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Lasting Impact
Welcome to "Lasting Impact," the podcast that dives deep into the stories and insights of extraordinary individuals who are leaving an indelible mark on the world. Here, we'll explore the transformative power of their actions and innovations in the realms of business, ministry, and community. Our guests are the change-makers, the visionaries, and the unsung heroes whose unwavering dedication and passion have not only made an impact but a lasting one. Prepare to be inspired, informed, and empowered as we explore the stories behind the lasting impact these remarkable individuals are creating.
Lasting Impact
What Mirrors Will Your Children See?
Andy shares his arrest's pivotal role in breaking through his resistance, ultimately leading to a life dedicated to service. Through blending ministry and business, he challenges us to reconsider how God views our work, and offers practical strategies for building a successful real estate business from the ground up.
In a touching reflection on fatherhood, Andy reveals his dedication to leading by example, modeling faith, and investing in the next generation through action rather than mere instruction. This powerful conversation will inspire you to break through limiting beliefs and embrace your true potential for making a lasting impact.
I was what you call a club head. Okay. You know, like man, I had really good friends. We all grew up in the same area. Italian friends we liked to hang out girls clubs. It was like every night we would go out.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the Lasting Impact Podcast. I'm your host, mark Marroquin. Join me as I sit down with remarkable individuals making a meaningful difference in business and ministry. We'll explore their stories, challenges and successes, all with the goal of encouraging you to go out and make a lasting impact. If you love what you hear, don't forget to rate, review and share. Welcome to Lasting Impact, andy Esposito. Hey dude, welcome to the podcast, man. Thanks for having me, man, grateful that you're here For those listening that don't know you tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 1:I've been in the real estate business for probably 20 years overall. I had a little gap where I went to Bible schools on staff at a church for four or five years and then got back into real estate but married for going on 16 years with two kids, Grace and Graham, 13 and 10. Just serve at my church. I'm the parent and community director at City Church. Love doing real estate. So yeah, that's about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, that's so great. Well, what brought us together initially was business I'm a lender and you're a realtor, of course, and a mutual friend and a builder that we're working with Yep. And then it did take long to discover that we both have a passion for ministry. Yep, so glad to have you on, grateful to connect with you. You're originally from Chicago, correct, so from Chicago to Tulsa, and was it the Bible school that brought you to Tulsa?
Speaker 1:2007, came out here for Bible school, went to Bible college, graduated, met my wife there as well Wow. And then we went back to Illinois. We were on staff for about, I think, just over five years and then started to miss the marketplace, felt God was calling me back to the marketplace and we both really felt like we needed to come back to Tulsa. And we did, and I started off working for a builder and now, years later, now we're here.
Speaker 3:Okay, cool. Well, let me back up a little. Well, I did not know that I think I had my timeline mixed up a little bit. So you came to Tulsa and then did a couple years here for the Bible school and then went back and went back, and when you went back you went into ministry. But you met your wife here in Tulsa Yep, okay, married here and then went back, or yeah, we got married in. Chicago Okay, got married in Chicago.
Speaker 1:But she still had two years of Bible school left. So I came back. She finished that I was a marketing director for a mortgage company back then. Okay. And then, yeah, we went back and got on staff at church, at a church called Mighty Word in Illinois.
Speaker 3:Wow, so were you in real estate before you came to the Bible school?
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:So you were a loan officer? Yeah, so you were in the marketplace first and then went to Bible school. Yep, okay, let's unpack that a little bit. What was going on? How did that happen? When did you start feeling the call to drop this and come to Tulsa?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got in the mortgage business. This is going to date me a little bit. I got in the mortgage business after 9,. This is going to date me a little bit.
Speaker 1:I got in the mortgage business after nine 11. So I was actually went back to school and my sister worked for a mortgage company and after nine, 11, rates dropped. So I don't know if you remember that, but rates dropped and I mean everyone was busy and so my sister was like, hey, this, our company needs help, you know. And so I was like they had me on the phones just calling people saying, hey, rates have dropped and you consolidate your debt, combine your first and second. You know that kind of stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, dude, I was killing it. I was like I was doing by myself the same amount of business as the other three in the call center were. So I was. And then they wanted to make me into a loan officer. But at that point I had a friend at Twin City Financial. They were also looking for a loan officer.
Speaker 1:And they're so big, and so I ended up meeting with them. I got the job there and so, yeah, just stayed in the mortgage business, Did well. But at the same time I was serving at my church, doing street evangelism Wow, and just really getting involved there. My pastor kind of took me he's like a spiritual father to me and kind of took me under his wing and just had a passion for people and reaching people and I got saved in a house of joy and the things that God redeemed me from and changed my life. I wanted other people to experience what I experienced and so I just had such a passion for it. I really felt like God was calling me to Bible school. My pastor didn't like it at first because he's like people go to Bible school to get a position in the church. He's like I'll give you a position if that's what you want and I was like okay, and he kind of talked me out of it.
Speaker 1:But, at night I couldn't sleep. I really felt like I needed to go. So I ended up calling him and say hey, pastor, I'm really sorry, I just feel like I need to go, and so he's like hey, no problem.
Speaker 1:Go, have fun and then come back and we'll put you on staff. And so I ended up meeting my wife and when she graduated I had a chance to go back. But her pastor also needed help. My pastor had a mega church. Her pastor had a small church and was like you know, and I actually turned down a really big salary, and she's from Chicago. She's from Illinois. She's from Illinois.
Speaker 3:That's right, we might've heard about it. She's from Illinois, but didn't meet in Illinois. You guys met in Tulsa, correct? Perfect, okay, go ahead.
Speaker 1:So it was kind of a God thing, but-.
Speaker 3:Absolutely a God thing.
Speaker 1:So he was a lot. It was like 500 bucks a month. The church was small and struggling and so we turned down 60 grand a year to be an assimilation pastor, to go to the small church and just help them to grow. And so you know, five years there. I don't want to say I got burned out, but I just really felt like God was saying you know, it's time to do what you did. Know like they gave us some freedom, we had our own services, we traveled for a little bit to other churches and I saw god use me in an interesting way, like the prophetic, in a way that I've never experienced or encountered before right and so we'd have services where I could look at people and know exactly what they were dealing with and I would call it out and they would come up and I would know, you know.
Speaker 1:You know, one lady had fibromyalgia and I said you can barely walk and a lot of new people. So like I would look at her, no, and then she would come up. You know, I'd go to you know, we I remember we meant we traveled to a church in Morris, illinois, and and I remember I would look at someone for and he would show me what color and kind of car they had, and I would say it and it would be like almost a sign for them to know that what I was about to say was going to be from God. And so I would tell them whatever it was that God put in my heart and it was just in some awesome ways. And then, when I began to have a desire for the marketplace again, I just felt like God saying like what you do in the pulpit you can do outside.
Speaker 1:Wow, and it should be normal. Right, it doesn't have to be weird, it doesn't have to be flaky, like when Jesus was at the well with the woman, you know, the Samaritan woman. It was normal. He was operating in the gifts of the spirit. He was operating in word of wisdom, knowledge, gift of prophecy. But it was normal. It didn't have to be like this weird thing, and so I really felt like God was calling me to bring a normalcy to a move of God in the marketplace.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:And so that's kind of how it started. It was like, okay, and I missed real estate, I missed doing deals. I used to, you know, I used to go and, um, I, you know, go and visit real estate offices like you do. And I set up two joint ventures, you know, uh, where we became the in-house the preferred lender for these, and um and I love doing stuff like that we had sales managers that would go do presentations for us and I would be like, hey, can I do my own presentations?
Speaker 1:And they'd be like yeah, and so I enjoy doing those things, I enjoy putting deals together, and so when I came out here I started working for a builder and I was like, yeah, I remember this one lady came into my model and she came back and forth, looked through several different floor plans and so she finally picked out a lot, picked out a floor plan, and she was going to come back and she sits down and just starts crying and I'm like kind of taken aback by that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is everything okay, like we don't have to do this. And she's like no, no, no, she was up all night. Her daughter has some lung disease, some rare lung disease, and they had an episode and she was in the hospital all night and you know, going through a divorce, so this is why she needed this house and so much honor. And man, I just remember asking her like can I pray for you? And the peace of God just came into that, into our office there, and she immediately stopped crying and it was like this peace just came over her, like she just knew that she could sign and go forward, because she just knew everything was going to work out.
Speaker 1:And it did you know, and it was like, and I felt so good, Like okay, yeah, I'm in my spot. Yeah. And I'm where God wants me to be, so I use that in real estate, 100%.
Speaker 3:God sent and he's using you in the workplace. Not that we need to go down this road, but just out of curiosity. When did you get saved, like? When did you you know, like become a Christian?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got saved at an interesting time. It was like when I got saved, god changed the direction I was going to from a career standpoint. I got saved, so I was what you call a club head. Okay. You know, like man, I had really good friends. We all grew up in the same area. Italian friends, we liked to hang out girls clubs. It was like every night we would go out it was every except for Monday and Sunday.
Speaker 1:Those were like our rest and recovery days, but every night had like their special. Every club had like their day, like Tuesday was Shark City, wednesday was Voodoo, thursday was La Passage, friday was Living Room, saturday was White Star, la passage, friday was living room, saturday was white star. I mean, we always had like a wow okay, and I I sold ecstasy and I ended up getting arrested, uh, for selling ecstasy wow at a club and had to go to court and I just remember, um, you know my attorney telling me like listen, you need to lay low, like you already have. I had like an assault and a mob action on my record. Now this is a class X felony. Like lay low, stop going out. And so I was like okay. Well, I took up working out and I went from going out every night to hanging out at the gym every day.
Speaker 1:Well, at the gym there was this guy who knew my brother and he had a testimony kind of like I did, got radically saved, went to Moody Bible College and, man, every day he would share something with me, one day a story in the Bible, one day a testimony, one day a scripture. And I'd go home at night and couldn't sleep. And every once in a while he'd ask me if I want to go to church and I'm like man, I don't know. I don't know if God's real. And he told me about Thomas and he wouldn't say it in the Bible. He said there's this guy, thomas, who didn't believe either. He said he wouldn't believe unless he put his hands in Jesus' hands, into his hands and to his side. And when he did, he fell at his feet and was like forgive me, I believe. And he said you can, you know. He said, but Jesus said you know, bless her, you know. He told Thomas, you see me and believe, but bless her those who don't see me and believe. And that stuck with me.
Speaker 1:Wow. He shared that story with me and I was like wow, this thing is about faith. And at the same time, my buddy Vito. He ended up going to jail for battery. Wow, and it was his second assault charge and so he ended up going to jail and he ended up getting saved in jail and he called me from prison. He's like hey, they're having a bible study at my house. The guy that that led me to the lord in prison is having a bible study. Mouse, you need to go to it, and so I was like man, what's?
Speaker 1:everyone's calling talking to me about god, like what is going on. Yeah, 9-11 just happened and it was like everyone's talking about good versus evil and all this stuff and and I was like, uh, man, so I started going to this bible study and and this guy would answer every question I had in the bible and he was so patient with me and so knowledgeable, wow. And one day he asked me to go to church every weekend but I wasn't ready for it because I was still kind of like just taking it all in and not know if I wanted to give up girls and sex and all this stuff. Yeah, and um man, he invited me to church and um, and he said hey, I want to pray for you to receive the Holy spirit. Do you know what that is? And I said no, and he opened up the book of Acts and he explained to me what it is. He said this is what's going to happen. And he said you might feel something, you might not, but I'm going to pray for you. And, dude, I can't explain it other than that verse you know, out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Speaker 1:I just felt like something at my core was just on fire and I got filled with the Holy Spirit that day and, man, that was it. I just, I went from going out every night to sitting in my room studying scripture. The first book they gave me was a uh, ew, kenyon, uh, and this guy operated in the gifts of the spirit heavily and I remember I started reading his books and, uh, I'd study scripture. He, you know he would, he would share a scripture in the book and I'd go look it up, you know. And I started reading the Bible and I was home so much that my mom would be like she'd come in my room on a Saturday night and I'm studying, and she'd be like, just go out, like what are you doing home every day, you know? And, uh, god gave me favor, we beat that case.
Speaker 1:I never ended up going to jail because, that night a lot of people were overdosing in the in the club and they thought it was my ecstasy, but it really. Someone was selling liquid G in there and that was causing people to pass out. Wow.
Speaker 1:And um, and so they thought so. They wanted to make an example of me and a lot of people were saying that I was going to go away. But we ended up beating the case I didn't go to jail, wow, and ended up getting saved and just getting on fire for God. And my church had this street evangelism thing. I became a part of that. Wow I started going every weekend out into the projects ministering to people and just fell in love with it Really.
Speaker 3:Man, that's amazing. Well, I know this part of your story. Well, I know this part of your story. We hadn't gotten that. This is great, and I didn't even know we were going to go there today. So thank you for sharing. That's amazing and I think that's a whole separate podcast there of just kind of diving deep into your testimony.
Speaker 3:But I love, I love how you use the word radical, you know, and because that just speaks to you know, a 180 or a hard stop or, you know, you're so extreme in your sin to the other extreme into not just accepting God, living for him. Now you're wanting to spread the word because you want, like you know, it's like the apostle paul and um man, that's. That's. I love that.
Speaker 1:Glory to god my wife tells me that to this day. She always tells me you're so extreme, you're always. You're either hot or cold. You're one way or the other. If we're putting the air on, we're putting the air on, it's going to be cold. If we're putting the heat on, like there's no middle ground with me and I don't know any other way to be, like if I'm gonna, it's like when people work. Like when I see people at the gym and they're there to work out, yeah, they're barely working out.
Speaker 1:They're talking to people like if you're there, if you're gonna go work out, work out yeah sweat right, like if you're gonna do a job and be a real estate agent or a loan officer, like give it a hundred. Yeah, you know what I mean. Like why, do anything halfway, if I was going to be a partier and a club head and go pick up girls, I'm doing that. 110%. Right. And so I, I'm just that way, and so, um, I, if I'm going to do something, I'm going to commit to it, and that's just kind of how I am.
Speaker 3:Yeah'm sure god's designed, designed you that way and that's why he wanted to get a hold of you and and you know you're his disciple and he's has this plan for you and um, okay, man, so I'm going to talk a little bit about um, obviously, you were ministry and um, you, you, I think, a lot of things here. Here's what, here's what happens, I think sometimes. If, uh, bible school graduates well, I love your story that you were, you know, and it's not ever there's some Bible school. I went to a Bible school and, um, the design for that school were were to get young people out of high school before they went to college, and it was no promise to like, hey, you come here and we're going to help you find a ministry job. That wasn't the design. It's really like, hey, we want to build a foundation, we want you to be a strong believer, we want you to serve your local church, because we just went there and we served and we had some Bible classes.
Speaker 3:A lot of it was roll up your sleeves and serve a ministry. I met my wife there, similar to your story, and super low percentage of students went on into ministry. Everybody just went on to either you're working full-time or you're going to college somewhere and some of those classes may transfer to an Oral Roberts University or something. But I know there's some schools here, like in Tulsa, where they're more attracted to adults that you know. They come here and they're getting jobs here. They're going to class during the day and they already have families, some of them. The school I went to that wasn't the design, it was just young students and there was literally an age cap a cap.
Speaker 3:Like, hey, under this and we're asking for single students and it was cool, it was a good design and I like it. But going to what I'm about to say, like you were in the marketplace, stopped your life, go to Bible school and then you went into ministry right, because you kind of had it lined up whether you went directly there or to your wife's church. That doesn't always happen and I think there are some people who have the aspiration or feel the call like I'm going to go to this school and then, as soon as I graduate, I'm going to become a youth pastor or a director somewhere or something, and if it doesn't work out, then I'm going to go into the marketplace.
Speaker 1:I feel that's a lot, or am I off there? No, I think that it has to do with the type of teaching you're given. I hate to say this because no denomination has it perfect. We all see through a glass dimly, but in the Word of Faith movement there is some church-created doctrine in there right and not all. But there are some ministers in that camp that make it feel like you need to have faith to be in full-time ministry and if you don't, then it's like you can. If you have to end up in secular work, well, you don't have enough faith for that right Marketplace there's. No, you don't separate the two.
Speaker 1:Paul never separated his apostleship from his tent making wow, we're talking about the greatest apostle to ever live. He's also a tent maker. Yeah, right, priscilla and aquila were also tent makers, who he met during that quote-unquote job. Right, he raised them up to also be apostles in the church and they had a business. But in the Western world mentality, in the Western church, they separate the two. And I just had a talk with this guy who's over the evangelism of this Catholic church here. His name's Tim, he's over at St Bernard and he was saying how the Catholic church needs. You know there's so much emphasis on the priesthood and very little on the layman. But if you look at Ephesians 4, the purpose of the ministry gifts pastor, apostle, prophet, teacher, evangelist is to equip the believers, is to equip the saints for everyday ministry, for everyday work.
Speaker 1:Right believers is to equip the saints for everyday ministry, for everyday work, Right so? And so I think some people go in with a bad theology or bad teaching and they're like well, you have a passion for God, you should go be a pastor. Did God call you to be like a pastor? Right.
Speaker 1:Think if Tim Tebow was like I love God and I love people, I'm going to go be a pastor. He would have lost his platform. Millions and millions of people going to go be a pastor. He would have lost his platform, millions and millions of people. He's called to the athletic arena, right. Some people are called into the political realm. Some people are called to be teachers and impact kids and students, and some people are called to be, you know, business people. Like God has a calling for each and every person. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so. But we look at it as well if I stand behind the pulpit, that's a true calling, no, but if you're taught that, then that's what you think. You think, well, I have to go to Bible school, I have to go be in full-time ministry yeah, so it's a deception.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that, I love that and I think this. You know, man, that conversation needs to get out more and more to help people.
Speaker 1:That's what God in the Marketplace is all about. Yeah, that's our podcast.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, it's all about equipping people for that 100%, and it's going to help people be set free and really encourage them to know God, the Father, better. Yeah, because to abide in Him and to be close to Him, you're going to hear from Him. Yeah, him, you're going to hear from him. And if he has something for you, that's like, hey, not full-time ministry, and you're going to be assigned to the youth group and then, as you kind of excel, we're going to assign you to the young adults and then we're going to and God's design could be completely different for you. And I think of top leaders that I know that they would be so many people around them.
Speaker 3:I take my boss, for instance. He blesses so many people. He's a high impact type of guy, man of influence, a man of influence yeah, like I feel to put him outside of what he's doing right now in business and serving God and help. It would be a disservice to the people who are waiting for him out there that God wants to use him to reach. God wants to use him and I, you or whatever, like to reach others and we just have to be careful to not be deceived. That and I don't want a dog working for a church. I mean, that is an awesome calling and you are more than likely making a sacrifice of some sort to like hey, I'm laying this down and I believe God's calling me over here and I'm going to do this. I mean, that's probably a separate topic, but I think there's some sort of-.
Speaker 1:If your gifting is prophetic right. Okay. If you look at the prophet in the Old Testament, he spoke to the king and he spoke to the priest. Yeah. Right. Some people's gifting is prophetic. You can speak and you have a voice in the church. God gave you a voice for the church, but he also gave you a voice for the marketplace. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, he speaks to the king and he speaks to the priest, and so, and you have that Like with what you're doing once a month at your church. You know you are impacting people through the church, but then you also come to work every day. Yeah. And you have people that sit down with you and you're helping them with the biggest financial decision of their life. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You get to speak into their life. That's right, and so, um, you know, I think a lot of it just has to do with people's gifting and calling and purpose, and well, I love, I love here.
Speaker 3:Here's where I was going. I love hearing that. Um, I just is. I've talked to a lot of guys who, like, have had this wrestle because of a possible deception of like. Well, I have a heart for God. I want to spend my whole life in ministry and doing it, but it's not working out.
Speaker 3:So, there's like this, deflated, and I guess I'll go to the marketplace, and there's this hurt and pain and confusion there, where it kind of sounds like you were like, I feel, god, calling back in the marketplace and you're excited about it and it didn't sound like there was a disappointment season there, or there was there.
Speaker 1:Okay, there was a little bit of a disappointment, okay, um, again because of some bad theology okay, yeah exactly right and, um, I thought I was leaving secular work to be a minister. And keep in mind, in the Word of Faith movement you have these ministers, that, and I'm kind of turned off by it now and this might be another subject for another day. But big ministers, big followings, big churches, suits, mansions jets right. I think God had to break all that down. That's not a motive to be in ministry Sure.
Speaker 1:You know that's right, and so I kind of saw the ugly side of that and it did kind of turn me off and I ran back to the marketplace yeah. But then you run into some pastors my pastor, city Church, matt Nelson humble yeah humble. Yeah, he's not in there. He's not trying. He's not someone who is trying to be a trendy hipster pastor with a big following. He can care less about that. He just wants to disciple people I mean literally, yeah, and there's very little ego.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, um, and so you know I think a lot of it just depends um. You know. Obviously people get, but the problem is that people throw the baby out with the bathwater. Yeah.
Speaker 1:They think they're going into ministry and they're in prayer, they're in the Word, they're studying, and then, oh no, I'm not going to be in ministry. So they stop praying, they stop reading their Bible, they stop doing all the things. It's like no, no, no, no, don't do that. Keep doing that, because that's what keeps you plugged in and sensitive to the Spirit of God. God wants to use you. Just not be on a pulpit, that's okay. Yeah 100%.
Speaker 1:I know a couple that man. They graduated from Rhema. They went to Iraq to start businesses. They were going to reach people through business because they knew, like after the war, like that was going to be necessary.
Speaker 1:They stayed for six years, met amazing people and sewed into some amazing people that ended up becoming underground Christians and and and um, doing great ministry stuff through business, helping people start businesses. And then then they moved somewhere. I can't remember where they're at now Uh, there's somewhere in North Africa. And then they went into Europe. They travel throughout the world and they help people start businesses, but they also start businesses themselves and they literally reach people through business. Wow.
Speaker 1:And if you look at the book of Acts and not to go down this road. But the day of Pentecost was in the upper room. It fell while they were in the upper room. The upper room was not a house. People think that it was a house you couldn't fit up. They didn't make houses to fit 120 people back then. It was a. It was a place of trading. It was a place where people and the day of pentecost in itself was a um was a, like an event, like a agricultural event. It was. People would come and sell barley and that's what people that's why it says people were there from every nation and tongue. People would come from all over the world because of that event, that festival. And so god uses the marketplace more than he uses. I don't say more, but you just as effective in the marketplace as you can be in the church, the church user, one hour a week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the marketplace you're can be in the church. The church you're there one hour a week. The marketplace you're spending 40, 50 hours a week.
Speaker 3:That's right. Yeah, I mean God needs us out there. Well, let's dive into some of your real estate stuff too, because you're gifted there. God's given you a brilliant mind, and your giftings in ministry is rolled into your giftings in business, and most of the time those collide together because it's a certain skill set that God has given you. You started out or somewhere. You start out as a realtor for a builder, or is it just a builder's rep?
Speaker 1:So when we decided we wanted to come back to Tulsa, I reached out to a few people, and the very first one I knocked on was Capital Homes, sharon Baker. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Greatest manager of all time. Wow, out of all the my time in in working for banks and builders, she was. She was amazing, um. And so she hired me, um, and I was five and a half I think five and a half years. I was there, uh, and did great sales there um several years in a row top sales. And then, switch she ended up going to take a position in Arizona new manager. He was good, good guy, but I just really started to feel like things were changing, you know, and I really needed to be on my own. They sent me to the builder show in Vegas and I fell in love with the industry and so I really just wanted to be on my own, and I don't know what that meant was whether it was partnering up with other builders or maybe starting my own. And I did build one house on my own and I had my challenges but learned a lot, and so from there, I just helped a few other builders move, inventory, create some systems and processes, but then ended up landing with Angus at Birch. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that is, and so I love it there and yeah, this is a great guy to work for and um, and so we're just kind of doing some things. They're changing some of the uh, some of the systems and processes they had in place, kind of so.
Speaker 3:So for those who don't know, educate us on um someone. The difference between like you just there are some that just strictly work for a builder Correct, right, like they're not necessarily they're assigned to help the people, the incoming traffic Correct and you're only selling the builder's stuff Correct. Then another option for someone wanting to sell real estate is to go be an independent realtor and you can show. You can list any house you want and show any house you want. You've done both.
Speaker 1:I've done both, so I worked for Capital, which is a production builder.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It'd be like a DR Horton or-.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 1:Or a Rosh Coleman just bought up by Lenar. But um you know, Simmons, those are production. Absolutely they don't let you sell anything outside of them. Okay. Uh, unless you get your real estate license and you work for a custom builder. So I have, I'm a, I'm a licensed broker, I'm an associate broker with the agency. Yeah. Uh estate company here in Tulsa. Um, but I also help. I also represent Birchco, which is a custom builder.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so that's a great breakdown. Um, now the production builder they're they're they're just doing enough built. They're they're building enough houses that you're you can. You can work for them full time because it's going to keep you busy and enough clients coming in.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, you can do if you're good, like there's. When I got there, there was these guys like I had training, and then I would have to like go sit in a model with some of the other agents, right, and I'm like asking them how many deals do you do a month? What's your income like? Because I want to get a feel for this the first time. I'm usually on the other side of things with the lending and there's really only one guy that was a decent producer, which is the guy that ended up making the manager, and I noticed that when I was with him he was actually when people weren't coming in. He was actually making calls, like following up with people. The other ones were just sitting there on their phones noodling their thumbs and I thought it just didn't sit right with me and I thought, well, this guy's doing it, but he's actually making calls.
Speaker 1:So when I got my first neighborhood, it was an unproductive neighborhood. It was like the guy before me sold two the whole year, wow. But this is back when North, when South Tulsa was like the outskirts, or sorry, south Broken Arrow over by Indian Springs yeah, that was considered the outskirts over by Indian Springs. Yeah, that was considered the outskirts. Yeah, it was back in 2016.
Speaker 1:Okay, so all I knew is that I had big lots right, and so I got on the phone with realtors. I found I got a list of the top 100 realtors Back then. They're truly. You can find out who the top agents were yeah. They kind of changed. Now you can't do that, so I got a list. I would send them messages, I would invite teams to my, to my office, to my model.
Speaker 1:I would do presentations. Hey, we have big lots. No one was had big lots back then. It was like all these neighborhoods were selling smaller lots. Yeah, um, we were selling small homes on big lots and so we went from like two. The year that I got there, they sold two. I get there. In April I started after training. We sold 38 a year and so um.
Speaker 1:but you know, the sales manager was like what are you doing? You know, like, and I just said, you know, I'm not sitting in my model waiting for business to come. Yeah.
Speaker 1:If it comes, great, I'm making the most of it, I'm taking their information, I'm following up, but if it doesn't, I'm I'm going to get it, I'm calling agents, I'm posting about new specs that are coming, and no one else is doing that. And so I think, once I started that and then they saw, wow, you know, like, when the average was like, you know, four to six homes a month, I was doing like nine, 13, 18 homes a month, and so I think I think people began to change their systems.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because of the hustle, yeah, and so I think people began to change their systems. Yeah, because of the hustle. Yeah, you thought you kind of landed the dream job to be able to just sit back and let it come to you and it'd be a good base. But you're really going to do well when you collide the hey, some walking traffic plus getting out there making the phone rings, getting people to come to you. So you spent some time obviously leaving that and being a traditional realtor, independent contractor with the agency or whoever, and what was that like? Like you leave a pretty decent gig, I bet, to clean slate on your own.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I questioned it every, every day for three years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Yeahed it every, every day for three years. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know. But keep in mind, I have to tell myself, when I was there, rates were five, four, three two point eight Right, right, yeah, we had a boom going for a while and it was nuts Right. So, yes, I was killing it. It. I don't think I ever made less than 150 right. I was killing, and to go on my own was a big step of faith, because now I don't have anyone coming through my door anymore like I have to go find it I had a database yeah but, um, trust me, it was a challenge.
Speaker 1:Uh, when you go from a place where you have insurance, 401k match HSA, a company credit card to spend on making realtors out getting realtors to come to your model food to now you're all on your own. I mean, it's an adjustment.
Speaker 3:The expense account is your bank account.
Speaker 1:Exactly, but you also have a ceiling there, right?
Speaker 3:Like even if. Yeah.
Speaker 1:They're only doing so many communities at a time. So even if you hit your max right, which could still be pretty high- yeah. You're not If you look at the top producing real estate agents and the top that are sitting in models. Yeah, there's a huge gap.
Speaker 1:Okay, real estate agents and the top that are sitting in models. Yeah, there's a huge gap. Okay, huge gap, right, yeah, um, so it. Yes, it's a step of faith, but if you ever want to break through that ceiling, it's needed okay, so let's let's walk through what your um plan of action is.
Speaker 3:You, you do have a database, because you've been closing deals and you've kept-. Over 400 homes yeah, okay, so that's a great database right there, but they've already closed and they have super low interest rates already. They're probably not in a hurry to buy the next house. So it's a bit of that's nice that you have, but you are ground zero. What are your steps that you're taking that is going to start building your business?
Speaker 1:Well, in the beginning I didn't know what to do other than just the common sense stuff, which was mail, my database and everyone I knew. Hey, I became a real estate agent. I was a mortgage broker. I did new construction. Here's my experience. If you need to buy, sell or invest, please reach out to me. So sending them something every quarter is the start.
Speaker 1:That's your database. Then you hit your neighborhood. Hey, I'm not only your neighbor, I'm also your local real estate agent and, luckily for me, in my neighborhood, capital built probably a third of the homes in Manchester. So Yorktown's big. In Manchester they built a lot. So I just said, hey, I worked for a builder that built quite a few homes in this neighborhood. I'm very familiar with the floor. If you need to buy, sell, so those are just your common sense, hit up the people around you, type of thing. But I'm also a natural networker.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I want to hold on, for hit the brakes real quick, and I'm I know you're about to get into some more gold here, or the next step. I will say this I think that people get stuck, even with the common sense stuff, like, okay, step one, I should mail my database. Or step two, I should send out the flyers farm, the neighborhood I'm living in. I can walk these neighborhoods and I think and you maybe have found this too that sometimes I think someone, when they're dry and they're at ground zero and they see that that's a really tall mountain, they're like, well, it's going to take so long to even get rolling. I think it freezes them sometimes and they just get paralyzed. Um, so, you know you're a champion, so I know you started laying down a foundation, you're successful in business. But, man, I know you say the common sense stuff, but like people even need coached and pushed to do those very initial first steps because they can get grippled. Yeah.
Speaker 3:They can get gripped. I mean, have you seen that before in others?
Speaker 1:Yes, it also depends too on like I'm the provider for my family. My wife works a couple of days a week, but and I also built up a certain lifestyle for myself with the income that was coming in. Okay. And so I also know like it's different when you have a spouse that works and brings in good income and you can chill If a deal comes, great if it doesn't.
Speaker 3:It doesn't.
Speaker 1:I didn't have that luxury.
Speaker 3:I had a bunch of money saved up but we also invested it in a build.
Speaker 1:We also had a flip going at the same time, so my savings was also extremely low, so I didn't have a chance, like I didn't have the luxury of sitting back. I mean, I was mailing, I was working at coffee shops talking to people, working networking. Hey, oh, yeah, well, I do real estate. I picked up I can't say I probably picked up three deals my first year just working out of cafes talking to people. I was on the phone hey, we sold a house in your neighborhood and we still have an interest, you know, and I would show them. Hey, this is the address that we sold it at, cause I would pull the records. If you or any of your neighbors know, please call me because we have buyers. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean I was pulling people out. I didn't have the luxury of sitting and just waiting.
Speaker 3:My wife does not bring in, she does okay, she works two days a week and brings home a couple grand every two weeks, but the responsibility was on your shoulders to be the breadwinner of your family. And so let's continue that conversation, because this is great. This is great for someone that is listening right now, that has just got their license. It's the same steps, right? So you start with I'm going to mail who I know, I'm going to farm the neighborhood I live in, and then you're about to start going into. I think you're about to say I'm a natural networker, so what did networking look like for you?
Speaker 1:So there's events throughout Tulsa. Okay.
Speaker 1:And I usually get invited to those things. I mean there's Matt Moore with Young Professionals yeah, the Christian men, yeah, young Professional Christian Businessmen, yeah, there's that. There's Kevin Borkland had a mindset group, that networking group. I mean there you can hop on anything and find networking groups and so I always go to that. It's awesome to those types of things, yeah, and especially if I have time, if I have anything going on, it's like you can sit home. If you don't have a kid that you have to take to a sport or anything, go network yeah right that you have to take to a sport or anything.
Speaker 1:It's like go network, yeah Right. And so I think, even choosing, you can go in the office and work with your colleagues right when you're not going to get any deals there, because no one walks into real estate offices anymore. Yeah. Or you can go work out of a cafe where people are constantly working, and meet people, and don't be afraid to talk to people. Yeah, you know I set out my mouse pad has my.
Speaker 3:Yeah, walk me through an afternoon of you, whether you do it now or did it then, of your office at a cafe. Yeah, walk me through what that looks like and what's your moves.
Speaker 1:Okay. So, like the last deal that I got from a cafe which ended up turning into three deals Come on Okay, that I got from a cafe which ended up turning into three deals, come on Okay. So Dan Farkas is a pastor locally and he works out of a cafe because he's the he does he's like the media director and worship. So he does worship and media. So he's constantly working on his laptop.
Speaker 1:And he got into a theological discussion with another guy who was reading his Bible. He came to the cafe, sat down and read, and so I'm working and listening to their conversation at the same time. Well, I chime in, you know. And so next thing, you know, we're having a theological discussion and he asked me you know it turns out, yeah, I was on staff at a church for five years, moved here and now I'm at City Church. He's like oh, I know City Church. They helped us launch our this lawn char. There's a go, we could we end up talking about that? I'm like, oh, real estate. He's like I'm actually thinking about moving he's like but I don't know.
Speaker 1:You know, this is kind of what we're looking for. We want to downsize a little bit. And right then and there I pulled up what area he wanted to be in his price points I'm like there's a, here's a house that was completely remodeled, you can definitely get your price point. He's like, oh, that's awesome. So I emailed that to him. I said what's your email, bam, send it to him. He went home with, talked to his wife that night, showed him the house within. They were going out of town. By the time they got back we had their house listed. Wow, and they bought a new house. Well then he got transferred to a church in Minnesota. So that turned into the third deal I listed it.
Speaker 1:So, you know you just can't. If you're in sales, you cannot be afraid to talk to people. Yeah. You know, like I know there's some agents that are good and they're not social, but they're. They're introverts, but they, they. They like analytics and numbers and maybe you're more a commercial person, because a lot of that is involved, but you just got to talk to people.
Speaker 3:Yeah and that's just. But, uh, you just gotta talk to people, yeah, and that's just. Yeah. If you're, if you're going to be in sales, you're, you better face it that you're going to be in communication with people and you're gonna, you're gonna have to grind, yeah, um, well, I love it, man, and I, and I think you know, on the um, when you're going back to how you were talking about your other your, your extremes, your other thought, if it's going to like, let's, let's turn on the AC, let's really turn on. If you're going to be at the gym, let's really get to it.
Speaker 3:Um, and I just want to say this about your appearance man, like you're always on point, you know every time whether it's a casual thing we've done together. It's like, yeah, you know you're intentional, you're intentional. And today you look sharp because you had an appointment before you came on the podcast and so, yeah, I mean I just picture you, whatever appointment you were at before you came on to this podcast, I'm just like, I just feel like you hit it out of the ballpark because you were intentional about how you look and I'm sure the presentation went well or whatever it was, and I just think if you're in sales like that. It's smart to be intentional, because if you're, our careers are lifestyles really. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:It's like my phone's on it's not nights and weekends, but it is nights and weekends for me and I'm gladly, because I've worked with realtor partners. They show houses on weekends, they're originating business on weekends, so I'm taking those phone calls and so it's, you're just on. You know, you're just, you're always on. So I love it. I want to throw a book out just to get it right. Yeah, dude.
Speaker 1:So I think, no matter what you sell, you sell yourself first. Okay. So there's a book out there and I know it's for women, okay, but just give me a second here. It's called what Queen Esther knew, okay, okay, and the author wrote it specifically to empower women to not be afraid to use your wisdom, your smarts, your looks to in business, right. And so she explains, like, the process that Queen Esther had before meeting the king, right. Wow.
Speaker 1:And how the way you present yourself is 100% important, you know. And so like I remember reading that book when I first got saved, because I would go and remember I went from going out all the time to not having much to do. So I would go hang out. I went from going out all the time to not having much so I would go hang out at Mardell's and they all the top it always had, like the top 10 books yeah, soak it in at Mardell's books.
Speaker 1:It was like one queen ester new I didn't buy. When I bought it I didn't know it was geared towards women, but the points that she gives in there, uh, are everything like um, you know, gain knowledge, like before you go. Like learn it. Be so that you know, gain knowledge, like before you go. Like learn it, be so that you know and don't be afraid like oh, because I'm a woman, that I you know. Like no, but if you know what you're talking about, they're going to respect you because you know what you're talking about. Look your best. You know, like, present yourself well, look men in the eyes, don't shy away because you're women. And I just thought, like this is good for women, but it's good for anybody.
Speaker 3:It's just great principles, good principles, yeah, that's very good, and they're all biblical.
Speaker 1:Like Jesus, they casted lots over his garment. Yeah. Right, like he wasn't a slouch.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. Yeah, no, no, no, that's awesome. Well, I like that sales stuff we were talking about it's. You know, you and I, that's what we do. We're businessmen, we're in careers and we prospect all the time. I mean, the point is, no matter what businesses you're, I mean, if you want to be in business, you better be great at prospecting. Plain and simple. Yeah, you know, plain and simple. Well, let's talk about your role at the church, okay, let's talk about your role, um, at the church, okay.
Speaker 3:So you know you're in business for yourself. You know you're you're. And when I say business for yourself, like if you're 100 commission, you're in business for yourself. That's plain and simple. Yeah, you know. And, and, like you said, you gotta sell yourself first. So if it's um, I, there's a, there's a business coach that I follow and he's always says, like your first name, llc, like that's how you need to, that's's how you need it. So it's it's Andy LLC, it's Mark, mark one LLC, it's your the business If you're in 100% sort of commissions, whatever it is. Anyway. So you, you run a great business, you want to. You run a great business, andy, and you're also in leadership at your local church big responsibility. It sounds like the director of prayer and communion. What is that role?
Speaker 1:So our church is centered around communion, so it's not centered around the stage or the pulpit or the pastor.
Speaker 1:It's centered around communion, because at the table, everyone is welcome, everyone can gather.
Speaker 1:You know, like it doesn't matter what you believe, right, when it comes to the shed blood of Jesus, the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus, like all are welcome, right, like you might believe this, you might believe that, but when we partake of the body and of the blood, like it doesn't matter, right, we all need Jesus, we all need communion, yeah, and so that is that.
Speaker 1:So we do communion every single week at our church, and so, and and so, whatever you're believing God, for when you come to take communion, you're expecting God to commune, the father through Jesus to commune with you, and that you can ask of anything. Right, and it's like you're coming and we expect things to happen at the table, right, and so it means a lot to us, and so it's all centered around that. So we make sure that there's a flow to communion. And even when people are administering communion, I always tell them and it was like our third or fourth week into the new building doing this and before we used to leave the communion elements, where they would take the bread, dip it in the body and they would go on. Well, now we're administering it like in a Catholic church yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I can't explain this other than it was just a normal Sunday. I grabbed the elements and I'm looking everyone in the eye and I'm saying Christ's body broken for you, christ's body broken for you, for every person, and man, I couldn't hold it.
Speaker 1:I was beginning to be, I was getting so emotional. It's powerful. A different person, every person that came up looked different. A man, a woman, a child, all looking different. Christ's body broken for you, body of Christ broken for you. And I couldn't help. I'm holding the elements and I'm ready to lose it. Like that's how bad emotion is welling up in me and they're moving on, dipping it in the blood and they're saying Christ's blood shed for you. And man, I got so overwhelmed because Christ died for every single person that was coming up, like every person, no matter what your, how bad you were, no matter what you've done. Like he, his body was broken for you. And so, after that moment, we had a meeting with the prayer and community and I said listen this is not like just something where we get to just hand out you're not
Speaker 1:handing out a cracker right Like this is an intimate moment. Like you're, you're handing someone the body of Christ and of Christ and to not like, take it lightly, and so that was that. And then, obviously, after church, after communion, we have a worship song and during worship and after worship, they can come up for prayer, and so we want to make sure our prayer team is trained and prepared to be able to pray with people, no matter what the issue is, and to keep confidentiality, you know is important to us, like if someone comes up, you can't share that and so really it's really more.
Speaker 1:And then we close the service in prayer, like whoever the prayer is in charge of leading that week, they close out in prayer. So we close out in prayer the service, and so there's a responsibility there. You know we don't take it lightly. It was an adjustment for me because I came from a charismatic word of faith type pentecostal background. Yeah, and the cool thing about city church is that we're a true non-denominational, like it doesn't matter, like you can be. We have a lot of baptists, we have catholics that come to our church I mean we're, and so it's toning down some of that stuff. Yeah, because again, you want to bring a normalcy to it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You don't want people to think you're flaking. Weird, because when Jesus operated and the disciples operated it, it was normal. Yeah, there's a few weird things, right. Paul. The guy fell out of the window and died. Paul went and laid on him until he woke back up. That might be weird, but it's only weird if it doesn't work. That guy came back to life and it works. But yeah, that's just a little bit about kind of our world, yeah that's great man.
Speaker 3:Like I said, I love your heart and I love your passion for both business and ministry. I mean, we're like that man. I just really believe that we're similar that way and God's brought us together and lender and realtor partnership. So let's talk about a family a little bit before we start kind of winding down. You're a dad and I think you have a 13-year-old and a 10-year-old boy and girl. What would you say that God's showing you right now through fatherhood?
Speaker 1:Oh man, this is probably the hardest thing. Like I remember being young and being like oh, I can't wait to be a dad and I can't wait to be a husband, right, like I'm going to be great at this, and it's so hard. It really is challenging, especially in this generation. Like the stuff that our kids are growing up in it's different from the way we grew up, um, but I think the most important thing that I feel like God is, um is dealing with me on is I always felt like I needed to be firm, create boundaries and and rules and and if, if you're disrespectful, I'm going to spank you.
Speaker 1:Like yeah, and don't get me wrong. I do believe there's times where my son really likes to push his boundaries to the point where it's disrespectful. I do feel like I need to come in and spank him, but then still let him know that I love him and I don't want to do that, but I have to because I'm not going to let you grow up to be disrespectful. But what God is really putting on my heart is to be a mirror for him.
Speaker 1:He's not going to—Paul said follow me as I follow Christ. He wrote in Ephesians be imitators of God, Imitate him. It's not me telling my kids what to do, it's me imitating. I'm not going to tell my kids how important it is to pray and read their Bible. I do. We we had, you know, family night on Sunday nights, where we do talk about some of those things. But they see me, right. If they wake up early and they come in my office and I'm reading my Bible, they see it. Now they're older, but before they used to crawl on my lap while I was doing it. I'm not like, oh, daddy's having alone time, Go away. No, like I want them to come. That's really good.
Speaker 1:And so I can tell them to be respectful, or they can watch their dad be respectful, right, like. And so it's to me like I'm in this season right now, where I have challenges with my 13 year old and my 10 year old they both have different challenges but is be a mirror for them, like, lead well by example, don't just be teaching and preaching all the time, and so that's kind of where you know, man, did God send you today specifically for me on this?
Speaker 3:That is so good. Yeah, I mean, I'm the. I know that God uses fatherhood to father me. Yeah, you know, because when I'm walking through something with one of my sons, especially when I'm, like you know, disappointed or upset about something, there's usually a really good window for the Lord to speak to me, like, well, this is you know, you deal with this, what you're getting on to him about, you deal with this. You're 40, about to be 46, and you're dealing with this, and you know he could be using him to point it out to me, you know. So I think God uses fatherhood to father us. He's a loving father, he's a. He's a loving father. And, well, I love that man. That's, that's, that's wonderful, I love that. You shared that. That's going to speak to a lot of people, okay, man, well, the the podcast is Lasting Impact. What does Lasting Impact mean to you?
Speaker 1:Lasting Impact. I think it ties into fatherhood too. We're going to be gone one day, right, it's a matter of time, and the Bible says our life is nothing but a vapor. We're here today, gone tomorrow, but the only thing that makes an impact for generations to generations is what we sow into our kids Like wealth. We want to generate wealth so that they can take that and generate more wealth for the generations to come.
Speaker 1:We want to instill a heart that pursues God so that when we're gone, they teach their kids to pursue God. You know, we want to instill character, integrity and hard work so that they can instill that into their generation. Right? And so I think it's. It's leaving a legacy of leading well, not being the biggest or the best, right, you know, I, I have to stop myself because I want to be the biggest and the best producing, you know, and I want to be. You know, there's all these things that we pursue, but at the end of the day, the only thing that lasts is what we sow into our kids. And so, um, you know and that's to me that I would say, it's leading, a lot leading, leading our family and leading those that God entrusted us. Well, god, in John 17,. Jesus said, the ones that you've given me. He gave them these 12 disciples to lead, and those 12 disciples reached the world.
Speaker 1:He sold them to 12 people. He reached the world by selling them to 12 people, and I think that's powerful. And so there's people our children and other people that God has given us in our sphere of influence, and I think how we lead them matters for the future.
Speaker 3:Dude, that is incredible. That is awesome. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. And this is Andy Esposito, and he's leaving, excuse me. He's making a lasting impact. If you liked today's conversation and want to hear more, hit that subscribe button. Don't forget to leave a review and share your thoughts. Your feedback keeps the impact going.