Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: And I think that has been so powerful for us because even though in the natural, we've made some really good business decisions before we were, I'll just say we were out of order right before we got turned on the Lord, and we just didn't know any other way just to jump on the hamster wheel and run.
There's natural fruit that comes from. There's natural profit that comes from working really hard, doing it a bunch of times, right?
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Thank you for joining us today for the weekly Wealth Builders podcast. We are so blessed to have you, and we are just continuing to have the most amazing guests. And today I have got Jeff and Jen van der Waal joining me. Do you guys want to say hi, everybody.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Excited to be here.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: They are part of the wealth builders family. And really pretty much every event you guys are at, sometimes you'll miss it once in a while. But Jeff, actually, you do a lot of the training on business, and we just love having you guys part of the wealth Builders family. You know, Billy and Becky so well, and you guys have an amazing life and an amazing business. And so we just want to glean a little bit about you. So here's what I would like you guys to do is share with us. Like, if you were to describe Jeff and Jen, I want you guys to tell your story and how you would introduce yourself to this audience.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Well, first of all, I gotta say that wealth builders for us has been such a blessing because before we were part of the team, we were on the outside just kind of looking in, going, this is amazing. I don't see anybody else doing this where making sense of making money for making a difference. And so for us, that was really attractive to us because we were really looking for purpose. Um, and, you know, so for our journey has been, well, just not really a journey. I mean, from, you know, young, kind of bright eyed, bushy tail, kids trying to figure it out, being told you guys got a lot to learn.
Yeah, so we're at. Yeah, we've been married for 19 years and it's been, it's been an awesome, amazing journey. You know, I think when we look at business, I don't know that business was necessarily our, it was always been our calling, but I don't know if we really knew what that was gonna look like. I think we just kinda started, you know, running that journey together. And so maybe you could talk about some of our earliers kind of getting, getting out of the gate as a young married couple.
[00:02:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I mean, just truthfully, we didn't really co labor with the Lord initially. You know, I think it was more, you know, Jeff was like, oh, I have a wife now, and I have to provide. And so it was really more that. So I think that was what was so attractive when we found out about wealth builders, which, you know, because that was something that we were doing. We were trying to figure out, how do we now take this business? Initially, we thought, you know, when we really got turned on to the Lord, that we do something totally different. He joked that, like, we're gonna be missionaries. We're gonna move wherever you tell us to go. And it was a blessing to find out that the Lord had us exactly where he wanted us.
Really spoke that to Jeff, but he was like, now you're usable. But just to find an organization where it was already, that's, that's already the heart. That's already what you guys were doing. It was helpful for us because that's what we desired to do. We just didn't know how to move forward doing the same thing, but doing it a different way, so.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: Wow, that is so cool. So when you guys first got married, were you in the car business at that time?
[00:03:42] Speaker A: Kind of. So we. I was really in the music business, actually, oddly enough, pack that I didn't know this.
And when I met Jen, I was like, well, there's no way that, I mean, I knew being on the road and really pursuing that was not going to be healthy for our marriage. I love Jen more than I loved the music world, but I always knew cars, so that was always, like, my thing from a young age. So we were kind of doing music, kind of doing some ministry stuff at our church and then kind of doing the music business all kind of in one and then. So, really, that was kind of the foundation of, like, I I did. You know, my dad, um, was conservative, you know, hardworking, blue collar guy, and so, you know, generationally even, you know, at 42, when I was young, I knew it was like, hey, I was 21 ish when we got married, and.
[00:04:31] Speaker C: It was his work.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: And it was like, we got to get, I got to get after it. Like, I got to provide for my family, you know? So I think that was really, we both come from pretty traditional households. Wherever I knew I was going to really be the breadwinner and be stable, and she really wanted to be a good wife. And so we were young, but we had some really good foundations, I think, of just, even though we didn't, we weren't really, we were born again, but we weren't really didn't understand what it meant to co labor with like Jen mentioned. And so we were just doing life together, which even some of those just fundamental principles were. It was fun for us. We were getting going.
Our life changed as we started to grow just naturally in every area. I think things just started to change. Responsibility started to change. And I think that's when we went from kind of happy go lucky to okay, like, we've got some things we actually need to steward here.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. And in that, where did clear shift come into the picture? How many years in? And maybe if you could just explain to people if they don't know what clear shift is.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Sure, yeah. Do you want me to run with that? Clear shift? We're in the automotive industry. We're a car dealership. So what we really started off wanting to be different. Clear shift means, you know, clear, transparent shift in a new direction. And so high level, the auto industry is broken. Most of you probably know that. And so even before I was really co laboring with God, I knew this could be better. There was a good redemptive part of it. Like, I know this can be done better. And so my business journey, I worked for other people, right when I was younger and was good at it, excelled at it, and really learned how to, how to perform really well.
But I also knew that just inherently, I knew I wanted to have my own business and not always for the best reason.
And I think, too, it'd be really good for folks to know, too. Jen, from your perspective, is like, I ran really, really, really hard, probably out of order hard, right, to get things in my twenties. Yeah. And so clear shift really came to fruition in 2017. So I started my own business in 2009, but it was like a private buying company and we had a leasing company and so we had some, some smaller stuff going on that ended up turning into clear shift. So it was, you know, kind of this. It was biblically, it was, you know, first the blade, then the head, then the head. But I didn't know that, but it was just running after, like, hey, this can be done better. And it kind of just grew over the years.
But what's been interesting about it, and I think what's been so amazing about Jen and we would never be even close to where we are today is without Jen's support through that first decade of 80, 90 hours a week and just really grinding it out, having a combative situation at home or a dysfunctional situation at home, I think it would have been catastrophic. So that's really just been a blessing through that whole process.
That's really kind of the story about clear shift happened. But there's a lot of background before that, you know?
[00:07:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So, Jen, from your perspective, during this time, you're working 80 hours a week.
How did you. I mean, obviously, today, you guys are such a solid, beautiful, happy couple, you know? And so when I know you today, and I'm thinking you did, you worked 80 hours a week, it just doesn't hardly seem possible. But, you know, some of this is a story, too, of, like, Billy has that story. He started making money for all the wrong reasons. Right. But God knows your heart in all of this. And so, Jen, during that time, maybe there's people out there that, you know, maybe they were married to someone, too. That's just, like, really out there working hard. How did you, like, maintain positivity, not get critical of Jeff or really foster this amazing environment that has allowed him to thrive and you guys to continue to grow?
[00:08:33] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I grew up, like he said, a very traditional household. My dad was a construction worker. My mom stayed home. So I think even just having that model at home, my mom always supported my dad. Even, you know, if they weren't getting along, she was still there. She was supportive. She wanted to, you know, make home beautiful and raise the kids. And so that was kind of.
That's what I wanted to do, you know? And again, at the time, we weren't.
We weren't aware that we were doing things so wrong, you know? Yeah. So I think, you know, I looked at it more positively at the time. I thought he was providing for us.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: And doing the right thing.
[00:09:13] Speaker C: Right. And so I just thought, well, you know, thank God, like, no matter what, Jeff's gonna make sure that we make it, you know?
So at the time, I wasn't looking at it negatively, which I think is good, because it wasn't creating that strife or that just discontentment in me that he was working so much. And I would try to. I did funny little jobs and stuff. His first car business job, I think, actually, it's how music ties in. He was raising support to do a CD, and he went and talked to this guy in Castle Rock that had a little tiny car lot, and he said, well, I won't give you any money for your CD, but I'll hire you to work at this car lot. So that was actually his first job. Oh, my goodness. And I think we had one car at the time when we first got married. So I just walked around the street and figured out who was hiring. And I worked for a bank. It's a bank that isn't even there anymore.
But, yeah, we would meet up and get a five dollar pizza for lunch. Oh, fine food, super healthy.
Yeah. But I don't know, I guess part of what attracted me to Jeff was his drive, you know, good provider. Yeah. And just, he's passionate. Whatever it is that he's gonna set his mind to, he does it with his whole heart. He has passion about it. And so, you know, I've never even thought to tell him no, or, oh, you shouldn't, or, oh, you can't. Even when he was working long hours, you know, again, my perspective was rose colored glasses. I was like, oh, look at this provider.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: But that's so nice because, Jeff, when you came home, weren't like, you know, in a situation where your wife was upset with you or whatever, and really in that, you know, seeing you today, like you're one of those couples that people really aspire to grow towards, right? So a lot of times we see your fruit today, how successful you are, but there was a lot of years building up to that. So what advice would you give to young couples, or maybe not so young couples that just feel like there's something ahead for them, but where they're at today, they're just maybe stuck or they're just not. Maybe they don't have the hope that they're actually going to see God's vision come to pass. What advice would you give them?
[00:11:31] Speaker A: And that's powerful. I would say the foundational components of your marriage are what set you up to be able to receive God's best for you. Right. So he looks at you as one flesh.
When he sees you, he sees you together. And when you're colaboring together, even unity is if you're in unity on something, you're always going to be better off, even if you make a wrong decision. In unity, it's you're building foundational components that are just, they're just. You can actually build off of a mistake. And I think that has been so powerful for us because even though in the natural, we've made some really good business decisions before we were, I'll just say we were out of order right before we got turned on the Lord, and we just didn't know any other way just to jump on the hamster wheel and run. Yeah.
You know, there's natural fruit that comes from, there's natural profit that comes from working really hard and doing it a bunch of times. Right.
[00:12:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: But there's. But there's an emptiness to it. Right. There's a, you know, there's a sorrow to it. The Bible would call it sorrow. Right. I think that's what we really experienced is even though we had done something, we done it outside of co laboring with God. And there was a sorrow there, even though there was so much great things, having kids and being married. And so when you're colaboring with God, there comes a joy, even if it's not, you know, it may not be tons of zeros behind it. You're setting the foundation to be able to be successful. And I think one thing I wanted to mention to Karen said earlier, is one of the things I loved about Billy so much was the transparency that he did the right thing for the wrong reasons. Yeah. That really ministered to me, because that's me. Like, I'm like, I. I was shot out of the cannon. I went out and had these goals that I would have never admitted to anybody that I wanted to hit. Like, Sunday school answer wise. Like, yeah, I know money doesn't make you happy, but everything I was doing in my life would point to he was doing it to make himself happy. Right. So when we really started to really start to understand that God's best for us was not to be, like, have sorrow added to it. Right. That we started realizing that there was a lot more than just the wealth aspect of it. And I think the other thing I wanted to mention about support at home, Jen, when you were talking about this, is kind of your disposition, your outlook for me coming home and working really long hours, for me to have support at home, even if I made the wrong decision, she did not say, well, if you wouldn't have, and all the stuff that really was, you mess this up because you have to make some decisions sometimes, and they end up being the wrong decisions. And so even if you can fail together, and even though it was my fault, you kind of felt like, hey, I'll help get off the ground. Was so huge for us to have the platform to really, when we did start stewarding larger wealth, we hadn't built something that was far greater than just having nice things. You know, we were ready to do something that mattered from a kingdom standpoint. So I hope that's answering.
[00:14:38] Speaker B: Yeah, it really does. You know, are you. I know a little bit about your story. Can. Are you comfortable sharing a little bit about what you went through, Jen, from a health perspective, and sort of what kind of brought you to this place of being totally on fire for the Lord, even connected to Andrew Wommack ministries, because when we were going out to dinner and I had heard that story for the first time, it just really impacted me. And so if you're willing to share a little bit about that, I think people would be really blessed to hear that.
[00:15:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
Yeah. And I did want to say with what Jeff was saying, too, I think part of the question that you asked earlier, too, was just even if people feel like they're not where they're supposed to be, staying united together, right. You really felt truly see yourself as one flesh. So for me, when Jeff would rise, I would rise. If he would fall, I would fall with him. It was never, you did this, and I'm taking a step back, and I'm against you. That is power together, whatever the ebb and flow was.
And so I do feel like that is just being able to really foster that peaceful household and just honoring that decision you made right when you said, I do, you know, you gotta honor it. And so, you know, whether or not I like the work hours or how we got from a to b or all these different things, you know, we were still figuring it out, you know, so anyhow, yeah, but so he did. He, Jeff has always been an awesome provider.
And at the time, what was going on? So we were just living normal life. We had, I think, a two and a half ish year old and a five year old, and I was doing some yard work in the front yard, and I was scooping bark, and I literally dropped to my knees. Something just popped in my back, and I just lost the ability to stand.
And long story long, you know, hobbled to the backyard, got the kids inside, kind of got it figured out. I think it was Easter weekend, so we were getting ready to host for everybody for Easter, which was lovely timing, but it just kind of began this journey of something that had happened in my back that initially we thought was just a thing. Oh, I just hurt myself. Are you going to get better? Everything's going to be fine. And it really ended up going on and on and on to the point where after a few years, we had kind of gotten hopeless. I would get better, there would be periods of time, and then it would happen again. And, you know, we still have pretty small kids. And initially when it first happened, Nyla was potty training and, you know, needing to be lifted and all these different things. And there was just times where I couldn't, I couldn't be who I was supposed to be for my own daughter. And I just kept thinking, I want to be able to hold her before she doesn't even want to be held anymore, you know, and I ever going to get there.
So we had begun kind of doing exploratory stuff.
I was receiving these real nasty shots up and down my spine just to basically zero in for pretty much where we were going to do surgery and just really in a very hopeless state. But we didn't know. We didn't. Like Jeff said, I feel like sometimes we need to clarify. We knew the Lord, but it was almost like Christian in name only, right? Like, we went to church, we kind of read our bibles. We had a lot of christian friends that were just like us, you know, that we loved the Lord. But what did that mean in our daily life? What did that mean in our business? What did it mean in our parenting? And it wasn't. We weren't really allowing him to speak into those areas. And so when a healing issue came up, we didn't even think to pray for healing.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: We didn't know.
[00:18:37] Speaker C: We didn't know.
We didn't know anyone that had been healed. You read about it in the Bible, but it's amazing when you don't know anybody or have that personal experience how your brain can almost just gloss over it. Yeah. You know what I mean?
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Or think it's not for today. Yeah, exactly.
[00:18:54] Speaker C: Exactly. And I think that's a lot of how he grew up in church, hearing, and I didn't really grow up in church, so I didn't necessarily have that. But it's almost like the enemy has the same fib for everybody because I could almost come to that in my own mind. Yeah, sure, people got healed, but that was in the Bible. Jesus, you know?
So then we had found out about healing from a friend, and I got invited to a conference, and I did look it up. So I knew kind of about it, and it was a lot of stuff I wasn't comfortable with. But people got healed, and it was.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: Like Charis Bible college, Andrew Wommack ministries. Right.
[00:19:31] Speaker C: And I was like, I'm just gonna try it. Right? Like, you get desperate. It's like when you have surgery in one hand and then the possibility of something that sounds easy, like a miracle.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: Yeah, those are quick. Yeah.
[00:19:44] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: It's like, could it maybe, right? Yeah.
[00:19:47] Speaker C: But then, you know, even like, maybe. But would he for me, you know, I don't know. I don't know any of these things. So I ended up going. And the very first night they were praying over the room and they were calling out, you know, using words of knowledge, just things that I didn't even know about. And so to me, I'm just. I'm gobsmacked. I'm like, she just said what I have, like, oh, my gosh, the Lord must be telling her, you know? So I'm raising my hand, then I'm raising both hands, and there was women all around me, you know, at the time, I didn't even understand. They were interceding. They were literally attaching their faith to my tiny shred of faith and allowing me to receive that healing in that moment. And then I was healed.
Amazing.
So still to this day, we're like, what the world?
[00:20:38] Speaker B: And so I think a lot of times, God knows the tenderness of our heart, and it's just so cool how he orchestrated this through your relationships. And so when you came home healed, Jeff, you were.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: It was craziness, because I, like, Jen mentioned I grew up super reformed. And so, yeah, I was. I literally remember sitting up next. I came home, like, bang, just bursting through the door, you know, one of the.
[00:21:07] Speaker C: Yeah, that was. That was night to the night. The first night, honestly, he was very sleepy, and I hadn't even processed yet, you know? So I was almost thankful that he was really asleep because you had to think about that just happened. Even in my own mind, I was like, I think I'm healed. You know what I mean? Yeah. I hadn't even fully grabbed it and been like, yes, this is mine. It is real.
But he did kind of ask. He reached over and kind of patted me in bed. No, how'd it go? And I said, it went really awesome. Like, it's just. It was so awesome. And he's like, oh, that's so great. And then I just really felt like I cannot share with him, you know, even though we're, like, half asleep. And I said, yeah, I think I even said, I think my back got healed tonight. And he goes, oh, sweetie, that's so very.
Yeah, he's definitely, like, almost completely asleep. And I was like, well, that's okay, because I can't even unpack it right now anyhow.
But the wildest thing that happened, and we don't share this part with a lot of people. Cause it's weird. And a lot of people, I feel like if they haven't experienced things from the lord like this, they almost will disbelieve it. But I heard this super loud cracking and popping. I almost thought it was gunshots outside. And I got really nervous, and I thought my first thought was oh, no, he's asleep. Like, I've got to figure out how to work the shock.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: So this is when you got home.
[00:22:32] Speaker C: The very first night? Got home, yeah. I don't even think I shared this at dinner.
So I kind of got up. I kind of walked around the house. He did wake up, and he was like, is everything okay? I think he thought it was my back. Cause sometimes I'd get back out of bed and I'd just walk around if I wasn't feeling good. And I said, yeah, no, I'm fine. I just heard something, but I think it was outside. It's not a big deal.
So I got back in bed and just kind of started going through the Rolodex in my head of what it could possibly be and thought maybe it was a car door closing or whatever else. And the final thought I had before I went to bed was, that wasn't outside. It was in me. I thought, that's a really weird thought. And then I literally fell asleep because I had to get up at, like, four in the morning the next day.
So I go back to the conference the next day expecting not to receive anything because I'm healed, you know, I don't have anything now, I think wind up receiving the holy spirit that night, laid out on the floor on top of another woman. She, like, caught me.
[00:23:32] Speaker B: And you had no idea what was going on?
[00:23:35] Speaker A: No, I was going to work. And I literally remember just saying, oh, that's really nice. And I remember walking around. Cause I'm just, I was so skeptical. And then for the whole, like, I kind of had the tv evangelist thing. Yeah. I didn't really know Andrew, but I kind of knew just that kind of whole world. So I was literally like, that's just sweet that she's going up there in this friend. I'm sure it'll be a great weekend for him. And then we're back to business on Monday.
That's just how I thought. So when she did go on the second night after receiving the Holy Spirit and after being healed, I was very, very skeptical. Extremely skeptical. In fact, I asked her moving forward every day about her back for probably two months, because our entire life had revolved around her back. And we were in our mid thirties, and it was just like, man, we can't handle this for the next 30, 40 years. Like, this is crazy. So it really put, I almost dared to believe that it was true, but I also was like, I don't want to set myself up for disappointment either. So I was just very skeptical. And you knew eventually that I would come around. So she just served right through it and just kept being, just kept pushing forward with, you know, just that she had received this healing, that, that she was in a different, she had definitely gone to a different place and I wasn't there. And I think for me, that may be a little bit uncomfortable because we had just lived in the same space for a decade and a half, right, so not quite, maybe twelve years. So I was like, okay, she's gone somewhere that I haven't gone. It was a bit threatening, certainly to my pride as well, where I was just kind of like, look, I kind of, and I did know my Bible. Like reformists, we read our Bible. Yeah, it's just through carnal lenses. Like, we didn't have any, any spiritual lenses for that experience. So, yeah, I struggled with it for a couple of months. Not, and I, listen, I enjoyed her not being like, her being healed. Like, I enjoyed that. It was amazing. But it's really the pivotal point, not just in our lives at home and with our kids, but also with our business, because Jesus became real like that in our, he met us where we were and changed everything in our life. And so it did impact our business. It impacted every part of our life because we had just gone from complete, utter no hope surgery. Not good like this is. I, two little kids at home trying to run a business, trying to do all these things to, well, now that's done. And then it was just this whole, trying to understand what just had happened and why. And so it was an amazing time of our life, for sure.
[00:26:13] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: So, Jen, you were the one out there. You got healed and then you're being patient until Jeff kind of caught up a bit. And what did that do for you? Like how, what did it do for you in your marriage? And also, like, in business, did it just instill a lot of faith? Like, wow, God, you really do care.
And how did you infuse that experience into your marriage and business as a couple?
[00:26:40] Speaker A: Beth, you want to start?
[00:26:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I think so.
For us, it was literally the first time, other than reading about salvation, it was the first time we saw ourselves in the Bible. We saw a promise in the Bible that all of a sudden we received. And I think it kind of made us go, well, what else can we receive, right? Like, if we can receive healing. So shortly after, we ended up praying over our son who had been diagnosed kind of wink, wink with adhd, even though he didn't have a lot of the characteristics, but just fidgety little boy. And, you know, so immediately it was like he was, the first thought in my mind was, if the lord can heal this back, he can definitely heal, you know, any disruption that's happening in Dutch's brain.
So we prayed over him.
He started doing things differently in business. Just kind of, you know, just going, okay, lord. Like, we're at this place, we've done these things, we've checked these natural boxes and we're not feeling fulfilled. So how do we now turn and do this with you? And he ended up making, you can tell, but just some radical changes in the business. And it was like every time he, the lord was so gentle with him, it was like a big idea, oh, I can't do that. Well, what can you do? And he would just literally help him baby step through it. And then there would just be this immediate blessing of something else, some other door that would open that was previously closed because he was just taking these steps of faith. And I'll let you allow.
[00:28:23] Speaker A: Well, the Lord speaks like as a deal guy, right? Yeah, he's opening these doors and I'm like these.
So I think it was identity, I think was the real thing there where it's like, wait, God wasn't trying to teach us something through this. He just actually loves us. And we're starting to understand and unwrap these gifts that he actually had for us. And so what ends up happening is your Bible starts to come to life. All those things that I read and she had read that were 2000 years ago or further back and all of a sudden they became very real and very practical very quickly. And then it was like, what else can we believe God for? And so then it was like, well, I've wrecked. I've lived my life completely in the natural and completely in the flesh with a little scooping of God on the side like a side salad, you know.
And then it was like, well, what happens if, like that is the thing and all the rest of this stuff, right? It's when delight yourself in the Lord, he'll give you the desires of your heart. Right? When those scriptures started to like, well, what if we just delight ourselves in the Lord? What if, what if we just started to pursue him and let the rest of this stuff just work itself out? Then all of a sudden we started seeing supernatural doors open, supernatural increase. And I think that was the first time in our life that instead of pushing doors open, we just started walking with him and he started opening our eyes to what our actual calm and purpose was that changed everything for us because then the business wasn't just the thing we did Monday. Do. Like, you know, I was doing it a lot, but so, like, Monday through Saturday and take a day off on Sunday and, you know, just kind of hit church and then kick it and watch some football and then back to the grind to. Wait a second. All Jesus touches all of this, right? And so that was that process. And what's so amazing is he started opening, like, the little things. It wasn't like he gave us this laundry list of things we needed to get in order. It was just these baby steps of faith. What can we believe God for? What can we believe God for? And then, you know, he just walked with us, and it was the first time that we were walking with him, like, in the cool of the day. It just felt like, man, things have just changed so drastically, so quickly.
And so that was really the blossoming of going from just the Christianese, the christian american western life, to a life that's full of blessing and impact. And it's like, well, the why turn from how much can I get to then just storing more storehouses to what can we do for the kingdom? And God's like, well, Andrew says this all the time. He says, you know, now that he can get it, he'll get it to you if he can get it through you. Right? And all of a sudden, I started being supernatural, really, in every area of our life, not just in business, but also with our kids, also starting home schooling our kids. Like, so our whole life had changed because it's awesome when you start believing God for, like, what canada do. And it's almost like this new journey that we've been on, and it feels like new. Even though it's been years, I still feel like when we get up every day, we're excited about what's going on. Yeah.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: Like, what's going to. What am I going to do today, Lord? Right?
[00:31:27] Speaker A: 100%.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: I really like, there's so much in what you guys just talked about that I think is going to help people. Something jumped out to me that you're just saying that order of putting God first, delighting in the Lord, and it's so opposite of what we actually think we should do to be successful in business. And here, would you say that once you sort of started focusing on that, putting the Lord first, did your business take off?
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it's almost. I mean, literally. I don't mean to laugh, but yes, because it wasn't just that. It actually exploded. So what ended up happening was we started closing these doors of things that were out of order and different things like that. I know we've discussed that before, but really, what started happening is like, listen, I don't. I don't need to work 80 hours. I need to do whatever I'm supposed to do, and then I'm going to let the Lord do the rest. Right? And so we started getting an order of, like, I want to be home for dinner. I want to, you know, I want to be there for these things. I want to hang, spend more time with my family. What Jen has always told me since we got married is my love language. She's like, she wouldn't say my love language, but she just want to spend time with me. I don't want new cars. I don't want a bigger house. I don't want more stuff. I just want to spend time with you. And I'm like, yeah, but I'm busy working, so I appreciate that. Who's gonna pay the bills? And I would just go out, like, just shot out of the cannon.
[00:32:48] Speaker C: But for a lot of people, that's easier. It's like, can I just buy you something passive? And so it's almost like when. And I've never read the love languages thing, but it is almost like that's one of the most difficult things to ask for, especially to somebody who is a massive, you know, I mean, I don't know what you would call that, but we run at different paces.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:11] Speaker C: You know, I just kind of hook on and hang on to because I'm just a lot slower than him. I talk slower. I process in my brain slower. I'm more calm and peaceful, and he's more, you know, amped up than me.
But so that's a big thing to ask somebody that runs as fast as he runs, you know, to just say, hey, I just. More than anything, I'd like you to just slow down and spend time with me.
[00:33:36] Speaker A: But before we got turned on to the Lord, I didn't know any other way than just to just be throttle all the way down. And so then it's like, well, you know, you have to labor to enter his rest. What we saw, what I had to learn how to do is spend that, like, to turn that focus from being shot out of a cannon, that it took the same amount of intensity to rest in a sense of, like, I had to work really hard at first to, like, reprogram my brain to be able to sit by the pool on vacation and not do 57 phone calls. Cause, like, I'm just sitting here or I might as well do some. So it was like I had. So I started to understand, like, laboring to enter his rest is like, we're one flesh, and so she needs to rest. Like, I wants to spend time together. I have to spend time with her. And not in a Reggie way, but we were talking off air, Karen. Like, we were all three talking. Like, I monetized everything. So, like, I had actually got myself convinced that, like, what, what is my hourly rate to my self worth? And I would literally monetize, like, how much it would cost me to be off on Sunday.
[00:34:42] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: It was a pretty tangled web.
[00:34:44] Speaker B: You're doing math in your head all the time.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: Right? So for me, when I would go on, when I would, when I would slow down, I would recognize, like, I'm willing to spend that much money of my time to spend time with my family, it was really messed up, right?
[00:34:59] Speaker C: So.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: And then I realized, like, stewarding, I'm just stewarding this thing. Like, we are stewarding the business.
It's not my business that I have to make happen anymore. This is the Lord's doing. And so we're like, okay, well, then what if we just start being set up closed handed, open handed, and we start saying, listen, if I need to be off or if we need to buy something, or if we need to do something, I can have a green light to buy something that doesn't have a monetary, you know, win. Yeah, I side, but it's an investment in her or in our family, like a ten day vacation. And I mean, the hotels we used to say at compared to the hotels are different because I find there's value in that now because she values it. And that just changed our perspective. And so I got the kingdom of God's not running out of money. It's not running out of money.
[00:35:52] Speaker B: That's profound.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: It's. It. There is. There is exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ask or even think or, you know, God owns the cattle on a thousand. Yeah, there is no, there's no, we're not missing out. We have to ask. When the Lord's like, I need you to do this, you do it and you trust him. Where your faith can go is actually takes faith to enter into his rest. And I think it just took me a really long time to understand. And, you know, there's even times where I'm still working through that, where I'm like, okay, I need to shut it down and go do this or go do that because it allows him to will and to work on my behalf behind the scenes and I can go spend time with Jen or spend time with the kids and not be even mentally occupied with what's happening in the business. There's a lot to unpack there. But it's good.
[00:36:40] Speaker B: So good. That's what I was thinking, too. We're running out of time. I can't believe how fast this has gone. But in that, I mean, I'm thinking that that is a major shift and I think, I think there's people listening that actually deal with that same thing. So we'll definitely have you back and we'll unpack that a little bit more. But I think that in that when you're talking about the ROI and like having to justify, that's leaning on yourself. Right. And you would like totally turn this around to lean on God.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: And that is not easy.
But with the Lord. Right. And Grace, you guys are an amazing couple. I just want to thank you so much. There's so much more to unpack here.
So we will definitely have Jeff and Jen back. And I just want to thank all of you for being part of this podcast.
We've got. Have you read Billy's change mastery?
[00:37:40] Speaker A: Oh, man, it's such a good, it's amazing. It is such a good book. Like, listen, you've got, you've got to read that book. Just talking about the different seasons and expected change, unexpected change, everything that, everything that happens, social, business, perspective or family even. Man, that book is profound. I don't ever hear anybody else write and specifically about that.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: That's, that's great. We've been, Dave and I have been reading it, too. We got notes in there and it's one of those you read over and over. But we've got a brand new product coming out that's got four videos of him and Becky teaching together. Awesome. With the book and a workbook and a devotional. So you guys didn't even know we were going to talk about that, but you really gave it a great endorsement.
[00:38:21] Speaker C: Amen.
[00:38:22] Speaker B: So you really want to get a hold of this book and this teaching and to learn more about it, you can go to wealthbuilders.org shop and you definitely want to get a hold of this. Well, Jeff and Jen, this has been amazing. Do you have any like a final thought that you would like to share with people?
[00:38:42] Speaker A: You want me to say again, you've done it. How can I just say this? When we talk about making faith moves in your business and your family, to say, I want to spend more time with my family. I need to get an order. In some areas, God will send the people.
If you open your hand and start stewarding something, he will send laborers that want to be a part of what you're doing, and it'll allow you. Because I think the biggest hang up is, how am I going to do this? If I'm in a, I'm stewarding this business or I'm owning this business, I can't spend time with my family. There isn't. I can't in the kingdom. It is literally understanding that God will send the right people to help you on your journey so you can really plug into the things that matter and really steward and really, really invest in the foundation at home. Because ultimately, long term, that's where the kingdom value is going to come in.
[00:39:33] Speaker B: That's so good. Wow. So, Jen, thank you so much for joining Jeff on this. Jeff, thank you. You guys are busy, and we're just so honored that you took the time to be with us and thank all of you. If you've enjoyed this podcast, which I'm sure you have, this has been amazing, please share it with friends and family. We just want to get this out to as many people as possible because we really believe that this is time for us to grab ahold of this. You know, God wants us to be prosperous, but there is a purpose behind it. So thank you so much. Thanks all of you. God bless you and make it a great rest of the day.
