Quick Cut | Solving the Speed to Lead Problem and Restoring Work Life Balance

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Many real estate agents believe the only way to succeed is by constantly being available — answering every lead immediately, dropping everything for showings, and sacrificing evenings, weekends, and family time in the name of productivity.

But what if that belief is wrong?

In this quick-cut episode, Garrett shares a powerful story about a new agent named Sandy who found herself trapped in the exhausting speed-to-lead culture that dominates much of the real estate industry. She was closing deals and generating income, but it came at a cost — her work life balance, her time with family, and her overall peace.

After leaving her family on a Sunday to show a Zillow lead a home — only to discover that the buyer had already signed with another agent — Sandy realized something had to change. 

That moment sparked a conversation about how many agents are unknowingly building businesses that require them to work more hours, chase more leads, and sacrifice the very life they hoped real estate would create.

Garrett walks through the key mindset shift that helped Sandy rethink her entire business model.

Instead of focusing on how many homes she needed to sell, they looked at the real number that matters in business: how much income she actually kept. By reframing the math, Sandy realized she didn’t need 19 deals again the following year to earn the same income — she only needed about eight.

That single realization opened the door to a completely different way of building a real estate business — one centered on relationships, referrals, and intentional systems that support both productivity and personal freedom.

This episode is a powerful reminder that building a thriving real estate career does not require sacrificing your family, faith, or personal priorities. When you shift from chasing internet leads to nurturing real relationships, you can build a business that allows you to work fewer hours while still growing your income.

The goal isn’t just more closings; it's building a business that allows you to succeed at work and at home.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• Why the speed-to-lead culture is hurting agents’ work life balance
• How to evaluate your business based on income instead of transaction count
• The simple math that can help you work fewer hours while earning the same income
• How a referral-based model improves both productivity and time management
• Why relationship-driven businesses lead to better long-term results than lead-chasing

Next Steps

If this episode resonated with you, take a moment to ask yourself:

• Is my business model forcing me to sacrifice my personal life?
• Am I chasing transactions instead of building relationships?
• What would my business look like if I focused on referrals instead of speed-to-lead?

If you're ready to build a real estate business centered on relationships, productivity, and sustainable time management, I would love to connect with you.

Connect with Me!

📞 Are you a high-performing agent who’s succeeding, but knows there has to be a healthier, more sustainable path forward? Let's talk. Book a Breakthrough Call here ---> faithfulagent.com

➡️ I wrote a book! And now I'm giving away the audiobook to my awesome and faithful listeners - that's YOU! Get the FREE Audiobook - The Balanced Breakthrough - HERE

Transcript

Most of us treat ourselves and our businesses like the agent urgent care. And so of course the consumer treats us that way as well. The whole speed to lead culture has worn people down, because we believe we've got to jump at every opportunity that comes in. And the truth is, depending on how you've built your business, you do need to jump at every single opportunity that comes in. But I'm telling you, that's not a good way for you to build a business or a life. I want to let you in on a little conversation I had recently with my new friend, Sandy. Here's what she told me. Garrett. I left my family on a Sunday afternoon to show a beautiful waterfront home to a Zillow lead. 45 minute drive there, an hour and a half at the house, 45 minute drive home. Now, the good news is he loved the house. And after I wrote the offer and had already pre negotiated with the other agent, told them we had an offer coming, I sent it to him and I called him. But then I found out he had already signed a buyer brokerage agreement with another agent. He just didn't want to bother his agent on a Sunday, so he bothered me. My new friend Sandy was telling me this story. Now, she had done 19 sales in 2025, but she was on a Zillow lead team, and this whole speed to lead culture had really worn her down, because what she wanted was more time with her husband and her grandkids. And I'm gonna tell you right now exactly how we solved her problem. So here's Sandy's situation. She's on a team. She's been in real estate for less than two years, 19 sales in 2025, which is awesome. Almost exclusively by Zillow. She had gotten some from referral in her database through her church connections, but very few. And so I started having the conversation with her. Was that how you want to build your business? Do you want to build your business by referral? She said, yeah, absolutely I do. I don't want to build a business by Zillow, but my broker's been telling me that this is just how it works. This is par for the course for real estate, especially for new real estate agents. And don't hear me say, I'm not saying that's not partially true, but I am telling you that there's a better way for you to do this. Now, here's the reality of it, right? Too often we treat ourselves as the agent urgent care, right? What's the value of an urgent care? The value of an urgent care is that they're open when you need them. When we need to treat ourselves and build a business like the agent, special surgeon, the specialized surgeon, special surgeon. I don't even know what that is. Clearly, I'm not a doctor and never was going to be. But we need to treat ourselves like the surgeon, the specialist. What happens when you call them? You get referred to them. You talk to the front desk like, well, doctor, so-and-so is not available until three months from now. You say, that's great. I'll take it, because I want to see this person. Now, I'm not advocating that it takes just three months to go see that person, but I am telling you that most of us treat ourselves and our businesses like the agent urgent care. And so of course the consumer treats us that way as well. The whole speed to lead culture has worn people down, because we believe we've got to jump at every opportunity that comes in. And the truth is, depending on how you built your business, you do need to jump at every single opportunity that comes in. But I'm telling you, that's not a good way for you to build a business or a life. So Sandy and I are having this conversation. And here's what she says that I think a lot of agents struggle with. I'm going to tell you how we solved her problem. She said, Garrett, my struggle is if I leave the team having done 19 sales in 2025, if I leave the team, I don't know that I can do 19 sales again in 2026. I want to work by referral, but how do I sell that many homes? Again, I think I need to stay. So first and foremost, here's what I want you to know. Here's the reality of most broker owners. Most team leaders doesn't mean all of them. That is totally untrue. Don't hear me say that. But many, right? I've been a team leader for a long time. I've been around high level teams for a very long time. The reality is they want their agents to feel the dependence on them, because if their agents feel like they can go do it on their own, guess what they're going to do? Leave and go do it on their own. Guess who doesn't make money for that? The team leader. So the reality is, oftentimes you're not being taught the fullness of how you could run your business. So just be aware of that. But here's how we solved her problem. I said, Cindy, it's not about how many homes you can sell in 2026. I know that you sold 19 in 2025. That's amazing. But that's not the number that matters. Let's look at this from a business perspective. Let's just do some math. Of your 19 sales, she averaged $10,000 of total commission, so she brought in a gross commission GCI of about 190,000. Now here is the real question, Sandy. Of that, how much did you actually keep? Right? I don't care how many deals you do. Though I though it matters and it is a a portion of the equation. What I care about is how much money did you actually keep? And she said, Garrett. Well, I kept about $65,000. So she kept about 34% of everything that she sold. And I said, okay, that's the real number. Sandy, was that enough? No, not quite, but it worked for now. I said, okay, Sandy, let's just do the math. So you're so worried that you can't let go of Zillow or leave the team and go off on your own and build a business by a referral and relationships, which is what you want to do. Well, it's because you're obsessed with that number of 19 sales. That's not what matters. $65,000 is what you brought in. Your average commission is $10,000. That means depending on which brokerage you're part of and what their model is, right? You can sell eight homes, bring in $80,000 of gross commission, and you're going to walk away with $65,000. Do you think you could sell eight? Houses by referral in 2026? And she said, absolutely I do. I said, great, that's that's the problem we're trying to solve. Not how can I do 19? Again, though, we want to grow your business. It's how can I stop chasing 19 deals that is burning me out and instead pour fuel to the fire of my own business, owning the only thing I can own in real estate, which is relationships that I have. It's not an algorithm. It's nothing like that. It is literal relationships, the way we are wired as humans. You can own those relationships if you have a good system. Can you do eight transactions? She said. Absolutely. I believe I can do eight transactions by referral, and the two are probably going to do more than that. But it's just a math problem. Don't worry about how many you sold, worry about how much money you kept and how could you replace that income. You got to look at your model. What company are you with and what is their split. And then you got to look at how are you going to actually generate referrals. And you need a system. So I said, Sandy, I'm going to give you access totally for free to all of my courses. There's so much in there that will show you exactly how to set up your business by relationships. And here's what I've seen. I told this to Sandy and everybody listening. The average agent that I've ever coached when their first year in real estate, if they have 100 qualified people in their database, they will have a 10 to 1 ratio. That means for every ten people in their database, they will sell one home. In their second year, it's 8 to 1, in their third year, it's 6 to 1. Now. You've got to have the right people in there. They've got to be qualified. Now. You've got to work the right system. It's got to be consistent. You got to execute on it right. But it's simple and it's easy. And so Sandy, here's the beauty. You can 100% build a business that doesn't require you to chase the speed to lead. You can 100% build a business that when you tell your people, hey, I'm close on Sundays, they honor that, they respect that. And here's the best part, Sandy. It's not going to take 19 sales. It's going to take eight. And once you've done those eight, we're just going to keep building on that. Because the problem with Zillow is if you chase down 500 leads to sell 20 homes, you got to chase down 500 leads to do it again the next year. Well, in the referral world, the more that you serve and love on your people, the better the ratios get, the more deals you do, even if your database never grew. What I want for you, Sandy, and everyone listening to this. What I want for you is a big business that doesn't require a big time away from your family. That's what I want for you. That's the entire reason that I've been talking about everything I've been talking about. And so, listen, if you're a Sandy and you're chasing these leads and you feel the speed to lead culture, and you feel like it's burning you out and it's pulling you away from where you really want to be. For Sandy, it was her husband, her grandkids. If you feel like you gotta jump every time a lead comes in or chase down the opportunities or sacrifice your time, if you just want the success, the reality is it's not true. And I'd love to help you, I genuinely would, I'd love to have a conversation with you. I'd love to give you the free gift of just have all five of my courses too. I want this to serve you. If you're a Sandy and you don't want to be, will you please reach out to me? Send me an email. Garrett at Garrett Maroon comm. It'll be at the very top of the show notes. Just grab it and shoot me an email. I genuinely would love to help, but if you feel stuck the way that Sandy feels stuck chasing leads on a team, you feel like you're never going to get off. I'm telling you, there's a better way and it's just a math problem. Do the math. How many deals do I need to sell? If I was on my own to make the same amount of money I made on a team? Some teams are amazing and you should stay for a long time. Other teams that keep you there because you're the one making them money. And it's not about you, it's about them. So if you want to build your business in a different way, I want you to take that seriously. I want you to know that it is totally possible and I want to help. Send me an email. Reach out. I want to send you a free gift of my courses, and I want to support you in any way I can. I love you faithful agents. I hope this quick cut has made a difference and helped you in your business. Hey Christian agent, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If it resonated, would you take 30s and share it with another agent who's also trying to grow their business without losing their faith, family, or peace? That's how this message spreads. And if you haven't yet, hit that subscribe button so you don't miss future episodes. I release new ones each Thursday to help you build success that actually lasts. It genuinely fires me up knowing this podcast is helping you pursue excellence to the glory of God, both at work and at home. I'll meet you back here next week for another episode of The Faithful Agent.