The Lion Within Us - Leadership for Christian Men
Christian men are in a battle for their lives. Satan will do everything possible to destroy them. The Lion Within Us is a community that provides encouragement to become the leaders God intends us to be. Our main focus lies within three categories: Health (Mental/Physical), Wealth (Careers/Finances) and Self (Husbands/Fathers/Brothers in Christ). By sharpening these areas of our lives, we can find the strength needed to stand firm in our faith and unleash the Lion Within.
The Lion Within Us - Leadership for Christian Men
549. Redefining The Dream Job With Mitch Matthews
What happens when life delivers a devastating diagnosis? For Mitch Matthews, creator of the Dream, Think, Do podcast, it became the backdrop for witnessing six undeniable miracles in a single day. Mitch's powerful testimony takes us through the moment his wife received a cancer diagnosis on Christmas Eve to an extraordinary sequence of events that defied medical explanation. From planes departing early to chance encounters with specialists, Mitch reveals how remaining faithful through darkness opened doorways to divine intervention. With remarkable vulnerability, he shares how this experience transformed not just their health situation but their entire perspective on God's involvement in everyday life.
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Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders God intends you to be. I'm your host, chris Granger. Let's jump in. All right, fellas, it is the meat episode time. Let's get into it, okay? So the scripture of the week this week is in the book of Job, not job, job chapter 8, verse 7. It says it says your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be. All right, fellas. So we took some time. We unpacked that verse at length in our spiritual kickoff episode. So go back and listen to it, check it out so you can see how you can simplify and apply that to your life. And as a quick reminder, guys, we do that Monday through Friday within our Lion Within Us community. It's a free offering. Now Head over to thelionwithinus to start your daily spiritual kickoff experience. Guarantee you'll have a lot of fun with it, a lot of chance to engage directly in our platform with me, with others, and just a great way to hopefully grow and be encouraged in your spiritual walk.
Chris Grainger:So for this episode, I'm excited we have Mitch Matthews joining us. He is the creator of the Dream, think, do podcast and he's a very successful coach, speaker and pretty much a serial entrepreneur as well. He helps guys really think through what God has called them to do, and Mitch shares with us today. He's going to share an incredible story of six miracles in his life and how those six miracles for him it was him and his wife. The story was just going to have you on the edge of your seat, but how they remain Just faithful Along every step of the way. And how God would put Just remove the barriers, first and foremost, but how, in the darkest of times when we turn matters and you can turn several places, guys you can turn to a bottle, you can turn to some some pills, you can turn to another woman, you can turn to your work, whatever what there's there's lots of ways to numb your, to numb ourselves. Mitch turned to his faith and that was incredible.
Chris Grainger:So I was encouraged by the story. We talk a lot about business and how to do what God's calling you to do and how you take that next step. If he's called you to do something, what does that leap look like? So I was highly encouraged and hopefully you will be too with this conversation with my friend, mitch Matthews. Well, mitch, welcome to the Lion Within Us. How are you?
Mitch Matthews:doing today. Man, Chris, this is an honor buddy. I love being here, I love what you're doing and I'm excited for our conversation.
Chris Grainger:Oh, for sure, For sure. And I always love just to start, man, tell us something fun about you that maybe not many people know about.
Mitch Matthews:Absolutely so. Well, one thing is uh, just yesterday we put put our oldest son on a bus and he is being deployed to the middle East. Uh, he's in the national guard and uh, so I mean it's fun, um, because we are wildly proud of him and this is a dream that he's had for a number of years. He, he grew up patriotic, probably one of the most patriotic people that I know. I'd love to take credit for that, but it's just a part of God how God wired him. So this is something that he's wanted to do, and so it's a dream that he's walking out.
Mitch Matthews:But, as you know, with kids, you want to support them in their dreams and you trust God as they walk out those dreams. And then, as my wife and I said last last night, is we were crying a little bit too of, hey, you know, supporting kids in their dreams is complicated, right, cause there's a part of you that wants to just keep them safe and home and with boring lives and all that stuff. But uh, he is, he is living his dream and we're we couldn't be more excited. So it's, it's a uh, I don't know how people with that don't walk in faith. Uh, do it personally, cause I you know that that's really one of the big things that's made this possible for me. To have sanity is to say, lord, I know you got them and help them to be the best version of him that that you created him to be, and and God's been answering that prayer his whole life. So we're just excited for this journey.
Chris Grainger:That's so awesome, man so we'll be praying for his safety, for sure. And do you have other kids? Is he the only one?
Mitch Matthews:We do. Ben is our older son and Alex is our younger son, and Alex is a working actor in LA. So yet another son that's walking out a big dream and things are coming together for that. But, as you can imagine, that's also a big, big opportunity to pray, oh yeah, for sure. So, yeah, it's, it's a wild time to be in Hollywood, but uh, he's making it work and it's exciting and God's got him and so, yeah, it's a, it's a beautiful thing. That's awesome, mitch.
Chris Grainger:That's awesome. I'm super excited to have you here. I definitely I'm super excited to have you here. I'm definitely your. Your story, your testimony maybe get some of the guys up to speed of how you your faith journey and your discipleship journey. Just love to let them know, like how you came to into walking and being a disciple.
Mitch Matthews:Yeah, I love it. Uh, yeah, cause my faith. It's, it's truly uh, well, it's who I am and and, uh, you know, don't walk this thing out perfectly, but God is so good and it's such an honor to get to walk with them and and he just is has proven trustworthy. Uh, I grew up in a, a nice church in a small town, um, all of that Um. But I wound up really being introduced to the power of prayer and, uh, getting to kind of uh, find out who the Holy Spirit is, all of that by going to an event for another church in town and the youth pastor noticed me. I was actually there because my brother was in the band of a Christian rock band and I was just in my early teens. And the youth pastor, who was an older guy, walked with a cane, said, hey, who are you? And I told him and told him that you know, explained why I was there, and he said, hey, come to my office at four o'clock on Wednesday. I'm like, why I don't come? I don't come to this church, I don't need to, I don't need to do that. And he's like just just come to my office four o'clock on Wednesday. So I rode my bike up to their church and walked into his office and he was old school man, you'll love this. He had a picture of him with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans on his wall and I'm like I'm in. I don't know who this guy is, but if he's hanging with the Roy Rogers crying out loud and his name was Stan Weerson. And Stan Weerson wound up mentoring me every Wednesday for a year plus and just talked to me about who God is and what it is to pray and got me going to a summer camp where I really learned even more about prayer and just it changed my life and I will admit that in college I wound up going and living in England a couple of times and met my wife, which was divine and God's greatest gift in my life other than my salvation. It's just incredible.
Mitch Matthews:But we kind of walked away from the church, not out of rebellion. We just moved to Montana and every weekend we wound up saying, hey, let's go to the mountains and we said, you know, this is our church, it's just getting closer physically and you know, uh, to God and and going to higher elevations, uh, you know literally all of those things. So we just had about a decade where we didn't go to church. And um, then my wife and I had a cancer scare. My wife, uh, was diagnosed with cancer and we found out on a Christmas Eve, a snowy Christmas Eve, and we were in Billings, montana at the time and fast forward three weeks.
Mitch Matthews:God pulled off six miracles in one day, literally, like you, like there are people that that don't even come from a faith background, that can't even explain how God did what he did in six miracles in one day, and that just really woke both of us up to that God is with us, that God is moving, that God is at work and wants to be in every part of our lives and know that we love him and that he loves us and all of those things.
Mitch Matthews:So that really changed our lives and I stayed in business. I thought about going into ministry, but God really called me to be in ministry in the marketplace. He talked to me about being a missionary in the biggest mission field on the planet, which is the marketplace, and so I went that direction and my wife now runs a huge prayer ministry and an alpha ministry at our church and that's her full-time gig and all those types of things. So God is amazing. God is good, god is miraculous and funny, and um has done some incredible stuff in us, through us and for us, so I'm grateful.
Chris Grainger:Six miracles, I mean, you don't have to go.
Mitch Matthews:Oh no, we can definitely talk about that. I mean, it's wild. I love seeing God heal people and we've gone on trips around the world. Now I really believe in the power of prayer and healing prayer and had 10 days down there praying for people and saw miraculous healings, which it was just incredible. But it really did start for us with.
Mitch Matthews:Mel got diagnosed with cancer. Her doctor called and she was working. She was managing a Pier 1. I don't even think those stores exist anymore, but she was managing a Pier 1 at the time. So I got the phone call on a Christmas Eve and our doctor was called, called us in tears, so I knew it was bad and, uh, she let us know that the the test results had come back and they were, uh, exactly what we thought might be. And and so, uh, I had the dubious um task of going then and telling Mel, uh, cancer and that it was very fast moving cancer and so we had to move quickly. So that afternoon on Christmas Eve I'm calling different cancer centers trying to to get help because she was going to need to have a significant surgery and, through a course of of amazing miracles it probably is a separate miracle, it just didn't happen.
Mitch Matthews:On this one day we got into the best OBGYN oncologist and his name was Gary Johnson, in Salt Lake. He was the best of the best and it was through a miracle that we were able to get an appointment with him. And so the plan was on this particular day, we were going to fly to Salt Lake city and have a pre-op visit and then have the surgery the next day, and we were probably going to be in Salt Lake for a month after that with with what Mel was going to have to go through. But on that particular day what we call our six miracle day we went to the airport. We were in Billings, montana and I fly a lot, I know you probably travel a lot, I've never had this happen but we got to Billings Montana's airport, we get there, you know, you know, an hour or so before the flight and the person at the gate said hey, everybody's here, so we're just going to go ahead and have you guys leave, we're just going to go ahead and leave. And so we wound up like I've never had that happen. Everybody's looking around like what's going on now.
Mitch Matthews:So we actually landed in salt Lake before we were even supposed to take off from Billings, which was miracle number one, which was nuts, right. And then I don't know whether it's just great customer service or a true miracle I'm putting in the miracle category. But we rented a car by enterprise and I always mentioned their name because it was a part of the deal Um, and we literally walked off our plane and we were in our enterprise rental car in like 12 minutes. It was nuts Like how fast this process, like our heads were spinning, like what is even going on. And so Mel and I wound up having a lot more time than we thought. And so I know now was a Holy Spirit nudge. I thought maybe it was just me being organized or me being nervous or whatever.
Mitch Matthews:But this was back in the days where you actually traveled with a lot of your medical records, you know. So we had this big pile and file of stuff and I said, hey, what if we go to the doctor's office, the surgeon's office, and drop this stuff off, cause I knew he was in a labyrinth like a major, huge, uh, medical community and large buildings. So I said let's just go and let's just see if if, uh, you know, we can connect and and drop this stuff off. At least we'll know where the office is for when we go tomorrow. So we go to this office and it's uh, you know, he's a world renowned on oncologist, gynecologist, and so we uh walk into his office and of course it's just busy and just chaos and all this stuff. And I, we walk up and I explain who we are and why we're there and we're just dropping this stuff off and we just wanted to check in. We've got an appointment tomorrow.
Mitch Matthews:And she stopped. She's like wait. She said we just had something happen. Never happened. Somebody canceled an appointment today. You want to see the doctor today, which we didn't know. That was a miracle, but it was a miracle and it was funny because she actually said, well, and tomorrow, then you can just be tourists. Like that was not on our mind, tourism in Salt Lake city was not on our mind that day, right, uh, but she's like well, we, we'll just get you in today. We're like okay, so that we wait just a few minutes. Then they escort us back and and we're literally supposed to have a 10 minute conversation with him and then we're major surgery. Uh, you know, on this is Wednesday and then we're going to have major surgery on Friday.
Mitch Matthews:So it was just supposed to be a 10 minute consult on what to expect getting to meet the doctor for the first time, all this stuff and Mel's exhausted. My wife, uh, melissa, was exhausted and there was only one, one chair, which was a little odd. So there's one chair in the room and there was the exam table. So I said, just sit down on the chair and I'll sit on the exam table. And we've never met this doctor before, but he's an oncologist, gynecologist, right, like I mean. So you know. And he walks in the door and he sees he can't see Mel cause she's hidden behind the door. He sees me on the exam table. He was like, wait, we don't do weenies here, you know, like I just immediately love this guy, right, and we laugh, and it was exactly what we needed.
Mitch Matthews:And so Bell sat on the exam table, I sat on the chair, he sat down in his little stool or whatever and started talking with us. And again, this is the next miracle. We didn't know what was happening, but it was is. All he was supposed to do was just talk with us and then send us on our way. But he stopped and he said you know what? I want to do some tests, which did not make any sense at all because we had every test done known to man. And he's like, oh, I want to do some tests. And so started the test process and all these things, and in and out of the room nurses were in and out of the room, in and out of the room. And finally he sticks his head back in. He said get your clothes on and meet me in my office. And Mel and I look at each other like this is either good or really bad, you know. And so they walk us down to his office.
Mitch Matthews:And he's a short guy I'll never forget Like it was a little bit like he had this massive desk in his office. Like it was a little bit like he had this massive desk in his office and it was a little bit like seeing Kermit on the other side of a big desk and all this stuff. And he walks in and he's like, hey, okay, this is going to sound weird, but my wife had invasive cervical cancer which was moving very fast, all that stuff. So we were there to have a hysterectomy and we didn't have kids at the time. We were in our late twenties, we had just started that process, you know, talking through those kinds of things.
Mitch Matthews:But he walks in, sits down by this big desk and he's like hey, it seems like you kids would like to have kids. And I think that's about the cruelest question on the planet, you know, as far as considering what we're facing and what's what we think is the next step. He said here's the thing is, we've had a miracle. He's like cancer isn't gone, but it's regressed and, uh, it's regressed enough that would allow us to do a procedure. That wasn't an option before. And he said, honestly, to be perfect, you know, like I'm good, I'm a good surgeon, but my partner in my practice pretty much created this procedure. He's the best of the best. He's leaving for a 30 day trip to Russia tomorrow, but I caught him as he was leaving the office. He was just heading out. I caught him and I told him your story and I told him about you kids and we think he could do that procedure.
Mitch Matthews:And since he created this procedure, we have our own surgical suite. He's in there right now prepping the suite and we would like to just do that procedure right now. And he's like if we get it all, then you guys can have kids. If we don't, you guys come back down in a month and have the surgery that we were talking about. So my brain, as you can imagine, chris, my brain was having a hard time processing what was going on, especially because then my wife jumped over that big desk and gave Kermit a huge hug, all this kind of stuff. So we go down and, uh, the procedure they actually allowed me to be in the surgical suite. I had to scrub up and put all the stuff on and I, but I could be there with my wife praying and all that. And uh, I'll never forget, um, what, what what's wild is is that, you know, at the end of that, they're like well, we think we got it, but the surgery was much less invasive than what we were expecting to be there. We were expecting to be there for a month. They're like you guys could go home within a couple of days if you want. And we're like okay, that's amazing. And we found out then, within days, that they had gotten all the cancer and within a month we were pregnant with our older son, ben, which is absolutely amazing. Now, you will love this story and not everybody gets it, but you'll appreciate this. So a few months later.
Mitch Matthews:You know, I we had, we had again. I always appreciated God. I'd been introduced to God through, you know, stan Weerson, my mentor as a kid, all these things, but we had really kind of stepped away from all of that. My mentor as a kid, all these things, but we had really kind of stepped away from all of that. But after this experience you can't deny all those things just lining up in one day. That is crazy, right.
Mitch Matthews:But God had an extra, extra special surprise for me in that later on I'm getting back into the Bible, reading the Bible, and I do this deep dive on the Lord's prayer because I really wanted to understand prayer more at that point. And I'm looking at what Jesus tells us and he says that our Father, our Father, and I look at that and it's like our Father, our Abba, our Daddy. Right, that's an intimate word. I didn't understand. It was such an intimate word but it's not this stoic, distant father, it's like daddy. Daddy, I can just come to you, I can trust you. Daddy, right, we can raise our arms and say, daddy, pick me up, right. That's when I realized, or I recognized the fact that the surgeon that God had gotten us to that world renowned surgeon. His name was Gary Johnson, and that's actually my wife's dad's name.
Chris Grainger:Really.
Mitch Matthews:And in prayer I was just like, wait a second, what? And God's like, I did not want you to miss the daddy did it. So it's just, it's amazing. So I can tell you like, just like Israelites, I can say that we had that amazing, miraculous experience. And there are days where I still forget that God is big and that God saved us and God saves us all the time.
Mitch Matthews:All that stuff, I can be so Israelite. You know, you see the Israelites with Moses and you're like, guys, you know he does these amazing things, and three days later they're worshipite. You know you see the Israelites with Moses and you're like, guys, you know he does these amazing things and three days later they're worshiping, you know, gold cows. It's like, what are you doing? And it's like, oh wait, I do that too. You know it's like people think, oh my gosh, you had this amazing experience, probably always going to have faith and you're always. You know, I'm still tempted to worry. I'm still tempted to have fear, all those things, even though that experience and a lot of other amazing experiences have happened in our lives. I'm still tempted, like everybody else, to forget and run the other way all the time. But God is good and he is patient and he's kind and he is hilarious. Um, and so yeah, that's a little of our story. Wow, wow.
Chris Grainger:Yeah, what an incredible story, guys. I don't even know what to say to that. We're going to take a quick break. We'll come right back and keep digging in with Mitch. I've got something big to share. We're making a major shift because we know the battle is real and it's time more men had access to the support they need.
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Chris Grainger:Every man needs a stronghold, and you don't have to fight alone. If you've been waiting for the right time to jump in this is it? Go to thelionwithinus and join the community and see for yourself what happens when iron truly sharpens iron. So, mitch, I'm telling you, man, goosebumps first of all, as you were, were going through that, I didn't know where it was going to land. But man, so my gracious brother, that is incredible.
Chris Grainger:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely god, god, moved in some incredible ways there, maybe for you, for professionally, you know, yeah, how did he? How has he shown you the path that he wants you to be on, because obviously you work with coaches, entrepreneurs, content creators, I mean, he puts you on that specific path. How do you know that that was the path that he was calling you to?
Mitch Matthews:I love that. So what I appreciate about God is that God is calling me to be all that he created me to be and that that can be a lot of different things in in different seasons, right, and I know, like, for me, uh, I had a season where I was in corporate sales and pharmaceuticals and I excelled in that. I really did. It was. It was funny we actually had to talk to our older son, ben, uh, during that season, because his kindergarten teacher called us. I was selling pharmaceuticals, right, and his, his kindergarten teacher, called us and I was selling pharmaceuticals, right, and his, his kindergarten teacher, called us and said, hey, you need to talk to Ben about how he talks, about what you do. And I said, well, why is that she?
Mitch Matthews:said well, today we had the what do your moms and dads do talk in kindergarten, and Ben said my dad sells drugs out of the trunk of his car, so, uh, so we talked with Ben about what that, what that meant. But yeah, so I had a lot of success with pharmaceuticals and moved up the chain and got promoted into corporate training and helped to run a training department of a $2 billion pharmaceutical company, all those things. But then I got promoted into a bad fit job and hopefully you've never had that. But I got promoted into a bad fit job. It wasn't a bad job. I really want to be clear about that. It was just a bad fit for me and I was kind of mad at God, to be perfectly honest, when that happened, because I had prayed through that. You know this opportunity and it felt like the right opportunity. And when I got in there within days, like probably within hours, I'm like, oh no, this is a bad fit, but I'm wildly grateful for that because God still provided during that time. But it was a real wake up call to say, hey, the season has changed. You're not supposed to live the rest of your days in this industry. I'm calling you to something else, right? And so he still used all of those things to prepare me for that next season. But he used that bad fit job and work through that bad fit job to wake me up to say, hey, season's changing, get ready. And so I started to say, okay, well, what does that look like? And, you know, started to talk with them about what does the next season look like. And he had he had always put, uh, you know, entrepreneurship on my heart. I had kind of forgotten about it. To be honest, like that's what I say is that you know, some, some dreams get beat up and some dreams get buried, right, and that's that I had always wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was a teenager, but that had just kind of gotten buried by comfort and success and other things and all that stuff. So I started to say, hey, maybe it's time for that.
Mitch Matthews:And then I started to look at different options. And one particular night it had been a really hard day and that bad fit job and I came home and my wife and I think I married an encourager like you did, so my wife brought me a magazine and it was a business magazine and there was an article that was profiling this really successful entrepreneur and I started to read it and it really didn't hit. I was like, oh, thank you. But she's like, no, no, not that article. Look at the side article. And there was this sidebar article about this entrepreneur's coach. And she's like that's what you do. The things they're describing that he does, that's what you do. The things they're describing that he does, that's what you do.
Mitch Matthews:And so I started to read this article, or this side article about this coach. I didn't honestly even realize this was a thing right To be a coach, a success coach, an entrepreneur's coach, all that stuff. So I started to read about that and started to dream about that, started to pray about that and started to explore that. And so I went and got some additional training to be a coach and then started to do that on the side and we prayed about. You know, it felt right, it was starting to click.
Mitch Matthews:It wasn't necessarily easy, but it felt right and we thought it was probably going to be about a five-year process to get this thing launched and and to be able to leave my you know day job, all those things. But God, in a short period of time, showed off and, you know, pulled off some miracles, things like that, and we were able to do that. I thought it was going to be five years. We wound up doing it in five months and, um, yeah, god showed off and, as has blessed our business. It hasn't always been easy, but he's always been trustworthy and kind and funny and we've been able to build a business now where I coach and speak and then we also train up coaches and speakers as well. And, yeah, it's just been a powerful, powerful journey, man speak to the.
Chris Grainger:I'm so glad you said it's not easy, cause this is where I lose a lot of guys at, sometimes Cause so many guys, when they feel like maybe they learned this in a church sermon or just bad teaching, they think if you do, if you're doing what God's called you to do, it's like this cupcakes and Cadillacs and rainbows. It's just supposed to be this easy path.
Chris Grainger:But that's not been my experience. Obviously, it was not your experience as well. So just speak to that why? Because he's called you to it. There's still work to do, and there's still hard work to do there.
Mitch Matthews:Yeah, absolutely Well, I love this topic, chris. I'm so glad you brought it up because, especially when it comes to following God in the workplace, like in the marketplace, correct I? I love to dispel this myth that if God's with you, it should be easy, right, because I think that is something that sets so many people up for failure and it also causes so many people to quit too early, and you know it's one of those. I know I can point to story after story in my own life that you know I prayed for easy, to be perfectly honest, chris, like there are days where.
Mitch Matthews:I pray for just a little bit freaking easier.
Chris Grainger:That's right.
Mitch Matthews:But you know, I look back and go, oh my gosh, the number of times that God used or worked through, because I don't believe that God puts adversity into our lives necessarily, but I do believe that he works through those challenges to prepare us Right. And you know like I can point to so many different stories in my life where he's done that. But I also love biblical stories, like I love Joseph, the story of Joseph, like you know. I know that you, a lot of your listeners, are humble, right, and or they want to be. They know they need to be more humble. Joseph was not humble, right? Like he had these dreams. He was probably a little spoiled. Uh, you know, he really talked about these dreams in a way that he shouldn't have with his brothers, ticked his brothers off all that stuff. They sold him into slavery, thought about murdering him on the way there, right, like, sold him into slavery, all that stuff. And and then he gets this job as a slave. He excels, he brings excellence, probably not easy, but he brings excellence. And then he'd get accused of rape and he gets sent to prison. And then he's in the bowels of this prison and he brings excellence and he starts to. You know all these things Right. And what I love about all the high points and the low points of that story is in each one of the low points of this biblical story of Joseph has says and God was with him. You're like he just got sold into slavery and God was with him. You're like he just got sold into slavery and God was with him. He just got accused of rape and sent to prison and God was with him. And I don't know about you, but there are days where I'm like what is up with that? That sure doesn't look like God is with him, right. But then when you read into that story, then a God suddenly happened and everybody probably knows this story.
Mitch Matthews:But you know, when you look at the story, one of the other massive discouragements, or potential discouragements, was that Joseph encouraged a couple of guys and one of them then went on to Pharaoh and as he was leaving the prison, joseph said, hey, remember me, tell the, tell the Pharaoh about me, right, and he was probably. He probably went back to his cell and thought, okay, I'm getting out of here, this is great. And it said years later the guy remembered him, right, like how discouraging could that have been too, but he stayed with it. He kept bringing excellence, all those things. And then a suddenly came. The guy remembered him in God's timing and said Pharaoh, you need to meet this guy. Right, you need to meet this, joseph, I met this cat in prison. You need to meet him. And it said that he was whisked from the jail, basically got a quick shave, got a new set of duds and he was in front of the Pharaoh in hours.
Mitch Matthews:I know some people think it was probably anywhere from an hour to three hours where he was in his prison cell and all of a sudden, in front of Pharaoh, right, god, suddenly and all of a sudden, within probably four hours, he was in second command of the largest country and the most you know, the biggest power in the world. Right, and you look at all that preparation. You could have looked at it one way, going man, god hates me. You could look at it another way and go, oh, wow, god is preparing me. The challenge is, of course, we don't know what's always on the other side. So it's that thing of trusting to say, okay, god, what are you preparing me for? What do I need to do today? What do I need to learn today. Where do I need to go today? And help me trust you in that right. So I love that Again. All those stories are tucked in there in the Bible of going oh wow, all right. Yeah, it's not supposed to be easy, but if God is with us, we can also feel encouraged 100%, 100%.
Mitch Matthews:Guys, we're going to take a quick break.
Chris Grainger:We'll come back and keep digging into this. With Mitch, we're making a big change that I think you're really going to enjoy. I spend a lot of time thinking about our spiritual kickoffs and, honestly, I love doing them each week so much so we started doing them live every Monday through Friday inside our exclusive platform, and here's the best part we decided to give full access, completely free, so now you can join our daily spiritual kickoff space at no cost. Every day, we go live to read the Word, to encourage each other and find simple and powerful ways to apply God's truth to our lives. You'll even have the chance to engage with me directly, and if you missed a live stream, don't worry. The videos are posted the same day so you can catch up whenever it works for you.
Chris Grainger:This is exclusive behind-the-scenes content that is not available anywhere else, and now we've removed every excuse. So if you're ready to get started, head over to thelionwithinus and grab your free access today. Let's grow together. Bitch, I'm curious, for you Talk about not being easy, you know. You said you had a five-year plan that turned to a five-month plan. Yeah, so it sounded like you had some God nods along the way, and I call them God nods, like you're getting some affirmation from him.
Chris Grainger:So would you walk through maybe what a couple of those nods, those affirmations were, what those nods were, because I feel like sometimes guys, guys, were looking for the final picture, where he may just be giving us the next step and just encouraging us to take that next step. So what comes to mind there? What?
Mitch Matthews:I love this. I love this question because it also allows me to speak to. I don't know about you, but I've got a number of weaknesses to Chris you know what I mean Like.
Mitch Matthews:God's given me some gifts, but he's also there. I have some weaknesses and one of my weaknesses is potentially getting offended. Right, getting frustrated and offended by something, and especially on the subject of it, should be easier. Right, I talked about that. I started to investigate coaching. I spent a lot of money on a big coaching program and training and all those things, and I emerged from that a better coach, but I didn't even think about it. There was no business training at all in this coach training program. And I was instantly frustrated and offended, right, like ah, part of me was beating myself up, like why did I choose that program? There's no business training. They're potentially offended, with the organization saying there's no business training, all those things.
Mitch Matthews:And I felt a little frustrated with God, like why'd you lead me to this training? You know it's like there's this huge hole, this gaping hole. Why is that? And one of the things that was beautiful at the time frustrating and beautiful at the time was God's like well, I want to show you a way that's going to work for you. I'm like, oh, okay. And he's like so I didn't want you to get influenced by the things. I want to show you something that's going to work for you. And then I felt the nudge, like kind of that thing of I'll show you and then, if you want, you can show others. I was like, okay, all right, I can do that, you know. And so then we started to do something together where I just, instead of somebody telling me what to do, I just started to do it. And then I got some good mentoring like you, I believe in mentoring and I surrounded myself but with some really wise entrepreneurs who helped to guide me on this. And now we have what we call the six figure sequence that we teach other coaches. But I look at it and go, oh yeah, I had to go through that myself and in God, in some ways it was kind of a divine setup. It was definitely a nudge to be able to say, hey, I want to show you a way, I want to show you a path, and in some ways I needed to do that kind of without influence and those kinds of things. So it made all the difference for me.
Mitch Matthews:And then I see that all the time now that God wants to talk with us as we face adversity, god wants to talk with us about all of it, right, he's not waiting for us to figure it out and then go to him and tell him the results. He's wanting to talk to us about all of it, and I think that's another big part of the process. I know for my wife and I too, you know a big part of it when we were thinking through, you know, when do we quit the day job and and launch into entrepreneurism and all those things Like, when should we do that? And we just started to say, okay, we actually God, put on our heart talk to me about your leap number which at first we were like, what does that even mean? Right, like. But it was amazing because God, god was guiding both of us and, and what's interesting, I think a lot of people and me included, when I first started thinking about prayer, I didn't quite know how it could work and I definitely didn't think that God would ever be specific. You know what I mean. I kind of thought that maybe there would be like lines or you know, like kind of rainbows, butterflies and little ponies type encouragement or kind of the inspirational poster kind of things. But no, god is strategic and God can be specific. He isn't always in prayer, but sometimes he can be very specific. And God laid this, what we now call the, the, the leap number process on our hearts of saying, hey, talk to me.
Mitch Matthews:And basically the whole thing for us was I knew I could not leave my day job, I couldn't replace my day job salary a hundred percent by doing this thing on the side, but I knew that for me it was about getting to consistency. I knew that for me it was about getting to consistency, and so what we did was we figured out that our leap number was a certain percentage of my income for a certain number of months. That became our leap number. So for me, if I could hit 35% of my income three months in a row, I knew that I could then leave my day job months in a row. I knew that I could then leave my day job. And you know, if I was, if I was able to hit that by while doing that on the side, then I would probably be able to replace that income when I was able to work, you know, a hundred percent of my time on our business. And so that became our leap number.
Mitch Matthews:And what was beautiful was then we had that 35 and three on everything. I was on our fridge. That was something we looked at on our mirror in our bedroom, all those things, and that became a prayer target. So what was beautiful about that for us was that you know that. Then we were like, all right, lord, show us how to do it and when you think we're ready, help us to hit it. And that allowed, I mean again, that sounds, I know, for me. When I was first growing up, I would have never thought God would be that specific. And what's beautiful about the leap number I've done a podcast on it since and all of that and we talk about it in our training programs as well.
Mitch Matthews:Like some people, their leap number is more, like, you know, 50% for six months, which is really hard to do, but, like you know, it can change for different people. Some people it's, you know, 10% for two weeks. Whatever, it is right, it's that. But God wants to talk to us about all of it and and what I love about that is that he is a very conversational God, right, and so to be able to say, okay, what? What's my part in that today? What do you want to do today?
Mitch Matthews:And what's funny, too, is is that he's also not afraid to help us learn, and sometimes those lessons are easy, sometimes those lessons are hard.
Mitch Matthews:So I know for us, when we were going after leap number first our first month, I hit it.
Mitch Matthews:I think we were just over 35%. I'm like, oh, we have got this nailed, it's like it's coming Right. And then the next month, goose eggs, nothing. And I was like, ah God, where are you? You know all those things Right, but God knew I had some more things to learn and it and it was just beautiful.
Mitch Matthews:As far as I know, he knows me better than I know me, and so, you know, part of it is he's got to create ways to help me focus and and those types of things. So, as long as I can stay out of that offense that I mentioned earlier and stay out of fear to the best of my ability and and, uh, you know, say Lord, I, I trust you and help me where I don't, um, it's amazing what he's been able to do through our business and and you know, since then we've we've been able to, um, you know, make a big impact and and also then train up thousands of other coaches and speakers and things like that too. So it's just a great honor and a lot of fun and it's definitely not boring, as you will know.
Chris Grainger:Well, maybe the guys there's there's probably lots of guys listening that are W2 guys, you know, and they're considering taking that. What's the if? If you had that one piece of advice, you wish somebody would have told you when you were first starting out. You know what? What would that be? What that encouragement I know you're all about encouragement what would that be to that guy who's listening right now, who's just on the fence?
Mitch Matthews:Yeah, absolutely so. Part of it is it's like what we've been talking about is to talk with God about all of it, and I know that might sound crazy, but it's like, or or maybe too trite or too easy. But talking with God about all of it, and especially for the W2 people, um, like, I don't know about you, chris, but like I saw God move in a lot of different ways. Obviously, I saw God move with our six miracles, those types of things. So it really wasn't hard for me to believe that God could move and pull off miracles in the church, and it wasn't hard for me to believe that he could pull off miracles in hospitals, right. But somewhere somehow in my mind there was this imaginary line that when I went off to my corporate job, god met me at the door and said see you when you get home. Right, exactly Right, I don't go over there like, oh business, I don't go over there, right, like there's no line. There's no line. That line does not exist. God's like with us in all of it, and so that's a big part of it. He wants to talk with us about all of it. And and I also believe that God doesn't just work through entrepreneurs right. I believe that God works through us in every opportunity, every position that we have, I know.
Mitch Matthews:For me, one of the other big impacts of my faith was when I was in that that training position and the $2 billion pharmaceutical job God plunked me down to. One of the other training managers was right next to me and he had a big old Bible on his desk which in the corporate world at that time was a big no-no. But Pete, you know my good friend and somebody that I did a lot of projects with. He was like you know what I'll take, I'll take the heat, I want that Bible right there. And he's like I know I need that Bible right there. And that was one more thing that just helped me to know God's everywhere right, god can move, and all those things. Now I will say that you know, for us, part of it was you know, especially as I started to get that nudge that we're supposed to build our own business, start to do this thing. Part of it for me and you'll appreciate this because I knew your systems guy too was that God put in my heart to start focusing on systems, not savings. And this might sound a little crazy, but I what I you know, especially in working with so many different mentors and talking with people who had done this kind of thing.
Mitch Matthews:There were a lot of people who were thinking about leaving their job and the big recommendation was save up. You know, have six months of savings or have a year of savings and then go quit your job and then go build your business. And through wisdom of mentors, but also through what I was getting, a prayer that felt a little dangerous to me. And what's interesting is a lot of the mentors that I talked with. They, you know, they reinforced that focusing on savings versus systems is dangerous. Because what a lot of people do is they say, all right, I'm going to work my butt off, I'm going to get a year's worth of savings, then I'm going to quit my job and then I'll figure out what I want to do with my life, with my business, all those things. But what winds up happening is they'll say, well, I've worked real hard, I've got a year's worth of savings, so now I'm going to take a month off, I'm just going to give myself a break and then I'm going to start the business process. Right, and then a month goes by and then somebody gets sick and it's like, oh, you know what Mom's sick, I'll go live with mom for a business and they're in a world of hurt, right, whereas I found working on our systems, the business systems systems I know this is what you're doing as well it's like working on the business systems of being able to say, all right, how do I get a business up and running that I can sustain, even doing a part-time, doing it on the side? I'm going to work on those business systems because that if I build that, then when I do leap, when I do step out, right, I'll be stepping into systems that are already working, as opposed to just a savings that I hope will work someday, right. So God, just put it on my heart to to focus on the systems of actually building a business, right.
Mitch Matthews:And and what's beautiful about building a business, when you're building a business on the side, is oftentimes I always say and we, a lot of our, the people that are in our coach training program and speaking training programs uh, they're doing it on the side. And I said, well, that's the best time to start a business and the best way to build a business is when you're forced to not do it 60 hours a week, not do it, you know all the time when you're forced to do that. Then I said you know a lot of our folks. I'll say, hey, if you can do this you know business in 10 hours a week, then maybe don't when when you decide to do it full-time. If you do decide to do it full-time, don't just assume that you've got to do it 50, 60 hours a week.
Mitch Matthews:Right, continue to use these systems, build these systems, but also build a life so that you have the flexibility and ability to go do the things that God's calling you to do in your life as well. So, my, the big thing for us has been focusing on systems, um, and obviously savings is not a bad thing. I, you know, fully, fully recommend and endorse building savings and and wealth. Uh, you know, and honor God with those things. But focus on the systems first, um, and then that savings and wealth can come.
Chris Grainger:Mitch. Great insight, great great encouragement. Thank you so much for that, and as we kind of approach the end of our time here, I'd love to do a lightning round with you, mitch, just to have a bit of fun as we go towards the end. So what's a hobby? Something that you enjoy doing for fun.
Mitch Matthews:I am a big hiker. Also, I have a big dog, I have an Akita and he needs quite a bit of walking, which is great. So it's a built-in workout program. You know, like I might, I might fudge and going to the gym, but when, when hero my dog looks at me, I'm like, oh, I can't fudge, I'm taking this walk. So, uh, that we love, I love hiking, I love explore. We live in Iowa now but we've lived in different places and spaces and love the mountains and things like that. So, yeah, we get a lot of hiking in.
Chris Grainger:That's awesome, awesome. After the hiking and all that exercise, what's your favorite food? What's your go-to?
Mitch Matthews:Oh boy, I do like to eat. That's why I have to exercise.
Chris Grainger:You know what I mean so.
Mitch Matthews:I'm a big fan, so it's fun. I like to create things like our. Our son just got on the bus this week to be deployed, but there were certain things. He wanted to have spaghetti, he wanted to have a stew. We have a family recipe for stew and I love like diving deep on those things and and that, but I also don't mind a burrito the size of a football either. So, uh, those are, those are I don't. I don't. I love. I love making spaghetti, I love making stew, but uh, the burritos I'll leave to the professionals, but I try to get one of those a week. There you go.
Chris Grainger:There you go. That's awesome. What about superpowers? I like asking this one If you, if you had a superpower, which one would you pick and how would you use it? Mitch.
Mitch Matthews:Oh man, come on Cause, yeah, I mean, we got. You got flight, you got strength. Um, I will say uh, lately, and especially with having two boys now, one on the other side of the planet, one on the other side of the country I think flight might be kind of cool, right, like, uh, we were, we were thinking about we have a family cabin out in South Dakota and we had a little extra time as we were getting ready, been ready to get on the bus and all those things, and we had about an extra hour and a half and I was like what if we could just run out to the cabin for just an hour? Right, like we were, we were all talking about like, oh, we can just take one quick trip on the lap of a hike that we love out there. And that was, that was literally a conversation we had yesterday and we're like, well, if we had a plane, if we had a helicopter, those things wouldn't be fast enough. But then flight, yeah, and I'll fly.
Mitch Matthews:That's right, we can we can get it done right. I mean superman chris for reeve changed the like timing on the planet by flying fast enough. So I'd have today, I'd have to go with flight 100%, man, I'm with you on that one.
Chris Grainger:That would be a great one to have. So how about when you look back over the last year, where did you spend too much time? We always try to give guys insights to. Maybe we don't always steward the time well, but anything comes to mind where you think, man, I wasted a lot of time here.
Mitch Matthews:Oh yeah, so I'm. I am a recovering worrier, Um, not a warrior. I said that once in a speech. I was like I'm a recovering worrier and somebody came up and like thank you for your service. I was like, no, no, no, recovering worrier, not warrior. Um, and so I am. I am, uh, better than I was yesterday, but I still have work to do, Um, and I know, you know Jesus talks about fear a lot for a big reason, right, and I think people that are called to do big things often were visionaries.
Mitch Matthews:I know you're, you're a big visionary and that's a gift set, right, Like that's a gift from God to be a visionary. The challenge with that gift set oftentimes is that because we can see big, right, we also tend to see all the things that could go wrong, Right, and so I know for me, like I'm, I'm working on it, I am getting better, I'm diving into different ways to go deeper in the word and to be in relationship and and to pray and all those things, but I still, you know, if I look at the last year, I still spend more time, at least being tempted to worry and be in fear, uh, than I want to, and I love that that story, One of the stories that I'm just uh fixated with and just love is there's a story in Mark nine and I love, I love the Bible. Bible's so freaking cool, Right, but I know about, like, if I, if I was in charge of writing the Bible, the Bible would probably be about 25% of what it actually is, Cause I'd I'd probably be tempted to remove all the stories that make humans look bad. But I love how God's like yep, you guys are a mess and I love working with you. So I got to you know, so he keeps the stories in there.
Mitch Matthews:But one of my favorite stories is the dad who brings his kid to Jesus and this the kid probably had epilepsy because it said he was having seizures and to the point of getting thrown into fires. And, uh, you know, I and I just can't even imagine, can you I mean, you've got your beautiful daughters Like I can't imagine being at a time where you, you know, like, like you, you don't have any options, Like there's no doctors that can, all the doctors are shaking their heads saying, nope, can't do anything for you, Right? And this dad brings his kid to Jesus and says can you help him? Will you help him. Could you, can you heal him? And Jesus says do you believe I can? And the dad gives the best response, One of the best response the Bible.
Mitch Matthews:Like I believe and help me with my unbelief. And I love that Jesus didn't do a qualifier going wait, are you at 1%, Are you at 90%? He just said I can work with that and he healed the kid and I just I love that God is not waiting for us to be perfect, Right? He's just saying, hey, I believe. Yeah, that's awesome, I'll meet you in that unbelief. You bet I'll meet you in that. Let's go, let's talk about all of it, Right? So that's, if you ask me, that's something I'm I'm working on and getting again getting better every day, but still not where I want to be.
Chris Grainger:Yet I love that answer, man. Last one for you here in the lightning round is what do you hope the guys remember the most from our conversation today?
Mitch Matthews:Yeah, that, that my prayer, is that each one of us and I know this is a big vision for you as well that each one of us can be more of who God created us to be. I was thinking about comparison this morning, and comparison it's interesting. Comparison is one of those things of you know our, our brains are designed, they, they? There there's evolutionary psychology. I don't believe in evolution as far as across species, but I do believe, believe a little bit in evolutionary psychology, which is just how our brains have adapted over time. And they say that within evolutionary psychology, they talk about upward and downward comparison and that that in some ways it's good, like that back in the time where we would get kicked out of villages for making bad decisions.
Mitch Matthews:And getting kicked out of villages may meant you were going to be eaten by a tiger or a lion that night. You know, like having some upward, downward comparison going am I being a good member of this community? Am I bringing value? Am you know how am I doing compared to the rest of the village? Some of that is good, but comparison is deadly when it comes to and I think the enemy has just had a heyday with social media and comparison, obviously, and part of it is, like you know, we think we are running races with everybody that we look at and God's like now, I want you to be.
Mitch Matthews:All that I was, I created you to be, and that's that's what I want to encourage every listener to hear today is that we want them I know you do too Like we want them to be all God created them to be.
Mitch Matthews:Their skill sets, their gifts, their superpowers, all those things, and and that's my prayer for our boys every night is Lord, help them to be all that you created them to be. That's my prayer for my wife help her to be all that you created her to be, which means I also need to let go of some of the control of what I think they need to be Right and to say all right, god, what do you want them to be? And so that would be. My heart would be that they would have that kind of conversation with God, because there's core elements that never change about who God's created us to be, and then there are some elements that are seasonal, and sometimes he's going to call us to one thing in a season of what we might do with our hands and the work that we do under our career or our career track or whatever, and then those things. So those seasonal elements might shift over time. So but that just makes for a good conversation with God too.
Chris Grainger:This has been great. Where do you want to send the guys that connect with you, the wonderful things that you're doing?
Mitch Matthews:Yeah, absolutely so. If they just want to go find out more and go to MitchMatthewscom two Ts in the last name. So MitchMatthewscom is a good place to start if they're entrepreneurial or they're in business or, specifically, if they're wanting to be a coach or a speaker, a content creator, all of those. We did create a free resource of 11 prayers that I lean on for growing our business and our impact, and you can download that as a free tool at mitchmatthewscom backslash 11 prayers, something that people really been encouraged by and it's something that my hope is your people would enjoy it as well.
Chris Grainger:Awesome, mitch. Well, thank you so much for that. So guys go check those links out. Mitch, thank you so much for coming on today. It's just been an honor. Love your story, your testimony and the impact that you're making.
Mitch Matthews:Thank you, chris. I appreciate it, love what you're doing, man.
Chris Grainger:It's a true honor. Have a great day you too. Most men are fighting battles. No one sees Strain marriages, silent wounds, pressure to lead without a place to rest. That's why we created our community To help build, strength, sharpen and support brothers just like you. And now it's even easier to join than ever. We've lowered access to just $15.99 a month. Immediately, you'll get our daily spiritual kickoffs, our Bible studies, lion Lunches, friday Forge and so much more. Every man needs a stronghold and you don't have to fight alone. Join today at thelionwithinus that's thelionwithinus and get started today.
Chris Grainger:All right, fellas, I told you that was going to be a good one. So thankful for Mitch Again, go check out his link. All the resources he talked about there, fellas, particularly those 11 prayers. And the question of the week, though, that I really want you to think about is how might impatience be limiting your personal trust in God? This has been a big one for me in my life. I'm a very impatient person. Just ask my wife. Drives her crazy, drives me crazy, to be 100% honest with you, but I'm telling you that's a big deal because God's timing is perfect. He's just rarely early, and we have to remember that along the way. So, fellas, if you enjoyed this episode, if you find that there's parts of what we talked about, mitch and I, that you think would encourage others, please share it out, reach down, give us a rating and review. That would be helpful as well.
Chris Grainger:But primarily, my ask for you, head over to the lionwithinus that's the don't forget the T-H-E lionwithinus to check out all our resources. We have tons of free resources for you as well. We have our weekly roar, we have our Christian leader assessment, all our Bible studies on the YouVersion Bible app. Guys, all that stuff is at your fingertips, ready to serve, ready to equip. And for you, guys who are ready to go a step further, which I hope, you are, head over to thelinewithinus and start your daily spiritual kickoff, or start your community, or put in an application to see if the leadership mastermind is right for you. So all that is found at thelinewithinus. All right, guys, have a great day, get active, come back on Friday. We'll have a fun Friday episode for you, good Lord willing, and hopefully you get us some encouragement and some, maybe even a few laughs from that. All right, so have a great day, get after it and keep unleashing the lion within.
