Latest / Reborn w/ Antonio Boutros / From Corporate to Kingdom: Ethan Fernhaber's Journey to Purpose | Reborn Podcast EP.01

Transcript

From Corporate to Kingdom: Ethan Fernhaber's Journey to Purpose | Reborn Podcast EP.01 · Reborn w/ Antonio Boutros

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: 100 properties.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: You got there and it was like, oh, that was a mirage.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like it wasn't real.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like nothing really changed.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and then you realize that oh, it's not the number of properties, it's the people that are more important.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it really didn't matter.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't believe in classes.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Each human being is God's most precious possession.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if you just do the next obedient thing, then everything seems to work out.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_03: Hey guys, welcome back to the Reborn Podcast.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: Today I got the opportunity to sit down with Ethan Fernhauber.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: He's had a huge impact on me, and I know that he'll have a huge impact on you.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: Ethan came from humble beginnings and now leads five businesses as well as ministries.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: In this episode, we dive deep into tactical strategies on how to build successful faith-driven businesses and organizations.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: With that said, let's dive right in.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_03: So, Ethan, thank you for being here.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what an honor.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's been so great just being a part of your life, Tony, and watching the transformation occur in real time year after year with you.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So can't wait to get into it and um see what the Lord does with it.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: I remember the first time we met at Holiday Park, I came like dressed up and in like business clothes because I had heard about you and I didn't know you yet.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then you came like in uh sweats and uh sweatshirt, and I feel I feel like it's full circle.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: We're both in our our comfy clothes now.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's great getting out in nature and being part of God's creation.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I think like sitting is the new smoking, right?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so what can we do to get out there and move our bodies?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I love to have walking meetings whenever I can.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I don't know that the Reborn Podcast would be the Reborn Podcast if I hadn't met you.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're making me blush, man.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: Because I wasn't reborn fully, at least.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: I wasn't I hadn't been baptized when I met you.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're ready, yeah.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're ready for the the next steps, and you keep on giving the Lord your yes, and he'll keep on growing you up.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And same story with my life.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh he moves us from glory to glory to glory, and we understand him more every day of our lives through the things that he's revealing to us.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, often those kairos moments are learning opportunities, um, and so consistent development until we graduate into eternity.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: For those who don't know, what is a kairos moment?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so I explain it as uh a moment in time.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you have Kronos, which is time, but then a Kairos moment is like uh when the distance between heaven and earth in is thin, and it's typically like a jarring um experience.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: It can either be positive or it can be negative.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um two Sundays ago, I was at Mercy Road Northwest, and Pastor Hurson said, When you're following the Lord, you'll you'll get to experience opposition.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And um about 15 minutes after that church service, we got rear-ended.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um my daughter and I were in the car, and um, the guy behind us, all of his airbags went out, and so I pulled um pulled the car around and then went and uh helped him out.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: He had blood coming out of his head, and uh after talking to him for a couple minutes, I realized it was my neighbor who's like uh lives four or five houses down.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that uh for me was a kairos moment um on the on the way home, um just realizing that I was quick to exit the car and didn't spend enough time checking with my daughter.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it really was a kairos moment for me to you know pay more attention to the people closest to me and not be so community focused.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of helped me reorganize my life.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I say that out of a posture of repentance as a 49-year-old individual, I'm still learning and growing every single day.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: I think often as leaders, we can find ourselves in periods where we're doing more for the Lord than the time that we're spending with him.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: How can we be intentional in spending time with the Lord that and overflowing out of what he's giving us rather than our own performance and also slowing down to experience and to recognize those kairos moments and to receive the lessons that the Lord has for us in them?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think working from a place of rest is just so important and almost like picture babies, right?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like babies, they don't need to do anything to encounter love.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think so often we want to create uh Lego structures and that the Lord would be super impressed with this Lego structure that we put together, and it's kind of like when our kids play with blocks, it's like, yeah, that's super cool, but you know, honestly, I I love you for how I've created you to be.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I think that um just spending time with the Lord is just so important, and it's an opportunity for refreshment.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know my one of my keystone habits, wake up in the morning, and then it's three, three chapters of the of the Bible, and then some time of prayer, and then once a week on Sunday, um, I pray for uh families in our community, and we're looking at Christmas cards on a refrigerator earlier today.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: I take those Christmas cards and tape them inside this journal, and then pray over uh husbands and wives and sons and daughters um once a week, and it's just uh just fills me up looking at all those smiling faces, watching families grow over time.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: How do you may remain grounded in your heart and praying for others and remaining grounded in your community amidst building big organizations that have so many different moving parts?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_03: How do you not just get distracted by those big moving parts and lose sight of what is truly important in the kingdom?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I believe that people are God's most precious possession.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: So the people need to become come first before the organization.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um one thing my wife taught me is human-centered design, so that's uh forming your organization based off the needs of the individual people.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: So when we built out P30, um, instead of importing solutions from our context, we got quiet and we listened.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: We listened to the voice of the people.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if you go out to P30 today, it's a beautiful and thriving community because it's exactly what they asked for.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's their space, not our space.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think getting quiet and listening is a really important piece.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Have you always been that way?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no, it's been an evolving process over years, and you know, I'd like to say I, you know, started off in this great trajectory, but it really wasn't the case.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I mean, I was, yeah.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a transformation journey.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my life versus Romans 12 and 2 to uh be transformed by the renewing of your mind and uh renewing management is one of the entities that we've created.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think that we're able to get new neurological connections over time.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think like people are ever fixed or they can ch they can choose to grow, they can choose to evolve, they can choose to accept feedback and then change what they're doing.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: So P30, if I'm not mistaken, has been uh was birthed less than a decade ago.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_03: And you're 49.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_03: What what was before them like what led you uh P30?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: What from the way you grew up, the way maybe businesses or a career that you had before P thirty, um, just life overall, your your walk with God and your walk with your wife and children and such.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh the three pillars of our family are faith, entrepreneurship, and education.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we believe that embracing those three things um can ignite transformation in human beings and in communities.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh with P30, the it's the entrepreneurship uh pillar that we're really pouring into.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh before we started P30, we started Nexus, uh, which sits on top of Mercy Road Northwest and has helped create a sustainable income stream for that church plant.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um Nexus was created for larger firms uh than P30 was created for more individual entrepreneurs, um, members of the Far East Side community.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I'm just one board member of these 501c3s that were created, but uh creating financial liberated financial models is something that I love to do and have some some gifting in that area.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Stephanie's an entrepreneurship professor and you know, creating sustainable income streams so that uh new nonprofits or for-profits aren't contingent on like grants um or donor support uh to continue operating.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so we've we've helped do that.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think I was uh formed as an entrepreneur, but really didn't realize that until I was in my mid-twenties.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um my brother read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, handed me the book, and I left my life of banking and went into uh real estate first halftime and then eventually full-time.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um now we have five operating companies and over 30 LLCs, which uh hold the individual rental properties, and then that house factory on the far east side called Volume Mod that uh is one of the most redemptive ecosystems that I've experienced in my life.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: And Volume Mod is it's number one in the Midwest, I believe, for modular housing.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Says Tony on the Reborn podcast, so I don't know if that's true or not.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we love building modular multifamily, and there's not that much competition within that space, but I have no statistical evidence of that.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm proud to say that this year we'll celebrate our thousandth floor being produced uh out of volume mod, and it's less than five years old, and um we're on pace to produce 10 units this week, uh, which is a new record for the organization.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it's great after seeing uh production paused in 2024 now to have a whole full pipeline um through the end of the year.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's um super encouraging to see that business begin to flourish.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_03: How do you balance excellence hitting new records with the empathy of caring for individuals' needs, whether it's maybe they're going through stuff at home and it's like wearing on them and how they are performing at work while also overachieving at work?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_03: How do you balance those those two?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you talk to people who work with me, they won't call me an overachiever.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's part of it.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: I only do what my specific assignment is, and it shouldn't be done like in the natural, it should be done in the supernatural.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Earlier this week, um, my daughter and I got our vision checked together, and then we got home a little early, and we ended up going to the BMV to do a registration together.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And on the way back, I remembered one of our residents within our apartment community was at St.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Vincent Hospital, and the Lord impressed it upon my heart to go visit her.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so even I got to go uh spend some time with her, pray with her, and get to just be with her.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it wouldn't it couldn't have been scheduled, right?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um but if you just do the next obedient thing, um then everything seems to work out.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing that I've had to understand is um like what we what has been built is bigger than what I have power to do.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I need to stay obedient and stay within the yoke of the Lord uh to do this work at this point in time.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so he'll give me specific assignments, and then he has uh he has brought in a lot of treasure bearers into my life, uh, just people who have a heart to help what we're doing.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, whether that's a political person or an investor or just a connector here for people who can help you accomplish what your goals are.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's been an amazing experience.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_03: What challenges or struggles have you found in remaining faithful and giving all that glory, all the glory to God instead of like all these people just want to help me?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like I'm I'm a pretty cool guy, you know, and I just want to come and and you know be a part of this.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_03: Like, of course they do.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's look at what we're doing.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: You know, how do you give that all to God instead of being prideful?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's ridiculous that they would want to help, you know.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: I had two guys come up from Tennessee yesterday, and you know, they're like, Well, we're gonna refer this and refer that.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, well, someone else wanted a referral fee.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: They say, Oh, we don't want a referral fee.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you're good.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we just wanna support that work.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how could I take the credit or the glory for that?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: That they would just want to send business our way because they believe in what we're doing.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, you've been out to the factory, you've experienced the presence that exists on 30th and post out there, and it's just like something that's bigger than us, you know.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I think when it's bigger than us, and there's a reverence uh for the work, and I think they'd see that hey, I'm a good steward of that, you know, the people that the Lord has entrusted me with, the properties that he's entrusted me with, the relationships that he's entrusted me with, and so yeah, we're hopeful and expectant that that would just uh continue to happen in the years in the years ahead.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_03: I guess as both a servant and a steward, how how would you say you've grown since your time transitioning from banking, but also even within a time from when P30 was initially opened.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when I think about what the Lord has created me to be, um, and you know, my specific one of my assignments is to be a stage builder for other people to stand on.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not seeking the the credit, the accolades, all the rest.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know I'm an introvert, I don't love large groups of people, you know what I mean?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm more of a a one-on-one or a small group person, that's where my best work is done.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think at this season in my life, it's how can I uh create an opportunity for someone else to stand up and uh uncover what their gifts and their calling is.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: And with the different businesses that we we operate, it's it's more than what I could do by myself.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I need to raise up and empower great leaders to do the work that's ahead of them.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh thankfully I've been able to find uh better talent than I'm able to do those jobs.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And when you start with uh a double wide in Owensburg, Indiana, and you grow it to 5,000 units, like you've had all the jobs, right?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've had all the jobs, and so I know that I have people today that are much better than me at that specific thing.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um and but you know, what else am I called to do?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm called to be a loving creator, so starting things, pushing things into being, pushing momentum, standing behind and beside people, that's part of what I'm what I'm gifted at.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but ultimately it's up to them to to do the work.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but if I can get ahead of them and kind of help create a pathway, that's great.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then if I can stand behind them uh with my hand on the small of their back, is giving them a little bit of force to keep moving forward.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm well positioned to be a benefit for those people.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_03: How do you discern whether you're in a season of having a hand on the back or going in front and creating this new new organization or new initiative, whatever it might be?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_03: How do you discern that and also not overwhelm your your team with either too much challenge, too much pushing, or like we have all this to do?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's because it's I feel like it's easy to create at times, it's but then there's the tangible day-to-day work that needs to be done.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that's good.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something that I struggle with.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, for the first part of your question, like I talked to a lady yesterday, and she's got a home that she wants to create as an oasis for non-traditional college students, and that was her assignment.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that's her assignment.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so for us, I'm for her, I am a Sherpa.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: I am going to help show her the trail, and I'm gonna help carry some of the baggage.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, how can I help this individual accomplish what the Lord has impressed upon our her heart?
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that would be her assignment.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: How do I not overwhelm my team?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: I overwhelm my team a lot.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, and this is something I'm trying to work on.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Josh Wagner uh with Everbloom Consulting, you know Josh, right?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he's currently implementing scaling up at all of our organizations.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: And by implementing this operating system, we'll have clearly defined rocks or what are the highest priorities that the leaders of the businesses need to work on, and then they'll create a 13-week sprint of milestones uh that would relate back to what that priority is.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm a futurist, um, so I can see things down the line, and uh I need to become more disciplined at saying, okay, that's quarter one, this is quarter two, this is quarter three, this is twenty twenty-seven, we're gonna do that in 2030.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I need to get it out of me and on paper, and then I need to have someone else who would drop it uh within the specific quarter and then make sure it was driven to completion.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: How do you know when it's something that should be done with that within that quarter or if it might be not might not be done for two years?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: It's easier to put it on paper that this needs to be done than to actually go out and execute it.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think you just prioritize it, and then you know, you can't have more than like three or five priorities in a specific quarter.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, like right now, we want to create a training center uh that would uh eventually educate more than a hundred people per year on how to create modular homes, how to be a property manager, how to be a property maintenance technician.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: That'll be a third or a fourth quarter initiative.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I know that m I want to move from being reactionary and become more proactive.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, right now the house factory needs to hire 26 people and we don't have much of a pipeline.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so if you think about we're gonna focus on funnel creation instead of posting an ad, we're gonna start pouring into people.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: People three months, four months, five months, six months before we even need them.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think something that's been impressed upon my heart is may we be known for our sending capacity as opposed to what we've gathered.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: So even if some of these property managers go and work for Artizone or for Glik or Buckingham, like we'll applaud that because we're sending people out and they're doing better um later on than they are today.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_03: How do you keep your eyes on the future while living in the present and also having maybe issues of the present, whether it's employee turnover, uh cash flow, um maybe deos falling apart, stuff like that.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I think it's it's both and right.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: We can't ignore the present, right?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, while we were talking today, my pocket shook three or four times with text messages coming in.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um thankfully, uh when we've got great leaders in place, they can uh take care of the majority of the day-to-day issues.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think one thing that I've really embraced are like different rhythms.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so doing planning on an annual basis for us is very important.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Having a three or four year uh target, three or five, three to five year target, and then a a 10-year BHAG, big hairy audacious goal, um is important to us so we can see way down the field, and then more specifically, like what's directly in front of us.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um and to know that hey, we're gonna do quarterly planning in the last month uh of the quarter for the next quarter, and then just setting up those those rhythms, right?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Those pulses, the heartbeat is just so important.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think if you're all alone with just a notebook and not like a team or a community that's surrounding you, it can definitely become overwhelming.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but when you have a lot of momentum, and momentum is a force that almost pulls you forward, it can pull you forward in a way that um yeah, creates a lot of good in the lives that are surrounding you.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: Is your B Hag something that you anticipate hitting?
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, and uh, you know, I've hit a couple of milestones uh in the in the past, and uh each one is kind of like a horizon, right?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's oh, when do I get there, you know?
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one was, well, I want a hundred properties, you know, and it's like a hundred units, and you got there and it was like, oh, that was a mirage, like it wasn't real, like nothing really changed, you know, and then you realize that oh, it's not the number of properties, it's the people that are more important.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it really didn't matter.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: So then seeking the Lord, you know, what is the next thing that you would have for me?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it was 40 communities by 2030, and we're close to that now.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, between our five operating companies, we have three passion projects and 33 different apartment communities across the state.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: So what is our our next, you know, our our next horizon?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I really want to pour into the people that have surrounded me during this journey at this phase of my life, and um to see them succeed in their individual endeavors.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got a lot of talented and passionate leaders um that we've accumulated, and I just can't wait to see them uh carry more weight and then be rewarded for that moving forward.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_03: Tell me about those passion projects.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we have a commercial building on uh 31 and 465.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Michael Graves was the architect of it.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's currently 8% occupied, but uh Lord willing, we'll fill it up um in the years to come.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: And um, we're currently gonna create a a co-working space on one of the wings.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's a school that may move in.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've got non-disclosure agreements signed on some other portions of the building as well.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's uh it's uh well positioned as like the tip of the spear between Carmel and Indianapolis, and definitely felt uh pulled uh to purchase that building.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um it took us several years and became friends with the owner through the process.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think it is one of our assignments.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh beyond that, we have a uh former monastery up in Wisconsin that we're in the process of redoing.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be a 13-room um kind of like a giant Airbnb that we can use for uh spiritual or secular activities.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's on 186 acres and right on a river, class one waterfall.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so excited about doing that.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got two or three other things in the works as well.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_03: What about the estuary?
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's one.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh we have four Airbnbs there, also a wedding venue, great spot for events.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know you spit got to spend a lot of time in there.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's all done uh being remodeled now, and yeah, happy to host uh a monthly Igniter Award uh where we raise up some of our uh the greatest and most unrecognized treasures uh within our community.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh last month we had Ethan Pennington with felling up.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um Ethan goes behind bars to serve the juveniles who have uh lifetime sentences, juveniles uh who are sentenced as adults, and he prepares them for their transition into the adult population.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um we got to see him reconcile uh with his victim's brother um in exchange forgiveness uh in front of a crowd of maybe fifty or sixty-five people, and it was super, super powerful um to see uh Ethan's own transformation and then Wally's uh extension of forgiveness uh for what was done.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_03: And you have a from what I've heard, a church there now, right?
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's not uh there is a church that meets there once a month.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's uh it's a little bit different worship experience, and the estuary was created as a spiritual innovation center.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, uh JD and his wife Liz uh started this new movement and went to their first service and it was just beautiful.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was more experiential than anything else.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh wasn't so much like content-based, but beautiful worship, time of prayer, and I would encourage um anyone to come check it out.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_03: What are you most excited for in this season?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: And uh what are you anticipating coming in this season and within your future for you?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to see the house factory just flourish.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I want a triple production in the years ahead.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a great team that we've uh that has been assembled for such a time as this to carry the the weight of that.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we hope to uh increase wages there on the factory floor.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a 401k contribution, great major medical policy.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's an apartment complex that we own and operate within walking distance to the factory, and our nonprofit foundation offers a rent discount to those who need it who uh help build those homes every day.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: So excited to see that.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think with Helix Development, we're looking at working on several public-private partnerships moving forward.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I hope to build two or three communities per year.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Amanda Warren is doing a tremendous job with renewing management, caring for our 5,000 residents.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a couple of acquisition renovations right now that we're doing up in Fort Wayne as long as it has well as a new construction project.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of like on the business front.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then on the home front, we've got one daughter left at home.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: She's 17 years old, so can't wait for her to figure out uh what's next for her.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I believe that she's going to attend college.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then um, yeah, just uh hang out with my wife, you know.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we've been married for it'll be 26 years this year, and we've always had a vision of uh growing old together and ending up on a porch swing together.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so I can't wait to spend more time with her, just rediscover um who she is and just continue to improve that relationship year after year.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_03: Curious, as a family where one of where entrepreneurship is one of your core values, what is your view?
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, entrepreneurship, faith, and education.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: What is your view on college?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I think college is an option, but not a requirement.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not one of the people that say, hey, look, if you don't go to college, you're not, you know, like you can still have a great life.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that being said, I mean, I started out as a meat cutter and then eventually went to school at night.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I value my education and that educ that experience.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's, you know, what is your specific calling?
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, if it's, you know, if it's in the professional environment, you know, a college degree could be a helpful thing.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're going into the skilled trades, guess what?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: You're as valuable as a person who has been to college, but it may not be a requirement.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you have to look at the individual.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I have a high regard for the people who pick up trash at my communities on the daily basis.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I am married to a PhD, and I I don't believe that um, I don't believe in classes, you know.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I think like each human being is God's most precious possession.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: We need people who pick up trash, we need people who enter bills, we need people who frame houses, we need people who are great at human resource things, and so yeah, I think it's uh the individual, uh it's up to the individual to choose.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_03: You've been in a position where you've had the opportunity to, like I said, for me personally, be like a spiritual father, but also for other believing entrepreneurs in our community, really help raise them up as leaders, um, pour into them.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_03: What have you seen with the coming generation of leaders um that you applaud that maybe we're doing even better than your generation?
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_03: And what where where can we improve?
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're showing up and you're coming together, and I get inspired by the next generation.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: I love uh all the new babies that are being created.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: Got uh so many right now in my life.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like my wife and I had our like core group of friends, and every guy you got married, everybody started having babies, and then now like a lot of the young people that I look up to are also you know expanding their families.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I love the energy and the creativity, the selflessness, the community-mindedness of your generation.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think you guys you operate with a lot of freedom.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think you can look at a lot of older people and be like, that's not what I want.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: So live with that freedom, live with that abundance uh mentality.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's uh I think it's beautiful, and yeah, I I want more of it.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: What might mean be blind to?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: I would say just tenacity, you know, like it just takes a lot, you know, day after day, week after week, you know.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was thinking about Saturday mornings, you know, from like 6 a.m.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: to 10 a.m.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's like this is when we take new ground, you know, there's the Monday and the Friday, but then there's like the overtime.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it does.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to build something new, it just takes a lot.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and it you have to have focus and clarity and and remain in the consistent direction.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you're trying to split yourself five ways while being created, it's just you know, it's too much all at once.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say, you know, pick one thing, be get get really good at that, and then don't be afraid to pivot to something else because the world is just changing so rapidly.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have if you have blinders on, it's probably not gonna work out.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: You have to have a 360 uh view.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I really thought that single families would be it for me.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we purchased, we renovated, then we had this innovative lease to own program, and I just loved it.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, unfortunately, our conversion rate was like 0.01 percent, so it didn't work, like you know, but that eventually led me to multifamily, which eventually led me to the house factory, and now we've got a whole family of companies working together to help solve the housing crisis here in Indiana.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid to iterate and evolve over time.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_03: How do you stay 360 with a 360 view without becoming distracted from what you are today building?
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_03: And especially to some extent, I would assume you're gonna annoy your team by by saying, Hey, we could do this, you know.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well I had to build multiple teams because I did annoy them, so you're accurate there.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, if I wanted to start a development company that wasn't going to be within inside the property management structure, so we had to start a whole new company to do that, and we needed to start a house factory, a whole new organization, whole new senior leadership team.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, thankfully, property management has been ahead of it all.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's our oldest company, and it's been performing well.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Amanda's been doing a great job uh taking care of our residents and our employees, and that's helped fuel the startup of these other organizations and then all those special projects, passion projects are in transformation ventures.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I would say that if you're a serial entrepreneur, I wasn't able to stick it all in one entity and have that entity figure it out.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I kind of picture them as like spinning plates, you know, so you get one going, then you move on to another one, you spin a little bit.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we've got five of those, and you just go to the one that's most wobbly right now.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, and so the the one that's wobbly, you just spin it a couple times and it gets going again.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, businesses should be like vehicles, they should run by themselves.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: Once in a while, you're gonna pop the tire, you need to get out, and you need to fix it.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, so to figure out what does a good operating vehicle look like, smell like, you know, and there's a budget for it is important.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then it takes a while to assemble that car.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: So be patient with the process.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: But eventually, my intention is to have it drive by itself, but as a visionary founder, leader, you would want to pre-program that car with the destination that it's going to go to.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, you know, you want to make sure that your core values are held in high regard.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_03: And are are your core values consistent across?
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh not really.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: No, I mean, I mean, they're not like diametrically opposed, but each one of them is a little bit different.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: Each organization has their own culture that has been formed, not just by me, but as uh the leadership team comes together over time.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_03: How important is it, especially I guess in the beginning, almost asking for myself, um how important is it to have to have the vision, but also should you just get out of the way and let your team do most of it, or should you still be in the nitty-gritty, the the weeds, if you will?
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_03: Or both.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I tried to hire out my assignments for a long time and it cost me a lot of money and it hurt a lot of people.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say to stick with it um until you're not needed anymore.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_03: How do you become not needed anymore if it sounds like also some hesitancy with initially maybe having hired wrong.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's yeah.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: I I do the best with subject matter experts.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: So somebody is really, really good at their given thing.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and there was a time when I thought, well, I'll just hire a generalist, like anyone can do it, and that has not worked out well for me at all.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, unfortunately, they got hurt during the process.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of good people just didn't have great depth of experience in whatever subject matter that I had asked them to do.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I thought because it's easy for me, it's gonna be easy for someone else.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um one of my coaches uh uh said to me, it's like playing the guitar.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: If I asked you to play the C chord, um if you know guitar, like it's easy.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: If I if I try to do it, it's super hard.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: But then, you know, it would be like, well, I'm frustrated, they can't even play a simple chord, and it's like no wonder why they're not a musician, you know.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: So because it's easy for me doesn't mean it's going to be easy for the next person that I put into that position of responsibility.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_02: Where do you want to take this?
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have anything on mine on your heart?
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, I just appreciate the opportunity to share today.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for teasing out a lot of the gold nuggets within me.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, just can't wait to see what happens in the city of Indianapolis in the next 10 years.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is a unique uh community.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful to be a part of it, and um yeah, I'm just expectant and exciting, excited to see great things happen here in India.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we were talking about it the other day, and the I'm seeing the Lord work in bigger and bigger ways throughout the city and in the business space, but also in just vocational ministries.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um as you know, you can build for the Lord without the Lord actually being involved.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm seeing a lot of uh altars going up to the Lord in in the form of organizations that are out of overflow from the Lord.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_03: So it's inspiring to see.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, there's something special happening here for sure.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_03: This was awesome.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, thank you.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_03: I really um uh I was very excited for this episode, yeah, and I'm very grateful for it.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_03: So uh Ethan, thank you for coming on.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_03: Where can people find you?
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_03: How can people connect with you?
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh LinkedIn would probably be best.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, just Ethan Fernhopper there.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I only have two posts on Instagram, so we'll see what happens as I enter into my 50th year of life.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: Not that great with social media, um, but LinkedIn is a great spot to start.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: And our website is uh restorehopeindiana.com.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can learn more about me and my story.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: I even have like personality assessments, a timeline on there.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a great resource if you're interested in uh a broken put back together person called Ethan.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_03: So I'll put those links in the description as well.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so that the audience can find them.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_03: And thank you so much.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you.