Hey Bold Creators!
AI has made it easier than ever to build fast, but I want to slow down and consider the part of entrepreneurship that still takes years.
In today’s newsletter:
🪨 Building Solid Foundations In The Era of AI
📆 Two upcoming events to put on your radar
🎉 A big update on the 2026 Cohort
Let's dive in.
Building Solid Foundations In The Era of AI
Jesus told a simple story that I think every entrepreneur needs to hear right now.
It’s the parable of the wise and foolish builders at the end of his famous Sermon on the Mount.
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Both houses probably looked fine on a sunny day, but only one stood after the storm. And it all came down to what they were built on: rock or sand.
The rock Jesus was talking about was obedience to his way of life. Doing the hard thing, living through it, being shaped by it.
His principle applies to everything. Even how we build our businesses.
We're living in a season where AI can give any entrepreneur instant answers, polished strategy, and the feeling of wisdom faster than imagined.
Don’t get me wrong. There's real value in that. I’m not some anti-AI old timer.
Our generation has been given access to a powerful tool, and people are already using it to do real good in the world—including folks in our Bold Creators community.
But we need to steward this powerful tool with wisdom.
AI lets you build really fast. The kind of speed that used to take a team, a budget, and six months. It makes it so easy to keep building that you can get really high really fast before anyone asks, “What is this sitting on?”
You can build an entire business on information you've never actually lived, but information isn’t the same thing as wisdom.
AI enables us to access information in seconds, but wisdom is still developed over years.
A failed hire teaches you something a podcast can’t.
Losing your biggest client reveals parts of your character a prompt can’t.
The sleepless night over payroll builds the kind of judgment that earns trust.
After 30+ years of building businesses, I've experienced failure, loss, and embarrassment. I wouldn't trade those hard years for anything. And now that I use AI as a daily tool, the reason I can use it well is because I know which questions to ask and which answers to trust. That didn't come from a prompt. It came from the hard years.
AI can help build the house, but it can’t pour the foundation.
Fast access to information doesn’t make a Bold Creator. It takes going through something real and letting it make you wiser, humbler, and more dependent on God than on your own cleverness.
God doesn't waste a slow season. Sometimes that slow formation work is actually the fastest path to something that will actually stand.
— Ben Clark
Reflection Questions
Is your character keeping pace with your capacity?
Can the foundation of your life and your business hold the weight of what you're building on it right now?
📆 Save These Dates
We two events coming up in the United States this month.
Northwest Arkansas: Join us at The Stonebreaker Hotel in Fayetteville on May 20, from 5:00-7:00pm
30A - Florida: Meet us at SOWAL House in Rosemary Beach on May 28, from 4:00-6:00pm
Reply back to this email to RSVP.
2026 Cohort Update
We have 51 participants in our 2026 Cohort! Over the next few months, they will be working through material from WorkMatters to prepare for our Summer Retreat in Uganda.
Talk about foundation work!
Excited to dive in with these Bold Creators.
A Prayer for Entrepreneurs
"Father, give us the humility to do the foundation work even when the tools make it tempting to skip it. Build us before you build through us. And when storms come, let what we've built still be standing."
Our 2026 Cohort is pictured below. Save this photo to your phone and and join us in praying for each of this year’s Bold Creators by name as they lean into this season of learning and development.
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