In this episode of the Kingdom Investor podcast, host Daniel White interviews Robert Netzly, the CEO of Inspire Investing. They discuss the concept of biblical responsible investing, which involves paying attention not only to the financial returns of a portfolio but also to the moral aspects of the companies being invested in. Netzly shares his personal story of how he stumbled upon this concept and how it led him to start Inspire Investing. He also talks about their current project, "Blessing Generations," which involves strategically thinking about the long-term future of the company and how it can continue to glorify God.
Key takeaways:
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About Robert Netzly
Robert Netzly is the CEO of Inspire Investing and a frequent contributor on FOX, Bloomberg, New York Times, and other major media. Read more from Robert in his #1 bestselling book Biblically Responsible Investing, available at Amazon.com and other major retailers.
In this episode of the Kingdom Investor podcast, host Daniel White interviews Robert Netzly, the CEO of Inspire Investing. They discuss the concept of biblical responsible investing, which involves paying attention not only to the financial returns of a portfolio but also to the moral aspects of the companies being invested in. Netzly shares his personal story of how he stumbled upon this concept and how it led him to start Inspire Investing. He also talks about their current project, "Blessing Generations," which involves strategically thinking about the long-term future of the company and how it can continue to glorify God.
Key takeaways:
Links:
About Robert Netzly
Robert Netzly is the CEO of Inspire Investing and a frequent contributor on FOX, Bloomberg, New York Times, and other major media. Read more from Robert in his #1 bestselling book Biblically Responsible Investing, available at Amazon.com and other major retailers.
Daniel White 0:03
Robert, welcome to the kingdom investor podcast. How are you doing today?
Robert Netzly 0:07
I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, Daniel.
Daniel White 0:09
Yeah, I'm excited for our conversation today. And just to unpack what biblical responsible investing is, and kind of hear your story, but before we do that, would you share maybe one thing that you're passionate about one project that you're working on right now, just so we can kind of get in the headspace of where you're at? Yeah,
Robert Netzly 0:29
our big project right now is something we're calling blessing generations. It's our theme for the year. And it's coming off of last year, which was our Sabbath year here at Inspire investing. So their seventh year in business, Lord was calling us to take that year as a Sabbath. And we didn't really know what that look like as a company. You know, what that would look like? So we figured it was a really great year, maybe it started another time. But this year, as we're starting this kind of next seven year cycle, we're taking some time to really strategically think through as a team, as all the departments, what are the stones, the foundations doesn't need to lay, that people generations from now, should the Lord tarry, will benefit from, that will never meet that they'll need to really carry forward the mission and vision of every Christian investing for the glory of God that we can put in place this year, and in the coming seven years. So just taking a real intentional approach to thinking long term. And how we can set this company up for just really being a faithful, enduring business for the glory of God.
Daniel White 1:31
That sounds wonderful, really cool. I do want to hear more about the Sabbath year. I don't know if that's something we can get into maybe, maybe a little bit later in this episode. But before we jump into your story, would you mind praying for our listeners, and just this time that would be edifying to the Lord?
Robert Netzly 1:50
Absolutely. My pleasure. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you, God, for your goodness for your glory. Lord, thank you for calling each of us into your redemptive work or God for your creation. The people who are called by your name, Lord, we want to, we want to be about your business, not our own fathers, we pray that Your Holy Spirit would just lead each of us as we seek to be good stewards of the influence and the businesses and the people and assets and everything you've put into our, our sphere of influence, Lord God, we don't want to be wasteful one moment that you give us here, and we want to be doing everything for your glory. So would you just have your way and being this podcast and Lord, would your your glory be? What is on display, Lord, not anything special about our business other than what you are doing and and what you want to do going forward? Jesus name we pray, amen.
Daniel White 2:45
Amen. Thank you, Robert. Would you share just a little bit of flyover kind of, of your personal story and then kind of tie that into how the Genesis the Genesis story of of Inspire investing started?
Robert Netzly 3:02
Happy to Yeah, so inspire investing. Just a quick intro for anybody who doesn't know who we are. We're an exchange traded fund company. So we're investment firm, we're the world's largest provider of faith based ETFs as well as you know, other lines of business with some FinTech products and wealth management offices and whatnot, we manage about $2 billion and growing rapidly we've been named as one of the fastest growing investment firms in the nation like the top three best growing investment firms you know for few years running Inc 5000 top quartile and glory to God because I went to school to be a fourth grade teacher and no and math was my worst subject in school so you know, it's just like you know, God uses the coolest things the world to shame the wise for sure. And I'm living proof so my my background personally as founder and CEO here I was you know after after going to school to be a fourth grade teacher dropping out selling alarms door to door making a bunch of money doing that part time on the weekends and then getting into business sales and then going to youth ministry and just living living barefoot for Jesus basically for a number of years getting married started having kiddos roundabout story ended up somehow working at Wells Fargo Private Client Service in the you know investment division in Carmel California and so that's that's how I ended up in this business and really took to get licensed you know grew up started growing a practice and everything and life was good had a nice little dragged on the coast every day. You know about Carmel it's like right there by Pebble Beach and just beautiful little coastal coastal community second storey office looking over the beach you know, million dollar account minimalist life was life was good, right but not looking to change anything in that scenario. And then I stumbled across really by accident. Online one day, this whole concept called biblically responsible investing, which is when you're paying attention to not just the you You know, the financial returns of a portfolio, but really the the moral aspect of the portfolio. So asking the question, what are these companies doing? That I'm investing in? What are they doing to actually turn a profit? Are they manufacturing abortion drugs? Are they selling pornography? Are they violating human trafficking issues in their supply chains? You know, the list goes on, what are they what's going on here. And, you know, it's interesting, because I just never even crossed my mind to think about those sorts of things. And from a biblical perspective, so I was curious, and started looking into my portfolio and my clients portfolios. And really, the Holy Spirit just gripped my heart on this issue, because here, I was president of our local Prolift pregnancy center at the time, and I own three stocks of companies manufacturing, abortion drugs in my personal portfolio. And so that just means, you know, every time a young lady goes across the street to Planned Parenthood has an abortion, I just made money on that transaction, I literally profited from that transaction, and I'm recommending all my clients do the exact same thing. And I'm totally oblivious, right. And then, of course, the whole other laundry list of other things, I just sort of started listing off where you are in my portfolios. And I was dumbstruck and totally convicted on this issue. And I just kept imagining, you know, I'm gonna stand before the Lord one day and give an account for all that I've done, and how I've steward his assets. And I just couldn't imagine how I could expect him to be happy with. Okay, let's look at the investment portfolio and love Jesus, all the money I made an abortion drugs, were you like, Aren't you proud? That just I couldn't, I didn't want to be in that position, you know. And so I didn't know what I was going to do, because I've never met anybody doing what we do now. And wasn't sure if I could even stay in the industry that I had to go do something else. So I went home, told my wife, Hey, honey, you know, I think the Lord's calling us somewhere else. Here's what I found. And she's like, Okay, well, we got two babies in the mortgage. So what's the plan? And, you know, I know plan. I don't know, I was this close to go into seminary being some sort of, you know, vocational pastor. The only way I could think of staying in the business was leave the bank start over from scratch, just some sort of independent firm that is doing some sort of in the biblical something investing, I didn't even know it was called right. But that's crazy. Could have any money or experience or connections or clients or whatever. Like all the things you need to actually start a business like that. So as we prayed, as God does, he made it abundantly clear that Well, that's exactly what he's calling me to do. And just an unmistakably clear. I mean, it was just one of the most clearest callings and Lord I ever received in my life, that this was what he wanted me to do. So two months later, I made the incredibly frightening decision to leave the bank left, my clients left my income left all earthly security behind started from scratch me and a laptop, less than two months of savings in the bank, fully prepared never to pay my mortgage ever again in my life, no idea what's gonna happen financially, or any, you know, at all with this whole thing. And like, alright, Lord, your turn to show up because I just had to be, I've got to be faithful, I noticed what you're telling me to do. And there's nothing else I can do. Because this compulsion you put on my heart, and here we go. So I just started educating people about what I found, like, here's what I found, here's what I'm doing. And lo and behold, they had the same reaction I did their eyes got big giants, the floor, oh, my gosh, I had no idea. How do I find out what I'm actually invested in? How is it possible to invest a different way? What does that even look like? And God just totally blessed. The growth of this practice to the point I had to bring in other advisors to start help with the growth, which by the way, was never part of my plan. Like I had no grand vision to grow any sort of enterprise, right? I mean, I was going to be the local hometown advisor guy, like maybe having assistant one day if I was super lucky. That was my my big plan. And God had different plans, of course. So that was a little over 10 years ago, in 2011. And, you know, one thing led to the other one advisor led to led to five with a 10, to 20, to mentoring hundreds of Christian financial advisors all over the country, who somehow heard from a friend of a friend of a friend about what we were doing, and God was working on their heart. Same way, he worked on mine and they're like, how I gotta change my practice. How are you doing what you do? And it was obvious God was at work and they're in this biblically responsible mystic movement, where the Lord just opening the eyes of his people to the huge problem and this huge opportunity to glorify him in such an impactful way with the money he's given us to steward for him was just blown up in a good way. So that happened, and then you know, we were talking to and mentoring all these Christian advisors, we just kept running into the same sort of friction points of like lack of product, where do I find a low cost biblically responsible like in like index fund to use, because there just wasn't any, you know, there just wasn't a lot of funds out there to meet the needs of investors. And so we were trying to get actual asset management companies to launch product for us. And talking to him about Yeah, we want to screen out abortion and LGBT activism and pornography and you know, whatever. It just was kind of like radio silence, there's a lot of interest because the growth, but then we talked about the values, and it's like, it can't really do that. So that left us sitting around, you know, our little table in our office one day, saying, I guess that means us, right. So let's do this thing. So left my income again, me and a few others just kind of stepped out of that business started. In spite of the Inspire brand in 2015, so the separate entity, left our clients with the rest of our team who stayed in retail production. And, you know, no clients, no money, vision from the Lord to go change the world with investing and like, that's where we are. So that was in 2015. And started kind of working on our concept of good, what if we could, yes, kick out the bad actors, you know, the abortion, drug manufacturers, etc, of the world? But then how do we find how do we like really identify the most positive inspiring companies to invest in the ones that are like, most closely aligned with God's heart for the world? And what if we could build low cost indexes out of those most inspiring, you know, companies, God honoring companies, what would happen? So we developed what was called our inspire impact score, which is now it's used by investors all over the world, influencing many billions of dollars of investments, it basically shows you how biblically aligned or not a company is, in a real clear, easy way. And so that worked. And the results were phenomenal. And other advisors wanted access to the strategy. So we started doing that, and then all of a sudden, our big 20 year like, maybe it's just how cool would this be if we if we could possibly have an ETF one day, you know, became a two year reality. And, you know, we're on the in 2017, we're on the podium in the New York Stock Exchange ringing the closing bell, launching our first two ETFs on a wing and a prayer, a lot of Top Ramen beans and rice, but you know, God made it happen. And then the next day, we're, you know, after launch, we're on the front page of The New York Times business section, like in Starbucks all over the, you know, everywhere. And then the Wall Street Journal is calling Fox businesses calling, and then it all the hundreds of articles, and we didn't have a PR team, God just blessed it.
Fast forward to today, you know, again, we're managing over $2 billion. And it's just God's at work, and we're trying to keep up. And it's super exciting. And we're super humbled that we get to be, you know, playing the part that He's given us in just evangelizing this movement and helping to spread the word to his people. About, hey, ever thought about what's in your portfolio, and how you can actually invest for God's glory, and make some really cool impact, you know, for his name along the way. So, that brings us here today. And as the crowning achievement of our career, I'm here on your podcast, and like, super thrilled that I get to be your talking to you and all your all your listeners, it's it's really an honor.
Daniel White 13:12
Awesome, that's a phenomenal story about just how God has, has really use you and your team to do incredible things. Praise God, would you? Would you maybe share a story of an impactful company or an inspirational company that you guys have invested with?
Robert Netzly 13:33
Sure, I mean, there's a lot, you know, in our funds are their index funds primarily. So we've been invested in, you know, 1000s of companies across all of our funds. And there's some that are, you know, more intentionally, Christian or biblically aligned, like on purpose. Others are simply, you know, good companies that are, you know, creating products that help people make their lives better and take care of their customers and not explicitly, you know, operating from the local mandate, obviously, right. But, you know, there's, there's, like one company, Coca Cola, consolidated, which is not the big Coca Cola you think of but Coca Cola consolidated, which is the largest bottling and distributing company for Coca Cola in the country. They are explicitly viewer, their website. They're explicitly faith based, explicitly biblical Christian. They exist to glorify God in their business in their mission statement. And they're incredibly successful, and have been for generations. We've been around for, I think, over 100 years. phenomenal story, and then, you know, there's, you know, like covenant transportation, you know, it's a trucking company that explicitly honors God seeks to honor God and all they do and you'll see their trucks on the road. He's got, you know, scriptures on the sides and things like that. So there's there's cool stories like that the More common stories are those that are just, you know, the big businesses that are that are operating for the glory of God that are operating, you know, in line with biblical principles, but then you kind of get to know some of the executives is like, Oh, we got you got allies, right? There's believers in in the, in the main seats there. And even though they may not be able to, you know, because of a variety of reasons, board members and other things to be explicitly faith based, right. But they are certainly thinking about how they can honor God in the business. It was really cool to see that.
Daniel White 15:36
So what are the approaches that you take when kind of analyzing these different companies and who you invest with and who you choose not to?
Robert Netzly 15:46
A lot of it boils down to, again, that inspire impact score methodology, and anybody who's interested, there is a white paper available on our website, Spy investing.com, feel free to download. You know, I think it's about 30 pages of information about this. So if you want to really geek out on how we do this, go for it. And also it has like return studies and things and sort of performance attribution studies about, you know, the the better scoring companies versus worst scoring companies. And what does that do to performance historically, it's really interesting data. So I encourage you to go there and check it out. But in essence, what the Inspire impact score does is it creates a score from negative 100 to positive 100. Anything above zero, we consider investable, right. So there's no violations from a biblical perspective. There's, there's a, you know, I don't know, little over a dozen categories of exclusionary criteria that we look at. So when we analyze a company, it first goes through this exclusionary process of, you know, again, the abortion drugs, the pornography, the human trafficking, et cetera. We do look at, you know, corporate, like legislative efforts. So if a business is like taking an activist approach to push, like pro abortion legislation, for instance, or giving money directly to like a Planned Parenthood type of organization, like those sorts of things, in addition to their main products and services, would be violations. So the more categories of violations a company has, the more instances like the deeper red their score gets, and the closer to negative 100. They get it right. So we never invest in those companies. But then the overall, the overwhelming majority of businesses, about 85% of all publicly traded companies in the United States pass all of the exclusionary criteria, they're not involved in any sort of, kind of heinous business, right, and moral issues. They're just doing, they're making toothpaste or making shoes or whatever they're doing, and they're just doing their business. So then we want to say, Okay, well, which ones are the better ones? From a values based perspective, and we have a few dozen categories, along the lines of how well these companies are being a blessing to their customers, you know, what the products they actually create? You know, are they making shoes? Are they curing cancer, right? There's a difference there. So, you know, are they blessing to the customers are blessing to their workforce, or their blessing to the communities they operate in, and to the world in general, like environmental stewardship and things of that nature from a biblical perspective, of caring for, for creation. So you know, and we look at an industry best in class. So we, for instance, we will invest in oil companies, we think oil is still important to have, you know, as people here on this earth, we also believe that oil companies should we should be responsible and how they actually drill for and, and transport that oil, they shouldn't be dumping it in the river on Friday, you know, before they go home for the weekend. So we want to look at industry best in class. So we're kind of seeking those companies that in their industry segment, or the operating better than average, above average, and all these areas of blessing customers, communities, workforce world, and the higher above average, they score, the more points they're awarded, and there's a whole rules based objective methodology algorithm that's run to identify those scores, those data points. And then, you know, if they're above, highest above average, in all categories, they could get a theoretical positive 100. You know, and that's the idea. So, we have a database of over 40,000, ticker symbols of stocks, mutual funds, and ETs that are available and scrubbed daily for various data points and refreshed daily, it's available for free on inspire insight.com. So you can just put in a ticker symbol of a stock mutual fund and ETF and you can see instantly for free, you know what is going on all the good, bad and the ugly, what's going on under the hood inside of your 401 K, your IRA, you know, or just some company that you're curious about? And down to the nitty gritty details of on this date. This company gave this much money to Planned Parenthood. So that's available for you. And you can go to either directly to inspire insight.com, or our main website inspired investing.com. And you can find your way to that app, as well as all other things related to inspire, and how we do our scoring.
Daniel White 20:17
Yeah, that's really, really fascinating, really helpful, too. So how have you seen the overall faith driven investing, space grow or change or kind of emerge? Can you talk a little bit about that?
Robert Netzly 20:33
Absolutely. So it's, you know, the modern loss of Faith Based Investing has been around for a long time, I mean, going back to like slave trade England days, and investors, Christian investors speaking up and saying, like, we're not going to invest in certain industries, like the slave trade. So it's been around like that idea, like, investing God's money and things and actually honor him. And if there's a moral culpability is, as an investor to the sort of things that we profit from and seek to support with investment dollars, is clearly scriptural and clearly a practice in, in the church going back a long time. Modern, modern days, like mutual funds, sort of stuff, like you've had faith based funds around for, you know, decades, certainly. But it's been, you know, it's kind of a really, sort of sleepy, not much growth, not much awareness of that, outside of, like, you know, Pastor retirement plans and things for a long, long time. And so, in the past number of years, and you know, as we've entered in as ETF providers, we're the, you know, kind of innovative, that's like in our blood, and so we're trying to make new things and build the picks and shovels to enable God's people to invest, to actually invest according to God's values for His glory, and along with others, and we're seeing more funds being deployed, you know, more, more, certainly more media exposure than ever before, by, you know, top tier media, you know, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, et cetera, Financial Times. And, and that's all really, really awesome to see. And as you're seeing millions and millions of people, just Main Street America, and even just Main Street around the world, get exposure to this concept, for the first time. And just asking that question, I wonder what's in my portfolio, and I wonder how I could invest differently. And it's not really that hard to just kind of take some intentional, you know, research or just know where the resources are. And just instead of this fund, just buy this other fund, right? Sell out of your vanguard, BlackRock and in bioinspired, for instance, right. So there's, there's things that you can do is pretty simple and straightforward. And more and more financial advisors are becoming aware and integrating their practice, more firms are starting to carry funds like ours and make them available on platforms. It's just, it really is growing by leaps and bounds right now. And I think that's I mean, our growth is testament to the fact that the growth of the market, and it's really the untapped market out there. There's, by our estimation, using US census data and IRS data. And some pew research data on the size of kind of the American church and whatnot. best we can tell, there's about $21 trillion in stocks, mutual funds, ETFs bonds, in retirement plan, so 401, K's IRAs, etcetera, in the United States that are controlled by Protestants, evangelicals, and Catholics, professing Christians, and that's, that's like more than half of all the retirement assets in the country. That's a huge, huge, huge number. And Wall Street is not helping to share the story of Faith Based Investing with those people, obviously, they're not really interested, you know, in promoting biblical values, you know, in the investment decisions that people are making. But you know, this, this movement is coming, and whether Wall Street's ready for it or not, or wants it or not, like it's here, here we are. And it's it really is changing things. And we're seeing, we're seeing some really impactful things like with businesses even changing the way they're, they're approaching corporate philanthropy and the sort of things that they're promoting or engaged with, we're able to, to influence those decisions, by the grace of God. And it's been really exciting to see that.
Daniel White 24:28
So where do you see the future of the space going?
Robert Netzly 24:34
I mean, should the Lord tarry and God allow it? I honestly see, because the market is so huge. I mean, you know, more than half of the assets controlled by Christians and given that I mean, there's a lot of variation in that group of professing Christians. But even if only a fraction of those were serious about honoring God in every aspect of their life, biblically responsible faith driven faith based whatever you wanna call it, Christian investing would be the largest market of investors in the nation like that would that's many, many, many times bigger than the largest asset manager Blackrock right now. And so if we could just get that word out, if we could inspire transformation is what are we call it by just getting the word out making people aware. And that would just it's going to, it's going to create demand, it's going to spur new products, it's going to send a huge message to corporate America, that kind of radical left ideology is not the only game in town. And that's sadly been the only voice they've been hearing for decades, in corporate boardrooms. But now that's changing as investors like us and our allies in the space are starting to speak biblical truth to corporate power. There's, I mean, the conversations are kind of comical, like, in a way sad and comical, you know, I've spoken to I don't know how many CFOs or, you know, senior investor relations officers and whatnot with major corporations. And they tell me after we share our our piece about, you know, why we would prefer them not to be donating money to Planned Parenthood or supporting, you know, pro abortion legislation, or whatever the cause is that we're talking to them about as shareholders in the business. They end the call, like, you know, thankful, like thanking us for sharing the information and saying, oftentimes, you know, we've never heard from a faith based investor before, like, this is actually really interesting to us that you have this, like, I've been doing this for 20 something years, 30 years, I've never heard from a faith based investor. That's a problem. Oh, my gosh, why not. And so as that voice is being heard, you know, a lot of these folks are not, like adamantly opposed. I mean, they're just kind of, they're seeking to do a good job for their investors and for the business and run a good company. And they are more than more times, and often are willing to listen, respectfully, and really seek to honor the voice of their faith based shareholders in those policy decisions. So we need to, we need to do more of that. And we're seeing a lot of cool changing, changes have taken place.
Daniel White 27:30
What do you think holds investors back from participating in bulk or responsible investing?
Robert Netzly 27:37
The main thing is awareness. I mean, most people just still haven't even heard of it before. Right? I'm sure right. Now, as people are listening to this podcast, this is, for the majority of you out there, this is probably the first time you're even hearing about this concept. And then, aside from awareness, it's like, okay, well, now what do I do? Right? So those of you listening, you're like, Wow, this makes a lot of sense. I wonder what's in my portfolio? How do I find out? That was, that's been a big roadblock, which is why we started inspiring site.com. So you can find out for free right now. Inspiring? site.com, while you're listening, go in like typing ticker symbol of one of your funds, when your stocks and like, see what's going on, right? Then you get into Okay, so now I know the information I you know, I've got some conviction, I'm pro life, and I see there's abortion in my portfolio, man, what do I do there? And you might have some roadblocks, because you got to ask the question, who's managing your money? Are you are you doing yourself? Are you with an advisor or firm? Are you with what investment houses, you know, custody of those assets? And depending on what your answer is there, you may or may not have very many options available to you at that investment firm, right? Or on that investment platform, or in your foreign 401k lineup, or whatever the case may be right there. There could be limited options. Or there can be many options. And so then you've you've got to take a look at Alright, can I invest faithfully with the convictions God has given me through His Word through spirit? Where my account is at today? And if the answer is no, I would encourage you to go find a different place that can help you invest for the glory of God, right. We have advisors all over the country and inspire there's many others. You know that with a little digging, you can you can find those folks. Right? So again, it's fire investing.com You can do a lot of research and read a lot of resources there to point you in the right direction. And we're happy to do so.
Daniel White 29:36
Robert, would you share maybe one great success and one great failure that we can learn from from your story?
Robert Netzly 29:46
man Yeah, great success, just that we even exist. Contrary to the opinions of all these smart people, you know, quote, unquote, out there that that we're going to be miserable for you. yours, that first year, we lost your ETS, and we're in the news and all that. I mean, they were not flattering articles, typically, you can imagine. They were most mostly had like kind of a sneering mocking undertone. Or maybe it wasn't an undertone of straight up mockery. like who are these guys like the think? You know, it was it was in these in these interviews these these journalists oftentimes kind of tilt their head sideways and say, You know who's gonna buy your funds? Because I mean, nobody believes the Bible anymore. So who do you think is going to buy your funds? Are you concerned that there's not really a market out there? And all I can say is, Well, I think you need to get out of Manhattan more often. Because there's, I think there's a lot of people that still believe the Bible, and are interested so but being faithful to, to really staying true with with the convictions like the very clear convictions God gave given us on the sort of things that we're screening out. Despite, even even, you know, other Christian experts in the industry, they're like, man, your screen seems so narrow, like all these companies, that you're screening out there all the, you know, Netflix and Amazon, and Microsoft and Google, like all the big names, you're screening out, like, you might want to kind of soften your stance a little bit. Well, no, I mean, Netflix is selling pornography, I don't want to make money in pornography, we're just gonna, we're gonna invest how God has put on our hearts. And turns out, God has blessed that, right. I mean, this is approach works, it's reaching people. So the success I would say is, if God's put convictions in your heart, like, be faithful to that and trust him with the results, doesn't mean you're going to be financially successful. Right. And we're not guaranteed that but we are guaranteed that there is there is a reward for faithfulness, whether it's here in this life, or definitely in the life to come, which is really what I'm looking forward to, is that heavenly reward that well done good and faithful servant, good and faithful servant, Enter into the joy of your master, and just encourage you to not cave on your, on your God given convictions, and just do what he's called you to do. Whatever that looks like here, trusting that, if nothing else, or rewards in heaven, failures, is, you know, we, as innovative, entrepreneurial sort of people, like, you know, oftentimes we try to do too much at one time, you know, there's just, especially when you get a little notoriety, you're in the media, and like, a lot of people start hearing about you, you get a lot of a lot of phone calls, a lot of emails and like, what opportunities start coming your way, hey, you know, let's do this partnership. And I've explored this opportunity here. You know, he get the picture. And there's a lot of great possibilities. There's an unending stream of great possibilities and opportunities. That could seriously be phenomenal, if executed on well, and it could be huge opportunities. But, you know, we've learned that there's, while there might be an endless supply of opportunities, there's only so much time in the day and energy that we actually have, you know, to give and so being wise about, okay, what is God called you to specifically, and there might be a lot that fits into the general vision, that would be like missionary aligned. But then there's a there's a strategy of execution, that act that you'd have to focus on. And that means saying no to a lot of stuff. And this is kind of business school. 101. Right. I mean, focus is not saying yes to the right thing is saying no to everything else. And that's the hardest thing and a lesson I've got to learn all the time as again as an entrepreneur. So just staying focused, saying no, doing what you're supposed to be doing and not caving to conviction to caving, not caving, on compromise to your convictions.
Daniel White 33:44
All right, Robert, if you could be remembered for one thing, what would it be?
Robert Netzly 33:48
Oh, man, well, I wish I would want it to be that all my first Corinthians 1031 Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink whatever you do, do all the glory of God. Whether that was whether that's ringing the closing bell, the stock exchange or sweeping floors or loving my wife and my kids, like I just I would want I mean, I really want not to be remembered, but that, you know, God would be remembered because of the life I lived. That's what I would want. That everything I did gave glory to God and like, who's Robert I don't really I don't know. But you know, this Jesus is pretty awesome. Like, that's what I want to be not remembered as. I love it. Remember, numbers.
Daniel White 34:32
All right. Is there anything else you want to share before we jump into the mentor minute?
Robert Netzly 34:38
man Yeah, I again, I just would encourage everybody listening here. If there's a strike and any sort of chord, just not to kind of move on with your day and like not do anything and forget about it. Money is important. And where you put your money has real life consequences for for people. In the kingdom of God and that sort of thing, so I encourage everyone to go and like, take a look at what's in your portfolio right now. Again, you can go to our website, spire investing.com, there's a lot of resources to find out what's going on there. And just educate yourself about the sort of issues and then, you know, seek the Lord and like what he would have you do to that, and then go tell the people about it. The church needs to know, and we need to be intentional about honoring God, glorifying God. And all we do, including, perhaps, especially how we steward his investment resources, because the stakes are high.
Daniel White 35:34
Yeah, yeah, it's good. All right, who is the most influential person that you know? And how have they impacted you?
Robert Netzly 35:45
I would say, my wife, if we're talking about influence and impact, certainly we're celebrating 20 years of marriage. This year, we've got five wonderful kids, and you know, we're married, barely, barely, you know, out of our teenage years, and it's been wonderful growing up with her. And I would be, I can honestly say I would be a much different person, man. Like, if it wasn't for my wife, she has made me much more gentle, much more patient much more caring, much more sensitive, things that I continue to need a lot more of in my life. And and she's been by far the most sanctifying influence in my life.
Daniel White 36:25
That's good. Awesome. And then what book or podcast would you recommend for us to listen to?
Robert Netzly 36:35
You know, I'm not. I'm on a lot of podcasts. I actually don't listen to a lot of podcasts. Probably not the best one to ask about podcasts. I do read a lot I do like to read. Right now on my desk, I'm looking at two books Crossing the Chasm by Jeffrey Moore. You know, I've which I've read a lot. And it's just for entrepreneurs or business folk, like looking to really establish get established in the marketplace, particularly with anything that might be innovative. That's like a critical book to read. Right Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore. And the other one is how the mighty fall by Jim Collins, you've heard about Good to Great from Jim Collins, probably another great book. And the mighty fall is actually a little more interesting to me, because it's about like, spectacular failures. When she just I mean, I don't know, maybe that's, you know, maybe it's a morbid curiosity, like watching a train wreck. But it's interesting. And it's a shorter book. And it's a not all the way through yet first time reading it. But it's really interesting about how mighty companies, some of them, who are named in Good to Great book ended up falling. And it's a sober reminder for us, that none of us are above that. And so where the landmines need to be aware of, and there we go, I'll leave it with those two books.
Daniel White 38:01
All right. And then final question is, what is the greatest lesson in leadership that you've learned?
Robert Netzly 38:09
I mean, it again, it boils down to faith in the Lord. There's so many times in our business, and I know, basically every business particularly startups, that you just don't know if it's gonna work. And you don't know if there's gonna be food on the table, or if there's gonna be money in the bank next week, or if you're going to be in business tomorrow. There's been times early on, thank God, not any recent years, you know, Praise Lord. But in those early years, like there was, you know, we were like a day away from not making payroll, you know, sometimes and, you know, you just go to the Lord and say, What do I do? But that it's then where he just encourages, encourages you. And if you're, you're just being faithful to what he's calling you to do. You can never make a wrong decision. But even if you go bankrupt, if you were faithful, like, God's gonna be faithful to you, like he will provide for you, the sun will come up tomorrow, food will be on your family's table he will provide doesn't mean he's going to make your business successful, but he will provide for you. That's what his word promises that He will take care of you moreso than the sparrow right and little lilies of the field. And so this resting in that trust, not not worrying, not fretting, which leads to me trying to strong arm things, you know, away from God and take control myself like no, let's rest in the promises and faithfulness and goodness of God. Trust him with the business. Ask him to help me to be faithful to His calling me to do and the results are his that that whole perspective and stance on business is the most important thing that we do and inspire and has really made all the difference. In our, you know, through our failures and our successes,
Daniel White 40:03
yeah, that's really good. And it just reminds me, you know that if we're seeking our own kingdom, then, you know, that could happen. But if we're seeking first His kingdom, he's going to take care of all of the miscellaneous details and, and so we don't have to worry about, about the food or the clothing or, or anything like that if we're truly seeking His kingdom, and we're being faithful to obey where he's calling us to then then he's gonna take care of it. And it might be hard, it might be challenging, you might get shipwrecked or something.
Robert Netzly 40:41
Yeah, you might be beheaded for your families, you know, never know. But great is your reward in heaven. Right? So just faithful to God.
Daniel White 40:49
All right, Robert, how can we be praying for you and your family?
Robert Netzly 40:53
Oh, man in every way possible. Pray for I mean, pray for protection, please. We swim in waters invested by sharks you can imagine in Wall Street, and there's government regulators, and there's, you know, hostile media, and there's, you know, all sorts of service providers. And this is a complicated web of things that Babylon the Great has going on in Wall Street. So that's, that's the neighborhood we live in. And we need constant prayer for protection for the Lord's just hedge around us. And for, for wisdom, you know, for how to steward this business and this movement and get this message out to his people. It's a it's a high calling, helping believers, invest for the glory of God, like, they're going to take our advice. And we want to be on target with that. And not go beyond what he's what he's revealed in his word, like, not get ahead of ourselves, and just really be humble. And, you know, faithful
Daniel White 41:56
servants. All right. All right. Thank you so much, Robert, for coming on. Let me pray for you guys, before we close out the episode. God, I thank you and praise you for Robert and his family, I thank you for Inspire. And thank you for the team that has come around him, I pray that you would watch over them, that you would protect them that You would help them to remain faithful to you. Remain faithful to building your kingdom, and doing everything they can every day to bring glory to you points, all of the glory to you. And we just worship you. And thank you for just the story and all the amazing things that you're doing. Through Inspire. God, I pray that you would watch over our listeners and you would help us to take action on these things that we've learned and that we would seek first your kingdom and your righteousness. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Amen. Thank you guys for listening to another episode of the kingdom investor podcast.