David:

[0:00] Hello. Well, today I'm super excited to have with me John Crow. He is a great story of what it means to redeem your business. And he has a story of good success in the world and what the world brings. And then he has also a story of success by doing things God's way. So, John, welcome to Redeeming Business Today podcast. I'm delighted to have you on the show.

John:

[0:19] Pleasure to be here, David. Thank you.

David:

[0:22] Yeah. So, John, what is one way you believe that we can honor God in our business that others may not know about?

John:

[0:28] Well, you know, the Bible is pretty clear on it. We're going to honor God with everything we do, all our heart, all our soul, all of our energy. Right. And so I think it's more of, I think most Christians try to do that. I think it's more realizing and rephrasing mentally that your business, when you're running a company, is your ministry and it's your calling. And, um, if you kind of, if you kind of change that, you know, look, I'm here to serve my clients. I'm here to serve my employees. I'm here to serve, uh, you know, my family through making, you know, great financial decisions, et cetera. If you rephrase that into that, no, I'm here to serve God and, and everything I do, um, to me, it's just such an amazing blessing that comes back from that. You know, it's just, it's mind blowing the transformation that made it to me personally when I, when I was able to reframe things that way.

David:

[1:34] Very good. Thank you very much. So we've talked and you have quite a story,

David:

[1:39] I think, and we all have stories. Could you take five, 10 minutes and tell us a brief journey of your story? You can start with college with Rent-A-Car and where you are today.

John:

[1:50] You bet. Yeah. So my first job right out of college was in the rented car industry. And I started at the absolute bottom. I think it was a manager trainee with a radio driving around a shuttle full of sweaty guys making about six bucks an hour. And I had a college degree. And uh you know in those days especially in that industry if you were you know paying attention and you were willing to work hard uh you could climb up through the industry fairly quickly and i was able to do that um by the time i was 30 29 actually i was running a multi-state territory, based in Denver, Colorado.

John:

[2:34] A couple of years into that, we had the opportunity to divest of some of our corporate assets. And I was asked to do that with two of our big airports, luxury airports in Eagle and Aston, Colorado. And I was able to put together a deal with a luxury rent-a-car provider in Beverly Hills who did much more than that. Um, but the, the, the business bottles made sense and I was able to kind of put together a deal to, to, um, sell that portion of our business off to a, to another company. And, uh, in doing so, uh, it was clear that this was, uh, an organization that was led by a really great marketing mind, but didn't have any operational sophistication or, um, acumen, if you will. And um so you know we we put together a deal and i went out there as a minor minority equity partner.

John:

[3:34] And took over that organization and that was uh that was an eye-opener i was a farm boy from a little town in arizona and uh i i come out there and my first day in business is literally uh in little santa monica and wilshire boulevard which is the absolute gateway into beverly hills Colorado. Our client list was the A-list celebrities, all sorts of sports entertainment figures, and just about anybody else that you could think of was coming through that town looking for luxury cars at that time. And again, we did the rental cars part of it, but we also did sales and we did leasing. And in the end, we were even helping the industry, the automotive manufacturers do product launches.

John:

[4:24] And so we had our fingers to just about everything to do with luxury cars. And it was a wild, wild ride for me. Um, again, now I think I'm 30 and I'm driving every luxury car you can think of. I'm going to the craziest, wildest parties, you know, out there. Um, I have, uh, I've been, I've been in the church since I was nine years old. So I always had a compass. Um, but certainly what was going on around me was, was as worldly as it could be.

John:

[5:02] And it was a total for me solemn moment i was like i had done everything that i ever thought i would in terms of business i had kind of climbed to this pinnacle of my career and in every, respect that you know young young business leaders do uh the cars the planes the money the you know even being around that level of famous people etc and it was empty david it was utterly, it was vanity. And I knew it. And I was allergic to it. And long story short, my wife quickly, she was much brighter than I was. And she realized early on that we couldn't raise kids out there. And so we moved the family back. And for four years, I commuted, I got on an airplane every Monday, came back every Friday and tried to lead that life. And once it really sat in on me that this is just not something I can do, I put together.

John:

[6:15] A acquisition with one of our minority or minor competitors and we sort of merged the two companies together and I stayed on um as for a little bit as a as a CEO to kind of help make the transition um and then I left and I took a year off and in that year I knew that I had like I had seen what the world had to offer and it left me feeling very empty and I wanted to do something different, something that had purpose. Uh, we started a nutrition and fitness company in 2006. And, you know, of course that's right when the, uh, economy is about to go into a major, uh, a major change. And, uh, you know, I got in that second step, I got a lot of things, right, but I was still missing some things. And.

John:

[7:09] When it became apparent that because of the economy, we weren't going to be able to do with the organization what our long-term plans were in a time that was reasonable, I stumbled into the real estate world and was able to kind of take a piece of an organization that had already been started and buy it and then have the chance to kind of build it the way I wanted to. And this time from the very, very beginning, I knew that I had to make this a Christian organization, lead it as a Christian, you know, leader and really just use it as a vessel to glorify God.

John:

[7:54] And, you know, that was that really kind of got going in around 2010. And here we are almost 2025. And I've never been happier.

David:

[8:06] Very good. You kind of mentioned that things seemed empty. What was the turning point for you where you've said, I've been running this long enough and I'm just done. I want to do something different. What was a push at the end?

John:

[8:25] Yeah, it's a good question. I remember one specific event. We were asked to provide two Rolls-Royce convertible cars, and they were very special cars. You couldn't get them anywhere. We happened to have two of them, and they were matching white cars. And we delivered them to the, to this event and I was invited to go to the event. So I go to the event and they have, it's at the time, you know, these were half a million dollar cars in the luxury world today. That's not outrageous, but at the time it was completely outrageous. It's still outrageous, but you know, at the time it was, it was just mind blowing and they had parked them nose to nose and there was just a party favor. It was just a little adornment to the entry to their to their party and you know it's thousands and thousands of dollars to have this decoration for their party and it was just it was just um it was i i i looked at that and i was like this is the most wasteful this is you know this is rome before it burned you know and i and i just remember saying to myself that i i just can't do this i can't i just can't be a part of this.

David:

[9:47] Very interesting. So it was just decoration then? They didn't even drive them?

John:

[9:50] They didn't even drive them. They brought them back with zero miles in the cars. They literally had just put them there to impress people as they were walking into the front door.

David:

[9:58] Okay. It made an impact on you, didn't it?

John:

[10:01] It made an impact on me. I could tell you stories like that forever, but that was the one that was like, that really stuck out to me that I was like,

John:

[10:10] you know what, there's more to life than this nonsense.

David:

[10:13] Sure. So it seems to me you've gone up the ladder with Rent-A-Car and that business, and you've gone up the ladder with Century 21 where you're at today. Has the hard work been the same or has there been a difference in how you worked to get to the top or is there the same?

John:

[10:33] You know, I think we're all hardwired with a certain work ethic. And, you know, again, growing up on a dairy farm what what what's hard work to me is maybe not what's hard work to somebody else um but it was similar but the the difference this time around was more intentionality right zero zero uh flexibility on missing one of my kids events games whatever um zero flexibility I'm missing a daddy daughter dance or anything like that. Um, I was going to be home and not just home. I was going to be intentionally present this time through. And, um, you know, I was able to do that. And that, that's the biggest thing is it, you know, in the off times I would work just as hard cause you're building a business and I'm hardwired to build and make things better. Um, but in the, in the times that I set aside and I was very careful about setting side to time, time aside and protecting time for the family, um, there was, you know, laser focus on it.

David:

[11:38] I think that's very interesting what you said, that you took time out for your family and there was no tolerance for that, of missing that. And I think there's just that fear sometimes that we have to maybe miss that in order to keep the business going. We have to stop doing that a little bit to keep the business going. And I think God honors those who honor Him. And as you see, people, if a store is closed, they don't get mad at you. They just wait until you open again. That's right. You know, that we got it as owners got to think about that way. I think that's it.

John:

[12:12] You have to have faith in what you're doing and you have to you have to decide who you're going to honor, what you're going to honor. Are you going to honor one more sale that you might miss out on if you go to your daughter's dance or you're going to honor your daughter? Right. And, you know, my daughter just got married two weekends ago and the time is so short. Right. It goes so quickly. And then you don't get a second chance at it. So protecting that, I think, is critical in having the opportunity to then be

John:

[12:48] able to minister to her, too. Right. She knows she's taken seriously. She's elevated. But again, you know, I think it's just putting faith in God through your actions. that is most honoring.

David:

[13:09] Yes, that's very good. So what are some things that we should be aware of as we grow our business and things are going fast that you've seen people make mistakes, mistakes on?

John:

[13:24] Well, um, you know, I, I think it's the intentionality really probably that I see people making the mistakes on. Um, you, you can take shortcuts with employees. You can have a bad day with an employee. You can, um, have a short fuse or any of those things, but you never get that back. Right. And w the, the biggest risk that you can take. We did this. We branded ourselves as a Christian company unapologetically. We say a prayer before every meeting.

John:

[13:57] We were told, hey, you're going to get sued out of existence. And I said, that just means God's got something else for us to do. And that's fine. I know. It sounds crazy. We're going to be closed on Sunday. No real estate companies closed on Sunday, right? It just doesn't work that way because people want to be open. They want to see houses on weekends. but we were going to be different. And when you say that, that becomes the hardest thing you've ever done. We write serve first on the side of our building. I'm looking at it right now. It's on my door. Anybody that comes into my office sees serve first written on. And that's a reminder to them that I'm going to serve their needs. I'm going to put their needs above my own. And we're going to do the same thing with the entire organization for our clients and all the way through. That's a risky thing to do because then people hold you accountable to it, right? And so I think the biggest risk that I see people make is to not go all in and not mean it, own it, and live it every day. If you do, then the blessings that come back are 10th fold. You have true meaning in your life.

John:

[15:09] You have integrity in your words and actions, and you have God's blessing on your business. And that's what we've seen inside and out.

David:

[15:18] Very good. Thank you. Do you have any, some specifics that, how you do business differently to honor God as opposed to in the car business?

John:

[15:28] Well, the car business, you know, I would pray on my way to work. In this business, we pray here. You know, we, we, I want, when we have a new corporate, not a new corporate headquarters here, but we have a corporate headquarters here that we got, you know, 10, 10 years ago or so. And it was way more it was a stretch perhaps it was way more building than we needed and um in in addition to that there was a big uh open like warehouse building out behind us it's on an acre and a half and i walked in that uh acre i walked into that warehouse structure and i was like wow this is more than we would ever need what could this be i was thinking to myself you know we could use it for community events you know we could use it to train our people um and then it it just literally came to me i'm like we're gonna be closed on sunday we can use it for a church.

John:

[16:23] And um within six months it was a church and i didn't i didn't go out and look for a church i literally was sitting there one day i answered my phone and the guy says hey i've got a client for you. He needs commercial help. It's out of my league. Can you take this guy? And I said, sure, let me, let me see what I can do for him. And it was a pastor of a startup church. And I looked at his finances and I looked at his congregation side. I'm like, you don't need a commercial, a commercial assistance. You need a friend. So I've got this big building. Why don't you come in, get your, you can use our upper built upper room, uh, get your flock, your congregation built down a little bit and when you over you know when you're when you're too big for that we'll move you out here to this big building and and uh that partnership has been the greatest thing that we ever did they're side by side with us they're praying for us they're their people send us business we said that we sent we sent half a dozen or more of our agents to them to be in their congregation and uh so you know again we have a men's bible study women's bible study every week we have a rotary club meets out in the warehouse the church is out there on sundays we pray before every every meeting and our our values are written on our staircase so we try to make it a 365.

John:

[17:50] You know degree um.

John:

[17:53] Experience and we tell we everybody that walks into our company we've got people of all faiths no faiths everything in between work here right and we we walk them up and the last stare before you get to my office says faith on it and i make sure everybody that comes to work here gets told the same expression i'm many most of the time i do it myself and i say faith you know let me tell you what that means to us we're a christian organization that's where our faith comes from We try to live it proudly. And let me walk you down three stairs. And then the biggest font is the word love. And I tell them, that's what you're going to get from us. You're not going to get a sermon. You're not going to get, you know, try to be, you know, brought into our faith unless you're interested. There'll be opportunities for that. But all you're going to get from us is the love that we profess comes from our faith. And I have never had one person insulted, upset by it, because we mean it. We carry it out, right?

John:

[18:55] And so that's how we do it, David.

David:

[18:59] Very good. Yeah, no, I agree. That's when you're honest and you're integrity and thorough. Yeah, people see that. They can see whether it's just a shell on the outside or you really deeply mean it. It's interesting. The world will treat you like you treat them. You know, Jesus said, treat others how you want them to treat you. But I've been in business before when I was working at a trailer factory and realized that people always treated me very well because I treated them well. But they're very willing people. They treat everyone else rotten because they're always looking for the other person to treat them nice first. And it's like, hey, I just take the initiative and show nice to them. And they're always nice to me.

John:

[19:42] Well, he also said, be hot or cold, or I will spit you out, right? Choose what side you're going to be on and be proud of that. And so that's the side that I've chosen for our company. And we're fearless with it. And after watching it, first of all, you do it and it works and you're not being sued into oblivion or you're not, you know, it's just comfortable and loving the place for everybody. And you get this ego like wow why isn't everybody else doing it and then you meet somebody like you david and you're like lots of other people are doing it but not enough and and i i i um i really think that the the problem with where we're at as a society today is we as christians have taken aback we we've we've listened and we've listened to political correctness we've yielded to it and we just said okay well we're just gonna we're gonna take a back seat we're not gonna put our faith out there. But every time I watch somebody, a leader like the Greens, the Kathys, the, you know, from Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby or you, David, it just fires me up. It's just so encourages me that like we're not alone.

John:

[20:56] God will bless it every single time. Lead boldly.

David:

[21:01] Yes. Very good. Thank you. Thank you very much. One more thing before we go. What is one thing that our listeners can take away from today that they can take action on in their business? What's one challenge you have for them?

John:

[21:14] You know, again, I understand that this is that this to do this, to run your company this way or to run your whatever your lead, your team, whatever it is. I understand the obstacles that are out there. I would just say, start start small, take a small step of faith. And, you know, God says the faith the size of the mustard seed. Right. Just take that first small step of faith. and you will see what happens when you do.

David:

[21:47] All right. Very good. I love it. I always like to do the math. I'm a math geek. But one multiplied by infinity is infinity. And that's when I look at that faith, even just a little bit of faith in infinite God is infinite. And so that's how I like to look at that.

David:

[22:07] Thank you very much for your time and encouragement today. And friends, that's all we have for to now. And I hope you've been inspired to redeem your business and redeem your time and buy it back for God's glory. And remember that time has limits. You can't do everything, so choose wisely.