Leading with Faith: Building Your Business And Your Legacy with Kyle Gabhart

Building a business is HARD, but are you accidentally sacrificing your family and legacy in the process?

📌What’s covered in the podcast: 

• The mindset shift every entrepreneur must make to avoid the trap of “self-sufficiency.”
• Why most entrepreneurs plan to leave a legacy—but forget to live one right now.
• A faith-centered approach to managing money in the face of inconsistent business income.
• The communication gap in entrepreneurial marriages—and how it leads to financial disaster.
• What Africa taught Kyle about provision, patience, and the problem with Western hustle culture.

Kyle Gabhart is a seasoned speaker, emcee, and strategist, known for helping people live with greater purpose across faith, family, and finances. Whether he’s guiding business leaders through legacy planning or inspiring audiences from the stage, Kyle’s message is rooted in timeless truth and practical wisdom.

He’s also the author of the upcoming book The Canteen, releasing this summer. It’s a raw and moving account of his life-changing mission trip to Africa at the age of nineteen—a story that challenges us to let go of comfort and control, and discover the quiet abundance that comes when we fully depend on God.

🤝Learn more about Kyle at  https://kylegabhart.com/

🌟Join the WAITLIST for The Faithful Founders Collective at https://reinventing-perspectives.kit.com/231f666d82

💛 Thank you for listening in! 😀

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a review! Much appreciated.

Transcript

[00:00:00] It is 100% true that any successful business is a result of tremendous amounts of sacrifice. So, sacrificing your peace of mind and your sanity. Yeah, that's probably gonna happen early on in starting a business, sacrificing some of your sleep. But at some level, you have to draw a line. It's important to release the notion that you are your family's provider.

In the West, we have an illusion of self-sufficiency. We have a belief. It's because of my hard work. But what I observed in Africa was a very clear reality, which is if God doesn't send rain, the crops won't grow and we won't eat. And the reality of course, is that it's precisely the same for you and I.

[00:01:00]

Priscilla: Welcome to the Entrepreneur's Kitchen. Today, I've got a very exciting guest for you. I've got Kyle Gabhart here, Kyle is the founder of Bluegrass Legacy Group, where they help families, businesses, and nonprofits leave a lasting legacy. Kyle, I'm so excited to have you here for two reasons. But before I tell you that, I'll let you tell me who you are and what's your mission, so your audience gets to know who you are.

Kyle: Okay, sounds perfect. So as you stated, my name is Kyle. I am a native Texan, a father of six, grandfather of two. And my mission is ever evolving. But what the Lord's really blessed me with. Is an ability to help people take the confusing aspects of their lives, the overwhelming aspects of their lives, and distill that down in a way that they can make meaningful decisions.

And whether that's finance or relationship or their spiritual walk it's all about gaining [00:02:00] clarity to know what that next right step looks like.

. 

Priscilla: we need those conversations around finance that oftentimes, we get sold the entrepreneurship life and there isn't enough detail about, okay, what does this mean in terms of your finances, your family, the legacy you're leaving.

It's not just selling and marketing and being visible, it's about the end goal. So I'm excited to have you to speak about that, also I saw that you went to my native country at the age of 19. I am from Zimbabwe. And I wondered what happened there

Kyle: oh my goodness. It was transformational. Hardly a day goes by over the last 26 years. That I haven't thought about Africa and the things the Lord showed me while I was there. For context when I was there, Mugabe was still in power and was very much a ruling with an iron grasp.

The land had just recently been taken away from white landowners and so there was a lot of conflict there. And of course I also spent time in South Africa. And the wounds of [00:03:00] apartheid were fresh. So different sets of experiences, but very similar in terms of the tension in terms of the stress level.

It just manifested itself quite differently across the two countries.

Priscilla: It's interesting that you mentioned South Africa because what was happening at that time when you went seems to be what is in the headlines now happening in South Africa and all of that is playing out. We're seeing that in the international media. I'm interested to know, as a young person, what traveling to a place that was.

Different than the life that you were used to. I'm thinking Texas and I'm thinking Zimbabwe and Mugabe time. What that was like.

Kyle: It really was a culture shock in so many ways. I , grew up in the suburbs and so I was used to a lot of the creature comforts that we tend to take for granted in the west. So I was accustomed to buses that would run on time and I was accustomed to having access to ice whenever I wanted it and having [00:04:00] access to air conditioning readily.

And I was accustomed to so many of the things that make our lives. Comfortable. And it just wasn't a natural part of things there. I remember very distinctly, I was in the northern part of South Africa. This was early in my trip. And for context, I spent a month between South Africa and Zimbabwe.

And it was the early part of the trip and I went to what they called a farm what we would more likely call a ranch. And it was just on the other side of the border. It was very close to Zimbabwe and it was for me to spend a few days getting accustomed to the environment to take some time doing some hiking and getting familiar with all of that.

And there were some workers there on the farm, that were very curious and they were asking me so many questions about what they had heard about what America was like. And again, remember this is the late nineties. So I don't know if this would still be as [00:05:00] impressive for folks then, but at the time it was still a magical concept to them.

And one question in particular stood out. They said, do you really. Have a machine where you put clothes into it and it washes the clothes for you. I was flabbergasted. I was like yes we do. And it just it blew their minds. They couldn't imagine that you wouldn't just wash the clothes yourself.

And so that was one tiny example, but it happened over and over. Just the stark contrast of that world versus what I knew to be as quote unquote normal.

Priscilla: You know what? You learned a little bit about African time. You don't always need to be in a hurry.

Kyle: so true.

Priscilla: The bus is coming, you'll get to where you're going and you'll have a good time talking to people it's a different pace of life.

Kyle: it is. I spent many hours hanging out at bus stops, and I would even look and go, but there's a [00:06:00] schedule like it, the bus is supposed to be, it'll get here when it gets here. Don't worry, brother Kyle. The bus is on its way African time was fascinating. In a similar vein, we would do a lot of hiking, though we also did some, hitchhiking which I didn't tell my mother about until I got home. And we also rode a train at one point, and then most interestingly, we took what they described as a bush taxi. Essentially it was a donkey cart so various forms of transportation. But hiking was a lot of it. And a really common refrain that would occur is I would ask my guide Peter.

Are we there yet or are we almost there much like we might, see children ask on a long car trip and he would go, oh, it's just , one more small mountain brother Kyle. , Two more small mountains. One more hill. We're nearly there,. And we'd hike another, half hour.

And what I would count in my head as. Pretty sure we've gone over three of those and a couple of hills and then I would ask again. Yes, brother Kyle. We're nearly [00:07:00] there. , Two more small mountains almost there, brother Kyle. And so just the whole mindset about time and about distance was so different from the frenetic pace that we have in the west.

Priscilla: , There's been a lot that has changed with technology and the internet and people moving up and down more easily and air travel being cheaper. But one thing I can tell you, I was home in December and when we sat at the restaurant, she kept saying she's like, why do we have to wait so long for the food? I'm like, they're cooking it from scratch. Okay. It's not a frozen meal.

You're gonna wait and you're just gonna enjoy while you're waiting. And that's normal thank you for sharing that.

Kyle: absolutely.

Priscilla: You talk about financial planning, many entrepreneurs feel like in the beginning of the journey, either they need to sacrifice their personal. Financial life to start a business or the stability of their family in the pursuit of business.

So I'm interested to know, because you are in both worlds, entrepreneurship, finances, what you would say to that early entrepreneur who's thinking with that frame of [00:08:00] mind.

Kyle: , it's such an important issue to address and it is a really common trap to fall into that at one level, it is 100% true that any successful business is a result of tremendous amounts of sacrifice. And so that is a reality. The key is you have to decide what you are and what you aren't willing to sacrifice.

So sacrificing your peace of mind and your sanity. Yeah, that's probably gonna happen early on in starting a business sacrificing some of your sleep. That's probably going to happen early on. But at some level you have to draw a line. You can't sacrifice precious moments that you won't get back time with your family.

Significant things that are going on, life, events that you need to be a part of. Being fully present with them can't sacrifice that. And so you have to make wise decisions about that. [00:09:00] And certainly there's a give and take. When I've started businesses in the past there was always an important conversation I would have with my wife.

About that decision and about the sacrifices I was preparing to make and the recognition of the impact it would have on the family. But at some level, that line has to be drawn to ensure that you don't allow it to completely consume you.

Priscilla: Sometimes it's like the pursuit of a goal no matter what, and I think it's never a healthy thing. I know sometimes people. Sell that kind of motivation drive in popular spaces. But at the end of the day, your life and the things that are important remain important.

The things that only you can do, remain things that only you can do. Now I'm thinking about the person who's thinking I'm starting the business. I'm thinking about drawing the line. How do I balance, household budgeting and inconsistent business income.

Something that would just help someone have a point of direction to think about that.

Kyle: I'm gonna maybe take a step back. It's not [00:10:00] perhaps the direct answer that someone might be hoping to receive. But I would say that it's important to release the notion that you are your family's provider. While it may, in fact be true that you are the primary or perhaps even the only person working in the household to generate necessary income, it's crucial to realize that you aren't the source, that you aren't the provider.

This is something that was really brought home for me in my time in Africa, and I talk in my most recent book, the canteen, about this concept of an illusion of self-sufficiency. In the West, we have an illusion of self-sufficiency. We have a belief that it's because of my hard work. It's because of my sacrifice.

It's because of my skillsets. It's because of my connections. It's because of how resourceful I am. That's why I am where I'm at today. That's why I have the money I [00:11:00] have in the bank. That's why the direct deposit that happened in my bank account last week or earlier this month, it feels like it's a direct result of effort that we've made.

And to a mild degree, that's true, but what I observed in Africa. Was a very clear reality, which is if God doesn't send rain, the crops won't grow and we won't eat. And the reality of course, is that it's precisely the same for you and I, but because there's additional layers of indirection, we lose sight of God's role in it. And so what ends up happening is we miss the fact. God is reigning in our lives daily. He sends rain in the form of relationships, in the form of skills. He sends rain in the form of connections and in the form of opportunities, and so he is reigning down in our lives daily. But [00:12:00] because it's not as explicit and obvious that it's from him, then we delude ourselves into thinking that we're the source.

Priscilla: Thank you for those wise words. As you go around the continent, the African continent, even 20 years back when things were not so good, there's a joy and a happiness that people have and I think a lot of that comes from that.

What you just mentioned, that realizing that you are not

The. Source of things. And when you try to misappropriate yourself as the source of things, it's too heavy. A lot of misery, a lot of frustration, all those things come into the way you do things. You mentioned that for those entrepreneurs who are married you must discuss that these are the financial issues that pertain to being a business owner, what that looks like and how that's gonna play out in your family relationship.

I know you and your wife do a lot of work with people building healthy marriages. In terms of. Entrepreneurship and that communication with the spouse around the issues of [00:13:00] money.

Kyle: It's so important and it manifests itself in a couple of ways. One is that everyone has a role to play. In the way that money is managed. And there is sometimes a tendency to let one person typically the , more dominant or the more commanding or assertive member of the couple to lead that.

And to a certain extent, I can understand why that occurs, but it's crucial for it to be a shared relationship. In our case, for example, and I see this pattern often, it works really well for my wife to focus on the administrative aspects of money on a daily basis. And it's me focused then on the strategic side of money as I'm building and growing and moving and achieving things for the household as a whole.

And so that works well for us to have that. Dual relationship and responsibility around money. But we also make it a point to have regular check-ins. So [00:14:00] I've had a discipline within my business for several years now where I do a quarterly retreat with myself. Initially I did it purely by myself, and then even as I've gotten a team, now I do it to move away from the team as well.

And so what happens is for four times a year, for three days, I go off on a miniature sabbatical. I tie off any last activities that I was doing from a work perspective so I can release those. And then I spend a couple of days. Some of it is in self-care, just relaxing. Some of it is in journaling and prayer, and some of it is in detailed reflection on the past quarters numbers.

How did we do as a team hitting those goals? And then what are our goals for the next quarter and what do we need to do to put ourselves in the right frame of mind for achieving those? And then I put a capstone on those three days and I go take my wife and by the way, I actually go to a hotel, so I'm getting away for these days.

Then my wife meets me for the last night. We [00:15:00] have a nice dinner together and I actually walk her through the numbers of this is what happened this past quarter in the business. Here's how we did in achieving our goals. Here's where we're going on the next quarter and what we're aiming to achieve. And so it keeps her in the loop.

It gives her an opportunity to communicate. Any perspective or insight she might have. And then on the following Monday, I do a presentation to the team to bring them up to speed on the past quarter as well as what we're looking forward to the next one. And so I do that four times a year. It helps me to not only tune the business goals, but also my personal goals.

And then I do a more extended one once a year and incorporate the team in that particular retreat on the annual side of it.

Priscilla: Thank you for sharing that practice. . The people who will listen to this will really benefit from that because I've seen, really tragic things because , the dominant person in terms of finances is not communicating. The business is not doing well. The other party's spending as if the business is doing well.

The other party doesn't have the guts to tell [00:16:00] the other person that, hey, things have changed but that continuous communication about money making that the norm about what's happening, how did you come stumble? You didn't stumble upon this. Your experience led you to all these findings, and I'm interested to know that because it's a lot of wisdom and I'm wondered how did this all come to be?

Kyle: Yeah. No you're exactly right. Any good idea? I think I've ever had I stole from someone else or from a couple of different places? In this case, this practice is a blend of things that I learned from EOS the Entrepreneurial operating system, as well as Strategic Coach which is a high level coaching program for entrepreneurs that I was a part of for several years.

And so with Strategic Coach in particular. There was a practice of going on a retreat. So I would hop on an airplane and I would fly to California and I would spend three days there in getting my mind right as well as going through a workshop and [00:17:00] reflecting on the past quarter, the next quarter, and so on.

After getting in that discipline for a while, I then wove in EOS, which has a concept of quarterly rocks, which are those big rocks that you're going to focus on. And it's about aligning the team around those items that you're gonna focus on. And so then after I'd done that for a while, then it really just became a matter of going, okay, I don't have to get on an airplane and go to California.

I don't have to be in a room full of other entrepreneurs in order to continue this practice. I love the principle, I love the cadence of it. I love the things I've learned from it. I can do it right here in my own backyard. And so I just started going to a hotel nearby. And creating my own miniature retreat.

And then it was a simple addition of my own to go, ah, if I'm doing this anyway, and to your earlier question, I want to integrate my spouse more in what's going on in the business. It seemed like a natural opportunity to invite her in at the end of that, [00:18:00] where we could celebrate together. And I could also give her a very real look at how things have gone.

And how I expect they're going to go as we continue to build that vision of the business together.

Priscilla: Such a Powerful practice, and I can see how it takes that, oh, it's my thing, it's my business away, and it becomes the family thing, that's really important. 

Kyle: I love that you said it that way. I want to build on it for a moment. I have really made it intentional over the last few years to talk about we and our, with respect to the business and. Encourage Tammy, my wife, to think of it as our business, even though on a day-to-day basis she isn't involved in it.

And I've noticed now, really probably in the last year that it's gone into her language as well. And so when people ask. What I do or what we do for a living she'll say, oh, we own a business. We own a wealth management practice. And she'll talk about it in terms of our team [00:19:00] members, our employees, our office.

And so it's really exciting to see her embrace that perspective as well.

Priscilla: that's wonderful. I think someone who's listening at this point. Could just be like, I've heard enough, this is good enough. I can take this away. but keep listening. So thank you so much for that. Now I know you've got a new book, I think. Is it coming out in the summer or it's just come out the canteen?

Kyle: Yeah, so it's the canteen and it is officially released in August 2025, August 12th, but it's already right now on Barnes and Noble available for pre-order.

Priscilla: Okay. Tell us the premise of the book and what people can look forward to in the canteen.

Kyle: You bet. So going back to when I was a young man when you hear that a teenager went on a mission trip, you have a kind of image in your mind that there's a group of say, 30 or 40 people. Running around together, staying in hotels and getting to do some meaningful things, visiting orphanages or doing some [00:20:00] construction work or what have you, but you still have this image of a sort of a safe clinical atmosphere of these, herd of people running around together.

My experience was dramatically different. It was myself and a native translator, backpacking into remote villages, sharing the gospel.

The first night I was in the bush, the elder of that village was talking , through Peter, through my translator and sharing in a casual fashion the same way that you and I are talking right now, that elephants are trampling their crops. Whatever the elephants leave hoards of ants are demolishing. And six weeks prior, his nephew. Had gotten too close to the river and a crocodile had snatched him, and that was normal everyday life for them. And so it was a raw and real encounter with the elements and with my own faith [00:21:00] that transformed my life.

And so while I was there, I kept a journal. Every single day I wrote in it. I also took pictures, and when I say I took pictures, I mean that when I came home, I had film. I dropped it off at Eckards. I waited a couple of days till it was developed. I have photos and so the book weaves together stories, journal entries.

Photos and incorporates scripture and describes lessons the Lord showed me while I was there that still impact who I am today, 25, 26 years later. And there's opportunities within the book for people to explore that journey for themselves and see where the Lord wants them to go next.

Priscilla: sounds amazing. Thank you for sharing that with us. When you mentioned coming into [00:22:00] contact with the elements, I said, everyone who says they love nature has never been bitten by anything.

Kyle: Indeed. 

Priscilla: it's an interesting perspective and I think it'll really bless people. I know you speak a lot about legacy even in the startup phase or people who are starting businesses, what would you say to them about thinking about legacy?

Kyle: The most significant thing that I think is important for people to understand about Legacy is that. It's something that you are actively building right now in contrast to how most people think of it. I have frequent opportunities to speak in front of audiences, and I'll ask them, what does the word legacy mean to you? And by far and away, the most common answer I get is legacy is something you leave behind. While I appreciate that, that's a perspective, and there is certainly truth to that. If legacy is something you [00:23:00] leave behind, then what that means is you don't have an opportunity to influence it because you're just gonna toss it over your shoulder, hope the next generation catches it and knows what to do with it. But when you shift your thinking from leaving a legacy to living one. Then you begin to realize that the decisions you make with your time every day, the way that you apply your talents every week, and how you engage with the people and the community that God has placed you in is your opportunity right now to build and live a legacy and teach that next generation. Mentor that next generation on how to carry it well,

Priscilla: So well said. Children, especially they will do what you did, not what you said, not what you wrote, , and as Christians, we know nothing is a coincidence. Everything, every person you encounter, , , every place you find [00:24:00] yourself, none of it is a coincidence.

, It's part of you living that legacy, like you said. Wow. Very powerful. Now for those who are thinking, okay, I'm trying to think about my finances in a healthy way, create some financial habits. People always want the tactical things, you know that Kyle maybe you can share three financial habits that someone should put into practice as an early entrepreneur, to get on the right track.

Kyle: Yeah, no I love that question. So the first thing that I would say is it's really important that you focus on giving your money a job, giving it a place to go, and something to do. Rather than waiting at the end to see what's left over. And this is particularly relevant for entrepreneurs because generally speaking the nature of a business that one would build is likely going to lead to variable income, at least at the beginning, if [00:25:00] not throughout the duration of your time as an entrepreneur, right?

The fact that you receive the profits. After anything the business has built necessarily leads itself to variability. The trouble with that is if you are operating off of a fixed mindset about money. Then you can easily run into the scenario of I need to do A, B, and C, and if there's anything left over, then I'll, and insert whatever the answer might be.

Then I'll tithe, then I'll save, then I'll invest. Then I'll put money towards growing the business further. And the trouble, of course, is that all of those things are crucial. What you need to do instead is front load. Your budget with non-negotiables. More often than not, my recommendation is going to be those non-negotiables are percentage based, a percentage that you give back to the Lord, a percentage that you save and [00:26:00] invest a percentage that you put towards growing the business further or growing yourself professionally.

It's gotta be percentages because as soon as it's absolute figures, it's gonna fall apart with the fluctuation and variations in your funds. So putting those as the first priority is essential in proper prioritization. And scripture's pretty clear about first fruits anyhow, but I'm just suggesting to you that there are other fruits similar to giving back to the Lord that are equally important to frontload or prioritize.

And then to the extent that you have funds left over, after, then you can start doing things that are fun. Then you can start doing things that you would enjoy and be able to really reward yourself for all of that hard work. But you've gotta front load those essential priorities. So that would be the first thing I would say.

The second thing that I would say is that. [00:27:00] There is absolutely no scriptural evidence I can find anywhere of the notion of retirement. I do not mean by that, that you have to die at your desk. I do mean that if you have blood pumping through your veins and oxygen in your lungs, the Lord's not done with you and there's work for you to do.

Now, that may or may not mean that you need to go generate an income, but it certainly means that you need to be active. You need to be putting your talents to work. I've looked all through scripture. I've only found one example of retirement, and that is Moses who had two careers. His first was 40 years as a shepherd.

His second career was 40 years as a leader of the children of Israel, out of the Exodus, through the wandering all the way up to the promised land, after his second 40 year career, he had to train his successor. Joshua. After he did that, the Lord finally gave him a sabbatical, [00:28:00] and his sabbatical was, you get to climb this mountain, you get to see the promised land and then die.

Priscilla, that's the only example I've ever seen of retirement. And so it's important to frame our minds around that and understand. That the Lord and the Kingdom has work for us to do. And the notion that society encourages us to do, to pile up money so that we can one day do nothing is foolish and wasteful. And the third thing I would say is to be generous and grateful every day, which I know doesn't sound like a practical aspect of finance, but I assure you it is. Because if you grasp onto whatever the Lord has given you with a mindset of scarcity, then it's really going to limit the impact that you can have, and it's going to limit the resources he's willing to trust you with.[00:29:00]

But if you can hold what he gives you with an open hand and have a heart of gratitude and be generous and sow back into others, he'll trust you with more.

Priscilla: we've come to the end and I just wanted to know, what are you looking forward to for the future personally? What's exciting for you that you're seeing for yourself as well as in the marketplace?

Kyle: . 

On a personal basis I absolutely have just been delighted to be a grandfather. My oldest grandson's three and a half his brother is two. And it is such a joy. And so I'm excited to see as they grow and as they experience life and as my wife and I continue to have opportunities to pour into them.

So I'm really excited about that personally professionally , in the marketplace. I'm really intrigued to see where artificial intelligence and changes in technology go. I know that change is often intimidating for folks but in my experience it's just creating new opportunities for innovation, new opportunities for creativity, and for us to level ourselves up, both [00:30:00] personally and professionally.

So I'm thrilled to see where that goes next.

Priscilla: just hearing you talk about being a grandparent in a new role, I can imagine that must be very exciting. . Thank you so much. Please to the audience, you can find out about. Kyle's book Canteen, which is coming out soon in August, but is available through Barnes and Noble,

and are you active online or where can people follow you to learn more about what you do?

Kyle: Yeah, I appreciate that question. I am, the easiest answer is go to kyle gab hart.com and then from there you can find the spider web connections to all the other pieces of where I'm located.

Priscilla: Oh, wonderful. I thought we'd have time 'cause I saw you're into. Games and card games. And I said, you're one very interesting person. You can find out more about that on Kyle's website. Thank you so much, Kyle. Thank you for being flexible and for making time to speak to me and to my audience.

I

Kyle: Thank you, Priscilla. It was a pleasure.