Graham Cochrane (00:11.224)
Most entrepreneurs hustle harder, thinking that's the only way to grow. But as Christian entrepreneurs, we have access to something different. God's wisdom, his blessing, and his power. And today, I wanna share with you six daily habits straight from scripture that can transform your business and your life. And these aren't just productivity hacks, these are habits.
that invite God into your work, shape your mindset, position you for exponential growth. If you've ever wondered how some people go from making in a year what they now make in a single month, these are the habits that make that possible. Let's dive in.
Graham Cochrane (01:07.982)
There are so many habits we could unpack. There's so many scriptures we could unpack. But if you are a Christian entrepreneur, this is going to be so powerful for you because this will give you some meat to hold on to, some actionable things you can be doing to truly invite God's blessing into your business and to partner with him. He's got so much more power than you have on your own. Why try to do it on your own when you could leverage his power? And if you're not a Christian,
I think these verses in the scripture that I'm going to unpack for you today are going to have a lot to say to you as well. And my hope and prayer is that you'll get curious. You'll pick up a Bible and you'll read it. Pick up a Bible app and read it however you like to read this stuff. And just see what it has to say and see if you can't apply it to your own life. Even as a non-believer, there is power and wisdom in this book that people underutilize but should take advantage of.
and I want you to take advantage of it as well today. So I'm gonna share with you six habits that I use and leverage that have helped me scale from being broke in 2009 in the middle of a great recession as a musician who had lost two jobs in a span of 10 months and was on food stamps and not knowing a single thing about business to generating at this point around $20 million online, multiple millions a year, working less than I ever worked before.
having so much more fun, having so much more impact. None of it makes sense on paper, but it does make sense in the kingdom of God. It makes sense in the spiritual realm, not because I'm great, not because I'm that smart, not even because I worked that hard, but because of God's power in my life. And I want to show you these six things right now. So habit number one that I do every single day, and I would encourage you to do, is read God's word. Read the Bible.
2 Timothy 3, 16, and 17 says, I think we missed that last part as Christians, that last line, verse 17. God uses all scripture, which is what we're talking about.
Graham Cochrane (03:31.512)
to prepare and equip us to do every good work.
There are really important works ahead of you in your business, literally your work, your vocation, but also in the life you live outside of your business, right? But every good work that is prepared for you, and the scriptures are clear that God prepared works for us in advance to do before the foundations of the world, like he scripted this whole thing. There is work that only you can do, that you are meant to do, that's going to help expand God's kingdom. There's only work that only I can do.
going to help expand God's kingdom. To be prepared and equipped to do those works, we need God's Scripture. We need His Word. Right? Like, how can you even step into the business you feel called to build or you're already in the middle of if you're not prepared for it, if you're not equipped for it? Like, if you hire a team member, if you hire someone, an employee on your team, and you just say, all right, here's the job, go do it without preparing or equipping him or preparing or equipping her or training them,
How can you expect them to do the job? Well, you can't. That doesn't even make any sense. And yet we've been called by the God of the universe to do a work in the world, and your business is your ministry, is work for building the kingdom and serving God's people.
You've been called to it and you need to be prepared for it. You need to be equipped for it. How are you going to get equipped? How are you going to get prepared? There's no training manual for this. God's Word, Scripture. Like literally, it's funny, I grew up in the church and this book, the Bible, just seemed like a spiritual text. it didn't seem... maybe it was a moral book, you know, it's going to help me stay out of trouble, live a moral life. I didn't really realize that this was a...
Graham Cochrane (05:20.374)
book about how life works best. This is really a book about God's kingdom, about God's design for humanity and the world and all things. And so to read it as only a spiritual book is to miss so much that God is trying to teach us how to be a husband and a wife, how to raise kids, how to manage money, how to love people well and do relationships well, how to run governments and countries and nations, right?
how to build a business. It's crazy how much practical life advice is in here that we just miss thinking it's only a spiritual text. It's so much more. And so if you have a business in front of you and you're trying to, what, use YouTubes, videos like this, podcasts like this, books like I've written, content that other people have created to run your business, that's great. And my books and my content and my coaching are great, but guess what? I'm not God, friend.
I don't know a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent. What I know about business is but a drop of water in the Pacific Ocean of God's wisdom and knowledge. I'm not even close. So,
If I'm not even close and people that are smarter than me aren't even close to what God has to say, how can we only rely on man's wisdom and man's advice and man's coaching to prepare us and equip us for the work we have to do, important work we have to do? We can't. We need God's wisdom. So practically speaking, start your day in the best-selling book of all time, the Bible. Ten minutes a day minimum. Just read it. Just read it. If you don't know where to start, I'll give you a couple of places.
Start in the book of John, if you're a newer Christian, to better understand Jesus, what he's all about, how he thinks about life and how he thinks about us and how he thinks about the kingdom of God. But start in the book of Proverbs as well. There are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs, so you could read a chapter of Proverbs a day, every day of the month, right? 31 days in most months. Read Proverbs or read the book of John. Go through the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and better understand Jesus, because the Bible's ultimately all about Jesus.
Graham Cochrane (07:39.491)
We learned that in the end of the book of Luke. So read about Jesus and then get wisdom from the book of Proverbs if you don't know where to start. But just start at 10 minutes a day. The Bible reading app, excuse me, the Bible app, U version, has a ton of Bible reading plans. If you want to start a Bible reading plan on marriage or money or relationships or whatever it is, like there's reading plans that will pull up verses to get started. Just start somewhere. Just start.
even if you don't understand it. Pick up a translation that you can better understand, whether it's the NIV or the NLT, the New Living Translation, I really love that. Or even pick up the message, which is technically a paraphrase of the Bible, but it helps you better understand God's Word. Whatever tools you need to better read and understand God's Word every day. So for example, I go through and I read God's Word every day and I underline
Anything that I feel like jumps out at me, I underline. And so as I go through the same Bible over and over again, I get to see things that I've underlined before. And I like to write down scriptures that are highlighted to me. Something that a mentor of mine told me years ago that changed the way I read the Bible was, he said, don't feel like you have to read something that's boring. If you're in a passage of scripture and it's not connecting with you, it's okay.
It doesn't mean it's not alive or active, which we know the Word of God is, Hebrews tells us that, but it just may not be what God wants to highlight for you in this moment. So pick up a topic or pick a chapter or a verse that you seem interested in and just start reading. And when something jumps off the page to you, like, hey, that's interesting to me. That is God's Holy Spirit saying, hey, I have this for you. Pay attention to this right now. Underline it, sit on it, and then use a tool.
like Blue Letter Bible. Blue Letter Bible is an app you can download on your phone, on your iPad, or your computer. Go to blueletterbible.com. It is a tool that has all the Bible translations, but what it has is a bunch of things like commentaries, lexicons, which are basically dictionaries of what the original Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic mean, which is so powerful. So you can do word study on the actual original text, not the English if you read English. Like the Bible wasn't written in English, right? It was translated into English.
Graham Cochrane (09:59.715)
But we have the original manuscripts or copies of the manuscripts that are within 60 years of the originals being written, the most accurate ancient writings we have of anything. So we know they're exactly what was said. So we have the original Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic passages. We can then look at those. And so there are tools inside a Blue Letter Bible. You click on a verse and you say, well, that's interesting. If it says like, blessed are those who mourn, what does the word blessed mean? You can click on that word in Blue Letter Bible.
and it'll pull up the actual biblical definition, how that word is used in scripture, what the word means in Hebrew, what that word means in Greek, how it's used in all sorts of text outside of the Bible in the original language so you better understand the original words. That's powerful. So I like to do a deep study of that. Just one click, couple seconds in, you learn something powerful and new. And then two, this is the power, cross references. There is a button inside of Blue Letter Bible when you see a verse and you like that verse and it's interesting to you.
Click on it and click cross references and what it will do is pull up every other verse in the entire Bible that's related to this verse. Maybe it's the same person that was in that scripture. Maybe it's the same concept. Maybe it's a similar word that was used. But then you can look at the other cross references and see what of those other passages jump out at you as well. And you just go on this little mini treasure hunt of seeing what else God has for you. And it starts with just one verse on your phone.
It gives me one verse that was interesting to you and you do a word study for 30 seconds to a couple minutes. You do a cross-reference study. All of a sudden, you're 15, 20, 30 minutes into this and you found other verses and definitions of the word. You're better understanding the Bible and you're letting the Bible interpret the Bible for itself. This will change your life. I'm telling you, there is no way to have the wisdom of God without reading God's Word.
People say, I want to hear from God. You know what? The best, most accurate, most reliable way to hear from God is pick up the book that he wrote. He only wrote one book. Read it every single day.
Graham Cochrane (12:11.534)
Okay, number two habit I do every single day and I would encourage you to do is talk to God and listen. Talk to God and listen. The Bible calls this prayer. What we've turned prayer into is some religious thing where we recite something that somebody else wrote or we say something that we've said every time before we eat our food. know, bless this food, bless our whatever, you know, or we just repeat a prayer.
that we saw written once in scripture, like the Lord's Prayer. Jesus' disciples asked Jesus, teach us how to pray, and He showed them a model of prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Right? Yeah, we could recite that, but does that mean anything to you? I grew up reciting that every day in church, right? Does that mean anything to me? No. It went in one ear, in one ear, and out the other. That's not what prayer is. Prayer is just
talking to God, telling him everything. But then more importantly than talking to him and telling him stuff is you do the other part of what talking to people involves, which is listening. If you're in a relationship with someone all they do is talk and they never listen to you, what kind of relationship is that? That's a weird relationship, right? Relationships with two people involve talking and listening, talking and listening, giving and receiving. The conversation goes two ways.
It's the same with the God of the universe. He wants to hear from you, but he also wants to speak to you. And I think most Christians have no clue what to do in their life because they talk to God and then they walk away. They say a prayer and they walk away. They have never stopped, even for a few seconds, to close their eyes, shut their mouths, and listen. And I think the reason why is we don't believe God actually speaks.
When we know He speaks, how else did we get to the Bible? This is all revealed to people, to humans. God spoke to them, and they wrote down what He said. God speaks, right? There's a few different words for the Word of God in the Bible. You've got logos or logos, which means God's Word, like His written Word. Sometimes you have the word scriptura, which means the Scriptures. But then there's also the word rama.
Graham Cochrane (14:31.886)
God's Word of God, which means the utterance of God, God speaking. And the rama is how we got the logos in the script to her. The rama is how we wrote, what people to write down. So God is still the same God. He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, Hebrews tells us. So He's still speaking to you, but are we even listening? Are we too distracted with our phones? Habakkuk 2, excuse me, wrong verse. Isaiah 30, 21, getting ahead of myself, Isaiah 30, 21 says,
right behind you a voice will say, this is the way you should go, whether to the right or to the left. Literally, and this whole chapter is a beautiful chapter, Isaiah chapter 30, about how we wrongly make plans and counsel with human leaders like the Pharaoh in Egypt as opposed to making plans and counsel with the Holy Spirit. You make plans, but did you check in with God is what Isaiah is saying. If you do check in with God, He will speak to you and your own ears will hear Him.
Verse 21, right behind you a voice will say, this is the way you should go. How many of us would love to know which way to go, which direction to take for our business, which opportunity to say yes to or say no to, which marketing initiative to pour our hearts into? Wouldn't that be nice to know the future? Wouldn't it be nice to have a look, not just down the street, but around the corner, be able to see around curves? Yes, this is where God's
utterances to you can change your business and your life. Prayer invites revelation. It invites divine guidance. Stuff that you can't get from books or mentors alone. God's Word gives us wisdom that's so true and you can run with that, but God also speaks specifically to you and your situation. God, should I hire this person? Should I fire this person? What should I post about on YouTube? What should my next offer be? Should I speak at this event or not?
Right? Literally, these are questions I ask God all the time. So if you don't know what to ask, and literally when I do my journaling time, we'll talk about that in a second, when I do my journaling time every day, I'll write down specific questions. I treat my time with the Lord as if I'm meeting with my most respected business coach or mentor because that is who God is. He is the ultimate mentor who knows all things and knows you better than you know yourself. And so I come to him with questions.
Graham Cochrane (16:58.732)
I say, Lord, if you could speak into this, I would love to know X, and Z. Now, he doesn't always answer me. I don't always even hear anything. And when I say hear things, really mean when I pray and I ask God to speak into something and then I shut my mouth and I shut my eyes and I listen carefully, quietly for five, 10, 20 minutes, whatever thoughts come to mind, whatever ideas come to mind.
whatever images come to mind, visuals come to mind, that's God speaking. And I assume it is speaking. I would rather assume it's Him than me than assume it's me rather than Him. Because if I have postured myself to receive from God, I'm in His Word, I'm asking for Him to speak, why would I assume that it's not Him speaking to me? Right? I've gotten so much revelation from God. But if you don't know what to ask, two simple questions you can ask. I learned this from Jamie Winship.
His book, Living Fearless, is a profound work. He's a brilliant guy. He says, just ask these two simple questions every day. God, what do want me to know today? And what do you want me to do?
What do want me to know and what do want me to do? Those two questions could completely change the course of your life.
There's been many, many times God has directed me in prayer.
Graham Cochrane (18:17.114)
One that comes to mind, and this is a crazy story, but in 2016, my business was really struggling for the first time ever, and I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to get the revenue up, I didn't know what was wrong, I was doing the same thing I'd always been doing, but nothing was working. And it was months of revenue starting to dip, dip, dip, dip, dip, and I was just hitting the panic button.
And I eventually was so tired of panicking, I almost just gave up. like, well, I guess this is it. I guess the business is gonna continue to trend downward. And I was rioting all the way down to the ground. One day, I'm praying and I'm asking God, Lord, what do you me to know today? And I felt this crazy thought pop in my head and it felt like it was coming straight from God. said, Graham, I want you to pray and ask me to double your business. I said, that's a crazy, no, I'm not gonna ask that.
I'm not even trying to ask God, anyone to double my business. I just would like my business to go back to where it was, thank you very much, before it started to fall apart. But I felt that it was God saying, pray that I would double, that He would double my business, excuse me. So I prayed, all right God, this is dumb, but you told me to pray it, so I'm gonna pray it. God, would you double my business? Went on my merry way. About an hour later, I am opening my inbox, and inside my inbox is an email with a subject line that says, Graham, can I help you double your business? I laughed out loud.
Total scammer email, I figured, but what are the odds that it's the same subject line of what God just asked me to pray an hour earlier? So I opened the email and turns out it's not a scammer. It's actually a guy who's a fan of my work. I was doing my music business, the recording revolution at the time. He's a musician, but his real job was he was a marketing guy and he helped online business owners and creators and he found one of my YouTube videos because he was looking for vocal microphone to buy and how to record piano and vocals at the same time and he was like, this is so cool. This is a guy.
doing the type of business that I help people with, but he's also a musician and he helped me with his content. And he just reached out to Connect and was like, hey, if you ever need any marketing help or whatever, maybe you got up and running on your own, I'm always happy to just give some ideas and jump on a call and help you as I really enjoyed your videos. I jumped on a call with him. We ended up talking. Asked him about what he does. He told me how he partners with people and what that looks like. And I prayed about it. And a week later, I hired him. A month later, we had my first $100,000 month.
Graham Cochrane (20:35.744)
And 18 months later, we had doubled my business. And he became a great friend and a great partner. Taught me a lot about marketing. I was seven years into business, had done a lot of good stuff. But he just, he taught me new things and just took my business to the next level. And that would never have come if it weren't for sitting and listening to God. And that's what's possible for you. God can bring the right partners, he can bring the right help, he can bring the right opportunities and open doors. He can tell you to stop doing something. He can...
and tell you when a trend is about to change, I feel like every time I've pivoted in my business, I've been ahead of the curve. And it's not because I knew something was changing, it's because I felt God was leading me and I listen and I obey. So ask God to speak to you and he will speak to you. Habit number three, journal daily.
If you are spending even 10 minutes with God in the morning, reading his word and asking him to speak to you, you better, you better come with a piece of paper and a pen and write something down. Would you? Listen, let's say you hired me for my VIP day. I charged $250,000 for a VIP day of coaching. You fly to Tampa, all the way to Tampa. You spend a quarter of a million dollars with me and we sitting down for eight hours.
and I show you how you can make an extra two plus million dollars a year in your business. Would you write something down? You better believe you would write something down. That laptop would be out, you'd be like, uh-huh, uh-huh, and what was that again, Graham? Uh-huh, because that's what I do with my clients. We optimize your offer, I help you attract more of your ideal avatar, I help you learn how to confidently close 50K offers, 100K offers, 25K offers, and I show you how to scale. You would write this stuff down.
Then why? Why is that, by the way? Because you've invested a lot of money? Yes. But also because you respect me and you truly want the results and so you don't want to forget what we talked about that day. Why do we not approach the God of the universe the same way? Why do we sit down with our Bibles and we pray and then we walk away and don't write a single thing down? What are we doing, people? Journal. And I talked about this
Graham Cochrane (22:53.326)
A couple of weeks ago, I have made fun of journaling, journalers, journals my whole life. For the last three, four years, I've been completely changed. I'm singing a different tune. I have pages and pages and dozens of journals filled. But not only my thoughts and what God's doing and gratitude, but what God says to me. Habakkuk 2.2, then the Lord said to me, write my answer plainly on tablets so that a runner can carry the correct message to others.
write stuff down. When God gives you ideas, write them down. When God gives you insights and epiphanies, write them down. When God gives you spirit-led divine strategies, write them down. Because if you don't, they're going to slip away. And then you're going to literally have missed out on the God of the universe giving you such a simple idea that could have completely transformed your business, could have completely transformed your bank account, could have completely transformed your industry.
Because the Lord whispers, like, it's not loud. He's a gentleman. He's not like, this is what you should do. He's so gentle. But He's clear. If you could just open your ears, He'll say the most profound things that may sound weird or what or how is that going to happen? Write it down anyway so you can at least think about it later. Maybe you're even unsure if it was God's voice. Maybe you think it was your voice. Write it down anyway.
Write it down anyway. So 15 minutes a day of journaling, right? This will become your... Your journal can become your personal business playbook. Forget anyone else's books. Forget anyone else's course. You can have in your little journal, and my journal's over there on my sofa, you can have your own personal business playbook with divine downloads from the Holy Spirit. Offer ideas.
copy ideas, partnership ideas, marketing ideas. I've gotten the names and subtitles of books. I've gotten people's names to partner with. I have gotten complete shifts on business strategy. I've gotten marketing ideas. I've gotten all kinds of stuff in my time with the Lord and I write them down. And sometimes I don't know what to do with them right away, but I write them down. And then here's a pro tip. I review my journal. I try to review it every month.
Graham Cochrane (25:21.944)
I'm not always good about this. I go back and reread, just skim. I just skim. And what I do in my journal is I write things down and when I think I heard the Lord say something, I put quotations around it and underline it. That's my way of notifying myself that, this is what I thought God said versus what I'm writing to the Lord. So when I can glance in my journal, I instantly know, okay, God, I think God said this the other day. I God said this the other day. And you can start to see patterns when you have months and months of journal entries and hearing from the Lord, you see...
the patterns. And sometimes you see the same verses pop up and you realize God's speaking to me through His word in the verses and He's speaking to me through His rama, His utterances, through the things He says and I'm seeing patterns. I better pay attention.
Good examples can be for me,
It's funny, I was even praying in a sauna. I was in Ojai, California at the Ojai Valley Inn, which is a beautiful resort. sitting in the sauna one day and I remember I was trying to come up with a subtitle for my second book, Rebel. I didn't have a single good subtitle and that book needs a good subtitle because it's not very clear what I mean by rebel. It's a word picture, but it doesn't clarify what the book is really about because a subtitle really needs to be a powerful promise, right? For all you authors out there. So.
I'm sitting there and I'm praying in the sauna. And then when I pray, after I've talked to the Lord and asked him questions, I close my eyes and I listen.
Graham Cochrane (26:49.006)
And probably 10 minutes go by and I'm just silent. mean, I'm telling you silence and stillness has been so profound. I'll give you a bonus verse here. I believe it's Psalm 46, 10. Be still and know that I am God. I think it was Ruth Barton Haley who said in her book, Invitation to Silence and Solitude, she rephrases that verse to say, be still and the knowing will come. Like the knowing of God comes when we are still.
We're like a jar of river water, she says, it's been shooken up and there's all the sediment floating around. You have to set the jar down and wait. Just stop and be still. And eventually the sediment all falls to the bottom and the water becomes clear. So if you want your mind to become clear, if you want to have knowing from God, be still. So there I was in the sauna still sweating.
all of a sudden this phrase pops in my head. I wasn't even asking about the subtitle of my book. I had been praying about it for months, but I wasn't even asking in that moment about it, but I was listening for God's voice. And literally I heard him say, find yourself by not following the crowd. I said, that's exactly what this book is about. And it's a short, alliterative way to say that this book will help you find yourself by not following the crowd. And I got out of the sauna.
I went and grabbed my journal, which I had in the locker room. I brought it to the sauna and the spa because I knew I was gonna get ideas and I wrote it down. When God gives you an idea, write it down immediately. It could be a game-changing idea. And that book went on to become a USA Today bestseller. All right, that was Habit Three, Journal Daily. Okay.
Let's get into a couple more maybe controversial ones. Habit four, live frugally. Okay, this blows my mind, but frugality used to be the bedrock of at least America. I can only speak for my country, but we have lost our minds in this country. But let me show it to you in Proverbs 21 verse 20. Solomon says, the wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get.
Graham Cochrane (29:05.55)
The ESV translation translates this, the fool devours everything he has. It's just a beautiful word picture of just like gobbles it all up. Okay? This proverb is saying a lot. If the why, he always contrasts the whys and the fool in proverbs. So wise people do this, foolish people do this. Wise people look like this, foolish people look like this. So you can in for a lot. If the whys have wealth and luxury, fools don't.
If fools spend whatever they get, then the wise don't. See how there's this inverted relationship? So to have wealth and luxury, you have to not spend every single thing you get. I mean, this is just math, by the way, friend. The only way to have wealth is to not literally blow through every single dollar you earn. There are people making a million dollars a year in their business every single day. Let's just say you can make millions a year in your business. That doesn't mean you're taking home millions. Let's just say taking home a million dollars.
a year in their business. And they spend every dollar of it and they have no wealth. And they don't even really live in luxury because it's all borrowed. It's all on credit. It's all gonna be gone. Right? So here's the thing. Frugality is the key. And I do not mean to be a miser. I am not a miser. I live a really great life. Right? I live in a multi-million dollar house. I have multiple houses.
I drive very expensive six-figure cars. I take really nice vacations. I don't even know what gas costs or food costs anymore. I don't look at those things because I have so much wealth I can enjoy that kind of lifestyle. And I am not bragging. Please hear me. Because I have been broke and God was good to me then and we had a great life then, but I have a lot more now. I'm not a penny pincher.
but I have always lived below my means at every single level. And this is what the Bible teaches. Like this is literally what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches, especially in, you look at the parables with Jesus, there's a lot of teaching from Jesus about stewardship or managing God's resources. He's always looking, God is always looking for how you manage what he gives you. And the way to have more is to manage what you have well.
Graham Cochrane (31:30.479)
I talked about this a few weeks ago about the unfair advantage of that one Bible story and it's the parable of the talents. And in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, we see the principle that God gives you resources, He wants to see what you do with them, and if you manage them the way He wants you to manage them, He gives you more. So the way to have more is to manage God's resources the way He wants you to manage them. And one way He wants you to manage them
is by living on lesson you make. Living frugally. So if you can live frugally, if you can choose to not spend everything you make at a low level, God can trust you with more. And then look, I live a great lifestyle and it's still a fraction of what I earn. I literally am by definition living frugally compared to my income, but my income has just gotten so big these days, right? So to have the wealth and the luxury you want,
You have to start by living below your means right now. Wealth isn't built by just earning more money. And there's people that tell you this. say, don't worry about budgeting and don't worry about cutting back on your expenses. Just make more money. Such stupid advice. Horrible advice. Right? I've literally heard it say, there's a limit to what you can save, but there's no limit to what you can earn. Well, that is true. But that's a pointless saying if someone is still spending everything they make.
They need to have the wisdom and the habit and the posture of living below their means so that when they earn more, which I help people do every single day, and yes, I think there's no limit to how much you can earn. That's why I think you should be an entrepreneur. Great, but making more does not help you if you have not built in the practice of being frugal. Is this making sense? So earning more ain't gonna do it for you.
Stewarding or managing, which is what a steward does, is manage someone else's property. Managing God's resources wisely does. Frugality creates margin. Frugality shows faithfulness. And so when you do that, God blesses you with more. So practically speaking, my friend, if you're getting started in your business journey or growing your business, delay luxury. Like that car you want, that neighborhood you want to live in, like that trip you want to take.
Graham Cochrane (33:46.863)
and just say no to yourself for a time. I'm not saying don't have luxury items. I freaking love luxury items. My nickname, and I'm not proud of this, but my kids call me Super Booj. That's my superhero name. You're Super Booj, Dad. You just buy the nice thing, right? It's pretty pathetic, but I think it's funny in my house. Whatever, it's embarrassing. There's no context, now I'm gonna get judged. Call me Super Booj if you want. I love bougie things. I love luxury things. I love staying at the Ritz-Carlton.
I wrote my recent book that's coming out next quarter, The Effortless Business. I wrote it at the St. Regis in Longboat Key on the ocean. Like that place is so expensive per night, but it's so worth it because everything's beautiful. The marble, mean everything. The service, the butler. It's amazing. I love that kind of life. But I delayed it. I delayed it and I allowed my lifestyle to grow while I still was frugal. Always, right? So delay luxury.
Prioritize margin. Margin is the difference between what you spend and what you make. Have a gap. There should always be a gap. And then reinvest the surplus that you make into what God is calling you to build. Like the way to grow your business fast is to spend less than you're bringing in, reinvest into your business, and reinvest into some other things that God wants you to reinvest, which we'll talk about in a minute. But you gotta delay luxury so that you can have luxury later. Dave Ramsey has said this famously. I love this line.
Live like no one else now so that later you can live like no one else. Did you catch it? Like live in a way right now that people would make fun of you. You should be going out more. Why don't you, why did you cancel Netflix? Why do you drive that beater car? Live like no one else will live now so that later you can live like no one else. When they're still burning through everything they make, when they're still renting Lamborghinis to pose in front of for Instagram, you will actually pay cash for a Lamborghini if you want.
whatever car you want. And it's like a drop in the bucket of your wealth and your ability to have cash flow and live a great life and do good in the world. Is this making sense? So I'll give you practical example. I drive a $120,000 car, which is crazy. But I drove a Dodge Neon. I don't even know if you know what a Dodge Neon is, but it was a, what was that, like a $13,000 car back when I bought it.
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in college, I drove that little tiny gray stick shift, base trim cloth seats, manual transmission Dodge Neon for 10 years. And my wife drove a hand me down 1997 Ford Explorer that my grandfather drove and we ran those cars into the ground until we could pay cash for a slightly used Acura and then we were able to buy
my wife Alexis RX and then luxury SUVs. But we were able to upgrade and pay cash for whatever we wanted because we drove crappy cars for a long, long time. I was doing half a million dollars a year and still driving a $13,000 Dodge Neon. That was 10 years old. Is that giving you some context? I was making half a million dollars a year. Profit. Take home.
and still driving a 10 year old $13,000 car. That was crappy.
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But now we can drive whatever we want.
because we have kept our lifestyle always at a fraction of what we've made. So I make a lot and also my lifestyle is great, but I would never, ever, ever spend everything I have because that's what fools do. Fools spend whatever they get, but the wise live in wealth and luxury. So live frugally. That's habit number four. Let's keep talking about money. Habit number five, give generously. This one will change your finances more than anything. Two verses for you. Proverbs 11, 24 and 25.
Give freely and become more wealthy. Be stingy and lose everything. The generous will prosper. Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. Say what? This is the great paradox of tithing, of giving to God's kingdom, giving to other people. Givers become wealthier. People who don't give struggle. And I am living proof of it. I've put this to the test. I believe in this so much.
I did a whole TED talk on this.
We had to make it more about the science of how it'll make you happier. But there is so much evidence that it will make you wealthier, not because it's a formula, because God loves a cheerful giver. And that's going to take me to my next verse, 2 Corinthians 9, verse 6 through 8. Paul says this, he's talking about financial generosity. He's asking a church to donate to their cause to fund the kingdom of the ministry. He says, remember this, a farmer who plants a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously
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will get a generous crop. You must decide in your heart how much to give so no one can tell you. And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure for God loves a person who gives cheerfully. And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. Wow! There's so much of God's upside down
economy in those two verses, but people who give it away become wealthy. People who hold on to what they have and hoard it for themselves become poor. People who refresh others by just blessing them with their finances become refreshed and bless themselves. If you sow a few seeds, you only get a small harvest. If you sow a lot of seeds, you get a bigger harvest. And not only that, God will give you everything you need and more than you need so you have plenty left.
Over is what it says. So this is the, this is one of God's heartbeats. And the reason this is the way it is because this is what God bleeds for. He bleeds for generosity. God by definition is generous. John 3 16. We know that God loved us. God so loved the world. He loved the world in this way what? That he gave. God so loved us that he gave us the most valuable gift he could ever give, his own son. He sacrificed his own son for you and for me. God by definition is a generous being.
So if we are made in his image, we are made to be generous. God is free and liberal with his possessions and resources. So therefore we should be free and liberal with our possessions and resources. Now, side note, I don't believe that the government should come and take our stuff and give it to somebody else. That's called theft. That's called socialism, right? That's not what the Bible teaches. But God's relying on his people.
to be open-handed and free and give generously, to not hold onto stuff too tightly. Why? Because when you open your hands, not only can you give it away, but God can put more in your hands.
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I read a great book years ago by David Green, the founder of Hobby Lobby, okay? Billionaire. He still lives on his same salary from 20 years ago. They give over half of their profits away to charity every single year, which is billions with a B, right? And he wrote a great book called Giving It All Away and Getting It All Back Again. And it's just his story of how God invited him into this beautiful relationship of trusting him.
by giving in and giving more and giving more. And so he runs his business with excellence and has made billions of dollars so that he can give so much of it away. So he can employ hundreds of thousands of people and give them jobs and a great life. So he can have a great product or service to give people in the marketplace. But he's funding Kingdom Work all over the world. I don't think anyone's done more for the Kingdom of God than David Green, the CEO of a arts and crafts store.
It's the business people that are going to have the biggest impact, not the pastors. No offense to the pastors. It's the business people that are going to reach more people for God's kingdom. It's not the missionaries. It's the business people. If, and this is the big if, you let God use you. If you let God get the resources, I love this phrase, if He can get it through you, He'll get it to you. Like if He can trust you to pass on what He's put in your care temporarily, He'll keep putting money in your pocket. Because again,
Think about it, God's looking for the people he can trust who are going to do the things with the resources that he wants them to do because they are ultimately his resources.
When you give, you invite God's blessing on your finances and things multiply. I don't know how else to tell you. It also just frees you from greed. It's the antidote to greed. I've had millions of dollars come through my hands and I don't think I'm a greedy person. And the only way that's possible is because I've given millions away also. I just don't hold on to it. It's just money. I know God's not gonna give me more because he trusts me. He's told me that much.
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I will never run out of money because God will always supply whatever I need because He trusts me. He knows He can trust me. So it's going to free you from grief. So practically speaking, pick a percentage to give before you spend money, before you invest money. Commit to a percentage. If you're a Christian, I believe there's a pattern in Scripture, both Old Testament and New Testament, that 10 % should be a baseline and you should go up from there. It's called a tithe, but there's no obligation.
Right, literally Paul says, don't do this reluctantly or out of pressure. But I just think you're kind of missing out on God's best if you don't. So why would you want to give less? The more you give, the more you unlock God's blessing. And I've lived it over and over and over again.
I remember one of my first big launches.
and I had $40,000 in my bank account, which was a lot of money. mean, think about it. The most I ever made in a year at my last job was $30,000 a year. And here I was talking about recording music in my little home studio and running a YouTube channel. And I'd just done a launch of a new course and I had $40,000 extra dollars in my business bank account. I was like, this is amazing. Babe, we could go buy something, you know? Or we could use it to pay off our mortgage a little bit or we could whatever. And one day I was at lunch with a friend.
for my church and he was telling me that he was really sad because he felt that God was calling him to come on staff at the church and become one of the pastors. They really needed a second pastor. It was a small church, but there wasn't enough money in the church budget to pay him a salary. And so they're like, we want to hire you, but we don't have enough in the budget yet. And we're hoping we can get some more people giving and maybe in a year we'll have enough to bring you on and hire you. And he just really felt like that was God's call in his life and he was ready to step into it. And so I said, well, how much do you need for the salary?
Graham Cochrane (44:53.038)
He said $40,000 a year. And in that moment, going back to hearing God speak, I felt a little whisper from the Holy Spirit saying, Graham, don't you have $40,000 sitting around? And I was like, oh, yeah, I do. I do. So I knew exactly what I needed to do. And later that day, I called up my pastor who was on staff and I said, hey, man, I know we want to bring so and so on as a pastor. And he just told me that there's not enough money in the budget for it.
I have exactly how much he needs to fund his first year of a salary. I would love to make this gift to the church, but I don't want you to say that it was from me. I just want you to say that there was some anonymous donations, enough money has come in, things have changed in the budget and we can hire you. And I want you to use it to bring him on and hire him for his first year. And so he got to come on staff and help our church out a lot, lighten the load from our other pastor who was preaching and he got to do more of the counseling. And so that was an amazing moment, but you know what's crazy?
is that next year my business too X'd. And I'm not saying that it's a formula and I'm not saying that this is what always happens. I'm just saying that it is not a coincidence that God told me to give this $40,000 outside of our tithing and my business doubled the next year. I have countless stories like this. And it's just so evident that my wife and I just are committed to giving above and beyond the tithe, just giving as much as we possibly can away to our church, to...
local organizations. We really believe in feeding the poor and the homeless. We really believe in orphan care and widow ministry. We really believe in funding missions organizations all around the world. Then we do one-offs that aren't even tax deductible. We help pay for people's adoptions. We help buy cars for people they need a car. Like stuff that just you'll never be able to write off, but God sees it. God blesses it.
So pick a percentage, become generous. Generosity is not an amount, it's a sacrifice. Whatever that amount is, it feels like a sacrifice to you. That's when you know it is a sacrifice, because it costs you something, and it's scary, but watch God work. Nothing will roll your business faster than walking in the blessing of God, and he blesses our finances when we give generously. And habit number six, don't quit.
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Never give up. Galatians 6, 9 is so clear. So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up.
Persistence is a spiritual principle. Running your race and not giving up is a biblical model. The harvest that we want in our family, spiritually, in our businesses, both the impact we want to make in our business and the income we want to make, that harvest that you want will never come if you give up, if you quit.
This is why I have such a heartbeat for helping entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses. Something I call an effortless business. Designing your business to be more aligned with your personality, your purpose, and your season of life so that you can actually not only make more money, but not burn out because most successful people are on the verge of burnout because the way they're building and running their business, it's just not sustainable. And here's the rub.
The key to winning a business is to stay in the game long enough to reap the benefits of momentum. It takes time. Very few people shoot to the moon quickly, and if they shoot up quickly, they usually fall off just as quick. So if you want those compounding benefits of being in business for 20, 30 years, you gotta stay in it for 20, 30 years. You gotta not give up. So you gotta redesign your entire business. That's why I've written a whole new book on this called The Effortless Business. It comes out soon. I'll tell you more about it. But.
It's about building a business that you can not quit. Build a business that don't have to quit from or retire from or run away from or burn out from.
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One way that Christians can endure is to remember something really profound. You don't have to carry this business all by yourself. And it reminds me of a verse that I didn't write down, but I want you to read it with me. In the book of Matthew,
Jesus shares this really profound invitation. I'm gonna read it you from the message. He says, you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. This is your invitation, run your business with him. Watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.
Graham Cochrane (50:11.136)
As a Christian entrepreneur, the single greatest thing I could tell you to help you not give up so that you will reap that harvest in the end is to not carry your business all by yourself. Let the Lord carry your business. Like it's His business. He's just letting you run it. But He's the CEO, really. He's the one in charge. So partner with Him. Bring your problems to Him. Bring your cares to Him. Peter says, cast all your cares and anxieties on Him because He cares for you.
He really, really does. He has supernatural strength. Philippians tells us we can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Not all things through my own. It's not I can do all things. It's I can do all things in Christ's strength. John 15, Jesus tells us to abide with Him, remain with Him, connected to Him like a branch connected to the vine. He says, because apart from me, you can do nothing.
If you're running your business apart from God, if you're like, that's my spiritual thing over there, this is my business thing over here, you're literally running it severed from the power of the Holy Spirit. You'll burn out. You won't make it. You certainly won't have the level of success and impact you want to have. There's certainly no way you'll be able to take your annual income and do it every month. There's no way unless you are relying on His power and His strength. I told you briefly how in 2016,
I almost wanted to quit. I thought it was over. I was seven years into my first business and I had only known one thing. My business was growing, growing, growing, growing, growing, and then it plateaued then it was down, down, down, down, down. was like, what is happening? What is happening? And I wanted to quit. God said, nah, we're not even close to being done, Graham. I'm gonna send you help. I'm gonna send you new ideas and I'm gonna reinvigorate you. And he did. And then three years later, two years later,
I was like, you know what, I really wanna start a second business. I wanna teach people how to build online businesses like this. And I started running both businesses, my first business and this business at the same time because it didn't take me many hours. I was spending maybe 10, 20 hours a week max running two businesses. But after a couple years of doing that, I was starting to get burned out. I was like, I'm just gonna chill. God said, no you're not. I'm gonna sustain you, I'm gonna carry you.
Graham Cochrane (52:31.214)
You have to offload the first business, but you need to go all in on the new business and I'll carry you. And he has put his hand on this business and he's multiplied it. Even after last year, I launched my second book, Rebel, and it was an exhausting book launch. But it worked. We hit the USA Today bestseller list. It was amazing. But I was tired. I'd just written a book, promoted it for like five months, been on a bunch of podcasts, and I was tired. I was like, God, I don't even...
I don't even know, I don't even have the energy to keep going. God's like, here we go, I'm gonna send you new ideas. And we've doubled my business this year. It's like, why? It's not on me. Every time I feel like I'm at my wit's end, every time I feel like I'm out of ideas, every time I feel like I'm like, I'm done. Like I've been doing this for 16 years. I just wanna go watch Star Wars all day, right? God's like, you have plenty of time to watch Star Wars, but you're not quitting. You're not giving up. I got you and I'm gonna carry you.
and I'm gonna send you help and other people to carry you, and I'm gonna send you ideas to carry you. I'm gonna give you fresh energy and insight that invigorates you. God wants to give you that as well. Friend, if you are a Christian entrepreneur and you are not letting God carry you in your business, you're missing out on the greatest gift of being a Christian. You have partnership, you have help. It's not up to you. It doesn't all depend on you.
your biggest dreams, your biggest goals that seem impossible, they will only be possible because of Christ. They will only be possible because of his power. They will only be possible if you surrender and give up control to him. And if you've never become a Christian and never given up control to him, today's your day, my friend. Open up a Bible, open up a journal, and talk to God. He wants to talk back to you. And you can start with the two questions I shared earlier. God, what do want me to know?
then what do want me to do? And listen for that still small voice.
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and do what it says and respond and begin a conversation, begin a relationship with the God of the universe who's here, who's always been here, always will be, who knows you, who loves you, who cares about you, cares about your business more than you do, by the way, wants to partner with you, give you power, give you purpose, give you peace, give you strength, give you insight, clarity, revelation, give you that wind at your back.
So you can build what Seth Godin calls a downhill business, one that just feels easy. It feels like it shouldn't be this easy. Friend, my business shouldn't be this easy, but it is. Why? Not because I'm great, because God's great and He's behind what I'm doing because I've committed my work to the Lord, as Proverbs says, and He's causing my plans to succeed. So here are your six habits. Three of them are spiritual. Read God's word. Pray every day and listen to His voice and write down what He says through journaling.
Two of the habits are financial. Be frugal, spend less than you make, and be generous. Give more than you feel comfortable giving. And the sixth one is your mindset. Persevere, persevere, persevere. Do not give up, do not quit. If you're on the edge of burnout, you might need to do something differently the way you're doing it, and you might want to bring in the God of the universe to carry the heavy burden for you so that you can sustain it.
These habits are like daily seeds. If you drop them in the soil of the earth every single day, over time they will multiply. You will have fruit, you'll have a harvest, it'll be exponential. Don't give up planting these seeds every single day. Watch your life transform. Watch your business transform. Watch the metrics that you can count and measure transform, the viewers, the subscribers, the followers, the dollars.
but watch your heart transform along the way as you do business God's way. I hope this blessed you today. If it did, I really would love to hear from you. And I would love to hear two things if you're watching on YouTube. One, which of these habits resonated with you the most? What's the one of these six habits that you felt was the thing you needed to press into this week? And number two, let me know if you like this more faith-driven content and if you like me unpacking the scriptures as they relate to business and I'll do more of it. I appreciate your ear, I appreciate your time.
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I'm rooting for you. I believe in you. Don't give up. God has so much more in store for you. And the best is truly yet to come.
