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In Today’s Issue:

* Intro to the Guest and Topic: Flip Howard, Private Office Mogul

* Core Takeaway:

* Episode References

* Select Quotes

* Key Moments

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Today’s Topic & Guest:

Flip Howard | Lucid Private Offices

Working from home is the answer for some. Most of us see it as a great way to be close to our families. But today’s guest, Flip Howard, the founder of Lucid Private Offices, thinks we should have separation between work and home via physical office space.

He has built Lucid into a thriving office space provider with 29 locations around the country. And the thing he spends most of his time really thinking about and chewing on is how he can not ruin his kids with the wealth he’s creating. So we end up talking a lot about that as well.

We also cover his perspective on ambition as a Catholic.

I’m convinced you’ll enjoy this episode, which I was able to record in person with Flip in Nashville a few weeks ago. Have a listen and let us know your thoughts. Should we work from home? How can we not ruin our children as we gain wealth? And how do you think about ambition as a Catholic?

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Core Lesson:

Be intentional about the workspace that you create for yourself and for your employees.

Work is a good thing — God gave us the commandment to work even before the fall of man. God chose to create the universe. Working is, in some ways, an imitation of this.

Because this is true, it’s important for us to consider how we create our space to help elevate our souls to do good work and to keep us in a virtuous mode. A priest once told me, "A beautiful and well-ordered exterior is a reflection of a beautiful and well-ordered interior.”

Consider this for yourself, and for your employees. Can you help elevate work by making the space beautiful? Regardless of whether you’re in white-collar office work or blue-collar factory/shop work, there are ways for you to elevate your work space and help lift your soul and the souls of your workers.

Just ask yourself, does this space look like a space where humans can flourish?

God Bless & Happy Building!

~Silas Mähner

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Key Episode References:

Businesses & Venues

* Lucid Private Offices

* Augustine Institute

Literary Works & Documents

* “On Human Work” (Laborem Exercens) - St. JPII Encyclical

* Leaving a Legacy - Johann Kurtz

Places & Landmarks

* Vatican Valley, Las Colinas, Dallas

* Carnegie Library

* Library of Congress

* Franciscan University of Steubenville

Scripture

* Philippians 4:8

* John 6

Select Quotes:

* “Like, what was Mother Teresa? Clearly she was ambitious. You know, would you say she had ambition? Well, that makes it seem like it was for her, but she was clearly ambitious.” - Flip Howard

* “And humans are the only creatures who are able to actually participate in creation through work. And work is what makes us fully human.” - Flip Howard

* “And rich people are surrounded by beauty all the time. And that's really the main difference between someone who's rich and someone who's not.” - Flip Howard

* “It is important for kids to see their dad work. You know, not work too much, not love work, but work.” - Flip Howard

* “You can keep working from the beach, but you're not gonna really move the ball forward. You're not gonna be advancing the thing while you're doing it. And that to me, that's what, you know, remote work is like.” - Flip Howard

* “And the answer is hire the ones that would naturally do that kind of thing. It's not about changing adults. Like that was their parents' job.” - Flip Howard

* “But to me it's not really It doesn't come from some, like you said, heady philosophical understanding of Catholic social teaching. It comes from just trying to love in a gospelsy sort of way, in a very simplistic. I just I think that people can tell when they're being used.” - Flip Howard

* “You're not doing anybody any favors leaving someone in a job they're not thriving in.” - Flip Howard

Key Moments: (outline)

* (00:00) - Intro: Silas introduces Flip Howard and sets the stage for a discussion centered on real estate, beautiful workspaces, virtuous ambition, and family succession.

* (03:03) - The In-Person Pivot: Silas welcomes Flip to the studio in Nashville and asks for a quick breakdown of his identity and his upscale co-working company, Lucid Private Offices.

* (05:07) - From Laundry to Luxury Real Estate: Flip shares how he graduated from Franciscan University and stumbled into the executive suite industry after initially running a campus laundry business.

* (09:15) - Identity and Joy in Entrepreneurship: A conversation on how to avoid tying your identity entirely to your business and how t...