August 6, 2025 • 48 mins
Can you lead in business without compromising your values—or your faith? In this episode of Faithfully Invested, Allen and Stacy Jo Thorne share how to merge your work hat and your worship hat so you can lead with integrity, compassion, and biblical wisdom in any environment.
From handling conflict with grace to protecting your integrity when the pressure is on, they unpack how to stand firm in your faith while navigating deadlines, egos, and marketplace challenges. You’ll hear real stories from their own leadership journeys—moments of learning, maturing, and trusting God’s direction—plus four practical ways to honor God while leading well at work.
Whether you’re a CEO, entrepreneur, manager, or team member, you’ll discover:
✅ Why your identity and value must come from God—not others
✅ How to set healthy boundaries without being a doormat
✅ Why servant leadership isn’t weakness—and how Jesus modeled it
✅ Practical steps to lead with excellence, elevate your team, and keep people over profit
If you’ve ever wondered how to thrive in the business world without losing your Kingdom focus, this conversation will equip you to lead boldly and faithfully—no matter the cost.
📖 Key Scriptures: Colossians 3:23–24 • Matthew 10:16 • Matthew 20:26–28 • Proverbs 11:3 • Exodus 18:17–23
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Are you ready to build a life,business and legacy that truly
lasts?
Welcome to Faithfully Investedwith Allen and Stacy Jo Thorne,
where Faith meets real talk.
Biblical wisdom meets everydaylife and leadership meets
laughter.
Together we will uncover God'sblueprint for leadership,
marriage, and mission, helpingfaith-driven leaders invest in
(00:21):
what matters most.
Each episode, we explorebiblical wisdom, have real
conversations, and of course,have some fun along the way
because let's be real.
Walking in faith is anadventure.
It sure is.
So pull up a seat, grab yourcoffee or your sweet tea, and
join us as we steward ourcallings with intention, because
(00:42):
when we invest in his kingdom,he brings the increase.
Hey friends.
Welcome back to FaithfullyInvested, where we explore God's
blueprint for leadership,marriage, and mission.
I'm Allen.
And I'm Stacy Jo.
(01:03):
And today's episode hits closeto home.
Um, they all kind of hit closeto home.
They all, yeah, you're right.
They all kind of do.
But this one is, especially forthose of us who wear a work hat.
A worship hat.
Mm.
Yeah.
So guess what?
Friends?
You know, when we follow Jesus,these two hats should be the
same.
(01:24):
We should never be putting onone hat and taking it off before
we go to work.
Right?
We should be wearing a worshiphat.
And be like, okay, now I'm goingto work, so now I have to put on
my work hat.
Yeah.
That's, that's, that's not it.
They should be exactly the same.
That's not it.
That's not, we should beauthentic.
Everywhere Jesus went, Jesus wasJesus.
Right.
You know?
(01:44):
Yeah.
And I kind of did that in thebeginning of my walk, but as we
mature and pastor talked aboutthis today, uh mm-hmm.
We mature in our walk.
It's, it's about our.
It's about maturing as we go.
Right?
And as we mature, those two hatsbecome one.
And you know,'cause Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's pretty good.
So if you've ever felt like, uh,that you were a tyrant or a
(02:08):
doormat while trying to lead ateam, then today's discussion's
for you.
Yeah, I mean, we're diving intokingdom leadership in the
marketplace where we need to beleading with integrity and
generosity and compassion.
And serving in business withoutselling your soul, right?
Integrity.
(02:29):
I think it all comes back tointegrity, and there's a, this
is a news flash, a spoiler alertif you will, is that you don't
have to have a cross.
Or any other Christian symbolRight.
On your, on your business card.
Yeah.
To be a Christian leader, butyou do need to have a, a
(02:50):
gratefully pliable heart forsubmitted to the Lord.
Mm-hmm.
You gotta have that gratefulheart.
Yeah.
Uh, submitted to the Lord aswell as, um, always having.
Uh, the truth of his word,written on your heart.
That's what we gotta have.
And we gain that as we, as wedig into the word, as we, as we
(03:10):
mature in our walk, as we, as wejust keep our eyes fixed on, on
the Lord, uh, yeah.
In, in both, in, in allenvironments.
Yeah.
And just because we.
Go out into the, the workenvironment or the world
environment doesn't mean that weadjust to that.
Right?
We are, uh, we are thermostats,not thermometers, right?
(03:33):
So we set the, we set the pace,we set the, the uh, the tone.
Yeah.
Of the atmosphere.
I mean, at home, at work, atchurch, right.
We should always be the sameauthentic person that God
created us to be.
Right.
And it's, and it's not alwayseasy.
No.
Especially if we're trying to doit ourselves.
(03:53):
Yeah.
But it's not about trying to doit ourselves.
Mm-hmm.
It's not about behaviormodification, it's about
allowing Yeah.
The, the Holy Spirit, thematurity of our walk as the Holy
Spirit sanctifies us along theway.
That's good.
And, uh, so yeah, that's, it'snot about us trying harder.
Yeah.
Just trying harder.
Does it work?
You know, temp tension.
(04:14):
Tension can rise when, when ourbusiness feels like a
battlefield.
Yeah.
And you know, we face bottomlines, we face deadlines, we
face egos.
Yeah.
You, I mean, have you ever facedan ego in business, Allen?
No.
Never.
My goodness.
You're in the constructionfield.
Yeah.
I can just imagine the egos thatare out there.
(04:34):
Right.
But.
Regardless of what field we'rein, there's always going to be
someone that has an ego, andsometimes it can be us,
sometimes it can be us, but wedeal with sometimes we gotta
check ourselves.
Right.
That's it.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, therefore,making sure that we're always
our authentic person that Godcreated us to be.
(04:56):
That's it.
Leading with integrity.
Yeah, and you know, we've talkedbefore, you know, it's easy to
think sometimes that successrequires hustling hard and
compromising often.
But that's not, that's not thetruth.
I mean, we've talked in previousepisodes about how.
The hustle.
You know, we hear hustle andgrind, hustle and grind, hustle
(05:18):
and grind.
And that's not who God createdus to be.
We have to rest too.
We rest is biblical.
Yeah, we've talked about thatpreviously, but, but we just, we
do wanna pro provide someclarity here.
We we're not demonizing hustle.
No.
You know,'cause,'cause beingproactive is good.
Right.
Being proactive is biblical, butwe there, there needs to be a
(05:40):
bAllence.
Uh, and what's our motive?
Yeah.
What's our motive for thehustle?
It comes back to, you know,selfless ambition or selfish
ambition.
Yeah.
You know, and uh, so, you know,like I said, proactive is good
and we don't wanna.
We don't want to come across as,as demonizing the, the hustle
(06:01):
culture, but we also don't wannasubmit to that.
We don't want the, the hustle tobe the idol that we're, what are
we striving for, right?
Who are we striving for?
Are we working as unto the Lord?
Mm-hmm.
Or are we, you know, doing itfor us or for someone else?
You know, what are we hustlingfor?
(06:21):
Yeah.
So it, it really comes back tomotive.
Um.
Unfortunately, you know, wegotta be aware that.
Some people will look at servantleadership and they'll see it as
an invitation to use, use thatnice person as a doormat.
They'll think to themselves, oh,you're one of those nice Jesus
(06:43):
people.
Yeah.
And, uh, okay, I'm gonna takethis opportunity to take
advantage of the nice person.
And I, I would encourage you,uh, brothers and sisters that,
uh.
You've probably been there.
Have you, have you been there?
Mm-hmm.
Because I I've been there.
Yeah.
I've been there.
I've been there.
And, uh, you're not the first,uh, you're not gonna be the last
(07:05):
mm-hmm.
Uh, in these times.
We, we gotta recall Matthew 10when, when Jesus was sending his
disciples out in the world, andhe said, behold.
Behold, I send you out as sheep.
Mm-hmm.
Among wolves.
So be shrewd of serpents and beas innocent as doves.
And this means that's good.
(07:26):
We gotta, we gotta operate underand in his authority, we gotta
emulate his love, kindness, andgoodness and peace as well as.
Faithfulness to our Christfollowing belief structure.
Yeah.
While we're standing on theTruths foundation that calls us
(07:46):
to be more than just nicepeople.
Right.
Being a Christian is not justabout being nice people and
Well, you know, well, Jesus wasa really nice person, but Jesus
stood up not, he didn't juststand on the truth.
He is not, and he was.
It's not He.
There's no was with Jesusbecause Jesus is, is he is the
(08:08):
truth.
And He is.
He was.
And he always will be.
And he always will be.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
He's the same yesterday andYeah.
Today and tomorrow.
Right.
Uh, but he stood, he stood ontruth.
Yeah.
Uh, and he called people out,you know?
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, you know, we're notgoing to dig deep into that
right now, but, uh, we're the,the base here is what we're,
(08:30):
what we're trying to understandis that when.
What trying to convey so thatyou understand, is that we're
not just here to be nice people,right.
It's about being more than nicepeople.
Mm-hmm.
We gotta, we gotta rely on ourtraining.
We gotta rely on, first andforemost, rely on the Lord to
(08:50):
guide us.
'cause when it comes down to itas a Christian.
He's guided for me.
I, I'll back this up into I andme statements.
He's guided me through a lot oftraining that I never really saw
myself needing to take, but thetraining that I've gone through,
he's guided me through that sothat I can rely on that and, and
(09:13):
have the knowledge as well asthe wisdom mm-hmm.
That the Holy Spirit provides insituations out in the business
world.
Right.
And because you have.
That experience and because youhave, the Lord has blessed you
with the opportunities, right.
Just as he's blessed me withexperience and opportunities,
(09:35):
that doesn't mean that we canjust, we should just lay down
and be like, oh yeah, you know,you want that, you want that a
hundred percent discount.
Well, I'm a Christian so I'llgive it to you.
Yeah.
That's not it.
That's not it at all.
That's not it.
Um, and, and.
You know, I, the real challengeis how do we lead like Jesus in
(09:57):
a culture that rewards pride,speed, control, um, and, and how
do we deal with people who wantto take advantage of that?
Yeah, I mean, that's a greatquestion.
And uh, here's another one justfull of questions today.
Yeah.
(10:18):
How do we, how do we servepeople well without being
manipulated?
Yeah.
Or sink into that, uh, anymanipulate, manipulative levels.
Mm-hmm.
How do we build somethingexcellent without bowing to the
world's pressures?
Yeah.
Now, I would say to you.
To to, to this question.
(10:39):
Yeah.
I would say truth believer, doyou believe, are you standing on
the truth?
Are you standing on thefoundation?
Mm-hmm.
Are you embracing thecornerstone?
Who is Jesus Christ?
Because if you are.
Where does your excellence comesfrom?
Where does the excellence comefrom?
(11:00):
Right.
The excellence comes from Jesus.
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, the, the excellencecomes from the word and the
excellence comes from the HolySpirit of truth who comes to
give us all the truth.
Yeah.
I mean, and where does yourintegrity come from along with
the excellence?
You?
When we started out, I, when Istarted out in my business, you
(11:23):
know, I had this tug to leadlike Jesus, but also a voice in
my head saying, you're gonna getsteamrolled.
If you don't toughen up.
Yeah, because I was infamous.
I was infamous for giving allkinds of discounts.
Yeah.
I was infamous for, you know,taking on things that, um, I
didn't really want to take onand I wasn't really being led by
(11:44):
the Lord to take on.
Right.
So if I'm not being led by theLord to.
Take on a client or a project,am I really leading like Jesus?
Because Jesus always had theconnection with, with God
telling him what to do.
And if I'm leading like Jesus, Ineed to be taking my cues from
God.
I got two words for that.
Yeah.
And that's, and that, and this,this happened, this is
(12:06):
experience I two words,teachable moments.
Right.
You learned a lot from that.
And, and we had someconversations Yeah.
On that.
Yeah.
And, and you don't do that.
No so much anymore.
No.
And you, and you do take your,you, you, we were learning.
Mm-hmm.
You were learning.
Yeah.
And you've, and you've becomesuch a, an, an amazing Christian
(12:27):
business woman as, as you domore and more as you're maturing
in your walk.
Yeah.
As a Christian business womanand as a, as a first and
foremost, as a Christ follower.
Um, and, and.
Yeah, you don't do that nonsenseanymore.
Uh, you, because you, you'restanding on the foundation and
(12:48):
you do take your, your cues fromthe spirit and there's a lot of
prayer that goes into thatbusiness.
Well, and I'm gonna say too tothat, there is a lot of prayer
that goes into that business,but I'm also going to say to
that is I learned my value.
There you go.
And I think it's so important.
That's it.
That's huge.
To know your value and know whatyou bring to the table as a
(13:10):
business owner.
That's it.
As someone in business, becausewhen I started off, I mean, my
faith has deepened over theyears, but when I started off, I
didn't really think I was asvaluable as what the Lord.
Thought I was right.
Absolutely.
That the Lord put me into thisposition.
Yeah.
And I was like, I'm not, Idon't, didn't necessarily feel
(13:31):
equipped.
Hmm.
But he equipped me.
He empowered me.
He commissioned me.
He did.
And he showed me, he showed youyour identity.
He showed about that.
He showed my identity there.
It's and my value that I amworth.
Right.
And I don't have to succumb tobeing manipulated.
You don't have to be a peoplepleaser.
Right.
The people pleasing was an idolman.
(13:51):
He tore down that idol and he,and he introduced you to,
mm-hmm.
Uh, well, the real Stacey Joe,please stand up and here she is.
Please stand up.
Please stand up easy now.
Hopefully, hopefully we don'tget sued for that, but, uh,
anyway, we do not own the rightsto that music.
Right.
We're, we're just joking.
But, uh, but I, but I recall,uh, I recall when I was
(14:15):
initially maturing in my faithwalk, um.
In the construction field.
I was, uh, I was just trying tobe that nice guy.
Similar to what you were talkingabout.
Yeah.
Uh, while, while instructing andreinforcing our safety culture
mm-hmm.
With subcontractors.
And if, and if you're in, ifyou're listening and you're in
construction, uh,subcontractors, you're just
(14:37):
like, Ugh.
They can be quite challenging.
Sure.
And uh, so I'm, I'm, I'm thesafety guy.
I'm trying nothing against thoseof you who are subcontractors
though.
Yeah.
But y'all are challenging man.
And, uh, but you know, you know,anyway.
But as a safety manager doing,doing, uh, trying to be the nice
(14:58):
guy, uh, and, and advancing oursafety culture with these
subcontractors, but I, at this,the recollection comes, I was at
this, uh, I hadn't yet reachedthe understanding that, uh, of
the authority that Jesus hadgiven his believing followers.
So, so I was an easy target.
(15:18):
Yeah.
I was just, I was being the niceguy and I, I hadn't.
Uh, I, I wasn't operating underand in that authority just yet.
Mm-hmm.
I was early and early in my walkand, uh.
So the, and I, theymisunderstood my kindness for
weakness.
Mm.
And, and that lead and that ledto, you know, some not so kind
(15:38):
conversations.
'cause I didn't like my, Ididn't like being seen as weak.
You know, I'm a, I'm a pretty,I'm I'm the TOF guy, right.
But, uh, anyway, it was, uh, butit was all fun and games until
the, uh, the nice guys shut downthe work.
You know, for, for them.
Yeah.
You know, it's, you know, andthey're like, what do you mean
you're shutting down the job?
(15:59):
I was like, I'm shutting downthe job.
We had this conversation, youmade a decision to not do that.
So the nice guy, this, you know,he shut it down and, and, you
know, I, I coached him on saferwork practices, not outta
tyranny, but.
You know, out of, out of acaring heart, out of concern.
(16:21):
Yeah.
Out of concern and a caringheart.
Yeah.
That each person, even, even it,it doesn't matter if, if I knew
'em or not, these subs, I, Ididn't know every one of them.
Like I knew the guys on, on ourteam, but, uh, I, I shut the job
down and coached them in themoment, uh, from a caring heart
so that each one of them goeshome to their family at the end
(16:43):
of the day.
Amen.
And that's how.
We need to, uh, that's, that's,mm-hmm.
Christian values, Christfollowing values in the
workplace.
Yeah.
You know, it's not being walkedover.
It's, it's, uh, coming tounderstand.
It's, it's being kind, it'sbeing compassion.
I call it firm compassion.
Yeah.
You know, and, and I'm notafraid to shut down a job site.
(17:07):
I think you need to, to justremind people what you do.
Safety manager, I'm a safetymanager for corporate
construction.
Uh, here in South Florida, it's,uh, they just don't wanna think
You're walking around shuttingdown jobs.
Yeah.
I'm just, I'm just gonna walkonto your job.
Say Jonathan h just went, ohcrap.
I heard about your barge man.
(17:29):
Anyway.
Uh, but yeah, but the challenge,the challenge is real, right?
Yeah.
The challenge is real.
I mean, there's a fear that ifwe don't play by the world's
game, we'll lose out and thatpeople won't respect.
A servant hearted leadership.
And the truth is that if we areleading like Jesus, we have to
(17:55):
have a servant's heart.
We have to business, have aservant's heart.
Yeah.
In all things.
But we're talking today aboutthe marketplace, right?
And that includes how you leadyour employees, how you lead
your clients, how you.
Treat your vendors, how we treatpeople, everyone around you,
right?
(18:15):
Yeah.
How we treat people and how weallow people to treat us.
Right?
Right.
'cause we're not doormats.
And we're not tyrants.
No.
So, but the bottom line is, iswhether we're gonna honor our
creator, father God, or hiscreation first.
Mm.
So can you repeat that?
That's the bottom line.
(18:37):
The bottom line is whether we'regoing to, are we going to honor
God?
Our creator, father God, or arewe going to honor his creation
first?
Yeah.
So we wanna honor his creation.
But what I found over the yearsis that when I honor God, when I
decide to honor God first,everyone else is honored as
(19:00):
well.
That's it.
That's it, man.
When I'm honoring the Lord,everyone else, everyone around
me, whether people decide torespect that sort of leadership
is on them.
Mm-hmm.
That's on them.
Uh, our part is to our part asChrist followers in the
workplace, uh, in the business,in the marketplace, right, is,
(19:22):
uh, to lead with integrity andcompassion.
Uh, even if it cost us somethingand it's going to cost us
something, sure we, we will comeup against resistance.
But I, and I would say,especially if it cost us
something, yeah.
You know.
Continue that when, when wereach, when we, when we hit that
(19:45):
resistance, continue to honorthe Lord first because he's
gonna bless that.
Right.
He's already blessing thatbecause we're learning our, our
teachable moments in thosechallenging times are, are a
blessing in and of themselves.
Yeah.
And maybe he's gonna, maybe he'sgonna bless it right in, in that
moment through the teachablemoments.
(20:08):
Mm-hmm.
Maybe it's coming on down theline.
It might not be in my timing,but as they say, patience is a
virtue.
Yes it is.
Yes it is.
Babe.
Patience is a virtue.
Yeah.
So, but our part is to alwayslead, consist consistently lead
with integrity and compassion.
(20:28):
Right?
I mean, that.
It's, it's imperative, and wehave to, because as a Christian
business owner or as a Christianin business, people are always
looking at you.
They're waiting for you to makean error.
Oh, they're waiting.
They're waiting for you to saythe wrong thing.
Do the wrong thing.
Yeah.
Walk the wrong way.
(20:48):
You know, look the wrong way.
They're waiting for that.
Right.
Um, you know, and Colossians 323 to 24 really anchors us.
'cause it says, whatever you do,do your work heartily.
Yeah.
As for the Lord rather than formen for the Lord, you know,
knowing that from the Lord, youwill receive the reward of the
(21:10):
inheritance.
It is the Lord Christ whom youserve.
So as Allen was saying, youknow, we serve him first.
We serve people second, andwhatever you do means whether
you're drafting blueprints,whether you're leading board
meetings, whether you're doingbookkeeping, whether you're
doing a podcast, whatever it is,do it for the Lord, not just for
(21:34):
people.
Whether you're walking through asubcontractor safety culture,
that's it, or lack thereof.
Regardless of what we're doing.
Yeah.
You know, we wanna lead withintegrity, lead with compassion.
Yes.
Uh, stand on that foundation andembrace that cornerstone.
Mm-hmm.
Who is Jesus Christ.
Yeah.
And, um, and it's okay to askourselves sometimes.
(21:55):
It may sound cliche though, uh,the, uh, the whole what would
Jesus do here?
Yeah.
You know, if you know your wordand you should Christ follower,
know your word.
Yeah.
You know, you would know whathe, what he would do.
Mm-hmm.
And that maybe he might flipover the tables.
You never know.
You never know.
I, I am gonna say somethingthough, because one thing that I
have learned from my mentor, oneof my mentors, is I always ask
(22:20):
the Lord to open the doors thatno man can shut and shut the
doors that no man can open.
How's that?
And write my name on the heartsof those he wants me to do
business with, because I'm gonnatell you, not everybody.
Is your customer.
Not everybody is your client.
That's good.
Not everybody is your employee.
That's right.
(22:41):
And you're not going to, there'sgoing to come a time when you're
going to have to cut ties withsomeone.
Yeah.
And as long as it's done withintegrity.
Yeah.
And honesty and love.
Yeah.
I think the, uh, a, a shorterversion of that, which I love,
(23:01):
I.
Uh, um, I forget who you got itfrom, was blessed or block it.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Blessed or block it, you know,and, and well that came from my
dear friend, Tory Cruise.
Tory Cruise, yeah.
Yeah.
Right on.
Blessed or block it.
Yeah.
Blessed or block it.
That's, that's a quick nutshell.
Yeah.
And that can, that's a quick onefor you.
You can use that with anythingblessed or block it, Lord.
Yeah.
And, and, and whether he doesone or the other, be ready for
(23:26):
that.
And, and ask him, you know,Lord, Lord is, are you doing
this?
Mm-hmm.
Uh.
Yeah, always make sure thatwe're, uh, and as we, as we walk
close with them and as we maturein the spirit with them, we're,
we're able to, to discern thosemoments.
Yeah.
But it's always good to ask,Lord, is that you.
(23:46):
Right.
Is that you?
Yeah.
You have some practicalsolutions for us know in the
marketplace.
I am.
I know you And your practical,your practical solutions.
I am the doctor of pragmatism.
I think, uh, I, I'm not sure ifI have a doctorate, but I, I'm
maybe, uh, maybe a, a bachelor'sanyway.
(24:10):
Yeah, so we do have somesolutions.
We don't just have.
Um, you know, challenges,challenges or, or, uh,
experiential banter.
We do have some solutions and,and number one this week, and
we, we touched on this a littleearlier, is lead with integrity.
Yeah.
You know, um, Proverbs, Solomon,and writes in chapter 11 that
(24:36):
the integrity of the uprightguides them.
Mm.
The integrity of the uprightguides them.
And the, our integrity comesfrom the Lord.
So yeah, we should, we should beguide.
And as Christ followers, we'reguided by the Holy Spirit.
So integrity means that, uh,we're being the same person when
no one's looking right.
(24:57):
That's it.
We're not in business, you know,we're behind closed doors.
We're the same.
I'm the same person you're gonnasee out in the field.
You know, in business that'shonoring contracts, you know,
always, regardless of thecircumstances being truthful.
Yeah.
Uh, I can, wow.
(25:18):
I can see such a change in 20,in 20 years.
'cause I wasn't always that guy.
I wasn't always this guy.
And I, I'm grateful, uh, that I,I'm not that guy who I was and,
and, uh, before, but, uh, I'vebecome.
Truthful, I've becomeauthentically truthful and, uh,
(25:39):
yeah.
And that's, and that's, uh,that's a good place to be.
So regardless of ourcircumstances, we wanna be
truthful as Christ followers.
We don't wanna fudge thenumbers.
Uh, we don't want to compromiseour integrity, uh, on seemingly
harmless little white lies.
Mm.
You know,'cause I, um, I seem torecall some years ago, um.
(26:02):
The, uh, the great theologianSammy Hagar.
What?
He, he reminded us that, thatthat little white lie will come
back to haunt us.
I'm, I'm just saying.
Okay.
Just saying, Hey, Sammy beenaround a while.
I said anyway.
Right.
He's a believer.
Well, good.
I'm glad to hear that.
Right.
(26:22):
But, you know, back the hats,you know, making sure that we're
wearing the same hat.
Yeah.
Yeah.
At business integrity, at work,at home, in public, in church,
on the platform, wherever youhappen to be.
Absolutely.
Be authentic.
You know, even when it costs youauthentic, even when it costs
(26:43):
you.
Yeah, because it could, becauseif it cost you in the eyes of
men mm-hmm.
If it, if it costs you out inthe workplace.
You're being the, the blessing'son the way.
Yeah.
You know, it's, it's not amatter what, so what do we want
to, are we gonna compromise ourintegrity with men?
(27:06):
Mm-hmm.
Or are we gonna compromise ourintegrity with the Lord?
Right.
I don't, I don't, I, I believeI'm gonna stick with the Lord on
that one.
Well, and two, you know, back towhat I said, even when it costs
you, like I spoke to someone nottoo long ago and they told, they
were telling me how they have across.
Mm-hmm.
And not that you have to have across on your website.
I do have scripture on mywebsite and so people know when
(27:28):
they come to my website, we're,we're a faith-based business.
Sure.
But they had a cross on theirwebsite.
And someone literally told themthey did not wanna do business
with them because they were aChristian.
Okay.
And so it cost them something.
But you know what?
They didn't compromise theirbeliefs.
(27:49):
No.
They didn't compromise theirintegrity.
Right.
They didn't compromise anything.
Right.
And God sees that he does.
And promotion from him is betterthan any praise you could ever
get from people.
And I, I re similar.
I recall.
Uh.
With freedom, support, you know,you were having challenging
with, with not so like-mindedclients.
(28:12):
Mm-hmm.
And they, and they, they wentaway.
They, yeah.
They avoided their contract andthey, and they went away.
But when they went away, threemore came.
It's very true.
Three more came that were mucheasier to work with.
Right, right, right.
So, you know Yeah.
Blessed it or block it.
Yeah.
Blessed it or block it.
That's it.
So, well number two is serveyour team generously.
(28:35):
You know, Matthew 2026 says,whoever wants to become great
among you must be your servant.
Oh yeah.
And you know, we have to serveour team.
I have a team of incredibleemployees and subcontractors and
serving them, you know, doingthings.
We try and do a quarterly thing,you know, something quarterly so
(28:58):
that they can.
Understand how much they'reappreciated.
Yeah.
You know, whether it's, youknow, we want to throw axes.
One time we went bowling anothertime.
Team building events, it's goodstuff.
But team building events just sothey know that they are
appreciated.
Um, you know, how you treat yourteam.
Is a good representation of howyou are gonna treat your
(29:22):
clients.
Yeah.
So, you know, verse 28 says,remember just as a son of man
did not come to be served, butto serve.
Oh yeah.
And to give his life as a ransomfor many, right.
You know, treat your team withrespect.
Serve them.
Yeah.
Love them.
Yeah.
And be generous to them andencourage them to do the same
(29:44):
and encourage them to do thesame.
That's it.
That's it.
We're leading by example.
Yeah.
I mean, Jesus style leadershiplooks like asking, how can I
elevate people around me?
Yeah.
Not just how can I not, notever, how can I elevate myself,
but how can I elevate peoplearound me?
Because when you elevate peoplearound you.
The Lord sees that and heapplauds what you're doing.
(30:07):
He does.
He does.
He's gonna honor that.
Mm-hmm.
As, as we honor him, he's gonnahonor that.
And, and, and in the process ofdoing that, that might mean some
extra training.
Mm-hmm.
That might mean giving creditpublicly that, that's so good
to, to give credit publicly.
Uh, but in, in.
On the other side of thatspectrum, when, when there's,
(30:30):
uh, a challenge to be addressed,we don't want to address that
publicly.
I've made that mistake in themarketplace or, or in the
construction field rather.
Where I've, where I've, uh, backin the day, I called someone out
in front of the whole team.
Bad form.
Mm.
Bad form.
Poor leadership.
Uh, we never call someone out infront of the team, but if we're
(30:50):
gonna, if we're gonna call, uh,if we're going to praise them,
that's a good, and right infront of the team is, uh, is a
great place to do that.
So giving credit publicly,that's, that's core.
Even picking up a.
Picking up the broom yourself?
Yeah.
I remember, um, a guy fromHouston, I don't know if he is
around anymore.
Uh, I'll refrain, uh, from hisname, but he is like, um, never
(31:13):
too proud to pick up the broomin the room.
Mm.
You know, never too proud topick up the broom.
And he was a, uh.
He was in branch leadership.
So it was a, it was a goodlesson.
I remember that early when Icame into structural.
Yeah.
I mean, don't ask your team todo something that you're not
willing to do yourself.
Yeah.
I always, I always stood onthat.
Yeah.
I'm never gonna ask you to dosomething I hadn't done myself.
(31:34):
Right.
Uh, so it's, it's not abouthierarchy.
No.
It's about our, it's about ourheart posture.
Wheres our heart at?
Uh.
Who are we allowing to lead ourheart?
Who are we allowing to form ourheart?
Uh, it's important.
Yeah, it's important for us tostay in our lane, but it's also
(31:56):
vital to understand thatsolutions are found within the
team, and, and the team mightneed your assistance.
Uh, more than usual from time totime.
Yeah.
So, so don't hesitate to pick upthat broom.
Mm-hmm.
Or don't ever hesitate to engageyour team.
That's right.
You know, they're not just thereto do the dirty work, you know,
solutions are found within theteam.
(32:17):
I've learned that.
That's a, a, a great principlethat I, I learned in
construction.
Um, so if it's within our power,uh, we should do that.
Yeah.
And that, because that's howteams come together, helping
each other as needed withoutlooking for accolades for doing
so.
You know, you mean No, no, goahead.
(32:42):
You mean I can't ask my team tolike, applaud my efforts?
I'm kidding.
Well, you can give it a shot,but you know, I wouldn't, I
would never do that.
Yeah.
But we need to applaud theirs.
We, we do.
We do.
And, and as we do though, as wehonor them, they'll, yeah.
Honor us.
And you, I mean, we saw thattoday, uh, with, with Seth as,
(33:03):
as Todd was honoring the, theguys that were leading the, the
Conquer series.
Mm-hmm.
That revived church, you know,Seth came, came back and we all
stood with Seth on that.
Yeah.
Uh, as we honored, honored theman who honored, honored us as,
as leaders.
He's a.
He's a tremendous, uh,tremendous pastor, and there's a
mm-hmm.
(33:24):
Yeah.
I lo I love what Seth saidthere, and I'm, I'm kind of in
the weeds there, but he goesout, out there and, uh, there's
a lot of cowards on pulpits indifferent churches.
Yeah.
And we're grateful that we don'thave a coward on this pulpit
here.
That's right.
You know, he is standing ontruth, standing on foundation,
standing on the cornerstone.
Yeah.
You know, we love, we lovePastor Todd and JAMA Ingram.
(33:45):
Love you guys.
Example of great leadership.
Example of example of excellentleadership.
Phenomenal leadership,phenomenal leadership, servant
leadership.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Mm-hmm.
So, um, but giving withoutexpecting anything in return
Yeah.
Is, is another great leadershipattribute.
Right.
And it, it kind of sounds, youknow, like Jesus.
(34:07):
You think giving withoutexpecting anything in return he
didn't expect, gave it all,expect anything.
Right.
And he gave it all.
Right.
And I would say the Lord blessedthat.
Yeah.
And continues to bless thatthese days.
Absolutely.
What's number three, babe?
Well, how about beingcompassionate in conflict?
(34:27):
And I know that can be difficultat times.
Managing conflict, um, managingconflict.
And I'll be, I'll be the firstone to tell you I don't like
conflict.
Like if, if I can run from it,if I can hide from it, well,
sometimes we gotta step, wedon't wanna run our high boo
sometimes we gotta step back.
Well, we do.
You know, but regardless, wehave to be compassionate.
(34:51):
Yeah.
And we can confront withoutcrushing.
Um, and when we do that, youknow, that creates a culture
where people feel seen, not justmanaged.
Yeah.
We always want people to feelseen.
You know, I, I.
I'm in a group of women,business women, and that's the
(35:13):
number one thing that womenwant, I can tell you, is to be
seen, to know that they're beingseen.
And what I can tell you is Godsees every move as you know.
And so having that compassionYeah.
With your team.
Yeah.
It, they want to feel seen andit makes them feel seen.
Absolutely.
You don't wanna be the one who'sgot them under your, you've got
(35:34):
'em under their, your thumb andyou're managing everything they
do.
Right.
Give them, give them a little, alittle lead.
Give them a, give them anopportunity to lead and elevate
them.
Absolutely.
They have a, they, they, theyknow they have a voice.
Yeah.
And we have, we have to.
But back to what you said too,'cause you said about when, you
(35:57):
know, if you have to confrontsomeone about an, like a
mistake.
Mm-hmm.
You know, don't do it in frontof the team.
Yeah.
Be compassionate about that.
Gotta be compassionate.
Take them aside.
And I like, I like in yourculture, you know, and I've
tried to adopt this too, to, youknow, the sandwich where you
sandwich it with the good, thegood things.
(36:18):
Yeah.
The four to one ratio.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Talk about that.
The, uh, yeah.
And then, and four to one comesback to having difficult
conversations.
Mm-hmm.
And, and before I get into thatcompassion, uh, doesn't mean we
avoid tough conversations.
It, it just means that we havethem with respect, kindness, and
(36:39):
clarity.
Yeah.
And, and what I've learned at,at Structural is that that's the
company I work with, uh, and,uh.
For a long time now, and is afour to one ratio, uh, is we,
we, when we have to have adifficult conversation because
regardless of who you are, whereyou're at, if you're in
(37:00):
leadership and wherever you'regonna have a difficult
conversation.
Mm-hmm.
And knowing how to have thatdifficult conversation is
important.
And four to one means that we'vethere, especially as Christ
followers.
We gotta be able, there's got,we gotta see the good.
(37:21):
Yeah.
Not every, I mean, the, theperson, uh, that we're de, that
we're gonna have thisconversation with, what do they
do good.
Yeah.
You know, it's finding, uh, fourto one means find four good
things, uh, to, to soften theblow so we can say, Hey man, but
we really need to work on that.
Right.
You know?
And, uh, and, uh, uh.
(37:44):
A friend of mine in ministryyears ago from a, from a
different church called that thevelvet brick.
Mm.
You know how to deliver thevelvet brick.
Yeah.
You know, it's like, hey.
And, and an example would belike, Hey man, I see you're, I
see you're on time every day,man.
And, and you're always cleanshaven.
And, and, and, uh, and man,you're, you led that, that job
(38:04):
safety analysis really well thismorning.
Yeah.
But, uh, man, I'm really gonnaneed you to, uh, I'm gonna need
you to, you know.
Have two hands on that grinder.
'cause that thing will come backand hit you, you know?
Mm.
And when, when we, when we padthat, not, not just for the sake
of padding it, but let'em, let'em, let'em see and let'em hear
(38:28):
that we see the good Yes.
And, and we want to, we want,so.
Mm-hmm.
We want him to work.
In my case, I want'em to worksafe.
Right.
You know, but we see the good,but we need to address this
right here.
Yeah.
So, so there's, there's the longversion of four to one.
Well, I think it's important toknow that, and I think it's
important in the marketplace,regardless of what.
(38:49):
What industry you're in.
Um, if you're a leader, you needto know how to, how to do that.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
But how about number four?
I think before we get to numberfour, we, we didn't really talk
about, you know, the, the, theabsolute essence of, of
compassion.
And that means that means.
Compassion's about way more thanthan speaking compassion, uh,
(39:14):
is, you know, everyone's,everyone's got a voice.
Mm-hmm.
And as leaders, we have to bewilling to listen to the team
around us.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
We gotta be, as we mustlistening.
Is an absolute essential forleadership.
Yeah.
In, in any real.
So people want to be seen, but Ibelieve more than they want to
(39:34):
be seen.
They want to be heard.
Yeah.
Everyone has a voice.
Everyone has a voice.
And as leaders we gotta bewilling to listen to our team.
Yeah.
We gotta be willing to listen toour team.
And remember, like I mentionedearlier, solutions are, they can
be found within the team.
And um, so.
(39:54):
Listen up leaders, listen toyour team.
'cause you might learn somethingtoday.
Well, and that's why God gave ustwo ears and only one mouth.
Right.
That's it.
I remember back in the day so wecould listen better.
Yeah.
I remember more than we talk aback in the day, a dear friend
of mine said, uh, and I, I was,I was yak k imagine if you will
(40:16):
yak, kak, yak, yak, kak.
And I didn't listen much.
He's like, Allen.
The Lord gave us two ears andone mouth for a reason.
You need to listen better andyou need to sh How was that one
more time?
Alright.
(40:39):
Oh goodness.
So number four is we gottaalways prioritize people over
profit.
Mm-hmm.
And we gotta still, we as, asChrist followers, we're always
pursuing excellence.
Mm-hmm.
But we prioritize people overprofit.
(40:59):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's, and, and our, in oursafety culture, there's a, uh.
There's the, the triangle, wetalk about the triangle.
It's safety, quality andproduction.
Mm-hmm.
And none of'em are ahead of, ofthe other.
If you put production in frontof either safety or quality,
then it falls to pieces.
So, but, but the people, the,the, the, the employees, the
(41:23):
technicians, the, the, themanagers, the, the, the whole
team.
They're the greatest asset ofany company, right?
The people are the greatestasset.
You know, money comes and goesand we, and, and we want to turn
a profit.
We want sure.
We want, we want revenue to begood.
We want our, our margins to bewide and mm-hmm.
(41:44):
And, you know, we want goodmargins.
Uh, but people are much moreimportant.
Mm-hmm.
People are much more important.
People over profit.
Uh, and that takes us back toColossians 3 23 that you
mentioned earlier.
Mm-hmm.
Is that whatever you do, workout it with all your heart as
unto the Lord.
Yeah.
So, God, uh, God's notglorified, uh, by mediocrity.
(42:09):
Not all.
No.
I used to, I used to jokearound.
One, one of my first testimonieswas, uh.
Of my own volition, of my ownpower, I ascended to the peak of
mediocrity.
I was the ace of average.
The ace of average.
Anyway, not a good place to be.
We're not just average servantleaders.
(42:33):
Um.
We're not serving a somewhatappealing God, we serve the
creator of the entire universe.
Mm.
Uh, his creation's path is, isset on absolute excellence.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So as, as we've been created,uh, in his image, shouldn't we
(42:55):
also serve our excellent creatorwith absolute excellence?
Yeah.
Is it as we're created in hisimage and he's excellent, should
we not also be excellent?
Yeah.
You know, let your work preachbefore your mouth ever does.
That's good.
That's good.
(43:15):
Excellence honors God, and itearns influence with people.
Yeah.
Um, when you treat people that,what's the saying?
There was a saying, people willalways remember how they, they
will forget what you said.
They'll.
Uh, they'll forget what you say,but they'll always remember how
(43:36):
you made them feel, how you makethem feel.
Right, right, right.
How you made them feel.
Right?
Yes.
I think that's a really good,um, just a really good thing to
remember when I forgot Yeah.
Like exactly how it went.
But, but thank you babe, forbringing that back.
Yeah.
But excellence honors God andit, and it.
Earns influence with people.
So, absolutely.
(43:58):
So what does this look like foryou this week?
Maybe it's reworking how youtalk to your team.
Right?
Maybe it's checking your heartbefore the next client meeting.
Maybe it's saying, Lord bless itor block it.
That's good.
Maybe, maybe, uh, that, thatemail.
That fiery email you typed up?
Oh, yeah.
I've learned to, uh, the 24 hour2024 hour rule.
(44:21):
Yeah.
My, uh, yeah, I, our, uh, yeah.
A dear friend of mine, uh, saidit.
Careful.
Yeah.
Don't do that.
Give it 24 hours.
Yeah.
And I've, uh, I've erasedseveral emails Yes.
And that, and very, uh, verygrateful the next day that they
didn't go out and I was able tothink it through, you know, let
(44:43):
that hair on the back of theneck, go down and pray about it.
And pray about it.
Yeah.
Always give it to the Lord, man.
Yeah.
And, and is gonna, because it,just because we're Christ
followers doesn't mean we don'tget angry, but it does.
Mean that we mm-hmm.
We have to have to check that.
Yeah.
And, and the 24 hour rule onemails, uh, is, is a good role.
(45:05):
Yes.
I've adopted that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've adopted that for me.
Absolutely.
Thanks, Colin.
Yeah.
Uh, so, um, so ask the Lord, uh,as, as, as we're getting into
action items mm-hmm.
As we're starting to wind uphere, ask the Lord during your
quiet time with him.
Am I leading from fear or am Ileading from faith?
(45:27):
Mm.
You know, there's just somequestions to ask.
Yeah.
You know, you, you are havingquiet time with the Lord, right?
Yeah.
It's just.
Something we might ask him, am Ileading from fear?
Am I leading from faith?
Am I following am, am I, am Ileading to honor you or am I, am
I trying to please man?
Mm-hmm.
Uh, uh, another question is, uh,how, Lord, how are we gonna
(45:50):
reset our zeros today?
Because I know I get flusteredsometimes.
Uh, go figure, you know, human,uh, the flash.
How, uh, how did news flash, uh,that guy gets flustered.
So lord, how are we gonna resetour zeroes today?
Mm-hmm.
I was just talking with the guysthe other day.
(46:11):
I was like, guys, I'm gonna behonest with you.
I am scattered so, so Lord.
How do we reset our zeroestoday?
How might I navigate today'schallenges, Lord?
Yeah, because,'cause we'reguided as Christ followers,
we're guided again by the HolySpirit of truth who brings us
all the truth, and yeah, and wedo.
(46:33):
I know I do better when I relyon that guidance.
Right.
You know, you were placed inthat business, in that role on
purpose.
And for a purpose.
Yeah.
And Jesus didn't come to beserved but to serve.
Yeah.
So if he lives in you, it's gotime y'all.
Absolutely.
Let's go.
Go time.
It's go time.
(46:53):
Right.
I like that.
Um, go is two thirds of God.
Oh, that's it.
God, when God says go, that'strue.
Yeah.
We go.
Right.
I think I said that earliertoday.
I think you might Well, I, the,I didn't think about it being
the two thirds, but I said whenGod says go.
We go.
That's it.
That's it.
(47:13):
Yeah.
And, uh, gra and, uh, GrahamCook says, we, we keep going
until he says stop.
Right.
You know?
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
And, and he will, you know?
Yes.
I, I it comes back to blessedher block, but mm-hmm.
You know, so take a minutetoday, friends, and um, take a
minute and pray over yourbusiness.
(47:33):
Yeah.
Uh, and invite the Holy Spiritinto your daily workflow.
And remember.
I love.
Remember this promotion.
It may seem that it comes frompeople, but it doesn't come from
people.
That's right.
Promotion, elevation in themarketplace always comes from
(47:56):
the Lord.
Amen.
Always comes from the Lord.
That is so true.
So go serve.
Go lead.
And go shine and we will see younext time on faithfully
invested.
Yep.
And remember that when youdecide to live faithfully
invested, God brings theincrease.
Yes, he does.
(48:17):
God, have a great week.
Take care.
God bless.
I.
Thanks for joining us onFaithfully Invested with Allen
and Stacy Jo, if today'sconversation encouraged you,
challenged you, or helped yousee your calling more clearly,
don't keep it to yourself.
That's right.
Share it with a friend.
Leave a five star review andkeep leaning into God's
blueprint for your life, yourleadership, and your legacy.
(48:41):
So until next time, remember,when you invest in his kingdom,
he brings the increase.
Are you ready to build a life,business and legacy that truly
lasts?
Welcome to Faithfully Investedwith Allen and Stacy Jo Thorne,
where Faith meets real talk.
Biblical wisdom meets everydaylife and leadership meets
laughter.
Together we will uncover God'sblueprint for leadership,
marriage, and mission, helpingfaith-driven leaders invest in
(00:21):
what matters most.
Each episode, we explorebiblical wisdom, have real
conversations, and of course,have some fun along the way
because let's be real.
Walking in faith is anadventure.
It sure is.
So pull up a seat, grab yourcoffee or your sweet tea, and
join us as we steward ourcallings with intention, because
(00:42):
when we invest in his kingdom,he brings the increase.
Hey friends.
Welcome back to FaithfullyInvested, where we explore God's
blueprint for leadership,marriage, and mission.
I'm Allen.
And I'm Stacy Jo.
(01:03):
And today's episode hits closeto home.
Um, they all kind of hit closeto home.
They all, yeah, you're right.
They all kind of do.
But this one is, especially forthose of us who wear a work hat.
A worship hat.
Mm.
Yeah.
So guess what?
Friends?
You know, when we follow Jesus,these two hats should be the
same.
(01:24):
We should never be putting onone hat and taking it off before
we go to work.
Right?
We should be wearing a worshiphat.
And be like, okay, now I'm goingto work, so now I have to put on
my work hat.
Yeah.
That's, that's, that's not it.
They should be exactly the same.
That's not it.
That's not, we should beauthentic.
Everywhere Jesus went, Jesus wasJesus.
Right.
You know?
(01:44):
Yeah.
And I kind of did that in thebeginning of my walk, but as we
mature and pastor talked aboutthis today, uh mm-hmm.
We mature in our walk.
It's, it's about our.
It's about maturing as we go.
Right?
And as we mature, those two hatsbecome one.
And you know,'cause Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's pretty good.
So if you've ever felt like, uh,that you were a tyrant or a
(02:08):
doormat while trying to lead ateam, then today's discussion's
for you.
Yeah, I mean, we're diving intokingdom leadership in the
marketplace where we need to beleading with integrity and
generosity and compassion.
And serving in business withoutselling your soul, right?
Integrity.
(02:29):
I think it all comes back tointegrity, and there's a, this
is a news flash, a spoiler alertif you will, is that you don't
have to have a cross.
Or any other Christian symbolRight.
On your, on your business card.
Yeah.
To be a Christian leader, butyou do need to have a, a
(02:50):
gratefully pliable heart forsubmitted to the Lord.
Mm-hmm.
You gotta have that gratefulheart.
Yeah.
Uh, submitted to the Lord aswell as, um, always having.
Uh, the truth of his word,written on your heart.
That's what we gotta have.
And we gain that as we, as wedig into the word, as we, as we
(03:10):
mature in our walk, as we, as wejust keep our eyes fixed on, on
the Lord, uh, yeah.
In, in both, in, in allenvironments.
Yeah.
And just because we.
Go out into the, the workenvironment or the world
environment doesn't mean that weadjust to that.
Right?
We are, uh, we are thermostats,not thermometers, right?
(03:33):
So we set the, we set the pace,we set the, the uh, the tone.
Yeah.
Of the atmosphere.
I mean, at home, at work, atchurch, right.
We should always be the sameauthentic person that God
created us to be.
Right.
And it's, and it's not alwayseasy.
No.
Especially if we're trying to doit ourselves.
(03:53):
Yeah.
But it's not about trying to doit ourselves.
Mm-hmm.
It's not about behaviormodification, it's about
allowing Yeah.
The, the Holy Spirit, thematurity of our walk as the Holy
Spirit sanctifies us along theway.
That's good.
And, uh, so yeah, that's, it'snot about us trying harder.
Yeah.
Just trying harder.
Does it work?
You know, temp tension.
(04:14):
Tension can rise when, when ourbusiness feels like a
battlefield.
Yeah.
And you know, we face bottomlines, we face deadlines, we
face egos.
Yeah.
You, I mean, have you ever facedan ego in business, Allen?
No.
Never.
My goodness.
You're in the constructionfield.
Yeah.
I can just imagine the egos thatare out there.
(04:34):
Right.
But.
Regardless of what field we'rein, there's always going to be
someone that has an ego, andsometimes it can be us,
sometimes it can be us, but wedeal with sometimes we gotta
check ourselves.
Right.
That's it.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, therefore,making sure that we're always
our authentic person that Godcreated us to be.
(04:56):
That's it.
Leading with integrity.
Yeah, and you know, we've talkedbefore, you know, it's easy to
think sometimes that successrequires hustling hard and
compromising often.
But that's not, that's not thetruth.
I mean, we've talked in previousepisodes about how.
The hustle.
You know, we hear hustle andgrind, hustle and grind, hustle
(05:18):
and grind.
And that's not who God createdus to be.
We have to rest too.
We rest is biblical.
Yeah, we've talked about thatpreviously, but, but we just, we
do wanna pro provide someclarity here.
We we're not demonizing hustle.
No.
You know,'cause,'cause beingproactive is good.
Right.
Being proactive is biblical, butwe there, there needs to be a
(05:40):
bAllence.
Uh, and what's our motive?
Yeah.
What's our motive for thehustle?
It comes back to, you know,selfless ambition or selfish
ambition.
Yeah.
You know, and uh, so, you know,like I said, proactive is good
and we don't wanna.
We don't want to come across as,as demonizing the, the hustle
(06:01):
culture, but we also don't wannasubmit to that.
We don't want the, the hustle tobe the idol that we're, what are
we striving for, right?
Who are we striving for?
Are we working as unto the Lord?
Mm-hmm.
Or are we, you know, doing itfor us or for someone else?
You know, what are we hustlingfor?
(06:21):
Yeah.
So it, it really comes back tomotive.
Um.
Unfortunately, you know, wegotta be aware that.
Some people will look at servantleadership and they'll see it as
an invitation to use, use thatnice person as a doormat.
They'll think to themselves, oh,you're one of those nice Jesus
(06:43):
people.
Yeah.
And, uh, okay, I'm gonna takethis opportunity to take
advantage of the nice person.
And I, I would encourage you,uh, brothers and sisters that,
uh.
You've probably been there.
Have you, have you been there?
Mm-hmm.
Because I I've been there.
Yeah.
I've been there.
I've been there.
And, uh, you're not the first,uh, you're not gonna be the last
(07:05):
mm-hmm.
Uh, in these times.
We, we gotta recall Matthew 10when, when Jesus was sending his
disciples out in the world, andhe said, behold.
Behold, I send you out as sheep.
Mm-hmm.
Among wolves.
So be shrewd of serpents and beas innocent as doves.
And this means that's good.
(07:26):
We gotta, we gotta operate underand in his authority, we gotta
emulate his love, kindness, andgoodness and peace as well as.
Faithfulness to our Christfollowing belief structure.
Yeah.
While we're standing on theTruths foundation that calls us
(07:46):
to be more than just nicepeople.
Right.
Being a Christian is not justabout being nice people and
Well, you know, well, Jesus wasa really nice person, but Jesus
stood up not, he didn't juststand on the truth.
He is not, and he was.
It's not He.
There's no was with Jesusbecause Jesus is, is he is the
(08:08):
truth.
And He is.
He was.
And he always will be.
And he always will be.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
He's the same yesterday andYeah.
Today and tomorrow.
Right.
Uh, but he stood, he stood ontruth.
Yeah.
Uh, and he called people out,you know?
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, you know, we're notgoing to dig deep into that
right now, but, uh, we're the,the base here is what we're,
(08:30):
what we're trying to understandis that when.
What trying to convey so thatyou understand, is that we're
not just here to be nice people,right.
It's about being more than nicepeople.
Mm-hmm.
We gotta, we gotta rely on ourtraining.
We gotta rely on, first andforemost, rely on the Lord to
(08:50):
guide us.
'cause when it comes down to itas a Christian.
He's guided for me.
I, I'll back this up into I andme statements.
He's guided me through a lot oftraining that I never really saw
myself needing to take, but thetraining that I've gone through,
he's guided me through that sothat I can rely on that and, and
(09:13):
have the knowledge as well asthe wisdom mm-hmm.
That the Holy Spirit provides insituations out in the business
world.
Right.
And because you have.
That experience and because youhave, the Lord has blessed you
with the opportunities, right.
Just as he's blessed me withexperience and opportunities,
(09:35):
that doesn't mean that we canjust, we should just lay down
and be like, oh yeah, you know,you want that, you want that a
hundred percent discount.
Well, I'm a Christian so I'llgive it to you.
Yeah.
That's not it.
That's not it at all.
That's not it.
Um, and, and.
You know, I, the real challengeis how do we lead like Jesus in
(09:57):
a culture that rewards pride,speed, control, um, and, and how
do we deal with people who wantto take advantage of that?
Yeah, I mean, that's a greatquestion.
And uh, here's another one justfull of questions today.
Yeah.
(10:18):
How do we, how do we servepeople well without being
manipulated?
Yeah.
Or sink into that, uh, anymanipulate, manipulative levels.
Mm-hmm.
How do we build somethingexcellent without bowing to the
world's pressures?
Yeah.
Now, I would say to you.
To to, to this question.
(10:39):
Yeah.
I would say truth believer, doyou believe, are you standing on
the truth?
Are you standing on thefoundation?
Mm-hmm.
Are you embracing thecornerstone?
Who is Jesus Christ?
Because if you are.
Where does your excellence comesfrom?
Where does the excellence comefrom?
(11:00):
Right.
The excellence comes from Jesus.
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, the, the excellencecomes from the word and the
excellence comes from the HolySpirit of truth who comes to
give us all the truth.
Yeah.
I mean, and where does yourintegrity come from along with
the excellence?
You?
When we started out, I, when Istarted out in my business, you
(11:23):
know, I had this tug to leadlike Jesus, but also a voice in
my head saying, you're gonna getsteamrolled.
If you don't toughen up.
Yeah, because I was infamous.
I was infamous for giving allkinds of discounts.
Yeah.
I was infamous for, you know,taking on things that, um, I
didn't really want to take onand I wasn't really being led by
(11:44):
the Lord to take on.
Right.
So if I'm not being led by theLord to.
Take on a client or a project,am I really leading like Jesus?
Because Jesus always had theconnection with, with God
telling him what to do.
And if I'm leading like Jesus, Ineed to be taking my cues from
God.
I got two words for that.
Yeah.
And that's, and that, and this,this happened, this is
(12:06):
experience I two words,teachable moments.
Right.
You learned a lot from that.
And, and we had someconversations Yeah.
On that.
Yeah.
And, and you don't do that.
No so much anymore.
No.
And you, and you do take your,you, you, we were learning.
Mm-hmm.
You were learning.
Yeah.
And you've, and you've becomesuch a, an, an amazing Christian
(12:27):
business woman as, as you domore and more as you're maturing
in your walk.
Yeah.
As a Christian business womanand as a, as a first and
foremost, as a Christ follower.
Um, and, and.
Yeah, you don't do that nonsenseanymore.
Uh, you, because you, you'restanding on the foundation and
(12:48):
you do take your, your cues fromthe spirit and there's a lot of
prayer that goes into thatbusiness.
Well, and I'm gonna say too tothat, there is a lot of prayer
that goes into that business,but I'm also going to say to
that is I learned my value.
There you go.
And I think it's so important.
That's it.
That's huge.
To know your value and know whatyou bring to the table as a
(13:10):
business owner.
That's it.
As someone in business, becausewhen I started off, I mean, my
faith has deepened over theyears, but when I started off, I
didn't really think I was asvaluable as what the Lord.
Thought I was right.
Absolutely.
That the Lord put me into thisposition.
Yeah.
And I was like, I'm not, Idon't, didn't necessarily feel
(13:31):
equipped.
Hmm.
But he equipped me.
He empowered me.
He commissioned me.
He did.
And he showed me, he showed youyour identity.
He showed about that.
He showed my identity there.
It's and my value that I amworth.
Right.
And I don't have to succumb tobeing manipulated.
You don't have to be a peoplepleaser.
Right.
The people pleasing was an idolman.
(13:51):
He tore down that idol and he,and he introduced you to,
mm-hmm.
Uh, well, the real Stacey Joe,please stand up and here she is.
Please stand up.
Please stand up easy now.
Hopefully, hopefully we don'tget sued for that, but, uh,
anyway, we do not own the rightsto that music.
Right.
We're, we're just joking.
But, uh, but I, but I recall,uh, I recall when I was
(14:15):
initially maturing in my faithwalk, um.
In the construction field.
I was, uh, I was just trying tobe that nice guy.
Similar to what you were talkingabout.
Yeah.
Uh, while, while instructing andreinforcing our safety culture
mm-hmm.
With subcontractors.
And if, and if you're in, ifyou're listening and you're in
construction, uh,subcontractors, you're just
(14:37):
like, Ugh.
They can be quite challenging.
Sure.
And uh, so I'm, I'm, I'm thesafety guy.
I'm trying nothing against thoseof you who are subcontractors
though.
Yeah.
But y'all are challenging man.
And, uh, but you know, you know,anyway.
But as a safety manager doing,doing, uh, trying to be the nice
(14:58):
guy, uh, and, and advancing oursafety culture with these
subcontractors, but I, at this,the recollection comes, I was at
this, uh, I hadn't yet reachedthe understanding that, uh, of
the authority that Jesus hadgiven his believing followers.
So, so I was an easy target.
(15:18):
Yeah.
I was just, I was being the niceguy and I, I hadn't.
Uh, I, I wasn't operating underand in that authority just yet.
Mm-hmm.
I was early and early in my walkand, uh.
So the, and I, theymisunderstood my kindness for
weakness.
Mm.
And, and that lead and that ledto, you know, some not so kind
(15:38):
conversations.
'cause I didn't like my, Ididn't like being seen as weak.
You know, I'm a, I'm a pretty,I'm I'm the TOF guy, right.
But, uh, anyway, it was, uh, butit was all fun and games until
the, uh, the nice guys shut downthe work.
You know, for, for them.
Yeah.
You know, it's, you know, andthey're like, what do you mean
you're shutting down the job?
(15:59):
I was like, I'm shutting downthe job.
We had this conversation, youmade a decision to not do that.
So the nice guy, this, you know,he shut it down and, and, you
know, I, I coached him on saferwork practices, not outta
tyranny, but.
You know, out of, out of acaring heart, out of concern.
(16:21):
Yeah.
Out of concern and a caringheart.
Yeah.
That each person, even, even it,it doesn't matter if, if I knew
'em or not, these subs, I, Ididn't know every one of them.
Like I knew the guys on, on ourteam, but, uh, I, I shut the job
down and coached them in themoment, uh, from a caring heart
so that each one of them goeshome to their family at the end
(16:43):
of the day.
Amen.
And that's how.
We need to, uh, that's, that's,mm-hmm.
Christian values, Christfollowing values in the
workplace.
Yeah.
You know, it's not being walkedover.
It's, it's, uh, coming tounderstand.
It's, it's being kind, it'sbeing compassion.
I call it firm compassion.
Yeah.
You know, and, and I'm notafraid to shut down a job site.
(17:07):
I think you need to, to justremind people what you do.
Safety manager, I'm a safetymanager for corporate
construction.
Uh, here in South Florida, it's,uh, they just don't wanna think
You're walking around shuttingdown jobs.
Yeah.
I'm just, I'm just gonna walkonto your job.
Say Jonathan h just went, ohcrap.
I heard about your barge man.
(17:29):
Anyway.
Uh, but yeah, but the challenge,the challenge is real, right?
Yeah.
The challenge is real.
I mean, there's a fear that ifwe don't play by the world's
game, we'll lose out and thatpeople won't respect.
A servant hearted leadership.
And the truth is that if we areleading like Jesus, we have to
(17:55):
have a servant's heart.
We have to business, have aservant's heart.
Yeah.
In all things.
But we're talking today aboutthe marketplace, right?
And that includes how you leadyour employees, how you lead
your clients, how you.
Treat your vendors, how we treatpeople, everyone around you,
right?
(18:15):
Yeah.
How we treat people and how weallow people to treat us.
Right?
Right.
'cause we're not doormats.
And we're not tyrants.
No.
So, but the bottom line is, iswhether we're gonna honor our
creator, father God, or hiscreation first.
Mm.
So can you repeat that?
That's the bottom line.
(18:37):
The bottom line is whether we'regoing to, are we going to honor
God?
Our creator, father God, or arewe going to honor his creation
first?
Yeah.
So we wanna honor his creation.
But what I found over the yearsis that when I honor God, when I
decide to honor God first,everyone else is honored as
(19:00):
well.
That's it.
That's it, man.
When I'm honoring the Lord,everyone else, everyone around
me, whether people decide torespect that sort of leadership
is on them.
Mm-hmm.
That's on them.
Uh, our part is to our part asChrist followers in the
workplace, uh, in the business,in the marketplace, right, is,
(19:22):
uh, to lead with integrity andcompassion.
Uh, even if it cost us somethingand it's going to cost us
something, sure we, we will comeup against resistance.
But I, and I would say,especially if it cost us
something, yeah.
You know.
Continue that when, when wereach, when we, when we hit that
(19:45):
resistance, continue to honorthe Lord first because he's
gonna bless that.
Right.
He's already blessing thatbecause we're learning our, our
teachable moments in thosechallenging times are, are a
blessing in and of themselves.
Yeah.
And maybe he's gonna, maybe he'sgonna bless it right in, in that
moment through the teachablemoments.
(20:08):
Mm-hmm.
Maybe it's coming on down theline.
It might not be in my timing,but as they say, patience is a
virtue.
Yes it is.
Yes it is.
Babe.
Patience is a virtue.
Yeah.
So, but our part is to alwayslead, consist consistently lead
with integrity and compassion.
(20:28):
Right?
I mean, that.
It's, it's imperative, and wehave to, because as a Christian
business owner or as a Christianin business, people are always
looking at you.
They're waiting for you to makean error.
Oh, they're waiting.
They're waiting for you to saythe wrong thing.
Do the wrong thing.
Yeah.
Walk the wrong way.
(20:48):
You know, look the wrong way.
They're waiting for that.
Right.
Um, you know, and Colossians 323 to 24 really anchors us.
'cause it says, whatever you do,do your work heartily.
Yeah.
As for the Lord rather than formen for the Lord, you know,
knowing that from the Lord, youwill receive the reward of the
(21:10):
inheritance.
It is the Lord Christ whom youserve.
So as Allen was saying, youknow, we serve him first.
We serve people second, andwhatever you do means whether
you're drafting blueprints,whether you're leading board
meetings, whether you're doingbookkeeping, whether you're
doing a podcast, whatever it is,do it for the Lord, not just for
(21:34):
people.
Whether you're walking through asubcontractor safety culture,
that's it, or lack thereof.
Regardless of what we're doing.
Yeah.
You know, we wanna lead withintegrity, lead with compassion.
Yes.
Uh, stand on that foundation andembrace that cornerstone.
Mm-hmm.
Who is Jesus Christ.
Yeah.
And, um, and it's okay to askourselves sometimes.
(21:55):
It may sound cliche though, uh,the, uh, the whole what would
Jesus do here?
Yeah.
You know, if you know your wordand you should Christ follower,
know your word.
Yeah.
You know, you would know whathe, what he would do.
Mm-hmm.
And that maybe he might flipover the tables.
You never know.
You never know.
I, I am gonna say somethingthough, because one thing that I
have learned from my mentor, oneof my mentors, is I always ask
(22:20):
the Lord to open the doors thatno man can shut and shut the
doors that no man can open.
How's that?
And write my name on the heartsof those he wants me to do
business with, because I'm gonnatell you, not everybody.
Is your customer.
Not everybody is your client.
That's good.
Not everybody is your employee.
That's right.
(22:41):
And you're not going to, there'sgoing to come a time when you're
going to have to cut ties withsomeone.
Yeah.
And as long as it's done withintegrity.
Yeah.
And honesty and love.
Yeah.
I think the, uh, a, a shorterversion of that, which I love,
(23:01):
I.
Uh, um, I forget who you got itfrom, was blessed or block it.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Blessed or block it, you know,and, and well that came from my
dear friend, Tory Cruise.
Tory Cruise, yeah.
Yeah.
Right on.
Blessed or block it.
Yeah.
Blessed or block it.
That's, that's a quick nutshell.
Yeah.
And that can, that's a quick onefor you.
You can use that with anythingblessed or block it, Lord.
Yeah.
And, and, and whether he doesone or the other, be ready for
(23:26):
that.
And, and ask him, you know,Lord, Lord is, are you doing
this?
Mm-hmm.
Uh.
Yeah, always make sure thatwe're, uh, and as we, as we walk
close with them and as we maturein the spirit with them, we're,
we're able to, to discern thosemoments.
Yeah.
But it's always good to ask,Lord, is that you.
(23:46):
Right.
Is that you?
Yeah.
You have some practicalsolutions for us know in the
marketplace.
I am.
I know you And your practical,your practical solutions.
I am the doctor of pragmatism.
I think, uh, I, I'm not sure ifI have a doctorate, but I, I'm
maybe, uh, maybe a, a bachelor'sanyway.
(24:10):
Yeah, so we do have somesolutions.
We don't just have.
Um, you know, challenges,challenges or, or, uh,
experiential banter.
We do have some solutions and,and number one this week, and
we, we touched on this a littleearlier, is lead with integrity.
Yeah.
You know, um, Proverbs, Solomon,and writes in chapter 11 that
(24:36):
the integrity of the uprightguides them.
Mm.
The integrity of the uprightguides them.
And the, our integrity comesfrom the Lord.
So yeah, we should, we should beguide.
And as Christ followers, we'reguided by the Holy Spirit.
So integrity means that, uh,we're being the same person when
no one's looking right.
(24:57):
That's it.
We're not in business, you know,we're behind closed doors.
We're the same.
I'm the same person you're gonnasee out in the field.
You know, in business that'shonoring contracts, you know,
always, regardless of thecircumstances being truthful.
Yeah.
Uh, I can, wow.
(25:18):
I can see such a change in 20,in 20 years.
'cause I wasn't always that guy.
I wasn't always this guy.
And I, I'm grateful, uh, that I,I'm not that guy who I was and,
and, uh, before, but, uh, I'vebecome.
Truthful, I've becomeauthentically truthful and, uh,
(25:39):
yeah.
And that's, and that's, uh,that's a good place to be.
So regardless of ourcircumstances, we wanna be
truthful as Christ followers.
We don't wanna fudge thenumbers.
Uh, we don't want to compromiseour integrity, uh, on seemingly
harmless little white lies.
Mm.
You know,'cause I, um, I seem torecall some years ago, um.
(26:02):
The, uh, the great theologianSammy Hagar.
What?
He, he reminded us that, thatthat little white lie will come
back to haunt us.
I'm, I'm just saying.
Okay.
Just saying, Hey, Sammy beenaround a while.
I said anyway.
Right.
He's a believer.
Well, good.
I'm glad to hear that.
Right.
(26:22):
But, you know, back the hats,you know, making sure that we're
wearing the same hat.
Yeah.
Yeah.
At business integrity, at work,at home, in public, in church,
on the platform, wherever youhappen to be.
Absolutely.
Be authentic.
You know, even when it costs youauthentic, even when it costs
(26:43):
you.
Yeah, because it could, becauseif it cost you in the eyes of
men mm-hmm.
If it, if it costs you out inthe workplace.
You're being the, the blessing'son the way.
Yeah.
You know, it's, it's not amatter what, so what do we want
to, are we gonna compromise ourintegrity with men?
(27:06):
Mm-hmm.
Or are we gonna compromise ourintegrity with the Lord?
Right.
I don't, I don't, I, I believeI'm gonna stick with the Lord on
that one.
Well, and two, you know, back towhat I said, even when it costs
you, like I spoke to someone nottoo long ago and they told, they
were telling me how they have across.
Mm-hmm.
And not that you have to have across on your website.
I do have scripture on mywebsite and so people know when
(27:28):
they come to my website, we're,we're a faith-based business.
Sure.
But they had a cross on theirwebsite.
And someone literally told themthey did not wanna do business
with them because they were aChristian.
Okay.
And so it cost them something.
But you know what?
They didn't compromise theirbeliefs.
(27:49):
No.
They didn't compromise theirintegrity.
Right.
They didn't compromise anything.
Right.
And God sees that he does.
And promotion from him is betterthan any praise you could ever
get from people.
And I, I re similar.
I recall.
Uh.
With freedom, support, you know,you were having challenging
with, with not so like-mindedclients.
(28:12):
Mm-hmm.
And they, and they, they wentaway.
They, yeah.
They avoided their contract andthey, and they went away.
But when they went away, threemore came.
It's very true.
Three more came that were mucheasier to work with.
Right, right, right.
So, you know Yeah.
Blessed it or block it.
Yeah.
Blessed it or block it.
That's it.
So, well number two is serveyour team generously.
(28:35):
You know, Matthew 2026 says,whoever wants to become great
among you must be your servant.
Oh yeah.
And you know, we have to serveour team.
I have a team of incredibleemployees and subcontractors and
serving them, you know, doingthings.
We try and do a quarterly thing,you know, something quarterly so
(28:58):
that they can.
Understand how much they'reappreciated.
Yeah.
You know, whether it's, youknow, we want to throw axes.
One time we went bowling anothertime.
Team building events, it's goodstuff.
But team building events just sothey know that they are
appreciated.
Um, you know, how you treat yourteam.
Is a good representation of howyou are gonna treat your
(29:22):
clients.
Yeah.
So, you know, verse 28 says,remember just as a son of man
did not come to be served, butto serve.
Oh yeah.
And to give his life as a ransomfor many, right.
You know, treat your team withrespect.
Serve them.
Yeah.
Love them.
Yeah.
And be generous to them andencourage them to do the same
(29:44):
and encourage them to do thesame.
That's it.
That's it.
We're leading by example.
Yeah.
I mean, Jesus style leadershiplooks like asking, how can I
elevate people around me?
Yeah.
Not just how can I not, notever, how can I elevate myself,
but how can I elevate peoplearound me?
Because when you elevate peoplearound you.
The Lord sees that and heapplauds what you're doing.
(30:07):
He does.
He does.
He's gonna honor that.
Mm-hmm.
As, as we honor him, he's gonnahonor that.
And, and, and in the process ofdoing that, that might mean some
extra training.
Mm-hmm.
That might mean giving creditpublicly that, that's so good
to, to give credit publicly.
Uh, but in, in.
On the other side of thatspectrum, when, when there's,
(30:30):
uh, a challenge to be addressed,we don't want to address that
publicly.
I've made that mistake in themarketplace or, or in the
construction field rather.
Where I've, where I've, uh, backin the day, I called someone out
in front of the whole team.
Bad form.
Mm.
Bad form.
Poor leadership.
Uh, we never call someone out infront of the team, but if we're
(30:50):
gonna, if we're gonna call, uh,if we're going to praise them,
that's a good, and right infront of the team is, uh, is a
great place to do that.
So giving credit publicly,that's, that's core.
Even picking up a.
Picking up the broom yourself?
Yeah.
I remember, um, a guy fromHouston, I don't know if he is
around anymore.
Uh, I'll refrain, uh, from hisname, but he is like, um, never
(31:13):
too proud to pick up the broomin the room.
Mm.
You know, never too proud topick up the broom.
And he was a, uh.
He was in branch leadership.
So it was a, it was a goodlesson.
I remember that early when Icame into structural.
Yeah.
I mean, don't ask your team todo something that you're not
willing to do yourself.
Yeah.
I always, I always stood onthat.
Yeah.
I'm never gonna ask you to dosomething I hadn't done myself.
(31:34):
Right.
Uh, so it's, it's not abouthierarchy.
No.
It's about our, it's about ourheart posture.
Wheres our heart at?
Uh.
Who are we allowing to lead ourheart?
Who are we allowing to form ourheart?
Uh, it's important.
Yeah, it's important for us tostay in our lane, but it's also
(31:56):
vital to understand thatsolutions are found within the
team, and, and the team mightneed your assistance.
Uh, more than usual from time totime.
Yeah.
So, so don't hesitate to pick upthat broom.
Mm-hmm.
Or don't ever hesitate to engageyour team.
That's right.
You know, they're not just thereto do the dirty work, you know,
solutions are found within theteam.
(32:17):
I've learned that.
That's a, a, a great principlethat I, I learned in
construction.
Um, so if it's within our power,uh, we should do that.
Yeah.
And that, because that's howteams come together, helping
each other as needed withoutlooking for accolades for doing
so.
You know, you mean No, no, goahead.
(32:42):
You mean I can't ask my team tolike, applaud my efforts?
I'm kidding.
Well, you can give it a shot,but you know, I wouldn't, I
would never do that.
Yeah.
But we need to applaud theirs.
We, we do.
We do.
And, and as we do though, as wehonor them, they'll, yeah.
Honor us.
And you, I mean, we saw thattoday, uh, with, with Seth as,
(33:03):
as Todd was honoring the, theguys that were leading the, the
Conquer series.
Mm-hmm.
That revived church, you know,Seth came, came back and we all
stood with Seth on that.
Yeah.
Uh, as we honored, honored theman who honored, honored us as,
as leaders.
He's a.
He's a tremendous, uh,tremendous pastor, and there's a
mm-hmm.
(33:24):
Yeah.
I lo I love what Seth saidthere, and I'm, I'm kind of in
the weeds there, but he goesout, out there and, uh, there's
a lot of cowards on pulpits indifferent churches.
Yeah.
And we're grateful that we don'thave a coward on this pulpit
here.
That's right.
You know, he is standing ontruth, standing on foundation,
standing on the cornerstone.
Yeah.
You know, we love, we lovePastor Todd and JAMA Ingram.
(33:45):
Love you guys.
Example of great leadership.
Example of example of excellentleadership.
Phenomenal leadership,phenomenal leadership, servant
leadership.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Mm-hmm.
So, um, but giving withoutexpecting anything in return
Yeah.
Is, is another great leadershipattribute.
Right.
And it, it kind of sounds, youknow, like Jesus.
(34:07):
You think giving withoutexpecting anything in return he
didn't expect, gave it all,expect anything.
Right.
And he gave it all.
Right.
And I would say the Lord blessedthat.
Yeah.
And continues to bless thatthese days.
Absolutely.
What's number three, babe?
Well, how about beingcompassionate in conflict?
(34:27):
And I know that can be difficultat times.
Managing conflict, um, managingconflict.
And I'll be, I'll be the firstone to tell you I don't like
conflict.
Like if, if I can run from it,if I can hide from it, well,
sometimes we gotta step, wedon't wanna run our high boo
sometimes we gotta step back.
Well, we do.
You know, but regardless, wehave to be compassionate.
(34:51):
Yeah.
And we can confront withoutcrushing.
Um, and when we do that, youknow, that creates a culture
where people feel seen, not justmanaged.
Yeah.
We always want people to feelseen.
You know, I, I.
I'm in a group of women,business women, and that's the
(35:13):
number one thing that womenwant, I can tell you, is to be
seen, to know that they're beingseen.
And what I can tell you is Godsees every move as you know.
And so having that compassionYeah.
With your team.
Yeah.
It, they want to feel seen andit makes them feel seen.
Absolutely.
You don't wanna be the one who'sgot them under your, you've got
(35:34):
'em under their, your thumb andyou're managing everything they
do.
Right.
Give them, give them a little, alittle lead.
Give them a, give them anopportunity to lead and elevate
them.
Absolutely.
They have a, they, they, theyknow they have a voice.
Yeah.
And we have, we have to.
But back to what you said too,'cause you said about when, you
(35:57):
know, if you have to confrontsomeone about an, like a
mistake.
Mm-hmm.
You know, don't do it in frontof the team.
Yeah.
Be compassionate about that.
Gotta be compassionate.
Take them aside.
And I like, I like in yourculture, you know, and I've
tried to adopt this too, to, youknow, the sandwich where you
sandwich it with the good, thegood things.
(36:18):
Yeah.
The four to one ratio.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Talk about that.
The, uh, yeah.
And then, and four to one comesback to having difficult
conversations.
Mm-hmm.
And, and before I get into thatcompassion, uh, doesn't mean we
avoid tough conversations.
It, it just means that we havethem with respect, kindness, and
(36:39):
clarity.
Yeah.
And, and what I've learned at,at Structural is that that's the
company I work with, uh, and,uh.
For a long time now, and is afour to one ratio, uh, is we,
we, when we have to have adifficult conversation because
regardless of who you are, whereyou're at, if you're in
(37:00):
leadership and wherever you'regonna have a difficult
conversation.
Mm-hmm.
And knowing how to have thatdifficult conversation is
important.
And four to one means that we'vethere, especially as Christ
followers.
We gotta be able, there's got,we gotta see the good.
(37:21):
Yeah.
Not every, I mean, the, theperson, uh, that we're de, that
we're gonna have thisconversation with, what do they
do good.
Yeah.
You know, it's finding, uh, fourto one means find four good
things, uh, to, to soften theblow so we can say, Hey man, but
we really need to work on that.
Right.
You know?
And, uh, and, uh, uh.
(37:44):
A friend of mine in ministryyears ago from a, from a
different church called that thevelvet brick.
Mm.
You know how to deliver thevelvet brick.
Yeah.
You know, it's like, hey.
And, and an example would belike, Hey man, I see you're, I
see you're on time every day,man.
And, and you're always cleanshaven.
And, and, and, uh, and man,you're, you led that, that job
(38:04):
safety analysis really well thismorning.
Yeah.
But, uh, man, I'm really gonnaneed you to, uh, I'm gonna need
you to, you know.
Have two hands on that grinder.
'cause that thing will come backand hit you, you know?
Mm.
And when, when we, when we padthat, not, not just for the sake
of padding it, but let'em, let'em, let'em see and let'em hear
(38:28):
that we see the good Yes.
And, and we want to, we want,so.
Mm-hmm.
We want him to work.
In my case, I want'em to worksafe.
Right.
You know, but we see the good,but we need to address this
right here.
Yeah.
So, so there's, there's the longversion of four to one.
Well, I think it's important toknow that, and I think it's
important in the marketplace,regardless of what.
(38:49):
What industry you're in.
Um, if you're a leader, you needto know how to, how to do that.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
But how about number four?
I think before we get to numberfour, we, we didn't really talk
about, you know, the, the, theabsolute essence of, of
compassion.
And that means that means.
Compassion's about way more thanthan speaking compassion, uh,
(39:14):
is, you know, everyone's,everyone's got a voice.
Mm-hmm.
And as leaders, we have to bewilling to listen to the team
around us.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
We gotta be, as we mustlistening.
Is an absolute essential forleadership.
Yeah.
In, in any real.
So people want to be seen, but Ibelieve more than they want to
(39:34):
be seen.
They want to be heard.
Yeah.
Everyone has a voice.
Everyone has a voice.
And as leaders we gotta bewilling to listen to our team.
Yeah.
We gotta be willing to listen toour team.
And remember, like I mentionedearlier, solutions are, they can
be found within the team.
And um, so.
(39:54):
Listen up leaders, listen toyour team.
'cause you might learn somethingtoday.
Well, and that's why God gave ustwo ears and only one mouth.
Right.
That's it.
I remember back in the day so wecould listen better.
Yeah.
I remember more than we talk aback in the day, a dear friend
of mine said, uh, and I, I was,I was yak k imagine if you will
(40:16):
yak, kak, yak, yak, kak.
And I didn't listen much.
He's like, Allen.
The Lord gave us two ears andone mouth for a reason.
You need to listen better andyou need to sh How was that one
more time?
Alright.
(40:39):
Oh goodness.
So number four is we gottaalways prioritize people over
profit.
Mm-hmm.
And we gotta still, we as, asChrist followers, we're always
pursuing excellence.
Mm-hmm.
But we prioritize people overprofit.
(40:59):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's, and, and our, in oursafety culture, there's a, uh.
There's the, the triangle, wetalk about the triangle.
It's safety, quality andproduction.
Mm-hmm.
And none of'em are ahead of, ofthe other.
If you put production in frontof either safety or quality,
then it falls to pieces.
So, but, but the people, the,the, the, the employees, the
(41:23):
technicians, the, the, themanagers, the, the, the whole
team.
They're the greatest asset ofany company, right?
The people are the greatestasset.
You know, money comes and goesand we, and, and we want to turn
a profit.
We want sure.
We want, we want revenue to begood.
We want our, our margins to bewide and mm-hmm.
(41:44):
And, you know, we want goodmargins.
Uh, but people are much moreimportant.
Mm-hmm.
People are much more important.
People over profit.
Uh, and that takes us back toColossians 3 23 that you
mentioned earlier.
Mm-hmm.
Is that whatever you do, workout it with all your heart as
unto the Lord.
Yeah.
So, God, uh, God's notglorified, uh, by mediocrity.
(42:09):
Not all.
No.
I used to, I used to jokearound.
One, one of my first testimonieswas, uh.
Of my own volition, of my ownpower, I ascended to the peak of
mediocrity.
I was the ace of average.
The ace of average.
Anyway, not a good place to be.
We're not just average servantleaders.
(42:33):
Um.
We're not serving a somewhatappealing God, we serve the
creator of the entire universe.
Mm.
Uh, his creation's path is, isset on absolute excellence.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So as, as we've been created,uh, in his image, shouldn't we
(42:55):
also serve our excellent creatorwith absolute excellence?
Yeah.
Is it as we're created in hisimage and he's excellent, should
we not also be excellent?
Yeah.
You know, let your work preachbefore your mouth ever does.
That's good.
That's good.
(43:15):
Excellence honors God, and itearns influence with people.
Yeah.
Um, when you treat people that,what's the saying?
There was a saying, people willalways remember how they, they
will forget what you said.
They'll.
Uh, they'll forget what you say,but they'll always remember how
(43:36):
you made them feel, how you makethem feel.
Right, right, right.
How you made them feel.
Right?
Yes.
I think that's a really good,um, just a really good thing to
remember when I forgot Yeah.
Like exactly how it went.
But, but thank you babe, forbringing that back.
Yeah.
But excellence honors God andit, and it.
Earns influence with people.
So, absolutely.
(43:58):
So what does this look like foryou this week?
Maybe it's reworking how youtalk to your team.
Right?
Maybe it's checking your heartbefore the next client meeting.
Maybe it's saying, Lord bless itor block it.
That's good.
Maybe, maybe, uh, that, thatemail.
That fiery email you typed up?
Oh, yeah.
I've learned to, uh, the 24 hour2024 hour rule.
(44:21):
Yeah.
My, uh, yeah, I, our, uh, yeah.
A dear friend of mine, uh, saidit.
Careful.
Yeah.
Don't do that.
Give it 24 hours.
Yeah.
And I've, uh, I've erasedseveral emails Yes.
And that, and very, uh, verygrateful the next day that they
didn't go out and I was able tothink it through, you know, let
(44:43):
that hair on the back of theneck, go down and pray about it.
And pray about it.
Yeah.
Always give it to the Lord, man.
Yeah.
And, and is gonna, because it,just because we're Christ
followers doesn't mean we don'tget angry, but it does.
Mean that we mm-hmm.
We have to have to check that.
Yeah.
And, and the 24 hour rule onemails, uh, is, is a good role.
(45:05):
Yes.
I've adopted that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've adopted that for me.
Absolutely.
Thanks, Colin.
Yeah.
Uh, so, um, so ask the Lord, uh,as, as, as we're getting into
action items mm-hmm.
As we're starting to wind uphere, ask the Lord during your
quiet time with him.
Am I leading from fear or am Ileading from faith?
(45:27):
Mm.
You know, there's just somequestions to ask.
Yeah.
You know, you, you are havingquiet time with the Lord, right?
Yeah.
It's just.
Something we might ask him, am Ileading from fear?
Am I leading from faith?
Am I following am, am I, am Ileading to honor you or am I, am
I trying to please man?
Mm-hmm.
Uh, uh, another question is, uh,how, Lord, how are we gonna
(45:50):
reset our zeros today?
Because I know I get flusteredsometimes.
Uh, go figure, you know, human,uh, the flash.
How, uh, how did news flash, uh,that guy gets flustered.
So lord, how are we gonna resetour zeroes today?
Mm-hmm.
I was just talking with the guysthe other day.
(46:11):
I was like, guys, I'm gonna behonest with you.
I am scattered so, so Lord.
How do we reset our zeroestoday?
How might I navigate today'schallenges, Lord?
Yeah, because,'cause we'reguided as Christ followers,
we're guided again by the HolySpirit of truth who brings us
all the truth, and yeah, and wedo.
(46:33):
I know I do better when I relyon that guidance.
Right.
You know, you were placed inthat business, in that role on
purpose.
And for a purpose.
Yeah.
And Jesus didn't come to beserved but to serve.
Yeah.
So if he lives in you, it's gotime y'all.
Absolutely.
Let's go.
Go time.
It's go time.
(46:53):
Right.
I like that.
Um, go is two thirds of God.
Oh, that's it.
God, when God says go, that'strue.
Yeah.
We go.
Right.
I think I said that earliertoday.
I think you might Well, I, the,I didn't think about it being
the two thirds, but I said whenGod says go.
We go.
That's it.
That's it.
(47:13):
Yeah.
And, uh, gra and, uh, GrahamCook says, we, we keep going
until he says stop.
Right.
You know?
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
And, and he will, you know?
Yes.
I, I it comes back to blessedher block, but mm-hmm.
You know, so take a minutetoday, friends, and um, take a
minute and pray over yourbusiness.
(47:33):
Yeah.
Uh, and invite the Holy Spiritinto your daily workflow.
And remember.
I love.
Remember this promotion.
It may seem that it comes frompeople, but it doesn't come from
people.
That's right.
Promotion, elevation in themarketplace always comes from
(47:56):
the Lord.
Amen.
Always comes from the Lord.
That is so true.
So go serve.
Go lead.
And go shine and we will see younext time on faithfully
invested.
Yep.
And remember that when youdecide to live faithfully
invested, God brings theincrease.
Yes, he does.
(48:17):
God, have a great week.
Take care.
God bless.
I.
Thanks for joining us onFaithfully Invested with Allen
and Stacy Jo, if today'sconversation encouraged you,
challenged you, or helped yousee your calling more clearly,
don't keep it to yourself.
That's right.
Share it with a friend.
Leave a five star review andkeep leaning into God's
blueprint for your life, yourleadership, and your legacy.
(48:41):
So until next time, remember,when you invest in his kingdom,
he brings the increase.
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