Salvation through Sawdust with special guest Lawrence Sheffield

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Ty sits down with a beacon of goodness and redemption; Lawrence Sheffield. Together, they talk about bringing the power of grace and hard work together to redeem our broken societal image of vocation. Lawrence takes us on the journey that looked like a detour, but has become his way to bring the kingdom to the marketplace. So stop on in, grab a cup of coffee, and find out why this fireman is selling firewood for a higher purpose.

Insights & Inspirations

  • Ty Maloney (03:45): if there’s a golden thread of manufactured good of Magic City, you’re actually providing a platform of meaningful work for guys, and it’s creating an impact there in your city. 
  • Lawrence Sheffield (04:04): I appreciate that the stats are against us when we go to work every day. The stats say that 70% of the American workforce, according to Gallup, is completely unengaged when they go to work
  • Lawrence Sheffield (05:37): Yeah, we rebranded. So for the listeners out there, magic City Woodworks was the first name of the organization, and we primarily did woodworking over the years, especially through Coronavirus, realized that we actually want to be in the manufacturing business more than we want be in the kind of onesy, twosy, woodworking world. So we got into the word found genesis of where God was creating our world and everything in it, and everything he created, he said it was good. So that’s a nod to Genesis, but it’s also manufactured good is it’s a call to everyone that works there.
  • Lawrence Sheffield (08:04): We hire 18 to 35 year old unemployed men that are stuck in a rut. There’s a reason that they have found themselves unemployed, and we invite them into a full work week of working with people that care a lot about ’em. We teach skills, but a lot of people kind of want us to be this woodworking school or metalworking school, and that’s not what we do. We’re doing what any hopefully solid leaders would do, which is invite people and help ’em grow. We want our apprentices to find out what God has for ’em in their life. So we really do two things When they come in, we find out where they’re at, we meet ’em where they’re at, and either we evangelize through life on life or we disciple, but through life on life interactions. 
  • Lawrence Sheffield (11:15): 70% number that I talked about, I mean, again, look this stuff up, reports, people are being evangelized on a daily basis. That work sucks and people shouldn’t enjoy work. And so we’re having to undo a lot of that stuff with people. If they come in at 30 years old, they’ve had five, six jobs, especially with millennial generation, gen Z generation, there’s a lot of quick job experiences they’ve had. So every day we walk in, we have this thing called 10, the 10 things that requires zero talent and one of ’em being on time, another’s body language, another one’s being coachable. 
  • Lawrence Sheffield (12:02): we have a soft skills and a hard skills training and play to our apprenticeship. And it is very in depth on me finding out where they’re at and then pouring gas on their strengths because we want them to be in their strengths. And then also helping them identify where they need people around them. And so we have a measured way of doing that.
  • Lawrence Sheffield (13:17): the trade stuff is great, but our guys, we could put ’em in a hundred different scenarios and the training we’re giving ’em, we think they’ll be successful. 
  • Lawrence Sheffield (14:51): for us, the nonprofit is our legal structure, but we talk, act a small for-profit company and then when people give, they give towards new initiatives or for better tools so that we can be more productive.
  • Lawrence Sheffield (16:51): I started, I had no business background. I, no, I was a brand new Christian. It was 2013 when we started and somebody told me we should be a nonprofit. And I was like, game on. We’re going to be a nonprofit. What do we need to do? Let’s get it done. And so through then I get involved with Praxis in 2016 and I’m hearing all these well formulated thoughts and strategies from my peers that I was going through with. And there, they’ve got their Harvard MBAs and I’m thinking, man, I’m in the wrong room. So there was very little thought to how that went into starting a nonprofit versus a for-profit. I knew I just wanted to change the game for some men and I knew God was going to work on me the entire time. And so here we are you 10 years later and last year, maybe the year before, I really struggled with that to be quite honest. I was watching friends start to sell companies and I’m hearing all these people talk about all this strategy and of getting at acquired. And me and the Lord really spend a lot of time together and I’ve been learning a lot about stewardship. A couple stories that impacted me for those that are getting hung up on it, the Alan Barnhart story.
  • Lawrence Sheffield (19:10): people need to just really make sure that their heart’s in the right place. And if you’re in a for-profit, great rock on, make money, do good with your money. Biggest theory, treat your employees well if you’re in a for nonprofit, great. Do the same thing,
  • Ty Maloney (20:48): so often we’re so coerced with the idea of making money using charisma, whatever it may be to make, and he had this analogy where he clapped right by clap and I come together, but really quick force, I can make a sound in my hands, but that’s impact. But influence is different. Jesus didn’t use money or charisma.
  • Ty Maloney (21:36): friendships require proximity and requires relationship, requires tension and those things over time.
  • Ty Maloney (22:53): We might can make impact with short term impact, but this different than influence, that’s generational change.
  • Lawrence Sheffield (23:57): we are measuring everything off the triple bottom line. So economic, social, and spiritual capital. And so we form our KPIs through those three types of capital and we do it on a yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly basis.
  • Lawrence Sheffield (30:18): I spend so much of my time with our shop foreman because every day there’s a risk for us to turn into just another workshop and just having heart level conversations is the lifeblood for us to make sure that it’s getting driven all the way through

Information & Links

Closing Questions

What have you read that we should read?

  • The Toyota Way by Jeffery Liker
  • Check out Paul Akers mentioned by Lawrence below:
    • Well I’ll say this, lean is tied to stewardship and it’s tied to respecting people. And so the Toyota Way is all about how Toyota Motors got their start and how they learned and adapted their knowledge from the American assembly line and just how they’ve created a workforce and changed the game. And it’s really interesting how they break it down and there’s a kind of Americanized version and the guy, it’s a guy named Paul Acres that started Fast Cap, kind of get a niche Cabin street product, but they make all kind of things. He’s basically got a training library to help people think about being more efficient, more effective, empower your employees to think that’s something. And it’s pretty interesting. I think we could apply it to a lot of industries and even the way I lay out my garage, it’s really helped me think about being more efficient.

Who do you know that we should know?

Where have you been that we should go?

  • Go somewhere where there’s no service and download the podcast before you go. How about that? But no jokes aside, man. Get out there, get away from your phone. I need to do that more and more. We’ve got a one year old and a four year old and life is crazy and work’s always there. Just remembering to abide with God and get alone and just be quiet man. Just feel like I’m rushing through life most of the time.