Lessons Learned in Real Estate: Advice for New & Experienced Faithful Agents

There are always lessons to be learned, whether we’re new to the industry or we’ve been in the game for a while. 

How can new agents see success? How do we continue our growth once we’ve got a few years under our belts? 

In this episode, we talk about leaning on the Lord for understanding when it comes to our business, how to serve our people, and how to be faithful to the way the Lord wants us to do things. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

3 Things You’ll Learn

Encouraging other people. How do we encourage people who are just getting into the real estate industry, especially when they’re facing something difficult?

The Lord's provision. How do we take a leap of faith and believe in the Lord's provision? 

The responsibility of believers. As believers, it's our responsibility to be excellent at what the Lord has called us to do.

Resources & Opportunities:

📩 Are you tired of the hustle? Download my free guide: 3 Lies Christian Agents Believe—and the Truth That Will Set You Free
🔗 https://www.210collective.com/podcast

📞 Want to be in Business with Garrett and Christian agents around the globe? Schedule a call with Garrett to learn about the 2:10 Collective on the eXp Realty platform
🔗 https://calendar.app.google/YmCPQRhWJaV7owmw6

🙌 Join Garrett’s FREE online community for Christian agents who want to sell 3-4 homes/month:
🔗 https://www.skool.com/servingnotselling/about

📩 Send Garrett your Hampton Roads & Richmond, VA buyer/seller referrals:
🔗 faithfulagent.com/referral

📲 Follow Garrett on Instagram for more insights and encouragement!

🔗 https://www.instagram.com/garrettmaroon/

Transcript

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
So we've got our new intro yet. Can you see before I start, can you see the time timer?

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Anywhere?

Tyler Wilson:
Yep.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Oh, good, okay. All right, so let's aim around 15, yeah, okay. Hey everybody, welcome.

Tyler Wilson:
Whoa, that sounded weird. Your mic sounded

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
It

Tyler Wilson:
weird

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
did?

Tyler Wilson:
there. Yeah.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Maybe I'm too close to it. Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Faith, is that better?

Tyler Wilson:
Yep.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Okay. Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Faithful Agent podcast. We are glad that you have joined us today. Today we're gonna be talking about and using Proverbs three versus five to seven, which is a very famous passage that many of us know. And we're gonna be talking about just what lessons that we've learned. through being in real estate, you know, specifically my journey of the past nine years, what are some things that I've learned and hopefully that it will help not only a newer agent, but agents who have been experiencing in the business for a long time. So we're glad that you've joined us. I've got Chiseled Chin with me today. I don't know. That's not what we normally say with Cody

Tyler Wilson:
We don't

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Persinger,

Tyler Wilson:
usually

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
but he's

Tyler Wilson:
say

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
not

Tyler Wilson:
that,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
here today.

Tyler Wilson:
but he's

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
So there

Tyler Wilson:
not.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
you go.

Tyler Wilson:
Okay.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
You're still Chiseled Chin. Everybody go watch the video. You can see the chiseledness as if Michelangelo himself.

Tyler Wilson:
Wow. All right, that's

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
out of beautiful courts just

Tyler Wilson:
it. Wow.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
chiseled that shit.

Tyler Wilson:
That's

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
What a

Tyler Wilson:
so

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
weird

Tyler Wilson:
great.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
thing to say to a

Tyler Wilson:
It

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
man.

Tyler Wilson:
is,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Yeah,

Tyler Wilson:
it is.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
right.

Tyler Wilson:
Right, I really wish we didn't have video on these

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Probably

Tyler Wilson:
things anymore. Yeah.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
should edit that out. Well, let's move on and give me a good, you laughed out loud at the joke that you read, man.

Tyler Wilson:
I did.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
So

Tyler Wilson:
It was great.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
I'm excited about it.

Tyler Wilson:
It was great.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Read it

Tyler Wilson:
I

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
to

Tyler Wilson:
like

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
me.

Tyler Wilson:
it when those happen. So this is a geography question. I don't know if you're a geography guy. I don't know that about you or not, but where was

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Definitely.

Tyler Wilson:
Solomon's temple actually located? on the side of his head.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Nice. Now here's the worst part of this. That's literally the joke I was going to tell.

Tyler Wilson:
AH

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
So

Tyler Wilson:
Great.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
that's unfortunate. You

Tyler Wilson:
That's

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
know, let

Tyler Wilson:
perfect.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
me figure out one more real fast.

Tyler Wilson:
Or we can just roll right into the scripture.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
I'm sure we Googled the same exact thing. Right? So here's

Tyler Wilson:
definitely

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
mine.

Tyler Wilson:
do.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
What is the best way to settle church disputes with cannons? You got

Tyler Wilson:
Nice.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
to...

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
You gotta have some, yeah, you gotta, you know, some of that real good theology, the deep rich history of church for that to

Tyler Wilson:
Another

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
make sense.

Tyler Wilson:
homophone.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
But it's funny. That's pretty funny. Again, I still don't know what that is, but it's funny.

Tyler Wilson:
Sorry,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
What is

Tyler Wilson:
good job,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
a homophonic?

Tyler Wilson:
man.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
You gotta explain

Tyler Wilson:
Two

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
that to

Tyler Wilson:
words

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
me again.

Tyler Wilson:
that sound the same, but mean very different

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Oh,

Tyler Wilson:
things.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
okay. All right,

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
thank

Tyler Wilson:
Mm-hmm.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
you.

Tyler Wilson:
No.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
You keep using that word on our episodes and I keep forgetting what it

Tyler Wilson:
Sound

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
is,

Tyler Wilson:
the same,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
so.

Tyler Wilson:
spelt differently, mean different things.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Cool, I love it. All right, well let's dive into our scripture. Can you read that for us, brother? Proverbs 3? I think I said five to seven, but we can do five to six.

Tyler Wilson:
See, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. And all your ways submit to him and he will make your path straight. Sorry, I was doing that. I was

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Amen.

Tyler Wilson:
doing that out of memory and then I needed to pull it up and make sure I'm not

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
That's

Tyler Wilson:
misquoting scripture.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
okay. No, that's great man. Trust the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. That's good. Again, it's so hard. I feel like we get to this point in the episodes after the very beginning reading the scripture. I'm like, there's nothing that I can say or you can say that's better than that. You know, we can only hope by the Spirit that, you know, maybe something we say will unpack that.

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
But, I mean,

Tyler Wilson:
Well, we

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
go

Tyler Wilson:
were

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
ahead.

Tyler Wilson:
going to jump in before we started the episode. We were talking about what is a great way to encourage maybe some people that are first getting into the industry. They're first starting growing their business, and maybe it's been the last year or two, and they're facing something different than they faced the last few years. So I want to ask you, you made a big transition out of your previous career in higher education and jumped into the real estate industry. And I know you're. Folks initially were a little bit like, are you sure you want to do that? And you

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Mm-hmm.

Tyler Wilson:
were faithful and trusted in the paths that the Lord had before you. And here you are almost a decade later with the highly successful business. So let's talk to the audience a little bit about what your decision was to transfer out of higher ed into this. I'm happy to talk about mine too, but let's start with you, big guy.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Yeah, I think, yeah, my parents tried to talk me out of it for sure.

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
You know, I remember that conversation. I remember sitting in the parking lot of the university I worked at and having a phone call with them and telling them that this is what I wanted to do. And they said, we just talked to a friend at church and she's only ever done seven deals a year. You know, I don't know that you can provide for a family like that. And I remember saying, well, that's my intent is not to do seven. It's to do a lot more. You know, and little did I, I didn't know what I was talking about, right? I was just saying words to convince myself of what I should be doing. You know, so much of me making the transition was just trusting my wife who said, hey, I think you'd be good at this. You should try it. And it came down to, I was going to, I had an option of staying at higher ed and having to get a PhD if I ever was gonna earn enough money, right, to really provide. And that's not where I wanted to be. So I decided to make a shift. But man, I'll tell ya, I mean, it took me probably a year and a half before I even, you know, people will ask me, when did you start, when did you know you were an entrepreneur, right? And I think that they think I'm gonna say, well, you know, the year before I got in, I started to get this itch, whatever. And I always say, it took me a year and a half in the business before I even decided, hey, I think I'm an entrepreneur, right? I was just doing something different and. I didn't know a lot of the things about me that are now true, right? I didn't know how much I love to learn. I didn't know how willing I was to take smart chances and grow business and do different pieces and survive on my own. Like that wasn't part of my personality at the beginning. And I kind of grew into that and essentially learned my way into that. But I'll say, you know, and I often tell agents, especially if I'm on another podcast, whatever, and they're asking me questions, to speak to new agents, I'll just encourage them to say, hey, it took me six months to get paid, right? Like it took a long time and really what it was, and I know the name of the show, but really what it was is I was faithful to do the work. All I did in that entire six months was work on serving my people and loving them. I never did a cold call. I've never made a cold call still in nine years. I've never bought a lead still. I've never done an open house or a door knock. I was faithful to the way I thought the Lord wanted me to do this business, which was by relationship. And so, you know, in my experience, right, and the Lord is the one who deserves credit for his faithfulness, right? Let's be clear about that. But being willing to just do the same thing over and over and over again. How have I succeeded in this business? I figured out what worked. And for me, honestly, at least at the beginning, I had enough awareness to say, The Lord wired me to be relational. I need to figure out if I can build a business that way. And doing the same thing over and over and over again, be committed and faithful to that same work. That's what led to nine years of success. That's it. It's that simple of a concept in my opinion.

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah, I mean, that was, I think, again, we've talked about this before, but the first step of being able to step out, make a transition from a career that you've established, and you weren't really, like you mentioned, convicted that higher ed was what was best, but you knew that it wasn't going to provide for your family in the way that you desired, and so your motivations were clear. And so you didn't know exactly what it was going to be, but you knew why you were trying to do it, and so you took a step of faith, believed in the Lord's provision. and believed in your capacity and the talents he's gifted you that would translate into a way to provide for your family. And I think it's a great story. I mean, that's nine years ago now and here we are still telling it today and there's plenty of stories like that out in the real estate space. And I think that right now there are probably a lot of agents who aren't experiencing that, are in that six to 18 month window or even earlier where they're not really sure where the next where the income is going to come from to be able to provide for their family. And they have those questions of, is this right? Or should I be looking for something different? So one thing is with real estate, as we've talked about, it's the barrier for entry is so low. It's literally a matter of paying some dues and passing a test. And you have the world by the tail. You have a full runway of whatever you want to do to grow your business. But with a low barrier for entry also makes for really easy excuses to pull the because it didn't

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Hmm.

Tyler Wilson:
take much commitment for you to jump in. It makes it a lot easier for you to say, hey, maybe this isn't for me. I just jumped

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Hmm.

Tyler Wilson:
in and I gave it a whirl and I gave it a shot and now it's not for me anymore. And I think sometimes that that can be a downfall. I think as agents and in the industry, we can be frustrated by just the massive saturation of people that are in the industry, pretending to be agents that really care for their clients, that really provide a service. want to shepherd people through their decision, and now we're starting to see some of that die down because of the headwinds that we're facing, but I want to speak to the believer and the person who has conviction and that they're in the real estate space and in this career for the right reason to continue to press forward and to adhere to Proverbs 3-5 that we're talking about and trust to trust that the Lord will provide and He'll make your path straight. And now don't hear me say that the Lord is promising seven figures of income in your future, but as we've spoken on this show abundantly, we don't believe in the prosperity gospel, but we believe in a gospel that the Lord will provide exactly what you need, where you are, and where you need it, because He's the giver of all good things, and He has prepared great works in store for you. So I hope that that's encouraging for those who are facing maybe some challenges right now, and some questions and uncertainty, but... You know, I appreciate you sharing how you jumped into it. You know, I'll

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Well,

Tyler Wilson:
speak

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
I think

Tyler Wilson:
a little

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
here,

Tyler Wilson:
bit. Yeah, go.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
can I jump in real quick? Yeah, so I think, you know, one of the things that I have found true that I didn't experience in my previous career, but is trusting in the Lord and exactly what you're talking about, that he will provide what we need. There were so many moments and agents, you probably can look back at this too, where I was sitting there wondering, you know, especially early on, where's my business gonna come from? Or even when things were going well, like why did I hit a lull all of a sudden? You know, you start to freak out, like I spent too much that month. I thought everything was gonna be fine, and you know, there's so much going on. And I remember sitting there multiple times, but you know, I remember sitting there and just wondering where is this gonna come from? Like why is this not working? Why am I not generating business? I get a phone call from somebody and say, hey, I saw your info online, and you know, I wondered if you could help me buy or sell a home or whatever it was, right? I remember multiple examples of that, and getting off the phone and saying, Lord, like, why did I ever doubt? that you were the one providing business for me anyways. I didn't do anything, you know, and people can say, oh, well you put yourself out online and blah, blah, blah. Not really. I think I had a Zillow profile, that was it. Like I wasn't on social, I wasn't doing all these things. The Lord literally just brought me business, right? And it wasn't just for the sake of the business, it was for the sake of whatever that relationship was going to be with that particular person, right? But man, when we, we both are passionate. because one of the struggles that I see in business and both of us do, this is one of the reasons we started this organization, Faithful Agents Community, is the problem I think in a lot of ways is that Christians go out in business and they think they're gonna get business and should get business just because they're believers, not because they're excellent at what they do. And a lot of times it breeds mediocrity, right? And so we're just agents and we're kind of just doing what everybody else does. Right, we run around, we do a little bit of door knocking, a little bit of open houses, we make some cold calls, we send out some mailers to farm a geographic area, we do referrals, of course, we do X, Y, and Z, social media, but none of it really works, right? Because we're just mediocre at everything. We just try way too many things, and as believers, especially as believers, it is our responsibility to be excellent in what we do, right? To be the best equipped to to not only choose a path that we think the Lord desires us and leads us to say, I wanna build a business this way, but do that and be excellent at it and be consistent at it, right? I don't know, people, I'll say all the time, don't ask me how to host an open house. Don't ask me how to make a cold guide. I don't know, I literally don't know, right? But I do know relationships, I can generate business that way. And the easiest equation in real estate is consistency equals consistency. And inconsistency equals inconsistency, right? As believers, if we trust the Lord, if we trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean out on our own understanding, but in all our ways acknowledge him, he'll direct our path. To me, what that means is, all right, Lord, you are the orchestrator of the outcome. My responsibility is to take action on what I believe you want me to take action on. So for me, I'm gonna work this touch system, right? We've got a 36 touch, we've got an e-course that helps people, right? but I'm gonna work this touch system and I'm just gonna do it well and I'm gonna do it consistently, or consistently Lord, and I'm gonna trust that whatever you bring is what you wanna bring, right? And I think that as agents, we just so, and you're exactly right T, and I'm throwing it back to you in a sec. I think you're exactly right. Because it's so easy to get in, it makes it so easy to get out. And because of that, we have this feeling as agents where, We're like, well, this just isn't working. I guess this isn't for me, right? Maybe I just missed it. And we kind of so easily throw away the last two years of our life or whatever that is and no, why not look around and say, you know, how many people have come to us and said, Hey, the system that you taught, it didn't work. Oh, okay. Well, you know, tell me, and I'm not saying it's the perfect thing in the world, but Hey, tell me about, uh, your experience and did you implement? Well, I didn't really use a lot of it, but it just didn't work. Okay, it probably didn't work because you didn't work it, right? I don't understand that equation. As believers, we so often give up and we just say, well, Lord, this must not be what you had for me and so I'm just going to go sit on the bench again and be sad instead of rise to the occasion and say, Hey, this might be what the Lord wants for me, so I'm going to give it my absolute a hundred percent and be excellent at what I do.

Tyler Wilson:
That's right. Yeah, I love that. I think and that's a because we talk and teach so much about what it looks like to be open-handed with our business and to trust with and the Lord's provision that we can use that as an excuse sometimes to be passive in the role that we're called and taking care of our business and taking initiative and being excellent in what we do. the same way I think that we can be passive in our roles in marriage and be passive in our roles in parenting, passive in our roles in the community, because we have trust in the Lord and that's absolutely what we are called to. We can do nothing good apart from the Lord and the Spirit stirring in our heart, but we have to take the initiative to step into that calling. And so I think from a mindset perspective, if we're looking at our roles as an agent in these things as a calling— you know, as something, if we want to use that word calling, I use the word vocation all the time. Garrett makes fun of me, but from where you can take the passion that you have for something and marry that with a need that's present in the world, you have a chance to minister to people. When you're convicted in something and you believe in something enough and there is a need that you have the opportunity to meet, that is what missional vocational work looks like. And so when you think about what you're doing on a day-to-day basis as something that you are passionate about and something that there is a need that somebody has that needs to be met, and you can marry those two within the framework of honoring the Lord and loving your neighbor, that is when you make a difference in what you do. That is what you should be most consistent in above all things is that mindset. And then obviously we talk about systems and operations that make you great at execution, which is absolutely critical. But without the motivation and without all of those things in place, then the heart of the matter is completely lost.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Yeah, it's okay, you're interrupted by the kiddos, man. I heard that one, that's fantastic.

Tyler Wilson:
They are in here ready to go.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
That is great. No, I mean, that's such a good point. I mean, so much of that is spot on. Just the marrying those two together and understanding to honor the Lord and work hard and solve a problem. You know, what's funny is, not funny, but I went on a seller appointment this morning. and we walked through the house, spent time together. We're trying to help him decide, should he rent, should he sell. And interestingly enough, at the very end, we're standing outside at his house, right by his mailbox, him and his wife, and he just says, he looks at me, this guy's not a believer, he looks at me and he says, Garrett, dude, I just trust you, man, because I trust your personality and I trust that you're looking out for us. Like, he literally said those words, and I was just, dude, thank you, like, man, I appreciate that. I wasn't. trying to do anything, but genuinely try to help him. You know, and multiple times it looked to your point, it looked like saying to him, hey, here's my opinion, right, here's why for you guys, I actually think selling probably is better. But I said things like, but also take this with a grain of salt, right? Because selling is the way that I generate income and I don't when you rent it, right? So I just, I want you to take that in that. with a grain of salt, what I'm about to say, but I believe I'm trying to give you the best wisdom that I can, but man, this is for you guys. And I said multiple times, I'm gonna support you guys no matter what. I'm on your side no matter what. I genuinely want what's best for you and your family. And if you guys believe that's renting, that's amazing and I'll support you 100%, right? So I think for us as agents, as Christians in the real estate space, whether you're an agent, whether you're a mortgage lender, whether you're an insurance, whoever you are listening. I think the key at the end of the day is if we are trusting in the Lord with all our heart and leaning on Him, that means we aren't trusting in ourselves. We aren't relying on ourselves to make something happen. Therefore when it's no longer the weight, no longer is on us to make it happen and to provide for ourselves, that means we can just be faithful to who He's called us to be. And I think at the end of the day, that's the goal for all of us. So faithful agents, we love you. We appreciate you tuning in today. We hope that conversation has been helpful. And if we can help reach out to us, I have a few coaching slots open. We've got an e-course that people you can take advantage of that walks you through my entire system and, uh, and then just join our community or a local group or anything we can do to encourage you. Um, that's our goal here. We love you guys. Thanks for joining us to grow your business and your faith.