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Welcome to The Legacy Investor Podcast, where we talk money, investing, business, and what it means to leave a legacy for generations to come. Hosted by Cameron Philgreen, this show dives deep into the intersection of entrepreneurship, investing, and legacy-building, all while keeping God at the center. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting out, you'll discover how to align your financial journey with your faith, grow wealth with integrity, and create a lasting impact for generations to come. Join in, as we explore practical strategies, real-world stories, and timeless biblical principles to help you honor God in every step of your journey.
I love any time we can have a guest on this show who just wants to talk about Jesus and bringing the Holy Spirit into the workplace. You know, 97% of believers are in the marketplace. About 2 or 3% are in ministry. And yet, a lot of times from the pulpit, we talk to everybody as if their whole life is ministry. A lot of people, that's just not, you know, their whole life. They're in the 9 to 5. They're in the grind. They're being parents. They're blah, blah, blah. And so I love hearing Christine's heart and just how she brings the Lord into it. heavy decisions, how she avoids angry outbursts toward other coworkers and just like slows down a lot of great like tips and tricks for being led by the spirit. I know that might seem like they're in contradiction of each other, but they're not. And I think it's great to have tips and tricks for listening to the Lord, for blessing other people, for praying for other people, for giving to advance the kingdom looks like. These are all things we talked about in today's episode. It was phenomenal. I love these conversations. Might not be everybody's cup of tea, but I hope you get something out of this. I hope God blesses you, gives you something from this amazing podcast today. So here's my conversation with Christine Valdez. Bye-bye. Christine Valdez, welcome to the Legacy Investor Podcast. How are we doing today? I'm doing great, Cameron. Great to be here. Excited to be here. Yes, come on. So we're going to talk all things faith and business and how the Lord has just led you in your journey with work and leadership and growth. And it sounds like you have a lot going on. And you're in Dallas. Every time I hear of someone, oh, you're in Dallas or Austin, I'm like, man, I could have bought you lunch and we should have recorded live in Waco. But it's okay. It's okay. Next time. Next time. We'll meet like at a really cool restaurant and record it there and I love it. Yeah. So, so catch us up to speed. That's what I always say at the beginning of these shows, catch us up to speed, just kind of your story and you know, with, with, with work, with vocation and then how the, we'll get into like how the Lord has led you and how you're learning to really seek him and listen to him. Yeah. Well, unlike a lot of the guests that are on real estate podcasts or podcasts that talk about investing, I'm still at a W-2, which I would say 80% of the population is still at a W-2. So I'm here to just show you that you can still invest either passively or actively while you're at a W-2. I lead a really large team for a large corporation and there's a lot of people that report up to me and I really love what I do so I don't leave my job. I feel like the Lord brought me to that role and he keeps me in those roles because he feels like I can impart what he wants me to impart to the people that report. I stay in those roles because that's what I feel led to do. But we've also done a lot of investing. So my husband and I own a couple of burs. We've done a couple of flips, fix and flips, which I do not like fix and flipping. Even though I know the numbers really well, just not my thing. I just feel like it doesn't move as quickly as I want. There's always issues that pop up. We've done multifamily investing where we have some property as well as we've done passive investing there. We've done some capital raising for land development and we've also done some other investments and we're looking at different types of investments now. a different journey. We also have a digital marketing company that we purchased two years ago. So we have a lot going on. And it's not the normal where we talk to it like we were talking earlier, Cameron, where some people go, OK, you focus on one thing. I just feel like For us, whatever the Lord is telling me to do, I have to be really present and open to hearing him and move in that direction. And it's been, you know, sometimes it's hard to do because we want to do what we want to do, where we feel we need to go. But really it's up to his, it's in his hands because everything that we have is his. Yes, I love that. I am constantly reminded or constantly reminding myself that we are, I'm just a steward, right? And I've mentioned this multiple times on the show. You know, everything I have business-wise, possessions-wise, materialistically, like, is His. But also, like, my kids are His. And my, like, even my marriage is the Lord's. And I'm just trying to, like, be a good steward of this marriage and be a good steward of these kids. I was just sharing with someone yesterday who's struggling with just anxiety around parenting. He's got two kids. I was like, bro, you are just a steward. These are God's kids. These are his kids. You're just being a steward of them. I mean, they're your kids too, but that's just such a weight. And I saw the weight kind of come off of his shoulders when I said that. So anyway, I love that. I'm just saying, I love that you just said that. Yeah. So when it comes to, you know, I think 97% is what I heard. 97% of Christians are in the workplace, in the marketplace. And, you know, 3% of people are in like vocational ministry. But we tend to like talk in ministry circles. We pretty much talk to the 3% many times. Yeah. And not to the 97% of people. So why don't you talk to the 97% of people that are in marketplace, you know, vocational, just like working in every day, nine to five job. How do you decide like what to do? Yeah. Not to keep it vague, but like really you've done a lot. But it sounds like you're very led by the spirit. You know, how do you decide like what to do? Yeah, it's, you know, it's been a journey for me, right? Because when you start off, and you're a Christian, and you're just going to work it, at first, it feels like separate, but then you go to church on Sunday, and it's not really separate. But then you're like, Okay, how does that look? Um, I started, you know, in the mornings, I started to pray for the people that I work with. That's the first thing I do. And I try to do it regularly. Sometimes it's at the end of the day before I go to sleep. Sometimes it's particular people. I did this thing called 40 Days of Prayer. It's a book. I forgot her name. Um, but I did that in my list, my prayer list got longer and longer, but then you see all, as they started to pray for people, I saw all the, all the blessings that were coming from praying for the people that I work with and especially praying for the people that I wasn't getting along with that. Well, it's not only my job and for the company and for. you know, favor for the company, favor for the people that I work with, but also favor for the things that I do every single day, right? So that was the first thing. And that's a hard, I mean, sometimes people say it's easy, but it's really not as easy as your list gets longer and longer, right? So because the prayers get longer and longer, right? And then, so that's the first thing. And then what I also started to do is before I had meetings, I would actually try to go into the room a little bit before and I pray over the room. which is you just have to bring the presence of the Lord to those meetings. Because I went through a stage where I just had so many tough meetings at my old company in the beginning where it just didn't feel like I was being led and it was all for selfish reasons. So that helped. I would go into the office early in the morning before people would come in. I work from home, but I would go to the office a lot. So I'd pray over the, or I'd do like a walking prayer. I'd go get my coffee and I'd be praying on the way, praying for the space. So a lot of it is prayer. That's the first part. A lot of it is prayer and praying all the time. The second thing is before I make decisions, and this is part of the stewardship vision that I have, is nowadays I try not to make any decisions based on fear or urgency. Because when you make it based on fear or urgency, sometimes it's fear because you don't want to get in trouble or you don't want to look a certain way or you're making the decision. The fear is because there's pride behind it. So I try not to make it based on fear or urgency, number one. Number two, I try not to make decisions based on emotion or feelings or opinions or comparison. Because say that again, say that again. So number two, I try not to make decisions based on emotion or feelings because they lie. Right. Because at the moment you're feeling this way, but that may not be the truth. Number two, the second part of that is I try not to make it based on opinions. Because people always have opinions. You have issues or you have things that you're dealing with and you talk to a friend and they have an opinion, you're like, oh, that's a great idea. But you're basing that on their opinion, not on the actual situation. And then finally, I try not to base it on comparison because sometimes we make a decision and we try to, well, that person's done it, or I want to look a certain way. You have to step back and really try to take that out of there first. It's hard to do, but as you practice, it becomes easier to do. Then finally, when I make the decision, I really try to make it like, okay, if I make this decision, once this situation is gone, Am I gonna be comfortable with that decision later? Is it going to reflect who I am later? Wow, do you have an example of that? So for example, okay, it's a simple one. I get an email from a coworker and I'm fuming. Yes. And I just want to. We've all been there. Yes. And I just want to go, oh, answer back and say whatever I'm going to say. Right. And because I'm mad or I'm I'm like or just, you know, people have had opinions of this person that I worked with and I just wanted this answer back. But I don't. And I think to myself, okay, so what I do now is I step away from the email. I said, I'm not gonna answer back. I'm gonna walk away. I'm gonna walk away, give myself an hour. If I have to give myself the night, I will give myself the night. And I'll say, okay, what do I wanna get out of this situation? Like, where do I wanna be with this person a week from now after this moment passes? Like, how do I want our relationship to look like? Or where do I want the situation to be? And I have to take away all of that extra stuff in order to decide, okay, Let me answer it appropriately where we can have a good working relationship in the future. So that's a simple example, right? So- Yeah, that's great, love it. Yeah, but at work, no matter what your level, whether you're an individual contributor or if you're a leader or if you're leading without authority, you're going through these decisions every single day and you're trying to represent yourself as how the Lord wants you to represent yourself, right? You're trying to get that download from him. And if you're answering from fear or urgency or if you're answering from emotions or, opinions or comparison you're not allowing that download to come yeah right you're blocking that because it's based on you right so for me it's like if if i could just take a step back every single time and stay calm i do a better job um stewarding what the lord wants me to steward at this place of work. Yes, that's so good. I'm going to take this. If I'm making a decision, and whether it's a big decision or a small decision, it sounds like it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. If there's fear or urgency, emotions, feelings, opinions, or comparison involved, what do you do to... Get rid of that. You just kind of pray through that 30 seconds. Okay. I'm going to try to listen to the Holy Spirit. What does this look like practically? Because I think there's a lot of people that are like, yeah, I know I'm supposed to listen to the Lord for decisions. I'm trying to be a good steward. But no one's ever taught me how to do that practically. What do you do? And for my wife and I, I'll share, for larger decisions, we usually... Well, literally in the morning when we're spending time with the Lord, you know, a lot of people picture you're just reading the Bible. Well, no, that's like one part. But we walk, we pray, we read the Bible, we worship. And one thing that we do or we're in the habit of doing, especially for larger decisions, is we'll just take... 30 or 60 seconds and just literally be quiet and just quiet my mind and just say, God, what do you want to do here? Do you want our kids to go to this school or that school? Do you want me to work with this person or not? And we'll just wait and see if any image or anything pops into our minds. That's sort of what we're in the habit of doing, trying to listen to the Lord. But so I kind of jumped the gun and I shared for me. But what about for Christina? Any other like helpful tips that you have for people? yeah i think your your tips are really good i mean that's the first thing i i think that you you know like i know when i'm in a state of really high emotion about something um for me getting up and walking around helps you need that physical you need to release some of that emotion physically right whether it's walking around whether it's taking a you know taking that stroll around the building whether it's jumping up and down you need to get that out right um the second thing is need to understand like what's gonna you gotta almost like break that and take your mind on something else so what i do is whether it's a worship song that i'm really into right now you know what i mean like yeah i'll play that or whether it's writing it down some people like to write it down and just get it on paper like just that emotion to get it out um or that feeling or to actually see it on paper like what's what am i actually thinking and doing um so you have to get that stuff so if there's a lot of emotion or a lot of feeling attached to it you have to get it out and you have to get yourself in a different state so that's the first thing um that feeling and emotion sometimes that's where the fear carries too right and the and the um the comparison carries in there so getting yourself in a different state and then asking yourself okay what am i really feeling here And then once you get out of that state, then you go, OK, what what what am I really feeling here? And maybe ask yourself a couple of questions. What am I feeling here? What do I want to get out of this? And Lord, what do you want? What do you want to come out of the situation? You can't hear the download when you're in a state of high emotion. You just you just can't because all you're thinking about yourself. right you're just like me me me me me me you know it's like this constant me me me so um getting that getting that out so i that's why i do walk around or i listen to worship music or what i do is i just do something else it gets my brain just gets my brain in another set like so i'll just go and do another task or just depending on how what level because like four levels for me if it's a really high level i'd do the walk and i do to sleep on it Yeah. Right. I have to stay on it just so that I'm calm and then get myself in a calm. When I'm at the calmest state, then I go, okay, Lord, what do you want me to do with this? And then I look at it and then I know what I need to do. Just downloads. Yeah. Downloads. What do you mean by downloads? That's a pretty common term in my world, but for people that don't know. It's almost like the sense of, of uh it's i could be an example it's just those the sensors sometimes people talk about like there's this whisper from the lord like it's really tiny it's weird it's not you but it's a whisper when you do it more you you start to hear it more right yeah but there's this almost like this sense that this is the right thing to do so for example i was on a plane okay i used to fly back and forth to dc from la all the time and On the DC flights, people are really high ed, on edge when they get on that plane. They are not in a good mood. They are not in a good mood, especially DC to LA, LA to DC. It's a bunch of congressmen, a bunch of politics people. They are on edge. I'm on edge, right? So I'm getting on a plane and I wanna put my stuff up and this guy puts his jacket there. And I'm like, why is this jacket there? Is this for luggage? Right? But I'm not thinking, I'm just like, I was rude. I was really rude. I said, whose jacket is this? I'm moving it. So I just moved it up there. And the guy was literally sitting across from me and he doesn't say anything to me, but he starts talking crap about me to all the people around us. Can you believe this lady? Can you believe this? And then he's using all this curse language and just continuously for 30 minutes talking about me to all the people around us. So I'm ignoring him. I'm like, I'm ignoring him. And by this point, I'm fuming. I'm like, he should have put his jacket on his lap, Lord. I'm talking to the Lord like, I can't believe this man, right? Because I'm fuming because I'm not talking to myself. I am talking to the Lord like, Lord, please tell him to stop talking. And I'm just, and then he's just staring at me. So it wasn't just the talking. Every time I looked over at him, he is staring me down. Yeah, he's like seven. And he's staring me down. He has like this look on his face, like he's gonna beat me up. And I was thinking to myself, oh Lord, if this continues for the next five and a half hours, I don't know how I'm gonna take this flight. Because this is a five and a half hour flight. And then I'm sitting there and I'm fuming and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, please God, just let him stop. And then I hear this prompting, right? I hear this, you need to go and apologize to him. and it's just this tiny voice and it's almost like this feeling that you get in your body like and i'm like heck no i am not apologizing i'm like having this argument right in my head i am not apologizing to him i am not doing that that guy it's his fault he's been talking crap about me this whole time yeah and then and then i just heard go ahead and do it and i'm just like oh i'm just so mad hour goes through the flight we're in the flight he is still staring me down this old guy he is fuming and that prompting kept coming and i said okay i'm just gonna get up and i literally got up and leaned over and i apologized to him I don't know what I said. I know I apologize. I don't know. It just came through. And I don't know. I felt like I went blank at that moment, but it just came through. And then the flight was great after that. He was super friendly to me. It was a totally different flight. But it's like that. It's a little whisper. Yeah, it's a whisper, like almost like a whisper. And then you don't even know if it's a male or female, but it's just a whisper. And it's almost like this feeling physically that you get, like do it, like do it. So hopefully that helps. Yeah, that's really good. Yeah, I love that. And another quick tip that has helped me with responding when it's difficult, like in moments like that, when you're like, I don't wanna do this, but I know I should. And if you're a believer and you like try to listen to the Holy Spirit, we've all had that moment where you're like, I know I'm supposed to do it, but it's just, I can't get my body to move. So there's this great book, kind of a, I don't know what I think about this book, but I got a lot out of it. It's called The Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins. And she talks about how this changed her life. She went from this really low spot to she discovered this thing watching a rocket launch on TV one night. And she would start counting down out loud with her mouth. She would count down five, four, three, two, one, and move your body. Five, four, three, two, one, move your body. And for some reason, psychologically, you have to do the thing. So getting out of bed in the morning, doing the workout, responding to that word from the Lord. I do it all the time. When I just feel like I don't want to do that, but I know I should, I just count down and move my body, and for some reason it works. So quick tip. Yeah, that's good. Kind of a weird one, but not everyone – people might have issues with that, but I thought it was really cool. All right, so you mentioned faith. has been a foundation for you as a leader in your workplace. Share about that. How has it been a foundation and how can you encourage other people to make faith a steady foundation for them in their workplace? Yeah, it's when you're a Christian, sometimes you don't know how to mix faith and work in the workplace because the workplace is so right. But like you said, 97% of believers are in the workplace. And it's hard when you're a leader to, you know, because they say you got to keep it separate. You can't talk about your faith. I openly talk about my faith. in the workplace, but I don't do it in a way, like I've found that I don't do it in a way where I'm preaching or I'm trying to convert people. I'm just talking about it as how it helps me in my life every day. And I think that opens up it opens up to other Christians, first of all, in the workplace to feel comfortable about expressing their faith. I just believe we need to express our faith more. I don't know why, I don't know who decided that we have to keep it separate, to be honest, I don't know why, because it's such a big part of our lives, right? yeah in the workplace people like oh you're gonna offend somebody i go well i don't because if i'm just talking about it for me and i'm not trying to convert anybody right not me and maybe they'll get converted i don't know but i've had people come up to me and say gosh i you know you make me feel comfortable about my faith i'm buddhist but i'm comfortable about my faith so so the first thing the second thing is just in in all the decisions it's you know i've tried to think like what would jesus do in this situation Like, from a business perspective, you know, disciples, there were some who were businessmen. Like, from that perspective and from the teachings of the Bible, like, how would it be? And sometimes, you know, I'm not really good at scriptures like a lot of people. I can't remember them all, right? There's a lot. I mean, I'm not in it like 24-7. So sometimes I'll go to my app, Bible app, and I'll pull something up like, okay, scriptures on this, and I'll just sit on it and then help me make a decision. So... it just becomes part of what you do every day in your daily work. It's not a separate entity, is what I talk about. It's not work here and faith here. It's just all integrated into one. And the decisions I make, it's all integrates all part of how I make decisions. So yeah, that's so good. Yeah, John Mark Comer. I just read practicing the way all of his books are great. But practicing the ways most recent kind of a, it's kind of compiles all of his last whatever six books into this one book. And he says, you know, what would Jesus do? And he's like, if I could add on to that acronym, it would be I H W M. If, if he were me, if he were, if he were me, like I'm not a first century Jewish, you know, a synagogue leader. All right. I'm, I'm Cameron. I'm a real estate investor entrepreneur. If, if I, if he were Christine in your situation, and I think that's just a helpful reframe for like a lot of people that hear what would Jesus do? They're like, I don't know. but what would you just do if he were you if he were a mom of three if he were you know a dad hustling at his nine to five like What would he do? Just a helpful reframe. That's a good point because he does always come at it from a place of love, right? Yeah. And people think, well, I'm not in love with my coworkers. And that's not the meaning. It's like you're coming from a place of love that I want the best for you. I want you to succeed. I want... I want whatever I'm teaching you, whatever you're learning, whatever you're getting out of this job to make you a better person at work, but also make you a better person at home and for your community. So that's where it stems from, right? It's not just do good work. It's about doing the work that's going to be good for everything in your life. And so when you approach it from, this is, I'm coming from a place of love for the benefit of you. Even in conversations with people that are having challenges at work, when you're having a performance conversation, it's a better conversation because you are coming from it from a place of love. So. Yes. Yeah. How do you, how do you think about, When you go into work, how do you kind of build that muscle of like, I love my coworkers. I want to love them the way God loves them. I want to love them the way Jesus loves them. It's the same way that you build that muscle with family members, right? Or spouses and stuff, right? So for example, like my husband and I have been married a long time and I have a lot of friends that have gotten divorced, right? And I always ask the women that I... that I have talked to that are on the verge of divorce. I said, so why do you remember why you fell in love with your husband? And what was it that made you fall in love? And what do you love about him? And they talk about it, but then they automatically go, well, that's not how it is now. But the reason is they don't look at the things that they love about a person and what makes them great and live on that. They live on all of the stuff they don't like about the person or about their spouse. And so they just keep repeating, I hate this, I hate this, or I don't like this, or I don't like this. And they repeat the stuff that they don't like. And so that becomes all they see. And you don't see all the really good things about the person. So back to my example about the women that I know that are getting divorced, they forgot the reason why they love their spouse. They forgot all those things that make them wonderful, and they haven't been living on that. So when you're looking at your coworkers or the people that you work with, you look at the good things. Yeah, there's little annoyances. Of course, there's little annoyances. But you just have to start taking that away from your brain and start moving it. And it's always an ebb and flow, because I can't say I'm perfect. I can say there's people that right now, I'm like, OK, I'm working through that one. And I'm trying to pull away the stuff that I have been repeating about that person over and over and over and over again in my brain. I got to take that out and have to start repeating the stuff that I really like about that person. And it becomes easier to work with all the people. And they feel that when you start working with them and you start reminding yourself all those good things, they start to feel that energy from you, that energy that you like them, that you want to work with them, that you enjoy being around them. They start feeding off of that energy. Yeah, that's good. what about people that you were just, you know, put in this, you're put into work with them. You, you know, you've never liked, like using the spouse example, at some point you did love like your spouse, but what about people that you're like, I've never liked this person and I'm just trying to love them and encourage them and find the best in them and believe the best in them. What would you say about those people? Because we all have those. We all have those. I have two of them right now. And for me, I have to spend more time with them. I have to actually make the effort. It's like when we make friends. Like if you meet somebody and you want to become their friend, you spend time with them to get to know them. right the same thing for your co-workers like hey grab lunch with them grab a coffee walk with them to go get coffee somewhere right yeah you have a break sit down with them right yeah build that rapport get to know them better and you'll realize like oh this person acts the way they do because they have a lot of crap going on at home or you know their mom's been sick or you just don't know what's going on with people i mean that's the reality and we we start to make those judgments and feel a certain way towards people, but we don't really know what's happening inside. And so get that, take that time. Like it's just five minutes here or there, but those five minutes add up, right? You do five minutes every day for the next couple of weeks. I mean, that's already a couple of hours worth of interaction. Yeah. Okay. This is a funny question and probably getting into more, I don't know, maybe outside of most people's, her view but like when when is it like i need to press in and love this person and learn to to love them and when is it uh i think we need to fire this person and how do you discern between those two things because they could be you could be it could be a thin line yeah um i usually give i we have i usually have the conversation with a person where we're at um i try to understand them but when you're in business you still have to look at the business So you still have to look at, OK, is this becoming unprofitable for us to keep this person? And we've given them all the chances to improve their performance. I've tried to understand where they're coming from. But when it starts to, because in business, you still have to go down to the dollars and cents. Is it costing me money or is it costing the business money to keep this person employed? Because at the end of the day, you can love them and understand them and give them all the benefit of the doubt. But if they don't want to put in the work or take accountability for their job, I mean, we still pay them for their job, right? You have to make that decision. And look, you just have to look at it like, hey, I'm sorry, this is not working out for us. But there's probably a better role for you somewhere else. Yeah. versus right that's good and another thing that has has really come in handy for me when it comes to, it doesn't matter, peer relationships, employee relationships, supervisor relationships. I think I heard this initially from Craig Groeschel on his leadership podcast, but it's praise in public and criticize in private. So like any chance you get in front of people, in front of other people, especially this person's peers, to praise them, to acknowledge them, to encourage them, front of other people do that all day never criticize people yeah in front of their team and then and then there's like a time for for criticism and for feedback but always like one-on-one private another I think it was will good era in unreasonable hospitality says the same thing like yeah never humiliate people in front of their team you will I mean they'll be gone in a week It's like so old school, right? In that way, like those old movies of the 50s, I think that's so old school. Yeah, I think it builds them up and it builds your confidence in them if you praise them in front of their peers or other people. And then even when you're doing the one-on-one, you're coming from it like, hey, you can improve. I believe in you. I see your potential. yes but i need improvement here right it's not a criticism i don't really look at it as a criticism i look at it as tweaks i always say we just need to make tweaks you just need to make a tweak here yeah can you do that right let's put a plan together so it's always little tweaks because people almost almost have it it's always just like you gotta just talk this way or you gotta follow through more. You gotta like get your stuff done sooner, you know, like stuff like that, but they're little tweaks, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, but yeah, totally. That's good, man. I love it. This is great. Okay. Another thing I wanted to ask you about, so you you've done a lot of stuff in business you've made a lot of decisions with the lord but also involving money and i kind of want to just discuss with you kind of what do you what do you think god's thoughts are about making you making more money because you've done these bird deals you've done fix and flips you have the digital marketing agency i don't know what your husband does you know you're you're growing and and in your own company And it sounds like you've brought the Lord into like all these decisions. And sometimes I, to be honest, I struggle with, does God really like care if I make more money? Like, should I ever make a decision just because it's going to yield more profit? And just like, what do you, where do you stand on there? You can feel free to coach me a little bit as well. Yeah. I, the whole money thing is so interesting because people want to like, there's so many different theologies about money, right? There's a lot of different theologies that my belief system, how I've looked at, you know, my theology and, you know, what I believe the Lord is telling us to do is I think that, you know, he wants to increase everyone in different capacities, right? And the increase in money for us, for my husband and I has always been to increase his kingdom, right? so if he's giving us more and we're doing we're stewarding his money that he's good because it's his money it's not our money right if he's giving us more that means we probably did a good job with the money he first gave us right the little bit he gave us to start off and the little bit we have now because in god's eyes i mean what we have now it really isn't a lot of money because it's all god's money right so if he's giving us more, that means that we're doing what we need to do with the money in order to increase his kingdom. So for me, it's really about For us, yeah, I still work my full-time job. My husband actually runs the digital marketing company. He left his job. He used to be a VP of SEM, but he left his job in order to pursue that and manage all of our real estate stuff. But I think if we can increase his kingdom and we can bring more people to the Lord, that's the ultimate goal. whether you have a little bit of money or a lot of money god's going to give you what he gives you what he believes you can you know steward yeah right so i don't look at it from a money perspective i think yeah i would love to have like a bigger house and all that stuff i mean i think at this point i'm just like do i really need a bigger house do i really need all this stuff But but what it does is it it gives us learnings that I can teach other people. It gives me more perspective so that I can reach more people like who I reach is going to be different from who you reach. Yeah. Right. And who you connect with is totally different from the people that may connect with me. But ultimately, both our goals are the same. Yeah. Yeah. So if the means is he's going to give me more money to do it. Great. He's going to give me more money to do it. But that's that's that's the goal. Right. The goal is to bring more people to the Lord. So, you know, right now we're like my husband and I are going through like we always ebbs and flows of the whole tithing thing. But it's like we're like, OK, how much more can we give? Like how much more can we give to the kingdom so that more people can be saved? I mean, that's. Yeah. what we have to do. And so, you know, and again, I can't say we're perfect, but that's the goal ultimately. And so don't look, I don't look at it from a money perspective. I look at it as if God's God is like downloading more. That means I got to do more. Yeah, that's good. What does it mean for you guys to advance the kingdom through funding, through money? Is that just giving to the church? Is it giving to ministries? Obviously, you mentioned you're very open about your faith in your workplace, and that's advancing the kingdom. But for other people who want to advance the kingdom, they're just kind of in the grind, nine to five, what would you say to them? Yeah, I mean, some people, they tithe, and so they're giving to different ministries. We tithe as well, different ministries, mostly children's ministries. We're kind of reevaluating where that, where it's all gonna go. Some of it is maybe you don't have a lot of money right now, and you just give a little bit. You have to look at it from a percentage. People always look at it from a dollar. Like, oh, I gave a thousand dollars. Look at it from a percentage perspective. So if you make a hundred thousand dollars a year and 10% is 10,000, right? So look at it from a percentage. I always try to look at it from a percentage perspective. But it's also like who you bless. You interact with somebody at the coffee shop. Have you blessed their day? Have you like, like for me, it's like, okay, I'll give an extra tip or I'll pay for the coffee for the person behind me. Right? Well, now it's an extra seven bucks. But you know what I'm saying, right? Or like pay for the toll for somebody, you know, go through, do you have to pay for the toll for us? You know, just little things. Like I try to add that way, like add an extra tip when you're eating at a restaurant. There's like different when you, you know, write something on the receipt saying, thank you for the great service. Here's extra tip. Like there's different things where you can impart that goodness. other people where you don't need to feel like you have to give $10,000. Um, you can put in your time, people give time like at, um, my husband and I, Edward, we used to, we used to do a lot of, we used to a lot, a lot of lay volunteer work at church because of everything that we're doing now. And we moved to Dallas and all this kind of stuff. Um, we haven't been able to give as much time, but we're looking like, okay, where can we give time? We don't have time, you know, just wherever, whatever season you're in, it really depends on what you can give. Um, and then just praying. Yeah. I mean, if you can't give a lot of money, you can't give a lot of time, pray. Pray for people every single day. Do your prayers at the end of the day. Do your prayers in the morning. And pray for the people that you come across. You just don't know. Like that person you saw at the coffee shop that you bumped into, talked to for five minutes, you don't know if they need a prayer. And maybe you're that person that night that prays for them. Yeah. Yeah. And like... This might be stretching for a lot of people, but I always try to pray for people right then. Don't say, I'm going to pray for you about that, and then walk away, and either you don't pray for them at all, let's be honest, because it just doesn't come back for you, or just at night, like, Just say, hey man, can I pray for you right now? And let's see what God might do through that. There's been a lot of amazing stories for me when I just choose to pray for them right there. It opens up this door of transparency and vulnerability and it's really great for people. That point's interesting because my daughter's really about, she's about praying for people right then and there. And I know I was uncomfortable with that at first. Right. Like I can do it better now. I'm not super comfortable yet. Like right then and there. Cause I feel like, okay, what am I going to say? Like, what do I say? I don't sound so eloquent. Like, you know, that's like the past. Right. I don't sound eloquent like they do. But I would say that people who it, where it feels uncomfortable, just like, Just say what you think, and if it comes out, if you're struggling, just say, I just want to pray for this person. God loves them. We want the best for them. And whatever they need, Lord, provide for them. Yeah. I mean, it could be really simple like that, and you don't need to come up with something and be like, you know. Totally. And I think people stop themselves from actually praying because they don't know what to say. so true yes so that's so good yeah just 30 seconds fix just like close your eyes be still focus on the lord and just say you know jesus thank you that you love this person yeah i just pray god that you would bless them in every way emotionally spiritually financially That's it. Amen. And they're going to be like, wow, thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't take a lot. And God's going to move on that prayer. That's not just like... Yes. That's not just like something in vain. Like when you lose something on earth, it loses in heaven. When you bind something on earth, it is bound in heaven. Yes, yes. It's powerful. Your prayers are powerful. And so don't just... You're not just talking to the sky, you know? Yeah. Well, it's funny. When I was... I actually went through some tough times when I was younger. I actually had a child at a wedlock and I was on welfare for a little bit of time and on food stamps. I remember I was with my daughter and I was somewhere and this woman just came up to me. At the time, my relationship with the Lord, I would talk to the Lord, but my relationship wasn't as strong. I was very mad because I'm a single parent on welfare. And I remember this woman came up to me and my daughter and she was probably six months old and she wanted to pray for me. And I thought it was odd. To be honest, I thought I was like, I was just so angry at the time. Yeah. But it was odd. But I felt like after even in the prayer was so simple. And I said, okay, sure. I'll take the prayer. You know, it was in LA. It was in like a really low income area. And I said, okay, I'll take the prayer. And she prayed for me. And I literally felt so good after. Wow. Because I was just in this deep, deep depression because I was like, oh my gosh, how am I going to ever get out of this situation? So you just don't know. You don't know. And even if the person goes, I don't know, just say, hey, it only takes 30 seconds. You just don't know. For me, I still remember that to today because I just remember that feeling afterwards, just feeling lighter just after the 30-second prayer. Yeah. Wow. That's amazing hearing that from the other perspective. Wow. That's powerful. Well, this has been amazing, Christine. I, I love these conversations. I know for all, for my audience, like this might not be everyone's cup of tea, but gosh, this is like, I love just talking about Jesus on this podcast and, Me too. And so thank you for coming on. It's just such a pleasure to be able to talk to someone else who's in the marketplace but trying to be led by the Spirit and just so great. Anything else you want to share, share, and then I'd love to give you an opportunity to share your info if people want to reach out to you. But anything else you just want to share from your heart during this time? From your heart. Let me see. What does the Lord want me to say? Just for everyone out there that's investing, you know, or maybe they had a bad flip. that there's just keep going, right? I had a bad flip, ended up spending way too much money, but it's not the end of the world. You're learning from all of these experiences, you're learning how to do things better. you just become a better investor afterwards. So it's, it's all part of the, it's just part of the journey and enjoy, enjoy it. Enjoy the ups and downs because later on you're going to go, Oh, wasn't that great. Remember that time. Right. So you just enjoy it as you go through. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. I love it. Christine, where can people, I don't know if you're open to people kind of reaching out to you or if you have anything, any offers there, but go ahead. Yeah, I don't have any offers at this point. I'm looking to do like a free, right now, like we're setting it up. So we're looking to do like a free, like monthly class just to talk about money. But you can go to my website, christinevaldez.com. It's V-A-L-D-E-S. Or you can connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram. So right now you can just do all of that and I'll message you and we can connect. Awesome. Thank you, Christine, for joining us. Thank you guys for tuning in to the Legacy Investor Podcast, and we'll see you next time. Guys, thank you so much for tuning into this episode of The Legacy Investor. Hey, if you want to help us grow and support us, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. That really helps a lot. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel, Cameron Filgreen. It's still new and growing, but I am going to start posting on there more regularly. Follow me on Instagram at Cameron underscore Filgreen. And if you know someone who should be on this podcast, Go fill out the form on my website. It's CameronPhilGreen.com slash podcast. Fill out the form there. I'd love to have more guests on this podcast. It's been a blast. And music is by Eric Lopez Villaverde. Reach out to him for all your music needs. On Instagram, he's Eric Lopez Villaverde. Hope you guys have a great day and thank you for tuning in. Bye-bye.