The Power of Pause: Faith, Decision-Making, and Leadership with Tamara Jackson

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there are no guarantees here.

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It is truly, I've gotta trust God to come up with a plan to get people in

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here that are actually going to pay me so that I can cover these expenses.

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Like, that's a very different feeling.

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And for me, there's a lot of anxiety around it because it's, like you said,

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it's two completely different worlds.

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What I thought was stress in the corporate environment, just did

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not compare to making those big steps in the entrepreneurial space.

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What happens when you combine faith?

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Innovation and purpose in the boardroom and beyond.

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Hmm

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Today on Seek, go create the leadership journey.

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We welcome Tamara Jackson, a faith-based leadership consultant, visionary founder

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of Beacon Ship and CEO of Lead Reviver.

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With a background in Fortune 500 executive leadership and a Heart for Spirit-led

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transformation, Tamara equips faith-driven leaders to reimagine how they lead,

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give, and engage in a digital world.

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hmm.

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AI powered sales strategy to spirit-led decision making, this conversation

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explores how deep purpose can drive real impact across industries and generations.

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Tamara, welcome to Seek Go create.

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Tim, thank you so much.

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I'm glad to be here.

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You make me sound amazing, so thank you for that intro.

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You are amazing and that's why you're here.

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That's what this is all about.

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It's just to shine the spotlight on amazing.

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And

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Hmm.

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I'm forward to this conversation.

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I love doing the research for people because I learn things about, you

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know, what their dog's name is and, you know, the important stuff

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The important stuff.

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So, and then you get to learn about this guy that lives in an RV and

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Very cool.

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That's not for me.

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Not for me, no.

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Part of our journey is knowing what God wants us to do

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yes.

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And that's what we're gonna talk about here.

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Hmm.

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Tamara first though, let's dive into the deep end of the pool.

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Mm-hmm.

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And your first question is, would you rather answer, what do you do?

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Or who are you?

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Who am I?

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So I am the daughter of Jimmy and Deborah.

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I am a child of God.

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I am the dog mom to Spencer.

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My pride and joy, and I am a person that is passionate about the

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intersection of faith and business.

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growing up, I grew up in the church.

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Nine years old, I got saved.

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Some people call that fire insurance.

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And I'll be honest, that's part of what kind of drew me in is

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like I knew based on the sermons, that's not where I wanted to go.

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So I gave my life to Christ and I spent a lot of time in church.

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One of the big challenges for me, Tim, though, was it sounded like in order to

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say yes to ministry and serving God that that answer was behind the pulpit or

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teaching Sunday school or Bible study.

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And I've done all of those things.

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they're important and they're meaningful, but for me.

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I just knew at a very young age that business was something

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that I really enjoyed.

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I wasn't sure growing up, I even looked back at, you know, some of my yearbooks.

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I said, either I'll go up the corporate ladder or I'll run my own business.

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As you've shared, I ended up doing both, but I knew from a very early age I

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wanted to operate in the business space.

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And when I was growing up, I didn't really see that that was a path.

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It was like they're two separate worlds.

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You serve God in church on Sunday, throughout the week you

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may do missionary work, all of these things that serving God.

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And then you go to work, you earn money so that you can so that you can give, right?

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And as I started to grow up and be exposed to different people with different

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ideas, I started to see that there were other people like me that wanted to

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serve God, but they wanted to do it.

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By being an actress or running a nonprofit that had an impact on

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children or just all the gamut, right?

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And as I discovered that there were more people like me, I wanted to

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create a space so that those that are coming up, whether they are young, very

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young, like I was in church, or maybe they're a teenager in their twenties

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or thirties, they can realize that you can serve God in a business capacity.

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So that's my short answer to who is Tam?

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Well, the cool thing about that answer is that you open up a lot

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of doors to some other things

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Yeah.

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and the other things, Tamara, it's, this is like a theme that we keep seeing.

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I mean, I'm even thinking back to an interview that was with Mike Bearers,

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like one of our second interviews, like early on in this podcast five

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plus years ago, where we talked about that tension between full-time ministry

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Yeah.

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marketplace.

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Yeah.

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and, and I cannot for the life of me understand or figure out, maybe you've got

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some insight on this, it is that so many.

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Achievers, leaders, whatever, as if the only or the best way that they can serve

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God standing behind the pulpit, full-time ministry or jumping on a plane and go

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spending time in a hut in Africa, which there's nothing wrong with any of that,

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Yeah.

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but why is it that we feel that tug and pull?

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where's that coming from?

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Because I'll go ahead and be blunt here.

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It's not biblical.

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Agreed.

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So where is it coming from?

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Because you said you had it like almost right at the time you were saved.

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Like it was something in culture or

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Yeah.

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world

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Yeah.

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and for me and others that I've talked to, it's exactly what you just said.

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It's the conversations that were happening in church.

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because the conversations were about ministry, missionary work, things of that

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nature, and there were no conversations about serving God in the marketplace.

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It wasn't like a blatant, you can't do this, but because it

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wasn't a topic of conversation, it just felt like it didn't fit.

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there were a few people in my church, my mom was one of them who decided,

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listen, I actually, appreciate and recognize the value of the marketplace.

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There were not a lot of people that held that viewpoint.

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And so it was, for me, it was kind of, where most of the attention is focused.

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So because most of the attention was focused on, serving in a pulpit or

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doing ministry related activities, it just didn't add up for me.

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And I've encountered so many others that that's exactly the

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problem that they're running into.

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And so I think it's about having examples that are doing it,

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that are being vocal about.

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How they are serving God in their marketplace, arena.

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And then creating a space for that to be talked about.

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Like now there are churches that have, life groups and things

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that center around those topics.

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But when I was growing up that did not exist.

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There is Sunday school and there is Wednesday Bible study.

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There was no path for I wanna be a faith-based entrepreneur.

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And I think if we want people to recognize that they can use their gift

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skills and talents in those capacities, to your point, it's not biblical.

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You know, many of the people that we read about, we study and we

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admire, they were in the marketplace.

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But that wasn't highlighted for my experience growing up.

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And I think that's what's important.

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We need to do a better job of that.

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I'm doing, I guess it's a study.

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I'm immersing myself in the letters of Paul, the epistles.

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I'm attempting to put myself into the place of the people receiving his letters.

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Hmm.

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I can understand the Bible was written to.

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I believe it was written for us, but I don't,

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Yeah.

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written to us.

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Yeah.

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but anyway, and you know what, Paul was very clear.

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You know, I've gone through, Thessalonians and he was very clear that he was working.

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Absolutely.

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He was working while he was doing all these things with these churches.

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I do know this in my Bible school experience and other

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experience, that you just feel like this is gonna be blunt, that

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It's okay.

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Just send me the check.

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And we appreciate you, Tim.

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You've got a different mindset.

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Yeah,

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you are always, you're going, going, going, but church world

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is a little bit different.

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is different.

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here's a yellow vest.

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Go work out in the parking lot and report to a 21-year-old

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Hmm.

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guy that's in charge of the parking lot.

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That's how we're gonna use your skills.

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And I'm going, nah,

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It's so much more.

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yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Yeah.

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I don't like, but I think a lot of that's changing

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It is changing.

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in here,

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Yeah.

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so when did that start changing for you?

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What was some of the things that caused the change?

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Yeah.

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So for me it was changed environment.

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the church that I grew up in was not the church that I

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ended up learning these things.

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I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, small.

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City area, but not as progressive as some other cities.

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it turns out that God would redirect me as I got into my early thirties.

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I was still in a corporate environment and I came to Charlotte, North

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Carolina for a business trip.

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And during that trip there was something in me that was like, man,

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this is a really beautiful city.

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And I started, you know, thinking about the opportunity that could

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be here and before I knew it.

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I packed up and I was moving to Charlotte, North Carolina, and one of the blessings

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that came out of it was that I got plugged into a church, the Park Ministries

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here in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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And in that spaces where I started to recognize that not everyone

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saw things the same way and that there were different paths that you

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could take in order to serve God.

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And I, I had people actually a part of that church that affirmed and said, no,

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those gift skills and talents that God is giving you, we actually need those.

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So we're getting ready to do a 5K and we need your project management skill.

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and so.

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Seeing that the skills and the talents that I had could actually

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help advance ministry, like being given the opportunity to do that

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is what helped it start to click.

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For me.

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That, listen, these don't have to be two separate worlds.

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I can leverage the things that God has given me to make a

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difference for the kingdom.

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So this is, I think we're mature here.

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We could have this conversation.

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Sure.

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also a few variables that kick in with this.

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is at times the male female,

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Yes.

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and then I'm gonna ask you a little bit about the culture.

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And again, this is mature conversation, you know, the culture

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of the church you grew up in and then the church you moved to.

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Because, I also think some of that can be baked into, I'll be blunt, white

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church or African American church and things like that, even though

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Yeah.

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did you go to what I think we'll call a multicultural church growing up?

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or did everybody look like you.

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everybody.

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Yeah, that's, yeah.

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You, you could, you could keep it 100 with me.

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Everyone looked like me in my church.

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It was also relatively small Pentecostal, by denomination.

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And so there were a lot of rules about what to do and what not to do.

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things felt very black and white, and I'm not saying that there certainly

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aren't boundaries that we need to operate within, but things were very strict.

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And so the culture, was one of, you know, this is the path to holiness.

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This is the path to pleasing God.

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And so most of the conversation really centered around that.

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So I didn't really feel as though the rest of my life outside of.

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Being in church and hopefully drawing others to Christ.

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there just wasn't a lot of conversation around that.

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Now, when I moved to Charlotte, the Church Park Ministries is

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also a predominantly black church.

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However, what I found is that there was an openness for a diversity

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of viewpoints of cultures.

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It was non-denominational, kind of feel.

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Even though it technically is a Baptist church, it wasn't pushed that, everyone

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has to do this or that, and everyone has to believe this certain way.

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It was more about developing a relationship with Christ, and that's what

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I really took away from that experience at the Park Ministries is Tam, what's

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most important is that you need to build a true relationship with God.

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And what does that look like?

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For you and how is God calling you to use the gifts, talents, and experiences

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that you've had to bring glory to him.

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And that was just a different conversation, than the one

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that I experienced growing up.

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The good thing about that relationship, it's, and, and I'm just almost

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restating what you said, is that we're not all gonna fit into that one

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thing that everybody thinks we look.

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That that's when, know, I'll, I'll throw a word in here that shouldn't

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be divisive, but it is diversity.

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Yeah.

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'cause we were all created with a uniqueness and gifts and

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talents and things like that.

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And I think part of our journey,

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Hmm.

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Is to identify what those are.

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Absolutely.

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in God's kingdom is say, okay, God, what?

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What'd you make me for?

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Because I got some issues and I know I can irritate people and can ask

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questions and nobody else will ask.

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I can guarantee you that, Tamara,

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But we need that.

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I.

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Absolutely, that's what I was gonna say.

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A body of Christ and scripture talks about how the different parts of

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the body serve different purposes.

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Right.

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And so if everyone was the same, I don't know where we would be.

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We wouldn't be very effective in anything.

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We would all think the same way.

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And how dangerous would that be?

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I think there's a reason that it's a community.

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There are gonna be some things that you're really great at, Tim, that I

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need your insight and perspective for.

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And then there are going to be some things that, based on the experiences that I've

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had that I'm gonna be able to share on.

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And I think that is by design.

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we weren't designed to operate in this cocoon and only have people around

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us that think exactly the same way, have the same experiences growing up

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and have the same gifts and talents.

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that just wasn't the design.

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So going from Richmond to Charlotte was obviously a significant,

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Yeah.

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change adjustment, expansion, whatever for what you were doing.

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What are some other things, a couple of 'em that we need to know about

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your journey that were significant along the way that have kind led

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you to the place you are now?

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Yeah,

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of the high points or low points.

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'cause some of mine were

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it's a.

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that I learned more from them than I do some of the good times.

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That's so true.

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So I would say the next one that would be important to to highlight

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here would be something that happened not long after I moved to Charlotte.

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So I moved here in 2009 and I was in the process of getting my master's

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degree, which consumed a lot of my time along with my corporate career.

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But I started getting this pull, this tug to be able to speak to women

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in particular about their health.

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And that was because I had gone on this journey of figuring out how.

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To make exercise a habit, how to eat healthier.

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And I realized that many of the women around me also struggled with this area.

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So what that looked like for me was starting a small workout and bible study

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community at my church, at the Park ministries that gave the flexibility

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to meet on Saturdays in the gym.

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We did a brief workout and then we transitioned to Bible study

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specifically talking about, wellness from a biblical perspective.

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And that's when I started.

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I'd, I'd say that was kind of the.

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First step into how do I combine these two things?

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Because that grew into a business where I was actually offering training

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classes, physical fitness training classes, but we were also studying the

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word of God, you know, how does God, want us to think about our temples?

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So that was kind of the first four way into combining those two worlds.

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It was my first step into entrepreneurship.

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So I officially became an entrepreneur, entrepreneur in 2013.

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and I like to say.

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Tim, that that journey has been a, an up and down one.

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You talked about some of the, the low experiences have been the ones

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that have taught you the most.

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And the same is true for me.

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You know, I went into entrepreneurship as many people do, wanting to make a

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difference, wanting to help people.

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it wasn't really about the money, but what I quickly realized is that really sticking

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to the principles of money management and being a good steward also impacted how

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effective I was at running a business.

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So some of the things that I took for granted in the corporate world, like.

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There was a lot of things that I had the benefit of, right?

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They had their own brand.

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I didn't have to create my own, they had their own website.

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I didn't have to figure that out.

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Like there were all of these things that were kind of done for you and

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baked in, and it was really about you bringing your talent to the job.

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I quickly learned that as a business owner, I actually have to know

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all these things myself, right?

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And so there was a journey of learning and discovering and making what I like

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to call a lot of expensive mistakes.

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The things were starting to kind of go in the right direction.

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I was starting to get, some traction and I was like, okay, I finally figured it out.

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We moved into our own facility here in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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this is 2019.

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Summer 2019.

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it was a highlight I thought of my entrepreneurial journey because I thought

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this is the thing that I've always wanted to be able to have my own space to be able

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to not have to worry about, you know, any rules of, you know, talking about God.

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I could do that whenever I wanted.

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It's my own place.

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I don't have to worry about like getting on a calendar to hold our

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classes like ultimate freedom.

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But what I did not realize is that 2020 would bring what it did, right?

Speaker: 00:19:34

So I had signed a three year lease on a facility that I could not go in.

Speaker: 00:19:41

talk about rollercoaster moments.

Speaker: 00:19:43

I went from on top of the world June, 2019 to feeling down in the dumps.

Speaker: 00:19:49

by March when I realized.

Speaker: 00:19:51

That what I thought was a two week hiatus was actually gonna be months.

Speaker: 00:19:56

So that was definitely a valley experience for me.

Speaker: 00:19:59

Now, I could keep going.

Speaker: 00:20:00

I got so much that I can say, but I wanna take a breath there

Speaker: 00:20:03

to see if you have any thought?

Speaker: 00:20:05

so, here's what I'm going to say.

Speaker: 00:20:08

That's gonna sound harsh.

Speaker: 00:20:10

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:20:10

So Covid was your fault because you said you figured it all

Speaker: 00:20:15

I thought I did.

Speaker: 00:20:15

right after you announced to the world,

Speaker: 00:20:18

Yeah,

Speaker: 00:20:19

and everyone I have finally figured it out,

Speaker: 00:20:23

yeah,

Speaker: 00:20:23

A worldwide pandemic happens.

Speaker: 00:20:25

yeah.

Speaker: 00:20:25

I thought 2008 was like that for me.

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I mean, we had real estate companies and

Speaker: 00:20:30

Mm.

Speaker: 00:20:30

we're doing pretty darn good.

Speaker: 00:20:31

I like where we're at, God, I got this.

Speaker: 00:20:33

You can go take care of somebody else.

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Yeah.

Speaker: 00:20:37

So that was 2008

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Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:20:40

I'm really joking, but

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Yeah.

Speaker: 00:20:41

we're laughing at a situation that's not laughable

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It's tough.

Speaker: 00:20:45

so here's what I want you to compare.

Speaker: 00:20:47

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:20:48

I think I heard you on one of your podcasts, I think on, beacon Ship.

Speaker: 00:20:51

Yes,

Speaker: 00:20:52

of it,

Speaker: 00:20:52

that's right.

Speaker: 00:20:52

I heard you talk about one of the scriptures that's important

Speaker: 00:20:55

to you, and it was in Proverbs and it was the trust in the Lord.

Speaker: 00:20:59

I can't quote scripture

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Mm-hmm

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Trust in the Lord.

Speaker: 00:21:02

so I want you to compare here for the next 10 seconds or 10 minutes or whatever.

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is the difference?

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Between trusting in the Lord when you work in a corporate setting

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hmm.

Speaker: 00:21:15

versus trusting in the Lord when you are all of a sudden hanging out over

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there, signing a three year list.

Speaker: 00:21:20

When a worldwide pandemic's about to happen, compare the two.

Speaker: 00:21:24

'cause sometimes people don't understand if they get a

Speaker: 00:21:26

paycheck every two weeks, they

Speaker: 00:21:27

It's very different.

Speaker: 00:21:29

and, and then sometimes we don't appreciate that level of, don't wanna

Speaker: 00:21:34

say comfort, but there's a lot going

Speaker: 00:21:35

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:21:36

So talk about those two.

Speaker: 00:21:37

'cause you've lived them both.

Speaker: 00:21:38

Yeah, no, it's night and day difference, Tim.

Speaker: 00:21:43

because there's, there's, yes, you are trusting God, at least I'll say

Speaker: 00:21:47

for me, I'm trusting God for God.

Speaker: 00:21:49

I need to be able to pull together this presentation.

Speaker: 00:21:51

I need you to go in here with me because I'm about to make this pitch

Speaker: 00:21:54

and I need you to prepare my heart.

Speaker: 00:21:56

I need you to prepare, you know, the, the executives so that

Speaker: 00:21:59

they'll be ready to receive it.

Speaker: 00:22:00

God, I need you to, to walk with me as I'm launching this project.

Speaker: 00:22:04

And so I was definitely trusting God, but I was also, as you said,

Speaker: 00:22:09

getting paid on the first and the 15th, like clockwork, right?

Speaker: 00:22:14

and so there's a difference between that and signing a lease for a building and

Speaker: 00:22:19

being responsible for making payments, whether you are operating or not.

Speaker: 00:22:25

This is, there are no guarantees here.

Speaker: 00:22:27

It is truly, I've gotta trust God to come up with a plan to get people in

Speaker: 00:22:33

here that are actually going to pay me so that I can cover these expenses.

Speaker: 00:22:36

Like, that's a very different feeling.

Speaker: 00:22:39

And for me, there's a lot of anxiety around it because it's, like you said,

Speaker: 00:22:44

it's two completely different worlds.

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What I thought was stress in the corporate environment, just did

Speaker: 00:22:51

not compare to making those big steps in the entrepreneurial space.

Speaker: 00:22:56

Now, I will say for me, Tim, I like to make sure that I, am clear about this.

Speaker: 00:23:00

At that time, I was still in corporate, so I was trying to straddle, and so a lot of

Speaker: 00:23:05

people will be able to identify with me.

Speaker: 00:23:07

It's like, Hey, I wanna hold on to this corporate career.

Speaker: 00:23:11

Transparently this corporate paycheck and all the benefits that come along with it.

Speaker: 00:23:15

But I also feel like God is calling me to do something else.

Speaker: 00:23:19

And so I was trying to hold both of these things down.

Speaker: 00:23:23

some of my corporate pay was getting eaten up by this, this three

Speaker: 00:23:28

year lease that I've now signed.

Speaker: 00:23:29

I grew to know Jesus so much more and so much deeper the more that I started

Speaker: 00:23:35

to, embrace, that entrepreneurial world.

Speaker: 00:23:38

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:23:38

it can get so, complex.

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Now, I grew up, when I got saved, when I say grew up, it was my late

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twenties, but I was in and around what, many term Pentecostal, but it

Speaker: 00:23:49

also had a prosperity gospel flavor

Speaker: 00:23:53

mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:23:53

it, which fed my business, greed lands.

Speaker: 00:23:58

And so I started looking at God, this is the God we've had to work through this.

Speaker: 00:24:02

Me and God started looking at him as sort of an ATM machine, that if something

Speaker: 00:24:06

got bad for me, God, you need to fix this 'cause I'm on your team now.

Speaker: 00:24:11

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:24:12

and I think sometimes that can work its way into entrepreneurship.

Speaker: 00:24:16

Did you have anything like that?

Speaker: 00:24:19

'cause you said you used the words, we often use God called you.

Speaker: 00:24:24

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:24:24

felt like that was what God wanted you to do to sign that lease

Speaker: 00:24:29

and to set up that business.

Speaker: 00:24:30

And then all of a sudden you're looking at the paper, you're

Speaker: 00:24:33

looking at everything shut down.

Speaker: 00:24:34

I'm sure you can't get together and let's all get in a group

Speaker: 00:24:38

setting and hug each other

Speaker: 00:24:39

No.

Speaker: 00:24:39

a pandemic's going on and work out together and stuff like that.

Speaker: 00:24:43

No, that's not gonna happen.

Speaker: 00:24:44

were you at any time thinking, oh, God's gonna bail me out, or, God, this

Speaker: 00:24:49

is your issue, you better handle it.

Speaker: 00:24:51

Or any, anything like that?

Speaker: 00:24:53

Yeah.

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I think for me, Tim, I kind of went back and forth.

Speaker: 00:24:57

There were times where I was like, God, I need you to come through for me.

Speaker: 00:25:01

I mean, I remember distinctly going through a very specific Bible plan where

Speaker: 00:25:06

I was seeking God for rent and all the things, that I needed because I didn't

Speaker: 00:25:11

know how I was gonna cover these things.

Speaker: 00:25:13

but then there were also moments where I was like, God, did I miss something?

Speaker: 00:25:17

Like, was I really supposed to do this?

Speaker: 00:25:19

Was I really supposed to sign this lease?

Speaker: 00:25:22

and there were moments, of course, at least for me, Tim, that as I was making,

Speaker: 00:25:26

the decisions, there were moments where I was kind of like, I'm not really sure.

Speaker: 00:25:30

And so then that became, well man, maybe that was your sign.

Speaker: 00:25:34

Maybe that was your indication that you shouldn't have done this.

Speaker: 00:25:36

So I went back and forth between.

Speaker: 00:25:39

You messed this up, you made a mistake, and God, no, but I think

Speaker: 00:25:43

you did call me to this, so I need you to help me out here.

Speaker: 00:25:46

and so for me it was kind of a back and forth, but what I will say it did do

Speaker: 00:25:51

that I took away from that experience that I was not as diligent with going

Speaker: 00:25:56

into that is it took me to my knees.

Speaker: 00:25:59

It got me to a place of I need to talk to God on a regular basis about this

Speaker: 00:26:06

because I know regardless of how I got here, I know I don't have the answers.

Speaker: 00:26:11

So the only person that I think can help me in this situation is God.

Speaker: 00:26:16

Like this wasn't a call your mom and bail you out.

Speaker: 00:26:19

This wasn't a get alone.

Speaker: 00:26:20

And, all the problems are solved.

Speaker: 00:26:22

I needed God to come through for me.

Speaker: 00:26:24

And so it drew me closer to him because at least in that moment,

Speaker: 00:26:31

I recognized that I needed him.

Speaker: 00:26:35

Yeah, and, and it's interesting, I can tell that you probably from an early age

Speaker: 00:26:40

would be what we would determine what we would probably call a high achiever.

Speaker: 00:26:44

I'm guessing you probably did well in school.

Speaker: 00:26:46

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:26:47

that you organized stuff and people probably followed

Speaker: 00:26:49

you and things like that.

Speaker: 00:26:51

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:26:52

That happens sometimes.

Speaker: 00:26:53

so my observation is that sometimes we will, I don't want to

Speaker: 00:27:00

describe you as cocky or arrogant.

Speaker: 00:27:02

I could describe myself.

Speaker: 00:27:02

We kind of get to this place where, all right, God, you know what?

Speaker: 00:27:05

with you.

Speaker: 00:27:06

I'm on your team, but you could go help, those that are, trying to barely

Speaker: 00:27:10

squeeze a nickel outta their paycheck.

Speaker: 00:27:12

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:27:12

I, I'm, I've got all this, and my journey has been, and I

Speaker: 00:27:17

don't even know if I'm there yet

Speaker: 00:27:20

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:27:20

I don't want to even be so cocky to even say, but total submission, not semi

Speaker: 00:27:25

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:27:27

And that's what I heard

Speaker: 00:27:28

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:27:28

you were on the team,

Speaker: 00:27:30

Oh yeah.

Speaker: 00:27:30

you also were still, felt like you could handle some of it on your own.

Speaker: 00:27:35

Absolutely.

Speaker: 00:27:36

statement?

Speaker: 00:27:37

Absolutely.

Speaker: 00:27:38

A hundred percent right.

Speaker: 00:27:39

and for me, Tim, it was, that wasn't the end of it.

Speaker: 00:27:42

Like there was things that continued to unfold to, I believe, get me to a

Speaker: 00:27:48

place where I could recognize like.

Speaker: 00:27:50

You have nothing under control.

Speaker: 00:27:53

Like it's, it's literally unpredictable.

Speaker: 00:27:57

I think we tend to want to believe that life is predictable I trust that if I

Speaker: 00:28:04

sit down in this chair that it's gonna hold me up and I'm not gonna fall down.

Speaker: 00:28:07

So there, there are things like that that kinda lull us to a belief that

Speaker: 00:28:13

tomorrow is going to be the same as today.

Speaker: 00:28:15

But as things unfolded for me in the years that followed, 2019 was just the

Speaker: 00:28:20

beginning, it became clear, more and more like, man, like you can see the future.

Speaker: 00:28:26

You don't know what's going to happen.

Speaker: 00:28:27

And because you can't, you are vulnerable.

Speaker: 00:28:31

And so you really need to surrender to the one that does know what's

Speaker: 00:28:36

going to happen tomorrow and two years from now and 20 years from now.

Speaker: 00:28:41

So how do we know, or how have you maybe developed?

Speaker: 00:28:48

and I, and I don't, I don't think either one of us wanna present

Speaker: 00:28:50

ourselves as we have arrived and we

Speaker: 00:28:52

Oh no, absolutely not.

Speaker: 00:28:53

are you now better

Speaker: 00:28:56

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:28:56

at knowing that his plans or your plans and that your plans are his plans?

Speaker: 00:29:01

how do you connecting that better than you did say, in 2019 and 20?

Speaker: 00:29:08

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:29:09

Or, or have you learned that?

Speaker: 00:29:10

I mean, I, hope I have, but

Speaker: 00:29:13

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:29:14

how would you respond to that?

Speaker: 00:29:15

So what I would say is that I'm learning that I would not say that I

Speaker: 00:29:19

have a hundred percent figured it out.

Speaker: 00:29:21

but what I can say, Tim, is that the experiences helped to make it really

Speaker: 00:29:28

clear to me that I needed to slow down.

Speaker: 00:29:30

I needed to slow down because I would look at things and I would

Speaker: 00:29:34

assume, and I've heard others do it as well, I think it's pretty common.

Speaker: 00:29:39

Well, that's a sign that I should move in this direction, or I

Speaker: 00:29:42

should not move in that direction.

Speaker: 00:29:43

Maybe that's a block and I shouldn't move forward.

Speaker: 00:29:46

And what I have learned is that I wouldn't be so quick to assume that it's a sign.

Speaker: 00:29:53

One of the best things that I could do to really get clear on what

Speaker: 00:29:57

God wants me to do is to pause.

Speaker: 00:30:00

Like just literally give yourself the space to really process the decision

Speaker: 00:30:07

that is in front of you, to gather information about, what the options are.

Speaker: 00:30:13

what is there that's out there that can tell you a little bit more about this.

Speaker: 00:30:16

Other than just your knowledge, who else can you talk to to get more insight?

Speaker: 00:30:21

Like, I just realized that a lot of the decisions that ended up.

Speaker: 00:30:26

In retrospect, not being great decisions were, because I did not slow

Speaker: 00:30:31

down and I did not do my research.

Speaker: 00:30:34

So those are some things that are really crystal clear to me right now.

Speaker: 00:30:38

I can't say that I always get that right, Tim, but that's, those are the things

Speaker: 00:30:43

that I now try to really, really do.

Speaker: 00:30:45

Maybe I need to give myself 24 hours before I say anything about this.

Speaker: 00:30:49

And sometimes stem, sometimes people get frustrated with me because sometimes it's

Speaker: 00:30:52

not 24 hours, sometimes it's two weeks.

Speaker: 00:30:55

I know now that what I am looking for is a sense of peace.

Speaker: 00:31:01

That the path that I am going down is the path that God is calling me to.

Speaker: 00:31:06

And I have done, to, use a business term, I have done a degree of due diligence.

Speaker: 00:31:11

I think sometimes we just quickly jump to something and we don't give

Speaker: 00:31:15

ourselves the space to really slow down and think through and pray through

Speaker: 00:31:21

the decisions that we're making.

Speaker: 00:31:23

And that's what I would say that I've learned to do now, that

Speaker: 00:31:26

I would not have done in 2019.

Speaker: 00:31:28

transparently, even some of the years that followed, I would kind of pray over

Speaker: 00:31:33

what I was doing, not stop, take the decision to God should I be doing this?

Speaker: 00:31:41

Gathering the information on the options.

Speaker: 00:31:44

I just wasn't doing that.

Speaker: 00:31:46

And part of it for me, Tim, kind of goes back to the experience

Speaker: 00:31:49

that I described as a kid.

Speaker: 00:31:51

I heard people say you should pray about it.

Speaker: 00:31:54

and I knew that, but what exactly does that mean and what exactly does that

Speaker: 00:32:00

look like when I'm making a decision?

Speaker: 00:32:02

I didn't have a good reference point for that.

Speaker: 00:32:05

And so I felt like if I prayed and there wasn't this, no tam, you

Speaker: 00:32:09

shouldn't do that, then that must be a green light to move forward.

Speaker: 00:32:13

And I've learned that, that is not necessarily so.

Speaker: 00:32:18

Well, and this is, I know you mentioned kind of the culture that you grew up in,

Speaker: 00:32:23

but were there many people that were wired the way you were wired or did you look at

Speaker: 00:32:30

yourself as like going, not that you're better than them or anything like that,

Speaker: 00:32:34

but you were the one that got things done?

Speaker: 00:32:36

Yeah, I was different.

Speaker: 00:32:38

Yeah,

Speaker: 00:32:39

definitely different.

Speaker: 00:32:40

and I could sort of relate to that.

Speaker: 00:32:42

All right.

Speaker: 00:32:42

I'm, not done with that topic, but I'm gonna layer in something and I want

Speaker: 00:32:47

to ask, what would you say is or are your superpower, your superpowers?

Speaker: 00:32:54

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:32:55

and maybe I'll ask you another, what were you created for?

Speaker: 00:32:57

what did God say?

Speaker: 00:32:58

Tamara is going to be blank.

Speaker: 00:33:02

This is how we're gonna wire her.

Speaker: 00:33:04

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:33:05

So when I think about that question, Tim, I actually think

Speaker: 00:33:08

about, my experiences with others.

Speaker: 00:33:10

for a long time I didn't know the answer to that question.

Speaker: 00:33:14

I was trying to figure it out, to a degree in the business, space.

Speaker: 00:33:17

Like, okay, I'm good at a lot of different things and, and I don't know if you

Speaker: 00:33:22

know, you or anyone that's watching or listening to us can identify with that.

Speaker: 00:33:26

I'm one of those people.

Speaker: 00:33:27

I'm not a jack of all trades, but I literally know a lot about a lot of

Speaker: 00:33:32

things, don't know everything, right?

Speaker: 00:33:34

The challenge with that is.

Speaker: 00:33:36

That when you're good at a lot of things, you have a lot of options.

Speaker: 00:33:39

So then you start thinking, well, gosh, what is it that I am supposed to do?

Speaker: 00:33:45

And part of solving the answer to that came actually in the corporate space

Speaker: 00:33:50

from a manager that I was working for.

Speaker: 00:33:53

And he said, you know, Tamara, I need you to stop thinking

Speaker: 00:33:56

about a job title or a role.

Speaker: 00:33:59

I need you to focus on the things that you are good at.

Speaker: 00:34:03

And when he shared that with me, I was like.

Speaker: 00:34:06

Oh, so it's not about like getting this certain title.

Speaker: 00:34:10

It's about what am I good at and how can I deploy that for

Speaker: 00:34:14

the benefit of the business?

Speaker: 00:34:15

And that was the first time that I actually had the opportunity

Speaker: 00:34:18

to design my own role.

Speaker: 00:34:20

But it was so fun for me because for the first time I could really stop and

Speaker: 00:34:25

think about, okay, what are the things that I can bring not focus on like

Speaker: 00:34:30

this certain promotional pathway or anything like that, but what can I bring

Speaker: 00:34:34

to this business to make it better?

Speaker: 00:34:37

And that's when I started to realize, okay, the organization

Speaker: 00:34:41

and the process piece, that's just naturally how my brain works.

Speaker: 00:34:44

I know that that's not the case for everyone.

Speaker: 00:34:47

So that's something that I can bring to any space.

Speaker: 00:34:50

It doesn't matter what we're talking about.

Speaker: 00:34:52

I automatically will see.

Speaker: 00:34:54

Okay.

Speaker: 00:34:54

Here's how we can put a process in place to help move this initiative forward

Speaker: 00:34:59

and not make it this big overwhelming task that could never be completed.

Speaker: 00:35:04

I can think about how to convert that into little steps.

Speaker: 00:35:07

so that's one of the things that I am here to do.

Speaker: 00:35:10

the other piece of it is to get people ignited and excited about

Speaker: 00:35:15

what God has called them to do.

Speaker: 00:35:17

There is something, and I, it's weird to me, Tim, because I am an introvert

Speaker: 00:35:21

by nature, but over time, through different experiences, God has kind of.

Speaker: 00:35:26

Pulled out this blend.

Speaker: 00:35:30

So now I kind of vacillate between introversion and extroversion, at

Speaker: 00:35:34

least how people perceive it, right?

Speaker: 00:35:36

Because I can go into an environment and I can bring energy and I can get

Speaker: 00:35:41

people excited through speaking and training and things of that nature, and

Speaker: 00:35:45

get them to see that God is with them and they can accomplish the things that

Speaker: 00:35:49

maybe they thought they couldn't do.

Speaker: 00:35:51

So bringing those two things together for me means empowerment.

Speaker: 00:35:55

What I believe that I am here to do is to empower people to reach their goals,

Speaker: 00:36:00

and sometimes that's in a motivational, inspirational capacity, and sometimes it's

Speaker: 00:36:05

in a very practical capacity of here's the goal that we have, let's break it down

Speaker: 00:36:10

into steps, and let's make sure that you have the accountability to make sure that

Speaker: 00:36:15

you're on the path to reach that goal.

Speaker: 00:36:18

So, as I'm listening to you here, Tamara, one of the reasons I'm spinning a little

Speaker: 00:36:22

bit is that you and I, look different.

Speaker: 00:36:27

sound different, different backgrounds, different cultures, but some things

Speaker: 00:36:31

that the Lord has spoken to you.

Speaker: 00:36:32

I'm gonna share in just a little bit, we'll keep people

Speaker: 00:36:34

waiting for a second here, but

Speaker: 00:36:36

Okay.

Speaker: 00:36:37

I wanna add something and I'll pose it in the form of a question I have a

Speaker: 00:36:43

theory about, and you may either help me back this theory up or blow it up.

Speaker: 00:36:48

We'll see,

Speaker: 00:36:49

Okay.

Speaker: 00:36:50

my guess is that you are incredibly decisive

Speaker: 00:36:56

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:36:57

when you see something, if you don't know the answer, you know the direction.

Speaker: 00:37:04

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:37:04

And you're probably pretty quick and can move forward.

Speaker: 00:37:08

Thanks.

Speaker: 00:37:09

would that be correct?

Speaker: 00:37:09

In other

Speaker: 00:37:10

That would be fair.

Speaker: 00:37:10

I bet you don't sit back and go, you know, I wonder what we

Speaker: 00:37:15

should do with this organization.

Speaker: 00:37:16

let's just,

Speaker: 00:37:17

No, not by design, no.

Speaker: 00:37:20

right.

Speaker: 00:37:21

So then my, my follow up question, and this is, I'm gonna tie it back

Speaker: 00:37:25

to what you talked about earlier.

Speaker: 00:37:26

I'm gonna bring some stuff together here, and this is gonna be extremely

Speaker: 00:37:30

valuable for least one person listening, hopefully a lot more.

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Hmm

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The Lord spoke to me after 2008 when we went through financial collapse,

Speaker: 00:37:40

downfall, bankruptcy, homelessness,

Speaker: 00:37:42

hmm.

Speaker: 00:37:43

He said that he was going to use me in the way he created me, I needed to

Speaker: 00:37:49

pause exact words you used earlier.

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And just make sure that he and I are locked arms on the same page

Speaker: 00:37:58

Get a little bit ahead of things

Speaker: 00:38:00

Oh yeah.

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that I was so decisive and I know the answer and my wife will tell me.

Speaker: 00:38:04

she goes, I don't know that I dislike what you're saying.

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She goes, it's your tone that bothers me.

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You just sound like you know it all.

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And in my mind I'm thinking I do,

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Yeah.

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I got it figured out.

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I. So Tamara, we, I think that's part of the way we are created.

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I think there are people listening in there that way too.

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They're going, gosh, yeah, but why do I keep messing up?

Speaker: 00:38:29

So let's talk about how we pause because the Lord has spoken it to you and

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Yep.

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How, with that skill, with that superpower, how do we not allow

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that superpower to be our kryptonite that is getting us all messed up?

Speaker: 00:38:44

'cause we think we can be real decisive and people follow us

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because we're, look at them, man.

Speaker: 00:38:49

They're just Tamara's, just making decisions left and right.

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Look how good she is at it.

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Yeah.

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How do we do that?

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Yeah.

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the word that's gonna come, up here, Tim, is intentionality.

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If we just go on autopilot, I'm gonna do exactly what you just described,

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and I've done it for most of my life.

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I mean, that's the reality for most of my life.

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I looked at something, reasoned through it, made a decision, and then prayed

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that God would be with me as I execute.

Speaker: 00:39:20

Right?

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that's the reality of how my natural bent is to operate.

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And It is only through enough failure and expensive mistakes that God

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has gotten me to a place of Tam.

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I know that you have these skills and you have these abilities,

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but I need you to pause.

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It is only through those setbacks that I have learned it.

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So now what does that look like?

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For me, it means starting my day.

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with prayer and, often with Bible study and I'm literally studying leaders in

Speaker: 00:39:56

the Bible and how they made decisions.

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Like those are the types of things that I'm doing right now because I'm like,

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I literally am at a space to where I'm having to learn how to reprogram my

Speaker: 00:40:06

brain to operate a different way, right?

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So it's literally prayer bible study.

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how do I make better decisions?

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And I'm using ai, I'm using chat, GPT and all these great

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tools to help me to do that.

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But then the other piece of it is like literally, okay,

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there's a decision to make.

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I needed to create with God's help, a process that I needed to follow

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because I am process oriented.

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And it has helped me because now I see it as well.

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I need to make sure that I move through these phases before I get to a point

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where I say, this is the direction that I am going in as a person.

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Or this is direction that we're going in as an organization and

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that has been a game changer for me.

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It doesn't mean that I've made perfect decisions, but it has helped me to

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make, at least based on where I am in that moment, the best decision

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because I have slowed down enough.

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To go through the steps and the phases of that process.

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So for me, that is what has worked.

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I'm sure that everyone is going to be a little bit different, but because it,

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for me, I see it as, okay, God knows that this is the way that I'm built.

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He knows I'm very process oriented.

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So he gave me something that could work with my brain in that

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capacity of, okay, here's the process that you need to follow.

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And as I have shared it with some other people, they were like,

Speaker: 00:41:27

oh, that makes perfect sense.

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and many times people tell me, Tim, oh, I do that.

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I just didn't have a name for it.

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But now that you've shared it with me, now I can actually do it more consistently.

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Because without a process, without steps, we can do it sometimes, and

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in other times, we can push it aside.

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Especially I will say for me, when I feel like I'm under pressure and I need to

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do something quickly, either because of something internal that's telling me that.

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Or there's external pressures, then that's when I tend to skip things because I feel

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like I've gotta have an answer right now, or I've gotta have an answer tomorrow.

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Right.

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And I've even learned, you know, it's, again, like I shared earlier,

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sometimes it's unpopular, but I will put something on ice in a heartbeat.

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Now I don't have an answer.

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We're going to have to wait.

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And if you need to move on, because I don't have a decision for you

Speaker: 00:42:21

right now, totally understand it.

Speaker: 00:42:24

Not gonna hold it against you.

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But pressure is not, to me, it, it's not an indication that that's

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the direction I need to go in.

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I'm looking for peace.

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And so for me, now, pressure is an automatic mm. That doesn't

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feel right for me because it, it just doesn't feel in alignment.

Speaker: 00:42:41

And so that's what I would say from my experience, that's the only way that

Speaker: 00:42:45

I've been able to undo, and I'm still in the process of undoing that behavior.

Speaker: 00:42:50

Yeah, there's so many things about what you just said.

Speaker: 00:42:53

There's one that really jumped out.

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I'm about to get to that, but definitely intentionality.

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Definitely pause, be quiet, be still.

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I'm very similar.

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If I don't do that first thing, my day can kind of start taking over my

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energy level and things will start going out to all of the other things.

Speaker: 00:43:13

not to over pack.

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I used to myself, and that's the

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me too.

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on multitasking.

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Oh yeah,

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don't think multitasking is.

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I don't think we are supposed to do it.

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no.

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I think that's Babylonian.

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I don't

Speaker: 00:43:26

Hmm.

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kingdom.

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That's good.

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I really want to try to stay in this kingdom.

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I can't find an example of where Jesus got in a hurry and he

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Hmm

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in a rush.

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So if the most important

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hmm.

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That's good.

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mission in the history of Earth didn't get in a rush, why does Tim

Speaker: 00:43:45

think that my little project where

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That's good.

Speaker: 00:43:48

but the thing that jumped out at me about what you said Tamara, was that

Speaker: 00:43:53

you use AI for your Bible study.

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I do.

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been doing that a lot too.

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And you know, there's some Christians listening in

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Oh, they already turned us off.

Speaker: 00:44:02

They say, oh, nevermind.

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Game over.

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that is the mark of the beast.

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And lemme, I wanna say why I am liking it and then I'm gonna

Speaker: 00:44:10

let you say a little bit more

Speaker: 00:44:11

Sure.

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I have recently come to realize for most of the 30 years of my walking, attempting

Speaker: 00:44:21

to walk with the Lord and studying from teachers, preachers, pastors, and

Speaker: 00:44:25

also trying to do my own study, I have been listening to men in my situation

Speaker: 00:44:33

that were not biblically accurate.

Speaker: 00:44:35

Ooh.

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And you know what?

Speaker: 00:44:36

I'm not throwing them under the bus or anything

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Yeah,

Speaker: 00:44:38

I want biblical accuracy.

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And you know what I could get from chat GPTI can have it with a prompt

Speaker: 00:44:45

search, the Aramaic, the Hebrew, the

Speaker: 00:44:47

Hmm.

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the English versions of the Bible.

Speaker: 00:44:50

And I could have it say, I wanna know,

Speaker: 00:44:54

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:44:54

is this biblically accurate?

Speaker: 00:44:57

Is this in the Bible?

Speaker: 00:44:58

And I could remove the personality or the guy standing up on stage

Speaker: 00:45:02

that seems so, like he knows so much stuff and all of that.

Speaker: 00:45:06

I enjoy that immensely.

Speaker: 00:45:10

Oh, yes.

Speaker: 00:45:12

tell me a little bit more about your Bible

Speaker: 00:45:15

really, that's really cool.

Speaker: 00:45:17

I'm gonna take that.

Speaker: 00:45:18

that's a great tip for me.

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I will tell you that as a business owner, I had been using AI since, a little bit

Speaker: 00:45:25

earlier than many people actually started using AI in 2021, and I was using it for

Speaker: 00:45:30

marketing, because I stumbled on a tool.

Speaker: 00:45:33

And I was like, oh my gosh, this puts together a really great copy and it's

Speaker: 00:45:36

saving me hours and hours of time.

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So when chat GPT and all of these other platforms kind of took the center

Speaker: 00:45:43

stage, it wasn't completely foreign to me because I knew the power of it.

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And I can't even remember Tim, what caused me to take this step.

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But I remember, struggling with a decision that I needed to make and

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I was like, man, it would be really great if there was a way that I

Speaker: 00:46:00

could have a Bible study on this.

Speaker: 00:46:02

And so what I had kind of been trained to do, which many people

Speaker: 00:46:05

may have, is to go to Google.

Speaker: 00:46:07

And I started Googling, the topic and looking for articles, and I found some

Speaker: 00:46:11

stuff and I was like, nah, I don't think this is really what I need.

Speaker: 00:46:14

And for some reason, maybe because I had been using chat GPT for so

Speaker: 00:46:18

many other things, I said, well.

Speaker: 00:46:20

Can you help me put together a Bible study on this topic and

Speaker: 00:46:25

give me some different options of biblical leaders that I could study?

Speaker: 00:46:29

And lo and behold, in a matter of seconds it spit out, okay, well

Speaker: 00:46:34

you've got this example, this example, this example, this example.

Speaker: 00:46:37

I was like, wow, I am onto something, right?

Speaker: 00:46:40

So then once I got that, I said, well, hey, can you put together a Bible study?

Speaker: 00:46:44

Give me the scripture references and give me some reflection questions

Speaker: 00:46:48

so that I can really make sure that I'm processing what I am reading.

Speaker: 00:46:53

Again, in a matter of seconds, here's your study on Moses.

Speaker: 00:46:57

Here's your, here's the scripture text.

Speaker: 00:46:59

Then I could go to my bible, my concordance, all of that

Speaker: 00:47:03

and actually do the study.

Speaker: 00:47:04

So I wasn't depending on chat GBT to give me the, the, the details.

Speaker: 00:47:08

Go do my study and then I come back and, and look at these reflection questions.

Speaker: 00:47:12

sometimes I would write my answers more often than not,

Speaker: 00:47:16

maybe 'cause of how I am built.

Speaker: 00:47:17

I would speak my answers into my voice recorder so that I would have them.

Speaker: 00:47:21

sometimes I would even share my reflections with chat GBT.

Speaker: 00:47:24

And then it would give me these amazing insights on, oh my gosh, you know,

Speaker: 00:47:28

here's what you learned from this.

Speaker: 00:47:30

And I'm like.

Speaker: 00:47:30

What This is amazing.

Speaker: 00:47:33

So it it, it's like, it's my own Bible study companion.

Speaker: 00:47:37

And what I tell people is, for me, the blessing of it is no matter

Speaker: 00:47:42

what I am up against, I can leverage it to help me, like through a

Speaker: 00:47:47

biblical lens, navigate that season.

Speaker: 00:47:51

And there's nothing against traditional bible study books and things of that

Speaker: 00:47:55

nature, but many of the ones that I've encountered at least, it, it tends to

Speaker: 00:48:00

kind of lean on the spiritual component.

Speaker: 00:48:03

And it doesn't help me with the practical of, I need to make a decision about, I've

Speaker: 00:48:07

had a blow up with someone on my team.

Speaker: 00:48:10

How do I navigate this?

Speaker: 00:48:11

Gimme an example of somebody in scripture that's had to deal with this.

Speaker: 00:48:14

I need that kind of bible study because that's the life that I'm living.

Speaker: 00:48:19

And for me, it just has been a game changer because now I feel like.

Speaker: 00:48:24

I can find help for anything that I am up against.

Speaker: 00:48:28

Not necessarily counting on it to be a hundred percent accurate all

Speaker: 00:48:32

the time because I know that that's something that comes up a lot.

Speaker: 00:48:35

But it's given me a direction to go in so that I'm not starting from a blank page.

Speaker: 00:48:39

And for me, that's tremendously valuable.

Speaker: 00:48:43

I, boy, I don't, I don't wanna go down this rabbit hole, but this

Speaker: 00:48:46

conversation fascinates me because I've been doing the same thing.

Speaker: 00:48:49

Tamara, I created a prompt.

Speaker: 00:48:52

That allowed me rank biblically accurate teachers and preachers.

Speaker: 00:48:59

Oh wow.

Speaker: 00:49:01

and I started it because I started realizing that some things I'm

Speaker: 00:49:04

studying now, some things that I thought I knew at 61 years old.

Speaker: 00:49:09

It's like, Ooh, that wasn't right.

Speaker: 00:49:11

Where did I learn that?

Speaker: 00:49:12

Oh, I learned it from him or that

Speaker: 00:49:14

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:49:15

And again, try not to throw anybody under the bus.

Speaker: 00:49:17

Right,

Speaker: 00:49:17

but so I wrote the prompt and I said, okay, if I wanted to

Speaker: 00:49:23

gauge biblical accuracy, I'm not looking for denominational,

Speaker: 00:49:26

I'm not looking for systems.

Speaker: 00:49:28

I'm not looking for dogmas.

Speaker: 00:49:30

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:49:30

looking for popularity.

Speaker: 00:49:31

Let's make a list of people.

Speaker: 00:49:34

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:49:34

And then I said, okay, how about such and such?

Speaker: 00:49:37

I put a name in and it basically tiered it for me.

Speaker: 00:49:40

Tier one, tier two, tier

Speaker: 00:49:41

Wow.

Speaker: 00:49:42

I had a lot of false teachers.

Speaker: 00:49:44

Wow.

Speaker: 00:49:45

most of my teaching has come from tier three.

Speaker: 00:49:48

My bible school that I went

Speaker: 00:49:49

Hmm

Speaker: 00:49:49

the guy that runs it, he's tier three down at there.

Speaker: 00:49:52

hmm.

Speaker: 00:49:52

Clean the clean house of some of that stuff.

Speaker: 00:49:54

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:49:55

fascinating.

Speaker: 00:49:57

And I'm doing a lot of stuff now to immerse myself into

Speaker: 00:50:00

that first century culture.

Speaker: 00:50:03

And let me tell you that chat, GPT can help with that too,

Speaker: 00:50:07

Wow.

Speaker: 00:50:08

Josephus, you can study historical accounts, and you can also say

Speaker: 00:50:11

what was going on with Paul when he was writing this letter from COR

Speaker: 00:50:15

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:50:15

And anyway, so I,

Speaker: 00:50:17

Love it.

Speaker: 00:50:17

love that.

Speaker: 00:50:18

Love it.

Speaker: 00:50:19

But want us to pause 'cause we could go down the path there.

Speaker: 00:50:22

I've heard you use the term wealth transfer

Speaker: 00:50:25

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 00:50:26

and I gotta be honest with you, Tamara,

Speaker: 00:50:28

Yep.

Speaker: 00:50:28

know if we're that,

Speaker: 00:50:29

Yep.

Speaker: 00:50:29

well

Speaker: 00:50:30

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:50:30

connected to say, Tam.

Speaker: 00:50:32

Tamara, you've used the word wealth transfer and coming from

Speaker: 00:50:34

a prosperity gospel background,

Speaker: 00:50:37

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:50:37

term I believe has been somewhat misused.

Speaker: 00:50:40

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:50:41

then I've heard you describe it

Speaker: 00:50:42

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:50:43

So tell me more about what you talk about when you're talking about what transfer.

Speaker: 00:50:49

Yeah, so I'll be honest, Tim, and everyone that's listening, it wasn't

Speaker: 00:50:53

something that was on my radar until I personally experienced it.

Speaker: 00:50:57

one of those rollercoaster experiences was my mom being diagnosed with

Speaker: 00:51:02

stage four breast cancer in 2022.

Speaker: 00:51:04

when that happened, I made the decision to leave Charlotte, North Carolina,

Speaker: 00:51:08

move back to Richmond, Virginia and be there to take care of her.

Speaker: 00:51:12

I wanted to make sure that she had, the support to go through chemo.

Speaker: 00:51:16

She wanted to keep working.

Speaker: 00:51:18

Which is crazy to me, but, she did.

Speaker: 00:51:20

so I wanted to support her through that process.

Speaker: 00:51:23

Well, unfortunately things started to decline and then we started to have

Speaker: 00:51:27

conversations about an inheritance.

Speaker: 00:51:29

And Tim, I had never, literally never in my life, ever even bothered to think that

Speaker: 00:51:36

there was anything, because in my mind, I was remembering my experience growing up.

Speaker: 00:51:41

You know, my mom worked a really demanding job.

Speaker: 00:51:44

She worked a lot of hours.

Speaker: 00:51:46

She didn't get paid that well, and she eventually went back to school, started a

Speaker: 00:51:51

new career path, and things turned around.

Speaker: 00:51:53

But in my brain, that meant nothing for me.

Speaker: 00:51:56

But now all of a sudden we were having these conversations about.

Speaker: 00:52:00

Here's what your inheritance is gonna look like.

Speaker: 00:52:02

I was completely blindsided.

Speaker: 00:52:06

And then as I realized and started to do some real research, I realized, oh my

Speaker: 00:52:10

gosh, there are all of these boomers that are out here that, have had similar paths.

Speaker: 00:52:15

Like my mom.

Speaker: 00:52:16

They, you know, things started to come together for them financially.

Speaker: 00:52:19

They were able to save and invest.

Speaker: 00:52:23

And they are now at a point where they're having to make decisions about

Speaker: 00:52:27

what they're going to do with that.

Speaker: 00:52:28

And that's what we call the Great Wealth Transfer.

Speaker: 00:52:31

And for some people, like my mom, it's, Hey, I want to be

Speaker: 00:52:34

a blessing to my children.

Speaker: 00:52:37

For other people, it's, I want to, give at least a portion

Speaker: 00:52:41

of that to a certain charity.

Speaker: 00:52:43

For others, it's going to mean, Hey, this business that I've spent all

Speaker: 00:52:47

these years, growing and nurturing, someone needs to take it over.

Speaker: 00:52:53

Who is that next person gonna be?

Speaker: 00:52:55

Who's my successor?

Speaker: 00:52:56

So when I think about the Great Wealth Transfer, I think about all

Speaker: 00:53:01

of this influence, these investments, this income, these businesses that

Speaker: 00:53:07

are going to be changing hands over the next couple of decades.

Speaker: 00:53:10

And the question is, am I prepared?

Speaker: 00:53:12

Am I prepared to be able to steward this transfer effectively?

Speaker: 00:53:20

Hmm.

Speaker: 00:53:21

And the reason I love that, 'cause it, I, it originally I went, Ooh, well transfer.

Speaker: 00:53:26

'cause it used to be in, in some of the

Speaker: 00:53:28

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:53:28

went to is that old evil

Speaker: 00:53:31

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:53:32

have all that money.

Speaker: 00:53:33

God's going to take it from them and give it to

Speaker: 00:53:35

Yep.

Speaker: 00:53:35

but you're talking about this natural progression and it is huge.

Speaker: 00:53:39

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:53:39

$84 trillion.

Speaker: 00:53:40

so what has that been like for you?

Speaker: 00:53:42

What can you, obviously, you may not wanna give details,

Speaker: 00:53:44

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:53:45

tell me some, things that have been a blessing and some things that may

Speaker: 00:53:49

have been a little bit of a burden

Speaker: 00:53:51

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:53:52

Well, I was quite honestly ill prepared.

Speaker: 00:53:55

when I have conversations with my financial advisor and he takes me

Speaker: 00:53:58

back to once my mother unfortunately transitioned off the sea.

Speaker: 00:54:02

He, like, you were completely paralyzed.

Speaker: 00:54:04

And I, I heard him say it and I was like.

Speaker: 00:54:08

That sounds so bad, but when I reflect it was the truth.

Speaker: 00:54:11

I was like, oh my gosh, I have these resources that I've never had in my life.

Speaker: 00:54:15

I have no idea what I'm supposed to do, how I'm supposed to do it.

Speaker: 00:54:20

And thankfully, I was able to find someone that had a kingdom perspective

Speaker: 00:54:25

on that and was able to help me navigate.

Speaker: 00:54:27

But I was scared to death because I didn't want to, blow this opportunity

Speaker: 00:54:34

that my mom and God had given me.

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I wanted to be a good steward.

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But at the same time, I didn't have any background or experience in it.

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so for me, that kickstarted a journey of, okay, how do I learn how to

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steward these resources effectively?

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How do I make decisions about money?

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Now, when you have an opportunity to give and it's more than a hundred dollars,

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how do you decide whether you're gonna support this cause or this cause?

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it's kind of crazy when I think about it, it's like there's this whole other

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set of questions and this whole other culture that I quite honestly never

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knew existed because I wasn't exposed to anyone that lived that type of life.

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I wasn't really taught like, here's how you do it.

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Like.

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Literally, I was having this conversation months before my

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mother was transitioning off the scene, and it wasn't my main focus.

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My main focus was being there for her.

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So I had to learn and am still learning, and that's one of the reasons why

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I interview people that can help me kind of get my mindset right on this.

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I'm having to learn, okay, how do I need to think about this?

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Because my thinking has to be in alignment before my behavior

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is going to be in alignment.

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Yeah, there's so much there.

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And what's interesting is I earlier talked about how

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you are and you're wired to, and it sounds like you were hit with a situation

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that you were undecisive, you didn't

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I didn't know

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It was like, it took,

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that's true.

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of that away.

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So that, and I think that's healthy for us at times.

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'cause sometimes it's like, this is the Lord saying this is an opportunity.

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People don't understand.

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You try to write a big check.

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And big is relative, by

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Yeah.

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try to write a big check to a few ministries or churches or

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something like that and see what kind of issues that causes.

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Absolutely.

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like a whole different category to get into.

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So anyway, that's really good.

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And I know that that's an audience that you're now serving.

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Yeah.

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me, I've got a couple quick questions as we wrap up here, the first one

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is tell me who all you serve and

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Mm-hmm.

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this is a kind of a promotion time for you.

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Tell us all that you have to serve them.

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We'll include all that we can down in notes, but just give, you know, you've

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got podcast and all of these things.

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So go ahead and tell us that now and then we've got one more

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question I wanna wrap up with.

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Thank you for the opportunity to share.

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So, first what I would say is the way that I service through the Beacon Show Podcast.

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we bring on faith-based leaders in all capacities.

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some serve in ministry, some serve in the marketplace, and we showcase these

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leaders because what I have found is many people want to know the path.

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So how do I get from where I am and this idea that I believe that God has given me

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to really being able to make a difference?

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And that show is really geared towards the next generation of leaders.

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So I think about those that are, 40 and under.

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I celebrated 51 years on the planet this year.

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so it's really for those that are coming up now.

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Have a desire to make a difference and just really want that virtual mentor

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that can walk them through the process.

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The second piece that I'll highlight, is called the Beacon of Excellence Scorecard.

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So this is a scorecard that I have put together as I have been learning

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about how to make good decisions when you're investing in people and causes.

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It's a mix of some things that I learned in my underwriting background

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back in corporate, and conversations that I've had with people that write

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big checks much bigger than mine.

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and so the scorecard is designed to help those that are looking for

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donors and investors understand what people are looking for, because many

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times we're hoping for something, we're believing for something, but we

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don't know how to position ourselves.

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So the Beacon of Excellence Scorecard is designed to answer that question.

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You can take it for free on our website.

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And then the last piece of the puzzle that I serve with Beacon Chip is

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organizations that are helping to train the next generation of leaders.

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So, for example, right now I'm working with, the Charlotte,

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redemptive entrepreneurship lab here in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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We have a group of seven founders that are learning how to put together their

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pitch deck so that they can actually speak to their venture from a kingdom

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perspective and be able to attract the donors and the investors that have

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the ability to sow into their venture.

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So we wanna help them really be able to tell the story, which believe it or

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not, is not always an easy thing to do.

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you know, This is a support that you're looking for, but how do

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I package that in a way that people can get it when sometimes

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I only have five minutes to do so?

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So I'm honored to be able to partner with organizations, that are often

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nonprofit incubators and accelerators to help their founders put all those pieces

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together so they can be equipped to speak to their venture with confidence.

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So those are the three things that I would highlight that, I'm really excited about

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doing in the beacon chip world right now.

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Very good.

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We'll include some links down to the podcast and also to the

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website so people can click there.

Speaker: 00:59:42

Tamara, my final question, this is what I'm gonna call

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my exclamation point question.

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you mentioned that you really minister to people that are under 40

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Mm-hmm.

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that are probably going along the path that you were going along.

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Yeah.

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path that I was going along.

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I'm gonna give you just, and this needs to come with a punch 'cause we're,

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we're going pretty late here, but I'm gonna give you a few seconds, half,

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you know, half a minute, whatever.

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I want you to speak directly to them.

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I want you to either encourage or uplift or correct whatever the

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Holy Spirit's telling you to do.

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I want you to speak directly to them and tell them whatever message you

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believe they need to hear right now.

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So the 40 and unders quick decision makers that are of these things we've talked

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about that are heading down that path.

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Alright, go.

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Well, I'm honored to have this opportunity to speak into your life right now.

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The first thing that I want you to know is that you are not alone.

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There are so many other people that have that burning desire in their

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heart to make a difference that you do.

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And there's a reason that that burning desire is there.

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God has equipped you and called you to make an impact in the world.

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The key is that you have to avoid getting ahead of God.

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So I wanna encourage you to really press in.

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You may know some of the pieces, but there's so much that you do not know.

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I wanna encourage you to spend time with God.

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Don't make assumptions, don't make quick decisions.

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Really seek him about what he's calling you to do All things in his

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timing is my encouragement to you.

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Oh, that is excellent.

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Tamara Jackson, she's a beacon.

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We've enjoyed, shining some light during this conversation and

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it's been really cool for me to talk to someone who's like me.

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Yeah.

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I hate to say looking in a mirror or something like that.

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I almost like a little therapy type thing here.

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I dunno if I'm liking it or not.

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I'm a little bit squirmy here in my seat.

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but, I've enjoyed this.

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everybody go check out all the stuff that Tamara has and connect with her.

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And, and this is an important message, this message of achievers, really,

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really locking arms and trusting.

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And God.

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And so I encourage you to take all of this to heart.

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I appreciate her personal message that she just shared there at the end.

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We're seek got new episodes every Monday.

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We're on YouTube, we're on all the podcast platforms.

Speaker: 01:02:13

Things are rocking along.

Speaker: 01:02:14

I was looking at some of the numbers on YouTube this morning

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and we are growing over there.

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So thank

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Praise God.

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of that and uh, We will see everyone next week on Seek Go Create.