00:00:00 Thanks for joining us on Episode 5 71 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Ryan, England, With Core Matters and the blue collar culture podcast. I challenge you to invest in yourself, investing 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 grow much yourself and your business is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott made her and I get this 16% pay raise right around the time I'm going.
00:00:46 This isn't gonna work, Lenny left. There's no savings left. And so that was That was my first experience at stewardship and go. You know what? This isn't my money. This has got money. Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship Podcast. 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 George of podcast who learned to invest in yourself,
00:01:19 invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world. In today's interview with Ryan, England, Ryan and I talk with you about impacting the world. Ryan shares with you some of his top principles that you need to learn to make a dent in the universe. Ryan shares with you his definition of stewardship and what he hopes to leave behind as his legacy and lots more. One reason I like to bring you great interviews like the one you're gonna here today is because of the power in learning from others.
00:02:02 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 podcast is brought to you by audible Go to inspired stewardship dot com slash audible to sign up, and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 100 and 80,000 titles to choose from, and instead of reading, you can listen your way toe. Learn from some of the greatest minds out there that's inspired stewardship dot com slash audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast.
00:02:43 Ryan has the perfect background to be doing what he is doing and, more importantly, the results that he has really show it. Ryan has worked in corporate America for well over a decade. He learned how they attract top talent, and then he repeatedly built top performing teams, and then they oftentimes got messed up and crushed by the corporate reshuffles that happened. I have been there to Ryan, set out to build his own Dream Team and start a digital marketing company, and his client started seeing great returns on that investment as they worked with him and the marketing efforts that he was doing.
00:03:21 But then it's Their businesses were growing, and so was Ryan's. He started getting those phone calls. Clients would call, and they would explain that they needed to back out of the marketing of their business because they didn't actually have enough people or the team that they needed to do the work. And Ryan became determined to help these clients continue growing and set out on a journey to build a system that could help any company attract, hire and retain as much front line top talent as they needed. And now he's worked out a proven process that gets these results for companies all the time.
00:04:01 Welcome to the show, Ryan. Thanks, Scott, for having me. So one question that I've started asking everyone, you know, speaking of brand, right little bit on Brand here is about stewardship, podcast, name inspired stewardship. I should probably ask people about Searchie. Yeah, that only took me, like, 100 and 90 or so episodes to figure out, so Yeah, but I got there eventually, right? Yeah. How do you define stewardship as a person? As a business owner.
00:04:36 And what impact has that definition had on your life? Uh, yeah. So Stewart's up. I think in the simplest terms is just, uh, realizing that what I'm managing, I'm managing, and it's not mine. Ah, you know, this took me. I'm still figuring this out, just to be honest. Uh, but it was a couple of years ago, so Percy let me to break that up. So personally, uh, I remember my first challenge with stewardship was around tithing, and I just started the church.
00:05:12 I'm still at today, so there's probably thio, 12 years ago or so, and I joined a men's group, and I remember we were doing a series on tithing at church and all the guys were like, Yeah, I tied. I do my 10% I do my 10% of the way, 10%. I was like, I I'm the guy that gobs flavors in my wallet and put sitio I got these guys. I mean, they really poor Greenlee. You forget your wallet in the car? Yeah,
00:05:39 Yeah, I have no cash in there. And my credit cards not gonna work. So, um, so they challenge me, Uh, t to really, except the fact that the the money that I had was not my money. I was managing it for God, and, uh, I'm always good at remembering stories in the Bible, but I always forget where I read the stories. But, you know, for who could be trusted with little could be trusted with a lot. And I remember it was it was November and I sat down with my wife and we spread She did the whole thing and I said,
00:06:14 This isn't gonna work. There's not gonna be enough money at the end of the month. Ah, if we do our 10 percent and I prayed a lot about it and you know it was really convicted to do it. So I just said, That's it and they set it up automatically. That was the trick for me was, You know what's important gets automated, and I think we can use that lesson in business as well. It's important. Let's automate it. And so I remember the first time the money got pulled out of my account and we were sweating bullets.
00:06:43 It was it was not. Smells like you know what God, this is. This is a lesson I have to learn and we were obedient in two months later, I get called into my boss's office and freaking out. It was just like I don't know how we're gonna do this. Now remember, she called me in and this is I've got so many stories around. This is crazy. But this one she was Ryan. She goes corporate, looked at the salaries over the last year, and they were looking at salary bands and who was being paid what,
00:07:15 And they've had to recast in salaries. And I'm sitting there thinking, Oh, great I'm gonna get a pay cut. Now she goes out of the 130 people in the department. We've ah, We looked at your salary and they realized that yours was actually the lowest away from the average. And so we're giving you a 16% raise on. And I just remember this and he said so that not only covers thank 10% I was paying, but it uncovers the increase that I now have toe to cover because of the raids and ass out of the blue just out of the blue.
00:07:56 All of a sudden, I find out that I'm the one that had the lowest salary of all the managers, and I get the 16% pay raise right around the time I'm going. This isn't gonna work. Let me left. There's no savings left. And so that was That was my first experience at stewardship and go.
00:08:14 You know what? This isn't my money. This is God's money. And I'm just here to manage,
00:08:18 and I'm here to trust him, and he will take care of me. Uh, you know, Jesus said that even God takes care of the birds and feeds them.
00:08:26 Am I not more important. And so it's been a journey. Don't get me wrong. I've made mistakes on this and I have said No,
00:08:33 God, I earned this. And, um, you know, God price my hands open and says,
00:08:38 Trust me and he's never let me down ever in. Ah, it was 12 years ago. So in 12 years,
00:08:44 I can tell you there are times where we didn't know how we're gonna pay rent and we get a phone call from an attorney from a car accident that we were in eight years ago.
00:08:54 And he goes, There's a bunch of money been sitting here. No one's collected it. So I'm just gonna send you a check.
00:09:01 It's enough to cover rent for the year like it's crazy and that's all. That's all God's timing and God's plan.
00:09:08 And, um, I'll be the first to say that God's timing in my never align, uh, you know,
00:09:15 it's been said if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. Um, but I would say personally,
00:09:22 that's been huge understanding that, and it's only been in the last couple of years that I've actually understood that this business isn't mine.
00:09:28 Either This business has gots business, and, uh, I've spent a lot of time praying about, uh am I going in the right direction?
00:09:37 We're doing the things that God wants to do with this business and just giving it to him. Uh,
00:09:43 you know, I just recently have lost a huge client and, ah, that the numbers don't make sense anymore.
00:09:50 And I just I'm at peace with it, knowing that God has a plan and getting rid of that huge client has freed me up to do something else with the business that he wants me to dio so spending a lot of time in prayer and really ah,
00:10:08 accepting the fact that I'm just a Stuart it's actually brought a lot of peace to me. It's it's brought a lot of that.
00:10:14 I remember five years ago, if I had lost a huge client, I wouldn't be sleeping. I'd be stressing out.
00:10:19 I'd be running around everywhere and ah, God's got it, you know, And I am such a the point where if it's going to impact me so much that God wants the house to be foreclosed on because he wants me to move somewhere else.
00:10:34 So be it. Thing is, in my house, we're just managing it. And so it's been It's definitely been a journey,
00:10:42 and I I can think back to the times when, um and I'm sure a lot of your listeners air there.
00:10:48 If they're just getting started back to win. I would hear people tell me their stories, and it's like,
00:10:53 Well, that works for you. You make it sound so easy or hindsight is 2020. I'll be the first to tell you I still struggle with it today.
00:11:04 But just the more that I understand that this isn't mine. And the more that I put my faith in trusting him,
00:11:12 the more he shows up in ways that I couldn't even plan for or begin to describe. And so,
00:11:19 and that's the impact it's had on me. My wife is, um, you know, she struggles with it a lot,
00:11:25 so she stays home and takes care of the kids. She's a little involved in the business, but not that much.
00:11:30 But she's got those stories now, too, and so she's able to go out and say, This is why,
00:11:37 uh, you know, we think the way we do, and we believe the way we do. And,
00:11:41 um, you know, we've faithfully tied for 12 years now and given above the tithe when we are blessed and just understanding that God could do so much more with us than we can.
00:11:53 Well, you know what's funny is talking about vulnerability. One of the reasons that I titled the show inspired stewardship in one of the reasons that I talk about this stuff is I'm I'm working on it,
00:12:08 you know, it's in part. It's like this is a preaching to the choir here. It's like I need to hear it.
00:12:14 I need to hear how folks are dealing with it and what they're doing because I work so often with people around those areas time,
00:12:22 talent and treasures just like you do. And that more often than not, when I dig into it,
00:12:30 it's it's This is one of those big hurdles that we have to get through as business owners. We have to get through it as individuals as people.
00:12:39 It doesn't matter, but it's as we come to accept that it changes the paradigm, like you were just talking about it.
00:12:45 It, and every time it shows up, God shows up. It's not about it's not. It's not a magic trick,
00:12:56 either. It's not karma. It's not the prosperity gospel. It's not. It's just God shows up.
00:13:03 Sometimes God shows up in a way that you didn't expect. Or maybe you didn't want. Yeah, happened.
00:13:10 God, just, uh, yeah. Sometimes the answer I've gotten forgot his No. And that's never fun,
00:13:17 you know? Yeah, you know, e. I thought it was the right thing. I thought I was going where God wanted me to go.
00:13:23 And then it's like, Nope, Yeah, Get back on channel. You need to get back on track.
00:13:29 You're going the wrong direction here. Well, and that reminds me of a story I mentioned earlier that,
00:13:35 uh, you know, I have been asked to leave corporate a couple of times and, uh, one of the most impactful times I had been in a employer and I've been beginning promoted Ah,
00:13:49 large corporation. And there was this new promotion available for me, and my boss was like, go for it,
00:13:54 go for it, go for it. And it was actually gonna make me her peer a different site.
00:13:59 And I was like, Yeah, every single time I applied for every time I interviewed for it like there were roadblocks.
00:14:05 There was just all of these things saying this isn't right. And then it was about 45 days later,
00:14:11 I was asked to leave the company, and, uh, it was interesting because it was in that job is when I was baptized and when I re committed to Christ and I just remember that almost the day that happened,
00:14:24 uh, I could just feel the double just saying I'm gonna get this guy before he gets too into this and all of these roadblocks in all of this resistance and things became so toxic at work.
00:14:35 And it was another two years after that before I was asked to leave. Um, and I would just remember I was working 90 hour weeks and,
00:14:43 um, I was having problems in my marriage, and it was, you know, there was. I was going through a really dark bad time,
00:14:50 and I remember sitting there with my wife. We went out to dinner and she's like, You just need to leave.
00:14:54 You have my permission, like we will figure it out. Just leave and all of a sudden, like all of the weights and all of the stress and everything was gone.
00:15:03 And I look back at that now, almost 15 years later, and I and I look to God.
00:15:09 I see well played because it was that that pressure and that toxicity that made me who I am today.
00:15:19 And if it wasn't for that experience, I don't know that I'd be doing what I'm doing. I'd probably still be working in corporate figuring out why I can't climb the corporate ladder.
00:15:28 But God had a plan for me and it was not to be there. And at the time I was I was renewing my faith and I said I wasn't hearing from God as well.
00:15:38 And so he's like, You know what? I want you out of there. You're not listening. So let's,
00:15:42 um let's push you a little bit and I got pushed a lot and I had no choice but to listen at that point.
00:15:49 And ah, at the time there were times where I was frustrated with God. I was angry at him.
00:15:55 Oh, but I was still in constant communication with him, and now I look back and I think him for putting me through that because that was so such a period of growth for me and ah,
00:16:06 and I needed that. And I believe that God needed me to go through that so that I could do the things I'm doing for him today,
00:16:12 you know? So someone's hearing all of these stories. They've heard us talk over the last few weeks,
00:16:19 and and now they're they're really thinking to themselves. You know, I want to be able to do this.
00:16:24 I want to be able to make an impact. I want to be able to make a dent in the universe.
00:16:29 What would you tell them? Or the top two or three principles or things that they need toe learn so that they can make an impact on the world So that I would say the first thing I notice is a principle.
00:16:42 But the first thing to recognize is that the universe that isn't the entire universe, it's not God's universe.
00:16:50 Ah, that reminds me of the starfish story. Um, where the little kids on the beach and he sees all these beach starfish and he's throwing them back into the ocean.
00:16:58 There's thousands of starfish and he's throwing it out there and this guy walks up to me goes, What are you doing?
00:17:02 You're never gonna make a difference. He throws a starfish in the ocean. Is I made a difference for that one,
00:17:07 right? And recognizing that your universe could be your kids or that your universe could be your team at work or your universe could be that one client that's really latched onto you is really struggling.
00:17:18 Uh, you could make a dent in the universe for them. It doesn't have to be the Steve Jobs Dent in the universe.
00:17:25 Leave a legacy, change the world type of thing. Um, more like Elon musk. Like we see these people,
00:17:32 they're making a dent in the literal universe. Like go into space with all these other things. But realizing that the universe doesn't have to be that big doesn't have to be that mon you that mountain that you feel you have to climber that monumental task.
00:17:46 Uh, I think the other thing for making a dent in the universe has learned to become really vulnerable.
00:17:53 Uh, burn a brown has an amazing ted talk. I've just got a few of them and you know she's talks about vulnerability and she says,
00:18:02 You know, none of us want to be vulnerable, but we love it when others airfone Juno, she goes,
00:18:09 You know, if I were to go up on stage and I all of a sudden got stage fright for whatever reason,
00:18:15 it's human nature. The 500 people in the crowd, they cheer me on, but none of them would trade places with me.
00:18:23 I used to tell people all the time. It's like if you were doing public speaking, it's Nobody shows up at a speech with the mindset of man.
00:18:29 I really hope this guy sucks and fails. Yeah, I mean, think about it. You don't show up with that.
00:18:36 You show up going, man. I hope this guy really does a great job and I enjoy. You want them to succeed?
00:18:42 You know, I want you to fail. And yet what often we walk in thinking, Oh, everyone's waiting for me to screw up.
00:18:47 It's like Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's the same thing with your team. It's the same thing with your family.
00:18:53 Nobody wakes up and gets out of bed in the morning and says I really hope you screw it up today,
00:18:57 right? Don't. Honestly, they don't even wake up and think, man, I really hope I screw it up today.
00:19:02 Yeah, because that's his business Owners is like, Well, you know, they just you know, they showed up Monday hoping they would suck it their job.
00:19:08 It's like, No, they didn't. You know, it reminds me of something that Emerson Egg Rick talks about in his book Love and Respect.
00:19:16 Great book. If for couples that changed the let me change the directory trajectory of my marriage the time But he when he talks about the way we communicate in the way we hear,
00:19:28 uh, way we listen with our spouses, I have to remember that when my wife says something that I didn't like,
00:19:35 she didn't get out of bed in the morning and say, How can I piss my husband off today?
00:19:39 How can I make him feel more miserable today? Even though what she said may do that, I have to remember that that's never her intention.
00:19:48 And I think a lot of that has to do with vulnerability in the ego. We talked about a while back,
00:19:53 so I think those are things that are really important when you want to make it there in the universe is realized how big the universe is and it's up to you to define it.
00:20:01 Maybe God is defiant, is put, challenging you to define it bigger. Uh, but I think it's It's up to us to define the universe and realize that it's not the world.
00:20:11 Uh, and then I think that the thing is, I learned to become vulnerable, and when you become vulnerable,
00:20:15 you become powerful, and it gives you that opportunity to really make a dent, earn impact in someone's life or lives or even your community,
00:20:25 like it really gives you an opportunity to do that. Ah, I would say those are probably the two biggest things and realized that humility is not the same humiliation,
00:20:36 right? Because humility and vulnerability, they go together for sure. Uh, but they're not bad things.
00:20:45 So, Ryan, if you could travel into the far future maybe 100 150 years, whatever it is and you looked back on your life,
00:20:53 what impact do you hope you've had on the world? Yeah, this was the question. I was not looking forward to think a lot of people tell me this'd is This is probably the hardest questions.
00:21:10 But, you know, there's a saying and I love this. You know, when I was born,
00:21:15 I cried in the world, rejoiced live my life in such a way so that when I pass the world cries will I rejoice And,
00:21:25 um, you know, for me I I struggle with this for a long time. You know, we had kids relate in life.
00:21:32 We didn't want kids, we got married. Remember? A lot of people saying, I just want to make an impact for my kids.
00:21:37 I just want to have a legacy for my kids. And I don't have kids when we're supposed to do.
00:21:42 And now that I have kids, yes, I wantto impact them. And I want to make help them and equip them to make an impact in the world.
00:21:50 Um, but further than that, I want business owners tay feel empowered and feel that being in business doesn't have to be this grind.
00:22:00 And this, uh, this burden that they have to carry that there's a way to open up and be honest and vulnerable with your team and your family and everything else,
00:22:13 and it's amazing how much people will come alongside. You were able to impact. I'm able to impact entire cultures inside of organizations just by teaching the business owner to say thank you and acknowledge people.
00:22:26 And he just changes everything. And ah, you know it. If I'm looking down from heaven and I'm looking at the world in 150 years and I go,
00:22:36 you know what? There's this, this group of families that have been impacted by the way we were able to impact businesses and be able to change the way people think about their teams in the way they grow and everything else.
00:22:50 Because at the end of the day, when I work with a client and I help them change the culture and that changes the environment for a single mom who goes home and pours into her kids every day like that's the impact on making forget the clients.
00:23:06 It's that kid that I will never meet. They got impacted by the work we did. That's really important,
00:23:12 and I have a soft spot for kids, has asked anybody. My daughter has me wrapped around her little finger in her index finger and everything and and even my son.
00:23:25 He's three now, and I just, um, just the way that he's able to just pull at my heartstrings and go,
00:23:31 You know what? This is why I do what I d'oh so that families could go home their kids and have that kind of relationship I have with mine.
00:23:39 So what's coming next for Ryan as you continue on this journey of living at your call and impacting your family and the business owners that you work with and everyone else what's coming next?
00:23:53 Well, we, um we just launched a podcast and ah, that's something that I'm really passionate about.
00:24:03 Hey, I read a lot of books, and I talked to a lot of business owners that read these books about how do you create a good culture?
00:24:09 We joked about nap pods earlier and free meals and all of this stuff, and I think that there's a there's a business culture out there that exists that a lot of people don't want to recognize,
00:24:21 and I call it the blue collar culture. And that's the name of our podcast. Is the blue collar culture,
00:24:27 and the tagline is business results without foosball, flex time or free meals. Onda Lot of the stuff we've talked about is how do you engage your team and how do you motivate your team and keep them and get them trustworthy and feel like they're really moving in The same direction is you.
00:24:43 And I think that the way you do that is just by accepting who you are, accepting the type of culture you haven't just being really intentional about it.
00:24:52 Uh, so the blue collar culture podcast co hosting it. It's a great podcast for people that just are tired of reading another book on how to create amazing culture and realizing that they can't put Xboxes in their room and let people work from home,
00:25:08 because that's not the reality for the majority of businesses. But it seems that that's what all the books are written about now.
00:25:14 So we talked about the book coming out this year. It's going to be around that same topic, the blue collar culture.
00:25:19 But inside of that we're going to be introducing are proven process on How do you hire a new team,
00:25:24 the right people and how do you really create that culture? But beyond the books and the other things that I want to share an impact with the world?
00:25:32 My personal mission statement for both my business and me is inspire business leaders to just challenge the status quo.
00:25:41 Think differently about business and relationships, uh, so that they can go out and focus on the things that matter most to them.
00:25:49 All of us have things that we prioritize. Some of us. It's time with family, some of us.
00:25:54 It's vacations. Some of us just I want to build a big business like we all have things that matter most to us.
00:26:00 And that's what I want to inspire business leaders to do is just to think outside the box, do something that's different,
00:26:05 challenge the status quo of and go make a real impact in the world. Ryan, what else would you like to share with the listers?
00:26:17 You know, I think that a lot of times people hear this stuff, even the stuff we've talked about today and I'm like,
00:26:23 Well, that's great, But how do you do that? How do you make time for that? How do you change that in it.
00:26:31 I said it before and I'll say it again. If you want to make change in the world, look at the mirror.
00:26:37 First, become the change you want to be. Uh, if you want to attract a certain type of person to your business,
00:26:44 become the person that's attracted, that's that will attract those types of people. Um, that's what I've had to do.
00:26:50 And that's what I've spent a lot of time on is just becoming the change I want to see in the world.
00:26:56 Uh, so I think that would sum up a lot of what we've talked about is, uh, just realized that it all starts internally,
00:27:06 starts in our hearts. It starts in our actions, it starts and who we are, um, to become not so.
00:27:15 And then, uh, the other thing, too. If anybody wants more information on this, uh,
00:27:20 the podcast is that blue collar culture dot com, and you can get on there, and we've got an email list that people can get on and we will email you every time a new podcast comes out,
00:27:32 we've got some great speakers, and they're in fact, some of the guests that we have actually live inside of white color businesses.
00:27:38 And they're even telling us that the realities air, not nap pods. It's work from home, so really challenging the status quo there.
00:27:46 And then, of course, my company's website is the core matters dot com and I have a learning library on there where I introduce a lot of the tools and techniques that we use,
00:27:56 uh, for both business leaders and even hiring managers, people that are doing the day to day grind and interviewing a lot of people.
00:28:04 So lots of free resource is on both websites on. And then, of course, when the book comes out,
00:28:08 that will be a blue collar culture dot com. So ah, a lot of opportunity, in fact,
00:28:14 getting ready to ramp up some new contents of new ideas. Some new stories, Uh, and then for people that are local,
00:28:20 we also do a lot of workshops, So we're going to be turning the workshops into some webinars later on in the year for people that aren't here in Arizona.
00:28:30 But ah, so keep an eye out for that, and if you get on, the newsletters will have all that information for you.
00:28:38 You can follow Ryan over on linked in He's Ryan, England spelt e in G l I ine on Facebook.
00:28:47 He's the core matters. Of course, he could find his website and more about his business over at the core matters dot com.
00:28:55 If you wanna find the podcast or the book is that's coming out, that's found over blue collar culture dot com.
00:29:02 And of course, I'll have links to all of this over in the show notes as well. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship Podcast.
00:29:15 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 toe live your calling.
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00:29:56 your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact world