Bonus: About Jordan Raynor

If you're new here to the Call to Mastery, you're likely wondering who in the world this Jordan Raynor guy is. Hi. That's me. So I thought I'd take a couple of minutes just to introduce you to me, to my work. But before I do that, I thought it would be helpful to share my story and a little bit of the context behind the Call to Mastery and behind this podcast and all the work that I'm doing today. So I'm a graduate of the Florida State University, graduated from Florida State in 2008. So 11 years ago, and I spent my whole career as an entrepreneur. I've started and sold a couple of companies. And about five years ago, I was exiting one of those ventures and I was trying to figure out what I was going to do next. I was pretty sure I was going to start another company. But one Sunday morning I went to church and we had a guest preacher there who was calling for people to go be church planters in the world's largest cities. And he's up on stage and he's talking about the profile of the ideal church planter and what it takes to be a successful church planter. And I'm sitting there realizing he's describing entrepreneurs, he was describing me and my skill set. And so I'm sitting there feeling guilty that I'm planning on starting another business rather than moving away from my home to another city to go do work that seems to be more like, quote unquote, ministry, Right? And so I started, we started praying about planning a church. My wife and I started planning, praying about planning a church. And around this time, I had a mentor in my life who knew I was considering planning a church. This guy loved Jesus, but he sat me down one day and he just was very frank with me and told me, you know, this doesn't make a ton of sense to me. You're clearly passionate about entrepreneurship, you're clearly gifted at the craft, you've created some wealth, you've created jobs. Why do you think you're supposed to go apply those things to something else entirely? Like, don't you get that the work you do as an entrepreneur is ministry? And I had no idea what this guy was talking about. I looked at this guy like he had three heads. And so this guy gave me a book by Tim Keller, one of my all time favorite authors, a book called Every Good Endeavor. Maybe you've read it and it totally changed my life. Keller, in this book, helped me realize that not only was my work eternally significant, my work Whatever my work is as an entrepreneur, as an author, even if I was a janitor, Stay at home, dad. My work is primary means of ministry. It's a primary way in which I glorify God, reveal his creative working character to the world. It's a means by which I love my neighbor as myself. Right. And it's a means of making disciples. And I've certainly seen that play out in my career once I was able to make that connection between my faith and my work. So I read this book. Obviously, I don't go plan a church. I decide to start another company, which you'll learn about here in a few minutes. But after reading every good endeavor I had, I had some deeper, more nuanced questions about what it looked like to integrate my faith in my work as an entrepreneur, specifically. So I went out, I interviewed a bunch of Christian entrepreneurs. I researched people throughout time like Arthur Guinness at the Guinness Brewing Company, C.S. lewis, who I would argue authors are entrepreneurs and just trying to understand how these people built products differently because of their Christian faith. So I filled up a moleskin full of notes on all of these amazing methods and women, and that moleskin eventually became a book called Called to Create, which, if you're listening to this podcast, you may have read that book that I released in November of 2017. And by the grace of God alone, that book has just far exceeded my expectations. It was an instant national bestseller when it was released in November 2017. And there's just been so much momentum behind that book and behind some of the other content that I have been creating for these last few years to help you, to help you and me make this deep connection between our faith and our work. So, since Called to Create was released, my team and I have had the great privilege of helping more than one and a half million people connect their faith with their work. And we're doing that through books like Called to Create, reading plans and YouVersion's Bible app. I have my own weekly Faith and Work devotional, which, if you're not subscribed, you can sign up for free right now@jordanrayner.com and now we're doing this through this podcast, through the Call to Mastery. So I've been recording a bunch of episodes, getting ready for the launch of the Call to Mastery. And a lot of people are asking me, why are you. Why are you doing this? You're doing a lot. You're about to publish your second book. Why are you starting a podcast? And I really started this podcast for three reasons. You know, first I think audio, the medium of audio, can be a very powerful tool to helping achieve my mission. Right. Which is to help you to help me to help every Christian do their most exceptional work for the glory of God and the good of others. So that's the first reason. The second reason is I love conversations with other Christians who are masterful at their crafts. I love picking the brains of the world's most successful people. And success might not even be the right word, just people who are really exceptional at what they do. If you've read Called to Create, you know how much I love stories and narratives of people. My next book, Master of One, is going to be released by Random House in January of 2020, and it's written in a very similar style. It's very story driven. In that book, we got stories from more than 20 Christians who are masterful at their vocation and trying to understand how their faith influences that process. So I very much see this podcast as an extension of that format, right, of interviewing more people, sit down and just having conversations with people about one, how they get really great at what they do, and two, how their faith influences that process. So if you love my writing style and Called to Create, you're really going to love this podcast. The third reason why I'm starting this show is I think it's a really great way for you to get to know me better, and vice versa. I think there is something much more intimate and vulnerable about audio that doesn't always come across on the page of a book. So I'm hoping, hoping that you can get to know me better. I'm hoping I can get to know you better. So in that vein, I thought it'd be fun to answer publicly here in this episode of this podcast, the 10 most frequent questions I get asked when people are trying to get to know me, maybe when I'm traveling and speaking at events or just getting to know people for the first time. So without further ado, let's get into these 10 questions and hopefully this helps you get to know me a little bit better. So the first question I get asked, it's probably the first question you guys get asked anytime. You meeting somebody at a cocktail party or church, whatever, is what do you do? Right. So I just explained a lot of what I do. So today I'm spending the vast majority of my time creating content, products, books, this podcast, my weekly devotional that help you do your most exceptional work for the glory of God and the good of others. But in addition to that work, I also serve as the executive chairman of a venture backed tech startup called Threshold360. Very interesting venture. We built the world's largest library of 360 experiences of public locations. So hotels, restaurants, shops, attractions. Well over a hundred and one hundred fifty thousand locations that we created this content for in about 19 different countries. I actually served as CEO of the Venture for two and a half years before I decided to focus full time on creating content like this podcast. So that's what I do. Second question I get asked a lot is, am I married to Tell me about your wife. So yes, I am. I'm married to the lovely Kara. We've been married for 10 years. We actually grew up five minutes away from each other, but we didn't meet until we were both at Florida State University. My wife is far smarter than I am. She has had a stellar career in finance. Today she actually serves as the chief financial officer amongst our small but growing team here at Jordan Rayner. And third question I get asked, do you have kids? Yes, and they are the joy of my life. Ellison is 5 years old and little Kate is 3. And we are in the very early stages of adopting. So we're going through that process right now, which has been a very wild experience. Question number four, where do I live? I live in the great city of Tampa, Florida, which my wife and I absolutely adore. This is a fantastic place to live. It's a fantastic place to build businesses and raise a family. My family's actually been in Tampa for six generations, according to my wella, according to my grandmother. I, I'm not sure that's actually true. I've never seen the paperwork documenting this, but she swears that we've been here for six generations. By the way, if you haven't been to Tampa in, I don't know, let's call it five years, you really haven't been to Tampa, especially downtown. It's a totally different city than it was just five years ago. So if you're ever in town, let me know and it would be, it would be great to hang out. Question number five, where do I go to church? I get asked this a lot. So I go to a relatively small church called the Church at Odessa that's here kind of out in the suburbs of Tampa. I can't express enough how much I adore our church. I think almost every Sunday morning when, when Kara and the kids and I are on our way back home from church, we verbalize just how much we love it and how much we love our pastor, Chris Basham, one of the best teachers of the word I've ever heard. He preaches pretty consistently, 45 to 50 minutes a Sunday, which is mind boggling to most people, but I swear I never looked down at my watch. I always want him to keep going. He's an exceptional gospel centered preacher. In fact, we, we actually haven't recorded a conversation with Chris for this podcast, but we probably should. We need to have Chris on and what the other thing I love about my church is these are very, very serious followers of Jesus Christ that we're in community with, but those are really serious professionals. Some of the most exceptional professionals I know just happen to go to church with me, right? So that's where I go to church. Next question. I get asked a lot. I get asked this a ton, especially now that I'm focused on writing full time, are what are my favorite books? This is such a hard question to answer. I have so many. But the ones I think the best way to answer this question, and I'm gonna ask this of a lot of guests on the podcast, is which books do you recommend the most? Or which books do you buy and gift to others the most? So for me on the business front, it's very easy. There's really three books that I keep buying over and over and over again for people. Number one is Deep Work by Cal Newport. Number two is Getting Things Done by David Allen. And number three is Essentialism by Greg McEwen. Those three books define how I work day to day, and I cannot recommend them highly enough in terms of Christian living books. There's really two authors that I keep coming back to over and over again, and I will read anything that they write that is Tim Keller. So if you recall from my story, every good endeavor, that book changed my life. I've read everything Keller's ever written and I reread it frequently. And then John Mark Comer, who is, is less well known than Keller, but I think John Mark is one of the most brilliant teachers in the church today. I think he's doing some exceptional work and just expounding, just revealing truths in scripture that in a way that is so different and so fresh, but also biblically true. I think John Mark Homer's very theologically sound. I'm a huge fan. The most entertaining book I read and you guys are going to think I'm a huge nerd after I give this answer. But I read this book, I don't know, every two years or so. It's a book called Disney War. And I recommend this book all the time. So It's a. I love. I love corporate biographies. I love stories of businesses. And this is a book about. About the Walt Disney Company from 1984 to 2004, during Michael Eisner's tenure as CEO. It's exceptionally written by James Stewart, an award winning, award winning journalist. I can't recommend it highly enough, but if you want to see everything I'm reading, everything that I've rated historically, it's pretty easy to find me on Goodreads. You can find me there. All right, so that's what I read. I also get asked a lot. What do I watch? It's a question I get a lot. So I actually don't watch many movies, but I love, love, love, love, love tv. I love television. If I were to make a dramatic career move at this stage of my career, I think I'd probably go write or produce television. I love the medium. Yeah. And I just, I. I watch, I watch. I say I watch a lot of TV. I watch, you know, Karen. I watch 20 to 40 minutes a night, but we do that pretty religiously. We both love tv. So on the comedy front, I. What we keep coming back to over and over again. And more recently, I really love Barry on hbo, an exceptional show with Bill Hader, which. I don't know if you could put that in the comedy bucket or the drama bucket, kind of. Kind of straddles those two. But actually, we don't watch that much comedy. I watch a lot of dramas. I love Sherlock. I love Lost. I love this Is Us. We'll see how that one ends. I'm a little skeptical if that's gonna finish strong, but the two that top the list are the Crown on Netflix. I'm obsessed with the crown. The soundtrack is pretty much the only thing I listen to while I work. But my ultimate show, by far, number one. There's not even a close second. And you'll probably hear me talk about this. You'll be very sick of me talking about this show. On the podcast is the West Wing. Aaron Sorkin, I believe, is the greatest writer alive today. I think he's brilliant, and West Wing is kind of the crown jewel of his career, in this podcast host's humble opinion. What do I listen to? I get asked this a lot. I Especially now that I'm recording a podcast, people ask me, oh, so, like, what podcast do you listen to? Yeah. So here's the secret. I actually don't listen to podcasts. I've never subscribed to a podcast before. Now, in preparation for the launch of The Call to Mastery. Of course. I have been studying up and studying best practices and of other podcasts inside and outside of my category. But I listen mostly to audiobooks. If I'm in my car for the most part, I'm listening to a full length nonfiction book. And then the music front. I'm a piano player. I was a music major for six weeks at Florida State. So I love, I love Billy Joel, I love Elton John. Yes, I'm only 33, but those guys seem to be the ones I keep coming back to. But lately I've been binging City alight. This worship group, I believe from New Zealand or Australia, I can't remember, I'm obsessed with their stuff. I think it's really great. And my not so guilty pleasure, which you'll probably hear me talk about way too much on the podcast, is Taylor Swift. I'm a big, I'm basically, if you looked at my interest profile, I'm a 25 year old white sorority girl. But I love Taylor Swift. I think this new album lover might be her best. I'm hesitant to say that. Maybe we could debate that with some guests on the show. All right, question number nine. I've been asked this a ton, especially since I've been traveling to Nashville. So now that I'm producing this content for Christians full time for you full time. I'm in Nashville a ton for speaking, events, whatever. And in Nashville almost, I feel like almost the only question you get asked is what's your Enneagram number? People in Nashville are like, oddly cult like about the Enneagram. And listen, I, you know, whatever, I'm a fan of the Enneagram, but I'm not like Nashville crazy fan of the Enneagram. So I'm a three, I'm a performer on the Enneagram. And we'll talk about Enneagram numbers with a few of our guests here on the Call to Mastery. All right, last question. I get asked this in some, some way, shape or form, some format. Basically, what are you passionate about? What gets you out of bed in the morning? Like, why do you exist? So as a Christian, I believe our work is a primary means of ministry. I believe it's a primary means of revealing the character of a working creative God of loving neighbor is self and making disciples of Jesus Christ. And I think we do those things most effectively when we do our work masterfully. Well, I don't think mediocrity loves anybody. Only masterful work serves others really, really well when we administer this ministry of excellence. So that that, that's my overriding passion. My overriding passion is helping Christians, helping you, helping me, me do our most exceptional work, not primarily for our own fame, not primarily for our own fortune, our own comfort, or for the ability to go retire. It's primarily for the glory of God and the good of others because that's what Jesus has called us to. And that's what this podcast is all about. First, helping you make that connection between your faith and your work. So answering kind of that why work question on a regular recurring basis because I think we all need to be reminded of that. And then once we've answered that why question, and I'm going to be introducing you to world class professionals who share your faith, who share our why, and we're going to ask these people to give really practical advice for how we do our most exceptional work for the glory of God and the good of others. All right, I'm exhausted talking about me. I've shared with you guys a little bit about me, probably way too much. Most of you guys probably stopped listening to this a long time ago. Who cares about Jordan Rayner this much? I certainly don't. But hey, I would love to get to know you better. You can reach me anytime. So I check every email that's sent to my personal email. I mean, I may not always respond. Sometimes my assistant will respond on my behalf, but I read every single message. So you can reach me anytime@jordanordanrayner.com I would love for you guys to take a minute just to reach out, shoot me a quick note, introduce yourself, tell me what you're excited about on the Call to Mastery, what you're loving about the episodes, what you don't love. I'm always eager to hear that feedback from you. And hey, be sure to subscribe to the Call to Mastery if you're not already subscribed on Apple podcast on Spotify. Wherever you listen to podcasts, make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode of the show. And hey, if you'd like more free resources to help you do exceptional work for the glory of God and the good of others, including my weekly Faith and Work Devotion, we have a hundred thousand, almost 100,000 people, people who are getting this weekly Faith and Work devotional, head on over to jordanrayner. Com. That's where you can sign up for that devotional and find other resources for you to help you more deeply connect the gospel to your work and then do your most exceptional work for the glory of God and the good of others. Thanks so much for listening.