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Called and Tested with Brandon Stafford · Christian Business Growth Podcast

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to Christian Business Growth Podcast.
• 0:04
  I'm Reverend Lyle.
• 0:04
  I'm here with Brandon Stafford and he's with Little B's Indoor Billboards and Digital Marketing.
• 0:10
  He's got a really exciting story to share today.
• 0:12
  So, Brandon, take it over.
• 0:13
  How did you get started in business?
• 0:16
  Man, I got started back in about 2022, 2023.
• 0:21
  I was working a job as an athletic trainer at a local high school here in the mid-cities area.
• 0:28
  My wife and I were the youth pastors of a small church.
• 0:31
  And it was difficult to do both at the same time.
• 0:34
  um We wanted to impact the kids lives, but we didn't have a whole lot of time outside of our jobs to really be able to pour into them the way we wanted to.
• 0:43
  um So God was kind of just stirring in me a desire to kind of take my time back to do more in the ministry and um what that looked like.
• 0:52
  um And I had some friends that had uh started kind of their own businesses and it really kind of God was stirring in me.
• 1:00
  This is what I want you to do.
• 1:01
  I want you to be able
• 1:01
  take your time back and
• 1:04
  you know, working 80 hours a week wasn't good for the family.
• 1:07
  It wasn't good for the ministry.
• 1:08
  Um, and so I'd always kind of had a desire for the billboards on the side of the road.
• 1:14
  I'd always kind of seen that as something like once you kind of buy the, the steak, the, the billboard kind of can run operationally pretty easily.
• 1:23
  And I saw myself being able to do both my job and do the indoor billboards for a while.
• 1:30
  together is kind of, I,
• 1:32
  started in my own mind.
• 1:34
  um And so my dad passed away from COVID a little after I kind of started running down this path and he left a little bit of an inheritance for me.
• 1:46
  Wasn't a great amount, but it was enough to help me start the business and to buy into the franchise and not go into a whole lot of debt.
• 1:53
  um And so.
• 1:56
  um We started this journey.
• 1:58
  um I was trying to do it part time and while I was doing my other job.
• 2:07
  I had a little bit of success early on.
• 2:09
  I was able to kind do it, but then it was hard, especially as football season rolled back around with my job, to stay.
• 2:18
  to stay in contact with the same business owners that I had put indoor billboards in, to stay in with the advertisers.
• 2:25
  And so it was really difficult, um but God provided a way.
• 2:30
  He provided some consistency through that.
• 2:32
  He continued to provide growth through it.
• 2:34
  um And recently we've gone through a change in seasons.
• 2:39
  um And so that's been exciting.
• 2:42
  It's been difficult, um but we're only...
• 2:46
  We're only two and a half years into the business.
• 2:48
  So it's still new, it's still growing.
• 2:51
  But God's put us into a new season that's exciting and it's hard, but um we're in a season now where God's asked us to move out of the youth ministry.
• 3:01
  we've become the outreach directors of our local small church.
• 3:06
  um I recently left my job about six months ago.
• 3:10
  It really wasn't on my terms.
• 3:12
  It really wasn't in the way that I wanted to do it.
• 3:14
  um But we believe it was an answered prayer.
• 3:16
  We have been fasting and praying for God's direction in it.
• 3:18
  um He made it very clear that it was time for me to exit m and to see what he's done since then and how he's worked and how I wouldn't have been able to hold the job and the
• 3:29
  outreach director position that the pastor had in store for us.
• 3:33
  uh It wouldn't be able to go together well.
• 3:36
  It wouldn't be able to have the impact that it's having now.
• 3:38
  um
• 3:40
  while we know God was in it from the beginning, we really see God moving in it now.
• 3:45
  And the cool thing is to see how everything starts to intertwine.
• 3:49
  um
• 3:50
  I've told this to people before is I used to think I was a business owner doing ministry on the side.
• 3:56
  And now it appears that I'm doing ministry with a business as on the side.
• 4:03
  And it's been cool because I when I started the business, it wasn't really a full fledged idea, but it was a way that I wanted to be able to.
• 4:11
  We had kind of come out of covid when I got this idea to start this and we saw a lot of dark money, a lot of big businesses that kind of ran the
• 4:20
  country.
• 4:21
  And so there was a uh stirring inside of me at that same time to promote kingdom businesses, to get kingdom businesses to have the money to be able to be the growth to be
• 4:31
  able to be the ones that have the impact and the voice and the influence over our government.
• 4:39
  And we can't do that without some sort of monetary availability, some monetary ability.
• 4:47
  And so that was kind of the impetus on why I want to do the indoor billboards too, was to be able to share the gospel, to be able to have a kingdom impact.
• 4:54
  And right now, it's cool because I get to do that.
• 4:58
  I'm not making a great amount of money, but I feel like I'm making a kingdom impact our indoor billboards have a rotating daily Bible verse That's sharing the gospel every day
• 5:08
  whether it's Romans 3 23 whether it's John 3 16 whether it's John 1 1 whether it's a Proverbs or a psalm Whether it's Genesis 1 1, you know, it rotates through their daily
• 5:21
  our church advertises on there.
• 5:23
  um I have KCBI radio as a partner advertiser, you know, and I've done it for them for free as like a tie to our business.
• 5:31
  um Just to again, to promote the kingdom, I've partnered with um Central Storehouse down in Arlington, or I guess it's Fort Worth, but they're a nonprofit food pantry.
• 5:44
  um And so as an in kind donation, I run their ads for some of their things that they're doing.
• 5:51
  And so it's really become this great kingdom centric vessel, if you will.
• 5:59
  um And some of the businesses I try to partner with businesses that have like mine and that are aligned in the same goals.
• 6:05
  I have a parlor donuts as a host business.
• 6:07
  um And, you know, they go to they go to a big church up in up in up in South Laker, Great Vaughan and, you know, really dedicated to spreading the word where they've got
• 6:19
  You know, one of those little foldable stands outside where she puts a Bible verse outside their front door.
• 6:24
  And so coming into kingdom alignment with businesses that have the same values, one of the first stores I put in a TV was a coffee shop called Babylon Coffee Roasters.
• 6:34
  And she's an immigrant from Iraq um that's come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 6:40
  And when I walked in there the first time, there's Christian music playing on and there's people in there studying their Bible.
• 6:46
  There's people in there having Bible uh studies.
• 6:49
  in the morning when you go in and so there's there's a stirring and I'm just hoping to be a part of that stirring and that outpouring.
• 6:58
  So how important is God's word to impacting a business?
• 7:01
  Because you mentioned that multiple times that you have God's word everywhere you go.
• 7:05
  me, let's unpack that a little bit.
• 7:08
  I mean, I think God's Word's always gonna go out and accomplish what it desires and what He desires for it.
• 7:16
  I had this conversation, we were on a mission trip back in um Bentonville, no, excuse me, we were in West Virginia and there's a coffee shop there that's a part of a church and
• 7:30
  they offer free coffee.
• 7:32
  to people that just stop in.
• 7:34
  And so that way people will come in, they'll have coffee, they can sit down and they can talk about, it's a way to try to just get people to open up and to talk and then to be
• 7:44
  able to have an opportunity to share the gospel or to invite them to the church.
• 7:47
  um
• 7:49
  And we went the next year, we went to Indianapolis this last year, and me and this guy that runs this coffee shop were having a discussion about my business.
• 8:00
  And we had been talking about how he had brought up bars, restaurants, things like that.
• 8:07
  And I was like, well, I'm not really in bars or restaurants because I don't know if it really aligns with my values.
• 8:12
  And I was like, I'm not sure if I'm ready to take that on yet to do that.
• 8:17
  And he was like, Brandon, can I ask you a question?
• 8:20
  He's like, what if the person sitting at the bar sees that rotating daily Bible verse, puts down their beer and goes and accepts the Lord Jesus Christ or returns to a
• 8:28
  relationship in Christ Jesus?
• 8:29
  Have you done what God's instructed you to do?
• 8:32
  And so it started me that that just being able to have a rotating daily Bible verse on there, it was important.
• 8:38
  was one of the first things that I started to do and how we could figure out how to do that and make it fresh and new and every day.
• 8:47
  uh And it was one of the things when me and KCBI radio came into into conversations, me and Chris had the same conversation was like, they didn't want to be in places that would
• 8:56
  harm their reputation, which was a fair, fair, very fair concern of his.
• 9:01
  And I brought up the same question to him was, but we're supposed to go into the world and make disciples, we're supposed to go out to all of the world and proclaim the word.
• 9:12
  And so
• 9:13
  I understand.
• 9:14
  So we had that conversation and I'm not playing KCVI radio and bars and bars and um that's that's request at this time, um which is fine.
• 9:25
  But that's to me, that's the importance of the word.
• 9:28
  And that's what I'm hoping to be able to do, even as I go out into businesses to find host partners um is for people to hear my story where I've come from.
• 9:37
  I mean, I didn't grow up in the church.
• 9:39
  I grew up with two alcoholic parents.
• 9:41
  I didn't know the word.
• 9:43
  Heaven and hell was what you earned.
• 9:45
  Right?
• 9:45
  Like how many people heard that?
• 9:46
  That's where you go when you're a good kid.
• 9:47
  That's where you go when you're a bad kid.
• 9:50
  I didn't have a connection until I got into high school and then I wandered off in college for 10, 15 years.
• 9:57
  And when God called me back to Himself,
• 10:00
  ah I have a great story inside of me that I get to share with people and God's put me in this community to go out as I'm looking for business partners to be able to share that
• 10:09
  word, whether it's uplifting to the other peoples, whether it's encouraging, it's me sharing God's word like you said and letting it do what God desires for it to do, what he
• 10:20
  wills it for it to do.
• 10:21
  I'm just the vessel of which to proclaim it.
• 10:24
  It's always a balance between evangelizing and impacting the saints, if you want to call it that.
• 10:30
  And so that balance is you've got to impact the world, but it's what you're doing aligning with what you're called to, what your purpose is, what your passion is, what God's placed
• 10:38
  you here on this earth for.
• 10:40
  All of us have a calling in our business.
• 10:42
  Our business is our ministry.
• 10:44
  And we have to fulfill that calling, that purpose, because that's ultimately where God wants us to be.
• 10:49
  Sometimes we get in our own ways when we go through those things.
• 10:52
  Yeah.
• 10:53
  I mean, it's a tough, it's a tough balance because I know, you know, when I, when I first started this, I know that I probably put up billboards in places that weren't in alignment
• 11:01
  with the values that I wanted, which
• 11:04
  was I think necessary, but as I've seen God work now, some of those places that were not in alignment with, I'm having to remove those TVs for whatever, you one place um I was
• 11:17
  having technical issues.
• 11:18
  And I don't think that that's just a coincidence that I couldn't figure out why we couldn't resolve the technical issues.
• 11:25
  I God was saying, this is not a value I want you to align with.
• 11:30
  And so it's time for you to move out of here.
• 11:32
  um And so it's difficult because
• 11:34
  because I feel like I was going backwards in the moment, but in the same time, I'm moving forward in creating that better alignment for God's word to go out and to be proclaimed.
• 11:46
  Again, to impact those businesses that are also in alignment, that are wanting to spread God's word, that are wanting to be in community um with kingdom-centered businesses to
• 11:56
  impact the kingdom.
• 11:57
  I don't talk a lot about it, but when I was in my younger days, I was in Houston and that's when I came to the same realization.
• 12:03
  I was doing a logo for a bar and I just stepped back and went, that really what I want to do with my life?
• 12:09
  Do I really want to represent that with my life?
• 12:12
  And I pulled back and took a different direction from that point forward.
• 12:15
  So we're to move into our...
• 12:17
  to bartend, sorry, I used to bartend.
• 12:19
  ah before I got into youth pastoring, had to like, as God called me back into himself, I had to think about that same thing.
• 12:25
  Is this what God wants me to continue to do?
• 12:28
  ah Even though was supporting our family, right?
• 12:32
  Like I had to step back and be like, no, where are we going with this?
• 12:36
  Where are we going in our lives?
• 12:38
  So it's hard, it's hard.
• 12:41
  How do you make that decision?
• 12:44
  prayer and wisdom.
• 12:47
  mean, just seeking, seeking wise counsel and just listening to the Holy Spirit and where it's guiding you.
• 12:55
  um It's never easy and it's never direct.
• 13:00
  um I say that except what, except what happened to me about six months ago when I asked God to make it clear and obvious for me.
• 13:08
  He sure did.
• 13:09
  uh But yeah, I mean, it's just,
• 13:14
  time, you know, just continuing to be obedient, you know, reading the word, saying consistent in his word.
• 13:21
  And you're not going to hear from him if you're not in the word.
• 13:26
  Yeah, that is where you're rooted.
• 13:28
  You're rooted in God's word.
• 13:29
  That's how you hear from him.
• 13:31
  Most number one.
• 13:32
  ah So give us some business growth tips.
• 13:35
  We're going to kind of move into our concept of the business growth part of our podcast.
• 13:40
  I mean, right now as an indoor billboard and digital marketing company, think it could be a shameless plug for my business.
• 13:48
  But I think some of the biggest things that local businesses are missing out on are just the simple things that they can do.
• 13:58
  Sometimes because it's time consuming, sometimes it's because it's not what they're good at.
• 14:03
  But with the way that
• 14:05
  People are finding your local business.
• 14:07
  Hey, it's Google business profile management.
• 14:09
  Do you need a Google business profile?
• 14:11
  You know people are searching for your business They're searching for what you do Where you what what services you provide and if you don't have a Google business profile that
• 14:22
  that's they're never gonna find you You're competing against so many other big businesses that have the money to do this And so if a simple search on Google's not finding you your
• 14:34
  local
• 14:35
  customers aren't finding you.
• 14:36
  um You have to have a good website.
• 14:39
  And those two go hand in hand.
• 14:42
  We've been talking about this recently m through the franchises that I'm a part of.
• 14:47
  um
• 14:52
  AI is starting to be the chat GBTs, the Gemini, the Claude's.
• 14:57
  This is where more and more people are going to get recommendations for where to go, who to use as these business partners, and what is it using to recommend people.
• 15:07
  It's using your Google business profile and it's you're using your website.
• 15:11
  So your website has to be, it has to, it has to be able to have some SEO on the backend.
• 15:17
  um It has to be clean and organized.
• 15:20
  It has to be multiple pages.
• 15:22
  And because Google or the the the AI search engines are going to crawl your Google business profile and your website very quickly to see if they think that you are an expert
• 15:32
  in the field if you are a active um Active business and if it doesn't see these things quickly and efficiently It's not going to recommend you and while it's not the forefront
• 15:43
  Google is still probably the most used search engine AI is slowly growing these clods
• 15:49
  And so you have to, and it's the same thing with your social media.
• 15:53
  Even if you're not great at it, even if the content that you're posting isn't great, you need to be active.
• 15:59
  You need to be active with your Google business profile.
• 16:01
  That means you need to be adding photos.
• 16:03
  It needs to means you need to be replying to reviews.
• 16:06
  It means you need to be um posting updates um once a week.
• 16:11
  These are simple things every business owner can do.
• 16:14
  It's time consuming.
• 16:16
  Sometimes it's
• 16:17
  overwhelming um because you don't want it, you're not good at it or you don't feel comfortable with it.
• 16:24
  um These are all things as a digital marketing company we do, we provide these services but
• 16:33
  I've also seen that when I've done these things through my own business, that my business has grown this way too.
• 16:39
  The interactions through Google, how many interactions, how many people are visiting my website through this constant interaction through my Google business profile, through
• 16:48
  having my website developed appropriately, through posting on social media.
• 16:52
  The content doesn't have to be viral, but Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, they have to see that you are active.
• 16:59
  um
• 17:01
  And so that's really, and then consistency.
• 17:03
  um Man.
• 17:07
  And that's probably where, that's probably the word that God's put on my heart for this year is just to be consistent.
• 17:13
  We're not trying to move mountains on our own.
• 17:17
  God's just asking for us to be obedient day by day, step by step.
• 17:25
  And when we do that, He will do the work.
• 17:29
  He will bless.
• 17:31
  He will reward us with the harvest.
• 17:35
  And it's just, it's the parable of the sower and the seed.
• 17:40
  And it's kind of where I've tried to tell people where I feel like I'm at right now.
• 17:44
  It's been hard recently.
• 17:46
  It feels like it's the middle of August in Texas.
• 17:51
  It hasn't rained in months.
• 17:53
  You're tired of working.
• 17:56
  but you know that if you just keep trudging along that fall rain is going to happen and that harvest is just on the other side of it.
• 18:04
  The hard part is is sometimes it feels like it's August and it's only June and sometimes the way the heat wave that we just got sometimes it's only March but you just got to be
• 18:17
  consistent.
• 18:18
  Be consistent in posting on your Google business profile.
• 18:21
  Be consistent in adding those photos.
• 18:23
  Be consistent with updating your social media.
• 18:27
  Whatever it is, whether it's promoting your business, whether it's promoting a community partnership, whether it's just saying, support this cause, whatever it is, maybe it's just
• 18:38
  spreading the word that you want to spread and letting people know that you are a Christian business.
• 18:44
  Do that.
• 18:45
  So that way that AI, when it starts to get more and more um taking over, recommending businesses, you've already established that consistent rapport with social media and your
• 18:57
  Google business profile to be seen as a legitimate business that can compete with these other people.
• 19:04
  The things you're mentioning, they're not difficult and they're free.
• 19:09
  Google business page is free.
• 19:11
  Social media is free.
• 19:12
  It takes a lot of time.
• 19:13
  And if you develop a system, and that's the key is having your system in your business.
• 19:18
  You develop that system, that's your consistency.
• 19:19
  I was in a group of coaches recently and one of the guys said, consistency beats your resistance.
• 19:25
  And I thought that was so powerful because we get resistant.
• 19:28
  not, oh, I don't know if I'm posting.
• 19:29
  I don't know if anybody's seeing it.
• 19:30
  I have had five people recently tell me, oh yeah, sorry, post.
• 19:34
  Oh, it's touching my life.
• 19:35
  It's amazing.
• 19:36
  All this stuff, but no one's commented and no one's made it.
• 19:39
  So you don't know the impact you have when you post those, that consistency factor.
• 19:43
  If you know your audience and you know how to communicate with that audience.
• 19:47
  Yeah.
• 19:48
  Consistency and it's hard.
• 19:50
  mean I like yes Google business profile social media.
• 19:54
  They're all free But sometimes it's like I don't know what to post or like or developing the systems to do it That's been the hard part about me in the advertising space of trying
• 20:02
  to find advertisers is what kind of system can I do to stay because Not every first email not every first phone call is gonna generate an advertiser to say yes.
• 20:12
  It has to stay with the consistent communication and sometimes it's like after
• 20:18
  oh emails you just like well that's not worth it well that didn't that didn't work out two phone calls and well I can't get to the decision-maker so what do I do now and so but that
• 20:30
  consistency is but it's having a system to manage it and to know when was the last time I communicated with this person what what kind of communication was it and so the systems to
• 20:40
  develop the systems can be hard and and that's where I would encourage people like that's what I had to do and
• 20:47
  And I had a conversation with chat or with Claude or chat GPT right about is I spent four hours trying to develop a system to organize myself, to be effective for me, to keep track
• 20:58
  of this.
• 20:59
  And I'm like, that was four hours out of my day that I didn't do anything.
• 21:03
  That's what it felt like.
• 21:05
  But it said, if you get one sale from this, divide that by the four hours you spent.
• 21:12
  That's your value that you just put into it.
• 21:15
  So.
• 21:15
  have here, how can people get in touch with you and what's one little bit of wisdom you want to leave us with today?
• 21:21
  One little piece of wisdom.
• 21:26
  People can get in touch with me.
• 21:27
  817-894-3612 is the phone number that you can call.
• 21:32
  um You can visit our website, littlebesbillboards.com.
• 21:36
  um You can find us on social media.
• 21:39
  You can find us on Facebook.
• 21:40
  You can find us on Instagram.
• 21:42
  It's not great.
• 21:43
  It's not great content, but again, it's been consistent.
• 21:46
  It's consistent.
• 21:47
  um
• 21:49
  So what we're seeking right now just as a business is more advertisers in our network.
• 21:54
  We are looking for advertisers, kingdom centered businesses to host our indoor billboards.
• 21:59
  So if you're a kingdom minded business that wants to get your name out into the local community, that's what we're seeking.
• 22:06
  So if that's you, reach out to us by all means.
• 22:10
  You can send us an email too.
• 22:11
  You can contact us through the website, through our Google business profile.
• 22:15
  And a little piece of wisdom.
• 22:17
  Man, I think I've already said it's be consistent.
• 22:21
  um But I shared uh at the Dallas Christian Business Networking Group yesterday, Isaiah 43, 18.
• 22:30
  It ah says, God's doing a new work in you.
• 22:34
  But in verse 21, he goes on to say that the reason that he's doing it is for his people to praise him.
• 22:42
  And God is consistent in his promises and his promises is even in the hard things that he's doing it for a purpose and revelations.
• 22:53
  Romans 5, 3 through 5 is one of my favorite verses.
• 22:57
  And it says, not only so, but be glory in these trials because these trials are producing perseverance.
• 23:03
  The perseverance produces character and that character produces hope.
• 23:07
  And hope does not put us to shame because the love of Christ has been poured into our holy
• 23:11
  has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us.
• 23:14
  It is our why.
• 23:15
  We're gonna go through hard times and we're gonna go through trials, but it gives us the character of one who perseveres.
• 23:22
  And when we've overcome and we've become that one who can persevere, it gives us the hope that the next trial, the next hard thing that we go through, we can overcome because God's
• 23:33
  love has been poured into our heart.
• 23:34
  And why does he wanna do it?
• 23:35
  He wants to do it so his people will praise him.
• 23:38
  If he's established it, he's going to bring it to completion.
• 23:42
  um
• 23:43
  And so just keep on, just keep on being consistent.
• 23:46
  When it looks hard, when it feels hard, know that God is doing something still.
• 23:50
  He hasn't left you, He hasn't abandoned you, He hasn't forsaken you.
• 23:55
  He's doing something and it's for His glory.
• 23:58
  Why?
• 23:59
  Because I know the hard things that this business is doing right now, but I know when we look back in a year, I'm gonna be able to come back on this podcast and say, remember when
• 24:07
  we were talking about that hard time?
• 24:09
  And I can give God the praise for what he's doing.
• 24:11
  ah I know that leaving my job initially three months ago, or six months ago, wasn't easy.
• 24:18
  Like I said, it didn't happen on my terms in the way that I wanted to.
• 24:21
  And it was heartbreaking.
• 24:23
  And it was hard, but to see what God's done in the ministry that we're doing, in the business since then, has been so awesome.
• 24:31
  How he's brought community of believers together and how we're gonna impact the community and how we just see him intertwining himself in everything that we're doing between the
• 24:40
  church, between the business, between nonprofits that I'm in community with now.
• 24:46
  So don't let the devil steal from you.
• 24:50
  God is doing something.
• 24:53
  Don't let him, don't let the devil steal from you.
• 24:55
  Don't let him beat you down.
• 24:57
  Don't let him win this trial.
• 24:59
  Thanks for being with us today.
• 25:01
  I appreciate it.
• 25:02
  Thank you.
• 25:02
  Have a great one.