too, right?
- 19:59So you get in the industry now you've got kingdom investments you told me where if people need support and prayerfully like, hey, let me write a check for them, right?
- 20:08This industry gives us that opportunity.
- 20:10So talk about the joy of that, talk about the idea of that and then we'll dig in a little bit there.
- 20:15Well, just, through the years of being in the center, especially when we started out, I needed people to believe in what we were doing here, and because I told you that the pregnancy center was on its way to closing its doors when I came in.
- 20:28But there were people who stepped up and said, okay, I'm gonna make this investment.
- 20:32And I just remember how that felt that they believed in what we were doing.
- 20:38I just knew through the years there have been people who have been so generous to the center and how.
- 20:45that makes it makes me feel and I just wanted to be that person for other ministries and um it's just it's one of my favorite things about being a real estate agent that I can now bless other people with you know part of the money that the Lord's given me and you know I also like to think about people who aren't thought about ah There's sometimes there might be a person in the community who's getting a lot of support because they're going through some kind of crisis.
- 21:14But then there's times that I see people who are going through a crisis, maybe they're not known that well and they don't have all these people rallying.
- 21:22That's the person that I want to remember.
- 21:24to be able to help to say, know, I see you, the Lord sees you, you know, I want to bless you today.
- 21:30The Lord wants to bless you through me.
- 21:32Here's just some support to help you to bless you.
- 21:36I think that's so important because, you know, in every community there's the ones that get so much support than there's those that are quiet that maybe not.
- 21:46I look for those people uh as well to help.
- 21:49you know, missionaries and ministries here locally.
- 21:54and other pregnancy centers and I just really feel blessed in my life that the Lord has through this ministry and just personally very very blessed and want to pass that on and real estate helps me be able to do that.
- 22:08m think that is something we forget.
- 22:13Like part of my passion in the faithful agent community is Christian agents.
- 22:18One of the reasons we need to be excellent in what we do is number one, it honors the Lord, but also we can generate more income if we aren't lazy, if we're excellent, if we're consistent, if whatever, if we operate the way the Lord made us, there's a lot of people.
- 22:31Now the Lord is the provider.
- 22:32We aren't.
- 22:33However, there's a lot of people.
- 22:36that maybe could benefit from us being more excellent, because we'd have more income to give to those in need, right?
- 22:42And, you know, I was hit with this, Linda, a couple years ago.
- 22:44remember, I think it was September, and I had done everything I needed to do for the year, like financially, my family was fine.
- 22:51And I remember waking up one morning and I messaged two of my buddies, but I remember waking up one morning and saying to them, man, I was convicted this morning because I stopped when my family was okay.
- 23:03and i didn't think beyond that to say but who else with the lord maybe one of less through me i need to get up and go to work man like you know it's okay to to it enjoy it's okay to relax up like those things are okay who else might benefit by the work that i do you know who else uh...
- 23:21how many people have the opportunity to earn what we can earn very few uh...
- 23:27right so the opportunity to help people adopt we've given cars we've done all kinds of amazing things, not because we're awesome, but because the Lord in His kindness said, here's your skill set.
- 23:36It happens to be an industry where you can earn more than somebody who's really good at X, Y, and Z.
- 23:41That's not me, that's stewardship.
- 23:43And so we must be excellent to honor the Lord.
- 23:46But also what about those in our community that would benefit from us becoming more excellent in what we do?
- 23:54And so I think that's the mindset shift.
- 23:55Let's not be a people marked by laziness.
- 23:58be marked by excellence for many reasons and you certainly have that heart.
- 24:02Right?
- 24:03as commissions come in, you're telling me how this works, right?
- 24:06You set aside a specific amount into kingdom of essence.
- 24:10Talk to me about that.
- 24:11Well, I knew that I wanted to do that from the get go.
- 24:14So I opened a special account.
- 24:16I mean, it's a checking account and I just take the money and I transfer part of what my commission is into that account.
- 24:21And when I see the need and I feel like the Lord has prompted me, I will give.
- 24:25I mean, it's pretty simple, but I think it's an act of obedience and that the Lord will bless me for it.
- 24:31And if he chooses to, great.
- 24:32And if he doesn't, that's great too.
- 24:35ah I want to just be obedient and be good steward of what he's blessed me It's good.
- 24:42I mean, you're living out your walk in life being who the Lord made you to be.
- 24:48And we also happen to be, you would be that regardless.
- 24:53We also happen to be in an industry where one of the byproducts of that is our business grows, right?
- 25:00That I've always thought what a blessing to be in an industry where we can love on people well, because that's what Jesus commanded.
- 25:06And by doing that with excellence, Most of the time, right, the Lord controls, but most of the time it means we have more deals, right?
- 25:13We actually earn income by loving people well.
- 25:16Like that is shocking to me.
- 25:18ah That's what this industry gets to be.
- 25:21You're walking out who the Lord called you to be on purpose and not getting changed by an industry that might say, yeah, but good job, Linda, you sold this may home.
- 25:31You could look how many homes you could sell.
- 25:32You could build a big massive team.
- 25:33could do all this stuff, blah, blah.
- 25:35And you can decide whatever the Lord's leading you, or you say, you know what, I'm good.
- 25:38I'm going to stay exactly who I am.
- 25:40I'm good right here.
- 25:41But knowing that the stewardship of the opportunity you have is not simply stewarding the opportunity.
- 25:48It's stewarding the financial resources that come back, right?
- 25:51It's stewarding the personality that you've been given and stewarding the, you know, the, creativity that you've been giving a given it's stewarding all of these pieces and using it to the glory of the Lord.
- 26:03Knowing as you said, He can give it, he can take it away.
- 26:06You know, like Job, blessed to be his name either way, right?
- 26:09We can praise him regardless.
- 26:11So I love your story for that.
- 26:14You know, if there is an agent that is listening, Linda, that's maybe struggling to say, I don't know that I can be myself.
- 26:20What would be your encouragement to that person listening?
- 26:23I would just tell them they're made in the image of God, that He has given them certain gifts and talents and to use those for His glory.
- 26:30And use it in every day and everything, in real estate, in your family, in everything.
- 26:36And He is faithful and He will bless you.
- 26:39But I can't be you and I can't be anybody else.
- 26:43I can only be who He's created me to be.
- 26:45And like you say, I want to live life well.
- 26:49I want to be excellent in what I want to do.
- 26:50I want to have that abundant life that Jesus died to give me.
- 26:53And I also want to point out, because maybe somebody needs to hear this, it's also tempting when you get blessed with financial, more financial security.
- 27:05I mean, my husband is retired and so...
- 27:08um You know, we are fine and this money that I do make and I'm not rolling in I don't anybody think I'm rolling in it because I'm not but you know, it's it's extra for us and it's a blessing but I'm also tempted sometimes to become to be materialistic.
- 27:29ah For instance, I started thinking, well, maybe I should get a new car because all I drive is uh a 2022, but it's a Toyota Camry.
- 27:39And I look at some of these luxury cars and thinking, it's way better.
- 27:44to drive top agent cars.
- 27:45Definitely right.
- 27:48I was very tempted last month, but I thought, you know what?
- 27:51And there's nothing wrong with anybody doing that.
- 27:53I'm not saying that.
- 27:54Go for it.
- 27:54know, be you.
- 27:57But it wasn't necessary for me, so I finally calmed myself down and thought, you know what, I'm just gonna drive my Toyota Camry.
- 28:02I don't have to drive a luxury car to prove anything.
- 28:06And my point is that sometimes it does get tempting to maybe not be as wise as we should be.
- 28:15I don't know if the Lord would get mad if I did buy a new car.
- 28:18I don't think so, but I know I could do better things with it.
- 28:22And if I roll in it maybe five times as much as I am, which over here on the shore, don't know.
- 28:27I'm gonna be do that, but it's fine if I do it, fine if I don't.
- 28:32Maybe I will, but I just always wanna keep my eyes on the Lord and not fall into worldly things.
- 28:43Not that there's anything wrong, I'm not saying, but I didn't need that.
- 28:47I don't need it, yeah, it's Jewish.
- 28:50is stewardship in this.
- 28:52drive a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe with a cracked windshield, right?
- 28:56And mostly because if I got a new car when my wife drove a van with all the kids, she'd be like, oh, that's not cool.
- 29:01But but right.
- 29:02But it is stewardship.
- 29:04Right.
- 29:04Like you said, there's no rule in scripture that says you can't go buy a new car.
- 29:07But there is requirement to say, be good steward of the resources that are his.
- 29:12Every house that we sell.
- 29:14was his, right?
- 29:15That he allowed us to sell.
- 29:17The money that came in is his money.
- 29:18We happen to be stewards of it for a season.
- 29:22Then it goes somewhere else, right?
- 29:23And so we steward that well.
- 29:25I love that that's the reality.
- 29:27Especially a newer agent jumps in and it's like, my gosh, I'm making so much money all of a sudden.
- 29:31Well, it's awesome.
- 29:32What a blessing.
- 29:33How do we bless others?
- 29:34And it's okay, like you said, to say, I'm also going to take my family on a really cool vacation, whatever it's going to be.
- 29:40Yeah, but the industry is full of vanity.
- 29:44and as believers we have to fight against that.
- 29:46ah So I love that as a great point as we end.
- 29:51if they want to connect with you, Linda, how would they do that or follow your Facebook page or see your awesome TikTok videos, which I want to see now?
- 29:57How would they go about doing that?
- 29:58And this agent will be in the show notes too.
- 30:00ah Well, I'm on Facebook under Linda Baila Spence.
- 30:03That's it.
- 30:04And then I'm on Instagram, but honestly, you know, when things I don't find Instagram useful for me, it might be for others, but I'm just not.
- 30:11It just hasn't proven to be that great.
- 30:15TikTok saying I do it because it's kind of it's fun sometimes to post the videos, but I'm not a huge TikTok user.
- 30:24And that is realtor Linda Spence.
- 30:27Hmm, cool, okay.
- 30:30That's awesome.
- 30:30But as Facebook is like your page, can they go follow that page, see what you're doing?
- 30:35Yeah, awesome.
- 30:36Right, I think the main, go ahead, Linda.
- 30:39just want to, another thing I just want to point out is not to look at other agents.
- 30:43I mean, there are agents here that are doing way better than me.
- 30:49And sometimes, you know, especially when you first start out, you can look at and you're like, I'm never going to be that I'm never going to get to that level.
- 30:58Well, you may or you may not, but it's so important not to look at what other people are doing, how many sales they're getting.
- 31:05Just keep your eyes on Jesus.
- 31:07Just keep your eyes on the path that he has for you.
- 31:11You know, the best thing that we can ever be given is salvation.
- 31:15And anything beyond that, you know...
- 31:20It's a bonus.
- 31:21Yeah, what a blessing it's hard sometimes when you look at other agents doing better or they're doing this thing and it's working, I wish I had thought of that or you know they're driving that car or don't fall into it.
- 31:35Just like you say, be who the Lord has meant for you to be and be on the path that he has for you and be content no matter what your situation.
- 31:45Amen.
- 31:46So good.
- 31:47mean, such a good reminder.
- 31:48We will be viewed by our faithfulness, not our worldly success.
- 31:52And that's really, really, really hard to keep our eyes there.
- 31:55So Linda, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your heart with us.
- 31:59I know as it has been to me, it'll be a blessing to others as well.
- 32:03So what a kindness that the Lord is blessing your business in granting you deals.
- 32:08And agent, if you aren't getting all the deals and you're operating in faithfulness, guess what?
- 32:12The Lord is still blessing you.
- 32:13Maybe not the way that you think it is or he's supposed to, but in the way that's gonna make you more like Christ, which is the greatest blessing, is that we become more like the son.
- 32:22And so, man, if I can be an accursant to you or lend out, reach out to us.
- 32:26We would love to support you in any way that we can.
- 32:29I love you, faithful agents.
- 32:30I will see you next week.