Tentmaking Tips

I wrote a few years ago talking about whether or not college is “hackable.”

My wife walked into the post office this week and said, “I’d like to buy 1,000 stamps.”

A while back I was trying to do three things at once.

Preaching training for pastors. Helping people build online coaching programmes. Helping others write their first book.

All three came from real experience. I'd done all three myself. And none of them were landing.

I'd mention the preaching training to one person, the coaching programme build to another, book coaching to whoever asked what I actually did. Nobody quite knew what I was for. If I'm honest, some weeks I didn't either.

So I sat down and picked one. Just helping professionals and pastors get their first coaching offer built and launched, nothing else for a season.

Within weeks people started saying yes. Not because I'd got better at any of it. It was the same knowledge and experience I'd always had. It's because for the first time, people could see clearly what I was actually for.

That's usually how clarity works. It's not adding more, it's taking away until one thing is left standing.

If you're circling a few diff...

Paul made tents.

Not before he was called. Not instead of his calling. Alongside it, for a good chunk of his ministry.

He didn't see it as a compromise. He didn't feel the need to explain it away. He worked with his hands so the gospel could go where it needed to go, without him being a burden to the churches he was planting.

We've turned that into something he'd probably find strange. Somewhere along the way "sacred" and "secular" got split into two boxes, and making money outside the pulpit landed in the wrong one.

But Paul wasn't funding a distraction. He was funding the mission.

If you've ever felt a flicker of guilt at the idea of earning outside your ministry role, that's worth sitting with for a second. Where did that come from? Is it scripture, or is it something you picked up from a culture that never had Paul's problem to begin with.

You're not compromising your calling by building income around it. You're doing exactly what he did.

Standing with you,

Simon 

I remember years ago as I was pastoring Experience Life that my cousin said to me, “Chris, you should get your real estate license. You never know when you might be able to help put a deal together.”

I think your seriousness about financial freedom can be measured by how much money you invest each month.

Nat had a passion and an idea.

He wanted to help dads with young kids navigate the pressures of early childhood. He knew the problem. He'd lived it. He cared deeply about it.

But there was a gap between who he was and what he was building.

Here's how he described it:

"Simon's really helped me to engage with people, to understand their language, the problems that they're facing, so that my idea doesn't just stay like a good idea, but become something that really meets people where they're at and helps them along their journey."

He launched a pilot program with seven people on it and is now well on the way to becoming a tentmaking pastor.

Not because he had it all figured out. Not because he was a business person. But because he took what he cared about, got clear on who it was for, and took one step at a time.

This is something I see a lot with pastors and Christian leaders.

The passion is there. The calling is there. But somewhere in the gap between who you are and what you're ...

Chris and I have been working on something and it's finally ready.

The 5-Step Tentmaking Blueprint Masterclass. 75 minutes. $17.

Here's what we cover:

1. Theological Foundation. Why God calls some to tentmaking, and why it's not Plan B.

2. The Identity Shift. Moving from surviving to thriving in dual calling.

3. Finding Your Sweet Spot. Scalable models that actually fit around ministry.

4. How to Stop Wasting Time. Finding the right coach and avoiding endless rabbit trails.

5. Communicating Well. How to share your tentmaking calling with confidence.

Chris and I are both tentmaking pastors. Between us we've built businesses in course creation, coaching, travel hacking, and property. We built this because we couldn't find anything that addressed the real blockers, the theology, the identity, the practical path, all in one place.

This isn't theory. It's what we've actually done and what we've helped others do.

You get the full 75-minute video masterclass plus the audio version s...

Neil is an amateur running coach who wanted to turn his expertise into income.

He had done all the research.

Watched the YouTube videos. Studied the gurus. Promised himself that one day he'd start building something.

But he was still stuck. And he couldn't quite figure out why.

Then he got some direction. Not a course. Not another video. Just a conversation that gave him clarity on exactly what to do next by helping him work out who he could help and how he could help them.

Within two weeks he had posted about his niche on Instagram. That's it. Just talking about what he did and who he helped using the clarity he'd just gained.

What happened next shocked him!

A running club he'd never heard of messaged him asking him to come and give a talk. Offering to pay him 250 dollars.

Then a complete stranger messaged asking if they could pay him to teach them what he does.

Then another person got his number from a friend and called him. Same question. Same request to pay.

Three people....

In the last newsletter I wrote about the value of protesting your property taxes each year.