The long version:

Full transcript below…

The shorter version:

Video transcript:

Bob: SeedTime is sweet. 16 today. Mm-hmm. And we’re kind of excited because there’s a long, uh, history and story behind how this whole thing began, and we’re gonna share some of that, just some of the miracle story because what’s come a long way. Yeah. And, and I think in a lot of ways, like I wrote this in the email I sent out today, like, um, it kind of never should have happened.

And uh, I don’t know, it’s just interesting how God works. And so we’re gonna share some of that story today and just kinda celebrate a little bit of what God’s done over the last 16 years. Yeah. Cause we’re thankful to be part of it. Well, and to be 

Linda: part of it. I think that’s really the biggest takeaway here.

Go. The biggest thing that we wanna communicate is, it’s been really exciting when you look back and you see what God has done. And I think on an anniversary like this, it’s easy to just be like, oh yeah, let’s talk about this. But I think. This is such an important thing to do in your own life. Like look back over the years and see God’s faithfulness.

Yes. And what he has done. Uh, you can journal about this. I mean, even just in the last year, I recently was asked to do a timeline of something and I was like, there’s no way I can remember. And all of a sudden it was like boom, boom, boom. I remembered all these things coming back to you. Yeah. And I was like, oh dang, my memory’s a lot better than I think it, I think just once you put your mind to it, you can remember a lot of stuff, so.

Yeah. Yeah. But this is a great exercise, I think, for 

Bob: anyone to do. And I don’t, I admittedly, I don’t feel like I do enough good enough job just, um, celebrating and Yeah. Uh, cause I’m always onto the next thing, onto the next goal, to the next whatever, and that’s something I could grow in, but mm-hmm. Uh, but yeah, I wanna just start with that, just kind of highlighting.

Um, and if you know us, if you’ve been around a while, hopefully you know our hearts. And this isn’t to boast in any way other than to boast on God and to on this in the Lord. Done because, Uh, we’re both very aware of where we’ve come from and what, uh, we can do in our own strength. But, um, to date we’ve had over 55 million visitors through our website podcast, um, and our YouTube channels.

I can’t believe that, which is, um, mind blowing to think about, um, there I can’t believe that there are 300 million people that live in the United States. Like, it’s just crazy. It’s just crazy. Um, and, and so that whole thing, like just is mind blowing and so, so that’s fun and, and that’s. Uh, really crazy like touchpoint that we’ve had.

But, um, the next level of excitement for me is the nearly 10,000 students that we’ve had come through our courses. Mm-hmm. And the reason that gets me more excited is because those people, I feel like we’ve gone deeper with Yeah. All of our students. Um, you know, cuz we had the blog for probably 10 years before we ever created a course and everything was just an article that we had written. 

Uh, and yeah, that’s where someone wanted 

Linda: people to get value 

Bob: out of it. Yeah. But, and I think plenty of people did. Mm-hmm. But man, when we created a course, like that’s when we really started seeing the emails come in and the testimonials and mm-hmm. Uh, so, so that is really, really excited, exciting to me.

Yeah. And then our last big project, which has been in this book, simple Money, rich Life, um, we’re pushing 20,000, not the final project, 

Linda: but not the final 

Bob: project that was, but we’re pushing 20,000 copies of that actually, I can’t believe that either found new homes and um, So anyway, so all of these things like we’re just telling you so that we can personally celebrate cuz we’re mm-hmm.

I wanna take a moment and just acknowledge what God’s done because it’s so, uh, fun and exciting just to kind of step back and be thankful and grateful for all 

Linda: of that, you know? Well, and that’s where we are now, but I think it’s good to go back and look at the beginning. 

Bob: Yeah. Yeah. 

Linda: Because, uh, this whole thing, and I, I, I think we can use this as encouragement for other people that this whole thing was just a tiny inkling of what if I just started this?

Like, that’s how it began. Yeah. And let’s bring them back to that point where seed time is really coming from. Is this just this tiny little seed that you think, is this gonna do anything? Yeah, that’s exactly, is this gonna produce 

Bob: anything? That’s exactly it. Yeah. Um, so. Yeah. Starting just kind of telling you where we were in this situation.

This was in 2007. I was, um, you know, and if you read the book, you’ll know in part three a little bit where I’m going with this, but I was in a dead end job. I was in a dead end career. I felt more discouraged and depleted and, um, hopeless. Mm-hmm. In my career, in really financial situation, uh, yeah. Than possibly at any other point in my life.

And it was a real, really hard time for me. And I remember, um, a couple different things happened in that season. I remember after, so I, long story short, I’m working in this company, this financial services company, and. Um, got like one or two promotions that were like, whatever, 2% pay raises type things.

And I, I, and this is why I was going to get my four year degree in college, so I ended up getting my four year degree, my business degree, I graduate and I’m like, all right, I got my diploma now and so now they’re gonna take me seriously. Now I’m gonna be able to get this big promotion and whatever. And so I started applying internally for all these jobs and almost all of them were like, well, we want all this experience.

And a, and they just didn’t really care about the degree, which was which, so discouraging. 

Linda: Yeah, discouraging. Because they kept saying, well, you don’t have a degree once you get a degree. Yes. Like, it was like a promise to you, like once you get a degree, you’ll have all these doors of opportunity 

Bob: open to you.

Yeah. That was kind of how HR talked. But then like, once I started applying for all the, these jobs internally, it just wasn’t mattering. And so, uh, I felt real, really discouraged in that, but ended up getting. This, this job that was like one pay raise higher. So it’s again, probably an extra $2,000 a year I made after I got my four year degree.

So I’m like, whatever, it’s something I’m moving forward. At least it’s one step. So then I go into that position and I worked there for like a year and a half. And one of the hardest moments in that whole thing was when my boss, or actually this new, uh, kid I should say, cause we were all kids at that point.

Um, the new guy gets hired in our depart. He’s like your desk mate or something sitting right next to you. My desk mate, we’re becoming friends and he’s working there for like a week or two. And I watched my boss come over and, and basically started talking to him and say, Hey, I wanna try to get you out over here to this other department, um, because you have a college degree and so you can be working out over there and be earning a whole lot more money.

So I’m gonna try to do that. And my jaw dropped and I’m like, she doesn’t know that I have a college degree and I’ve been here for a year and a half. You know? 

Linda: Well, yeah. And at this point you’re like, do I just be like, wait a second, I have a college degree too. Like, how do you bring that up casually? 

Bob: And in hindsight, like, I think it was the way that it was written on the, uh, resume.

Like she didn’t know what BSBA or whatever it was meant like, I don’t know. Anyway, it was just one of those moments where I felt so overlooked and I felt like, oh man, you know, and it was just like a kick. You needed to 

Linda: actually spell it out. Literally spell it out for me. 

Bob: Literally. Yeah. And so it just, 

Linda: that’s a good tip.

Actually, let’s just take that right now. If you are putting out a resume, don’t use acronyms. Use the, like, write it, spell it all out, because some people just don’t know, you know? 

Bob: Yeah. So anyway, all that’s a lesson to say. Um, yeah, like there was one kick in the stomach after another, after another, after another.

Um, and, and that season was just a really, really hard season. And, and looking back, I can see that God was doing stuff, but out of that, in the midst of that, in the midst of that despair and everything, I decided, you know what? I think I want to start a blog. Um, and what’s funny about that is kind of like, as I thought this, it literally came outta a conversation.

We had a dinner with some friends, uh, where I don’t even know if 

Linda: we were at dinner. I don’t think we were that high of spenders at that point, I think. No, 

Bob: we, we were You’re at dinner for, uh, I think we were talking to Winter’s Face’s birthday church. I forgot. No, we was at somebody’s birthday party. We were having dinner.

Anyway, I was talking to two guy friends and I was pitching my idea to my one buddy who’s kind of business minded and I said, Hey, I wanna start a website where, you know, I talk about what I’m learning about personal finance and then Proverbs and how these two kind of intersect. And, and I’m like, I’m on a post, like a new article each day, just kind of sharing my thoughts.

And he’s like, that sounds like a blog. And I remember being like, what’s a blog? He’s like, well that’s a blog, what you’re talking about. That’s a blog. You just post a new thing every day. Um, which is still a fairly novel concept at that point in 2007. And so anyway, it was 

Linda: really like, I ate this for breakfast cuz it was almost like your Facebook status.

Bit it, that, that type of thing. Yeah. Cause Facebook wasn’t 

Bob: around then. Yeah. So anyway, so I start researching, find some different blogging platforms and anyway, start a blog and, yeah. So officially this was ju uh, yeah, uh, June 1st, 2007 is when the blog officially launched. Mm-hmm. Um, and that was Christian pf.com at the timeframe.

But who remembers 2007 or 2008? This is 2007. Whoa. All right. 2007. Uh, and so I start this thing while I’m in this job, while I’m struggling. And, um, you know, and like everybody else, you start a blog and like, no one’s reading it. Like no one’s commenting like, your, your mom and your grandma are coming and such a good article, honey.

You know? And so you have all that. And, um, but like, it, it felt good to me because it was a release, it was something to get my mind off of my situation. Mm-hmm. That was so discouraging. And, and so I just kept doing it. And I, you 

Linda: know, so, and we got married in 2005. Yeah. So when he started this, He started taking it a little bit more seriously.

And I remember it was like, it’s Saturday morning, like, let’s sleep in, let’s just lay in bed and have breakfast in bed and lounge around, you know? Yeah. And Bob was like, I’ve gotta get this done. I’ve gotta work on this. Well, 

Bob: I was determined to write three, which is articles a week. At the beginning that’s what I was doing.

And, and so yeah, I was, uh, carving out whatever time I could. I remember for a while I had a season where I would write from 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM on, on Friday night. There was a season where I was getting up really early on Saturday morning’s writing. Mm-hmm. Um, You know, because like we had, I had a full-time job, right.

And I had a newlywed wife who was very demanding of my time. I still am. So, 

Linda: and now you have a little girl who is also very 

Bob: demanding of your time. A little cutie. Yeah. Uh, so anyway, so I, we we’re working on this blog. I’m writing a few articles a week and we’re seeing some progress and I, and I still remember the first seven senses we made from that blog.

I remember. Where my desk was sitting in that tiny little apartment we had. 

Linda: Mm-hmm. Was it by the sliding door? Yeah. 

Bob: Yeah. Yep. And I remember that first 7 cents we made an ad sense and I was so excited about it. Mm-hmm. Obviously not because of 7 cents, can’t do anything of that, but I was excited just because it was the first amount of money we had generated from this.

And so like a lot of businesses will put up their $1, their first dollar on the wall. It’s like we don’t even have that. We had 7 cents, but no, 

Linda: but that’s 7 cents to you represented. If I can do 7 cents, I can probably get to a dollar. Yeah. Like and I, I think you incrementally like increase your, your vision for it.

Like, not your vision, but just like the I could, I think I could actually get to a dollar. Yeah. Let’s see If we could get to a dollar, which made the earning a living off of it a lot less daunting. Yeah. 

Bob: This is one of my favorite ways, this is just a little bit of a, I dunno, life hack, mental hack or whatever.

One of my favorite ways to kind of break down big goals. Is to think in terms of tens. And so back to the 7 cents, like once I saw that I made 7 cents, I knew what I needed to do to make 70 cents. Mm-hmm. Okay. I just need to do the same thing that I did multiple times and then I would get to 70 cents.

Yeah. And I, I figured once I made 70 cents, all right, I know what to do to make 70 cents. So I just keep doing that or I multiply that and I can get to $7. Yeah. And once I’ve made $7, I know what to do to make $70. You know what I mean? And so just those increments of 10 make it so much more, uh, attainable thinking through that rather than, I made 7 cents, now I need to figure out how to make whatever, three or $4,000 a month for us to pay our bills.

Mm-hmm. Like that’s too big of a leap for most people to comprehend. But if you go with these small increments, and for me, I found multiples of 10 works really, really good. But anyway, so we made our first 7 cents, and then I’m working on that blog for the next. Nine, 10 months. And at the end of that point, I think we’ve made about a hundred dollars total, which was kind of a victory.

I think that’s when we got our first ad sensee check sent to us because Oh yeah, that was the thing because we, we officially crossed a hundred dollars thresholds. They were gonna send us some money and uh, and so I was excited by that, but at the end of the day, it was seven, eight months worth of work, probably 10, 15 hours a week to get to making a hundred dollars.

Mm-hmm. So it was a very low paying job at the beginning. And uh, and anyway, so that happened and then right around that point, um, while I was in my job, I remember my boss called me and our entire department into the conference room and crams us all in there cause it’s a real small conference room. And he was one of the kindest, uh, most friendly guys I had ever met.

Um, and he was a higher level executive because we worked at kind of the trust company there. And, but yet he was like, just really good having a conversation. Mm-hmm. With the entry level folk. Yeah. All the peasants, like, he could have a conversation with us really well while still, you know, um, having conversations with the executives and the ceo.

Like, he just just had good people skills, you know? Yeah. And really likable guy. Anyway, so he comes in and I remember walking in that room and sitting outta my chair and looking up and looking at his eyes, and his eyes were like, welling up. He didn’t have a smile on his face. And I’m like, oh man, this is not good.

You know? And my first thought was, and you 

Linda: guys kind of knew based on the news, right? 

Bob: It was like, yeah, a lot was going on. This was 2008, um, or yeah, 2007, eight era. I guess this would’ve been early 2008 at that point. And, um, and anyway, so in all this, like, I remember him, uh, just he, something’s not right. I can tell just by looking at him and he goes on to say, um, Guys, um, I have no easy way to say this, but our company or our, our company had gotten bought out.

Like, we knew that, but we didn’t know what all was gonna change. And you’re like, well, at the end of the day, our entire department is unnecessary. It’s redundant. The, uh, parent company just bought us out. They have their own trust company, they don’t need you. Um, and so our days are numbered and whatever, and however many months it’s gonna be, um, you’re gonna be out of a job, you know?

And that’s what it was. And, and a lot of the people that I worked with that PO at that point, um, had been in this job for 15, 20, maybe more years. And I felt, I felt really bad for them because it’s like this really specific. Positions that aren’t easy 

Linda: to get. Well, and I think that company did a great job of we’re going to, uh, train you for our specific technique and no one else’s.

Yeah. So it was like you would go through all this training, take tests and stuff, and it didn’t apply to anywhere else but them. Yeah. And so, yeah. I mean, that’s a really tough position to be put in. I think so. Yes. It 

Bob: was, it was hard. But out of that, I remember, all right, well, I, at least I’m young, you know?

Right. I’m young at this point. I can start over pretty easily and honest. And maybe 

Linda: someone to be else will value 

Bob: your college degree. Yeah. And I had been beaten up so bad, I just didn’t feel like I had much lower to go. Yeah. And I kind of felt like, all right, well, whatever. Yeah. I’ll go start mowing lawns.

Like I don’t really care. Like, just get me out of here, you know? Uh, and in anyway, so I begin looking for another job. And as I do, I just really sense the Lord’s like, Nope, that’s not it. Like, well, what do you want me to do? Because I have this wife who still loves to eat and live indoors and you do, um, like not camping.

What, what do I do here? And so I just felt like I was supposed to work on this blog full-time, which was so crazy in 2008. It was just such a bizarre idea. Yeah. To become a full-time blogger. Like, anyway, like now I know so many professional bloggers. I know so many people making a full-time living. It’s not as big of a online with Instagram or whatever.

But man, at that point, I literally knew two bloggers in the entire world. Now I didn’t know them personally, just knew of two in the entire world who were making a full-time movie. Who were they? Do you remember? Um, Steve Pavlina and Darren Rouse. We’re the only two I’d ever heard of making anything that resembled a full-time income.

So it just felt so crazy. And I remember, um, if you guys have been around, you’ve probably heard me talk about my millionaire mentor, the guy who taught me a lot about investing, a lot about money and how I kind of think through things. And, uh, I remember having a conversation with him as I was kind of, I, I didn’t wanna tell anybody.

I was so embarrassed of this. I felt like, I don’t, people are like, Hey Bob, what are you gonna do? And I’m like, uh, just like mumble and wander away cuz I didn’t want people to know what bird 

Linda: is that Yeah. 

Bob: I was so embarrassed. Change the subject because I just felt like it’s, this is a terrible idea. I feel like I’m supposed to do it, but it feels like a terrible idea.

And so anyway, so I go to my Millionaire mentor, he was actually my guitar teacher cuz he was retired. And um, anyway, all that stuff. And he taught me jazz guitar a little bit. So I’m in there with him and somehow this comes up and he asked me what I’m gonna do and I’m like, well I got this blog that’s making a very small amount of money, um, and I think I’m gonna kind of put my energy towards that and, you know, do it full-time.

He’s like, that’s a terrible idea. That’s a terrible idea, Bob. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. And, and it was really tricky because, and this is a lesson too, because, um, He was someone I really looked up to and who helped me in so many ways and impacted my thinking in so many ways. But this is one area where he was just off.

And, you know, Bible says we all know in part, and we have to, you know, be careful who we’re taking advice from, especially when we know that God’s leading us to do something Right. You know? Yeah. And so, so I had to wrestle with that, you know, the guy who had impacted my thinking and influenced my, um, my money thoughts and investing like everything, like more than probably anyone.

And now I have to like, look at him and in his face basically say, no, I’m not taking your advice, doing, yeah, I’m doing it anyway. Um, so that was hard. 

Linda: Yeah. And I mean, I do remember, so here’s the thing, I, I think people hear this story oftentimes, and they think, they, they look at me and they’re like, well, what the heck?

What did you think? You know? Yeah. And, There was a difference, even though this does seem crazy, like you were seeking counsel from different people. We were praying about this a lot. Yeah. We were actually in Unity. Cuz I sensed the SA sensed the same thing you did. I sensed that there was something here, even though neither of us knew how it was gonna play out.

Yeah. And on top of that, we did a lot of practical things and basically decided if this doesn’t go well, here’s how we’re going to handle it. Yeah. You know what I mean? So we had, I don’t wanna say backup plans, but it was like we weren’t, we, we knew that we were not gonna be out, you know, on the streets.

Mm-hmm. We like, we had talked to your parents. Your parents were like, okay, you know, if you’re gonna do it before kids, this is the time to do it. You know what I mean? But if you’re gonna do it at all, don’t wait till after you have kids to take the sleep. Do it now. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.

And they, they basically said, you can come live with us. Which I think we were both like, thank you. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, but thank you. You know, so I’m saying all that to say, a lot of times people are like, well, I’m just gonna quit everything, which is something I would do. I’m just quitting.

It’ll work out. But if that was not the case, this was not a panicked decision. This was a very well thought out, counseled. Yeah. Um, yeah. Decision. Yeah. 

Bob: True. But at the end of the day, still, but it was still, it’s a decision that goes against sound judgment. And I think that’s the thing, cuz oftentimes when we follow God, it goes against common wisdom.

Like, I would not give this advice to anyone. Yeah. Like I, if anyone comes up to me, and they’ve done this multiple times, probably dozens of times over the year, said, Hey, Bob, I wanna be a full-time blogger. I’m thinking I’m gonna go quit my job next week and then start a blog. I’m like, no, no. That is a terrible idea.

Like, that is just a bad idea. Now, if you feel like God is leading you to do that and directing you to do that, that’s a whole different story. Right. But just the, the idea of starting a blog to become a full-time blogger and just, it, it takes a long time. It’s, yeah. And it takes a lot of work. Yeah. All that together.

Yeah. So anyway, my point is, is that this was just one of those things, um, like, you know, marching around the walls of Jericho seven times and then yelling real loud where it’s like, it’s just a terrible idea. Yeah. But if it’s a God idea, then, then it works. Then it’s God, you know? And, and I think that’s one of those things where it’s like, I, uh, Just had a really strong feeling hunch that this was God and I just, I just knew.

Mm-hmm. I just knew. Mm-hmm. And as scared as I was, I just knew this was what we were supposed to do. Yeah. I didn’t know how it was gonna play out. I didn’t know if it would work out. I didn’t know if this is, I’m gonna do this for a year and then I’ll go back and get another job. I had no idea, but I just knew that it was what I was supposed to do, you know?

So, um, where are we now? So then we’re starting and we jump out and, um, and some of you know the story, but it was crazy. Uh, I mean, I’ll give, I’ll give you another piece of the story. I don’t share a whole lot, uh, that last month. So we had been increasing our income for the, the previous months up to this point.

And so we really start making some headway when we get to the point where we’re making about $800 a month, I think it was. Yeah. 800 in which I’m like, all right. This is, this is exciting. We’re moving forward. Yeah. And I’m like, you know, at that point I think we needed probably about three, three plus three to $4,000 to cover our expenses.

Well, and I 

Linda: was, I, I was working part-time, but I was probably making half of what we needed. Yeah. And so, 

Bob: yeah. So anyway, $800 a month, that was pretty exciting that we had kind of ramped up and gotten to that point. And this is all before my final day at this company. And that, uh, it was like two weeks before I’m going to, I’m done my final day there and I’m a hundred percent a full-time blogger.

About two weeks before that I really sensed God lead me to stop doing, um, Essent essentially one of the things that we were doing to generate revenue on the site. Um, basically selling a specific, uh, text ads or whatever. And, um, and I’m like, oh, and 

Linda: this was again, something that one of your kind of mentors was like, yeah, you gotta do this.

This is how you earn money. 

Bob: Well, he told me this is the only way you’re gonna make it work. And um, and then God leads me to not do that thing. And I remember just wrestling with this so much. I’m, remember this doesn’t, 

Linda: I remember you telling me this, and you’re like, yeah, you’re like this. I can’t, how can I do this?

I can’t do it. 

Bob: I literally thought without doing that is going to be impossible to succeed. Yeah. It is going to be absolutely impossible, Uhhuh. And so, um, and then add to this, if I stopped doing that, that was gonna take our revenue from $800 down to $100 per month. And so, uh, yep. After a lot of wrestling and just praying and just finally just, I, I just think this is God.

I feel like this is what I’m supposed to do. I did it. I turned them all off. And then so that final month, The day before, um, I went full-time as a blogger. We made a hundred dollars for that month. Um, and so after nearly a year of working on my blog, uh, you know, whatever, part-time, 10, 15 hours a week mm-hmm.

We were making a hundred dollars per month. And, uh, anyway, so it was just one of those things. It’s like, all right, this is, could not be more impossible, like to get this into a full-time income. Yeah. Because after a year of work, we’ve gotten up to a hundred dollars, right. So where the heck does this, how, how many years is this gonna take even to get to $500?

You know? Right. Or whatever. So that’s how we start. And so that’s basically, it was like right at a year, wasn’t it? June 1st, 2008. So it’s like a year later. Okay. So June 1st, 2008. And we, um, then, uh, I become a full-time blogger and I start doing all that. And then month after month, it was amazing. We start seeing that revenue just start, come up and up and up and up every single month, like clockwork.

And nine months later, we were earning more from that blog than my old day job, which I remember just being like, how did this even happen? Well, you 

Linda: gotta tell them about the text links too. What do you mean? What ended up happening with the text 

Bob: links? I don’t know. Remind me, what am I forgetting in the story?

Google started, uh,

pen analyzing sites and stuff. Yes. Yeah. That probably was it. It, yeah, it was one of those things. Sorry, explain that a little bit better. The gist of it is, that’s what I’m talking about. I feel like God gave me a heads up to stop doing something that would’ve ultimately, uh, undermined what we were doing.

I think that’s what it was. Oh, because the site would Yeah. It was just, God’s so smart. He’s so smart in how he does things, and that’s, I think that’s what it was ended up ended protecting 

Linda: us imperative that we turned off those. Links. Yep. It would’ve destroyed our site. It would’ve destroyed us, and it would’ve probably made it impossible for us to move forward.

You would’ve had to go get another job. Yeah. 

Bob: So anyway, so that was kind of how it turned. So we reached that nine month point. We’re making more from the blog than my old day job, which was mind blowing enough. And then six months later it was double that. And I’m like, I just don’t, I could not wrap my brain.

It was so, so 

Linda: he replaced foreign to me, both of our incomes within what, a year and a half? 

Bob: Yeah, less than that. It was so foreign to me. Like it, it just, just crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy. And it was one of those things that just changed the way I, I perceive what’s possible, because my box was really small in terms of what I thought was possible in terms of my salary, in terms of what I thought I could earn.

And, uh, What my potential was. Like my box was just really limited and really small, and that was one of those things that forever just changed and shifted. Mm-hmm. How I think about all this stuff, you know? Um, 

Linda: so Well, yeah. And as we, so much of what we talk about now is, is based a lot of off those, you know, some, some of these patterns that we’ve seen happen over and over again.

And this was, I think, one of the first big ones where it was like, uh, you know, we talk about this in, in the book and in true financial freedom, but the battle is his, but we have to show up. Yeah. It was like we had to do the thing that he asked us to do and just be like, oh, I don’t know. I, this might not be pretty, but we’re gonna, we’re gonna show up.

We’re gonna, because he’s asking us to do it. And watching him come through in a way that we were not expecting, and it wasn’t us. Like it was, it was very clear that it was like, this is just God doing it. Yeah. There’s no other explanation 

Bob: here. That was honestly so fun because I, I felt like, you know, I think when my, my, my understanding of the co-laboring with us and God on things, it, it, the best way to describe it is like this.

We have our four year old and sometimes I’ll pull the car out of the garage into the driveway or vice versa, and he is like, dad, can I come ride with you? I’m like, yes. Can I sit in your lap? Yes. Can I steer? Yes. Okay. So he’s got his hands on the wheel. We’re backing out of the garage. Okay. He feels like he’s driving, you know?

Yeah. And that’s, that’s the story of this. Yeah. And I think so many things in our life where we’re co-laboring with God, it’s like we feel like we have some sense of control because we have our hands on the stage wheel, but we’re so clueless about how, uh, small our part is in the whole thing. Yeah. And, and that’s what this was where it’s like I and I, I was so aware of it.

In this case, um, yeah. Where it’s like this is, this is just bunkers. Yeah. And I don’t feel like I had anything to do with it other than literally just obey what he asked me to do, what I felt like we were supposed to do. 

Linda: Right. And taking small steps forward. Yeah. In a thing that feels like, is this really gonna, is anything gonna come out of this?

Is this really gonna go anywhere? 

Bob: Yeah. So since we’re doing this as an anniversary episode and we’re just kind of like sharing, um, which side note we’re gonna do a couple giveaways in a few minutes, so hang on with us if you want to hear some of that. But, um, I wanna just share a little bit more of the story since we’re talking on this.

I’m just kind of give you more of the backstory of seat time. So from that point, uh, we are officially full-time bloggers, or I’m a full-time blogger. What was it? Maybe a year later you retired to come kind 

Linda: of, I think I retired in 2000. Nine, 2010. 

Bob: So Linda retired at her job at the church as what? Were you doing the bulletin there or something at that point?

Yeah, I was working in the communications. So she retired to come be my assistant. Mm-hmm. Of which she was pretty bad at that

Linda: fun fact. One time Bob told me that if he had to hire me, he never would. 

Bob: Well, I think you should explain the context for that. Mm-hmm. No, it wasn’t to hire you anyway. He had, if he, if he had 

Linda: the opportunity to, if I wasn’t his wife, and he was like, no, I’m looking for someone to fill this position. It would’ve 

Bob: never been me because that wasn’t the, anyway, so the, we need to explain this.

You don’t make him look like a jar. Uh, I think it’s me. It’s telling more 

Linda: about me 

Bob: than it is you. No, I don’t think so. So what, what we have learned, and this is what’s so powerful, and we talk about this a lot, uh, is that. God designed us all with intentionality. You know, he created us all with unique and special gifts that we have.

And, uh, oftentimes they’re very, very different. Mm-hmm. And Linda’s and mine are very, very different. Mm-hmm. And so Linda as an administrative assistant, it’s just terrible. It’s just not your strong suit, you know? But we have found your sweet spot. We found the value that you can add. Yeah. And that’s really fun.

Um, but anyway, so we hired Linda as assistant. That didn’t work out very well. And then we went on a period, and again, just giving you a lot of the deep backstory aid with everything. Um, I began, um, my original idea and vision for seed time was for it to be a big brand that I and Linda were way hidden in the background.

Yeah. And that no one would know who we are. Um, I don’t. I’m an introvert by nature. Yeah. Like I had no desire for us, for anyone to know who we are. Really. That’s, 

Linda: it comes on. You didn’t want our face on the website. I didn’t want face your face on the anywhere. It’s really you at the time. So you didn’t want your face anywhere.

You’re like, it, it’s better if nobody sees me, like I’ll do a podcast or whatever, but they don’t need to see my face. 

Bob: Yeah. And so at that point we, we were growing a lot. Things were moving really quickly cuz we had figured out how, yeah. I had learned a lot about SEO and search engine optimization for me doesn’t know that.

And so I, we got really good at writing articles that people were searching for in Google, and so people would ask, you know, 

Linda: well you and you hired a bunch 

Bob: of writers too, to help. Yeah. So that was the next phase. So yeah. So basically that was like part of my unique skillset was being able to identify what are people searching for in Google and how can we give them the answer to their problem?

Mm-hmm. So it’s like, what does the Bible say about tithing? All right, let’s write an article about that. Like, um, uh, touchy subject. He found out touchy subject by the way. By the way, by the way. Um, And, you know, and so like people were searching for, wanted a budgeting spreadsheet that’s like, all right, let’s make one and let’s create a resource that blah, blah, blah.

So like, we would do all these things to give people the answers they were looking for. Mm-hmm. Which is still a great idea. Like, um, and so that’s kind of where we were in all that. And as those questions and, and opportunities increase, we just realized let’s start hiring more writers. And we ended up hiring a team of like 10 writers.

Um, and a lot of people don’t remember this or know this, but we had a season where we had like 10 different writers we were producing, coming out with a new article every day. Um, and I essentially was the editor and that was kind of the role that I was playing and that’s where I wanted to go with it.

And yet again, 

Linda: uh, well, yeah, cuz all those different perspectives, I think you, you were thinking that all these different perspectives are helping create a more holistic picture, 

Bob: right? Yeah. Yeah. Cuz one of the things I’ve always felt pretty strongly about from the beginning is, um, I. Denominationally, like our goal is to build bridges with seed time.

It’s not to be super narrow. Like I’ve been in multiple different denominations, um, you know, as I’ve grown up and, and yeah, I just want the body of Christ, the body of Christ to be the body, right. And to not have all these super narrow denominations fighting over all these nitpicky things. And so, uh, so that was part of it.

Mm-hmm. It’s like, how can we get multiple voices on here? Yeah. Sharing different perspectives about these issues, um, and questions that people have and all that stuff. Mm-hmm. And so that was kind of where we were running, where we’re heading and we were growing a lot. We were having, yeah. Things were going really, really well.

And in that, um, again, God kind of throws that, flips it on its head and I felt like he’s like, I want you to become the face of this brand. I want you to be the brand. And I’m like, I don’t want to, I wanna hide in the background, um, and just kind of disappear and let seed time be the brand and whatever.

Mm-hmm. Um, and so that was a kind of painful change that I didn’t really want to go through. Yeah. Uh, you weren’t really in the picture much at this point. Mm-hmm. So it was mostly me and, um, yeah. And so that kind of shifted, uh, I’m trying to think where we are at this point. So yeah, we, I start shifting that direction a little bit and then we get to whatever, probably 2015, this is where we rebrand to seed time.

Um, and I don’t remember exactly how those pieces were connected, but we changed from Christian Piaf rebranded to Seed time, uh, which was, yeah, that was a big thing, which is a big issue that we’ve struggled with the search engines, cuz as soon as we did that, we lost tons of traffic and I hired all these.

The best SEO consultants I could find in the world, like all this stuff. And we just could not solve this problem. And ultimately it’s like, all right, well we’re rebranded now. It’s like, it’s just what it is. And yeah, it was 

Linda: almost like we started a new business. 

Bob: Yeah, so, so that was another struggle that we don’t need to go too deep in, but, so business continues to grow, and then I began making another, Mistake that easily could have taken the entire business out.

And that was that I kept chasing shiny things, shiny object syndrome. And so I was a mastermind with four or five other really smart guys who all were doing similar enough things and every week or month one would say, Hey, I’m doing this thing and this is working. Really, Hey, I’m doing this thing. And so I just started running all these different directions.

Mm-hmm. Doing multiple things and spreading myself so thin to the point that, um, well, and it was still pretty 

Linda: much just you at that point. Like you didn’t have, you might have had a couple, like, I think Lauren was 

Bob: working with us. Yeah. So I had essentially an assistant, but, and then I guess the writers were probably mostly gone at that point.

And so it was mostly me and my assistant at that point. And so I’m trying to do too many things, too many projects. Wearing too many hats, too many jobs, all this stuff. And, uh, so I finally just get so worn down. And this is the end of 2016, I guess at this point. Completely burned out. You. Said you thought I was burned out.

Yeah, you were. 

Linda: So then you were just exhausted and it felt like you, you, you were telling me, you were like, I don’t have a purpose. Yeah. I didn’t feel we’ve made enough money that I don’t feel you were, you basically were like, cuz the business had done well and you were like, I, we’ve made enough money that I don’t feel like, well I’m just, I’m just working so hard so that I can pay our bills.

Like we weren’t at that point anymore. Yeah. We had passed that point to where we were living a comfortable life and you were like, I, that’s fine, but what is the purpose in it? Yeah. You know, 

Bob: I was really struggling with purpose. Yeah. A lot. And, and so at this point, this is 2007, we take our yearly sabbatical that we’d been doing since probably 2010.

Mm-hmm. We started doing that. Mm-hmm. Which is for a month. We take it for a month. And at the end of that month, I felt. Just at, and this sounds, I, if you’re listening to this and you’re like, I would love a week off, you know, like, it’s absolutely insane. But I felt that burnt out that after a month off, I didn’t feel any better.

I didn’t feel refreshed or whatever. And, and again, I uh, I remember being in my, um, office at the time and I had my checklist of what I was gonna do each month and I was gonna check off sabbatical, and I saw it written up there. I’m like, I think it’s spelled wrong. So I go search Google sabbatical, the word sabbatical to see how to spell it.

And I land on the Wikipedia page for sabbatical and start reading through. I don’t know why. And this one line in there, it said like a sabbatical historically means one year or something like that. And it just jumped off the screen at me and it was the, the Holy Spirit going, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

And I’m like, you what’s, gotta be kidding me. There’s no way. 

Linda: So when we, when we take our sabbaticals, we typically go somewhere and we had driven to 

Bob: Arizona, Scott Scottsdale that year. Yeah. So 

Linda: we drove from Tennessee to Arizona, which was long drive. Really long drive. Okay. And on the way home, I remember you saying, you’re like, I just don’t think I’m done.

I think I’m gonna take like another couple weeks or something. 

Bob: Yeah. So at that 

Linda: point, and right when she said that something in me was like, it’s not gonna be a couple weeks. 

Bob: Did you feel like it was supposed to be a year at that point? Yes. Really? That’s crazy why I didn’t say 

Linda: anything. I’m like, that is crazy, dude.

I’m 

Bob: tell, give you the heads up before 

Linda: me. I’m not, I’m not gonna say anything cuz. If I say it then it’s not God’s idea anymore. It’s my 

Bob: idea. Yeah, that is so cool. So anyway, so you do that. So, so anyway, I just really start sensing I’m supposed to take a year off in which I didn’t prepare for this. Like we didn’t, yeah.

We prepared to leave for a month. It’s so unprepared for this. And I was, I had all this stuff planned over the next few months, like just crazy, crazy stuff. And I felt like we were supposed to take that entire year off and I was supposed to walk away from the business. And, um, anyway, this was all out of Leviticus, I think it’s 20 or 25, uh, of the, the passage about, or God said, I want you to farm the land, um, plant and harvest in the land for six years and on the seventh year, let it rest.

And, and that was kind of how he was kind of bringing me to this. And I needed that rest. And part of the promise there is that by doing that on the, after you let it rest, then it’s gonna be able to produce more when you let the land rest, you know? Mm-hmm. So I wrestle with this, we talked about this, and I finally, again, get to this point where it’s like, okay, God, I guess I will do this.

Like, I just really sensed I was supposed to do it. And I’m, I’m someone who really likes working. I Oh yeah. Can lean towards workaholism. So this isn’t, there’s some people are like, this is an amazing night. I could be a total 

Linda: couch potato and be fine with that. But Bob is not that type of person. He’s 

Bob: very driven.

This wasn’t something I was excited about. This wasn’t my idea. This wasn’t anything I wanted to do. Uh, it was just what I felt like we were supposed to do. Mm-hmm. And so I talked to my assistant, we kind of worked out some of the logistics, and I basically said, here’s what we’re gonna do. One hour per month, we’re gonna talk and I’m going to, um, Yeah.

Answer questions for you, help you, whatever, do what you need to do to maintain as much as as possible for an hour. I don’t know, we should bring on our, ask her sometime we should bring her on. Cause I don’t remember. Uh, and so, so that’s what it was for the entire year, one hour per month I would see her.

And um, and, and so we had some passive pieces of the business that were working, but about halfway through the year, they completely stopped working. And so I’m like, I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to make it. God’s just gonna work. Yeah. I dunno if we’re gonna be able to make it throughout the end of the year, um, and be able to pay the bills.

I had no idea. But God sustained us 

Linda: through it all. And our, our friends tie in talent. They were like, this is kind of like, um, Abraham Lang Isaac on the altar. I 

Bob: mean, let’s not be that dramatic, but yes. 

Linda: Don’t gimme that dramatic. But there, there was definitely some of that. Like this was the thing that we were like, Yeah, this is our 

Bob: baby.

And it’s like, I’m, it was our baby waiting my business down. I have no idea if it’s gonna be there when we get back. Um, and so that was really interesting. And so I remember that whole year friends were like, all right, well if you’re taking a year off and God’s calling you to take a year off, he’s gotta be downloading all this great wisdom revelation for you.

Like there’s gotta be some significant reason. And I am not joking you for 11 months, in like three weeks, I felt like crickets. Like I was hearing nothing from God. Yeah. Although 

Linda: our, our daughter was born, which was a crazy story in that we, we were in the process of adopting Anne. The, the birth mother didn’t decide until the day after or until the day she was born.

And so we didn’t get a call from our adoption agency until the day after she was born saying, how soon can you get here? And so that was a whole whirlwind of. 

Bob: So we were a thing unprepared for that, but had we not been taken a sabbatical, like my, everything would’ve been a complete mess. Yeah. And then I got to spend her first year of her life, like Yeah.

Giving her a ton of attention. Yeah. Which is really, really cool. Really sweet. So that was part of the blessing there. But anyway, point is, I’m going this entire year, 11 ye or 11 months, in about three weeks before I hear anything from God. Mm-hmm. And I’m feeling like this feels like a complete waste of a year.

I feel like it’s like I just haven’t gotten any revelation. Like, I just feel like I’m wasting my time. Yeah. And that last week before that thing was over, um, I got super clear direction from God that we, and really just convicted me that we were not sharing, uh, the miraculous things that he had been doing in our life.

Mm-hmm. Um, and at that point, No one knew, no one even knew that we had paid off our house. Like we didn’t, or our cars, we didn’t, we just didn’t share or our debt, any of our financial information. Yeah. Um, no one knew like what he had helped us give. Yeah. Um, and like no one knew any of that stuff. And, and it was really interesting because I just felt like, well that’s just private.

I don’t wanna keep it that way. 

Linda: Basically everything you read in the book we hadn’t been talking about. 

Bob: Right? Yeah. Yeah. And so in that, are we frozen? I don’t know. I’m trying to see 

Linda: guys. Are we frozen? Leave us. Let us, yeah. Let me a comment. 

Bob: If you can let us know we’re frozen. Frozen, we’re frozen or not.

It’s looking frozen on our end. Ooh. But anyway, so in that point, I, yeah. So I get what feels like really strong instruction to begin sharing the testimony, what God had done in our financial life and uh, and literally, I think it was like a week later, we have this huge TV station. Call us. Um, and Oh, sorry to hear that.

Hope you can hear us. Still hope you can hear us. Yeah. Uh, so anyway, so we have this huge TV station. Let me see if I can change the camera and see if that works. Camera. Let’s try this. There we are. Oh, we’re back. Boom. Uh, so, so it’s like right after that we have this huge TV station. Call us and say, Hey, do you guys have any testimonies you wanna share?

I’m like, well, I guess we do. I think they were 

Linda: asking like, for our audience or whatever. 

Bob: Oh, Lawrence, I guess we do. Um, and, and so anyway, so anyway, so this, I forgot what it was, but it was like, so we go on there and share our story and, and it’s like, God, OP immediately opens this huge platform for us to share, um, a lot of the things he had done in our financial life and, um, And I just remember being like, this is crazy, crazy, crazy.

And essentially all of that that we shared then and out of this thing with um, us out of this thing with us, um, yeah. Sharing these testimonies, what he had done. Like he led us to start writing this book and this book was birthed out of all of that. Like we would’ve never written this book or we’ve never written it with so much authenticity.

Mm-hmm. And honesty. Um, uh, had we not kind of gone through that and had he not convicted us of not yeah. Really not given him glory for what he had done in our 

Linda: financial lives. Which it was really interesting cuz you were having this like, I feel like we’re supposed to share this. And we were, we were driving to St.

Louis to visit our family. Yes. And it was like, you need to share this right now. Let’s scooch this this way. So I’m in it. Um, you need to share this with your family this weekend. And Bob’s like, no, I can’t do that. I can’t do that. I can’t do that. I can’t do that. Yeah. Our families didn’t even know they are.

Yeah, nobody knew. I mean, this was like, we were really hush hush about it just because it, you know, it’s super vulnerable to share this. I mean, there’s a lot of reasons here we could go into, 

Bob: but, and, and you probably hear us now talking about a lot and you’re like, oh, those are those people that just don’t, no, we’re not.

Linda: Yeah. Yeah, we are not. So, uh, so we started with our family. So Bob starts to tell our family, and immediately Bob is not a super emotional person. Like, he’s very even keeled. He handles his ups and downs, just pretty much about the same. Yeah. So, um, it’s hard to know if he’s excited or mad about 

Bob: something because 

Linda: it’s, it’s just all really the same.

But he starts sharing this story and he starts like, breaking down in front of my family. Like, because, which I didn’t know why at the time, but you said you just really sensed the presence of God as you’re sharing 

Bob: this. Yeah. Yeah. And and what’s so funny about that is I never felt that way before. Um, like talking about the things like with you and I, but there was something about when we obeyed and started doing the thing you asked us to do to share it publicly, that it’s like, it just felt, it felt holy.

Yeah. And it felt right. It felt like we were doing what we were supposed to do. Um, you know, and one other piece of that, just giving you more and more backstory, like turn out to be quite a long podcast. I know, um, hopefully guys, but you’re getting all the meat, all the meat here. Uh, so one other piece of that, the juicy stuff is I felt so weird and I, and again, I felt like this is impossible.

Like, how do we share the fact that at that point we had given away half a million dollars and it not sound like. We’re just bragging about that. Like I could not wrap my brain around how, how to do that, but because like, I literally felt convicted to not to do that, to share that thing. And I’m like, I don’t know how to do that.

And it not sound like we’re bragging in boastful. Um, and so, you know, our, our prayer is yeah. That, that it never comes across that way. Yeah, that’s it. But it’s like, again, we’re not sharing that because we just know where we come from. We know what we’ve brought to this equation. It’s just so obvious to us that it’s really easy.

Linda: Well, and testimony is what helps people overcome, you know, we overcome by the, the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. And I think the more we share can share things, but also in within that this is such a vulnerable topic for so many people. Or I think part of our calling from the Lord is to just normalize it.

You know what I mean? Normalize talking about what he is doing. In this really sensitive and, you know, touching subject 

Bob: for the most time. The reason I think that we’re sharing that is because I want, I want everyone to know, like we are so, um, middle class, normal, basic, whatever you wanna call it. Uh, and yet God is able to do really cool things.

Mm-hmm. And so if he can do them through us, like he can do them through anyone, and I, I just want everyone to get ahold of that. Yeah. That the fact that we, this middle class couple have given away a million dollars, it’s like, that feels big, but it’s just not, it’s nothing. It’s a drop in the bucket for what God can do.

Yeah. And, and I didn’t know that. You know? Mm-hmm. And, and, you know, and so a lot of what we do, a lot of our avatar who we’re speaking to is me. You know, and you like when we were younger. And so that’s something that I would’ve loved to have known in my early twenties that that was possible. Because again, like I said, my box was so small, like what I thought reality was and what God could do, and he’s just torn down those walls in our box over and over and over again.

Yeah. Over. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, so, so anyway, that’s, so that’s how we, that all led to kind of writing and creating this book. Mm-hmm. Um, which, uh, out of all of that, once we moved into the book phase, creating the book was the hardest season of the business ever. Um, Because after that year, taking the business, the year off the business, it’s like, all right, things are really lean now.

Um, yeah, things were lean but barely able to pay the bills. We 

Linda: were really reshaping everything. And that was really when I got reshaping off 

Bob: too. That’s when we started pulling Linda in and we really started experimenting and kind of finding her place and her voice and all this. Yeah. Uh, but things were really lean.

And then the next year things were really lean, and then I feel like that’s when we signed the, uh, the book deal, um, to write the book. And, uh, and we did get a good advance from writing the book, but. It was, but the end of the day, um, the book took about three years. Right. To create. And 

Linda: it, uh, yeah. And I don’t mean to say they should have given us more, I just mean the, it was the product that we created, big project took a lot more time than I think we were anticipating Oh.

Bob: 10 times more than we anticipated. 

Linda: Yes. We 

Bob: were grateful for the, and so as we’re working on the book, like so many other facets of our business just kind of went on the back burner. Mm-hmm. Because the book was again, what we felt like we were supposed to do, and it was top priority and it was requiring so much time and energy and focus and mental, just cognitive like, yeah.

Everything. It was just really, really intense. Um, and so, yeah, so then we released that after going through that. Challenging period of writing it, uh, released that last year, a little over a year ago. Mm-hmm. Uh, while we were writing the book, our church asked us to create, um, a course, a course for, um, 

Linda: they said We’re doing financial class.

Yeah. We’re doing, we want everyone to have like, more education, just continue it. Continued education. And so they called in like marriage and family specialists. What else did they do? They did like a, a bible study. A health. A health and wellness one. And they, they asked us to do a finance one. Yeah. And we were like in the thick of writing the book, and I had just had a miscarriage.

Yeah. Like it was like this is the worst timing. I think that’s what we thought. This is the 

Bob: worst timing. Well, you had a miscarriage, but then on top of that you had, it 

Linda: was, it was extra complicated medical stuff 

Bob: to wear that made you be really low energy for six weeks later. Yes. Yeah, 

Linda: at least six. At least six.

I mean, there was, there was a long process of recovery from 

Bob: that. So there was a lot of challenge in that season. Right. So in that we’re creating this class called True Financial Freedom that we did at our church. And, and I remember, um, after it was over, like, cuz I’m, we are, I love feedback. Honest, helpful feedback is just so valuable, right?

Because it just helps us to create a better product. So, um, if you own any of our stuff, like, we always want your feedback positive or negative, uh, because I just wanna get better and better and better. Nice. About your negative feedback. Nice. Is always, you know, help us. But, but anyway, so at, after the end of the course or we had everybody take a survey at the end of the class.

And, um, and it went to our church, so we didn’t see the results and I, I reached out to one of the guys there and um, and I think there were, what, 60 people in that class. So yeah, somewhere around there. And I reached out to one of the guys there. I said, Hey, I’d love to get that feedback so we can kind of improve on it.

And, and he sends me the list of all the feedback from almost people and it’s like, really good, like just life changing bubble. Like everything is really positive. Very positive. Yeah. And, and I’m like, oh, he just like scraped out the negative stuff, you know, because cuz they didn’t know anybody responding to the survey didn’t know that we would see it, so there’s no reason Anyway, so I’m like, all right.

He just scraped out the negative stuff and sorry, emailed ’em back. I’m like, Hey, I really would actually love to see the negative stuff. So can you send me that as well so that we can find things to improve on? I’m glad every, so many people liked it, but he’s like, dude, that’s it. We didn’t pull anything out.

Like everything was positive. And we were like, and, and not just positive, but like in a really like, This is weird. Are we onto something here glowing? Yeah. Like we just didn’t get it. Um, and so that was like kind of our first iteration of that and I’m like, all right, well I think there’s something here that’s resonating, which was really good cuz a book hadn’t come out yet and we’re like, all right, well this is good.

Maybe this content. Cuz essentially it’s a lot of overlapping content between the course and the book. Uh, well, and we were 

Linda: so surprised cuz we were basically creating that content week by week. Yes. As we went. It 

Bob: was, I mean, so much work. It 

Linda: felt like we were throwing it together a little bit, which is why I think we were expecting a lot more like helpful criticism to, you know, just improve it for the next time.

Yeah. And which is again, I think is just proof that God was in it because that was, we were at such a, Low output point in our, like, what we had to give we’re dragging. Yes. We were like, yeah, I mean, we wanted to do a good job and we were doing our best, but we just are, we’re pulled in so many other directions.

Yeah. 

For 

Bob: lots of reasons. So, so anyways, so then we began doing it for the sea time audience. We did it over Zoom a couple times and, uh, and then people were asking for those recordings, so we posted those recordings online. Yeah. And, uh, and then we’ve just, we’ve done it two more times live. We’ve done it at our church a couple more times.

Live. Yeah. Or in person, I should say. And it’s come and then we just started having more and more churches ask about it. So all this to say like, we just recently shot it, so we now have it. There’s a polished course that we’re gonna be really seeing, um, and, and really designed for churches and small groups.

But, uh, yeah, so that’s kind of where we are. That’s the long story of where we are, how we’ve gotten to where we are. Um, But, you know, and just, again, giving you as many details as you may or may not want, but where we are as a business now, um, we have a handful of products and courses, uh, but like we feel really strongly that the book is kind of the foundation of what seed time is.

And the true financial freedom class is essentially the video version of that, um, designed for small 

Linda: groups. All of this came out of the vision. You know, that when I say vision, I don’t mean like, oh, I saw a vision. It, the, the kind of like, oh, this is what, this is where we’re going type of vision. Yeah. Um, that really came out of that sabbatical year.

Yeah. And I mean, I, I, I think I wanna just bring that up because I think, yeah. When people say we, we have sabbaticals, um, once a year for a month, and then also when we took that one year sabbatical, Uh, it seems like, well that’s honestly ridiculous. And how could you possibly, and it’s like if the Lord is calling you to do it, there is, there’s something on the other side of it that the obedience makes it worth it.

But it wasn’t without challenge. Like it, you know, I think for some people they might be like, oh yeah, I wish I could take a year off. Like kind of almost like, must be nice type of thing. And it’s like, that’s not why we do it. Actually. It’s sometimes really hard. A lot of times the, I think these sabbaticals are really hard cuz you think they’re gonna be one way and then they’re not.

And yeah, 

Bob: it’s not a vacation. I think that’s, it’s not a vacation. Uh, but, and that’s a whole nother thing. 

Linda: Get it. Well, we’ve seen God do, and the growth that has come out of it in ourselves and then also like for the business, it has just, it’s moved us forward exponentially. And that’s why we do it like that is the, the big motivation there is that we’ve seen God do things that we’re like, this is worth it every single time.

Yeah. You know. 

Bob: All right. Yeah. Uh, I wanna do a quick little giveaway for anyone who we’re gonna do this for any of the OGs here. So if you, uh, were around in the Christian PF days, and um, then what I want you to do is forward an email. So go back in your email account, search for Christian pf, see if you can find one from, this would be July, 2015 and earlier.

So if you were around from that point, I want you to forward an email from there to lauren seed time.com, and we will give you a $50 gift card for any of the seed time courses, just as a thank you for being og. Thank you for being around. Yeah. Um, and then another fun little thing we could do. How about, I’m loving your 

Linda: comments, by the way.

Yeah, I am actually reading them as they come in. I know. I haven’t like, 

Bob: All right. We got enough people in here to do this. Let’s do this. So first person to throw your Venmo, uh, username in the, uh, comment section. We are going to send you $50 dinner on us tonight. All right? And, um, I’m 

Linda: gonna do it right now too.

I mean, I’m gonna send you the money. So send us 

Bob: your phone. Okay. So on our side, just so you know what we see, we’re seeing the YouTube comments as well as Facebook comments. So even if on your side you’re seeing that you’re first, you may not be first, but first person who does that. Mm-hmm. Um, we will do that.

Um, and now there’s a lot of other, I think you guys are hopefully aware of this by now, but we are doing a $2,000 Amazon gift card giveaway. Okay. There we go. Alice is our winner. Alice. Okay, Alice, we are gonna send you out to dinner, um, tonight. Thank you for throwing that in there. Uh, but anyway, so we’re doing this $2,000 giveaway.

Um, That, uh, we’re really excited about. And the way that you enter to do this is just by sharing, um, something about simple money. Hey Alice, 

Linda: go double check your, um, your name and make sure that there’s not any like dashes or spaces that need to be in here cuz I’m not seeing you yet. Okay, go 

Bob: ahead. Sorry.

Anyway, so the way that you enter, uh, this giveaway is simply by sharing something about simple money, rich life. Online somewhere. Okay, so that can be on your blog, that can be on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, doesn’t really matter. Amazon review any of these things doesn’t really matter. You do any of those things, you’ll be entered to win this $2,000 Amazon gift card.

Or the other thing is any copies that you buy, um, or automatically enter you into buy it, uh, into win. So if you go to our website, c time.com/fmr l you can go there, you can buy a copy and that will automatically enter you to win it as well. Now, on top of that, we have some other bonuses that we are running right now, um, to where we are.

And I don’t know where we are in this whole thing exactly, but um, from the email we sent this morning, Uh, we are giving away, um, different gift cards for each person, like kind of fast action thing. So the first person to do it got a hundred dollars Amazon gift card, and then a hundred dollars, um, gift card for any seed time course.

Um, the fifth person got a $50 Amazon gift card and a hundred dollars, um, gift card for any seed time course. So we have these kind of structures in place. So, um, so anyway, the point is there’s gonna be other bonuses on top of that. So bottom line, buy some books for some people. Leave a review post something somewhere.

Um, yeah, just your honest thoughts about it, like we don’t need you, we’re not trying to get you to bribe you to, um, say something positive, but just want you to share your honest thoughts with the world in one way or another. Mm-hmm. Um, but anyway. That’s it for today. Thank you all for hanging out with us.

Um, hold on, Alice, 

Linda: I did not get your, I haven’t gotten your Venmo yet, so 

Bob: if Yeah, Alice just email, uh, linda seed time.com, email me and we’ll do that. I’ll send it. Uh, but thank you all for hanging out with us today. We love you. Appreciate you. Um, glad we got to share some of this story and get it off of our chest.

I know. Hopefully, uh, it’s been an encouragement in one way or another to you and, um, have a great one and we’ll see you soon. ”‹