Yahweh’s Money®️: The Crossroads of Religion & Money

Holy Hustle: Balancing Ambition, Obedience & Financial Faith with Dewan Clayborn

• Crusaders for Change, LLC • Season 4 • Episode 83

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In this episode, we get real about what happens when ambition is led by purpose—not pressure—and how trusting God with your finances, goals, and career can lead to outcomes that defy logic. 

From tithing through pay cuts to setting boundaries in grind culture, Dewan Clayborn, President & CEO of the Central Maryland Chamber, shares his testimony of what happens when you follow God’s call—even when it doesn’t make sense on paper.

If you’ve ever wrestled with the tension between ambition and obedience, or wondered whether your goals are rooted in faith or ego, this episode is your reminder that God doesn’t just tolerate your ambition—He designed it.

Here’s what you’ll walk away with:

  • How to tell the difference between godly ambition and worldly hustle.
  • Real talk on tithing, trusting God with money, and spiritual stewardship.
  • Why obedience sometimes looks like a pay cut—but leads to overflow.
  • The spiritual significance of speaking in tongues, prayer as a couple, and building legacy.
  • How to align business, career, and personal goals with your faith.

Featured Scripture:

Action Step:

Spend 10 minutes this week in quiet prayer. Ask: Are my goals led by God—or by pressure? Choose one goal to revise with faith, purpose, and alignment in mind.

Final Word:

Ambition isn’t the enemy of faith—disobedience is. When you surrender your hustle to God, He’ll take what took years and restore it in one season. Your grind doesn’t have to be exhausting. It can be anointed.

Connect with Dewan here:

LinkedIn: Dewan Clayborn, IOM | LinkedIn

The Next Generation of Nonprofit Leadership by Dewan Clayborn

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Our podcast is proudly sponsored by Crusaders for Change, LLC (C4C) and hosted by our CEO and Founder, Mrs. Shay Cook. At C4C, we provide customized corporate financial wellness programs for businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Our services are tailored to create happier, healthier, and more productive work environments. We also empower individuals and couples to overcome debt, improve their credit, boost savings, and more. Ready to learn more about how C4C can impact your life? Contact us today at https://www.crusaders4change.org/!

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Music by: Lamonte Silver - Owner of essentialmusicclub.com | Previously by ROA - roa-music.com

Dewan Clayborn:

My hustling is more so about going to organizations that are broken and fixing it, and so it's easy to go to an organization that's working right. Everybody would just wants to hey, yeah, hire me for that, but God has a calling for me to go to these structures that are broken and then refix them. To go to these structures that are broken and then refix them, you have to have numerous of conversations, difficult conversations, I mean. You get targets on your back, people that don't like you. You get a lot of people that love you, though when you turn around, my hustle is different, because it's like to me this is hustling. I say that like I don't even know how I would act if I walked into an organization that was perfect.

Shay Cook:

Ever felt those awkward vibes when religion and money come up? You're not alone. Welcome to Yahweh's Money, the podcast where we tackle the crossroads of faith and finance. I'm Shay Cook, an accredited financial counselor and the CEO and founder of Crusaders for Change LLC. Join us on our journey as we discuss topics like tithing, saving and conquering debt through religious perspectives. Let's get started.

Shay Cook:

Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Yahweh's Money. I'm so happy to be here today. God is so amazing.

Shay Cook:

In today's world, ambition often gets a bad rap and face circles. But is it wrong to want more? Can we chase goals, build wealth and grow careers while still honoring God? Let's talk about the holy hustle. So the main scripture for today's episode is Colossians 3, 23 to 24. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance of your reward, you are serving the Lord Christ. So this scripture reminds us that our ambition and hustle aren't for status or applause, but should be rooted in service to God. It reframes success as worship when done with the right heart. So I am so proud to have here today our Central Maryland Chamber President and CEO, Dewan Clayborn. He is like a brother from another mother. I had the privilege of being a part of his national search and bring him on to this amazing chamber. Welcome, Dewan Clayborn. How are you doing?

Dewan Clayborn:

I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me Excited to be here and looking forward to jumping into things.

Shay Cook:

I know We've had so many amazing conversations over a year now, over a year that we've known each other.

Shay Cook:

It's crazy. Time goes by fast, man y'all. I came into Central Maryland Chamber as a chair of the board back in January of 24, three weeks later the CEO and president told me she's leaving, and now I got to be a part of the search and the management and all that. But it turned out to be God's calling, because he knew he was bringing this brother to our chamber. To take it to another level, I'm telling you, if you ain't part of Central Maryland Chamber, you need to join today.

Shay Cook:

It is an amazing chamber and I love it and I tell everybody about it. So I'm just happy for you to be here. Tell us more about you.

Dewan Clayborn:

Before I do start yes, thank you. You know you've been a big sister I've never had. In true leadership, it takes a leader that also knows how to follow, and one thing that you did that was really a spark for me is that after the search, after the transition, after I started, you said, hey, dejuan, I'm going to just focus on keeping people out of your way so you can do your job, and to a lot of leaders that doesn't happen. So thank you for being that backbone, that muscle and everything. And so, yes, dejuan Claiborne, I'm from Little Rock, Arkansas, just recently got married to my beautiful wife, brittany Claiborne. We relocated here to Maryland and so we are super excited to be here I have other family members here in the DMV and so excited to talk about all things, about Holy Hustle and how we are truly here because we're called to conquer.

Shay Cook:

Amen, amen, yeah, shout out to Brittany. She's a lovely, amazing black woman. And you said Merlin, ok, he's been part of us now.

Dewan Clayborn:

He said, merlin, I love it, that's what it is.

Shay Cook:

All right, now let's get into our rapid fire questions.

Dewan Clayborn:

Take your seat, let the wisdom inherit. Let's hit the rapid fire. Questions Say what's on your spirit. Take your seat, let the wisdom inherit.

Shay Cook:

Let's hit the rapid fire questions Say what's on your spirit. So we got three quick questions off the dome. Don't think about it too much. Our first question is what does holy hustle mean to you?

Dewan Clayborn:

Holy hustle means to me is honestly like allowing your light to shine, and so when I said that, I opened up and said we are called to conquer, and what I mean by that is God puts us in areas to go and take territory. So for me, he planted me in Central Maryland to take territory, to be a light in this dark world, to allow my light to shine to wherever I go. People interact with me and know something's different, and that allows me the opportunity to bring the holy peace in which is tell them about Christ. Romans 10, 9 and 10, because they've been watching my hustle.

Shay Cook:

Oh, I love that. Yes, ditto, ditto, ditto. You know I'm out here holy, hustling every day, spreading the gospel through what I do. I just thank God that it as a passion, crusaders for change and personal finance, but bringing people through the Lord, through Yahweh's money and just through me as a person, them feeling my spirit and my soul. That is intertwined with God that is speaking there. So I love that. That's the same thing you're saying as a light. That's amazing. All right, so can ambition and contentment coexist.

Dewan Clayborn:

Can ambition and contentment coexist? I don't know about that one. I mean, it makes me think about my talk about the growth mindset and the fixed mindset. Contentment to me kind of sounds like a fixed mindset. Ambition is like the growth mindset, always looking for ways to improve, to get better, you know, failing forward. So for me, if they do coexist, it has to be on a team or in a relationship where people understand their roles and they're great at what they can do. And so when I say that I have a team, I don't need everybody who is a great innovator, I need a doer, I need a leader. You need several different layers of different characteristics on your team. So now, as I think about it, maybe they can coexist based on the culture of that environment or that community or that team.

Shay Cook:

Yeah, and I agree and I love when you talk about the growth and fixed mindset. I've seen you speak on that on many occasions and it's just very inspiring. And you're right, because I've been more in the growth mindset. But sometimes you got to take a break, you got to be a little content, you got to give you gratitude and be thankful to God for it. I never do that, but I do. Let me take that back. I am grateful and thankful all the times. I never take a break. That's what I mean y'all.

Shay Cook:

But I'm always every day. Now I wake up, I'm thanking God and praising God all day long. If it's not every second, which is I'm getting them, trying to get there, that's the goal, but it's every hour or minute because I'm so blessed. But the ambition is always there. And the other day I was talking about finances and stuff with this business program in Goldman Sachs and they were talking about being conservative and dreaming when it comes to projecting your numbers and you know I've always dreamed that's part of who I am. This is my makeup is dreaming big because I serve in an amazing God. We can talk about that more in discussion side. I mean, this is supposed to be rapid fire, Shay. Okay, the last question have you ever felt tension between your faith and your financial goals?

Dewan Clayborn:

Yes, I hate to be so blunt, you know, but it started really with this role that I'm in. I, to be blunt, took a $50,000 pay cut. I could have said you know no, but I truly felt God was calling me here to Central Maryland. The huge testimonial is that what I was making in Texas that took me three and a half years yeah, I started with the $50,000 pay cut here, but within one year he restored it all. So he said touan, I'll take what took you three and a half years. If you have faith in me, I'll get that back to you in one year. And so that's probably been one of the most eye-opening testimonials that I've been sharing with people. Just about, like, focus on being where God wants you at, the money will come, the awards will come. Like don't allow those shiny objects to take you off course, because you're looking at, oh, it's only paying. This Focus on being in alignment, where God wants you to be at, and the blessings are, like inevitable.

Shay Cook:

That is so true. And y'all, he has the numbers, the financials, the memberships and all that to back all of that. So that's what I'm talking about. God is amazing. This man came in For real.

Dewan Clayborn:

For real, for real. Thank you, jesus.

Shay Cook:

Amen, amen, all right, well, let's get into the main discussion of talking about this holy hustle, balancing faith and financial vision, because y'all people are suffering. They're trying to serve God and stuff, but they're also trying to serve money and other idols, and we're only supposed to serve one God, right, if you believe in the Christian faith, or even many other faiths that I've studied.

Shay Cook:

It's one right, but a lot of us out here are struggling. So I mean, the difference between godly ambition and selfish ambition is I mean that speaks for itself Like God is leading you, the obedience factor right, versus what you think you need. God is the author, he's the creator. So we just out here, we editing things right, right, yeah, how do you feel about that difference?

Dewan Clayborn:

Basically, at the end of the day, you know you got to have your scriptures. So, like for me, like, let's just say, when I took the $50,000 pay cut, moved my wife up here, like all those things, I led on a scripture God will supply all of my needs according to his riches and glory, all of my needs according to his riches and glory. So if I know that it doesn't matter if I take a hundred thousand dollar pay cut, I'm having the faith because he has me here. He will supply all of my needs according to his riches and glory. And so I just feel like in life, whatever you're going through, you got to find that word or that scripture that can combat that. That's one of mine.

Dewan Clayborn:

If there's anything like about money and when you talk about money, I'll tell you this I heard this from a pastor If you are not paying your tithes and offerings first off, tithes and offerings are the basics of a Christian, the basics and I know everybody's going to be like, oh, I give to this organization. I'm not talking about that. We're talking about sowing into the kingdom, tithing off and paying your 10% to the church. That's the body of Christ. So if you're not doing that consistently. You haven't even seen an inch of God's faith in His glory and where he can do it for your life. There's another scripture. The word says when you show God you're faithful with little things, he'll bless you with greater things.

Dewan Clayborn:

So, how can you expect to grow a million dollar company or to create a multimillion dollar family or break generational curses, when what he's entrusted you with you haven't been faithful with? Amen, amen, amen, I would say for anybody and I've been bad at this too not paying tithes and offering. When I didn't pay it, I was always looking at my bank account. When I paid them consistently, it's like I always had money.

Dewan Clayborn:

Yeah, don't follow the world things about not paying tithes and offering. Just know that's the basics of Christianity and I promise you, if you start and do it consistently, you will just start seeing increases everywhere. And that's even from like my testimony I gave earlier about you know, my eight cut and guess what? I still tied. Guess what? The enemy tried to come at me and was like, oh, you're not even making enough money now. No, the devil is alive. I'm going to keep sowing my seeds. And I started sowing them seeds and thanking him for my promotion, speaking to those seeds, and then again, a year later, thank you Jesus. He took what took me three and a half years and got me back there in one year. So tithes and offerings is the way to go.

Shay Cook:

Yes, I have not shared this publicly. I too have cut back my salary to try to grow my business significantly, to the point when my husband and I we did our taxes with our CPA, he was like what you only pay yourself that? Yeah, because I wanted to put it into business, I kept my tithes and offerings at the same amount that it was when I was paying myself the tithe. Wow, thank you, jesus.

Dewan Clayborn:

Wow. Thank you, Jesus.

Shay Cook:

Because it's like why? Well, I mean, I'm going to keep doing that and I keep cutting back? I know I did cut back on my retirement, on it because God was like you know what God is my retirement, even though I do? I, you know I'm all for retirements 401k, sebs. You know, investing, I'm all for that. But sometimes you just got to take it. Like you said just make sure God you give into the kingdom, give it to God and he will provide. He always does. And I have gone back and forth. Both my parents are ordained ministers, reverends, and I've talked to them at length, especially my father, about tithing. You know there's been seasons where I had to cut back and you're right, that was the most. That's the times when I was worried. But when I didn't cut back and I was just faithful God always, and money would come from somewhere else, I'd get this thing, get that contract, get that. And I'm like what? I didn't even know this was coming.

Dewan Clayborn:

Exactly, exactly. And you know, like I hope my wife don't get mad at me that's the first thing we have to work through, because you know, when you get married and you're a union, you know if the enemy can't come to me, he's going to go out to my wife. So I had to then like start working with her, like hey, you know, we both got paid today. Let's both, you know, pay our tithes and offerings. So like even practicing that with your, you know, significant other, your spouse, your kids, it just helps, like the whole entire household. Go ahead and get those practices in place, because I'm telling you, I've heard a person say before, like you can give a broke person money, a million dollars, and they'll still go back broke just because that's just their.

Shay Cook:

That's their mindset, yeah.

Dewan Clayborn:

And they don't know how to manage it.

Shay Cook:

It's a mindset. They don't know how to manage it. That's where Crusaders for Change can come in. You know, but yeah, you know, but yeah, and that's true, and I mean hustling can hurt your spiritual life. I mean some people get caught up and they forget, they stop tithing, they stop reading the word, they start going to church. I mean all of those things.

Shay Cook:

And again, I'm not here to judge. Y'all do what you do, but I know things that are required by God from the obedience. And he told me this year Shay, only you only got two goals this year and I'm going to repeat this throughout this whole year on this podcast obedience and self-care. He's like you need to because my, my husband I keep he's funny, I keep calling God my husband because he, even though I got a husband in the physical life, but my counselor husband, my Lord, my Father, god, he's very clear that I need to obey. And when I get into the hustle mindset, as I had when I was in my 20s and 40s, it was all about making that money, it was all about getting that status, that grade, that promotion, that award, and it's like God's like, what are you doing out here? I'm going to take care of you? What are you chasing right now? You should be chasing me.

Dewan Clayborn:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shay Cook:

Have you ever had it hurt you?

Dewan Clayborn:

Yeah, hustling is different, because my hustling is more so about going to organizations that are broken and fixing it, and so it's easy to go to an organization that's working right. Everybody just wants to hey, yeah, hire me for that. But God has a calling for me to go to these structures that are broken and then refix them. You have to have numerous of conversations, difficult conversations, I mean. You get targets on your back, people that don't like you. You get a lot of people that love you, though, when you turn around, my hustle is different because it's like to me, this is hustling, Because I say that like I don't even know how I would act if I walked into an organization that was perfect and I just kicked my foot in it.

Shay Cook:

You ain't going to have to do that. The guy's not going to lead you to that.

Dewan Clayborn:

Yeah, yeah, you know I wouldn't even be comfortable. I've learned to actually embrace this hustle because now I'm able to meet people at all different levels. More than anything, I love the momentum that you take someone who's maybe your organization has a laughingstock and then bring them at the top, where now they are kind of like that underdog story, right, things like that. So I've learned to just embrace it, enjoy it and shoot man, let's get the hustle going, I guess.

Shay Cook:

I mean, I know I've been hustling. I come from a family of hustlers. My mama's a hustler, you know. And so, man, yes, I never look at it like that, like man, all the things I've done work for the government, all those things, man, I come in, I'm taking things and doing great things and building things, and you know I'm an architect, all that but I've been hustling through that Because, first of all, being a Black woman, a Black man in America, that's what we got to do, because these people ain't trying to make it easy. So sometimes you got to just hustle, just to hustle, just to get to where you need to be.

Dewan Clayborn:

And work and work three, four, five, six times harder, which is hustling. The type of faith I'm working on now is that I got so much faith that if I fail it's just going to be bad, because you got to think about it. You know, if I'm going to organizations that are broken, paycheck to paycheck, moving my family out there, that's literally calling things that be not as though they were until they are, because I'm having a faith that God's going to use me, bring the right people around me, bring me the resources, bring my family resources to survive and thrive. Otherwise, if it doesn't happen, then I'm just probably on the street somewhere.

Shay Cook:

But that has not happened, because you serve an amazing God and you fail forward and we have to make mistakes sometimes, but he ain't going to lead you the wrong way. If he told you you need to be somewhere, he going to make sure you got all the resources you need to take care of yourself and your family. Amen, so you'll be fine. I mean, you even had a cousin out here, so if anything ever happened, you got your cousin Right.

Dewan Clayborn:

Right, it's funny I actually got another cousin. He's moving here in August. Yeah, I'm going to have like another first cousin that's here I love that. Hopefully I'm bringing a whole group of my family out here, oh that's wonderful.

Shay Cook:

That's wonderful. So let's talk about the pressure to constantly grind in today's culture and trusting God's timing. Right, I mean, I'm telling you, I love that you and your wife went to Italy. You took a break. I saw your signature blog when I sent you your out-of-office message. It was beautiful. We as leaders and I'm paraphrasing but we have to take breaks. We have to give God his time and take that, because that grind can make you, you can burn out. So how do you keep from burning out? How do you constantly deal with this pressure of you? Know the culture that you got to grind and grind, and grind and not take breaks and you got to work a hundred hours a day.

Dewan Clayborn:

First thing, I had to learn to do is set healthy boundaries. I'm one of those guys that like, if I'm like at work emailing, I'm like a quick respondent, you are. So my 15, 20 minutes respond like quick with it. You know. But setting boundaries, I had to like stop training people to respond quick. So after five I stopped taking my laptop home. Oh nice, you don't finish everything at five, mm-hmm, I have to do it tomorrow. So then that made me be more intentional through the work day.

Dewan Clayborn:

I don't have time to be texting and doing like my stuff is so booked out. So I would say setting healthy boundaries around. Hey, when you're off, completely being off work my mom, she gets on me a lot because she's like Dwayne, are you off or are you working? I said no, listen. I got an out of office email. I told my team what to do Whatever happens while I'm gone. When I get back I can fix it, you know. But truly, unplugging was great and it was amazing and I came back pumped up and like ready to get back to the hustle.

Shay Cook:

Good, you're young, so how you deal with this social media, you know how they are always pressuring us. You know the influence out there, that everybody's working hard, all these people that we look up to, or maybe not, but still like the rappers, the entertainers, whoever they may be, oprah, jay-z, whoever you know and they're really out there grinding. But how do you keep that? It's just the boundaries.

Dewan Clayborn:

Yeah, well, and see, social media is another set of boundaries.

Shay Cook:

Yeah, that's, very true.

Dewan Clayborn:

Yeah, and I'm blessed because I've always had like a big following through, like sports and stuff. I always knew how to like and I say this in a good way but manipulate social media Like. I always knew that it's a look, because I always had a lot of followers. So I always knew, like the people that are making it look like, oh, my life is so good. A lot of times it's not, you know. So I was able to always kind of see through the shenanigans.

Dewan Clayborn:

I never had the problem of looking at somebody's life and be like man, I should be here or I should be there, because some of those people that you might even know personally and I feel like everybody has those friends that are like on social media.

Dewan Clayborn:

They look all put together but it's like I know you in real life, you know, and so just knowing, just knowing that guess what? There are a lot of people like that. A lot of times you just can't compare yourself to others and you know just from a, you know a godly standpoint. All of us were blessed with one unique gift and because somebody else's isn't mine or my gift isn't someone else's, be supportive when somebody is doing good. Granted, your time might not be here but you'll have your time. But learning to basically not stop your blessings by having ill will, greed like negative intent or jealousy over someone else, but cheering them on, that's another way that I've kind of kept myself from you know, falling into the, you know the new times of social media and all the nice and shiny objects and trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Shay Cook:

I love that and that's same here, Same here. First of all, I don't have time. I don't have time when I did have time back in the day scrolling through Facebook, back way back when Facebook came out and I'm like, what am I doing right now, Two, three hours later? I think the worst thing I do right now like I give myself once a month to be able to scroll through babies and dogs, that's it.

Shay Cook:

I don't care about nobody else's life and there might be a Beyonce video here, this, that, but most of the times it's little babies cracking up for the first time or whatever doing something crazy, and dogs Like I get off on that. But outside of that, I don't have time to look at everybody else's life because I got my own life to live. You know what I mean.

Dewan Clayborn:

And then, like you said, I have family members out here shining like they quote unquote. And then you, when they come to your house, they're like oh, it's me, but you were just on Instagram, but they check in your class, right, respectfully? I don't mean that rude to nobody.

Shay Cook:

They know who we talking about and they need to figure that out. They need to talk to God about that, because that's like really and you're right about having that gift Like we need to focus on what God has given us and not compare and do the best that you can with what God, thanking him for it and utilizing it and getting the gospel of the word out there.

Shay Cook:

And that's the focus taking care of yourself and your family, your friends, living life. You know, even though it's a lot of crap going on in the world right now, trying to find good in every day. Today, recently, I used to always say hope, all is well. I said have a wonderful day on purpose, Because I think people are just letting things just come at them. No, you got to be intentional in this life, because if you're not, it's going to eat you up.

Dewan Clayborn:

The devil is real and it's all spiritual warfare. You know what I mean. Like we don't battle with flesh and blood, but like principality. So like you got to put that whole breastplate of righteousness over yourself, your family, in the morning. You don't just do it as it comes. You got to set the tone for the devil. The word says resist the devil, he shall flee from you. So you got to start off your day with that and resist him from any shape, form or fashion. Start off your day with that and resist him from any shape, form or fashion he comes and then walk around with that boldness and know that he can't touch you because you already resist him. But you got to do that in the morning. Start your day off right with that word and I promise you watch how much different y'all's days go my God, hallelujah Amen.

Dewan Clayborn:

I can say Amen, I needed this.

Shay Cook:

Lately I've been going around being like I rebuke you in the name of Jesus, like devil, like cause it be trying to attack you through the health issues, the politic issues, the job issues, even dealing with negotiations, whatever it may be. It's been trying to attack us and I'm like I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. I'm resisting you, we're not going to you.

Dewan Clayborn:

Stay away from my family. You stay away from my money.

Shay Cook:

You stay away from all of that. I don't have time for it. I know who I serve, and it ain't you devil. Okay, so yes.

Dewan Clayborn:

The word says be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth and then guess what, subdue it. So we're supposed to conquer every industry, every area, every community, Like, subdue it. That means you bringing that light in there, you boldly letting it shine. You know, so like and I'm not saying you when I say you, you know, just for our people, our audience. You got to get in their word, though the way how I can, like, say it is because I meditated on it and of course life has life that made me find these scriptures. If you could get it meditated on beforehand it's even better. But you gotta, you gotta, yeah, exactly. But once you get that word in you, it's going to be so much easier to win those spiritual battles because, guess what? It's going to be so much easier to win those spiritual battles because, guess what, it's not even a battle, because God has already won it for us.

Shay Cook:

Amen, he already won it for us. And how do we set goals with God in mind around our budget, our career and business outside? You know, you said the boundaries, the word. What else Any other resources or tips and tricks you have?

Dewan Clayborn:

This is something that you know me and my wife do you know we do like a spiritual goal, like personally, and then like a couple spiritual goals, oh nice. So like, one thing for me personally spiritually is to more speak in tongues more, at least three to five times a week. Currently I kind of just do it, you know, maybe I'm at church and the word is speaking to me and I get to do it. But speaking in the spirit is really so important that a lot of people don't do and that's direct communication with God that the enemy can't even understand. So that's one of my like spiritual personal goals. And then this year our goal as a family was to pray together once a day, every morning. So like my wife and I were kind of doing our own little prayers but like, as you know, I started seeing, you know, god blesses a union. So what the devil going to do? He's going to try to attack that and break up whatever.

Dewan Clayborn:

So, like I'm, like you know what, no, I need to put that shield of faith around me and my wife. So our goal was to, like you know, start praying together in the morning, and so those were like a couple of our spiritual goals. So we picked one individually and then one as a couple, and honestly it's helped us personally and as a couple, just continue to grow more in alignment with God and truly figure out like who he wants us to be as a couple, you know, and I love that and that's great.

Shay Cook:

And I would add that you know, you talk to God about your goals. Guys like out there, you know, just say all right, lord, this is what I want. But guess what, if he, if you want that, that's probably because he, you know, probably he put it in it. Okay, we need to honor that, like this ain't new, this ain't new to him. And he's like, oh, I want this. Okay, God gave that in your spirit. Okay, you need to talk to him through it so he can talk you through it and obey him when he gives you an opportunity. And I'm talking to myself, because God gave me this opportunity with Goldman Sachs. He's been telling me about it for nine years and for nine years I was saying no.

Shay Cook:

From 2016 until 2024,. I was like, hmm, so eight years? I was like, uh, no, I ain't ready. I am in an amazing. I'm going to have to do an episode on just Goldman Sachs and what God has done with me through that program.

Dewan Clayborn:

But because you know obedience.

Shay Cook:

I was like Lord. I kept on saying, no, I'm not ready, I'm not ready. And God was like man. And God was like man. You already, I give you, I'm going to give you what you need to be ready.

Shay Cook:

So to me it's go to God with everything you need your budget, your career, your business, your family, your health. He will provide. And don't let that hustle or the ambition get in the way of you being next to God. And it's good to have healthy ambition Ain't nothing wrong with that. But you got to consider other people too as well, Because we know we out here and people are all thinking about themselves too much and as they say 59% of.

Shay Cook:

Americans feel burnt out from hustle culture, so we don't want everybody to be burnt out here, not being able to be in their great mind and their great self to give to it. So, duann, that was amazing. Thank you so much, man.

Dewan Clayborn:

My pleasure.

Shay Cook:

How can people follow you? Let's talk about your book a little bit too, and all the great things you're doing outside of Central Maryland.

Dewan Clayborn:

So, yeah, so I believe in being an expert in whatever craft you are in, and so my space that God has called me in is the association world, nonprofit world. And so because of that, yes, I have a book called the Next Generation of Nonprofit Leadership where I talk about ways how I turn organizations around. I talk about ways where, if you have a culture, you're trying to fix it, how to create a winning culture. I talk about ways where two of my previous staff members are now present CEOs of their own chamber commerce. So how to recruit and retain top talent. You know I talk about board engagement. Recruit and retain top talent. You know I talk about board engagement, so anything that as a leader of a nonprofit organization or a up and rising executive, if you have goals of rising through the ranks. I talk about all those steps around, kind of my biography, because I started as a director of special events to now being a president, ceo and talked about office politics. You know all the things I didn't even know about by coming into this industry.

Dewan Clayborn:

So, yeah, you can get that book and you can order from wwwJewanClaybournecom. Of course it's on Amazon and stuff, but Jeff Bezos has enough money. Go to my website and get it. Go to my website and get it. Amen, go to my website and get it. Otherwise, I'm super easy to find on LinkedIn, you know DeJuanClaybournecom. Same on Facebook. And if you just need an inspiring word every morning, follow me. I'm putting it in people's face. I am bold about God, I'm bold about these blessings and I'm bold about being called to conquer.

Shay Cook:

I know that is right and you know what guys follow him for real Cause I see it on LinkedIn and I know what we talked about this before. Some people like why are you putting that on there? Why shouldn't he? He should be, and guess what? That gets a lot of engagement because people need that word.

Shay Cook:

They need that encouragement, that motivation, because we got a lot of darkness out here right now, and so seeing DeJuan seeing that and be like, yes, yes, like, and just seeing the engagement, even reading the comments you give, you get inspired, thank you, and that's the thing we got to stop trying to do stuff alone.

Dewan Clayborn:

You know, like we have to like realize there are community of good people, of good godly people. You know I'll say moving away from Houston was so good to me because, like the culture there is, like you know people, there's so many divorces Like you will kind of go there and think people can't have successful marriages so I had to. That's another part of the whole thing of getting married and relocating up here, seeing a lot of successful marriages, black couples, happy couples, like thank God, my wife and I, our parents, are still married and we have that as an origin. But like today's society, based on where you are, you won't think that that's normal, you know, and so like that's a whole nother thing. Find that community of believers, of Christian couples, be around that community of believers of Christian couples, be around that. There's a whole positive uplift in that type of fellowship that God wants us to have with one another, fellowshiping with one another and other believers.

Shay Cook:

Yeah, I agree with that. I come from a family of many long marriages. My grandparents are 63. Parents, I think they're going on 48. And my husband and I 26 recently.

Dewan Clayborn:

See, there we go.

Shay Cook:

It's so important because you cannot do life alone and having a partner to go with you it's not like anything else. It really is Best decision I made. Best decision I made.

Dewan Clayborn:

It's funny because you know my wife Brittany, of course opposites attract, right, yeah, of course. And it's funny when she meets people out here. They're like, so are you like him? And so I'm like, what does like him mean? You know what I mean, but she's like, no, I'm not. But anyway, I want to like go and like do these podcasts and tell these men, like at my age, like it's so much better, like being faithful, get married, best decision I made, you know. But she's just like she don't want to out of this shit.

Shay Cook:

So eventually, maybe, hopefully, that will be a ministry we can create, if not, you know you're small your circles, and they're not small at all, but do it in your circles, through the chamber and just going taking people out to, like you know, you meet a young brother, young person like let's go to dinner, let's talk about this, and they'll see it in you, though, and they see how you and your wife love each other, you know and have fun with each other, enjoy each other and be like.

Shay Cook:

They want that, and it's a good influence, and that's what I've seen and shout out to my husband today's his birthday, july 31st okay, happy birthday happy birthday, nate and so you know I told him, even though he'll be 50 in two years, but I was like I can't believe I'm about to be married to a 50-year-old. Stop it.

Dewan Clayborn:

50 to new 30. 50 to new 30.

Shay Cook:

I'm married to an old man, I ain't never thought about that 26 years ago. I'm like what. But either way, God has been good that we've enjoyed this.

Dewan Clayborn:

It's been struggles.

Shay Cook:

It's not easy and that's the problem. Another thing people we need to and that's another episode the misconception of marriage, of being this beautiful all the time. It's going to be some ugly things going on, but guess what? Even through the ugly there's beautiful stuff that you're going to learn about yourself and you grow. Me and my husband came into this marriage. We were children we were 20 some years old or young, and now we're adults and we've grown together. We got a 24 year old daughter. We got a beautiful life together and it's still getting struggles. I ain't going to act like it's not, but God has been good, you know. And that ambition came through the marriage and all of that. We empowered, we upgraded each other, we uplifted each other, and so I would add that.

Shay Cook:

You know, god isn't against ambition, he just wants to guide it right and the whole hustle. Marriage, it means working with excellence and purpose, not exhaustion. That could be anything in your life, your business, your marriage, your health, your family, whatever. He wants you to be ambitious, to take you to the next level, yeah, and if you're?

Dewan Clayborn:

at a, even at a company that you're, let's say, you got a bad boss or you don't necessarily like what you do. It's not about them, it's not about your boss, it's about you as a child of God that wants to produce excellence, because God created excellence. And so, even if you're not even at the spot where you want to be yet, still you're representing God and people are watching. So, always, always, produce excellence, because God is excellence.

Shay Cook:

Amen. Any final thoughts? Holy hustle.

Dewan Clayborn:

I like it. You know you might get bumped, you might get bruised, but at the end of the day, God will do exceedingly, abundantly. Above all, you can ask, think or imagine, and so just have the faith and he will truly call you to conquer.

Shay Cook:

All right, Ain't that a word? Thank you, Mr DeJuan Claiborne. That was amazing. Thank you, man. I just want to give you all a call to action before we wrap this episode this week. Take 10 minutes to pray over your goals and ask, aren't these led by God or by pressure? And then adjust your one goal to reflect on more faith-driven ambition. So thank you for joining us today. Hope you have a wonderful day. We'll see you soon.

Dewan Clayborn:

See you soon. Thanks again, Shay.

Shay Cook:

A big thank you for listening to this episode. We hope you found today's chat about the intersection of religion and money insightful. We would love to hear your feedback. Hit that subscribe button or follow the podcast and please feel free to leave us a review For the latest Yahweh's Money content, visit us at crusaders4changeorg or find us anywhere you listen to podcasts. Until next time, stay financially fit and spiritually inspired and remember it's always better Yahweh's way.

People on this episode

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Shay Cook

Host
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Dewan Clayborn

Guest