What happens when something you believed God led you to build falls apart?
For Geoff Ladell, that question became very real. He had spent years building a successful business serving hospitals, universities, government facilities, and other major organizations. He believed God had led him into it, prayed over the decisions he made, and watched the company expand into new markets.
Then COVID hit.
Government buildings emptied. Colleges shut down. Hospitals became inaccessible for the type of work his company performed. Revenue dropped to zero, and despite Geoff’s attempts to keep things going, the business eventually collapsed. His personal finances followed soon afterward.
On this episode of the 2000 Cubit Rule, Geoff shares what happened next and how that loss changed the way he thinks about business, identity, relationships, and the economy of God’s Kingdom.
When the Thing You Built Becomes Too Important
One of the difficult parts of Geoff’s story was that he could not simply point to an obvious mistake and explain what happened.
He had prayed about the business. He believed God had led him there. He had experienced years of growth and success. So when everything fell apart, his questions naturally turned toward God.
Why did this happen? Had he missed something? Had he misunderstood God somewhere along the way?
Someone who had played an important role in Geoff’s faith journey eventually encouraged him to stop asking why and begin asking a different question:
Where is God leading you?
That shift changed the conversation.
As Geoff began looking forward instead of continually looking back, God started showing him something about the business that he had not recognized while it was thriving. His success had gradually become more than something he was grateful for. His business, title, income, and accomplishments had become connected to his identity.
Geoff came to recognize that the business had become an idol.
It was a difficult realization, but it also became the beginning of something new.
Who Are You When the Business Card Is Gone?
Before the collapse, Geoff could describe himself as a CEO, entrepreneur, business owner, and successful businessman. Then, in a matter of months, those labels were gone.
That exposed a much deeper question.
If your business disappears, your title disappears, and the things you once pointed to as evidence of success disappear, who are you?
Geoff began grounding his answer somewhere more secure. His value was not something he had earned by building a successful company. His identity came from being a child of God.
As he said during our conversation, “I learned that I don’t have to earn my value. I inherit it.”
That matters in business because nearly everything we build is capable of changing. Revenue goes up and down. Clients come and go. Careers change. Companies succeed and fail. Opportunities open and close.
If our identity moves with those things, our sense of worth is constantly being repriced by whatever happened that day.
Geoff began discovering another economy.
Relationships Are the Priority. Love Is the Currency.
Most of us understand a transactional economy because we participate in one every day.
A business provides something of value, and a customer provides money in return. Employees exchange their time and abilities for compensation. We buy, sell, negotiate, invest, and trade.
There is nothing inherently wrong with any of that. Geoff still has bills to pay just like everyone else.
But through his experience, he began seeing what he calls The Kingdom Economy.
In this economy, relationships are the priority and love is the currency.
That changes how we approach people.
Instead of looking at someone and immediately wondering what the relationship could produce, we can ask how we can genuinely serve that person. Instead of beginning with the transaction, we begin with the person standing in front of us.
That has implications for sales, customers, employees, partnerships, friendships, families, and just about every other relationship we have.
What Happens When You Stop Leading With the Sale?
Geoff shared a great example involving a friend who worked as a financial advisor.
His friend was struggling to grow his business. When Geoff asked how he would introduce himself at a networking event, the answer was fairly typical. He helped people with life insurance and retirement planning.
Nothing was wrong with the answer, but it immediately positioned the conversation around what he sold.
Geoff encouraged him to look at the person instead.
What was keeping that person awake at night? What were they afraid of?
His friend realized that many of the people he served were afraid they would outlive their money.
Now the conversation was different.
Instead of approaching someone primarily as a potential sale, he could understand the problem that person was actually carrying and look for ways to help.
Geoff worked with him for 90 days. During that period, the advisor’s income tripled.
But the income was not the starting point.
Trust increased. Relationships deepened. Referrals followed. People were more willing to listen to his recommendations because they believed he actually had their best interests at heart.
That is a very different foundation for growth than simply figuring out how to close more transactions.
The Goalpost of Success Keeps Moving
There is another problem with building our lives around the transactional economy. The number we think will finally be enough has a habit of changing.
If I could make this much money.
If the company could reach this revenue level.
If I could land that client.
If I could get that position.
If I could finally buy that house.
Then I would feel successful.
But when we reach the number, another one usually appears.
Geoff described it as a hamster wheel. The goalpost keeps moving, and we keep running after it.
Money can solve real problems. Business growth can create opportunities. There is nothing wrong with pursuing excellence or wanting a company to succeed.
The problem comes when those things are expected to answer questions they were never designed to answer.
Money cannot tell us who we are. Revenue cannot establish our worth. A title cannot provide lasting security.
At some point, we have to change the currency.
You Don’t Have to Lose Everything to Make the Shift
Geoff learned these lessons through the collapse of a business he had spent years building. Thankfully, losing everything is not a prerequisite for examining what has our heart.
We can ask those questions now.
Has success become connected to my identity?
Have some of my relationships become primarily transactional?
When I meet someone, am I interested in who they are or am I already calculating what the relationship might produce?
What would change in my business if relationships really were the priority?
For Geoff, the answer did not begin with a new business strategy. It started at home.
He began looking for simple ways to serve his wife. When his son asked him to play a board game, instead of continually putting him off because he was tired or busy, Geoff began making the relationship the priority. He reconnected with people and became more intentional about what it meant to love the person in front of him.
That is an important distinction.
Love cannot simply become another sales technique.
If we decide to “put people first” because we have discovered it increases revenue, generates referrals, or improves retention, we have simply turned love into another transaction.
The Kingdom Economy Geoff describes goes deeper than that. It begins with receiving our identity and value from God and allowing that love to shape the way we treat other people without requiring something from them in return.
From there, we can still build businesses, make money, create jobs, sell products, pursue growth, and do excellent work.
We just do it with a different currency.
Geoff Ladell is the author of The Kingdom Economy: Build a Legacy of Love in a Transactional World. Learn more about Geoff, his book, coaching, and speaking at MyCurrencyIsLove.com.
What Has God Given You to Carry?
One of the things Geoff’s story reminds us is that God can use both what we build and what we walk through to clarify what He wants us to carry forward.
At SheepFeast, that is part of why we developed the Metamorphoo Method, a 5-step process designed to help you take what God has placed in you, clarify the message, make it understandable, build the resources around it, and ultimately multiply its impact.
If you have something you know you are called to communicate but you are still trying to get it out of your head and into a form other people can understand and run with, start with the free Metamorphoo Method Guide.