02 - Leading A Business By Faith and Generosity | Margaret Hartman

Do your employees, tenants, stakeholders, and customers experience what God’s generosity feels and looks like when they deal with your business? Or do they see deceit, greed, and dishonesty? As real estate business owners and entrepreneurs, we are presented with opportunities to apply faith-driven practices and to share kingdom-focused generosity. All we need to do is step up and step out. 

Our conversation today with Margaret Hartman focuses on building and leading a business steered with faith-driven principles and imbued by radical generosity as lived out by her family and practiced by the Hartman Income REIT company. She details how the company strives to make lives better for its employees, tenants, stakeholders, and beneficiaries of their foundation while reaping the rewards in their business and living a life of fulfillment glorifying God. Listen to how you can cultivate radical generosity and tell the world about God’s ownership over what we have and what we manage. Take that first step by clicking the play button. 

Key Points From This Episode: 

• Margaret’s personal background and information about Hartman Income REIT, the commercial real estate investment company founded by Margaret’s father, Al Hartman.
• The historical background of the Hartman company and the story of its founder Al Hartman. 
• How the Hartman company weathered economic recessions including the Texas oil crisis in the past 40 years.
• Margaret tells the story of her father encountering Jesus, making a profession of faith in Christ, surrendering and realigning his life, heart, and business to God and His Kingdom. 
• How the Hartman company practices biblical principles and generosity in running the business.
• Ways the company established charitable programs designed to help its employees, its tenants, and other institutions.
• How Al Hartman’s personal faith and life of prayer launched prayer initiatives in the company and permeated the company culture. 
• How the company practices radical generosity led by the Hartman family who lives simply with an emphasis on the value of giving.
• Margaret’s advice on cultivating and strengthening the practice of radical generosity.
• The factors that influenced and deepened Al Hartman’s faith and generosity.
• How generosity enables us to make an impact on other people’s lives while building a legacy from generation to generation.
• Margaret shares a framework for financial stewardship.
• Margaret answers the lightning-round questions.

Tweetables:

“One of our core values is that we honor God in all that we do by operating a company in a manner consistent with biblical principles.“

“We just do anything we can to impact these tenants with the love of Christ.” 

“His (Al Hartman) life is marked by radical generosity. Instead of tithing 10%, it's keeping 10% and tithing 90%.”

“We've had the opportunity to partner with what God is doing in the world.”

“For us as a family, we just see the value in giving versus receiving, and giving it away for the sake of something so great, to see someone's face when they hear the Gospel, hear the good news of Jesus Christ.”

About Margaret Hartman
Margaret Hartman is an associate at Hartman Income REIT, a real estate investment company founded by Al Hartman, that has grown from humble beginnings into a leader in commercial real estate throughout Texas with 200 employees and over $800 million in assets under management over the last 38 years. Margaret started her career in the CRE investment industry working for a Houston-based CRE investment fund doing acquisitions, dispositions, and asset management before joining the capital markets team at Hartman focusing on raising joint venture and fund equity and heading the investor relations department. The Hartman family lives in Houst