Welcome back to the Christianity and Business Podcast, an initiative of the RGW Dunham College of Business at Houston Baptist University. I'm your host, Darren Scheer, and this is the show that helps Christian business leaders to integrate biblical values into business. On this episode, we're joined by Evan Keller. Evan co-leads talented teams at two ventures he founded to leverage business for good, the nonprofit Creating Jobs Incorporated, and the for-profit Tree Work Now Incorporated, which has over 2,000 clients annually in Central Florida. Together, they advance Evan's vocational purpose to co-create thriving businesses and communities. And he's the author, the lead author of Start Book, Grow Book, Opportunity Makers, The Heart of Wealth, and I, the Lord, Love Justice. Evan, welcome to the show. Thank you, Darren. Great to be here. So when did you first realize God wanted to be involved in your work and business?
SPEAKER_01Well, my faith informed my love for my wife, which in turn was the catalyst to start a business. My wife was struggling with Lyme disease, and um my current um nonprofit salary at that time, uh 19 years ago, was not really cutting it, so to speak, in terms of taking care of her health. So um yeah, so as far as um God being involved, you know, I really needed to depend on him at every turn because I started with a deficit of capital, training, experience, and time. So while the idea to start a business came from a time of prayer, um, how I ran my business wasn't automatically biblical, though. You know, I had bought into three dangerous false narratives that God has been busy rooting out over time. So I can share about those if you'd like.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, what are those false narratives?
SPEAKER_01Okay. Well, you know, I'm a full-time job for the Lord, so I don't know when he has time to work on you, but uh the first false narrative around business was that I built this business and it is mine. And uh, so you know, the Lone Ranger, the individual hero, it's ingrained in the American story, right? So perhaps, you know, the countercultural mindset shift that's most important to the health of my soul in business is acknowledging God, you know, as the source of my gifts in business, and really the source of the success of our company. So, I mean, the entrepreneurs tend to mimic the rich fool in Luke 12, who said I or my 11 times in only three sentences, you know. So this idea of the self-made man, you know, is abruptly exposed by the apostle Paul, you know, as a myth when he asked, you know, what do you have that you did not receive? Um, another scripture applies to this idea specifically in business. Um, it says in Deuteronomy 8, you may say to yourself, My prayer or my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me, but remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth. So that flips the narrative on its head, right? So if wealth creation is a gift from God rather than my own Herculean accomplishment, then I should exchange my pride and possessiveness for gratitude and generosity, you know, passing on the grace that I've received from God and rejoicing to be part of that flow of blessing to his world. Um, Kelly Capick, um, he wrote, We own nothing but manage everything. So that's uh pretty heavy. Uh, you know, I feel the weight of that responsibility, you know, to whom much is given, much is required. So, you know, I've got to leverage all I am and have to serve uh King Jesus. Um, the second false narrative is uh related. It's uh if they win, I lose. Um biblical faith should foster an abundance mentality, right? You know, we can invest more in employee development, even if it makes them more attractive to other uh employers or prepares them to start their own ventures. Um, we're proud that several of our former employees are succeeding in business. Um, that same abundance mentality goes for competitors in general. Um, yes, it does hurt a little when a neighbor hires a different tree service, but there are enough trees to go around and enough customers who wouldn't trust their trees and property to any but tree work. Now, um, God's also gradually reshaped me to see employees' salaries not as a cost of production to always be squeezing, but as a good investment in neighbors that I'm called to love, as one of your previous guests put it. And then the last false narrative was a business should always maximize its profits. So, you know, these false narratives were slowly, you know, worked out of me, and I'm still struggling through some of them. Um, so obviously, many companies will lay off employees when um times are slow. And in the tree tree uh industry, every winter is slow. So a lot of companies will lay off people just routinely in the slow season, which happens to coincide with Christmas, which is kind of a big ouch, right, for tree workers. Um instead, we keep our employees working by doing tens of thousands of dollars in pro bono work for churches and nonprofits during the winter. Um, this also fulfills the purpose of serving the community. Um, so we have to save diligently the rest of the year to be able to do this in the months when paying jobs are sparse. And then we also choose not to maximize revenue through rapid growth. Instead, we've adopted the small giants approach that it's better to be healthy than huge. So instead of expanding to other regions or selling franchises that people have suggested I do, we decide to grow more slowly within the Central Florida region where the sunshine steadily grows both its population and its trees. So we focus our growth on the qualitative health of our company culture. You know, without the added headaches of rapid growth, I also have some margin to focus some of my time on my nonprofit creating jobs, Inc.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Wow. So do you actually do you cap your like you how do you answer the question? What's what's the right level of profit for your company?
SPEAKER_01No, that's a good question. Um, we haven't really put a number on it, but in terms of just growing in a way that is healthy and sustainable, doesn't stress us out or put into jeopardy what we've already built. You know, so many companies will get to a certain point and they think, you know, every shake of the dice is going to go their way, and they end up sacrificing what they've spent years building. So um we kind of you know take opportunities as they come. And um also our level of risk over time has decreased so that we can protect the jobs that we've created for 27 employees.
SPEAKER_02So you mentioned a couple of scriptures just a moment ago. What would you say is your favorite Bible verse or passage related to business and entrepreneurship?
SPEAKER_01Uh 2 Corinthians 9, um, 8 through 12 has become really central to my life. Um should I read it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So maybe you can tell me as I read or think, you know, what is the mood that you sense in these words from Paul? Um, it says, starting verse 8, 2 Corinthians 9, and God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed, and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way, so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. So, did you get a sense of the mood in these verses? I know uh you're the interviewer, so pardon me for asking you a question.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, I mean, I guess thinking about the whole of the letters to the Corinthians, he's he's usually not um affirming things that they're doing well. Um, it's it's usually a critique of you know some things that they're that they're not doing well. Um, you know, because they they really the Corinthians in this Greco-Roman culture really had a high esteem for for physical strength and uh oratorical prowess and uh and and all of these sort of um signs that that somebody is really uh is really strong in the eyes of the culture to at the expense of and just really kind of um not really paying much attention to the weak, the poor, uh, and and so on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's definitely um trying to change their mindset a bit. And I feel like his joy and generosity just flows out of these words. Um the superlatives are are really flowing freely. I mean, he uses all these expansive words like abundantly, all abound, increase, enlarge, enriched, every, overflowing. So, an amazing idea in this passage is that we can literally be conduits of God's own generosity, providing opportunities for people to experience the goodness of God in tangible ways. So, twice in this passage, Paul says that our generosity can elicit thanksgiving to God. I mean, just by a kind use of God's blessings to us, we can strengthen other people's relationships with God. I mean, how cool is that? Um, can I share two recent examples at Tree Work Now of how we're living out this passage in ways that have brought literal tears of joy to our people? Please do. Okay, one is um a new initiative we're starting called Celebrating Each Other. And I thought of this, woke up early Christmas Eve with this on my mind. You know, why can't we honor a different employee each week to start the the new year in 2022? So I chose one employee. I wrote up a page of things that I appreciated about her, and then asked my staff team via group email to all chime in. So, you know, this the entire week, everyone was thinking about what they loved about Kathy. And then um, you know, we summarize that into kind of a certificate with their photograph on it, and then they get to choose the person to celebrate for the next week. And then on and on it goes, paying it forward until we we work through our entire staff team. So every week our team members are meditating on the best traits of their teammates, which is stirring up several good outcomes, right? I mean, there's tears of appreciation, feeling honored. Um, then we're also inspired to emulate others in their best traits. And um employees also begin to see more good in the people who rub them the wrong way, right? And then also we have an incentive to live up to our own accolades, um, you know, be the best version of you. Um, you know, my brother, when he he's my business partner, Danny, when he read what I wrote about him, um, he's like, oh dang. You know, now I have to live this every day. I mean, he usually does, but he said, you know, he doesn't want to go away from an interaction with an employee thinking, where's the Danny I read about? So, anyway, that's been a fun um little exercise for our team in a way that affirms them and provides that kind of generosity that Paul is talking about in a non-financial way. In a financial sense, the other example is our new mortgage assistance program. And um, so this came about really through God's word as well. Um one night I was reading uh Lazanne Movement's article called Wealth Creation, Biblical Views and Perspectives. And it was talking about um the command in Deuteronomy 25: do not muzzle the ox as it's treading out the grain. And so the article basically said the rewards of business should be shared with employees. So I was thinking about that, and then the same night I flipped open Small Giants, um, one of my favorite small business books, and read Bo Burlingham advising folks to show employees that you care in a completely unexpected way by doing something no other company would ever dare to do. So this was you know, late one night, and I went to bed praying and wondering, you know, what we could do at TreeWork now to follow these two similar strands of wisdom. Um then at midnight, as soon as my head hit the pillow, you know, Shazam, it came to me. You know, I'm building a house for my wife and I, you know, why can't I help my employees buy or pay down a house of their own? I can match the savings of high-performing employees so they can afford a down payment or pay down a mortgage and you know, continue to build stability and wealth for their families. So it's uh been a win-win. Uh, we've so far awarded three $10,000 matches as they save the similar amount to um to start or pay down a mortgage. And it shows employees that we care about them more than just the work they do for us. Yeah. It you know, emphasized their humanity and also, you know, honestly builds loyalty to the company.
SPEAKER_02Wow, that's so good. What did you have uh who's an example that you have followed that? I mean, you you read the was on movement articles. I mean, like this is not normal, you're probably aware of this. Um, like who where did you was there somebody, a business owner that you really just looked up to kind of early in your career that you said, I want to I want to do things differently. I want to do things like whatever a a Christian business owner ought to operate like.
SPEAKER_01You know, one of my heroes is in Honduras. And um early in our business and nonprofit, um, I met Hector Ucida in Tegucigalpa. It's kind of a tongue twister. First few times you say it, but the capital of Honduras. He and his wife run a furniture manufacturing business. And um, you know, one thing struck me in the way he handles his relationships with employees. Um, he has an employee named Hyro. And Hyro was a gang member and um dealing with some drug issues, but he took a chance on him. And the first few months, Jairo had some real anger issues and would kind of just lash out at fellow employees. And so Hector, you know, is a big guy with a you know a firm grip and you know, a smile, big biggest smile you've ever seen without opening his mouth, you know, but real gentle spirit. He took him under his wing as really a father figure and helped him learn to control his temper. And over time, Hyro became his best carpenter in this furniture manufacturing business. And, you know, he has such a heart for his country and people like Jairo and you know, the drug trafficking and so forth. He wants to open drug treatment centers um throughout the country of Honduras and over time create 2,000 jobs in order to help people find an alternative route to some of these um, you know, underground industries. And so I was, you know, having sharing a pizza with him and his wife um one night after doing some you know business mentoring and training together. And I was just happened to be telling him about um a bit uh a baker um named Cerest in Haiti, who had just lost his bakery from the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Um so his roof on his bakery had fallen in. And Hector, you know, pulled out his wallet right on the spot, put $200 on the table, and said, give this to Cerest. And someone he had never met, and it just was a beautiful sense of you know, love across the body of Christ and different cultures, and just coming from someone who is just totally dedicated to using his business as a force for good, you know, for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01And you said, I want to do it like that. Yeah, no doubt.
SPEAKER_02I mean, so inspiring. And so you also started creating jobs incorporated. Uh, tell us uh what that's all about and what kind of success you're seeing through that.
SPEAKER_01All right. So our mission at creating jobs is to equip high capacity partners with transformational courses to raise up entrepreneurs. So we're working with partner organizations like Compassion International, World Relief, Church of God, Africa Inland Mission, um, some universities in the States and elsewhere. And um, we're certifying their trainers to use our biblical business curriculum with their youth and adult beneficiaries. So our four tiers of courses empower poor people around the world with practical steps to start and grow businesses and use them to serve their communities, just like Hector. So, as this affirms you know dignity and awakens hope in entrepreneurs, we often invite them to use their stories to inspire others, either by joining our training team or by giving us permission to share their case studies. And you know, Hector is in our curriculum as a case study. Um, so we're thrilled, you know, every day to be helping more and more men, women, and youth to become like Hector. And uh so, you know, in case your listeners know of some local or global churches, schools, or mission organizations interested in battling poverty through business, can I share about our four levels of curriculum? Sure. Okay, so in working with partners around the world, we've discovered that many organizations want to raise up entrepreneurs, but they don't have the time or ability to create their own effective business training curricula. They want something that's ready to go so they can stay focused on serving their clients and providing them with additional value without taking years to develop their own curricula and courses. So that's where we come in. Um, a big part of our unique value is our curricula offered through a train the trainer program, plus some ongoing strategic support to multiply impact. So as we've developed these four levels of curriculum and field tested them and worked with organizations around the world, our partners are telling us what they value about it. And four themes keep emerging over and over of what they appreciate about our curriculum. And those traits are simple, actionable, biblical, and transformational. So just the idea that hey, people don't need um another super academic description of theory in business. Um, folks um in tough economic uh um areas really need something that's simple, very practical, step by step, informed by God's word and taught in ways that really bring about not just sharing of information, but real transformation in their lives and um businesses. So the four levels of curriculum, um, I'll go through them quickly. Um the first is opportunity makers. And the purpose there is to nurture the mindset, relationships, and habits that can grow a fruitful future in life and community. So this came about from you know, requests from World Vision and Compassion International, really on the same day. Um, both organizations asked us, do you have something for the younger people? Because their mindsets are already ingrained in kind of a fatalistic um mindset, a poverty mentality that they have no agency to affect their future. So um, course one explores, you know, God's answers to life's biggest questions. Who am I? Why am I here? So as they're learning about their biblical identity and purpose, um, it's all coming through the life of Joseph, who obviously had 13 years of slavery and imprisonment and know what you know tough going is in life, and yet still maintained his trust in God and um belief that God could use him in a powerful way. So Opportunity Makers helps folks to think about their future biblically, and then also builds in some habits on how to take that biblical mindset and start to live it out in ways that could lead to uh success in life, whether it's in business, church, nonprofit, whatever. So that sets the stage. The second level is called Startbook, and a snapshot of that is to mobilize your strengths, resources, and teammates to bring about an innovative solution to customers who want it. So it consists of seven modules that are kind of seven keys to a successful launch in business. And it's it has you know fictional and real life narratives and uh again, simple practical advice. And um, it's helps folks go from zero to five employees. Um and then Growbook is the next stage, and that intended audience is folks that already have an established business but want to take their business from five to 25 employees by developing uh systems and employees, you know, increasing their efficiency, profitability, community impact. So it's kind of meant to transform a chaotic startup into a well-oiled economic engine that serves every stakeholder well, entrepreneurs, employees, customers in their communities. And then lastly, the heart of wealth is helps folks who've kind of started already built a profitable business to gain a biblical perspective on wealth creation and really orient their entire lives to be conduits of God's good gifts for the common good. So it helps people avoid this extremes of idolizing and despising material things, you know, realizing that creating wealth is a gift empowered by God, you know, who desires that we use that gift and its resulting abundance to empower the poor rather than to isolate ourselves from them. So The Heart of Wealth explores how biblical solidarity and empathy can lead both to sorrow with the suffering and also joy in loving our neighbors and sharing together in God's goodness. So that's a quick summary. Um, Bryant Myers Walking with the Poor has this quote that really exactly describes what our curriculum does. He says, transformational development works towards changed people who have discovered their true identity as children of God and who have recovered their true vocation as faithful and productive stewards of gifts from God for the well-being of all.
SPEAKER_02Is there a maybe uh an example, a story of success story of somebody who's gone through any portion of this that you like to tell?
SPEAKER_01Uh sure. Um let me go back to Sarest, the baker in Haiti that I mentioned briefly, who you know rebuilt his bakery from Hyro's $200 gift. So when we met Sarest, um he was um pretty shy and quiet, um, struggled with literacy, and yet had really the respect of his employees and his communities. Um, he sells muffins. They're little yellow muffins sold on the street in Laogan, Haiti, in little baggies. And so um, through um our mentoring and the curriculum as we were developing it alongside of getting to know him, um, we helped him with his marketing and his branding to the point where his muffins were starting to be asked for by name, you know, on the streets. Because his uh we helped him develop a logo and his um employees, street vendors were starting to wear baseball caps with uh the logo on there and his um baggies, you know, all had the branded label. And um, even more importantly, we helped him see that he needed to work on his business rather than in his business. So he had a trusted cousin, Wilson, that really could definitely handle the production in the kitchen. And so we helped him transition um his cousin into that role, freeing him up to grow his sales force. Anyway, he has grown his business, uh, you know, doubled, more than doubled his sales force and his revenue. And over time, you could see him really starting to invest more in his community. For example, um, he started a second bakery overnight, um, one that creates um uh French bread. And so when I asked him about this, I was like, Cereste, you know, mad respect for you, brother. It took me years to get to 12 employees, and you create 12 new jobs overnight in this second bakery. Why? You know, what's going on here? He said, Evan, you know, I could have just put that money in the bank, but I felt a responsibility to my country. I need to create jobs for people, and that's why I'm here. And so just an amazing guy. Um, one other quick story from Cerrest. Um, he helped raise up a few um competitors, which you know take some guts to do and some courage and that abundance mentality we talked about. Um, but he got a call one day from one of those competitors whose oven had broken. So his means of production were crippled and he was ready to give up. He said, I'm done. And Ceres said, You're not quitting. I'm coming over to lend you an oven. And so he packed up one of his four ovens, brought it to this guy temporarily, along with a batch of freshly made muffins from his own bakery, and said, Hey, go out and sell these, get your cash flow restarted, use my oven until you can um buy your own and you're not giving up. So uh people like that, we just want to multiply uh people like that around the world.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, wow, love that. What a testimony. Um, Evan, so creatingjobs.org is the website where people can learn more about the programs and the books and get involved. Anything else you want to say about how people can get onboarded there?
SPEAKER_01Uh sure. Yeah, on our website, creatingjobs.org. Like you said, they can sign up to receive our newsletter or join our prayer team. Um, you can contact us and take our Heart of Wealth course to learn more about how people are using their wealth to sharpen a biblical understanding of that as a spiritual gift. And um, you know, another thing folks can do is they can explore whether using our business training curriculum is a good fit in an organization they serve or one they're maybe connected to, whether it's domestic or international, might be a church, a school, um, a nonprofit. We have universities using it. We have folks uh training up uh formerly incarcerated folks who are having a hard time um finding jobs in the standard job market. So they're starting to create their own economic opportunities. So that's uh one possibility. Another one is that folks can invest their talent or their treasure to help us translate our curricula into more languages and build online courses that multiply impact around the world. Um, lastly, they can use their public speaking or cross-cultural skills on our training team, you know, in either virtual or in-person train the trainer academies to help us certify uh folks and organizations around the world to use our curriculum so that they can raise up um entrepreneurs and communities that really need it the most. So, yeah, any of those five um ways of getting involved would help us raise up developing world entrepreneurs for the glory of God. And if folks want to just drop me an email, you know, evan at creatingjobs.org, I'd be glad to uh connect with you and um tell you more. I can send you one-page summaries of our curricula if you know an organization that might be interested in it. I can also send you a sample chapter uh from the Heart of Wealth book, which includes um 33 reflection questions on financial stewardship, if that's an area of your discipleship that you're you're working through.
SPEAKER_02Excellent. Well, Evan, uh thank you so much for the work that you're doing through creating jobs and and also tree work now. People can go to the website there, treeworknow.com, and kind of see how some of the things that you're doing. And uh who knows, maybe somebody needs to get some trees taken down um or pruned here pretty soon in the Florida area, central Florida, that is. Um, but thank you. This is uh this has been encouraging and um and challenging at the same time hearing about some of the the things that you're doing. So thank you for the the good work and helping us grow today. Yes, sir. My pleasure. Good to be here.
SPEAKER_00We hope you've enjoyed this episode, and if so, we would greatly appreciate it if you would leave us a quick rating and review for the Christianity and business podcast on iTunes. You can get more information about the HBU Center for Christianity and Business at Christianityandbusiness.com. Thanks for listening, and remember to keep integrating biblical values into your business.