Transcript:

Beatty:                 This is the Get Sellers Calling You Marketing Podcast for Real Estate Agents, and I’m Beatty Carmichael. For simple to do, proven marketing strategies focused exclusively on finding sellers and getting more listings, visit our website at getsellerscallingyou.com. And now, let’s begin our next session of Get Sellers Calling You.

Caroline:              I’m Caroline Springer and welcome to this is the next session of Get Sellers Calling You. We do have a website, it’s getsellerscallingyou.com, currently under construction, but you’re free to go there and we’ll kind of announce when we’ve got everything loaded on there for you guys to peruse through. Today, we’re going to be interviewing Beatty Carmichael. Beatty is the CEO of MasterGrabber, the creator of Agent Dominator, and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. He’s been in real estate for quite some time, so I’m excited to continue on these calls, picking his brain, and learning from him.

                                Today, we’re going to be talking about the topic of Radical Faith. I know I was announcing earlier on loop, just in case anybody hopped on in the last minute, we are going to be throwing in a podcast every once in a while about radical faith and just talk about what it means to be a Christian as a realtor and a Christian in the business world. This is one of our radical faith calls. Just a reminder, for those of you that are on the live call, we will have the lines muted and then open up for questions and answers at the end of the call.

                                Welcome, Beatty, officially.

Beatty:                 Thank you. I want to give a real quick, if I may, explanation behind Radical Faith. Radical Faith is actually a training series I started over 10 years ago, probably 13 years or 14 years ago, now. So often, as Christians, we think, okay, I’m going to live by faith. But then when you really learn what living by faith is, most people say, well that’s pretty radical, and yet, if you think about the most normal Christian who ever lived, it was Jesus. And what he did is what we could consider radical.

                                So that’s kind of how the topic came out, Radical Faith, and as you mentioned, just for those listening in, the goal on this is to include the Radical Faith topics interspersed within business topics, because that’s what I want to do. So back to you.

Caroline:              I love it. Well, I’m excited, I’m very excited as a Christian myself, just to kind of explore that topic, and I think for all of us listening, just to see even more practically, how can we include our Christianity and live like a person that’s in love with Jesus in the business world, not just in our personal lives. I think a lot of the people I talk to, sometimes it’s a struggle not to compartmentalize that, and to even feel the pressure from the world to separate your faith, and to separate that personal part of your heart and who you are.

                                But that’s hard, because when you start following Jesus, he really does become everything to you. And I think there definitely is a call for us to not live in fear, of bringing him into the workplace, and that there is a way we can do that that loves and honors people well. I’m very excited just to talk with you, a man that I respect so much and that has been so successful in the business world, and in the marketing world for a long time, over two years, and that’s walked with Jesus for longer than that, I think.

Beatty:                 Longer than you’ve been alive, I think.

Caroline:              Yes, I think so. I don’t know the exact numbers, but I assume so. I’m very, very excited to just hear your history, and your advice on how to walk in that. I can attest that I’ve seen Beatty, and the way he conducts his business, and the way that he really does bring the Lord into every single aspect of the way he runs things. It’s very, very inspirational, I think it’s something that will be very good for us to all learn from and be challenged by.

                                Beatty, I don’t know where you want to start off, do you want to give a history, or do you want to start off, maybe even just talking about how you run your business, is it yours or the Lord’s? I kind of want to let you take [inaudible 00:04:53].

Beatty:                 Well that’s a great question. Let me give this whole history, I’m not sure, let’s just see where it goes. I actually became a Christian in 1982, I was in high school at the time. I wasn’t one of those bad hoodlum type of guys that you look at, I was a goody-goody, okay? I didn’t do anything wrong, and yet there was still that void in my life, and the man who led me to Christ was a guy named John Bradford.

                                What’s really interesting, he was the one [inaudible 00:05:31] an organization called Young Life, and he was giving kind of the keynote speech if you want to call it that at this retreat that I went to. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but when the Holy Spirit grabs your heart, it just rings true. So I credit him with, if we want to use kind of terms in the natural, I credit him with saving me.

                                From that standpoint, obviously it’s the Holy Spirit’s work, but I want to tell another story because this was 1999, November 1999, our business was just booking at that time. We’ve gone from about $30,000 a month in revenue at the beginning of the year, to $350,000 a month in revenues at the end of the year. We just had some explosive growth going on. I got noticed, so if you’ve ever dealt with a credit card company, most realtors have, this is way off the track but it’s kind of a fun story.

                                When you deal with credit card companies, they don’t like you to grow really fast, because the way that credit card processing works, it increases risks. And so my company said, okay. First they said, we’re not going to let you charge any more than you’re doing right now. In other words, they’re going to cap me, which means I can’t grow my business. The second thing, then, a month later, they came in and said, we looked at your business, and the industry that you’re in, we’re not happy, we’re just going to cut you off.

                                So they said, you’ve got thirty days, and we’re stopping your account. So 100% of my business at the time was all through credit card, and I started to reach out to all kinds of different companies trying to get a new credit card processed. I think it was a lot harder then than it is now. There was no internet that you could really, I mean there was, a little bit. But it wasn’t like today. So finding new suppliers, and going through the underwriting process and everything else was really a chore.

                                I went through several and several, two, three, or four different providers, and they all turned me down for whatever reason. And I was meeting with my, one of the elders at my church, who’s a mentor of mine. His name is Tom Bradford, and I was explaining this. He was on the board of a local bank here called South Trust, which was then bought out by Wachovia later. I said, you know, South Trust has a merchant processing, do you think you can get me in there?

                                He said, “Well I probably can’t, but you need to call my brother John, because he sits on the big board that oversees all of South Trust.” So I called up John, and I said, “I need some help.” And it was really funny because this is where I found out it’s not who you are, it’s who you know. Because John said, “Well, let me make a call.” By the end of that day, I get a phone call, from the number one agent, sales agent, with their merchant processing division, and he says, “Mr. Bradford called,” and I respond, “How can I help you?” I said, “Well, I need a merchant account.” He said, “Done.”

                                I said, “Well, don’t you need any financials?” “Nope, because when Mr. Bradford calls, that’s good enough for us.” And so within two days, he saved me again, and we were able to stay in business. I’m not sure where that goes other than it’s just kind of a fun story, but the history is, yeah, it is kind of fun, but for a long time, I felt the Lord is leading me somewhere, and I really wanted to integrate my relationship with him and what we’re called to do, as Christians, into business.

                                In 19, so I started my business in 1997. In 1998, I was meeting with a man who, at that time was actually the Young Life area director for Birmingham. Started talking with him, and he gave me this concept of what is called a day of prayer. The idea is, you take a day off once a month, and you just spend time with the Lord, just be available, okay? So often, we get so busy in our lives that you don’t have time to hear the Lord, because you just run, run, run, run.

                                And I know especially for realtors, that’s probably the case. He shared this concept, and I’m one of these guys that, you know, I just jump in feet first and just go for it, especially when it relates to the Lord. So I said, that’s a great idea, I’m going to do that. And so I started taking a day off once a month, and he would take like a Saturday. I said, look, I’m going to do it differently. The Bible says to, you know, the Lord always says, “Give me the first fruit, give me the first, give me the best.”

                                In the Old Testament, the tithe is the first tenth, you give him the best of your produce, you give him the first of your produce. So I chose, at that time, to take a day off from work, and said, I’m just going to trust you with my work, Lord. I’m going to give you the best of my time, which is my working day. I started to do that, and every month, actually, since then, I’ve had my day or prayer, and it’s turned out to be one of the most crucial, best thing that’s ever happened in our business for lots of reasons. Just some great decisions, just some great fellowship with the Lord.

                                And that process impacts what we’re doing today, okay, the Get Sellers Calling You training series that will turn into a podcast, integrating Radical Faith into it, and all these things, are all things that are born out of that, the time of the Lord, the day of prayer. So I’ve been trying to integrate, and I could probably go on a lot more, but taking who you are in Christ and living it out as who you are in business.

                                Does that kind of make sense, Caroline?

Caroline:              Absolutely, I mean that’s kind of what I think, I was referring to earlier, I think a lot of us come up against that conundrum, if you will, of how do we incorporate living radically for Jesus into our workplace, or into our working, whatever job we are doing, or for realtors who are listening? I think that alone is inspirational to me, just to be willing to take that step of faith and risk a day of business where you could “be losing a sale,” or something like that. That’s where our earthly mentality would go.

                                But trusting the Lord to say, no, you’re the provider, and I know that by me entrusting this time to you, with that sowing and reaping concept, what I’m going to receive is far greater than any sale that I could have on that day. I mean, that’s even convicting for me to hear, too, thank you for sharing that story, and your history as well.

Beatty:                 You know, it comes down to kind of a philosophy, a realization is probably the better word. Here’s a question, I’d like to pose it to all those listening. Who owns your business? Is it you, or is it the Lord? Because if you think about this, and I think this is kind of where maybe if you know, you say, where do we want to start in this call? We’re halfway through the call already, and we’re just kind of starting. I can tell this call is probably going to run into a multiple session over time.

                                But who owns your business, okay? If you own it, because, even if you’re an independent contractor out there, so you own your business, right? But do you own it, or does the Lord? Because whoever owns it, here’s an interesting observation. The business will take on the characteristic of the leadership, and that’s true in any business out there. You look at, if you just go through, gosh, I just saw something in the news about United Airlines.

                                Now thinking about this, this morning in my quiet time. United, so what’s in the news right now, someone takes a dog on the plane, flight attendant said you gotta stick it in the bin above the seat for the entire flight. When they get off the flight, the dog’s dead. It’s a ten month old puppy. I’m just thinking, here’s another fiasco with United Airlines, and why is it? And it’s the culture, okay.

                                The culture of United Airlines takes in the characteristics of the leadership that develop that culture. If you look at another airline, Southwest Airlines, it’s all about fun and loving people, because they take on the characteristic of the leadership. And so the question is, who owns your business? Who is the leader of your business? Is it you? And it’s going to take on your culture and characteristics, or is it the Lord? And it’s going to take on the Lord’s culture and characteristics.

                                Because whoever owns it, that’s the direction it’s going to head. Is that following a lot, the process?

Caroline:              Absolutely. I mean I think that logic makes absolute sense, and I think we can apply that too, like what you were saying, if everything that we own as Christians is the Lord’s, probably, a mindset that we all would say we believe, that everything we have is the Lord’s, everything we’ve been given is the Lord’s, how do we operate as if he is the owner of our business, so that our business reflects him and his culture?

Beatty:                 That’s exactly it, how do we operate as if it’s his? I want to introduce a term. So you’ve got, owner, and steward, okay. And this is going to date me, too, okay. You probably never heard of a movie called Ben-Hur, and most people probably haven’t watched it, unless you’re in a small group who just like to watch some of these great old movies. But Ben-Hur, back in the time, this is a movie story like the Ten Commandments, done in that same era.

                                Very wealthy Jewish businessman, he’s actually the wealthiest businessman in the entire region. And he has what’s called a steward. And the steward is a man who manages all of his business operations. He’s a slave, okay, not a slave like what we think of here in America, but back in that time, he’s a slave which means that his master owns him, but he loves his master, and his master loves him. He’s actually what’s called a bondservant, okay, which is a slave out of ownership, which is what we as Christians are called in the New Testament. Paul, a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

                                So it’s a term of endearment but what that steward did for Ben Hur was, he made all decisions based on Ben’s interest, not on his own. So as an owner of a business, as an owner of your real estate business, you’ll make decisions that favor you. As a steward of your business, you’ll make decisions that favor the Lord. Now in most day-to-day operations, they’re all the same, but where it changes are on the fringe areas that make a huge impact in someone’s life, or the, how should I say, the integrity within how you operate.

                                This is, I’m not sure if I’m articulating this well, are you getting what I’m trying to describe?

Caroline:              Absolutely. I mean, I think even just from my knowledge of realtors, I think that would just apply to, are you valuing your client as a person that the Lord loves, and are you doing what’s best in their favor because that would be what the Lord would want us to do is valuing them above, maybe a gain that we could have if we try to, like an example, like push, if we knew the buyer and the seller, and push my buyer’s bid over maybe another, that might be more in favor of that seller, or something like that.

                                Just, the little things, the little decisions that really show our true character and integrity, and that kind of how we see how we can honor the Lord even in just day-to-day things that, and like you were saying, up to big things like how we operate in the way that we, like even monetary decisions or the way that we bless our employees, or the way that we, I think the Lord is very, very generous with us, and so do we reflect the generosity of his heart?

                                I’m tracking with you.

Beatty:                 Good, good, because it is those things that we call the little things but the little things are the big things. One of the passages the Lord’s pulled out for me recently is the passage to the minas, parable of the minas. The master goes away on a trip to receive his kingdom, and he calls in ten servants, and gives them a mina each, and then when he comes back, he say, okay, give an accounting. I gave you a little, what did you do with it? The servants, the first servant says, look, lord, I took your mina and I produced ten minas more.

                                And Jesus says, or the master, says to the servant, “Well done, you have been trustworthy in a very little thing, take charge of ten cities.” So what we have is, we have the concept of those things that are little, are really huge, and/or in the natural, they lead to really huge things that the Lord chooses to bless us with. It may seem little, your example, you know, I’ve got two buyers on this house. I’m listing the house, one of those buyers is mine, one of the buyers is another agent’s.

                                The other agent’s buyer is a slightly better offer. Not significant, okay. It may benefit my seller by $1500, ultimately, whatever that offer difference is. But it may benefit me by $12000 if he chooses my buyer instead of the other agent’s buyer. What do I do? So in the natural, I say, well you know, I could discount my rate. It’s okay for him to pay an extra $1500, the seller to get $1500 less, for me to get $15000 more.

                                We can weigh that out, and figure it out, but the reality is, that’s wrong. We need to be serving our client. Maybe we go in there and we try to finagle it and say, “Hey, look, this offer is better by $1500, but tell you what, I’ll discount my fee by $3000 if you’ll accept my buyer.” Now we’re manipulating something, and that’s wrong, because the Bible says the laborer’s worthy of his wages. Your buyer didn’t do as good of a job as the other buyer.

                                It’s these little things that we can sometimes try to manipulate, we can try to rationalize, we can try to justify, but the question is, if this was the Lord’s business, and not yours, then as a steward, what would the Lord want you to do? And whatever that is, that’s really kind of what you need to be doing.

Caroline:              And I think, too, in moments like those and opportunities, that really is a great moment for us to show our faith, because I think if you’re willing to take a loss, or you’re willing to place value on someone else’s gain above your own, that’s contrary to the world, which is exactly what Christians are supposed to be, and that we are, in our nature. I think even in that example, that opens up the door to be able to shine a light on our relationship with the Lord, and we don’t have to be afraid of, I’m going to make an integrous decision, and then that’s going to open the door where I can really show the true light, which is Jesus.

Beatty:                 Yeah, and you can take it a step further. So we’re called to be a light, we’re called to be a witness, and we’re called to serve the Lord first, before we serve ourselves. Then let’s take that example, and let’s just kind of run with it a little bit further. So you lose out on $1500 that you could have had, all right, or whatever your commissions is on it. But then what happens from there? How do you maximize this for the Lord? Well, so if you’re my client, Caroline, and this scenario comes up, I’m going to say something like this, because the Lord is the owner, and I’m just the steward:

                                “Well, Caroline, we’ve got two offers, I would obviously love for you to choose my buyer, but my buyer isn’t the best offer for you. And I want to encourage you to take the other buyer’s offer. Because you’ll get $1500 more out of this, and overall, it’s really a better deal. And the reason I want you to take that offer, is because I’m a Christian, and I believe that the Lord Jesus has died for my sins, and that I’ve accepted him as my savior, and because of that, that I live my life for him, and not for me. And all that I have is his. And this is his business, he just merely lets me keep some of the money, okay?”

                                “But the right thing to do, and the thing that the Lord wants me to do is to make sure that you know you need to take this other offer, and I’m doing it because,” and the words’ coming out really wrong, but the hardest, “I’m doing it because I want you to know where I stand, and I want you to know why I’m telling you this. Because my trust is in the Lord, it’s not in getting a commission. My representation is you, not me, and therefore, this is the best deal, and that’s why I want you to take this other buyer’s offer.”

                                So then that opens up an opportunity for you to go, “Well, you’re different, because other people, I would have pushed the other one.” I say, “I know you would, I know that people would.” But if I did, the Lord would not be happy with me.” And now, this opens up an opportunity to have a discussion about the Lord, and who knows, maybe that either plants the seed, or brings into harvest that brings that person into the Kingdom.

                                What type of price tag can you put on that?

Caroline:              Absolutely. I mean, and I think, too, that that just goes into just the control of me providing for myself, or just the trust in allowing the Lord to provide for myself. Because in that situation, if you were to choose the commissions, and you could kind of justify it in your mind, things like that will, I know God doesn’t want me to live in lack, or something like that, but ultimately if your focus and your vision is on what’s right, and on your client, and on what’s best for them, the Lord’s going to take care of you.

                                You can trust and release that to him, versus taking control and making sure you’re being taken care of by making sure that that commission becomes yours. And like you said, there’s no way you can compare the price tag of somebody coming to know the Lord, and coming to find their true acceptance and identity in the Lord, because Ecclesiastes says that, eternity is implanted in the hearts of all men, so all men are searching for that relationship.

                                That’s what I want to live every day, you know, helping people walk in. Like you said, there’s no way to compare that price tag, and how you would walk away from that sale feeling. I love that little example.

Beatty:                 I agree.

                                I think what I really kind of want to get across on this is living your faith through your real estate business, okay, and keeping that relationship in the open, and this is just one way that you keep it in the open. This is one way that you become kind of a light on the hill. Just like this call right now, okay. So I had two options. I could either keep the Get Sellers Calling You series, strictly on business, to not offend any potential customer out there.

                                Or I could operate trusting the Lord, and say, I’m going to offend some people. We’re going to get complaints on this email, the promotion that we put out for this call, we’re going to get agents that are upset, because they don’t believe in Jesus, as I do, and they find it offensive. I’ll probably even get customers that’ll end up canceling, because I don’t want to do business with you. So I’ve got all kinds of risk to step up and do what the Lord has called me to do.

                                And the question is, which way do you go? And I love what you said, do you trust the Lord to provide for you or not? And here’s something I’ve, we’re going to cover this in another topic at another time, but just a simple truism, “The Lord always takes the little that you have that you contribute, and then he multiplies it into the abundance that you need to take care of all your needs.”

                                He did it with the five loaves and two fish, he did it with the seven loaves, he does it everywhere, you just read the Bible, and he’s always taken the little you have to contribute, and producing the abundance that you need. So once we start to hold back and say, “No, I need this,” immediately we’re taking our trust away from the Lord, and saying, I don’t trust you, Lord, which is sad. And we say, I trust myself more. And that’s really, that’s pride.

                                It’s living your faith and your relationship out in the open, it’s doing those things that are different, it’s thinking about your business differently, and as we, because we’re going to have to wrap this up, because we’re close to the bottom, but it’s … if I could leave something, we’ll come back on this next topic the next time around. Think about, as you’re out there in your real estate business, do the people you do business with know that you love Jesus?

                                And if they don’t, then you’re not doing it well, okay. What can you do that will make it more apparent? I’m not talking about putting a fish symbol on your business card, or wearing clothes that say “I’m a Christian,” but Jesus says, the Bible says in the New Testament, they will know we are Christians by our love. Jesus says, the new commandment I give you, love another. And when you love someone, it’s because you’re willing to sacrifice your interests for theirs.

                                And what are you doing in your business, where you’re sacrificing their interest for yours? And then figure out how to change it. Let’s see, what time do we have? I think we’ve got, we’re pretty much right at the thirty minute mark for the call. Gosh, I wish I could keep on going, but we’ll have to wrap this one up.

Caroline:              I know, well I think we’ve got lots and lots of, I mean we could go on for hours. I think we’ve got plenty of content to continue talking the future about all this, and I’m looking forward to that also. But yeah, I think-

Beatty:                 I’m just going to say, from a real practical standpoint, the outline, for those on this call, we barely even got into it. But I want to encourage you, live your faith. Put God first. If you don’t get anything out of this call, let me suggest maybe two takeaways, if we can do that.

                                Takeaway number one, take a day of prayer. It’s the hardest thing, because it’s unnatural. It’s unnatural, because you think you’re busy. When you take that day of prayer out, so I take the first Friday of the month, and then I’ll move it to the second or the third if I have things that I must move it for, but I go, without fail, I take my day of prayer. Now my day of prayer usually started to be about three or four hours, and then I was kind of finished. Other times it would be five or six hours.

                                I would actually get a good half day or work in, eventually. I used to start it like at six in the morning, and now I start it a little bit later. But here’s the simple process. Make a commitment, if it’s a day, or if it’s half a day, find a day that is least productive for you, and then make that your day of prayer. Don’t take your cellphone, or at least turn it off. Because once you start to get into handling email and text messages and taking calls, then you’re just saying, okay, these are more important than you, Lord.

                                Imagine for a moment that you have a sit-down meeting with Jesus himself. Are you going to keep answering the phone, and replying, “Hold on, one second, Jesus, I’ve got this text, it just came through, let me handle it.” No, you’re not, right. So turn all that stuff off, and say, I am here. 100% for you, and I’m going to trust that you can take care of all of my business needs while I’m meeting with you.

                                That is a commitment that you want to make. And then you’re just there for him. What do you do on a day of prayer? Well, I go out to the golf course and walk, because I love being outdoors. I know other people who go out to the woods, other people just kind of hole up in a bedroom, okay. Grab a book, Christian book, and if you don’t know what to do, start reading it, because the Lord will prompt you throughout reading a book, maybe a missionary biography or something like that.

                                Take time out just to talk to the Lord. Open up your bible and read. It’s your time with Him, so just do whatever seems to come natural, but just keep it focused on him, and you’ll start to find some amazing times. And I have to tell you one last thing on the day of prayer, I know we’re really going overlong on this, but I always make a list, okay, I’ve got these big questions I want to get clarity on, and I know my day of prayer’s coming up, so I’ve actually got a day of prayer list, and these are the questions I ask God.

                                God, should I do this? And I’m listening for His Spirit in my spirit to say, yes, or no, or give me some other direction. And it’s amazing when you spend quality time with the Lord, and then you start to ask him questions, you start to get really great answers. So, that’s one takeaway.

                                The second takeaway I’d like to suggest is that you look at things in your life, that’s your real estate business, and just say, how can I be a witness for the Lord? It may simply be when you meet with a client, “Hey, is there anything I can pray for you about?” Let’s put an offer on this home, let’s pray for it right now. Anything like that, just be willing to step out and say, I’m going to do it the way Jesus would want me to do it.

                                Make sense?

Caroline:              Yeah. I love that. I think those are two really great practical takeaways, and I’m excited to continue just hearing more practical, because I think that’s something that people really are hungry to hear, you know, they want to do this, but they want a place to get started, I love it, thank you for sharing, and just opening up what your heart, and what’s been successful for you, and how you’ve just naturally incorporated Jesus into your business.

                                We are out of time, so we’re going to wrap up the call, but like Beatty said, we are going to continue on this discussion, we’ve got a lot of content I know we could talk for a long time about, we’re excited to continue that, and again, you’ll receive an email regarding.

                                Beatty, thank you so much for your time, and just expertise in both marketing and how to bring Jesus into your business. This really was a great call. So we’re going to, what we’re going to do is we’re going to wrap up the call, and then for those of you that are live, if you have questions you’d like to ask Beatty, just hold on, and as soon as we’ve wrapped up we’ll go into a short Q and A time, and also at the time of this recording we’re just finalizing our new website at getsellerscallingyou.com. We’ll be up soon.

                                I know I mentioned that earlier, and we’ll let you know when that’s finalized, so just be sure to go to getsellerscallingyou.com, you can access a lot of great training resources there for free, and finally if you liked this training, please leave a review. That’s it for today, thanks for joining in, and I’ll let you sign off, Beatty, if you’d like.

Beatty:                 Very good. Well, I’ve enjoyed it, and looking forward to the next time we do another Radical Faith call to continue on this discussion. Thanks so much, everyone have a great day, we’ll wrap up this call now.

                                If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please tell others about it. Also, be sure to get our Step by Step Training on How to Double Sales and Referrals from Past Clients and Sphere of Influence. It’s absolutely the easiest way to grow your business fast, and is completely free. You’ll find it on our website at getsellerscallingyou.com, thanks for listening.

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