How I Closed 650 Homes While Living in Balance (Sharing My Story on the Stay Paid Podcast)
If you’ve been in real estate for more than five minutes, you’ve probably heard some version of:
“If you just hustle harder, you’ll win.”
Make more calls.
Work longer hours.
Knock more doors.
Answer every text instantly.
Be on 24/7.
That’s the narrative.
And to be fair — I bought it for a while.
I’ve been in real estate for over 11 years now. I’ve closed more than 650 homes, built a 100% referral-based business, co-founded the 2:10 Collective at eXp, and I host The Faithful Agent Podcast. From the outside looking in, it’s easy to assume it’s always been smooth, strategic, and “balanced.”
It hasn’t.
Early on, I was waking up at 5:30 a.m. and answering emails before I even got out of bed. I was taking calls at 10 p.m. on Fridays. I always felt tethered to my phone. I was “successful” — but I was exhausted.
That’s when I started asking a dangerous question:
What if hustle isn’t the answer?
The Problem: We’re Asking the Wrong Question
Most agents — and honestly, most business owners — ask some version of:
“How do I sell 30 homes this year?”
“How do I hit six figures?”
“How do I double my production?”
Those questions seem logical. But here’s the problem:
They only measure money and volume — not your life.
If you ask, “How do I sell 30 homes?” I can give you an easy (but terrible) answer:
Work 120 hours a week
Spend a ton on leads
Say yes to everything and everyone
Congratulations — you might hit 30 homes.
But you also might destroy every other part of your life in the process.
So instead, I started asking better questions.
The Shift: Redefining What “Winning” Actually Looks Like
Balance doesn’t start with your calendar.
It starts with your scoreboard.
For years, my internal scoreboard was:
“How many homes did I close?”
“How much did I make?”
Then my perspective changed.
My mom passed away in 2022. When you stand at your parent’s headstone, you get crystal clear, really fast, on what actually matters. Her headstone doesn’t list her income, job title, or number of “closed deals.”
It represents who she was.
That experience made me ask:
“If my headstone isn’t going to say ‘He sold 1,000 homes,’ why am I living like that’s all that matters?”
So I rewrote my scoreboard.
Instead of just:
“How do I sell 50 homes a year?”
I started asking:
“How do I sell 50 homes a year
while taking my wife on two dates a month
and taking every seventh week off with my kids?”
That’s a very different question.
And here’s the cool part:
Better questions force better answers.
That question led me to:
Build my business 100% by referral
Cut out a ton of noisy, low-return activities
Protect evenings and family time
Create a rhythm of rest (every seventh week off)
My income didn’t drop.
My clarity went up.
Why Most Agents Feel Stuck: The “Do Everything” Trap
If you’re feeling burned out, there’s a good chance you’re stuck in this pattern:
You’re trying to do 6 different lead-gen strategies
You feel guilty if you’re not “everywhere”
You’re working a ton but not seeing the results you expected
I see it all the time when I coach agents.
They show me their lead-gen “plan,” and it’s:
Sphere
Social media
Open houses
Online leads
Farming
Networking events
Then I ask two simple questions:
Where has most of your business actually come from?
Which of these activities do you actually enjoy?
Almost every time:
Their sphere is the #1 source of business
Their sphere is the area they’re the least systematic and consistent in
And they’re spending most of their energy on everything else
No wonder they feel exhausted.
The Rule of Eight: Focus Beats Frenzy
One of the concepts I teach (and use myself) is what I call the Rule of Eight.
Here’s how it works:
Identify your primary lead-gen source
(For most agents, this is their database/sphere.)Rate yourself on a scale of 1–10:
How excellent and consistent are you at working this pillar?Your rule:
You don’t get to obsess over other strategies
until this one is at least an 8/10 — every month, like clockwork.
So if your sphere is at a 5/10, you don’t have a “lead problem.”
You have a focus problem.
Before you throw money at leads, or double down on farming, or burn yourself out with cold calls…
Ask:
“What would it look like for me to become an 8/10 at working my sphere?”
That might mean:
Consistent monthly touches
Quarterly client events
Systematic personal notes and check-ins
A clear follow-up process for referrals
Once that’s dialed in, then you earn the right to optimize other avenues.
Authenticity Is a Growth Strategy (Not a Buzzword)
Another huge theme from the conversation was this:
Your job is not to become who the industry says you should be.
Your job is to discover who you already are — and build around that.
I’m a highly relational guy.
I love one-on-one conversations, coffee meetings, teaching, and connecting.
I hate cold calling.
I’ve never door-knocked.
I don’t get fired up building some giant online lead machine.
So early on, I made a decision:
I was going to build my business in alignment with who I am — not who a coach told me to be.
That’s how I ended up with a:
100% referral-based business
Predictable production
Schedule that allows me to be present at home
If you feel constantly drained by your business, it might not mean you’re “weak” or “lazy.”
It might mean you’re trying to climb a tree when you were designed to swim.
A Simple Exercise: The Energy Audit
If you don’t know what’s truly in alignment for you, try this:
For 3 days straight:
Every 30 minutes, jot down what you were doing.
At the end of each day, go back and mark each activity with:
+ = gave you energy
– = drained your energy
○ = neutral
Then step back and look:
What patterns do you see?
Where are most of your pluses?
Where are the big minuses?
That’s not just a productivity tool — it’s a roadmap to your authentic business model.
The goal isn’t to build a life where you never get tired.
The goal is to build a life where you’re tired from the right things.
Holding Your Money Accountable: More Profit, Less Frenzy
In the episode, we also talked about something a lot of agents avoid: profitability.
Many of us get stuck in this mindset:
“If I spend $1 and make $5, that’s good enough.”
But what if you could spend $1 and make $30?
Or $50?
Or $90?
Early in my career, I was spending about $2,500 per client event. We did four a year — so roughly $10,000 total. Those events helped us close around 50 deals a year.
Good return, right?
Then I got curious.
“What would happen if I spent less… but got smarter?”
We trimmed the events down to about $800 each — and guess what?
We still closed 50 deals.
Same outcome. Lower cost. Higher profit.
The lesson?
You don’t get bonus points for spending more.
You get freedom by being more intentional.
You’re Not Behind — You’re Just Early
If the last couple years have felt like a grind, you’re not alone.
The market’s been tough.
Deals take longer.
Leads feel slower.
Everything demands more of you.
But I want to remind you of something we talked about in the episode:
“Half your competition didn’t even show up today.”
Just the fact that you’re still here — learning, growing, experimenting, adjusting — puts you ahead of a huge percentage of the industry.
Galatians 6:9 says:
“Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
That doesn’t mean “work yourself into the ground.”
It means:
Do the right work
In the right way
For the right reasons
And don’t quit before the harvest
Try This This Week
If you want something practical to walk away with, here’s your homework:
1. Rewrite your scoreboard
Answer these in writing:
What do I actually want my life to look like?
How many nights a week do I want to be home for dinner?
How often do I want date nights or intentional family time?
How do I want my kids to remember me?
Then write a new question:
“How do I hit my financial goals while honoring this scoreboard?”
2. Choose your primary pillar
Be honest: Where does most of your business come from today?
Sphere? Referrals? Open houses? Online leads?
Pick one and commit to getting it to an 8/10 in consistency and excellence before you chase anything else.
3. Do a 3-day energy audit
Figure out what kind of work leaves you energized and what drains you.
Then start designing your days around more of the former and less of the latter.
Final Thought
You don’t have to choose between:
Being a top producer
orBeing a present spouse, parent, or friend
You can build a business that serves your life — not one that slowly consumes it.
I’ve closed over 650 homes doing exactly that.
Not because I’m special.
But because I stopped asking:
“How do I sell more?”
…and started asking:
“How do I build a business that lets me win at work without losing at life?”
You can do the same.
The Scoreboard Download: The Scoreboard Download helps you track what truly matters. Ditch the guesswork with a clear, weekly snapshot of your numbers—conversations, appointments, closings—and start seeing how small, consistent actions create predictable results. Success gets simple when you can see your progress.