EP 100: Business, Failure, and the Making of a Disciple, Part 1

Narrator: Did you know your business can honor God while transforming lives around the world? Welcome to the IBOM Biblical Entrepreneurship show, the weekly podcast that inspires and equips Christian entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses that glorify God and uplift impoverished communities. At ibom, our mission is built on the three fish metaphor. Give a fish. We provide startup loans to launch businesses. Teach to fish. We offer entrepreneur training for lasting growth. Equipped for disciples. We empower discipleship to multiply impact. Join iBum's founder, Steve Adams as he shares powerful solo episodes and expert interviews filled with mentorship insights and real life stories of how biblical entrepreneurship is advancing the Great Commission. Subscribe now and get ready to be inspired, equipped and empowered to make an eternal impact.

Steve Adams: Welcome to the IBAM Kingdom Impact Summit and my guest, uh, in this hour is Brad Sykes. Uh, he is a seasoned entrepreneur, ministry leader and mentor with a passion for discipling men and families. After a successful retail career and franchise including mattress firm and Whataburger to Florida, Brad now leads the Guardian Group, a real estate team with Keller Williams Atlantic Partners. He also hosts a co host. He also co hosts SWAT Radio, a daily broadcast equipping men to walk out biblical truth, and co founded the Northeast Florida Christian Chamber of Commerce, which integrates faith in business. For over 25 years, Brad has devoted himself to teaching, counseling and discipleship. He and his wife Vicki have five children and eight grandchildren. Brad, welcome to the Kingdom Impact Summit.

Brad Sykes: Well, I don't know how long, Steve, it's been since that bio was written, but 14 more grandkids, we've almost doubled grandkids. We are at 14 actually. And the 15th.

Steve Adams: Goodness.

Brad Sykes: Uh, the 15th on the way. But hey, good to be with you. And as you read that, my wife Vicki is probably in the next room over and if she heard that, which she didn't, she would say, I'm way too busy.

Steve Adams: You know, uh, people like that, uh, like you, I'm the same way and I get the same feedback from my wife and everybody, but, you know, it's. Well, let's start right there. Let's just start right with that. Um, how, how is all of this a calling to you, Brad?

Brad Sykes: You know, Steve, I was very fortunate in the summer of 1981 when, uh, I heard the gospel for the first time and responded to it. Um, it's a. I seem to tell this story often. Uh, I had the great fortune of having my brother in law begin, uh, to disciple me the day after I surrendered my life to Christ. In fact, next to this chair, I'm sitting In is probably one of the most treasured pieces, uh, items that I have in my life. And that's my Bible. Well, it's one of many Bibles, but it's the Bible that was given to me in 1981 as my brother in law came and picked me up the day after I surrendered my heart to Christ. And uh, it was sitting on the front seat, uh, of uh, the passenger seat as I got in the car to go grab breakfast with him and he, he wrote in the book and I, you know, I'm not going to read it here. If we've got time, I'll read it. Sure. And you'll get, you'll get the vibe of where, how God has shaped my life since that moment. And he, he said to me, he said, brad, uh, you're on a journey now and I don't want you to be a spoon fed Christian. I want you to learn to open this word daily and I want you to learn to feed on it. And so, uh, I was very fortunate and I realized in the, the culture we have today, uh, there's a missing piece related to discipleship. And uh, you know, there's obviously different ways we're discipled from a Sunday morning in church, maybe a Sunday school, maybe a small group. But the value of one on one relationships where we are iron sharpening iron, uh, that's, that is really my, my heartbeat, uh, for the church and for men and families in general.

Steve Adams: And it looks like you've done it mainly when I think about it, through business. I mean, you, you know, do you want to maybe take us a little bit through the story of your, uh, of your, of your resume, if you will. Um, in terms of, um. What was first, Brad? Talk about what was first after college.

Brad Sykes: Well, I got out of college and uh, was hired immediately by a company I'd been working for in the retail world, specifically in the men's apparel industry.

Steve Adams: Okay.

Brad Sykes: That was never on my radar. It's just something I did. I went to college to play golf. And uh, when I realized, you know, when I realized there's probably not a great future for me in golf, I, um, was encouraged by my dad to, hey, get a job. And I had a, I actually had a fraternity brother of mine that worked at a local, uh, men's clothing store in Fort Worth, Texas. I am a TCU horned frog.

Steve Adams: Oh boy. And, uh, I live in Waco, by the way. So guess what?

Brad Sykes: I am. Love it. Yes.

Steve Adams: Uh, it's this weekend too.

Brad Sykes: Oh, I know. Well, we won't go There.

Steve Adams: But don't worry, it's just because my daughter went there. I'm, I'm a Michigan State guy, so

Brad Sykes: don't worry about it. Okay, good, good. Well, anyway, I, I ended up going to work for a gentleman who owned that particular store. When I, as you know, graduation was coming, uh, he made an offer for me to stay with that company. And I remember having this conversation with my dad because I kind of assumed I would maybe get in the same field he was in. Banking, finance world. And uh, the one question my dad asked me, because quite frankly Steve, it was, it was at that point, not that I had a lot of offers, but it was the best offer on the plate. Okay. And, and my dad said, wow, that's a nice offer. And I don't know, I won't, I won't totally date myself, but it was a long time ago and uh, probably mid-80s. It was exactly mid-80s.

Steve Adams: Yeah. That's when I graduated college was 86.

Brad Sykes: Yeah, yeah, well, I graduated 85. And, and my dad said, man, that's a great offer. And he asked me this key question. He goes, well, do you like what you're doing? And I said, I really do. And he said, well, I think you ought to, you ought to take it. So I took that job and worked for us. Like there was a Jewish fellow that I really learned a lot from. He was an entrepreneur. He really kind of planted that seed of entrepreneurship and.

Steve Adams: Sure. Yeah.

Brad Sykes: And uh, and I couldn't, I couldn't break it. And so uh, that led to a short, uh, maybe about a five year career with uh, the designer Ralph Lauren. And which was another great experience for me. One, uh, thing I realized, uh, working for somebody like that was, you know, the long term play there is. I would probably end up in New York City.

Steve Adams: Right.

Brad Sykes: Nothing hits against my friends in New York City. It's a great, great place. I love, I love visiting.

Steve Adams: You just didn't want to live there.

Brad Sykes: Yeah, I'm a, I'm a Texas boy. And uh, I wanted to, uh. Not that I had to stay in Texas, but I knew New York City was probably not favorable, uh, for a family life. Um, Vic and I got married. Vic and I got married right out of college and we started having kids two or three years later. And I just realized, you know, uh, the future of this industry is if I'm going to, you know, climb that ladder, so to speak, it was going to be somewhere like New York City.

Steve Adams: I had similar with banking. I was in corporate banking, my early career, and we merged With Chase, and they're headquartered in New York City. And I knew that's where I was going to end up.

Brad Sykes: Yeah.

Steve Adams: And I didn't want it. Yeah.

Brad Sykes: Yeah.

Steve Adams: Is your wife also from Fort Worth?

Brad Sykes: Uh, she is not. She is a Chicago girl. Okay. So we met in college.

Steve Adams: Okay. TCU. Yeah.

Brad Sykes: Yeah. So we. Anyway, long story short, I realized, hey, I'm. I'm probably not going to go to New York. And, uh, so what does it look like if I stay in this industry? And I really realized I wanted to do something on my own. And so, uh, I started my own business. Um, had had a retail store in Houston.

Steve Adams: Okay.

Brad Sykes: And had good success. But, Steve, I realized in that industry, I. I was that business. Uh, people, you know, even though I had, you know, a million dollars in inventory and people would come in and want to do business with me, and, hey, if I was gone for a week and at Market or New York or wherever I was, it was like business would just drop off.

Steve Adams: Yeah. Yep.

Brad Sykes: And I, you know, you. You. I kind of realized, you know, this is probably not, you know, what I'm looking for. And, uh, it's. It's an interesting story. Uh, a client of mine, uh, had come in, and we had gotten to be very good friends. In fact, this guy went to tcu.

Steve Adams: Okay.

Brad Sykes: At tcu. In fact, we did not run in the same circles, if you know what I mean.

Steve Adams: Yeah. Right.

Brad Sykes: Uh, interesting. He came to Christ several years out of college and. And was doing business with me. And so we. We became good friends. I started attending a Bible study. Not even a Bible study. It was a men's prayer group.

Steve Adams: Okay.

Brad Sykes: At his church. And after that, it was every Friday morning. And I, uh, kid you not, Steve, 80 to 100 men gathered for prayer.

Steve Adams: Wow, that's unusual.

Brad Sykes: Listen, there were no donuts. It was coffee only. And it was just prayer. And, uh. And he and I would go grab breakfast afterwards, and we became very of. If you remember, if you were a follower of Christ back in the early. Early to mid-90s. Promise keepers.

Steve Adams: Oh, yeah, it's huge.

Brad Sykes: Was huge. That. That buzzword accountability was. Was kind of something we all talked about. And I remember one day, he saying to me, hey, Brad, uh, would you consider being, uh, my accountability partner? And I, as a recovering people pleaser? I said, hey, that. That sounds great. Let's do that.

Steve Adams: Yeah.

Brad Sykes: What's interesting, Steve, he. He got a business card out, and he wrote on the back of that card, Kelly. And he put a phone number there, and he slid that card over to Me and said, this is my wife. I had met his wife Kelly. He said, this is Kelly's phone number. I'm giving you the right to call her whenever you feel led to call her.

Steve Adams: Yep. Wow.

Brad Sykes: And I kind of took a deep breath and I thought, man, he and I have a different view of accountability.

Steve Adams: Yeah, that's a level of trust and yeah. Openness. Yeah, totally.

Brad Sykes: So I, as I said, uh, people pleaser. I got a business card out right on the back. Vicki put her phone number, slid it across the table. Steve. And genuinely, I thought to myself as I slid that card across, I hope he never has to call my wife.

Steve Adams: Yeah, yeah. Uh, right.

Brad Sykes: I don't say that because Vicki and I don't have. We have an amazing marriage and a great relationship, but, you know, there's some, There were some rocky times and I've

Steve Adams: been married 38 years. It's not one way. It's not one way.

Brad Sykes: Yeah, yeah, we're sell. We're celebrating 40 years this year. And I tell people all the time, apart from God's word and God's spirit, no way. My wife, My wife has been the greatest instrument in the tool in the hands of an almighty God to transform this wretched man. And uh.

Steve Adams: Right. I don't know how people stay married if you don't have it.

Brad Sykes: Yeah, no, absolutely. And so we. Anyway, Greg and I began a friendship and uh, just over the course of about three years, um, he, he came to me about a business opportunity, uh, that was with the mattress firm. Okay. Yeah, Greg, Greg and his partner owned a financial firm that handled a lot of, uh, high net worth individuals. And um, we were, they were looking at buying a franchise from the mattress firm, which was based in Houston where I was. One of the guys who founded that company, was a believer and so got connected and kind of had this idea of buying this franchise. And so he came to me with the idea of maybe partnering with them. Um, okay. And of course when he mentioned it initially, I was like, no, I don't think so. I don't think that's for me, quite frankly. I was looking to get out of the retail world. Yeah, sure. And. And so he, he kind of made it sound like, oh, you just, it's just not upscale enough, you know.

Steve Adams: Yeah, just beds.

Brad Sykes: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Not super, uh, you know, sexy. Not super sexy.

Steve Adams: Yeah. It's kind of the wrong phrase for selling beds. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brad Sykes: I'm glad you said it. Yeah. Right. My initial thought was, yeah, that's not for me. And uh, anyways, the Conversation went on. Uh, Greg. Greg said, hey, Brad, would you at least look at the business for me, for us, and, uh, and just give us your feedback? And I stewed on it for a week.

Steve Adams: Nice strategy of his.

Brad Sykes: Very great strategy. In fact, I think I put that thing on top of my refrigerator and, uh, and it sat there for about a week until he calls me and says, hey, have you had a chance to look at the stuff I gave you? And I said, oh, I have not, but I will do that. And so I got it down, started going through it, and honestly, I was very surprised.

Steve Adams: Yeah.

Brad Sykes: Yeah, totally. I mean. And so we. Anyway, um, my wife had asked me, hey, what is it you're reading? What are you looking at? I told her, I said, well, this is something that Greg and Chris, uh, want me to look at. And. And she goes, is it something you're. You're seriously looking at? And I said, well, not for. For me, but it's something I'm looking at for them. And. And she. She called me out on it and said, why would you not look at it? And I said, well, I said, I don't know. Just. It doesn't seem that interesting to me. Well, it only took a little short period of time before I realized what a great business. And, uh, and. But I told. So one of the things that they told me as I said, hey, we would be buying this franchise for Jacksonville, Florida. Okay, Steve, maybe this sounds a little naive. I couldn't have pointed to a map where Jacksonville, Florida was in 1997.

Steve Adams: Yep.

Brad Sykes: And so, uh. But it was my. It was my wife who said, I think we ought to pray about that. Now, doesn't that sound interesting?

Steve Adams: Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like God was working through your wife. Yep.

Brad Sykes: Seems obvious. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Looking back.

Steve Adams: Yeah.

Brad Sykes: Yeah. Well, I mean, even. Even honestly, that should be. That should. That should lead every decision we make, you know.

Steve Adams: Right. Yeah.

Brad Sykes: And so I. I was a little surprised that was. That she would be open to the idea of maybe even moving to Jacksonville.

Steve Adams: Yeah.

Brad Sykes: And so we spent about two weeks praying about it. We both kind of got excited about the idea. We flew out to Jacksonville to look at the city and kind of thought, this is. This should be good for a couple of years. We could do this. We had four. We had four kids at the time, Steve. And, uh, so anyway, all that to say that's what brought me to Jacksonville.

Steve Adams: Wow.

Brad Sykes: Was the Mattress Firm franchise. And, uh, we hit the ground running and opened our first store in January of 98. And for the next five years, I barely Took a breath. Wow.

Steve Adams: How many did you open total in Florida?

Brad Sykes: Oh, I don't know. We probably opened a hundred overall. Uh, we ended up. We went from franchisee to franchisor. We actually bought out the guys who founded the company.

Steve Adams: Oh, wow.

Brad Sykes: Okay. At some point, we partnered with Sealy betting company. Yep. And in, in O2, uh, we had an opera we had an opportunity to sell at which we did.

Steve Adams: Okay.

Brad Sykes: So we, we sold the company in O2. Not too sure what we were going to do from that point on. And probably about a year later, same group of guys came to me and said, hey, we've got another.

Steve Adams: Were you a little quicker this time?

Brad Sykes: Uh, no, I was not.

Steve Adams: Funny.

Brad Sykes: I thought, you know, you run hard for five or six years.

Steve Adams: Oh, yeah.

Brad Sykes: You're tired.

Steve Adams: I know. I. I don't know if you know that I was in franchising and built. I did not a 50 store pet store chain.

Brad Sykes: No kidding.

Steve Adams: Yeah. Yeah. And so I. Every, uh, every one of those is a lease negotiation. It's site location analysis. It's hiring people. It's a grand opening. Yeah.

Brad Sykes: So I get it. Well, we, we bought the, uh, franchise rights to Whataburger.

Steve Adams: Okay.

Brad Sykes: Which is based in Texas. When we, when we, when we bought our franchise, that was in O2. Um, we were going to be the largest franchisee at that time. We were buying for Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa DMA. Oh, wow. Which was about 128 restaurants total. Wow. And, uh, raised the. Raise the capital to do that. And, um, so anyway, we hit the ground running in O3, opened our first store, I think in late 03 04. Well, you know, I mean, it's, uh, you know, finding the dirt and doing your dirt.

Steve Adams: There's a huge process and you got to run that wheel over and over and over and over. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brad Sykes: But as you know, in 0678 got weird. The bottom, the bottom dropped out. And I. I don't know what our final number. We were probably 50 cents on the dollar for what we had in the real estate. Tied up in the real estate and the buildings and all that. And, you know, early on it looked great. We were opening, um, probably two restaurants a month.

Steve Adams: Wow.

Brad Sykes: And, uh, in fact, open. Oh, yeah. Well, I take that back. We probably opened. I think we opened 26 restaurants in 24 months, which is.

Steve Adams: That's a lot.

Brad Sykes: That's a pace it's hard to keep up with.

Steve Adams: And, well, that's. What is that, 20. That's probably what, 1500 people you had to hire?

Brad Sykes: Oh, yeah.

Steve Adams: Easy.

Brad Sykes: Easily. Our openings were a hundred plus people, uh, day one. So you're. Anyway, it was, it was a good experience. Uh, it was, it was a painful experience, Steve. Uh, I got to tell you, uh, when things were going great, it was great. Yep. When things were not going great, it was stressful.

Steve Adams: Yep.

Brad Sykes: And dig in. Yeah. And you know, we did well in one business, turned around, started another one, and really by 07 we pretty much lost everything we put into it. And, um, so I was meeting with a guy this morning that I spent some time discipling. And I like to share kind of how God, uh, transforms us, how he sanctifies us. Yeah, yeah, clearly. He clearly does that through his word and through his spirit. But if we believe Romans 8:28, that God causes all things to work together for good, uh, for those who are called and for those who love Him.

Steve Adams: Yep.

Brad Sykes: What we don't like is Romans 8:29, which, which defines the purpose. His purpose is that we would be conformed to the image of Christ.

Steve Adams: Yeah. Right.

Brad Sykes: So I like to ask people, Steve, what's he going to do to conform you into the image of Christ? And for me it was failure. It was, it was struggles in business, uh, that really, I would say God brought to the surface idols in my own life that I would have never known were there had he not done that. And so, yeah, I can look back years later and say, praise God. Praise God for those opportunities or those times, those seasons.

Steve Adams: Absolutely.

Brad Sykes: That were painful. Uh, I don't want to go through it again. But you know what? I've, I've loosened my grip on some of those things and said, God, whatever you need to do to transform me to conform me into the image of Christ, I am totally open for. So that's a little bit of, that's a little bit of my business, uh, background.

Steve Adams: Background.

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