Chasing Impact: How Brian Slipka Redefined Success and Leadership

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We're growing like crazy.

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We're producing cashflow.

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We're operating with a nice, healthy discipline where, I started to get a

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little loose on, on some of my expenses.

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Cause I'm like, Hey, we got cashflow.

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know, all the stuff that had gotten me to the point where I, I had a seven

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figure annual income, I had a 10 figure net worth that allowed me to step away

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and pursue, pursue all, what I'm doing now, all those things that allowed me to

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get there, I started to drift from why, because I was, was actually pursuing

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what I thought was Christ like things.

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And that, but it was really for the glory of Brian.

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It was growth

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Um, uh,

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How can mastering relationships transform both your personal And

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professional life today on seat.

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Go create the leadership journey.

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We're joined by Brian Slipka, founder of True North equity partners and

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an advocate for servant leadership from starting at the ground level

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to establishing a conglomerate of over 20 independent companies.

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Brian's journey  epitomizes the ethos of building wealth

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through diligent stewardship and ethical business practices.

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As the author of Winsome, Five Proven Life Strategies to Win in Relationships,

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Brian shares the art of forming genuine connections with others.

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That foster success across all facets of life.

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Brian, welcome to SeatGoCreate.

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Hey, great to be here, Tim.

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Yeah, I've just finished reading your book, so we're going to have a fun

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conversation about that and being a business owner and all that you do.

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we've just met, so this is not really pretending and

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someone asks you what you do.

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if someone asks you what you do, What's the answer you typically give?

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It's a great question.

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I'm a purpose driven business leader, right.

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and that may sound like a bunch of fluff, as people get to know me and as I unpack

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what that means, they start to see how real it is and how it's transcended my

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career, my life, professionally and so, yeah, purpose driven business leader.

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All right.

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So purpose driven business leader.

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There's four words there that I'm probably want to, I want to unpack

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just a little bit purpose driven.

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And I remember years ago when the book came out and different

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things like that, that's a, I don't want to say it's a phrase that.

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Maybe confusing to some people.

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I mean, the words purpose and the word driven should be self explanatory, but

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tell me a little bit more about what that means to you because it sort of has become

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some code for a few different things.

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So what does that mean to Brian?

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Well, I mean, for me, it comes down to my faith, my strong faith in

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Christ and the promises of Christ.

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And, as a believer, that's critical, right?

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But to specifically answer a question on purpose driven business leader, you

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really got to go back to, and a lot of people have heard me tell this story, but

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back to 2013, my dad was dying of cancer.

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I had had a successful career up to that point, and, enterprise

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technology, software sales, finance.

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I was a business owner, business investor had a lot of different types

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of, real estate, all that sort of thing, but I was traveling 200 days a

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year and my dad was dying of cancer.

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I went and visited him when he was in hospice.

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His eyes were getting all jaundiced and get, you know, he was getting

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ready to leave this world.

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he was genuinely, eager to move on to the next stage of his eternal,

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being the one thing he shared with me, and it was during a moment when

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I was frustrated and venting to him.

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Here he is in hospice.

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I was venting to him about my, plight at work, and I was complaining

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about something, And having to travel so much and all that stuff.

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And he stopped me and just stared at me with these jaundiced eyes and he said,

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Brian, what on earth are you chasing?

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I mean, seriously, what on earth are you chasing?

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I'm going to be leaving this world here soon.

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I'm not going to be here anymore.

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You know, you got, everything you've asked for and everything you've pursued,

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but what on earth are you chasing?

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And so when you ask the question and I answer purpose driven, you know, business

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leader, that is what I'm chasing,

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So what does that mean?

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Well, purpose driven means.

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To have impact and influence in the businesses.

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I lead to have an effect that echoes, To have an effect that transcends Brian

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Slipka as the individual, as the person.

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so much about what I talk about around surrendering, selfish ambition,

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all that stuff has to do with this purpose driven transcending self,

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transcending your circumstances to leave an impact and influence on others.

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So, one of the things that always fascinates me, Brian, is how men a

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lot, seems like women maybe are a little bit more introspective this

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way, but men typically need some kind of event, catalytic event or their

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father to hit them in the head with a two by four, even though it's a phrase.

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So tell me more about that because I really want to drive a little

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bit deeper into what that meant.

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What that means for the way you're functioning and operating now

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Yeah, you're right.

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And by the way, you're right.

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I think with guys.

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tend to, lightning bolts tend to resonate with them more

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than a dimmer switch, right?

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although I will tell you, or, more microwaves, women are crockpots, right?

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So, there's all, again, more, more stories behind that too, but, but the,

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Yeah, we want to impact that because there's more to that

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from a physical standpoint,

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Yes.

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so, for me before, I grew up in a Christian, household.

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My parents, very faithful Christians, love the Lord.

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very Beaver Cleaver upbringing for those of you who used to watch,

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Beaver Cleaver for me, it was reruns.

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We had a very normal family upbringing, right?

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then you start going to pursue the ways of the world, right?

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I always was very ambitious and wanted to excel in everything I did.

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and for the most part did professionally, I did things, crazy things.

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I sold door to door, to pay my way through, you know,

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college in the summertime.

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I always took that next step of pursuing the next thing, Stretching myself.

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I got very comfortable being uncomfortable.

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I was, pursuing more, And that became, kind of almost like a

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healthy drug, it's good on one hand, because you learn through adversity.

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It was self imposed adversity, like it's self imposed challenges.

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and that's how you learn and grow.

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but you do also got to realize at some point in your life, to what

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end and for what purpose, right?

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So to answer your question, going through my twenties and

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thirties, I had earthly successes.

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You know, I got married, to my wife, Megan.

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we've been married, 24 years almost.

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we've, two great kids.

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and so as I went through my professional career, I was having success.

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I was doing well, making good money, hitting all my financial metrics and goals

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that was setting forth for me, like X amount of when I'm 30 and X amount balance

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sheet when I'm 35 and no debt when I'm 30 involved in all this stuff that was part

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of my economic scorecard financially.

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checking the boxes, great wife, great kids, dutiful responsibility

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to taking my family to church every Sunday, all that sort of thing.

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Where I'm going with this is there's a lot of listeners here that are

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probably going through the same thing.

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They're doing all the right things they want to be, and in many cases

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they are living a godly life.

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What I challenge everybody today, what really hit me through my dad's

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conversation with me, but then it was also, it was a dimmer switch building,

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but that lightning bolt of my dad's confrontation to me really put me on

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the other side of the bell curve, right?

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Of where I now realize now, how shall I live?

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Chuck Colson's book, right?

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Now, how shall I live?

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And so that was really the event, but really what it created is this

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intentionality around my daily pursuits, my thoughts, my actions.

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And prior to that, about how I could advance in an earthly format.

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And it was true.

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It truly was selfish ambition.

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I can rationalize all I want that it wasn't Tim, but, it was selfish ambition.

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It might have been selfish things for my family or for my wife or for my extended

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family or my friends or life experiences.

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All good things for my church, for my ministry, the ministries

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I supported or I was involved in.

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but it was still selfish ambition.

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And so this event really, the after is more that surrendering selfish

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ambition and, being very watchful of my sin nature around selfish ambition

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and really harnessing it into ambition.

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which has a much greater multiple effect, um, and that will echo into eternity

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and echo into generations beyond me.

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Right.

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So anyone probably that bumped into you had I had you and I

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had this conversation pre 2013 I would have said, this is a joke.

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I hope you get it looks good smells good successful Everything is in order.

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This guy's got his act together, correct?

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I mean, no one would go, Oh my gosh, he's one, one step from something, right?

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You, you, you were successful, correct?

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Yeah.

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I mean, and I would even go so far as people would say, Oh, he's

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a generous guy, loves the Lord.

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you know, his actions do speak loudly.

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I mean, I was doing a lot of the right things, But my heart, there,

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there's still a portion of the God shaped hole in my heart, right?

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I mean, like there's part of that I hadn't surrendered.

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I hadn't surrendered the selfish ambition.

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fact, there's still days where I'm not surrendering to selfish ambition.

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Right.

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I mean, let's be honest.

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I mean, I don't want to have the listener think that I've arrived.

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Right.

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I haven't arrived.

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there's still a sanctification process going on.

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it's not all bed of roses.

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every day I got to recommit every day.

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There's a sanctification process and every day I do see.

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Me advancing, right?

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closer to, to, to, to the Lord, closer to, living a life, in full surrender.

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but every day, I'm working on it too.

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One thing, yeah, we all are.

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I think people that have been listening in here for the last

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three, four years, definitely would, Agree that this is a journey.

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There's a reason we now have a subtitle, the leadership journey, not

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the destination, not an event, not the seven easy steps to being the greatest

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leader ever or anything like that.

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No, it's the, the journey that we're all on.

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You know, Brian, it's interesting when I, when I hear.

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I kind of want to dig in a little bit more to that question your father

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asked you of what are you chasing?

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Because there's a theme that keeps coming up.

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I think it was part of what i've been through.

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It's part of what we've had so many people on the show That have said something

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to the effect of They were addicted To more, or they were addicted to, not

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drugs or any of that kind of stuff.

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but you said your father asked you what you were chasing and all of

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those things in the world system are typically rewarded pretty well.

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I think the struggle that a lot of us go through is that how do we function

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and do work within that world system?

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But yet we're, you know, our passports got kingdom of God on it.

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And, there's a strain there.

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So, what was, when your dad said, what are you?

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Chasing, give me a little bit of the thought process you went through.

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Did you just wake up the next morning and change, or did you have to go through some

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form of a, you mentioned sanctification.

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let's be a little less, churchy.

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Let's just say, what was the transition that you went through

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to start that realization?

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Cause I'm sure it wasn't as instantaneous, but it got your attention.

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Yeah.

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it was a two by four, but just like getting hit with a two by

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four, you pick yourself back up finish your day and keep going.

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Right.

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in the wake of it, my dad asked me the question and I'm a cartoon bubble guy.

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So my dad asked me that question, hits me like a two by four.

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And what I'm envisioning is this guy, trying to run after

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something like the dog track.

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you're never going to catch it.

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And what he was basically saying is you're chasing something

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you're never going to find.

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And he's basically telling me you're a good man.

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You love the Lord.

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pursue that, you know?

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And, pursue something bigger than yourself and, just from an

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earthly sense bigger than yourself.

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Right.

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And, in the wake of that conversation, he passes away, the whole funeral,

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that week of the funeral and I give the eulogy along with the mayor of the town.

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And that was a very cathartic process.

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and it just, started building up inside me, this, pebble in my shoe, so to speak,

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kept kind of coming back up and then went back to work and kept working hard.

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Get promoted at work in the weeks and months and years after that.

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but what also started happening simultaneously is this notion that my work

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form of stored labor here on earth, and I want to deploy that stored labor to be

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able to have that impact and influence.

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So it's, it's the Shawshank Redemption movie moment, right?

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It is Andy Dufresne talks to red in the, in the courtyard of the prison

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saying, you know, red, it's at some point you have to ask yourself, it's time

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to get busy living or get busy dying.

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Now, in that movie, for those of you know, shawshank.

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Andy didn't just break out that night.

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Andy then began or continued a journey to eventually, lead to his breakout, right?

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If you watch the movie, so I think for me, what really started in an earthly

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sense was, I just started pursuing activities and objectives tactically.

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So that I could leave the day job, just being blunt.

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leave the day job and pursue what I felt God, was calling me to do, which

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was being a business leader, business owner, and sticking my neck out there

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to lead people, so that they can grow closer to him, I can be a cultural

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witness to how I lead my companies.

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and I can profess my faith in a private, being a private business

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owner, without threats of, retaliation, or being told to do it a certain

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way, all of those things I knew I was working towards, after that moment in

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time, it was a process, not an event.

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But it began the process and I was very intentional about the process

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after that event of my dad passing.

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So, that's really how it happened.

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And it wasn't until 2000, really 18, 19, that I really the day job.

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So that's how it was a five year journey for about four and a half year

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journey of me getting ready to get busy living, as God has called me to do.

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So that's.

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I like the Shawshank.

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I like the prison analogy there because when I was in corporate,

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money's good, love the people.

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I do think people are called to different things.

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I want to say here, there are some people that they're supposed

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to be in those mission fields.

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There are people that, and they know it.

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But I knew that I wasn't supposed to be there.

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And so, all right.

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and I was going to ask you how long that took before you got to a place where you

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began that process, but I think I need to ask this question, Brian, because

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there's probably people listening in that are probably like you, bringing

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in a strong six figures, maybe more.

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They're in a role that they believe they need to.

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Get out of, but sometimes there's almost, I don't want to say financial handcuffs.

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That sounds a little harsh, but there's these, there's these

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burdens that are keeping them there.

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And so I guess I'd like to ask you, do you have any other words of wisdom for

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someone who might be battling with, maybe they've had that conversation

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with their dad or they've been hit with a two by four and they know.

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But maybe they're still in process.

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They haven't gotten to your 2018 place where, you know, you're there.

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They're still going through it and they might be struggling with it.

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What can you tell them?

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What can you encourage them?

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Yeah, well, first off, they need to, have an honest assessment of self are

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they pursuing an idealistic lifestyle, idealistic, sort of day in the life,

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which frankly is selfish ambition, or are they pursuing the strengths of self?

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And, basically the strengths that, spiritual gifts.

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Right.

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and I think there's a distinctive difference.

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the word that comes to mind also is courage, like a courage quotient,

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I'll give you an example of, some colleagues that have contemplated going

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off and doing businesses on their own.

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And when push came to shove, they couldn't forego.

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That quarter of a million dollar income even though they have

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plenty of money, they may have a 10 figure net worth, Or more.

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But even just having the courage to surrender that guarantee

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that safety net, that life raft, that is a financial element.

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they just weren't able to cross that chasm, Others, it's

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maybe a little bit different.

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Maybe it's a little bit further down the courage quotient where they're willing to

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surrender that, but they also don't want to go backwards with their net worth.

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maybe a 10 figure net worth, and they have an opportunity to start their own

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business and they're willing to give up their income and the corporate stuff,

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but they are unwilling to go backwards.

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Like, Oh, I can't go backwards.

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Even if it means, you know, we, of course, being part of business

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owner, you got to be willing to.

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Not only not only surrender income, but actually go

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backwards on your balance sheet.

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I mean, that's a whole nother level.

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And I think having an honest conversation with yourself on

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where do you fit in that realm?

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because God has equipped me with this.

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it's not reckless, but it is an unconditional faith my mom and my dad

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told me from an early age that like man You just have this unconditional

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faith that like it's all gonna be good because you're willing to roll the

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dice a lot brian I'm, like, yeah, I mean what's the worst that can happen?

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Maybe I lose everything and I have to start all over.

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I mean god's equipped me with you know The ability to do that so for me It was a lot

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easier to surrender, you know, basically to have that leap of faith but You know,

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I also gave up a seven figure income.

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I mean, it was, and it had been year after year after year and it would

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have continued for years to come.

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I mean, it was not going to seize.

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I mean, it was going to keep happening.

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I gave it all up step away.

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I, you know, to what God called me to do, and that's really to be this

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business owner and to stand out, stand tall in my faith as a business

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leader and as a business owner and be that cultural witness to, how to

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lead companies, how to lead people.

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And so to me, that's, I'm doing what God called me to do.

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And by the way, it hasn't all been a bed of roses either.

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It's been really challenging specifically like the last couple of years.

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so this level of sanctification, you know, I know that's churchy,

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but like, I'm just saying like this level of personal development, this

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journey, as you talk about is ongoing.

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but I know I'm doing what God's called me to do and that's

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what's so neat about this.

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Yeah, that's part of the refining process.

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All right.

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So I want to drill down on that.

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You know, what God's telling you to do, because I, I think the challenge that

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many have, Brian, is that they're either copying what someone else is doing.

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And we know that that can be a recipe for challenges,

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especially when things get tough.

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As long as it's easy, it's fine.

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or they're not, this is what I'm going to say, but I'm going to let you tell me

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what your practice is to reaffirm this.

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I do think that there's the faith practices of being around

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a community, church family, having mentors, things like that.

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But for me, the last 12 plus years.

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My still and quiet time has become the most valuable.

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And I even observe it in leaders that I work with the leaders

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that have a healthy practice.

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And it's different for everybody.

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I'm not sitting here saying it's 15 minutes here and you got to

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get up at 4am blah, blah, blah.

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But what are some of the things that you do?

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You, I was sort of joking about hustle culture there.

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Sorry.

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What do you do?

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To make sure that what God is calling you to do is what God is calling Brian to do.

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Not Tim, not, you know, Richard Branson or Elon Musk or someone else.

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But how do you make sure It's what he's calling you to do.

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such a great question.

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Such a wise thing to be contemplating.

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by the way, you're saying this because you've learned the hard way.

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as I heard you asking the question I couldn't help but think about how

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my short answer is I've learned by trying to be a false You know, I mean

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chasing some it's back to the chasing.

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What are you chasing?

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Right?

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and here's the thing.

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chasing Right now I'm pursuing my relationship with Christ and when I do

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that, it brings clarity to my earthly toil, my daily toil, like where do

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I need to be spending time on the businesses as weird as it might sound.

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you pursue Christ in your pursuit of Christ, you gain clarity on

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what your temporal toil should be your temporal pursuits.

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And so that's what's worked for me, And when I drift from that, I shouldn't be

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surprised when I take a step back and be like, That was for the glory of Brian.

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That wasn't for the glory of God.

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and that's a pretty powerful thing to internalize.

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people need to really think about that.

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because that's where I stumble.

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I pursued a business a few years ago, so I leave the day job, I'm growing,

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I'm buying all these companies, acquiring all these companies.

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We're growing like crazy.

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We're producing cashflow.

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We're operating with a nice, healthy discipline where, you

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know, I started to get a little loose on, on some of my expenses.

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Cause I'm like, Hey, we got cashflow.

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know, all the stuff that had gotten me to the point where I, I had a seven figure

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annual income, I had a 10 figure net worth that allowed me to step away and

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pursue, pursue all, you know, what I'm doing now, all those things that allowed

Speaker: 00:21:56

me to get there, I started to drift from why, because I was, was actually pursuing

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what I thought was Christ like things.

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And that, but it was really for the glory of Brian.

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It was growth.

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It was, it was profitable growth.

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It was.

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The number of companies, it was the, you know, all these, all these metrics

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that I started getting obsessed with, started getting obsessed with all for,

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you know, the right pursuit instead of, and this, this actually speaks to what

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you mentioned, my, my, you know, and this has been the sanctification thing in me.

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I yearn for quiet time with the Lord.

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I just thirst for it because.

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I seek him and when I do that, then I'm like, Oh my goodness, Brian, like

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the metrics don't care that it's the impact and influence I'm having at being

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a witness to my love of you, Christ.

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And so how could I let myself get that?

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So even today, like it's the drift, you know, the book mission drift, right?

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Great book.

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But think about for every one of us, you know, every day there's mission drift.

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C.

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S.

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Lewis, you hear it, you read about it in the screw tape letters, right?

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there is a constant drift because there's constant pressure from the

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opposing forces that are causing that mission drift every day.

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So, and it's for seemingly good Christ like advancements and things.

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And that's the deception.

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having that quiet time brings clarity to what the truth is.

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One of the things that I've observed is that the Lord gifted

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me with a few superpowers.

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Brian, I've noticed that my superpowers can easily become kryptonite.

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And the reason I preface that question is I'm going to ask you, what are some of

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the giftings you have that are superpowers And if you observe similar things that

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I just brought up that we start leaning on those in a natural way, when I bring

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that up, what comes to mind, just share whatever you want to related to that.

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Well, what specifically comes to mind is last night I had an elder board meeting.

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So I have an elder board.

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These are, folks that are literally elders.

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I mean, they're wise beyond their years.

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and they're older, they're all older than me, but at different stages of life.

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they've just become mentors to me and these elders I'll meet with, they

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help hold me accountable to Christ like pursuits and they are all Christ

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followers and they, really helped me stay close to what I call my plumb line

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of living close to the Lord, to answer your question, your greatest, most

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folks superpowers or greatest strengths are also your greatest weaknesses.

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for me, yesterday, one of my elders reminded me, he's like, Brian, now

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remember, you are a V12 engine, most of your employees are four cylinder or maybe

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V6s, Every once in a while you may have a V8, you're a V12 and, that's how you

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get into trouble, and that's also, going to get you out of trouble, so that's

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very real to me when I look at all the areas I've stumbled, Tim, it's because

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I've been, borderline reckless, I've been moving too fast, it has anointed me with,

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I think some, superpowers where, you know, I don't need a lot of sleep, you know,

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I mean, I'm needing more as I get older.

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Right.

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but, you know, I multitask, exceptionally well.

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and that's how I can have 25 businesses.

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Now they all are ran by operating leaders and stuff, but the fact

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that I can manage it, is because of what God's given me as a superpower.

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but it also is what's gotten me into extreme trouble at times too.

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And that actually leads to another, contemplation.

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I mean, talk about these superpowers, greatest strengths, greatest weaknesses

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is, you know, the kind of fight or flight leader you are like life inventory, right?

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when you're operating under peak conditions, do you behave?

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Okay.

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When, those peak conditions may vary from person to person for some, it might

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be financial, safety, Others, it might be physical safety or condition or like

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they're in good shape or, you know, or, or jobs security of some sort, right.

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The peak conditions.

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And then how do you operate when your back's up against the wall,

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under really bad, conditions, do you is it a fight or flight?

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what I've learned about myself is that I actually am more of a fight guy.

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Like, I mean, I will stand up and I don't run away.

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Like I'll just fight the fight.

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and even if I lose, I'll fight because For me, it's probably a

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little bit of human pride, right?

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Which is a sin, nature element.

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but I also think that God's equipped me with a gifting around fighting.

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it's a little bit like, we talked about this last night with the elders too,

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in world war two, Winston Churchill is known as one of the greatest leaders.

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of our, you know, previous three, four generations, right?

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Preceding him was Chamberlain as the prime minister of Britain.

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And he was well thought of.

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I mean, he was an incredible operator.

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He was an incredible dutiful politician.

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Everybody, I mean, he was really, he ran the country really well,

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when push came to shove and his back was in a corner, it was a flight.

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Man, he had a flight mentality.

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He just didn't want to engage.

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He wanted to appease appeasement.

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He wanted to, cut deals.

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All of a sudden he started like all the stuff that he was good at.

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He felt wilted away.

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like Winston Churchill, who was a swashbuckling, you know, kind of like,

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really, that guy was the wartime leader that God called upon to lead Britain

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and the allied forces to success.

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And so I think about that analogy that all of us ought to be thinking of,

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like, what is our characteristics rate?

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And by the way, Chamberlain.

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doesn't make Chamberlain bad and Churchill, like, great.

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It's just knowing how God has gifted you and how God has made you.

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And then again, now, how shall we live?

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Yeah, and one big thing with that, I mean, I love the study of Churchill

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and Chamberlain too, by the way.

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I'm kind of a junkie for history, stuff like that.

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You know, I believe that if Winston Churchill hadn't existed, the

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world will look different today.

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We'd be in a Different place.

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But the thing that bothers me at times is kind of going back to, you know, I

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asked you about superpowers and, you know, kryptonite is at times I do think we need

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a Churchill and at times maybe we need a Chamberlain and, and I also believe that

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the Lord equips, you and I with some of those skills and the thing that I need

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wisdom for at times is when should I fight and when maybe should I back away?

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I mean, have there ever been situations where you.

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Took that fight and you said, you know what?

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Maybe I didn't need to fight in that situation.

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Maybe.

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And if you're a fighter, you want to fight.

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I remember meeting Evander Holyfield one time and I shook his hand.

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He was about my height, a little shorter.

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I mean, like, you know, six foot and the guy had cinder blocks for fists.

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And I'm sitting here thinking, this guy looks like he could do other things.

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No, he was built to fight because his fists were the size of cinder blocks.

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So, ever been a time where you fought, where you went, you know what, maybe it

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didn't, maybe it didn't require a fight.

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Maybe I needed to be more like a Chamberlain during that situation.

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yeah, for sure.

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I mean, a couple of business examples.

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I mean, one business example in particular, a few years ago, I bought

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a company, seemed pretty low risk.

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We raced through due diligence.

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Cause again, I was pursuing this growth, this notion of growth.

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we buy the company.

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the lead, my operating leader at the time, I allowed him to, I consented to

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a lot of the decisions he was making.

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But there's a few really bad decisions that we made that, that

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really, cause the company to get really, upside down on inventory.

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we, we made a couple of bad, bad decisions on some supplier relationships and also

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we found ourselves in our inventory management system and our customer system.

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We bet on anyway, it was a calamity of errors.

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Right.

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And my, at the end of the day, I ended up losing about

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a few million bucks out of it.

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I mean, that's how bad, I mean, it was a big, it was a bad deal for me personally.

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Right.

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But what I learned through it was I, it was July 4th.

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I was in my porch getting ready to celebrate the 4th of July with

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a bunch of friends and family.

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And I'm on this conference call with my chief operating officer.

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and he basically told me, Brian, it ain't going to get better.

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It's going to get a lot worse.

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You know, it's probably good to hit the escape hatch and just cut your losses.

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And I'm like, what, and he kept, and you know, he knows me well enough

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to know, like, I know it's not what you want to do, but think about it.

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And, it's, and it ultimately ended up being the analogy I use.

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It's kind of like the two best days of owning a boat, the day you buy it and

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the day you sell it, even though, you know, you use it a lot or not, right.

Speaker: 00:30:35

Um, and I, I think that business, the day we sold that business back to the, the,

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the, the, the person we'd, we'd bought it from, I went back to that person said,

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hat in hand, Hey, we've failed miserably.

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Okay.

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What I've paid you is yours.

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What I owe you, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll make whole, right.

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And I'll settle all the affairs, but will you take it back and be a steward of your

Speaker: 00:30:57

employees and a steward of everything else, and then we'll just be done.

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And most business owners by when I've done that, but thanks to good guidance,

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good people around me, that was a lesson I learned about, Oh my goodness.

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Like, um, I surrender Lord.

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I mean, it's, and, and, and again, that comes back to the earthly

Speaker: 00:31:14

pursuit, chasing financial success points on the board, all this stuff

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that, you know, society is business.

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They just tell you, you got to be pursuing some of your best wins

Speaker: 00:31:22

are your, are your, are your, are actually your greatest losses.

Speaker: 00:31:25

Think about that.

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Like some of your best wins longterm.

Speaker: 00:31:28

your greatest losses short term?

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and, um, and that was, that spoke to me.

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And I continue to feel that with some other decisions since then that, that,

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um, that remind me, um, even though I may be spiritually gifted in certain

Speaker: 00:31:43

ways, to lean on, lean on, lean on, lean on the Lord, pray for clarity

Speaker: 00:31:49

and clarity typically will emerge.

Speaker: 00:31:51

Generally, leaders need a healthy, strong ego.

Speaker: 00:31:56

Do things like you just bring up today Impact your ego some where you was ego

Speaker: 00:32:04

something that might have been pushing it forward more than it should have.

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I guess this is probably me just asking what's your ego like, Brian?

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Oh, I got, I definitely have one.

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I mean, And, uh, I think, I think it, it, well, I know it's

Speaker: 00:32:23

changed a lot over the years.

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Um, we have another business that's really soft right now.

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And because of the aforementioned story, I just told about the business

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where I took those losses and frankly was embarrassed and, and just,

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just had to, know, turn the page.

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Um, kind of empowered me to be more vulnerable, right.

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You know, and, and, you know, there's, there's this, there's

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this, uh, addictive leadership.

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Um, um, it's called addictive leadership and basically it's, it's following a three

Speaker: 00:32:51

step process, you know, being vulnerable.

Speaker: 00:32:54

Surrendering the outcome, but then be willing to do the work.

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Right.

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And I've really embraced that to, to help, to help humble me.

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You know, I mean, am I being vulnerable?

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I mean, just asking myself in my heart of hearts, am I being vulnerable?

Speaker: 00:33:09

Lord, am I being humble to all, all those around me and vulnerable?

Speaker: 00:33:14

Um, and like, for example, we have another area, our business

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that's really soft right now.

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And, um, I've been just so extremely vulnerable with all of the stakeholders.

Speaker: 00:33:24

Because I just want them to know like, okay, here's, here's, here's

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what, here's what's happened.

Speaker: 00:33:28

A lot of it's industry related, but a lot of it's, you know, we made

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this decision, we made that decision.

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And, and I, and I said, I'm going to stand behind my commitments.

Speaker: 00:33:38

Uh, even, even if, and I'm going to surrender the outcome.

Speaker: 00:33:41

If it means that it, it, it, it, it means that my wife and I are writing checks

Speaker: 00:33:45

to, to cure all of our commitments.

Speaker: 00:33:47

So be it.

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Right?

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But I'm going to surrender the outcome, but don't, but no, I'm not going

Speaker: 00:33:53

to go down without doing the work.

Speaker: 00:33:55

I'm going to do the work, right?

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As God's called me to do.

Speaker: 00:33:57

He's given me the capacity to fight, but I'm also going to surrender the outcome.

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If it doesn't work, I'm not going to, I'm going to hold my head high because

Speaker: 00:34:03

my, ultimately my, um, my, I'm answering to, to, to God and he knows that my heart

Speaker: 00:34:08

is following through on the commitments.

Speaker: 00:34:11

And yet also surrendering the earthly outcome.

Speaker: 00:34:13

And so it's a, it's a powerful, it's addictive leadership, you know, be

Speaker: 00:34:18

vulnerable, surrender the outcome be willing to do the hard work.

Speaker: 00:34:22

I mean, that that's been transcendent for me to help get to what you're

Speaker: 00:34:25

talking about, like where I'm truly am.

Speaker: 00:34:28

It's not, you know, it's, I'm getting rid of that ego.

Speaker: 00:34:32

And that word vulnerable is such a tough one.

Speaker: 00:34:34

Tough one.

Speaker: 00:34:34

I had a conversation with someone not too long ago on the podcast.

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There are people that are using that term vulnerability, authenticity,

Speaker: 00:34:44

not as a core characteristic of who they are, but it's a tactic, you

Speaker: 00:34:49

know, they're, they're using it.

Speaker: 00:34:51

And so, and when I'm hearing you talking, I'm knowing that

Speaker: 00:34:55

it's a, it's a characteristic.

Speaker: 00:34:56

It's who you are.

Speaker: 00:34:58

There's another word that I've, I've seen in the research I did on you.

Speaker: 00:35:02

And the word is stewardship.

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And what's interesting to me is that many people would think there's

Speaker: 00:35:09

quite a dichotomy between someone who has, I'll call it ownership, we'll

Speaker: 00:35:15

use the world, world system word, ownership of 20 to 25 companies.

Speaker: 00:35:21

But yet they talk about servant leadership and or the word stewardship quite a bit.

Speaker: 00:35:27

Those are two different things, but they're sort of related.

Speaker: 00:35:30

Um, talk a little bit about, I don't know, the difference, the relationship,

Speaker: 00:35:36

whatever, whatever you want to say about ownership, stewardship.

Speaker: 00:35:40

And if you want to throw servant leadership in the mix too, because I

Speaker: 00:35:43

know it's part of a good bit of what you talk about, talk about those.

Speaker: 00:35:48

And, uh, and I'm sure I've got some followup related to that.

Speaker: 00:35:51

So.

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Well, I mean, this really speaks, this might be a little bit of a segue

Speaker: 00:35:56

unintentionally to the book I wrote.

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Um, I mean, the, the, it really speaks to.

Speaker: 00:36:03

Man, uh, there's so much to talk about here.

Speaker: 00:36:05

Um, the, the brutal, the brutal reality is that stewardship.

Speaker: 00:36:10

As defined, like by the dictionary, more or less, I'm going to use my own words,

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but, but it's, it's, it's stewarding

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toward, towards something that, you know, isn't about, and the way I've

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interpreted it, it's not about you.

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It's about stewardship towards whatever you have.

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So, you know, you've been entrusted something like your, your stewardship

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around the resources of, uh, uh, you know, of, uh, of an, of an association you're

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involved, you're involved in, right.

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It's stewardship over.

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You know, something your grandpa gave you, um, that you inherited, that you

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want to keep in really good condition.

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Right.

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Um, I mean, just common elements, right?

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So when I think of the word stewardship, we we're coming alongside a lot

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of these business owners that are transitioning their life's work,

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we're buying their business, right.

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Or we're helping them with, with some of my businesses, my, my brokerage and.

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Uh, investment bank, we're helping them sell their, their life's work.

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Right.

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Um, and that is such a profound responsibility.

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So the word stewardship really centers around that.

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Like we are trying to steward their, what they've worked their whole life to build.

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And to transition to the next, to the next, uh, buyer or whomever.

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Right.

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And so we take a true North.

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We take that super seriously because like, man, focused on them.

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And so where the book even came about is people started asking me like, tell

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me more about the stewardship tell me more about like, like what makes you

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different with how you're able to do this.

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I basically started explaining what became the five tool framework.

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I'm like, well, you honestly, you just have to grab your bat.

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I mean, it became the five tool framework that a baseball analogy, but basically

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it means you got to get in the game.

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You got to understand what, what you're, what, what they need of you.

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Like, it's not about you, like, stop thinking about yourself.

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Like, it's not about you.

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Like, how can you help them?

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And then when you, when you find out that information, you can assess the situation,

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which in the, in the book is all about being on the on deck circle and then being

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at bat, you can focus on driving in runs.

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Like, and, and when you drive in runs, you're helping, you're, you're helping

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that seller in this case, right?

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Okay.

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And then you're helping yourself cause you're the team's going to win.

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Right.

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And then you win and all that stuff.

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So, so that even the businesses we acquire have to be a really good fit.

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We're like, we we're coming alongside them.

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It's not like us taking what they have.

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Right.

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I mean, so it's where it's like we're shoulder to shoulder instead

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of, you know, them versus, you know, you know, us versus each other.

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Right.

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And, and then the fifth, the fifth tool, the five tool framework is like getting

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back in the batting cage and reflecting.

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So this notion of self reflection.

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Being vulnerable, like, and really, really having the sober reflection of

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self of, man, I am really bad at that.

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Or I really screwed up in that moment.

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Please forgive me, you know, and, and this notion of apologizing and

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asking for not just the positive, but asking for forgiveness.

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Um, and, and, and so when I look at being relational, being a

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steward, it's all of those things.

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It really is.

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And, and that, that's my crazy definition.

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some listeners may be like, well, Brian, that's, but that's a lot

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of other things, maybe so, but like, when I think of stewardship,

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it encompasses all that stuff.

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And, and, um, and that leads to trust, speed of trust.

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It leads to a lot of other elements.

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And, and, uh, I'll be honest.

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I mean, like our businesses could be making a lot more

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money than we actually do.

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Why?

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Because we're stewards because we're Stuart, we're stewards of, of what we

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commitments we've made in an earthly realm, but also commitments we've made

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in an eternal realm to, to help come alongside people and grow in their faith.

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And do all that sort of thing.

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So, um, you know, so that, that's what stewardship means to me.

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I wasn't going to ask this, but I'll, I'll drill down a little bit.

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Is money a great measurement of how well something is doing?

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I'll ask you this way.

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Is it the best measurement?

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Um, because you're obviously a money guy.

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You're a financial guy.

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You've got skills in that area, but yet you now talk about being

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purpose driven and stewardship.

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And I'm not saying that we ignore it, but what should we be measuring?

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Now,

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Yeah.

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I mean, so like we, our, our businesses have been tested by, by this question

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over the last couple of years.

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Um, you know, we were coming off a really, really strong years in 2021 and 2022.

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And then we started meeting some softness in our businesses in 23, and then

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it's continued and persisted in 2024.

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I think most small business owners would.

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We probably, uh, agree with, with, with that.

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I mean, it's been a lot harder the last couple of years than it was

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in the wake of, and even during COVID, um, business is booming.

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I mean, it was for a lot of reasons, right.

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But, but, um, and S and so we were measuring success even, you know, even,

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um, in the last four or five years off of like, what are, what, what, what,

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what we're giving away philanthropically and, and from a ministry standpoint,

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perspective, you know, endowing small, you know, small ministry pursuits.

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Um, fully funding, you know, um, chaplaincies and, you know, doing all

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these great, great, noble things, right?

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And then here in the last couple of years, we've had to batten

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down the hatches of our giving.

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And, and, and, and so from a measurement standpoint, it's been a lot less,

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profit's been a lot less, giving's been a lot less financially, right?

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And yet, and yet, Tim, our impact and influence for a variety of reasons,

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and I got all sorts of evidence around this, Has been far greater.

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I mean, far greater.

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And it's been less, so it's been less about the financial and it's been more

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like, like we're, we're, we're changing folks's way of thinking about business.

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We're, we're inspiring folks to get out of their comfort zone and have the

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courage to maybe take the leap of faith for, for what they know God has gifted

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them from a skill set and capacity standpoint, like we're empowering them.

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We're activating, we're igniting.

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which is part of what we want to be all about to have that impact and influence.

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So it's crazy how, even though some of the financial elements have deteriorated.

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The impact and influence has, has, has, has been exponential.

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And, and to me, that's, that, that, that's, that's what

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we're talking about here.

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I mean, um, that's our measure of success.

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And so we've had to reflect on that.

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And we've also reflected from a wisdom's perspective of.

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You know, building your storehouses for, for, for, for seasons.

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And, and, um, that's another lesson.

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Like there's going to be seasons where we see the fruit lot

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more abundantly in front of us.

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There's, there's seasons where we don't see any of it.

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And the fruit can be defined as the impact of influence can

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be defined as the financial.

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I mean, there's a lot of different types of fruit.

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And so, so how are we, um, how are we managing that appropriately?

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To honor God and to be, be that steward again.

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yeah, what's interesting is that in general, in our lifetimes, I'm 60, I'm,

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I'm, I think the generation or so ahead of you, we've had, I don't want to

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say it's been soft, we've had some ups and downs, but we have stuff going on.

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And so a lot of our measurements are.

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You know, bank accounts up and down and things like that.

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I just think at times i'm a history guy.

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I know it sounds like you do some study in history You know had we been first

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of all, we wouldn't be having this conversation if we were in, you know

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the 1600s or the 800s or even the the you know, the first century We'd be

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having different conversations And I think what we're doing is we're trying

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to have more eternal conversations with still all of this You Financial ROI here.

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And so I love the term impact.

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That's a, that's a powerful one.

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I do want to get to, I just finished reading the book

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Winsome and a great book here.

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I've got my copy for those that might be watching on the video.

Speaker: 00:44:06

And I enjoyed it thoroughly.

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I want to ask a few questions about it, but there's one more question.

Speaker: 00:44:10

I want to ask maybe kind of big picture because I love Brian talking to people.

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I go into leader leadership teams of companies and I work on

Speaker: 00:44:21

organizational health, leadership development, things like that.

Speaker: 00:44:23

So I love asking people that get to see a lot of organizations like you do.

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What are you seeing?

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What are you seeing that's working really well?

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What what excites you about leadership in general right now?

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What concerns you?

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Um, I also know you're pretty avid.

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Uh, Like I once was i'm not as much anymore, you know current events what's

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happening in the world I think you consume quite a bit But, um, what,

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what, what can you say about what you're seeing with the 2025 companies,

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you're obviously dealing with leaders and leadership teams in those.

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Just give me some thoughts on, on all of that.

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Well, so I'm going to give a plug from one of my, one of my

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friends, um, David Horsager, he, he runs the Trust Edge Institute.

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David's a great, great leader, world, you know, world renowned for

Speaker: 00:45:17

talking about the topic of trust.

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And so what comes to mind immediately is he has these eight pillars, right?

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And what's been on my heart.

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And they're all C's.

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It's, um, um, clarity, compassion, character, competency, commitment,

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connection, contribution, consistency.

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I think, I think I got those right.

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But, but the, the two, the two that really are on my heart, um, well,

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clarity to me is the most important.

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It always has been right.

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I mean, just clarity of purpose, no matter who you're dealing with, no matter

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whether it be talking about your faith.

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like there's not many people that in the business world that

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don't know I'm a Christian.

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In fact, I would say almost everybody does because I'm very clear in my faith.

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But I don't, I also don't, um, I don't have thou shalt side there.

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I mean, there's a lot of folks of other face in my businesses, right?

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I mean, um, and they're very comfortable with that because they know my, they

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know my, they know my character, right?

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Which is one of the other attributes.

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what's, and that's one of the two that are on my heart.

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I mean, it's really compassion and character I think separates.

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Separates, um, a lot of business leaders today.

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And, you know, compassion is, is people, um, putting, people put faith

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in those who care beyond themselves.

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And I think, I think that's compassion and showing genuine concern for, for others.

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I mean, that's what builds trust.

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And then, and the character, because people notice, um, you know, those, you

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know, those that are doing the right, um, instead of, you know, the popular or easy.

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And, and, and I just.

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To me, those are the two that stand out.

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And those are the two that I lean into every day.

Speaker: 00:46:57

Like, how am I showing compassion and character in all that I do?

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Even if I just am like, I don't want to do this.

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And that's, you know, because I think that's where, where leadership

Speaker: 00:47:09

sustains itself and, um, and, uh, and, and shines brightest is when,

Speaker: 00:47:15

when, when you have those attributes,

Speaker: 00:47:17

So the neat thing about this, I see how a lot of things are tying together,

Speaker: 00:47:20

Brian, and I, I really enjoy it.

Speaker: 00:47:24

You, you, you know, you brought up at the beginning purpose driven and when we've.

Speaker: 00:47:29

Talked about stewardship and things like that.

Speaker: 00:47:31

There's something that you brought up earlier that that Struck in me and I

Speaker: 00:47:37

think it actually ties to your main character sam in the book here and

Speaker: 00:47:40

that is Many of us I will put myself in this category, especially in this

Speaker: 00:47:46

business world Leadership world that we play in It is very easy for us to begin

Speaker: 00:47:52

thinking that everything revolves around us or that we're really good or that

Speaker: 00:47:57

we're uh You Talented athlete, leader, whatever, Brian, and I've, I've guilty,

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I'm calling myself guilty of this.

Speaker: 00:48:07

But to me that compassion, I'm going to go back to that.

Speaker: 00:48:09

It's reminding myself that the world doesn't revolve around me.

Speaker: 00:48:14

That I need to surrender.

Speaker: 00:48:17

And it seems as if that was, I actually read your book yesterday.

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I mean, I read the whole thing yesterday, so I was able to read the whole thing.

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I want to say too, I found myself tearing up a couple of

Speaker: 00:48:28

times, which kind of bothers me.

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I'm not necessarily a real emotional person.

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And so, and oddly enough, Being a leadership guy and all, I've

Speaker: 00:48:38

written more of a fable novel too.

Speaker: 00:48:40

It's odd that because probably you would have written like a leadership book, you

Speaker: 00:48:45

know, seven steps, you know, kind of like your buddy David that you just mentioned.

Speaker: 00:48:49

So, um, how did the book come about?

Speaker: 00:48:52

Why did you write it?

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I mean, why did you write a fable?

Speaker: 00:48:57

Why didn't you just, you know, come up with the five, you know, the five

Speaker: 00:49:02

Techniques, you know the five strategies.

Speaker: 00:49:04

I mean, come on.

Speaker: 00:49:05

That's I mean, it's a really I thought it was a really good story, too

Speaker: 00:49:09

Well, I mean, I mean, uh, it's not gonna be that impressive of a response, but I

Speaker: 00:49:13

mean, honestly, I mean, the books that have resonated with me over the last 10

Speaker: 00:49:16

years, I read a lot of nonfiction stuff growing up in college in my twenties and.

Speaker: 00:49:22

in my, in my early thirties and then really the last 10, 15 years, I've,

Speaker: 00:49:26

um, just really gravitated towards Patrick Lencioni and John Gordon, and

Speaker: 00:49:31

I've got a chance to meet both of them.

Speaker: 00:49:33

I've really gotten to know John Gordon.

Speaker: 00:49:35

I consider him a friend now, a very dear friend.

Speaker: 00:49:39

Um, I think so, so frankly, just, I could, those are stories that

Speaker: 00:49:44

I, that I think, you Resonate, you know, I mean, it's usually a, you

Speaker: 00:49:48

know, they're a couple hour read.

Speaker: 00:49:51

you can knock through them pretty quick and there's usually simple,

Speaker: 00:49:53

but profound elements to all of them.

Speaker: 00:49:55

Right.

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And I just liked that.

Speaker: 00:49:57

Right.

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I mean, that's, that's how I, I'm a big picture guy.

Speaker: 00:49:59

That's so, so that's, that's why it was a fable.

Speaker: 00:50:02

Now, how it came to be was really, as I mentioned earlier, just as I was

Speaker: 00:50:06

buying these businesses and people were asking me, My response started

Speaker: 00:50:10

to be like, you just got to be winsome in what you're trying to achieve.

Speaker: 00:50:12

It's not about you.

Speaker: 00:50:13

It's about them.

Speaker: 00:50:14

And so you got to be winsome in what you're trying to achieve

Speaker: 00:50:16

so that you really are creating these win win environments.

Speaker: 00:50:18

And then that, that became like, Oh, I should write a book called winsome.

Speaker: 00:50:22

And then what would the fable look?

Speaker: 00:50:23

And then, and then it kind of just came to be right.

Speaker: 00:50:26

And, and, and guys, the, for all the listeners and you got to read the book,

Speaker: 00:50:30

you know, and when you do, you'll, I want you to all know, am a mild version.

Speaker: 00:50:36

Maybe my wife would say not so mild sometimes, but of the protagonist, Sam,

Speaker: 00:50:41

and I wrote the book, it ultimately became this cathartic sort of, um, process.

Speaker: 00:50:48

of realizing just how cringeworthy some of my antics have been over my life.

Speaker: 00:50:54

Right.

Speaker: 00:50:54

I mean, um, and maybe not as bad as Sam in the book, you know, um, or

Speaker: 00:50:58

embarrassing as Sam, but they, but, but, but nonetheless they existed.

Speaker: 00:51:03

And so for me, it was a very cathartic process of, of, um, being vulnerable.

Speaker: 00:51:09

Right.

Speaker: 00:51:10

I mean, I mean, And, and part of the sadness elements of the book, um, I

Speaker: 00:51:15

just had to, had to make it a little bit dramatic on, on what he was going

Speaker: 00:51:18

through, so that the reader would really understand, like, I mean, this is like,

Speaker: 00:51:24

how do you, how are you handling it?

Speaker: 00:51:25

And, and I think, I think everybody would agree when you read it, you, you kind

Speaker: 00:51:30

of start to self reflect on yourself.

Speaker: 00:51:33

And that's the, that's the point of the book, right?

Speaker: 00:51:35

Is you can't help, but reflect like, man, I'm, I'm like his son in this

Speaker: 00:51:39

situation, or I'm like, I'm like Sam.

Speaker: 00:51:41

Or I'm like, I'm like his dad, the grandpa, right?

Speaker: 00:51:43

That his dad, or I'm, or I'm actually like the clubby.

Speaker: 00:51:47

I'm the one that's coming along to stylize people right now.

Speaker: 00:51:49

Um, and so I think that's what makes the book so powerful.

Speaker: 00:51:53

Um, it's just the relatability to even if you aren't a baseball fan.

Speaker: 00:51:56

Um, but, but it was deeply personal.

Speaker: 00:51:59

It's a deeply personal exercise.

Speaker: 00:52:02

that I think really told a story and, and, and I think Sam's actually

Speaker: 00:52:05

got more of a story to tell.

Speaker: 00:52:06

I mean, that's part of it too.

Speaker: 00:52:07

If you read the book recently, uh, like you said yesterday, you probably

Speaker: 00:52:11

could, could tell a little bit that Sam's story may not be done.

Speaker: 00:52:14

Um, and, and that there's more to it.

Speaker: 00:52:17

And, and that's, that's part of the journey too, of sanctification.

Speaker: 00:52:21

Um, there's some elements of faith in it, but it was, it was about relationships.

Speaker: 00:52:25

And, and, and, and yet when, when those relations, when you figure out how

Speaker: 00:52:29

to, uh, You know, using the five tool framework, have deeper relationships.

Speaker: 00:52:33

It actually opens you up for a much deeper meaning sort of

Speaker: 00:52:37

conversation around eternity and around, know, very, a lot more.

Speaker: 00:52:43

And, and that's, that's where we're headed with Sam and his journey.

Speaker: 00:52:46

I kind of did I I finished it and I went huh?

Speaker: 00:52:50

I think there's more there You know But anyway, excellent excellent book we'll

Speaker: 00:52:56

we'll mention in just a little while where people can find it and things

Speaker: 00:52:59

like that, but There's there's one more.

Speaker: 00:53:02

I don't want to ask, you know, somebody who's got their hands in

Speaker: 00:53:05

so many business things well one One thing related to that, what'd

Speaker: 00:53:09

you think about the writing process?

Speaker: 00:53:10

Did you sit down and pick this out?

Speaker: 00:53:12

Did you have any help?

Speaker: 00:53:13

Did you do it on your own?

Speaker: 00:53:14

What was the writing process like for you?

Speaker: 00:53:17

No, I definitely had some, some help, but, but the, the process was again,

Speaker: 00:53:21

deeply personal where it's like, I was, I was having to reflect on

Speaker: 00:53:24

every, element of like the emotion.

Speaker: 00:53:28

And, and that's what probably.

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the part for me that, um, uh, it was such a cool process.

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It's just the emotional elements and really wanting to.

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the plight of every person in it and, um, how they, how they fit.

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And, um, was, it was, it was fun.

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I mean, I enjoyed it.

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It took me like two and a half years.

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I mean, it took forever.

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I mean, it was started up, pick it back up, you know, you know, kind of redline

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it, you know, 10 times and parts of it, you know, some parts of the story.

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I just completely got rid of.

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But overall, I think it, you know, it hit the mark and the response has been great.

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And, um, I'm really excited for, uh, Sam's journey because I think, I think

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this is one of those things like John Gordon told me with, you know, when

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he launched energy bus, um, his first few years, he didn't sell many copies.

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And now it's like, It's a perpetual bestseller like plus years later.

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And, think, I think, uh, there's a little bit of shelf life that, that

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Winston's going to have too, because.

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It's timeless truce on how to, on how to have interpersonal relationship, you know,

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focus, you know, how you, how you handle it and how to build a framework around

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your thoughts because it really is about thought control and being intentional.

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And so, those are timeless, timeless elements, and, uh, I'm

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excited to see where it goes.

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Absolutely.

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Real quick, I, I saw where you, one of your business interests

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is, is a minor league team, the Canaries, Sioux Falls Canaries.

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Just real quick on that.

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And then we're going to wrap up here.

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But tell me, some people say, Oh, that sounds cool.

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Is it as cool as it sounds?

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It's, it's been a journey.

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I mean, we, we bought, we bought a situation where we had to kind of

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turn around the culture uh, and, and add, just make a lot of investments

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and, we're, we've, we're going to be entering our fifth season.

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And we've turned the team around.

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I mean, attendance is up interest fan engagements, up fan involvements up.

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We've given a ton of money into the community, poured money

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into the community, given back.

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We've, we've, one, we've been, we've made the playoffs the last two years.

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So it's been a, it's been a really incredible success story.

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I think, you know, I was telling the president of the canaries that we,

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that we brought in and like, we could write a white paper, uh, or case, at

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least do it like a case study on, on how to change a culture and, and how to

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have a, have a growth mindset because that's, that's what our team over there

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now has the front office, everybody.

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And so it's been, it's been fun.

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This is actually my canaries sport coat that I, you know, this is the canaries

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colors, and, uh, just really, really grateful for the opportunity and.

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And, uh, bought that with a college friend of mine that we're again,

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what are we chasing in life?

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And we, we wanted to have a shared experience together and have a reason

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to, find time to spend time together.

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And so that was a winsome example of us thinking about each other and like, Hey,

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how can we spend more time together?

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Well, let's buy a baseball team, kind of a weird example, but, but,

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but it was actually, that was the, that was the reason why we bought

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a team is for the investment.

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Wasn't for, you know, to make a lot of money or any of that stuff.

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It was.

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To have fun and have a shared experience together with, uh, with,

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with my friend and who I care about.

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And, and, and so I, so that's a great, another great example,

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but it's been a lot of fun.

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At least their colors aren't bright yellow, like that Savannah Bananas guy,

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you'd have to be wearing that yellow.

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Colors all the time, right?

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Yeah.

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You won't see me doing that, but, but, but this, this is pretty flashy for me.

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So this is, uh, this is about as flash as I get.

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Very nice.

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Hey, brian tell tell everybody how they can connect with you and find the

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book winsome again Here's a picture of it for those that might be watching

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the video Tell them where they can find you and connect with you if they

Speaker: 00:57:01

want to get more info on you Yeah,

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Yeah, well, you can go to the true north family dot com.

Speaker: 00:57:06

That's our, that's our corporate family website.

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you can go to, um, win some fable.

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com as well to order it, especially group orders.

Speaker: 00:57:13

Um, there's a lot of groups that are starting to order it now

Speaker: 00:57:16

because it is one of those books.

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That's a great read to talk about as a small group or, or, uh, you

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know, or even just a larger group.

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Um, you know, we had a class, we had a class in college actually

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use it as one of their course just from a relationship standpoint.

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As it relates to business.

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so, um, but yeah, you can, and of course Amazon and, and, and all the

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different Barnes and Noble, all the, all those folks, uh, can, you can order

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online and, uh, through them as well.

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and I like I like the hardback.

Speaker: 00:57:43

I got a hardback copy of it I don't know if y'all sent it over or if

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we bought it, whatever But anyway, I like a little hardback book.

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It feels good in the hands.

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I like that in reading hey brian, we are seek Go create those three words

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you probably guess where some of those words come from And i'm gonna i'm gonna

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allow you to pick one of those over the other two that means more than the other

Speaker: 00:58:02

two Currently don't overthink it but seek go or create and why last question.

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Yeah.

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I mean, uh, for me it would be go, uh, because, uh, you know, so much

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of our, our world tells you to, to, to not, you know, or to pause

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or, or to, to go the other way.

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Um, and so just the, just the notion of going, you know, you

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miss a hundred percent of shots.

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You don't take, you got to go learn from your mistakes, have a bias for action.

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Um, willing to fail all of those elements.

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Um, that's how you learn and grow.

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And, you know, and, and, uh, you know, yeah, you're going to realize,

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you're going to realize and go through adversity, pain and toil, right.

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By just going right.

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But sometimes that's exactly what God wants you to do, you know?

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And, and so just encourage everybody to go, you know, go.

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Love it.

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Thank you.

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Brian author of winsome Five proven life strategies to win in relationships.

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Go check it out, get the book, get copies.

Speaker: 00:58:57

like you need to get multiple copies from what Brian said.

Speaker: 00:59:00

And, uh, I appreciate this conversation.

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I love conversations with people have gone through events where they've had to make

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adjustments and transitions and changes.

Speaker: 00:59:09

That's one of the things we're doing here at Seek Go Create is we're redefining

Speaker: 00:59:14

what success looks like for people talking about that leadership journey.

Speaker: 00:59:18

We have new episodes every Monday.

Speaker: 00:59:20

We're on YouTube.

Speaker: 00:59:21

Make sure you're commenting.

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Leave comments down below if you've watched this on YouTube.

Speaker: 00:59:25

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Speaker: 00:59:29

Until next time, continue being all that you were created to be.