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 Podcast, where Christian men learn how to grow their businesses top line, bottom line, and finish line. And I'm your host, Josh Fonger, founder of Fourth Soil Ventures. And today I have a very special guest.

I have Chris Grainger. And Chris is the founder of The Lion Within Us and has a passion for serving others. He is building a community that equips Christian men with the encouragement, wisdom, and brotherhood they need to become the leaders God intends them to be.

Chris connects deeply through personal stories, sharing the highs of professional success, the challenges of life's hurdles, and how every circumstance is an opportunity to grow stronger in faith and purpose. His work is focused on helping men grow in confidence, clarity, and spiritual leadership at home, at work, and within their communities. Through intentional conversations and real-life application of biblical truth, Chris helps guide men into a deeper understanding of their role as leaders, husbands, and fathers, offering a path that brings lasting impact and authentic transformation.

All right, very good. Well, Chris, welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks, Josh.

Good to be here. Yeah, I'm very excited about this conversation. You know, we met through a mutual connection at the U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce, Crystal Parker, and I've gotten to learn more about what you're doing, how you're impacting men, how you're helping them grow as leaders.

And I know with my work, working with business owners, leadership is a big part of that. I know that as they grow and become better leaders, it's going to obviously impact their businesses. So I'd love to, you know, discuss that topic with you, and hopefully we can both grow through it.

So to start, Chris, why don't you share with the audience how God has directed your path to get where you are right now? Yeah, it's been a journey. You know, I have an engineering background, so that's kind of, from a professional standpoint, been down that road for a long time. From a Christian standpoint, I didn't really grow up in the church.

I started going to church when I was 16, because my girlfriend did, and then that's when I got saved. So it's just been quite a journey, professionally, all over the place, from business development, sales, and then as well as operations and management, and learned a lot, made a lot of mistakes. And, you know, back around 2020, pitched this crazy idea of starting a podcast for the company that I work for.

It's a secular business, it's a niche industry, and they looked at me like I had three heads, and they said, what do you think about this? I said, well, let's give it a shot, and they agreed. So I launched that, recorded the first episode in February of 2020, and we all know what happened in March of 2020, and it ended up being a really good time to start a podcast. I did a lot for that business, and I learned a lot about that, just the process of podcasting, and from there, God just started just moving and showing me how he wanted me to use it for him, and that really led me to found The Lion Within Us.

Okay, so, and then, well, tell us about The Lion Within Us. What is that organization? What does it do? How does it help men grow? Yeah, absolutely. So it started off as just a podcast to send an encouraging message out to men around leadership.

That's really what we talk about, leadership for Christian men. And, you know, how do we do that? How do we simplify and apply God's word to our life? And so the podcast launched and did very well, and really surprised me. I mean, just how quickly things, downloads and things started to happen.

So we wanted to build a way to connect with men, not just send a message out, but actually talk and have, you know, a relationship and conversation. So I studied up, and I learned about this thing called online communities, and so I said, well, we'll try that. And so we put a beta test out, and we tried it, and guys started signing up for it.

I was like, oh, this is awesome. I learned this could really be a business. So I got with a little council of guys there and figured out what worked right, and what would serve them well.

And so we put up just a paywall up, and we still give away a ton of free stuff, but we had a paywall for exclusive type of content and resources, and guys have been kind of flocking to it. And it's just been, it's been pretty neat. So we do a lot of Bible study.

We do a lot of, you know, just general topics of the world from business to politics or whatever. But we give guys opportunities to come together and have meaningful conversations that they just don't typically get to have. And that's led us to masterminds.

We have mastermind groups, and that's where we're putting small groups, you know, seven guys. We keep them tight together. They meet every other week.

We give them instruction on how to run an effective mastermind session. So it's not just focusing on, you know, one business per se. It may be focusing on business in this meeting, next meeting, it may be focusing on parenting or marriage or finances or whatever it may be.

But it's giving them that avenue that most guys just don't have. They don't have that personal board of advisors. So we found something that seems to be working and guys are enjoying, and God's just really, He's been blessing it lately.

That's awesome. Yeah, well, that's great. I remember my first experience with online communities, it must have been like 2009, I think, 2008.

I started growing these groups, benchmarking groups for business owners. And that was back when the internet wasn't as stable as it is today. But, you know, pitching this idea like, well, where do we meet? We all live different places in the country.

How is this going to work? It's like, we're meeting online. And they're like, well, how's that going to work? That's awesome. I'm glad that the community is coming together.

And I want to ask you about the community because one thing that, and I'm working with my business owners, is realizing that what got them to where they are, they're responsible for it as leaders, as men and as the owners of their companies. So as you're helping these men become better leaders, what aspect of taking ownership or being accountable or being responsible, how does that, what is that discussion within your groups? Yeah, I mean, specifically that accountability gets for our mastermind group. So the overall community, the events, Bible study and stuff like that, that's for, I tell guys, that's fellowship, which is we all need it.

We got to have that. But the accountability, I equate that to discipleship and think about the disciples of Christ. That's a select few that he was pouring into.

And the way we do it, it's, from accountability standpoint, we help you figure out the steps that you need to take, whatever that next step is. And it could be small or it could be big. And then we make sure that we timestamp it, we put a benchmark out there.

But the big difference, to be honest, Josh, is when they come to their meetings, they have to report on it. So it's not like I said it and forget it, and no one is ever going to ask you about it. I mean, we are very visible on, hey, you said you're going to do this.

Did you get it done? If not, where do you need help? And so they're not out there just by themselves, but that's the big piece of just keeping it in front of them, encouraging them, coming alongside. Sometimes we got to adjust those goals, right? Maybe there was a BHAG and we said we need to break that down a little bit. So we help them do that.

And we've tried to approach everything biblically as well. So it's not just, what does this greatest, latest leadership book say? No, let's look at the book and see what the book has to say and then try to apply that to the situation. Yeah.

And I love how you do that because there's a lot of accountability groups, men's groups, but yours is exclusively using the Bible as the foundation. And so why do you do that? Because certainly there's a lot of other, I'll put in quotes, wisdom out there people are flocking to. Why did you choose to use that as a resource? Because it's the truth, man.

I mean, to me, there's so many people out there pirating other stuff and there's, Ecclesiastes tells us there's nothing new out there, bro. Like there's nothing new. So all these, I mean, these books are great, I'm sure.

I mean, they have great points, but I want to go back to the solid truth, God's word. And if we can take that, if we can stand firm on that as businessmen and make better decisions using God's word, I don't think we're going to go wrong. And that's where, and it's challenging, but at the same time, man, it's a lot of fun.

Yeah. No, I couldn't agree more. I think that's why we relate is similarly.

I've read a lot of the business books over the years, but the issue is always, as you're reading these good ideas that if you ultimately, they found their source in the ultimate truth in the Bible, you have to sift through the poison, sift through the broken glass, sift through the things that are not actually helpful or wrong or hurtful long-term and just so much simpler just to go to the truth to begin with. So what do you think is, when the guys first come in to work with you and your group, what is the starting point? Like, why do they choose to make that leap to want accountability, to want to be deeper in a relationship, to want to grow? Is there usually a triggering point that gets them there? I mean, the biggest thing, the biggest commonality we see is just they don't have it in their life right now. It's missing.

And a lot of them look at their local church and men's groups and things like that. And many times, I'm not a church basher. I support the local church, but usually local church, they just struggle connecting with men and it can be very awkward.

And they think a sausage biscuit in a talk is like a men's group meeting. I'm like, no, bro, let's do something. Let's go a little bit deeper.

So I've found that most of these guys are isolated. They don't have that band of brothers. They don't have that personal board of advisors, but they recognize that something's missing.

And usually when they get in and get to seeing how we try to serve, how we try to connect, they're like, oh yeah, this is important. I need this. So we're just filling that gap that lots of times they don't even recognize, but once they start talking, yeah, this is definitely an area that's been a blind spot.

Yeah, well, definitely. I think that the technology of the internet can support the local church. And I think we're all part of the universal church.

And when two are gathered, that is an opportunity for the church, one another, iron sharpening iron. And so it's a both and, and an acceleration of people being discipled through different contexts. And so I think it's great.

I think it's a great, great resource. I know one of my recent podcast guests, he lives in a very remote area, but people come towards him for work, they come to him. And so his opportunity to do a lot of discipling and teaching and training, but it's done, done online because they are hundreds of thousands of miles away.

And so just one more way to connect and maybe that's the place to go to the next question. So what happens or what's the problem with the man who's alone, who's isolated? They're trying to do their best on their own. What are some of the pitfalls of that living? Yeah.

I mean, so much of the pitfall there is you start believing the lies, and then isolation is the enemy of excellence. And so the next thing you know, when you're alone, you don't have that personal band of brothers, or you don't have those guys willing to speak truth. The evil one can start getting very loud in your head.

And then from there, man, once you start feeling that condemnation, like you're no fit, you're not any good to use, like you're not getting your marriage, not good at work, you're never going to be, you know, advancing your career. If you believe that and listen to that long enough, it'll take you out. So that's really where we're, we're combating.

We're saying, nope, we're going to say right now that that's not God's word. That's not true. And we're going to give you some, some ways to reframe that.

And then we'll put some brothers around you. So then when you do get those lies and those, I mean, they still, the lies hit me every day and those guys keep bringing me back to the truth. And that's what we have to do for each other.

So that's really where some common threads we're seeing there. And so what are, you know, as I'm, I'm thinking about me and what kind of prevents me and other men that I know from being vulnerable, how do you get them into a place where they're willing to be vulnerable to actually, you know, I've been a part of a lot of men's groups where it's very superficial and they're going to say things that are not going to affect them negatively. So just the positive things are like, maybe the prayer request is they, their dog is sick or something, but like, they're not going to go very deep.

So how do you create an environment of trust where people can be authentic and they can share things that are really actually happening? Well, you got to start doing it yourself first. So that's a big part. They see it in me and some of the other guys as well.

But the big thing really is the online platform that we built. There's something to be said about guys having a little bit of separation where they're not going to run into, you know, if I go to church with you, Josh, and I bring up my issue with pornography, that's pretty, that takes a whole lot of vulnerability at that point. And it, it does open me up at times, although it shouldn't, but it just does.

I may run into you at the restaurant after church, you know, or on Tuesday night with my family and that just, that lingers. So I found that for some reason, online way that we engage, these guys just come in, they may be in Florida, Utah, Canada, Texas, all over the place. So they're not going to run into each other, you know, going to a dog general and they just, they open up.

It's been, it's been incredible. All I can tell you is, but God, because he's been doing some great things with the groups and it's been encouraging to see. So that online technology that you were talking about earlier, I'm really seeing us leverage that.

And, and that's a catalyst for these guys for opening up from a vulnerability standpoint. Okay. So you find that the platform allows for more freedom of expression.

They're, they're able to speak the truth more. Right. Which they should be doing anyways, but it's difficult to find those people that you can trust in that way.

And then also I would think that, you know, prayer transcends distance. So people can actually receive that prayer, that encouragement, they may be not finding as consistently. I know even for me that I'm a part of a couple local Christian groups, you know, para-church ministries.

And even though we're local, we still meet online because it's just faster for us to make those connections. So yeah, we have physical, but we still have the more consistent digital zoom meetings because we, we value the relationship. We value the communication, but people are different places at different times and they need to be in the connection, but they physically can't make it.

If it's not quick you know, through a channel like this. So with regards to and this is kind of, I'm thinking more towards my clientele and probably yours as well. So if someone's having, you know, life difficulty in your case, you're doing a family, marriage, parenting, those things, but also business, health, finances, they're finding difficult in these areas.

What do you think is some of the first steps towards, towards change as opposed to pointing fingers at the world or other people, where do you get them to start with regards to making that transformation? Yeah, so much of where we try to start is with reflection. And I know it sounds simple, but most guys don't do it. We're too busy, you know, putting out fires and, and we never take the time to truly sit down and think and reflect.

And usually, I met with a guy yesterday out of Oklahoma and having some marriage troubles and, and just by, by him taking the time to talk out what, how he got where he's at, it was very revealing to him. And usually the next steps aren't like super complicated, you know, they're, they're, they're, they're small, but you got to take the time to reflect. And, and I mean, reflect without like pointing fingers either, like true.

All right, brother, what, what ownership do you have in this? You know? And, and so I'm really good at that of, okay, let's get out behind the blessed and highly favored. I know that you feel like you are like, let's just be real for a second. You know, let's, let's, let's just open it up.

Where are you really hurting that man? And then let's, and we're going to peel back, you know, six or seven layers to figure out why, what's the root of that, you know, and so much of us, you know, childhood trauma or whatever it may be, or, or, or trust issues, or there's no forgiveness. And when we start helping them reflect on that, that's when the truth starts coming to the surface. Yeah.

And I'm assuming it's not a one-time thing. It's not like you just do it and then nope, no, never problems the rest of your life. That's right.

No, it's, it's continually, right? I mean, that's why our masterminds, they don't have an end there. They, they, these guys meet because we're messed up. We're jacked up.

We're always going to be working on something. So we may fix this area of our life. Next thing you know, this, this dumpster fire pops up over here.

So we gotta, we have to recognize that the sin nature of the world we live in, you know, it's just, we're going to be always trying to improve but so long as we have that mentality that we're going to get better We're going to strive for greatness and really just lean in to do what he's called us to do Um, I don't think you can go wrong there Yep. Yeah, I think that that's a big part of it is the striving towards greatness taking responsible taking ownership for the future and it's it, you know, and as I was thinking about this before our interview is like, uh, you know Original Adam and even the garden like what what did he end up doing though? Not taking ownership, you know, i'm gonna blame right, you know I'm gonna blame you guys i'm gonna blame even gonna blame this or i'm blame anybody but myself And it started from being passive not being vigilant not being steadfast not being active not leading but but reacting afterwards and I think that's where With me especially and just any any other guy probably can feel that that's part of in our, you know in our sin nature to to to live that way and if you're not fighting against that if you're not warring against that if you're not Acknowledging that then you're gonna You're gonna be taken out and it's going to It's gonna be no good. Um so with regards to um the the men Uh, what kinds of transformations do you tend to to see is it? um, you know a little bit in each area of their life or is there a sequence of Things you typically see in a typical transformation or are there certain managers come there? Like I got one problem.

They want to just address that for six months Yeah, no, I mean it's been across the board, but the big thing that we see the the main transformation Is their approach by to use the word for no matter what problem it is in their life You know and using god's word in that way because I mean it's the greatest, you know resource we have and Why would we just use that thing on sunday for an hour? It makes no sense Like let's let's bring it into the board meeting. Let's bring it into the bedroom Let's bring it into the kitchen, you know the dining room like like let's figure out how To take this this living breathing and active word of god and actually use it every day And that's what i'm seeing more so these guys like we have a thing called a daily spiritual kickoff And the whole point Is I read a little bit of scripture and two things simplify and apply All right Help me understand it lord show me what how to just understand the word because it can be confusing at times, you know And then all right now I need to apply it. So it's the old map in the mirror So like all right, I don't need to understand the land the layout Now I need to reflect How can I use this what you're showing me god into my life today? And when you start thinking of it that way everybody's like well, it's so simple i'm like yeah Why don't you do it? And he says we don't think that way and and that's what we try to do So i'm seeing the biggest transformation is guys are or when the problems come they recognize one The enemy is real and two they recognize the primary way to defeat him is with god's word And that's what we try to help guys with That sounds very very practical so You know also throw a scenario out there.

So if somebody Is a business owner and they're saying hey gosh i'm having these problems at work Trying to grow this company, but we've got cash flow issues employee issues Uh, not sure if we should hire this new manager or not then then your group How would the kind of group counsel them in that situation? I think in that situation the first thing that came to mind was in a proverbs about a man's plans Go go south for a lack of counselor. So i'd start asking questions around Who are the men who are the people because it could be men or women? That are making those decisions and how do you guys come up with those? And because if you're making these in a vacuum and you're not Soaking this these decisions in prayer, then you're trusting on your own will not god's will so Are you inviting them into it, you know, and and when you start At a basic fundamental level like that everyone's like well You know not really, you know I'm, just trying to do stuff and just trying to make the quarter or make the quota or whatever it may be I'm like, well, that's great But have you asked god is this the right number is this step the right next step and if you don't have a piece about it then um That could be telling you something i'm not saying you're gonna have a piece about every decision But you should have a little bit of peace about some of them and and those come usually When you're walking in alignment what god's called you to do so that that's A sample of how we would approach something like that. Yeah.

Well, I think that's that's great because so often um People are going directly to the world at this point. They're going directly to ai google What's the answer if this what is the thing to do? And uh, how about let's first let's go to god's word. Let's pray.

Let's ask other christian men. Let's um, You know humbly sit before god's word and be patient Maybe you don't need to make any decision for a little while just to actually give yourself a time Like you said early on to to meditate Uh, maybe that will give you a practical tip for us all like what what are some things you teach for for guys because similarly you guys i'm working with super busy And that's always the excuse too busy for this too busy for that. How do you get them to? Slow down, maybe some tactics so that they actually can Meditate and clear their mind.

Yeah. I mean usually we try to start with you know, early morning tactics and things like that I mean my my mentor wrote a book called the the most important hour and it talks about getting started The first hour of your day, whatever that may be. I'm not a big journaler to be honest.

I've tried journaling I'm, not very good at it. I suck at it. So I just don't journal So there's lots of guys who journal and they're great at it.

I I write i'm a i'm a fairly decent writer I'll write a lot of bible studies, but my biggest thing is just Whatever that thing is for you to get in the word do it and I I don't really care what it is for me It's like literally I have to have a hard copy bible now I'm an author on the bible app. I promote people to go to the bible app But I don't use the bible app that often because I just I want to open a hard copy I want to hold it in my hands. I want to write in it things like that So whatever the thing is for the guy, you know, it could be the bible app.

Praise the lord. Hallelujah Just do that thing and find that rhythm and don't it has to be a non-negotiable though. It's like Guys, they trip me out because they're like i'm so busy and I got this going I got this going I got this going And i'm like, all right, where's your time we got to add on your calendar, man They're like, huh? I'm like well put your time we got on the calendar then and like if you if you're that busy you know, can you not carve out 30 minutes a day with your heavenly father like And most guys just need that little prompting that little bit of nudge and then it's like oh Yeah, that's right.

So I mean that's where we try to just look whatever that rhythm is Establish it make it non-negotiable put boundaries around it and then get after it So I wanted to because I know you you have some thoughts on screens so you choose similar to me physical bible how do you um, how are you finding the advent of uh technology and screens and and that versus trying to get people to Meditate like what? Is there any connection between the two? Yeah, I mean the biggest thing For us is is like everything we do is on technology, right? Our community is it's literally an online community It has an app like so i'm like don't use social media but use ours So it can be kind of hypocritical, right? But I just try to encourage guys Whatever that is, whatever those stumbling blocks are like for me when i'm reading my bible The screen time is not a stumbling block so I don't have to worry about that, you know, but for some guys it could be so they need to recognize what those things are and And then utilize the technology. I mentioned the bible app several times. They're great.

I mean They have bible plans. I write them lots of people write those studies So they help you like the ones I write help you reflect Uh deeper on the scripture that you're reading and sometimes you need that as guys, you know You don't have time to sit down and listen to a half hour sermon But maybe you got five minutes and you can read a one day reading plan and a couple verses And get into it. So just figure out that rhythm and then the ones that aren't the ones that pull you away You got to get rid of that stuff.

Yep Yeah, it's seeing all the technology takes my opinion the all the in-between time the drive to work the lunch break the You know anything you're doing, you know, you're getting ready in the morning it it kind of sucks that time away where you could be meditating you could be reflecting you could be um wrestling with god talking with god in those times and it just removes all that so you don't have that and you're always putting more and more and more things into your uh Broken cistern right and you just you don't actually have time to apply or meditate or make the decisions you have to have to really make that's right, so I wanted to ask you a question just because this this was going to be helpful for me. So when i'm coaching consulting advising business owners, um, the hardest thing is in the beginning when um, they They say they don't really have any problems in these areas. They say like well, this is going fine This is going this is fine.

This is going fine And it takes a little while to get into it like well Actually, there are some problems or actually that there are some employee issues. There are some financial issues. There are some of these issues and That would be nice to know a few months ago when we were building the strategic plan or building out this You know these action items.

So what what have you found that helps men to be humble to be honest to uh be willing to Talk about those things. I mean you certainly mentioned the technology, but there are certain um Like do they need to feel comfortable knowing that it's a a guy has already Forgiven them or what what is the what is your methodology there? Yeah, I mean some of it like for our masterminds for instance We just we actually create an assessment And it make it forces the reflection right and make some things And for the guys who everything is blessed and highly favored and and you know, everything's hunky dory And you know when they show up to church, they're always smiling. I'm not going to be able to help that guy You know until he recognizes he has a problem, you know Once you recognize you have a problem then we can step in and we can all right We'll put our arm around you we'll come alongside of you But the guys who walking around with their chest poked out thinking saying I got this all day long They're not gonna like what we do at the land within us because we're gonna quickly check them like no, bro You ain't got this none of us do you know, we're all centers in need of a savior The last thing that we need is another guy walking around here thinking he can bootstrap his way into heaven because i've never seen that Happen, you know, it just no I haven't found that verse yet.

You can find that verse. Let me know but it ain't about you know, uh, all the good things that I can do to earn my way in so It's just getting guys to that point because we got the problem Called the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and that pride of life is a hard one And that's the one I tell you just I struggle with the most that's where most of the guys come in they struggle with And it usually takes a little prodding and a little nodding a little nudging and and and and ruffling a few feathers but at some point They they finally say Yeah, I need help man And but the cool part about the lion when they come in they see everybody Already who are saying that they need help in this area. Like we had a guy last night He joined and his first post was you know, i'm struggling with anxiety and depression I don't know what else to do and within like five minutes he had like 10 dudes that were like praying for you lifting you up i've set a call up with him like You're not going to just drop it and going to avoid but you see everybody else is still struggling with it And I mean like four people immediately said i'm right there with you.

I got this This is this is scripture that has been helping me And like where do you get that at bro? Like you don't have to wait till sunday to go to get that, you know, and and so it's just uh, that's been encouraging yeah, that's so huge and I think that the Everyone's missing perfection if that's you know Yeah, perfect because my heavenly father's perfect like none of us are hitting that so we all we all need help and we're all At different points, of course on the journey, but also different points seasons of life I think that what you're doing with It sounds like uh older men and younger men people in different parts of their career really allows for um those discussions to happen, uh between the men and in an environment that is Responsive I think that's that's something I hadn't thought about is You know, the pace of life has quickened and uh, you know the ability to get off track It's very fast. Now. You're one click of a button away from really destroying your life.

And so the um, The ability to be responsive through a platform like what you're doing um to meet meet that need I think is is uh is great too, um, so what about for um I guess i'll just throw this question out there. So so a typical entrepreneur they're working Beyond 40 maybe 50 maybe 60 hours a week really trying to get their business off the ground What are some things that you would advise someone like that? So that yeah, they're pushing on their business, but how do they not destroy simultaneously? I think the other areas you focus on are health, uh relationships uh family Those things how do you get them to not destroy those when they really have a singular focus for a phase of their life? Yeah And for for that guy, you know I often just tell them like sometimes it's seasonal right and you may be in a season You're growing a business and you do have to throttle down The main thing is you can't just drop the rest of the balls, you know So like for me one of my non-negotiables is I run every day, you know I don't even like running that much but I do it because I know once I get him off the studio and start working You know, it's gonna be 10 12 hours before I get out of here, you know So you just have to have those non-negotiables tomorrow morning after I finish Our daily spiritual kickoff me and my wife are leaving Alone, no kids for two days, you know, and like that's a non-negotiable like we recognize we have to date each other Like I won't I pursue that girl. I want to keep pursuing her because I want a weird marriage I don't want a regular one.

Like I really want a weird marriage. So just like these little things, you know financially, you know Having a budget all the different areas the different pillars You know where you're going wrong. I mean the holy spirit is not silent You may be suppressing it, but he is not silent on these different areas.

And so it's just like hey John, what is it? John two five or five two. I always mix it up. Just do whatever he tells you to do That's what mary told the servants and like that is the best advice That I was given by the pastor who I looked up to the most I've interviewed him three times and he told me that and I give that to guys every day I'm like, what's the holy spirit prompting you and don't sit here and tell me I don't know Have you asked him bro? Like if you ask him I guarantee he's gonna come back with something and then just do that step Whatever that step is and from there You know steps of obedience You know, that's just uh, that's a path.

I try to stay on. Yeah, well, I uh, and all great and one thing I would just highlight is um Be weird as in like you need to like you said you want a weird marriage Like yeah, you want to be weird with your finances with your business. Um if you're doing any of these areas like Most people are you're doing it wrong.

That's a good starting point So man, i'm telling you look most most people are broke divorced depressed. I'm like, no, I don't want that man I want us to have a joy-filled marriage. We want to have a little money in the bank account We're not trying to get rich.

We're just we're trying to do things god's way and and that's uh that's why boundaries man, like You know the billy graham rule, you know not gonna be in the same room with another woman by myself I mean just simple stuff and people think that's just so weird. I'm like, yeah, I know bro, but like My girl she is so happy and like i'm trying to keep her that way, you know So it's just you got to figure out how you go. Where are you going to fight and why? Well, this has been a really great interview and I what I want to do chris at the very end here is Um leave you with a final question.

I try to ask everybody that's on the show Um, which is what would you say to encourage someone who has not yet fully embraced Integrating their faith into their work. Maybe they've kept it quiet Maybe they've they're afraid to do it, but really they they're working every day, but they don't they're not integrating their faith How would you encourage them? You know, uh, jesus talks about the the lamp and putting a the the shade over it and covering up the light like And I did this for the longest time I had a guy one time And a vendor walked in and I had this bible verse on my on my My screen because I was presenting And I was going between them and my screen showed the bible verse and that guy's like chris I didn't know you're a christian. That's awesome, bro.

And I felt like this big josh. I was like, oh, come on i'm like i'm like dude, we met together for years like What you didn't know as a christian he's like no we never talked about it so i'm like well that was a Just what a wake-up moment. Like i'm not saying you gotta be walking around with the john 316 coffee mug That's kind of weird.

Don't be that guy, but you could you know start just being uh more intentional About your faith in your career. And what does that look like? I mean praying before meeting asking praying before you get out the car to go into the work, you know praying Um or asking to you know, someone actually is vulnerable and says hey, I got this going on my family, you know guys Hey pray for them right there I mean, it's simple small steps that we can take because we're we're called to be In the world just not of the world. So it's like the chocolate chocolate chip cookie and i'll leave you with this so like I always tell people like be the chocolate chip in the cookie doll culture and they're like, what is that? I'm like, well you think take take it take a chocolate chip cookie We all know the best part is chocolate chips.

Like let's just be real but the rest of it You know the the eggs the flour the sugar all that stuff that makes up the dough That stuff is just blended together and you blend it all up and when you make a cookie You can't tell what's egg and what's flour, right? It's just there But you can still tell what the chocolate chips are because they're mixed in they just mix those in And that's the best part. So we're as christians. We're supposed to go out.

We're supposed to be mixed in We're just not supposed to blend in so like get out there And and be distinct, you know walk with christ take the steps of obedience Whatever he's calling you to do and just be that chocolate chip in the cookie dough culture So there you go. That'd be my advice There you go That one's gonna stick with me. So don't get blended in but you get you get mixed in and that's right No, that's that's great.

And it's every day. It's not like this one-time thing you do one time No, I like cookies every day, man yeah, well and And I I you know, this this happened in a bible study I was in recently the same same exact story you told me where somebody Said hey, man, I didn't know you were christian and he had known the guy for 10 years. He's like I don't want that ever happening in my life where somebody doesn't know and So he's like well, that's that's that's an insult to me now is I want to make sure that i'm I'm open enough so that people who are in my circle of life know That they might not be christians, but they know they know at least one That's right, and you can be that guy and be available.

So that's right That's great. Well, thank chris. Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom on today's show Uh, this has been a great message.

I hope those listening have been encouraged Hopefully as they're pursuing their top line their bottom line and their finish line for god's glory that they realize that They gotta like you said hold their balls In in the air and not lose sight of those that finish line that kingdom impact they're making Not just in the workplace, but in the rest of their life that how much that matters And uh, chris, I didn't even ask you where do they need to go if they need to find out more information about Um where they can get the resources Oh, yeah, I mean our website's got everything Uh be lying within don't forget to be and it's dot us not dot com. So the line within dot us Okay. All right So if you want to hear more from chris get some of those uh bible studies in the bible app or be part of one of Those groups, uh go to that website And of course if you need help growing your business, you can always reach out directly to me at fourthsoilventures.com Thanks again chris for being on the show and thanks everybody for tuning in until next time grace be with you