Why Is Diligence So Underrated? || Victory Church [Cafe Convos #6]

Todd. What's up, man? What's up, baby? You good? Yeah, I'm good. Good seeing you too, man. Tell me what is in this secret cup here. So this is just a basic oat milk cappuccino. Okay. It's got a little bit of honey. All right. Because honey's nice. Yes, it is. So it's pretty basic, but it's what I love. Anytime I travel, this is my kind of go-to cappuccino. Oat milk cappuccino. Yeah. With a little honey. Yeah, just a little bit. All right. Cheers. Let's see what it is. I would love if you did a spit take right now. What? Depends on what it is. It can't be any worse than Steven's. Ooh. What was Steven's?

Hot dirt. And this is, it is not terrible. Okay. If I enjoy the taste of coffee, I could maybe rock with this. Because it's not like sweet. Like I usually like venture towards like the, going towards hot chocolate side. Yeah. But this is not that. And it's still not terrible. So one of my earliest memories is of, I was raised by my grandparents. Okay. My grandmother at like 10, 11 years old, would bring me coffee in the morning to wake me up. So this is. Like just straight black coffee? No, no, no. Okay. It was mostly sugar and milk. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But still, so I have had a taste for coffee since I was like a little kid. That is wild. It seems like your grandmother wanted to set you up for a very focused day. Yeah.

She knew that there was some good energy behind that coffee that would allow you to focus and be able to get your work done, do what you need to do, which is perfect. Cause I kind of want to talk to you about like, just over the course of your life, like, man, I've just seen you kind of do so many things from, I mean, of course, church music. And then, you know, starting your own music imprint, you know, as an artist, writing your own songs, putting them all out and still like finding time to like help people do ministry. And probably just got off into a whole bunch of other stuff that I don't even know about. I mean, I think it was some real estate at one point in time, you know what I'm saying? Like, I think the type of like attitude and focus that you have to have to like start something, but also finish something, probably start with a grandma giving you coffee at 10 years old that like had you focused. So like, but in all of that, like, can you maybe think of like some of those times during all of these stories where maybe the diligence didn't come through, maybe the lack of work ethic kind of showed up and it was like, oh snap, I kind of jacked it up. Yeah, totally.

So work ethic, because I was raised by my grandparents, they were of a different generation. So that was instilled in me as a kid. Okay. Like you work hard, you put in honest days at work, you know, that sort of thing. So I always sort of had that, even in like retail work and things like that. But here- When you said retail work? Yeah, yeah. Like you used to like work in retail? Oh yeah. Where did you- Blockbuster video, man. No. You a store manager. You a store? Listen, did it really used to make you mad when people returned the videos and they were not rewinding? Yeah. It's so annoying. Okay, I'm sorry. I got it. Go ahead. So work ethic was something that I always had. Yeah. But there was a season in my life where I was in construction for about seven years,

subcontractor doing like glasswork and showers and things like that. Bro. Yeah. So hard work, you know? Yeah. And as a subcontractor, it wasn't salary. So whatever you produced, that was your paycheck, you know? So I had to get really fast and I had no background in that at all. I was not handy really with anything. Really? So I had to learn how to do that and build up speed along the way. But one of the things that's different to me with work ethic and diligence is I can put in good work ethic and put in a hard day of work and like complete the task, but am I diligent to do it well? And so that was what I had to learn. Quality. Quality. So this one time I was given this huge condo complex to do all of the mirrors, the shelving and the shower doors in this like, in bucket, probably 40 floors. And that was my project. So for like weeks and weeks and weeks, this is what I did.

How many units were in this building? Would you guesstimate? To see if it was like 20, 40 floors. 20 per? Yeah. So that's like what, 800? Yeah, something like that. Am I right? Maybe my math. I'm getting the thumbs up in the background. Yes, thank you. That's a lot, bro. It's a lot. But what I realized early on is because of the type of construction, you would have to put these anchors into studs in the wall for the shelving specifically. That held it into the wall. But because it was a commercial sort of building, it was a metal stud, which I didn't have the proper equipment for. So what I found out was if I was going to put these anchors in properly, it was going to take a lot more time. So I was just like, what if I just skip this part? What if I just put in dummy anchors into the sheetrock? They have other brackets and stuff like that. Yeah, probably fine. Yeah. So I started doing that and was just flying through this job. I was up like middle of the building.

And then people were going into these bottom units that they were selling whatever shelf started falling off the wall. So one time it happened. So then I would have to go back and fix it. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. And then it started happening like, back on a weekly basis. So my boss sat me down. It's like, hey, do you cut some corners on this? And I was like, I did. And he was like, All right, here's what I need you to do. On Saturdays, I need you to go back and fix it. So I had to spend the next three or four months on Saturdays day off to go back and put right what I should have done in the first place. So that was a lesson that I learned, you know, 20 plus years ago that stuck with me today. You can do a good job. Do it fast, right? Complete it, right? Did you do quality work? Right? So that's the diligent part that I really had to learn. Have you ever seen like, people who you like, you see them like cutting the corners, and like had to have that same type of conversation that your boss had to have with you? Like, just based on your experience? Like, how did those conversations go? I mean, it depends on who you're talking to, right? Generally, if you're younger, you think that you know, you know, and I was man, I knew everything. You couldn't tell me anything. Like, I knew the right way to do it and the best way to do it. So sometimes just with with time comes wisdom. Oh, yeah. Wait, that that that old Todd, that young Todd, was that confidence or arrogance? I'm confidently arrogant. Yeah. arrogantly confident. I don't know, man. I just thought my way was the way you know, I think most people think that I was just arrogant enough to say it. That's great. Yeah.

But the thing I'm realizing more and more is that there's seasons to be diligent in different things. Okay. So right now, for the past couple years, I've been really diligent in spending time with the Lord. And first thing in the morning. Okay. So that's something that I had never really done throughout my walk with the Lord. Yeah, I would spend time with them. But it wasn't diligent. It wasn't set apart. It wasn't. I'm gonna this is the thing that can't be moved throughout my day, right? I'm gonna do that first thing first. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So what I found is that being diligent in that has helped me develop an appetite for it. So now, man, it's been, I think, two years now, and I don't miss that time. Yeah, it doesn't matter where I'm I'm at in the world, or what time I have to wake up to do it. Right? That time, there's an alarm set. And that's the time. Yeah, that's devoted to him. Yeah. So I think that when I can set a foundation of that, it really helps me be disciplined in the other areas. As a creative, you know, we're both creative, both have loved working in music. You're right. Like, we are not the most structured and diligent people. It's all inspiration. I don't feel the vibe. You know, the vibe is not right. And like, I hate I am not an avid reader. Like I don't like or reading, but I'm in the season where I'm I'm being asked to read some things. You know what I'm saying? And brah, this first, like six months of trying to do that. I shot myself in the foot so much because I was trying to block out these big blocks of time where I can just get in the game, focus in on it, get the right setting, get the right vibe, get the candlelit, get the lo-fi music playing like it. It had to be a feel. Yeah. And yeah, and I realized I wasted so much time. Yeah. As opposed to just putting it on my calendar, an hour a day, whether

I feel like it or not, and just push through it. Yeah. And so now I'm in a space where I'm practice practicing that. And I feel so much more accomplished after that hour. Do I do I feel like reading it when I sit down? No. Yeah. But I still push through it. I show some diligence. And after that hour, I'm like, one chapter done. And then after a week, that's seven chapters done. And after a month, and I finished this book that momentum now will carry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think that's the difference, though. And the diligence part, like diligence is not waiting on the feeling or the inspiration. That's good. Diligence is steady plotting. I'm going to keep at this for a long period of time. And that's going to be the fruit. Yeah. Yeah. It's so many verses in Proverbs that talk about like, the consequences of being diligent and being lazy. It's like those who are diligent will gain wealth and reap harvest and have success and those who are not who are lazy who procrastinate who put it off will end up working for other people forever or will be poor like, so it's like even just reading those things should be like a motivator to just look, let me just go ahead and just get it done. Absolutely. I appreciate you, man. Yeah, thanks for coming. And thanks for giving me like coffee. That's not terrible. Yeah, you can get this all over the world. This is a simple coffee. And tell me what it again. It's cappuccino with oat milk, a little bit of honey. I'm just going to be like, give me that T. McVicker. They're going to be like, I don't know what that is. The T. McVicker. Thanks for being a part of Victory Church on the Pando app. We hope this content was a blessing to you,

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