"153 Season"| Episode #79 | Builder of All Things | Author’s Cut: Chapter Five w/ Richie Breaux

Welcome to the Builder of All Things Podcast—where we go beyond the pages of the book and explore into the Author’s Cut! 🔥 Join Richie Breaux and Ray Bisnar as they break down each chapter in micro-episodes, giving you the behind-the-scenes insights, deeper wisdom, and real-life applications—just like a Director’s Cut for a book. 

In this episode titled “153 Season,” we unpack the deep meaning behind one of Scripture’s most curious details — the disciples catching exactly 153 fish after casting their nets at Jesus’ command.

Why 153? Why such a specific number?

Richie shares how that number became a personal revelation — a picture of God's intentionality, provision, and perfectly measured blessing. Just like in business, faith, and life, this story reminds us: not every fish is meant to make it to shore — only the ones God ordained for you.

🎯 This episode is for anyone navigating decisions, dealing with closed doors, or waiting on a breakthrough that finally fits.

💡 Key Insights:
* The connection between diligence and obedience in unlocking God's favor
* Why specific blessings require specific preparation
* How to trust God's “yes” — and His “no”
* Real-life story: How one single client during COVID changed everything for Richie & Tiffany’s business
* Learning to steward your heart in seasons of both loss and overflow

📖 "Do all you know to do, and let God do the rest."The 153 Season is a reminder: God’s blessings won’t overwhelm you — they’ll fit your net.

👇 Drop a comment:Have you ever had a “153 moment” in your life?

#153Season #FaithAndWork #DiligenceAndObedience #ChristianBusiness #DivineProvision #GodsTiming #AbundanceWithPurpose #KingdomLeadership #BlessingNotBreaking #Stewardship #Testimony #RightSideOfTheBoat

Chapters

• 0:18 The 153 Fish Concept
• 2:50 Specific Numbers in Negotiation
• 4:11 Understanding the 153 Season
• 5:35 COVID Business Challenges
• 8:46 Pivoting to Success
• 11:26 The Impact of Diligence and Obedience

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

towards the ending of the chapter. Richie, um, there's a concept that you introduce which is the amount of fish that they caught and how specific it was, and it's called one five, three season. Yeah, yeah, can you walk me through that?

Speaker 2: 0:32

Going through our business journey. You know, I, in my relationship with God, I, you know, in different seasons I'm constantly studying the word, and when I was reading this story, in different seasons, I'm constantly studying the word and when I was reading this story, it really felt like God was like. I had this question man, like why 153? I don't, you know, like odd numbers, when you do that, especially in you know, it's kind of like in business, right, in contracting, I can say, hey, the houses to build your house is going to be 1, 1.2 million. Okay, cool, it's like, round up, it's good to go. But if I'm like, yeah, to build your house is 1.237, yeah, point, you know. Or you know, 762.21 cents, they're gonna be like, oh man, that's, that's specific. So we actually use that strategy strategy.

Speaker 2: 1:24

When me and my wife bought a home, when we were in negotiations trying to buy a house, and you know they wouldn't go below a certain number, and so you know, when you make an offer, you make a number, and so we actually threw in a very specific number in there and it actually aligned with Romans 828.

Speaker 2: 1:44

So we threw 828 in there, kind of like the number in the, and it actually aligned with, uh, romans, 828. So we threw 828 in there, kind of like the number than 828, yeah, and it, and we sent it off. We prayed and just trust god that all things work together for good, if this is what you want. And then he came back and offered it and it was, you know, it was well below the number he would say he wouldn't go below. But I think what happened is it felt like we took all the money out of our pocket, put it all on a pile, everything was on our dresser and we just added it up and that was the number, because it, even though our realtor was like hey, that's such a specific number like why, why not just round it up?

Speaker 2: 2:15

they, he said in in realtor world we we usually round this up just to make the math easier for everybody. Can we just round this up? We're like no, we're like we prayed about this, this is the number and up. And we're like no, we're like we prayed about this, this is the number and this is what we're going to send off. So we sent it off and he accepted and you know the position behind that was like number one, just trusting God to put all those things, but why I shared it? It was just such a specific number. I think it spoke to him saying like we believe that he was like man this, I don't think they're going to come back with another offer. I think this was like all money on the table and so he was like this we probably put him in a position where he felt like I got to take this or not take it, and so he ended up taking it. So when I look at the fish, I feel the same way. It's like 153 fish, like that's such a specific number.

Speaker 2: 3:01

That's not like a roundup number, because we do that right, we round up things to make easier math, and I'm pretty sure they did that back then, but it was 153 and I could just like I always like put myself in those positions where I was on the boat with peter and all these guys and then they pull the net up, you know, and he jumps out, he changed jesus, like all this. And then the guys, they, they come out, they round up all the fish and they're like pulling it back and then here Jesus is, he's on shore, and then they're pulling and they count all the fish and it was like 153 recorded boom. So that 153 is what I want to. You know, I wanted to. It spoke to me saying that do all you know you can do. God will do the rest. God will also open doors For opportunity when you follow your diligence and when you're obedient, he'll open the doors that he wants you to step through, but he'll also close the ones that he doesn't want you in. So it's like, imagine if you have four streams, four roads, you're like which one should I go down? He's going to make a tree fall on two of them and then the other one, a truck's going to come, turn, park and there's going to be some blockade and there's only be one open boom. That's the one.

Speaker 2: 4:10

So I believe 153 season is basically our prayer, is our prayer to god open the doors you want to open and close the ones you want closed and same as those fish. We want 153 fish that you want us to bring to shore and the ones that don't make it. Praise god. So it was a heart of gratitude and thankfulness. For when we lose jobs too, you know saying okay, we, we know that fish didn't make it to shore, only 153 did. An abundance of 153 is also part of that. 153 season is when you're following, you know god, and being diligent and trying to be obedient as much as possible, and he blesses you with abundance. He's blessing with with you what you can handle and then getting rid of the fish that you can't handle, and that to me, is 153, man, it's like he's going to get you your maximum capacity to shore, but the ones you couldn't handle, he just let them keep swimming.

Speaker 1: 4:59

And that's good. That comes in a form of in the previous years with ATN, right before the big change in the world, which was covid time right, and I know you have a story that I don't know if you want to get into it, but it seems like that was the lane that god opened up and it was like there were multiple lanes and, like you're mentioning, just things shut down and then this was specifically everything just worked out, and I don't know if you want to dive into that, I mean, yeah, just real quick, just tangible.

Speaker 2: 5:31

This in reality of our business and where this really came to play. I mean covid, I mean we're, we're growing. You know, 2017, 18, 19 we were on like this little growth spurt nothing crazy, but you know, uh, we, we had some. You know, we won our first luxury job I think it's close to two million, which I think the projects before that were significantly lower. Yeah, so I mean that was huge for us. So we're prepping and getting that, that one, to get started. I think it just started and all of a sudden man, you know, I think we had maybe 30, 40 projects going on, you know you know a good amount of teams working with us and just things flowing the COVID app but everything shut down.

Speaker 2: 6:11

Now you know me and Tiffany both, you know, coming from two house fires and I want to say poverty setting, but poverty setting. Man growing up and in the sense of not third world country but America poverty setting, and Tiffany living on the beach also coming up with this. We just had no resources, nothing when we started our company no money, no people to ask for money. We didn't have any of that, you know, we had nobody to reach out to for any kind of resource really. So everything was just from God or from us, just, you know, trying to make it through. And so when everything shut down, man, we were almost like everything we did was almost a gamble, because the funds were always like right there and trying to grow, and so we, basically, we were just paying ourselves just enough to get by, and everything that was even close to profitable would go back into the business to grow it to a point to where we wanted to get it and be able to survive this luxury. So it was just tight as it was. It was just tight, but we were being extra, extra diligent, you know. And uh.

Speaker 2: 7:09

In that season, I think we were way ahead of the game, using uh technology. We were using uh platforms that were crms, you know, project management, customer related, you know, management platforms. Uh, the architects we work with were digital blueprints, and this is 2019 now. So you know, we were already doing video calls. Yeah, and nobody was really doing video calls. We had to, like, you know, kind of teach them how to use it, and so we're using virtual reality for our design. So we're just one of those companies trying to be a little tech heavy in the front, knowing that this is where the future is going. We didn't, we just didn't know like it was coming so soon.

Speaker 2: 7:43

Yeah, so when covid happened, the whole world shut down. We all know this. But but for me it was like, oh my gosh, like every client of our thing we had 30 something projects say we're, we're not working, we can't do anything now, but I just I got, I got my office to pay, I got all my managers. You know, I'm just like I can't. I can't afford this even a couple weeks. Like this is crazy. Like yeah, we're about to shut down, like you know. And so we just like I can't afford this even a couple weeks, like this is crazy, like we're about to shut down, like you know, and so we're just burning the fuel trying to think. And then I felt like those fishermen like on the boat man, just Not catching the thing.

Speaker 2: 8:19

man, I was just like we about to hang the nets. And so in that moment, man, we felt a leading from God and a voice from God to say throw your net on the other side, on the right side. And so we did, and tangibly, that meant coming up with a battle plan how we can execute, survive COVID. This is in literally February, right of 2020. Like this wasn't like six months later. This was the month everyone shut down.

Speaker 2: 8:47

We wrote a whole battle plan on how we would execute in the field with COVID, with separation, with all our workers, with masks, with shields. We had to give people breathing room to go out for, like you know, 10 minutes, come back in and work. We just came up with a whole game plan and put it all out on paper. We didn't have chat GPT back then. We just put all this stuff out. Our managers we had actually created this like seating zone in our office where we could have meetings and there was like six feet separate. It was all this stuff, before even the six feet separation thing was even out. We were just kind of like, how can we operate in this matter? And so, um, we were doing research and learning like, oh wait, a minute, we're construction guys actually can work, they're considered.

Speaker 2: 9:27

you know well, I forget the term was back then, but uh, essential I think it was yeah and so we had put together memos for all our subcontractors who were just fear crazy of going out because you know everything we're seeing on youtube in china yeah like man, those guys are dropping like flies I ain't trying to catch no covid, you know.

Speaker 2: 9:43

So we're all at this fear factor going and all the clients responded like no, I'm like dang. So we did all that diligence, you know, and set our, got the horse ready for battle and sent it out, man and uh, and we got one client that called us and said green light, go man, yeah, go out of the 30 out of the 30 and it was our luxury project because they were still in the.

Speaker 2: 10:04

And we got one client that called us and said, greenlight, go, man, yeah, go Out of the 30. Out of the 30. And it was our luxury project because they were still in the mainland, they weren't here, you know. And so they were like, yeah, man, go, you have the house, it's yours, man, get it done. So I called all, I sent out the memos to the subs and told them the game plan. I like, yeah, we need work, man. So, like, if you guys are green light, all their projects were shut down. So all of a sudden we were like we were the 153 fish, and so what I mean by that is like I had all the resources to my like, my availability. Now I had all the subs, all the workers. We had, no, all the. So it was just like all of us on one job and I was like, oh man, this is. We ended up like having a record-breaking efficiency of finishing a project. I think we finished this two million dollar project in like six months.

Speaker 2: 10:48

And and so what happened after? That man was, it was award-winning, it went nationally, you know, locally, nationally. It everyone. It just hit hit the market, was on the front of two magazine covers. It was just like. It was just like boom, like oh man, this was the one, five, three season and this is what God had prepared. And this is where diligence met obedience. And just seeing God, you know, just hey, just go for it, throw it to the other side and do something different. Shift, make a pivot in your business right now, and that's what most businesses had to do. And if you're out there and you went through, you know COVID and your business didn't survive. Just trust there's a new season, you know for you and I'm pretty sure you're there now. You know, after all the seasons, so not to say that you know every storm, everyone's different but for us that's how it went down.

Speaker 1: 11:48

Man, that's a crazy story, because that's just a perfect example of diligence and obedience paired together, Because now I'm looking at it, it's like because those awards and all of those accolades wouldn't have come unless you guys were prepared to take the role, to assume that role and that position that could tackle that, that job, and even the, the, the, the job in itself, that one out of 30, you know clients that you guys had, and the one being the, the biggest the one out of all of them that we needed to say yes was the one that said yes.

Speaker 1: 12:16

And then for everything to line up, with the homeowners not being there, which allowed you guys to to go in the house and just you know what do you call it Not? Or just being available, like not being distracted by anything, or you know, that's such a crazy blessing if you think about it.

Speaker 2: 12:37

Yeah, it really was, because you know, it's just so many things on that project alone. I mean, the location of it was on Primetime Highway where we had our sign out, you know, permit was approved. We ordered everything right before COVID, so we had all the materials there. People saw it getting built as COVID was happening, so it was probably like watching a live construction movie, you know, like nothing else is happening, but look man, they're building this sick home right here while I'm going to get coffee, you know, and so it just like opened up so many doors for new clients, bigger projects. It just it just shotgun dust like to another level. I'm out.