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Peter Fife does 90 sales a year with $27M volume in personal production — and still has time with his family, eating family meals together, never working on Sunday, and more!  Read on for details…

This was a really fun interview for me.  Peter is such an amazing agent.  He’s been selling real estate for 24 years.  When he moved to a new city where he knew no-one, in the midst of the Recession, his business was thriving within 12 months!

Today, he does around 90 transactions a year, totalling $27M in volume, and all from personal production.  And even in the midst of tremendous volume he maintains a relatively balanced life, putting God and family first.

Learn the “secrets” behind managing a thriving business with a healthy family-work life balance!

Transcription (was completed by automated process.  Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)

[00:00:01] Hi there, I’m Beatty Carmichael, and welcome again to the Get Sellers calling you realtor podcast and I’m excited about today’s call because I get to interview just another incredible agent friend, an agent who’s become a good friend of mine very recently as we realized we actually had the same father. So it’s been a lot of fun talking with a long lost brother. We’ll fill you in more on those details in a moment. But this is Peter Fyffe in Prescott, Arizona. So, Peter, how are you doing? Good, thanks. All right. Well, we were talking a little bit earlier the other day and getting set up for this call. And we just had a great conversation and just a lot of really neat things going on and how you do your business. But before we get started, if we were to go into that stuff, I would love if you would just give our listeners a little idea of who is Peter, how long you’ve been selling real estate? What type of varies you focus in and how much volume do you do? Just kind of give a snapshot of who this voice is that we’re listening to. Can you do that?

[00:01:15] You bet. I’ve been a realtor now for 24 years. I’m kind of a second generation realtor. My dad all of the time growing up was a realtor, my grandmother who’s from Switzerland. She was a realtor in Switzerland.

[00:01:35] I always knew that it was a great way to support a family. And I originally was going to be a teacher of religion, but decided was led other ways and ended up becoming a realtor. That’s the way the Lord led me. So I was grateful for that. And I’ve been in real estate 24 years. I’ve been top 1 percent internationally for Coldwell Banker the last five years.

[00:02:04] I did 90 deals last year, 27 million in business all by myself. No team. So the Lord’s been good to me.

[00:02:16] Hold on. 90 transactions. No team all by yourself. That sounds like you’ve been a busy bee.

[00:02:25] I work six days a week, usually 60, 90 hours a week. Usually, though, I’m home, probably half of it. I’ll spend 30 to 40 hours on the road, running around 30 to 40 hours doing paperwork and other things that I need to do. But it all works out.

[00:02:49] Well, that’s really neat. I’ve got to ask you this, just out of curiosity, what do you love most about what you do?

[00:03:01] Honestly, the people God brings to me, I just have the best clients, and I truly believe that every client that I’m given and I use that word given is truly from God. I mean, they just we just connect and I’m able to either bless them or they able to bless me. And usually it’s both ways and it’s just a great thing. And I love working with the people. And that’s that’s the reason why I haven’t gone Maiga with the team and managed five people and kind of distance myself and the people because it’s in the trenches that I love. It’s the people they love me.

[00:03:41] I got to ask you the question. What do you love least about the work you do?

[00:03:49] Honestly. I really love real estate. There’s very little that I don’t like about it. I am still enthusiastic about it. I very rarely get stressed because I know that things work out when clients sometimes get really upset and they’re freaking out. All this is all going to go south and everything is going to go wrong. I just call them down. They say, look, it’s okay. It always works out for my clients. Everything works out. How can you say that? Because I know who’s behind us. And maybe you don’t, but I do. And it helps strengthen their faith. And things always, always work out every day.

[00:04:31] And that’s amazing. And that’s kind of what the Bible says as well. We’ll move there in a moment. But you’re right. Things will always work out as long as you trust the Lord to work them out. And I’ve seen that happen in my life, too. So after 24 years, you’re still as you’re still passionate about what you do. That sounds like a perfect match.

[00:04:53] I am. I always joke that I’m going to be the oldest realtor in history and die doing my last sale at 90.

[00:05:02] I love it.

[00:05:03] I love it. Oh, that’s great. Well, it’s wonderful that you can be so passionate about what you do. And I want to find out a little bit more of what you do and how you do it. Sure. So talk to me. Typical realtor out there probably is in 15-20 transactions a year and they’re looking at you, 27 million in volume, 90 transactions, loving what you do. Maybe not so excited about 60 to 90 hours a week. Let me ask you on that. Do you really have to do 60 or 90 hours a week or I mean, do you do it because you love it or do you do it because it demands it? Does that make sense when I’m asking?

[00:05:43] It is about that. But I mean, we home school, so I always have dinner with my family every day. And most of the time I have lunch with them. So I’m able to work around my schedule. So when I do my paperwork at home, I’m always available to my kids. So maybe that 60, 90 hours isn’t necessarily hard core sitting down, not talking to the family, but my son comes in and I’ll talk to him, have good conversations with him. Take a break and play a few games with them and then go back to the paperwork part of it. My wife and I always talk quite a bit every day. So it’s really an ideal situation.

[00:06:25] It really sounds like you’ve got a good family balance in the midst of the work.

[00:06:31] The one thing I don’t do. OK. So this is one thing I don’t do tilt watching TV. I don’t have time to waste. It’s work, family, God. And actually, it’s the opposite direction. God, family work. Does that make sense? Those are the three three pillars. And there’s just I might watch total in a year or three movies. I mean, total there’s really not any good movies out there that like anyway. But we just don’t waste a lot of time.

[00:07:06] And I totally get it. And I have another friend who does about the same number of transactions as you.

[00:07:15] In fact, when I met him, he was doing 100 to 110 transactions or so production. Get this, 35 hours a week is all he put into his real estate.

[00:07:31] That guy.

[00:07:34] He never worked evenings. He was number one. He never worked weekends. He took off Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And he rarely evenings. And here’s the key. Now, you don’t have any you don’t have any admin or assistants or anything like that.

[00:07:50] I do have one small add. Was Beth client of mine that she does minimal stuff 2 three hours a week, but nothing significant.

[00:07:58] Let me tell you the secret, because there’s two things that he does.

[00:08:02] Number one, he’s got great marketing and drives business. When I call. Come with me now. Type phone calls to him. But the main thing, as I’ve talked to him is he has three assistants. He’s got a two part time, one full time listening coordinator who manages all this stuff and then a couple other assistance. And so he’s hired out his time to 15 and $20 an hour people and he gets his time back.

[00:08:33] In fact, I don’t know not to put a bug in front of the book, but there is a book out there called Millionaire Real Estate Agent.

[00:08:40] Have you ever read that? I had not read that.

[00:08:43] So it’s written by Gary Keller. And it’s kind of the Bible of how they. Keller Williams agents, but if you take that out of the mix and say, I want to see what the data says, here’s what’s really interesting from a marketer standpoint, because that’s how I read it. I see and read it for say, what type of information do I get from marketing? They did a study.

[00:09:09] And what they found statistically that when an agent hired an assistant, the agents volume on average doubled in the first 12 months from hiring that assistant. And what happens is you take an agent who is doing all of the work and hire out those things can be that can be hard out for just a few dollars an hour.

[00:09:35] It now means that the most productive work the agent does, he can out where she can focus on more of that, which is bringing in business and making the sales happen and leaving all the paperwork to someone else. So I thought that was really interesting. The average agent doubled their personal volume in the first 12 months from hiring an assistant 60 to 90 hours a week. I bet if you hire an assistant or two, you won’t know what to do with all the extra time you’ve got.

[00:10:05] Would be a nice thing to dedicate more to some other things I’d like to dedicate to talk to me.

[00:10:12] I want to understand how you get to 90 transactions a year. So if you were to start over or less, don’t do that. Well, we’ll talk about you starting over because you did that not too long ago.

[00:10:23] But is there anything you can share on what you found to to get to and sustain 90 transactions a year?

[00:10:33] You know, I’ve had other people ask me that question. It’s really hard to pinpoint it. I. I know my market really well. I market heavy. I spend a lot of money on marketing, which drives business my direction. So that’s that’s two parts of it. One customer service that’s been the number one for customer service three years in my office. So my clients push clients in my direction. So that’s a good chunk of it. My marketing pushes clients my direction as well. And then the other thing is I am certified in every relocation company in America. Believe it or not, I’ve worked with every one of them. And so I get a lot of relocation leads, probably on 20 to 25 a year that they give me. And also, I get personal referrals from other agents in other areas, like the agents agent. They see me, know my stuff, see my stats and refer people to me directly. So I probably in a given year, probably. 30 to 35 of my deals are relocation and other realtor referrals to me, and then probably the other 50 come from my own marketing and personal referrals.

[00:12:01] I’d like to talk on those 50 then, because I know people hopefully most people are where relocation type groups can plug into that. And maybe there’s some things that you can share that makes it makes you more successful there. I’d love to talk on that, but let’s talk talk first with those that are your personal deals that you bring in. So you do essentially marketing and great servicing.

[00:12:27] Let’s talk on the marketing side first. What have you found? I’d like to ask you two questions. What have you found that seems to work best for you? And what have you found at some of the things you found that just weren’t absolute floppers, that you just wasted your money and you’ll never do it again? What can you share for other people to say, oh, don’t go down that route?

[00:12:48] Well, I think it depends on what market you’re in for, what works in a major metro area. You’re going to have a different secret sauce than I’m going to have in Prescot. My my clients in Prescott, Arizona, where the top 10 places in America to retire. So 70 percent of our clients are retirees moving into our area from out of area. Okay. So that makes a big difference on where you gauge your marketing. Like I I’m not one who is a big Facebook or I don’t do Facebook. I don’t do. All the agents have found success with it. It’s just not my style. And that’s just me personally. But I do a lot of magazine advertisements. They work really well in my market.

[00:13:37] Your market, it might not work, but magazines that are national, local. Tell me, what do you mean?

[00:13:45] So I have called al-Bakr has a statewide magazine in each state called The View magazine, and I consistently advertise in that. My main purpose for that is twofold. One. I get those retirees coming from Phoenix or Tucson or other places in the state. Open up a book. They see Prescott. That’s a nice house and they get the call and help them buy a house. A buyer. Listening to that filled the number of listings for that. The other thing it does is it. I used to do real estate down to the Phoenix metro market about two hours from me. I was well-known as an agent down there for 12 years. I worked down there. A lot of my friends and past realtors recognized my name and I have a client moved up to Prescott. I’ll call Peter. So it pays for itself and does well. So that’s my statewide one, about a hundred and sixty thousand issues a month. It’s a pretty good distribution. I also do something locally called It’s a full glass shop or magazine that is direct mail piece, about 50 thousand pieces that they mail. And I have the first page and that that’s for my local market and that gets my name out there in the local market as well.

[00:15:10] How do you do any tracking? It could be specific tracking like a specific call, tracking numbers or just generally you’re asking people, do you do any tracking that allows you to kind of pinpoint these investments being profitable?

[00:15:27] Sale or prospect comes from disinvestment versus that.

[00:15:33] I always ask where they came from or they got my number from the referral and whatnot. I haven’t quantified it, but an Excel spreadsheet actually tracked it. But in my mind I go, okay, that’s another a magazine. That’s another magazine. I just keep track of it in my mind. The other thing that the magazine accomplishes, the local one is. It’s a matter of being constantly in front of people. So when I go on a listing appointment, I’m generally competing against three to five other agents 90 percent of the time on a listing I do about 70 percent listing in 30 percent buyers. So the marketing piece is more of a familiarisation and they see me, they go, oh yeah, I see this guy everywhere. And then it helps me when the listing really does make a big difference, a winning listing.

[00:16:23] And then do you have. Do you have a budget that you set aside something? Someone’s out there trying to grow the real estate business. They want to be where you are. And as with this marketing, are you doing? Do you have a specific budget that you put into marketing or do you just kind of fly by the seat of your pants and structure the seat of my pants?

[00:16:43] As far as a budget is concerned, I always look at I always say I’ll try anything once. And if it works, I’ll keep it. And if it doesn’t, I’ll throw it out the window. And some things work for some people and some things work for others. And some things I can’t say, hey, this is a bad thing. It won’t work for you. It just doesn’t work for me with the way I do my business. For example, I used to spend too much money on Zillow for their calls and stuff. The lead generation just didn’t work for me. I just knocked that down because right now you have to be so Johnny on the spot. With those Zillow’s and dot coms now, the way they’ve changed their structure, that they’re built for the mega teams with somebody who’s always on call 24/7, ready to answer the phone answer within 30 seconds and get back with them within a minute, there’s a place for that. I’m just not that person in that place.

[00:17:44] I totally get it.

[00:17:45] I’m not going to be a slave to my work. It’s not going to happen. I spend a lot. I spend probably ninety thousand last year on marketing. So I spend a lot.

[00:18:02] That is a lot. That’s a lot. Percentage wise of your income. What does that work out to your GCR?

[00:18:08] I usually spent about 20 to 25 percent on marketing. No less than 10 percent.

[00:18:17] So just want to give kind of a benchmark for someone because we talked to some agents go there. I remember talking to one agent and she’s like 15, 18 million in volume personal production. And I said asking about a marketing budget. Well, you know, I spend a lot of spend like four or five hundred dollars a month. And I started laughing, thinking, really, that’s a lie. That much volume. But that’s all it is shameful. What have you done? OK, so now you’ve got your market, 70 percent retirement. Retirees coming in. Obviously, if what you’ve done that hasn’t worked doesn’t mean it won’t work for someone else. But those people that are maybe in a similar environment as you. What have you found? Just didn’t work. And as you think back on it, you go, it didn’t work because blank. Whatever that blank is. Can you give any insight?

[00:19:12] I’ll tell you this. If you’re ever going to do. Magazine advertising, if you’re not in the first five pages, you might as well not be in the magazine.

[00:19:23] That’s what I wrote down over 24 years.

[00:19:26] Real estate. That’s why I always if I can get in on the ground floor on a real estate magazine and be that first page, lock it in. It’s like gold because they usually start for the beginning. You got to be front page inside front page, back page or back inside panel. One of the first major panels, because that’s what people look at. The back cover works, too, because people will look at the back. And I’ve seen every time my magazine comes up, my showings increase on all my listings. I do it. It helps every time a jacket, every time the magazine comes out. I’ll see a spike in my schelling’s on all my listings.

[00:20:09] I’m glad you share that because I have not been much of a fan in print magazine for marketing. But you’re making me more of a fan, especially when you can just have one statement when the magazine comes out, your showings increase. That’s really great.

[00:20:28] Great. I always do professional photography though, too. I always have to get a professional out there. So my my theory in real estate is. Price it right, professional photographer right from the beginning that gives you that first three weeks that you need. Then as it starts to wane down a little bit for the excitement, the magazine comes out. Boom. I get another lift. Then the next magazine comes out, boom, and I get another lift and it usually sells. So I’ll usually sell within 60 days of that strategy. And then it just kind of repeats itself. People are happy. They love it. The marketing is as much for them as is for me. Most people already have realtors. So even though I might not sell it myself with the magazine at gets my listing sold. Guess what? Listing sells in 30 days is a good thing.

[00:21:16] Absolutely. That’s great. Let’s shift gears a little bit, I want to talk a little bit about servicing. I mentioned your two key pillars that you shared on your personal businesses, marketing and servicing that drives referrals. What can you share that you find is really one of the key components of your servicing that really drives in the referrals that makes people appreciate. Is it one or two things or is there anything you can share on that?

[00:21:48] Probably. Number one is trust my client. No. Right from the get go that the only person I am trying to serve is them. It’s about what’s best for them and not what’s best for me. I’ve talked to numerous people out of buying or selling because I was just flat out honest with them. People come up here, have health concerns. We’re at 5000 feet. And I said, I don’t want you to buy until you come up here for three weeks and make sure the elevation is good for you. What do you mean? I said it can be hard on your heart if you have heart conditions or lung conditions. And they come up and they they do that and they go, you know what? I can’t take elevation. Thank you. You know, I’ve had people that there was one woman that her husband was had some serious illness and loved the home and she wanted to downsize before he died.

[00:22:46] And I pulled her aside after I’d seen the house, got the feedback, and I said to her. These are your options if you sell this house, your husband will die sooner. If you stay in the house, he’ll probably live longer, but it’s your choice. Because he loves this house. You will be able to buy by selling this house. He’ll be miserable because it’ll be a townhome with no yard. And he loves this yard. And she says, oh, my gosh, you’re right. That is what. And that’s how I just speak with all my clients. I’m just flat-Out honest with them and tell them what I think so that they can make the best decision that’s best for them no matter what that means.

[00:23:30] That’s a sign that comes to mind years back. There is a motivational speaker, I’m sure you’ve heard of him, Zig Ziglar. He always had this statement. It comes from the Bible. He just repackages it and it says, if you help enough people get what they want, you’ll always get what you want. And that’s the thing that immediately stood out. When you’re sharing that, because you’re not so focused on what you want, you’re going to focus on what’s best for them and you’ll always be taking care of. At the beginning, the call meant you mentioned that it always works out and the Lord always works everything out and even the things that seem to be problem issues. And I think when you have your heart in the right spot focused on your client first, then that’s what’s really neat. So that’s number one. If someone is taking notes, what would be number 2 in servicing that really wins? That wins the relationship. So they want to refer you to.

[00:24:43] That allows you to call the same day, just just good service, just your normal stuff. Return the phone calls. Be there for them. Set proper expectations from the get go listings. I explain that a properly priced listing. If you have five shilling, you should see one offer. If you have ten shillings, you better see an offer. And if we go 15 shillings and there’s no offer we need lower the price. I just said it upfront. They understand how the market works. Real estate is a commodity. It’s a market in the market, not in the market. Helping people understand from the beginning what to expect does away with a lot of the problems. OK, we’ve had to offer. What’s going to happen when you lower the price? Okay, let’s do that. Instead of all your house is wonderful. Let me overprice it and make you believe it’s worth something. It’s not in the listing. Oh, gee. Now we’ve got to lower it. I don’t play that game.

[00:25:46] I like it. We find it funny. If you take our personal customer service issues that we’ve had over the years and kind of do an autopsy on them always goes back to a wrong expectation was that it doesn’t matter what the expectation was. If the expectations expectation is set properly, you rarely have any issues because that’s been the expectation from the beginning. That’s great. I want to shift gears. I want to go away on the other side. You and I were talking and it was a really fascinating conversation. And the conversation had to do with you.

[00:26:26] Moved to Prescot as a real estate agent at the beginning of the crash or right at the height of the crash. You weren’t angry beginning. Tell me that story, because I want people to understand what happened to you because your business took a little bit of time to kind of get your feet on the ground and then something happened and your business just started to explode while other agents really struggling.

[00:26:56] Talk to me about that.

[00:26:58] Okay. So when we first of all, we felt guided to move up here from Phoenix. We felt like Phoenix was getting too big for us, too commercial.

[00:27:06] And let me break it up. Just hold nothing back. This is nothing back. Give us the story if you want this story.

[00:27:17] My wife had been feeling like we need to get out of Phoenix for a number of years and we went up. It was really hot one summer and it was like a hundred and twenty two feet. It was crazy hot. And my sisters wanted to go to Prescot. It’s cooler up there at 5000 elevation. I was like, what is that place? So we go up to Prescot in August. I walk out on the deck and I get chills because it’s 65 degrees and I’m like, oh, my gosh, I can breathe in the summer. It’s amazing. And I said, We got to get a cabin up here. My wife didn’t think much about it, not the place, but I felt like we should do something about it. So I got on the board up there and started looking at second homes. The market start to go down a little bit. And right before that time in about 2005, when the market was just going crazy, I had a lot of personal investments. I had about nine different properties and whatever else does doing really great. And one of our leaders in our church had said, I feel like a port in time of stormy weather is coming financially. If you can get out of debt, get out of debt. My wife said. If we sold everything, we’d be out of debt.

[00:28:33] Besides the house and I said we’d be 40000 short. She said to do it. Crazy. You pray about it. I feel like we should take me about three weeks to get my head on straight and listen to it. Okay, fellas. I sold everything in 0 5, which was amazingly timely, and I was still 40000 short and the Lord brought me one more deal Flipper, which I didn’t usually do back then. That got me exactly forty thousand dollars and I paid off my house so I had no debt at all. And then in 2007, my wife really felt like we needed to move a house that she saw in a place called Chino Valley, which is just north of Prescot. She didn’t care for the actual city itself. She wasn’t impressed. And it was around my birthday. And I said, okay, let’s go check out this house for my birthday and we’ll stay the weekend and check out the churches up there and see what it feels like. So we come up over the rise in the Chino Valley. My wife says to me, before he gets the house like this, I feel something. And I’m like, go check out the house. We go to the church that Sunday and we get a church. And she says, all right, we’re moving. And I said I said, did I miss something?

[00:29:53] It just seemed normal to me. I didn’t get up. And so she’s always been two steps ahead of me on a revelation.

[00:30:00] So I said, what we need to move here is where we need to raise our family. Are you crazy? I said I said cabin. I’ll come up on the weekends to get away from the heat, not move. I don’t want to start all over again. You take it up with the Lord. So I prayed about it again about three weeks before I figured it out. I’m kind of slow on the uptake and felt strongly that we should move. So we ended up buying a house up here, selling my house, and that was right. We bought a house up here first and then we always we always move first and then sell second right after we moved up here. The market dropped my house in Phoenix, dropped a hundred and fifty thousand in six months. Wow. Had I not been out of debt, I never wouldn’t be able to make the move. And I had enough to. I still got a mortgage when I first came up here and held some money back. I knew I needed some staying power and I’ve been here six or seven months and hardly done anything.

[00:30:58] And six or seven months, almost. No, no business. Were you worried?

[00:31:03] A little bit. I was a little nervous. I was. I was, but I wasn’t. It sounds weird. Inside, I felt and knew things would work out. But as I saw the bank account go lower and lower, lower and lower. I can’t lie. Of course, I would get nervous. And when I move, the company had changed my split, which hurt my pride. And I wanted to leave the company. I was going to go with 100 percent company. I had been with Coldwell Banker the whole time and change some things when I changed. Markets open up. We can’t do that. We’re going to put you down to this. And I wanted to leave. And there was a group of guys that I knew that was closer to my house than the office that I was in and made total sense to change companies. And I take everything up with prayer with God. And this is one time when I actually got the revelation, I prayed and I said, okay, I’m going to change this company. No. That. It doesn’t make any sense. I think I’ve heard that right. Let me put it this way. ABC 2 looooove aybe not to move. No, I go to my wife and I’m like a mind.

[00:32:21] That’s I swear I’m going to know. And this way I don’t know. It makes sense why I should move and take it up one more time. So I prayed one more time, and the answer was a solid no. I said, okay, I’m going to stay right here. And this is about 2008, right before it really got bad at 9 a.m. And I could see the market shift to big time and was going towards bank-owned and I had been praying for a way to get to the bank on scene and I just wasn’t seeing a way to get into it. And two weeks after I got that answer, I got a call from the head of relocation. And she says, look, we know, you know, your experience. We just landed a major corporations can give us all their bank-owned properties. Would you like to be the representative for Prescott? Yeah, totally. And she said, okay, me, a lot of work. And I said, that’s fine. I have time. We can do it and start over here anyway. And because of that one thing, I went to the office and I said, okay. And the bank said, Oh, you’re crazy. I like the office.

[00:33:28] And I said, I’m crazy like a fox. I guarantee you you will regret this a year from now. And one year from that day, I was doing 50 percent of our entire office’s business. It just open the windows. But right before that happened, though, is about July. I was talking to a guy on a youth camp and I hadn’t made hardly anything. And this case, I’m getting a little here and there, but not like I used to because I’ve consistently been 60 bills a year. All of my career, except for that first year. He said, are you worried? And they said, you know what? No. I said, Why? I said, I’m actually excited. He said, Why? I said, Because I know what’s going to happen. How do you know that? I said, because I can feel it. I just know God’s going to open the windows and it can be amazing. How can you say that? Crazy. I said no. I said, I just know what’s going to happen. And it was within six months that all this came together. It’s just God’s been with me and he blesses me. All I have is is and just do what he says and you’ll be blessed.

[00:34:47] I can I can testify to that. Really? Well, I’m tempted and want to share. But this is your interview.

[00:35:01] But you’re right. You trust the Lord. You follow him. He takes care of everything.

[00:35:05] In fact, the three pillars of success that my dad told me when I started real estate, my dad said, son, if you want to be successful in real estate, do three things. Number one, keep the Sabbath day. Holy. Number two. Painful give 10 percent to God. And number three, when things get really hard, give more and you’ll be blessed. For some people called love offerings that people call it offerings for the poor. Think the top of the 10 percent. And that’s always worked whenever things got down. Whenever I needed an uptick in business, I’ll always give more. And. Miracles happen.

[00:35:50] I’m reminded of a story at my church many years back. The pastor of that time, he’s now retired, but a business man came to him and call the businessman Bill. I don’t know his name, but the pastor is Frank. He came in, said Frank, can you pray for me? I’m really struggling in business. We’re about to go bankrupt in just a really tough time. And so Frank asked him just what you’re talking about. Well, no, I can’t afford a time. Frank, listen. You can’t afford not to.

[00:36:25] That’s one of those kind of spiritual, spiritual laws that God’s put in place, that there’s something about a tithe. And as God says in Exodus that said the tide is holy and it’s mine. So they prayed and Frank encouraged him to tide. And so he committed that he would. And Frank Stone about a year later said, Bill, how’s business? Business is booming. Everything’s going great and we’re making a lot of money. And so Frank said, well, are you tithing? Oh, no, I’ve stopped tithing. Can you imagine as much money as I’m making? Do you know how much that would be?

[00:37:10] Frank said, let’s bring his income back down to the point that he can afford to. No, no, no.

[00:37:17] I’ll start tithing. It’s funny. You’re right. But as you as you trust the Lord, what happened? A lot of times with our financial giving is it’s an act of trusting the Lord.

[00:37:30] If that makes sense, we’re right.

[00:37:32] It just depends on how you look at it, though. I’ve always been taught my whole life. Tithing has been one of my foundational principles. I’ve always done it since a little kid and my parents taught me. They said, okay, here’s a cake. You can have the cake. Can I have a piece? We’ll share your cake. You gave it to me. Why can’t I give you back a piece? He said, that’s what God does to us. He gives us the cake and asks for a piece. In that piece is 10 percent.

[00:38:01] And it’s really a very small amount, considering how much he blesses me in every way. It’s all true. Ten percent is a pittance. I always try to give as much as I can and then some.

[00:38:22] So while we’re on this topic, I’ll put an unabashed plug for one of my radical faith teachings because it literally came out this week. I know this podcast is going to come out at some point later, but if you’re listening this podcast, if you go back to the archives, you’ll see podcast 40. But its financial stewardship from the Bible and this week’s podcast was on tithing. And it’s really amazing. I would encourage you to go check that out. Podcast. No. The second radical faith, which I think is podcast going to be 42, is about offerings and offerings. I want to come back to your walk with the Lord. And I want to ask you, we all go through really tough times in life. Everyone goes through different types of difficult situations. But I wanted to find out, is there a really tough time you’ve come through? Where was your relationship with the lord? Just kind of brought you through. And if so, can you be a little candid and just open and and share what was going on in a tough time and what exactly your relationship with the Lord helped you through it?

[00:39:43] You know, that’s a good question.

[00:39:50] I have had some tough times in my life. So. Hold on one second. So anyway. I have had some.

[00:40:09] And if you’re uncomfortable sharing on anything, don’t do. I don’t wanna put you on the spot. But anything comes to mind that you don’t mind sharing that you think would be beneficial just as a way of living your life as a Christian. Here’s here’s some of the things that I’ve seen in my life.

[00:40:29] I struggled with depression years ago and somewhat now it’s not so much. It started probably about eight years ago and kept escalating after a year at certain times. And I didn’t know why. I mean, severe depression. And it seemed like when I was in the depths of that depression and I prayed, it really seemed like. There is nothing. I mean, just. I couldn’t get through. Bouncing off the ceiling and I really struggled. It was in the hardest times and I just could get nothing. And then after that moment passed, then I would get something that I’d feel the spirit and I’d feel God’s presence and I’d know he was there. But I have to pull through it. I mean, hanging on by my nails kind of stuff and.

[00:41:35] I just.

[00:41:37] It was it was very difficult. And I talked to my sister, who also struggled with depression, and she had told me something very similar. She says, you know what? I was I was struggling depression. And it didn’t feel like God was there for a while. And then she found out she had no serotonin or whatever. So she took some medications and it helped her. She needs to go medication. She got there. But it’s a little different for me. So I went and got some counselling and had found out that there was some abuse in my childhood, that I had totally not remembered some sexual abuse. That was really bad. And. And as I had those memories, the Lord was right there with me. And that’s very spiritual experiences that helped me through that showed me that Jesus Christ not only died for our sins. But he suffered for our sorrows as well as our pains and our sorrows when he was in the garden. But through every pore that we took on the pains and sufferings of his children to lift their burden. And he understands and helps us. So that was a very difficult time and strength, my faith. Jesus Christ. Is the great I am. And the word comes from the word Jehovah. Which in Hebrew means Yei means the past, whole present means the future. And when Jesus Christ as I am, it really means I am always there for my children. In the past. In their current day and tomorrow, he will always be there for us no matter what we go through.

[00:43:31] As powerful as you’re sharing, the one thing that keeps coming to mind is. When he shares. Come to me all here, weary and heavy laden. And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. My vote is easy. In light and. Quite a poignant story on that. That’s really cool. Jehova. If we’ve gone through some dark times, ourselves and Israel. It always will always carry you through. I’ll always wonder how people make it through tough times when they don’t have a relationship with the Lord to lean on, because as you mentioned at the first of the call, doesn’t matter what goes on within a transaction is always going to work out. And it always does because you trust the Lord to do it. And that’s the same thing with this depression. But thank you for sharing that.

[00:44:46] I think the key is. You’ve got to hold on. Past the time that you think the sun should come up. It’s always darkest before the dawn. That is a true statement. But sometimes we have our own timing of when we think the dawn should come. And we just need to hold on and trust that God will come and he does come. But sometimes I really believe that when we’re in moments of depression, there can be some chemical things that block our mind from being able to hear and feel. It’s not that God, God’s not there. It’s just our radio is often because of what’s going on physically or chemically or emotionally inside us that we can’t.

[00:45:34] Get that frequency that God is communicating with us on our radios off. But if we just hold on long enough. We’ll get back on kilter where we can hear that. And it’s like, oh, you weren’t gone. I just didn’t see it. I just didn’t feel it. I just couldn’t hear it.

[00:45:52] Right. Have you ever seen that picture of footsteps in the sand?

[00:45:56] I think it’s absolutely my favorite.

[00:46:01] I’ll let you share real quickly for those who may not know it, because I think that’s almost exactly what you’re talking about. So you want me to share it? Share with the footsteps.

[00:46:10] In the footsteps. In the sand is. There was a man or woman, I don’t know, put either or in there. And he was looking back on his life. And he sees that there was to footsteps in the sand as he’s talking to the Lord Jesus after he died or what with the perfect story. But he looks back in the sand. He sees two foot steps all throughout his life, and then at the most challenging times, his life he only saw one. And he was confused. And he turned to God and Jesus Christ and says, why is it, Lord, that when my hardest times were you left me, there was only one set of footprints in the sand? And he says, My child, you don’t understand. Those are my footsteps. I was carrying you. And that’s so true. Jesus Christ will never be left alone. He he is the way. He is the truth. He is the light. He’s the life. And because of him, we can have life more abundantly. Come on to me. Either are heavy laden, give you rest, take my yoke upon you, for my burden is light. And I believe that to be true. I know that he lives. I know that he is there for us and helps us. And it doesn’t mean we don’t have trials. It doesn’t mean we don’t struggle, but it means we got backup. It changes our whole perspective. If we just hold on past when we think the sun should rise a little longer and the light will come.

[00:47:43] It always does so good and so encouraging. Hey, as we wrap up, I want you to think a moment and share, if you don’t mind, what’s of the most amazing things you’ve seen the Lord do in your life or in the life of your family or the life of your real estate business. But something kind of point says this was this was the Lord. Okay. Now we’ve got the one staying with Coldwell Banker.

[00:48:10] And two weeks later, you got the one story that is very recent. I had a client that I didn’t know at the time they were going through a divorce. They had sold one house, helped them buy another one. They called me to sell the second house. I didn’t know everything that was going on, but she was basically an atheist. She wanted nothing to do with God. And was very resistant. Whenever I brought up his name, I backed off. It’s part of me. That’s who I am. But they loved me as a person. Her and her husband did. I was coming up to their second house, and as I was going up the road, this canyon, I see an ambulance pass me. And immediately I thought, Oh, no, I hope they’re okay. I pull up to the house because they’re older and the ambulance is pulling right in the driveway where they come up. I rush in the door and say, Hey, you okay? What’s going on? I see the wife on the floor laid out flat. And immediately I have the impression because I had another client that this had happened to and it just came to my mind. And they told the empty I said, check her prescriptions and see if she had no idea what was going on.

[00:49:26] And anyway, so they had to Lifeflight her down to to Phoenix, they took her prescriptions, did the toxicology report found out that she had overdosed on sleeping pills, a whole bunch of them. She shouldn’t have lived, but the husband was there and he told me everything. That’s when I found out that they were going through a divorce and they were having a hard time and she was trying to commit suicide. And I gave him a blessing and prayed with him and was inspired to say a lot of stuff. And he said, oh, my gosh. Let me tell you the rest of the story. So anyway, she goes down to the hospital. She really shouldn’t have lived. She comes out of it with no brain damage, no nothing. And I sell that house to help them buy another one. And I continually invite her to come to meetings or come to invite her first to come to a Christmas concert. She shows up for the first time, that’s the first time he steps in the church in 50 years and she felt something. I talk to her again and I talk to her again. And I said no, because she kept really wanting to die.

[00:50:35] She still felt like she should have died. And I said, Carol, you’re here for a reason. God is real. I know you don’t say that. But she went from atheist to admitting there’s a God. To admitting that God has something to do with her life, to coming to not quite accept Christ yet, but she’s almost there. I just sold her last house as she moved away. But right before she left, she’s telling me all these problems. There was a thunderstorm outside. I said. I said, Carol. I want you to know God is real and he loves you. Thunderstruck writes, Carol, I said, can you get a bigger sign? That was pretty coincidental. I said, there’s no such thing as coincidence, but I really felt like she was guided to help her come to God. And she let me pray for her and pray with her. Before we left. She totally changed or added towards God. And that was one. And I think God. The timing is just too impossibly perfect to be that way. And that was just a blessing to me to see God’s hand. And that happens on a semi-regular basis. And he’s blessed me. And I feel like my job is to help others as he’s blessed me.

[00:51:57] I love that story. That is really neat. One last thing. You talked about this couple of days ago when we spoke, I want you to talk about. Your adherence to not doing any work on Sunday, showing houses and good clients versus bad clients.

[00:52:18] You remember that conversation you just showed. I think it’s cool when we follow the Lord and trust him. All kinds of things happen.

[00:52:31] That is so true. The blessing of tithing. It’s a blessing. It’s a law with a promise. And the same thing with the Sabbath day. So there was somebody in my office and she always got just horrible clients that lawsuits problems. And she’s like, how do you get such good clients? I said, because they keep the holy. Well, I’m not religious. It doesn’t matter. I said, there’s lots of promises. I said, keep one day wholly dedicated to God or whatever you believe and you’ll be blessed. And I said, here’s why. When you keep the Sabbath, holy, I’ll work six days. I’ll work my pants off those six days. But the seventh is God’s and my family, period. I don’t care if you $10million buyer care who you are. I’m not going to work on Sunday. I might shoot off a test. I’ve not been perfect. You know what I mean? Cancer. I work for five minutes. But I won’t get into it. And I say, here’s what happens if a client will not respect your ability to be a professional work six days a week. They will not respect you. And they will not be a client you want to work with. I said there’s always some exceptions where people absolutely need somebody on Sunday. And I have a good Seventh-Day Adventist friend who has their Sabbath this Saturday and mind Sunday.

[00:53:47] And we trade off you Sunday and Monday and Saturday, Saturday. So we’ll keep it that way. I’ll take your Saturday. You take my Sundays.

[00:54:01] And I found without fail that those clients who are willing to respect that they are the ones you want to work with. They’re easier to deal with. They’re more respectful. They’re more. Understanding. And it just makes out for smoother and easier transactions. And I’ve been blessed by keeping the holy Barnat.

[00:54:24] I love it. Really good. Hey, we’re going to wrap up. Is there anything else that’s on your mind that you would like to share?

[00:54:32] Before we wrap up.

[00:54:36] Boy, you know what? All I can say is listen to the radical faith podcast by Ubaydi. Those are amazing bait. I always say real estate is a six inch business. It’s right between your ears. That’s what all lies. If you believe you can believe, you can’t. You’re absolutely right.

[00:54:59] I believe that has so much to do with real estate.

[00:55:06] I appreciate that. Yes. Well, thank you so much for your time, Peter. Thank you guys listening out there. Hope you got a lot out of this. Just a couple of things. Remember to subscribe to the podcast that you’ll get the new ones as they come out. Please like it on Apple and YouTube and anywhere else. You may do that. And if you want to learn more about us, what we do with Agent Dominator, how to get cellar’s calling you, anything like that. Visit our Web site, get cellar’s calling EW.com. A lot of great material that you can search for generally focused on past clients, sphere of influence, geographic farming and almost 100 percent focus on sellers. So I think you’ll enjoy that. Thanks again for listening. Peter, thank you again for. Thank you, baby.

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