May 25, 2023 • 47 mins
What does it take to achieve extraordinary success in both your personal and professional life? How can faith play a crucial role in guiding your decisions and helping you overcome obstacles? Find out by joining us for an inspiring and empowering episode of the Higher Up podcast!
We'll kick off the conversation with an exciting update on the Evangel Christian School softball team's recent victory, winning a division one national softball championship - a testament to their hard work, dedication, and team spirit. But our focus isn't just on the playing field; we'll also discuss the importance of faith in entrepreneurship, taking a cue from successful faith-based businesses like Chick-fil-A, and how to strike the right balance between faith and action to achieve your goals.
Lastly, we'll explore ways to provide value to your customers and followers on social media through faith-based content and prayer, and the significance of maintaining integrity and resilience in the face of challenges. You'll also learn about the butterfly effect of faith-based decision making, and how it can create a lasting impact on countless lives. Don't miss this opportunity to elevate your life and business to new heights with the power of faith!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Well, hey, hey.
Welcome into the higher uppodcast.
I'm Adam West, a video creator,and I'm joined by an
accomplished entrepreneur, benjiWilson.
Look, our mission is simple, isto empower you in every aspect
of your life, from business topersonal growth.
We're just here to inspire youto make a positive impact on the
world through sharing our ownlife experiences and having a
(00:27):
chance to have conversationswith other successful
individuals.
But either way, together we'llexplore living a higher up life.
Let's jump into today's episode.
All right, benji.
Well, welcome into episode five.
I feel like every time Iintroduce the show, i sound like
(00:50):
a game show host, every timeLike well, come on down.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Welcome to episode five.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Ah, like every, time I hear myself back.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I just want to say this.
Obviously, we're going to betalking about a really cool
topic today.
We won't talk about that yetbut I just want to say thank you
to the listeners.
We've had a lot of interaction.
Again, we talked about this.
We have more and more people,you know, connecting with us and
our goal is just to inspirepeople, adam, and it's really
encouraging the feedback thatwe're getting.
(01:18):
We get people send us DMsthrough social media or email or
whatever, saying Hey, i reallyconnected with that.
We'll talk about in a second orlast episode, but it's really
cool just to see there in actioninteraction.
So I just wanted to say toeveryone thank you so much for
tuning in and listening to us.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
I listen back to myself and Ijust have to say thank you,
because I don't understand howy'all listened to me talk for 45
minutes because what was reallyfunny and this will be a funny
story And I hope this doesn'tlike shatter the glass for our
listeners.
But when episode three came out, my wife and I were driving
somewhere and she was like Oh, ineed to listen to the episode.
(01:55):
I'm like great, that's what Iwant to listen to myself in the
car for 45 minutes.
She's like well, i need tocatch up on the episode.
And I think every other timewhen I was in between a phrase,
my like my catchphrase, to makesure I wasn't catching up on my
words, i was like well, you know, well, you know, well, you know
.
And she slowly just turns herhead and looks at me and I'm
(02:18):
like I'm sorry, i'm just ruiningthis episode for you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
You know your wife will tell you of mine too, where
we always mess up, and that'sokay, that's what they're there
for, but hey, they shared allthe time.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
So I'm excited.
So, yes, it's been awesome, hadsome you know, owners from
other mitigation businesses inour community have reached out
and just they're wanting to dosome of the same stuff and
they're seeing our setup andjust like Hey, what equipment
are you using?
I mean even know sometimesthat's not.
You know.
They may not be reaching out100% about what we're talking
(02:53):
about.
It's just cool that even thingslike that are listeners.
Like Hey, i would love to learnhow to do something like this.
I love the fact that y'all kindof stepped out and did it.
So it's been fun.
You know, for me this is out ofmy comfort zone, so it's been a
lot of fun to do this.
But enough about us.
Let's talk a little bit aboutyou.
You've had a lot going on.
You, you know you, you guyshaven't had a fresh episode in
(03:16):
two weeks.
We told y'all we are reallytrying for every two weeks.
We'd love to maybe get more ofthat in but we said Hey, we're
dedicating to you every twoweeks.
So you know it's coming And sowe're trying to keep you guys on
some reels, coming out, somecontent, just so y'all can
hopefully share.
You know just a couple ofnuggets, but tell us a little
bit before we jump into today'stopic.
(03:37):
You've got some exciting news,some fun news about what's been
going on.
Why don't you share with ourlisteners some of that, just so
they can kind of know what y'allbeen doing?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, we actually.
After our last episode, we wentto Chattanooga, tennessee in
the United States, to to we havea soft.
Our oldest daughter is on ahigh school softball team.
We won our state championshipand we qualified for the
national championship.
It's called NACA And it'sbasically the North American
(04:05):
Christian Association, soschools from all over the
country will come to thistournament to win a national
title, and our boys program atEvangel Christian school has won
multiple football, baseballnational championships.
The girls had won onevolleyball national championship
(04:25):
and they did win a softballdivision to national
championship Um back in 2014, ithink.
Volleyball team was 2013.
So we had never had a division.
One girls national championship, um.
We go up and our team playedexceptionally well.
We actually scored 53 runsduring the entire tournament.
(04:47):
We only gave up three runs theentire tournament Details was
solid.
Bats was solid.
That's all I need us to sayvery proud of the work that our
team did.
Um, and our coach, davidLittleton, did a fantastic job
with uh, just helping us put usin a position.
Uh, i help him, i assist him,so he's really neat.
The girls won a division onenational softball championship.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
That's awesome.
Look at that.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So that'll be exciting And they're going to
get rings and everything too,Like the yeah, we actually, we
actually just did the ringsizing a few days ago And I'm
actually thinking about gettingone myself, because I've never
had one.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Well, now you can get one and you can just wear it to
work, like those people thathave them all the time.
You know, they just randomlyuse their hand with it on to
point things out.
Oh, let me show you what's here.
Yeah, and you know so, butthat'll be good.
Well, uh, that's exciting.
It's a lot of been going on, um, you know, for us, the kids are
about to get out of school,yeah, um, so we got a lot of fun
(05:45):
, uh, going on for the summer.
So I'm excited, i'm excited todo it.
Slow down for us.
If everything slows down, and,yeah, it's the same for us too,
and we'll have to find anepisode talk about just how you
handle seasons, but I feel likethat's where we've been at
lately.
I know you and I have talked alittle bit of just oh yeah, gosh
, just busy man.
It's just you know what,balancing your life schedule.
(06:07):
That's got to be something wetalk about, cause I need
somebody that can share thatwith me, cause it's speaking of
life schedule.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
It's yeah, i'm probably, you're probably the
same with with your schedulestoo.
But when you go on vacation,you know you don't want to have
a schedule, you don't want tohave a task list, stuff like
that that you normally have inyour day-to-day.
So for me, sarah does all ofour planning.
She's like Hey, we're going togo here, we're going to do this,
and here's when we're going togo.
I'm like, just tell me when togo and where to be, and I will
(06:34):
do it.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Look, we're at a point in our life when we will
go on vacation.
We don't really go on vacation,we just basically parent in a
different city.
Yeah, so that's where you'vegot.
Like I said, i think I've toldyou guys before.
We got us a three year old anda seven year old and nothing
changes, man, nothing changes.
Literally, we deal with thesame chaotic, fighting duo of
(06:56):
non-stop needing more sleep,just in another city.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
That's all it is.
It will get better at mypromise.
It will get better, Just it's aphase of life stage of life
that you're in.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
It's such a tough place to be in because you're
like man, i want to get to thatpoint where it's easier and
we're chill.
But then, you know, in themiddle of the night our three
year old comes and she likesnuggles with me, like I don't
want this to go away.
It's like so you just get stuckin the middle of a bad place.
So, hopefully all our listenersto our parents out there you're
like, i know exactly what he'stalking about.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I'm going to say they .
I promise you, someone outthere can, can can relate to
exactly what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I'm hoping somebody shares it, shares these this
episode.
When it comes out, i'm likethis is me, this is me, right
here, i don't want my kids togrow up, but it's like I do want
them to grow up.
So, but well, hey, let's jumpin.
Today We're.
We got a cool topic.
This episode.
We talked about comparisonculture, or shared with you guys
.
That was something that's alwaysbeen a struggle for me being a
content creator and just dealingwith those.
(07:54):
Look, i even dealt with it thispast week and worked on a
project for a company that I was.
I was jacked about, i wasexcited, i thought it turned out
good, and you got that dreadedemail from look, i was just
doing this for him like, and gotthat email that were like Oh,
video quality is great, i wantto change pop up and I'm like
(08:14):
somebody basically just poppedmy balloon And so I felt it just
so it continued.
So hopefully you guys gotsomething a little bit from that
.
I know something for me iscontinued struggle that I go
through and deal with, but itwas a lot about me and a lot
about what I dealt with.
It felt like I talked a lot,but this week, in this episode
we're going to get to hear fromBenji a little bit more as the
(08:34):
veteran entrepreneur.
We were looking at showtimes,like you know what?
All the businesses that Benjihas has faith intertwined in it.
Absolutely, there is a, thereis a form of Jesus Christ that
is intertwined into every singlebusiness that you run and every
doesn't matter if it's yourmedia business, your mitigation
(08:56):
business, the other businessesthat you that you have, just as
investments or some type offaith done from start to finish.
And I said you know what We needto talk about, that We need to
talk about entrepreneurship andfaith.
And then I thought I was cooland I thought I may have made up
a word I love, i love this, ilove it.
I was trying to be creative andsomebody else beat me to it.
(09:18):
But faith pernure ship.
Faith pernure ship.
Basically, it's just.
It's just a way to combine thetwo.
It's just.
You know it's your.
It means in every aspect ofyour business.
Faith is present in all thedecisions that you make and all
the things that you do.
Just all of that It's somewherein there.
And this to me, is who you andyour family have been and I've
(09:43):
experienced that even in thecompanies that we've been part
of with you, faith is in there.
So I said you know what?
let's talk about that more.
Maybe somebody's strugglingwith that right now, maybe
they're trying to figure out howthey should shape and mold
their business, and I, you know,we got some cool things that'll
come through but that we'lltalk about today.
But that made me just kind ofthink with you, like, hey, who's
(10:05):
running your business?
Is it you Or is it God?
And I think that's somethingyou know.
And so that's kind of where,when I heard, i actually watched
a reel and heard someone sharethat and I was like Benji, this
should be it Like what should itbe?
And so we thought this would begood to talk about a little bit
more.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah, and before we get into that, i do want to say
thank you to our listeners fortuning in, listening.
Some of you watch, some of youdo listen on the go.
We have we're gaining moreaudience.
Folks listen, and our goal wasjust to inspire people that are
just like Adam and myself to beable to live, live this life
journey.
And you know, at the end of theday, this is exactly what you
(10:42):
said Christ is at the center ofeverything that we do.
This business is not mine andmy brother's anyway, okay, this
business is Lord's business.
We just happen to be thestewards of the business and
what what we?
God runs the business, you know.
But I think he gives us.
The Bible itself tells us thatHe will give us the desires of
(11:05):
our heart.
You know, if we ask for them,that doesn't mean he gives them
to us the way that we want them,because of things change And
that's where faith comes in.
So this, this episode, isreally going to, i think, going
to hit home with some people,because you know whether you
have faith or whether you don'thave faith, you're operating in
(11:26):
faith, whether you believe it ornot, and I'll explain as we
talk through more about the show.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, And I think that's something.
I love that you hit that onthat, because I understand you
know we try to make sure thatour listeners know who we are
and that we are followers ofJesus, and it's something that
we base our life on, ourdecisions, our families are, i
know, for me and for you, mykids and your kids are raised
(11:53):
that way, but I I don't thinkthis is.
it's something where you feellike I'm not really a believer.
I'm just going to wait for thenext episode, I don't.
I think you can still findsomething out of this, cause I
love the facts which youmentioned.
being in any type ofentrepreneurship, you're putting
faith out there because you'relike all right, i have a skill
(12:14):
set or I have an idea or I havesomething and I think it can be
financially prosperous, so howyou know.
so you put that out there.
So I think a lot of that.
And so I mean when, when, whenyou and your brother were
getting ready to I mean to startyour business, i mean I know a
lot of that was your, your, yourdad kind of already built that,
(12:36):
but you guys had to carry that.
And even when we walk into ouroffice, it's the first thing
that you see like there arescripture on the wall before you
walk in.
We, you know we do it in all ofour meetings, even our large
ones, and you know we were veryfortunate that we have a team
chaplain, which a lot ofcompanies don't have.
I think that's something thatif one of our employees is
(12:58):
walking through some or dealingwith something, they have
someone they can talk to.
So there's presence of thatevery turn.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Well, you know you've mentioned that, Adam that a lot
of people, when they go throughsituations in life, they let's
say they're, let's say they'renot a believer in the Lord,
right, They still want prayer,They believe in the power of
prayer.
So you know, it's why.
Why is faith important in whatwe do every single day?
Hebrews 11,.
(13:27):
One says it best by faith, theexcuse me now, faith is the
substance of things hoped for,the evidence of things not seen.
So we have.
There are certain ways that wedo things, There are certain
ways that we aspire to do things.
We have dreams, We have visions, We have plans.
We have to have faith, usingthe word faith, to get there.
(13:52):
Okay, so, if you think aboutthis, if you set a goal to
accomplish something, whetherit's you wanna achieve X type of
revenue in your company,whether you want to achieve this
specific thing in life, whetheryou have a dream to do X, Y, Z,
whatever the case may be,you're having faith that you're
gonna be able to get there.
Okay, the Lord gives us thevision, his vision because,
(14:14):
again, we are faith people hegives us the vision to be able
to want to achieve that item,that thing, but we still have to
put in the work for it.
Okay, just because you havefaith doesn't mean that you're
gonna get there.
You still have to put forth thework, And I love that again,
Hebrews 11, one.
We have to have the faithbecause we can't see what we
(14:38):
can't see.
Just because we set a goal,just because we set an
aspiration to achieve somethingdoesn't mean it's the road and
the path that we're gonna get on.
So just something to thinkabout.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah, and it's such a I feel like, especially in
today's age, it's such a taboothing.
I mean people, you have to becareful with it.
And I hate saying that becauseI don't want anybody to ever
think like, oh well, you're nota true believer.
if you feel like you gotta becareful with your faith And I'm
like no, there's things in placethat the enemy's put in place
(15:14):
that you gotta be careful withAnd you gotta make sure that
we're careful with how these dothings without losing who you
are and your ultimate goal Likeour goal is to bring people to
Jesus.
Our goal is to I mean, we wantpeople to understand when they
see your business, like, hey,we're an ethical business.
(15:35):
I understand, not everythinggoes right And sometimes there's
situations that don't happenhow they're supposed to.
you know, not everybody'sperfect, but I want you know, i
would want a customer to seethat and be like okay, i mean
there's businesses that I'vechose to do things with because
you, it's apparent that they'rea faith-based business.
I mean from the start.
(15:55):
I mean look at, i mean evenfrom a large scale, from
something like a Chick-fil-Awhich everybody knows.
Oh, yeah, yeah, everybody knowsthey're a faith-based company.
I mean closed on Sundays.
everything they do is aboutfaith.
I mean, they've even taken thepoint where they're.
you know, i don't feel like theyget into politics, but they're
like, hey, we're gonna hold trueto who we are, like we're not
(16:15):
doing this or that, whereasother companies have caved.
they've stayed in it.
but because they've done that,i feel like God has honored that
with them.
They said they're doing truewho they are.
but even all the way down toplaces like just to a mechanic I
mean, if I see something withtheir scripture, you know, on
their an LED sign outside theirdoor, or you know, in their
(16:36):
signage, or even sometimes, likea gas station, just above where
you walk in the door, there'slittle pieces that show.
it's almost like saying, hey,we are a faith-based business
And you know we want you to feelhey, we're going to be an
ethical company and we'reraising up other people to do
the same.
Yeah, understand that we're nothere to run games on anyone or
(16:58):
do anything.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
that seems like it's fishy.
Yeah, i do believe the Lordblesses companies like that.
I mean he blesses any company.
If you put faith into it right,you gotta again, you gotta put
forth the work.
But I believe the simpleprinciple is due unto others as
you would have done unto youright.
If you want to treat, if youwant to be treated right, you
should treat people right, andit's interesting we were talking
(17:22):
about before this episode thatwhat kind of personal
experiences I might have had,okay.
So think about this.
If you start a business todaythis is an interesting statistic
that most people don't realizeThe average business in America
okay does between a half amillion dollars in revenue a
(17:43):
year to a million dollars a year.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I would love to be an average business.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Most businesses don't ever want to achieve more than
a million dollars.
Okay, and think of here's thereason why They don't really
have to have a marketing budget.
They don't really have to hirea lot of personnel.
So there's in their mind it'sless headache, you know, cause
they're not having as muchoversight and stuff, they don't
really have to buy as muchequipment or supplies or
(18:09):
resources.
Okay, so if you do a milliondollars or less in revenue a
year, you're making a greatliving for you and your family.
You're probably in about 70% ofbusinesses across America.
When you jump from a milliondollars in revenue to five
million dollars in revenue, thismeans you have to have some
(18:29):
kind of marketing budget.
You need to hire more people,which again comes with.
I'm not saying headache, butwhen you double people, you
double people issues.
It's just the way it works.
So, a million to five million.
But if we train those people tonot have to have issues we do
(18:50):
under others, if we would havethem do under us, then we can
become more successful.
If you do between one and fivemillion, you're in the probably
70 to 80%, which is anadditional 10%.
Okay, you're in a 10% overallrevenue nationwide If you do
(19:10):
above five million dollars,you're in like the top 5%,
because most businesses don'tever wanna get to that level.
So the reason why is?
a personal experience of minewould be this let's say that you
start this business and youdon't want to go out.
What does it take to go hiresomeone to promote your company?
You have to have faith thatthat person that you hire is
(19:34):
going to bring a return on yourinvestment.
It's the same in operations.
Let's say that you wanna go outand you have a retail business.
Well, if you don't hire anyoneto work the counter, you're
having to do it yourself.
So you have to have faith inhiring that person that they're
going to bring value to you andthe company so that you can have
(19:55):
a return on your investment.
So that's how.
That's how even though peoplemay not call that faith, that's
really what they're operating inthat man.
I'm kind of concerned that I'mnot gonna be able to, you know,
grow this business.
What can I do to grow it?
Oh, i need to go hire thisperson, but wait a minute, i
don't have any income coming in.
How am I gonna afford to dothat?
I hear that all the time fromcompanies.
(20:16):
I can't afford to do thatHonestly.
You can't afford not to, unlessyou wanna do it all yourself.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah well, and I mean , if you're doing all of it
yourself, i don't think you'regiving yourself room to grow.
I mean, we even talked aboutyou know, even talked about this
podcast.
He's like, well, where do wewanna get to?
What's our goal?
You know, that's the biggestthing.
Like I don't wanna be two guysjust taking time away from our
wives sitting here chatting,just cause it's fun And I enjoy
being like, oh, i'm on a podcast.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
You know, i want.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I want there to be something from this, whether our
listeners are affected by it orit helps our listeners just
even a small insight.
But you know we even talkedabout that.
Like, hey, i wanna get to thepoint where I'm not the one
doing the reels and upload likethe simple stuff, uploading the
podcast.
I want to grow this to a pointwhere, hopefully, we provide
(21:07):
enough value, because, at theend of the day, that's what it's
all about.
That's what I tell people allthe time Like, well, i need to
grow on social media and I needto have more of this.
I'm like, oh, what value areyou presenting?
What value are you presenting?
I mean even into the point ofthings like with church, church,
social media.
I've had people ask us and Idon't feel like I just want to
make sure I clarify Like I am Imean like my personal account
(21:29):
isn't even over 1500.
And I mean like I feel likeI've done well with our
mitigation You have more than Ido.
But that's all come this yearbecause I committed now the past
I'll be honest with you thepast couple, past month or two,
just with the busyness, and then, just because Instagram changed
the hour, it just annoys me todeath that I spent all this, i
spent all this time into it andyou get nothing out of it, like
(21:50):
they have completely destroyedthe hour of the mess.
That's for another time.
We're gonna have thatconversation, But you know, it's
just getting to that where Iwant to be able us to do that,
and I don't feel like I'm amaster.
I mean, if I was a master, youcould hand me any account and I
could help you grow.
But what I do know is thingsthat work, and the first thing
that I tell every single personare you providing value Or are
(22:13):
you like, like I've had churchesask me well, how do I help us
grow?
I mean, if you look at ourchurch account, like we're just
now hitting 600.
I mean, and I feel like we putout and I'm not just saying that
, cause I'm the one that does it, but I feel like we put out
quality.
We really do That.
I try to bring value.
Here's the thing.
We will not be a bulletin boardsocial media for our church.
(22:37):
Yeah, okay, that's not what weare.
If you go look at our page, itis very, very rare And I promise
I have a point to all this thatI'm getting to.
It's very rare that you'll everfind us posting like Hey, this
is what's happening at thechurch.
Right, you know we're not abulletin board And I tell our
team that all the time like, heyguys, that's not what it's for.
If you look at social media as awhole social media is it feels
(22:58):
like a competition, it feelslike it's a negative.
I mean, think about, and Idon't have true statistics, but
that's one of the reasons I wasactually telling your wife the
other day we were talking aboutsocial media And I was like,
look, my girls are gonnaunderstand that.
Like I see parents all the timelike constantly posting about
their kids And I know we'regetting way off subject, but
(23:19):
constantly, constantly postingabout their kids And I'm like
you know what?
That's not for me.
Well, i mean, yes, i want toshare.
You know, i want to share likethings that I create about our
girls and what we're doing, butI hope one day my girls don't
grow up thinking just because Iposted a, that's how they know I
love them, because I posted athousand times what they're
doing.
My hope is they know that theylove them because of the way we
(23:42):
do things in the house.
So my point is this I wanted tobe able to get to the point
where things like we can haveother people do our business and
do these things because I feellike that brings value.
And that's kind of what I'mtrying to get to is that if you
have any type of marketing, whatbrings value and not just value
(24:04):
, but what are you doing for thepeople that are consuming your
content?
And that's why I hope thethings that we post, not just
from the church but from ourmitigation business.
I mean, a few weeks ago and itwas probably outside of our
Cowboys post, which was superhard, it was awesome, it was fun
, that was a cool thing.
(24:24):
But outside of that, we postedsomething that our Birmingham
team does every single FridayAnd it's cool because it's
evolved Like it's grown.
It used to be.
They say the Lord's prayer.
Like I was, like man.
I hadn't said the Lord's prayersince I was like 16, like 15,
16 year old, like sitting inlike a I grew up military brat.
My dad was.
my dad was in the chapel, so itwas like we always said the
(24:47):
Lord's prayer.
So they said it.
Well then, like two Fridays ago, i was there and our operations
manager looks at our fleetdirector and he's like have you
prayed for us?
And it just it's not a Lord'sprayer anymore, it's evolved.
And he tells them before theydo it Hey guys, you don't have
to do this, you don't have tostay for this.
And he makes it very apparent.
And there are one or two thatmay say.
(25:07):
Hey, this isn't for me Andthat's fine.
but, like 99% of the peoplewalk over and I can tell you
it's not a pressure thing.
I know people listen like, oh,you're probably pressuring them
If they don't do it.
no, that's not, i can promiseyou.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
If you ask anybody in our company you may add up.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
If you ask 50 people, you may have one person say, oh
, i feel like you're alwaysgonna have that dividend.
But they walk over, they taketheir hat off, they pray, and we
posted about it and just andmaybe it was a personal moment,
i just thought it was cool.
I wanted our potentialconsumers and our customers to
know that something they do inevery single Friday.
They pray over the team, theypray over the office staff and
(25:48):
they pray over not just theteams that are going into the
homes, but of the customersthey're serving and potential
customers they will serve.
They do it every Friday, butthey do that because of the
culture that you guys created,because you said, hey, our
business is intertwined withfaith, and I feel like faith
(26:09):
sometimes is a broad word, it'sspirituality, it's belief, it is
100%.
There is a faith in JesusChrist And that's what is
intertwined in our business.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, and, like you said, we've chosen to make that
the foundation of our business.
Right At the end of the day,goal setting, decision making,
everything that we do we have aby faith.
We have a vision to get to Xrevenue okay, because we have
(26:40):
goals that we'd like to do forour employees, for our family.
All those things And I believewe have to continue to.
God gives us tweaks along theway to be able to get there.
It's not just gonna comeovernight, and the same for your
business.
If you're listening right now,just from a, maybe you're trying
(27:00):
to think about what do I gottado to take the next step?
What do I gotta do?
Well, I would you have to do it?
Prayer is a big factor of that.
Okay, Prayer is a big factorbecause we can't do it without
seeking the Lord for everythingthat we do, And that's very
important to us.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
And look for I'll tell you just from being on the
opposite end of the spectrum,you know you're the 30 year
veteran doing this for a longtime I'm.
It was so funny The other week Iwas talking to your brother
about something and I made acomment about.
He was just asking me about thebusiness stuff that I'm doing
And I made a comment like, ohyeah, he laughed and walked away
from me and was like, dude, youhave got so much to learn, so
(27:42):
so just I, just I share that.
So our listeners understandthat I have no earthly idea what
I'm doing right now, but I am a$1,500 a month revenue company
Like I'm just very fortunate tohave some friends who believe in
me that says, hey, i'll takeyour skill set and you can help
me with my own business, and soI'm very fortunate to be able to
do some of that.
(28:02):
You know.
So I mean, and a couple of sidejobs here and there that helped
me bring that type of revenuein monthly.
So I'm a very, very smallbusiness.
I mean, if they're small I'mfitting that.
But it took a lot of prayer toget to this point.
I mean like I've had peopleasking me for a year or two like
when are you gonna do even evenmy closest friends, when are
you gonna do it?
(28:22):
When are you gonna do it Likethey'd help me all the time,
like I don't?
I don't want to hear you knowwhat you're doing for this
person or this company or thisperson, like what's Adam West
doing And what are you buildingyour brand.
And it took a lot of faith anda lot of praying to say do I
need to do this And is thissomething I need to do?
And you know, and it's alsotreating it like a thing Like I
(28:45):
need to treat our business likea person, like I need to be able
to take that money that we'reearning and tie that back every
month as a business, just likeany church.
I feel like even churches.
That's important that churchesneed to teach giving by also
giving themselves.
I mean, if they bring in Xamount of money a month, they
need to give out 10% of that, ifnot more if they can, because
(29:09):
that shows good faith to thepeople that are part of your
church.
This is, hey, we teach giving,but we also act on it and we
also live it.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Well, you know what's interesting?
you say that in because theBible there are non-believers
who give to missions, or theygive to charities.
Because the Bible does saybring you all the ties into the
storehouse and I'll open you upthe windows of heaven.
I'm paraphrasing the verse, butthe principle is true You
(29:39):
cannot out give God.
Okay, no, well, you said itearlier.
If you it's not cliche, it'sthe term that you could use some
people say, hey, take a step offaith.
Well, what they're reallysaying is you believe that you
can achieve this, you believethat you're gonna get there?
Faith just happens to be theword that's gonna help you.
Okay, i'll give you an exampleIn the Bible.
(30:02):
If you were to look back inhistory, years and years and
years ago, the world, the earth,had never been flooded.
Okay, so there's this gentlemanon the face of the earth called
Noah, and Noah, the Lord, toldhim to build an ark.
Now, i don't have thedimensions, but again, massive,
massive structure.
(30:22):
That he had to build this arkand and the Lord told him to put
two of every animal One male,one female on this boat is
essentially what, that's whatthe ark is a boat And he built
this massive structure.
He sat there.
He sat there.
People are laughing at him likewhat are you doing?
What are you doing?
Why are you building that?
(30:43):
Why are you building that?
this world's not gonna flood,this not gonna happen, this is
not gonna work.
And all of a sudden, here comesthe rains.
Here comes the rains.
This boat starts to take off.
All the naysayers You know whathappens to them.
They obviously drowned and theworld starts over.
Okay, so Noah had to take a stepof faith to build this massive,
(31:06):
massive ark that nothing hadever happened on this earth in
this world before.
And He took the step of faithto say that I'm gonna be
prepared, even though I can'tsee the full outcome of what's
about to come.
I'm gonna be prepared so thatmy family is taking care of,
because this is what the Lordhas told me to do.
So he built it.
(31:26):
His family was safe.
After the floods receded, theLord put this rainbow in the air
and basically made a promise Hewould never flood the earth
again.
Dova sends out of heaven, whichis a relationship of the Holy
Spirit, says I'm in control,i've got you, i'm gonna take
care of your family.
So, with, that being said, we.
That's.
That's one of the reasons whywe have Put this Foundation of
(31:49):
faith into us, because it's whowe are, it's what we believe and
it's where we want to see ourbusiness to be successful.
Do we want to continue to grow?
Absolutely?
Do we want to continue to tryto be successful?
Absolutely?
So what we have to do is wehave to take a step of faith to
continue to get there, eventhough there's gonna be pain
along the way.
There's gonna be trials alongthe way.
(32:10):
Things are gonna come up thatare out of our control.
Faith is what's gonna help usget their prayer that type thing
.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
So I mean for our listeners, maybe they're
struggling with that and maybethat's something they're trying
to figure out where they're atwith Their faith in their
business, like how that balanceworks.
So For you guys you just youtalked about pain, what's
something that you guys havegone through?
And I don't want to.
I don't feel like you guys haveever been in position to wonder
(32:38):
if that's how you should beleading the company.
But I mean, sheer, just for ourlisteners What are some things
that you and your brother havedealt with when it comes to
faith?
Yep, that have an outside oflike, and I'm talking like
outside of are we gonna makeenough this month?
Are we gonna bring enough?
do we need to like?
but what are some sort of somethings that you guys have walked
(33:00):
through That might helpsomebody that's listening saying
, hey, let me share with yousomething that was that was
tough and put my faith to thetest.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I'll give you.
I got.
I got a great example of that2017.
My father, our father, me, mybrother.
He passed away and We had adecision to make at that point
Are we gonna continue the legacyof what he had built and try to
use faith to take us to thenext level, or do we throw in
the towel and go do somethingelse?
(33:30):
Well, number two was not anoption.
We knew that this business wasbuilt on faith built the
foundation was built on faith.
So we only had one option, andthat was to continue moving
forward.
Now We wanted to.
I never forget Adam.
When we came back from fromHouston, texas, we were on the
(33:52):
way home and our wives both said, hey, what?
what is the next step?
and we told them then we'regonna continue the legacy.
We believe that.
You know, even though it hurtthat our father passed this
earth, we'll see him one dayagain in heaven.
And on our way, on our way backhere, we said you know what?
There they're because of prayer, because of the people around
(34:15):
us, which is something we'lltalk about in a minute.
Surround yourself with peopleWho can encourage you, who can
lift you up, who can be therefor you, who can who can?
who can slap you and say hey,that was a mistake you made.
You know you need to get better.
That's the people we want tosurround ourselves with, right?
yeah, because we all make eachother better.
We were on the way back and wesaid you know what?
(34:35):
there's not another option.
We're gonna continue thisbecause the Lord's in control of
this business, not us.
If we were in control, we wouldbe a disaster.
Yeah, so we've chosen to usethat to our advantage to say
Lord, you're in control, you'vegot it and that's all that we
can Allow them well, and youknow it's funny.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
You say that because our pastor talked about a few
weeks ago where he shared Whathe would really want sharing his
testimony.
He was just talking about howone decision can affect others
and others, and You know hetalked about that he would love
to go down the line where theguy that introduced him to Jesus
And it was a scenario and thenintroduces his dad and who
(35:14):
introduced that pastor thatInfluenced his dad and did so
you start thinking like, oh man,well, where's that line start?
but I think that also goes intothose either listening that
that may be, trying to figureout how to balance your faith in
and whatever type ofEntrepreneurship that you're in.
Those decisions have rippleeffects and it's the butterfly
effect.
I mean, you know, a flap ofbutterfly wings on this side of
(35:37):
the the world could create atidal wave on the other, and I
don't Want the tidal wave tomake it sound like it's a
negative thing.
Yeah, sure, but there's a lotof lies that you Have affected
by making that choice That wasfaith-based in that moment.
It's made a ripple effect.
And not just that, but it'smade a ripple effect in in our
(35:58):
own Restoration world becauseyou chose to do that.
We've been in a in the top fiveFor a number of years, in the
top 10, top 20, and so you'venot only that, but you're
affecting other owners, yeah,and other entrepreneurs that are
now like, alright, teach me,how do I do this, how do I, how
do I Steer this, this, this boatthat I have of my company, down
(36:21):
this canal and how do I getdown this journey?
So, those decisions, bydeciding to say, hey, we're
gonna stick to our faith, we'regonna hold tight It's making
ripple effects and not it withthousands of people you know, I
heard.
I heard someone say one time andI plan to.
I've always said that you know,when the day comes and my dad
(36:42):
passes like I'm gonna share thisbecause I heard it in His
retirement and they said so Itold him one time that That you
couldn't fill 10 chapels withthe amount of people that he
affected while he was doing,while he was a chaplain in the
military, and it's so.
It's crazy to me That you thinkabout that.
You know, saying like, hey, 10,like you can't feel 10.
(37:04):
It's not enough.
Like you, it would be Tens ofthousands of buildings from the
people that you've ripple,affected and change by doing
those, so by you guys havingthat faith It it's helped ripple
through those lives and throughother people.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah, and to your point to, you're always gonna
have struggles.
I mean, there's anything you doin life, it's called life.
You're gonna have struggles,right, you're gonna have
challenges, there's gonna bething.
You're gonna take 10 stepsforward and three steps back, 10
steps forward, six steps back,10 steps forward And then one
step back.
You're gonna have that happen.
But here's the thing don't letit discourage you, because
(37:40):
sometimes I think the Lord testus in certain ways to figure out
.
I heard, i heard it say You.
We had our pastor shared thispast week.
He said you can't have atestimony without a test.
Really, really strong statement.
You can't have a testimonywithout a test.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
I need to go back and find that for real.
by the way, yeah, you said thatit's, it's hate.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
I hope your social media engaged value you, it's
true, because You think aboutthat.
You go through a life situationso that you can share it with
someone else Okay, but thatdoesn't mean we're not gonna
have tests along the way.
I believe that the reason thatwe continue to push forward, we
don't let those setbacks affectwhat we do, we don't let the
(38:24):
competition dictate how we dothings now Doesn't mean we don't
make tweaks to our processeither, because that's important
in business.
You have to make tweaks in yourprocess to stay ahead of the
curve.
There's always, even thoughyou're, you might be the number
one mitigation company in theworld, people, somebody behind
you is looking at that target,because we were there one day
and we don't want to lose sightof that.
(38:45):
We want to always stay ahead ofthe curve.
So, again, you're gonna havethings come across the way.
If I could give any kind ofsuccess story.
There's a there's a buddy ofmine in the mitigation business
and He's always being innovativeat everything that he does,
always being innovated.
He doesn't go out and just, youknow, hire all these people out
(39:08):
here to do this job.
He thinks through the process,he comes up with a strategy.
He executes it almost toperfection.
But he will tell you, if itwasn't for his faith in the Lord
, he wouldn't be able to do it,and that's why I think that the
Lord uses that to challenge us,to test us.
Yep, but how we act on ourfaith is as what our response
(39:29):
ends up being, and ultimately hewins.
He's already, it's his anyway,i mean.
So we can't, we can't lose.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
I Yeah, yeah, i think it's important to always
remember that it's not.
It's not ours, it's it's notours And that's why you know, i
told you before who's runningyour business.
Are you running the business oris God running your business?
Because you're going to gothrough a lot of that and you're
(39:56):
going to deal with thosemoments where you've got to
figure out all right, thesedecisions are I making.
Is this a spiritual, biblicalchoice?
Right, like, am I making thischoice Because it's good for me?
And look, sometimes thosechoices are not financially good
.
I mean, sometimes you're goingto, sometimes you are probably
going to have to take the roadless traveled and it's not going
(40:19):
to be lucrative at all.
But my thing is this is that Ialways want to make sure, in
everything I do, whether that'swith um, for for you guys as a
company or for my own self Inever want to lose my soul, to
move up or to move up, because Ithink that all comes back.
Absolutely.
I'm not a karma person.
I don't.
I mean like, i don't feel likekarma is spiritual, um, i'm not
(40:43):
and and I just don't to me, i'mnot, like you know, i believe
that you, you do good things andgood things come back to you.
I think God blesses thosethings, um, but my point is is
that I want to make sure thateverything that I have or I've
gained whether that's influence,um, whether that's finance,
(41:04):
whether that's favor I want tomake sure every bit of that I
have is not something that I gotfrom doing things that aren't
made without involving God andall my decisions, that all the
things that I do I don't everwant If I know I can get away
with something.
And you're like, oh, i couldeasily.
You know, i had thisconversation with with you, with
(41:25):
your brother, today.
We were sitting there talkingabout it and you know I was like
I said, look, we got likesomething's got to happen from
this, like we can't just allowthis to happen.
And he was.
He said Adam, look.
He said I'm going to tell you,as a business owner, it's always
going to happen.
There's, no matter what I do,it's going to happen.
You're going to have peoplethat treat situations like this.
(41:47):
You're going to have people whoare dishonest.
You're going to have peoplethat do things to get ahead by
cheating the system.
But you know what He said, it'snot really going to affect how
I lead this company And he saidbecause I believe that those
things will all come back And ifyou choose to get ahead, maybe
you do, maybe you get ahead,maybe you make a couple extra
(42:09):
bucks, maybe you do somethingwhere you know you take
something that's not reallyyours or you know you, whatever
it is, maybe you do gain whatyou want, but in the end of the
day, i mean what?
what are you fulfilling?
I was going to say what are yougain?
What I was just about, what areyou honestly gaining?
Think about it.
Did you work for it?
(42:30):
Did you do?
that's what I tell people allthe time.
Now They're just like Oh, youknow they, they it's one of the
things they talk about with likethe, the portal and stuff with
sports.
So like people don't want tosit behind anybody anymore.
And I mean you look at some ofthe greatest people.
You know they want to jumpteams or go here or go there.
I know that's way off topic.
I'm just talking about culture,wise, we've gotten to it And
(42:51):
whether that's business, sports,whatever relate, it's a point
in our lives where people arelike if there's something I want
, i'm just going to figure outhow to get it.
I'm not going to work for it,but I'm just going to figure out
how I can get it the easiestway possible.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Yeah, i think sometimes I think, sometimes
with that, people don't.
I don't again, i don't mean tobe cliche, as with this but they
don't.
They don't really think thatthey can get there, they don't
think they have the faith toovercome that obstacle.
So it's like you know what thegrass is greener over here?
I'm just going to go that way,yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
And you talk about cliche and I think about all the
time and this is going to soundstupid and people are probably
going to laugh when they hear it.
But how are diamonds made?
It's made through pressure.
And that's what I tell peopleall the time.
I mean I'd rather be in apressure cooker than just have
it, have it easy.
Cause look and this is fory'all listening right now If you
hadn't had anything going on inyour life and you have no
(43:43):
stress, you have no anxiety,nothing's feels like you're
pressuring you.
You need to really evaluate howyou're living.
Yeah, check it.
You need to take them on, youneed to check.
Like John Chris says, you needto check your heart, man.
Yeah, you need to check yourheart and figure it out.
Because if your life and if yourbusiness, if your business is
easy, if your life is easy, ifeverything you're doing just
(44:03):
like man, like life is good,like everything's fine, if
that's your answer to somethingthere's you're missing something
And you know what The enemy ishappy with it, because you're
just coasting and you're livinga life where you're not trying
to do anything and you're nottrying to cause.
I always tell people all thetime I get better by having
pressure And that's it's bydoing things that make me
(44:24):
uncomfortable.
And when I do things that makeme uncomfortable, that's when I
grow, because I got to push outof it eventually.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
Yeah, and look, if you're out there listening to as
we kind of summarize this andwrap it up.
If you're struggling withsomething, man, email us.
You can email Benji athigheruppodcastcom.
You know we'll be glad to takeyour questions on DMs through
our social media channels.
Again, if you go tohigheruppodcastcom, you've got
all the social links there.
(44:51):
You've got any platform youwant to listen to, including
YouTube if you want to watch.
But we'd love to get somefeedback.
You know, hey, i'm strugglingwith this and this and this.
What can, what can you guys do?
Give me some advice.
We'd love that opportunity And,and you know, whatever we can
do to help and inspire us, whatwe're here for.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Yeah, just, our listeners know, benji and I are
the only ones that maintain that.
Look we, everything you see,everything you hear, that's done
by the two of us.
Nobody else does that, nobodyelse handles that, nobody else
assists with that.
So, just know, anything yousend in is going to be between
us.
And then I mean, like showtopics Is there something that
you're hearing this and you wantus to discuss more?
(45:30):
If you look, if you trust thetwo of us to talk about a topic,
you, all you got to do is shootit to us And we, you know, we
want you to know that, um,that's something we'll throw in
there and we'll do that.
But Hey, take a moment and, uh,let us know.
Uh, even in the reviews, like,let us know what you think about
the show, we'll take somemoment and read those on live on
for some folks on the next onejust to say, um, thank you to
(45:51):
you guys.
But yeah, like Benji said, um,just let us know.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
Yeah, and, by the way , if I could, if you really want
some additional encouragement,go read Hebrews chapter 11.
It's called the faith chapterAnd that will give you some
great insight of some storiesthat people have gone through in
previous history and how theLord got them out of it, and
maybe one of those can inspireyou.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
So thank, you guys so much.
It's a good word, man.
It's a good way to end a goodepisode.
We hope you all enjoyed it.
Uh, we'll see you guys backhere soon, which I'll have a
great week and continue to liveyourself a higher life.
Hey, Benji and I want to take amoment and just thank you for
listening to the higher uppodcast.
We really hope you enjoyedtoday's episode and just learned
(46:34):
some valuable insights to helpimprove your own life.
Hey, if you found today'sepisode helpful, we would be
grateful if you could take amoment and rate us five stars on
Spotify Or if you're listeningon Apple podcast.
We just want to know what youthink about the show.
Either way, when you leave us areview, you're helping us grow
our network and reach morepeople with our message.
Remember, our mission is toempower you in every aspect of
(46:55):
your life and we're thankful foryour support.
We've got new episodes of thehigher up podcast dropping every
other Thursday, So take asecond and turn on notifications
to stay in the loop.
Make sure that you follow us onyour favorite social media
platforms to stay connected withour community.
We just want to thank you againfor listening and we look
forward to having you join usagain on the higher up podcast.
Well, hey, hey.
Welcome into the higher uppodcast.
I'm Adam West, a video creator,and I'm joined by an
accomplished entrepreneur, benjiWilson.
Look, our mission is simple, isto empower you in every aspect
of your life, from business topersonal growth.
We're just here to inspire youto make a positive impact on the
world through sharing our ownlife experiences and having a
(00:27):
chance to have conversationswith other successful
individuals.
But either way, together we'llexplore living a higher up life.
Let's jump into today's episode.
All right, benji.
Well, welcome into episode five.
I feel like every time Iintroduce the show, i sound like
(00:50):
a game show host, every timeLike well, come on down.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Welcome to episode five.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Ah, like every, time I hear myself back.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I just want to say this.
Obviously, we're going to betalking about a really cool
topic today.
We won't talk about that yetbut I just want to say thank you
to the listeners.
We've had a lot of interaction.
Again, we talked about this.
We have more and more people,you know, connecting with us and
our goal is just to inspirepeople, adam, and it's really
encouraging the feedback thatwe're getting.
(01:18):
We get people send us DMsthrough social media or email or
whatever, saying Hey, i reallyconnected with that.
We'll talk about in a second orlast episode, but it's really
cool just to see there in actioninteraction.
So I just wanted to say toeveryone thank you so much for
tuning in and listening to us.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
I listen back to myself and Ijust have to say thank you,
because I don't understand howy'all listened to me talk for 45
minutes because what was reallyfunny and this will be a funny
story And I hope this doesn'tlike shatter the glass for our
listeners.
But when episode three came out, my wife and I were driving
somewhere and she was like Oh, ineed to listen to the episode.
(01:55):
I'm like great, that's what Iwant to listen to myself in the
car for 45 minutes.
She's like well, i need tocatch up on the episode.
And I think every other timewhen I was in between a phrase,
my like my catchphrase, to makesure I wasn't catching up on my
words, i was like well, you know, well, you know, well, you know
.
And she slowly just turns herhead and looks at me and I'm
(02:18):
like I'm sorry, i'm just ruiningthis episode for you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
You know your wife will tell you of mine too, where
we always mess up, and that'sokay, that's what they're there
for, but hey, they shared allthe time.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
So I'm excited.
So, yes, it's been awesome, hadsome you know, owners from
other mitigation businesses inour community have reached out
and just they're wanting to dosome of the same stuff and
they're seeing our setup andjust like Hey, what equipment
are you using?
I mean even know sometimesthat's not.
You know.
They may not be reaching out100% about what we're talking
(02:53):
about.
It's just cool that even thingslike that are listeners.
Like Hey, i would love to learnhow to do something like this.
I love the fact that y'all kindof stepped out and did it.
So it's been fun.
You know, for me this is out ofmy comfort zone, so it's been a
lot of fun to do this.
But enough about us.
Let's talk a little bit aboutyou.
You've had a lot going on.
You, you know you, you guyshaven't had a fresh episode in
(03:16):
two weeks.
We told y'all we are reallytrying for every two weeks.
We'd love to maybe get more ofthat in but we said Hey, we're
dedicating to you every twoweeks.
So you know it's coming And sowe're trying to keep you guys on
some reels, coming out, somecontent, just so y'all can
hopefully share.
You know just a couple ofnuggets, but tell us a little
bit before we jump into today'stopic.
(03:37):
You've got some exciting news,some fun news about what's been
going on.
Why don't you share with ourlisteners some of that, just so
they can kind of know what y'allbeen doing?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, we actually.
After our last episode, we wentto Chattanooga, tennessee in
the United States, to to we havea soft.
Our oldest daughter is on ahigh school softball team.
We won our state championshipand we qualified for the
national championship.
It's called NACA And it'sbasically the North American
(04:05):
Christian Association, soschools from all over the
country will come to thistournament to win a national
title, and our boys program atEvangel Christian school has won
multiple football, baseballnational championships.
The girls had won onevolleyball national championship
(04:25):
and they did win a softballdivision to national
championship Um back in 2014, ithink.
Volleyball team was 2013.
So we had never had a division.
One girls national championship, um.
We go up and our team playedexceptionally well.
We actually scored 53 runsduring the entire tournament.
(04:47):
We only gave up three runs theentire tournament Details was
solid.
Bats was solid.
That's all I need us to sayvery proud of the work that our
team did.
Um, and our coach, davidLittleton, did a fantastic job
with uh, just helping us put usin a position.
Uh, i help him, i assist him,so he's really neat.
The girls won a division onenational softball championship.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
That's awesome.
Look at that.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So that'll be exciting And they're going to
get rings and everything too,Like the yeah, we actually, we
actually just did the ringsizing a few days ago And I'm
actually thinking about gettingone myself, because I've never
had one.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Well, now you can get one and you can just wear it to
work, like those people thathave them all the time.
You know, they just randomlyuse their hand with it on to
point things out.
Oh, let me show you what's here.
Yeah, and you know so, butthat'll be good.
Well, uh, that's exciting.
It's a lot of been going on, um, you know, for us, the kids are
about to get out of school,yeah, um, so we got a lot of fun
(05:45):
, uh, going on for the summer.
So I'm excited, i'm excited todo it.
Slow down for us.
If everything slows down, and,yeah, it's the same for us too,
and we'll have to find anepisode talk about just how you
handle seasons, but I feel likethat's where we've been at
lately.
I know you and I have talked alittle bit of just oh yeah, gosh
, just busy man.
It's just you know what,balancing your life schedule.
(06:07):
That's got to be something wetalk about, cause I need
somebody that can share thatwith me, cause it's speaking of
life schedule.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
It's yeah, i'm probably, you're probably the
same with with your schedulestoo.
But when you go on vacation,you know you don't want to have
a schedule, you don't want tohave a task list, stuff like
that that you normally have inyour day-to-day.
So for me, sarah does all ofour planning.
She's like Hey, we're going togo here, we're going to do this,
and here's when we're going togo.
I'm like, just tell me when togo and where to be, and I will
(06:34):
do it.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Look, we're at a point in our life when we will
go on vacation.
We don't really go on vacation,we just basically parent in a
different city.
Yeah, so that's where you'vegot.
Like I said, i think I've toldyou guys before.
We got us a three year old anda seven year old and nothing
changes, man, nothing changes.
Literally, we deal with thesame chaotic, fighting duo of
(06:56):
non-stop needing more sleep,just in another city.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
That's all it is.
It will get better at mypromise.
It will get better, Just it's aphase of life stage of life
that you're in.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
It's such a tough place to be in because you're
like man, i want to get to thatpoint where it's easier and
we're chill.
But then, you know, in themiddle of the night our three
year old comes and she likesnuggles with me, like I don't
want this to go away.
It's like so you just get stuckin the middle of a bad place.
So, hopefully all our listenersto our parents out there you're
like, i know exactly what he'stalking about.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I'm going to say they .
I promise you, someone outthere can, can can relate to
exactly what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I'm hoping somebody shares it, shares these this
episode.
When it comes out, i'm likethis is me, this is me, right
here, i don't want my kids togrow up, but it's like I do want
them to grow up.
So, but well, hey, let's jumpin.
Today We're.
We got a cool topic.
This episode.
We talked about comparisonculture, or shared with you guys
.
That was something that's alwaysbeen a struggle for me being a
content creator and just dealingwith those.
(07:54):
Look, i even dealt with it thispast week and worked on a
project for a company that I was.
I was jacked about, i wasexcited, i thought it turned out
good, and you got that dreadedemail from look, i was just
doing this for him like, and gotthat email that were like Oh,
video quality is great, i wantto change pop up and I'm like
(08:14):
somebody basically just poppedmy balloon And so I felt it just
so it continued.
So hopefully you guys gotsomething a little bit from that
.
I know something for me iscontinued struggle that I go
through and deal with, but itwas a lot about me and a lot
about what I dealt with.
It felt like I talked a lot,but this week, in this episode
we're going to get to hear fromBenji a little bit more as the
(08:34):
veteran entrepreneur.
We were looking at showtimes,like you know what?
All the businesses that Benjihas has faith intertwined in it.
Absolutely, there is a, thereis a form of Jesus Christ that
is intertwined into every singlebusiness that you run and every
doesn't matter if it's yourmedia business, your mitigation
(08:56):
business, the other businessesthat you that you have, just as
investments or some type offaith done from start to finish.
And I said you know what We needto talk about, that We need to
talk about entrepreneurship andfaith.
And then I thought I was cooland I thought I may have made up
a word I love, i love this, ilove it.
I was trying to be creative andsomebody else beat me to it.
(09:18):
But faith pernure ship.
Faith pernure ship.
Basically, it's just.
It's just a way to combine thetwo.
It's just.
You know it's your.
It means in every aspect ofyour business.
Faith is present in all thedecisions that you make and all
the things that you do.
Just all of that It's somewherein there.
And this to me, is who you andyour family have been and I've
(09:43):
experienced that even in thecompanies that we've been part
of with you, faith is in there.
So I said you know what?
let's talk about that more.
Maybe somebody's strugglingwith that right now, maybe
they're trying to figure out howthey should shape and mold
their business, and I, you know,we got some cool things that'll
come through but that we'lltalk about today.
But that made me just kind ofthink with you, like, hey, who's
(10:05):
running your business?
Is it you Or is it God?
And I think that's somethingyou know.
And so that's kind of where,when I heard, i actually watched
a reel and heard someone sharethat and I was like Benji, this
should be it Like what should itbe?
And so we thought this would begood to talk about a little bit
more.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah, and before we get into that, i do want to say
thank you to our listeners fortuning in, listening.
Some of you watch, some of youdo listen on the go.
We have we're gaining moreaudience.
Folks listen, and our goal wasjust to inspire people that are
just like Adam and myself to beable to live, live this life
journey.
And you know, at the end of theday, this is exactly what you
(10:42):
said Christ is at the center ofeverything that we do.
This business is not mine andmy brother's anyway, okay, this
business is Lord's business.
We just happen to be thestewards of the business and
what what we?
God runs the business, you know.
But I think he gives us.
The Bible itself tells us thatHe will give us the desires of
(11:05):
our heart.
You know, if we ask for them,that doesn't mean he gives them
to us the way that we want them,because of things change And
that's where faith comes in.
So this, this episode, isreally going to, i think, going
to hit home with some people,because you know whether you
have faith or whether you don'thave faith, you're operating in
(11:26):
faith, whether you believe it ornot, and I'll explain as we
talk through more about the show.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, And I think that's something.
I love that you hit that onthat, because I understand you
know we try to make sure thatour listeners know who we are
and that we are followers ofJesus, and it's something that
we base our life on, ourdecisions, our families are, i
know, for me and for you, mykids and your kids are raised
(11:53):
that way, but I I don't thinkthis is.
it's something where you feellike I'm not really a believer.
I'm just going to wait for thenext episode, I don't.
I think you can still findsomething out of this, cause I
love the facts which youmentioned.
being in any type ofentrepreneurship, you're putting
faith out there because you'relike all right, i have a skill
(12:14):
set or I have an idea or I havesomething and I think it can be
financially prosperous, so howyou know.
so you put that out there.
So I think a lot of that.
And so I mean when, when, whenyou and your brother were
getting ready to I mean to startyour business, i mean I know a
lot of that was your, your, yourdad kind of already built that,
(12:36):
but you guys had to carry that.
And even when we walk into ouroffice, it's the first thing
that you see like there arescripture on the wall before you
walk in.
We, you know we do it in all ofour meetings, even our large
ones, and you know we were veryfortunate that we have a team
chaplain, which a lot ofcompanies don't have.
I think that's something thatif one of our employees is
(12:58):
walking through some or dealingwith something, they have
someone they can talk to.
So there's presence of thatevery turn.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Well, you know you've mentioned that, Adam that a lot
of people, when they go throughsituations in life, they let's
say they're, let's say they'renot a believer in the Lord,
right, They still want prayer,They believe in the power of
prayer.
So you know, it's why.
Why is faith important in whatwe do every single day?
Hebrews 11,.
(13:27):
One says it best by faith, theexcuse me now, faith is the
substance of things hoped for,the evidence of things not seen.
So we have.
There are certain ways that wedo things, There are certain
ways that we aspire to do things.
We have dreams, We have visions, We have plans.
We have to have faith, usingthe word faith, to get there.
(13:52):
Okay, so, if you think aboutthis, if you set a goal to
accomplish something, whetherit's you wanna achieve X type of
revenue in your company,whether you want to achieve this
specific thing in life, whetheryou have a dream to do X, Y, Z,
whatever the case may be,you're having faith that you're
gonna be able to get there.
Okay, the Lord gives us thevision, his vision because,
(14:14):
again, we are faith people hegives us the vision to be able
to want to achieve that item,that thing, but we still have to
put in the work for it.
Okay, just because you havefaith doesn't mean that you're
gonna get there.
You still have to put forth thework, And I love that again,
Hebrews 11, one.
We have to have the faithbecause we can't see what we
(14:38):
can't see.
Just because we set a goal,just because we set an
aspiration to achieve somethingdoesn't mean it's the road and
the path that we're gonna get on.
So just something to thinkabout.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah, and it's such a I feel like, especially in
today's age, it's such a taboothing.
I mean people, you have to becareful with it.
And I hate saying that becauseI don't want anybody to ever
think like, oh well, you're nota true believer.
if you feel like you gotta becareful with your faith And I'm
like no, there's things in placethat the enemy's put in place
(15:14):
that you gotta be careful withAnd you gotta make sure that
we're careful with how these dothings without losing who you
are and your ultimate goal Likeour goal is to bring people to
Jesus.
Our goal is to I mean, we wantpeople to understand when they
see your business, like, hey,we're an ethical business.
(15:35):
I understand, not everythinggoes right And sometimes there's
situations that don't happenhow they're supposed to.
you know, not everybody'sperfect, but I want you know, i
would want a customer to seethat and be like okay, i mean
there's businesses that I'vechose to do things with because
you, it's apparent that they'rea faith-based business.
I mean from the start.
(15:55):
I mean look at, i mean evenfrom a large scale, from
something like a Chick-fil-Awhich everybody knows.
Oh, yeah, yeah, everybody knowsthey're a faith-based company.
I mean closed on Sundays.
everything they do is aboutfaith.
I mean, they've even taken thepoint where they're.
you know, i don't feel like theyget into politics, but they're
like, hey, we're gonna hold trueto who we are, like we're not
(16:15):
doing this or that, whereasother companies have caved.
they've stayed in it.
but because they've done that,i feel like God has honored that
with them.
They said they're doing truewho they are.
but even all the way down toplaces like just to a mechanic I
mean, if I see something withtheir scripture, you know, on
their an LED sign outside theirdoor, or you know, in their
(16:36):
signage, or even sometimes, likea gas station, just above where
you walk in the door, there'slittle pieces that show.
it's almost like saying, hey,we are a faith-based business
And you know we want you to feelhey, we're going to be an
ethical company and we'reraising up other people to do
the same.
Yeah, understand that we're nothere to run games on anyone or
(16:58):
do anything.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
that seems like it's fishy.
Yeah, i do believe the Lordblesses companies like that.
I mean he blesses any company.
If you put faith into it right,you gotta again, you gotta put
forth the work.
But I believe the simpleprinciple is due unto others as
you would have done unto youright.
If you want to treat, if youwant to be treated right, you
should treat people right, andit's interesting we were talking
(17:22):
about before this episode thatwhat kind of personal
experiences I might have had,okay.
So think about this.
If you start a business todaythis is an interesting statistic
that most people don't realizeThe average business in America
okay does between a half amillion dollars in revenue a
(17:43):
year to a million dollars a year.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I would love to be an average business.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Most businesses don't ever want to achieve more than
a million dollars.
Okay, and think of here's thereason why They don't really
have to have a marketing budget.
They don't really have to hirea lot of personnel.
So there's in their mind it'sless headache, you know, cause
they're not having as muchoversight and stuff, they don't
really have to buy as muchequipment or supplies or
(18:09):
resources.
Okay, so if you do a milliondollars or less in revenue a
year, you're making a greatliving for you and your family.
You're probably in about 70% ofbusinesses across America.
When you jump from a milliondollars in revenue to five
million dollars in revenue, thismeans you have to have some
(18:29):
kind of marketing budget.
You need to hire more people,which again comes with.
I'm not saying headache, butwhen you double people, you
double people issues.
It's just the way it works.
So, a million to five million.
But if we train those people tonot have to have issues we do
(18:50):
under others, if we would havethem do under us, then we can
become more successful.
If you do between one and fivemillion, you're in the probably
70 to 80%, which is anadditional 10%.
Okay, you're in a 10% overallrevenue nationwide If you do
(19:10):
above five million dollars,you're in like the top 5%,
because most businesses don'tever wanna get to that level.
So the reason why is?
a personal experience of minewould be this let's say that you
start this business and youdon't want to go out.
What does it take to go hiresomeone to promote your company?
You have to have faith thatthat person that you hire is
(19:34):
going to bring a return on yourinvestment.
It's the same in operations.
Let's say that you wanna go outand you have a retail business.
Well, if you don't hire anyoneto work the counter, you're
having to do it yourself.
So you have to have faith inhiring that person that they're
going to bring value to you andthe company so that you can have
(19:55):
a return on your investment.
So that's how.
That's how even though peoplemay not call that faith, that's
really what they're operating inthat man.
I'm kind of concerned that I'mnot gonna be able to, you know,
grow this business.
What can I do to grow it?
Oh, i need to go hire thisperson, but wait a minute, i
don't have any income coming in.
How am I gonna afford to dothat?
I hear that all the time fromcompanies.
(20:16):
I can't afford to do thatHonestly.
You can't afford not to, unlessyou wanna do it all yourself.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah well, and I mean , if you're doing all of it
yourself, i don't think you'regiving yourself room to grow.
I mean, we even talked aboutyou know, even talked about this
podcast.
He's like, well, where do wewanna get to?
What's our goal?
You know, that's the biggestthing.
Like I don't wanna be two guysjust taking time away from our
wives sitting here chatting,just cause it's fun And I enjoy
being like, oh, i'm on a podcast.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
You know, i want.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I want there to be something from this, whether our
listeners are affected by it orit helps our listeners just
even a small insight.
But you know we even talkedabout that.
Like, hey, i wanna get to thepoint where I'm not the one
doing the reels and upload likethe simple stuff, uploading the
podcast.
I want to grow this to a pointwhere, hopefully, we provide
(21:07):
enough value, because, at theend of the day, that's what it's
all about.
That's what I tell people allthe time Like, well, i need to
grow on social media and I needto have more of this.
I'm like, oh, what value areyou presenting?
What value are you presenting?
I mean even into the point ofthings like with church, church,
social media.
I've had people ask us and Idon't feel like I just want to
make sure I clarify Like I am Imean like my personal account
(21:29):
isn't even over 1500.
And I mean like I feel likeI've done well with our
mitigation You have more than Ido.
But that's all come this yearbecause I committed now the past
I'll be honest with you thepast couple, past month or two,
just with the busyness, and then, just because Instagram changed
the hour, it just annoys me todeath that I spent all this, i
spent all this time into it andyou get nothing out of it, like
(21:50):
they have completely destroyedthe hour of the mess.
That's for another time.
We're gonna have thatconversation, But you know, it's
just getting to that where Iwant to be able us to do that,
and I don't feel like I'm amaster.
I mean, if I was a master, youcould hand me any account and I
could help you grow.
But what I do know is thingsthat work, and the first thing
that I tell every single personare you providing value Or are
(22:13):
you like, like I've had churchesask me well, how do I help us
grow?
I mean, if you look at ourchurch account, like we're just
now hitting 600.
I mean, and I feel like we putout and I'm not just saying that
, cause I'm the one that does it, but I feel like we put out
quality.
We really do That.
I try to bring value.
Here's the thing.
We will not be a bulletin boardsocial media for our church.
(22:37):
Yeah, okay, that's not what weare.
If you go look at our page, itis very, very rare And I promise
I have a point to all this thatI'm getting to.
It's very rare that you'll everfind us posting like Hey, this
is what's happening at thechurch.
Right, you know we're not abulletin board And I tell our
team that all the time like, heyguys, that's not what it's for.
If you look at social media as awhole social media is it feels
(22:58):
like a competition, it feelslike it's a negative.
I mean, think about, and Idon't have true statistics, but
that's one of the reasons I wasactually telling your wife the
other day we were talking aboutsocial media And I was like,
look, my girls are gonnaunderstand that.
Like I see parents all the timelike constantly posting about
their kids And I know we'regetting way off subject, but
(23:19):
constantly, constantly postingabout their kids And I'm like
you know what?
That's not for me.
Well, i mean, yes, i want toshare.
You know, i want to share likethings that I create about our
girls and what we're doing, butI hope one day my girls don't
grow up thinking just because Iposted a, that's how they know I
love them, because I posted athousand times what they're
doing.
My hope is they know that theylove them because of the way we
(23:42):
do things in the house.
So my point is this I wanted tobe able to get to the point
where things like we can haveother people do our business and
do these things because I feellike that brings value.
And that's kind of what I'mtrying to get to is that if you
have any type of marketing, whatbrings value and not just value
(24:04):
, but what are you doing for thepeople that are consuming your
content?
And that's why I hope thethings that we post, not just
from the church but from ourmitigation business.
I mean, a few weeks ago and itwas probably outside of our
Cowboys post, which was superhard, it was awesome, it was fun
, that was a cool thing.
(24:24):
But outside of that, we postedsomething that our Birmingham
team does every single FridayAnd it's cool because it's
evolved Like it's grown.
It used to be.
They say the Lord's prayer.
Like I was, like man.
I hadn't said the Lord's prayersince I was like 16, like 15,
16 year old, like sitting inlike a I grew up military brat.
My dad was.
my dad was in the chapel, so itwas like we always said the
(24:47):
Lord's prayer.
So they said it.
Well then, like two Fridays ago, i was there and our operations
manager looks at our fleetdirector and he's like have you
prayed for us?
And it just it's not a Lord'sprayer anymore, it's evolved.
And he tells them before theydo it Hey guys, you don't have
to do this, you don't have tostay for this.
And he makes it very apparent.
And there are one or two thatmay say.
(25:07):
Hey, this isn't for me Andthat's fine.
but, like 99% of the peoplewalk over and I can tell you
it's not a pressure thing.
I know people listen like, oh,you're probably pressuring them
If they don't do it.
no, that's not, i can promiseyou.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
If you ask anybody in our company you may add up.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
If you ask 50 people, you may have one person say, oh
, i feel like you're alwaysgonna have that dividend.
But they walk over, they taketheir hat off, they pray, and we
posted about it and just andmaybe it was a personal moment,
i just thought it was cool.
I wanted our potentialconsumers and our customers to
know that something they do inevery single Friday.
They pray over the team, theypray over the office staff and
(25:48):
they pray over not just theteams that are going into the
homes, but of the customersthey're serving and potential
customers they will serve.
They do it every Friday, butthey do that because of the
culture that you guys created,because you said, hey, our
business is intertwined withfaith, and I feel like faith
(26:09):
sometimes is a broad word, it'sspirituality, it's belief, it is
100%.
There is a faith in JesusChrist And that's what is
intertwined in our business.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, and, like you said, we've chosen to make that
the foundation of our business.
Right At the end of the day,goal setting, decision making,
everything that we do we have aby faith.
We have a vision to get to Xrevenue okay, because we have
(26:40):
goals that we'd like to do forour employees, for our family.
All those things And I believewe have to continue to.
God gives us tweaks along theway to be able to get there.
It's not just gonna comeovernight, and the same for your
business.
If you're listening right now,just from a, maybe you're trying
(27:00):
to think about what do I gottado to take the next step?
What do I gotta do?
Well, I would you have to do it?
Prayer is a big factor of that.
Okay, Prayer is a big factorbecause we can't do it without
seeking the Lord for everythingthat we do, And that's very
important to us.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
And look for I'll tell you just from being on the
opposite end of the spectrum,you know you're the 30 year
veteran doing this for a longtime I'm.
It was so funny The other week Iwas talking to your brother
about something and I made acomment about.
He was just asking me about thebusiness stuff that I'm doing
And I made a comment like, ohyeah, he laughed and walked away
from me and was like, dude, youhave got so much to learn, so
(27:42):
so just I, just I share that.
So our listeners understandthat I have no earthly idea what
I'm doing right now, but I am a$1,500 a month revenue company
Like I'm just very fortunate tohave some friends who believe in
me that says, hey, i'll takeyour skill set and you can help
me with my own business, and soI'm very fortunate to be able to
do some of that.
(28:02):
You know.
So I mean, and a couple of sidejobs here and there that helped
me bring that type of revenuein monthly.
So I'm a very, very smallbusiness.
I mean, if they're small I'mfitting that.
But it took a lot of prayer toget to this point.
I mean like I've had peopleasking me for a year or two like
when are you gonna do even evenmy closest friends, when are
you gonna do it?
(28:22):
When are you gonna do it Likethey'd help me all the time,
like I don't?
I don't want to hear you knowwhat you're doing for this
person or this company or thisperson, like what's Adam West
doing And what are you buildingyour brand.
And it took a lot of faith anda lot of praying to say do I
need to do this And is thissomething I need to do?
And you know, and it's alsotreating it like a thing Like I
(28:45):
need to treat our business likea person, like I need to be able
to take that money that we'reearning and tie that back every
month as a business, just likeany church.
I feel like even churches.
That's important that churchesneed to teach giving by also
giving themselves.
I mean, if they bring in Xamount of money a month, they
need to give out 10% of that, ifnot more if they can, because
(29:09):
that shows good faith to thepeople that are part of your
church.
This is, hey, we teach giving,but we also act on it and we
also live it.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Well, you know what's interesting?
you say that in because theBible there are non-believers
who give to missions, or theygive to charities.
Because the Bible does saybring you all the ties into the
storehouse and I'll open you upthe windows of heaven.
I'm paraphrasing the verse, butthe principle is true You
(29:39):
cannot out give God.
Okay, no, well, you said itearlier.
If you it's not cliche, it'sthe term that you could use some
people say, hey, take a step offaith.
Well, what they're reallysaying is you believe that you
can achieve this, you believethat you're gonna get there?
Faith just happens to be theword that's gonna help you.
Okay, i'll give you an exampleIn the Bible.
(30:02):
If you were to look back inhistory, years and years and
years ago, the world, the earth,had never been flooded.
Okay, so there's this gentlemanon the face of the earth called
Noah, and Noah, the Lord, toldhim to build an ark.
Now, i don't have thedimensions, but again, massive,
massive structure.
(30:22):
That he had to build this arkand and the Lord told him to put
two of every animal One male,one female on this boat is
essentially what, that's whatthe ark is a boat And he built
this massive structure.
He sat there.
He sat there.
People are laughing at him likewhat are you doing?
What are you doing?
Why are you building that?
(30:43):
Why are you building that?
this world's not gonna flood,this not gonna happen, this is
not gonna work.
And all of a sudden, here comesthe rains.
Here comes the rains.
This boat starts to take off.
All the naysayers You know whathappens to them.
They obviously drowned and theworld starts over.
Okay, so Noah had to take a stepof faith to build this massive,
(31:06):
massive ark that nothing hadever happened on this earth in
this world before.
And He took the step of faithto say that I'm gonna be
prepared, even though I can'tsee the full outcome of what's
about to come.
I'm gonna be prepared so thatmy family is taking care of,
because this is what the Lordhas told me to do.
So he built it.
(31:26):
His family was safe.
After the floods receded, theLord put this rainbow in the air
and basically made a promise Hewould never flood the earth
again.
Dova sends out of heaven, whichis a relationship of the Holy
Spirit, says I'm in control,i've got you, i'm gonna take
care of your family.
So, with, that being said, we.
That's.
That's one of the reasons whywe have Put this Foundation of
(31:49):
faith into us, because it's whowe are, it's what we believe and
it's where we want to see ourbusiness to be successful.
Do we want to continue to grow?
Absolutely?
Do we want to continue to tryto be successful?
Absolutely?
So what we have to do is wehave to take a step of faith to
continue to get there, eventhough there's gonna be pain
along the way.
There's gonna be trials alongthe way.
(32:10):
Things are gonna come up thatare out of our control.
Faith is what's gonna help usget their prayer that type thing
.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
So I mean for our listeners, maybe they're
struggling with that and maybethat's something they're trying
to figure out where they're atwith Their faith in their
business, like how that balanceworks.
So For you guys you just youtalked about pain, what's
something that you guys havegone through?
And I don't want to.
I don't feel like you guys haveever been in position to wonder
(32:38):
if that's how you should beleading the company.
But I mean, sheer, just for ourlisteners What are some things
that you and your brother havedealt with when it comes to
faith?
Yep, that have an outside oflike, and I'm talking like
outside of are we gonna makeenough this month?
Are we gonna bring enough?
do we need to like?
but what are some sort of somethings that you guys have walked
(33:00):
through That might helpsomebody that's listening saying
, hey, let me share with yousomething that was that was
tough and put my faith to thetest.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I'll give you.
I got.
I got a great example of that2017.
My father, our father, me, mybrother.
He passed away and We had adecision to make at that point
Are we gonna continue the legacyof what he had built and try to
use faith to take us to thenext level, or do we throw in
the towel and go do somethingelse?
(33:30):
Well, number two was not anoption.
We knew that this business wasbuilt on faith built the
foundation was built on faith.
So we only had one option, andthat was to continue moving
forward.
Now We wanted to.
I never forget Adam.
When we came back from fromHouston, texas, we were on the
(33:52):
way home and our wives both said, hey, what?
what is the next step?
and we told them then we'regonna continue the legacy.
We believe that.
You know, even though it hurtthat our father passed this
earth, we'll see him one dayagain in heaven.
And on our way, on our way backhere, we said you know what?
There they're because of prayer, because of the people around
(34:15):
us, which is something we'lltalk about in a minute.
Surround yourself with peopleWho can encourage you, who can
lift you up, who can be therefor you, who can who can?
who can slap you and say hey,that was a mistake you made.
You know you need to get better.
That's the people we want tosurround ourselves with, right?
yeah, because we all make eachother better.
We were on the way back and wesaid you know what?
(34:35):
there's not another option.
We're gonna continue thisbecause the Lord's in control of
this business, not us.
If we were in control, we wouldbe a disaster.
Yeah, so we've chosen to usethat to our advantage to say
Lord, you're in control, you'vegot it and that's all that we
can Allow them well, and youknow it's funny.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
You say that because our pastor talked about a few
weeks ago where he shared Whathe would really want sharing his
testimony.
He was just talking about howone decision can affect others
and others, and You know hetalked about that he would love
to go down the line where theguy that introduced him to Jesus
And it was a scenario and thenintroduces his dad and who
(35:14):
introduced that pastor thatInfluenced his dad and did so
you start thinking like, oh man,well, where's that line start?
but I think that also goes intothose either listening that
that may be, trying to figureout how to balance your faith in
and whatever type ofEntrepreneurship that you're in.
Those decisions have rippleeffects and it's the butterfly
effect.
I mean, you know, a flap ofbutterfly wings on this side of
(35:37):
the the world could create atidal wave on the other, and I
don't Want the tidal wave tomake it sound like it's a
negative thing.
Yeah, sure, but there's a lotof lies that you Have affected
by making that choice That wasfaith-based in that moment.
It's made a ripple effect.
And not just that, but it'smade a ripple effect in in our
(35:58):
own Restoration world becauseyou chose to do that.
We've been in a in the top fiveFor a number of years, in the
top 10, top 20, and so you'venot only that, but you're
affecting other owners, yeah,and other entrepreneurs that are
now like, alright, teach me,how do I do this, how do I, how
do I Steer this, this, this boatthat I have of my company, down
(36:21):
this canal and how do I getdown this journey?
So, those decisions, bydeciding to say, hey, we're
gonna stick to our faith, we'regonna hold tight It's making
ripple effects and not it withthousands of people you know, I
heard.
I heard someone say one time andI plan to.
I've always said that you know,when the day comes and my dad
(36:42):
passes like I'm gonna share thisbecause I heard it in His
retirement and they said so Itold him one time that That you
couldn't fill 10 chapels withthe amount of people that he
affected while he was doing,while he was a chaplain in the
military, and it's so.
It's crazy to me That you thinkabout that.
You know, saying like, hey, 10,like you can't feel 10.
(37:04):
It's not enough.
Like you, it would be Tens ofthousands of buildings from the
people that you've ripple,affected and change by doing
those, so by you guys havingthat faith It it's helped ripple
through those lives and throughother people.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah, and to your point to, you're always gonna
have struggles.
I mean, there's anything you doin life, it's called life.
You're gonna have struggles,right, you're gonna have
challenges, there's gonna bething.
You're gonna take 10 stepsforward and three steps back, 10
steps forward, six steps back,10 steps forward And then one
step back.
You're gonna have that happen.
But here's the thing don't letit discourage you, because
(37:40):
sometimes I think the Lord testus in certain ways to figure out
.
I heard, i heard it say You.
We had our pastor shared thispast week.
He said you can't have atestimony without a test.
Really, really strong statement.
You can't have a testimonywithout a test.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
I need to go back and find that for real.
by the way, yeah, you said thatit's, it's hate.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
I hope your social media engaged value you, it's
true, because You think aboutthat.
You go through a life situationso that you can share it with
someone else Okay, but thatdoesn't mean we're not gonna
have tests along the way.
I believe that the reason thatwe continue to push forward, we
don't let those setbacks affectwhat we do, we don't let the
(38:24):
competition dictate how we dothings now Doesn't mean we don't
make tweaks to our processeither, because that's important
in business.
You have to make tweaks in yourprocess to stay ahead of the
curve.
There's always, even thoughyou're, you might be the number
one mitigation company in theworld, people, somebody behind
you is looking at that target,because we were there one day
and we don't want to lose sightof that.
(38:45):
We want to always stay ahead ofthe curve.
So, again, you're gonna havethings come across the way.
If I could give any kind ofsuccess story.
There's a there's a buddy ofmine in the mitigation business
and He's always being innovativeat everything that he does,
always being innovated.
He doesn't go out and just, youknow, hire all these people out
(39:08):
here to do this job.
He thinks through the process,he comes up with a strategy.
He executes it almost toperfection.
But he will tell you, if itwasn't for his faith in the Lord
, he wouldn't be able to do it,and that's why I think that the
Lord uses that to challenge us,to test us.
Yep, but how we act on ourfaith is as what our response
(39:29):
ends up being, and ultimately hewins.
He's already, it's his anyway,i mean.
So we can't, we can't lose.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
I Yeah, yeah, i think it's important to always
remember that it's not.
It's not ours, it's it's notours And that's why you know, i
told you before who's runningyour business.
Are you running the business oris God running your business?
Because you're going to gothrough a lot of that and you're
(39:56):
going to deal with thosemoments where you've got to
figure out all right, thesedecisions are I making.
Is this a spiritual, biblicalchoice?
Right, like, am I making thischoice Because it's good for me?
And look, sometimes thosechoices are not financially good
.
I mean, sometimes you're goingto, sometimes you are probably
going to have to take the roadless traveled and it's not going
(40:19):
to be lucrative at all.
But my thing is this is that Ialways want to make sure, in
everything I do, whether that'swith um, for for you guys as a
company or for my own self Inever want to lose my soul, to
move up or to move up, because Ithink that all comes back.
Absolutely.
I'm not a karma person.
I don't.
I mean like, i don't feel likekarma is spiritual, um, i'm not
(40:43):
and and I just don't to me, i'mnot, like you know, i believe
that you, you do good things andgood things come back to you.
I think God blesses thosethings, um, but my point is is
that I want to make sure thateverything that I have or I've
gained whether that's influence,um, whether that's finance,
(41:04):
whether that's favor I want tomake sure every bit of that I
have is not something that I gotfrom doing things that aren't
made without involving God andall my decisions, that all the
things that I do I don't everwant If I know I can get away
with something.
And you're like, oh, i couldeasily.
You know, i had thisconversation with with you, with
(41:25):
your brother, today.
We were sitting there talkingabout it and you know I was like
I said, look, we got likesomething's got to happen from
this, like we can't just allowthis to happen.
And he was.
He said Adam, look.
He said I'm going to tell you,as a business owner, it's always
going to happen.
There's, no matter what I do,it's going to happen.
You're going to have peoplethat treat situations like this.
(41:47):
You're going to have people whoare dishonest.
You're going to have peoplethat do things to get ahead by
cheating the system.
But you know what He said, it'snot really going to affect how
I lead this company And he saidbecause I believe that those
things will all come back And ifyou choose to get ahead, maybe
you do, maybe you get ahead,maybe you make a couple extra
(42:09):
bucks, maybe you do somethingwhere you know you take
something that's not reallyyours or you know you, whatever
it is, maybe you do gain whatyou want, but in the end of the
day, i mean what?
what are you fulfilling?
I was going to say what are yougain?
What I was just about, what areyou honestly gaining?
Think about it.
Did you work for it?
(42:30):
Did you do?
that's what I tell people allthe time.
Now They're just like Oh, youknow they, they it's one of the
things they talk about with likethe, the portal and stuff with
sports.
So like people don't want tosit behind anybody anymore.
And I mean you look at some ofthe greatest people.
You know they want to jumpteams or go here or go there.
I know that's way off topic.
I'm just talking about culture,wise, we've gotten to it And
(42:51):
whether that's business, sports,whatever relate, it's a point
in our lives where people arelike if there's something I want
, i'm just going to figure outhow to get it.
I'm not going to work for it,but I'm just going to figure out
how I can get it the easiestway possible.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Yeah, i think sometimes I think, sometimes
with that, people don't.
I don't again, i don't mean tobe cliche, as with this but they
don't.
They don't really think thatthey can get there, they don't
think they have the faith toovercome that obstacle.
So it's like you know what thegrass is greener over here?
I'm just going to go that way,yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
And you talk about cliche and I think about all the
time and this is going to soundstupid and people are probably
going to laugh when they hear it.
But how are diamonds made?
It's made through pressure.
And that's what I tell peopleall the time.
I mean I'd rather be in apressure cooker than just have
it, have it easy.
Cause look and this is fory'all listening right now If you
hadn't had anything going on inyour life and you have no
(43:43):
stress, you have no anxiety,nothing's feels like you're
pressuring you.
You need to really evaluate howyou're living.
Yeah, check it.
You need to take them on, youneed to check.
Like John Chris says, you needto check your heart, man.
Yeah, you need to check yourheart and figure it out.
Because if your life and if yourbusiness, if your business is
easy, if your life is easy, ifeverything you're doing just
(44:03):
like man, like life is good,like everything's fine, if
that's your answer to somethingthere's you're missing something
And you know what The enemy ishappy with it, because you're
just coasting and you're livinga life where you're not trying
to do anything and you're nottrying to cause.
I always tell people all thetime I get better by having
pressure And that's it's bydoing things that make me
(44:24):
uncomfortable.
And when I do things that makeme uncomfortable, that's when I
grow, because I got to push outof it eventually.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
Yeah, and look, if you're out there listening to as
we kind of summarize this andwrap it up.
If you're struggling withsomething, man, email us.
You can email Benji athigheruppodcastcom.
You know we'll be glad to takeyour questions on DMs through
our social media channels.
Again, if you go tohigheruppodcastcom, you've got
all the social links there.
(44:51):
You've got any platform youwant to listen to, including
YouTube if you want to watch.
But we'd love to get somefeedback.
You know, hey, i'm strugglingwith this and this and this.
What can, what can you guys do?
Give me some advice.
We'd love that opportunity And,and you know, whatever we can
do to help and inspire us, whatwe're here for.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Yeah, just, our listeners know, benji and I are
the only ones that maintain that.
Look we, everything you see,everything you hear, that's done
by the two of us.
Nobody else does that, nobodyelse handles that, nobody else
assists with that.
So, just know, anything yousend in is going to be between
us.
And then I mean, like showtopics Is there something that
you're hearing this and you wantus to discuss more?
(45:30):
If you look, if you trust thetwo of us to talk about a topic,
you, all you got to do is shootit to us And we, you know, we
want you to know that, um,that's something we'll throw in
there and we'll do that.
But Hey, take a moment and, uh,let us know.
Uh, even in the reviews, like,let us know what you think about
the show, we'll take somemoment and read those on live on
for some folks on the next onejust to say, um, thank you to
(45:51):
you guys.
But yeah, like Benji said, um,just let us know.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
Yeah, and, by the way , if I could, if you really want
some additional encouragement,go read Hebrews chapter 11.
It's called the faith chapterAnd that will give you some
great insight of some storiesthat people have gone through in
previous history and how theLord got them out of it, and
maybe one of those can inspireyou.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
So thank, you guys so much.
It's a good word, man.
It's a good way to end a goodepisode.
We hope you all enjoyed it.
Uh, we'll see you guys backhere soon, which I'll have a
great week and continue to liveyourself a higher life.
Hey, Benji and I want to take amoment and just thank you for
listening to the higher uppodcast.
We really hope you enjoyedtoday's episode and just learned
(46:34):
some valuable insights to helpimprove your own life.
Hey, if you found today'sepisode helpful, we would be
grateful if you could take amoment and rate us five stars on
Spotify Or if you're listeningon Apple podcast.
We just want to know what youthink about the show.
Either way, when you leave us areview, you're helping us grow
our network and reach morepeople with our message.
Remember, our mission is toempower you in every aspect of
(46:55):
your life and we're thankful foryour support.
We've got new episodes of thehigher up podcast dropping every
other Thursday, So take asecond and turn on notifications
to stay in the loop.
Make sure that you follow us onyour favorite social media
platforms to stay connected withour community.
We just want to thank you againfor listening and we look
forward to having you join usagain on the higher up podcast.
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