Empowered by Christ: Navigating Work with Faith

Hey everyone, welcome back to Let's Unpack That with Alex and Grace!

We are so thrilled today to have Anthony Canada, CEO and co-founder of Audience Plus, or AK for short. AK has an impressive background in marketing and business, most recently founding and leading Audience Plus. He was also Chief Marketing Officer at other companies like Game Site.

I remember AK and I met at our company conference, our annual coffee conference. AK then invited me to go to one of their fellowship and prayer meetings super early in the morning at 7 A.M., and I was like, "Yeah, let's do it!" I've always admired AK for the way he conducts business and his success in his career, but also for being a strong, passionate follower of Jesus, which I really love the intersection of the two.

Today, we're going to understand who AK is at the heart level, but also really talk about how to integrate spiritual disciplines with your work, especially if you have a high-demand, fast-paced job.

Thanks so much for being here, Anthony. We're so honored to have you. Maybe just to start off, can you kind of share a little bit of backstory on how you ended up doing what you're doing right now?

Thank you guys, I'm so excited to be on the show. It's a big question. I think no one grows up dreaming of working in enterprise software. I feel like you just find your path. For me, as I look back on the signals of my life, there were shades of marketing from my earliest days, like building websites in my very young days in college. My job on campus was to be a concert coordinator and open events. Even in my earliest jobs as an SDR and frontline tech professional, I found my way into the events teams that were putting on events and conferences. So, I feel like I've always had this sort of draw to the creative side of marketing.

What's really ironic is I didn't pursue a career in marketing. It was Alex, our former CEO, Nick, who asked me if I would be willing to take a marketing role at Gainsight. That completely changed my life. I think I've just been pushing the thread, or whatever the saying is, like walking through doors that God had been opening up in my life and career and trying to be faithful.

Even just jumping into becoming a founder, which we'll talk about, wasn't something I set out to do from my earliest days of my career. Just sort of walking through those doors that I feel are being opened. So, yeah, that's a very high-level journey, but something that I think is a story that is still being written in a way, and it's kind of fun to see what God's doing.

Growing up as an only child raised by a single immigrant mom from Lebanon in the 1970s or 80s, I had to learn to entertain myself and develop my creativity. This happened a lot on the basketball court, but also when I was handed down an old Apple computer. I was able to tinker with something new and load in CD-ROMs. This intersection of creativity and technology sparked my curiosity towards marketing. I think my childhood experiences strengthened my appetite for innovation and new ideas.

Besides myself, Alex is also an only child. We often talk about how when you're alone, you have to learn to be creative. I remember being on Microsoft Paint and Jazz Paint Shop Pro, spending hours on them. It's funny how God puts those seeds in us and leads us to where we are now.

I grew up in a Greek Orthodox home and was exposed to Christian education. Between Elementary School and High School, I had a big shift in my faith. My mom instilled a lot of values in me and I was able to learn more about God.

That was one of the big moments, and then the other one was actually a few years ago. I was in a season of life where I was really struggling with a lot of anxiety and depression, and I was in a place where I was like, "I don't know what to do and I don't know how to get out of this." I was in a place of desperation, and I remember just kind of crying out to God and saying, "I don't know what to do and I don't know how to get out of this."

I remember just kind of feeling this presence of the Holy Spirit and just this sense of peace and comfort. I remember just kind of being like, "Okay, I'm going to trust you, and I'm going to take this step."

This moment of surrender was one of two big moments in my life. The other one was when I was younger and had to make some real shifts in my heart and translate that into my actions to make sure I was living in a way that was leading me to a Christ-centered relationship.

Now, almost 10 years into marriage and two kids later, I look back on that moment as a very important one. It was a profound moment for me when God reset my heart for me for a purpose. This sparked a revival of faith and a journey that my family and I have been on for the last three years.

We went from participating in church and having a rhythm around prayer to a transformation of meaning and purpose, and an active kind of discipleship quest. This led us to practices that were more charismatic, and to seeing the Holy Spirit work in our lives and in the lives of our community.

Recently, we interviewed Alicia Michelle on the topic of overcoming overwork. It's crazy how many people, including myself, Alicia, David Kim, and others, have had health scares that gave us renewed clarity on life. Most of the time, we go through life lost or confused because we don't have that clarity, or we forget what's actually important. It's a blessing in disguise to be reminded of what's important and to prioritize God and surrender to Him.

As a CEO and co-founder, I'm in a unique spot. If someone were to come to me and ask how to bridge the two worlds of faith and work, I'd start with a disclaimer that I'm not perfect and I'm still figuring this out. One big thing I've realized is that work is not my identity. Work is an expression of my purpose, and through everything I do, I can build resilience to my relationship with work.

Integrating a rule of life into work has been especially helpful for me as a Founder. A rule of life is a set of principles that help us be productive when we are at work, but also help us be leaders in our homes and build relationships with our children. It is important to have appreciation for how important work is in the context of purpose, but also to know that our faith and our families come first.

We can also integrate the rule of life into the culture we are creating. These principles are hard-coded into the design of humanity, and if we build for that, we can create a great workplace. It is important to keep work in perspective and not lose our footing and foundation when things happen. We should also keep the highs in perspective and be appreciative and joyful of those moments.

I remember feeling so heavy and heartbroken over what was happening in our country and in our culture right before Covid and during the beginning part of Covid during the protests that were happening around George Floyd's murder and all of the racial tension.

I went to church that Sunday wanting to hear something about how I, as a believer, could respond to injustice and have a proactive step forward. I just didn't know how. I wasn't equipped with how to deal with this hurt. The message that was preached was around joy or something that felt very disconnected from what was happening, and it was so confusing to me.

This experience made me start to think about how we operate and live in this world, and how we can live in tune with the spirit. I started to look into how we can build practices within how we operate that are in line with our divine creation or how we were created.

I realized that in the post-enlightenment, we have moved away from some of these things, but even in the last 50-60 years in America, there have been things like a Sabbath that have been in the fabric of how we operated as a culture and society.

I think the church has been so focused on evangelism that we have lost our own kind of habitual communal experiences with things like fasting, listening prayer, hospitality, and community. I think a rule of life is basically adopting some of these practices into how we operate, whether that's as a family or as an individual, and creating a more healthy relationship with our schedule, time, and relationship to others.

I was reading a book called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. I didn't know who he was, but I was taking it all in. Then, Covid happened and I was like, "All right, who's this John Mark Comer guy? Research him!" I found out he was a pastor of a church in Portland, Oregon called Bridgetown.

My family and I started attending Bridgetown virtually from Phoenix. Every Sunday, we would watch the live stream and they would talk about a rule of life. This church community had been incubating this kind of curriculum for spiritual disciplines and discipleship for years. It was all new to me, but it was relevant to what was happening in culture. It wasn't partisan or anything; it was very orthodox to the word of God. I loved that I could do things to draw closer to God.

Since then, I've been able to build a relationship with John Mark and be part of his new organization, Practicing the Way. We're trying to implement a Sabbath practice within our home and thinking about prayer and fasting in a different way. God has opened up a lot of doors for us to get connected to John Mark, Bridgetown, and Practicing the Way.

Taking faithful steps and seeing that the Spirit is pushing me in this direction, I'm not sure where it's headed, but I'm taking the next step in front of me.

I actually dove into that even more and linked it into the description for people who want to learn about it. It's really helpful because they do have free resources for you to learn more.

I'll just share a really quick funny story. I was listening to this book on 1.75 or one point something X speed and I was driving, and I was so into the book, "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry," that I was speeding and I didn't even realize. Then I got pulled over and ended up getting a ticket. It was just God's funny way of being like, "You need to take this seriously."

He's like, "Just because you're listening to this book or reading this book, you need to live it out, not just listen and absorb it in your head." Just like you said, none of us are perfect and we're still learning. But I think if people can just be encouraged, like you don't have to be perfect or nail it right away, but just take little steps of like, "How could I integrate this into my everyday life or my work?"

I think just the attempt of doing it already goes a long way. That's why I really like the term "spiritual practices" that John Mark has kind of been hooking onto, because it's not about being perfect. There's only one who has ever walked this earth that was perfect, and so this is about a pursuit of Christ's likeness.

So, it's all about practice and I know you're a Kobe Bryant fan, so am I. He's a prime example of that. You talked about sabbaths with your family, so can you walk us through your typical work day and your schedule and how everything just integrates together both personally and at work?

Totally. I think one of the big eye-opening things for me on Sabbath in particular was just how much the sort of six days on, one day off rhythm is hard-coded into not just people but literally just every kind of form of life on this planet.

In my earlier parts of my career, Saturdays were a great day to catch up on work, get ahead, etc. The big kind of aha moment with Sabbath in particular was, okay, not only is this thing in line with the physiological makeup of my personhood, but it's this free gift where we get to pursue joy, rest, and pursue Christ's likeness.

So, whatever it's worth, I think that took a little bit of pressure off in this sort of journey. Worship is something we are given for free, but often don't take God up on. As an entrepreneur, executive, and professional, I found that taking a Sabbath day to completely disconnect from work and get away from it helps me be better in my six days.

The entrepreneurship thing is new to me and can be exhausting with all the highs and lows, context switching, customer signings, investor beliefs, and employee resignations. Taking a Sabbath almost saves me every Friday night as I'm able to get back on my email and start the week in a way I thought would be impossible.

I found that the dividends of the Sabbath play out throughout the week. To be intentional with my time, I start my morning in prayer and solitude, spend time with my kids before logging on for the day, and set up the right boundaries after work. This includes dinner with the family every single night, and when I'm traveling, I make sure to be home by Sabbath.

This helps me optimize my life around my walk with Jesus, my relationship with my wife and kids, and developing an expression of purpose versus identity. For those of us who work nine hours a day, it can be difficult to stay present and impactful without getting distracted.

A lot of people struggle with this because our culture promotes hustling and working around the clock. When we have tension points between business opportunities and family obligations, it can be hard to remember what is truly important. It is important to catch up where we need to, but not at the cost of our walk with God or our relationships with family.

For example, if we have a heavy Monday with a lot of meetings, we should take the time to be thoughtful about our two-hour window and give ourselves permission to catch up later, even if it means sacrificing sleep. Everything is a trade-off when it comes to time.

As a society, we have reached a tipping point with hustle culture and the endless pursuit of productivity. With the pandemic, all of that stopped and we were all at home with a whole spectrum of emotions. We still had to work every day, but there were some good things that came from it.

We are tired of working in cultures where this is demanded of us. If you are listening and don't feel supported in your current workplace, it is important to remember what is truly important.

Before I had a rule of life, I was working in a workplace with no margin in my life. I felt like if I were to take a step and build a rule of life, I would fail at work or get fired. I think it is important to be thoughtful about the values of the businesses that we join and the cultures that are being created because that's not ultimately sustainable.

Burning out and having health scares is not worth it. I believe there is a company out there that is values-driven and will champion the whole person.

One of the values of the company I work for is to ruthlessly eliminate hurry. We have implemented a digital Sabbath on Saturdays and pay for people to go on vacation once a year. We challenge ourselves to eliminate signals of hurry within our business. Everyone at the business has permission to call out hurry when they see it.

Before I had a rule of life, I was in a hospital with heart arrhythmia. Internally, I was working in a way that led to burnout. Externally, it was crazy too. I'm glad I have a rule of life now and a great culture to work in.

I wasn't good at balancing my work and home life. I put so much emotion into my work, and when things weren't going good at work, it would show up in my relationships. I talked to my therapist about it, and she challenged me to envision my life as a pie.

Through that exercise, I realized that almost all my thoughts were revolving around work. I then talked to our CEO, Nick Kamada, about it, and he helped me realize that it's just a job. He reminded me to not bring work home with me and to maintain a healthier relationship with it.

I've also talked to older CEOs who have gone before me, and they said that this is one of the ways they maintained their physical health as they built companies. This idea of not bringing work home with me and keeping the emotions at bay has really helped me.

Hustle culture is glorified now, and it's easy to get caught up in it. We need to remember that life is so much more than just work. People are very quote-unquote successful and talking about how they are obsessed with their work. It's all they can do, all they can think about - eat, sleep, work - it's all blended together.

To separate ourselves from work and remember that it's not our identity, it's not who we are, it's a part of our lives and our stewardship, but it's not our end-all be-all.

When talking about the future of work, business, entrepreneurship, and creative marketing, what role do spiritual disciplines play in excelling in these areas as a Believer?

Spiritual practices, creating a rule of life, and a renewed focus on discipleship will go from being a fringe thing to mainstream within the local church. This will come from a move of God and the desperation of people who are drawn to this conversation around faith and work.

As we increasingly work and seek success in secular industries, we are increasingly working in a post-Christian context. Praying the sinner's prayer and then getting back out there isn't going to cut it. We need to be investing in our foundations, seeking Christ actively, and using the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead that lives inside of us.

This conversation is happening, and it's increasingly getting into the forefront of our dialogue as a global Church community. It's coming at the perfect time because from a societal and cultural perspective, we need to re-invest and reignite discipleship into our own lives in order to just exist and be in this next chapter of work.

This reminds us of the verse from Matthew 16: "For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?"

Thank you for sharing that, Anthony. What would be your top recommendation for a practical step that listeners could take this week to begin incorporating those spiritual disciplines into their work life?

I think starting small is the root of the question. For example, taking a digital appendage and putting it in a drawer for 24 hours, seeking disconnection and slowing down, and being intentional with the day. Invite the spirit to work in your life for those 24 hours.

Additionally, bringing other people with you to do it together to keep each other accountable can help with staying disciplined. Creating a ritual around how to open Sabbath, such as a Sabbath dinner on Friday nights, can help start the spirit of Sabbath on a high note.

I'm currently working on a company called Audience Plus. If you go to audienceplus.com, you can subscribe there. We're creating a platform to help people increase revenue and get promoted three times within one year, but without the loss of your soul.

Thanks man, I really appreciate it! If you liked our podcast, we want to ask you to help more people learn how to grow closer to God and experience the fullness he has for them. It's a small action, but it makes a big difference.

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We pray that God fills you with his love, his joy, his peace, and his wisdom as you continue growing in your daily walk with him. We're so grateful for you, and we can't wait to see you again next week. See you soon!