Proverbs 22, . Verse 29 says Do you see a man skillful in his work ? He will stand before kings . He will not stand before obscure men . Fellow Marketplace Christians , stop apologizing and start winning . Welcome to the Success Edge , the show that helps you take your walk as a Marketplace Christian to the next level . Here's your host Christian entrepreneur Tyler McHart .
Speaker 2What's going on ? Team Successful . This is Tyler McHart coming at you , episode 404 . Woo , I'm on a walk . I've been kind of walking , kind of brisk here , so I had to be able to do this episode . I feel like I'm finally going to get this episode out . And man , what a day , what a day . Actually , today is election day . So , in light of all the events going on , which I know that the world is turning their eyes , the entire world is probably turning their eyes and saying what's going to happen in America today . So let's pray , let's pause .
Speaker 2Father , jesus , holy Spirit , we acknowledge you today . We acknowledge you today . We acknowledge you today . We worship you , lord , we worship you , we worship you , lord , we honor you , lord . Thank you , father , thank you Lord . Thank you father . Thank you , lord , thank you , lord .
Speaker 2We roll all of our cares , all of our anxieties , all of uh , the things that would be pulling at our attention , pulling at our minds right now . We roll all that onto you . We roll it all onto you , lord . Thank you jesus . Thank you jesus , thank you Jesus . Thank you Jesus . Thank you that we can cast our cares on you , and thank you for you caring for us . You care for us . Yes , lord . Yes , I'll say that , father . Thank you , lord . We are worth . Thank you , lord . We are worth the death of your son . Thank you for thinking of us , lord . Thank you for loving us . We are worth the death of your son . Lord , we release right now all the major outcomes in our lives , and even beyond our lives , from this election . We release all the outcomes . We release it to you In Jesus' name .
Speaker 2Amen , all right , well , so I'm on a walk , guys , so there might be a little bit of birds chirping in the air and I might breathe a little heavy sometimes or I might pass by somebody . But it's kind of like how I like to do this podcast . It's just either we're in the car riding along or we're sitting across from each other for a cup of coffee , we're on a walk together and you're just able just to listen . Maybe one day I might actually do a video podcast , still put the audio on here , but actually put it on YouTube as well . I haven't quite figured that out yet , but I appreciate you guys being on here . I really do , I really do . Good morning , sir .
Speaker 2So let's jump back into the story called the Journey to Financial Freedom . So , if you remember , tyler had just figured out . That was me Tyler had just figured out , golly , what is a pastor . Because growing up from the age of nine , all the way until really that moment , still I've been told or I've been spoken over . I mean , I didn't think it was having a prophetic word over me , but I had thought , I had kind of thought in my head that I was going to be a preacher and my mom and dad thought that my grandparents thought that , but the Lord had a different , and my mom and dad thought that my grandparents thought that , but the Lord had a different way of thinking with me , that a preacher in the marketplace is really what I need to be , not someone who stands behind a pulpit in a church , someone that's actually in the marketplace , doing business , doing things and then able to still kind of peel back and share with an audience what the Lord is doing . So let's dive back into that story real quick .
Where I was at so that's my freshman year . I think that was the first semester of my freshman year . So I declared myself as a management major and well , business , but the emphasis in management , morning , sir . And it was a good start . It was a great beginning . I wound up that second semester in track and field , actually fracturing my right arm doing the hurdles at Wake Forest . I was at the Cath Lawn and I tripped over the hurdles and man , that was not a fun experience right there . So here I was , just okay , that season had went nowhere and I was stuck , stuck without a Sorry guys , if there's a little bit of wind . Anyway , I had quickly realized that my season was over and wasn't going to get a medical redshirt at all and it was just , it was done . Well , that summer I came back home to Georgia and was working , decided to go work for my cousin who did landscaping installations .
Speaker 2So , basically , you know , if a brand new home or brand new building or somebody wanted to revamp their whole entire yard , he would come in and put new sod down , plant new shrubbery , bushes , trees , flowers , just do a whole new landscape of the yard . That's what I was doing . Well , one key event , two key events happened over that summer that led to some major decisions down the road , and this is why this is why , guys , it's so important . You know , even at that young age , I was just trying to do my best to follow the Holy Spirit , to listen to Him , be in His Word .
Speaker 2I wasn't probably as consistent as I am now , but I was trying . I was having good people around me still , and it was just a good thing . So right around the middle of summer I think it was right around the July 4th weekend we had a huge event at the church I was attending back home , the church I was attending back home , so it was First Baptist Church , and I remember they had an altar call to pray for the nation . And I went down and as I was praying , I sensed the Holy Spirit say take the money that you have right now and set it aside for a mission trip that I want you to go on next summer .
Speaker 2I was like oh okay , wasn't really anticipating this , but the Lord knows best , so that's for sure . So I decided to sock away , or just put away , all that money that I was making . And , granted , I was living at home , I was not having to pay for my own meals , I didn't have to pay for a you know the gas bill or the to pay for a you know the gas bill or the electric bill or the water bill . Man , just I was making money . Man , socking it away , I mean , that's the one thing that I know . That for me , I feel like that , as I look back on my life so far I'm 46 right now look back , as I look back on my life so far I'm 46 right now Look back . Money's always come easy . Maybe that's just a belief that I've had , but it's just always come easy . There's not been a time where I haven't said you know , man , there's no way in the world I'm going to be able to make any kind of income . There's been times where I don't have a lot of income , but for the most part I've always been able to say you know , I can go and create income anytime . Well , so that kind of marked me .
Speaker 2And then , moving forward as I got into this whole entire , you know , working in landscaping . There was a job that we were doing . It was kind of towards the end of the summer and I remember I had to plant about I don't know . It seemed like a lot . It was 30 or 40 monkey grass that I had to plant in this island bed that we were creating as home . Well , it was hot , it was blazing in the state of Georgia . It was hot , it was blazing in the state of Georgia . And I remember I had my post hole diggers just planting away . And I remember the thought going through my mind , just like it was yesterday , the thought going through my mind saying I don't want to do this kind of work for the rest of my life . I never thought that before . Up to that point , the way I'd traditionally made money or created money was , you know , I would wash cars , cut grass , go do something with my hands , and that's pretty much how I learned to make money .
Speaker 2Well , that decision really kind of marked me , because in the next semester , when I got back into school , my sophomore year , I quickly I had to take a marketing class . It's called relationship marketing . And that class right there , guys , it forever changed me . It opened my eyes up to this world of marketing and sales that I had never seen before , that I never knew , and I was hook line sinker . I mean I got so excited about business , so excited about what I was learning in that class . I mean , quite honestly , the professor , I remember him . He was kind of dry , but the material , the stuff that he was covering , I was totally into it . No one had ever told me about marketing , no one told me anything about business , and I grew up in a business home .
Speaker 2So here I am , sophomore year , and then just kind of the other kind of piece of all this is track and field is really kind of kicking up and something had changed with track , where that I actually had a throwing coach , which was new . I never had a throwing coach , which was new . I never had a throwing coach , I had a couple . I mean , during my career I had throwing coaches , but you know , I would either have to seek them out during high school and they would either be coaching for another team but they would be willing to kind of help me out . But I never had a coach that said , hey , tyler , I'm your throwing coach . Never had had that before . It was that specialized . Well , he was a what they call a lay coach or a community coach . He didn't actually work for the school at Coastal . But he had another young lady , her name was Liz , and she was a hammer thrower for Great Britain . She had thrown in the Commonwealth Games and was like third or fourth on the rankings in Great Britain .
Speaker 2Well , I was still doing the decathlon and the process of me still doing the decathlon , I knew I needed to throw , I needed some training . So after I got done with all my running workouts , what I would do and any kind of jumping that I needed to do , I'd go over to where the throwers were at and get some training . Well , I'd throw the shot put , I'd throw the discus , but they would always have me throw the hammer and the way they did it was they said , hey , it'll be good cross training for you , tyler , help you have a good , strong core , help you with the footwork , but it'll just be good cross training . That's how they hooked me and I was like , okay , it'll just be good cross training . That's how they hooked me and I was like , okay . So I started throwing the hammer in that August , september time frame .
Speaker 2Well , by the November time frame , I was throwing the hammer . I think we went to a little kind of meet . It wasn't even a meet , it was just like we went and just kind of met up with another squad at Francis Merriam University and we just had a little competition , a little throw-off , and one of the things was throwing the hammer and , man , I was jacked . It was exciting . I threw at that time I threw 45 meters . Okay , I mean that's like 150 feet , and I'd only been doing this thing for like the last , you know , three months or less .
Speaker 2Well , I don't know . Flash forward some more . I quickly have to make a decision because track and field season is getting ready to start and I'm just excelling . I mean I am doing , I'm throwing further in this event called the hammer and I'm getting stronger because I'm working out with the throwers and I'm just I'm becoming this , this muscle , like . I mean I was like 190 pounds and I was still running a 400 at like 51 seconds , but I was lifting a lot of weight . Well , again , me and Holy Spirit started having a conversation because people were , you know , some throne coach was saying hey , tyler , you know you should really think about focusing on the hammer . I think you've really got a knack for it . So I began to bathe all this in prayer and a week before the season started I went to my sprint coach my head coach had a conversation with them .
Speaker 2They were all in favor of it and I jumped ship from the decathlon . Now , back in Georgia , my decathlon coach was not happy with that , even though he hadn't been coaching me for a little while about two years . But here I was , you know , doing my thing , but again being led of the Holy Spirit . Guys , this is part of freedom , when your decisions are not your own . I mean , this is a side tangent , like right now I'm working . I'm talking with Tyler Jr about a decision he's going to have to make Good morning About football and whether or not he should , you know , finish the season out playing games . Or he should finish the season out playing games or he should not . So I've just been coaching Tyler Jr on . There's a lot of people telling him or decisions he needs to make . As far as being able to come back and play , possibly or not . Possibly because they're in the playoffs . He hasn't been playing for the last four weeks due to an ankle injury . He's kind of been cleared , but not 100% . There's a little bit of confusion with all that I've just said . Tyler , you need to talk to the Lord about it and seek him . So he told me this morning that he asked the Lord to give him direction . And it's that simple . That is how this works , just asking for direction .
So anyway , back in the story . So I start off . I , I , I drop that decathlon , I get start throwing full-time . My body like literally changes because I stop running and I think I put on like 15 pounds of muscle . Man , I go from like 190 to 205 in that time period . I mean , it's just like I went . Well , I get to throw at the uh , big South Championships , wound up doing well , well enough to be a conference champion and I , as a conference champion , will also become a conference champion . In the shot put , I think I might have placed fourth in the discus . Anyway , it was a , it was a good , good time . And all these decisions I mean also just decisions that I had made before that of that I was going to keep myself pure , I wasn't going to have sex before marriage and I wasn't going to drink , go to a party , do drugs , anything like that . So all these decisions that I've been making for the Lord and for what he was doing , you know I was seeing the fruit of all that and seeing the goodness of God with it .
Speaker 2Well , I got to my summer between my sophomore and junior year and if you remember that thing I said the Holy Spirit led me to do was to go on a mission trip Well over the year I can't even remember when it was , it was probably right around December timeframe but I'd felt led . Or I was going by this bulletin board filled with all these posters and all these flyers on there and I saw this one flyer for this group called Christian Outreach International , where they go and do sports , namely track and field , over in Europe , and I was like , dude , this is money and I could also do drama and speak . I was like , sign me up for this . And I got hooked in with Christian Outreach International COI . That summer Went to France , had an amazing experience in France , went to France , had an amazing experience in France and then went to England . When we went to England we met up with another team in England . Good morning , good morning , and that England meetup with that other group that had just flown in from the States .
Speaker 2Little did I know I was going to meet Amy J Ellis , who would later become my wife . How about that ? With God , him ordering my steps , because Amy lived all the way in Indiana went to this really small Mennonite college . She wasn't Mennonite but she just went to the school because it was near her home , like 10 minutes away from her home , and here she was doing her thing , coming over there . Well , god knew what he was doing , god knew what needed to happen . So I meet her .
Speaker 2But at that time in my life I was still focused on track and it was like I kind of , you know , because I liked Amy , I liked Amy , I was like that's just a summer thing , you know , fling , that's all it is . It's nothing serious , nothing they need to focus in on . So I kind of like , hey , peace out after the summer . Well , we stayed in contact . I continued doing my stuff , coastal .
Speaker 2And I do remember my junior year and I remember that one semester , first semester , I remember I think I had a management class or a . It was probably a management class that I had and it was actually with my advisor , and I remember we had just transitioned into like getting the business school accredited and it was a big deal and we had some questions for our professor because he was involved with it all . I remember asking this question to him . I said Professor Wathen , you know , do you feel like college is preparing us to be employees or employers ? And I remember the whole entire class got real quiet . I'll never forget how Professor Waltham kind of looked down at the ground , kind of rubbed his face .
Speaker 2He had this big mustache and these glasses on and I'll never forget his answer , this big mustache and these glasses on , and I don't forget his answer . He said well , tyler , I feel like it's really a choice of which path you decide to go through , of either becoming an entrepreneur or someone that's self-employed or someone that's an employee . And again , that marked me . I remember to this day that at that time I felt like , okay , from here on out I want to own my own business , I want to be my own boss .
Speaker 2Well , flash forward to second semester of my junior year . My track season wasn't going as well as what I had hoped . I wasn't seeing the gains and the distances that I had wanted to see . I think I only PR'd , but maybe 15 feet , which was not what I was anticipating . I didn't get to go to the pin relays . Actually , I did go to the pin relays . Actually , I did go to the pin relays that junior year , but wound up doing horrible at it . It just was not the ideal situation .
And then , on top of that , you know , I'd always just kind of , as something that I , you know so much , struggle with , I struggle with females . Now , granted , I already said I was pure . I've not had sex before I got married , praise God . But you know , I still wasn't making good decisions with girls and I don't feel like I need to get into all the details about that , but where I might have been too physical with a girl and or maybe let a girl on it , just I made some really poor decisions during that semester , and so poor that I remember this one young lady coming up to me at church and really kind of just calling me out I mean I was , I remember standing in the church lobby , her chewing me out and me just standing there taking it Because I knew I was wrong , I knew what I had done .
Speaker 2I , you know , led a girl the wrong way . I mean , I said , oh yeah , I'm this Christian guy and you know . But you know , it's just , it's just stupid and I felt so bad about it . It's kind of the first time I'd ever done this In my little Christian walk . At the time I hopped up . I hopped up in the middle of the church service and I went home and I remember I might have cried my eyes out at the superstition I'd made , but I really messed up From a shame and just feeling bad about what I'd done and where I was at . Well , short story before I transition because now God was still involved , god was still working , god was still operating in my life , and right before the summer hit , a gentleman came into my life and he became a mentor that I had for at least a whole entire year year and a half .
Speaker 2It led to some great things . So that mentor of mine came to my life and whenever I was at the lowest point of my life and I'm forever grateful for that . Forever grateful Because that changed everything and I'll start the next episode right there . So I'll start the episode right there , because that mentor changed everything for me , totally changed everything , and I'll start with that story right there . And what the power of a mentor did in my life . So , kingdom success , know that you're blessed , you're highly favored , you're empowered to prosper , you walk in divine health . The spirit of breakthrough is on you , guys and gang , we'll catch you on the other side .