Ever wondered how to incorporate your faith into your work life? This episode features an enlightening conversation with the amazing Mike Perez, who has transitioned from being a Certified Financial Planner to a Certified Kingdom Advisor. Mike candidly shares his journey of discovering God's purpose for his money and pivoting his career to make God's kingdom a priority.
In our conversation we explore how our connections shape us, the transformative power of reaching out, and the necessity of boldness. Mike delivers encouraging words to Christian professionals who feel stuck, emphasizing the need to engage with like-minded professionals, step up, and act on faith - a sentiment we wholeheartedly echo.
Ever wondered how to incorporate your faith into your work life? This episode features an enlightening conversation with the amazing Mike Perez, who has transitioned from being a Certified Financial Planner to a Certified Kingdom Advisor. Mike candidly shares his journey of discovering God's purpose for his money and pivoting his career to make God's kingdom a priority.
In our conversation we explore how our connections shape us, the transformative power of reaching out, and the necessity of boldness. Mike delivers encouraging words to Christian professionals who feel stuck, emphasizing the need to engage with like-minded professionals, step up, and act on faith - a sentiment we wholeheartedly echo.
I'm Courtney Markley and this is the Heart of Money. Talking about money can be really hard and uncomfortable, but it doesn't need to be. The problem is, we're taught to think about money in terms that are too much like science, with rules and regulations, and not enough like psychology, with emotions and nuance. Join me on my mission to change the way we talk about money, one conversation at a time. Welcome everyone. Thank you so much for joining us on the Heart of Money podcast. I'm your host, courtney Markley, and with us today we have Mike Perez.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited for y'all to listen to Mike's story, because our cool goal here on this podcast is to help people facilitate. You know, where is God calling me in my life, where is God calling me to use my money? And when we start to ask those questions and when we start praying about these things and when we get a response and it's usually uncomfortable it's usually this prompting by the Holy Spirit to get outside of our comfort zone, to start doing things differently. And when we start getting those promptings, it's great to have someone to look to to say, okay, what does this actually look like when someone's living out their faith? And so that's why I'm excited to introduce you to Mike today. And, mike, he has been a long time certified financial planner and about eight years ago you became a certified kingdom advisor and that completely changed the trajectory of your career. So welcome Mike. Tell us a bit more about this particular time. What was happening eight years ago that caused you to make this change?
Speaker 2:Yeah, hey, great to be with you, courtney, and always enjoy the time that we spend together. So I have to take you back a little bit before 2015, because in 2008, I was sitting in church one Sunday morning and they had brought in a guest speaker from a big church down in the Dallas Fort Worth area. The guy's name was Barry Cameron and he just happened to be preaching on that Sunday on a book he had written called the ABC's Financial Freedom, and there was something about just the way he delivered his talk and what he said that really stirred me that day and I went down to the bookstore I think I read the book in like a week and the question that kind of came out of reading the book was what is God's will for me and my money? And I had never really given that a lot of thought, and so that would start me on this journey of really trying to figure out what that looked like, what tithing looked like. So I started down the path and then to what you alluded to, 2015,.
Speaker 2:One of our mutual friends, dwight Montgomery, who is president of National Christian Foundation, ohio. I had three business partners at the time and he came to our office one day and he said you four guys need to get down to the Kingdom Advisor Conference in Orlando. And he says, a matter of fact, if you go and you don't like it, he said I'll give you all your money back. I'll pay for your flight, I'll pay for your entry fee.
Speaker 2:And for whatever crazy reason, I was the only one that took him up on the offer. I went down there. It was transformative, so I obviously didn't ask for my money back. And that really started me on the journey professionally to start to try to figure out how I could integrate what God was calling me to do in my faith into what I was doing as a certified financial planner. And so I've been on this amazing journey for the last eight years trying to figure that out.
Speaker 1:Every time I hear the story I get so excited and thank you for just inviting us in so we can really just kind of peek through the curtain, if you will. What does this really look like when someone starts getting moved by the spirit? And I love the question that was on your heart what is God's will for me and my money? And it's interesting, you said I never thought about that before. And how true is that for a lot of us of. Have we really stopped and slowed down to say what does God actually want? What is his will for my life?
Speaker 1:So take me through that, because I imagine that this was a bit of an unraveling process, because you've already built up a life at this point. Right, it's not like you were fresh out of school and the whole world was ahead of you. You already had a successful practice and you've been doing what you were doing for a really long time. You had those routines in place, you had your lifestyles established and now you start asking well, what is God's will? I imagine there is someone unraveling happening. Walk us through. What were those main things that you had to unravel?
Speaker 2:So this is circa 2008. And one of the first things I really started to grapple with was the whole concept of tithing. What should I be doing? Around that and kind of got my arms around it and said, okay, I'm gonna start down this path. And then you'll probably remember what happened in 2008, 2009 in our business. We had the great recession, yes, when everything was imploding, and so I'm trying to do this. At the same time, my income is going down and it was frightening.
Speaker 2:But what I learned from that was and it wasn't perfect, I didn't always get it right, but what was interesting is I found that God was always faithful, like I really never missed a beat along the way, and it just felt like God was there with me every step of the way. And I think one of the thoughts that I've had along the way is I think a lot of people, christian or non-Christian have this feeling of, yeah, I'd like to tithe or I'd like to be more generous, but you know what? I think I'm gonna wait until I'm further down the path and I have more money, and unfortunately, I think they get it backwards, because I think we're being called to just get started wherever we are and just trust that God will be there for us. So, once again, I can't tell you that I didn't have some anxiety or it was frightening at times, but looking back 14, 15 years later, I can tell you that God was very faithful and God taught me a lot during that season of life.
Speaker 1:This is so good. So it's just so funny that God's timing is never what we imagined, that it's gonna be Right Like you said. It's 2008. The world is kind of upside down at this point. You're losing money and God starts putting on heart like hey, I think you should be giving it, I think you should be trusting me more with these things, and you're like what, right now? Like can you wait until we're actually, you know, thriving a little bit? You know his timing is always so different than ours, and so what were some of those lessons that you learned in those early years of just learning to trust God?
Speaker 2:I would say, I mean, you just hit the now on the head and it's like any other relationship, right. The more time you spend with somebody, if things go in a positive direction, then your faith and trust starts to elevate, and so I think that's probably my biggest takeaway is that it grew my faith, that grew my ability to trust God and it caused me to lean harder into it along the way, because the way I look at tithing and generosity now is much different than I looked at it then. But it was just these building blocks. Another event that happened in 2015,. So I get introduced to Kingdom Advisors and that was transformative.
Speaker 2:But Dwight, who I mentioned earlier, later on that year he invited me to his house. He said, hey, I'm getting a group of people together and we're going to do this thing called a jog, and I was like I don't even know what he's getting me into. But you know, I had a relationship with Dwight where you know, brother in Christ, that I trusted that. Okay, if he thinks this is going to be good for me, then I should probably kind of lean into this. But, as you know, I ended up going to a journey of generosity and once again, I was transformed to the point that I was so transformed by this that it took my generosity to another level. But I also was so transformed that within like two months I flew down to Orlando. I got trained as a facilitator to do these journeys of generosity.
Speaker 2:And so over the last eight years I've hosted, I facilitated, I participated and actually tomorrow I'm heading up to a pretty big church up outside of Cleveland and I'm going to be one of the co facilitators for like a group of, I think, 150 people at their church that we're going to take through a journey of generosity. But that was the other event that really propelled me along the path of this whole concept of doing money God's way, tithing, being generous, those types of things.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh, I love this. I love this. And yes, for our listeners who may be wondering, what's a jog, what's a journey of generosity, you can go to generousgivingorg and you can learn all about this, but essentially it's typically done over weekend. It's an event where you're sitting down and you're listening to other people's stories of outrageous generosity and how God has completely shifted their hearts and now they're not as focused on, you know, building their own personal kingdoms, but they're focused on building God's kingdom and what the outcomes have been. Is that how you would describe it, mike, or was that your experience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's usually people that have faith in their lives and belief in God and it's just an opportunity in a very safe setting, a very you know, very kind of low key setting, where you have the opportunity to explore what generosity means to you and, like I said, it's been transformative for me. I've seen it be very transformative for people that have gone through it. It really starts to just change the way you think, like I notice now that you know if I get a windfall or I get some extra money, my first thought is not what can I buy, my first thought is what can I do from a generosity perspective? Now I still may buy something, but generosity is kind of front of mind for me, just because of the way my heart has been transformed through these years.
Speaker 1:This is good, okay. So I'm really curious as I'm listening to you talk. You're kind of like laying down the stepping stones right that you took to get across the river of versus happened, and then this happened, and then I got invited to this and slowly you're crossing this river right and you're transforming. I'm curious what did it look like? You mentioned it was around like 2008 where God really started to put on your heart tithing, and what that looked like Prior to that moment. Tell me how long had you been a Christian, how long had you been going to church and what were your thoughts around money at that point in time.
Speaker 2:So I grew up Catholic, like a lot of people, and my recollection as a kid growing up was my dad would put a $5 check in the envelope and you know, when the basket came around, you know he would put it in the basket and I never really thought much about it.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, when I became an adult, I've always believed in God.
Speaker 2:I eventually kind of moved away from the church and, as I like to say, I kind of wandered in the desert for a number of years. But up until 2008, I really did not give a lot of thought to the whole God and money thing. It was literally that talk at our church that day by Barry Cameron, like something just struck me that day and I thought, man, I've got to lean harder into this because I think I'm being called to something different and that would just literally be the start. So there were seven years between that event and then the whole Kingdom advisor thing and it's just been kind of building on itself every single year and I'm always fascinated about how God's going to change my heart, you know, from year to year. And even like I've been through these journeys of generosity, you know, multiple times and I'm excited to drive up to Cleveland tomorrow because, even though I'm going to be a facilitator, I know I'm going to be changed again, because I have a different experience every time I go through it.
Speaker 1:Amen to that. I'm sure a piece of it too is, as you're continuing to lean in, as you're continuing to grow, you're going to catch different things, right, because our perspective starts to change and you're going to hear things differently this time. But also the people that you're with I'm sure makes a big difference too, because it is a very much a community event, right, where you're meant to do this in fellowship.
Speaker 2:That's right, and you know I was just thinking so. The last jog I did we hosted at our church. I had people who work with me my wife, my daughter. They went through the jog and just to kind of show you the transformative effect of it my daughter, who's adopted from Guatemala, my wife, my daughter and some fellow college students from her university. They're getting ready to head down to the orphanage in Guatemala, coming up in November. I'm not going to go on this trip.
Speaker 2:But my wife has done so much in the education world and some people there were talking to her about education and she was on a Zoom in the evening about a week ago. So she was kind of talking to them about how they're educating the kids down there in the orphanage and she got off the phone and she said well, part of the problem is they don't have computers, they don't have like laptops. And she said what do you think we should do? I said why don't you get them some laptops? And so after a little further discussion.
Speaker 2:I mean she literally said I'm going to take money out of my accounts and we're going to buy these kids laptops. And I was like praise God, this is amazing, I love it. Even said to my wife I said you don't want to get to heaven and face our Lord and for him to say you know what? Do you remember when I put that opportunity to get those kids some computers that would like change the trajectory of their educational experience and you didn't take advantage of that opportunity. You don't want him to say that yes absolutely so.
Speaker 2:She's making it happen and I told her the other day. I said I'm so proud of you because that's the kind of stuff that we're talking about. You know, when we go through like journeys of generosity, just meet needs and taking care of people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and when you do that new change, like you mentioned earlier, you change just by being able to be there for somebody else, right, and what I have found is, the more that we're aware of people's you know physical needs or their financial needs, they start to fill our cup more from a spiritual level. Right, so we need each other in so many different ways, and so that is a really cool thing. Right there. I'm curious, I want to know more. Your whole journey started in 2008, where you just started getting that prompting and just kind of leaning in. Right, I really like this visual of someone just kind of leaning in. Maybe we're not going to dive off the jumping board yet, but we're going to lean in, and the Lord put these different things in your path. And then, in 2015, you decided to become a Kingdom advisor. A lot of people listening probably don't know what that means. Can you tell us a bit more about what it means to be a Kingdom advisor? And then, how does it affect you on a daily basis?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. So I think Kingdom Advisors, based out of Atlanta, I think it's been around at least 15 years. It was the brainchild of Larry Burkett, who has passed away, and Ron Blue and my understanding of Larry Burkett I've never had a chance to meet him. Larry Burkett was kind of the grandfather of bringing biblical financial wisdom to mainstream right People like Dave Ramsey, you know they stand on the shoulders of the Larry Burkett's of the world. So Larry and Ron Blue had this vision of what if we could take financial professionals and coach them up, train them up and put them in a position where they could go into the world and do what they do from a biblical perspective. And so it started out like many things. It started out small and now when you go down to the conference in Orlando every February, there's like 2000 people there and it is the best conference that I've ever been to because it's not about hey, look at me, look how much business I did, or I'm number one in my company. It's just a bunch of equally young people who are in different places in their walk just trying to serve the Lord and serve their clients. And so it's really changed the way I show up as a financial advisor. It's changed the way I give advice. It's changed the way I interact with people.
Speaker 2:I mean, in our practice here, we keep a prayer list that we go through every Monday morning and we're looking for opportunities to say, hey, I see what you're going through. Would it be okay if we prayed for you? And the funny thing is secular, christian, whatever we've never had anybody turn us down. We've actually had people thank us that you know. They'll say I'll take all the prayers that I can get. So that's always been encouraging. And the other thing that's happened is, even though I haven't done this in a formal way, I'm kind of a life coach at heart. So I go into meetings and, yes, I've got to be good at the X's and O's, but they're one of the first things I say in a client meeting almost every time is I will say okay, I've got the slideshow locked and loaded, I've got the agenda locked and loaded, but this is your meeting, it's not my meeting. So why don't we start with? What do you want to talk about today? What's on your heart, what's on your mind?
Speaker 2:And I've had some situations where my agenda got pushed to the side and we ended up talking about what they wanted to talk about and I was able to administer, I was able to speak into their lives, and that's the kind of stuff that gets me excited, because one of the things we have on our whiteboard in the kitchen this year is trust. What's happening in the soil, right, I mean, we're not going to bring people to Christ. The Holy Spirit does that. What we're doing is is we're planting seeds, knowing that at some point those seeds could turn into something really, really beautiful.
Speaker 1:Hmm, I love that. I love that Trust what's happening in the soil. That's really beautiful.
Speaker 2:Just like the farmer, they put the seeds in, and then how much control do they have? Right? They have to trust that the rains will come, the sun will come, nature will do what nature does. And before you know it, and here we are at, we're in the fall now, we're at harvest time, right? So things have happened over the last six months, and it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:I love that and one of the things that you said that I really grabbed hold of just now of we put our agenda aside and just focused on serving the person in front of us and meeting their needs and meeting them where they're at, which is always what I'm preaching in some way, shape or form, especially in, like the financial advisory world, which is typically not very heavy with a Christian influence. Right, when people show up as a financial advisory firm, they're not planning to be minister to or be disciple, right, they're planning on talking about their wealth and how is it growing, and you know all of these things, and so I love what you just said a moment ago. You know, we just put down the agenda and just focused on serving the person in front of us and what amazing things can happen when we just kind of let the Holy Spirit take over in those conversations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was funny, I was just thinking of a story. So we built a culture here where we're pretty much equally old people and we had these clients and so I was kind of the lead advisor and I don't know where they are with their faith. They were dealing with some stuff in life and so we tried to minister to them a little bit. And I don't remember how all the events played out, but somebody on my team was doing something for them and they were kind of stressed out and the person working for me sent them an email and in the email he quoted a bunch of scripture and I remember my immediate reaction was oh my god, I can't believe he did that like out of fear, right? And then I thought, well, wait a second, that's the culture that you've created, so you should applaud that.
Speaker 2:And it was interesting because I was worried that the people I didn't know where they were with their faith. I thought they might get upset. And what was interesting was when they came in for their next meeting and this gentleman who works for me was in the meeting with me. At the end of the meeting she made a comment about the email that she had gotten from the guy on my team and almost was like in tears and told us what it meant to her, that it touched her and I thought that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and it really is. I love that scenario that you just described because, again, even though you've been on this journey for a long time now, you're still seeing areas where you can grow and continue leaning into right, because it might feel really awkward for someone to write a business client and include a scripture in there. That's not necessarily quote, unquote, normal, and so you may still have that initial like gut reaction of like what are you doing? But I love how then you take a step back and remember wait, like this is what God has actually called us to do. He's called us to share the gospel and he's called us to love our clients well, and one of the ways that we can do that is by sharing scripture with them.
Speaker 2:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:And it can just feel really uncomfortable, maybe at first, or awkward of like I don't know how they're going to react to this. Am I going to lose a client over this, right? I'm sure all of these different things were popping into your mind, but the fact that you recognize that those initial thoughts right, that trigger response that you had was based in fear and you could readjust and say well, here's my faith, here's what I'm rooted in, and so I'm going to stand firm on this.
Speaker 2:It's always a reminder that, no matter where you are in your walk, you're always going to, at times you're going to deal with fear and anxiety, and that's when you have to pause and lean into the Lord and get your mind in your heart right and learn from it. You know. But to say that I've somehow mastered it, I don't think I will master it this side of heaven.
Speaker 1:Yes, no, not as well, mike, not as well. But the point is that you're actively trying right, you're actively trying your being intentional about pursuing the kingdom during your work hours with your clients, like that's what matters is. Are you trying, what are you doing, to kind of move that needle? And so I'm curious did you notice any like specific pain points? So you became certified Kingdom Advisor 2015, which is basically saying, like I'm focused now on growing God's kingdom, I'm not necessarily focused on growing everyone's personal kingdoms, right, their personal wealth. Even though you are a financial advisor and that's your role, so to speak, you know everything's going to now be looked at through the lens of God's kingdom. What were some of those like uncomfortable pain points for you? Because I'm sure some people listening they may be in the financial ministry space or whatever that could be they're saying, yeah, but how am I actually going to start doing this? Because that sounds really sticky.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so and this is kind of the rest of the story, for lack of a better way of saying it, but so from 15 to 2019, the interesting thing was I had three business partners, all great guys. They were all Christian guys but for whatever crazy reason, they never embraced Kingdom Advisors and they knew that I was kind of moving down that path and I think this was, you know, god in action. In 2019, after just kind of a series of things, I had an opportunity to spin off from the practice that I had built with them, and part of my motivation for spinning off was, I thought, for where I am in this season of my career, I would really like to go all in for the kingdom, whatever that meant, right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I will never forget. We had started the process of trying to figure out what it would look like for me to spin off, and then, you know, they'd end up going in a different direction. And I'll never forget. I was at the Kingdom Advisor Conference in 2019, and I actually have a note card that I wrote this on. It was actually February 21st of 2019. We're at the Kingdom Advisor Conference. There's like 2000 of us worshipping in the big hotel ballroom and something came over me. I went back to my room, pulled out a note card and here's what I wrote on the note card. I wrote my vision is to build an AmeriPrize because I own a franchise with AmeriPrize to build an AmeriPrize practice that is the most visible and impactful for the kingdom of God in central Ohio. That was February of 2019. Here I am four years later and here's what's interesting I am still the only certified Kingdom Advisor practice at AmeriPrize in central Ohio. So, almost by default, I did build this right because there's nobody else.
Speaker 2:No competition but it looks a lot different today than it did when we came in four years ago, and part of it is just because of the evolution and the growth of our faith, our boldness, our ability to put ourselves out there. One of the things that I do, amongst many, I mean we do a lot of videos, and so I have this thing called the faith and finance monthly minute that we put out through social media and various channels each month, and it's just me taking all of the things that I've learned through Kingdom Advisors, putting it into an entertaining little video to get that out there. So that's one way that we're putting ourselves out there. And, once again, there's always a little bit of anxiety because you think, well, how will this be received, whether it's somebody that already works with us or somebody that's looking to work with us, and we just have to trust that God's got us and this is who we are and this is how we're going to deliver the message of how do you integrate your faith into your finances.
Speaker 1:That's so good and I love that you wrote down that vision statement and you've kept it all this time.
Speaker 2:Yes, I look at it every once in a while, just to remind myself.
Speaker 1:Yes, isn't that amazing, though, just to go back and see okay, here's where I started and here I am now, and you can see the faithfulness of God right along this journey. Not that it's all been perfect, and not that you haven't failed at things, because we all do, but you can see how you've moved and you've crossed those stones across the river. That's really good.
Speaker 2:I would say this summer I was kind of going through a season of just reassessing, not what we're trying to do, but reassessing how we're putting it out there, the messaging, because part of the deal is delivering this message so that it connects with people. Obviously, we don't want it to repel people, sure. So coming here into the fall, I feel like we've got some traction and we've made some adjustments in how we're doing that, and that's really got me excited.
Speaker 1:That was going to be actually my next question for you. I was just wondering what's next? What's next for you guys?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think obviously that's up to God as to where he wants to take it when people ask us, what makes you guys different? Because, as you know, there's a lot of financial professionals out there, both Christian and secular yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but when they ask us, why are you different? My response is always the same. Number one the advice and the experience that we give you is going to be rooted in biblical financial wisdom, because that's what informs us. The second thing is, if you invest money with us, we're going to do what's called values-based investing, which means we screen our investments because we've made a conscious decision not to profit from companies that don't lift humanity up and don't bring value to the world. And then the third thing I stole this from a guy named Mitch Anthony, who I love his material. I said we already know that return on investment is important, but what's more important to us is that you get a good return on life, and so if you like those three things, then hey, let's talk. If that doesn't resonate with you, then we're probably not the right fit for you.
Speaker 1:Yes, so what's the next project? What's the next thing that has you excited?
Speaker 2:The next project is we're looking at potentially merging with another Kingdom advisor practice so that we can create even more scale. Because I've got other people on my team and kind of the season of where I am, I want to focus on the things that energize me and that I'm really good at, and part of that is just kind of getting this message out. I'm looking right now at writing a book to kind of tell my story a little bit more and inspire people that way. And then the other thing is I get excited about I've got some really good young people with me and I get really excited about mentoring and coaching up the next generation. And these are people that have a heart for God, have a heart for Kingdom advisors. So that really gets me excited.
Speaker 2:And I would say for the most part, as the saying goes, I try not to get out ahead of my skis too much. I just try to wake up every day and say, oh God, who do you want me to serve today? Where do you want me to show up? And just be okay with that. As a business owner, you have to think about the future. But after we do that work, then I kind of pull it back to. Let's just show up every day, let's love on people, let's serve people, let's give them a great experience, great advice, and I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1:It's really exciting to hear and see how the Lord has just been growing you and sharpening you over the last several years. And so tell me, as people are listening, as we're wrapping up our conversation, I would love for you to give them some sort of a springboard to take the next step in their faith. Right, because my spiritual story is just slow, lean in, right. It's not like you went from zero to 60 overnight. This was something that's been going on. What the last 15 years, really, since God's been putting this on your heart and just these little lean ins. So talk to the person who's listening, where God has prompted something on their heart. Right, where they're asking God you know what is your purpose for my life and my money and how do you want me to be living? And the God's putting something on their heart that feels uncomfortable, might feel way too big for them, and they just need a little springboard to lean in. Help that person out. What would you tell them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. I either read this or heard this recently that I think everybody knows that in many churches church attendance is down. There are some churches like I was just at Crossroads down in Cincinnati. They said they're growing like 20 or 30% and if you think about it and I say this a lot we are now living in the most commoditized society of all time. I can get whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want, and that includes church. Right, I can go to church in another country. I can go to church in California.
Speaker 2:I can listen to sermons every day of the week, so why do I need to go to church? And in this same thing that I was either listening to or reading, they were talking. The differentiator is the connectedness. Right, you got to get connected to people and, as you probably know, even though we have technology, I think loneliness is at an all-time high.
Speaker 1:Oh it's huge. Yes, right.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I don't know where I heard this, but somebody once said isolation is the playground of the devil. I totally agree with that. So one of the things we talk about in my church is just helping people take their next step with Jesus. Even if it's a baby step, just take your next step. And usually the way you take your next step is you get connected to people.
Speaker 2:You and I are relatively new friends, right, and we kind of knew each other from afar, yes, and we're getting to know each other and just from those conversations, like really cool stuff is happening. Right, you may introduce me to another person, you may give me an insight that maybe I haven't thought about, so, and you and I know some of the same people. So I just tell people, get connected to other people that are either starting to go down the path to where you want to go or they're already going down the path. I mean one of the things that I can't remember who I stole this line from, but I always say to my college age daughter you will be the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So you know, my advice to her is always be paying attention to the people that you're hanging out with because they're either going to lift you up or they're going to tear you down. Obviously, you don't want to be torn down, and so, to me, that word connectedness that's what excites me, that's my advice for other people.
Speaker 1:I love that advice, mike. I love that because it's true, almost everyone that I counsel says that they experience loneliness and struggle with that feeling of isolation, even if they have a ton of coworkers, even if they go to church. You know, it's very easy to go to church and stay hidden and not even take that step of just reaching out and talking to someone, saying, hey, how are you, can we grab coffee? Like. Just take one little step of, you know, not just being in the place where other people are, but reaching out and actually talking to someone new right, and just saying, hey, how are you? Because more than likely, if you're feeling lonely, the people around you are also feeling lonely.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I love that idea of connectedness. Yeah, and yes, being aware of who you're spending time with at the same time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it'll have a tremendous impact on the trajectory of your life.
Speaker 1:That's so good. And then one more second, Mike, while I still have you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:For the folks. You know we have quite a few Christian financial leaders who listen in on the podcast. What is your one piece of encouragement for them? They might be struggling, you know they want to share the gospel with clients. They want to be doing more for God's kingdom. Maybe they feel a little stuck, and what piece of encouragement would you offer that person?
Speaker 2:I think a couple of things. I think one is get connected to a community of Christian financial professionals. Right, you and I met at the Kingdom Advisor study group that meets here in Columbus, so that would be a starting point. And I think another word that always comes up for me is boldness. Right, it's like at some point we just have to be bold and we have to trust that God's word is what it is right, that he's going to be there for us, and part of my testimony is what I've shared on this call and hopefully that gives people some confidence.
Speaker 2:I have gone through all the fears and the anxiety and worked through it and still try to be bold in the process. And it's not like my business went backwards, it's not like a bunch of people left me because I asked if I could pray for him. You know, god said in the scripture he's like I'll give you the words, like I'll give you the appropriate words when you need them, like you don't have to be something special. And I have found that God has just stepped up when I needed him to give me words, to show me what the right course of action was, and at the end of the day, I just have to trust. And I also want to say that I'd love to tell you that I'm there, but I'm not.
Speaker 2:Even after all these years, I still feel like I'm scratching the surface, which on one hand, is kind of humbling, but on the other hand, I think of all of the opportunities that are left for me. I mean, you know one of the things that's been on my heart here recently. You and I both know Mark Grieves from Tide Blending and you know you talk about boldness. He started this company and they're giving 10% right off the top, right off of the revenues, and that's a very bold thing. And I know that he's got this goal to get more business owners to go down that path. So he's kind of inspired me. Maybe that's a path that we need to go down, just to once again lean harder into God and trust him that he will take care of us.
Speaker 1:Yes, and don't worry, listeners, we will have Mark on the podcast soon Because he has another amazing story you know, along with Mike.
Speaker 1:But, yes, yeah, surround yourself with the community of other people who are also being intentional about living out their faith. Right, that's what I'm hearing you say, and that our work is never going to be finished. It's not like you went through this process and you're like I'm good, now I'm done. I actually get really frustrated with the people who think that they're done. I'm like wait, wait, wait, you're not done yet. Like I said, like we're barely scratching the surface. All of us Like there's always more to be done, there's always more that we could give over to Christ. Right, there's always a new level of trust, a deeper level in the relationship that you can go where never finished. Our work is never finished.
Speaker 2:That's right. I think you may know One of my heroes is Bob Goff, who wrote the book Love Does and yeah, you and me both. And actually I've got a meeting today because we're looking at bringing his bus tour to Columbus, so stay tuned. Yes.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:Sign me up. Yeah, so I've been connected to his world and I went to Israel with him back in April, which was amazing. But his words are always in the back of my head because you know he's all about doing, and one of his sayings is you know, if you don't know how to communicate the whole concept of Jesus to someone else, he's like, just go love on him.
Speaker 2:Right. If you just go, love on him, right, you're going to show them the face of Jesus. But he's been an inspiration to me of just put yourself out there like, go, do something. That's what faith is all about. It's not about oh, I know all these scriptures and you know I sit in church every Sunday. I mean that's part of it, but it's really just about doing. And you know, I think the tension for all of us is, you know, we asked ourselves am I doing enough? Right, and so there's plenty of room to grow, there's plenty of opportunities in the future, and I'm looking forward to see what God's going to do with the business, because we pretty much have given it all to him. We said, all right, this is going to be ministry. And the cool thing is I don't even look at this as a job anymore. I just show up, I do ministry every day and feel good when I go home.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Amen to that. Yes, and Mike, tell us real quickly where can people get in touch with you If they want to hear more of your story, if they want to talk with you. How can they get in touch with you?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, so. You can find me on LinkedIn. So I'm out there. I own the Best Life Financial Group. There's a whole story behind how we came up with that. Our website is bestlifefgcom and those are probably the easiest ways to connect, and if there's somebody wants to connect with me, I'd love to either jump on a virtual call or we go have some coffee, kind of like what Courtney and I do we go have coffee and we kick a lot of stuff around.
Speaker 1:Yes, and coffee is a must. I have to say yes. Thank you so so much, mike. I so appreciate you being here and just being real right. That's what I love about you and your story. You're not coming here saying, you know, I got it all together, I got it all figured out, but you're saying, hey, look what God has been leading me through and look what the outcome has been right. And I want to take that same word of encouragement that you just had given us right? You know, our faith is not necessarily about accumulating all of this knowledge, but it's just about going and loving on people. So as we wrap up for today, listeners, a few things that I've written down from what Mike has said. One, be praying about what is God's will for your life and your money.
Speaker 1:Once you pray that prayer, he's going to answer it, and so you're also going to want to pray for boldness. This is something that I also regularly pray for is Lord, give me boldness. And I want to give you guys a gentle, encouragement, gentle, challenge. Right now, after you end this, I want you to go out, take five minutes and go do something about your faith. Go love on someone. Thank you again, mike, it was a pleasure having you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, courtney, I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. If today's conversation has blessed you, share our podcast with a friend and if you have a money question, email me at Courtney and marglicoachinggroupcom. I'm Courtney Margley and this has been the heart of money.