Ep.045: Beyond The Bottom Line

Profit can keep a company alive while slowly shrinking the leader running it.

In this episode, we talk about leading with integrity when the pressure is on: cutting corners, blaming others, staying silent when speaking up costs you something. We get into stewardship over entitlement, business ethics in real decisions, and why a strong culture starts with how you treat the least powerful person in the room.

You'll leave with practical reflection questions on where you're compromising, and who actually benefits from the way you lead.

If you're building a business or leading a team, this is a straightforward gut check on faith, values, and character in leadership.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:14

All right, fellas, we're back in season four. Episode 44.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

I was gonna say, are we on the fours now? Season four already?

SPEAKER_05 0:23

But it's episode five.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Freddie, we've we've been on season four for probably seven episodes now.

unknown 0:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

It's hard to keep up.

SPEAKER_05 0:29

No, we're on we're on episode uh episode uh five of season four. So yeah, number 44. We're slowly creeping toward 50. Yeah. Um, which is a big deal. They say, um, they say I think I believe it's like 20 uh 20 or 30 percent of all podcasts actually like clip the 50 mark. Most people give up by then. So it's a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Hey, thank you to all the listeners. Uh obviously YouTube is picking up big traction, Adam. We were talking about that before the show came on. And um just thank thank you guys so much for listening, for watching. Uh, we truly value that and and love your feedback. Like, we got a we had someone reach out to us this past week on the podcast, and we're gonna talk about that in a few minutes.

SPEAKER_05 1:05

Yeah, we had somebody reach out uh on this one that we posted last week where you guys were talking about um fix it now. Yep. Or talking about leadership, and we posted a question like when do you step in strategically? When you step in emotionally, and somebody uh had commented um and they were like, Well, I'm I'm kind of interested in this because this is what I think.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

So somebody else good, somebody somebody else said, I wish my boss would listen to this one.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

I tell him, Hey, you know what? Like and share. You can you can share with me.

SPEAKER_05 1:32

We have somebody that comments a lot, like I wish this person would do this. It just cracks me up. So but hey, you're making influence.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Hey, social media platform, you can tag your boss in it.

SPEAKER_05 1:41

Oh man, bad idea. We're full we're we're 44 episodes and you're still sitting here every morning. I know you're busy.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

I tell you, I told Sarah the other day I'm convinced this podcast is taking off because Brady's 100% what it is.

Beyond The Bottom Line Defined

SPEAKER_05 1:53

So nobody listened to me. Glad to be here. Glad to be here. You do great. Well, hey, so we're getting ready to jump in today. Uh, so our topic today, Benjamin, I'm gonna pitch it to you in a minute, but you're talking a little bit about beyond the bottom line. Um, we were talking before the show, and I was like, what is that, what does that mean? I mean, we understand what the bottom line is, yep, but what do you mean when you're talking about going beyond that? So kind of kick off a little bit, talk about what we're gonna hit on today and where we're gonna go.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Yeah, so we're talking about, again, beyond the bottom line. Everybody thinks that profit, and it and it is profit is the way you sustain your business. Yeah, uh, even nonprofit companies, they have to show a zero balance at the end of the year, but they don't have money. They can't operate their nonprofit, let's be honest. But today is more about beyond the bottom line, leading with integrity, leading with ethics. So we're gonna talk about some things that people don't really think about. Um, profit matters, but it's not the point. So today in in Higher Up, we're gonna explore what it means to lead beyond the bottom line by anchoring business decisions in integrity, character, and kingdom ethics. Big, big shift there. This is a conversation for leaders who want to win in business without losing their soul. So we all know that problems come up, we all know that things happen. Um, and in today's business culture, some some people often say, if it works, it works. Right? Some people, like I've always said, uh, control what you can control, right? And that's that's true. Control what you can control. Uh, there is a statement out there, we all know customer is always right. Let's be honest. Within within reason, the customer is always right. Uh, but I think what happens a lot of times is king kingdom leadership would ask, is it right? Right. And so you can say if it works, it works in the business world, but in the kingdom world, is it actually the right thing to do? So that's just a different way to think about it. Um, success versus significance. Yes, we want to be successful with the bottom line. Yes, that's how we operate our business, but significance in the kingdom world matters more to Brady and I than anything that we we could possibly do. So, just a quote to think about today, okay? Profit is a measure of success, but integrity is a measure of leadership. So let's talk about this for a second. In the business world, what do we gain with the bottom line leadership? What do we gain?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Bottom line leadership? Yeah. What does that what does that mean to you? My first thought really goes to um, you know, I uh there's a there's a big buzzword that's out there like ownership mindset. Okay. And everybody's like, we want everybody to have an ownership mindset. I mean, e even one of our core values is extreme ownership, which listen, I am not debunking that at all. Okay. But when we talk about from a kingdom perspective or leadership perspective, and Benji, we we say this all the time, and we even tell our employees this is we don't really see ourselves as owners of this company, we really see ourselves as stewards of the company. So when you are stewarding or managing something for somebody else, in our case, we we do have a boss, he just happens to sit in heaven, yep, right? Then it gives you a different uh mindset of what leadership really is because you're doing it for somebody else. I mean, at the end of the day, we are accountable to him for what we do. So what do we gain by good leadership is we we gain uh what we're able to do not only for our Heavenly Father, but we we we gain what we're able to do by um by spreading that news and being a good example. We don't do a good job of that all the time. Sure, yeah. You know, we're not we we mess up a lot. I'm sure I've already messed up this morning at some point, you know? But that's what you gain with with leadership is just it's it's mindset first. Like what are we doing it for? Or who are we doing it for? And that that's what really changes the game.

Shortcuts And Character Under Pressure

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Yeah, think about bottom line, bottom line leadership is what did we gain, but kingdom leadership is who did we become? So great, great analogy you use there. Um you know, I I know we say this all the time. We tell our kids, I'm sure you tell your kids this what do you do when nobody's watching? Yeah, right? How do you handle pressure? What is shortcut? Do you take shortcuts? Like, think about the job that you have to do. We were talking about before the show today that Canes, thank you, Canes, has opened in Birmingham, Alabama. Finally, sponsor, by the way. But you know, you're more than me.

SPEAKER_05 6:18

I will put the sauce on the table.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Dude, I had like 10 of those sauces last night. I ain't lying. You know you can buy a cup of it for like six dollars, right?

SPEAKER_05 6:25

Really?

SPEAKER_02 6:26

Is that on the menu?

SPEAKER_05 6:27

I know it's totally the thing is a secret menu.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Anyways, but to to the to the point is canes opened in Birmingham, all right, and yes, our family waited an hour and 42 minutes in the drive-thru.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Wait, wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me make sure we get this straight. Y'all waited an hour and two, hour and 42 minutes for fast food chicken. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 6:47

Chicken and fries that you probably could either one, go to Guthrie's for. Chick-fil-A? Or Chick-fil-A. Well, I will say.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Oh, by the way, Max said on the way home Chick-fil-A had like three people in the drive-through. She was laughing as we went by because we go there, but she's like, ha ha.

SPEAKER_05 7:01

So funny. How'd you spend your night last night? What'd you do with your time? I sat in line for an hour and 45 minutes.

Kingdom Ethics With Real Examples

SPEAKER_02 7:09

But an hour and 42 minutes waited in the drive-thru. Here's the question. They had, I bet you there was 50 workers, five-zero, not 15, 50 workers in there. And probably 10 of those workers were were from some other location helping them get their system set up. You think they allowed them to take shortcuts? I mean, no. They had to have the sauce right, the chicken right, the breading right, the fries right, the the oven, the whatever machines they have going in there to keep the you know stuff hot and cooked and what have you? Um, they didn't allow any gray areas. So you can grow revenue fast. Obviously, people waiting an hour and 42 minutes, you know, to get chicken. And it was like that all day yesterday. Okay. Um, you can grow revenue fast, but you can still shrink your character because what happens when nobody's watching, yeah, you know, you don't want to take shortcuts. So, what are kingdom ethics in business? Okay, let's break it down a little bit. You have um honesty over the hype. Tell the truth even when it costs you. I'll give you a story. There was a team that I heard this a couple weeks ago that was doing the job at a customer's house, and um, it was not our team. I want to preface that. It was not our team.

SPEAKER_04 8:15

No.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

So they were doing this cleanup at uh at someone's home. Again, you guys know that we're in the fire and water restoration business and construction business, and they were doing a cleanup and they saw a snake in the house. Now the customer was not there, and so there's water, so you think snake water, right? They killed the snake and took the snake out in the woods. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:38

I mean, to so far, what I'm hearing is they did everything right. They did, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

I want to do the same thing. They come home and customer goes, Where's my snake? It was their pet snake. Oh gosh. And so the customer's like, where's the snake? And the crew is like, I don't know. I mean, I have no clue where where I don't know what you're talking about. Now, they should have fessed up, right? They should have fessed up and said something. But again, tell the truth even when it costs you, because it might cost you. But tell the truth. People over process. We have a thing at our core value: people first. Yep, people over the process. Efficiency never excuses disrespect because people, you have to have people to be successful. All right. Next, stewardship, you mentioned that word earlier, over entitlement. You don't own it all. We just manage it. Yep. We just manage it. And then long-term faithfulness over a short-term win. Brady, we have always prided ourselves and our team on doing the right thing. Now, I'm sure we make mistakes like any company would, but we always do the right thing. There's a statement that we've had for years. If it didn't get documented, it didn't get done. It didn't get done, right? It did not happen. Like it never even happened, did not happen, right? So uh kingdom ethics don't slow our business down, but they stabilize it. Because if we do the right thing, we will win, even if it does cost us.

Long Obedience And One Set Of Ethics

SPEAKER_00 10:01

Now that, Benji, when you talk about long-term faithfulness over short-term wins, it it reminds me of I think it was, I think it's Eugene Peterson. He's the guy that that wrote the message uh Bible. Oh yeah. You know, uh the one that's really long, you know, it's got a lot of stuff in there. But he he talks about this thing that um you know the Christian walk is um long obedience in the same direction. So it's it's the long game, you know, it's it's not it's not the decision that you it is a decision that you make right now, right, but for a long-term impact. You know, it's not, oh, I can just make this decision and get by with it. I hope nobody else saw that, I hope nobody else witnessed that, you know, but you know, and God knows, and so the the Christian walk or even even in business, I remember um I think it was a book that he wrote, but you know, or or a question that that John Maxwell got asked one time. He's some somebody asked him, they said, Hey, can you tell me what business ethics are? He said, There's no such thing. He said, There's no such thing as business ethics. They were like, Yeah, okay. Explain lore there. Explain that what we're doing. He said, There's just ethics. That's true. You either have ethics or you don't. You don't have business ethics and you have personal ethics. You just have ethics. And so the like you said, characters who you are and what you do when nobody else is watching. It's not that you compartmentalize business over here and and personal over here, it's all the same stuff. Yeah. So that I think that's I think that's something good and challenging for all of us because you know, I when we think of a concept, I I think I'm still I'm still gonna I hope nobody steals this idea, but I'm gonna write a book one day called uh running a business while walking with God.

SPEAKER_05 11:52

You mentioned that this will be the first real clip so everybody gets that idea.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

You know, you can write those on uh like Apple. I'm gonna go let's let's go ahead and patent it so I you know copyrighted. But think about that. We are we are running. I mean, anybody that's in business, you're busy all day long with your meetings and and task and all the things, but uh how do we how do we stabilize that, you know, to to uh to slow down a little bit to make sure that we're doing the right things instead of just getting from thing to thing to thing to thing. At least that's what I get into.

Integrity Tests And Hard Choices

Lead People Not Just Results

SPEAKER_02 12:22

Yeah, yeah, it's it's a great point because the real test of integrity says, again, do the right things. And it's not tested when things are easy, it's tested when you have these three things. You try to cut corners to save money, yeah. Right? That's not a good thing. And and we tell our team all the time, do it the right way, follow the same process, we win in the long run. Uh, blaming someone else who would protect your image. It's a big, you know, don't blame someone else. If you made a mistake, let's own up to the problem. You know, let's own up to it. Hey, man, I'm sorry I made a mistake. I was talking to one of our leadership team the other day, and they walked up and they said, Man, I'm sorry this happened, you know. I've had to do the same thing. Hey, I'm I I said the wrong thing. I didn't, it wasn't intended to be on purpose, but it really should be looking like this, you know. Um, and then staying silent would be more convenient than speaking up. If you see something, say something. Like if you're on the other end of the spectrum and you see someone cutting a corner, you see someone in your business, your leadership, your team, say something. Don't worry about what happens. It's better to be honest than not. Uh honesty goes a long way. Listeners, here's a question for you. What decisions are you postponing because it costs you something? Something to think about. What decisions are you postponing because it costs you something? Um I love this quote that integrity is choosing what's right when what's easy is right there. That's that's a good statement. Integrity is choosing what by the way, I did not write this. So but uh this is not my quote. I wish it was. Integrity is choosing what's right when what's easy is right there. Uh leading people, not just the results. Okay, yes, we have to lead from the bottom line. We do, we have to be profitable, we have to grow, we have to reinvest. But it's not just that. We still have to lead people. I'm a firm believer, Brady's a firm believer, and Adam, you've been with us. How many years you've been with us now? It'll be almost eight. Eight years.

SPEAKER_05 14:20

Yeah. Yeah. So it feels like it feels like 20. Feels like 20.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

So think about this. We have a we value our people that are a part of our company. And honestly, man, it's it's like culture is a big thing nowadays. The reason the people stay with us, we believe, is we want to pour into them and them to see more value in what they can become because they don't, they may not get it at home. They may not see it at home. They have other obviously life happens. We spend more time here than we do with our own, you know, our own families. Yeah. Um, so it's leading the people, not just the results. Employees don't follow the mission statements, which I think Brady Ours is fantastic. They follow the model. Think about that. Mission is great, is important. The mission statement is important, but they follow the model. And if we're not gonna have, you know, I'm I'll use this example all the time. People are like at my church, they're like, Why do you pick up stuff all the time? Because guess what? Somebody's watching.

SPEAKER_04 15:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

If I walk over that piece of trash, they think they can. But in subconsciously, they might go, I need to pick that up, do the right thing. Regardless if anybody else is watching or not, do the right thing. Uh here's something to think about. Is your team constantly, listeners, is your team constantly talking about the competition all the time in a bad way? Think about that. Yeah. You know, if if you if you are there was a there was a great quote one day that someone mentioned. Um, it worked for us. They were at a at one of our uh centers of influence office talking to them, doing a class or something, and and a competitor question got brought up to the to one of our individuals. And it was like clockwork. Huck McKelvin, if you're listening, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about right now.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Of course, then shout out to him.

Culture You Tolerate Becomes Culture

SPEAKER_02 16:03

No, wait, it wasn't Huck, but he like he says this statement all the time. And the the guy, I mean, it was like instantaneous. He said, Well, they're just not in the same business we are. Like he what the what the what the client was saying was, Well, this is what your competitor, and he had a choice right then. He could have said something negative about the competition, but he chose to say, they're just not in the same business we are. This is how we do it. So always, always go back to what your business does. Don't worry about the other people. You can control your own business, right? That's right. How do you handle failure? It's good. How do you handle, you know, we all handle failure differently. Some people get stressed, some people get excited, some people take it and they're like, you know what? I'm not gonna fail anymore. I'm gonna change the my outcome, change the way that I do things. Um, here's here's one. How do you treat the least powerful person in the room? And what I mean by that is if you have an entry-level employee that has just day one on the job, they're now part of your team. They're not a day one employee, they're a person, people first. They're a person that has come on your team. How do you treat that person? And this would be for their coworkers too. Oh, there's the new guy in the room. No, hey, man, they're a part of the team. Come on, let me show you the way. Let me teach you how it's done right. Yeah, the culture, listeners, the culture that we tolerate becomes the culture that we teach. We talk about culture all the time.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Yeah, because I mean people are looking, like you said, people are are looking at you. You know, we've said it, we've said it all the time. And going back to John Maxwell, he says a good leader is one that knows the way, goes the way, shows the way. Absolutely. You have to you have to do those things. People are you are the model. You are what people are looking for. And that's and listen, let's just be honest. Okay, this is a leadership podcast, right? That's hard. It is hard. That is tough because you feel like that as leaders, and I'm just speaking for myself, you know, how do you handle failure? Uh it's hard to think about that. It's hard to I mean, we don't want to fail. Yeah, we don't want to make a mistake, we don't want to do wrong, but it's gonna happen. And it's not that it's not gonna happen, but like you said, owning up to it and saying, hey, you know what? Yes, this happened, and and and I'm and I'm sorry, I apologize, or or whatever the case may be. It's hard for us because we we feel like that we've got to have it all together, and that's just not true. It's so it's okay to your point to admit we've made a mistake.

Takeaways Reflection Questions And Closing

SPEAKER_02 18:24

Absolutely. Even as an owner, even as a manager, for you managers listening. So just a couple quick takeaways, okay? From a leadership takeaways. Um integrity is not a strategy, it's a standard. Integrity has to be number one. If you're gonna live beyond the bottom line, you have to have good uh integrity. Uh I shouldn't even say good integrity, you should have to have integrity. Yeah. Um, so then secondly, kingdom leadership means this winning without compromising. You you know, we talk about as a Christian, we have the Holy Spirit with us. Now, our Holy Spirit is our guide, our comfort, our peace. We know that. Yep. But we should never compromise. You've seen, you've probably seen, I know, in the cartoons, you got the good person, bad person sitting on the person's shoulder, you know, and they're all talking back and forth each other. Good always wins. Good always wins. Um, it's in every you're a big uh what do you call um um good like Spider-Man, Superman? What do you call that? Oh, action heroes, superheroes. You're a big superhero person, you know. You always see good and evil, yeah, right? Good and evil. Good always wins. Um growing, also growing without crushing people. If there is a mistake, we always praise in public, we always deal with things behind the scenes with the individual. Don't ever do it in front of a group of people because you don't want someone else to, you know, feel like, oh man, they talked about me or whatever. You know, praise in public, criticize in in uh private. And then last but not least, succeed without succeeding, excuse me, without selling out. Succeeding without selling out. Leadership that honors God always outlives leadership that only chases growth. And that's the reason why we do this podcast. We can have, Brady, we've had down years. We had one in 2025. The first quarter of 2025, I was talking with some leadership uh that that are in the same circles as us in the company that we that we serve, um, and they had the same problems we did. But the leadership team, we never lost sight of the fact that God is number one, and we have to understand that God, honoring God, always outlives chasing growth. Yeah, we still can have growth. I mean, look at Chick-fil-A, they're open six days a week and they're closed one day a week, and they do more revenue. They still one of the top ones. Yeah. They do like double or triple the revenue that a McDonald's would, you know? Honor God. So a couple of reflection pieces before we close out. Listeners, this week to ask yourself, where am I tempted to compromise? Where am I tempted to compromise? Secondly, what does obedience look like in my leadership right now? What am I trying to be obedient about with my leadership? And then thirdly, who benefits from the way that I lead? Who benefits from that? Because again, Brady, we talked, people are watching. They're watching us. How we how we operate, how we do things, what we say, how we say it, they're watching. At the end of the day, here's the question. It the question isn't, did it work? The question should be, it's was I faithful. Was I faithful? So, listeners, again, thank you so much for listening and tuning in to another episode of the Higher Up Podcast. As always, you can find us on any social platform out there. You can subscribe at higheruppodcast.com slash subscribe to whatever platform you'd like. If you're listening to us for the first time, thank you so much for tuning in. Go back and listen to the other 43 episodes. 43. Let's go. So let's go out and choose to live a higher up life. We'll see you next time.