Is Jesus really the CEO of your business—or just in name only?

Today's conversation with Karl Diffenderfer, coach for coaches and author, challenges us to move beyond the label and into the reality of surrendering our business to God.

Karl started a marketing company at 24 and sold it at 32. During those years, clients came in to talk about logos but ended up sharing the deepest parts of their hearts. He realized God had given him a gift for discernment, so he became a coach. He's now done over 10,000 coaching sessions.

His biggest lesson? He was burning out doing everything God told him to do—until God showed him a picture. Karl was pushing ahead, trying to drag God along in the yoke instead of going at God's pace.

God gave him four statements that changed everything: Slow down. Go at my pace. Do what I say. Trust me.

Karl learned that success isn't about revenue or impact—it starts in his relationship with the Lord. Spending time in God's Word each day became his true success criteria. Everything else flows from that.

The challenge: We can't educate people beyond their level of obedience. If you're not sowing time into client acquisition, you won't reap clients. God's principles apply to everything.

Redeem Your Business Today by the Following:

How can we honor God in our business?

1. Slow down enough to hear God's voice. Five practices create space: time in the Word, worship, prayer, journaling, and the body of believers. Your job isn't productivity—it's diligence. Results belong to God.
2. Walk in humility, not pride. Surrender isn't something you can work on—you have to lay it at His feet and let Him be in charge.

One challenge from today:

1. Are you spending time in God's Word every day? Don't read it to become a better Christian—read it to know Him better. The Word is the only book where the Author shows up and changes you just by being there.

More About Karl Diffenderfer

Website: www.HigherImpact.me

Turnkeycoachingsystem.com

More About David Schmidt

Free Resource: What God Says About Business: 5 Uncommon Truths for the Modern Business

Subscribe to the RBT Weekly Newsletter for weekly simple, practical, and Biblical steps to help you build a thriving business in a way that honors God.

Newsletter also comes with Bible verses for business success for you to read, apply, and be inspired by.

Book a call: Get Unstuck and Move Forward

Website: redeemingbusinesstoday.com

LinkedIn

Donate to the Show

Mentioned in this episode:

Leadership GPS: Christian Business Coaching

Are you looking to integrate your faith and business but don't know where to start, book a time to discover if Christian business coaching and training might be right for you. If you are dissatisfied with your current rate of improvement, desire a clearer vision of what God says about business, or even what those first steps may look like, let's talk.

Initial GPS Coaching Call

What God Says About Business: 5 Uncommon Truths for Modern Business

If you want to go deeper in your walk with God and integrate your faith and business this is the tool to make it happen. God has laid out the path to success without the regrets and emptiness that come with success the world's way. Download your FREE pdf resource today. A 10-minute investment of your time will return a lifetime of transformation.

What God Says About Business

Karl Diffenderfer

Luke 6 46 says, Jesus said, why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not the things that I say? And I always think that's so telling because if you call Jesus Lord, you should be listening to him. And I guess the topic for today is that many Christian business owners say that God owns my business or Jesus is the CEO of my business. And my question is, what does that look like? And is that real or is that a name only? Is it because it could be just, I talk. ⁓

that say God is my CEO, I follow God all that stuff. So today I brought on Carl Diffenderfer, he's a coach for coaches, author and a leading organization of the Pennsylvania U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce. And we're gonna talk about what does it look like to have Jesus as your CEO of your business. So Carl, welcome. And to start off today, what is one way that you have found to honor God in your business?

that others may not know about.

Hmm. Well, it says in scripture will be known by our fruit. ⁓ And so I think a lot of people ⁓ separate like ⁓ different elements of business from ⁓ from their faith walk. Like ⁓ and so to me, I'm constantly evaluating my fruit in my business saying, OK, am I honoring the Lord inside in my heart?

And then obviously out of that, the fruit shows from what's going on in my heart. And so I think that's one of the biggest things that God's taught me about leadership, about communication, about people, about running my business. It ⁓ really starts in here inside my heart.

Absolutely. And what I've noticed is that whatever's good for your faith is good for your business too. I mean, it goes hand in hand. It's not different things. Carl, give us a little background of how God has led you in business to where you are today and with the work you're currently doing.

correct.

Yeah. Um, so I started a business when I was 24. I was a worship leader before that and didn't like, I loved working in the church, please hear me. But, um, as the worship leader, I just felt like I could be more entrepreneurial. Uh, and you really can't do that inside the church always. And so ended up, um, kind of out of a series of small God, God events was able to start a business. Um, and, um, out of that.

grew the business and my wife and I actually worked in the business together and I was able to sell the business when I was 32. And so we were award-winning company clients all over the world. It was, was insane. And out of that, you know, during that, like I missed the, the ministry part of church, the part of discipling and working on people's hearts and

And what I found was like in my, it was a marketing company. so like, found myself meeting with people talking about their logo, their website or whatever, but oftentimes people would end up sharing like the deepest parts of their heart, their hardest experiences in their lives. And, and I didn't want to become a counselor. ⁓ but I knew that God had given me a gift for discernment and helping people. And, and so, ⁓ when I sold the business, I started studying coaching.

Hmm, interesting.

and ⁓ developed a coaching practice. We're working on scaling up to 127 kingdom-minded coaches. And I've done over 10,000 coaching sessions now and really have worked over the last few years on building curriculum to teach and train other people the amazing things that God taught me through all those coaching sessions. So.

Yes, because you learn. You start with your curriculum, but you learn as you go too, as you put things into practice and all that. ⁓ Carl, so Christians say, Jesus is my CEO of my business. And I don't want to come across as legalist or anything, but what does that look like for you in your business? What does that look like?

Yeah.

⁓ so in business, ⁓ obviously I think there's many facets to this. think I would start with stewardship and, look at where, what, what do I define success by? Is it how much revenue we generate? Is it, how many people we impact? it, what is it? And as time is going by, I've come to the spot where I realized that success really.

starts in my relationship with the Lord. That's if I were to do one thing for the rest of my life, spending time with God each day in His word would be my success criteria. And, but then out of that, He's able to teach and train and guide me in the ways that I need to go. And I think the reason I've come to that is that I believe that we're spiritual beings with a body attached. ⁓ Yet we kind of function the other way around.

Right. And so I tend to, and I used to live in the natural and then say, Oh, Hey God, what do I do? What do think I should do about this? Um, but I had already in my heart decided what I was going to do. So was like, Hey God, what do you think about me doing this? I, this is what I'm going to do. Do you agree with that? And, and so I wasn't really putting him first. wasn't hearing his voice as to what he wanted me to do. And so now I really function more on the other side. And then.

Okay.

bring it back over into the natural. ⁓ And so, yeah, I'll say that for starters. We can keep going from there, but that would be the one thing that I look at.

Okay, the stewardship thing. ⁓ So do you have any, I mean, obviously this seems to be a theme in your life and you try to do this throughout your businesses. Do you have a story about why having Jesus as your CEO is important? Do have a specific story at all?

Hmm.

Yeah. ⁓

Well, if we look at the parable of the talents, you know, we look at the, the, the guy that was, and I forget the exact amounts, but the guy had three talents and he doubled it to three, three more. And another guy had one and he doubled it to two. But the, guy that was the, the evil unfaithful servant was the one that buried it in the ground. And so I guess when I look at business, I have specific story. Let me think here.

⁓

I always go after the heart first in coaching. I look at, okay, what's really going on for this business owner? And through the years, I've had countless stories of like business owners who ⁓ were struggling in their marriage, ⁓ struggling with purity, were struggling with suicidal thoughts. And so the opportunity that I've had to do out of the business coaching in

meeting people where they're at and walking with them has just been astounding. And, you know, I'll never forget, there was one time I was on the phone with a guy and he was like, yeah, I've been thinking about committing suicide, Christian guy. And I said, have you told anybody this? He's like, no, I haven't told anybody. And so I was the first person he shared that with. Now, am I a counselor? No, I didn't try to help him fix it. I walked with him, but we got him to a therapist and

got him to talk to his wife and he wouldn't have done that if I wasn't in his life. And so I guess that's one of the stories that I think of.

Okay, very good. so having stories like that in your life that you see that God is using you not just for business, but they helping them in their everyday life. How has that shaped you to become the person you are today?

It's been quite a journey. ⁓ One of the things that I had to learn early on was that we're all on a journey together and each of us are at a different spot. And ⁓ I got pretty critical at one point towards people because I was like, they just don't get it. Like what is going on? And ⁓ God had to remind me that, you know, we're all on our own journey. And so I kind of had to meet them where they were at and love them where they were at.

And I tell people, if I don't believe in you, can't coach you. And so I really have to maintain that. I think the biggest thing that I've been learning over the last maybe year or two is this, ⁓ I'm calling it the change operating system. And it's really like this idea of, if I'm aware of something ⁓ and I'm just like, okay, I have this thing, I need to work on this thing.

I don't know, maybe know much about it, but I know this is here. Whatever it is, patience, could be anything. ⁓ Sales, HR, you name it, whatever. Okay, this thing, all right. So it starts with head knowledge. I need to increase my ⁓ knowledge about it, but then it also has to move into my heart. And that's where I really, my belief system aligns with that and my emotions align with that.

After that, I really need to begin to learn how to apply that thing and practice it and maybe perfect it. You know, maybe, probably not, but work at it. And then eventually it becomes a part of who I am. Like it's just part of my natural flow and I do it. ⁓ but really the true test is after that, can I teach others to do it? ⁓ and so I have this phrase that I say, you can't, you can't educate people.

beyond their level of obedience. And so coming back to your question, coming back to your question, I have been learning about obedience. ⁓ I want to become more like Christ and I can't force it on myself. Galatians 5 says, Holy Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience. And so ⁓ how can I...

Hmm, interesting.

abide with the Lord in a way that He changes who I am so that I can then be more obedient. And out of that obedience, the cool part is, is that's where the success lies. Even in the worldly standards, it helps you become more successful because people appreciate somebody that's willing to work on themselves.

Sure, yep. Obedience, I always tell my kids and things that the test of obedience is obeying it when it costs you something or when you don't agree. If I agree with you, it's not obedience. I mean, it is, but it's not the test of obedience. But Jesus, the test of obedience was in the garden when he said, Father, if there's any other way, let's do it, but not my will, but your will be done. It costs him something to obey God. ⁓

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, that's good. I agree.

⁓ But yeah, it's lessons learned along the way. You learn the smaller things and bigger things and bigger things. So it's like somebody said, it's like a muscle. You grow it, you strengthen your muscle, strengthen your obedience muscle and you can obey bigger things and get to know God better.

And just to add to that, think obedience is, are principles that God has put on creation that not every business owner is willing to apply. And, but then that's what holds them back. So if I run it, this happens all the time. I'll run into a business owner and it'll be like, man, I don't have clients. I don't know what to do. I need more business.

And I'll say, okay, well, how much time each week are you putting into client acquisition? Like, are you putting an hour a week or 10 or, and very often it's a big fat zero. They're like, ⁓ not, not a whole lot. And so the whole principle of, ⁓ sowing and reaping applies here. And so if you're not going to sow time and energy and effort into trying to find clients, you're not going to get clients. They're not just going to magically appear.

Mm-hmm.

And so these principles, ⁓ they go down to our core, but they also apply to everything we do.

Absolutely. No, that's good. That's good, not just for that, but for other things as well. ⁓ So you mentioned stewardship, know, being a good steward and basically it's your, what is your version of success kind of thing. What else? Digging a little deeper, ⁓ how do you make plans or projections in doing your business with Jesus as your CEO? What does that look like?

a good question. Yeah. So I believe there's five different ⁓ ways that I can communicate with the Father. And Jesus says that his sheep hear his voice. They know his voice. And so to me, if I'm not slowing myself down enough and quieting myself enough to be able to hear his voice, then ⁓ there's something wrong. And so for me, it's not picking up the Bible every day and just like, you know, reading, okay, I read this chapter. Okay, I'm done. Good. Let's go.

It's not that at all. It's more about slowing down and saying, okay, Lord, what do you have to share with me today? And so I have five different things that I believe are like the best actions we can take that create the space for God to be able to do that. And number one is time in the word, obviously. Number two is worship. Number three is prayer. Four is journaling and five is the body of believers.

church. ⁓ And so I look at my life and say, okay, am I doing these behaviors? ⁓ And then obviously I got to look at my heart. Am I surrendered to the Lord? Am I ⁓ walking in the identity that He has for me? And so as I do those things, then I'm able to connect with Him. I'm able to hear Him. And He really guides the vision then more than me just saying, I'm going to go here. I'm going to go this and do that. And

that really came out of a moment in time where I was burning out. ⁓ And the burnout was coming from me. Well, how do I describe this? I was doing everything God was telling me to do. was living in obedience and I was walking in faithfulness and love towards the Father. And yet I was burning out. And I was reading the whole passage, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And God said, hey,

you

Carl, how easy is my yoke right now? And I was like, not very, you know, and in that moment, God gave me the picture of the fact that it wasn't that like, oftentimes we think of if we're walking next to God with a yoke, ⁓ I'm going to be the one that's slower than he is. But in this case, I was actually pushing ahead and I was trying to drag him along. And I don't know if you can picture that, but dragging

Mm-hmm.

Interesting.

the God of the universe along. And in essence, what was happening was God wasn't going at my pace. ⁓ Well, I know, I know, I know, but in my heart, that's what was going on. And so it came down to, gave me ⁓ four different statements that have been part of my DNA since then, something that I just lived by. He said, slow down, go at my pace, do what I say.

You weren't going at his face. But yeah, I understand. I understand. Yeah.

And trust me. And so I've been practicing those things because it's where I'm at right now is exactly where God has wanted me my whole lifetime. And where I'm at tomorrow is still exactly where he's wanted me. He's in charge of the journey. It's his story. He's been writing it for thousands of years. I'm just a small piece of it. And my job is to be obedient with what he's given me to do.

Yeah, very good. I'm a product, I could be a productivity coach. don't promote myself as that, but I just, really good at time management. I've been productive, very time conscious my entire life, which is sad. I used to make lists of things to do when I was 10 years old on a Saturday morning. Eight to eight 10, I'll do this. Eight 10 to eight 20. So yeah, it's been with me a long time. I forgot what I was going with that. But anyway, doing things God's speed, you know.

that, yeah, oh, I know I was going with that. Productivity, in today's world, we're all so worried about being productive. What's the right thing? What's the one thing? What's the top most important thing we need to look at? And I finally realized a few months ago, it's like, you know what? Stop worrying about productivity. Just be diligent because the results belong to God. You know, we plant, we water, we don't cause the seed to grow.

God does. So our job is not, I mean, you should not waste time. You need to redeem your time, but it's not about being productive. It's about being diligent versus being lazy. Because the word productivity is not in the Bible because be diligent results belong to God. And so I found that very freeing for me. And so I have a hard time talking about being productive now, but it's just like, just be diligent in your work. So that's been a.

That's good.

Well, I think

when we look at it, I love that. That's spot on with the things that God's walked me through. We're not human doings, we're human beings. It doesn't say do still and know that I am God. It says be still. And so a lot of it is us really going at his pace. I don't know how else to say it, but just like, okay, Lord, I'm here. I want to connect with you. I want to be with you.

Sure.

Okay, Lord, I want to be obedient to the things that you want me to do today. And if that means praying for a lady in the grocery store or doing sales calls to reach out to people, whatever that means that I'm supposed to do, I'm going to do it.

Very good. Sometimes we help people out by telling them what not to do versus what to do, because sometimes what the things we tell them to do like, I can't do that. But if we tell them to keep away from certain things, I can do that. ⁓ So, have you, over your experience in helping other people, have you seen common mistakes or misconceptions that people have when they say, I'm gonna let Jesus lead my business?

Yeah. ⁓ you know, I think one of the key parts is surrender. ⁓ and surrender is a funny thing because we, ⁓ I don't know about you, but I'll give it to the Lord and then I'll take it back, know, and, but I don't always, I don't always realize I'm doing it. ⁓ and so, you know, the surrender really is, is a, a form of trust and it's saying, Lord, I'm going to trust.

Sure.

you with whatever the results are of my business, whether it's failure or success by the world standards, I'm going to trust that you will do exactly what you want to do through this. And that's hard to do, especially as you grow your business. know, when you get into millions of dollars in revenue, it's even harder. And so this, this concept of surrender, I think is, is very evasive for us. And

I think for me, the, the surrender part is a posture of my heart. And it's really, ⁓ I guess for me in the productivity end of things, but like you were talking about, I, ⁓ I pushed towards things, ⁓ because I want results. ⁓ but that's not always God's way. And so the surrender part was me allowing God to

work and move however he wanted within scenarios of any kind inside the business. And yeah, I think that's the, the surrender piece would be a big, big piece of all that. ⁓ Surrender is not something that you can work on though. ⁓ It really is. You laugh, but that's what we do. And so we have to ⁓ really bring it to the Lord and lay it at his feet.

and let him be in charge of it.

Yep, no, I've used that illustration before about giving things to God and then taking them back. It's like not supposed to do that. But it's not a great, it's a good illustration, but not perfect illustration. But when you have little children, your little children, they don't know how to tie their shoes. And it's impossible for them to tie their shoes. And you just go and you flip your hands around and tie a shoe just like that. That's the way it is with us and God with our problems.

Yeah.

It's like they're trying to tie the shoe and you don't know how. You just don't know how to tie it. But for God, it's like, big deal, I can tie the shoe. It's us trusting him and he can take care of things. The biggest, biggest problem we have to us is nothing to God. And we need to keep that remembering. And that's why surrendering is good because, say, I'm messing these shoelaces up, but I know you can fix them up.

Yeah. And actually to that, you just reminded me of just a really key part of surrender and that is, ⁓ humility. ⁓ you know, the, enemy wants, mean, his, reason the enemy felt was because of pride. ⁓ and so. Pride is, ever evasive. It's, it's sneaky. works its way in inside of our hearts and our lives. And so if I'm really operating in that trust relationship with the Lord, then

Hmm, sure.

My humility is going to be or my humility is going to be high. My pride is going to be low. And we can't allow that pride to creep back in. God will humble us, you know, and then we'll start to get proud again, then he'll humble us again, you know, and so let's just stay humble. ⁓

Absolutely, you're gonna either be

humiliated, if you're proud, he's gonna humiliate you, or you can just humble yourself, same position. You just humble yourself and go so much better because it's done voluntarily. ⁓ So Carl, that's all great. ⁓ Do you have any final party words to inspire or challenge my audience today?

Yep. Yep.

⁓ You know one of the things that I always when somebody brings any kind of problem to me, I don't care what the problem is I'm God's giving me amazing discernment and helping them but the first thing that I always ask them is are you spending time in God's Word every day and The reason I ask that is that you know the Word of God is the only Book that you can read where the author shows up

He's right there with you. And not only does he show up, but he begins to change you. And you don't have to do anything, but be there, connect with him, read his word. and, you know, interestingly, one time God said to me, he's like, Hey Carl, why do you read the Bible? And I was like, well, well duh, to become a better Christian. Like that's, that's what I thought in my mind. I said duh to God. And I hope he does. I hope he forgives me for that. But he said, Hey Carl, why don't you read it to get to know me better?

Hehehehehe

And, you know, and it says in scripture, David delighted in God's word. I delight in a Boston cream or a piece of pizza, but did I delight in God's word? Well, no. But I asked, Lord, help me delight in your word. And when I look at the fruit that he's been able to, to create in my life, I a hundred percent believe it came out of just my desire to be connected to him through his word.

Hmm.

Very good, thank you. I could talk a long time on that, but we don't have time. God's word is there for you to use and benefit from and it will change your life. Read it. Carl, thank you so much for your time and encouragement today. And if you're looking to go deeper and want to learn more about Carl and his work as a coach and all that, check the show notes for some links and sites to get in contact with him. And please remember that your business represents the great God you serve. So build a business that is worthy of God's name and in a way that honors him.