279 | Why Work-Life Balance Feels Impossible for High-Producing Agents & 3 Ways to Fix it without Sacrifice

Work-life balance in real estate isn’t a myth—you just need the right rhythms. If you’re a real estate agent who’s tired of being “always on,” this episode is for you.

Ever had a “quick” client text turn into 47 messages… during dinner… while your spouse gives you the look and your kid asks, “Are you done yet?” Or you finally sit down on the couch and feel your brain buzzing with the 12 things you forgot: follow-up calls, MLS updates, a showing request, an inspection question, and that one lead you promised you’d message “tomorrow” (three tomorrows ago). That’s not hustle—that’s chaos. It’s stealing your peace and will lead to real estate agent burnout. However, if you implement proper realtor systems, you can find peace in business.

Maybe you’re crushing it on paper, but your life feels like a constant game of whack-a-mole: notifications, last-minute showings, “just one more” phone call, and a calendar that belongs to everyone except you. And then the guilt hits—because you’re present at home, but not really present. If that’s you, you’re not broken. You’re just running without a sound real estate structure.

In this solo episode, Garrett gets real about why most work-life balance advice falls flat. You don’t need more motivation. You need realtor systems that protect your priorities—before your calendar gets filled for you.

Here’s what you’ll walk away with:

•  3 practical steps to achieve work-life balance as a high producing agent 
•  A simple weekly rhythm that creates margin (without turning you into a robot)
•  Communication “windows” that train clients to respect boundaries—and still feel cared for
•  The #1 leak that keeps work bleeding into family time (and how to plug it fast)
•  A 90-day focus method that keeps you moving forward without the burnout cycle

Garrett also shares practical scripts and moves you can use immediately to make more money: how to set expectations on day one, how to respond without being available 24/7, and how to batch the tasks that keep you stuck in reactive mode. Think: showing blocks, admin blocks, follow-up blocks, and actual off-time that’s protected like an appointment.

You’ll also hear how realtor coaching can help you stop measuring success only by closings and start measuring it by what matters: dinners made, Sundays protected, and a business that serves your life—not consumes it. If you’ve been craving peace in business, this is your reset.

If you are a realtor man or woman, press play, take notes, and pick one change you’ll implement this week. It is possible to achieve work-life balance. Your clients will be fine. Your family will feel it. And you’ll finally start building the kind of business that lasts.

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

1st Solo Episode

 In order to sustain. Right? It's not about a one time thing, but sustain balance long term. We have to stop relying on willpower and start relying on systems. If you're a top producing Christian realtor, you probably don't struggle with the discipline of action. You struggle with the discipline of stopping. You love God. You love your family. You want to serve your clients with excellence. But somehow work keeps winning. Your phone never stops buzzing. You feel guilty resting. You feel guilty working. You tell yourself this season will slow down, but then it never does. And the hardest part? You don't want to be that realtor who's hard to reach, even if being always reachable is costing you everything else. In this episode, we're talking about why work life balance feels nearly impossible for high achieving Christian realtors and the three ways to fix it without sacrificing your faith, without sacrificing your income, without sacrificing your calling. So let's dive in. Do you want to grow your business and still be everything God has called you to be, but feel stuck in that constant work mode with no real balance? If so, you're in the right place. Hi, I'm Garrett, husband, data five and high producing Christian agent. I learned how to build a thriving real estate business without sacrificing my faith, my family, or myself. And now I'm here to share what actually works. So if you're ready for proven systems, smarter strategies, and a God honoring way forward, refill that coffee, dust off that Bible and let's go. Hey, Christian agent, you already have a brokerage. But what if there was a better fit? One that cares not only about your commission check, but also your heart, your peace, and your presence at home? A brokerage that understands real success isn't just selling homes, it's pursuing excellence of the glory of God in every area of life. I'm looking for ten high producing Christian agents who are winning on paper, but feel the tension every day between being fully present at home and producing at work agents who are tired of building a business that cost them family dinners, spiritual alignment and peace agents who know their business has become way too loud and they're ready for God to be louder. We're building a brokerage organization grounded in biblical values with proven systems to help you scale without burnout, time saving strategies that protect your peace, world class coaching, and direct support from me to help you grow the right way, not just the fast way. So if you're a high performing agent who's succeeding but knows there has to be a healthier, more sustainable path forward, this isn't a sales call. It's a 20 minute conversation of discernment to see whether this could be a better fit for where God might be leading you next. If this is resonating, don't ignore it. Go to Faithful Agent Comm and grab a time that's faithful Agent Comm, and grab a time. I remember being cussed out by another agent early in my career. It was a Sunday, and I got a phone call from an agent that I was doing a deal with, and I ignored it and he left a message and then he called back. I ignored it, and he left a message because Sunday was a day of rest for me, a day to be with my church family, day to be with my actual family and take a Sabbath rest. Nothing was urgent. I everything was fine. In the contract, we'd clear the home inspection. My clients weren't going to hurt because I didn't answer the phone, and so I just ignored it. Well, Monday morning I pick up my work phone. I listened to the messages, and it's him telling me, you gotta call me right now. Right now. It's urgent, it's urgent, it's urgent. And so I call him Monday morning and the first thing he starts to do is cuss me out about how I need to be available 24 over seven. And I'm not going to succeed in this industry if I don't answer the phone every time him or any other agent or any of my clients call, no matter what day it is, no matter what I'm doing, then I'm not going to succeed. And he goes to lecture me. And then finally when he stops, I say, okay, what did you want to tell me? And he said, Garrett, I needed you to know the term. I moisture inspection came back and everything was clear. And I remember thinking, you didn't need to call me on Sunday. Certainly not cuss me out to tell me that everything was clear. That was not urgent. I don't know if you know what the word urgent means, but it was that moment where it hit me that this is what the industry does and expects of us, my friends, is it expects, another agents expect, and we come to expect of ourselves that we're always available. But here's the truth. The industry doesn't get to dictate when I'm available. The industry doesn't get to tell me when I leave my family to take care of a problem. The other agents don't get to decide whether I have to get up from church and answer that text, or whether I have to leave my son's soccer game just because the urgency of that moment, which actually isn't urgent most of the time, dictates that I do it. And so we're going to talk about and solve that problem today, because I've talked to so many of you who struggle with that work life balance and understanding. How do we take back control of our time, of our schedule, of our presence and peace at home? So we're going to fix that today. Let's dive in. Now, of course, it wouldn't be a faithful agent podcast without first a Christian dad joke. So before we begin, what is a sheep's favorite book of the Bible? Mom's Psalms. All right. Now on to the good stuff. All right. I'm going to give you three ways we can fix this problem of work life balance for high producing agents. Number one, we have to separate our identity from our output in order to experience real work life balance. We have to stop letting our worth be measured by our productivity, our availability, and our results. It's not that this is not about working less, but it is about who you believe you are when you're not working. Because when your identity is tied to your output, rest begins to feel irresponsible. Boundaries feel unloving, and saying no feels like disobedience. And the truth is, no calendar change will ever fix a belief problem. If you believe that I am valuable because I produce, then your business will always demand more than it should and your loved ones will always lose more often than they should. So how do we fix this problem? First, I want you to start with understanding and recognizing where your worth actually comes from. Ephesians two verse ten says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Your value, friends, is not based on the number of transactions. It's based on how God perceives you. You are his workmanship, created for good works. You are his workmanship. It doesn't say you are his workmanship. If you build a big business, you are his workmanship. If you sell a lot of homes, you are his workmanship. If you are available 24 over seven. Your worth comes from being found and created and saved in Christ. That's where your worth comes from. We must start there. Then I want you to identify one behavior that shows your chasing approval, not obedience. For me, that often is that feeling of I feel worthy when my pipeline is full and unworthy when my pipeline is empty. Maybe you felt that before. So what's one way that maybe you're chasing approval and not obedience? Maybe you're chasing approval and not submission to the Lord. Maybe you're chasing identity in your work and not in Christ in who he says we are. And then I want you to practice rest before you feel caught up, because we trust that the Lord is the one who builds the house. Right. We have this unfair advantage, in my opinion, Christians, is that when I rest, when I honor the Lord and I, and I rest because I'm honoring who he's called me to spend time with, I'm in the church. I am at Sunday service. I am with my family. I am protecting date night. When I do those things that he has called me to do. He can build the house even when I'm not there. So friends, this week when the phone rings during family time and you feel that strong urge to interrupt dinner and pick up the phone, even though you don't have to, just pause and ask yourself, why do I feel this way? Am I chasing obedience to the Lord or approval from man? All right. Number two, we have to redefine faithfulness. It's not about 24 over seven availability. Look, in order to fix this work life balance, you have to stop equating faithfulness with constant accessibility. Being a great Christian realtor does not mean answering every call, every text, every time, all the time. Because the real estate industry and I get it right. I've been in this industry for 11.5 years. The real estate industry trains us to believe that urgency equals excellence. Speed equals service, and availability equals love. But over time, that belief system produces burnout, resentment and fractured priorities. Faithfulness is about stewardship, not exhaustion. So how do we fix this problem? How do we redefine faithfulness? Well, here's what I want you to do. First, I want you to create response windows instead of having instant replies. What does that mean? When I was really actively growing my business, and I was in that season where I didn't have the structures and the systems in place, which we're going to talk about in part three. But when I didn't have those in place, I knew that if I could set proper expectations with myself, not just my clients with myself, that I would get a lot more done. And so here's what that looked like for me. I had in my calendar from 9 to 10 a.m., client responses from 3 to 4 p.m. client responses. And on my voicemail on my phone it would say, thanks so much for your message. If you are one of my real estate clients or an agent I'm working with, please leave me a message. I respond to all texts and phone calls between 9 and 10 a.m. and three and 4 p.m. I set up that boundary. I set up the response window instead of always being tied, thinking, I've got to respond right away. It's just not true. And then two and I mentioned this, I want you to create clear client expectations early. Not apologetically, just clear client expectations early. So you can say, look, here's how I do it. I do my best to make sure I respond to every text within 4 to 6 hours. I normally respond between 9 and 10 and three and four each day. And so I'm going to be checking emails, going to be checking text, and I'm going to make sure that I'm always available when you need me to be available. And then and this is what I would say. And then if we are actively in negotiation and you are going to lose out on a house that you love or, or whatever the situation, you're going to lose out on a house that you love, because I'm not responding because it's 11 a.m., I'll make sure my phone is nearby. I'll be checking it, and I'll make sure that I respond quicker than I normally would. But in a typical day, 9 to 10 and 3 to 4, you just set the expectation. And guess what? Your clients are okay with that. They're totally okay with that. Faithfulness is not about immediacy. Faithfulness is about showing up when you said you were going to show up, and that's how this works. And then finally, I want you to remember. That boundaries don't limit service they protected. Just like having a budget doesn't limit your money, it actually gives you freedom to say, oh, look how much money I have left. Now I can go spend it and do fun things and not feel bad about it. Boundaries actually protect your service. I want to tell you a quick story of Mr. Butler. Mr. Butler was a seller that was referred to me, and I met with Mr. Butler. We had a pretty good conversation, and he told me that he had just met with another top agent in the area who actually was a discount agent. So that agent was only going to charge 2%. Can I say those things out? I don't know what I can say anymore after the change to whatever things, you know what I'm talking about. And I was going to charge the typical three things. And we had that conversation and he said, okay, I'm going to let you know, I'm going to think about it and I'll let you know tomorrow. Well, the next day happened to be a Thursday. And at that time in my career, Thursday morning was what I called Garrett Time. It was blocked off in my calendar from 9 to 11. I needed to rest, I needed to recharge, and this happened to be during the summer. So for Garrett time I would go to the pool. I'd leave my phone in my car, I'd go sit at the pool and I'd be there for two hours. I'd read, I'd relax. It was, you know, restful. It was rejuvenating. I needed that for me so that I could show up well for my clients so that I could show up well for my family. Well, I get back in the car. I've got a bunch of missed calls from Mr. Butler. Sounds familiar right? If you listen to the story at the beginning of the episode, a bunch of missed calls from Mr. Butler. I call Mr. Butler back, and the first thing he says is, Garrett, listen, if you're going to be a good agent and you're going to be my agent, you have to answer right away when I call. And here was my response. I said, Mr. Butler, I really, honestly appreciate that. However, if you want an agent who's going to answer right away every time you call, please do not hire me. I'm not that agent. I do my best to protect my time, protect my energy, protect my attention so that when I show up to serve my clients, I show up with the best possible energy and information and attitude that I can. Sometimes that means I'm going to be out on a date with my wife. Sometimes that means I'm going to be reading and learning and growing my mind so I can be better for you. But if you want an agent who's going to show up 24 over seven right when you want them, that's not me. Please don't hire me. What did he do? He called me back an hour later. Said, Garrett, I want you to be my agent. And I said, oh, I really appreciate that. Honestly. I'm surprised. Can you tell me why? He said, what I realized was, if you're going to protect yourself, if you're going to prioritize, if you're going to make sure that the most important things get get done in a day and you're going to actually protect that, that's the kind of agent I want representing me. Will you help me sell my home? All right. And finally, number three. Build systems that protect what matters most. Arjun structures do. Because when everything is urgent, the family gets the leftovers. Your faith gets squeezed, your health gets postponed. How many of us have put those things aside? My quiet time is gone. My exercise is gone. My family. When I show up, I fall asleep on the couch. Because when everything is urgent in our willpower and we push ourselves to win, win, win, succeed, succeed, succeed. And the truth is, willpower always loses to a busy market. How many of us have done that? Systems are how you honor your values when life gets chaotic. We need systems to make sure our business continues to succeed, and systems to make sure our priorities are protected. So how do we do that? Well, I want you to start with this list this out. What are my priorities each week for your business, for your faith, for your family, your health, your friends, your rest, whatever it is. And then before you put your work time in, block off time in your schedule to attend to each priority. And for me, I include the weekends, so I use Google Calendar. It's the easiest thing for me to use. Maybe use a paper calendar. If you don't use a calendar at all, you should probably get on that because you need to know where your time is going, or you'll wonder where it went. And so use some sort of calendar. For me, I use Google Calendar. And so if you were looking at my calendar right now, you would see that I've got all my time blocked off, literally from 5:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. when I go to bed now. Was it overwhelming at the beginning? Absolutely. It was because it's wow, there's a lot of stuff I got to get done each day. But here's what that looked like. So for me not to make it seem like I'm holier than thou, I'm not. But from 530 to 630 each morning it's my quiet time. Then 630 to 715 is my workout, and then 715 to 735 is my sauna. And then shower. And then make breakfast and spend time with the kids. And then 9:00 my workday starts and it goes till 430. At 430 it's family walk. At 5:00, it's baths for the kids. Still have five little kiddos that need baths. At 530. It's family worship. At 545, it's dinner at 630, it's family time, 730 kids go to bed and finally 8 to 930 is me and my wife. Time except on Wednesdays is date night, right? So we have everything blocked off now. What have I done now? Of course, that feels a little much. And it does at the beginning, but I've listed out what my priorities are in a day. I've made sure I spent time with the Lord. I made sure I move and exercise my body. I make sure I spend time with my kids, I make sure I work, I make sure I get outside and go for a walk. I make sure that we have family worship. I make sure that my wife and I get time together later in the day. It doesn't mean that every day is perfect. I don't do that all the time. It's probably 80% of the time. But when I understand what my priorities are and I block those off first, it gives me that ability to know these are the most important things and they're getting taken care of. And then. I can go to work from 9 to 430 and feel like I can be fully there without worrying about missing out on important moments, because I've made sure those things are taken care of. And so I want you to. Then, once you've blocked off these most important priorities, focus on controlling your workday until noon. Your afternoon can be free because things are going to go crazy, right? And I get it. Some nights you might have to go show homes, some weekends you might have to show how I totally understand that. Block those times off, right? I would block off Tuesday afternoon, Thursday afternoon. And so when a client wanted to show a house or see a house to say, great, 2 to 7 on Tuesday, what time works there? If not, I could do 2 to 6 on Thursdays. Now, it doesn't always happen that way, but almost 90% of the time the client would say, oh, okay, great. Let me see if I can get off work a little bit early. We'll go on Tuesday. Right. You get to determine your schedule in the morning. What I was doing was following what I call the three L's learn, Legion and launch each day. I was spending time learning, reading a book, lead, generating, connecting with my clients, and spending 15 minutes telling the rest of my day where to go. We have to let our calendars do the heavy lifting. Wednesday night for me is date night. My clients know that my calendar knows that. My wife knows that the priorities cannot be moved. Those are appointments. So in my calendar when there's an appointment, when I was talking about Garrett time on Thursday mornings, if someone wanted to do something Thursday morning, great. Hey, I actually have an appointment until 11. I'd love to get get together with you right after that. Those are appointments. Everything is an appointment. Oh, your son's got a soccer game. Hey, I've got an appointment Wednesday night. What about Thursday? Everything is an appointment. No one else gets to dictate your schedule. You decide now you want to show up and do it. Well, I totally get that. But I promise you, you're not as important as you think. I remember the first time I took an entire day off from work. I shut off my phone. I was terrified the world was going to fall apart and everyone was going to need me. And guess what happened? Nothing. Nobody needed me. And I realized I'm not nearly as important as I think I am. When we wait to make the decisions at the moment the decisions are needed. We often make decisions based on energy and urgency, not on priority and purpose. So here's what I really want you to do. Pre decide what matters. Protect it by putting it in your schedule. Then show up with excellence in the allotted hours you gave to work. Let systems and structure carry the weight so you don't have to. All right. So let's do a quick recap. My friends. We have to separate our identity from our output. What do we believe about ourselves when we're not working? We need to stop letting our work be measured by productivity, availability, or results. We need to redefine faithfulness and stop equating faithfulness with being available 24 over seven. Because being a great Christian realtor doesn't mean we have to answer everyone all the time 24 over seven, every call, every text. And finally, we need to build systems that protect what matter most. We gotta stop relying on willpower, and we got to rely on systems and structures so that we can actually create the margin that allows us to show up everywhere else as well as we can. The truth is, my friends, balance isn't about doing less. It's about doing what God actually assigned you to do and letting the rest go. So if you've been feeling burned out, resentful, or quietly exhausted, this isn't a faith failure, it's a structure problem. Remember, if you want systems to help you scale without burnout, time saving strategies that protect your peace, world class coaching and direct support from me to help you grow Let's get on a call. There is a better way. My friends. And it's all wrapped up in a Christian agent community. Go to faithful Agent Comm and grab a time to connect. 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.