Sam Steadman ’16 Receives 4 Under 40 Achievement Award

Over the summer, Sam Steadman ’16 and his Team Steady staff of realtors and support staff gathered for a team trip to a cabin in Cambridge, Minnesota. As they spent a few days having fun and doing Bible studies, Steadman was struck by God’s faithfulness in his journey of co-leading the real estate team. He reflected on how meaningful it’s been to infuse faith and strong conviction into Team Steady’s DNA. “Work doesn’t have to be a grind. Work doesn’t have to be secular,” Steadman says. “Work can be fun, it can be life-giving, and it can be infused with a whole other set of values and faith that makes it just super fun and really special.”

Leading Team Steady, which is affiliated with RE/MAX Results, with his brother-in-law Taylor Doolittle and Lars Anderson ‘17, Steadman and his team continue carving out a niche in the real estate industry by basing their business around their faith and strong biblical values. For his work, Steadman has been recognized as one of Bethel University’s 2023 4 Under 40 Alumni Award recipients.

Steadman, a Minnetonka, Minnesota, native, traces his real estate roots to his time at Bethel. Steadman studied business because he knew it could lead to several areas and career options, and he opted for a B.S. in Accounting and Finance to challenge himself and build strong foundational skills. “What I was really thankful for was that the degree really equipped me, I felt like, to do anything in business that I wanted to do,” he says. He wondered about becoming an accountant or CPA, but he realized that wasn’t his passion. He explored real estate throughout his time at Bethel, following groups like BiggerPockets, an online network of real estate investors that features forums, blogs, and podcasts. It felt like a side hustle—something fun to learn about—but it inspired him to pursue his real estate license during his senior year. “I actually sold a couple of houses before I even graduated and that’s when the lightbulb went off in my head—like man, maybe I can do this, maybe this is something I want to do as a full-time job,” he says.

Steadman also relished the opportunity to live and grow on a Christ-guided campus at such a formative time, and he credits the connections he made as a foundation for success. “The community and just the culture that I encountered at Bethel was amazing,” he says. Along with growing his knowledge and wisdom around the Bible, Steadman forged strong relationships and left Bethel with a group of additional brothers and lifelong friends. Bethel also connected him to a network of wonderful, high-quality Christian people who supported him as he started his real estate career. “That really kind of catapulted me into a good amount of success at a young age,” he says. “I would not be doing what I’m doing or where I am without so many supporting people at Bethel that, just out of the goodness of their hearts, wanted to work with me.”

In 2016, Steadman formed Team Steady with Doolittle, while Anderson came on board shortly after. Branching from there, he started Steady Management in 2018, his own management company that works with developments, flips, and investment properties. Headquartered near Loring Park in Minneapolis, Team Steady and Steady Management oversee millions of dollars in real estate transactions and property management each year across Minnesota. Despite working in a high-dollar industry, Steadman and his team don’t strive to be driven by money. Steadman says he and the team have found success basing the team’s driving principles on their shared Christian faith and a desire for their work to be a mission field. “We have so many awesome, wonderful, genuine followers of Christ on our team,” Steadman says. “And we hope that by having some success in real estate, we can use it to start conversations and inspire other people to live in a more Godly way.”

While many separate their faith from their work, Steadman sees them as deeply linked. “I think we’re a group of like-minded followers that have a unity of mind that advocate for and trust each other and support each other, and that allows us to do some special stuff,” he says. And while real estate is often a field that requires agents to promote themselves and their teams, Steadman says strong ethics and values often send the strongest message. If they do their jobs well and provide a good sales process—with clear goals, good expectations, and honest discussions—then word of mouth gets around. “People will promote you, people will refer you, people will speak highly of you, people will want to give you reviews, they’ll want to use you again,” he says. “We focus on having an extremely high-quality process and treating every person you encounter in a really high-quality way so that they're encouraged through the process to give referrals and to pass on the word that we’re a good real estate team.”

Steadman calls each real estate transaction a deeply personal experience as it determines where someone will work and live. It can be a high-stress situation. So the team aims to treat people in a Christ-like way, and Steadman advocates for daily Bible study and reflection. “It’s the best business book you can read because it teaches you how to treat people in a Godly way,” he says. Beyond that, Team Steady often hosts regular Bible studies, some with help from area churches, and these frequently attract agents and partners from outside the team. Steadman also participates in a separate Bible study on Monday mornings with fellow real estate agents.

As Steadman’s family has grown, his priorities have shifted. As he helps manage a team of about a dozen agents, he starts each day with the priorities of receiving the Word of God and focusing on his family. “This job is really just a tool to try to spend as much time with them,” he says. In his work, he strives to be efficient and set good boundaries and expectations so he can prioritize time with his wife, Shea, and their three children: Sawyer, 4; Lars, 2; and Gianna, 6 months. And one of Steadman’s proudest parts of his work is to help his agents do the same. Real estate can be a tough business, but he loves seeing agents grow and reach the point of sustainable success that helps provide better situations for them and their families. “It’s really rewarding to be involved in that process,” he says.