“We are just the money managers.” As good stewards of God’s resources, our lives are governed by this dictum. We listen to God’s voice and obey HIs bidding as He tells us where to direct the material resources that He’s entrusted to us. We make certain lifestyle choices to ensure that our needs are met while also being mindful that we are summoned by God to partake in His generosity.
In this episode, we interview Beverly Grant who shares her journey to financial freedom and living a life of purpose. Beverly made certain lifestyle choices to ensure that her kids got their education while being faithful to her goal to give 10% and save 10%. Beverly finds joy in giving and shares that her worth is not determined by what she has but by what she gives. Listen now and be inspired by her story as she reflects on her experiences growing up poor, achieving success in the corporate world, and now working tirelessly to help marginalized children and single mothers aiming to create a tremendous impact on African American youth.
Key Points From This Episode:
Tweetables:
“That is such a great place to live, live in needs, be careful to approach wants, and desires is a danger zone.”
“Be generous of heart and generous of spirit.”
“Not everything's about you.”
“It’s not about me, it's all about the team.”
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Inspiring Hope Fund: Greater Cincinnati Foundation
Greater Cincinnati Foundation Giving Circles
The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn
The Kingdom Investor Podcast on LinkedIn
About Beverly Grant
Beverly A. Grant is a former Consumer Products Goods executive who exemplifies generosity in every area of her life. Currently, she serves as an active community volunteer who gives her time to for-profit and nonprofit boards. She resides in Cincinnati, Ohio and is the mother of four wonderful sons and four grandchildren.
“We are just the money managers.” As good stewards of God’s resources, our lives are governed by this dictum. We listen to God’s voice and obey HIs bidding as He tells us where to direct the material resources that He’s entrusted to us. We make certain lifestyle choices to ensure that our needs are met while also being mindful that we are summoned by God to partake in His generosity.
In this episode, we interview Beverly Grant who shares her journey to financial freedom and living a life of purpose. Beverly made certain lifestyle choices to ensure that her kids got their education while being faithful to her goal to give 10% and save 10%. Beverly finds joy in giving and shares that her worth is not determined by what she has but by what she gives. Listen now and be inspired by her story as she reflects on her experiences growing up poor, achieving success in the corporate world, and now working tirelessly to help marginalized children and single mothers aiming to create a tremendous impact on African American youth.
Key Points From This Episode:
Tweetables:
“That is such a great place to live, live in needs, be careful to approach wants, and desires is a danger zone.”
“Be generous of heart and generous of spirit.”
“Not everything's about you.”
“It’s not about me, it's all about the team.”
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Inspiring Hope Fund: Greater Cincinnati Foundation
Greater Cincinnati Foundation Giving Circles
The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn
The Kingdom Investor Podcast on LinkedIn
About Beverly Grant
Beverly A. Grant is a former Consumer Products Goods executive who exemplifies generosity in every area of her life. Currently, she serves as an active community volunteer who gives her time to for-profit and nonprofit boards. She resides in Cincinnati, Ohio and is the mother of four wonderful sons and four grandchildren.
EPISODE 47
[INTRODUCTION]
ANNOUNCER: Imagine taking your generosity to the next level, impacting more lives, and leaving a godly legacy for generations to come. Get ideas and strategies to do just that when you listen to these personal stories from high-level Kingdom champions.
The Kingdom Investor Podcast showcases business leaders who have moved from success to significance, sharing how they use worldly wealth for kingdom impact. Discover how they grew in generosity, impacted more lives, and built godly legacies. You'll find motivation, inspiration, and practical steps to grow as a Kingdom Investor.
Daniel White (DW): Hello, and welcome to The Kingdom Investor Podcast. I'm your host Daniel White. Today we get the joy of speaking with Beverly Grant. Beverly lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. She serves on various boards and provides executive-level consulting services. She draws her wisdom from nearly 30 years of executive experience in large companies, including Procter & Gamble. Beverly has chosen to live in moderation so that she can be generous with her time and money having a greater impact on the lives of the children and mothers she works so hard to serve.
If you've enjoyed the show, help us reach more listeners by sharing with your friends. And now without further ado, let's jump right into the show.
[INTERVIEW]
DW: Beverly Grant, welcome to The Kingdom Investor Podcast. How are you doing today?
Beverly Grant (BG): I am doing fantastic, Daniel. I mean, what a great day to be alive.
DW: I love to hear it. I love to hear it. So, would you give us just a little maybe sneak peek into your world? What are you most excited about right now?
BG: So here's my favorite saying right now. The only reason to be a parent is to be a grandparent. I am a grandparent of four and they are the light of my life. Other than Jesus, I don't think there's anybody else I could love more. So, that's my world right now. I spend as much time with them as I possibly can. Now, do I have other things that I do? Absolutely. But the joy of my life is my grandchildren.
DW: That is so good. Yeah. And I think about how much the Bible says, you know, children are blessing and, and just, you know, the generations and passing the wisdom that we've learned to the different generations. And you know, we're just getting started. My wife and I are pregnant with number three. So, at the very beginning of that process, but are already enjoying it. So, Beverly, before we get into your story, would you pray for our audience in just this time, that we would be able to learn and grow together and advance God's kingdom?
BG: Sure would. Father God, we are just so very thankful that we get a chance to call you Lord and Savior. This is the day that you've made. And we ask that you be with us. Open our eyes, open our ears. So that if I say one word that would trigger someone to say, you know what, I want to listen to God, on that we would be highly, highly blessed. Lord, we're so favored by you, no matter what our struggles as we start this new year, everybody's made resolutions or game plans or whatever to live their best lives. I asked you to encourage them in that. It's only day 11 and so give them strength to continue to go day by day I asked you to bless Daniel and the wonderful work he's doing with this podcast. I ask all these in Your Son's name. Amen.
DW: Amen. Thank you for that. Beverly, would you maybe give us a high-level view of your life and your story, maybe some key points, maybe some formative life experiences?
BG: Sure. I grew up in West Tennessee in a little town called Covington, right outside of Memphis, Tennessee to farmers. My parents were one generation from sharecroppers. I was the youngest of ten. So if my older brother would still be alive, he would be about 95 right now. And so there was a big gap between him and me. Of course, the closest in age to me is four years. Unfortunately, my dad died when I was 12. And so, we could no longer farm which really changed the trajectory of our lives. While we were poor, I never knew we were poor. And so probably the highlight for me in my formative years, I call it you know, zero to 17. I graduated from high school at 17 and I had a coach that really encouraged me and said hey you can do what you need to do. I mean, you can be successful.
BG: And so he helped me apply to different colleges and so forth and I got in, and got a college education. And literally, my mom is so funny because I wanted to go into business, she wanted me to be a teacher because black girls back in the day, I graduated from college in 1978, black girls in the day could only be teachers, right? But I wanted to be a business person, which takes me to a story, Daniel that I'd like to share. Remember, I said we were farmers. And at the time, they allow black kids to be out of school to work crops both spring and winter. And I was five years old, we were picking cotton, this would have been the fall. And I would pick just enough cotton to make a bed so I could go to sleep. Remember, I'm five years old. And I had an aunt that didn't really didn't like me. But my dad who was my protector, before we had to go to the trailer and way he would call me up early and put cotton in my sack because my mom was the disciplinarian.
BG: And my aunt who hated me know, this woman was probably, you know, 60 years older than I was. But anyway, she hated a five-year-old. She told my mom and so my mom was like beating me in front of everybody. And I said to her, you know what, but I'm not called to be a laborer. I am not going to be a laborer. Now, I'm saying this at five years old, right? So, I would say that God put on my heart that He had a special purpose and plan for me when I was five years old. And so I went to college, graduated from college, with a degree in finance and accounting. And after a year decided I didn't like that. And so I went into sales and marketing and I had a phenomenal career. And loved every minute of it.
DW: That's, that's really neat. And, I like some of those unique experiences that you drew out.
DW: Can you tell us a little bit more about how that career in sales and marketing went and kind of how that led into more of what you're doing now?
BG: So it's, it's really interesting because when I graduated, I started out working for a Gulf Oil Company that was bought out by Chevron and British Petroleum. But anyway, I want to say it was 1980, I heard a message from Dr. Tony Evans called needs, wants and desires. And the message basically said, God has promised to meet all of our needs. And what I mean is basically our food, shelter, clothing, the necessities of life. And he said, when you start getting into that one area, be careful. Because then you want you know, you need a house, you need a place to live, but you don't need a five-bedroom house. So that's what wants are, you want a five-bedroom house, and things that when you get into desires, those are the things that are kind of tricky. Because not only do you want a five-bedroom house, you want a five-bedroom house in a great neighborhood.
And so literally when I listened to that, and I was a year out of college, I thought that is such a great place to live, live in needs, be careful to approach wants, and fan desires is a danger zone, right. And so I love to tell people the story. My first year out of college, I was making $16,000. And I was working a part-time job. And in a year I saved $20,000. Now, it's one of those things I say I worked a part-time job, I worked every evening. So I was almost working full time at night. But my mom and dad had me when they were 48 and 45. So I always felt compelled that I would have to take care of my mother. And so I lived in a one-room in a rooming house. So I could save that money so that if anything happened to my mom, I would be able to take care of us. So those are things that just triggered memories in my life. And if it were not for Dr. Tony Evans, I'm not real sure. I wouldn't be in the generosity, spirit and space that I am right now.
DW: So, what year was that when you started out and made the $16,000 in the year and you said you saved $20,000.
BG: I made 16,000 In my professional job and worked a part-time job where I probably made another I don't know 8000 and given you know, you make that little bit of money, you're not doing a lot in taxes. And so my rooming house only cost $50 a month. So basically, I was living basically off of nothing. Trying to save everything I could for that first year.
DW: So what year was that?
BG: 1980
DW: And then, can you tell us a little bit about how when you got out of college, you said you heard kind of that speech on needs, wants and desires. And you started out your life, almost your career almost in that mindset? Were you able to continue that throughout your career? Or were there some ups and downs? Can you tell us a little bit about that?
BG: Yeah. So, it was one of those things where I always wanted to be a mother, I wanted to have five children, I ended up with four wonderful sons, one of which is my nephew. And so I wanted to make sure that I could educate them and educate them well. I was married, but unfortunately, I'm divorced. And so one of the things that I wanted to make sure that we did was to live a life that availed us to educate our children, not only through elementary and high school, but college as well, because I wanted them not to have the same struggle experience that I did.
BG: And so yeah, I kind of lived that life since I was 20 years old. I made a decision that I wouldn't wear designer clothes, I made a decision. And this is kind of funny when I think about it in today's terms that we would never have a mortgage that was more than $1,500 a month. And so there were just some choices and things, that I got some teaching and training on we as a couple and then me as a single as well. That said, here are the things that you can do so that you can have freedom, and not be a what I would call a slave to things. And again, Daniel, I would say it was that needs, wants, desires message that I heard that helped me be okay with that. Now, was it challenging? Oh, absolutely. It was very, very challenging.
BG: When I got promoted to officer at my company, I had a woman sit me down and tell me that I needed to change my wardrobe. And I said, oh, okay. She said, yeah, you know, you need to dress more like a corporate officer. And I said, okay, and so I asked her simply I said, so the outfit that you have on? How much does that cost? She had on this designer outfit. And excluding her handbag and shoes, the outfit alone was $2,400. I said to a dollar and all of my clothes probably don't cost $2,400. You know, and so I just, you know, did it hurt? Did it sting a little bit? She was I mean, she was doing it out of kindness. Well, she wasn't being critical. But I just decided that that was not the life that I wanted to live. Um, because it would impact what we would be able to do as a family. It would impact my ability to give and, so it was just not something that I wanted. The other thing that I would tell you is I chose never to go to Home A Rama. Because, you know, they're big, nice, fine houses that that you can get, but they may cost a whole lot of money. And I said, you know, I'm just not going to do that. I didn't want to put myself in a space where I would want to live somewhere that of course I could afford. But that would again, take away resources that we could have to do other things for other people.
DW: So were there certain percentages or principles behind what you would consider needs and wants? And how did you? I mean, that line gets very blurry very quickly. How did you keep kind of understanding of this is what we need to live on. And, this is what we kind of maybe some of our wants?
BG: Yeah, so budgeting was critically important. Because if you can get control of your mortgage, that helps a lot, because it impacts is how much you pay on taxes and all these other things, right? And so, off the top, our goal was 10% giving, that was the minimum that we would give, and then 10% savings. And so we try to adopt this principle, Daniel, where we said, let's not think about what we think the 80% that we have is ours. Let's think about what we really need to do. And again, I was very focused, we were very focused on education. We were very focused on supporting those that had other needs. And so it wasn't a struggle. I'm there. Towards the end of my marriage, if I'm being very, very honest. It became a struggle because my ex-husband then decided that there were some things that he wanted that he saw other spouses doing that was in the same situation and that was one of the straws that kind of broke the camel's back in our marriage, unfortunately, but, um, yeah, it wasn't easy, but it was the right thing to do and it required ongoing discussion and ongoing discipline.
DW: So, yeah, I think that that's very disciplined. And I think that is a very, like, practical thing. What is maybe some underlying truth? Where do you find significance in life? And, why? Maybe Can we talk about the why behind that? Yeah.
BG: So I get so much joy out of giving. Like I said, I grew up poor. And I'll be honest, Daniel, I really didn't know we were poor until I got to college. Because everybody around me basically, other than the people, I went to school with, the black people that I went around, that I was around other than the teachers, all were like us or had a little bit less. And so, you know, it wasn't until I got like I said, I got to college that I knew black people could have money. And so if you've grown up in a place where you don't feel the need to perform, that` your worth comes from what you have, my mom was a great role model in that out of our little she gave, because we were farmers because we have the ability to raise vegetables.
BG: So I grew up in a family that was generous. I grew up in a family that required you to think more about others than you thought about yourself. So I had that foundation. And so I think that was the catalyst for me to figure out in my adult life, how do I adapt those principles to the life that I'm living? Because I wasn't living in a scarcity life, I had an abundance of resources. But how do you balance because I didn't want to, you know, kind of consider myself being a martyr, like, I'm not going to do anything. But how do you balance giving to others seeking God's guidance on how you do it?
DW: And then can you talk a little bit about the success that you saw in your career and maybe some of the things that helped you to succeed in that career?
BG: Yeah, I think one of the greatest things that happened to me is I had great mentors, you know, that I worked for Standard Oil for the first five years of my career. And then I moved to another company, they started Cincinnati, a small CPG company is what I like to call it. And it's a funny story, you know, I went to my first meeting, and I had on a red dress, which I thought was like, phenomenal, I looked really good in red. And I met a woman named Susan Arnold, who would become like the second in command at P&G. But she said to me, I really want to get to know someone that would show up at a P&G meeting in a red dress. And so that was I was with the company, probably four or five days when that happened. And so I got connected to her. And of course, performance is required. And she connected me to other people.
BG: So I just had really, really good mentors, when I was there if I were in a difficult problem, situation, etc. But the one thing, Daniel, that I think was the most, probably the most helpful for me, is I stay true to my values. So whenever I would get a new manager, when I sat down with them, I would always say, here's what I need you to understand about me, my number one priority is to be a child of God. And in order for me to do that, I have to support my family in a way that works well for us. I do not want my children to suffer because they have a working mother. I said, the third thing is I'm really committed to my faith community and my church. And I said, then the fourth priority would be my job. And I said, however, if I can do the first three things, well, I'll be the best employee that you would ever have. And I never ran into any resistance with that, right? Most people would say I was a workaholic. And I was because I got joy out of what I was doing. But also I was allowed to support my family in a way that worked really well for me.
DW: Yeah, that's really good. That's really helpful too. And I like that those two keys were one having great mentors and the blessing of a good mentor. And then having you're being upfront about your faith and your values and really being clear about that. What about your vision for what you felt like God was calling you to and really what purpose in life you had and what can you share maybe about your calling and what that looks like?
BG: Yeah, I believe that that five-year-old child experience, for me was the vision God had given me. Throughout my life, I've been committed to helping children and single moms. I believe that education is the great equalizer. And I don't mean just formal in-school education, but education on how to live life and live life abundantly, which has nothing to do with how much money you have, right? So my calling has always, always been in those areas. And so when I retired kind of formally, 10 years ago, the Lord gave me a vision to create a fund a foundation that focuses on three areas, literacy for kids under the age of six, to support single moms under the age of 35 so that they can help their children and then kids that are in foster care. I think it's a travesty in society that we emancipate youth out of the foster care system at 17 years old. And we give them a stipend to live off of. And what I say to people is I have four sons at 17 years old, they couldn't have found their bottoms with both hands in the dark. So to put a 17-year-old out with no real guidance, and no real training.
BG: So, those are three things that the Lord put on my heart to work against. And I didn't listen, you know, I checked in those areas. That's what I would say I was giving tips to those organizations that supported that. But back in 2018, He really sat me down and said, no, no, I really want you to go after this. And so I tried doing it with another group of people. And that didn't work out. And finally, last year, He said, okay, are you going to do it my way? Are you going to continue to try to do your way. And so He gave me, you know, the spirit of a phone call inspiring hope. I've been talking to people about it, in the support that I have received from friends and people in the community has been overwhelming. And it's because my focus is, is if we can allow young people, if a child can go into school, at the age of six with the ability to pre-read is what I call it, you know, sight words, that kind of thing. It changes the trajectory of their life, I read a study that says, if a child can't read by third grade, they're more likely to drop out of school in seventh grade. So think about your life impact. So it's just really critical. So yeah, that's my focus. That's my vision. I put my resources against that. I'll put my time against that. Because I think it's so critically important.
DW: Is that something that has been established already?
BG: The Fund was established last year. I put in a significant investment, we will do our first granting in May of 2023. And I'm really, I'm just really excited about it. I do that. But also, I'm very passionate about two other organizations that I give to but that one, the Inspiring Hope Fund, has been, that one is just so critically important to me, because it reminds me of the opportunities that I was afforded. As I grew up, people didn't give to me financially, but they gave to me emotionally.
DW: Is that geographically focused on a particular area?
BG: So right now we're focused on the, I'm from Cincinnati, we're focused on the greatest Cincinnati area, so the greatest Cincinnati region, so we would touch people in Kentucky, people in Indiana, and then people in Cincinnati, that whole region. And so until we get really up and running and can have a tremendous, what I would call tremendous impact in that region. You know, our goal is I've had someone already contact me and say, “Hey, I would love to talk to you about what you're doing. And maybe we could, we could do it where I live.” And so it's all about what the Lord continues to lead me to do and to be able to do and again, Daniel, I'm so really excited about it. Because it's all about the kids. We had a kickoff event. On Wednesday, it was December 8, and people asked me, Why didn't you invite me to come? Well, it was a kickoff event for people to be encouragers not to give. And so it was a lot of fun.
DW: Yeah. So can you paint us a little bit of a picture of what you said would be a tremendous success or tremendous amount of impact, what would that look like?
BG: So for me, the impact would look like and I'm African American, for those of you that can't see me in the audience. And my focus and target primarily is towards African American youth. Success to me looks like finding those agencies that have boots on the ground that are touching kids. And I'll give you one example. There's a woman in Cincinnati, she's my hero. Her name is Rosemary Oglesby-Henry. She has an organization called Rosemary's Babies. Rosemary was fourth-generation single mom. But her daughter is now I want to get her age right, 27 years old, has a master's degree, works with her mother, and has not had a child. So Rosemary broke that cycle of four generations of teen moms. And so her program focuses on teen moms, she's had more than 1000 girls go through her program. And her goal is to enable them to kind of bail their lives out and not have another pregnancy, so that they can graduate high school, go to college, or trade school, or whatever the thing, and her success rate is phenomenal. Out of the over 1000 girls that she's had through our program, only three to five have gotten pregnant again, because she can speak to them in real-life experience. And so it's organizations like that, that can get to the heart of what's impacting these young people and create change.
DW: So looking back over your life, what are some of the maybe some of the highlights, but also some of the failures? And what can we learn from a combination of those?
BG: You know, I try not to look at things as failures. I try to look at them as learning experiences. The lowest impact in my life was the dissolvment of my marriage. I am, yeah, that that was low but I've learned from that. And, and, and so yeah, that's the lowest, no regrets, but it's the lowest point in my life because it has impact on my children, my grandchildren. And so but I know the Lord has us. You know, some of the highlights for me is in my career, I had the opportunity to live in a national, I had the opportunity to work with great, great people. I've had the opportunity to read some great books. I love reading wonderful books. You know, one of the highlights of my life was reading The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn. I love that book. I've given that book to many, many people. And December of 2020, 2021, my pastor did a teaching series on The Treasure Principle. It’s so funny because I found myself as he would go to a chapter like speaking it out loud. And I told him I'm really sorry. I said, I've just read it so much that kind of like… that was probably like the needs-wants-desires sermon that I heard from Dr. Evans. That Treasure Principle book by Randy Alcorn was a game-changer for me. Those are things that have really impacted my life.
DW: If you think about one thing that you could be remembered for in your life, what would that be?
BG: Being generous of heart and generous of spirit. I want people when they walk away from me in their interactions to find that they are either where they were when they met me or a little bit higher. I want to be an encourager. I want to be generous. Time, talents, treasures, I mean, that's what I want to be known for. Like, yeah.
DW: And then what do you personally find the greatest impact things that you're spending your time you talked a little bit about it? But maybe like, can you give us a story of maybe one instance where you were like, hey, I'm gonna invest my time or my resources or energy into this and just reap a huge reward and maybe share about that?
BG: Yep. So when I was young, I had mumps, measles, rheumatic fever all at the same time, went into cardiac arrest. So I have damaged heart valves that I did not find out until I was 27 years old. Remember, I grew up very poor with no health care. And so at 27 years old, I had my kind of like, executive physical at my company. And the doctor said to me, like, wow, this is like a serious heart murmur that you have, like, did you know that? I'm like, no. And so when I got to the cardiologist, he tells me the only way you can have this type of heart murmur is that you have rheumatic fever. It's okay. I call my mom. She said no. Then I call my oldest sister and she said, oh, yeah, yeah. And she told me the story. I didn't even remember it because when I got out of the hospital, it's the day that my dad died. And so I think I walked out of that experience and I found my father when he had died.
BG: So anyway, I am a huge proponent of the healthy life, healthy lifestyle. And I invest a lot of time, energy and so forth in the American Heart Association. I would never tell people my story because I don't want people to feel sorry for me. Unfortunately, we live in a day and time where I had someone say to me, this is probably six months ago that they felt sorry for me because I was a black woman. And I'm like, you feel sorry for me because I'm a black woman? Like, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard of. I mean, I'm good, right? And so I think my sharing my story, justice. Honestly, as I'm sharing with you right now. I did it last year for the hardball. And I will tell you, I had hundreds of people say to me, thank you for telling your story in a very authentic way. And it's allowed me to speak into places where we're health equity is just so, so important. And I don't mean just for African Americans or Hispanics, people of color. I mean, poor people, everyone, everyone should have the opportunity to get health care. And I think doing what I've done, and will continue to do with the American Heart Association has given me that opportunity.
DW: Well, thank you for that. And my next question is more in line with generosity. And I think, you know, we've seen your story of generosity, and even just living a lifestyle of generosity, can you maybe share a tip or a piece of advice on how we can be more generous and how we can grow in generosity
BG: You know, I'll go back to Randy's Treasure Principle book. If we simply look at what we have as all God’s, and we're just the money manager, we're just a steward. And just think about that. Let's not think about the difficulty of giving away 10%, 15%, 20%. Think about the blessing that you get a chance to live on the other 80%. I mean, we have to flip this thing on its head, from being one of we think it's restrictive to be generous. It's not restrictive to be generous. What it is, it requires a mindset to know how blessed you are, to have the opportunity, if you have $1, you get a chance to keep you know, 80 to 90 cents. I mean, come on, how generous is that?
And so I simply think it's about having that mindset that says it is and I'll just quote it, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”. I get so much joy, not out of people recognizing me just releasing. When you have a spirit of release with open hands, it takes a lot of the pressure off, it takes a lot of tension out of the system.
DW: All right, before we enter the mentor minute, what is the single greatest piece of advice that you can offer? Maybe around what we've talked about, but also in life in general?
BG: Probably the greatest focus for me, my mom said this to me. When I was younger, she said everything's not about you. I was upset about something. And she says when I say yes to myself, it doesn't mean I'm saying no to you. But see, we look at everything based upon what someone says we think it's all about us. And it's not all about us. And so that's one of the things that I've had to learn. And I talked to myself about it daily, because you can have interactions. And you think, Oh, wow, why did they do that to me? No, they were taking care of themselves. They were not doing anything to you. And so that that's my daily desire is to look through the lens of 'others are taking care of themselves, they are not not taking care of me.
DW: Right. Yeah. And my wife in her office, she has in big, bold letters, “It's not about me”.
BG: Right. Exactly. But it's not easy, though. It's not easy, because, you know, I had a friend who I thought would be a friend for life who chose to end the friendship and I mean, it was hurtful and mournful. And then I started thinking, wait a minute, this has nothing to do with you. It has to do with the choice that she made. Right? So like, you know, slap yourself and get up.
DW: Who is the most influential person that you know, and how have they impacted you?
BG: Ah, the most influential person I know, is one of the former CEOs of Procter & Gamble. His name is John Pepper. John Pepper has done as much more for the community of the city of Cincinnati and the region as anybody. Here is a man that is selfless in what he does and what he gives and he doesn't seek recognition. I thought you know have the blessing of meeting him 30 days into the job at my company. And he lives what he says, he does what he says. I'm blessed to know him, I am blessed to know him.
DW: Is there a particular podcast or book that comes to mind that you'd recommend that we check out?
BG: Already talked about The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn. It's game-changing, it’s life-changing.
DW: I'd agree. Yeah, that was really a growth in my generosity. And just thoughts around, you know, our true position as God's money managers.
BG: I think not only is it true around generosity, and money management is true about how to live your life. Right? It's just focused on generosity. But it also is a good life book.
DW: All right. Last question. What's the greatest lesson in leadership that you have learned?
BG: Probably, that it’is not about me, it's all about the team. If you are an encourager, an enabler of those you work around and those you work with, you can move mountains, but when you make it about you and not about the team, there's no success.
DW: All right, Beverly, how can we be praying for you, your family, and what you're doing?
BG: I would love to have prayer around Inspiring Hope Fund. One of the things that I want the Cincinnati region and community to know is that there's this one person who's one African American person that thinks that that change can be made by focusing on raising funds to enable and empower young people of color, black kids, to live a successful and abundant life. And that does not only mean money, it's knowing who they are, and growing up to be all that they can be and I'm gonna beat that drum until the day I die.
DW: So Beverly, where can we find out more information about Inspiring Hope?
BG: So I'm not a social media kind of chick. I don't have any of that kind of stuff. So if you go to the Greater Cincinnati Foundation website, and click on Inspiring Hope, the information is there.
DW: Excellent. Thank you so much. Hey, do you mind if I pray for you before we close out?
BG: I would love for you to pray for me, Daniel. Thank you.
DW: All right, let's pray. God, I thank you and praise you for Beverly and for all the things that you're accomplishing through her. I thank you for her heart for saying yes to your call to care, for children and single moms. Lord, I pray that you would bring around the right people to get involved in Inspiring Hope. And that you would show your love through the boots on the ground, the people that are funding it, and everyone involved. God, I thank you for that. I pray that you would get all of the glory in Christ, I pray, amen.
BG: Amen. Thank you.
DW: Thank you so much for coming on. We really enjoyed it. It was a joy speaking with you. And thank you guys for listening to another episode of The Kingdom Investor. We'll catch you next time. Take care.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[OUTRO]
ANNNOUNCER: What if you could take your generosity to the next level, impacting more lives in your community and around the world, creating a godly legacy for generations to come?
Now you can. Your first step is crafting your kingdom investing thesis. Reserve your spot in our next online workshop where we guide you through the process of discovering your passions, create a strategic plan and connect you to opportunities that will help you fulfill your God-given calling as a kingdom investor. Register today by clicking the link in the show notes.
Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe and we'll see you next time for another episode of The Kingdom Investor Podcast.
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