Avodah Talk w/ Matt Walton

From Transactional To Transformational: How To Build A Business That Changes Lives

• Matt Walton

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Matt Walton shares his passion for marketplace discipleship and human development as the foundation of Kingdom business. He reveals how focusing on developing people holistically while they work creates organizations that benefit everyone who touches them.

• Moving from pursuit of followers to pursuit of value and Kingdom impact
• Using the Great Commission as the foundation for business operations
• Understanding that profit is essential but not the ultimate purpose
• Developing a six-level leadership delegation framework that empowers employees
• Creating a "Dream Team" mentorship program to help employees achieve personal goals
• Implementing discipleship programs instead of performance improvement plans
• Conducting regular prayer meetings, daily team meetings, and monthly serve days
• Hiring top-down leaders who align with company values
• Building training programs that prevent bringing "cancer" into the business
• Moving toward incentive-based pay systems
• Consulting God as the CEO of your business

Make God your CEO. You're a steward and managing partner alongside Him because He wants to partner with you in your business.

Where we WORK | WORSHIP | SERVE 
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Speaker 1:

What's up guys? This is Matt with Avoda Talk, or the real Matt Walton. This is your hub for all things Kingdom Business Business. As Ministry Business Strategy, my goal is to provide as much value, minute by minute, each podcast that you listen to. So let's get to it. So a little disclaimer before this podcast starts is you're going to hear me say John MacArthur at the very beginning, before I correct myself, and what I mean is John Maxwell. So just want you guys to know that I love y'all. Thank you so much for tuning in. What's up guys? Matt Walton here with the Voted Talk, or the real Matt Walton, depending on how you found me. And first off, thank you so much for tuning in. We just passed a big milestone, if you ask me, and it was over 100 downloads for my podcast. We have about, I think, six or seven episodes that are out right now, so I'm just grateful for every single one of you. This isn't so much for followers although I would love to have a lot of them it is more about value and adding as much value as I possibly can, minute by minute. I moved out of the pursuit of followers and into just the pursuit of adding value and kingdom impact last year and it's one of the most freeing things in the world. So whenever we hit these milestones, it just is icing on the cake. So I want to say thank you for that.

Speaker 1:

But, man, what a week. And today is Thursday and I am really dialing things in. I know I talk about this every time but, like my weekends are just going extremely well. I started golfing again, spending more time with my family and just more present time with my family, being really disciplined on exercising and how I'm eating, and going to the next level on everything, with cold plunges, red light therapy, saunas. That is coming, that is what's coming next, and the reason for that is I really want to steward my temple and steward the body that God had given me in the mind that God has given me, and what I recognize is that when I'm eating right, sleeping right, doing these things that I know I need to be doing, my mind is top notch, my creativity is top notch, my energy is through the roof, and so hopefully, this encourages you guys, because when we start taking that expert ownership, it's really awesome and building up those disciplines and sticking with these disciplines. I've been doing it for about six months, which is brand new for me. I only stuck to things before that were not good things for my life, and now that I'm really sticking to these things and building up these disciplines, it's really, really cool.

Speaker 1:

So today I want to talk about human development and something that is really near and dear to my heart. If you follow my businesses or my business or my personal channels, you will see kingdom impact over income, people over profits, marketplace discipleship, human development those are all four things that I would say are the same thing, but I am really big on marketplace discipleship. So when you see any of those other things I just mentioned, that is what it boils down to for me, and it is something that God has called me to do. It is something that God has put on my heart to disciple people while they are on the clock, because it is not so much what these guys and what we all do during the day, while we're working or operating our businesses, that is taking away from us having the life that we know that we're meant to have. It's what we're doing after that, and so what I do with my guys is I focus on their development as human beings and I really pour into them on that, which I'll get into here in a minute of what exactly that looks like.

Speaker 1:

But first I wanna anchor this episode in scripture, as we always do, and it's the Great Commission. It's Matthew 28, 16 through 20. And this is what just this thing gets me going whenever I read this, because this is a direct command from Jesus for us to do. And it says we make disciples of all nations. And that includes where you're at right, here, right now, all of your people, all of your vendors, everybody that's working alongside of you. What are you doing to help them not just accomplish what you're trying to accomplish, but get out of that mentality Like how are you helping them accomplish their goals and their dreams?

Speaker 1:

Matthew 28, 16 through 20 says this, but the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying All authority has been given to me, in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of age. So that right there is very profound to me and I love how Jesus backs that up with.

Speaker 1:

I am with you and that's a question I have like is your business like, guided by the Holy Spirit, guided by God? Are you consulting with Jesus on everything? And if you're not, just want to encourage you to do that, because when we do that it takes the pressure off of us. And then when we put pressure on ourselves, we really feel it and we know why we have that pressure on ourselves. It's because we haven't surrendered something over to Jesus. So let's hop into it, and I want to.

Speaker 1:

I know we're talking about people over profits or kingdom impact over income, but I want to get this out of the way. Your business, if you're not profitable, if you're not making money, then, like, that is the oxygen to your business. So it is very important. I am in no way stretch of the imagination saying that that does not need to be a focus, because it absolutely does. That is how we make an impact. That is how we spread our territory to make an impact. That is what affords us the ability to do a lot of things that we do. So that profit is extremely, extremely important.

Speaker 1:

So I want to get that out of the way before I get into this, and I want to explain just my heart as we talk about human development. God has called me to business and I know God has called all of you that are listening to business as well in any shape, form or fashion, and he has given me a heart to help people that are coming off the streets or that are in prison, specifically. But it doesn't just stop with them. I mean this expands to any and everybody that I come in contact with. That's a vendor, somebody that I hired, that's kind of like a third party, if you will. That doesn't work directly for me, but that we work together. That's doing something. My heart is to help them accomplish their goals and their dreams. Simultaneously, they are helping me and my company further its vision and accomplish its goals and its dreams.

Speaker 1:

So I posted something the other day that said I am building an organization that benefits every single person that comes in contact with it and contributes to their success. This is a growth and leadership focused organization. So that is my heart boiled down to a sentence, and there's a quote that I heard. This is from Peter Drucker. If you don't know who Peter Drucker is, look him up. He is an awesome on like systems and leadership, but what he talks about is is my desire is he asked a question to I believe this was John MacArthur like who is succeeding you and who is going to take your place? And that last year actually before last year started to be a desire of my heart was delegation, because I recognize that if I don't learn how to delegate, then the company is capped off and I am the lid to the company. So who is succeeding you? And my desire is to be succeeded instead of needed. So again, who is succeeding you?

Speaker 1:

And when I think about like my development, like why we develop human beings, like so many people are going to come back with, this is a lot of work. When we focus our days on how we can develop our people, it moves our focus from systems and processes and hiring and just building jobs and getting the jobs done right, marketing, sales and, yes, all those things are very, very, very important, but it adds another element to it. That is a lot of work. Depends on what level you want to go to, but I want it all and I want to go towards success. I don't want there to be any ceiling for any of my people or my thoughts when it comes to how I will develop or how I will have a hand in developing these human beings God has called us.

Speaker 1:

I believe this is a key point for kingdom businesses that we need to focus on human development and focus on how we are helping those that we come in contact with. For me, it's about being obedient and participating in the calling that God has on my life. The Great Commission has called us to make disciples of all nations, and that doesn't stop in the calling that God has on my life. The Great Commission has called us to make disciples of all nations, and that doesn't stop in the marketplace. I am seeing salvations happening at my shop, and I will be doing baptisms as well whenever I build pools and so manufacture pools for one of my businesses. So whenever I water test a pool the next one that I do I'm going to open it up for baptisms and we're going to start not only seeing salvations but baptisms on the marketplace and on the clock. This isn't before or after they get off, this is on the clock and this is how important it is to me.

Speaker 1:

So so you're like there's a question. I feel like a lot of people ask the question and say these things in your mind. Like you're saying, I don't just need to show them the job and teach them how to perform the task and but rather focus on their development and their human development and what they're doing, teach them and coach them on things not to do, and absolutely that is the top priority for me. I want to hire, for if we align in values, if I see something in you, rather than you being the most skilled, this is how we change the world. I believe that this is how we change cities, states, nations, and it is all for God's glory. It is only through his grace that we have the opportunity to do that. And, like there's a question that comes up what is the benefit of this? And I want to move away from thinking about the benefit of the company, although that is very important. And I want to move away from thinking about the benefit of the company, although that is very important, and I want to focus on the benefit of the individual, and that is where my heart is first, like how can I benefit these men and women first, rather than what is this going to do to benefit myself and my company?

Speaker 1:

And most of my meetings? Like I do, we do morning meetings with the guys and I have a leader within my business that does morning meetings with my guys. We do serve days. I do prayer and, like when I do prayer with my guys, I always go through and ask, like, what are prayer requests or praise reports? And that opens the door for me to have a short message that usually is five to 10 minutes and is heavily focused on developing them as a human being. And like here's some tactics of how you can get better, start walking, start eating better, start reading books, listen to podcasts. Like there's a number of things that I go over with them and I encourage them with questions such as, like, what is that one thing that if you stop doing or started doing, will roll into 10 or 20 other things you know, or that would be in alignment with the vision that you have for your life or that God has given you? And so that is where my focus is with my people is developing them, and instead of we need to focus on the task at hand. Or let me rephrase that we need to focus on developing your skills first rather than developing the human first. So it's human first and then we'll get those skills. Those skills will naturally rise and what I have noticed is that when we're focused on the human, that they are more accepting to criticism or to constructive criticism, because they understand that. Things that I have on my notes.

Speaker 1:

There's six things of how it looks with most businesses, and the idea here is I'm going to go in like an order, like we want to get away from the first four things and get to the last two things, and what they are is like in how we develop human beings, most of the time is we ask them, so like ask our workers. Let's just say maybe you have a manufacturing business like myself, or maybe you're in marketing and you have somebody that is new that you just brought on. So what they do is they're going to look into or maybe they're gonna bring to you a problem and they're gonna report that to you. So they're gonna look into it, report it to you and then I, as the boss or their boss, whoever is their direct supervisor, is going to decide when they'll do it. The next thing this is number two is you look into it. Talking about the worker. Report back to me alternatives this is where a lot of people get stuck at Number two and number three report back to me alternatives with pros and cons, with recommendations, and again I'll decide what happens. The next level this is number three is hey, you look into it, you let me know what you intend to do with your alternatives and give me pros and cons with your recommendations and again I will decide what's going to happen. And this is where most people get capped off.

Speaker 1:

I hear people all the time talking about yeah, like my leadership philosophy is, I'm going to have my guys or girls report to me, give me two or three solutions to the problem, and then I'll tell you what to do, or I'll ask you what do you think is the best thing to do, and then I'll empower them to do it. And no, there's nothing wrong with that. Like, this is a strategy that I use as well, and I think a lot of times that's where it stops, because we don't do the human development side of things. But when you do and you focus on the human development side of things, this is where number four through six open up. And I want to park on five and six here in a minute. But number four is you look into it, you let me know what you intend to do and you do it unless I say no. So this is like an entry point into human development, when you start really developing leaders, underleaders.

Speaker 1:

The next thing and these are two areas that I am striving and I am at in some areas and other areas I'm working to get to Take action. Notice, the verbiage is different Take action and let me know what you did. You have to really trust the individual to a great degree. There's a proven track record that needs to happen. But number six is really where I want to be and I just hired. Well, six, eight months ago I brought on a guy that handles all of my operations and he reports directly to me. We communicate every single day on things that need to be done. He understands what needs to happen very well and so he takes action, and a lot of times there's no further contact that is needed because I trust him and empower him to do so. So where are you at on that?

Speaker 1:

Next I want to move to there's a question like how can I equip someone to be most successful? And this is where the art of delegation comes in, and I'm going to go through these really, really quickly because it goes with what? Those six things that I just mentioned. And this is really whenever you start to empower somebody. So I'll give the example of the guy that I just brought on to handle my operations, and before I was able to bring him on, I had to do it. I had.

Speaker 1:

There was that competency phase, and this is what John MacArthur talks about as competency, and so this is the work that happens before you make the hire, and this allows for you to move to number two I do it and you're with me, you're shadowing me. This is kind of one of the first levels of delegation and this is where you demonstrate what needs to happen. The third is you do it. Now you've somewhat started to delegate that out. You do it, but I'm going to be with you. So this is where you coach them. The next thing this is number four you do it, and this is where you just empower them to do it. You want them to fall and make mistakes. That way they can improve and climb that level of confidence much quicker than if you continue to hold their hands through the coaching phase.

Speaker 1:

The fifth and final one is you do it and someone is with you. So this is where I'm at with my operations guy is I am mentoring the next leader that's going to come underneath him. So is my operations guy. He's mentoring and coaching him as well and he's coming alongside him in a lot of areas. And this is where operations guy he's mentoring and coaching him as well and he's coming alongside him in a lot of areas. And this is where reproduction begins. And this is where I was at with my operations guy was. I was reproducing myself through my operations guy and it is working well. How you can measure whether or not you delegated or advocated is when you step away, does it get better or does it start to crumble? And that's a great way to know when you have reproduced yourself well.

Speaker 1:

The next thing is well, I want to talk about how it looks in my business right now and there's kind of some phases. Again, this goes with those 11 points now that I mentioned up above. But there's the development phase and this is where you give somebody an opportunity. This is like the development phase and this is where you give somebody an opportunity. This is like the hiring point. You give somebody an opportunity, and I'm talking more of like. This goes with high level hires. This also goes with bottom up hires. You hire them and then you bring them on, you train them and then they gain a position, whether if that's like for me they work through.

Speaker 1:

What I'm about to roll out is a 60 to 75 day training process and assuming they meet all the parameters in place there, then they will gain a position within my company. Once they gain a position, then they will have opportunities to lead. So now my operations guy has people leading for two weeks at a time and they have a task list of about 10 things that they have to do on a day-to-day basis so that we can step back and analyze how they're leading. And we also have meetings with them. I mentioned this earlier, but we also have morning meetings with them and we allow for the two-week lead to lead those meetings a lot of times, and so what that does is that empowers them, it gives them a voice. They can handle it however they want to handle. My only stipulation is we start every single meeting with prayer, and so as long as they're doing that, then they're coming in, they're leading the meeting, they're encouraging the guys, they're lining the guys out for the day, but they're also for two weeks. They have to do those 10 to 15 things that are on their list.

Speaker 1:

Then, once we recognize who those leaders are within the business, we move more into that human development at the high level phase. So, like if you listen to John MacArthur and you listen to a number of other leading people out there that focus on leadership, they talk about pouring into your top 20%. There's like top 20%, middle 60% and bottom 20%. So I would lump in those 60 and 20% to 80% just for this purpose right here. But my main guy, such as my operations guy, he is pouring into the bottom 80%, if you will, and we are focused on not kicking them to the curb by any stretch of the imagination. We're focused on developing them so that they can become better human beings, not just here at work but at home, to the wives, whoever it is that they come in contact with.

Speaker 1:

And what I do is I focus on my top 20% leaders. Right now I'm meeting with them once every three weeks and we do a one hour meeting. That's for discipleship, mentorship, and I'm really teaching him how to be a leader so that, if things continue to go the way that they're going. He will be the next guy underneath my operations guy. That will allow my operations guy to move up in the company and focus more high level on some admin stuff and also on some operations stuff. And that's how we promote from within and rather than bringing in the experts from the outside, although there's nothing wrong with that. And I just recognized, by the way, I've been saying John MacArthur and I'm saying I mean to say John Maxwell. So John MacArthur is dramatically different. John Maxwell is who I'm talking about. So thank you to Leslie for that. But yeah, I John MacArthur. John Maxwell, excuse me, is whenever, as I've started to study, leadership has really, really it's like really cool because there's all these institutes for leadership that will put you on to a number of things and a lot of them are based off of the teachings that John Maxwell teaches. So let me continue going raising. This guy's pouring to the 80%. I'm pouring into the top 20%.

Speaker 1:

We have to reward and we reward in a number of different ways, whether that's positional raises or, excuse me, positional opportunities that are in a different position to where they were at. That may be more of an elevated position All the time it's more of an elevated position or praise or pay. So I spend a lot of time praising my guys when they do good things. But as a leader, we can fall into falsely praising our people, and I have caught myself at times falsely praising my people. And so just a little note, like if you catch yourself doing that, start to be wise to that and get away from that, because we need to hold people accountable and praise where it's needed and then reward when we can. So once they do the above, they get access to and really any of the above they get access to the way that my business operates.

Speaker 1:

And this is I'm about to tell you about 11 different things that I do that is really focused on developing the humans. And I'm going to tell you about 11 different things that I do that is really focused on developing the humans, and I'm going to go through these fairly quickly and I'm going to talk about, like, how it used to look. So I used to do a process called PPF. This is what I got from Cardone Ventures. They had put me onto this way of pouring into my people. I've since moved away from that Not that there's anything wrong with that, but this is what God does within kingdom businesses is he helps you, gives you an idea and helps you recreate it and tailor it so that it's kingdom and that it's yours and fits your organization, better than implementing something from outside that may have been great for their organization. Ppf was the thing personal, professional and financial. That was great. I did that a little bit over a year ago.

Speaker 1:

I brought in my guys and started figuring out their one, three, five-year goals. I share with them the business goals for one, three and five years and specifically personal, professional and financial. I helped them develop plans of how they were going to accomplish that. But what I recognized with that was I left that into their hands and after I met with them two or three times and I said, okay, now you have homework to come back to me. We met with them two or three times and I said, okay, now you have homework to come back to me, we'll meet again at this time, but you need to let me know that you completed this.

Speaker 1:

And what I recognized in that was the gentlemen that I rolled that out to weren't the appropriate gentlemen to roll that out to. I needed to go through another year of business and a year of figuring some things out before I rolled it out the way that I'm now rolling it out. So now what I'm doing is I'm rolling out like a dream team type of a deal to where I will figure out again their goals, their dreams, their vision for their life, and I've developed a questionnaire that's going to be rolled out to them. And then I am going to I'm growing my mentor list and I'm going to have people tied to them that are going to be empowering and encouraging them and meeting with them for a year long program that are going to be empowering and encouraging them and meeting with them for a year long program that is going to help them accomplish whatever goal that they want to accomplish buying a house, saving this money, getting out of debt, whatever it may be and so that's what I'm working on.

Speaker 1:

Got to put that on my heart very recently. Actually, I do these things called serve days and I stop my production, go serve the community and just really teach my guys that service is more than like glitz and glam and we're showing people what we're doing. There's no cameras around Not that there's anything wrong with that, like if that's where your heart's at or if your heart's in the right place, because I may do some of that down the road once I get approval from the Lord to do that. But what God had put on my heart, instead of doing a serve day, is do a day where I serve my people and I have them fill out the questionnaire. I then will meet with them to figure out exactly how they want their life to look and what makes them tick and what's holding them back and all of that, and then they will be a part of this year long program. They'll be tied to a mentor that will dream team guy, that will help them accomplish their goals and will stay on top of them for accountability purposes. So you know, within that you create a personal development development plan and create a dream plan for them.

Speaker 1:

I do a discipleship program as well. So like this was more in lieu of like a performance improvement plan, like I can't stand performance improvement plans, especially because they get this negative. They have this negative energy about them because they have been abused within companies to let people go and put them on this and give them excuse, to let people go rather than developing the human being, and so that's where my heart's at. So I call it a discipleship program and I have these tiered phases to it with coaching and mentoring that's mixed into that, which I can do another podcast on that down the road. But I hire top-down leaders who can do this stuff.

Speaker 1:

While I'm not around, I do prayer. I do prayer weekly and this is a Monday morning deal where I stop production for about 30 minutes. I bring my guys in prayer, request praise reports and then I have a short message that's focused on based out of something in scripture, but human development and how, how, how they can improve their lives, and I give them tactics of how they can do that while encouraging them. And it has been awesome, like the, the feedback that I get from my guys. We do daily meetings. So I have my operations guy do daily meetings with the whole entire team and then I have the leaders the two week leads going back to what I said earlier lead some of those meetings. We do serve days. Again, I've already went into detail of that, but those have been vital. That's once a month.

Speaker 1:

Stop production, go serve the community and go serve those that really don't get served or go serve really cool organizations that do a lot of serving Mentorship. I mentioned this earlier, but I created I'm creating a directory of really good leaders because there's strengths that I have, there's strengths that my operations guy have, there's strengths that other people have within my organization that I don't have, and so when I'm mentoring somebody and I recognize that they need this over here, rather than what I have to offer, I then have them go over and talk to whoever it is and really get some insight on that individual strength so that they can pour into them. I think that's huge because a lot of times, we and I fall into this as well, like we want to be the one that tells them everything and we put them onto everything and when, in reality, we can find ourselves giving them poor advice on some of these areas over here, when we gave them great advice over here because of our egos got in the way and there's no place for ego within leadership. There's no place for your pride and ego. So we need to, as leaders, rid ourselves of that.

Speaker 1:

Coaching and my discipleship program I think I mentioned that earlier, but coaching is a big part of my discipleship program and also is a big part of my days, not to say an everyday thing, but if I recognize one of my guys is down. This is where the dream team will come into place. If I know that you tick off of hey, I want to go on a vacation with my family at the end of the year and you're really struggling today, you know, then that's some of the ways that will encourage and empower you to do those things. Lastly, I want to encourage everybody to man, if God has put something on your heart, to start developing your people. Maybe you don't have any employees and maybe you have vendors or people that you work with, or maybe you're somebody that comes alongside of a business. There's still things that you can apply within this. I think a lot of those is leading by example and, like have lunch with them. Go have lunch with them, figure out what makes them tick, figure out those different things so that you can, like, come alongside them and encourage them and just whatever it is that that, however, it is that that looks within your circle, but you don't have to have employees to do some version of this, and I believe that this is how we can convert one of the many ways that we can convert our businesses from just being transactional businesses to being kingdom businesses.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of things right now that I am like super excited about and that this dream team and this human development will help me accomplish, and that is like incentive-based pay. I'm really working towards incentive-based pay and this is the first level of that is that human development aspect. And then I'm strategizing and praying through how exactly I'm going to roll out incentive-based pay, especially as my business get busier and makes it easier to incorporate incorporate something like that, because we know the targets we have to hit. There's no lag time, and so that is really, really excited about that. In developing leaders within to take places of other leaders, that is something I'm also excited about. Hiring top down rather than just bottom up that is something I'm very excited about. I had experience with that this last year and it is working out very, very well. I give God all the glory for that, because that was like it's an instance of like recruiting rather than hiring, and so if you have the opportunity to and you do when you restructure some things to recruit people rather than hire people, I encourage you to start moving in that direction.

Speaker 1:

The program, my developmental programs, my dream team program that I was just going through, my training program, are also things that I'm very, very excited about. I'll say this my training program, what that's going to do as I bring in guys from prison and off the streets, as I evangelize and do a number of different things that is what is going to ensure that I'm not bringing on cancer into the business, because there is. I don't care if you're hiring off Indeed or Monstercom. You run the risk of bringing in somebody that can drag your business down and be a cancer to your business. And so if you create this training program and these parameters around, add a timeframe around it, these KPIs that they have to meet within that, this has far better chances of you bringing on the right person so that they're not dragging down your team, and it'll be exposed during that 60, 75 day period or whatever it is that you do within your business.

Speaker 1:

So, man, that's it for today. I hope everybody is absolutely killing it out there. I love this stuff. Business is what gets me going and, specifically, kingdom business is what gets me going. Being obedient, recognizing, like man, I took that into my own hand. I need to surrender this over to the Lord now and just waiting and hearing from the Lord, and God is so faithful to give you ideas, bring the right people in, and one God idea is better than a thousand mad ideas. So I encourage everybody to consult with the Lord. Make God your CEO. Make God the owner of your business. You're a steward and a managing partner alongside him, because he wants to partner with you in your business. So, god,