Faith and Focus – Staying True to Your Calling in Real Estate

In this episode of the Faithful Agent Podcast, Garrett Maroon discusses how real estate agents can stay true to their calling through faith. He emphasizes the importance of understanding one's purpose, setting boundaries, and dealing with challenges. The conversation highlights the need for a strong foundation in faith to navigate the ups and downs of the real estate industry while maintaining a focus on serving others and honoring God.

Takeaways

Our calling in real estate is a mission field.
Understanding your 'why' is crucial for motivation.
Setting boundaries helps maintain focus on priorities.
Seek first the kingdom of God in all endeavors.
Dealing with rejection can build perseverance.
Consider trials as opportunities for growth.
Community support is essential for accountability.
Joy comes from becoming more like Christ.
We must not fall in love with worldly success.
God's promises remain constant amidst market fluctuations.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Faith in Real Estate
01:25 Understanding Your Why
06:16 Setting Boundaries and Maintaining Focus
10:13 Dealing with Rejection and Challenges

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Transcript

0:01

What is up, faithful agents? Welcome back to another episode of the Faithful Agent Podcast. Garret Maroon here. I am your host and honored to be with you all once again as we dive into another amazing topic. Honestly, in my opinion, faith in focus. How do we stay true to our real calling in real estate? We're going to talk about that, right? But before we jump in, let's start with a little joke. Now this comes from... Lindsey Sears, one of our board members in the Faithful Agent. She sends me jokes all the time. said, you know what? It's about time I give her a shout out and let her get credit for this. So thank you, Lindsey Sears. Here's a joke from Lindsey. That realtor doesn't look so strong. I bet I can take him in a fight. Are you crazy? That guy says he flips houses in his spare time. And finally, why did the house wear makeup? because it had a foundation problem. I don't really get that I'm a guy, but you know, great. Thank you, Lindsey Sears. Anybody else that has a joke, send it my way. I would love to read your joke live and on air. It's not live, but it is on air. I don't know. How does that work? All right. So let's talk about faith and focus. How do we stay true to our calling in real estate? And we're going to have three main points today that we're going to build off of. First, understanding your why. Two, setting boundaries and maintaining focus. And three, dealing with rejection and challenges. So number one, let's dive in. Understanding your why from Colossians 3.23 says, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as if working for the Lord, for man. Now we've got to remember that our calling as real estate agents, it's not just a career, but it's a mission field, right? We've got to reflect on why do we choose this path? and let that guide us every single day. when we look at Colossians 3, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as if working for Lord, not for man. Interestingly, I was just doing a training. And that was one of the pieces I was talking about is at the end of the day, the cool part about how the Lord structured this is if we can be excellent at what we do in real estate, it can provide not only a really great living, but it can provide a great living for us and for people around us in our community. We can honor them by maybe providing for them financially or maybe we have more free time. can serve whatever it is. That's the beauty of how this industry works. If we can be excellent in this, but we must never forget that If a missionary is someone who is defined as they're living somewhere that's not their home to spread the gospel, well, is that not us, right? Our home is not ultimately here on earth. mean, it is when it's redeemed and restored, but for now, right? Like we belong in heaven. We are members of the Lord's heavenly family. But right now, for a temporary season, we live somewhere that is not our ultimate home. And we're here as gospel witnesses to the truth. Now, this is hard. Okay. I just want to admit upfront agents, brothers and sisters. This is really hard for me to, you know, we caught up in our day to day. We get caught up in the busyness of life. We get caught up in the distractions that we allow ourselves to get caught up in social media or our business or comparing ourselves or whatever it might be. We get caught up in those things and we forget. the real mission of what we're here to do. And I admit it, I do it too. We look at the big number on the commission check and we say, I'm gonna work really hard for them. Then we get a referral and the clients, you know, buying a $100,000 house. We're like, I don't have time for that, right? And I'm not saying there's not wisdom in some of this, right? But I'm speaking to myself and saying, I view the worth. of the people around me in a lot of ways, and this is a confession to you, I view the worth based on how much home they can afford, right? And I invest in them accordingly. And I'd love to tell you that I don't, and I certainly will tell you that that's not my heart in it, but I'm sinful too. And so it's easy for us to do that and not remember that we are working as if for the Lord, not for man. So when we work, we should do it with all of our heart. And again, that's hard. How do we stay focused on that? But we've got to remember there is an intent to the mission that we're on. Yes, we want to be excellent in selling homes. Yes, selling homes is how we make a living. Praise God for that living. What a great living that we are able to create. But ultimately, not to fall in love with the world that's here. not to fall in love with the stuff and the opportunities that we have that are here, but to be gospel witnesses to the world. And I've found for me, one of the biggest challenges for me to overcome in terms of actually becoming a consistent gospel witness is being comfortable, right? Like in the Lord's kindness, He's provided a good business and my family's comfortable and things are going okay, you know, and we're not crushing it, but we're not starving either. We're not, you know. suffering by any stretch of the imagination the Lord has been merciful and so in my comfort it means I don't really want to get up and go work that hard sometimes right I don't really want to go get up and and strive or I don't want to share the gospel because if I just make it awkward and I don't want to do that right this so easy right now why share the gospel with that client why you know the clients that are getting divorced why do I need to step in between just help them sell their home don't try to make it about man, how can I help you guys reconcile or whatever it is? How do I make this as easy as possible for me as opposed to how do I be as honoring to the Lord as possible? How do we work for the Lord, not for man? That's hard. But we've got to remember that Colossians 3 23, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Understand your why. number two, setting boundaries and maintaining focus. Matthew 6 33 says, but seek first the kingdom of God. and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you." For us, that means we've got to avoid distractions that pull us away from priorities. We've got to set boundaries with our time and energy and ensure that the Lord and our family remain our top focus, right? It says, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you by we... setting boundaries and maintaining the focus. I mean, I, again, confess to y'all and I ask you to examine yourself. When was the last time you could honestly say that you sought first the Lord? I mean, y'all have heard me talk about the hierarchy of attention and gosh, I struggle with that where the reality is, is we gotta be intentional about who's gonna get our attention, right? It's the intention of our attention. And so for me, my actual hierarchy is the Lord, my wife, my kids, then my work, right? But that's my ideal hierarchy. If I was honest about what it actually looks like, right? If someone followed me around for the day, they'd probably say my work. maybe they'd say food, but they'd say work, right? Work would be number one, maybe my phone is number two, maybe my kids is number three, and maybe my wife, and maybe then the Lord, you I don't know. It'd be kind of scary to have someone follow me around and say, here's why I rank your attention and where it went on purpose today. But the reality is we've got to be really intentional about controlling what we're paying attention to. That means a lot of times that means we're not adding things in, but we're talking about what do we need to cut out? And so if that's not having Instagram or Facebook on your phone, so you are not so obsessed with looking at it every chance that you get. If that's putting your phone somewhere else or getting away from it, excuse me, if that's making sure you wake up 30 minutes early to have a quiet time before the kids wake up because you know they're going to distract you. and pull you away from what you say is your priority. How do you set boundaries around your time and energy? And y'all, it is hard. I mean, just the other day, my wife said, I really am asking you to try to save energy for me at the end of the day, right? And she, number one, has totally has the right to say that. Number two, I am super grateful that I have an amazing wife who asked me questions like that or challenges me in ways like that. And number three, it's also really hard. right because what is the nature i wake up in the morning for me i spent time with the lord i exercise i make breakfast for the kids i get ready i go to work and i work all day then i'm off work and now i'm with the kids again helping my wife and his family time is all those things we finally get the kids bed we have like an hour together and at that point i'm like i am dead right but i've got to be intentional about who gets my attention and even in this scripture in matthew six we are challenged seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added. Even in that truth is a challenge to us to say, I'm trying to accomplish all of these things. And so therefore I focus on X, Y, and Z. But the Lord tells us if you seek first the kingdom, everything will be added to you. It doesn't mean that all of a sudden, if I just only read my Bible, I'm just going have this amazing business. That's not what he's saying. But he's saying if we prioritize what should be the priority is our relationship with the Lord to seek first His kingdom, then everything else will fall in place. That's really hard. The hierarchy of attention is a biblical principle, right? That we seek first the Lord, our wives, then our, our, or for me, then my wife and my kids, then our work. That's a biblical order, but it's hard. We need each other to hold each other accountable. We need to be in community so we can be held accountable. but ultimately set boundaries, tell people your boundaries and help them or encourage them to help you maintain your focus. Okay, finally, dealing with rejection and challenges number three. James 1 verses two through four starts with considerate pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of various kinds, right? That first, first of all, it's just impossible, it feels like, right? How do we consider it pure joy when we face trials? of various kinds. I mean, that alone, you could get stuck on that verse, the beginning of that verse your entire life and never figure that out, right? Because real estate can be so full of ups and downs, just all over the place, right? Again, I showed this the other week, but my lead agent, Jesse, was spending the entire weekend. He spent most of the afternoon Sunday after church. touring homes with this person who come to find out she's not really that interested in buying because her lease is not up for a year. And why didn't we know that in advance? Why had she never shared any of those things in advance? Now we should have asked that question, or dug maybe a little bit deeper. But the reality is this, talk about an up and down. You're gone from your family all Sunday afternoon, which is supposed to be fellowship family time. You're gone because it seems like it's urgent to get out there and show the house. And guess what happens? Nothing. Right? You waste all that time. It feels like such a waste. You waste that time. Nothing happens. That's not even a trial. Let's be honest. That's just an up and down. But what about when you face a trial because none of your business is panning out? What if you face a trial when you don't understand why your pipeline is dried up? What if we face a trial where we literally now all of our commission is being challenged? What if we face trials when the rates go way up and now people don't want to buy again? How do we handle those trials and should we really consider it pure joy? But we're called to consider it joy for us to see rejection as a stepping stone that is going to build our perseverance and sharpen our skills. I find that when I face trials, I face challenges, truthfully, my first, I become anxious in those seasons because again, I'm just being honest, I'm so used to just relying on myself and my own strength that when I can't anymore, I kind of get weirded out and I struggle. I wrestle with that. And this difficult and it's challenging. Instead of looking and saying these trials when I'm going through that period of anxiety It's just because the Lord is saying hey, you're not in control and I'm like, wait what is this realization of wait? I'm not in control. I didn't know I wasn't in control I thought it was cuz look at all these things that I've done It's resulted in X Y & and the Lord's like hey, you've never been in control And now that I really need to quote unquote rely on him I always have but now I fully recognize it. It makes me anxious because I can't control the outcome when i never could anyways but i can't control the outcome anymore in when i look at trials and we're told to consider them pure joy i think it's because we have an appropriate fix on the right outcome was at me if i go to a trial and i say well the outcome of the right outcome is supposed to be i sell fifty houses i make a ton of money then when that's not happening and that trial comes and it keeps me from that, I'm going to say, this is not joyful. But when I understand that pure joy is being made and conformed to the image of Christ, man, then I can look at that trial and say, this is good. This is making me less like the sinner that I am and more like my amazing savior. I could consider a pure joy. when I have a right understanding of the appropriate and best outcome to be made more like Christ. That's hard. That is hard in the real estate space where we just go through a lot of ups and downs and I get it. So understand your purpose. Colossians 3.23. Why are we here? Why are we here? We're on a mission field. Two, set boundaries and maintain focus. Seek first the kingdom of God. protect our time and energy so that we can have an appropriate hierarchy of the Lord and then our family. And then finally, when we deal with rejection, when we deal with challenges, recognize that pure joy comes from a proper understanding of what is the joy. It's becoming more like Christ. So how do we stay true to the calling that we have in real estate? We stay faithful. We keep our eyes on the bigger picture that the Lord has given. And remember, When the market fluctuates, God's promises don't. I love you, faithful agents. This is hard. Be in community with one another. Encourage one another today. Pray for one another. This is not easy, but the world, the real estate world needs to see Christian agents joyful, even in trials. So they say, why are you so joyful? We say, let me tell you about Jesus. I love you, faithful agents. Have an awesome week.