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Faith In Your Business · The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business

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Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
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this idea that if I do the right thing
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for others, even if it's something that I have to
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buy or do, I am happy to serve them by doing that.
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Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast.
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Managing your real estate media business.
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Spiro is a software platform designed by real estate photographers
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for real estate photographers to help you manage and actually scale
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your business up, help you grow.
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I'm Craig Magrum and welcome back to another week.
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If you're a returning listener or viewer, if you're brand new to the podcast,
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we welcome you.
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The whole point of this is to talk about business.
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Lots of great creative, outlets out there, YouTube
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channels, you know, how tos.
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We, we just want to focus on business and how to build a strong business.
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So it's going to be,
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an interesting podcast today.
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Let me introduce our, our co-host and Spiro owner/founder, Todd Kivimaki.
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Todd, welcome Craig.
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It's great to be here today.
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As always, I'm excited.
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We're getting close to the end of the year.
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And, yeah, I flew by.
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Yeah, sure.
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Like you, I think you mentioned last week a couple of those weeks or holiday weeks,
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which is just going to make it fly even faster.
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So yeah. Yeah.
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Enjoy the time. Enjoy the time.
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We did an episode a couple of weeks ago.
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On what to do in the slow season.
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So if you haven't had a chance to check that episode out, you know, here in North
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America, of course, we're obviously headed into fall and winter eventually.
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So just some great content there.
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To give you some ideas on what you can do and working on your business,
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not in your business.
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Or did I have that backwards, Todd?
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Working. You're correct. Working on your business.
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Yeah, right. Yeah, that's the goal.
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Great time.
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You know, as shoot slowed down things that you can you can ratchet on
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and, make more efficient new ideas.
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So check make sure you check that episode out so.
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Yeah.
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All right, Todd Craig, to help everybody with their calendars.
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Before we get to the episode, I'm excited to jump in with your calendar.
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So we just launched Titus, which is pay at close.
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It's fabulous.
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First pay at close came in the day we launched it.
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It was for 1200 and some dollars, I think $1,260.
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That was just over double that individual's average order value.
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So I was excited to see that.
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Now I am not saying that it's going to double
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all of your average order value,
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but it is something that
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the agents really need a morning meeting for.
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Wow Video Tours, our real estate media company.
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We all get on Friday morning and Pam,
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who is our business development specialist in Dayton and Cincinnati,
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she said that she received an email back from one of our top brokers immediately
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after we sent out our Titus
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newsletter, letting the agents know about Titus.
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This individual emailed right back, was extremely happy
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that this option is coming.
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Asked a couple of questions about it so that he could send out another
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correspondence to all of his agents, letting them know it was that important.
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He thought it had huge value with new agents,
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but actually all agents, so he was excited about it.
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That made my ears perk up, like if this individual took the time
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to respond to our marketing newsletter and he writes the,
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he runs a large company and he was excited about this.
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There is value in it.
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Now, the thing with anything new is that it's going to take
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proper communication and expectations with your client.
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You're going to have to educate them about it.
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You need to start doing that now.
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We've already sent out our newsletter.
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We haven't even launched it yet.
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There was 20 early testers that are using it.
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It's working beautiful.
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Okay, the next 50 are going in by the time this launches.
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Everybody will be in by October 20th of 2025.
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Okay, so that's what the timeline looks like.
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You need to start educating your clients now about it.
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You can go to our resource guide.
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Go to Spiro.media.
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Click on the knowledge base.
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Just search Titus.
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You'll find everything you want.
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You'll find Canva templates.
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You'll find social media templates.
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You'll find verbiage.
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Copy and paste it,
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put your logo on it and just send it out and educate your team as well.
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If you have one about what Titus says,
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I think it's going to be a great thing for all of us.
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Yeah, one more thing to plan so well.
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Two I'm sorry. I'll make it quick.
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If you are not going to come and see us in Vegas at any of the conferences,
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or you don't have your ticket booked, you need to do it soon.
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Y'all okay.
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reppteam.com search for their conference Eli Jones is going to be excited
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to be out there.
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That's the first week in November Brandon Cooper with PMRE
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does have a conference as well.
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We'll be there the third week of November.
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If November doesn't work for you, you can begin
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booking your Spiro Sync ticket for January now.
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So by the time you're if you're listening to this,
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you can go to Spiro.media and click on Spiro Sync in the menu.
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You can book your ticket. Hey Craig, tickets
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199 less than 200 bucks.
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Not a bad deal there.
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It's a two day event.
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Come and hang out with us.
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We want you to get set up for the for 2026 to hit your goals.
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Come hang with us. We have fabulous speakers okay.
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A lot of the team from Wow is going to be there
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Eli, Jared from the repp team are going to be there.
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You're going to meet Nick from Titus, Matt from AutoHDR.
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And CubiCasa is going to be in there now.
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Many, many more people.
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So check it out.
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Go to Spiro.media. Click on it.
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There are not many tickets okay.
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This is our first event.
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We want to have a intimate venue.
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The venue I love
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and it only can accommodate 150 people.
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It's going to go.
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It's going to go almost instantly okay so book your ticket on there,
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bring your team, bring yourself whatever it is,
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and we are excited to see you in January.
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What's that link again to book a ticket.
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Spiro.media in the menu bar at the top.
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Click Spiro sync.
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Got it.
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Awesome. Check that out.
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Don't be too late.
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Craig's going to be there. Craig's gonna be hosting a session.
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So we're going to be come spend time.
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You know, I think.
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Is that for sure.
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Yeah for sure.
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Well let me think about this Craig. Yes.
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So we're going to have we're going to have a different it's going to it's
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not like your normal conference.
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So we will have the normal speakers.
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We're we're going to have some main speakers,
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but then we're going to have what we call breakout sessions.
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They're going to be four sessions going at once.
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You pick what session you want to go to, you pick your topic okay.
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We'll rerun some of those sessions, the most popular ones,
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and you'll get a chance to go to them.
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So you're going to let us know
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what you want to hear about what session you want us to rerun.
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And you'll have these breakout sessions to attend.
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Also, we're going to have a couple of workshop sessions
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where you're actually going.
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Do do you want to decide to see how we see it's best to write in that SOP.
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Do you want to talk about the hiring process?
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Whatever it is, it's your guys's conference.
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There's somebody at the conference that's an expert on the topic
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you want to know about.
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We're going to pick some of them.
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You're going to suggest what you want to learn about two
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and you're going to do those things.
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So our goal is not to have you leave Dayton, Ohio,
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on January 24th saying, I've got ten.
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I've got 25 things I need to do.
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Know you're going to say, I've got these things done
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and I've got 1 or 2 very clear initiatives.
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I know where I'm heading for 2026.
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There you go, it’s gonna be a fun time.
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I'm looking forward to it.
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I'm so excited.
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All right. Todd.
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Thank you.
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All right, this week's this week's topic.
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Kind of a different one for us.
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Yeah.
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In that it's not normal.
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I'm going to say it's not a normal topic to talk about in business.
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And obviously, you know the title already.
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You've you've seen the you know, the title on, on YouTube or,
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on the audio podcast that you're listening to, the title Faith in Your Business.
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Now, you might think, okay, do I have faith in my business
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that things are going to go, well, you know, there's
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there's that aspect of it, but we're actually going to talk about
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the Christian faith in your business.
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Now, Todd, I want to set this up in two ways.
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You and I, we're talking off air.
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Of course, just in the last few weeks,
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there was the, horrific
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event of Charlie Kirk's assassination.
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And that really got me thinking a lot about how I live out.
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What I say, I believe, and I know that it got you take it as well.
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Primarily because,
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I mean, there's a lot you could say about about Charlie, about what he did.
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But first and foremost, he did not shy away from sharing his faith in Jesus.
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Right.
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That was a normal part of pretty much every presentation he did.
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He just didn't shy away from it.
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It really drove him.
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And that's what got me thinking,
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a lot, because in the last year or so, I've had some of my own,
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struggles for lack of a better word,
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trying to figure out where I am in my walk with God, things like that.
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Not that I've abandoned faith or anything, but it just
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it's brought everything to to mind and so
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the reason we wanted to talk about this is,
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as business owners,
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just as working adults, period.
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Not even necessarily being a business owner,
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but the the bulk of our waking moments
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in life are spent in work.
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Eight, you know, eight hours, usually minimum,
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that we're putting in in our day, a lot of times
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more, more time with our work family than our family. Family.
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And if we are, a person of faith, the question of
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how does that impact what I live day to day out in the marketplace?
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Do I live consistently with what I say?
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I believe, but we, the other thing I want to,
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just introduce this whole thing with Todd is we recognize that not everybody
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that listens to this podcast or watches this podcast,
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is in the Christian faith.
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They might be in a different faith.
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You might not have a faith at all.
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You just you don't have a belief system necessarily.
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And we we recognize that we respect that.
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We're not trying to, discredit or,
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minimize where you're at in life, in faith.
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Todd, would it be fair to say
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we're just we're sharing this because it has
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what we believe has an impact on what we're doing in the business world?
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100%, Craig.
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We get on here every week, and we have for years.
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And we've talked about
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everything in a bid
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how to hire, how to acquire clients, how to do this thing.
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Critical communication, setting expectations
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What this thing.
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I mean, we've talked about it all and as I look back, like,
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I feel like I would like
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up to this point, I feel like I've done you all disservice because
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I haven't shared enough as to this
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true light in this direction
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in my life that I believe very strongly in, that controls all of that.
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And that's my faith in God.
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And if I didn't share it.
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I like I said, I just we're sitting here
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and we're going, oh, like we need to do more.
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And there's, there's some times that I didn't think
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what I'm going to share today and I am not.
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I struggle with a lot of this daily.
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And I think about what it is.
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But as I look back over my life and the
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and the times that God of God has been there
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and how he was working in my life and those around me,
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like, this is like the biggest thing, like
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just the biggest secret of how I feel, like where I'm at.
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And I haven't shared it and I've tiptoed around it and
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we just don't want to tiptoe around it anymore.
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We're not forcing it on anybody, but we're here to share.
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This is an integral part of my life, my business, everything.
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And if we don't share it with you, then.
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What good is in hiring a photographer?
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This process of getting more clients, you know, this is this is important.
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I think that there's two things that come to mind, Todd
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and one of which is, again, we are not perfect.
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We do not live our faith out perfectly.
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I fail every day, Todd.
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Especially one of them, especially
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when I'm on the road driving.
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And there are times I very close to losing my Christianity
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that I have actually, actually, just for a little lighthearted
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moment here, I have actually started avoiding the expressway.
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Like I put in Waze.
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My navigation options avoid freeways.
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I have been so much less stressed.
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Yeah, so I get better.
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Christian because I'm not not yelling as much.
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So okay, just for being transparent, I'm trying to be real, right?
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We don't have it all together.
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Okay, so we want to say that the second thing that I think is driving this in,
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and I'm sure this is true for you as well, Todd,
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when we say we really care about this community and we care about
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you building a successful business, it's because we really do care about you.
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Yes, we're all in this to make money to, support our families,
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take care of the people that we love, take care of our own needs.
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But the specific reason that we're doing this topic today
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is because we really do care about you.
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What we say we believe in, people's eternities.
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It reminds me of something that,
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try to, What? Penn and Teller.
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What's what's, Penn's first name?
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The magician. Do you remember him?
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It isn't it Penn Jillette?
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Isn't that his Penn? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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You're right, you're right.
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So there is a video clip of him talking now,
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Penn Jillette is, I believe he's he's an atheist.
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Right.
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But there is a recording of him basically speaking to Christians, saying,
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if you really say you believe what you believe, if you really do
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believe what you say you believe, how could you not evangelize
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if you really believe in eternity, people's eternities,
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and that you believe that what you've discovered is, is truth?
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How on Christ like would it
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be to not share that with people you care about?
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So at least that's my motivation
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because I looked at Charlie's life now like hate him.
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Whatever.
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Agree with his politics, not agree with his politics.
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Agree with his faith, not agree with his faith.
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It just got me thinking about how I can't not share this.
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Todd.
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Honestly, I'm not a great business person.
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I don't I'm not
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I'm not wired for,
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being business, being my my main motivator.
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I worked in Christian ministry most of my career and it's because I
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the only thing of value and worth I really have to give
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is the gospel that isn't even mine.
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It's Jesus's gospel meaning good news, right?
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So I think I can speak for you in saying that
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you care about the people that were speaking to.
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I do, and I while I'm not a great businessman,
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I feel like I excel more at business than I do
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in sharing my faith and I'll say, Craig, that this is
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I feel as though
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what my words are to say are going to be inadequate.
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Like, I just, I just I'm just like, is it going to be enough?
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But it's just this idea of stepping out in faith.
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So thank you all for sticking with us here.
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And I want to give in story.
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I want to say, you know, I think I learn best by other people's stories
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and and just saying like, hey, I'm again, I'm trying to figure this.
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I have a group around me.
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I have a group of guys at church have we have a friend group.
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We have a small group.
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And I am still trying to figure this out every day.
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I just I feel like I know I'm headed in the right direction.
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I have seen how it has changed my life and
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and that's what I want to get across today and share with you.
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So Jesus told stories all the time.
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That's how he taught me.
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Because you're right.
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We we relate to stories.
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So I mean, let's just kick it off.
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What what would be your
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your first story and how faith is related to business?
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Yeah.
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So I was probably six years
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into the business and the business was growing
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and I was excited.
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I was working way too much.
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And I had this idea that everything depended on me.
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I had to tell you I was grown an ego or had an ego,
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you know, I, I had a pretty good business, 3 or 4 photographers.
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I had a part time admin and, and it just got to the point that it was too much.
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And no, I was beyond the point.
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There was no more hours to work in the day.
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And I got to this breaking point where
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I just needed to go find someone and hire them.
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And I had these thought airs
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that no one could do it, that only Todd could do it.
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It all dependent on Todd.
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The business only ran because of Todd and Todd just wasn't
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good enough as well to to see outside of that.
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Todd very narrow thinking.
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And he liked the idea that it was him
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that got the business to here.
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Okay.
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And and it was painful.
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Craig I lived in this for a long time.
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I, I can believe my own truth.
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I can talk myself into anything and
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I think I've told this story.
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My wife was like, well, you know, I think you should hire someone.
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No, Jessica, no one can do this.
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No one
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can look at a list of shoots that we did.
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Four of them from yesterday.
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You know, four of them.
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You know, not like we were doing 80 shoots like we're doing today.
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And type out an invoice in QuickBooks and send it to the client.
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I had myself convince Craig,
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and, you know, she would just calmly mention it to me.
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And, you know, my my wife is so has been so just.
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Critical throughout my life and just being there for me.
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But she prays for me.
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She prays for the business and she just let me go.
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She knew it wasn't the right time to really try to change Todd's mind.
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Because when I get set on something,
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man, I get said like, don't try to change my mind.
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Just let me go for a little bit.
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And I was convinced I couldn't find anybody.
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And the part time admin that was working for me, she was she was in college.
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So, you know, this was just a part time job for her.
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She was fabulous, by the way.
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But she starts dating this guy.
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And this guy comes in for lunch.
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And I enjoy talking to her name's Derek.
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I've talked about Derek before. Derek,
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was selling insurance at the time,
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and we just got to talk, and he had an entrepreneurial spirit.
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And I got along really, really well with him.
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And it just came up like,
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hey, you really doesn't like sound insurance.
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Insurance is a hard currency.
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It's a hard business to get into. Craig.
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No job. Very hard.
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Yeah, very hard because everybody knows an insurance agent or ten of them.
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And it came up like, hey,
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I, I've got some of these things that I need some help with.
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He happened to have a finance degree and a minor in media.
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So that's an interesting combo.
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Craig.
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No one in the world has gotten that except him.
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What did I need?
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I needed help with invoice and I needed someone that had a creative eye
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because of what we were going to do, because we're a media company.
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Like, come on, Craig, he hates his job.
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I'm convinced no one can help me.
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He has.
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He's the single person in humanity's gotten the one degree that can help me.
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Just just coincidence.
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Todd. Just a coincidence.
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Just a coincidence. Craig.
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And I'm like, oh, no.
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And then I get my left brain about finances.
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Oh, I can't, I just I don't think I can.
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I don't think I can pay him the $38,000 that he needed at the time,
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which is nothing like he was asking for nothing.
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He's like, hey, Todd, I could probably wait some tables at Bob Evans
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so you could pay me less if you don't have work for me.
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Wow. Yes.
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Like every objection that I had, everything like it,
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it was filled out to a tee and then some.
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And he came in.
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He didn't wait tables to Bob Evans. Okay?
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I bucked up and I paid him the money he wanted.
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And he brought this vigor and this excitement.
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And he also he's a very strong faith
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man of Christianity, a man of Christ.
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And he brought this in and we ran like crazy.
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Crazy.
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I mean, we went from working out of my house.
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We bought a small little building.
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We outgrew that.
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We remodeled it, outgrew it, bought another building, bought another building.
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Over the next five, six years, like, we just did crazy things.
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It allowed me to focus on what I was good at.
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It allowed him to focus on what he was good at, and it was
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it was faith by sure, God put this person in my life
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at this time of this perfect individual.
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I was convinced otherwise, and my ego
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convinced me otherwise, that no one could help Todd.
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And this perfect individual comes in
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and helps me get from here to there.
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So I was going to share this more towards the end of the podcast,
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but it just fits so perfectly with how you set this up in that
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you had this initial belief that only you could do this
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and, that this particular verse comes from the Old Testament.
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It's the book of Deuteronomy, chapter eight, verse 18.
23:41
It says, but remember that the Lord your God, for it is he
23:45
who gives you the ability to produce wealth.
23:48
And so and this is, this is what I think, really cool.
23:52
So you have this initial part
23:54
where it's God giving us the ability to produce, well.
23:57
And then there's this caveat.
23:59
The reason for that is so it confirms his covenant,
24:02
which he swore to your ancestors as it is today.
24:06
Now, yes, this is written to the Jewish people, but it's a principle,
24:11
that applies to all
24:12
of us in that God God gives us this ability
24:16
to build a business, whether we recognize it or not.
24:19
It's he's the source of that.
24:21
And it's a way of him confirming his covenant
24:24
to us that he loves us, he cares for us.
24:27
He's interested in every part of our life, and that includes our daily work life.
24:31
I it it's just incredible.
24:33
It is.
24:34
And Craig, just because I am, I am a much
24:38
I'm much more beginning in my faith than than you and
24:42
and the word covenant for a lot like covenants of promise, right, Craig?
24:47
Yeah.
24:48
Basically, and it's a one sided, a promise.
24:51
God doesn't put any requirements on our side other than just accepting
24:56
a free gift.
24:56
The free gift of what he's promising to us.
25:00
Yeah.
25:01
Yeah. So an agreement, a promise.
25:03
Yeah. Contract. Think of it like that.
25:06
Yeah.
25:07
And it's not exclusive.
25:09
Right.
25:10
Open to all.
25:11
Open to every, every single person.
25:13
Yeah. It's amazing.
25:16
Well cool okay cool. First story.
25:18
All right.
25:18
So early in the business. Yeah.
25:20
Your wife is praying for you. And,
25:24
it's funny how wives prayers work for us
25:28
in the, in the background a lot of times.
25:30
And this guy's just not even realizing it.
25:33
That's cool.
25:34
Yeah.
25:35
I mean it took me a long time to get over my ego and I still have one.
25:37
So you know, but it's just, you know my wife working
25:42
and these little nudges and, and finally Todd going oh wait a minute.
25:47
Like I think I see this thing or just, you know, falls into my lap.
25:51
So yeah, you know, I have a another one, a quicker one from the early days.
25:55
Craig, I, I, the part time admin who was working for me, her name was Liz.
26:01
And and just so you guys know, Liz and then Derek, they dated.
26:06
They ended up getting married.
26:07
They have four beautiful little girls.
26:09
And, while Derek no longer works at wow, he was
26:12
he was a big, big influence and helped us grow.
26:17
And, he, he made a great transition in his life to a different career.
26:21
And they have a wonderful family.
26:24
So that was a neat story to to see.
26:28
There was a time so we worked out of the house at this time.
26:31
I have, a little room I remember.
26:33
Yeah, yeah. You came to it. We call it this.
26:35
We call it the studio because we used to take photos in there.
26:38
Okay, so babies and families and.
26:41
But we worked in there, too.
26:42
We had our desk in there, and, there was no bathroom other than in the house.
26:47
So Derek and Liz would have to go in the house
26:51
and use the bathroom, which was no problem.
26:54
We didn't have kids or had a baby at the time.
26:58
I think we didn't have kids. Excuse me.
27:00
So anyways,
27:01
you go in the house, use the bathroom, and one day she came out, she's like, hey,
27:04
I need to tell you something.
27:06
And I was like, okay, you know,
27:09
I'm you know what? It what do we miss a bathroom?
27:12
Is there an unhappy client or.
27:13
You want a happy do you need a day off?
27:15
Or you know what? Maybe she's like, I was.
27:19
I went to the bathroom, I was washing my hands and, my ring,
27:23
it snagged your hand towel, and it it, you know, there was a loop, a,
27:29
you know, maybe seven threads that were in a loop out of the hand towel.
27:33
And it just kind of
27:36
disfigured it enough that
27:38
I don't know, like, I thought it was a nothing burger at the.
27:41
I was like, oh, like like, okay. She's so.
27:44
But she tells me that she, she said, do you want me to buy you a new one?
27:49
Well,
27:51
talk about integrity.
27:54
Yes. There was no more than seven threads that ran out of it.
27:57
Like, just cut it off like it's a it's a solo call.
28:00
It's a solid color towel.
28:02
It's not like my grandmother had knit this embroidery on it.
28:05
And this was like, this was a $3 towel from Kohl's.
28:11
And she's like, do you want me to buy?
28:12
And I'll be happy to I'll go get you a new one.
28:16
I'm like,
28:18
no, no, thank you for telling me.
28:20
No. It's okay.
28:21
Like, and I, I think I wrote it off at the time, Craig.
28:24
I was like like, why are you tell me about this hand towel.
28:27
Like, do you know what I have to think about?
28:30
I got a transpose for jobs from yesterday, and the QuickBooks
28:34
again in my own head.
28:35
But I got to thinking about this, and this is years later.
28:39
This is 15 years later.
28:43
Think about the integrity of a person.
28:48
To come up and
28:49
and be so honest and open about something and saying,
28:53
hey, I snagged this thing that might be so insignificant,
28:57
but I just want to make sure you're okay because this is something of yours
29:00
that I did something to, and I don't want you to not be whole like I'm here
29:05
to help you, and I want you to be whole so much that I'll pay my own money.
29:11
Not like she said.
29:12
I'll use the business card to get a new hand towel.
29:15
Right.
29:15
She took extreme ownership in her actions,
29:19
and that has stuck with me to the point that
29:23
I think a lot of times in my
29:24
life I'm like, oh, can I oh, just turn it over.
29:29
Oh, this thing is, can you just push it over that way?
29:33
You know, I used to deliver furniture in high school.
29:36
Craig.
29:38
Walking through, walking through.
29:39
Boom. Oh, crap.
29:40
Who's got, you know, Nick on the new table?
29:44
Who's got a paint pen?
29:45
Can we color it up and then put that table to the back wall
29:48
so the person doesn't see it?
29:52
Yeah,
29:53
that's the way I naturally went.
29:55
Let me hide it.
29:56
Let me get out of here so I can be okay.
29:59
And those people will have to deal with it.
30:03
It just,
30:04
it so just gave me perspective
30:07
that this extreme ownership and integrity and just this,
30:12
this idea that if I do the right thing
30:15
for others, even if it's something that I have to
30:20
buy or do, I am happy to serve them by doing that.
30:25
Right?
30:26
Right.
30:26
It's it's the principle of living out truth.
30:29
You know, I, I think we're, we're I mean, we've always been
30:33
but we're not a world in a culture right now where people are desperately,
30:37
I think, trying to find truth.
30:40
And like I said, it's it's an age old debate and question.
30:43
I mean, you look back at,
30:45
Jesus's crucifixion, crucifixion leading up to that.
30:48
He's he's being, you know, interrogated by by Pilate,
30:52
you know, the Roman governor of the area.
30:55
And Jesus talks about truth and palaces.
30:57
What what is truth?
31:00
And there's a lot of people, and myself included,
31:04
that there are days where we're asking the question, what is truth?
31:08
And Jesus himself says in in the Gospels,
31:11
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
31:16
And so
31:16
Liz was living out what Jesus said, that he is truth, right?
31:21
She's trying to live a truthful life in admitting to you.
31:25
Hey, I, I messed up your towel
31:26
and that caused you to take notice of something different,
31:29
because that was not a normal thing for someone.
31:31
Someone to admit to. Right.
31:33
I remember as a kid, Todd, I would lie over the stupidest things.
31:37
to not get in trouble, right?
31:40
Yeah, me as well.
31:41
Now, I don't I don't know if you remember, or experience this form of discipline.
31:46
And I don't know if kids these days have ever had to experience this, but
31:51
do you do you recall the, discipline
31:53
method of writing lines?
31:56
I do, yes.
31:57
Picture the student, you know, writing up the big chalkboard, right?
32:01
My mom made me do that.
32:02
Right. I will not lie.
32:04
And it was usually a longer sentence which made it really a pain in the rear.
32:08
Yeah.
32:09
And you know I have to write this at least 25 times I think that was
32:12
the minimum was right. This line. And
32:16
some people are going to think this is abuse.
32:18
But it it cemented something in my mind.
32:21
And she one time she had me write the verses from John chapter eight.
32:26
I remember the chapter.
32:27
I don't remember the verses now where it talks about the enemy of our soul.
32:32
We'll call them Satan, right?
32:34
That's how Jesus referred to them being the father of lies.
32:39
And it just, it
32:40
it got to the point where I'm like, I don't want to be a person
32:44
known as being untruthful because one word untruthful.
32:48
Nobody can trust anything that we say.
32:49
And how do you build a business when there's no trust?
32:52
You know, we've talked about this
32:53
principle of people buy from people they know, like
32:57
and trust. Trust.
33:00
Now there are people that
33:01
don't follow the Christian faith that are truthful people.
33:04
You don't necessarily need to be a Christian to live in truth.
33:09
We we recognize that
33:10
because there's something built into us about being truthful people.
33:14
But the the concept of, of integrity and truth is core to our faith, right?
33:19
In living that out. And God blesses that.
33:23
He blesses it.
33:25
Yeah.
33:26
Our humanness will tell us, hey, we better cover our own rear end for this.
33:31
But. Right.
33:32
We, we don't have to cover our own rear
33:35
and it's already been done for you, right.
33:38
Yeah.
33:39
Yeah that's that's a good point.
33:42
Yeah. So
33:44
Craig, let's go.
33:45
Let's go.
33:45
A few years down the road I got one more to share here. And
33:50
there was some times and so
33:52
this is probably taught in his mid 20s and
33:57
for before kids just getting into the kid
34:00
phase and business was doing good.
34:03
And, I had some immature behavior.
34:07
We would, we would party.
34:10
None of us are.
34:13
We would party, I would drink,
34:15
I would, I would curse.
34:18
And, you know, we just did some immature things.
34:21
We had fun.
34:22
And I think the world looks at, you know, I think it's like, oh, let's have fun.
34:25
And I was probably I was trying to feel
34:29
feelings, feeling good, feeling
34:33
like I had earned it, feeling like it was what you did to have fun.
34:38
And we were I was I always
34:40
I look back, I have really great memories of the time.
34:44
You know, I have some things I like I wasn't proud of do those things.
34:46
Like there were some maturing that I had to do.
34:49
But we were loving this phase of our life.
34:53
We had just bought a new house.
34:55
We moved in.
34:56
Life was good, you know, like the business was good.
35:01
We were happy and
35:04
we went through this transition of,
35:09
you know, feel like, you know, one of the friends kind of stabbed us in the back.
35:13
And that's what we, you know, one that one fell out one moved away.
35:18
All these people were literally they had moved into our circle.
35:21
Like, we live on this, like kind of big circle.
35:24
And they all live right there.
35:25
Like, we we had a lot of young people back there that we had gone to school with
35:29
and had fun and all in the same stage of life,
35:33
we weren't consistently going to church, you know, I was like,
35:35
you know, on Sunday, like, oh, we going to go to church.
35:38
I can we sleep in?
35:39
You know, Todd probably partied too much on Saturday night
35:44
and didn't have a, didn't have a really strong group around me
35:49
because the group around me was enjoying the behaviors that we were having.
35:54
Sure.
35:55
And like I said,
35:57
the whole group kind of just fell apart
36:00
in a matter of like a month.
36:04
And this, like, rocked our world,
36:08
rocked our world,
36:11
and because it's what we were comfortable with, it's what we were.
36:15
It's what we were doing. It's a life we were living.
36:17
It's like, hey, this is fun.
36:18
This is what I enjoy.
36:20
And going to this point of like, had these friends, like,
36:23
stabbed this in the back, the other ones are moving away.
36:25
Then everything fell apart.
36:26
It's like we just lost everything that we enjoyed
36:29
doing. Wow.
36:32
It was around that time.
36:33
Also, my wife was like, hey, I, I, I feel like
36:36
God's telling me not to drink anymore.
36:39
And we didn't have a drinking problem.
36:42
Craig.
36:43
And I'm not saying that you can't drink.
36:45
You know, I'm not saying that.
36:47
But I will say that my wife told me this, I was like what do you mean like
36:50
this is what we enjoy.
36:52
Yeah.
36:52
Like you're not going to like I felt like a bit abandoned by that.
36:58
I was like, well,
36:59
because I was only thinking about me like, well, what are we going to do then?
37:04
What else?
37:04
What else is there to do on Friday night or Tuesday night?
37:10
And everything changed.
37:13
You know, I felt lonely.
37:14
We felt lonely like.
37:15
And and God slowly started to put
37:21
better people around us.
37:23
So when you say better people
37:27
can I, can I pull on that thread a little bit.
37:30
What what do you mean by that.
37:32
Yeah.
37:33
People that helped me grow up and people that helped me grow in faith
37:37
and just gave me a, a different perspective that that were not
37:44
that were further down the road or were more mature than us.
37:47
That now looking back, I'm like,
37:50
this was so important
37:54
and us growing and maturing.
37:58
they challenged your status quo and called you up to more.
38:03
Exactly. Yes.
38:04
Because the group that we were in, we all were drinking our own Kool-Aid.
38:10
Okay.
38:11
With a little bit of Tito's or a lot of Tito's in it.
38:15
And we were no, but it was just where we are at.
38:18
And then we got into a new group that I mean, heck, one of my neighbors
38:23
two doors down, Dave, fabulous friend.
38:29
They were different.
38:31
They were the family. He was the guy.
38:32
He was a super friendly neighbor.
38:34
Like, how is that guy so friendly?
38:38
How is that guy always in his front yard
38:41
playing with his kids all of the time
38:46
tonight?
38:46
Why did that guy come down and ask?
38:48
I was doing yard work. Don't even really know him.
38:50
He came, comes down and asked me, do I need help?
38:56
Todd, I
38:56
I want to I want to interject a little levity here again.
39:00
Yeah, I can't help but picturing Ned Flanders coming.
39:04
Yes. to Homer.
39:08
Yeah, it was, it was.
39:09
It was like like hidey ho neighbor or something like that.
39:12
Or was that person from Home Improvement?
39:14
Yeah, I think it was.
39:15
Well, yeah, but it's like Todd shoveling mulch.
39:18
Todd's not happy about shoveling mulch.
39:20
And friendly Dave comes down like, do you need.
39:22
No. What, are you, crazy? What? Yeah. What do you think?
39:25
I don't even know. You want to help me? You like.
39:29
But he broke.
39:30
He broke down that barrier, didn't he?
39:32
He did, he did.
39:34
And I didn't know it at the time.
39:36
They happened to homeschool their kids. We didn't know it.
39:39
And God was laying these little pieces and in our lives.
39:42
And one day Jessica's and I went to public school.
39:45
My wife went to public schools, school.
39:48
Jessica's like, hey,
39:50
I want to homeschool our kids.
39:53
I'm like, the heck, I remember the homeschool kid.
39:58
You're you are crazy, Jessica.
40:01
No way, no how?
40:02
How was he going to play sports?
40:04
He's probably going to.
40:05
We're probably going to have to buy a cave and raise him in it
40:09
like.
40:10
Like I was just like, are you crazy?
40:17
And so she would she was like, okay, she wasn't pushing me.
40:20
She's very smart. She knows how to handle me.
40:23
She started praying again, didn't she?
40:25
Exactly, Craig.
40:28
What did I say about wives prayers?
40:31
Yes. And this was over.
40:33
Yes. Powerful stuff.
40:36
And this was over a long time. Cray.
40:37
Like she planted the seed
40:39
and this thing grew for seven seasons before it actually sprouted.
40:43
Okay.
40:43
And let me tell you this story real quick as to how it sprouted,
40:46
because I think as I look back, I'm like, wow, this is crazy.
40:50
So she would plant the little seeds and, you know, get some information.
40:55
And she was praying, you know, all the time for
40:59
and just asking for God's will.
41:00
And she would hint at it.
41:03
And there was one time that I was kind of getting fed up, honestly.
41:05
I'm like, I'm not. Then we're not like, why?
41:08
Like no, like we live right by the school.
41:10
I was involved with the school, like,
41:15
and I just, I blow up one night.
41:17
I'm just like, no, I'm not doing it.
41:19
Big emotion blow up.
41:22
And I'm like, I'm done with it.
41:23
Like done with it. And.
41:30
The next day
41:33
I had a meeting with a large team.
41:37
This team happened to be in between their offices.
41:40
They were remodeling a new office
41:43
and they cut use to clarify a realtor team.
41:47
Right, a realtor team. Yeah, yeah.
41:49
A client that we hadn't had yet, a large client in one of our cities.
41:53
And I drove down to Cincinnati and we didn't meet at their office.
41:58
We met at their home
42:02
which has never happened before. So.
42:06
And I walk in and
42:09
we say our hellos and
42:12
Derek was with me, and I walk in and there's kids home.
42:16
This is a Tuesday morning.
42:18
Okay? Kids home. Why are they home?
42:21
Yeah. Why are kids home? Yeah.
42:23
There's puppies on the floor.
42:25
Oh. Like they.
42:27
Yeah. Like this.
42:28
How did they breed? Pup?
42:29
They breed dogs.
42:30
Puppies on the floor.
42:32
Like. Okay. Yeah. I'm same.
42:35
Well, kind of go on with the meeting and sit down and super friendly.
42:39
Very welcoming into their home.
42:41
We sit there, dining room table, their agents come in and, you know,
42:44
people are pulling chairs up in the living room.
42:47
I'm looking around.
42:48
I'm like, there's Bible verses on the walls.
42:51
Okay,
42:52
okay.
42:53
These people are just different.
42:56
Like, but in a good like in a, in a way that like, I'm in their home,
43:01
they're so welcoming
43:03
and we have the meeting it's a fabulous meeting
43:07
and we get to talking.
43:09
You know, you just naturally the meeting adjourns and we talk to, you know,
43:13
you go around the room and talk and I got to talking to the,
43:17
the wife of the husband and.
43:23
I asked, and I don't know why I ask because I would.
43:25
This was really weird to ask him, like, do you
43:29
homeschool your kids?
43:31
I had just blown up the night before. It just.
43:33
I'm like, no, I'm done no more.
43:36
Please don't ask me again.
43:37
I'm not going to homeschool the kids. It's not okay.
43:40
Person's house,
43:41
kids, puppies, Bible verses in the wall, talking to the husband's wife.
43:45
And I ask, do you homeschool your kids?
43:48
And she's like, we do.
43:50
What's the most wonderful thing ever?
43:51
And she goes on to help guide me through this and breaking down
43:56
these myths, beliefs that I have about spending all of this time with your kids.
44:01
Okay. And.
44:07
There's just
44:08
no way, Craig, that that was a happenstance.
44:11
Like I went home, I told my wife, I'm still to this day,
44:14
get emotional about it because this was a very pivotal moment.
44:18
Like, I'm telling you all, like, this was a this was a decision.
44:21
Like, I'm no, I'm not going like I that's not who I am.
44:25
Like.
44:25
And this was God molding me and just changing me little by little
44:30
and getting rid of my ego
44:32
and open our eyes up to how we can better influence our kids.
44:35
And I'm not here to say everybody should homeschool.
44:38
I'm saying that's what God laid on our heart, right?
44:41
And he made the path that my wife eventually quit her job.
44:44
I a thing I never thought was possible because she held the insurance.
44:48
All of these little things began to move out of the way for us.
44:53
Craig.
44:55
And he did it in the midst of a business
44:57
context, a business meeting in somebody's home
45:01
where God interrupted your workweek
45:05
with something entirely unrelated. Yes.
45:09
And that's why I strongly believe God is interested in every detail of our life,
45:15
including our business and how we run our business, and doing it
45:19
in ways that honor him and recognize that,
45:23
yeah, it's not just a Sunday morning thing, right?
45:26
Man, he met you in a really practical way.
45:29
That's amazing.
45:30
He did, he did.
45:31
And he came down to my level.
45:33
My level was really low y'all I got very low.
45:36
And he came down to me and communicated
45:40
with me in a way that was perfect to get me to actually see it.
45:45
Yeah.
45:46
Well that just goes back to who Jesus is, right?
45:49
We believe that God, Jesus was God incarnate.
45:53
He put on flesh, limited himself.
45:55
He he walked dusty streets in sandals.
45:59
He ate food.
46:00
He experienced everything that we've experienced.
46:02
He's gone through every temptation that you and I have ever faced. And
46:08
it's not just a religion, it's.
46:11
It's a relationship.
46:12
God met you in a very practical, real way to you, Todd,
46:15
in that meeting in that house about homeschooling your kids.
46:19
I mean, it's just amazing the opportunities
46:21
that we have to experience God in our day to day work life.
46:25
I've I've been able to to share the story of how I got into this business.
46:29
And it was out of a prayer of God. Would you give me a trade?
46:31
Something I can produce with my hands
46:33
that I can financially support my family with
46:37
and provide something of value to somebody that I know with a clear conscience
46:41
that I'm not just trying to sell some,
46:44
you know, some service that's not really needed.
46:46
This is a needed thing.
46:47
And Todd, I've got to share that story countless times
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with realtors, with home sellers,
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where the home seller is going through probably one of the most stressful
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times of their life and getting their home ready to sell.
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And you can see the stress on their face.
47:04
And I've had the opportunity to pray just for God's peace for them,
47:08
that the transaction would go smoothly, and to see that physical,
47:13
draining of the stress and just God's peace meeting them in their own home,
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it's just incredible to really care about people and to love people that way.
47:24
Man, what a privilege we have.
47:26
So we're getting ready to wrap up here.
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Todd, thank you for those stories.
47:29
Just, really practical ways that God meets us in our business.
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And I just wanted to wrap up with two things.
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One is, a couple of books that have really impacted me
47:41
in, in, trying to live my faith out in the workplace and how God meets us.
47:46
I'll share that list of books just real quick.
47:47
I put a list in links to Amazon,
47:50
where you can get it on Amazon in the show notes.
47:53
But I want to encourage you,
47:56
whether you're a believer or not, a believer, it doesn't matter.
47:59
I want to share this real quick.
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We all live with some anxiety in business.
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Are we going to meet our goals or, you know,
48:05
or are we going to meet deadlines? Are we going to make enough money?
48:08
And there's this anxiety and this worry as owners, as entrepreneurs.
48:12
Right.
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So Jesus,
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these are the words of Jesus from Matthew chapter six verse starting in verse 25.
48:19
And Jesus says, therefore I tell you, don't worry about
48:21
I'm going to paraphrase a little bit, all right, but look this up.
48:24
Matthew 625 therefore I tell you, don't worry about your life.
48:29
What you'll eat or what you'll drink about your body.
48:31
What you'll wear.
48:32
Is not life more important than food in the body?
48:35
More than clothes?
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Look at the birds of the air.
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They don't so they don't reap.
48:39
They don't stow away in barns.
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And yet the Heavenly Father feeds them.
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Are you not much more valuable than they can
48:48
any of you, by worrying at a single hour to your life,
48:53
see that
48:53
the idea is this that God made us in his image, in
48:57
that covenant that we talked about earlier, is with us that he took our place
49:01
on a cross, for our failings are missing the mark in life,
49:06
in rebelling against him.
49:07
That's how much God cares about you, all right?
49:10
He cares about your business.
49:12
We we truly believe that
49:13
he cares about your business because that's a major part of your life.
49:18
And so our prayer for you
49:19
is that you just experience that presence of God, his love,
49:23
that you'll be able to enter into a relationship and talk with him,
49:27
bring bring your business concerns to him. But.
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Right.
49:32
We can we can talk to God about here.
49:35
Here's what's going on with the business.
49:36
God, I need help in this area, whatever that is.
49:39
So we just want to encourage you.
49:41
He cares about your business.
49:42
You can bring it to him
49:44
and have conversation and experience God in your work life as well.
49:47
So the last thing those those books I mentioned, a couple of them, Jordan
49:52
Rayner, the word before, the word before work, a devotional kind of focused on,
49:58
you know, starting your workday with spending it in the Jordan.
50:02
Yeah.
50:03
Timothy, Timothy Keller, incredible book.
50:06
Every good endeavor about about living your faith out in the workplace.
50:11
I got
50:11
another one from Jordan Rayner called to create as creators.
50:16
As creatives.
50:17
Good book.
50:19
Really good book.
50:21
Odds. Hillman.
50:23
The 9 to 5 window again about practical ways to live our faith,
50:27
our beliefs out in the workplace, exploring what?
50:30
What does it mean to live faith out in the workplace?
50:33
And then finally, if you're someone that you're just you're searching for truth.
50:37
You're trying to find some peace.
50:39
I want to strongly encourage, Lee Strobel.
50:42
He was a, journalist, atheist journalist
50:46
set out to disprove Jesus and did a very,
50:50
very thorough study and wrote this book called The Case for Christ.
50:55
Incredible. Incredible book.
50:56
So, Todd, thank you for your transparency.
51:00
Thank you for your vulnerability.
51:04
We encourage you to leave comments.
51:06
We understand not everybody is on the same page.
51:08
We get that.
51:09
But we had to share what we believe because we care about you
51:13
and we believe God cares about your business.
51:15
So any final thoughts, Todd?
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We love to hear from you if we are here, if we really are here for you
51:21
and we're here for you and and any way that you need,
51:25
and many of you over the years have emailed us when we've
51:28
mentioned faith and this is the largest, you know, that we have.
51:34
Maybe this is just God
51:35
saying, hey, it's time to mature yourself a little bit.
51:39
It's time to, you know, look at the
51:42
look at the ways that laugh at me, at what I did.
51:44
Maybe there's some small adjustments
51:46
and there's adjustments I need to make every day.
51:48
But you can email us hello@spiro.media.
51:51
You'll get us. We'll respond to you.
51:54
Share it with us. We love hearing from you.
51:57
That's God intended us to do this in community,
52:01
and we would love and be honored if you,
52:06
let us be a part of your community.
52:09
Good deal.
52:10
Guys, we hope this was an encouragement to you.
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We, like we said we love you.
52:16
We care about you.
52:17
We're praying for the success of your business.
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All right.
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Make sure you take some time this week.
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Be thankful for the blessings in your life and make sure you take a breath.
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Have a great week.