Winning at Work Without Losing at Life: Balancing Business and Family as a Christian Agent

Can you succeed in real estate and stay present for your family? In this episode of The Christian Agent Podcast, Garrett Maroon shares how to build a business that aligns with your faith, family, and priorities—without sacrificing success.

Garrett unpacks core principles like the Hierarchy of Attention, the Rule of Eights, and how to choose lead generation strategies that align with who you are. With practical wisdom and biblical insight, this episode is a powerful reminder that you can win at work without losing what matters most.

Key Takeaways:

✅ True success doesn’t require sacrificing family time
✅ The Hierarchy of Attention helps prioritize God, spouse, and children
✅ Quality of attention matters more than quantity
✅ The Rule of Eights can guide rhythm and focus throughout your day
✅ Stick to a few lead gen methods and master them with excellence
✅ Authenticity attracts the right clients and builds lasting relationships
✅ Know your numbers—track, measure, and lead with clarity
✅ Create a daily rhythm that balances work and life
✅ Rest is biblical—you can take time off when you’ve done the work
✅ God’s calling includes both your business and your home

Episode Chapters:

⏳ 00:00 – Winning at Work Without Losing at Life
📶 02:52 – The Hierarchy of Attention: Prioritizing What Matters
🕗 06:06 – The Rule of Eights: Structuring a Balanced Day
💼 08:55 – Authenticity in Business & Faith-Driven Lead Generation

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:
🔗 7572662876

📲 Follow Garrett on Instagram for more insights and encouragement!

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

Transcript

0:16

I had missed my kids bedtime again. And for what? One more showing? One more client? One more lead? Hey everybody, welcome back to the Christian Agent podcast. I'm so excited that you've joined me today. I want to talk about something really important to me that you can win at work without losing at life. If you listen to the show, you might know that I've got a book coming out in the fall called the Balanced Breakthrough, Winning at Work Without Losing at Life. And this is something I am extremely passionate about and really genuinely deeply want to help agents succeed in, especially my Christian brothers and sisters. It's not easy. but it's something we can do because I've seen it too often that the industry celebrates the agent who makes a million dollars but lost their marriage along the way. And that's chasing the world's way, not the Lord's way. As we go through this, we're in episode two of the three part of what I want you to adopt, right? What are the beliefs that I want you to adopt? We've already gone through, what do I want you to let go of? I want you to let go of that you're only as good as your next real estate sale. I want you to let go of that. You've got to fit a mold instead of elevate your natural gifts that the Lord has given you. And I want you to let go that success is only defined by how many homes you sell and how much money you make. Well, last week I want you to adopt and you heard it that there is an exit strategy that you don't have to sell homes forever. And this week we're going to talk about how do you win at work without losing at life. And next week you're going to hear that your job at the end of the day, this is your job, is to figure out who you are and be excellent at exactly that. So I'm excited to dive into this with you because at the end of the day, you've been told that success comes after you sacrifice everything else. And that's not true. That's not true. And we're going to dive into that today. But before I do, as always, let's talk and let me share a Christian dad joke with you. Haven't read this one running out of ideas. Text me if you have some. I'd love to hear them. So I don't have to spend so much time finding one. So let's see what this one has to say. Okay. What? types of boats do believers want to go on? Discipleship and worship. That's just not funny. All right, let's try a different one. Okay, when preparing for the Feast of Weeks, what did some disciples wonder? How much is this going to Pentecost? Man, this is bad. Whoo, okay. Those uh bombed. But that's okay. It's all right. I don't know how to move on for there. Okay, so let's talk about how do you win at work without losing at life? Because again, you've been told that success comes after you sacrifice everything else. And that's not true. That's just not true. It can't be. There's got to be a better way. Right? Here's the new definition I want us to think about. That winning means closing deals and showing up on time at the dinner table. Winning means doing the transactions that you need to do and never missing a kid's bedtime. Winning means that when you're on a date with your spouse, that you don't have to hop up and answer the phone call. And all of a sudden you've ignored your spouse and your marriage is struggling because you feel like you've got to run that rat race. It means building a business that serves your life and doesn't swallow it. How do we win at work without losing at life? Well, number one, I think here's my framework. We've got to get really, really clear. The hierarchy of attention. You've heard me talk about this before. If you've been a listener for a while, here's the hierarchy of attention. Most of us understand a hierarchy in business, maybe an organizational chart, whatever it is. What I want us to understand is what's the hierarchy. That's a hard word to say, right? Hierarchy, a hierarchy of our attention. So who should get biblically? How should we rank our attention? Because as agents, we fall into this trap that everybody gets my attention all the time. forever right when everybody needs anything I'll give it to them it doesn't matter I'm here I'll show up I'll help you what do you need no one actually can live that way right we're not machines we're people we can't actually do that and so where does our attention need to go practical step number one the hierarchy of attention what is your biblically mandated mandated structure if you're a believer in Christ number one your primary hierarchy the number one most important relationship you have in terms of your attention is the Lord Number two, if you're married, it's your spouse. Number three, if you have kids, it's your kids. Number four, then it's your work. Right now, if you're single, it's the Lord, it's honoring your mother and father, and then it's your work. Right? Maybe it's your relationships. Maybe it's the work that you're doing in the church, whatever it is, right? But the actual biblical order for me is the Lord, my wife, my kids, and then my work. Now, if you actually write that down and you look at it and you take pause, now, attention. doesn't necessarily mean time spent because the truth is I'm going to spend more time each day at work than I am going to with my kids and that's on I don't love that that's true but it is true that's the nature of what we do that's how this works right for right now while I'm building this I'm going to spend more time with work than I am with my kids that's not what I'm talking about the quality of the attention who gets the first fruits right when you're done with your day i know this is for me this is a struggle that i have when i'm done with my day and i've seen the kids in the morning to see my wife in the morning spent time with the lord i've done work all day i come downstairs there's the kiddos we have dinner put the kids to bed and then when i get done with that is eight o'clock we've got one hour left to be awake i show up with my wife and i have no energy at all that's not the hierarchy of attention The hierarchy of attention would say, the second best energy of the day has got to go to your wife. do you do that? Now that's really, really, really hard. I've not figured out how to do that super well. So don't ask me how. However, here's what I want you to understand. The hierarchy of attention would say, you've got to go in order. And when you go in order and when you understand what that order is, it's going to help you win at work and win at life because you're going to make the main thing, the main thing. Right? So have that hierarchy, check it with yourself. How am I doing this week? Right? On a scale of one to 10, how is the time that I'm spending with my kids? And maybe you say it's a six. Well, great. If I could give them more attention and I can take that six to a seven, how could I do that? What would be the way to make sure that I take that six to a seven, have an idea, and execute that idea? OK, that's number one. How do you win at work without losing at life? Here's number two, the rule of eights. Right? You've heard me talk about these as well. The rule of eights is simply this. Most of us, when it comes to how do we generate our business, we do everything that is out there. Maybe we think we've got to work by referral. We've got a cold call. We've got to do. Yeah, we've got a door knock. We've got a host up in houses. We've got to do all these things. We've got to call this. We've to do all this stuff, right? Instead of being really intentional with what actually works and how do we be excellent at that? So here's exactly what I mean. I'll give you an example. Here's what I want you to do to understand your rule of eights, right? How do we win at work without losing at life? The first one is control your attention, right? using the hierarchy of attention. second one is be really intentional about your lead generation efforts. So here's what that looks like. Write down everything that you do in the lead generation world. So cold calling, door knocking, referrals, social media, hosting open houses, whatever it is, write them all out. Okay? Now, I want you to go from agent to business owner. I want you to think like a business owner and actually know your numbers. So here's what I want you to understand. Now you might not, and that's okay. You're just going to guess and you're going to try to figure out what is real and what's going on uh... in your business right inside for the door closing my son came in and i spent a polite we looked at him and said you need to leave such uh... distractions of being and working at home alright so you're writing out every every uh... type of the generation that you do and then you're gonna circle the one that you think is your number one not only did it bring you the most business but you also enjoyed it the most and you're gonna circle number two you're gonna circle number three now you may only have one or two and that's okay you're going to take those, you're going to write them down. Number one, right? For most people, number one is fear of influence, right? It's referrals. It's generating those repeat and referral business. So you're going to say number one in my rule of eight is fear. And then number two, let's say it's open houses and maybe you have three, maybe you don't, and that's okay. Maybe number three is social media for our context, right? So then I want you to write those out and you're going to cross out every other form of Legion. These, this is your focus. If you want to win at work, without losing it like you can't try to do everything you have to do a few things and do them extremely well because that's how you protect your time you can't do everything you must do a few things and do them extremely well in fact my experiences i've done one thing in that's working our phone i've done it really well i've never done anything else i don't know how to do an open house of never done stay focused become a master at something okay so you're gonna write those out let's say sphere number one number two is open house number three social media so then you're going to write yourself on a scale of one to ten one being terrible and can be exceptional how well are you executing eight good system of generating business through sphere through open houses through work uh... social media right how well my executing is solid plan so if you look and you say you know what spheres the way that generated most my business but i'm not doing a very good job implementing that system then you might rank yourself a five out of ten right five out of ten meeting using a pretty good system and you're doing it mostly then you go to open house say how well am i doing in in are generating business out of open house and executing that system and you might say you know what like probably seven or eight out of ten and then maybe you move to social media and you say the same thing i spent a lot of time and energy on developing these youtube videos whatever it is right i'm probably like a like an eight out of and you're go through and you're gonna rank yourself well first of all this is commonly what i see commonly what i see is the number one way to generate business through your sphere in our context is typically the worst way uh... is the lowest score in that ranking that we are worse in the number one way to generate business that we are in the other two and three ways that doesn't make any sense even from a business owner perspective that doesn't make sense why would we not be most exceptional at the number one way to generate business for our business that doesn't make any sense If you are generating deals through your sphere in our context that we're talking about, then why are you not good at it? Why don't you become excellent at that? Who cares if you're doing social media? If there's a lot left on the bone, that's what matters at the end of the day. So here's what I want us to understand, right? At the end of the day, when we go through this rule of eights, we're to look at this and we're going to say, okay, the number one way for me to generate business is through my sphere. And through my sphere, it's a five out of 10. I really need to get that to at least an eight out of 10. That's where the rule of eights comes in. I need to get that to at least an eight out of 10, where I'm executing a good system pretty much all the time, right? 80 % of the time, and I'm doing it over and over and over again until it becomes a habit. And now I've created something that I'm habitually doing, right? I figured out the system. I figured out the habits. I'm creating these relationships. I'm nurturing these relationships. It's generating me now that I know, because I'm doing the same thing every single month. I'm understanding what I'm doing. I'm executing it well. Now I know that it takes me 10 hours a week. to generate 12 deals a year off of my sphere. Great. Now you've created a new base of business for you and you know how long it takes. So if your wife comes to you and says, let's take a day date on Friday, you can say, hey, let's do it. You know why? Cause I already know that I did what I had to do for work this week. I did what I had to do for lead generation this week. Here's one of the challenges. Most agents, we don't know what we need to do. And so we never know if we did it. right we don't know what we need to do for the generation so you never know if you did it so you always in the day wondering did i do enough did i do what i was supposed to do or was i supposed to do something else because i just don't know that's a really hard way to live what i want us to do is look at this rule of eights figure out number one how do i make that made out of ten consistently what kind of system do any what kind of plan do i need in thin in only did what you figured it out then you move to the next one and say, okay, in our context, how do I make open houses and eight out of consistently? And now you're just building your business on top of itself. That's the rule of eights, right? When you don't know what to do, you never know if you did it. Even when you know what to do, it's hard to do it consistently, right? This is gonna help you gain clarity. What do I need to do? And at the end of the day, did I actually do what I said I was going to do? And if I did, fantastic. I get to go hang out with my family and not feel bad about it. That's a beautiful thing. So the hierarchy of attention, number two, the rule of eights and number three, authenticity. the end of the day, how do I want you to win at work without losing at life? I don't want you to give up who the Lord created you to be. I don't want you to give up who the Lord created you to be. For me, that was to be in relationship with people. Now I knew that I had to grow myself, right? I need to learn. I need to have new ideas, new thoughts, new actions, all those things. And so here was my daily rhythm. Here was my daily rhythm. from nine to ten everyday i would learn something at reid mostly read i'd listen to podcast but actually listen to podcast taking notes watch training video and i don't love you know being on the computer from the screen but you could do that too from nine to ten i'd be learning something i'd be reading a book growing myself from ten to eleven i would do some sort of lead generation it for me that was relational lead generation ready to be checking on my people be writing notes I'd be doing Popeyes, I'd be inviting them to an event or inviting them to coffee, whatever it was. That's how I built out my day and that was it. And I knew at the end of the day, from nine to 10, I would learn, from 10 to 11, I'd lead you in. I knew at the end of the day, even if I did nothing else, I was still ahead of 99 % of other agents. Why? Because I pushed my mind and my business forward that day. I knew what I had to do. So when I wanted to take the afternoon off and go to the pool with my family, guess what I did? I took the afternoon off. and went to the pool with my family and I didn't wonder did I do what I needed to do. I put my phone away. It was okay. Why? I'd already done what I needed to do. When we gain clarity on those things, when we understand how the Lord wired us, if you love social media, go do that. If you love open houses, go do those and do them excellently to the glory of God. If you love cold calling, then do that really well. Here's what you don't need to do. Try to be all things to all people. Try to be the social media guy even though you don't want to be. Try to be the open house woman when you don't want to be. and you're missing out on too many weekends with your family anyways. Figure out who you are and go be excellent at that. Because when you have clarity on this is who the Lord made you to be. So I'm going to be excellent at this. And then you figure out what does excellence look like? How do I need to show up? And these are the things I actually need to tangibly do. Then you know if you've done them. And so when you want to take some time off to go hang out with your family, praise God. Because you know you did what you had to do to move your business forward. That's what I want you to know about. when it work without losing at life, hierarchy of attention, rule of eights, and be authentic. Understand what you need to do so you know when it's okay to take a rest. And remember this, Psalm 127 verse one, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. If God gave you a family and a calling, He's not asking you to pick one. That's your family. That's your calling. Go be excellent at just that. So if this resonated, grab my free guide, The Three Lies Christian Agents Believe. And I'd love to have a conversation with you about what we're doing at the 210 Collective and how we're helping agents do just that. There's a link in the show notes to hop on a call with me. We're figuring this out together. I love you, Christian agents, genuinely. And I hope that together we can learn how do we win at work without losing at life. I'll see you next week.