Exit Without Exiting

The Deal Scout

The Deal Scout
Exit Without Exiting
Oct 20, 2021
Josh Wilson
ABOUT THE REAL JASON DUNCANMy mission is to use my gifts of teaching and leadership to help others achieve the results they want out of life.I am the oldest son of two loving parents, Michael & Marsha Duncan. I went to school–all 13 years from Kindergarten to high school–in the small town of White House, Tennessee.I am married to Kristie Duncan, my high school sweetheart whom I met on a blind date when I was 16 years old. Kristie and I have a son and a daughter.My first career in ministry started right out of high school as a youth minister for my home congregation. I earned a Bachelor’s degree in ministry from Southern Christian University (now Amridge University) in Montgomery, Alabama in 2001. From 1992 to 1998 I served as a youth minister to different churches around the southeastern United States.In 1999, I transitioned from youth ministry to preaching when I became the senior pastor at a local congregation in middle Tennessee. I spent the next seven years as a senior pastor of congregations in Tennessee and Nebraska. To supplement my meager ministry salary, I sold life & health insurance to small business owners.Growing tired of the ministry, I returned to college in 2005 and earned my Master’s in education from Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. I left vocational ministry in 2006 and entered the classroom as an 8th grade American history teacher in 2007. I spent the next four years as a schoolteacher, which became the love of my professional life. To me, there was nothing better than teaching. I quickly became recognized as one of the best teachers in my subject area in the entire county.Unfortunately, due to the Great Recession, my teaching contract for the 2011-12 school year was not renewed due to major budget cuts and a lack of tenure. It was then that I found myself searching for the next chapter of my life. That is when I founded Energy Lighting Services (“ELS”, energylightingservices.com), which soon became the top LED retrofitting company in North America. My skill as a salesperson coupled with my unique experience as a pastor and teacher combined to make me a very effective accidental entrepreneur.Since 2010, my leadership as the founder of ELS led to recognition in Inc. magazine two times as one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in America. ELS was also named as one of the top entrepreneurial companies in America by Entrepreneur magazine. We also won several Small Business of the Year Awards and a Best in Business award from the Nashville Business Journal. I was even recognized by the Tennessee Small Business Development Center as a “Rising Star” in 2014.Over the years, I began leveraging my success as an entrepreneur and my unique background as a pastor and teacher to consult and coach other entrepreneurs and business owners to get t

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