Church on Sunday, Marketplace on Monday: Brian & Jamie Johnson - Part 2

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This is the Truth Network. Once a world champion wrestler, now a champion for Christ. Once the Russian nightmare, now the devil's worst nightmare. And your tag team partner, Nikita Kolob.

It's time to fan up. The Russian nightmare. Well, all right. Hey, the devil's worst nightmare. And I'm going to welcome you to It's Time to Man Up.

Nikita Kolob here with you. If you're a follower of Jesus and work out in the marketplace, how do you transfer your faith from church on Sunday morning to the marketplace on Monday morning? Well, that's what we're talking about today. I'm bringing back our guests this week. I just felt compelled to bring them back, not him back. Now, we know it's real talk with real men who realize it's time to man up, but this couple had such an amazing story.

The last time we had them on the show, I thought, they've got to come back. And so Brian and Jamie Johnson together own and operate Creston Automotive, an independent dealership in Aiken, South Carolina. They've been down there for 25 years, a family business, raised in a Southern Baptist church.

Brian accepted Christ as a young boy, but God really began to work in his life and in his business when he fully yielded his heart and his finances to the Lord about 18 years ago. And of course, Jamie, his lovely bride, works alongside building Crescent Motors with Brian and raised four children and prayer warrior superhero, as he says, and manages, get this, manages a barn wedding venue at the Double J Ranch as well. Brian and Jamie, welcome to the show. Hi, Nikita. Thanks for having us.

Good afternoon, Nikita. Great to have you guys back with us here. And I feel confident, I can say our listeners so enjoyed the first time you were on that I was just so compelled by your story to have you back on again. And so appreciate you being with us.

And of course, you heard even in... Here's what really inspired me too, to bring you guys back on, is you guys are out there working in the marketplace. You've got this auto dealership, you've had this for 25 years, you work side by side, which in today's world is not typical that a husband and wife are working side by side together. And so there's a couple of things I want our listeners to learn from our conversation today, starting with your faith. So you've got this relationship with Jesus, but you're out working in the marketplace. It's not like you're standing behind a pulpit every Sunday. And so let's talk a little bit about how you transfer that faith from, as I said, from Sunday morning into the marketplace on Monday morning.

Brian, let's start with you. What are some of the things that you do, or maybe your customers maybe do or don't notice, but how you're able to share your faith, or you say show your faith out in the marketplace? Nikita, I start every morning in prayer. I want you to know that Jamie and I ride into work together typically. And we have about a 30 minute ride in, and we start our day in prayer, pray for our business, and for God to bless us with it.

And when you do that, it carries over into your body language. I have a much better day when I'm in prayer and start my day in prayer than when I don't. When we meet a customer, you don't know their background, you don't know where they're from until you get to know them a little bit. And I try to use my faith as a common ground when I meet a customer. One of the first topics I bring up is where do you go to church?

And of course, not everybody goes to church. And there's opportunity at that point to share where I go and to share my faith. Or if not, it gives us a common ground.

Maybe there's someone we know that we go to church together with, someone that we've met, a family member or extended relative. So it's an opportunity to get a common ground. And of course, in business and in sales, I think that's very important. People want to do business where they feel comfortable, where they trust. And when you come across sincerely in your faith, when you introduce yourself, I think that helps ease that, bring that bar down just a little bit, that barrier that maybe a consumer has up when they come into your marketplace to do business with you.

Yeah, I would imagine that in 25 years of car sales that not every single person, as you said, walks in, attends church or goes to church and or is even a Christ follower or would view themselves as a Christian, right? So what an opportunity you have each and every day that you're there and in the showroom or, you know, in the office and speaking to a potential customer to build that bridge, right? Especially if they're not a Christ follower or you find out they're not a church attender, but to build that bridge, right?

Absolutely, absolutely. Of course, with that, if you're going to walk the talk, if you're not saying talk, you got to walk the talk. And we have to practice Christ's life principles in our business. And sometimes that's tougher with certain people.

If you have an issue, if you have a problem, the way you address it, I have found that Christians tend to be able to work out issues with easier than someone that doesn't have compassion or understanding or know the Lord. So that comes into it as well. So Jamie, let me ask you, because I know not everyone always has a high view of car salesmen, right? Or car sales... I mean, right?

Like for real, right? Right. So how do you... In your world, a woman in the marketplace, a woman in the workplace, a Christ follower, a lover of Jesus, how do you personally, when you interact or come into contact with a customer, how do you translate that to that customer?

What do you do? Oh, well, it gives you an opportunity to show your true colors with people. It gives you an opportunity to be a little more understanding, even when sometimes it's hard to do. It gives people a reflection of who you are and who your business is and what you stand for, especially if there arises an issue, it's always how you solve it. And we always try to do the right thing, solving any kind of issues or problems that may arise, but it really gives you that extra chance to show who you are and prove who you are. I think you can say you're a Christian all day, but until you act like it and prove that to another person, be it a Christian or not, it comes back to you full fold because they then get your trust.

And in the car business, trust is huge. You walk in off the street and you don't know anything about us. And we introduced ourselves as this family business. And, you know, they kind of look at you sideways. Okay. Okay. Well, I see your wife here.

I see your daughter here. And they just kind of stand back and watch how you react to things and how you operate really. And you have to earn someone's trust in business anyway.

But when you put your best foot forward as a Christian and you lovingly take them into your business and want to earn their business, in fact, repeat business, that's one of the main things that gives you an opportunity to prove who you are as a Christian. Yeah. And I think I've got a good friend of mine. They own a kind of similar, you know, the small dealership, you know, kind of a private car lot. I'm struggling for the word, what to call it, but, you know, their own car lot. And I know people walk in, like I've been in their office before in their building. And of course, and I don't know if maybe if you guys do this or this is even, you know, perhaps a subtle way of opening up that door of conversation. But I know like they have, you know, different like whether it's posters or, you know, even some scriptures and some different things on the walls. Do you guys at your facility, do you have that on display as well or not?

We do. We actually have a customer that he's a repeat customer. He's an elderly man and he does woodworking. He comes in, he's brought us angels and little Jesus pictures, plaques. He's made, you know, different little carvings out of our license plates and things like that. So it's good to have, you know, just you know, you don't really have to put it in people's faces. They just it's just subtle, very subtle. But of course, we're not ashamed of our faith.

So we we shout it loud and proud. There's an open Bible on my desk, if that helps me today. Well, that could that could be a good conversation starter, right? That's right. It is. And it's open to Second Chronicles.

So I just had to look back and see what I was reading last. Second Chronicles, how about 714? That's a pretty good one right now. All right. That's a good one. Anytime. Right.

13, 713. Yeah. Well, because I was thinking my people will humble themselves and I'll heal their land. Yeah, you're right.

I had 13 and 14 highlighted. You're exactly right. There you go. There you go.

So, so good conversation. I think Jamie, Jamie touches on a big part there is just trust, making people feel comfortable. And, and, you know, you say this business comes with a stigma.

It does. A used car dealer next to an attorney, you know, has that that stigma of being a little crooked. And so we have to overcome that. And we do that by instilling trust in our customers. We do it by powerful testimonies that we put on our website. Very hard to get a good review. And it's very easy to get a bad review.

Right. But we work very hard for our good reviews. And we ask for them. And we feel honored when we get one. And, and we just try to, try to do the right thing so that those things will fall in place. And spirit of discernment with somebody when you're speaking with them and you can, you can see their inner heart and see that spirit.

It makes the transition a lot smoother when you're when you're dealing with a good, fair person on both ends. Well, well, speaking of testimonies, and Jamie, maybe you could share one that maybe comes to mind. A testimony of a customer. You're talking about getting, you know, good reviews, but what, what is there a, is there a story, a customer's story that, that maybe just kind of jumps out at you like, wow, that you could share with us something some way, how your car lot and how you, as you're sharing and saying how you conduct yourselves, that it made such an impact on, on, on a customer. Is there a story that comes to mind immediately, Jamie?

Actually, the first thing I thought of was, you know, if you have a problem, it's always how you solve it. And we had a very upset customer and I cannot even remember what the situation was. Something that I'm sure it was a repair on a vehicle, but she was very angry.

She did not want to speak to her salesperson. She wanted the owner. And for some reason, Brian and I were both out that day.

We got the information. I spoke to the lady. I couldn't make her happy. Brian spoke to the lady.

We brought it long story short. We brought her in and behind closed doors and just said, you know, what's wrong? You know, I think the salesperson maybe missed calling her back on the issue and the message got, you know, lost in translation or whatever the situation was. However, she was very upset about something that was easily fixed.

And, you know, Brian just said, calm down. Let's talk about what's going on until I know what the problem is. I certainly can't fix it. And I think we ended up paying some, something minor repair, but she was so shocked after she left that we actually fixed it. She was so grasped on the fact that we weren't going to do anything. She had her mind made up before she even walked in the door. She's since bought vehicles from us. Her whole family has, but she was so angry about the issue before we even had a chance to quite frankly even know what it was. You know, the salesperson was shocked that she was so upset as well. And she, it turned around and it's such a compliment that she gave us.

It was, you know, very shocking. I mean, you don't see people, you know, people get upset about things, but, and if you don't know what the problem, you certainly can't fix it, but it was something, it wasn't even, you know, an issue. And when someone comes in with something like that, we always try our best to fix it in any way possible. And I get upset about stuff like that. Brian's a lot better at handling problems than I am because I get all upset about it.

But he says, you know, he tells me all the time, there's some people you just can't make happy. So be prepared when we go in here because we've heard all the yelling and fussing on the phone that she had been doing. Um, we sat down behind closed doors and she was just shocked that number one, we were both sitting down with her and took the time to talk to her and find out what was wrong, get to the root of the problem and to actually fix it.

And she was absolutely blown away by that. So that's the one that really stands out in my mind. That one resonates with you, right? Well, and, and Brian, you, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm reminded of the, the saying, you can please some of the people, some of the time, but not all of the people all the time. Right.

That's just not realistic. And, and, and I'm guessing again, in, in your line of work over 25 years of, of selling cars, that you've probably had opportunities like that, uh, other opportunities, I should say to, to say, Hey, you know, an, an, an unhappy customer or an upset customer and, and able to say, Hey, what can we do to make this right for you? Right.

Yeah. Good, good point, Nikita. And what I've also found out with this lady, it was the case sometimes when, when people are upset, um, they're looking for an area to be looking for somebody to take it out on. And, and we're talking a lot about problem solving, but, you know, use that spirit of discernment with somebody to figure out maybe what's going on. And this girl she's talking about, I remember it, but we don't get a lot of problems, but we do.

We solve them. Um, she had some issues at home. She had some other problems going on in this, the, the car issue just magnified it. And it was, it was something minor. It was a, a small repair bill that somebody, uh, you know, we did a Goodwill for to help her out, but she had other problems.

Right. She broke down with us and shared and, you know, and, and so that's something I take in dealing with just people, no matter what you're selling and what you're doing is just be conscientious of another person's spirit. You know, what, what are they struggling with today? You know, what kind of argument did they have with their wife last night? What is their child done?

What kind of financial issues do they have? And, and, you know, we, as soldiers for Christ, we have to, we have to be, we have to, to have a, an ear for that and a heart for that. And, and, you know, if they need to vent on us a little bit to let it out and then figure out what's going on, you know, maybe we can, we can talk with them and help them solve a problem or put them in the right direction, or if nothing else, it gives us somebody in our prayer life to pray for.

Yeah. I'm trying to work on that myself, guys, especially when I'm on the road in, in my car. I'm like, you know, they cut me off a driver. They, you know, they, you know, they drive like a maniac and, and I'm trying to remind myself, Hmm, okay.

Why would they be driving like that? What, you know, potentially causing eight people to wreck, you know, but like for real though, I'm like, I'm learning to, to, to say, okay, Lord, what's going on? It's a good point, Brian, what's going on in their life, you know, cause what I'm seeing right now may just be the manifestation of something much bigger going on in their life. Just like the story you just, you just shared. And for our listeners out there, you know, you, you know, you can probably relate to some, some of what's being said today. Cause there's times you've got upset or over, over something that was minor perhaps, but there was more to the story, right?

You, you, you guys talked about something interesting as well. The word trust and people just, you know, learning to trust you as, as they come into your place of business. And, and of course, you know, that really translates into our, our walk with, with Jesus, right. And just learning even to trust Him, starting with trusting Him, and then the ability to trust others, whether it's coming in to buy a car or whatever else it is we're doing. So, you know, and again, that's something, I don't know about you guys, but that's something that, that I'm learning to do is, is, you know, continue to trust the Lord more and more and more. And so, you know, these opportunities for you guys to work with these customers and gain their, their trust really, I think translates into, into all of our lives in, in terms of building our own trust and our walking relationship with the Lord. Right? So.

Absolutely. If you feel you're receiving value from this show, it's time to man up and you'd like to support the show along with Koloff for Christ Ministries, go to koloff.org, koloff.org and make a donation of any amount. A note, you want my latest book, and you'll receive a personalized copy of Nikita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. Nikita Koloff, the Russian nightmare here for Crescent Automotive. If buying a car is a nightmare for you, my friends, Brian and Jamie Johnson at Crescent Automotive, make it simple to find your pre-owned dream car with no hassle, affordable windshield pricing. No matter where you live, they will get your American dream car to you, baby. Drivecrescent.com is all you need to know.

Their whole inventory is right there with the right price. Everybody drives a Crescent. You should too.

Drivecrescent.com. Was there a place or a time that, and it could have, really, it could have been over the last 25 years in the showroom or even outside of the showroom where, I mean, God showed up and it was no question that it was God and you're like, wow, that was like, that was a big God deal. I mean, what if you have a story like that? Well, you know the newest addition to our family.

I think that's a big God deal. Jamie and I are in the process of adopting a little girl. Okay.

Pressley James. And that's outside the realm of business. But we, about two and a half years ago, we were preparing for our third and youngest child to go away to college. And we were looking at maybe an RV. We were going to do some different things and maybe begin to slow down a little bit. And literally a 18 month old little girl showed up on our doorstep and almost literally on the doorstep.

Not exactly, but close enough. Right. And we began this journey that we shared with you that we're two and a half years into now. And you know, we've acquired full custody and then through a year of court and whatnot to get the eyes dotted and the cheese crossed. And we're going to follow through now with a final adoption here in the very near future.

And at 53, you know, I'm a dad again to a almost soon to be four year old little girl. And I know that because of the environment that the child came out of and because of the changes that she has made in Jamie and I's life in our relationship. We are closer today as husband and wife because of this little girl. We are, everything about our world changed. Our work schedule changed everything. We did not want to put the child into daycare. So we've got some in home help that we in house help from a relative.

We're both taking a day and a half out of our work week to be there with her so that, you know, we don't have to have care outside of the home. And I think I talked to you last Friday and I was home with with Presley then. And just the time, the steel time it's given me to stop and hear God's voice because the child has slowed me down from what I may have been doing. So that's the biggest God thing that's happened in our life. I think in the last couple of years that we didn't see come and we didn't pray for and we didn't think whatever happened.

Well, that's that's a pretty big one. And certainly, you know, I've met that precious Presley and and and to say that, you know, the two of you stepped up and and take taking her take taking her into your home just reminds me of how, you know, how you've taken that child into your home. And for those listening out there today, maybe you're not a Jesus follower and you've never, you know, never surrendered your life to Jesus. He says come to me just as a little child. And and once we do that and whether it's, you know, whether we consider ourselves to be part of a family or or or, you know, living having grown up in an orphanage or in foster care that that he's the father to the fatherless and and and certainly when we surrender our heart and life to him he will adopt us into his family. And so you you guys are just a picture of that in my mind of of adopting this little child bringing her bringing her into the home. And so that that would say that's a that's a God showed up and a big wow deal there. Jamie let me ask you we're all almost out of time already if you believe it or not but let me ask you this. One more question relating to business and so how did how did the how did the the maybe you can answer for both of you but in turn or how did you know like like okay this is the path that God has us on the car business or or as we would say that you were called into into the marketplace to sell cars.

Can you give a give us a short answer on that? Well Brian was born to sell cars. His father before him sold vehicles. He begged to go to work with his daddy when he was a little boy and I think once he told me I don't know if I didn't sell cars I don't know what else I would do because that's all I know how to do. You know we got to chuckle on that but just being around the business myself it was not my path but I've seen in retail especially the hours are so crazy the weekends the just having to be at the basically married to the dealership you don't see a lot of relationships make it much less marriages make it in the car business and that's sad and I know we're not the only business like that but it's the you know the divorce rate very high in the car business but we actually just made a decision together as a as as a family before we even got married that we were going to try to do this together and what that looked like for me just it blew me away because I thought okay well I don't know how to do any of this so I just became Brian's sidekick pretty much helping him keep him keeping him organized and it it grew from there and I think I told you in our last conversation I've always had a love for cars of all all sorts but um so that was it wasn't like I was going to a business that I didn't like I just didn't know anything about it and he has taught me everything that I know and you know going in with just a personality and a heart for people um you're halfway there you have to have a little bit of personality um so we've done everything from wholesaling to retailing to um selling to other dealers okay and um I've just always kind of been the bean counter and the the you know the I chase the money and he buys the vehicles and he has the expertise on that and I just try to compliment him on on the other end of it well we just decided to do it together so we could spend time together well that's awesome well you guys have a great story and it's just again great to have you on the show and you've certainly proven hopefully to our listeners out there that not only can you take your faith and and and exercise that so to speak out in the marketplace you don't have to just contain it to church on Sunday morning you can exercise that out in the marketplace and and work together even as as husband and wife so thank you guys for being on the show today so great to have you thank you Nikita thank you for having us Nikita we we sure appreciate it absolutely well I always like to try to end with a story uh here before we're out of time and and actually uh Brian is a major huge wrestling fan and he may appreciate this and someone sent me this story I'll never forget the interview where you gave David Crockett the sickle I remember Ivan and Crockett going back and forth while you just stood there seething Crockett he kept defending Ric Flair and talking about what a great champion he was and Ivan kept wanting to know why he was such a great champion you know he was so great and he wouldn't sign a guy if he's so great why wouldn't he sign a contract to face nephew Nikita Crockett tried one excuse after the other Flair having lots of commitments and having to fulfill his world championship belt you could literally see you getting more and more mad as the interview went on and Ivan was such a perfect bad guy and played Crockett perfectly but your body language and facial expressions every time made that he made an excuse for Flay was perfect and that sickle was devastating you were the monster for years as a run in the world champion would have been great I'm Big Daddy Rob on Twitter and recently direct messaged you and and thank you for praying for my father Kenny Lane and thank you for all the prayers he's still in the hospital and fighting off pneumonia but he's slowly improving thank you so much too for being a follower of Jesus Christ and thank you for tuning into it's time to man up men I would like to challenge each of you to consider spending five days with Lex Luger and I at man camp pursuing the heart of God ladies you're listening we'll send your men home better equipped to be men of God godly husbands and godly fathers that appeals to you give them your blessing and encourage them to sign up today at man camp dot info pastors if you would like to bring Koloff for Christ ministries and man up conference to your community go to koloff.org and email me remember this it's time to man up all feet agree Clemens carpet is where you need to be with carpet vinyl tile and hardwood from the top brands Clemens carpet does it right from beginning to install voted number one by you in the reader's choice awards Doug, Chad, Benny, Peewee and the team at Clemens carpet look forward to seeing and serving you soon this is Nikita Koloff and I want to thank Clemens carpet for supporting my new show man up Saturday afternoon at 12 30 on the truth network this is the truth network