Biblical Business Podcast

Adam Weisner takes 25 of the most common questions from his social media comments, rapid fire, in 41 minutes. McClain McKinney keeps the clock.

The faith round: how to know it's God's calling and not your own ambition, what "haste" means in Proverbs 21:5, how to pray for your enemies when you don't know what to say, why forgiving someone doesn't mean giving them a seat at the table, what to do when God feels distant, and why God would take away something you finally mastered.

Money and leadership: tithing on gross or net, what to do when...

How should a Christian CEO handle conflict? Adam Weisner starts with the model Jesus gave in Matthew: go to the person directly first, then bring others in. Most conflict in business comes from avoiding it, and when a leader won't just talk to Joe, the whole team pays for it.

McClain McKinney asks when to flip tables and when to ask questions. Adam calls Jesus the perfect picture of service and submission in leadership, explains why he almost never would flip a table at work, and names the one kind of situation where he would. Then the...

The first in-person episode. McClain McKinney flies across the country to Adam Weisner's office in the woods of North Idaho, and Adam opens with a question of his own: what's it like to be married to a Disney princess? McClain tells the story of his wife's audition, one of 800 hopefuls, and what Disney teaches about a brand you feel before you notice it.

Then why Adam's family left Southern California, the office Jen designed, and why Adam needs a separate space to do his best work. As one of his coaches told him, his ambition overrides his...

Business books or the Bible? McClain McKinney asks Adam Weisner where to draw the line, and they land on jazz: learn the standards first, then you earn the right to improvise. Adam on why science keeps catching up with what was already there, and why Jesus is only concerned with the heart behind it.

Then Adam's story. He wanted a car for Christmas and opened a box of Tony Robbins tapes. A strong-willed child, a house with no power, and getting saved in October 2000, right before he met Jen.

They talk about iron sharpening iron...

How should Christians think about AI? Adam Weisner and McClain McKinney start with Daniel in Babylon: he learned the language and the culture, and when it mattered, God got the glory.

Adam's line: "We're not believers in AI. We are leveragers and users of AI. I believe in Jesus." They talk about what changes when anyone can execute, why judgment, taste and ideas become the most valuable things you bring, and why being made in God's image means you were made to create. Then the video game Adam built from one prompt.

McClain walks through...

This one wasn't planned. Adam Weisner and McClain McKinney had a two-hour meeting, kept talking, and decided to hit record.

It's a conversation about leadership. Adam on going from a 19-year-old with a lot to prove to a servant leader, and why the only real mark of success is Jesus' name growing with his influence. McClain, an Enneagram 3, on learning to be uncomfortably honest; Adam, an 8, on why he hears conflict as raw truth. Then the bank's color test ("be brief, be bright, be gone") next to the fruit of the Spirit.

They get into...

Is your brand selfish? McClain McKinney tells Adam Weisner he is approaching branding from a selfish perspective. Adam's answer: a brand always starts with someone's selfish opinion, and then it has to earn trust.

They start with a definition. Adam: "Your brand is your reputation." McClain: "the subconscious affiliation of unrelated things." From there they get into the brand moat, the thing that protects you when someone does the same thing you do, or does it cheaper.

Then AI. Adam argues that the capability of AI is inversely correlated to trust, and that all future...

What does it look like when a company decides to "manage someone out"? Adam Weisner says a biblical business does the opposite.

Adam's answer starts with the leader: if you are firing someone, you have most likely failed them. Usually the gap is a lack of clarity, a lack of accountability, or a bad hiring process. So he sets a real process (a verbal warning, a written warning, then 30, 60, and 90 day windows), ends each step with "how can I help you?", and means it.

His line: "If somebody's underperforming, it is a direct reflection of...

How do you relinquish control when business gets hard? Adam Weisner says plant and water faithfully. The outcomes belong to God, not your scoreboard.

Adam's position: good stewardship is the work you do today, not the outcome you cannot control. "The stewardship is the planting and the watering, but the outcomes are his."

McClain takes 40 days off. Chalant has almost tripled in size two years running. He returns to a sales pipeline as large as the previous year's business, then watches the opportunities disappear. He asks whether a hard season means he is missing what...

What should you pay yourself, and what should you pay your team? Adam Weisner says the market sets the floor and your heart sets the rest. If you are not paying yourself what it would cost to replace you, you are underpaying. If your idea of a great business means not paying people, you have already left the path of leading well. Adam's position is that compensation has no formula. Start at the market pay band, then go past it on purpose, because a biblical business is led from generosity. "Jesus was not a penny pincher, so I'm not...

Adam Weisner was a staunch atheist until 18, then kept his faith out of his work for more than 20 years. McClain McKinney asks what changed, and how a kid with a tongue ring ended up opening company meetings in prayer.

Adam's answer: in small business you can do whatever you want, "so if you're not bringing Jesus into your business, it's because you've decided not to." For him that shift came four years ago, when he joined C12.

He was on Oprah at about 14 as a young Kurt Russell lookalike. He studied string theory to argue...

What separates a business from a biblical business? Adam Weisner's answer is one sentence, and living by it cost him a company.

This is episode one. Adam Weisner and McClain McKinney open the show on the question everything else hangs off of. A biblical business, Adam says, is one the owner understands was never his. A business is something a person owns and grows for himself.

Then he refuses to let that be a soft answer. You cannot run a biblical business badly. Sloppy books, no processes, nobody minding the marketing, and a...