Have you ever pondered the intersection of faith and business? Today, we unravel this intriguing concept with Janet, the co-founder of the Faithful Agent conference. Janet graciously walks us through her faith-infused journey in the real estate industry, from working behind the scenes to standing in front of the camera. She sheds light on her role in the Dwellas team and the unique dimension her faith-based approach brings to the table. We also delve into the creation of the Faithful Agent conference and the transformative impact it's had in the world of real estate.
In today's episode, we also welcome a seasoned real estate agent and supermom of four. Listen as she shares her career progression, the ups and downs of starting her own team, and the secret to maintaining a work-life balance. With real estate being a dynamic and sometimes tumultuous market, she highlights how crucial coaching and training have been in her journey and how they can assist other agents facing challenges in today's market. So whether you're a newbie or a veteran in the industry, be ready to glean pearls of wisdom that could potentially shape your career success.
Finally, we turn the spotlight back to Janet as she shares her vision and personal development journey. From her passion for coaching to her upcoming book and the desire to leave a lasting impact, Janet opens up about it all. We discuss the façade of perfection often portrayed on social media, and the importance of living authentically. As we wrap up, we touch on the transformative power of honesty and authenticity, a message that's much-needed in our world today. So, join us in this thought-provoking episode as we explore faith, business, and the freedom found in embracing authenticity.
Have you ever pondered the intersection of faith and business? Today, we unravel this intriguing concept with Janet, the co-founder of the Faithful Agent conference. Janet graciously walks us through her faith-infused journey in the real estate industry, from working behind the scenes to standing in front of the camera. She sheds light on her role in the Dwellas team and the unique dimension her faith-based approach brings to the table. We also delve into the creation of the Faithful Agent conference and the transformative impact it's had in the world of real estate.
In today's episode, we also welcome a seasoned real estate agent and supermom of four. Listen as she shares her career progression, the ups and downs of starting her own team, and the secret to maintaining a work-life balance. With real estate being a dynamic and sometimes tumultuous market, she highlights how crucial coaching and training have been in her journey and how they can assist other agents facing challenges in today's market. So whether you're a newbie or a veteran in the industry, be ready to glean pearls of wisdom that could potentially shape your career success.
Finally, we turn the spotlight back to Janet as she shares her vision and personal development journey. From her passion for coaching to her upcoming book and the desire to leave a lasting impact, Janet opens up about it all. We discuss the façade of perfection often portrayed on social media, and the importance of living authentically. As we wrap up, we touch on the transformative power of honesty and authenticity, a message that's much-needed in our world today. So, join us in this thought-provoking episode as we explore faith, business, and the freedom found in embracing authenticity.
Speaker 1:
No. So these two guys actually started the faithful agent and I went to their first conference back in March and you know it was a long story but my first broker was actually speaking at this conference. And he called and he said I would love for you to come hear me speak at this conference. It's called the faithful agent and I think it's right up your alley. And he introduced me to the two guys that were starting it and so I called them and I was like I'm just calling, I heard about your conference, I'm looking forward to it, what's it all about? And they're like we have no idea. Yeah, I was like, okay, they're like we really have no idea. They are just believers and they're in the real estate space and their mission is to grow your faith, grow your business, and that's really all they knew. And I was like you know what, I'll come, I'll see what, I'll see what we make of it.
Speaker 1:
And I went to the conference and it was two guys who are they have the best hearts in the world. They, you know, one of them is an ex pro baseball player, the other one is a real estate agent and does great real estate business. But as far as like the mission and the conference. It was like two guys, two dudes. And so I walked in and it was like they rented a conference room and they called it a conference and that was it. And so I was like you know, we like I'm at conferences every week and I was like taking gas. I'm like, oh my gosh, the content's great, the mission's great. They were like we could use your help with making it a bigger, you know so anyway.
Speaker 2:
So we're launching it and it's become a passion project of mine and has this been a trend for you where you somehow end up in spaces and then by inserting you you like make magic happen. It becomes big. And I only say this because I know the Dwellas team was great and amazing before Janet came into the picture. But I feel like since you came in the picture at least how it's been perceived by me is once you kind of came into the picture, it just kind of took on a whole new level.
Speaker 1:
That is so interesting because I've always been in the picture, like Ryan, and I started Dwellas together.
Speaker 2:
Oh my gosh, so I totally missed the mark on that one. No, but that's, that's.
Speaker 1:
I've only seen Ryan.
Speaker 2:
I've always only seen Ryan. Yeah, that is, that's really so. Maybe it's when you finally got into the tour, right, well?
Speaker 1:
and I think it's interesting. We had a lot of different roles, right, and so we started Dwellas and, you know, started the team, and we both had a goal of getting out of production. He had a goal for getting out of production because he wanted to spend every weekend and every night doing baseball with his boys and every single activity. And at the time I very abruptly became a single mom of four kids and so I couldn't work every night and every weekend. And so we were like we've got to do something, we've got to figure out leverage, we've got, you know, we didn't have a plan B for selling real estate, so it was like we've got to do a team, and so we did that. We backed ourselves out of, you know, servicing clients every weekend and every night by building the team.
Speaker 1:
But then I found my passion was coaching and training the agents behind the scenes. And then I got the opportunity to be a team leader for a Keller Williams franchise, which really stepped me further out from the team for five years. And so he was just full on running the team for all of those years and I was still filling the pipeline and having my deals serviced by the team and sort of checking in, but I was really hands off. And then when we made the move to our new brokerage, it kind of combined both of my worlds, in that I've only ever done two things or three things, I guess sell real estate, build a team to sell real estate and grow great brokerages, and so that combined my roles and I feel like that's what now everybody's seeing is Ryan and I are back to teaming up, because when we grew the team there was really no branding social media.
Speaker 2:
Really. So I feel like that's what it is now that you're in like the forefront of the business, the branding, the videos and all in on it. You are, you can tell, but you give a different no shade to Ryan. Ryan knows that I love him, but you give a different dimension to the team and the overall feeling of not just all else but you represent real as well. So, that's cool. What have you learned from all of this? By being on the front, because you weren't always the front person in front of the camera.
Speaker 1:
Just because of the way that it unfolded and the direction that I went with like a Keller-Williams corporate role and all of that, like I was kind of in front of a different camera, maybe right, and I don't know. I think we now are in the roles that we both shine in right, like he is in the creative. He's a visionary and I'm a visionary too, but my number one thing is like I'm an included right, and so I like to gather people and I like to rally people for a cause that I'm passionate about. So we're both really in the right seats right now. So I think that's really cool.
Speaker 2:
I love that and how has you? Gave us just a little synopsis of it, but how has your career progressed over the years with your family, being a mama for kids?
Speaker 1:
Yeah well, that was it right. I mean, real estate's the only thing I've ever done. So I got my license like 18 months out of college and got married, had babies, got divorced, got like I went through all of the things in the real estate industry and backing out of the day to day, I would say grind. I'm still grinding, but it's a different way. Right, like so I'm filling the pipeline, marketing and branding of the team and, behind the scenes, really focusing on client services, systems, processes, to make sure that every single client has a real estate experience that they can't imagine being any better.
Speaker 1:
That's what I say like, that's what I want every client to have. And that has allowed me to kind of step out. And it's hard. I mean, you talk to agents every day and it's hard to be a great agent and a great parent because it's nights, it's weekends, it's around the clock, it's 10, 30 at night sometimes it's you know, and it's just allowed me to really focus on my strengths and what I do really well and do it on my time, in a way that I want to do it. So it's been really good for my family.
Speaker 2:
I feel like the last five years Because you've really found your sweet spot right and knowing, like cause I think, a lot of agents, they don't know when it's time for them to step in to either building a team or you know cause. I talked to a lot of agents and, like, I just love getting in front of clients, I just love actually like meeting with families and going through all of that, but then they'll very quickly admit that it means it's time away from their own family and it's away from their own parts of goals, of how they want to actually live their life, like having a lifestyle that they actually Well, and I think a lot of agents build a team for the wrong reasons, like you just want to build a team, cause it seems like that's what you should do, and you know you've got all this production.
Speaker 1:
But for me it was really it started off as a necessity for leverage, like I could no longer work 80 hours a week and I couldn't take a pick up, yeah, and so you know I think you should start a team for leverage. But then for me it transitioned to when I started bringing agents in and sitting down with them and coaching and training with them. It was like watching this light bulb go off for them. That took me 15 years to learn on my own, yeah, right, and it was just kind of speeding up their process and then watching them fulfill the dreams for their families and growing great businesses and all of that, and so that's really my Would you say that's like your strong suit within the team is the recruiting process of talking and connecting with them and kind of showing them the things that maybe they haven't seen quite yet.
Speaker 2:
And if so, what are some of the things that you guys talk about that maybe they didn't understand or realize?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's definitely my role. Coaching and training has just been my passion. I'm in the process now and of course you said I have a million things going on.
Speaker 2:
Good though it's good, it is all good, because if you don't, then you start to stagnate and you don't like keep developing yourself.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it is all good but it's a lot. So one of the things is really scaling the coaching that I do into a business right, because I've never I've just done it for either agents on my team or as a team leader for the Keller Williams Market Center. I would coach those agents right and that's really what I love doing and as far as what, I would tell them a lot. Well, 99.9% of it is mindset and I know that's a buzzword, I know everybody says it, but it really is. It's really kind of teaching them to get out of their own way, because selling real estate isn't hard and I probably shouldn't say that on camera for people to listen to, but it's, you know, writing the contracts, learning that part of the business isn't hard. It's filling the pipeline and getting out there to talk to people, and so whenever I hear agents come into the business because they like looking at houses, I'm like I mean that's like a second of that.
Speaker 1:
You know what I mean. It's so much more than that and so guiding them through that process, especially right now because the market is a lot of people are hurting and my mission right now is really more of getting agents to the other side of that.
Speaker 2:
What some advice or tips or strategies that like one or two that you would give to somebody who's on that struggle bus right now, that's funny.
Speaker 1:
I just talked about this yesterday. I mean, I think that it's really time for agents to. It's a wake up call and they've got to get back to work.
Speaker 2:
What do you mean? Get back to work, Janet? Haven't they been at work for the past?
Speaker 1:
year, right, just business running us over. Because we woke up in the morning and you know, I mean it's really. This market is really exposing our weaknesses and our lack of skill and our lack of processes. And you know, I think right now agents have to go. If it's not your full time dedicated thing, you're going to have a really hard time and we're going to see a lot of those agents go away, and even the good agents right now, if they really want to come out on the other side of this and dominate during this challenging time, they've got to go from good to great, and that means learning scripts, dialogues, how to talk to clients about what's going on right now, because it's really confusing. And so good agents understand the market, great agents can explain the market, and so I just feel like we've got to step up and hone in on skills and how to really help people right now.
Speaker 2:
What are some good resources for people who want to follow that advice and start diving in?
Speaker 1:
For me it's you've got to find people that will pour into you, right. Like I mean, if you want to do what great agents are doing, you have to go be with great agents that are willing to pour into you, right. So it's like who you surround yourself with matters, and I constantly put on trainings and events and I will pour into anyone, regardless of what brokerage they're at.
Speaker 2:
I have seen that. I've seen that you really work with, even if they're not in your team or your brokerage. You really helped.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean, it truly is a passion of mine and I am constantly, I'll say, accused of just doing all of these things to recruit people to our brokerage, and I could care less where you work at the end of the day. But I love for you to join real if you're a good fit, absolutely Like, if it's actually the right decision for you and you're a good fit for us, 100% I would love for you to join real. But I'm just trying to make everybody better agents right now. Right, because even if you're on the other side of a transaction at a different brokerage, you're better to work with if you're a trained agent.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, it's funny. You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. 100%.
Speaker 1:
I'm like I really don't care where you were. I don't care where your license is. If you're a good person, let's collaborate, let's grow together. If you want to join, real awesome, If not high five.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, have you officially launched your? I don't know if you actually were doing this. I'm making this up. Are you going to launch some type of training, like your own brand of training or coaching? I'm in several talks, Okay, so, possibly With that. Okay so, I'm like that could be an easier way to be like. Whether you're joining or not doesn't matter, you can still get more one-on-one training from me. Yeah, where do you learn from? Who pours into Janet?
Speaker 1:
I have a ton. I am blessed. I have a ton of people that pour into me right now. Right now it's my brokerage I was with I've only been with two other brokerages, right. So I was with Long and Foster and that's where my first mentor who just called me last year about the faithful agent, I mean, he poured into me and really taught me the business. And then other agents in my office, like my first mentor was a woman named Bufio Gorman. She's like a rock star out of rest in her Carol Welsh. All of these agents in that office Like open their playbooks to me, poured into me, right.
Speaker 1:
And then I feel like you kind of get to a point where you've gotten all the juice out of that lemon and it's just a business move, right, it's nothing personal, it's like, oh, I love you, thank you so much, but I wanted to do something more. Like. That's when Ryan and I left Long and Foster and went to Keller Williams because we thought, okay, keller Williams can teach us leverage, teach us how to run a business like a business. And so for 10 years it was Keller Williams. It was the leadership and the models and systems I learned from them. That really was.
Speaker 1:
I attribute Keller Williams to how we built our team at the time, right. But then the market and the landscape of real estate and business building has completely changed, and so how we built a business 20 years ago, how we built a business 10 years ago, five years ago, even three years ago, isn't the same as how we can build it now, and so now I've got people that are really teaching me, like pushing me now. Right, I've been doing this for 24 years, so I haven't been pushed in a long time because I've been there, you're done that yeah.
Speaker 1:
And now it's like I've got people pushing me to the technology is different, right and like really servicing on a whole different level. They're pushing me with branding and video and all the stuff, which has been really fun.
Speaker 2:
But I know I tell people I'm like I've been preaching this crap for like seven years to you whoever it is that I'm talking to, and they're like, I know, I'm like, but you just needed your coach that you've paid thousands of dollars to to say get on video. And you're like okay, fine, yeah, yeah, but I still have your stuff from the workshop. I turned Like you know what? I just want to see you succeed. Yeah, you were a trailblazer, seriously. I mean, I've seen a lot of people creating like YouTube channels, creating Instagram where they're showing up on video. Right, sorry, I know I know it's frustrating.
Speaker 2:
But no, but it's. It's so good to see that now, like a lot more business owners are believing in themselves enough to show up for their brand. Yeah, yeah, so that's good In terms of, like, looking into the future. Where do you see yourself? Five, 10 years?
Speaker 1:
Five, 10 years. Five, 10 years Um, we had a conversation recently about you know I'm 48 and about the five-year plan and retirement and what that will look like. But I honestly don't know that I will ever just get out of the business. I feel like I have so much to give to agents and so much impact there, so I feel like I will still be in the real estate business. I think it will be a lot of coaching and training in that respect and honestly, right now it's a lot of personal development and that's weird. That's a weird thing to say it's personal development, but it's really going in a personal direction for me.
Speaker 2:
What do you mean by?
Speaker 1:
that Like finding my purpose. You know, I mean I'm 48. You can figure yourself, yeah, Like what am I actually here to do? And you know, for me it's a big part of that is my faith and my family and the legacy that I'm going to leave, and so for me it's been showing the behind the curtain, because everybody has this. I'm going to go off on a whole other tangent.
Speaker 2:
I'm here for it. No, I'm here for it.
Speaker 1:
But when you ask like, where do I see myself, where do I see myself in five years, you know right now like I'm in talks about what coaching could actually look like if we were to follow a business model. But we're talking about podcasts and I'm writing a book. What is it about? Sorry, so the book is. It's a little bit of a behind the curtain. So, especially because everybody's in this video branding they're representative on social media, it's really causing a lot of like mental illness. I mean, it's causing a lot of people to cringe and it's like stealing people's joy Like the thief of joy. Is comparison right? And so I was going to say why do you?
Speaker 1:
think that's happening Because everybody's showing their highlight reel, including me.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, outside of social media. Are you talking about just video and specific, or just?
Speaker 1:
No, I think video and social media has brought it to the forefront and it's highlighted it, but we all do it. You've always met my representative. Like you've always seen, janet is top 1% in real estate. When she got in the career, knocked out of the park. You've always seen Janet did a team.
Speaker 1:
You know I was this, I was that, I was a good mom. You always see my representative, and social media has just exacerbated that, and so I feel like there has to be a behind the curtain to that, and so I've recently been sharing just my story of all of the adversity and trauma and all of the stuff that's happened behind the scenes that people don't see. And I'm doing it so that I can feel more authentic to myself, because we always talk about the imposter syndrome and all of that, and I've had it for years and years and years and I have struggled with it, and I'm now at the point where I want people to see all of the stuff that was happening behind the scenes to give them hope that they can overcome that it's okay if you're in this phase of your life, because Janet was there at one point as well Like, just because you see me at phase 10 doesn't mean it wasn't like phase two and struggling.
Speaker 1:
They say, like, the person you can help the most is the person you used to be.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
And I really just want to be an open book and sharing that and be authentic to who that really was and who that really is.
Speaker 2:
Do you think sometimes, by sharing the trials, tribulations, challenges, do you think it could give growth to more people wanting to create that story, so that they can fall into that camp of like you know the you know I was poor, living on the streets and now look at me. Or do you think that has nothing to do with? It is just like you're just authentically? Here's the reason I ask, because I've seen people jump into certain narratives because they want to meet you at right, not specifically talking about that movement, but just any type of like.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I was here but it's kind of like I know you and I know your background and there's no like comparison to what this person is sharing, but then it almost creates like a fake narrative in order to look more authentic. So it's kind of an off-the-wall question here, but no, yeah.
Speaker 1:
I do get it and that is a really weird and tough question right, because, like you'll see, people will sniff that out. Yeah, you can't just. And it's interesting because I had a conversation with one of my really good friends who's one of our agents and she was actually saying she was like I just I don't feel like I have a story and it's like my life was good, like I don't know she's.
Speaker 1:
Like I had good parents, I have a good marriage, I've been married 23 years, done some real estate, like she's. Like I don't have a story. And you know, at the time I was talking to her, I'm like everybody has a story, you know, like you were telling me how you you almost got a divorce, like you got through that, you know whatever. But I think that you're to your point. I think that the more crap you go through, the more you have a story. So I don't know the answer to that, you know I I think, for, for someone who has a concern about that, you know like, oh, am I just getting in that camp because let me find the cracks in my life so that I have a story right.
Speaker 2:
I can show that I went from here to here.
Speaker 1:
I've been in workshops where they're like, trying to find the right I yeah, I think, I think, for I think that's a tough question, but I think that for me, it's about me personally, like checking my motives, yeah, which I have to do all the time, yeah, and and to just kind of answering my own question, I guess.
Speaker 2:
I guess that's basically what we're doing, though, for the highlights is we're creating and showing off and making something bigger than maybe it is, so that we can kind of shine as well on social a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:
And that actually ties directly to kind of what the purpose is for when I say like behind the curtain, because forever I I would stretch, I was never okay with where I actually was. Like if I was doing five million I'd say I was doing six, like I would finagle deals to make it into the paper, because I would get into the paper when I was a long-distance agent he would.
Speaker 1:
He would put yeah in the rest in connection, he would put our faces if we did over a million yeah. So it literally be finagling deals to close in a month. It's, it's crazy. So I think that's part of it too. It's. You know, where am I actually really and am I okay with it?
Speaker 2:
yeah, what have you learned like? What are some of your biggest learning moments? I always say learning moments being like. For me, my biggest learning moments are when I've like lost or like my biggest struggles right, because you either you either win or you learn less than my biggest learning moments. What have been some of your business? Your biggest business learning moments? My business, my biggest business actually, you know what, drop the business, just biggest learning moments period I've had a lot of them.
Speaker 1:
probably the the biggest one was going through my divorce and just waking up one morning and having four babies from two to eight and having nothing. I mean I had a Hyundai minivan and a half a million dollars in tax debt to my name and having a start over. I think another learning moment for me was going through all of that and having a facade for many years around that and then finally getting honest and coming out and telling people that I wasn't okay. I was struggling with alcohol, I was overcoming trauma, I was going through all of these things and I hid that for a long time. But the learning in that was when I was finally able to share it and get honest with myself and honest with other people. It was like magic. It was like a growth spurt that I've never experienced, like being authentic to myself and helping people. What do you?
Speaker 2:
mean by helping people.
Speaker 1:
Like, the more that I have told my story, the more that I have shared the behind the curtain. I mean I get emails and I get texts and messages and all the stuff. Janet, thank you so much. I'm going through XYZ, I've experienced what you've experienced and I'm looking at you and you give me hope and it's the ripple effect of that of just being honest and being authentic to who I really am and what I've actually gone through and all of that it's helping people.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:
It feels good to write to like live, authentically, oh my gosh, it's like a piece that I've not had my whole life. It's a piece that you just go, oh my gosh, like it absolutely is.
Speaker 2:
Especially in the area that we live in, because there is a facade and image, there's a expectation of you know.
Speaker 1:
I have been an agent in Northern Virginia for 24 years and I hate Northern Virginia, absolutely hate it, really do.
Speaker 2:
What do you?
Speaker 1:
mean Because of especially the area where everybody's got the great cars and the bags, and my kids have asked me throughout their whole life like why are you raising us here? I'm like I don't know, Because they don't want to be here. Well, because I'll say, you know, sally just got a Range Rover for her 16th birthday and I'm like good for Sally, you know like.
Speaker 2:
Her mom's gonna cry real big when she dents it in the parking lot.
Speaker 1:
Well, and my kids have totaled two cars in the last three years. That's what.
Speaker 1:
I'm saying you know what I mean. But you know, and they're like, oh, I want you know, for Christmas, I want a $1200 bag. And I'm like, who are you? And rightfully so, they've turned around. They're like you're the one raising us in. You know, the richest county in America. And I'm like, oh well, I mean they're not wrong, but it's where I grew my business and all of that. And so I think that we this is a terrible interview. This is terrible Everything I just said. I'm like, oh my gosh, but it's true, I feel like everybody here needs a wake up call. I don't care about your Range Rover. I don't Like, I care about, you know, your children's heart, and what go do they gonna do? What good are you gonna do? You know?
Speaker 2:
That's part of being authentic, though, is like when you share the truth versus what people want to hear, because you're an agent in Northern Virginia and you just and I swear I think it's too like it's me getting old.
Speaker 1:
I'm turning into my mom. You know those old people that they don't care, they just say whatever they don't care and people just take it with a grain of salt.
Speaker 2:
I'm turning into that.
Speaker 1:
Like before my very eyes. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2:
But I think that's great because I know I hear a lot of agents that are like this is the best place for this, this and this. And I do agree. We've got a great education system. We've got amazing people, have amazing hearts out here Like people care, right? I do Not everybody sucks.
Speaker 1:
Not everybody, but a lot of people do.
Speaker 2:
But we have all of that here, but then to also be able to admit to like but we also have our challenges and our problems that we've got to deal with and face and figure out a solution to, when part of that is a little bit of entitlement, expectations of what is a middle class family out here has a McMansion, you know, but that's not the reality of most Americans and it sets up our children to expect something that's just not. It's almost next to impossible to maintain.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, I absolutely agree. Yeah, I don't know what I did.
Speaker 2:
In terms of, like, looking out to like if you were giving a message to the world. Just to kind of wrap things up, if you were giving the message to the world, what would that message be? And it can be about anything that's on your heart.
Speaker 1:
If I was giving a message to the world for where I am right now. I have to answer that question is to get honest with yourself and be where you actually are and be authentic to who you are. Like that's really where I am. I mean to your point of talking about everyone comparing themselves and keeping up with the juniors in our area and all of that stuff like it's just so freeing to really figure out what matters and what's important and getting honest with yourself and everyone else and being OK with who you are.
Speaker 2:
Real quick ball out question how do you get honest with yourself?
Speaker 1:
I mean stop pretending you know. I mean if you're struggling, say you're struggling. If you're not understanding something, I mean you're going to think I'm crazy. I mean maybe it really is. Like I just would never say I don't know, even in the small things. You know, my advice early on when I was in this business to newer agents coming in was like fake it till you make it, pretend you know they don't know the difference and I'm like that was crazy advice, Like it's OK not to know you know. So it's as simple as being honest about simple things. But I think for me it's being honest about the bigger things, right, like when it's hard. It's more important to be honest when it's hard than ever before and I think right now a lot of people are struggling. I think COVID really hurt a lot of people and I think the more that you're able to talk about it and deal with it, the better you're going to be, like if I had to give a message to the world.
Speaker 2:
Love it. Thank you so much for being on the podcast and being authentically you.
