Love Fort Wayne Podcast
The Love Fort Wayne podcast amplifies the stories of everyday people who are loving and leading in Northeast Indiana to spark imagination, root inspiration, and ignite transformation.
Love Fort Wayne Podcast
Buffalo Culture: Leadership in Community with Stan Griswold of C12
What happens when decades of Fortune 500 leadership collide with a heart to advance the gospel? Join us for a powerful conversation with Stan Griswold, C12 Chair for Fort Wayne, as he shares how God led him from corporate boardrooms to shepherding business leaders on a foundation of faith.
From navigating billion-dollar deals to embracing the “4th quarter of life,” Stan’s story is a reminder that the marketplace is more than business—it’s a mission field. You’ll walk away encouraged, challenged, and inspired to see your work as part of God’s Kingdom impact.
Tune in and be equipped to lead with purpose!
You may feel uncomfortable in your Sunday school or your Bible study class saying, hey, I got a $2 million problem I'm working on right. When you come in this room, you can talk about your $2 million problem and you can talk about your faith.
Speaker 2:Welcome everybody to the latest episode of the Love Fort Wayne podcast. I'm your host, jeff King, ceo of Love Fort Wayne. I'm excited to tell another leadership story, have another leadership interview with a friend of mine. We've gotten the opportunity to get to know each other over the past couple of years. Stan Griswold is here. Stan, thank you for joining us on this episode. Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, we're going to talk a little bit about a program that he's a part of, an outreach, an organization, a ministry that he's a part of, called C12. But we're going to talk a lot more about just life and leadership and talk a little bit about your journey. But you know, I was really interested in C12 when I first learned about it from you when I started with Fort Wayne, and so when we had the opportunity to have you on and share more about you all's mission and the work that you're doing and some of the cool stories connected to it, I was excited about that. So we'll dive into that here in a little bit, but I do want to start the way that we always start, like I want you to be able to introduce yourself to our listeners and share a little bit more about your journey and even you know your professional business life and how that now has collided with your heart for people and your heart for mentoring and your heart for shepherding other leaders. So go for it. Share a little bit more about yourself.
Speaker 1:Sure. Thanks, jeff. Yeah, I don't know where to even start with this question, but I'll skip over a few things and maybe pop back and forth. But I was fortunate to have grown up in a Christian family, so I was exposed to faith at a young age, came to Christ at a young age. Somewhere along the way someone thought I should become an engineer. So I went off, became an engineer, had a great career and was able to retire early and 10 years ago now, wow.
Speaker 1:And so when I think about how I got to where I am now, I look back on all the things that influenced my life. And how did God call me to be in this place as a C12 chair? So a couple stories I guess I'll share with you. So after I retired, I was doing some consulting and coaching and one of my clients was like I'm burned out man, like do you want this job? You know, and just the burden that leaders carry as they lead people, as they lead organizations, you know, it's just like right, front and center that, hey, this is a really tough job. And you know, in my career I'd been able to lead significant elements of multi-billion dollar organizations, so familiar with the stresses of leadership and working with people. People are always the problem.
Speaker 2:They're always also the solution right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but as I was going through this adventure of coaching, god brought a few things into my life. So I had a friend who I'd grown up with, who's currently in full-time ministry and we both happen to be back home in Michigan and he says you know, my dad is really struggling and I asked him what's the God purpose of your life, dad? So he's sharing with me a conversation about his dad, but God is kind of going hey, stan, what's the God purpose of your life right now? And so that's something that stuck with me.
Speaker 1:And another event that happened my father-in-law, who was a missionary and at this point in his life was a pastor at a church down in Kokomo. He was struggling with liver cancer and we had an opportunity to walk through the last weeks with him as he was learning that there was no cure at this point. And at one point we were leaving his home and he always prayed for us for safe travel when we left. But on this event he broke down crying and asking God's forgiveness for questioning that this was when his life would end. Wow, and it struck me that so that morning we'd gone down to Indy and he had basically been told the next procedure they couldn't perform because his blood chemistry wasn't stable enough.
Speaker 1:And what struck me from, you know, obviously emotional. But here's a man who I've looked up to my whole life, yeah, and he's within hours of just questioning God is this really when my life's going to end? He's asking forgiveness for questioning God over something like that and he's doing it, you know, publicly and quickly. So that struck me that, you know here's a man who's living his life out. You know there's no retirement here, there's serve until the end.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so a third thing I'll just mention that God brought into my life was one of the friends I had worked with is also retired. He says hey, I'm doing this little project. I'm asking all my friends, what do you think the wisdom of life is? I go oh, that's a great question. What do you mean in biblical terms or in?
Speaker 2:business terms.
Speaker 1:And I hear silence on the phone and he's like dude, you're only the second person that's asked me that, Wow. And so as we talked through that, it came to strike me that as we worked in Fortune 500 land it was please, don't have any religious things out in your office, in your emails, let's separate the secular and the spiritual. And so all of these things kind of rolled up together to where I went down. We're looking at downtown here. I went downtown to a faith-driven entrepreneur event and I met a guy, followed up with him with some conversations. About a week later I get a call from another guy who I hadn't never heard of.
Speaker 1:He says hey my friend Tommy says we should talk about C12. Never heard of. Hey, my friend Tommy says we should talk about C12. So that was my kind of snapshot of my journey is how, how I went from being in a Fortune 500 world to doing a little consulting, to walking down a path where God was just kind of tugging me along and saying, hey, you should be helping Christian businesses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, it's a beautiful story. I love that you shared it. You know, I think about all the elements that I heard from there in regards to something connected back to your walk in your journey and retiring early and thinking about your time and then seeing someone so close to you exemplify you know you don't retire, you know, to the end, to the end, to the end, and just relational connections of okay, I'm just going to share with you because I trust you about burnout and then your heart for people and how I always say you know, god always knows the next territory, he always knows the next land that he's asked for us to till and to cultivate and he's prepared it before us. And so this, the next land that he's asked for us to till and to cultivate, and he's prepared it before us. And so this is your land that you're in, and so I love that. Thanks for sharing your story.
Speaker 2:So there's folks that are like, okay, I'm intrigued, I heard the story. You know it's a pretty cool story that led you to C12. Can you explain a little bit about the heart of C12?
Speaker 1:Sure. So C12, like I said, I'd never heard of C12 until about three years ago, maybe three and a half years ago. But what drew me into C12 immediately was when I come to understand that what C12 is all about is helping Christian business leaders, owners, ceos, executives build a great business for a greater purpose. So we like to say no profit or no margin, no mission right. So we've got to have a great business, we have to be effective, we have to be stewarding our people and our products or our services, the things that we're doing in our business. We have to do that well. But then within C12, we talk about a thing called business as a ministry. So we encourage our Christian business owners to say, hey, what are you doing with the proceeds of this business?
Speaker 1:Is it all going for the next car or the vacation home or the golden nest egg. And so we, every month, when we meet, we encourage them to think about how they can serve their employees, their customers, their community with some of the proceeds that they are getting from running this business. And so as soon as I come to understood that about C12, I go hey, I'm in Because, having spent my whole career where it's like if it doesn't make sales go up or costs go down, it's noise.
Speaker 1:Please identify and eliminate it. Now what we're saying is here's something we'd like to intentionally do. That's going to cost money.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we want to do it because it's going to serve out the love of God in our business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that and yeah, I love it. It's business as you know your, your business as a ministry, and you know big purpose. You know, uh, yeah, I love it. It's business as you know your business as a ministry, and you know big purpose. You know, within the work that folks are doing, what is as you gather with these leaders? What does a common gathering look like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so let me, I'll answer that and then I'll follow up with a little more. I guess, yeah, so we meet for a full day? Okay, yeah, I'll answer that and then I'll follow up with a little more. I guess, yeah, so we meet for a full day, okay, yeah, so when we meet together, it's a nine to four adventure and we ask our members hey, this is a day for you to kind of check out, of being in the business and let's work on you and on the business. So this is a time to think about strategically. Know, is my leadership development going where it needs to go? Am I centered in a place where I can be effective?
Speaker 1:So we start off each day with what we call a balance wheel check-in. So we have all of our members rate themselves. So it's a balance wheel and it's like how are you doing with your family? How are you doing when you say, walk with God? How's your fitness, how's your nutrition? Nothing on this balance wheel has anything to do with business. Yeah, it's. How are you doing as an individual?
Speaker 1:And so we put that up on the screen and we give everybody, we go around the room, give everybody a chance to celebrate their highs and explain their lows. And so we encourage all of our members to, I say, be edgy, right, we're not there to hurt anybody. We're there to challenge people so that they can become better versions of themselves and, hopefully, more aligned with Christ as they continue their journey. So that's how we start off our day, and then each day we have a devotion topic, a business topic and a business as ministry topic. So we'll go through a different topic each month, but we'll go through one of those in the morning and then in the afternoons.
Speaker 1:One time a year we allow a business member to present their business in depth. So we give them an hour and a half to present what are they doing, what are their challenges and to key up a couple issues that they would like some feedback from the rest of the members around the table. And another thing that we do as part of that is we we do a 360. So we'll have them identify a few of their staff, their spouse, if they're comfortable with that and we'll collect. How are you, how do people see you from the outside?
Speaker 2:That's good yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, help people understand their blind spots, maybe, and to affirm some of the good things that they're doing. So once a year we do that and then we always hold about an hour at the end of the day for what we call open forum. So maybe it wasn't your day to present your business, but you still have a couple issues. You'd like to get some advice from the people around the table. So we collect those as we go through the day.
Speaker 1:We'll rate them for severity of time and importance, and then we'll go through that and try to basically take advantage of the knowledge of the table because, that's one of the big advantages of being in a peer group is that you know what you know and you've been focused on we'll pick on our Chick-fil-A. You've been focused on running a restaurant, somebody else is focused on selling appliances, but they have different experiences that they can both learn from. Yeah, and so that's. That's one of the great fun things about being in a C12 forum that all of the peers around that table have solved different problems and and they're there to help you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, it sounds like it's so captivating to me, like it's a full day of OK, introspection and reflection, but also feedback from those that know me. And then it's there. There's times where there's times of abiding, so I'm getting close to the Lord and really unpacking that and being real about that. But then also surrounding myself in the type of community where I can get feedback, as you just mentioned, where folks have problems or issues or challenges that they can see from a different perspective, and I can only imagine that cups are just full, buckets are full, with all of these different positive inputs in time of community, you know, after a day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it always fills my cup to be, able to see people engaging and, you know, sharing and learning and growing.
Speaker 1:But, we also have a little bit of fun. I'll just share with you. So in C12, we have what we call buffalo culture. So the buffalo in America is one of the only animals that, when a storm comes, they herd together and they head into the storm so they get through the storm more quickly in a more protected fashion. So we encourage our members to, you know, identify their issues, get them out on the table and to you know, collectively help one another get through the storm. As part of that, we have little sponge buffaloes on the table. So at any point during the day, if we think someone is avoiding an issue, or maybe they're on their phone like they're not supposed to, be, we'll chuck the sponge buffalo and say come on back to reality here guys.
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah, I love that. I thought you were going to say there's some Buffalo Wild Wings on the table too, and I'm sure people will eat those up. Yeah, I love that you dropped a nugget or a gem for me and probably for some folks that are listening, in regards to the makeup of Buffalo and how they herd together and head into the storm.
Speaker 2:And I think there are so many times where we'll isolate ourself and or we'll we'll head away from things, what it looks like to actually surround ourselves with one another and face the thing that's coming our way head on in community with the Buffalo culture mindset. Like me, when you heard that I want to challenge high impact business or Fortune 500 business, that isolation can even feel even more daunting than it does for a lot of folks that are leading and serving. And how does you know C12, you hit on it a little bit, but how important has C12 been to some of the leaders that you've been able to love and lead well, how has it made a difference in their life, especially as Christian leaders?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's a great question because you see studies every year about isolation. You know more people are on their devices, they feel like they're connected but they're not. And you know the old adage the buck stops in the corner. Well, that means somebody has to make the decision from the corner, and that's one of the real strengths of being in a peer group where you can come in to this meeting when we meet and everybody around that table has had some version of a oh man, I don't want to make this decision. And you know it's like we like to say we're not, we're not're not a Bible study. But everybody here is going to come at solving problems with a faith perspective and from that isolation standpoint, you may feel uncomfortable in your Sunday school or your Bible study class saying, hey, I've got a $2 million problem I'm working on right. When you come in this room you can talk about your $2 million problem and you can talk about your faith.
Speaker 1:So that's one of the unapologetically focused areas for C12, is to get Christian business leaders together in peer groups so that they can collectively share their struggles and know that everybody in this room can appreciate where they're at. Um, you know we had a member recently who's like hey, I'm trying to save some money this year. I got a couple, a couple, uh, open spots. I think I'm just gonna spin the hat and pick those spots up. You know, and you know, the the room kicked the question around a little bit and they got. You know what have you thought about saving a little less money and hiring a couple more people so you can have a life? Wow, yeah, and so that's the kind of thing that that I think really helps people, because some of that isolation comes from leaders thinking they have to do it all.
Speaker 1:That's right they carry the responsibility and their first inclination often is I got to jump in and do more. That's right. Which separates them from their family, maybe separates them from you? Know their, their sequence and their regular quiet times, you know, as they just take on more and thing for, I think, for all of us to grasp.
Speaker 2:It's sometimes it's well, I can do more, I can handle this thing, but then it creates these levels of isolation. You think that you're surrounding yourself with more community because you're doing something, but instead those pullback moments allow for us to be in the, in the communities that are innate to us family, you know, other friends, I mean the really basic things that you know we're called to be a part of. So I love that, yeah.
Speaker 1:A couple other things about the isolation right. So, in addition to us meeting all day, once a month I meet with each of our members for an hour for a one-on-one coaching session.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, there are times when we can get into depth of of issues and conversations and our one-on-ones that maybe the member isn't quite comfortable to bring forward. So we have that opportunity to also help shepherd them through, wherever they are and whatever their issues are, and we have what we call industry forums. So there are well, for people who don't know about C12, it's been around for 32 years, we have 4,500-plus members right now. We just had every two years we have a conference. It was just down in Dallas a couple weeks ago. We had 1,700 people there. It's great to be there. So those are opportunities for people to connect. But I mentioned the industry forums because, in addition to say, coming to the Fort Wayne Forum, you have an opportunity to if say, well, we'll pick on the building trades.
Speaker 1:I think our largest constituency of members across the country is in some kind of building trade, construction or some something in that area. So we have those groups meet quarterly, usually via zooms, but you have access to and availability to all of the other members that are in C12. So you can go in the member database and say I don't know, I'm a roofing guy and I want to find another roofer. Well, you can find somebody and everyone is, you know, open to connecting with other owners, because everybody in the C-12 community understands that we're all here to help one another. In fact, part of what we do in C-12, which is a little bit different than some peer groups is all of our case studies are examples in real life of a C-12 member. So if we're talking about, for instance, last month we talked about um caring team, um, so we have his way at work. As a C12 member, you may be familiar with them Um, we use their caring matrix.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so their leader walked us through a video of you know how to understand caring for your people, and you know just different ways to implement that within your own business. And now that everyone knows if we want to follow up on that, we're going to look this guy up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, that's good. You know, I think again. I think about all these steps and these, these positive examples that you've, you've stated, and the one thing that comes to mind, or even question I ask, would be like for our listeners, how much of an impact is it having in our community that probably businesses or entities that we will be familiar with if your name dropped them, have leaders that are taking a moment in their month, christian leaders to come together and fill their bucket? Like, what type of difference is that making here?
Speaker 1:So I'll share that A couple ways. I'll share that so we like to encourage our members to measure what we call the eternal ROI right. So if our mission is to change the world by advancing the gospel in the marketplace, how?
Speaker 2:do you measure that?
Speaker 1:right, we don't want to measure about numbers, right, we want to measure about are we living our lives for christ, the way we're being called? But so we do ask our members. It's like, hey, anybody uh got any fun stories to tell about, you know salvations? And so I've. I've shared this one before and I'm not sure if I've shared it with you. But so we have a member who has hired chaplains to come to the business and be available for the employees, leads Bible studies. They had a gal who was on her last day at work. She's pregnant, she's probably not coming back to work because she's, you know, going to take maternity leave and then consider you my work in her or raising my kid. She goes to bible study and she makes a decision for christ in that bible study and we, we think about that, we go, wow, that's really cool.
Speaker 1:And we also sit back and we go you know, god brings the increase.
Speaker 2:Right, that's right.
Speaker 1:We're called to plant water and in this particular case, the member who hired the chaplain had come from another C-12 forum. So before Fort Wayne had a C-12 forum he was driving somewhere else to be part of C-12. So I was able to share with his previous chair. So I was able to share with his previous chair. It's like, hey, you helped plant the desire in this employees, spiritually as well, as you know tangibly right, you know people have needs that are not just spiritual. They got physical needs, yeah, and you know some people are a little less open to talking about that, even though many of them do that. They look after their people and they, you know, they do take care of their physical needs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so good. Yeah, in alignment with that, like you have your, uh, your unique experience with business leadership and um, now in this role, in ministry role and you know, shepherding others and, uh, ministry minded service, um, you know what unique role would you say that Christian marketplace leaders play in helping the church of a community capital? C, engage and bless the broader community.
Speaker 1:So I hate to name drop, but some guy named Billy Graham back in the 70s said something about.
Speaker 1:you know, maybe the next revival is going to come in the marketplace, and so one of the burdens and the challenges we carry as business leaders is the typical person goes to church I hate to say this, but twice a month, right and so they get a couple hours worth of time in front of maybe their Bible study teacher, maybe the pastor. As a business owner, those people are coming to work. They need a paycheck, and so, as you, as a business owner, those people are coming to work. They need a paycheck, and so, as you, as a Christian leader, are able to infuse them with your love and touch them with the generosity that that is coming from your love for Christ. You impact thousands more hours per year than all of the pastors combined, and so the potential for impact from a Christian business leader is to think about themselves as a missionary. Yeah, that's right, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because they are impacting everyone so much more than maybe the pastor's a little better and he can pack more in there in that hour on sunday right but, but consistency, right, consistency. It's like the old story of uh, what you do speaks a lot. I can't hear what you say yeah, that's good, and so, as christian leaders can demonstrate the love to their employees, they have just a huge potential impact on the community yeah, it's so's so good.
Speaker 2:I love that. There's countless hours that the Christian leader has, you know, in front of their colleagues and co-workers and those that they've been gifted the opportunity to oversee. And you know, stan, I think about it is sometimes it can be daunting for folks as they hear that I'm with it but I'm not an evangelist and I don't do good in front of people. But I try to encourage folks to say, man, it's the responses in hard times, it's the light that you shine, it's the kindness that you show, it's the fruits of the spirit as you pursue the person of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit then infuses you with more of those things. Like it's those things the way you're patient with people, the way that you serve other people.
Speaker 2:There's a difference that folks can tell in us in the marketplace as we lead in those ways and then sometimes it shocks people. Then you have this built-in courage and strength that isn't yours. That comes from the Lord, where he opens your mouth when somebody asks you a question about why do you do it that way or what makes you different. I've had opportunities in my life where it's just like Lord. I might not be the best with the typical evangelistic way, but I have a shepherd like way, and when I'm in this workplace, I'm called to love and lead like you. And it opens doors.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I just always go back to. I mentioned earlier the separation, the secular, you know, spiritual divide. You know we just work hard to collapse that so that leaders are they got great business skills but they're also just bringing that spiritual reality into their business and making sure that, you know, their employee base really understands that, that they're there to take care of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so good. I want to. I want to pivot here but stay in the same lane and talk about leadership and prayer as we kind of wind down here. But you've, you're, you're a part of my team at Love Fort Wayne. I'm blessed.
Speaker 2:I tell folks all the time we have a, you know, a four to five person staff, but we really have like a hundred person staff because, with the mission of bringing the church and community together to love the city and see it flourish in Jesus name, it takes folks like you that join our teams or come to our events and gatherings and, uh, you've been a staple at our, our monthly prayer gatherings, faithfully praying around the table with believers of many different makeups for the peace and prosperity of our community. But you also serve on the Love Our Leaders Impact Team and work with you know more than a dozen other people to just love the leaders of our community in really unique ways. The simple question is why, like, why, is it important for you to join with others in prayer and join with other believers in loving the community, specifically leaders?
Speaker 1:join with others in prayer and join with other believers in loving the community, specifically leaders. Yeah, so the first part is maybe easier and maybe sounds formulaic, but is there anything more powerful than prayer? Come on, yeah, right, and so I don't know how long Love Fort Wayne has been in existence.
Speaker 2:So I was out of town from 2004 to 16.
Speaker 1:Um, and I didn't know it existed. Right, and I found out about it's like, oh, I'm gonna go check this out, yeah, and so I think there's. There is great power in prayer and the opportunity to come together as people of faith. Um, and part of what you're doing with love fort wayne is similar to what we do in C12. We actually, when our members sign up, one of our covenants is basically we're not here for doctrinal debate.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, we're going to follow biblical principles, but we're not here to draw lines between all the interpretations there may be. So, prayer, great Love Fort Wayne. Great Love for it, wayne. Great. You know leaders.
Speaker 1:I, you know, spent all my career wishing I had something like C12, even, you know, as a senior leader in a public company. How do you get that balance in your life? Where do you find those people? So, for me, I recognize that there are a lot of people that aren't going to be working for a Christian business owner, right. And so anything that we can do in Love Fort Wayne, via the Ignite program or any of those kinds of things, to help leaders ground themselves, because they're likely to find themselves in places like I was, where it's like, you know, we don't want any devotions going out on emails and we don't want any Christian sayings on the walls. So the legal safety net tried to strangle all of that and everybody is going to face that to some degree.
Speaker 1:So that's why I think it's important to help leaders get their grounding spiritually and be good leaders, right. Be good stewards, right. Think of the parable. Be good leaders, right. Be good stewards, right. You know, think of the parable of the talents right. The guy who buried the talent didn't fare very well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. Two final things. One, how would you encourage those who are listening to pray for their C-suite leader? As you get a chance to sit with these leaders all the time you talked about some of their burdens, but how would you encourage them to pray for those folks? And then also, as you go back in your career, what would you tell Stan younger Stan in regards to loving folks, well, leading well. So first encourage folks on how they should pray and then maybe press the rewind button. Sure.
Speaker 1:First I would say pray, pray that they have discernment, pray that they stay close to God and that they find Christian fellowship with their spouses, with their family and with other peers, so that their circle is encouraging them and supporting them. I think that's maybe where it all starts for every leader. And to your other question, I think what I would tell 25-year-old Stan is it's probably more important to get your devotions out first thing in the morning than it is to go hit the trail and put in a mile or so, mile or so. I'm not a 10-miler.
Speaker 2:I remember that. Yeah, that's good, yeah, that's good. Abide, abide, abide, especially in these younger years, for our emerging leaders that are listening. Stan, thank you so much, man. It's been great to chat with you over these last 30 minutes or so, and sharing your story and then sharing the work that you're doing with these leaders is important. Glad to be here.
Speaker 1:Thanks.
Speaker 2:Jeff yeah, you're welcome Folks. I hope that you enjoy the episode. Having folks in our community like Stan that are doing this work, with leaders that you and I know we might not know them personally, but we know them and they're making a difference in our community is vital, so I hope that it was a blessing to you. I hope, as always, you're able to take a few things away and, as we always say, if not, make sure that you go back, you relisten, you rewind, write some things down that were impactful to you and do your best to implement those things in your day to day. So until the next time we speak to you, have a great day and we look forward to connecting with you next time on the Love Fort Wayne podcast.
