Transcript

Welcome to the Hundredfold Business Podcast, where Christian men learn the principles, strategies, and tactics to grow their businesses top line, bottom line, and finish line. I want you to discover the secret to applying biblical truth to business growth for the greatest kingdom impact. So in the end, you hear from your Heavenly Father, well done.

Welcome to the Hundredfold Business Podcast, where Christian men learn how to grow their businesses top line, their bottom line, and the finish line. And I'm your host, Josh Fonger, founder of 4th Soil Ventures. And today we have a special guest.

We have Isaac Tolpin. Isaac is a Christian speaker, entrepreneur, church planter, and founder of Resolute Man, a movement aimed at helping men embrace biblical masculinity and lead with conviction. He's also co-founder of Courageous Parenting with his wife, Angie, a ministry focused on equipping Christian parents to raise children with intention and faith.

All right, welcome to the show, Isaac. Hey, so good to be here, Josh. That's been a long time coming, but what a fun time.

This is gonna be great. Yeah, I think there's been some spiritual attacks or something, but finally our schedule's lined up and so excited to be bringing you, Isaac, to the show today. Today, everybody, we're gonna be discussing, of course, integrating your faith into your business.

We're talking about Resolute Man, Courageous Parenting, but also focusing on how to become better leaders of men, how to develop your company culture, and also the culture at home. Isaac speaks a lot about this. He's an expert in it, so hopefully I'll be able to ask the right questions so we can learn, again, how to grow a high-performing culture at work and at home.

All right, Isaac, so to start off the podcast, I always try to give people an open-ended question for them to share with us how God has directed their path to get where they are right now. Oh, such a good question, and I feel like the older I get, the more opinionated God is about what I'm specifically doing with my life, that's for sure. But there was a time when I shifted from the business world to ministry full-time, and that was just a huge shift, leap of faith, leaving comfort and ease, as you can say, to go in and risk and do something for the Lord.

That's when we launched the Courageous Parenting podcast. That's when we launched courses and all those things, and it's been one of the best decisions ever. I recently had just another one, too.

I'm about to turn 50. I've got nine children. I've got grandchildren coming.

I'm a busy guy. I love the work I do with Courageous Parenting and Be Courageous Ministry, but then God's like, you need to plant a church. This town needs a church, and so I'm back leaving comfort and ease and adding something else to the thing.

God has showed up. 160 people showed up the first day, and we really didn't have a core team build up or anything like that. It's just the movement of God.

God's just really been doing it as I'm obedient, so that's been pretty exciting. In terms of you leaving comfort and ease and choosing to follow God, choosing the narrow path, I think that's going to be a lot about this discussion today. What does that look like in practice? Let's just start with Resolute Man, one of your core businesses.

What was your choice to start that business, and what's that business about? Yeah, Resolute Man is part of the Be Courageous Ministry, so it's one of the podcast shows and some other things that help men. Really, it's just my passion. As I look out and I see the challenges, for example, 75 percent of children raised in Christian homes leave the church by age 18 as a Barnistat.

As you start to see these troubling stats, you go, why are these things happening? I really think it's a void of men leading in their homes, and it's a big part of that. Over-delegation to the church with youth programs and all the things, it's not that those things are bad. It's just that sometimes the psychology of it is when we check something off a list, then we don't do anything.

Really, if men are back to knitting their hearts with their children and leading them spiritually, that is just a huge difference. Obviously, we talk about all kinds of things on the Resolute Man podcast, but it really is about just encouraging and empowering men to get back into the driver's seat of their God-ordained role as husband and father. With that being Resolute, being steadfast, being a leader, how would you translate that into the business world? Do you think there's also an issue with men not being leaders in that domain, or do you think it's more centered around parenting? It's interesting because modern-day culture in business is largely talking about flat hierarchy and a lack of leadership.

While I understand some of the benefits of that mentality, I've just experienced and seen when leadership is good, it's vital. Obviously, when leadership's bad, it's harmful. But if people are leading well, servant leadership and thinking about how to empower as many people as possible and create a place where all kinds of personalities, because to drive a company forward, you need all kinds of different personalities.

Sometimes, only personalities that are similar to the bosses are the ones that get to achieve and do well. But really, you need to create an atmosphere and culture where everybody can achieve and do well. An empowerment of other leaders and raising up leaders and a culture of developing leaders, I think is amazing and I still think is relevant today and important, vital, actually.

You name one company where there's no leader and it's doing great. Yeah, it doesn't count anyone. Yeah.

It's still extremely important, always has been important. While some things change, a lot of things don't actually. The attributes of leadership really don't change.

I think they stay the course. If you want to build a company that lasts, if you want to build something that scales, a place where people want to work and are retained, because retention is the big challenge these days. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur.

Everybody wants to control their time and freedom and all these things. So then, well, how can you do that? How can you retain people and get people working really hard and showing up while still helping them feel great about their lives? That'll be a big challenge. So what, as you've been starting this for a while, do you think that there's a trend going downward in leadership just across the board? Or do you think it's always been an issue? Like what makes leaders or maybe leaders today and men passive? What's going on? Yeah, I mean, well, to take a biblical reference back in the Garden of Eden is, you know, as sin entered the world, when Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, guess who was right there next to her? It was Adam.

And then he took in it right afterwards. And then he hid from God and then blamed the woman that God gave him. And so what you see in the very beginning is Adam being passive.

And instead of leading, instead of going, no, let's obey God. And let's not eat of the forbidden fruit. No, you ate.

I'm not going to. I'm going to obey God and lead by example. I made a mistake.

I'm going to fess up to it, to God. I'm not going to hide from him. So you see the passivity entering into the world.

And I think that all of us men, if we're honest, move towards passivity, sometimes there's certain areas of our lives where we'll be gregarious, we'll be strong, we'll be, you know, competitive, we'll give our best, we'll study up, we'll know all the stats, maybe it's sports or hunting or whatever it is, or something in business. But but then when we walk in the home, sometimes we're passive. And sometimes when we walk in the office, we're passive too.

And you can see that you can think back to decisions you could have made decisively that you didn't make and you see the repercussions of that down the road. And that's passivity. That's not, you know, doing the hard things in the moment that need not having the hard conversations you need to have.

Things naturally get worse. If you're not going to have a hard conversation with someone, then that's needed in a loving, encouraging, caring way. Then that is you're hurting that person, you're hurting the people around them that they work with, you're hurting your culture.

And I think that's why culture is so important is because when you know the culture you're trying to drive forward, and you're doing the things to do that, then anything that's detracting from that culture, you're responsive with, because you're, you're focused, you're visionary, you're building towards something, and you don't want it to unravel. And so then when you see, oh, I need to have this hard conversation with this person, then you're like, you're right on it, because you are focused on exactly what you know is right to build, that helps everybody thrive and helps the bottom line improve, and helps everything scale and do well. But when you don't have a sense for what the culture you want, you don't have a vision that's strong, you're not going to know when to respond, you're not going to be as responsive as you need to be, and you're going to be more passive.

So let's, let's dive into that a little bit. So for the business owners listening to this, maybe some of them are more passive than they should be in certain areas. What's the first step to being more resolute, being more of a leader? How do they start making those steps that start with a vision to start with defining their culture? Like what, what are some steps they need to actually take some action steps? Yeah, I think that the first thing I've noticed, especially as a Christian, is when I'm making a step forward, and I feel this conviction inside is the right step.

What usually comes is resistance really fast all around me. I just had this, by the way, with a decision with church, I was thinking about which books, you know, how to drive discipleship forward in the church. And I had this different idea about how to do it than what I've ever seen before.

And so sometimes when you're talking about something you haven't seen before, and then resistance comes, doubt from other people, things like that, it can be hard to move forward. But because I'm so, and to answer your question, because I'm so certain about the culture that I think is important for this church, and the vision for where we're going, it propelled me forward despite not having the encouragement to do so. And because I really felt like it was right, obviously, prayer was involved and so forth.

So you've got to know, you've got to distill down. The best thing I've ever done is spend a long time with the journal, no technology, no distractions, on a consistent basis. And I just really encourage anybody running a business to get out of the noise.

Because you're going to, if you're caught, if your brain is caught in the noise of all the things and the distractions, it takes, by the way, Harvard Review did a study, and they found that when someone's distracted, it takes 17 minutes to get back to the same level of focus they were in before that notification hit their phone. And so if you're, so most leaders are in constant distraction, they're never getting to their best thinking. And I think it really just starts there.

Because unless you know concretely what your vision is, unless you know concretely what the culture is that the organization needs, that's based on the key result areas of your particular business, that drive the right behaviors of the people that align with driving the right key result areas. And in addition, create a place that you want to be at, and everybody else wants to be at, and you want to keep leading, and you're not going to get burned out. That is the sweet spot.

But how are you going to figure that out if you're always distracted, if you're never alone? Get a journal, open it to a blank page, and actually think without distractions for an hour, two hours if you dare. That is like, that's starting point. Yeah, totally agree.

And I think that that's the hard part, and with my clients especially, is that I'm too busy. I got, you know, always running around, always having to answer to something, email, client, you name it. And they haven't taken the time to get alone, get alone with God, and a journal, and start to meditate on actually what is the vision.

Difficult to be a visionary when you have no vision, and difficult just to ask AI, what's my vision? I've seen clients do that, you know, my core values, but what, like, no, no, no. You know, just because it's fast and easy doesn't mean it's good and right. Oh, I got to share something about that.

Such a good point. Oh, I didn't even think that people were doing that. But of course, they're doing that.

And, and if you ever project something forward, that the attributes of don't already exist within you, you'll never drive it forward. So if you project with your mouth, a vision, culture drivers, anything, and you will start, you might say it once or twice, but it will never get traction, unless its attributes already exist, the worn patterns already exist in your leadership and in your life. It will never happen.

So you can come up with a great idea or great thing the business needs, you're not going to drive it forward, you might as well come up with a lesser one that you will drive forward than the ideal one that you want. Yeah, I totally agree. I was, I'm actually doing a little training on this right now, it'll eventually get released in the podcast.

And, you know, Paul told Timothy to be the example, set the example you need. You can't just tell the church this, this, this, and this, it'll work out that you have to actually embody that you have to live out the culture, you have to give an example that everyone can actually follow. And so, so for those who, they're feeling like inadequacy or like, gosh, I don't know how to embody this.

What would you what advice would you give them so they can lead in this area? They might make their list of things in their journal and say, well, I guess I'm not very good at these things. So how do they go about leading that way? It's such a good question. Well, there's, I read this business book once and it had this interesting statement in it that I thought was great.

Don't think about a pink elephant. And then immediately what's in everybody's mind is a pink elephant. And it's because, well, essentially just brainwashed you.

I'm kind of kidding. But, you know, so words are very powerful. And that's the point right there.

Marketing, and he was in this book talking about marketing, marketing is very powerful repetition of certain words that enter people's minds and actually do change behavior. And I'm saying this because you have to distill down to concrete words that you intimately believe in, and that are said in a way that you would naturally communicate, that you believe in with every fiber of your being, that also connect with your key result areas, your business and what you want to drive forward and align with the overall vision of the organization. So vision simply could be, you know, some some, you know, something lofty, something clear, something what you're about, you know, for for our church, I have it, you know, when we when we launched the church, and I've done this in business aspects, you too, it's just this happens to be what I'm doing right now, is the first thing I spent money on was this wristbands, and love grow go.

And that's the vision that is what we're doing. We're going to love people. Well, and so, you know, with with the love that God talks about in the Bible and service and, and to reach out in his name and to help people and help the community, and then people are going to come to the church, and we're going to be a church about growing, you can come as you are, but don't leave as you are.

The whole goal is that we're going to grow, and we're going to be about growth, and growing spiritually and growing in our roles in life and growing and in love for people and growing in, you know, sharing the gospel and our ability to do that and all the things what area do we need to grow, and then we're going to go, we're going to go and we're going to share that and we're going to be walking a different confidence because we are growing spiritually and God's going to enable us to walk in his strength versus our own, and we're going to go make a difference. And so you can see that I have this, really, you know, I'm excited about it, I can speak to it, I can speak five different ways about it, or more. And, you know, people are wearing these wristbands haven't taken it off for 10 months since we launched the church.

It's, I'm passionate about it. And, and then, and then within that, you know, vision, I, I understand some cultural aspects of what we're doing and culture drivers that align with this. And, and I think that that has been incredible.

So you've got it, you've got to distill down very simply, what is, what is the organization about, you know, I think of Apple, when Steve Jobs was there was think different. And I studied back then, I studied that when the first iPhone came out, because I go, wow, this is going to change the world, what just happened. And so I was, I was enamored with kind of the culture, they were driving of think different, and give people what they don't even know they want, but will end up loving even more.

And just that whole mentality, they really had this thing that trickled down excellence, it's not just about something that works, but it's about how it looks is equally important, from the packaging to all the pieces. And so you can see that's such a beautiful example that actually has carried forward, even though he died, which is rare. And I think it's, I think it's really powerful.

And we can all speak to, you know, the challenges of his leadership, absolutely. But we can also look to the good parts of what happened there. And I just that really inspired me.

Think different, you know, I think back, I used to have a driver like that think different, called choose growth, choose growth was a powerful statement for a company I was running. And it, it percolated throughout the whole organization. And, you know, when people were alone, and in the moment of decision, they would, they would be reminded of the culture drive, driver and really vision of choose growth.

And, and they propel them to do when they didn't feel like it and these kinds of things. So and to grow personally, as well. And so we just we saw things that had never ever happened before happened with the with the driving of that.

So I think that, by the way, later, I sold a domain called choose growth for $30,000. Somebody that appreciated the meaning of it. And I just think that if you bring meaning to something, it brings value to others.

And they latch on to that. And I think it's super important. Well, let's, let's dovetail on this.

Bring meeting. Let's say you are, you've got a standard, you're a home builder, you got, that's your company, your home builder. That's your business, not a church, but you want your Christian, you're a man, you're trying to grow this.

Well, what would be the, you know, the practical steps to actually, you know, making everyone in your company believe in these, the vision and the values and embody them, when a lot of them are just like, hey, I just want to build a house and get paid. I'd like to get some more time off. They don't know, maybe they don't care.

Like, how do you bring them into actually caring about the mission and the vision when you're currently have a staff that, you know, they show up because you're paying them, but they're not really engaged at this point. Yeah, so I love answering this, I would get that alone time, what I call clear thinking time with your journal, and I would write down everything you don't like about your culture. But let me define culture first.

Culture is the ethos of the organization, it's the real behaviors when no one's looking, it's the kind of the invisible bar that people live up to. And a lot of times if someone's not driving a culture, that bar is very low. And if they're driving culture, it can start to increase of what's expected and things like that.

It's really becomes what people expect of themselves. Because when no one's looking, that's all that drives people really, it's not what people are seeing, it's what they're doing. So when they're on the job site, building a house, or if they're in the admin part of the business, or they're in the sales part of the business, you know, what are they doing? Is excellence important? And where is it important? So first of all, I wanted to kind of give a sense for culture, it's the real behaviors, it's not what the CEO says the behaviors are, it's not what the CEO says we're about.

It's what actually is, you can take that to your family, too. It's like, oh, this is what we look like when we go to church. We're an amazing family.

No, it's what is real when nobody's looking inside your home, when you're yelling at your wife, when your kids are arguing with each other, and all the different things. Okay, so. So now I would sit by myself with a journal, and I'd write down all the things I don't like about myself. About my culture Why? because we usually don't change anything until weeks we feel the pain and I think that business owners need to really feel the pain. Okay, so you write down I don't like the bad ads There's some bad attitudes. There's some laziness.

There's some late starts There's some not caring about following through on the details There's you know Sometimes there's some quality issues We have to go back in and there's too many tape marks to fix on the house At the end of it. We could have curtailed all that and save money Whatever it is so you write down all the behaviors all the actions all the mistakes all the challenges and get as big of a list as you possibly can and And then you and then I want you to make a second list And that second list would be what are the key result areas of your business all of them? and it could be just write down a whole nother list of like You know what? Those are like a key result area is getting materials at the right cost I mean, whatever it is. Okay, and you go all the way down on this side and then You might do it a second meeting because that'll take a while that might be one meeting and then you do another meeting with yourself and You sit down and you figure out you go, okay which Which which of these on the oh In addition, sorry, it's been a little while then in addition.

I want you to think about I think I think about culture and Think about things that you intimately care about that you want to drive forward you might make a list of those things and And then what you want to do is you want to see? Which of these things that you intimately care about that you would communicate about? Like we're an organization of multiple leaders leading is one for my past and the reason I did that is because I had 32 offices throughout two states and They never saw each other hardly at all and so it's hard to get empowerment and act like a team and that one statement multiple leaders leading Brought everybody together and created ownership because I said it over and over again and it was tied to her our main choose growth statement and You know and that really drove that forward So what I want you to do is you write down some key things you care about and then I want you to look Evaluate you have three lists now evaluate, okay This one right here this thing that I think is a culture driving statement Then I want to drive forward how many of the key result areas does it impact? How many of the negative things does it impact and if it's not very many then you have the wrong thing? and So you want to figure out? Okay How about this one? How many of these things right here key result areas of the business does the impact and how many of the negatives does it fix? and you're evaluating you're distilling and what I what I usually would recommend is somebody distills it down to three you could go to five I did but People can only drive so many things but three to five culture driving statements They're like the levers like we try and lift a boulder with your hands you can't but if you had a if you had a stick that you could have leverage with then it moves easily and So that's these these things are when you pull them you're moving the whole organization and it's fixing the negatives and it's driving the key result areas and You're driving forward a culture. That's meaningful to you that you have lived out so that you'll actually have staying power with it and it fixes most of those things and I find there's there is Three to five statements that put every key result area and fix all the negatives In an organization and it's up to you to figure out what those are to pray invite God into it to to scribble to write notes and to figure out what those things are and surely, it'll align with your vision because you created the vision and And then you wouldn't come up with them unless they they did so that's like a Given and if they're hitting the key result areas and fixing the negatives then then you're good So I'll pause there because I spoke for a little while. Yeah I'm taking notes here.

So I think that's great wisdom and Again, it's not looking to us to say another business is not looking to the internet It's not looking to what some other big company doing. Let me just write down their values It seems to be working and they're making money. It's it's very personal it's between you and God and it's very specific between Like out there your drivers like what what you're actually measuring what matters for performance for you and then as the leader you're not Just say hey everybody.

What do you guys want the company to be? You're saying okay me as the leader as I'm gonna actually pray I'm gonna actually spend some time look at the vision that I have for the business. Look at the the goals we want to achieve Call the negatives that we'd want to get rid of all the positive you want to have and then really be Intentional about coming up with those who then like you said if you put in the work in the time you're gonna be able to drive it forward because because you you Believe hey, I'm confident. I'm very confident.

I'm going the right way. So I'm willing to do like you explained earlier willing to deal with the blowback willing to deal with the conflicts going to deal with people not liking this because as you know with Culture if somebody really is against it, they can't stay there, right? I mean eventually they have to either conform to the culture you're setting forth or They have to leave because it's so important to actually seeing the business mission through So I think that's a great wisdom there. And for those who taking notes, they want to Make a huge difference in their business and you know, some of the things you mentioned know retain the employees Attract the great employees have them perform at peak performance even when you're not there you have to do something like this and I as you were talking I was just thinking about a current client where I'm working on Creating operational change in this business, and I know the owner is out of town, but I'm still visiting with with the staff And they're not putting in the same kind of work this week as they were last week because he's not there Right that their their bar their their measuring line is different than what he had and it's different than what's on paper and so we've got some work to do but That's what you want.

You want everyone's line to be the same the vision to be the same and you can't do it without Writing it down and being confident in that well I'd love to change gears a little bit because that was a great discussion on top line bottom line. Let's just say We get a Translate this to our families, right? So we're not only leaders at business, but also leaders in the home How do we go about taking you know, these key drivers are trying to you know achieve in our business and say well now I'm the dad and the husband How do I how do I do this there? Is it the same way or a little bit different? Yeah, I've largely done it a very similar way. I meet with my wife and this is the difference and And you know, we talked about the behaviors attitudes challenges also talk about that way the world has changed what's important for instilling in them to Help them thrive in a very different world.

They're gonna be launching into as a GI and all these things Advance and 60% of the jobs that you know kids are currently, you know getting equipped for won't exist anymore Thinking about all the different things that you know, potentially are coming about But mostly attitudes behaviors and Instilling faith in your children and think about all these things and making a list of these things very similar making a list of things you don't like making a list of the key result areas, which is they all love the Lord and Relationally, not just academically you know that that's got to be a huge one for people right so and and then you know, what are What are your you know key culture driving statements that are going to contribute to this I'll give you I'll give you one from my past that we still is still part of our culture and our family as I saw smart phones becoming and social media growing and escapism growing in people and addiction to you know the phones and social media fear of missing out all these things right all these issues and screen time being so bad for kids and People watching other people live their dreams versus actually creating their own dreams And and then feeling depressed about it through social media all these things So one of the ones we launched maybe a dozen years ago, maybe maybe more about a dozen years ago Producers versus consumers. So my family if I say producers versus consumers If they understand that it's okay to consume but there has to be a balance of it you know, the question is am I producing more than I'm consuming or am I consuming more than I'm producing is that we need to use a God-given creativity he's given us and and create things and and move towards our dreams that God's called us to versus watching other people's dreams and getting caught up and Depressed because we're just yeah, you know and demotivated Oh someone already did it and these kinds of thoughts because we're just watching too much and consuming too much content So that's been a driver for a long time eagles versus seagulls is another one I could speak to these things Be generous is another one You think about these key? Phrases in the Tulpan family that were to counteract the culture partly but also instill the right behaviors of my family Here's the thing whether it's business or whether it's family That's important is that you have to communicate about these things often And this is the big downfall. I remember sitting in a good-sized manufacturing company with the president of a company in his office and on the right side had the Mission statement the core values and I just remember looking at that and going Nobody really cares about that.

I Just I just remember Thinking that my mind like people don't really care about that And I started thinking how did that get developed I wonder how it got developed it doesn't seem Personal I never really hear people talking about it at all It doesn't really matter. It's just up everywhere. It's just taking up space.

In fact It actually is detracting from the design of the room Even there's there's just no benefit to it. And so, you know, it's kind of negative but I just remember thinking all of that and I think that like to your point if it's not personal and if that's not tied to the leaders DNA Who they really are and where they really want to go There's just not going to be any communication about it. And if it's not Cultivated in a way you'd actually speak it.

It's also not going to be communicated. And so I think that the big lesson is If you're gonna do something do it And what doing it means is you're going to talk about it often So I remember on the choose growth culture of an organization where we had 32 offices throughout two states I get on a weekly call And every week I would talk about choose growth. I would talk about at least two of the five culture drivers I'd weave them in I would talk about them at the end And sometimes when you say them, I just want to say this to everybody Sometimes when you say them it feels like nobody's listening.

It feels like nobody cares It feels like you're just speaking into an empty room Uh, i've heard that before. Okay, Isaac. I've heard that before.

Okay, Isaac. I've heard that before but it's just like pink elephant it enters their brain and it has an impact i've literally seen it where Sometimes I will question Should I still say this? Maybe it's kind of corny Or choose growth that sounds kind of corny, you know, really should I say it again i've said it so many times and You have to have an unrealistic staying power And perseverance and do regardless if you're getting feedback about things That's that's probably a business leader's biggest challenge And in your family too, especially when you start having teenagers things like that Okay, you know should I keep saying this it's because the opinions of others Start to sway you And there's certain things a lot of things you should get the opinions of others You should be a good listening leader all these things but on some things You shouldn't And these are the things It's like you should not need feedback to drive forward your culture that you know is essential to the organization You should not need to see people clapping or Appreciating that you talk about it or saying hey, you know, I really appreciate that you keep saying this phrase That's never going to happen And if you need that feedback to stay the course You're always going to be changing what you're talking about and you're never going to get traction You're always going to be frustrated by the wrong behaviors. But when you have the right culture it is Incredible what happens I remember moving down to 15 hours a week Because the culture was so strong.

Whereas I at certain times I was working 80 hours a week And then the culture took over and I just kept driving it You know, it's like in good the book good to great I know we have time when we moved into the family, but I want to say this is in the book good to great It's an old book now But he talked about the flywheel concept and the first push of the flywheel It's like you're trying so hard to get it moving think of this as driving a culture forward So hard to get it moving lots of resistance I don't think anybody cares about it, but you keep pushing and you get it a full rotation you keep pushing you persevere Uh feels like i'm talking to nobody but I keep saying it with passion. I keep saying it keep saying Another rotation a little bit faster and over time a lot of effort a lot of consistency a lot of talking about it Pretty soon that flywheel is just moving And pretty soon I can just say choose growth and immediately all five culture drivers are thought of in their own heads Because i've shared them so many times and it's tied to the crucible what I call a crucible statement the one Statement that says it all and everything's tied to and then now that thing's moving now I can just go like this and high performance is unbelievable like through the roof like you've never seen before And you all of a sudden have time You have so much time to think about what you want to do you you know You can do some other things you as long as you don't stop doing you still got to keep Doing it still got to keep talking about it But that's what I experienced I experienced going where it's never been done before Me working less people happier retention like you wouldn't believe People lining up to take other people's positions when they are moving on or is this the common thing was never having enough leaders in that Uh industry that environment so it was a it was game-changing now I know you want to switch the family so back to the family It is it is very similar. It's just even more personal And the biggest challenge is teenagers often call the parents hypocrites behind their backs and so Whatever you're going to drive forward you better emulate it You better emulate it because this is your home.

They're going to see the real deal It's not like okay i'm going in a meeting. I need a fake being this way No, no, they see you all the time. And so if you're going to drive something forward you better be it and when you're not You should say to yourself out loud and go.

I just needed to hear that because I was not doing it kids And be honest about it Yeah, now that's what happens in the home and make sure one of your values is a forgiveness and grace Yeah A culture of mercy and then you can have the opportunity to to do that Uh on a regular basis because yeah, our kids kids definitely see it all. Um now, uh with Oh, it's a couple of places I want to go but I don't know if we have we have time for it what I What I want to do is, uh, take everything you said and maybe just wrap it up into a final final question to close out this this um episode Which is for those who um, they're christians they're men they they have their company And maybe they have not integrated their faith into their culture their vision You know how they've managed they really have kept it quiet um, what would be your encouragement to them for them to actually Integrate their faith into business and be more open about it Yeah, I I understand that and I know that people listening have different situations So I just want to say that first because there are some environments that are very hostile to christianity Um, and and you may have bought a company for example where the culture would be hostile to to that You may have created something where you're not Proclaiming jesus or really showing that you're a christian And you've hired just the best people which I agree with that by the way hire the best people whether they're christians or not Uh, let it be a ministry. That's wonderful.

But you you might have a culture where that's that's difficult today so You have to you do have to go honest be honest about What do I have? and and depending on what you have and what you believe the receptiveness and Harm that could happen or not you you would determine the pace at which you start to Proclaim jesus or to talk about your faith in these kinds of things um if if you feel like, um, it's not a hostile environment then beautiful because You're only you're like a v8 engine operating on seven cylinders meaning that If you don't bring your faith in if you're not being 100 who you are In fact, what's the most important thing to you your faith in jesus christ? And if you're not able to talk about that bring that in you're kind of leaving your supernatural strength at the door And you're also not honoring god uh as much as Probably you could and Your company could really use the backing of the lord in a way um, and he Shows up in places. He's glorified And so the question is how can I glorify the father? More in my business and You're gonna have to pray about that and you're gonna have to navigate that because some of your environments are tricky. I understand that but We also don't want to live in fear.

The bible says not to fear anything in this world and Except him, but that's a different kind of fear. That's a respect for his authority his power His glorious might his amazing influence in our life and that he can do anything he wants That's the kind of fear. It's an awestruck fear.

Not a dread fear. The word's different actually um in meaning and uh, Depending where you look in scripture. And so Let's not be fearful And let's trust god But let's pray and ask and let's have some strategy to it.

Let's think about like, okay At what level should I start doing this? And maybe it's a ramp up over time Gradually, so you're getting people used to it and you're navigating Um the people as you go, but yeah, let's honor god in all we do. Let's be generous Let's uh, give him the credit. I I just want to tell one story.

It's back in the same choose growth culture I was creating I was going to leave if I you know, I was independently contracted. So it was like a sales organization, but I but I um I I wasn't an employee and I was I was near the top of performance and I was feeling really it was new years My wife was on bed rest with one of her many children And I was feeling depressed. Actually.

I was feeling like I don't think i'm supposed to keep where i'm at I think i'm maybe god has something else for me to do and I prayed to the lord one of those prayers that was so So raw and real, you know what I mean and Like tears in my eyes and just like what am I? What do you want me to do? I feel like I should do something else And it's one of those times where I felt a clear message back like really quickly And really clearly and it was it was Isaac. Don't fear. Don't fear anything in this world and And don't worry about anything And fear me only and um And then oh, I can't remember there was like three things um But what it led to I wish I could remember those but it was three things very clearly what it led to was Defying the overall culture of the organization in some ways And building something different to the point where it caused conflict and But we excelled extremely rapidly And went to what's never been done before and To the point where the president called me, you know flew me out to meet with me Uh to kind of talk about some of these things that maybe they felt were the wrong direction You know, what's interesting though is just a few years later.

I was gone. It did end in my Departure um after We did some incredible things But I don't regret it at all and those things just shortly a couple years after the whole company was adopting and doing And sometimes it's the innovators dilemma you start You start doing things early Before people are ready for but it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it I felt like the lord was telling me to do it And it was the right thing to do And it impacted a lot of people and it also gave me a launching pad to to move on Uh, which which was great but um, but I think that uh, that's a long answer for your short question, but there you go Yeah, well as you were talking and as I was thinking about it, I was thinking of daniel, right? So um, you know, he chose to follow god to you know, adopt his own culture within a place that was hostile to it and uh Usually worked out. Okay, obviously it was a lion's den incident, but uh, you know He rose to the top and like doing things god's way for his glory In his case not being afraid to make that obvious.

That's why he's that's why i'm going to be doing excellent work That's why and um And people appreciate as you've even seen in your case excellent work excellent innovation and um They might not be doing it because they love jesus, but you can say that's why i'm doing it that that's um That's who I fear. That's who I revere and um, that's a great encouragement for everybody is to I think a lot of it throughout all your answers is that if you're if you're spending that alone time with god in prayer discerning as well, you're going to Have the mind of christ and know how to engage in these situations um, and I just Was gonna say it earlier on but I love how you shared throughout You know talking to your team talking to your family Is that you have to actually take these cultural values make them real through through stories Which is like the bible teach it through stories like this is what? um you know, uh, you know your growth, uh concept or your concept of Integrity, whatever it is. You actually teach it through through stories And that's how it sticks again and again again not a one-time thing.

Um, yeah So that's key and again, you can go back to the bible. How are we supposed to teach our kids one time? No, when they wake up when they leave the house Every day your children your grandchildren. It's not a one-time thing.

Um And it's the same with uh family same with business And there's no shortcuts. That's that's that's the work, but it's good work. It sounds like you enjoy it, right? Uh, yeah, absolutely yeah, I can also say with with the work you can actually let go of people if they really against it, but At home, you can't fire anybody.

So you really gotta You gotta bring them all with you and lead well to make that happen Yeah, here's a scripture. I want to share with everybody first corinthians 16 13 and 14 be watchful stand firm in the faith act like men be strong Let all that you do be done in love And that's uh was one of my favorite verses That I wanted to share with everybody which I think has to do with what we're talking about today Definitely and for everybody if they want to hear more about what Isaac tolpin's up to you can go to what resoluteman.com and then it's Uh, what courageous parenting.com and be courageous might might listen to those properly Yeah, be courageous ministry.org courageous parenting.com resoluteman.com. You can get the resolute manifesto there And then on the podcast I would it has to do with this I would listen to the art of clear thinking Which is an episode just on doing that journal exercise and including god in the process. Perfect All right, Isaac again.

Thanks for being on the show today. Thanks for sharing your wisdom uh important message And it's essential to growing your hundredfold business, which is what we're about here is integrating our faith into our work And so that we can grow our top line our bottom line and our finish line if you ever need help with your business You can reach out directly to me at fourthsoilventures.com Again, Isaac. Thanks for being on the show and until next time grace be with you