3 Keys To Successfully Combine Family, Faith, and Business with Justin Kershaw

Hi, welcome to the family teams podcast. Our goal here is to help your family become a multi generational team on mission by providing you with biblically rooted concepts, tools, and rhythms. Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke, and we can't wait to chat about all things family.

keen to try to understand is this, uh, kind of the, uh, the power bar or like a healthy bar business. So, um, yeah, tell everybody real quick about, about what you're doing there and, and, um, kind of what sort of inspired that for you. Yeah. So my claim to fame is I have five beautiful daughters and incredible wife.

And then I saw a study that the number one macronutrient in blue zones, which are areas of the world where people live way past the typical life expectancy, the number one macronutrient was carbohydrates. Uh, me and my wife started incorporating carbs back into our diet, totally better. And then in my community, there's a lot of people that have diabetes.

I want to do something about this. And from there, I realized that my wife is a hero. Like I said, we're both athletes. I realized that being a mom is the toughest sport in the world. I told my wife I was going to create a nutrition bar that had a mission that's bigger than the product. So that's why we started So Strong Food.

And what are the age range of your daughters? Maybe good. Yeah. So, um, we've got one to 15. 1, 3, 6, 7, 15, I have five girls, I have five brothers. So I like, I need a tiebreaker now. Yes. And, and it's, uh, you know, just being totally transparent. It was hard knowing that I was going to have five girls coming from a household of boys being an athlete.

It's been a lot of beauty in my life. And it's really, I don't want to say soft in my heart because nothing about me is soft. But, um, it's been, it's been a joy to my life. And, um, I love it. I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm still praying for a boy one of these days. But I would say that the things that have helped me as far as, um, family team, being, becoming a family team is number one, a Sabbath is realized that God has given us a rhythm to the week.

And he puts you in place of your birth for a reason. So the younger ones show respect to your older sister and to the older ones, you have a big responsibility. Um, and the Lord put you there for a reason. So that's how we've implemented it. That's awesome, man. Yeah. I love to go like a layer deeper on each of those.

Yeah. So I'm curious how that worked out for you guys. Yeah. So we started out with, it's something that we want to look forward to and it's a day of rest and it's a day we pause to thank the Lord for the week, for protecting us, for getting us there for providing. And then we typically always do pizza.

You know, we were used to doing something one way with some resistance, but it's been a beautiful thing for us. Awesome. Yeah, that's great. So Friday night, you guys kick off with a dinner and you got your pizza tradition, which I think for a lot of families, like something that works every week. So that I think that's often times what they do.

We live right next to the high school, the middle school, and just absolutely jam packed. And I'm watching all these families just like running around with all their kids and just, you know, just so much activity. And I'm like, Oh man, that would be exhausting. So that's a real. Yeah, I mean, I've been there and I'm still there in a lot of ways.

And there's a rhythm to it. You see it in nature. Yes. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I think it's definitely worth for everyone who you do struggle. And I like what you're saying, kind of like, When you have an obligation that you are going to end, it's really important for your family, but really important for one of your kids to experience, to frame that as, as a celebration and try to like integrate that into the rest.

But then also having our kids rest or walk in nature or go to the park or shutting off the TV or sitting down. It's been a beautiful thing knowing that we don't have to run around everywhere. Yeah, it is weird. I mean, I think a lot of people, it does change your whole theology of God for a lot of people, like God wants you to just enjoy, enjoy the beauty, enjoy all of the things that he is providing for us to say the hardest work that was ever needed to be accomplished was accomplished through what Jesus did for us.

Yeah, for sure. I think that, you know, with our five, I think that the, the thing I always found challenging was to balance the different ways that. Each of us rest or each of us recharge that it's, it's really helped for me to think about the word recharge, because that's how I really evaluate if we're resting is that I think about like, you know, your phone battery, it's just like, um, can I get to a hundred percent by the time this 24 hours is over?

And so they're, they're ready to rock. You're like, Hey, let's all hang out. Let's like play games together. And then you got introverts who are like, uh, that's the least restful thing. Um, and so there's all those collisions that happen and in a larger family. You know, it's, it's challenging to make sure that you're not completely going one direction or the other.

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You see that all through the Bible. And all through history, it's really recently that we kind of divorced these two things. So I'm curious, what, what's that journey been like for you guys? Um, and how has, how have you guys tried to, uh, integrate family and business together? Yeah. So I grew up, my family, we had a restaurant pizza and I got to work with my uncles, my aunts, it was all my grandma's recipes.

So to be able to do that together, to not be consumers and to be creators. It's something that we really enjoy. And even I tell my kids all the time, it's okay to consume a little bit of content, but if you really want to get into content, I want you to create a lot of content because the world called us to create, to be creators and our kids feel extremely fulfilled when, if it's something simple, like, Hey, you're going to move this box.

They're way cuter than me. So people are more likely to buy from them than they are me. And, um, they get to see how something's built up and how you, just how you talk to people and how roadblocks can be the path to giving you success. I can't imagine what that would be like to watch your dad build a business, you know, from the ground up, like build a brand and all the kind of the working.

And it makes. The whole idea of making money or starting businesses or building assets, really, um, mystifying, like, how does this really work? Does, um, and so, yeah, they're getting kind of a blow by blow, blow by blow, um, kind of window into, into business building and entrepreneurship from just getting to partner with their dad, like, yeah, what, what does that you think been like for them?

I'm sure your kids probably look at the, the world as they've gotten older and say, wow, like not every other family has a business or. or thinks it's when you recognize the Sabbaths or even goes to church. So I think time will tell Jeremy. Um, but I can tell my daughters like the, they like the creative aspect.

Um, and I think that there is a, there's a, there's a healthy, yeah, there's a healthy, there's a healthy, like, you know, principle behind what, what I think they're saying there. But I think the assumption is that. It's always, it's always, um, selfish to want to be famous. And there was actually an ancient kind of, um, view towards this that I think is almost entirely forgotten, which, which really does have to do with, um, the idea that, that when you are leading a family, um, the, the family, because it's, uh, it's, it's, it's a strong, large structure, the families that particularly the patriarch of the family.

His ability to, uh, to sort of, um, become well networked and to become well known and to have a A large and, um, and positive reputation, whether it's in the village, like you can look at these in circles, you can say, like, in the family, of course, an extended family in the in the community, but it's, it's, it's really for the sake of his family that you would want to expand that potentially there.

I always use this. People come up and they say, Justin, you're tall. Why forget? I'm tall. Cause I'm tall. And I'll even go back to what you're saying about fame. It's, it's unbelievable. Well, it's incredible to me that a chapter before God comes up to Abraham and he says, I'm going to, um, I'm going to bless you and I'm going to make your name great with the tower of Babel.

What would we do with it? And I'm interested to hear that chapter that you want to write. Yeah Yeah, I think you said it really well that that there's that there's a sense in which, you know, the specific phrase there is I'll make your name great. And I think that I think that it really allows you to direct glory.

I saw that because he knows his heart and his soul. That's what I'm assuming. That's why he did that. And it's, it's, um, you know, I, when I played football, I would love it. And after a football game to see how many people would interview me, or how many kids will come up to me and ask for my autograph. And I made my value on that because I know other people were watching.

In our culture today, and that is that when you have a family, especially a little bit larger family with five, but I think this, this, this happens as soon as you have a second child, like all of a sudden. You are experiencing birth order. Like you're, you're every one of your kids is having a different experience of your family.

Yeah, I, I would say that I tell our oldest daughter that the Lord put her and all my kids, the Lord puts you, He knows. The number of hairs on your head. He knows everything about you. He was very intentional by gifting us the placing you in this family and Naya, he's made you the oldest for a reason. And that is a gift.

And it's, you, you, you take that and it's like, okay, I want to be the best example for, for my family. And you see that in the, in the Bible and also, you know, and I say this jokingly, but the Lord will skip over you and give the blessing to your little sister. But it's, you know, I think it's a, it's a subject matter that, um, well, I don't hear talked about enough, but then also the younger siblings, you give respect and reverence to your older sister because she's going to do the best she can to take care of you guys.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's a really tricky, uh, tricky topic. Um, you know, you, you see, The whole book of Genesis is like one giant story of wrestling with birth order, you know, and one of the things that you could easily take from Genesis in every single case, right, you've got the younger, um, that basically is being chosen over the older.

And so I think, I think it gives us this really interesting dynamic in every family, which is that I think there's a natural order to every family and that we have to be aware of what that is. And I think almost every ancient culture understood this. This is something that, again, is, has been kind of lost, both because we have smaller families today and because we.

And then there was a lack of respect from the younger sibling and we want black and white, but in the Bible, it's like, so I don't want to say gray, but it's like, there's this tension where, you know, everything is bundled together and there's a lot of wrong. And there's only a little bit of right. And so I would say that happened because the, the older sibling didn't step up to the plate and the younger sibling didn't show the respect.

And. You know, they're fighting and I walk in, I'm like, be quiet. I'm trying to train them and it's not working. And I turn my back and, and somebody was asking me, like, what do you, what do you do in that situation? And I said, well, which one's older. And, and I remember, I just kind of walked through you, you don't have, you don't treat them like equals, like, um, like you just articulated, Justin, it's like, They have different roles.

Or, you know, like there's, there's so much going on there and you have to actually get into the dynamics and then actually like respect the, the different, different roles and not just think of your kids as like three equally bickering, um, uh, people. Um, that's that, that framing really makes it almost impossible to deal with a problem like that.

Jeremy and our family can be so watered down because I talked to even my Korean friends, they're the way that they even structure their names. It's. So that's, my name wouldn't be Justin, it would be Daryl's son. That's what you would know me as. It's like that's my dad's first name, his son. And it's your family is your identity.

That means we all have a problem reading. So I need to see everybody with a book in Nina's hand and helping her learn how to read. And so, um, it's that ownership that I think. Yeah, it's a technology and it helps us live a good life. But I think it points to the father, son, the Holy spirit and us being a unit.

Um, and, and I would, you know, and so when that happened, I would, we'd immediately delegate the oldest or the top, the responsibility to the second or the third or the fourth. We're always. Disrupting and changing the dynamic of the family. And and so whoever was sort of oldest would get, we get a lot more opportunities to kind of, uh, be elevated into the adult space.

And I think that integrating into work like you guys do, and like we did, um, that gives you so many cool opportunities to really invite that oldest child into that adult space. Absolutely. Yeah. It's funny you say that. I noticed my daughter, she likes, she's always liked to hang out with adults more than she has, um, kids.

We wanted a so strong. We wanted S. O. W. So strong food. We wanted to so strong seeds in our community through healthy foods. Number one. Number two. We realized that being a mom is the toughest sport in the world, and we wanted to really support moms and their journey of being the moms. There's so much misinformation about about food.

So, so strong foods, S O W dot com. That's where people can look at and you've got the mom on a mission bar. You've got different, like there's all kinds of different, um, uh, ways that they can, they can buy the, uh, nutrition bar there. Anything else would be helpful for, you know, you. That'd be a blessing.