2/21/24 - 2030: Personal Connection, Profound Impact

Jim: You've tuned in to iWork4Him, the voice of collaboration for the Faith and Work Movement.

Martha: We are your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. Our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: Martha, before we get started with our guest, Bob Willbanks, today from G7 Networking, I think we should go to Krystal Parker from the US Christian Chamber for one more update.

Krystal, we got really just a couple of months before the expo. You gotta just tell us what's going on. Tell us, our listeners may not run a business, but is this still a place for them in the US Christian Chamber Commerce expo coming up in April?

Krystal Parker: Absolutely. Yes, absolutely.

Anybody that's in business, that's a Christian in business, whether you own your company or you're working in a company, we wanna see you at this expo. This is the premier Christian business event of the year. So you've gotta come out to Orlando, Florida, April 18th through the 20th.

Martha: So exciting, and we'll put the link in the show notes for listeners that may wanna go back and spend some time checking out the website, learning about the different speakers and the things that you'll be offering.

But why don't you just give us a little high level today?

Krystal Parker: We've got thought leaders coming in from all over the world. They're experts as Christian business owners and believers in the marketplace, and they want to impart wisdom for those that are in attendance. But I think the bigger part of what people tend to get from these conferences is just the growth in their network, the ability to collaborate and build relationships.

Just like Bob with G7, they'll be there. We're so excited. Our emcees are going to just keep it light, fun and entertaining. And that's you two amazing leaders. And we've got, seriously, we've got exhibitors that are coming in to showcase their Christian businesses. We really want people to understand what it means to create Kingdom Commerce, do business in the Christian faith.

Keep it in the kingdom. Keep those dollars circulating in the kingdom, and truly grow as a believer in business and grow with people around you. Iron sharpens iron, and this is the event to get to in April 18th through the 20th in Orlando.

Jim: So what are you most excited about, Krystal? When you look at the whole agenda, which is a two days of action-packed, kingdom commerce kind of stuff, what are you most excited about?

Krystal Parker: What I'm most excited about is what's going to come as a result of this expo. Every year after the event, we survey people and ask them what was their experience like. We use that to get better and better, and what I'm most excited about is to see how God's gonna take 650 people from around the world to take that into the marketplace and make a significant difference, not only personally but professionally and spiritually. So I'm most excited to hear the stories that come as a result of people taking three days and coming into Orlando

Martha: And not to go to theme parks. They can come before and after. There is so much available for people to enjoy while they're there. And you've set that up beautifully as well.

So I just want our listeners to check out the website and find out more about it. That will be in the show links. But Krystal, which website are we sending them to?

Krystal Parker: Uschristianchamber.com, go to Uschristianchamber.com and click on conference 2024. We'll see you there.

Jim: All right, Krystal, thanks for being on iWork4Him today. Thanks for sharing a little bit of that. We're so excited. No, Bob, it's not your, okay, Bob, go ahead. It's not your turn yet.

Bob Willbanks: I just wanna say I went to the last one and we were exhibitors there and it was amazing. Don't miss this. Make sure you mark your calendar. Make every effort to be there. You will be blessed.

Krystal Parker: Thanks, Bob. We can't wait to see you again this year. Bye y'all.

Jim: Bye-Bye. Now there are networking groups, there are business Bible study groups, there are collaboration groups and there are LinkedIn groups. Now put all these ideas into action and you find G7 networking.com and Bob Willbanks at the helm.

We've been friends with Bob for many years now. We watched him develop a nationwide network of groups with as much power as BNI groups, but with Jesus at the center. Now in 15 or more cities across the country, G7 networking groups are exploding. And you can start one in your town too. Just think BNI with Jesus at the center.

Love that. Kingdom businesses, investing and doing business with Kingdom businesses. It's a God model. Here to tell you all about it and give us an update is Bob Willbanks himself. Bob, welcome back to iWork4Him.

Bob Willbanks: Thank you so much. It's awesome to be here. Always great to see you two.

Martha: It's great to have you, and I'm so excited that our listeners are going to get to hear more about G7 and what God is doing across the country. But we know your Jesus story is quite an amazing story. So can you give Us…. Is it even possible to give us the short version for those who haven't yet heard it? And I will link to previous interviews so we can get the long version.

Bob Willbanks: Absolutely. And I've been working on the shorter version of this quite a bit because I realize we need to shorten it down.

So I just like to say that my, my life was, as an adult was led as a miserably saved Christian. I basically walked around with a get outta jail free card in my wallet. And when people said, what's your faith? I'd say, I'm Christian, but don't look at the way I'm living my life. I had a big alcohol issue.

I was totally into the American dream. It was all about the cars I could drive, the house I could live in, the vacations I could take. It was about the money. That was my God. And you throw in that alcohol problem and a type A personality, and it got pretty messy quite a few times in my life.

It led to a divorce from my first wife. I had many times in my life where I made it to the top of industry, so to speak, worth millions, only to lose it all, thanks to doing something stupid, most often because of drinking too much. And I had a watershed moment in 97 where everything came together.

And I ended up telling God where to go. I had sold my payroll company, divorced from my wife, had injuries to my knee. I was physically broken, professionally broken and personally broken. And I don't know, I'm laying back on my back looking up at the night sky with that third knee injury and decide that might as well go for it all.

And I told God literally where to go. Praise God, over a period of time, six, eight months later, pure darkness. He sends my wife, my second wife, Barb. And just through that relationship I desired to be a better man. And then asked her to marry me. Somehow, someway she said yes, and he sent church plant pastors to come in right next door, move right next door to us, and he took an interest in me and helped to disciple me into the relationship with the Word reading the Bible in a year program.

And over time, 10 years of doing that, finally the Holy Spirit convicted me. It was time to give up the alcohol. And one day after some pretty bad episodes, I just looked up to heaven and said, would you please take this? And praise God, he did. And not only did he take that, he took all the other garbage right then and right there.

I never had to go to treatment and I never had to do anything. He just took it all. That changed me forever. It gave me a heart to reach out to those that are miserably saved in this world, that are running through their life, not understanding what it is to be completely and totally forgiven. To experience the grace of God and to have the fruit of the spirit exuding from your life at all times.

Imagine walking around with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control every single day. Thanks to the Holy Spirit. And that only comes through that relationship that builds with Jesus Christ and opens up the door to that relationship with Father God. So praise God for that.

That's the primary purpose behind everything that I do. I wrote out a purpose statement as my journey was really getting going. And that happened all the way back in 2014. And look where it led me. And that purpose statement was to use my God-given gifts, talents, and abilities to show people what is possible in and through him. That's it.

Jim: So powerful. Yeah. We love that. Bob, I appreciate so much and we're gonna go to break here for a second.

But I wanted to just make sure that our listeners go to check out SaferNet. SaferNet is one of our major sponsors of iWork4Him and they're out there to protect you and your family and your business.

They've got an online VPN portal that you get into that has web filters and porn filters and makes it - you can have blockers and you can have people that you can totally control your internet experience and honor God at the same time. Check it out. Safer net.com. Safer Net.com. We'll be right back.

 (commercial break)

Jim: Hey, welcome back to iWork4Him as we're talking with Bob Willbanks today from G7 networking. Check it out online. g7networking.com. If you're looking for a networking experience that is as powerful as you've ever experienced, but has God at the center of everything you're doing, you gotta check it out. G7 networking.com.

Martha: Bob, I am so grateful that you shared just that high-level overview of your testimony. And I know we were teasing about it's hard to make it short 'cause God has done a lot in your life, but it has gotten you to where you are today because you have experienced things that molded and shaped you into who God wanted you to be for this season.

And I believe that without a doubt. So I would love for you to bring us to today. What is it that God has you, is working on in your life? And how is he honing in on you right now?

Bob Willbanks: Oh, there's so much to share on that side of things. I think when you're called into certain roles you'll experience times in the desert where God is just, it's a testing phase. And I really sense that over the past five to seven years, there's been this refining process that's been going on to ready myself and G7 networking and our leadership for what's coming. A lot of what we focus on is personal development and spiritual growth within our organization, especially at the top, because if we don't model that behavior, how are the rest of the people that come into our environment going to be challenged and held accountable and encouraged to grab for that next rung on their spiritual growth ladder as they're growing their business? Some of the big things we're doing right now. We have…,

Jim: hang on. That's not it. We're talking about you. We're talking about you. How, I just wanna know,

Martha: we're still teasing about the G7.

Bob Willbanks: And that's true. And so one, some of the big things we are doing right now, all really hinged around all of this, Jim, where I knew leadership. That's what Maxwell says.

The law of the lid . You can, the organization can never go above the level of the leadership that's there. So we've gotta work on our leadership capacity and skills. And we happen to run into Ford Taylor or I did at a conference that Krystal was at as well in Texas, and God placed us together in the car, going to dinner, just me and Ford.

And we had an opportunity to really talk through things. And he gave us the gift of transformational leadership, which is an amazing platform that Ford has developed over the years. And we've rolled that out with all of our regional managers. But I went through it first. So getting back to what have I been doing that really challenged me in so many spots of my life to really hand everything over, to really look at the covenant relationship that I have with the other leaders of this organization and getting our social contract laid out and what are we promising for each other and how are we gonna be truthful and honorable? And it was just an amazing experience and it trickles down into life. How are we actually working day to day with our spouses and paying attention to that relationship and with our kids and our grandkids?

And it was just useful everywhere. So that was a big piece to the puzzle. Another big thing that we're working through is some strengths-based training through an organization that we partnered with, with Ambassadors for business, called Partner to Learn. And they're gonna be rolling that out throughout all of our Chapters, where we can really help our chapter leaders understand their strengths and how does it fit together with the other strengths of the leaders in their chapter, and where are their partner up opportunities at?

We don't have weaknesses. We have partner up opportunities. So it's just really interesting what's been happening. God's just continuing to gift us with so many relationships, tools, resources that are biblically-based, and strongly impact us personally, professionally and spiritually.

Jim: So let's start stepping into the whole networking idea. Why is networking, what value does networking provide somebody who's operating in the marketplace? Just really quick, why is networking so important?

Bob Willbanks: I think it's the fertile ground. Plain and simple. If we, first off, people have a negative connotation in networking because of what's out there.

I think that's confused with prospecting a lot of times. So people say, oh, I'm going into this networking event. Tell me more. It's I at the Chamber of Commerce and there's gonna be 500 people there. And that's not networking, that's prospecting. You're going there to meet people that you hope maybe you can do some business with or might build business relationships with.

True networking to me is building relationships of trust so that we can bless into the lives of those that we're building those relationships with. If I have a networking chapter with five to twenty-five members in it, and I take the time to truly get to know those people and build those relationships of trust, my spheres of influence can now bless into their lives.

That's the key. I'm not there to receive their blessings. I'm there to bless them with all that God has given me, whatever their needs are- personal, professional, or spiritual, I've got relationships that can help them. If we build that fertile ground through working on those trusted relationships, we will see 30, 60 and a hundred-fold return back into our life.

But that's not why we're doing it. Okay. We're doing it to bless others. So it's that grow-by-giving mindset that we stress throughout the entire G7 network that I think really unlocks the true benefit of networking. Members that do it right no longer have to cold call. Cold calling's the thing of the past. Yeah. We just lean into the relationships that we have.

Martha: So tell us why every believer that's out in the marketplace, why they should be a part of a G7 network and look to see if there's one near them and all of that, all of the scenarios there.

Bob Willbanks: I don't know if it's for everybody. I'm not gonna make that blanket statement. Okay. I think as long as people have a top line revenue responsibility within their job description, then it makes a lot of sense. There are others where it might make a lot of sense that they're looking for a resourcing group where I can find what I need when I need it.

They're not so much trying to grow their business, but they're resourcing. Those two items. And then on top of that, just people that are wanting to grow in their faith, whether they're seekers or just getting started in their faith or they're full-blown all in, disciples.

We need all of that within our network. You don't have to be Christian to join G7. Just know that you're joining a Christian Networking Group that's gonna have prayer and gospel, and everything we do is based on biblical principles.

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Martha: So Bob, when you first told us about G7 networking, it was like a dream. It was this really big dream.

But today, that dream is becoming a reality. Tell us about the G7 model and what actually G7 stands for.

Bob Willbanks: G7 stands for the seven Gs we walk through inside of every monthly meeting. We require all chapters to meet at least once a month. Some choose to do it more often than that but at least once per month and we run through the seven G's, which are gospel. We have a brief time of devotion and prayer.

Then we go into group introductions, and that's different than your typical networking groups. This is something more like name, rank, and serial number, but then something more personal about yourself, like what brings you joy is a common question that we will ask to unlock some things with our members as we go around.

It's 30 seconds to two minutes, depending on the size of the group, but it's a chance just to get to know people better. Then we move into grade because you have to measure what you wanna manage. We don't measure referrals actively within the chapters. What we measure are the behaviors that drive the results that we're looking for.

G7 networking is twofold in what we're looking to accomplish. First off is our goal of driving business for our members, and that comes back to Josh Tolle's book Evangelpreneur that brings up the Muslim community recirculating a dollar 14 to 16 times before it leaves their community. The Jewish community, 10 to 12 times before it leaves. Christians, less than once.

I don't think we're called to hold onto our money and recirculate it that many times like the Jews and the Muslims. I think we are to hold on loosely, but it certainly calls out the fact that we need to be more intentional about doing business together and more importantly, driving business for each other.

So how do I unlock my spheres of influence to drive business for people?

Jim: Did we get all seven G's yet? I don't know. I feel like you got off the seven G.

Bob Willbanks: This is an important piece and the grade part because we measure that side of it. And how do we measure that? We're not measuring how many referrals a person gives. We know that the referrals will happen if we build trusted relationships. So how many one-to-ones do we do every single month with others in our chapter? And how many guests have we invited to come join us? Because guests, whether they join G7 or not, are the lifeblood of any networking group. Who knows if those people need what we have or if we need what they have? So we want them to come in. So that's the grade portion of G7. Then we move into God. And that's where we have either a personal testimony or we popcorn God-sidences that have happened over the last month, where's God has shown up in our businesses.

Then we move into grow. And that is grow content that helps people grow personally, professionally, or spiritually with biblical principles involved. And that's the part where the second part of our mission comes in, growing people spiritually. We're very serious about that. And it walks equally with driving business.

And then finally we finish up with Get and Give. So the get would be your elevator pitch and ask. And the give is who can you help?

Jim: So are you just doing local groups? Are there just local groups or do you have an online group available for people? Maybe they don't, they're not in one of the cities that you're in.

Bob Willbanks: Great question. So yes, we have local groups that are forming. We really want the in-person experience. I think that's the secret sauce. But what we're finding is in the Virtual Zoom environment it works just as well. And we have a virtual USA 1 chapter. There's another chapter that just started up in Chicagoland. We have another one starting in Cincinnati. Looks like Arizona. We're trying to cover every time zone, first off. And virtual groups are certainly a possibility for a landing space when you first come in.

Martha: A big focus for iWork4Him is the conversation around unity and harmony. So what are you seeing your groups, how are they bringing unity into the marketplace? And do you see them creating more harmony be between believers?

Bob Willbanks: I believe so. I had a word years ago, back when I was first forming G7 that diversity without unity is chaos. I think being unified in the word of God and as a country, one nation under God, as we get away from those things we tend to fracture. But also the unity without diversity becomes blind. And so we have to seek diversity. When's the last time you went to dinner or invited a person of another color or nationality into your home for dinner? Those types of things, it's very important to us to have that, but we need to unify under the word of God.

And keep those biblical principles in the center of everything that we do. So that's our focal point. And then from that business and so forth deriving the relationships are knit together as only God can. Where two of em are gathered in his name, he's there.

Martha: But don't you find specifically in your groups that people are not as concerned about what denomination people are? We have this whole mindset of unity comes by everybody going to the same church and things like that. But what are you really truly seeing with your members? Does that even matter for them to be unified?

Bob Willbanks: It's a melting pot. Every single group is a melting pot for sure. And the central theme that we really can all agree on is finding that common ground of standing on biblical principles. And that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that we are washed by the blood of the Lamb. We can start there. And find that common ground. And the rest just starts to happen. We learn from each other.

Jim: Give us an impact story. Somebody that's heavily involved with G7, that they're facilitating some kingdom impact in the marketplace. Something that you have seen happen because G7 exists.

Bob Willbanks: So there was a amazing moment in my home chapter, that I attend most often.

Jim: That's right there in Minneapolis then?

Bob Willbanks: It's there in Minneapolis. I won't mention the exact group because it might expose who this is, but I don't think he would mind. But a business owner, very successful, we meet at their house that has an indoor pool, to give you an idea.

So we're a poolside in their home. He owned a restaurant that also did a lot of different recipes and things like that, that were fairly popular. But it was a losing proposition for him. It was just a passion project that he'd had for years. And he told me on the side one time, he was literally dumping $150,000 a year into that just to keep it going.

And it was just a passion project, something he loved doing. As the market and his other business was going through some transitionary times through covid and all the other things that went on, he began to realize that maybe $150,000 a year wasn't the best place to put some money for a passion project, and he was really wrestling with what to do with this.

During that period of time at our G7 meetings, we had really been unpacking what it is to hear God's voice. And all of our devotionals were centered on that. Our God moments, people were talking about hearing from God and the month before this happened, he piped up with all kinds of questions about hearing from God.

And he had never really engaged in the conversation at that level during our gospel moments and so forth. And I pulled him aside afterwards, gave him a couple other resources that he could tap into for helping that. Told him I'd love to talk more about it whenever he had time. And over that next couple months, I could tell he was really seeking God's voice.

The next meeting we come to, right before the meeting I got an email saying, the restaurant is being sold. I'm unplugging from the restaurant and da-da-da-da-da. All these things, right? It was just, it was like all this stuff he's been wrestling with just boom, overnight he's doing it.

And I reached out to him right away and I said, Keith, what's going on? He said. God told me, I gotta get rid of this and get rid of it now. So he said, I didn't wanna hesitate with what God said. I said, God told you? He said, yes, I heard him. I heard his voice last night. He said, just amazing. Fantastic.

Long story short, normally something like that to unpack it would take a year to sell it, right? To get it unpacked and everything else. He had a lease that was a three-year lease that, was gonna run him $80,000 a year just to continue to lease the space. He had all these proprietary barbecue sauces and everything else, and all this other stuff that he'd done.

And he had six people reach out to him within the first 48 hours that wanted to buy it, and by the end of two weeks he had sold it to one of those six, keeping him in a position that he could still participate in the restaurant and have his passion still there. They took on everything. He was completely washed clean of it, and off you go.

So he's telling this story at the G7 meeting, and he breaks down in tears when it comes to the point where he said he heard God's voice. He said, it never happened to me before. And here's this man that everybody just respects and we, and he's just a puddle, right? A literal puddle.

And his wife comes up behind him, who's also in the group, and she starts rubbing his shoulders and she just looked out at everybody and said, this would've never happened if it wasn't for G7.

Jim: Fantastic.

Martha: We absolutely love hearing impact stories like that, and we all wanna be able to make an impact in the things that we're doing, but yet a lot of people don't know how to do that.

And many of our listeners have committed to the, iWork4Him Nation and learned how they can make an impact at their work by reading through and committing to the things in the covenant. It's not a membership. It's just a guide to help you in the process of committing your work to the Lord.

So go to our website iWork4Him.com and look for the nation. And there you can go and learn more about making an impact in your workplace today.

Jim: It really is just a short, it's the guide to turn your workplace into a mission field.

Bob, really quick, as we come to the end of the show telling everybody about G7networking.com , how many cities are you in right now?

Bob Willbanks: So we, like you said we're in at least 15. We've got thirty-three fully activated chapters, and when we say that, that's when we have at least three of the five leaders for the chapter in play. So that's when they're fully activated. There's about 15 others that are in formation and there's digital chapters forming, all the time.

Can I mention one thing?

Jim: I don't know. It might cost you. That check will be coming to, iWork4Him, that's P. O Box 5 1 8 MARIONVILLE Missouri 6 5 7 0 5.

Bob Willbanks: And please do that, for sure.

 (laughter)

Bob Willbanks: We struggled when we first launched G7 because we thought we knew it all and wanted to build an app of our own.

And so through the first three years while we were inside of Ambassadors for Business in the first year and a half , after we pulled it out of the nonprofit and really started going to town, we were just sinking a lot of money into what ended up being a dead horse. And praise God, we had a redeemer come our way, sent by God, I swear.

Dana Dunmeyer from TQI Solutions. Dana, I'm doing a shout out to you right here. They have this platform that's about a $70 million platform. That's how much development has gone into this thing over the years. It literally has all the bells and whistles that, that anybody could possibly ever need.

80% of what you need's already there, and then we customize the other 20%, so we jumped in. He made it possible for us to do that. After we launched just the preliminary launch back in August of last year, about 30 days into it, my partner and I, Chris, we looked at each other and said, what we have here is a Christian LinkedIn, so I want to place that little bug in everybody's ear.

Basically what we have here is a Christian LinkedIn environment. It starts at a complementary membership level where you come in, you fill out your profile, and you can start connecting with others of like-minded spirit, to do business together and drive business for one another while encouraging each other towards a stronger faith. Should the digital levels or in-person meetings resonate with you, fantastic.

But we are constantly seeking out additional collaborations and relationships with organizations like iWork4Him. You might find something else out there that is more your bread and butter. That is fine. We just hope that you find what you're looking for when you need it.

So come in, connect, fill out your profile, start connecting with others of like-minded spirit. And if a G7 networking group is for you, God will lead you there.

Jim: Do you got room for more cities? I know there's 19,580 incorporated cities in the United States, and you're only in 33. So do you got room for more groups?

Bob Willbanks: We have, all we need is leaders, Jim. So people that want to actually launch, we've got a recipe for launching that works. There's about four or five different paths we can take dependent on the profile of the individual that wants to start. We know what works. We know what doesn't. We're your guide.

We'll help you get it up and running. It will bless you personally, professionally, and spiritually to lead a G7

Martha: chapter. So talk to those people that might be interested right now. What would they have to do to be qualified to lead a group?

Bob Willbanks: Number one, understand that if you're going to do this, there's a spiritual mantle involved in it. You will be leading a group under the G7 brand, and we take that side of it very seriously. The enemy doesn't want this to come forth. There'll probably be some attacks. You need to be steadfast and prepared for that and willing to go the distance. And if you're willing to jump into that with us, really we can work with just about anybody to help 'em get this moving in their city.

Jim: Amen. Check out Bob Willbanks and G7 Networking. Online at G7networking.com. Bob Willbanks, thanks for being back here on iWork4Him today.

Bob Willbanks: God bless you guys.

Jim: Thanks for all you do. You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha brangenberg. We're Christ followers our workplace. It's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.