Your ULTIMATE Business Partner Will Always Be God w/Christine Lee

This is Real Estate Team Builders, and I'm your host, Lars Hedinborg, the founder of Real Estate B School. The real estate team building world is driven by big egos who boast about how many homes they've sold or how much GCI they've earned. We don't hear much about their low profit margins, the long hours they put in each week, or the unbearable stress they endure. In fact, I've discovered that most real estate teams are losing money when you consider the amount of personal production their owners must do to make ends meet. I believe that if you want to profitably scale your real estate team without working crazy hours, enduring unhealthy levels of stress, or coming up short at home, then thinking like a business owner, building sustainable systems and empowering your team are absolute musts. You won't find any smoke and mirrors or hype here on my podcast, just the real world tools, systems and strategies that work. So if you struggle to balance growing your real estate business with focusing on the areas of life that truly matter, then this show is for you. Welcome back to Real Estate Team Builders.

This is Lars Hedenborg, founder of Real Estate B School. And today is going to be an interesting conversation, I would venture to guess, and it may be a little bit off the normal track that we see here on the podcast. I've got Christine Lee here, and we've known each other for over 10 years. She has over 20 years in real estate and then just took some, like, interesting sort of into tech and then mortgages. And just I think in the last couple, three years or so has just had this really interesting pivot and just realized that it's not what she thought it was. And I'm going through the same thing in terms of, like, I want to know God, but I sort of keep him on a box on the side. Like, could you introduce yourself to the audience? And, you know, we want to make this for everyone, and we talked about that a little bit as well. But let us know what you're up to in business and then we'll get into the conversation about how to integrate business life and our spirit world.

Yeah. So first of all, I will just dub myself a hot mess in progress and loving it. Loving every moment of it. And so I think a lot of you guys can relate. Being an entrepreneur is fun, right? We're living the dream, we're dreaming the dream, and we're encouraged to dream bigger dreams and then multiply that tenfold and then you got, you know, exponential growth, scale your business and all those things. That seem so amazing. And, you know, just living beyond what you could have just imagined before is just amazing. And so I live that life of just dreaming big and chasing it and growing and just. It was fun. I literally woke up every day and it was like living a life of Monopoly, right? And it wasn't necessarily the dollars, but I just. I did love making money, and I love the idea of making, like, lots of it. And although, you know, I didn't really spend it, so it's not like I had all these things I had to buy. I just. It was like a Monopoly game. Literally, you're just keeping track of the dollars. And do you ever remember? I don't know if you did, but as a kid, I literally made more Monopoly dollars. I, like, got the pastel papers so we can fill the bank more because we would just, like, spend it. So anyways, after doing that for a long time, it just kind of came to a point where I think, God let me burn myself out. And so I woke up and I'm like, oh, my gosh. My fun and my passion for wanting to chase growing and massive growth and even money, the same glitter wasn't there. And I was like, whoa, the passion, the pep in my step wasn't, like, peppy. It lost its air. It was like a flat tire. It's like, something is wrong. But at that time, I was literally, literally in, like, a burnout type of phase. And I couldn't shake the funk. Right? Just could not shake it. And that led me to some, like, reflecting on life and soul searching, if you want to call it that, and made me look at, like, my life. And, you know, I'm just like, whoa, I need some new fuel. Because this fuel ran out, you know, and it's not working like it used to. So it's like, okay, if I'm going to do new fuel, I'm going to make it last for the rest of my life. So I don't want it to have to go through this again, you know? And so that's kind of like where the whole journey started unfolding into this new way of doing business, life, spirituality, and kind of connecting all the dots in a fun way that's totally still a work in progress.

Awesome. And I know this isn't a plug for your core business at this point. Talk a little bit. Give some context to, like, we know that God called you to burn out and then reconstructed you. And he's totally work in progress, which we all get.

Yeah. So I first started off in, like, the investment world. Flipping homes and like project managing that. Then soon I became a solo agent because we had to sell the home. But somewhere along the way, you know how you get marketed with stuff. Somebody taught me how to do a landing page. And I was a tech. I was a nerd to begin with. So I created my own landing page and I started getting buttloads of leads. Like this is where like, you know, pennies on the dollar for. For Google AdWords. And no one was doing it. So literally I remember having like huge binders of leads, right? And so I ended up creating my own little like, you know, cr. Even knowing what I was doing, like that it was called that. I even had people like trying to buy it for me, like saying, hey, can you make it for me too and I'll pay you. And I'm like, no, why do I want to mess with you? And. But that led to me needing to leverage myself, which then I hired my first assistant, then, you know, progressed onto building a team, then got into like, you know, the whole mode. You know, the. Remember when expansion first came out, like it was the thing. And so I was in expansion mode, recruiting. The technology I had couldn't keep up with me. And. And I was kind of developing, you know, our own stuff and finally had to turn it into a company to just scratch my own itch, bring it to market so I could literally pay for the development that I wanted done. And it makes sense for, you know, just the financials of it. So that's kind of how, you know, Seize the Market was born because I did all those things. So whether it's on the, you know, agent and team building side or recruiting, like, that's literally came out of all my pains and all that. This is really irritating me. So then a new feature would come out or my team member hold them accountable is a real big pain in the butt. And like, I don't like chasing this. Every day a new feature came out. That's literally how the thing was built. So there we go.

That's awesome. We talked about sort of the three different areas. You know, how do you actually go about this? You know, so talk about the realization you had, how you broke it down, because I'm going through this now. In fact, you've offered to kind of take me through some of it. You know, you made the comment before we hit record, you're meant to operate a business with God. And then like, that sounds good. And it sounds like you said it'll bring you more peace and all that sounds great, but how do you actually do it.

Yeah. So I'll reverse just a little bit to put the high level concept out there is that first, you know, I realized in my life I had these different compartments, right? I had personal, business, contribution. Like everybody wants to make an impact, right? And then there's like spiritual. Well, my spiritual is like collecting dust at best. And so it was literally on the sidelines. And as I'm trying to think of this new fuel and like saying, how do I make these different, you know, compartments play with each other? Because every time I change gears I lose speed. And that's a really inefficient model, right? So then it was more like the idea of, well, how about it all synergize and literally feed each other and self perpetuate so that it never loses fuel, right? It is its own fuel. I'm like, sweet. Well, I like the idea. How the heck do you do that, right? So I'm thinking, thinking, thinking and trying to do it by my own means. And then finally one day I'm like, oh, oh yeah, God, I forgot about you. Oh, yeah. Okay, so your plan is better than mine. I like the idea of your plan, but here's the problem. I have no interest in your plan. It's like, you know, it's like, I'm sorry, it's just, that's just the honest truth. Like, I like the idea of being a good, good person. And I don't deny that there's a God. And you know, I don't have anything like against Christians, but I was definitely not somebody who's like all touting like Jesus and stuff like that. And so, and actually somebody or even thinking about doing that just g me the heebie jeebies. And so that's where I was at. But then I was like, okay, logically, let's. I can do logic. I'm a total like logical left brain person, right? I'm like, okay, logically, if I do believe in God, which I do, he is, you know, the smartest person, creator being ever, right? So his idea and his plans are going to trump my plan. So then why am I having this block about like not being interested in his plan? That logically doesn't make sense either. Sounds like, okay, well, reverse engineering this. It's a desire issue. If I had the desire to desire his plan, then I would totally be into it. So, like my obnoxious little prayer was, dear God, give me the desire to desire. That's all I got. Amen. And so I just kind of, you know, you hear about, okay, you know, lay everything down at his feet. You know, he'll meet you where you're at and you know, he'll, he'll provide everything. I'm like, well, that's about as everything as you can get because I just declare, let him know that I didn't even have the desire to desire him. So that's literally where it started. So, like, if I would say, even step one might be that. Just pray, like give you the desire to desire. That's all I got. Here's the keys. The ball's in your court, right? And so even if you did that and I, and I kind of, I repeatedly did that, right? And who knows, maybe it was once a week or then it grew to like every day. And that literally was the starting point of creating the desire. Like, little by little I became more curious. I couldn't say, like, oh yeah, I did it for me, it sprouted in the form of curiosity. And then him also sending the right people my way, meaning, like, I got sick. So I ended up working with a nutritionist, which she had that blend between her business is her ministry, which I've never heard of before. And I was like, what is that? So again, my curious brain asking her questions, saying, what does that look like? What do you mean? And just like getting little pieces. And so when I finally realized, I'm like, hey, that kind of sounds like a thing where it would blend all the things and make it synergize. I think it's one step closer to that. Finally, I think all of us entrepreneurs out there, we kind of get to the point where we're like, that sounds about right. Yeah, let's do that. Right? Like shiny object. But in this case, this is like a good one. And so I'm like, yeah, let's just try that. So I literally declared Seize the Market a tech company as a ministry. Now, I did this without even knowing what the crap that meant, right? Like concept execution, like, what is that? Shoot, ready, shoot, aim, that type thing. So it was that. And I'm like, okay, I don't know what that means. But literally January 1, 2020, I declared my business as a ministry, did a 24 hour fasting and prayer and say, all right, God, I'm down for visioning, and just wrote down some stuff that actually ended up really being pretty amazing. And I would lean into this day. But from then on, I'm going to tell you, it's like very slow and gentle because it's not like he tries to make you go from 0 to 60 in like overn. But here's the practical things of why this is even interesting or should be interesting to anybody. When we're in business, we're chasing these things. Like you said, it's like this competition to even think big, right? Before you even get to doing one piece of execution, we're in a battle of literally, it's more of a prideful battle, to be honest, of who, oh, I'm going to show off how big I can think because then people all in gawk at that, right? Oh, he had this vision, right? But dude, like, execution is like where it's at. So. But never mind that he couldn't think big and he just out thunk everybody because he added three more zeros to the 10x to a thousandx, right? And so they're literally, there's that battle going on right there in the marketplace among masterminds and amongst peers and groups like that. And so then, you know, at first it's fun, but at some point it's like, dude, it can get exhausting, right? Like, it's never enough. And. And so then it's like you never let yourself rest, right? In the name of pursuit of wealth and success and oh, of course I'm going to do this massive amount of contribution and charity when I get to X. At least that's what my pitiful version was. And so then I never really stepped into contribution. It was like on hold, on a conditional right, that I make X number of millions or whatever. And so like, the order was all funky, the motivation was all funky. It sounds very funky. But the practical side, that causes stress, that causes not allowing you to rest, that causes you to bring work home and you can't shut your stinking brain off. Like some people can't even sleep, right, because it's just spinning and going and going, going. And I'll just present to you this, you know, God did not give us a spirit of fear, but power, love. And a sound mind does sound like a sound mind to you when you can't turn it off and be present with your wife and kids, does it sound or feel like you're having a sound mind when you can't go to sleep, right? And the lack of peace, the lack of serenity or calm, right? You're always like antsy and on the go and. And you know what the interesting thing is, is that in business and me, I considered that like a kind of like a trophy, you know, to be honest with you, multitasking, the trophy of just like being on the Go and fast paced. And you know, it's just like, man, you're like wired all the time. And I'd be like, oh yeah, that's like a badge of honor, you know, and we perpetuate that even further in our own peer groups, right? And so there's no space for anything to check us and be like, dude, you're not supposed to be wired like that all the time. And the thing is, is that we are meant to live a life of purpose. I thought I was finding purpose in building wealth and success and then having this massive plan for contribution. But the thing is, is that God doesn't want us to go down this whole journey without him and then let him like come out when you roll out the red carpet. He wants you to like hold hands with him, walk with him side by side, have those daily conversations and you guys journey together. So it is like a marriage, right? Like your wife's not like, hey, oh, you know what, here's, here's another interesting thing. A husband saying to a wife when he gets married, honey, I love you. If anything changes, I'll let you know, right? And like him not telling him he loves her ever, you know, unless it changes. And so it's like, it's like we kind of do that with God, right? It's like, God, I love you. If anything changes, I'll let you know. And by the way, you don't need to worry. But into my business, I don't need to ask you questions, I've got this. But when it, with when things really go bad, I'll let you know because I'll scream out for help and drop to my knees, right? And so but the thing is, is that God actually has so much to guide us in wisdom and peace and understanding in everyday things of our business. So the things that you would not think that to integrate God is whether it's your hiring, your firing, a marketing campaign, a drip, even when you're writing emails, a response to negotiation, all those things. If you just learn how to integrate God and like say a little prayer, whether it's a breath prayer, like a two second prayer, or just being mindful of him, he can guide you like 10x100x1000x of what you're doing now, if you want to throw in that lingo and the amount of peace that you have in your day, the calm that you have and the efficiency that you can work with is much better because in that you learn surrender. So another thing that totally kicks our butt is as entrepreneurs, we're like, What? We got 29 things we want to do today, and there's no physical way that can be done, right? And so we set ourselves up for failure because we get, like, six or nine things done. And then we were like, oh, my Gosh, there's still 20 other things left. And when you walk this whole scheduling and time blocking thing with God, right? And you, like, let's say in your morning time, you ask God, okay, what are the things you want me to accomplish today? And you literally decide with him, and you write it down on your planner or your calendar, and you're like, these are me. I've never narrowed it down to the top three. I'm like, forget nine or ten. Like, I'm making my life easy. Like, God, give me the top three. You can do more in your top three than my top 20. Okay? So I'm like, okay, let's get these three things done and do it in excellence. And I'm going to just surrender the rest. It is literally like the art of not getting things done with God, because you're like, God's got the rest. And the amount of weight that comes off of that is incredible. Because I used to, like, literally leave no margin in between my time blocks. I would be back to back to back to back. I couldn't even go from the second floor to the first floor of my house without running because I was just, like, trying to optimize everything. So, you know, when God shows up and you're able to surrender and you're able to see, like, wow, God wants me to have margin. He doesn't want me to run like a rat on acid. Then you're like, oh, he's actually quite kind and quite generous with this time. And if you remember, if you remember, you know, any of the Jesus stories, like, there was really not a time where the disciples were like, jesus, you're going too fast. Slow down, right? If anything, his M.O. was like, they're like, okay, Jesus, shouldn't you. Shouldn't we go now? Shouldn't you be worried? Shouldn't you, you know, be freaking out because there's a storm or we got to go. Like, he was the slow one, and it's because he was in such perfect timing, he didn't have a need to rush. So I'm going to break one myth to you, which is about rushing or just being on the go. You know, that pace that we celebrate so much. Rushing is not something to be celebrated. Rushing at the root and the core is from a fear of not enough Time you rush because you think that there's not enough time. So that means the root of it is a fear based emotion. So it's not going to lift you up, it's not going to bring more of God and his joy and peace. It's going to wind you up, up tighter than a top that's ready to like burst, right? And so, you know, when it comes to just saying, oh, we have just a good pace about us, or I'm trying to think of another word for it, but the sense of urgency, well, that's, you know, dressing a pig in lipstick, right? Sense of urgency, AKA rushing, AKA fear of not enough time. Let's get real about that. But when you time block with God and you surrender, you're like, I'm going to get these three, or maybe it's five for you. Whatever the number is, do that and literally surrender the rest. And then when you go home. I've had a broker that I was working with and he's like, Christine, I don't even know how this is working. I am literally doing my stuff at home and I'm not taking it home with me. For the first time, I'm more present with my wife and my kids. And he's like, like, I think I'm actually getting more done. And he was so uncertain about saying that because it was like within the first couple weeks, like, that's how quickly it works. Like, holy spirit, don't wait to like help you get peace. Right? If you spend time with him, he's actually quite, quite expedient. And, and so now he doesn't have to, like, he literally doesn't have to worry about trying to shut off his brain because it just, he's under this covering of peace and it shuts off and he's getting everything done that he needs to.

That is so awesome. I'm thinking of, you know, we'll take some of the content and we'll put like quote cards to it for you. It's going to be, you know, God wants me to have margin, not run around like a rat on acid. But that to me is like the best thing I've ever heard. Because sometimes I feel like. And this is so me. This is so like a little mini sermon for Lars right now because I shared with you before we hit record, like, I literally didn't have time today. I had no margin to shower. Like this shirt just dried. So I got. So thankfully I got my workout in. But, you know, I, you know, so I'm this person you're talking about and I'm like all optimized. Like, I know that it takes me two minutes to go downstairs, like to get a pee break, and then like to optimize to get to my next call. So let's, let's end with this. You kind of talked about it a little bit. Like land on some practical. So time block, like the seek, you know, ask, obey. Like give us like structure for this time block and maybe a couple examples and then, then we'll sign off.

Yeah. If I can leave you with one thing that you can actually execute and it will bring you just massive benefit is that make God a priority by setting a time block with him. Anybody that you have, you know, a. Like you make an appointment a priority, you, time block, you're like, okay, at this time, from this time is my podcast interview, right. Or my client appointment or whatever it is. And so, you know, some people are evening or morning person, don't care. Pick a time and stick to it. But you got to guard it just like you would a very important meeting. And then you just spend that time with God and okay, so how to do that, like that generally sounds like, okay, so I'll break it down even further. In that time, you can literally just pick one song to start out with and just like kind of get yourself in, in a good space, right? Because music is great. And then so that's like two minutes. Okay. And then the next, you can literally just have a list of questions you want to talk to him about. Like literally business questions. As if you're meeting with like a million dollar consultant that some you got like off of a lottery drawing. Okay. And when you come to that consultant, you're going to have a list of questions you want to ask and you're going to have it ready to go because you are optimizing that time. I do believe that there you should optimize your time with God. Right? Let's. The reality of it is we have certain time of the day and if you're going to time block it, be efficient about it. I think God and efficiency totally go hand in hand. It's not a la de da da da thing, which I think a lot of faith quote unquote stuff has a lot of la de da da da and not enough practicality. So be practical, have your questions ready and then ask it. Right? But once you ask it, then have a note or journal ready and then write down the answers. Like you have to actually listen. I think we're trained a lot of times to tell God our problems as if he doesn't know. And then we don't actually listen. So if you actually were conceptually measuring how much talking time you have and how much listening time you have, it should be like you talk, you know, maybe 20, 30 max, right? Let's say the 80, 20 rule. Let's just do that. 20% you ask questions and 80% you're writing down and then asking more follow up questions like God, what do you mean by that? God, can you make that clear? Or God, can you say that again? Or God, how about this? Or you know, I'm saying like a normal conversation, keep asking, but write down whatever you think you're hearing, because that's part of listening. Okay? And writing it down is one of the best ways to do it. Then you're listening. And then whatever answer you arrive at, and this can be like, if it's an important question, just don't go off of the first one. Like, hey, if you're starting out, ask the same question for a week literally and see what answers you get. And at some point with that repetition. Because the Bible talks a lot about like continuing to seek God for answers. It doesn't say that he's a vending machine and that you put in a quarter in and he's going to give you the answer to the toughest life problem that you have. No, he wants you to continue to seek him. So after a week you might get like a real like release in the spirit or just like a real peace, like, oh, this is so God. This is, I know it's him. When you have that confidence in that peace, then go ahead and obey. Sometimes the answer won't be what you expect. That's between you and God. But when you seek him, when you have that appointment, God time with him every single day and you keep asking the same questions, you'll know. And even though you might not be like 100% because that's where faith comes in. If was 100%, it wouldn't require faith. Maybe it's like 90%, maybe it's 80%. Man, if it's 70%, you might start peeing in your pants. So whatever that thing is, that percentage of confidence is, but you know it's him do it. And sometimes it might, you know, it might make your butt pucker. Like it just might be a little scary. And so, but doing it is obedience. And obedience is where it's at. Because it doesn't matter if you can hear him. It doesn't matter if you, you know, know exactly what he wants you to do. If you don't obey, then it means nothing. So seeking him by time, blocking, listening by writing it down and obeying by doing what you know he wants you to do. And that is it.

That is amazing. And I know this is just what, just what I needed. And it's, it really is like, it is exhausting. Like, the whole, the whole rat race of business is just. It is never ending. And I've never heard it said. And the way he said it is like people now look at other people's visions as like it's achieved, but it is this culture that we live in. Like, it's never enough. There's always someone that's going to one up someone. And at the expense of what? At the expense of. But your relationship with, you know, your spouse or your children, you know, and there's just collateral damage that comes as a result of this sort of like, success culture that we, that we breathe into. So, any, any parting words? Like one, one final. This has all been awesome. And it's. I took three pages of notes.

Yeah. Like, he will meet you where you're at. God is gentle, God is kind. So when you're like, sometimes for me, I thought, oh, if I choose God, it's going to be like 0 to 60. Or if I choose God, it means, oh. In my growing up, it's like the missionaries who lived in Timbuktu that had nothing to their name was celebrated. So I thought that what choosing God meant. But here's the thing, Entrepreneur, here's the good news. God didn't give you the spirit of entrepreneurialism to make you not pursue it. Right. He gave you a gift and he gave it to you because he wants you to succeed and thrive in it. So if that is your gifting and you know it, then you just need to lean into him because he's got the better plan, he's got the bigger plan. And the. One of the greatest things about being in sync with like, okay, God's got me and my purpose is, I mean is his purpose is like when all these other things, like, I don't know, players out there, oh, I got, you know, 10x gold dream vision and I got a thousandx. It's like when you're in tune with God, you're like, okay, cool, good for him. It's like, God, you and me, straight, right? Like, you got a plan for me? I hear you. I listen to you every day. Like, there's this piece about you where you literally don't care anymore. You're like, cool. Good for you. Go, go million exit. You know, I'm gonna go be, you know, God, Exit. Like, whatever that means. And so literally, it makes you just let it go. It lets you literally takes that burden off your shoulders. So if you want some of that, go get you some God time.

Awesome. Really, really good. And so what's the best way that people can learn more about. And I know this is. Has nothing to do with pitching what you do, but what you do is pretty awesome. So how can people get in touch with seize the market?

You guys can check us out on our website, seizethemarket.com that's S E I Z e the market. Like, seize the day, but seize the market. Market. And, well, it'll be interesting how God, you know, kind of morphs how we present him and this whole him being integrated into our business. So I'm sure it'll be changing at some point. We've just left it. I've been asking God, I'm like, do you want me to change it? How about this? How about that? Like, can we put more of you in there? And it's like, nope, not yet. I was like, okay, I'll just wait.

Yeah. And I don't know if there's an obvious way because you did add me to your email. Your email list.

List.

I've read every word of every email that. I mean, I know it's going through your CRM, but it's still very, very good. So I. If there's a way that you can go on seethemarket.com and sign up for some sort of lead magnet on there that will get the email campaigns. They are super encouraging and really awesome. So just to give you more encouragement on that.

Awesome. Yeah. If you register on any of the forums, it'll add automatically add you. So you'll get what I call. It's just an internal term because I don't want it to be like. I just call it Holy spirit marketing. Because I'm letting him just like do the marketing even. I'm just talking about God all the time. But yeah, you'll. You'll get that. And it's the most unexpected thing that you would get from a tech company. I'll just put it that way.

Yeah, it's super awesome. Christina, I appreciate you. I want to honor your time and definitely go to seizethemarket.com and just with all you've achieved at various levels of your journey and your openness and willingness, realizing that you're a work in progress and still encouraging others, I think is really awesome. So I just appreciate you and thanks so much.

All right, have a great day.

All right, we'll see you.

Bye.

Thanks for listening. Would you please take a minute to share the show with other team leaders who may be struggling? And if you love the podcast, please leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts. If you want to learn step by step how to build a profitable real estate team that allows you to get out of the real estate grind and live the lifestyle you've been dreaming about, Visit us@joinrebs.com that's joinrebs.com Our coaching, training systems and support will help you get more high quality leads, increase your conversions and sales, improve your client experience, and allow you to scale your real estate business, all while reducing the amount of hours you work and the stress you endure. Just go to joinrebs.com for more info now. See you on the next episode.