Bridging Faith and Entrepreneurship: A Journey with Scott Lingle

Welcome to Episode 1 of the Createur Podcast! Our guest, Scott Lingle, a successful Christian entrepreneur and Olivet Nazarene University alumnus, is the embodiment of this blend. Scott's journey from a corporate America employee to co-founding Remodel Health, a booming software company, is nothing short of inspirational. He opens up about his transition and how his strong Christian faith impacts business decisions. Scott's commitment to prioritizing people over profits, fostering a culture rooted in Christ's values, and consistently making the Inc 5000 list for fastest-growing companies, is a testament to his faith and business acumen. As we delve further into our conversation with Scott, we uncover Christian entrepreneurship's rich opportunities.

 To connect with Scott you can find him on LinkedIn  @scottlingle.  

To connect with Olivet’s Entrepreneurship Program, contact Program Director, Chris Perez at caperez2@olivet.edu.

To learn more about other entrepreneurship opportunities and the McGraw School of Business’s very own Createur Conference and Pitch Competition, go to Createur.Olivet.edu.

Transcript

Spencer: 0:00

What does it mean to be a Christian entrepreneur? How can I turn my ideas into an actual business? How do I navigate my path to entrepreneurship?

Spencer: 0:11

Welcome to Creator, the podcast brought to you by Olivet Nazarene University's McGraw School of Business to unlock the secrets to Christian entrepreneurship and fuel your path to success.

Spencer: 0:23

I'm your host, Carly Bird, graduate assistant of Olivet's Entrepreneurship Program.

Spencer: 0:28

I'm your co-host, Spencer, James and Olivet undergraduate marketing management and business administration major.

Spencer: 0:34

Join us, fellow students, as we embark on a journey to discover the call of the entrepreneur.

Spencer: 0:40

This week, Scott Lingo will be joining us to dig deep into what it truly means to be a Christian entrepreneur.

Spencer: 0:47

Where faith and business meet. This is Creator, episode 1. Hello everyone.

Spencer: 0:56

This week, Carly and I have the honor of being joined with someone that has been a tremendous supporter and advocate of Creator and everything we do in our entrepreneurship program here at Olivet, Scott Lingo.

Spencer: 1:09

Scott is a 1990 graduate of ONU that is married with four children and lives in Indianapolis. He is the co-founder of Remodel Health, which is a very important part of the program, and is the founder of Remodel Health, which is a software company in the employee benefits industry. Remodel Health has made the Inc 5000 list for the past three years for the fastest growing companies in the nation. He is also very passionate about investing and growing future faith-driven entrepreneurs. Scott, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Scott: 1:40

Thanks so much, Carly. It's an honor to be here.

Spencer: 1:43

Well, scott, as we just mentioned in your bio, you are a fellow Olivet graduate, just like me, and Spencer are Olivet's duties. You received your Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, which must be a degree that all the cool people get, because I happen to have one myself, and I'm pretty sure Spencer is getting one too. So what a group we have here.

Scott: 2:03

Love that Awesome.

Spencer: 2:05

Yeah. So, with that being said, why would you say you realized that God was calling you to entrepreneurship? Because I think one of the stigmas that many young Christians with a passion for business are struggling with is being able to do both being able to follow that passion for business and entrepreneurship, but also live a life for Christ.

Scott: 2:28

Yeah, it's a great question, Carly. So I kind of always knew that I had entrepreneurship in my blood Early in life. I had like a pay-for-route and I had a number of different entrepreneurial passions and so I kind of had that in my blood and I knew that was something eventually I would do. I went to work for a big company called United Healthcare and found myself in a position where I was growing in that company and I kept digging and promoted and, believe it or not, shockingly, even though I knew I'd be an entrepreneur, I didn't really pull the trigger on becoming an entrepreneur until age 45. So waited a long, long time, learned a lot, made a lot of connections and it was very late in life that I finally pulled that trigger. So that's been my journey, but it worked well. God's really blessed me and I think having all those years of working for corporate America served me well.

Spencer: 3:29

Wow, that's amazing. That's great to hear. How would you say that some of those first years and that experience you had before becoming an entrepreneur, how did that equip you for the path that you ended up following?

Scott: 3:41

Yeah, so I think some folks are wired to go straight into entrepreneurship. I gotta tell you, when I was in my 20s I would have been completely clueless. So I went to work for UnitedHealthcare. It was the number one brand in the industry that I was in kind of health insurance, employee benefits, and I think you can learn a whole lot by going to work for a top brand and I almost look at it as like a paid entrepreneurship, like a paid apprenticeship, where I learned the successes and the failures along the way and I kind of put that in a book and I also had all these contacts that I leveraged along the way and so by the time I finally pulled the trigger, I feel like I had a huge head start. Of course, I'd probably do it a little sooner, but looking back, it's been a good path for me.

Spencer: 4:38

I guess one thing that maybe I'd want to touch on with you is, obviously you are also a Christian too, and so your companies that you've kind of helped lead on have consistently made the list for these fastest growing companies in the nation, and so, leading up to that, my question for you is how does your faith impact the way that you handle these companies and the successes and the failures of your entrepreneurial journey?

Scott: 5:03

So I have built four different companies in the past 10 years.

Scott: 5:07

So, even though I pulled the trigger late in life, god's really blessed these four businesses well beyond our wildest imagination, and so I find myself at this stage of life as kind of a passive business owner.

Scott: 5:21

This is by far my favorite season of life and I'm working on things that have kingdom impact and it's super rewarding. And so I believe God has called me into ministry at this point in my life and that ministry is growing future faith driven entrepreneurs, and I'm doing that not only by helping Olivet build the entrepreneurship program, but I'm also invested in ministry in Indianapolis called Shepherd Community, where we're leaning and helping underserved youth that aren't wired for Palach, that have raised their hand to say hey, you know, I'm interested in entrepreneurship and we're pouring in there and help grow faith driven entrepreneurs. And then also, with an orphan, a program called Lifesong for Wharfings that we're pouring in and building businesses in the Third World Contrary. So I feel like God has really shaped me and built me kind of with this special gift of entrepreneurship, and so it's been a real blessing to be able to give back, and that's what Wow, that's incredible.

Spencer: 6:26

I mean, that's what we love to hear. We love seeing people be able to use those business skills that we possess and, you know, tailoring those in a way that you can give back and serve the kingdom of God.

Scott: 6:38

One of the quotes that I've had on my wall I would say going all the way back 20, 30 years is by Francis Schaefer, and it says this it's the degree that we do our work well, that we have the opportunity to witness and to be heard, and it's quote by Francis Schaefer that I love, and what it means to me is you know, go crush it in your business, whatever that may be, so that you have the opportunity to share Jesus and glorify Him and make a redemptive impact. And so I've tried to look at that, both in corporate America and in self-employed or being an entrepreneur, and practice my business in such a way that I have that platform.

Spencer: 7:26

Wow, yes, absolutely so, Scott. When looking in particular at remodel health, Spencer and I both noticed that you have four main groups of customers that kind of make up your target audience or your customer base. It looks like you have churches and ministries, schools and universities, nonprofits and small businesses. Is that correct?

Scott: 7:47

That is correct.

Spencer: 7:48

How did you come up with that niche per se and how would you say that relates back to your Christian identity?

Scott: 7:54

So when we first started we were kind of a shotgun approach and we were just anybody that would be willing to buy our products. We didn't have a niche and it was probably about two years in. We were struggling along and probably a lot more failures than successions. And finally it occurred to me, the products that we sell we shift employer groups from wholly insured group players say, like a bone cross, windshield, united Health Care to the individual market, what's called the Affordable Care Act, and by doing so we unlock a lot of tax credits or subsidies. And at that point in time we only had on our platform the Affordable Care Act plans.

Scott: 8:40

And me personally, me and my family we were on a what's called a Christian healthcare sharing plan called Metashare, and it was serving me well. And I came back one day and I said you know, this is good enough for me and my family. We should make it available for all of our clients. And we embedded that program into our software platform and at that point in time I think I had about 95% of my employees that were believers and so we also made the call that we said, hey, why not focus on churches and faith based nonprofits? And that became our kind of our core star for niche marketing.

Scott: 9:23

And all of a sudden God bless that and it took off. We went from growing you know, barely growing this business, growing it, you know, by 40, 50, 60%. And also, the other thing God did at that time is he really blessed us with a partnership, a company out of Fort Wayne, indiana, by the name of Brotherhood Mutual, and they were a hundred year old property and casualty insurance company and they didn't have a health product. And by us focusing on this church market and this faith based nonprofit market, they came along and said you know, we are looking for a product like yours. They invited us up to Fort Wayne and, long story short, they invested four million in our business, took it at equity stake and now we've got two of their, both their CEO and their CFO, on our board. Not only that, a third of our customers every year come from their client. They refer us into all those clients. So talk about a God story and a God blessing. That was amazing and it was all from that focus.

Spencer: 10:30

That's great, I guess you know, and that, being so big, I mean it's just such a such a growing thing because of God, right, and I just would ask you know, how do you, how do you feel like you're shaping the culture to be an influence on your employees in providing that health care? You know, I guess maybe another way I'd put it is, you know, in being a Christian entrepreneur, how are you applying that, you know, beyond just providing health care for for these businesses and their employees and families?

Scott: 10:59

So the term I like to use is faith driven entrepreneurship, and to me, what that means is just people over profit. And so a faith driven, in my opinion, is really three things Number one, somebody that puts Jesus first. They love God and others. Number two, a servant leader, which is just a humble leader that's serving others. And then someone that makes a redemptive impact and that could be, again putting people over profits.

Scott: 11:31

So the way we do that at Remodel Health, we've identified that if you wanna have raving customers, it starts with raving employees, and so we've identified that two struggles at work with all importance, this is just population in general. People struggle with debt and they struggle with marriage, and so one of the ways that we've tried to put people over profit is we will pay for any employee that wants to go to any of the Dave Ramsey courses, either at their church or wherever they might find them to get out of debt. And then also with marriages any program, marriage conference, a marriage retreat we're gonna invest in those and we're gonna pay for those for any employees. Just two small ways that we're trying to pour into people and put people over profits.

Spencer: 12:25

You know, I'm sure your employees are so grateful too, and it really does make a difference the more that you care about those employees. And, as a Christian, that's our job, right, and we want to be able to give back and show that we're different, and people will see that and they'll notice that in your character.

Scott: 12:43

Absolutely. The other thing I guess I would say is core value. So I think when you're building a company, it starts with creating the right culture, which is values, and then hiring the right leaders and then building the right systems. When it comes to core values, that remodel, we've got four, and they are number one rooted we are rooted in Christ. Number two sharpened we are lifelong learners. Number three prioritize, and that just means we work hard but not at the expense of our families. And then, last of all, big hearted, which is really is servant leadership. We are servants of art, and so I also have a belief that when your values are clear, decisions are easy. So what that means is we hire by these values, we fire by these values, and really all of our coaching is based on these four key values.

Spencer: 13:43

How do you think that students say at all of that, or really any Christian entrepreneur could apply those values into their own business or their own life? You?

Scott: 13:51

know all four of those rooted, sharpened, prioritized and big hearted apply not only as a student, but also if you go into corporate America and even as a student athlete. The things that apply well in everyday life. That's great.

Spencer: 14:07

Yes, thank you so much, scott. So I can't believe how fast time flies, but it looks like our time is already kind of coming to a close. But here at Creator we do like to end with a sort of quirky question of the week. So, scott, your question is, besides your current company, re-model Health, what has been one of your favorite jobs and why?

Scott: 14:34

I think going back to seventh grade had a paper route and one of the things they allowed us to do is they had a contest where they had a catalog of all these different gifts, so it could be a new stereo system back in the day it was like a Walkman radio and what you would do to earn these is go door knocking and create new starts for the paper route. And me and my brother both shared a route and we kind of made a competition to see who could have the most sleep starts and by doing so we earned all these points that we could earn these different rewards, and it kind of instilled the first idea of entrepreneurship and I think that served me well in my life.

Spencer: 15:27

Wow, that's incredible and I love that. That's such a memorable experience too.

Spencer: 15:32

Yeah it was super cool. That is really cool how something like that you know so early on can really kind of fuel and propel you know from from then on. Well, hey, this has been just a wonderful time, a few minutes together here, and we just want to thank you again so much for being with us today and for allowing our listeners to you know, gain a better understanding on what Christian entrepreneurship truly is. You know, I would. I would say that you are a wonderful example of this and we're so thankful for that.

Scott: 16:02

Yes, absolutely Super appreciative guys.

Spencer: 16:05

I really look forward to putting these concepts into practice as well, and I'm sure that our listeners would completely agree with that. And, listeners, if you want to connect with Scott, you can find him on LinkedIn under at Scottlingel, so please go find him.

Spencer: 16:20

And if you'd like to connect with all of its entrepreneurship program director, chris Perez, or discover other entrepreneurship opportunities that this program has to offer, such as the McGraw School of Business's very own creator conference and pitch competition, you can just go to all of itedu slash creator.

Spencer: 16:38

Yes, thank you so much, everyone for listening and don't forget to tune in next time when Caleb Benoit will be joining us to share his expertise in increasing brand awareness.

Spencer: 16:48

For faith and business meet. This is the Creator Podcast. We'll see you later.