Our witness is Jesus Christ, the power of our witness is the Holy Spirit, and the validity of our witness will be shown in how we live our lives. 

—Matt Bell

Writing this book, even just committing to writing it, was a huge stretch outside of our comfort zone. Truthfully, Mary Jo’s more than mine, but it was still a stretch for both of us. 

We’ll share a little personal background simply because, as we all know, our history informs our decision-making processes. So, as you better understand some of our history, you can gain some clarity on the decisions we made along the way, both good and not-so-good, and gain insight into how your past may guide your decisions. You can identify similarities and differences. We were far from business experts; we just worked hard and worked together. 

As I think back over the past fourteen years, I’m incredibly grateful that I was naive to what the future would hold. Had I known of some of the early struggles, Mary Jo and I might not have gone down this great road. Now that we are on the other side of selling and exiting the business that we started in 2010, we are so blessed that we decided to start our entrepreneurial journey when we did. 

Often, Mary Jo and I look back over the last few decades and realize we learned most of our lessons the hard way. And when we do, we feel a passion for helping those embarking on the entrepreneurial adventure. While we learned many lessons through trial and error, we were also blessed to learn many lessons from extraordinary individuals through books, podcasts, coaching programs, mentors, and entrepreneurial friends. 

We simply wanted to share our journey of starting, building, and selling our company while simultaneously growing our family and strengthening our faith. We don’t pretend that all our decisions were right or wrong. But we hope you might gain some insight or pull a lesson or two from our stories, things we wish we knew when we started this journey. So we decided to write this book as if you, the reader, are our thirty-five-year-old selves. 

Mary Jo and I chose the image of the Trinity for this book because we learned that all three components must be strong and support each other. If one aspect was struggling, it quickly impacted the other two. When I was dealing with any tough business decision, the more that I leaned on the grounding of my faith and the support of my family, the better the outcome. Similarly, the success of the business blessed our family and strengthened our faith.

We feel blessed to have arrived where we are now in our journey to raise a family, grow our faith, and create a successful business. We know that success is measured differently by everyone. While we are well aware that we could’ve had more success in each aspect of the Entrepreneurial Trinity, we certainly could’ve had much less. 

Use our examples to learn from our mistakes and build on our knowledge. Don’t let the setbacks discourage you. You can do it. We believe in you. And, in the words of Mary Jo, “You’ve got this. You’re almost there.” We’ll be rooting for you and, more importantly, praying for you. We’ll be here if you need us.