And the second piece is it would create a hub of community. Any business, as you know, whether it's flowers or newspapers, is going to have a an audience for it. Otherwise, you don't sell the product. And so what if we started use using those underutilized commercial properties in a way that facilitated community and connection outside of what a traditional church does Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights? What if we use those properties to highest best use? And that idea is what birthed where I'm at today and what I'm doing today.

So tell us that story. The company name comes from the Hebrew word, Avoda.

Yes. Avoda. Right? If we're gonna be real if we're not gonna be with us about it, it's Avoda. But we just say

Avoda. Yes. And what does that mean?

Well, that word is a Hebrew word and it means three things simultaneously. It means work, worship, and service. So in the original Hebrew language, when they when we've like, god is talking to people, he said there's one word for work, one word that is service, and one word that is worship, and those are three combined into one. So that's kind of the vision of the business that was started. How do we take what I do in my corporate world and facilitate a community of engaged people that are there to help one another, not just attend a church together, but what does it do to real life? And then the other piece that I just as a business person, I know that I give charitably to a church, but when they take that money and use it to do HVAC and, keep the lights on and and mow the yard and all of those things that have to happen seven days a week when they only use it one day a week. It just the ROI isn't good for me. So I was really excited to say, what if we create an outreach, a community hub of activity for the for that moves the needle in the community, but also generates enough income so that those charitable contributions now go to take care of the widows and the poor and the fatherless, people in our community that actually need the help. And Mhmm. That's really the the impetus behind it. Now I sit in and here where I'm at is a a fifty acre, two hundred year old property in Thompson Station, Tennessee. And the it's more it's originally, it was a vision and an idea, but now we're actually living in it. So there today is a beautiful day here, and our coffee shop is operating. We'll have about three to four thousand people a week just go through the coffee shop. Last year, I put two hundred and twenty thousand people through this property, and it is a remember, it's a church property, so it it would otherwise be closed on Sunday. Sure. But the community of faith here has said, no. We love the vision of seven day a week utilization. And we have story after story of lives being transformed. One of them was my favorite. I walked through the coffee shop. Now it's a busy Saturday and, and on here, it's in a two hundred year old manor house. So the house was built in eighteen nineteen. So there's business challenges with that when you have a two hundred year old house. So there's just that piece.

Yes.

But the coffee shop is called eighteen nineteen coffee because the house was built in eighteen nineteen. But behind the scenes, my staff knows that Matthew eighteen nineteen says where two or three agree as laying hands on any one thing that God will be there. So I have this process in the coffee shop. It's called intentionally awkward seating. And you can't disrupt that because I want people to have to connect with one another, not just buy coffee. My mission is to make them connect with one another because I know that when you have a relationship with somebody, you are statistically less likely to have depression, anxiety

Yes.

And suicide. So the coffee shop is Matthew eighteen nineteen. We're together and God is there. But from a missional standpoint, I want people to get coffee and find their friend because their friend is what's gonna prevent them from having depression or anxiety or, ultimately suicide. So our mission statement says we will go after double digit decrease in depression, anxiety, and suicide by intentionally creating a space for people to do life with because everybody deserves a community to do life with.

Yeah. Erin, when you started describing this to me, I just, oh, it just so resonated in my heart. I just love it for our and we'll put this in the show notes. But this is a beautiful property too. It sits on fifty acres, right, in Homestead Manor. So I think you host weddings there, all kinds of things. Right?

We started the the best compliment we've gotten is the city of Thompson Station came to us and said, for all intents and purposes, your property is downtown Thompson Station because there are so many people. You can't find parking and this is a fifty acre property and you can't find parking at ten o'clock on any given day, because the community is loving to be out here. And you're right. It is a beautiful historic property, and the house is very, southern charm. Right? Big pillars and all of that. And your guests can look in the, show notes and see that. But, yeah, it's a it's a beautiful model. We do weddings. We do corporate events. We do fireworks shows. We do, Christmas events where we make the holiday, got a whole holiday market onto the property in the month of December. So

I mean, I'm I'm sold. I wanna come. I wanna come. I wanna come and visit because I love that area anyway. And then when you told me about this, I'm like, I am coming. I am Well,

once again, my my sole, mission is to create a space where people can find one another, where they can connect. Really, the heart of this started. We bought the property, and it we didn't have a lot of money and a lot of ideas on how to move to the next spot. So I just opened up to the farmers market. Now this was August of twenty twenty. So this was right in the middle of COVID time. And so we had a a event venue that was open air, and there were I thought, I'm gonna call the farmers market people because they were meeting in a grass area around the corner out in the sun, and August in Tennessee is not a place to be in the open air. And so I called them and said, hey, would you guys wanna come into our beautiful event barn and have your farmers market? And they said, we would love to, but we don't have any money. And I said, well, we've got that in common that we don't have money. So we're just trying to figure out what to do with this property. Would you come and just bring some life to it? And that first day, there were seven straggling vendors that came in and set up shop. I'll never I set tables up outside, and a little lady was sitting at the table, and she had gotten some food from a food truck. And another lady came and timidly said, you know, there's no more seating. Can I sit with you? And when they sat down, an hour later, I saw them still talking with each other. And so I went over and I said, I just wanna say that you blessed me that during COVID that you were two talking with each other. And I'll never forget this. The lady looked at me and she started crying. And she said, I moved here from New Jersey and then COVID hit. And I have no friends. I have no connections. And today I just met a friend and I find that we knit. We both knit. Six months later, there are forty five vendors and they're the, the plot property's going. And I see the two ladies again, and they had formed a bond and a friendship. And it's out of that, that I created the eighteen nineteen coffee shop.

That is such a beautiful story. Well, Aaron, I say this all the time. You curate rooms where people come together and magic happens.

Exactly.

I'll tell you, on a much smaller scale. But when I launched my book, I we had a book launch party at a beautiful venue that my team had found. And, you know, it was an eclectic group of people, just a diverse group of people, some business colleagues, some, from ministry, just friends, right, that came to the, the book launch party. And these two ladies came up to me afterwards. Both of them had been widowed, and they met at the book launch party. And they said, we just met. We love each other, and we're gonna start cruising together.

Love it.

Yes.

I just it was, like, one of the highlights of my night just saying, oh my goodness. Bringing these people together. Bring people together, curate those rooms and magic happens.

People are just innately amazing if you give them the chance to have a safe place to be. How often have you had the conversation with that friend who is just a safe place for you, and you leave feeling so refreshed even though they didn't solve any problems? And that if we can if we can create a scale for that, to me, that's what the the believer, a Christian expression should be. Like, we should be able to find those relationships. And I don't want a barrier of a church service at ten AM on a Sunday morning to prevent somebody from having that friendship. So I built a business around it, and it seems like we're

I love it. Well, I have lots more questions for you, but we do need to take a quick break, and we'll be right back with Aaron Sanders on the Something Extra podcast.

Hey there. In a challenging business climate like this, savvy leaders look to technology to find an edge. This can mean the difference between staying ahead of the curve or playing catch up. It's time to collaborate with the highly skilled experts at Technology Partners. Our team of technologists draws upon decades of experience for your project. With each bringing a passion for solving problems and a track record of success, how can we help you overcome your biggest technology challenges? Visit technology partners dot net to book a free consultation with one of our leaders.

So welcome back to the Something Extra podcast, everyone, with Aaron Sanders. So, Aaron, you started Avada Holdings in twenty twenty. What were the biggest unknowns at the time that you were facing?

So I think the biggest challenge we had is getting people to buy into a vision that a church property would be a seven day a week thing. What people have this sacred and secular concept, that that's why I chose that word, aboda. It's because it's work, worship, and service. It's only one word, but it's same thing that happens on Sunday and Monday. So the real challenge was, one, getting the community to understand that this is a church property, but it's not gonna behave like a church property. So we have something locally here called the Spring Hill I Heart It. And I don't know why it's called Spring Hill I Heart It, but it's a Facebook group. And as you know with any kind of social media group, they have opinions about almost everything. And we this church group had bought a Jewel of Williamson County fifty acre historic property that everybody felt like they owned anyway because it's just a beautiful part of history. And we got blasted on social media because a church bought it. And you know what they would say? A church bought it. That means we're all gonna lose access to this beautiful place that we never get to go because churches typically shut their properties down. And so we had the the biggest challenge we had is to grin and bear it and prove a model that is different. And after about a year, all of those messages on Facebook and those net the naysayers were fans because

Became positive. That's cool. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, let talk to me about this. You talk about creating friendship bench spaces, and we've already talked about this a little bit. But, that term, I guess, comes from Zimbabwe.

Yeah. I was this was fifteen years ago, and I had finished my work day and was on the drive home. And I heard NPR had a a special where they were talking about Zimbabwe and the the challenges they had with depression, anxiety, and suicide. Initially, they said we're gonna hire psychologists to go and counsel people in the nation of Zimbabwe, but they didn't have enough money to do that. So they got one psychologist who went village to village, and he would train the elders to sit and listen, not solve problems, just to sit in the middle of the village and listen to people. And they would leave a bench in this the village after they train the elders, and the elders would sit on that bench. Now after a year, they had double digit decreases in depression, anxiety, and suicide nationwide in Zimbabwe. And you can Google this. There's a a paper or you can chat DBT and that's the AI thing that we're moving to. It's called Zimbabwe Friendship Bench Project, and it's out there. So white paper on it and explaining why it works. But that's the model that we decided to choose. When you have fifty acres of a beautiful green space and a mile long trail throughout, we put friendship benches out and we staff up extra on our business model and we staff up on our church model to just walk around and visit with people. If you're sitting on a bench, you're gonna find a friend.

That's so beautiful. I love that. Now I want to put friendship benches everywhere.

What's what's beautiful about that is we've just had a tragedy in our community. So, a business two business leaders in our community were flying into Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and they ended up they're following their GPS right into a mountain, and it and it killed the business leaders, two of them. And his son and his nephew were in the plane as well. And they were an integral part of this community. I mean, they there's they're part of the vision. And so we we just had to, close the door on their life yesterday at a at a ceremony. But the young adults were twenty one years old, and their community of young adults that have been doing bible study and life together actually got together. One of them has started a business that does metal work, and they're all put chipping their money in together to put friendship benches in honor of their friends that are fallen. And they're gonna have a whole process where the young adults watch on those friendship benches to make sure that the legacy of their friends continues to go, that they have friends and connection. So it's not only just a business model to to have that. It's a community piece where everybody gets to pull together.

Yeah. And so beautiful. You know, and I think I mean, kinda to your point, I mean, Erin, I I read all about that and have a slight connection, with Taylor Husky, through CEO Forum. But, yeah, I think modern society, though, I think is starving, really, for real connections and real friends. I mean, things have become so digital, and I'm grateful for technology because you can keep up with people across the miles. But, I worry Yeah. Especially about this generation

and And that's

what really understanding.

That's really what I saw happening. So I've I'm old enough now that I've got three grandchildren. I've had a my granddaughter born two days ago, so that was, my one Congratulations. So fun. But I started seeing a trend pattern when I talk about three hundred sixty thousand Christian churches. And, if I'm gonna be a believer, a Christian person, then I believe that those principles are to transform the world that I live in, not just to make me feel better about myself. But I see this trend of church properties and and all these fun things that I just described to you not happening across the country. And so why my motivation in that is what am I leaving for the next generation to have what you're talking about as AI progresses? And I love AI. I've used it for a lot of things. I think that technology is amazing, but it's gonna be more and more vital that you have a community hub of connection. And I see that gathering on a Sunday is not growing the way that it will be there to support my grandchildren. I pour everything into this to revitalize that. I say I'm planting seeds for trees that I will never live long enough to be under.

One of my favorite quotes, and that's precisely what you're doing. That's the legacy, Erin, that you're gonna leave behind. But you you talk a lot about stewardship versus ownership. I love that because I I talk that way too. But what is the difference?

So I look at it as I have a a mindset as a Christian of I'm advancing an outlet of the kingdom of heaven. The the Bible talks about you you I want your will, God, to be done on earth just like it is done in heaven. And for me, that means I'm stewarding something that is, owned by an entity that I work for or I serve, and it's not a corporate entity like it used to be. I look at the kingdom of heaven owns all things, and I am an aboda. I do stewarding down here to make sure that everything advances the ideology of the kingdom of heaven, and that is, at its base, love. This is why we train our baristas to, instead of making it weird, sometimes Christians can make things weird. I speak to that as as a Christian who has made things weird.

Yes.

Not throwing stones. But one of the things I tell our baristas is I want you to tell that person write something on the cup that's just one word, two words, something like that, and just tell them, when I ask what the purest love says about you, I just wrote that word on the cup and hand that to them. Make their day. Right? Blow gold on them from that standpoint. But you don't have to make it weird because God is the purest of love. The the kingdom of heaven is an outlet of a franchise of love on the earth. So why can't we just not make it weird and just say, this is what if I think of love and you, this is what I think of, and it'll change people's lives.

Yeah. That's so beautiful. Well, I was gonna ask you because I do I subscribe to what you just said. Sometimes it can be weird. But, you know, how can you live out your faith without being performative or preachy to people? And that is one way to do it. Right? Just those subtle little things.

Yeah. This this, I started telling a story earlier, but I'll swing swing back to it. It was a busy Saturday, and there's people all over the place. And I was walking through and somebody said, hey. Do you work here? And I said, absolutely. What can I do for you? And she said, can you explain the magic of this place to me? And I said, well, you have to help me understand what you mean by the term magic. What are we talking about? And she said, well, the magic is two days ago, I came to this property for the first time. And when I pulled off the road and my tires hit the rocks, I just started sobbing and I couldn't stop. She said my makeup was destroyed and I just wanted coffee, but I felt just this overwhelming, tears. I couldn't stop it. And she said, turned to the table and she said, today, I brought my family here and I want them to experience the magic because we have a really challenging subject to discuss as a family, but I wanted to discuss it in the magic that made me cry. And I said to her, are you a believer? And she said, no, I'm not. I said, well, I can bring you to five employees right now. And I wouldn't tell them, what, prep them. I would just say, what do you pray will happen when wheels hit the rocks? Because it's a prayer we pray every day when we open our property. And the answer to that would be, we pray that you would encounter the purest love, that you would encounter God when you drive onto this property. And so what you experienced, the magic that you experienced is the purest love. And he just wrapped his arms around you. And I turned back to her and she's crying and she says, well, maybe I'm a believer and I just didn't know it. So that's the covert. Don't make it That's awesome. Don't make it weird. Just absolutely live out your faith and structure your my business models around intentionally awkward seating and rocks that tinkle. And that means, like, my my maintenance people know I don't wanna hit a pothole when I come here. Well, why? Because that person's being transported. I I anticipate every person having that kind of an encounter. And have you ever hit a pothole and it snaps you out of everything? I don't need that. So my my maintenance people know their avoda is to make sure there is never a pothole. That there is

No pothole.

No pothole. The grass

No pothole. No potholes allowed. Yes.

And the grass is mowed nicely and the garbage is picked up and it looks pristine because God is gonna do his part to encounter them. We're gonna do our co laboring part to make sure that nothing interrupts it.

Yeah. Aaron, I could not love what you're doing more. I truly couldn't. I've got a little lightning round here for you, of questions. We could go on and on and on, but maybe we'll have to do a part two. Are you reading any kind of leadership? Are you a reader or a listener?

I am a audiobook listener. So I I have found that I need to do two to three x speed, and I can listen to a lot of stuff.

Right. Right. Is there one in particular that you've listened to recently that you would recommend to our listeners?

Yeah. I think that this is an annual read for me, and I'm in the process of going through it right now. And it is You Are the Placebo, and it's, trying to think of the author.

You Are the Placebo?

You Are the Placebo.

And it's really And you read this annually.

Yes. I

read it annually. And, it is an amazing book that helps you to understand your thoughts actually create your environment. And they're they're it's a very, psychological way of saying, just take your thoughts captive and make sure that they are not driving you and you are driving your thoughts. So it's so much creativity in these expressions, even like the double digit decrease in depression, anxiety, and suicide, that came from a, meditation time in the manor house asking what can I do that will will bring people into a place to get connection? And so slowing down and realizing a lot of the answers are in the six inches between your ears, but it's so loud that you don't slow down long enough to Mhmm. Joe Dispenza is the author of that book.

Joe Dispenza. Okay. That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Hopefully, next time I ask you, you're gonna say something extra.

Yeah. There you go. I actually I I do have the book. It's ordered. I don't have it in in hand, but I loved hearing the concepts through all of your podcast. So I'm so excited to read the book.

Yeah. Thank you, Erin. There's another one around mindset that I'm just gonna mention that I've been reading, that the listeners might want to pick up as well. And, Erin, maybe you've already read it, but time your thoughts.

I have not read that.

I'm at potato. No. That's the one I'm reading right now. And it's, I mean, completely what you just said resonates with me too because it starts right here. Right? So what we put in there and, you know, and then there's eighteen inches between your head and your heart.

Yeah. And sometimes that's the longest eighteen inches. I I know things here

Amen.

But I don't live them from my and that was really the change and the transformation of why I quit the corporate world and started doing what I'm doing now. It it finally made it from here to here.

Yeah, for sure. A daily habit that grounds you.

So every if my staff is listening to this, they're gonna just roll their eyes, but I have three strategies every day that I do. And I actually require not just my children to do it, but employees. You're gonna do spiritual development every day. You're gonna do physical development every day, and you're gonna do mental development every day. So that means you might take some meditation time. You might take some physical move your body because the endorphins need to get functioning.

Yes.

And then you're gonna learn something new every day. And I challenge people to learn something outside of your sphere because it was a couple of guys in a bike shop that solved the flight issue. Right? They they're the ones that outside of their industry, they had revelation that's that solved the issue that the flight industry was working on. So as a rule, breakthrough comes outside of your framework. So learn something outside of your framework.

That's so good. I love it. Well, I could keep going on and on. I've got lots more lightning questions, but we're running up against the clock here. I have to ask you. This is called something extra. Aaron, what's the something extra that every leader needs?

So there's something extra that I think we are taught, especially in the industry that I was in, to be risk averse. We we strategize around it. We buy insurance around it to make sure that we don't have that risk. The problem is that as a Christian business person, I faith is the center of everything I do. And if I look through the Bible and I see faith, it looks a lot like risk. And so I'm trying to change my language. The something extra is to take faith, not just as a concept, but as an an application, that substance of things hoped for, but the evidence of things that just not seen. And that's risky. So every business leader that you can extrapolate this down to, you just need to be more comfortable with risk because that's where the beauty is. It's messy. Family's risky. Taking having kids and, and getting married is all risky, but it's beautiful when it's done.

Right? That's so good. I've never had anyone say that out of three hundred and seventy seven gust. So thank you. I love it. Woo. Alright. Erin, this has been so much fun. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today, and I just know that your story is gonna help our listeners.

I really appreciate you posting this and pulling this community together, Lisa.

Something extra with Lisa Nichols is a Technology Partners production. Copyright Technology Partners Inc. Twenty nineteen. To learn more about this week's guest, check out the show notes at tpi dot co slash podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, consider leaving us a review. Thank you for listening to Something Extra.