WEBVTT 00:00:03.665 --> 00:00:07.793 Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast, where we have conversations about faith and hope. 00:00:07.793 --> 00:00:14.503 Hope is one church made of people living out their faith through two expressions in person and online. 00:00:14.503 --> 00:00:21.545 We believe a hybrid faith experience can lead to a growing influence in our community and our world for the sake of others. 00:00:21.545 --> 00:00:23.762 Welcome to Hope. 00:00:27.445 --> 00:00:30.512 Hey, welcome everybody to the Meet Hope podcast. 00:00:30.512 --> 00:00:38.171 I'm your host, jeff Bills, and I'm here with Bob Brown, a brother in Christ and member of Hope. 00:00:38.171 --> 00:00:39.634 Bob, welcome, thank you. 00:00:39.634 --> 00:00:43.353 Thank you, glad to be here. 00:00:43.353 --> 00:00:50.286 Yeah, so for those of you who don't know Bob, we're going to start by telling us a little bit about yourself family, background and so forth. 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:55.268 We're going to Barbara for 23 years. 00:00:55.268 --> 00:01:10.828 I have three children from my first marriage and two children from Barb, so we have a nice family and 10 grandchildren which give us a lot of joy, grew up in South Jersey and landed in Vordes. 00:01:10.828 --> 00:01:15.888 All right, we're in South Jersey, oakland, haddon, soundtrip, oh yeah Area. 00:01:15.888 --> 00:01:16.829 So not far from here. 00:01:16.829 --> 00:01:18.962 I'd been with St. 00:01:18.962 --> 00:01:21.867 Andrews for a number of years, right next to Ponzios. 00:01:22.108 --> 00:01:23.411 Yep, nice, nice. 00:01:23.411 --> 00:01:30.052 And so, bob, I've gotten to know you over the years. 00:01:30.052 --> 00:01:52.292 You and I have been in small groups together and had some times at diners together and, having heard your story over the years, I just thought it'd be a great opportunity to have you share your story, both professional as well as spiritual components of your story. 00:01:52.292 --> 00:01:55.147 So let's start at the beginning. 00:01:55.147 --> 00:02:00.531 As a young man, you were working with your dad, right? 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:15.568 Well, my parents were divorced when I was eight so my dad wasn't around much because we had us occasionally, but we lived with my mom and did not have much money. 00:02:15.568 --> 00:02:19.706 So my entrepreneurial spirit was stoked early on. 00:02:19.706 --> 00:02:33.206 To have money to buy the stuff I wanted drums or a car I had to go get a job shovel snow, sell snow cones, work at a gas station, you know, do whatever I could do to make money. 00:02:33.206 --> 00:02:37.390 So I guess I grew up with the spirit of work was part of life. 00:02:37.390 --> 00:02:38.883 It wasn't. 00:02:38.883 --> 00:02:40.629 I wasn't able to just coast through. 00:02:40.629 --> 00:02:44.066 I had to get up and do something if I wanted to go to a movie. 00:02:44.306 --> 00:02:45.449 Nobody was handing you cash. 00:02:45.508 --> 00:02:46.289 Correct, correct. 00:02:46.310 --> 00:02:49.227 Okay, so where did that? 00:02:50.075 --> 00:02:51.100 lead you as Well. 00:02:51.100 --> 00:03:01.026 I graduated high school, went one year to Rutgers at my father's behest and he was paying for that but I really did not like school at all. 00:03:01.026 --> 00:03:03.748 I was just anxious to get out and start my life. 00:03:03.748 --> 00:03:06.786 I didn't want to live home, I wanted to have an apartment. 00:03:06.786 --> 00:03:10.209 I wanted to, you know, be in a relationship and move forward. 00:03:10.209 --> 00:03:12.585 So I started working. 00:03:12.866 --> 00:03:35.026 Basically I dropped out after one year of college and my dad gave me a job and it was his business knowledge that led him after a couple of years to say you're never going to learn how to run a business watching me run the business so you can work your way through the organization, which I did, driving a truck and cleaning heaters and dispatching other truck drivers. 00:03:35.026 --> 00:03:36.850 What was this business? 00:03:36.850 --> 00:03:41.431 It was a home heating fuel business and heating air conditioning. 00:03:41.431 --> 00:03:46.632 So we put heaters in and cleaned them, maintained them and sold fuel in South Jersey. 00:03:46.632 --> 00:03:48.604 So it was a nice business. 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:58.659 But at that age, at 19 years old, it was a lot of work, getting a chance and my dad said I'll front the money to put you in a business. 00:03:58.659 --> 00:04:00.062 What kind of business do you want to put in? 00:04:00.062 --> 00:04:02.580 I'll lend you the money, you run the business and pay me back. 00:04:02.580 --> 00:04:07.516 Okay, so I started an auto parts business and we called it Sun's auto supply. 00:04:07.516 --> 00:04:12.661 It's still in business Because I didn't want anybody to know my name. 00:04:12.661 --> 00:04:15.110 The salesman I was afraid would come in and want to ask for Bob. 00:04:15.110 --> 00:04:15.793 Where's Bob? 00:04:15.793 --> 00:04:21.716 And by calling it Sun's I could say, like he's not here and yeah yeah, but anyway, it was a great exercise. 00:04:21.776 --> 00:04:32.163 It was a low amount of dollars to get in and learn how to Build customer relationships, run, inventory, manage your money, decide the hours you're gonna operate higher and fire. 00:04:32.163 --> 00:04:35.838 It was a great capsule to learn business. 00:04:35.838 --> 00:04:52.177 So I did that for About five years and then my father had a heart attack and they called me and said basically, your dad's in the hospital, you got to come over and run this heating, air conditioning business and that was painful because I had the auto parts business was a part of me. 00:04:52.177 --> 00:04:54.305 I couldn't separate me from the business. 00:04:54.305 --> 00:04:55.269 It was intertwined. 00:04:55.269 --> 00:05:01.923 I felt like they were cutting my right arm off to leave something that I had built to go to run the bigger company. 00:05:01.923 --> 00:05:05.059 But that was the calling, that was the right thing to do. 00:05:05.059 --> 00:05:07.968 So I did that and then sold off the auto parts business. 00:05:08.228 --> 00:05:14.440 Okay, so how long then did you run your dad's business? 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:16.605 Well, my dad gave me a lot of rope. 00:05:16.605 --> 00:05:33.326 So my relationship with my dad you know Not being there when I was a teenager to being there as a mentor and a business coach and he had business experience Changed the dynamic that I had much more respect for him and then I had respect that he allowed, he gave me the reins and let me run the business. 00:05:33.326 --> 00:05:36.141 When he had the heart attack he didn't come back to work right away. 00:05:36.141 --> 00:05:41.261 I was doing good, I was making money in the account, said let the kid run it, you know he's doing good. 00:05:41.380 --> 00:05:45.677 Yeah, but unfortunately for him letting me run at that age. 00:05:45.677 --> 00:05:59.341 I ran too fast, I grew too fast and Expanded the company, bought four or five other companies up and folded them in to get more customers and Ultimately that was too much, too fast and the business was in trouble. 00:05:59.341 --> 00:06:00.377 So I had to sell it. 00:06:00.377 --> 00:06:02.329 Okay, in order to not go bankrupt. 00:06:02.329 --> 00:06:08.329 It was easier to sell, to get myself out of a gym, but my father I still owed him money for it. 00:06:08.329 --> 00:06:10.396 I was buying it from him over time, so that was. 00:06:10.396 --> 00:06:13.343 I fumbled the family jewel there. 00:06:13.464 --> 00:06:14.908 That was really hard. 00:06:14.968 --> 00:06:15.732 Difficult it was. 00:06:15.732 --> 00:06:16.755 It was a hard time. 00:06:16.755 --> 00:06:21.194 A lesson in life is it doesn't matter how many times you get knocked down, it's how many times you get back. 00:06:22.370 --> 00:06:23.314 How will you at this point? 00:06:23.314 --> 00:06:31.309 Oh, probably late 20s, 28, 29 Wow that's a lot for a young guy like that. 00:06:31.309 --> 00:06:32.733 Yeah, I'm about that. 00:06:33.254 --> 00:06:38.232 A lot of you have a lot of people's lives at you on your shoulders. 00:06:38.232 --> 00:06:46.492 We probably had 60 or 80 employees with their families, and to not be able to make payroll is not an acceptable Option, right? 00:06:46.492 --> 00:06:49.038 Those people are dependent on you to feed their family, so it's weight Wow. 00:06:51.211 --> 00:06:55.420 So you sell the business, and then what would you do from there? 00:06:55.420 --> 00:06:55.761 I? 00:06:55.841 --> 00:07:11.478 sold the business and I went to work for the company that bought the business Okay and quickly found out that the person we sold it to was not an honest individual and I could not Work in that environment where it wasn't an honest environment. 00:07:11.478 --> 00:07:15.694 So I left quickly and unfortunately leaving. 00:07:15.694 --> 00:07:20.004 I had less leverage and he was buying the company over time. 00:07:20.004 --> 00:07:21.894 He never made a payment. 00:07:21.894 --> 00:07:22.254 He was. 00:07:22.254 --> 00:07:26.543 We had agreed to five annual payments and he never made the first payment. 00:07:26.543 --> 00:07:35.298 So, wow, so the money that was coming for my dad and hopefully some for me, evaporated and we didn't get paid. 00:07:35.298 --> 00:07:43.860 So I was home Three kids, a mortgage, no job, no money and wondering what I'm gonna do. 00:07:43.860 --> 00:07:48.781 And at this point, you know, I went to church on Sunday but I thought it was my problem. 00:07:48.781 --> 00:07:51.362 I didn't go to God and say what should I do? 00:07:51.362 --> 00:08:00.822 I was praying to take the pressure off, help me figure it out, but it was like I wanted him to bless my plan instead of trying to ask him what's his plan. 00:08:01.336 --> 00:08:03.262 I wasn't mature enough to realize that. 00:08:03.262 --> 00:08:05.257 But he did. 00:08:05.257 --> 00:08:07.134 At the time I didn't realize that. 00:08:07.134 --> 00:08:17.021 He put something in front of me that was this little asphalt business that was for sale and I was able to go to friends and relatives 20 different friends and relatives. 00:08:17.021 --> 00:08:19.302 I asked them to lend me $10,000 each. 00:08:19.302 --> 00:08:21.762 10 of them said yes, 10 said no. 00:08:21.762 --> 00:08:23.480 So I had $100,000. 00:08:23.480 --> 00:08:29.838 And then I went to a bank and said I have 100,000, but I need another 300,000 to put a down payment on a business. 00:08:29.838 --> 00:08:35.404 And the bank said we believe in you, we know your history, we'll give you the 300 grand. 00:08:35.404 --> 00:08:46.562 So with none of my own money, I was able to show up, put 400,000 down, buy a business, and the owner took back a note over time that I could pay him as the business earned money. 00:08:46.621 --> 00:08:51.556 So Now, of course you had lots of knowledge and background in asphalt, right, correct? 00:08:52.538 --> 00:08:55.799 none whatsoever in asphalt, and which is foolish. 00:08:55.799 --> 00:09:00.278 I mean, if you would look at it, how did I survive Without God being in it? 00:09:00.278 --> 00:09:03.018 It should not have made it Against all odds. 00:09:03.018 --> 00:09:05.259 I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know how it worked. 00:09:06.517 --> 00:09:08.764 Now tell the story of when you first arrived. 00:09:08.764 --> 00:09:20.481 You shared that with me, so you're looking, you're meeting the staff and checking out all this the seller did not want me to meet the employees prior to buying the company. 00:09:20.522 --> 00:09:21.565 He was afraid they would quit. 00:09:21.565 --> 00:09:24.643 So I bought the company without meeting them. 00:09:24.643 --> 00:09:34.779 So I met him on the first day after I had made settlement and they scared me by saying I hope you know what you bought and I hope you have a lot of money because we need all new stuff and I'm like I don't have any money. 00:09:34.779 --> 00:09:36.779 What is gonna happen with that? 00:09:36.779 --> 00:09:42.902 And it was run into the ground to the point that there wasn't a battery in one truck or piece of equipment that would start it. 00:09:42.902 --> 00:09:50.118 So the first guy in the morning would show up with jumper cables and use his personal car to jump the first truck and that would jump the second truck and that would jump. 00:09:50.715 --> 00:09:52.442 And it was like how do you run a business like this? 00:09:52.442 --> 00:09:54.581 If it stalls out, you're stuck. 00:09:54.581 --> 00:09:56.120 Your battery won't start the thing. 00:09:56.120 --> 00:10:04.541 So it was a very challenging first few weeks that I went home and curled up in the fetal position wondering what have I done? 00:10:04.541 --> 00:10:08.022 I mortgaged everything I borrowed from everybody that trusts me. 00:10:08.022 --> 00:10:09.518 I can't fail. 00:10:09.518 --> 00:10:12.539 I just had to get up and go and fight my way through it as best. 00:10:12.620 --> 00:10:12.902 I could. 00:10:12.902 --> 00:10:20.541 There's a life lesson right there, Just as we are getting started today talking about resilience, right? 00:10:20.541 --> 00:10:24.043 What's that mean to you, this idea of resilience? 00:10:28.315 --> 00:10:45.058 It's energy and the faith and the hope that things will work out and the trust in other people that they're gonna pay you for what you do for them, work-wise, or that the bank will trust you to lend your money or that vendors will trust you to be laid on a payment when you can't make it. 00:10:45.058 --> 00:10:52.144 So so much of it is intertwined with building relationships with people and acting in an honest, forthright fashion. 00:10:52.144 --> 00:10:53.500 People will give you a rope. 00:10:53.500 --> 00:11:02.402 People will say sure, I'll wait 90 days to get paid because you told me what's going on and you told me what's happening and why it's happening and I trust you. 00:11:02.402 --> 00:11:08.361 If you don't answer the phone and you hide from the bad news, then it just gets worse and you don't get that kind of rope. 00:11:08.361 --> 00:11:14.336 So I learned earlier on relationships or what builds the business, and trust. 00:11:14.576 --> 00:11:17.806 Yeah, all good stuff. 00:11:17.806 --> 00:11:54.937 The word resilience Marilyn and I were talking a couple of years ago and reflecting on the experience of starting Hope Church and I said you know, I think the thing that set us apart from all of the other church startups that happened in the area at the same time Hope has started in that same few years that aren't around the thing that we had was resilience, this idea of we're going to get up every day and we're going to go to work and do the best we can. 00:11:54.937 --> 00:11:57.484 Obviously, god is involved in this. 00:11:57.484 --> 00:12:04.748 We knew that, but every once in a while I would remind God you know you're invisible and I'm not. 00:12:05.551 --> 00:12:06.754 But you're a vision caster. 00:12:06.754 --> 00:12:13.100 So I know I've heard the story where you stood in the middle of the field and you felt that, calling that I'm supposed to plant a church here. 00:12:13.100 --> 00:12:19.451 But the entrepreneurial spirit and the resilience I think is tied with being a visionary. 00:12:19.451 --> 00:12:29.347 You have to see what nobody else sees, what could be, and how do I get there and how do I get the team to do the work so we can get there, because one person can't do it. 00:12:29.347 --> 00:12:30.571 You need a team of people. 00:12:30.571 --> 00:12:37.182 So that vision casting I think is critical, that you can get people to understand your dream and what it might look like. 00:12:37.624 --> 00:12:38.144 There you go. 00:12:38.144 --> 00:12:41.232 So that's how you get started. 00:12:41.232 --> 00:12:53.845 You've got discouraged employees and bad equipment and you've got everything riding on this and so you start just going out and building relationships with customers. 00:12:53.845 --> 00:12:55.889 I guess what? 00:12:55.950 --> 00:13:00.644 I found the asphalt industry was not a service industry. 00:13:00.644 --> 00:13:02.812 It was sort of a low bid industry. 00:13:02.812 --> 00:13:07.024 The cheapest guy would get the job and you would treat your customers very poorly. 00:13:07.024 --> 00:13:10.332 That I'll come when I feel like I'm, not when you want me to come. 00:13:10.332 --> 00:13:12.205 I'll do the job when I feel like it. 00:13:12.205 --> 00:13:19.249 That's what the competitors were telling people and my history of being in the home heating oil business. 00:13:19.249 --> 00:13:20.351 It was high service. 00:13:20.351 --> 00:13:22.166 You had the customers relied on you. 00:13:22.166 --> 00:13:23.995 They needed you to come when they needed you to come. 00:13:23.995 --> 00:13:28.576 So I turned the business sideways and said, well, let's be a customer service organization. 00:13:28.576 --> 00:13:30.904 How about we go when the customer wants us? 00:13:30.904 --> 00:13:32.773 And that opened doors for me. 00:13:32.773 --> 00:13:35.711 People wanted to do business with me because I treated them with respect. 00:13:35.711 --> 00:13:36.995 I came when they wanted. 00:13:36.995 --> 00:13:38.278 I stood behind my work. 00:13:38.278 --> 00:13:45.961 I went back and fixed up if it was wrong and built the business, trying to be unlike the competitors, not like the competitors. 00:13:46.442 --> 00:13:51.693 Well, that's so smart, so smart, so you stand out in that way, right Correct? 00:13:51.693 --> 00:13:56.879 How long did it take before things started to turn around? 00:13:59.967 --> 00:14:05.702 The business started increasing almost immediately, just being diligent and caring and showing up every day. 00:14:05.702 --> 00:14:13.171 The first year we did more than the previous owner had done, but it was still like the Flintstones. 00:14:13.171 --> 00:14:20.423 I mean, it's almost like your feet were going through and peddling the car around the lot and you know, you see, fred Flintstone, you want a dinosaur. 00:14:20.423 --> 00:14:21.971 That's what the plant was like. 00:14:21.971 --> 00:14:24.761 I mean dust and dirt and noise and nothing worked right. 00:14:24.761 --> 00:14:28.817 So it took three or four years to be able to buy used equipment. 00:14:28.817 --> 00:14:34.011 I still couldn't afford new equipment, but at least when something wore out I could buy a five-year-old truck. 00:14:34.620 --> 00:14:42.392 Not couldn't afford a new truck, but slowly, piece by piece, and I had to discern what's the most important piece, because I could only afford maybe one piece a year. 00:14:42.392 --> 00:14:43.456 So what do I need? 00:14:43.456 --> 00:14:47.288 A paver or a roller or a truck or repairs to the plant? 00:14:47.288 --> 00:14:56.311 So it years to get it up and then, as it's like a snowball going downhill, the more business you do, the more dollars you have, the quicker you can grow. 00:14:56.311 --> 00:15:03.102 It gets easier and I wasn't worried about making payroll that first year, like every week, is do we have enough? 00:15:03.102 --> 00:15:09.182 Yeah, how to go out and collect money, knock on doors to make sure I got paid so I could pay everybody. 00:15:09.182 --> 00:15:10.687 That's rough, it was tough. 00:15:10.927 --> 00:15:21.027 Yeah, so while the business is growing, your faith begins to grow at some point in your life. 00:15:21.027 --> 00:15:23.110 Talk about that some. 00:15:24.111 --> 00:15:32.774 So I was brought up in the Methodist Church was I don't think I was ever as bad as a Sunday Christian as we go. 00:15:32.774 --> 00:15:39.628 You know, you went back to work but I didn't have the guts to wear it on my sleeve. 00:15:39.628 --> 00:15:46.889 I didn't have the ability to force my thoughts and beliefs on other people. 00:15:46.889 --> 00:15:50.157 So it was go to church on Sunday, pray. 00:15:50.157 --> 00:16:00.538 I prayed a lot and prayers were answered, but it took more years to get to a maturity level that I realized that. 00:16:00.538 --> 00:16:05.168 You know I spend more time with people than they spend with their families. 00:16:05.168 --> 00:16:12.578 I'm with them at least 40 hours a week, sometimes 50 or 60 hours a week, and they go to church maybe an hour a week and they're with their families. 00:16:12.578 --> 00:16:22.534 But I'm in a position where I can sway their thoughts and if I demonstrate, if I can walk the walk and treat them well, which I think I always did. 00:16:22.696 --> 00:16:28.676 I was always honest, never cheated anybody tried, never to go to court and just was a Christian businessman. 00:16:28.676 --> 00:16:43.870 But then, 15 years or so later, when I joined C12, which is a Christian CEO peer group, I was given a different vision of what a business might look like if it was outwardly Christian, where you told people up front. 00:16:43.870 --> 00:16:50.004 You were Christian and you flew a Christian flag and you put Christianity or a Bible verse on your business card and stuff. 00:16:50.004 --> 00:16:58.241 That was out there and I needed a little hand holding, a little backbone from some peers to say, yes, you can do this, it's okay. 00:16:58.241 --> 00:17:03.339 And that was challenging and a little step out of faith to say, all right, I'm going to do it. 00:17:03.339 --> 00:17:09.863 I hope it doesn't negatively affect the business and it positively affected business, but that was a journey. 00:17:10.384 --> 00:17:20.429 Yeah, so when you say positively affected the business, I know internally it's got to have an impact on the culture of your shop. 00:17:21.855 --> 00:17:27.327 Customers, even Jewish customers, commented to me as like we respect that you're outwardly. 00:17:27.327 --> 00:17:29.346 We know where you stand, we know what you're believing. 00:17:29.346 --> 00:17:31.015 We have no problem at all with that. 00:17:31.015 --> 00:17:33.540 I thought they might be alienated or not like it. 00:17:33.540 --> 00:17:34.845 I found the opposite. 00:17:34.845 --> 00:17:39.604 But what was even more beneficial and true was employees. 00:17:39.604 --> 00:17:44.218 Prospective employees came to me and said I would like to work in your company. 00:17:44.218 --> 00:17:50.441 I finally found something aligned with my values and that was like I had never thought about that. 00:17:50.803 --> 00:18:03.346 They were like looking for a place that they could work, where they could trust that they would be doing the right thing, so that was really beneficial to end up with a team of people with similar faith and hope to work with. 00:18:03.848 --> 00:18:04.229 Interesting. 00:18:04.229 --> 00:18:13.905 So a number of years ago you hired onto your staff a chaplain, and that's again. 00:18:13.905 --> 00:18:18.758 That's unusual for a business to have a chaplain on staff. 00:18:18.758 --> 00:18:20.121 Talk a little bit about that. 00:18:21.463 --> 00:18:30.375 It is unusual and that's a sad fact that it really shouldn't be unusual because it's so simple to bring in a spiritual counselor. 00:18:30.375 --> 00:18:38.880 We have no problem bringing in a counselor for drug addiction or HR functions or to check your hearing or OSHA safety. 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:46.625 You know all that stuff is intertwined with business and we leave out the heart, the faith portion of everybody. 00:18:46.625 --> 00:18:49.296 We want people to bring their whole self to work every day. 00:18:49.296 --> 00:18:56.795 Well, if I'm not caring for your soul and your faith and what's going on in your life, all that stuff is on your mind while you're at work. 00:18:56.795 --> 00:19:03.550 You can't really be 100% productive when you're worried about your wife and your relationship or your child or whatever's going on in your life. 00:19:03.550 --> 00:19:11.940 So it is such a natural attenuation of being a steward and being a Christian leader is, well, I'm not trained to do that. 00:19:11.940 --> 00:19:15.795 When people came in and told me, bob, my wife told me she's leaving me. 00:19:15.795 --> 00:19:16.498 What do I do? 00:19:16.498 --> 00:19:19.332 I'm like I could tell you what I think, but I'm not trained. 00:19:19.332 --> 00:19:19.875 I probably not. 00:19:19.875 --> 00:19:21.278 I shouldn't be answering that question. 00:19:21.278 --> 00:19:22.682 I feel for you and I want to help you. 00:19:22.903 --> 00:19:35.195 Yeah, it was wonderful to outsource it to a trained professional that is, you know, multi-dimensional chaplain, the whole chaplain, to any religion you are, I don't care if it's Hindu, buddhism or Christianity, whatever. 00:19:35.195 --> 00:19:41.760 We're going to care for the person, listen to the person, connect them with resources, and that was so beneficial. 00:19:41.760 --> 00:19:44.249 My employees didn't like it to start. 00:19:44.249 --> 00:19:51.054 They didn't want anything to do with them, but it quickly turned within months to hey, I want to talk to the chaplain. 00:19:51.054 --> 00:19:52.621 Send that chaplain out to my job site. 00:19:52.621 --> 00:19:53.263 I got a problem. 00:19:53.263 --> 00:19:54.007 I want to talk to him. 00:19:54.047 --> 00:19:56.277 How about that and how long goes that? 00:19:56.317 --> 00:20:00.289 That's probably 12 or 15 years ago. 00:20:00.289 --> 00:20:04.060 We started with a chaplain, so now he's intertwined with the company. 00:20:04.060 --> 00:20:05.365 They all know his name and phone number. 00:20:05.365 --> 00:20:07.193 He's available 24-7. 00:20:07.193 --> 00:20:12.817 If they're in the hospital at night with a child, they're calling the chaplain and he's dropping what he's doing. 00:20:12.817 --> 00:20:13.859 He's going to the hospital. 00:20:13.859 --> 00:20:19.252 He's doing funerals, he's doing weddings, he's the preacher that most of my staff. 00:20:19.252 --> 00:20:24.164 They don't have a formal relationship with the church so they don't know what to do when they're in trouble. 00:20:24.164 --> 00:20:29.396 He's it and thank goodness that he's willing to step, step forward and be that person. 00:20:29.636 --> 00:20:30.218 That's great. 00:20:30.218 --> 00:20:35.788 I'm gonna give you some cards to give you Welcome, to hope. 00:20:35.788 --> 00:20:38.047 That's great. 00:20:38.047 --> 00:20:41.936 Hey, just to pivot a little bit in a time we have remaining. 00:20:41.936 --> 00:20:50.064 You shared with me a couple years ago about a Retreat that you and and your wife Barb went on. 00:20:50.064 --> 00:20:56.550 It was focused on my language, generosity. 00:20:56.550 --> 00:20:56.810 I don't. 00:20:56.810 --> 00:20:57.994 I don't know what it was called. 00:20:57.994 --> 00:20:59.868 Tell us about that. 00:21:00.250 --> 00:21:14.556 It's called a journey of generosity J-o-g jog, so they called a jog, but a journey of generosity, and it's a small group of people that I hadn't met before, other than the, the person that invited me. 00:21:14.556 --> 00:21:28.487 Okay, to go and sit together and Dream a little bit about what it looks like to be a generous giver and you can't out give God and there's so much joy in giving but we're all Reluctant. 00:21:28.487 --> 00:21:37.111 We have a budget and we set aside a certain amount and it's sort of fixed and we don't realize the effect of Changing somebody's lives. 00:21:37.111 --> 00:21:50.114 So this journey of generosity shows you some videos of what it was like for a couple to show up on a doorstep of a neighbor who adopted children and didn't have enough money and hand them a check for 10 grand and to see the tears. 00:21:51.266 --> 00:21:59.154 It gets me emotional thinking about but, that that exposed my heart and my wife's heart to what it would look like. 00:21:59.154 --> 00:22:01.419 We're in a position where we can give money away. 00:22:01.419 --> 00:22:04.493 How could we do that better than we were doing? 00:22:04.515 --> 00:22:04.555 it. 00:22:05.267 --> 00:22:17.951 It's easy to tithe and give it to the church and let the church worry about it, but when you actually get involved in it and what's true to your heart or what you believe in and you can change lives, it's a joy to be a generous giver. 00:22:18.472 --> 00:22:18.673 Mmm. 00:22:19.615 --> 00:22:21.259 What a great message. 00:22:21.259 --> 00:22:26.951 Well, there's so much that you and I could talk about. 00:22:26.951 --> 00:22:38.116 I'm so attracted to entrepreneurs and the things that you Learn and and experience the the highs and the lows of that. 00:22:38.116 --> 00:22:53.788 Anything that you would share with a Somebody who is either at the front end they're they're just starting a business, or they're thinking about starting a business, or, you know, they're in the thick of it. 00:22:53.788 --> 00:22:58.538 I know there's there's a thousand things you could say, but what comes to mind? 00:22:59.406 --> 00:23:03.805 I'll go to the Bible where iron sharpens iron, that's one man sharpens another. 00:23:03.805 --> 00:23:05.575 I would say, get some advice. 00:23:05.575 --> 00:23:07.325 You don't know what you don't know. 00:23:07.806 --> 00:23:08.207 You think? 00:23:08.247 --> 00:23:12.758 you know everything, you think you have a plan and you think everybody's gonna stop and buy from you. 00:23:12.758 --> 00:23:14.287 That's not true. 00:23:14.287 --> 00:23:33.724 I don't care what you're gonna do, yeah, but talking to people that are in the business, talking to people that might be Customers or might be suppliers or friends, that are business people or accountants or lawyers, or there's a lot of sources, but I would do the tour and ask as many questions as you can so you open up your blinders to what's what's the negative. 00:23:33.724 --> 00:23:35.509 You're only looking at the positive. 00:23:35.509 --> 00:23:38.075 You got to look at the risk and the negativity. 00:23:38.075 --> 00:23:44.325 Make sure you have enough money Under capitalization is the number one failure, I believe, for businesses takes a lot of money. 00:23:44.325 --> 00:23:46.810 You got to weather the storm and are you prepared for that? 00:23:46.810 --> 00:23:49.195 Do you have the resources or the access to capital? 00:23:49.195 --> 00:23:58.028 So, talking to people, relationships, getting advice it would be where the first thing place, I'd start great well, bob. 00:23:58.067 --> 00:24:07.067 Thank you and, and just to follow up on that, I would say, if, if that speaks to you, reach out. 00:24:07.067 --> 00:24:13.711 You can reach out to me, jeff, at meet hope org and I'd be happy to talk with you. 00:24:13.711 --> 00:24:16.076 Put you in touch with with Bob. 00:24:16.076 --> 00:24:43.189 We have other folks who started businesses here at Hope and Love talking about it and supporting people who are in that process and this idea of integrating our faith into our work life because, to your point, bob, we spend so much of the hours of our week in that place and to be able to bring our faith there is so important. 00:24:43.530 --> 00:24:46.964 Glorifying God by helping others is my, my tagline. 00:24:46.964 --> 00:24:48.590 That's what's on my new business cards. 00:24:48.590 --> 00:24:50.605 Nice, since I sold my business, so I'm. 00:24:50.605 --> 00:24:56.865 I'm joyful when I can talk to somebody over breakfast or a lunch or a phone call and try to give somebody some help. 00:24:56.865 --> 00:25:00.593 So I'd be open to that glorifying God by helping others. 00:25:00.613 --> 00:25:03.545 Helping others well, that's a great way to close out, bob. 00:25:03.545 --> 00:25:12.355 Thanks so much for taking the time to share with us and Thank you all for tuning in to this episode of the meet hope podcast. 00:25:12.355 --> 00:25:13.438 Have a great day. 00:25:17.346 --> 00:25:22.040 Thanks for being a part of the Hope community as we continue our conversations about faith and hope. 00:25:22.040 --> 00:25:26.450 If you don't already, please join us for worship on Sundays or on demand. 00:25:26.450 --> 00:25:32.339 You can learn more at meet hope org or find us on socials at meet hope church.