00:00:00 Thanks for joining us on episode 726 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Jared Williams with biblical wealth solutions. 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 invest without compromising your Christian values is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this,
00:00:26 the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader, In order to be great at something you had to be good at it first, and to be good, you had to be just, okay, you had to be okay. You had to probably be bad and maybe you'd be terrible at it for a time before you can even be bad at it.
00:00:48 And there's definitely truth to that. So I hope that I wasn't terrible when I started, but I'm certainly not great. And so, you know, wherever you're currently at, just, just starting and doing it and practicing is the best way to go 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,
00:01:11 then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling and the inspired stewardship podcast who learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world. And today's interview with Jared Williams. We talk with you about leadership, Jared, and I also share with you how finance and influence fit together.
00:01:43 And Jared talks with you about writing and speaking and how he's been working to get better at it. One reason I like to bring you great interviews. Like the one you're going to 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.
00:02:07 And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible, 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.
00:02:36 The same way you're listening to this podcast. Jared Williams is on a mission to revolutionize Christian personal finance. And for those of you that have been listening for a while, you know, that's right up my alley, Jared began a Christian financial advisory firm called biblical wealth solutions where he and his team help families achieve financial freedom. But here's the neat part using biblical and non wall street investment so that they could have freedom to do what God has uniquely called them to do.
00:03:10 Jared also hosts a great podcast called the biblical wealth podcast, and he started the building biblical families podcast as well. Two great shows that I'll have links to, and that you can check out in the show notes. Most importantly, of course, Jared and his wife homeschooled their three children and enjoy reading great books together as a family. Welcome to the show,
00:03:32 Jared, nice Scott. I'm glad to be here. So Jared, one thing that people often think of as developing their influence is being a leader. And so I love to ask everyone that comes on the show. How do you define that word leadership? I've heard so many definitions of the word leadership. So, so this could be a long answer,
00:03:54 but I think I'll, I'll keep it short. As I think a leader is someone who can focus the attention of others to a specific action or call Cause that's a unique one. You're the first person that said it that way. So what, what makes you tell me more? What makes you define it that way? I think that's what leaders are doing.
00:04:13 I mean, I think that I was having a conversation with my wife about this recently. I forget what around, I think around parenting, I think we're talking about kids, but just, you know, when you're, when you're being led is voluntary, you know, you have to volunteer to be led generally, otherwise you're being forced or coerced or something like that.
00:04:29 But if you're being led, you know, you're doing that on purpose and voluntarily. So I think a leader is someone who, you know, whether it's, you know, in a job and for 40 hours a week or whatever it may be or whether it's, you know, just for a moment of time, you're trying to help someone pray for this thing or sign a petition for this thing,
00:04:45 or donate money to this thing that you are helping focus their attention on something specific, some action, some cause, you know, that's obviously important to you and you think will be important to them and, and you think requires not requires, but deserves, you know, that attention and whatever action comes from that. Hmm. I like that definition. I like that idea of,
00:05:08 of helping someone focus attention on, on something that's important in some way. So as someone who works with others, what do you see as, you know, building off of that, what is the Christian way to go about influencing others, to go about drawing people's attention to these things that we feel are important. And as part of that, how does this idea of finance and personal finance and wealth building and all of that kind of fit into that,
00:05:37 into that picture? Yeah. I think if we're ever asking question of what's the Christian way to do X, you know, we have to, you know, look at what Jesus did and, and you know, what the, the apostles do second, you know, so applying that to this question of how should we should passionately influence. I think they,
00:05:54 they influenced through teaching preaching similar a little bit different there, you know, developing intimate relationships with others. You know, sometimes they had to admonish others, you know, whether it was in person or through a letter, which, which I'm not very good at, but that's something they did. And, you know, and then certainly through, you know,
00:06:13 just sacrificial service, Jesus is the ultimate example of that. And the apostles certainly did that as well. So I think that's how we go about it. And again, we all have different gifts and different talents and ways of doing it, but I would say that's the under, you know, the, the underlying ways of doing it. I think that personal finance fits into it in two different ways.
00:06:33 So first, you know, we, we talked about this in a previous episode, that money is just a tool. You know, we, we can use money to help, help us have influence, you know, for example, by giving to our church so that we can support pastors and missionaries. So that, so that's one way, you know,
00:06:47 we can use money to feed others, whether it's, you know, feeding people who are needy and, you know, meeting a need, or maybe we're feeding people by having them to our home, not to meet anyone's name, but to develop a relationship, you know, in that way. And so I think that's a way that personal finance can fit into it.
00:07:01 And then of course we discuss about how, you know, achieving financial freedom. We can choose the best use of our time in addition to our money and really focus on having an impact and, you know, stewarding all that God has given us. So I know you've got a, a podcast and, and you know, of course I've listened to it and that covers these ideas of biblical investing.
00:07:25 And again, I, for folks that want to learn more about it, I'm going to link over to the podcast in the notes. I encourage you to go listen to the episodes that Jared already has out. Cause he dies a lot deeper into several of these topics through that. So not going into that much detail cause they can check out your podcast.
00:07:42 What are some specific tips that you have for someone that wants to use this idea of communicating, whether it's speaking, whether it's starting a podcast, whether it's out there doing other things as one of the tools that they have to build their influence. Cause you've been doing that for a while now through the podcast. Yeah. The, the best advice I can give to that is to just start,
00:08:04 you know, I am, I am certainly not an expert speaker or expert podcast or, you know, but the, but the great thing is you don't have to be a witch. You know, if you're going to try and go get on TV, you gotta be pretty good at, you got to spend a lot of money, but you don't have to be good or have a lot of money to be able to have a podcast.
00:08:20 Thankfully, you know, I once heard someone say that in order to be great at something you had to be good at at first, at the beginning, you had to be just okay, and to be okay, you had to probably be bad and maybe you have to be terrible at it, you know, for a time before you can even be bad at it.
00:08:36 And there's definitely truth to that. So I hope that I wasn't terrible when I started, but I'm certainly not great. And so, you know, wherever you're currently at, just, just starting and doing it and practicing is the best way to get there. I also think you have to learn to ignore your feelings a little. You know, I felt very anxious that they are,
00:08:58 you know, recorded the first podcast and I felt really anxious the first time I was a guest on someone else's podcast. And that, that show was actually fairly big. It probably wasn't a great first guest guest opportunity, but I wasn't gonna turn it down either. And I just had to get over how I felt and start talking and you know, do it anyway.
00:09:16 And I think that's the best way you learn any skill like that. Now I will add to that then, you know, if you're, if you're bad at it to start with, and again, I agree with you. I think all of us probably are, please do not go search out the first couple of episodes of this podcast. I would be happy if you didn't,
00:09:36 but as you get better at it, that happens. If you're intentional and paying attention to, in other words, you got gotta, you gotta actually pay attention to what you're doing and try to get better at it. You figure out that you're using too many ums and AHS all learn to stop using so many ums and AHS. If that's a problem for you as an example,
00:09:55 whatever it is. And then I immediately saw it. No, that was one. I was like, should I call him out on that? That's got to happen. I actually don't think of that as too much of a problem. Cause I do want to have a conversation with folks, but I know people that are very concerned about it as an example.
00:10:14 So Jared, another thing that you've recently are in the process of getting out and, and releasing into the world as an ebook. And I think everyone has been interviewed, you know, th this comes up over and over again and you know, everyone says they want to write a book. Now you've gotten a e-book out there into the world. So do you have any tips?
00:10:34 How did that work for you? Do you have any tips on how people can turn it around and put their ideas in the written form and get those out into the world? A lot of the content for the ebook has been refined in the process of recording the podcast. So having, you know, putting myself on a platform and saying, Hey, I'm going to be out here with a new episode once a week.
00:10:55 You know, having to regularly create content, keeps my mind going. And I have to give myself time to think and write out, you know, the ideas for the podcast. And so, you know, when I began working on the book, it was the ebook, you know, anyway, it was, it was mostly already done, you know,
00:11:10 for many hours podcasting. So I wrote an intro. I wrote, you know, a conclusion to it. And then you use the podcast content for the majority of the book. And of course the podcast episodes are 30 to 60 minutes long. And, and I probably condensed each of those topics into a single page in the book. So it was a lot of condensing and that actually was challenging,
00:11:30 but at least I wasn't coming up with new ideas. I was just having to, how do I say these in four paragraphs or less, you know, versus 40 minutes, what is new for the book is some graphics, some, some turning of, you know, these concepts that currently only existed in words, you know, into visual form. And then that was something that I had to get some help with.
00:11:50 Like, I'll do a really ugly picture. There was one like, you know, key graphic and I drew a really ugly picture of it. And actually I did it in PowerPoint and you know, that was, I was like, this is as good as I can do and it's not book worthy. So I had to get a, a designer friend,
00:12:04 the guy who did the logo and all the branding for biblical West solutions helped put this ebook together and design the graphics for that. So we don't blow my horn more than appropriately. The ebook is fairly short at 17 pages. So it's not a big book, you know, wanted it to be a concise overview of, you know, my biblical and better approach.
00:12:22 But I have started a full length book. I've written the table of contents and I've written the first, you know, unit or section, which is, you know, more about my story and kind of how it all came about. I'm not actively working on it right now because I'm dealing with podcasts and doing other things that were higher priority. But when I do get back to it,
00:12:39 it really is the same as the podcast. I just start, you know, I sit down, I give myself a time limit and I write, and once I get started, usually the first paragraph stinks, but once I get started flows a lot better, I don't worry about how sounds, you know, I'm just getting ideas out on paper. And then I come back and edit and refine later.
00:12:57 So it definitely is a, it's a time consuming process. Like I won't pretend like that's not the case, but in terms of how to do it again, you just sit down and start doing it and it's going to be bad the first time through, and then it gets better and better as you keep going back and working on it more and more.
00:13:13 Well, and I'm going to call out a couple of things that I heard in that story that I think are important. You know, first off, you know, like you said, you're going to write it. The first paragraph is going to stink probably the second paragraph, not much better, but you're capturing those ideas. You're getting them started. They can always be refined later.
00:13:31 The second thing I heard too is when you got to areas where you did have the expertise, whether that's graphics, whether that's even editing and doing the final copy and making it all look pretty and be formatted, and all of that junk, you hired somebody or you reach out to somebody or you find somebody with that expertise that through whatever way, you know,
00:13:52 either because of past relationship or because you pay them or whatever can step in and do that piece that, that maybe we're not gifted in is another idea that, that I think is important to that. And then, you know, again, from having past conversations with you, I know you sometimes find it a little easier to, to speak some things and take it through,
00:14:15 you know, spoken to, so in your case, having the podcasts that you turn into, something is probably a little easier than if you just written it and never actually had a chance to talk it through either. And I'm the same way I got it. That's why I have a podcast. Cause I taught more than I write. It's easier for me.
00:14:33 Yeah. Scott, I have a, I have a great resource for that actually. And actually on my podcast, on the biblical wealth podcast, I do a type out a lot of what is being said first. Actually I think I do tend to write better because my, my mind is a little slower than some. So I do tend to write better,
00:14:50 but I enjoy speaking out. I feel like my writing, I don't know, it just didn't come across. Great. So I enjoy putting it into a written or non verbal format, but, But yeah, But when I'm stuck with writing, you know, whether it's for the podcast or the book or whatever, when I'm stuck, there's a tool called Otter,
00:15:07 like the animal otter.ai. There's a free version. There's a paid version. It's been fantastic for me. You just talk into it and it auto transcribes what you're doing. I've used it in the past where transcribing podcasts, but I really don't use it for that much anymore on now I'm using it for just getting words out of my head onto paper quickly,
00:15:26 you know, when I'm typing or writing too slow. So anyway, I often bring up just a blank doc, whatever that, whatever it is and, you know, talk into it and let it transcribe my thoughts and then I'll have to go back and organize them. But that's been a really good way to get thoughts on the paper fast without having to stop the flow.
00:15:43 I think, And it is a feedback thing too, because again for you, you know, having the written notes ahead of time and then talking it through, lets you further refine them. You know, for me, I actually prefer to just turn on and talk first. I don't like to write a bunch of notes first and then refine it and then I'll,
00:16:01 and then I'll have to go talk more, you know, it's like, it's like almost it for me, it's actually spoken first. Doesn't have to be the same way for everybody. And that's perfectly fine. I, the other great thing about tools, like whether it's Otter or whether, you know, there's dozens of these tools out there, that'll transcribe,
00:16:17 at least that I've found for me, a lot of my best thinking is done. Like when I'm on a walk, you know, go to the park, take your phone and just talk into it. You know, especially if you wear headphones, nobody even knows if you're on the phone or talking to yourself anyway. So you don't look like the weirdo,
00:16:35 you know, it's like, and you can just talk away and kind of process because for me, a lot of times that's when, cause it kind of gets me out of the, I'm not in front of the desk feeling like, Oh, I have to do this right now. I'm chained to this desk to do it. I can actually go out and do some physical activity,
00:16:50 you know, just walk around the park for, for 15 minutes and talk to yourself. I know for me that oftentimes breaks ideas free when I'm stuck. Cause I do think there's that blank cursor effect of looking at a blank piece of paper with a cursor flashing on it. That can be really, really intimidating at times. Yeah. You can find out more about jared@biblicalwealthsolutions.com.
00:17:13 You can shoot him an email if you've got questions or other resources@helloatbiblicalwealthsolutions.com or set up a call to get more information on his company and working with him, I'll have a link to that over in the show notes to setting up that discovery call and as well, Jared's offered that ebook that we talked about w available to all body listeners and I'll have a link to that,
00:17:38 but it's at biblical wealth solutions.com inspired stewardship with Scott Mader, and that should be available. And again, I'll have a link in my notes to that as well. So Jared, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener, Scott? I appreciate everything you're doing through inspiring stewardship and for giving me the opportunity to talk with you and with your audience.
00:18:00 You know, as Scott's saying for anyone who wants to learn more about, you know, what I'm doing, I would encourage you to download the ebook, you know, and, or check out the biblical wealth podcast. 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,
00:18:29 listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, please, please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate. 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,
00:19:04 invest your time, your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact.