Develop Your Culture and Faith in Business Leadership

Audio Transcription

Hey there. Welcome to another episode of the Contractor Click Podcast. In this episode, we're going to talk about breakthrough in your business and accessing a different level of breakthrough that you've been looking for and probably wondering how you can access that. And with me, I have individuals that are going to help you understand this topic at a different level.

Pastor TJ McCormick, your first name. Yeah. What's your first name? Timothy James. Timothy James. People always wonder, My wife was asking, what's TJ for total jerk. If you want to succeed in business, just be a total jerk. It's just, that's one way of doing it. And, pastor Josh, Joshua, Okay. Only my mother gets to call me that. Okay. Yeah. And Andrea, when she's really mad at him. Yeah. When mostly it's when I'm in trouble. Yeah. Good to know. Yeah. Yeah. yeah. So let's, let's dive right in. I, business, individuals that listen to this podcast, they're contractors, they're out in the field, they're building business.

You've been a contractor yourself and you're a builder of churches and people. one of the questions I want to ask is, when, you are seeing someone on the other side, you've been leading hundreds of individuals. What's one common thing that stands out that's keeping them from that next level in their life and business?

I think it's a lack of humility to ask. The right questions, so many people, they, want to put off a vibe of I've got this, I know it all, I'm good. And I think what keeps most people from taking it to the next level is asking really, good questions and then. Actually taking the information they learn from somebody that's ahead of them and applying it to their context.

Yeah, that's the key I mean josh and I talk about this all the time what we're looking for in people is teachability Yeah, and I don't care what level you're at. we're in our industry. We're in the top 0. 1 percent of the churches in america around the world But I look at it like man, I can always get better I can always be learning and I always have to have people that are ahead of me that i'm asking really good questions for To and going hey, what is it?

What is the thing that I need to see right now that I can't see what are the roadblocks? That are in front of me that maybe i'm lacking awareness in right now So I can see that in myself so I can see it in our organization so I can see it In our business so we can go to the next level I went through a pretty recent transition where I was at our Parkland location.

Now I'm at our lighthouse point location. So it's been interesting because people come in, they, I come into that situation. People think I know everything and I go, Hey, like I'm not coming in here assuming I know everything about what's going on here. I'm coming in ready to learn. And.

You would think, I think their perception is, you've been around for a little bit. Like you, you were at a larger location. I'm like, no, this is, brand new information for me. You're a brand new person. I got to get to know you. I see what's working and what's not working, but I'm not, showing up guns blazing.

I'm showing up assuming I don't know. And so that keeps me at a pretty, Like teachable and humble place. And I can, there's always room to learn and grow, like no matter what you're going through. So you got to be teachable. Yes. now the same token, I would say when you're looking at the entire organization, he's you can have the systems, the processes, the numbers dialed in.

But for me, what I've realized recently is Hey, the ultimate pinnacle is like the people you got that right. Everything else flows. Cause you can build this, the system from the bottom up and thinking, okay, I'm going to, and this is for myself. I'm speaking for myself. Contractor clear, conquer marketing crew.

It's I'm going to have all the SOPs, all the processes, all the systems, but the people that run it, it's, the key. Yeah. That's what really makes it work. It's all about culture. It's all about the culture. Let's talk about that. you built, an incredible culture. The people that are attracted to the organization are amazing individuals, coastal community church.

How much of that, do you play and how much of that does your spouse play in helping you and supporting you? And how does that look like? Josh can speak to this as well, because Josh has been with us 10 years. we talk about culture all the time. all the time, every, corrective conversation has to do with a cultural element.

we have internal cultural values that we live by and we talk about those constantly. And that means everything. if somebody doesn't fit culturally, it doesn't matter how good they are at their job. If they're not a culture fit, they're not a good fit. So we value that above everything. we build our entire above skill really skill can be taught Okay, you can train Aptitude but it's really hard to train attitude like somebody coming in with the right like I so I just recently hired a guy and He, has a lot of aptitude, but the thing that is so attractive about him is his attitude, cause he's so humble.

He's so teachable. He's so good with people. And those are things that are really hard to teach. And, it takes, it might take somebody a little bit, cause you can see their potential, but like at this point, like it's, I'm not looking to hire based on your potential. Like I'm looking to see Hey, what do you already have?

And then is there potential in your growth, in your talents and in your, you see what I'm saying? yes. I'm looking first at do I like this person? Are they like, do others like them? 'cause that's honestly the thing I was thinking about with this individual is like, it's not just that I like him, man, I'm having other people come up to me and go, man, like there's something about that guy.

like X factor in him. And that's something that you can't, I feel like that's hard to teach someone. but that's at the same point, like I had to catch a lot of culture. I feel like coming into coastal 2014, we were a mobile church at the time we were running two locations and a high school and a movie theater, man.

I, I was like, I honestly came in and thought I knew a lot and realized it doesn't matter how much I know. This is a totally different environment. And if I can come in and my mentality every weekend, cause we were rolling in at five, 5 a. m. like, and we're, we have volunteers. they're showing up on their day off and I'm going, man, if my attitude sucks, And I'm not at my 10 in my attitude and, my personality.

Like this team is gonna, this team is going to suffer and that's on me. So I think this finding that person that has like that X factor, man, is so key. But I think part of, it is, when we bring somebody into it, that's new onto our team, the first thing we do is we go, Hey, we're not looking for you to produce initially.

We're looking for you to learn. Learn for a year. learn. At least a year. How we talk, like the language we use is important. there's a language to our organization. There, there is a work ethic to our organization. There is a way we treat people in our organization. Yes. Yes. And before you want to come in and do all this stuff, I need you to come in and learn who we are and the why behind the what.

Wow. Like we know what we're, whether you're a contract. Oh, we, we build houses. We, hang drywall. I, that's what we do. Like why do we do it this way? Why is this our process? Yeah. Why do we treat the customer like this? Why do we communicate in this manner instead of this manner? Like before you come in and start giving us all kinds of suggestions Why don't you understand who we are and why we do what we do?

Yeah, because what'll happen is you bring in somebody And they don't have your culture they'll come in and they might produce a lot But they're jacking up the rest of the organizations And the fallout, like people are your most valuable assets. It's not the product, it's not the service, it's the people you have.

So you want to make sure that they embody the things that you're actually trying to build because culture is going to trickle down and the impact of that is going to trickle down. So I want to make sure that you get us, that you understand our heart, our nature, why we do what we do and then we can go work on other things.

One of the things that TJ said to me several times because it's been several times is he said And this was so valuable for me because I knew, that, Hey, in this organization, like I'm safe. And you said to me pretty early on, Hey, there's not a miss, there's not a big enough mistake that you can make that I can't help you clean up.

that's the value that placed in me of Hey, I value you as a person so much that regardless of the thing that you screw up. And I think there, it coastal has always been a place where. If you can fail, but it's like you fail safe, it's within a certain context and we're not encouraging people to go fail, but we're saying, Hey, we want you, to step out and take some risk.

Yes. And if, you mess up, it's okay. yeah, like that's not going to be the end of you, but. You are also in the reason why josh has so much freedom to go do whatever he wants is because He has so much trust when it comes to he understands our culture So if he's making a decision and if it ends up being a bad decision, I can fix that.

Yeah, but it's because he Embraces and values and lives out our culture so strong. Yeah amazing, so Part of that. How long did it take you to develop that our culture your methodology and embracing that? Because I would assume like when you were first starting out, did you come in with that in mind and say, I'm going to build a culture or was that something that under the pressure of growth you know?

No, we've always The great news is, that I came from a really, healthy, vibrant culture of the church I was at before. And so I saw a healthy culture modeled. I saw values highly, put out front and then modeled. And I knew that if we were going to build a, in our context, a great church and a great organization and a healthy organization, then I had to model that.

I had to lead that. I had to talk about that. Constantly and I had to celebrate when people embody those values, you know When we used to do we used to do a monthly gathering of leaders I would hand out a rock star energy drink like I would just highlight people that embody a value that we had and so I was You know what you celebrate gets repeated Yeah So I would celebrate the things that people were doing that were embodying the values that we wanted to see in our organization And so even today while we have a great culture and a great health, we're constantly talking about those things Even to today.

when somebody on boards like I sit down and we talk about here are the things that we value Here are the things that we expect and then what's happened is our evaluation For at their end of the year and the reviews is now becoming based on how do they embody our values? Yeah, because if you embody our values Then we know your production is going to be there You're going to be hitting goals and you're going to be hitting marks because you're embodying the values that we have so How do you hire for culture?

Where what are the signals and the things that you're looking for because you must have like multiple layers, right multiple interviews etc. But how do you determine? Hey, they actually embody like what signals are you looking for? throughout that process. I mean we're pretty hardcore when it comes to hiring.

yeah You It's a, it's an extensive process. they'll start with an, they'll probably go through three to four phone or Skype or zoom interviews. And then we typically bring somebody in for four or five days. And then I think this is one of the key elements to us distinguishing whether they really embody our values because anybody can fake it.

On the front end. you can fake an interview or two, but when you bring somebody in for four or five days, and you bring them in with their spouse, ideally, at least we do, and we put them in environments, and we just wear their butt out. Honestly, we're wearing them out, we're interviewing, we're doing so many things because we want to know, who are you when you're tired?

Because here's what I know you're gonna get tired. Yes. Who are you when you're under stress four or five days? This is four or five days. I remember it wasn't that long ago. Maybe it was like two years ago We brought in a guy that was for a video director position that we are looking to hire And we got to our weekend services and at the time we were doing five or six service I don't know how many services we were doing but I walked into a room after like our last service And one of the things we value is hard work and I walked into this room as I was cutting through to go to A lobby to go talk to people after a service And the guy was in there asleep and I was like He just doesn't have the stamina for our organization But I would have never seen that had it been Just a because he said all the right things on the phone and all the zooms Had all the lingo which is normally how we hire people, right?

Oh, they sound good They said all the right things one or two calls and one or two calls and then boom I think the reason we struggle in hiring is because we're not asking more of people, and I'm looking for a person that's hungry. So a person that's hungry is gonna be willing to give up four days To come for a great job.

I remember when I first got a call from TJ. I think it was October 2013 I was walking back from classes finishing up school and We probably talked on the phone for three months For an hour every week, just asking each other questions. And I was like, this is way different than any other interview process.

I was going through at the time. and I liked that it was intentional and it just got to a point where it was like, I remember Shayla said, like TJ's wife, she said, Hey, we just need to get you down here and make sure you're not weird. And I loved that. Cause I was like, I, think that's important. I want to make sure you're not weird either, but my experience was.

Like very much how we still do things like we still have multiple conversations and it's not just with one person either it's like that person's getting passed around because TJ's perspective is different than mine. Shayla's perspective is different than mine because I want to see how they interact and, almost like us go back to a conversation and go, Hey, what did they say about this?

So in an interview, like Josh and Andrew might go out to lunch with somebody and, they'll say something odd about something and then he'll come and go, Oh, you're going with them next. Hey, press on this issue. And what it allows us to do is it allows a lot of us to get a lot of different vantage points.

And we're able to get to the. To the deep down things It really knows somebody layers of conversation That we're distinguished This is on top of all the personality tests and all the other things that we do on the front end before we ever Decide to invest because it's an investment.

It's an investment to fly somebody in it's an investment to put him up in a hotel It's an investment to spend all that time and take him out to meals and do all those things, but we're We look at it like, man, this person is going to be critical and integral part of our organization. We want to make sure they embody those things and they embrace the values.

And do they get it? Do they want it? And do they have the capacity to do it? Yeah. And over time you can really figure that out and while we're doing that we get to look and Do they embody this value of ours? Oh, do they embrace this? Hey, i'm not really sure Let's press in let's ask some more questions around that and it's just allowed us to hire I think we have the best staff because we've been so intentional in that environment and by the end of it, I remember this other guy was like, when we were taking him to the airport, he's I didn't get this job, did I?

And I was like, no, you didn't like, he knew that he didn't have what it takes to be a part of our organization by the end of that, we didn't, we would have never known that without doing that extensively. And that's how we protect our culture. So you're protecting your vetting. We're protecting. We're vetting it in.

Yeah. Because one person can jack up your culture. Yes. Yes. Yes. And all it takes is one. And ask yourself this question too. I may, maybe this is, this might be unique to us, but I think it's, I think it's something you should ask. Would I want to spend extra time with this person on my day off? Yeah. Because, like that question will tell you a lot about what you think about that person.

Yeah, if I like, I'm always now the last interview, so partly because one, I believe the best in people, so I don't want to see there. I'm just being honest. I don't want to see their flaws. And I don't I always see the potential in them So I need other people to do that are way more discerning than me And this is a good this is good for business owners because you think i've got to yeah No, you might not be the most discerning person So you need to have some other people on your team That can help you vet like josh is a great person for me.

Like josh is going to really help them know culture My wife does a great job. She's our executive director. She does a great job of discernment We have other staff depending on the area that they're going to be in that are going to help them They're going to help me no discernment because that's not my strength.

But what I'm going to look at is, do I like you and do I want to see you every day? Yeah. And that's an important thing because if you just look at them and you're like disgusted, it's not going to be a very good hire. Yeah. I remember Shayla actually approached, we were talking about this, guy just hired and it was probably two months ago.

She was like, Hey, what do you think we should do? and I said, let's do it. Shayla, I really don't know culturally if he's a fit yet. I need to see him like I need to see him in a lot of different ways before I can make that call. And it would actually have benefited me greatly to hire him earlier. But I'm, but I'm not willing to make a bad hire.

Like it's just, and I'm not saying you get it perfect every time. Cause we've, not had many people leave our organization, but. What it came down to pretty much every time was like, ah, is a cultural thing. and so I'm willing to wait on the front end because I, don't, if you're, going to pay for it later.

Pay now or pay later. Yeah. And, paying later is way more expensive. It's when compromising in the front end that it's going to cost you the most. Yeah. Yeah. That's, powerful. let's bring God into the conversation because And I have these conversations with individuals, they're Christian, they're business people, but they see this whole spectrum as it's a separate world, right?

So I'm a Christian here, and I'm a business owner there and you're driving results in the middle. Like, how do you, and I was, here's what I would say, don't, give up your God given values in pursuit of your God given dreams. I think we separate those things and go, this is my business dream.

And this is my God thing. And I'm going to keep this over here. No, Those got it. Those got to intertwine like your values and your, dreams. They got to intertwine. And if they don't, then, you are a hypocrite. Yes. So, how do you integrate your values into how you run your business? And when you do that, it is powerful because people then know, they always know how you're going to stand.

They always know how you're going to respond. It's so interesting to me because Like I am a driven and I'm a type a personality. I am driven. josh will tell you I am a driven we couldn't be more different Yeah, If you look at us on personality scales, like we're the exact opposite Yeah, it's like d personality and then you know if you've ever done the disc assessment like I am steady and that's actually I think why we get along so I think it's actually helped us understand each other better, and it helps me serve the vision of Coastal.

Yeah. But it's a value, and here's what it is, because one of my values is I value people. I see my differences because Josh's pace is different than my pace. That doesn't mean Josh's pace is bad. Yeah. Josh's page is actually better because he walks through the cloud the crowd slower than I do and sees people differently than I do I'm, just moving like what's next But if i'm always going to what's next who's taking care of what's now and josh is excellent at taking care of what's now and I know that In order to go where we need to go.

I need to have people that do that and I value them But here's what josh knows how i'm always going to respond. Yeah, like You Because I live my values out 100 percent every like I'm not I'm not this way one day and this way another day No, I live by a set of principles and those principles always play out.

Those principles are part of our culture I was writing something out the other day With a group is actually a job description and I and we got to this point and I literally My filter is how would TJ say this? and, what is our culture? And based on those two things, I can get pretty close.

And that's taken, I'm still learning all the time, but I think after being here for about 10 years, like I, I have a pretty good idea, but I'll, I'll call, him if I don't know the answer. and I think the accessibility for me is, really valuable because I can call him up and go, Hey man, I just need your input on this.

And I think when we, it just goes back to humility. Like when we think we know, I think that's where things get dangerous in any, business, like whether you're a church or you're a contractor, if you think, all the time and are not willing to learn from somebody else and you also need to find the right voice, know what the right voice is.

but that's helped me tremendously. How do you now carry the levels of pressure that come at the next level? Which, and how do you manage like first as a leader? And then, you was, sure. And that's also leading people. because I feel like that's a big challenge and sometimes.

The closer you get to that next level you want to lean back and say i'm comfortable here like it's good here and I think that this is a great question for every business guy. More success just means more problems bigger problems and bigger problems. They're just more expensive problems.

Yes, And it doesn't always mean a bigger return though, too, right? And I, think a lot of times we're always pushing for more when sometimes we should just go, you know what, I love being, I don't need to be a 3 million company. I can, have a great company at 2 million and have the time with my family that I want, like the less organizational stress and it just be content with that.

I think Paul, I would go biblical. Paul said, I've learned the secret of contentment. And sometimes you gotta, learn Maybe the next level isn't necessarily what I really want in my life. What like what that's going to create for me from Time away from my family from being able to raise my kids Maybe that isn't what I want or even what I need I can live out my dreams right here at this level, but society's always telling us to press for more Yeah, and so I think you have to ask yourself one Is that what i'm called to and is that really what I desire because I what I found there's a great book called predictable success and You might find that you don't want to go higher You might be like, this is a great business right here because hire means I'm gonna have to create more structure.

I'm gonna have to create more things. I'm gonna deal with more stress. I'm gonna have to be in more meetings and not everybody's great with that. So I think that's the first question, but how do you manage that? because I'm in that case right now, I think you, you've got to have great outlets.

Like what brings you joy in life? because if, money and prestige are all that it is like, there's never going to be enough. you gotta find something bigger than that. and I think you have to have some really good friends around you that can tell you the truth. when I'm, having those stressful, difficult days, I have five guys that I can call and they're gonna give me wisdom.

They're gonna, they're gonna bring me back to center because what happens is when you're stressed, you get really far right, or you get really far left and they're gonna center you back on what's most important and what you value in life. And, I think that's been a helpful thing. And I, play golf.

It's an outlet you can hit something and you're allowed to hit it. And that's just stress relieving. I think one of the things I go back to with pressure and I've, and I would say the last maybe three months, really the first three months in my transition, there was a lot of pressure. I have people asking me questions.

again, the expectation on me that I think people had was like, you're going to come in and change everything. but for me, what I go back to is, and you just mentioned it. don't replace the important for something urgent. there's, cause everybody's going to come to you with what they think is urgent.

And I have to filter is this urgent for you? Or is this actually an important thing that has urgency to it? You don't want to neglect that, but I think it's just helped me a lot. That filter of what's not, what's, what am I trying to say? Like your urgency is not necessarily my urgency when it comes to the organizational health.

and what you think is important. is may not actually be important to us. And so I've had to have a lot of conversations about, Hey, that's, not actually how we do this. and people don't like that, but I think it ends up being healthy for them in the future. That's one thing about being a leader.

You have to tell people no a lot. Yeah. And, And you got to have, and be graceful while doing it. Correct. cause you want them to know the truth. And if you, want to talk about bringing God into the, conversation, like Jesus was the, and just such the most incredible example of I'm going to give you the truth, but I'm going to do it in such a way that you know how much grace and much, how much love I have for you.

And, like when somebody comes to me and they're upset, because I think being a pastor, people. Most of the time you're either seeing them at a really like, an incredible moment in their life. Like you get to celebrate with them and those, that's the tops and it's valleys. And most of the time it's you, cause you want to catch the problem way before, but they don't have the self awareness.

And so you have to go, you have to walk them back through this process of All right, let's retrace your steps and you don't want to make them feel stupid. You also, you, don't want to assume you know everything because I think when we see people, we don't, when, we start to lose compassion for people, it's because we, stopped remembering, man, I probably don't know how much pain they're actually going through.

And assuming that I know everything about them, it's just, It's not healthy. So you gotta, I think you gotta ask good questions. You have to spend time with them and really help them through that. We call it a sanctification process, but it's, helping them in their journey. Hey, let's get you back to a healthy place.

And I'm willing to walk with you and spend time with you to get you back there. And cause. People were our greatest investment. Yeah. So how do you pour into your people into your leaders on a weekly basis? Monthly, are you intentional about that? Do you have a plan in place or is it I mean by season and you're carrying through?

I think it's different at this point, you know in our organization. Our organization has getting large enough where there's layers now but like josh is not a direct report of mine like josh is Somewhere down the organizational chart, but like last week I was like, Josh, let's go grab lunch. Yeah So I'm a highly relational leader So I'm gonna go and just do relationship and out of that conversation is gonna happen.

Yeah And so I think that is The beauty of part of our organization is we are a highly relational, caring organization. We actually like spending time with each other. So it's not like a duty to go grab lunch with Josh. I gotta go have lunch with Josh. Like I actually love spending time with Josh and I want to see Josh succeed.

I love his family. I love his wife. Who now worked for you? yeah. Was like the voice of our church and social media and everything. So she, they rock. They, she is a rockstar. We might steal her back from you, . Oh, come on. Can't do that. , with the podcast show. I'll give you more money.

I'm gonna give you a raise, Lisa. Now I'm just, but it's, man, I, value these people, so I just wanna invest in them personally. Like I so most of my time now. I'm not actually talking about our organizational stuff. I'm talking about their personal lives So when like when I mean we're talking about like man, how are your kids doing?

How are you and andrea doing? Like how are you doing financially? What is your plan? Like when you get on way of vacation? Like i'm caring for their soul There's other people that care for the metrics now. Yeah, I just get to care for their soul And so when there are difficult conversations, here's what josh knows I care first and foremost about him You So when I come to have a difficult conversation, it's never, Personal thing this is about hey, we need to be doing this. Yeah, we need to change this and you already know I love you. Yeah, so I've made lots of deposits. So when I go to take a withdrawal, it's it isn't there's no Yeah, it's not shocking. There's no there's not a lack of equity there. Yeah, and I think the reason that struggles in most organizations is because there's no equity There's been no investment in that person as a person then you go to take a withdrawal and they're like heck.

No You Equity is the key, like relational equity. I talk about it with every, person that I lead. and I think, you also got to look at man, I might be. Are you leading too little people or are you also leading too many people? because I think everybody probably has a different, they all have different.

Yeah different bandwidth Yeah, but I know for me and this is what i'm figuring out right now I was talking to a leader and they were like, man, I think we need eight people to lead this, particular team. And I'm going, yeah, but that's eight people I've got to meet with consistently. I actually think we can do it with fewer and I can make greater investment in a few.

if you look at Jesus, like man, he had, the 12 disciples, then the 72, the 120. But like you think about. How's Jesus going to interact with that many people all the time? And what I think people don't realize is he had three dudes that he was consistently pouring into. And then those three guys were going, okay, and they're constantly filtered.

You can see it in scripture there. They have a filter. They're like, man, what? That's why the phrase, what would Jesus do is popular because it's a filter. And so I'm thinking about that, but I'm also thinking about. What, is our culture? What do we value? and that allows me to lead people really well because I have this constant filter of man, how would number one, how would Jesus treat this person?

Then number two, what would TJ say in this moment? And then what are our values? And, can I, bring this person, can I build this person from those things? And I, think you just got to know like your limit, your bandwidth. I think that's really important. Spiritual pouring into your people.

Do you treat it the same way throughout those conversations? How does that look like for you? I think every person's a little bit different. I think you have to, you know that, and this is where it goes back to, I communicate differently to different people because they receive things differently. that's why we do a personality test. It is, I know what, so we, use a thing called, oh my gosh. Why is, it disc base? No, it's not a disc. It's, Ministry insights. Ministry insights. Strengths finder. Yeah. And so there's a color, there's colors to it. And so I know what color people are like and so I know that if i'm a red if i'm talking to another red I can be bottom line with them If i'm talking to a yellow it's going to be an emotional conversation If i'm talking to a blue it needs to be informational like so like I need to know who i'm talking to and then i'm I As a leader I cater to them.

I don't expect them to cater to me And I think a lot of leaders they expect their people to cater to them You No, As a leader, you're to be serving the people in the organization. And a lot of leaders think, the people in the organization are here to serve me. And that's why you have high turnover.

Because if you would realize that you're there to serve them, and you're there to make their life better, and you're there to do that, they will go above and beyond for the organization because they know you actually care. Incredible. For sure. I love it. I have a guy who just started helping me on our production team, and when I was evaluating like, man, do I have, have I put in enough time with this person?

Have I cared for their family enough? Have I, gone out to lunch with them and ask them how they're doing personally. have I invested enough so I can make this pretty big withdrawal? and I, to myself, I was like, I think I can do that. And then they actually went above and beyond that.

So I didn't realize the bandwidth that they even had. But they actually felt man, I actually have more, I can actually help you more than you realize. And man, what a relief that was because it's just, man, invest in your people. The relational equity aspect is so important. And you can't pour from an empty cup, right?

So how do you go about maintaining yourself, taking care of yourself when you're going fast, fast pace? I'm, disciplined in life. I think discipline is the thing. I wake up 3. 30 every day. My first hour is spent with God. So I'm, never pouring from an empty cup because I'm getting filled up.

and that, part of my job is, I preach, I lead, but the preaching time with God comes at other times. This is just TJ's time with God, like God, what are you trying to do in me? How are you speaking to me? It's, my time with him. That's just personal. And that's how I stay full and then I surround myself with people that are Building are there to build me up.

I have those relationships in my life. I at times I pay people to coach me Because i'm never too big not to be coached and I think it's a great investment in myself. I read constantly our staff will tell you like i've probably got a book for anything that you're going through because I just I don't know I constantly am wanting to get better.

how do I get better if I'm not pursuing growth? And I think pursuing growth will cause you to get better and then surrounding yourself with people that are further ahead I think you've got to have and something I tell our staff you got to have one or two people that you're talking to That are ahead of you.

Yes and that aren't a part of our organization that are part of, in our case, other churches that are successful that they can, help you navigate things that you don't even know you're going to need to navigate, that they can help you walk through situations that will just make you better in your job.

And I think if you do those couple of things, and that's not a lot, but if you're consistent in it, and that's what discipline is, being consistent in things, it's a game changer. And so it makes it easy and then I think just physically taking care of yourself is a good thing Because I love what dion, he says, it's on his wall of his office He says look good feel good play good get paid good And I think that's a great statement.

So you gotta look good. So you gotta take care of This vessel that you have and I think a lot of us were abusing this thing Yes, and i'm a person that abused it for a long time. I was so busy trying to build Everything else that I forgot to take care of myself and over the last Year, so man i've really focused on taking care of myself and getting in shape I thought round was a shape, but it's not a good shape, and so This is for me.

This is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Like how am I treating it? I'm not trying to build a mansion. I'm trying to I'm trying to build something That's suitable that when people look at because here's the thing I learned I'm disciplined in a lot of things But I wasn't disciplined for me. And so people look at my life and go You might be really good at reading the Bible, but man, you're fat So are you really disciplined?

Yeah, I got convicted like I was like, yeah so I'm disciplined for things of God, but I'm not disciplined enough to take care of me man. Shame on me That's good. Yeah. That's very good. I think if you're listening to this, you get to see how real and raw pastor TJ McCormick is. Coastal Community Church in South Florida.

we're going to put the link right into the description here, YouTube channel, the podcasts that they have going on every single week. Make sure you tune in. but what I want you to, to tell me a little bit more here, it's, I believe body being balanced in business, balance relationship. We haven't talked about that.

You're going fast pace. You're running a business. you're doing this with your partner. and there's a lot of business owners that either don't want to do it with their partner or they have the partners and they just don't have clarity to how to manage the relationship. Separated involve, it's because it's, sometimes I think it's hard to separate Okay.

hey, this is who we are how we do life. you know from for me and maddie For example, we're running a business. So the conversations carry over later on, yeah, we go out for dates But still we're talking about like other stuff and like how do you manage to build that? into your relationship and have a good healthy balance there.

Yeah, I think part of it. One, I, don't know that there's such a thing as balance, I'm, this is just my own personal opinion, what I do is what I love, so it's going to integrate, it's going to integrate into everything I do. And, I think to try to separate it, oh, we can't talk about that, But that's what we do every day together.

Yeah. but how we've been able to manage doing that is we've recognized each other's strengths and weaknesses and we value each other's strengths. And so we, like from my wife is way better at the people management side than I am. I'm great at the vision. the drive, the, financial aspect, like I thrive in those.

And so I have, given up, I let her be the point person on those decisions. I weigh in on those decisions, but at the end of the day, how our organization is set up. Whatever she decides she like her voice trumps mine in that and you know what that takes for me It takes security to go like i'm gonna trust That you're better at this because i've recognized the gifts that you have and they're different than my gifts Yeah, and i'm gonna I'm gonna even though you know In the church world, it's oh man should no man.

she has more eq Than I do. That's good. I have more iq than maybe she does from financial stuff But when it comes to the emotional quotient and the people thing She is way better at that than I am, and so I'm going to defer, and I'm going to relinquish leadership there and let her own that. And, so if she goes, hey, this is the way I want to do it, I'm going to, I'm going to give my two cents, but then I'm going to go, if that's what we're doing, I will back it.

and we lead, we actually, it isn't just she and I, we actually have a leadership team that we all lead together. And we make decisions together, when it comes to the organization and direction of where we're going. and I think as your organization grows, if you are going to be a secure leader, you have to give leadership away.

And you have to trust other people, and that, that's a hard thing to do, this is my baby. We, sacrifice to everything, you're a business owner, you know what it's like, you sacrifice everything, but at some point if it's, going to scale, you're gonna have to relinquish control. And you're gonna have to trust people, but those people better embody your values.

Better embrace your culture, like they better sound like you. They better talk like you. They better, relate like you. They might see things differently than you, but they better have that heart. and, but with my wife, man, it's, we live, eat, breathe, sleep church. And we talk about it at home.

We talk about it on dates because it's our life. Yeah. and, I wish that we could, there's times we go on vacation, like we went on vacation. we ended up doing a business plan, and and you're like, we're on vacation, but you know what it is? but we love it.

Yeah. So why, and you're like, oh, we got to separate. No, it's what we love. I love her, but we love this and we love it together. Yeah. And so why go? You can't, a lot of people are like, you, can't, you need to separate. No. It's, how we earn a living. It's, what we've given our lives to.

And so it's just, we're going to honestly, I feel like we process quite a bit on vacation because yeah, seriously, because you're, like, we're not from here, we're from Northwest Arkansas. So like when we go to Arkansas, it's a much slower pace or with family, but. We're able to talk about, and I come from a great family.

So going, home for me is not Oh, I'm going to visit relatives. I have an incredible family. So when we go home, we're able to process a lot of things and our family supports us. So like we actually, I would echo pretty much everything TJ just said. Like we process quite a bit together and, we moved here.

didn't, we knew TJ and Shayla when we moved here, we didn't know anybody else. and so we, process a lot of stuff we're going through with them. but when we get away, it, almost is Oh man, I freed up all this bandwidth in my mind. I'm not around my normal kind of, how some things like just get vanilla after a while.

and we'll do, days where we just get away. I love going to Miami and just cause Miami is weird and it's not like here and, it just gets a different part of my brain thinking. And I think that's so valuable, but it's, yeah, I think a separating church from family and our relationship, like my kids serve, like my wife sings on our worship team all the time.

So it's just, it's what we love. So I think that's honestly a dream come true for us is we get to do what we love. We don't go to work every day going, man, it's not work. It's I am the most fortunate individual to be at a church. Pay us to love Jesus. I don't know. Great gig. And we're not love Jesus.

It's awesome. It's awesome. And it, but it's a, there's a weight to it and it's, we take it seriously because it matters so much to us that we would literally leave our entire family to come do this. And, they did the same thing, we, we, gave up everything to come do this.

So it's it's a privilege and that's how I look at I don't care if you're giving your life to something you gotta look at it Like this is a the fact that god would trust me to do whatever that is. Yes Yes, you know should bring a gratefulness and it should you should be like man I'm so privileged that I would be entrusted with whatever that is And if you get up every day having that mentality, it And it might not happen, right?

there's days where I wake up, there's probably one day a week. we talk about this where we get up and we're like, let's just quit. Like we've talked about man, I was like, DJ, if you quit, I'm going with you, whatever. Like we could do a moving company, like whatever, every other week, you're just like, when you get all the hate emails, from whatever you said this past week and that offended somebody, you're just like, ah, but you have to, that has to be built into you.

Like you've got to wake up and just pre Craig Rochelle, great podcast to Craig Rochelle leadership podcast. he talked about, this mentality of pre deciding, I'm going to pre decide that I love this. That's good when I don't feel like I love it. Yeah. cause eventually if you do that enough, it's not your, I think, the phrase is feelings don't lead at least positive or negative feelings.

They don't really lead to actions. Like it's, you act in something and you decide I'm going to act in this so consistently that I'm going to start to feel different about what I'm doing. I tell people in marriages, you don't, feel your way into love. You love. Yeah. Feelings. That's it. Especially in the hardest times.

Yeah. Yeah. Like I, I find if you can find love there, man, that's it. Yeah. You're unbreakable. Yeah. That's where it is. Same thing in business. So if you're listening to this podcast, anything resonating with you, make sure you leave a comment right down below, subscribe on our YouTube channel, Apple podcast, Spotify, find us on social media.

We are here to serve you. last question for both of you. Last question. what's on your heart for this year? what has God placed in your heart for this year as a message to share that you can share with our listeners? the message has been on my heart this year. It's, the theme of our church is, this idea of run, run to your purpose, run to your calling, run to health.

for our staff, it's run to ministry, ministry is people. And so everything is focused on, our, let's run towards these things. And I think that those things are honestly the, things that create health in your life. And if, you'll make those your pursuit. And running doesn't mean you're sprinting.

It means what is your pace that you can run this year? That's good. That you can run all year. So good. So I don't want you sprinting. If you're gonna, if you're gonna, if you're gonna die out a quarter mile in, I need, you to create a pace. That is going to help you to run the race for a long period of time And I need you to focus on your personal health your spiritual health I need you to focus on people and loving people.

And if we do that We're going to build a great church that's going to reach a lot of people that we're Our mission is we want to make it hard for people to go to hell by making it easy for them to go to Church so they can experience know and follow jesus. And so if we run our race The byproduct is that we will do those things You My, my word for the year for myself personally was home.

Cause when home is good, pretty much everything else takes care of itself. so doing, my role has changed quite a bit. My location has changed quite a bit. And so I think that's made me focus a lot more inward on man, how are my kids doing? if my kids are struggling, like then I need, they need, me.

They need love from their father. and you're, that's on your mind. I know quite a bit. Danny is man, like if my home and my spouse, especially my spouse, like my, wife and I are going to Italy this year. We're very excited about that. And that's going to be a time where I know, like my home is going to get better because my wife and I got time away together.

I'm invested in my home. Because if my home is good, then I think I can impact others for their home to be good. And if their home is good, then every other aspect of their life is going to be okay. may not be perfect, and, I'm not expecting a home to be perfect either. My son's sitting in the room and he hears me say, I'm not looking for you to be perfect.

that's an unrealistic expectation. But we do have some values that we want you to embody. And we love you, and I want to know what's going on in your life. I want to know, you. Man, like, how are you doing? I know this has been hard for you, but also helping him understand, man, like you have purpose in what we're doing, even though it's hard.

Cause I think this is always going to be hard, but yeah, you got to choose your heart. That's so good. Yeah. Team that brings us to a close here. Thank you for tuning into another episode of the contractor click podcast. We'll see you on the next one. 

Oh, yeah.