Stewardship PT2 with Stephen Arruda

[00:00:06] This is the Tech Arts Podcast, where we talk about tech, leadership, and all things that concern church audio, video, and lighting. Welcome to the Tech Arts Podcast and the Earthworks Audio Studios. My name is DL. So glad to have you joining us today. Today's episode is part two of our conversation with Stephen Arruda on stewardship. In this episode, we're going to answer, how does poor stewardship lead to burnout? Why is budgeting so hard and how

[00:00:35] can we make it easier? And how can your personal finance habits shape your decisions for your church? But first, let's pick up with Stephen's answer on capital expenditures and how to plan for them. Let's listen in. Within a business mindset, if you will, we do run into those seasons where we have to make the same decision as other people that are using Mike Reynolds

[00:01:00] professionals. We have to think about, well, do we invest into more of this or we keep sub-renting from a partner of ours? So I have to think, is this a time for us to, how much are we going to budget in capital expense-wise? And for us, we do about 10% of what our expected revenue is going to end up being. We start planning on the usage of that at certain seasons.

[00:01:30] Whether it be Easter or December. So anyway, that's just from, again, the business side. I don't have a ton of experience from the church side. Stephen, let me ask it this way. Capital asset purchase typically means what's going to happen in a year from now, what's going to happen two years from now, and what's going to happen three years from now. So for MikeRentals.com, let's just take the business perspective because I think it pretty directly applies to churches.

[00:01:56] What's your one-year, two-year, three-year plan, and how does that relate to stewardship? Gotcha. So we kind of have this expected growth curve, and it's always nice when we can look back and be like, wow, we destroyed that. But we can get in our minds, get way ahead of ourselves and be like, well, let's just bump that curve up to the same growth we did last year. Well, you can't do that.

[00:02:26] That's kind of unrealistic, and it can be very, very risky. You could have a 2020 right around the corner, and you don't even know it. So we basically take about 10% of our, from the years as far as trying to make that projection, we take 10% from the last year that we did, and we project based upon

[00:02:52] 50% growth. I know that seems crazy, but that's kind of reality for us. 50% growth, and then take 10% for every one of those growth years. That kind of gives us an idea of the money that's going to be available to put towards capital expenses, which for us, that's like 16 channels of accident or

[00:03:16] something like that. Our next for us, our actual next thing, which God willing, is we need another building. We need a new building. We need to move out. We've overgrown the space we're in. Good problems. But it's hard because you're like, well, we need more wireless, but we need to move. Yeah. So it's a tricky balance for us, but that's kind of how I had to learn that, by the way. That didn't

[00:03:45] just come. It took me probably about five years to really understand because Mike Reynolds was a baby in 2015, and we're still crawling in 2016 and 17. We kind of got our legs in 2018, 19, and we grew up in 2020. We realized who we were and who we stood for and what we were built for and

[00:04:06] from. So now, as we've had some real incredible growth in front of us and the team's grown too, it's a little bit easier to predict, I guess, and see that too. Anything that's beyond that, it's just a great surprise. But yeah, anyway, that's kind of our method is basically trying

[00:04:31] to project. It's doing 50% more revenue specifically in rentals, not related to sales. Those are two different numbers for us. 10% of those in the next years to come based upon the 50% growth curve. That's kind of what we look at and like, okay, we have X amount of dollars that we're going to have to work with throughout this year. And some of those, if we want to cash flow them differently,

[00:04:57] that's another story. That's where we go to. I guess this would be almost like going to the church asking for a giving campaign as I go to my partners and ask them, hey, who wants to invest more into Mike Reynolds in relation to these capital expenses or these equipment purchases that we have to make

[00:05:20] versus, you know, going down to a, going down to a bank, which that's my move after I give that type of offering. But anyway, I, that's, if that makes sense, that's kind of what, that's kind of what we do. It's a very reactive business model. So things change, but you have to at least have, that's what budgets are forced, right? So you at least have to have those guidelines so you don't

[00:05:46] do anything crazy, but then there's that weird or that out of this world project that comes along that it's just like, it's a great opportunity. Um, and it never hurts to just take a little extra time, put things in a spreadsheet, write things down on a whiteboard and just analyze it and, and, and see, um, what, what the, again, what the, what the downsides are, what the benefits are.

[00:06:13] And, and, um, yeah, just take just a little of extra time. I think when we rush into things, we make tend to make bad decisions. Yeah. I think you hit the nail on the head right there. If you're in a church, uh, to kind of relate, you know, what Mike Reynolds.com does over to a church, um, you're kind of looking at a few things. Uh, you said, Hey, we're, we're outgrowing our building. Uh, I think when a church says, Hey, we need to grow, we need to build a new building.

[00:06:40] That's something that you're looking at going, what is my capital asset purchase is going to be to help me for that in the future. What's my install going to be for that? I think when you're looking down the road, uh, you want to look at your systems and go, Hey, my sound system's 15 years old. That may be my next capital asset purchase. That's what I need to push to the top of the list for the executive team or the leadership team, or if you're in a very small church, uh, for your,

[00:07:07] your pastor or whoever's in charge of things to say, Hey, this, this sound system's 15 years old. Uh, it's, it's on the end of its life. You know, we need to be planning for that, or at least have an emergency fund for that amplifier that may go out or that speaker that may get blown or so on and so forth. Versus if your lighting system was just put in last year, that's probably something that you want to say is a five or a six or a seven year plan down the road. So when you're a small

[00:07:36] church kind of think through or look through, uh, the lens of what is an emergency need down the road? What is old? Uh, don't necessarily look at it from what just needs to be the latest, greatest technology, but what do I need to plan on down the road? And that would be what kind of, uh, initiates your capital budget. A lot of times I tell people, Hey, your capital asset budget isn't

[00:08:02] necessarily money. It's the idea. Hey, we're going to put in a new building. Well, we need to have a sound system. We need to have a lighting system. We need to have cameras in that new building. What's going to come from the old building. What's not going to come from the old building. Uh, so it's not necessarily money, money that you're looking at right away. You're looking at the idea. Hey, this, again, this system is 15 years old. We need to put in a new system either next

[00:08:28] year or the year after that's the idea, right? And then you go in to figuring out, Hey, what's it going to cost? I'm sure it's very similar in the business world where you're, you're setting aside money, but Hey, in the middle of the year, we've got to deal with this emergency that we saw. We saw it last year, but it, you know, we're able to make it, Hey, our website, we're able to make it, but we're building a new website. Boom. All of a sudden, you know, that came about because you were somewhat establishing capital asset purchases. We need a new website.

[00:08:57] We need this new thing because we see a problem coming. So that's kind of how I look at it. When it comes to capital asset budgets is think about the idea of the one year down the road, the two year down the road, what do we have to fix? And we talked about this a little bit in the church tech tip when we talked about rentals versus stewardship, which can help with your capital budgets. If you're thinking you've got to, you know, buy a bunch of stuff, maybe you rent it first to

[00:09:25] see, you know, how you like it, or if you don't like it, so you're not spending all that money. But people will say to me quite consistently, and I mentioned this in the church tech tip, they'll just say, Hey man, rentals throwing your money away. So expand that answer a little bit from earlier and help our audience understand how rentals can help you avoid some major mistakes.

[00:09:48] They do. And I've, cause I've seen this on some pretty large scales before. Um, you know, especially when there was like a lack of preparation or a last minute, a last minute decision. And, um, uh, anyway, so when it comes to, when it, yeah, when it comes to renting, um,

[00:10:14] you heard about my need earlier, it was just like, there's that last minute need. Well, and it made no sense for, to, to buy, we were talking about pricing on all that stuff. Goodness, the two shotguns, that would, that would have been two grand. The lenses, uh, you know, they're probably there 12 to 13, I don't know, $1,300 then. So you're getting close to $5,000 for, um, and then what is it, where's it going to go? And what's it going to do after that?

[00:10:42] You know, so that it's, um, yeah, it's the, the usage of something that's, you did it and you did it for, what'd you say? $500. Uh-huh. And I'm sure you got questions like, what, what lens did you use? What microphone did you use? Right? Yeah. It's funny. The guys are, uh, the, my staff that was with me, um, I had to lean on them for the, the lens suggestion. You know, I, I kind of can make, you know, fake my way through a photography

[00:11:12] conversation, but you know, I told them what I liked, you know, I was like, Hey, I like it when the, the person's like really good and focused, but the backgrounds is like, Oh, that's a, yeah, your, your, oh, see, I already forgot the terminology, your vocal depth or whatever it is. So, and, and so I got the knowledge from them and it was, and so they advised me, see, I went to them, even though they're younger, I went, then that doesn't matter. It was like,

[00:11:38] they completely had more experience with this stuff. And so they told me what I needed to get. And of course I already knew it was like, I'm getting four 16 shotguns. Those are like the standard, um, uh, and the interface that we need. So yeah, there was, sorry, there was an interface. I needed a recording interface too. So there was all that, you know, put together to produce, um, you would look at it and you'd be like, wow, this, I was super impressed when it was,

[00:12:03] when it was all done. It looks so pro. But it informed future decisions. Like you guys did a small rental and you said the staff looked at the videos and was like, this is amazing. They probably came back and said, Oh, you use this lens. You used this microphone. And so now when they went to build their budget operation, need, want capital, they said, maybe we need this lens. So we're not renting

[00:12:28] it all the time. Uh, it kind of informed the budget decision. Uh, and that's what I, that's what I love about Mike Rentals.com is how it can inform the budget decision so that people make good decisions on what they're buying. I mentioned choir flex earlier. That was, that's one of the bigger items that we deal. We know we're dealing with, um, guys that are trying to get that on a capital

[00:12:53] expense radar. Right. Um, uh, especially, you know, we introduced these to Metro media ministers group, um, that meets in different locations, uh, every year. Uh, but we had, it just haven't had it with us and, and Memphis when we were at Bellevue. And, um, I remember Alex came up to me and was like, Hey, is, is that the real, the real thing? I was like, yeah, man, did you want to,

[00:13:18] you want to just try it? So it's one less thing I'm lugging home. And, uh, no, he, it wasn't just him noticing a difference. It was leadership and congregation knowing, noticing a difference, you know, and I get a text, but like, Hey man, I'm a believer. That's good. That's great. Yeah. I mean, sound is so subjective. And when somebody can actually hear the difference,

[00:13:46] now they decide this is worth the money. Yeah. And I, especially when you have choirs weekend week out, or you do the traditional versus in the contemporary service model, uh, a church in town here as Barry, um, that's a Preston pick a bank and he, yeah, he's got to go from contemporary, uh, to traditional. Um, and so they,

[00:14:11] they do the contemporary stuff and they got to strike the band for the next service. And then, so now they all of a sudden have an orchestra and a choir. So he, he uses, um, he uses a choir flex and another, in another way. Uh, he upgraded to what's called the mic flex processor and allows him to do processing both on an orchestra and a choir. And he's told me multiple times that people have come up to him and just people he doesn't know, probably the people that normally say, Hey,

[00:14:41] it's too loud. Um, or something like that. They, he gets compliments, um, based upon adding that, adding, adding that in and for his frequency of doing choirs and orchestras completely made sense, uh, versus, you know, just cause obviously he'd be renting it every weekend, made no sense whatsoever, but there was that discovery. He used it as, as discovery period, um, to make sure it was

[00:15:08] something. First of all, did it, does it do everything I told him it did and everything I've witnessed it do? Of course it did. Um, but, but then he knew if it did that he could justify, uh, he could justify this and he couldn't pull the trigger on it right away. And I understood, we understood that I was like, yeah, no worries. But Hey, when, when you go to do it,

[00:15:30] we're going to actually give you your rental money back, uh, towards the purchase. So as part of that, again, it's just part of that discovery cycle. Um, we think it's fair. We think it's really fair and it's worked out really well. Um, so when a lot of people are using Chiroflex to see if it's going to be a permanent solution, um, yeah, we, even if it's from months ago, uh,

[00:15:56] we know it takes time for those capital expenses to get put into, into certain budget years. And we're happy to do it. Just happy to do it. I think that's a great point that you're making there on capital expenses. Uh, I tell people all the time, they get so frustrated when they're like, Oh, I want to buy it right now. I just rented it. I tested it. It looks good. Sounds good. I want to buy it right now. It doesn't work that way with

[00:16:22] churches. It doesn't work that way with businesses. They are at least a year out. Uh, and then they have to see it. They have to understand it. Uh, unless it's an emergency or we got to fix it right now. Uh, patience when it comes to big capital purchases or when it comes to big purchases is key because odds are it's February or March or April. You looked at it, you feel it's the right thing, but they've already made a plan for the year on what they're going to buy. And they're remaking

[00:16:51] that plan around October, November, and it may not get into the plan depending on whether it's an emergency or not. So it may even push like a second year out, but it almost always is at least, you know, eight to nine to 12 months before that capital expense comes in. So being able to rent it and being able to see what it sounds like and kind of prove the concept I think is, is a pretty awesome deal, uh, for everyone. But let me switch subjects

[00:17:18] on you here, hours and burnout. So, uh, with churches, this is always a hot topic. Um, but stewardship, the word stewardship never really comes into that topic. It's always like, well, work less and, you know, what's going on in your personal life. You know, they always kind of talk about that, but hours and, and burnout. How do you, how do you steward your time? And why is that important?

[00:17:46] It's funny. It kind of, it kind of goes back to like time budgeting that you don't hear that like what? Well, I mean, I would challenge every, this has happened to me at several times in several periods of my life, even back when I was had no employees with Mike Reynolds, I would log my time for a week straight and find out exactly what I was doing at what exact times. And then when I got, then there was another phase, like when I got like busy and it was

[00:18:15] still just me. I'm like, Oh darn it. I got to get a quote out. I had to send this PO out to get that order. Then I got to do a rental fulfillment and run it. And so I actually created, I created this, this task cycle, I guess, if you will. So I would do, okay, I do an invoice. Then I would do something related to fulfillment. Then I'd do something related to ordering. Then I'd do something related to paying a bill and I would just kind of go around all day, but create, honestly, create a log

[00:18:43] of your time for a straight week. See where your time is at. And it's amazing that, you know, accounting is this thing that people say like, or you've heard the same numbers don't lie. Well, that logs not good. That's going to tell you exactly. Okay. Why are you in the bathroom for 30 minutes? You know, or how long have you been sitting on your, at your desk on your phone, just doing

[00:19:11] nothing? You know, how long, geez, do you need an hour and a half lunch? Um, there's that stuff. I, when I was at camp, I did this with one of my guys and, uh, I was like, Hey, we're not getting anything done faster by coming in at nine o'clock when everybody else is here. And there's like all this, you know, you know, water cooler talk and all that stuff. I was like, let's just, let's just

[00:19:36] come in at seven and get like two hours. No one's bothering us and get crap done. And man, that made us so much more efficient. Um, we obviously we went home a little earlier than everybody else too. Like where are you going? I was like, Hey, we, we've been there at seven. We get here at seven every dang day. It's just, there's those seasons where I was like, we need to be more efficient. I can't come in at nine and where everybody else is coming in at nine. Everybody's trying to talk to you. You know, that's, uh, it's all of a sudden everybody has their emergencies as soon as they walk

[00:20:05] in. So yeah, yeah, I do for the people listening. There's a book I have right here. I really recommend this book. This is, um, time management magic by Lee Cockrell. This, um, I read, um, I love it. It says how to get more done every day and move from surviving to thriving. It puts things into perspective, especially like your health. Yeah. You want to be a fisherman at the same time.

[00:20:31] You don't need to be killing yourself, uh, you know, at, at work. Um, yeah. So the, the stewarding your time, um, uh, you know, I, I always would ask, I would ask myself like, um, if Andrew walked in and I was doing what I'm doing right now, would, what would he say?

[00:20:56] Cause we all looked up to, we all looked up to Andrew. He was our, our, our guy. Right. Um, you know, and so, and there was, there was one time as funny. Um, I thought I was doing what I needed to be doing. And he was like, Hey man, we don't need to be doing that right now. You can do that next week. And I was like, okay. It's just sometimes we think, um, we're doing the right

[00:21:21] thing at the right time. And sometimes it's, it's, it's, it's not, and it can, it can wait. And I get it. I have to manage that. I have to manage that every single day. Um, you know, whether that's something, um, I can put, uh, that can be put off to tomorrow, whether that should be getting done right now, but going back to what I started with is creating that time log that, that holds you,

[00:21:46] uh, and then, and then kind of creating a schedule based upon the time log, correcting the things that are, are, are wrong or loose. Um, and then just stay accountable to it. And then you do it enough, like anything you practice, it be, you know, becomes, you know, becomes habit. So, um, stewarding that time is it's again, valuable being productive and being, you know, efficient. And then you end up

[00:22:11] kind of becoming irreplaceable, um, on along those lines until you duplicate that, which I did into somebody else who can take your place. So you can move on to the next thing that God wants you to do. And for me, that was Mike Reynolds. I think you hit it perfectly there. Uh, doing a log of what you do. If you're a manager and you're trying to figure out, you know, why your team is

[00:22:38] burnt out, why they're working all the time, do it, have them do a log of everything that they're doing during the week and then submit that to you. And trust me, they won't want to do it, but you're going to look at that log and you're going to go, wait, just like Andrew did, why are you doing this? And why are you doing that? Like, it'll really give you a picture of what your team is doing and what each individual is doing. And then for yourself, like Steven said, do that log. And as you

[00:23:06] grow yourself, you can say, Hey, these four things, I can have a volunteer do that, uh, on another volunteer, do that on the weekend, free those four things up to give me more room, uh, down the road. And just like with money budgeting, operation, want, need, emergency. When you're looking at that list that you've made, what is my operation? Hey, I've got to be there every day at seven o'clock

[00:23:36] to make sure that these things work or nine o'clock, whatever it is. That's kind of your operational time. What are your wants? I really want to get this done, but my boss may not need it. You know, it's not a need, right? But I really want to do this. What's, what's the needs? You know, those have, you've got to be hitting that. And then what's the emergencies? And I think this is, this is important. If you schedule yourself, uh, Hey, I come in at nine o'clock and I leave at five

[00:24:03] o'clock and I have myself scheduled all through the entire day. You're going to be in trouble because that's not how life works. At nine 35, somebody comes in with an emergency that takes you away for an hour to fix this, that, or the other thing. And all of a sudden you're behind schedule and you're starting to go into burnout and you're working until six or seven to kind of make it up. So the emergency piece of that, um, would you call it log when you're logging your

[00:24:29] hours, the emergency pieces is important to allow yourself. Um, I don't know what the right word is, whether it's grace or whether it's the ability to stretch a little bit. Bandwidth kind of. Bandwidth. Yeah. Like give yourself some time in the middle of the day, at the end of the day, at the beginning of the day, you know, that just gives you a little bit of fluff, you know, maybe you get there at 9am, but you don't start on what you're going to start on until 930. So if

[00:24:57] you get going at 910, you've now bought yourself 20 minutes of bandwidth. That's a great word, bandwidth. But I think operation want need emergency. Everything that you do with money applies to your time as well. And if, if you don't, you're going to burn out. It's, you're going to find yourself looking around going, what, why am I so tired? I think another

[00:25:23] thing, Steven, and, um, I'll let you talk to this about this a little bit too, is it was what you do in your off time. Uh, I remember working with a volunteer, uh, employee, um, that, uh, they were, uh, they were a volunteer and then they progressed to become an employee at the church. And they came in and they said, man, I'm just so tired. And I said, well, tell me about what you did last night. And they're like, Oh, I stayed up till midnight playing video games.

[00:25:49] And I watched a movie till two in the morning. And then, you know, I'm back in, I'm like, well, you're not tired because of work. You're tired because of how you stewarded your off time. Talk a little bit about that with, with employees and, and, and how, how that's important and maybe what you should do to steward that correctly. That's good. Cause keep in mind, I've been married for 18 years coming, this coming September.

[00:26:13] I have six kids ages 12, 11, nine, nine, six, and four. So my, my heart's cut in pieces. So is my time. And not to mention, I want to say congratulations, but I'm just tired. Like just hearing all of that. Last night I have two, geez, just even yesterday evening was a great example. You know, we, you have different kids going through different phases, you know, uh, one boy out of five girls,

[00:26:43] you know, having, having some tough times with doing schoolwork and, and, uh, you know, his sister is giving, giving them tough time about something. And then, uh, you know, another one of the girls that they're going through that coming of, coming of age phase and, you know, want, wanting their own phone and all this other stuff. And holy mackerel, by the time we got everybody to bed, I was just like, um, usually my, you know, my wife and I will, uh, watch a movie or something and,

[00:27:13] or part of a movie. We never can watch a movie in a full swing. It's just like, we're done. Um, but just last night, I, I usually have that bandwidth to talk. I was done. I was, I was done just between talking about life lessons and corrections and, and all that stuff. And keep in mind, I also have a team of seven, um, seven individuals that I love dearly. Um, because they, because of them,

[00:27:43] I have that time back that if this was all me, um, I wouldn't have that time with my wife and my kids, they would hate me. I, and honestly, we, my marriage would probably be in ruins. Um, you know, for the sake of what, you know, saving whatever, all their salaries is together so we could live the way we wanted, but then also I'll probably end up having a heart attack too. On top of that,

[00:28:09] it's no, that's worthless and pointless. And so having them here a lot, we homeschool too. And then some days, you know, it's, that's usually all, I'm all on my wife, but there's some days I need to play a little bit of role as a principal, if you know what I'm saying. Well, you have six kids. So technically you are a school. You're not just homeschooled. You are a school. Or yeah, I, I know, I know, but, um, you know, that's, and to just be of, just be available,

[00:28:39] um, as well, not the temptation to bring work home on the weekends is there. Sometimes it happens. Um, but I communicate that with, with my wife. There's when it's happening or if it's going to happen versus I'm just going to slide into some work while I'm at home. No, if I tell her like, sweetheart, it's something just bugging me. I got to figure out what's driving me mad and I can't

[00:29:06] do nothing, nothing, but not think about it. If I just, I need this amount of time to do this or whatever. Or I, before we were taught, uh, before we started this, I told you how I was, I had my 12 year old daughter helping me do, um, asset inventory, uh, audits. So I actually got her involved and she was just sitting at the kitchen table on Saturday and just kind of made a game out of it. Just, do you have that serial number? Okay. I got that serial number, you know, and just kind of making

[00:29:33] a game out of it, involving them. Um, uh, I'll try to involve them in work as much as I can. I'll take them with me to events or something like that. Um, but the, the, the other time, cause and when they're, they're at those ages where they're remembering whether dad's there or not early on when I was starting this, it was way tougher, but they were also way younger.

[00:29:58] And I'll ask them about certain things, certain things that they remember. And they'll remember coming to work with me and playing on certain things, but they don't remember me at the time, like coming home late or them going to bed, you know, cause five, you know, below six and younger, those memories don't stick. But like now that's why I'm so thankful for this team.

[00:30:22] And I have to allocate time for them too, cause all of them have individual needs. I mean, we just supplied, uh, healthcare for the first time as a company. I feel like that's a big, huge milestone for us. And so now I'm like the HR guy. So, you know, having to talk about all their individual needs. Um, eventually we'll, of course I'll have, we'll have our own person that's over

[00:30:48] HR related things. But right now that's the way we are. It's it's, I have to manage that stuff, but it, um, I want to take care of them. I, I, I want to make sure like they're not, uh, money's not a distraction for them that those needs are being met there. Their health is being cared for and they can care of. Um, you know, so in that regards to what we just did, we just saved them money and they got better care for what they were paying for before. Um, so that was two birds in one stone

[00:31:18] back. So like being a steward as being the head of this company, you know, I'm accountable to partners and that there's another chunk of time too. I have to give them time every Friday to be held accountable for how, where, how I'm behaving as a leader, how I'm leading this company in the direction it's going. Um, and when all comes down to it, I could do, yeah, sure. I could do whatever

[00:31:42] I want, but I have them as partners as they're my, they're my counsel. You know, they've raked me over the coals for not managing cash well and not managing debt well and all that stuff. So you know, a lot of people make the mistake of, of thinking, you know, burnout has only to do with work. And I think what you're saying there is, um, and I think it's kind of cool how you are able to involve your kids in, in, in work. Uh, and so you're spending time with them at the same time

[00:32:11] you're getting work done. But you know, a lot of people will make the mistake again. They'll think, you know, Hey, I'm burnt out because I'm working too much when the reality is it may be a hard season at work, but you're not compensating for that at home. You're not taking the time to rest. You're not taking the time to recharge the battery so that when you go back into work, you're ready for it. And now if the season at work is always nonstop, I mean, that's a different

[00:32:38] discussion. You want to talk it through and maybe you need to switch jobs or change roles or look at your log again, redo your log and say, Hey, here's some things that are really weighing me down. But the example I used with, with the staff member who went home, you know, played video games and movies and everything, when we got to bed at two or three in the morning and then was back at it the next day, I think it was eight or nine, whenever they came back into work. And they said, I'm tired. I'm feeling burnt out. I'm feeling like there's a problem here. I was like, yeah,

[00:33:08] cause you just didn't get enough sleep. And I know when I've got a tough season and I've got to work till nine or 10 o'clock at night, but I got to be back into work at seven o'clock, eight o'clock in the morning. I know when I get home, I have to really compress my schedule at home and get myself in bed with enough time to get seven or eight or even six hours sleep so that I'm ready for the next day. Now I don't want to live my life like that permanently, but I think the

[00:33:35] point here is a lot of people miss that, that being burnt out and having problems at work is sometimes tied to what's going on at home. And if you're a manager, this is a boss or somebody who manages people or a leader of people. This is something you've got to keep in mind too. When you see somebody heading down the road of burnout and their skills are starting to diminish and, you know, maybe they're your front of house audio engineer and they're just missing cues and there's some issues.

[00:34:04] A good question to ask is what's going on at home? What is happening at home? Especially if you look at their schedule and you say, okay, you know, this was a normal, you know, 35, 40 hour week, but yet we're making some mistakes that we don't normally make. What's going on at home? I think that's something that is worth diving into if you're a manager and a boss. But speaking about home and the work relationship, personal financial stewardship, how does that translate, you know,

[00:34:33] how you run your personal finances, how does that translate to stewardship at the church? These are great questions, man. Because like the, I've, I've dealt with, um, that I've dealt with the temptations to the things that I'm not getting in my personal life. Um, and I've seen that people actually take action on this where they're like, well, that's where we're talking about that wishlist thing. It's some of those desires for like me to get

[00:35:03] this gear are coming out of, uh, actually a really selfish, dark place to things. I don't have that. I want to, I want to, I want to have my own studio at home. Well, I might as well just spend the church's money and build one there and try to justify it. That is very dangerous. That's extremely dangerous. And sadly I've had, I've had to deal with that. Um, uh, early on when I was starting Mike Reynolds,

[00:35:29] I was also, I had to make money somehow. So I was doing a lot of, um, I was doing a lot of mixing, um, a lot of installs, I was wiring homes, but then I was also selling equipment for, for other people. Like, so if you had a closet full of gear, I could help you sell it. And then I would just get a commission from selling it basically on eBay, but I handled all the logistics and all that other things. And, and it really, it stunk to find out that money I was sending, I, what I thought

[00:35:57] I was sending back to the church was actually going to an individual's PayPal account. And sadly, I found out what actually that got uncovered because obviously they're trying to, I'm, they're trying to audit me. I was like, well, here's full transparency. Here's the, the schedule of how things sold and where the payments went and all that stuff. And then didn't hear anything. And come to find out somebody was using that to, to buy their own gear,

[00:36:26] to outfit a studio, like at home. And just like, usually when there's, um, that's why some jobs, uh, uh, not necessarily churches, but some jobs will actually look into your credit score and all this other stuff too, because there's certain habits that follow, you know, follow that low credit score or any, or anything like that or a credit report, you know, and, and they're a little

[00:36:52] bit more leery to hire somebody that might do something out of desperation. And that's the word right there. It's like, if, if, if things are, aren't in line at home, some bad practices are going to be, are going to translate and bad stewardship are going to, are going to translate into, into the work environment. I would take it one step further too. I would say, you know, how you live

[00:37:17] your life at home financially, uh, you should live it that way at, at work, at church. And here's what I mean by that. Uh, I've seen this so many times where somebody at church, uh, they're managing a team and they're like, uh, you know, let's take everybody out to lunch every single week. Would you do that in your personal life? You know, would you go out to eat every single week or would you buy, you know,

[00:37:46] the EX version of whatever it is? Uh, I've seen it so many times where at home they wouldn't buy the EX version. They wouldn't buy the upgraded version, but at church they're like, yeah, let's get it. Let's get the upgraded version. So I kind of take what you're saying a step further and say, Hey, how you live yourself at home when you live on a budget, how you live within, you know, a budget financially

[00:38:10] at home, apply those same principles at church. Now there's some circumstances where obviously, you know, it's different, but if you're holding yourself accountable to, you know, should I buy this? Would I buy it? If this was my personal finances, if I was personally having to buy it, would I buy this? I think sometimes that can help guide you with, with making purchases on the church side of things.

[00:38:39] What do you think of that? That's, that's pretty good. Um, you made me think of a couple instances cause I mentioned, I used to do a lot of like home related stuff. So I did a lot of home theater type stuff. And it was crazy. So many people thought I was like, man, you're set. It must be incredible. I was like, it's actually not. It's like, I have kids. So that went out the window

[00:39:04] a long time ago when somebody just went down to my receiver and started jacking with, I was like, okay, that's gone. You know, it, it was, you know, I, I don't, I had to like trim back that stuff. So like I'm in a lot of senses, sometimes when I'm doing, um, uh, in 2020, I had to go back to doing a lot of this stuff just to alleviate any financial pressure on trying to pull too much money out of the,

[00:39:29] the micro rentals till to, so that could stay and be paid. Employees could be, keep getting paid. I went and wired houses and, and did more home theater stuff. And, uh, like a lot of times, you know, cause everybody that year was upgrading their homes. Right. Um, so, but a lot of times I was just like, I was, I would, I would be in the middle of these conversations with a husband and a wife and Holy cow to, they're thinking to two different things. You know,

[00:39:56] the husband's just like, yeah, yeah, go. I want this big, this big, that. And the wife is just like, you're doing what in what room, you know? And so there's that, I was always getting that, that balance and then having to come up with, with a kind of a compromise between the two, but then also giving them options. That's something that I asked for is like, I try like at home,

[00:40:22] especially if I don't know or trust the contractor, I'm definitely going to get a second quote or even a third on a fence because I don't know anybody who does fences, um, or gutters. Cause I don't know anybody who does gutters, but I know I solid electrician, solid plumber, solid HVAC guy, you know, those guys I'm always going to go to cause they've always given me a fair, a fair price or a discount or whatever. Service has always been great and they don't creep my wife

[00:40:48] out, you know? So you go, uh, think about that when it comes to be integrators or even a shoot, even a rental company, um, is just do your due diligence, do due diligence and get, um, get pricing and quotes on this, uh, you know, on this stuff. So you, you kind of can, you kind of can make us, you know, a smart decision if you, cause I would do that at home, but why would I not

[00:41:15] do that for my church? And so obviously when I was out at Adair, very limited on my choices out in the middle of, of, of the country, but had to get creative. And that's thank God for, you know, the, the internet. So for that stuff, I had to get creative. Um, it has to balance my time on driving back and forth. If, if I didn't need to do that, that was one less thing to spend money on

[00:41:41] and do my time. You value your time, your time is, and translates to money somewhere. It translates to money. And, you know, when, especially when I was by myself, we were talking about that, just being the, you know, steward of all that. Um, I wasn't paying myself until like three years in. And so

[00:42:05] I had to act as if, um, I was getting the salary that I eventually wanted. I just had to wait six years for that to be what it needed to, what it should have been. Um, so you are right that a lot of things at home do, uh, do and can mirror into either your, your job, be that for a company or be

[00:42:30] that for, uh, if you're wasteful at home, you're, you're going to be wasteful at, uh, in your job. It just, I, like I, like I said, I've seen it, I've seen other people get let go because of that. Um, and it, it stinks when they're like, when these CFO would come through and, uh, um, go through all of the departments, like financial stuff. And then the next day people aren't there and it's

[00:42:57] because there was just waste waste. The person wasn't a bad person in regards to like, they, yeah, they, they, they weren't malicious. They just forgot. They got lazy and didn't stay on top of that's, that's the thing is like, you want to get your rest so you can stay sharp. You can stay on top of this stuff because as soon as it, as, as soon as, um, uh, it'll run away from you really,

[00:43:26] really fast, uh, if you're not careful. So it's diligence is, and stewardship is, it's just staying on top of staying on top of these things. Like I, you know, this, like I said, I have six kids, but I also have to allocate time for my home financial stuff and conversations with my wife. She does the home budget. Um, I fund the home. However, there's like bigger picture stuff like

[00:43:53] vacations and all that stuff. And we're constantly, you know, we haven't gone to Disney world yet. I was like, there's no way I'm taking six kids, you know, and planes and all that stuff. I was like, but they would get the same amount of enjoyment and time standing in less lines and, and being on more rides just by going to Silver Dollar City, which is only three and a half hours away. Those personal decisions, uh, translate to work and how you spend money at work. If you're,

[00:44:22] you know, treating your personal finances very similar to your work finances, but you said something in there that I thought was key. And that is transparency. You said, talk to people, talk to others and say, Hey, should we get this? Is this something that we should do? You mentioned Andrew Stone kind of coming in and going, is, is, is, is this needed? Is this wanted? Oh yeah. It's for this special production. We definitely need to get it. I think transparency

[00:44:47] with leadership, helping them understand the reason behind the financial purchases and what you need is a big deal. When you're transparent with your wife, as far as your budget is concerned, as far as what you're spending at home. Uh, sometimes the decision to purchase a bigger item comes out of that versus you just go in and buying the item and they're not being an understanding of why it was bought. So I think transparency is, is a big deal when it comes to, uh, when it comes to

[00:45:15] financial stewardship, when it comes to burnout, when it comes to all of these things, uh, that we've been talking about. So let me ask you this, Steven. So last question here, you know, there's a lot of risks with poor financial stewardship. We've kind of covered a few of those. Um, but you're somebody who's saying, Hey, I struggle a little bit with my finances personally, which by the way, doesn't mean

[00:45:39] you're going to be bad at finances at work. Um, it just means you may need to watch a little bit closer, but what are some of the things with financial stewardship, uh, that can help mitigate a mistake or a risk that may be out there? Uh, and you know, you're probably going to be coming from a business perspective, but think business and church, like, you know, what are some of those, what are some things you can do to kind of mitigate those financial stewardship issues that may pop up?

[00:46:12] Um, I had something written down here that, and it's my, it might back up just a, just a second, but, um, I thought it was great when I got it. It says about transparency and financial stewardship. It says those who are willing to be transparent are worthy to be trusted. Um, and that's stuck out because I've, I've always say that one more time, say that one more time. Um, those who are willing to be transparent are worthy to be trusted. Those that are willing to be transparent are worthy

[00:46:41] to be trusted. To be trusted. It's an awesome statement. And I, I, I felt like, I felt like I've heard that before. Maybe I've told it to myself and there's some vulnerability and risk that come with transparency, but I saw Andrew do it. And like, I saw him hold an integrator to transparency

[00:47:04] once before is like, Whoa, you, you, you asked to see their margin. Well, who, first of all, who the heck would ever show you that? Well, they did. And they got the job because they, they laid all their cards out on the table. Here's what we're making here. Andrew was then allowed, allowed to see like, okay, great guys. Um, we're going to get some of our own staff involved, um, to help install this stuff

[00:47:33] to offset the labor costs, you know, because those were real. Those, all those numbers were real, you know, bringing people from out of state and all that stuff. That's not cheap, um, contractors and all that stuff. But we had a very well capable team to, you know, I, they brought me in and I, I don't know how many dang XLR cat five terminations and co-act crimping that triax, but it, it would have cost five to 10 times that, um, bringing somebody in to do all that work.

[00:48:02] We had the team and we had the time. We had those two things. Anyway, so I saw him do that and they got project after project after project from, from COTM because they were transparent in their pricing. It's a re it's, it's a risk and it makes people like scared when they do it. Um, I don't mind it at all. If anybody like, like ever asked for it, it's like, Oh yeah,

[00:48:27] heck yeah. This is, here's what we do here. And it doesn't bother me whatsoever. Um, cause again, we've earned a lot of people's trust because we're transparent. Um, even when things are going wrong, we're transparent. Like we'll tell you if it's because we did something stupid or, or whether or not, um, you know, whether or not, uh, even when it's like FedEx's fault, we'll be, we'll feel bad

[00:48:53] still like it's our fault. Like, man, if we only got it out a day earlier, we probably would have missed that winter storm. You're transparent with the client. You let them know what's going on. But, but you, you said something there too about Andrew, ask tough questions, ask the tough question. I think that will help you with transparency as well. Why did this go wrong?

[00:49:20] What could we have done better? Um, why am I over budget? Ask those tough questions. I think that'll help you be transparent as well. Yeah. Let's say if you lead a conversation with that, you know, it'll weed out a lot of, a lot of people. Do you really want the relationship with us? Are you willing to jump through these hurdles for that relationship? Or are you just, just trying

[00:49:47] to get another kind of notch on the belt, another project, you know, and, and all that stuff. It, and what was great is that they, they chose wisely because, you know, then they, you know, that that specific, uh, company got a lot of referrals because of Andrew, a lot of people listened to him. So yeah, it was, uh, it was, it was great. I was proud of them for doing that too.

[00:50:12] Um, the, uh, risks associated with poor financial stewardship and how they can be mitigated. Okay. This goes to just like simple as accountability and not doing stuff that, um, necessarily planning things without another person's involvement or, um, or input. If I feel like when, when people try to do, um, take these things hand on all by themselves, I feel like that's where the,

[00:50:43] that's where the problems occur. Um, even when for, for instance, my, my spouse not, not be involved in like the Mike Reynolds financial related stuff, or, um, I have another LLC that I do, like, like I mentioned, the home theater stuff and whatnot under, and there's been a couple of times where I'm like, man, I'm trying to manage my credit card debt on that side of things, but she knows nothing about that because she doesn't see it. You know, she doesn't see any of that stuff.

[00:51:10] It's just, it's just different separate accounting and all that stuff, but it'll, it'll weigh on me without like telling her about, especially if something's a problem because it'll eventually be a problem. You know, if something's burdening my thoughts, she's my best friend. She'll know, she'll know. And so there's been a couple of times where I just had to tell her, I was like, I'm just trying to get this, this credit card under control. It's, it's like a flipping boat anchor.

[00:51:38] And of course being an awesome wife that she is, she was like, have you prayed about it? I'm like, no. So that's of course immediately the first thing we do. And as soon as I surrender that there's, it's crazy because God's awesome and faithful that, um, a solution or not another opportunity comes that again helps with that. But I have, that's a practice. I have to continually keep

[00:52:06] her in the loop on certain things that are going to affect my thinking, affect my mind. Like, so on the micro side too, she's, she's aware of the, she's aware of the, especially the burdens. Cause I, I carry those. Um, and she great graciously reminds me that I don't need to be carrying them, carrying them like where they're weighing my spirit down. Um, um, but I had like, and, and with

[00:52:35] my credentials, I have two other partners. Um, and we meet every, uh, uh, every week through the holidays, it gets really tough, but we meet every week and we have like, uh, there's things I used to hate, hate talking about, especially when it came to like, Hey, here's our debt picture. Like, do we have to look at that? It's, it's like, I don't, I don't, please, I don't want to look at it.

[00:53:01] But what was awesome is that's because I didn't like looking at it before our debt snapshot before, because I didn't have a plan to eliminate the debt. And now that we do, or to gradually shrink it, um, and now I like looking at it cause it's like down 5% from last month. Yes. You know, it's like, can we lead with the, the, the, the debt snapshot really quick, that type of stuff.

[00:53:27] But you have to have other people. You have to be open to, again, you're not walking around and talking to everybody like, Hey, you know, just find the valued, the input, the, the people that trusted the people that have influence in your life, that, that their opinion actually matters. Just ask, you know, those, those people for opinions, not like every Joe or every, in this case,

[00:53:51] like every employee, I don't talk to any of them about this, but those two guys, one has a very successful company. Another one, or Scott, a couple of companies. So does the other one. And he's got his MBA. So he's the one who trained me how to do accounting, you know? And so again, just having those people to talk to about, uh, yeah, financial picture, financial goals. Cause I mentioned before the first five years, it was, I didn't know how to really set a budget. I wasn't

[00:54:20] sure how to do that. Um, kind of glad, again, glad we did. Um, because it's, it's allowed us to get through seasons where like January, we're just super reactive. We don't know what's really going to happen because it's a reactive business model. It is what it is, but thankfully, thankfully we still keep, um, getting the traffic that we get. Um, but that, the mitigation is, is for sure. Account

[00:54:47] accountability would be, um, would, would be number one. It can't just be about you for crying out loud. We're at a church before you sit, sit down, pray over your financial stuff, pray over your budget, pray for the wisdom and the knowledge and the understanding, pray for God to show you, reveal the things you can't see, or you don't see just on numbers in a spreadsheet. Um, give you the

[00:55:15] wisdom for what's, you know, uh, the, the want list, the wishlist, the emergencies and all that stuff. Uh, give you that wisdom. Maybe even that, gosh, it's God for crying out loud, that foreknowledge of some of this stuff. You'd be so thankful to look back and be like, man, I am so glad I had a budget line for, for this in preparation for the worst case scenario or whatever. It's again, that,

[00:55:41] that happens at home with emergency funding and other types of stuff. My wife and I really dove into setting up accounts for the kids and all this, all this other stuff, just not stop operating out of one, one bank account. Like that's a whole nother topic. But it goes to a plan. It goes to having a plan for how you deal with debt. It goes to accountability, having people that you trust,

[00:56:06] that you can talk to, have a plan to mitigate those financial issues, have a plan to institute stewardship with your finances, have a plan for your schedule, have a plan, uh, to help you avoid burnout. Um, have a plan. That's what it comes down to when it comes, uh, when it comes to stewardship. Steven, thanks for coming on today. Hey, if anyone wants to get in touch with you, how do they do that? What's your Instagram handle? Yeah, mine is Steven Aruta. So that's Steven T Aruta. Um,

[00:56:35] that's, that's my personal. And then you can always go to Mike Rentals, uh, on Instagram, M-I-C-R-E-N-T-A-L-S. Steven, thanks for coming on today and talking with us about stewardship. Yeah, you're welcome. It's my pleasure and an honor to do so. Well, that wraps things up for today's episode. I can't wait to talk to you on the next Tech Arts Podcast. Until then, I'm David Loishner signing off by wishing you a great day and praying God blesses every moment of your week. See you soon. You have been listening to the Tech Arts Podcast,

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