AJ Adams discusses his journey of combining business and ministry and the importance of prosperity for Christians. He emphasizes the need to master money and use it to serve others and fulfill the Great Commission. Adams challenges the belief that Christians should be poor and explains that prosperity is biblical. He highlights the principles and practices of making money ethically and with faith, drawing from biblical teachings. Adams also discusses the role of psychology in marketing and how he incorporates Jesus' marketing strategies into his own business. In this conversation, AJ Adams and Steven Pemberton discuss the intersection of faith and business. They explore how biblical principles can guide marketing and sales practices, emphasizing the importance of ethics and relationship-building. They also highlight the impact of influential figures like Jesus and Solomon, who demonstrated effective marketing strategies. AJ Adams shares his vision for the Gospel Patrons community, which aims to support business owners in funding the Great Commission and serving others. The conversation concludes with a discussion on overcoming challenges and trusting in God's provision.
AJ Adams discusses his journey of combining business and ministry and the importance of prosperity for Christians. He emphasizes the need to master money and use it to serve others and fulfill the Great Commission. Adams challenges the belief that Christians should be poor and explains that prosperity is biblical. He highlights the principles and practices of making money ethically and with faith, drawing from biblical teachings. Adams also discusses the role of psychology in marketing and how he incorporates Jesus' marketing strategies into his own business. In this conversation, AJ Adams and Steven Pemberton discuss the intersection of faith and business. They explore how biblical principles can guide marketing and sales practices, emphasizing the importance of ethics and relationship-building. They also highlight the impact of influential figures like Jesus and Solomon, who demonstrated effective marketing strategies. AJ Adams shares his vision for the Gospel Patrons community, which aims to support business owners in funding the Great Commission and serving others. The conversation concludes with a discussion on overcoming challenges and trusting in God's provision.
Hello everyone and welcome to Voice Like a Lion podcast. I'm your host, steven Pemberton, and today I'm really excited to talk to this gentleman because he is someone that I find very unique. This is especially for my kingdom-minded entrepreneur friends out there. You need to lock in with this guy. He's going to drop so many great gems, and I'm telling you that ahead of time. I haven't even talked to him yet, so I know it's going to be great. I want to welcome to him yet, so I know it's going to be great. I want to welcome to the show AJ Adams. Hey man, thank you for having me Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1:I'm excited for you to be here because we got connected through our buddy, jordan. Jordan's a great guy. Jordan's been on the show too. But what I find really fascinating is I actually think before we got officially connected, I was already following you on Facebook, and the reason why I believe that to be the truth is because the way that you have actually pulled up on this other screen but you have it as your background photo, so your banner photo is the number one community for Christian entrepreneurs who want to build a massively profitable business, and I'm just really fascinated by it. Because I will get into the psychology of it, but explain to me a little bit about this. Explain to me about this community that you built.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, this is something that I'm really excited about. This was birthed out of a long season I'm talking 10 plus years. So I started in marketing 20 years ago doing a brand ambassador shows Hold on. What is that? It's only got a fire. Shows Hold on.
Speaker 1:What is that? It's not like you got a fire alarm One second.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:You good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were just starting a fire.
Speaker 1:Okay, hey, as long as the fire got put out. I don't want you burning the house down in the middle of a podcast recording. That podcast was fire. Your podcast is fire for real. Mike's on fire All right.
Speaker 2:Do you want me to just pick up where?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can just pick up where you were.
Speaker 2:Okay. So yeah, this is something that I'm really excited about. I have been marketing for 20 years, started out as a brand ambassador, doing events and things like that. Then, when I got into entrepreneurship in late 2011, really dived into the space of marketing and branding. Through my journey, two things have happened. I've done ministry. As long as I've done marketing and sales In ministry, I was always fulfilled helping people, seeing lives transformed, getting to work in big organizations, big ministries, globally even spent some time in Australia as well and then, on the business side, there was making money and the financial stability.
Speaker 2:So ministry is great, and anyone who's been in ministry knows that the kind of pitfall of people in ministry is you can become ministry can become the mistress where you're spending so much time in ministry but you're spending so much time in ministry but you're not taking care of yourself. So, as a single guy, I was living in a warehouse. I was not making money, I didn't have my own car, I didn't have my own cell phone until I was like 20. But there was fulfillment. I loved what I was doing. I was passionate about helping people and I still am but I just had no financial stability at all. Then, in business. I had the financial stability, but I got to a point where I was not as passionate. I was still passionate, but I wasn't fulfilled in what I was doing. Because I realized something, and this is especially true the last two years 2022 through 2023.
Speaker 2:My wife and I were working in an organization and making the most money we ever had helping clients make money massive impact. But I ran a campaign for a client and we took them from zero marketing driven revenue to 3 million in less than six months. Really, it was a three month campaign and then it was a 12 day campaign, so in less than four months we got these kind of results. But what was most amazing about it was not the money we made, but the money that they gave away. They were a Christian couple immigrated here from Brazil and from that campaign. I actually made it part of the campaign as an incentive for people to close deals, write contracts. We were going to give $1,000 away for every deal. So we ended up giving away $20,000 to feed starving families globally to a nonprofit organization, and then they gave additionally to their church and give generously. So so much good came out of that and I realized something. That's what I love.
Speaker 2:There's eternal consequence to the work that I was doing in business and that started the journey to my wife and I going on what's called a vision retreat. We took five days and just spent time with each other, just really connecting and planning out where we wanted to go in the next year, and one of the things that God put in our heart was to bring business and ministry together. So at the last day of that retreat, standing in church during the worship service, very clearly heard God speak and say here's what I want you to do. And he laid it out Psalm 50, 1,000 hills I own the cattle on 1,000 hills and the whole point of that scripture. I won't quote the whole thing. The whole point is God doesn't need our money, he needs our heart behind the money.
Speaker 2:So our company is called 1,and Hills Consulting and the mission is to help people get rich and give generously. All of that culminates into the arm of the company, which is the Gospel Patrons community. It's a free community where I have taken all my best courses and training and dumped it in there to help business owners, to help people get rich and give generously. So there's the literal hands-on training. If you are a coach if you have a brick and mortar business, if you're a service-based business.
Speaker 2:I teach marketing, I teach psychology and all the systems of marketing and this community. The mission is to just help business owners make a lot of money, really profitable, and then give generously to their church, take care of their families, live abundantly and be able to give generously to finance a great commission. So this is the arm of it, the ministry side of it and really the whole thing's in ministry. And we also have our agency where we have clients who pay a good amount of money every month for us to run their marketing. And then the Gospel Patrons is the arm of it where it's really just we're just serving at no cost.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that's really amazing. There was something that you said a second ago and I want to touch on it is you talked about psychology. You were saying that in this group you're going to understand and learn the psychology behind marketing. And that leads me to my next question, because I heard you say it in your story where there was a moment where you were living in this warehouse and you weren't really making anything and you were sitting there. You didn't have a cell phone, didn't have a car, didn't have all those things in ministry, and then the business. You saw that as a way to make money and you were making money over there, but you just weren't fulfilled.
Speaker 1:Why do you feel that? Because I've seen this in my own life and I'll explain it. I'll explain the question after I ask it. But why do you feel that some Christians would rather see you be the first person where you're in the warehouse with nothing, than to see you fulfilled and have the finances? Because growing up, that was always the way it was taught to me was that if you're a true Christian, then you have to be basically ashes and sackcloth. If you were rich, then you were evil. So that was the psychology I always heard growing up, but I would love to get your take on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I would love to give my take on this, because this is something I've been very passionate about, even just this week, really diving into the whole concept of prosperity and where money falls, and something that God just revealed to me. In my own devotional time this morning. I've been making posts on Facebook and anyone who follows my Facebook, my personal page. I intentionally post things that are truthful, but the truth by nature is controversial, and one of the things that I've been posting about is prosperity. And I've grown up in church, been in church my entire life. My dad was an elder. I served on the worship team instead of my dad. He led Bible studies and then I was a youth pastor for about 10 years served as an associate pastor, worship director. So missions, third world countries, all that stuff, and I never made money. I didn't grow up in an affluent family. I think my dad, at the peak before he passed away, made like $60,000 a year, so I always wanted to make money, but I was more concerned with helping people and I had to learn the hard way that you can't do one or the other. And here's what it comes down to the church doesn't teach well, some churches do, but for the most part, the church as a whole doesn't teach well about money and prosperity.
Speaker 2:As I've been posting these things about prosperity and one of the posts I made said people who deny that prosperity is biblical are either broke or hypocritical. And it's true. They are the only people that ever argue. It are people who are broke. And if you have money, well then you're a hypocrite because you're living the prosperity and people say, well, that's a prosperity gospel. There's no such thing, because the gospel itself is one of prosperity. We're in debt to sin. Jesus comes, pays the debt, saves us, gives us new life. And Matthew 6 said he says that he'll provide everything we need food, shelter, clothing. If I provide it for the grass or the field and the birds of the air, how much more so for you. Don't worry about what you'll have tomorrow, I'll take care of that.
Speaker 2:But the problem is Christians who argue this. They take those verses out of context and they say well, jesus said that it's hard for a rich man to enter heaven. He did say that. Well, jesus said that to store up your treasures in heaven, not on earth. He did say that. Well then, that means that we don't need to worry about being rich and being rich even to the point where being rich is evil. Well, here's the problem. There are two types of slaves.
Speaker 2:In Matthew 6, it says that a man cannot serve two masters. He will love the one and hate the other. And at the end of that verse it says you can't serve God and money. You have to choose one or the other. People take that as well. If I'm serving God, I have to not care about money, or I just have to serve money and not care about God.
Speaker 2:That's the fallacy in it, the way that you interpret scripture. True, proper scriptural exposition is when you interpret scripture through the lens of itself. So we look at all the things Jesus said. Jesus said it is hard for rich men to get into heaven. Store treasures in heaven, not on earth. Give away everything you have and come follow me.
Speaker 2:But then we also see verses where, in Proverbs 10, where it says that an idle hand or a slothful hand and really this verse is actually Proverbs, chapter 10, I believe verse 6. And let me see, I was just looking at it earlier it says a slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. That word slack in the original Hebrew does not mean lazy, it means deceitful, it means deceptive. There's ill intent there. And then when you look at other scriptures, even in Proverbs 10, it says that the wisdom of the Lord does not let the righteous go hungry. And this whole chapter is about working diligently. It says Jesus said if a man doesn't work, he shouldn't eat. A man who doesn't provide for his family is wicked. So we see two sides of what Jesus is saying and that's why we have to take it all in context of the entirety of what he said. He was speaking to different people and said different things to different groups, based on what they needed to hear.
Speaker 2:The holistic view is that we are supposed to do one thing master money. We are supposed to make money, we're supposed to multiply our money, parable of the talents, and ironically, the one servant who was given the least also had the most fear, which is why he was given the least and he was actually punished for it. So we need to make money, we need to multiply our money, and then we need to master money, because if you are either mastered by money or you're mastering money, it's not either, or let's go this way. If money is your master, there are two types of slaves. There's the slave who says all I care about is money and I want more money, so I'm going to do whatever I need to do to go get more money. That's a wicked and unrighteous man. Then you have the slave who says I don't care about money, money's not everything, I just want God.
Speaker 2:That person has also been mastered by money because the person who's constantly chasing money and money is their, what they worship, it's what their primary objective, what their primary objective. That person is the slave who is on the chain and yes, master, I'll do whatever you say. Master. The Christian who says I don't need money and the riches are evil and rich people are evil. Well, that person has also been mastered by money because they are still making decisions based on their lack of money versus the other person making decisions based on their greed for money. So we're supposed to master money. Love God, use love God. Love people. Use money to serve people in service to God.
Speaker 1:That's great. I'm glad that you went down that route. I love talking to kingdom entrepreneurs because there's a guy I'm I talked to him in the gym this morning, literally just met him for the first time. He owns a pretty big, pretty decent sized business here in Tulsa. He's got three different locations, 42 employees, and he said the same thing. He's like.
Speaker 1:He said the Bible is what is really helped me become successful in business and to most people that's like heresy, because there's no way that you could read the Bible and that help you in business. But I just sit there because I got asked this question on a podcast the other day and I said that the Bible is the book that really inspired me to become good at business. And they said well, what do you mean? I said let's look at it in the context of a historical book. Don't even look at it in faith. I said if you just read the New Testament and you do what Jesus says in the red letters, I said you will be a completely different person. I said the way that you treat people is going to be way different. The way that you treat yourself will be way different. So inherently, you're going to look at situations differently, and that's what I always find so fascinating when people talk about making money and they say that it's not scriptural. For me personally, I just kind of just turned to Deuteronomy 8.18 because it says but remember the Lord, your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today. So I'm just like it's right there in the NIV. You can change the, you can go to King James if you think that that's the only right translation. But if God is the one who gives me the ability, it also says he gives me the power and desire to do what pleases him.
Speaker 1:The first thing that man was given when man was created was work. He was not given. Hey, Adam, go sit on the beach. You see that thing over there, it's really nice and pretty. Just go sit there. That's not what he created him to do. He gave him work. That that's not what he created him to do. He gave him work. So there's, your work can be worship, but when you're but, it also can be devil worship if you approach it the wrong way, if you let that thing enslave you. Basically what you were just saying Now you're worshiping work instead of worshiping the one who gave you the work, and I think that that that's why I love your explanation. Your breakdown of it is I want people to understand that you can be a Christian and make money. It does not have to be one or the other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'll say something that is going to ruffle a lot of feathers. People are going to find this controversial, but truth, by nature, it's inherently controversial because it's in contrast I mean, that's a real word controversial. It's in contrast to what people want to think. So we're called to follow this. This is the best business book. Not good to great, absolutely not the 10x rule. This is the best book on business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because if you look at the principles and in Scripture, there is principle and there's practice. The practice is what do you do? The principle is why do you do it? So when we look at the practice of not chasing money, we look at the practice of make money and build wealth, we have to ask the question and this is what so many Christians, most Christians, miss and why they're broke. We have to ask the question well, what's the principle in the practice?
Speaker 2:When Jesus says don't store riches up on earth, store them in heaven, because where your treasure is there, your heart is also, what's the principle he's communicating there? Because it's not just about the practice. When he says you need to work and leave an inheritance a good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children. Well, the word inheritance if you study the language. It's talking about money. You would back. It's talking about money. Back then you would have cattle and you would have land, and sometimes you actually had literal money. But you would have resources that you leave to your children and their children, because you have to take care of your family. Otherwise you are a wicked man. What's the principle there? The principle is in Psalm 50, which is what our company, thousand Hills Consulting, is based on. God rebukes his people. Thousand Hills Consulting is based on God rebukes his people and he says you bring your offerings, but don't you know that I own the cattle in the Thousand Hills Because they were sacrificing cattle and sheep? I own it all. And then he says if I was hungry I wouldn't ask you because he owns it all. In other words, I don't need what you're giving me. He says I want you to give it from a heart of thanksgiving. So, whatever the practice on both sides of the spectrum, pursue the kingdom and don't worry about money. Make money, but don't let money master you. The principle there is your heart condition.
Speaker 2:If you are a billionaire, but you got there by biblical principles, ethically, and that's what Proverbs 10 talks about. It's do it justly, don't do it in ways that are unjust, unrighteous or wicked. And this is why people often associate wealth with being evil, because that's the only way they see to get it. Why? Because they lack two things. One, this is going to piss people off. They lack faith. I just believe that God is going to provide. I'm just praying for God to bless my finances. Well, I'm just believing for God for provision. No, you're not. You're waiting for God to step in and do the work for you.
Speaker 2:He told Adam, like you said go and cultivate the earth, go have dominion over it. He said go be fruitful and multiply, not just talking about his kids. Go be fruitful and multiply your resources. If you truly have faith in this Bible, then you will study and you will do and you will apply and obey what it says, which is go provide for your family, go work diligently.
Speaker 2:And if you're in poverty, it's because you lack faith to follow this Bible and you lack wisdom that comes from this Bible. So, christians who are broke and in poverty, it's because they lack faith to seek. And then scripture says, and they'll bring up this verse seek ye first the kingdom, and all these things shall be added unto you. What does that mean? Well, to seek the kingdom is seek the wisdom that is in God's kingdom that you find through scripture. And if you seek that and if you follow that, I wake up in the morning. I come here, I sit, I do my, I spend my time in my devotion, I pray and I think, okay, what, what, what am I? Where's my guidance for today? Where am I going? What am I doing? And then I operate off of that and things just flow. Things just flow.
Speaker 2:Money will come from that, because there's biblical principles of how to make money, parables. Don't take your money and just stick it in a savings account, like um robert kiyosaki, um david, uh, kevin o'leary, whoever you, whatever financial expert, they all say the same thing don't take your money, stick it in an account and just let it sit there, gaining minimal interest or no interest at all. They say invest it. Well, that's not from them. That's a biblical principle that Jesus was teaching before they ever existed. He's the greatest finance advisor there is, and so people get offended when I say things like Jesus was a marketer.
Speaker 2:And my whole marketing framework, which I call the Savior Cycle and it's inside of my program called the Master's Way, it's all based on Jesus' life and ministry. How did he take a message of hope and communicate that, disseminate it through the people in order to create conversion? Because in marketing we're doing the same thing A message, market match in order to draw people and create conversion. Well, why can't I take what Jesus did and apply it the same way and use those ethics and those morals? Because marketing today is incredibly unethical, dishonest and that's why we have the SEC.
Speaker 2:If you go through the decades, you look at marketing from the print era in the 20s and 30s to radio, 30s and 40s, the golden age of television, 50s and 60s, and then you had more television, more radio, broader scale, 70s and 80s, and then you had, in the 90s, the internet and then in the 2000s, social media. It just keeps evolving, but we need to go back to how. What's happened over the decades is that marketers have become less and less moral. If you look at 1950s and 60s advertisements, the admin age, you're going to find a lot of misogynistic, racist, outright dishonest marketing because there were regulations around it. Well, if you're marketing and doing marketing and sales based on the principles and scripture and following those principles to dictate your practices in business, then you won't be unethical. Because you can't, because the whole book is based on the principles of Jesus. So I studied Jesus' life, I studied Solomon, and how did they do it? And then, what else does scripture say that I can apply to business? Because that's the hack, that is the secret.
Speaker 1:And I'd love all of that. I think that that's just so good, because I agree 100% with everything you say. Yeah, I mean especially the part about faith. I think for me it took because I mean, I've done a few million dollars online and God blessed us to do that. There wasn't a lot of adversity. To do that when the adversity came is when your faith is really tested. I mean, that's what we learned in James right? So for me is that's when I figured out what real faith was.
Speaker 1:Faith is not just I'm going to go to God and pray and he's going to take care of it. It's like, wait, I actually have to learn how to do this thing. Where Jesus said don't worry about anything, but ask about any everything. So I'll just I pray about everything. I'm just like so I actually have to not worry. Okay, so there's behind, how do I not worry? So I'm like you're having to pray real prayers when you actually get in adversity. But that's where you can learn what your faith is really made of, because I thought my faith was made out of something until I went through something tough, and through that time is exactly what you said is I was able to discover who Jesus is more than just what he does, because I believe so much.
Speaker 1:So the same way that you do is, if you study his life, if you study the way that he did things, you can't tell me that Jesus was not the best marketer to ever live. Point blank, period. I mean we're still talking about this man 2000 and some change later, like that 2000 years and some change that I'm pretty sure there's. There may be the godfather of digital marketing as we know it. Most people don't even know who that is. We know who Jesus is. So he did something where there was no internet, there was no cell phone. He did it in three years and somehow his impact still goes throughout the generations. It goes throughout the entire world.
Speaker 2:All the accolades all of these modern gurus. They want to tout that they have a bestselling book and a number of copies. Well, this is the best-selling book that has ever been printed and it's still the most sold printed and translated book in the history of mankind. If you want to talk about video views, well, jesus, the video views and the communication transforming culture, transforming language. The calendar is based on the life, the birth of Jesus. The calendar is based on the life, the birth of Jesus, and so one of the things that we look at you know you're talking about going through struggle and how to get to that place of not worrying. Well, and this is again, this is what Christians miss the Old Testament principle and practice of tithing, and this is why we separate principle from practice.
Speaker 2:The practice of tithing was not nullified, but it was when Jesus came. He fulfilled all of that. So we don't know if we're required to tithe. From what I read scripture, I don't believe we're required to tithe. We're required to give generously, because prior, pre-jesus, it was there's rules and there's do this, do that. There's 10 commandments. Jesus came to fulfill the law and now it's about relationship. So we went from rules to relationship. Rule was give 10% as a practice, to remember where two things where your source and sustenance comes from. God is the source of provision for everything you need Israelites in the desert providing manna, providing quail. God is the source of everything you need and he's the sustenance he maintains and sustains you. Then, new Testament Jesus comes, fulfills the law. Now we live a relationship and this is where marketing and sales and where I focus relationship marketing.
Speaker 2:The reason why Jesus was the most powerful, effective, prolific marketer who has ever lived is because he focused on relationship, which is the true currency of business. Attention is the first currency of business. Now we're getting into some marketing principles. Attention is the first currency of business, but relationship is the true currency of business because, because ultimately, nothing has changed in over the centuries that man has been making a message, making offers and selling. Whether it was the new club, or it was the first wheel, or the first car or the first computer, it's all been. You need to go and find people. Get their attention first. Currency of business. Cultivate relationship through consistency. Get their attention first. Currency of business. Cultivate relationship through consistency, true currency of business, in order to convert them to a customer, to convert them to a disciple, whatever it is Jesus God invented marketing, not man, because marketing the goal is revenue generation, but the function is relationship, and God invented that, but the function is relationship, and God meant it that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's perfect, because that relates to. My favorite parable is actually in Luke 19, starting in verse 11, with the parable of the 10 servants. It's very similar to the parable of the five talents, but the reason why I like the parable of the 10 servants more is because we get to see what real currency is, because he trusts these 10 servants with currency, and then he comes back and of course, it's the same exact story. But what's interesting is the one who, who took his money and multiplied and made a 10. He said you're going to be a master over 10 towns. So he didn't get more money, he got more people.
Speaker 1:And so what I find so fascinating especially what you're talking about building relationships, that's what I found is that when you build real relationships, that's how you can build a real business. And even in that same way, if God can trust you with money, which is the little things right, that's the little thing, that's just a resource he's going to trust you with the greatest resource, which is people. I mean, right now we're being able to build a relationship with one another, we're able to build a relationship with the people listening, and that is important, because God is going to trust you If he's trusting you with people you know he's really trusting you, because money is the little thing, yeah, and you know, build a relationship.
Speaker 2:It completely shifts the paradigm of how you communicate and how you relate to people, how you prospect. So, as I'm building the gospel patrons community and the reason some people may be wondering and I didn't say this earlier the reason for the name Gospel Patrons is based on a book called Gospel Patrons that I wish I wrote but I didn't write. The whole book goes through different Gospel Patrons throughout history who financed the work of the gospel, the printing of the Bible, crusades, revivals. There were always entrepreneurs, business owners who were wealthy and invested their wealth into the greatest investment that you can ever make, which is into the Great Commission. So Gospel Patrons is about building that community and as a company, we'll give 10% of our profits to our nonprofit foundation, which will then fund fighting sex trafficking, feeding kids and then providing programs and courses for business owners, because I was a business owner who had no education, didn't know what to do and if I just had the resources and people did give generously to me.
Speaker 2:A good friend of mine still a friend, I was with him three weeks ago he's a pastor full-time and doesn't take a salary from the church, but he's also a multimillionaire because he went into business and followed the principles of scripture and now and then he took I was his youth pastor when he started the church. My former and this brings me a lot of joy my former youth pastors or youth leaders that I recruited and other friends in that church in Riverside California. They're now making money online because he's passed on the wisdom to them. So they all serve in the church and they're able to just make a full-time income part-time and they can give time to the church, so they're financing that ministry. But that's ultimately what it's really about, and I was circling back to something and I completely lost track where I was going, but hopefully that was value adding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. I think that that because that bridges the gap for people listening, people like me in the past where you sit there and you feel like you have to make a choice right. You feel as if you because it talks about split attention we hear that all the time If you're a business owner, it's like you got to focus, but I feel as if the Lord has called you to ministry and he's called you to business. You can do both, like you were just saying, with your pastor. He's a multimillionaire, which means he had to do something in business, and he's also a pastor of a church. He also is shepherding people. So being able to do both in that way, I think is great, and I think that that's why you just have to pray and see what is your calling.
Speaker 1:Are you called to be the next Jeff Bezos? Then go sit in your garage until you make a multi-billion dollar company. But if you're called to actually helping people and in a way where you're going out and you're helping your local community or doing those different things, you can build stuff online. You can build a company online. You can do different things to give yourself the freedom, and I feel as if that's something that especially Christians they miss is they look at. They're either looking at the finances or lack of finances, it's like. But the finances is there for you to use. If you're making money, it's just you're making money to go buy a bigger house or to buy another car or to go take another vacation? If it is, then you're just building yourself a higher paying job. But if you're actually making more money to give yourself freedom, that should be the ultimate goal.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And here's another mistake Christian business owners and entrepreneurs make as they look at wealthy people like Elon Musk, jeff Bezos, whoever it is, and they say well, look at what they're doing. And I've even had the frustration throughout my entrepreneurial journey and career. Well, why is it so hard for me to make money? And I'm trying to serve you with it? And I look at them and they're not serving you at all. Like some of these are wicked men and they're making all kinds of money.
Speaker 2:And what he spoke to me over time was it doesn't matter, it has nothing to do with you. The riches of the wicked are stored for the righteous. They're going to lose it all and when they're dead and gone, it will have had no eternal impact. It will have generational impact the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers generational impact for centuries now. But is it eternal? No, it's not, unless they've committed that to the Lord.
Speaker 2:So what I've learned is look at Solomon. If you want to look at rich people and study them, look at the richest man who ever lived. And I wrote this in an email to my community, and one of the things I did was I broke down what the net worth is of the wealthiest people in the modern world and it's amazing what you'll find and a lot of people don't. This is why you got to study scripture. Study scripture above anything else, because you're going to find these things. So if you study the wealthiest people and I actually have it in a list, I'm going to pull it up right now so I can give the exact numbers of what these people were so you think about Jeff Bezos, bill Gates, elon Musk who else? Mark Zuckerberg, these wealthy men and you look at what they're worth. They're all worth over $100 billion. There were some serious money. They're not going to want for anything. They will always have the money that they need. But then you look at the conversion from Solomon's time and what he was worth and, based on historical records, the numbers that we have, what's described in scripture, what's in historical records and he's worth 2.2 trillion if he were alive today, which is more, multiple times more than any of them 10 times more.
Speaker 2:So if you want to look at someone rich and study what they did, and study Solomon, god came to Solomon and he said ask of me anything, whatever you will, and I'll give it to you. And if God says it, god says it. That's what it is will and I'll give it to you. And if God says it, god says it. That's what it is.
Speaker 2:Solomon said Lord, you've called me to lead my people after my father, david. Who can lead your people? He was saying I don't know how to do this. He understood the gravity and the weight of the responsibility that he had inherited as the heir to the throne and as the new king. And God said. And so Solomon said well, just give me wisdom. Give me wisdom to lead your people. Give me wisdom to principle. In practice, the principle is give me wisdom to fulfill my spiritual calling. And God said because you've asked well, because you didn't ask for wealth, because you didn't ask for an even long life, because you didn't ask for me to even slay your enemies, I'm going to give you wisdom, but I'm also going to make you the wealthiest man who has ever lived. That's the formula to building wealth Seek God, ask for wisdom to fulfill your spiritual calling, pursue fulfilling your spiritual calling and money will follow that ministry. It's that simple.
Speaker 1:That's really good. I think that that is a great spot to ask my couple closing questions, because that right there, if you get nothing else from the entire rest of the podcast, that part just like everyone clipped that part because that is gold. But I want to give you the opportunity. Where can people engage with your community? Because I want people to get into this thing, because I think that it can make a great impact on them and their legacy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I absolutely appreciate that. Thank you for doing that. They can go to ajadamsofficialcom. Forward slash. Join my name. Ajadamsofficialcom. Forward slash. Join my name. Ajadamsofficialcom. Forward slash, join and they'll get access to it. I have put over $20,000 of my best training and courses and programs in there, still creating new trainings and programs in there. There is nothing to buy. Inside of the community. You cannot purchase anything. To work with me on a deeper level in my paid programs you would have to reach out to me directly. So inside the community you are just consuming value, implement, execute, great community and we're rapidly growing and the goal is to grow that by the end of 2024 to 5,000 or 10,000 members and then start tracking how much money, not we're making, but how much are we giving away. That's going to be our metric for success. How much has this community given away generously to finance a great commission and serve people?
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's amazing. I really like that. I'm glad that that's the way that you're measuring that. I'm also excited because I've seen other people do something like this. There's other kingdom-minded entrepreneurs, or at least they label themselves that way. They'll make a community like this and it'll be the beginning of a course or a course from like 12 years ago that is not relevant anymore. It's like, if you want the updated version, it's because you joined my group. I'll give it to you for five, nine, seven instead of nine nine seven. I actually really appreciate that you're giving away some of your best stuff to fund the Great Commission. And that actually leads into my last question, because I always ask everyone a very similar question, maybe the little bit of variances, but the question is what is it right now?
Speaker 2:whether it's in business or in life that you are overcoming, so I'm overcoming um, complete transparency. I was in a season where um, I'm overcoming letting go of the residue of a season where I felt taken advantage of. I kind of feel like Joseph, just taken advantage of and used, because I was working in an organization where the mission was to help people serve business owners, and both my wife and I were in this organization at a leadership level and as we got higher into leadership, we started to look at the clients and hear the stories. She was the controller, so she heard all the clients and hear the stories. She was the controller, so she heard all the clients can make a payment. I was on the marketing side. I led all the client facing marketing efforts and consulted over a hundred business owners and for context, this is a hundred business owners doing anywhere from startup to a hundred plus million and 600 north of 600 million in annual revenue. I managed a north of, or somewhere around 20 to $600 million in annual revenue. I managed somewhere around $20 to $30 million annually in marketing spend. My job was to create strategy to help these business owners grow.
Speaker 2:The struggle I ran into was the fees they were paying to be part of this organization was their monthly cash flow. They had nothing left over to do marketing and they didn't have the time and I was in a position where I could put the time in to teach them didn't have the resources available to them to teach them how to market organically. So we made the decision to leave because we realized we didn't agree. We didn't see that it was really about serving clients. It was about making money.
Speaker 2:And again, this is what started the whole process of praying through what we were ultimately going to do and having more kingdom purpose. I saw that nothing I did there I would sit in my office and nothing I do here is going to have an eternal impact, except for the fact that I've been able to help. I need to get out of here, I need to go do it. The income and things like that. That'll always be a challenge, but in this season it's shifting the paradigm of my thinking completely to just keeping the focus and I'll let God worry about the money. That's so good.
Speaker 1:Thank you. I want to just say thank you for being transparent, Because it would have been easy to say well, you know, what I'm overcoming is I'm getting to $100 million this year and so that bridge between where I'm at and $100 million it's really got me just trying to figure things out. It's like, but no one knows where your starting point is right, you could be making $10 a month, but I think, just because of that transparency, I mean even what I was saying earlier, I mean it was not long ago it's honestly, even to a certain degrees in certain moments now where it's I go OK, Realistically, let's be realistic, because I used to hear that all the time growing up is just be realistic. Realistically, we're in need of making some more money, like that could be the case for people listening, that could best be my case, and recently it's like but that can be realistic, but that doesn't have to be where you live.
Speaker 1:If you actually have faith the same thing that you said earlier you have to trust that if you're doing what the Lord is telling you to do, that you will get. He will actually do what he said he will do, because that is something he said he would do, that he would provide for you, that he would take care of you. So it's not our duties to be our saviors, right? We can't be our own savior and say well, you know, he hadn't come through in the timeframe. I'm late on rent, there's an eviction notice, the car is getting repossessed, so I got to go figure something out. It's like that's not your job. Your job is hard faith. That's a faith that people don't want to really step into. They don't want the Hebrews 11.1 faith where it's the evidence of things unseen. They want the evidence of things seen. It's like okay, Lord, I just need you to take care of these bills.
Speaker 2:And they opened up the bank account and magically there's $10,000. And they're just like Lord, how'd you know? That's exactly what I needed. It's like no, he gave you work, so do the work that he's called you to, just like you were saying, and he will take care of the rest. They're four by eight foot and we're growing vegetables and tomatoes and whatever else my wife has out there.
Speaker 2:And that's I would tell people go and get a plant, go get some soil, put it in a clay pot, put a seed and just plant it. And let that be your practice of faith. And here's why, and here's why you have to put the seed, you have to water, give it everything it needs, do your 10%, and then you have to back off and leave it alone and let the systems of nature that God has created do their job for that plant to sprout and grow, and you just keep feeding it what it needs. It's the same in your business, it's the same in life. Just do the part God has told you to do, which is don't worry about the money, the finances. Go, work hard at fulfilling your calling. If you're called to a job, do that. If you're called to ministry, do that. Provide for your family, use wisdom, be diligent, but don't worry, not. Don't think, not, don't be concerned, not don't be diligent, don't worry.
Speaker 2:Worry is when money becomes your master, because now you're more concerned with, will I get money, rather than am I properly serving faithfully what God has called me to do? That's so good.
Speaker 1:AJ, I could talk to you all day I'm sure the listeners could listen all day but I just want to honor your time. I want to honor you. Just thank you again for coming on here and being transparent the whole time and walking us through some kingdom principles that we can walk away with. And you can be somebody listening to this, because my audience is not all Christian Most of them are not. Actually, Most of the time we just talk about business, but when I run into a brother in Christ, I always want to bring it up because I still believe, just as you were saying earlier, that the Bible is the best book you could ever read when it comes to business, and you just might happen to end up becoming a Christian and actually experiencing the good news of Christ if you read that thing, because I've just seen it happen time and time again. So I just want to say thank you again for being on the show. You've been incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm honored, appreciate you for having me on and I hope your audience gets a massive amount of value.
Speaker 1:I know they will With you on here, absolutely, but until next time. Thank you guys, so much for watching. I'll see you in the next episode.