3 Powerful Leadership Lessons I Learned in Lebanon

Welcome back to Real Estate Team Builders. Lars Hedinborg here, the founder of Real Estate B School. And this podcast exists in many ways for me to have a platform to share my failures so that other people can ascend faster their journey to true business ownership, to build a business that is based on sustainable systems, has empowered people running those systems so that we can get to our highest and best use, not only in our business, but also to impact have a true impact in our families, in our communities and in the world. I had the pleasure the honor of going to Lebanon, the city of Beirut, this past week. So it was not quite a mission trip. I have been on a handful of mission trips before. This was more of a vision trip for an organization called Open Eyes and amazing organization. I was able to actually spend some time with Frank Harrison, who is the CEO of Coca Cola Consolidated, who sort of launched this ministry. Denny and Bella Matthews are involved in running this ministry. And just amazing people that I spent a handful of days with. Outside of me physically getting a cold, not Covid just a cold from going over there, you know, 24 hours door to door to get there and 25, 26 to get home. There were some amazing lessons on leadership that I took from Lebanon. So the title of this episode is Lessons on Leadership from Lebanon. And so Lebanon, it's in the heart of the Middle East. Most of the it borders Israel and most of I think the east. And on the north side is border Syria. And Syria's had some major turmoil. A ton of folks have come over from Syria to Lebanon. And so there's just a ton of refugees. It was said that there's only 4 million Lebanese in Lebanon, but 3 million Syrian refugees, so 7 million total. But, you know, 40% of the population is Syrian refugees. And so Lebanon is in financial collapse. So not like a bad situation or heading toward financial collapse or. And I only mention this because I've been pretty open on the podcast here about my thoughts about where our country is going and some of the challenges that we're going through. And I'll touch a little bit more on this here in a little bit. But they're in collapse. Their banks have shut their doors. So if you had 100,000 in the bank, not only can you not get it, the 100,000 is worth 5,000. I think it's called the lira. Lebanese lira is worth one twentieth of what it was just a few years ago. So there's two things I want to touch on that really profoundly impacted me. We visited a local mission there, a Local church, and the heart of this church is discipleship. So you come into the church and you're discipled into the church. Most folks are, you know, coming in from a Muslim background, and there's, like, extreme persecution within their communities and their families to even entertain a conversation about their faith. And, you know, what, what, what, who Jesus is. And, you know, all of that because of their background. But this, this church, the way that it's structured is, you know, they. They create disciples who then create disciples. And the way they do it is to come alongside folks in need. So to use an example, and obviously without naming names, but to use an example, someone that fled Syria with nothing, literally nothing to come into Lebanon. And one of the. They have a life center there in a medical center, and they need that. The government is in collapse. The health care system there is in collapse. There's a brain drain going out, meaning all the professionals, the doctors, have fled the country into better economies. It's just a very difficult situation. But this ministry, they come alongside these folks that are suffering, physically suffering, and they offer them basic health care as a way to just get into their life and to get into, you know, just get into a relationship with them. And this is not as much about, you know, where my faith is as much as it is. It struck me, you know, profoundly that they serve. They just serve. They just love people. And so they have a heart of love and service. And in that way, they attract people into conversations about where they are with their faith and those sorts of things. So the analogy in business is. And this really hit me because I spent a lot of years in business selfishly building because I was overwhelmed, I was stressed. I was adding people to take over parts of the job because we were growing fast, and I was stressed and just throw people at it. It wasn't that bad. I would build systems, and we scaled as sort of responsibly as you could, but for much of my growth years, maybe 2008 to 2012, 13, 14, you know, I was a solo agent selling 44 homes in my first full year in 2008. Handful of years later, I did over 400 transactions and, you know, had never built a business before, had never managed or led people before. So while I was doing the best that I can, I certainly didn't come alongside people that, you know, needed me to slow down and just spend time with them and be with them. And so it really just hit me to the point where some of you, if you've ever seen me speak at a live event or on stage at an EXP event. You know, I get emotional sometimes. We had a dinner there with some of the top business people in Lebanon, and they. I got a chance to speak. Actually, I spoke after Frank Harrison. So Frank Harrison is the fourth generation CEO, chairman of Coca Cola Consolidated. So multibillion dollar company, 17,000 employees under his leadership. He spoke and then the guy that was running the evening was like, hey, Lars, why don't you speak? You've got a background in business coaching. These are all business people. And so I'm going after this super successful guy. And I'm not taking away from what I've achieved, but it was almost like, holy cow. But I was speaking to this group and I got really, really emotional to the point where I could hardly get the words out because I had to say to them that I've learned more in the last two days about leadership than I've ever learned about leadership. And I've read all the books, I've kind of done all the things. But I've never seen folks that are so willing to do whatever it takes to love on people that are less fortunate than they are because they have just a heart, a natural inclination, or maybe it is not natural. Maybe there are times where they don't feel like loving on people, but they do it anyway and they are called to do it. And they are so clear about their calling. That was the most crazy thing. So here I am talking after this super successful, you know, guy, Frank Harrison, that manages 17,000 people indirectly and directly. And I'm like, well, you know, I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum where, you know, the biggest team I've ever had was, you know, like 20, 22 people or something like that. And. But I just, I praise them for the way that they approach everything they do in terms of just looking out for the heart of the person. And we're no one person is better than the other, which was really a profound lesson in leadership. And Frank mentioned it during his chat. He talked about servant leadership over and over and over again. And it's easy to say and really hard to do. And so these individuals just emanated the heart of Jesus in terms of just loving on their people. So that was, number one, is just to really see true servant leadership in action. And number two, I will say, is sort of more capitalistic. Like I said when I started this episode, if you have seen me chat a little bit about some of the challenges that I think we are going to go through as a country and what I am doing to prepare for it personally in my business and you know, with my finances and all of that, I was in a country where it couldn't be any worse in terms of financial collapse. Like I said, banks are closed. Your money is worth one twentieth of what it was a few years ago. Nobody uses credit cards, nobody trusts banks. There's diametrically opposed political landscape. They don't trust their government like all the bad stuff, yet people were still out and about, people were still driving their cars. There was a Mercedes dealership, there were Starbucks open everywhere. And this is in Beirut, so it's more of a hustle bustle city. But we went out into Beirut in the neighboring valley. I forget the name of it. Amazing experience. We actually visited ruins that were from 100 BC to 200 AD. They were built out over 300 year period. And just like blow your mind in terms of what, what we witnessed. And I totally forget what, what it was. It's the valley right over the, you know, the Mediterranean Sea and then Beirut and then it goes over, there's the valley on the other side and even there, like it was a tourism place and the gift shop was open and you know, and it struck me that no matter what happens or what would happen in our own country, you know, watched a little bit of the news this morning when I got back, I only got back a couple days ago. Watched a little bit of the news this morning and you know, they're talking about for sure, food storages, rolling blackouts this summer in many metro markets. I just for the first time filled up my car just last night and it was $100, it never been $100 to fill up my gas tank. And even what's going on here now I just have a lot more comfort that I was actually in a city where, and there's lots of hardship, there's a lot of folks that don't, they're not able to provide for themselves. And at the same time there are folks that are figuring it out and making it happen and making a way. And so the human spirit as far as its ability to adapt to whatever situation comes its way really encouraged me quite a bit to just calm down a little bit in terms of what's happening here in our country. I'm not minimizing what might happen. I'm fully prepared and I'm. I have a lot of peace around being prepared for what might happen in terms of disruptions in our supply chain, food shortages. I have gasoline, a little bit of gasoline stored up in case there's an Energy, some of the diesel prices may inflate here, and gasoline may have a challenge working itself around the country. So all those things might happen, and at the same time, we're going to figure it out. Just gave me a lot of peace. The last thing. So those are the two things. Seeing true leaders, servant leadership in action, and then just seeing the human spirit, the way that it adapts and it does what it needs to do to survive. And, you know, some of the folks are thriving in that environment. And the last point I want to make here, and this is really a question that I'm wrestling with, and maybe there's something for you to relate to in here. You know, the challenges that I've been through in business and leading and managing people and, you know, finding time to do the things that matter most to push a business forward, all those sorts of things. And then just seeing it in my own spirit in terms of when things are bad or things are good, how I adapt and how I'm able to make things happen, no matter. No matter what the circumstances. But seeing that, you know, the question is, what. What am I going to do about it? And not so much like, you know, am I going to jump feet first and move my family to Lebanon and, you know, set up shop there and disciple and become part of that church more so, like, how am I going to have an awareness that there's more to life than just hard charging in the business? There are folks around the world where. And again, I've been on a handful of mission trips, and I've seen extreme poverty, and maybe it's just been too many years since I've seen it, but just hearing some of the stories, like, we ate dinner with someone who, you know, her dad threatened to physically hang her because of her conversion from Muslim to Christianity, and she had to flee Syria as a result? Like, that's just not, you know, we're so casual here in the US and this isn't as much a criticism about, you know, lukewarm Christianity in the US and it's more so a criticism and a criticism of me about, like, what are you doing outside of this own little bubble you've created for yourself? Like, Lars, you have this amazing lifestyle that you've created. I have impacted folks. So I'm not dismissing what I've done in business. I just think there's an opportunity for me to have a much bigger impact in the world. And maybe if you were to look at your current situation and are you doing the necessary things to put yourself in a position to have a meaningful impact in your family first, in your community second, and then ultimately in the world. So I have stacked those things. I have done a really good job, but I still have this sort of suspicion that God has a bigger plan for me. And so maybe it is not God for you, maybe it is some higher calling that you feel for yourself and maybe you are not in a position to take action on it right now, but maybe you, you can start doing the things you need to do to stack the successes in your business so that you put yourself in a position to really deeply impact your family members to create a lifestyle and a life for your family that they never thought was possible. That was my first vision when I got into real estate. Every morning I read my why was to create a life for my family that they never thought was possible. And then when I did that, it was like, okay, so what's next? It was, you know, to impact maybe, you know, in a bigger way. And that's where real estate B school came in. And that's where I really started speaking into the lives of team builders and top agents in terms of like, hey, listen, business is great, but there's, oh, there's more to business. There's more to life than just driving the business hardcore, right? And now there's a bigger calling, like, hey, what if I could, you know, partner globally with the blessings that I have financially and make an impact in the world. So no matter where you are today, my challenge for you is to think about, am I showing up the way that I need to show up to have the impact I want to have in the areas of life that matter to me for this season of my life. So I don't want you to get bummed out if you are not in a position to go help some ministry in the Middle East. Because you may need to just start today to commit to a three hour time block in the morning for new business development. You know, to commit to 20 meaningful conversations a day with buyers and sellers. Right? So you may not, it just may be for now for you just stack a whole bunch of days, a whole bunch of weeks and months and years of doing the activities you need to do to drive business, business growth, especially as we enter a wonky, weird inventory, increasing interest rates, increasing market that we're going into. So I hope this was helpful for you. I want to encourage you to go to realestate business growth.com, that's realestatebusinessgrowth.com I put together. I think it's like a 16 or 17 page report that details the six stages from, you know, new agent zero GCI zero transactions to six stages to 3 million plus GCI. Everything you need. To do what? The tools you'll need to implement, the questions you need to be asking yourself. The team structure that you'll have. It's all right there. Realestatebusinessgrowth. Com. We'll see you over there. Much love, much respect. Talk soon.