A Biblical Invitation to Create, Innovate and Risk with National Best-Selling Author Jordan Raynor

Audio Transcription

All right, thrive nation. Welcome back to the thrive time show

show on your radio. On today’s show, we are interviewing a man who has more than 50,000 people per week who download and open up his weekly newsletter. This guy sends out 50,000 newsletters a week that all get opened and read. He’s spoken at Harvard University, south by southwest and Tedx. He actually used to work. He served in the White House under George W dot Bush. This guy has recently read a book, written a book that I was recommended to me by one of our clients. Got My name of Joel David. He owns multiple jewelry stores right here in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area. Joel, David came in for one of our weekly meetings and he said, hey, you’ve got to have this guy on your show. This guy absolutely knows his stuff and he wrote a book called, called to create, and in this book this guy shares compelling stories from an eclectic group of 40 plus Christian entrepreneurs. He interviews the founders of Tom Shoes, charity water chick filet in and out Burger Guinness. I mean, it’s unbelievable how deep goes into the interviews that he does into the case studies. It’s an incredible book. It’s called, called to create, so a child. Without any further ado, let’s go ahead and attempt to give this guy a call. Here we go. Are you ready?

There we go.

What did we call him? He doesn’t pick up. I mean, that’s always the risk. You call somebody and they don’t pick up. They’ll see us as we’re going to hear the rejection by chuck. He knows. He doesn’t know. Recognize the number. He doesn’t recognize that and say Clay Clark. He doesn’t know who. He didn’t know who you are. He still wouldn’t. Is this incredible? Jordan Raynor, and if it is, how are you doing?

Great. Clay, how are you?

I am honored to talk to you. I told David, a Christian business owner in Tulsa has been bragging about you. I think he saw you at a conference about a year ago somewhere and so he’s been bragging on you, so picked up your book and I just really, uh, we have a podcast that’s typically in the top five or 10 on itunes and I like to sneak in Christian leaders when possible.

Nice. Good.

I am excited to have you on. I’m a little bit Giddy, a little bit nervous, excited. Um, I’m going to. If I, if you hear me Taser myself throughout today’s show is the calming method. That’s what I have to do. We’ve been doing this the whole day. I probably just built you up too much in my mind reading your stuff. It’s so well written, um, having been recommend having your book recommended to me by somebody who I really respect in the Tulsa area. I got by name of Joel David, who owns a multiple jewelry stores. I just, I’m excited to talk to you and I want to start with your book called to create. When did you first get the idea to write code to create

as an entrepreneur to Bush White House? Decided politics wasn’t my life’s calling. I started experimenting with entrepreneurship. I started and sold a few businesses firsthand to political and government markets. One of those businesses I was trying to figure out what I was going to do next. I was either going to go start a business that might be a better use of my church. My wife and I were thinking about starting a church. Some people in my life and say, hey, listen, but the work of entrepreneurs is incredibly significant. Eternally. Entrepreneurs are the ones creating jobs and helping people provide for their families and very important obviously to start another venture. It was at that moment that I was like, right, I want to go out and I want to find people who have had a very deep level view. Their work as entrepreneur is as not just a job. That just as a career, not a means to an end of fortune is a means of serving others and making the world a better place and really embracing that work. As an entrepreneur, as an culture creator, as as a calling, as I explore the stories of people like Arthur Guinness, Guinness brewing company, and Scott Harrison of charity, water ski shoes. Uh, I started probably stories doesn’t book here. I want to share their stories and my story with the world. And that’s what manifest itself into this book.

Jordan Raynor, in your book, you talk a lot about the entrepreneur. Can you walk us through what you’re writing about here? For the listeners out there who are not familiar with your book called to create

what’s up with a fairly controversial, the first entrepreneur, the Bible is the only religious texts that I’m aware of of God right after the other nature narrative of the world says that the gods created, assuming tying to work into surf dog would certainly never worked. The Bible has a completely different story. You know, we talk a lot in the Christian church about God being one who is holy, loving nipple and all those things are true, but the first thing that God tells us about himself, he is a creator, that he is the creator. And as you read the page, the Genesis, uh, he’s an entrepreneur, you taking something, getting something out of nothing, the good of others. And if that isn’t the definition of entrepreneurship, I don’t know what it is. That’s what entrepreneurs do every day. We got to the market, we create things that weren’t there before we do it, to serve others, to serve customers is certainly the first entrepreneur. He certainly took risk and creating something new for the good of others. And when we do that, we’re doing something that isn’t certainly important, eternally significant. And really, uh, you know, God, like

recently, as recently as yesterday there chuck, we had a of people with their light with life church are reach out to us. We’re going to be having a pastor, Craig Rochelle. Yeah, that’s right on the show. And he’s the guy who I know shares this belief, but the word vocation and in Latin means your calling. You know the word vocation means you’re calling. And the word vacation means to retreat from you talk in your book a lot about discerning our calling, the certain discerning your calling, hopeless to understand what you’re, what our listeners are, what you’re referencing for people that have yet to purchase your book.

Sure. Yeah. And I think written a lot of great stuff on this. She’s a fantastic leader. So a lot of times when we simply the word Coleen, I think we’re really just talking about the work that we really want to do, right? So for a second and a dead end, nine to five job, you know, we say we’re calling to go start a business and it might be right, but to be a calling by its very nature, somebody else has to call it, call us to it and they’re sick and their agenda rather than the question, know the question of what am I really passionate about? What do I really want to do? A complete story. Uh, I showed you guys an electrode, listeners, if we’re count Newport’s book deep work, there’s another book called so good they can’t ignore you, that I highly recommend.

I basically, he says that, you know, it is pumping is the wrong primary question and discerning the work that we were meant to do. Passion actually follows mystery. Passion follows getting really, really good at something, right? So in other words, you know, we get really passionate about something as we get really good at it. We get really good at serving others, right? And so I think there’s a better way to look at the work that we are meant to do in the work and when we do it, either we go to bed and can’t wait to wake up the next morning and do it again even when it’s hard. That’s, that’s calling something that we do so well in service of others. I think past what naturally flows flows out of that. When we get really, really good at serving customers and serving those that we serve in our jobs.

Once I began to get passionate about something, let’s just say I commit myself to mastery mastery. I’m going to work through the tedium things. You know, where are, if you’re learning the piano, brother, td jakes talks about that. You start off learning scales and you practice and it’s boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. If you’re a parent, I have five kids. You’re like, please stop mastering and you’re working through the tedium. You’re working through the boredom and as you board down when the world would give up because of boredom, you’re going to board down and as you become better and better at something, you begin to master that thing, but the big gap that stands in and and kind of in the way of going from boredom to boring down in mastering something is being able to respond to failure and your book, you talk about this responding to failure, but why did you decide to include this topic responding to failure in your book? I mean, sure. With us about this.

Yeah, that’s a great question. So what are the challenges for especially acute for a Christian entrepreneur? We’re practicing Christians. What it was it was I looked like and you do in the world and how we respond to failure. I think failure is inevitable at some level for entrepreneurial risk takers. Right? On her. Part of entrepreneurship and I think as Christians we have hope in that failure. We do alright Jenna and so forth, insecure because of something that we’ve done here that worked for our eternal significance and salvation that has been granted to us as a gracious gift from Jesus Christ. And that can’t be taken away from us because it is a gift because I did not work to achieve that. I did that one, that I can rest secure in that, in that radically changes how he a parts failure and how we respond to failure. And I think it makes A. I think it makes us, I think it makes Christianity attractive to the world. I remember when one of my ventures fair field earlier in my career, uh, you know, I was devastated but I had hoped, right? And that’s a powerful message to share with other entrepreneurs that may not have similar hope.

You know, for the sake of time, because I know you’re a busy, busy man when you’re not working in the Bush white, you’re writing books and if you’re not doing that, you’re coaching up. I’ll leaders and pastors you have a lot going on, so I have two final questions I want to ask you here. In your book, you talk about the importance of the goodness of work, the goodness of work. Please aluminate what you mean here. Expound upon this. This is a powerful idea. If somebody out there it gets this. This is a game changing idea. Discerning the understanding of the goodness of work.

Yeah, so I think it goes back to what the label says that work is not inherently inherently meaningless. Work is not inherently bad words. God worked at the top of the world before the world went to ride. God worked and the culture, human beings toward prior to the fall, right? Or just inherently significant. Yes, orcas, orcas, arduous work is difficult, but work when you really think about it, when you think about our entire lives and where we make the greatest contribution to the world and how we best love and serve our neighbors as ourselves. Work is the primary vehicle by which we do that. Right? Because not inherently bad. It’s not a meaningless means to an end. It is a primary means by which we can or feel the character of the first entrepreneurial or the creator opens up the pages of the Bible and to neighbor as ourselves by doing really excellent work, right, shoddy, mediocre work, doesn’t love and so masterfully good at that we really serve the world.

You don’t want to call your business as an example, integrity, plumbing, and then be the guy that always shows up late and doesn’t get things done properly. A lot of things galoshins three slash 23 slash 24 rights. Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a result, as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. My final question for you, Mr Jordan Raynor. Uh, Mr. Mr. make me nervous. Is Mr Jordan Raynor, is that you talk in your book about renew our minds, renewing our minds and we have so many. We have 100 mean. Think about this. We have hundreds of thousands of people the download each and every podcast. So imagine we’re talking to a stadium, uh, Michigan’s stadium filled with people, all of which who have gone through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. They have fought for a long time. Mr Jordan, they have grinded along time, much like you to get to where you are and in route to where they’re going. Talk to them about the importance of renewing their mind.

And that’s so good. So this is critically important. Something that even in the busy ness of life, I gotta make time. I got to make time to do right. And as, as a practicing Christian what renewing my name’s to me is keeping that eternal perspective, right? Well, when I’m in bed, did he critique day in, day out building whatever it might be of reminding myself of why I’m working with significant says but of my work and for me on my knees being a regular, a regular reading, God’s word, which you guys are familiar with, Oklahoma version, Great Bible.

That’s number one from you spending your retirement person and reading my Bible with other likeminded people that share long horizon view of life, right? Other Christians you and share my beliefs of eternity and I do what I do with other people. Otherwise, my, the people is critically important. Otherwise I’ll do sight of what’s important to the meditation that’s really driving the to work 60, 70 hours a week in pursuit of the culture, the cultural goods and not trying to create and produce a. So yes, it’s, it’s, it’s so important to be constantly renewing our mind. Those things that we do here,

Jordan, everybody out there that wants to learn more about you and the projects you’re currently working on or upcoming, uh, things you’re working on. What’s the best way for our listeners to learn more about there a particular website you want to direct people to hear today or a particular book or where would you direct our listeners to direct their action?

Super simple. Jordan, raynor out Tom j o r, d a n r a y dot. Um, and if you’re interested in that book that we’ve been exploring, you can find it wherever books are sold, including obviously Amazon to start to call. That’d be right there.

Jordan, I appreciate your time more than you know and thank you for investing in the lives of our listeners. Keep up the good work, my friend.

Thank you for the work that you guys are doing. I really appreciate the time today.

That interview was awesome. He is a wealth of knowledge. So good. So good. So good. If you have yet to pick up a copy of Jordan Raynor’s newest book, I encourage you to do it. Go to Jordan Raynor Dot Com. It’s j o r d a n r a y n o r.com. This guy goes deep with his studies into Tom Shoes, chick filet in and out, Burger Guinness and other brands that you would know. He’s spoken at Harvard south by southwest Tedx. I’m just telling you, you really do want to invest the time to go check out Jordan Raynor.com. Now, without any further ado, we’d like to end every show with a boom. Are you feeling metaphysically ready to do this? I’m feeling pool malicious. Physically. Are you ready for this? Physically? I am. Ready. Emotionally. Are you ready for A. I can never be emotionally ready. We just have to dye it in. Okay, fine. Okay. Three. Two. What though.