February 10, 2025 • 32 mins
We're breaking down the power of stewardship in leadership because managing money well isn’t just about numbers but also about freedom.
Ever feel like budgeting is just another restriction? Think again! We’ll show you how smart financial planning can actually bring clarity and peace of mind, both personally and in business. Inspired by experts like Mike Michalowicz, Greg Crabtree, and Dave Ramsey, we’re sharing practical insights to help you build a strong financial foundation.
But stewardship isn’t just about money, it’s about how we use our skills, character, and influence to lead effectively. We’ll explore the lessons from the parable of the talents and dive into the C12 tri-value model, which connects financial success, team growth, and spiritual purpose. Plus, we’ll highlight helpful tools like Tiller Money Foundations and wisdom from Howard Dayton to help you create a roadmap for financial stability.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Benji Brady.
Welcome in boys.
This is episode 20.
We finally hit the 2-0 episode10, obviously, of season 2.
Um, it's kind of it's kind ofcool to see that.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
But yeah, this is the big two, oh felt like it was
gonna take forever to get thereI I will say it feels like
season two um went a lot fasterthan season one.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
You know when, when you and I were just starting out
, benji, I felt like we werekind of learning how to podcast,
how to do things, how theschedule should be.
We were really flying by theseat of our pants.
And then, you know I don't knowif it was just with the
addition of Brady things gotmore organized and just more on
schedule.
Whatever it was, season two hasbeen there.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm sure, like you, I've heard from several people
though they do like the factthat we shortened the episodes
from 60 minutes to 30 minutes.
So it's a little.
It gives them a little bitbetter.
Uh, they can listen to it onthe way to, and maybe even from
the work, the office place orwhatever hey, listen, people's
attention span nowadays is yeah,short and hours long you know,
I don't want to tell you, adam,I don't know if you've seen this
(01:19):
, but we are now.
I don't know how many countrieswe're in, cities we're in're in,
but I will say we crossed the5,000 stream and we can't thank
you guys enough.
I know that there's been a lotof you that have joined us
recently.
I want to say we're in like 54different countries now.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Canada is actually our second place country.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Holy cow, Really.
And then the United Kingdom.
I mean United.
Kingdom is right behind it, sobut we're in six 651 different
cities across the world.
Now who would have ever thoughtwe could have said the world?
But we just can't.
We can't thank you guys enoughfor listening in.
Hopefully, the the info thatwe're providing is giving you
some tools and maybe even someammunition to help your
(02:05):
businesses grow and with a, youknow, with a background that we
have, we hope we can help you.
So we just we just want to saythank you guys for listening and
tuning in.
You know it means a lot to us.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
What a, what a wild thought, just thinking about
somebody from from the UK sayingwho are these boys from alabama
with these accents?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
you know, yeah, that's just that's wild to think
about.
It's crazy how how much itexpands, but it's cool to kind
of see.
So we got a good, we got a goodepisode today.
Um, brady, this is another oneof your brain childs.
Um, you mentioned that you're,you've talked to our listeners.
You're currently involved in anorganization called C12.
And that's a big part of,really, where the direction of
(02:53):
things went for us as aleadership team, with you and
with the company.
It really helped put a lot ofthese things in, and so you've
pulled some of these topics inthat you guys are discussing and
sharing, and you mentioned thattoday is really more of a heavy
resource.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Very heavy resource day yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Heavy resource.
You said hey.
When we talked, you said hey,it's going to be less about
giving them the answers.
We need to point them in theright direction so that way they
can kind of figure out forthemselves.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Give them a roadmap.
That's a great way to put ityeah, I mean, you know, we we've
we started out the year, uh, Iguess right before the year, and
talking about strategicplanning and and then goal
setting and um, just trying tokeep on that theme, and we
thought today, you know, is morelike leading with, with
financial purpose, so staying inthat kind of that same realm of
(03:44):
what we've been doing.
But I guess, kind of to set usup a little bit is, you know,
when we start talking about someof these things related to um,
you know, I don't want to usethe word budget because when
people hear the word budget theythink oh, that's a bad word.
Um, you know, or we don't wantto talk about financial planning
(04:05):
because we're not good at that,or we don't want to talk about
financial planning because we'renot good at that, or we don't
know how to do that.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Let's be honest, we didn't, brady, I mean.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Well, I mean, yeah, that's right.
I mean, and listen, it takes alot of discipline.
But you know, I guess what wewant you guys to hear from this
is that you know, if you everfully embrace these concepts,
it's less about um, it's lessabout being constricted and it's
more about having freedom.
(04:33):
And so when you, when you haveeverything planned out and
you've got resources, then thenyou can have freedom in doing
what you want to do within thosebounds that you've already set.
You can have freedom in doingwhat you want to do within those
bounds that you've already set.
So, like Adam said, I meantoday's going to be heavy
resource.
We don't necessarily, you know,want to give you guys the
answers, but and there's a lotmore that we could talk about
(04:54):
but trying to fit into that 30minute, you know we're trying to
do a good job of that but sojust a couple of the resources
that we're going to pull fromand these are things that we've
looked at in the last couple ofyears and, like I said, we'll
try to drop these in the linksand give you in the show notes
(05:15):
and stuff like that.
But there's a book calledProfit First, we'll talk about
that and a weird named guy namedMike Makacklewitz and hard,
hard last name but uh anotherguy named greg crabtree.
Uh, we'll talk about some of thebooks that he's done.
Dave ramsey anybody heard ofdave ramsey?
Oh yeah, I'm sure you've hearddave ramsey.
(05:37):
Right, and then another guynamed howard dayton.
You may or may not have heardof him, but he's kind of like a
dave ramsey.
And then we want to pull somestuff from C12.
So if you guys don't know andAdam talked about this but C12
is a Christian CEO peer grouporganization and they're not
just in the US, they are allover the world.
(05:57):
I mean, I know that there'ssome chapters in Africa and some
other countries and it's justkind of it's just blowing up all
over the place.
And we'll say this again at theend.
But if you guys want moreinformation about that, we we
love to reach out to us and wecan get you pointed and
connected with a resource.
But I want to start out todaywith a with a question and these
(06:18):
are more contemplativequestions, but love to hear you
guys thoughts.
But really two questions.
Okay, when you think ofstewardship, how do you define
it in the context of leadership?
Okay, so that's number one.
Number two is if yourorganization was an asset in the
holding company of heaven.
How would it change yourperspective on how you are
(06:41):
managing your organization?
So what do you guys think aboutthat?
I mean?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
first from a um.
I guess, when I think ofstewardship in the in the
context of leadership, we havean asset, an asset sitting in
front of us that we're basically, you know, the Lord has given
us um through a lot of blood,sweat and tears on the ground,
don't get me wrong.
But we keep our eye on him andI think that we are stewarding
(07:07):
this asset that he's given us tothe best of our ability.
And I think it ties in exactlywhat you said on.
If this was our organization asan asset in the holding company
of heaven, how would it changeour perspective?
I think you would almost haveto do things different, because
heaven is a beautiful place.
Heaven is streets of gold andmansions and whatever.
(07:29):
And I'm not saying you have tohave big things and big
perspectives, but, honestly, theperspective that we drive every
single day can only help us getwhere we want to go, and the
reason we're here on earth is toshare the love of Jesus with
people.
This just happens to be thetool that we're stewarding to
help us get there.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, when you think about stewardship
, it's taking something thatyou've been given, and I think
it goes beyond.
I know we're talkingfinancially and things.
I think it goes beyond that.
I think you look at whetherthat's financial, whether that's
skill set, whether that'scharacter.
I feel like these are allthings, influence things, those
that you have.
I think, especially in the termsof leadership, one of the
(08:13):
things that we're workingthrough at the church, where
we're training some of theseyoung teenagers that are getting
into doing photography andvideography and wanting to do
more social media, and one ofthe things we're working on is
having them understand, too,what they're sharing and what
they're posting.
And you know, in their mind theymay want to do something that
they see culture do.
Right, like, culture is usingcertain songs for trends, or
(08:34):
maybe they're doing certaintrends in certain videos.
One of the things I've alwayssaid to them and even anybody
that does any type of socialmedia same thing we do with ours
is anything we're sharing.
If it's not bringing someonecloser to Jesus or even just
exemplifying him, then what'sthe purpose of it?
And so I think, when it looksat stewardship, it's taking
(08:56):
something that we've been givenand I think even this, we have
this platform and it's somethingthat we have to be mindful of,
because we do have be mindful of, because we do have a lot of
people that listen in and, forall we know, there's someone
that listens in that doesn'tknow Jesus, and there's people
that listen in that are hardcore, hit your knees, pray, you know
(09:17):
those are your veterans.
But I think everything we do, wehave to steward that and at the
end of the day, when our time'sup, it's what we always talk
about.
You always read in Scripture.
You always want to hear is.
I just want to hear those words.
You know, good job, my good andfaithful servant.
You did what I asked you to do.
I gave you a skill set.
(09:38):
You used it for what I intendedto, and I think that's the same
thing when you look at financeshow do you use that?
How are you using those things?
Are they for yourself, are theyfor others?
And so I think sometimesstewardship for me is just is
that is, how am I using it toexactly what you said, benji.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Adam, what a great segue.
I mean, so when we think aboutthis stuff, you know, it reminds
me of the parable of thetalents.
So, matthew 25, we actuallywent through this with our
leadership team the other dayand we're talking about
financial things and financialstewardship.
Okay, and for those of you thatknow the story or don't, you
(10:18):
know, just a quick recap.
You know, the master left andhe gave three of his servants.
One, he gave five talents.
One he gave two.
Left and he gave three of hisservants.
Uh, one, he gave five talents.
One he gave two, one he gaveone.
And when you do, when you doreal research into, like, what
is a talent, and you look backin the context and all that
stuff when you'd really dive indeep, so one talent was it was
(10:41):
money, okay, so one talent was 6thousand denarii okay, and I
may not be saying that in mysouthern accent, the right way
okay, but one one that washebrew.
That's right, uh.
But so six thousand, one talent, six thousand denarii, okay,
(11:02):
one denarius was equal to aday's wage for the common
laborer, okay, so we put that intoday's context.
It's like this master left andhe entrusted these financial
resources with these servants,which was not uncommon for that
day.
So to one guy, to the one hegave one talent to, that was
(11:25):
like a million dollars.
Okay, really about $900,000,but we're going to round up to a
million.
Okay, so when he gave a million,when he gave 2 million, when he
gave $5 million, all right, andhe's, and what he was what he
was hoping for.
When he got back that they were, what were they going to do
those resources?
Well, if you, you know thestory.
He got back and the guy withfive double to ten, the one with
(11:49):
two double to four and the onewith one said master, you are,
you are a hard man and I figuredif I did something wrong with
it that you would get on to me,so I went and buried it in the
sand and go.
I would encourage you guys to goread what the master actually
said and, um, it's prettyeye-opening.
But basically at the end of ithe said, hey, give your one to
(12:10):
the one that I gave five to andhe'll go do something with it.
So it's challenging for us asleaders especially like for
business leaders or if you'reover any financial resources at
all, that we're managing this inthe kingdom of heaven.
So when we think about that andkind of you know, some of the
(12:31):
things that I've learned fromC12 is C12 has this thing called
the tri-value model.
Okay, and here's what thetri-value model says, and it's
like a triangle, all right.
And at the top it says are weproviding economic value with
our business?
Are we providing team value andare we providing spiritual
value?
So, economic value add, teamvalue add, spiritual value add.
(12:55):
And really, what economic valueit says?
It says measures, whether ourleadership enhances or depletes
capital over time.
And what that means is are wemaking a profit?
Okay, cause we really can'tserve our organization.
Well, I mean, yeah, we can havea great culture and we can have
all these things, but if you'renot making money, if you're not
making a profit, then you can'tdo some of the things that you,
(13:17):
that you need to.
Secondly is team.
Value add is how are we growingour people?
So, yes, we can grow profits,but if we're not growing people
while we're growing profits,then it really doesn't mean
anything, right.
Think about asset in theholding company of heaven.
And then, thirdly, is thespiritual value add, and what
(13:39):
C12 does a great job with is usstewarding our businesses, is
something called BAM, b-a-a-m,and what that stands for is are
we using our business as aministry so we grow in profits?
Are we growing people?
And, in tandem with doing thosethings together, how are we
(14:00):
taking care of the people thatGod has entrusted us with every
single day?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
like.
Well, benji Brady, you guyshave got it all figured out.
You know you're doing X numberof dollars a year and again,
y'all know our business is servepro.
We just happen to be one of thelargest franchisees in the
country and y'all've got it alltogether.
You're making all this money.
We go through the same thingsyou do, so don't think don't
think that we don't.
there are times where we have tolook up and go guys, our team,
we're not being profitable, like, we have to make some changes.
(14:38):
We got to make some changes.
Now there's some times where wehave to look up and we go.
There was a time, honestly,where we would not, we would not
share the Lord at work becausewe were like, oh, you can't do
that, adam you talked about thata while ago Can't do that.
You know that's.
That's not right.
If Chick-fil-A can do it, whycan we not do it?
I mean, they sell chicken, andif they can do it to their folks
(14:58):
, why can we not do it with ourfolks?
Now, we're not ever going to toyour point, adam.
We're not going to push it downpeople.
That's not what we're trying toaccomplish.
We're just letting people knowthat the Lord has blessed us and
stewarded us with thisinvestment.
We've got to take care of it.
It's his, it's not ours.
To let our listeners know thatwe struggle with the same things
that you do.
Don't think that we don't.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I want to make that point.
I think you're seeing that,though.
I mean, just think about thespiritual value that you're
talking about, brady, like look,I'll tell you this, not an Ohio
State fan, don't like them atall, but I'll give you this Are
you a.
Notre Dame fan.
I mean, you know, I was kind ofhoping they would pull it out,
but I mean, one of the bigthings they attributed, it was
(15:39):
really cool to kind of see andthe fact that even ESPN and
things talked about it.
Yeah, for sure, one of thebiggest reasons and Ohio will
tell you this, their faith wasone of the biggest reasons.
They feel like they won thisthis year.
They had team-wide baptismsthat they were very public about
.
They shared it from thebeginning.
(15:59):
You heard it from Will Howardand it's not just a typical like
hey, I want to thank my Lordand Savior, jesus Christ.
You're hearing them say hey,jesus gave me this platform and
I feel like I need to share this.
Even the quarterback from NotreDame, first thing he said
before he lost was, hey, we'rehere because Jesus allowed us to
be here and it gave us anability to share these things.
(16:21):
I think we're seeing that moreand more in culture.
I think for so long it was whatyou're talking about Brady or
Benji hey, we can't talk aboutthis got to do this.
I hope that trend continues.
I feel like we're seeing that.
I feel like we're seeing thatmore and more where people are
realizing the platform thatthey've been given.
You know, again, stewardship,stewarding that platform and and
(16:44):
using that to add thatspiritual value.
And that's the same thing we'vedone and the good thing about
um, what each of you have builtinside of the core values of
team wilson, it's it's knownfrom the day you start like this
is this is who we are.
You walk into our headquartersin Birmingham scripture on the
wall right as you walk in.
So that's the good thing isthat you've set that platform up
(17:05):
and you've set those, those,the bones of the foundation that
, hey, this is part of ourvalues, for our company.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, and to Brady's point too, you know talking
about the, the ministry aspectof it.
You're exactly right, adam.
Everyone knows day one who weare and what we're about.
But we also put things in placewith a company, chaplain, we
have a care team initiative ofthings that we're not just
talking about it, we're actuallyputting motion into it, because
people matter.
People are the heartbeat ofyour company and if you can pour
(17:33):
into them, they pour intocustomers.
Customers are happy Brady saysit all the time happy customer
willing to pay.
And then we can steward thatinvestment, which goes back into
ministry again to not just helpour people, help our
communities, help our country,whatever that may lead to.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Well, think about it.
That position as a chaplainthat you guys have, that's not a
revenue generating position.
I mean, in the end, yes, youknow, I think you could argue
that someone that doesn't say,hey, you're feeding into your
people, but that's a positionthat y'all have added to the
company and almost you know yousay economic value add, almost a
culture value add as well, andas you're saying, hey, we have,
(18:12):
we believe this builds ourculture, our team and our
spiritual in that as well, inthat three.
So that's something whereyou're showing those that have
in your company like, hey, wewant to provide this to you.
If you have something, if youneed it, you have somebody that
you can talk to.
That's there and they're nottrying to close business deals
or find losses or do anything.
(18:34):
That I mean.
His role, pastor Dan's rolestrictly, is to provide
spiritual support or justsupport in general.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Right, that's right.
So kind of kind of switchinggears.
A little bit is going into thisfinancial piece and I know this
scares a lot of people and youknow when you, when you talk
about money, and that's probablywhy there's there's a lot of
people that you know havewritten books and do their own
podcast and uh, just becausemoney, money is a big deal in
(19:03):
business and life and marriageso many different aspects.
So, uh, what we want to do isspend a few minutes and, again,
this is probably the where theresource heaviness comes in.
Again, we'll put things in theshow notes and links in the show
notes so you guys can haveaccess to it.
But what I want to highlight is,when you think about your
financial situation, you needclarity and simplicity.
(19:26):
Okay, clarity and simplicity,because some people think about
man, I just can't do it, I don'tknow where to start, I don't
know what to do, and so that's.
I think the focus there is juststart.
I mean just find some resources.
I'm going to give you, I'mgoing to go real quick on some
resources.
That has meant a lot to us andI think the best advice here is
(19:50):
just find something that worksfor you.
You know the best one that'sgoing to work for you is the one
that you're going to use.
So we talked about Dave Ramseyokay, probably a household name,
I know he's probably.
You know, he's the leadingexpert when it comes to personal
finances and personal budgetingand some people love him and
(20:12):
some people don't love him, youknow, and he can be a little
harsh.
Uh, if you, if you need thatkind of kick in the pants and I
need to to get after it and doit.
then dave ramsey is your guy andI mean we'll put some links in
there, but you any, you can findhim on the internet anywhere.
Um, howard dayton is actually aguy that that, uh, I think he.
(20:34):
He was connected with Ron blueback in the day and and Dave
Ramsey and all those guys, buthe kind of branched out.
He does very similar stuff toDave Ramsey with a little bit
softer approach.
So he, he's got a book that hewrote.
Uh, I went through it with agroup a couple of years ago
called your money matters, um,or your money map I'm sorry,
your money map and, like I said,similar principles, just a
(20:58):
softer touch.
But the um, the.
The key thing that I want totalk about here is personal
budgeting.
Okay, I'm a firm believer thatit's going to be hard to budget
and financial plan in yourbusiness or in your organization
If you don't have a personalbudget.
These, these resources aregoing to help you do that.
(21:20):
Uh, and I'll give you anotherresource that's really helped me
like putting all that together.
Okay, so how do I do that?
Um, there's a uh, uh, there'san organization out there called
Tiller Tiller Money Foundations.
I'm a spreadsheet guy, whetheryou're Excel or Google Sheets.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
That's an understatement.
That's an understatement, oneof these episodes.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
We're going to ask Brady how many Google Sheets he
actually has.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
I think there's how many stars are in the sky?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Total side note there's nothing like watching
him work.
There was a time when we firstwere doing some things ready,
you were like hey, I need you tomake a google map that shows
where we're.
We're having really heavy callsin and I was like sure, and I
was trying to figure it out.
And you're like hold on.
And you went and you just ittook you five minutes and then
you flipped out this map andyou're like, yeah, you got to
(22:11):
connect it to this tab and fromhere to there.
And I was like Brady, I have noidea what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Well, this one, this Tiller Money Foundations, is
really simple.
I mean, they do all the workfor you.
You can connect it to yourfinancial institution.
But, like I said, whateverresources you use, I just think
it's important.
If you don't have a personalbudget, it's going to be hard to
have.
If you don't have thosedisciplines in your personal
life, it's going to be hard tohave those disciplines in your,
in your business life.
(22:36):
And so kind of get into the tothe business aspect of it.
Just a couple of resources.
We mentioned a guy by the nameof Mike McElwitz.
He's written many, many books,really good but one that he
wrote was called profit firstand, um, it's a really cool
concept.
It doesn't work, I think,necessarily for every single
organization or every singlebusiness, but it's the idea of
(22:57):
setting aside your profits firstand then everything else.
But it does have a lot ofprinciples in there about how to
set aside and compartmentalizedifferent numbers, and it's
really good.
The last one is a guy by thename of Greg Crabtree and he's
actually from Alabama and hewrote two books called Simple
Numbers and Simple Numbers 2.0.
(23:18):
If you want to like get an MBAwithout going to college, like a
two-year degree or four-yeardegree these two books will
light it on fire and they'rereally good.
I've had to go through themseveral different times.
They've got a coaching programthat they will help you.
(23:38):
Again, we'll put some links inthere.
But if you want to getdisciplined and really get
data-driven decisions, then he'sgot some really good stuff out
there Again.
Just you need to find theresource that works for you and
make it as simple as possible.
But there's so many tools outthere.
I mean, the internet is full ofany anything that you you can
(24:00):
find.
That will make it easier foryou, because I could give you my
system that I use, but it maynot be the that what works for
you.
So I mean, what do you, what doyou guys think about that?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I think it's.
I mean, it's fantastic.
You said it right If you don'thave a personal budget and I
know people budget different umit, it drives everything that
you're going to do on thebusiness side, and vice versa.
You know, um, obviously yougotta be profitable in a company
.
If you can't be profitable inthe company, what's the point of
having the company?
You can have all the revenue inthe world, but if you don't
(24:33):
have profit to show, you know,there's really no, there's no
point in it.
Um, I love the map.
You know your money map concept.
I've never read that book again.
You know, I don't read a lot ofbooks, but that one stuck out
as as an option.
Uh, and you can't go wrong withDave Ramsey.
I mean, dave Ramsey is thebudgeting guru, got the most
simple apps out there.
You could think about personalbusiness, whatever to help drive
(24:55):
drive you and your companyforward.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, yeah, we're at.
My wife is the financial personin our family, which I've made
the joke all the time that Bradyand Emily are very similar, but
she, she does a lot of that.
And personal budgeting is whatwe had to do, especially once we
had kids.
Like we, we didn't have kids,it was a little easier, it was
just the two of us, but there'sa lot of things that are coming
(25:18):
in that we haven't planned for,things that we haven't thought
about things that might happenwith the girls and, honestly, if
it hadn't been for budgetingand making sure that we had
stipulations and things in place, there would have been a lot
harder times, and that was earlyon that.
We learned that.
That how important that was,especially when we first had our
(25:38):
youngest.
We had to have some of thesethings in place, like you said,
whether that's for your companyor personally, whatever those
are, is that, and we had to dothe same thing.
We had to make decisions onthings that we knew we couldn't
do anymore.
There were things we had togive up to be able to provide
for them, and same thing youguys are doing for the company
as well.
There's things that we have tolet go of that we've done for
(26:00):
years.
Brady, you and I have had manyconversations about that
especially in the digital realm,we've had to let go of things
that we've used, whether it'sjust things that make our job
easier, or, you know, thingsthat we had to let go, that
we've used to try to, that justweren't being profitable, and so
that's.
That's the tough thing, butthose are a lot of parts that I
(26:22):
think are important for havingthose Cause if you don't have
that budget, you're going tohave to make a lot harder
choices, both personally andbusiness, and you don't want to
have to get into that, that mode.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, and, by the way , guys, we kind of talked about
this before the episode.
Is this going to be atwo-parter again or not?
I almost think it needs to be.
And I have a quick story as wewrap this up, because sometimes
people are like, yeah, budgets,yeah, financial planning, yeah,
yeah, yeah, I've heard it, don'tbelieve in it not doing it, but
(26:52):
my company's still going to dowhat my company does in it not
doing it, and but my company isstill going to do what my
company does.
Um, this we actually went on atrip to Gatlinburg, tennessee,
back for Martin Luther Kingweekend and, um, here comes the
dreaded, the dreaded snow, youknow where, who knows, a mile,
up in the mountains or whatever.
And we look up and we're likethere's no way we're going to be
snowed in up here.
It's just not possible, right?
(27:13):
And you've seen what's happenedrecently when Florida, florida,
getting all this snow and theGulf, the.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Gulf coast Still blows my mind.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I mean unbelievable.
And so here we are, up on thismountain.
We wake up on a Monday morninggetting ready to drive home and
walk outside and there'sprobably four or five inches,
you know, give or take of snowto get down the mountain.
Now, if you could imagine,we're a mile up in the air and
we're thinking how in the worldare we going to get our vehicles
(27:42):
?
We had three of them.
There's a lot of people stayingup there in these cabins, a lot
.
How are we going to get downthe mountain?
And so we see first cargo.
We watch.
We got on the back deck it's 20degrees outside Got on the back
deck and watched these peopledrive.
Literally they had to have beengoing one mile an hour.
I know they weren't, but theyhad to have been going one mile
an hour.
And snow three, four inchesdeep, which they had traction.
(28:04):
First car goes, second car goes.
We're probably seven, eight,nine cars Took forever.
Here it turns about 1030 in themorning and we look down and the
road.
You can see the ice from wherewe're standing, where these
tracks have gone through, and wego.
Man, if we don't go now, likewe're going to, we're going to
be stuck up here for another twoor three days Cause once it's
(28:26):
ice, it's ice, ice and you'renot, you're not going anywhere
or you're going to go off thecliff.
And so we decided to take the,take the treacherous rain and
Sarah and McKenzie, our youngestMcKenzie was crying.
She's like daddy, I don't wantyou to die.
I said, baby, I'm not going todie, I promise I'm going to.
I mean, she was, she was, shewas really, really concerned
that you could tell.
And, of course, malin, our sonand um and and him and McKenzie
(28:51):
and Sarah and one other girl itwas her aunt and uncle that went
with us.
He had actually driven throughthe mountains in the Rockies in
Colorado on a trip they had ayear ago or so, so he had a
little bit of experience drivingand obviously in Alabama, you
guys know snow ice doesn't workwell.
We had the polar vortex theycall it the apocalypse back in
(29:11):
2014, where the interstates wereshut down and cars were
abandoned, and that's the stuffgoing through my mind on the
forefront.
I'm like we're getting out ofhere today, Like I'm not getting
stuck in the mountains, we'regoing home.
So we start down the mountainand they started to walk behind
me because they.
I knew that if Sarah was in thecar with me, and she knew that
if she was in the car with me,it was going to be, ah, you know
(29:32):
, the whole time down.
I'm like that's just going tomake me even more white knuckled
on the wheel.
So Sammy, our oldest, she saidI'm riding down with you, benji,
I'm going to go down.
So she was in the back seat andI said, when we got in the car,
I said all right, baby, youokay.
She said yeah.
I said listen, don't say a word, don't Focus on getting down
this mountain.
(29:52):
And there was two hairpin turnsthat we had to make to get down
the mountain and both of themwere about 180 degree turn the
other way.
So not only did you have to getdown the mountain.
You had to make these twohairpin turns, got down the
first one we're sliding, we'resliding, we're sliding, and I'm
like, oh Jesus, take the wheel.
You know, please just keep thisthing safe.
And we got down to the secondone.
(30:14):
The good thing is the sun hadcome.
I'm going somewhere with this,so just bear with me a second.
The sun had come out and youcould feel the heat off the sun,
even though it's still 23, 24degrees outside.
You could feel the heat and Iwas like if, if the sun can melt
it enough to be slut, you know,slushy, I'll be fine.
So we got down to the secondhairpin turn and sure, lo and
behold, there is no sunlight onthis second hairpin turn.
(30:37):
It is slick ice and I am going.
Okay, lord, I got to have yourhelp, I got to have you take the
wheel.
So I'm not even hitting the,there's no gas, it's just a
brake just touching the brake,because if you slam on the brake
you're gone.
You're gone.
So I'm white knuckling, I'vegot the wheel turned all the way
(30:57):
to the left, but I'm goingright and I can look out the
window and I see a very smallpavement, not ice, but very
small pavement to, if I can justcatch the grip from that tire,
that I can get down the mountain.
And her uncle had gone ahead ofme.
He was in a small car, reallysmall car.
(31:22):
He said, look, if you'll dothis, if you will, as soon as
you hit that little patch, letgo of the, let go of the
steering wheel and put it andmake sure you're in first gear,
which I was the whole way downthe mountain, make sure that you
just let the car go.
I'm telling you it will be fine.
And I'm in a Cadillac Escaladelike heavy vehicle.
Okay, and I said, all right, Itrust you.
(31:45):
And sure enough, I let go ofthe steering wheel, the wheel
straightened up and I starteddown the mountain.
It was really slow, it wasdragging in first gear and I
made it down safe and sound.
My point to that is thisSometimes we know what's right
in front of us the budgeting,the financial planning and
whatever else may be right infront of us that we're just not
(32:07):
doing and if we'll trust theprocess, the process will get us
where we want to go, and that'swhat we want to leave you with
today.
Trust the process.
All this stuff that you'rehearing Brady talk about, you
know again, don't tune it out.
It's very important stuff forme included.
Trust the process.
The Lord will take you where hewants you to go.
No pun intended, jesus, takethe wheel, help me get down the
(32:29):
mountain.
And again, we've said itearlier, we go through the same
things you guys go through.
Be patient with the process.
Trust the process.
Thank you so much for listeningtoday.
If you have not connected withus on social media, you can find
us on any platform, at HigherUp Podcast, and we just want to
say thank you again for tuningin.
We'll see you next time.
Benji Brady.
Welcome in boys.
This is episode 20.
We finally hit the 2-0 episode10, obviously, of season 2.
Um, it's kind of it's kind ofcool to see that.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
But yeah, this is the big two, oh felt like it was
gonna take forever to get thereI I will say it feels like
season two um went a lot fasterthan season one.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
You know when, when you and I were just starting out
, benji, I felt like we werekind of learning how to podcast,
how to do things, how theschedule should be.
We were really flying by theseat of our pants.
And then, you know I don't knowif it was just with the
addition of Brady things gotmore organized and just more on
schedule.
Whatever it was, season two hasbeen there.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm sure, like you, I've heard from several people
though they do like the factthat we shortened the episodes
from 60 minutes to 30 minutes.
So it's a little.
It gives them a little bitbetter.
Uh, they can listen to it onthe way to, and maybe even from
the work, the office place orwhatever hey, listen, people's
attention span nowadays is yeah,short and hours long you know,
I don't want to tell you, adam,I don't know if you've seen this
(01:19):
, but we are now.
I don't know how many countrieswe're in, cities we're in're in,
but I will say we crossed the5,000 stream and we can't thank
you guys enough.
I know that there's been a lotof you that have joined us
recently.
I want to say we're in like 54different countries now.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Canada is actually our second place country.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Holy cow, Really.
And then the United Kingdom.
I mean United.
Kingdom is right behind it, sobut we're in six 651 different
cities across the world.
Now who would have ever thoughtwe could have said the world?
But we just can't.
We can't thank you guys enoughfor listening in.
Hopefully, the the info thatwe're providing is giving you
some tools and maybe even someammunition to help your
(02:05):
businesses grow and with a, youknow, with a background that we
have, we hope we can help you.
So we just we just want to saythank you guys for listening and
tuning in.
You know it means a lot to us.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
What a, what a wild thought, just thinking about
somebody from from the UK sayingwho are these boys from alabama
with these accents?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
you know, yeah, that's just that's wild to think
about.
It's crazy how how much itexpands, but it's cool to kind
of see.
So we got a good, we got a goodepisode today.
Um, brady, this is another oneof your brain childs.
Um, you mentioned that you're,you've talked to our listeners.
You're currently involved in anorganization called C12.
And that's a big part of,really, where the direction of
(02:53):
things went for us as aleadership team, with you and
with the company.
It really helped put a lot ofthese things in, and so you've
pulled some of these topics inthat you guys are discussing and
sharing, and you mentioned thattoday is really more of a heavy
resource.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Very heavy resource day yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Heavy resource.
You said hey.
When we talked, you said hey,it's going to be less about
giving them the answers.
We need to point them in theright direction so that way they
can kind of figure out forthemselves.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Give them a roadmap.
That's a great way to put ityeah, I mean, you know, we we've
we started out the year, uh, Iguess right before the year, and
talking about strategicplanning and and then goal
setting and um, just trying tokeep on that theme, and we
thought today, you know, is morelike leading with, with
financial purpose, so staying inthat kind of that same realm of
(03:44):
what we've been doing.
But I guess, kind of to set usup a little bit is, you know,
when we start talking about someof these things related to um,
you know, I don't want to usethe word budget because when
people hear the word budget theythink oh, that's a bad word.
Um, you know, or we don't wantto talk about financial planning
(04:05):
because we're not good at that,or we don't want to talk about
financial planning because we'renot good at that, or we don't
know how to do that.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Let's be honest, we didn't, brady, I mean.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Well, I mean, yeah, that's right.
I mean, and listen, it takes alot of discipline.
But you know, I guess what wewant you guys to hear from this
is that you know, if you everfully embrace these concepts,
it's less about um, it's lessabout being constricted and it's
more about having freedom.
(04:33):
And so when you, when you haveeverything planned out and
you've got resources, then thenyou can have freedom in doing
what you want to do within thosebounds that you've already set.
You can have freedom in doingwhat you want to do within those
bounds that you've already set.
So, like Adam said, I meantoday's going to be heavy
resource.
We don't necessarily, you know,want to give you guys the
answers, but and there's a lotmore that we could talk about
(04:54):
but trying to fit into that 30minute, you know we're trying to
do a good job of that but sojust a couple of the resources
that we're going to pull fromand these are things that we've
looked at in the last couple ofyears and, like I said, we'll
try to drop these in the linksand give you in the show notes
(05:15):
and stuff like that.
But there's a book calledProfit First, we'll talk about
that and a weird named guy namedMike Makacklewitz and hard,
hard last name but uh anotherguy named greg crabtree.
Uh, we'll talk about some of thebooks that he's done.
Dave ramsey anybody heard ofdave ramsey?
Oh yeah, I'm sure you've hearddave ramsey.
(05:37):
Right, and then another guynamed howard dayton.
You may or may not have heardof him, but he's kind of like a
dave ramsey.
And then we want to pull somestuff from C12.
So if you guys don't know andAdam talked about this but C12
is a Christian CEO peer grouporganization and they're not
just in the US, they are allover the world.
(05:57):
I mean, I know that there'ssome chapters in Africa and some
other countries and it's justkind of it's just blowing up all
over the place.
And we'll say this again at theend.
But if you guys want moreinformation about that, we we
love to reach out to us and wecan get you pointed and
connected with a resource.
But I want to start out todaywith a with a question and these
(06:18):
are more contemplativequestions, but love to hear you
guys thoughts.
But really two questions.
Okay, when you think ofstewardship, how do you define
it in the context of leadership?
Okay, so that's number one.
Number two is if yourorganization was an asset in the
holding company of heaven.
How would it change yourperspective on how you are
(06:41):
managing your organization?
So what do you guys think aboutthat?
I mean?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
first from a um.
I guess, when I think ofstewardship in the in the
context of leadership, we havean asset, an asset sitting in
front of us that we're basically, you know, the Lord has given
us um through a lot of blood,sweat and tears on the ground,
don't get me wrong.
But we keep our eye on him andI think that we are stewarding
(07:07):
this asset that he's given us tothe best of our ability.
And I think it ties in exactlywhat you said on.
If this was our organization asan asset in the holding company
of heaven, how would it changeour perspective?
I think you would almost haveto do things different, because
heaven is a beautiful place.
Heaven is streets of gold andmansions and whatever.
(07:29):
And I'm not saying you have tohave big things and big
perspectives, but, honestly, theperspective that we drive every
single day can only help us getwhere we want to go, and the
reason we're here on earth is toshare the love of Jesus with
people.
This just happens to be thetool that we're stewarding to
help us get there.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, when you think about stewardship
, it's taking something thatyou've been given, and I think
it goes beyond.
I know we're talkingfinancially and things.
I think it goes beyond that.
I think you look at whetherthat's financial, whether that's
skill set, whether that'scharacter.
I feel like these are allthings, influence things, those
that you have.
I think, especially in the termsof leadership, one of the
(08:13):
things that we're workingthrough at the church, where
we're training some of theseyoung teenagers that are getting
into doing photography andvideography and wanting to do
more social media, and one ofthe things we're working on is
having them understand, too,what they're sharing and what
they're posting.
And you know, in their mind theymay want to do something that
they see culture do.
Right, like, culture is usingcertain songs for trends, or
(08:34):
maybe they're doing certaintrends in certain videos.
One of the things I've alwayssaid to them and even anybody
that does any type of socialmedia same thing we do with ours
is anything we're sharing.
If it's not bringing someonecloser to Jesus or even just
exemplifying him, then what'sthe purpose of it?
And so I think, when it looksat stewardship, it's taking
(08:56):
something that we've been givenand I think even this, we have
this platform and it's somethingthat we have to be mindful of,
because we do have be mindful of, because we do have a lot of
people that listen in and, forall we know, there's someone
that listens in that doesn'tknow Jesus, and there's people
that listen in that are hardcore, hit your knees, pray, you know
(09:17):
those are your veterans.
But I think everything we do, wehave to steward that and at the
end of the day, when our time'sup, it's what we always talk
about.
You always read in Scripture.
You always want to hear is.
I just want to hear those words.
You know, good job, my good andfaithful servant.
You did what I asked you to do.
I gave you a skill set.
(09:38):
You used it for what I intendedto, and I think that's the same
thing when you look at financeshow do you use that?
How are you using those things?
Are they for yourself, are theyfor others?
And so I think sometimesstewardship for me is just is
that is, how am I using it toexactly what you said, benji.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Adam, what a great segue.
I mean, so when we think aboutthis stuff, you know, it reminds
me of the parable of thetalents.
So, matthew 25, we actuallywent through this with our
leadership team the other dayand we're talking about
financial things and financialstewardship.
Okay, and for those of you thatknow the story or don't, you
(10:18):
know, just a quick recap.
You know, the master left andhe gave three of his servants.
One, he gave five talents.
One he gave two.
Left and he gave three of hisservants.
Uh, one, he gave five talents.
One he gave two, one he gaveone.
And when you do, when you doreal research into, like, what
is a talent, and you look backin the context and all that
stuff when you'd really dive indeep, so one talent was it was
(10:41):
money, okay, so one talent was 6thousand denarii okay, and I
may not be saying that in mysouthern accent, the right way
okay, but one one that washebrew.
That's right, uh.
But so six thousand, one talent, six thousand denarii, okay,
(11:02):
one denarius was equal to aday's wage for the common
laborer, okay, so we put that intoday's context.
It's like this master left andhe entrusted these financial
resources with these servants,which was not uncommon for that
day.
So to one guy, to the one hegave one talent to, that was
(11:25):
like a million dollars.
Okay, really about $900,000,but we're going to round up to a
million.
Okay, so when he gave a million,when he gave 2 million, when he
gave $5 million, all right, andhe's, and what he was what he
was hoping for.
When he got back that they were, what were they going to do
those resources?
Well, if you, you know thestory.
He got back and the guy withfive double to ten, the one with
(11:49):
two double to four and the onewith one said master, you are,
you are a hard man and I figuredif I did something wrong with
it that you would get on to me,so I went and buried it in the
sand and go.
I would encourage you guys to goread what the master actually
said and, um, it's prettyeye-opening.
But basically at the end of ithe said, hey, give your one to
(12:10):
the one that I gave five to andhe'll go do something with it.
So it's challenging for us asleaders especially like for
business leaders or if you'reover any financial resources at
all, that we're managing this inthe kingdom of heaven.
So when we think about that andkind of you know, some of the
(12:31):
things that I've learned fromC12 is C12 has this thing called
the tri-value model.
Okay, and here's what thetri-value model says, and it's
like a triangle, all right.
And at the top it says are weproviding economic value with
our business?
Are we providing team value andare we providing spiritual
value?
So, economic value add, teamvalue add, spiritual value add.
(12:55):
And really, what economic valueit says?
It says measures, whether ourleadership enhances or depletes
capital over time.
And what that means is are wemaking a profit?
Okay, cause we really can'tserve our organization.
Well, I mean, yeah, we can havea great culture and we can have
all these things, but if you'renot making money, if you're not
making a profit, then you can'tdo some of the things that you,
(13:17):
that you need to.
Secondly is team.
Value add is how are we growingour people?
So, yes, we can grow profits,but if we're not growing people
while we're growing profits,then it really doesn't mean
anything, right.
Think about asset in theholding company of heaven.
And then, thirdly, is thespiritual value add, and what
(13:39):
C12 does a great job with is usstewarding our businesses, is
something called BAM, b-a-a-m,and what that stands for is are
we using our business as aministry so we grow in profits?
Are we growing people?
And, in tandem with doing thosethings together, how are we
(14:00):
taking care of the people thatGod has entrusted us with every
single day?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
like.
Well, benji Brady, you guyshave got it all figured out.
You know you're doing X numberof dollars a year and again,
y'all know our business is servepro.
We just happen to be one of thelargest franchisees in the
country and y'all've got it alltogether.
You're making all this money.
We go through the same thingsyou do, so don't think don't
think that we don't.
there are times where we have tolook up and go guys, our team,
we're not being profitable, like, we have to make some changes.
(14:38):
We got to make some changes.
Now there's some times where wehave to look up and we go.
There was a time, honestly,where we would not, we would not
share the Lord at work becausewe were like, oh, you can't do
that, adam you talked about thata while ago Can't do that.
You know that's.
That's not right.
If Chick-fil-A can do it, whycan we not do it?
I mean, they sell chicken, andif they can do it to their folks
(14:58):
, why can we not do it with ourfolks?
Now, we're not ever going to toyour point, adam.
We're not going to push it downpeople.
That's not what we're trying toaccomplish.
We're just letting people knowthat the Lord has blessed us and
stewarded us with thisinvestment.
We've got to take care of it.
It's his, it's not ours.
To let our listeners know thatwe struggle with the same things
that you do.
Don't think that we don't.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I want to make that point.
I think you're seeing that,though.
I mean, just think about thespiritual value that you're
talking about, brady, like look,I'll tell you this, not an Ohio
State fan, don't like them atall, but I'll give you this Are
you a.
Notre Dame fan.
I mean, you know, I was kind ofhoping they would pull it out,
but I mean, one of the bigthings they attributed, it was
(15:39):
really cool to kind of see andthe fact that even ESPN and
things talked about it.
Yeah, for sure, one of thebiggest reasons and Ohio will
tell you this, their faith wasone of the biggest reasons.
They feel like they won thisthis year.
They had team-wide baptismsthat they were very public about
.
They shared it from thebeginning.
(15:59):
You heard it from Will Howardand it's not just a typical like
hey, I want to thank my Lordand Savior, jesus Christ.
You're hearing them say hey,jesus gave me this platform and
I feel like I need to share this.
Even the quarterback from NotreDame, first thing he said
before he lost was, hey, we'rehere because Jesus allowed us to
be here and it gave us anability to share these things.
(16:21):
I think we're seeing that moreand more in culture.
I think for so long it was whatyou're talking about Brady or
Benji hey, we can't talk aboutthis got to do this.
I hope that trend continues.
I feel like we're seeing that.
I feel like we're seeing thatmore and more where people are
realizing the platform thatthey've been given.
You know, again, stewardship,stewarding that platform and and
(16:44):
using that to add thatspiritual value.
And that's the same thing we'vedone and the good thing about
um, what each of you have builtinside of the core values of
team wilson, it's it's knownfrom the day you start like this
is this is who we are.
You walk into our headquartersin Birmingham scripture on the
wall right as you walk in.
So that's the good thing isthat you've set that platform up
(17:05):
and you've set those, those,the bones of the foundation that
, hey, this is part of ourvalues, for our company.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, and to Brady's point too, you know talking
about the, the ministry aspectof it.
You're exactly right, adam.
Everyone knows day one who weare and what we're about.
But we also put things in placewith a company, chaplain, we
have a care team initiative ofthings that we're not just
talking about it, we're actuallyputting motion into it, because
people matter.
People are the heartbeat ofyour company and if you can pour
(17:33):
into them, they pour intocustomers.
Customers are happy Brady saysit all the time happy customer
willing to pay.
And then we can steward thatinvestment, which goes back into
ministry again to not just helpour people, help our
communities, help our country,whatever that may lead to.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Well, think about it.
That position as a chaplainthat you guys have, that's not a
revenue generating position.
I mean, in the end, yes, youknow, I think you could argue
that someone that doesn't say,hey, you're feeding into your
people, but that's a positionthat y'all have added to the
company and almost you know yousay economic value add, almost a
culture value add as well, andas you're saying, hey, we have,
(18:12):
we believe this builds ourculture, our team and our
spiritual in that as well, inthat three.
So that's something whereyou're showing those that have
in your company like, hey, wewant to provide this to you.
If you have something, if youneed it, you have somebody that
you can talk to.
That's there and they're nottrying to close business deals
or find losses or do anything.
(18:34):
That I mean.
His role, pastor Dan's rolestrictly, is to provide
spiritual support or justsupport in general.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Right, that's right.
So kind of kind of switchinggears.
A little bit is going into thisfinancial piece and I know this
scares a lot of people and youknow when you, when you talk
about money, and that's probablywhy there's there's a lot of
people that you know havewritten books and do their own
podcast and uh, just becausemoney, money is a big deal in
(19:03):
business and life and marriageso many different aspects.
So, uh, what we want to do isspend a few minutes and, again,
this is probably the where theresource heaviness comes in.
Again, we'll put things in theshow notes and links in the show
notes so you guys can haveaccess to it.
But what I want to highlight is,when you think about your
financial situation, you needclarity and simplicity.
(19:26):
Okay, clarity and simplicity,because some people think about
man, I just can't do it, I don'tknow where to start, I don't
know what to do, and so that's.
I think the focus there is juststart.
I mean just find some resources.
I'm going to give you, I'mgoing to go real quick on some
resources.
That has meant a lot to us andI think the best advice here is
(19:50):
just find something that worksfor you.
You know the best one that'sgoing to work for you is the one
that you're going to use.
So we talked about Dave Ramseyokay, probably a household name,
I know he's probably.
You know, he's the leadingexpert when it comes to personal
finances and personal budgetingand some people love him and
(20:12):
some people don't love him, youknow, and he can be a little
harsh.
Uh, if you, if you need thatkind of kick in the pants and I
need to to get after it and doit.
then dave ramsey is your guy andI mean we'll put some links in
there, but you any, you can findhim on the internet anywhere.
Um, howard dayton is actually aguy that that, uh, I think he.
(20:34):
He was connected with Ron blueback in the day and and Dave
Ramsey and all those guys, buthe kind of branched out.
He does very similar stuff toDave Ramsey with a little bit
softer approach.
So he, he's got a book that hewrote.
Uh, I went through it with agroup a couple of years ago
called your money matters, um,or your money map I'm sorry,
your money map and, like I said,similar principles, just a
(20:58):
softer touch.
But the um, the.
The key thing that I want totalk about here is personal
budgeting.
Okay, I'm a firm believer thatit's going to be hard to budget
and financial plan in yourbusiness or in your organization
If you don't have a personalbudget.
These, these resources aregoing to help you do that.
(21:20):
Uh, and I'll give you anotherresource that's really helped me
like putting all that together.
Okay, so how do I do that?
Um, there's a uh, uh, there'san organization out there called
Tiller Tiller Money Foundations.
I'm a spreadsheet guy, whetheryou're Excel or Google Sheets.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
That's an understatement.
That's an understatement, oneof these episodes.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
We're going to ask Brady how many Google Sheets he
actually has.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
I think there's how many stars are in the sky?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Total side note there's nothing like watching
him work.
There was a time when we firstwere doing some things ready,
you were like hey, I need you tomake a google map that shows
where we're.
We're having really heavy callsin and I was like sure, and I
was trying to figure it out.
And you're like hold on.
And you went and you just ittook you five minutes and then
you flipped out this map andyou're like, yeah, you got to
(22:11):
connect it to this tab and fromhere to there.
And I was like Brady, I have noidea what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Well, this one, this Tiller Money Foundations, is
really simple.
I mean, they do all the workfor you.
You can connect it to yourfinancial institution.
But, like I said, whateverresources you use, I just think
it's important.
If you don't have a personalbudget, it's going to be hard to
have.
If you don't have thosedisciplines in your personal
life, it's going to be hard tohave those disciplines in your,
in your business life.
(22:36):
And so kind of get into the tothe business aspect of it.
Just a couple of resources.
We mentioned a guy by the nameof Mike McElwitz.
He's written many, many books,really good but one that he
wrote was called profit firstand, um, it's a really cool
concept.
It doesn't work, I think,necessarily for every single
organization or every singlebusiness, but it's the idea of
(22:57):
setting aside your profits firstand then everything else.
But it does have a lot ofprinciples in there about how to
set aside and compartmentalizedifferent numbers, and it's
really good.
The last one is a guy by thename of Greg Crabtree and he's
actually from Alabama and hewrote two books called Simple
Numbers and Simple Numbers 2.0.
(23:18):
If you want to like get an MBAwithout going to college, like a
two-year degree or four-yeardegree these two books will
light it on fire and they'rereally good.
I've had to go through themseveral different times.
They've got a coaching programthat they will help you.
(23:38):
Again, we'll put some links inthere.
But if you want to getdisciplined and really get
data-driven decisions, then he'sgot some really good stuff out
there Again.
Just you need to find theresource that works for you and
make it as simple as possible.
But there's so many tools outthere.
I mean, the internet is full ofany anything that you you can
(24:00):
find.
That will make it easier foryou, because I could give you my
system that I use, but it maynot be the that what works for
you.
So I mean, what do you, what doyou guys think about that?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I think it's.
I mean, it's fantastic.
You said it right If you don'thave a personal budget and I
know people budget different umit, it drives everything that
you're going to do on thebusiness side, and vice versa.
You know, um, obviously yougotta be profitable in a company
.
If you can't be profitable inthe company, what's the point of
having the company?
You can have all the revenue inthe world, but if you don't
(24:33):
have profit to show, you know,there's really no, there's no
point in it.
Um, I love the map.
You know your money map concept.
I've never read that book again.
You know, I don't read a lot ofbooks, but that one stuck out
as as an option.
Uh, and you can't go wrong withDave Ramsey.
I mean, dave Ramsey is thebudgeting guru, got the most
simple apps out there.
You could think about personalbusiness, whatever to help drive
(24:55):
drive you and your companyforward.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, yeah, we're at.
My wife is the financial personin our family, which I've made
the joke all the time that Bradyand Emily are very similar, but
she, she does a lot of that.
And personal budgeting is whatwe had to do, especially once we
had kids.
Like we, we didn't have kids,it was a little easier, it was
just the two of us, but there'sa lot of things that are coming
(25:18):
in that we haven't planned for,things that we haven't thought
about things that might happenwith the girls and, honestly, if
it hadn't been for budgetingand making sure that we had
stipulations and things in place, there would have been a lot
harder times, and that was earlyon that.
We learned that.
That how important that was,especially when we first had our
(25:38):
youngest.
We had to have some of thesethings in place, like you said,
whether that's for your companyor personally, whatever those
are, is that, and we had to dothe same thing.
We had to make decisions onthings that we knew we couldn't
do anymore.
There were things we had togive up to be able to provide
for them, and same thing youguys are doing for the company
as well.
There's things that we have tolet go of that we've done for
(26:00):
years.
Brady, you and I have had manyconversations about that
especially in the digital realm,we've had to let go of things
that we've used, whether it'sjust things that make our job
easier, or, you know, thingsthat we had to let go, that
we've used to try to, that justweren't being profitable, and so
that's.
That's the tough thing, butthose are a lot of parts that I
(26:22):
think are important for havingthose Cause if you don't have
that budget, you're going tohave to make a lot harder
choices, both personally andbusiness, and you don't want to
have to get into that, that mode.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, and, by the way , guys, we kind of talked about
this before the episode.
Is this going to be atwo-parter again or not?
I almost think it needs to be.
And I have a quick story as wewrap this up, because sometimes
people are like, yeah, budgets,yeah, financial planning, yeah,
yeah, yeah, I've heard it, don'tbelieve in it not doing it, but
(26:52):
my company's still going to dowhat my company does in it not
doing it, and but my company isstill going to do what my
company does.
Um, this we actually went on atrip to Gatlinburg, tennessee,
back for Martin Luther Kingweekend and, um, here comes the
dreaded, the dreaded snow, youknow where, who knows, a mile,
up in the mountains or whatever.
And we look up and we're likethere's no way we're going to be
snowed in up here.
It's just not possible, right?
(27:13):
And you've seen what's happenedrecently when Florida, florida,
getting all this snow and theGulf, the.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Gulf coast Still blows my mind.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I mean unbelievable.
And so here we are, up on thismountain.
We wake up on a Monday morninggetting ready to drive home and
walk outside and there'sprobably four or five inches,
you know, give or take of snowto get down the mountain.
Now, if you could imagine,we're a mile up in the air and
we're thinking how in the worldare we going to get our vehicles
(27:42):
?
We had three of them.
There's a lot of people stayingup there in these cabins, a lot
.
How are we going to get downthe mountain?
And so we see first cargo.
We watch.
We got on the back deck it's 20degrees outside Got on the back
deck and watched these peopledrive.
Literally they had to have beengoing one mile an hour.
I know they weren't, but theyhad to have been going one mile
an hour.
And snow three, four inchesdeep, which they had traction.
(28:04):
First car goes, second car goes.
We're probably seven, eight,nine cars Took forever.
Here it turns about 1030 in themorning and we look down and the
road.
You can see the ice from wherewe're standing, where these
tracks have gone through, and wego.
Man, if we don't go now, likewe're going to, we're going to
be stuck up here for another twoor three days Cause once it's
(28:26):
ice, it's ice, ice and you'renot, you're not going anywhere
or you're going to go off thecliff.
And so we decided to take the,take the treacherous rain and
Sarah and McKenzie, our youngestMcKenzie was crying.
She's like daddy, I don't wantyou to die.
I said, baby, I'm not going todie, I promise I'm going to.
I mean, she was, she was, shewas really, really concerned
that you could tell.
And, of course, malin, our sonand um and and him and McKenzie
(28:51):
and Sarah and one other girl itwas her aunt and uncle that went
with us.
He had actually driven throughthe mountains in the Rockies in
Colorado on a trip they had ayear ago or so, so he had a
little bit of experience drivingand obviously in Alabama, you
guys know snow ice doesn't workwell.
We had the polar vortex theycall it the apocalypse back in
(29:11):
2014, where the interstates wereshut down and cars were
abandoned, and that's the stuffgoing through my mind on the
forefront.
I'm like we're getting out ofhere today, Like I'm not getting
stuck in the mountains, we'regoing home.
So we start down the mountainand they started to walk behind
me because they.
I knew that if Sarah was in thecar with me, and she knew that
if she was in the car with me,it was going to be, ah, you know
(29:32):
, the whole time down.
I'm like that's just going tomake me even more white knuckled
on the wheel.
So Sammy, our oldest, she saidI'm riding down with you, benji,
I'm going to go down.
So she was in the back seat andI said, when we got in the car,
I said all right, baby, youokay.
She said yeah.
I said listen, don't say a word, don't Focus on getting down
this mountain.
(29:52):
And there was two hairpin turnsthat we had to make to get down
the mountain and both of themwere about 180 degree turn the
other way.
So not only did you have to getdown the mountain.
You had to make these twohairpin turns, got down the
first one we're sliding, we'resliding, we're sliding, and I'm
like, oh Jesus, take the wheel.
You know, please just keep thisthing safe.
And we got down to the secondone.
(30:14):
The good thing is the sun hadcome.
I'm going somewhere with this,so just bear with me a second.
The sun had come out and youcould feel the heat off the sun,
even though it's still 23, 24degrees outside.
You could feel the heat and Iwas like if, if the sun can melt
it enough to be slut, you know,slushy, I'll be fine.
So we got down to the secondhairpin turn and sure, lo and
behold, there is no sunlight onthis second hairpin turn.
(30:37):
It is slick ice and I am going.
Okay, lord, I got to have yourhelp, I got to have you take the
wheel.
So I'm not even hitting the,there's no gas, it's just a
brake just touching the brake,because if you slam on the brake
you're gone.
You're gone.
So I'm white knuckling, I'vegot the wheel turned all the way
(30:57):
to the left, but I'm goingright and I can look out the
window and I see a very smallpavement, not ice, but very
small pavement to, if I can justcatch the grip from that tire,
that I can get down the mountain.
And her uncle had gone ahead ofme.
He was in a small car, reallysmall car.
(31:22):
He said, look, if you'll dothis, if you will, as soon as
you hit that little patch, letgo of the, let go of the
steering wheel and put it andmake sure you're in first gear,
which I was the whole way downthe mountain, make sure that you
just let the car go.
I'm telling you it will be fine.
And I'm in a Cadillac Escaladelike heavy vehicle.
Okay, and I said, all right, Itrust you.
(31:45):
And sure enough, I let go ofthe steering wheel, the wheel
straightened up and I starteddown the mountain.
It was really slow, it wasdragging in first gear and I
made it down safe and sound.
My point to that is thisSometimes we know what's right
in front of us the budgeting,the financial planning and
whatever else may be right infront of us that we're just not
(32:07):
doing and if we'll trust theprocess, the process will get us
where we want to go, and that'swhat we want to leave you with
today.
Trust the process.
All this stuff that you'rehearing Brady talk about, you
know again, don't tune it out.
It's very important stuff forme included.
Trust the process.
The Lord will take you where hewants you to go.
No pun intended, jesus, takethe wheel, help me get down the
(32:29):
mountain.
And again, we've said itearlier, we go through the same
things you guys go through.
Be patient with the process.
Trust the process.
Thank you so much for listeningtoday.
If you have not connected withus on social media, you can find
us on any platform, at HigherUp Podcast, and we just want to
say thank you again for tuningin.
We'll see you next time.
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