Episode 97 - Leading Through Global Crisis with Mark Sears of CloudFactory
It’s no secret that everyone’s day-to-day lives have been turned upside down by the coronavirus. So, in light of current events—the pandemic, along with its economic and social effects—we wanted to bring on a guest to speak into what we’re all experiencing.
That’s what brings us to Mark Sears, Founder and CEO of CloudFactory. CloudFactory is using technology to create meaningful work for as many people as possible by building the best on-demand digital workforce known to man.
Early on in Mark’s entrepreneurial journey, he faced a global crisis and the way he led his business during that time is an example for Faith Driven Entrepreneurs everywhere. And today, as he leads a company with thousands of employees who live all over the globe, he’s living and working right in the heart of this crisis.
So, if you’re feeling a bit lost, overwhelmed, confused, or scared during these trying times, let Mark’s words be a source of encouragement.
As always, thanks for listening and stay safe out there!
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Episode Transcript
*Some listeners have found it helpful to have a transcription of the podcast. Transcription is done by an AI software. While technology is an incredible tool to automate this process, there will be misspellings and typos that might accompany it. Please keep that in mind as you work through it. The FDE movement is a volunteer-led movement, and if you’d like to contribute by editing future transcripts, please email us.
Henry: [00:01:03] Welcome back to another edition of the Faith Driven Entrepreneur. This is a special edition. Today we are going ahead and recording out of schedule. We have an incredible opportunity to spend time with Mark Sears and it's just really incredible opportunity going on right now in the marketplaces. Coronavirus fears have really hit our economy and really hit our culture. And we wanted to have an addition that would talk about what does it look to lead a faith driven enterprise for faith driven entrepreneurs to lead their companies, their cultures, to loving their partners, vendors, customers, employees during a time of crisis. And as we collectively, Justin, our executive producer and the executive director of Faith Driven Entrepreneur and William and Rusty and I started thinking about what does that look like? The first person that came to mind on this was Mark Ciara's, who's our guest today. It is an embarrassment almost that we haven't had Mark on yet. He likely has my favorite story of being a Faith Driven Entrepreneur think that part of the reason we haven't had him on yet is because Mark was the very first investment that we made out of sovereign's capital. And I think that we try to wade in slowly with how we thought about interviewing people that were part of our portfolios. Many of you might know my day job is that I am an investor. We, together with my partners and a great staff, invest in faith driven enterprises faith driven entrepreneurs, I should say. And so Mark is very much one of them was our first investment and has been an absolute honor and privilege to journey with him over the course of last 7 1/2, 8 years now. But what I wanted it for him to do today was to share with us both his story because it's a great one. But then also specifically what it looked like for him to lead his enterprise cloud factory through a time of crisis. Many of you might recall the Nepal earthquake that happened four or five years ago. He was just three or four years ago now. But it was just really amazing to see how Mark was able to lead his company through that and how they came out stronger and how they're able to love on their employees and their community. And I think that there are a lot of lessons and a lot of encouragement for us. I can't help but think that this is just an incredible opportunity for Faith driven entrepreneurs and we can talk a little bit more about that. I've been joined today on this call by William. Unfortunately, we weren't able to bring Rusty in because, again, we're recording this on a special time. We've got a whole bunch of podcasts we can record later this week. Rusty couldn't join us for this very one, but we get Justin on the line. We have Mark Sears on the line. And I wanted to bring in to Mark. Mark, thank you very much for taking the time. You've got a thousand things going on in your plate right now, as almost all Faith driven entrepreneurs do, because you're leading a company. You're trying to figure work from home. You're trying to figure out how to service customers at same time. You also are leading a family. So for you to take time out of your schedule to spend time with us is a special treat. Thank you for that. Welcome. [00:03:51][167.9]
Mark: [00:03:52] Well, as you said, Henry, it's an honor and privilege not only today to have this conversation, but the last seven years. [00:03:57][5.3]
Henry: [00:03:59] So, Mark, before we get started, talk maybe more specifically about that time during the earthquake. Tell us who you are. Where do you come from? What's your background? How do you get Cloud Factory started? [00:04:08][8.9]
Mark: [00:04:08] Yeah, it's always fun to share the story because it certainly wasn't a typical business plan. [00:04:13][4.3]
[00:04:13] Cloud Factory was really born out of a trip that me and my wife took in 2008 to Nepal. So we grew up in Canada, got married. I was a computer scientist, software developer, turned entrepreneur, and we found ourselves living actually in the Middle East. Thanks to my wife's job. And from there, we didn't have kids. We wanted to travel in one place. We went to go to Nepal. So it was July 28. We took a two week vacation and it was on that trip that life changed. We met some very young, smart software developers and I ended up deciding to stay for three weeks, buying an iMac and beginning to pair program and kind of pass on what I'd learned in the area of developing Ruby on Rails. And so I was out of that that kitchen table and one a Mac and four of us developers around it that we ended up getting a project staying in Nepal for three more months and then really just ended up staying for six years. And we had her two beautiful kids. And really, you know, Cloud Factory was born out of the idea that talent is equally distributed around the world, but opportunity is not. And that's what I got to discover. [00:05:27][74.1]
[00:05:28] Meeting those three fine young developers, two of which are still with us 10 years later. And it's been an amazing journey, as you know, it would have happened without your and others support on your team. So today where we find ourselves is we've built up a really fantastic business and mission to help tech teams to come alongside a lot of different companies that are developing machine learning models. They're developing A.I. They need data. They need high quality data at scale, both to train up their algorithms, but also to augment them. They put them live and there's often a gap that they need to insert humans in the loop, and so Cloud Factory is the factory in the cloud where we produce that high quality data at scale. We do that with an amazing team, amazing workforce based in Nepal and Kenya of about 5000, what we call cloud workers. You can say data analysts and a technology platform that really coordinates all of that work to make sure that we can have that performance and the capacity to help people develop really cool things like self-driving cars and to do drone delivery and cashless checkout and to be able to detect cancer better than just doctors alone. And so there's so many cool things that we get to work on right now, but we do it because we get to create meaningful work and meaningful opportunities to engage people and see them become leaders worth following. [00:06:51][83.5]
Henry: [00:06:53] Give us an idea of the size and the scope of cloud factory. You're not just in Nepal now you've grown quite a bit. What does that look like as you've grown to other continents and other countries? [00:07:04][10.7]
Mark: [00:07:04] So we've been a multinational startup for a long time and I think that plays well into the topic today. We operate in four offices on four continents, lots of diversity. And so we started in Nepal. And from there we went to Nairobi, Kenya, and we branched out to Mombasa as well. And so we've got about 3000 people in Nepal, two thousand people in Kenya. And then we've got offices here in the US, in Raleigh, Durham, and then also in the U.K.. So, yeah, it's really, as you know, grown over the last few years. And it's what we do. It's a fun part. Feels like we're just beginning to create more opportunities is what we exist for. [00:07:41][36.5]
Henry: [00:07:42] Okay. Take us to the time of the earthquake and actually, take us before then. So one of the things that allowed you to be able to really make such an impact on culture was the fact that you had developed a culture of service early on. So it just taught us a little bit about what it looked like for these three thousand people in Nepal and the folks in Kenya. What did they do when they're not working? And how do you build that type of community service aspect within your teams? [00:08:11][29.0]
Mark: [00:08:12] Yeah, it does go back to that beginning, and it really was this idea of how do we create these types of opportunities at scale. And so it could have been making shoes, you know, and I mean, it could've been anything. We just felt the privilege and the opportunity and the calling to do something that could really help fill the gap. And so factories have done that for years. And the idea of doing a digital factory was really kind of the strategy. And so the question was, what do we do with this engagement? Right. So you get people but we believe that work is more than just a paycheck. We know that there is an idea of earning. Yes, but there is there's learning and there serving. And so for us, that opportunity to create opportunities where people can earn, learn and serve was really how we started. And so we looked at a scalable model that was team based saying, how do you put people in teams of five? And even if they're working distributed, how do we make sure that they're connecting on a weekly basis to still continue to develop relationships? And a big part of that was having them come together and having them go through different leadership development. But then to actually go out into the wild and start applying it by serving those people around them. And so that that really started at the very beginning of saying, how do we create these rhythms of discovering the needs in the community around us? And then people responding to them looking, saying, what am I passionate about? What do I have in my hand? What can I do? And doing that in a very organic, decentralized way, opposed to kind of a top down, you know, CSR. This was this has been baked into our model from day one because it is a huge part of that core mission of creating leaders worth following. We believe leadership equals character times, competency, times, community. We call it the three C's. And so for us, that community aspect, how we live that out is through serving the community in this team based, decentralized, organic way. And that's been there for years. And it was really, really big and strong and thriving before that crazy day of April 25th, 2015. We had that DNA. [00:10:25][132.2]
Henry: [00:10:25] So a whole bunch of different things to unpack there. I love that. Earn the learn and serve the three CS. So it was character competency. And what was the other one? [00:10:33][7.9]
Mark: [00:10:34] Community, both being in community and serving your community. Both aspects we really like kind of the the important double meaning of that particular C. [00:10:42][8.0]
Henry: [00:10:43] So when you talk about CSR, most people pick that up, but corporate social responsibility. So these are people who are working in doing real work. They're going ahead and doing atomize work as a part of the services you provide for your customers. You're talking about unloading, uploading expense reports and talking about being able to find markers for cancer and all of these different types of things. So they're working eight hours a day and then once a week they're coming together and community. And so that's the team bonding is them going out and serving together. And my following that, right? [00:11:13][30.7]
Mark: [00:11:14] You are. You're tracking. Exactly. Yeah. It's usually that, you know, we've ebbed and flowed and kind of how structured and how much program we've put around community service over the years. I would say we were very structured early on. And so it was every seven weeks that people were going out as a team to do a community service project of any sort. So there was different sizes, different shapes. We had people that were going they just brought their guitars to like an old folks home and they just started playing music and started getting up and doing traditional Nepali dancing with people that were their grandparents age. And other people would just go next door and they would get together and have a few kids that they would tutor. They would do campaigns on buses where they would try and raise awareness for different things and put stickers up. It literally has been, as you know, thousands and thousands, you know, well over 7000 community service projects, 7000 community service projects. [00:12:11][56.9]
Henry: [00:12:12] It's amazing. [00:12:12][0.1]
Mark: [00:12:12] Yeah, all shapes and sizes and certainly nothing that, you know, we want to take credit for because it's really been this group of 20 somethings, you know, over the years that have really caught on to that idea of how do we get out of our comfort zone, how do we look and discover the needs around us. And from a place of stability and receding opportunity, I think that's a key part. As you know, we are creating opportunities and people are getting a job. And from that place, they actually feel more stable to be able to go out and to begin serving. And so, yeah, seeing that DNA develop within the company has been amazing. And there's no question that that was preparation for when crisis came. [00:12:58][45.5]
Henry: [00:12:59] So talk to us about that time. April 15th, 2015. [00:13:01][2.7]
Mark: [00:13:03] April 25th. I think, yep. But it was almost five years ago now. [00:13:07][3.5]
Henry: [00:13:07] OK. So tell us, how do you first hear about it? What did it look like for you? [00:13:11][3.4]
Mark: [00:13:11] Yeah. I was I was in Nepal a week before and I just had come back to the US. We were living in Durham at the time. We just moved back in 2014 and we woke up and I absolutely will remember me and Laurel. Our phones were going off the hook and it was a phone call from our V.P. of engineering. And he definitely was very much, you know, my battery's about to die on my phone. And I need you to call my family, let everyone know that I'm all right. And to wake up and to see the news and to have that phone call. Yeah, it was it was something that we will never forget that moment. And, you know, the big question was, do I go right? Do I get on the plane? Like, can I go? And so that's what happened is, you know, I got back on a plane a few hours later that day, and I'll never forget that trip into Nepal. It was crazy. I remember taking the flight from our do you to JFK. We had kind of grabbed as much money and bought some supplies and just hopped on the plane. And I'm sitting there and I start crying on the airplane, completely overwhelmed, not be able to even take a breath up until that moment of getting on the plane. And I, you know, just a grown man just randomly crying on the airplane. But I just I completely lost it. And I remember the airport was just about taking every card. I had to get as much cash because the team was saying bring as much cash as possible because banks are shut down and we need cash. And so I was pulling out as much cash as I possibly could. We actually had a friend where we used to live in Doha. As I pass through Doha, met me in the Doha airport and gave like ten thousand dollars in cash that we converted into Nepali rupees. And so here I am with literally ten fifteen thousand dollars worth of Nepali rupees stashed in every corner of my pocket pants, a vest, everything. Right. Heading into this plane of getting into Kathmandu. Now, of course, at the time everyone's trying to get out and no planes can get in. We got rerouted and eventually the next day we land and I walk into our offices and I see that there's the team. The teams there. The team is in full on relief mode completely, you know, using agile software development practices to do stand ups. And they had just pulled together travel boards and whiteboards. And it was unbelievable to see as a leader to walk in and just to to recognize what an amazing team of leaders that we had. [00:15:53][161.5]
William: [00:15:54] Hey, Mark. William here. I could jump in. Maybe. I love how you took us into that moment on the plane. Thank you so much for that. If you could maybe take us into what was your leadership team? What do you feel like God told you all during this moment, if you can remember that time, so many potential ways to react. Right. So many options. Sounds like your leaders took a lot of it on themselves. But I'm wondering, it's for a lot of the leaders listening today, just what what maybe did God direct you towards? Maybe what did he direct you away from? Right. I'm sure there's lots of things you pondered, but a few decisions that you made. [00:16:35][40.8]
Mark: [00:16:36] Yeah, I I would say that the first thing was that, you know, there's a big pressure to lead. Right. Like when times like this happen, there's a big pressure to have all of the answers. And that can be overwhelming as leaders. [00:16:52][16.1]
[00:16:53] And what I remember, you know, the other thing things in these moments, you are 100 percent submitted and leaning on God because, you know, there aren't playbooks for these times. And so from a place of leaning into God, of being humble because you don't have the answers. What happened in our situation is that other people stood up, other people stepped up and began to lead. And it was unbelievable. It was one of the biggest stories of going through crisis was actually submitting to younger leaders and kind of erasing the idea of titles. [00:17:30][37.9]
[00:17:32] And it was amazing to see us as so-called official leaders in the company kind of get in line and literally just follow the lead of people who were able to step up. And some of that was, you know, that particular context. There was people that were in a better position to lead in some of the efforts that we were making. [00:17:50][18.6]
[00:17:52] And so I think that was probably the first thing was realizing that, you know, we kind of work hard as leaders to raise up other people who are going to be able to step up and shine in these moments. And that's all right. That's completely fine to be able to really look and pray that God would bring the right people at the right time to step up and to help help us lead. [00:18:16][24.2]
Henry: [00:18:17] So I want to just revisit something really quickly. I think that most of us are following this. But when you walked into the office in Katmandu that day and everybody was set and doing agile development and there set up these different workstations and working groups and and dry erase boards and things like that, they weren't working on the business, a cloud factory necessarily. They're working on the business of loving on people and relief and aid and. Element and triage and troubleshooting, correct? [00:18:45][28.5]
Mark: [00:18:46] Yeah, we had to get one hundred twenty five full-time people in Nepal at the time and fourteen hundred families, but 40 Cloud workers, and so it was all about using technology and just pure hustle to contact everyone. Account for them, coordinate going out and helping to bring food and water and emergency supplies, tents. We were procuring as much as possible to help take care of our team. [00:19:12][25.4]
[00:19:13] And really, you know, the first the first couple days was really just making sure that we all could make sure that our families were taken care of. Right. From kind of from that place of getting some stability and knowing that our families were all right and that we were all accounted for. Right. It was only through that that we were then able to look out and begin to help those around us. And at the same time, it was beginning to get back to some semblance of business as usual. We have a lot of people depending on us. [00:19:41][28.3]
[00:19:42] How do we manage all that? How do we manage taking care of our families, taking care of each other, taking care of our customers, taking care of those in our community? [00:19:50][8.2]
[00:19:51] You know, it's full on in those moments of crisis. [00:19:55][3.4]
William: [00:19:56] Mark, how do you think about, I'm going to ask a question that may sound insensitive, but I hope you can take it for what it is. I feel like some people are probably asking it. How did you think about it? You said you got back to business as usual. But in that early crisis stage, how did you think about the trade offs from, well you know I'm going to make some assumptions about your business, your early stage startup, your growing. And, you know, you do need to to make money and make profits and sort of calculating those decisions between, you know, letting people take as much time as they need with balancing. Hey, I may go out of business if we take too much time. Right. Or is that a tradeoff worth making? [00:20:33][37.5]
Mark: [00:20:35] Yeah, there's no question. There's a lot of hard decisions to be made. You know, and for us, I mean, I'll be honest, when the earthquake hit and the reality of that first couple of days, I thought we were done right. Like I thought like this is so catastrophic, we're not going to be able to recover from this. And so in some ways, it was almost, you know, from those ashes that a couple of days later a plan emerged that allowed us to see people start to come back online. And we had people that were stepping up to work more to make up for those who couldn't work. And we had clients who were sending huge amounts of money to help. And were you know, it was just amazing to see how everyone came together to find a path through it. Right. It wasn't it wasn't ideal, obviously. But at the same time, it is amazing that you kind of just have to face those decisions one at a time in the moments with a group of people who are really committed to making it work. And in a place, again, of just being this is this is out of our hands, right. Like, Lord, we need you to come in because, you know, we've got some skills and experience and some smart people in the room. But this is so much bigger than us. And so for us, we were able to, I think, from a place of facts and faith, being able to begin to navigate our way through those hard decisions one by one. But they weren't easy, you know, setting up different funds, you know, to kind of aid people who weren't able to work and replace computers that were damaged in the earthquake. And, you know, there was just there so much to navigate. You know, it's one of those things you don't know how you made it through it, but you kind of did. [00:22:22][106.9]
William: [00:22:24] That's great. That's a great answer. I love that one by one mentality. Also reminds me of something that I know Henry is impressed upon me before of the. It's incredible when you can see your leaders react with massive urgency, with little anxiety. And it sounds like you and your leadership team were able to do that if, say, this is an urgent problem, but it's not solve one hundred and fifty problems at once. Let's focus. Let's do what's in front of us each day and each minute of each day. And that's a great testimony. So thank you for walking through that. [00:22:57][32.9]
Mark: [00:22:57] Yeah, I think that's the startup mentality. Right? That really helped prepare us as well. So there was some community service DNA, but there also was just a good old stand up, right? Just a daily stand up. And then at the end of the day, having a retrospective and really kind of literally kind of a daily sprint by daily sprint, keeping what we had in front of us and kind of just joining God in pursuing how we're going to make it through each day. [00:23:25][27.3]
[00:23:26] And like you said, you don't think you're going to do it. And he'd look back and you don't even know how you did it. But I think that's what it has to look like. [00:23:33][7.7]
Henry: [00:23:34] Talk to us about cloud factory before the earthquake and then after the earthquake. So you spent some amount of time, maybe you talked to how much time it was, but some amount of time. Really focusing in on the needs of the community because you built these relationships for these communities, because you've been serving them for so long. So people knew about you when you're out there delivering food and community. People already had that type of relationship, so they continued for some period time touches about how that ended. But then I'm really interested about your observations about cloud factory culture. Before the earthquake and after the earthquake and maybe also what you knew came to learn about yourself. [00:24:09][34.8]
Mark: [00:24:10] Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, I think I'll start with what we look back on hindsight is, you know, you can look at the number of clients and just revenue. Right. Not that revenue is really the key metric in any of this. But it's interesting because that was when you graph it, that time was the real inflection point for a company. You know, that's where, you know. Yeah, we've grown. We were doing well, but that's where the real inflection point happened. And, you know, I remember right after we were in an all-hands meeting where people got up and just from a place of health. Right. We were just kind of sharing, sharing our stories. And someone got up and just shared about how they thought that they weren't going to make it through. And there was just this feeling that like, wow, we just went through this together. We can do anything. And so I think we really emerged. Right, which is very common. Right, when you go through hard things as individuals. But when you go through them together as teams, you come out the other side very often. Right. Legitimately better and stronger because of the trials and tribulations that we have to go through. And so, yeah, there's no question that happened for us. We came out a better company with deeper relationships, deeper trust, knowing that we could depend on one another, knowing that we truly cared for one another, knowing that, wow, like we can see mountains that we thought there was no way that could be climbed. Right. That that could be accomplished. And so obviously we have a great group of believers who were able to really partner with God and knowing that, wow, there's there's things here that we can't explain how we made it through. But everyone in the organization absolutely was able to stand back and say that was crazy. And we are absolutely stronger. Let's let's give it let's go. And so we came out of that very, very hard driving and very, very committed to one another to make and pursue our mission. [00:26:15][125.3]
William: [00:26:17] And so, Mark, as you said, you know, you made it through a terrible crisis. And, of course, you're impacted by this one we're currently sitting in. And so I'm interested in how you're approaching this one. It's it's obviously a completely different crisis, as most crises are, unfortunately. But I'm wondering what the learnings you have and how you're applying them during this season and maybe some advice you would give others that are walking through this for the first time. [00:26:42][25.2]
Mark: [00:26:43] There's no question that I think because of where we've operated, we've dealt with a lot of crises. Right, as a startup. You know, we've been through multiple things. We had the Nepal earthquake. We had a pretty severe Indian Nepali border blockade. We've had some terrorist attacks and some, you know, elections problems in Kenya. And, you know, I can go on and on. Right. We've been through quite a bit. I don't know if it makes any easier. Right. It's one of those things like does it really make it easier? Because. Yeah, it's we're in the same boat. It's as a day by day. Our leaders are coming together to navigate and say, okay, what's next? And you're making quick decisions. You're praying for a huge amount of wisdom because you're making decisions faster than you'd like. You're taking on maybe some more risk because you're moving faster than you'd like. And there's just not a lot of playbook. So, you know, I'd say we're, you know, like many people right now is taking it day by day and looking at what's in front of us and trying to make the best decisions. What have we learned? I know there's no question it's one of those. It's kind of not a good answer, but it's kind of, you know, the hard work's before crisis hits, right? I mean, like we all we go to school for years and we prepare for when those test common. And these are the exams. These are the tests. And it's less about what we do now. I think it's more about, you know, what we've done in the months and years leading up to now and then. It's a matter of, you know, playing our part as leaders, but also allowing others to emerge and really to be that kind of one body. Many parts coming together to solve things that they're just there. There isn't a modern playbook on how to navigate what we're currently dealing with, you know, globaly right now. [00:28:23][99.8]
Henry: [00:28:24] Mark, after going through these different crises, have you come to know God differently? Do you think than you would have otherwise? [00:28:32][7.7]
Mark: [00:28:33] I think probably the biggest thing for me would be I think a lot of people, you know, we often talk about when we hit our low points. Right. When you hit that place of like, wow, I can't operate in my own strength. And for me, I think that, you know, these crises really brings me to that point, brought me to that point of being like, OK, I feel like, you know, there's some capability and things that God has put in me and taught me. And you can kind of operate and do a lot out of that, which is, I think, a problem for me and for a lot of entrepreneurs. And so in some way, it's that privilege of being put in that place of, OK, I don't got this. [00:29:13][40.0]
[00:29:13] I need you, Lord. I absolutely need you, because this is out of my control. This is out of my wheelhouse. I need you. And so that reliance certainly is something that I want to continue to be reminded of on a daily basis. But there's no question that crisis really pulls us back to that reality that we depend on the Lord. And that's where hope is. [00:29:36][22.7]
Henry: [00:29:38] That's super powerful and I'm very grateful for you sharing. As so many different business owners leave this podcast interview and get back to work. Is there anything in clearly being reliant on God and seeking him out in prayer? I would presume are big parts of how you might answer this. But just as we look at this and I think that this mess. I'm so glad we're able to record this and you're able to respond so quickly. I do get a sense that this is a timeless message because leading through crisis is going to be something that we all need to do. And in your situation, you have had lots of them. Lord willing, we won't have lots of them here in the states. And yet we may very well. But tell us if you could maybe in this particular season of the coronavirus, COVID 19, what council would you give to a couple of thousand faith driven entrepreneurs that are listeners podcast right now? They're going to leave here in about five minutes. They need go back in into work. [00:30:29][51.6]
[00:30:30] Are there two or three things you think that they really need to know or do? [00:30:34][3.7]
Mark: [00:30:34] I think the thing that's really resonating with us in this moment is knowing that it's really hard to overreact. Right? Like we're not going to look back when things reach a back to a normal state and say, oh, we did too much. Right. Because the only way that we're gonna know that we didn't do our jobs is if we didn't do enough. And so I think that the boldness to make decisions faster and proactively, instead of waiting for governments and regulations in kind of our hands to be forced as entrepreneurs, I think that that's certainly a key thing for us in this time, that we're trying to operate from that perspective and made some decisions, some hard decisions on that literally a couple hours ago. And so I think that decision making proactive of putting people first and having a huge bias for action and playing it safe by making those hard decisions fast is probably the first thing. I think the second thing we talked a little bit about that idea of just making sure that all of our teams, their families are good. Right. Like, it's just we all know when things aren't right at home, the idea of us being able to really serve and love others, you know, through the business is just not possible. And so having to make sure that we are answering the questions and putting in the policy changes and whatever needs to happen to make sure our families are well taken care of is first and foremost. And from that place, being able to then care for one another, then being able to care for our customers and then being able to care for communities and those around us and making sure that we keep margin for that last one, because there are so many different people who are just extra vulnerable and these challenges are hitting so much harder. And it's not going to be the government, it's not going to be organizations like we all know, we know these people, their inner communities, their neighbors and go to our kids schools. And we just need to continue organically and again in a decentralized way leaves some margin after we get to a place of new normal and stability to be able to serve. And I think if we can continue to do that and do that through our businesses and support those inner businesses that want to and are able to do that, that's what's going to have a huge effect. As we look ahead to the weeks and maybe the months ahead. [00:32:51][136.7]
Henry: [00:32:52] Well said. I can't help but think that this is such a unique opportunity for us in an accelerated timeframe to be able to to do all the different things that we'd otherwise espouse, talking about loving on our families, loving our community, loving on God, being able to be an effective witness and testimony to why we have the hope we have. I think it really is faith driven entrepreneurs over the next two months, we'll have more of an opportunity to do that than maybe we had all of last year combined or maybe of all 2021. And my hope is that this group of people, starting with this group that's recording this podcast right now, might really lean into that and see this is just an incredible opportunity, a godsend, if you will, to love God and then to love our neighbor in a way that really will make a big, big difference. And one of the lessons, of course, I take away from your talk is that it was in doing that with humility and with the team and having created a culture that was about loving each other and loving our community, that out of something like this comes real opportunity, not just for knowing and servant guide, though that's number one, but also to thrive and flourish as an enterprise setting a culture that you can get through this, do it well as a team gives you an opportunity to think differently about the next crisis. That may not be as big about a network outage or a sales appointment that didn't go as well as you'd wanted. So I hope that we all get a chance to lean into this. William, Take us out. [00:34:18][86.0]
William: [00:34:19] Absolutely, Mark. Just thank you so much for joining us here and being so transparent with your organization and the struggles and things that you went there and how you were able to lead through them alongside your entire company to really appreciate that. And as we do close, I'd love to know if you know how God's word is. These crisis's may speak in this exact moment. Is there a place in scripture God may have you and season that's coming alive during this moment or potentially even today, something pointed you to that may speak to other people as God's Word usually does? [00:34:52][32.7]
Mark: [00:34:53] It does. It absolutely does. And so today, in fact, Psalm thirty nine. [00:34:58][4.8]
[00:34:59] And the idea of how our hope is in the Lord and that just that perspective is, is what I get from this. We read verses four to seven here quick. Show me, Lord, my life's end and the number of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere hand breadth. The span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath. Even those who seem secure. Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom. In vain, they rush about heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be. But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you, and there's no question. [00:35:39][40.0]
[00:35:39] I think that having a very healthy sense of perspective of who we are, who God is, and who we are, and the bigger story going on around us and making sure that we continue to put our hope in the Lord when crisis comes is some thirty nine is reading. Very true to me today. [00:35:58][18.6]
Henry: [00:35:59] That's a great one. Thank you very much for sharing that. Thank you very much for your time. Be willing to step in so quickly. We're grateful for you, Mark. Thank you. [00:35:59][0.0]