Transcript

0:01
What's up, faithful agents?
0:02
Welcome back to part two of our time with Randy Mendez -Para.
0:07
We are so glad that you guys have joined us once again.
0:09
If you haven't listened to part one, stop where you are in this episode.
0:12
Go back and listen to last week because you're going to want to hear that first as Randy shared some of her testimony and the Lord's faithfulness to her and to her family throughout this time, right?
0:23
We spent the entire, however long, 30 minute episode not talking about real estate, right?
0:28
Because...
0:29
As a reminder, as I ended last week, the reality is this, you all are so much more than just your real estate business.
0:35
And we, I hope in the Lord's kindness that I will never be, that the faithful agent never be, that Randy will never be, that we're never going to be people that show up and say, all that I care about is are you hitting your numbers?
0:46
Right.
0:46
That's not what this life is.
0:48
The Lord is telling a story through your life.
0:51
And it's a story of his faithfulness.
0:53
And it's a story that is meant to bring others to the foot of the cross.
0:57
and be a gospel witness to them.
0:59
And so, you know, we like to hear the stories of the Lord's faithfulness.
1:03
If you listen back to that episode, which again, if you haven't, go listen to it.
1:07
What you will hear throughout that whole time is the Lord's faithfulness, right?
1:12
It is a testament to who God is in His kindness and all of these things, despite the trials and all the stuff that has gone through.
1:19
It is a testament to His goodness.
1:22
And because it was so awesome.
1:24
I said, Randy, we're just gonna keep going.
1:26
And so that's what we're here to do.
1:28
Welcome back, Randy.
1:30
I am glad you are still with me here, sister.
1:32
Thanks for joining me once again.
1:34
I love it, I love it.
1:35
You know, and you said two really powerful things on our last episode that I just want to kind of piggyback on.
1:39
And one of them was when you were talking about, you know, really what is God's goodness?
1:42
What is that, right?
1:43
And it just made me think about joy also.
1:46
And I think a lot of times, you know, when we as Christians, we think of joy, you know, worldly, we think joy and we equate it with happiness, right?
1:53
And joy really is...
1:54
is more of sitting in peace and in joy because we know who God is and we know that he is in control and that means that we can have joy even in the midst of heaviness and sadness.
2:04
And so I think that that was really powerful because that's what I want when I share.
2:09
And to be honest with you, Garrett, sometimes it's really hard because my husband doesn't love when I share our story necessarily.
2:17
Sometimes that's hard for him.
2:18
My son absolutely hates when I share it.
2:20
You know, and so, but I always tell them like we have to because this is a testimony and my heart is always that somebody will hear this.
2:28
And there was a part, you know, that I didn't share, which was one of the days that my mom was well enough to come back to the office.
2:33
Cause remember she's my original partner in this whole thing in business, right?
2:37
She's the person who took 40 grand out of her 401k to fund our 52 signs and our cubicle at Keller Williams when we didn't even have one listing, but I felt we needed them.
2:46
So.
2:47
So she's kind of the, you know, the first investor in this journey.
2:51
But I remember the one day that she was well enough to come to the office and we were kind of doing a dance.
2:56
I think I still have a video on that.
2:57
You know, she was still very sickly and I stepped outside of our office at Remax to to make a call.
3:04
And I remember hearing her just gasp at this time, just like just scream.
3:09
And I came back in the office just quick enough to catch her.
3:13
And they called to say that my grandma had just been found dead.
3:17
And then, so it was also in that season.
3:20
And so when you shared about your mom, it made me think about this because I think that this is where it's so powerful, right?
3:25
Is that yes, God is, His goodness does involve healing.
3:28
It does involve restoration, but it also does involve sustaining us when something ends, you know, and something breaks us in this world.
3:38
And it's giving us hope in where most things would look hopeless, right?
3:43
And that season, simultaneously, to my mom still getting better, you know, My grandma suddenly drops dead.
3:49
My uncle becomes brokenhearted and is drinking because his mom is dead and he's lost and we're looking for him.
3:56
And that sounds silly and sometimes you can't help but laugh and I don't mean to sound like a jerk because I'm laughing, but like literally we're looking for him.
4:04
Like where could he have gone outside the house?
4:05
He's a grown man.
4:06
And that ended up with my uncle freezing to death in the back of my grandma's house, right?
4:11
And so when I say that the storm season that I referenced in the first episode, you know, from 2010 to like 2020, I mean, there was so much and there was things that were not restored and there were things that were lost and that were broken.
4:24
But again, to your point, God always was faithful in that, like he was faithful in that.
4:29
Yes, there's so much that we wish we that could have been different around my grandma.
4:32
There's heaviness and things that we wish could have been different around my uncle.
4:36
But we still saw, you know, we still felt God.
4:39
We still felt him.
4:40
And so that's my heart.
4:41
And when I share this stuff, it's number one, just in complete awe of the God I get to serve and hope that standing in my obedience and sharing this helps somebody else and that I'm giving a glimmer of the light he deserves, right?
4:59
That he's worthy of, like that we're not capable of that, but hopefully.
5:02
And that I'm inspiring other people.
5:04
And so if there's a listener listening to this and...
5:07
They're going through one of those storm seasons, whether it's mentally, emotionally, physically, financially or spiritually, knowing that you can lean in and you can get that everything that you need from God, whatever it is, you can get it from him.
5:21
And that alongside this business that we get to be in, when we bring faith into real estate, it's amazing to see what God can do, what God can bring to fruition when we don't attempt to remove him.
5:33
And our industry is so built to remove God from what we do, right?
5:40
It's like we even, I mean, I had fair housing problems from day one.
5:42
From day one, fair housing was like, you can't have that Christian fish on your cart.
5:46
So it's like this world and our industry are saying, take him out, but I'm saying, bring him in, bring him in and he will not only restore your life, but he will build the business that you're looking for.
5:58
Hmm, that's so good.
5:59
You know, what's what's all of that is so good and I just thought really quickly on that Christian fish thing the frustrating thing is you put feet on that fish and they have no problem with it, right, you know and and I and it's okay like what we would deem in our country and in our lives as persecution is nothing is nothing compared to good.
6:22
the world faces.
6:24
And yet it doesn't mean that those things aren't hard and real and legitimate as well, right?
6:29
But I think that what we can hold on to is that throughout the course of time, throughout the course of history, the Word of the Lord is what has remained, right?
6:39
The flower of the grass fades, but the Word of the Lord remains forever.
6:43
I think I butchered that scripture.
6:45
Sorry, Tyler.
6:46
You probably haven't memorized.
6:47
You're so holy, buddy.
6:48
Not that you're gonna ever listen to this episode.
6:50
So I should just make fun of Tyler because he doesn't listen unless he's on it.
6:53
Let's be honest.
6:54
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
6:55
I don't know if that's true, but it's fun to make fun of him.
6:58
So, but the point is this, like we have these stories to your point, Randy.
7:03
We have these things that we go through and if you don't know Christ, I don't know how someone handles a difficult season when they could believe that it's like there is literally no point to this.
7:17
right?
7:18
Other than it's terrible.
7:19
Like there's no point to this.
7:20
But in Christ, we can know no matter what is going on, there is a point.
7:25
And guess what?
7:26
The Lord has told us what that is, is to make us more like Him and to bring Him glory and honor.
7:31
Now, it doesn't mean that it's really easy to understand.
7:34
OK, this is a, you know, your point, Randy.
7:36
This is a really hard financial season, whatever it is, is our financial season for me.
7:40
How does this bring you glory, Lord?
7:42
I don't understand how it does.
7:44
And sometimes, guess what?
7:45
We're not going to fully understand.
7:47
things, but we also tend to not seek to understand, we just seek to get out.
7:52
And so, you know, I know in my own life, one of the things that I've struggled with is when things are difficult, it is that process of me not coming to the Lord and saying, Lord, walk me through this, like help me understand and refine me in it for however long it takes to refine me because having things burned off in the fire is not fun.
8:10
Right.
8:10
Most of the time my prayer is like, Lord, please bring this to an end.
8:13
Lord, please.
8:14
take this away, please, please bring this in.
8:16
You know what I mean?
8:19
Yeah, right, right.
8:20
Yeah, yeah, right.
8:21
If you keep digging, there's a lot in there.
8:24
It's gonna, yeah, ain't gonna happen.
8:27
Yeah.
8:28
Seriously, so much there, but you know, we look back, we've talked about this before, but we look back, Randy, like I'm reminded of the Israelites quite often where they constantly have to be reminded, remember what the Lord has done.
8:44
remember his faithfulness, right?
8:46
They're just like us.
8:46
They're wandering in the desert.
8:48
They just got saved.
8:49
The Red Sea was parted.
8:50
The Lord is literally raining bread down from heaven.
8:53
And they're like, yeah, but what have you done for me lately?
8:55
Right?
8:56
And then they start complaining and wondering, well, is the Lord going to continue to be faithful?
9:01
Like, bro, why have you not given me more stuff?
9:03
I don't understand.
9:04
Like, I don't get it.
9:05
Whatever, whatever.
9:06
And they're just frustrated constantly.
9:08
And it's easy to read and say, what's their problem?
9:10
Right?
9:11
Like, But I look at my life and say, but is that not me?
9:14
You know, I need to remember.
9:16
Look at Lord's faithfulness.
9:17
He's not sometimes faithful.
9:20
He is faithful.
9:21
That is his character.
9:23
He can't not be faithful to you, brother or sister.
9:27
And so we remember those times.
9:30
And I'll share really quickly one of my favorite hard stories with me, Randy, was my wife and I got married in 2012.
9:38
And in September 2012, moved into a house in October 2012.
9:42
In December of that year, two months into our marriage, we're asleep upstairs in the house and we get broken into that night.
9:51
They come in the house, all the stuff.
9:52
We find out later, they actually came, we didn't wake up, praise God.
9:56
We found that they came up past our open bedroom door while we were sleeping and stole something like next to us, which crazy.
10:03
So I come downstairs the next morning, didn't know what happened.
10:06
cushions are everywhere on the couch.
10:08
I'm like, I don't remember leaving it like that, you know, like they're all flipped over.
10:11
And I start scanning, this is December 19th.
10:14
So I start scanning the room and notice that, okay, our TV is gone, our crystal's presence are gone, but it's like, you know, still is not computing.
10:23
Look outside or look out onto our driveway.
10:27
The windows were open and both cars were gone.
10:30
And I'm like, what is going on?
10:32
And so anyways, that whole story recognized they stole my...
10:35
wallet, they stole my wife's purse and my gosh, like we got broken into in the middle of the night while we were sleeping and they came past our room like this is, terrifying.
10:43
But I remember, so not to make the story long, but you know, to shorten it up a little bit, but I remember that moment of here we are, we don't have any identification, right?
10:54
They've stolen that, what they went upstairs to go get past our bedroom was our lock box, our social security cards, our passports, like literally no forms of identification.
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no credit cards, nothing.
11:06
We had our cell phones.
11:07
We didn't have our keys.
11:08
We didn't have our cars.
11:08
We had nothing.
11:10
And I remember just that overwhelming feeling and the fear and the what in the world's going on.
11:16
Well, fast forward, I woke up at like seven and all that started happening.
11:20
Fast forward to like 2 p that day, Randy, and the mailman comes.
11:24
He's nice and happy, right?
11:26
And he brings it to our front door.
11:27
He doesn't know what's going on.
11:28
He hands me the mail.
11:29
Well, a bunch of people are in our house at that point, detectives, blah, blah.
11:34
and my wife's on the phone with work telling them like, I'm not coming in, this is what's going on, whatever.
11:39
And I remember opening the mail and in the mail, the one thing that was a legitimate piece of mail instead of just trash, right?
11:46
The one piece of mail that day was my new driver's license.
11:51
I had forgotten to update the address when we bought the house three months before, and I apparently had done it and it showed up that day.
12:00
And I remember just losing it and just crying and bawling my eyes out and going upstairs.
12:06
My wife's on the phone.
12:07
Actually, she was on the phone with her mom and just holding my license and just crying my eyes out.
12:12
And she starts crying her eyes out.
12:14
Right.
12:14
And it's just those little moments like for me, that's one of those moments in my life where I can look back on and say, I'm still going to doubt the Lord's faithfulness.
12:22
And I hate that that's true, but I will.
12:24
But look at that, like the small thing in the driver's license, in the timing, the Lord.
12:29
has got you.
12:30
That's what this is.
12:31
He's got it.
12:32
And we can trust and that and again, just like you said earlier, Randy, which I'm glad you said, if he hadn't sent me a driver's license that day, he's still just as good, right?
12:42
It's not because, you did something for me, Lord.
12:44
Now I can say, you're so good.
12:46
That's not true.
12:46
It's those reminders of he's faithful.
12:49
He knows what you need.
12:50
Your father in heaven knows Luke 12, your father in heaven knows what you need, and he will provide those things for you.
12:57
And what a kindness of the Lord.
12:59
in that, right?
13:00
And so I think it frees this up and I want your take.
13:03
And sorry, everybody, you're my dog.
13:04
I'm recording outside for the first time ever because it's nice out and I just realized my kids are probably going to get up from their nap soon and the dogs bark at him.
13:11
Who knows what the background noise can be?
13:13
But hey, this is life.
13:14
But I want your take on this, Randy, because excuse me, we we still have to run a real estate business, right?
13:22
We still have to succeed and sell at home.
13:26
So like, how do we do that?
13:28
in the midst of life going on, because I hear that all the time.
13:32
You probably do too is I've had so much going on.
13:35
I just haven't done any of the lead generation that I need to do.
13:38
Not to switch it immediately to tactical, but I do want to get into the tactical for the last few minutes.
13:43
It's like you talked about all this stuff going on in your life and you know, you kind of throw it in there like, and in the meantime, I was having to build this real estate business.
13:50
How do we do that?
13:51
If someone's going through the storm right now, how did they stay fixed and focused on where they need to do from a tactical?
13:58
perspective.
13:59
Yeah.
13:59
So I love that.
14:00
And I'm super excited to get to answer that.
14:02
Cause one of the things right when my grandma died, I remember a client saying to me, I'm really sorry for your loss, but that's not my problem.
14:12
And so many people immediately gasp when I share that story, but you know what?
14:17
She was a hundred percent right.
14:18
She was a hundred percent right.
14:20
She hired me to sell her house and whether my grandma dropped dead unexpectedly or not.
14:24
while that may be sad, at the end of the day, she hired me to sell her house, right?
14:29
And so that was a pivotal moment in my career.
14:31
We had started scaling up and I kind of left this out, but so we had went from that 2010 season of like, where am I even gonna get one cell to pay the rent on this new property?
14:44
Through God, again, through the details, I was able to purchase, I was able to do a lease option, then I was able to purchase a house, and then I was able to secure our dream house.
14:52
And so all of this stuff had happened.
14:54
And I had scaled up to where we were running big volume.
14:56
And right before my mom got sick, one of the kids that I was raising and had adopted and I and my mom were working the business and we had this deal, we had the system going and my mom was in the field and we were running 26 closings a month and we had scaled up.
15:10
And my mom, that happens and it's like, it almost like knocked everything down and had to rebuild.
15:16
So a lot of times I've had to readjust to answer your question.
15:19
Like, how do we do that?
15:20
How do we build it?
15:22
So that is, it is building a systemized business.
15:25
It is building a process driven business, but it's also building a Jesus driven business, right?
15:32
Because if I chase and I do a bunch of online leads and they don't know who I am and they don't know and there's not relationship and I'm not building a relationship based business, then not only do they not know when my life has a disruption, but they don't care when my life has a disruption.
15:49
Whereas right now it's like, last week or something, you know, people knew that I was in the hospital with my husband and I had a client reach out that was like, I'm so sorry to bother you.
15:58
Is it okay if I just wanted to see if you could still help me write this offer?
16:01
Like, are you kidding me?
16:02
I'm freaking honored am I that somebody doesn't want to bother me, but still will come to me to write an offer, right?
16:08
But it is learning to get that stronger backbone and hold ourselves higher to that higher level of accountability and say, okay, we're going to suit up in God's armor today.
16:18
We're going to put his armor on us and we're going to step up and we're going to rise to the occasion and be good stewards of these opportunities.
16:24
And then I'm going to tell you, Garrett, I really think the key to success is really simple.
16:29
It's being a good steward of opportunities.
16:30
How many times is there a conversation that's like, yeah, my sister's thinking about selling or it's like, yeah, I was, I was thinking about buying just all these little tiny bits and pieces of these opportunities.
16:43
But just like it talks about in scripture, like what did they go and do with their silver, right?
16:47
Like how many times do we not take that opportunity and actually water it and nurture it?
16:51
But what I find in my business, regardless of what my operations look like, whether I have one agent on my team or 20 agents on my team, whether I have a ton of big lead accounts or I have zero lead accounts, what I find to be true is when I'm a good steward of the opportunities God puts in front of me, regardless of where they come from, then my business flourishes.
17:10
And...
17:11
I've also learned to watch and when I see that I'm being a poor steward of time, when I'm not having focus, I notice that my business sees that and that's my father saying, hey, wake up.
17:22
I don't want your punishment to hurt, but it's going to come if you're not a good steward, right?
17:29
And so recognizing God driving my business.
17:33
And equally, I've also learned that I don't know what God is preparing me for or protecting me from.
17:38
So I also don't allow a loss.
17:39
Like, you know, there's times where, I don't get the deal and sometimes it hurts and sometimes it's like man, that's a bummer.
17:45
And sometimes to your point that you said earlier, sometimes there's an immediate moment, right?
17:49
Like I had one client who was a past client had transacted with me many times and all of a sudden her house went for sale with another agent.
17:56
And it was like, what the heck?
17:57
Like we have a personal relationship.
17:59
I've been, I've, I've served 10 family members.
18:01
And so initially it was like that, that worldly flesh and that worldly thought process of like trait, you know, she betrayed me.
18:09
And very shortly after, I knew the agent she used and the agent she used ended up, her daughter had been brutally murdered.
18:17
And I remember seeing her make a post that said, like, I'm thankful to have business.
18:22
And, you know, she's, she's not a believer, but I see God working in her life as well because she said, I, I, I'm thankful to have business to just keep my mind straight right now.
18:31
And I thought, you know what, man, is there really a better reason to not have got that deal?
18:36
And it just, rates that when you have some basic principles as a Christian in your business, which is be a good steward of every opportunity, show up and do the work and do the work in the time that is allotted for the work and not the time that's allotted for the family, right?
18:50
When we do these things correctly, then God will, he will flourish our business.
18:55
And then when something doesn't come for us, just remember we don't know what he's protecting us for, protecting us from or preparing us for.
19:00
What God wants to have, no one can take from us.
19:04
And in an industry such as this, we have to operate with those basic fundamentals so that we can build businesses that give our families, you know, Garrett, when I first started, I was like, man, if I can just pay my bills.
19:17
And you know what's funny?
19:17
My bills were like a fourth, a fifth of what they are today.
19:22
I was like, if I could just pay my bills, I'll be so happy, right?
19:25
And then today it's like, man, I've made millions and millions of dollars.
19:32
Now mine.
19:32
mind you, I'm human, so I've lost millions of dollars.
19:36
That's a whole other story, right?
19:38
God has gotten me in the season of learning to retain the money.
19:43
But the point is, wow, right?
19:47
Like, and I always say, my heart is, if an agent wants to sell one house a year to take their family to Disneyland, then that's totally fine.
19:54
I respect that.
19:54
But I want to make sure that every agent knows what this industry can do for you.
20:00
especially if you allow God to be the cornerstone of your business.
20:04
It's good.
20:05
I love that.
20:05
I mean so many good things there.
20:07
I One of the things you said that it really struck out to me is I love the thought of If you're not doing the work if you're not stewarding and things aren't going well The Lord is like look the punishment you're about to receive is not gonna be fun Like I want you to operate in the right way and never thought about in that perspective thinking of my own kids, right?
20:25
Like if if the kids are like daddy, can we get dessert tonight?
20:29
And it's like you've been terrible today.
20:31
You know, that's not what I'd say but like You've acted terribly today.
20:34
You've been disobedient all day.
20:35
You've been lazy.
20:35
You haven't done what you're supposed to do.
20:37
You didn't do your choice blah, blah.
20:38
Yes, there is time for grace.
20:40
Don't get me wrong.
20:41
And those are opportunities to say, because Lord showed grace on me when I was undeserved, I'm going to show it on you.
20:45
But there's also opportunity to say, look, I'm in a course correction for you.
20:50
I'm going to shift you just the other day.
20:53
Literally two nights ago, we went out to this music on the lawn near where we live and went out there.
20:59
We sat outside and ate dinner by an ice cream shop and we went to the ice cream shop afterwards.
21:04
Well, during dinner, we said to the kids, it's always, hey, you got to finish your dinner, finish at least the protein, the meat, and you can get ice cream.
21:11
Well, our oldest, our seven -year -old Hattie comes up and says, hey, I finished my meats, right?
21:16
I want ice cream.
21:17
that's great, baby.
21:17
Good job, whatever.
21:18
And then it was our son who said, you know, he was actually doing a good job instead of just tattle -telling.
21:25
We said, mommy, Hattie actually just gave two pieces of meat to Ivy.
21:29
and didn't eat it.
21:30
And so we're like, is that true, baby?
21:31
And she, you know, after a while finally said, just the deceitfulness of that, right?
21:36
So anyways, so we said, baby, I'm sorry, you don't earn ice cream.
21:39
You can't have ice cream.
21:41
And it's a consequence of this action that you had.
21:44
Like you've got to learn this consequence.
21:46
And so I've never thought about it necessarily from the perspective of what you're saying.
21:49
It's not that the Lord is saying, if you act right, I'll give you what you want.
21:52
If you don't, then you get nothing.
21:54
Like that's not who he is.
21:55
We're not saying that.
21:56
but it is a reality of some of these are just course corrections for you.
22:00
Things are hard.
22:01
You know, again, we talk about a lot on this show, Randy, sometimes it is just hard no matter what.
22:06
But other times, the first question should look, as believers especially, we should look at our own business and say, but am I being excellent?
22:13
Because if I'm not being excellent, that's the first thing I need to do.
22:16
And everything you said was so spot on.
22:19
I would say as well, we don't understand what levers to push in our business.
22:24
And so we think we've got to push them all.
22:26
So when it's like, man, my life is crazy.
22:28
I've only got five hours this week.
22:29
I would say, hey, that's plenty of time for you to push the lever on a dear point on a relational business.
22:36
That's plenty of time for you to go out and generate business.
22:39
But when you think you got to do all these things and you don't know what actually moves your business forward, then you're in trouble when you don't have as much time as you normally do.
22:46
And so all of those things wrapped around.
22:49
Right.
22:50
And it is a reliance on the Lord.
22:51
Right.
22:51
That's one of the hard things I think is.
22:54
Yes, your father in heaven knows you need these things.
22:56
Yes, he can provide for you.
22:58
But but he's also called you to work in excellence and to not be lazy.
23:04
So I don't know how those things work because you can be lazy and he's still going to provide because he's a good guy.
23:10
And that's who he is.
23:11
But like, I don't know how those things work together.
23:13
Right.
23:13
But I do know that it's dishonoring to sit there in laziness and not be excellent, not strive for excellence in my work.
23:20
I also know he's a providing father.
23:23
And so.
23:24
Both of those things are true.
23:26
And as believers, we're like, I don't know how to operate in that necessarily, but I'm gonna try to be excellent and know that it's only because of you that I have anything that is of worth, right?
23:35
But I think all of those things.
23:36
But, I mean, give us your final take, sister.
23:38
I want you to kind of take us out, though, wrap us up in a sec, but give us your final take on that, because you have so many good things to say.
23:43
Yeah, no, I think you're spot on.
23:45
And you know, you said that at the conference as well.
23:47
And a side note, if somebody listening to this hasn't attended the conference, you need to.
23:52
You know, like I said, I've been in relationship with Jesus my entire life.
23:55
And I've kind of been one of those people who even, you know, I even go to, you know, certain worship nights at church.
24:01
And I've definitely felt the Holy Spirit.
24:03
I've felt the presence of the Holy Spirit.
24:05
But I even shared with my pastor, and I think I shared this with you as well, Garrett.
24:08
I felt the Holy Spirit at a different level at the Faithful Agent Conference.
24:13
it's awesome.
24:14
that I hadn't.
24:15
And again, you spoke of the excellence a lot there.
24:18
And I think it is really important, right?
24:20
And I think your analogy of your daughter and dinner was a perfect analogy because at the end of the day, we are his children and he does love us, but course correction is necessary, right?
24:31
And then there is going to be grace as well.
24:33
And I would say when things are working, when we're not being good stewards, it's his grace, right?
24:37
It's his grace, but it's like...
24:38
Same with ourselves as parents.
24:40
Like how often do we want our kids to exist?
24:43
Because, well, mom and dad have grace and so it's okay, you know, they love me so they're gonna let me get away with it.
24:48
And without getting too deep into that, you know, as a parent of, you know, I now have adult children and grandchildren.
24:54
And when my kids went through really hard seasons, I couldn't fix things for them and it broke my heart.
25:00
And so I did overindulge them.
25:01
And so I've seen what that looks like, right?
25:03
And so I have that real life reality of knowing that God can't over grace us, if you will, because then he will, you know, he wants to refine us, right?
25:14
But I will say that another analogy that really helped me to Garrett in this industry is so often we are looking at things through our lens and we're looking at, you know, situations, whether it's in our lives or in our businesses from our perspective.
25:29
And one analogy that I heard one time was, you know, you're, you're two kids.
25:33
So two of your kids are out there.
25:34
You're on that lawn and they're playing and they get into some big trouble.
25:37
And at the end of the day, you got to pick one.
25:40
You have to pick one.
25:41
One, you have to let to go whatever you have to let them go by the wayside.
25:44
I don't know, you know, the jail or something, but you only get to pick one.
25:47
Who do you pick?
25:48
It's impossible.
25:49
Right, Garrett?
25:50
Like you're, even if one child, right.
25:52
The one child gave up the, the one child deliberately hid the meat and lied about it.
25:56
And even though that one was clearly wrong, You're not going to say, okay, well, I'll keep the other two, right?
26:01
Well, that's exactly how God is.
26:04
Even though we may be wronged by other people in this industry, even though we may not see eye to eye with the non-believer in this industry, even though this person may have really done some crummy stuff to get an offer accepted or really ruined a deal or whatever it is, that's still God's child on the other side.
26:18
And he still has that same love for both of us.
26:21
And when I really saw that analogy, I could never choose between my children.
26:24
And when I...
26:25
put that on a personal perspective of the fact that he's gonna, I'm gonna love my children equally regardless of what they do.
26:32
He's gonna love us regardless.
26:34
And all of a sudden it changed my lens for people and I needed a lot of that and I still need that refinement because it's hard for me because I like to think I'm highly favorite.
26:42
I feel like I'm a favorite child.
26:44
Okay.
26:45
I do feel like I am.
26:47
And that's hard.
26:48
And so one of the best advice I can give for you is, is be that good Stuart.
26:52
I'll welcome that refining like.
26:54
welcome that refinement.
26:56
It's not easy.
26:57
I mean, gosh, I was the last year and a half or two, which is a whole nother story, another topic in business.
27:02
I feel like I was going through a season of refinement and I had no idea.
27:05
I had so much pride in me, Jared.
27:07
Like I was like, I would have said I wasn't a prideful person.
27:10
And every time he found another crevice to just push the pride out, I realized I was an extremely prideful person, right?
27:18
And it was painful.
27:20
It's refinement is painful, but.
27:22
then we get to sit in the awe of like, have you ever looked back and been like, I'm a different person and you just reflect on the refinement he's done in you.
27:31
And of course we're never gonna become Jesus like in this world fully, right?
27:35
But you're a little bit closer and that feels good, right?
27:38
So I would encourage you, any of our agents listening to this, to just lean in, lean into that refinement, lean into being that good steward and lean into a community.
27:50
that is going to keep you in alignment with who God called you to be.
27:56
And then, you know, take that out and love other people through it.
28:00
Amen, sister.
28:02
Yeah.
28:02
And be encouraged.
28:04
Like there is good for you now and it's being made more like Christ, to Randy's point.
28:09
And there is good if you're in Christ.
28:11
Your eternal security, the blip on the map that is our life, eternity, you won't care that you had a hard season of selling homes or whatever it was.
28:21
It doesn't mean those things don't matter.
28:23
They absolutely do.
28:24
Again, they're part of the story the Lord is telling about His own glory and grace and honor.
28:30
He's telling that story through your life.
28:32
Those things matter.
28:33
But also know that in the end, you already have victory in Christ.
28:37
He has secured that for you no matter what is going on.
28:42
And I promise you, anybody that you look around you, let's say there's a, if you're looking right now and saying, this non-believing agent next to me, which hopefully, praise God, or by the way, they would come to know him.
28:53
But if they don't, and you're like, man, but they're making millions of dollars and all this stuff.
28:57
Like, why am I not doing that?
28:58
I guarantee you.
28:59
No, there's no question that when you in the Lord's kindness go to heaven for eternity and they're in hell for eternity, they would willingly give up any and everything they possibly could that they ever earned on this earth to take your place there.
29:16
That is your security.
29:18
That should be our joy.
29:19
That should be what we hang on to at the end of the day.
29:22
And it's hard agents.
29:24
We get it.
29:24
I love what you said, Ranny.
29:25
Live in the community.
29:27
That's the whole point of.
29:28
what we do here at the Faithful Agent and anywhere else.
29:31
I hope other people raise up things.
29:33
We were on a call today really quickly, Randy, with some Canadian brothers and sisters.
29:37
We were throwing a conference and they're like, maybe we should have you guys come speak and what do you guys want us to do?
29:42
Do you want us to be like Faithful Agent Ken or whatever?
29:44
And we're like, we don't care what you are.
29:46
I mean, if you want to be cool, like we can support you, but like, I don't care what it is.
29:52
Go forth and bring the gospel.
29:54
I don't care.
29:56
if it's with us or not, we will do whatever you need us to do.
29:59
You can and they're like, is it okay if you share with us about what you do in the conference?
30:03
Like, yeah, you can have everything.
30:04
And I was like, first of all, know that we haven't figured anything out.
30:08
But anything that we have tried.
30:10
Yeah, right.
30:11
But anything we have tried like, yes, you can have it.
30:13
It's not about this.
30:15
It's not about the faithful agent, guys.
30:16
It's not it's not about me.
30:18
It's not about Randy.
30:18
It's not about Tyler.
30:19
It's not about anything related to this.
30:21
It is about the kingdom.
30:23
of the Lord wherever you are, go find those people, live in community with them, specifically find others in real estate.
30:30
They're out there.
30:31
They want you to find them and they need to find you.
30:34
They're out there being encouraged by one another.
30:36
I hope that this podcast, Randy's story, again, if you haven't listened to part one, that doesn't make sense.
30:41
You should have stopped and already done that, but go back and listen to part one and then listen to this again.
30:46
But real quick, Randy, if they want to learn more about you or from you or connect with you, how do they go about doing that?
30:51
Yeah, so Rise with Randy is my handle on most everything, including Instagram.
30:55
And also my website is faithfamilyrealestate .com.
30:59
Nice.
31:00
You said that so fast I didn't even get to finish drinking my water.
31:03
Is it called a handle?
31:05
This is the worst ending ever.
31:06
What is a handle?
31:07
Is that what that's called?
31:08
handle is rise with Randy and that's my handle on.
31:12
Yes, Randy and I.
31:14
Yeah, my sister is Charlie with an eye.
31:16
So we're Randy and Charlie.
31:19
My mom says the eyes make them girls names, but yeah.
31:22
awesome.
31:23
Go check her out rise with Randy with an eye on Instagram Check her out faith family real estate comm right is that what it was check her out there and We'll have her back on the podcast because she's more interesting than Tyler.
31:35
So I love you, buddy We will see you next week faithful agents