Success Without Losing Your Soul with Lisa Copeland

We explore how ambition can serve legacy without swallowing your soul, tracing Lisa Copeland’s path from car sales to a 900‑agent real estate team and the habits that keep her rooted. Faith, presence, and integrity shape a career built to last.

• the perils of success and staying grounded
• building a 900‑agent national real estate team
• career pivots from car sales to mortgages to brand relaunch
• covid shutdowns and a fast move into real estate
• bold faith in business and public stances
• small‑town life, close friendships, and trust
• presence over hustle and learning Sabbath
• legacy, showing up for people, and internal integrity

We pray that you have a blessed Christmas and great time with family

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Transcript

Success And Staying Grounded

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another Sidebalk Conversation. My name is Pete Van Wort. I'm your host today. And I am, as always, very excited about introducing you to my guest today. And I want to begin by introducing her through something that I've been thinking about a lot lately. And that is the perils of success. You know, a lot of times we talk about like failure being the great hiccup in a person's life. And certainly that's the case. But sometimes success can be equally challenging. In fact, I read a quote recently that I thought captured it so well. In your success, do not lose your heart, which suggests that you can lose your heart when success begins to become your all-in-all. And so one of the things I've appreciated about our guests is that I've watched her from afar and then got to know her a little bit personally. And she's always been able to ground herself even in the midst of her flourishing. And I have admired her from afar. We've tried to get this to work out for a number of months now. And in this very busy season, she has graciously made herself available to the podcast. And I am very excited about your opportunity to hear her story. So without any further ado, let me introduce her to you. Our sponsor for this episode is Amasouk. Amasouk is a venture of my daughter, in fact, where she has cultivated and created handbags from all over the world using artisans from Morocco, from Japan, from Mexico. And her heart is to make sure that the artisans are the ones who receive the most benefit from the resources that those purchases make. And so she's just a middle person that wants to make sure that these lovely women who create such beautiful works of art are paid according to their hard work. And that's part of her justice gene that she inherited in our family. And I love the work that she's doing, and I'm grateful for her sponsorship of this broadcast. And maybe in this Christmas season you'd want to check out some of her uh her goods. They make great gifts for the lady in your life. Now, without any further ado, let me introduce you to Lisa Copeland. Lisa, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Thank you for having me. I'm so glad we made it work. Yes, it's been a bit. Yes, it has been. It has been.

Building A 900-Agent Team

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Now, I want to start like normally I start all the way back, like at somebody's start of their life, but I want to just kind of give people a long way back. Well, I want to give people a picture of what you're doing right now. So you're you're a very accomplished realtor. You you've owned your own business. Tell us a little bit like of what's keeping you busy these days.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Uh, what's keeping me busy these days? So I I've got a team of about 900 real estate agents.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

And I've got two uh partners, Tarek Almusa from HGTV. You guys have probably heard of him. Uh he's got the show Flipper Flop. He's really the one that brought me into this. And my other partner is Elena Cardone of Grant and Elena Cardone 10X. And we have built over the last five and a half years an a team of about 900 real estate agents. So that keeps me super busy.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Um I would say so.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

You know, I don't have to manage them so much on a daily basis, but I'm I'm their mentor, you know, and it it means a lot to me when someone comes with us. So I try to make myself available. So I spend a lot of time just trying to make sure I'm available to them. And then I still I still sell real estate. My new passion project is that I'm writing my third book, The Aurora Faith. And that's coming out hopefully at the end of this month, December 2025.

Speaking, Books, And The Lioness Message

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Nice. Nice. And then you have this little uh speech that you give on a regular basis in a variety of contexts about lioness. Yes, the lioness.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Yeah, well, yeah. So um there's a lot of iterations. Now it's going to change with the new book, but right now it's lioness, not a lamb. And so I get brought in by um motivational companies, um, like the 10x brand, or um, this is one that I really get brought in by women's groups and things like that. So it is not one of my corporate speeches. So I do still do a lot of corporate speaking. Okay. And that's on my other book, Crushing Mediocrity. I get brought in a lot for that um by the like the VPs of sales. You know, they'll bring me in and they're like, we want you to go like to our sales team and show them how to crush mediocrity, you know. So, you know, I'm not really a motivational speaker when I'm brought in on those speeches. Like they really want me to help write the ship.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

And I like to do that because I am a sales manager at heart. Yeah. If someone said, like, what is the one thing you say that you do in all the jobs you have? I am a sales manager.

Early Sales Career And Car Business

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Like I love to help other people. And did you know that this was going to be like what you did when you started life? Like, did you always have a sense of this would be weird? I've always been in sales. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

So I got I was I started in sales at about 20 years old, selling cars, uh, kind of by accident. And I was a fashion major and I wrecked my car, and I had not paid my car insurance. My parents gave me the money to do it, but I was a fashion major. So guess what I did with every dime my parents sent me? And I was in Dallas, Texas. So you can imagine like the money they sent me. I was shopping, I had clothes. Anyway, so I did not pay my car insurance. I wrecked my car, totaled, and I went to the bank and I said, I need another car and a loan. And he said, You don't have insurance. Like you have a deficit here at the bank. You cannot get another car loan. So my boyfriend at the time, who's now my husband, had just graduated from college and he was selling cars. And back then in the 80s, you could get a free car to drive. It was called a demo or a demonstrator.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Yeah, yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

And you got a demo. And he said, So you ought to come try to sell cars because then you'll at least have a car to drive. So I was like, okay. So I did.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

And how long did you do that?

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Oh, I was in the car business the first time. Um 10 years, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

And didn't you Carol told me today that didn't you own a dealership at one point, too?

SPEAKER_01 6:15

I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

So you worked up to that?

A Family Crisis That Changed Priorities

SPEAKER_01 6:18

No, no, I didn't. So I I was the first 10 years I was um in sales, I did finance, I was a sales manager. So I did a lot of that. Um, and then we we got married, we had kids, and my son was two years old, and and he we almost lost him on Thanksgiving night due to an accident. And so uh I I thought that was God's way of telling me no more. Oh because any other night, if he like he choked on one of my earrings. And um, any other night, if that would have happened, you know, I would have had a babysitter there or something. Because in the car business, you work a lot of hours. And I was like, that's it. So I literally went in, so that was Thanksgiving night. I literally went in that Friday because I worked all the time, and I told my boss at the time, I said, I'm quitting. And we didn't know how we were gonna do it. Like our my income was critical to our survival.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Um, but you know how it is when you have this pit in your stomach where God's like, if you don't take care of him, like I cry talking about today, my son's 34. If you don't take care of him, then you won't have him. Like that was so like innate in me. And so I walked in, I quit. Um, so fast forward, my the boss at the time offered my husband my job. I was making more money than he was. And he said, Well, we'll hire James to come to your job. And they gave him a raise. So I was like, Thank you, Jesus. You know, God is just so good, he's so faithful. And um, so I stayed home for a couple years and I got kind of bored. And a friend of ours, mine and James's, said, You know, you did finance in the car business. You should start doing mortgages. And I was like, Okay, I can do mortgages, and I could kind of do that at my own pace and still take care of my kids and not have to work weekends. Okay. James was working weekends because he was having to do everything that I was doing, but that was okay because we had I had kids to raise, or we had kids to raise. So I did that for a couple of years, and then I ended up starting my own mortgage company, and that kind of took me down the real estate world. Yeah. And I I ran that for about 15 years, and then the boss that um I worked for, he and I stayed friends, and he said, I've got the opportunity to relaunch fiat to America. Would you like to help me do that and write the business plan and whatever? And I said, Sure. So, you know, this is how my life works. So I said, sure. And I did, and we wrote a really good proposal, and the fiat brand in Chrysler said, We like yours the best. We we're gonna kind of use a lot of the elements of your proposal to launch the brand to the US. So I went to him and I just said, Well, I feel like this is my brand now. So I want to be a partner. I want to like buy into I want in. Like this is my brand. So he very graciously did. And so um, I did that from 2011 to 2016, March of 16. I sold the dealership.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

Okay.

Mortgages To Dealership Relaunch

SPEAKER_01 9:03

And um did a few things, you know. I wrote, I wrote a couple books, I did a TV show, um, because my team broke the world sales record. So we were pretty, like we were pretty um up there in in automotive world. Um, and so I did all that, and then COVID hit, and my agent called, and I was speaking all over the place, all over the country for corporate America. And my agent called and said, we're canceled. We're canceled everywhere. Like I had 26 speaking gigs canceled in a week.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Yeah, that's right.

World Record Sales And Media

SPEAKER_01 9:33

In a week. I was like, I literally got pulled off the stage in Chicago. I was the closing keynote for Atlas moving vans. I'll never forget they had all of their people from around the world. I'm the closing keynote. I walk off stage. I thought it went really well. And she's like, We're taking you to your hotel right now. You've got to get your stuff. We've got to get you to the airport. We're gonna fly you home tonight instead of tomorrow. And I was like, why? And she goes, because Chicago's going on lockdown. I said, for what? And she's like, the coronavirus. And I'm like, so I get to O'Hare and like everybody's in hazmat suits, like almost gloves and masks, and I call my husband, I'm like, I don't even know what to say. And then I fly into Austin, and you know, it's Austin Airport, the bands are going, everyone's having fun, they're drinking at the bar, eating fajitas. So that's how different it was between Chicago and Austin when that first hit of the coronavirus. And so um, we had a few weeks that it didn't hit us, where it hit the rest, the the Northeast. And I just had to make some decisions. I'm like, what the heck am I gonna do? Because at that point we thought like the world was gonna close down.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

And I just was not gonna participate in that. I'm like, I'm not gonna sit home with a mask on my face. What else could I do where I could be out in public? And only thing I had not done was have a real estate license. So I got it in three weeks. And then my agent, my speaking agent, also represented Tariq El Musa from HGTV. Because not only does he do television, but he goes out and speaks.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Yeah.

Covid Pivot To Real Estate

SPEAKER_01 10:57

And he said, I was telling Tarek about you and your sales experience and your management experience, and that you were in the mortgage business, and he wants to talk to you. So I talked to Tarek, we met, and he said, I want to build the biggest real estate team in the country. I want you to leverage my name, leverage my brand, and I think that you and I can do this. And I said, Okay, let's go. Wow. It went down like just like that. Like there was no yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Now, one of the things I said in my intro that I'd really like for you to take a moment to elaborate on because as I hear your story, and I'm guessing that as my audience hears your story, they're thinking, okay, wow, she's just like all over, done everything. But there's something about you where you have been able to stay like grounded. Like I've been at dinners with you, you just talk to everybody like you're a quote unquote normal person.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

I am a normal person. What are you talking about? Well, these are my friends. You guys are my friends. It wouldn't matter like if I had, I don't know. I mean, I I you guys are my friends.

Partnering With Tarek And Elena

SPEAKER_00 11:59

But I I have watched other people who have a very different trajectory, like when all of a sudden they become successful, they they they change in ways that you know they kind of they may not be overt about it, but you just have the sense that they're like, oh, they think they're better than everybody else. So what do you attribute the fact that you've been able to stay grounded in the middle of all this other stuff that you've been able to achieve?

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Gosh, I've never had anybody ask me that question. I don't know that I'm grounded. I I I know who my friends are, right? We all love the Lord, we all are conservative people, we all love Texas. We, you know, we're we're a little political. Some of the friends we dinner with, you know that. And I'm very political, so I'm good with it and I'm unashamed about it. Um, and uh they'll just always be my people. And I so I'm I I I don't like all of the glitzy or the um, you know, I I I get to meet a lot of celebrities doing what I do, like on the speaking circuit. Yeah, especially some of the conferences I speak at. Uh and there's so many times I look at their life and I go, ooh.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Ooh, like I've been married to the same guy for 37 years. Uh, I've got four grandkids now, four grandsons, my kids. I live in Belton, so I live in a small town. In fact, we moved to a small town on purpose. And I think I like it so much because I I can be anonymous there. And then I know, like, if I'm gonna go do a project or something that's big, like I get to go get on an airplane and go do that, and then I get to come home.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

I get to come home to my small town.

Fame, Small-Town Life, And Humility

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Now, did you do that strategically? Like, did you think to yourself, okay, I want to make sure that I don't lose quote unquote the common touch. I just want to be, like you said, I want to be a normal person, doing normal things. I want to have my friends, I want to be a grounded person. So you strategically said, I'm gonna do some things to kind of hold on to that.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Yeah, I mean, again, I I I think I'm the most normal person in the world. I get to have some extraordinary um experiences. I get to do some things, I get to speak on some stages, I get to hang out with some people that probably a lot of people don't get to. So, and and and and I never lose sight of that.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

I never lose sight of that, and I'm so grateful for it. But even when I'm in those rooms, I'm always thinking about I can't wait to get home. I can't wait to get home to see my grandkids. So three of my grandsons live like a minute from me. Perfect. Yeah. Most days I'm anxious to get home to see my husband. You know, some days I'm like, I don't know about that. You can go stay at the ranch after 37 years, right? Yeah. Um, but I'm anxious to get home to my bed, to my house, to my people, you know, get on the phone with my girls. You know, I I I don't I don't keep any friendships outside of, I've got a couple, only but probably two friendships outside of that circle that you know about.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Yeah. Because I trust them.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

I trust them.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

We're all that's so important at this stage this stage of life, I'm sure. Because you're always kind of wondering, well, why are they relating to me? What do they want?

SPEAKER_01 14:52

So to have people that I don't feel like one person in that room that those rooms that you're in so many times. I I we are all, we have all been to the pits of hell together.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

Yeah.

Friendship, Trust, And Hard Seasons

SPEAKER_01 15:01

And we've prayed ourselves out of it. We've um we've uh seen the highest highs and the lowest lows. We've seen illness, we've seen death, we've seen um business success, we've seen business failure, we've seen heartbreaks, we've seen divorce. Like I've been to hell and back with these people.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

I could never imagine not having them in my life, ever.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

I mean, it's a non-negotiable for me.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

So you just talked about like the hardships. So you you you come across as a very upbeat, positive person. Every time I'm around you, you just you're enthusiastic. Yeah. Um, but like I'm sure you, you know, you have your bad days and your times that disappoint you. And do you have a strategy for kind of pulling yourself out of those seasons? What works for you?

Joy, Perspective, And Grandkids

SPEAKER_01 15:46

You know, something my dad told me years ago. Um, I used to call him, I say, Dad, how are you doing today? I'm vertical. You know? And so I think in my head, I think when I wake up, I'm like, I'm vertical, I'm healthy. God's letting me take a breath. Uh, I've got my friends, I've got my family. And so when things get really crummy, I love hanging out with my grandkids. And I have a new one that's only two months old now. I drove, you know, we talked about traffic, me getting here today. So he lives in South Austin, and my daughter-in-law had a hair appointment and she needed a babysitter. And I was like, I'll do it, I'll do it. So from Belton to South Austin took me two hours and 40 minutes Monday morning, Tuesday morning to get there. Two hours and 40 minutes. I got there, I told my son, I said, I could have driven to Dallas. True story. It's two hours and 30 minutes from my front door in Belton, Texas, to Dallas, Texas. I could have driven to Dallas, but I want to see this baby, you know, and I will babysit him for three hours, and then I'll probably take an hour and a half to get home. And how can you ever have a bad day when you have that? You can't.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

It's about perspective, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Yeah. Yeah. You know, I'm I'm old enough now that I'm just like I'm grateful for every day. And do I have bad days? Absolutely. Do clients make me mad or people? Absolutely. But I'm not going to let them steal my joy.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Awesome.

unknown 17:00

Yeah.

Faith In Business Without Apology

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Now I'm guessing that there's a part of that that's due to your faith. Yes. So you are uh, you know, unashamedly faith-based in terms of how you do what you do. And that can be complicated in our world today. So I'm curious, uh, what are some of the things that you like take seriously about your faith and and and its implementation in your business and your you know work that you do every day? How do you navigate that combination?

SPEAKER_01 17:31

You know, when I was younger, I was, you know, I would I would keep things under my hat. And that's part of what my new book's about, right? When I was younger, I'd be like, oh, I can't say that because I could lose a deal, or I could lose, I will never say lose a friend, because all of my friends, my real friends, were on the same page. So I'll never lose a friend. I might lose an acquaintance, I might lose a follower, I might lose a client. Okay. I didn't need them anyways. Yeah. I need my friends. I need my family. I don't need them. Um so my hope is, and I and I do know that this has happened, that people, people send me so many messages and they're like, you're so unashamed. Thank you. What you said today matters. I'm gonna go say this, I'm gonna go do this. And then I've had some people say, I don't like you. I think you're too controversial. I I'm not following you anymore. They'll send me a message, I'm unfollowing you. I'm like, okay, bye. I mean, really? Why don't you just unfollow me? But so, you know, there's not near as many of those as there is, especially women, because that's who I minister to, that say to me, Thank you. I needed to hear that today. I was afraid to say it. I'm afraid to stand up, I'm afraid to do this, I'm afraid of getting canceled. Of course, I write back and I'm like, you can't be afraid. God is bigger than the haters.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Our God is bigger than the haters. And just know that if you go out strong on something and you believe it, and people come against you, God's just removing them. He's sifting them. Sifting them out of your life.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Canceled Or Called: Standing Firm

SPEAKER_01 18:54

And I I believe that to my very soul. And he sifted out some people. I've lost friends. I write about it in my new book. I lost friends during the election in 2016 when uh President Trump first came out, and I came out very strong for him. And, you know, people are like, they're like, I don't want to be your friend anymore. I'm like, okay, then you were never my friend because I'm still the same person. I'm no different. I'm still of character and I'll be your friend and I'm loyal and all of that. I am no different. I'm just putting my vote or my backing behind this man, and um I I don't sweat it. Yeah, I don't sweat it. And I and I I I think that not everyone's called to do that. I believe that to my soul. Yeah, I believe God has given me that like perspective and that toughness that that I know not everyone's called to do it.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

No.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

And it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Yeah. No.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

I mean, look what you do. You're a pastor, you've written books, so you're a man of faith. Your brother is the is the pastor of of one of the biggest mega churches in Texas.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

We are who we are.

Busyness, Boundaries, And Presence

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Yeah. Now, when uh you know, I hear about your life and I I've I've had to kind of reflect on this myself at various seasons because there is an inertia to like when things start rolling and things start working, uh all kinds of doors open up. Yeah. And some of them you're supposed to walk through, some of you're not. But it it just becomes like very I I don't want to use the word overwhelming, but in many ways it is. And it tends to cost us our balanced life. Like I don't know that there's ever really balance in life, but balance is a lie of the devil telling you.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

There's no such thing.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

So but there is a navigation you have to do with regard to your family and your own personal journey as well as your business. Yes. So, you know, juggling all the balls. Uh what has been the key for you to try and maintain that balance?

SPEAKER_01 20:55

I have not been very good at it. And I'll tell you, I'm just ordered Charlie Kirk or Charlie Kirk's newest book about the Sabbath. And I'm really interested to kind of dig into that. And, you know, I don't know if you know, like it just launched like two days ago. Yeah, of course I ordered 10 of them to give out for Christmas. Um, and I'm very interested in that because I know that that's a weakness of mine. I know that like when I'm sitting at dinner sometimes, I, you know, because I wear this. So this, this, this, this tells me what this is doing. And like it's so some of these things, right? And and my husband is not near as tied to any of this stuff as I am at all.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

Maybe that's why you guys sit together. Uh-huh.

Learning Sabbath And Letting Go

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Because like like if you ever see a post on James Copeland's uh Facebook page, it's because I tagged him and something. My husband doesn't do social media. He doesn't, you know, he's not against it. He just, it's just not for him. And so, you know, my my goal for 2026 is to be more present. Because I know I'm weak in that area. I know it, I know it, I know it. Like I can be talking to somebody. And I think in my head that I'm such a good multitasker, but I know the person sitting in front of me is feeling like they're not as important as they should be. Because I'm literally, I'm scrolling, I'm checking the email over here. I'm like, oh yeah, okay, uh-huh-uh. And I'm doing this and that. And so I know that. So I'm very cognizant of the fact that I am very weak in that area. And that's my goal in 2026 is to set down the devices. Like, there's nothing that's so important. And I've really like looked at this over the last year. I look back at all these messages, like, really, did I have to answer that tonight on a contract? Because it'll be there tomorrow morning. You know, the people, the people aren't leaving that deal tonight at nine o'clock at night.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

And I'm the one who'll be up till, you know, we were just in Italy with David and Rebecca. I was up at three o'clock in the morning because of the time change negotiating a deal. I was his listing agent, it was a tough deal, and I'm up almost all night negotiating and going back and forth, trying to get the deal. My husband was like, Really? Three o'clock in the morning in Italy. Three, it was like three to five thirty. I was up doing it. And I'm like, yeah, but the time zone, I had to get it done. He's like, you didn't have to get it done right now. And I didn't. But that's how I'm wired. So I'm trying to rewire myself so that I am more present for people, that I, that I, I make, um, that I make it a priority to get to things like this for before, you know, because you know, I have a lot of work I can, I I can do. It's busy work, some of it is. And so uh I'm, you know, that is my weakness, and I know that.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

No.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

And I'll be the first one to say it.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Well, good luck with it. Because it is hard.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

I mean, I'm dying to read this book about the Sabbath. I I I've never I've never um adhered to it.

unknown 23:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

You know, I go to church on Sunday and by like by 1.30, my watch is like, shh. And um, so I think, well, I got an hour and a half in. I'm doing good. And God's like, no, you're not.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

No, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

You're really not. Like, stop. Yeah, you know, because I'm still sitting in church and this thing's going off.

Legacy, Showing Up, And Integrity

SPEAKER_00 23:45

I talked to uh a couple of conversations ago. I was talking to a gentleman who owns a business in Fredericksburg. And it's a jewelry store, uh, Texas Silver Ruch. He's a sponsor of the podcast. And he he and I were talking about this very thing because he's also very busy. He travels a lot, has this business. And of course, this is a really busy time of the year for him. And the Lord spoke to him about, I think if I got the details right, about a year ago and said, I want you to close on Sunday. And he was like, especially in Fredericksburg. I can't people are uh and he just sees it was so like heavy on his heart, he said, Okay, I guess I'm gonna do this. And he said he has had never had a better year than when he closed on Sunday. Well, talk to Chick-fil-A.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Talk to Hobby Lobby, all of them, you know.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

So that has to be like, so you know, I I heard it as a message for me too, because I I I used to be quite disciplined about taking a Sabbath and putting up the phone and all that. But I've kind of slipped back in and I I'm feeling the same conviction you are like, no, the Lord deserves, you know, this day an un undistracted or you know, where I've put everything else up and he is the center of my attention.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Because I think that that's where trust comes in, right? Like so, what is faith unless it's tested, right? And so when when I don't have anything else to be tested on recently or whatever, that's a big one. It's such a big one. Yeah. And I keep thinking, oh, I'm just so important, I gotta be able to answer that phone. Well, I'm what what? God said, You're what? Really? No. I give it, I will take it the way.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

So, anyways, I'm I what I'm committing to do right now is to read the book.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

You know, this is now this is public. Yeah, you're gonna be accountable.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

That's all right, yeah. That's all right. That's why I said it. Um, so so what I'm committed to do right now is to read the book. All right, and just see how Charlie outlines it. It's supposed to be really good. I've been following it all week on all the talk shows with Erica.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

So I want to ask one last question. Sure. And that is like, do you have a uh like a theme idea or a theme principle that kind of is a thread throughout your life as kind of a go-to, you keep coming back to it as something that held you steady?

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Wow, you ask good questions. You've been doing this for a while. It has held me steady.

Closing Blessing And Holiday Wishes

SPEAKER_00 26:18

It could be a Bible verse, it could be like an idea or a poem or a quote.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

I I don't know. I don't know. I just I just know that I would say in the last 10 years, legacy's just been such a big thing to me. You know? And what is it that what what do people think when they meet me? What what what do I leave them with? Whether it's my clients or my friends or um whatever. And so it's like I said, I really like that's it's that's what's important to me, you know, is showing up. It's super easy for all of us in life not to show up for things that are important to other people. So things that, so things that are not important, you know, things are important to me, but what is important to my friends or my like last night I went to a college graduation, like in Georgetown. So it's about an hour drive, hour and 15, end of the day, super tired. Like I was like, I can't miss this. I'm gonna get my rear end in that car and I'm gonna go and I'm gonna go celebrate my friend. Uh, you know, um, didn't really want to do it. Not that I didn't want to celebrate her, but I'm just saying, I just, you know, but I'm like, no, it's it's important that I show up for other people. So that has been my theme the last 10 years. To try to show up. I fail all the time. But it's still it's still in my heart. And and when I do fail, I'm just I'm devastated about it. And the other thing I just did my own podcast on, and it's about um internal integrity. Like I did one yesterday and I said, stop lying to yourself. Like we tell ourselves so many lies. And then when we lie to ourselves, we, you know, like I'm gonna get up tomorrow and I'm gonna go work out, and then you don't do it. Well, you just lied to yourself. So I try not to lie to myself. I try to, you know, stick with everything I tell myself I'm gonna do, and I try to stick with what I tell other people I'm gonna do. And I fail all the time, but it is it's a theme that it's at least it's at least top of mind.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah, love that. Yeah, it has been so good to do this. Thank you for your time again. Thank you for having me. Really appreciate your your life and your story. Thank you. And appreciate you taking time to do it.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

And thank you for joining us uh for this sidewalk conversation. We pray that you have a blessed Christmas and great time with family. And maybe some of the things that you heard here will serve as motivators for creating a good goal list for next year as well. So thanks again for joining us and see you next time on another sidewalk conversation.