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Money, God, New Zealand & Gold Rush | Q&A with Jonathan Patton

When you’re at the height of success, it’s difficult to envision a life without it. The idea of losing years worth of hard work in the blink of an eye is difficult to process. Experiencing failure is a natural aspect of life. But when you’re in that situation, how would you stand your ground and keep your faith?

In this episode, Jonathan Patton of Trivium Strategic Capital walks us through his success and failure. He shares his family's recent move to New Zealand and the projects he's currently involved in. In this interview, we highlight the relationship between faith, entrepreneurship, and money.

If you've experienced or are experiencing a turmoil in your life, this episode will resonate with you.

3 Reasons to Listen:

Learn how Jonathan and his family transitioned to life in New Zealand.
Discover how he was able to get back up from bankruptcy.
Find out Jonathan's checklist of seven daily habits.

Resources

A Founder’s Guide to Following God
Generous Giving
Generosity Path
GenXComm
The ONE Thing by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan

About Jonathan

Jonathan Patton is the managing partner of the private investment firm Trivium Strategic Capital. He is a lifelong entrepreneur and an accomplished executive with experience in operating multiple ventures.

Jonathan also currently serves as a director of The Farm Project, Uganda, a nonprofit organization providing sustainable farming jobs to the people of Northern Uganda.

You can connect with him through LinkedIn or by sending him an email at jpatton@triviumstrategiccapital.com.

Visit Jonathan's website, A Founder's Guide to Following God. Also, don’t forget to check out Trivium Strategic Capital.

Episode Highlights

[02:54] A Founder’s Guide to Following God

Jonathan helps founders of companies who've got a vision that seems bigger than what they think they could accomplish.
He helps them (1) seek God, (2) get funding to fulfill their calling, and (3) go big and expand their market.

[04:42] Moving to New Zealand

Their family is currently living in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand.
Jonathan came on an exploratory trip to New Zealand. He eventually started a land banking project partnership with a friend who moved there.
It became difficult for them to transition to New Zealand because of the change in government. It became complicated to get foreign investments in.
Find out in the episode how Jonathan got local capital crucial to their transition to New Zealand!

“We’re in the positive delusions. We’re trying to stay in the right lane of delusion.” - Click Here to Tweet This

[10:33] A Different Dynamic in New Zealand

The beginning was pretty hard because it was a lot of settling down in a new country.
Their kids like the school better there than they did in the States.
They moved to a property situated 28 acres up in the mountains and overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
New Zealand has a slower culture and different values when it comes to relationships and family structures.
The move has become an opportunity to reset some habits. It has forced him to think at a much deeper and more constructive level.

[18:19] Jonathan’s Business Venture

After his junior year, he and a couple of friends bought their first investment property and flipped it. They made $40,000 on that deal.
Their success was a combination of hard work and the ripe real estate market at that time.
They were very successful until the 2008 economic fall hit them.

“No matter what you've been through, no matter where you're at now, no matter where you're going, if you haven't experienced failure yet, or hardship, or whatever—however you want to define that yet—you will in this world. That's part of this world.” - Click Here to Tweet This

[22:06] Defining Entrepreneur

Jonathan says the entrepreneur is the crazy person out there—crazy enough to go from zero to a true front end.
There’s a lot of different skill sets required to scale a business operationally.
It can be a very lonely place because the vision in your head may or may not be successful.

[24:48] Experiencing Failure

When the market stopped working, they ended up moving to Austin, Texas, in August 2009, a year after everything went under.
He never asked God about bankruptcy, and he never filed for one until 2012.
If we’re not willing to talk about failure, we can’t have real conversations. It’s important to press into that even when it’s uncomfortable.

“My biggest fear, in reality, was the fear of failure and letting people down. But I needed to go through that and deal with that once it happened so that I could be healed and I can move on to what was supposed to be next.” - Click Here to Tweet This

[30:48] The Impact on His Family

They didn’t have kids when they started the process. He and his wife were just fighting to survive together, making deals after deals.
When they decided to file for bankruptcy, they just felt like they were supposed to do it.
They eventually had to hire a babysitter to go to the bankruptcy court.
In a way, filing for bankruptcy became empowering because they were ending that part of the journey.

[34:10] Dealing with Guilt & Challenge of Faith

Guilt was the driving motivation he was trying to avoid the entire four years of refusing to file for bankruptcy.
He needed to go through that fear of failure to heal and move on.
Until he was in his 30s, he never really went into introspection.
When he finally talked to God about filing for bankruptcy, he realized how awful he had been in that area.

[37:25] Moving Forward into Gold Mining

Before filing for bankruptcy, he was already starting a mining company, Noble Mining, with a partner.
They acquired three mining properties after growing their capital—three in Alaska and two in Northern California.

[39:37] Gold Rush Reality TV

They put a storyline for the Gold Rush reality show on Discovery.
They funded the guys on the show to get to their first million-dollar season.
Once TV shows get publicity and viewership, it becomes a very lucrative business opportunity.
It helped them promote their brand and got them a lot of opportunity.

[43:21] Beliefs About Money

He's involved in a group that has made a profound impact on his journey around money.
This group is called Generous Giving; the international version is called Generosity Path.
They share experiences and stories around money and see how God uses that around generosity.
The baseline is the idea of stewardship: it’s not your money; the job is to manage whatever resources you’ve been given.

[48:27] Serving the World

For better or for worse, Jonathan seeks God and follows the leading of the Spirit.
Tune in to the podcast to know more about their mission trip to create jobs for people in Uganda!

“I try whatever I can to just say yes to God, and then what happens is that the door opens or it closes, and we just see what the next step is.” - Click Here to Tweet This

[52:11] Their Current Projects

They realized that with Trivium, they go through a process of daily, weekly, and monthly transitioning.
They're rebranding Trivium as Trivium Global. Their vertical is to help founders prepare for fundraising, and the other one is on international distribution.
Find out in the full episode how they created an investment opportunity for GenXComm through international distribution.

[56:19] Daily Routines & Habits

He goes through a daily checklist with seven items. Find out what these are in the full episode!
The checklist is critical because he can decide in advance what is most important.
It takes him 30 minutes to an hour, depending on what is in it for the day.

[01:04:16] What’s Next

The biggest thing for Jonathan now is his vision for the Dangerous Catalyst, which he believes God has given him.

“When you’re doing what you’re supposed to do, not everybody is going to like it.” - Click Here to Tweet This

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To growing and becoming all we are created to be,

Tim