275 | Agents, Are You Struggling to Grow Your Real Estate Business God's Way? This Will Help w/ Stefanie Gass

What if real business success isn’t about grinding harder—but about submitting your ambition to God?

In this powerful episode of The Faithful Agent Podcast, Garrett Maroon sits down with entrepreneur, podcaster, and coach Stefanie Gass to unpack what it really means to build a business rooted in faith, authenticity, and obedience—not hustle culture. Stefanie shares her journey from a failed network marketing venture to creating a thriving podcasting and coaching business, revealing how God’s guidance reshaped her definition of success.

Stefanie and Garrett discuss how podcasting can serve as a high-trust marketing channel, why entrepreneurs must balance ambition with submission, and how creating healthy boundaries leads to both peace and productivity. They also address the downsides of social media for entrepreneurs and make the case for long-form content as a more meaningful way to build relationships and influence.

Connect with Stefanie -

For a limited time, get Stef's 5-day Profitable Podcast Bootcamp for free! 

https://stefaniegass.com/bootcamp | Coupon code: GARRETT

Website - https://stefaniegass.com

Facebook - http://stefgasscommunity.com

🔑 Key Takeaways

• Faith-first entrepreneurship leads to greater clarity and long-term business success.
• Building a kingdom business means prioritizing God’s order over hustle culture.
• Ambition and submission are not opposites when aligned with God’s calling.
• Podcasting is a powerful tool for connection, trust, and authentic marketing.
• Boundaries and systems protect both your family and your productivity.
• Authenticity in communication deepens client relationships.
• Overconsumption of social media can hurt mental health and business focus.
• Long-form content often delivers more value than short, surface-level posts.
• A clear vision of success helps entrepreneurs make better strategic decisions.
• God’s guidance in business leads to impact that goes beyond income.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Introduction and Background of Stefanie Gass
02:15 – Stefanie’s Journey to Entrepreneurship
06:35 – The Power of Podcasting and God’s Guidance
08:11 – Balancing Ambition and Submission
14:24 – Fighting Hustle Culture
20:30 – Establishing Boundaries and Systems for Success
22:44 – The Impact of Social Media Consumption
27:06 – Finding the Right Marketing Strategy
31:50 – The Power of Podcasting for Business
38:57 – Building Trust Through Authenticity
41:57 – Encouragement for Aspiring Podcasters

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Resources & Opportunities:

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Transcript

0:00

my game Stephanie. Thank you. you. What's up faithful agents. Welcome back to another episode of the faithful agent podcast. Stephanie gas is with me today. An incredible guest. I'm actually in May. She agreed to come on. We're excited that you're here Stephanie and genuinely just from our conversation pre show. I'm excited to learn from you. I know our audience is going to be excited to learn from you. So I felt like Stephanie because you're such a special guest that I had to have a special Christian dad joke of the day. So it's a little bit longer, but bear with me. I think this one is good. Okay. Here's the top 10 reasons that God made Eve. Number one, God was worried that Adam would frequently become lost in the garden because he would never ask for directions. Good one. God knew that one day Adam would require someone to locate and hand him the remote. That's definitely true in my house. Yep. Yep. knew that Adam would never go out and buy himself a new fig leaf when his wore out. That happened to me this morning. I was working out, my wife's like, it's time for a new workout. I'm like, is it? I've only had these for like 20 years. Number four, God knew Adam would never be able to make a doctor, dentist or haircut appointment for himself. God knew Adam would never remember which night to put the garbage on the curb. That's true. God knew if the world was to be populated, men would never be able to handle the pain and discomfort of childbearing. That's 100 % accurate. uh As the keeper of the garden, since he didn't have metal sheds or greenhouses, Adam would never remember where he left his tools. Guilty of that. Number eight, apparently Adam needed someone to blame his troubles on when God caught him hiding in the garden. That's true. Number nine, as the Bible says, it's not good for a man to be alone. And finally, number 10, when God finished the creation of Adam, he stepped back, scratched his head and said, I can do much better than that. So there you go, the top 10 reasons God created Eve. That's fantastic. Stephanie, I'm so glad you're here and I think you have so much wisdom to share with our audience. So we're just gonna jump right in. Now you shared a lot of awesome thoughts with me again pre-show, but let's start here. uh You built an incredible business. Give me a quick background on who you are, what you've done, and then we're just gonna jump into some questions. Yeah. Hi, Garrett. Hi, everybody listening. So excited to be here with you guys. um The quick background is that I graduated college with a master's in finance and accounting. And God's got jokes because today I do none of that. I am actually a full-time entrepreneur. I have been for 15 years now and had a network marketing business for a while there. It imploded, it led me to really searching and seeking for God because I had been idolizing success and money and recognition. And when we build something that is worldly, it's going to crumble and fall away. And all the striving and success that I was just chasing after with all of my own might could never be enough to replenish it. So that ended up falling away. It left me broken and broke and broke down, had to borrow money from my son's savings account to pay the mortgage one month. And that day was the day that I found a corner of my house, grabbed a journal and cried out to God and said, I feel like a complete failure and I don't know who I am if I am not the success that I have been. And God just so kindly allowed the Holy Spirit to work through the pen and to kind of paint a vision of the woman I was going to become. and this blueprint that I was gonna chase after for little did I know, the next eight years to get me to where I am today. And I wrote things on the paper, Garrett, like I'm going to be a kingdom business owner. I didn't know what kingdom meant. I didn't use words like that. It was, was gonna be a present wife and I was gonna be an awesome mom. I was gonna be sober. I was gonna be healthy. I was going to have a business that led thousands of women and thousands of people. And I had no idea who that girl was because I was so far from her at that time. But. I picked one thing on the paper and I just would go after it and then I would grab the next thing on the paper and I would go after it and I knew that if God was going to be in it that I could, that I had no other option but to trust God because I had tried to do it myself my whole life. And so I kept chasing after what God would say and I'd give him my yes and I would do it I would do it. But it was still hard. was getting a few coaching clients. I started an online business and kind of threw my mess was had a baby on my hip. My hair was a mess mamba and I would train on sales and marketing because I did know how to sell and understood marketing and buyer psychology. And I was this strange like. this strange oxymoron. These women would come in these Facebook groups and be like, you look a mess, but like what you're saying is speaking to me and you're this like, I think that makes you approachable, right? I think I can trust you. And so they started asking, you coach? I started coaching, but it was excruciating because I was on Instagram four or five hours a day trying to get these clients and I would get them. far and few between and they would call it clarity coaching and they'd say help me with what my business should be. I'd sit in a call for an hour and they burst into tears and cry and say how did you know that's what I've always supposed to do? How did you know that's what my business was supposed to be? And I was like I don't know and now I understand that I have that gift of prophecy and the Lord has helped me to really cut through a lot of mess for people and just give them exactly what has been their story all along. So that started to kind of grow but it was a lot and I had these two babies and I started feeling convicted social media is not it getting leads this way is harming me I feel addicted to that I'm trying to crush every addiction in my life right and I keep praying and I'm praying and praying for years and 2018 comes and I have a prophetic dream it is so clear it is so vivid and it says start a podcast And I knew it was from God because I'd been explicitly asking Him, how am I supposed to grow this and what am I growing? And I got the how to grow it, but I didn't really get the what you're growing. That day, Garrett, what I had learned is like, if I just do what God says, He'll give me the next step. And I hate sitting in the middle. So I was like, let's go, God, I'm ready. Like, give me the next step. Took a staticky microphone I had in a drawer, plugged it in, made the worst art you've ever seen on Canva. Do not recommend. Started talking about random stuff on this podcast. I launched it. Within one year, that podcast had passed what I had been doing in network marketing my best year ever. One year. At the same time, God's convicting me, lay down social media, lay it down, lay it down. I end up getting off of Instagram for a month, led to six months, led to a year. All the while, the business is exploding and I'm getting more time back. It's like making no sense in my life. How do I have more time just doing two hours of podcasting? I've let go of social and I have so many, so many coaching calls that... I'm now going to shift to this other model of group coaching. How does this make sense? So you know that God's in it when everything just seems like it's flowing, it's easy, the doors are opening. And that went on for eight years, which is a long story, very short, to lead me to where I am today. And I have a top 20 podcast and this seven figure kingdom company that was never on a vision board for me. I never thought if God would have shown me this, I would have run from it because it would have been too big, too scary. I wouldn't have understood how I was going to utilize all of these things he's giving me to further his kingdom yet. But that's how God is. He knows when you're ready and much is given, much is expected. And so that's where I sit today with the business like that's so kingdom, it could only be God. And it's so fun for me because I get my job is. talking to people like you and having interviews and podcasting and coaching my students. And it's like the dream job for me to be able to help people see that they have a call on their life and there's an easier way to grow it that doesn't suck your soul, that doesn't make you lean into addiction and you don't have to carry the weight of being called the business on your back. It doesn't have to be heavy, but it can actually be really light. Love that. All right, well, that's all the time we have. That was enough. You guys have looked at that like five times in a row. I mean, so many good things, Stephanie, so many good things. think that, you so I'll ask you this question, because I've been asking and wrestling this with myself, and I think your story is fascinating in this concept is I keep talking about how do we balance ambition and submission, right? Because we're called to do both as entrepreneurs and believers. And so, What feels so fascinating about your story, and I'd love for you to unpack, right, but is the pre-podcast of the things you were doing felt ambitious, right? You were in, maybe in that hustle and that grind culture of just doing whatever you had to do, kind of living out that lifestyle, right? You were a mess, but you still had good things to say, right? And then the Lord knocked you down, right, it seems like. He forced you into a place of submission, which... doesn't feel good in the moment, but praise God that he loves us enough to do that sometimes. Right. So then you get into a place of submission. All right, Lord, what do want me to do? And he says, I want you to do a podcast. You say, OK, I'll go ahead and do that. Right. So now, of course, you're an entrepreneur, too. Right. Everyone listening is. And so we are called to be ambitious. How do we I don't know that balance is the right word, because there's natural tension in those things to begin with. Right. And the world's just full of good and evil. And there's natural tension all over the place. But now On the other side of this submission moment, right? How do you think we look at ambition versus submission and how we try to understand how those might work together? Yeah, I think it all comes back to biblical, godly order. And when you're living your life out of God's natural plan for order, everything's chaotic. Everything's harder than it should be and this is all that so we have God right we have Jesus Holy Spirit our submission to Jesus to operating a Holy Spirit then we have marriage Children and then we serve our neighbors then we have our health then we have volunteering community, right? We have these things that there's a order for the way that we show up in our life and I take that very literally and so Okay, I am naturally extremely ambitious. I would even go as far as say like I'm a bull Bulldozer in business, but that is not gonna come at the expense of my kids my husband Me operating the Holy Spirit and God those are going to come first because then and those are the things for me that like those are hard things it's like I don't want to sit down and get in the word because Like I want to get to work because work feels so good work makes me feel seen like cuz it's where we're naturally good And so the places that you guys are naturally good is where you'll want to naturally go But it's important that we take that pause point and say, hold on, if I operate in God's order and I put him first, even when that's not my natural inclination, even when I pour into my this moment with my spouse, when I sit with my kids, even though don't really feel like it, we're putting this order in place where then God creates more capacity for your natural God led, God centered ambition to flow from a place of fullness. It's not flowing from a place of lack because you're stealing from all the other areas of your life to selfishly go into an ambitious state. And so for me, like I know God will create because God can amplify and create all the time in the world that I need to go be ambitious. And I am able to create so much more with so much less time because I'm operating in a godly order. Balance isn't even necessary because he creates it. And what I find, Garrett, is like something comes in and disrupts, right? Girlfriend calls, crying. I have a thing or like, hey, can we go to coffee? Cause I need help. Old stuff's like, can't, gotta work in my business. uh New stuff wrestles for about two seconds and says, absolutely, I'm here. And when I hang up that phone call, I say, Lord God, redeem my time. Because you also call me to serve. I'm not just called to the things that are easy for me. I'm called to the things that are the hardest for me. And so that's what I would say. It's just audit. Every day when I wake up, Am I reaching for God or am I reaching for my phone? Am I reaching for scriptures? Am I minimizing the time that my spouse is here to speak with me when we have those small interactions? Can I stop and actively listen and stop thinking about all the other stuff? And that's putting your life back in godly order. Everything will flow from there and you're going to be shocked. I have all this time. I have all this capacity. My life is in flow. I'm fulfilled. There's not a chaotic fight and battle within your spirit anymore because you're operating the way you were meant to. That's so good, Stephanie. I mean, so many things I love about that. talk often about similar, I call it the hierarchy of attention to your point, what's that biblical order? And then, you know, the struggle that we have is after, you know, we, so it's the Lord, it's my wife, we have five little kiddos, right? And so, and then the other things, well, whatever time is left, I should go pursue excellence and ambition in that space. But it's not that we should be ambitious about our work. all day every single day, right? That's called burnout. We're gonna leave those people behind. But I love how eloquently you talked about really when we honor those relationships that the Lord has given us and that correct order, our unfair advantage as believers, right, in business is the Lord literally, He multiplied the loaves, right, in the fishes. He can do that with the work that we do too. We tend to fall into, and you said we... desire that work, right? That's naturally how we're gonna show up. And I think, at least in my own life, Stephanie, my own sin struggle is because in work I can get worship, but in prayer time I'm worshiping Him and my flesh is constantly battling to build my own kingdom and not His. And that's hard, it's hard. they're not like, here's one over here and here's one over here. It's like, they're right next to each other. And I'm shocked how often I jump into my kingdom, quite honestly. And so, those things are so hard. I love you talked about it's the actual act in the struggle to put those things in order on purpose, right? Because you're naturally gonna wanna show up and work. That's who we are, we're entrepreneurs. We have a lot of things going on in our head, right? Which is terrifying sometimes. So Stephanie, as you're realizing and learning this, right? We're all learning this always, that sanctification. But how do you turn off hustle culture, if you will? How do you fight against this idea of hustle culture? because we are convinced in every industry, but certainly in real estate industry is you gotta be available 24 seven. And if you're not, I've been cussed out Stephanie by agents who were mad at me for not picking up the phone on Sunday. They're like, why you didn't even need anything. There was nothing actually, you're just mad because you're working 24 seven. That's what you think. But we can all pray to that. How do you fight against hustle culture in an industry that is all about the hustle and the grind? Yeah, there's a few things that come to mind. The first one is we stop consuming and comparing. So the two dirty word Cs. When we consume and we go listen to Gary Vee on 3X for 10 hours, we start to create the belief system that we have to live that way. And I really encourage you listening. First of all, have you ever painted the vision and made it clear about what success actually looks like for you? Every December I get out a journal or... If I'm on a plane ride or whatever we're doing and I just journal out like what does a year from now look like if I am living the most successful life I could possibly lead and it forces me to create a definition of success, you know, and I'll paint it like it's really happening. Like I woke up and I'm sitting with the Lord for I have a whole hour with God today. I feel so peaceful. I went for a walk this morning and then I, you know, took my kiddo to breakfast, just me and him. And then I took the other kid to ice cream in the afternoon. I did two hours of work. I worked out, I went on a date night with my husband, we booked our vacation for the spring break. I'm almost gonna promise you, your vision of your perfect successful life a year from now is not, I worked for 10 hours and I got three sales. Yeah. That's really not it. And so why are we consuming the stories that make us believe that's what success actually is? I don't consume really anything that forces my the hustle culture within me. I deny that. And I try to consume the things that bring the opposite of that into my life because I'm already naturally a hustler. I don't need that. I don't need more of that. I need the fuel in those other areas that I am weaker in. The other piece is you have to get non-negotiable about your boundaries as a Christian. in a space where you are expected to be on call all the time, why is that the definition that you have to succumb to? So for me, Like I just got so serious about boundaries and I really could care less if that doesn't align with someone else and what they expect from me because I'm gonna show up for God. And when we say I'm gonna build a business for the glory of God, does God say work 24 seven? Does God say uh sacrifice family dinner to take the phone call? I doubt it. You know, the guy that I serve, says, girl, go lay the phone in the other room and be here now. And so I just got serious and I said, all right, the times that my kids are in school is the time I'm available for work. And this day and this day are call days. And this day is content day. And I don't work on the weekends and I don't work past 3 p.m. and let it be. And what happened was because I was operating in God's economy for my business and God was my CEO and he blessed that decision. I'm like, Lord, like, I just want to be available for these other things I'm called to be. What happened was it all worked out, Garrett. People were like, OK, we just booked the calls here and we just show up in this time with Steph. And it really it was a take it or leave it. And in something like what you guys do, maybe that does include one Saturday a month or two Saturdays a month, or maybe that includes Wednesdays or your day off. But you can build the perfect schedule for your vision of success and hold steadfast to it. You can also let your clients know ahead of time, hey, I do all my callbacks at blank time on Thursdays or Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday, whatever it is. You just own the boundary and here's the deal. just if you communicate the boundary No one even blinks twice. They just know this that you uphold your boundaries and I don't know about you But what I found people that work with me super respect it and then they start building boundaries in their life going Oh I guess it's okay to not work right through the middle of my family dinner. And then the last piece is systems. You know, what are you doing that you do over and over again that can be automated or outsourced? I think for far too long, we hustle alone and we do everything by ourselves with the belief that like, well, I just can't afford that. Is that really truth? Could you get five hours of help in your business? Could you invest in an automation system or an operating system or a text back service? Like there are so many opportunities to get time back. I'm always chasing like, God, create more time. If I want to exponentially expand in like my capacity to serve people, love people, give, tithe, go to my kids' school events and still have this business, Lord, I'm gonna need time. And so it's like, We've got automations. I've got team now. We have systems. And we're constantly looking for ways to optimize. If I see something and I see someone doing something, I'm always asking the question, how can that be easy? How can we make that easy? And I look at my team and say, what's the answer to make that easier and faster? Always asking that question. So some tips there. Well, you know, you'll appreciate this. And then I want to talk about how you got away from social and how many agents, you know, I know listening to this show, myself included, is like, I wish I didn't have to be on it. Right. And we live in that life. But you'll appreciate this, Stephanie. Maybe a week or two ago, I posted in this large real estate agent group. You don't have to work weekends to be successful. That's all I said. And man, people got mad at me. Yeah. Oh my gosh, they got upset at me. you know, like, well, that's just because you have a terrible business. You don't sell a lot of homes, which, you know, thankfully is not true at all. uh And I just said, you know, one person actually kindly asked, well, tell me how you did that. And to your point, Stephanie, I would say to a client, it's not that I was trying to be difficult to them, but I would say, hey, I'm available Tuesday one to three or whatever, Thursday two to five, but I'm not going to work after five. I want to go home. I'm not going to work on the weekends unless it's absolutely necessary. And you're going to hurt because I didn't whatever. uh And they're like, are you kidding me? You asked them to take off work? I'm like, if you provide value and they have a high perception or they have a perception of you that you provide high value to them, just like a doctor, they'll take off work to come meet with you. That's not the problem. The problem is you haven't shown enough value. And so they assume, I'll just go get somebody else who can work with me at night. Right. And so it's not about when we're allowed to work, at least in our world, right, Stephanie, it's about the perceived value that you bring and whether or not someone thinks it's worth it to work around your schedule, right? And it's not a selfish thing to your point. Everyone should do that. One of the things I appreciated about you, Stephanie, getting you on, my assistant Shaili would reach out, because we normally record Mondays at three, it's Thursday at 1.15 is when we started, right? And she reached out, she's like, hey, Stephanie, literally what she said, Stephanie's gonna be an amazing guest. She's hard to schedule. And I'm like, and literally in my mind, I'm like, That's kind of awesome, right? Because almost everyone else in it, and you know, whatever, is like, sure, whenever, tell me when you want me to come, which I appreciate, and that's good, and right, and you've been in the podcast world a long time, but like, I actually appreciate you were living that out, making it difficult on our schedule in a good way, and I'm not mad about it in any way, right? Like, it's such a joy to have you, so good on you to actually live that out and stick to that. So okay, earlier you mentioned, Stephanie, you got to the point where you took two years off of social media, and the few Cs, I think, was, The comparison, what was the other C? uh Comparison and consuming too much. okay, thank you. Yeah, so I think anyone listening to this episode would agree that consumption of social media is not beneficial to us. But how do I get off of it? I'm a business owner, I need to be out there. What do you think? Yeah. Well, so was I. I thought, I'm trying to have an online business and get coaching clients. Like, I have to be. I have to be. And so when we say that, like, what a strong thing to say, because we don't have to be anything. We don't have to do anything. So I stopped for a second, Garrett, and I took a step back and I said, OK, let me do some analysis here. How much time is it taking me to show up on social media and what is the return on that time? And what I learned is I was spending 20 hours a week producing reels, doing stories, making posts in the DMs, getting a couple clients a month. And I'm like, let me do the math. I'm like literally making pennies, pennies. And so that's where it was like, hold on, maybe I don't have to do that. Maybe there's a different way to spend 20 hours where I can get 200 clients, 2,000 clients. And so you just start asking these questions and digging into, why do I believe the things that I believe? And data doesn't lie to you. Data will not lead you astray. You've got to follow the bonfires, what I say. So we're doing all these things in our business. Take a look. Where's the flicker? Where's the little fire? Stop trying to start new fires and go to the one that's burning and give it all you've got and just get rid of the rest. And so what I... was doing was started that podcast and I saw the fire. went, my goodness, two hours a week making an episode. Don't have to get ready. Don't have to edit. I just did the show and aired it. Like it was messy. It was scrappy. I blessed him released. I was getting email inbox requests daily. Do you coach because the trust value, speaking of value of me spending 20, 25 minutes with somebody on an episode, their belief in me was instantly curated. They instantly knew if they liked me or didn't like me. It was so polarizing, which worked really well versus I'm going to spend 20 hours and make these baby clips of who I really am. And they're all curated and they're all fake and nobody cares. And everybody's here just trying to numb out. Nobody's here with the position of learning right now. And I saw the fire and I went, okay, what happens if I just stop and he Listen, I have a better way for you guys to do this today, but I just cold turkey. I deleted it. I deleted it. And I didn't even say bye. Like I was like, bye. Like just gone. And I told my team, don't go two years later, Garrett. So we just podcast it. I podcast it. And I sent emails. That's it. And my business grew. I was a hundred K, 500 K, 800 K. was a million. was like, wow. Like this is so crazy. Like God breathes on your business and That's all you need, right? But that it was the obedience of laying down the thing that I thought I had to have. So we get back on two years later, because at this point we were large enough. was like, let's start running some advertising. We need an account back up. Like, let's refresh it. It was so crusty and so old. I went, whoops, we're a little bit at this point, like we're big enough. We need to make this look like not bad. So I Set up all my socials as a business card, which is what I recommend you guys do in this agent space. So if you go to my Instagram, it's at Stephanie gas. It's a business card. It's got a nine grid. It's very clean and curated and I could care less about engagement. It's only a little finger pointing to the podcast. That's all it is. And then in the highlights we have strategically put there's a testimony one. There's the course one like there it's a business card. It's a mini website. That's all it is. That way we don't have to keep doing things over there. We just set it. We forget it. We went and we set up the LinkedIn that way. We went and we set up the Twitter wherever I am. I don't even know. We just set them up business carded them and put arrows everywhere to the place that actually creates trust, which is the podcast and the podcast. You know, now it has millions of downloads. It's heard all across the world. It's my same two hours every week. And so we want to think about all of that to say, you don't have to be active on social media. Set it up as this business card and then really get strategic about how you need to and want to pull in leads. Do you want to spend two hours? and do it in a way that reaches the masses and the people who are actively searching for the problem you solve? Or do you want to spend endless hours creating all this content that goes out to millions of people who aren't searching for the thing that you actually do and serve and solve? I want to choose that first one. So when I created my podcast, and this is how it could work for you all too, I went, okay, I'm helping women get clear on what their business will be and start a podcast partnered with God. Like, what am I doing, right? That's what I'm doing. So I started creating all of the content. I started learning SEO, keywords that people were searching for, Garrett. I started making content that had those keywords in it. I started to understand the importance of building an episode that could be really just like deeply connected, like we're best friends, we're at coffee. So my fun, my vulnerable stories, I stopped being fancy and I was like, hey. Let's talk about why you're scared to start a business. And like, let's just really have this gritty conversation. Hey, let's talk about why you're scared to buy a house in today's economy. Let's talk, like becoming the best friend that was safe to ask the hard question to blew the lid off the game. And the podcast started. bringing in all the leads. Now, some people would stumble across a social, but really they heard me on the podcast and then they'd go to the social and come right back to the podcast because there was nothing to see here. That's the last piece I want to say because I'm sure you have questions. It's like, stop giving them something to see on the platforms that aren't creating the sale and they're not drawing in the leads. Same thing with your boundary. How do you want your leads to come in? You create that. I want my leads to come through my podcast already decided they want to work with me and just go buy the thing. I don't want to convince you that you should work with me in a four hour conversation on the night that I want to be sitting with my kiddo at dinner. Let the podcast do the work for you. It is so, you you've done this longer than me, but I had a friend of mine describe it to me once. It's like people are dating you and you've never met them, right? And no, I'm happily married, so you're not gonna date me. But it's like they get to know you, and you've had it more than me, but I've had weird experiences. One recently where I was talking to someone and I said some dumb joke because you were here at the beginning of this episode, and he laughed and he's like, dude, that is so you. We just met, what are you talking about? And it's, well no, if he's listened to episodes and there's, like it's cool and weird, but I'm not getting that trust from social media. Not that I'm great at it, but as hard as I tried, to your point, I love that you made the distinction, what are they there to do? Well, they're there to numb themselves, right? They come to a podcast because they're there to learn or grow or do something. Now, they might be doing the dishes or cutting the grass and they probably are. but they didn't come here to just swipe and doom scroll. They came for some sort of reason. They looked you out, right? They sought out what you had to offer. And so it's a different, it's this attractional marketing as opposed to, to your point. You know, I give some of my agent friends a hard time. I know that you guys have a ton of followers, but they live in Australia. They're not buying a house from you. So why does that matter? Or like, that a vanity metric or is it a beneficial metric for your actual business? And I get it, right? We wrestle with those things. I totally understand. I do want to shift into this because I think you've got a lot of wisdom in this area to help uh people building podcasts, right? Specifically women. But talk about why and how they could do that. And I want them to know how they're going to learn more from you. But how and why would they do that? And what would that look like in the real estate agent space talking to their community? Yeah, and this is for men too. It's so funny, Garrett. In the last year, I have so many men in my program and they're like, hi, I'm a man. Can I take your program? And I'm like, yes. It's been so funny. I'm literally thinking that right now. That was going to be my question at the end of the show when we were done. It was like, can I come on? Yeah. That's good to know. Good to know. funny because God's been really expanding us into a serving man as well because it really is at the end of the day, this is all the same and it's all kingdom. It's just that my message had been for women because that's the area that I knew, but it's cool because now I'm really seeing that expansion. know, podcasting, I think it's not for the faint of heart. I think podcasting is like, you know what? I'm truly committed to the people God's called me to help. being an agent, think don't minimize that because you are placed in an exact assignment on purpose, whether it's forever or for a season. It's like, let me do this for the glory of God. If I'm going to be an agent, like let me be an agent for the glory of God, which means you have boundaries in your own life. You are putting that godly order in check. But when you show up and serve those clients, like just your presence is being the hands and feet of Christ. One day, you know, I was, my dad was actually dying of cancer back in 2023 and he's not, he was not a believer. And I had all this pressure. Like, I feel like I have to say something, but I already tried the phone call and he said, how old are the dinosaurs? And it didn't go well. I'm like, I can't get him to believe. And I had this mentor in my life and she's like, just go be there. Just. be there and open your mouth and he shall fill it at the right time. And it gave me all this like freedom to be to know like God's called me to go to different rooms, different places, different houses, different careers, different minefields, like to go into the kid, our kids schools and volunteer that day. Just be you and know that that is a calling that is a holy anointing for you to just be where you're called to be. So I think that's the first thing and my gosh, what was the question Garrett? Where am I going with this? Well, so no, I mean, that was awesome. I'm glad that you said that. And it's fine. I'm so much that way too. I'll start saying things. like, I think that was good. You're right. How did they get into the podcast? Right. How would they do that? Why does that matter? Yeah, right. That's right. uh Yeah. No, great. something that really, really, really matters. Now. Okay, cool. Like I accept the responsibility of like being this agent that is a believer and i'm going to go out into the world But that doesn't mean you have to sell your soul to hustle and do things really hard so If you consider like i'm going do this for the glory of god Maybe podcasting is a way that you can reach so many more people future clients Help people encourage them come from a place of service and guiding and one of the largest decisions of people's lives, right? And have this show that helps people makes you feel really really approachable, trustworthy, and allow those leads to just come to you. Like imagine a life where it could really be that easy. But podcasting won't feel good. There is no virality metrics that's just gonna make you, I'm so seen because a thousand people like the thing. The goal of the podcast is not a bajillion downloads. The goal of the podcast is I want to speak directly to the person who is a first time home buyer in Virginia and this person is terrified for their first home and they don't think they have enough for their down payment. Like that's the exact human I need to listen to the show because what if 10 of those perfect people listen to the podcast and you have 10 brand new clients in two hours of work that week? I'd rather have 10 listens of all these people who want to just hire me without even stressing about it versus having 3,000 people watch me on some reel about Virginia percentage rates, but no one actually wants to work with me. They don't actually care. So that's why you want to consider a podcast. And if not a podcast, what other long form content can get you leads where it's less time, it's targeted, you can control the searchability of your episode, by the way? There is no algorithm gods shoving you down where you have to do something new every single day, but you're creating a shelf full of like... It doesn't expire, right? This content just evergreen forever. I have now, oh my gosh, 900 episodes, Garrett, where someone searched, start a business, Christian entrepreneur, make money online, start a podcast, over and over and over. And so when people search for that, my show comes up. Well, if you're that Virginia real estate agent, Virginia real estate, first time Virginia home buyer, Virginia mortgage rates, like whatever it might be that you're putting in as your keywords for your particular area. First time home buyer, right? Whatever your specialty is, you're building a niched in lead generating machine. That's why you wanna think about podcasting. That's why you wanna commit to a tool that is going to help you grow with the right people that gives you your time back. Hmm, I'm so good. love, mean, obviously I'm a podcaster too, so I just love the space. And to your point too, you might know them, I think it's like 90 some percent quit after 10 episodes anyways. And so if you're just still here, you're gonna win in that way. But to your point, why as business owners, if we're trying to be strategic, now if you love social media and the Lord is gifted, you're like, please do that. But that's not most of us, right? That's not most people listening. Why are we going to try to win in the space where everyone's already playing as opposed to in the real estate agent world, right? Talking directly to the consumer you're trying to talk to. Yeah, there's a lot of real estate agent podcasts like this one, but the real estate agent talking to that real estate consumer, I don't know where those are, right? Who's talking about those things? Yeah, in huge massive markets like LA and San Diego, whatever. but not in the small area where you live, you write listener. And so why not do something like that? And there is so much of it where it is a vanity metric, right? And I feel that way too. It's, my gosh, I got a bunch of views. Okay, what did that do? I don't know, nothing, right? Like nobody reached out to me, nobody asked. More people reach out to me about this. I don't even know how many people hear it, right? Because even the data on some of these is really bad. But on Instagram, you can feel really good. my gosh, this thing's blowing up, right? I don't know, it is and maybe it is, the reality is they don't remember you, they don't think about you. There's no trust building there, like you said, unless you do it for a long time, over and over over over again. so agents, if you're looking for an alternative, right, if you wanna stand out in a different way and maybe social media is not your thing, which let's be honest for I love you all and this includes me, most of your content isn't that good where it's gonna all of a sudden blow up, right? So let's just be honest. Maybe we have skills in other ways and maybe that means shifting to something like podcasting. You should be talking to somebody like Stephanie, right? To try to go in a different direction to create different value to the marketplace that's going to bring the right person in as opposed to make you feel good about the numbers that you have. I promise you'll feel better when you're making more money than when you're making more views, right? That's a good thing. You can give more to your local church, right? You can spend more time at home. can whatever it is. That's a good thing. Let's not just follow the crowd, right? Do not uh be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That means so many more things than just go do a podcast, but it could mean go do a podcast, right? And that happened to you, Stephanie. So I love all the thoughts and all the wisdom. I'm definitely gonna sign up. We're gonna figure out how to do that. Where do they go, Stephanie? If they wanna connect with you, if they wanna learn from you, where do they go from here? Yeah, so obviously you can come check out the podcast. uh Stephanie Gass, it's s-t-e-f-a-n-i-e-g-a-s-s dot com, has all the links on there. And I have a gift for your listeners, Garrett. I have a five day boot camp. nice. to build a profitable podcast that's aligned with God's Will for Your Work, partnered with him. And you guys are gonna get it for free as listeners of Garrett's show. So you can go to StephanieGass.com slash Bootcamp and use the code Garrett. It's G-A-R-R-E-T-T at checkout and you guys will get that for free. It's a five day training, an hour. There's replays of course, but it'll help you understand if this method would be a good fit for you. And then there's one tiny tip I wanted to say, here was, you know, think about the last 10 homes you've sold. How many of those homes came from a referral that somebody knew you or someone that you liked, that liked you, that you connected with and you grew a relationship? I'm going to venture is at least 80%, maybe all 10 of homes. Okay. So the purpose of the podcast, you know, Don't come at this. I'm giving you like million dollar advice right now. Don't come at it from the expert place. Well mortgage rates have dropped by 0.5%. We're going to like nobody cares. Like nobody actually cares. What we care about is like, is this person going to help me find this home in the school district that I really need even though I don't have 10 % down? Right? Is this person going to judge me because I don't understand what escrow is? Like it's so intimidating. And so if you come at it from a, like you're my best friend and we went to coffee and you're asking me about buying a house and this is like such a thing for you and you come at it from a heart place and you're vulnerable and you share funny stories and you're relatable. The likeability is what will get you all the cold leads in the world that you could ever ask for. So just because you're agents, I want you to remember that you're speaking to somebody like they are your absolute best friend and that they do not know what you know. That's going to disarm them and have them reach out to you. Good, I love that, it's really good. I'm going to sign up, that's for sure. And uh generally, audience, I love you guys, you know that, that's why I show up and do it. So if you think, man, I should start a show too, you should talk to Stephanie. And then if you want help along the way, reach out to me. I mean, I've made a ton of mistakes. I'd love to tell you, what do we use? What kind of blah, blah, whatever it is, however I can support you in that too, because I do believe this is an amazing space. I love exactly what you just talked about, right? It's just going out and talking to the right people and actually equipping them in a way that's helpful and encouraging. Not that social media can't be sometimes, but really it's more about you than it is about them. Right? That's social media. Podcasting is about you. It's about them, not you, in a beautiful, beautiful way. So Stephanie, so much wisdom. In all seriousness, I'm going to listen to this a bunch of times before it even comes out. So that's the advantage, guys, of having your own podcast. I get to listen to it first, but... Stephanie, genuinely thank you so much, not only for the wisdom, but I just appreciate your passion and heart. Thanks for coming on and sharing with us and being an encouragement to us today. You're so welcome. Thanks for having me. 100 % faithful agents, we love you, we will see you next week. Stephanie.