#010 Aaron Williamson - Getting to the Bottom Line

Speaker A: You are listening to GC Talk with Bo Ellis. This show is produced by Great Commission partnerships in Tampa, Florida to bring you inspiration and conversation with pastors, church planters and missions leaders who are making disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, locally, nationally and around the world.

Speaker B: Hello, friends, and welcome to GC Talk. I'm Bo Ellis and today we're here, we're talking the Great Commission with a business owner who can help us figure out what consultants and project managers actually do, especially in this exploding era, uh, of technology. His name is Aaron Williamson and he's based in Tampa, Florida as he and his partner are helping large organizations all over the world develop systems, solve problems, achieve goals, and do it all with an eye on the bottom line. Only the bottom line for Aaron is, is Jesus. So much so he named his business cornerstone Cornerstone Project Management. And we're grateful to have Aaron on for the first time today as a, uh, CornerStone partner for GCP and a major sponsor for this pilot season of GC Talk, where we want to answer the question, what can missionaries and church leaders learn from a guy who's running his business for Christ? Let's ask him ourselves. So welcome Aaron to the show. Thanks, Aaron. We met about, I don't know, pre Covid at First Baptist Tampa. Our listeners don't know you. So that you're on for the first time with us, I'd like you to just share a little bit about your backstory.

Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me, Beau. Um, again, my name is Aaron Williamson. I grew up, uh, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the Smokies and Chattanooga, Tennessee. So uh, my, my upbringing was Christian, um, very Christian town. Uh, the Southern exists only really you can find in the Southeast, I think. Um, and uh, I accepted Christ when I was 13 years old. And I had been going to church while before that. In fact, I was part of all sorts of ministries in the church. In fact, when I accepted Christ, I was in the orchestra pit of, uh, during a Christmas, um, uh, play that our church had been putting on. And it all made sense all at once. And I remember the moment. Um, but yeah, we, I've been around and moved down to Tampa, uh, at some point years and years ago. And yeah, it was, I think it was just before COVID you and I met and you were uh, leading a core group there at First Baptist. And uh, yeah, so that's, you know, the roundabout.

Speaker B: So we met in a Sunday school class and, and I came to learn about you and your family, your boys and your career. And it's interesting what you do, uh, Cornerstone is um, you're self employed in Cornerstone. But um, how did you go from working for other people to becoming and starting Cornerstone?

Speaker C: Yeah, it's a great question and I think anybody who's worked in big business, uh, just private industry occasionally has the thought, boy, I'd like to start my own business, I'd like to be my own boss. Um, it is difficult, as difficult, at least as difficult as advertised. But we decided that we had the skills to try it. But the motivation, uh, and it's even in the name Cornerstone was Christ all along. Uh, we felt that we had the skills to not only succeed in the business world but then the heart to redirect those funds to building uh, Jesus's kingdom here on earth. And uh, that was the real motivation for it. So while we do it engineering, um, it's in project management really. Uh, we are a Christ centered organization. It's for him and not for everybody else.

Speaker B: Well that's why I asked you to come on the show. This show's all about calling and answering the call of God to be on mission, to go on mission, to support missions. And um, we do that through our lives. It's not just career missionaries that go overseas full time, but it's business owners, it's uh, individuals, it's every church member. So it was pretty interesting to me how um, when we started becoming friends and talking about your career, I don't think I knew what project managers even do. Um, what is project management? I know it's in the consulting kind of sector, but how would you explain that to someone who like me then had really little clue about it?

Speaker C: Good question. It is a nebulous term, project management. Everything we do is a project and um, by default as humans everything we do we manage. Um, but you know, there's a bit more of a science behind it in terms of large IT and engineering projects, um, in terms of the way the money and the resources and the people and the policies and the requirements work and the management of all those things. A lot of my job in uh, project management specifically is in business development. Um, and that's where project managers tend to excel because of our organizational skills, I suppose the request for proposal development, um, and the pre planning and that's where that's a lot uh, of what we do in terms of not execution. You know there's still project management needs but we tend to focus, um, so we have multiple verticals. HEALTHCARE is a big one. Uh, so think big enterprise resource planning like SAP, Oracle type systems, uh, for Medicaid, um, and Medicare, state agencies, but also for hospitals and local practices. We also have a vertical in um, engineering and the Department of War for military and engineering support for manufacturing, um, because a lot of technology uh, is coming into that space and we are, uh, we specialize in deploying uh, and defining that technology and for use. And so the project manager term, while broad and covers a lot, um, is really, it's not as uh, nebulous as it may seem. It's mostly keeping things in order and people, you know, making sure we all do what we need to do.

Speaker B: So you're a come alongsider for folks that have big assignments and aren't quite sure how they're going to figure out how to do it.

Speaker C: Well that's, you know, and it applies outside of business. Applies uh, that if you had an idea or something you wanted to do, whether it was a project that was within your business, your charity, your family, your backyard, whatever it was, it is. If you've ever sat down and discussed that idea with somebody, it is easier to flesh out. If you've ever had somebody come alongside you and say, hey, I think we can do this. This thing that seems too big or too complex isn't, isn't. It just isn't. We can do it together. That is, that's what consultants do. Um, you know, uh, there, there's an roi, there's a return on investment for it as well. Um, consultants is a term that I think is thrown around a lot and sometimes in a negative connotation, but that certainly isn't uh, the intent. Um, it's bitch achieving bigger things. Then it's making one plus one equal three instead of two. That's what it is.

Speaker B: Well, I always thought it was cool. Um, I remember talking with someone who was in logistics and their whole pitch is that look, we're going to make this where you're going to save money. And the money we earn as consultants is actually just a piece of that savings that we're going to save you. So I mean, talk about win win. It really does sound like a uh, win win to me. And that's pretty exciting because, um, I would hope that as you endeavor to work with different clients that you get a certain level of satisfaction out of, um, stuff coming together and projects actually working. Um, I'm sure there's plenty of road bumps and challenges with that as well. But the thing that interests me most, uh, you said you came to Christ when you're 13 years old and, and um, you come into your career path as Someone just trying to follow Christ. What does it look like in your sector in general? Um, what's the tone, um, in that industry? Um, do you guys have big, large scale conventions and um, what's it like to be a Christian in that environment? Just generally?

Speaker C: Yeah, that's a great question. Um, yes, they, it depends on the vertical or the industry we're working in. There's all sorts of conferences. We work with big companies, small companies, but having in my background a handful of Fortune 500 companies that I've worked at. I will tell you an interesting um, story. And it begins in say the 90s, early 2000s, where the culture of staying silent because we did not want to risk offense, um, in the name of inclusion was real. That happened. We all felt that, you know, we didn't necessarily see the business uh, side as a mission ground like we do today. Over the years that has changed. And what I'm finding, especially in certain industries, but there's a lot more Christians out there in the business place than previously known or thought. Um, just because we've been so quiet and the culture is changing in that I have now been to business events where things have been said and people have rallied together in ways that would not have happened 20 years ago. I promise you. And I think the default, the logic is, well, you know, maybe we're coming to understand as a body of Christ what our true purpose here is on earth. Or maybe too in the business world. We're realizing that doing business with other Christians only magnifies Christ. Um, in that there's some certain qualities in people I can expect. Right. And I don't, that I may not know about a um, somebody I just met for the first time and don't know anything about them. And so there is a bigger community of Christians coming together in big business that maybe has existed for longer in small business. And it's really encouraging. And I do think this administration in the US has a, um, part in that.

Speaker B: Well, and you, Charlie Kirk, I mean it really was a, um, kind of a pivotal, a flashpoint if you will. Um, and maybe it's something that had been growing and building. I mean I had Bart Azzarelli on the show last week and um, we were talking about this, this, this idea of christ followers as CEOs of companies that are owned by Jesus. And I mean they've been meeting together for 20 plus years trying to figure out how to run their large companies for Christ. And yet I think culturally, uh, ah, on a large scale in the country, it really came to A head with Charlie Kirk.

Speaker C: I think you're right. Yeah, Charlie, that was one event. Ah, you could talk about pivotal moments. I think a lot of Christians realized in business place or otherwise, everywhere, very. That we need to speak up.

Speaker B: Well, our Secretary of state got up in front of that crowd in Arizona and just laid out the gospel. And it was just like, I don't know that I'd ever heard him talk about Jesus like that. And I was encouraged. And I think it is encouraging for Christians to be in these industries where, you know, it's okay to let folks know that, you know, we're for Jesus. And, And I think they. People respect that. Um, it also puts a target on our chest. And I think we, um, we carry, uh, uh, the responsibility of, of our witness, you know, wanting to be, um, a good witness. So what does, what does that look like since you started Cornerstone? I love the name. Um, what does it really look like in business that you would just run a business with excellence and run it for Jesus? How is that, um, maybe even a planned thing for you guys?

Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, it starts with your vision, uh, the vision statement. But if you're being technical. But what it looks like, practically, is realizing that we are just stewards. We're warehouse managers. That's all we are. And God gives us a warehouse and he fills it and he takes from it, and we put stuff in there, but ultimately we're just managing the in and out of it. Um, and that is to say, typically, we're talking dollars here, but it's our time. I mean, our time is our money. Um, what are we doing, you know, from. From sunrise to sunset, uh, with that time and with those capabilities that we have. And it's not. It's really not even the way we treat it is. It's not our decision. And it's really as much as effort as we put into, like, for instance, my business development. Eff. As much effort as I put into that. And I do it faithfully and I do it, uh, boldly. But I. I completely decouple the result from my imago or my, uh, my ego. It's not, uh, as long as I'm working faithfully and dutifully, it has. I rely on God for the outcome. The outcomes are controlled by Him. All we do is put in the work. We manage what we're given. We put in the work and the. Everything else we leave to Him. And it's scary. It's really scary actually, because sometimes, a lot of times, most of the times, maybe all the time, I don't see where things are going, and I don't see where, uh, the opportunity is or where the outcome, the positive outcome is in some of these. And the way he works, uh, is just great. I, uh, mean, and the things come together and we keep doing it for him. That's what it looks like. It's just being that warehouse manager of, uh, moving resources because they're not ours. They don't belong to us.

Speaker B: Yeah. Enough manna for today. Enough joy for today. And I know as a pastor and a guy that's involved in missions, um, we pray a lot with folks usually in the middle of a storm. And what I've learned to pray for over the years is to pray for his presence, strength, his power, uh, to pray that we would walk in the joy of our salvation even when we're in the middle of a storm, because we know that he's with us. And I think in business, like in missions and even in the local church, part of the fun of it is just not really knowing what's around the next corner. Um, I remember I did a cross country, uh, bike ride, bicycle ride as a mission trip back in 2007. And this is before I actually had a Trio 650, which was one of the first smartphones back in the day. And, um, I wasn't really able to use, um, Google Maps on the phone, so I had to use the maps, um, on my computer beforehand. And I would write out the directions on a piece of paper and I'd keep them with me as I'm looking for each, um, next turn. And I mean, um, that was exhilarating because you really don't know where the next turn is. And, um, boy, did I find myself in some interesting places, um, along that route. But it does lay right on top of how you help business owners try to see the future. And yet the future that you're painting for them might be a little fuzzy. And as you're able to walk them down that path, it starts to begin to look a little more clear. So it is ministry for you that you're walking alongside folks, um, helping them get to a goal. But what are some of the ways you see that cornerstone is actually in ministry right now? For one, partnering with us here at gcp.

Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, for one, gcp, um, you know, we do have partners, and our local partner being you guys. I mean, the work you're doing all over the world. But what really stands out to me, uh, for gcp, is that you don't just have international missions. You See, the GCP sees the mission field as local. Tampa as local US and as international, um, all over the world. And that's true. And I look out the window sometimes and I, I remember that Tampa is a mission field as well. It's. It's easy to forget, um, although it's becoming easier to remember, uh, I think the closer we get to eternity here. But, um, what does it look like for us? I mean, it's doing exactly what you're saying. Uh, we get involved with anybody who, who is preaching. Christ, who is. So my goal, my prayer every morning, bo, is that Jesus comes quickly. And if that's really my prayer, which it is, then I better do things today that are going to expedite that, which is what we do. And that's how we view missions, uh, at Cornerstone, Um, it's not for, uh, it's not for us. It's for the lost, because they're the ones that Jesus are trying to get to. It wants us to get him to, um. So that's how we view the world, and that's how we view the business. And really, honestly, the business is just an arm of a larger goal. Ah. And that's how we see it.

Speaker B: Yeah, we were just in Ephesians, um, working through, just preaching through, uh, chapters four through six. And Paul says right there in the middle of chapter five, be careful then how you walk. Uh, not as unwise, but as wise, uh, because the days are evil. And I thought, wow, if the days were evil for Paul, I wonder what the days are for us now. And, um, what he was talking about was that sense of urgency, that sense of purpose. And I appreciate that, that you get up every day, uh, with that prayer. I think sometimes we get up and I hope we're praying daily. I hope your quiet time is. Maybe you're a morning guy like me. That's my most effective time. But I get up with a to do list probably far too often. And, um, I really need to remember to invite God to walk with me through that, that he would be using me, uh, for his glory, because the days are evil. And I think where Paul was at on that was, um, Jesus is coming back. And we've got a commission. The great commission of Christ is to go and make disciples of all nations. And that's that local, national, international that we draw right from Acts 1:8. So I asked you first when we started talking about this show. Um, the world of technology is changing dramatically. Um, this is one of those moments in our history that I'm sure we'll kind of look back and say, oh, I remember when, because the AI revolution is upon us. And I love that you're in that industry. And I wanted to ask you how you see AI literally changing the world right now of business, and then help me understand how you're seeing these next two to five years and. And where. Where then how that lays right on top of how the church and missions ought to be paying attention.

Speaker C: Yeah. Uh, I'm glad you scheduled this podcast for eight hours, because that's about how long it'll take to answer that question. Um, so strap it. No, I. Listen, it's a big, big conversation, technology in general. And I'd like to talk about technology in general even more than AI. I mean, because there are things coming that are beyond AI as well that we're keeping our eye on. Um, for instance, quantum computing is another thing coming around the corner that everybody will be the next big worry. Uh, but. But AI specifically right now is changing business. It is changing the world. It has flipped business economics on its head. And what does that mean? Well, all of the. A lot of the tasks that used to be very specialized are now very generalized. It could be done by a computer. Um, I built an online web portal that would have cost tens of thousands of dollars in, like, two hours for 200 bucks, um, just a few weeks ago. And I'm surprised myself. I didn't even know I had the skills to do that. And the joke is, I don't. Um, so what does it mean? Well, I think it means getting more done and getting more done quickly. Now, what does that mean for Christians? Um, especially in business is what we need to realize is things are accelerating, nothing is slowing down. And that goes back from when Paul was talking about the days are evil, they're still evil. Uh, and we are accelerating towards eternity, not, uh, crawling. Um, I don't know what that means in terms of God's timeline, but I wish I did. But what I can tell you is things are happening faster because of AI. Now what we do is we solve problems that could not be solved or that were very difficult to solve and become increasingly easier to solve. So that applies all over the world, in any ministry or any business. If I think. If I think about what can I do with AI today for free? Which is, you know, one of the biggest selling points on some of these AI bots that are out there with apps is we can phrase inform questions in the. In the manner, uh, which we could never search for things with Google, if that makes sense. So I Could ask a more difficult question about how to solve. How to solve a specific problem based off of whether it be demographics or prior documentation or organizational structures that I know nothing about, but I know are documented somewhere. And AI will know. I can ask things like that and I can have it bring together it. Actually, you can have action bots to actionable AI that can do things like, oh, chat with people, talk in a human voice with people. We have AI bots that will look just like me on camera and talk just like this. Um, I'm not. There's. There's good and bad to all of this as we need, you know, as any technology. But it will enable the mission field to. It will shrink the mission field. Just like airline travel shrunk the mission field and then, uh, the Internet shrunk the mission field. So does AI. It does the same thing. So the difference between Tampa and Brazil, the distance is smaller yet again, um, between the two because of it. Uh, and part of that's communication, right? Humans need to communicate. The only way we build relations is communication. And AI assists that, uh, in a sort of accelerated fashion that we've never seen before.

Speaker B: Well, I thought it was funny when um, Elon Musk said that Grok had all of the knowledge of all of the PhDs in the whole world. And, and I, and I appreciate you talking about the way we phrase. I, uh, guess our queries, our questions that we're putting into the bot. Um, I mentioned to you this guy that was doing, um, uh, a podcast, a video blog about um, a, uh, creation and the most plausible explanation for creation. And he fed this criteria into chat gtp and then he did the same thing with Grok. And he said, now using this criteria only, you know, how would you explain this and this? And he basically leads the AI to argue in favor of a, ah, creator of God. And then he said, now take away all of those parameters that I just suggested or asked you to stay within. And if I was just asking the question for the first time without any of those parameters, how would you answer the same question? And the, the AI, uh, came back with um, you know, the, the textbook schoolbook answer of um, the Darwin kind of answer. And um, yeah, it just. We all know that the, the AI is, is, Is programmed by people who see the world through a certain worldview. And, and then we're told that these AI, um are learning. You know, they're literally learning. I'm. That I still haven't wrapped my head around that, but I guess it's just we don't know if we can trust what we're getting back from the AI if you ask it to, you know, give me a project outline for, for this, that and the other. It's like, man, I feel like we're getting to a place where, you know, what is truth anymore apart from the scriptures in the word of God.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And that's an age old problem. That's been the problem in communication for thousands of years is can we trust the information coming from whatever it is giving us the information, um, in this case AI. And the answer is maybe, yeah, maybe not. And a lot of that has to do. And you need to be careful when choosing AI, uh, your specific solution as we are at Cornerstone and we will advise on this specific issue because the answer, like you're saying, can be radically different based on who created the AI. And it is constantly learning. But sometimes that's a bad thing depending uh, on, I mean a chatgpt being one example of some wacky answers, um, that it takes as truth. And so we always, we've always had to be careful. I think we're just constantly surprised that people aren't looking out for our best interests. And I know I am. I'm like, why would they do that? And then I look back and say, obviously I know why they do it because they've always done that. Um, and like you said, the Bible is the only source of truth. And so I would, you know, I, while it has lots of great uses, it's, you still need to be skeptical. Um, and that's where you know, that's part of being human is we have reasoning and we have empathy. It doesn't, um, while a lot of these administrative jobs and tasks can be done with AI, I think anything that requires uh, an empathic skill probably won't be replaced because we as humans crave relationships. And that's something that people are, it's in the news. So the news, uh, every day I see something and somebody got duped by AI. Somebody did committed some horrible atrocity because they talked to AI and got talked into it. There it's the same. And these, these, we're just replacing sources of information. But our, our M.O. should not be any different as Christians on where our truth comes from.

Speaker B: Well you're right, we probably do need an eight hour show on technology. Um, and it's not just AI, um, the church and the mission of God is using whatever resources God has made available to us. So you know, it's not. The technology isn't good or Bad. It's the way we use it. And uh, I do. Every generation has said, wow, Jesus must be coming back soon. I mean, I can't imagine living in the time of the Holocaust and thinking that Jesus wasn't right around the corner. And yet every generation has had kind of those moments. But this AI thing, man, it literally is turning everything on its head, um, completely. And then you mentioned quantum computing being able to do in a few minutes what would have taken those old computers a billion years to do something silly like that. But we're living in some crazy times and I'm grateful that you're willing to come on and kind of dig into some of this stuff with me. So hey, we'll be sure to have you on, um, future episodes as well, maybe drilling down on some of those things. Just really grateful that you found the time for us. On our way out. I wonder if there's a, uh, question I didn't ask as it relates to, um, way churches can look at project management. How does what you do for a living in the business world translate for guys like me that are, uh, leading small and medium sized churches?

Speaker C: Uh, yeah, so I kept her explaining what I do or I've run trainings in the past and I boiled project management down. In my opinion, this is the gospel of Aaron is comes down to two things, stakeholder management and risk management. Now and the reason I say those being the two most important things. Stakeholder management is relationship building. That's what it is. Uh, any stakeholder in a project that I need to tell whether get a requirement from or tell them a status or get a pass fail metric from, uh, they are, they need to be in the loop, but they also need to be spoken to by a human to be brought along. And that's what stakeholder management is. But there's just relationship management and that, that applies to everything. That's not just business, that's personal, that's churches, that's every industry that's ever existed. Tent making and risk management. What do we do? Well, if your phone rings, you will pick up the phone. That is a form of risk management because you risk missing either a very important call or offending the person that you didn't pick up. Um, if we view our actions and what we're trying to achieve as risk management and stakeholder management, or uh, risk management and relationship building. It applies to everything. And the church can, can learn a lot from this. I think, um, it's not easy to divorce business ideals from, uh, Christian ideals in the church. I know there's probably some, uh, you know, debate occasionally on, well, this is for the Lord, so we do it this way. Um, but I think in terms of project management specifically and consulting, uh, there's a lot of lessons learned to run an organization in a Christian manner like we do. In fact, I see cornerstone and a church as two sides of a similar coin. Um, we both have the same mission. We're the same. I maybe not building up saints the way that the church is, but I am trying to save souls the way the church is. And we also have, uh, the aspect of interacting with humans, then that'll always be there. Uh, and that's. That's what we do, and that's how we tie in. And I don't think our jobs are all that dissimilar other than I work with technology.

Speaker B: Well, when we talk about church, we talk about parachurch. And I think, um, you know, when you hear parachurch, most people think Nonprofits, you know, 501C3s that come alongside the local church and strengthen the church. But, you know, aren't businesses doing similar things? And I think the answer is probably yes. Um, the church is privileged that. That Jesus said that I'll build my church. And I'm just. As pastors and missionaries, we just. We oversee the. The breaking of the bread, the preaching of the word, uh, baptism. Uh, I would recommend Mark Devers, the nine marks of a healthy church. If you guys want to dig into, um, kind of what the role and responsibility is of the local church, um, and the leaders of it. Uh, Christ is the head, and we're part of his body, and that's. That's, uh, everything we do because he owns everything. So I'm grateful to bring business leaders like yourself on this show, and I'm, um, hope you'll just maybe pray us out, and we'll look forward to seeing you next time.

Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Bo. Heavenly Father, we come before you today, and we just thank you for everything you've given us. Thank you so much for this time that I got to spend together with my great friend Bo. Bless our organization, Lord. You know our hearts. You know, we work for you. We work for Jesus Christ, Lord, and we want nothing other than. Than for his return. We pray for his feed to return. We pray for the lost souls that need to be saved in order to get there. And, uh, we pray that our day will go according, uh, to your will. And bless us with the Holy Spirit to guide us there. Amen.

Speaker B: Thanks, brother. Appreciate you coming on.

Speaker C: No, thank you, Bo.

Speaker B: See you next time.

Speaker C: Bye.

Speaker A: Thank you for listening to this episode of Great Commission Partnerships. GC Talk with Bo Ellis. Find us wherever you get your podcasts and on the web@gcpartnerships.org where our mission is connecting Christians to missions and supporting church planters and missionaries locally, nationally and around the world.