You're Not Broken...You're Built Different

Garrett challenges the idea that success in real estate means fitting the mold of a “top producer.” Instead, he invites agents to lean into their God-given design, emphasizing that you’re not broken—you’re built differently, on purpose.

Through personal stories, biblical truth, and practical wisdom, Garrett encourages Christian agents to embrace their uniqueness, stop striving to be someone they’re not, and build a business based on relationships over transactions. If you’ve ever felt out of place in this industry or questioned your approach to success, this episode is for you.

Key Takeaways:

✅ You’re not broken—you're built by God with purpose and intention.
✅ Success in real estate doesn’t require becoming someone you’re not.
✅ Understanding how God made you unlocks your full potential.
✅ You don’t have to do what you hate to succeed—lean into your strengths.
✅ Authenticity is magnetic—the right clients will be drawn to the real you.
✅ Relationships over transactions is a proven and fulfilling business model.
✅ Your identity should be found in Christ—not commissions or closings.
✅ The industry’s version of success isn’t the only path—you can forge your own, faithful way.
✅ Excellence comes from focusing on what you’re naturally gifted at.
✅ Embrace your uniqueness as your superpower in business and life.

Episode Chapters:

⏳ 00:00 – Welcome & Personal Anecdotes from the Field
🔍 03:13 – Discovering Your Unique Purpose in Real Estate
🏡 06:08 – Redefining Success Through a Biblical Lens
🎯 08:54 – The Power of Authenticity in Business
🧩 11:54 – Embracing Your Uniqueness in a Copycat Industry

Resources & Opportunities:

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

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

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

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

📲 Follow Garrett on Instagram for more insights and encouragement!

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

Transcript

0:00

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Christian Agent Podcast. I'm your host, Garrett Maroon, and I am excited to be with you once again. Forgive me in advance if I sneeze or you hear me sniffle or I just sound weird. The pollen in Virginia is killing me. It's disgusting to walk outside. Today I'm wearing black pants and I sit down because I like to work outside sometimes. I'm working on my book as the listener, you guys know. Working on my book, I'm sitting outside. It just helps me think better. And I stand up and I've got my pants are painted yellow and it's disgusting. So forgive me for that. It is pollen season in somehow and only the Lord's way. Pollen is also good. I don't know how, but guaranteed that that's a result of the fall. Anyways, that's not what we're talking about today. We're going to be talking about the reality of how do we operate and live in alignment with who the Lord made us. to be. And we're going to talk about that. You're not broken. You're built differently and you're built on purpose because that's who the Lord is. But before we dive in, let me share with you this funny Christian dad joke. Which Bible character was super fit? Absalom. That's pretty funny It's again little weird to laugh by yourself, but I think it's funny so Absalom, okay moving on because no one else like that joke. I don't know if you did maybe you did but I'm just gonna continue so Here's the truth. You're not broken. You're built differently and you're built on purpose, right? You might have felt like you're not cut out for this industry. I know that I did I started in 2014 and came into this industry. I didn't know anything. was 27 years old and and I thought, I love people. I want to be in relationship with people and that's how I want to build my business. Well, I didn't realize how quickly in this industry you would get into all of the classes you'd hear from all of the people and the leaders and the trainers who were supposed to be helping you. And it was great. You can work by relationship because that's who you are. But guess what? You also need to do. You also need to get better at cold calling. You also should probably buy some leads. Maybe you should even call the for sale by owners. Maybe you should door knock or host open houses, all of those things. And quite honestly, I started to feel like, gosh, if this is how this business works, there's no way I'm going to succeed here. And thankfully I didn't know anything, but at that time in my life, I at least had enough wherewithal. to say if I'm going to build this, it's got to be in the way that makes sense to me, which is by relationships. And I'm going to unpack that a little bit for you today, because I do think that this industry says here's one size fits all. This is what success looks like. I'm going to share some of my own story and experiences in that. But they're going to say this is what success looks like. Therefore, this is what you should look like. And that's totally untrue. In fact, I actually think that's an unbiblical view. of what it means to be in this business because here's the truth. Here's the truth. You don't need to be like everyone else to win. How do I know that? Because the Lord didn't make you like everyone else, right? The Lord made you intentionally. He made you with a specific purpose, a specific skillset, a specific affinity, desire, a joy in doing certain things that I don't have and you don't possess what I have. But here's the challenge I think is agents, you can often feel like an outsider if you don't fit this top producer mold. Again, you hear or maybe believe this lie that you must be like everyone else to win. And that's just not true, right? Even scripture in Ephesians 2 10 lays out for us that the Lord has created good works that we should walk in. Each of us have those, but each of us have different works, right? Every one of us is a different part of the body. Now it's talking about the church, but for our intent and purposes, the church universal, we're all different parts of the body. The mouth can't be the hand and the hand can't be the feet, right? We all have unique individual skills. However, what does the real estate industry say? This is what it looks like to succeed. This is what a top producer looks like. Therefore, this is what you should look like. And we get forced into, at least try to, they try to push us into a specific set and mold, specific set of actions and things that we're going to do because this is what it's supposed to look like. And my friends, that's just totally untrue. Here's what I've come to learn. Here's what success actually is. Here's what your job actually is. Your job is to understand how did the Lord make me and then go become excellent at just that. What does that mean? Maybe you don't love being on social media and that's okay. Maybe you don't love cold calling and that's okay. Maybe you don't love door knocking or hosting open houses. And guess what? That's okay. Maybe you love pouring intentionally into others' lives and that's good and right and godly. And that's what the Lord created you to. So you're not naturally just excellent at it, right? We need to get better at the things the Lord has granted us. However, it does mean You have the freedom to not have to go be like everyone else. Maybe you love social media. Maybe you just have a natural desire and affinity for it. Great. Then go be excellent at it. Right. Maybe you actually do love hosting open houses or door knocking and you don't know why you just do great. Go be excellent at it because the Lord made you that way. It doesn't make sense for me. It wouldn't make sense. Let's let me say this. It wouldn't make sense if a Lamborghini Spent his entire quote unquote life desiring to be a nine passenger van that wouldn't make sense. It'd be a terrible passenger van, right? But it would be great at being a Lamborghini. It wouldn't make sense for Michael Jordan to have spent his entire career trying to play baseball, which side note he did. And guess what? We don't hear about him playing baseball. It made more sense for him to show up and be perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time. Why? That's how he was made. If Michael Phelps, instead of swimming, tried to beat Usain Bolt in a race at the Olympics, he would have lost each and every time. Why? He wasn't made for that. The question for any of us has to first be, how did the Lord make me? And when I know how the Lord made me, then I know what I must go become excellent in. Early in my career in 2016, I was really fortunate. was my first, excuse me, my second full year. in the industry or i'm sorry it was my my set yet my second full year in the industry my first full year in twenty fifteen i sold twenty seven houses that you're all by referral and so i was part of keller williams realty in in that world there's something called the a l c the agent leadership council it's the top twenty percent of the office so i i'm in this meeting right in the first meeting with this a l c in twenty sixteen sitting next to me is the team leader is essentially you know that the c e o of the office if you will I'm surrounded. I'm 29 years old. I'm surrounded by a bunch of other really good agents I mean phenomenally good agents all much older than me I was the youngest by far and we're going around and we're sharing what our goals are for that year And I remember everyone going around they're sharing their goals and they're amazing and it comes to me I'm the last one again sitting right next to my team leader It comes to me on the last one and I say my goal this year is to sell 50 homes all by relationship Right all by referral. That's what I wanted to do And literally, this is what happened. The team leader sitting next to me, whose job it was to help me grow and succeed, literally turned to me and said, Garrett, that's not possible. You need to do something else. And all the other agents, I vividly remember this, all the other agents in that space, amazing agents. They were trying to help. I'm not mad at them, but amazing agents all said, yeah, Garrett, you're not going to be able to do that. You need to, you need to add in something else. What else do you want to do? And I was 29 and young and stubborn. And I'm actually thankful that I was because I left that meeting and said, you know what? That's what I think I'm going to do. That's what I think I want to do. That's, that's what I think I'm built to do. So I'm going to go figure that out. And in the Lord's kindness and in the Lord's humor, guess what I did that year, literally 50 on the dot. And I did that every year since a hundred percent by referral. Never made a cold call or knocked on a door. hosted an open house, I've never bought a lead, I've never done any of those things, I've only ever worked by referral, I didn't grow up here, and it's not me tooting my own horn and saying, wow, you're so good at this, Garrett, it's me saying to all of you, here's your opportunity, you do not have to look like this top. Producer mold you are not broken if you're not in the mark in the office every day cold-calling like everyone else You're not broken if you don't want to be on social media 24 7 you're not broken You're just built differently and that's good because that's who the Lord wired you to be In 2018 it was my third year in a row of selling 50 homes all by referral I had a small team at the time and so I hired a coach I'd had a coach, but I hired a different coach And I remember getting on the first call with this coach and she was a phenomenally kind woman and an amazing business owner. Right. We get on the call and she says, Garrett, what are you hoping to gain from our time together? And I said, here's the honest truth. I'm selling 50 homes already. All I want to figure out is how do I do it in less time? Cause I just want to go home more. Right. We had our, our, our now our oldest, our seven year old, she was born. I wanted to spend time more at home with her and with my wife. And the agent said, okay, cool. And this is my coach and the agent said, that's great. well, here's what I want you to do, right? We had our conversation. She said, here's your homework for the week, Garrett. need to go cold call 300 people and you go need to go door knock a hundred doors. And I remember saying, you know, and not a mean way. was like, I'm not going to do that. You know, I'd only ever done referrals working great. That wasn't what I was trying to do. I just wanted to spend less time doing it. And she, I remember this verbatim. said, Garrett, if you don't do these kinds of activities, you will not succeed in this industry. And I am prideful, right? But in that moment, I don't think I was being prideful, but I was thinking I was just in the top 1 % in the entire region, just working by referral. I feel like I've been successful. I don't want to go do those other things. I know that that's the model quote unquote of what success looks like, but that's not who I am. And that's not how I built this thing. And so I'm not going to go do those things. Well, we hang up the call. We get on the call the following week, or I think it was every two weeks. We get on the call. My coach says, Hey, did you do your homework? I said, no. And she said, Garrett, then you're not going to be successful. Now quickly and thankfully at a time to 12 month contract, but I was able to get out of two months because the reality was we just aren't in alignment at all because you're trying to get me to act out of alignment with who the Lord made me to be. And that's not the way that this works. I have a natural affinity to show up. and be systematic in relationships. You might have a natural affinity to engage people on social media. You might have a natural affinity, meaning a liking to going around and hosting open houses or knocking on doors, whatever it is. You didn't decide that you like it. The Lord just made you that way. So you should show up and become more excellent at those things. It doesn't make sense to say, how do we turn our weaknesses into strengths? Guess what? We can't really do that. It does make sense to say, how are you wired? go be more excellent at that. Because I don't love social media. So no matter how hard I try, I will never beat the person who tries hard but also loves social media. I can't beat that person because they want to show up there, which means they're going to show up there, which means they're going to be more consistent showing up there, which means they're naturally going to learn to be better at showing up there. I can't beat that person. I should go on the field that the Lord put me on and for me that's relationships and for you you got to figure that out. Who did the Lord authentically make you to be? That's the question. You don't have to be like everyone else to win. Being yourself is how you attract the people that you want in your world and that the Lord wants in your world. It was amazing as I started to really focus and hone in and said I'm gonna be good at one thing. Right? One thing and one thing only it's going to be working by referral and the lead generation space. That's the one thing I know. I'm going to be good at one thing. Well, that one thing is what opened up all the other opportunities. That one thing is what got me to the point to have a team. That one thing is what attracted the agents. That one thing is what led me to start a podcast. That one thing is why then we built the faithful agent and now the two 10 collective. That one thing is why I get to teach. every Wednesday on the school to serve other Christian agents to sell homes by relationship as well. That one thing has opened up the door for everything else. Your job is to understand who the Lord made you to be and go be excellent at just that. That is your job. If you hate showing up and cold calling every day, that's probably not how the Lord wired you. If you hate Calling your clients and checking on them every single day. That's probably not how you're wired. Find a different way. If you hate door knocking, it's probably not how you're wired. Find a different way. And here's the cool part. Just like the Lord gave all of us unique gifts to live in the body. Just like the Lord has laid out good work for us to walk in. Right? Ephesians 2 10. The beauty is the Lord has also created you uniquely. And here's my challenge and encouragement. Instead of running away from that uniqueness, like the industry wants us to, I want you to run towards it. Instead of trying to create your identity in the real estate sales space, I want you to work from your identity, which is in Christ and made exactly how you were made. That's what I desire for you. You are not broken. You're built differently and you're built on purpose. Truthfully, agent listening, I would love to hear how you're wired. DM me, you can find my Instagram in the show notes or join the school group as I've talked about and share your story with us. I would love to build this out together with you. It would be my honor and it would be my joy. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope it's an encouragement for you to continue to walk. authentically who the Lord created you to be. That's the way we best honor Him. So shoot me a DM, join our school, let's build this out together. I love you Christian Agent. I will see you next week.