business

Paige C. Clark 00:36
I’m Paige C. Clark and you’re listening to the nine to five faith podcast. After it. Hello, everyone. Welcome to this episode with my friend Kristi Lowe. Kristi, how are you doing today?

Kristi Lowe 00:50
Really good. Good to be here.

Paige C. Clark 00:52
Yes, I’m so excited. You’re here and the first real estate agent that I’ve had on this podcast, which I’m excited about. Because the the world of real estate is very foreign to me. All I know about it is I bought a house with it. So that’s, that’s about as far as my knowledge goes. So

Kristi Lowe 01:13
you come about like everybody else does, then whenever I find you, yes, you’re good.

Paige C. Clark 01:19
So that’s about as as far as my knowledge goes. But can you tell our audience a little bit more about you? Sure.

Kristi Lowe 01:26
So my name is Kristi Lowe, and I live in West Texas. So anybody who is familiar with Texas usually identifies us from Dallas and I live about five Viva between five and six hours west of Dallas in a town called Lubbock, Texas, it’s a great place to raise kids. And we’ve lived here for the since 1995, I think And so, when into real estate when my children went to elementary school about 12 years ago, and now I have one in college. And so it just it’s been, it’s been a blessing and a gift that I’ve been able to do to work outside the home and fell in love with it. You know, I had been a teacher before I was in real estate. And then whenever my kids went to elementary school, I said, you know, I’ve got I want to be able to pick my kids up from school, I want to be able to be at all their class parties, and I want to be able to, you know, be a room mom and be on PTA and do all that stuff, but still work outside the home. And so real estate seemed like a good fit. And it started like the way I think a whole bunch of Realtors start out as I went, I kind of like looking at houses. That kind of seems like a fun thing to do. And, and that’s where it began. And then I realized that looking at houses is like this much. It’s just a smidge of what you do. It’s actually just people and so I happen to love people too. So it’s worked out really well.

Paige C. Clark 02:54
And where like, where in your faith journey? Did you kind of fall into all this? Have you? Have you always been a Christian? Were you raised a Christian or?

Kristi Lowe 03:05
Yeah, good question. Um, so I came to faith when I was actually in like third grade. And the Lord I found the Lord at church camp, just a little, little bitty church camp one summer and my faith journey actually began very from a very early age. But I look back at some of the things that that the Lord knew were coming my way. And I know now he knew I needed the covering of the Holy Spirit. And he knew I needed his protection over my life, I just see it such as a gift that I walked out the early days of my my life, with a covering of him. And so faith has always been a real important part of my life. And it’s always just kind of been, you know, I don’t remember not being a Christian, if that makes sense. So yeah, so from the third grade on I, you know, thank goodness, I’ve been walking with Him not always great, but you know, growing and progressing. And so yeah, faith has always been an important part of that for me.

Paige C. Clark 04:06
Yeah. And I was gonna, I’m talking to a few teachers on here as well. And I’m like, so like, I’m chomping at the bit to talk to people who are teachers in today’s age, who are also Christians because like, I’m sure I could ask you questions about it. And it’d be like radically different than like our conversation if you’re teaching now. So

Kristi Lowe 04:28
big difference, man, they those teachers deserve combat pay. I mean, seriously, there are they are such a blessing and a gift and having had two kiddos in the public schools, you know, I have a daughter that’s a freshman in college now, but having a son who is still in high school, I mean, they are the frontline for the next generation and we cannot cover them enough in prayer. I mean, for real mad, mad props to them, man.

Paige C. Clark 04:55
Yeah, exactly. And I think to just like, you know, not only The, the battles that we’re fighting, but also the opportunity that there is to, you know, pour into the pour into the kids for for the better. So that’s why I was kind of like curious of like, where the faith kind of was sprinkled throughout. And also, it probably looks a lot different in Texas. I’m giving into a stereotype here, but okay, but it looks a lot different in Texas than in some of the other areas of the US.

Kristi Lowe 05:27
Um, probably you would be surprised. You know, we’re just, Texas is a beautiful homage. Like, they’re, it’s a mix of, of so much beautiful mix of cultures. And we happen to live where I where I live, we’re blessed, because we have a wonderful, we have Texas Tech University, which just brings in, I mean, people from all walks of life. And so I do get the opportunity I which is a blessing to just walk with people of all walks of life. And that to me is just super cool. That yeah, I mean, if you’re giving into a stereotype, yeah, we’re pretty, you know, still Texas, we’re still pretty conservative. And it’s,

Paige C. Clark 06:11
it’s a little more than at least expected or accepted. In Texas. Yes. Yes, for sure. Go with that. Yeah, for sure. So take us through, like, what a day in the life of Christie looks like. A typical day not but you know, not the outskirts of insanity. But what a typical day. I mean, maybe the outskirts of insanity is your typical day. But yeah, well,

Kristi Lowe 06:41
you know, real estate is a really interesting job in that you really kind of never know what you’re gonna get, I mean, some days, you kind of have an idea of what you’re going to be up to. But my day typically, you know, starts out with working with, you know, whatever, you know, for example, right now, if I’ve got, you know, two or three listings, and I’ve got two or three buyers, then you’ve got, you’re dealing with, you know, everybody from the beginning where they find their house, and they’re ready to go, and we’re under contract. And so I’m working with lenders, I’m working with appraisers, and inspectors all day. I, you I mean, I really mean it, very little of my time is actually spent looking at houses. That is the that is such a misnomer in the real estate world is that we, you know, people think we look at houses all day long. Well, I’m, I might, I might have a week where I’m looking at houses, you know, three or four days a week. But you know, I’ve got to help them get from finding the house to actually getting the keys to the house. And that’s a whole different process that people don’t, they don’t understand until you’ve walked through it a couple of times. So my daily life looks a lot like communicating with people. I talk a lot on the phone. I’m on email and text message all day long. I don’t even I don’t even look at you know, on your iPhone. It’ll show you like how long you were on your phone? Oh, yeah, I don’t even I don’t even like I don’t shame myself for that at all. It just adds it. I’ve been busy. And I’ve had a job. And so I put a gazillion miles on my car running all over town doing things today already. I’ve just, for example, had a board meeting this morning among the Lubbock Association’s board of directors and we had a meeting about something this morning. And then an hour later, I took clients that are in town to go show them around and had a closing this morning. So then after that went to the closing and then you know, so you know, you just you’re you’re moving, I’m moving all the time. Like I don’t, I don’t I may be at my desk, which actually happens to be right here. Most of the time. This is my dining room table. I work from home quite a bit. Just because we’re a mobile. It’s a mobile industry. And so I go into the office a couple of days a week and then I you know, sometimes in the mornings I’ll work from my if I can work from my computer here. I do you know, but I go into the office a couple of days a week but I’m everywhere like we don’t sit still I don’t I do not sit still very well but that and but I do quite a bit of work just on the go every day and you often you don’t know what you’ve got until you know you wake up that morning.

Paige C. Clark 09:31
Yes. And understand that.

Kristi Lowe 09:33
Then Then usually in the afternoons, it’s usually mid morning whenever people go, Hey, we saw this house, you know, and that’s the thing about real estate is that people will text you and go hey, this house hit the market today. We’d really like to go look at it. So I just have to be flexible. You know I need to be able to go whenever somebody needs to see a house I go see it. You know, we go see a house my family knows thank goodness I have a sweet husband who is so supportive. And, you know, if I need to go show a house at 630, I’ll leave kitchen you know, I’ll leave dinner on the stove and then you know, or they’ll make a grilled cheese sandwich and and we make it work at our house, but it you just have to be the biggest thing is I’ve got to be flexible.

Paige C. Clark 10:18
Yeah, yep, I could use a little bit more of that discipline in my, it’s to be a little bit more flexible. And I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like a lot of your work isn’t necessarily done with your coworkers, but it’s done with kind of these outside third party, you know, your clients, but then also like what you were saying the lenders and everything like that, which I think throws in kind of a different dynamic when it comes to like being intentional in your relationships with them.

Kristi Lowe 10:52
Absolutely. For sure. One of the biggest obstacles I as a young person had to learn when I first went into real estate, was, like I said, at the top of this is that I thought this was going to be about showing houses. And what I realized is that it’s just a service industry where we’re helping people. And I had to learn very quickly that that my relationships with other real estate agents, and appraisers, and inspectors, and, you know, your plumbers and electricians, and roofers, oh my goodness, those are the people that make me that keep my job running smoothly. And I had to learn, as I’m telling on myself here, I like to tell I’d rather tell on myself than you find out from somebody else. I’ll just tell myself, man, when I came into real estate, I was a little firecracker. Like I was just like honoree and, and I had to learn like I, I’ve got to, I’ve got to keep in mind that that my relationship with people is more important than anything, and not not at the expense of my clients. What’s in the best interest of my clients? Don’t Don’t misunderstand me, it’s that I used to just get real fiery, like, I’d be real fiery, like, No, this is the right way to do it, or black and white, very black and white, like, No, this is right or wrong. And you have you get to a point where you just realize like, we’re going to find a compromise, we’re going to find a solution, we just have to stay calm and work together. And so one of the best things that real estate has done for me is it’s just kind of grown me up. And that I I’ve learned that working together is you nine times out of 10 you can find a solution, if everybody just keeps their wits about them. So yeah, getting to work with people. I mean, I love it, I embrace it, I It’s always different real estate’s always a challenge. It’s never the same, you never have the same transaction twice.

Paige C. Clark 12:49
So how does your faith show up in what you do?

Kristi Lowe 12:57
Every day, every day. On the front side of it, I when I’m working with clients, you know, there’s times where I sit down with someone who’s going through a divorce. And those are hard. It’s hard because you’re walking with suit through some you’re walking with, with someone through something that’s really, really hard. You know, you have people that have lost family members, and they’re selling their estate, and that’s hard. So my faith has come into it in a lot of ways. First of all, from a, just that Jesus is my moral compass. He’s where he’s my reference point. So when I have to make a decision about whether something is right or wrong, I have to look to him to go okay, is this okay? Am I going to be okay? If I if you were in the room with me, Would you be okay with the decisions I’m making? In the words I’m saying? I think that when it comes to my faith, I have to trust him. Because, you know, in real estate, we don’t, you know, there is no salary. It’s you know, whatever that phrase is like, eat what you kill. I don’t like that phrase. But that’s the only thing I can think of to try to explain what I’m, I’m thinking about is that it’s, you know, whatever clients you have, and whatever they close, that’s how you get paid. There’s no salary, there’s no guarantee here, right? And so my faith has had to come into play and trusting that he’s going to provide for us and he’s going to provide for my family and I don’t I don’t I well, I don’t put my eggs. I don’t what is it? You don’t like

Paige C. Clark 14:37
put all your eggs in one basket? Yeah,

Kristi Lowe 14:38
they exited by No, no, no, no, no, I learned a long time ago. No, no, no, you don’t do that. We just we have to be very disciplined and trusting that he is going to provide the people that that he wants me to help. And my when I see my faith show up in day to day life, and I hope I’m answering your question you Yeah, it’s, it’s that I have to trust that whatever comes before me that day that he’s already there, he already knows what’s going on, you know, whenever I find out that, you know, a house is eaten up with termites or that, you know, the, the foundation has washed out underneath the house, you know, he already knew. I mean, like he knew that whenever, you know, before I ever saw the house. Yeah. And so I have to trust him and go, Okay, what are you saying here? Where are you? And I do that whether my clients are believers or not, I mean, I help people of all walks of life, you know, I don’t care if you’re purple, or, you know, whatever, it doesn’t matter to me. But my job is to represent the Lord and walk accordingly. No matter what comes in that way. Does that make sense? Yeah, it

Paige C. Clark 15:54
does. And I think too, one of the things that, as you were talking is just one thing I’ve been working through too is God being in the little things. And I think that there’s a tendency to like, over spiritualize our relationship with God and like, beings. I’m reading this book right now. And it’s like, like, Do you only go to God about the big things? Like, do you only like, sit as sit at his feet over like, the big spiritual things, or you don’t go to him? Because you’re like, oh, it’s like, not that big of a deal. But like, when it comes to like termites and a house, it’s like, oh, no, God, God’s already there. Even though it’s not this big, theological, spiritual, fancy, sacred kind of thing. You know, God is even in the small things.

Kristi Lowe 16:48
But when I’ll see him show up, it’s really, you know, I get to just kind of, sometimes I just get to see it happen. Like, I’ll, I’ll have friends that are believers, or you know, that I’m working with a client. And they’re like, well, here’s what we’ve been praying for, you know, this is, and when I get to see him provide that, you know, a friend of mine looked and I’m, and I’m pretty patient, like, I mean, like, it may take you two years to find your house, I don’t care. Like, if it takes two years, it’s your house, you gotta live there. So I don’t know, it takes. And I mean, I had a friend that looked for a really long time, they, they knew what they wanted, they had a vision for what they felt like God had, was calling them to and what they really wanted. And I think what’s beautiful is that the Lord loves us. But like a good daddy, sometimes he just gives us what are like, He gives us good things. And I watched this sweet friend of mine, you know, my clients are also my friends and my friends are my clients, which is such a gift. But you know, they they got this house that they had really had in their mind. And it was the right price. And it was the right in it eat. I mean, it had the right. It had the right front porch, and it had I mean, it was just perfect. And and when I get to see him meet people that intimately. Or whenever I you know, and in recent years, we’ve had so much like that frenetic, frenetic, sorry, just that frenzy of, of, oh my gosh, real estate for the past couple of years has been insane. Yeah. And, you know, we’d have 15 or 20 offers before, like, noon, on a house. And, you know, I remember like, there were a couple of times where, you know, I would sit with my clients and their shit, you know, they’re sifting through, you know, three or four or five, sometimes 10 cash offers and how do you know, you know, like, how do you know which one to choose? Right? Then you’ll see what what’ll happen though is they’ll just like something in on Oh, go I think it’s I think we’re supposed to go with this one. And you just, I get to I just get to be like a vessel here. Like I don’t see myself as anything other than God just uses me to help bring about things that he needed. He needs Yeah, and so it’s really it’s really fun getting to watch him show up in like little video intimate ways that oh my gosh, I never thought that you would show up like that. And then he does but he loves us and He cares about us. Yeah, why wouldn’t me

Paige C. Clark 19:24
Yeah, and I think that’s that concept is probably not talked about today because you can like if you push it a little bit too far you get like prosperity gospel stuff and yeah, I know you go down that down that route. But one thing that like you hit on is like, like God is our Father and like, in this book I was reading. It’s what book are you reading? It’s it’s cosh. Pray like monks live like fools. I might have that backwards. It might be live like fools prayer like most anyway, Okay, so it’s all about prayer and like this, like this book, it’s just like given me some, like real nuggets to chew on. And he was saying, like, even after, like him as a dad, the author as a dad went out and had like, a really hard day. And like, you know, just kind of spiritually kind of toil some day, and he goes home. And he hangs out with his kids and his kids say, Hey, can we go get some ice cream? And like, What joy it brought him to say yes to go give his kids ice cream. Yeah. And like, that is the joy that God wants to delight in us. When we asked for a wraparound porch with this perfect Hi, like, you know, like, we can go to God with those dreams. And I that’s really cool that you get to, like, observe that every so

Kristi Lowe 20:51
there’s things I get to see. I mean, I, I will have people tell me things that they’re praying about, or it, you know, you the happy ones are awesome. Yeah, it’s in the ones where it’s difficult. Or whenever somebody is financially in a situation like a dire financial situation. And, you know, we’re where I’ve seen God’s show up and down to like, the penny on how much they needed to avoid bankruptcy or to avoid a short sale. You know, it’s just, he is he is alive and active. And he is in every aspect of our lives. If we, if we allow it, like if we’ll, if we’ll look for him, and I’m with you, I don’t believe in prosperity gospel, and I’m not going to share with you what I get to. Yeah, like, he’s there. He’s so and he’s so intimately involved in, in the day to day aspects of our lives. And, you know, whenever I’m, let me just be real, I’ll, I’ll be real clear. There are some agents that I love to work with, like, you’ll get, you know, like, whenever and after you’ve done this for, you know, 12 years, you know, you get to know a lot of agents. And there are some agents in town that I just, oh, my gosh, I that’s the joy to work with them. And then you have agents that you’re like, Oh, you’re kind of hard to work with, you know, but that’s where that’s where he gets to show me, you know, I get to bear the fruit of patients and I get to practice, practice being kind and those things that he has given a Holy Spirit and me to do, and it shows up on a day to day basis whenever we just give him the opportunity and the space to do it.

Paige C. Clark 22:35
Yeah, I think the the relationship and friendship between Realtors is really interesting to me.

Kristi Lowe 22:42
Yeah, it’s like, the thing we don’t talk about is that we actually have realtor friends. Yeah, no, we did. Yeah. So

Paige C. Clark 22:47
like, we’re in the process of selling one of our properties right now. And when we were going through and like looking at offers our realtor went back to the the clients who were who submitted offers and said, like, Hey, this is what we’re getting back. And I said to my husband, I said, How do they know he’s not lying about this?

Kristi Lowe 23:11
Look? It’s because we’ve worked with them before. Right? And I

Paige C. Clark 23:15
just like, how do they know? Like, yes, so don’t get me wrong. My realtor is one of my close friends. And one of my best friend’s husband is our realtor. And you know, they’re a joy and very trustworthy to work with, but just like that, like little devil’s advocate in my brain was like, they’re like, like, how do you?

Kristi Lowe 23:36
Yeah, in you know, I mean, that that was when I said earlier that I had to learn, like, relationships are important. It’s that I’m going to work with you again, like we’re gonna and I think someone who is either in sales or in any kind of an environment. Well, I mean, we have to work with people all the time and in whatever, whatever you’re called to work in. Mine is real estate. And I’m going to work with that agent again, like I’m going to work at and I hope I’m going to work with this client again, like I hope I don’t work with you just once I want to work with you again, but I want you to work with me. And so it’s not that I don’t do my job and that I don’t advocate for my clients. It’s that at the end of the day, I need you to know that I’m a trustworthy person. And that just like your your real estate agent probably did is they they know each other and like I know that you know Sherry is a godly woman I know where she goes to church, we get to know other agents and and that has been probably in the past three to five years I’ve I’ve had the joy of getting to know some of other agents in my my world and they have come to be some of my dearest friends because they they are the only people who truly understand what I deal with. On a daily basis, right? And as Realtors we don’t typically talk to our clients or we shouldn’t probably about like the stresses of our world, right? And we need realtor friends, like, you need teacher friends, if you’re a teacher, you need firefighter friends, if you’re a firefighter, I need somebody who, who truly understands the ins and outs. Well, I have dear real estate friends that I can call and go, you know, and go, What do you think like, how do I how would you do this? Yeah, and having those people, especially godly ones, and I’m fortunate, I have a, I have an office. Man, I tell you what, like, I’m lucky. I know. I’m lucky that where I work, I’ve got incredible people of faith in my office alongside me that I can reach out to and go. Okay, how do you how would you go about doing this? Yeah. Because even if you’ve been doing it for a while, I mean, I’ve been doing it for 12 years, but you know, there’s still things you run into that you’re like, Whoa, I hadn’t seen that in a lot long time. So, you know, you need your you need friends. Yeah,

Paige C. Clark 26:04
people. You need a community and not only for, like, community for community sake, but also like, I’m sure, you know, ethical and moral questions and Oh, my my husband’s a lawyer. And luckily, there’s a the bar has a Legal Hotline, like an ethics hotline. Ooh.

Kristi Lowe 26:29
Yeah, we did. Yeah, we did. You’re like, oh, double click on that. My My realtor friends. She says, oh, loan a double click on that. That’s my new. That’s my new favorite. I’m like, Ooh, let’s double click Yeah, we do we have a we have a hotline, we can call just like y’all do. And your husband does, too. I mean, yeah, like, sometimes you’ve got to call and go. I don’t, I don’t know what’s right here. Yeah, I mean, like, it gets where we see things. And this is what’s really, really hard is where if I am if my moral, ethical, you know, like what I believe is right and wrong. And my clients, you know, isn’t the same. I would say, like, that’s been probably when I was thinking about this, um, start. I’m gonna back up for a second. Yeah, I was thinking about talking to you today. One of the things I thought about was that some of the hardest transactions I’ve had to deal with were people that, you know, that phrase equally yoked. Right. And we talked about that in marriage, but in relationships in general, especially in a something like this, that’s transactional. And there’s ethics and morals that are tied to

Paige C. Clark 27:38
a people people lie all the time. Yeah. Or they stretched the truth.

Kristi Lowe 27:43
And I have, I’ve come to the place where I have to be okay with if you know, if somebody is not a right fit for me as a, like, if I’m, if let me just say it this way, if they are horrible, scummy people, I don’t want to work with them. Right? I know, that sounds terrible. But like, I don’t want to put myself in a position where I’m gonna have to compromise ethically, or morally, what you know, is right or wrong, especially, like whenever, you know, the racial tensions that we’ve all been dealing with, you know, globally for years now. You know, racism is a terrible, horrible issue that, that, you know, if you have a client that has said to you, you know, I’m not going to sell to someone of this nationality, or whenever you’re in someone’s home, and they say, Well, do you think that they are of this nationality? Well, I don’t care. Like, right, it does not matter to me, but you can’t you can’t discriminate based on someone’s race. Right. So that is a I mean, and I’m kind of analysis. I’ll just tell them, I’ll be like, does that matter? Yeah. I’m like, if you don’t like me, because I called that. Nope, sorry. But, ya know, and so I have, I have found that, knowing who I am, and knowing what I believe, is, is gonna cost me at times because I could, you know, look the other way or swallow or swing into it, and that’s not right. And it’s not worth, like, it’s not ever worth a commission check for that. Does that make you understand what Oh, yeah. I think not worth it. Yeah, I

Paige C. Clark 29:30
think one of the most poignant and under estimated or undervalued things that business owners can do, or, you know, people who work in a business is to tell the client or the customer, you’re not a right fit. You’re not a right fit.

Kristi Lowe 29:52
And I’ve and you have to do that. You know, I I will say I don’t I don’t have to do that a lot. Yeah, because I get along with people or I try to get along with people. But I can I have I have had to fire clients. I mean, yeah, just it’s going to that’s going to add that’s not real. I would hate that. But I’ve had to, you know, I had somebody trying to commit insurance fraud one time, and I was like, I don’t think I’m the right fit for you. Yeah, I was like, I think maybe you could be better served with another agent. I mean, yeah, it’s rare. You don’t have to do that. Very Right. Thank goodness. I mean, I can count on one hand, the number of times that’s ever happened. But the Yeah, I mean, if somebody’s trying to commit insurance fraud, I’m like, No, sorry. I’m not gonna look the other way on that. Right. So yeah, but other than that, you know, really, and truly, I what I believe is that God puts before me the people that he’s called me to work with. I trust him for that. And that, that has been, that’s where I’ve, I’ve found so much peace is because I don’t I don’t worry. I mean, I think we have people who who do a lot of striving and like really trying to like, I gotta get a new client, or I gotta get that client or I gotta get, and I’m like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. God’s gonna provide those people for me.

Paige C. Clark 31:18
Yeah. And I think too, like in the business world, the businesses that aren’t willing to say no, to a customer or a client should probably have their eyes set on the wrong thing. Yes, I would. Because if it’s just a money making opportunity, like at the end of the day, yes, we all need to make money. Like, of course, you need money to live, like, but if you’re not looking out for the humanity in this situation, then like, you’re, you’re you might be acting outside of moral guidelines. And if you’re a Christian, you know, kind of what, what kind of higher calling were called to live out.

Kristi Lowe 32:03
Right. Well, and I think it comes down to a matter of, you’re putting a commission check above what is in the best interest of a human, and that’s never okay. Yeah, yeah. It’s so

Paige C. Clark 32:17
important. Yeah. So deep. Deep breath, deep breath.

Kristi Lowe 32:24
We just jumped right in. They did. I don’t do superficial conversation very well, though. You know, I’m, I’d much rather have meat and potatoes, then. Yeah, yeah, I love it.

Paige C. Clark 32:36
But I think too, like, this is the stuff that is very real, and is a hard reality for a lot of Christian business owners and Christian, like workers out in the workforce, if you are out in the workforce, like, these are things that you’re having to come across. And, you know, I don’t get me wrong, like, I’ve never been the decision maker for, you know, multimillion dollar company or anything like that. So I can only speak to what I know and what my experience is. But I also think that the world would look radically different if Christian business owners and Christian workers in the workplace, lived out

Kristi Lowe 33:22
their faith. Yes, absolutely. 100%

Paige C. Clark 33:25
I agree. Because I also I also leaned back on there’s that there’s that one stat of like, if if all Christians tithed 10%. Like, there would be no more global poverty, like the churches would be funded 10 times over or something ridiculous like that. So like, one, hopefully, that’s a little conviction for anyone listening to that, right. Like that right in. But, but on the on the flip side, like it’s not just about like what God calls us to do, but how he calls us to live in our life.

Kristi Lowe 34:06
Yep, I agree. For sure. So

Paige C. Clark 34:09
let’s pivot a little bit into we talked about how you interact with your contractors maybe is the best for like your contractors that you work with, and then also your clients that you work with, and talk a little bit about you and how you maintain and continue your relationship with God. throughout your workday.

Kristi Lowe 34:35
Hmm, well, I think it starts in the morning, it betters, it better start before 8am Because at 8am Like the phone is gonna be ringing and people are people will text you at all hours of the day, by the way. Oh my goodness. So for me, it’s got to start early in the morning. I’m typically an early bird anyways, I’m usually the first one awake in my house. For me it’s it is a consistent spent time with the Lord. It is about meeting with him spending time in Scripture. And in prayer. I do and I’m not plugging anything here. But what works for me is I’ve been this is my second year through going through the Bible recap with Tara Lee Cobble. I know she’s great man. And, and, and I love it because I’m growing in knowledge of the Bible, but then I see God’s so, like, in such different you know, we we were in numbers this morning or finishing at numbers. And, you know, I was reading something about Moses this morning. And I was like, Oh, I know what it was it was talking about the, the, you know, people who like, you know, if you accidentally murder someone, this is totally off real estate. So no, go right. But like, if you accidentally murdered someone that they had set up these like, refuge cities, so that like the that whoever accidentally got killed, that his family couldn’t come kill you, you know, like it. And so like, there was something about that. And I thought that, Oh, wow. That’s how the Lord provided for those people that, you know, they weren’t shamed, or you know, or put to death, but that the Lord just provided a refuge for those people. Because I can’t imagine like, can you imagine like, I can’t imagine someone who has inadvertently killed someone like, what you would have to live with. And then I thought about like that they would have a place to go and that God provided that and so like, in my quiet times, my my whole thing is, I want to keep learning. Like, it’s not about the learning knowledge not but it’s about how am I seeing you show up Lord, and just those little ways and because the more I see him show up in little ways in the Bible, the more I see him show up in little ways in my life. And so in the mornings, when I when I start out my day, that way, it’s got it’s got to start out that that way, otherwise, I’m worthless. And I can’t be trusted with my my words. As we say, at our house, there comes a point in the day where it’s like, whoo, I can’t be trusted with my words.

Paige C. Clark 37:05
Like that. But

Kristi Lowe 37:07
then, you know, so mine’s definitely a morning thing. But then throughout the day, I’m a, I’m a podcast listener, I’m a podcaster. So I spend my days continuing, I listen to music, music is on in my house, most most of the time, I listen to music. And so I just have a praise and worship list that I’ve curated over the years, and my daughter loves music like I do, and she’ll text me and go, Oh, mom, here’s a new one, you know, you need this. And so add it to my rotation. And so music is for me worship time of worship. I don’t think you worship just on Sunday mornings, right, and a few. I think worship happens anytime we surrender, and we give God glory. And a lot of times that happens in my kitchen, you know, that happens whenever I sing a little louder than my family likes, and you know that I just give him praise and glory. But yeah, it’s just a daily, I think it’s I think for me, it’s gotta be man, I can’t go very long. I gotta, I gotta keep him pretty front and center. Otherwise, I will stray way too fast. So yeah, stay in there.

Paige C. Clark 38:13
Yeah. And how do you kind of balance and I use that word really loosely, because I had a gal say, like, you don’t balance anything, you just find harmony. And I was like, Oh, I kind of like that. So but how do you how do you incorporate, you know, business, faith, family and, and Ms podcast or your new podcast? Like, how do you kind of maintain some kind of equilibrium with with all those things, if you can?

Kristi Lowe 38:45
Um, how do I maintain balance? I, I’ve recently, you know, sometimes I think God will just kind of give you a word to chew on for a little bit. And here in a couple of weeks, I don’t know when you’re going to publish this one here in a couple of weeks, I’m speaking to a group about rest. Okay. And so God, and I’ve been spending quite a bit of time talking about rest. And one of the things that he has shown me is that rest begins well before we ever need it. And rest is about putting first things first. And we’re not going to rest and we’re not going to have harmony, balance, whatever word you want to call it. If we’re not putting first things first. And that’s not just about having a quiet time in the morning. I mean, that’s important. But it’s about what are the what are my what are my priorities, and when that gets out of whack. You’re not going to have balance in harmony if your priorities aren’t ordered. And so for me, it’s about making sure that I’m not being drugged by the whims of somebody without knowing them. What the rest of my world? You know, there’s a lot on my plate. All right, there’s a lot on everybody’s plate. I’m not the only person with a lot on their plate. But it’s about having my priorities in such an order that I know, what am I going to respond to first, you know, text messages don’t get responded to before I’ve had my quiet time. I don’t, you know, I gotta have I try. This is just what works with at our house. I try to not start working until after my family leaves for the day. So I still have my husband and my son at the house. My daughter’s in the dorms and I tried to not start working until after they’re out so that I can at least look them in the eyeballs once walk eyeballs, and because I could work 24/7 Yeah. Like I really could. And sometimes, sometimes you have to, and sometimes there are days where it’s really, really wild. That I think it’s about having for me, it’s about that’s a boundary like I try to wait till they’re out the door. Okay. But then I also try to make sure that at the end of the day, I stopped working now say this last night I had to work after, after, after dinner and I try really hard though to you know, if it’s not, you know, somebody’s house flooding, right? Can we you know, that email can wait until tomorrow morning, right? And learning how to have a boundary of of knowing when it’s time to cut it off for the day, because I mean, let’s just be real. I really need to watch some March Madness. Okay. And so basketball in the evenings right now was gonna be during the daytime too. But like, conference championships and basketball, want to watch basketball with my family. That’s what we like to do. And, and so it’s about having a boundary of knowing like, Okay, I’m gonna, I’m cutting off tonight. Like, I gotta, you gotta have a cut out you boundaries are crazy important in this business? Yeah, otherwise you’re gonna be, you’re gonna be working incessantly. You’ll never stop. Yeah, have to stop. You have to? Yeah,

Paige C. Clark 42:09
for sure. And one thing our pastor at my church says is, you show you show what you love and show what you prioritize in life with your time and your time, meaning your money, so your time and your money, like, what what? Where are you investing your time and your money, and that is where you’ll find your heart. And so, you know, it’s really cool that you’ve, you know, set up those boundaries for your time that you know,

Kristi Lowe 42:42
to in the started a podcast, you and I were talking about this before we started recording as I started a podcast about six months ago, that is unrelated to real estate. And it was definitely something God put on my heart to do it. It’s just a, you know, sometimes I think we talk a lot in our house about knowing what the Lord has assigned us to do. And in knowing the assignments He’s given us, but being open to receive whatever it is that he’s calling us to do next. And this was definitely something he had he prompted me to do. So that’s kind of been a little bit of a stretching season learning how to do something new but then that’s been fun. But at the same time, knowing that if he’s called you into it, he’s going to provide what you need. But where were we going with this? What was

Paige C. Clark 43:34
the time money and time was what I was

Kristi Lowe 43:38
we you can tell like if you look at your your calendar, you can tell what your affections are, look at your calendar it’ll show you where your affections really lie you know your calendar your calendar in your in your pocket book for sure. Yeah, pastors pastors smart dude.

Paige C. Clark 43:58
He he likes to call those throw punches and it’s just like the right the truth at the right time in that set in the right way is is the good throw punch. But yeah, I have my schedule sitting on my desk I like having a physical schedule in addition to my work one because my brain I have way too many calendars but I have the schedule and I like it because it has a time slot because I know some people like don’t like the calendars that have the time slot. I used to be one of those people and then I like I don’t want to say grew up but like I became like an adult and I’m like okay, like I actually see the value in this and now I try to fill every slot of my day. Okay, not to always be busy but to account for everything I want to account for that day. So I want sent my friend a screenshot of like my to do list and I was like, Oh hey, like you’re on the top of my to do list but all So like, at the bottom, it was like, take a shower, wash your hair, like, I was like, please don’t judge me, I have, you know, take a shower on my to do list. So make sure to account for time for that. Because otherwise I wouldn’t, yes,

Kristi Lowe 45:17
no, we’re terrible at not putting in our on our calendar, what we actually want to do. And that’s what I was talking about a minute ago where I was like, I could work 24/7, it didn’t mean it’s going to be productive stuff. Because unless you’re putting on your calendar, things that actually matter. And like move the needle, you’re gonna be you’re gonna spin your wheels, or you’re just going to exhaust yourself. And so, but that’s why you’ve got to have in, even if you’re penciling in like, March Madness with the hubs. I mean, like, right, I’m fine with that eight to 10pm, boom. I mean, the other is, I think that in an in, I work in an inconsistent environment, I don’t have an eight to five, I don’t have a nine, you know, like, but I can tell you that I’ve learned over the years that I have seasons that are slower, and seasons that are busier. So my calendar may look a little different than yours. If you have a nine to five, write my calendar in between, you know, end of February, beginning of March until July, August. I mean, you know, don’t ask me to clean out a closet them. Okay. Yeah. But you know, from September, October, I get some weekends, where it’s like, Oh, hey, look, this is what this is what people do on Saturdays, whenever they don’t have to go show houses. I mean, you know, like, look at me and my yoga pants and messy bun. I mean, like, that’s, that’s the great thing is that I’ve learned that I’ve got to give myself grace. And if there is anyone else in real estate listening to this, you’re gonna have to give yourself Grace during the seasons when it is crazy busy. You’re going to have to know, like, my sweet and I really mean it. My husband is like, crazy supportive of me. And, you know, he knows, like, from March until July whenever it’s crazy, like, I may work all weekend. Yeah, I mean, I may have to show houses and I may have to hold an open house or I may have to, you know, weekends tend to be pretty nutty, especially and that’s when people are moving in. They’re active. It’s like they get outside and they’re like, hey, maybe we should move. I swear there is a phenomenon Yellin another phenomenon here and I do it. Here’s the trade secret this this is it. It’s the second weekend that it is warm outside. Okay. The first weekend it’s warm outside. Everybody’s just happy that it’s warm. Now this might just be West Texas. I don’t know. That second weekend. When it’s warm outside. i It is like phenomenon. My my phone rings like that Monday. It’s like Hey, I think we’re gonna sell our house. Hey, I think we’re gonna buy a house. I swear. I mean, yes thing so like right now like I got houses popping up all over the place because everybody’s it’s starting to get warm. Yeah, it’s like,

Paige C. Clark 48:12
Oh, see? That’s like springtime in Arizona. When all we call them snowbirds. Yes. And it’s all those snowbirds who come down from Canada, Idaho, Minnesota, Michigan, y’all I could put together the United States of America with all the license plates I saw out here, but like we have because we have spring training out here. Yes. And then we also

Kristi Lowe 48:38
you live Do you live in an era where part of Arizona like Phoenix Metro? Okay, we have family on the west side of Phoenix. Gotcha. A Rozo are ours. I can’t pronounce it ours a Orozco. Do you know I’m talking to my dote or Hosszu

Paige C. Clark 48:58
I think I do. I think I it’s like a RR O Z. Yeah, that I don’t know how to gather there. We get cut. Hey, cuz there you go. But like it’s springtime, and Phoenix is always like super, super lovely out. And I even stepped outside today. I was like, whoo, I feel summer in the air like summer is just starting to, like, slowly creep in. But like when summer hits and that it’s like actually our quiet time. But like when spring hits people are like, Oh, it’s so nice here. I’m like, Just you wait, just wait till your

Kristi Lowe 49:35
shoes melt. In July.

Paige C. Clark 49:38
Yeah, that actually happens. Like, I remember. We were broken down on the side of the road. One one year in the summer. It was the hottest day of the year on record. It was it was like 121 Like it was ridiculously hot out and my husband’s car broke down. And we were We’re standing in a parking lot. And I was wearing just some sandals and I feel the heat from the ground coming through my sandals. And I just like kept picking up my feet. I was like, please don’t melt my shoes like that. That is like the last thing that I need right now is my shoes to be stuck to the parking lot on the hottest day of the year. Yeah, not okay.

Kristi Lowe 50:21
That’s fine. Um, yeah, Texas isn’t a bad place to live. I’m just saying if anybody you know, new if you need to move here, I’m French. I know really good.

Paige C. Clark 50:30
Noted. Christian. Hello, everyone. Um, well, what I was gonna say about kind of the seasonality, I think it’s just like, also stepping up into that awareness of like, being able to communicate that to your people around you. If you know if you’re married, communicating that to your spouse, if you’re single communicating that to like, your community, or your friends who are there supporting you, like, Hey, I might be a little Am I like yep, right now. Like, personally, January, February, March are all insane for me. And so I told all my friends, like, hey, not going to, like I have a ton of time to talk to you. But then like for work, October, November, December are really busy for me. And so I’m just like, hey, like, might be a little wacko, those months, I might not be super busy. But I might be like, a little busy up here instead. So just having that awareness of being able to communicate that to like your people, I think that’s like, huge.

Kristi Lowe 51:36
Well, it’s taken some time. I mean, you just being in real estate, where you don’t ever know like, am I going to have one closing this week? Or? Or this month? Or am I going to have like, you know, for you just don’t know. So that that kind of, that’s kind of a roller coaster that new agents I’ve found, really, it takes them a long time to figure out like, What the You got to get off that roller coaster? Because you can’t I mean, if like, if you’re just riding on it, trying to like waiting for, like, oh, my gosh, I’ve got to have another closing, I gotta, you know, it’s like an adrenaline or like, drug junkie or something, I need to hit man, right? Like, no, no, no, you’re just getting used to the irregularity of real estate, getting used to that you’re gonna have, you know, for clients, one, you know, one month, and then you might, you might not have a closing for a month or two. I mean, I’m blessed in that I’ve been doing this long enough, I have a consistent work life, I would say, I would say I work consistently, I have some seasons that are busier than others. But you know, if you’re newer in business, as you know, you, you may not have a closing for three months, you know, you may, you may go for a long while. And what’s very difficult as a new agent, is that we start looking to the left and our right and other agents around us. And I’ll tell you, that has been, you can’t look at other you can’t look to the left in the right. You can’t compare your life and what your clients and what you’re doing to another to another agent, because they may have been doing it for 25 years, you know, they may have, they may have two decades in the business compared to you. And so that’s definitely something new agents I see a lot of is like you just have to, it just takes time. Yeah, it takes time.

Paige C. Clark 53:32
Yeah, I always like to use the comparison of like a duck in water. Because like, well, they might look all like regal and calm on the top of the surface, like underneath. Their feet are like paddling back and forth. And I’m like, you know, you never see kind of the ugly side of these other people not saying like, they’re mean or bad people but like, you don’t see the hardship. You don’t see the difficulty. You don’t know what their home life is like, you don’t know what their spiritual life is, like, you know, the rest of that could be in turmoil because their feet are under the water. But on the top, they’re all calm and cool. And

Kristi Lowe 54:06
yeah, well in and here’s the thing gonna tell you the other secret. Yes, I do. Okay, so I’m all about secrets today, man. I’m spilling. I’m spilling I’m sorry, real in the beans. I’m spilling the beans today. The other thing is that, you know, there’s always gonna be a top agent in town. There’s gonna be somebody who’s number one, and they’re like, I was number one. I have absolutely no desire to be number one. It’s not that I don’t want to be excellent and do my job with excellence. It’s that I know what it’s going to cost. It’s going to come at a cost. And if you want to be number one, go for it, man. You can have my spot I don’t. I have I have zero desire, because it’s going to require more than I want to give. And if we want to go back certain we’re going to circle back on this It talks about rest. And we talked about boundaries. And we talked about having First things first and priorities. And I have learned me, I have a bandwidth, you have a bandwidth, there’s only so much we have that we can give. And I can’t be the number one agent and be a good wife, and be there for and be present. Present. There’s a difference. I could be home and not be present. Yeah. And it’s not worth that to me. Because it was going to come at a cost, it’s going to come at the cost of being able to be with my family be with and serve on Sunday mornings, or, you know, do like I just got back from a mission trip. I can’t I can’t go do that stuff. That’s, that’s my goal. So is there anything wrong with being the number one agent in town? Absolutely not. There’s not one thing wrong with that. Right? And if God has equipped you, and and that’s what that for me? Rusty Lowe? I’m totally okay. With doing exactly what God puts before me. And knowing that it is totally enough. Yeah. And that’s been that is it? That’s freeing whenever, you know, somebody can say it’s okay to be number two. You don’t have? I mean? Does that make sense? You don’t? Yeah, yeah. Tip number one.

Paige C. Clark 56:27
I think too, like, we live in a society where a lot of people attach their identity to a lot of different things. And then especially in the I work in a heavily corporate company. And a lot of people attach their identity to what they do and like, how high they can rank and, and for me, the things that I do are either pragmatic, meaning, put food on the table, provide for my family, or it’s doing something because God called me into it, ie this podcast, do I have time to do this podcast? Arguably, no, but I’m doing it because that is what I feel like God has called me to step into, and, and when we are able to do those things and seek those things, and God is able to put those things in on our path. I think success means a little bit less, in my opinion. It’s where your

Kristi Lowe 57:28
focus is. Yeah. Like what’s like, what is your definition of success? Yeah. And mine is not being the number one agent. Mine is my definition is, did I serve the people that God put in front of me? With excellence with integrity? Did I do the very best I could for them? Whenever that will, whoever whether God puts 10 people in front of me this year, or 40? Like whatever that number is, did I serve them? Well, if I did, that’s my definition of success did I keep because whenever I think it’s a matter of what our focus is, like, whenever we’re and I keep putting my hands all over, sorry. So is there Dr. Us on on YouTube too? Because yeah,

Paige C. Clark 58:15
this will be on the youtube so if you want to see the hand gestures, just okay, you can I talk? I do too.

Kristi Lowe 58:23
And I’ll say y’all a lot sorry. But it’s a matter of what your focus is your focus it is it is truly a matter of what am I focusing on? And whenever we put Jesus between us and whoever we’re serving, that’s going to change the way we view success. Did we serve them the way he had called us to serve them? And if I did that, then I one man

Paige C. Clark 58:50
I love that I wish like we could just like Mike drop and there but I have one more question for you. But it’s my favorite question which is what is one thing our audience our listeners out there can implement into their life that’s a faith building practice or discipline to help them move that one step closer to God

Kristi Lowe 59:10
came in to make this I’m gonna make this specific for people who are probably in more of a sales industry. Yeah,

Paige C. Clark 59:17
let’s, let’s have it.

Kristi Lowe 59:21
And and that is that I’m pausing here for a moment, because we’ve kind of talked a little bit about it. That I would I would go back to that, my piece and the way that if you want to operate from a place of peace, in real estate or in any other sales position, it comes from where you place your trust. And if you trust him to provide I have on my screen on my phone, Psalm 118. You It says, hang on just second because I have it right here. It says she, and I changed it. And it says she confidently trust the Lord to take care of her. And that is Psalm 112, seven sorrows, Psalm 112, seven. But without putting trust in between ourselves and our job, we’re not going to find peace. And we’re always going to be striving, we’re always going to be it kind of like you talked about that duck. And I would just, I would tell whoever I could tell every single real estate agent that is going to provide everything you need. You have to trust him with putting before you exactly what you need. So for me, it’s daily surrender to do I trust you with what you’ve set before me? Do I trust You? Me? Do I trust the Lord? And that that has become the practice that that has changed the way I walk? And that has made it where I can walk through seasons where maybe only have one client instead of you know, my friend who has 13 or whatever? It’s trust. It is it is. It is every day. Whenever you get in a frenzy about whether or not you know you’re doing enough or you have enough or whatever you’re enough is that makes me all anxious inside. It’s about do I trust that he’s got it in for me, I do.

Paige C. Clark 1:01:35
Yeah. So I love that Christie, thank you so much for joining us now. Where can people find you if they want to buy a house in West Texas so they want to listen to your podcast? Where can people find they want to find my podcast

Kristi Lowe 1:01:48
is actually about stories that people’s faith and I’ve just kept seeing everybody’s faith show up over the years working with so many clients and so I started telling stories of faith on my podcast and it’s called the even if podcast and you can find that on Apple you can find it on Spotify or even if podcast.com We’re on Instagram and Facebook you can find us there and that’s that’s us we it’s just me and all my friends and we show up and tell stories and man God’s just so good. And it’s a fun though it’s not a creative outlet, but it’s a fun outlet to get to share those stories and and it’s a fun augmentation to my little real estate world. So thank you. Thank you for having me for inviting me to come on the show you

Paige C. Clark 1:02:32
thank you for joining me. Yeah, absolutely brings me so much joy and does appreciate all of what you’re willing to share. Especially in you know, some some uncertain and tumultuous real estate industry times.

Kristi Lowe 1:02:53
find you a good one. That’s what I would say is find a good real estate agent, somebody you can trust. Yeah, there we go.

Paige C. Clark 1:02:59
Thanks Kristi.

Kristi Lowe 1:03:00
You’re so welcome Paige. Have a great day. Thanks for joining us.

Paige C. Clark 1:03:04
If you liked what you were listening to make sure you subscribe and hit those five stars and we’ll catch you on the next episode.

Paige C. Clark 00:36
Paige C. Clark and you’re listening to the nine to five faith podcast. All right, everyone, I am here with my friend Felicity and I cannot wait for you to hear all the genius she is ready to share with everyone. How are you doing today?

Felicity Buddig 00:53
I’m doing well. It’s Ash Wednesday and pouring rain in Chicago and it’s cold. So sights that things have been fantastic. Paige, it’s a pleasure to be here with you.

Paige C. Clark 01:05
You too. So can you tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do what your day looks like, all that stuff, how you spend your time.

Felicity Buddig 01:15
So I am a writer, author, speaker, mentor, mom, wife, stepmom, animal lover, cook chef made. And I own a brand called cheese u which is a brand for midlife women who are looking to reinvent and rediscover who they are. So that’s a little bit about who I am. And through all of that, we just keep juggling my girlfriend. Yeah.

Paige C. Clark 01:52
I was talking to a friend and she’s like, we don’t find balance, we find harmony, there’s no such thing as balance. We can only figure out how the chaos works together. 100% There is no such thing as Beyonce. You always have flow yoga be damned. So can you tell me a little bit about kind of your faith journey and kind of what that has looked like over the past few years?

Felicity Buddig 02:20
Yeah, that’s a fantastic question. So I was born and raised Catholic. And I think you probably hear that a lot. Like I was born and raised Catholic, we Catholics are either all in on it, or we were born and raised, and we don’t practice. And so that was the longest part of me. I was born and raised in didn’t practice. But it wasn’t until God put me on this journey. He was like, I’m really gonna make things hard for you. Because yes, and he put me on a really, really hard journey really, really hard, painful way emotionally. And then the light bulb finally went on, and I’m like, okay, so I get it. And that’s over the past, I would say, God, seven or eight years, I’ve been growing my my faith, my relationship with God. i It’s beautiful. You know, it’s been painful. It’s been, you know, screaming, why, you know, people can read about that. And my upcoming book, how hard my life has been. I feel like Job, if that makes any sense. If you’re familiar, okay. So people who are familiar with like, that’s like, how my journey has been, like, Why me? And then the light bulb comes on. And then I’m like, Okay, so now I understand. But he’s like, going to make it a little more tougher for you. And so that’s that forgiveness component. For my personal story, but that’s it. I do go to church to get the Eucharist. But I mostly practice just a little bit of here, a little bit of there. I haven’t found a place to call home. Yeah, brick and mortar. Because that’s home. This is our temple. We know yet, but the brick and mortar I haven’t found yet.

Paige C. Clark 04:14
Yeah. Yeah. And where did your company kind of find its way in that journey? And is there like a melding of the of the two between your faith and kind of what you do on your day to day?

Felicity Buddig 04:30
Yes, yes. So I’m, I’m a survivor of domestic abuse, violence, just childhood whole life has been really bad. So when I left my ex husband, years ago, I made a promise to God that I was going to build a community for women that they could turn to for support and guidance on their own transformational journey, because I didn’t have that I really think women need a community that accepts, you know, diversity and all that. So with that’s where the community component came into, and then how I can serve as God through that, because that’s sort of my next promise with him is we’re starting to, we’re, we’re speaking God language in the community. So it’s always been more or less that. I don’t want to say woo or walk language, but it’s, you know, for whatever reason, our culture has made it very uncomfortable for us Christians to be able to speak loudly that I believe in God. Yeah, you understand what I’m saying? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, we are being punished for that. And so I would do universe source, blah, blah, blah. And so, my social media manager, she’s a Christian gal, and I’m like, let’s just start doing it. It’s gone. It’s gone. And that’s my way of, I’m like, I’ll push it. And that’s what you’re doing as well, too. And I think that’s what we’ll have to keep doing. Because,

Paige C. Clark 06:04
yeah, man, that’s, that’s so true. And I think to like that, when, when we speak about our experiences, it’s received differently by people who are non believers, then like, standing on the streets, street corner with a picket sign, right, like, because we’re speaking from our experience, and like, if anyone listening is in sales and marketing, we always know like, the heart sells, right? Like, your service and product might solve a problem, but why they chose to go with you is because of your story and your heart and your conviction. And I think that can be like really easily applied to like how people view Christians and in the workplace. Yeah. And, yeah, and so what, what kind of is a day in the life of Felicity look like, in terms of your work, but also like how you incorporate God into into your work, but also like, into your household and your family and your practice? And all of that?

Felicity Buddig 07:19
Yeah, you know, so we are a blended family. And I have a 15 year old son that is, on his own discovery of God, he AI is killing me. Because as a mom, we just want to say, I’m just I’m going to be, this is 100% My language right here, when when you have a child that is going to fight and resist God, and you can see the struggle he’s going through. You just want to save your child and just say, just open up the book, put the say apart, right. And he’s like, resist, resist. And so I’ve had to surrender that. And I’m like, you’re on your own journey, buddy. I so what I do in my home is I pump Cristian. We have a whole house radio. So we have, which, by the way, I love like Carrie job and Brandon Lake. I’ll camp through Laos. I’m like, because my husband doesn’t is not he doesn’t practice anything. He remover doesn’t. And so I’m like, surrounded by a bunch of heathens. And I’m like, Yeah, I’m like, we’re gonna pump it through them. And they don’t mind it. Yeah. So it’s not a continuous loom, which I don’t mind it. But I get up an hour early every morning, and I pop on my air pods, and I turn on Spotify, I’ll turn on the halo app, I’ll do that. I’ll turn on Spotify. There’s a couple of people that I like on Spotify. I’ll do that. And then the Hello app, and then I do my own personal prayer. So I get my early in the morning, and I think when we can start our day with that, and ask God to grace us with with his excellence shaped me the way I’m supposed to be through his vision. You know, it for me it. I’ve noticed a huge difference. Yeah. Giving up and scrolling through emails.

Paige C. Clark 09:19
Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh, one thing that actually you said ash, Ash Wednesday, it is Ash Wednesday, and it is the beginning of Lent. And one thing that my we always try my husband and I tried to do the same thing for lent the same kind of sacrifice or, you know, the same fast for Lent, just so it’s like a little bit easier that like, I’m not eating chocolate cake. Well, he gave up sugar like, because that would just be mean. But what we’re doing is no tech nology in the bedroom. So no phones, no TV Like I even like my Apple watch like nothing, no laptops, no iPads, nothing. Not only I just wrote a blog about it, but like, not only does it like help your marriage, but it also helps your sleep and it will hopefully help your spiritual life to like, kind of compartmentalize that one piece.

Felicity Buddig 10:22
I think so I think so. And you might be on to 40 days of sex, like, yeah, be changing them in life.

Paige C. Clark 10:31
Well, there’s actually, so my background is actually in psychology, I have a master’s degree in psychology. And it is very, very true of people who married couples who don’t have like TVs, or use their devices in the bedroom have better sex lives and better intimacy than those who use their phones and watch TV in the bedroom.

Felicity Buddig 10:54
I completely agree with you on that. And my husband, that is one of our marriage and family therapy. That is that he is like, I want her off that phone. That’s my way of decompressing. Yes.

Paige C. Clark 11:07
Yeah. So So I mean, let’s go, let’s go there. In a world that is very connected, and very online, how do you find time to not only just like in the morning, but how do you find time throughout your day or throughout your week to kind of unplug and like reset with God and like also your relationships with other people?

Felicity Buddig 11:33
Um, so I have my morning routine. And then I repeat that in the evening, God and then, you know, I’ve always talked to him. Right? As if he’s like, around, I’m like, Hey, dude, like, no, but you know what I mean, like, what’s going on? But I think when it comes to unplugging, I do my best unplugging in water. So I’m a bathtub girl or hot tub girl and I have both so but there has to be some sort of music, some sort of, I don’t want to say other stimulation around, but just where I can just release whatever attention it is. And then from my, you know, the relationships, we there’s no phones for dinnertime. There’s no technology for dinnertime, it’s put your phone away, you know, Sunday, Sundays, I am doing the Bible in a year app with Yeah, Father Mike through the Hello app. So I take my Sundays. And that’s my Sunday morning. I pop my air pods on and I do that. So yeah, that’s awesome.

Paige C. Clark 12:40
We are like kindred spirits. So because I love water as well. I like to say like I’m part fish. And I have a big bathtub and to be installed soon a new pool. So I feel you have like, it’s just like a red. It’s different. Water. People know though. Like, if you’re listening to this and you’re like, You’re weird. You’re probably not a water person.

Felicity Buddig 13:06
Exactly. You might be a fire element, or earth elements because I’m an earth element gal too. I love going I love to hike. I love going through the woods. You know, I like that smell. It’s very grounding. But water is so calming and cleansing. I mean, we’ll look what Yeah, I mean, it just it goes back to. I mean, that’s where they started baptizing people was right. So for me, I am a water girl, but you’re gonna love your pool. Yeah.

Paige C. Clark 13:35
I’m excited. But like pools are like, extremely expensive. That’s something they didn’t warn me about as a kid. And right, all my neighbors, they all have pools and we don’t because also like we don’t sit on like 200 grand in our bank account, because that’s how much tools costs out here. If you want like a semi decent one. I was like, You know what, I can wait to save up. If any of my neighbors need house sitting. I will gladly house it if I can use their pool.

Felicity Buddig 14:04
So I have a secured pool story for you. Oh my gosh, let’s hear it. And this is this is. So we are in Chicago and we were on an acre. So we built this big, beautiful pole. And we’re surrounded by all evergreens and we don’t look at a neighbor. And so we are pull up and we open it April 21. And we close it at the end of October so we can heat it. Yeah. And so this October this past October. I mean, we had that baby up to like 90 some degrees. It was like a ginormous hot towel. Yeah, it was amazing. And we all loved it. And then I got my gas bill and it was pushing 2000 And I just was like

Paige C. Clark 14:46
oh my gosh.

Felicity Buddig 14:49
Which we knew it was going to happen. I mean, like seeing it on paper dollar signs going up in the air and the smoke, but I gotta tell it, it was just the best and we had over two So yeah. Oh, it

Paige C. Clark 15:02
was beautiful. See out out here in Arizona, we have to actually cool our pools during the summer. Because if you don’t, it’s hot, it’s 120 outside and you’re swimming and like 95 degree pool water because it’s so hot. So we either ice or you have a cooling system.

Felicity Buddig 15:21
Yeah, exactly.

Paige C. Clark 15:24
So good, though. Um, so. So what? What are some of the struggles that you encounter? When it comes to like practicing your faith and, and kind of involving involving that into your business and into your home life? And like, how do you make sure you fit it in? And how do you make sure that like, it stays like centered on the gospel?

Felicity Buddig 15:54
I think, you know, it’s, it’s in my business. It’s in my home as much as I can get it in my home without being a tyrant. Right. I would I would like it more. I think one of the biggest struggles is getting into a Pew is, you know, I’ve made it to a couple Catholic masses, and I’m having a hard time with, with, with with the Catholic Church. So yeah, I really am. It’s not the it’s not the big see, it’s the little see that right. Yeah. And I appreciate

Paige C. Clark 16:29
your honesty and vulnerability about that, though, because that’s not an easy thing to admit to, in my opinion.

Felicity Buddig 16:39
Well, thank you. Because I’m, I’m very transparent about it. I’m yeah, I’m like, your mask is so dry. Yeah. Number one, the masses dry? Like, why don’t you like spice up some of the music, you get a younger crowd in here? And then number two is, are we going to see the fall of the Vatican? Like the I mean, look at the stuff that the Archdiocese have covered up over the decades over the centuries? And so I’m like, who’s infiltrated the Vatican? Yeah, sorry. Go there. i Yeah. So I don’t know if we’ll see it in our time. Yeah. But I do I have a real hard time. So that’s one of my biggest struggles is just finding a brick and mortar place to worship. I think, if I could do that, I think you’re gonna, I’m gonna have a bigger sense of community for myself, and for my family, and for my son. And that’s one of the biggest struggles is finding it because you know, nondenominational I think it’s pretty, but, you know, a Catholic mass is, is beautiful. I mean, yeah.

Paige C. Clark 17:46
I think there’s definitely, as as much as this, you know, small teach, small c church can be broken, because it’s run by broken people, right, like, is broken people trying to put it together? I think that, like each, you know, if you’re Catholic or Evangelical, I think they each have like, their own, like, beautiful elements to it. And I actually actually worked in Ireland for a while with a with a ministry out there that was working to, you know, minister to the kids, kind of like, like their equivalent of like, high school aged kids. And what was really beautiful as this ministry was going forward, was that it was ultimately nondenominational in the fact that our I guess like an denominational, yeah, so like it didn’t, it didn’t associate itself with the Catholic Church or with a Protestant church. It was Unitarian. Yeah, very neutral in that approach. And that was actually that allowed them to reach so much so many more people in their ministry. Because they said, you know, like, they agreed on the big, the big list of things, you know, the Jesus, the Trinity, you know, there’s agreement there. And the rest, you know, can be figured out within your own heart. But but it opened up so many doors to be able to like, kind of stand straddle that line, I guess.

Felicity Buddig 19:31
Yeah, I agree completely. Yeah. Yeah.

Paige C. Clark 19:35
Yeah. And I and I hear what you’re saying to with with finding community and I think that like, I hear you and I hear what you’re saying is like, one one is not easy to find community and find those people. But also, like I hear the desire to do that within you when you’re talking about it. Have you had have you Have had kind of a glimpse or like a taste of a really powerful or strong community within within the church.

Felicity Buddig 20:09
I have never Wow. I know I have never and I’ve watched so many Hallmark movies. And I have never, you know, I just I haven’t and I don’t know if that’s just I wasn’t, you know, sometimes we are closed off to certain things I could have closed off. I haven’t maybe found the right. Time. That wasn’t the right place. Yeah. You know, so I’m exploring out here in my area. And, you know, I’ve connected with some really great women out some of the churches because there’s a wonderful Unitarian Church, right down the street with me. Beautiful, female pastor that’s reforming prisoners and everything. Yes. Yeah. It’s so close. Yeah, there is a block that I have. There’s some Yeah,

Paige C. Clark 21:03
yeah. But I think it’s beautiful, though. Because like, even though and and forgive me, if I’m like, mischaracterizing what you’re saying. But like, even though you haven’t experienced this kind of community, like you still feel a sense of being drawn to the need for community. And I think that’s a really interesting, like, a really interesting highlight of the human experience is that we’re designed to do it together.

Felicity Buddig 21:36
110% Yes,

Paige C. Clark 21:38
yeah. And I think when we have our faith, depending on what kind of because to bring it back, we’re talking about work and like, how our work intersects with our faith. I think that you were saying your social media manager is a Christian. But then there’s also those people who are not believers, who we encounter every single day, I would say, I encounter more unbelievers than I do in my regular life at work.

Felicity Buddig 22:08
Yeah, we’re seeing a lot of that, to be honest with you. You respect it. I respect it. i Yeah.

Paige C. Clark 22:15
Can you talk more about that experience for you?

Felicity Buddig 22:19
Yeah, I had a social media manager, I absolutely love her. She does more stuff on the side. And I don’t think there’s a relationship with God, because she’s kind of made mention on the verbiage that we are switching to, and she said, It’s gonna offend the people that aren’t. And I said, Well, it’s going to attract the people that I want to attract. When you have to think yes. You know, I am very spiritual. I am spiritually gifted. I am. Yes. So I can see both sides of the spectrum, right. But I’m going to do it my way. And they’re going to do it their way and there is no right or wrong. But if you are feeling empty, feeling lost, feeling unfulfilled, there’s a reason for that. And my relationship with God has completely turned that around.

Paige C. Clark 23:13
Yeah. Oh, gosh, that’s so true. And, and what I see, especially, I mean, it literally happened last week. So it’s like really opportune, that we’re talking about this. But for me last week, I don’t know what I was looking at a video or something on Facebook of a video and it was talking about Christians. And I made the mistake of going to read the comments. If you are in a negative place, stay away from the comment section because it is not a good place that fosters positive positivity. And I was reading through it and I was like, I was like, so heartbroken of like, what people write in these comment sections are kind of like the revelation of their true feelings and their true selves. While they might not say that to you, in a cubicle, they’re saying it online, and I got really disheartened. And then the Asbury, are you familiar with what’s happening as a university? So um, that’s happening. And I like kind of compare the two and I was like, we are so hungry for God, like, but most of our culture does not know what to call it.

Felicity Buddig 24:35
Or they suppress it, because what happened to Kanye? I’m sorry, to open it up there. Yeah. We are suppressing it. We are suppressing it and suppressing and suppressing it and it’s become such bad juju to speak that we I am proud to say that I am a Christian. I believe in God. It is I mean are images of women protesters during the the abortion thing and I don’t even want to go there with right? It’s right or I’m just the signs that they were holding up was just, it was grotesque and it wasn’t coming from a place of love. You know what I mean? And I think, for me God’s intention, if you are following him or following the word, it’s out of a place of love. And we’re not seeing that today. Yeah. And comments are scary.

Paige C. Clark 25:36
Yeah, it was, it was brutal. And I have learned my lesson. But it also gave me kind of a glimpse into the battle that’s even happening. Like in the spiritual realm, for us, and for people who are believers and people who are not believers and, and that battle that is going there. And I was even in the workplace, I work in a very kind of corporate environment. And like, there’s been many times where I hit my knees, and I’m like, God, I don’t know how to respond to this in a way that is honoring to you, but also that reflects you in these examples, and I think that’s some sometimes really difficult.

Felicity Buddig 26:26
What’s interesting, yeah, yeah. What would your coworker say? How would they react?

Paige C. Clark 26:31
Yeah. And, and being put in situations where you’re obligated to reply or to answer in a certain realm, but also you’re like, that’s not God honoring in my faith. And I think that’s something that like people struggle with. And something you know, your social media manager, kind of called out is like, here’s gonna be people who are turned off by this.

Felicity Buddig 26:59
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you’re meant to, like, just change that. And I think we have, there’s an opportunity there. Yeah. I mean, we, we see what’s going on in the world. And, you know, we can hunker down and just pray, or we can be willing to stand up for what we believe in.

Paige C. Clark 27:21
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And, and so what I kind of wanted to circle around about is one I have like, so many logistical questions, like my marketing mind is kicking in is like, when did you make this change on your social media? And what have your metrics and change? Like, what have your social media metrics looks like since you made this change? And have you seen an improvement in being more upfront about what you believe in?

Felicity Buddig 27:52
Social Media Engagement? Yes, I have seen improvement metrics. I had to fire that person. So I don’t know yet. Yeah, okay. Yeah.

Paige C. Clark 28:01
I got you. I got you.

Felicity Buddig 28:04
I was just gonna say, I found that out. I’m gonna talk to her. Because I do I want more of it. I want more of it. I do. And I would like to pair up and collaborate with some wonderful women that I see on Instagram. Like, she who worships there’s bands out there that I’m seeing, you know, my uncle page is to be out there speaking to communities of just groups of midlife women, letting everybody know that you know what you’re going through right now. It’s okay. There’s no shame to feel about it. We all have a story. We all have a struggle, but we do it together. And that togetherness was brought to you from Yeah, yeah. And I would love to pair it with some of the Yeah, the I think it’s called she who worships or something like that. It’s, you know,

Paige C. Clark 28:59
yeah. One of the accounts. Yeah. So going into like what you do a little bit more like why midlife women? Like what is what is significant about that sector of women?

Felicity Buddig 29:15
Why am one one I’m so at 42 I had my awakening, I had my earth shattering like what the hell happened? I was raised like how my family is like, what? And I went through some intense, intense, really good therapy surrounded by some really great therapists and shamans and I went back to my roots in Mexico to do some healing part of my spiritual gifts. I have the ability to see past life stuff with me so I was able to go back to Mexico and work with shamans and I were current shamans here and I Um, I think with midlife women, when we do hit that point at 42, we start to open our eyes and realize, like, I’m not everything that made me happy that it’s not your eyes are open, you’re realizing that, especially in our generation, we were trained to just do it all. And we’ve heard a lot of women climbing that corporate ladder. So there’s a lot of feminine going on right now. Currently, too. Yeah. So we’re backing off. And we’re finding side hustles. And yeah, and a lot of us are just learning to set healthy boundaries, expectations, and just starting to dabble in new adventures. And I think it’s beautiful.

Paige C. Clark 30:41
Yeah. Talking about the corporate ladder. And I’ll add this with the caveat of I know Jesus can do anything he wants. So if he wants to be in the corporate space, he will be in the corporate space. But in the regular American kind of business corporation, as it currently stands, do you think there’s room for Jesus?

Felicity Buddig 31:15
It’s sad, isn’t it? Yeah. It is.

Paige C. Clark 31:21
The answers probably no.

Felicity Buddig 31:22
Yeah, it really is. Yeah. Yeah. What do you think? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Sad.

Paige C. Clark 31:31
You Yeah. And how and how do does Jesus show up at you know, I’m reaching out to a bunch of people to get, you know, all walks of life on this podcast of like, all different backgrounds. But with the common thread of like, they believe in Jesus, and I’m hoping to get some human resource professionals and some employment lawyers on here because, like, I, I don’t think it’s happening so much now. But I I can see it happening in the future of where it’s gonna be silenced. And that’s hard and, and scary of, you know, not being able to talk about your who you are. It’s not even your faith. Because when we are in Jesus, we are a new creation, and he lives in us and so not being able to be who you are in Jesus in the workplace is

Felicity Buddig 32:28
unfair. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know. I think you need some rebel rousers. I’m like that, yeah, you’re like, triggering my rebel in me. And I’ve learned that in my little cubicle, and you’re gonna yank me out?

Paige C. Clark 32:44
Wow. Yeah.

Felicity Buddig 32:47
You know, um, I would hope not. I would hope I would not, especially with where we’re shifting because we are spiritually shifting into a new. That’s a whole other conversation, but we are spiritually shifting, the Earth is shifting. Things are happening. I think we’re, you know, I have faith. Yeah, I do. I really do. I have faith. And I’m going to tell you when it gets bad, the old saying there are no atheists in a foxhole. Yeah. And sometimes God has to rock our foundation heart before we had been there. And we’ve had many years of just good times. And so he’s like, we’re gonna make it hard.

Paige C. Clark 33:30
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And because in the heart is where you find Jesus, I’m actually I’m actually working on a book of like, how to find Jesus in the easy, because I feel like that’s where most most people struggle with their faith, or struggle with the intentionality of their faith is when things are going good.

Felicity Buddig 33:54
I gotta think about that, that’s good. That is nine. Or you know, it all starts at home, and then we, because we just become our own individual self, right. So it really is your own personal journey.

Paige C. Clark 34:09
And I like to think to your saying kind of this uprising, I wouldn’t put it there yet. But kind of this merging of, of Christians, and I guess I would just say like moral Christians who are stepping up into the place that had a very hard boundary line before, and they’re, they’re stepping over and kind of crossing that of like, we don’t need just more Christians. We need more Christian Christian business leaders. Because then through that they’re able to operate their business in an ethical and moral way and allow for their employees to have the freedom to be able to practice their faith.

Felicity Buddig 34:59
I’ve got some I’m ready for you to interview. So my chiropractor, I go and see a chiropractor, so we won’t forget this. Well, I will connect you. And I love walking into that office because the Christian music is playing, you’ll heal some of the employees going, oh my god, I can’t take it anymore. And we can freely speak about what ever Yeah, politics COVID Just its freedom. But I’m telling you, it’s a small business. It’s yeah. And maybe that’s where we need to put the money in. But I walked in, and they are not afraid to talk about it, to listen to it. And I don’t see any uncomfortable people besides a couple employees, and there’s still plenty more to be honest with you. So

Paige C. Clark 35:46
yeah, my hair stylist was the same way where she she had, she has since sold her business, which I am like heartbroken about because I’m like, I have to go find someone else like this. This does not keep itself up, I have I need someone with professional help. But she was the same way where anyone was able to talk about everything and would always have worship music playing on in the background, and like you knew what you got when you went there. But also, it’s a very successful business. And she sold it and you know, it’s still successful. And so, yeah, I think we just need more Christian business owners to be able to, we need to raise them up to be able to help just sustain faith in the workplace.

Felicity Buddig 36:37
I think so and not be afraid because that was me as I struggled with the fear part of it, oh my god, I’m gonna put this out. I’m going to write an article about this. Oh, my God, I’m going to, and then it was a deeper epiphany that I had talking to God that I’m like, Okay, I’m going to serve you this way. You have gotten me this far and have given me these amazing gifts through My trials and tribulations. I can serve you this way by speaking it to women. And so for me, it was really fear based. And then I was just like, I’m just gonna do it.

Paige C. Clark 37:14
Yeah. Yeah. And, and too, I think that when we step into a spirit of boldness, we realize that those who we were those who would be offended, they don’t really know you. Because I think like, even I fall into this trap a lot of kind of watering down my face, especially when I’m like in at work and everything of like, I don’t want to talk about it as boldly as I know I can. And it’s, it’s really for fear that I’m going to be pocketed into a certain bucket, and people will see the label and put me in that bucket. When really the truth is, if they know me, and they know my heart. I probably don’t fit in that bucket.

Felicity Buddig 38:12
Yeah.

Paige C. Clark 38:14
Most of us don’t. Yeah, the only people use, the people in the bucket are the people you see on the news. And that’s why you think the people in the bucket go there. Right, like, the stereotypes that that we encounter.

Felicity Buddig 38:27
Hmm, exactly. Yeah. That’s very, that’s very interesting.

Paige C. Clark 38:33
Yeah. So to kind of wrap up this conversation, I always like to ask my guests, what is one thing that our listeners can do to implement implement a faith building practice or discipline into their life? What can they walk away with today?

Felicity Buddig 38:52
One thing that we can do, yeah. Talk to God. Just talk, just start by talking. It’s it simply has to just start with talking. And I think from there, it usually just kind of grows and flourishes if you start talking. You know, we want to live in his excellence. Yeah, no. Yeah. be groomed into his excellence. Yeah.

Paige C. Clark 39:20
Oh, that’s so powerful. So powerful, because I think people think that when we talk about a relationship with Jesus and a relationship with God, people miss out like, what do you do in a relationship? You hang out with them, you spend time with them, you learn about the other person. They learn about you. Of course, God knows everything about you. But there’s, there’s this give and take in the relationship and it’s not just like, yeah, he knows everything about me. It’s like, okay, what do I know about God? And do I talk to him?

Felicity Buddig 39:54
Yeah, yeah. And dive into the scriptures. I mean, you’re talking to Right now, somebody who was a Catholic because she had to be, and just didn’t have a relationship with him for a long time. And then finally started to and dive into the Scripture. poke around. Do your own homework. Yeah, don’t Yeah. I mean, if anything, if you are that, uncertain about who he or she is, is he in my eyes? You know, I’m just poke around, dive into the Scripture. I gotta tell you, there’s some great podcasts out there. There’s some great apps out there. Jeff cavan’s is awesome. He has helped me understand the scriptures. I usually have to listen and then go to YouTube. Right. And he’s helped define the difference between, you know, living in his excellence. There’s no ego. No ego. No I on that.

Paige C. Clark 40:55
Yeah. Thank you so much Felicity for joining us. You’re beautiful. It was great. Thank you. Thank you, then. Awesome, and we’ll catch you guys on the next episode. Thanks for joining us. If you liked what you were listening to make sure you subscribe and hit those five stars.