Episode 1196: Invest in Yourself - Interview with the founder of Stewardship and author of Work-Life Harmony Grant Botma – Part 1

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1,196 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Grant Botma: I'm Grant Botma. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to find work life harmony is key.

[00:00:23] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer balance is important and it's wise to try and have it, but it shouldn't be the end all target. And here's the biggest reason why you can never stay balanced all the time. Like the in, within the definition of balance, there's a guy. Who was the world record holder for standing on one foot for the longest, but even he fell down.

[00:00:55] Scott Maderer: Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. [00:01:00] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself.

[00:01:14] Invest in others. And develop your influence so that you can impact the world

[00:01:21] in today's interview with grant Bama, I asked grant to share with you how he came to write a book called work life harmony. I also asked grant to share how he feels like harmony is the real goal, not work life balance. And I also ask grant about how he's changed over time with faith and with business.

[00:01:40] One reason I like to bring you great interviews. Like the one you're gonna hear today is because of the power in learning from others. Another great way to learn from others is through reading books. But if you're like most people today, you find it hard to find the time to sit down and read. And that's why today's [00:02:00] podcast is brought to you by audible.

[00:02:02] Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And instead of reading, you can listen your way to learn from some of the greatest minds out there. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast.

[00:02:29] Grant BMA is a husband, father, and Arizona native, who has worked in the personal finance industry. Since the age of 15, he took a stand against financial injustice by forming stewardship, a group of companies serving his community with wisdom and love through home loans, insurance and investments included twice on the ink 5,000 list of America's fastest grown companies.

[00:02:52] Stewardship success stems from Grant's personal philosophy of harmonizing. And family life. He is a business [00:03:00] owner, bestselling Arthur keynote speaker and family man, who is on a mission to love others. Welcome to the show grant.

[00:03:09] Grant Botma: Yeah, thanks for having me. It's gonna be fun.

[00:03:11] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it.

[00:03:13] And I know you're gonna bring a lot of great value for the listeners. So in the intro, we talked a little bit about how you've got a number of different businesses that you've run over the years and are currently running. Can you talk a little bit about your journey and what really brought you to write this book on work life harmony.

[00:03:34] Grant Botma: Yeah. So there was no real pivotal moment, but as you said it was a journey. So I'll start when I was younger in college there was an awesome girl that I fell in love with and decided, Hey, I wanna marry this woman. And when I asked for permission to marry her when talking with her parents I also did something.

[00:03:57] I asked for permission to be [00:04:00] her brother's caretaker. So before I got involved in the family her brother was injured in an accident when he was 11 years old. So when he came out of that surgery out of that accident in the hospital he came. Not like a normal boy. He was now disabled.

[00:04:21] I developed a friendship with him as I developed this relationship with my wife. And we became really close friends and it was something that I wanted to do. So from the very beginning of my relationship with my wife and our marriage we knew that this was gonna be a part of our. That we were going to care for Daniel and that we were gonna spend time with Daniel and that he was gonna be an integral part of our life.

[00:04:47] So we didn't have a choice we had to figure out this work life harmony thing. We had to figure out this thing that a lot of people talk about in work life, balance early on, and we've had [00:05:00] to focus on it and be extremely intentional about it since day one. Did it actually did it work since day one?

[00:05:09] oh no, sir. Hey, I'm a sinner who needs Jesus and makes mistakes such probably more so than everybody else. But some of the mistakes that I made were I intentionally chose to have a business and be a business owner because I knew was gonna create flexibility in my life for allow, for allowing me to do some of these things and being his caretaker and.

[00:05:31] When you're building a business and you're grinding, especially at the beginning, you're you are just going like sleeping at the office is common. And there were times sleeping is also common yeah. Yeah. And there were times I was at the office all morning, all day, all night.

[00:05:49] And my wife was at home with our young kids who were babies at the time. And. That wa that wasn't good. And not only was it not good to, to be gone all the [00:06:00] time, but what was worse was the communication that I had and the lack of intentionality that I had in setting her expectations through those busy seasons busy seasons, aren't bad.

[00:06:11] It's actually good. I think, to contribute and grind and grow and work. But setting expectations. And doing some very intentional things, even throughout those busy seasons before those busy seasons, if possible man they're a game changer and I had to learn that the hard way. Yeah, but so you're saying there might have been a few intense discussions that led to that idea.

[00:06:31] Scott Maderer: I take it.

[00:06:32] Grant Botma: Oh yes, sir. Many intense discussions for sure. Lots of failures in my head.

[00:06:37] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. So you mentioned offhandedly, you know that a lot of people call it work life balance, but you chose to call it work life harmony instead. Why one word over the other? What's the difference there?

[00:06:49] Grant Botma: When you call it work life balance, that means you are making the goal balance and balance is the wrong. Balance is important and it's wise to try and have it, [00:07:00] but it shouldn't be the end all target. And here's the biggest reason why you can never stay balanced all the time. Like the in, within the definition of balance, there's a guy who was the world record holder first standing on one foot for the longest.

[00:07:16] But even he fell down. So when your goal and your target is balance, and then you fall, you feel like a failure. You feel alone, you feel shame and it's frustrating. And what I try to do is help change the mindset for readers to go from this goal of balance. Yeah, sure. It's important, but to a different goal, and that is harmony between all the different areas of your life.

[00:07:45] Rather than trying to find this elusive thing that's balanced and staying in this battle for balance for the rest of your. .

[00:07:52] Scott Maderer: I also think harmony implies a little bit more dynamic nature, which balance is [00:08:00] actually dynamic. People think of it as a fixed point, but again, go back to the guy standing on one.

[00:08:05] I bet you, he rocked back and forth and moved while he was doing it, or else he would've fallen over quicker. Balances dynamic, but yet harmony has an, even more of a feeling of not being you've arrived, but rather it's a journey or it's a process, I

[00:08:21] Grant Botma: guess. Yeah. One of my wife's favorite stories about me is when she wanted to go snowboarding and I'm an Arizona guy born in Arizona.

[00:08:29] I only saw the snow like three times in my life before I took her up to the mountains to go snowboarding when we were dating. And she likes to tell this story because not only did I not have any snow clothes, I was literally going down the mountain in my. Like track warmup suit from my college basketball days and I didn't have snow boots.

[00:08:47] So I did the old get the grocery bags and put 'em on your socks and then tape 'em up type thing. But I was going down the mountain full on speed, straight down, no turning because I had [00:09:00] no idea what I was. Doing. And although I got down the mountain pretty darn quick, it took so much energy for me to stay balanced.

[00:09:06] Cause I'm waving my arms side to side, trying to stay up in the amount of work it took just to stay on both feet. Gosh, it was hard and it was exhausting. And I looked like a fool and sometimes that's what happens with us when we're trying to stay. It's exhausting. And because balance is a terrible target.

[00:09:26] We do end up looking like a fool, sometimes trying to maintain the balance as if it's the end all be all. And it's not.

[00:09:34] Scott Maderer: So talking about that you mentioned earlier that, that this has been a process. This isn't something that you got perfect You came out of the womb, going I am in harmony.

[00:09:44] Everything is well. Or into your marriage or anything else, what does it really look like for somebody maybe for you or for somebody else? What does that journey towards finding harmony really look

[00:09:57] Grant Botma: like? It's about being [00:10:00] intentional about small actions. Every single year and every year you add just a few more small actions.

[00:10:09] And what I do in the book is try to outline what some of those small actions are. And rather than starting with your day or your week, I actually like starting backwards. Start with your year, then go into, look at your quarter. Then go in to look at your month, then go into, look at your week. But the one thing that I think is extremely important for people to hear and understand the process for trying to achieve harmony and what it looks like in your life has nothing to do with working less, because that's really what a lot of these work life balance books equate to this advice is just.

[00:10:48] Hey to get work, life balance, stop working so much. But I like to work and I'm good at. And your listeners are probably really good at it too. And I believe that [00:11:00] God created us to contribute. Even before the fall, we were working in the garden, right? Yep. Yeah. And this was part of the reason why we were created sure.

[00:11:10] When the fall happened and there was sin and work. Was not as fun. And that's what we're living with now,

[00:11:16] Scott Maderer: but that's, it's gonna work, but now there's gonna be thorns there too. . Yeah,

[00:11:19] Grant Botma: exactly. But that's why sometimes when we're working and we're, we are contributing and we're making a positive impact on the world with what we do, it feels so good.

[00:11:28] And you find so much purpose in it because God created you for that purpose. So the last thing I wanna do is tell people to stop doing. I just wanna help people take some very small, intentional steps and actions throughout their year, quarter and month to help them achieve a little bit more balance without having to work less, to still make that contribution on the world.

[00:11:49] Scott Maderer: One of the things that, that listers of the show if they've been listening a while, we'll have heard me say. It's not about doing more things and it's not about doing [00:12:00] less things. It's about doing the right things. Yes. As the filter, it sounds like you're applying that same.

[00:12:06] That's the intentionality piece, right? making, oh yeah. Its the right things on the list so to

[00:12:10] Grant Botma: speak. Oh yes, for sure. For sure. And it's been a journey of Jodi and I over the last 15 years, 16 years to try to figure out, okay, what are those things, what are the right things? And a lot of it, we learn from other people from other wise and loving godly people that have mentored us, loved us, cared for us, shared for us some of their mistakes, some of the things that have worked for them things that we've picked up from books and podcasts.

[00:12:36] And again, this has been an intentional focus of ours having this harmony because we have no other choice based on the commitments we've made. And it's been a really fun journey trying to figure those things out. Let's do a little

[00:12:47] Scott Maderer: compare and contrast when you first started this journey you mentioned Jody was at home with the kiddos, you were at the office kind of 24 7, this sort of thing.

[00:12:59] [00:13:00] Talk about how that looked and felt in y'all's relationships versus kind of today. You know what, I'm sure it's still not perfect because none of us ever get to perfection, even though we aim there sometimes. But what is, what's different about your life now than it was then? And what did it look like then?

[00:13:16] What does it look like now?

[00:13:18] Grant Botma: There's one. Connection. And when you think about a beautiful harmonious song, it's because the choir, the band whoever's singing is really connected. They have great expectations on who's gonna be doing what, when and what's coming next. And they're all on the same page with the same mission and the same goal.

[00:13:40] When things first started, I didn't do a great job of inviting my spouse and my kids and my close friends into this mission that I was on at work with our company at stewardship. And I didn't do a great job of inviting my employees into this mission that I was on in, in my life. And [00:14:00] now my people in my life that are the closest to.

[00:14:04] They are not only invited in on this mission that I'm on. They're a part of it with me. And we're all connected as a result of it. And with, because of some intentional steps, some proper communication taking the right actions. As you mentioned, we have way better expectation management. You can follow grant on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as grant Bama. That's spelled B O T M a. Of course I'll have links to all of those over in the show notes as well. Grant, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?

[00:14:37] Yeah. Do your best to love others in your life. And do that by genuinely putting yourself in other people's shoes, figure out what their needs are, see how you can serve them and just take one small, actionable, intentional thing from this podcast and try it today.

[00:14:52] Don't feel like you have to discover or figure out this work life harmony journey. In one day, it has been a journey for me and my wife and I made many [00:15:00] mistakes along the way, but just something small, something different that you can do today and see if you can build on that every day throughout the rest of this.

[00:15:06] Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this. Please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate.

[00:15:35] All one word iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed until next time invest your. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.[00:16:00]