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Faith, Risk and Growth · Christian Business Growth Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey, I'm Lyle.
• 0:02
  I'm here with Josh Johnson with we're on the Christian Business Growth Podcast.
• 0:06
  Welcome Josh.
• 0:08
  Tell us your story.
• 0:09
  What got you into business?
• 0:11
  Hey everybody, excited to be here.
• 0:13
  Thanks for having me, Lyle.
• 0:15
  So my business journey began pretty much from when I was born.
• 0:21
  I watched my grandfather as I was growing up.
• 0:24
  I watched him grow his business and the way that he grew his business, the way that he operated his business always inspired me.
• 0:32
  So when I was 16, I got the chance to hop on board at his company.
• 0:36
  He hired me to help introduce technology and marketing into his business.
• 0:41
  started out by uh building out websites, introducing different technology to the technology stack that they were using.
• 0:48
  And uh before long, I realized that I really had a knack for helping businesses to grow and implementing technology to do that.
• 0:58
  so uh throughout that process and several other pieces of my journey, I decided to go to business school to get a formal education in marketing.
• 1:07
  And uh that took about two years.
• 1:10
  And after that,
• 1:12
  moved to Dallas, Texas where I worked at a marketing agency for several months before I decided to file my first LLC and start my own business as a marketing consultant.
• 1:23
  So I did that for a little while and now we are here.
• 1:27
  Go back to when you said something about when you saw how your dad had your grandfather operate his business What are some things that stood out to you about the way he operated
• 1:35
  business that drew you into it?
• 1:38
  Yeah, always, my grandpa is one of the hardest working people that I know.
• 1:43
  And so uh while that for a lot of people might've been a turn off for why you'd want to get into business.
• 1:50
  That was something that always really inspired me.
• 1:53
  And just the respect that he was able to earn through the work that he provided for his customers and the way that he was able to provide for his family doing so was something
• 2:05
  that really uh
• 2:07
  drew me in and inspired me to uh start my own business.
• 2:13
  Cool.
• 2:14
  And what do you think is something that you take away from him?
• 2:17
  Is it that hard work ethic?
• 2:19
  What about honor and integrity and all those things?
• 2:21
  What do you think is the biggest thing you take away from him and you bring into your business?
• 2:26
  Yeah, I think hard work and grit is definitely one of the biggest things that I take away um and try and implement every day into my business.
• 2:35
  think my grandpa, he has a saying that he would always say to us on the way to school, and it's something that still I remember today and challenge me.
• 2:47
  He would always say, what Pop would do.
• 2:49
  We call him Pop.
• 2:50
  Do what Pop would do.
• 2:51
  ah so whenever I face a challenge or whenever I...
• 2:54
  I come across a task that I think is difficult.
• 2:57
  think, what would Pop do?
• 2:59
  And usually the answer is work hard and throw everything you got at it and see what's gonna stick and be successful.
• 3:07
  That's cool.
• 3:08
  I figured you had something in there you weren't telling us.
• 3:12
  And what was the transition?
• 3:13
  You say you've kind of pretty much always been in the entrepreneurial mindset, right?
• 3:18
  So what was the transition between working for your grandfather and doing on your own?
• 3:21
  Tell me how that transition worked out in your life.
• 3:24
  So it was, it's a really kind of unique experience.
• 3:30
  I worked with him for...
• 3:35
  six to eight years doing work specifically just with him and then started my own business.
• 3:41
  I was able to bring him on as a client with my business and also growing with other clients as uh well.
• 3:50
  It's really cool that I was able to start my own business to help other people but also still be able to be pretty closely involved with what he's doing and the growth of his
• 3:58
  business.
• 3:59
  and you went into marketing after going to school.
• 4:02
  So let's define marketing because a lot of people say advertising and marketing are the same.
• 4:06
  So how do you define marketing?
• 4:09
  So marketing to me is a lot about strategy.
• 4:12
  think advertising, in my mind, the way I kind of picture advertising is a lot of like ads.
• 4:18
  So like your videos that you see for the holidays coming up, trying to promote you to go to these stores, that's a lot of advertising.
• 4:27
  Marketing is the overall strategy behind that.
• 4:29
  So it's more like multi-channel, it's more uh all-encompassing of, okay, so marketing is gonna be uh how we develop our website to
• 4:39
  attract more customers, how we utilize those ads that we've produced through advertising to develop brand awareness and engage customers on uh all sorts of different levels.
• 4:52
  and you're a Christian, how does your faith impact your business?
• 4:56
  Yeah, so faith has played quite a huge role in the way that I approach business.
• 5:02
  I like to find biblical truths that kind of guide the path that I take and apply those principles in different ways across my business.
• 5:12
  And uh a story that's always challenged me in my business, how I operate my business, and kind of my mindset as well, is uh a story, the story of the parable of the three men and
• 5:24
  their talents that we find in Matthew 25.
• 5:26
  And I'll explain it just briefly.
• 5:29
  Essentially, a rich man, finds three servants in which he gives them talents, is where the Bible uses to describe it.
• 5:37
  Sometimes it's looked at as like coins, different things along those lines, but I like the word talents.
• 5:43
  But he finds these three men, he gives them talents, he gives one man 10, he gives another five, and he gives the last one just one talent.
• 5:52
  And he asks them to keep this safe while he's on his journey.
• 5:56
  So the one that's given 10 and the one that's given five uh go and invest this talent that was given to them in so much so that it produces interest, so to speak, and they are able
• 6:10
  to prove that they did well with the talent they were given.
• 6:15
  And the man that was given one talent, he buried the talent and did not grow the talent, did not utilize the talent effectively.
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  And so when the man comes back,
• 6:26
  The two men who grew their talents were blessed, whereas the one who hid his talent in fear was cursed.
• 6:33
  So I think this story challenges me as a leader and as a business owner because it tells me kind of two things.
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  Number one, God has given us all as business leaders a talent.
• 6:46
  And just even outside of that, as humans in general, I think each human is bestowed upon them talent and God expects us to get a return.
• 6:55
  on this investment that he's given to us.
• 6:58
  And then two, I think it shows that God is faithful to those who use their talents to grow.
• 7:04
  God's faithful to grow those talents as you put forth effort into growing those.
• 7:09
  So I think that's probably one of the biggest ways that faith has shaped my business and the story that I kind of uh reference a lot in my day to day and how I think through
• 7:19
  things.
• 7:19
  That's cool.
• 7:20
  Thanks for sharing.
• 7:21
  So you've gone through a lot of transition.
• 7:23
  You moved to the Dallas area for a little bit, and now you're up in the DC area and you're going to eventually move back to Austin.
• 7:30
  So you're a whole life's in transition.
• 7:32
  Tell us kind of how does business flow when you're moving all these different places?
• 7:36
  Kind of how do you structure that?
• 7:38
  How do you keep organized?
• 7:39
  How does that help you?
• 7:41
  Yeah, that's definitely been a challenge.
• 7:42
  Organization and structure, I've noticed in all the transition, it's easy to get caught up in the little moving pieces here and there and lose sight of the overall goal of what's
• 7:56
  going on.
• 7:57
  And so it has taken a lot of intentionality in terms of setting goals, setting deadlines, and then actively pursuing them no matter what is happening at that point in time.
• 8:09
  ah
• 8:10
  I remember when we were moving to the DC area for a short time, I had set a goal that I was trying to restructure my business to add on an AI consultant component to what we do.
• 8:25
  So being an AI and marketing consultant and that pivoting and developing that side of my business took a lot of work in terms of content development and just kind of overall
• 8:38
  adjusting the business model.
• 8:40
  And that happened right, pretty much smack dab in the middle of our transition to the DC area.
• 8:47
  And so during that time, it was really easy for me to focus on, we gotta hire the movers, we gotta do this, we gotta find a new office space, we gotta do all the things that we're
• 8:55
  gonna do and lose sight of the bigger goal, which was to develop my business into a new branch.
• 9:01
  And so what I did during that time was I made sure to carve out, even on days like the moving days, carve out at least an hour to
• 9:09
  work through, produce one piece of content a day, produce one meaningful piece of work each day that is gonna build on another piece of the puzzle.
• 9:20
  So I think that's kind of the biggest thing is no matter what, always find at least one thing that you can do, at least one thing you can do to push the buggy forward, so to
• 9:29
  speak, and ah never slow down on that.
• 9:34
  I love that because life is chaotic generally, no matter, even if you feel stable, there's things that are going to happen in your life to keep it.
• 9:41
  But if you focus on your strategy and your vision, those two things come together that makes a big impact on what you do in life.
• 9:48
  And then you throw God in the middle of it and you just got it all worked out.
• 9:52
  So let's move into the segment.
• 9:54
  We like this as Christian business grows.
• 9:57
  Let's talk about business growth.
• 9:58
  And I kind of left a little bit extra time on this one for you because you and I have done a lot of work together on the marketing side of business stuff.
• 10:04
  So somebody listening, they're a Christian in business, they have their faith in line, now they're trying to grow their business, kind of talk us through what are some tips or some
• 10:13
  ideas they should have in place, and we'll probably lean on strategy on that, that what are some tips they can have in their life that helps them keep structured, and maybe a
• 10:22
  business tip, something they can do in their business this week to help them grow their business.
• 10:27
  Yeah, one thing that I've really focused on over the last several months in terms of developing my own business is focusing inward, focusing on my mindset, my perspective.
• 10:41
  I noticed, uh maybe it was on the long drive during the move, that I had some internal barriers to the business growth and to where I wanted to be in my head, in my perspective.
• 10:55
  that I felt were holding me back from achieving that true potential.
• 10:59
  And so one thing that I've been encouraging the people who I talk to and the people in my circles lately is uh to focus on that mindset, to focus on uh the idea that we all were
• 11:15
  created in God's image and being that we were created in God's image, we should live as such.
• 11:21
  And with that mindset, with that perspective, with that...
• 11:25
  with all the things that come along with that.
• 11:27
  know ah for a lot of us in all walks of life, we tend to opt for guilty pleasures and what we find in our comfort zone rather than living as God intended us to live, which is to
• 11:38
  create and to bring value into the world and into the lives of those around us.
• 11:43
  And so I think something that's kind of challenged me is rather than being a passive participant in what God's doing, whether it's in business or in the church or all these
• 11:53
  different things,
• 11:55
  try and be an active creator in the story of what God is trying to create within us and through us.
• 12:01
  And then I think in terms of a more practical business approach, something that you can do this week and the coming weeks to really ah start to see growth in what you're trying to
• 12:14
  do with your business.
• 12:19
  I've been challenged by the idea lately of, it's a quote from a guy, a business entrepreneur called uh Alex Hermosy.
• 12:29
  I'm sure most people have heard of him before, especially if you are on social media and own a business.
• 12:35
  He's probably sent you some ads.
• 12:37
  But he has a quote that says, let me think it through real quick.
• 12:45
  He says, if you want to succeed at something, if you want to,
• 12:48
  have success, what you should do is to put so much volume and so much effort into what you do that it would be unreasonable for you not to succeed.
• 12:58
  And so ah whether that's in sales and you're trying to send out, you need to send out X amount of emails to have success.
• 13:06
  Do an amount that's greater than that.
• 13:09
  That would be so much so that it would be unreasonable for you not to succeed.
• 13:13
  And I think you could do that in any area of your life.
• 13:15
  You could think about that in terms of business.
• 13:17
  You can think about that in terms of church and how much you serve and how much you do different things in the church to have success in that area.
• 13:25
  You can think about that in your marriage and how I'm gonna serve my wife so much, I'm gonna do as much as I can around the house, so much so that it would be unreasonable for
• 13:34
  uh my marriage not to be successful.
• 13:37
  Different things along those lines.
• 13:38
  I think that's a strong quote that you could do within business but also apply to several areas of your life.
• 13:45
  Good word, thank you for that.
• 13:46
  Now I'm gonna ask you to go back a little bit, because you talked about the mindset.
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  A lot of people are like, I don't need to work on my mindset, I've got it all figured out.
• 13:52
  ah But even in the middle of success, there's still barriers.
• 13:55
  We all have barriers in different areas of our lives and everything.
• 13:57
  Can you talk to maybe one of those barriers that you've dealt with that might help someone else that's listening to this podcast?
• 14:04
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 14:06
  One barrier that I've noticed in my own perspective at times is ah the idea of risk aversion and being afraid to take risks for one of two reasons.
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  One, ah it would push me out of my current comfort zone or it could push me out of my current comfort zone and that it would be uncomfortable.
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  so ah that risk at that point would be a little ah
• 14:34
  difficult to take or the idea of loss, is idea that we all are averse to.
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  Nobody wants to lose what they already have.
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  But one thing that we also have to remember in that, while we don't want to lose what we have, we also
• 14:56
  need to take risk in order to gain more, if that is the perspective that you want to have.
• 15:01
  in business, ah growth is a crucial mindset.
• 15:06
  We all want to grow our business.
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  We all want to scale our business.
• 15:09
  And I think a big part of that ah is we do that so that we can benefit the kingdom of God, so that we can reinvest that back into the poor, into the sick, into those who need it the
• 15:21
  most.
• 15:21
  And so I think ah
• 15:24
  overcoming risk aversion and the way I've done that personally is trying to find, I'm real big into practical things that you could do every day.
• 15:34
  Little things take less than a minute that are gonna help break out of some of these like negative mindsets or help push you ahead into what you're trying to do.
• 15:44
  And so one thing that I personally did trying to break this risk aversion thing was, ah
• 15:49
  Anytime I perceived a risk or I found something that I could perceive a risk in, I would do it.
• 15:55
  So maybe I was on the train and I saw a stranger who needed help and something about that seemed somewhat risky to me, I would just go ahead and help.
• 16:04
  ah If there was a conversation, if I'm at a networking event and I see somebody who seems like they're kind of closed off but they seem like they could be a good connection, I'm
• 16:15
  gonna go ahead and take the risk and kind of avoid.
• 16:18
  not avoid this social anxiety, go ahead and hit it straight on and have the conversation and see see how it turns out.
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  So just little things that you could do to challenge this risk aversion every day.
• 16:29
  Because the little things day by day, as little as they might be, add up to be large things over time.
• 16:37
  Yeah, I've seen people go to extremes.
• 16:38
  They'll go to the middle of a mall or something and just yell out loud.
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  And as they see, it doesn't matter.
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  It's not nobody's really paying attention to you, you know, to kind of really force themselves.
• 16:47
  I like that you pointed out the little things you do because fear can be interpreted as excitement if we choose for it to be interpreted as excitement.
• 16:57
  Sometimes fear is our brain not protecting ourselves, but the fear of success, the fear of failure, the fear, the fear of success sounds kind of backwards.
• 17:06
  But that's what we do.
• 17:08
  That's the difference between an employee and an entrepreneur.
• 17:10
  The entrepreneur's taking a larger risk, therefore they have larger value, therefore they have larger income.
• 17:15
  It's just that simple.
• 17:18
  What are some other little tips you've done to deal with that risk aversion?
• 17:22
  Because I think everybody, as an entrepreneur, we've taken those risks.
• 17:26
  But there comes a point where we're like, do I take the next risk?
• 17:28
  Do I add one more thing on there?
• 17:31
  Right, right.
• 17:32
  Yeah, it's all a balancing act in terms of risk.
• 17:36
  There's definitely risk.
• 17:37
  You can definitely over leverage yourself and find yourself into an issue, which is where the fear comes from.
• 17:44
  You are trying to gauge out where that line is between over leveraged and under leveraged.
• 17:50
  You want to find the sweet spot in that because you're under leveraged, you're leaving reward on the table.
• 17:55
  Whereas if you're over leveraged, you could lose whatever reward that you were trying to have.
• 18:01
  So I think as you do these little things day by day, you are able to find where that line is.
• 18:08
  The more practice, the more you have uh tested the different boundaries with risk and with reward, the more experience you get to find where that middle ground is, where the sweet
• 18:19
  spot for risk.
• 18:21
  And so I think just continually trying new things.
• 18:24
  And I think uh another thing that helped me was
• 18:29
  picking up new hobbies that are outside of business.
• 18:31
  And so one thing that I've learned recently is how to play chess.
• 18:37
  And I always hesitated to play chess.
• 18:40
  I always thought it would be so cool.
• 18:41
  I knew how to play checkers, uh is uh a lesser version of chess.
• 18:47
  And I always thought, I'm good at checkers, but I'm not smart enough for chess.
• 18:52
  And that was one of those mindset things that I was like, no, I think I'm a pretty smart guy.
• 18:57
  personal thought of myself, so why would I not be able to learn and play chess?
• 19:02
  And so I challenged myself a few months ago, I like, all right, I'm gonna download chess.com on my app and then play it once a day, play one game a day of chess.
• 19:12
  within a week, the first time I did it, I was terrible.
• 19:16
  And within a week, knew what the pieces were, I knew where they moved, I knew how they moved.
• 19:21
  And at that point, I was like, okay, what's the next level in this?
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  What's the next risk I could take to
• 19:27
  build in this skill and also kind of play around with this idea of risk.
• 19:32
  And the next best thing would be joining a chess club.
• 19:35
  And so right now in the process of looking for chess clubs and it's risky because odds are most of the people in the club are going to be much better at chess than me because I'm
• 19:45
  still in the novice skill set.
• 19:48
  ah
• 19:51
  I think it has a lot of room for reward because I'll be able to learn from people who are better than me.
• 19:55
  I'll be able to make connections with people who know how to play the game, who might be good business connections, who could be good personal connections and all that fun stuff.
• 20:04
  So I think ah just finding skills, uh hobbies outside of business and pushing boundaries and that, trying to figure out, okay, maybe chess isn't your thing, but maybe it's like
• 20:17
  scuba diving.
• 20:18
  Scuba diving is something you've always wanted to do, but.
• 20:20
  You have to take the classes and it's kind of scary because you're going underwater and it's the whole deal.
• 20:25
  But what's holding you back from trying it out and seeing if it's something that you'd like, you know?
• 20:30
  Right.
• 20:31
  That's good.
• 20:31
  Thank you for that word.
• 20:33
  So as we end up here, how can people get in touch with you?
• 20:36
  So the best way to get in touch with me is gonna be through my website.
• 20:40
  It's gonna be www.rev-strategy.com and there you'll be able to find my Instagram, my LinkedIn.
• 20:49
  I'm always trying to post more on both Instagram and LinkedIn to get more in touch with the people who I do work with.
• 20:57
  So definitely check out my website and LinkedIn and Instagram as well.
• 21:01
  And yeah, that'd be the best way to get in touch with me.
• 21:04
  And what's one little tidbit of wisdom you want to leave us with today?
• 21:08
  I'll leave you guys with this quote.
• 21:10
  It's a quote that's been sitting with me over the last three to four months.
• 21:16
  It's really challenged me.
• 21:17
  It's by a guy named William Butler Yeats.
• 21:20
  And the quote is, don't wait to strike until the iron is hot, but make the iron hot by striking.
• 21:29
  Good word.
• 21:30
  Thanks, Josh.
• 21:31
  Appreciate you being with us today.
• 21:32
  Thank you, Lyle.
• 21:33
  Thanks for having me.