Podcasts about get sellers calling you

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_text] Watch the live video below [/fusion_text][fusion_youtube id="https://youtu.be/GMnzpL8jyUE" alignment="center" width="" height="" autoplay="false" api_params="&rel=0" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" /][fusion_text] Transcription (was completed by automated process.  Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) Well, hi, everybody, welcome to this next episode of Get Sellers Calling You, and we're so excited that you're here. I'm joined again with Beatty Carmichael.  Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber and the creator of Agent Dominator. He's one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. And Beatty, I'm super excited that you're joining me today. A little bit different than you for us, but what do you have for our listeners today? Yeah, so this is a little bit different, if you'll pardon me, while I remember to turn my phone off so it doesn't ring over there. This is actually a zoom meeting. So for those of you who are listening strictly online, then if you want to actually see what we're doing, see what Penny looks like, because most people say I’ve probably never seen Penny. You can watch this podcast online. But the most important part is we're going to be doing a training session on how to dominate a geographic farm, basically what we call geographic farming mastery. And this is the basics of getting into it. Everything on how do you market to it at a high level? What are the things that causes it to drive results all the way down to how do you pick a farm that gets you even more results? So this whole call and talk is to really take someone who's thinking about geographic farming or maybe haven't thought about it at all and say, here's how you do it and let's make it work. Well, great. [00:01:32] Oh, I'm excited. This this is going to be a really good topic for our listeners. [00:01:37] Yes. So I was doing a call recently, Penny, and doing actually this very same workshop. And it was real interesting because there were a lot of really high income earners, real estate agents on the call. And the couple the comments that came out of it was where were you four years ago? You know, as we start to explain, here's how you do marketing, OK? And then as I started to explain, how do you pick out a farm, it's like all these light bulbs started to go on because most people have never really understood the art of farming. And it's really not an art. It's a science. So I thought I'd walk us through it today. So, yeah, I'm excited. OK, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to share my screen. [00:02:29] Oh, the joys of technology, right? [00:02:31] Yes, absolutely. Now, can you can you see my screen OK? I can, yes. OK, this is blocking agent dominate our logo right there, but we'll move this around. OK, so let's get started. So what I want to do is, by the way, for you all who don't know, this is actually Penny, just a couple of years ago before she had her guide on TV. [00:02:56] Ok, so how do you dominate the geographic form? I want to first talk about how do you market for listings, because whether it is in a geographic farm or whether it's in your personal list or whether it's a expired list or whether it's any type of list, what you find is people respond the same. And so I want to walk you through this at a high level marketing for listings. [00:03:22] And because of that, I want to talk about beer. Penny, have you ever heard of Schlitz beer? [00:03:29] I have, yeah. I was asking someone recently, just a couple of months ago about that. [00:03:35] And they never had they were young, you know, more millennial type person. And so Pabst Blue Ribbon bought Schlitz, I think it was in the 90s. Wow. And so that's why the name went out to recognize it. [00:03:52] I think it's a Yankee beer. I was actually born in Massachusetts, so I recognize it as being one that was popular. [00:04:00] Yes, very much so. So it is sort of a Yankee beer. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was their home office area. And now here's the big question, Penny. What in the world does beer have to do with getting listings? [00:04:16] Oh, I don't know, you're going to have to tell me that one. [00:04:20] Well, you invite some friends over, you pop open a beer and you have a good time and you build relationships. [00:04:26] Is that it? Maybe that would be my my easy guess. [00:04:30] Because your easy guys. Well, that's a wrong answer. If that was the actual answer. So beer has a lot to do with it. Not just all beer, but in particular Schlitz beer. So so is in Milwaukee, used to be called the Milwaukee Brewing Company is one of the commercial agents up in Milwaukee told me. And what's real interesting is at the turn of the century and for our millennial friends, no, that's not the return of 2000. This is the chart of nineteen hundred. OK, but at the turn of the nineteen hundreds slits, beer was number eight and the nation number one was Budweiser. OK, wrong side No. One was Budweiser. And do you have any idea the difference between number one and number eight when you're talking about market share? I don't. OK, so just a real quick business lesson number one. And number two, control the vast majority of the market. So in any place, if you have number one and number two, they typically own and control 85, 90, 95 percent of the market. Wow. OK, then number three is way down from there. Number four is even further down. And by the time you get down to number eight, you're a nobody hears probably a good way to kind of understand this. [00:06:04] If you were to look at a geographic farm, for example, a large farm where maybe there are some really strong agents and and you got to look at a farm where you got some really strong agents, where they pretty much are dominating the market. You'll find that the number one agent, if they if they dominate the market, is probably like 50 percent. OK, I mean, I'm talking about a strong agent and then number two from there is probably going to be down at 15 percent by the time you get to number one, our number eight, that person probably has maybe one listing a year in that farm. So what we're talking about is a huge disparity. Sure. OK, and Slick's wanted to grow, so they hired a guy named Claude Hopkins and now the name probably doesn't ring a bell. But let me ask you a question. Um, let's talk about income for for a moment, Penny. OK, if if you were earning a hundred and eighty five thousand dollars a year today, is that a lot of money? [00:07:13] Today, yeah, I would consider that to be a pretty good, pretty good income. [00:07:21] Yeah, one hundred eighty five thousand dollars is more than most real estate agents make take home pay. OK, so now let's go back a hundred and ten years ago. If you were earning one hundred and eighty five thousand dollars and nineteen ten, would that be a big income? Yes. OK, yes, that's what this guy's salary was, a hundred and eighty five thousand dollars a year. And the only thing he did is he wrote marketing copy to get people to buy his client's brand name. So Schlitz Beer hired Claude Hopkins. And I wanted you to see the story because what he did with Solich is the same thing that if you do in your geographic farm or anywhere else, you're going to quickly dominate that area. OK, so so what Claude did is the first thing he did, by the way, let me also walk you through just a few more years, the Great Depression, 1930, 1931, 1933. In that time frame, a lot of people were unemployed, right? Yes. A lot of businesses out of business and a lot of incomes had dropped a lot because there's a lot of the market was gone. So would you like to take a guess of what Claude Hopkins salary was in the early 1930s during the peak of the depression? [00:08:54] Wow. OK, so is this is this before the one eighty five a year salary or after this is after. [00:09:02] So 185 was actually 1987, OK, when he was just getting started in marketing. OK, essentially. And then you fast forward, you have the stock market crash, the Great Depression and everyone's out of work, a lot of people. And he's still doing marketing copy. Would you like to guess what his salary was at that point? [00:09:27] I'm going to guess it was higher. I'm going to guess is higher than one eighty five. [00:09:31] Ok, good guess. Now the question is at what? What level? [00:09:36] Oh, gosh. Can I give you a percentage? Sure. [00:09:46] Ok, I'm going to go with I'm going to go with twenty five. I mean, Great Depression, 25, 30 percent higher. [00:09:53] Ok, so 25, 30 percent would put him about a quarter million dollars. His salary was over one million dollars a year during the Great Depression. [00:10:06] Wow, that's amazing. [00:10:08] And the reason I want to share that is I want you to understand that what he did was Schalit was so effective that when he did it with every single other company, company she would never have heard of, like Palmolive, Palmolive or what are those beans that come in a can do you remember? [00:10:28] I can't lay any beans. Yeah. [00:10:32] And anyway, Dove Soap, Palmolive, all of these brands that we have today, he was the guy that launched them. Wow. OK, so, um, so what happened with with with Claude is the first thing he did is he went through the slick brewery and took a tour and they showed him everything that happened through the process of making beer, because if you're going to market beer, you got to kind of understand the process. So they started with the fact that they have several 4000 foot deep wells that's almost a mile deep. They had several of those where they pumped up the very poorest of the pure water that they could get so that the beer was pure. Now, let me also share one other thing back in this time frame from all the beers for promoting, we have purity in our beer. Our beers are pure. But the question is, how do you define pure? Yeah, they most of our agents out there are saying, you know, I'm a great agent. But the question is, how do you define a great agent? OK, everyone's using the same verbiage here, but no one knows how to define it. Unless you can define it, then you can't really sell it. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. OK, so they showed him how they have these several four thousand foot wells to bring up only the purest of the pure water. Then they take it through this process and then when they are cooling the beer down, they had these huge plate glass windows that are protecting the cooling area from everything else. [00:12:20] And they use only filtered air so that there's no impurities to come involved. Then they showed him how they take their beer bottles and they clean them not only once or twice, but four times with superheated steam to make sure all of the bacteria is gone so that there could be nothing that would spoil the purity of the taste. And then they also showed them in their laboratory, the mother yeast cell, that they went through one thousand and eighteen different experiments developing this mother yeast cell to have the purest of the taste. And all of the yeast that the beer is made from comes from that mother you sell. Well, then they also show that the filters that they use to filter out the beer from all of the barley and everything else and clean it are made from a very expensive white oak. I believe I've got my story right, white oak, that they had to claim two or three times a day to keep it really pure. OK, then they would store the beer in a cask and the casks were made out of very special wood that were aged before they would put the beer in there. And so all of these very deliberate, very elaborate steps so that when the beer comes out on the other end, it's extremely pure to the standards of Schlitz beer. Does that make sense? [00:13:49] Well, yes. OK, so now as I'm describing this, you're going wow. And as I'm watching your expression, you're going, wow, OK, I'm just like, it's so it's so much like step after step. [00:14:00] And it's like I just kept expecting you to be like, finished. And then it was like, one more thing. [00:14:04] Yes. Well, now I truncated it as well. Obviously a lot more sets, but those are the key things. So when Claude finish coming through the tour, here's his reaction was just like yours and mine. My gosh, this is amazing. You do all of this just to make it pure. And then he asked the question. Why don't you tell the public about this man? And do you have any idea what the Spear guys said when he asked that question? They probably thought he was a fool. No, he said almost. Almost. He's they said, well, Claude, this is how all beer is made. We don't do anything different. I don't do anything unique. And then Claude came back and this is the problem, OK? And this is also the problem with a lot of real estate agents. Well, Betty, all good real estate agents do these best practices. And from your perspective as the real estate agent, you don't do anything special, but what Claude understood that the big guys did not understand is that the public did not understand that OK? And he said whoever educates the public first is going to own that market share. It's going to own that what we call positioning in the mind. Now, let's talk about positioning real quick, because this is real important. OK, so positioning is a marketing term. If you've ever read a book, millionaire real estate agent, have you ever read that? I know because I know you guys have been and do things with real estate as well. So millionaire real estate agent talks about a concept called market share dominance. He actually pulls that. The concept of that from a book called Positioning by Ellery's and a guy named Fred. And that book was written in the 1980s as a fabulous read, if you are excited about marketing. But it basically says this, that the typical consumer can only remember two or maybe three brands and nothing else. Wow. So let's do a quick test. Can we test this out on you? [00:16:16] Yes, but I'm probably not the one you want to test. I'm really good at brands. [00:16:20] Ok, good. So let's say you're the good one to test. I want you to think about toothpaste, for example. OK, all right. Tell me the brand of toothpaste that come to mind. [00:16:31] Crest Colgate, Aquafresh. It's red and white. Hold on. [00:16:38] Ok, you can start there. OK, three came to mind instantly. Yes. Most people when asked only to come to mind. But you had a real bad chance time trying to figure out that fourth one that you could picture, but you couldn't come with a name yet. How many toothpaste brands do you think are on the market? [00:16:57] Oh, my word. [00:16:59] I it's got to be well over 25 oh, it's in the thousands. [00:17:05] Ok, right, OK. So at least in the multiple hundreds. But here's so here's what happens. As a consumer with all of these brands, you only quickly come up with three. Uh, what do you think's happening in that geographic farm when you ask a homeowner, give me the name of every real estate agent you think of one to. [00:17:32] Maybe three, yeah. [00:17:33] If you're not one of those names, you have zero chance of getting a phone call when they're thinking about selling. Does that make sense? [00:17:41] Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. [00:17:43] So this is what is so important about this whole idea of marketing for listings is it's all about how do you get your name in that consumer's mind so that they think of you first? And that was the challenge that Spear was having. They were number eight for a reason. No one thought of them. OK, yeah. So what Klau did is he starts writing copy and here's an example called Bottled Purity. And they always have these. By the way, he did a thing on orange juice later. I saw and it says Drink oranges from a bottle. You know, this is keep in mind, back in that time, there was no orange juice you'd buy off the shelf, you'd always squeeze it. So so these headlines create an immense curiosity, bottled purity. And then what he starts to do is he starts to on the ad, he starts to explain these things that slick beer did to bring purity to their beer. He talked about the four thousand foot wells. He talked about the white oak filters. He talked about the plate glass room with only filtered air. He talked about all of these things. And would you like to guess what happened? [00:19:05] He started making more money. [00:19:08] Well, OK, let's talk about expertise. Would you like to guess what happened with Spir? [00:19:13] I probably could not guess some of what you tell me. [00:19:16] Ok, you're afraid to guess what's going on. It is. [00:19:24] So what happened is in less than one year. They jumped nationally to the number one selling beer. [00:19:35] Wow. Oh, my word. Wow. [00:19:38] Think about the impact from a nobody to no one in less than a year leapfrogging over Budweiser. Wow. How do you do that? You do that by giving people an understanding of what pure beer is all about. [00:19:56] And then I'm going to this book written. So there is a real famous I forget the marketing straight, but up in New York, there is a very famous advertising agency called Lordan Thomas, and they are the ones that brought out all of these brands. And Claude worked for him, was president of Lord and Thomas during the years of the Great Depression. It's my understanding, but I know you worked there and the owner of Lordan, Thomas, was talking about he's on a train. You got to go back to the early nineteen hundreds. [00:20:35] There were no interstates, OK? And so if you want to go from city to city, you hopped on a train. So the owner of Lordan, Thomas, was on a train with his I guess it was a preacher, a priest or pastor, depending on the denomination. But this guy had never had any beer in his life and he kind of stayed away from alcohol. And on the train there, you know, riding along and reading the newspaper and and he's reading another ad for Schlitz Beer and talking about the purity and the pure taste and the crispness of the taste. [00:21:11] And he said to and I wish I remember the guy's name, but the owner, Lauren Thomas, he said, you know, I've been reading about this beer so much, I just got to go get it. [00:21:22] I just got to go try it. So he gets up and goes buys his first beer. OK, that's how effective Claude Hopkins was in writing marketing copy about a beer that would persuade homeowners to choose that beer over every other beer out there. Like now, can you start to see some similarities maybe with what's going on there, with what you can be doing with your real estate business? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So what comes to mind? Anything your editor, strategic, high level or maybe even specific granular level? [00:22:02] High level. I would just be something like you said earlier, something that's going to set you apart, but really draw the attention of the person that you're trying to market to. Clearly, his copy at this time was drawing the attention of readers and people that we're looking through the paper and so forth. And it was intriguing to them. Maybe it was something that had not been done prior to this, you know, to really, like you said, describe the process of the beer and the way the beer taste and all that. Instead of just putting a picture with Budweiser across it, he's actually giving some information on the beer. And so people were inquisitive. [00:22:43] That's kind of what comes to mind. [00:22:45] Yeah, exactly. So now, if we were to relate this to real estate, what do most real estate agents do now? Let me ask you this question. Let me ask the question. [00:22:54] This one, I'm going to get a lot of agents to hate me if I give that answer. [00:22:58] So let me ask you so let me ask a more politically correct question, OK? OK. If you were to get 10 postcards from 10 real estate agents as a consumer. Is there typically anything on those postcards that would persuade you why, to choose one agent over another? Probably not. Probably not. Therein lies the problem. Yeah, all real estate agents do what all real estate agents do because that's what they're taught to do. There's a great book. I don't know if you've ever read it, called Rhinoceros Success, Not J something. Alexander So Rhinoceros is a success. Great book. I highly recommend it. It's a short read just a couple hours or less. And but it talks about how do you really beat the crowd and it's in any one of the main truisms there. So any time you see the crowd going one way, you always go the other way, OK? And this is especially true with real estate. Any time you see all real estate agents doing this same type of practice, do something different now that they're all sending these cars, that all look alikes do something different because otherwise you run in the same problem that you listed. So let me show you what's going on right now. [00:24:23] A quick note on that. I have to I have to solidify that point. I remember about three or four years ago, we got something very different in the mail from a real estate agent, way different than any other agents had done. And if I were if I had been in the market to buy a home at that point, I would have called that agent immediately because it was something that no one else had been doing. It totally caught my attention and I actually liked it. [00:24:51] Yes. So I stand out from the crowd. Yes, it worked. Yeah. So if you can say this, if you're watching the video, you know, all of these people look the same as just silhouettes, OK? Nothing to differentiate. But in marketing, this is really the issue. In marketing, there's a concept known as outside perception versus inside reality. And this is the same thing that Shlosberg was running into and the same thing that all of our listeners are running into right now. That is the outside perception of your marketplace assumes you are just like everyone else you're inside. Reality is, you might be a lot different, but the perception is different. So people question, OK. When you make a sale, the people buy you on perception or on reality, reality, OK, if they've never used you before, do they have anything to buy on reality with. [00:25:56] No. So they have to buy on perception. Yes. OK, so it's a trick question because if you've done business with someone before or they've done business with you, let's say you're a real estate agent, they've done business with you before, then if you're a good agent, they liked you. You did a great job. They're going to use you again and again because they now know your reality. Does that make sense? Absolutely. OK, but they've never used you before. Then what they're doing is they're hiring you based on perception. So perception is the key to engaging that first relationship. I got to tell you a story. [00:26:36] One the one of our clients with Agent Dominator signed up with us. [00:26:44] She put her her past clients and friends on our list to market. And, you know, we have a money back guarantee that you'll get results or we'll give all your money back. OK, and but one of those one of the keys that guarantee is that there has to be at least enough selling activity within your list, that we can guarantee something, you know, sort of like Jesus, he never created something out of nothing. He always took the little that you have and then produced the abundance, you know, five you know, five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand. But he didn't just start with nothing. And we can't create something out of nothing either. So this agent's name, I forget it. I was just going to use first name. But anyway, she came to us at the end of the year. She didn't get any sales, so she complained. She said, I want my money back. And so we go through our process. And one of the questions asked was, you know, how many listings actually came out of that list, whether you got them or not. And there was only one. So, well, that doesn't meet the threshold, OK, because in the in the contract, it says that there's got to be X and but here's A and I'm going somewhere with this, OK? This person that listed their home was a recent past client of this agent. [00:28:12] And chose someone else. Wow. OK, so that shows you how bad that agent was. OK, so that homeowner chose the agent initially on perception, but reality was not good enough to repeat. Wow. So so typically your business comes from reality if it's repeat and it's coming from perception if it's not. So this is the challenge that spearhead the outside perception of all of the beer drinkers was that Sloots was just another beer and the inside reality. The perception is that when Claw's started to explain step by step, those things that they did, then the public's perception of slick beer increased and now they started buying it. This is the same thing with real estate agents. So let me ask you a question. Assume for a moment, Penny, that you are a you're one of our clients, OK? Assume that you maybe you've been selling real estate for 15 or 20 years. You do 30 to 50 transactions a year. You do an excellent job for your clients, OK? And now you want to do geographic farming and you go to this farm and they've seen your signs, you know, over the years. [00:29:35] You might even do some advertising and you're in the grocery store and things of that sort. OK, so here's the question, by and large, to those homeowners. Do they believe that you are any different or any better than any of the other agents? No, no. See, here's what happens. The homeowner's perception is that all agents are the same and all they do is stick a sign in the yard, list the home in the MLS and just sit back and wait for someone to bring a buyer. Does that make sense? Absolutely. OK, so if they believe that to be true, then it makes no difference which agent they choose because their home is going to sell for the same price in the same amount of time. Is this making sense? Absolutely. OK, so now put yourself back in that top producers corner and let me ask you this question, OK? If those homeowners out there understood the skill, the expertise and the experience that you bring to the table for your clients, and they understood that skill, expertise and experience to the same degree that you understand it about yourself, would they realistically choose any other agent besides you? [00:30:52] No. No. So that is your inside reality now becoming their perception of who you are? Yes. Yeah. If you can make Dariya their perception, become your reality, then they would choose you every time. The fact that they're not choosing you every time is because their perception is different. And to the degree that your reality is different than their perception is to the degree of how few listings you'll get from that market. Are these making sense? OK, yeah. So then the question is how in the world do you take your inside reality and help them understand your reality? [00:31:37] What do you think? How do you do that? [00:31:41] Well, I keep I hear my grandmother say the proof is in the pudding, so there's got to be something that I'm going to be doing that will prove to them that that perception is a reality. [00:31:55] Very good. So we got to somehow communicate it. So this is what Claude did. He went through and analyzed each step, the process of making excellent beer, and then he wrote marketing copy that educated the consumer on each of those steps. It wasn't flamboyant marketing copy. It wasn't flowery language. It was here's what we do. And it's so impressive just by itself that people go, wow, that's a lot of effort. This beer must be really great. Does that make sense? Yeah. So we started working on this back in 2013. We start analyze what causes someone to change their perception about a real estate agent. And what we found was a real simple thing. If you want to make your inside reality become their outside perception of who you are, then it really boils down to three things. And we call them the three S's. OK, and I want to kind of walk through these, but the three S's very simply are you have to show off your sales. You have to explain the secrets to those cells, and then you have to have some sort of unique selling proposition or or some unique service that you do that gives them to remember you. And I think we probably ought to just end the podcast right now. We'll come back in a few weeks and finish this up. [00:33:26] What do you think now? [00:33:30] Ok, so I've also got to tell you this this other story. OK, OK, so showing off your cells, we found this was the number one thing most important. In fact, back in 2012 and then 2013 when we just started working exclusively with real estate agents. I don't know if you know this or not, Penny, but we are focus at that time was exclusively geographic farming. And let me back up and share the conundrum with geographic farming. I think the easiest way to explain it, Andina, what conundrum means a pitfall before problem? [00:34:11] I think it's a real word. It may just be made up. I'm not really. I think it's real. [00:34:15] Ok, so the conundrum, OK, in geographic farming is best described by what Mike Feri said. Now, let's test your knowledge again. Do you know who Mike Ferry is? [00:34:31] I do recognize that name. Maybe he was an agent. I don't know. [00:34:36] I think he was an agent, but he is his claim to fame is he has the largest, longest, most successful real estate coaching organization in the world called the very coaching organization or very organization. [00:34:51] So like that, if you go to the website, I haven't been there in a couple of years, but real prominently it says over one million individual hours of coaching conducted. Wow. That's a lot of time. That is a lot of time. A lot of people have heard of Tom Ferry, which is his son. OK, so you have that connection. But Mike Ferry was asked about postcard marketing, geographic farming, and his comment was, if you're going to do postcard marketing and I'm assuming this has meaning for that geographic form. So you have to do nonstop marketing for at least two or three years before you can expect the homeowner to actually remember your name. Wow. That's that Mindshare dominance. [00:35:31] Yeah. Pick up the phone and call you. OK, so the conundrum in real estate, in geographic farming is it takes time because what we're trying to do is we're trying to change the thinking of those homeowners. [00:35:43] We're trying to get their perception that you are not just any other agent, but you are a special agent worthy of being, you know, selling their house. So when we enter this market, the common belief was if you're going to do geographic farming, you market, market, market, market, and your first listing will come maybe by the end of the first year and definitely somewhere more than likely by the second year. And then it would take somewhere between three to five years before you had a lot of volume coming in and you just kind of had a good foothold on that market place. So that's and if you think about even launching a new brand, it takes a long time to get that brand launched. And so that's basically what geographic farming is, is launching your brand. So so when we started geographic farming, would you like to guess how long it took for our average client to get their first listing? [00:36:45] Uh oh. [00:36:50] Two months, pretty clear, pretty accurate somewhere in that one, two, three month time frame, we had most of our clients getting the first listings there. We had a number of clients pick up, you know, sell a couple of million dollars in real estate and their first several months. And a number of clients would actually be maybe a few in the first several months that quickly. But we had a number of clients that would earn seventy five to one hundred thousand dollars in commissions in their first 12 months in geographic farming, which is totally unheard of. [00:37:30] And that process has nothing to do with what I'm sharing here. OK, I'm going to show you that process in just a moment. But but they all interconnected together. So back to this. So as we're signing up real estate agents, we would always ask him, have you ever done geographic farming before? And most of them would say no. Some would say yes. We would then ask those who said yes, was it successful? And most would say no and some would say yes. And we would ask them those that said it was successful. Well, what were you doing that made it successful 100 percent? Of everyone who answered that question, gave the same answer. And would you like to guess what 100 percent of the agents who had success in geographic farming in the past, what was the one answer that they gave? Do you would you like to guess? [00:38:27] My guess, and this is just based on my own personal experience, they were available. [00:38:34] Well, most agents are available because most agents don't have enough business to begin with. I don't know if they'll look at the slide. It's number one of the three S's. [00:38:44] Oh, they showed off their sale. Yeah. And how do you show off a sale if you're a real estate agent? [00:38:52] Signings, marketing, you mail out a Jessell postcard. [00:38:57] Yeah, OK, you show off your sale, OK. And that's what they were doing. And that's the number one most important thing. Here's what I learned from that. Homeowners want to know that you're actively selling them. [00:39:09] Think about this. If you're going to sell your home, do you want to sell it with an agent who rarely sells homes or one that is always selling homes or one that's always selling homes? Yeah. [00:39:20] So the one who never advertises that they're always selling the perception is they I never see them. So they must not be selling. [00:39:30] Yes. OK. [00:39:31] And if you see them then maybe they're selling. So that's the number one thing. So the three Rs is the number one is show off your sales all the time. [00:39:40] And and here's something real interesting about geographic farming. We will definitely have to break on this call. So I want to I want to take us to the end of this, but we'll break and come back another time because I want to show you how to start implementing and executing on this. But I'll I'll stop on this topic and we won't get into the other stuff. But the weather was like, oh, I'm showing off your sales. So most agents believe, wrongly, that you only send Jessell postcards around the sale that you just sold them. [00:40:17] So if I'm doing a geographic farm over here, let's just call it, you know, Cahaba Heights as my geographic farm. Then if I make a sell over in Hoover, I can't show that sell off in Cahaba Heights because Cahaba Heights, they want to see sales that are in their neighborhood. So I can't start showing off sales in that neighborhood until I start getting sales. And so now I'm at the catch twenty two. If I don't have sales, I can't show off it. I don't show my face, I don't get sales is not a problem. Yes. So the simple solution is those homeowners don't care, they just want to know that you're selling. So if you've got a sale from another area, send a Jessell postcard into that farm that you're targeting because any sale is better than no sale. Yeah, I agree with that 100 percent. [00:41:13] I mean, as a consumer, I would be thrilled to see an agent that's selling all over the city because to me that would be a sign that they can sell no matter where you are. [00:41:22] That's right. Exactly. But now there are some. So the closer you get to home. The more that homeowner is going to trust you. Meaning if you sold their next door neighbor's home and three doors down, you sold that home. And one street over, you saw another home. Do you think they'll trust you more than if all your homes are 20 miles away? Probably, yeah, yeah, so proximity does make an impact, and that's why most agents say, well, I need to sell homes here for them to trust me here. So I've got a solution. Would you like to know what that solution is? Yes. OK, so now let's go back and let's first articulate the conundrum, OK? Because these are always conundrum problems we're trying to solve. OK, so the conundrum is, when I sell a home that's 20 miles away, it may have a completely different architectural style than the homes in the neighborhood I want to target. So it becomes obvious that where I sold is nowhere near where they are. OK, makes sense. Yes. The other conundrum is, let's say and Cahaba Heights, all the streets are names like Rosemary Lane and Jackson Boulevard. But where I just sold a whole home, it's all numeric names like Twenty Fourth Street or 1st Avenue South. Mm hmm. So when I show off that sale into this geographic neighborhood, it's very obvious that sticks out like a sore thumb. This has nothing to do with where I live. Is that making sense? Absolutely. So how do you solve this problem? Now, we do this on our postcards that we fully customize for our agents when we go through this whole process, we become the Claude Hopkins' for them and I identify what is they do and we create custom postcards and we include sales. We do it on their postcards. Any idea what that is? [00:43:39] Just putting the name of the street that's part of it goes deeper and then maybe stating like how many days they sold it and if it's sold for five thousand overprice or is part of it. [00:43:55] Ok. Right. So so let me let me I'm going to peel back the onion, OK? I'm going to ask some description. I might open the kimono, OK, and let you see what's actually on the inside of what goes on with all this stuff. OK, so the first thing is the outside architecture of the home is usually the first indication that that home doesn't fit this neighborhood and. But once you go inside the home. That kitchen, the master bedroom, that master bath, the den, the living area, you can't tell what type home they are outside architecture is simply by looking at an inside photo. So if you want to take that sale and make it transferable to another neighborhood when the outside doesn't look the same. Take an inside photo and then that homeowner can't discern if there was a you know, they think it's a neighborhood sale because you send it to them in that neighborhood. Does that make sense? [00:44:56] Yes, it's brilliant. [00:44:59] So that's why we do that. It also helps in some other areas. [00:45:05] The the other thing that we do. Is now this comes into a higher level of marketing understanding. OK, so let me back. Let me explain. Let's first talk about fights, we have normal, which is black print on white copy on white background, and we have reverse font, which is white print on a dark background. Which font do you think is easier to read? Normal font or reverse font normal? That's right. It's eight and a half times easier to read normal font than it is reverse font. Most people don't read reverse font. What about if you look at all caps or let's say upper and lower case versus all caps, which is easier to read if you have a sentence, a sentence in upper and lower case versus a sentence in all caps, which is easier to read upper and lower just because it's more natural. That's right. Or natural. And then italics, not in italics or italics. If everything was in non italics or everything was in italics, which is easier. That's right. [00:46:19] So if you want them to pay attention to the street. [00:46:25] You do it in normal font, upper and lower case, non italics, yeah, but if you want them to not pay attention to the street, so don't even hit their brain. Because you kind of feel obligated, you need to know where the cell was, OK, then you put it in reverse font. All caps, italics are, and in that way it's there, but that homeowner, it doesn't register in the brain. So now you can take a cell from 20 miles away if we use that example. Yeah, you can show just the inside photo. And then for the street, you put it in smaller font, you put it in reverse font, all caps, italics, and so now is satisfies the curious, OK, they posted what I address, but they don't they don't even register. Well, this is in a house near here. Yeah. It just goes right by them. So now you can use cells from anywhere and show off cells in that farm and now you have success in that. Cool. [00:47:32] That's great. I love that. [00:47:34] Yeah. So we're going to have to stop. [00:47:37] Oh, OK. But let me tell you where we're going. [00:47:41] Just to whet your appetite to want to come back is we haven't gotten into how do you start to execute on it. So we're going to talk a little bit further on the next session. Now, that's just showing ourselves we're going to start talking about what are the secrets that you start to explain? What are the things that Claude Hopkins' approach to get people to actually trust you, to know that your beer is pure or your real estate is is excellent. We're going to talk about how do you create a unique selling proposition, what it is, and then how do you start to execute on it? And then later in the session in the series, we're going to then talk about how do you start to identify sellers? What did we do with our clients that got them listings faster than ever before when the general norm was is we're going to take a year or two to get listings and our clients were getting them in the first month or two. How do you do that? And then we're going to move further down into this mastery course and talk about how do you actually pick a farm, because you can't just say eeny, meeny, miny, mo. You point to that area and say that's where we're going to farm because it may not be productive. You know, there's things that you can do. So that's kind of where we're going in this tees it up. Has this been exciting so far? [00:49:04] This has been great. And I just want to encourage our listeners if they want to get all those juicy details and learn how to be successful. So please join us again for the next one so they can get the rest of the story. [00:49:19] Baby, thank you so much for again, just putting all the effort into really trying to make people better and make them successful. And this has been a great podcast. I look forward to the next one so we can finish out our discussion and hear all the good the good details. [00:49:38] Yes. And let me also make a couple plug number one. Yes. If you haven't subscribe to our podcast, subscribe to it so you don't miss anything. Number two, I heard a top producing agent who makes like on average about seven hundred and fifty thousand a year personal production. Take home pay, OK, almost almost take home pay. And he teaches a course and part of his course, he talks about if you think hiring a professional is expensive, try hiring an average year. OK, so I'm teaching you what you know, but I'm not teaching you what we know. OK, so if you want to really master this, if you want to have the highest chance of success, I'd love to have you check us out. You can go either to our podcast website. Getler is calling you dot com and click on the tab. Agent Dominator, you just go to agent nominator dot com and see what we do there. And otherwise, thanks for listening in and come back next time for more of the rest of the story. [00:50:43] Awesome. Thanks, baby. And we look forward to just hanging out again next time. All right. Y'all have a blessed day. Thank you. Bye bye. 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Transcription (was completed by automated process.  Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)     [00:00:04] Well, hello, everyone, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm super excited and welcome to this next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael.  Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I am super excited about our call today. What do you have for our listeners?   [00:00:28] Well, I am very excited about it as well, Penny, because I get to do today what I love doing. And sometimes I pinch myself saying, Lord, do I really get paid to do this stuff? And the answer is yes, ultimately. So we're going to do not a real estate marketing call. We're going to do a radical face call for those who may be new to us. As a reminder, we do two types of calls. So if you're here for real estate marketing, that's not going to be the topic of today's call. The topic is going to be living as a Christian, and what all of that type of stuff means. So if you want to enjoy that, please continue listening. Otherwise, you can turn off this episode and come back to our next one. So what I want to do when we talked last time, Penny, on the topic, Do all who accept Christ go to heaven? Do you remember that topic?   [00:01:26] Yes, I do. I do.   [00:01:28] Ok, well today we're going into part two, OK? And next time when we do, another radical faith call will be it part three. And I'm not sure if it's going to be three or four parts, but is this really incredibly exciting for me and very interesting. And I think there are a lot of deep application in terms of what we do with our lives that come out of it. So I want to go into that. So this is a quick review. We started last time with some statements that Jesus made and now we're going to test your memory. Do you remember what those statements Jesus made that we started?   [00:02:11] It was something that has to do with we were talking about do all people go to heaven if they get saved or the all believers go to heaven? And it was something it was something along the lines of, all right, that's OK.   [00:02:27] That's OK. Yeah, no, that's OK.   [00:02:30] Hey, I got it written in front of me. You don't. So that's the key. Oh so the gospels have four times God found is so important. They put four times in the gospel, the basic statement by Jesus that the one who endures to the end will be saved. Yes. Yes. The one who endures to the end by your endurance, you will gain your lives. Okay, so the question was. What in the world has Jesus talking about? So let me ask you a question. When Jesus teaches that you must endure to the end to be saved, does that mean that some people don't endure to the end?   [00:03:11] Yes.   [00:03:13] And therefore they don't endure to the end. They're not saved.   [00:03:18] That's correct. They're not going to go to heaven.   [00:03:20] Yeah, and that interesting and yet we think. Huh? OK, so we talked last time on the parable of the Sower, one of the most important parables, because it's the only one that is in all three synoptic gospels. Matthew, Mark Luke is the only one that is in its entirety in all three gospels is the only one that is fully interpreted by Jesus in all three gospels and is the only one that Jesus says, if you don't understand this one, how can you understand any of the parables? So it's kind of like the key, the master key that unlocks every single parable if you dig into it. And what we learned in the parable of the Sower is several things just in a quick review. OK, so you have a sower, we assume the soldiers us, OK, it's not very clear, but go out and you sow the seed everywhere. The seed is the word of the kingdom. And do you remember who the word of the kingdom is? If you were to put a name Jesus. Right. So where it is. So Jesus everywhere and some falls on the path and birch take it away. It's rejected. Some fall in on Iraqi soil. They accept it with enthusiasm. And as soon as the sun comes up because there's no root, it withers. Then some falls on the thorny soil.   [00:04:44] Ok, we call that soil number three. If we do soil one, two, three, four. So the stony soil falls among the thorns. It grows up into a plant. It grows up with the thorns, but there's no fruit. And then there's the for soil good soil that it produces some 60, some 30, some 100 salt, OK? And Jesus and Jesus says only the see that falls in the good soil is good. And you have to produce fruit and so what we kind of came through with all of that is that three soils accepted Jesus to some degree. You know, the rocky soil accepted the seed enough that it produced something. But there were no roots. The thorny soil accepted the seed. It actually went in the ground. It produced roots because we know now plant grew, but it was bad. And then the fourth soil, the soil accepted the seed, accepted Jesus and produced fruit. And so what we start to understand is put this parable is telling us, I believe, is that not everyone who accepts Jesus goes to heaven. Not everyone who accepts Jesus actually produces fruit. We also describe that fruit is the womb of a seed is for the seed is formed. And so what Jesus is telling us and we're going to get into this today a little bit more, that unless you're unless Christ is formed in you and you're producing more of Christ, then you're not good. Okay, so that's kind of where we ended up. Any questions or any thoughts on that before we move forward?   [00:06:33] No, just such a good reminder. Such a good refresher from last week. So I'm looking forward to this week.   [00:06:41] Good. I am too. So we covered one quick topic last time and wrapping up. And I want to I want to focus on this more today. And that's the difference between converts and disciples. So let me just cut in that. What we talked a convert is one who accepts Christ. A disciple is a convert who pursues Christ. Does that make sense?   [00:07:10] Yeah, yeah, OK.   [00:07:12] And and so it's kind of like a two step process. First, you accept Christ, but accepting Christ. Doesn't mean you go to heaven, it's what happens after there, so you accept Christ and then you pursue Christ. Now, this is not saying we're going to kind of touch on this maybe in a later session, OK? The question is, if you're currently a bad soul, can you become a good soil? That's not the topic of this call, OK? This isn't the topic of once I accept Christ, do I have to do something special? That's not the topic. All I'm saying is very clearly there is evidential difference between good soil, bad soil. And so let's look at it and then let's also analyze it within our lives. So what we find is not all converts go to heaven. But all disciples do all right. And then, John, 15 eight, this is Jesus, and he says by by this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. And so can you finish this sentence on that?   [00:08:21] And so go and bear fruit and so prove to be my disciples, right, when you bear much fruit, you prove to be my disciples.   [00:08:31] And this is what Jesus is talking about. This is, by the way, the great commission go and make converts of all the nations. Now go and make disciples of all the nations. And so there's something there about this mandate. So with that, I now want to move in to where we're going to be talking about today and it's really quite fascinating. I like to look at what John the Baptist had to say about frit. By the way, this is now trivia. Do you recall anything John the Baptist said about fruit?   [00:09:08] So. Wow. Mm hmm.   [00:09:12] I don't know, off the top of my head, so let's turn to Matthew three verses eight, nine and 10 and let's see what he says about fruit.   [00:09:25] Bear fruit in keeping with repentance and did not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham is our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now, the axes laid to the root of the tree. Every tree, therefore, does not bear good fruit that does not bear good for it. Cut down and thrown into the fire.   [00:09:52] Ok, just a little back. Back up. Scripture uses the metaphor trees a lot as representing men. OK, so that's why you see this. The access to the trees, every tree that does not bear fruit when he's talking to people and he says bear fruit with keeping with repentance. So when you see the word tree, typically that's going to be speaking about men when there are different types of trees, is talking about different types of men or the human race. Not always, but that's one of the things. So what does this say that what type of fruit are we to bear? Fruit that keeps with resentence fruit that keeps with repentance, so let's go back and cover one thing that's really important. When we read the Bible, the Bible is a book written by a single author, God himself. And when we when we see common terms throughout, there are always going to have something. They're always going to mean about the same thing or typically. OK, so you have just as we talked about last time, you have characters in a book. And if a character named John is introduced at the beginning, the book, then when the author calls out John toward the end of the book is the same. John is the same person. In this case. We have the character of fruit. The last time we talked about with a state in the sower that the good soil produces fruit, we had to understand what fruit is. But here John the Baptist is talking about fruit bear fruit in keeping with repentance. So we kind of understand that what John the Baptist is talking about is the same thing Jesus has been talking about. Does that make sense? Mm hmm. Yeah. OK, so this fruit is fruit in keeping with repentance. Here's something also interesting. What was the message that Jesus came preaching to you? Remember what that message was?   [00:11:58] The kingdom of God is here or now, but there's one one part right before that.   [00:12:03] Do you remember what it was? It was an action and love, love one another now repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. OK. Oh, so close your so close. So there's something about repentance that's really important when we talk about healing later, whenever the Lord guides me in that direction, repentance is really a key part of of that. So so we are to bear fruit of repentance, OK, if we don't bear fruit.   [00:12:38] What does John's passage say is going to happen.   [00:12:43] Hmm.   [00:12:46] Well, if we don't, it says that every tree or person that is not very good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.   [00:12:54] Ouch. You think what do you think that's actually going spiritually? What is he communicating?   [00:13:03] Going to heaven, crash and crash and burn.   [00:13:05] Yeah, OK, right, OK, so we see this thing about trees. We see this thing about fruit. We see this thing about an axe cutting down a tree and we see this thing about being burned. OK, do you recall any other parables that Jesus uses about a tree being cut down?   [00:13:30] I do not.   [00:13:32] All right, turn with me to Luke, 13 versus six through nine. This is the parable of the barren fig tree, OK?   [00:13:45] Oh, now you remember, right? OK, yes. So let's read the parable of the barren fig tree and what we're looking for. OK, this is let me kind of give you the Cliff Notes version of all this. God works in patterns. You see the same pattern throughout scripture in all kinds of areas. Last time we saw this pattern of something about fruit is important to being, you know, going to heaven. If we want to use that term, that's really to being part of the kingdom of God is the better term.   [00:14:15] And we saw that a lot of people produce something, but they didn't produce fruit. The soils produced a plant to some degree. And so we see this pattern. And I want you to be looking for the patterns as we go through. So let's read about the parable of the barren fig tree, OK?   [00:14:33] And he told this parable a man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vine dresser, Look, for three years now, I have come seeking fruit on the fig tree and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good. But if not, you can cut it down.   [00:15:08] Hmm. Wow. OK, so it's not bearing fruit. John talks about bear fruit with keeping with repentance or you get cut down. This is talking about it's not bearing fruit. Let's cut it down. All right. So we have some patterns and similarities there. Here's the question. Does a good tree produce good fruit?   [00:15:28] Yes, and how do we know that?   [00:15:34] Well, that's a good tree. Then that's its nature, its nature is to produce. OK, all right, so nature is wrong with it. It's going to it's going to reproduce itself, right?   [00:15:48] Ok, so seed reproduces after kind. Good. All right. Let's go real quickly. You don't have to turn there, but let's look at what Jesus says. It's in Luke 643 and he says for no good tree bears, bad fruit. Nor again, does a battery bear good fruit for each tree is known by its own fruit. So does a good tree produce good fruit according to Jesus? The answer is yes. OK, so now we're using trees. OK, keep in mind, the metaphor is mankind. Jesus is saying no good man produces bad fruit. Every man will be known after the fruit he produces. OK, there's a way to look at it. So if a tree produces no fruit, is it a good tree?   [00:16:37] No, and why is that how do we know that because Jesus just said it, a good tree is going to produce good fruit, right?   [00:16:47] Yeah, yeah. Parable of the sower. Only the good soil. The good soil is known because it produced fruit. Jesus said that. By this, my father's glorified that you bear much fruit and so proved to be my disciples, so we know that a good tree will always produce good fruit. A tree without fruit is not good. That's soil number three. If you recall, the plant grew up but produce no fruit. OK, so that's kind of where we are here. Let me give you a little background also. This is interesting, the background on the fig tree. So throughout scripture, the fig tree, in fact, do you know what the fig tree represents throughout scripture? Did you know that? Did you know that it represented something?   [00:17:39] I know I did not.   [00:17:41] All right, so there are two trees that are used all throughout scripture, sometimes are used in the same passages, sometimes are used differently. One is the fig tree. Do you remember what the other one is?   [00:17:52] My guess would be an olive tree.   [00:17:54] Yeah, so you have fig trees and olive trees. The question is, what are they? OK, so here we go back to patterns again. Same thing as Paul talks about. The pattern of not all who are descended of Abraham are Abraham's descendants. You remember him saying that? I think it's in Romans. OK, what is he talking about? Abraham had a physical bloodline and Abraham had a spiritual bloodline. The physical bloodline is a shadow of the spiritual, but it's not the spiritual. And we see this thing with fig trees. So throughout scripture, the fig tree represents the chosen people of Israel, of the natural. OK, you can call it the physical descendants of Abraham. And within that physical descendants, it's in a sense, it's death. OK, that's that's why you see all the time the fig tree without any fruit. That's why this parable is the fig tree that's going to be cut down. But then you have the olive tree and the olive tree represents the chosen people, a betrayal of the promise. These are the spiritual descendants of Abraham. And in a sense, the olive tree is always represented with life.   [00:19:11] All the fig trees always represented with death and saying, yeah, and an interesting.   [00:19:18] So just as the natural the natural world is a shadow of the spirit world, then the people of Israel, the fig tree is a shadow of the people or the promise represented by the olive tree. So that's kind of what we're seeing here. We've got this parable, the bear and fig tree. The fig tree, by the way, is there do you recall any other place in the Gospels where there's a barren fig tree?   [00:19:51] Hmm, I do feel like this story is brought up again, but I don't remember where Jesus is going into Jerusalem.   [00:20:01] Oh, yes, yes. You see the fig tree and leave. He walks over to get some fruit and there's none there and there's none.   [00:20:09] And it's not the season of fruit. It's not the season of fruit. And he curses it. Why do you think he curses the fig tree?   [00:20:18] When it's not the season for fruit, I don't know, I've always wondered that because I've always just thought that that was one of those moments in Scripture where it's just showing the sense of humor of God.   [00:20:32] Ok, so if we if we say I digress, but this is important, is fun. So the fig tree represents the natural Israel and sin and death, even though it's not the season for figs, as a believer, it's always the season for fruit. This is why you read through revelations and and other passages like in Psalms and other places where you have visions of the heavenly realm and the trees and the plants are always producing fruit all the time. There is no season without fruit. It's always the season for fruit because there's always a season for life. OK, and so Jesus curse, is it the same as the natural descendants of Abraham had been cast with death because they're in bondage to sin, ruled by death, made a covenant with death when Adam fell. OK, and and so you see all these all these patterns, imageries and all these concepts kind of coming together in this one image of Jesus cursing the fig tree. And so we kind of have something similar here. OK, so we have this fig tree. So Israel had been chosen and set apart by God from among all the nations. OK, so this is where you have kind of the chosen people. And Israel had been given gods promise of salvation. Right in that tree, an issue with God's own people, but yet here's what's interesting. Turn with me real quickly, John, 111, so so I want I want to give you this picture, it all ties back into this barren fig tree parable we're talking about here. So the picture is. God had chosen Israel, God had given Israel the promise. Israel was God's people, OK, and now let's read what happens, John, 111, can you read that?   [00:22:50] He came to his own disguise, right?   [00:22:54] So Jesus came into his own OK, now, now finish it and his own people did not receive him.   [00:23:00] Hmm. OK, so his own people did not receive him. So we have kind of this this thing. This is the victory. OK, so now let's move back to the parable of the barren fig tree, 13, six and nine. What do you think this parable is telling us?   [00:23:22] Oh.   [00:23:27] Well, if we're relating it to what you just kind of give that description, the fig tree and the physical nature of the descendants of Abraham and bondage to them, then the fig tree. Who was in bondage, bondage to sin is not going to produce fruit.   [00:23:48] There's no loss almost that that may be a little too much, so so the parable is going to be giving basically one simple point that Jesus trying to make. Let's look at the let's look at the key aspects of the parable first. OK, man has a fig tree. The man comes seeking fruit. There is none. He says, cut it down. OK, those are the basic elements of the parable. So what this tells us is that if you don't produce fruit, you get cut down.   [00:24:18] Right? OK, yeah.   [00:24:21] And cut down. What do you think that means?   [00:24:28] Removed from your purpose, yeah, is it you think this is similar to what John the Baptist was saying just a moment ago? The axe is laid at the root of the trees, and if you don't produce fruit, you'll get cut down and thrown into the fire, right?   [00:24:42] Yeah. Yeah.   [00:24:43] Ok, so that's I think it's what's talking here is you can get cut down and discarded that purpose that you're talking about for which you've been there, you're going to lose. All right. So but what about the vine dresser? This is real interesting. It says that a man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. Where do we where do we hear about a vineyard and a vine dresser? Does anything come to mind?   [00:25:12] Yes. Jesus. He says, I am the vine dresser and we are the vine almost. No, sorry. I'm sorry. We are his the vine. The father is a vine dresser.   [00:25:24] That's right. There are the branches. We are the branches, not the fruit that. Yeah. So John, that's John Tuffin one. So let's go there real quick. I want to show you something. OK, we're just going to read what you just said, basically, John, verse one.   [00:25:41] Yeah, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser.   [00:25:46] Ok, so now we have again characters. The olive tree is planted in the vineyard and the owner comes and talks to the vine dresser. Do you see all these pictures coming together now? OK, so in the vineyard, Jesus is the true vine. He's the olive tree is in the presence of Jesus. The Vineyard, who is the father is there. And the owner says to the to the father, God, the father cut it down. Now read what the vine dresser says. I want you to see this. This is really cool.   [00:26:25] This is verse eight, right? Yeah, OK. And he answered him. The vines are the the dangerous, right? Yeah. He answered him, sir.   [00:26:36] Let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on the newer.   [00:26:44] Yeah, then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.   [00:26:52] Oh, so this is the vine dresser. This is God, the father saying, hey, before we cut this down. Let me work on it special, let me give it special attention, let me let me dig around it, put in manure, let me really do everything I can to give it every opportunity to produce fruit and then if it does well and good, but if it doesn't, then let's cut it down. And that interesting. The heart of the father.   [00:27:23] Yes, he's the God of second chances.   [00:27:26] He's got a second chance for us. That's right.   [00:27:30] And we actually see this same picture. And John, 15. So Rejon 15 first to.   [00:27:41] Ok.   [00:27:43] When they get back, they're looking to all right. Every branch and me that does not bear fruit. He takes away in every branch that does bear fruit. He pretends that it may bear more fruit.   [00:27:59] Okay, perfect. So every branch that does not bear fruit he takes away. There's actually different ways to translate that takes away. And when we look at scripture, it's always multidimensional. Sometimes there's a lot more meaning than just one simple meaning. And so one way to translate in which most Bibles translate as he takes away. But another way you can translate that same word that's been used takeaway is to lift up. So you get kind of the image of if I'm a vine dresser and I'm in the vine is very valuable. This is business. This is what produces livelihood. So I'm not going to just willy nilly, you know, get rid of a branch just because it doesn't produce. I'm going to work with it. Tender care, because if I can get it producing fruit, it's worth a lot. So one way to interpret this is the vine dresser. Every branch that does not bear fruit, he lifts up the idea. You pull it up out of the ground, out of the dirt, you take the dirt off and wipe the dirt off the leaves so they can have sunshine and then you tie it up on the trestle so they can be in the sun and give an opportunity to produce fruit. But then if it doesn't produce fruit, he takes it away.   [00:29:17] Does that make sense? Mm hmm. Is that cool? Yeah, it's a great picture.   [00:29:22] So that's the same thing we see with this parable of the barren fig tree. Hey, let me give it more time and let me work with it to see if it can produce fruit. It shows the heart of the father really wants to give us every opportunity to produce that fruit. So so now with that, let's start looking a little bit deeper into some questions about this barren fig tree. Did the barren fig tree look like a mature, a mature tree? In other words, had it matured?   [00:29:59] No.   [00:30:01] Ok, so let me ask you, do you think it was standing tall like a normal tree?   [00:30:10] Possibly.   [00:30:12] Ok, yeah, OK, if for the owner to come look for the owner to come looking for fruit, should there have been fruit there? Yes, OK, it should have been, which means it's mature enough to have been producing fruit, does that make sense? Yes. OK, so it's mature enough by age and by visual appearance to be producing crude. So. So it's probably at the normal height of other trees that produce fruit, other fig trees, right? Mm hmm. Do you think it has limbs and leaves?   [00:30:51] Yeah, probably.   [00:30:52] Ok, so appearance wise, it looks like a mature plant. But the problem is there's no fruit. OK, so here's what I think Jesus is also teaching on this.   [00:31:08] The same thing we get from Parable of the Sower and some others will say if it's possible for someone to look like a Christian, think he's a Christian because he accepted Christ at some point and may even do Christian like deeds, OK, but still be dead and not born again. That's what you have with this this fig tree. It looks like a healthy fig tree. The only difference is there's no fruit, but everything else about it visually is it looks like it's like a normal fig tree. Does that make sense?   [00:31:44] Yeah. Yeah, OK.   [00:31:46] And the problem is there's no fruit.   [00:31:48] If we use to take this metaphor out and kind of convert it to what seems to be saying how we would phrase it based on the parable of the sower is. There's no Christ being formed in that person. And and if there's no Chrispin been formed in that person, then spiritually that person is dead.   [00:32:11] Makes sense.   [00:32:12] Yeah, it does OK, because we're only alive in Christ. So based on the four soils of the parable of the sower, which soil would you say that this tree is planted in or represent?   [00:32:28] I would say three because yeah, yeah, it's growing and it has leaves and branches and like you said, looked fully mature and like it should have fruit on it.   [00:32:40] Yeah, exactly. So this is that soil. Number three, this is why the fig tree is used throughout scriptures that barren, that barrenness. How many people would you think there are who call themselves Christians and look like this fig tree? They look like a Christian, but they bear no fruit while.   [00:33:04] I hate to say there's probably way more than.   [00:33:08] Then I would want to admit that there are yeah, do you think they think that they're Christians?   [00:33:15] Yes, absolutely, yeah, we see this even with Israel.   [00:33:19] They thought they were the chosen race, we're all going to heaven because we're part of Abraham. Paul says no. You know, you're you're you're not. OK, so I want to share just a little personal comment on this, because this is actually how all of this study got started for me. So I have a personal friend, a dear family friend named Rich. His parents and my parents have been best friends. His parents were in my parents' wedding. I believe it goes back that far. We've done things with Rich and his family. We've been really close. They've been down to our family farm a lot. And and what happened is in ultra high school, Rich was way a column kind of a hoodlum hurdle may be the wrong word, but he was just way off track. He was chasing the girls, chasing the drugs, chasing, you know, chasing everything. And he was absolutely not a Christian. He gets into college. He goes even more over the deep end there, and then something happens. He's presented with the gospel, he hears it, he receives it with joy, and there's life change in his life, he starts to pull back and stop some of these abhorrent behavioral type of activities he's been doing. And then he gets married and he's later on after college, he starts a Bible study at his home. Lots of people come. They share the gospel. Lots of people claim he claims to accept Christ. And then we start to work together.   [00:35:06] He actually worked here with our business for about a year, just over a year, and during that entire time, I saw no evidence at all of Christ being in him. He lives a life of extreme bitterness. He pursues women even now.   [00:35:28] He doesn't touch them, to my knowledge, but he sure does pursue them. He pursues riches and wealth that he cannot get, that he cannot get. And everything is very kind of superficial. And so he's even suing me. OK, believe it or not, I'm on something. And through all of this, there's no bitterness in my heart for him. There's only this love and compassion. And as I pray for him and as I analyze what's going on and constant the thing that keeps coming to mine, Lord, is my friend saved. I know he accepted Christ. I know there was a change in lifestyle, but I see no evidence of Christ. And so my it was my concern for my friend that started me digging, taking a deep dive. And what does the scripture say? Does everyone who accept Christ go to heaven? Okay. And and so that's kind of where we are today. And that's what prompted all this. So let me yeah, it's really interesting. So the Lord takes even difficult circumstances in your life and produces good from it. That doesn't mean he's the orchestrator of just like we talked about a while back with the story of Joseph. Okay. You know, if God is sovereign and control, does that mean everything that happens is his will? OK. And even though God did not orchestrate the evil that happened in Joseph's life, he leveraged it to produce the good that he had for Joseph. So that's kind of how this came out. Let me talk as we're talking on this topic of. People who believe they are Christians, people who have accepted Christ at some point, and, you know, my friend Rich, you know, he received a gospel with joy, just like soil number two on the stony ground.   [00:37:29] And it actually produced a plant that looked mature. But but my perception of what's going on is it's being choked out by all of the other thorns in life, by the way, sawn OK, in small number three, if you look at thorns as a metaphor, as a character throughout the Bible, it's usually used to on what chokes out life. All right. Everywhere you see Soren's, you can kind of translate somewhat loosely, but translate something is choking life out of this. And if you go back and read, you'll see that you see that common theme. So so the thorns choke out the life of of what's there. But I want to talk on this. There's another parable called I Never Knew You, or at least that's what I call it. Let's turn to Matthew seven versus 21 through 23. So there's word on this topic of the fig tree. The fig tree thinks it's a good tree, but it's not because it produces no fruit. My friend Rich calls himself a Christian, and he may be I'm not I'm not rendering judgment, but I'm rendering observation observationally. I see no fruit. The question is, is it possible to accept Christ and not go to heaven? And so let's read another parable. OK, keep in mind, the parable of the sower unlocks all the parables. So you will see this pattern. Are you ready to read it?   [00:38:57] Yes. All right. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name. And then will I declare to them, I never knew you depart from me. Workers of lawlessness.   [00:39:27] Ouch.   [00:39:28] That's pretty painful in it, that's stinging words, that's what we call the stinging words.   [00:39:34] Yeah, so so let's ask a real simple question on this one. OK, were these people focused on works or fruit?   [00:39:45] Works. How do we know that?   [00:39:49] Because everything it talks about them doing is they work, oh, did we not prophesying your name, cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name. All right. So what's the difference between works and.   [00:40:06] What do you think, um.   [00:40:10] Work is to me, this is just my personal opinion, which to me is what you can benefit or gain for yourself, whether it's notoriety or a favor. And then fruit to me comes from the overflow. It's just what's in you and it comes out by itself.   [00:40:32] Ok, I think that's very accurate. Very fair. I was summarize it slightly different. Not that that it's a different understanding. It has a different route of of source works is what you do. But fruit is Christ formed in you. Does that make sense? Yeah. And if crisis formed in you, then he lives through you. And therefore, what you do in action, what you do is from him and not you, and that's the difference between works and free. It's what you do versus Christ doing it through you. And the other thing about works in fruit, as I start to think about this deeper think about this works is created in this in this topic of what we're talking about with this terrible works is created by pursuing the activities of Christ. While fruit is created by pursuing the person of Christ. Yeah, yeah. And so when we look at what we do in a lot and I'm going through this series because, you know, the Lord has called me in ministry, I'm a full time minister, secretly describes disguised as a business owner.   [00:41:55] And he has called me to do these radical faith podcasts and teachings to teach his people that they may step more boldly out by faith, solidly on God's word and produce fruit. OK. And and that's kind of why all this comes up and why this is, quote unquote, intermingled with business, because the whole purpose for the businesses to do this stuff.   [00:42:22] And but what's interesting is. I was going somewhere with that, let me back up, let me figure out where I was going to work. This created by pursuing the activities of Christ. And fruit is created by pursuing the person of Christ and. When you pursue Christ. Then fruit is automatically produced, so we need to take an introspective look at ourselves and our loved ones and ask, what are we really doing? Are we pursuing the Christian activities?   [00:42:58] Oh, I want to go kill. I want, you know, give me this gift of healing. I want to tung's gift of tongues or I want to, you know, go help the poor and serve the widows. Are you doing those because you want to be found in favor with the Lord or are you doing those because they emanate from the Lord pulling you through it, wanting to do it through you, because you're pursuing the Lord as opposed to pursuing the work? I think that's kind of really where I want to go and hit on with this is we have to say, you know, what's what's driving us? Are we the tree with no fruit? Are we these people that Jesus says, I never knew you. So let me now let's have some questions about this parable. Back to the parable. So, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name. Too many mind works in your name. And Jesus said, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. So do you think these people looked and acted like Christians?   [00:44:06] Absolutely.   [00:44:08] Yeah. They even did the activities that Christians do. Dendi Yeah.   [00:44:12] I was going to say they did activities that a lot of Christians can't do.   [00:44:17] That's right. Yeah. So they saw a lot of times you see someone who prays for healing and the person's heal and you think that guy is really spiritual or someone who gets a, you know, prophecy or does somebody we think they're spiritual, but according to this, they could be dead. Right? So they looked and acted like Christians. Were they born again?   [00:44:42] Oh, well, according to Jesus, no.   [00:44:46] Well, according to Jesus is a good place to be according to you, right? OK. Yeah, OK. So no, how do we know that they're not born again?   [00:45:03] I don't know. OK, so back to this so parable, the sower in the seeds, OK, the seed is shown by the sea, produces fruit in good soil, and when it produces fruit, what's inside the seed? I mean, what's inside the fruit? Yeah, the seed is inside the fruit, right? OK, and so the seed is born again.   [00:45:31] Does that make sense, yes.   [00:45:33] Yeah, OK, and so born again, born again within the fruit, we know these people are not born again because there's no fruit for all who produce fruit are Jesus's disciples and a disciple knows their teacher. In fact, the definition of disciple is one who studies and follows their teacher to become exactly like that teacher. OK, that's kind of technically the definition of disciple. We know these aren't disciples because Jesus says, I never knew you.   [00:46:09] There's no fruit. So if I were to ask, were these converts or disciples, what would you tell me? Converts. Hmm, yeah, converts, they receive the Seiver joy, they receive the good news, they look like Christians. But there's no fruit, there's no fruit because they're not disciples, so did they obtain eternal life?   [00:46:36] No, no.   [00:46:38] So do you see this pattern again, it's possible to call yourself a Christian, even to those Christian type works? But not truly be born again. Do you think maybe at some point these people that Jesus is talking about had actually, quote unquote, accepted Christ?   [00:46:57] Yes, I do. So then what happened?   [00:47:05] Too focused on works and doing instead of getting to know the Lord and being transformed by Jesus in them.   [00:47:15] Yeah, to focus on works, to focus on themselves and Jesus. So if we go back to our last session on this topic, again, the parable is sweet and sour. We use a word called stewarding the soil that stewarded the seed well is the good soul that produced fruit. But when it's stewarded it poorly, it didn't produce fruit at all. And I think we can use that word here. These people accepted the seed, but they did not steward the seed because they weren't pursuing Christ, they were pursuing Christlike activities. Do you see the difference? Yeah, yeah. So now let's look at two more parables. That tie in, we're going to see a similar pattern and what I'm looking for here. I want to make sure you and everyone else sees this. There's this pattern and it's not a single time pattern over and over and over and over again. We start to see what the Lord is telling us by looking at the patterns of the parables. And as we move into our next session later, we're going to pull away from the parables and actually go into the epistles and what Jesus says, what Paul and Peter says.   [00:48:33] And we start to start to see these things and now we start to piece together. These things have been really tough to understand. Now we start to see the pattern. It all starts to make sense. And now we see what the Lord is trying to tell us. So I'm going to read these because they're long and I'm just going to truncate some things along the way. But these are going to be the parables of the miners and the talents. OK, we'll start with the miners. You can open up your Bible to it if you want. I'll read it, though. It's 19 and we're going to basically read 19 verses, 12 through 26. So, Cirlot, the parable of the miners and the talents are two completely different parables, but they are very similar. And I think we're going to see some similar truths here. So starting with Luke 1912, he said. Therefore, Jesus says a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return, calling ten of his servants.   [00:49:29] He gave them ten miners and said to them, Engage in business until I come to the first came before him saying, Lord, your miner has made ten miners more. And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you've been faithful and have very little, you shall have authority over ten cities. And the second came saying, Lord, your miner has made five miners. And he said to him, and you were to be over five cities. Then another servant came and said, Sir, here is your miner. I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not. So his master replied, I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant. You knew, did you, that I'm a hard man taking out what I did not put in and reaping what I did not. So why then? Then you put my money on deposit. So then when I came back I could have collected it with interest. Then he said to those standing by, take his mind away from him and give it to the one who has ten miners. Sir, they said he already has ten. He replied, I tell you that to everyone who has more will be given. But as for one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. All right. So let's ask a few questions about this parable to understand who is the nobleman being represented in this parable, do you think?   [00:50:56] Jesus, yeah, so Jesus is a nobleman who are the servants? US, us as people and what was his command?   [00:51:09] His command was to be about his business, to engage in his business until he tried to engage in business until I come.   [00:51:18] And so does engage in business mean.   [00:51:24] It means.   [00:51:26] Do the business that I have given you to do.   [00:51:30] Very good, I'm going to clarify just a little bit, if you don't mind, engage in business means to take what a noble men gave them and produce more of it for the nobleman's benefit.   [00:51:45] Oh, does that make sense?   [00:51:48] Mm hmm. Do you see do you see that as represented here? Yeah, yeah. OK, so how does this pattern resemble the parable of the sower?   [00:52:02] Well, taking the seed, yeah. And producing more, so, yeah, producing more.   [00:52:10] Yeah, you take the seed, you accept it, you steward it well, you produce fruit that has more seed in and we're producing more of what's been given to us. OK, so for the servant who did nothing, why was he called a wicked servant?   [00:52:27] Because he didn't do what Jesus asked him to do, he didn't engage in business, he didn't engage in business.   [00:52:34] Why do you think he did not? What do you think is the fundamental difference between the wicked servant versus the good and faithful servants? What is the primary difference?   [00:52:47] Oh, well, the first word that comes to my head is laziness.   [00:52:51] Ok.   [00:52:53] I don't think that's it, so go back to what we just finished talking about with some of the other just a few moments ago, what did we do? What did we discuss in terms of the difference between a disciple and a convert?   [00:53:08] What what causes the difference works versus someone who's pursuing their relationship, pursuing the growth.   [00:53:18] Ok, yeah. So if we were to take that, here's what I would say. The question is.   [00:53:25] For the servant who did nothing, why was he called Wicked? He was in my what I understand he did not value the noble man enough to work on his behalf. In other words, he he merely took but he did not serve in pursuit. Does that make sense? Yeah.   [00:53:44] Yeah. It's only when you serve and pursue. You become a disciple if you're simply looking at it for what you get out of it and you treat it with contempt. You don't serve them per se. Does that make sense?   [00:54:00] Mm hmm. OK, so then if we used. So then what happened to the one who did not serve and pursue but merely took and hid?   [00:54:14] What happened to him? His his portion was taken from him and given to the one who had more, so what he had been given had been is now taken away.   [00:54:25] Mm hmm. Is this this talking about spiritual things? Right. Yeah, wow, that's pretty scary, isn't it? It is, yeah.   [00:54:34] Ok, so since this is a parable about Jesus and his servants, here's a question. Did all of the servants accept what Jesus gave them? Yes, ma'am, did all who accepted it enter into Jesus's blessings?   [00:54:52] All that, the one.   [00:54:55] Oh, OK, so if we lose so so if we go back to all who accept Jesus, go to heaven.   [00:55:05] Base, if we're using this parable and the pattern we're seeing. I say there's a difference between merely accepting what Jesus gives and stewarding it, well, does that make sense? If we use the terms, convert and disciple on this, which of the servants would be converts and which of them would be disciples?   [00:55:30] The first two would be Disciple's and the last one who didn't do anything with his portion would be the convert.   [00:55:37] Yeah. All right. So let's we wrap this up. Let's read about the challenge. So this comes from Matthew, 25 versus 14 through 30. We're going to see the same pattern. OK, so Matthew, 25 versus 14 for he'll be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property to one. He gave five talents to another, two to another, one to each, according to his ability. Then he went away. He received the five talents win at once and traded with them, and he made five Tallas more. So also the one had the two talents made to tell us more. But the one he received, the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time the master, those servants came and settled accounts with them. He you five talents came forward bringing five talents, more same master you delivered to me five talents. Here I made five talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also, who had had the two talents, came forward saying Master, you deliver to me to talent. Here I have made two talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.   [00:56:57] You've been faithful over a little. I will set you overmuch enter into the joy of your master shortie. He also, who had received the one talent, came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not. So in gathering where you get scared or no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is here. But his master answered him. You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I where I have not sown and gather where I gather no seed over our shadow, no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers and that my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him. Who has the ten talents for to everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless serpent servant into the outer darkness. And that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth now again. So when the master gave the talents his servants, did he expect them to work on his behalf to bring increase?   [00:58:14] Did each of those servants accept the talents?   [00:58:17] They did.   [00:58:19] And so what's the difference between the servants?   [00:58:24] We have disciples and we have a convert again, yeah, yeah, one love the master and it says Win at once and traded with them. They eagerly worked on his behalf and eagerly came to the master, said, Look, Master, I got you even more. Sure. Like when you have a young child that comes and said, Daddy, Daddy or Mommy, Mommy, look what I did for you all eager because they want to please you, right? Mm hmm. The last one simply dug a hole and hid it in the ground, doing nothing to benefit his master, not master, always demanding of me. He gives me this money, says do business. I I don't care, I'm going to throw it in the ground and give it back to them, right.   [00:59:12] No concern for his master. So did the servant who did nothing. Look like the other servants of the master, do you think?   [00:59:23] Yes, yeah, he probably dressed the same. So these are servants of the master, so they probably had uniforms, they had probably protocols, they probably had some prestige among the community because they work for the master. And looking at them, you couldn't tell any difference. But what happened to that servant, the wicked one? What happened to him?   [00:59:45] He was cast out. What was what was given to him was taken away. Then he was cast out and then he was cast out.   [00:59:52] So do you see any parallels with all these other parables? Mm hmm.   [00:59:57] A lot of a lot of patterns here. Right. And they all point to the same thing. So this is the key. When you start to see everything point to the same focal point, you start to pick up. This is important, right? This is something God is saying over and over and over again. We're going to see this a little bit more on the next sessions. But let me just kind of wrap up some things I think are the takeaways. All right. So the parable of the summer shows that the key. Is we have to steward what we've been given. We see that in the parable of the talents, in the parable of the miners. We see this throughout scripture. We've got a steward it if you value something a lot, you'll steward it. Well, if you value it little, you won't steward it at all. Does that make sense? Yes. OK, that's what we see in all of these parables. Are you stewarding what you've been given and both of these parables? The servants who value the master. Took what the master entrusted them. And worked on the master's behalf, you know, the question I saw like to ask is, are we taking what the Lord has given us and working on his behalf or are we taking what the Lord has given us and simply using it on our behalf? That's I think that's kind of the critical point here that that's being communicated. Those who did all the Christian like things, they were working on their behalf.   [01:01:27] Did we not heal the sick, cast out demons, do all these mighty works? So. So if we were to then go back to kind of summing this up, a convert is that person who accepts what is given without valuing the giver. A disciple accepts what is given and values the giver so much that they steward well, that which was given them. So we it comes back to where is your focus? We see this in the parable of the merchant of fine pearls or the parable that the treasure in the field where they sell everything they've got because they want it so much, they pursue it. If we use kind of Christian these terms, you know, they've all been given like if we just look at the talents in the minus, they'd all been given the million minus or talents. They've been given the gift of salvation. They all accepted the gift. But only those who stewarded it obtained the gift. And the gift was removed from those who did not. So same thing we saw in the poor soils. So kind of the big take away. A couple of other things we see on this actually. Now the big take away. Yeah, but there's one more pattern that we see in these two parables. So the minus and the talents. One more thing. Do you know what that one thing that they have in common is?   [01:02:58] Hmm.   [01:03:02] There were three every time.   [01:03:05] Oh, that's a good pattern, yes, there's three three is three is a whole number, right? OK, so there's there's something there. OK, it's a whole truth with holy.   [01:03:17] No, the thing I saw it and saw is they all occur over a period of time. OK, in other words, I think this is what Jesus is saying, telling us. You can't assess the heart immediately. It takes time to see the fruit of the heart and over time. OK, what one does? Well, evidence what their heart is truly like. And it's only the ones with a true heart for Jesus who will enter his kingdom. And and so I think that's kind of the message here. A lot of it is is the one with a true heart. The other thing that's been convicting of me as I go through this is the focus of discipleship. And if you think about discipleship, so a lot of times a lot of us, you know, we want Converse, go share the gospel list, bring in, you know, bring people to salvation, which is good. Definitely not criticizing that, but it's a focus is sharing the gospel, bringing people to salvation.   [01:04:24] Then what's happening afterwards, the way I see it, this is a low image the Lord gave me, not a vision, but just kind of well thought in my mind is it's like raising kids, OK, you birth a child and then for the next 18 or 20 years, you're nurturing and training that child and disciplining them and helping them grow to maturity. And all your focus is on those few children. And then they go do the same thing. OK, but it's not you just go berserk, you know, 30, 40, 50 kids and just, you know, have at it and hope you do well. OK, so I think there's a time to, you know, really focus on making sure that we're raising disciples and not just converts.   [01:05:11] Yeah, that's really good.   [01:05:13] All right. So we got to wrap up. But any thoughts? Anything hit you?   [01:05:19] Oh, gosh. Just so Eye-Opening, you know, I mean, I know these passages. I recognize them all, but it's just so good to kind of dig a little deeper and really get to the heart. I love how the heart of the father was portrayed with the same tree that was producing fruit. I love how I think that would be my encouragement to anyone who's listening, who feels like I've messed up. I can't. I was too late for me, that kind of thing. I've just created way too many things, that kind of thing that the heart of the father is always to restore. And I just love how that was evident in that scripture. You know, that he is the God of second, third, fourth, fifth chances, you know, because his heart just wants you to be connected with him.   [01:06:06] So you lost that and he gives time. I've got to read one saying this. This is a bonus, Jeremiah. Eighteen. Okay, because it talks on that. Jeremiah Yeah. For those people who may be saying it's too late for me, I've done so much bad, I've known the good, but I've kept going after the bad. Let me share what Jeremiah God says. And Jeremiah, he says, this is Jeremiah starting with FF7 If at any time I declare to a nation that I will pluck it up and break it down and destroy it because it's been evil and wicked, and if that nation then turns from its evil, I will relent to the disaster I promised it. What God is saying is judgment is coming. But if you simply relent or repent, this is what John the Baptist said at the, you know, bear fruit. In keeping with repentance, the Lord says, I am quick to relent if you will simply repent. And he keeps relending.   [01:07:11] Yeah, he does. And that relenting is changing his mind. He changes his mind. I think there's actually a translation of scripture that reads it that way, that he will change his mind. And I love that I do, too.   [01:07:24] All right. Well, let's wrap it up.   [01:07:26] Well, baby, thank you so much for today. This was so great. And I'm just encouraged by, again, just all the time and effort that you put into studying and preparing for all the listeners. And I hope this has been an encouragement to everyone. And I look forward to our next call and I hope that everyone can join us again.   [01:07:47] Amen. We all have a great day.   [01:07:49] Thank you so much. Bye. P023

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_text] Listen via YouTube video if desired [/fusion_text][fusion_youtube id="https://youtu.be/AV9uhPwklFs" alignment="center" width="" height="" autoplay="false" api_params="&rel=0" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" /][fusion_text] Transcription (was completed by automated process.  Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:04] Well, hello, everyone, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm super excited and welcome to this next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael.  Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I am super excited about our call today. What do you have for our listeners? [00:00:28] Well, I am very excited about it as well, Penny, because I get to do today what I love doing. And sometimes I pinch myself saying, Lord, do I really get paid to do this stuff? And the answer is yes, ultimately. So we're going to do not a real estate marketing call. We're going to do a radical face call for those who may be new to us. As a reminder, we do two types of calls. So if you're here for real estate marketing, that's not going to be the topic of today's call. The topic is going to be living as a Christian, and what all of that type of stuff means. So if you want to enjoy that, please continue listening. Otherwise, you can turn off this episode and come back to our next one. So what I want to do when we talked last time, Penny, on the topic, Do all who accept Christ go to heaven? Do you remember that topic? [00:01:26] Yes, I do. I do. [00:01:28] Ok, well today we're going into part two, OK? And next time when we do, another radical faith call will be it part three. And I'm not sure if it's going to be three or four parts, but is this really incredibly exciting for me and very interesting. And I think there are a lot of deep application in terms of what we do with our lives that come out of it. So I want to go into that. So this is a quick review. We started last time with some statements that Jesus made and now we're going to test your memory. Do you remember what those statements Jesus made that we started? [00:02:11] It was something that has to do with we were talking about do all people go to heaven if they get saved or the all believers go to heaven? And it was something it was something along the lines of, all right, that's OK. [00:02:27] That's OK. Yeah, no, that's OK. [00:02:30] Hey, I got it written in front of me. You don't. So that's the key. Oh so the gospels have four times God found is so important. They put four times in the gospel, the basic statement by Jesus that the one who endures to the end will be saved. Yes. Yes. The one who endures to the end by your endurance, you will gain your lives. Okay, so the question was. What in the world has Jesus talking about? So let me ask you a question. When Jesus teaches that you must endure to the end to be saved, does that mean that some people don't endure to the end? [00:03:11] Yes. [00:03:13] And therefore they don't endure to the end. They're not saved. [00:03:18] That's correct. They're not going to go to heaven. [00:03:20] Yeah, and that interesting and yet we think. Huh? OK, so we talked last time on the parable of the Sower, one of the most important parables, because it's the only one that is in all three synoptic gospels. Matthew, Mark Luke is the only one that is in its entirety in all three gospels is the only one that is fully interpreted by Jesus in all three gospels and is the only one that Jesus says, if you don't understand this one, how can you understand any of the parables? So it's kind of like the key, the master key that unlocks every single parable if you dig into it. And what we learned in the parable of the Sower is several things just in a quick review. OK, so you have a sower, we assume the soldiers us, OK, it's not very clear, but go out and you sow the seed everywhere. The seed is the word of the kingdom. And do you remember who the word of the kingdom is? If you were to put a name Jesus. Right. So where it is. So Jesus everywhere and some falls on the path and birch take it away. It's rejected. Some fall in on Iraqi soil. They accept it with enthusiasm. And as soon as the sun comes up because there's no root, it withers. Then some falls on the thorny soil. [00:04:44] Ok, we call that soil number three. If we do soil one, two, three, four. So the stony soil falls among the thorns. It grows up into a plant. It grows up with the thorns, but there's no fruit. And then there's the for soil good soil that it produces some 60, some 30, some 100 salt, OK? And Jesus and Jesus says only the see that falls in the good soil is good. And you have to produce fruit and so what we kind of came through with all of that is that three soils accepted Jesus to some degree. You know, the rocky soil accepted the seed enough that it produced something. But there were no roots. The thorny soil accepted the seed. It actually went in the ground. It produced roots because we know now plant grew, but it was bad. And then the fourth soil, the soil accepted the seed, accepted Jesus and produced fruit. And so what we start to understand is put this parable is telling us, I believe, is that not everyone who accepts Jesus goes to heaven. Not everyone who accepts Jesus actually produces fruit. We also describe that fruit is the womb of a seed is for the seed is formed. And so what Jesus is telling us and we're going to get into this today a little bit more, that unless you're unless Christ is formed in you and you're producing more of Christ, then you're not good. Okay, so that's kind of where we ended up. Any questions or any thoughts on that before we move forward? [00:06:33] No, just such a good reminder. Such a good refresher from last week. So I'm looking forward to this week. [00:06:41] Good. I am too. So we covered one quick topic last time and wrapping up. And I want to I want to focus on this more today. And that's the difference between converts and disciples. So let me just cut in that. What we talked a convert is one who accepts Christ. A disciple is a convert who pursues Christ. Does that make sense? [00:07:10] Yeah, yeah, OK. [00:07:12] And and so it's kind of like a two step process. First, you accept Christ, but accepting Christ. Doesn't mean you go to heaven, it's what happens after there, so you accept Christ and then you pursue Christ. Now, this is not saying we're going to kind of touch on this maybe in a later session, OK? The question is, if you're currently a bad soul, can you become a good soil? That's not the topic of this call, OK? This isn't the topic of once I accept Christ, do I have to do something special? That's not the topic. All I'm saying is very clearly there is evidential difference between good soil, bad soil. And so let's look at it and then let's also analyze it within our lives. So what we find is not all converts go to heaven. But all disciples do all right. And then, John, 15 eight, this is Jesus, and he says by by this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. And so can you finish this sentence on that? [00:08:21] And so go and bear fruit and so prove to be my disciples, right, when you bear much fruit, you prove to be my disciples. [00:08:31] And this is what Jesus is talking about. This is, by the way, the great commission go and make converts of all the nations. Now go and make disciples of all the nations. And so there's something there about this mandate. So with that, I now want to move in to where we're going to be talking about today and it's really quite fascinating. I like to look at what John the Baptist had to say about frit. By the way, this is now trivia. Do you recall anything John the Baptist said about fruit? [00:09:08] So. Wow. Mm hmm. [00:09:12] I don't know, off the top of my head, so let's turn to Matthew three verses eight, nine and 10 and let's see what he says about fruit. [00:09:25] Bear fruit in keeping with repentance and did not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham is our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now, the axes laid to the root of the tree. Every tree, therefore, does not bear good fruit that does not bear good for it. Cut down and thrown into the fire. [00:09:52] Ok, just a little back. Back up. Scripture uses the metaphor trees a lot as representing men. OK, so that's why you see this. The access to the trees, every tree that does not bear fruit when he's talking to people and he says bear fruit with keeping with repentance. So when you see the word tree, typically that's going to be speaking about men when there are different types of trees, is talking about different types of men or the human race. Not always, but that's one of the things. So what does this say that what type of fruit are we to bear? Fruit that keeps with resentence fruit that keeps with repentance, so let's go back and cover one thing that's really important. When we read the Bible, the Bible is a book written by a single author, God himself. And when we when we see common terms throughout, there are always going to have something. They're always going to mean about the same thing or typically. OK, so you have just as we talked about last time, you have characters in a book. And if a character named John is introduced at the beginning, the book, then when the author calls out John toward the end of the book is the same. John is the same person. In this case. We have the character of fruit. The last time we talked about with a state in the sower that the good soil produces fruit, we had to understand what fruit is. But here John the Baptist is talking about fruit bear fruit in keeping with repentance. So we kind of understand that what John the Baptist is talking about is the same thing Jesus has been talking about. Does that make sense? Mm hmm. Yeah. OK, so this fruit is fruit in keeping with repentance. Here's something also interesting. What was the message that Jesus came preaching to you? Remember what that message was? [00:11:58] The kingdom of God is here or now, but there's one one part right before that. [00:12:03] Do you remember what it was? It was an action and love, love one another now repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. OK. Oh, so close your so close. So there's something about repentance that's really important when we talk about healing later, whenever the Lord guides me in that direction, repentance is really a key part of of that. So so we are to bear fruit of repentance, OK, if we don't bear fruit. [00:12:38] What does John's passage say is going to happen. [00:12:43] Hmm. [00:12:46] Well, if we don't, it says that every tree or person that is not very good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. [00:12:54] Ouch. You think what do you think that's actually going spiritually? What is he communicating? [00:13:03] Going to heaven, crash and crash and burn. [00:13:05] Yeah, OK, right, OK, so we see this thing about trees. We see this thing about fruit. We see this thing about an axe cutting down a tree and we see this thing about being burned. OK, do you recall any other parables that Jesus uses about a tree being cut down? [00:13:30] I do not. [00:13:32] All right, turn with me to Luke, 13 versus six through nine. This is the parable of the barren fig tree, OK? [00:13:45] Oh, now you remember, right? OK, yes. So let's read the parable of the barren fig tree and what we're looking for. OK, this is let me kind of give you the Cliff Notes version of all this. God works in patterns. You see the same pattern throughout scripture in all kinds of areas. Last time we saw this pattern of something about fruit is important to being, you know, going to heaven. If we want to use that term, that's really to being part of the kingdom of God is the better term. [00:14:15] And we saw that a lot of people produce something, but they didn't produce fruit. The soils produced a plant to some degree. And so we see this pattern. And I want you to be looking for the patterns as we go through. So let's read about the parable of the barren fig tree, OK? [00:14:33] And he told this parable a man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vine dresser, Look, for three years now, I have come seeking fruit on the fig tree and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good. But if not, you can cut it down. [00:15:08] Hmm. Wow. OK, so it's not bearing fruit. John talks about bear fruit with keeping with repentance or you get cut down. This is talking about it's not bearing fruit. Let's cut it down. All right. So we have some patterns and similarities there. Here's the question. Does a good tree produce good fruit? [00:15:28] Yes, and how do we know that? [00:15:34] Well, that's a good tree. Then that's its nature, its nature is to produce. OK, all right, so nature is wrong with it. It's going to it's going to reproduce itself, right? [00:15:48] Ok, so seed reproduces after kind. Good. All right. Let's go real quickly. You don't have to turn there, but let's look at what Jesus says. It's in Luke 643 and he says for no good tree bears, bad fruit. Nor again, does a battery bear good fruit for each tree is known by its own fruit. So does a good tree produce good fruit according to Jesus? The answer is yes. OK, so now we're using trees. OK, keep in mind, the metaphor is mankind. Jesus is saying no good man produces bad fruit. Every man will be known after the fruit he produces. OK, there's a way to look at it. So if a tree produces no fruit, is it a good tree? [00:16:37] No, and why is that how do we know that because Jesus just said it, a good tree is going to produce good fruit, right? [00:16:47] Yeah, yeah. Parable of the sower. Only the good soil. The good soil is known because it produced fruit. Jesus said that. By this, my father's glorified that you bear much fruit and so proved to be my disciples, so we know that a good tree will always produce good fruit. A tree without fruit is not good. That's soil number three. If you recall, the plant grew up but produce no fruit. OK, so that's kind of where we are here. Let me give you a little background also. This is interesting, the background on the fig tree. So throughout scripture, the fig tree, in fact, do you know what the fig tree represents throughout scripture? Did you know that? Did you know that it represented something? [00:17:39] I know I did not. [00:17:41] All right, so there are two trees that are used all throughout scripture, sometimes are used in the same passages, sometimes are used differently. One is the fig tree. Do you remember what the other one is? [00:17:52] My guess would be an olive tree. [00:17:54] Yeah, so you have fig trees and olive trees. The question is, what are they? OK, so here we go back to patterns again. Same thing as Paul talks about. The pattern of not all who are descended of Abraham are Abraham's descendants. You remember him saying that? I think it's in Romans. OK, what is he talking about? Abraham had a physical bloodline and Abraham had a spiritual bloodline. The physical bloodline is a shadow of the spiritual, but it's not the spiritual. And we see this thing with fig trees. So throughout scripture, the fig tree represents the chosen people of Israel, of the natural. OK, you can call it the physical descendants of Abraham. And within that physical descendants, it's in a sense, it's death. OK, that's that's why you see all the time the fig tree without any fruit. That's why this parable is the fig tree that's going to be cut down. But then you have the olive tree and the olive tree represents the chosen people, a betrayal of the promise. These are the spiritual descendants of Abraham. And in a sense, the olive tree is always represented with life. [00:19:11] All the fig trees always represented with death and saying, yeah, and an interesting. [00:19:18] So just as the natural the natural world is a shadow of the spirit world, then the people of Israel, the fig tree is a shadow of the people or the promise represented by the olive tree. So that's kind of what we're seeing here. We've got this parable, the bear and fig tree. The fig tree, by the way, is there do you recall any other place in the Gospels where there's a barren fig tree? [00:19:51] Hmm, I do feel like this story is brought up again, but I don't remember where Jesus is going into Jerusalem. [00:20:01] Oh, yes, yes. You see the fig tree and leave. He walks over to get some fruit and there's none there and there's none. [00:20:09] And it's not the season of fruit. It's not the season of fruit. And he curses it. Why do you think he curses the fig tree? [00:20:18] When it's not the season for fruit, I don't know, I've always wondered that because I've always just thought that that was one of those moments in Scripture where it's just showing the sense of humor of God. [00:20:32] Ok, so if we if we say I digress, but this is important, is fun. So the fig tree represents the natural Israel and sin and death, even though it's not the season for figs, as a believer, it's always the season for fruit. This is why you read through revelations and and other passages like in Psalms and other places where you have visions of the heavenly realm and the trees and the plants are always producing fruit all the time. There is no season without fruit. It's always the season for fruit because there's always a season for life. OK, and so Jesus curse, is it the same as the natural descendants of Abraham had been cast with death because they're in bondage to sin, ruled by death, made a covenant with death when Adam fell. OK, and and so you see all these all these patterns, imageries and all these concepts kind of coming together in this one image of Jesus cursing the fig tree. And so we kind of have something similar here. OK, so we have this fig tree. So Israel had been chosen and set apart by God from among all the nations. OK, so this is where you have kind of the chosen people. And Israel had been given gods promise of salvation. Right in that tree, an issue with God's own people, but yet here's what's interesting. Turn with me real quickly, John, 111, so so I want I want to give you this picture, it all ties back into this barren fig tree parable we're talking about here. So the picture is. God had chosen Israel, God had given Israel the promise. Israel was God's people, OK, and now let's read what happens, John, 111, can you read that? [00:22:50] He came to his own disguise, right? [00:22:54] So Jesus came into his own OK, now, now finish it and his own people did not receive him. [00:23:00] Hmm. OK, so his own people did not receive him. So we have kind of this this thing. This is the victory. OK, so now let's move back to the parable of the barren fig tree, 13, six and nine. What do you think this parable is telling us? [00:23:22] Oh. [00:23:27] Well, if we're relating it to what you just kind of give that description, the fig tree and the physical nature of the descendants of Abraham and bondage to them, then the fig tree. Who was in bondage, bondage to sin is not going to produce fruit. [00:23:48] There's no loss almost that that may be a little too much, so so the parable is going to be giving basically one simple point that Jesus trying to make. Let's look at the let's look at the key aspects of the parable first. OK, man has a fig tree. The man comes seeking fruit. There is none. He says, cut it down. OK, those are the basic elements of the parable. So what this tells us is that if you don't produce fruit, you get cut down. [00:24:18] Right? OK, yeah. [00:24:21] And cut down. What do you think that means? [00:24:28] Removed from your purpose, yeah, is it you think this is similar to what John the Baptist was saying just a moment ago? The axe is laid at the root of the trees, and if you don't produce fruit, you'll get cut down and thrown into the fire, right? [00:24:42] Yeah. Yeah. [00:24:43] Ok, so that's I think it's what's talking here is you can get cut down and discarded that purpose that you're talking about for which you've been there, you're going to lose. All right. So but what about the vine dresser? This is real interesting. It says that a man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. Where do we where do we hear about a vineyard and a vine dresser? Does anything come to mind? [00:25:12] Yes. Jesus. He says, I am the vine dresser and we are the vine almost. No, sorry. I'm sorry. We are his the vine. The father is a vine dresser. [00:25:24] That's right. There are the branches. We are the branches, not the fruit that. Yeah. So John, that's John Tuffin one. So let's go there real quick. I want to show you something. OK, we're just going to read what you just said, basically, John, verse one. [00:25:41] Yeah, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. [00:25:46] Ok, so now we have again characters. The olive tree is planted in the vineyard and the owner comes and talks to the vine dresser. Do you see all these pictures coming together now? OK, so in the vineyard, Jesus is the true vine. He's the olive tree is in the presence of Jesus. The Vineyard, who is the father is there. And the owner says to the to the father, God, the father cut it down. Now read what the vine dresser says. I want you to see this. This is really cool. [00:26:25] This is verse eight, right? Yeah, OK. And he answered him. The vines are the the dangerous, right? Yeah. He answered him, sir. [00:26:36] Let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on the newer. [00:26:44] Yeah, then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down. [00:26:52] Oh, so this is the vine dresser. This is God, the father saying, hey, before we cut this down. Let me work on it special, let me give it special attention, let me let me dig around it, put in manure, let me really do everything I can to give it every opportunity to produce fruit and then if it does well and good, but if it doesn't, then let's cut it down. And that interesting. The heart of the father. [00:27:23] Yes, he's the God of second chances. [00:27:26] He's got a second chance for us. That's right. [00:27:30] And we actually see this same picture. And John, 15. So Rejon 15 first to. [00:27:41] Ok. [00:27:43] When they get back, they're looking to all right. Every branch and me that does not bear fruit. He takes away in every branch that does bear fruit. He pretends that it may bear more fruit. [00:27:59] Okay, perfect. So every branch that does not bear fruit he takes away. There's actually different ways to translate that takes away. And when we look at scripture, it's always multidimensional. Sometimes there's a lot more meaning than just one simple meaning. And so one way to translate in which most Bibles translate as he takes away. But another way you can translate that same word that's been used takeaway is to lift up. So you get kind of the image of if I'm a vine dresser and I'm in the vine is very valuable. This is business. This is what produces livelihood. So I'm not going to just willy nilly, you know, get rid of a branch just because it doesn't produce. I'm going to work with it. Tender care, because if I can get it producing fruit, it's worth a lot. So one way to interpret this is the vine dresser. Every branch that does not bear fruit, he lifts up the idea. You pull it up out of the ground, out of the dirt, you take the dirt off and wipe the dirt off the leaves so they can have sunshine and then you tie it up on the trestle so they can be in the sun and give an opportunity to produce fruit. But then if it doesn't produce fruit, he takes it away. [00:29:17] Does that make sense? Mm hmm. Is that cool? Yeah, it's a great picture. [00:29:22] So that's the same thing we see with this parable of the barren fig tree. Hey, let me give it more time and let me work with it to see if it can produce fruit. It shows the heart of the father really wants to give us every opportunity to produce that fruit. So so now with that, let's start looking a little bit deeper into some questions about this barren fig tree. Did the barren fig tree look like a mature, a mature tree? In other words, had it matured? [00:29:59] No. [00:30:01] Ok, so let me ask you, do you think it was standing tall like a normal tree? [00:30:10] Possibly. [00:30:12] Ok, yeah, OK, if for the owner to come look for the owner to come looking for fruit, should there have been fruit there? Yes, OK, it should have been, which means it's mature enough to have been producing fruit, does that make sense? Yes. OK, so it's mature enough by age and by visual appearance to be producing crude. So. So it's probably at the normal height of other trees that produce fruit, other fig trees, right? Mm hmm. Do you think it has limbs and leaves? [00:30:51] Yeah, probably. [00:30:52] Ok, so appearance wise, it looks like a mature plant. But the problem is there's no fruit. OK, so here's what I think Jesus is also teaching on this. [00:31:08] The same thing we get from Parable of the Sower and some others will say if it's possible for someone to look like a Christian, think he's a Christian because he accepted Christ at some point and may even do Christian like deeds, OK, but still be dead and not born again. That's what you have with this this fig tree. It looks like a healthy fig tree. The only difference is there's no fruit, but everything else about it visually is it looks like it's like a normal fig tree. Does that make sense? [00:31:44] Yeah. Yeah, OK. [00:31:46] And the problem is there's no fruit. [00:31:48] If we use to take this metaphor out and kind of convert it to what seems to be saying how we would phrase it based on the parable of the sower is. There's no Christ being formed in that person. And and if there's no Chrispin been formed in that person, then spiritually that person is dead. [00:32:11] Makes sense. [00:32:12] Yeah, it does OK, because we're only alive in Christ. So based on the four soils of the parable of the sower, which soil would you say that this tree is planted in or represent? [00:32:28] I would say three because yeah, yeah, it's growing and it has leaves and branches and like you said, looked fully mature and like it should have fruit on it. [00:32:40] Yeah, exactly. So this is that soil. Number three, this is why the fig tree is used throughout scriptures that barren, that barrenness. How many people would you think there are who call themselves Christians and look like this fig tree? They look like a Christian, but they bear no fruit while. [00:33:04] I hate to say there's probably way more than. [00:33:08] Then I would want to admit that there are yeah, do you think they think that they're Christians? [00:33:15] Yes, absolutely, yeah, we see this even with Israel. [00:33:19] They thought they were the chosen race, we're all going to heaven because we're part of Abraham. Paul says no. You know, you're you're you're not. OK, so I want to share just a little personal comment on this, because this is actually how all of this study got started for me. So I have a personal friend, a dear family friend named Rich. His parents and my parents have been best friends. His parents were in my parents' wedding. I believe it goes back that far. We've done things with Rich and his family. We've been really close. They've been down to our family farm a lot. And and what happened is in ultra high school, Rich was way a column kind of a hoodlum hurdle may be the wrong word, but he was just way off track. He was chasing the girls, chasing the drugs, chasing, you know, chasing everything. And he was absolutely not a Christian. He gets into college. He goes even more over the deep end there, and then something happens. He's presented with the gospel, he hears it, he receives it with joy, and there's life change in his life, he starts to pull back and stop some of these abhorrent behavioral type of activities he's been doing. And then he gets married and he's later on after college, he starts a Bible study at his home. Lots of people come. They share the gospel. Lots of people claim he claims to accept Christ. And then we start to work together. [00:35:06] He actually worked here with our business for about a year, just over a year, and during that entire time, I saw no evidence at all of Christ being in him. He lives a life of extreme bitterness. He pursues women even now. [00:35:28] He doesn't touch them, to my knowledge, but he sure does pursue them. He pursues riches and wealth that he cannot get, that he cannot get. And everything is very kind of superficial. And so he's even suing me. OK, believe it or not, I'm on something. And through all of this, there's no bitterness in my heart for him. There's only this love and compassion. And as I pray for him and as I analyze what's going on and constant the thing that keeps coming to mine, Lord, is my friend saved. I know he accepted Christ. I know there was a change in lifestyle, but I see no evidence of Christ. And so my it was my concern for my friend that started me digging, taking a deep dive. And what does the scripture say? Does everyone who accept Christ go to heaven? Okay. And and so that's kind of where we are today. And that's what prompted all this. So let me yeah, it's really interesting. So the Lord takes even difficult circumstances in your life and produces good from it. That doesn't mean he's the orchestrator of just like we talked about a while back with the story of Joseph. Okay. You know, if God is sovereign and control, does that mean everything that happens is his will? OK. And even though God did not orchestrate the evil that happened in Joseph's life, he leveraged it to produce the good that he had for Joseph. So that's kind of how this came out. Let me talk as we're talking on this topic of. People who believe they are Christians, people who have accepted Christ at some point, and, you know, my friend Rich, you know, he received a gospel with joy, just like soil number two on the stony ground. [00:37:29] And it actually produced a plant that looked mature. But but my perception of what's going on is it's being choked out by all of the other thorns in life, by the way, sawn OK, in small number three, if you look at thorns as a metaphor, as a character throughout the Bible, it's usually used to on what chokes out life. All right. Everywhere you see Soren's, you can kind of translate somewhat loosely, but translate something is choking life out of this. And if you go back and read, you'll see that you see that common theme. So so the thorns choke out the life of of what's there. But I want to talk on this. There's another parable called I Never Knew You, or at least that's what I call it. Let's turn to Matthew seven versus 21 through 23. So there's word on this topic of the fig tree. The fig tree thinks it's a good tree, but it's not because it produces no fruit. My friend Rich calls himself a Christian, and he may be I'm not I'm not rendering judgment, but I'm rendering observation observationally. I see no fruit. The question is, is it possible to accept Christ and not go to heaven? And so let's read another parable. OK, keep in mind, the parable of the sower unlocks all the parables. So you will see this pattern. Are you ready to read it? [00:38:57] Yes. All right. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name. And then will I declare to them, I never knew you depart from me. Workers of lawlessness. [00:39:27] Ouch. [00:39:28] That's pretty painful in it, that's stinging words, that's what we call the stinging words. [00:39:34] Yeah, so so let's ask a real simple question on this one. OK, were these people focused on works or fruit? [00:39:45] Works. How do we know that? [00:39:49] Because everything it talks about them doing is they work, oh, did we not prophesying your name, cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name. All right. So what's the difference between works and. [00:40:06] What do you think, um. [00:40:10] Work is to me, this is just my personal opinion, which to me is what you can benefit or gain for yourself, whether it's notoriety or a favor. And then fruit to me comes from the overflow. It's just what's in you and it comes out by itself. [00:40:32] Ok, I think that's very accurate. Very fair. I was summarize it slightly different. Not that that it's a different understanding. It has a different route of of source works is what you do. But fruit is Christ formed in you. Does that make sense? Yeah. And if crisis formed in you, then he lives through you. And therefore, what you do in action, what you do is from him and not you, and that's the difference between works and free. It's what you do versus Christ doing it through you. And the other thing about works in fruit, as I start to think about this deeper think about this works is created in this in this topic of what we're talking about with this terrible works is created by pursuing the activities of Christ. While fruit is created by pursuing the person of Christ. Yeah, yeah. And so when we look at what we do in a lot and I'm going through this series because, you know, the Lord has called me in ministry, I'm a full time minister, secretly describes disguised as a business owner. [00:41:55] And he has called me to do these radical faith podcasts and teachings to teach his people that they may step more boldly out by faith, solidly on God's word and produce fruit. OK. And and that's kind of why all this comes up and why this is, quote unquote, intermingled with business, because the whole purpose for the businesses to do this stuff. [00:42:22] And but what's interesting is. I was going somewhere with that, let me back up, let me figure out where I was going to work. This created by pursuing the activities of Christ. And fruit is created by pursuing the person of Christ and. When you pursue Christ. Then fruit is automatically produced, so we need to take an introspective look at ourselves and our loved ones and ask, what are we really doing? Are we pursuing the Christian activities? [00:42:58] Oh, I want to go kill. I want, you know, give me this gift of healing. I want to tung's gift of tongues or I want to, you know, go help the poor and serve the widows. Are you doing those because you want to be found in favor with the Lord or are you doing those because they emanate from the Lord pulling you through it, wanting to do it through you, because you're pursuing the Lord as opposed to pursuing the work? I think that's kind of really where I want to go and hit on with this is we have to say, you know, what's what's driving us? Are we the tree with no fruit? Are we these people that Jesus says, I never knew you. So let me now let's have some questions about this parable. Back to the parable. So, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name. Too many mind works in your name. And Jesus said, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. So do you think these people looked and acted like Christians? [00:44:06] Absolutely. [00:44:08] Yeah. They even did the activities that Christians do. Dendi Yeah. [00:44:12] I was going to say they did activities that a lot of Christians can't do. [00:44:17] That's right. Yeah. So they saw a lot of times you see someone who prays for healing and the person's heal and you think that guy is really spiritual or someone who gets a, you know, prophecy or does somebody we think they're spiritual, but according to this, they could be dead. Right? So they looked and acted like Christians. Were they born again? [00:44:42] Oh, well, according to Jesus, no. [00:44:46] Well, according to Jesus is a good place to be according to you, right? OK. Yeah, OK. So no, how do we know that they're not born again? [00:45:03] I don't know. OK, so back to this so parable, the sower in the seeds, OK, the seed is shown by the sea, produces fruit in good soil, and when it produces fruit, what's inside the seed? I mean, what's inside the fruit? Yeah, the seed is inside the fruit, right? OK, and so the seed is born again. [00:45:31] Does that make sense, yes. [00:45:33] Yeah, OK, and so born again, born again within the fruit, we know these people are not born again because there's no fruit for all who produce fruit are Jesus's disciples and a disciple knows their teacher. In fact, the definition of disciple is one who studies and follows their teacher to become exactly like that teacher. OK, that's kind of technically the definition of disciple. We know these aren't disciples because Jesus says, I never knew you. [00:46:09] There's no fruit. So if I were to ask, were these converts or disciples, what would you tell me? Converts. Hmm, yeah, converts, they receive the Seiver joy, they receive the good news, they look like Christians. But there's no fruit, there's no fruit because they're not disciples, so did they obtain eternal life? [00:46:36] No, no. [00:46:38] So do you see this pattern again, it's possible to call yourself a Christian, even to those Christian type works? But not truly be born again. Do you think maybe at some point these people that Jesus is talking about had actually, quote unquote, accepted Christ? [00:46:57] Yes, I do. So then what happened? [00:47:05] Too focused on works and doing instead of getting to know the Lord and being transformed by Jesus in them. [00:47:15] Yeah, to focus on works, to focus on themselves and Jesus. So if we go back to our last session on this topic, again, the parable is sweet and sour. We use a word called stewarding the soil that stewarded the seed well is the good soul that produced fruit. But when it's stewarded it poorly, it didn't produce fruit at all. And I think we can use that word here. These people accepted the seed, but they did not steward the seed because they weren't pursuing Christ, they were pursuing Christlike activities. Do you see the difference? Yeah, yeah. So now let's look at two more parables. That tie in, we're going to see a similar pattern and what I'm looking for here. I want to make sure you and everyone else sees this. There's this pattern and it's not a single time pattern over and over and over and over again. We start to see what the Lord is telling us by looking at the patterns of the parables. And as we move into our next session later, we're going to pull away from the parables and actually go into the epistles and what Jesus says, what Paul and Peter says. [00:48:33] And we start to start to see these things and now we start to piece together. These things have been really tough to understand. Now we start to see the pattern. It all starts to make sense. And now we see what the Lord is trying to tell us. So I'm going to read these because they're long and I'm just going to truncate some things along the way. But these are going to be the parables of the miners and the talents. OK, we'll start with the miners. You can open up your Bible to it if you want. I'll read it, though. It's 19 and we're going to basically read 19 verses, 12 through 26. So, Cirlot, the parable of the miners and the talents are two completely different parables, but they are very similar. And I think we're going to see some similar truths here. So starting with Luke 1912, he said. Therefore, Jesus says a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return, calling ten of his servants. [00:49:29] He gave them ten miners and said to them, Engage in business until I come to the first came before him saying, Lord, your miner has made ten miners more. And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you've been faithful and have very little, you shall have authority over ten cities. And the second came saying, Lord, your miner has made five miners. And he said to him, and you were to be over five cities. Then another servant came and said, Sir, here is your miner. I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not. So his master replied, I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant. You knew, did you, that I'm a hard man taking out what I did not put in and reaping what I did not. So why then? Then you put my money on deposit. So then when I came back I could have collected it with interest. Then he said to those standing by, take his mind away from him and give it to the one who has ten miners. Sir, they said he already has ten. He replied, I tell you that to everyone who has more will be given. But as for one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. All right. So let's ask a few questions about this parable to understand who is the nobleman being represented in this parable, do you think? [00:50:56] Jesus, yeah, so Jesus is a nobleman who are the servants? US, us as people and what was his command? [00:51:09] His command was to be about his business, to engage in his business until he tried to engage in business until I come. [00:51:18] And so does engage in business mean. [00:51:24] It means. [00:51:26] Do the business that I have given you to do. [00:51:30] Very good, I'm going to clarify just a little bit, if you don't mind, engage in business means to take what a noble men gave them and produce more of it for the nobleman's benefit. [00:51:45] Oh, does that make sense? [00:51:48] Mm hmm. Do you see do you see that as represented here? Yeah, yeah. OK, so how does this pattern resemble the parable of the sower? [00:52:02] Well, taking the seed, yeah. And producing more, so, yeah, producing more. [00:52:10] Yeah, you take the seed, you accept it, you steward it well, you produce fruit that has more seed in and we're producing more of what's been given to us. OK, so for the servant who did nothing, why was he called a wicked servant? [00:52:27] Because he didn't do what Jesus asked him to do, he didn't engage in business, he didn't engage in business. [00:52:34] Why do you think he did not? What do you think is the fundamental difference between the wicked servant versus the good and faithful servants? What is the primary difference? [00:52:47] Oh, well, the first word that comes to my head is laziness. [00:52:51] Ok. [00:52:53] I don't think that's it, so go back to what we just finished talking about with some of the other just a few moments ago, what did we do? What did we discuss in terms of the difference between a disciple and a convert? [00:53:08] What what causes the difference works versus someone who's pursuing their relationship, pursuing the growth. [00:53:18] Ok, yeah. So if we were to take that, here's what I would say. The question is. [00:53:25] For the servant who did nothing, why was he called Wicked? He was in my what I understand he did not value the noble man enough to work on his behalf. In other words, he he merely took but he did not serve in pursuit. Does that make sense? Yeah. [00:53:44] Yeah. It's only when you serve and pursue. You become a disciple if you're simply looking at it for what you get out of it and you treat it with contempt. You don't serve them per se. Does that make sense? [00:54:00] Mm hmm. OK, so then if we used. So then what happened to the one who did not serve and pursue but merely took and hid? [00:54:14] What happened to him? His his portion was taken from him and given to the one who had more, so what he had been given had been is now taken away. [00:54:25] Mm hmm. Is this this talking about spiritual things? Right. Yeah, wow, that's pretty scary, isn't it? It is, yeah. [00:54:34] Ok, so since this is a parable about Jesus and his servants, here's a question. Did all of the servants accept what Jesus gave them? Yes, ma'am, did all who accepted it enter into Jesus's blessings? [00:54:52] All that, the one. [00:54:55] Oh, OK, so if we lose so so if we go back to all who accept Jesus, go to heaven. [00:55:05] Base, if we're using this parable and the pattern we're seeing. I say there's a difference between merely accepting what Jesus gives and stewarding it, well, does that make sense? If we use the terms, convert and disciple on this, which of the servants would be converts and which of them would be disciples? [00:55:30] The first two would be Disciple's and the last one who didn't do anything with his portion would be the convert. [00:55:37] Yeah. All right. So let's we wrap this up. Let's read about the challenge. So this comes from Matthew, 25 versus 14 through 30. We're going to see the same pattern. OK, so Matthew, 25 versus 14 for he'll be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property to one. He gave five talents to another, two to another, one to each, according to his ability. Then he went away. He received the five talents win at once and traded with them, and he made five Tallas more. So also the one had the two talents made to tell us more. But the one he received, the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time the master, those servants came and settled accounts with them. He you five talents came forward bringing five talents, more same master you delivered to me five talents. Here I made five talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also, who had had the two talents, came forward saying Master, you deliver to me to talent. Here I have made two talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. [00:56:57] You've been faithful over a little. I will set you overmuch enter into the joy of your master shortie. He also, who had received the one talent, came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not. So in gathering where you get scared or no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is here. But his master answered him. You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I where I have not sown and gather where I gather no seed over our shadow, no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers and that my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him. Who has the ten talents for to everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless serpent servant into the outer darkness. And that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth now again. So when the master gave the talents his servants, did he expect them to work on his behalf to bring increase? [00:58:14] Did each of those servants accept the talents? [00:58:17] They did. [00:58:19] And so what's the difference between the servants? [00:58:24] We have disciples and we have a convert again, yeah, yeah, one love the master and it says Win at once and traded with them. They eagerly worked on his behalf and eagerly came to the master, said, Look, Master, I got you even more. Sure. Like when you have a young child that comes and said, Daddy, Daddy or Mommy, Mommy, look what I did for you all eager because they want to please you, right? Mm hmm. The last one simply dug a hole and hid it in the ground, doing nothing to benefit his master, not master, always demanding of me. He gives me this money, says do business. I I don't care, I'm going to throw it in the ground and give it back to them, right. [00:59:12] No concern for his master. So did the servant who did nothing. Look like the other servants of the master, do you think? [00:59:23] Yes, yeah, he probably dressed the same. So these are servants of the master, so they probably had uniforms, they had probably protocols, they probably had some prestige among the community because they work for the master. And looking at them, you couldn't tell any difference. But what happened to that servant, the wicked one? What happened to him? [00:59:45] He was cast out. What was what was given to him was taken away. Then he was cast out and then he was cast out. [00:59:52] So do you see any parallels with all these other parables? Mm hmm. [00:59:57] A lot of a lot of patterns here. Right. And they all point to the same thing. So this is the key. When you start to see everything point to the same focal point, you start to pick up. This is important, right? This is something God is saying over and over and over again. We're going to see this a little bit more on the next sessions. But let me just kind of wrap up some things I think are the takeaways. All right. So the parable of the summer shows that the key. Is we have to steward what we've been given. We see that in the parable of the talents, in the parable of the miners. We see this throughout scripture. We've got a steward it if you value something a lot, you'll steward it. Well, if you value it little, you won't steward it at all. Does that make sense? Yes. OK, that's what we see in all of these parables. Are you stewarding what you've been given and both of these parables? The servants who value the master. Took what the master entrusted them. And worked on the master's behalf, you know, the question I saw like to ask is, are we taking what the Lord has given us and working on his behalf or are we taking what the Lord has given us and simply using it on our behalf? That's I think that's kind of the critical point here that that's being communicated. Those who did all the Christian like things, they were working on their behalf. [01:01:27] Did we not heal the sick, cast out demons, do all these mighty works? So. So if we were to then go back to kind of summing this up, a convert is that person who accepts what is given without valuing the giver. A disciple accepts what is given and values the giver so much that they steward well, that which was given them. So we it comes back to where is your focus? We see this in the parable of the merchant of fine pearls or the parable that the treasure in the field where they sell everything they've got because they want it so much, they pursue it. If we use kind of Christian these terms, you know, they've all been given like if we just look at the talents in the minus, they'd all been given the million minus or talents. They've been given the gift of salvation. They all accepted the gift. But only those who stewarded it obtained the gift. And the gift was removed from those who did not. So same thing we saw in the poor soils. So kind of the big take away. A couple of other things we see on this actually. Now the big take away. Yeah, but there's one more pattern that we see in these two parables. So the minus and the talents. One more thing. Do you know what that one thing that they have in common is? [01:02:58] Hmm. [01:03:02] There were three every time. [01:03:05] Oh, that's a good pattern, yes, there's three three is three is a whole number, right? OK, so there's there's something there. OK, it's a whole truth with holy. [01:03:17] No, the thing I saw it and saw is they all occur over a period of time. OK, in other words, I think this is what Jesus is saying, telling us. You can't assess the heart immediately. It takes time to see the fruit of the heart and over time. OK, what one does? Well, evidence what their heart is truly like. And it's only the ones with a true heart for Jesus who will enter his kingdom. And and so I think that's kind of the message here. A lot of it is is the one with a true heart. The other thing that's been convicting of me as I go through this is the focus of discipleship. And if you think about discipleship, so a lot of times a lot of us, you know, we want Converse, go share the gospel list, bring in, you know, bring people to salvation, which is good. Definitely not criticizing that, but it's a focus is sharing the gospel, bringing people to salvation. [01:04:24] Then what's happening afterwards, the way I see it, this is a low image the Lord gave me, not a vision, but just kind of well thought in my mind is it's like raising kids, OK, you birth a child and then for the next 18 or 20 years, you're nurturing and training that child and disciplining them and helping them grow to maturity. And all your focus is on those few children. And then they go do the same thing. OK, but it's not you just go berserk, you know, 30, 40, 50 kids and just, you know, have at it and hope you do well. OK, so I think there's a time to, you know, really focus on making sure that we're raising disciples and not just converts. [01:05:11] Yeah, that's really good. [01:05:13] All right. So we got to wrap up. But any thoughts? Anything hit you? [01:05:19] Oh, gosh. Just so Eye-Opening, you know, I mean, I know these passages. I recognize them all, but it's just so good to kind of dig a little deeper and really get to the heart. I love how the heart of the father was portrayed with the same tree that was producing fruit. I love how I think that would be my encouragement to anyone who's listening, who feels like I've messed up. I can't. I was too late for me, that kind of thing. I've just created way too many things, that kind of thing that the heart of the father is always to restore. And I just love how that was evident in that scripture. You know, that he is the God of second, third, fourth, fifth chances, you know, because his heart just wants you to be connected with him. [01:06:06] So you lost that and he gives time. I've got to read one saying this. This is a bonus, Jeremiah. Eighteen. Okay, because it talks on that. Jeremiah Yeah. For those people who may be saying it's too late for me, I've done so much bad, I've known the good, but I've kept going after the bad. Let me share what Jeremiah God says. And Jeremiah, he says, this is Jeremiah starting with FF7 If at any time I declare to a nation that I will pluck it up and break it down and destroy it because it's been evil and wicked, and if that nation then turns from its evil, I will relent to the disaster I promised it. What God is saying is judgment is coming. But if you simply relent or repent, this is what John the Baptist said at the, you know, bear fruit. In keeping with repentance, the Lord says, I am quick to relent if you will simply repent. And he keeps relending. [01:07:11] Yeah, he does. And that relenting is changing his mind. He changes his mind. I think there's actually a translation of scripture that reads it that way, that he will change his mind. And I love that I do, too. [01:07:24] All right. Well, let's wrap it up. [01:07:26] Well, baby, thank you so much for today. This was so great. And I'm just encouraged by, again, just all the time and effort that you put into studying and preparing for all the listeners. And I hope this has been an encouragement to everyone. And I look forward to our next call and I hope that everyone can join us again. [01:07:47] Amen. We all have a great day. [01:07:49] Thank you so much. Bye. P068 [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)   [00:00:04] All right. Well, hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us. My name is Penny and we're so glad that you're here with us today for this next session of Get Sellers Calling You. Beatty Carmichael is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm really excited about our call today. What do you have for us?   [00:00:27] Well, I'm excited, too. And for those listening, this a quick disclaimer and heads up, we do two types of calls. One focused on growing a real estate business. By the way, we'll be doing more on that in the commercial sector as well. So you have commercial business. We got some really cool things on that. But the other type of topic we cover is on a spiritual nature. We call it radical faith. And it's where we talk about Jesus talking about Jesus offense. You you don't want to listen. Then you are forewarned and you can turn off this episode and come back to the next one. So that's what we're going to be talking about.   [00:01:10] Awesome. I'm so excited.   [00:01:12] Yes. Well, I'm kind of excited about this on this call, too, because this is, again, one of those studies I've done that I thought I'm going down this path and I know the answer. And then I start to search scriptures and I go, Huh? That's not the answer I was really expecting.   [00:01:31] So kind of as a way of an intro, things are not always as they may seem. Okay, well, let me ask you a question. Jesus is up on the cross.   [00:01:44] You remember that. You remember Jesus Christ. Just making sure that Jesus is up on the cross. And the question is, did God forsake him while he was there?   [00:01:57] What do you think? No. No.   [00:02:04] Yes. Yes. Well, yes, because I know that God turned his back on the thing. He wasn't turning his back on Jesus.   [00:02:14] He was turning his back on the sin that was upon Jesus. And Jesus cried out, Why have you forsaken me?   [00:02:23] So I could be both of you. You may be right, because a lot of times there's multiple dimensions and God's kingdom.   [00:02:37] So it's not always linear and black and white. But for the sake of discussion, just kind of go down this path.   [00:02:45] If you had to choose one or the other. Most likely. Did God forsake Jesus while he was on the cross or did God not forsake him? He did not.   [00:02:59] Okay, give me your reasoning behind it. Do you have any scripture to back that up?   [00:03:06] I can't think of any off the top of my head. I'm basing it on just what I know to be the nature and character of God.   [00:03:14] Okay, great. Good God. Good woman. All right. So now Jesus does say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So does that mean that Jesus was wrong?   [00:03:30] No.   [00:03:32] Jesus was right.   [00:03:34] If that's what he was feeling in the moment. We know that Jesus was perfect. So even though sometimes our feelings can lie to us.   [00:03:46] That's a good question. That's a good question.   [00:03:50] It is because a lot of people say, well, God, obviously for Jesus on the cross because Jesus said he did. You actually have a more accurate answer in reasoning behind it than you may realize. So this is where things are not always as they seem. You have to really look deeper underneath the surface and try to understand what's going on. So let me get you real quickly to turn to Psalm 22.   [00:04:22] Let me give you a little background on Psalm 22. This is David in the Spirit, writing about the crucifixion. This is David watching. I'm assuming he's seen it take place or it's a vision, but he is see, he is writing down what the Lord has shown him. Just start reading the beginning of Psalm 22. And I just want to set the stage of what's going on here.   [00:04:54] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me so far from my cries of anguish? Oh, my God. Okay.   [00:05:06] So Jesus is quoting Psalm 22? Actually, no. David is writing what Jesus says. And so David is actually quoting Jesus as opposed to Jesus quoting David. Does that make sense? Mm hmm. So here we have Jesus saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? As you read through Song 22, you see all the things about the crucifixion. You see them. They take my clothes. They cast lot from my clothes. They split them among I am pierced my my ribs, stand out, all these things that happen in crucifixion. So we know very clearly this is the crucifixion. But down real quickly to verse 24 and tell me. But first, 24 says was 24.   [00:05:58] He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one. He has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help.   [00:06:09] So this is talking about God. And it says that he has not hidden his face from him. Jesus says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?   [00:06:19] And down here, it says that God never forsook and he never hid his face.   [00:06:27] What in the world could be going on in this interesting. Fascinating. Thanks are not always as they seem, are they?   [00:06:36] No, definitely not.   [00:06:37] You got to dig a little bit deeper, especially when you want to really understand what's really going on and how to apply it in your life, how to live in a way that the Lord called us to live and what actually is going on. You've got to dig deeper to tap into a session we just recently did on when bad things happen. Is it God's will? Got some interesting observations there. So let me share it, because this is not the focus of the call. But I thought this was an interesting way to start it. Let me share kind of what's going on.   [00:07:10] Have you ever heard the top concept that thin blinds you from the truth? Scene creates a veil over our eyes. And this is the whole idea of the wedding ceremony. The bride wears a veil and the bridegroom takes the veil off. And now she can see clearly as a as a foreshadowing of the spiritual. Ceremony with Jesus. And where the bride takes the veil of sin that blocks our vision. So when Jesus is on the cross, he became sin. And as soon as he became sin, a veil came over his eyes and he could no longer see the father. My God, my God, why do you forsaken me? David is saying, I'm right here. God never first took you sin blocks. Okay. So a lot of times we all believe what we've been told. But sometimes we don't really know why we believe it. Other times we believe a certain way because we read God's word and it says this and someone else reads that word and they get something totally different out of it. And the question is kind of flood what's right. So I want to move into the topic now because it's a bigger topic. Here's a question.   [00:08:49] Does everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven? In other words, once you've accepted Christ, can you lose that salvation?   [00:09:00] Oh, gosh, that's one of those questions that just gets so there's so much controversy.   [00:09:09] Let's go. Let's go back. Let's go back to the root of the question. Does everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven?   [00:09:16] Yes.   [00:09:18] Why do you believe that?   [00:09:23] Because the Bible says.   [00:09:28] It says, if you believe in the Lord Jesus, he will be saved.   [00:09:34] Is that accepting or believing or are those the same?   [00:09:39] Well, maybe that's the translation I learned.   [00:09:43] So let me let me ask you. Are you absolutely positive? That everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven.   [00:09:56] I have to be honest, I'm not actually positive now that we're doing this call and I'll catch you on a number of things in the past, you're starting to think Beatty may know something. I don't. I'm not going to be quite so positive. Right. Right. Okay. Well, good job. Don't be positive. Okay. Okay.   [00:10:19] So the topic of this series that we're going to do, and it's going to be multi part because it's really threw out all scripture, especially New Testament. And that is the question does do all who accept Christ go to heaven?   [00:10:35] This call is going to be part number one. We're going to lay the foundation and then we're going to start to dissect it. And this isn't for just simply an intellectual pursuit of just saying, here's what scripture say. But really to try to understand. What is God calling us to do and why? And as I've gone through this myself, here's the net result. I've changed my perspective of what's most important. It's really amazing. Okay, just a quick disclaimer. I don't have all the answers. This is one of those topics that you mentioned. Everyone has all kinds of different opinions. Scripture is constantly, consistently true is the question of what are we and how we interpreting and why. So we don't want to share is is what I believe the Lord is directing me in understanding. So I want to talk about some of the controversial versus real quickly. So this kind of tees up why this is such a difficult topic. So let's go to Matthew ten, verse 22.   [00:11:39] Okay. All right.   [00:11:43] By the way, this is this is all these things we're going to go through for passages. And they're all Jesus talking. So go ahead, Matthew, 10 22.   [00:11:52] You will be hated by everyone because of all. But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved, stands firm to the end.   [00:12:02] Okay, that's interesting. Let's use also ESV translation on these. Let's now go to Matthew 24 and we're going to read verses 10 and 13, 10 and 13.   [00:12:21] 24, verse 10 and 13 percent says and then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And then verse 13 says, But the one who endures to the end will be saved.   [00:12:37] And they translates that first verse. And then many will fall away from the face. Okay, here we see. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Let's now go to mark 13.   [00:12:53] Martin, 13 versus 12 and 13. Let's see what that says.   [00:12:58] All right. Verse twelve. And brother will deliver brother over to death. And the father, his child and the children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.   [00:13:17] We see that again. The one who endures to the end. Makes you wonder, well, does that mean not all people who accept Christ? Go to heaven because why would Jesus keep talking about enduring to the end? Let's look at one more loop, 21, 17 through 19.   [00:13:42] All right, 17 to 19 says you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but not a hair of your head will perish by your endurance. You will gain your lives.   [00:13:56] There we have it again. Here's the question. When Jesus teaches that you must endure to the end to be saved. Does that mean that some people don't endure to the end?   [00:14:09] Yes, I could see how some people probably give up or decide that I'm done with this. Okay, okay.   [00:14:17] But the fact that Jesus is teaching that you had to endure to the end indicates that there are obviously those who don't endure to the end. Does that make sense? Yes. By the way, here's something else interesting. This was so important, apparently, that God put it in. The scriptures four separate times just by Jesus. We're going to say that this concept is pervasive.   [00:14:43] But four separate times by Jesus.   [00:14:45] If people don't endure to the end, then does that mean that they don't go to heaven?   [00:14:53] I'd like to investigate that a little further.   [00:14:56] Okay, so let me ask this question. Does being Sayed.   [00:15:00] Does that. Men going to heaven. Do you think?   [00:15:05] According to what we just read. No.   [00:15:09] Okay, can you give me some scripture to back up? We're saved in heaven. Don't necessarily go together.   [00:15:18] Well, the ones we just read, Jesus was speaking in reference to being saved and said those who Indore to the end. So three times we read that right.   [00:15:30] So those who who endure to the end will be saved. Can we probably transliterate that? Those who endured to the end will make it to heaven. Probably is just kind of lame, the fact that Jesus is talking about being saved. Going to what we talk about going to heaven. Probably one in the same with that. Would you agree with that?   [00:15:52] Yes, I would.   [00:15:54] Okay. So if Jesus is saying. Or so is Jesus saying that whether or not they endure determines whether or not they are saved?   [00:16:11] That's a very deep thought. I think so. I think that would go hand in hand. Okay, one influences the other.   [00:16:24] Right. So what we're going to find out as we go through it, it's either a determining factor or an indicative factor. It's either the evidence had been saved or they determine that they are to be saved. So we're going to see what the scripture talks about a little bit more. So when Jesus came to Earth, here's another question. What was the main message that he preached? In other words, why did he come to Earth?   [00:16:50] He preached the kingdom of heaven is near. He preached to be safe so that you could go to heaven. That was his message, to believe him to get right there.   [00:17:02] So true. So he never really preaches forgiveness.   [00:17:07] Have you ever noticed that he didn't have to come to Earth for forgiveness because God gave people all through the Old Testament.   [00:17:16] He didn't come to Earth specifically for salvation. You said that on. He came to preach the kingdom of heaven. In fact, this is his common theme. If you can finish the sentence, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near or near here at hand. It's right here in our midst. Okay, so we had this thing called repentance and forgiveness, salvation going to have been saved. All these things are part of the kingdom of God. But what Jesus came to do was much more holistic than just being saved or forgiven. And I think that if we start to then understand what the kingdom of God really means. And understand more about that make more sense. Why? What Jesus talking about enduring to the end really means if we want to understand what Jesus means, the one who endures to the end. We have to go back to his core message that he's always teaching repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. And if we understand the kingdom of God, then we can then figure out what he really means about enduring to the end. Does that hurt? So with that then the question is. When Jesus taught on the kingdom of God, because that's most of what he taught on what was his primary method of teaching about the kingdom of God.   [00:18:52] Do you recall the parable parables? Good job. Okay. So if we want to understand the kingdom of God, let's look at some of the parables, because that's what he teaches through which other parables is the most important in understanding.   [00:19:11] All of the parables. Do you recall which one?   [00:19:15] Oh, gosh. He had so many. The one that's popping out is the seed and the sower. But that might not be the one you're thinking of.   [00:19:28] Did many good jobs go to Mark for verse 13? This is a commentary of Jesus on the parable of the seed in the summer.   [00:19:41] Okay.   [00:19:42] Four, verse 13. And he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?   [00:19:53] So here's something here's something real interesting. The parable of the seat in the Sower, I believe I'm correct, is the only parable in all three of the synoptic gospels. That's the same. And it's the only one where Jesus gives a parable and gives the interpretation. In fact, I think it's the only one that he gives the interpretation on. And he says here that if you don't understand this parable, you cannot understand any of the parables because this parable unlocks all the other parable. So this is a pretty important message on understanding the kingdom of God. Makes sense. Yes. Okay, so now let's read into this. Let's go read the parable of the Sower, and we're going to do this in Matthew. Okay. Okay. So, Matthew, 13 versus three through eight.   [00:20:53] All right. And he told them many things in parables saying a sower went out to sow as he sowed some seeds, fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil. And immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain. Some 100 fold. Some 60, some 30. He who has ears let them hear.   [00:21:37] Very good. So now we have the soil where the seed goes out. And now we're going to replay what Jesus says this means. That's going to be verses 18 through 23.   [00:21:53] Here, then, the parable of the sower, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it. The evil one comes and snatches away what has been found in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was shown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately received it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. And when tribulation or persecutions persecution arises on account of the word immediately, he falls away. As for what was sown amongst thorns, this is the one who hears the word. But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word. And it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands that he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold and another 60 in another 30.   [00:22:51] All right, great. So now we're going back to the Requestion. Does everyone who accept Christ go to heaven? We say that Jesus says only the one who endures to the end will be saved.   [00:23:05] We now go into this parable. He starts to describe it. So now let's get an understanding of this parable as we go in. So there are several parts about this parable that we need to break down first just to really kind of understand a little bit more. The first one is the seed. Okay, this is the seed and the seed is a key part. Here's the question. What is the seed?   [00:23:33] The word.   [00:23:34] Okay, so, Jesus, the seed is the word, the word of the kingdom. And what is the word Jesus?   [00:23:45] Yeah. Okay, John, one one in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.   [00:23:52] So the seed is Jesus. Right. Okay. Very interesting. So then we have the next. Let's look at the four soils. Okay. What did the soils represent?   [00:24:07] The beginning part where he described it, yes.   [00:24:12] When he's throwing when you're trying to sort out what do the soils represent, there are four types of soil. So what what did they representative of?   [00:24:21] A person's heart, a person's heart. Okay, so four types of heart, four types of people, right. What separates one heart from another? What separates one group of people versus the other group of people?   [00:24:39] The state or the beating of their heart? The state of their heart.   [00:24:45] But less and less narrowed a little bit more. Okay. Okay. I'd like to suggest the stewardship of the seed, which is it represents, to say, the heart, but the state of heart is exemplified and evidenced by how its stewards see. Does that make sense? Okay, so what differentiates one soil from another, one type of person from another is stewardship of the seed. And then if the seed is Jesus and the soil represents the different types of people. What does that mean, that all people receive Jesus?   [00:25:27] No.   [00:25:33] Goes out, the soda goes out and sows the seed. Jesus. Yes. And does the same get sewn on all four soils?   [00:25:47] Yes.   [00:25:49] All four soils receive the seed sown.   [00:25:55] Correct.   [00:25:56] Okay.   [00:25:58] So let me ask the question again. If they did this soil, it's not a trick question. It's a question that.   [00:26:06] We usually don't consider because it doesn't make sense based on what we've been taught. But we have to do is we have to dig deeper than what we've been taught and see what the word says. Because what we've been taught may not be. What the world says, it may be something slightly different. So here's the question at the seat is Jesus and the soul represents people then does that mean that all people receive Jesus? Yes, it does. In fact, Romans, what does it Romans one tells us that everyone has the heart of the law of the Lord written on their hearts already. They see God's law in the skies and in everything. So everyone has received the truth. Jesus says the high priest prayer when he's praying to the Lord of the tables. He says, Die word is truth. God's word is truth. Jesus is the word. Jesus is the seed. And we see truth everywhere in nature that that proclaims God. So everyone has received that seed. But that doesn't mean they've done anything with it. That's the key. So now we've got the seed. We've got the soils. Now we have. Fruit, fruit is really the key message that Jesus is teaching about. And he basically basically says that here's my way of just kind of transliterating a little bit. Only those who produce fruit or are going to be.   [00:27:46] Right, that's basically what we can start to see in his message, and I want to unpack that with fruit.   [00:27:55] Fruit is the key to this parable. Fruit is only found in one soil. Soil is that good soil, the good soil. Okay, great.   [00:28:05] And I want it just for sake of purpose. I'm going to label these soils as soil one, two, three and four soil. One is the path to the rocky soil soil. Three is the thorns and soil for the good soil. And then that way we can just kind of keep keep it simple.   [00:28:23] Okay, so what we had to do is understand what is fruit. So if I were to ask you, what is fruit? This is the kid. This is the key to understanding everything is this fruit? What is it?   [00:28:40] Fruit is what is produced from the seed.   [00:28:47] Very good.   [00:28:49] But what is it that's the prize? What can we call it the result? The seed managed and held and cared for properly.   [00:29:08] All right. All right. We're gonna get there. Let me back up and just kind of bring us into this, because I think this is kind of fun. So seed one of the times another sessions. I was talking about the Bible has been written by one author. Would you agree with that? Yes. Okay. Now, that author inspired many men to actually pen that one author's thoughts, but it's all one author, which is God himself. Exactly. So anytime you have a book, you have characters in the book and those characters keep coming up and they always are the characters that they were.   [00:29:54] In other words, if I'm reading a book and let's say, say, a Tom Clancy novel, I used to read those years back and he introduces a guy named Gosh, I forget the guy, but he introduces a couple of guys up front in the novel.   [00:30:13] Then throughout the novel, every time he calls that person up by name. John did this or John did that.   [00:30:19] It's always that person that he introduced and described at the beginning. Does that make sense? Yes. So the character goes throughout. So we see that same thing in the scriptures.   [00:30:31] We see it with fig trees, olive trees. We see it with light, darkness. We see it with soils. We see it with seed. We see all kinds of thing. So the question is, what does seed represent? What is the character of seed? I like to show you something because this is really cool.   [00:30:46] Where does God first introduce his character seed?   [00:30:54] In the Garden of Eden, if I'm not mistaken, a little bit before.   [00:31:00] Oh, you'll have to tell me.   [00:31:05] Let's go to Genesis 111.   [00:31:10] During creation, now, Save was obviously present in the Garden of Eden, but he introduces what it is.   [00:31:19] During creation, Genesis one 11 with 11 and God said, let the earth sprout vegetation plants yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit and which is their seed, each according to its own kind on the earth.   [00:31:36] And it was so seed reproduces after its own time. We used today's technology words that carries all the DNA to reproduce an exact replica of whatever it is, whatever it came from. Does that make sense? Yeah. And then where is seed formed?   [00:32:03] Well. See, far and within the fruit.   [00:32:08] The fruit is the womb of the seed. Interesting, isn't it?   [00:32:15] I mean, we know that it is insane to think of it that way.   [00:32:18] Okay, so this makes sense. A seed is planted. It has to die. Once it dies. It's burst again. Into a new plant after its own kind, as that plant matures, it produces fruit. And inside, the fruit seed is created so that the plant through the fruit can reproduce itself again. Does that. Soun.   [00:33:00] Similar to something else that we would think about in Christian terms. And that's just what Jesus did. He came as a seed of God. Right. The exact replica. He dies and he's planted into the ground, right into the temple. And then when he dies, he becomes born again into a exact replica. And he produces through. Okay. So we see this this pattern of the seed. And the fruit is the womb that causes that seed to produce fruit is in the process of where seed has been reproduced. Making sense? Yes. Okay, so then why does the characteristic of the seed. What is the characteristic of the fruit? It's kind of an aside, but it kind of ties into this. If I were to say, what is the fruit of? Can you finish that sentence?   [00:34:13] What's it called fruit of? Prudent spirit.   [00:34:19] So let's look at that real quick. This is Galatians five. 22, 23. But I want you to do it in The Passion translation on this one, because I think this song articulates what it's really saying.   [00:34:33] And you said the Galicians five, five, 22 and 23.   [00:34:50] All right, here we go. 22 and 23 says the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is Divine Love in all its varied expressions.   [00:35:04] Such a perfect moment.   [00:35:07] A lot of times people say the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace.   [00:35:12] But I think what the term love is, the fruit of the spirit is singular, not plural. There's not multiple fruits. There's one. That's why I love this translation that the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you. Is Divine Love in all its varied expressions. So now we're talking about love. Where else do you recall what the Bible says about love? We're talking about. This is Paul talking about different things and he said about love.   [00:35:43] First Corinthians 13, I think. Yeah. The love. We call it the love chapter in our house.   [00:35:49] Okay, good. All right. And it says that above all.   [00:35:54] First, love is, love is, and in fact, there's here's something else, it says Faith, hope and love abide. But the greatest of these is love. What are you saying? There is that of everything he's been talking about, faith, hope and love. By that means that they are eternal.   [00:36:17] They never go away. Gifts go away. But faith, hope and love abide. But of all of those, the greatest of them is love. This is what Jimmy. This is who God is, representative. Mostly by the character. Bye bye, love. That's what this is talking about. The fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is Divine Love in all its varied expressions. Okay, so now I'll let you finish the passage from there. It's now going to define and describe what that Divine Love, how that Divine Love manifests itself.   [00:36:55] Okay, joy that overflows peace, that some patience that endures kindness and action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart and strength of spirit never set the law above these qualities. They are meant to be limitless.   [00:37:18] All right. So now let's go back. See this Jesus? That's what Jesus says is the word of God, right in the. Fruit is where the seed is formed. And that means really that seed, the fruit, is Jesus being formed in you and producing through you. Does that make sense? Yes. OK. So that's really what I believe the fruit is talking about, is that Jesus has been formed in you. So here's a question. If Jesus is formed in you, would you act like Jesus? We should be informed and you are going to carry the characteristics and the more he's formed and living through, you carry those characteristics. What are some of the things that Jesus did that maybe if he was formed in you, you would likely do to.   [00:38:14] Oh, gosh. I mean, just naming things he did heal the sick, raise the dead. He helped all those that were oppressed. He lost. I mean, he loved first. And everything else was just an overflow of the love.   [00:38:33] He went preaching the message, the kingdom of God. Okay. Yeah. All this.   [00:38:38] All these things. Peace, patience, kindness.   [00:38:43] So that is evidence of the fruit. The fruit is Jesus being formed. But evidence of the fruit being formed into you is a manifestation of all these things that Jesus did. Bring a little bit more clarity, right? OK. So here's the big question. If Jesus has never formed Inju, are you born again and go to heaven?   [00:39:12] Tom.   [00:39:15] According to all this. No.   [00:39:21] It's not us that are righteous. It's Jesus, in a sense, righteous, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay.   [00:39:29] Romans side, I think, says that the righteous fulfillment of the law, the righteous requirement of the law has been fulfilled. And you.   [00:39:36] And then we can connect the dots because Christ is in you.   [00:39:41] Who would it be safe to say that only those in soil number four. Hey, bear fruit. Which has been formed in them are the ones who are truly born again, are saved and go to heaven. Does that make sense, do you say? Yes. So now let's look at the four soils. Real quick. No one is the past. This is verse four, so read that again. Let's talk about that.   [00:40:16] And that was go back to that book when we were in Matthew 20.   [00:40:26] Excuse me, Matthew, 13, 13.   [00:40:33] I'm going to switch translations. I'll go back to that.   [00:40:35] I actually actually I got. I think this is versus it's not verse four that I want you to read is going to be verse probably 18 or 19.   [00:40:45] Let me go back. Yes.   [00:40:47] Okay. 18 and 19. Okay. So 19, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom does not understand it. The evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.   [00:41:02] I know that.   [00:41:03] So that's the one that's sown along the path.   [00:41:06] Okay, let's see.   [00:41:13] So that person has heard the word of the kingdom. And they do not understand it.   [00:41:18] Right. So how did they steward the seed? Or did they stay where the stayed at all?   [00:41:26] They didn't. They didn't do it because it just says that they did not understand it. And then the evil one came and snatched it away. So that leads me to believe they didn't pursue understanding what had been spoken to them.   [00:41:40] Got you. So no wonder the path does not seem see deceit at all. It's rejected. Correct. Since it doesn't stay where the seed. Does the soil accept the seed? So there are two things you've got to accept it and you, Stuart. So did the soil ever accept the seed?   [00:42:07] No.   [00:42:08] No. Since the seed represents Christ, does that mean that this person did not accept Christ? That's correct. And is this person born again? No. No. And how do we know that?   [00:42:26] Because it says.   [00:42:29] The evil one snatched it away. What was sewn in their heart? So Jesus was taken out from their heart. They can't be born again.   [00:42:38] That's right. Okay, perfect. So now we have soul. No one does not accept the seed, does not therefore steward the seed. The say never forms itself in them through fruit. They are not born again. They don't go to heaven. Okay, so now let's look at soil number two, the rocky ground. This is going to be versus 20 through 21.   [00:43:02] As for what was sown on Iraqi ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately received it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself but indoors for a while. And when tribulation or persecution persecution arises on account of the word, he immediately falls away.   [00:43:24] So does the soil accept the seed?   [00:43:32] A little bit, right? It tries to, but actually I think it's a little bit a little bit deeper. Let's go back to it and look and says yet he has no root in himself. Do you see that? If there is no.   [00:43:50] Yes, go ahead.   [00:43:51] If there's if there's no route, then did the soil ever accept it?   [00:43:58] Go in the soil, right?   [00:44:00] Yes. One head down.   [00:44:04] Have you ever seen trees or plants grow on the side of a cliff where it's just wrong? Yes. Yes. Is there any. There's no soil, but they can still grow by putting roots down a little bit around the rocks. Does that make sense? So the soil does accept the seed. And we know that because there's no root and with no root, there's no acceptance. How does the soil steward the seed?   [00:44:36] Well, it says as soon as he heard it, he received it with joy. Right. But because there's no route. There's nothing to anchor it when the hard things come, he falls away. He gives up.   [00:44:52] Notice it says that he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. What are those passages that Jesus says?   [00:45:00] What does it say about endurance to endure until the end?   [00:45:05] So this guy only endures for a while, but not to the end.   [00:45:09] Okay. So the soil doesn't accept the seed. The soil stewards, the seed only poorly. It's enough that it grew up, got excited. But it did not endure to the end. Here's the question. Is this person born again?   [00:45:30] Now, how do we know that?   [00:45:35] Well, because they had no route. And because they chose to give up almost OK.   [00:45:42] So those are part of it. But the ultimate technical answers because there's no fruit.   [00:45:50] Because fruit is where Christ is formed in you. And there's no fruit. Therefore, there is no Christ formed in you. And only of Christ is formed. And you are truly born again. Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So no one. Not a Christian. So, number two, they receive it with joy. A lot of people you share the gospel. They immediately pray the center's prayer type of thing. And you may see some life change. They're all excited, but they don't endure.   [00:46:21] That wasn't a what we would call in our Christian, these terms a true salvation. Christ was never formed in them. Now let's look at soil number three. This is the one with the thorns. And this is going to be verse 22.   [00:46:35] As for what was done along with thorns, this is the one who hears the word. But the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches choke the word. And it proved unfruitful.   [00:46:49] Turn also real quick, I want to show you one other passage on this that it gives a little bit more information. Luke Eighty-seven. It's the same Jesus describing this, but he gives Luke eight, seven, gives one more piece of information. Let's see if you can find that piece of information.   [00:47:06] And some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. So this one. Thorns are growing up with the.   [00:47:17] Which means the seed is growing. Right. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Okay. So now let's ask our questions, our diagnostic questions on this. Does the soil accept the seed?   [00:47:30] Yes. Yes.   [00:47:32] Okay. Now, remember, the soil represents people, represents your heart. The seed represents Jesus. So this soil accepts Jesus.   [00:47:44] Yes.   [00:47:45] Follow me. Okay. Okay, so the soil accepts Jesus because the soil accepts the seed.   [00:47:56] How does the soil steward the seed? How well is that seed stewarded? Well, it does it does the soil steward the seat at all. Let's start with their.   [00:48:15] No.   [00:48:17] Maybe a little bit in the beginning, because it says when the cares of the world and deceitfulness come and you choke it.   [00:48:26] Okay, okay. Go back to Luke eight, seven.   [00:48:32] And some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up with it. Grew up with a plant that the seed produced but choked it. So this means that. They grew up means that it actually grew into a plant, which means that the soil did steward the seed enough to produce a plant. Okay, so here soil number three, except the seed. If we put this in human terms, someone accepts Jesus. It's two words.   [00:49:03] The seed enough that it forms a plant. And that plan looks exactly like the replica of what the seed was reproducing, because it is. But is this person born again?   [00:49:22] No, because they do not endure to the end almost.   [00:49:27] Not that they don't endure it to the end. There's the key element. What's the defining moment of whether someone's born again?   [00:49:37] They don't produce fruit.   [00:49:38] It's Christ in you. Right. And the only way to have Christ in you that you have fruit. Where the seed is produced.   [00:49:51] You say that it was unfruitful.   [00:49:53] That's right. There was no fruit. And now here's a person who accepts Christ. Who manifest Christian type of behavior? Because the fruit grows up. But produces no fruit, which is evidence that Christ was never formed in them.   [00:50:17] They did not endure to the end. You had to endure longer for the verb to be formed, that may be one way to describe it. I don't think that's really an accurate statement. But there's something else here. Why was fruit never produced?   [00:50:32] Because of the sarin.   [00:50:35] What are the odds? Come check it out. What do Soren's come from?   [00:50:42] We the ground.   [00:50:48] All blind reproduces after its own time.   [00:50:51] What is blind going? I'll see. There you go. Okay.   [00:50:58] There you go. So here here we have a number three person receives and accepts the seed of the word. But they're also accepting all kinds of other seed and they stoo or the other seed more diligently than they steward the Christ seed.   [00:51:19] And by stewarding other seeds, Jesus calls them the cares of the world. There's this staple ness of riches by stewarding those seeds more. This all number three person allows that stewardship to choke out the Christ. That's pretty interesting. Yeah, that's really good. So is it possible to accept Christ? Had the appearance of growing as a Christian. And yet not actually being born again, having Christ formed into you and ultimately going to heaven. Yes, it is. And this is startling and this interesting.   [00:52:05] Oh, it's going to get a whole lot better. This is setting the stage.   [00:52:12] Now, let's go to soil number four. This is the good soil. This is verse 23.   [00:52:19] As for what was done on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands that he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold and another 60 in another 30.   [00:52:36] All right, great. So does the soil accept the seed? How is the seed stewarded? Very well, very well. Is this person first off, what happens with the sea?   [00:52:55] Cared for. It's your word. It's helped nurture so that it can grow.   [00:53:02] All right. Is this person born again? Yes. And how do we know? Because they bear fruit. Okay. In terms of fruit. Some hundred, some 60, some 30. Notice also. It's not the soil that bears fruit. What bears fruit? The seed is the seed that bears the fruit, not the soil. The soil is merely the womb in which the fruit is produced that produces more seed. The seed producing the fruit. In other words, it's not us, it's the Lord.   [00:53:52] Now, we've already been to always been taught. It's Christ living through us. There's nothing we can do of our own. The fruit of the spirit is not what we do. It's Christ in us. This is what's going on. It's the sea that reproduces the fruit.   [00:54:06] It's not the soil. We're just the container.   [00:54:12] So now as we start to wrap up, I wanted to talk on two things. The first one is Convert's versus Disciple's, because I think this is what is this is kind of where where a lot of this starts to focus in on. I want to set the definition first off, let me ask you if I were to ask you to define the difference between a convert and a disciple, what would you tell me?   [00:54:40] A disciple to me is one who has a desire and longing for teaching.   [00:54:46] And then.   [00:54:48] Finding someone else and seeing that same quality in someone else.   [00:54:53] Kind of like a leader, a good leader is going to look for someone who also wants to be a leader. And they're going to raise up that leader.   [00:55:01] Right. Let me.   [00:55:08] Give a simple definition that that I like to include a convert is going to be someone who accepts Christ right.   [00:55:21] But a disciple is going to be someone who follows Christ. And I think there's a difference.   [00:55:29] Does that make sense? Absolutely. I was watching this great documentary on the underground Iranian church and they had people from the church talking and everything and sharing, and it was really cool. But one of the guys made a really interesting comment, Converts versus Disciple's. Here's what he says. Disciples for the world and cling to Jesus till he comes.   [00:55:57] Converts don't. Disciples are not engage in a culture war. Converts are disciples. Cherish, obey and share the word of God. Converts don't. Disciples choose Jesus over anything and everything else. Converts don't. Converts run when the fire comes, disciples don't mean that cool. So can you see a difference between merely accepting Christ, which is a convert, versus following Christ? Can you see that difference in the four soils?   [00:56:35] Sure. Absolutely. Okay.   [00:56:38] So the obvious question, but which of those soils are the disciples?   [00:56:45] The last one.   [00:56:46] Number four, which went to their convert's.   [00:56:57] I would say probably number two. It could be three or four years.   [00:57:06] So technically, I guess you could say was two, three and four. The converse, because they all accept Christ to a degree. They all received the word with joy, but only soil for is the disciple who actually pursues Christ. So back to my original question. Does everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven? No. Okay, so you change your answer now, right?   [00:57:35] Okay. So wrapping up. Let me share what this parable I think teaches us. No one's really kind of cool.   [00:57:43] I think there shows that to a degree. Now, these aren't exactly accurate. But we can kind of pull some some things out of this parable shows that there are actually two stages of obtaining eternal life, two stages of the kingdom of heaven within us.   [00:58:02] First is the seed is sown and the soul has to accept it. But second, after accepting the soul has to steward, it produces Morsey. And without that stewarding and without the production of fruit.   [00:58:21] Which is the seed being reformed in you then? Then your you haven't gone that second stage of stewarding it. Let me show you this also turned to Matthew three eight two three eight. This is John the Baptist. He's talking the Pharisees. And if you remember, John the Baptist comes baptizing with water for forgiveness, basically repentance leading toward forgiveness. A little bit different type baptism than baptism as a new believer. But reading Matthew three eight.   [00:58:59] Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.   [00:59:03] So now we have fruit again. Do you think this fruit might be similar to the fruit that Jesus is talking about?   [00:59:09] Yes.   [00:59:11] And then you have bear fruit in keeping with what?   [00:59:14] Repentance.   [00:59:16] And what was the key message that Jesus came preaching or intent for the Kingdom of God is near.   [00:59:23] So we see all these all these same characters keep coming back up and cycling around.   [00:59:27] Does that make sense? Yeah. So if we have repented. We will bear fruit if we have not repented. We won't bear fruit. Repentance is a key to bearing fruit. I would say repentance is a key to stewarding the sea.   [00:59:47] Right. So when I started this study, I was kind of amazing what I found. And as I started to pursue it further, what's really cool is I start to see this pattern throughout all of scripture, but specifically in the New Testament where this is highlighted. So what we're going to do not on today's call is because we're at the end of the time. But as we go through, I want to start to dissect and open up a lot of these not only the parables, but the epistles and some more things that Jesus says and just kind of show this whole picture of what's going on. And here's to value. So the question is, well, what's so important about this?   [01:00:28] Well, obviously, it's important if God puts it in there, but how does it change what we do not want to share? Kind of how it changed for me. But first, let me ask you, do you remember there is a section in the Bible that is called the Great Commission. You remember the great commission. Do you remember the first you know where it is?   [01:00:48] I feel like it's. Go go to Matthew. 28 a day.   [01:00:58] Well, it is the very end, Matthew, in Revelations is the end of God's word. So you could have the end, right.   [01:01:06] The great commission, verse sixteen through twenty.   [01:01:11] Looks like somewhere in there. Let's begin with all the authority has been.   [01:01:20] Jesus came and said to the disciples, all authority and heaven on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I had commanded you. And they hold. I am with you always to the very end of the age.   [01:01:41] Great. So where did go out and share the gospel. Is that right? Go out and evangelize. Yeah. Okay. Now that's different than sharing the gospel.   [01:01:56] Make disciples go therefore make disciple.   [01:01:59] Yeah. Okay. So you're going to heaven. Is not the reason Jesus came. But it's a part of the kingdom of God. Sharing the gospel is not the great commission, but it's part. Of making disciples. You got to share the gospel to make a disciple. Yeah, that's true. So this is the focus. This is the thing that really hit me as I've come through here. Our focus isn't let's go evangelize. That's important. It's not the focus of what the Lord is called us to do is to make disciples. And the reason it's so important is only the disciples are the ones for Christ has formed in them. It's not enough just to go share the gospel. It's not enough just to quote unquote live as a Christian. We've got to help those people that we are around to steward the seed well, and we have to be careful that we steward the seed well as well. And if we're stewarding our say, well, it will produce fruit and fruit will manifest itself by the fruit dropping off a tree, say, going back in the ground and reproducing. So we're going to see more of this. But anyway, we'll stop there. But before we wrap up the call, any thoughts or observations that are hitting you?   [01:03:26] Gosh, as always, just eye opening to see scriptures revealed in a way that you don't necessarily ponder and consider on a regular basis.   [01:03:39] I thought it was great. I love the just the analogies between the seed and Jesus and the fruit. And it was really good. It was really good. I enjoyed it. Great. All right. Thank you so much for today. Thank you so much for your expertise. The time again that you put into studying and preparing this message for the listeners. Anything else that you want to share with our listeners before we say goodbye?   [01:04:09] Just make sure you listen to. If you're not listening to our podcast, but you're just kind of get this on the Web site. Go to depending on which podcast you're on. Get cellar's calling you what we do for real estate or we have get radical faith, which is just the radical faith podcast by himself. Go back. There's a lot of great content there. And the other thing I would really encourage is there's a lot of stuff here. Don't listen to one time and say, I got it. Go back and really absorb it. Take some time. Pull out your Bible, read and see what you can see the words in print as you go through this and you'll get a lot more out of it.   [01:04:49] Yes. Such great wisdom. Such great wisdom. Well, thank you. And we thank you to all of you who are listening. And we hope you all have a blessed day. And we'll see you next time.   [01:04:59] Thanks, Beatty. Thank you. Be blessed. Thanks.   P022

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Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:04] All right. Well, hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us. My name is Penny and we're so glad that you're here with us today for this next session of Get Sellers Calling You. Beatty Carmichael is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm really excited about our call today. What do you have for us? [00:00:27] Well, I'm excited, too. And for those listening, this a quick disclaimer and heads up, we do two types of calls. One focused on growing a real estate business. By the way, we'll be doing more on that in the commercial sector as well. So you have commercial business. We got some really cool things on that. But the other type of topic we cover is on a spiritual nature. We call it radical faith. And it's where we talk about Jesus talking about Jesus offense. You you don't want to listen. Then you are forewarned and you can turn off this episode and come back to the next one. So that's what we're going to be talking about. [00:01:10] Awesome. I'm so excited. [00:01:12] Yes. Well, I'm kind of excited about this on this call, too, because this is, again, one of those studies I've done that I thought I'm going down this path and I know the answer. And then I start to search scriptures and I go, Huh? That's not the answer I was really expecting. [00:01:31] So kind of as a way of an intro, things are not always as they may seem. Okay, well, let me ask you a question. Jesus is up on the cross. [00:01:44] You remember that. You remember Jesus Christ. Just making sure that Jesus is up on the cross. And the question is, did God forsake him while he was there? [00:01:57] What do you think? No. No. [00:02:04] Yes. Yes. Well, yes, because I know that God turned his back on the thing. He wasn't turning his back on Jesus. [00:02:14] He was turning his back on the sin that was upon Jesus. And Jesus cried out, Why have you forsaken me? [00:02:23] So I could be both of you. You may be right, because a lot of times there's multiple dimensions and God's kingdom. [00:02:37] So it's not always linear and black and white. But for the sake of discussion, just kind of go down this path. [00:02:45] If you had to choose one or the other. Most likely. Did God forsake Jesus while he was on the cross or did God not forsake him? He did not. [00:02:59] Okay, give me your reasoning behind it. Do you have any scripture to back that up? [00:03:06] I can't think of any off the top of my head. I'm basing it on just what I know to be the nature and character of God. [00:03:14] Okay, great. Good God. Good woman. All right. So now Jesus does say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So does that mean that Jesus was wrong? [00:03:30] No. [00:03:32] Jesus was right. [00:03:34] If that's what he was feeling in the moment. We know that Jesus was perfect. So even though sometimes our feelings can lie to us. [00:03:46] That's a good question. That's a good question. [00:03:50] It is because a lot of people say, well, God, obviously for Jesus on the cross because Jesus said he did. You actually have a more accurate answer in reasoning behind it than you may realize. So this is where things are not always as they seem. You have to really look deeper underneath the surface and try to understand what's going on. So let me get you real quickly to turn to Psalm 22. [00:04:22] Let me give you a little background on Psalm 22. This is David in the Spirit, writing about the crucifixion. This is David watching. I'm assuming he's seen it take place or it's a vision, but he is see, he is writing down what the Lord has shown him. Just start reading the beginning of Psalm 22. And I just want to set the stage of what's going on here. [00:04:54] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me so far from my cries of anguish? Oh, my God. Okay. [00:05:06] So Jesus is quoting Psalm 22? Actually, no. David is writing what Jesus says. And so David is actually quoting Jesus as opposed to Jesus quoting David. Does that make sense? Mm hmm. So here we have Jesus saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? As you read through Song 22, you see all the things about the crucifixion. You see them. They take my clothes. They cast lot from my clothes. They split them among I am pierced my my ribs, stand out, all these things that happen in crucifixion. So we know very clearly this is the crucifixion. But down real quickly to verse 24 and tell me. But first, 24 says was 24. [00:05:58] He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one. He has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help. [00:06:09] So this is talking about God. And it says that he has not hidden his face from him. Jesus says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? [00:06:19] And down here, it says that God never forsook and he never hid his face. [00:06:27] What in the world could be going on in this interesting. Fascinating. Thanks are not always as they seem, are they? [00:06:36] No, definitely not. [00:06:37] You got to dig a little bit deeper, especially when you want to really understand what's really going on and how to apply it in your life, how to live in a way that the Lord called us to live and what actually is going on. You've got to dig deeper to tap into a session we just recently did on when bad things happen. Is it God's will? Got some interesting observations there. So let me share it, because this is not the focus of the call. But I thought this was an interesting way to start it. Let me share kind of what's going on. [00:07:10] Have you ever heard the top concept that thin blinds you from the truth? Scene creates a veil over our eyes. And this is the whole idea of the wedding ceremony. The bride wears a veil and the bridegroom takes the veil off. And now she can see clearly as a as a foreshadowing of the spiritual. Ceremony with Jesus. And where the bride takes the veil of sin that blocks our vision. So when Jesus is on the cross, he became sin. And as soon as he became sin, a veil came over his eyes and he could no longer see the father. My God, my God, why do you forsaken me? David is saying, I'm right here. God never first took you sin blocks. Okay. So a lot of times we all believe what we've been told. But sometimes we don't really know why we believe it. Other times we believe a certain way because we read God's word and it says this and someone else reads that word and they get something totally different out of it. And the question is kind of flood what's right. So I want to move into the topic now because it's a bigger topic. Here's a question. [00:08:49] Does everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven? In other words, once you've accepted Christ, can you lose that salvation? [00:09:00] Oh, gosh, that's one of those questions that just gets so there's so much controversy. [00:09:09] Let's go. Let's go back. Let's go back to the root of the question. Does everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven? [00:09:16] Yes. [00:09:18] Why do you believe that? [00:09:23] Because the Bible says. [00:09:28] It says, if you believe in the Lord Jesus, he will be saved. [00:09:34] Is that accepting or believing or are those the same? [00:09:39] Well, maybe that's the translation I learned. [00:09:43] So let me let me ask you. Are you absolutely positive? That everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven. [00:09:56] I have to be honest, I'm not actually positive now that we're doing this call and I'll catch you on a number of things in the past, you're starting to think Beatty may know something. I don't. I'm not going to be quite so positive. Right. Right. Okay. Well, good job. Don't be positive. Okay. Okay. [00:10:19] So the topic of this series that we're going to do, and it's going to be multi part because it's really threw out all scripture, especially New Testament. And that is the question does do all who accept Christ go to heaven? [00:10:35] This call is going to be part number one. We're going to lay the foundation and then we're going to start to dissect it. And this isn't for just simply an intellectual pursuit of just saying, here's what scripture say. But really to try to understand. What is God calling us to do and why? And as I've gone through this myself, here's the net result. I've changed my perspective of what's most important. It's really amazing. Okay, just a quick disclaimer. I don't have all the answers. This is one of those topics that you mentioned. Everyone has all kinds of different opinions. Scripture is constantly, consistently true is the question of what are we and how we interpreting and why. So we don't want to share is is what I believe the Lord is directing me in understanding. So I want to talk about some of the controversial versus real quickly. So this kind of tees up why this is such a difficult topic. So let's go to Matthew ten, verse 22. [00:11:39] Okay. All right. [00:11:43] By the way, this is this is all these things we're going to go through for passages. And they're all Jesus talking. So go ahead, Matthew, 10 22. [00:11:52] You will be hated by everyone because of all. But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved, stands firm to the end. [00:12:02] Okay, that's interesting. Let's use also ESV translation on these. Let's now go to Matthew 24 and we're going to read verses 10 and 13, 10 and 13. [00:12:21] 24, verse 10 and 13 percent says and then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And then verse 13 says, But the one who endures to the end will be saved. [00:12:37] And they translates that first verse. And then many will fall away from the face. Okay, here we see. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Let's now go to mark 13. [00:12:53] Martin, 13 versus 12 and 13. Let's see what that says. [00:12:58] All right. Verse twelve. And brother will deliver brother over to death. And the father, his child and the children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. [00:13:17] We see that again. The one who endures to the end. Makes you wonder, well, does that mean not all people who accept Christ? Go to heaven because why would Jesus keep talking about enduring to the end? Let's look at one more loop, 21, 17 through 19. [00:13:42] All right, 17 to 19 says you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but not a hair of your head will perish by your endurance. You will gain your lives. [00:13:56] There we have it again. Here's the question. When Jesus teaches that you must endure to the end to be saved. Does that mean that some people don't endure to the end? [00:14:09] Yes, I could see how some people probably give up or decide that I'm done with this. Okay, okay. [00:14:17] But the fact that Jesus is teaching that you had to endure to the end indicates that there are obviously those who don't endure to the end. Does that make sense? Yes. By the way, here's something else interesting. This was so important, apparently, that God put it in. The scriptures four separate times just by Jesus. We're going to say that this concept is pervasive. [00:14:43] But four separate times by Jesus. [00:14:45] If people don't endure to the end, then does that mean that they don't go to heaven? [00:14:53] I'd like to investigate that a little further. [00:14:56] Okay, so let me ask this question. Does being Sayed. [00:15:00] Does that. Men going to heaven. Do you think? [00:15:05] According to what we just read. No. [00:15:09] Okay, can you give me some scripture to back up? We're saved in heaven. Don't necessarily go together. [00:15:18] Well, the ones we just read, Jesus was speaking in reference to being saved and said those who Indore to the end. So three times we read that right. [00:15:30] So those who who endure to the end will be saved. Can we probably transliterate that? Those who endured to the end will make it to heaven. Probably is just kind of lame, the fact that Jesus is talking about being saved. Going to what we talk about going to heaven. Probably one in the same with that. Would you agree with that? [00:15:52] Yes, I would. [00:15:54] Okay. So if Jesus is saying. Or so is Jesus saying that whether or not they endure determines whether or not they are saved? [00:16:11] That's a very deep thought. I think so. I think that would go hand in hand. Okay, one influences the other. [00:16:24] Right. So what we're going to find out as we go through it, it's either a determining factor or an indicative factor. It's either the evidence had been saved or they determine that they are to be saved. So we're going to see what the scripture talks about a little bit more. So when Jesus came to Earth, here's another question. What was the main message that he preached? In other words, why did he come to Earth? [00:16:50] He preached the kingdom of heaven is near. He preached to be safe so that you could go to heaven. That was his message, to believe him to get right there. [00:17:02] So true. So he never really preaches forgiveness. [00:17:07] Have you ever noticed that he didn't have to come to Earth for forgiveness because God gave people all through the Old Testament. [00:17:16] He didn't come to Earth specifically for salvation. You said that on. He came to preach the kingdom of heaven. In fact, this is his common theme. If you can finish the sentence, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near or near here at hand. It's right here in our midst. Okay, so we had this thing called repentance and forgiveness, salvation going to have been saved. All these things are part of the kingdom of God. But what Jesus came to do was much more holistic than just being saved or forgiven. And I think that if we start to then understand what the kingdom of God really means. And understand more about that make more sense. Why? What Jesus talking about enduring to the end really means if we want to understand what Jesus means, the one who endures to the end. We have to go back to his core message that he's always teaching repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. And if we understand the kingdom of God, then we can then figure out what he really means about enduring to the end. Does that hurt? So with that then the question is. When Jesus taught on the kingdom of God, because that's most of what he taught on what was his primary method of teaching about the kingdom of God. [00:18:52] Do you recall the parable parables? Good job. Okay. So if we want to understand the kingdom of God, let's look at some of the parables, because that's what he teaches through which other parables is the most important in understanding. [00:19:11] All of the parables. Do you recall which one? [00:19:15] Oh, gosh. He had so many. The one that's popping out is the seed and the sower. But that might not be the one you're thinking of. [00:19:28] Did many good jobs go to Mark for verse 13? This is a commentary of Jesus on the parable of the seed in the summer. [00:19:41] Okay. [00:19:42] Four, verse 13. And he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? [00:19:53] So here's something here's something real interesting. The parable of the seat in the Sower, I believe I'm correct, is the only parable in all three of the synoptic gospels. That's the same. And it's the only one where Jesus gives a parable and gives the interpretation. In fact, I think it's the only one that he gives the interpretation on. And he says here that if you don't understand this parable, you cannot understand any of the parables because this parable unlocks all the other parable. So this is a pretty important message on understanding the kingdom of God. Makes sense. Yes. Okay, so now let's read into this. Let's go read the parable of the Sower, and we're going to do this in Matthew. Okay. Okay. So, Matthew, 13 versus three through eight. [00:20:53] All right. And he told them many things in parables saying a sower went out to sow as he sowed some seeds, fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil. And immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain. Some 100 fold. Some 60, some 30. He who has ears let them hear. [00:21:37] Very good. So now we have the soil where the seed goes out. And now we're going to replay what Jesus says this means. That's going to be verses 18 through 23. [00:21:53] Here, then, the parable of the sower, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it. The evil one comes and snatches away what has been found in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was shown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately received it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. And when tribulation or persecutions persecution arises on account of the word immediately, he falls away. As for what was sown amongst thorns, this is the one who hears the word. But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word. And it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands that he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold and another 60 in another 30. [00:22:51] All right, great. So now we're going back to the Requestion. Does everyone who accept Christ go to heaven? We say that Jesus says only the one who endures to the end will be saved. [00:23:05] We now go into this parable. He starts to describe it. So now let's get an understanding of this parable as we go in. So there are several parts about this parable that we need to break down first just to really kind of understand a little bit more. The first one is the seed. Okay, this is the seed and the seed is a key part. Here's the question. What is the seed? [00:23:33] The word. [00:23:34] Okay, so, Jesus, the seed is the word, the word of the kingdom. And what is the word Jesus? [00:23:45] Yeah. Okay, John, one one in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. [00:23:52] So the seed is Jesus. Right. Okay. Very interesting. So then we have the next. Let's look at the four soils. Okay. What did the soils represent? [00:24:07] The beginning part where he described it, yes. [00:24:12] When he's throwing when you're trying to sort out what do the soils represent, there are four types of soil. So what what did they representative of? [00:24:21] A person's heart, a person's heart. Okay, so four types of heart, four types of people, right. What separates one heart from another? What separates one group of people versus the other group of people? [00:24:39] The state or the beating of their heart? The state of their heart. [00:24:45] But less and less narrowed a little bit more. Okay. Okay. I'd like to suggest the stewardship of the seed, which is it represents, to say, the heart, but the state of heart is exemplified and evidenced by how its stewards see. Does that make sense? Okay, so what differentiates one soil from another, one type of person from another is stewardship of the seed. And then if the seed is Jesus and the soil represents the different types of people. What does that mean, that all people receive Jesus? [00:25:27] No. [00:25:33] Goes out, the soda goes out and sows the seed. Jesus. Yes. And does the same get sewn on all four soils? [00:25:47] Yes. [00:25:49] All four soils receive the seed sown. [00:25:55] Correct. [00:25:56] Okay. [00:25:58] So let me ask the question again. If they did this soil, it's not a trick question. It's a question that. [00:26:06] We usually don't consider because it doesn't make sense based on what we've been taught. But we have to do is we have to dig deeper than what we've been taught and see what the word says. Because what we've been taught may not be. What the world says, it may be something slightly different. So here's the question at the seat is Jesus and the soul represents people then does that mean that all people receive Jesus? Yes, it does. In fact, Romans, what does it Romans one tells us that everyone has the heart of the law of the Lord written on their hearts already. They see God's law in the skies and in everything. So everyone has received the truth. Jesus says the high priest prayer when he's praying to the Lord of the tables. He says, Die word is truth. God's word is truth. Jesus is the word. Jesus is the seed. And we see truth everywhere in nature that that proclaims God. So everyone has received that seed. But that doesn't mean they've done anything with it. That's the key. So now we've got the seed. We've got the soils. Now we have. Fruit, fruit is really the key message that Jesus is teaching about. And he basically basically says that here's my way of just kind of transliterating a little bit. Only those who produce fruit or are going to be. [00:27:46] Right, that's basically what we can start to see in his message, and I want to unpack that with fruit. [00:27:55] Fruit is the key to this parable. Fruit is only found in one soil. Soil is that good soil, the good soil. Okay, great. [00:28:05] And I want it just for sake of purpose. I'm going to label these soils as soil one, two, three and four soil. One is the path to the rocky soil soil. Three is the thorns and soil for the good soil. And then that way we can just kind of keep keep it simple. [00:28:23] Okay, so what we had to do is understand what is fruit. So if I were to ask you, what is fruit? This is the kid. This is the key to understanding everything is this fruit? What is it? [00:28:40] Fruit is what is produced from the seed. [00:28:47] Very good. [00:28:49] But what is it that's the prize? What can we call it the result? The seed managed and held and cared for properly. [00:29:08] All right. All right. We're gonna get there. Let me back up and just kind of bring us into this, because I think this is kind of fun. So seed one of the times another sessions. I was talking about the Bible has been written by one author. Would you agree with that? Yes. Okay. Now, that author inspired many men to actually pen that one author's thoughts, but it's all one author, which is God himself. Exactly. So anytime you have a book, you have characters in the book and those characters keep coming up and they always are the characters that they were. [00:29:54] In other words, if I'm reading a book and let's say, say, a Tom Clancy novel, I used to read those years back and he introduces a guy named Gosh, I forget the guy, but he introduces a couple of guys up front in the novel. [00:30:13] Then throughout the novel, every time he calls that person up by name. John did this or John did that. [00:30:19] It's always that person that he introduced and described at the beginning. Does that make sense? Yes. So the character goes throughout. So we see that same thing in the scriptures. [00:30:31] We see it with fig trees, olive trees. We see it with light, darkness. We see it with soils. We see it with seed. We see all kinds of thing. So the question is, what does seed represent? What is the character of seed? I like to show you something because this is really cool. [00:30:46] Where does God first introduce his character seed? [00:30:54] In the Garden of Eden, if I'm not mistaken, a little bit before. [00:31:00] Oh, you'll have to tell me. [00:31:05] Let's go to Genesis 111. [00:31:10] During creation, now, Save was obviously present in the Garden of Eden, but he introduces what it is. [00:31:19] During creation, Genesis one 11 with 11 and God said, let the earth sprout vegetation plants yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit and which is their seed, each according to its own kind on the earth. [00:31:36] And it was so seed reproduces after its own time. We used today's technology words that carries all the DNA to reproduce an exact replica of whatever it is, whatever it came from. Does that make sense? Yeah. And then where is seed formed? [00:32:03] Well. See, far and within the fruit. [00:32:08] The fruit is the womb of the seed. Interesting, isn't it? [00:32:15] I mean, we know that it is insane to think of it that way. [00:32:18] Okay, so this makes sense. A seed is planted. It has to die. Once it dies. It's burst again. Into a new plant after its own kind, as that plant matures, it produces fruit. And inside, the fruit seed is created so that the plant through the fruit can reproduce itself again. Does that. Soun. [00:33:00] Similar to something else that we would think about in Christian terms. And that's just what Jesus did. He came as a seed of God. Right. The exact replica. He dies and he's planted into the ground, right into the temple. And then when he dies, he becomes born again into a exact replica. And he produces through. Okay. So we see this this pattern of the seed. And the fruit is the womb that causes that seed to produce fruit is in the process of where seed has been reproduced. Making sense? Yes. Okay, so then why does the characteristic of the seed. What is the characteristic of the fruit? It's kind of an aside, but it kind of ties into this. If I were to say, what is the fruit of? Can you finish that sentence? [00:34:13] What's it called fruit of? Prudent spirit. [00:34:19] So let's look at that real quick. This is Galatians five. 22, 23. But I want you to do it in The Passion translation on this one, because I think this song articulates what it's really saying. [00:34:33] And you said the Galicians five, five, 22 and 23. [00:34:50] All right, here we go. 22 and 23 says the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is Divine Love in all its varied expressions. [00:35:04] Such a perfect moment. [00:35:07] A lot of times people say the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace. [00:35:12] But I think what the term love is, the fruit of the spirit is singular, not plural. There's not multiple fruits. There's one. That's why I love this translation that the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you. Is Divine Love in all its varied expressions. So now we're talking about love. Where else do you recall what the Bible says about love? We're talking about. This is Paul talking about different things and he said about love. [00:35:43] First Corinthians 13, I think. Yeah. The love. We call it the love chapter in our house. [00:35:49] Okay, good. All right. And it says that above all. [00:35:54] First, love is, love is, and in fact, there's here's something else, it says Faith, hope and love abide. But the greatest of these is love. What are you saying? There is that of everything he's been talking about, faith, hope and love. By that means that they are eternal. [00:36:17] They never go away. Gifts go away. But faith, hope and love abide. But of all of those, the greatest of them is love. This is what Jimmy. This is who God is, representative. Mostly by the character. Bye bye, love. That's what this is talking about. The fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is Divine Love in all its varied expressions. Okay, so now I'll let you finish the passage from there. It's now going to define and describe what that Divine Love, how that Divine Love manifests itself. [00:36:55] Okay, joy that overflows peace, that some patience that endures kindness and action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart and strength of spirit never set the law above these qualities. They are meant to be limitless. [00:37:18] All right. So now let's go back. See this Jesus? That's what Jesus says is the word of God, right in the. Fruit is where the seed is formed. And that means really that seed, the fruit, is Jesus being formed in you and producing through you. Does that make sense? Yes. OK. So that's really what I believe the fruit is talking about, is that Jesus has been formed in you. So here's a question. If Jesus is formed in you, would you act like Jesus? We should be informed and you are going to carry the characteristics and the more he's formed and living through, you carry those characteristics. What are some of the things that Jesus did that maybe if he was formed in you, you would likely do to. [00:38:14] Oh, gosh. I mean, just naming things he did heal the sick, raise the dead. He helped all those that were oppressed. He lost. I mean, he loved first. And everything else was just an overflow of the love. [00:38:33] He went preaching the message, the kingdom of God. Okay. Yeah. All this. [00:38:38] All these things. Peace, patience, kindness. [00:38:43] So that is evidence of the fruit. The fruit is Jesus being formed. But evidence of the fruit being formed into you is a manifestation of all these things that Jesus did. Bring a little bit more clarity, right? OK. So here's the big question. If Jesus has never formed Inju, are you born again and go to heaven? [00:39:12] Tom. [00:39:15] According to all this. No. [00:39:21] It's not us that are righteous. It's Jesus, in a sense, righteous, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay. [00:39:29] Romans side, I think, says that the righteous fulfillment of the law, the righteous requirement of the law has been fulfilled. And you. [00:39:36] And then we can connect the dots because Christ is in you. [00:39:41] Who would it be safe to say that only those in soil number four. Hey, bear fruit. Which has been formed in them are the ones who are truly born again, are saved and go to heaven. Does that make sense, do you say? Yes. So now let's look at the four soils. Real quick. No one is the past. This is verse four, so read that again. Let's talk about that. [00:40:16] And that was go back to that book when we were in Matthew 20. [00:40:26] Excuse me, Matthew, 13, 13. [00:40:33] I'm going to switch translations. I'll go back to that. [00:40:35] I actually actually I got. I think this is versus it's not verse four that I want you to read is going to be verse probably 18 or 19. [00:40:45] Let me go back. Yes. [00:40:47] Okay. 18 and 19. Okay. So 19, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom does not understand it. The evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. [00:41:02] I know that. [00:41:03] So that's the one that's sown along the path. [00:41:06] Okay, let's see. [00:41:13] So that person has heard the word of the kingdom. And they do not understand it. [00:41:18] Right. So how did they steward the seed? Or did they stay where the stayed at all? [00:41:26] They didn't. They didn't do it because it just says that they did not understand it. And then the evil one came and snatched it away. So that leads me to believe they didn't pursue understanding what had been spoken to them. [00:41:40] Got you. So no wonder the path does not seem see deceit at all. It's rejected. Correct. Since it doesn't stay where the seed. Does the soil accept the seed? So there are two things you've got to accept it and you, Stuart. So did the soil ever accept the seed? [00:42:07] No. [00:42:08] No. Since the seed represents Christ, does that mean that this person did not accept Christ? That's correct. And is this person born again? No. No. And how do we know that? [00:42:26] Because it says. [00:42:29] The evil one snatched it away. What was sewn in their heart? So Jesus was taken out from their heart. They can't be born again. [00:42:38] That's right. Okay, perfect. So now we have soul. No one does not accept the seed, does not therefore steward the seed. The say never forms itself in them through fruit. They are not born again. They don't go to heaven. Okay, so now let's look at soil number two, the rocky ground. This is going to be versus 20 through 21. [00:43:02] As for what was sown on Iraqi ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately received it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself but indoors for a while. And when tribulation or persecution persecution arises on account of the word, he immediately falls away. [00:43:24] So does the soil accept the seed? [00:43:32] A little bit, right? It tries to, but actually I think it's a little bit a little bit deeper. Let's go back to it and look and says yet he has no root in himself. Do you see that? If there is no. [00:43:50] Yes, go ahead. [00:43:51] If there's if there's no route, then did the soil ever accept it? [00:43:58] Go in the soil, right? [00:44:00] Yes. One head down. [00:44:04] Have you ever seen trees or plants grow on the side of a cliff where it's just wrong? Yes. Yes. Is there any. There's no soil, but they can still grow by putting roots down a little bit around the rocks. Does that make sense? So the soil does accept the seed. And we know that because there's no root and with no root, there's no acceptance. How does the soil steward the seed? [00:44:36] Well, it says as soon as he heard it, he received it with joy. Right. But because there's no route. There's nothing to anchor it when the hard things come, he falls away. He gives up. [00:44:52] Notice it says that he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. What are those passages that Jesus says? [00:45:00] What does it say about endurance to endure until the end? [00:45:05] So this guy only endures for a while, but not to the end. [00:45:09] Okay. So the soil doesn't accept the seed. The soil stewards, the seed only poorly. It's enough that it grew up, got excited. But it did not endure to the end. Here's the question. Is this person born again? [00:45:30] Now, how do we know that? [00:45:35] Well, because they had no route. And because they chose to give up almost OK. [00:45:42] So those are part of it. But the ultimate technical answers because there's no fruit. [00:45:50] Because fruit is where Christ is formed in you. And there's no fruit. Therefore, there is no Christ formed in you. And only of Christ is formed. And you are truly born again. Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So no one. Not a Christian. So, number two, they receive it with joy. A lot of people you share the gospel. They immediately pray the center's prayer type of thing. And you may see some life change. They're all excited, but they don't endure. [00:46:21] That wasn't a what we would call in our Christian, these terms a true salvation. Christ was never formed in them. Now let's look at soil number three. This is the one with the thorns. And this is going to be verse 22. [00:46:35] As for what was done along with thorns, this is the one who hears the word. But the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches choke the word. And it proved unfruitful. [00:46:49] Turn also real quick, I want to show you one other passage on this that it gives a little bit more information. Luke Eighty-seven. It's the same Jesus describing this, but he gives Luke eight, seven, gives one more piece of information. Let's see if you can find that piece of information. [00:47:06] And some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. So this one. Thorns are growing up with the. [00:47:17] Which means the seed is growing. Right. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Okay. So now let's ask our questions, our diagnostic questions on this. Does the soil accept the seed? [00:47:30] Yes. Yes. [00:47:32] Okay. Now, remember, the soil represents people, represents your heart. The seed represents Jesus. So this soil accepts Jesus. [00:47:44] Yes. [00:47:45] Follow me. Okay. Okay, so the soil accepts Jesus because the soil accepts the seed. [00:47:56] How does the soil steward the seed? How well is that seed stewarded? Well, it does it does the soil steward the seat at all. Let's start with their. [00:48:15] No. [00:48:17] Maybe a little bit in the beginning, because it says when the cares of the world and deceitfulness come and you choke it. [00:48:26] Okay, okay. Go back to Luke eight, seven. [00:48:32] And some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up with it. Grew up with a plant that the seed produced but choked it. So this means that. They grew up means that it actually grew into a plant, which means that the soil did steward the seed enough to produce a plant. Okay, so here soil number three, except the seed. If we put this in human terms, someone accepts Jesus. It's two words. [00:49:03] The seed enough that it forms a plant. And that plan looks exactly like the replica of what the seed was reproducing, because it is. But is this person born again? [00:49:22] No, because they do not endure to the end almost. [00:49:27] Not that they don't endure it to the end. There's the key element. What's the defining moment of whether someone's born again? [00:49:37] They don't produce fruit. [00:49:38] It's Christ in you. Right. And the only way to have Christ in you that you have fruit. Where the seed is produced. [00:49:51] You say that it was unfruitful. [00:49:53] That's right. There was no fruit. And now here's a person who accepts Christ. Who manifest Christian type of behavior? Because the fruit grows up. But produces no fruit, which is evidence that Christ was never formed in them. [00:50:17] They did not endure to the end. You had to endure longer for the verb to be formed, that may be one way to describe it. I don't think that's really an accurate statement. But there's something else here. Why was fruit never produced? [00:50:32] Because of the sarin. [00:50:35] What are the odds? Come check it out. What do Soren's come from? [00:50:42] We the ground. [00:50:48] All blind reproduces after its own time. [00:50:51] What is blind going? I'll see. There you go. Okay. [00:50:58] There you go. So here here we have a number three person receives and accepts the seed of the word. But they're also accepting all kinds of other seed and they stoo or the other seed more diligently than they steward the Christ seed. [00:51:19] And by stewarding other seeds, Jesus calls them the cares of the world. There's this staple ness of riches by stewarding those seeds more. This all number three person allows that stewardship to choke out the Christ. That's pretty interesting. Yeah, that's really good. So is it possible to accept Christ? Had the appearance of growing as a Christian. And yet not actually being born again, having Christ formed into you and ultimately going to heaven. Yes, it is. And this is startling and this interesting. [00:52:05] Oh, it's going to get a whole lot better. This is setting the stage. [00:52:12] Now, let's go to soil number four. This is the good soil. This is verse 23. [00:52:19] As for what was done on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands that he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold and another 60 in another 30. [00:52:36] All right, great. So does the soil accept the seed? How is the seed stewarded? Very well, very well. Is this person first off, what happens with the sea? [00:52:55] Cared for. It's your word. It's helped nurture so that it can grow. [00:53:02] All right. Is this person born again? Yes. And how do we know? Because they bear fruit. Okay. In terms of fruit. Some hundred, some 60, some 30. Notice also. It's not the soil that bears fruit. What bears fruit? The seed is the seed that bears the fruit, not the soil. The soil is merely the womb in which the fruit is produced that produces more seed. The seed producing the fruit. In other words, it's not us, it's the Lord. [00:53:52] Now, we've already been to always been taught. It's Christ living through us. There's nothing we can do of our own. The fruit of the spirit is not what we do. It's Christ in us. This is what's going on. It's the sea that reproduces the fruit. [00:54:06] It's not the soil. We're just the container. [00:54:12] So now as we start to wrap up, I wanted to talk on two things. The first one is Convert's versus Disciple's, because I think this is what is this is kind of where where a lot of this starts to focus in on. I want to set the definition first off, let me ask you if I were to ask you to define the difference between a convert and a disciple, what would you tell me? [00:54:40] A disciple to me is one who has a desire and longing for teaching. [00:54:46] And then. [00:54:48] Finding someone else and seeing that same quality in someone else. [00:54:53] Kind of like a leader, a good leader is going to look for someone who also wants to be a leader. And they're going to raise up that leader. [00:55:01] Right. Let me. [00:55:08] Give a simple definition that that I like to include a convert is going to be someone who accepts Christ right. [00:55:21] But a disciple is going to be someone who follows Christ. And I think there's a difference. [00:55:29] Does that make sense? Absolutely. I was watching this great documentary on the underground Iranian church and they had people from the church talking and everything and sharing, and it was really cool. But one of the guys made a really interesting comment, Converts versus Disciple's. Here's what he says. Disciples for the world and cling to Jesus till he comes. [00:55:57] Converts don't. Disciples are not engage in a culture war. Converts are disciples. Cherish, obey and share the word of God. Converts don't. Disciples choose Jesus over anything and everything else. Converts don't. Converts run when the fire comes, disciples don't mean that cool. So can you see a difference between merely accepting Christ, which is a convert, versus following Christ? Can you see that difference in the four soils? [00:56:35] Sure. Absolutely. Okay. [00:56:38] So the obvious question, but which of those soils are the disciples? [00:56:45] The last one. [00:56:46] Number four, which went to their convert's. [00:56:57] I would say probably number two. It could be three or four years. [00:57:06] So technically, I guess you could say was two, three and four. The converse, because they all accept Christ to a degree. They all received the word with joy, but only soil for is the disciple who actually pursues Christ. So back to my original question. Does everyone who accepts Christ go to heaven? No. Okay, so you change your answer now, right? [00:57:35] Okay. So wrapping up. Let me share what this parable I think teaches us. No one's really kind of cool. [00:57:43] I think there shows that to a degree. Now, these aren't exactly accurate. But we can kind of pull some some things out of this parable shows that there are actually two stages of obtaining eternal life, two stages of the kingdom of heaven within us. [00:58:02] First is the seed is sown and the soul has to accept it. But second, after accepting the soul has to steward, it produces Morsey. And without that stewarding and without the production of fruit. [00:58:21] Which is the seed being reformed in you then? Then your you haven't gone that second stage of stewarding it. Let me show you this also turned to Matthew three eight two three eight. This is John the Baptist. He's talking the Pharisees. And if you remember, John the Baptist comes baptizing with water for forgiveness, basically repentance leading toward forgiveness. A little bit different type baptism than baptism as a new believer. But reading Matthew three eight. [00:58:59] Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. [00:59:03] So now we have fruit again. Do you think this fruit might be similar to the fruit that Jesus is talking about? [00:59:09] Yes. [00:59:11] And then you have bear fruit in keeping with what? [00:59:14] Repentance. [00:59:16] And what was the key message that Jesus came preaching or intent for the Kingdom of God is near. [00:59:23] So we see all these all these same characters keep coming back up and cycling around. [00:59:27] Does that make sense? Yeah. So if we have repented. We will bear fruit if we have not repented. We won't bear fruit. Repentance is a key to bearing fruit. I would say repentance is a key to stewarding the sea. [00:59:47] Right. So when I started this study, I was kind of amazing what I found. And as I started to pursue it further, what's really cool is I start to see this pattern throughout all of scripture, but specifically in the New Testament where this is highlighted. So what we're going to do not on today's call is because we're at the end of the time. But as we go through, I want to start to dissect and open up a lot of these not only the parables, but the epistles and some more things that Jesus says and just kind of show this whole picture of what's going on. And here's to value. So the question is, well, what's so important about this? [01:00:28] Well, obviously, it's important if God puts it in there, but how does it change what we do not want to share? Kind of how it changed for me. But first, let me ask you, do you remember there is a section in the Bible that is called the Great Commission. You remember the great commission. Do you remember the first you know where it is? [01:00:48] I feel like it's. Go go to Matthew. 28 a day. [01:00:58] Well, it is the very end, Matthew, in Revelations is the end of God's word. So you could have the end, right. [01:01:06] The great commission, verse sixteen through twenty. [01:01:11] Looks like somewhere in there. Let's begin with all the authority has been. [01:01:20] Jesus came and said to the disciples, all authority and heaven on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I had commanded you. And they hold. I am with you always to the very end of the age. [01:01:41] Great. So where did go out and share the gospel. Is that right? Go out and evangelize. Yeah. Okay. Now that's different than sharing the gospel. [01:01:56] Make disciples go therefore make disciple. [01:01:59] Yeah. Okay. So you're going to heaven. Is not the reason Jesus came. But it's a part of the kingdom of God. Sharing the gospel is not the great commission, but it's part. Of making disciples. You got to share the gospel to make a disciple. Yeah, that's true. So this is the focus. This is the thing that really hit me as I've come through here. Our focus isn't let's go evangelize. That's important. It's not the focus of what the Lord is called us to do is to make disciples. And the reason it's so important is only the disciples are the ones for Christ has formed in them. It's not enough just to go share the gospel. It's not enough just to quote unquote live as a Christian. We've got to help those people that we are around to steward the seed well, and we have to be careful that we steward the seed well as well. And if we're stewarding our say, well, it will produce fruit and fruit will manifest itself by the fruit dropping off a tree, say, going back in the ground and reproducing. So we're going to see more of this. But anyway, we'll stop there. But before we wrap up the call, any thoughts or observations that are hitting you? [01:03:26] Gosh, as always, just eye opening to see scriptures revealed in a way that you don't necessarily ponder and consider on a regular basis. [01:03:39] I thought it was great. I love the just the analogies between the seed and Jesus and the fruit. And it was really good. It was really good. I enjoyed it. Great. All right. Thank you so much for today. Thank you so much for your expertise. The time again that you put into studying and preparing this message for the listeners. Anything else that you want to share with our listeners before we say goodbye? [01:04:09] Just make sure you listen to. If you're not listening to our podcast, but you're just kind of get this on the Web site. Go to depending on which podcast you're on. Get cellar's calling you what we do for real estate or we have get radical faith, which is just the radical faith podcast by himself. Go back. There's a lot of great content there. And the other thing I would really encourage is there's a lot of stuff here. Don't listen to one time and say, I got it. Go back and really absorb it. Take some time. Pull out your Bible, read and see what you can see the words in print as you go through this and you'll get a lot more out of it. [01:04:49] Yes. Such great wisdom. Such great wisdom. Well, thank you. And we thank you to all of you who are listening. And we hope you all have a blessed day. And we'll see you next time. [01:04:59] Thanks, Beatty. Thank you. Be blessed. Thanks. P066 [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

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Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) Hello, everyone. My name is Penny. I'm so glad you joined us today and welcome to this next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael. Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I am super excited about this call with you today. What do you have for our listeners? [00:00:29] Well, I've got a really exciting call for today, and that is it may sound kind of boring, but when you really understand the impact, it's really exciting and is how to do marketing right. [00:00:41] Because, you know, in real estate, I love what Gary Keller says in all of his books -- millionaire real estate agent, Shift and others. He says the most important thing in real estate is lead generation. And then he says the second most. Would you like guess what? The second most important thing is in real estate. If the first generation was the second most important thing. [00:01:09] Has to be. If I were to guess something to obtain buyers. Almost, yes. [00:01:16] So it's tied to that second most important thing in real estate is lead generation. He says the third most important thing. Would you like to guess the third most important thing in real estate is. [00:01:28] Let me guess. [00:01:29] Lead generate lead generation. Right. In commercial real estate. Location, location. Location is very real estate business. Lead generation is everything. So we're going to talk about today is how do you generate leads not on a tactical process, but more a strategic process. [00:01:52] Does that make sense? Yeah, sure. [00:01:55] Okay, so let me give you a background on this. I was speaking just a couple weeks ago with a real estate agent named Mike. He's not the typical real estate agent. He also has his investment license and his primary business is a financial advisor. So he has a block of clients that he manages their assets on. He makes a lot of money from that, but he also works in the real estate world and helps buy and sell real estate because part of his financial advising is to purchase investment properties in real estate. Do you see the connection? Yeah, sure. Okay, so he had the perfect fit. He had this brilliant idea. And I want to share this idea because I know there is some real estate agents out there who may not be a series six. I think it is a financial adviser, but they are friends who are that they can partner with because this is a beautiful partnering opportunity. We're talking about lead generation. You typically think out of the box if you do what every real estate agent does to generate leads, you're going to be like every real estate agent, which is working 60, 70 hours a week, scrapping for every deal you get. And when a shift in the marketplace happens, like what's happened recently with Cobian 19 and the corona virus pandemic stuff, your business falls apart because you're doing what everyone else does. By the way, I've got I've got to make this one comment. We have a number of clients whose business has not faltered at all during this period of time. We have other clients whose business has fallen apart. And you know the difference between the two. [00:03:50] Personal connection with the agent. I was going to get personal connection with the agent and their client. [00:03:58] A little bit deeper than that. That is a tactical part. [00:04:01] But strategically, those whose businesses have not faltered, they've built their business on right principles that always drive in business. Those whose businesses have faltered are what I'm gonna call hacks at real estate. [00:04:19] They they just because the market was good, they were able to pick up business, but they really had no process in place, whether it's those personal contacts and relationships or whether it a strategic marketing plan. They just had nothing. They just kind of threw stuff out and it worked. But now that their shift has happened, or at least a shift in their business has fallen apart. So they had no foundation. They had no foundation. So I digress. But I want to bring it back to the comment of where I was going. And that is, if you do what all other agents do, your business is going to look like all other agents and all other agencies average. And if the definition of averages is the cream of the crop and the crap or the cream, I don't want to be there. If you want to if you want to have a above average business, you got to think outside of the box and do what others are not. So here's an idea. Thinking out of the box, it's this connection between you as a real estate agent and a financial adviser. And so let me share the story that this guy sharing. I thought it was brilliant. And then I want to use this to start to talk about the marketing topics, marketing concepts and understanding to really bring something like this together. [00:05:39] So Mike has a financial adviser. He's helped his clients buy investment property. So this is like duplexes, small apartments, retail stores and things of that sort. And so that's where he's used his his real estate license. And so he makes a commission off of the transaction. He also makes commission off of managing their assets. But he's kind of tapped out most of his clients on the things that he would honestly recommend for them. And he's looking to grow his business. He wants to grow his client base. So he had this brilliant idea. A lot of people have for one case, he wanted to market to people with one case, get them to convert it to a self directed irae. And then he could help advise them on their when they do that, he would become their financial adviser. So now he gets their assets and then he could advise them on investments that they can do to their self directed. Right. And if it's a real estate investment, he's going to be in the deal as well. So, first off, just make sure we're on the same page. Do you know what a self directed IRA is? [00:06:53] I believe that when you've got investments, you get to choose delegates, a percentage of the account or type of account that you put your your money into. [00:07:06] Very close. So it's a little bit different, but very close. So if you think about a faurot one K, you get to have some choice in what type of investments you do. Right. But someone else is managing the investment, meaning you buy a mutual fund or you buy or something like that in a self directed IRA. You get to manage the money yourself. So if you want to buy a piece of property or buy stock, you're actually directing it one hundred percent. And to a degree, you're managing it. There are some restrictions, but you're fully in charge of it. Okay. So it gives you much greater leeway on what you do. So brilliant note for professional real estate agent out there. This is a source of great money to then sell investment property. Okay, so this is the connection. So that's what he wanted to do. And then we started to talk about this and he said, I want to mail 10 or 15 thousand people and start generating more business. And so we started talking about it. I said, well, I'd probably I'd start something smaller than ten or fifteen thousand people. And he said, Why is that? He said, Because you don't really know what works. And he thought about that for a moment. I said, well, that's interesting. But I don't fully understand. He said, all you do is you put together a postcard and you put a call to action on it. I said, well, call the actions or know all that they're cracked up to be, say most agents. They hear these words. And the purpose of this call is, I want to get away from what you hear and you think, you know, to really helping you understand. Have you heard? Do you know what a call to a CPA or call to action is? Have you heard that term? [00:09:00] I've heard the term, but I honestly probably could not define it properly. [00:09:05] So let's define it because it's important. A CPA, as it's called, Call to Action, is simply a statement you make to call your prospect to action. Pick up the phone and call me thinking about selling your property. Call me now. That's a call to action. And what happens is most real estate agents, they pick up these terms, they see they see something. That's the secret. It's all about a call to action. And the people that are making money with their marketing because they have a call to action. I don't need to put a call to action there. And I was telling my ex said, call the actions are worthless unless you do it right. So now I caught him at this point that he's now ready to learn and understand what he has no clue in. [00:10:00] Now, remember the comment one of my friends was sharing? I went to a real estate training class that he did years back and he put up a slide for the realtors in the room. [00:10:11] And it basically said and he was talking about this is kind of how you approach when you're engaging a property owner to sell their property. The statement was, if you think hiring a professional is expensive, try hiring an amateur. And in marketing, that really applies because my mike was willing to go spend 30, 40, 50 thousand dollars his first year thinking all it was was a call to action and he would make money. So with that, let me get real this in and start talking a little bit about marketing. Does that work with you? [00:10:49] Yeah, absolutely. [00:10:52] So the first thing in marketing is you've got a test. And the reason why. Can you guess why you want to test? [00:11:03] You don't know what works. [00:11:04] That's right. That's right. Not everything works, okay, until you've tested it. You don't know if it works or not. [00:11:13] And so this is why a lot of times if we take postcards, for example, because this is a common thing, a lot of mail postcards and they don't work. No e-mail postcards. And what you put on the postcard did not work. Not the postcard postcard system. Delivery method. Oh, I did online advertising. It doesn't work. No online advertising works. What did you say? Okay, so the first step is you have to understand that marketing is two components. What you say and how you deliver what you say. A postcard. Pay per click and funnel sales funnel into ads that drive into that. All of that is just a delivery. It's the mechanics. But what you say is the most important, in essence, marketing, is salespeople. You've automated the sailing the selling process and you push it out in mass. And just like salespeople, one salesperson is going to get higher results than another salesperson, for one thing. Would you like to guess with that? [00:12:24] One thing is I'm scared to guess. [00:12:29] They say things differently. They say things differently. They know what to say and they know how to say it. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. Okay. So there's a lot behind what they say and how they say it. But ultimately it's what they say and how they say that causes a sale to happen or not. [00:12:48] And that's the same thing it is with your marketing. So the reason you want to test is not everything works. So you want to you want to test small. Okay. And then once you know something works, then you can scale it up with the delivery, the delivery. [00:13:06] I mean, I think about like when you said that, like, I went to buy a car, for instance, and I went to two different car lots and they both told me the same thing as one of them. The way they spoke, the message to me and gave me that information, their delivery was better and more convincing. Well, then I'm going to buy the car from them. [00:13:26] That's exactly right. If they're selling the same car, but you resonate with one person and the other person to finish you with what he says. There you go. It's what you say and how you say it. Okay. But then there's something else in there. So it's not just what you say and how you say it, what it is. But if you go if you dissect that a little bit further, is are you saying it in a positive format or negative format, meaning let's say if I wanted to focus on home sellers, I could say the same thing in a positive statement or a negative statement. The positive statement, if you're thinking about selling your home. Here are four things you can do that will get you a lot more money. I can make the same statement in a negative if you're thinking about selling your home. If you don't do these four things, you will lose a lot of money. [00:14:35] They're really the same things. It's just a matter of time. Does that make sense? [00:14:39] Yes. Yes, it does. [00:14:41] So here's one reason to test. If I come to you as a homeowner and I say if you're thinking about selling your home these four secrets. We'll get you 20 percent, more or less say that your three hundred thousand dollar home as much as 60 thousand dollars more for your home. Or I come to you and say, if you're thinking about selling your home, Veith, if you fail to do these four things, you will lose as much as 60 thousand dollars on your home. Are you going to respond the same way or do you think one generates a different response than the other? [00:15:25] I feel like one of those would be more convincing to me. [00:15:30] Okay, so for you. Which one would be more convincing? Which one would. If that's all you saw. And right now, we're just talking about the offer articulated as a headline. Okay. The positive offer or the negative offer? Which one motivates you more than the positive. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Interesting survey says when you survey we actually did this test. Okay. [00:15:56] We tested positive versus you're going to tell me that I don't fit in the box. Do I. [00:16:03] I'm not I haven't said anything yet. I'm just I'm just laying you up, okay. I'm just letting you off on this question. When we tested this, we tested thousands and thousands of postcards and what we call split a marketing test, which you take we would take a farm and we just randomize half the addresses would get a positive offer. Half the addresses would get a negative offer. And then we did that all across the country. And then we tabulated the results to see which offer positive or negative increased results and which ones decrease. [00:16:41] Would you like to guess what the offer? Produce more results. [00:16:49] Based on that, I'm going to go negative. [00:16:53] You don't have much confidence in yourself, any positive offer outperformed the negative, just like you said you would find it more positive. Okay. Now, here comes a big question. Okay. So positive Forfar outperforms negative. The question is by how much? What would you guess would be the difference? In other words, how much more likely are you to respond to that positive offer versus if it was a negative offer, just a little bit more or a lot more? [00:17:28] Yeah, it's really more like I feel like I would. Yeah. [00:17:33] And how much would you say would you think that would be for you? [00:17:38] Percentage wise, I would probably be 90 or more percent more likely to respond. [00:17:47] Okay, so here's the thing. Until you test it, you really don't know which way to go. And this is what I was telling Mike. He wants to spend a lot of money going after all of these strangers to try to get them to come to him. Give him all of their money and then invest in property. Okay. It makes a big impact if you spend forty thousand dollars in a year, whether you get if you've got one cell versus 400 cells, that would be a big impact difference. Okay, so what we found is the test and the homeowner market is eight hundred percent difference. In other words, we got eight times more people responding to the positive offer than the negative offer. But think about this. That's going to a homeowner. Now, if we're doing this for Mike and sharing this with Mike, I said someone with an investment. [00:18:47] Are they more interested in gaining money or or more interested in not losing money? We don't know. I know in business. More businesses are motivated by risk mitigation, which is not losing as opposed to opportunity to gain. So in a business environment, the negative offer would likely outperform positive offer. But in the homeowner market, the positive outperforms. So these are the things you have to test. Maybe it's another thing to test is the offer. Okay, so homeowners. [00:19:25] Is the offer these for seekers will get you more money? Or is the offer I can sell your home immediately. Or is the offer something different. Okay, so you test these different things, you start to figure out what it is that your market is going to be most likely to respond to. And then when you know what that is and you test it and you start to get results, then at that point you start to scale it up. [00:19:51] So that's why you test. That makes sense. Yes, it does. [00:19:55] And without testing, you really just don't. You're shooting in the dark. If you don't test, you're an amateur. [00:20:03] And that's a lot more expensive than hiring a professional. So then the second thing you want to do is, is how do you test? So it's easy to say let's test it. Next question is how? And this is what Mike was saying. How do you do it? And so what I was telling Mike is I said, look, you've got the budget to do 15000 homes. Then the best thing to do, because 15000 prospects for him said the best thing to do is let's maybe do a marketing test of 2000 people where we can do a thousand with one and a thousand with another and test two things. And he said, well, why do you want to test two things? I said, because if you test more than two, you don't know what's causing the difference. So think about this. If I if I test a if I test a positive offer. For secrets to make more money and I test a negative offer. The five biggest mistakes most people make when selling their home. I get different results. I don't know if it's the offer for secrets or mistakes or if it's the positive, make more money or the negative. Lose everything you have in your house and end up destitute so you can't test multiple variables at one time. You have to do a test. It has to be only one difference between the two so that if there is a change in results, you know, there is only one change in what you did and therefore you can tell which one produces more. Does that make sense or did I can you know, that makes perfect sense. [00:21:53] I mean, the more information that you're putting out there in order to test something, the harder it's going to be for you to come to conclusion. Like you said, which one was the actual one that worked or didn't work? [00:22:06] And so in the whole world of testing, you want to eliminate every opportunity for. An unknown variable to influence it. Let me give you a simple example of how this can be done wrong. So you have someone doing, let's say, geographic farming, for example. And they want to test two offers. So they test one offer to one farm and they test another offer to a different farm. And they get one offer, outperforms the other offer. Is that a valid test? Yes. Wait. Okay. All right. Different types of people live in each of those farms. Yes. Could it be that one type of person has an average income of 100000? The other type of farm has an average income of fifty thousand? Yes. Do you think that could make a difference in how they respond? Absolutely. Do you think if one neighborhood is black and the other neighborhood hood is white? Do you think that could make a difference? Yes. So what happens if you test one farm against another? By changing your offers, then you've mis unknowingly you've included another variable that you didn't know was there. And that is one farm is a different type of person than the other farm, potentially. So it could really skew your results. So if you wanted to. Good test. You want to either do one farm and randomize the addresses and then 10 one offer to one set of addresses, the other offer to the other set. [00:23:58] Or if you're going to do both farms you randomize each farm into individually and then you send it out. In other words, you have to eliminate every opportunity for another variable to accidently crop up. Then people ask, well, how do you how do you randomize? Really easy. This is the easiest part I found. The easiest way to randomize is if you've got first name, last name and address, sort by first name. [00:24:33] Totally randomise is everything. You take the first half of first names and you send them off for one in the second half of the first things and send them off or two. And now you have no variance in what is going on. So the first step is, is in testing, the best way to test is going to be the split test. We call it marketing A split a B test. Everything is totally the same except offer A versus offer B.. [00:25:05] This also means you have to have a simple way to track it. An easy way to track. Which one do you get the most phone calls from? Okay, you get that person's name and address and you look it up in your list and you figure out which offer they came from. Okay. [00:25:22] More sophisticated the way we track because we have more technology, as you know, we have a what we call stealth tracking technology. So we send into a Web site. And instantly when they go to the Web site, we're able to pinpoint the address that they responded to. So this is if we're doing a postcard that matches it back, if you're doing online advertising to do split marketing like PPC, paper, click type advertising, you can set all of those to do split tasks. You just have to have a little bit more difficult than just running an ad. You have to do a few things more. But they will actually alternate the ads for you, send them to a Web site. And there's code that you put on the Web site that goes back into, let's say, Google AdWords, and I'll let you know which offer is working better. So lots of ways to do it. There's another real simple way to testing. It's not as good as the split marketing test, but it's a lot less complicated to do that simply. This is why most people do it. They put a postcard or an ad together and they run it. [00:26:39] And if it gives good results and they just keep running, it doesn't get good results. They stop and say, well, that didn't work. So you can just do what I'll call it either worked or it didn't type of work. But if you can test it, test two different things, you'll find that one thing will always outperform. [00:26:56] The other thing I remember, this is real interesting. So one of the things that is important and testing is the offer. In fact, this is the most important thing. And they offer to see if I can clarify this for you and simplify it. It's the. What do you say that gets them to respond? Maybe this is an easy way to understand. Ghuneim Gary Helbert taught this to me not personally, but vicariously through his marketing training. And he was talking about the offer. Any expressed it this way. Imagine for a moment that your very best friend or your daughter, depending on how old you are and your very best friend is a woman and she's pregnant and she's really close to giving birth. [00:27:57] I mean, it's like any day now you're out shopping someplace. And this stranger comes up here in Birmingham. [00:28:11] You have the car, basically, you have the Americans and you have the car and the Mexicans. But basically the Spanish speaking Latinos, they come from south of the border. And there's a big group of Spanish speaking folks here. [00:28:30] So this stranger who doesn't speak any English, only speaks Spanish. He comes up to you and he points to his watch and he points way, a way somewhere else. And he puts this great big makes his ball over his tummy like a great big basketball. And he's pointing over in the direction of the hospital. What immediately comes to mind is. [00:28:55] His wife is about to have her Beatty. His wife. [00:29:00] Or maybe your best friend. My best friend. Yes. Right. Okay. Okay. So without saying any words, he's able to express an offer. Instantly. You know what it means. Instantly you have interest because it's important to you. Does that make sense? Okay, so that's the offer. Now, assume that the same person then says Penny, your best friend Suzy is in labor right now. The hospital get there immediately. Do you act faster if he's able to articulate it better? Yes. But it's the same offer said a different way. Okay, so you had the offer and you had the headline. The offer is what you're communicating. The headline is how you communicate it. So most important part is the offer. If we go back to Mike. With his prospects that he wants to target is the offer. I can get you a better return on your Faurot one K money. Or is the offer? How to protect your investment and your four one K. With a rock solid recession proof. Financial investment income stream. Do you see how those may be two different offers total? Because that was his whole approach. Hey, right now stock market is crazy. It's going nuts going down. People are losing money in there for one case. How do you protect that? How do you protect it in an investment that is recession proof? His ideas, you invest in multi-family housing. People are always going to pay their rent. And if they don't, they move out and someone's going to take their spot. So this is the that's the offer. And then the question is, how do you phrase it? So another guy was talking about how to write a headline. [00:31:05] And this is something that is important in your messaging. So in terms of what do you test, you're going to test the offer. So let's say if we go back to the fourth secrets, for example, for secrets, these four, if you're thinking about selling these secrets, we'll get you up to 18 percent more money on the sale of your home. So the offers for secrets that get you more money. [00:31:33] The headline, how you write the OP. Here's another way to write it. If you're planning to sell your home, these four secrets can get you as much as twenty eight thousand dollars more on your home. Or another way to write it. If you're planning to sell your home and normally sell for three hundred thousand dollars, these four secrets will get you as much as three hundred and thirty two thousand dollars for it. It's all the same offer expressed differently. Do you see how that works? [00:32:04] I sure do. [00:32:05] What do you want to do? You want to take that offer that you've tested. So when you're testing one offer against another, doesn't really matter how you write, you want to write it as well as you can. But generally, when you write out the copy for the offer. What I do is I'll write fifteen or 20 different ways of saying that same message. And then I'm going to analyze those and say which one articulates it better? It's just like that guy who comes up to you who can't speak English. [00:32:36] So he just kind of points that things and show you a sense of urgency vs. being able to better articulate it. So here's an idea. I want to just show you how this applies. Back in the 80s when we were having a major recession. Gold and silver were going through the roof financially. And so there was a company called Numismatic Company. They sell gold and silver as investment. [00:33:06] And they had relationships with some financial institutions that would actually loan investors up to two thirds of the purchase of gold and silver as an investment. [00:33:18] So they were running an ad in The Wall Street Journal and the ad said two thirds buying financing on gold and silver. And then they were making money, but then they hired a professional and that professional started testing different headlines because in your marketing, your headline is the most important part of your entire marketing piece, because if it doesn't grab their attention, they're not going to go any further. [00:33:48] Does that make sense? Yes. And also, by the way, in lead generation, because we started the most important thing in real estate is lead generation. Right. Lead generation is almost entirely headline based. The call to action only is effective once you grab their attention. Created interest and create an environment that they now want to respond. Then you give them a call to action. And that's where Mike was missing it. He'd heard this term call to action. Well, that's all it is. Those people making money have a call to action. Those people not making money. Don't need a call to action. No, there's a lot that goes before it. The call to action is the final stage. So this company hired a professional marketer. He tested different headlines and a headline that outperformed everything else, said this. Okay, first, let me give you the headline again. Two thirds financing on gold and silver. [00:34:48] The next headline that outperformed it by 20 times said this If gold is selling for three hundred dollars an ounce. Give us just one hundred dollars an ounce. We'll buy you all the gold you want. [00:35:03] Do you see the difference? So. [00:35:08] The differences. If your headline can more clearly articulate what the offer is, you grab a lot more interest. So this is when you start putting down what is my offer as a real estate agent? [00:35:24] Well, my offer what do I do? I sell a house. My offer is no different than anyone else. Well, then you're just going to be average. If you're offering, it is no different. You've got to come up with something that's different. You've got to think it through. [00:35:40] This is where you and I with our clients. We talk about what's called a USP, a unique selling proposition, which ultimately is a unique offer. Does that make sense to you? [00:35:52] You test the offer is most important. You figure out, okay, if I phrase this offer positively or negatively, which one is best, by the way? You don't have to do that test as a residential real estate agent. Positive always works best. So you don't have to do that. But then you have to test. Okay. How do I phrase that offer? Because phraseology determines how clear it is to the prospect, what the benefit of that offer is. Okay. What does that value to them? So two thirds financing on gold and silver that articulates very statically some sort of a value. But when I can say if gold is selling for three hundred dollars an ounce, give me just one hundred dollars. Now I'll buy you all the gold you want. Now, that creates an immediate understanding of the value. [00:36:47] Here's something else that's really interesting. What did those headlines is longer. [00:36:53] The second one. [00:36:56] I can't tell you how many real estate agents have told me. Oh, that's too much. That's too many words. [00:37:04] That's an amateur speaking right? Because that long headline was a lot more words, but more successfully convey the message. In fact, we actually tested this. Would you believe that? I tested short headline versus long headline. [00:37:22] You tested that? Yes. What were their results? [00:37:27] Long headline outperform, short headline if it better articulated the value. In fact, years back, we were doing some marketing for business opportunity companies. [00:37:40] Okay, so these are people trying to get people to respond on some sort of a business opportunity offer. And one of my clients came up with tired of living paycheck to paycheck. Question mark. And one more money question mark. OK, so one is negative, one is positive. [00:38:02] And that was a headline there, Mark. The marketing piece that they did wrote a copy underneath it. So he said, well, let's test that. Tired of living paycheck to paycheck versus are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck? And we tested may make more money versus do you want to make more money? All we did is we added some words. And in both cases, those extra words increased results because they better articulated the full concept and therefore inferred the value of what we were doing. Does that does that make sense? Yeah, it does. So wordiness is bad, but clearly articulating the offer is good and it produces more results. [00:38:56] Here's something else you can test. This is real important. Using a photo. Now, in real estate, you always you're always using photos. But the question is, does your photo make an impact, your little stamp sized photo in the corner or full size photo? Maybe if you're doing farming, you do that played a test and you have to do it over period time. But maybe one set of postcards is going to have a full set of full sized photo of you. The other one's going to have a little thumb stamp size photo. Another thing may be family photo you and your family versus not. And here's what happens. A lot of agents say, well, I'm a professional real estate agent. I don't want to get my personal life involved. But here's what happens on the consumer side. The consumer says. I want to trust the person I do business with. Okay? And what we have done and we have been watching this, but we have not done a split test on this at this point. But we've been watching. And what we have found is when we send out postcards that have a personal photo. We tend to start to get more responses from that postcard than others. When I say personal photo, I'm talking about a family photo. [00:40:26] So think about this. You're a homeowner. You're getting postcard mailing from this real estate agent. And they're all very professional. I sold this house. I knew house listed, and it's all about their business. You know nothing about the person. But then you get a postcard and you see their family. See that real estate agent has some little kids. Five, six, eight years old. [00:40:50] They go to the local school. All of a sudden, now that real estate agent becomes a real person, not just a professional does that. And sometimes that real person is all it takes to kind of break through the ice and say, I want to call this person. I can trust. In fact, I was talking to one of our clients out in California. He got a phone call from this agent offering this homeowner who wanted to sell her house. And she said, I'm thinking about selling. I got your postcard a couple of months ago with your family. And I immediately thought, oh, that's a great, sweet family. I can trust this person. Now. Yes, it makes you relatable. Okay, so these are the things that you want to be testing. Okay. So back to the whole idea is how do you do marketing, right. Well, you got to test. Because not everything works. You can't just say, well, I tried pay per click advertising, it doesn't work. I tried postcard mailings and it doesn't work. You got to test it and say what does work? Because it's not the medium, it's the message. And when you test the message is first going to be your offer. [00:42:07] It's going to be obviously in this case is always going to be a positive offer in Mike's case, where we're dealing with investments. We don't know if his positive or negative. So we have to test that. Then once you find the offer, then you test different headlines. Two thirds buying financing on gold and silver versus gold is selling for three hundred dollars an ounce. Give us just one hundred dollars an ounce. We'll buy all the gold you want. Figure out a way to articulate your offer so clearly that it drives more of those prospects into you. And then test things like making it really personal. Put your family photo there. Show picture of you on you doing your normal stuff outside of outside of being a real estate. I remember this kind of inside, but long lines here in town. There is a federal judge named Dave and most people know him as judge. Okay, I won't use his last name, but he's been on the federal bench now for many years. And he's very good. And he wields a lot of power as a federal judge. People come before him and they respect him. [00:43:25] Judge So-and-so, may I have a moment of your time, please? I know him as Dave. He was in our Sunday school class. His kids were friends with our kids. And we grew up around the corner from each other. [00:43:40] And he's just Dave. Okay, so there's two sides to judge, Dave, the professional size side and the personal side. But, you know, on the personal side, I have no problem calling to say I have a friend that's going through some legal challenges. I was wondering if you could just kind of give me some guidance on how this how the process works. And I would never call up a federal judge just out of the blue and do that, I'd be intimidated. Dave is just a friend. And I think as one of the things the test is, do they want to deal with someone who strictly in only a very professional age or do they want to deal with something that they can trust as a friend? These are the things you test. And once you do that, then what happens is a positive versus negative eight hundred percent increase, one offer versus another might be another 10 percent. Another 10 times increase or three times increase. How you write the offer may increase it by another 50 percent. So when you start adding all these things out through your testing, then you have a really well honed system that consistently works. And as we talked about earlier, some of our real estate agents. Their business hasn't missed a beat. And others right now, their business has crumbled. And the difference is one was based on solid principles that the strategy of how to grow business. And the other was a hack. If you simply throw things out there and see if it works, that's a hack. This is helping. [00:45:16] Sure. And I was thinking, too, like on the positive and the negative side. For me personally, for a homeowner, I feel like if I get a message that's more on the negative side, let's say it's, say, a real estate agent that's trying to promote themselves to be a postcard. I feel like it almost gimmicky, if I can even use that word. Positive messages, a lot more appealing to me. And it doesn't feel as much of a gimmick. And I'm sure it's not either way. But there's something about that mental connection with that negative approach that makes it feel like it's a gimmick. [00:45:54] That's that's absolutely true in marketing and copywriting marketing. There is a term, I think they call him Saper words or power words. And what they have found is in different rooms, whether it's a consumer product, a pain relief product, financial product, that they're key words that resonate and drive people to a more sense of urgent action, revolutionary new scientific clinical studies, different things. And so within the realm, even in real estate, you'll find that the word choice you use is going to resonate with the type of response you get. That's part of what you're talking about with a negative versus positive. The response of the negative offer is generating a gimmickry approach. But you can even do a positive offer and it comes across the key word selections that kind of take those emotions. So all of this is fine tuning. It works. And once you find what works. I've got a friend. We put out a podcast recently by a guy named Stuart Sutton. And what was interesting is every time the market tanked, for most people, his business always grew. Every time the reason is he understands marketing. And he has written his own marketing content very specifically with his words, selection is very specific because he's determined what words resonate best and generate the best results. And his postcards and his marketing pieces and his Web sites and stuff look to be immaturely done. But they produce amazing results. So there's a whole science behind there. I hope this is helping our listeners to figure out to take your business to the next level and to protect yourself in downturns like what we've just come through and probably still are in this Crono via stuff. How do you do it? And this is the first step in doing it. [00:48:20] While this has been so great, Beatty, I do think that this has been super beneficial for our listeners and just really, like you said, maximizing their potential to capitalize on business growth and income growth during this time and not missing. I just keep seeing this as an opportunity for them to miss out on what they think could be downfall, but could actually be the opposite, can be a way for them to increase their business. [00:48:49] Yes, exactly. And can I put a plug in? I know I can't because I'm your boss and I control this fire. Right. All right. [00:48:59] The plug unashamedly is marketing is a science, and you can't just be an amateur and do it effectively. So if we have some listeners out there that want to really do something special in marketing in their business, check us out. You can go to Agent Dominator dot com and we will do geographic farming for residential agents. We have another service that is more advanced because we do a different have a different approach market and that's for past clients and sphere of influence. We actually guarantee some tremendous results in marketing to your past clients or sphere of influence, or we'll give your money back if you are in the commercial sector investment property. Okay. So that's going to be multi-family, small retail. Then we also do Legian ratio for generating listings. And we guarantee that result there. And if you're in property management and looking for more doors under management and primarily in the single family home and small multi-family, we do specialty work there as well. So love to serve you guys. Also, if you liked this podcast and you have not subscribe to our podcast channel, please do so. If you listen to your podcasts on your mobile phone, then chances are you have some sort of podcast service, like an Apple podcast or stitcher or something. Then just go in and look up. Get cellar's calling you and just subscribe to it. If you don't do that, you can go to YouTube and just go to our video and subscribe to our YouTube channel. I don't think it's called Get Cellar's calling you the YouTube channels, but not you. Just look up, get cellar's calling you on YouTube and subscribe there. Then that way you never miss an episode. [00:51:07] That's right. All the great ways to stay in touch. Thank you so much for putting your time and effort into this call today. I think we're about out of time for this podcast call. And I do wish all of our listeners tremendous success, Beatty and I both. And that if we can help you in any way, please reach out. And we wish you all a great day and we'll be catching up soon on the next one. [00:51:30] Great. You'll be blessed. Thank you. P065 [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

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Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)   When bad things happen - Part 3 - when evil acts.mp3 Hi, everybody, this is Penny Thomas again, and welcome to this next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael. Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber, creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm excited for our listeners today. I'm excited to be chatting with you. What do you have for us today?   [00:00:24] Well, I'm really excited about today's call for two reasons. Number one, we get to do another radical faith call. And so for those of you who may just be joining in on our podcast, if you're joining in for real estate marketing, this is not going to be one of those episodes. This is where we're going to be talking about living as a Christian. And so if you don't want that, go and get this episode and go to the next one. So that's number one reason I'm excited as we get to do a radical faith call. The second reason I'm excited is as I was preparing for this call, it dawned on me that the conclusions that the scriptures talk about that we're going to talk about today are opposite of what most people expect. And so it's kind of like one of those. Wow. Is that really in scripture? So this is going to be a really exciting call.   [00:01:18] I cannot wait to dive into this.   [00:01:21] Yes. Me, too. So as we dive in, kind of alluding to that last comment I made. We're talking about when bad things happen. Is it God's will? Okay. And this is actually part three of our series. And today the subtitle is When Evil Acts. Okay. So in the past, if you recall the previous sessions, our first session, we talked about that God directs our every step. And so when bad things happen, sometimes it's God's will directing us toward our destiny. That's I actually put the second call was about as we talked about the life of Joshua. Excuse me, Joseph in the life of Esther and how the bad things that seemingly were bad were actually all furthering God's ultimate destiny for the will of their lives. So sometimes when bad things happen, it's actually good. Sometimes you have to back up and see it. And once you have a bigger, bigger perspective today, I want to talk on the topic of when evil comes in. By the way. Are you aware that there is evil in the world?   [00:02:38] Yes. Is evil good? No, no.   [00:02:44] So we have to include this when bad things happen because there is evil. And as I mentioned just a moment ago when I started preparing for this, I had kind of a conclusion that I thought was the right conclusion. But I tried to support everything through scripture. And when I started researching it, I found out I was wrong. So I kind of took a huge U-turn on this topic for today. And it's just really exciting. So let me set the stage. Okay. So when bad things happen, there's essentially four things that could be going on. This is what we were talking about earlier. It could be God's destiny for you, moving you toward your ultimate place. And that's the case. All those bad things ultimately are a good thing. Or it could be God's discipline. God's discipline is when you do something wrong and he comes involved to correct you. It says that he corrects every child. So things that could be bad or could be parts of discipline. The third thing that could be going on is, is we talked about through scripture that God directs our every step. But we have the ability to disregard his direction and stumble. This is what Psalms talks about. And when we do that, then sometimes these bad things are simply a consequence of us making our own decision rather than following God's leading. Does that make sense?   [00:04:09] It does. Okay. And then the fourth thing, and this is what we're going to be talking about today is evil when evil comes in and actually impacts our life. But here's what's really interesting.   [00:04:20] If you take these four things, destiny, discipline, consequence and evil, it's it's basically gradient of how closely were aligned to God's will. The more we're aligned to God's perfect will, the more everything is destiny, the less we are aligned to God's perfect will, the more everything becomes evil. Does that make sense? As we talk about evil in my church, I often hear and I'm going to use this term and I use it not critically, but kind of just descriptively, God being accused of being. The source of every bad thing, they don't really believe it, but they do believe and let me see. Let me share this. Here's the idea. This is kind of how it comes out. The idea is because God is sovereign, God is in control and because God is in control, all things that happen must be his will. Does that logic make sense? No, that's not what we've we've accomplished through scripture. But does that make sense how people can come to that conclusion?   [00:05:26] Absolutely. And so therefore, here so here is the implication of that conclusion. I'm sick and suffering. It must be God's will. Have you ever heard someone say that? Okay. Or if a loved one dies, gets killed in a car accident at an early age, well, it must be God's will.   [00:05:48] And then if it must be if it's God's will, then maybe God's trying to teach me something. Does that you'd say that logical string. Okay. So God's word says that man's wisdom is folly to God. Right. And so what happens is we try to put our wisdom into this and it's all folly and we come to wrong conclusions. There's an element of truth, but there's more of an element of truth here. And I wanted to see if I can back up in scripture. What's actually going on. So let me ask you a few questions. A real story. The cousin of a family friend is a 23 year old young woman. She's, uh, she's actually the only Christian in her family. She was recently in a car wreck and those injuries were fatal. But they were able to keep her alive on life, support the hospital until their sister could arrive and say her final goodbyes. And then they pulled the plug and she died.   [00:06:48] So here's the question. Did God cause her to have that wreck and die? What do you think? No. I don't think so. Was it God's will for her to die young?   [00:07:01] No. Is that accent somehow part of God's master plan for her life?   [00:07:13] Yes, and now it could be. So right now, here's kind of where we sit. We don't really have enough information to come to an absolute conclusion. Does that make sense? Yes. But it appears from all that we know about God and from Scripture that generally speaking it doesn't sound like this is what God's plan was.   [00:07:37] I would agree with that. Generally speaking, everything I want to talk about today is kind of. Generally speaking, because there are some very clear absolutes in the Bible where we're now treading, it's going to be not quite so absolute. Okay. So let me give you another real story. A woman had a very important meeting in downtown New York, and it was critical that she be there on time for her career. But she wasn't for whatever reason, she got to the train station late and missed the train.   [00:08:14] Now she's late. She misses the meeting completely. She's fuming inside because she's so upset and frustrated and stretched out. She's concerned that she may actually lose her job and ultimately by her job was actually gone. So the question is, did God cause her to miss that train and this meeting?   [00:08:39] Was that bad? Yes.   [00:08:44] Okay. You're laughing, you know, I'm probably setting you up. Okay. So we really don't know at the moment.   [00:08:56] Is it really good or bad because we can't discern it. But let me give you the rest of the story.   [00:09:05] She ends up going back home. Her meeting was in the World Trade Towers, and that was the day the towers fell.   [00:09:13] Now, let me ask, was missing the train good or bad? Do you think it could have been guided by God's hand that she missed it? Absolutely. OK. So now this is kind of what we talked about on the last session. Once you have a further enough away perspective of everything, you can start to piece things together. But in the midst of it all. Sometimes we just don't know. Does that make sense?   [00:09:39] Yeah. Okay. So now here's a bigger question. Was the crash of the World Trade Towers and the huge loss of lives. God's will? In other words, did he cause it to happen or did evil cause it to happen?   [00:09:56] Yeah, I think so. I want to talk about how that happens and also partly how do we discern it. There's another story I want to share. This actually happened very recently. I was talking with a Christian lady named Joanna and she's been suffering from depression all of her life. And sometime this cloud, that's her entire life, there's a cloud hanging over there. Sometimes it has a crippling effect in her life.   [00:10:28] Is that God's will for her to have depression? No. Do you think God somehow is the cause behind that depression? In other words, he is God. Do you think God authorizes that depression upon her? No. Okay, so here's the issue. If you're going through really tough times, how do you handle it? How do you make sense of it?   [00:10:53] Do you blame God, accused God or attribute to God? Well, it must be God's will. Do you ask God? Why do you even know what's really going on? Because so often in our little perspective, we just don't know. There's a lot more at play, and the more you understand what's likely going on, then the better you can manage these things in your life. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. So today I want to give you that better understanding of what is going on. My little disclaimer on this, this is a really complex subject. I don't claim to have all the solid answers, but I want to give you what I see in scripture and kind of my interpretation of that. So take this for what I'll call not for what it's worth, but for what I think. Scriptures generally teach us.   [00:11:51] So there's a passage in the Gospels that we call the Lord's Prayer. Are you familiar with the Lord's Prayer? Okay. So let me ask you a question. If God is sovereign and in control, is everything that happens God's will now cut you on this one, the first set on our first session. So what do you think the answer to that is?   [00:12:20] No, I don't know.   [00:12:23] But some of my conservative friends who use the logic God is in control. God, a sovereign God is in control. He's all powerful and therefore everything that happens must be his will. Otherwise he would have stopped it. If it was his will. So our logic. Okay. So if that is, where are some of our friends who are listening in on right now? I want to show you just one very simple verse that creates some very complicated questions about that logic.   [00:12:53] Turn, if you would, to Matthew 6 9 3 13. This is the Lord's Prayer and let's use the living version on this is just kind of cleans and makes it simple. So Matthew, 6 9 through 13, the Lord's Prayer. Go ahead. Okay.   [00:13:13] All right. This, then, is how you should pray. Our father in heaven hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debt, as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.   [00:13:36] Okay, so this is Jesus basically giving some nation prayer. Here's how you should pray. These are the things you should be praying for, and all these are real important and they basically encompass what's important in life. As a believer, before I get into what I want to comment on this one, I was going through this. I remember some what I call my Lord's Prayer funny's 3 year old Reese, the way he prays.   [00:14:01] Our father, who does art in heaven, Herald is his name or a particular four year old, prays it this way and forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets and forgive us our trespasses. Right.   [00:14:22] This is from a mother teaching her 3 year old daughter, Caitlin. The Lord's Prayer. First, she says for several evenings at bedtime, she would repeat after me the lines of the prayer. Finally, she decided to go solo all by herself. And the mother says, listen with pride. She said each word right up to the end of the prayer lead us not into temptation. She prayed. But deliver us some e-mail. I share that to make a point. It's funny sometimes when the children misunderstand the Lord's Prayer, but how often do we misunderstand it?   [00:15:05] You say that this makes sense. For example, if everything that happens on earth is God's will. Then why does Jesus tell us to pray for God's will to be done on Earth as it is in heaven unless it's not always done on Earth? Does that make sense? Yeah. So we have this challenge. So let's now move into the real me to what I want to get into. I want to talk about calamity when bad things happen. Calamity. Question Does God cause calamity in people's lives? No. Does God send the evil spirits to attack people and cause in their lives? Okay. Now let's turn real quickly to Jobe. And we're going to read Jobe One Twelve.   [00:16:05] And in chapter 2, 3 through 6, chapter 1, verse 12, Chapter 2, 3, 3, 6. All right, so one verse twelve, then the Lord said to say to be before you, let me just give the background for those who may not be okay. So this actually Jobe is most scholars believe is the oldest book in the Bible thar pre-dating Abraham. And if you're familiar with J-O-B toward the end, God is talking to Jobin says. Ask him all these questions showing God's sovereignty and superiority. And he talks about an animal called Leviathan. And he says This animal's so powerful that a spear can't pierce it skills and it breathes out fire and smoke.   [00:17:02] So this is an animal that we've never experienced in our life and we don't see it anywhere in scripture.   [00:17:09] So this is a it's a real old book. And what's happening at this scenario that we're just about to read is God is in his court room in heaven, and Satan comes up. God says, where have you been? He said, I've been roaming around the earth. Very vague, almost like a teenage son. Where are you, Ben? I've just been out. What've you been doing with friends? And then God says, Have you considered my friend Jobe?   [00:17:41] And Satan says, Oh, he just loves you because you bless him. Let me touch him and he'll curse you. OK. So that's kind of where we pick up. Pick up now on verse 12.   [00:17:55] The Lord said to Satan. Very well, then. Everything he has in your power. But on the man himself, do not lay a finger. Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.   [00:18:08] All right, then go to job to verse three and six. And as you go there. So what's happened now is Satan goes out and destroys everything that Joe has, kills all of his children and destroys all of his business.   [00:18:24] And now everything he's got is totally gone. And now we pick up in verse three of chapter two.   [00:18:34] Then the lord said to Satan. Have you considered my servant job? There is no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity. Then you incited me again to ruin him without any reason. Skin for skin. Satan replied, a man will give all he has for his own life. But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face. The Lord said to Satan. Very well, then, he is in your hands. But you must not. Sorry, but you must spare his life.   [00:19:12] Let me ask you a question. Did God send an evil spirit to attack J-O-B?   [00:19:23] This scripture.   [00:19:25] Yes. Boy, that's not what we expected, is it? Does that sound like a loving God?   [00:19:37] Scripture.   [00:19:40] Did God have any reason to do it? It says, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason. Does this seem like almost an arbitrary act?   [00:19:56] Do you think this is a different view of God than most people have? Yes. Yes.   [00:20:03] Does this one, I might add, if people if this is someone's only view of God. I can see how they would not want anything to do with God.   [00:20:15] You know what? If someone's only view of me is one little part of who I am and they don't know me as a whole. I can always find some part of me that someone would be detested about. Yes. So this is the purpose of what I want to do today. A lot of times we have wrong conclusions based on who we want God to be and what we want things to be. Everything must be God's will because God is sovereign and powerful and controlling. If it wasn't his will, he could have intervened. And the fact that he didn't intervene must mean that it was his will.   [00:20:54] That's the logical conclusion. The logical conclusion about God. God is a loving God. He would never hurt someone. Would he send calamity on someone? Absolutely not. He you sent an evil spirit upon someone? Absolutely not.   [00:21:04] And yet, right here in scripture, we see it happening right in front of our eyes. And if we're going to truly follow the Lord and make sense of things, we have to understand all aspects. Okay. So now let me ask you. What good could possibly have come out of God allowing Satan to attack? What good could possibly come out of that?   [00:21:37] Wow. A lot of spiritual maturity and growth and jobe. All right. What else? Mitt increased faith in Joe and just the fact that he would have to really. Rely on the Lord to take care of.   [00:21:57] All right. Those are all possible, but I think they're missing what I think is the biggest impact. What do you think the biggest impact might be?   [00:22:07] Tell me. It has nothing to do with Jobe individually. Can you imagine how many millions and billions of people have been impacted to trust the Lord and learn more about the and large character by reading about what happened and imagine the impact? Could it be that what God did with Joe was not for Joe's sake, but for God's holy purpose to use to impact millennia of followers of the Lord Jesus?   [00:22:41] So sometimes we have to get further far enough back in perspective to see what's going on. Sometimes we will never understand it. But I think we could come to that conclusion. All right. So God doesn't cause calamity and he doesn't send evil spirits to attack people is what I think I heard you say earlier. And I think we're starting to see that what most people believe about God may not be quite so accurate, but this is just one instance, one one instance. Maybe that's not really God's character. So let's turn to Isaiah, 45, verse 7.   [00:23:21] Love the book of Isaiah forty five seven. I formed the light and create darkness. I bring prosperity and create disaster. I, the Lord, do all these things.   [00:23:39] Read it also in the E.S.P. Version.   [00:23:43] Forwhich.   [00:23:49] All right. Verse 7 I form the light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things.   [00:24:01] This God bring calamity on people.   [00:24:03] According to that verse, yes, he did it to.   [00:24:07] According to this verse. God's trying to tell us something maybe about part of his character. All right. Now, the amplified in the notes, it makes a really great clarity and comment. And here's what the note says. It says, God brings physical calamity or physical evil, but moral evil comes from man's heart, not God. I think that's a good differentiation to discern. But gosh, surely that's all.   [00:24:43] But wait, there's more. Let's turn to Limitations Lamentations, Chapter 3.   [00:24:51] And if you read this one in i.v versus 37 3:39 Lamentations 3:37 3:39.   [00:25:04] All right. Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the most high that both calamities and good things come?   [00:25:18] Keep on one more.   [00:25:19] Why should a living why should the living complain when punished for their sins?   [00:25:25] So say that God brings calamity. Sure. Why does God bring calamity? What does this say in this section?   [00:25:41] I'm going to reread it. Who can speak and have it happen if a Lord has not decreed it? It not from the mouth of the most high, those calamities and good things have come. Why should they complain when punished for their sins? Well, according to verse 37, the Lord decreed it.   [00:26:00] According to verse thirty nine to see decree it.   [00:26:06] Because they're being punished for our sins.   [00:26:10] So now we have something to do with sin. And when sin happens, there's a decree that could go out that brings calamity of some form. Does that make sense? But wait, hold on. We're forgiven for our sins, right?   [00:26:29] That's right. I was just thinking of it now. Praise Jesus.   [00:26:34] Okay. So we've been forgiven of our sins. Remember a few sessions back we talked about no longer under law, but under grace.   [00:26:43] Does that mean we're no longer under consequence for sin? No. Okay. So we find that calamity.   [00:26:53] And I'll put the word sometimes has root and sin. Okay. The calamity for Jobe was not based on sin. So this is why I'm saying this is really complex. It's not a black and white. Here's a simple answer. We got to understand the bigger picture of all the things going on at play. And the more we understand, the more we see this picture of who God is. And by the way, we haven't even begun to get into the depth that we're about to get deeper. So let's. But wait, there's more. Let's go first, Samuel. Let's see if we can blow our minds even more. First, Samuel, sixteen vs. fourteen. Do this and they give you a background. Okay. God calls Saul to be king of Israel. The first king. And so becomes king and Sol starts to disobey God, and essentially that's kind of where we pick up here.   [00:27:53] All right, verse 14. Now, the spirit of the Lord had departed from soul and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him, a tormenting spirit.   [00:28:08] The Lord, the Lord God that we know of or the way the God that we have thought about now.   [00:28:17] No.   [00:28:18] Is it right? And holy that a holy God would send an evil spirit against somebody.   [00:28:30] Now, it's not according to this, he did it.   [00:28:36] It doesn't seem like it's right. Let me say it's not. It doesn't seem like it's right from the human standard. But here's the impact.   [00:28:47] If we form a picture of God, that is not true based on our own human logic and desire, could it be that we end up not honoring the Lord as much as he wants? Could it be that we end up missing out on a lot of things the Lord has for us because we have a wrong view of God?   [00:29:10] Absolutely.   [00:29:13] So is this.   [00:29:15] Hyper warping your view of God and changing it is just starting to rain is just going in a million different things. All right.   [00:29:27] That way we're not through yet. Oh, it's gone. You think this is change is warping. Wait till we get to a couple more verses. Okay. So now let's go to First Kings. Twenty to. Versus 23 22. So let me give you the backstory on this. Saul was king.   [00:29:52] Then David took over. Then David's son Solomon and then his son Oboma. Belmondo Kingdom was split between Judah and Israel, and Israel was the king was jeroboam and jeroboam was an evil king. And I think right after jeroboam or one or two, right after is another king named Ahab. And Ahab is the most wicked king, according to scripture, by that time in Israel. And so now we pick up Ahab has made an alliance with not forget the King of Judas name, but the king of Judah, who is a righteous king, makes an alliance with Ahab, the unrighteous king. And Ahab wants to go into battle with Ramus, Gilliard and Ramus chiliad, or battle with the enemy at Ramus. And so they are the king of Judah says, well, let's check with the Lord first before we do this. And so all of these prophets of Ahab start telling him, you're going to have victory, you're going to gouge them, you're going to win.   [00:31:13] And then a prophet of the Lord by Judas request comes in and gives a contrary message that says, if you go to this battle, Ahab, you will die. And then one of the prophets of Ahab's says, know what happened? When did God Spirit leave me and go to you?   [00:31:39] And that's basically the scenario where we are right now. And this is the prophet of the Lord relaying what actually happened in the heavenly, heavenly realm. So now with that as a backdrop, I'll let you begin. First Kings 22, starting with verse 20.   [00:31:57] And the Lord said, who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramus chiliad and going to his death there. One suggested this and another that finally a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord and said, I will entice him. By what means? The Lord asked. I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. He said, You will succeed in enticing him, said the Lord. Go and do it.   [00:32:31] Told me that she is deceiving and lying. The same thing.   [00:32:39] Generally speaking, no, I mean, they're right on the line, right on line.   [00:32:46] Okay. Okay. So my translation says I will be a lying spearritt in the mouth of this profits, a dissaving spirit, a lion spirit. But here's the point where I'm going. One of the Ten Commandments says thou shall not lie.   [00:33:04] Is God sending a lying or deceiving spirit?   [00:33:11] To a Hartington, there is a lying or deceiving spirit.   [00:33:17] Evil God is actually sending an evil spirit to attack someone. According to the scripture, to mislead. According to the scripture. Sounds like you are trying to disqualify your answer. Every single one of these scriptures is true and infallible. Is that correct? Yes, absolutely. So then, is God sending an evil spirit against somebody? Yes or no? Okay. Okay. Let's don't try to be equivocate. Alright. Well let's don't try to explain it away. Let's read it for what it is, what God is telling us and then let's understand what he's actually doing. Makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. So God is about to bring calamity upon Ahab, is that right? God is directing it. Because he's sending a deceiving spirit to see they have Ahab will go to the battle. So God can kill him. Is that guy bringing calamity on someone? Yes. That's amazing. Not only is God bringing calamity, but he's sending an evil spirit to cause it to happen.   [00:34:40] Wow. Let's look at another first. We still haven't gotten to the big one. We're about to hit the big one. These are just kind of teeing it all up. So Psalm 44, do this one in the living Bible.   [00:34:54] We're going to go to Psalm 44. We're going to read two sections, Psalm 44, eight, nine and 10, and then jump over to 17 and 18. Eight, nine, 10, 17 and 18.   [00:35:11] My constant boast is, God, I can never thank you enough and yet for a time. Oh, Lord, you have tossed us aside in dishonor and have not helped us in our battles. You have actually fought against us and defeated us before our foes. Our enemies have invaded our land and pillaged the countryside and then 17 and 18. And all this has happened. Lord, despite our loyalty to you, we have not violated your covenant. Our hearts have not deserted you. We have not left your path by a single step.   [00:35:50] Why did God bring calamity upon his people? Does it sound like he was cruel and harsh? They didn't do anything to deserve it. Was there any reason they knew of. On why he did it? No. Kind of sounds like a joke to a degree, doesn't it?   [00:36:09] It does.   [00:36:12] Now, here's the big question. Could there be a reason that they don't know of? Absolutely. So now we're starting to get into. We don't know everything. There's a lot more to the law than what we understand. So now let's get into the big one. This is just setting the stage and I'm hoping we can get all this done in one session. It may end up having to go. Let's go to let's go to Matthew. Matthew, 18. Versus 21 3:35.   [00:36:57] Now, this is a real interesting story. Read the first verse or so about. Peter, one of the apostles asking about forgiveness. I just want to make a comment before you get into the parable.   [00:37:12] Verse twenty one. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked Lord, How many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who stands against me up to seven times?   [00:37:23] Don't you think Peter was just. He was being so proud. We're going to forgive my brother sister up to seven times. That's a lot. I'm holy. We're up to seven times. That's a lot of time to forgive. Okay. Now here we have man's logic doesn't really match God's truth. So let's now read what Jesus says. 22 through 35, 35.   [00:37:57] Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times, but seventy seven times. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his bets as he began the settlement. A man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay. The master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had sold to repay the debt. This the servants fell on his knees before him. Be patient with me, he begged. I will pay back everything. The servants master took pity on him. Cancel the debt and let him go. But when the servant went out, he found one of his one of his fellow servants who owed him one hundred silver coins. He grabbed him, and they began to choke him. Pay back what you owed me! He demanded. His fellow servants fell to his knees and begged him, Be patient with me, and I will pay you back. But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged, and they went and told their master everything that had happened. Master, right there.   [00:39:12] Right there. Let me let me give you the short scenario. Just put some things in perspective. The king goes to his servant, number one servant. No one owes him in today's dollar about sixteen billion dollars. That's an amount. When it says ten thousand bags of gold or ten thousand talents. Ten thousand was the largest number that they had in the Roman counting system. This is Jesus saying he owed the absolute most anyone could ever, ever own. So in today's dollars, it works out to about 16 billion. The guy says, I can't pay. The king, says Romans. Throw you into prison. The guy says, please have mercy on me. So the king says, OK, have mercy on you and I forgive you. So then servant number one goes his servant. Number two, who owes him about ten thousand dollars?   [00:40:06] Pay me. I can't. So he throws him into prison. So that's the magnitude that we're looking at. OK. And now let's finish up with versus 34 and 35.   [00:40:19] Okay, let's say I think I was I am 32 in all this. Yeah. Perfect. Then the master called the servant and you wicked servant. He said, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant? Just as I had on you in his anger, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all that he owed. This is how my Heavenly Father will treat you. Each of you, unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.   [00:40:56] How is Heavenly Father going to treat us? What does it say? Wow.   [00:41:04] We will be handed over to be tortured.   [00:41:09] Does that really sound like what it sounds like?   [00:41:13] That's what it says.   [00:41:15] All right. Now, there's another thing that Jesus talks about forgiveness. Let's turn there real quick. Matthew, 6, 14 and fifteen. And let's see if we can maybe connect some dots. Matthew 6, 14 and 15 4.   [00:41:31] If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins.   [00:41:43] What does this mean, do you think? This is talking about salvation. Going to heaven or hell? Or do you think it could be talking about something different?   [00:41:54] I think it's probably talking about.   [00:41:58] Something different. I think it's just talking about forgiveness.   [00:42:01] All right. But if it says it to, my father will not forgive you. What's the implication of that? Well, then we have. Then turn real quickly to Ephesians 2 8 and read effusions to a.   [00:42:21] Psm. Some dots for us real quickly. The parable of the master of my heavenly father do to you. Take you and send you to the torturers unless you forgive your brother. Then in Matthew 6 here, it says if you do not forgive others, your father in heaven will not forgive you. We know that salvation is through the forgiveness a sin. So we make this connection that this must be talking about. Probably something related to salvation or going to hell. Does it those dots make sense?   [00:42:58] Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So now let's read evasions to wait for it is by grace.   [00:43:04] You have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourself. It is a gift of God.   [00:43:13] Not as. Or maybe the first time. Keep going.   [00:43:17] Not by words, not by words so that no one can boast.   [00:43:23] So it is a gift of God. There is nothing we have to do for it. Is that correct?   [00:43:29] Hmm.   [00:43:30] Not by forgiving somebody b something we do.   [00:43:38] So if we don't forgive and our father doesn't forgive us.   [00:43:44] Could that really be talking about losing salvation or based on this passage and others by grace, through faith, believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved. Whoever believes on the sun will have everlasting life. All these things talk about believe, not forgiveness.   [00:44:08] So is it safe to say that this passage of the parable about forgiveness and torturing is not talking about salvation?   [00:44:21] Yes. Okay. Did you say scripturally why that's true? Yes. Yes. Okay. So then let's see who is she's talking about. Obviously, he's talking to the non-believer about God torturing them. Right.   [00:44:40] So go back to Matthew, 18, verse 21.   [00:44:46] Who was asking the question to Jesus?   [00:44:52] Peter Right.   [00:44:54] Peter Then Peter came to Jesus and asked Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sends against me up to seven times?   [00:45:03] Okay, then read Matthew 1835.   [00:45:10] This is how my heavenly father will treat you. We'll treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.   [00:45:17] So is he talking to the non-believers or is he talking essentially to the believers, his disciples?   [00:45:23] His disciples, the believers.   [00:45:26] Wow. Does this sound like a loving God to want to send someone to the torturers?   [00:45:33] No.   [00:45:35] Does this change your thinking of who God is? Does this expand your thinking? Got it. Okay, okay. Okay. So we got a problem, don't we? Mm hmm. So let's let's ask a few more questions. Who authorizes the act of torturing and that parable? The master, the master and the master is a parable representing God. Would you agree? I do, yes. God is authorizing that torturing. Who does the act of torturing? Does the King or one of his servants do it? The jailer's, one of those are one of the servants. Okay, so now try to picture that gaoler in your mind, this guy who tortures people. First off, do you think this guy who tortures people? Likes inflicting pain on someone.   [00:46:38] I mean, it's his job. He's gotta like it a little bit.   [00:46:43] Yeah, okay.   [00:46:44] Try to picture an image of that torture in your mind. Now, do you come up with someone who's handsome, debonair, sort of a princely young man who would grace the social circles of the king? No.   [00:46:58] Or do you maybe come up with some evil, hideous looking type of beast of a man and some sort of dark dungeon that just takes pleasure in exacting pain in people's lives? Yes. So from what you know about God's kingdom, the spiritual being, do you think would more likely play that role of the torturing trailer, an evil bear?   [00:47:24] Oh, the same thing we've been reading about in all these other passages. Is that what you're telling me? Oh, wow. Okay.   [00:47:34] So an evil spirit is actually there. What I see what you did there. Do you think that evil spirit is a friend of God?   [00:47:49] Might be. Do you think that gaoler is a friend of the king? Yes, you do.   [00:47:56] In a social circle, oh, well, not in the social circle. I just met him. He knows that and has a relationship with them over.   [00:48:06] Let's clarify friend versus servant. Do you think that gaoler is a friend of the king or simply a servant of the king? Servant? Do you think that evil spirit is a friend of God or simply a servant of God? Servant? Was he created by God? Yes.   [00:48:28] Is he being used by God as part of His Holiness and righteousness and all those other attributes that God has about him?   [00:48:38] Okay, so now we're starting to see a different side of God that most of those probably turn our eyes from, because we can't comprehend a God that does this. But God has made it very, very clear multiple times. And these aren't the only times there are others. But he makes it very clear that this is kind of what things are set up. Okay, so here's what's going on. Jesus is saying that we're going to be given over to the torturers if we don't forgive our brother. These tortures are most likely these evil spirits, as you mentioned, and their whole purpose is to torment us. Okay, now keep in mind we're talking about when bad things happen. Is it God's will? How do you how do you handle evil in the world? Okay, so we're now starting to move that direction a little bit more. Let me ask you a question. Do you recall any other places in the Bible where God gives people over to evil spirits?   [00:49:50] We just write a whole bunch of it more. Okay, so here's the question is being tormented good or bad?   [00:50:00] Not a trick question. Good. You think so?   [00:50:06] Yes. Because it's bringing about the end. Result that God's looking for him.   [00:50:13] So if someone dies a premature death. Is that what God is looking for?   [00:50:24] Maybe not by someone.   [00:50:27] If someone commits adultery against his wife, is that what God's looking for?   [00:50:32] The act? No. Then being tormented. Good or bad?   [00:50:42] Do you want to be tormented?   [00:50:44] I do not. It's okay. But going back to what you said. Did I say the big picture? What does it bring?   [00:50:58] It's all it's all part of God's holiness and righteousness.   [00:51:02] But that doesn't mean it has to be good, because evil is not good. Evil is bad. But here's a big question. Is a tormenting spirit authorized by God?   [00:51:21] According to these scriptures, yes.   [00:51:23] Okay, so now we have this really big challenge. Evil is bad. But it's authorized by God. How can a loving good God authorize evil?   [00:51:41] I don't have a great answer for that, by the way, but that's a question that we ponder on. So let's go in and ask a few more questions.   [00:51:51] So Peter originally thought if he only forgave his brother seven times, he's doing something really, really great. Would you agree? If he had done that, is it possible that he could have incurred a tormenting spirit without even knowing why?   [00:52:09] Possible. Is it possible that if bad things happen to us? We could actually be incurring some sort of a tormenting or evil spirit of some sort. That's been authorized by God. For violating some law that we may not clearly understand. Yes. Is God to blame if we do that? No. OK. So now we're starting to get greater clarity. This kind of making sense of where I'm going now. Okay.   [00:52:44] So God set up the rules. We don't understand them.   [00:52:52] But blaming God is saying, hey, God, I'm innocent. There's no reason I should be going through this. Right. And if he set up the rules and we broke them. Who's to blame? We are.   [00:53:07] Does it matter if we know that those rules exist or not?   [00:53:13] No, it doesn't really matter now. Romans I Romans 1 tells us that they're already written in our hearts. So we know them, but we don't. We can't clearly articulate like you're driving 70 miles an hour. You hit a speed zone. You don't even know it. The speed limit sign is down or behind a bush. It says 45 miles an hour. You'll still get a ticket even though you don't realize that you're doing wrong. Right. So then does that mean that everything that bad, everything that happens that's bad is our fault?   [00:53:53] Is it our fault? Is it always because we violated something? I'm extrapolating at this point I'm kind of going to the point of saying this parable that Jesus did. Can you extrapolate this into all things?   [00:54:10] I don't think you can. This is one of those things. I don't think you can. Let's go back real quickly. The Lord's Prayer. You don't have to go back to. I just want to repeat one part of it. The Lord's Prayer is kind of a summation of things. Right. And that we are the high level things to be praying for. One of those is Lord forgive us for our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. And there's something really important about forgiveness. It's in the Lord's Prayer. It's in this parable. Jesus talks about tormenting. If you don't forgive, my father will authorize tormenting against you torture. And I won't share this quick story to show you how this starts to illustrate and come out in our lives. I remember listening to this guy who was ministering to someone. He's praying for healing. The man that he's praying for has really bad back pain and he prays for healing. Nothing happens in this guy's name is Todd. And usually when he prays a lot of time, most of the times people are getting healed. And then the Lord gives Todd what's called a word of knowledge. Okay. Supernatural knowledge of what's going on. And the word of knowledge was the man has bitterness against his mother, unforgiveness for his mother. So Todd asked the guy, hey, tell me about your relationship with your mother. And the guy responds immediately, why do you ask that? I hope she dies and writes in hell. I mean, really horrible. So Todd starts working with him, leads him to Christ essentially, or at least leads him to forgiveness of his mother. And then top price for his back and he's instantly hill. Could it be that there is unforgiveness in our lives that's causing some sort of a tormenting spirit that causes bad things and we don't even realize it because we didn't forgive someone over here, we did something over on this other spot, some violation of God's law. But the implication of that law is it opens the door to. For evil to somehow come, come in and impact our lives. Does that make any sense, what I'm asking?   [00:56:40] Yes, absolutely.   [00:56:42] All right. If we look at how people are tormented and wanting to get off of tormenting, but I'm just using this and using it as an example, because what I find is God works in patterns. The pattern articulate in this parable about tormenting is a similar pattern that works in other areas in how God works and where I know we're at an hour and we're going keep on going because I'm wrapping up and there's no good, good place to stop. So this is going to be a longer call than normal. But let me pause real quickly. Is this exciting stuff so far?   [00:57:18] Yes, absolutely.   [00:57:20] Is it blowing your mind?   [00:57:22] It is a solid ending.   [00:57:25] It's expanding my thought process and I get it.   [00:57:32] So think about the ways people are tormented in life. In other words, if we receive a tormenting spirit because we have unknowingly or knowingly violated some spiritual law that God, God's holiness and righteousness.   [00:57:54] What does that look like? I'd like to suggest mental anguish can be part of it. Stress and anxiety. Depression. Health issues. Our dreams and aspirations falling apart. Say, Jesus says that the enemy, by the way. Would you agree that tormenting spirits are the enemy? What does the enemy's purpose and goal in our lives?   [00:58:28] Do you remember what Jesus says to say the enemy comes to destroy, to steal and to kill?   [00:58:42] To kill? Come sit still. Kill, steal, kill and destroy. Do you think those could be acts of torturing? Yes. Okay, let's start wrapping this up so the Lord created everything that's been created. Would you agree with that? Yes. Are Satan. Demonic spirits, evil spirits and evil as a whole. Are all those part of God's creation? Yes.   [00:59:14] But they weren't created as Satan and the ones that wasn't created that way. Granted, but we don't. So this is one of those mysteries we don't understand, but we do understand everything that's been created. Somehow God created it. If evil exists, somehow it's part of the creation. We can't comprehend it. It makes no sense. We have no framework or fabric to put it together. No grid. But we understand that all things were created by God. And that includes evil. And we don't understand it. Okay. I've got some ideas, but they're only opinions. I won't go there. Not everything that is evil is good. But evil exists in some mysterious way as an act of God's will. Because it's been created and everything of evil is there for a purpose. We don't understand it. But if God created it, it's got to be for some purpose. All of this kind of connecting, making sense.   [01:00:31] A lot of questions I don't have answers to. This is where I'm saying my disclaimer. Okay. So then you have God is sovereign over all of creation.   [01:00:42] And just as the torturer in the parable with the king is not a friend of the king. Evil is not a friend of the Lord's. But just like the king used the torturer as part of how he governed his kingdom. God uses evil as part of how he governs his kingdom. Understanding the existence of it and understanding the reason behind it are two different things. I'm just right now clarifying the existence of this done mean I had the answers as to why, but we have to come to the conclusion it exists for a purpose because it was created then and this is where this starts to get even more complex. This whole issue is multidimensional. It's very complex. There's not one simple, easy answer to it. But here's the big picture of everything. Just kind of give us the big picture view. God created some sort of a legal hierarchy, an organizational structure in the spirit world. This is powers and rulers and authorities and Dominion's, which are not speaking about evil structure. God created the structure and an evil always copies what God does and then tries to subvert it. So all of this legal hierarchy that we see in Ephesians and the structure God created, it's much more complex in the heavenly rule than anything in the earthly Rome. And all of heaven is operated by laws and covenants and ordinances.   [01:02:28] Does that make sense so far? This is why the name of Jesus is powerful, because it's a legal authority. Everything is governed by that spirit. The demons, these fallen angels are all subject into this hierarchy of organizational legal structure that God has in place. And within that structure, evil has a legal authority to operate. This is what we're experiencing. It has a legal. This is what we've read in all of these things. They have a legal authority to operate. Satan had a legal authority to operate against Jobe, but only by God's authority. When God withdrew the authority, Satan cannot attack. This is what we see with the parable that we just went through, the Jesus and the torturer. There is a legal authority to act. So we see that is legal authority. That legal authority is either God decreeing a thing. One the passage we said nothing happens except by the decree of God. So either God decrees blessings or calamities or what I call on autopilot because it's part of God's spiritual laws. And when a law is violated, then there's a subsequent consequence that's already predetermined. That kind of making sense. Okay. So this is the kind of things that we're we're involved with when bad things happen. We've got to look at this at this higher level structure.   [01:04:02] We don't understand the laws. We do understand their existence. And probably an easy way to explain this because we see this all the time, but we don't really understand it. Imagine you're sitting in a room and there is a window on your right hand side and there is a wall on your left. You're reading a book and out of the corner of the eye, you see a shadow go against that wall instantly.   [01:04:25] You know, something went by the window. Would you agree? But you don't know what. It's a shadow of something that passed by. You recognize the existence of something there because there's a shadow that moved and when we look at our lives and we see and we look at all these things going on, what they show is a shadow of the spirit realm, the shadow of these laws we can't make. There's not a whole lot of concreteness to it for us. We can't write it down. We don't really know what it is. It's shadows. We see it in existence and displayed throughout scripture. We see the shadows displayed in our fiscal lives. But none of it is clear. We just know it's there making sense. And so this is why we say God authorizing saying to touch sending a tormenting spirit upon Saul and all these other things. There's something there. And so I want to give one other interesting thing, because it kind of ties up. And I want to be real sensitive on this because I don't want to freak you or any of our listeners out. But this whole realm of the spirit realm is real. This whole idea of evil spirits is real. Absolutely. Jesus cast out demons and that was real. So I was doing a deliverance with a lady named Alexis. She's a born again Christian. And in that deliverance session. Okay, so this was one of those really wild and crazy things where Alexis's personality actually goes into a trance and the personality that is now speaking is an evil spirit manifesting through her. Okay. So I'm interrogating, if you want to call it Who Are You? And one of those spirits was a spirit of depression. Why do you think depression was there? Do you think that was tormenting her?   [01:06:34] Absolutely. And she was a Christian and she had depression. And that is a spirit. And I commanded it out and it left. Then there was another spirit. It was a spirit of fear.   [01:06:49] And it had this I'll call it this interrogation.   [01:06:54] It had 25 other junior spirits in its kingdom within Alexis. And you know what the spirit here said why they were there to keep her from getting ahead. In other words, to prevent her from achieving the destiny that the Lord had for her holding her back. They were holding her back, causing everything she did to fall apart, constantly causing it to fail to keep her from getting ahead. That was the spirit of fear. And then there was a spirit of suicide. And it had. I was asking how many how many demons in your kingdom? Said 80. And then it volunteered this information to make sure she kills herself. Wow. I mean, this is real stuff. I know we're not supposed to. Don't don't get truth from a demon. I get that. But what I'm saying is, is this is real stuff. These things do exist. They do exist. And Christians. I'm not saying a Christian is demon possessed by any means. Christ possessed your spirit. But let me ask you a question on that. And we're going to do this whole session on healing later. Is sin evil or good? Then as evil does exist in your flesh.   [01:08:25] Yes. Are you a Christian?   [01:08:29] Yes. So that means that you are born again, but evil exists in your flesh. Does that make sense? That's correct. Why can't a spirit that's evil exist in your flesh as well? Because a lot of people say, well, if you're a Christian, you can't have an evil spirit, well, you have sin and all these spirits are evil. Depression is evil. Fear is evil. Suicide is evil. These are thoughts and attitudes. So I'm driving. I'm getting sidetracked. But the bottom line is this. All these fears are evil. And in some mysterious way. They were allowed to be in her life. I don't know exactly why, but my assumption and expectation from what we've read is there are some spiritual laws that were being violated. Somewhere along the line for life, they gave him authority. Does that make sense?   [01:09:28] Yeah. Okay. Okay. So now the question is, doesn't God love the Lexus? Do you think God loves a Lexus?   [01:09:35] Oh, absolutely.   [01:09:37] If God loved Alexis, why would he allow her to suffer?   [01:09:45] That is a big question.   [01:09:48] That's a huge question, isn't it?   [01:09:52] Can I give a suggested answer? Yes. All right. So let's look at an illustration. A man and a judge are friends. The man breaks the law and he comes before the judge. The judge's personal will list his said his friend free. But his judicial responsibility is to enforce the law. And the judge has the power to do either one. If the judge is righteous, what does he do?   [01:10:24] Does he violate his judicial responsibility to enforce his personal will? Or does it violate his personal Wiltern Borse his judicial responsibility? What do you think?   [01:10:39] Wow, that's a big question, too.   [01:10:42] All right, let's call it this way. Think about the Supreme Court. Do you think every justice on the Supreme Court has a desire of how they wish a law would have been written? When they render a judgment, if they're following their oath of office. Are they? Inputting their personal desire, regardless of what the law says or they interpreting exactly what the law says.   [01:11:15] To the best of their ability, I think the latter.   [01:11:19] So if you look at a judge, if he's a righteous judge. Does he violate his personal will?   [01:11:29] To perform his judicial responsibility or does he violate his judicial responsibility to perform his personal will? The farmer.   [01:11:39] He's going to do his judicial responsibility, and that's the same with God. He has the power to do his personal will. But just generally speaking, he doesn't violate the laws he's put in place. Sometimes we see him do it so. But usually he says judicial process. So sometimes when bad things happen, it could simply because there is evil in the world. Other times we may have sinned. And even though we're no longer in the law, but under grace, there's still a legal ramification of violating the law. And I guess that's kind of summing it up. I want to wrap up one last thing. There's a lot of other stuff, but I want to clarify one thing. And this is a message I texted with a friend. Give you the story on this, because I think this kind of shows how all of this kind of plays a part in one's life. I'm praying for a lady named Francis. She's been a missionary for 55 years. They're about in the last 11 year. She's been stuck in a wheelchair. So I prayed for her. She was instantly healed. She began walking around and she was in a wheelchair because of extreme pain. It was a surgery gone bad 11 years ago. And the doctors couldn't correct it. So now she's walking. There's no more pain.   [01:13:05] She's walking around. And then the pain comes back and she's has to get back in the wheelchair instantly. When that happened, I knew of the spirit. Because once healed your heel. Okay. Okay. You don't lose your healing. There's something else there. I think that's the message of all of this. There's something else there. It's not quite such a pat answer that we like to give. The pain came back. I knew it had to be a spirit. So following the process that there's some legal ramifications, some legal authority, that that spirit has to be there. We went through different things about repentance. She'd been forgiven for her sense. But in going through this, there was she remembered that there was a an organization many years that that she was involved with in high school called Rainbow Girls. I think it's kind of a subset of Freemasonry and it's basically kind of a cult. She didn't realize it at the time. She wasn't a Christian, but there was some sacred oath that she took as part of Rainbow Girls. When she mentioned that, I said, well, we need you need to repent of that. She repented of her involvement with Rainbow Girls and any oath that she took. And then we come in and dispirit out and guess what happened.   [01:14:22] She started walking again. The spirit instantly left everything we tried to do prior to that.   [01:14:28] The spirit and the pain would not leave as soon as she repented of her involvement with Rainbow Girls and we prayed again. The spirit left. Can you see a legal cause and effect on that? Absolutely. Okay. And then the pain came back. Wow. What happened, right. Okay. Then she says, well, Bury, her husband, says, well, God is trying to teach you something. So this is the train of thought. A lot of Christians have. This is why I talked about at the beginning all these bad things happen. God must be trying to teach me something because God is sovereign. God is in control. God is all powerful. Therefore, if anything bad happens, it must be as well. Therefore, something bad happens. He must be trying to teach me something. That's of a train of thought. So this is my text to her. I just want to read it because I think it really summarizes, as I said, I want to clarify something I said last night when your husband Barry suggested that the Lord might be bringing this pain upon you to teach you something. I said that God does not bring sickness upon his children. I believe that is true. But he does authorize spirits to attack us. I don't know how much that authorization is to attack us physically or simply in other areas, such as what happens in our lives.   [01:15:50] I'm still learning, but the simple fact that a spirit is attacking you means that within the spiritual laws the Lord has created. The spirit has authority to attack. Does that make sense so far? And since all of 30 is granted by the Lord. Ultimately the Lord has authorized it. If not directly, then at least indirectly by setting up those laws in the first place. That law is given jurisdiction over us at the fall. This is what you and I spoke about. No longer under law, but under grace that at the fall we became jurisdiction underneath the law. And so I said that law was given jurisdiction over assess the fall. So it's tied to the fall and not tied to the Lord. Trying to teach you something the Lord can and will teach you through it. But is not the purpose for why you're being attacked. I think that's the message. Another message I want to make sure we all understand when these things happen. It's not the Lord trying to teach you something. There's evil in the world that evil has authority. So let me tell you the rest of the story I was asking the Lord. Why did the spirit return? And the Lord said something happened between the time it left and the time it returned. They gave it the authority to return.   [01:17:16] And I said it's the Lord's share that I thought I knew what it was, I called Princeville backup and I started to explain this story, you know what it was?   [01:17:25] This will blow your mind. I said almost, yes. Yes. It was tied to doubt. So you've been in that wheelchair for 11 years. I bet. Unbeknownst to you, you've created an identity of being in pain and being in that wheelchair. And when that spirit left and you're no longer in a wheelchair. It was so unusual for you. It was. It wasn't who you've experienced yourself to be all these years that probably knows you. You kept that identity of pain and you invited it back in because that identity of pain is thin, because it doesn't conform to the image of God. So she said, let's repent of that. So you know what she did.   [01:18:17] By the way, before I do this, I said, Spirit, get out, pain get out. And she said, it's going, but it's not going all the way. It did stuck. It's not leaving.   [01:18:26] So then she said, Okay, we pray, Lord, I repent my identity. Your pain. And then we prayed again and instantly it left.   [01:18:39] That familiar spirit?   [01:18:41] Yes, that's exactly right. So here's the bottom line.   [01:18:45] Not everything that happens is God's will, but nothing happens outside of his authorization. And once we understand that there is a legal framework and authorization, then it helps us to start to understand maybe what's going on and maybe how to fight it in our lives. Here's the other thing I find the more you seek the Lord, the more you are in the center of his will. And therefore, the more that everything that happens to you is part of him guiding you towards your destiny. This is what we talked about last session, I believe. On the contrary is true. The more you ignore the Lord, the more you're out of the center of his will. And then the more everything that happens is evil trying to thwart you. And in some mysterious ways, both of all of this is tied into God's authorization. And so that when evil happens, that's how we start to understand what's going on. Was this a cool lesson?   [01:19:51] This was so great. Yes, absolutely. I love it. And just just being reminded of me, I was thinking of the word test a lot. And I know that gets a bad rap with believers. They don't like to think of God as being. Well, he's going to test me on that. But I also understand the reason behind it. And I think a lot of this to me was just an eye opener to recognize a lot of those moments in those seasons, in those circumstances as a test like Joe going to be faithful and trust the Lord. And I know that working this out for my destiny, I would say yes.   [01:20:32] But I like to make sure one more thing is understood, because last session we talked about was Joseph and with Esther. And a lot of that was part of God's plan moving in towards a destiny, which is kind of where wilderness is a test. But I think the thing if I could underscore one thing from today's session, it's. There are legal. Rules in place that give evil the authority to act in our lives and if we understand those rules. More were more likely to keep evil out of our lives. If you think about speeding. If you understood that the speed limit was 45, you would slow down to 45 before you got there. But if you're ignorant of it, you go barreling through at 7 and you get a speeding ticket.   [01:21:30] So the quote unquote, knowledge is power. Not really a spiritual term, but the more we understand how God has set up.   [01:21:40] His kingdom, the more we can operate in accordance with how it's set up and therefore we can avoid a lot of the hardships. A lot of the trials we can understand. There is some relationship and a cause and effect and we're not just at a mystery of what's going on. Just like with Princeville. She's been prayed for for years to get the wheelchair. One until I came on to my home because I understood the process better. She's able to walk free now. That's the implication.   [01:22:23] That's great. Obeidy, I think we're about out of time for today, we'd probably need to wrap up our call, but thank you so much for your time and your expertise and just all the time. I know the sacrifice of your time that you put into preparing this for today and this is a great call and I know it blesses all of you listeners out there and remember to share the podcast with your friends. Do you

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_text]Watch the live interview below [/fusion_text][fusion_text] Transcription (was completed by automated process.  Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:01] This is the get sellers calling you marketing podcasts for real estate agents. And I'm Beatty Carmichael. [00:00:06] For simple to do proven marketing strategies focus exclusively on finding sellers and getting more listings. Visit our Web site, get sellers calling you dot com. [00:00:16] And now let's begin our next session of get sellers calling you. [00:00:23] So, hey, I'm Beatty Carmichael and welcome to another session of the Get Sellers calling you real to podcast. And I'm really excited today to visit with a friend of mine that I've met several years back. And I've just always been amazed with what she's done. And from California named to make sure. So, Krista, say hello. [00:00:43] Hi, Beatty. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. It's wonderful what you're doing. [00:00:48] Well, I am really thrilled to have you on board. I've worked with a lot of agents and have interviewed a lot of folks. And you're one of the very top in the producing writes that I've worked with. And when you and I spoke a couple of years ago, it was just I was flabbergasted with the volume that you drove and the the ease in which you did it. So I'm excited about what you have to share for our listeners today and what they can take away from it. [00:01:15] Yes. So my goal is just to add as much value as possible. So feel free to ask me any questions. I'm an open book. There's nothing that I'm going to hold back. So you ask away. I will deliver. [00:01:26] I will do that for sure. And just also for those listening. Krista has actually started to share some of this and a coaching program. So we'll talk about that maybe toward the end of the call. But, Krista, I would love to find out real quickly for those listening. This is an Internet call, so just being part in any Internet type of interference. But, Krista, give us a little background on who you are and just to establish why it's important that someone wants to listen to this call from you. [00:01:55] Well, I'm just I'm a mom, number one, and a wife. And I have been in the top 1 percent of real estate agents nationwide for about 17 years running. [00:02:05] So no matter what the market was, I found a way to make sure that I was on top of it. So I sold over two thousand homes in my career personally with me. And that's not a big team of people that was with me and an assistant in a transaction coordinator. So just recently, I've changed my mind the way that I run my team because I now I have a team and they're helping me more so that I can focus on my coaching. But yeah, we're. We love it. [00:02:33] I love it. So I have to ask this question to you, because this is one of the things that really surprised me earlier. How much volume do you do? Do you mind sharing? [00:02:43] As far as numbers. [00:02:44] Yeah. Or just anything. Just to quantify. [00:02:47] So my series sold one hundred and sixty nine homes the year before last. I sold one hundred and fifty one. And last year I sold one hundred and four homes just working on my business five percent of the time. So I literally make my 90 members on my coaching fibrosis on real estate because I want to still make sure I'm on the cutting edge of what's happening and I'm managing my team. But yeah, we sold it over a hundred and four homes last year. Transitioning me out of the business and just being kind of the face of it because of our systems and strategies that we had in place. [00:03:18] I love it. So systems and strategies. [00:03:20] That's what I want to head toward. So long. So you did a lot of volume. You've been able to replicate that volume, having it come in independent from you. Talk to me in terms of what do you do? What what type of systems if. First off, let me ask you this. In the marketplace, are you focused on personal contacts or are you going after more cold market? You're buying leads. What's the general funnels that you work with? [00:03:45] Ok, so let me kind of explain my strategy. Number one, we really, really we utilize social media and video heavily. We we teach it. And that's what's helped me grow my real estate business and help me continue to stay in the forefront. And we focus on sellers primarily, but with that, we get plenty of buyers because we are focused on sellers. So we run. We utilize this video heavily. And what I mean by that is many people will use video maybe, but they won't use it correctly. So they'll do video, but then they'll just put it on their Facebook page or they'll put it on their whatever, but they don't do any kind of marketing behind it. So what we do is we we are I call a community market leader. Right. So my goal is anything real estate or or city related, my city thinks about me. They think real estate or they think community. They know my name. And so we're constantly putting out videos and community videos and we know what's happening in town, what's going on, real estate and not real estate related, but community related without ever asking you to do anything in return. So many times people are always selling themselves. Right. I'm the best thrill driving the number one. I'm this. I'm that instead of just serving. So we teach people to serve and not sell. And by serving you inadvertently will sell, if that makes sense. [00:05:04] And also the me, if I don't mind me interrupting. So you're doing these videos as well. What's going on in them in the space? Where are you sending them? What are you doing with the video? [00:05:15] So first we just try to develop trust. So the first and my initial contact is just to run a Facebook. Right. And just boosting is not enough. You need it. Run your ads to your ads manager account on Facebook because then you can target and retarget. You can create look like audiences. You can really, really know what people are doing and make adjustments based upon what is and what's not working. And we just you know, we utilize the reach objective initially. So we reach as many people as possible in the community and they continue to see us. It's like brand awareness. We're getting them to get to know our brand and we're just giving value. Hey, you know, there's this new subdivision that's being built or versus great new family restaurant that was open. Nor here's here's a new activity that's happening this weekend. Right. Oh, and by the way, interest rates are going up or down or whatever it might be. And then we don't ask for anything. So many people will create funnels and landing pages and they'll ask for people's information or phone number. [00:06:14] But nobody wants to give it to you because they're getting bombarded by ads. But once they get to know you like you and trust you, break down barriers, you become more of an authority figure. They're much more likely to want to be able to want to give you their information. Right. So the strategy that we teach agents is the strategy that I use is we teach you how to get to be known. Right. Because in order to be known, you have to be seen. You have to be heard. So the objective is to let your community get to know you like you trust you be seen as the expert and then you ask for people's information. You know, people are doing it backwards. They're saying, give me your vacation, fill out this ad. Right. Thought this lead form when no one even knows who you are. So you've got to really. It's called relationship marketing, right? It's what I call engagement working. But you're developing a relationship with your community. You're getting to be known as the expert authority and then you're asking for their information. [00:07:07] So we utilize but oh, just say this is brilliant. [00:07:11] You're using you're using Facebook, targeting either custom or look alike or or different audiences. You're building up their recognition of who you are and that built up trust. They're seeing you. And we know that if someone can meet you, they're much more likely to do business with you. So by doing the videos or seeing you, they're getting to trust you. They know like you and Mel, you've won a relationship with them. [00:07:37] Yeah. So then we welcome that listing appointment. They're already hugging me and they feel like I know you. And, you know, I'll be walking around town and everyone's like Krista. That was the marquee doing a, you know, high five. And me, I have no clue who would do whatever is at the time. But they feel like they know because they see me. I'm a I'm a. So you got to think about something like you're losing this. You got to understand how powerful social media is. In 30 days, more video content is uploaded on the Internet in 30 days. Then all of the major networks over the past 30 years, so more networked, more video is uploaded onto Facebook, Instagram, YouTube in one month. Then CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS. I can keep going on in the past 30 years. Right. So it's like you have your own digital marketing platform. You have your own TV right in front of everyone. Because people are not even really watching TV anymore. They're watching like my children do not own cable right there and there. They're going to be a virus very, very soon. People are watching videos or watching YouTube. They're watching Facebook. They're looking at Instagram. They want to know about people. What people are doing. That's the new TV now. [00:08:48] You know, this is brilliant for the sake of our audience who may not be as familiar with Facebook advertising, could you do maybe just a short two, three minute primer on what's going on? You know, you're mentioning Reach, you're mentioning all the different type of campaign objectives and give this little primer and then I want to jump back into where we are. And once that foundation is light and take it a little bit deeper, can we do that? [00:09:13] You mean primer on why you should utilize Facebook? [00:09:16] No, not for those people who may not have done anything with Facebook as manager. OK. So that's kind of new to them. Does that make sense? [00:09:23] Yes. OK. So. Well, first, you have to understand this. The average person goes to Facebook for 51 minutes a day. They go there 17 times. There's two point three billion active users on Facebook right now. This is I'm just going to talk about Facebook, because at the same time, we're not going talk about Instagram and all that. Although Instagram is also a platform that you should be looking into because millennials are more on Instagram and they're on Facebook. Right. And we're starting to see a shift from people buying from Facebook to Instagram. And it's cheaper to advertise on Instagram now than it is on Facebook. Well, let's just talk about Facebook. So the average person, the average agent we have found this is this is true stat. So the National Association of Realtors says that only 16 percent of agents are utilizing Facebook. That's that's a step from the net than they are. We found from our research that less than 1 percent of agents are utilizing it correctly. All right. So most agents are doing is they're posting on their personal page or posting on their business page. But Facebook is an algorithm. They want your money. They want you to pay them. So you've got to pay them to get your ads to show up in front of people. If you're not paying Facebook to show up, to have your ads seen in front of people, you're only being seen by the people who are most likely interacting with you. Right. That's your your best friends and your family members. It's people that are that Facebook is putting your stuff in front of people that are engaging. You're not reaching the rest of your community. [00:10:47] OK. So we create ads and we have anywhere from seventeen thousand one hundred and twenty thousand people that we use that see our ads, which means that we we go into Facebook, we go into our ads manager account. That's step one. Go to Facebook. Set up for ass. Set up an ad up. Get a business page. Right. Then you've got to run your ads through your ads manager account. Many agents will just boost. Now, boosting is not sufficient enough because if you're just boosting, you are not able to do anything with that information. Right. When you set up an ad for your ads, manage your account. You're then able to create lookalike audiences. What that means is you're able to say, hey, this ad ran really, really well. We've got great reach, tons of engagement, engagement, meaning people are liking, commenting and sharing. They're engaging with your ad. So you can say, oh, this ad performed so well. I want you to find more people that are like this. Facebook and the Facebook algorithm will find people that are more likely to engage in your ad. They will create a whole new audience. Right now, the second ability, which is so, so important, is that you're able to reach target and retarget means that you're able to as somebody watches your ad on you, it's it's basically you're creating a funnel. You do a video on three chips to sell your house to get maximum exposure. Right. Then you have, let's say, 50000 people see that ad and then you say, OK, you know, Facebook, I want you to find the people that were the most engaged, the ones that watched more of the video. [00:12:19] The ones that liked are shared. And I want you to send them another video on seven months when selling like make sure you did seven things you have to do in selling to make maximize your investment. Right. And then you can take even for a rookie. Now they watch the first video and the second video. Now I want to send them a link for a CMA. Do I know what your house is worth? Well, yes. These people now, you know, those leads are super qualified, highly engaged leads because they've already watched two of your videos. They're not watching videos on how to sell a house for more money if they're not thinking of selling. So now you take you take you know, maybe you got one hundred leads down to 20 that are super serious, engaged, active sellers. Make sense. So that's the importance of utilizing social media and Facebook, because number one, ninety five percent of buyers and sellers say they search online first. Right. We know according to the National Association of Realtors, that buyers and sellers take a minimum of three to six months. They start looking before they ever take action. Your goal is to show up where they're looking, which is on social media, and B, be there when they finally want to act. So you're developing this relationship with them for months and months and months. And they're they're looking at your step because they're interested. They want to know more. So then when they finally want to act, you're in front of them. And they they've now established you as the expert authority. So when they think about selling, they'll think about you or buying. Right. [00:13:46] You know, this is brilliant because I love the process. You know, I remember when you and I spoke a couple of years ago, you mentioned that when you started to do videos, your business just started taking off. [00:13:59] Do you remember that? [00:14:00] Oh, yeah. That's the one thing people ask me. What's the number one strategy you can tell me to do? And I tell them utilize video but correctly distribute it. [00:14:09] Yes. So this is brilliant. So in real simple. So you're you're taking them, you're pushing content out. You're not asking anything from them. So the content that you're pushing out. Give me an idea. Maybe. You know, I know you meant you rented really quickly earlier. Can you walk me through as an agent if I'm going to do this? What type of content content am I putting out and how frequently am I putting it out into this mass audience? [00:14:36] A here's a nugget right now. All right. You want to number one, if you're going to do anything. Pick a knish. So pick a niche in real estate. Maybe you want to work with a retirement company or you want to do homes on deep water. You want to work in a certain subdivision or you want to work with millennials. Pick Aneesh, and you want to do two content videos initially to start like X, like three, two, three content videos just on that niche. Then every single week do another video on that niche and then take that video, what we call video repurposing. Right. Which means you're gonna take that video, you're going to have it transcribed. There's a thing called red dot com. You're going to upload that video on that transcription and that video onto your Web site. So then you start getting search engine optimization through Google. Now, this is not hard. It's easy. You send your video to rabbits a dollar a minute. Right. You do a three to five minute content video on a specific leash because people are searching that specific need to the videos can be longer. But then what happens is as you start to do this on a regular basis, when someone goes to Google to search, hey, how do I buy a home for the first time or what's the best, you know, interest rates or homes in discovery about deep water? Your information is going to come up like crazy because you haven't reached it. [00:15:54] So meeting is super important and you can really gain a lot of traction really, really quickly if you do it on a regular basis because of the capability for the information that you're putting out there to be seen on Google when you see it. Google loves video. So uploading your videos onto YouTube, right? Get you on to Google, uploading your videos on your Web site, gets you on to Google. So when people start searching that, you're going to start showing up over and over and over again. So that would be my first suggestion is picking each and do it. Now, secondly, you want to do your normal videos that you're going to create for your community and for on a weekly basis. You want to do that to a week and you want to keep them short. Right. Like 30 seconds or or under shorter videos have higher completion rates, shorter videos get watched. More people actually click on the length of a video and they won't watch it. So initially when you're trying to grab someone's attention. Baby, you want to raspberries and quack, quack. And if they're interested, then you can bring them down your funnel and start putting out more content to them. That's similar to the first content. And then you can add you can make it longer. Right. So, for example, you wouldn't say, are you thinking about buying a house this summer? [00:17:03] Oh, my gosh. There's three things you need to know. Remember? Right. Hi, I'm Krista Major. [00:17:07] I sold hundreds of homes and then you're going to buy that. You're the experts. They want to keep listening to you. And then you just give a quick tip or two. For more information and for me to get more details, click on the link below for more. No more explanation. And then they then more. Then they're watching these videos and you're bringing them down your file and they can be longer because you've already grabbed their attention. [00:17:26] That makes sense. So. So you're using the 30 second clips for the mass. You're taking your very narrow niche and you're focusing on that. [00:17:36] And these videos are offering information but not asking for their information, correct? [00:17:43] Yes. Not initially. And then after you've been doing it, then you asked for the information at hand. Having a buyer and seller seminar. Mike, one thing that I'm doing this next Thursday for my community is I'm putting on a local business and professional marketing training free. Right now, I'm marketing it on Facebook. I did a video saying, hey, are you a local business, a professional? I can help you. I'm sure you all know I am right. Why? Because I know how to market. Let me show you how to market your local business and empire. And you're your as a as a professional or a local business. Why am I doing that? Because I'm basically going to be doing a little mini listing presentation without them even knowing it, showing them how we do what we do and how they can do that. But at the same time, showing them, hey, here's an example of how I listen market to house, right? Look, we had one hundred and seventy six thousand people on this on this one housing tour. We had over two hundred and fifteen hours of people watching this one video. Will that help you? So basically, I'm going to be helping them, but also showcasing how we market our homes at the same time to like minded individuals who are local professionals or her own local businesses. [00:18:47] I love it. So when you're doing this video out to just your normal group, these whole 30 second clips and you know, if you if you think about selling, click below. [00:18:56] For those people who are listening, you know, they've done nothing like this before and they're going, oh, my gosh, what do I do? What? Where do I go? Where do I send them when they click below? What's the next step? Is it a Facebook page or what are you doing on that? [00:19:09] So they're through. When you create an app through your ads manager account, you can create this video. Last call to action. There's a traffic objective. There is a reach objective. Brand awareness objective. There is a conversion objective, which means you want them to convert. You're trying to get their information right. There's a video of use subjective depending on what objective you choose. It will change your call to action. So we then take them to a landing page. And if you're let's this and you're going, what the heck is she talking about? I've never heard of a landing page. Here's what I've got to tell you. There is going to be more change in the next six years in technology and there has been in the last 100. That is a true start. You are going to see more change in the next six years than we've seen in the last 100 years in technology and social media. You it's not a matter of should I. I'm thinking about it. You have to. You need to make sure that you are relevant, that you're Zillow proof your recession proof your discount broker, proof. Are you adapting to technology and change? You are going to save yourself from being left in the dust. And if you haven't now, it's OK. Like just start right. It's just like riding a bike or kissing for the first time. You get better and better as you do it. You suck it first. You follow your break your name, nails it, scrape up your face, whatever that is, but then you get better. So it's a matter of you saying, I can do this and I'm gonna do it right. It's scary at first. And everyone hates video. They are afraid of it. They're so fearful of it. But here's the deal. [00:20:39] You look at them, you know, you look at video on and who doesn't like the way you look because that's how you look. [00:20:44] Do you remember? This is me. I like myself. Right. Is video, video, video, video. If I told you the stats on why video is so important, you would die and just not using it. All you need is a cell phone. Everyone's got a cell phone. We all have a camera. This is Isabella's hitting record uploading that and have a go at it. Right. It's not not hard. It's just it's simple. So then you take him to a landing page with the landing page. Then you're then they can you know, you're saying, hey, do you want more information you want to get? What's my home worth or any kind of a market analysis? Do you want to hear a seller guide? You a buyer guide? What do you want? So you're basically continuing to take them down your funnel. The first action is the video. [00:21:26] I love it. So. So. So thanks for this. Really great. What's the next step? How do you. So we're talking about doing the videos. I kind of cut you off to go backwards and say, let's lay the foundation. [00:21:37] Let me let you run again from where you are. Does that work? [00:21:41] Yes. So meaning never was. [00:21:47] So that may be kind of an unfair try to loop back around. So where do we go from here? So I've got I've got an agent and there they're excited that what they're doing, what you're talking about, this has obviously been, you know, this and I've always wanted you know, this is just my personal out of curiosity with you, Krista. When I when we talked a few years ago and you're just doing this amazing volume and it seems like it's consistent. Yes, you're out. The thing that blew my mind is how and now I get it. It's these videos. But there's got to be something a little more that you're doing in terms of the content or in terms of, you know, maybe the question that comes up and I'm I'm trying to get my questions on formulated. You know, you're talking about doing like two videos a week. What do you keep saying on those two videos? I mean, aren't you kind of cycling back around and saying the same thing over and over again or you. [00:22:45] Oh, my gosh. Know, so there's so much to talk about. First of all, you have to understand, it's not just real estate, even though I think we as agents, we don't realize how much people love real estate. I mean, anytime you go to a party and someone knows that you're a real estate agent, what do they ask you? And I'm just going to pause for about 10 seconds here. What do they ask you? They know you're older. What do they ask you? How's the market? Right. So your job is to tell them on a regular basis what's happening in the market, what's happening in their area, what's happening in their community, what's happening in their subdivision. And on top of that, though. Bringing in community related events. What's going on in the community? What's new, what's fun, what's exciting? What are they going to do? What's what's different? What's changing? There's just you can fire. Chips, seller chips, costly mistakes, parts of a contract. What does a contingency mean? How much is a deposit? What does the buyer need to do before even looking? What do you need to make sure once you're in escrow? You do. I mean, you just we can go on and on and on. You know so much about your your subject matter as an agent. But I we think that everyone knows it, too. [00:23:48] They don't. Right. So the trick is not just to be real estate, but also be community. You want to do like one to one wanted unity video. One real estate video. Right. One market update a month. What's happening in the market? How's it changed from last month? All right. Your next video, along with that nation, each nation, nation each. The riches are in the niches. People are afraid of meeting as they feel like they're going to lose out on business. When, quite frankly, you will still have the same amount of business. But if somebody is looking for that specific topic, you're going to show up way more often on that specific topic when you do need. But you'll still show up just the same for everything else. So it's a matter of creating video content properly, making sure it gets seen. Remember Facebook, if you want to have to be seen by your community, by the thousands. Right. Facebook will put your information in front of the people that are more likely to watch it. Their algorithm goes in front of people that already expressed behaviors in liking real estate. Liking realtor, dot com, liking Zillow, you know, liking community events. So they put you in front of them and then you can say, OK, for this ad, I want to try to get video views, go put me in front of people that want to watch my videos, that their algorithm, their Facebook algorithm will do that or it will say, I want you to put this this ad now in front of somebody who is more likely to convert. [00:25:10] So I'm going to use the conversion objective. Right. Right now, I just want to get myself to be seen by everyone. I mean, he is the reach objective. So depending on what your objective what your personal objective is for the ads that you're running is going to change what objective you use on Facebook and what you tell Facebook to do. So it's a matter of creating a video, setting up an ad through your advantage, your account, utilizing your your your choosing, your objective, making sure you have a great call to action and awesome pictures that do not look at Z. The less ads you, the better the more it looks like an ad, the less likely people will clip because they're tired of being sold to and then taking them from clicking on that ad to a landing page, which then will put them right into your serum. So we create Facebook campaigns that go directly from Facebook into our CRM and then we then start marketing. Then I'm putting them on our drip drip campaigns call. [00:26:08] You know, this is you're listening to the get sellers calling you podcast to increase sales from past clients and sphere of influence or from a geographic farm, learn about Agent Dominator. [00:26:18] We guarantee your sales in writing or give your money back to learn more. Visit our website and get sellers calling you dot com and like Agent Dominator from the. [00:26:28] And now back to the podcast. So it's brilliant. And as I'm hearing you, the thing that keeps hitting me and I'm going to talk about what you do in coaching, because I'm sure you you teach this step by step. But it seems almost too simple. [00:26:42] Does that make sense? Yeah. You know, it's it's not simple. It really isn't. I mean, it isn't. It isn't. I mean, it is if you just do it, you can really take it to like on steroids. Meaning. Right. So a good example is one of my students just, um, posted in our group. She's like me before the program and showed her Facebook. It was a literally a flat line. OK. That means how many people saw her. And then she's like now cramming. Krista 's program is like way up here because utilizing it correctly. And so it's so powerful, though. Think about this. You go to a open house and you're just hoping to see a couple of people and maybe it's the neighbors. It's a couple of looky loos, like you run an ad on Facebook. I can spend 50 bucks and I can have, you know, seventy five thousand people see me. I can run an ad for fifty dollars and get two hundred hours of people watching my video because Facebook will tell you how many people you reach. How many people saw you. How much time they saw you. So I can show like we teach our students that one guy. We did it after six weeks, already had thirty seven hours of one video being watched. So I was like, that's like 10 open houses, right. That's you doing more than that? More than 10, 15 open houses. Cause it might be. So it's really, really effective because you're constantly being reminded and you're inadvertently prospecting. So instead of cold calling and door knocking, which I do not cold call, I do not doorknock. I haven't an open house like eight years. My community and everyone's still seeing me because I'm showing up or they're looking they are online. They are on social media. So they're seeing me on a regular basis. So they're reminded they can't forget about me. Right. They can't, you know. [00:28:20] So you're taking you know, if you go back to the traditional model of growing a real estate business, you you set aside hours to go prospecting, to drive in business, and maybe those hours or more, you know, like a 30 to twelve. [00:28:34] All you're doing is you shifting. You're not spending prospecting hours. You're doing video hours, running some Facebook ads. And the way I'm interpreting it, you're doing that and then you're going off and playing or doing something else you want. Just letting it drive business to you. I know it's not quite that easy, but it's that's that's what it sounded. [00:28:53] Yeah. And it's it's not that easy. And we all want to make it seem like it's that easy. But you know what it is? I mean, instead of like I don't on weekends, I don't want to buy donuts for the open house. I want to make those with my kids. Right. Well, I want to cuddle with my husband in the morning. And I don't want to have to go to an open house and buy the balloons, put the signs out. I want. And people are there still seeming like crazy. Mean the number one agent for years and years and years. And this is a strategy that I mean, is it's also the exact same strategy that I've used to get agents from across the country into my coaching program. We've had over 500 agents go through our training in the past 14 months. This exact strategy. Right. It's giving information, giving value, producing content, getting them to know me and then say, OK, now I want you by my book. Right or now. Now that you know me. Why don't you let's talk to you about the coaching program. I don't say he signed up for coaching Brigham Young and whatever. They have to know who I am first. But once you develop that trust and respect. It's kind of like being on this podcast right there. People getting to know me. You like me to trust me. You either like me or you don't. You're like, she's way too crazy for me and you're hyper where I go like this crystal girl. Let me learn more about her. That's exactly what as an agent you need to be doing in your community. He's got to get people to know you. And video people are much more. They're sixty 64 percent more likely to buy a product when there's a video associated with it. You are a product. You're a service. So if people are 64 percent more likely to buy you seeing a video, does it make sense that you should be utilizing it? [00:30:23] That's amazing. Now you're an author. Now see some books back there. I want to talk about those. Can you tell me a little bit about the books you've done? [00:30:30] Yes. So I have one book sell a hundred plus films a year, how we use Engage Your Marketing Technology and Legion to sell 100 plus homes a year every year. That's this one. So a hundred percent here. This will be great for agents. Now, here's the thing, too, about what I'm teaching the strategy. You can be a brand new agent. We teach agents that are brand new to utilize this and they may very quickly position themselves as the expert. You don't have cap listings. You don't have to have any experience. You can just start talking about real estate. Right. And people do not know that you don't have any business. Also, here's a little book that I wrote, three clients in 30 days. I interviewed twenty three top producing agents across the country on if they were to lose all their business and they had to start from scratch in a new city with a new note on how they would generate three clients in 30 days. And they gave their blueprint from day one to day 30 of everything that they would do to generate more business. It's called three clients in 30 days. If you had to start from ground zero, no sphere, no contacts, no past clients. Here's your 30 day top racing blueprint. There's that one. And then like this, this is called fire financially independent. I retire early. Your crappy job will quit itself. This basically teaches people how to utilize a lot of Australians that we've taught them in in both the books and and make sure to turn their passion into you, into into their profits, how they monetize it, market it. [00:31:54] I love it. So talk to me a little bit. Talk to me a little bit about your coaching program. So I'm an agent. I'm loving this. [00:32:01] But I'm going I'm overwhelmed. And I know I'm going to need someone to help me walk this through, you know, walk me through it and make it happen. So is your coaching program about this specific or is it larger? Can you tell? [00:32:15] It's much larger. So we've got like three or three or four different programs out there. One is just the Legion program, and it basically teaches you everything I just talked about. Right. How to how to create it, how to create amazing Facebook campaigns that convert into actual clients. Everyone says they want leaves, leaves, leaves. Leaves are easy. And we generate so many leads. But the problem is you want leads that are more tangible that you can actually manage and that are more serious. And we teach you how to create and how to become the community market leader. How to establish yourself, to gain authority and to gain trust. And then how to create marketing campaigns that will get you the best leads that you can get. And then how to put those into systems and processes utilizing CRM so you can be successful. And then we also have more higher level programs where we literally just teach you. I mean, so much more Instagram, YouTube video repurposing other digital marketing strategies. I know. I know. I guess it's pretty intense, you know, because of the listing process, which is if they had it. It's like you're listing presentation on steroids. We get you a marketing campaign and brochures and just tons of stats. We kind of you're almost like buying our higher level programs or almost buying up like a. It was like a little mini franchise that we really helped agents, whether they're brand new or they're in the middle or they're very experienced, how to take their business from zero, you know, to a lot more around. [00:33:44] I was just recently talking to a prospective client and ours and we're talking about different things. And he said now I've also come across this coaching program. Krista, May short coaching. I think you said, do you know anything about that? As a man, you ought to take her up on that because she is amazing in. And what I love about what I'm hearing, Krista, is you've taken what you've applied. This has driven your business sky high and consistently and now you package it where people can really come alongside you. And I really commend you on that, because as you know, before we're talking, we're talking about another friend of mine who once he went into coaching his income, two and a half times increased, you know, two and a half times increase in like two or three years. And just you can't do it without a coach. [00:34:30] And so I'll tell you what, I have coaches. I mean, I have multiple coaches. And the reason I've always been really good at what I do is I constantly educate myself. I mean, it's constant learning and an implementation of what you're learning and creating different habits. And if you're listening to this, you have to understand something. You don't want to be reactive. You need to be adaptive. Right. Do not be reactive. Be adaptive. And you have got to adapt right now. This is where it's going. And the agents that are are utilizing digital marketing strategies and social media. They are adapting to what is no longer a want but a must. In your business, it's a must. And so they take it very, very seriously and know that it's not easy. Meaning we my program is hard. And I shouldn't say that because all of us want to buy it. But you have to work, right? If you're willing to give it the time that it takes and you're willing to put in the energy and efforts. We teach you how to be a 21st century real estate agent. We're not teaching strategies like cold calling or door knocking or open houses. However, if you want to do an open house, we show you how to market. So you actually get butts in seats, right? You can utilize it to your advantage. But we don't teach those strategies. We teach strategies that are actually working nowadays. And we try to open up your mind to think that there is an easier, more efficient or effective way to reach buyers and sellers in the masses. And it's thinking non traditionally, it doesn't mean you can't do traditional things that you've got to start thinking non traditionally and again, not be reactive, but be adaptive. [00:36:03] That makes sense. I want to shift topics real quick for dispersion as we start to wrap this up, but it ties into this. [00:36:10] So at the beginning, you mentioned Europe, your mom, your realtor, your husband. Can you talk to me a little bit about family life, work balance and how you manage that with what you do and taking care of being all these other responsibilities are so important. [00:36:27] Ok. So even before I was a coach, I rarely worked. Weekends or nights and I know some if you are going. Well, no way. Critic is everyone. But here's the deal. Once you develop enough respect from your community and you're seen as the expert authority, people will wait for you. I mean, I just tell people, listen, I've got a family life, work life balance and I do not work on weekends because I need to be the best that I can be Monday through Friday for you. I also don't like to work nights because I'll never be home. So therefore, just like they make an appointment with their doctor or their attorney or their dentist or their CPA. Monday through Friday, 9:00 to 5:00, I'm the same. Right. So I just set boundaries for myself. And occasionally I'll work on a weekend. I mean, very I can count on one hand in the past year how many times I work on a weekend unless it was in my computer at home with coaching. Right. But going to see a seller or a buyer, I just don't do it. I set boundaries. I also have buyers, agents. Now, I'll give my leads to buyers because I don't have the time to work with buyers. So I give my leads away. Take your referral fee and I focus on sellers. I don't have to work as many weekends and nights. I didn't do that for many years. When my coach said, Krista, you're losing a lot of money. And I said, well, why you're not working buyers. I says, you need to give your leads the way I want. [00:37:39] I don't want to lose the money. And they're like, well, you're losing the money because you're not doing anything with them because you don't have the time. And I was like, oh, yes, I'll do that right away. And I also use I use real ball. That's the serum that I use. And we're now kind of dabbling into Katie Couric. We're gonna compare how Katie Core works in conjunction with real love and care. We're sort of testing, but utilizing really good systems and having great workflows. We've got like over and I think of around 200 workflows in real world. And what that means is if somebody takes an action, then there's a workflow behind it. So, for example, somebody request this, request a market analysis, then I've got a workflow. It's OK. You know, pull, pull the cons, deliver CMA, send a postcard, send the thank you card. Right. Make a phone call. A phone call. And it sends it right to our phone and it says, hey, call this person at this time, here's the phone number. So we processed everything in every phase of the transaction. Right. So that way we're not thinking as much. So when you don't think as much, you utilize more time. You have more time. So I definitely have a work life balance. I know it's very, very difficult. I am a workaholic. I'll say I love it, but I do it more, more at my choice than a necessity because my kind of hobbyist sort of work. You know, I love it. [00:38:55] Well, it's definitely shows itself and I commend you on that because so many agents are just working to a frazzle and they lose sight of the most important reason why they're working, which is usually their family. [00:39:09] Yes. Yes. It's difficult. You know, you don't want to go on vacation and not be able to have a break in working every night, 8:00 or every weekend. I mean, you've got to set boundaries. People appreciate them. And also maybe get a help or a partner or somebody another agent can help you with the phone and such that you can't have time. If you take time, you'll you'll save more time. Right. Another really good effect is utilizing the pomodoro effect where you work 25 minutes at a time or your laser focused, then you take five minutes off so that that way what you're doing, you're really, really focused on getting that much more done. Another shows you just love to talk about, which is one thing I want everyone to listen to. It's really, really important is that every day when I wake up, I visualize my day, meaning I'm I see myself succeeding during the day and I see myself having the proper outcome that I have. I also write down six things that I'm grateful for, like I'm good with my family and grateful for my health. I'm grateful for my energy and my business, whatever it might be. I write specifically write down six things, because the more you focus on what you're grateful for, you'll get more of that. Right? So many times people are so focused on what they're not getting or what's not working, they get more of it right. So you want to write down six things you're grateful for every single day. [00:40:18] I also write down six things that I must do that day. So here's an example of it, right? Looks like this. I write down six things that I absolutely must finish today. Right. And then I put the time that it's going to take me. And usually you want to consider about a 10 hour day. There should be six and a half hours of to dos. The other three and a half hours are for the what ifs, the mishaps, the. Hey, can I have five seconds of your time, which turns into five minutes or two minutes. Right. So I time block six things that I actually want to get done. And then at the end of the day, I write down my wins. What works for me? Right. Celebrate your wins. Celebrate your successes. Success breeds success. The more you focus on what's working and the more you focus on your winning, the more winning you're gonna get. Right. Because your brain is a mental roadmap to get you there. So remember, visualize, show gratitude. Write down your six things time. BLOCK them out at the end of the day. Write down what your success, what your wins, what worked because you'll get more of those and then give yourself permission to sleep and get whatever it is you need to work through for the next day and then start over and start again. [00:41:20] This is amazing. It's like I feel like I'm in old firehose of nothing but solid content that I want to go back and listen to this multiple times. [00:41:30] Lots and lots more notes because in you've been calculated in such a short timeframe, so much amazing value. [00:41:38] Thank you. I appreciate it. [00:41:40] Well, you know, successful people are successful for a reason. [00:41:43] And it's like, you know, if this is how much has come out and just a 30 or 40 minute time, I can just imagine how deep that onion goes if I can just dig deeper. But I know we don't have time for all of that. Let me ask you, so back on the books and contacting you. So can you take a. Help me understand if if I'm going to get the books, because me personally, I want at least two of those books, if not all three of them. How do I get them? Where do I go? What do I do? [00:42:12] So the good news is. So right now, I'm giving away gifts and stuff on your train because I can give a free copy of the free copy of Sell 100 homes a year. But I'd love for you guys to go onto Amazon on Kindle right now. The books are selling their homes as 1999, but a fire and three planes in 30 right now. And they'll both help you in saying that I will guarantee it are 99 cents because we're trying to get as many reviews as possible. So we're giving. E-book for 99 cents. You can get on Amazon, the name Kissimmee Shark. You'll see the three looks come out. And then I'll give a free copy and sell 100 homes e-book that you can generate. Give us your your people. I'll give you that. The code is text in code. And that way I'll get there. Their e-mail address. I could markets in later on and I would just pirate what you did. You guys have been on your own. And then it would be great. But if you can give us a review, I'd really appreciate. I know you're going to get mint. Now you read a chapter or two and then go and give us a review. Of course, we're looking for five star reviews because even four stars people don't think is good enough. [00:43:16] Ok. So so for everyone listening, because you speak really, really fast and you throw it out there. Give me the titles of the three books so someone can what? Write it down. [00:43:27] Ok. Can you on and get it? The one you're going to go to Amazon, you're going to say sell the number one hundred plus homes a year with Kristin. Make sure you'll see my book pop up. Sell a hundred plus homes a year. And the subtitle is How We Use Engage Your Marketing Technology and Lead Gen to sell one hundred plus homes a year every year. So sell one hundred plus homes a year. How we use engagement, marketing, technology and lead gen to sell 100 plus homes a year every year. Here's the deal. So you are thinking, Krista, I don't want to sell a hundred homes. I just want to sell one more home. This will help you. This will help you sell one room a month or 20 homes more a year. You know, it's either or you don't have to sell 100, but you'll definitely get some step by step tangibles, things that you can get. The next book is three clients in 30 days. Three clients in 30 days. This teaches you if you had to start from scratch or if you're doing it, you're in your business right now and you want to. [00:44:24] You need to change what you can start implementing in your business right now to generate more deals. And again, you can get all these on. Amazon is going to go to Amazon. It'll give you a Kindle version or whatever the version that you're looking. It's all there. And then lastly, Fire, which stands for financially independent, retire early. Your crappy job will quit itself. Those three books will be very, very helpful. Definitely sell a hundred home would be my recommendation. First to buy as an aged it then three clients in 30. That fire has a ton of marketing information it teaching you how to market as well. And it will give you a lot of tangible strategies. There's also a lot of goal setting and vision and purpose which we all need. We really need to have our clear vision of why it is we want what we want to get there. Fire walks you through that. We've got a great work book to do it. And you can go to Crystal, make sure dot com to find more about me. And also one more thing. Beauty is, baby, I own saying it wrong. [00:45:23] Baby, baby. Either one works if I'm go back and forth. Katie, is it. Yeah. I'm so sorry. It's fine. I get it all the time. [00:45:32] I like knowing you can go to the seven figure ranger blueprint. The seven figure real tour blueprint on Facebook and read them is me and these seven. [00:45:45] Or is it just seven figure? [00:45:46] It's seven figure. Yeah, the number seven. Leave the off. [00:45:50] Yeah, leave the F seven figure. Real true blueprint. And I do two free trainings every single week on Tuesdays and Thursdays in that group. Writers give value when you serve. [00:46:02] Wonderful. So Krista may sure. M A S H O R E coaching dot com and the Facebook group seven figure real term blueprint. [00:46:15] Those are the two places to contact you get crystal, make sure dot com and then the seven figure world, your blueprint on Facebook and yes, go to Amazon, get our book. It's not just it's I actually really read these books. It's a really step by step how to we tell you everything and we don't hold anything back. So many of the people that are in my program actually read my book and then they thought, that's a lot that's going to hire. [00:46:39] I love it. Well, is there anything this has been really great. Is there anything else that you'd like to share? [00:46:44] Before we close out, just implement. Right. I mean, if I can give you any advice at all is just implement and be consistent. It's so important to be as important as it is to implement as much as you can and be as consistent as possible and keep your mind in check. Right minds. It is such a huge part of success. And I don't think people really get that there is a reason why all these great thought leaders like Napoleon Hill and Dr. Maximal Mall and I can just keep going on and on, speak so much about mindset. You've got to have your mind intact to get your business intact. [00:47:18] You know that execution is as you mentioned, that I've read a book not long ago called The Executioner by businessman named Artie McFerrin. It's it's funny, really written because you can tell it to an older man who just put his thoughts down. But what really struck me is it's all about execution. And he made this calm. He said, you know, if I want to make an extra ten million dollars a year, all I do is these things and I'm thinking an extra 10 million dollars. And this guy is worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. [00:47:50] But the things he said he did. [00:47:54] It's all about execution. And he goes through his top five or six things that he's built his business with over the years. And it's just grown in multiples like like doubling growth almost every year for a number of years. It's just, you know, I was over there taking notes, taking notes and underlying all these things. And, you know, it's not one of these professionally written books like Good to Great, but it's one of these that it's like this guy's giving you his heart. And he's been super, super successful for many years and has more money than he knows what to do with. And he isn't pursuing more money. He wants to leave a legacy. And that's what he wrote all of his secrets with. [00:48:33] I love it. That's great. Yeah. Education everywhere. Educate yourself in order for you to go from good to great. You need to help. I mean, we all do. The only reason why I'm as great as I am is because in my business it's only wrong. But it's because I'm constantly educating myself, trying to become better, hiring people to help me get there. People that excel in something that I don't and I don't give up. Right. Many people give up way too soon. They don't see results right away. We teach in our program. This is not an overnight get rich quick. This is this is we're teaching you a system. We're teaching your community to get to know you. So the first three months is all about getting people to know you like you trust you before you even start. Literally generations. [00:49:14] Yes, deadly. I had one question, I had one. One asked that's on that. How long does it take with a video approach in the Facebook? How long does it take to start seeing traction? [00:49:26] It's about four to six months. OK. If you do it right now for does it we we have some people that do it in two or three. But I'm going to be really real. It's not around the four or five month mark. And we have people in month three saying, I don't see any results. And then month four or five, I like I am hiring an assistant. We're just on fire. We're going crazy. We've we've seen crazy results going from so doing fifteen thousand dollars in commissions to one hundred and twenty four thousand writer going from selling one month selling well, making an extra eight million dollars of production in one year. It's just crazy numbers, but it's from the people that are the most consistent and persistent and give it the time that it takes it takes time. [00:50:08] That's really amazing. Well I could spend a long time. I know you're busy and you got to go, but this has been absolutely wonderful. So, Krista, thank you so much for being on this podcast with us. [00:50:18] Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. You're great. It's so nice that you get a piece of its value in helping everyone, and I appreciate it. We're listening. And hopefully I didn't talk too fast. You can understand that. [00:50:28] Well, the great thing is as a podcast, as you talk to fans, you can replay it and you can actually slow the audio down and do it step by step. [00:50:36] So. Well, for those who are listening, if you do like this podcast, please subscribe to it. Please like it on iTunes and YouTube. [00:50:45] Real quickly, I was going to tell I'm going to be having a podcast. It's called Fire with Krista, Measure on Fire with Krista Mashore it launches in three weeks. But it should be probably on the time this goes on. Absolutely. [00:50:54] On fire with Krista Mashore. [00:50:57] Yes. On fire records. To make sure. I'll be sure to pump up your your your your podcast when I remind start you on fire. Krista May Shores, if you're listening to this, look for us. We're gonna be doing it. The goal was due Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Will that three a week and just help give you some brisk business strategies? [00:51:13] Well, I'm going to plug it into that one for sure. On par with Krista Mashore. So by the time you get this podcast, go grab that one, too. So thanks so much, Krista. And you have a really blessed day. [00:51:25] You, too. You guys make sure you subscribe to and share his podcast. It helps him if you're listening. You want to help him just like he's helping you. [00:51:33] Absolutely. Thank you so much, Krista. Thanks, Beatty. Be blessed if you've enjoyed this podcast. [00:51:40] Be sure to subscribe to it so you never miss another episode. And please, like our get sellers calling you Facebook page. Also, if you want to increase sales from past clients and sphere of influence, dominate a geographic farm or convert home valuation leads. Check out our Agent Dominator program. We create custom content that differentiates you from other realtors, then use it to keep you top of mind with your prospects with postcards, targeted Facebook ads, email campaigns, video interviews and more. And the best part is we guarantee yourselves or give all your money back. Learn more. They get sellers calling you dot com and select agent dominator. [00:52:18] Thanks for listening to the Get Sellers Calling You podcast. Have a great day. P039 [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

How Real Estate Agents How to Make Money With Geographic Farming Beatty runs the popular podcast "Get Sellers Calling You!" and his company MasterGrabber and it's most popular product Agent Dominator MasterGrabber http://www.mastergrabber.com/ Beatty is recognized as one of the leading experts in professional-to-consumer marketing -- from branding to lead generation to top-of-mind. A veteran marketer, branding and direct response expert, Beatty’s professional career began in 1997 when he formed a marketing company to service the booming telecommunications industry. His clientele were independent sales professionals for whom he developed proprietary marketing technologies. These technologies helped clients generate ongoing sources of pre-qualified prospects for their services. One sales manager in Ohio exclaimed her sales team had increased their sales by ten times after only five months using Beatty's technology. https://www.facebook.com/mailrightusa/

How Real Estate Agents How to Make Money With Geographic Farming Beatty runs the popular podcast "Get Sellers Calling You!" and his company MasterGrabber and it's most popular product Agent Dominator MasterGrabber http://www.mastergrabber.com/ Beatty is recognized as one of the leading experts in professional-to-consumer marketing -- from branding to lead generation to top-of-mind. A veteran marketer, branding and direct response expert, Beatty’s professional career began in 1997 when he formed a marketing company to service the booming telecommunications industry. His clientele were independent sales professionals for whom he developed proprietary marketing technologies. These technologies helped clients generate ongoing sources of pre-qualified prospects for their services. One sales manager in Ohio exclaimed her sales team had increased their sales by ten times after only five months using Beatty's technology. https://www.facebook.com/mailrightusa/

Caroline: Hi, I’m Caroline Springer and welcome to our next session of Radical Faith. We have a Radical Faith podcast as part of our Get Sellers Calling You podcast with Beatty Carmichael. Professionally, Beatty is the CEO of MasterGrabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and a top marketing expert in the real estate field for many years. And personally, for many years, he has been a Christian and loves to talk about the Lord and that’s where the vision of this podcast came from. So I’m just going to pass it over to him to give a little disclaimer about the Radical Faith podcast and kind of what his idea is behind it. Beatty: I’m not sure I would call it a disclaimer, but maybe it is. The whole idea about Radical Faith is this has nothing to do specifically and directly with real estate business. It has everything to do with living your life as a passionate Christian. So this is all going to be about my Christian philosophy or theosophy if you call it that. So if you don’t want to hear it, you can delete this podcast out and just listen to the podcasts focused on how to build a real estate business, but we are going to talk about Christ today. That’s my disclaimer. Back to you. Caroline: We always chat a little at the beginning about the world we live in and how we have to give a disclaimer, but I think it is good. It excites me so I’m like, “All right, let’s jump in.” This is going to be about the Lord and nothing else. So I’m okay with that. Beatty: Part of that chat we were having is normal Christianity. So I definitely kind of want to bring that onto this call a little bit. The focus of these calls is what I call “normal Christianity.” If I were to ask you, Caroline, what do you think the typical Christian’s view of “normal Christianity” is? Is it healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, doing miracles or is it being a good person, not saying curse words, going to church on Sunday and reading your Bible? What is normal Christianity? Caroline: Yes, I would think sadly in the “normal” or maybe average Christian’s viewpoint, for those who claim to be Christian that’s what they would claim: being a good person, attending church, like you said, not saying curse words, living a chaste life, reading your Bible, praying before meals. The more Radical type of lifestyle is something that a lot of people may think is just preserved for certain people or that’s not really a thing anymore. I think that seems too far-fetched for them to believe that it’s something we’ve been invited into now. Beatty: True. So let me ask you. Who is our model for how to live as a Christian? Caroline: Jesus. He is our model. Beatty: Did he consider what he modeled to be normal or to be radical? What do you think his perspective on it was? Caroline: That’s a good question. Beatty: Let me ask that question another way. He is modeling for us how we should live, right? Caroline: Right. Beatty: Does He expect us to live anything but what He considers normal? Caroline: No. I think He was saying He only did the things He saw His Father do and he models for us a life like that so we can follow that. So I think His expectation was for Him to be paving a way for us to walk the way He walks. So I guess that would be normal for Him and normal for us. Beatty: Okay, so then how did He walk? It says, I think in John 14:22, don’t quote me exactly, but somewhere in John 14. It says, “Truly, truly whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and greater works will he do because I go to the Father.” Jesus is living out the works that we should do. If I were to ask, “What were the works that Jesus did,” what would you tell me? Not saying curse words? Read the Bible? Or something different? Caroline: I think something more. Like you said earlier, healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, parting the way, making a way for Heaven to invade Earth. That was His life. Beatty: Therein lies the topic of Radical faith. Most people think it’s radical. Jesus thinks it’s normal. Now we are not going to talk about today how to raise the dead or heal the sick. We might get into the sophics, but I think more than anything else it’s really understanding what we are called to do as a Christian. How are we called to live and those things that we consider in our 21st century nature to be radical, I think Jesus considered normal. How do we go back to what is normal and not what is myopically considered radical. That is where I want to kind of lean us into this call. Can I take the lead real quick and just kind of get this thing started? Caroline: Absolutely. Beatty: For those of you who have been listening in on our podcasts, you’ll kind of see this pattern. Caroline takes the lead in the interview process on the marketing stuff. I end up taking the lead on the radical faith stuff because she becomes my guinea pig just to use as a sounding board. On all the marketing calls, she has an outline of the direction we are going on the calls. But on the radical faith calls, she is totally blind, so she doesn’t know what I am going to bring up or what I am going to ask her. So we are going to put you on the spots a few times and see what your thoughts are. Okay? Caroline: Oh, good. Beatty: Oh, good. It’s just like normal. We are going to be normal on this call. The last call that we did on radical faith, we are been going through this series of what I call what is faith. We are trying to lay this foundation of what faith really means. On the previous call we started to talk about that faith comes hearing and hearing from the word of Christ. And then we started to look into that faith emanates from Christ. It emanates from His word. We then dissected the two most common Greek words that are translated into our English word: word. Those are… Caroline, do you remember those two Greek words by chance? Caroline: Logos and rhema. Beatty: Do you remember what the difference between logos and rhema are? Caroline: Oh goodness. Wasn’t logos more like a word and rhema was more like something you received and heard? Beatty: Exactly. So logos is simply a word that embodies an idea. In other words, Jesus goes out and preaches the Word to people. He is generally telling them truths. Rhema is when Jesus tells Peter: “Walk on the water.” Okay? Or tells Peter: “You will deny me three times before the cock crows.” Peter remember the word that Jesus told him. Or the angel that comes to Mary and says, “You are going to have a child.” And she says, “Be it done to me according to your word,” according to your rhema. Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word or the rhema of Christ. So in our real loose definitions. This is not a scholarly definition, this is more what I would call a, “how do you live” definition. A loose definition of rhema is something that God points directly at you. A real simple kind of understanding, Caroline, have you ever (I know you have) been reading your scriptures, reading the Bible and a passage stands out like God is talking directly to you. Have you had that happened to you before? Caroline: Absolutely. I have a lot of times where I will be in kind of conversation with the Holy Spirit. Later on, I will hear or read something in the Bible and it’s like the confirmation of what the Holy Spirit was just saying. There are a lot of times when things were highlighted. I feel like the Lord does that a lot for reassurance or confirmation. Beatty: Well, He does that a lot with me too and when that happens that, in general, what we call rhema. That is when the Holy Spirit is speaking directly to you. That is where we were when we wrapped up our Radical faith call. What I want to do is pick up from there and kind of try to wrap up this section before we run out of time. One of the things that we find about faith and this what I will call Radical faith is the idea or the truth that faith cannot exist by itself, that it is always accompanied by works. There is a passage in James, James 2:17 that says: “Even so faith if it has no works is dead being by itself.” So you kind of get this picture that faith cannot exist by itself. It’s sort of like the body without oxygen. It just dies. That body and oxygen have to go together. Faith and works have to go together. It says a couple of verses later. It’s talking about Abraham and it says, “Faith was working with Abraham’s works and as a result of the works faith was perfected.” So here is the question for you, Caroline. What does it mean that faith is perfected by works because, growing up in church, you always hear that we are saved by faith, not by works. Then we read this thing in James, you say you have faith but I have works and I’ll show you my faith by my works. So what is all this mean? What is the separation between faith and works? How would you describe that? Caroline: To me, whenever I’ve had conversation with people about that with grace and works and how they all go together. To me, works comes as a natural outcome of your faith and what you believe. Your faith also partners with that to also give you the strength and belief to be the foundation of your works. So it’s not like your works are an outcome of striving but your works are an outcome of beliefs and trust and pursuing the Kingdom. It’s a completely trajectory comparatively with those that, maybe some people struggle with feeling like they have to prove and work their way to the Lord or earn their salvation, which we know, scripturally, is not true. But I think that is just the natural question to struggle with for a lot of people. I think God’s intention in James is that it doesn’t have to be something that is conflicting, it can be something that can actually partner a lot easier and your faith is going to naturally push the works and your works are naturally going to cause you to increase your faith. Beatty: So let me see if I can make a real simple illustration to kind of tie this together. I want to invite you to a party. In fact, I am going to give this party in your honor. It’s going to be over at my house. It’s going to be Thursday night at 7:00. Can you come? Caroline: Sure, yes, I’d love to. Beatty: Is that a commitment? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: So now you have just given me your rhema. “I will be there.” So now, Thursday at 7:00 comes up and you are all excited because I’ve told you that we are going to get a caterer. We are going to invite all the people from church, all the people from the neighborhood and all the people from everywhere. And it’s going to be a great big party. And we are going to have child care so you don’t have to worry about Jethro and it’s going to be a wonderful time with your favorite foods and you are all excited. “This is my party.” Now you come over to the house. You come over at 7:00. You drive up to my house and you notice something strange. There are no cars out there. “Okay, well, I’m not sure what’s going on.” You have this question mark. You come up to the house and it’s kind of dark outside. There are no lights on. There are a couple of lights in the room but it’s not like it’s lite up. You look inside; there is no one there. You right the doorbell, ding dong. No one. You ring it again, ding dong. You are just about to walk away from my door and you hear these steps, boom boom boom, and it sounds like someone is coming up some steps and you see me running around the corner. I’m in my exercise clothes and I’m all hot and sweaty. I come to the door and open it. As soon as I catch your eyes, you see my expression go, “Oh my gosh!” You know that expression I’m talking about? Caroline: Yes. I imagine that you are trying to say that you forgot. Beatty: I didn’t forget. I say, “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t think you would be here. I never made any plans for the party.” Now what happens to you at that point? Are you happy or are you sad? Caroline: I imagine you would be sad and disappointed and questioning why you didn’t think I would attend. Beatty: Yes, you would have all these questions. Did I just sin against you? Caroline: That sounds so intense. I guess for the purpose of the illustration, yes? Beatty: So here is what happens. Let’s now analyze this a little bit more. You gave me a rhema and I did not act in works upon that rhema. Do you follow me so far? Caroline: Okay. Beatty: Faith is perfected through works. Faith is what we believe in. Faith comes by hearing the rhema of Christ. So if we hear Christ’s rhema and don’t believe it then we never act on it and therefore faith is never perfected because our works did not carry it out. Make sense? Caroline: Yes, that makes sense. Beatty: So in this illustration, how can your faith be perfected by works? Because if I had faith that you would have shown up then my works would have demonstrated that faith. I would have called the caterer. I would have called all the people. We would be having a great party. We would have a special parking space right up front to protect a special parking area just for you just o you could come right to the front door. All of this. But the fact that I did none of it means that my faith was never perfected because I never believed it. It’s not that I work for my faith; it’s that my works emanate from my faith. So here are a couple of truths that we can learn about this. Number one, our works are a demonstration of our faith. We do not produce works to have faith. We generate works because it emanates from our faith. Faith comes first and faith naturally births the works in our lives because we become as we believe. As a man believes, so he is. In fact, I heard a preacher this past Sunday hit on that comment quite a few times. Do you remember anything like that? Caroline: Yes, I do. Beatty: So it all kind of ties together. And here are a couple of other things we can take out of this. So you come to the door and I go, “Oh my gosh. I didn’t believe you. I thought you were lying to me. Therefore, I didn’t make any plans at all.” Now you are feeling dejected and rejected. You are frustrated. “How dare you? I planned my whole week around this. It has taken two hours to prepare for this. I’ve been making myself look beautiful. I’ve been telling all of my friends.” Now you are really upset at my aren’t you? Caroline: Yes, it sounds like I would be. Beatty: Yes, you would be. What happens then is that you turn away. You hop back in your car and you drive home. And now I have lost the blessing of your presence and fellowship with you because I did not believe. Now, this is what the images between us and God are. When the Lord gives us rhema and I’m not talking about something huge like step off a mountain and I’m going to hold you up, okay? I’m talking about just anything where we fail to trust the Lord and we know that we don’t trust him because our actions prove that we don’t believe just like in that example. Then what happens is that all of God’s amazing blessings that he had in store for us fall through our fingertips and we don’t even receive them because they are only received by faith, not by works, but it’s our works that demonstrate our faith and therefore, that’s how our faith is perfected with works. Is all of this kind of making sense? Caroline: Absolutely. I think that was a good step-by-step explanation with that scenario about the definition and how that works. It’s a funny scenario. I think it’s a great example and explanation. Beatty: Okay, cool. So now let’s talk a little further on this, if we can. A simple takeaway. Your faith is always displayed by acting on God’s word. If you don’t act on it, you don’t really believe it. This is the essence of what I call “radical” faith. It should be normal. By the way, was there ever a time in Jesus’ life where He did not act in works based on His faith in what God had directed or told Him to do? Any time?  Caroline:  No. A time when He did not act based on what the Father told Him to do? No, He didn’t.  Beatty: So when He raised someone from the dead, was that Him acting by faith? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: Okay. If we use this definition of faith. When He healed someone, was that acting by faith? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: And did He raise them from the dead? Did He heal them or was it the Holy Spirit doing that work? Caroline: It was Him. The Holy Spirit came later. Beatty: Matthew and Acts both say that it was the Holy Spirit working through Jesus that performed the miracles. Acts says that it was God’s power working through Jesus of Nazareth that did all of these miracles. In other words, that Jesus was modeling for us; this doesn’t take any of His Deity away, I’m just saying that the scripture says that the Holy Spirit is what raised someone from the dead. Healed somebody. We even see this in scripture that God commands, but it’s the Holy Spirit. You have God the Father as the ultimate authority and all power. He designates His authority to Jesus and then Jesus delegates authority to the Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will open your mind to all of these things and He will not speak anything to you that I have not commanded him already to speak. Are you with me or did I just lose you? Caroline: No, I’m here. Beatty: Maybe I’m going too deep in this. Let me pull back out before I get too deep. So faith is displayed by acting on God’s word. Jesus displays living by faith and, when you live by that faith, you act on His word then amazing things happen. I want to tell a personal story. We all kind of get caught into this because we get our eyes on the natural rather than our eyes on God. Jesus always kept His eyes on the Lord. He said, “Everything I do is what I see my Father doing.” He’s always looking at the Father first. Go back quite a few years, this is 2002. We are running and making a lot of money the first part of 2002. We’ve got a large corporate account that is scheduled to leave on June 1 and as soon they leave, we are going to be upside down. We are going to lose huge amounts of money, more money a month than most people will earn in a year. We hit June, we start to go upside down. The first month or two, I’m okay. By the third or fourth month, somewhere in there, I start to panic. Oh my gosh, I’m scared. Because I look in the natural. Just like Peter walking on the water, he looks at the wind and the waves and he gets scared. I’m looking in the natural; I get scared. We start to batten down all the hatches. Everyone is put on forced payroll reduction. I take the biggest cut of everyone. My number two man takes the second biggest cut and everyone else takes a bit cut as well. We are trying to weather the storm and we are losing money month after month. Now, it’s January 2003. Now, we’ve been unprofitable, losing money for about six months. Do you get the picture so far? It’s desperate, dire circumstances. Right? Caroline: Right. Beatty: So I’m out there on my day of prayer. I take a day off and say, “Lord, I am going to meet with you.” I’m out there. It’s now the end of January, just a couple of days before the end of the month and I’m on the golf course which is where I take my day of prayer. I don’t play, I just walk and pray and talk. I’m asking the Lord, “Lord, when are you going to let up? Do you know what the Lord told me? He asked me a question. “Do you really believe I can take care of you?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “If you really believe, how would you act differently than you are acting right now?” So what I said is, “Well, if I really believed it then I would put myself at full pay and I would put all my other people at full pay.” He said, “Then why don’t you do it and trust me?” Okay? This is what I’m talking about with radical faith. It makes no sense, but it is trusting the Lord. It is doing what Jesus said. Jesus trusted the Lord and He never feared. Why do we fear? Because we live in the natural. So I did. I put my eyes on Him instead of on the circumstances and I called my number two guy at the time, his name was Walter and I said, “Walter, put me and everyone else back at full pay, retroactive for the full month” because everyone had gotten a short paycheck midmonth. And so he did. Two days later, payroll hit. We lost a lot of money because that was a lot of money that we didn’t have. But here’s the cool thing. The very next month, we made a profit and this is a small business, we had a $20,000 swing on our bottom line, $20,000 more on our bottom line than we had the month before. And I looked at the P and L and I couldn’t find it even to this day, I’ve go back to that P and L multiple times and there is nothing there where we had a lot more revenue, less expenses. I don’t know how it happened, but it happened. And, for the next string of months, we were profitable. What changed? What changed in all that? Do you know? Caroline: Your faith. Beatty: Yes. I acted on my faith. Faith is perfected by works. That’s what this is meaning. So for those of you guys listening out there, what are you afraid of that you know God has said, “Trust me.” If you really believe God’s word to be true, how would you act differently than you are acting right now? And whatever that is, do it, because that is what James is talking about. Faith is perfected by works. Faith without works is dead. Therefore, you cannot believe unless you are going to show that belief through your works. Pretty fascinating isn’t it? Caroline: It is. That was a really inspiring story too. I think it also makes a better definition of that verse and that challenge explaining how faith and works go hand and hand. They are not in opposition of one another. Beatty: No, they definitely are not. We are going to go just a little bit over on this call but I have some points I want to wrap up with. So what faith really is, Caroline, it is seeing from God’s perspective. See, when Peter was walking on the water he was looking at Jesus seeing Jesus’ perspective and he was walking then he looked from His perspective into the waves and he gets scared. And in the very same situation he has two completely outcomes. One outcome by perfecting his faith through works. The other outcome by getting afraid and stop working by faith. Okay? The same thing happened with me, just reversed with the money. So when we see what God sees then we believe as God believes (if you want to use the term “God believes”). When we see as God sees then we get to believe as God believes and then when we act on that belief that is when our faith is perfected. And the challenge that we run into, and this is why it is so tough. Let me ask you a question instead of making a statement. Are we more spirit being or physical being? As a Christian? Caroline: Spirit being. Beatty: Okay. Where do we spend all of our time, focus and our sensory senses? Physical or spiritual? Caroline: I guess physical Beatty: Yes. So here is our problem. We are more spirit beings living in the spirit or should be, but where we actually live most of our time is in the physical because we have physical bodies. We have our sight, sound, hearing, everything, taste, touch is all physical. It’s easy to lose sight of spiritual truths because we get to see everything in the physical. This is where the challenge comes from. But if we can overcome and look in the spirit realm, both figuratively and literally. We look in the spirit realm figuratively and spiritually by looking at God’s truth and his truth trumps the physical. Okay? It is what it is. I want to give you some examples. I want to give you some passages and some scriptures and show you how this plays itself out in the scriptures. The first one comes from 2 Kings, Chapter 6. This is Elisha and his servant. This is actually where we get the term “chariots of fire.” There is a battle with King Aram. King Aram is the enemy king and any time he makes a move against the Israel king then Elisha is telling the Israel king what is going on. So the Israel king gets to adjust. It may have been Judah, but I think it’s Israel. And now, that is where we pick up. “This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?” “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.” “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” (Just like me. On my goodness, we are losing money, what do I do?) the servant asked. And then Elisha, who sees from God’s perspectives says, “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Here is the point on this, once the servant saw from God’s perspective, which is in the spiritual realm, he was no longer afraid. Does that make sense? Caroline: Yes, that does. Beatty: Let me give you another example. Say it’s the 27th of the month, and this is personal for you and Wes, it’s the 27th of the month and you guys have $2,000 of bills needing to be paid and you don’t have the money. You don’t know where it is going to come from. You’ve run out of money for the month and you still have $2,000 left to pay. And this is critical. Maybe this is your mortgage. Okay? You are at risk of losing the house if you don’t pay it. So you are going to pray and ask the Lord to help you out, is that right? Caroline: Right. Beatty: Okay. So when you pray and ask God to send it, how solid is your faith that He is going to send you that money in the next two or three days? Caroline: Pretty solid because we just seen Him be faithful time and time again. He’ll be faithful again. Beatty: Let me ask you, would you put Jethro’s life on it? Do you believe it that much? Caroline: That such an intense question. I don’t know that the Lord would ask me that. Beatty: I know He wouldn’t but the question isn’t, how much do you really believe? Do we believe in essence, trusting that He is going to do something or do we have an absolute, unequivocal, absolutely $2,000 is going to show up in the mailbox or someone is going to bring it to me within the next two or three days. Caroline: That’s a good challenge to ask yourself. Beatty: I’m leading somewhere. I’m always leading somewhere with these questions. So the question is, we pray and we ask, but do we really believe. We trust, but do we really believe that $2,000 is going to how up in the mail in the next two days? Okay. So now, let’s look at it from God’s perspective for just a moment. One month ago, your mortgage company paid your taxes your taxes and insurance out of money from escrow. And they realized that they collected $2,000 more from you over the last year than was needed. So they processed a $2,000 check. It was mailed two days ago and you are about to get it today. Okay? That is God’s perspective. You know that that check is coming. You know all these details. Now when you pray and ask God for $2,000 do you have a different level of confidence that he is going to provide it. Caroline: Absolutely. You would have the whole scope. Beatty: So what changed? Caroline: You were placing yourself in Heaven’s perspective to see where the Lord is coming through. When you have the whole scope, your prayers change. You have faith and confidence. You can see that He will be faithful and He’s coming through. Beatty: In God’s perspective, everything changes. I think we talked about this a few times back that it’s all about seeing from God’s perspective. That’s what I am talking about here. This radical faith is seeing from God’s perspective. Elisha’s faith was not scared at all because he could see from God’s perspective. Once God opened the servant’s eyes to see from his perspective as well, he was no longer afraid. When we get our eyes focused on the natural, we become afraid. When we keep our eyes focused on the Lord and his truth, which is His perspective, then if we believe it, we are no longer afraid ourselves. The only way that we can demonstrate our belief is to act on it. That’s kind of how all that works. So that’s what faith is. Next time we will start on the topic I call, “Getting out of the boat.” We are laying the foundation now and now the next set of calls we going to start to get where the rubber meets the road and it’s going to be a lot of fun. You want to close us out real quick? Caroline: Sure. Well Beatty, thank you so much for your time and sharing all the revelation and wisdom that you received from the Lord. I think this really was a great and challenging call. I’m excited to hear next time about getting out of the boat and just continuing on in our conversation. I think we are going to wrap up. I don’t think we are doing a question and answer for this call. With that being said, Beatty, if you don’t have anything else, I think we are wrapped up. That’s all we have for today. Beatty: Great. Thanks a lot. Y’all have a great day.   If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please tell others about. Also, be sure to get our step-by-step training on how to double sales and referrals from past clients and sphere of influence. It’s absolutely the easiest way to grow your business fast and it’s completely free. You’ll find it on our website at GetSellersCallingYou.com. Thanks for listening.   P004

Radical Faith – What is Faith – Part 2   Caroline: Hi everyone. I’m Caroline Springer. Welcome to this next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael. This is actually one of our Radical Faith calls and these are little bit different. A quick little intro about Beatty and I will let him explain our Radical Faith calls are. Beatty is the CEO of MasterGrabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and he’s one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. He also is a Christian and loves the Lord and really has walked out his faith in an inspiring way in the business world. Beatty, I’m going to pass it over to you if you’d like to share just a little bit about what these Radical Faith calls are and how they are different than our typical marketing calls. Beatty:  Sure, well, you know in California they have a law that’s passed that says anything that’s sold in California that has any ingredients or chemicals that could cause cancer, you have to put a warning label on it. What’s really funny is my children and I were at Bass Pro Shops or Cabela’s years back and one of my sons bought one of these really sharp military grade knifes.  These were meant to hurt people and to hurt animals or cut wood or whatever, and there’s this warning label on it: Warning. This knife contains chemicals that are known to cause cancer and I’m thinking here we have a weapon and they’re putting this warning sign on it. I want to give my little warning for those out there that this may be your first time with a Radical Faith call.  This has nothing to do with marketing a real estate business, this particular call. The Radical Faith call has everything to do with how do you live your life for Christ? So, if you’re not interested in my Christianity, if you’re not interested in Christianity at all, you are fairly warned and you can press delete on your podcast or you can hang up on the call. Otherwise, I’m not trying to push my belief onto you, but I’m trying to share my beliefs with those who want to hear them. That’s our little disclaimer up front. So, I’ll turn it back over to you now. Caroline: I love it. It’s a little less scary than cancer-causing…. Beatty:  But this is cancer free. This will be cancer free. Caroline: This will be cancer free. This is a cancer free zone. Only things that will benefit you, benefit your health. Beatty:  Can I share a quick story?  I’ve got to share this story. So, I get out and I pray for people. That’s just part of what I do. I remember I was over at Walmart and I had seen this 50 something year old lady, and she caught my eye as I was talking to someone at the entrance to Walmart, but I didn’t do anything about it. About 30 minutes later, I see her again in an isle on the other side of the store and I just felt the Holy Spirit saying, I need to go pray for her. So, literally, I walked over to her and said, excuse me ma’am. The Holy Spirit just kind of highlighted you and I think there’s something I need to pray for you about. “Is there anything I can pray for you?” She looks at me with this blank stare, almost with the expression like, who are you. She then kind of broke a little bit and said, “Yes.” I said, “How can I pray for you?” She says, “I have really bad back pain. I have degenerative discs in my back and I have neuropathy in my legs.” I was asking about the neuropathy and if there was a real tight constriction on her legs.  The feeling was a real tight constriction and a lot of pain up in the thigh area on both of her legs.  So, I said, “Let me pray for you.”  So, I prayed for her healing and I said, “Do you feel anything?”  I literally prayed 10 seconds or less and she goes, “Yeah, all the pain in my back is gone.” I said, “Great, but how about your legs?” She said, “I feel release. I feel release. They don’t feel quite as tight.” I said, “Well, good.”  Let’s pray again. And so we prayed again and five or ten seconds later after praying, I said, “Do you feel anything?” She said, “Yes, I feel heat in my back.” I said, “That’s great. That’s the Holy Spirit healing your back and let’s just give it time. Tell me what you feel now.” She says, “Well, that heat is now in my legs. All through my legs.” I said, “That’s great. The Holy Spirit is healing you there.” I said, “Now tell me what’s going on.” She said, “The heat is now up in my stomach area.” “Okay, let’s just keep giving it some time.” Now, all this is over maybe like two minutes, maybe three at most. Then I said, “Now tell me what you feel.” She said, “The heat is going away.” I said, “That’s perfect.” I said, “Tell me about your back.” “No pain.” I said, “Do something that you could not have done without a lot of pain.” She bends all the way over and touches her toes. Degenerative discs could never have done that. Then, I said, “What about your legs and she said, all of the pain is gone. I said, “Fantastic.” I said, “Now, is there anything going on in your stomach area?”  She said, “Yes, I’ve had an ovarian cyst for about a year and I don’t feel that either.” Caroline: Wow. Beatty:  Yeah and it’s really cool talking about these warning labels that can cause cancer, but the reality is Warning: This stuff with the Lord can cause the healing of cancer. It can cause healing of all kinds of things and restoring of our lives. As Jesus said that He came that we might have life and have life to the fullest. To the fullest is not to be bound by sickness and disease. Some of us are and sometimes God doesn’t heal, but I’ve seen such a consistency in that, that I’ve got to believe that the heart of the Father is truly what Jesus said. That we would have life in its fullness in all areas. So, I’m excited to share a little bit more about what we’ve started on the last Radical Faith call and continue that process in understanding this thing called faith and kind of what it all is. So, can we kind of jump on in now that we’ve spent about five minutes here. Caroline: Yes, I love it.  Let’s go. Beatty:  Let me give a real quick review of where we were last time. We’re going through a step-by-step process in understanding what faith really is, understanding it from a Biblical perspective. What does the scripture say that faith is and what do the scriptures show how the faith is lived out and manifests itself in everyday life? What we’ve found is that faith is, from Jesus’ perspective, one of the most important things. Not only is it one of the very few things, as a matter of fact, there’s only three things I know that Jesus ever rebuked his disciples for. One was when the disciples wanted to call fire down from Heaven and consume the people like Elijah did. One when he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me Satan. Every other rebuke that Jesus gave his disciples, which was over and over again, was oh you of little faith. Why did you doubt?  So, he makes a big deal out of faith. The other thing Jesus did is He prays and says, when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the Earth. It’s such a big deal that He’s asking will He find faith. We find that faith. We’ve talked about Hebrews 1. That faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. It is a title deed, meaning it’s the evidence of things being real that you cannot see. It’s the same evidence of things being real as when you’re on your cell phone. We have complete faith that there are radio waves out there and that we can talk on that cell phone. We have no idea how it works, but we have evidence that it’s real. Therefore, that’s what the Bible is talking about. The faith that we do not see, but we have the evidence that it is real. What we started to do is we started to talk about how faith manifests itself. We talked about Moses parting the Red Sea. God told him to basically stop whining. Tell the people to move forward. Forward was directly into the Red Sea and we find that Moses acted by God’s direction before he saw and God performed.  Then we talked about Elijah and the widow during the drought during the reign of Kind Ahab and how that happened. Now I want to pick up on a couple of more stories as we continue to talk about how faith gets manifested into our lives. I want to talk about Biblical stories and some current day stories, sort of like the healing. That’s actually an expression of faith that I was sharing. If we go back to the Bible, there’s a passage. I’m not going to ask you where that passage is and put you on the spot, Caroline. But there’s a passage where Peter is walking on the water and it’s in Matthew 14 and I just want to read you part of this passage and then ask you a couple of questions. Let me set the stage. They have, just the day before, fed the 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish and that was 5,000 men, so we know there’s probably ten or fifteen thousand people by the time you add women and children. Then, Jesus goes up to the top of the mountain to pray, and as he goes up to pray, he sends the apostles and disciples back across the lake in the boat. So, they’re out there and it says that they’re straining at the oars all night because there’s a headwind against them and then Jesus, during the early dawn hours of the morning, He now walks across the lake and they see him dimly and they think He’s a ghost and everyone gets afraid. Are you familiar with this passage? Caroline: Yes, absolutely. Beatty:  Okay, good.  So, He says, don’t be afraid, it’s just me. What does Peter blurt out at that point, do you remember? Caroline: Lord if it’s you, tell me to come to you. Beatty:  That’s right. Lord if that’s you, tell me to come walk on the water too. So, now we pick up Matthew 14 verse 22 and it says, and He, meaning Jesus, “And He said, come and Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But, when seeing the wind, he became frightened and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord save me. Immediately, Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him and said, you of little faith.” Here’s one of his rebukes. You of little faith, why did you doubt? So, here’s my question to you. Who acted in this story? Caroline: Peter acted. He had the faith and the risk to step out of the boat. Beatty:  There you go. Did he see before he acted? Caroline: No. Like you mean see himself successfully walking? No. That was definitely a leap of faith, if you will, just to step out onto that water. Beatty: Correct. So, why did he act? Caroline: To me, I love that Peter, to his reply to the fear of them all thinking that it’s a ghost, that he says, tell me. Like, tell me to come and your question is why? I feel like just that trust in knowing the Lord’s voice. If you tell me, I’m willing to go, I’m willing to take that step even if I can’t see. Beatty:  That’s right. He acted because God told him to act. Make sense? Caroline: Absolutely, yes. Beatty: Okay, so let’s review. Peter acted before he could see, but he acted because he’s stepping out on the command or the word of the Lord, and then who performed? Caroline: Well, I guess, Peter was acting, and so it was his act, but really it was the Lord. I mean, but we, in our own flesh cannot walk on water. But with the Lord providing, I guess, he’s the one that performed in response to Peter’s faith. Beatty:  And so we see this pattern. Go throughout scripture and you’ll see this all the time.  Man acts before he can see, but he acts by the clearly delineated will of God, trusting that truth and God then comes in and performs. So, this is how faith is manifested all the time. Think about me healing that lady. Who acted? I did. Why did I act? Because God said, go do what I do. It says, truly, truly whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and I actually just believe Him that we’ll actually do the works that He does and so we go out. When I went out and I prayed for that lady, I couldn’t see it. I had no idea how it happens, but I expected to happen and who performed? The Holy Spirit came and performed a healing work on her body. Why? Because He loves her and He wanted to demonstrate His love to her. We see this process. Let me read a couple more stories that are more modern day. Modern day, this is back in the late 1800s, early 1900s, but there’s a guy named, George Mueller. If you’re not familiar with him, he ran an orphanage of twenty thousand children over in England back in the turn of the early 19th century and this is a story of one thing going on. I’m just going to read it to you just to make sure all the data is there. One morning, all the plates and cups and bowls on the table were empty. He was in the breakfast room and they were about to have breakfast. The plates and the cups and the bowls are empty. There is no food in the pantry and no money to buy food. The children were standing waiting for their morning meal when Mueller said, “Children, you know we must be in time for school.” Then lifting up his hands he prayed, “Dear Father, we thank you for what you are going to give us to eat.” Pretty bold, don’t you think? Nothing there. No food in the pantry and he prays and says, “Thank you for what you are going to give us to eat.” I love these stories. There is a knock at the door. The baker stood there and said, “Mr. Mueller, I couldn’t sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn’t have bread for breakfast and I felt that the Lord wanted me to send you some. So I got up at 2:00 in the morning and baked some fresh bread and brought it.” Mr. Mueller thanked the baker and, no sooner had he left there was a second knock at the door. It was the milkman. He announced that his milk cart had broken down right in front of the orphanage and he would like to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he can empty his cart and repair it. Isn’t that cool? So here’s a question. Who acted? Caroline: George. Beatty: That’s right. He acted by praying and thanking the Lord for the food that they were about to eat. Did he see or have any knowledge of that food before he acted? Before he prayed? Caroline: No. I love that. I love that the thankfulness is the act in this too. Beatty:  Yes. So why did he act? Caroline: Just trusting the Lord and His goodness and His promise to be a Father who takes care of His kids. Beatty:  That’s right. He is acting on God’s promises that can never fail. And then, who performed? Caroline: The Lord, through the obedience of that baker. The Lord prompted them to provide. I think that’s the Lord acting on George’s behalf. Beatty:  I think so too. Here is kind of a question we don’t fully know that answer to, but I think we can piece it together by understanding scripture. If Mueller did not pray and thank the Lord and fully expect that the Lord would provide provision for them, would God have delivered the food? Caroline: Most of me wants to say yes because God’s goodness is not contingent upon us. That’s what His grace is. But there is part of me too that has seen the Lord perform, if you will, or act in response to our faith, in response to our thankfulness. Thankfulness can open the door for something that maybe would not have happened otherwise. I don’t know if that is a direct answer because I’ve seen it both ways. I’d love to hear your examples and scripture. Beatty:  I’m going to show you another example then I’m going to come back to that question. But let me ask you, based on this scriptural example. If Peter had not seen Jesus walking on the water. If Jesus has not told him to come. But if Peter just got this crazy idea to just step out of the boat and try walking on the water on his own, what do you think would have happened? Caroline: He would have drowned maybe. Beatty:  Exactly. So there is something here that says, it’s not just the act of doing it but the Lord has to be involved. There has to be, what I’ll call, a level of belief. Let’s look at one more story of George Mueller. This one is cool. Let me set up the environment. In Mueller’s later life—in the 1860s and 70s—he started to speak. He lived in Bristol, England. He was invited to go speak in Quebec, Canada, I believe it was. So he gets on a steamer and comes across the Atlantic. The scheduled date is on a Saturday coming up. As they get closer to the North American continent, the steamer runs into a really thick fog. It’s so thick that they literally turn the engines off. They put them in complete idle because—and this still happens today—you can’t see through it and therefore it’s extremely dangerous to try to power through the fog in case you run into something. You are totally blind. So they can only do it when they can see. That then brings me to this story. This is a first-hand account. There is a guy named Mr. Ingles writing his interactions with the captain of that ocean liner that Mueller was on. So here’s the story. This is the captain speaking:   "Mr. Inglis, the last time I crossed here, five weeks ago, one of the most extraordinary things happened which, has completely revolutionized the whole of my Christian life. Up to that time I was one of your ordinary Christians. We had a man of God on board, George Müller, of Bristol. I had been on that bridge for twenty-two hours and never left it. I was startled by someone tapping me on the shoulder. It was George Müller: "'Captain, he said, 'I have come to tell you that I must be In Quebec on Saturday afternoon.' This was Wednesday. "'It is impossible,' I said.   [And watch this confidence George Mueller has.]   "'Very well, if your ship can't take me, God will find some other means of locomotion to take me. I have never broken an engagement in fifty seven years.' "’I would willingly help you. How can I? I am helpless.' "'Let us go down to the chart-room and pray.' "I looked at that man of God, and I thought to myself, what lunatic asylum could that man have come from? I never heard of such a thing. "'Mr. Müller,' I said, 'do you know how dense the fog is?' "'No,' he replied, 'my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life.' "He got down on his knees and prayed one of the simplest prayers. I muttered to myself: 'That would suit a children's class where the children were not more than eight or nine years old.' The burden of his prayer was something like this: 'O Lord, if it is consistent with Thy will, please remove this fog in five minutes. You know the engagement you made for me in Quebec Saturday. I believe it is your will.' "When he finished. I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. "First, you do not believe He will; and second. I believe He has. And there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.' I looked at him, and George Müller said. "'Captain. I have known my Lord for forty-seven years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to gain an audience with the King. Get up, captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone.' I got up, and the fog was gone!”   This is just another story of faith manifesting itself. So here is a question. Who acted in this story?   Caroline: Definitely George. That kind of faith changes the world.   Beatty:  Right. Did he act before he saw?   Caroline: No.   Beatty:  Why did he act?   Caroline: Even at the end just there you said that he’s known the Lord for 47 years. He has seen him act before and he knows the character of the Lord. He knows that is something you can trust. That is why. That is something worthy of putting your faith in.   Beatty:  It is. He acted because he was confident in the truth and validity of the word and the word to him was God was going to get him there because God has done it all before.   There is one other element and we’ll talk about this later but it is the level of belief. Who performed?   Caroline: The Lord. It’s like that story of Jesus calming the storm. A little fog? A storm? That’s nothing.   Beatty: Absolutely. Now let me put one other thing in perspective because we didn’t cover this. The captain had been on the bridge for 22 hours. These fogs last for usually ten days to two weeks before they dissipate. So this was an absolutely miracle from that perspective.   So here is what we find. We also find this in scripture. Jesus says, “Pray believing that you have received and it shall be granted you.” That’s just what Mueller did.   So let me go back to the question I asked you on the previous one. If Mueller did not pray for provision of the food you say, “I think God would have still provided it.” If Mueller did not pray for the lifting of the fog, would the fog have still lifted?   Caroline: No, it would not have.   Beatty:  No, it would not, and, therefore, I believe—back to the provision of the food—had Mueller not have prayed, the food would not have arrived.   I did a study on prayer throughout all the Old Testament and New Testament. God acts upon prayer, not in the absence of prayer.   So let’s look at a few more things about this story on Mueller. If it be Your will. Have you heard people pray, “Well Lord if it’s Your will, please do this.” Then it doesn’t happen and someone says, “Oh, it must not be God’s will.” Have you ever heard people pray like that?   Caroline: Yes, many times.   Beatty:  I see it a lot in healing. “Oh, thank you for your prayer but, you know, I’ve had a lot of people pray for me and God hasn’t healed me. It’s just not His will.” I say, “Well let me pray” and they get healed. This doesn’t happen all the time, but about two-thirds of the time. What is it about, “if it be Your will”? Here is what Mueller said, “If it is consistent with Your will, lift this fog in five minutes so I may make my appointment. I believe it is Your will.” So the question is, how did Mueller pray differently than most of us pray?   Here is what I would to suggest. When people pray, “If it’s Your will,” for the most part, it’s a copout. “I don’t really believe you are going to do it God, but I know You are sovereign. I know You can do it. Therefore, if it is Your will, I’m going to trust You to do it.” But what they lose sight of are the other passages in the Bible. “Pray believing you have received and it will be yours.” “Say to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea and if you believe in your heart and do not doubt, it will happen.” Command this mulberry tree to be taken up and cast into the sea and if you will do it without doubting, it will happen.” James says, “Let not a man receive anything from the Lord if he doubts.”   So we have all of these passages focused on this concept of believing it to be true. I would submit to you that Mueller absolutely believed it was true. That’s why he says, “I believe it is your will.” So let me ask you one other question as we are talking about prayer. Had Mueller not prayed, but the captain did pray, would that fog have been lifted?   Caroline: I would think not because he didn’t believe. It’s like what you are saying, he’s not coming before the Father with faith. He is coming begrudgingly. It’s a different heart.   Beatty: Yes, with a different heart. So here we have one final element on how faith gets manifested. You have to have faith if you want God to work in your life. That faith, we are going to find in our next session, is rooted in the word of God and specifically in His promises and commands. It’s not just rooted in that, it’s rooted in those and when we believe on those. Mueller did not simply believe on his own willpower. That is not what Jesus talks about. When we believe, the only thing we can believe in is what is truth. Jesus says, “They word is truth.” The only truth that exists is His word. So the only thing we can believe in being truthful is His word. So simply trying to have the willpower of our own, “I believe, I believe”—the harder you try to believe, the less you really believe because you are trying to fool yourself.   So we will talk about all of these. Is this pretty interesting?   Caroline: Oh, I love this. This is definitely inspiring and kind of solidifying too, even challenging belief systems that I think are easy to float around. Even what I was saying earlier, it’s easy to think, “Well, even if I don’t pray, God is good.” But the Lord invites us to partner with him and to believe and to pray. He wants us to experience that. I think it’s a really good challenge to remember our positions as children, that He invites us to be risk takers and to have radical faith. I love this.   Beatty:  Cool. I know we are out of time, so let’s close out.   Caroline: I love these calls, I’m sorry. Sometimes I tend to get so enthralled I’m not even looking at the clock. But yes, we are about out of time.   Beatty, thank you for your time and sharing your wisdom and experience and stories and scripture. I think it’s a really great call and I hope all of our listeners really enjoyed it also and were inspired. That’s all we have for today. Thank you again Beatty for sharing. I look forward to continuing on next time.   Beatty:  Me too. Y’all be blessed. P002

Caroline: Hi everyone.  I’m Caroline Springer.  Welcome to this next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael.  This is one of our special calls, our Radical Faith calls.  I’m going to pass over the call to Beatty for just a moment.  If you maybe want to explain what your vision is and idea is behind the Radical Faith series. Beatty: Sure.  Most of these podcast calls are all focused on how do you grow a real estate business from a marketing perspective, but really we’re not only real estate agents.  For those of us who are Christians, we’re also children of God and we have a responsibility there.  We do these calls called Radical Faith and I just want to be right up front real quick.  If you’re not interested in Christianity, if you don’t want to hear my views or perspectives from a religious standpoint, then you can go on and delete out of this podcast because that’s all we’re going to talk about on this call is how to server the Lord and how to live by faith.  So that’s my little plug before we get started.  Caroline: Perfect.  Well, thank you, Beatty.  I like it.  It’s their free pass if they don’t want to listen.  Beatty: That’s right.  Free pass to leave before you get offended, right? Caroline: Yes, there you go.  That’s a little claim labor kind of thing.  Just a quick reminder about who Beatty is.  Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber.  He’s the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field.  Also, like Beatty just mentioned, he is a Christian and has been for much of his life and has been a Christian businessman for much of his life as well.  I know just from dialoging with him back and forth on these and then watching Beatty work as a Christian businessman, he has so many testimonies of really actively seeing the word at work in his business and in his business partnerships, it’s really inspiring and refreshing in the world that we live in because so many people want you to keep your faith out of the business world.  Whatever industry that you work in and for most of our listeners, that’s the real estate industry.  Today, I really don’t have a topic because Beatty wanted to surprise me with what we’re talking about.  We’ll just have a free, open dialogue and then just a reminder for those of you that are on our live call, we do have the lines muted, but we will open up at the end for questions and answers.  So, Beatty, I’m very interested and curious what we’re going to be talking about since I don’t have any outline or idea. Beatty: We are actually going to be doing a continuation of the last 2 Radical Faith calls.  We’ve been on the focus of trying to understand what faith is.  Where this goes, as a Christian, is we want to first understand one of the core concepts of Christianity, of our relationship with the Lord and that is really understanding what faith is.  Until you understand what faith is, it’s impossible to live as Christ lived because everything Jesus did was by faith.  The only thing he really ever rebuked his disciples for, I think that probably out of 10 different rebukes I’ve seen 8 of them if not 9 are all focused on ‘Oh, ye of little faith’.  Now, there may be more than 10, there may be less than 10 but the bottom line is, except with 1 or 2 exceptions is the only thing that Jesus rebuked his disciples about is their lack of faith.  The question is, what is this thing that we call faith?  Why is it so important?  How do we apply it in our lives?  If we can really understand it, then we can really start to follow it.  Does that make sense? Caroline: Absolutely.  Even going through some of these podcast calls in this series have been challenging and good for me too.  They’ve brought me to more of an understanding and like you said, and even shedding more light on some of those things that you were saying where Jesus rebuked them for a lack of faith.  Depending on the church that you go to, sometimes that gets watered down and some of that is overlooked.  I think this is a good challenge but a refreshing, good challenge because when we’re invited into it, that’s what we are created to walk in.  It’s a lot easier than it may feel at times because we don’t just have our strength, we have the Lords.  Yeah, that makes total sense.  I’m with you. Beatty: Great.  If we look at the ultimate goal of our Christian life, it’s to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and become more into the image of Christ.  That’s the process of what’s typically called sanctification.  The question is, how do we get there?  The first step is the concept of faith and that’s why I want to dig into it a little bit more.  When we start talking about faith, Jesus talks about faith and belief as 2 separate things.  The Bible starts to make clarity that faith and belief are actually different.  However, for simplicity sake, as we go into this right now, I’m going to combine them together.  Sometimes Jesus may say, believe.  Sometimes he may say, have faith, but for real basic understanding, we’re going to assume that they’re both the same and maybe on a later discussion we’ll separate them out and define what they are separately.  With that, let’s talk about what faith really is.  I want to go back to just a few foundational passages that start to give us a framework and some simple truths.  One of the truths that apart from faith, we can receive nothing from the Lord.  James I, 6 and 7, let’s test your scripture memory.  Do you know what James I, 6 and 7 says? Caroline: Oh, gosh.  You always put me on the spot like that. Beatty: I’ll bet you’re looking it up in your Bible right now.  No, I’m teasing. Caroline: Well, I know it’s about faith and then when you’re asking the Lord and you don’t doubt. Beatty: Yes, that’s it.  That’s exactly it. Caroline: Is it something along those lines?  The reason is because we just talked about that recently so I promise it really was because of that. Beatty: I love it.  Well, it was a special circumstance.  Here’s what this says.  It says, ‘but he must ask in faith without any doubting for the one who doubts ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord’.  Here, we can find one of these pivotal truths that without faith, it’s impossible to receive anything from the Lord.  This is also where Jesus says in Mark 11:24, which is the next foundational truth, and that is ‘when we pray by faith, we receive what we ask for’.  We know it to be true because it’s a spiritual truth, but sometimes the question is if we pray and we don’t receive, it doesn’t invalidate the truth, it just means that we did not fully apply it.  But here’s what Jesus says.  Mark 11:24, ‘Therefore I tell you whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours’.  A real simple question, is that an emphatic statement or do you think there’s a lot of wiggle room in that statement? Caroline: No.  I don’t think there’s a lot of wiggle room in the Bible at all. Beatty: Yeah, right, okay. Caroline: I think that’s a truthful statement. Beatty: It’s a truthful statement because Jesus said it and therefore if we pray, say, well, I prayed in faith and I didn’t receive it, all I can tell you  just because you didn’t receive it doesn’t mean that you prayed in faith.  We have truth and then we have experience.  We’re going to get a little bit into today, but more in subsequent sessions what happens when we think we’re acting by faith, but we’re really not and how does that impact what we get.  We have this second foundational statement that when we pray by faith, we receive what we ask for.  The third foundational statement that I want to kick off this call with is at the heart of all sin is unbelief or a lack of faith.  As you read through Old Testament to New Testament, especially going through the Israelites coming through the desert and in the wilderness and for 40 years.  What the Lord’s word keeps saying is they did not believe, they did not trust and because of that, God’s wrath burned against them.  What we find is that the lack of faith or an unbelief is really the root of all sin in our life.  This is where one of Jesus’ primary rebukes, ‘oh ye of little faith’.  That’s the only thing he really rebuked his disciples for consistently.  Why that and what is is it?  That’s the preamble.  Let’s start talking about this.  The Bible tells us specifically, let’s test your scripture memory location on this one.  There’s a verse in the Bible that says, ‘faith is’, so you remember where that might be? Caroline:  That’s in Hebrews 11. Beatty: Yay.  Good job. Caroline: The reason I remember that is because we did talk about that in one of our recent calls, but that is a verse that I will go to a lot at ones time in life. Beatty: Hebrews 11:1, ‘now faith is the assurance of things hoped for.  The conviction of things not seen’.  The Bible tells us what that is.  I want to read 2 other versions of that same verse to show you how these translations start to explain it further.  In The Living Bible, it says, ‘What is faith?  Faith is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen.  It’s the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us even though we cannot see it up ahead’.  Now, let me define the word ‘hope’ in the Bible is not used the same way as we use it here in America.  I hope it doesn’t rain.  That’s the way we use it here in America.  In the Bible when the word hope is used, it’s an absolute assurance of a promise.  The hope of salvation.  It’s not like, well, we hope I’m believing this thing right.  No, the hope of salvation is the absolute assurance of it.  When it says that it is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us even though we cannot see it up ahead, this is talking about it’s this absolutely certainty of what’s going on.  The Amplified Bible gives my favorite definition this one.  It says this, ‘Now, faith is the assurance or the title deed of things we hope for.  Being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of reality.  And then it puts in brackets [faith is perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].  What we have, Caroline, is we have the concept of faith which is a title deed.  We talked last time about a title deed being, you know if you have title to your car that means you own it, is that right?  Do you remember that? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: Okay. So you own the car, which means you have claim to it and no one can take it from you because it is yours. And that is what we are talking about with faith. It is title deed of the things that we hope for. This is now starting to move into where faith really starts to come in because faith is not in the physical world; it is not in the Earthly realm. It is of the spiritual world or the Heavenly realm. And faith is perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses. In other words, it’s perceiving as reality what in the physical realm we have nothing to tell us it’s there. This is why faith is sometimes so difficult for people. It’s because we are trying to apply our physical senses and our physical being into it. And it’s a supernatural type of element. Okay? That is why it is kind of tough at times. Let me ask you a question. Can you truly believe in and have faith in something that is not true? What do you think? Caroline: That is not true? I would think, no. Beatty: No, you can’t. There is no way to truly believe and have faith in something that is false. That would merely be a deception but you can’t have faith based on this definition. By definition, it the title deed. It is the absolute actual ownership of it, which means that it must be true. And so what I want suggests is that there is a difference between truth and what is true. Okay? Let me see if I can make sense with this. We are children of God, sons of the Kingdom. Does that make sense so far? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: Does our Father have and possess all possessions? Does he have all provisions and have enough to meet all of our needs? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: Okay. So it may be true that I am broke, but truth is my Father owns it all and can take care of all my needs. It may be true that I sick, but truth is, He can take away my sickness and disease because that is the heart of the Father. It may be true that I am broken and downhearted, but truth is, I have all joy and peace in Christ. Do you see the difference between true and truth? Caroline: Right. I think that is a great depiction of it. Beatty: So truth, is God’s word. True is what I perceive in mind’s eye, my natural eye, as what is my reality right now. What we are going to find, especially in the later things that we talk about, is that there is a difference between what is true and what truth is. And truth trumps reality because reality will change. If we go back to Jesus’ statement back in Mark, it says, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” So we have this thing that says believe which is the root word for faith. Have faith that you’ve received it and then it will be yours. But the converse is true. If you don’t have faith and you receive it, then it is not going to be yours. So we have the difference between truth and true. Truth is you believe by faith and it is yours. What’s true is that you may not believe by faith and it’s not yours. So true, or reality, is not fixed but truth is. And you can only faith in what is truth because you can only have faith in what is fixed by the Lord. I may be kind of confusing you, but are you following where I’m going on that? Caroline: I am. I think that is a great reminder. I think you are such a great teacher the way you explain the differences between things. I am completely following you. I think that was a great explanation between those and what that means for us. I am following. Beatty: So the next step is, where does this faith come from? And so, Romans tells us, in Romans 10:17: “Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.” So now we have the scriptural reference that faith is based off of truth, which is the word of Christ. But I want to dissect this passage in Romans a little more. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. I remember when this passage was explained to me. Go back quite a few years ago; this is now 1997. Okay? I’m an unemployed, stay-at-home dad. My wife is a stay-at-home mom. We have a baby in diapers. Another baby came that year. I was trying to make ends meet. I did 13 different things that year. We had a mortgage on the car and a mortgage on the house and everything else. I did 13 things to try to make money. My entire income set this year was $11,882. That was my adjusted gross income. You can tell that I didn’t do a really good job, but the Lord blessed us. I’ll share more about that later. But we came through a period of time when we had nothing. During that period of time, we continued to give 20% of whatever we earned directly into the Lord’s work before we spent any of it. So even in our lack, what happened was, we realized we could trust the Lord and he would take care of us. Kind of the net of what happened there was, we were never late on any of our payments. In fact, we never missed a payment. We never went hungry. We had plenty of everything we needed. The Lord completely took care of us. It was an amazing experience. When I started our business and the business started to grow, I was meeting with a Christian business man, a mentor of mine named Tom. We were looking at our PnL.  For those of you who don’t know what a PnL is, it’s basically like a scorecard that basically tells you if your business is making money or not. Every month we are growing my $20,000 profit. $20,000, $40,000, $80,000, like that. And I’m over here tickled pink. I’m all excited. I’m meeting with my friend Tom and saying, “Tom, how can I have faith when I can see the money on the PnL?” Because, in my mind, faith was, you have no knowledge of what is going on and therefore you merely have to trust the Lord to take care of you. That was my definition of faith. Does that make sense? Does that kind of ring true that most people’s definition of faith is, “I’m just trusting the Lord because I have no knowledge of anything else”? Are you following where I’m going on that? Caroline: I am and that is exactly what I was thinking. I think that is probably true for a lot of people from what they have experienced and from what they know. I’m sure that would resonate with a lot of people. Beatty: So faith is not trusting God; I hate to say it that way. Trust comes out of faith but trust is not faith. If we come back to Romans 10:17, it says, “Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.” And so I asked Tom, “How can I have faith when I can see the money and it is growing every single month.” That is when he said, “Faith doesn’t come from seeing. Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.” Where is that? Romans 10:17. And it totally rocked my world in starting to understand what faith really meant. So I wanted to take this moment to start to dissect this and talk about this. So there are two key words in this passage. “Hearing” and “word.” “Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ.” So if you look at the Greek word—and I’m not a Greek scholar, I just happen to have a concordance that happens to have the Greek in there. The word hearing means audible. It is not reading. Faith doesn’t come by merely reading the word; it comes by hearing it. Now, there are different ways to hear it. Sometimes the Lord highlights it off of the page. Other times he impresses it in some significant way. Other times, it may be audible. I mean, I’ve heard the word of God audibly once in my life. It was really clear and it surprised the heck out of me. I looked around, “Where did that come from? No one is here.” But faith comes from hearing the word of God. It is that audible side of things. The main thing I want to focus in on is “word.” Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. And there are actually two primary Greek words used in the New Testament that translate into the English word called “word.” Let’s test your Greek knowledge. Do you have an idea of what those words are? Caroline: That I do not know. Beatty: Okay, so the two Greek words are: logos and rhema. I knew you knew it. What happens is, sometimes we hear these things but maybe they don’t come out quit so quickly. I am not trying to embarrass you; I’m just trying to create dialogue. Caroline: I did know both of those words as soon as you said them. Beatty: Here is what they are. Here is a simple definition of logos: A statement that embodies an idea. Let me give you three verses and I’ll show you how this comes out. Mathew 5:32 states, “Jesus says, ‘But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except for the reason of unchastity makes her commit adultery.’” That word reason, “except for the reason of unchastity” – that is logos – except for the idea of unchastity. Then you have Mark 2:2. It says, “And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door and he [talking about Jesus] was speaking the word to them.” That word is logos. He was speaking a statement that embodies an idea. He was talking to them. Then we have another example that is in Luke 1:2. It says, “Just as they were handed down to us by those who, from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.” The word is the Gospel. “Eyewitness and servants of the word” is logos—a statement that embodies an idea. So we see this word throughout scripture and it is important but it doesn’t have a whole lot of power behind it. It’s just talking about a concept of an idea. Are you following along with me? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: So then we look at the word rhema, which is the other primary Greek word. Now, if there are any Greek scholars out there, I understand there are lots of meanings and lots of ways to interpret the word. I’m just focusing on what I call the framework of what goes on here. I’m not trying to become a Greek scholar. I’m just trying to share generally. This is just generally framework of what these are. So a simple definition of rhema means: By implication of matter, especially of an operation, command or dispute. So it is a little more specific, but when I start to show you how rhema is used in scripture, or at least in sample scripture, we start to see that it is different from the word logos. This concept of faith comes from hearing the word of Christ, hearing the rhema of Christ. I think this is significant because now it starts to give us an idea of what we can actually have faith in. Okay? So let’s look a couple passages. The first one is in Mark. It’s Mark 14:72. This is at the time when Jesus has been taken before the high priest. It says, “And immediately the cock crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, ‘Before the cock crows twice, you will deny Me three times.’” “He remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him.” “Made the [rhema] to him.” So Jesus made a very specific comment, very specifically to Peter that had a very specific outcome. That’s a rhema. Okay? So we look at Luke 1:38. This is Mary talking to the angel. “And Mary said, ‘Behold the bondslave of the Lord; may it be it done to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.” “Let it be done to me according to your word,” according to your rhema, according to that statement, that direction, that command, that promise, that forth telling of what is going to happen. Okay? Here is another one in Luke 5:5. “And Simon answered and said, ‘Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as you say and let down the nets.” “I will do as you [rhema] and let down the nets.” Do you see the difference between logos and rhema? Logos is kind of a general idea, but rhema tends to carry with it very specific instructions, very specific promises of what is about to happen. Do you see this played out in scripture? Caroline: Absolutely. I think too with rhema it almost feels like there is more of an action with it, even though it is still a word, it kind of feels like there is more of a speaking action. I don’t know if that is right, but it feels that way. Beatty: You are right; it is more of a speaking action. It is something that you can sink your teeth into. And so when we talk about faith and living our life by faith and acting by faith, it is not simply acting by ideas, it is acting on truth. And so if we go back to truth versus true, you can only have faith in truth because only truth is solid and in each of these examples of rhema, there was a truth given and that truth occurred and, therefore, when that truth was given as a rhema, then the recipient of that truth could have faith in it that it was going to happen. It’s confident assurance of something to occur that we cannot see right now. Does this kind of wrap it together a little bit? Caroline: I think it does. I think that was a great explanation too and even gave people a picture of it. That’s great explanation of that. Beatty: So if we go back to the amplified version: Faith is the title deed, okay? When Jesus told Peter before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times. That is a title deed. You can take that to the bank because Jesus made a comment that is the absolute truth and then it occurred. An angel told Mary, “You are going to have a child and you are not going to have relationships with a man to have that child. You are going to be a virgin.” She said, “Be it done according to your word.” That was her title deed because the Lord had delivered that message to her. Or when Jesus told Peter, “Drop down the nets.” “We worked late all night, but by your command we will do it.” That’s what rhema is. This is where faith comes from. It comes from this concept of rhema. What’s interesting is the Holy Spirit is just an amazing helper. So you have the Holy Spirit that is sent to us, as believers, to guide us through the scripture, to interpret the scripture, and to highlight things to us. It’s basically guiding us through the entire path in life to ensure that we hear God’s instructions to us. So basically it’s our choice if we want to follow it or not. It’s not really our choice, but He gives us some choice in the matter. And so what happens is, we can be reading God’s word and we might read something that would normally be logos, such as Jesus giving the parable of the servant with the ten minas. The master says, “Well done faithful servant. Because you were faithful with a little, take charge of ten cities.” So if you just read that you are going to say, “That’s a nice story.” But then something may be going on in your life and the Holy Spirit causes that passage to stand out and you read over it and it’s like your eyes just latch onto it. Almost like a pair of magnets and something is really unique. Have you ever had that happen as you read the scripture, something just kind of stands out and you go, “The Lord is telling me something here”? Have you ever had that happen? Caroline: Oh, absolutely. Things or highlighted or things jump out or something happens and I start thinking about it. That has happened to me. Something will happen and I’ll be reading about it and then I’m look, “Oh, that was you.” So absolutely. Beatty: Perfect. So here is what is going on. The Holy Spirit will take that passage and highlight it. And when that happens, in this kind of loose terminology of logos versus rhema that becomes your rhema. That now becomes something that you can have faith in because not it has spoken to you by the Holy Spirit. Now obviously we want to make sure that it’s the spirit that his highlighting it not just our own desires. But as you mature as a believer than you can discern the difference between when the Holy Spirit is telling you to take notice because this is for you versus when we are trying to say, “Oh, I want this for me.” Okay? But when the Holy Spirit highlights it, then what happens is he takes the general word of God, the logos, and he turns it into a rhema for you that now you have the title deed to it. And now when you pray for that, believing that you received that you received, believing by faith, then that is when you receive it. This is when you ask for something, let not a man doubt, otherwise you should expect nothing from the Lord. So when we have the title deed, then we have no way to doubt it. Is this starting to open up these concepts?  Caroline: Absolutely. I was just thinking about how that is coming full circle and connecting. I think that was great explanations that makes connections between all of that. I think that for a lot of people these are concepts or thoughts that maybe they’ve heard a lot but this is bringing new or deeper truth or revelation to the depth of what we are being invited into. I’m thankful that I get to be on the receiving end of this. Beatty: I love it. Well, do me a favor because I know we are out of time for this segment. I would love for you to sum up what you got out of this, anything that stands out and we will kind of start to wrap up the call. Caroline: Okay. You put me on the spot here. I think like you said in the beginning, one of the concepts that I think that I’m continually trying to renew my mind about is about hope and assurance and like in that verse where the title deed example you were using about salvation. This is like our deed. Because I think that sometimes the world that we live in—or like you said, the American culture—we look at things through a certain lens. We look at faith; we look at hope. We look at what we can ask for through a certain lens. Maybe even what we’ve experienced or seen other Christians say is available. I think this has been really good as an invitation. “Hey this is real. This is what we have access to. It’s not like an “I have to try.” It’s not an “as hard as I can pray and ask the Lord for something.” It’s like a complete washing of your mind, of saying, “Okay, this is true. This is what we have access to. This is what is real. This is the Kingdom and the reality that I choose to be more aware of than what my surroundings are. Even like you said, if it’s something that we pray for and haven’t seen what we’ve asked the Lord for, it’s just saying, “Hey Lord, this is what your promise is.”  I’m going to stand in this. I’m going to stand in this truth and in this promise and continue praying and continue believing. I feel like this is a good and an exciting challenge what we are invited to as sons and daughters, what we have access to, to not question it and not doubt and not ever stand back from what we know to be available in truth. When you are talking, my mind is going a million different places of different things and different examples and to my own relationship with the Lord. So those are the things that I was getting out of it. I don’t know if that is a perfect summation. Beatty: I think it’s a great summation. Absolutely. Caroline: Okay, good. I think there is a lot we can learn from this. I’m going to share the recording myself. Beatty: Well good. I think we are probably about out of time for this session. Is that correct. Caroline: Yes, we are. I didn’t want to interrupt you because it was so good. But yes, we are out of time and we need to wrap it up. Beatty, thank you so much for your time and for your willingness to share a revelation that you received from the Lord and what you’ve walked with in the Lord and for giving us all of this great challenge of who we are and what we are called to do and what is available. So, if you are on the live call with us, what we are going to do is wrap up and if you have any questions that you would like to ask Beatty, just hang on and we’ll go into a short Q&A session. So I think that is all for today. But thank you again, so much, Beatty, for sharing. Beatty: Well, thank you. I’ve enjoyed it. Y’all have a great day. Beatty: This has been the Get Sellers Calling you marketing podcast for real estate agents and I’m Beatty Carmichael.  For simple to do, proven marketing strategies focused exclusively on finding sellers and getting more listings, visit our website at GetSellersCallingYou.com.      Poo3

Radical Faith – What is Faith – Part 1      Caroline: Hi Everyone. This is Caroline Springer and welcome to the next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael. This is one of our Radical Faith calls and Beatty, would you like to share what your vision is and what that means. Beatty: Yeah, I appreciate that. I’d love to. As you know, we do these marketing calls on real estate marketing all the time, but I’m also a Christian businessman, so I’d like to periodically do some calls we call Radical Faith which is from a Christian perspective. We announce these calls up front. This is a Radical Faith call so if you don’t have any interest in Christianity, if you don’t want to hear my views on living for the Lord, then we let you know up front so you can press delete on this podcast audio and not listen to it. Now, you are forewarned. Today, what I want to talk about is kind of digging deep into what it means to live by faith and how does the Lord start to providentially or miraculously work at times in your life when you do.  That’s the direction I want to take today’s call. Caroline: Oh, well great. I’m excited to explore that. I know that’s something that my husband and I have received a lot from the Lord as well, just in our marriage. So, I’m excited to hear your thoughts and experiences and just receive your wisdom. Beatty: Well, I appreciate that. Hopefully, it’s wisdom. We’ll see. Oh, no, I’m teasing on that. What is it, to share the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There is some wisdom in here because I’m sharing the Lord. I want to kind of get started and I just kind of set the stage for those of you listening in. Normally, I provide an outline of the call to Caroline so she can follow. On today’s call, I provided nothing. So, she is absolutely clueless as to what direction this is going. None of this is premeditated or pre-rehearsed for Caroline. We’re going to put Caroline on the hot seat some of these times and see where she is. I want to start off with three boxes. I want you to visualize three boxes. One box is going to be about the size of a jewelry box, a small box maybe like what you’d put a ring in. Box number two is a little bit larger box. It’s probably like an Amazon box when you order something and here it comes, that Amazon box stuck on your front door. For the third box, I want you to think of a great big box, like a moving box, but I want you to imagine taking a knife and slicing down the edges of the box so that all of the sides of the box lay flat. In other words, there’s not structure to the box. It’s just a flat piece of paper. I’ve just got to ask you, Caroline, what do those three boxes represent? Caroline: Oh, my goodness. Let’s see where you’re going. Maybe just the amount of faith that you have in the Lord. What can you place in each of those? Beatty:  Bingo! Caroline: That’s what they represent. Beatty:  You’re dead on. I’m impressed. This is how most of us as Christians live our lives. We place God in a box. The size of the box is the size of our faith if we just want to use that as a very simple term. What that means is if I’m the jewelry box size person, I’m going to trust the Lord when I have to travel from one city to another. I’m going to trust that the Lord is going to take care of me. But, when times get tough, I start to get afraid because, oh my gosh, we’ve got all these bills and we’re not making any sales right now. It’s a down time in the real estate market and you start to get afraid because your God isn’t big enough to take care of your needs. Then you have the Amazon box size person. That person isn’t going to be as rattled as the jewelry box person. You go through down turns economically and you hold strong by faith.  Then, something else happens. Maybe you have no money coming in and you got maybe six months of savings left and that’s it and you feel in your spirit the Lord telling you to give all of your savings away to this ministry. Now, you start to panic. You’re happy, you’re okay trusting the Lord, but you know you got that safety net or that savings account. So, now, you start to question. Well, did I really hear the Lord?  Is that really what he wants me to do? I’m not sure I can do that. That’s the Amazon box size thinking person. Then you look at the moving box where you slice the edges out and you lay it flat and there are no limits to your God in that case. That’s the type of person that when you get that command, you know, give all your money away. You’ll go, okay, and you have no fear. The question is which of those three boxes represents your God and your faith. What I want to do is I want to walk us through what faith really is at a very simplistic approach and walk us through kind of how do you go from being that jewelry box person to that moving box without any sides. How do you take that leap of faith, if we want to use that terminology and actually start to trust the Lord?  First, I’ve got a question and since Caroline, you’re my guinea pig on this one, let’s see where you are. Is faith active or passive? Caroline: Active, absolutely. I mean, I think the world might even try to argue that it’s passive but faith is an invitation to trust. Faith is an action of letting go of our natural human concern and choosing to trust the Lord. Beatty:  That’s exactly right. I think what James says, so, you say you have faith, but I will show you my faith by my works. In other words, I’m going to act it out and show it to you. So, you’re right. Faith displays itself through our actions. I want to challenge you guys on the call to experience the Lord in a new way, to seek him in a new way and to see him really work in an amazing way in your life that maybe you haven’t seen before. I will probably tell a lot of stories as we go along. What we’re going to do is actually a whole series that we will end up completing over time, step-by-step, taking it one step at a time. I want to talk first, real quickly, about why we should live by faith. What does the Bible say? Here are four statements that I’d like to suggest about faith because these are maybe some misnomers. You can live a nice, clean, moral life without any faith. Living by faith is not living a clean life. It’s not living a moral life because Jesus even rebuked the Pharisees of the day who lived a clean, moral life and he rebuked them for their lack of faith. Faith has nothing to do with living a moral life. It is part of it, but it has nothing to do with it. James says, that apart from faith, we can receive nothing from God. This is James 1: 6-7 and it says, “But we must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord.” Here’s a question, why should we not to expect to receive anything from the Lord if we doubt? Has it something to do with faith? Question for you, Caroline. Jesus primarily rebuked his disciples and his apostles for one thing, do you remember what that one thing is? Caroline: Their lack of faith. Beatty:  Yeah, their lack of faith. It wasn’t their short comings. It wasn’t their mistakes. It wasn’t all these other things with the exception of one exception that I know of. Every rebuke Jesus gave his disciples and his apostles was, oh, ye of little faith. If it’s so big primarily that Jesus ever rebuked his disciples about, then we ought to take notice and kind of understand what this is. The last statement I want to make is faith is essentially the act of believing God’s words.  Praying in faith is the act of submitting that faith of action before the Lord. It’s when we act by faith and we pray by faith, that’s when we start to receive God’s promises, God’s provisions, in a mighty way. As James says, without faith we shouldn’t expect to receive anything. I wanted to turn real quick. I know you’re probably driving down the road so you can turn in your Bible, but let me give you the reference. It’s Mark 11:22 and this is Jesus talking, and he says, “Therefore I say to you, all things which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and they shall be granted you.” Here’s my question. Why is that? Why are we to believe that we’ve received them, which is past tense, believe that we’ve already received, and then he says, “then they shall be granted you” future tense?  So, we’re to believe in the past tense that we’ve already got what we’ve asked for and then in the future tense it’s actually going to come to us. Have you ever pondered that, Caroline? Caroline:  I actually haven’t from that past versus future tense. I’m familiar with that verse and I like to look at it as an invitation for our mind to be renewed and for us to think like the Kingdom, or the way that the Kingdom thinks, because the way that Jesus invites us. He says, the only way we can enter the Kingdom is if we have faith like a child. So, just in that kind of mindset, I look at my son and he doesn’t ever question whether he’s going to be fed or things like that. It’s just that he knows. It’s just in the fiber of his being. In the command in Mark, I think with what you’re saying about the past versus future, I think just having that foundational trust of never questioning or doubting. Just knowing. Believe that it’s already happened. I don’t have to think about it. That’s the invitation. I love what you’re pulling out of that, the past versus present or future. That’s my interpretation of just having such a trust; you don’t even think about it.  It’s just going to happen. Beatty:  It’s actually more than that. Let’s talk about it for a moment and this one session may turn into two sessions as typically happens with me. Let’s lay a foundation. Who modeled the perfect Christian life for us? Caroline:  Jesus, absolutely. Beatty:  Did Jesus do anything that was not already done in Heaven? In other words, when Jesus says, I only do the thing I what? Can you complete that sentence? Caroline:  I’ve seen my Father do. Beatty:  That’s right. I’ve only do the things I’ve seen my Father do. Were those things done in the past or in the future that his Father did? Caroline:  I guess in the past if he’s saying he’s seen his Father do them. Beatty:  Okay, so watch this. Jesus only did what He saw his Father do which means His Father did them first and we know it happened in the Heavenly realm and so now, Jesus does them second in the Earthly realm. Jesus knew they had already been done and then he did them. If we convert this into prayer, we believe that we’ve already received them, past tense, Heavenly realm, and then they shall be granted us, future tense, Earthly realm that Jesus did. Does that make sense? Caroline:  Absolutely.  I love that.  Pulling out that explanation, I think that’s huge.  Thank you. Beatty:  We see this again twice in Matthew. Jesus said, whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven, but the better translation, the more accurate, whatever you bind on Earth shall have been bound in Heaven.  Whatever you lose on Earth shall have been lost in Heaven.  In other words, what we do on Earth is a mirror of what’s already been done in Heaven. So, when we pray, believing that we’ve received, what we’re doing is that we’re praying, in Jesus’ name, by His authority, which means that it has to be by His will and we’re praying that we receive what’s already ours. Pray that we’ve received it and it shall be granted you. Anyway, we’re digressing again, but does that make sense? We’ll probably get into that a little bit later in another one of these calls. Caroline:  No, that does. I like it. I love the tangent stuff. Beatty:  So, we’re going to probably hit a lot of tangents as we go through this because it’s just so much fun. Now we’ve got these, what I call the four simple statements of faith. It’s not about living a moral life, but it is about acting on God’s word and praying in faith on God’s word, praying that He’s going to do it because we pray by His authority. The simple prayer that Jesus taught us in terms of the process of how we pray. Pray like this: Father, that your will be done on Earth as it is or as it is already done in Heaven. So, we see all this understanding that it’s already done in the Heavenly realm. What we’re praying and what we’re doing is manifesting it in the Earthly realm. That’s why you see all this stuff that Jesus says, believe that you’ve already received it and it shall be yours. Then, the question comes up, why do we live by faith? Well, Romans 1 tell us that the righteous man shall live by faith. It’s not that he shall be by faith which is passive. It’s that he shall live by faith, so we have an active statement. Luke 18 says, this is Jesus talking, and he says, “However, when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the Earth?” Why do you think Jesus said, will He find faith on the Earth rather than will He find people loving the Lord on the Earth? Will He find goodness and love overcoming evil? Why do you think, Caroline, that He said, when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the Earth? That’s all He’s looking for. Caroline:  I think, like you said at the very beginning of the call, you can live a good and moral life outside of faith. You can live a, quote, good and moral life even apart from Jesus. So, the invitation for faith is not just to live a good life, it’s to live the life He envisioned for us. It’s to live the life of faith and the life of trust and receiving our position as sons and daughters. I think it’s an invitation beyond that, like those examples you were just saying. Beatty: Yeah, it’s a big invitation far beyond that. That’s what we’re hopefully going to uncover as we go forth. Luke 22, Jesus shows another thing. What I want you to understand is this is super important to the Lord. When I return, am I going to find faith on Earth? Luke 22 says, “But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” It’s so important that He’s looking for it when He returns. So important that He prays that it will not fail. There is something so significant here that this is the one thing that Jesus is focused on. Yet, most of us never think of it in those terms, as being that one thing that Jesus is really focused on. This is why I think we need to focus on it ourselves because it’s just such a big deal. Jesus keeps making it a big deal all throughout scriptures and yet, so frequently, we kind of gloss over it and I think we gloss over it because we don’t really understand it. Now, I want to. So let’s test your scripture memory, Caroline. What does the Bible say that faith is? Do you remember? Caroline:  Oh, gosh. Faith is, oh, something about not being seen or unseen. Why is this so much better, the scripture is just escaping me? Beatty:  Oh, I’m catching you off guard. I apologize. I don’t want to embarrass you. I’ve got it obviously because I’ve got my Bible in front of me and my notes that I’m working off of. This is Hebrews 11:1. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The conviction of things not seen, but I want to read it in a slightly different translation. This comes from The Amplified Bible, and I want you to try to grasp what this really is all about. It says faith is the assurance or the title deed of things we hope for.  Now, by the way, hope, in the Bible is different than the word hope in the secular realm. When you and I say hope in our vernacular, we’re saying like, oh, I hope it doesn’t rain today. Meaning, I really desire that it not rain today. That’s not the way the Bible uses the word hope. In the Bible, when the word hope is used, it is an absolute certainty of what is coming in the future. So, we can’t say that this is something we hope for, meaning that we desire but we’re not really sure about it. In Bible terms, hope is an absolutely certainty. That’s what this is saying. Faith is the title deed or the absolute certainty of things we hope for. Title deed. Let’s talk about that real quick. I’ve got the title deed to my automobile. What does that mean? Caroline:  It’s your proof of ownership. Beatty: That’s it. It’s my proof of ownership. Faith is the title deed of those things that have been promised. It is the proof of ownership. It means it is yours. That’s what this is talking about.  Faith is the title deed, the proof of ownership of things that are yours. It’s the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of the reality. Faith is perceiving as real fact of what is not revealed to the senses. This concept of faith is perceiving of real fact what is not perceived by the senses.  Do you have faith, Caroline, that radio waves exist? Caroline:  Yes. Beatty:  If we were to use that terminology, faith in this, do you have faith, are you acting by faith right now on this phone call? Caroline:  Yes, I would assume so just because I know that when I dial in that those waves are going to transmit. Beatty: You’re on your cell phone, right? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: You’re acting by faith because your cell phone is using radio waves you cannot see but you know for an absolute certainty that they exist. And this is faith in the Bible. We cannot see it, but we know for an absolute certainty that they exist. The reason we can’t see it is because it’s the promise of God. It’s the truth of God. It’s the things that are already done in the Heavenly realm and we’re praying for them to be done in the Earthly realm. I digress a little bit from my notes, so let me go back. The question, then, is, how does this manifest itself in the scriptures? I can tell, right now, we will not make it through on today’s call keeping it at 30 minutes. How much time do we have?  What’s our clock right now? Caroline:  It is 12:25 right now, so we’ve got about five minutes. Beatty: Did we start right at 12 our time or do you recall how much time we have on this podcast? Caroline: We started maybe five after. Beatty:  Okay, so we’ve got probably 8 or 10 minutes, so let’s see where we can go. Let’s look at faith in the Bible and kind of understand what faith is doing within Biblical times and we can start to understand, maybe, as we move in this direction, how it starts to impact in our lives. I want to talk first about Moses parting the Red Sea; this is in Exodus Chapter 13. I’m going to just kind of skip around a little bit, but just read this one second. It says, “And the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me?” So here’s the background. God has just led Moses and the children of Israel to a dead end, right against the Red Sea. Then, here comes the Egyptians with Pharaoh and all the people get afraid and they start to cry out to God. This, I would say, is either the jewelry box God or possibly, for some of them, the Amazon box God, but not at all the moving box with the sides cut out. And so they’re crying because all they see in the natural is oh, my gosh, total destruction. Moses comes to the Lord and we ascertain from this that Moses is also concerned. He’s not concerned to the same degree as the rest of the people, but he’s pleading with the Lord. Here’s the Lord’s response. “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.” Which direction is forward, Caroline? Caroline:  That seems kind of like a trick question. I mean, forward? Beatty: Straight into the Red Sea, right? Caroline:  Right. Beatty: So, God is telling them, “Hey, stop crying out to me, move forward, and straight into the Red Sea.” Now that makes no sense. This is where faith comes in, okay. And then God says, “As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hands over the sea and divide it and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land. Then, Moses stretched out his hands over the sea and the Lord swept back the sea by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land so the waters were divided.” So, here’s a question. Who acted in this story? Caroline:  Moses did. Beatty: Yep.  Moses acted and did he see before he acted? Caroline:  No, he let his faith be his eyes. Beatty:  Yeah and right. Moses acted before he could see, but why did he act? Caroline: Because of his faith and his trust in the word that the Lord had given him. Beatty: That’s right. He acted by faith in the Lord’s truth or in the Lord’s command and then who performed? Caroline: Oh, you mean like for the outcome? Beatty:  Uh huh. Caroline:  The Lord. Beatty:  Okay, so now we see this pattern throughout. Man acts before he can see, but he acts on the clearly defined will of God and then God performs. That’s the pattern of God moving in one’s life providentially and miraculously. Let’s look at another story. This is Elijah and the widow. So, the backstory on this is this is during the reign of King Ahab. King Ahab is a wicked king. Elijah has gone to him and said, “You’re so wicked and until you change, I’m going to call for a drought on the land.” So, he calls for a drought on the land.  There’s no rain.  Everything’s drying up and then God takes care of Elijah with some ravens who bring him food and he’s by a brook and the brook dries up and now we pick up in I Kings 7. This is God now speaking to Elijah. “Arise. Go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon. This is outside of the Israeli territory, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” Now, let me ask you a quick question. I love this part of the story. Now, you’re familiar with this story that we’re going into, is that right Caroline? Caroline:  Yes, I am. Beatty:    Okay, so he said, behold I have commanded a widow there to take care of you. Do you think that widow knew anything of that command? Caroline:  No, I would assume not. Beatty: Okay, so here we have the spiritual world intersecting with the Earthly world. God has commanded, past tense, and she knows nothing about it. This is where when we pray and act, we pray believing that we’ve already received it, because it’s already been done, and then it starts to happen. So, God has commanded a widow, but the widow knows nothing about the command.  So that command had to have occurred in the spiritual realm, in the Heavenly realm, where she does not have the sensory to recognize it. Elijah arose and went to Zarephath and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks and he called to her and he said, please get me a little water in a jar that I may drink. As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, please bring me a piece of bread in your hand. But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread. I only have a handful of flour in a bowl and a little oil in a jar and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go and prepare for me and my son that we may eat it and die.” Then Elijah said to her, now here is the word of the Lord, Elijah said to her, “Do not fear, go do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel.  The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted and the jar of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the Earth. So she went and did according to the word of Elijah and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord which he spoke through Elijah.” Okay, so now we have this story, we have this backdrop. Question. Who acted in this story? Caroline:  The widow acted. Beatty:  Right. We actually have two people that acted. We have the widow who acted and then we also have Elijah who acted. Did they see before they acted? Caroline:  No. They allowed their faith to be their eyes. Beatty: That’s right. So, Elijah went to Zarephath without knowing anything other than by God’s command. The widow trusted the word of the Lord and did what was said. So, why did they act? They acted without seeing, so why did they act? Caroline:  Again, just letting their faith, putting their trust in the word of God and putting their trust in that and letting that be their eyes and be what overtook some of their fleshly concern and not seeing it. So, putting their faith and their trust in that and not physical trust. Beatty: They acted because of the word of the Lord and they trusted that Word and then who performed? Caroline:  The Lord. Beatty: There you go. So, we’ve got the same pattern. Man acts before he can see but he acts because of the clearly defined will, or word, or command of the Lord, whatever you want to use it and then it’s the Lord who produces the results. Here’s something interesting that we also get out of this. Notice that the widow was to honor the Lord first. Elijah is the Lord’s representative and Elijah said, make me a bread cake from it first and then go back and make one for you and your son. So, we have this other truth that is weaved into this story and that truth is that the Lord wants us to always honor him first with all that we have. This is where we have the tithe, the first fruits, all these truisms of the Lord and how he sets us up because the Lord wants us to, not only honor Him, but trust Him first. What do you think would’ve happened if the widow made a bread cake for her and her son and then used whatever was left over for the Lord. What do you think would’ve happened then? Caroline: Well, I mean, I’d like to think that the Lord, I guess we don’t really know. I guess they wouldn’t have seen the abundance that they saw. Beatty:    Okay, so let me ask it this way. Was it an act of faith to give the little bit of food she had first to the Lord or would it have been an act of faith to feed herself first and then give away anything left over to the Lord? Caroline:  Right. I mean it would’ve been an act of faith to give to the Lord first. Beatty:  Yep, yep. My guess is if she violated God’s word and tried to take care of her needs first, what that shows is a lack of faith in the Lord and I’m not sure the Lord would’ve produced. So, I know we’re about over time, but let me make one final comment on this. We’ll cover this in a later session, but how many of you on the call give financially to the Lord through tithes and offering but you give only what is left over because if that’s what happening, I’m willing to bet you never have much left over and you’re always paycheck to paycheck and sometimes less than that because you don’t trust the Lord. We’re going to talk about that on another topic. But we see that pattern happening here. We’ll have to continue another time. I think we’ve got to wrap up this call now, don’t we? Caroline:  Okay, well, I was loving it. I think you have such an ability to bring out the patterns and showing the Bible is really our guide for how the Lord operates. It’s not something that we’re just reading old stories, it is things we can apply and can experience in our life with the Lord today. I love hearing your analytical showing like here’s how, here’s what the Lord is trying to communicate through these patterns. I love it, but yes, we are about out of time and need to wrap up. Beatty, thank you so much in opening yourself up and being willing to share your wisdom and just what you’ve perceived and learned from the Lord. I think it was a really great call. So, what we’re going to do is to wrap up and then for those of you that are on the live call, if you have any questions you’d like ask Beatty, if you will just hang on until we’ve wrapped up, we’ll go into a short question and answer period. I think that’s all I have unless there’s anything else you’d like to share, Beatty? Beatty:  No, I guess that’s all for me as well. Caroline:  Okay, well, thank you and thank you Beatty for sharing. Beatty:  Okay, well, y’all have a great day. Thank you, Caroline. P001

Have Questions or Comments? Please ask your questions in the comments section below. We attempt to respond to ALL questions or comments. Listen via YouTube video if desired   Caroline: Hi, I’m Caroline Springer and welcome to our next session of Radical Faith. We have a Radical Faith podcast as part of our Get Sellers Calling You podcast with Beatty Carmichael. Professionally, Beatty is the CEO of MasterGrabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and a top marketing expert in the real estate field for many years. And personally, for many years, he has been a Christian and loves to talk about the Lord and that’s where the vision of this podcast came from. So I’m just going to pass it over to him to give a little disclaimer about the Radical Faith podcast and kind of what his idea is behind it. Beatty: I’m not sure I would call it a disclaimer, but maybe it is. The whole idea about Radical Faith is this has nothing to do specifically and directly with real estate business. It has everything to do with living your life as a passionate Christian. So this is all going to be about my Christian philosophy or theosophy if you call it that. So if you don’t want to hear it, you can delete this podcast out and just listen to the podcasts focused on how to build a real estate business, but we are going to talk about Christ today. That’s my disclaimer. Back to you. Caroline: We always chat a little at the beginning about the world we live in and how we have to give a disclaimer, but I think it is good. It excites me so I’m like, “All right, let’s jump in.” This is going to be about the Lord and nothing else. So I’m okay with that. Beatty: Part of that chat we were having is normal Christianity. So I definitely kind of want to bring that onto this call a little bit. The focus of these calls is what I call “normal Christianity.” If I were to ask you, Caroline, what do you think the typical Christian’s view of “normal Christianity” is? Is it healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, doing miracles or is it being a good person, not saying curse words, going to church on Sunday and reading your Bible? What is normal Christianity? Caroline: Yes, I would think sadly in the “normal” or maybe average Christian’s viewpoint, for those who claim to be Christian that’s what they would claim: being a good person, attending church, like you said, not saying curse words, living a chaste life, reading your Bible, praying before meals. The more Radical type of lifestyle is something that a lot of people may think is just preserved for certain people or that’s not really a thing anymore. I think that seems too far-fetched for them to believe that it’s something we’ve been invited into now. Beatty: True. So let me ask you. Who is our model for how to live as a Christian? Caroline: Jesus. He is our model. Beatty: Did he consider what he modeled to be normal or to be radical? What do you think his perspective on it was? Caroline: That’s a good question. Beatty: Let me ask that question another way. He is modeling for us how we should live, right? Caroline: Right. Beatty: Does He expect us to live anything but what He considers normal? Caroline: No. I think He was saying He only did the things He saw His Father do and he models for us a life like that so we can follow that. So I think His expectation was for Him to be paving a way for us to walk the way He walks. So I guess that would be normal for Him and normal for us. Beatty: Okay, so then how did He walk? It says, I think in John 14:22, don’t quote me exactly, but somewhere in John 14. It says, “Truly, truly whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and greater works will he do because I go to the Father.” Jesus is living out the works that we should do. If I were to ask, “What were the works that Jesus did,” what would you tell me? Not saying curse words? Read the Bible? Or something different? Caroline: I think something more. Like you said earlier, healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, parting the way, making a way for Heaven to invade Earth. That was His life. Beatty: Therein lies the topic of Radical faith. Most people think it’s radical. Jesus thinks it’s normal. Now we are not going to talk about today how to raise the dead or heal the sick. We might get into the sophics, but I think more than anything else it’s really understanding what we are called to do as a Christian. How are we called to live and those things that we consider in our 21st century nature to be radical, I think Jesus considered normal. How do we go back to what is normal and not what is myopically considered radical. That is where I want to kind of lean us into this call. Can I take the lead real quick and just kind of get this thing started? Caroline: Absolutely. Beatty: For those of you who have been listening in on our podcasts, you’ll kind of see this pattern. Caroline takes the lead in the interview process on the marketing stuff. I end up taking the lead on the radical faith stuff because she becomes my guinea pig just to use as a sounding board. On all the marketing calls, she has an outline of the direction we are going on the calls. But on the radical faith calls, she is totally blind, so she doesn’t know what I am going to bring up or what I am going to ask her. So we are going to put you on the spots a few times and see what your thoughts are. Okay? Caroline: Oh, good. Beatty: Oh, good. It’s just like normal. We are going to be normal on this call. The last call that we did on radical faith, we are been going through this series of what I call what is faith. We are trying to lay this foundation of what faith really means. On the previous call we started to talk about that faith comes hearing and hearing from the word of Christ. And then we started to look into that faith emanates from Christ. It emanates from His word. We then dissected the two most common Greek words that are translated into our English word: word. Those are… Caroline, do you remember those two Greek words by chance? Caroline: Logos and rhema. Beatty: Do you remember what the difference between logos and rhema are? Caroline: Oh goodness. Wasn’t logos more like a word and rhema was more like something you received and heard? Beatty: Exactly. So logos is simply a word that embodies an idea. In other words, Jesus goes out and preaches the Word to people. He is generally telling them truths. Rhema is when Jesus tells Peter: “Walk on the water.” Okay? Or tells Peter: “You will deny me three times before the cock crows.” Peter remember the word that Jesus told him. Or the angel that comes to Mary and says, “You are going to have a child.” And she says, “Be it done to me according to your word,” according to your rhema. Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word or the rhema of Christ. So in our real loose definitions. This is not a scholarly definition, this is more what I would call a, “how do you live” definition. A loose definition of rhema is something that God points directly at you. A real simple kind of understanding, Caroline, have you ever (I know you have) been reading your scriptures, reading the Bible and a passage stands out like God is talking directly to you. Have you had that happened to you before? Caroline: Absolutely. I have a lot of times where I will be in kind of conversation with the Holy Spirit. Later on, I will hear or read something in the Bible and it’s like the confirmation of what the Holy Spirit was just saying. There are a lot of times when things were highlighted. I feel like the Lord does that a lot for reassurance or confirmation. Beatty: Well, He does that a lot with me too and when that happens that, in general, what we call rhema. That is when the Holy Spirit is speaking directly to you. That is where we were when we wrapped up our Radical faith call. What I want to do is pick up from there and kind of try to wrap up this section before we run out of time. One of the things that we find about faith and this what I will call Radical faith is the idea or the truth that faith cannot exist by itself, that it is always accompanied by works. There is a passage in James, James 2:17 that says: “Even so faith if it has no works is dead being by itself.” So you kind of get this picture that faith cannot exist by itself. It’s sort of like the body without oxygen. It just dies. That body and oxygen have to go together. Faith and works have to go together. It says a couple of verses later. It’s talking about Abraham and it says, “Faith was working with Abraham’s works and as a result of the works faith was perfected.” So here is the question for you, Caroline. What does it mean that faith is perfected by works because, growing up in church, you always hear that we are saved by faith, not by works. Then we read this thing in James, you say you have faith but I have works and I’ll show you my faith by my works. So what is all this mean? What is the separation between faith and works? How would you describe that? Caroline: To me, whenever I’ve had conversation with people about that with grace and works and how they all go together. To me, works comes as a natural outcome of your faith and what you believe. Your faith also partners with that to also give you the strength and belief to be the foundation of your works. So it’s not like your works are an outcome of striving but your works are an outcome of beliefs and trust and pursuing the Kingdom. It’s a completely trajectory comparatively with those that, maybe some people struggle with feeling like they have to prove and work their way to the Lord or earn their salvation, which we know, scripturally, is not true. But I think that is just the natural question to struggle with for a lot of people. I think God’s intention in James is that it doesn’t have to be something that is conflicting, it can be something that can actually partner a lot easier and your faith is going to naturally push the works and your works are naturally going to cause you to increase your faith. Beatty: So let me see if I can make a real simple illustration to kind of tie this together. I want to invite you to a party. In fact, I am going to give this party in your honor. It’s going to be over at my house. It’s going to be Thursday night at 7:00. Can you come? Caroline: Sure, yes, I’d love to. Beatty: Is that a commitment? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: So now you have just given me your rhema. “I will be there.” So now, Thursday at 7:00 comes up and you are all excited because I’ve told you that we are going to get a caterer. We are going to invite all the people from church, all the people from the neighborhood and all the people from everywhere. And it’s going to be a great big party. And we are going to have child care so you don’t have to worry about Jethro and it’s going to be a wonderful time with your favorite foods and you are all excited. “This is my party.” Now you come over to the house. You come over at 7:00. You drive up to my house and you notice something strange. There are no cars out there. “Okay, well, I’m not sure what’s going on.” You have this question mark. You come up to the house and it’s kind of dark outside. There are no lights on. There are a couple of lights in the room but it’s not like it’s lite up. You look inside; there is no one there. You right the doorbell, ding dong. No one. You ring it again, ding dong. You are just about to walk away from my door and you hear these steps, boom boom boom, and it sounds like someone is coming up some steps and you see me running around the corner. I’m in my exercise clothes and I’m all hot and sweaty. I come to the door and open it. As soon as I catch your eyes, you see my expression go, “Oh my gosh!” You know that expression I’m talking about? Caroline: Yes. I imagine that you are trying to say that you forgot. Beatty: I didn’t forget. I say, “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t think you would be here. I never made any plans for the party.” Now what happens to you at that point? Are you happy or are you sad? Caroline: I imagine you would be sad and disappointed and questioning why you didn’t think I would attend. Beatty: Yes, you would have all these questions. Did I just sin against you? Caroline: That sounds so intense. I guess for the purpose of the illustration, yes? Beatty: So here is what happens. Let’s now analyze this a little bit more. You gave me a rhema and I did not act in works upon that rhema. Do you follow me so far? Caroline: Okay. Beatty: Faith is perfected through works. Faith is what we believe in. Faith comes by hearing the rhema of Christ. So if we hear Christ’s rhema and don’t believe it then we never act on it and therefore faith is never perfected because our works did not carry it out. Make sense? Caroline: Yes, that makes sense. Beatty: So in this illustration, how can your faith be perfected by works? Because if I had faith that you would have shown up then my works would have demonstrated that faith. I would have called the caterer. I would have called all the people. We would be having a great party. We would have a special parking space right up front to protect a special parking area just for you just o you could come right to the front door. All of this. But the fact that I did none of it means that my faith was never perfected because I never believed it. It’s not that I work for my faith; it’s that my works emanate from my faith. So here are a couple of truths that we can learn about this. Number one, our works are a demonstration of our faith. We do not produce works to have faith. We generate works because it emanates from our faith. Faith comes first and faith naturally births the works in our lives because we become as we believe. As a man believes, so he is. In fact, I heard a preacher this past Sunday hit on that comment quite a few times. Do you remember anything like that? Caroline: Yes, I do. Beatty: So it all kind of ties together. And here are a couple of other things we can take out of this. So you come to the door and I go, “Oh my gosh. I didn’t believe you. I thought you were lying to me. Therefore, I didn’t make any plans at all.” Now you are feeling dejected and rejected. You are frustrated. “How dare you? I planned my whole week around this. It has taken two hours to prepare for this. I’ve been making myself look beautiful. I’ve been telling all of my friends.” Now you are really upset at my aren’t you? Caroline: Yes, it sounds like I would be. Beatty: Yes, you would be. What happens then is that you turn away. You hop back in your car and you drive home. And now I have lost the blessing of your presence and fellowship with you because I did not believe. Now, this is what the images between us and God are. When the Lord gives us rhema and I’m not talking about something huge like step off a mountain and I’m going to hold you up, okay? I’m talking about just anything where we fail to trust the Lord and we know that we don’t trust him because our actions prove that we don’t believe just like in that example. Then what happens is that all of God’s amazing blessings that he had in store for us fall through our fingertips and we don’t even receive them because they are only received by faith, not by works, but it’s our works that demonstrate our faith and therefore, that’s how our faith is perfected with works. Is all of this kind of making sense? Caroline: Absolutely. I think that was a good step-by-step explanation with that scenario about the definition and how that works. It’s a funny scenario. I think it’s a great example and explanation. Beatty: Okay, cool. So now let’s talk a little further on this, if we can. A simple takeaway. Your faith is always displayed by acting on God’s word. If you don’t act on it, you don’t really believe it. This is the essence of what I call “radical” faith. It should be normal. By the way, was there ever a time in Jesus’ life where He did not act in works based on His faith in what God had directed or told Him to do? Any time?  Caroline:  No. A time when He did not act based on what the Father told Him to do? No, He didn’t.  Beatty: So when He raised someone from the dead, was that Him acting by faith? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: Okay. If we use this definition of faith. When He healed someone, was that acting by faith? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: And did He raise them from the dead? Did He heal them or was it the Holy Spirit doing that work? Caroline: It was Him. The Holy Spirit came later. Beatty: Matthew and Acts both say that it was the Holy Spirit working through Jesus that performed the miracles. Acts says that it was God’s power working through Jesus of Nazareth that did all of these miracles. In other words, that Jesus was modeling for us; this doesn’t take any of His Deity away, I’m just saying that the scripture says that the Holy Spirit is what raised someone from the dead. Healed somebody. We even see this in scripture that God commands, but it’s the Holy Spirit. You have God the Father as the ultimate authority and all power. He designates His authority to Jesus and then Jesus delegates authority to the Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will open your mind to all of these things and He will not speak anything to you that I have not commanded him already to speak. Are you with me or did I just lose you? Caroline: No, I’m here. Beatty: Maybe I’m going too deep in this. Let me pull back out before I get too deep. So faith is displayed by acting on God’s word. Jesus displays living by faith and, when you live by that faith, you act on His word then amazing things happen. I want to tell a personal story. We all kind of get caught into this because we get our eyes on the natural rather than our eyes on God. Jesus always kept His eyes on the Lord. He said, “Everything I do is what I see my Father doing.” He’s always looking at the Father first. Go back quite a few years, this is 2002. We are running and making a lot of money the first part of 2002. We’ve got a large corporate account that is scheduled to leave on June 1 and as soon they leave, we are going to be upside down. We are going to lose huge amounts of money, more money a month than most people will earn in a year. We hit June, we start to go upside down. The first month or two, I’m okay. By the third or fourth month, somewhere in there, I start to panic. Oh my gosh, I’m scared. Because I look in the natural. Just like Peter walking on the water, he looks at the wind and the waves and he gets scared. I’m looking in the natural; I get scared. We start to batten down all the hatches. Everyone is put on forced payroll reduction. I take the biggest cut of everyone. My number two man takes the second biggest cut and everyone else takes a bit cut as well. We are trying to weather the storm and we are losing money month after month. Now, it’s January 2003. Now, we’ve been unprofitable, losing money for about six months. Do you get the picture so far? It’s desperate, dire circumstances. Right? Caroline: Right. Beatty: So I’m out there on my day of prayer. I take a day off and say, “Lord, I am going to meet with you.” I’m out there. It’s now the end of January, just a couple of days before the end of the month and I’m on the golf course which is where I take my day of prayer. I don’t play, I just walk and pray and talk. I’m asking the Lord, “Lord, when are you going to let up? Do you know what the Lord told me? He asked me a question. “Do you really believe I can take care of you?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “If you really believe, how would you act differently than you are acting right now?” So what I said is, “Well, if I really believed it then I would put myself at full pay and I would put all my other people at full pay.” He said, “Then why don’t you do it and trust me?” Okay? This is what I’m talking about with radical faith. It makes no sense, but it is trusting the Lord. It is doing what Jesus said. Jesus trusted the Lord and He never feared. Why do we fear? Because we live in the natural. So I did. I put my eyes on Him instead of on the circumstances and I called my number two guy at the time, his name was Walter and I said, “Walter, put me and everyone else back at full pay, retroactive for the full month” because everyone had gotten a short paycheck midmonth. And so he did. Two days later, payroll hit. We lost a lot of money because that was a lot of money that we didn’t have. But here’s the cool thing. The very next month, we made a profit and this is a small business, we had a $20,000 swing on our bottom line, $20,000 more on our bottom line than we had the month before. And I looked at the P and L and I couldn’t find it even to this day, I’ve go back to that P and L multiple times and there is nothing there where we had a lot more revenue, less expenses. I don’t know how it happened, but it happened. And, for the next string of months, we were profitable. What changed? What changed in all that? Do you know? Caroline: Your faith. Beatty: Yes. I acted on my faith. Faith is perfected by works. That’s what this is meaning. So for those of you guys listening out there, what are you afraid of that you know God has said, “Trust me.” If you really believe God’s word to be true, how would you act differently than you are acting right now? And whatever that is, do it, because that is what James is talking about. Faith is perfected by works. Faith without works is dead. Therefore, you cannot believe unless you are going to show that belief through your works. Pretty fascinating isn’t it? Caroline: It is. That was a really inspiring story too. I think it also makes a better definition of that verse and that challenge explaining how faith and works go hand and hand. They are not in opposition of one another. Beatty: No, they definitely are not. We are going to go just a little bit over on this call but I have some points I want to wrap up with. So what faith really is, Caroline, it is seeing from God’s perspective. See, when Peter was walking on the water he was looking at Jesus seeing Jesus’ perspective and he was walking then he looked from His perspective into the waves and he gets scared. And in the very same situation he has two completely outcomes. One outcome by perfecting his faith through works. The other outcome by getting afraid and stop working by faith. Okay? The same thing happened with me, just reversed with the money. So when we see what God sees then we believe as God believes (if you want to use the term “God believes”). When we see as God sees then we get to believe as God believes and then when we act on that belief that is when our faith is perfected. And the challenge that we run into, and this is why it is so tough. Let me ask you a question instead of making a statement. Are we more spirit being or physical being? As a Christian? Caroline: Spirit being. Beatty: Okay. Where do we spend all of our time, focus and our sensory senses? Physical or spiritual? Caroline: I guess physical Beatty: Yes. So here is our problem. We are more spirit beings living in the spirit or should be, but where we actually live most of our time is in the physical because we have physical bodies. We have our sight, sound, hearing, everything, taste, touch is all physical. It’s easy to lose sight of spiritual truths because we get to see everything in the physical. This is where the challenge comes from. But if we can overcome and look in the spirit realm, both figuratively and literally. We look in the spirit realm figuratively and spiritually by looking at God’s truth and his truth trumps the physical. Okay? It is what it is. I want to give you some examples. I want to give you some passages and some scriptures and show you how this plays itself out in the scriptures. The first one comes from 2 Kings, Chapter 6. This is Elisha and his servant. This is actually where we get the term “chariots of fire.” There is a battle with King Aram. King Aram is the enemy king and any time he makes a move against the Israel king then Elisha is telling the Israel king what is going on. So the Israel king gets to adjust. It may have been Judah, but I think it’s Israel. And now, that is where we pick up. “This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?” “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.” “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” (Just like me. On my goodness, we are losing money, what do I do?) the servant asked. And then Elisha, who sees from God’s perspectives says, “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Here is the point on this, once the servant saw from God’s perspective, which is in the spiritual realm, he was no longer afraid. Does that make sense? Caroline: Yes, that does. Beatty: Let me give you another example. Say it’s the 27th of the month, and this is personal for you and Wes, it’s the 27th of the month and you guys have $2,000 of bills needing to be paid and you don’t have the money. You don’t know where it is going to come from. You’ve run out of money for the month and you still have $2,000 left to pay. And this is critical. Maybe this is your mortgage. Okay? You are at risk of losing the house if you don’t pay it. So you are going to pray and ask the Lord to help you out, is that right? Caroline: Right. Beatty: Okay. So when you pray and ask God to send it, how solid is your faith that He is going to send you that money in the next two or three days? Caroline: Pretty solid because we just seen Him be faithful time and time again. He’ll be faithful again. Beatty: Let me ask you, would you put Jethro’s life on it? Do you believe it that much? Caroline: That such an intense question. I don’t know that the Lord would ask me that. Beatty: I know He wouldn’t but the question isn’t, how much do you really believe? Do we believe in essence, trusting that He is going to do something or do we have an absolute, unequivocal, absolutely $2,000 is going to show up in the mailbox or someone is going to bring it to me within the next two or three days. Caroline: That’s a good challenge to ask yourself. Beatty: I’m leading somewhere. I’m always leading somewhere with these questions. So the question is, we pray and we ask, but do we really believe. We trust, but do we really believe that $2,000 is going to how up in the mail in the next two days? Okay. So now, let’s look at it from God’s perspective for just a moment. One month ago, your mortgage company paid your taxes your taxes and insurance out of money from escrow. And they realized that they collected $2,000 more from you over the last year than was needed. So they processed a $2,000 check. It was mailed two days ago and you are about to get it today. Okay? That is God’s perspective. You know that that check is coming. You know all these details. Now when you pray and ask God for $2,000 do you have a different level of confidence that he is going to provide it. Caroline: Absolutely. You would have the whole scope. Beatty: So what changed? Caroline: You were placing yourself in Heaven’s perspective to see where the Lord is coming through. When you have the whole scope, your prayers change. You have faith and confidence. You can see that He will be faithful and He’s coming through. Beatty: In God’s perspective, everything changes. I think we talked about this a few times back that it’s all about seeing from God’s perspective. That’s what I am talking about here. This radical faith is seeing from God’s perspective. Elisha’s faith was not scared at all because he could see from God’s perspective. Once God opened the servant’s eyes to see from his perspective as well, he was no longer afraid. When we get our eyes focused on the natural, we become afraid. When we keep our eyes focused on the Lord and his truth, which is His perspective, then if we believe it, we are no longer afraid ourselves. The only way that we can demonstrate our belief is to act on it. That’s kind of how all that works. So that’s what faith is. Next time we will start on the topic I call, “Getting out of the boat.” We are laying the foundation now and now the next set of calls we going to start to get where the rubber meets the road and it’s going to be a lot of fun. You want to close us out real quick? Caroline: Sure. Well Beatty, thank you so much for your time and sharing all the revelation and wisdom that you received from the Lord. I think this really was a great and challenging call. I’m excited to hear next time about getting out of the boat and just continuing on in our conversation. I think we are going to wrap up. I don’t think we are doing a question and answer for this call. With that being said, Beatty, if you don’t have anything else, I think we are wrapped up. That’s all we have for today. Beatty: Great. Thanks a lot. Y’all have a great day. P024

We have a special friend of the show back on Beatty Carmichael of the “Get Sellers Calling You” podcast and we going to be discussing the best practices for getting more listing in 2019. #RealEstateAgents #BeattyCarmichael #MailRight http://www.mastergrabber.com/

We have a special friend of the show back on Beatty Carmichael of the “Get Sellers Calling You” podcast and we going to be discussing the best practices for getting more listing in 2019. #RealEstateAgents #BeattyCarmichael #MailRight http://www.mastergrabber.com/

  Geographic Farming – how to make REAL money Part 7 – The Best postcard marketing 1 – self selection This is the Get Sellers Calling You marketing podcast for real estate agents and I’m Beatty Carmichael. For simple to do, proven marketing strategies focused exclusively on finding sellers and getting more listings, visit our website at GetSellersCallingYou.com. And now, let’s begin our next session of Get Sellers Calling You.   Caroline: Hi, this is Caroline Springer and welcome to the next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael. Beatty is the CEO of MasterGrabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Today we are going to be continuing on in our topic of how to make money in geographic farming. This is a series of calls that we’ve had on that. This is actually going to be our last one. We are going to wrap up and talk about postcard marketing. Beatty: We’ve covered all of the other topics. Let’s see, the topics we’ve covered, if I go from memory, we have talked about: How to select a farm and the process to make sure that your selection is dead-on accurate so you make the most money from it. We’ve talked about how to select the mailing list because there are lots of options and opportunities for the types of mailing lists you are looking for (it depends on what you are trying to do). We then talked about 10 different things you can do within a farm that are low cost but allow you to start touching it. We talked about one other thing but I forget what that was and then today we are going to talk about postcard marketing in that farm because that is generally the concept that most people think about when they think of geographic farming and it is a very effective approach to touching and persuading people to choose you. Caroline: Thank you for that. That was a good, little refresher. Just a reminder for those of you who are on our live call, we do have the lines muted and we will open for questions and answers at the end of the call. But yes, thank you Beatty for that refresher. I think this really has been a content rich series on the best ways to make money with geographic farming and I’m excited to continue on with postcard marketing that really works and kind of get into the nitty gritty of some of the differences. I know that maybe some of our listeners have tried different ways so I’m sure they are going to be interested to hear the differences and what you have seen be successful. Beatty: Yes, you know, it’s interesting, I remember when we first started doing geographic farming (this is going back to 2012 / early 2013) and I was inquiring to realtors who were thinking about using us and we were talking about the services we offer, I would always ask them, “Have you ever done geographic farming before?” And I would say probably half or two thirds of the people answered “Yes.” Then I would ask them, “Was it successful for you?” And how many of those people do you think answered yes? Caroline: Oh goodness. Maybe less than half? Beatty: Try maybe less than 10%. So your comment that maybe people have been out there and done postcard marketing before…. What we find is that most people have tried geographic farming and they failed. And they failed because geographic farming is all about process. It’s all about doing the right things, the right way consistently and most people pick a farm and mail a couple of postcards and they spend money and they don’t really have a strategy. They don’t really know what they are doing and, therefore, it fails. This is, I think, our sixth podcast call focused just on this one topic because there are so many opportunities to fail which means there are so many opportunities to succeed. And today, as we talk about the postcard, this is really where the rubber meets the road. The first thing? You’ve got to pick the right farm. Then, the second thing, you’ve got to touch it right. This call would be, I would think, number two in significance in terms of importance in making a geographic farm work. So this is going to be a fun call. Caroline: Well good. I am excited to hear and know I’ve learned a lot and I know our listeners have too. The questions that they have at the end of the call have been really good to hear as well. So just starting off with postcard marketing that works, I think it could be even beneficial, since there are some realtors who haven’t even tried geographic farming, do you want to explain the two difference types of postcards that people typically send? Beatty: Let me rephrase your question. It’s not two types of postcards that people typically send. Most people typically send neither of the two most important types of postcards. So we are going to talk about the two types of postcards that are the ones that you really ought to be sending and what most people have done in the past that just didn’t cut it. I’ve got to tell you. So let me back up and let me Paul Harvey the rest of the story. So that less than 10% of the agents I’ve spoken with when I ask them, “Was geographic farming profitable for you?” and they said “yes,” I always ask them, “What type of postcard marketing did you do?” And 100% of everyone who said that it was successful for them did the same type of postcard. And that is a Just Sold postcard. So if you got nothing else out of this call, if you just wanted to hang up right now, even though we are only a few minutes in, you could say, “I can send out Just Sold postcards and I’ll at least make it profitable.” What I’m going to talk about in these two types of postcards take the Just Sold postcard and leave it in the dust in terms of the results you can get. So you can do Just Sold postcards—most people don’t—but those who did consistently made money, but now we are going to take it leaps and bounds further down the road of how much money you can make from the same farm. The two types of cards I want to talk about today: one is called a direct response card. Internally, we call it our self-selection card. The other is what we call an inside reality card. Basically, the self-selection card that are direct response cards are designed to identify someone who is thinking about selling. Let me ask you a quick question, Caroline. If you were a real estate agent and you could drive down the road in a neighborhood that you are wanting to farm and you would know with relative accuracy which homes were actually going to go on the market in the next six to twelve months, do you think that would give you a leg up in being successful in that farm? Caroline: Absolutely. I think that would be every realtor’s dream. Beatty: Okay, so if you knew who it was, what would you do differently than what you would normally do marketing to that farm? Caroline: I would think those would be the only homes I would be sending cards to and knocking on the door and keeping my face in front of them all the time so that I could be sure that would choose me to list their home. Beatty: Gotcha. So you would up your game in how you touch them? You would touch them more consistently and, what I would like to suggest, more expensively. Your time is worth money. You probably give them more things that cost more money because you know that that is a hot target. That’s one idea. Let me ask you another question. Let’s assume for a moment that you are a really good real estate agent because most of the folks on the call probably at least feel that they are if not in fact that they really are at the top of their game. So let’s assume that you are a top-of-your-game real estate agent. You’ve been selling real estate now for 10 or 15 years. You are in the top 5% or 10% of all agents out there. Let’s assume for a moment that you are going to sell your home. If you were that agent—take the commission money aside; don’t worry about how much money you will make or save from your own commissions—but if you were going to sell your home and you are a top-of-the-game agent, would you choose yourself personally, or do you think you would choose another agent? Caroline: I would absolutely choose myself. Even like you said, commissions aside, I’d be confident that I could do it and that nobody could do it better than me. Beatty: There you go. Okay, so you would be a fool to choose anyone else based on what you know about yourself. So let me ask you a question. If all of those people in the farm were as confident about you and your ability as you are about you and your ability, would they choose anyone else besides you? Caroline: No. If everyone knew what a great agent I was and how hard I work and what a great realtor I am and my marketing and how tirelessly I would work to make sure their home was sold, if they knew that reality was the truth, they wouldn’t hire anybody but me. Beatty: Exactly. So that is inside reality. So now we just kind of defined: What is a direct response card? It identifies those people thinking about selling. What is an inside reality card? Its purpose is to get them to believe about you as you believe about you. Because once they believe about you, they would go nowhere else. So this is why I say these are the two most important cards because they allow you to suck listings out of that farm right up front and long-term start to claim most every listing that starts to come out once we can persuade them. So that’s why these are the two most important cards. Yes, you can start with Just Sold postcards, but if you focus on direct response to identify sellers, you focus on inside reality to persuade them, then at that point you’ve got a game changer that makes your farm really, really profitable. So that’s what I kind of want to go into on this call. And hopefully, we can wrap it all up on this one call. Otherwise, we will continue this call into next week if we get going too long. From there, which card would you like to talk about first? Caroline: Let’s talk about the direct response card. Beatty: Let’s talk about direct response. In marketing there is a concept known as self-selection. Okay. And self-selection is where you use marketing, you send it out to a crowd and you let the people in the crowd select themselves if they are applicable to what you are offering. Does the name self-selection make sense now? Caroline: It does. That was a clear explanation. Beatty: Self-selection is a direct response card that is focused on getting that prospect to select themselves as someone who is thinking about selling. So the question then is, how do you do it? Here is a real basic overview about marketing. There are four steps to marketing and direct response. You have interrupt, engage, educate and offer. Interrupt is a headline. Engage is typically a subhead. Educate is you explain what you are doing. The offer is you give them a chance or opportunity to go get whatever it is that you are talking about. So the way this works in doing this within a postcard environment is there are typically three types of offers. The most important part of all of this, once you get your farm identified, is your offer. Let me see if this makes sense. As a seller, you are thinking about selling your home. And I’m going to send you a postcard about planting beautiful flowers. Does that hold your attention as a seller? Does that cause you as a seller to respond any differently than someone who is not thinking about selling? Caroline: No. I might be interested personally, but not as a seller. Beatty: If I send you another postcard that is talking about how to determine what your home would actually sell for in today’s market, as a seller, does that grab more of your attention than it would if you were not thinking about selling? Caroline: Oh, absolutely. I would very much be interested to know what the value would be. Beatty: So now we have just established what an offer is. An offer is whatever I’m offering you to try to get you to respond. If I offer how to plant pretty flowers, it doesn’t do anything in separating you in self-selection, self-selecting you from everyone else. So what I want to do is take my offer and I want to narrow it down to something that a seller is interested in. Now what do you think a seller is most interested in? What type of offer do you think they are most interested in knowing? Caroline: I think they would be most interested in knowing the value of their home and how much it would sell for or maybe how much the homes around them are selling for. Anything that would guarantee them more money for their home or anything along those lines. I think they would definitely be interested in that. Beatty: Yes, so survey says, “You are pretty close.” That is not the top thing they are interested in but that is definitely on the top of the list. Now the reason I say that is because I have to put this out there. Every time I talk with agents, especially these high-producing agents who have been in the business for years and do a lot of volume. When I ask them, “What does a seller want to know” they’ll respond, “The only thing they want to know is ‘How much is my home worth and how fast can you sell it?’” And I beg to differ. This is where most agents are a little myopic. They get tunnel focused. When you start to look at this from a different perspective, you start to understand something different. Let me suggest a couple of things. Are you more interested in knowing what your home is worth or are you more interested in picking an agent who can get you the most money for your home?” Caroline: Oh definitely in an agent who can get the most money for my home because maybe they could get even more than what the market says it is worth. Beatty: Right. Or, just the opposite, you may pick an agent that gets you less than the market says your home is worth. This is just a simple example that things are not always what they seem to be. You’ve got dig deeper and understand what is it about that seller that really will toot their horn? Just as it relates to self-selection cards and the direct response, “How do you identify sellers,” we’ve done over 21 split A/B marketing tests trying to understand how you can improve that game. I wish we could go into it. We’ve found things that will consistently would get 4X and 5X and 8X higher response rates. Fonts, font colors, headlines, what the card looks like and all kinds of things. When you start to add it all together, then what you have is something that can produce a lot of results. Let’s then reel this back in and I want to talk in terms of three different offers that we have found to be most effective. Let’s talk about ‘How much is your home worth?’ We’ll call it the ‘home valuation’ approach because that is typically what most agents have access to; they have home valuation websites and there are some great companies out there that will mail postcards that say, “Find out what your home is worth. Go to this website.” It’s a great way to do it. They are very effective. And I don’t want anything to come out in this dialogue to make it sounds as if I’m poo pooing that idea because it is very effective. But here is the challenge that we have found. In certain areas, based on the culture of the community you are targeting, we have found where that home valuation approach, “Hey find out what your home is worth, go to this website or call this number” doesn’t generate quality leads. Let me ask you. Are you and your husband thinking about selling your home in the next year? Caroline: No, we are not. We love our house and are planning on staying for a while. Beatty: Okay, great. Would you like to know what your house is worth right now as your most valuable investment that the two of you own? Caroline: Yes, I would like to know. We’ve done some additions and some renovations and I would be interested to know that. You are right, I’m not interested in selling, so I would be a waste for a realtor. Beatty: So you would respond to finding out what your home is worth because you have interest, but you would be a false lead. So this offer, the home valuation, gives what is called a false positive lead. Some are false and some are positive. You have start to filter through them a little bit more. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It just means you have to be aware. Real quickly. You’ve got to track your responses. If you are doing direct response to apply the self-selection approach, you’ve got to be able to track who is responding. The great thing that the home valuation websites do is that they make it really easy. You don’t have to have any special technology. You just buy your home valuation website service and put your own domain on it. Mine might be YourHomeValuesWithBeattyCarmichael.com. Whatever yours is: vestaviahomevalues.com. Anything like that. It’s just a simple domain. Then people go there and they enter their address. So if I mailed you a postcard, you would enter your address and it would give you generally what your home might be worth. When you enter your address now I know which address was entered. So that tells me that you might have interest in selling, but it’s still a false positive lead. Then as I go deeper into that home valuation website, I can make adjustments. I can say, no I have four bedrooms instead of three. We have three bathrooms instead of one. So you start to make adjustments on improvements you have done and then it starts to update your valuation. Then there is finally a place where you can request a professional competitive market analysis. What is happening in this home valuation website is that it’s taking you into a funnel. The further you go into it, the more likely you are to be thinking about selling. Are you following the logic process on that? Caroline: Yes, I am with you. Beatty: Okay, so that is why the home valuation website can really be a great, simple approach because it brings people into it and it can be real effective. But it’s not the only approach. In our testing, we have found one approach that actually beats everything else hands down. Would you like to guess what that offer is that wins far greater than the home valuation website? Caroline: Can I guess since I know? Beatty: Well, let’s see, do you know? You can guess and if you know, let’s test your internal knowledge of our products. Go ahead. Caroline: I know that with our customers that our most popular and most successful card is a card sending out to potential sellers that you have clients who are ready to purchase a home in a certain amount of time. We call it the ‘I have a client’ card. That would appeal to someone who is actually looking versus me who is interested in the valuation of my home but not interested in having a buyer come knock on my door. Beatty: That’s right. It’s what we call the ‘I have a client’ approach. As we talked on some of the previous podcasts, the whole idea came from a friend of mine. He was telling me that he had a client who wanted to buy on this one street, but he couldn’t find a house that he liked. When you are looking at just one street, you don’t have high turnover rate either because there aren’t that many homes there. So this agent, his name is Rob, he got creative and he wrote a letter. “Dear Homeowner, my name is Rob. I’m a real estate agent with such and such brokerage. I have a client wanting to live on your street and he has been looking for a year or two and I’m trying to help him find a house. If you have interest in selling your house, would you please call me immediately?” It’s just a straight-forward approach. But what it did is it got him a listing. It wasn’t the house that the buyer wanted, but it got him a listing because he shook the bushes and the low-hanging fruit fell out. You can take the same approach with a postcard. We’ve tested a lot of copy and we have copy that we’ve copyrighted. The general idea is that you can send out a postcard that says, “I work with all kinds of buyers and many of them are looking in your area (call the area by name – say they are looking in the Garden Heights community, if that is the neighborhood) and they haven’t found a home yet. I’m trying to help them. If you are thinking about selling, would you contact me immediately because I may be able to get your home sold immediately.” Now you have something that will shake the bushes. It causes those people who are low-hanging fruit to then respond. Since they call you, you now know who they are. You can take that concept, Caroline, and you can expand it. Watch this. Let me test your knowledge on this. When a homeowner is thinking about selling, when are they most likely to call a realtor? When they are six months away from selling and they are just pondering it or when they are ready to put their home on the marketing and actually get it sold? When are they more likely to contact a realtor? Caroline: Well, I’ve heard before the six months. I’ve heard that one before. I could be wrong but that’s what I’m going to go with. I could be wrong. Beatty: Survey says, no, you missed it. Here is what happens. Have you ever gone into a store and the sales rep comes up and says, “Hi. May I help you” and you say, “No thank you, I’m just looking.” Have you ever had that happen? Caroline: Yes, that happens all the time. Beatty: Are you actually in the store looking for something specific? Sometimes? Caroline: Sometimes, yes. Beatty: Have you ever just given that knee-jerk response, “No thank you, I’m just looking.” They walk away and then you chase them down and say, “No, wait, hold on, I’m looking for this item, where can I find it?” Have you ever done that? Caroline: Yes, I have. Beatty: Here is what happens. It’s human nature. We have a knee-jerk response that says, “I don’t want to engage a sales rep because I don’t want to be bothered” even if you have interest, you say, “No thanks.” What we find typically, when someone contacts an agent saying, “I’m thinking about selling my home,” that agent usually gets a signed listing agreement within seven days of that initial phone call. What does that tell you? Does that tell you that that homeowner just decided today, “Hey, I was just thinking about selling, let’s call an agent” and within seven days they have a listing agreement? Or do you think that homeowner has been planning to sell for months and they are now finally getting around to calling the agent because they are finally ready to do something about it? Caroline: Maybe that is the stat that I’ve heard. They’ve been planning and thinking about it for six months but then they don’t call until it is time to list. Beatty: That is exactly right. What happens then when you use the ‘I have a client’ approach and you say, “Call me,” you are only going to get those people who have been thinking about it and are now ready to go on the market. But, you miss everyone else, which is a greater number of potential listings, those people who are thinking about selling six or twelve months down the road. The way that you can then capture, not only the low-hanging fruit—those thinking about those going right now and those thinking about possibly selling in six or twelve months—is by changing the, what we call, the call to action. Rather than “Call me,” what I would put on that to keep it real simple is use a call-capture number. This is a toll-free voicemail number that captures the caller ID. You can simply put on the postcard, “Call this number and hear specifically what my buyers are looking for and then if it matches your home, contact me as soon as you are ready to actually sell.” So now, if that were the approach, do you think that these people who were thinking six or twelve months out would likely call that phone number to see what type of homes his buyers are looking for? Caroline: Absolutely. If it’s a sure thing to call and find people who are looking, I think they definitely would. Beatty: Right. As long as it’s free and as long as I don’t engage a sales rep, I’m more likely to respond. This is what we have found over the years in generating leads. What we are technically doing here is generating seller leads within a geographic farm. You can use a call capture number, put a recording on it, and now you get the caller ID of everyone who is responding. Now you know who is likely thinking about selling because they actually took the effort to respond to see. We do it a little bit differently. Ours is a little bit more accurate, but it accomplishes the same thing. When we send out those types of postcards, we have some special technology we program into our system and we actually send them to a website. That technology that we program will pinpoint with laser accuracy the exact address that they are responding from. Now we can send out postcards that say, “Hey, just go to this website to find out what my buyers are looking for.” As soon as they go there, we now know which address is looking and we notify the agent. The key is if you make the identification a stealthy process, where they don’t know that you will know who they are, you are going to get a lot more people freely responding because they don’t want to engage a sales rep right now. That is the second type of self-selection card you can do using the offer of ‘I have a client.’ Now we have one more. We are almost out of time but let’s go ahead and rap this one up and then we will finish this section. There is one other thing that we have found. Ponder for a moment, Caroline. Let’s say that you and Wes were thinking about putting your home on the market. If you were going to put it on the market in three months, what are some of those things that you might be thinking about in terms of getting it on the market? Tell me the process. If you were going to put your home on the market, what are the things that you are going to do to prepare your home? Caroline: We would evaluate our budget. What can we spend? Maybe we would do some quick little fixes here or there. Maybe we would do is a little renovation that wouldn’t cost too much but would maybe give us a lot more money when we sold the house. We would probably be thinking about that or even switching out fixtures. I know hotspots are bathrooms and kitchens, so anything in there that might make it more appealing, we would do small things like that. Beatty: Okay, perfect. So now, would it be helpful if I’m the realtor for me to tell you specifically the things in your house that you want to invest money in that would get you back a greater sales price in a short amount of time or would you prefer just to guess on your own? Caroline: I would definitely love to know from a professional, because that is what they do all the time. I would love that. Beatty: Then, as a professional, if I were to offer you—someone who is thinking about selling—a list of maybe the top five things that you ought to be doing around your home to get it prepared to go on the market, would that hold interest? Caroline: Absolutely. That is something that I would definitely click on. Beatty: Okay. Now, if you were not thinking about selling your home, would that hold interest? Caroline: No, I don’t think so. Maybe, but definitely not as much so as if I was. Beatty: Okay, great. Now we have another self-selection process. That is giving information to the seller on things they can do to make sure their home is ready to sell for the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time. The way you do this is make a list. As a realtor, if you were to advise a client who wanted to put their home on the market in three months, what are the things they should be focused on right now? Make a list of what those things are and then figure out the most important things: The 20% of things that will produce 80% of the results. From there, call it the ‘Top 7’ or the ‘Top 3’ or the ‘Top 5,’ whatever the top number of x number of things to do to get the most money out of your home when you get it on the market. Now you have this free report. What you can do is mail out a postcard: “If you are thinking about selling and you want to get the most money out of your house, I put together a list of the top 5 things that are most valuable to generate the quickest sale with the highest sales price. Get it now. You can go to my website.” They go to your website and maybe they have a form fill that they fill out so you can identify them. Or “Call this toll-free number to request the form.” They call your call-capture number. You put a message on that that says, “Leave your name and address or email address and I’ll mail it to you.” Or, if you do what we do, “Go to this website.” When they go to the website, our technology pinpoint accurately identifies who they are. Some way, you give them a call to action that then leads them to where they request that information. When they go to that call to action, then you identify them. That’s three ways that you use the direct response approach to identify sellers: What’s your home worth? I have a client and a free report. If you do that in a geographic farm, then what will happen (and we’ll talk about this next week) is, if you have the right culture within a farm already, then you will start identifying sellers right off the bat. We’ve had so many clients that when they just started with that approach in a geographic farm, they would get two or three or four listings within the first month or two—I mean Boom Boom Boom Boom—because those are compelling offers. Then, as you nurture the farm longer, you start to pick up more. The biggest thing in geographic farming that kills most people is that they run out of money before they can successfully complete farming it. This approach, using self-selection, gets you cash right up front because you can start turning in transactions and then it pays for the farm. That is one way that you start making a lot of money. Let’s do the remaining part of this next week and we’ll talk about inside reality cards then. Does that work with you? Caroline: Yes, that works great. This is really good and informational. Now we have a whole different card to talk about. We can talk about that next week. We are out of time. Beatty, thank you so much for your expertise and your time in sharing today. I do think this was a really great call and I’m excited to continue on next week. Before we close out the call do you have anything else that you would like to share? Beatty: I actually do. Obviously. There are a lot of things that you can do. I love what a friend of mine said. He’s a top realtor and one of his slides, when he talks to a seller—because you know sellers in a hot market are thinking ‘should I sell the home myself or should I hire a realtor’—one of his slides says, “If you think hiring a professional is expensive, try hiring an amateur.” This kind of hits the nail on the head because there is so much that goes on. A story that comes to mind is there is this old, very successful businessman. His young, hotshot employee has been with him a few years comes to him and says, “Boss, I’ve got good news and bad news.” He says, “Start with the bad news.” “Okay, what’s the good news?” “I’m starting my own business. I’m going to do the same thing that you’ve done and I’m going to be a competitor against you.” And the old businessman just sort of leaned back in his chair, looked the young buck in the eyes and said, “Well, that’s fine, but just remember two things.” He said, “What’s that?” “I taught you everything you know, but I didn’t teach you everything I know.” There is a lot of content here and this is just scratching the surface. So if it’s overwhelming and you want help then let me encourage you to go to our website: AgentDominator.net. This is where we do all of this stuff for you. You can hire us. You pay us a fee. We provide the professional expertise and the other thing that we do, which is really cool, is that we actually guarantee your sells or we give all of your money back. So there is really no financial risk, it is just a matter of outsourcing and letting us do what we do better and then you do what you do. If you have an interest in that, then it’s AgentDominator.net. Back to you, Caroline. Caroline: What we are going to do is wrap up the call. For those of you who are on with us on the live call, if you have questions that you would like to ask just hold on. As soon as we wrap up, we’ll do a short question and answer time with Beatty. That’s all we have for today. Thank you again and thanks Beatty for sharing. Beatty: Thanks and you have a great day. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please tell others about. Also, be sure to get our step-by-step training on how to double sales and referrals from past clients and sphere of influence. It’s absolutely the easiest way to grow your business fast and it’s completely free. You’ll find it on our website at GetSellersCallingYou.com. Thanks for listening.   P023  

Have Questions or Comments? Please ask your questions in the comments section below. We attempt to respond to ALL questions or comments.   Transcript   Beatty: This is the Get Sellers Calling you marketing podcast for real estate agents and I’m Beatty Carmichael.  For simple to do, proven marketing strategies focused exclusively on finding sellers and getting more listings, visit our website at GetSellersCallingYou.com.  Now, let’s begin our next session of Get Sellers Calling You. Caroline: Hi everyone.  I’m Caroline Springer.  Welcome to this next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael.  This is one of our special calls, our Radical Faith calls.  I’m going to pass over the call to Beatty for just a moment.  If you maybe want to explain what your vision is and idea is behind the Radical Faith series. Beatty: Sure.  Most of these podcast calls are all focused on how do you grow a real estate business from a marketing perspective, but really we’re not only real estate agents.  For those of us who are Christians, we’re also children of God and we have a responsibility there.  We do these calls called Radical Faith and I just want to be right up front real quick.  If you’re not interested in Christianity, if you don’t want to hear my views or perspectives from a religious standpoint, then you can go on and delete out of this podcast because that’s all we’re going to talk about on this call is how to server the Lord and how to live by faith.  So that’s my little plug before we get started.  Caroline: Perfect.  Well, thank you, Beatty.  I like it.  It’s their free pass if they don’t want to listen.  Beatty: That’s right.  Free pass to leave before you get offended, right? Caroline: Yes, there you go.  That’s a little claim labor kind of thing.  Just a quick reminder about who Beatty is.  Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber.  He’s the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field.  Also, like Beatty just mentioned, he is a Christian and has been for much of his life and has been a Christian businessman for much of his life as well.  I know just from dialoging with him back and forth on these and then watching Beatty work as a Christian businessman, he has so many testimonies of really actively seeing the word at work in his business and in his business partnerships, it’s really inspiring and refreshing in the world that we live in because so many people want you to keep your faith out of the business world.  Whatever industry that you work in and for most of our listeners, that’s the real estate industry.  Today, I really don’t have a topic because Beatty wanted to surprise me with what we’re talking about.  We’ll just have a free, open dialogue and then just a reminder for those of you that are on our live call, we do have the lines muted, but we will open up at the end for questions and answers.  So, Beatty, I’m very interested and curious what we’re going to be talking about since I don’t have any outline or idea. Beatty: We are actually going to be doing a continuation of the last 2 Radical Faith calls.  We’ve been on the focus of trying to understand what faith is.  Where this goes, as a Christian, is we want to first understand one of the core concepts of Christianity, of our relationship with the Lord and that is really understanding what faith is.  Until you understand what faith is, it’s impossible to live as Christ lived because everything Jesus did was by faith.  The only thing he really ever rebuked his disciples for, I think that probably out of 10 different rebukes I’ve seen 8 of them if not 9 are all focused on ‘Oh, ye of little faith’.  Now, there may be more than 10, there may be less than 10 but the bottom line is, except with 1 or 2 exceptions is the only thing that Jesus rebuked his disciples about is their lack of faith.  The question is, what is this thing that we call faith?  Why is it so important?  How do we apply it in our lives?  If we can really understand it, then we can really start to follow it.  Does that make sense? Caroline: Absolutely.  Even going through some of these podcast calls in this series have been challenging and good for me too.  They’ve brought me to more of an understanding and like you said, and even shedding more light on some of those things that you were saying where Jesus rebuked them for a lack of faith.  Depending on the church that you go to, sometimes that gets watered down and some of that is overlooked.  I think this is a good challenge but a refreshing, good challenge because when we’re invited into it, that’s what we are created to walk in.  It’s a lot easier than it may feel at times because we don’t just have our strength, we have the Lords.  Yeah, that makes total sense.  I’m with you. Beatty: Great.  If we look at the ultimate goal of our Christian life, it’s to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and become more into the image of Christ.  That’s the process of what’s typically called sanctification.  The question is, how do we get there?  The first step is the concept of faith and that’s why I want to dig into it a little bit more.  When we start talking about faith, Jesus talks about faith and belief as 2 separate things.  The Bible starts to make clarity that faith and belief are actually different.  However, for simplicity sake, as we go into this right now, I’m going to combine them together.  Sometimes Jesus may say, believe.  Sometimes he may say, have faith, but for real basic understanding, we’re going to assume that they’re both the same and maybe on a later discussion we’ll separate them out and define what they are separately.  With that, let’s talk about what faith really is.  I want to go back to just a few foundational passages that start to give us a framework and some simple truths.  One of the truths that apart from faith, we can receive nothing from the Lord.  James I, 6 and 7, let’s test your scripture memory.  Do you know what James I, 6 and 7 says? Caroline: Oh, gosh.  You always put me on the spot like that. Beatty: I’ll bet you’re looking it up in your Bible right now.  No, I’m teasing. Caroline: Well, I know it’s about faith and then when you’re asking the Lord and you don’t doubt. Beatty: Yes, that’s it.  That’s exactly it. Caroline: Is it something along those lines?  The reason is because we just talked about that recently so I promise it really was because of that. Beatty: I love it.  Well, it was a special circumstance.  Here’s what this says.  It says, ‘but he must ask in faith without any doubting for the one who doubts ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord’.  Here, we can find one of these pivotal truths that without faith, it’s impossible to receive anything from the Lord.  This is also where Jesus says in Mark 11:24, which is the next foundational truth, and that is ‘when we pray by faith, we receive what we ask for’.  We know it to be true because it’s a spiritual truth, but sometimes the question is if we pray and we don’t receive, it doesn’t invalidate the truth, it just means that we did not fully apply it.  But here’s what Jesus says.  Mark 11:24, ‘Therefore I tell you whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours’.  A real simple question, is that an emphatic statement or do you think there’s a lot of wiggle room in that statement? Caroline: No.  I don’t think there’s a lot of wiggle room in the Bible at all. Beatty: Yeah, right, okay. Caroline: I think that’s a truthful statement. Beatty: It’s a truthful statement because Jesus said it and therefore if we pray, say, well, I prayed in faith and I didn’t receive it, all I can tell you  just because you didn’t receive it doesn’t mean that you prayed in faith.  We have truth and then we have experience.  We’re going to get a little bit into today, but more in subsequent sessions what happens when we think we’re acting by faith, but we’re really not and how does that impact what we get.  We have this second foundational statement that when we pray by faith, we receive what we ask for.  The third foundational statement that I want to kick off this call with is at the heart of all sin is unbelief or a lack of faith.  As you read through Old Testament to New Testament, especially going through the Israelites coming through the desert and in the wilderness and for 40 years.  What the Lord’s word keeps saying is they did not believe, they did not trust and because of that, God’s wrath burned against them.  What we find is that the lack of faith or an unbelief is really the root of all sin in our life.  This is where one of Jesus’ primary rebukes, ‘oh ye of little faith’.  That’s the only thing he really rebuked his disciples for consistently.  Why that and what is is it?  That’s the preamble.  Let’s start talking about this.  The Bible tells us specifically, let’s test your scripture memory location on this one.  There’s a verse in the Bible that says, ‘faith is’, so you remember where that might be? Caroline:  That’s in Hebrews 11. Beatty: Yay.  Good job. Caroline: The reason I remember that is because we did talk about that in one of our recent calls, but that is a verse that I will go to a lot at ones time in life. Beatty: Hebrews 11:1, ‘now faith is the assurance of things hoped for.  The conviction of things not seen’.  The Bible tells us what that is.  I want to read 2 other versions of that same verse to show you how these translations start to explain it further.  In The Living Bible, it says, ‘What is faith?  Faith is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen.  It’s the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us even though we cannot see it up ahead’.  Now, let me define the word ‘hope’ in the Bible is not used the same way as we use it here in America.  I hope it doesn’t rain.  That’s the way we use it here in America.  In the Bible when the word hope is used, it’s an absolute assurance of a promise.  The hope of salvation.  It’s not like, well, we hope I’m believing this thing right.  No, the hope of salvation is the absolute assurance of it.  When it says that it is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us even though we cannot see it up ahead, this is talking about it’s this absolutely certainty of what’s going on.  The Amplified Bible gives my favorite definition this one.  It says this, ‘Now, faith is the assurance or the title deed of things we hope for.  Being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of reality.  And then it puts in brackets [faith is perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].  What we have, Caroline, is we have the concept of faith which is a title deed.  We talked last time about a title deed being, you know if you have title to your car that means you own it, is that right?  Do you remember that? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: Okay. So you own the car, which means you have claim to it and no one can take it from you because it is yours. And that is what we are talking about with faith. It is title deed of the things that we hope for. This is now starting to move into where faith really starts to come in because faith is not in the physical world; it is not in the Earthly realm. It is of the spiritual world or the Heavenly realm. And faith is perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses. In other words, it’s perceiving as reality what in the physical realm we have nothing to tell us it’s there. This is why faith is sometimes so difficult for people. It’s because we are trying to apply our physical senses and our physical being into it. And it’s a supernatural type of element. Okay? That is why it is kind of tough at times. Let me ask you a question. Can you truly believe in and have faith in something that is not true? What do you think? Caroline: That is not true? I would think, no. Beatty: No, you can’t. There is no way to truly believe and have faith in something that is false. That would merely be a deception but you can’t have faith based on this definition. By definition, it the title deed. It is the absolute actual ownership of it, which means that it must be true. And so what I want suggests is that there is a difference between truth and what is true. Okay? Let me see if I can make sense with this. We are children of God, sons of the Kingdom. Does that make sense so far? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: Does our Father have and possess all possessions? Does he have all provisions and have enough to meet all of our needs? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: Okay. So it may be true that I am broke, but truth is my Father owns it all and can take care of all my needs. It may be true that I sick, but truth is, He can take away my sickness and disease because that is the heart of the Father. It may be true that I am broken and downhearted, but truth is, I have all joy and peace in Christ. Do you see the difference between true and truth? Caroline: Right. I think that is a great depiction of it. Beatty: So truth, is God’s word. True is what I perceive in mind’s eye, my natural eye, as what is my reality right now. What we are going to find, especially in the later things that we talk about, is that there is a difference between what is true and what truth is. And truth trumps reality because reality will change. If we go back to Jesus’ statement back in Mark, it says, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” So we have this thing that says believe which is the root word for faith. Have faith that you’ve received it and then it will be yours. But the converse is true. If you don’t have faith and you receive it, then it is not going to be yours. So we have the difference between truth and true. Truth is you believe by faith and it is yours. What’s true is that you may not believe by faith and it’s not yours. So true, or reality, is not fixed but truth is. And you can only faith in what is truth because you can only have faith in what is fixed by the Lord. I may be kind of confusing you, but are you following where I’m going on that? Caroline: I am. I think that is a great reminder. I think you are such a great teacher the way you explain the differences between things. I am completely following you. I think that was a great explanation between those and what that means for us. I am following. Beatty: So the next step is, where does this faith come from? And so, Romans tells us, in Romans 10:17: “Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.” So now we have the scriptural reference that faith is based off of truth, which is the word of Christ. But I want to dissect this passage in Romans a little more. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. I remember when this passage was explained to me. Go back quite a few years ago; this is now 1997. Okay? I’m an unemployed, stay-at-home dad. My wife is a stay-at-home mom. We have a baby in diapers. Another baby came that year. I was trying to make ends meet. I did 13 different things that year. We had a mortgage on the car and a mortgage on the house and everything else. I did 13 things to try to make money. My entire income set this year was $11,882. That was my adjusted gross income. You can tell that I didn’t do a really good job, but the Lord blessed us. I’ll share more about that later. But we came through a period of time when we had nothing. During that period of time, we continued to give 20% of whatever we earned directly into the Lord’s work before we spent any of it. So even in our lack, what happened was, we realized we could trust the Lord and he would take care of us. Kind of the net of what happened there was, we were never late on any of our payments. In fact, we never missed a payment. We never went hungry. We had plenty of everything we needed. The Lord completely took care of us. It was an amazing experience. When I started our business and the business started to grow, I was meeting with a Christian business man, a mentor of mine named Tom. We were looking at our PnL.  For those of you who don’t know what a PnL is, it’s basically like a scorecard that basically tells you if your business is making money or not. Every month we are growing my $20,000 profit. $20,000, $40,000, $80,000, like that. And I’m over here tickled pink. I’m all excited. I’m meeting with my friend Tom and saying, “Tom, how can I have faith when I can see the money on the PnL?” Because, in my mind, faith was, you have no knowledge of what is going on and therefore you merely have to trust the Lord to take care of you. That was my definition of faith. Does that make sense? Does that kind of ring true that most people’s definition of faith is, “I’m just trusting the Lord because I have no knowledge of anything else”? Are you following where I’m going on that? Caroline: I am and that is exactly what I was thinking. I think that is probably true for a lot of people from what they have experienced and from what they know. I’m sure that would resonate with a lot of people. Beatty: So faith is not trusting God; I hate to say it that way. Trust comes out of faith but trust is not faith. If we come back to Romans 10:17, it says, “Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.” And so I asked Tom, “How can I have faith when I can see the money and it is growing every single month.” That is when he said, “Faith doesn’t come from seeing. Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.” Where is that? Romans 10:17. And it totally rocked my world in starting to understand what faith really meant. So I wanted to take this moment to start to dissect this and talk about this. So there are two key words in this passage. “Hearing” and “word.” “Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ.” So if you look at the Greek word—and I’m not a Greek scholar, I just happen to have a concordance that happens to have the Greek in there. The word hearing means audible. It is not reading. Faith doesn’t come by merely reading the word; it comes by hearing it. Now, there are different ways to hear it. Sometimes the Lord highlights it off of the page. Other times he impresses it in some significant way. Other times, it may be audible. I mean, I’ve heard the word of God audibly once in my life. It was really clear and it surprised the heck out of me. I looked around, “Where did that come from? No one is here.” But faith comes from hearing the word of God. It is that audible side of things. The main thing I want to focus in on is “word.” Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. And there are actually two primary Greek words used in the New Testament that translate into the English word called “word.” Let’s test your Greek knowledge. Do you have an idea of what those words are? Caroline: That I do not know. Beatty: Okay, so the two Greek words are: logos and rhema. I knew you knew it. What happens is, sometimes we hear these things but maybe they don’t come out quit so quickly. I am not trying to embarrass you; I’m just trying to create dialogue. Caroline: I did know both of those words as soon as you said them. Beatty: Here is what they are. Here is a simple definition of logos: A statement that embodies an idea. Let me give you three verses and I’ll show you how this comes out. Mathew 5:32 states, “Jesus says, ‘But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except for the reason of unchastity makes her commit adultery.’” That word reason, “except for the reason of unchastity” – that is logos – except for the idea of unchastity. Then you have Mark 2:2. It says, “And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door and he [talking about Jesus] was speaking the word to them.” That word is logos. He was speaking a statement that embodies an idea. He was talking to them. Then we have another example that is in Luke 1:2. It says, “Just as they were handed down to us by those who, from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.” The word is the Gospel. “Eyewitness and servants of the word” is logos—a statement that embodies an idea. So we see this word throughout scripture and it is important but it doesn’t have a whole lot of power behind it. It’s just talking about a concept of an idea. Are you following along with me? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: So then we look at the word rhema, which is the other primary Greek word. Now, if there are any Greek scholars out there, I understand there are lots of meanings and lots of ways to interpret the word. I’m just focusing on what I call the framework of what goes on here. I’m not trying to become a Greek scholar. I’m just trying to share generally. This is just generally framework of what these are. So a simple definition of rhema means: By implication of matter, especially of an operation, command or dispute. So it is a little more specific, but when I start to show you how rhema is used in scripture, or at least in sample scripture, we start to see that it is different from the word logos. This concept of faith comes from hearing the word of Christ, hearing the rhema of Christ. I think this is significant because now it starts to give us an idea of what we can actually have faith in. Okay? So let’s look a couple passages. The first one is in Mark. It’s Mark 14:72. This is at the time when Jesus has been taken before the high priest. It says, “And immediately the cock crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, ‘Before the cock crows twice, you will deny Me three times.’” “He remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him.” “Made the [rhema] to him.” So Jesus made a very specific comment, very specifically to Peter that had a very specific outcome. That’s a rhema. Okay? So we look at Luke 1:38. This is Mary talking to the angel. “And Mary said, ‘Behold the bondslave of the Lord; may it be it done to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.” “Let it be done to me according to your word,” according to your rhema, according to that statement, that direction, that command, that promise, that forth telling of what is going to happen. Okay? Here is another one in Luke 5:5. “And Simon answered and said, ‘Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as you say and let down the nets.” “I will do as you [rhema] and let down the nets.” Do you see the difference between logos and rhema? Logos is kind of a general idea, but rhema tends to carry with it very specific instructions, very specific promises of what is about to happen. Do you see this played out in scripture? Caroline: Absolutely. I think too with rhema it almost feels like there is more of an action with it, even though it is still a word, it kind of feels like there is more of a speaking action. I don’t know if that is right, but it feels that way. Beatty: You are right; it is more of a speaking action. It is something that you can sink your teeth into. And so when we talk about faith and living our life by faith and acting by faith, it is not simply acting by ideas, it is acting on truth. And so if we go back to truth versus true, you can only have faith in truth because only truth is solid and in each of these examples of rhema, there was a truth given and that truth occurred and, therefore, when that truth was given as a rhema, then the recipient of that truth could have faith in it that it was going to happen. It’s confident assurance of something to occur that we cannot see right now. Does this kind of wrap it together a little bit? Caroline: I think it does. I think that was a great explanation too and even gave people a picture of it. That’s great explanation of that. Beatty: So if we go back to the amplified version: Faith is the title deed, okay? When Jesus told Peter before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times. That is a title deed. You can take that to the bank because Jesus made a comment that is the absolute truth and then it occurred. An angel told Mary, “You are going to have a child and you are not going to have relationships with a man to have that child. You are going to be a virgin.” She said, “Be it done according to your word.” That was her title deed because the Lord had delivered that message to her. Or when Jesus told Peter, “Drop down the nets.” “We worked late all night, but by your command we will do it.” That’s what rhema is. This is where faith comes from. It comes from this concept of rhema. What’s interesting is the Holy Spirit is just an amazing helper. So you have the Holy Spirit that is sent to us, as believers, to guide us through the scripture, to interpret the scripture, and to highlight things to us. It’s basically guiding us through the entire path in life to ensure that we hear God’s instructions to us. So basically it’s our choice if we want to follow it or not. It’s not really our choice, but He gives us some choice in the matter. And so what happens is, we can be reading God’s word and we might read something that would normally be logos, such as Jesus giving the parable of the servant with the ten minas. The master says, “Well done faithful servant. Because you were faithful with a little, take charge of ten cities.” So if you just read that you are going to say, “That’s a nice story.” But then something may be going on in your life and the Holy Spirit causes that passage to stand out and you read over it and it’s like your eyes just latch onto it. Almost like a pair of magnets and something is really unique. Have you ever had that happen as you read the scripture, something just kind of stands out and you go, “The Lord is telling me something here”? Have you ever had that happen? Caroline: Oh, absolutely. Things or highlighted or things jump out or something happens and I start thinking about it. That has happened to me. Something will happen and I’ll be reading about it and then I’m look, “Oh, that was you.” So absolutely. Beatty: Perfect. So here is what is going on. The Holy Spirit will take that passage and highlight it. And when that happens, in this kind of loose terminology of logos versus rhema that becomes your rhema. That now becomes something that you can have faith in because not it has spoken to you by the Holy Spirit. Now obviously we want to make sure that it’s the spirit that his highlighting it not just our own desires. But as you mature as a believer than you can discern the difference between when the Holy Spirit is telling you to take notice because this is for you versus when we are trying to say, “Oh, I want this for me.” Okay? But when the Holy Spirit highlights it, then what happens is he takes the general word of God, the logos, and he turns it into a rhema for you that now you have the title deed to it. And now when you pray for that, believing that you received that you received, believing by faith, then that is when you receive it. This is when you ask for something, let not a man doubt, otherwise you should expect nothing from the Lord. So when we have the title deed, then we have no way to doubt it. Is this starting to open up these concepts?  Caroline: Absolutely. I was just thinking about how that is coming full circle and connecting. I think that was great explanations that makes connections between all of that. I think that for a lot of people these are concepts or thoughts that maybe they’ve heard a lot but this is bringing new or deeper truth or revelation to the depth of what we are being invited into. I’m thankful that I get to be on the receiving end of this. Beatty: I love it. Well, do me a favor because I know we are out of time for this segment. I would love for you to sum up what you got out of this, anything that stands out and we will kind of start to wrap up the call. Caroline: Okay. You put me on the spot here. I think like you said in the beginning, one of the concepts that I think that I’m continually trying to renew my mind about is about hope and assurance and like in that verse where the title deed example you were using about salvation. This is like our deed. Because I think that sometimes the world that we live in—or like you said, the American culture—we look at things through a certain lens. We look at faith; we look at hope. We look at what we can ask for through a certain lens. Maybe even what we’ve experienced or seen other Christians say is available. I think this has been really good as an invitation. “Hey this is real. This is what we have access to. It’s not like an “I have to try.” It’s not an “as hard as I can pray and ask the Lord for something.” It’s like a complete washing of your mind, of saying, “Okay, this is true. This is what we have access to. This is what is real. This is the Kingdom and the reality that I choose to be more aware of than what my surroundings are. Even like you said, if it’s something that we pray for and haven’t seen what we’ve asked the Lord for, it’s just saying, “Hey Lord, this is what your promise is.”  I’m going to stand in this. I’m going to stand in this truth and in this promise and continue praying and continue believing. I feel like this is a good and an exciting challenge what we are invited to as sons and daughters, what we have access to, to not question it and not doubt and not ever stand back from what we know to be available in truth. When you are talking, my mind is going a million different places of different things and different examples and to my own relationship with the Lord. So those are the things that I was getting out of it. I don’t know if that is a perfect summation. Beatty: I think it’s a great summation. Absolutely. Caroline: Okay, good. I think there is a lot we can learn from this. I’m going to share the recording myself. Beatty: Well good. I think we are probably about out of time for this session. Is that correct. Caroline: Yes, we are. I didn’t want to interrupt you because it was so good. But yes, we are out of time and we need to wrap it up. Beatty, thank you so much for your time and for your willingness to share a revelation that you received from the Lord and what you’ve walked with in the Lord and for giving us all of this great challenge of who we are and what we are called to do and what is available. So, if you are on the live call with us, what we are going to do is wrap up and if you have any questions that you would like to ask Beatty, just hang on and we’ll go into a short Q&A session. So I think that is all for today. But thank you again, so much, Beatty, for sharing. Beatty: Well, thank you. I’ve enjoyed it. Y’all have a great day. Beatty: This has been the Get Sellers Calling you marketing podcast for real estate agents and I’m Beatty Carmichael.  For simple to do, proven marketing strategies focused exclusively on finding sellers and getting more listings, visit our website at GetSellersCallingYou.com.    P022

    Transcript Beatty: This is the Get Sellers Calling You marketing podcast for real estate agents and I’m Beatty Carmichael.  For simple to do, proven marketing strategies focused exclusively on finding sellers and getting more listings, visit our website at GetSellersCallingYou.com.  Now, let’s begin our next session of Get Sellers Calling You. Caroline: Hi everyone.  This is Caroline Springer and welcome to the next sessions of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael.  Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and he’s one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field.  Today, we are going to continue with our topic of geographic farming.  Last week we were talking about the 10 low cost ways to touch your geographic farm and we’re going to continue on with that today.  Just a reminder for those of you that are on our live call, we have the lines muted, but will open up for questions and answers with Beatty at the end of the call.  So, welcome, Beatty. Beatty: Well, thank you.  It’s good to be back. Caroline: I’m very excited and interested to continue on, I know this has been a lot of calls in our series on geographic farming has been really informational.  I know I learned a lot and I’m sure that our listeners feel the same way.  Last week we started on 10 low cost ways to touch the farm which I know is something that you’re really passionate about and have a lot of advice and success stories on.  I’m very interested to hear the rest of your suggestions for 10 low cost ways. Beatty: Well good.  I’m kind of excited to share some of them and we talked on 3 of them last week, and so we’ve got about 7 more to go or possibly 8, depending on if I add any new ones that I think about as we go along.  The great thing about all this is that there’s just so many ways to touch your farm successfully that it almost doesn’t matter what you do.  I say almost.  Sometimes it actually does, but in general when you’re doing geographic farming, there’s really 3 things that you do if you want to get listings there.  There may be more than 3 ways, so let me just back up and say, if you are to start geographic farming, what you do to get the most results out of it.  One of the things you want to do, we haven’t talked about this at all, so this is kind of a bonus thing.  Maybe we’ll do a call more specifically around this idea.  If you’re going to do a geographic farm, you ought to be an expert in that locality.  That subdivision, that neighborhood, whatever it is.  If you are not out there actually previewing all of the sales coming on the market, all the listings that are on the market, I mean, and walking through and understanding what each home has, what it’s priced, what you like about it, what you don’t, so you can talk knowledgably about it, then you’re really not an expert in that area.  I want to share a story.  One of our clients, we started working with him in a geographic farm.  He’d just started in this farm.  Never marketed there before.  One of the things that he did, is he did these best practices.  One of those best practices is for every listing that was on the market, he went and visited.  Where he was, you actually contact the homeowner and come out and take a look.  In his environment it was okay.  It was listed by another agent, but he could contact the homeowner and say, hey, I just want to come out and look at your home.  They would always ask why.  He would say because I focus here.  I know every home on the market.  I know what’s going on and I make it a practice to walk through every home.  That way as I have buyers, I can tell them exactly what’s on the market.  I can tell them what’s best for them based on what they want.  When I have a listing, I know exactly what it should be priced at and that’s how I do my business.  They’re always impressed.  He would walk through the home and he would leave a notecard with suggestions.  What he liked.  What he didn’t like.  Things that he would suggest that they do to improve the salability of their home.  Here’s what’s really cool.  He goes out and does that simply to know what’s on the market.  At the same time, we’re mailing postcards into that community and he starts getting listings right off the bat from expireds that didn’t sell.  They were so impressed with him that they gave him the listing and he sold it.  One of the things that you can do, and again, all we’re talking about is touching them.  Making sure you go out and you meet the people.  Make sure that they see you all the time.  Make sure that they trust you.  If you are actually going through and looking at the homes and leaving a little note about things they could do to improve the salability of their home, you know, hey, I think you ought to take out the gold fixtures and put in iron fixtures, anything like that, then that makes you more of the expert.  They start to trust you and you might actually pick up some expired sales along the way.  That’s kind of a free bonus.  But let’s get back to touches in general.  These low cost thing that you can do.  Last week, I think, Caroline, we talked about doing Facebook marketing, doing door knocking, and doing what I call an ice cream give away or a cupcake give away down at the park.  Let’s talk about something else we can do.  We want to add as much value into someone’s life as possible.  One thing you can do is you can give away 2 for 1 coupons.  You can add this into the mix with what you do with door knocking.  You could add this into the mix when you do a cupcake give away.  You could add this into the mix simply by hiring some teenagers to go out and place this on every door in the neighborhood.  The idea is this, if you will get these coupon books.  Caroline, have you and Wes ever gotten these coupon books?  You pay like $15 or $20 and it’s a great big book.  You go through it and you’ve got all these restaurants and other retail places, and they’re 2 for 1 or half off or things like that.  Have you ever gotten one of those coupon books? Caroline: I have and since our son was born, I feel like I’ve definitely frequented it a lot more. Beatty: I’ll bet. Caroline: Having a baby now, having to cut costs, I’ve definitely looked at those recently. Beatty: Let me give you a little secret.  Watch this.  Did you know that every one of those retail stores and restaurants pay money so they could put their coupon in that book.  Did you know that? Caroline: I figured that just because it is free advertising.  There were definitely a few places that we frequented that we didn’t beforehand.  We probably wouldn’t without the coupon.  I figured that, but that’s my confirmation. Beatty: They pay to be in there.  Now, you, as an individual can tap into that.  Let’s say that you wanted to target Garden Heights community, where ever that neighborhood might be.  You go through that coupon book and you say, what’s some nice restaurants near here?  You go, oh, here’s a nice restaurant, let’s call it ABC Café and in that coupon book, they have a 2 for 1 coupon.  Buy one entrée get another one free.  Then, what you can do is you can contact ABC Café and say, hey, I’m a real estate agent.  I’m marketing into Garden Heights neighborhood which is right in the area you serve and I would like to promote your restaurant.  I see you’ve got these 2 for 1 coupons in this booklet.  Will you give me some 2 for 1 coupons or will you give me the ability to create a 2 for 1 coupon with your permission and let me get it out to every homeowner in Garden Heights?  What do you think that restaurant would do?  Do you think they would say yes? Caroline: Absolutely.  It’s free advertising for them. Beatty: That’s right.  It’s totally free.  They don’t even have to pay for it this time.  Now, you can add great value to those homeowners that comes from you by saying, hey, I worked out a special deal and I would like to give you a benefit.  ABC Café will give you 1 entrée for any entrée that you purchase as long as you present them this coupon that shows my name and information.  You have your coupon with your name and photo and stuff and we will call this The Caroline Springer Special.  People go, wow, this is really great.  Thank you, Caroline.  You’ve now added a value to them.  You even put in that little note, whether it’s a door hanger or a letter that you send out or put it on a postcard, say, stick this on your refrigerator until you are ready to use it.  What that does is that it keeps your value, your face, your name, your brand always in front of them, facing them with this great benefit that they get simply because you were there.  Isn’t that a cool way of doing it?  Isn’t that a cool touch? Caroline: I think that’s a great idea.  I know that’s something that myself, as a homeowner, would appreciate and I would definitely remember because I’ve never experienced or had anybody do that for me before.  That’s something that would make a realtor stand out, I think.    Beatty: It definitely would.  You used the perfect term.  We touched on this on one of our calls a while back on sphere of influence, but the question is, when you do a touch, what type of touch is most important?  In other words, are all touches the same or do some touches have greater value?  What this touch does, you said, it’s something of value.  Something that you appreciate and when you can do a touch that your recipient appreciates, what that means is you go up in those little brownie points in their minds.  Not all touches are the same. Just because you do a touch and it shows your name in front of them, that’s great, but if you can do a touch that keeps your name in front of them with appreciation, you get even more bang for the buck. This is something you can do and it’s real easy, real low cost and especially if you just want to get out to the whole neighborhood.  You hire a couple of teenagers and say, I’m going to pay you X number of dollars to get this out to everyone in the neighborhood.  So they hop on their bikes or they hop in their car and they get it out for you because for them, it’s great money.  For you, it’s almost nothing. That’s a low cost touch.  That’s number 4 that we talked about.  Number 5 touch is what I call a BBQ in the park social.  This is similar to what we touched on last week where you have a giveaway.  Like a cupcake or ice cream give away and you do it down at the park.  This is going to be similar to that except it’s more of a BYOB, bring your own beef, okay, beef or hotdogs or whatever and we’re just going to go grill out.  You coordinate a social in the park where everyone just grills out.  They come out for Saturday lunch or Saturday early dinner.  If you want, you could actually put hotdogs and burgers on the grill and give them away.  Do another social event especially if the area you’re targeting has some sort of a park or common area that people can go to.  That would be Number 5.  Similar to that, but different, sometimes you have a neighborhood that doesn’t really have a common area for everyone to congregate in.  Like one of the areas we lived in, we had like 350 homes but yet there were no common areas.  It was just residential, beautifully manicured lawns and everything else.  It was a subdivision, so you had 2 entrances and then all of the inside streets.  What we would do, is we would take a side street that didn’t have a lot of traffic and we would block it off on both ends and we would have a street social.  If you don’t have a common space, create one out of a low traffic road and block it off.  Obviously, you will need to get permission from the police or someplace and announce it throughout the neighborhood.  Put up flyers.  Put up street signs.  Say, hey, we’re doing a band and hotdog social on this street at this time.  Just coordinate something.  Bring in a DJ, bring in a band.  You can get these DJ’s that just play the music and they bring their own speakers and stuff and it doesn’t cost much money.  Bring something for the kids.  Maybe one of those fun photo booths that people can hop in and take funny photos or anything like that.  Make another big deal because here’s what happens.  The more you can coordinate getting the neighbors together, the more it becomes a fun activity that they really appreciate.  The more they appreciate it and you are in the middle of all of it, then the more they appreciate you.  Back to what you’re talking about, Caroline, with the 2 for 1 coupon, it’s something you would appreciate.  It’s the same thing with all these other little touches.   If you can make them appreciate it, then it raises the value that you have in their eyes.  Make sense? Caroline: Absolutely.  I was just thinking how much I wish that somebody would do that for my neighborhood. Beatty: All right, real estate agents.  Listen up.  We will give your address so that those in your area will start to create that social.  I’m teasing.  Wouldn’t that be fun?   You bring your kids.  Let’s take this a step further.  Coordinate these activities.  You have a social on the street.  You have Easter, a big Easter egg hunt over at someone’s house.  For Fourth of July, coordinate the fire truck to come over and bring a bunch of streamers and maybe bring the ice cream truck again.  Have the fire truck and turn on the sirens and what happens is all of the kids in the neighborhood congregate there.  All of the moms come and congregate and a lot of the dads and it’s a perfect opportunity to keep your name in front of them with value and then the other thing that starts to happen when you do this is you become known as the local real estate expert because it’s you that’s coordinating everything.  If there’s not a phone directory in that neighborhood.  Make one.  Go door to door say, hey, I’m putting together a phone directory for everyone.  I think it would be a great idea so you know who your neighbors are.  You know their kids, you know their phone number, their email address and make the community a real community.  You coordinate a director and it will cost you probably a couple of dollars per home, but that directory is carrying your brand.  It stay with them all the time.  They’re always using it.  These are things that the agent that dominated our community, she did all of these things and it was amazing.  She had almost every listing that came on the market in that community because she was always there.  These aren’t tough things to do.  They’re just things that you have to plan and execute on.  Pretty cool idea, isn’t it? Caroline: I love these things. I think there all low cost and really easy too and fun.  It’s not like this is something that anybody would not enjoy this.  I think this is a great idea.  I love all this. Beatty: Cool.  Because it’s fun, most real estate agents are on this profile, that’s the I’s which are the influencers.  On the other profile, they’re called sanguine.  They are people that just like to have fun.  They like to be with people.  These are things that you can really drive on and enjoy the process of being an agent.  It’s really cool.   That’s actually a bonus.  That would be Number 7 if we were counting that one.  Let’s talk about another one I call the Athletic Schedule.  Here in the South, football, SEC football is king.  You go up north a little bit, in to probably the Kentucky area and basketball probably becomes king.  You go a little bit farther north and hockey becomes king.  You go somewhere else and maybe it’s the pro teams.  Where ever you are, in most cases, there’s at least one or two athletic events that are like the big deal.  We’ve all talked about this, but I want to talk about the importance of it.  That’s the athletic calendar that you stick on the refrigerator.  First off, Caroline, do you and Wes, by chance, do you ever stick one of those athletic calendars on your refrigerator? Caroline: We don’t, but we probably aren’t a typical family.  My husband watches a lot more basketball than most.  I do know that we live in the South and that’s a big, big thing so I know lots of people that would. Beatty: Yeah, and lots of people definitely do.  I was talking to a realtor and that she puts out these athletic schedules, in this case, it’s the SEC football schedule.  She says that she gets more business, that’s her Number 1 marketing method in terms of return on investment.  Here’s what happens.  You’ll spend a couple of dollars dropping it in the mail and getting it to that homeowner, printing, mailing and all that stuff, a couple of dollars, but for that couple of dollars it stays on that refrigerator 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all season long.  You can’t put a price tag on that little $2 investment to keep you always in front of someone.  That one thing by itself isn’t going to totally take your business to a new level, but when you put that in the mix with everything else, what’s happening is you’re always in front of them and these are low cost things that you can do.  It’s not much money, but you’re always in front of them and because you’re always in front of them, they always remember you.  Number 1 reason an agent gets a phone call from a homeowner is simply because that homeowner remembered to call them.  If you can stay in front of them so that they remember you, you’ve got the game won.  That’s actually 8 if you add in the bonus thing I just gave you.  This will be Number 9, which is the refrigerator magnet clip.  Let me explain this because I found this really fascinating.  I went to the NAR convention a few years ago.  One of the large mortgage companies were giving away magnet clips that you put on the refrigerator.  Let me ask you, Caroline, is your refrigerator steel where you can put magnets on it or is it stainless steel where magnets don’t hold? Caroline: The front is stainless steel, but the sides are steel.  I can put magnets on the side. Beatty: Great, and do you put magnets on the side? Caroline: I do. Beatty: Okay, I’ll be you do.  Stainless brings in a little bit of a different challenge, but we’ll talk about that.  For the majority of refrigerators out there that most people have, they’re made out of just the regular metal that the magnet will hold to.  What these things are that we picked up are refrigerator magnet clips.  Think about this.  I know in our house, this was always a challenge especially with kids.  Trying to find another magnet to put that other piece of paper on to hang it on the refrigerator.  Do you know what I mean, Caroline? Caroline: Yes, I do. Beatty: What do you do?  You’ve got these little flimsy magnets and you’ve got 2 or 3 pieces of paper stuck underneath them.  They fall off and then you’ve got another list that you try to put up there and it slides out.  Everything falls off because the magnets are typically pretty weak.  What these magnet clips are, is that they will hold really tightly to the refrigerator but now they’ve got like an alligator clip.  You can put pieces of paper there.  You can put several sheets of paper if you want.  You can put an entire notepad.  It will hold it there and it’s not going to drop it.  What I found happened with us is for 3 years, these were my wife’s favorite things on the refrigerator because they held.  They held anything and it didn’t drop it and allowed her to organize all of things on the refrigerator with these.  Imagine now you get those refrigerator magnet clips and you get them branded with your name, photo and phone number on it.  You spend the money one time and year over year it stays on the refrigerator because it adds value.  That’s the key with all of these.  If the touch adds value, then it’s going to drive business to you.  So, that would be Number 9, I think if my list is correct.  Fantastic.  We’re going to be able to get through this entire list on this call and then we’ll be able to move into our next session on this on next week’s call.  I have 3 more things.  They’re all pretty quick.  One is a cool idea.  I think it has its place, but you can take this idea and make it work in almost any place.  I picked up this one from one of the real estate coaches and it’s a branded ice cream scoop.  This coach was sharing how popular it was.  They did it for a real estate agent that sold lake property.  They would come to buy a vacation home at the lake, they would come down, you know at the lake you’re always down there on the Fourth of July, you’re always down there on Memorial Day.  You’re always out and you’re having crowds of people and you’re having party food of which ice cream is part of it.  She created a branded ice cream scoop for her agent who is over there and people loved it.  They held onto it year over year because it was a good scoop but every time they’re scooping out ice cream, they’re seeing that agent’s information.  Maybe it’s an ice cream scoop for you.  Maybe it’s something else that you put in the kitchen.  Maybe it’s a great cutting board.  Maybe it’s a great knife holder.  Maybe it’s anything like that.  Where you can make it really nice and not look too commercially so where that homeowner is going to love it and use it and when they love and use it, you’re always there.  Does that make sense?  If you were to think off the top of your head, Caroline, what things in your kitchen do you think would be low cost that someone could brand and if they gave you something for your kitchen you’d probably hold onto it?  Any ideas? Caroline: I was just trying to think because I don’t know the cost of some of those things, but I’m sure these days, especially if you’re mass ordering, you could get pretty low cost.  Maybe like a pizza cutter, or an ice cream scoop or a knife or a lemon zester.  Just something that people use frequently but not to where they might have their favorite knife.  This would be something that they would still keep.  They wouldn’t just toss it because they already have one they love. Beatty: Right. Caroline: I think that would be a good idea.  Maybe if you cook or your wife cooks or husband cooks, whoever, just ask them what’s something quick and easy that you think could be a good idea that people use frequently, but wouldn’t mind having a second one.  Those are my first thoughts. Beatty: I think all of those are great ideas.  The whole idea is think of what you can do and you can find these things online all over the place that are inexpensive, that you can buy a bunch in volume, get branded to you.  Whether you hand them out en mass or you hand them out periodically as you’re door knocking or anything like that, it’s another touch that adds value.  The last 2 things and then we’ll be able to wrap this up.  By the way, I don’t know if you heard all the crickets in the background.  I was outside on our deck.  I just came back inside because the noise actually got kind of deafening.  It’s kind of fun but deafening, nonetheless.  These are more things you do within the community.  You will recognize that a lot of these low cost things to touch your farm are going to be community things where you’re part of the community and people recognize you as being part of that community.  The Number 10 or 11 or 12 because we added a couple along the way that wasn’t on my list, would be a neighborhood garage sale.  This is something where you promote it.  Find a location or 2 houses next to each other or maybe where their driveways are connected and say, let’s do a garage sale.  Let’s make it a party.  Come over.  We’re going to have a garage sale.  We’re going to invite folks.  Now, you’re helping people get rid of the junk in their house.  You might even say, hey, if you’re thinking about selling your home, this is a perfect time to get rid of a lot of clutter that you need to get rid of so the home is going to show well.  This might mean that you schedule the garage sale at the beginning of the listing season, before people actually get their homes on the market.  Schedule it as an easy way for people to clean out their home and get it ready for going on the market.  As people come and want to participate in the garage sale, just ask them, hey, are you wanting to get rid of stuff or are you guys thinking about putting your home on the market?  You can inquire at that point and find out what’s going on and pick up some extra listings fairly easily.  The final one is similar, but do something that shows your compassion, like maybe a clothes drive for homeless people.  Right now, homelessness is increasing dramatically and it’s becoming more and more of an issue in a lot of communities.  Why not do something compassionate and put out a clothing drive.  Just say, hey, we’re going to do a clothing drive.  Here’s all you need to do.  If you want to participate in it, then simply, maybe give them a yellow flag or yellow sticker that they stick on their front door, put the clothes in a bag and we’ll come by and pick them up.  They’ll be tax deductible because they’re all going to be picked up by, let’s call it The Salvation Army, or anything like that.  You’re coordinating this special drive specifically for the homeless, it becomes a tax deduction.  It becomes another touch that you can maybe hire a bunch of teenagers to go out and put door hangers and stuff in a community.  It’s all branded to you.  You’re involved with it.  If you’ve done the Facebook community page that we talked about, you’re promoting it on that.  Now, what they see is they see you as a compassionate leader within the community, really helping people out and people love to do business with those that they feel they can really trust and that really has their heart in the right place.  Those are the different things that you can do, low cost ways, to touch your farm.  Isn’t it cool? Caroline: I love all of those ideas.  I’m not a realtor and I kind of want to just go do some of those because they sound just like good ideas like a neighborhood garage sale and a clothes drive for the homeless and a big get together.  I love them all.  It’s definitely not something common.  It’s not something people run into every day and they will definitely remember and tuck that realtors name away after they’ve participated in something like that.  Those are great ideas.  I think we are about out of time.  I’m glad we made it through those.  We made it through our 10 plus low cost ways to touch a geographic farm.  We’re about out of time and need to wrap up.  Beatty, thank you so much for your time and expertise.  I think this really was a great call.  I know I already feel all warm and fuzzy thinking about all of these ideas so I’m sure our listeners do to.  Before we close out the call, do you have anything else you’d like to share, Beatty? Beatty: Well, of course, I like to put an unabashed plug for what we do which is AgentDominator.net.  If you want help building your business and doing geographic farming, targeting your personal list and we actually guarantee your sales or we refund your money, then check us out over at AgentDominator.net and we’d love to talk with you.   Caroline: Thank you Beatty, again.  For those of you that are on the live call, if you have questions that you’d like to ask Beatty, just hold on and as soon as we wrap up our recording, we’ll go into a short question and answers time.  That’s all we have for today.  Thank again and thank you, Beatty, for sharing. Beatty: Well, thank you, Caroline.  Have a great day.   P021

Transcript   Beatty: This is the Get Sellers Calling You marketing podcast for real estate agents and I’m Beatty Carmichael.  For simple to do proven marketing strategies focus exclusively on finding sellers and getting more listings, visit our website at GetSellersCallingYou.com.  And now, let’s begin our next session of Get Sellers Calling You.  Caroline: Hi everyone, this is Caroline Springer and welcome to the next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael.  Beatty is the CEO of MasterGrabber, the creator of AgentDominator and one of the top marketing experts in the Real Estate field. Today, we’re going to be talking about the topic of geographic farming. We’ve been going through a little bit of the series and today we are going to focusing in on the 10 best low cost ways to touch your geographic farm. Just a reminder for those of you that are on our live call, we will have the lines muted, but we will open for questions and answers at the end of the call. Welcome Beatty.  I’m excited to continue on in our series. Beatty: I am too but I feel a little offended. Caller: Uh oh, why? Beatty: You said I’m one of the best marketing experts. I thought I was “the” best marketing expert. What is this one? Caller: Well, in my opinion, subjectively, of course you are the best. But, you know, I guess that’s just what you have to say, I guess, not to be too pompous I guess. I’m trying to be fair to any other market expert out there. Beatty: Trying to be humble? Caller: Yes. Are you going to give us a quick little run-through of what we’ve talked about previously? I know we’ve had a lot of great content about geographic farming and there is so much more that goes into it than most agents realize. If you want to give a quick refresher for anyone who maybe hasn’t heard previous calls and could maybe learn or have an interest in those they could listen. Then you could to jump right in to these low cost ways to do a geographic farm. Beatty: Okay, perfect. Also, for those of us who are joining us on the podcast version, which means we’ve released this as a podcast, all of the previous calls are available on our website at: GetSellersCallingYou.com or in the podcast, wherever you are listening to it from. So, if we take a high level overview and say where are we now and where are we going in geographic farming? You did make a moment and yes there is a whole lot more in doing geographic farming right if you want to make a whole lot of money with it than most agents really realize. And so over the previous sessions we talked about a step-by-step proven process to select the right farm. It’s not just a pick an area where you want to target if you want to make money. There is actually a due diligence process that will actually help you very specifically and accurately which area is going to produce the most money for you in the shortest amount of time and the most money long term. We talked about that. That was call number two. Our first call was just an overview. Then, on our third call, we talked about how to select the right lists because there are lots of options and choices depending on what you are trying to do. Okay? And we talked about you can get everything from the entire list of the farm all the way down to a segmented list that may be a higher concentration of just those homes most likely to actually move and go on the market in the near future. And then, last week on our fourth call, we were talking about how quickly can you earn money? It’s sort of like the attorney, it depends. Okay? It all depends on what it is that you are doing outside of just the automated type of touches. What type of touches you are doing. How many of those touches are personal and things of that sort. So that is kind of brings us up to where we are. Today, I want to cover, if time allows, about 10 different things that you can do that are low cost ways that you can touch your farm and get a good impact. And then, after today’s call, if we complete all of that today, then starting on the subsequent call or calls (I don’t know how long they will last), we are going to go very specifically into things you can do in postcard marketing. Because typically, in geographic farming, the most effective and consistent way that most agents do it is with postcards. I don’t think your touches need to be all of one type only, so it’s a breadth of different things that you do. The postcard mailing is definitely a real cornerstone of effectiveness with geographic farming. So that’s kind of the big picture overview of where we’ve come from, where we are and where we are heading. Caroline: Perfect. Thank you so much. I think that is always good to do, a little refresher and give background and foundation to what we have done and I know today we are going to talk about some low cost ways to touch the farm. I think that is probably something too that may be a little bit out of the norm for some of our realtors. I know from even realtors I’ve spoken with that a lot of times they think that mailing to the geographic farm that they will see some warm leads come out of that and really, this is the game changer call to set yourself apart by introducing yourself or adding a personal touch, especially the world we live in today. It’s definitely out of the norm to do those things. So, I’m really interested too to hear what you’ve heard from realtors. I know you haves stories that will maybe inspire everyone on what you’ve heard and seen be successful. I’ll let you take it away and start us off on these low cost ways. Beatty: Great.  Let’s start with a story.  I think I shared this story last time.  I shared it because I think it’s a text book example of how to do geographic farming.  It’s a client of ours and he’s targeting a 1500 home farm and within this farm, there is a Facebook community page that they have.  At the time he started the farm, the community page only had 200 people tied to it.  It was almost nonexistent.  Our client’s is name, Nelson.  Nelson was a nobody in the farm in terms of if you were to look at all the homes sold and how many of those did Nelson represent the seller on, it’s like he’s one of a whole bunch of agents.  Maybe he had one listing or maybe two, but that was about it.  He was essentially non-existent.  We started to do some farming with him and he started to do some of these things I’m going to share with you today, the low cost things and as a combination of the 2, what we were doing in the mail, what he was doing with low cost touches, in 18 months, actually in the first year, he made over $150,000 in commissions from that farm in the first year. $100,000 was directly attributed to the unique style of postcard marketing that we were doing.  I will talk about that on the next calls.  $50,000 was generated through his low cost touches.  Six months later, now 18 months into the game, Nelson controlled 22% of all of the listings in that farm, outselling the number 2 agent by over 7 times.  Then another 18 months later, he controls 50% of all of the listings going on in that farm.  He is doing it right.  He’s a text book case example of what can happen when you do everything right.  So, starting with a story, that’s where this thing can go and I promise you, he has no interest in buying leads.  He has no interest in driving all over the city to try to sell houses because what he’s found is he can focus on his farm and he can make an amazing lifestyle just doing that one thing.  That’s where I’d like to go today.  Caroline:  Wow, I think that’s definitely inspiring seeing the results like that. Beatty:  Let’s breakdown what he did.  He did only 2 of the 10 low cost touches I’m going to talk about.  That’s it.  He only did 2 of them.  He did postcard mailings with us and did 2 of these other things and that put his business into overdrive in that farm.  The first thing that he did was door knocking.  1500 homes so that’s a lot of houses.  His goal was to door knock the entire community 3 times every year.  That’s once every 4 months.  When he first got started before he had a lot of business, he did that.  Then it slowed down to door knocking 2 times a year because he didn’t have time to do it 3 times and then I think that slowed down to probably 1-1/2 times.  With busyness comes lack of ability.  We’ve talked about different things and one of those things is door knocking.  Let’s test your memory for a moment, Caroline.  What is the value of door knocking in a geographic farm?  If you could say the highest value is what, what would that highest value be? Caroline:  I would think that door knocking would be the top value.  I don’t know if that’s the way you’re asking the question. Beatty:  No, I want to know why.  What is it about door knocking that makes it a top value? Caroline:  Just that personal connection, face-to-face.  I know when you talked about door knocking in the past, you recommended to be wearing your name tag, adding that personal connection so they see your name, they see your face.  In addition to receiving the marketing in the mail, it solidifies keeping that realtor top of mind, that they’re the realtor they think of.  Like I’ve said before, I think that you can’t put a price on a personal connection. Beatty:  Absolutely.  Let’s go back to some fundamentals.  You hit the nail on the head.  The fundamental is this.  You can take all the people you do business with and put them into 2 categories.  Those that you have met and those that you have not met.  If you look at the results in terms of how responsive they are to your marketing, how likely they are to do business with you, it becomes really polarized because those that you have met and they now put a face, a name, a personality to you are 8 to 10 times more likely to do business with you than if you haven’t met them.  The reason the door knocking is probably the most important thing you can do when doing a geographic farm is simply you take that person from being a stranger that they’ve never met and now they know you personally.  Once they know you personally, they begin to trust you.  They begin to form a relationship.  Real estate is a relationship business.  The more you can build and establish and foster that relationship, the more like you are to get that business.  That’s the value of door knocking.  It takes time, but let me ask you kind of a loaded question.  Do you think the door knocking was worth it time wise for Nelson to go from 1% of the market to 22% in 18 months and 50% 18 months later.  Do you think door knocking was worth it? Caroline:  Absolutely.  I’m sure Nelson, even if he tallied up the amount of time that it took to do that door knocking, I’m sure there’s no way that he would say that it wasn’t worth the monumental increases in the percentage of the market.  I would think, absolutely, it is. Beatty:  He makes a lot of money right now and has the great lifestyle.  Keep in mind, he earned, just in that farm alone, $150,000 in his first 12 months.  That’s right at 5 million in sales volume.  It’s worth the time and effort.  I say that only because what I hear from so many agents is I don’t have time to do that.  That’s below me.  I’ve got other things I need to do.  You have to look at your time and say, what is the most important thing you can do for the long term success of your business.  Are you willing to sacrifice a lot of the busy work that you feel to do now so that you can gain the long term superiority and dominance in that farm that you can get over time.  It becomes a choice of today versus tomorrow.  Are you building your business only for today?  Are you building it for the long term?  If you’re doing it long term, then take the long term approach and door knocking is one of the most important things because it gets you in front of all those homeowners.  That’s the first thing.  It’s low cost dollar wise, but it does take time.  The second thing is the Facebook community page.  I want to talk about this for a little bit.  I can tell you right now, this call is going to go into second call, at least, to cover all 10 low cost ways of touching your farm.  Just be prepared.  We’ll be continuing this topic next week.  The Facebook community page, let’s talk about this because this was incredibly instrumental with Nelson and with other agents I’ve talked to.  It plays a huge part because if we take a step back and look at what causes someone to choose an agent.  If a homeowner is going to choose an agent, what are the reasons he or she chooses that agent?  It boils down to only 2 things, trust and top of mind.  Trust is do they trust you to sell their most valuable asset and trust that you will get the best deal for them.  Top of mind is simply when it comes time to think of an agent, are you on the top of their minds so that they end of up calling you.  It’s a convergence of those 2 things. If we were just to take a real quick snapshot so that you understand how door knocking and how Facebook community page, and how all these other touches that we’re going to be talking about, and then postcard marketing and actually the touches, how all these converge.  It converges on the concepts of trust and top of mind.  You can actually multiply trust by top of mind and come up with a relatively accurate number of how likely are you to get the deal when that deal is ready to come on the market.  Let’s say we put both of them on a scale of 1 to 10.  Your trust on a 1 to 10 and top of mind on a 1 to 10.  If your trust is a 3 and your top of mind is a 3, then that means that you multiply them together.  That means that it’s 3x3, you’ve got about a 9% change that when that homeowner is thinking about a real estate agent, they’re going to call you.  If you can build your trust to a 5 and build your top of mind to a 6, then you’ve got about a 30% likelihood.  If you can get your trust to a 9 and your top of mind to a 10, you’ve got about a 90% likelihood.  Now, this is very rough numbers.  It’s not accurate specifically but it gets you in the general direction of at least an understanding of the influence of trust and top of mind.  What the door knocking does, is it increases trust because now they’ve been able to meet you and know you as an individual.  The first step in trusting someone is having met them.  Am I making sense on this so far? Caroline:  Absolutely.  I think like I said on this call, that personal connection is obviously going to go a long way, but also just to trust you versus what somebody says random.  A lot of people may have had a bad experience with a sales person in their life, so adding that personal touch so that they feel safe, they can trust you.  Like you said also, this is the most valuable asset they own, so this is likely the most important thing that they will ever sell or go into a transaction with.  I think that personal touch of where they feel they like you, they enjoy being around you.  It kind of makes them feel like they can trust you.  Absolutely, I’m following.  That’s right on the money. Beatty:  Okay, great.  Now, let’s talk about top of mind because Facebook starts to be more top of mind than trust.  There’s some trust element there, but what Facebook allows is for you to always be there.  What happened with Nelson in this area is there was this Facebook community page that had already been set up but no one was really engaging on it.  He recognized it as an untapped asset.  If you’re going into a geographic farm yourself, one of the things that you want to look at is there a Facebook community page set up for that area that people are participating in.  If there’s not, create one.  If there is, participate in it.  Find out where the people are congregating.  If they’re not there and they’re not congregating, then you can promote it.  That’s what happened with Nelson.  They were not congregating in the Facebook community page because they did not know about it.  As Nelson was getting started, the first thing that he did as part of his door knocking is he went door knocking with a purpose to then introduce them to the Facebook community page.  After he finished door knocking, it went from 200 people to 800 people on the Facebook community page entirely because of his door knocking.  He would leave a door hanger, if he missed them.  It was branded to him and directed them to join the Facebook community page.  It said, things like, learn what’s going on in Horse Thief Canyon, learn about buy and sell things, like if you’re looking for something and someone has posted it for sale.  Whatever it may be, but he got the attendance from 200 to 800 initially.  The last time I talked to him, I think it was like 1200 out of 1500 homes.  He continues to push on it.  Then, what happened is he actually became one of the administrators of the Facebook community page because the guy who was administering it was getting tired of it and Nelson said, well, I’ll help you out.  Wouldn’t you love to be the realtor who is managing the Facebook community page for the entire community? Caroline:  Oh, absolutely. Beatty:  Now, he didn’t overstep his bounds at all.  What he did is he ensured that it was going to be a valuable asset because it was part of his marketing pillar.  Then, what happened is anytime people would sign up for the Facebook community page and join, he would then get their information, copy it to his personal Facebook page and then message them and say, welcome to the Facebook community page.  My name is Nelson.  I’m actually a realtor in the area and look forward to having you on the community page.  So, he would introduce himself, identify who he is and now they’re on his personal Facebook page and on the community page.  That sets the groundwork.  What do you do from there?  Obviously, Nelson is active on his personal Facebook account he’s posting things out there so people are always seeing him.  That’s important.  Top of mind, Nelson’s always there.  He also made a point that every week or two, he would respond to someone’s post on the community page.  He would always make some sort of reply or a comment or love the photo or anything like that simply so he could get his name out there again and they would see that he’s still there.  Now, any agent could promote on the Facebook community page.  He didn’t cut anyone out.  Most agents never took advantage of it, but he did.  Any time he got a new listings, he would post a coming soon message on the Facebook community page and then he would post just listed and he would then post open house, then he would post under contract, then he would post just sold.  For every home he listed in the community, he was getting 4 and 5 touches into that community through the Facebook community page, touching again and what that was showing was activity.  By the time coming soon and then open house and then under contract, by the time each of them came out, people don’t always recognize that it’s the same house, but what they see if Nelson is an active agent in this area.  One of the pillars of trust, back to trust and top of mind, one of the pillars of trust that we’ve been able to verify and validate is do they trust that you are actively selling real estate.  Just because you’re a realtor doesn’t mean that you’re actively selling.  You have to let them know and remind them.  Let me ask you a crazy question.  You’ve been married for how long, Caroline? Caroline: Five and a half years. Beatty:  Five and a half year, okay.  Did your husband tell you I love you when you got married? Caroline:  Yes Beatty:  Alright.  Does he show his love to you by his actions? Caroline:  Absolutely. Beatty:  If he never told you again except that one time at marriage, I love you, would you feel something’s wrong? Caroline:  Maybe, but no at the same time because he shows his love through that, but yeah, I would wonder why. Beatty:  Most women want to hear it all the time.  Even though they know, they want to hear it again.  Does that make sense? Caroline:  Absolutely. Beatty:  The same thing happens with homeowners.  Even though they know you’re probably selling homes, you’ve got to keep reminding them.  You’ve got to keep showing them.  Here’s another sale.  Here’s another listing.  Here’s another under contract.  Here’s another open house.  The more you keep reminding them, the more it reinforces that you’re actively selling.  That’s a huge pillar of trust.  If other people in the community are trusting you to sell their home, now you have that social validation that they so desperately need to make a decision.  By using the Facebook community page, he’s out there all the time.  Every home that he personally manages on in their community, he’s now posting this message.  People are seeing him all the time as an active agent.  They’re seeing him periodically as an active neighbor commenting on people’s posts.  They see him in the neighborhood.  He still door knocks. They get to meet him.  He still does postcard mailings.  They see him in the mailbox.  Three years after starting, he’s got 50% of the market share.  Does all of this make sense?  Do you see how everything is converging to the same point? Caroline:  Absolutely. Beatty:  That’s two out of 10.  Let’s go with Number 3, let me find a short one because we’re going to run out of time on Number 3. Caroline:  Oh, no, I’ve been trying to edit my commentary to give you more time.  Beatty:  Yeah, I get it.  Let’s talk about the cupcake give way.  Ice cream or cupcake give away.  This is something you can do when you have a community that operates as a community especially if they have a common area like a park.  Maybe a local school that everyone congregates at.  It’s difficult if you don’t have any green space.  There are some other ways to do it and we’ll about it later.  If you have a green space, a common area, a part or an elementary school where you can go meet on the football field or anything like that, then the idea is to have a social.  Invite the whole neighborhood.  Make sure that you give enough opportunity to announce it ahead of time so people can work their schedule around it.  Maybe hire a DJ.  Maybe get some of those blow up activities like slides and things like that, bouncy rooms and have an ice cream truck or a cupcake truck come over to give away free ice cream and free cupcakes.  Now, what we’re doing is we’re going to create a community wide, social event on a Saturday morning.  All the people are going to come.  They’re going to bring their kids.  You’re going to promote it and as you promote it, obviously, it’s got your branding on it.  You promote it through Every Door Direct, you promote it through the Facebook community page, you go door knocking, and you put out flyers.  You hire high school kids to go put flyers on every door.  Whatever it takes, you make a big deal out of it and people come to the park.  The whole reason for this is now you get to meet them individually.  What you do is you stand by the free give away.  You stand by the ice cream truck or you stand by the cupcake truck as they’re handing it all out for free.  You’re smiling and you’re shaking hands.  You’ve got your name tag on so they can see your name and recognize instantly who you are.  You put your same face on that you have branded on all your other stuff.  Don’t use a photo from 20 years ago as a lot of agents may do and you don’t look anything like the photo.  Make sure the photo in all your branding looks like you in real person so when they meet you in real person, they go, ah, yeah, I keep seeing you.  I wondered who you are.  Now, they get to meet you and you’re shaking hands.  You’re saying, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you, it’s so good to see you and it comes to the event that they get to meet you and talk with you personally.  If they know you, they trust you and they’ll do business with you 8 to 10 times more likely than if they don’t.  This is a great way, low cost on a per home basis, but immense return on investment on that.  That’s going to be the third out of 10 things, so we’ll see how much we get through on the next call.  I think we’ll get through a little bit more because I tried to lay more of a foundation on this call as how these all interact.  Let me turn it back over to you because I know we need to start wrapping up the call. Caroline:  Yeah.  I think it’s good to take the time to lay that foundation and explain and show the statistics and percentages and successes you’ve shared, like for Nelson.  It’s so important for realtors to hear that it’s not a waste of their time because we know it takes time to go and door knock.  We know that might be the reason it seems daunting but when you hear results like that, it’s hard to argue with it.  I think this is great and I think we will push through those last 7 on the next call.  We are just about out of time, so we need to wrap up.  Beatty, thank you so much for your time and expertise.  I think it really was a great call.  Before we close out of the call, do you have anything else that you’d like to share? Beatty:  I would.  As always, I like to unabashedly plug our service for those that want help in what you do in marketing.  What we’ve learned in marketing and how to do it right, we’ve learned by helping other agents do it and providing service to them in that regards.  If you find yourself overwhelmed and you say, I really want to outsource something.  Now, I can’t outsource door knocking.  I can’t outsource for you the Facebook community page or standing in line and greeting people, but what we can do is do a lot of the other stuff.  Like the postcard marketing and some of the online sort of stuff.  If you have interest in that, just go to our website, AgentDominator.net.  You will see some information about us but the most important thing over there is you’ll find our form where you can request information from us on that.  Let me encourage you to do that, and that’s my plug. Caroline:  Perfect, so we’re out of time.  What we’re going to do is for those that are on the live call with us, if you have questions that you’d like to ask Beatty, just hold on and as soon as we wrap up, we’ll go into a short questions and answers time.  That’s all we have for today.  Thanks again and thank you, Beatty for sharing. Beatty:  Thank you   P020

  Transcript Beatty: This is the Get Sellers Calling You marketing podcast for real estate agents and I’m Beatty Carmichael.  For simple to do proven marketing strategies focus exclusively on finding sellers and getting more listings, visit our website at GetSellersCallingYou.com.  And now, let’s begin our next session of Get Sellers Calling You.  Caroline: Hi everyone, this is Caroline Springer and welcome to the next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael.  Beatty is the CEO of MasterGrabber, the creator of AgentDominator and one of the top marketing experts in the Real Estate field.  Today, we’re going to be talking about the topic of geographic farming.  We’ve been in a series and this is our fourth session within this series.  Today, we’re going to be talking about expectations and how quickly you can earn money in geographic farming.  Just a reminder for those of you that are on our live call, we will have the lines muted, but we will open for questions and answers at the end of the call.  Welcome Beatty.  I’m excited to continue on in our series.  I think it’s been great so far and I’m excited to see where we’ll go.  Beatty: Thank you.  I’m excited as well.  Geographic farming is so much fun because there’s so many things you can do.  For those who know me, I’m really process driven and so geographic farming is all process driven.  So this is fun.  I’m excited to share about what’s going on with geographic farming with today’s call. Caroline: Yes, you are very process driven.  Your processes are actually inspiring.  I love how you always boil everything down to a science. You give formulas and if you’ll just follow these steps you will be successful.  So I think that’s great and I love to hear you say geographic farming is fun because I don’t know for all of our realtors listening if it’s been fun for them.  I think it will be good for them to hear that it can be fun.  It can be a fun and successful thing that they can get excited about. Beatty: Well, always remember, if you’re making money with it, it’s fun.  If you’re losing money with it, it’s never fun.  So the whole idea is doing it right so you make money with it.  That’s how you make it fun.  Caroline: Absolutely.  Well, we want to do a quick little refresher over the past three calls just to get everybody up to speed if they haven’t been able to listen and then we can just jump right in. Beatty: Yeah, let’s do.  I think that’s a great idea.  We probably have some folks that are on this call that may not have been on some of the other calls.  If you’re listening in on a podcast version then you may have missed some of the other ones.  Or, if you’ve listened to them, maybe it’s been a while.  Let’s do a quick overview.  Obviously, we’re talking about geographic farming and obviously geographic farming has very methodical processes that you do if you want to be successful with it.  There are several steps.  We are actually in our third step.  The first step is choosing where do you farm because most agents just want to go “eenie meenie miney mo, pick a farm by its toe.”  That doesn’t work real well.  I shared this story the other day.  One of our clients had picked up this area she wanted to farm and then I had a call with her and said, well, how did you pick it out?  She said, well, I just live over here and I want to farm here.  I said, do you want to make money or do you just want to farm there?  She said, well, I want to make money. We walked through a process on how you pick out a farm.  She spent a little bit of time and she came back the next day and said, okay, I’ve changed my mind.  I want to farm this area and based on all the numbers, she’s going to make at least double the income in the new area than she would’ve on the first one.  All that is by following the process on making it happen.  That’s the first thing we talked about.  Then, we talked about how you select a list.  There are different ways to get a list and depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, the list makes a big impact.  In fact, we go back for just a brief moment and talk at a purely thirty-thousand foot level in marketing.  It’s not just geographic farming marketing but marketing as a whole.  Any time you do marketing where you’re trying to generate a sale or generate seller leads, there’s three components that comprise everything.  The list, the offer and the copy.  In the list, who you target, where you’re targeting and all that is forty percent of all your results.  So, if you get the list wrong, you just did everything wrong.  So that’s where we spent a lot of time.  Forty percent of your results outside of the list is the offer that you make.  As it relates to a real estate agent, the offer that you make is why they should choose you over someone else.  What are the reasons behind it?  We’re actually going to get into that part in about two more calls.  We’re probably very specifically going to go a call or two into what it is that you need to be doing in your marketing to get the sellers out. So, you have the list, you have the offer and then the copy.  The copy is simply how you write that information.  How do you actually put it in words?  What do you do with it? That part is probably only about twenty percent.  So that’s the overview of where we’ve come from.  We’ve talked about how do you pick an area, how do you get the list and today we’re going to talk about what are the expectations in terms of how quickly you will earn money.  Next week’s call we will then start talking about ten different things you can do that are low cost or no cost to really start to ramp this up and then we’ll move into the heart of the marketing aspect in the call afterwards.  That will give you the big package of geographic farming.  So, back to you. Caroline: Well, great.  Thank you for that quick, little refresher, Beatty.  Today, I know you’re very process driven and we’ve given everybody a great formula of the first steps between selecting your farm to how to create the right offer and how to select the right mailing list, so once you have all of that set up, the next step is now what?  Now, what where does my effort come in to touch on these potential leads and how quickly can I turn around any of those things to make money.  That’s what we have set up today is how quickly can you earn money in geographic farming and what is our part in playing with the expectation of what we can do to make that happen.  I’ve heard you speak on this before and I think a really great call to action for all of our realtors to listen to.  It’s more than just a postcard showing up in their mailbox.  To see a great turn around and great results, there are expectations on our part in what we can do to make that money come in quickly.  I know that’s what we’re jumping into today.  Where ever you want to start with expectations or how quickly we can make that, let’s go. Beatty: Let’s talk about expectations and first off, why are they so important.  I remember one of the great marketers out there, and he’s marketed a lot of products through infomercials and things of that sort.  He’s known in the modern day in terms of those who are out there actively marketing right now as probably one of the best.  His name is Joe Sugerman.  He was telling a story about expectations and the cool thing about expectation are they really determine a lot in terms of the results you get.  It’s really interesting because people will say, how can you expect to happen determine what’s going to happen?  Well, because what you expect to happen means whether or not you stay in there long enough to make it or for it to have time to happen.  Joe was talking about a product that he was, he had some physical ailment and I don’t know what it was, but he was talking to a friend of his who had this nutritional supplement.  His friend said, “Ah, you ought to take my supplement because in about four months, you should see tremendous results and you should start getting rid of that.”  So, Joe starts buying the product and guess what happens in four months. Any idea? Caroline: No, why don’t you, you always put me on the spot like that.  Beatty: So, in four months, not much happened physically. Caroline: Yeah. Beatty: So what do you think Joe did?  Did he stay on the product or did he quit? Caroline: He probably quit. Beatty: And why do you think he quit?  He did, but why do you think he did? Caroline: I guess he didn’t think it was working and he thought maybe there was a better route to take. Beatty: That’s right.  He didn’t think it was working because his friend had set the expectation that in about four months he should see results.  Because he didn’t see results in those four months, he said, it must not be working just like you concluded.  However, if his friend had said, it will take a while, so give it at least a year or longer and in that timeframe you should see results.  Do you think he would’ve been more likely to see results after taking it for a year instead of four months? Caroline:   Absolutely.  I think, from my experience and understanding with geographic farming, I think a year is a great timeline to give yourself. Beatty: Okay, but we’re still talking about the nutritional supplement.  So, the point is this. Caroline: Sorry.  My brain’s connecting to geographic farming. Beatty: Yeah, you’re connecting the dots a little too quickly, but you’re moving the right direction.  The point is this, the expectations will help determine your results because they will determine if you stay in the game long enough to get those results.  What happens is as it relates to expectations for geographic farming, most agents have wrong expectations and because they have wrong expectations, they don’t get the results they want.  Either they don’t do the level of activity, they don’t do the quality of activity, or they don’t do the longevity of activity because their expectations are wrong.  So the most important thing, once you find out where you’re going to be farming, is to figure out what is it really going to take and be willing to sit in the seat long enough to make it happen.  I’ve got one last analogy on this because it’s really kind of fun.  To take a ten hour car trip with kids and in your mind is that a short trip or a long trip? Caroline: A long trip.  We just went to the beach with our son and it was four hours and it was a long trip.  So ten hours, I can’t imagine. Beatty: Okay, so, we put all of kids In the car and this was years ago when they were young elementary school and probably kindergarten, and we hop on a trip and it was ten hours to get to St. Louis, Missouri and you start to see the arch. You know our comment?  Wow, this is really fast.  I didn’t realize it was this close.  Why do you think we thought it was a very fast trip and it was really that close and after ten hours in the car? Caroline: Maybe, like you said, your expectation, your thought of how long the trip would take was going to be even longer. But when you got there in only ten hours, you’re not really thinking about ten hours, you’re thinking that wow, that was quicker than I realized. Beatty: That’s right. Caroline: I think it’s just that expectation like you said. Beatty: Because we were actually headed to Colorado which is thirty-six hours. Our horizon was so far out in the future that by the time we hit St. Louis, it was such a small part of the trip and we didn’t realize it was that close.  But, however, if we’d set out to go to Memphis, which is four hours from here, and then we had to go on to St. Louis, that ten hours would’ve been a huge time commitment.  So, you’re perspective on your expectations is what’s going to drive what you end up doing and how you do it that gives you there results. So, as we talk about expectations here, the expectations when you do geographic farming is you are not going to make money immediately. Now let me add a little caveat. We do have a way with our geographic clients that we’ve had a number of them make as much as $100,000 in the first year. But that is doing it completely out-of-the-box thinking. So let’s talk about what typically you expect and then we will talk about some things that you can do that modify those expectations. Generally speaking, when you talk to realtors who do geographic farming, here is the general consensus. It’s going to take somewhere between the first and second year or maybe into the third year before you get your first listing. Typically, you will do it for a year of two years before you get your first listing. Then you’ll continue to do it at that same level of activity for about three and five years before you get real consistent listings all of the time. That is the expectations of what should and most likely will occur when you do it the normal way. There is a coach out there named Tom Ferry and he has a quote. Someone was asking him about postcard marketing (because typically you do postcard marketing with geographic farming) and his comment about that was, “If you are going to do postcard marketing, you have to do nonstop marketing for at least three years before you can expect those homeowners to even remember your name enough that they will pick up the phone and call you. So that is the expectation. Geographic Farming, as we talked about earlier, is a long-term investment in your brand. It’s a long-term investment because it takes a while to get there. Are you following me so far? Caroline: Absolutely. I can attest to that. All the testimonies that I’ve seen and heard are kind of right along with that, if you can’t stick it out for at least one full year, you aren’t going to see results, especially the big, turnaround results that we know are possible. You’ve got to be able to stick it out at least one year, and like you said, up to five years and even beyond that to see a really big turnaround. Beatty: Yes, so that’s going to be taking it the standard approach in geographic farming. Now I’m going to talk in just a moment on some things at a high level that you can do to dramatically improve those numbers. Next week, we are going to start talking about some of the specific things that we will kind of allude to on today’s call and we will kind of dig deeper into it. But that is the expectation you need to come in with. It is going to take two to three years before you really get results. You can fast track those results by doing better touches and more touches. So those initial expectations is the general population, people doing the normal touches that they normally do. If you look at marketing, and especially in regard to geographic farming, your marketing is a layered effect. Every touch that you do adds another layer in that prospect’s mind. So does it make sense, Caroline, that if I am going to mail 1 postcard every two months, which is six a year, that in three years, I’m going to have 18 touches. Does it make sense that if I were to mail all 18 postcards in the first year, then I’m probably going to get to the same level of production 3X faster by doing 3X as many mailings. Are you following the logic? Caroline:  I am.  I would think so because I think so because I think with postcard marketing, the whole goal is to keep you top of mind and in front of them so you are the realtor that they think of.  It would depend on the turnover rate of the homes that were selling in that neighborhood.  I would think that increasing that mailing in that time period you would definitely increase the chances of finding more prospects that way. Beatty:  One simple concept that we can pull out of this is the more touches you do in the shorter amount of time, the more results you’ll get within that same timeframe because it’s all about how many times are you touching them.  This is why the expectation is normally two to three years to get any real traction because most realtors only touch them twelve times a year, once a month.  Sometimes they may only touch them four times a year or once a quarter.  But if you will increase the frequency of your touches, so you get more touches within the same time frame, then you’re going to increase the speed in which you start to get results.  So that’s one thing you can do in terms of improving your expectations.  Now, with increased touches comes increased costs.  If I’m spending $1,000 a year mailing twelve times a year, then in three years, that’s $3,000.  If I were to mail all thirty-six of those in one year, I’m going to spend the same amount of money, but I’m going to spend it in one year.  Your touches are going to increase your costs.  It just means that you will get more results faster.  There’s one other element, though, that comes with increased touches.  It’s not as simple as a straight-line addition.  If I’m touching someone every two months, that’s six times a year, in three years that’s eighteen times, I will get farther down the road in shifting those homeowners’ mindset if I can touch them eighteen times in one year versus eighteen times over three years.  In other words, the concentration of your touches will increase the efficiency of those touches as well.  Are you following me on that?  Does that make sense? Caroline:  That absolutely makes sense. Beatty: We want to, as much as possible, concentrate the number of touches into a shorter time frame because you’ll get more punch out of each one and that’s going to move you along.  The second thing you can do is you can increase the quality of your touch.  Let me give you just a high level example.  You could send out a postcard if we just keep it as a postcard concept right now.  You can send out a postcard and say, “Hi.  I’m a real estate agent in your area.  Call me if you want to sell your home.”  Or, you can send out a postcard that says, “Just sold this home in your area.”  Which of those two touches do you think would be more responsive in getting any sort of a mind shift in your prospects? Caroline:  Well, obviously, the second one.  One, it’s proof of a sale, but then it’s also proof of a sale in my area so they could be more familiar with my neighborhood and my house, so that would definitely garner a higher response. Beatty:  What we now get out of that is all touches are not equal.  By changing what you do with the touch, even it’s a postcard by changing the content, you can improve the effectiveness of your touch by improving the quality of the content that you’re putting out.  So, changing your frequency, changing the quality of the content is going to then concentrate the amount of results you get more quickly.  This is why when we’ve done a lot of work with our clients, and I will give you one example, I may have mentioned this last week, I don’t recall.  One of our clients wanted to start targeting a golf community.  The number one agent in that community had ten percent of the sales, this is like an 1100 home golf community.  The number two agent had seven or eight percent and my client had never marketed there before.  We started to do a number of different things and in the first year, he was the number one selling agent.  In fact, in his first seven months, he had fourteen listing appointments.  It was dramatic and you can do that if you get your process right.  That’s where we’re headed.  So the expectation is be there for a long time.  If you’re willing to modify what most agents do, then you can get results a lot quicker.  Now, let’s talk about quantity of touches and what’s really being expected.  If you talk to the agents and you read the interviews or listen to the interviews that are all over the place, because a lot of agents have been interviewed about geographic farming, what you’ll find is the follow metrics.  A minimum of twelve postcards a year.  That’s the absolute minimum.  Everyone who is successful in geographic farming, they say that’s the absolute minimum.  Don’t even attempt geographic farming if you’re going to do less than twelve postcards a year.  The average that they that you should be doing is eighteen a year, which is once every three weeks and the maximum that most of them will say is probably twenty-four a year.  Once a month, every three weeks versus twice a month.  I think the best number is going to be about eighteen times.  Another thing that was real interesting, a couple of agents that were interviewed on this made this comment, and it makes sense.  That is, if you have a selling season, like in most places selling season starts to ramp up in Spring and Summer and then it cools down at the end of Fall and Winter.  What they recommend doing is doing twenty-four mailings a year, but it’s not equally spaced.  Out of those twenty-four mailings, they will ramp it up about two months before the selling season starts so that they can start to prime the pump and they keep it running full speed all the way through the selling season and then once that they are out of the selling season, they pull it back to maybe once a month.  They will increase frequency in that period of time that there’s more activity and then they pull it back but not so far back that they’re non-existent.  Does that make sense what I’m saying? Caroline:  Absolutely. Beatty: That is the frequency of postcards.  So then postcards are not the only thing you do.  They’re a significant part.  You want to be looking at, at least, probably twenty additional touches in some capacity every year.  You’ve got twelve plus twenty, that’s thirty-two total touches on the low end or twelve plus twenty-four, that’s forty-four total touches on the higher end.  It’s these other touches that you do that we’re going to talk about more in depth next week on this.  Of those touches, the things that stand out the most as I talk about it real briefly, is door knocking and social media.  A lot of other things, but door knocking and social media tend to be the strongest things out there.  I remember one of our clients we were mailing only eight times a year, or maybe it was twelve times a year.  I can’t remember, but it was really early on before we learned a lot about geographic farming.  We had a client that was targeting a 1500 home community.  Had like an eight percent turnover rate, so like 120 to 140 type of homes every year were selling.  He was a nobody there.  We started targeting it and he door knocked and got involved with the Facebook community page.  So, three things, postcard mailing, door knocking, Facebook community page.  In the first year, he earned about $100,000 directly related to us, but you can’t say it was directly related to us as much as it was influenced by his door knocking and other stuff because it increased the responses from the postcards.  He made another $50,000 from what he could measure directly from his Facebook community page activity because he was constantly posting.  Here’s the point I wanted to share, in eighteen months from going from a nobody in terms of a listing agent, within eighteen months, he was controlling twenty-two percent of all of the listings going on in that 1500 home farm.  Within another year or year and a half, he was at fifty percent.  At twenty-two percent, he was outselling the number two agent by seven times.  This is the impact when you start to add multiple touches all focused on the common thing and staying in front of and top of mind of all the folks in that farm.  It’s just amazing the type of lift that you do.  In the last moment that we have, I want to underscore one thing on this.  It would not have happened without door knocking in my personal opinion.  Studies have shown that once someone has met you, then they are seven or eight or ten times more likely to do business with you than someone who has not met you.  The fact that he went out and actually door knocked that community three times a year and he met a lot of the folks, it created an immense amount of trust that then paid huge dividends.  He was willing to invest time and money into that farm and it’s made a small fortune for him on an ongoing basis.  That’s where you want to be focused on with expectations.  If you do it that way, you’ll make money the first year.  If you do it the normal way most agents do it, then you to wait a year or two to get your first listing and that won’t quite pay for your entire investment in that farm by that time, but at least it gets you going and three to five years down the road, you’ll actually start making some good money.  It’s just a matter of how you want to structure yourself and that determines how quickly you’ll make money.  So, back to you. Caroline:  Wow, well, thank you, Beatty, for walking us through that.  I’m excited to hear next week continuing your great ideas and then you’ve got some low cost ways to do those additional touches.  I think that really is where we see it’s a game changer and making it profitable.  For those of you listening, tune in next week while we continue on this conversation.  I think we are just about out of time and need to wrap up.  Beatty, thank you so much for your time and expertise today.  I think it was a great call and great continuation of our series.  Before we close out the call, do you have anything else that you’d like to share, Beatty. Beatty:  I would.  As always, I like to put a little unabashed plug for what we do.  We’ve learned a lot in working with our clients.  You can get everything we know for free at Get Sellers Calling You and these calls, but knowing versus executing expertly are two different things.  If you want help in doing this, if you want to outsource geographic farming or even following up with your own personal list, then check out the service we offer for pay.  We call it AgentDominator.net and you can learn more about that.  Fill out a form and we’ll contact you and set up a demo.  So, if you love the learning, but want someone else to do it, that’s where AgentDominator.net will come in. Caroline:  Great.  Well, perfect.  So, thank you, Beatty.  We’re going to wrap up the call and for those of you that are live with us, if you have questions that you’d like to ask Beatty, just hold on and as soon as we’re wrapped up we’ll go into a short question and answer time.  That’s all we have for today’s call.  Thanks again, and thank you, Beatty for sharing. Beatty:  Well, thank you.  I’ve enjoyed it.   P018  

Have Questions or Comments? Please ask your questions in the comments section below. We attempt to respond to ALL questions or comments.   Transcript: Radical Faith – What is Faith – Part 2   Caroline: Hi everyone. I’m Caroline Springer. Welcome to this next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael. This is actually one of our Radical Faith calls and these are little bit different. A quick little intro about Beatty and I will let him explain our Radical Faith calls are. Beatty is the CEO of MasterGrabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and he’s one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. He also is a Christian and loves the Lord and really has walked out his faith in an inspiring way in the business world. Beatty, I’m going to pass it over to you if you’d like to share just a little bit about what these Radical Faith calls are and how they are different than our typical marketing calls. Beatty:  Sure, well, you know in California they have a law that’s passed that says anything that’s sold in California that has any ingredients or chemicals that could cause cancer, you have to put a warning label on it. What’s really funny is my children and I were at Bass Pro Shops or Cabela’s years back and one of my sons bought one of these really sharp military grade knifes.  These were meant to hurt people and to hurt animals or cut wood or whatever, and there’s this warning label on it: Warning. This knife contains chemicals that are known to cause cancer and I’m thinking here we have a weapon and they’re putting this warning sign on it. I want to give my little warning for those out there that this may be your first time with a Radical Faith call.  This has nothing to do with marketing a real estate business, this particular call. The Radical Faith call has everything to do with how do you live your life for Christ? So, if you’re not interested in my Christianity, if you’re not interested in Christianity at all, you are fairly warned and you can press delete on your podcast or you can hang up on the call. Otherwise, I’m not trying to push my belief onto you, but I’m trying to share my beliefs with those who want to hear them. That’s our little disclaimer up front. So, I’ll turn it back over to you now. Caroline: I love it. It’s a little less scary than cancer-causing…. Beatty:  But this is cancer free. This will be cancer free. Caroline: This will be cancer free. This is a cancer free zone. Only things that will benefit you, benefit your health. Beatty:  Can I share a quick story?  I’ve got to share this story. So, I get out and I pray for people. That’s just part of what I do. I remember I was over at Walmart and I had seen this 50 something year old lady, and she caught my eye as I was talking to someone at the entrance to Walmart, but I didn’t do anything about it. About 30 minutes later, I see her again in an isle on the other side of the store and I just felt the Holy Spirit saying, I need to go pray for her. So, literally, I walked over to her and said, excuse me ma’am. The Holy Spirit just kind of highlighted you and I think there’s something I need to pray for you about. “Is there anything I can pray for you?” She looks at me with this blank stare, almost with the expression like, who are you. She then kind of broke a little bit and said, “Yes.” I said, “How can I pray for you?” She says, “I have really bad back pain. I have degenerative discs in my back and I have neuropathy in my legs.” I was asking about the neuropathy and if there was a real tight constriction on her legs.  The feeling was a real tight constriction and a lot of pain up in the thigh area on both of her legs.  So, I said, “Let me pray for you.”  So, I prayed for her healing and I said, “Do you feel anything?”  I literally prayed 10 seconds or less and she goes, “Yeah, all the pain in my back is gone.” I said, “Great, but how about your legs?” She said, “I feel release. I feel release. They don’t feel quite as tight.” I said, “Well, good.”  Let’s pray again. And so we prayed again and five or ten seconds later after praying, I said, “Do you feel anything?” She said, “Yes, I feel heat in my back.” I said, “That’s great. That’s the Holy Spirit healing your back and let’s just give it time. Tell me what you feel now.” She says, “Well, that heat is now in my legs. All through my legs.” I said, “That’s great. The Holy Spirit is healing you there.” I said, “Now tell me what’s going on.” She said, “The heat is now up in my stomach area.” “Okay, let’s just keep giving it some time.” Now, all this is over maybe like two minutes, maybe three at most. Then I said, “Now tell me what you feel.” She said, “The heat is going away.” I said, “That’s perfect.” I said, “Tell me about your back.” “No pain.” I said, “Do something that you could not have done without a lot of pain.” She bends all the way over and touches her toes. Degenerative discs could never have done that. Then, I said, “What about your legs and she said, all of the pain is gone. I said, “Fantastic.” I said, “Now, is there anything going on in your stomach area?”  She said, “Yes, I’ve had an ovarian cyst for about a year and I don’t feel that either.” Caroline: Wow. Beatty:  Yeah and it’s really cool talking about these warning labels that can cause cancer, but the reality is Warning: This stuff with the Lord can cause the healing of cancer. It can cause healing of all kinds of things and restoring of our lives. As Jesus said that He came that we might have life and have life to the fullest. To the fullest is not to be bound by sickness and disease. Some of us are and sometimes God doesn’t heal, but I’ve seen such a consistency in that, that I’ve got to believe that the heart of the Father is truly what Jesus said. That we would have life in its fullness in all areas. So, I’m excited to share a little bit more about what we’ve started on the last Radical Faith call and continue that process in understanding this thing called faith and kind of what it all is. So, can we kind of jump on in now that we’ve spent about five minutes here. Caroline: Yes, I love it.  Let’s go. Beatty:  Let me give a real quick review of where we were last time. We’re going through a step-by-step process in understanding what faith really is, understanding it from a Biblical perspective. What does the scripture say that faith is and what do the scriptures show how the faith is lived out and manifests itself in everyday life? What we’ve found is that faith is, from Jesus’ perspective, one of the most important things. Not only is it one of the very few things, as a matter of fact, there’s only three things I know that Jesus ever rebuked his disciples for. One was when the disciples wanted to call fire down from Heaven and consume the people like Elijah did. One when he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me Satan. Every other rebuke that Jesus gave his disciples, which was over and over again, was oh you of little faith. Why did you doubt?  So, he makes a big deal out of faith. The other thing Jesus did is He prays and says, when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the Earth. It’s such a big deal that He’s asking will He find faith. We find that faith. We’ve talked about Hebrews 1. That faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. It is a title deed, meaning it’s the evidence of things being real that you cannot see. It’s the same evidence of things being real as when you’re on your cell phone. We have complete faith that there are radio waves out there and that we can talk on that cell phone. We have no idea how it works, but we have evidence that it’s real. Therefore, that’s what the Bible is talking about. The faith that we do not see, but we have the evidence that it is real. What we started to do is we started to talk about how faith manifests itself. We talked about Moses parting the Red Sea. God told him to basically stop whining. Tell the people to move forward. Forward was directly into the Red Sea and we find that Moses acted by God’s direction before he saw and God performed.  Then we talked about Elijah and the widow during the drought during the reign of Kind Ahab and how that happened. Now I want to pick up on a couple of more stories as we continue to talk about how faith gets manifested into our lives. I want to talk about Biblical stories and some current day stories, sort of like the healing. That’s actually an expression of faith that I was sharing. If we go back to the Bible, there’s a passage. I’m not going to ask you where that passage is and put you on the spot, Caroline. But there’s a passage where Peter is walking on the water and it’s in Matthew 14 and I just want to read you part of this passage and then ask you a couple of questions. Let me set the stage. They have, just the day before, fed the 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish and that was 5,000 men, so we know there’s probably ten or fifteen thousand people by the time you add women and children. Then, Jesus goes up to the top of the mountain to pray, and as he goes up to pray, he sends the apostles and disciples back across the lake in the boat. So, they’re out there and it says that they’re straining at the oars all night because there’s a headwind against them and then Jesus, during the early dawn hours of the morning, He now walks across the lake and they see him dimly and they think He’s a ghost and everyone gets afraid. Are you familiar with this passage? Caroline: Yes, absolutely. Beatty:  Okay, good.  So, He says, don’t be afraid, it’s just me. What does Peter blurt out at that point, do you remember? Caroline: Lord if it’s you, tell me to come to you. Beatty:  That’s right. Lord if that’s you, tell me to come walk on the water too. So, now we pick up Matthew 14 verse 22 and it says, and He, meaning Jesus, “And He said, come and Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But, when seeing the wind, he became frightened and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord save me. Immediately, Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him and said, you of little faith.” Here’s one of his rebukes. You of little faith, why did you doubt? So, here’s my question to you. Who acted in this story? Caroline: Peter acted. He had the faith and the risk to step out of the boat. Beatty:  There you go. Did he see before he acted? Caroline: No. Like you mean see himself successfully walking? No. That was definitely a leap of faith, if you will, just to step out onto that water. Beatty: Correct. So, why did he act? Caroline: To me, I love that Peter, to his reply to the fear of them all thinking that it’s a ghost, that he says, tell me. Like, tell me to come and your question is why? I feel like just that trust in knowing the Lord’s voice. If you tell me, I’m willing to go, I’m willing to take that step even if I can’t see. Beatty:  That’s right. He acted because God told him to act. Make sense? Caroline: Absolutely, yes. Beatty: Okay, so let’s review. Peter acted before he could see, but he acted because he’s stepping out on the command or the word of the Lord, and then who performed? Caroline: Well, I guess, Peter was acting, and so it was his act, but really it was the Lord. I mean, but we, in our own flesh cannot walk on water. But with the Lord providing, I guess, he’s the one that performed in response to Peter’s faith. Beatty:  And so we see this pattern. Go throughout scripture and you’ll see this all the time.  Man acts before he can see, but he acts by the clearly delineated will of God, trusting that truth and God then comes in and performs. So, this is how faith is manifested all the time. Think about me healing that lady. Who acted? I did. Why did I act? Because God said, go do what I do. It says, truly, truly whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and I actually just believe Him that we’ll actually do the works that He does and so we go out. When I went out and I prayed for that lady, I couldn’t see it. I had no idea how it happens, but I expected to happen and who performed? The Holy Spirit came and performed a healing work on her body. Why? Because He loves her and He wanted to demonstrate His love to her. We see this process. Let me read a couple more stories that are more modern day. Modern day, this is back in the late 1800s, early 1900s, but there’s a guy named, George Mueller. If you’re not familiar with him, he ran an orphanage of twenty thousand children over in England back in the turn of the early 19th century and this is a story of one thing going on. I’m just going to read it to you just to make sure all the data is there. One morning, all the plates and cups and bowls on the table were empty. He was in the breakfast room and they were about to have breakfast. The plates and the cups and the bowls are empty. There is no food in the pantry and no money to buy food. The children were standing waiting for their morning meal when Mueller said, “Children, you know we must be in time for school.” Then lifting up his hands he prayed, “Dear Father, we thank you for what you are going to give us to eat.” Pretty bold, don’t you think? Nothing there. No food in the pantry and he prays and says, “Thank you for what you are going to give us to eat.” I love these stories. There is a knock at the door. The baker stood there and said, “Mr. Mueller, I couldn’t sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn’t have bread for breakfast and I felt that the Lord wanted me to send you some. So I got up at 2:00 in the morning and baked some fresh bread and brought it.” Mr. Mueller thanked the baker and, no sooner had he left there was a second knock at the door. It was the milkman. He announced that his milk cart had broken down right in front of the orphanage and he would like to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he can empty his cart and repair it. Isn’t that cool? So here’s a question. Who acted? Caroline: George. Beatty: That’s right. He acted by praying and thanking the Lord for the food that they were about to eat. Did he see or have any knowledge of that food before he acted? Before he prayed? Caroline: No. I love that. I love that the thankfulness is the act in this too. Beatty:  Yes. So why did he act? Caroline: Just trusting the Lord and His goodness and His promise to be a Father who takes care of His kids. Beatty:  That’s right. He is acting on God’s promises that can never fail. And then, who performed? Caroline: The Lord, through the obedience of that baker. The Lord prompted them to provide. I think that’s the Lord acting on George’s behalf. Beatty:  I think so too. Here is kind of a question we don’t fully know that answer to, but I think we can piece it together by understanding scripture. If Mueller did not pray and thank the Lord and fully expect that the Lord would provide provision for them, would God have delivered the food? Caroline: Most of me wants to say yes because God’s goodness is not contingent upon us. That’s what His grace is. But there is part of me too that has seen the Lord perform, if you will, or act in response to our faith, in response to our thankfulness. Thankfulness can open the door for something that maybe would not have happened otherwise. I don’t know if that is a direct answer because I’ve seen it both ways. I’d love to hear your examples and scripture. Beatty:  I’m going to show you another example then I’m going to come back to that question. But let me ask you, based on this scriptural example. If Peter had not seen Jesus walking on the water. If Jesus has not told him to come. But if Peter just got this crazy idea to just step out of the boat and try walking on the water on his own, what do you think would have happened? Caroline: He would have drowned maybe. Beatty:  Exactly. So there is something here that says, it’s not just the act of doing it but the Lord has to be involved. There has to be, what I’ll call, a level of belief. Let’s look at one more story of George Mueller. This one is cool. Let me set up the environment. In Mueller’s later life—in the 1860s and 70s—he started to speak. He lived in Bristol, England. He was invited to go speak in Quebec, Canada, I believe it was. So he gets on a steamer and comes across the Atlantic. The scheduled date is on a Saturday coming up. As they get closer to the North American continent, the steamer runs into a really thick fog. It’s so thick that they literally turn the engines off. They put them in complete idle because—and this still happens today—you can’t see through it and therefore it’s extremely dangerous to try to power through the fog in case you run into something. You are totally blind. So they can only do it when they can see. That then brings me to this story. This is a first-hand account. There is a guy named Mr. Ingles writing his interactions with the captain of that ocean liner that Mueller was on. So here’s the story. This is the captain speaking:   "Mr. Inglis, the last time I crossed here, five weeks ago, one of the most extraordinary things happened which, has completely revolutionized the whole of my Christian life. Up to that time I was one of your ordinary Christians. We had a man of God on board, George Müller, of Bristol. I had been on that bridge for twenty-two hours and never left it. I was startled by someone tapping me on the shoulder. It was George Müller: "'Captain, he said, 'I have come to tell you that I must be In Quebec on Saturday afternoon.' This was Wednesday. "'It is impossible,' I said.   [And watch this confidence George Mueller has.]   "'Very well, if your ship can't take me, God will find some other means of locomotion to take me. I have never broken an engagement in fifty seven years.' "’I would willingly help you. How can I? I am helpless.' "'Let us go down to the chart-room and pray.' "I looked at that man of God, and I thought to myself, what lunatic asylum could that man have come from? I never heard of such a thing. "'Mr. Müller,' I said, 'do you know how dense the fog is?' "'No,' he replied, 'my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life.' "He got down on his knees and prayed one of the simplest prayers. I muttered to myself: 'That would suit a children's class where the children were not more than eight or nine years old.' The burden of his prayer was something like this: 'O Lord, if it is consistent with Thy will, please remove this fog in five minutes. You know the engagement you made for me in Quebec Saturday. I believe it is your will.' "When he finished. I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. "First, you do not believe He will; and second. I believe He has. And there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.' I looked at him, and George Müller said. "'Captain. I have known my Lord for forty-seven years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to gain an audience with the King. Get up, captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone.' I got up, and the fog was gone!”   This is just another story of faith manifesting itself. So here is a question. Who acted in this story?   Caroline: Definitely George. That kind of faith changes the world.   Beatty:  Right. Did he act before he saw?   Caroline: No.   Beatty:  Why did he act?   Caroline: Even at the end just there you said that he’s known the Lord for 47 years. He has seen him act before and he knows the character of the Lord. He knows that is something you can trust. That is why. That is something worthy of putting your faith in.   Beatty:  It is. He acted because he was confident in the truth and validity of the word and the word to him was God was going to get him there because God has done it all before.   There is one other element and we’ll talk about this later but it is the level of belief. Who performed?   Caroline: The Lord. It’s like that story of Jesus calming the storm. A little fog? A storm? That’s nothing.   Beatty: Absolutely. Now let me put one other thing in perspective because we didn’t cover this. The captain had been on the bridge for 22 hours. These fogs last for usually ten days to two weeks before they dissipate. So this was an absolutely miracle from that perspective.   So here is what we find. We also find this in scripture. Jesus says, “Pray believing that you have received and it shall be granted you.” That’s just what Mueller did.   So let me go back to the question I asked you on the previous one. If Mueller did not pray for provision of the food you say, “I think God would have still provided it.” If Mueller did not pray for the lifting of the fog, would the fog have still lifted?   Caroline: No, it would not have.   Beatty:  No, it would not, and, therefore, I believe—back to the provision of the food—had Mueller not have prayed, the food would not have arrived.   I did a study on prayer throughout all the Old Testament and New Testament. God acts upon prayer, not in the absence of prayer.   So let’s look at a few more things about this story on Mueller. If it be Your will. Have you heard people pray, “Well Lord if it’s Your will, please do this.” Then it doesn’t happen and someone says, “Oh, it must not be God’s will.” Have you ever heard people pray like that?   Caroline: Yes, many times.   Beatty:  I see it a lot in healing. “Oh, thank you for your prayer but, you know, I’ve had a lot of people pray for me and God hasn’t healed me. It’s just not His will.” I say, “Well let me pray” and they get healed. This doesn’t happen all the time, but about two-thirds of the time. What is it about, “if it be Your will”? Here is what Mueller said, “If it is consistent with Your will, lift this fog in five minutes so I may make my appointment. I believe it is Your will.” So the question is, how did Mueller pray differently than most of us pray?   Here is what I would to suggest. When people pray, “If it’s Your will,” for the most part, it’s a copout. “I don’t really believe you are going to do it God, but I know You are sovereign. I know You can do it. Therefore, if it is Your will, I’m going to trust You to do it.” But what they lose sight of are the other passages in the Bible. “Pray believing you have received and it will be yours.” “Say to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea and if you believe in your heart and do not doubt, it will happen.” Command this mulberry tree to be taken up and cast into the sea and if you will do it without doubting, it will happen.” James says, “Let not a man receive anything from the Lord if he doubts.”   So we have all of these passages focused on this concept of believing it to be true. I would submit to you that Mueller absolutely believed it was true. That’s why he says, “I believe it is your will.” So let me ask you one other question as we are talking about prayer. Had Mueller not prayed, but the captain did pray, would that fog have been lifted?   Caroline: I would think not because he didn’t believe. It’s like what you are saying, he’s not coming before the Father with faith. He is coming begrudgingly. It’s a different heart.   Beatty: Yes, with a different heart. So here we have one final element on how faith gets manifested. You have to have faith if you want God to work in your life. That faith, we are going to find in our next session, is rooted in the word of God and specifically in His promises and commands. It’s not just rooted in that, it’s rooted in those and when we believe on those. Mueller did not simply believe on his own willpower. That is not what Jesus talks about. When we believe, the only thing we can believe in is what is truth. Jesus says, “They word is truth.” The only truth that exists is His word. So the only thing we can believe in being truthful is His word. So simply trying to have the willpower of our own, “I believe, I believe”—the harder you try to believe, the less you really believe because you are trying to fool yourself.   So we will talk about all of these. Is this pretty interesting?   Caroline: Oh, I love this. This is definitely inspiring and kind of solidifying too, even challenging belief systems that I think are easy to float around. Even what I was saying earlier, it’s easy to think, “Well, even if I don’t pray, God is good.” But the Lord invites us to partner with him and to believe and to pray. He wants us to experience that. I think it’s a really good challenge to remember our positions as children, that He invites us to be risk takers and to have radical faith. I love this.   Beatty:  Cool. I know we are out of time, so let’s close out.   Caroline: I love these calls, I’m sorry. Sometimes I tend to get so enthralled I’m not even looking at the clock. But yes, we are about out of time.   Beatty, thank you for your time and sharing your wisdom and experience and stories and scripture. I think it’s a really great call and I hope all of our listeners really enjoyed it also and were inspired. That’s all we have for today. Thank you again Beatty for sharing. I look forward to continuing on next time.   Beatty:  Me too. Y’all be blessed.   P016

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_text] How to you ensure the BEST and FASTEST results when pursuing geographic farming?  Listen to this question and answer session with marketing expert Beatty Carmichael and one of his clients.  Learn the nuances that make geographic farming most profitable. Have Questions or Comments? Please ask your questions in the comments section below. We attempt to respond to ALL questions or comments. Listen to this audio via YouTube video if desired [/fusion_text][fusion_youtube id="https://youtu.be/RNgkfIyIaig" alignment="center" width="" height="" autoplay="false" api_params="&rel=0" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" /][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]   Transcript   Beatty: This is the Get Sellers Calling You marketing podcast for real estate agents and I’m Beatty Carmichael.  For simple to do proven marketing strategies focus exclusively on finding sellers and getting more listings, visit our website at GetSellersCallingYou.com.  And now, let’s begin our next session of Get Sellers Calling You.  Caller: I’m very eager to start getting listings in an area and maybe make a name for myself in that area as well. Is there anything you would recommend that I do to get the ball rolling faster? Beatty: Absolutely. So, tell me which city and state you are in. Caller: I’m in Pasadena, California. Beatty:  Great. The most important thing, when we do geographic farming, especially out in California and in those areas where you have a lot of transplants (people who move into the area as opposed to grew up there). Let me give you background of where I am coming from. I don’t care to bore you too much with detail but I think the more you understand why the better. Caller: Certainly. Beatty: What we found through testing and through—we actually engaged an MBA university and their marketing research class to do an analysis for us with what we were seeing. What we were seeing is that some farms produce great results right off the bat. Other farms produced poor results all the way down to no results. We were trying to understand what the difference was. What caused those farms to differ? The final analysis has to do with what we call a trusting community. A trusting community as it is defined in context of what we’ve identified and validated that is the key factor is a community that trusts the agent already. There are two ways that that happens. Either they are like, if you recall the Andy Griffith Show many years back. No one locked their doors because everyone trusted everyone. When you get into those communities where everyone grew up there, they live there, they have their kids there, and their kids grow up there and live there. Then everyone knows everyone and it’s a trusting community. What you have in California is you don’t have that feature. People didn’t grow up there; they grew up somewhere else and they moved there, even if it’s moving across town, they are still in foreign area in terms of people they grew up with. So, as a result, it creates a psychological barrier that they are not as trusting as you are in the other environment. So, they way that you have to build trust is you have to always be there and you build up, not only a name recognition, but you build up an expertise recognition. So this is the focus of what our cards do, but there are some things you can do that will dramatically impact it and make it more productive for you. The most important thing is for you to get out and actually meet those people. When we created your list, when we ran it through data analytics to identify those home most likely to sell, we should have sent you a copy of that list as well. Did we do that? Caller: I do have a list. Beatty:  Okay, perfect. So what I want you to do, I want you to do a number of things. But the most important is going to be door knocking. And next week’s call on my podcast call, which is Wednesdays at 11:00 am central / 9:00 am pacific. We are actually going through 10 low cost things you can do to build up a farm, to do touches, that I would like you to start focusing on, or at least take those things out of the list that are applicable to you. But the most important thing is to door knock and actually meet people. So that means that typically it’s going to be a weekend activity, like a Saturday morning / late Sunday afternoon, when people are typically back home. You are probably going to have to do it a few times to make it work. Door knocking is going to be the most impactful thing you can do. Here is another study that has been corroborated through data points. And that is, once they have met you, the likelihood that they’ll do business with you increases between 8 and 10 times. So, if you want to get off the ground in that area and get quicker results soon and more powerful results that are consistent, the number one thing that is going to be the most impactful is that you meet them. They get to put a face and a voice and a personality. When you go out to door knock is not to try to get a listing appointment or try to get a referral, all that will come later. The most important thing is to say, “Hey, I’m out. I’m a real estate agent in the area. I’m just trying to introduce myself to people. I just want to say, hello, how are you?” Okay? Just engage in that small-talk concept. But I would also have two things, Dixie can give you the first one and it’s what we call a pre-marketing pack. A pre-marketing pack is a package of information—don’t let the page count scare you—but it’s like 43-45 pages long—but what does is it has big print and big pictures and stuff. And it walks through, and you can trim it down to things that are only specific for you, but it gives you a chance to give that homeowner something in their hand that they can read about you. And the whole thing about this premarketing pack is it sells you as an expert agent. When we’ve used this, and we’ve had clients using it for years, the typically thing that happens is two things. First, we use it when we identify seller leads, so that’s the self-selection cards. When that package is given to someone, what happens is, that agent usually gets the listing when it comes on the market and the average listing appointment goes from about 2 to 2.5 hours down to about 30 – 45 minutes because most of that listing appointment is the presentation, trying to sell why they should choose you. But this packet does such a good job, that when we are using it with seller leads, it kind of pre-sells you and they’ve already bought in so it eliminates all that. I’ve got to tell you another story because it is a powerful piece of information. Another one of our clients up in Washington state, when he started with us, had just updated his packet and he gets a phone call from one of his referral sources that says, “Julie Smith at this address is thinking about selling her home, you ought to give her a phone call.” So Ed calls her up and introduces himself. She says, “Yes, we are playing to sell. But, I am already planning to use another agent. Thanks for calling.” He said, “Are you under contract yet?” She said, “No.” He said, “Great, can I email you some information about me first.” She responds, “Sure, I’ll be happy to review it.” So he emails the information. She calls him back the next day and says, “Ed, I got your information. I read it. I want you to sell my house. I’ve already cancelled my appointment with the other agent. Can you meet me tomorrow at 2:00?” And it was a $700,000 listing. It’s real powerful. As you are door knocking, you want to have a stack of those and hand them to everyone you meet as simply a way to introduce yourself. Okay? Caller: Sure. Beatty: The second thing I want you to do is, I want you to create a free report of some sort. The focus of this free report is, if I were to ask you and say, “Stephen, what is, in your mind, if I’m going to put my home on the market, what are the most important things I need to be concentrating on right now to get it ready to go on the market so it shows its best, sells at the highest price and gets the offer as quickly as possible. Caller: Right now I have that on my website and on YouTube. Also I do a market update every single month on video as well. Will that help my cause? Beatty: Not on what I’m doing right now. It will help your cause as you continue to touch your people, touch that list in addition to our touches, but for where I’m going on this, it’s not going to be helpful because you’ll find out in my next sentence. Now that you’ve got it, put it on paper. Okay? Something that they can hold. Make sure that that paper is branded to you and keep that in your car. So then, when you are talking to that person, you door knocked, you are meeting them, you are giving them some information and you are just building a relationship. You are not asking, “Hey, are you guys thinking about selling? Do you know anyone who is? Can you refer me?” You don’t want to do anything like because that is going to be pushy. Now, if it comes out naturally in the conversation, that is okay, but build the relationship first. Then here is what I suggest. On the way out, you shake their hand and say, “It’s so nice to meet you. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend.” You turn around. They haven’t closed the door yet. And you go, “One last thing” as if it was an aside. “One last thing. I don’t know if you guys are planning to sell your home anytime in the next six of twelve months, but if you are, I’ve got some information that I actually put together for another client of mine. I have an extra packet in the car of things you can do to get the most money for your home in terms of what you need to be focusing on first in terms of getting it prepared. Would you guys have any interest in that because I have an extra copy? Now, what happens is that it comes across as an aside. You built a relationship; they kind of trust you. You are not asking, “Are you planning to sell because I wanted to get your listing.” You are offering them, “Hey, if you are thinking about listing your home, I have something for you.” What that’s going to do is, if they ask for it, is let you know that they are most likely thinking about selling because that is why they are asking you for it. So you’ll go get it from the car and then you make a note when you get back into the car after you give it to them. Note who they are and any information about them. Once you give it back to them, “If you guys are thinking about selling, what type of timeframe? There may be some other strategic things you can do depending on how far out you are thinking.” So get some information that you can follow up with. And then you write them a personal note, a handwritten letter or a handwritten card that day and then you drop it into the mail. You get them on additional postcard mailings from you. Now you start to touch them more specifically. Does that make sense, what I’m doing? Caller: Yes. I should put together a “How to prepare your home to sell” mini-brochure? Beatty: That’s right. What you are looking for is anything that will guide that homeowner that you can give them as a value-added gift and you keep it in the car and you make them request it. Because by virtue of requesting it, now they are basically identifying themselves as thinking about selling. So you can start to nurture that relationship more. Caller: I do like your marketing cards because they pull on heart strings and I think that is very important. I finished my “What you may not know about me” card and I talk about my grandfather who was a broker and he molded my way of what you think of the customer and I think that will help people get to know me that way. Beatty: That’s the whole purpose of this. The whole idea is this. Trust is built on three things. If they trust you, they will do business with you. First trust is have they met you? That’s why the most important thing you can do is door know and keep door knocking until you have met up to 100% of everyone on your list. Okay? The second thing of trust is, do they know that you are constantly selling? That’s why our cards are going to show off a sale every single time. The third part of trust is, do they know that you have the expertise to get them the most money. And that is where the rest of cards come in and that is where this pre-marking pack comes in. That’s where this free report that you are going to do comes in. All of these things are you showing off your expertise so they trust you. They are all hitting the same point. Caller: Stunning. Beatty: There are some other things you can do, but these are the most important. If you can door knock, have a pre-marketing pack and have that free report that you create that you can give them upon request at the end of your visit then you pretty much have it made. Caller: You know, I’m of the opinion, wrongly, that let’s say I didn’t want to bother people. I would touch them maybe 2 – 3 times a year which is way too low. I would definitely lose business that way. I mean, I would get business but I would also lose business as well. Recently, I sent out to my top 25%, a $5.00 gift certificate to Starbucks and that turned out to be pretty good because I would say 70 – 80% of them called me or emailed me thanking me for that. So, that’s something that I think I want to do maybe once a year. What do you think about something like that? Beatty: I love it.  One of the things that we request, in fact, for our guarantee, we require is that you personally touch your list twice a year.  So, sending out a gift card like that, just a handwritten note, a phone call, a face visit, anything that you can do that is a personal touch is huge.  Typically the large chain restaurants, like maybe Longhorn Steakhouse, I’m not sure. Caller:  Like maybe IHOP. Beatty: Yeah, IHOP, anything like that.  Many times you can get a 2 for 1 coupon and especially if you called their corporate office and say that I want something to promote to my list, can you send me some 2 for 1 coupons or anything like that that I can give my people value and it gives them a discount coming to your location?  They jump on that.  They will do anything to get business.  That won’t cost you anything. Caller:  Okay Beatty:  So you won’t have to buy gift certificates because they will give them to you for free. Caller:  2 for 1 discounts, right?  Are you saying like a discount card or a discount coupon or something like that? Beatty:  Yeah, it’s probably a coupon.  I don’t know if you’re familiar with coupon books. Caller: Oh, yeah. Beatty:  Sometimes organizations will sell coupon books as a fund raiser.  What happens is that restaurant or that store will pay money to put that coupon in the book so they can get more business.  If you find one of those coupon books and literally go through it and call those stores up personally.  Just say, hey, I see that you’ve got the coupon in here.  I have a list of people I want to give a benefit.  Can you give me a bunch of coupons that I can give out for free?   They will give you the same coupons that they pay to put in that book and give it to you for free.  All you want to do is make it special and personal, so it doesn’t look like you just ripped it out of a book, but do something so it sounds like I arranged for you to have a 2 for 1 dinner over at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and here’s a card or here’s a coupon for that will bless you on it.  I know that over at Fleming’s Steakhouse, I don’t know if you have Fleming’s over there. Caller:  We do. Beatty:  It’s a high end steakhouse and they have internally gift cards that they will give out on a birthday or because they want to reward some sort of a client.  It’s like a $25 gift card. It can only be used there and typically because all of the entrées are much more expensive than $25, they know that they will make money on it.  You could go to even Fleming’s and suggest, hey, here’s what I want to do.  Can you give me any gift cards so I can give out and promote you to my list?  A lot of these places will jump on the opportunity to do that. Caller:  I love it.  I never thought of it, but now I will. Beatty:  Yes.  Those are just some things you can do as additional touches.  Back to what can you do.  The most important thing in your farm is you’ve got to be there and let me also suggest you need to be there ideally more frequently that just our postcards.  Okay? Caller:  Sure. Beatty:  If you have another thing that you can mail quarterly or every other month, then that’s going to add even more value and then if you door knock and then if you get them on an address list and then you can mail them personally a handwritten not.  Hey, I enjoyed meeting you.  By the way, here’s a $25 gift certificate to Fleming’s that I got for you.  I hope you enjoy it.  Anything like that.  Now, you’re adding value and they appreciate you and you’re touching them more and that’s how you’re going to win that business. Caller:  I love it.  I’ll do it.  We do have a Fleming’s and we do have a Ruth’s Chris in town in Pasadena.  Pasadena is very restaurant heavy. Beatty:  Good. Caller:  There’s a lot of restaurants. Beatty:  So that means that there’s a lot of competition and if you just spend a little bit of time, or get an assistant to spend some time, and tell them what’s going on.  Tell them how big your list is.  Just tell them that I’ve got a list of 500 people that I want to or whatever your list is, that I want to promote something special.  Do you have a gift card that will give them a discount or give them any sort of benefit that I can give to them as a special gift?  Caller:  I will. Beatty:  You will find that many of them will do it. Caller:  I hit on that. Beatty:  Well, on the geo farm, let me set expectations.  You will get quicker results with your sphere than you will the geo farm.  The geo farm, the first stages of the geo farm is simply to get them to recognize you and start to remember you and then to start to trust you.  That’s where the additional touches that you do will greatly enhance it and that additional effort, the face visit, will take it through the roof.  Let me share a story of another client of ours over in California. Caller:  Sure Beatty:  Near Los Angeles.  When he started working with us, he was targeting a 1200 home farm, 1500 home, excuse me.  He was a nobody there in terms of market share.  In 18 months, he was controlling 22% of the listings, outselling the number 2 agent by 7 times.  What happened was he door knocked that area three times a year.  We were mailing, at that time, either 8 or 12 times a year, I don’t recall and that community was also, there’s a Facebook community page for it because it was a large subdivision. Caller:  Uh huh. Beatty:  He got involved with the Facebook community page and just became a very active participant.  Every listing he did, he would market it three or four times.  Coming Soon, Just Listed, Open House, Under Contract, Just Sold so people saw his activity.  He would post on people’s post and comment on things.  He was there as an individual and also there as a realtor.  Any time someone joined the Facebook community page, he would personally welcome them.  He became an Admin person on the community page.  He would welcome them personally and add them to his personal Facebook page.  What happened was that between our mailings, his door knocking and Facebook, he was always there and always as a professional agent.  So, 18 months, 22% of the farm.  2 years later, 50% of the farm market share.  I mean, he’s just killing it.  So, it’s all about always being there in some form and capacity.  If you keep that focus with this list that we’re doing, then you’ll win. Caller:  Yeah, yeah.  It certainly should.  Again, Beatty, thank you for your time.  This has been insightful and it’s a matter of me getting out there and implementing. Beatty:  Well, very good.  I wish you great success.  If you have any questions, let me know.   P019