The Faithful Agent Series Ep 10- How to Trust God In Every Season of Business

In life and in business there will always be ups and downs, the key to success is learning how to navigate both. For some of us our faith grows stronger when we're struggling through adversity and for others success allows us the time and space to dig deeper into the Word.

And the day of prosperity be joyful and in the day of adversity consider God has made the one as well as the other. So that man may not find out anything that will be after him. (Ecclesiastes 7:14)

Our friend, Cody Persinger, joins Tyler and I today as we explore how we approach trusting God in our businesses and how that will probably look a little different for each business owner.

3 Things You'll Learn from this Episode

We're all built differently and that includes how we approach our relationship with God. There's not one right way to trust, we break down what works for each of us.

Distraction from the Word is something that happens to us all. How can we keep our focus steady instead of waiting until our time of need arises?

In today's society there's a pressure to only show the positive. Can we be an inspiration to others by allowing them to see our low points?

About our Guest

Cody Persinger is a team leader, investor and the owner of The Persinger Group. He is really focused on the values which exist in Keller Williams, which is God, family and business. He is passionate about serving and loving people. For more information,  follow @cspersinger25 on Instagram and connect with him on Facebook. 

Interested in Group Coaching from a Biblical Perspective? Click here to learn more and have a quick chat with Garrett to see if it's a good fit! faithfulagent.com/chat

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Transcript

What is up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the faithful agent series. Once again, thank you listeners for making this by far our most popular episodes we've ever done on this show. That's why we're doing more you heard another episode. Last week, that was a new one that we weren't originally planning on. But we're so grateful for you keep downloading, keep sharing, keep tagging us on Facebook, or social media, it is an honor to be able to talk about these things with you all. And with my co hosts that are here today. We hope that it has been encouraging and edifying to you and your soul certainly has been for us. So we're excited to dive in today with our topic which is going to be trusting God in every season of business using Ecclesiastes 714. But we want to get into jokes but let me start I gotta tell you guys the story first. Okay, I texted you guys earlier and said, so for the audience that knows this is such a strange thing to talk about. The audience that knows we call Cody short shorts because Cody wears really short shorts. Well, one day my wife goes to me. Hey, I'd love for you to have some short shorts. I think they look nice on on guys. So okay, I'll order some. So I order some short shorts. Okay, I texted Cody that day with the first time ever warm said, I don't know how you do this, bro. It's like everyone can see my entire leg. It is really uncomfortable, right? But my wife likes so I keep wearing him. Anyways, this morning, I get up the day of recording, I get up and I'm having breakfast with my two guys that I meet with every other week, Kevin and Tim. And I show up in in my short shorts and a long sleeve shirt because it's nice out, right? Well I walk in and of course the first thing they start doing is like, bro, you cannot wear them in public. They're terrible. And I'm like, No, do they look good? You know, whatever. They're like, No, they look awful. Like, well, whatever. My wife likes them. And Kevin says, well, she's not here. You can wear whatever you want out at home, not in public. Like whatever. I think they look great. So then the waitress name Ali, who we see all the time she comes over and she's British. And she's just and she's harsh. It's amazing. It's Jesus. Like, Garrett. I'm not even gonna pretend to do the British accent but Garrett, you look terrible today. Like, hey, what's it? She's making fun of me. Anyways, we're eating breakfast. We're having fun. At the she comes over Ali. Our waitress comes over says hey, you see those two women in the back? I'm like, yeah, they're these older women. Yeah, there's two women's back. They asked me a question. And they're like, look at that guy short shorts. They're really short. You can see his whole leg and I'm like, Oh my gosh, how in the world. So I'm like, I gotta get up and I hide between Kevin and Tim to walk to pay because I'm, you know, super embarrassed at this point. And as I'm walking out, Kevin says do those people, right? They're all staring at your legs. Like, this is terrible, man. I can never wear short shorts ever again. So I don't know how you do it, Cody. But man more power to you. But I guess it's like so Cody is tall and trim and I'm short and squished. So like it doesn't work for people that are short and squished. I guess that's the answer here. But anyways, there's my short short story. So it's
gotta be short, man. Like, I've never had that reaction.
Well, maybe I look terrible. And you don't know. I don't know. Well, if they're the same size, that's still the problem, because you're like, since you're five seven. Well, could be caps. I don't know. Anyways, I'm not gonna wear short shorts again, out out in public.
I don't need to post any of your cash or something because people have to see.
Yeah, just to get them to lay off this thing. Yeah, no, I mean,
I think that was probably what they're looking at your calves 100% could be could be here. It's cash, man. I don't know.
It is weird. All right. Let's move on to something else because thanks for sharing. You're welcome. Tyler. Should we do jokes? Alright, let's get dive in. Here. Why don't we just dive in? Tyler go ahead and do it. Do your thing, buddy. Yeah, I
think that you have full fully executed our joke quota of time for the day and I appreciate it. It's good. It was laughing You certainly what was laughable? I think so getting to the Lord here in a minute Rusty's talking about trust in the Lord. And all seasons of business this week as we enter into Ecclesiastes chapter seven. I mean, go straight to verse 14, and the day of prosperity be joyful. And then the day of adversity consider God has made the one as well as the other. So that man may not find out anything that will be after him. It's good, man. It is good. And we were joking kind of coming into this into prior to this that Cody has been successful for far too long to be able to speak into all seasons of his business. Right? We are excited to hear testimony on what it means to be both. You know, humble in our successes and humble in our failures, right or Brian's always going to tap in each of those things. But you know, what does it look like? Guys, let's jump in and day of prosperity be joyful day of adversity. Consider that God has made them both. What do we think?
Yeah. You know, I'll start real quick, Cody because this verse has in particular been really impactful to me not just thinking through business. But you know, as our audience knows, or maybe doesn't my mom passed away in October. And I read a lot of Ecclesiastes, because of that. And this verse has been really encouraging, you know, in the day of prosperity be joyful. In the day of diversity considered, God has made the one as well as the other. And I think it's a, it's like a resetting verse, you know, there are going to be seasons of joy or prosperity, be joyful in those, right, and there's going to be days of adversity. And in those days, remember, God's made both of them. Right. And so, you know, I think so much about the struggle that we have at work, let's be honest, like, a lot of us as agents are worried about the market and what's going to happen and, you know, our numbers gonna go down, we got to prepare for 20% cut or whatever that looks like, right. There's a lot of fear. And I think some of it is understandable in the in the market right now. And so agents are prepping for a season of not prosperity, right? A season of adversity. And so how do we mentally prepare ourselves to be in this season and to go through this season? And, and that's what this conversation is all about. Right? And this past has been helpful to me. So what do you think Cody?
Alright, so I appreciate Tyler. If you look at me on Instagram, it probably does seem like I've never had a bad day. But that is not real. So social media is
short shorts keep you from having a bad day. Yes, there should be
five short shorts do help. But no, I, I've been super blessed in my business. And throughout the years, I think when I got into the business, to be honest, the market now is a lot like the market was when I got into the business in 2015 2016. So it wasn't, you know, the super hot market that we've experienced for the last two years. But we, yeah, I love this verse, because it does remind you that God's still God, regardless of you know, if you're experiencing prosperity, or you're experiencing adversity, and I would say we've had a lot of adversity. Do I ever put that out there? No, probably not. Because no one wants to hear about adversity ever wants to hear about prosperity. You think you can inspire people through adversity? So maybe I need to talk more about that. But you know, we're always talking about prosperity, because that's, that's most inspiring. But yeah, Adversity is something that we've definitely dealt with quite a bit. Not so much from a standpoint of, okay, we don't have any deals, we don't have any lists, things like that. But we've definitely dealt with adversity from outside factors. But what what I think, you know, is really helped me I felt, I find myself closest to God in those times, where in my work more I'm praying more, I'm talking to my friends more and, you know, just really relying on relationship more stuff like that when, you know, adversity kind of slows you down and brings you back into focus. And God's like, okay, look, focus on me, you know, don't be, you know, looking around not doing that kind of stuff, keep walking forward, focus on me. And every time he's going back on track, and I've learned the most through adversity, for sure. You know, Gary mentioned, your mom passed away. My mom passed away a few years ago as well. And that's like, the hardest thing I went through, and my business went through that as well. And those were times of adversity when I didn't feel like doing anything. I wanted to just be with her be with my family. And my business was definitely slower that year. But yeah, I was in my word, I was learning. I was learning about myself and growing for the future. And it's something that I feel like, I grew so much through and I can use now, you know, even even as you know, the friends and stuff have gone through that, like you said, Garrett and yeah, I grew so much diversity. So I think that's the important thing to take away from this verse for me, is that you focus on what God does have for you what he's teaching you in those those moments. So
it's, yeah, sorry, let me jump in real quick to you know, one thing just to add to this mix, because I want your opinion, Tyler. So I want to say this first, you know, all right, I have a problem. I don't trust people to talk. So I got to do it. You know what I mean? Stuff. Give me that face. Why is this not on video? Anyways, I love you. Thank you for letting me go first. So no, I don't even know what to say. Okay. So something that I think about in this verse. When I was back visiting my dad a few weeks ago or a week ago, excuse me, he showed me that he was still using mom's Bible, right like now he uses mom's Bibles as a personal Bible. And so I'm just looking through it and open up the front cover. There's a little sticky note on it. And it says Romans 828 Right at the top which we know for you know, God works all things for the good of those who Love Him who are called according to His purpose write those. And I remember mom, or I remember what she wrote. And it says, it doesn't mean that everything will be in capital B, E, D, good. But it means all things will be for capital fo r for our good, right? And I just stopped to think about, when did mom write that write, she'd had cancer for eight years. My guess is it was probably relatively recent, in the last few months before she died as things started to get a lot worse. And just the deep rooted belief and trust in the Lord, that it doesn't mean that everything is going to be good from our perspective, but it means it's going to be for our good. And how do we trust in the Lord? Will we go like go to start but go to the word? What does he promise us? He's never broken his promise. He never will. What does he promise us? And so that's why we can be joyful and prosperity. And we can trust that in adversity, he still got us, right, because he's still in control, he always will be even thinking about, excuse me, when Joseph got sold to the Egyptians, and they had seven years of plenty, and then seven years of famine. Well, guess what, the Lord prepared them for that. Right. And he took care of them, and that and their understanding and gave them wisdom and all those things. So I think for us, like understanding in a deep way, that all things will be for our good. And we can trust because he's made both days. So go ahead, do what you got me him.
Oh, really good stuff. And I appreciate you guys sharing so much. I mean, it's powerful testimony, to see how the Lord's worked in your lives through pain, and very hard time and through the brokenness that was conceived and sent. That was not his intention, when He created everything. So you know, I think that there is there is a an important piece to what Cody was speaking to, to marinate, and that we can all confess that, I think we would agree that in times of trial times, or tribulation, that that's when we turn to the Lord Most, because it's our foundation. It's the core, it's what everything else stems from and what is rooted in. But when things start to get foggy, and you're in the storm, the only place you really look is right in front of you the things that are closest to you, there's not as many distractions going on, and you're trying to find your TrueNorth again, which you know, to be Christ and His promises and the hope that is in His Word. So, but that ebb and flow that we all do that we all confess to that when things are going good, we maybe don't invest as much time into our word we don't spend give as much credit to the Lord, we don't pursue the same degrees of Christ's like righteousness that we do when things are stripped away, and we need to recenter and we need to refocus and we're and we're seemingly lost when things aren't right. The the cadences that we have in that shouldn't vary based on the level of success that we're having in this world. And nobody would disagree with that. But like, so if we have these, these business and when thinking about business and thinking about performing at a high level, we have systems and cadences that we are reevaluating constantly based on their return based on their performance based on level of investment, all of these different metrics. So why would we, if something that is when we are at our worst in our business that gets us back on our feet and gets us going 100 miles an hour in the right direction? Why would we neglect that? From a business standpoint, it logically just doesn't make sense. If that's the fuel source that's making our business go, well, we would cling to that. And never ever get distracted from it, we would become so obsessed with that idea that would almost distract us from opportunities to get better. We put blinders on with that. So from a faith perspective, and just a contentment in life perspective, if that's the true fuel that's gonna make us the husbands we're called to be the parents, we're called to be that brothers in Christ we're called to be, then it's just as linear and logical that why would we ever neglect the things that when we're in our lowest spots, the time with the Lord, the community that pulls us together, the time that we invest in, in our inner circle that we've talked about before into our community and our relationships? Why does that change? Why do we allow these shiny objects to pull us away? And why do those rhythms? Why don't we fight for them as much as we fight for other things in our life?
I mean, I think that's, yeah, that's real. And, you know, it just made me think about T that, how do we trust God and every season? Well, we learn about him, you know, I mean, because how do you trust him? Well, we know that I mentioned earlier, but like, we know that he ever makes a promise that he doesn't keep. And so then the next question is, well, what are his promises? Right, what has he promised to us? Right? And he's promised to take care of us. He's promised to provide, you know, and I forget the exact passage now and I'm sorry, but, you know, look at that he even provides for the birds, right Look what he even provides some of them, how much greater will he provide for you? And I think a lot of it if I'm honest, and I confess in my own life, a lot of the lack of trust comes when I think that he's not providing what he's supposed to write, when it says look at he's, you know, if you provide for the birds, look how much we'll provide for you. And then I make an assumption and what that means, okay, that means that this is going to be good, and that's going to be good. And this is going to work. And that's going to work. And when it doesn't like, wait a minute, God like what's going on here? You know, I would never openly say that, but absolutely right. I think that ties in in my own life, maybe not everybody, but in my life t, when that's when I'm not reading the word, right? I'm actually opposite. And from you guys, when when things are going well, I tend to be in the word, when things aren't going well, then I'm like, I got stuff to do. Right? I can't sit here and spend time just reading the word because it's not getting me anywhere, right. And I don't believe that, but I act that way. And it absolutely creeps into my mind. And so I think that's a big piece of it is if we know who the Lord is, and what he's promised. That's how we trust because now all we have to trust is that he keeps his promises, and I have to trust all the other stuff. Just he keeps his promises. And I know what those are. And so it's gonna sustain me through this season. Right. And I think I mean, anyways, that that kind of was what I was thinking, as you're talking about it. But, you know, kind of as we were trying to be a little bit quicker on these episodes audience to respect your time. So what Cody, what do you think, man, kind of kind of give us your final thoughts? And then you can take us out?
Yeah, yeah. As as, as entrepreneurs, I think one thing that we all share, regardless of what kind of business we're in real estate or not, we're all trying to get better. We're all trying to improve on whatever it is we're doing in every aspect of our life. And James one, it says, Whenever we meet various kinds of trials counted peers, really, because it produces steadfastness. And it makes you better in the long run. You're always trying to get better. And it's adversity creates opportunities to do that. Diamonds are created under pressure. And, you know, that's, that's, that's what that verse really means to me. And I love it. That's awesome.
That's good, man. It's good. To give us a wrap up, buddy and take us out with the passage.
Yep, absolutely. So you know, the one one thing I when I bring this back to my previous life and playing baseball, and how there were so many times where I'd have days of prosperity immediately followed by days of adversity. A lot of the questions that I get when I'm talking to young kids or adults or people in the workplace now is how did you handle the ups and the downs that are so much failure that was evident publicly day to day, and in this verse in this truth, that God is in control of all of them, and that he is the ultimate consistent, consistent component in every single thing, whether I threw eight shutout in Fenway, or I gave up nine in Norfolk and triple A, he didn't change who I am in Him, who I was created to be the way that he knows me and loves me and were my callings, were higher, to love Him above all things, to love others as myself, and then to take care of Chelsea and my kids more than anything else. I had to remind myself of that constantly. And that's what that's what made me show up every single day. Remember what your motivation is, remember who you were created to be. And that's not easy. I'm not oversimplifying this, but that is the truth. And what our flesh is, is constantly trying to pull us away from that truth. And so certain practical things that I did, where I had time, I spent time before I got to the field, and I spent time at the end of the day, when I was leaving the field, when I was transitioning kind of from with those people to not what those whatever it looked like to remind myself of that. When I started a game, when I ended the game, I had to leave that on the field, because that did not who the performance that I had on the field didn't dictate who I was when I walked off the lines. Sure, it's absolutely part of it. It was part of my testimony, it was my vocation. But I couldn't carry whether I won the game or lost the game into the conversation that I had in the locker room. If I was leveraging me being the best player on the team into that relationship. That was pride. If I was meekly walking into it, I was not going to be as bold in terms of how I spoke the truth to the person that I was in that relationship. So as much as it is absolutely part of who you do. It's what you do. It's not who you are, and how you take that and carry that. And use that as part of your testimony is how you'll honor him. So to bring us out here with the word here Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes, chapter seven, verse 14, In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity, consider God has made the one as well as the other so that man may not find out anything that will be after Him.
Amen to that.
Let's all try to trust God and Hey, dude, it'd be better at that right only by the Lord's mercy. I pray that for all of us that we would trust him so agents thanks so much for tuning in to this faithful agent episode was hope you see us next time I don't what did that mean? Well you come back next week.