ASI 2018: Business Unusual

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Mark Finley

Young Professionals

History & Mission of ASI

Jason Churchwell

Jesus’ first miracle was making juice!

Sean Wycliffe

Developing a Level 7 Evangelistic Business

Calvin Kim

F5 Challenge – Challenging the Status Quo!

Michelle Doucoumes

Danny Houghton

Denzil McNeilus

Brenda Palmer

Gary Rayner

Michael Tuazon

Panel: Business and Finance for Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs

Business Titans of the Bible:  Lessons for the 21st Century Entrepreneur

GW Chew

Starting a Center of Influence

Nathaniel Justin Khoe

Pick Up Your Phone and Follow Me

Eric Walsh

YP Speaker Panel

Your First Profession


My name is Sean Wycliffe and I am excited to be here today. And I wanted to tell you a little bit about my story before I talk about the fruit tree, which is mostly what I'm going to be sharing today. And so, this is what we're going to go through. And from there, we're going to talk about something called the level 7 business. And we're going to talk about some of the evangelism that we're doing.

But first, I know I know some of you, but I don't think I know most of you. And so I want to tell you a little bit about myself. I'll start back in college. I actually went to school at UC Berkeley a few years ago. And when I was a student there, I started this business, Mike was talking about it, selling long distance phone service.

And so most of you don't even know what that is, and I understand that. And I barely knew what that was at that time. And so it started going really well, and I got really involved and really into it. And so when I was 19, I ended up buying a Porsche and dropping out of school and moving down to Southern California. And my brother did the same exact thing.

And so as Mike mentioned, we were growing this business. Now at this time, I was actually an evangelical Christian. And so we could work 7 days a week. We could kind of do whatever we felt like of course and so I'm just working just doing whatever and Just getting really into money making money by the time. I was 21.

We ended up buying this mill into our house I end up getting this Ferrari as well and all I cared about was money. That was my goal I was basically just dedicated to that and just money. And so God actually had a different plan for me though. So around this time too, my dad, he actually was a physician at the Loma Linda University. And so he went to this thing called restoration.

I don't know if anyone's ever been to that before. Restoration, okay. So he went in 2003, Randy Skeet, some of you maybe have heard him, he was preaching. So my dad gave his life back to the Lord and then after that he started praying for me. Now the business I had shortly thereafter, there's a long story here, the business actually went bankrupt, and I had to pretty much move in with my dad.

I don't know if anyone's ever had to move in with their parents before. OK, maybe, you're all young professionals, right? You don't know what I'm talking about. But The reality is I had to do that and I was broke. And so through that experience, my dad was praying for me, working on me, and then I eventually went to a GYC, and that's where I was really convicted on my life.

And I became an Adventist, rededicated my life to God, and from there, that's when I met Michael Tuazon. And for the next 2 years, we started just doing a lot of ministry. He was discipling me studying the Bible the whole 9 yards and This was down at the Fontana Seventh-day Adventist Church. I don't know if anyone's ever been to the Fontana Okay, if you I hear a few yes, okay good. So anyways, we were down there for about 2 years.

Now after that, I wasn't really sure what God had for me. I started backsliding a little bit. I didn't know what was going on. And so my parents said, why don't you go back to school? You should have never dropped out in the first place.

And so I said, okay, why not? So I actually ended up going back to school at UC Berkeley. And this is when my life changed in another direction. At this time, I actually was continuing running a different business now, selling cell phones. So it was a similar network marketing business, but now we're selling cell phones.

And so I met my wife through this. Now, she's in the back somewhere. You'll see her. Oh, she's over there in the back next to the water. That's her.

There she is. And so her name's Chanchi. So I met her, and she was working with us. And I didn't think too much of it, because she was Buddhist at the time. But in any case, we became friends and then I said, Oh, hey, who knows what, you know, 1 backslide, why not, you know, data Buddhist and have fun, let's see what happens.

And so there's a long story behind it. But we actually ended up dating. And we moved in together about a week after we started dating. And so, you know, I was really excited about it at that point. And so, you know, I'll leave that as it is and I'll move forward to the next slide.

But the reality is, is through this experience now, she was starting to wonder, okay, where is this guy going on Friday nights? He just disappears on Friday night. And so I said, well I go to this Bible study thing, I don't know, it's whatever, why don't you come with me if you want? And so she started coming. So she starts having questions, what do you believe?

Like why this and that? And so I started doing Bible studies with her every night, you know, when we're together, I guess. And so the reality is this through that she actually ended up becoming a Christian, then she became an Adventist, and then she started, she kind of passed me up spiritually very quickly. She started doing ministry, she started realizing, well, hey, there's this commandment that says, you know, you shouldn't live together. What's up with that?

And so, you know, you know. And so, the reality is, from there, we started to get convicted, so we tried to move out, move back in, move out. Well, that kept going on, and eventually it led to the point where I went to a GYC, and she went to a GYC, and eventually we were able to separate. And I'll talk about that in a second. Now, during this period, I'm also trying to figure out other businesses that I can start, what I can do.

And so I graduated from college. My parents were so happy I finally did something with my life. And so after that, they're hoping I'm gonna get a job, I don't, and instead I watch this movie, and I think, wow, there's all these empty movie theater seats, why not sell discounted movie tickets? And so I started this thing called deal flicks, which is kind of like a price line, but for movie tickets we sell discount movie tickets and That's how that is and I'll leave it at that But this was started back in 2012 and so it started as this thing that I was doing part-time And then we had some co-founders join and then it started to really grow. And we started getting some press.

We ended up getting on NBC, and the New York Times, and CNBC, and all sorts of things. And over the next few years, we ended up raising 4.2 million dollars from investors, and we got up to 400, 000 a month in revenue. And so I'm thinking, this is a great thing, you know, here we go. And the nice thing with this is I was actually able to keep the Sabbath as well. And so I was keeping the Sabbath and all my team was keeping the Sabbath and all these things and I'm thinking this is really good.

You know, again, as I mentioned at this time too, we had gone to the GYC, and my wife said, hey, we should separate before we get married. And so, by God's grace, we were able to separate, and then 6 months later, we got married, amen. And from there, we actually started to do a lot of ministry at our campus at UC Berkeley. And so for the next couple of years, we did ministry. We started in our home.

And from there, we started to do how to get A's seminars on campus. And that's another subject. And this is how we eventually got into ASI, how we started getting involved through this campus ministry called Christ's Method Alone. And so a few years ago, my wife actually, through another testimony, was able to get a thousand-square-foot office right next to the UC Berkeley campus, where they have all the riots and the free speech and everything. We started doing Bible studies there, And God really blessed this ministry.

We've had about 7 people get baptized through this. These are all affiliated with UC Berkeley. The majority of them were not Christian. And we've been able to use Christ's method alone to reach people through this. Now, around this time, too, I saw this thing called media on the brain.

So some of you are like, what's going on here? And so I don't know, has anyone seen this? Okay watch it if you haven't seen it, okay? But be careful if you sell movie tickets. Because I saw this a few years ago, okay?

Now you can imagine, right? So I'm a converted person at this point and I watch this thing and I'm thinking, oh wow, okay. And I'm just thinking it's R-rated movies and things like this, right? But even G-rated things, you know, it has effects and it's not good. And so I'm convicted now.

So I stopped watching movies for the most part, and shortly thereafter was able to have victory in that area, and that was a blessing. Now at the same time, I'm wondering how do I deal with this? Because I have this business selling movie tickets now. You know, how do I deal with that? And so we've raised all this money, I'm on the board, I'm the only board member, there's all these obligations.

And so for the last few years I've been trying to sell it, I've asked people to pray for it, you guys will pray for it too. We're in the process now of either trying to sell it or just do like a full bankruptcy or something. So, you know, I'm asking for a prayer on this because we're literally in this process because I'm trying to move out of that. Now as this whole thing is going on, I'm praying and wondering, God, what do you have for me? And so I met this person named Delon Lawrence.

I don't know if anyone's known him. He's 1 of those people, if you know him, you know him because you won't forget him. And so he comes up and he's doing campus ministry with us and we're praying about how can we start something that allows us to do ministry while at the same time supporting ourselves financially, Right? I'm sure a lot of you have thought of that. How do you do both?

And so we looked at all sorts of different ideas. And long story short, we ended up finding this quote. And so this says, Those who are engaged in the work of preparing health foods are just as much in the service of God as if they were in the dentistry business or in the medical missionary work. As you help to prepare health foods, you are doing God's service. I don't know if I can go back and become a dentist.

That's going to be difficult at this point in life. But I can make some health food. I'm sure I can learn how to do that. We started thinking about different ideas. My wife had been doing green smoothies for the last few years, and so she had a great recipe.

And so we actually put this thing together called the fruit tree. And what it is, is we actually make great tasting, healthy green smoothies. So our goal is to make them do 2 things. Number 1, be as healthy as possible. And number 2, taste as good as possible.

And so that way it's good, convenient, healthy, all of these different things. So we started this back in August 2017. And so this is about a year ago. Yeah, we started this about a year ago and initially we were selling this door-to-door Eventually we got into some farmers markets And so we started selling these things and people started enjoying them even kids like it 3 year old kids the parents won't try it the kids try it They love it then the parents buy it and so it's really really good now from this Things really started to grow and they started to go And so what we have here is we're in 21 farmers' markets across the Bay Area. And so if any of you come up there, you can see these markets.

And God has really blessed. So this has gone from a little operation to we're now doing over 40, 000 a month in revenue, and we're making over 3, 000 smoothies and selling them per month to secular people across the Bay Area, and maybe 2 Adventists. And so the reality is we have 8 people now that are supported as the primary source of income from this. And so this has been a blessing from God, and God has really done this. Now, we need help, and so I'm asking everyone for prayer.

And we also need workers. So if you're looking for work or whatever, we have positions that we're trying to fill, we can talk more about that. We're trying to buy land, we're trying to buy vans, we're trying to do all these things. So investment, donation, all of those things, we can talk more. We need connections to different people that can help us with different things.

And we're also giving samples. I think my wife is going to be handing some samples around. I look, oh, you already have the samples. And so those are the samples. And so that's what's happening with that.

Now, what I want to spend some time on talking about is evangelism with this. Evangelism. Because when we first started this, the idea is to not just have a successful business, but to actually do evangelism. That's really what it was about, not even just service, not even just provide good health, just straight up evangelism, soul winning. And so we were wondering, how do we do this?

Now, this came to me when I was flying over here on a Southwest flight from from Oakland. I was planning to do things on my laptop with Wi-Fi and then the announcement said no Wi-Fi. So I had 5 hours and this new idea came to me. This is what I realized. There's 7 levels to an Adventist business.

Okay, now watch this. So the first is just having a business. So if you have a business, and this can apply to if you have a job, business or a job, either way doesn't matter, or a career or something. But the first thing is just getting a business or a job, right? That's a big step for a lot of us and so you want to do that.

The next thing is having a successful business. So it's 1 thing to have a business and then it's another thing to have a successful business. So that's a good next step. Then there's a way to have a business while you're keeping the Sabbath. You know so I went from having this network marketing business that operated around the Sabbath to having a business that I could keep the Sabbath for about 5 years.

And that was a blessing in that sense. Now there's another type of business where you're in line with what the Bible and the spirit of prophecy teaches. Does that make sense? And so you can, like deal flicks, you can have a business that sells movie tickets to keep the Sabbath, but it's not in line with the Bible and spirit of prophecy. And so that's the next level you want to level up.

Now you have a business where you're actually involved in active medical missionary industries. So for instance, a number 4 business is where maybe you're selling cars. It's agnostic. Does that make sense? It's not against God, but it's not necessarily for him.

It's just a good, solid business. Now you have a business where you're in dentistry, or you're in medicine, or you're in something like that. And that's amazing, because you're actually doing medical missionary type things. The level 6 business, we're stepping it up now, you're actually actively and heavily evangelizing to folks. And so that's what you want to be active in.

Now you might think that's it, isn't it? That's it? No, there's 7. There's always 7 in these kind of talks. And so the reality is, is number 7, a successful business that actively and heavily evangelizes successfully.

See sometimes we focus on we want to make our business successful and if I hand out a few tracks so be it, whatever happens, happens. But we got to put that same kind of effort in that evangelism side too. There should be some fruit to that too, as well as to what's happening on the business side. So look at this for me. So for me, my deal flicks thing, that was like a number 3 business, right?

It enabled me to actually keep the Sabbath and God's commandments, things like that. However, it wasn't necessarily in line with the Bible Spirit of Prophecy. We realized this and we said, if we're going to start something new, I don't want to keep going from level 1 to 2 to 3 to 4, let's just go all the way to level 7. Let's just do the whole thing, let's just start with that in mind. And so that's what the fruit tree is about.

OK, so as we get ready to wrap up here, I want to encourage all of you here to start with number 7 in mind, a successful business that actively and heavily evangelizes. So I want to share a few testimonies here. We give out some smoothies to the poor that are next to the place that we blend our smoothies. That's good. We had a smoothie night where we invited our customers to come to our church.

About 12 people from the community, non-Christians, came to the smoothie night. It's like a veggie cooking class, that kind of thing. So that was really good. I want to talk to you about Chor Khin. She was a Buddhist, and she was a UC Berkeley student, and she ended up working with us.

Through that, she ended up becoming a Christian at Adventist, and now is baptized, amen? She's at ASAP Ministries now in Cambodia doing mission work there. This just happened in the last 4 months. Nandu, he was selling Indian food. Nandu sells Indian food at a farmers market in the Bay.

Alright, you can go get some good Indian food from him. But the thing is we made some friends with him and through this, Bible studies, decisions for following Christ, Adventist, baptized a couple weeks ago. Amen. And so God is really blessed in this effort of combining this gospel work with the business side. And so 1 last thing I want to leave with you, a lot of you have these tracks that we've hand out.

We just made these for the purposes of, it's kind of like a glow track, but it tells our testimony and then it's a Bible study on health and so you'll have these please read it our contact info is on there as well And so I'm gonna skip this for the sake of time But my appeal right now to all of you right now as I end is really be prayerful now some of you you might be Level 1 business and you're just trying to get the thing off the ground and praise God for that but start with level 7 in mind. Some of you already have a successful business. Start with love, go to level 7 with it. You know really pray about how can I start actively doing evangelism? Some of you might need training in evangelism.

You might be successful business people, but you need training in evangelism. Some of you might be successful at evangelism, but you need training in business, right? But when these things are combined, amazing things can happen. And so that's my appeal to everyone today. I thank all of you for your time and I look forward to getting to know all of you for the rest of the weekend.

Thanks so much. This media was produced by Audioverse for ASI, Adventist Laymen's Services and Industries. If you would like to learn more about ASI, please visit www.asiaministries.org. Or if you

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Series

Young Professionals

Developing a Level 7 Evangelistic Business

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

History & Mission of ASI

Jesus’ first miracle was making juice!

Developing a Level 7 Evangelistic Business

F5 Challenge – Challenging the Status Quo!

Panel: Business and Finance for Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs

4 more

Business Titans of the Bible: Lessons for the 21st Century Entrepreneur

Starting a Center of Influence

Pick Up Your Phone and Follow Me

YP Speaker Panel

6 more

Your First Profession

Sound Doctrine