9/6/23 - 2006: Your Business is a Blessing

Jim: You've tuned in to iWork4Him, the voice of collaboration for the faith and work movement.

Martha: We are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, and our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: Business is a blessing. I'm here to directly contradict those who think that business is a necessary evil. If that were really the case, then , probably wouldn't have sent Jesus to the family of a small business owner. If business were a necessary evil, then Jesus wouldn't have been managing the family business after Joseph died.

And let's get something straight. Business was designed to be a blessing to the owners of the business, the family of the owners, the customers, the vendors, and employees, and the community around the business. Any business that's not doing these things is a business that won't be around for very long.

How do I know that God intended for business to be a blessing? I read my Bible today. We've asked Chris Young from the Good Place Institute to join us as we discuss business as a blessing. And the very purpose of business. I'm hoping when we're done today, you'll see the business is a tool for impacting your community. Business is a tool that brings flourishing, both mind and body and spirit. Chris Young, welcome to iWork4Him.

Chris Young: Thank you so much, Jim and Martha. Appreciate being here. It's an honor.

Jim: Oh, it's great to have you. Chris, where did you develop your love for business?

Chris Young: A great question. I grew up in a pretty athletic family and I think I really love the organization of team sports, honestly, so way back from a young age. Any time that there is a purposeful vision, the organization of resources, of people, of time, of talent, of treasure organized in such a fashion to reach those visions, I think that's where I developed my, my love for business, but love for organizations and people coming together to accomplish something pretty meaningful.

Martha: What a great way to put it, because there's just so much we could delve into that, but I love that idea that it's about the purpose of the organization. So do you agree, Chris, with the premise that Jim said, where business should be a blessing for the owner, the employee, the vendors, the customers, and the community?

Chris Young: Without a doubt! We have a mantra at the Good Place Institute and Good Place Holdings where work is a means of grace. And I think that's fairly synonymous with what you just shared as far as work being a blessing to all those constituents, right? And what we, what do you mean by a blessing?

There's certainly monetary blessing and we can pay our bills and it's for physical sustenance, take care of our families, et cetera, et cetera. But it goes well beyond that, right? Work as a means of grace in that It helps us become better, helps us reach our full potential, so we become better.

You could say that God is working in us, on us, and through us, through the community of organizational life and work, to make us something we're not, make us something that we could never be on our own, right? And that's a means of grace, becoming more and more like the perfect human of Jesus, which is actually discipleship.

Jim: But Chris, you said work, but business - I grew up hearing often from religious leaders that business was a necessary evil. Where did you get the idea and where do you hear it? Where do you see it that business actually is a blessing?

Chris Young: Yeah. You said at the beginning, at the outset of the show here, it's in the Bible, it's in God's word. Way back in Genesis, people might know this as the cultural mandate. Before people messed everything up, God made things good and very good, and one of the things he made very good is work, right? And you organize work in a business setting, you know, a for profit business setting, also in a non profit business setting or a non profit organizational setting, right? And it's all the way back in Genesis when God made things good and very good.

It's meaningful, It's fulfilling. And so yeah, you've touched on a fun topic that we like to talk about as well, and that's the sacred secular myth. You know, and there's a plethora of verses all throughout the storyline of the Bible that says everything is sacred. God cares about everything.

Everything has an opportunity to optimize God's design. For flourishing, for thriving, and for glorifying Him. I get it from the Bible and God's Word.

Martha: When you think about it, we think about, there are times when work is really hard. And it doesn't necessarily feel like a blessing, but we're in that work for multiple reasons. Somebody saw a need that they wanted to fulfill, or they had to feed their family, and so they needed to provide a way to earn an income. And all of those are different forms of blessings. We just don't think of it that way necessarily in our day to day. Jim, when we talk about blessing, one of the things that we want to do is bless the listeners.

And recently our board of directors decided that for any amount of donations to iWork4Him, we would actually bless that person with a copy of our book iWork4Him. So I just want to take a minute right now and let everybody know that. That is a blessing that we can bestow upon you and we would love to do that. You can go to iWork4Him.com and go to the donate button and we would love to bless you with a copy of the book.

Jim: All right, Martha, we've traveled across the country. We've seen, we've interviewed a ton of business people. What's one example where you see that the business that we've interviewed has been a blessing not only to the business owner and their family, but also to their vendors and their customers and their employees and their community? Can you give me one example that comes to your mind?

Martha: Okay, I think of a roofer in tampa bay that from their own proceeds, they have a program where every year they give away a roof to someone who really needs it. And all of their employees work on it, all of their vendors give towards it. It's something they do above and beyond with what they've been blessed with to bless their community. And that's such a tangible way, but they get everybody involved. So it's not just, we're blessing this one woman who's raising her kids and has a leaky roof. The vendors are participating, they're knowing what they're doing, and that trickles all the way down. And so to me, that's just one.

Jim: Aries roofing. Yes. Alright, Chris, you at the Good Place Institute, your whole idea is to make good places to work. Your whole idea is to train up business owners and leaders and organizational leaders to make it a good place to work.

We're going to, in the last half of the show, you're going to actually bring on a guest of somebody that's actually been doing this, but give us an example of where you saw this in action when you said, Hey, this is something we should train other people to do. Do you get some examples of what motivated you to start the Good Place Institute?

Chris Young: Yeah. That, that goes all the way back to 1965 when the organization that launched the Good Place Holdings and Good Place Institute started where it's about delving into God's Word in the Bible and saying, God, what do you say about work? What do you say about organizational life? And all of that.

The first example is a company called S. D. Myers that started back in 1965. Again, that launched the things that I mentioned. And it was really about how do you actually operate an organization that does build up God's kingdom, that does fulfill the cultural mandate, that does fulfill the great commandment to make disciples, right?

And I like to use this phrase, hopefully nobody gets offended it's way more than ice cream and evangelism, even though that those are important things. It's the actual operation of the organization that brings about some of the blessing that you're talking about.

Jim: You know this week on the air on our one minute power thought that broadcasts on tons of christian music stations across the country, we really talked about the individual. You know what does it look like to be a blessing to the business owner, a blessing to the vendors, a blessing to the customers, and the blessing to the employees and of course a blessing to the community?

And what's really fun is when you look at being a blessing to the employees, they just love coming to work. They feel love, they feel accepted, they feel invested in, and that's super important, but our customers are getting a great product, whether it's a product or a service, it's delivering what we promised them and to our vendors, we're paying our bills on time.

 Being a blessing has so many facets to it, but that's really what you train in the Good Place Institute. That's what the Good Place Institute's all about. I mean you saw it in action in the Good Place Holdings and you decided to help others learn it, right?

Chris Young: Correct. Yeah. Again, we use the word derive a lot around here, and not that we have the corner of the market on the truth by any means, but we're trying to look at God's word through, through obviously the Bible, but also his word comes through the life of Jesus. His word comes through creation, et cetera, et cetera. We're saying, God, what do you have to say? Specifically, Martha, I love what you said, because it's about purpose, right? So what is the purpose of businesses or organizations if we're espousing a faith based, a kingdom based, a biblically based, you know, foundation?

And we've identified three major success criteria for all Good Place Organizations, which good place is really a euphemism for the kingdom, right? And it's about valuing people - valuing people because all people are made in God's image. So everyone, no matter what you believe, you deserve respect and honor and care and love, et cetera, et cetera.

So at a Good Place Organization, we hope all people feel like they belong to a community that loves and cares and treats them with respect and honor. And number two is training, education, and development, right? One of the things that draws people to an organization is becoming a better version of themselves and contributing to the whole, right? So we try to provide that in that way as well.

And there's a couple others and I'm sure we'll get into talking about that. But the other phrase that we like to use is when it comes to one of the things we talk about in 10 areas of stewarding a Good Place Organization is charter. And you use the word blessing. We'll use the word benefit, right? And we teach people, hey , how do I craft a vision, mission, values kind of statement that starts with, hey, this organization exists to provide these beneficiaries with these benefits within these values commensurate with this investment? And that's the, one of the things we teach, but it all revolves around the benefit to people, vendors, suppliers, community that organization can provide.

Martha: So I'm the kind of person that loves to actually see pictures of what that looks like. So can you give me examples or tell me what you're seeing when people implement the conversations the strategies, the principles that you're giving, teaching with them in the Good Place Institute?

Chris Young: Yeah. One of the things that we see is alignment. So one of the things we hear from people a lot is people have vision statements but maybe we don't know how to talk about them throughout the whole organization, for instance, or, we don't know or we're struggling or we're challenged with how to get everybody's activities, everybody's mind, everybody's heart around accomplishing the vision or the collective purpose of the organization.

So there are tools and methods and, you might call it an organizational operating system, to build up these kind of kingdom organizations where everybody, 1, feels a part of it and everyone in the organization is aligned, to it.

So there was that old story way back when the president was walking at NASA or whatever, and they said, Hey, what are you doing? And the person was clearly sweeping the floor, but their answer back to the president was we're helping put a person on the moon. That's one of the things that we love to see is that people directly connect what they do, no matter what they do, because all parts of the body of the organization are important, whether they're seen or unseen, right? They all directly understand, know, and feel how they are an integral cog in the whole system that accomplishes that correct collective purpose. And that is so much fun to see.

Jim: I can't imagine the impact that must make on employees inside of Good Place Organizations when they understand that they're part of the greater mission, the organizational mission. They're not just a janitor. They're not just a database administrator. They're helping reach that mission. And what I love inside, you know, inside your Good Place Organization Book that i'm holding up here on the video.

Chris Young: Thanks for the plug, Jim. Love it.

Jim: You know, what I love is that you unapologetically use the Bible as the backbone of making a Good Place Organization. And you do it, you say, whether you believe in God or not, the Bible is, you can't look anywhere else in the world for a book that's been published more than the Bible and that provides the framework for creating a good place to work.

And you use pages and pages to justify why you're doing it. And then throughout the book, you just show how practical the Bible really is. I love that. And so I encourage people to get a copy of this. Where could people get a copy of the good place organization?

Chris Young: Yeah, sure. The easiest place is amazon, so that would be an easy place. But also our website - it's goodplaceinstitute. com. You can order either way.

Martha: And we'll put that link in the show notes for people so they don't have to struggle to find it.

Jim: Another free plug for amazon right here on iWork4Him!

All right, but you talk about the organizations are within the Good Place Holdings, inside your organization Good Place Holdings. And you've got several of them. I'd like you just to give, before we bring on our specific guests that you brought in from San Antonio, Texas today, talk to me about how your Good Place Holdings have impacted the communities that they operate within.

So give me an example of one of your Good Place Holdings. If you can give a name, if you can't give a name, that's fine. And how they're impacting the community.

Chris Young: Yeah, sure. One of them is a couple of them that kind of go together and we call these our community impact businesses. We have several verticals of businesses and what we're trying to do is go into communities where perhaps there are folks who need to raise level of quality of life and provide jobs - meaningful, fulfilling, living wage and above jobs for people so that they can maybe get themselves out of poverty. Maybe they can, again, increase quality of life for them, their families, their children. And so some of our businesses are directly related to community impact.

Jim: This journey that you're going on - I'm sorry, Martha. This journey that you're going on, the Good Place Holdings journey, the Good Place Institute journey, Chris Young, how has it impacted you personally?

Chris Young: I'm going to pause, because how's it impacted me personally? I'll get a little personal just for a second. Maybe for you all, or I think this is the case for my friend, Ryan, who's going to come on here in a second, this is my phrase. It is unbelievably fantastically awesome to be in the flow of the creator of the universe and what he's called your life to. It's a sweet spot.

Again, if you looked at me, you wouldn't know, but a long time ago, I used to be an athlete. And, athletes call it being in the zone. Where the basket looks this big and no matter how you throw it, it just goes in somehow, and so I think the Institute and the things that we believe God is calling us to do to help other business leaders build up Good Place Organization so that it can have impact and blessing. And all of that on the people that you mentioned, it's humbling. It's honoring.

I have two prayers always since we started this, really started it a couple of years ago, packaged it up in a book and did all that sort of. We've been practicing these principles for a couple of decades, we're just commercializing them in the past year or so. But, my first prayer: God, please make sure that this is theologically accurate. We don't want to stray from what you say and what you want.

Number two is: God, really, this is the message you want us to send or bring? This is your message you want us to bring to the marketplace? Because the other thing I've learned is it's challenging. And a friend of mine had a phrase that, you're close to the target when the bullets are firing at you. And they fly, because the enemy does not want, in the marketplace, unbeknownst to some Christian business owners, the enemy has territory there, and he does not want it taken. And we're taking it.

Martha: It's so great to see how it has impacted you and knowing that you are in that the flow of the work of the Lord and that you're in the zone and using the gifts, talents and abilities that God has created in you to use for the organizations that you're touching.

As you talk about your journey and the impact that it's had on you I just want to remind the listeners that the sheWorks4Him book that we wrote about embracing your calling as a Christian working woman has got 19 different journeys of women in it that are all sharing their story of how God has worked out in their work. And I just want to remind you that if you do go to iWork4Him. com and make a donation, our board of directors would love to give you a copy of that book if you so choose.

Jim: Yeah, Chris, I love your story, the story of the Good Place Institute and Good Place Holdings and how you've practically put it all together in a manual. So people can just get it at the Good Place Organizational book. It's, it literally is a how to guide and how to make every place a good place to work. But you've got somebody that you've been working with that you brought on the show today. Who do you have for us today that's got their story they can tell for themselves?

Chris Young: Yeah. A friend of mine, a good friend, Ryan Shutt, who's the CEO of Southwest exteriors. Love to introduce him. And he can tell you, he can tell you the real story.

Jim: Ryan, welcome to iWork4Him. And Southwest exteriors, not a first time on iWork4Him. When we asked Chris, just pick somebody that you're working with that can tell the story of how their place is becoming a Good Place Organization. And he says I'm going to, I got this, the CEO of Southwest exteriors.

I'm like, Martha, we've been to Southwest. 2019, I believe it was. We were in San Antonio, Texas, and spent a day there with many people on your team. I don't believe we got to meet Ryan, but we're grateful to have you back now as the CEO, the new CEO of Southwest Exteriors. Thanks for being here, Ryan.

Ryan Shutt: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me, guys. I truly appreciate it.

Martha: So tell us how you heard about the Good Place Institute.

Ryan Shutt: Yeah, so our owner, we call him our steward, Scott Barr, has been a big fan of GPI for a lot of years. And, Chris, man, I know this part of the story, so I'll go ahead and share it and just be totally candid.

We had done a small project with Chris for our customer support center. And I was new to my role, my replacement in the marketing seat was overseeing that. And I was not fully engaged in those meetings. It was like, okay, this is a good idea. Scott thinks it's great. It's really interesting. But I wasn't really fully bought in at all. And then in 2022, we acquired a new business unit for window coverings. And I was not in my seat then, but I was able to see a lot of what went on. And what I realized is we had no framework and no structure for who we are organizationally, and if we're going to continue to grow, we had really no foundation for that.

So I thought back to all my conversations with Scott talking about GPI and I was like, you know what? Maybe these guys have something they can actually help us out with. Started thumbing through the book, started talking to Chris, and the rest is history, as they say.

Jim: . And as Ryan Shutt says, GPI, he means a Good Place Institute, online at goodplaceinstitute.com.

Ryan, we can speak to this a little differently than most people could in the country. Southwest Exteriors was already a good place to work because we interviewed five people on your staff back in 2019. I can't remember all the names. I should have looked that up before we did the show.

Martha: I think we should link the old show in the notes. That would be fun to go back and listen.

Jim: Sat around the conference table and interviewed different people. It was already a good place to work.

Martha: Yes. So why then? So what was the propulsion? What happened then as you engaged with GPI that that your company needed to do?

Ryan Shutt: Yeah, so for me, the Good Place Institute, it's really two functionalities, right? And this is, Chris, right? It's about managing systems and valuing people.

And we had the valuing people part really figured out, right? But we were really more focused on managing people and their day to day tasks and day to day responsibilities. And so that shift of going, hey, how do we truly build out these great processes? Because the processes that we had, they lived in everybody's heads.

We've had people that have been here for a lot of years, and we're very lucky with that. But unfortunately, people leave at times, and, there's definitely a risk of going, Hey, all these processes of so and so were to leave the organization, that process leaves with them. And so we had no foundation, no structure in place to really, to grow. And while we had great people and great culture - God is true, the center of everything that we do - we still needed a framework in order to grow.

Jim: So the framework, I've just finished reviewing the book. I didn't get a chance to read it cover to cover, but I did read it cover to cover, just not every piece. Cause there's a lot of meat in this. When you look to Southwest exteriors and like I said, it was already a good place to work. It already had a great model. You already had a lot of great people and you already had great customer service. What was the one big thing you thought you were missing besides the framework? Was there any pieces of the Good Place Institute model that's one we can really work on?

Ryan Shutt: Yeah. So for me, it's truly clearly defined processes, right? So there's a guy that works for us. He's one of our project managers. And when I stepped in to my new role, he and I went to lunch one day, and he gave a great analogy of, he goes, I feel like I'm climbing a mountain. I've already got a backpack full of rocks and every time something goes wrong, we make a change to a process, that another rock is added to my backpack.

And so as we climb up this mountain and we continue to grow, my backpack's getting heavier and heavier. And Ryan, I just, I can't climb the mountain anymore because our process is so cumbersome. And so for me, that was really an eye opening moment of going, hey, everything that goes wrong, we're being very reactionary as opposed to going back and saying, hey, where in the process did this break down or where in the process did this employee not follow the process properly?

And we're just adding rocks to our employees backpack time after time, and it wasn't sustainable. And so that for me is really going, Hey, how do we get very clear and mapped out processes in place so we no longer have to continue to weigh down on our employees?

Martha: So for the listeners that are hearing this little kind of like listening in on this conversation and getting a peek inside of your organization and wondering what was the impact, because it could be tedious to figure out processes and work through all of that to get to the point where you are today, and I'm sure you're never probably done, right?

There's always new things that are happening. Tell the listener what is an impact that you see that could be an encouragement to them?

Ryan Shutt: Yeah so in full disclosure, we're still in the process of building this out. We're still in the coaching phase. I think, as you go through that process, one of the biggest initial changes, it's conversations start happening, right? And this idea of well, why are we doing it this way? And this that's what we've always done. It starts to break down really quickly, right? Because it just, as you break down those processes and those steps and procedures, you're like, man, that is just really inefficient.

And so that's the initial thing. Just having those conversations and going, hey, there's nothing sacred in our process, right? It's defined by people, and we make mistakes all the time. So just knowing that, Hey there's no egos involved. Let's just get the best process in place as possible and start growing to be more effective in what we do.

Jim: And we have found in business that one line- in response to your question - why are we doing it this way? That's the way we've always done. It is the first key to there's something we can work on.

Chris Young: Right.

Ryan Shutt: Yeah, it's the old analogy, right? Pick your hard, right? We could choose to not have processes and continue to have these headaches and these client issues and these employee issues, or we can choose the hard of start and develop these processes and very defined guardrails for how we do it. So I'd much rather pick that hard than just going by the seat of our pants.

Jim: So when you look at the impact of the Good Place Institute and understand that business is really to be a blessing to the owner and his or her family, the vendors, the customers, the employees, and the community, what are you seeing so far as your biggest takeaway in your interaction with Good Place Institute? The biggest impact you've seen already, because you said you're already knee deep at this, so you're not to the finish line. You're running a marathon. You're not running a sprint. What's the biggest takeaway so far? The thing you've seen, wow, I've seen God in that.

Ryan Shutt: Yeah, so I would say it's simply that, right? It's the fact that God is present in it, right? It's just the divine alignment. It aligns with who we are culturally. For years we've been a scaling up company, right? We've looked at both EOS and scaling up or the Rockefeller Habits, however you want to define that. And those processes are agnostic at best, right? There's nothing wrong with those processes, but there's no God in the center of those.

And so if we're going to espouse to be who we say we are, for us not to have God at the center of our processes is a massive miss, right? That's really the biggest thing is for us, Jim, is the alignment of going, hey, this is truly who we are. And this exudes, at the very core of who we want to be.

Martha: Chris, we have only touched the tip of the iceberg about GPI, and we want our listeners to be intrigued, but if they need to know, they want to know more, they want to share this more than just sharing the podcast with their boss or the owner or their co workers, what's the best next step for them?

Chris Young: Sure, I'm going to give Ryan's home phone number.

 (laughter)

Martha: And he's going to have it disconnected.

 (laughter)

Chris Young: The easiest, obviously, is the website, goodplaceinstitute. com. You're welcome to get the book and read through that. I would love to talk if anybody would like to contact me, please do. You can see, hopefully, I love to talk about this.

I love to journey along with others who want to not just talk about it, but do it. So those would be a couple of different resources. If you don't mind to if somebody does want to order the book on our website, I can give them a quick discount code when the time is right.

Martha: Excellent. You want to share it with me and I'll put it in the show notes? I can do that.

Chris Young: Wonderful. We'll just say GOODPLACEPODCAST .

Martha: Okay. GOODPLACEPODCAST. And we'll have that in there and that will give you a discount code, everybody. So it's a very good first step to take. And we appreciate your generosity with that.

Jim: So Ryan, before we let you go, and before we close out the show, Southwest Exteriors, when we were in the showroom, you were doing doors, you were doing garage doors, you're doing exterior sidings, that kind of thing. I think roofing was involved. It was a lot of stuff, but you mentioned that now you're doing window coverings. If somebody is living in the San Antonio, how far outside of San Antonio are you servicing customers today?

Ryan Shutt: Yeah, so basically, so San Antonio is based in Bexar County, and so basically Bexar County and any contiguous counties, any county that touches Bexar County, we'll come out and, give them a quote or whatever they may need.

Jim: Yeah, and we can guarantee the customer service is beyond imagination because we've heard it from the employees, and when employees are thriving in an organization, the customers, the vendors, the community are going to be a blessing. They're going to be blessed by it. Just because people love to work there and that's a lot of fun.

So thank you so much, Ryan, for being here today as the CEO of Southwest Exteriors. Thank you, Chris Young, for being here as the CEO of the Good Place Institute. Love having you here. Love the idea. And Chris, I don't think this will be our last conversation because I got big plans for you right here, Marionville, Missouri, which we won't go into, but thank you both for being here with us.

Martha: We love sharing these kinds of stories about Good Place Institute, the impact that it's having all over and having this conversation, Jim, about business being a blessing to everyone involved. And that's something we've actually gotten to talk about a little bit this fall in some local events.

Listeners, if you are ever looking for somebody to speak into that from an outside perspective, it's one thing to have co workers sharing about that but to have somebody come in, you can go to iWork4Him. com and go to our contact page reach out to us. Let's have a conversation.

Jim: Yeah, we'd love to talk about it, your business and your club activities, you know, whatever - your local city council, we'd love to talk about it. But thank you all for being here today. It's been great! You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers and our workplace is definitely our mission field, but ultimately, iWork4Him.

Outro: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom. Wherever it is that you work, live, volunteer, and invest, that is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement, check out our books. iWork4Him, sheWorks4Him, and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him. For him.com/bookstore.

Thanks for listening to the iWork4Him Podcast with your host, Jim and Martha Brangeberg. Please visit iWork4Him.com to learn more about connecting your faith and work to join the iWork4Him Nation or subscribe to our weekly blog.

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