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Beatty: [00:00:03.18] Okay. Well, welcome back, everyone. This is Beatty Carmichael with Get Sellers Calling You. And I’m actually trying to move my. Here we go. Trying to move my notes over where I can see them. But I’m excited on today’s call because I get to interview a friend of mine and someone that’s just really special in terms of what he’s done with his business, how he manages his life, his family, and his name is Andrew. Klesken from I believe I’m correct, Andrew. Tacoma, Washington.

Andrew: [00:00:36.75] Yeah, Tacoma area. I’m just yes, I’m just outside of Tacoma in Graham. So a little more rural area where we actually live, but practice all around the area here in the Puget Sound.

Beatty: [00:00:48.75] Yeah. So rural chickens and pigs and acreage. So it sounds like a dream for me.

Andrew: [00:00:56.99] That’s a lot of fun.

Beatty: [00:00:58.80] Well, just as a brief intro and then I’m going to bring on Andrew more. Officially, let him talk. But Andrew is a consistently top producer. I’ve been really impressed and just working with him and and he’s got a story I really want you guys to hear. But before I bring him on, I also want to mention to everyone we have just started a Facebook group to enhance the dialog between agents on just everything about listings, sellers, getting sellers calling you and love to invite you guys to join us on that. Just look us up. The Facebook group is get Sellers calling you. So Andrew, how are you doing?

Andrew: [00:01:42.60] Doing great. Doing great. Just spent the day out at Mt. Rainier hiking with the family and had a wonderful time up there. It’s gorgeous day here in October. So took advantage of it and went up and did a little hike with all six kids in my wife. So it was a good time.

Beatty: [00:02:00.15] Wow. Well, I thought real estate was a 24 seven type of business, but obviously I was mistaken with you. You get to take time off on a Thursday. I love it.

Andrew: [00:02:10.47] Yes, it was. It was a good day, so.

Beatty: [00:02:13.98] Oh, good. Hey, before we get started on real estate, I’d love just a little bit of background if you can share with us about who you are, your background, and can you fill us in on this?

Andrew: [00:02:27.57] Andrew Yeah. So I on the real estate side, I first got licensed in 2001, sold real estate until about 2007, got out of the market, went into full time ministry at the time. And through that I met my wife and through different series of events, ended up leaving the ministry and I got back into some different types of sales, did some sales, and then finally decided to get back into real estate and been in real estate full time now since 2015 and started on a team, grew and developed, learned became a leader in the team there I expansion leader and from there just realized that I wanted to kind of do and offer a little bit more on my own and branched out on my own. And now I have a small team here and just enjoying helping people invest in through real estate. So on a personal note, being married. 14 years. Had to make sure I got the number right.

Beatty: [00:03:40.91] Nine happy, nine happily married years right now. That’s why I do.

Andrew: [00:03:45.17] It my way. It was rough for a few years and learned a lot. A lot of struggles. But I had to learn and grow and change and and really lean more on God to get me through things in my marriage. And then from there, we would now have six children ranging from 13 years old down to five months.

Beatty: [00:04:11.15] Wow. So you are a busy dad and she’s a busy mom.

Andrew: [00:04:16.46] Yes. She works much harder than I do.

Beatty: [00:04:18.53] I know she does. I remember one of my favorite pictures is my wife on the couch wiped out and my little three year old daughter just still bouncing and ready to go. And she mom’s just totally exhausted at the end of the day. So I know your mom, your wife is is wiped out to you at times.

Andrew: [00:04:36.98] Yes.

Beatty: [00:04:38.99] Well, I’m curious. So I know that ministry has as important to you and and we’re going to talk about that further. But just out of curiosity, if you could. Do you have do you if you were to kind of way your time in ministry, your time in sales, do you have a one that you love more than the other or are they about the same or.

Andrew: [00:05:03.26] Well, I used to probably you know, I had worked a lot and then I’d try to serve over here. And over time I got to the point where I really. Try to have no distinguishing between the two. A lot of times in this job, it can really be. A lot of what we do isn’t just sales it. It’s sometimes pastoring our clients, sometimes it’s ministering to them where they’re at in the moment, through there. Sometimes it’s a divorce, sometimes it’s death in the family. Sometimes it’s we’re pulling up roots and moving across country. So all those things can really be emotional to people. And so ministries, a lot of times now, it just happens through my work. And it’s really been a blessing and I didn’t expect it that way, but it just kind of came and just embraced it as a game and try to help people really just where they’re at and just to have hope and have to find their joy in the moment and make it as stress free for them, that we could take as much stress off of them as we could and help them really. Enjoy the process as much as it could be.

Beatty: [00:06:25.95] I love that, you know, years back the Lord directed me as many you guys know as well, to be a full time minister operating a business. And is that blending of the two of how can you walk as walking Christ and be in the marketplace and operate them together? So I totally agree. Understand what you’re talking about. What whether it’s in real estate or somewhere else. What’s your biggest failure and what do you think you’ve learned from that experience?

Andrew: [00:07:00.48] Well, to be quite transparent, probably my biggest failure is I almost lost my marriage.

Beatty: [00:07:06.06] Wow.

Andrew: [00:07:07.20] And it’s a very, very challenging time in our life. We were actually separated for over a year. And I’m not sharing anything here that we haven’t shared publicly before, so. Okay. But it was a very hard time to to grow and change a lot and really, really learn to lean on the Lord. There were just a lot of of. A lot of development and growing in faith through that season and just peeling off the layers of my selfishness and my all the parts of me that I was not really wanting to deal with. So I dealt with a lot of things. We both grew through the process and our marriage now is stronger now than it ever has been. So it was a tough season, but truly, by the grace of God, we got through it and now we it’s been almost five years. I think we have five years now since that happened, since we’ve reunited and. And two more children. So. Wow. We like I said, we love each other more than ever and have more joy in our marriage. More more peace in our marriage, more peace in our household. It gets challenging sometimes to six kids, four boys, and it’s loud. But that was probably one of the biggest that was my biggest failure, was almost losing everything. It just it rocked my world and had to come back. And truly, without Jesus, I don’t know how I’d how I would have made it.

Beatty: [00:08:56.56] You know, this interesting. I was just this weekend with a good friend of mine, and he shared with me that I was ministering to him. Okay, we’re just talking. And and he shared that this past week he had actually gone out to meet with a divorce lawyer. And we prayed and did some things and things. It was interesting because a lot for him, there was a lot of spiritual warfare, just issues going on. And the next day everything changed. And his and his wife and his kids, you could just kind of tell there was this heaviness and darkness that was lifted not only off of him, but off of them. And I saw his wife just standing there. So this is out in a rural place and the kids are out on the swing swinging back. And his wife was just over there with him and had her hand on the low part of the flight of his back, just as a couple would sometimes touch. And I was asking my friend, I said, How are things today? He said, First time my wife’s touched me in two years.

Andrew: [00:10:06.65] Wow.

Beatty: [00:10:07.10] And then when you start to share that, the biggest failure is almost losing your marriage. I think that the thing that’s hitting me and if you don’t mind, I love to understand what you did to come out of it. I think there’s probably a lot more people out there that are struggling in their marriage than you and I would recognize. So often we put on a good face up front. I never knew that they were having those type of struggles and just watching them their weekend. You would never know it either, but they put on a good front. But yet there’s probably a lot of folks listening to this call that are struggling in that dark spot in their life. What did you guys do? Do you mind kind of sharing a little bit?

Andrew: [00:10:55.16] So some of the things that I had to do was I had to get past. Because we had. Perfected. Yeah, about you.

Beatty: [00:11:08.80] Right.

Andrew: [00:11:09.82] So we had PhDs in making sure that. Well, yeah, but you. So I had to lay that down and really, really focus on me, which was. It took a while, which is why we were separated as long as we were. I had to really just say, okay, what are the areas in me that I need to fix and how do I fix those, regardless of what the outcome is, but what do I need to fix? And I really had to just go to the Lord and. Figure out. One of the things I’d anger. And so it would come out in ways I’d yell, and I grew up that way. It was in my household, and I didn’t know any different any better. So when I got married, I brought that baggage along with me and had to then learn that’s damaging and how damaging it is and hurtful. And I was like, Well, it’s no big deal. Just move on. It wasn’t just to move on. It was. There was a lot of scar tissue there that was really needing to be healed and. And made right. So I had to. Figure out how to work on myself and really focus on myself. Another thing was worship.

Andrew: [00:12:34.96] Just getting into that place where I would find a song and it would carry me through. Just it would give me that hope. Give me that. Ability to have faith for one more day, sometimes one more hour. When I’m picking up my kids to have my visitation and. It’s just. Gut wrenching, but having to have a smile and have joy in that moment with that child and not let it be a negative memory for them. But oh, yeah, we used to go, didn’t do this and we did that, recognizing that it’s hard for them too. But worship just. My, my, my lifeline. Keeping me afloat when the negative thoughts would come. The self doubt the. Just the bombardment of. You know, self criticism and self doubt and everything else. Look what I’ve gotten myself into. You know, the thoughts of, oh, you just give up, you know, And then it’s like, no, that’s not. That’s not what’s God’s best. That’s not. I know that this is fixable. I know that this is and this was something deep inside of me that said we can get through this. But for a long time she said, no way. And she was like, No, we’re done. We’re done. And so.

Andrew: [00:14:06.53] I had to just stay the course and keep my faith. And it was really worship kept me through that and just being guarding my my ears from. Like I didn’t want to be around people that were naysayers, you know, because it’s easy to align yourself with somebody that’s going to say, Oh, you should just do this. I had to be really cautious of that and not even in church. It was people that. Would be naysayers to the whole situation, or you just embrace it and move on and be somebody that’s more efficient and see all the garbage. And Could I have gone that route? Sure, it could have been okay. It might have been okay. But just so many wounds that would have to be healed for the children, for us to have to deal with holidays and just heartbreak I didn’t want to have to deal with at that level. So really it was it was through worship and then guarding my heart of where am I getting my my feedback. So it was a lonely season because a lot of I had to separate myself from a lot of people that would have said, Oh, just throw in the towel. So I’m glad.

Beatty: [00:15:23.48] You did not. Was there a specific point in time or event or anything that was kind of the linchpin that turned things around, or was it just a progression over time as you grew and obviously something with.

Andrew: [00:15:40.34] Her.

Beatty: [00:15:41.21] Warming up?

Andrew: [00:15:42.71] It was. It was. My wife was. Was pretty much she had set her mind to being done. She was we had tried therapy. We had tried couples therapy. We we’d tried dry and dry and tried different things. And she was frustrated with it. Nothing was stuck. Nothing was making the difference. And. Her aunt was involved in some kind of a group that helps couples, couples help coaching couples. And she might have a toolbox that can help you. And my wife is thinking in the back of her head, if I only had a toolbox on marriage. So that cracked open the door. And this was, you know. Ten months in to being separated. So she was emotionally done, mentally done just right. She was. Ready to move on. And. Her aunt said, I want to meet with both of you. So we met together and it was just that little tiny, tiny glimmer of hope that she was able to see and my wife to see and for me to even see in her. And so then from there, we ended up meeting with a counselor that was a friend of my aunt’s, and she and he helped us kind of just. Learn, learn how to communicate again and learn how to lay down some of those those walls that we had built up between each other. And and then since then, it’s just been a beautiful progression of of. Learning that we really enjoy being together. So it’s been been a fun progression and just every year it’s just fun. And our marriage now is just different. We do things different. We. Enjoyed doing things together more than we did before.

Beatty: [00:17:51.25] That is so good now. What role would you say? I know this is a difficult question to formulate for me. I know where I want to ask the question without having a better formulated question is what role did Christ play in this, your relationship and her relationship with Jesus? How how much of this was just going through counseling versus was there anything that was really just kind of a rock foundation in the Lord.

Andrew: [00:18:21.55] No, I think that there would have been any possible way that we would still be married without God, without Jesus. And I say that because knowing how she was feeling about being done. And frustrated with me and the state of our marriage. And even with everything else, just it wasn’t worth going back into the way it was. For her to even crack open the door as wonderful as her aunt and uncle are and how they ministered to us. I know without the shadow of a doubt that Jesus ministered to her heart in that moment. Because the door was shut. Yeah. She goes all meet with you, but I don’t know why. You know, I had wounded her that bad. Yeah, which is why that’s my biggest failure. And she just didn’t want to have anything to do with me, so. Or the thought of us. So for her to see the glimmer of hope. It. It it truly, I believe, was Jesus just. Allowing her to her heart to be softened for that moment, to see that there is there’s hope.

Beatty: [00:19:40.59] You know, and I chuckle and I won’t be sensitive. I chuckle not because it’s funny, but I chuckle because I’ve seen the Lord work so often. And it’s usually that one little glimmer of something that just helps that person go the next step. And it always it seems like such a small thing, but yet it is a huge step and it’s and I laugh only because I see it all the time. Just that little glimmer of hope. That’s all. All it takes is just that little glimmer of hope. Well that is. Thank you for sharing on that. I know that’s kind of difficult, but I’m sure there’s someone out there, maybe many that. Are going through. In fact. In fact, let me ask you this. So you’ve been through the tough time and now your marriage is amazing is what it sounds like. For those who are going through a similar time, what would what word of advice would you tell them?

Andrew: [00:20:41.88] Guard yourself from negative thoughts. Speak. Speak hope and life find positive. Things, positive affirmations, positive ways of looking at the situation, as dark as it may be, because I’m just skimming the surface here. I mean, there was it was it was bad. So like, yeah, it was we were at the end and so. And to come back from that is just purely a miracle. So just to say, you know, dive into God as deep as you can, you know, run into heart as fast towards him as possible, pray guard against negative naysayers, even if it’s family like. That can be hard. But I had to back off, you know, from people that was just going to say negative things about the situation and really focus on. Even if it’s. It’s always two people. Even though in some circumstances it might be 98%, one and 2% the other most of the time is close to 5050 ish with the way at least the way the perception is from both individuals, but really focused on where you can fix yourself. Don’t don’t try to say, well, if they just did this, it would be better. Yeah, because. It’s just a time suck and it doesn’t work. Granted they need to fix that, but let God fix that in them. And it works. And as our I mean, would I say, is our marriage 100% perfect in every fashion, every way? Do we never make mistakes? Do we? Are we just this perfect couple? No. We still have mistakes and we still stumble and we still work our way through it. But it’s we know how to. Have an adult conversation. Right. Or argue fairly. We know how to listen to the other side and we might be frustrated and. But we know how to get through it now. And so, yeah, I would say just. Don’t focus on yourself. Make sure you fix yourself. Because no matter what happens within a day, you’ve got to be healthy. So if you’re not healthy, you’re not doing anybody any favors and then guard yourself from the negative.

Beatty: [00:23:35.55] You know, and we’ll move on into real estate. Let me make one last comment. When you mentioned guarding yourself of what you think on and think on the good years back, there was remember listening to a couple their name is Bob and Cindy Harrison. He was a Did you know the name?

Andrew: [00:23:53.46] I know Bob Harrison. Yeah.

Beatty: [00:23:55.23] Are you serious now? He’s an older man. Used to be in automobiles.

Andrew: [00:23:59.82] Yeah. And I love it.

Beatty: [00:24:04.38] Well, it was. So they went through some really rocky times. I’m impressed that, you know, not very many people. You must have been in Amway, because that’s where I heard them.

Andrew: [00:24:15.69] Oh, he came to our church. Oh. Yeah. So somebody and then he. He would come almost once a year.

Beatty: [00:24:25.32] Well, for those who haven’t heard. So Bob and Cindy fell in love. Their opposites attract. Bob is a real go getter. He’s growing this big automobile dealership, and Cindy starts to fall out of love. Every he everything he does, she can’t stand. And it starts to grip her and frustrate her. And she was actually in the process of drawing up divorce papers or engaging with a divorce lawyer. And she’s a Christian. And she came across the passage that whatever is good, whatever is reputable, whatever is a I forget the I can’t quote the verse, but, you know, the one I’m trying to say and it said, keep your mind focus on these things. So she in prayer, the Lord can impress on her. Make a list of everything she loves about her husband, everything that she fell in love with about her husband when she fell in love. So she started making this list and she looks at it and she says, That’s why I don’t like him anymore. And what’s happened is what she fell in love with. She then started to nitpick at and she by going to this process and and and and writing down everything she really loves about him, she quickly shifted her whole perspective and fell back in love. And so your whole comment of, you know, guard your heart of the negative and focus on the things that are good. So but I’m impressed that, you know, you’ve met Bob and said.

Andrew: [00:25:58.74] I’ve met him several times and it’s been probably 20 years, 15, 20 years. So but it’s been a while.

Beatty: [00:26:07.23] Well, let’s talk about real estate. So you’ve been in real estate twice. You got in 2000 ish and moved out at 2007 and you jump back in. Talk to me about your real estate first, if you don’t mind. Just kind of always love if you’re comfortable, what type of volume or number of transactions, Just so people recognize that you’re not just a $2 million a year producer and you’re just going to kind of talk theory. Do you mind sharing anything?

Andrew: [00:26:42.81] Sure. Absolutely. So when I first started in real estate, I had no clue. I didn’t have a mentor or the mentor I did have was not. Jimmy went from hero to zero every other month, just didn’t do great. But I was single and above the industry but didn’t know how to build a business around it. So when I got back in, I was taught by a friend of mine how to really build a business around it and through great customer service and lead generation and follow up. So my first stint, I was that $2 million producer, two to maybe maybe six on a good year. And then when I got back in my very first year back in real estate, I sold 31 homes. And being on a team, you have a split. So it wasn’t as amazing if I was on my own. But at the same time I learned a tremendous amount about how to service my customers and how to find those customers and get through the process. So and so now I’m averaging between 20 and 30 homes a year and around the 10 to 12000, 12 million a year mark is kind of where I’ve been having the last three or four years. So. I’d like to take it up a notch, but at the same time, I enjoy my pace with my family having six young children, and it’s really important to me to be able to spend a lot of time with them. So I’m I guard that vigorously on making sure that I’m available to I want them to remember who their dad was, not to see how dad went to work every day. Right. So that’s that’s important to me. So, yeah, so about 20 to 25 deals a year, I had more than that. But around that, 10 to 12 million mark is kind of where I’ve been recently.

Beatty: [00:28:53.08] I want to talk down two parallel parallel lines. Then let’s talk about guarding your time with your family. And then I want to come back and talk about what do you do to generate your business. You’re consistent year in, year out, 20 to 25 deals a year. How do you first how do you guard your family? That seems like that’s your priority. So what are you doing that protects that time? Because, you know, a lot of realtors, they go, you know, like I was talking to one person and say about a friend of mine who who takes off Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and he goes, How in the world can he do that as well? He sets it up that way. But what what’s the what are the guards that you guys have to help? Tell me your family work life balance and how do you keep it that way?

Andrew: [00:29:41.95] Yeah. So I’ll say right off the bat, I’m not perfect at it. So, you know, things come in. I still may take a phone call when it’s supposed to be family time from time to time, but I try my best and I think my wife would attest to it that I’ve gotten better. With that said, you know, I. Typically, I try to take Fridays and Sundays off. You know, there’s times where things just are unavoidable and we get that. Things happen where you have to assign something or push something out. But the way I’ve buffered myself for it is I have an assistant and I have a transaction coordinator. So whatever I can push out and if it’s, Hey, can you send an email out to this person, then it’s just a text. It’s not 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes writing out an email, doing something. So it’s leveraging and allowing people to help with that stuff. So that’s been a big key for me is just to have the right people around me to to push things off. When I do have it is family time. Then I can just push it off if there is something that comes up and then just putting it on the calendar and saying, no, today is this day, we’re going to we’re going to go do this. And we homeschool our kids. We’ve chosen to homeschool our kids from the beginning. And so that and working from home, that allows me to to be in the lives I’m usually principal.

Andrew: [00:31:24.46] My wife’s the teacher. She has the hard job. And I come in and and remind them that there is a line in the sand and they actually do need to do the work. So, yeah. But I’m here and I get to be involved, and it’s. Hard sometimes, but it’s the we’ve chosen this on purpose to be unified in our parenting, to make sure that they see us together. And it’s made a big difference in how we we’ve seen the results with them when we are side by side saying, no, this is what’s going to happen and we’ll get pushed back sometimes. But they have learned that mom and dad are serious and so it allows us to. Really have that family time and do it together. So a lot of it is just putting it on the calendar. And then we’ve made choices to have less of certain things and more of family. So just a lot of. We’re out here on acreage. And so we don’t have cable TV. We don’t subscribe to the normal. Options for viewing pleasures that some people have just because we don’t want them to be sucked into watching it all day every day, or on their devices all day, every day. So it’s just little things like that just to be on purpose about things.

Beatty: [00:33:07.84] I think that’s important. I remember as I started in business, so my dad was one of those that he worked all the time. I think his average week was 70 or 80 hours. He was a surgeon. And, you know, we saw him a half a day on Sunday and that’s about it. And so when I started in business, I decided I didn’t want my business to own me. I wanted to own it. I wanted to be the dog and it be the tail that I wag as opposed to vice versa. And I think a lot of it is just that intentionality like what you’re talking about, you intentional to have these boundaries and intentional that your business isn’t going to control you, that you’re going to control it. So I love that. Talk to me about what you do in business, but what have you found to be probably the most important lesson or thing that you do that keeps your business consistent? Because it sounds like to me and just talking with you all the time is you don’t have a yo yo business. You know, some people have a yo yo, it’s up one, then it’s up and down and it just kind of gets moved with the shifts of the market, good or bad. But your seems to be more consistent. At least I’m inferring that. Is that right? So what do you do?

Andrew: [00:34:23.45] Yeah. So we still see waves from the dips in the peaks are smaller, so there’s still ebbs and flows to it. But I would say that what we’ve done is just trying to stay consistent with being top of mind and whether it’s with my sphere or the people that I market to just in whatever way that is, whether, you know, at the end of the day. We’re in a lead generation business, right? How do we maintain those leads? How do we nurture those leads? How do we. You know, find new leads. And it’s just it’s being that top of mind person. And, you know, there’s some people are phenomenal at doing it. And I there are certain things that I enjoy about it and there are certain things that I just it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard for me. I don’t want to ever come across as being insincere, or the only reason I’m calling you is because I want you to send me a referral and I don’t want to be that guy. And so I want people to know me and respect me and like me for who I am, because that’s just this is me. And so my approach is a little bit different. On when I. Follow up with people. Talk to people. And it can a lot of it depends on where I’ve where that relationship is. Born from. But, you know, I try to just be authentic with, Hey, I’m just here to serve you. I’m here to help. So if you need it, great. If you don’t. Oc And is it fair that I follow up and serve my time? So it’s just having a system and using it to follow up, whether it’s with my friends and just knowing what’s going on in their lives or if it’s a lead that came from another source. So.

Beatty: [00:36:33.64] So you’ve systemized you mentioned a system. Is a system in your head, or do you actually have some sort of a CRM or.

Andrew: [00:36:42.70] Yeah, in my CRM, I go through and I follow up with a certain amount of people per day, try to make voice to voice calls, not just a text or interchange, but sometimes that’s all we get is driving or whatever. And, and if I just text that day, then I’ll try to follow up with them the next week. I don’t want to bombard them all right away Sometimes, depending on the conversation, I might the next day. But the key is just to staying top of mind that they remember who I am. They know who I am, they know what business I’m in.

Beatty: [00:37:20.77] And so so expose a little bit more. So you have a CRM. Is it prompting you who to follow up with? And then like how many how many people a day are you trying to touch? Because it sounds like what you’re sharing is you just have a system that you’re constantly in front of them with some sort of a a communication, but it’s not automated. You don’t just have them on a drip email campaign or auto dialer or something like that.

Andrew: [00:37:48.91] Seven weeks, That’s all it is. Okay. You know, in some ways just the auto drip, you know, and I’ll do my best. I there are people that do way better at this than me. Okay. So I will be flat out and just say there’s people that do an amazing job at staying on the grindstone of every day, day in, day out. They’re always grinding, doing, making calls no matter what. And I’d give myself about it. 80. Okay, So it’s because I try to balance, you know, there’s things that come up and, you know, usually it’s based around family for me. So I sometimes have to make that sacrifice. Well, today I’m not getting all 30 of my calls in, so I’m, you know, have to go, you know, the bigs got out and exactly say, well, I’ll get to that at the end of my call. Yeah, I got to go out now and and get them back in. So.

Beatty: [00:38:53.17] So how many calls. So are you trying to hit 30 calls a day. Give me just a metrics of what.

Andrew: [00:38:59.05] So I try to make.

Beatty: [00:38:59.94] Day.

Andrew: [00:39:00.82] 30 Voice two voice calls a day and sometimes I can make that I’ve never made it in just 30 dials, but sometimes it’s not a lot of dial. Sometimes it might be 50, 60 dials. It’s two for one, but sometimes it’s 200 dials. Okay. Or even more. So it just it’s an effort. It takes time.

Beatty: [00:39:22.45] And is that like on your calendar that this is maybe in this hour this time spot you’re I try to.

Andrew: [00:39:30.55] Do it in the mornings June nine and noon so I get the kids set up in the morning, get them off to school so to speak and then start with my my day and try to. You know, have other things pushed off to the side. So. I can focus on that for that that time zone. And then anything else is left over to do after that is.

Beatty: [00:39:54.38] Where would you write that activity? Just making these 30 voice to voice connections or attempting to. Where do you place that activity on the scale of if you were to look at your top three or four things that you do, where is that? Where does that get placed?

Andrew: [00:40:14.01] I’d put that pretty close to the top just because, you know, being intensely involved in whether it’s my sphere, people that I have a relationship with or it’s the other side people the Mets and that the not Mets people I’ve met before, people I have met before. And if it’s either side of it, if they aren’t talking to me, if they don’t know me or or who we are, then that’s. The opportunity can be lost really quickly because it could be a good friend that in a moment of weakness can refer their friend, their friend to a weak agent so they don’t have the opportunity to work with me. And there’s some fantastic agents out there.

Beatty: [00:41:04.73] Sure.

Andrew: [00:41:05.18] Some really, really fantastic agents out there. And some of them they referred somebody else and like, great. They they deserve to be taken care of. Well, and there’s some not so great agents out there. And then I feel like, man, I didn’t get the opportunity to serve them in a way that I would hope that they they deserve. And, you know, they’re not that it’s like, oh, it’s not just for my, you know, my own self, but I know what I’ve learned over the years, you know, through the number of transactions and the training I received. And people have had the privilege of working alongside with over the years that I know what I have to offer is valuable. So it’s not to say that somebody else can’t offer that, like I said, but if they end up with a weaker agent, it’s like, Oh, bummer, they’re going to miss out and they might not get what they want or deserve At the end of the day.

Beatty: [00:42:00.77] You know, what’s interesting is I’ve talked to a number of agents. The number one thing everyone does things a little bit differently, but it seems like the number one thing that keeps their business consistent is. Calling their list the being intentional on being involved. And I remember I was listening to this one guy. He’s a number one producer, millions of dollars in income with this company. And the CEO was scheduled to make this kind of a nation tour and wanted to meet with this guy. He’s up in New York and the secretary was trying to schedule a time. Does this time work? No, no, no, he said. And the agent said, I’ve got a time on this spot and this the next week. So the guy had to rearrange his schedule so that he could be in New York at the time that he can meet with this top producer. And so when he’s there, the agent, the CEO is saying, oh, and what was going on last week when I could meet with you at 9:00 on Monday or whatever, he said, Oh, I was making prospecting calls. And the CEO got upset. He said, You made me change my entire schedule just because you’re making prospecting calls. And the agent pushed back. He said, That’s why I’m the number one agent. I don’t let anything interrupt with my prospecting calls, not even you. And that is the number one thing. Just making those calls. Not necessarily prospecting, but just that engagement call. So I love that that’s what you’re sharing is your top. What would be your number two thing? That keeps your business consistent.

Andrew: [00:43:38.87] You know, I think just having some form of a touch that. Whether it’s a note card or a mailer or an email or a text, some light touch or social media post to where? It’s the remembrance is the next era of being intentional, being top of mind, being involved in the world. Personal note cards were great. Yes. I have a stack of them right here. Know I can’t see it.

Beatty: [00:44:21.56] Right in front of.

Andrew: [00:44:22.13] You, let’s say.

Beatty: [00:44:25.70] Oh. Oh, yeah. So it’s a little fold over. Nice card.

Andrew: [00:44:29.77] Just blank on the inside. And they work great. And I can write whatever I want. I can write Happy birthday. I can write congratulations. I can write whatever I want on the inside and. Or. Hey, just thinking about you. I hope you have a great day and. So just cuts through the clutter. Everybody enjoys opening a personal note.

Beatty: [00:44:55.47] So, you know, it’s interesting. One of the other guys I was interviewing the topic is he always has as much business as everyone turns away business at times, and he does no marketing, but all he does is intentionally reaching out to people and talking and then writing a handwritten note and drop it in the mail after the phone call. Hey, it was great to talk with you. Tell Susie congrats on her win or something like that. And that’s it. That’s basically all he does. And I’m thinking you’re doing the same thing that he does, and your business is just as consistent. You know, success leaves clues on it.

Andrew: [00:45:35.43] Does Well. What is the.

Beatty: [00:45:40.41] Most important lesson you’ve learned in your career?

Andrew: [00:45:46.00] Consistency breeds consistency. Okay. So if I take a month off of if I turned everything off and did nothing for a month, I’d feel it in three months. So.

Beatty: [00:46:03.40] I mean.

Andrew: [00:46:05.02] You know, so I if I stay consistent, you know, even if I was like, okay, there’s a lot going on. It’s a busy week, but if at least I’m able to do my 80%. Mm hmm. And that’s the 80%. If my goal is the 100% that I’m able to offer that week, then that’s better than a zero. So not beating myself up for I didn’t get all 30 and you know, and you know, and some people are great at that like they don’t leave work until they hit their 30. And I’m proud of them. That’s awesome that they have the ability and the wherewithal to do that. I want to sit down every night with my family and if I’ve gotten, you know, 3 hours of no answers and I’ve got dinner cooking in the other room. And it’s got to happen, then I’m going to choose my family. So. And you know, it’s funny because I. On the faith side of things, I, I have had to make some pretty big sacrifices where I know like if I don’t do an open house this weekend, if I don’t go out and meet people this weekend, like my I need to get leads. I need to get something happening. But something might come up where family needs me and. It’s amazing. Sometimes it’s like, okay, God, you know what my needs are? I’m going to sacrifice going out to hunt and kill right now for my family. But you’ve got to meet my needs and without fail, by Sunday night. Hey, Andrew, can you come with me? Hey, Andrew. I got a friend that’s moving into town, and something would happen by Sunday night. I’d get that lead, and it was a hot lead that was ready to buy or sell. I love. And it’s like, okay, God, I know you got my like, I don’t know how that works. I don’t know. There’s not a formula for that other than just as a faith journey and faith.

Beatty: [00:48:04.68] That’s it.

Andrew: [00:48:05.79] And, you know, that’s one thing that’s been hard, hard for us over the years, is just having faith to like because we’re 100% commission. You know, and if we don’t close deals, we’re not eating. So it’s one of those things that if. We just have to be have faith that God, you know what our needs are and you’re going to come through no matter what. If I do an open house or don’t do an open house, if I make this 30 calls or don’t make this 30 calls, somehow you’re going to make it happen now. I think he blesses the work that we do do. So it might have been the calls that I made. Four months ago or three weeks ago or two days ago. Or it could have been from this morning, but they all come through.

Beatty: [00:48:51.64] So let me ask you a question on that topic, but in a slightly different quite a different angle. Now, we haven’t spoken on this. Do you tithe?

Andrew: [00:49:02.78] We do. I do. And I actually we tried maybe a little bit differently than some. So I have two corporations or I have two businesses. I have a corporation and an LLC because I also actually have a general contracting side of my business, my business tithes and then pays me. And then I tithe off of what my business pays me. So.

Beatty: [00:49:28.67] So I want to make a quite I want to ask you one final question, because I see this a lot. And for those who have listened to any of my other radical faith stuff, you know, I believe quite a bit in faith. And faith is believing God at his word. And one of the things he says, as you know, Andrew, is that as you give cheerfully to him, he promises to make all abundance abound to you as you’ve had your life of honoring the Lord with the resources he gives you and returning it back in tithes. Have you ever had a time in your family where you never had you did not have enough to meet all your needs? Or has the Lord always met your needs?

Andrew: [00:50:14.45] But, you know, the funny thing is there was a season early on in our marriage when. And we had been married just a few months. And less than a year. And my father in law, my mother in law and my wife and I all heard separately from the Lord that we were supposed to move in with my in-laws. Very humbling. Yes, very humbling. And to look over my father in law who’s like, we’re getting close to empty nesters. So, you know, she was the firstborn, so the first of four to move out. But for us to come back then as a family was a challenge. So we a month after I moved back in, we moved back in or moved in with them. I got laid off from work. And so I was like, when blindsided, they laid off the entire department, so we didn’t have any clue that was coming. And so but the Lord did. Yes. And we stuck in a lease. Well, through that season, we. We’re on unemployment, looking for a job. We’re still able to pay off debt. We’ll still able to tie still able to do all this stuff. And we during that time, we were able to pay off all our debt and save up for a down payment. And even though part of the time I was unemployed and so. The numbers didn’t make sense. Yes, but we had everything we needed. And he knew ahead of time how it was going to work out. It was humbling. The thing that man wanted to provide for my family and having to move in with my in-laws, but they’re awesome people, so it made it a lot easier.

Beatty: [00:52:04.99] The thing that impresses me and I want to share mostly for our listeners on this because Andrew, what you mentioned prompted me in this direction, but I wanted to clarify it. Everyone I’ve talked to who honors the Lord financially with their money, meaning I’m going to trust the Lord and I’m going to give back to you first and I’m going to live on what’s left over. I have never yet spoken to a person that their income did not meet all of their needs. And it’s also interesting that as your expenses grow, I’ve seen this in my life. As my expenses grow, my income grows, sometimes my expenses decreases, my income may decrease. But I’ll never it’s never in my entire 25 years of marriage, it has never gone backwards from our expenses. And we had an experience very similar to you. I’ve found myself this year unemployed my wife, a stay at home mom with a little baby. We have another child that year. I did 13 things to try to make money and none of them really work because my total income adjusted gross income was $11,882. And, you know, we had a mortgage payment, a car payment, diapers and all these things, and yet we were faithful to the Lord and trusting him.

Beatty: [00:53:19.66] We always gave 20% off the top and then lived on the rest. And it was really amazing because the Lord provided we never once missed a payment, we were never even late on a payment. And and you look backwards and you start to gain confidence and faith that the Lord will carry you through everything. And especially as we move into this tough times, you know, we’ve got high inflation, we’ve got high interest rates, the sales are starting to slow down. There’s a lot of uncertainty. We’re in a recession and I’m sure there’s a lot of fear among a lot of the folks out there selling real estate. And my encouragement is if you’re following the Lord and you’re honoring him first and showing that you trust him, then he’s going to take care of you. It may be tight, but he’ll always take care of you and he’ll never leave you high and dry. And that’s what I love about what you are sharing is you always had enough.

Andrew: [00:54:18.73] We did. We did. And there’s been seasons where even since then, that it was tight. But we always had enough.

Beatty: [00:54:26.83] Yes.

Andrew: [00:54:28.33] So it’s been a blessing.

Beatty: [00:54:31.75] We’re about out of time. I have one final question for you. What is one piece of advice that you could give agents wanting to grow their business and maintain balance in their lives with their family? What would you what’s the biggest advice you could give them?

Andrew: [00:54:49.45] You know, it’s really a faith. It goes back to faith because there’s that feeling a lot of times that if I don’t do X, then I’m not going to make money because 100%. And so we learned that we’ve got to make our calls. We’ve got to do our open houses. We got it, got it, got it. Got to do all these things. And we think, Oh, okay, I’ve been busy. I haven’t done all my things yet. And like, well, I got to do these things. In order to provide for my family. So it gets this spinning wheel of like I got, I got it, got it, got it, got it, got it. Got to. Right. We’re always focused on work and that’s it’s so easy to get caught up in that. And I’ve been caught up in that and and I’ve seen other fellow agents get caught up in that and they either have a failed, completely failed marriage or not one that they would. Really love to have. Yeah. And so it’s just be willing. You have to sacrifice for your family. And that’s where the faith comes in, is like, Lord, I’m sacrificing my family, you know, my needs. I need you to make it work. And. I’ve found personally without fail. Time after time when I would make a big sacrifice, I’d. I’d had open houses scheduled and set and like everything ready to go, open out signs in my trunk, ready to head out.

Andrew: [00:56:16.56] And something would derail me. And I’d have to make that tough call to say. I got to cancel. Yeah. And to give up work. And, you know, it really helped me grow my faith to say. I’m choosing my family now. But you’re going to have to come through. And he, without fail, always would. And so it was it was shocking, almost. I was like, that just happened. Like, I just got that that that new cell just happened. So and we got to the point we just laugh about is like, there he is again. It came again. And so now like we’ve had that that experience to know that he is faithful and it will come through and may not always be when we think it needs to be, but it’ll be in the right timing when that bill needs to be paid and that expense needs to be covered and whatever else needs to happen. And it always come through. So just to have faith and be willing to make the sacrifice, you have to make the sacrifice and put it on the schedule and make it happen. Because if you don’t schedule it and make it happen and be willing to sacrifice for your family, it. You may make it through the storms, but. You’ll feel the bumps a whole lot more. Yeah.

Beatty: [00:57:47.75] That is great advice. Anything else you’d like to share before we wrap up the call?

Andrew: [00:57:53.69] No, I think we’ve covered quite a bit.

Beatty: [00:57:55.97] We have we covered quite a bit, a little bit of marriage counseling, a little bit of ministry, a little bit of growing the business and and having some fun time.

Andrew: [00:58:05.45] Yeah, it’s kind of all tied together because if you. It really does. At the end of the day, it all ties together. If one is failing, the other suffers. So it’s hard to focus on your job if you just had to drag out conversation with your spouse. So having them both healthy definitely helps the tie dries.

Beatty: [00:58:34.33] Well, let me encourage as we wrap up for those that are listening, number one place of focus on your marriage, obviously, and your family. Focus your activities around honoring the Lord and also for those who really have a passion for the Lord and feel an urge to want to do something of greater importance, maybe eternal importance type thing. Let me encourage you to really strategically think through how can you use your real estate business as a ministry to the people that you work with and minister to their needs? One of the things I’ll just share what we do in our business and some of y’all who’ve been on the phone calls with us, you’ll recognize this. We have it’s not a directive, but it’s a strong encouragement before we get off the phone with any customer or prospect to say, Hey, before I let you go, is there anything I can pray for you about? You’d be surprised how many people would like prayer on something. And if you are just engaged with your clients and whether you know something going on or not, but just, hey, is there anything I can pray for you about? Because it it breaks it breaks down the barrier and allows you to just to represent Christ, especially in those times of need.

Andrew: [00:59:57.34] Yep. Absolutely.

Beatty: [00:59:59.62] So as we wrap up, just a couple of reminders, if you’re not, subscribe to our podcast, please hit the subscribe button. If you don’t know how to do it on your phone, you just go to your phone, go to your app store, look for a podcast player, and you search for get sellers calling you on YouTube. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel and please join our Facebook group as it grows and develops. It should be a great resource just to get feedback from other agents across the country on how to better improve your business, especially as we hit these market shifts. So y’all have a very blessed day. And Andrew, thank you again for your time and for sharing.

Andrew: [01:00:39.57] My pleasure. Thank you.

Beatty: [01:00:41.97] Bye. Bye. Bye.

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