The Power of Story in Real Estate: The StoryBrand Framework

Explore how the StoryBrand framework can transform your real estate business. In Garrett's Skool call he unpacks how storytelling connects with clients, how to position yourself as a guide—not the hero—and why clarity in your messaging is critical for both impact and growth.

From identifying your ideal client to crafting a clear action plan, Garrett shares real-life insights on how to serve first responder families and niche markets with empathy, authority, and Gospel-centered purpose.

Whether you're just starting out or looking to level up, this episode will help you simplify your marketing, clarify your message, and lead clients with confidence.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• The mission is the Gospel. The method is real estate.
• Clients are the heroes; agents should be the guides.
• Stories sell—use them to connect and convert.
• Empathy and authority build trust with your audience.
• Know your avatar and speak directly to their needs.
• Clarity in your plan leads to client confidence.
• Share your own story to make deeper connections.
• A well-defined niche creates more opportunities.
• Visualizing both success and failure motivates action.
• A clear message attracts the right people—and repels the wrong ones.

📘 Chapters:

00:00 – Introduction and Purpose of the Gathering
01:52 – Understanding the StoryBrand Framework
06:12 – Identifying the Character and Their Problems
11:45 – Defining the Guide: Empathy in Real Estate
17:47 – Creating a Clear Plan for Clients
24:37 – Balancing Empathy and Authority
27:19 – Visualizing Success and Failure
32:45 – Understanding the Client’s Story
39:30 – Finding Your Niche in Real Estate
44:27 – Trusting the Process & Serving the Community

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://calendly.com/garrettmaroon/210collective

🙌 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:
🔗 7572662876

📲 Follow Garrett on Instagram for more insights and encouragement!

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

Transcript

0:00

Let's start, and here, let me pray. We'll dive in. Thanks, everybody, for coming and for anybody that's watching on Facebook Live in the Faithful Agent page, assuming that I did it right, David, which, you know, who knows? I'd say it's like a 30-70 chance that I figured it out. But here, let's pray first, and then we'll jump in. Heavenly Father, just thank You for Your kindness to us, Lord. I thank You for the opportunity to gather again this week, Lord, to learn. maybe a little bit more about how to be excellent in our business, the things that we need to learn and grow in, the areas that we have opportunity to honor You by just taking advantage of the opportunity You've given us and doing it a little bit better. Like I said, Lord, ultimately the mission is the gospel and the method is through a real estate business. And one of the ways that we bring the gospel to a dying world is by being as excellent as possible so that agents will say, hey, what is it that You're doing? that has made such a difference in your business and we can explain it Lord and then we can ultimately say well Jesus this is the formula we're following as we're trying to honor the Lord with what we have and so Father this day I pray that not only we would grow in our understanding of how business works but Lord we would grow and desire to see your name made great. It's not about me, it's not about any of us Lord we desire for you to receive praise so thank you for being with us this day. Lord I pray that anything that is of you that it would fall on soft hearts and anything that is not of you Lord that it would be missed and ignored and not heard so that you alone again would receive the praise and glory and honor and all the things we do and say in your name we pray amen All right Welcome back Brianna. It's good to see you um From Sholo so fun to see and welcome Jessica for the first time. Hi Jessica Glad that you are here as well. Thanks everybody for coming. So we're going to talk today about StoryBrand. Is anybody familiar with what StoryBrand is or has read the book called How to Build a StoryBrand? Anyone familiar with that? No, David, you should be because we talk about it. So I would think that, you know, at least a little bit. That's that's true. Thank you, buddy. uh So there's a great book from Donald Miller called How to Build a StoryBrand. And this is where this concept comes from. We're going to kind of unpack it, how we would use it in our own real estate business. But the primary concept is that people listen to stories, right? We might be zoned out because of whatever, might be distracted. But when someone says, I remember a time when, you know, we pay attention, right? And when you start to, his breakdown is when you pay attention to movies, Star Wars, whatever, uses Star Wars as an example all the time. You pay attention to stories and how they're created. They have seven main characteristics in each story. And then he extrapolates that and talks about how do you use that in business and how do we sell it? Even examples of you could see uh it in presidential campaigns. You can see it in these huge companies that are selling and how they've structured the way that they tell the story of their business. I've used it a lot in my own real estate business and it's been really impactful and so we're gonna just break down that process together today and how do we tell the story of the business that the Lord has given us and how do we have that clarity so I'm gonna show you this Screenshot. Let me pull this. This is the Breakdown of this. How do I share? And we're gonna walk through this together. Okay, so we'll just talk through this together Here's the actual Can you see that? Yep. Here's the actual, thank you, David. Here's the actual framework. Okay, there's seven pieces to this. You can screenshot this or you could just Google a Story Brand framework or whatever, and you could go through it that way as well. Excuse me. Here's the framework. I'm gonna walk you through this and we're gonna go step by step, okay? Because I want you to be able to build this out yourself as well uh is first you have a character. Okay, so who is your avatar? Hopefully you've heard somebody talk about who's the avatar, who are we trying to sell to? Right, so any scenario that you're in, who is, when Tyler and I had an Amazon business for a little while, which was terrible, we went through this process as well. Like who are we actually trying to sell to? Right, what does this look like? So you gotta have a character, a well-defined character, right, who's your avatar? We're gonna come back piece by piece. The character has a problem. So the character, runs into some sort of issue, right? Everything in business, the only way we ever produce income is by solving somebody's problem, right? For most real estate agents, it's, I need a house or I need to sell this house or whatever. We're gonna go a little bit deeper than that because there's, excuse me, either an internal, external or philosophical problem. And if we can understand what their problem is, then we're gonna understand a lot better how do we help them solve that problem, right? I think this is highly misunderstood in our industry. Most of us say, well, they just need to buy a house and that's what they're looking for. I don't think that's it. I think that's surface level. So we're to go deeper. They need a guide, which in this scenario is you, right? One of the mistakes that agents make in our industry is we show up as the hero in the story when really this story is about them, right? Your buyer, your seller is the hero of their own story. They're looking for a guide. You're right. I'm trying to accomplish of selling this house because I need to move my kids to a better school district, whatever. I've been working my butt off to save the money X, and Z. And when agents show up and we're like, hey, don't worry, the hero is here. Look how good I am. Look how much I've done, all this stuff. That person's like, well, this story's about me. know, like there can't be two heroes in the same story. What I really need is a guide. Someone's just gonna help me. So that person, again, we're gonna walk through each piece, but that person has empathy and they have authority, right? So empathy and authority. Then they give them a plan. So they give them something very specific. They say, okay, I want that, but now I don't know what to do. Excuse me So they lay out what that plan would be and then they have a very direct call to action So that's this next piece a very direct call to action not uh, so cool. Do you you know? What are you thinking? It's hey schedule a call with me or let's do this. What whatever it's something very direct Okay, we're to talk about that and then it results in either the success bucket up here or this failure bucket What happens if they take action? What happens if they don't take action? Okay, so we're showing them a bigger, broader vision of their life, if that makes sense. So we'll walk through these piece by piece. All right, so let's start here and jump in at any point if you have questions or have thoughts or whatever. um So we're start with a character, okay? And I think um one of you ladies, if you don't mind being the guinea pig for lack of a better term, we're gonna build this out for you. This will be in your real estate business specifically. We're going to actually talk about your character, the problem they have meeting a guide. We're going to go through that together. So who wants to be brave? I kind of want to put Jessica on the spot because it's your first time here. uh But maybe that's not nice. I don't know. But Breanna is like, yeah, but you're not that nice. Well, you know, I tried to be. uh What do think, Jessica? You want to you want to give it a shot? Yeah, at a girl proud of you. Let's hear it for Jessica. Good job, Jessica. uh... and i think you're little one was wandering around to see if she is welcome because she is hard to tell your little box uh... she is uh... welcome to pitch in at any point as well All right, ready to do this, Jessica? Okay, so we're gonna, we're gonna just unpack this, okay? I want us to think beyond and you'll, you'll see how we use this at the end, all of us will. We're gonna think beyond, well, my character is a home buyer or a home seller, okay? Think specifically about who do you want to serve or who do you often find yourself serving and we'll dialogue on it. And what I mean is, for example, My character is named Susan. Susan is mid thirties. She has a family. She's married. Her husband works. She works part time, right? They make roughly a hundred thousand dollars a year and they're buying their second house. So they need to sell and they need to buy, right? Like that doesn't mean that's the only person we ever work with, but that means a typical character for me is someone in the similar stage of life that I am. Right. So from your business, Jessica, what would you say is maybe a pretty typical character or person that you work with? And I'm gonna just take notes. which uh is typical as my family as well. we typical family, the father is a responder, works shift work, the mother either works as well or as a stay at home. There's usually a couple kids involved. could be first time home buyers could be also selling and buying. Okay, so but typically a family of a first responder, that's pretty common. Okay. uh How old are they on average? Let's say two kids. And you said what they average one kid, two kids, three kids, two kids. Okay. And then like, are they six figures every year or I mean, first rounders don't make that much. Like what price range are they in typically? right at the cusp of six figures. ah And so price range on average is $500,000. Okay. often does. Okay, and you said wife often does or does not work. Yes, take care of school. life works and kids are pretty young going to daycare. What is the scenario? Yeah. Okay, so you've got first responder family in their early 30s. They have two kids make roughly six figures price range about 500 K and the wife also works. Is that are they are they go to church? Do they like what do they do socially or their kids involved in sports? You'll see why this matters, right? Because if we want to understand the problems that they have, we got to understand who they are. So yeah. Sometimes that's with the dad. Sometimes it's without. If he's working, that is the shift work life. Hmm. Okay. Yep, okay. Okay. Okay, so you've got a young family with two kids. uh Dad typically is the first responder, is that right? Okay, so dad is the first responder. Kids are in daycare or school. They make roughly six figures, because the wife works as well. They do sports and they attend church together every Sunday unless the dad is shift working. Okay, all right, cool. uh What do you want to name your character? Yep. Give her a name, whatever you want. What's a nice name? Julia? Okay. All right. Okay. So Julia. All right. So you, again, you'll understand how this, why this makes sense as we go through this. So now we have a character. Okay. So you have Julia. Julia who stays at home uh or excuse me, goes to work. Husband is on shift work. They make roughly six figures, two kids. They go to church, right? So probably a Christian family is who your character is, right? So you've got them there early 30s, early mid 30s. All right, so what kind of problems does, I said Jessica, what kind of problems does Julia have? Now, when I say that again, is this is probably the most crucial question that agents misunderstand about who they're serving. Okay, so for example, like Gina, I know you serve a lot of the uh older clientele that is downsizing, right? So understanding, What specific problems do they have? Julia, what problems does Julia face? It doesn't just mean in the industry, right? Necessarily, right? Well, she doesn't know how to find a house, whatever. I mean, internal, external, philosophical. Here's how that breaks down. So an internal problem is, excuse me, I don't have enough money and so I'm struggling with, did I freeze? but can you guys hear me? I can't access your video. Okay, but you guys can hear me still. Okay. here I am. Okay. All right. So an internal problem, Jessica, for Julia would be we don't make enough money, right? And we're running into that over and over. We're barely scraping by. An external problem would be, excuse me, the market in our area continues to dwindle and now we just don't have any equity, right? Something happening to them. And the philosophical problem tends to be a should kind of response. So, or should or shouldn't, meaning, you know, I shouldn't have to pay 3 % to list my house with an agent, or I shouldn't have to sell my house first before I can buy a new one, or I shouldn't have to settle for something that I don't want just because that's all I can afford, right? Does that make sense? So you have three types of problems that they have, and you can gear specifically towards their real estate experience if you want. And so in your scenario with the people you've worked with, what kind of problem do you think Julia often runs into? couple years, so there's not as much equity as they thought there should be in their home in order to upgrade for the next home. Okay. Okay. So the external problem is there's not enough equity. The philosophical problem is, are they running into the problem of saying, I should be able to buy this next house and I can't afford it? Is that essentially the problem they're running into? it, but it pushes their budget. Now in this scenario, would you say that the biggest problem, so Julia, husband's first responder, she's young, she's got two kids, making six figures, she's also working, sports attends church, is that her biggest problem? Is that the problem she's trying to solve? Or why is she moving? What is the problem that she's trying to solve? That's the problem she runs into. What's the problem she's trying to solve when she would reach out to you? everybody to spread out. So they've outgrown their house. They need more room. That's their internal problem. The external problem is there's not enough equity. Is that fair? they, Julia comes to you and says, Jessica, we need to move. This house is too small for us, right? We've got our kids and we're making good money. We want to buy one, two, three main street. And you're like, great, let's take a look at it. You know, unfortunately your house is not worth maybe what you thought it was worth. And so, you know, we're to have to figure out, figure that out. Right? So their challenge is they need something better. or bigger, right, let's be specific. They need a bigger house, but don't have the money or have the money but don't wanna use it, cause they're hoping the equity is gonna cover it. Okay, so the equity is not where it needs to be. They still could do it, but now what's the challenge? They don't want to pull out a savings. They don't want, like what's the challenge that they face at that point? Okay. Okay, so if I were to go to Julia and say, here's what I understand about you, Julia. You got a young family, you guys are outgrowing your space and you need to move into something bigger. You were hoping that your equity in your current home would cover the down payment or whatever it is. You need to get the next payment to where it needs to be. The challenge is your equity just isn't where it's supposed to be or where you thought it would be. And so now you're wondering if it's worth pulling out of your savings to make this happen. is that right So hopefully you can start to see why understanding what the actual problem is matters, because this is how we're going to talk to people. This is how we're going to explain to them and how we're going to position Jessica as the guide to these heroes named Julia who have this particular problem. So now, Jessica, they would meet you. You are the guide in this scenario. You as the guide have empathy and authority, and you might only have one. Sometimes you have both. So for example, your empathy could be, ah Well, my husband is a first responder as well and I get it. It's hard, right? Whatever that is So what empathy do you think that you have in this scenario for them? understand the struggle of the schedule and kids and all the things. You're. Mm-hmm. Okay, so you're also a first responder family with kids. Mm-hmm. Yep. You're obviously working as well. So you get it, right? Julia is you and you are Julia. Okay. Okay. So in everything and you probably most of your business probably coming to you via this way anyways, but in everything, right? This is the conversation you need to have as you position yourself, right? So someone comes to you, you need to be empathizing and you probably already are, but empathizing with language, even in like a buyer packet or pre-listing packet or whatever you might send them in advance, right? Any of your social media marketing, whatever it is, talking to the challenge, this is how you're gonna use this story of saying, you you're telling a story of, hey, let me tell you guys a story. I get it. My husband's a first responder as well, right? Or I think you said you both came from first responder families. My husband's a first responder too. I work out of the home so we can make enough money to provide for our two kids. You know, I'm making this up, right? But provide for our two kids. Cause when we're ready to get to that next home, we want to be able to go get the house that we need as we start to outgrow this one as well. And I understand, cause that's the life that I live as well, right? There's your empathy. And then you move into authority. The authority would be I've helped a hundred families just like you in the last five years, whatever it is, right? So what would your authority be? my authority, I guess, is that I've been in the industry for 10 years helping families just like you navigate these situations. Yeah, that's good. I like that. The key here is at the end of the way that you're going to tell this story, they need to know one of two things. They need to know either is Jessica the right agent for me or is Jessica the wrong agent? Most of our marketing is trying to attract everyone, which means we attract no one because we haven't defined who we're going after or who we even are. Right. So if you're reaching out, Jessica, and you're presenting yourself, I love what you just said. You know, I get it. I'm a first responder family too. And I've been an agent for 10 years helping families just like you, right? That's, that's your pitch to the marketplace. Doesn't mean you won't help other families because you will, but it means a first responder family who's like, I just want someone to understand what I'm going through because it's unique. They're going to immediately say, Hey, that she seems like she's my girl. Like she gets it. Right. Whereas someone who maybe is downsizing might say, I don't know that she's the right person for me, but Gina. I mean you guys live in different states, right? But like Gina is someone who would she gets it because Gina's Sharing about and I believe this is right Gina Gina's sharing about how her and her husband downsized and she gets it because they just did that too They've been through that process, right? We are best suited to help those who are going through the experiences. We've already been through right? So this is you know honing in on that. Alright, so Then you're going to give them a plan Okay, so your plan Jessica Excuse me, could be as simple as this, right? Here's how you move as a first responder family. know, step one, reach out to your agent, right? Schedule a call with your real estate agent. Step two, get pre-approved for your new loan. Step three, check the equity on your home. uh Step four, uh have the buyer consultation. Step five, go find a house and sell your house or sell your house first, get under contract, then boom, buy your house. It's laying out for them. a very specific plan little one right here like i'd actually get it right cuz i have kids too um ice we'd be you sleepy so i'm distracted by the cute kid okay uh... to do the new day that the missing something cuz you're pretty cute you know that's weird now i got distracted by day for okay so was it about okay the plan so the plan for you jessica would be something whatever you want them to do Right? So for example, like in our buyer packets, there's a very specific plan. So it's step one, meet with your agent. Step two, get pre-approved. Step three, find a home. Step four, uh buy the home. Step five, refer your favorite agent. Like here's what I want you to do. We're turning what is confusion into clarity for them. So Jessica now knows. what Julia is going through and she empathizes with her and just at any point if you need to go hang out with your kids like please do I'll just pretend like you're here and just keep talking and it's okay. So at any point right you're going through this process like I get it right I've been there I've done this uh and so here's what I found that makes this as easy as possible our buyer packet is called the hassle free buyer uh the hassle free now I can't remember what it's called hold on hassle free buying guide uh So it's called the Hassle Free Buying Guide, right? The Hassle Free Selling Guide. We know that you guys want this to be easy. So here's the plan. um Here, let me pull this up. So here's the steps. Let's see if I can even find it. Process that's okay. I waste time so but you give them a you're gonna give them a plan, right? So if you know Jessica that their challenge is, know equity is the problem They've got a lot going on. They've got kids. They're trying to make enough money. They got to move into a new house, right? You would have something that says, you know here guys. I'm gonna send you something. It's my seven step guide to uh You know moving into a bigger house as a first responder family like super specific and at the top It's going to say, hi, I'm Jessica. And I get it because we're a first responder family too. And I've helped over the last 10 years help families just like yours and mine move into that bigger home as they outgrow it. Here's a picture of me and my family, right? Your empathy, your authority. And you say, it's as easy as this. Here's your plan to do it. Number one, reach out to me. Number two, we're going to get you pre-approved, right? Number three, we're going to make sure we understand the value of your home so that we know how much equity is there. And if you're going to have to pull out of savings or not. Number four, we're going to have a meeting and talk about what's the right game plan for you. Number five, we're going to put your house in the market. Number six, we're going to find you a new house. Number seven, we're going to celebrate whatever it is. Right. You're just making it super simple. This is it. This is your really simple plan. OK, so you're handing them something that is simple and easy and solves their problem. You're turning confusion into clarity, which is how you sell anything anyways. If I make it complex, no one's gonna buy it. If I make it uh clear, lots of people are gonna buy it. So that's what the plan looks like. then, and any, Jessica, I you were in and out with kiddos and totally okay. Does that make sense before I move on? Excuse me, any questions or part I should go back over? No, okay, cool. Yeah, yeah. And then you call them to action. So a very clear call to action. Now, in my opinion, I think you can have a gentle on-ramp or you can have a very clear call to action. Okay, so the very clear call to action for Jessica might be, uh know, here's your seven, whatever it is, I'm making it up. Here's your seven step process for buying a bigger home as a first responder family. Right? Like again, that specific, you're being really clear who you're talking to and who you serve. Excuse me. And then at the end of that, right? The call to action might be, so click here to schedule a meeting with me, right? Or click here to send me a text or whatever a very clear call to action. Very, very clear. This is what I want you to do. Hey, all of this makes sense for you. I get it. Right? You're positioning yourself because you think about this at the very beginning. Julia is a first responder wife. and she's working, they've got kids, and she's like, you know what, husband, we are running out of space. We gotta go find this new house, right? And they don't maybe yet know that their problem is they don't have enough equity. Maybe they don't know that. So the real problem, the internal problem is we don't have enough space. The external problem is, excuse me, so we'll direct on here. The external problem is they don't have enough equity. They might not know that yet. The philosophical problem is I should be able to sell my home. and move into a new one without taking any money out of savings. So you're speaking to that. So you're talking about this, hey, I get it. I get it, Julia, don't name her, but your first responder family, blah, blah. Hey, I'm just like you. I'm a first responder family too. Again, I'll keep repeating just because I think it helps. I've been helping families just like you for the last 10 years. And I've whittled it down in the last 10 years of all the first responder families I've helped to six easy steps. Number one, do this. Number two, three, four, five, six. If this resonates with you and if this is you and your family, your first responder family looking to get a bigger home, you know, click here and reach out to me today to schedule a call or click here to get on my calendar. And I'd to connect with you, right? Whatever it is. That's a very clear call to action. You've given them a plan. They're taking step one on the plan, which is reach out to your real estate agent, right? Excuse me. A softer on ramp if you wanted to, right? Which would be, you know, If you want to know uh my three part video series on preparing to move as a first responder family, know, click here to download the videos and then you get their emails and now you just have an on ramp where they're in your world and now you got to create, you know, more content to just drip on them. And that's just more complex, but that works too. Right. I think in this scenario, you're just having a very clear call to action. Right. So click here, if that's you and you want to know how to do this well, click here to schedule a call. And I love it, right, just because yours is very specific. Right. First responder families is awesome. I love that. Like Gina, right, with yours with downsizing. Mine is not that specific, right? Because I'm not a first responder. I'm just a dude, uh right, with a young family. so, right, I could go like for me, my my real estate like training side is very clear with Christian agents. But the sales side isn't necessarily. Right. It's just, I was doing dad jokes for a long time because I like dad jokes. Right. So maybe it's, they make fun of me. Right. It was a lot of people in the church. It was that, but it wasn't as clear as it could be in that space. Like yours can be again. Doesn't mean you're only going to work with them, but it means they're going to know, Hey, this is my girl. Like she's the first responder agent. Right. Okay. So you call them to action, very clear call to action and it results in either success or failure. We have to make that clear and it's hard because we don't like to talk about what failure looks like, but we got to paint a picture for them. So for example, Jessica says, you know, here's my six step, six steps to getting a bigger home as a first responder family, right? And at the end of it, it says, click here to schedule your free consultation with me, whatever. And then it says, you know, something to the effect of, because, because imagine six months from now, You have all the space that you need for little Jimmy to run around in the backyard, right? You're not bumping into each other in the kitchen. You'd figure out whatever that is. You're not bumping into each other in the kitchen, trying to get dinner ready. Your house is clean. Your house has space for all of your stuff, right? When your husband comes home from a long shift, he's not stressed out by, you know, all of the junk everywhere and the repairs that need to happen on the house or whatever it is, right? You all have this. you know, this more idealized lifestyle, right? Now we all know as centers, like nothing is perfect, right? But size space helps, right? You're not running over, you're not all sharing the same bathroom anymore. You're not, whatever it is, right? You're pitching this idea of what it looks like to follow your plan. And then say, right, the failure bucket is, uh or unfortunately you continue to run into those same issues where because of your hectic lifestyle, You always have stuff, you know, all over the floor because the kids leave it out and they don't have anywhere to put it because there's not enough space. Right. You always bump into each other and it causes frustration at dinnertime or whatever. We're not trying to paint a bad picture of their life by any means. Right. Like we want to honor these people as image bearers of God. But the reality of explaining to them, if they don't take an action, it's going to stay the same way. So what is that same way? Right. We're trying to call them to something greater. Excuse me. So we gotta lay out that, those different buckets. Does that make sense? What that looks like? Okay, sorry, excuse me. So once we have this figured out We start to use it in our messaging. We start to tell this story Whether it's not social media Which I don't love or maybe it's in an email you send or whatever it is you do Jessica But definitely when you're sitting down with people, right? So so here's how this works. I'll go over this picture again and then ask whatever questions Excuse me. So we have the character the character is Julia who is Her husband's a first responder. She's in her early thirties. She's got two kids. They make roughly six figures. She works, play sports. They attend church, right? So it's probably this young Christian family who's a first responder in Colorado. Excuse me. Their problem is they've outgrown their house and they need more room. That's the internal problem that they have. The external problem, which they may or may not know yet, is they don't have enough equity. And the philosophical problem is I shouldn't have to pull out a savings to go get another house, right? They're hoping their equity is there. Well, the good news is they meet a guide and that guide's name is Jessica. And Jessica says, hey, I get it. I'm a first responder family too. And I've been helping families just like ours for the last 10 years, find that new house or whatever language you want to use. Right. And I've realized over the last 10 years that there's a really simple way to make this happen. Here's my six step guide to buying a bigger house as a first responder family. Number one, meet your agent, blah, blah, all the way down to number six, celebrating your new home, right? Whatever that's going to be. Right at the end of that it's so click here to get on my calendar today click here to call or you know Not a lot of people like to pick up the phone and call because maybe they're reading it whatever Click here to schedule a follow-up call with me, right? Look forward to touch you because if you do imagine six months from now You're in the house that has the space where you and your husband aren't trying to you know battle over the same sink where you and your family have plenty of space to store all of the kids toys and room to run around that after a long day of work for you and your husband that the kids can get outside and get their energy out, right? Whatever it is, you're pitching this, you know, success idea, helping them understand why they should do this and then say, instead of, you know, uh, the continued frustration of life in a space too small for your growing family, where you're running into each other, where this is the right. you're creating this failure bucket. So you're using that. Now you've got this story to tell. and you're weaving into this story and someone's going to say, like Jessica, you really do get it. That's my life. Right. Whether they know you or not, they're going to say, man, she really understands my life. And so now you're speaking directly to them. And then Jessica, in your scenario, when you sit down with them, right, you're in my opinion, you're heavily leaning on it this way. You're understanding, like if I'm sitting down and doing a buyer consultation and I'm you, I'm sitting there thinking, right, like hopefully you know something about them already. but you're trying to figure this out. You're literally following this framework in your own head. And for me, I used to literally write out the framework on my notebook before I would go. So I would just check it and remember to like walk through the framework as I was having a conversation, right? Cause I'm trying to tell the story of this person, story of this family. And so I spent my time and I'd sit down, not telling them anything really about me, especially at the beginning. I would just try to figure out who they are, right? Who is this character in front of me in this story? So man, yo, thank you for having me in your home. Tell me about you, right? Like how did you guys meet, right? For example, how did you guys meet? Tell me about you guys. Man, what do your kids love to do? Like it's so cool. I've got kids too, whatever. know, tell me about what your kids love to do. I saw that you have this, you know, sports team flag over here. Like are you guys huge fans? Are you from the, whatever. I'm just figuring out who they are, right? Cause the character wants to be known in every single story you've ever watched, every movie you've watched, every book that you read, they unpack who the character is. Right? So you're doing that. And then you're trying to figure out, right, so thank you again for bringing, I know we want to make a move, right? That's why you guys are here. Cause you're trying to sell your home. want to, you want to move, but like tell me why, what are the challenges that you're having in this house now? Excuse me. well, you know, Jessica, it just not enough space and you know, it's not updated. We felt like we would have the time to do all the updating. We don't and, and X, and Z whatever. Hey, totally get that. Right. It makes sense. Just taking notes. I'm figuring out what their problems are. You know, hey, do you have, like I ask this question all the time, do you all have any fears or concerns going into this process? I'm trying to figure out what's your philosophical problem, right? Man, well, we're worried that, you know, we're not going to have enough equity in this house. And so we're going to have to pull out a savings. Hey, I totally get that. Right. I know that we just met, but I'm a first responder family too. And as a first responder family, I get it. Like I've got two kids also. And I, and I get it. Like we're involved in sports and all the, you're making that connection. Right. And then Jessica gets to say, you know, for the past 10 years, it's been my honor to serve families just like yours and mine. And I found that there's six easy steps to make this happen because I know that it can feel often overwhelming. My job is to make this simple and easy and clear for you. Here's what I would do. The first step is connect with an agent that's going to work with you. We're already doing that. Right. Awesome. Good job. You've already knocked out step one. Then I'm going to connect you when we're done today. I'm going to connect you with my lender. Fantastic. And then this and then this and this, whatever. Cool. What do you guys think about that? That sounds awesome, Jessica. That's amazing. Yes. I would love to work with you guys. And so here's the next step. I'm going to send you guys the paperwork, whatever you want to do, whatever your process is. Right. I want you guys, this is how I always did it. This was my call to action at the end. They would say, okay, great. Garrett, where do we sign? Or they might not say that at all. And I would say, I want you to take the night. I didn't bring it with me. I want you guys to take the night, really talk about it, especially if they're Christians, talk about it, pray about it. Cause I want you to feel confident that I'm the right fit for you. Right? And I believe that I am and I'd love to serve you, but I want you all to feel good about it. So in the morning, I'm going to reach out to you guys and just let me know if you have questions, thoughts, whatever you all have. And if you're excited and ready to go, you feel confident. Awesome. I'll send you the paperwork. You sign it. Right. And like, okay, cool. That's great. And remember, right. Always painting the picture for them. This is helpful in whatever we're doing, but you know, Jessica sitting down with them and remember, excuse me, six months from now, right. I know you guys are struggling with you know, space and bump it into each other, whatever, you're figuring out what the problem is earlier. Remember six months from now, moving is not an easy process, but six months from now, when you're on the back porch, you and your husband drinking coffee after his shift and the kids are running around with the dogs, having a great time, just remember how joyful that's going to be. Right. And so you're motivating them. Does that make sense? And then I want to open up to you all questions, whatever. That's how we craft a story. and start using it in our conversation. Start using it in marketing. Start using it literally if I'm you. I have this written down when I'm going to meet with the buyer or seller. You're just following this framework. I want to know who they are. I want to know what their problem is. I want to explain how I empathize and have authority. I want to give them a really clear plan, call them to action and show them what success looks like. You may or may not in person need to show them what failure looks like. Right? That would be weird. And remember, if you don't sign with me, bring in a crunk and show low Arizona, then your life is going to be terrible. Right? Like I don't know that you necessarily need to go there unless you're trying to help them figure out and motivate them off the fence. Right? Depending on what that looks like. So lots of talking for me, which is not abnormal. And you'll know that, but broadly speaking, does that make sense? And then I want any questions, comments, thoughts, any of that, hopefully that is helpful. Does that uh framework make sense? Yes or no. Yeah, thumbs up. Okay. uh Does it make sense how you would incorporate once you have a story? Does it make sense how you incorporate that into your business? You think so? So Garrett, need to get over the fact that I'll be missing out on other buyers or sellers. I have a story and I kind of have it down and I can use it. But then I keep thinking, well, if I'm so focused on this story, I'll be missing on first time home buyers. And so I need to get over that. And how can I get over that? Because I am at the age where I have been the first time home buyer. those stages in my life because of my age but I am um the senior living is where I is my specialty and downsizing and because I used to do that as part of my business before I became a realtor so I have those stories and and I use them but I've been hesitant lately I've taken a step back and how can I get over that I you know just marketing to that market In the back of my mind, like Gina, you may be losing some people. Hmm. And I think that's the right question, right, Gina? So thanks for asking that. That's always the challenge, right? The business, the best business owners I have met, they'll always say the riches are in the niches. Doesn't mean we're all trying to get rich. It just sounds good alliteration, right? But you make the most money when you are really clear who you're for and who you aren't for, right? So for example, uh our podcast was called Serving Not Selling. And that was pretty clear what that was about, right? But then when it became the Christian or the faithful agent podcast, right, when we first shifted, it became we lost people that were listening. And then we gained people who were looking for specifically that because it was very clear. This is who we are and this is who we're trying to serve. So did a portion of that leap? Absolutely, they did. Right. Did people join because they were looking for that and couldn't find it anywhere? Also, yes. So when we have clarity there, there's enough people looking for who you are. It's that we often don't define ourselves, right? Someone, uh I can't remember if it's in that book or some other book I read it years ago, but he calls it the uh caveman test, right? Could a caveman understand who you're for in three seconds, right? Because after we, uh I'm trying to remember the data. If it takes us, I don't remember the length of time. It's a handful of seconds. After a handful of seconds, if we haven't been able to make a decision already, we actually start burning calories and our body doesn't like that, right? Burning calories is not good. Our body wants to live. It doesn't want to burn and expend energy. And so if there isn't clarity over who you are, then people can't choose you because they don't even know who is Gina for and who is she not for. That doesn't make any sense. Right. And so the clarity is going to create opportunity for you. It feels like, and I totally get it because it just does, it feels like we're shutting the door to other people. Number one, the Lord's going to bring who he brings. And so pay attention. What if Jessica says, I help first responders and then every client she gets is a downsizer. Maybe the Lord's trying to tell her something. No, you don't. You help downsizers, right? Let's talk to that person. But Gina, you've noticed that a lot of your business is that. So are you potentially uniquely skilled and qualified to help that subset of client? Sure. You know, there's probably, I don't know, Gina, I'll just use my numbers. In our area, we serve this 10,000 agents, but there's 2.1 million people. You know, if I am getting 50 of them a year, which is like 0.001%, I had an amazing year. I'm in the top 1%, right? We need to stop thinking that I need to go reach all 2.1 million and we need to start thinking, how do I reach the very specific people that I'm trying to reach? Because a room of a thousand people and none of them want what I have is nowhere near as valuable as a room of 30 and they all want what I have, right? Does that make sense? So the challenge to you, we all have it, the opportunity for all of us is big numbers and thinking we're reaching, whoops, thinking we're reaching everyone. Oftentimes comes down to one of two things ego right in total transparency ego I want more people to pay attention to what I'm doing and I don't think that's you in any way Gina agents in general It's like I got to have more followers more this more that right. That's not true Or it's a lack of trust that if the Lord said hey, I made you as a hand Just go be a hand that he's gonna provide If that's who you are and you feel like in your heart, that's who you want to serve then just go serve that person Right, like for me that was the struggle and I'll shut up Going all in on Christian agents was hard because no one was doing it. uh I wasn't sure I wanted just to, well, now I'm just a Christian agent guy and that's all I ever get to be. That was hard letting go of what we were building, which was actually doing pretty well. I was scared of that, right? And truthfully, it was months of prayer of like literally asking, who do want me to serve? Like the faithful agent came out of me asking the Lord after my mom died, who do want me to serve? Who do you want me to serve? Like, Lord, please make it clear. Who do want me to serve? and it became Christian agent. So it's like, all right, if that's who you're calling me to do, then I'm just going to go serve them and I'm going to try to do it well. That's how we get over it. If the Lord's saying, you know, specifically, this is what I want for you, then just go try to do it well, you know, and trust him because he'll bring other people to you if he wants to. But we need to be specific and I think really clear about who we're trying to serve and how we try to serve those people. Does that help at all? Yeah, it helps a lot. And it was interesting. I have this client that I just listed their home and come to find out they're Christian. The Lord has been bringing Christians to me too. And they happen um come to find out he has bone cancer. And part of my ministry is, you know, they They did a lot of cleaning and stuff preparation for their house to sell on their own, but they were kind of stuck and didn't want to spend any more money to do this backyard work. And for me, anything physical is good. I like to do work and stuff. And so when I was cleaning out their backyard, which wasn't a lot, it was just a simple thing, but for them with bone cancer and being in their eighties, it was a lot. And I did it and I really felt my best. And I really felt like this is really where the Lord wants me to be is helping these seniors because of the background and the stories and Lord has blessed me with physical, um I'm able to physically do that stuff and I enjoy it too. And um so I've been thinking about that lately and it's interesting that you brought this up today, cause I was kind of teetering. It's like, Gina, this is really why you became a realtor is to help seniors. Why are you trying to be everything to everybody? And specifically Christians too, cause I just, you know, they... at this stage in your life, mean, I most, you you just like to spread the word and so forth. So anyway, I guess I needed this today. So thank you to really, this is why I'm doing it. And I can not worry about, you know, the first time home buyers and all that other stuff, just focus on, on what the Lord has opened this door for me to do. So thank you. good. Yeah. And certainly, obviously, if you sit down with first time buyer, you can say, I get it. You know, I've been there, I've done that, whatever. Like, we're not going to say, I help seniors. They're like, never mind. That wouldn't make sense, right? But it's when you think about it, agents, we tend to think about it from our perspective, which is OK. We need to learn to think about it from the other perspective, too, right? Imagine, Gina, that you needed a new roof on your house, whatever. right? A new roof on your house. And you're like, man, I'd really, I want a really good roofer, but I'd love for them to be a believer because they're going to, you know, tie that to the church, whatever, right? Like I'd love to just have someone I could trust, whatever. And someone who specifically works with, you know, Arizona homes that are one story, whatever, I don't know. Right. And then imagine you met someone and they're like, Hey, you should meet my buddy because he's a Christian and this is what, you know, he says, excuse me, he's the one story roofer guy, whatever. I don't know. He was just really clear. You'd be like, I'm so glad I met you. But imagine if he was hidden and he wasn't honest about who he was and not being dishonest. don't mean that, but he wasn't clear about who he was. You might be trying to find him, but you kept missing him because you didn't know who he was. Right. That's what clarity does is if someone's looking for you, they'll be able to find you. Most of the time when they go looking for us, they can't find us because we haven't been honest. Again, not dishonest. We haven't been clear about who we are. When we're clear about who we are, a lot of people will self-select, that's not me, right? When Dave and I joined teams, I merged our teams earlier this year and we became the 210 Realty Group and made it clear that we're a Christian, biblically based referral team, right? Like most of my clients knew that my team was, but we didn't like flat out say it upfront. I lost a client who just said, hey, I saw you guys made a change. I just need you to know I can't refer you anymore because I don't agree with that at all. Okay. Whatever. Like that's just who I am. I'm not going to try to please everybody. I want to please the Lord. And if He made me that way and He's calling me to do that doesn't mean every team needs to go do that. Don't even say that. But if we are called to be that we should be clear about what our calling is and let the Lord do the rest. Right. So I think that would be my encouragement. uh Brianna any questions thoughts comments and then we'll we'll pray and wrap up. No, that was really helpful. em I don't know with my, I end up just serving all different clients, but what's really crazy is the Lord usually brings an opportunity for me to share testimony. So I think that's the thing is I'm just like, okay, whoever he is going to bring in, he's tasked me with either showing them who he is or actually sharing my story and even the even the painful parts. And it's crazy because even other When we start talking and you know, I'm like, I love Jesus too, you know, and maybe it's a different Jesus, right? And so when we have that conversation, I'm like, do you want to hear my story, how I found him at the age of 40? And they're like, what? Because they just think that that's who I am. And then I've gotten clients to actually not just do a buyer broker to show, but also they're like, no, we definitely want to work with you. So then I get, you know, them. I get to actually be their agent um just from that transparency and it's just an opportunity for me to tell people who Jesus is which is why I got into this anyway. So yeah, I don't have a niche but I feel like it kind of turns into that. So I don't know if you know her story, Garrett, but it's an amazing story. And she posted it. And that's how I actually reached out to her. And I want to cry because you were such an important part. My niece was going through something, is what she went through. And she's the one who actually introduced me to these groups, to the Christian Real Estate Network and the Faithful Agent. And so I just thank you, Brianna. You really were an inspiration to me. him, you know? He brings the right people in. I'm so grateful that you're here. So that's awesome. That's amazing. Yeah, I love it. it's like, know, for you, Brianna, your character is someone who needs Jesus, right? Maybe that like, and you recognize, wait a minute, everyone the Lord keeps bringing is somebody who just needs to hear the gospel. So how do I make that purposeful and plan that to be part of this, right? Which I think you do a really good job in and praise God for that. and not pushing people away from him. That's the thing is sometimes you just want to cram it down there. Yeah, no doubt for sure. Yeah. And I love it. Like it's I'm so glad you're back, Brian. I miss having you on these calls, but definitely the reality of like you live out well. The mission is the gospel. The method is real estate. We all have the same mission as believers. Go make disciples. Right. We just happen to be in real estate. So how do we do that? Well, again, a big part of this clarity is attract the people, the Lord. specifically designed us to serve. You know, it just that just makes sense. This is who the Lord made me to serve. This is for whatever reason, you know, I really love helping seniors downsizing, right, Gina? I don't know why the Lord placed that in my heart. So I'm just going to go do that. And how do I do that as well as I can? show up? I love them. But I also open my mouth and just be like, hey, what do you think about Jesus? Or if they're believers being encouragement, whatever that looks like. Right. How do we just walk that out and live that out? And, you know, We all need to sell homes. amazing. But if we don't sell any homes, but everybody knows Jesus, that'll be the greatest day ever. And it'll be awesome. Nope, nope. where we can pray for people, think it's huge too. You know, sometimes people aren't comfortable with you doing it right then, but just being like, you know, I'm a prayer, you know, I'm a prayer person. Like, you know, I'd love to incorporate you into my prayers if there's something specific. And I don't know, that's always, always cool too. So. It's cool. I love it. I love it. Awesome, ladies. Let me pray and then we'll peace out. Heavenly Father, I thank you uh just for everyone who was on this call, anyone who might be listening. Lord, I thank you for the hearts that you've given each and every one of us. And I pray, uh Father, that the clarity that I know I need and that we all need is just that constant reminder that we are first and foremost missionaries to a dying broken world. that needs to know about Jesus, and we just happen to be doing it in the real estate space. So, Lord, help us be bold in opening our mouths and asking to pray for one another. And when the Spirit prompts us to actually open our mouths and talk about the truth of the gospel, right, Lord, that we uh could see lives changed and souls saved while selling someone a home sounds like the greatest experience we could ever have as business people. And so Father, I pray that as we seek out what the clarity is and we ask, who do you want us to serve? That you'd make it clear and that we would be unafraid to just go into exactly what it is that you called us to do. Lord, at the end of the day, our desire and our heart is just to walk the path in obedience that you've laid out for us. Father, we're never going to do that perfectly well by any means, but we want to do that well. So help us do that well. Help us help each other to do that well. and be glorified and honored and praised and only the way that you deserve. We love you and we thank you for the time that we had today in your name, Thanks ladies. Have an awesome week. See y'all.