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From Homeless to Purpose with Chris Taylor · Christian Business Growth Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to the Christian Business Growth Podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm here with Christopher Taylor.
• 0:05
  He's gonna tell you his story today.
• 0:07
  And it's kinda kind of a crazy s hook here, so pay attention carefully.
• 0:11
  So Christopher, how did God get you into business?
• 0:15
  So a little bit about me in twenty eighteen.
• 0:17
  I was homeless.
• 0:19
  I was living in a shed of a serial killer in Olympia, Washington across the street from the Evergreen College.
• 0:25
  Yeah, yeah, some serious stuff.
• 0:27
  Uh I was super, super into the new age spirituality.
• 0:32
  I mean, I even have a a chakra on my neck.
• 0:35
  Um
• 0:36
  I was always looking for somewhere to go, some some, you know, new drug to try, hallucinogenic drug to try to you know, further my my spirituality.
• 0:46
  Um of course it only worked for a time because it it's not it's not the source, right?
• 0:51
  So um one day I was as a as somebody was living in a shed.
• 0:56
  It was actually technically it was a chicken coop, but I say shed because that's it's about the same thing.
• 1:02
  I mean, it's clearly not meant for a human to live in.
• 1:05
  But I was walking I was walking around at Evergreen State College looking for hallucinogens.
• 1:10
  And um there was a gentleman there, and he was telling people about Jesus.
• 1:17
  And at first I thought he was a Jehovah's Witness, so I asked or Jehovah's Witness, so I asked him, and he's like, No, I'm an authentic Christian.
• 1:24
  And uh I I was usually very hostile to Christianity because I thought I knew everything, because of course I was placing myself as God, you know, un unknowingly to me at the time,
• 1:34
  of course.
• 1:35
  And for some reason I actually sat there and listened to him and became saved on the spot.
• 1:42
  And within, I mean, a a couple months, I went from living on the streets to getting an apartment.
• 1:48
  Then from having that apartment to buying my first home with cash uh about a year later.
• 1:54
  Uh I met my wife that same that same year in 2019.
• 1:59
  And then in 2020
• 2:01
  We we really started going heavy on eBay sales.
• 2:04
  I've always sold on eBay on and off, or just you know, bought items and sold them.
• 2:10
  I I find found a lot of joy in it.
• 2:12
  Uh we started doing that a lot.
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  And in 2022, we took a trip to Arizona.
• 2:18
  Well, actually, sorry, we took that trip in twenty twenty one.
• 2:22
  We realized how beautiful it is, how there's actually like sunshine because we were in Washington and there's no sunshine.
• 2:28
  There's sunshine like two like two months out of the year.
• 2:31
  Right.
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  And um, so we took that trip.
• 2:33
  We were like, we gotta move to Arizona.
• 2:34
  We sold our house in Washington, double what I paid for it.
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  moved to Arizona, bought a house, uh, looked up the least expensive place to live that wasn't like some small, tiny, desolate town, and ended up moving here to Kiman, Arizona.
• 2:48
  In twenty twenty three, we started our estate business because we realized there was a need for it.
• 2:54
  And yeah, in twenty twenty six I started Floatlister, the software our Taylor family software.
• 3:01
  Which is the parent company of Flow Lister, which is the software.
• 3:05
  Cool.
• 3:05
  Right quick for those who are listening, what is an estate sale?
• 3:08
  Some people may not know what that is.
• 3:10
  Estate business.
• 3:12
  is somebody's entire estate, rather they pass away, sometimes they just want to move and severely downsize.
• 3:18
  It's essentially all their stuff.
• 3:20
  We go through, we price everything, we set everything up to make it look aesthetically pleasing, and then we run the estate sale and make sure that, you know, people's stuff is
• 3:30
  sold for them, and then we work usually on a commission basis.
• 3:34
  Good deal.
• 3:34
  All right, good.
• 3:35
  So what's God currently doing your business?
• 3:37
  You said you went from being on eBay, doing estate sales, and now you've developed a software, right?
• 3:43
  Yeah, so he's doing two really big things.
• 3:46
  First off, is the software company and what's what's going on there is that the software company is the parent company of FlowLister, and FlowLister was developed by me because I
• 3:59
  was I'm always into technology.
• 4:01
  I I love technology, I think it's the coolest thing ever.
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  And what what I found is that the available options for selling on eBay with AI were mediocre.
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  So I knew because I'm stubborn that I could build something that was way better.
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  And at first I just built it for myself and for my own business.
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  But when I saw how good it was, I was like, hey, there's some money to be made here.
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  You know, that this is a viable product.
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  So I shipped it.
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  Uh, I started, you know, reaching out to people.
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  We're about four months old and we're already at about six K MRR, monthly reoccurring revenue in four months.
• 4:40
  And then what else he's doing in my business is we are the town we live in, there's a lot of a lot of people that are young, like sixteen to twenty four, that don't have a a really
• 4:52
  good career path, except entrepreneurship, which is a great career path.
• 4:57
  The problem is that's not something you just go to school for.
• 5:00
  I mean, you can, but it it's something that needs training and stuff.
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  We decided to start a non profit called Tools for Teens.
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  And what Tools for Teens does is it sits down with these young people.
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  We ask them kind of what their passions are.
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  We come up with a game plan, how to t take those passions and make them practical and also equip them with the tools, with the training and with the mentorship to to pursue those
• 5:23
  passions and make them into a uh meaningful and prosperous career.
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  And it's all centered in the gospel.
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  That's pretty cool.
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  And tell me on the backside of that, what's that mentorship, that discipleship look like?
• 5:36
  So for the mentorship, we we actually haven't established that too much because we've only been, again, about four months with that too.
• 5:44
  we've been focusing on self-raising funds.
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  But um, my vision for the mentorship and discipleship is, you know, to to have open conversations with the people is terms of discipleship.
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  Uh, our youth pastor at our church is on the board, which is awesome.
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  As far as mentorship goes, my vision for my role in that is the entrepreneur side, but also we are reaching out to the community for m mentors, people that maybe are in
• 6:14
  plumbing, um, you know, the sciences, whatever it may be.
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  It just really depends on their interests.
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  We're we're we're really taking it one day at a time.
• 6:24
  Goodell.
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  What took you from
• 6:25
  I'm so sorry, Lyle.
• 6:27
  One other thing is that we w we don't require the students to be g uh Christians or anything, but we do, you know, share the gospel with them 'cause uh first and foremost I
• 6:37
  wanna help the community.
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  I feel like that's my biggest call just because I have experience with that.
• 6:43
  Right, absolutely.
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  That that's what I was gonna ask is how does God fit into that process?
• 6:47
  'Cause you were going from software into helping students develop, which is a different process altogether.
• 6:53
  But tell me how that kind of played out in your life as far as God's pro purpose in your life.
• 6:59
  Yeah, so uh about five months ago now I was it was uh I was in the hospital with sepsis.
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  Uh we were at an estate sale we were doing and then we were finishing up and I was just not feeling good.
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  Like I I was sweating.
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  I don't know if anybody's ever seen the movie Tombstone, but I looked like Doc Holliday in that movie.
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  I was sweating.
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  I it was just awful.
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  And then
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  My heart was racing really bad and I was out of breath.
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  So I went to the ER and I never go to the ER.
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  Like so the fact that I went to the ER, my wife knew something was wrong and they told me, you know, my kidneys failed.
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  I was uh septic and it's a really good thing I was there.
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  So during that recovery period, which was about a month, I had a lot of time to think, but also to
• 7:50
  give gratitude to God for being alive because I knew that well obviously if I'm alive there there's a reason because I you know I was this close to death.
• 7:59
  and he told me essentially that I need to start tools for teens.
• 8:04
  I need to take it seriously.
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  I need to take the software business seriously.
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  And I just followed.
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  I just followed his direction and his guidance.
• 8:13
  Good.
• 8:14
  Thanks for sharing that story.
• 8:15
  Appreciate it.
• 8:17
  So we're gonna move into our business growth tips.
• 8:19
  So tell us what's your business growth tip for today and how can we apply that to our business?
• 8:23
  Consistency, consistency, consistency.
• 8:26
  In my business, yeah, all three, right?
• 8:29
  Yeah, in my business when when I did eBay, I still do eBay, but it's not as it doesn't take as much discipline now since it's simply the AI is doing most of the work.
• 8:39
  But I would always and still do always list the same amount of items every day.
• 8:44
  Uh and the reason for that is that the science shows that if we do something every day, eventually I think.
• 8:51
  I think it's 14 days, it may be 21, but it becomes a habit.
• 8:55
  And, you know, we all have habits.
• 8:57
  It's important to have good habits.
• 9:00
  And good habits, you know, are built with consistency.
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  They're they're they're something that that you do over time and they become easier and easier.
• 9:08
  That's what's so cool about a habit.
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  You know, it it it could work for the light or it could work for the dark.
• 9:14
  And that that's one practical tip.
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  Another one is
• 9:19
  I always reach out to people.
• 9:20
  I reached out to you, Lyle.
• 9:22
  Um, I did use AI to reach out, but I I still built these things into my business so that these systems are working for me and that that yes, they require discipline, they require
• 9:33
  um a lot of research and a lot of time on the back end, but over time that consistency makes things easier and kind of compounds.
• 9:44
  And you asked me for three tips, didn't you?
• 9:46
  And I only gave you
• 9:47
  about your three.
• 9:48
  Um, so when you're talking about consistency, yes.
• 9:52
  So the consistency factor, what are if somebody just getting started in business, they're just brand new and they're like, I don't know what c what I need to be consistent about,
• 9:59
  what is what are some things you tell them to be consistent?
• 10:05
  Research.
• 10:06
  Um, and then the opposite of that is actually doing what what plans that you have that you found that are good or that God's called you to or whatever.
• 10:18
  It's just d doing it.
• 10:19
  We we need to we need to be doing things.
• 10:22
  You know, I sat around for 20 plus years, uh procrastinating about about pretty much everything.
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  Now I'm the opposite.
• 10:29
  I do things, and the reason I do things is because I've seen that the that when we do things.
• 10:35
  the they're they have results and the results can be just just amazing they they can grow so much like a little seed can grow into a huge oak tree it just just do it do do what you
• 10:47
  say you're gonna do always like that's a really big one right there do what you say you're gonna do make every single effort you can to keep your word that that goes a really long
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  way in business and and surprisingly
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  It it it's like sets you it's sad, but it sets you apart from the competition nowadays because a lot of people don't do what they say they're going to do even in business.
• 11:08
  And and it it's like a cheat code to to get ahead.
• 11:11
  And and it's a biblical principle.
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  We're supposed to be honest.
• 11:15
  Absolutely, I agree.
• 11:16
  Yeah, like one of the phrases you said.
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  It said habits can work for the light or they can work for the dark.
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  You can have a habit you can go scrolling on your phone or go to websites you shouldn't go to or put chemicals in your body and those are gonna feed one thing.
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  But as an entrepreneur, you have to have other specific habits.
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  Consistently telling people about your business, getting it out there, consistently researching your industry to make sure you're on scale and on point with them.
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  What are some other things you tell people to to research?
• 11:44
  And take action on it.
• 11:46
  find out what they're doing wrong and do it better.
• 11:48
  Uh I I think that a lot of or all good bri business principles are biblically based.
• 11:54
  Uh so so it's important to read your Bible to have a closer relationship with God because here here's the deal.
• 12:00
  Like we we as Christians have this ability and this this this um gift to be able to communicate with the Holy Spirit.
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  Well the Holy Spirit God knows literally everything.
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  So so there you know there's nothing that
• 12:14
  That he doesn't know past, present, future.
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  Uh it communicate, you sit there, be in your be in your Bible daily.
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  Uh, which which and alone, it's funny because reading your Bible daily takes discipline.
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  And so so that actually helps your business, just that aspect of the discipline.
• 12:33
  Um, be physically, physically active.
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  Keep keep that, you know.
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  Every morning I wake up, I I go for a walk, I listen to my Bible.
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  that that's that's what I do every morning because I know that if I if I don't get to moving my day's gonna be a lot worse than it would have been if I did what I'm supposed to
• 12:51
  do.
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  So I just do it.
• 12:53
  Good point.
• 12:53
  Yeah, and prayer is a big part of that process.
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  I can tell by the way you're communicating that.
• 12:58
  Sometimes we go to AI or we go to the internet or we go to another person to ask for those goals or where we need to be going.
• 13:05
  But sometimes we just need to sit back and say, God, you tell me where I need to be going.
• 13:08
  And you gotta sometimes be still and let God talk.
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  Because sometimes we're so busy being busy we forget to include God on the process.
• 13:16
  Yeah, and and I I forget all the time and then when I'm reminded I'm like, yeah, that this is I know where this leads me.
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  I know what I need to do.
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  Take a step back, you know, be still.
• 13:26
  Yeah, exactly.
• 13:26
  It's it's really hard because as entrepreneurs, you wanna take action, but you also have to take that action based on what God is telling you to do, based on where God is
• 13:35
  pointing, not just doing what you want to do.
• 13:37
  Yeah, you know, there were so many times that I wanted to do something that may not have been, you know, wrong or even unbiblical, but God told me no.
• 13:45
  And looking back, I I'm glad that I didn't.
• 13:47
  You know, I'm glad that I I listened, you know.
• 13:51
  Exactly.
• 13:51
  Yeah.
• 13:52
  For entrepreneurs there's a hundred million things you could do.
• 13:55
  The key is to find that one thing and stick to it, right?
• 14:00
  Yeah, that's a huge challenge for me as well as somebody with ADHD.
• 14:03
  I tend to wanna do a million things at once.
• 14:06
  So it's it's always been helpful when I focus in.
• 14:09
  Something I I seem to relearn over all the time.
• 14:13
  Yeah, that having that one I think the book is one thing.
• 14:16
  I forgot the guys who wrote it, but the book is one thing.
• 14:18
  You gotta focus on that one thing and you give all your energy go that one thing, it'll grow.
• 14:22
  But if you spread your energy out, it dims it.
• 14:25
  You can't go as far and you're s too busy kinda trying to balance all the little pieces rather than having that one energy focus going straight up where you want it to go.
• 14:33
  I'm gonna read that book one thing.
• 14:35
  Yes, the one thing.
• 14:36
  The one thing, I will read that book.
• 14:38
  It's good book.
• 14:40
  So as we end up here, give us one little bit of wisdom you want to leave us with, and how can we get in touch with you?
• 14:46
  I'd say the the most important thing is that if you don't know Jesus, know Jesus.
• 14:50
  Like that that's you know, that's the that's the wisest thing anybody could say.
• 14:57
  And how you can get in touch with me is check up website, flowlister.com, Taylor Family Software dot com, Taylor Family Store dot com.
• 15:05
  Perfect.
• 15:06
  Thanks for being with us today.
• 15:08
  Heck yeah.