The Radical Shift: Why This Army Vet Chooses Intentional Fatherhood

From infantryman to land-clearing business owner, Zach Sweet shares his incredible story of life after the Army, building a family, and learning to lead with faith. In this powerful episode of the Hoel Truth Podcast, Zach opens up about the challenges of transitioning out of the military, discovering purpose through pain, and how being a dad and husband has changed his entire outlook on life and leadership.

We talk about fatherhood, marriage, faith, running a business in small-town Indiana, and the value of intentional living in a chaotic world. Whether you're a veteran, entrepreneur, or just trying to live with more purpose — this one's for you.

🎙️ Guest: Zach Sweet
📍 Rushville, Indiana
🔗 Connect with Zach: Land clearing, demolition, drainage, gravel drives – anything with a skid steer or excavator!

📖 Interested in his services? Visit his facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565467094581

Transcript

Zach, how do you, live out your faith loving your family and running your business?

I think that's the endurance between grace and truth. You can, deliver too much truth. Sometimes with no grace. You can show a lot of grace, sometimes without delivering truth, and you become an enabler.

Welcome to this edition of the Hoel Truth Podcast! Today, our special guest is Zach Sweet. He's become a friend here in the last month or so, and, just, kind of want to highlight his local business and just kind of talk live with him. He's got a pretty cool story. So take a second. Introduce yourself. Sir.

Hey, I'm Zach Sweet. I grew up here in Rushville. I did, 12 years in the army, left, came home, started a business and do land clearing and forestry and that's how we got LinkedIn together. What, what made you want to go into the Army? I mean, how did that transpire? I didn't know what to do after school.

I don't know. I was kind of pushed into it. I don't really get it good at classes or anything, so I thought I'd go do push ups for a while and and deploy kind of fell into the narrative of go to war if you're able. So that's what I did. What and I mean, I'm not going to ask like a lot of them details and stuff, but like where was basic at and like, you know, well, I know some unfortunately some guys got to go to war and see some real nasty stuff, and some guys get to go to some areas that it's a little more pleasant to talk about.

So yeah, some of the basic training at Fort Benning, I was an infantryman by trade. And then after that I went to Fort Stewart and did my first deployment in 2013, and then I ppc's in Germany, not out of Germany. I deployed a few more times, went to El Paso and worked the border there, and then went back to Fort Stewart.

And that's where I ended my career. So yeah. Oh, awesome. Tell us a little bit about your family. Well, my my family's from here. Okay. There's, there's, I mean, your intermediate family, like. Oh, I like my family. Yes, yes, yes. You're family. I've been married to my wife now, my current wife, for seven years this year. And I have four kids.

I got two boys, from her previous marriage that I adopted. Awesome. And then I got to have two little ones at home, so it's hectic. It's all boys, all boys. And I ain't got to pay for no weddings. We homeschool. You can teach them the trades. It's cheap. It's good. What? What? How old's the boys? I got a ten year old, a nine year old, a three year old.

And my youngest just turned a year on the 21st. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Married seven years. What? Why, why the mall or the, mall in the forestry business. So when I got out, I'll rewind a little bit, so I. I didn't want to get out of the Army. I'd gotten hurt, so they retired me early.

And when I got out, I set around for a month or so. I kind of did some hit or miss jobs here around town. I work for the school doing grounds. I was at the parks department. I like to be an outside, but I didn't have to work. So if I'm going to do, I'm going to have fun.

And I got better thing to do than play in a skid steer and excavator all day and get to be a big kid, you know? And I kind of tailored it to where I get to destroy stuff. Yeah. You know, that way if I mess something up, well, he called me to mess it up, so. Yeah. So it works out for me, I guess.

No, no. Awesome. Yeah. I mean, it's it's fun to watch. Garrett Abrams, a mutual friend of ours. He wanted to start a Rush County leadership. What Dave Ramsey calls the Eagle group, that he was a part of when he was younger. And that's kind of how we got, got to meet because Garrett reached out, and me and Garrett had talked a couple different kinds about it, and then he's like, well, we got to find a meeting place for a couple months, and then, Zach's going to have a spot that we could meet at.

Yeah. Like, okay, okay. And, you know, I didn't know you were moving from Russellville up to where you're moving because you literally moved right around the corner from my old house. You know? And, so it's been, it's it's been fun. Just to kind of watch your, your business on Facebook and, you know, I get it.

I've got a skid loader at home. And, I mean, it's it is fun. It's hard to get out of it. Yes. You're in it. Yeah. Get in that thing and. Yeah. Yeah. So what, speak a little bit about, like, your faith because we had, we had some conversations at one of the leadership meetings and, you know, and, had a commercial roofer, Jalen Ramsey in here a couple months ago, probably now.

And he was in. Sorry, Jalen. If I hit this wrong, I think he was in the Army too. And you know and then comes out starts his own business kind of thing too. So it was just a lot of similarities there because we talked a lot about our faith and just being dads and being the man that God calls us to be and and being the man that this country needs.

More important, in my opinion. Yeah,

I try to structure it to where everything comes out of faith instead of what can I do to make my faith grow? You know what the Bible says at the end when he says, well done, my good and faithful servant is not good, job well done and successful servant or influential servant is faithful.

So I try to I try to apply that to everything with my wife, with my kids, with how I run the business. I don't really do anything unless I pray about it first. Everything flows out of how Christ loves us, you know that died of self long suffering, endurance, fruits of the spirit. I try to structure everything out of that, and I wasn't always like that.

You know, I claim to be a Christian my entire life. My entire life. And then I never acted like it until. Until I lost my job in the Army, because that was my idol. That was my God. And God took it as my Isaac. You know,

I'm a people familiar with that story. But Abraham and Isaac, right? Are you want to lay it down for me?

And I never was right. So tell you. Well, and, and and I feel like, we, we do put so much of our identity in our job being the dad, being a husband, you know, and it's it's got to be a balance because we are called to work also. And I think that's, that's a cultural problem. Right now.

We're, you know, like, you know, in the Bible it says if you do not work, you do not eat like that. Some people may say, oh my gosh, that's so harsh. But there's we're designed to work. Yeah. You know, I even I even read something the other day. It was like, when you're in your 20s, you should be working 12 to 14 hours a day because you get so much energy, you know?

Yeah. And where does that go right now we're like, yeah. And when we're that age are usually pretty dumb and stuff we do. So we should probably be at work and doing something a little more, you know, a little more productive. But it's just, you know, as you grow. And for me, it's just like, it's one thing to say, you believe.

It's another thing like the way you act. And then there's that. There's that line of truth and grace also, because there's you've got to show. You've got to show some grace. Yeah. You know, and in, in everything also. But I do believe that if you call yourself a believer. Yeah, people should see a different.

They should see the difference in you. They should. Yeah. There should be fruits. There's the should be fruits. And that's what I mean. That's what the Bible says. You'll know by the fruits they bear. You know, anybody can say I'm a Christian, but.

I don't want to sound insensitive, right. But anybody can say they're a Christian these days, and nobody's actually living it out, right? You know, nobody dies to self or gives up their time or gives up their money, you know, or throws a free job here and there for somebody in need. No, nobody really does that except for if you find a group of dudes, you know, I like I said, I'll be fully transparent.

I didn't even start doing that kind of stuff until recently, whenever it was laid out in front of me, when everything was taken, that was an idol. And then all I had was him to lean on. And then I had this constant state of joy, and out of joy flows fruits of the spirit, because happiness wanes and wanes, sadness wins and wins.

But that constant undertone of joy, I think that's where it's easier to operate as a Christian. But you don't know that if it's just a way. I go to church on Sunday.

All right. See you next Sunday. You know, there's no discipleship. There's no pouring into one another. There's no doing life together. It's just, well, I go to church. Jesus is my get out of jail free card, right? Right. You know, this is not what he is. Well, you know, and people should be, should see, you know, a difference.

You know, in your life and I was actually just having a conversation, with my sales manager, Chris, I mean, literally about 15 minutes ago, he just sent us a text, had a second baby boy, you know, and we had that conversation yesterday at lunch and like, you know, he's he came to me three, 4 or 5 months ago and like, he was off.

And Chris is one of them that is happy. He's thankful. He has a dream to have as a team member. Like, because he believes in us. He doesn't ever really question anything. And he's just he's loyal, loyal, loyal. And, Emily's like Emily could tell the difference. And then, like, I was like, Chris. Like what? What's going on?

Like, are you okay? And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I found out I was like, no, no, no. Like, are you okay? He's like, man. He's like, I'm not. He's like, I'm just kind of in this funk and you know. And when he came to interview with us, he's been with us almost four years now, which is crazy to say out loud.

And, he kept talking about his mama, his mama, mama, mama, and like, I mean, amazing woman. And he told us he's like, what? I was doing really dumb stuff. My mama was praying for me. Oh, she's never quit praying for me. And now when you see his mama. She thinks me and Emily hung the moon.

She's like, you're so good to our grandson. And I'm like, he's so good to us. Like, you know, you know, we're just. We're just loving them. But I bought him a John Maxwell leadership Bible. I can't remember a couple years ago, maybe a year, year and a half ago when he stepped into leadership role. And one thing that I've learned being a business owner, like there's some people that dis naturally will just lead without ever a title, you know, and, it's such a, it's such a hard balance as a business owner of like, who do you want, who do you promote, you know, in that kind of stuff.

But we had that conversation and I've been convicted lately of, like, discipling people being discipled. Once again, if we go back to being men where it's so easy to be isolated and it's so easy to be busy with what we fill ourselves up. You've got pride in our. Yeah, yeah, you've got four kids. I've got three kids.

You've got a business, I've got a business, you've got a wife, I've got a wife like, you know. Yeah. And then we're crazy enough to mess with cattle too. That's another part time, full time job on the side of that, you know? Yeah. But so I told Christians, like we're going to be intentional about some discipleship. Yeah.

I didn't really give him a choice. I just said, you know, as your leader, like, I want to I want to do that because I just I truly I lost a really good friend, Nick Schiano a couple of years ago. And he ran a it was called Piano Landscaping. I did a lot of outdoor living, like, more hardscape stuff.

Oh, yeah. And, I mean, I mire him like, he would have hard conversations with you, and, like, that guy was in constant communication with God because, like, one time he called me, he's like, hey, he's like, I don't know why, but God told me that, like, he pretty much chewed my ass. If I'm being honest with you, he's like, this roofing business is your dream, and you're working too much in it.

And I think her dreams to be a mom. And you need to make sure that you're honoring her dream. And fortunately, we were close enough to where you could hear that. I could hear it. It's still it still pissed me off for just being honest. But like, I was like, okay, you know? Yeah. So, like I said, just just as a dad, just as a husband, like, you know, there's so much stuff thrown at us.

This world is crazy, you know? And like you said, homeschool, like, man, it's to kind of slow this world down and, you know, the opportunity to raise our kids in rural Indiana out in the middle of nowhere, like, awesome. It's especially for boys. Yeah. And my girls love it, too, but especially for boys. Yeah. It's nice.

It's good to. I think being intentional is something that's over, that's overlooked. I think a lot of sounds, something I heard in the Army is majority of life is 90% reaction, 10% action. Right. And so you can kind of ski those numbers and transition it into more a higher percentage of action going on. Then your intention changes and then people see your intention and then people can see your heart set.

And it's probably like your friend Nick, you knew that while he was saying he was coming from a good place because he was intentional over a long period of time. So you trust what his intent was, you know, instead of just being like, well, I'm reacting to something that I always said, even though you don't know my heart because I was never intentional.

Right. Hope this lands right. Yeah. Well, and one thing that I respect about Nick as a business owner, like he would, he would hire us to do any, any parts of the projects of his jobs that that he knew was in my wheelhouse. And there was never, like, trying to beat me up on price. There was never, like, holding my money, like, you know, like, once again, in my opinion, like, really lived out his faith of, like, you know, helping people out and, you know, hey, Bob, can you do this for me?

Yep. And then he'd give me feedback if I sent a not so good sales person that he's like, hey, Bob, I just want you to be aware of this. Like, they took three days to get me this estimate. He goes, when you're running this business yourself, he's like, you get it to me in a day, day and a half.

And I know this is their job. I'm like, hey, I appreciate that back. You know. So and you know, he he was and he was such a big supporter. You know of what. Of what me and Emily were doing. And you know, you talk about like helping people, you know, like, you know, the Bible's clear, you know, take care of the orphans in the way in the world.

And, I, I went to Pastor Paul at church and I said, because I knew that he was really close to Nick and Jamie, and him and his wife really walked through them. Final months with them. And I said, When Jamie's ready to finish that house, let me know. And, she came to us pretty quick after that.

It was like, give me some estimates like we've got to get this finished. And I was like, there are no estimates. Yeah we're coming out you know to get it done. And you know that's the kind of stuff that nobody really sees. And that's okay. That's okay. You know, because like to me, like, that was me honoring my friend Nick.

And, you know, loving, you know, loving his family, filling a need. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and just that kind of stuff, like, I mean, that's that's what owning the business is about. Like. Yeah, some people think it's about deep pockets, small pockets or that. Yeah, that's a big, common misconception, isn't it? It's like the margins never change.

It's just the volume changes. Yeah yeah yeah. So you know and then there's this, you know, Bay area roofing contractor and we get ready to get a foot of snow. So we'll sit down for a week, you know go go sledding. Yeah. Yeah a couple of guys might be able to get to the office, you know. But what, what what are some life lessons in the Army, you know, that really did kind of shape who you are today.

Be the last person, speak in the room. You might save yourself from getting embarrassed, or you might find out you agree with someone that's more experience than you. It's probably the biggest one I learned. Just because you're seasoned doesn't mean you're the best. You know, something I learned whenever I became a platoon sergeant was privates, knew more about their job than I knew about it, even though I had been in longer.

And I'd done those jobs ten years ago. I don't know how to do it now, but the current state. So that element of dying to self and recognizing you don't know everything because there's a difference between managing those personnel and then leading them. And a lot of people conflate the two. You know leadership inspires right. Management just organized chaos.

Yeah. You know so I think those are probably the two biggest things that I learned while I was in because you can embarrass yourself pretty quick if you're quick to speak when you shouldn't be. And I did that a few times and then big opinions and a, big opinions in a room where there didn't need to be big opinions.

Yeah, right. Yeah. Learning how to, understand the difference between dog and pony show in real life. You know, like, I like having a big opinion about something that is just optics because military is big on optics now. Everything's about how you look and how you perform. I'm sure you guys can pick up on that from the current state of the news and stuff.

It's really not about how you perform shows how you look right. It's kind of scary, but that's where that's where at least the Army is at right now, right? Right. Yeah. They get mad at me all they want. That's what it is, right? Right. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's like it's like on the news today that they're, they're saying that, an Ice officer detained a five year old, and I guess the true.

What did he say? I guess I guess I guess the truth is, the dad took off running. Yeah, and left the kid. Oh, he's making the kid safe. What are they supposed to do? Just let the kid, like. Yeah, wonder out? I don't know, I know the details. That'd be hard. One, though. Yeah. For for God's sakes, it's going to be.

It's probably negative. It's negative out right now in Indiana. So in Minnesota it's probably -30,000 Minnesota. Yeah yeah yeah. That freaking complete train wreck. And yeah, you know, just yeah it's a tough situation. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. So I mean like, you know, it's just man, I like that, you know, be the last one. The the speak in the room.

Yeah. Paul's discernment I think I think is that that's a big thing that I learned, I collect, I try to do that now is pause. Right. I don't know, I don't have to answer right now. It's actually not an emergency. The sky will not fall. You know, I, I need to learn that when I'm dealing with my kids and they aggravate me.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, they circle back to the faith. Part of that, though, too, is was changing how I talk to my kids because I, I used to I used to talk a little rough. I never would scream and shout or anything like that. My wife might say something different, but I never I don't think I've ever really screamed and shouted at them.

But mine is changing now because I try to love them. How Christ loves me. He never he never punishes. He'll chastise. Right? Right. And he'll, he'll he'll get you back on track. But he never berates. He never tells us we let him down because we don't hold him up. Right? Yeah. You know, he's he's always stand there with open arms.

He loves on us. And then me being a fall, a fallen human since Genesis three. Why? Why am I somehow acting like I'm done wrong, right when I'm in need of a savior, too? Yup. And that's just changed how I look at my kids because they're. I don't know how you view, but I look at my kids like they're on loan to me.

Yeah, they're not mine. They were on loan to me until they're adults, until they can go fulfill the cause. Christ, you know, don't tell. So I don't know. It gets real tender when I look at them. In that light of, man, I'm sure these guys are going to have to interact with people down the road and tell them about Christ, and they're going to have all this stuff in their head that their dad said to them, right.

Getting in the way is like, oh, that's almost heavier and running a business. Well, and I mean, and you know, if you look at like, you know, the account that we take for the way we've led our families, like that's that's heavy, you know, that's heavy too. And I mean, I've got I've got two girls. So like they're going to judge their husband at your home just off of me.

Yeah. And like, yeah, selfishly, I just want them to see the good qualities in me and forget the the bad qualities. Yeah. But at the end of the day, like, they, they're, you know, I mean, and kids are so different, like, you know, Rhett, Reagan, and Rylee, like Rhett is my tender one. My boy's my tender one.

I mean, my youngest one. Like, she's crazy. Like girl was like, I think there's something to that. My young ones are crazy, too. I mean, she's just, her and her brother just just beat the living out of each other and then. Yeah. So. But, you know, like, Reagan is Reagan to my middle one. And, like, she just, she tries so hard to do the things that her brother's good at.

You know, and I try to be very intentional on complimenting her on what she is good at. Like, she is like the baby whisperer. Like, if you brought a baby in here, like, she's she's going to be the babysitter when she grows up. Like she's just going to watch the kids. Now, Riley, you'll she'll have your kids helping burn the house down, you know, while learning the trailer.

Yeah, yeah, the good stuff. Reagan. Reagan. Like like literally like, you know, last year at the company Christmas party, like, I believe Chris, the I remember the one time Chris and Lily brought in Avery in the little punk, and and, I mean, Reagan just jumps down there, you know, gets in her face, but not, like, vicious, but just gets down there and starts playing.

And I'm just like Reagan. You're created like you're you're special. Like you were created for everything. Like for what? For what you're called to do. And like. Yes, I guess that's kind of my focus right now as a dad of just like, is trying to love them and make sure they realize that they're all different. Yeah, but I've caught myself realizing, I think the reason Reagan tries to act, tries to go do everything her brother does.

A that's her older, that's the oldest one, but it's like she sees me complimenting him because he is he is very talented. Like I told you before, we flip the cameras on like he's very gifted. You taught him in a skid loader. You throw him, he can go drive a truck around the block. Back it up, hook it up to a trailer.

While we're in here on the podcast, you know, Reagan, she probably couldn't find the keys between now and then, you know? So, yeah, different mindsets, but what,

What what are some goals? What are. Or I guess actually pay better. Like, is there a mentor that you feel like, like, really changed your life. Yeah. Here recently I don't know if he'll watch this, but, our pastor out of the church, we go to Cody Hensley. Okay. And that dude, man, I don't know. He's does he's just kind of consumed with, with showing God in a loving way and not like the stereotypical pastor like Baptist way, but he's just a friend.

Even when it's inconvenient for him and stuff and he, with me and my wife, I won't get into her business stuff, but we kind of went through some stuff, a couple years ago and he kind of, he reoriented me. He didn't tell me what I should do, but he's the type that will reorient you to where you need to look so that you can be spoken to so God can use you.

He doesn't do that. This is your news. This is your dance. It's no go pray about it. Go listen to God. This is you know, he'd always he'd always push me to Ephesians four or, you know, take off the old man, put on the new man, be made new. And it's not so much what you stop doing. In the example I think the Bible gives us, if you're a liar, you start telling the truth, you know?

And like what I was going through at that time, it was very much, doing things I shouldn't have been doing. So how do I change that? My wife needs to see me live out the opposite of what I was doing, and he's been great about change in mindset, the heart posture change. Because the Bible says if you're if you're transformed by the renewing of your mind, you know, we have to change how we look at stuff.

But I don't know if you grew up in church or not, but it kind of turns into these are your do's and don'ts, and there's no discipleship and no transforming in your mind. So he he's been really great of getting get me to read it for myself and then have discernment. We did the one thing that I've just really kind of realized the last couple years is like, we're all program the way we were raised.

Yeah. And like some of that programing was good. Yep. Or beneficial I guess. And some of it wasn't. And it's like, you know, because like we've a lot of the people around the whole roofing here has been through this training called the journey that nobody and like the, the probably the biggest thing that I took away from that when I went there was like, kids, there's that when they're little, like they're so and they can imagine and just kids really don't need a lot to be happy.

Know. And, you know, we think that all these Christmas presents are going to make them happy. And then they that play with the boxes. Yeah. Like, you know, that's just not certain kids. It's all kids. Yeah. Or like, you know I give my wife credit like she loves buying them little coloring books for churches where they had to think, yeah, you know, and now every once in a while her OCD kicks in and the kid's got 17 pages scattered because they're doing this coloring, they're doing this, I do that, but like, I mean, I give my wife credit like we I was we were talking to some friends the other day and I said, hey,

Reagan, we're going to need you to help us this summer. In the office. And the wife with them is like, can she operate a phone? I said, actually, probably not. I was like, we they don't have tablets. They don't like, don't grab our phones and take pictures. I'll get on my phone and they'll be videos that they, they act out like kids love cattle.

Right now. So like they've got 40 head of cattle at my house named every one of them. I think, you know, so but, it's just it's so cool to see, like, their little minds rolling, but it's like, we we all had that in our, in us until eventually, I hate to say it, we kind of get it knocked out of us that it's like, all right, this is how the world has to be.

It's got to be hard. It's got to be miserable. You got to hate your job. You know, all that kind of stuff where it's like, no, like, if we can go back to that childlike faith, you know, like and just enjoy life and, you know, look at it through their lens like, it's it's just so much different. Yeah.

It's fun in the from childhood to where we are now. It's finding the, the roses and the thorn bush, you know, it's trying to still, there's a lot of weeds in there that get in the way of what we should see, but there's still something beautiful in there and unpacking and undoing at all. Yeah, I.

And I mean, and, you know, like you say, Scripture says the renewing of the mind, like, you know, like, like I just. And when I meet people now, I try to, like, just step back in, kind of like, observe, like, you know, especially the people that I knew, you know, like, I mean, prime example, me and my wife, my dad had to commute.

I had to communicate everything with my dad growing up, I think my wife didn't talk to her parents, but maybe twice a week every week growing up. So like the completely different communication skills and like it's so then it's a it's a problem between us because I think we communicate a lot more. She thinks we communicate less, you know, and it's a different to where, you know, where where does that healthy balance of I've got to give some she's got to give some you know.

But it's just you know and then and then as you become parents and the older you get to me, the more respect I have for my dad because it's hard to be a parent. Yeah. My dad did it as a single parent most of his life. I've got a wife and I feel like I suck, and I.

And I fail every day with my kids, so I've got an awesome wife to help me, you know? So, yeah, that's, you know, and kind of another piece of the pie that I kind of look at more of, like just trying to love that person. Yeah. I'll circle back to the whole childlike thing real quick. I was trying to gather my thought and I think I, I can articulate it well.

Like our children, they wake up, they're not even thinking about if they're going to eat that day.

They're just not they're not they're not worried about their gas on the truck. They're not worried about gas in the fall weather or or if the lights are going to be on or the waters that they don't even think about. And I think that's how we're supposed to look at our lives.

You know, but the disconnect, I think, is there was no discipleship to where how do I how do I stay where I'm oriented towards him and know, and he's going to take care of me because our life transitions somewhere around 18 to 22 where it's like it's on me and I have to be the provider, and I have to be the one with the answers.

And then being a leader of your home turns into a burden. Yep. You know, a lot of people think that too, especially in biblically grand households where the husband is the head of the house, not the not the ruler, right? Not the dictator. Because if you you know, if you love going to Ephesians five again, if you love your wife as Christ loved the church, how did he love the church?

He died, literally died, suffered, endured, even when people persecuted him and hated him and he still loved. That's not an entitlement. That's a burden. Right? Right. You know, I think that's something that's missed these days is but in that, like, how do we yeah, how do we get back to where we're just kind of wide open and living and not worrying about anything?

I think it's so he talks about this too, is I think it's a fear of what the, you know, horizontal can do instead of what the vertical has done. You know, we're all we're all looking out here in front of us on what can they do to us? I want their approval even instead of what? What is the vertical?

What has God done for us already? And what is he continuing to do on our behalf to the father? You know, that's what helps me, I think, because I really don't worry too much about stuff anymore. Until we get a few days out. I'm like, all right, all right. And then, you know, out of nowhere, something will happen.

It's like, oh, cool. Thanks. Appreciate you. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, and, and and the scripture says, you know, you know, he'll give us our daily bread, like, not a weekly, not a yearly. It's a daily thing sometimes for me, like in the business, like we're setting goals and I don't think that's a bad thing. It's like, how are we going to get there?

Then every once a while, I just reminds me like, hey, remember I told you I'm in control and I'm, I'm a control freak and I'm trying to figure this and that and I'm just like, relax. Make sure the team knows what the expectations are and let them, you know, as you said, like leadership in management is two different things, you know, and let you got to lead, you know, and and we're all trying to figure this out on our own.

You've only been a parent to four kids for a short time. And like, you know, not a long time. So I've, you know, every time I put a layer, another layer of leadership in there, I've never really only tried to manage a sales manager for about two years now. So I still don't know what, you know, what I'm doing right now.

Yeah. So it's just kind of, you know, trying to show grace. And, you know, I always hope that my team knows my heart. And, you know, but it's also it's also self reflecting of like, you know, as men. And the other thing that I'm really trying to focus on here lately is like, we can either bring peace or we can bring chaos in, and we we do it every day and every night we walk into our home, you know, I do it every day when I walk into this office.

So it's like, you know, and that's what external or external factors are we allowing? You know, we blow a hydraulic hose on the skid loader that, you know, you're five minutes away from me. You know, it's my wife's fault. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I, I totally get what you're saying. I totally get what you're saying.

It might I it's hard. It's getting easier for me to check stuff like that. The, I think I think the closer like, even more with the Bible study we're having and having a group of guys to kind of talk to you about things and keep my heart oriented where it should be that these are things. Right? These are souls.

So to let it have an impact on how I talk to my children or my wife, it just seems, I don't know. But even in trying to bring peace, sometimes I bring chaos. Yep, yep. Feeling like, hey, this is going to fix this, right? And it just it doesn't land it, you know, it just does not land. And the next thing you know, you made it worse.

And well, it's like that for a week. You know, for me it's like, you know, another thing, is like, as men, we should be, you know, the first one to say, hey, I messed up. Yeah. I'm sorry. Like, show that to our children, show that to our wives. And there's times that we know we're right and we know our wives are wrong and so on.

And. But it's not. It's like, be humble enough to say, hey, you know what? Here is?

Here's what's going on here. I need to say, hey, I'm sorry about this, you know, kind of thing. Just, just to love them. Because, you know, and we are in this culture where it's starting to swing back the other way, but, you know, where it's like, you know, it's masculinity was so toxic and, you know, and it's like.

But, you know, my wife will even say, I'm glad that you're the man and you lead, and I'm glad that you have that responsibility on you, you know? And she's awesome. She's a huge part of this success in the business, you know, and she's an amazing mother. But there's certain things that we have to do as men to allow our wives to be who, you know, they're called to be.

Yeah, yeah, they're under him first, right? They're under God first. And leading them men. Now I'm this kind of click. And for me, right now, we lead them a God manages them, right. You know, we we should show them what what it is to be a believer and to walk that out while God still uses them for what their purpose is.

Yeah, that's true. It's a hard thing to do, though, right? I don't know.

What what is what is kind of the hardest business lesson or, you know, hardest, you know, lesson in life, marriage, kids that, you know, it's kind of shaped you to who you are right now.

Oh, man. Without airing too much of it out, I got I got divorced young, I got married and got divorced. And it was nasty. Things were said about me that weren't true. And, I was going to be single forever. And then me and my wife now got together. Things happened, and it wasn't. I wasn't ideal. And, I had to learn.

It's not about me. It doesn't matter what I want. It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what I feel. I'm here for one purpose. It doesn't matter what I want to do with my business. I'm here for one purpose and has to go teach, make disciples and baptize them. Anything outside of that doesn't serve eternity serves here.

And we're here for 80 years, tops. But, you know, it's I use this analogy a lot. If you look at a beach and you pick up one grain of sand, that is our life on Earth, and that lesson that came from that is like, I why am I getting wrapped up in this one little grain?

Because it ain't about me. I'm a tool that that is loved, right? That was beautifully and wonderfully made. Yeah, my identity is in Christ like I it's not a woe is me or a I'm somehow less than now. It's a no. I've been chosen to go and do his will and that and I had to learn that lesson of Ed due to ain't about me, right?

It ain't about me at all. Literally none of my wants, none of my needs. None of that stuff matters is great when those are met, but it doesn't matter if it doesn't serve him. That was hard. What, your second marriage. Were you in the military at all? That was okay, I was I was coming back from Germany, and, my wife thought I was hot and hit me up and I'm just kidding.

She did, but she hit me up, and, we we hit it off as crazy. We started talking to six months later. Eight months later, we were married at Fast. Yeah. So did she move? She moved out to El Paso whenever. Peace there. Yeah, like we knew each other when we were kids. We went to the same church and stuff, and then we we left that church and, kind of reconnected.

She got divorced, so we kind of bonded over that. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Common, common life situations. Yeah. Well, and I mean, that's that's the beautiful thing. Like there's so many challenges in life. Like, I just had the opportunity to talk to some, kids at Greensburg High School the last couple days, and, like, they're like, you know, what's the secret?

Or I'm like, there's this challenges every single day. You've got to get up and face. And, you know, you know, it's funny, you know, the other night at our, our leadership group, you and Gary, it's like, well, if we want to feel better, we'll just call Bob, and I'll just call Bob. Yeah. Hear about his headaches. You know, you more money and I make you just crazy.

But, you know, it's just, But but that's also important to have other men in our lives. And and another thing that I've, that I learned from that training is there's almost a universal code in the world that, like, if I don't call you on your bullshit. You won't call me on my bullshit and it's like it's.

Yeah, it's. It's, that's how we treat our wives, how we treat our kids, how we treat our employees, how we treat the, the cashier at, you know, like it's funny, like I've my kids like my dad work hard, be honest. Like, that's what my dad said all the freaking time. Yeah. And there's so much truth to that. And like, so my kids like, I'm just like, hey, guys.

And my kids are great at, like, opening the door and they open the door earlier. They go into Jack's Donuts and, the guy rattles off their name and he's like, hey, Rhett, Reagan, and Rylee, and he's got a toboggan on. And like, I'm looking at, I'm like, I'm like, I know this guy. Then he starts talking like, hey, come on, have you guys come out, put a roof on and do some gutters.

And I'm like, and he's like, you know who I am? And I was like, man, I feel like it's on the tip of my tongue, but I don't. He tells me he's he's a friend of my dad's. Yeah. And and he goes, that's how I knew the kid's his name. So he goes, you're dad. Don't shut up about them grandkids.

And I just I just start laughing, you know? But it was pretty cool because I was like, hey, guys, grab that door real quick for that guy because I could see him once again. The kids, I mean, they're so focused on running in that door, you know, and it's like I'm walking up and I see somebody trying to walk out and they're like, it's tiger tail Tiger, hold that door real quick, guys.

So it's kind of cool that they got the door, you know, for somebody that that knew, you know, man, you know, my kids are so used to people now when I'm with the business and, you know, they're they're with us. So, especially in the beginning, like, when we were at a job sites all day, like, they were in the truck with us, you know?

So, like, they're, they're so they're so used to that. And I think and that's I was, I was complimented the other day by somebody that said, it's pretty cool for as much time as I'm getting to spend with my kids right now. And our kids go to, private school up at Heartland Christian, amazing, amazing, amazing school, like, by far, like the best thing I've ever done for my kids, you know?

And, you know, I guess we're seeing as we're seeing the swing in that homeschooling private school. Fortunately for us, right now, the kids only go four days a week. It can be a little bit of an inconvenience on Friday. We're trying to do a podcast right now, and there are a couple rooms over, and they might get loud and you might hear them come through this mic.

But I also look at it as, like you said, they're all known to us. So like, if I get to spend 20% more time with them every week than the average parent because they don't have school on Friday. Yeah, and I can throw them in my truck and have them come in the office and mop the floor and run the sweeper and that kind of stuff like to me, like, yeah, I'm never going to regret that.

No, no, you're not out. You're not out sourcing parenthood, I think. But it's not for everybody. And I'm not speaking as this being the rule. The something I've noticed is public school has turned into daycare. Yeah. And there's no buy in from the parents. It's just kind of like, I'm on drop these kids off. It's on the teacher now to raise my children.

They spend two thirds of their life from, you know, kindergarten to their senior year with other people, without the people God gave them pouring into them. It just doesn't make sense to me to do it that way, because nobody's going to love my kids like me. Nobody's going to care about their future like me. Yeah. So. And I was pretty cut and dry for if I put it in that lens, you know, so they're not going to have any weird indoctrination.

I'll say it. People can get mad. You have any weird indoctrination, they're going to think it's cool to wear tail at 15 years old, right? You know, they're not going to be using the bathroom in a litter box, right? Right. They're going to know that it's okay to be masculine. Yep. It's okay to be a good man, not a nice guy.

Yep. There's a difference. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Like. You know I don't I don't it's pretty cut and dry I don't understand the whole. Now let them go and be delicate and explore their feelings with people that don't care about them right now. Yep. Half pass. Yep. I don't know, maybe that's insensitive, but yeah, I mean, I, I mean, that's why I've said a million times, like I'm the biggest supporter of public schools.

When they asked me, oh, I can speak, we sponsor a lot of I'm not against classes with them. Right. Yeah. And I will give the public school credit that especially in a high school world now they're starting to they're looking at these kids and trying to help them down the best path for them. Right? I mean, when I was in school, it was you had to go to university.

And that was really how they laid everything out. And if you weren't going to four year university, like they didn't care, right? Like it was like that when I was there too, you know, and it was like, you're going to go to technical college for what I'm like, well, a my stepmom works there and I don't have to pay tuition and be I was the type of student at a flunked out of a class.

It was I had 120 people. You want to start your adult life with college debt? Yeah. Let me. So it's so crazy, you know, that's, Yeah. And like I said, I seen a statistic that it's over 5 million kids are being homeschooled right now. Now, that could be completely made up. I don't know, it wouldn't surprise me.

You know, I keep I keep saying, I think eventually you're going to see some super small schools pop up where it's like your wife stays at home with four kids and you've got 4 or 5 neighbors, and it's already happening there. So there's like 75. I might be misquoted. There's something in the 70s, families in Rush County alone and the co-op.

Okay, okay. Yeah, that's that's a lot. Right? Really? That's a lot. If each we each have a couple kids that's that's 150 kids, right. That's my graduating class. Right. Right. Yes. Yep. That's a lot of kids. And then if that takes off and they're successful and they do it their kids and it might turn into something. Yeah. And like our kids school, I think when we started, there was 100 and like 14 kids and that was K through 12.

So that shows you how small the class. Yeah. And now they're trying they're adding on. They're raising money to add on. Now I think they're at like 280 I mean they're busting at the seems like there's a waitlist, you know, and it's like you know, and you know, it's just and if you look at their school like they're, they're pretty, strict, I guess, like, girls can't wear earrings, they can only wear, like, clear earrings, you know.

Yeah. Rhett has to wear pants. You know, in some of it, maybe. If I'm just being honest. Yeah. Is a little extreme. Like Reagan wants to wear. She's got her Cow earrings on right now. Like, I'm completely fine with that, you know what I mean? But I respect what the school. I understand what the schools do it, so it's not.

They're said, you know, it's that's okay. You know, also having some structure that kind of stuff is, you know, is not is not a bad thing. You know, strict, strict and a bad thing. Right. Teaches people how to be on time teachers and that they're going to have to dress a certain way if they get a certain job government wrong with that at all.

Yep. Yeah. Well, sir, it's been a good conversation as we kind of, as we wrap up, is there anything, you want to add? And then I'll, at the end of this, let you kind of tell us what you do for your business. So if we can help get you those some business your way, we'd love to help you out.

No, I'm not mad. Except for if you don't know. Jesus asked me about him. Yep. Absolutely. So, Land clearing, forestry, land clearing, forestry, demolition, gravel drives, anything with a skid steer and excavator I can do. Yep. Drainage, all that. Awesome. So perfect. Well, I appreciate your time. Sure appreciate your heart. And just always good to talk to like minded man.

So thank you, sir. Yeah. Thanks for having me.