4:27– What is Habitology?
14:23– A word of encouragement
17:00– What is a really hard decision you have had to make in business? And how did your faith play in that decision?
22:34– What do you wish someone had told you in your first year of being a faith driven entrepreneur?
23:57– The 4:23 Question
Life balance is at the heart of Dr. Corbo’s purpose and passion. A serial entrepreneur and the founder of the Habitology Series, Frank’s mission is to encourage, motivate and inspire men to be all they were created by God to be in the five main areas of their lives; personal, business, financial, relational, and spiritual. Expanding healthcare driven systems has been at the center of Frank’s business related passion, and he’s had the privilege of working with over 2,000 providers and their staff from across the country and around the world.
In addition, Dr. Corbo is the CEO of EduCare Publishing, LLC, and was the co-founder of Fitness Innovative Technologies, Chiropractic Wellness and Fitness Magazine, and Chiropractor’s Blend nutrition company. Frank and his wife Wynanda met while working in Milan, Italy, and have been married for 27 years. They have three beautiful daughters and one granddaughter.
Full Transcript:
Ray: Well, hello, everyone. This is a Ray Hilbert. I am your host here at Bottom Line Faith. We would like to welcome you back for another episode of the program where we get the incredible privilege and opportunity to travel across the country. Sometimes that’s live, face to face, and sometimes that is through an interview over the telephone or internet. And that’s what we’re doing today. But this is the program where we get to travel around the country. And we interview some of the most incredible and amazing marketplace leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, athletes, celebrities and such. And these are all individuals who love Jesus and are intentionally seeking to live out their faith in the marketplace. The analogy we use here at Bottom Line Faith is this is where we’re going to lift the hood and we tinker around in the engine of Christian leadership, that as we’re talking with these leaders, we love to learn how they think, how they plan, how they succeed, how they fail, and how their faith is integrated and drives all of those factors in their work, life, and career. And so if this is your first time joining us here at Bottom Line Faith, thank you for joining the program. We’d like to encourage you to check out our website, bottomlinefaith.org. There are dozens and dozens of other interviews there at the website. You can also scroll down and subscribe. Become a regular subscriber of the program. Whether you use Google or iTunes or Stitcher or whatever your podcast platform is, you can subscribe there. I’d also love it; I would be so grateful if you would do a review after you listen to today’s program. Go online and let us know your comments and your thoughts on our conversation today. That really helps us get the word out about Bottom Line Faith to others. We are thrilled to welcome to today’s episode of Bottom Line Faith all the way from the Dallas, Texas area, we have Dr. Frank Corbo, who is the founder of Habitology. He is an author and a keynote speaker; he is also the CEO of Educare Publishing, and he was the co-founder of Fitness Innovative Technologies, Chiropractic Wellness and Fitness magazine, and Chiropractor’s Blend nutritional company, Dr. Frank Corbo, welcome to Bottom Line Faith.
Frank: Thank you, Ray, for that kind introduction. As I shared with you on our previous call, when we were getting to know each other, I’ve been a fan and admirer of Truth At Work, and it’s really an honor and privilege for me to be here. I did want to share one small disclaimer for your listeners before we get rolling if that’s okay with you.
Ray: Yeah.
Frank: And that is that I am unequivocally the runt of your podcast litter. As you know, there’s always a runt of the litter, and that’s without a doubt me. I’ve listened to dozens and dozens of your podcasts with some of my guys that I look up to, the Michael Hyatts and Mark Whitakers, and just recently listened to a Guy East podcasts, and these guys are incredible giants. And because I know authenticity is so important to you, I wanted to let your listeners know right from the start that I’m just a regular guy. So that’s my disclaimer.
Ray: Well, first of all, thank you for listening to the Bottom Line Faith program. It’s always an encouragement to know that the program is reaching the lives and work careers of so many great leaders, and so I’m honored to have you and thank you for being on the program today. And so Frank, I want to just put out here on the program here, your website is habitology.org. So let’s start with our conversation today. Why don’t you help us understand, what is Habitology?
Frank: Well, you know, Habitology is a faith-based approach of balancing a man’s life in the major categories of personal, business, financial, relational and spiritual. And really it was a project that God gave me when I was at one of the biggest crossroads in my life. I was in a position that I was a senior vice president of expansion for a company that I was asked to help grow and it was one of those jobs where it had all the perks, all the money, all the things you could ask for and I really was good at what I was doing but from the start, God let me know that that’s not what he had for me. But because it was so comfortable and such a great opportunity and because I was in quotation marks the token Christian, I felt like I was making an impact. I really wasn’t listening to God’s admonition, and it’s quite interesting. Today’s the first of the month and on the day of the month, you know, the first I read Proverbs chapter 1, the second of the month, Proverbs chapter 2, like many of your listeners and I’ve done that for years and in Proverbs chapter 1, when I had taken this job, right from the start I was challenged by God because in the end of chapter 1 it talks about if you would listen to my rebuke, if only you would have listened to me, I would have opened up my heart to you, but because you didn’t, I have to discipline you because I love you. And literally for three years, actually three and a half years, I’m looking my Bible now as I take notes in the margins like many do and I can see the first time that God through the Holy Spirit convicted me was in April of 2005. When I finally took God at His word, which was April of 2009, he took out of my hand this particular job that I was involved in and put into my hand Habitology. And I’ll never forget it because it’s something, one of those like benchmarks of your life where God speaks to us.
So clearly he drew a line in the sand because he can every month. For 36 months, I came across Proverbs chapter 1. And even if I missed a couple months, it was at least 20, 25 times he said, This is not what I got for you. I got something else. But because I didn’t trust God enough to let go of it, I kept bumping up against it. But finally, one day, I’ll never forget, it was that April of 2009, God drew a line in the sand for me. He said, today is the day. Today is the day you’re going to decide whether you trust me or whether you trust man. But I am done Frank, having these monthly conversations with you. I’ve encouraged you all the way along that I have something better for you. But you don’t trust me enough. And that’s, that’s when I finally came to the conclusion. I’m, I’m a guy like, you know, like, like most other guys, I’m slightly hard-headed. But when God talks to me this clearly like he did there. I knew it was the day that I had to resign. And I did. And I resigned and I’ll never forget, I was writing a letter, it was a sterile letter, right? That I resign today, blah, blah, blah, right? But God said that’s not enough. You have to tell your friend, we were best of friends, our family vacationed together. This is three and a half years of growing together. And you know, again, he considered me one of his best friends. And so God said, you can’t just write this letter. You have to tell him why. And that was the hard part because the why was his pride. And so God said to me, you have to share specifically what it is. So I wrote him in the letter and I said to him, and I used Daniel chapter 4, and I used I know, you know, you’re going to eat grass and dive in a little bit too hard. But the good part of Daniel chapter 4 is the end and I wove in that end, I wove in the encouragement, and I encouraged him. And I said you’re not just going to fall into the pride problem with eat grass and die.
But the good news is that if we repent, God can return to us and give us more than we had when we started, and that’s what I encouraged my good friend to do. And so I wrote the letter, and then I was getting ready to push the button and email, and God said, nope, not by letter. You gotta tell him personally. I was like, come on, God. And he said yes, I’m not laying off the hook. You can’t just communicate something of this nature in a letter. That’s two dimensional; we need a 360-degree full expression of what this letter actually means because I want you to be an encourager for him, not a discouragement. And so that day, I made plans to meet, and fortunately, we had an event right here in Dallas, and I met with him. I shared the news, and then I did send a letter because I wanted him to have a token of remembrance, not anything more than the part in Daniel because he was not a believer, but I wanted him to have God’s Word in that letter of resignation, because I was hopeful that maybe not overnight, but over time, I was hopeful that God would use that in some way, shape, or form to draw him to himself. So at that point, I let go of that position. By the way, I had literally no financial plan made. And so I let go of that, and then God put this opportunity where he basically allowed me to do what I love to do. I’ve known since I can know anything that God made me together specifically to be an encourager. Honestly, I just can’t help myself. I just I know what God has done in my own life and where he’s caught me out of the pit of hell. And I am so much like Saul before he became Paul as the chief of sinners and I always believe that what God did for me in my life, and then how he’s been so good to me and my family, I can’t help myself but to encourage men and that’s really the mission statement of Habitology is to encourage men to be all they were created by God uniquely and specifically to be, so that for the purpose that we can use that equipping use what we’ve been uniquely made to do and to accomplish for His glory. And as it says in John 15 that we will bear fruit and in bearing fruit, we would point to Jesus as his disciples. So hopefully that quasi-answered your question about what Habitology is. But in a nutshell, it’s encouraging men to be what God created them to be.
Ray: Well, what an amazing story. And I’ve written some notes here. I just want to, and I will come back to like what you do in and through your organization of Habitology, but I want to just touch base on a couple of elements of the story there. You said something that really stood out to me. You had no financial plan B, and yet you knew, at least as you said, as best you can know what God was calling you to do, and be that if you didn’t do this, you were being disobedient. Is that fair to say?
Frank: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, disobedient. Yes. Very clearly disobedient because again, when he just threw that line in the sand, he made it so clear, he said, it’s me or man. And as we know in in Proverbs, what it talks about is that the fear of man can prove to be a snare. And so that’s in Proverbs 29:25. But whoever trusts in the Lord will be kept safe. And that’s the continuum if you will, right. Fear or faith, are we gonna take God at His word and know that, although I don’t know what tomorrow holds, I know that he holds tomorrow. He’s God, and he’s got good plans for me. Actually, he has plans for me that are better than what I can even imagine. And one of our favorite scriptures, of course, is Ephesians 3:20 right? To he who is able to give us immeasurably more than we can ever ask, imagine, or hope for, to Him be the glory. And so, so yes, I knew. In fact, I knew for almost three years, three and a half years that I was being disobedient to God, that I wasn’t trusting him with this very important decision. So yeah, disobedience, I was, I was getting disobedient. And, and again, he clarifies it so much. He said, If only you would have listened to my rebuke, right? This isn’t rebuke. This is pretty clear, you know, I will pour out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you, but I didn’t. But what I love is in many of God’s passages, you know, although I was rebuked at the end, I love in verse 33, it goes on to say, but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease away from harm. And so although I knew in this area of my life, I was fearful, God used, and by the way, there were many things during those three and a half years that God allowed me to experience that he then used in other opportunities, but yes, I was not being, I was being clearly disobedient.
Ray: That’s powerful. And I’m just thinking through this. And not only that, you had to do this and walk away from this very prominent career, and I’m sure, financial sustainability and all those sorts of things into this new chapter. But then God was saying that you can’t communicate this to your best friend through an email or through a letter but also face to face. So I’m seeing a pattern here that God was calling you to the next level of obedience and the next level of obedience. So here’s what I’d like to ask you to do for me, Frank. I would imagine that right now there is a person who loves Jesus and they’re a follower of Christ. And yet there’s something in their life there’s something in their business maybe God has been putting on their heart to start a new venture or launch a new product line or get rid of an area of their business or but there’s something that has held them back from walking in full obedience to what they know God has been putting on their heart. What I’d like you to do is frame up a word of encouragement to our listener who right now they know God is speaking and God is speaking to them through this conversation about obedience. What would you have to say to them?
Frank: God loves you so much, and he has such a great plan for you that he has knit you and equipped you specifically for greatness. And although sometimes you can’t see it, because you’re so focused on earthly meanings, if you take a step back and use the view that God has for you, it’s like God saying, why would you hold on to $1 when I have millions for you, right? He’s saying to you, trust me. And if you trust me, then you will stop going in the ways that you’re going in because that’s fear, and when you overcome your fear, God will open up the world to you. The easiest thing for God to do is to redirect the resources of this world to you. If you believe Genesis 1:1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, he can do anything. He can certainly redirect money and resources to you. All we have to do is take that, take that step of faith. And as Martin Luther King said, even if you don’t see where the staircase leads, take that first step of faith, and God will take care of the rest. I believe because God has demonstrated in my life over and over and over again that God can do anything in our lives if we give them the opportunity to do it.
Ray: It’s a great word. Thank you for that Frank. So, folks, we are speaking with Dr. Frank Corbo. He is from the Dallas, Texas area he is the founder of Habitology; he’s an author and keynote speaker, got resources, tools, can come speak to your business, to your organization, but check him out online at habitology.org. So Frank, let me ask you this, as you look back at you’ve had, you’re a serial entrepreneur, you’re like me, you know, you’ve had adventures that God has called you into, businesses, and I know some things succeed more than others, and so on and so forth. But as you look back over the course of your career, would you share with us maybe a really hard decision that you needed to make in business and in your career? And what role did your faith play in that decision?
Frank: Yeah, certainly, in addition, I’m a serial entrepreneur. We’re always challenged with very difficult decisions. And I had a very difficult decision early in my entrepreneurial career, that one of my partners, we just didn’t see the world the same way. And so I decided to move on, and faith and my decisions usually go hand in hand. And so that was such a tough decision because I was walking away from something that I started, something that I founded, something that was doing very, very well economically. But God was asking me again, to move into a different direction. So I paid the dumb tax, made some really not good decisions in my business career. That one, I moved ahead of God’s timing, was a very difficult choice that I made, I moved ahead God’s timing; I paid some dumb tax, it cost me a lot of money by anybody’s standards. But you know, the beautiful thing is, is when we make these decisions and these choices, we’re trying to do the best that we can. I mean, I don’t remember any man ever telling me that he woke up in the morning thinking, today’s the day he’s going to destroy his life. It just doesn’t happen. So the real key is keeping a sure account with God and saying, God, I’m going to do the best I can with this decision. Please protect me and protect the company, protect my family through it. And if I’m not going in the right direction, please tell me as quick as possible to say, you know, that’s not what I want you to do. So that early decision was a difficult one because I can’t help myself. Unfortunately, every business that I go into, I’m involved personally, and sometimes it’s hard for me to separate who I am as a person and a friend from the business. So that was a difficult one again because it was me having to step away from not only a friend but a neighbor, very difficult business decision.
But what’s so interesting Ray, and because you can relate to the serial entrepreneurism, I almost see a serial entrepreneur and even an employee if they change their place of work, almost like a meandering stream, if you will, and the turns in the stream are where the pain is because you got to change direction. And that requires energy. And sometimes it can be painful. But what I’ve learned is that God can teach you in those times and in those moments where he’s changing the direction of my life. And when I also learned is that if I listened to him sooner rather than later, then it’s not such a sweeping change. And I don’t have the Titanic at risk of hitting an iceberg. But in the end those tough decisions that we all face, they can, even if they have a little bit of pain, if we go back and debrief it, if we review it, and if we ask God to help us to understand if I’m ever in a situation again, how do I make a better decision? And also, what can I learn from it? And what I’ve also found as kind of a one of those God grace things is that sometimes he will put you in a position where you meet somebody, and then God uses that individual in an amazing way. And in fact, that’s just what he did in that time when I was with the group for three and a half years, and God was saying, Hey, I got something else for you. He allowed me to meet and work with. And so it’s just so like God, right? Because he loves us. Even if we’re maybe not doing exactly what he has for us, he still loves us enough to give us a blessing. And I’m not saying disobedience gets a blessing, but love gives blessings, right?
Like our kids, even though they’re not, you know, doing exactly what we want them to, we still love them and want what’s best for them. So in that one journey, God allowed me to be introduced to a man named Jay Abraham. He’s one of the greatest strategic growth coaches in the world. And we hired him to be our growth coach, and he helped us to grow from 3 million to 7 million to 14 million to 25 million over so many years. And so I had an opportunity to meet and work with him one hour a week. He charged $5,000 an hour as a growth coach, and I spent three and a half years working with him, and it was a great blessing. And I use those things that I learned in business expansion after leaving that particular job opportunity. So maybe tangentially I answered that question. But hopefully, the key crib note from that is that we’re going to come up against tough choices and decisions in a workplace. Do our best to lay those things out to God beforehand, and then listen to him all the way through. Don’t overlook the red flags. You know, we have this wishful thinking and these decisions that we kind of want to make; seek wise counsel so that you can really have somebody to keep accountable to and in the end, really trust God with the outcome and results.
Ray: That’s great. Thank you for investing time with us today. And I just have two more questions if I could get to those, okay?
Frank: Sure.
Ray: The first question that I’d like to ask as my final two is, what do you wish someone had told you in your first year of being a faith-driven entrepreneur? Going back to the early stages of your entrepreneurial life, what’s the advice you would like for them to pass along to in that first year?
Frank: Business is not for the faint of heart. Treated it a real business. You know, my greatest challenge is I’m so relational, I err on that side and, and maybe not as strong on my business acumen. So seek wise, Godly counsel and by the way, this is going to be a tough thing to say, but when you’re seeking wise counsel, sometimes we tend to seek friends in wise counsel, and it’s difficult for friends to give true business council. So you really have to sometimes, I don’t want to say, pay for business training or business coaching, but sometimes you actually have to seek wise counsel that can guide you and direct you in building a real business, not just wishful thinking. So you know, the stick-to-it-iveness, and getting business wise counsel is very, very important that I wish I had found out about that a little bit earlier on.
Ray: I wrote that down. That’s a gold, gold, gold nugget right there. Fantastic. Thank you. And so I always end our program with the same question. And it’s based out of Proverbs 4:23, where Solomon writes, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it determines the course of your life.” And so Frank, what I’d like you to do, as we wind down our time together here at Bottom Line Faith, I’d like you to just imagine for a moment that you are nearing the end of your time this side of eternity, and you have a chance to gather your family, your friends and your loved ones, and you now have the opportunity to pass along the single most important piece of advice that you would want them to take with them the rest of their lives. So if you would do that, for our audience here, fill in the blank for us, Frank, above all else…
Frank: Guard your mind, because I believe that your mind is the connection to your heart. And I think that that connection is a bridge, and that bridge is belief. And what we believe in our mind, we bring into and allow into our heart. And this could be either good things or not so good things. And so that’s why we’re encouraged to take every thought captive, right, into our mind. And what I love about Corinthians is, 2 Corinthians, it says, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against us. And we take these thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. Because we have to take God at His word and allow that word into our mind. And so we have to protect that mind. And the mind is where the battlefield is. See the mind is where the adversary comes in, and he wants to steal, kill, and destroy. But he does that to our mind through these little lies that he tells us. So if we will erect a hedge of protection of the strongest angels of heaven, and we ask God to protect our mind only allow in those things, right? When we say guard, guard means protect.
So the way I envision my mind, what I pray for daily is for God to erect a protection around my mind, and only allow the things into my mind and into my heart that he wants, and protect me from the hand of the adversary, and then lead me and guide me today. And my guess is that we’ll make good use of our time, our talent, and our treasure, and when we look back from the end of the road which we’re all come to, we can look back without those regrets of spending time or doing things of a business nature and we’ll really look at the things that we were able to do of significance which if I can end with my greatest fear, my greatest fear is that I don’t accomplish the exact purpose and plan for which God created me to accomplish, and I protect my mind more, God will allow the things in that he wants better and they’ll be nurtured and grow, and by God’s amazing grace, in some small way I might actually bear fruit, fruit that lasts and show myself to be his disciple.
Ray: Great great great answer to that question you know, really about guarding our mind and as we’ve heard before, it’s garbage in, garbage out. And we really are a product of the people we hang around with the things we ingest into our hearts and spirits and minds. And I think that’s just great stuff. Frank, wow. I’ve got just some wonderful notes about God’s obedience and calling, seeking wise counsel, being the best business advice that you could pass along and not necessarily from your friend or friends but from those who really are knowledgeable and experts in the area that you need to grow in your business. We’ve talked about that fear of man proving to be a snare; we’ve talked about welcoming God’s rebuke into our lives so that we can know his will for us and obedience. You have given us just an amazing storage chest of great principles and truths today here at Bottom Line Faith. I can’t thank you enough. Thank you for being on the program today.
Frank: It’s my pleasure. Thank you for inviting me, Ray.
Ray: Folks, we have been learning and hearing from Dr. Frank Corbo. You can learn more about him and his work at Habitology, the books and resources, keynote speaking, and so forth that he has available; go to habitology.org. Well, folks, another terrific episode here at Bottom Line Faith, the program where we just like today, we get an opportunity to hear from amazing Christ-following business and marketplace leaders across the country. If you’re not a regular subscriber and this is your first time checking out Bottom Line Faith, thank you for doing so. But we’d love it, we would absolutely love it if you’d go to our website at bottomlinefaith.org, become a regular subscriber to the program. And also, if you would be kind enough, take two minutes and just offer up a review from the conversation today with Dr. Frank Corvo. Let us know your thoughts; that will help us to get the word out around Bottom Line Faith. You know, as I get a chance to travel around the country, it is encouraging that more and more people are hearing these conversations. More and more people are being encouraged in their faith by hearing from thought leaders and experts such as Dr. Frank Corbo. So folks, until next time, I am your host here, Ray Hilbert, encouraging you to faithfully live out your faith in the marketplace. God bless. We’ll see you next time.