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 [00:00:00.42] Hello, everyone, I’m Beatty Carmichael, and welcome to another session of our episode of Get Sellers Calling You real estate podcast. And I’m really excited today because I get to interview not only another great agent, a previous client of ours, but also a personal friend named Paul Tosello from Dallas, Texas. And I’m really excited to have you on call because not only are you a good, strong top producer, but I love your impeccable character. And I really want the guys out there and gals if we use the term generically to to hear from you. So how are you doing, Paul? I’m doing really well, Beatty. Thank you. Good to join you. Well, it is great to be joined by you. So just a little background for everyone, by the way, just a reminder to this is an Internet call. So if there’s any interruptions due to Internet quality displays, ignore that. But Paul and I got our start many years back because one of my other good friends and the industry that I’ve interviewed, Stuart Sutton, I think at the time, if I remember right, Paul, you were starting to go with a marketing service of some sort and you were talking to Stuart. And Stuart said, no, don’t go there.

[00:01:22.98] You need to use Beatty. Is that is that how it happened? That’s exactly right.

[00:01:27.30] I was I was at the table at family reunion for our company Family Reunion as a gathering of all kinds of producers to mastermind. And then, of course, you’ve got all the servicers in the auditorium. And I’m standing at the table and I’m asking all kinds of questions. And I was about ready to to go.

[00:01:48.67] It’s a predictive analysis company to try to identify sellers. And I called Stuart to visit when we were talking and I asked him about it and he said, no, you you need to talk to this guy. So I called you. And, you know, we work together for, what, two years?

[00:02:04.29] You have two or three, maybe somewhere in there. Yeah.

[00:02:06.78] Listing grabber. Correct. Remember the name. And it was a profit center both years.

[00:02:11.59] I just kind of want to set the stage with you because the reason I want to interview you, I try to interview is top producers with impeccable character. And and I remember as you and I have spoken over the years, one of the challenges that we talked about a lot is there’s a lot of the real estate teams are driving business by cold, calling homeowners and violating the the do not call list. And you’ve been real frustrated because because you won’t violate that do not call list. You remember those conversations?

[00:02:49.59] Yeah, I do. It’s challenging. You know, when when you consider that, I’m going to guess now probably eight out of 10 phone numbers or do not call. If I were to count up the number of expired listings, for example, since two thousand and three that are on the do not call list and that we couldn’t call it, it might knock me off the chair.

[00:03:10.83] Yeah, well, I want to get into that. I just wanted to share real briefly why I’m so excited about talking with you, because to build a large business as you’ve done and to keep it going strong and to do everything with impeccable character and not not what I what is a lot of times in sales we like to push the envelope to because the objective is the goal as opposed to the character and integrity. So but before we get started and all that, could you tell us just a little bit about you and about your business and just let us know who Paul to sell is?

[00:03:49.44] No, I appreciate that. He didn’t start out with impeccable quality and character. I brought that. And we’ve had that discussion, too. Right. And yes, with that hopefully through this interview. But, you know, I started this business in eighty five and most people probably weren’t around then. They are listening, but that’s OK. My wife joined me in eighty nine. She was working in the dental field as management and assistants and all that. And so I’ve got to spend all this time with my wife, my best friend and my partner. And we started building teams in the early nineties. I found out that on the West Coast there was some team building going on. I wanted to find out about it and through a trainer visiting and learning kind of brought those ideas back. And that’s one there. That’s one. There wasn’t hundreds and hundreds of teams back then. So today we still have a team. We’re in the mid cities, which is fifteen minutes west of the Dallas Fort Worth airport.

[00:04:55.47] And and about how much time did transaction wise right now.

[00:04:59.22] So. We usually finish between 80 and a hundred and thirty five, OK, is where we finish most years. So lately the last five, six years has been between one hundred and one hundred and thirty five transactions. And to put it in perspective, I mean, I know people doing one to two thousand transactions a year with teams of 40 and 50. I don’t have that desire and maybe we’ll get into why down the road. But this is a good business where we’re focused on taking care of the people. And I think it’s working because they continue to come back and that is so that is so good.

[00:05:41.31] So now are you the rainmaker with your team?

[00:05:44.71] That’s what I do. OK, I’ve been on the phones. For two, probably two to three hours a day, most business days going back to the late 80s. Wow.

[00:05:57.74] Ok, so so give me a look. So your team is how many listing agents, how many bioagents?

[00:06:05.67] So I handle the prospecting in the listings. OK, I have two buyer representatives. I have a contracts manager and I have a marketing person who helps us with the digital marketing today that’s so advanced that we really needed someone like her who eats this stuff up to be the bridge between me and my coaching company, those who coach us.

[00:06:38.04] Right. And so that’s really the rough makeup of the team right now. It’s been bigger.

[00:06:45.12] Right now we’re around five, six people, and that’s where we probably will keep it for that.

[00:06:51.96] Well, you know, I was you know, you were talking about wanting not wanting to grow to a thousand transactions a year. And I remember talking back on on Stuart at the year where he did a million dollars in JCI. And he was kind of because, you know, it’s all it’s not how much volume you do. It’s the lifestyle that you have. Right? Yeah. And he was sharing that one of his friends who did three times the volume had less take home pay and less free time than he did. And I was thinking, you know, it’s all about that quality of life.

[00:07:26.25] Yeah, absolutely. And I wish I had learned that much, much earlier. Right.

[00:07:31.17] So hopefully there may be some people who are newer into the business or younger and they’ll do some digging into that.

[00:07:39.12] Well, let’s talk about that. I’d like to find out as we kind of move this direction. So you’re consistently 100 transactions plus generally speaking, you’re doing the rainmaking what works?

[00:07:52.62] And and then I also want to tie back into this whole thing that we talked about momentarily ago about not being impeccable, but through Christ, where the characters at least there. So talk to me. What are you doing? What what have you found to consistently drive business into your into your team?

[00:08:15.38] So I think the number one thing that causes us to have business for for our business here is the expired listing, number one, the past clients, number two.

[00:08:30.26] And taking care of them, if you will, take care of the people, as the old saying goes, they will take care of you. So, you know, in our business today, there’s so much involved in a transaction legally, legally and technically. And, you know, for example, Colleen, does our contract management contract negotiations and a lot of cases. And to step those people through those contracts, whatever number of pages, it ends up being 15 or 20 pages. There’s a comfort that that client has that they verbalized and that you can see in their body language that you know what, this person is taking time with me today. Help me understand what I’m stepping into. And that goes such a long way.

[00:09:24.41] How do you find that with the experts? Are they are they when you go through that, is that release and relief in their eyes with the experience of Ari just recently come through another relationship? Or is this just with your past clients?

[00:09:42.71] That’s just one segment I was discussing with our past clients. You know, we’ve had families come back to us 10 times now five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 times. Wow. That I can recall. And, you know, with with regard to the expired I have listed, I don’t know, five, six, seven, eight hundred. I don’t know anymore. And so the majority of those summits out with two companies, three maybe the longest was on the market, if I remember. Right, two years. Wow. And most of them will sell in 30 days or ten showings, whichever comes first, regardless of the kind of market we’re in. If they follow our lead, that’s what will happen. And so, yeah, they write and do stories for us and tell us that it was a relief. They’re very glad that, you know, they they came into partnership with us.

[00:10:36.71] I’d like to if you don’t mind. I’d like to dig in on both of these channels. I want to understand more of your process that works. I want to understand first with the expired, what are you doing to get that business? Because I think a lot of folks out there listening to this, there’s always expires. And what can they do to acquire business? But I really want to find out, what are you doing on your past clients that keeps them coming back? I know you talked about Colleen being part of it, but I like to dig further. And can you talk first about the experience and just kind of give us what works, what’s driving them into you?

[00:11:15.14] Yeah, so the first thing with the expired is no one decide that that’s what you want to do, regardless of what it is. We can’t keep jumping. Right. Pick one and build a system. So by the time I get to the phone at eight o’clock in the morning, the numbers have been researched. Email, it’s in our Vulcan’s seven system and I’m prepared to go to work and we’ll we’ll hit land, sea and air. There’ll be phone calls, there’ll be emails, there’ll be Facebook messages. There’ll be LinkedIn messages. They’ll be just about everything you can think of. Oh, and we had someone go into the door for a few years. Wow. I was the do not call list. My only way to try to overcome that was go to the door, OK? And so that that paid dividends as well.

[00:12:03.44] So not not to interrupt, but I want to come back. So you are you’re calling them, but you’re also emailing, texting, Facebook. I mean, you’re you’re the one doing all of this. This isn’t like some system or some assistant doing it on your behalf.

[00:12:16.43] Well, no, actually, Elena, OK. Is the person in charge of doing a lot of the research as well as a company we utilize to do research for us? OK, she’ll send the emails, she’ll do the Facebook messaging. She’ll do the LinkedIn.

[00:12:35.81] Ok, very good.

[00:12:38.03] So so they’re being communicated personally. You’re picking up the phone and you’re communicating as well, correct? OK, the phone calls. Gotcha. OK, OK. Now take it from there. Thanks for that clarification.

[00:12:50.15] Yeah. And that’s really it. So at that point in time we’ve we’ve used pretty much every possible way to try to get in touch.

[00:12:58.67] And like I said, I had to go to that extreme because everybody else is calling all the phone numbers I’m trying to honor. I mean, you know, as Christians, as you and I’ve talked, Paul said, submit to your authorities. Right, right. He wrote that in the time of Nero, so think about that theater bombing. Those were some rough, rough times. So, you know, so we’re trying to submit to the authorities we’ve been placed under. I mean, I talked to the area supervisor here in Dallas Fort Worth for the Republicans. And I said because I found out that this is to the extent I researched this, some politicians have the ability to call anybody they want to any time. So I he’s got an interesting name. I can’t remember. It’s unique. I said, what if I perpetually run for office and just lose all the time? Does that mean I can call said, no, you can’t do that. So I really researched this thing. Right. And so that’s why we try to hit every other possible way of trying to reach people, and that’s how we’re having success with it over the years.

[00:14:07.63] You know, the thing that comes to mind is I think it’s Zechariah and Chapter four. It says not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says a lord, you know, and and what’s hitting me is you’re honoring the Lord. You’re following what the Lord has told you, which is, you know, submit to the authorities, obey the rules, and by not bending the rules, but by honoring Christ, he’s blessing you and bring in and all this consistent business that that’s kind of picture I get.

[00:14:42.85] That’s the only answer. Yeah. There are so many people calling every number here. Sellers tell me they you know, and by the way, part of that system is being first. OK, 759, I’m dialing to hope they pick up at the eight o’clock number because that’s when the law says we we can call, right. So so you really need to be first or second or you’re probably not going to get a chance to get to the exposed seller.

[00:15:11.42] And now when you’re calling the experts, I know it’s a you’re in sales, so it’s not just calling them, but there’s probably some sort of an approach. You take that effect. What have you found? If I’m an expired person, you call me and it’s now eight on one and I pick up the phone. Hello, this is Beatty. What do you say?

[00:15:32.02] Beatty Polt to Celo Keller Williams Realty. Can you hear me OK? Yeah, I can. OK, great. Hey, I bet your phone’s already lighting up, isn’t it?

[00:15:41.53] You know, it actually is, yes.

[00:15:43.30] As the nightmare continues. So, hey, I saw the home to fall out of MLS, is that right? Yeah, it is. It’s sell it. No we have not. If you relisted. Not yet. Any idea why it didn’t sell.

[00:15:57.67] You know, I really don’t know. We had people coming through but it just like there just wasn’t that much interest. I don’t know why.

[00:16:07.21] And so you don’t really have the answer yet as to why it’s not selling.

[00:16:10.84] No. You know, my my agent tells me it’s we need to keep dropping the price, but that’s that’s all OK.

[00:16:18.88] All right. Which tells me a few things. But let me ask you a question. Did the agent happen to sit down with you and discuss the difference in today’s new marketing world between passive marketing and active marketing now? No, I don’t know what you’re talking about. OK, huge, huge difference. So think about today, Beatty. You and I could sit down and we can look at our with our mobile device or our laptop at any realtors listing anywhere, anytime we spend the next three hours looking at listings. Correct. Right, yeah. Does that did know that we’re sitting at our kitchen table looking at their listings. No, they have no idea. None. See, the Internet system is perfectly set up for buyers to get every possible piece of data on your home and then hide. You’re amazing. Yeah, houses don’t necessarily sell themselves, you’re hiring the realtor, I think Beatty correct me if I’m wrong, you’re hiring the realtor to be the Go-Between to show that buyer while your home is the right one and why it’s priced right and why they need to get out and see it.

[00:17:23.71] Right. Right now, I thought we were hiring the realtor to sell it and sell it.

[00:17:29.27] If they can’t talk to anybody, that makes sense. OK, I have a solution.

[00:17:34.64] I’d like to come out and show it to you. We have found a system that will market and draw buyers in and identify almost 100 percent of them. So I can communicate on your behalf. That makes sense. Yeah, that’s a little bit. Would you want to learn a little bit more about it? I would, yeah. Let’s set it up. So there’s one approach right there. OK, baby, I’d like to show and it’s absolutely accurate. The Internet system is beautiful for buyers. You just have no idea. It’s like window shopping on Michigan Avenue. All these people walking by the windows and window shopping. But if they don’t turn and go in the store, the salesman is not coming out.

[00:18:15.08] There’s no communication happening, there’s no fine people, that’s a great analogy, I might I might still that because you’re so right there, walking by there, glancing at it, but no one’s coming out to bring him in. But yet, if you remember, like, it’s usually the foreign owners, they’ll come out outside, hey, come on into my store. You know, they’re doing everything to drive traffic in. Once you drive it in, then people buy.

[00:18:42.47] Yeah. You know, it’s interesting, Colin and I were walking in the mall one day. This is years and years ago. One of the best sales people I ever met had that little file thing for nails.

[00:18:53.87] And I mean, we wanted to walk by, but she wouldn’t let us. And sure enough, she worked on Colleen’s nails and we bought the product. I love it was it was incredible. And yet it wasn’t offensive. They just know how to engage.

[00:19:09.41] So how do you translate this? And now this is now my marketer’s curiosity. Not so much the roleplay. How do you translate this concept of coming out and grabbing the business and this act of marketing versus passive? When you sit down with someone, what’s the process there in terms of a listing appointment? Right. Listing appointment or maybe just high level. So now you’re at the listing appointment. What’s really selling them to list with you? And and what are you doing on this active marketing approach that you brought up on the call?

[00:19:46.31] Yeah, so so when I go in, it’s all about questions, right? I mean, we need to be talking a lot less. And asking more questions and let them talk if they’re talking, you’re probably winning, right? Great point. We’re talking it’s probably not going the way I want it to go. All right. So, you know, there’s nine aspects of the yellow team support that we bring to the seller. And after all the questions are asked and I’ve learned and I’ve confirmed what they told me on the phone, by the way, I spend about 15 minutes, 20 minutes on the phone doing a pre listing script, which essentially I’ve used for 30 years, probably twenty five, 30 years. It’s a mini listing presentation before the presentation at the House to decide if I even want to go. And there’s just appointments. I just don’t want to go on for a number of different reasons. But once I’m there, it’s lern confirm. Go through the nine aspects of team support, and sometimes the client thinks there’s one decision being made theirs as to if they want to live with me, but that’s that’s just not the case. We’re making a decision if we want to take the listing. And I’ve I’ve walked away lately and given back more listings. It would scare you, might scare me, I don’t want to talk because it needs to be the right fit. Yeah, it does. It needs to be the right fit. And again, for some young agents who are just starting, this one is so hard, you almost have to live through it. But once you get beat up a little bit out there, try to take that to heart and realize look for the right match as well. The only way to accomplish that, though, is to have a number of choices. Right, choices, bright choices, which means more appointments, not less or at least more phone calls.

[00:21:41.76] Let me ask you a question on so making the phone call is part of it. If you were to take out let’s say that the production you’re doing right now on just focus on expires. If you’re at a 10 based on, you know, we’re going to label you at a 10 right now, if you were to take out the additional touches that I think you mentioned, her name is Elaine or Layna Elena. The emails, the text messages, the Facebook messenger, the LinkedIn, take those out and you’re just making the phone call. If you’re at a 10 now, where would you end up being without all the other touches?

[00:22:16.98] Your guests? Boy, oh, boy. That is a guess.

[00:22:21.78] I think we’re still going to be at a high level, OK, because those that respond on LinkedIn or Messenger are growing, but still. The exception, not the rule. OK, but not enough for me to cut out the activity because we’re seeing more and more respond that way. Interesting, interesting. But the phone is still the key. A conversation is still the key.

[00:22:47.35] I love what you said earlier that you have to choose to do it and you focus on it.

[00:22:53.65] Bagenal just a little bit more on that.

[00:22:58.39] I personally did this early in my career, I think, and I see people doing it as I’ve coached agents is. You know, we’re going to try something for ten days, you know, three weeks, four weeks, it doesn’t work, and then we move on.

[00:23:16.79] You know, I think you’ve got to do your homework to decide what is your one thing, right? What is your one thing? What do you feel like you’re going to be best at? Make sure that it’s worked for others and then stick with it and stop jumping. You know, you’re going to have to work your sphere. That’s one plate of business, right? You have to work your sphere. You have to work the people that you know. And then you’re probably only going to have if you’re an individual, you’re going to have one more plate of prospecting categories and that’s it, too, is going to be about it until you start building a team and then you probably still are going to get past three, maybe four at the most. But the more we delude ourselves, the less effective we become. I guess that’s what I’m trying to say.

[00:24:00.77] You know, that is so wise. Master Master Jack of many. Master of none. Right? Jack of all trades. Master of none. Right. There you go. I love your comment. What is your one thing. And then stick with it. Make it. You got to make it work. That’s so wise. Let’s talk. You mentioned your warm market people, you know. So what are you doing. OK, so you guys have a it sounds like a really high repeat rate from past clients. Talk to me how you got there or what what you find are the key things. If you could just kind of net them out. These are this is part of the to sell a process that drives the repeat business. What is that?

[00:24:45.86] Well, first of all, let me say, the last time I looked at the numbers, it was 40 percent to 50 percent of both sides of the ball. OK, for purchasers, for sellers. Now, I’ve seen agents with the decals on their windows. Eight hundred percent of my businesses are for well, anybody can claim that if you stop prospecting.

[00:25:05.27] Yeah, that’s how I was going. It’s all yeah. It’s all one hundred percent.

[00:25:09.35] So to the degree that we continue to try to find new people to help, that number should stay somewhere between 40 and 60 percent maybe.

[00:25:19.25] So we’re tuchis quantify. We’re talking about in a forty, fifty, fifty five transactions a year are from your personal contacts roughly. Yes. OK, ok. Yeah. Or referred from ok. Right. Right. Direct directory ferdy’s ok.

[00:25:34.07] So that means we can do better so everything I can do everything better. I’ve realized that about myself a long time ago number one. Number two, what we’re doing is taking care of the people. Give you a quick example. A few weeks ago we had multiple offers come in on a listing. Three. And we threw Colleen. Because the strength of the buyers were lacking from a qualifying standpoint, based on what we felt, we suggested the seller not take any of them in a. When I tell people that, I’m sure. Yeah, right. Well, that’s what happened because we needed to wait for a stronger buyer. We’ve been through this road. We’ve been through most potholes. Right. So we look far down the road now and see the flags and a couple of days later, we get a strong buyer. So I think people appreciate that. I think people appreciate. Like I said, when you sit down and show them what they’re really signing up for, what they’re getting into, how to avoid the potholes, taking care of them all the way through to closing in Coleen’s, one thing is she has a servant heart with a tremendous amount of knowledge of these contracts. And today there’s a big disconnect happening Beatty with the new rageous. I don’t sense the connection, the weightiness that our industry has with wanting us to take care of the legalities and technicalities and that feeling inside of I got to do this. I told one of my buyer agents, I said, you need to be paranoid. You need get the level of paranoia to make sure that you’re doing and taking care of the people with regard to the legalities and technicalities or will bite you. And so that’s her one thing, serving her a lot of knowledge.

[00:27:22.61] And so take care of the people. That’s first and foremost. Right. Right. And then are really what we’re doing is we’re we’re sending them out helpful bits of information, different times of the year, dealt with their homes, with their taxes, those types of things. Nothing unusual, I think. And then like we have coming up here in a month, month and a half, we run out of movie theater.

[00:27:47.08] And and have a movie, have dinner first for about three hundred ish people, two fifty three hundred, remember the number, and then show a movie, by the way, if you’re going to do this Star Wars and tied up like that. So I love it. You do little things like that, right? A little get togethers.

[00:28:10.42] We’ve we’ve had things down in Fort Worth area where we had a cowboy show and food and, you know, did all that kind of stuff.

[00:28:22.03] On the on your personal contacts, are you and Colleen doing anything, reaching out to them personally? You know, I’ll call it the you know, like the phone call or the pot buy or a handwritten note or any of those things, or is it mostly group events and then just automated type of messaging?

[00:28:44.41] Well, no, I will call Paul. OK, is it enough? No, it can always be better. A large part of our friends and family or a church family, meaning our church family. Right. So we continue to help those folks. That’s a blessing. And we continue to receive their referrals and that’s a blessing as well. So we see them sometimes on a weekly basis.

[00:29:12.65] On the on the church family and we mentioned Christ earlier, talk to me in terms of building. Building a real estate business as a Christian, and I know that’s kind of a big, broad question, but let me see if I can narrow it down just a little bit. What does it mean to you to build your business as a Christian? Let’s start there. Does that make sense? What I’m asking, yeah, it does.

[00:29:38.72] Ok, so so I think what we have to remind ourselves every day is what’s the goal? All right, what’s the goal? Well, to glorify God and enjoy him for eternity, right? Right. That’s that’s the big theme of the Bible. It’s about him. It’s not about us. So we have to wake up every day and we have to read the what the word right there and read the word. And that’s his instruction. Sixty six books filled of instructions. And I don’t know about you, but I got to reread things over and over and over again because there’s so much in us that we need to read the word. And and that’s how you stay plugged in and grounded in hopefully humble enough to put his objective ahead of your own. Right. Right. What was what was that that said he needs to increase. We need to decrease it. Didn’t John the Baptist say that? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So so I try to remember that as well as other things. He needs to increase. We need to decrease. And so I think you’ve got to go ahead and you’ve got to stay grounded in the word he says. Read my word daily that you may not what sin against me.

[00:30:52.35] Right, and so being an auditor is a challenge I’m monitoring, right, people are either visual, auditory, kinesthetic. So as Colleen will tell you, I have to talk everything out with her about our live business, whatever. Right. So that’s a hard thing because too many words, surely sin is bound to follow the. So there’s a lot of learning for me to do.

[00:31:15.15] Well, how does it impact? So we talked a little bit about it impacting your reaching out for expired because you’re not going to call someone that’s on the do not call list. How else do you live out your your Christian walk in your business and how does it impact? Tell me about how you’ve seen it impact positive or negative and what you do.

[00:31:40.44] Yeah, I think all the above, both positive and negative. So you’re trying to walk the life of honesty and integrity. Right. Which none of us were prior to Christ Romans three twenty three. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. David said I was conceived in sin.

[00:32:00.87] We’re born into a sin nature. Romans five. The whole chapter. Right, being under the head, being under the headship of Adam and Eve. You’re born in the sin, Christ said and was a Matthew seven.

[00:32:14.37] Out of the heart comes what Beatty out of the heart comes and sin and all forms of evil. I’m not sure that that’s my paraphrase of adultery murders. Yeah, yeah.

[00:32:22.68] I mean, so his point was it’s not you do something and become a sinner inside, all of a sudden it’s from the inside out. That’s clearly what the Bible teaches. So Christ comes into your life and he makes the move towards you, gives you the gift of faith and repentance. That’s what it says in Ephesians two eight nine. It’s a gift, right. Even the good works further on in that chapter belong to him. Mm hmm. And so, you know, that changes your life right then and there, you’ve been justified at that point when you’ve repented and believed in him. From that point on, sanctification is your life. And that’s about growing closer and closer to him as Romans 12 one and two says, right, right. Beatty a living and holy sacrifice. So I’m not claiming to have landed by any stretch, but it’s a daily it’s a daily wrestling match.

[00:33:19.83] I only thought that golf was the hardest thing I would ever do in my life, not the playing of it, anybody can play Beatty but to play well, prove right out of sport. But but this is the challenge. And but yet he’s powering you through it. Right. And so your original question was, how does it affect. Well, every day you’re trying to get more and more like him. Christlike, right. As Paul said in Imitate Me.

[00:33:48.90] Right. Who is imitating Christ? So this is the objective. This is the goal. This is why I’m looking at that book and daily reading it daily. And that’s our objective. Does that answer your question or not?

[00:34:04.83] Yeah, I think it does. I think it gets in that direction. So is there anything that you do special or differently, like if you were to compare how you do your business versus someone else who’s not trying to honor the Lord, it’s not there just being normal. Is there anything specific that you do different? Is that anything that maybe you purposely do in your business? Like, let me give you a perspective on my own. So, you know, we do these podcasts and we we alternate hey, let’s talk about business and then let’s talk about Christ. So another one of my podcasts is Radical Faith. And the whole idea is I’m going to live my faith through my business and I’m going to share what’s passionate in my heart, teaching to walk by faith with anyone who will listen to me. And if they don’t like it, it’s OK. They can either turn it off or go get service somewhere else. So I try to live it into my business. How do you do that with yours? Does that make sense what it does?

[00:35:14.73] Well, there’s a lot of things that are limits as to what we can do. We’ve we’ve used the DNC list as an example. You know, you got it. You got to tell it the way it is. You got to tell the truth and kindness and gentleness and make sure you’re taking care of the people. That means telling them to turn down offers and tell them to turn down offers. Right. When I’m on appointments, if I see an open door, I’ll share the gospel. Early on, one of my favorite opportunities to show the gospel, I walked in. How can I tell you the story real quick? Please, please. I walk in this house and there’s this hospital bed in the den facing the TV, it’s a single bed with the with the steel railings, right. Very clinical looking. This man walks up to me and he’s, I’m guessing is 90 to one hundred pounds with a crewcut hair, graying, drawn and face. And his name is Richard. And he was a sailor. In the past and we sat down at the table, if I remember right, he had a glass of milk here and a glass of beer here. He’s dying of cancer and his wife sits down to the right. And throughout the meeting, he’s using God’s name in vain over and over and over and over. And finally, I it just I felt compelled, almost like God pushed it out.

[00:36:37.18] And I said, you know, you keep using his name, do you know him? And they stop. And they said, what what do you what are you doing out of the blue? I said this, right. I love that real estate conversation. I said, You keep using his name. Do you know him? He said, What are you talking about? I said, You keep using his name. Do you know who. God. I said, You keep using his name, of course. In the wrong way. Do you? They said no. I said, Do you want to. They said yes. Wow. So I got a chance to share the gospel. So, you know, there’s all kinds of, if you will, let people talk. There’s almost always a way in to talk about the Lord in some way. Now, do I do that enough? No, my appointments sometimes can go two hours. They’re ready for me to be gone an hour ago. Yes. And I needed to have been gone an hour or so. So I need to do better at trying to find a way to reduce. We’re always trying to reduce our listing paperwork Beatty. But every time we go through, it effectively goes, can’t do it. And so it takes time to make sure people’s expectations are right.

[00:37:43.17] But that’s a couple of ways that it has demonstrated itself in our life and manifested itself.

[00:37:51.71] I love it. Hey, let me ask you on a similar but probably different topic, it may it’s similar only if it applies to specific to your real estate business. But, you know, as we go through life, I was I was reviewing some notes this morning from one of the sermons my pastor gave, and he made a real great comment. He said, you know, all Christians go through suffering because it’s all part of the fallen world. Some of us go through Christian suffering, which is specific because of who we are in Christ. But we all go through sickness and hurricanes and bankruptcies. You know, it’s all part of the challenge of life is is there anything that you can think of that you would like to share where you’ve gone through some really tough times in your life and it was your relationship in Christ that carried you through? And if so, how?

[00:38:49.08] You know, I think of a time back in around nineteen ninety five, which coincided with right when I was somewhere between ninety five and ninety seven I would say, and. I was in partnership with two gentlemen that we went around the country, did seminars for real estate and got hired for coaching.

[00:39:07.48] And you know, the interesting thing is, even though it was real estate, it’s another business, it’s another learning curve and it you know, we decided that it wasn’t working. It just. You know, it was a long term project trajectory to to make it work, be profitable and do it. So we decided to call it off. And, you know, I was kind of the money person behind that endeavor.

[00:39:32.34] And, you know, I had to try to find a way to to do things right, taking it apart. And so I went got some counseling and know leaned on the Lord. And it was quite amazing the way even though the stress level was at an all time high. He he brought me through it, you know, the interesting thing was that I was paying sales tax to the state of Texas on my coaching.

[00:40:03.22] Clients. OK. There was a couple of thousand dollars I sent in. And when I needed the money to finish paying off debts and such.

[00:40:13.55] They came to my attention that you don’t pay sales tax on coaching endeavors in the state of Texas, so he had me do this and set up a little bank savings account that I didn’t know about. Yeah, and when it was needed, boom. All of a sudden, I get a check from the state of Texas, you know, that turn around and go back and go, man, he is faithful. It’s us that need to understand he’s faithful and we need to be more faithful.

[00:40:40.79] You know, I was going to say the you know, God always works in the miraculous and sometimes it looks like providential, natural causes, sort of like that. He knew you were coming up against this this cash crunch and he had you put money aside unknowingly so he could bring it back to you at that exact moment in that great man I love.

[00:41:04.73] Oh, it is. It’s INCRA. I mean, just fun to see these kinds of things, you know, and and therefore, then I need to I need to look back like like we do on the Old Testament in all the lessons the 40 years taught the Israelites. Right. And I look back on my own items and remember, he’s faithful because I get I don’t do that enough. I get weak sometimes I forget. Yeah. And that’s where we start to stumble.

[00:41:28.60] Well, you know, I just had a podcast shortly. It’s going to be coming out soon called Our Journey Through the Wilderness and and using the journey through there. And it was interesting. And I was as I was sharing this, I was going, oh, it sounds like God’s talking to me. You know, sometimes you do that and we go through the wilderness as a test, not as discipline, OK, when God sends us to the wilderness. But what’s interesting, if you think about it. As the Israelites went to the wilderness, the Lord was always there with full provision, they didn’t see it until they cried out to him and that’s when he brought it. But it was always there. And he never left them alone.

[00:42:15.79] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, miraculous things. Just incredible things. And by the way, you you talked about trials. I think I mentioned this to you before. You know, enrollment’s got in in many other places, got tells us the reasons for trials.

[00:42:32.29] So I’ve created a little acronym called Echo because Enrollment’s it talks about the reason for trials being endurance, character and hope. And I the and this is what helps me remember when I’m running into it, right, that there is a purpose for this. It doesn’t feel good, but yeah, we he gets us through it.

[00:42:55.89] And I think that’s where it all he also says, you know, thank the Lord for the trials and all things. Be thankful. I know.

[00:43:04.29] I know. And it’s like, OK, now it doesn’t mean we have to go and look for the lion and open his mouth and insert head. Yeah, but always good things happen to our character. Right. Right.

[00:43:15.60] Hey, let me ask you one final question and then we need to wrap up. So as you walk with the Lord and your real estate business and you guys have come through a lot of trends and shifts in the marketplace. Yeah, sometimes people go through these tough times and they get frantic, they get anxious and they just really worry. Have you found yourself doing that or is this or is there been an underlying peace and joy and just a confidence in what’s going to happen?

[00:43:46.71] Well, both OK. I mean, I don’t know if I got it from my grandmother or what genetics. But I mean, I can worry easily. I can get panicked easily. That’s just the truth. Yeah.

[00:43:59.73] And.

[00:44:02.12] You know, but yet there is an undercurrent of. The solid rock that we rest on Christ is the foundation, right? Right. Someone I heard one person talking derogatory about the Lord to another agent who is trying to share the gospel. Oh, that’s just a crutch. I said, I beg to differ is the foundation is not just a crutch for the home team and. You know, I would just say on a practical level, you know, the teams that get to the Super Bowl.

[00:44:34.57] And I can say this is a Bears fan and the agony that I’ve been through. Are the teams that block and tackle the best to go back to the fundamentals and stop jumping around, contact the people you know, contact people you don’t know. It’s all about people and talking to them. And you know what, though? Some people say that prospect is the most important thing in the business. It’s not. It’s knowing your presentation. Think about it, Beatty, If in 20 minutes you are going to go do a talk to five hundred people and you weren’t nearly as prepared as you need to be. How would you feel about stepping out on that stage in 20 minutes? Pretty bad. Pretty bad. That’s how we feel going into prospecting. Hmm. We’re feeling bad. There’s this tape in the back of our head saying you really don’t want to set this appointment because you don’t know what to say. You don’t want to disappoint. You know what you really want to prospect because you don’t know what to say. So prospecting is not the most important thing. Knowing your presentation and how confident are you? Like when I was helping teach the Bible. I almost memorized, so when I went out there, I was excited about it, motivated about it, ready, ready to think on my feet because I knew the material need be if I needed to think on my feet with questions. So knowing the presentation and then prospecting get back to fundamentals, that’s what we do in tough times. I love it.

[00:46:01.34] I think that’s a great message to end on because that’s so true. Well, Paul, thank you for your time. Is there anything else you would like to share before we close up the call?

[00:46:12.57] The solo team, yep, plays Dallas Fort Worth, it took seven, six, five six three five one nine.

[00:46:21.09] So if you’ve got any referrals to send or make from Dallas, give the totality A and I can I can vouch for Paul. He will take an excellent care of your people, as you can probably sense already. Appreciate that. But hey, Paul, thank you so much for being here. And for those listening, if you like this podcast, please subscribe to it. So you’ll continue to get it and learn more about us and how to grow your business. Please check us out at Get Sallas calling you dot com. You all have a very blessed day and we’ll talk to you later.

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