Seeing captives set free and walking the last mile of restoration through sustainable employment. That is what motivates Taylor Blom, as the Co-Founder and CRO at Next Door Photos. As a rapidly growing real estate photography company, Next Door Photos partners with impact-driven entrepreneurs to create businesses that serve realtors locally, while redeeming global supply chains. Taylor shares about running a business that’s built to bring freedom to people’s lives.

Episode Transcript

Rusty Rueff: Welcome back, everyone, to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast. Seeing captives set free and walking the last mile of restoration through sustainable employment. That's what motivates our guest today, Taylor Blom as the co-founder and CRO at Next Door Photos as a rapidly growing real estate photography company. Next door photos partners with impact driven entrepreneurs to create businesses that serve realtors locally while redeeming global supply chains by partnering with organizations in the Philippines, Kenya and Nepal. Next door Photos has been able to provide stable, high tech careers to hundreds and hundreds of survivors of human trafficking and extreme poverty. In addition to their commitment to local and global impact, next door photos upholds high standards of excellence by photographing listings the next day and editing photos with a 12 hour turnaround. Join us as Taylor Blom shares about running a business that's built to bring freedom to people's lives. Let's listen in.

Henry Kaestner: Welcome back to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast. I'm here with Rusty and William. Brothers. Good morning.

Rusty Rueff: Good morning.

William Norvell: Always a good morning.

Henry Kaestner: Indeed. Indeed. We are just recently back from this international extravaganza of taping and presenting the Faith Driven Entrepreneur conference. And I have to tell you that while I have had a heart for overseas entrepreneurs and overseas markets for a long time, I think it's really been hiding a bunch of things that have gone on in my life. I think that they're all led by God. But I've enjoyed reading an author named Peter Zion talking about the geopolitical environment and his recent book, The End is Just the Beginning, talking about the end of globalization and the unwinding of Bretton Woods and been really wrestling with What does that mean for us as Westerners. On one hand, as the United States becomes more and more focused on the Western Hemisphere, it's probably good. A lot of cases can be made that's in the US's best interest to just kind of focus on where we are rather than opening up our markets as we've done in the past and arguments on both sides of that. But as Christ followers, what does that mean? What does it mean for us? What does it mean when seven and a half billion people actually don't live here? You know, we may be looking great over the next ten, 20, 30 years here in the States, but I guess there are seven and a half million people who don't live here. 2 billion of them have professed the name of Christ. So it depends on your theology. If you're called to work with people already are part of the body of Christ, or if you're called to work with people who don't yet know Jesus. There are a lot of people that don't live here. And so as Christians, we're going to have these opportunities to even maybe go against the grain a bit about how we reach out.

Rusty Rueff: And we wrestle with that term neighbor. What is neighbor? Right Neighbor? Is it next door or is it next country or on the other side of the world? It's a good thing for us to wrestle with, I think.

Henry Kaestner: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And as I've said before in a prior podcast, one of the big things that has been so encouraging to us is that with these Faith Driven Entrepreneur groups we have, we had 5000 entrepreneurs listening to the podcast who went through the eight week Foundation series in just a first year. There's one church in Lagos, Nigeria, that in the upcoming cohort has 25 groups. So there's some amazing things going on around the world and I love all faith driven entrepreneurs, and yet I do have a special place in my heart for those entrepreneurs that are called to the nations that understand that there's an opportunity to bring opportunity to developing economies, to be able to do an asset based community development, to be able to provide an opportunity for meaningful work, because God called us, well God created us in his images, God who works 6 days out of seven days in gospel. John says his work continues to this day. So maybe one of the best gift we can give somebody is we seek to love our neighbor is a job. And we've got a guy on the podcast today that has really lived that out. And Taylor, I'm just grateful for you to spend your time for the calling of God's what God is doing in your heart and for being with us today. Thank you.

Taylor Blom: Thanks so much for having me. I'm super excited to chat with you guys today.

Henry Kaestner: So before we go much further, I got to tell you, we're recording this with the video, but typically we don't show the video a lot. On occasion we do. But you had the best video backdrop, I think, that we've ever seen. And I'll walk us through a little bit about what is written on the wall behind you.

Taylor Blom: That's high praise because I know you've done a few of these now, but back then we did have a physical office. I've got three banners behind me that hung there and it really is our manifesto of next door photos. And so it says, We love God, we love people, we love business, we are committed to the spirit and advancing God's kingdom. And we think entrepreneurs can change the world for the better.

Henry Kaestner: Indeed they can. So you've gone right into the spirit of our ministry and what we do here. And sometimes I'd like just getting right into the topic in this case. I want to hear how you got to where you are right now. You're in a spot right now, creat a lots of opportunities for people in emerging frontier markets. How did you get started with that? I mean, what's the entrepreneurial journey that led you to where you are now doing that, all that and more and doing it at scale? What's your story? Who are you? Where do you come from?

Taylor Blom: We'll figure all that out together. Well, you know, some entrepreneurs have a very calculated kind of entry point right into their business journey. And in the creation of it, I kind of stumbled into it blindfold and backwards, if you will. I was working as a marketing director for a vacation rental management company where I was photographing vacation homes here on the West Michigan Lakeshore and, you know, didn't really know what I was doing, wasn't really classically trained as a photographer, but saw the correlation between, hey, the better the photos, the better the online package, the more this house fills up all summer. And so, you know, one thing led to another. My wife and I were involved in a church ministry, and we're getting ready to sell our first house and move back to the lakeshore. And long story short, worked with a realtor friend of mine and, you know, he said, Hey, we'd like to work with you to get our listing published. And he said, Hey, great, that sounds awesome. I said, Hey, I take photos for work, You know, I'd love to. Take the photos and send it to you. This is over ten years ago now, right? So the market was kind of flip flopped and there was a lot of sitting inventory and listings were not moving fast. And long story short, I took the photos. He put them online. He had a couple walked through the house that night. Nothing was selling and they put an above asking price offer on their way out the door for our home. And my realtor buddy was like, Well, you know, what does that mean? I've never had that happen, at least not in the last few years. And so I started working with him kind of on, you know, nights and weekends and just really exploring real estate, you know, media photography and knew it existed in big cities and the coasts. And it was just like kind of just sniffing out the opportunity, like what's happened. And then out of nowhere, you know, started getting calls from other realtors in the community saying, hey, I heard you're the new go to real estate photographer who, in fact, did you hear that from? So I got to the point where it just ballooned out of nothing. And my lovely wife sat me down and she was like, hey, we miss you, me and your newborn son. You're so busy, you know, shooting real estate and the doing your day job. Is this something that God has for you next? And I thought, no way. Right. So I made the pros and cons list. The cons was super long, the pros list was super short. And then I just heard God speak to me and he said, Hey, you know, Taylor, what do you have in your hands? Just like he asked, Moses said, the burning bush, you know, way back in the day. And I was like a camera. And God is like, Well, if you use this in partnership with me, we can build something together. And that was the start of it. That was initially called front door photos back in the day, ten plus years ago, and then later renamed next door photos seven years ago.

Henry Kaestner: So tell us about what next door photo, how do we use it, and then how do you use the business model to employ other people overseas?

Taylor Blom: Yeah. So next door photos is a real estate media company that partners with kingdom driven, impact driven entrepreneurs in their communities to service their local real estate market. And the agents who, you know, need the really good photos and video and everything else to make their listings look great online on Zillow and other outlets. And and so in that we've launched over 50 local owners in 70 different markets across the U.S. and Canada. But what we spent a lot of time doing is building our global supply chain, if you will, and with a specific mission and emphasis on creating jobs for men and women rescued from human trafficking and those at risk.

Henry Kaestner: So fascinating. So you have effectively kind of a local affiliate or even or franchise model empowering local entrepreneurs in states and Canada. And in each case, the back end of this is being supplied by folks in Philippines, Kenya, Nepal, etc..

Taylor Blom: Correct? Yeah, that's exactly right.

Henry Kaestner: At the end. So just so you know, in our listeners will be very familiar with this, we will talk to you about some passages from Scripture that have influenced you recently. But I know enough about your story to know that Isaiah 61 is formative for you and talking about setting the captive free. Can you talk about how that influences the work that you do at next door?

Taylor Blom: No, absolutely. So from the beginning, you know, seven years ago, it's actually our seven year anniversary as a business today to the very day.

Henry Kaestner: Happy anniversary

Taylor Blom: Which is quite exciting. So we'll get out the cake and balloons and confetti can it's later. But yeah, so, you know, for us from the very beginning, we said, hey, we want this business to exist to advance God's kingdom. And we said, you know, we don't know what's going to look like. We don't know how that's going to happen. But we know, like if that's what our hearts are and if that's what we're aligned towards in following the Spirit to pursue that, God is going to put those opportunities in place for us to be able to see that happen. So from the very beginning, you know, this idea of freedom, it wasn't just, Oh, that would be great if it was like, no, like that's the bedrock, right? That's the foundation. That's the motivation. That's what we're here to create together. And so it became a part of our purpose statement. It became a part of our vision statement, and it became one of our core values that we celebrate when we see it in action is to empower freedom. And it looks and it looks different right across the organization for our realtor clients, you know, our clients, we want to help them to be free, to list more, to get their listing published faster so they can get on to the next one. You know, for a local owner, partners in all the cities in North America that we operate like, we want to create financial freedom, right? We want there to be freedom created through successful business ownership. And that's the opportunity that we've created. And then, of course, you know, seeing the captives set free on a global scale is just so near and dear to Jesus's heart. Right. You know, in Isaiah 61, one of his few kind of church sermons, if you will, was when he said that, you know, hey, like this is what's happening in your midst. When he was in Nazareth and even when he was quoting Isaiah, Isaiah 61, like that's his heart, right? That's his mission. And so if we can partner with that to see that happen and to see that happen in very real places where you know so much. Who gets rescued from freedom. They have a 60, 70% chance of falling back into trafficking if they do not have gainful employment, sustainable employment within a year. And those are the statistics. So the freedom is important. But the ongoing freedom, you know, the real restoration process happens. You know, we think through a sustainable job in being able to not only see that freedom walked out in that individual's lives, but in the lives of their family and then their lives and their community. It's just man, it's just something so special to be a part of.

Rusty Rueff: I'm curious to take us through the supply chain on that end. Like, how is it that you find folks that have been released out of captivity, out of trafficking? How do they apply? How does all that work? The logistics?

Taylor Blom: Yes. We're strong believers in partnership and local ownership, you know, both for our local owner operators in North America, but then also our global editing partners as well. And so we've gone into a partnership relationship with key owners that have local leadership teams because we really believe that, you know, that drives just really incredible opportunity, but it also keeps everything aligned just for our business continuity and to run globally. You know, it's challenging. There's a lot of logistics and time zones and and a lot of things to overcome. And so having that local ownership allows us to partner with the right people who have the same heart, who have the same shared vision as we do to see God's kingdom advance through business, that then we can rely on their local leadership and business ownership ability to be able to grow and scale and kind of build that infrastructure, you know, that we need. I mean, we started January of 2017 with just a dozen editors just in Cebu, and now today we've probably have over 400 in the Philippines, in Nepal and in Kenya. And to be able to scale, we just have had to partner with the right people. And God's brought incredible people forward that we've been able to partner with to see that scale sustained.

Rusty Rueff: We love stories. So can you give us a story of maybe one of the franchise owners, maybe a story about them and how this has been real to them? And then also someone who's now working, you know, who's come out of trafficking or captivity. And actually, I've been to Cebu, I have to say that. But.

Taylor Blom: Oh, you have?

Rusty Rueff: Yeah, I've been to Cebu. That's like if you could have named any other place in the Philippines and I'd go to maybe other Manila. But it's funny you say that and the, you know, the poverty and the things that are there in Cebu I've seen personally. But yeah. So give us the stories.

Taylor Blom: Yes. So we have a current partner of ours who came pretty early on. You know, he was maybe partner number five or six back when we were still kind of crossing our fingers and holding our breath every time we launched a new it to see if it would work again. And it did, thankfully. But he came from kind of a mid executive level role at a steel company where he was just in a grind. You know, he would show up who wasn't fulfilled in the work he did, wasn't aligned with the mission, which is kind of a very small cog in a very large machine. Right. And didn't have a fulfilled life, didn't have, you know, something to look forward to going to work on Monday morning. And it was just was just kind of stuck in this rot. And had some some things going on in his life that, you know, he would say and he does talk about it. He was just in a really challenging spot in a lot of different ways. And so he came to hear about the local owner opportunity through our expansion team. And basically we got to sit him down and have a conversation say, okay, you know, here is a couple of choices. One, keep doing what you're doing. You know, maybe get promoted a couple of times and, you know, you have this kind of trajectory ahead of you that you don't like. Now, you know, it's likely not going to get any better or take a little bit of a gamble. Back then, again, it was fairly early on to partner with us and have the opportunity to not only make an impact in your local community, you know, especially in real estate, but also have an opportunity to make an impact globally and do those things simultaneously. Right? And so that was kind of the message of you don't have to choose, you don't have to go into the mission field or be a pastor, you know, to make a significant kingdom impact and make nothing right, then you don't have to, you know, launch a business that's really successful and feel like you're not making an impact. Like you can have the two together. You know, they both can be your reality. And he surprisingly said, Yes, I'll do it. And so he jumped in and it was operating on the east side of Michigan for us and has since been one of our key trailblazers where he's, you know, growing his geographical footprint. He has just a beautiful and fulfilled life where he is inspired by the work he gets to. He went to visit the editing team in the Philippines a couple of years ago and talking to him, coming back from that where he got to connect. You know what? He's doing the business that he's creating and the value that it's growing as it grows with the corresponding growing impact globally and getting to see that in action and connect all the dots, kind of that full circle feeling was hugely impactful for him and is one of the reasons where he's continued to be motivated to grow even larger because he knows that as he does, that the impact in North America grows simultaneously as the impact globally grows.

Rusty Rueff: That's very cool.

Rusty Rueff: Entrepreneurs. We're problem solvers, right? So why do so many of us ignore the biggest problems we face? Most of us feel isolated and we feel alone. Our mental health suffers. Our relationships suffer. We get bogged down by the pressures of running a business. But say, hey, it's just part of the job. It doesn't have to be that way. You see, we're not meant to be siloed. God designed us to do good work alongside others, and you can experience that kind of community with other like minded entrepreneurs through our Foundation Group series. This eight week course helps connect you with people who understand your struggles because they've been through them too. There's no cause and no catch. You can meet online or in person. Find out more at Faith Driven Entrepreneur dot org backslash groups. Now back to the show.

Rusty Rueff: So I'm sure we've got people listening here. I mean, I want to do this. I mean, this would be a really great thing. I have no idea where to start. It seems like it's really hard, you know? Is it really worth it? I mean, give them the pitch.

Taylor Blom: Well, it's, you know.

Taylor Blom: Crazy enough, you would think that we partner with creative professionals, right? You would think that we partner with, you know, wedding photographers and other people who know their way around the camera. And surprisingly, you know, some of our best local owners don't have any media, you know, creative experience at all. You know, what we do is it's fairly scripted, right? You know, it has to all be, you know, very much aligned across the board, no matter if we're taking photos in California or Florida. You know, all of the inputs, all the raw photos have to be captured with the same process. And we've broken it down into a fairly, you know, detailed but really straightforward process where 90% of the magic that you see in a really good looking real estate photo where you're scrolling through Zillow and you're like, Ooh, that's the one. 90% of that comes in the editing process, right? When you do Lightroom and Photoshop and all these advanced editing techniques to bring out the best of the photo. And so some of our best partners have no experience at all, but they want to be in business, you know, with partnership, to grow something, right, to have equity ownership that they can grow and invest into, that they can build simultaneously. You know, they know that what they're doing is having a huge impact and creating opportunities for people coming out of horrific situations around the world and the ability to do that in partnership where we have guideposts, where we have coaching, where we have, you know, a proven kind of operation and fulfillment system, all of that is really kind of the sweet spot for someone who's like, Yeah, I might like to try something on my own, you know, own something, but they might not have an idea or be willing to go the solopreneur route.

Rusty Rueff: Yeah. I love the fact that you're teaching others how to fish. Right. I mean, that's what you're really doing, and that's inspiring. One more question for me, and I'll turn it over to William. But, you know, as Christ followers, I think we wrestle with and we talk about I use that word wrestle at the beginning of the podcast with who is our neighbor? You know, we got 8 billion people in the world. You know, we sit here 330 some odd million inside the United States. You look at believers all around the world, you know, and we have to think about who is our neighbor. How do we love on them? How do we serve them? You know, what is our responsibility to them? Obviously, you've thought beyond our shores, but go a little bit deeper into your philosophy of how we all should think about our neighbors around the world.

Taylor Blom: Yeah, it's a great question. You know, I think Jesus words in the great Commission where he says, you know, go and make disciples of all nations. Right. I mean, it is very much a global initiative. You know, it's really, really important for us to make an impact in the local communities in which we serve. It's super important, right, where as an individual location grows in scales, they're likely, you know, have a team of 12 to 15 independent contractors we call media pros, you know, who are doing the capturing of the media. They've got hundreds of realtor agents, relationships that they've built and they're investing into. And they honestly, they get to go into thousands of homes every single year. You know, you talk about opportunities to be salt and light, you know, right in your backyard. Getting invited into someone's home is an incredible opportunity to do that. You know, we've heard stories of our media pros, you know, leaving notes of encouragement or, you know, one that I heard where there was an open Bible in someone's house and, you know, media pro flips through the Bible, goes to their favorite verse, writes a note, you know, to the seller. They're not there. They don't know who that person is, just of encouragement. And then later come to find out that the actual agent calls, the owner says, Hey, you have no idea how much impact that that Media Pro had on that seller, who's going through a really tough personal experience that is resulting in them needing to move like that was huge, right? And so it's like you have those points of contact and those opportunities to be light in darkness, but then you can also do it on a global scale. There's such significant need around the world. I mean, especially when you talk about the issue of human trafficking and the fact that 40 plus million people are enslaved today, and the fact that if they don't learn the skills and it's no one comes alongside of them and has an opportunity for them employment wise, there's a very high chance that they're going to fall back into trafficking. And so being able to not have to choose, you know, between the two. Right. I think it's an end. Right. And I think the way that we've set up the organization allows us to say it's an art, it's a local impact and it's a global impact. And I think that lines up with Scripture and Jesus to start when he said, you know, go everywhere.

William Norvell: Hmm. Amen. And on that, you know, partnering with Jesus heart, you know, you know, move to one of my favorite topics and maybe the least understood topics, partnering with the Holy Spirit. I actually led a breakout at the FDE conference last year on this with a couple of founders, and I feel like it's something that. Everyone wants, but maybe don't know how to access or trust. And maybe that is a paradox or an enigma. I don't know. We're about to ask you, but I'm curious how it's manifesting itself in your life. Right? So how do you feel? You listen to the Holy Spirit. How do you feel like he informs decisions that you make throughout the organization, and how does that partnership go for you and your job?

Taylor Blom: Yeah. Oh man, I love that question. So, you know, we talked about Isaiah 61 being a foundational verse for us. You know, another is second Corinthians 3:17 where it talks about, you know, where the spirit of the Lord is. There is freedom. And so for us, a litmus test is, hey, if we're partnering with the spirit in the work that we're doing, like freedom is going to be a byproduct of the work we're doing, like we're going be able to see freedom take place. And so it is a little bit difficult, right? There is no like, Oh man, here, let me give you the step by step equation that's going to bring more freedom into your business. And and therefore, you know, you're partnering with the spirit. You know, I think it's I think it's just being open and willing to learn, right, to grow, to submit big decisions and big questions. Being able to wrestle with that, you know, together as our leadership team. And we get together quarterly in person. And a big part of what we do together is say, all right, God, like speak to us, give us insight, you know, give a strategy, help us to navigate and pivot where we need to. And I think it's best done in community, honestly. Right? I think it's best done in like relationship and the ability to then have, you know, this kind of humble approach to be like, all right, I just want God to speak and God, give me ears to hear you and God give me eyes to see where you're leading and where you're moving. And I think if you pray that prayer enough, he's going to give you those opportunities. You know, you might not always see him. I definitely missed a ton of them, but that's going to be, you know, an ongoing opportunity. Okay. What does that mean for right now? Then you can also kind of get stuck over spiritualizing things, sometimes and sometimes like, man, you hit a roadblock and you just got to work through it. Right. And so it's not this get out of jail free card or it's not this like, oh, because I'm asking the Holy Spirit to partner with me and what I'm doing then, man, all of these rough edges are always going to be smooth. Like, that's actually not true in the Bible. The Bible says that actually won't happen.

William Norvell: No, no, They work out well for the followers of Christ most of the time, right?

Rusty Rueff: Oh, yeah, right.

William Norvell: And it's smooth sailing. Easy road.

Taylor Blom: Guaranteed.

William Norvell: The path is wide. The path is wide and easy

Taylor Blom: right? Yeah.

Taylor Blom: Yeah, right. And it's just, you know, it's clunky sometimes, right? Like, sometimes you do make a wrong decision, sometimes you do mess up. But I think it, again, is always being willing to learn, you know, always staying humble, being able to do it in community and really have an open and safe space, you know, to talk about, hey, what might God be doing here? It's a helpful practice, been a helpful practice for us.

William Norvell: And back to stories. I'm curious if you wouldn't mind sharing, because I think that can manifest itself in so many different ways, right?

Taylor Blom: Absolutely.

William Norvell: There's there's opening your your Bible up randomly and then God shares a scripture verse. There's reading a verse in your daily devotion that comes alive in a new way that you never thought about it to your business, to God, speaking to you in prayer, right? Or speaking to someone else or having someone prophesy over you. Right. I'm curious if you would share maybe a couple of moments or decision. Do you feel the Holy Spirit led? And you know, to what you just said doesn't mean they were successful, doesn't mean they change the business necessarily. Right. But just curious where you feel like you really were felt called from something outside of yourself to move a direction and maybe how that felt.

Taylor Blom: Yeah, absolutely. So one that kind of sticks out immediately is in 2016, we identified pretty early on that the editing component of our business was going to be the bottleneck, right? It was going to be where things got stuck. If an hour of shooting onsite is about 3 to 4 hours of editing, then we knew we had to figure out a global solution to that problem. And so my business partner, Paul, the other co-founder of Next Door Photos, he actually went to the Philippines in 2016 to check out and kind of vet out a couple of real estate media editing partners. And there weren't many at the time. You know, there's one specifically he went there to go see. It was a couple months before my youngest son was born, so I did not go, you know, So he went. And at the same time, while he was there, one of his friends, he does some leadership in the Vineyard Church in Asia said, hey, you know, why don't you come to one of my churches on Sunday? It's in Cebu and I can introduce you to some people and you can kind of be connected like I'm here at the same time you are. This is awesome. So he's like, Great. So on sunday he goes and, you know, the church is literally built on the side of kind of a really difficult slum area built on the side of a cemetery. And apparently when the church was planted, the missionaries said, Hey, take us to the most difficult place here in Cebu. And that's where they took him and that's where they planted the church in. So there was maybe 25, 30 people there. Well, during kind of the meet and greet, my business partner, Paul, he meets this guy named Sam. And right away, the Holy Spirit just speaks to him and says, Hey, you know, I just want you to spend more time with this guy and hear his story. And in hearing Sam's story, he found out that Sam was in big banking and his wife was a medical doctor. They were in Ireland, got called into the Philippines to start a for profit BPO that was basically staffed by men and women rescued from trafficking. And so he heard about that and totally redirected his entire agenda while he was there and said, Hey, we want to be a part of what you're doing. So at the time, they didn't do any photo media editing at all. They just did back office work, database management, QuickBooks invoice processing, etc.. And so in January of 2017, they had 12 people on their team and we said, Hey, you know, we'd love to grow and scale with you and see the impact you're having completely just magnified, right? Would you be interested in teaching your team how to edit your photos, videos, floorplans, etc.? And they said yes, and that was over five years ago, five and a half years ago now. And now that team is almost 300, Right? Many of them rescued or, you know, at risk of exploitation in some form or another. And the relationship grew out of a not so chance encounter in a really small church that Paul would have never been to if he didn't get an invite on a Sunday morning on the other side of the world. And now it's, you know, a significant, you know, employment hub for people who have been rescued. And those are things you can't just like explain. Right. The coincidence of that happening is just so, so, so slim. And, you know, before we left, we prayed them out. Right, God, like make the connections go before us. We know you do and help us listen and follow your spirit. And that was a pretty tremendous kind of outworking of that divine intervention.

William Norvell: Amen, it's such a fun counter to the hustle culture. When God gets the glory for these things that, you know, we can never draw up, right? You can never draw that up on a whiteboard. And that doesn't mean that's an excuse not to work hard and all those things. But I feel like anything that's over indexed. And so it's it's fun to see how God works when we're not and how he's watching over us in such special and unique ways.

Henry Kaestner: Taylor we're going to do lightning around a little bit, and those questions presumably be easy. And answer is a bit short, but I've got a big one here, and I don't know that you going to be able to answer perfectly, but I'm interested in any thoughts you might have about counsel you might give about an entrepreneur that's listening to this podcast and is compelled with a heart for the nations who seize the opportunities that can be given in a place like Cebu City and others and says, I just I want to get involved. Just maybe some encouragements you might give, maybe something practical, maybe even a just like, Gosh, if I knew this and you're like, how difficult was to get that, I do not know payroll taxes done in Cebu City? I mean, just maybe even something practical that might be just something that you've learned along the way. I really do hope that a good number of listeners to this will look at and say, Gosh, there is a way in this world, in this kind of post globalization world, for me to continue to lean in to having opportunities to employ people. I'm not 100% sure how to do it. Again, you're seven years in. What would you say to those people?

Taylor Blom: Yeah. You know.

Taylor Blom: I'd say technology, of course, you know, makes it easier than ever to connect. And, you know, the opportunity that exists today to connect with other, you know, faith aligned believers in business across the world is already happening. You know, you look at like the latest FDE conference that just aired. I mean, what an amazing global expression right of what God's doing around the world, not just highlighting, you know, this place or that place, but really holistically and the opportunity then to get involved in, you know, an FDE study group that, you know, maybe you find one that takes place around the world and you're able to connect with people that way. You know, one of the editing partners that we found that allowed us to launch into Nairobi, Kenya, we found through a business has mission network, right? A global alignment, a global group of people who just have a shared heart to see, you know, again, the kingdom advance globally through business. Another organization that we're affiliated with is the Freedom Business Alliance. Right? So its business is specifically looking to provide opportunities for people who are rescued in, you know, at risk situations globally. And so I would say, you know, it's easier than ever to get connected, you know, on a larger scale. And it doesn't take a lot. Right. You could do it. You don't have to get off your couch or get out of your chair. You're able to find these groups of people and then ask questions and learn and network and go to events, be a part of some of these things happening and meant God has done so much in next door photos through Divine connections. Then, you know, then I could ever explain in, you know, a day talking to you guys. Right. And those things happen when you put yourself out there and when you reach out and when you ask questions. And so I'd say anyone who's got something stirring inside of it, like just take action, you know, like, take that next step, sign up for that virtual conference, be a part of an FDE group that takes place around the world, right? There's opportunities that exist today where you don't have to get on a plane to go track them down.

Rusty Rueff: That's great. Great plug for our small groups, too, because I think that is a real place to plug in, get supported, you know, feel like you've got a community that can help you think through these things. So we appreciate that. All right. Lightning round time. Lightning round time. Okay, so I'm taking the first two, then we'll hand them off. All right. So not only are you the CEO, you're the chief celebration officer, and it's your seven year anniversary today, which, you know, maybe you should be celebrating versus ah, this is celebration. Okay.

Taylor Blom: Oh, this is definitely a celebration. Yeah.

Rusty Rueff: All right. Favorite celebration of all time inside of the seven year history of the company.

Taylor Blom: Oh, my gosh, man, everyone who works with me is like, what? What is he going to choose? You know, one comes to mind. It's when my wife and I got to go to the Philippines. We're in Cebu in 2019, and it was my first time there. Right? So just a completely transformational in my life, being able to walk in a high rise in downtown Cebu City and walk through, you know, this office that had a bunch of, you know, dual monitor computer stations and seeing photos of Grand Rapids, Michigan, you know, Denver and Orlando being edited around the world, you know, it's just like totally mind blowing, right? Like, I think I cried that whole day. Anyway, that's not the story. While we were there, my wife and I had the opportunity to take out Sam, our partner there, and some of the leadership team out to sing karaoke at one of the local karaoke joints. And we had our own room and, you know, we were singing and none of us were very good at all, but we were just like singing at the top of our lungs to like eighties love songs, you know, just getting into it and just those memories alone. I mean, I laughed so hard to tears started, you know, coming down my eyes and my cheeks and my sides hurt and just the ability to be in person. But to do something wild like that together was definitely one of the top celebrations in any anniversary.

Rusty Rueff: Awesome, awesome. So karaoke, we'll keep that at the top of our FDE birthday list when that happens. All right. So we know that you're a triathlete. All right. So that's a cool thing. What's the most painful swim, run or bike?

Taylor Blom: Oh, man, It's for me, it was the swim. Because when you run and you bike, you don't. You don't, you know, run the risk of drowning.

Henry Kaestner: Ah that you take my line. I [....] That line 100%.

Taylor Blom: really.

Henry Kaestner: Drowned on a bike.

William Norvell: Run all day. The worst.

Henry Kaestner: Oh, the run after the bike is just torture. It's a different type of thing. Running after a bike. It just is awful. But again, you can't drown during it.

Taylor Blom: Yeah, it's true. For the record, I only did a sprint triathlon because I was pure pressured into it by two of my brothers who are way more physically fit than I am. It smoked me in the race. It's one thing I've will probably only do once, but at least, you know, get the Instagram photo or whatever to to prove it.

Henry Kaestner: So and that's all that matters. Okay, Over to me for lightning around. Okay. This is a quick reminder. Every one of these answers has to be 20 seconds or less.

Taylor Blom: Got it.

Rusty Rueff: Favorite eighties love song.

Taylor Blom: Oh my Goodness. Careless Whisper by George Michael.

Henry Kaestner: Okay. Okay. A man can't do it for self. The day officer going out there.

Taylor Blom: That was a.

Henry Kaestner: Standout ballet for me. But that's a good one. Yeah. Okay, next one. Few people know where Holland, Michigan is. I do an incredible spot in the world, and few people will know that it's equidistant between three major NFL teams the Detroit Lions, the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers. Which is your favorite?

Taylor Blom: I'm going to have to say Lion's not a big football fan. Lion

Henry Kaestner: Some some number of Lions fans right now going to look at your hesitancy and and wonder if indeed Lions is your team.

Taylor Blom: I'm going to get you regroup.

William Norvell: They're going to be happy to have somebody on their team.

Taylor Blom: I got to get judged by all three groups, maybe two.

Henry Kaestner: Marvin Gaye once tried out for the Lions on his great song. What's his great song? Rusty, help me out here. What's going on.

Rusty Rueff: What's going on?

Henry Kaestner: At the beginning the crowd? Noise that occurred in the party is the Detroit Lions used to party with the Detroit Lions, and that those are the guys talking about, you know, the whole party sound at the beginning of what's going on. One of the most formative songs in the 1960s seventies. There you go.

Rusty Rueff: And I think the Detroit Lions at the end of every season still sing that song.

Henry Kaestner: Do they?

Taylor Blom: Oh, they are bad.

Henry Kaestner: Well at That Hurts. Those are actually very well played. Okay. One thing that most people don't know about Western Michigan, why you should live there.

Taylor Blom: The the summers are amazing. I mean, you have the gorgeous Lake Michigan, which looks and feels like an ocean, except there's no sharks. So, I mean, tough to beat.

Henry Kaestner: Yeah. No. Yeah. So back to drowning and being hit by sharks. Okay. That's very helpful.

William Norvell: Well, there's a trend, right? Clear trend. One piece of advice for entrepreneurs. They're out on the road. He had one thing to pass along from your journey.

Taylor Blom: Don't do it alone. Get plugged in. Get connected with. Get with people who will support you. Encourage you. Pray for you. There's highs and there's lows to the extremes. And just don't. Don't do it alone. You don't have to.

William Norvell: It's been such a gift. Where we love to end our shows typically is just asking you to bring alive God's word for our audience and for us. And we love to just invite you into that. If there's something that you've been meditating on or maybe God showed you today or made you think of right now and ask the question, or maybe something even meditated on your whole life, it's just something you might feel led to pass along to us and our audience.

Taylor Blom: Yeah. Just this week, God speaking to me about Genesis 17, and it's this sense that he communicates over and over where he talks about himself as a generational God. Right. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in this big picture generational type theme. And so I was just thinking about it, praying about it this week, you know, how much better serve would we be in our day to day and our immediate ups and downs to have a generational God type view in approach? And how much more can he meet us in today if he literally is going to, you know, be here for us our entire lives and not just us, but for our kids and our children's children and just the way that God moves generation. How can we partner in that? How can we have a bigger generational type approach to a huge, complex global problem like human trafficking? You know, how can we do that and have eyes to see it differently so that we can start putting in, you know, solutions and new businesses can arise out of that function generationally. So, yeah, just thinking about that a lot this week.

William Norvell: Grateful for having you with us. Thanks for telling your story. Thanks for all the work you're doing in the world. And we pray we can be an encouragement to you and in any way we can.

Taylor Blom: Thanks so much. So great to be with you guys.