Why I Help Men Create Wealth While Helping Others

At one point, my company, Just One Dime, would have been valued at around $50 million

I had trained over 10,000 entrepreneurs, dozens of whom became multi millionaires, and I had consulted for Forever 21, BMW, and Amazon flew me to their headquarters to consult with me. 

And I lost it all in Covid. We could not maintain the costs of over 300 staff. I even poured my personal assets into the company trying to keep it going, but when it crashed and burned, I was left with nothing–not even an owned home or a car.  

I was filling out the forms for personal bankruptcy when I came to the instruction, “Enter amount of cash on hand.” I had no cash. My wallet was empty. And I was about to write $0 when my eyes fell on a dime sitting on my desk. 

So I wrote, “10 cents.” 

I was back to just one dime. This was my asset: a single dime. 

In that moment, I suddenly had extreme clarity. I now knew what I had to do. 

Exactly 20 years ago I graduated from The Masters Seminary.

During the vast majority of those 20 years I have either been in full time ministry or full time business. And every man I have met in these last two decades who loves Jesus, wants to do two things: create wealth and help people. In every man’s heart is a deep, natural desire to reflect his Creator by cultivating and growing what God has entrusted to him. 

And this creates a real problem in American culture. Because like sex, modern culture tends to treat money as gross or God. 

The religious treats money as gross. The materialist treats money as God. Both paths lead to incredible suffering.

And there is this underlying mentality that if you want to make money, you must be driven by greed and a real sleaze of a person. But if you go into ministry to help people, you have to be financially broke. 

But the same God who calls us to steward our spiritual gifts, also calls us to steward our finances. What kind of Christian are we if we spend our entire life discipling people to walk with Jesus but on judgment day show up with the same dime Jesus gave us at the beginning of our journey? 

With only a dime and the grace of God to my name, I realized in that moment that I could start fresh and do whatever I wanted to do. 

And as I stared at that time on my desk, I had an absolutely epiphany. 

I will help men who love Jesus, build financial wealth for them and their families, while they help people along the way. 

But how? How will I do this? Financial advisor? Life coach? Return to Amazon FBA?  

And then God did something. He reminded me what I had successfully done over the last 10 years: built an 8 figure company selling knowledge. And that knowledge had changed thousands of lives. 

And then I knew! I will teach men how to do what I have done. I will teach them how to turn their expertise into a course, sell it for a lot of money, while changing lives. 

And I will call it “Craftsmen” in memory of the Ultimate Carpenter. 

In the last 27 years of business and ministry, I have yet to meet a single man who loves Jesus who does not have knowledge in some area that people will not pay good money for. 

For example, if you turned your knowledge on a specific topic into a course, and you sold that course for only $1,000, and just 0.000024% of the people in this world–which is 1,000 people–purchased your course, you would make a million dollars. 

And if in that process of making money, you were changing people’s lives, training them in ways that changes how they live and helps them in a way that will matter 9,000 years from now, then you just experienced something beyond fulfilling. 

This is the intersection of business and ministry. 

Today, I am building a small cohort of men of faith showing them how to:  

1. Find their area of expertise that has strong market demand

2. Turn their knowledge into a course

3. Sell it, making a lot of money, while changing lives. 

I did not run a single ad or build a single marketing campaign, and to date have already received 20 applications. 

A few nights ago, I met with an applicant for Craftsmen. He’s a dad with three kids. He said, “When I was a youth pastor at a small church, I was paid $2,000 a month. I figured it’s ministry so I’m supposed to be broke and my wife will work forever.” 

So let me get this straight: forget about your wife being able to be there for your kids, forget about creating financial margin to invest in your own family. And accept that you and your wife will stress about money for the rest of your marriage, because clearly that’s what a good and kind God wants for you. 

This idea that if you follow Jesus you are doomed to a life of scraping for money is pervasive in the Christian culture. And that idea that how you manage your money doesn’t matter to God is even worse. 

If this is the kind of God we serve, why would anyone want to follow Him? 

And why on earth did God call Abraham a friend of God (James 2:23), a man who built his own wealth with livestock, silver, and gold (Genesis 13:2)? 

Why does the Old Testament portray Isaac, a man with great wealth (Genesis 26:12-14), as someone who honored God? 

Why did God call King David a man after his own heart, a man who possessed considerable wealth and resources? 

Or King Solomon, who was the equivalent to a billionaire today? Or Job a man with a huge amount of wealth (Job 42:10-17). 

What about Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin (Matthew 27:57) who provided his own newly cut tomb for Jesus' burial? 

Or Lydia of Thyatira, a successful businesswoman who dealt in purple cloth and generously offered hospitality to Paul and his companions (Acts 16:11-15)? 

Yes, there are plenty of penniless people throughout Scripture who loved God as well, and I am not implying that seeking God guarantees financial wealth. But the idea that ministry means you’re doomed to a life of poverty is ridiculous and irresponsible. 

Someone will object, “But Seth, every follower of Jesus is called to live by faith no matter how much money they make.” I agree! But to use “living by faith” as a cover for sloppy and lazy financial stewardship is a slap in the face of God who calls us to glorify Him in everything we do. 

You and I are as responsible before God for what we do with a physical dime as we are for what we do with our spiritual gifts. 

That means that how you use the physical cash in your pocket matters to God. 

How you handle HIS wealth matters to God. 

Growing the money God blessed you with versus spending it impulsively matters to God. 

In fact, Jesus taught about money more than heaven and hell combined. 

Because your money may not last for eternity. But how you handle it will. 

As I looked at the dime on my desk, I suddenly knew exactly what to do: I will use all of my experiences, from my greatest wins to most embarrassing failures, from my moments of victory to my moments of tears, to teach men of God how to make a lot of money while investing in people in a way that lasts for all eternity.

Starting today, this is why this blog exists. 

And if this does not resonate with your heart, please unsubscribe. I don’t want to waste your time. 

But if this is you, make sure you subscribe here and I will send you regular high-value content. 

Warning: you might hear from me daily. 

So only do this if you are hungry to learn how to turn your expertise into a course, sell it to make a lot of money, while changing lives.