TDW #031: Integrating Faith Into Business: The Surprising Profit Booster

When I say “integrating your faith into your business maximizes your profit,” I do not mean it metaphorically. It is not some altruistic, spiritual-sounding statement meant for a pithy quote image on Instagram.

The religious people like to nitpick here and quote Bible verses and generally stomp off in a huff:

“Money-changer!”

“Jesus was poor!”

“Money is the root of all evil!”

Fine… I’m not gonna argue with you if you want to stay broke.

Bye Felicia!

But I have a sense you know exactly what I mean, even if you can’t articulate it.

• It’s not about having private jets, designer suits, or Rolex watches…
• It has less to do with money and dollars and cents…
• And more to do with becoming the person God created you to be.

An example from my own life may help make it clearer.

Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems

Back when I was running a full-service digital marketing agency, I was generating a massive amount of cash, ok? After being a broke pastor hauling in 28k per year, it was more money than I had ever been exposed to in my entire life. It was intoxicating and fun and I never wanted the ride to stop.

But it did.

It stopped because, somewhere along the way, I lost sight of just about everything besides making money. It was my sole focus. What started out as a dream and desire to grow and build other people’s businesses twisted into an all-consuming drive to just make money.

Now, I’m not saying money is a bad thing.

Far from it.

I’ve been broke and I’ve been not-broke. I know which one I prefer (and it’s not even close). End of story. No questions asked.

But what I didn’t realize at the time was:

• the more money I made...
• the more money I spent...
• and the more money I spent...
• the LOWER the profits in the company went.

Sure, I could add 50k per month to the top-line revenue...But I had to spend 49k to add the 50k! It seemed the bigger and faster we grew, the less money I personally made.

And The Bottom Dropped Out

It even got to a point where everything started to break:

• Team members left
• Clients became unruly
• Revenue dropped
• I worked longer and longer hours to keep the whole cycle spinning

...and the bottom dropped out.

Even though it felt like the worst thing in the world, it was actually the best thing.

Because it was during this time I was forced to ask the question, “is this what I actually want? Are these the ‘good works’ God designed me for?”

The answer was, unequivocally….NO.

Divine Filtration System

And so it forced me to look at not just WHAT we were doing, but HOW we were doing it. This led me to a single verse in Scripture that changed everything for me:

The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.

That’s Proverbs 10:22, to be exact.

It became my daily mantra for months—maybe even a whole year. Every opportunity, every client, every service was passed through the filter of this verse:

Does it add sorrow to my life? My family’s life? Does this get me closer to the divine vision God and I are co-creating together? Then it’s not from God.

This is literally how I operated my business for 12 months until things began to stabilize. Things looked different after the dust settled.

I had fewer team members.

Fewer clients.

Fewer expenses.

Fewer headaches.

And WAY more profit.

Do This Next

If you're up for it, I challenge you to take a "Misery Index" of your business. This is an easy way to see how much joy or misery your business currently brings you.

Step 1: Take out a sheet of paper. Write down every single revenue-generating activity in your business. Doesn’t matter if it brings in $1 or $1,000,000. If it generates income (either directly or indirectly), write it down.

Step 2: Take out a new sheet of paper. Draw a line down the middle. On one side of the sheet, write “Brings Misery”. On the other side, write “Brings Joy”. These are the only two options I recommend.

Step 3: Take every revenue-generating activity you wrote down in Step 1 and place it in one of the two columns from Step 2. Do not wiggle or waiver. Force yourself to categorize every single item.

Step 4: What do you see? The goal, of course, is to have more items under the Joy column than under the Misery column.

A few notes…

• If you’re anything like me, don’t be surprised if your “Misery” list is much, much longer than your “Joy” list. When I first did this, roughly 80 percent of my list items simply made me miserable. This is why being honest with yourself here is soooo important.
  
  
• If you have clients, consider putting each client in one of your two columns. Identify them by name. This helps tease out the service you’re providing from the clients you’re serving. (For instance, you may love providing the service but hate the type of client you’re currently serving. Got it?)
  
  
• Try doing this on a quarterly basis. The more in-tune you are with the condition of your soul, the bigger the impact you can make with your business. As a wise man once said, know thyself.

Final Words

It’s not to say you’ll never have to do something you don’t enjoy. That’s not how business-building works. But misery doesn’t need to be your default condition as you look to grow and scale. Making money is great. But making money while you’re having the time of your life?

Sure sounds like heaven to me.

When you're ready, there are two main ways I can help you:

Spirit-Led Business Plan: Learn how to create a kick-ass faith-driven business (without sacrificing your soul or sounding like a weirdo).

Clients & Content: Discover how Ryan made his investment back in just two months + dropped his ad spend by 50 percent.