Embracing the Call to be Excellent in Our Businesses

As Christians, we are called to be excellent at what we do and sometimes when we’re not, we question ourselves as to why. We need to think about what it means to be excellent and then go and do it. 

Why do we struggle in business and why do we struggle to be successful? Do we take enough action? Do we have the right motivation? 

In this episode, we talk about the calling to be excellent and be more as Christians, how we are the Lord’s vessel for his work and how we can be believers and successful at the same time. 

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) 

3 Things You’ll Learn

Serving our people. What does it look like to love and serve our people as leaders?

The things we should think about. Should we be taking every thought captive? How do we get intentional with what we’re learning?

What are we allowing into our lives? How can we manage the things we allow into our lives? How does this impact us?

Resources & Opportunities:

📩 Are you tired of the hustle? Download my free guide: 3 Lies Christian Agents Believe—and the Truth That Will Set You Free
🔗 https://www.210collective.com/podcast

📞 Want to be in Business with Garrett and Christian agents around the globe? Schedule a call with Garrett to learn about the 2:10 Collective on the eXp Realty platform
🔗 https://calendar.app.google/YmCPQRhWJaV7owmw6

🙌 Join Garrett’s FREE online community for Christian agents who want to sell 3-4 homes/month:
🔗 https://www.skool.com/servingnotselling/about

📩 Send Garrett your Hampton Roads & Richmond, VA buyer/seller referrals:
🔗 faithfulagent.com/referral

📲 Follow Garrett on Instagram for more insights and encouragement!

🔗 https://www.instagram.com/garrettmaroon/

Transcript

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Faithful Agent Podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today. We're going to be talking about Philippians four eight and specifically the calling to us as Christian agents to be excellent in all that we do. And asking the question, why is it that sometimes we aren't? Why do we struggle in business? Why do we struggle to be successful? And we hope that. you know, through sharing some of our own experiences and struggles that we can be encouraging to you all. But let's dive in, Mr. Tyler Wilson, Chiseled Chin. Again,

Tyler Wilson:
We

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
we're

Tyler Wilson:
gotta

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
on video

Tyler Wilson:
let that

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
now,

Tyler Wilson:
go.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
guys.

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
You can see, you can see the chiseledness of the chin. Give, that's so weird. Give me a good Christian

Tyler Wilson:
It

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
joke,

Tyler Wilson:
is. Oh my

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
my

Tyler Wilson:
goodness,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
friend.

Tyler Wilson:
what?

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Whatcha got for me, buddy?

Tyler Wilson:
I'm gonna go across the big blue ocean here and what do they call pastors in Germany? German Shepherds.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Hey, I like that. That's funny.

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah, yeah, that's right,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
That's

Tyler Wilson:
man.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
good.

Tyler Wilson:
I thought it was good.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
That's

Tyler Wilson:
I'm

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
good.

Tyler Wilson:
glad you liked that

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
That's

Tyler Wilson:
one. Let's

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
good.

Tyler Wilson:
do it.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
That's

Tyler Wilson:
All

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
that's good for you, man.

Tyler Wilson:
right, let's

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
I'm proud

Tyler Wilson:
keep

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
of

Tyler Wilson:
yours

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
you. That's

Tyler Wilson:
under

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
fantastic.

Tyler Wilson:
five minutes long. All right, thanks,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Yeah.

Tyler Wilson:
man.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
A little girl finally got to attend a wedding for the first time. While in the church, the girl asked her mother, why is the bride dressed in white? The mother replied to the girl, because white is the color of happiness and it's the happiest day of her life today. After a little bit, the girl looks up at her mother and says, well, Well then why is the groom wearing black? Hehehe

Tyler Wilson:
Nice.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Tyler Wilson:
Nice. Oh, I feel obligated to say that we absolutely love marriage in this

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Oh, 100%.

Tyler Wilson:
podcast. Yeah,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
I agree.

Tyler Wilson:
and it's so

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
I

Tyler Wilson:
good.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
also don't know why that's a Christian joke, but

Tyler Wilson:
I don't

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
I

Tyler Wilson:
either.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Googled Christian joke,

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
because they were in church. It's like

Tyler Wilson:
Right.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
such a small little blip, but

Tyler Wilson:
Oh,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
yes,

Tyler Wilson:
he's got

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
I agree.

Tyler Wilson:
a white shirt

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
And

Tyler Wilson:
on

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
you

Tyler Wilson:
probably.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
know, I wore white. It was the best day of my life. I didn't wear white. I wore

Tyler Wilson:
No

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
dark

Tyler Wilson:
you

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
gray.

Tyler Wilson:
didn't.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
What color did you wear? Dark

Tyler Wilson:
I wore

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
gray,

Tyler Wilson:
black.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
blue?

Tyler Wilson:
I wore very traditional.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Okay. Man,

Tyler Wilson:
Traditional.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
rude. So

Tyler Wilson:
I was

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
rude.

Tyler Wilson:
very happy that day and I'm still happy.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Amen to that

Tyler Wilson:
So

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
brother. Alright,

Tyler Wilson:
alright,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
let's dive

Tyler Wilson:
let's

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
in my friend.

Tyler Wilson:
jump

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Philippians

Tyler Wilson:
in here.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
4 8.

Tyler Wilson:
Philippians 4.8, finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Amen. Now, to give context, it's a little bit, you know, that passage is not specifically talking to business people, right? It's talking to believers in the, in the church of Philippi, right? But we can use that still, it still applies to say whatever is true and honorable and just and pure and lovely and commendable excellence, anything worthy of praise, think about these things, right? It is a calling to rise above our nature. which is to not think on those things, right? And a calling to rise above that in my opinion, think on these things means you don't just think on being excellent. You're like, hmm, this would be really cool to be excellent, right? And then you do nothing to be excellent. That's not the point here, right? So man, what does that mean to you? Let's just start kind of in the theoretical, the theological, what does that mean to you? And then

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
we'll dive into some tactics.

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah, I mean, I think in an important way, I think this speaks in truth to the fact that as Christians, it's not a mutually exclusive event to be successful in what you do, to be excellent in what you do, and to be a believer. So

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Hmm.

Tyler Wilson:
often we get confused with what humility and meekness are truly defined as, and sometimes we can interpret that as being subservient or, you know, not successful or just a pushover,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm,

Tyler Wilson:
and that

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
mm-hmm.

Tyler Wilson:
is in truth not what we're called to in Scripture. We're called to love our neighbor, sure. We're called to humble ourselves and put other people's needs, consider them greater than our own, absolutely, but in no place does it say that we can't be excellent in what we do. Maybe, I mean, to take that literally, we're to be excellent in loving our neighbor, we're also to be excellent

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Hmm.

Tyler Wilson:
in serving. our neighbor and that is exactly what we speak to on this podcast about what it looks like to serve our neighbor as a client, as a team leader, as a member of the community, all these things and above. So the first thing that jumps out is just to continue to assure our listeners and to affirm each other that it is okay to be successful in what we do and be a committed believer. Now

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Hmm.

Tyler Wilson:
there is a slippery slope, just so you know. for the little asterisk notation here, this is why we tend to get that natural inclination is because too much of a good thing is certainly a bad thing. When we start idolizing that success, we start idolizing the pride that accompanies that. That is, we gotta draw the line there. And that's where having accountability partners, clean mirrors, the right type of community around you, which is exactly what the faithful agent community is designed for, to have people that are in. your local discussion groups. If you're not in a local discussion group, check us out at faithfulagent.com. Jump in one of those so that you can get in a local group of believers that are encouraging one another in what it looks like to grow their business and grow their faith simultaneously, right? To do things the right way and to encourage each other to be excellent in what they do so that they can honor the Lord with what they're doing and how they're serving Him

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Yeah,

Tyler Wilson:
in those ways. So that's the first thing

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
that's

Tyler Wilson:
that

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
right.

Tyler Wilson:
jumps

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Yeah.

Tyler Wilson:
out to me.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
No, I love that man. And I, and I do love how much you use clean mirror because I started

Tyler Wilson:
I do love

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
to

Tyler Wilson:
it.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
use clean

Tyler Wilson:
It's

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
mirror now

Tyler Wilson:
so good.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
it's a great image. I mean,

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
I gave that to you. It's

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
a great image, but you know what I, what I love about, uh, first of all, like I'm convicted when I read this passage, like, you know, whatever's true, honorable, pure, all those things. It says, think about these things. And man, if I, I just, the first thought that comes to my mind, if I could, if there was a way for me to track while I'm awake, how much time is spent thinking about those things versus how much time is spent thinking about not those things, right? I would be very ashamed, right? In truth, I would be very ashamed of how much I think on things that aren't, that are not honorable, right? That are not just, right? Because we're sinners. This is why we have to be told to do this, right? Because we're not going to do this naturally. And so I'm struck by that, first of all. The truth, because even if we go a little bit in the next verse, verse 9, what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things. Right. And the God of peace will be with you. So practice these things. It's this call, right? It's this call that these are the things you should think on, right? Taking every thought captive, being intentional about what we're learning. Exactly to your point too, but one of the reasons we started this podcast, we started the Faithful Agent Communities because we went out to look for it ourselves and we didn't see it. And it was like, I would love to be in a community that they're speaking directly to me, they're helping me think on the things I should be thinking on, right? Having the conversations. And so what I love about this passage is the reality and the truth of these are the things you must think on, right? But now once you've thought on them, verse nine, what you've learned and received and heard and seen me, practice these things, right? Don't just be a thinker. And scripture talks about, don't just be a hearer of the word, but a doer, right? It is, and in our context as agents, it definitely applies, don't just be a hearer of the word, but a doer of the word, right? But in our context, it applies, right? To, I think it applies to say, think on these things, think about what does it mean to be excellent, and then go and do it, right? I mean, that's what I see, is that, do you

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
think that's an inappropriate understanding of the passage?

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think so. I mean, we're called to action. I mean, so much of one of the most convicting things that I've heard as in however many hundreds of sermons I've heard, but specifically two that jump out to me are when I had a pastor who spoke specifically to what it meant to be a passive believer, to be a passive Christian, to be a passive male husband, father, each of those things. We're called to action as believers. We're not called to sit on the sidelines and just let, you know, trust that the Spirit's gonna do His work. We are the vessels through which the Spirit will accomplish His work. That is not to say that God can't accomplish His mighty works and His deeds and His sovereign nature outside of us, but being made in His creation gives us the privilege and the joy to be His vessels, to go into action. Everything is go forth. All the verbs that you see in Scripture

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Hmm.

Tyler Wilson:
active, even when it's talking about rest and be intentional about slowing down, that is an active thing. That is not pull back, let go of the reins, and just completely disengage from everything. Resting is an active decision to say that I'm gonna be at rest, at peace, in the Lord. And now, that

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Hmm.

Tyler Wilson:
might be a little bit of semantics and I'm kind of... I don't know, hopefully I'm not saying anything heretical in how the words actually break down in What I'm trying to speak to though is the action that we need to take constantly and consistently in each of these things. And one point I want to talk about, like to make sure I'm kind of closing the loop on what it means to be successful and a believer at the same time, like it's truly your motivations, right? So if we're taking, if we're practicing and we're aiming to be successful constantly in what we do, that is that that's all good things. But what is the ultimate motivation in everything? If we're looking to I want to be successful because I want to be. I want to be the number one agent in the community. I want to be the top producing salesperson in my entire brokerage, whatever it might be. Ambitions are a good thing, but when they become idols is when they start pulling us away from the motivation. So

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Hmm.

Tyler Wilson:
now if we want to be the top performing agent in our brokerage so that we can use that platform to speak truth, and we are doing it in a means where we're carrying our crosses daily, and I want to be ambitious for the gospel's sake because I know... that there is a larger microphone to be had when I'm the top producing, or the top performer in this inner circle. Absolutely good. But this all comes back to, again, let's take a look at why we're trying to accomplish what we're trying to accomplish and make sure that we're on the right path. It's really, really hard to do on our own. The world is distracting. It's filled with temptations. Our careers are filled with distraction and temptations. So we have to make sure that we're adhering to exactly what this practice means in being excellent in what we do within the framework of Scripture, not within the framework

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Hmm.

Tyler Wilson:
of worldly success.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
It's good. That's great. I mean, I think you're absolutely spot on in, you know, one thing that as you were talking that that popped to my head is what would it look like if all of, and I, and I, you know, I have a, can have a utopian view of what it could be, but what would it look like if every top agent in every office in the country was a believer, right? And we were the ones that got to be on stage because we had the best run businesses and we were the most effective in what we did. And I, you know, success is not just how many deals you do. I don't mean that. but we were the best at what we do, right? And everywhere, everywhere they looked, they thought, man, there's something common about these people, right? And it's like, we are the believers. And so we are called to this excellence, right? For the glory of God, not for the glory of ourselves. So what would that look like? It'd be incredible, right? It'd be incredible. And I think so much, again, what you said was so spot on, but as we try to figure out and we try to process through. Why am I struggling right now? Why is my business not going as well as it should? For example, I think so much of this, and it talks about what are you thinking about? What are you allowing to be in your head? And not believers talk about this too. Control your thoughts and you'll control your actions, whatever, and that's not untrue, but from a biblical perspective, it's not about get rid of the negative thoughts, it's think on these things that are true and honorable and pure. and excellent, think on those things. And so how are we choosing, how are we managing what we allow into our minds? How are we managing the voices that we allow to speak into our lives, right? Again, and we've talked about this, but man, this is a reason to have a local discussion group. This is a reason to be around believers. This is a reason to seek out believers who have been in business and done it well and say, can you help me? Right. I want to hear from someone who is thinking on these things, how I can succeed. So why are you struggling right now? You might be inconsistent, right? You might be thinking on the wrong things. You might not be seeking out. What does it mean to be excellent? Right. You might, you might be going through all of these motions without the development or, or maybe, right. How many times is someone getting ready to get ready? Maybe you're just thinking about this stuff all the time and you write out your dream journal and you've got your, your. your hopes and your dreams and your goals at the end. And you're like, this is what I hope to do when I'm coaching somebody and they say, this is what I'm hoping for 2023. And I'll just say, well, dude, that's great, but hope is not a business plan, right? If you wanna be excellent, you gotta do the things that make you excellent, right? And if you're struggling right now, take a look, not at, you know, as believers too, and last thing I'll say on this, as believers too, we should not be the ones that are blaming. the outside forces that's going on in the market and all this stuff. Those are certainly impactful of what's going on in business, but we should not be the ones to blame. Oh, well that client just didn't get it. Or this tactic just doesn't work or whatever. We shouldn't be the ones doing that. We should say, hey, you know what? I became excellent in what I did. Excellent in that form of lead generation. Excellent in caring for my clients. And I promise you, it will work. But if for some reason it doesn't say, but I did it to the glory of God. And if it didn't work, it's solely because that was his purpose for this, right? And so you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go do the next thing to the best of my ability and be excellent in that. And that could be where the Lord wants me to go.

Tyler Wilson:
Yeah, that's good man. Really good. One thing we're talking, we're speaking to, you know, if you're in a place in life where you're struggling, you're in a place in your business where you're struggling, you don't really know what to do, why is it happening? Talking about self-introspection, having people holding you accountable. But one thing that, the last point I want to talk about before I take us home is about expectations, right? So a lot of times we have, well, 100% of the time we have an expectation about a certain situation, The expectation for what dinner's gonna look like tonight. The expectation for what's gonna come at the end of this listing appointment. The expectation for our bottom line income for the end of the year. We constantly have expectations subconsciously or intentionally. We need to harness those. We need to get good about controlling our heart, controlling where we let our minds go, which is what you were talking about, G, about controlling kind of what we're digesting and consuming. You know, are we listening to these moguls that are saying, you know, be a, you know, make... seven figures year over year, make you know eight figures, do all this, this is what success looks like. If that's what we're consuming, don't hear me say that's a bad thing. Again, don't let me

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Mm-hmm.

Tyler Wilson:
hear that say that's a bad thing, but if we're consuming that that's what our motivations ultimately become, then that's going to start triggering our expectations and anything that falls short of that is going to be disappointment. So that's where we need to learn to harness those things and get expectations in line with the process that we're executing. all of those things together in line with what Scripture calls us into. Right?

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
Amen.

Tyler Wilson:
So let's get really, really good about setting expectations in our business. Let's get really good about setting expectations, more importantly, in times with our spouses, times with our kids, times in our church community, time with the Lord. Let's get really good at setting expectations there and line them up, and then that's when, without the right expectations, it doesn't matter what systems you set in place, because you're going to fail constantly. And it's not going to be good enough because you're falling short of expectations. Goals and expectations are two different things. They go hand in hand. It's okay to set lofty goals and fall short, so long as expectations are in line with the process in the right way. So...

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
It's good. It's good stuff, man. Yeah, bring us home, mostly because, number one, that was great, but my wife had to go pick up dinner and my three kids are running around downstairs by themselves.

Tyler Wilson:
Yes.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
So that's a little dangerous. Yeah,

Tyler Wilson:
Okay,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
let's

Tyler Wilson:
well we're gonna wrap

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
bring

Tyler Wilson:
us home.

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
this home. But that's

Tyler Wilson:
Lord,

Garrett - faithfulagent.com:
good stuff, man. Absolutely.

Tyler Wilson:
Lord protect those kids. And Philippians 4 8. Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. To all you listeners out there, thank you so much for another Faithful Agent podcast, and we'll see you next time.