What if your investments could reflect your faith and make a Kingdom impact? In this episode, Cassie Laymon, president of Beacon Wealth Consultants and author of I Found Jesus in the Stock Market, shares how to cultivate a flourishing workplace culture through values-driven leadership, open communication, and strategies that inspire purpose and unity within your team.
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In this episode:
- Faith-Based Financial Approach
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- Describes investing as "praying with your dollars," emphasizing the spiritual impact of financial decisions. (05:36)
- Encourages clients to align investments with their values, avoiding companies that engage in practices like abortion, pornography, or addictions. (06:01)
- Beacon Wealth Overview
- Independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) with a team of 16 across the U.S. (06:33)
- Specializes in faith-based, biblically responsible investing. (06:50)
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- Initially skeptical of faith-based investing; became inspired by her husband, Rick, a pioneer in the field. (07:30)
- Teaching a stock-market game and learning about biblical investing led her back to church and a renewed faith in Christ. (08:23)
- Attributes her spiritual growth to being in community with Christ-followers who modeled a flourishing faith. (09:05)
- Workplace Culture at Beacon Wealth
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- Emphasizes that the business belongs to God and focuses on stewardship, praying together, and living out their values in daily operations. (10:20)
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- Conducts quarterly reviews tied to core values, such as love, excellence, alignment, and grit. (10:33)
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- Employees find purpose in their work by redirecting investments to companies making a positive impact, such as curing diseases or providing clean water. (11:33)
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- Love: Prioritizing people over profits, telling the truth in love, and fostering open, honest communication. (13:12)
- Excellence: Striving for accuracy and extraordinary recovery when mistakes happen. (14:01)
- Alignment: Ensuring new hires share biblical values and participate in devotions. (14:26)
- Grit: Encouraging tenacity in solving problems and providing excellent client service. (14:48)
- Fantastic Teams and Healthy Communication in a Distributed Workplace
- Cassie emphasizes the importance of intentionality and systems to ensure connectivity in a distributed workplace. (16:22)
- Key Practices for Connectivity
- Weekly One-on-One Meetings:
- Every team member has a one-on-one meeting with their supervisor to discuss progress and resolve roadblocks. (16:31)
- Weekly Team Meetings:
- Investment and financial planning teams meet weekly to stay on track. (16:46)
- The leadership team also meets weekly to review goals, monitor progress, and solve problems. (16:53)
- Monthly All-Staff Meetings:
- Includes the entire team (advisors and office staff). (17:03)
- Celebrates successes, reviews goals, and incorporates prayer and devotions (responsibility rotates among team members). (17:10)
- Annual In-Person Retreat
- All home-office staff, advisors, and their spouses gather for a two-and-a-half-day retreat. (17:22)
- Combines education/training (50%) and fun activities (50%). (17:45)
- Builds family-like culture with shared meals, devotions, and worship time. (18:06)
- Leadership Challenges and Lessons
- Biggest Leadership Challenge: Managing people, including hiring and letting go of team members when necessary. (19:47)
- Learning to hire more thoughtfully and not rush the process. (19:57)
- Letting people go with compassion and kindness when it’s not the right fit, while recognizing the family-like culture of the team. (20:29)
- Hiring Best Practices
- Collaborative Hiring Process:
- Team involvement in interviews with both leadership and department members. (21:28)
- Including spouses in the hiring process through a dinner to gauge social dynamics and family support for the prospective employee’s role. (21:44)
- Benefits of Social Settings: Discovering insights about candidates and their alignment with the organization’s values beyond formal interviews. (22:12)
- Leading with Integrity and Compassion
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- Christ-Centered Leadership: Viewing Jesus as the ultimate model for leadership and integrating Christian principles like honesty, compassion, and integrity into daily decisions. (23:26)
- Serving Clients with Compassion: Supporting clients, particularly widows, through difficult life situations by offering empathy, patience, and emotional support. (24:08)
- Team Trust and Transparency: Encouraging open communication within the team to foster mutual support during challenges. (24:49)
- Maintaining Engagement and Momentum
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- Growth Mindset in Leadership: Encouraging constant innovation and preparation for the future. (26:13)
- Quarterly and Annual Planning:
- Weekly leadership team meetings. (26:20)
- Quarterly offsite meetings to review goals and plan for the next quarter. (26:24)
- Multi-day annual retreats to brainstorm long-term strategies, such as setting three-year targets. (26:37)
- Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS): Leveraging structured processes like goal-setting, regular reviews, and alignment on the organization’s vision. (27:16)
- Organizational Culture and Values
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- Living Organizational Values: Regularly reviewing employee performance against core values like love, excellence, alignment, grit, and growth. (28:36)
- Fostering Life-Giving Work: Practices include one-on-one check-ins, team meetings, devotions, prayer, and annual retreats with spouses to deepen connection and purpose. (29:03)
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- Book and Leadership Insights: Highlighting Cassie’s book, I Found Jesus in the Stock Market, and her unique approach to creating a compassionate culture in a financial-services firm.
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Best Christian Workplaces : December, 21 2021
Best Christian Workplaces