What does a rabbi know about building a profitable Christian business? More than you might think.

Rabbi Daniel Cohen served for over 20 years as a senior rabbi in Stamford, Connecticut. He is the author of "What Will They Say About You When You Are Gone? Creating a Life of Legacy" and his newest book, "The Secret of the Light". He joins Doug to talk about what legacy really means for a business owner of faith, and why it is built in ordinary moments, not milestones.

In this episode:

• Why a good name is worth more than wealth, and what King Solomon said about it
• "Destination disease": the trap of postponing your life for the next milestone
• How to reverse engineer your life before a crisis forces you to
• The 3-minute daily practice: one minute of gratitude, one minute of prayer, one minute to make somebody's day
• The 3.5 seconds that can change a life, and the Sloan Kettering doorman who proved it
• Why growth happens in the valley, not on the mountaintop
• The 94-year-old COVID survivor who finally learned what one day's breath is worth

Connect with Rabbi Daniel Cohen:

Website: https://www.rabbidanielcohen.com
Books: "What Will They Say About You When You Are Gone? Creating a Life of Legacy" and "The Secret of the Light": https://www.rabbidanielcohen.com/books
The Legacy Academy: https://thelegacyacademy.getlearnworlds.com/
Verse he prays with, Isaiah 40:31: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+40%3A31&version=NIV

Mentioned on the show: Zig Ziglar on "destination disease"; King Solomon on a good name (Proverbs); Psalm 30:1: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+30%3A1&version=NIV

Ready to turn good intentions into daily execution? Get clarity, set your 90-day goal and track your needle movers with Goal Getting: https://goalgetting.app

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Are you working hard toward a goal you do not actually want? Amanda VanDerHeiden joins Doug Greathouse to talk about finding your real why, turning it into daily action, and getting back on track when life interrupts. Amanda brings a secular goals-and-habits framework; Doug brings his perspective as a Christian business owner. They explore common ground without pretending their foundations are the same.

They discuss the five-whys exercise, accountability partners, the value of being both a mentor and a mentee, and why consistency only helps when you practice the right thing. Amanda also shares a free workbook to help listeners put the ideas into action.

Guest workbook: https://gogtds.com

Turn your next step into action with Goal Getting: https://goalgetting.app

What does it actually feel like to work for you?

You can put Christian values on your website.

You can talk about servant leadership.

You can say people come first.

But your employees experience your culture every single day—and their experience may tell a very different story.

In this episode of the Profitable Christian Business Podcast, Doug Greathouse sits down with Douglas Shaw, author of Curative Culture: Stepping Away from a Toxic Workplace, to explore how leaders can build healthy, high-performing workplaces rooted in dignity, trust, accountability, purpose, and Christian values.

Douglas says employees are constantly evaluating three things when they enter a workplace:

Am I safe?

Can I trust your intentions?

Can I respect you?

Those questions reveal far more about your real culture than a mission statement hanging on the wall.

Douglas also challenges the idea that healthy culture means soft leadership.

A curative culture still demands excellence.

It still requires accountability.

It still requires difficult conversations.

And sometimes it requires removing someone—even a high performer—to protect the rest of the organization.

In one of the strongest stories from the episode, Douglas explains why he hesitated to deal with two highly productive but toxic employees. A consultant finally challenged him: if leadership continued tolerating their behavior, the rest of the company would assume leadership approved of it.

Douglas acted.

The employees left.

And something unexpected happened:

Other people began to flourish.

• What Douglas means by Curative Culture
• How nature helped inspire the idea behind the book
• How quickly you can sense whether a workplace feels healthy
• The three questions employees silently ask
• Why leadership owns culture
• How Christian leaders should think about the Imago Dei
• Why treating employees with dignity does not eliminate accountability
• How Douglas handled an employee he initially wanted to fire
• Why understanding context can change a difficult personnel decision
• How a firing can sometimes become a blessing
• Why healthy culture isn't "soft"
• How culture affects retention and profitability
• Why toxic high performers can damage the entire organization
• Why what leaders tolerate becomes part of the culture
• How to improve culture starting with leadership self-awareness
• Why leaders should ask, "How do I want it to feel to work here?"
• Why values must be embodied instead of simply written down
• How servant leadership changes the use of power
• Why great leaders ask questions instead of always making pronouncements
• How leaders can stay connected to employees
• How Douglas maintained culture after his company went remote
• Why remote teams still need intentional in-person connection
• Why asking employees for their opinions builds confidence
• Why purpose can keep employees engaged longer than compensation alone

Douglas ends with a powerful leadership challenge:

Help employees understand what they are actually accomplishing through their work.

Don't simply give people a job.

Help them understand the mission they're part of.

Doug Shaw Perspective:
DougShawPerspective.com

Douglas Shaw & Associates:
DouglasShaw.com

Book:
Curative Culture: Stepping Away from a Toxic Workplace

Knowing your culture needs to change isn't enough.

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