A Business Man For JESUS!

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Call 866-WINASIA or to see chickens and other animals to donate, go to CritterCampaign.org. This is Robbie Dilmore from The Christian Car Guy and Kingdom Pursuit, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build a kingdom. Your chosen Truth Network podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it and share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is Chris Brady, the CEO of an awesome company called Life. Chris, it's good to have you join us today on this quick visit on Truth Talk, and thanks for being a friend and mentor to me all these years. Thank you.

It's a delight to be here. You are quite the guy. Let me just list the name of your books here. Fascinating. The first one I never saw coming.

A Month of Italy. You've written a book, Launching the Leadership Revolution. You've written a book called Rascal, which is going to be fun to talk about. You've written a book called Pales, subtitled 20 Years From Now.

What Will You Wish You Had Done Today? But you're quite the thinker, idea guy. Did you pick up on this like maybe curiosity early on? How did you figure out you were an entrepreneur? Where did that come from?

It's a great question. I started out probably like a lot of listeners being taught that the key to financial success was to get good grades, go to college, get a good degree, get a good job, and then spend the rest of your life just doing what the bosses tell you. Keep your nose clean, going early, stay late, work through lunch, learn all the buzz phrases, and hope someone in a boardroom decision behind closed doors makes a great decision for your future advancement. It didn't take too long being into that, having tried to run that gamut of advice that I realized this wasn't what I was looking for. I didn't think this was really going to blossom into the kind of fruit I felt called to try to deliver. I started looking around and realized that I'd missed out on part of the story, that there's this beautiful world full of risk and reward and tumultuous journeys that is called entrepreneurship and decided to give it a whirl. Give it a whirl you have.

You've got these books. I want to get back into that, but tell us about your faith in Christ. How did you come to know the Lord, and how has that impacted everything you're doing today?

Well, of course, it's impacted everything and informed everything that has happened since. I was 10 years old, a little Baptist church on Maple Road in Flint, Michigan, Flint Township, actually. My parents were there.

My grandparents were there. I remember very clearly, for probably the first time, hearing the message of salvation. Right there in the pew, I just realized that I was a sinner, even at that young age. I was helpless to help myself out of that mess.

It was only going to get worse. The pastor must have done a great job opening up the Word. I remember praying then and feeling different.

I'll never forget, I was riding home in the front seat of my grandparents' Buick, looking at their compass up on the dashboard that my grandpa always had. I was so excited to tell them the news, and they were all rejoicing with me. Now, my family wasn't very active in church, hardly ever went. My dad had a fight with some pastor or something, so we stopped going. That was step one in a process that God has seen fit to do in my life. Later on, some girls from the neighborhood in my mid-teens started inviting me to their dad's church. It was there that I got baptized, got my first Bible, and really took the Lord saw fit to continue the sanctification process there and move me yet another step further.

Step three was when I met my wife. She was one of the first real, true, most active Christians I'd ever been around personally, and it really convicted me that the Lord used that. Then, of course, brought about the marriage that came out of that, and has blessed us through that ever since. It's encouraging for me because you and I meet, and you've been a friend and a mentor to me for many years now. It's so awesome because we get together on the auspice that we're going to talk business entrepreneurialism, which we do, but then we end up talking about the Lord a lot. We talk about what He's doing in our lives. It's awesome to see. Talk about that balance. Sometimes we say, well, this is business.

I'm going to go there. Church is Sunday, and that's my religious duty. Talk about how God in His kingdom is integrated into your life and how you bring that to bear, even the fact that a Christian entrepreneurial isn't an oxymoron. Oh, absolutely not.

There is no balance. Christ infuses every part of your life. You either follow Him or you don't. Christ said you're either for us or against us. My friend and business partner, Oren Woodward, says it really well. He said a lot of people will have a purpose to build a business. He said, but as Christians, we build business on purpose.

The purpose is the Lord's will in our lives and His leading and being obedient with the gifts that He's given us so that our business fruits bear for Him and give Him glory. So it's a marketplace ministry, what we run. We're not a Christian company. Companies don't get saved.

There are no Christian companies. But as founders and entrepreneurs, our hearts are for the Lord, and we know who we belong to. We know who every breath we draw is by His grace, and every step we take is for His glory, and our business is that.

That's what it's for. So at the base, down below everything else, at the foundation, our business is meant to shine God's glory in a dark world. And you really are living out these Judeo-Christian ethics that our founders really incorporated in America. And I know capitalism has gotten a bad word, but you know, because there are crony capitalists, there's corrupt capitalists, there's people that abuse and that game the system and all the things like that. But at the same time, there's been this kind of tsunami wave in our country of communism, of socialism. You know, politicians saying, hey, we need to be socialistic. We need to rob the poor and rob the rich and pay the poor, you know, and this and that. Can you talk about how, you know, even the faith, the tenets of moving away from like a victimization, our culture is so victimized now.

You know, everyone's a victim of this and that. Moving to a more victor, a more, hey, I'm going to, as a free country, I'm going to work hard. And I'm going to, you know, like Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice of the United States, African-American who worked hard to get there. And yet he's attacked viciously by people on the left. Yet he was successful. Ben Carson leading one of the top brain surgeons in the world.

Maybe the most sophisticated, accomplished brain surgeon in the world. And yet he is mocked, but he's African-American. And instead of saying, I'm a victim, it's horrible what happened to me, he's done something. Can you speak to that and not just across the racial lines, but just about how the gospel empowers that, too, and how it's important for young people to know the difference between capitalism, socialism and the fruits of both. Yeah, it never ceases to amaze me how college professors at some of these institutions can espouse socialistic ideals as though they're good ideas and they haven't been tried. Everywhere socialism has been attempted, it results in force over freedom. The only way people will stay under socialism is by force. You have to build the iron curtains to keep people in to enjoy the benefits of a defunct, broken, bankrupt system that just doesn't work. Socialism leads to human suffering. It's exactly where it goes. It's a dead end road to human suffering. Every time and everywhere it's ever been tried. And if you believe the Bible and you understand freedom in Christ, then you won't panic about things that you see politically in the world, because you understand that all things come through God's hands and we don't exist to try to make the world heaven on earth.

We are to bring salvation to those who are passing through and we're to shine God's light to point them to salvation through Christ. So you can't get all these things out of balance either to freak out because you see socialism in the ascendancy or people espousing those ideas. But you just don't understand economics. You don't understand human nature if you think these things are going to work. They've not worked. They've resulted in millions of human deaths. And it's just aggravating to see them gaining traction in the ivory towers of academia where the impressionable young minds of students go and they swallow this stuff hook, line and sinker. And it's just wrong.

It's tragic. You and Orrin Woodward, your partner, you guys are a great tandem too, I'm telling you. And you guys are legendary. And you've written some of these books together, I guess, on leadership.

Absolutely. What has been the key in the same kind of tone of good kind of capitalism? How have you all, with this company life that's really awesome what you're doing, the more you tell me about it, the more excited I get. How are you all using this company to make people's lives better?

Tell us a little bit about the essence of what you all do there. An example for people out there, entrepreneurs out there listening of good, even Bible-based principles in running your company. Well, one of the purest forms of capitalism is entrepreneurship in small businesses where people come up with an idea on how to build a better mousetrap, to use the phrase. And they pour their blood, sweat, and toil, and tears, and money into it to try to become something better in order to serve the customer. So when you serve the customer better than someone else, you deservedly then gain market share. And I read a great statistic the other day, not really a statistic, but a quote, and the guy was saying that entrepreneurs take all the risk and they pass all the value to the customer and then they keep 3 or 4% of it as profits. And I really like that accounting of the process because you do. The business owner, the small startup person, risks everything to make something work and then when they do, almost all that value goes to the customer and makes the world a better place through those products and services.

So at life, what we do is two-fold. Number one, our main product is called the Super App and through that Super App, customers can enjoy cash back at merchants, over 300 merchants in the United States and a bunch in Canada. They can earn our virtual currency called dibs.

They can use 350,000 aggregated coupons that we have. We have Groupon fully integrated into our app. We have financial, fitness, educational training.

We have leadership development training. A whole assortment of value all in one simple to use convenient smartphone app. So it's mobile, it's global, and so that's our product.

And we have thousands of products, but that's our flagship product. You have done a lot for the kingdom, brother, and I'm grateful for that. And your company, you're advancing, you're helping people, you're helping people help people, which I love that.

Again, that's part of the whole biblical principle. How did you figure out you were an entrepreneur? Where did that come from?

That's a great question. I started out probably like a lot of listeners being taught that the key to financial success was to get good grades, go to college, get a good degree, get a good job, and then spend the rest of your life just doing what the bosses tell you. Keep your nose clean, going early, stay late, work through lunch, learn all the buzz phrases. And hope someone in a boardroom decision behind closed doors makes a great decision for your future advancement. And it didn't take too long being into that, having tried to run that gamut of advice that I realized this wasn't what I was looking for. I didn't think this was really going to blossom into the kind of fruit I felt called to try to deliver. And I started looking around and realized that I'd missed out on part of the story, that there's this beautiful world full of risk and reward and tumultuous journeys that is called entrepreneurship and decided to give it a whirl.

He is Chris Brady, the CEO of an awesome company called Life. We help people gain financial ascendancy in what my buddy Oren calls the financial matrix, this construct where people have thought this. Sometimes people can get this feeling that, you know, the world kind of seems to be stacked against me financially. I feel like I'm getting ripped off.

And Oren's answer is you are. There are things that are kind of rigged against you. The big financial system helps the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Politicians do have some of that right. But what we teach is through our super app, we can help customers profit financially by getting cash back on purchases they're already going to make. But further, they can gain a financial education and really learn about money and unplug from the financial matrix.

Because when you reference to the 1999 movie, The Matrix, where people were trapped in a computer program of false reality, they didn't even realize it. That's how our money system works today. Oren's in the process of writing a great book about that, that'll come out in the spring. But anyway, so by helping people free themselves from the debt cycle, because when you're in debt, you are someone else's asset and you've become your own liability. And so we first we help people, we give them tools through our super app to get more cash back on stuff they're already going to buy. And then built into that super app, we give them financial education training so that they can subtract themselves from the financial matrix. At least they can stop being taken advantage of by the big money powers. Then beyond that then, for those that are interested, we teach them to be entrepreneurs building businesses, selling our super app and its subscription. And then we really help them prosper financially.

That's the plan. Helping people grow and of course advising them all along the way about how to use God's resources to bless others, to give, to serve and all that. Real quick, you got four books, you had a bunch of books, but four of the kind of the ones that stuck out. If you would give me a quick one sentence description, I'm going to say the name of the book and then give me a one sentence kind of description of your passion behind this book.

Okay, let's start with I think maybe one of your personal favorites because you love to travel and you love this culture. A month in Italy, a month of Italy. That book was never planned and it was written without an audience in mind. It was just a love letter to a place that I so enjoy and now have so many friends and wonderful experiences and memories and supported a very good ministry over there called Italy for Christ with my dear friend Guy Sotila. That book came about as a result of some very funny things. To be quite honest, on one of those family vacations that we took to Italy, I just realized I'm supposed to give a one sentence answer, but this one's going to go long. Keep going.

You're rolling, man. You have me captivated here. I got very annoyed that most travelogues, most books about travel experiences are written by non-believers and they put forth their atheism as though it's the most logical, intelligent way to be in this world and it's just not. So I wanted to put a book out there that was a fun travelogue written by a Christian, written by a believer. Okay, book number two. Now I want to pack my bags. I'm going to keep it to one statement responses.

I know, but I want to pack my bags and go to Italy now. Wow. I know a lot. You're going to get a lot of feedback. I know a lot of our listeners love to travel.

I love the missiological point to that of how you're helping support a ministry there, Italy for Christ. Book number two of the four that we're going to touch, we won't be able to get to all of them, but launching the leadership revolution. This was a fun, fun project with my buddy Oren Woodward and we realized through working with hundreds and hundreds of entrepreneurs that there was one common attribute that high achievers all shared and we put the secret to that in that book. That's a teaser.

If you ever had a teaser there, you have it right there. That's a book written by Chris Brady with his partner in crime, Oren Woodward, launching the leadership revolution, Rascal. I know this is going to get a smile on you because you're passionate about this. This book is for anyone who's ever felt that they were out of sorts with the crowd and they didn't want to run with the herd anymore and they wanted to find the courage to be an original character. Okay.

I love it. And then finally pales in the subtitle. That is 20 years from now.

What will you wish you had done today? Pales. For any young person heading into adulthood and trying to figure out the path that he or she should take, this book was written for them. And then many people find themselves in what secular society calls midlife crises and all these kind of self-inflection points where they think they have to upset their entire life. This book was also written for them to keep them on track with God's purpose. Okay. That's author, business leader, and man of God, Chris Brady. And by the way, we are outside one of our favorite spots to get lunch in Cary, North Carolina, across the street from an awesome church, the man of God. You know about Stephen Davey and the Bible teaching there, don't you?

Absolutely. I'm so blessed to sit under his ministry. And he's a great Bible teacher and we had a great lunch and then I've been trying to catch up to you forever so it's a beautiful day here, beautiful sunny day.

We're under the shade of a tree on a bench right outside this restaurant called Ruckus that if you're a Cary person, you probably know about that. And we're talking about, with Chris, about his testimony and about his passion for both business and for Christ and how those two are interwoven and how God has given him so much hope. And really, you've touched a lot of people through this company called Life. Give us maybe the website or how folks can learn maybe more about you. What's the best way to connect and maybe to find out about these books that we've talked about? I think the best way, they can go to chrisbrady.com. C-H-R-I-S-B-R-A-D-Y dot com and everything flows from there.

Okay. Go there, check it out, and check out that cool app. It is a good app, I'm telling you. Two minutes into our first conversation about it, I had it on my phone. You can use it in all these places.

Go to mainhomepage.com to find out about the super app. Okay, awesome. God bless you, Chris Brady. Your challenge out there right now to people in business, seeing their business, seeing their work as worship. Can you close us out with a challenge to be able to see your work as worship? Our privileges are not for our pleasure, they're for our purpose.

That's a great word. Chris Brady, this is Truth Talk. I'm Stu Epperson. We'll take a little picture and we'll put it on my Twitter, my Instagram, Instagram, sometimes I jokingly call it that, or Facebook.

Of course, this guy's got a bigger presence on all of those, but if you want to meet a real star, you'll go to chrisbrady.com. Again, I just love having conversations with people that inspire others to greatness. And of course, the greatest inspiration is to turn, point people to Jesus Christ. And thanks for using your business, your platform to lead people to Christ. Amen. This is the Truth Network.