04 - Generous Giving in Community With Others | Ryan Smith

Often defined as the virtue of giving good things to others freely and abundantly - generosity, studies show, promotes social connections, improves relationships, and helps build a community. It is no coincidence then that when you practice generous giving, you perceive others in a more positive light and it fosters a sense of community, a feeling of interconnectedness with one another that leads to a deeper relationship with God.

Our conversation today with Ryan Smith opens a meaningful discussion about the biblical message of generosity. He talks about how, with God’s generous gifts in their life, he and his wife create pathways for generous giving to enable God’s graces to flow to others in their community. Find out how the Giving Group model steers their charitable causes and why a community with a cause inspires each other to make a larger impact for the kingdom of God. Listen now and be inspired.

Key Points From This Episode: 

• A snapshot of Ryan’s life, education, career, and business.
• Attending a Generous Giving conference and meeting his hero becomes a pivotal moment in Ryan’s life of faith.
• The four criteria that make mobile home parks and storage facilities compelling assets for investing. 
• Area of Ryan’s life where he sees the most success.
• Ryan’s biggest disappointment and what he learned from it. 
• The pivot point in Ryan’s journey of generosity.
• Why excellence is a significant part of Ryan’s philosophy in work, business, and everything he does.
• How Ryan uses his time, talents, and treasure to make investments in God's kingdom.
• The Giving Group model that guides Ryan in his charitable causes.
• How Ryan finds people to join giving groups.
• Ryan’s advice to people who want to grow their business and investment so they can take their generosity to the next level.
• What’s the key to growing in generosity?
• How Ryan thinks we, as Christians, can have a bigger impact on the world.
• What Ryan is most excited about now and his vision for the future.
• Ryan answers the lightning-round questions.

Tweetables:

“Our work is one of many forms of worship. So, to me, the byproduct of worship should be or the way we worship or the way we work should be excellence.”

“‘Who’ we're doing it for matters, not the ‘what’ we're doing.”

“Disappointments are the cost of doing business relationally.”

“Most people who are givers want to give more.”

“In our business, we're certainly not reckless in how we allocate capital, but in giving, it's fun that you can be reckless, and that you can give it away that you don't know how it's gonna turn out.”

“We didn't start by saying, here are our goals and our objectives. I had no idea what the need was, but it was just fun how it grew. How we grew together as a community through that effort was wonderful.”

“ I think the best thing that anybody can do is live their life in a way that people ask "why"?”

“We're tasked with throwing the seed, God does the rest.”

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Elevation Capital Group website

Ryan Smith on LinkedIn

Invest in Elevation Fund

Generous Giving website

Journey of Generosity

Tim Keller website

About Ryan Smith

Ryan Smith brings with him more than fifteen years of extensive business experience in market evaluation, property analysis, management systems, due diligence, finance, and more. Mr. Smith and his affiliates co-manage multiple invest