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Building a Prayer-Led Business with Jan Redmond · Christian Business Growth Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to Christian Business Growth Podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm Lyle and I'm here with Jan Redman.
• 0:06
  So, Jan, how did God get you into business, brother?
• 0:11
  Well, he when I got saved, uh I w I was always in quest for more, right?
• 0:16
  Um, and he really did give me a foundation around love, right?
• 0:21
  And I think that's why I've been married forty years.
• 0:24
  I think that um that's why I consider myself somewhat professional.
• 0:28
  Um, is that he just wanted me to push the envelope even more for me.
• 0:34
  And that's for me as a Christian.
• 0:36
  Uh understanding when I f when I fail to get beyond that.
• 0:40
  You know, it's an old adage, but it's just around, you know, if you fall, then there should be two times you stand up, right?
• 0:47
  You just keep getting up.
• 0:48
  And that's really been driving me.
• 0:50
  And then behind that is the pious sense, right?
• 0:53
  I really do love my family.
• 0:54
  Uh I want the best for them.
• 0:57
  Uh, I love my wife, I want the best for her, and the best is Jesus Christ, right?
• 1:03
  And so I try so much to tr to put on this who I am.
• 1:09
  And what I believe in and everything I do.
• 1:10
  I know that I wear a big cross a lot of times, and my son will say that was that actually the Christ, was that actually the the the cross that Jesus died on, right?
• 1:22
  it's kind of a funny thing.
• 1:23
  But I mean, I I never want my faith to take a back seat.
• 1:28
  Professionally, people know it worked.
• 1:30
  I don't cuss.
• 1:32
  They they I love when they I love that I don't never say anything, but people excuse themselves when they cuss around me.
• 1:38
  And I had a guy call me the other day who was my neighbor and he said, Hey, they're putting me they're asking me to put my pronouns up on my LinkedIn.
• 1:48
  And I told him I've never done it and I don't do it.
• 1:50
  Um it's just my faith.
• 1:53
  Um that I don't think that that's needed.
• 1:56
  And so I I always just try to keep God first, um, and understanding the the way to God is through Jesus Christ.
• 2:02
  Um and I've been unwavering on that professionally.
• 2:07
  And personally, even though I fall all the time, but the key message again is get up.
• 2:11
  Get up.
• 2:13
  Absolutely.
• 2:14
  And you talked before we were talking about this, you know, no one's perfect, you said.
• 2:18
  Everybody's failed.
• 2:19
  So tell us kind of how's your faith working for you these days?
• 2:23
  So, um, boy, as you get older and it it's more of a struggle to get out of bed, um, it's a blessing because y you're more in touch with God more than ever because you're praying
• 2:35
  just to get out of the bed, to make solid steps and to do certain tasks.
• 2:38
  So it's it's funny you said working for me.
• 2:41
  It's it's almost hourly, minute by minute.
• 2:45
  And I see that now as I become older.
• 2:47
  I mean, a lot of times when you're younger you really feel that you are doing a lot.
• 2:52
  And it's r it's it's all of Jesus, right?
• 2:55
  And so the thing that I'm defining myself is I needing more and more each day.
• 3:00
  Um on the physical stuff, on the intellectual stuff, and even the soft stuff like opportunity, finding the right words.
• 3:09
  Uh I'm in a a technical sales role.
• 3:12
  So, you know, I've been blessed with deals have came.
• 3:16
  Basically uh truly a miracle.
• 3:19
  Um
• 3:20
  And so it's it's in everything I do, man.
• 3:22
  And uh again, as I fall short, I just try to pivot as quick as possible.
• 3:27
  As quick as possible back to my faith and just a lot of prayer time.
• 3:32
  And I don't spend a lot of time I'm talking to Jesus all the time when I drive and I like music, but now I'm finding silence and Christian music ninety percent of the time.
• 3:46
  And that just helps you stay focused and
• 3:48
  And gets those rails in tight so when you focus and putting your crosshairs on something, um, you're not losing sight of what's important.
• 3:54
  And what's important is my faith, my family's faith, and then forgiveness and prayer.
• 4:01
  Yes, sir.
• 4:02
  And you talked a little bit about how you treat your team like a locker room.
• 4:07
  How does faith play into that?
• 4:09
  Yeah, so once you open your mouth, um you're you're influencing people, right?
• 4:16
  Um, and that's why I try to stay positive.
• 4:18
  I try to get people I think of a circle versus a hierarchical um depiction of my organization where everyone's contributing and no one's too new to offer, too young to
• 4:31
  offer uh suggestions or advice or something like that.
• 4:34
  So when I'm when I'm talking to my team, I'm talking out of love.
• 4:38
  And even if prof when I'm professional, I speak love and I'm trying to take everyone's approach or input to whatever my KPIs are, right?
• 4:49
  Whether sales, where it's profitability, where it's revenue, whether whatever type of KPI is driven out there.
• 4:55
  I'm really trying to get everyone involved and understand my goals and how your goals should coincide with those goals.
• 5:01
  You know, I uh I coach a little league football.
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  When I got done with football, I love football.
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  When I got done with football, I played
• 5:08
  full contact flag in Dallas.
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  And then I said, I'm gonna coach football.
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  And I started coaching football.
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  And one of the things I loved is one of my coach one of my kids asked me to get him married.
• 5:18
  Uh I shouted over his his marriage, did all the steps to be uh get to c credentialize and do that.
• 5:24
  And and that comes from a locker room relationship, the good and bad with him.
• 5:29
  And then the flip side I'm dealing with a kid that I got him a job, a great job at IBM.
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  I talked to him last night.
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  He's on a performance improvement program.
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  And we're talking through that and we're really just talking about how God will lead you wherever He leads you, right?
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  Let Him lead you.
• 5:45
  It may be to overcome this PIP performance improvement program, or it may be to go somewhere else.
• 5:51
  Because as I've transitioned from jobs, I transitioned thinking, my gosh, this is the best job ever.
• 5:58
  Some type of transition would happen, and I would think, my gosh, that was the best job ever.
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  And what did God do?
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  Gave me a better job.
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  You know, a better opportunity.
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  So
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  I mean and and when you're in that locker room, I really take the Great Commission to heart, right?
• 6:13
  because you have a chance to influence.
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  Numbers are off.
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  You have a chance to influence.
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  Someone's having a rough, rough time.
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  Professionally, professionally, you have an opportunity to lead them to the light.
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  Not come down on them, not berate them, belittle them, but show you have a different approach to interacting with them.
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  And that kind of draws people in.
• 6:34
  Like, why isn't this guy upset?
• 6:35
  Our sales are off.
• 6:37
  it gets an opportunity for people to grow, to think outside the box, stuff like that.
• 6:42
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:43
  So what is God currently doing in your business?
• 6:46
  Well, he's making me very, very successful.
• 6:48
  And successful, I'm saying we'll we'll pull back the pious side of that, but successful as far as I'm hitting my numbers.
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  I'm bringing home good money, I'm covered in benefits.
• 6:59
  So he's allowing me to get these earthly riches and and I'm just trying to be a better steward of those riches, right?
• 7:06
  because you don't know someone until you look at their debits and credits.
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  Because people the the how they spend their money will tell you how they are.
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  So um
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  It I mean so when I look at my current role, I've been as high as two hundred and twenty-seven percent of my number.
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  Um I'm currently over my number, year to date number.
• 7:26
  so I try to put forth the effort and let God do the other thing.
• 7:29
  Because God is still God at work.
• 7:31
  He's not he doesn't leave you at work and leave you to circumstance.
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  You know, he's guiding you at work.
• 7:36
  He when you interact with people, you shouldn't be beating them over the head with the Bible.
• 7:40
  That may be a role for some people, but again, how you act, how you interact.
• 7:44
  The words that are coming out of your mouth is telling the story of who you are and what you believe in and how convicted you are.
• 7:53
  Right.
• 7:54
  You're talking about KPIs and those who are listening KPIs key performance indicators.
• 7:59
  Just Yeah, exactly.
• 8:01
  numbers, it could be utilization of my team numbers, it could be net new logo numbers.
• 8:06
  And and that that that's a like a drip of water, that's a constant focus in my organization.
• 8:12
  And it's numbers driven.
• 8:14
  You make your number, the everyone loves you, you don't make your numbers, they're looking at you as a spe a special case.
• 8:21
  Okay, so I'm gonna ask you a hard question.
• 8:22
  Somebody's listening and they're not meeting their own personal performance indicators.
• 8:27
  What would you tell them right now?
• 8:29
  No secret to anything in life.
• 8:31
  Pray.
• 8:32
  Pray.
• 8:33
  And it just and you know, I really am a conservative Christian that you should fast.
• 8:39
  And my understanding of fasting is you ain't gotta tell anyone you're fasting.
• 8:43
  That's between you and God.
• 8:44
  I I struggle sometimes.
• 8:45
  People like I'm fasting, I'm taking this fast and that fast.
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  That should be very personal.
• 8:50
  Like speaking in tongues should be very personal.
• 8:52
  So the one thing you can do without a doubt is pray.
• 8:56
  And then take a very, very
• 8:59
  Um, take away the lens, all the clutter, and take an honest look at self.
• 9:04
  So when you're praying, you're being very specific.
• 9:07
  Is it you're in a tough territory, you've got unrealistic things, or are you not committing to it?
• 9:12
  And that's what the Holy Ghost.
• 9:13
  See, the the tr the Trinity, even though trin the word Trinity is never mentioned in the Bible, the Trinity is God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost.
• 9:24
  And the the Holy Ghost is that voice you hear.
• 9:27
  that this constantly talking to you, right?
• 9:30
  And that's where you have an unfiltered conversation with God about what you need, what you're doing, and truly a miracle, blessing.
• 9:37
  So the the g the the kid that's on a PIP that I used to coach, a performance improvement program, I told him to pray and I asked him some tough questions.
• 9:44
  Are you doing what you need to do?
• 9:46
  And we we we do have a very transparent relationship and he was saying, no, I could be better at this, better at that.
• 9:52
  And they're pretty superficial things that he's probably been slacking a little bit.
• 9:56
  That's the reality.
• 9:57
  So we got to put on a big boy pants or big girl dress and really look honest at us and spend itself and then pray.
• 10:06
  And nothing's better than prayer because you're communicating with Elohim, right?
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  And that is Mr.
• 10:13
  Fixer, whatever you want to call it, uh Rafa, Nisi, whatever.
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  But he can absolutely do anything.
• 10:20
  And you're some people are going to sit down and be crazy and call it luck, but he's involved.
• 10:25
  He's involved.
• 10:26
  I love that you're talking about prayer and listening on prayer and then taking action.
• 10:30
  Too many people pray and it becomes this gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme Santa Claus God type thing.
• 10:35
  When in reality you're saying get real, get honest, 'cause God already knows the truth anyway, shut up and listen and then take action on those things.
• 10:43
  In Psalm forty sixteen it says, Be still and know that I'm God.
• 10:47
  It could be you have this drama at work because you don't have this relationship with Christ.
• 10:52
  And He will make you still as you start focusing on all these things happening at work, that you need to pray more.
• 10:59
  Maybe you got a an internet issue.
• 11:02
  Maybe you're doing things that isn't shining the light in in in Christ, your relationship with Christ.
• 11:08
  And so you need to step away from some behavior.
• 11:11
  Or you need to start doing behavior.
• 11:13
  You're not praying enough.
• 11:14
  Because I have my sons and I'm uh this person got cancer.
• 11:21
  and I asked the the guy, because the woman got cancer, I said, I bet you're praying more.
• 11:30
  And you think, No, that's not why this person got sick or whatever.
• 11:33
  No, no, it just happened.
• 11:35
  No, maybe you need to pray more.
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  Because when things happen to us adversely, you know what you do?
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  If you have any
• 11:41
  scintilla of a relationship with Jesus Christ.
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  You will pray more.
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  And that be still and know that I'm God, he's making you be still and focus on him because he's a jealous God.
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  And if he wants you, he's going to get you.
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  And he's going to get you by any means necessary.
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  And we may look at him as a verse, but it could actually be the catalyst for getting you closer to him.
• 12:02
  And remember he's completely completely sovereign.
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  He may take it all the way to he calls him home to okay you've turned your life around and he got what he wanted.
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  But he'll g he he's undefeated.
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  He's gonna get what he wants.
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  So
• 12:14
  Great.
• 12:15
  So we're going to take a shift now into our business growth tips.
• 12:18
  So tell us what's your business growth tip for today?
• 12:21
  It goes back to what I said earlier, you know, one, be credentialized, maximize your education.
• 12:27
  And I'm not talking about going to a four year school.
• 12:29
  Uh it could be an online course.
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  I mean, there's tons of course.
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  It could be viewing TED Talks.
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  It could be uh just a litany of different things.
• 12:37
  So be credentialized to help your speak about what you want to do with your life, right?
• 12:43
  Your employer should know.
• 12:44
  Uh your business plan should know.
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  If you're an entrepreneur, you should have a clear, lucid business plan.
• 12:50
  So be credentialized and understand what you're pursuing, the maximum.
• 12:54
  And then I th I don't can't think of anyone that's created a business, been successful at it, and it's just them involved.
• 13:01
  So again, networking is key.
• 13:03
  And it should be very specific networking.
• 13:07
  You don't want to go out to heathens trying to build something of faith uh unless it's your calling, which is a very dicey thing that you're gonna go out and do the Great
• 13:15
  Commission and reach reach souls and save them.
• 13:18
  But y your networking is critical, right?
• 13:21
  Um, because you never know from other believers, from other practitioners, just where opportunity and pivots are are are gonna allow you to be strategic.
• 13:31
  Um, the other thing is I look at time as a construct, but time is so critical.
• 13:37
  You know, get your eight hours and Monday through Friday after that, uh carve out your family time, but you really need to be focused on
• 13:45
  The key performance indicators that's driving your success, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're in a large organization or um a partnership or something,
• 13:55
  just to where you're maximizing your time.
• 13:58
  Because as old as I am, the first thing that you notice is the time that's gone, right?
• 14:05
  And did you maximize your time?
• 14:06
  And these are simple things that you'd have to look at.
• 14:08
  I'm not telling you to do anything astronomical or Herculean.
• 14:12
  I'm just telling you that time.
• 14:15
  is critical because it goes so fast.
• 14:17
  When you get to my age, you look behind you and you think, Wow, I've s I've spent a lot of time.
• 14:22
  Was it good time?
• 14:23
  Was it bad times?
• 14:24
  Were they a struggle?
• 14:26
  So just maximize what you want to do.
• 14:27
  And and that goes back to goal setting, right?
• 14:30
  When I talk to kids, I'm always talking about goal setting.
• 14:32
  And I was just on um this minister talking about don't ever talk about goals.
• 14:37
  And I'm like what's wrong with you?
• 14:39
  Don't talk about goals.
• 14:40
  He said talk about task.
• 14:42
  So task is little steps that you take
• 14:44
  that you're measurable hourly, daily, weekly.
• 14:48
  And as you start completing those tasks, they lead to a goal or a a key milestone.
• 14:55
  But get people doing stuff on a daily basis, hourly basis, that build upon uh a deluge of movement in the right way.
• 15:04
  So focus more on tasks versus goals.
• 15:07
  And everyone should have goals.
• 15:09
  And I used to I used to I I I've been a goal guy forever.
• 15:13
  So, and I'm understanding more and more that task message versus goals is that um goals need to be written down, goals need to have dates on them, goals need to have check ins,
• 15:27
  and then you have to find an accountability.
• 15:28
  This is the big caveat, you have to find an accountability partner to share those goals, and they only want you to win and allow them to be an accountability partner during those
• 15:38
  check ins.
• 15:38
  And then at the end of the year, look at those goals.
• 15:41
  So you post them up.
• 15:43
  You have dates on All criteria.
• 15:45
  Faith.
• 15:46
  I need to be more part of more committees.
• 15:47
  I need to do Bible study more.
• 15:49
  I need to be in the word more.
• 15:50
  Fitness.
• 15:51
  Weight.
• 15:52
  BMI.
• 15:53
  Uh exercise.
• 15:56
  Professionally, I need to get these credentials.
• 15:58
  I want to look at these podcasts.
• 15:59
  I want to go to this seminar.
• 16:01
  Um, relationships.
• 16:03
  I need to call my mother more, my brother more.
• 16:05
  I need to share the word at the next family gathering.
• 16:08
  Just ha g get a group prayer, kick it off with a prayer, you know, whatever.
• 16:14
  I think goals keep us focused.
• 16:16
  Um and then all of that is embraced by a prayer life.
• 16:20
  Just have a prayer life.
• 16:22
  And then then y everything will become clearer to you because he speaks back.
• 16:26
  He speaks back.
• 16:27
  Just listen.
• 16:29
  Absolutely.
• 16:30
  Yeah, I tell people when you're praying and you think you ain't hearing from God, maybe you need to tune in better, you know, like the radio station.
• 16:35
  You're on the wrong station, you can't hear it.
• 16:38
  is one of the secret nuggets of prayer, you can come to him anywhere you are.
• 16:44
  But he wants you to pursue righteousness too, right?
• 16:47
  So he's a forgiving God.
• 16:49
  You could be out there cheating on your spouse, stealing, stealing time, stealing money, stealing resources.
• 16:58
  This is John Redmond though.
• 17:00
  I believe in prayer.
• 17:01
  I believe in forget um forgiveness.
• 17:04
  And if it's something you're struggling with, keep taking it to him in prayer.
• 17:09
  And and then you'll see things develop, right?
• 17:14
  Um, but if it's if you're earnest with God, you'll see progress.
• 17:19
  You'll be doing less.
• 17:20
  You'll you'll eviscerate it completely out of your system.
• 17:23
  But that's the relationship with God.
• 17:25
  Because you're gonna look at some people and you're gonna be like, this person's a heathen.
• 17:28
  And then you're gonna die, go to heaven, and they're the head usher.
• 17:31
  And you're like gonna be like, How did you make it?
• 17:34
  Because they had a prayer life.
• 17:36
  They had a prayer life.
• 17:37
  And they were struggling through things on earth.
• 17:39
  And I I was just telling this guy the other day that this it is tough to stomach.
• 17:44
  This is not the prize.
• 17:46
  This isn't the prize.
• 17:47
  And we want this to be the prize because we love people with money, there's trips, there's beautiful things, but this is not the prize.
• 17:55
  This is just a qualifying round, getting soccer-centric since this we'll watch it.
• 18:00
  Is this just a qualifier?
• 18:02
  You want to qualify for what the prize is.
• 18:04
  That's heaven.
• 18:06
  And so these 120 years mean nothing when compared to forever.
• 18:10
  And it infinity is we can't conceive infinity.
• 18:14
  So let's just say, and let's say you get your 120 years earlier on earth.
• 18:18
  Would you take your 120 years on earth, or would you take a million years in um glory?
• 18:25
  And who if I and let's switch it to dollars, would you take 120 dollars or would you take a billion dollars?
• 18:31
  I'm gonna say.
• 18:33
  one hundred and fifty percent of the time, everyone's gonna take the billion dollars.
• 18:37
  Look at that and take that caveat to time.
• 18:40
  Would you wanna have a time of a hundred and twenty years of debauchery and fun and all that stuff?
• 18:46
  Or do you want a million years of of of of of paradise, you know?
• 18:55
  Make sense.
• 18:56
  So I begin.
• 18:57
  I can be verbose, so stop me sometimes.
• 18:59
  That's fine.
• 18:59
  Yeah.
• 19:00
  As we end up here, give us one little tidbit of wisdom and how can people get in touch with you?
• 19:04
  So I'm on LinkedIn.
• 19:05
  You can join the calamity of people that are with me on LinkedIn, but you always email and that's W J W L five three at Outlook dot com.
• 19:18
  And you're thinking, how did I get that email address?
• 19:20
  That's William Jewel College and my football jersey number.
• 19:24
  But yeah, you can always get a hold of there and then we can trade um contact information and we could have
• 19:31
  breakfast, lunch, and dinner to just talk about where we are in our life and what we're trying to get to and talk about our shortcomings, but talk about prayer.
• 19:39
  Great.
• 19:39
  Well thanks for being with you.
• 19:40
  I appreciate your time today.
• 19:42
  Awesome.
• 19:43
  Thank you.
• 19:44
  Appreciate it, Reverend Lal.