Working Hard? So Why Are You Still Stuck (This Will Help in 2026)

Reinvention isn’t a midlife crisis—it’s obedience on a deadline.

In this episode, we sit down with a former pastor-turned-operator who rebuilt his life, his leadership, and his livelihood—starting over in his 50s. We talk candidly about failure, forgiveness, and why walking in step with the Holy Spirit beats white-knuckle hustle every time. No polish, no platitudes—just the real story of losing a platform, keeping a marriage, and learning to lead from the bottom again.

We get practical. We unpack a “win the morning, win the day” framework you can run tomorrow: wake early, open Scripture before your phone, journal what God’s saying, name the three needle-movers, move your body, and encourage two people before 10 a.m. We explore servant leadership in the wild—cleaning storage rooms, asking better questions, listening more than we talk—and the gritty humility that attracts mentors, opens rooms, and sustains success.

We also trade notes on shifting from success to significance: raising your leadership lid, paying for coaching when it counts, and choosing character that can actually carry the platform you pray for. If you’ve felt the nudge to pivot—career, business, or habits—this conversation will give you the mindset and mechanics to move.

📌 Key Topics:
 ✅ How confession, forgiveness, and daily surrender create true momentum
 ✅ A step-by-step morning playbook to anchor focus and fruitfulness
 ✅ Servant leadership in practice (and why humility scales)
 ✅ Communication as a superpower: ask, listen, and earn trust
 ✅ Finding a mentor (and being one) without the guesswork
 ✅ Trading “more” for “meaning”: success → significance in work and family

Take one rhythm from this episode, run it tomorrow morning, and lead different this week.

00:00 Introduction and Background

01:12 Early Life and Spiritual Awakening

03:19 Journey into Ministry

04:31 Challenges and Failures in Ministry

05:33 Transition to the Business World

09:21 Daily Routines and Personal Growth

13:32 Leadership and Mentorship

17:13 Starting a New Venture

30:53 The Importance of Connection and Growth

31:24 The Role of Communication in Leadership

32:34 The Devil's Distractions and Leadership

33:29 Servant Leadership and True Leadership

35:49 Personal Leadership Journey

37:51 Spiritual Growth Through Business

40:40 Mentorship and Leadership Development

45:05 The Power of Surrounding Yourself with Great Leaders

51:13 The Value of Paid Coaching and Mentorship

54:00 Writing and Publishing a Book

01:00:13 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

Transcript

 Chad, appreciate you coming here, coming down, uh, finally getting together. Get to do this. Yeah, kinda wanna start it off with a pretty, I guess, broad question and just throw it out there, but you've.

From what I know of you, you've reinvented yourself a few times. Yeah. Started off as a pastor. Yeah. Uh, had some trials and tribulations there. Pivoted into the business world. Yeah. Working for others. Found success there. Did well for yourself. But recently you've pivoted again. Yeah. You quit your job of a while, uh, started your own company.

You're working on a book. You're doing leadership, mentorship, all kinds of stuff like that. What does it take for someone to. Say, Hey, I've been doing this for 20 years, but in my fifties. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna seek something different and pivot. Yeah, man. So good. Well, Ryan, thanks for having me on.

Super grateful and thankful. It's been fun getting to know one another, hanging out at some of the Ryan Pineda events and seeing each other different events around, uh, the city. Fun that we're getting to kind of sit down and have this. So thanks for inviting me. Super cool. Thank you. Excited to be here.

Appreciate it. Um, no man, that's great. So for me, you know, I was. Ma'am, my parents were divorced when I was nine months old. I grew up with my mom as I was growing up with my mom. She was an alcoholic and I'm super grateful and fortunate that she was a super loving alcoholic. You know, I mean there, there are people who have grown up in alcoholic families and situations where that was not the case.

So I was grateful that my, my mom, man, she spoke my love language, always encouraged me and whatever, but I learned to kind of raise myself 'cause she wasn't. Around a lot. Um, and when I was 16 and I always knew of God, I always believed in, um, God, but I didn't really know what that meant. But when I was 16, it was the first time that I ever really heard the gospel that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life.

He died on the cross. He rose again for your sins. But Romans 10, nine says, you have to confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised from the dead, then you will be saved. And so I was like, well, I've never really done that. I always believed in God. I just thought, you know, I was not.

I was a pretty ornery person. You know, I definitely was not living a godly life, but I believed in God. But then I actually invited Jesus into my heart as my Lord and Savior, and it radically transformed my life. This at 16? This at 16? Yeah. So the Holy Spirit came in and just, man, and I was. I was all in, and it was a period of probably six to eight months where I was like, because I was sick.

I mean, I was sleeping with girls, I was out partying. I wanted to be cool and popular and all these different things. So I was just doing all the things that you would do to try and get all the things of the world right. Um, and interesting enough, I had my own lawn service. Chad's quality lawn service.

Here's the tagline, a cut above the rest, let's go. Entrepreneurship at 15. So I had my own lawn service. I was making money. I. Was, you know, I was up for homecoming king, all these, you know, I had all the things that you would think you could want and, and need as a 16-year-old. Um, but when I invited Christ into my life, it radically transformed my life.

The Holy Spirit came inside of me and guided and directed me, and very early on, God called me into full-time ministry and I became a youth pastor. So that's, that was kind of the beginning. Went to Bible college, uh, became a youth pastor. And, uh, did that for 10 years, absolutely loved it. Um, what starts to happen when God gives you a vision?

And I had a vision to build like a youth ministry, that I was gonna reach thousands of kids. What happened is my vision ended up being more important than the values that I was living. And little by little, I was doing all the things of God. But I wasn't being the man of God that God had called me to be.

My, my rhythms, my disciplines being in the word, I'm a pastor, I'm preaching the word all the time. You know, I'm preaching to all these kids. The youth ministry that I was a, a part of at that time, uh, 10 years in, we grew up from 30 kids to over 300. I had 60 volunteers, six full-time staff. It was one of the fastest growing churches in the country.

So God's doing all these amazing things, but I wasn't doing the things of God. And that's what. Kind of threw that off and we can talk more about that. But then, uh, I resigned my job because of, uh, a, a failure in, uh, in our marriage. I actually had a, um, had a, um, had an affair with my assistant. Um, by the grace of God, it was literally.

Two weeks of an emotional affair and a one night. And I say that because man, Satan can, can drag you into, um, deceitfulness and affairs for years. And there's a lot of other stuff that came out there. But I share all that to say that, um, I was doing the things of God, but I wasn't being the man of God. And I let pride and arrogance, and even as a pastor who really wanted, I was there to serve people.

I loved, I loved my job, I loved my wife. I loved, at the time we had three kids. I loved them, but I wasn't spending that intimate time with God. And that's why being in the word every day is just so. Important, impactful. So that was one transition. So I kind of got forced into the business world by the grace of God, I gotta be a part of Intuit Fortune 500 company.

Uh, around that time, maybe it was for Fortune 1000 for sure. Um, and then we, we, I was there for two and a half years and a group of us left and started sojourn. We grew, um, over 600 employees and actually just sold for 250 million, uh, this month, which was awesome. So final, you know, so that, that got done.

And then, um, yeah, God kind of called me out probably about a year ago to, well, no, about six months ago to start my own, my own company. So those have been some of the transitions and I'm, I'm sharing a lot of words right now, so. I'll, uh, I'll, I'll kind of kick it back to you. No, I appreciate that. Uh, yeah.

And, and thanks for going in that. 'cause I think a lot of people think pastors, they, they have it all together. Mm-hmm. They, you know, and they're human. Yeah. They struggle. Yeah. And they need, they need pastoral ship as well. Yeah. I think I said the word right. Yeah. But you know, they, they need that as well.

And so I've, um, talked to and heard from other pastors like, yeah. Man, if you're not getting fed, your, your chances of falling off Oh man, are, are, uh, pr pretty far. Yeah. So I appreciate you going in then. Um, it's real, you know, keep keeping it real and, and saying, you know, kind of things. What, how, how did you feel that calling to, to change, to go into business for yourself?

Yeah. And, and to, um, disciple people and, and lead people there, man, so good. I think for me, right, it's. There's, it's one of the key components to the Christian walk, whether you're a pastor, whether you're not a pastor or whatever. And, and, you know, I'm a believer, so everything I do, uh, I try and wanna honor and glorify Christ and all that I do, but that the key is, is how do we stay surrendered to the Holy Spirit?

Because I get a walk in two, two things, right? I either get a walk in the spirit, or I get a walk in my flesh. Jesus said, it's good for me to go. I'm gonna leave you the Holy Spirit. The counselor who's gonna guide you, gonna direct you and help you. You're gonna be able to do even greater things than what I did here on Earth.

And if you read the gospels, all the things that Jesus did, you're like, what? He's gonna give us the Holy Spirit, the his power to do greater things than Jesus did. Holy smokes. So now alls I gotta do is I just gotta stay surrendered to the Holy Spirit and make sure that I'm not walking in my own flesh.

'cause uh, even as a pastor, I remember. I got, the church was really growing. There was a couple thousand people and uh, I was, I was the youth minister and I got an opportunity to preach on Sunday morning, so I gotta get up there and preach on Sunday morning and God showed up and it was amazing. I remember walking off of the stage and one of the assistants, but, you know, uh, I was standing there and the senior pastor was standing, standing there and she goes.

You're a preacher. Um, or, or she said, you're a great teacher to the senior pastor, the lead pastor. She said, but this kid, he's a preacher. He can preach the word of God. He's anointed. And I remember thinking like, I'm anointed. You know? So all of a sudden that little mindset allowed. M pride to start to slip into my life.

And whether you're a pastor, whether you're a business owner, whatever you are, if we start to allow pride to slip into our lives, then um, that's a first step to starting to walk in the flesh and kind of not be walking in in the spirit. So for me, it's like how do I just stay fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit?

And so for me, building rhythms in my life to try and do that is, has been critical. Do you think that's been the key thing is getting the rhythms and what rhythms have been the best for you in order to. To stay in the word I, I know we mentioned Ryan Pineda before. Yeah. And one of the big things that they preach, or I've heard preach there is six 30 or Matthew 6 33, you know?

Yeah. Seek first the kingdom of God. So, and I know you get in the word every morning. Yeah. And a lot of times on Instagram you put a little Yeah. Snippet out there in the morning. But other than that, yeah. Getting in the word every morning, what else have you done? Yeah, no, that's a key deal. So for me, I kind of created this framework.

Man, I have a DHD, I'm all over the place. I'm, so, I had to create some rhythms and some routines to really lock in. So for me, I'm a big believer in win the morning, win the day. So, you know, over a decade ago, if not longer than I might've been a couple decade, over a decade ago, I really put in this win the morning framework, which is wake up early.

Try and beat the sun up, which is easy in Nebraska at this time of year. You know, you can roll up at eight. The sun's not even up, you know, so beat the sun up and I always try and back into seven hours of sleep. For me, I realize if I have seven hours of sleep, I'm great. You gotta figure out your sleep patterns.

But wake up. Wake up in the morning, then I then I go into words of affirmation. As soon as I get up, first thing I do is say, Lord, thanks for waking me up today. Thanks for giving me another day. Right. Gratitude, ask, surrender my day to the Holy Spirit. Then before. Touching my phone. If I touch my phone, I can derail my whole entire day.

I can derail my whole entire mindset. 'cause there are text messages, there are emails, there are all these things that need to get done. But I say, I'm not gonna touch the phone. I'm gonna touch the word of God. This is gonna be the first thing that I pick up in the morning, first thing that I touch, right?

So, um, so then I get in the word of God. You and I talked about this. At Love Church, we've got a reading guide. We read through the Bible together and we do like one year, two year, I think like a four year reading plan. So I already know what I'm gonna read. I don't need to think about what am I gonna read so many times, like what do I read?

What do I do? Like just have some verses to read. So I read. I think the other key component to reading and studying the word of God is N. Now you gotta write. So I think it's really hard to read the Bible and apply it to your life and really get it in if you're not writing. So I would say if someone's not journaling, you gotta get a notepad.

I've got a remarkable the thing's great. You can put all kinds of notes on there. I start my date. So write out what God is speaking to you. Write out what you're learning. Write out your prayers. And then what are the. Next, what are the three needle moving activities that you need to get done? Right. So I do that and then I go work out.

That's my five Ws. And then I have added onto that. I, who can you inspire? Inspire inside your family and outside your family before 10:00 AM Send 'em a text note, a word, whatever. Even that's part of the reasons why when I'm in the word, I put a verse. 'cause I wanna inspire people. I wanna inspire people that you can get up in the morning, you can spend time with God.

Maybe that word inspires someone. Hopefully. And there's a lot of people that have said that to me, like, Hey, I see your Instagram post. And it's like, it's inspired me to get in the word whatever. So I try and inspire someone inside my family, outside of my family before 10:00 AM and then the, the end is what are the needle moving activities that I gotta get done today?

And then I add a last in onto there. Um, no complaining. Live an un offendable life. How if I can just not allow other things to offend me? 'cause I'm so in line with the Holy Spirit that if something happens to me and it's negative and it's off and it's bad, doesn't even offend me because I'm like, okay, Lord, what are you trying to teach me?

I'm so walking into the power of the Holy Spirit and trust me, I fail at that all the time. So I have constant reminders like, oh, I'm getting offended. I'm probably walk. Yep. I'm walking in the flesh right now. I'm not walking in the spirit. So that's kinda my win The morning framework, which is, I, I put that in the book and one of the ways that I mentor young men is like, if you can win the morning, you, you are on the right track to win the day, so, so you're.

Just wanna make sure I'm clear on this. Yeah, your Instagram post when you're talking. I see you got open to Luke 18 looks like. Yeah. So you read Luke 18 this morning? Luke 19, yeah. Like 19. Yeah. And so you record something, I don't know if you did this morning. I haven't. Yeah. I don't know if I've been on Instagram, but.

And so then you, you say, you know, this is what I got from it, or whatever. And so is that your way of inspiring others? Yeah. Or is that, or do you do something else to inspire others? No, no. Um, my inspiration, usually for me, what my inspiration is, is I try and send a text voicemail to someone inside my family, outside my family.

That's kind of really, it's, it's more of a personal thing. Uh, I do that. Some mornings, some I don't. Sometimes it's just a verse. Sometimes God speaks me and he says, you need to, you need to do a video. You know, whatever. But that's, that's probably just an extension or whatever. But when I really talk about how you can inspire someone, it's, to me, inspiration is pick up the phone, call someone and tell 'em I'm proud of you, or send 'em a, a.

A voice memo that says, Hey, man, I was thinking about you. I was praying for you this morning. Just wanna encourage you. Like, go get it. So as I'm in my prayer time, I'm like, Hey, God, who do you want me to encourage today? Who do you want me to inspire today? Who can I lift up? Who can I kind of encourage? So that to me is more of the inspiration.

But, uh, that's, I would say, that's an extension of it. It's like, all right, whatever. Take a picture and if it inspires someone and, you know, use, use what? Is out there, the tools and the resources out there that can help you maybe expand your reach. Right. That's awesome. Uh, do you just kind of let that person come, come to your mind each and every day?

I asked that. So you were actually just on his podcast, Tommy. Yeah. Mutual friend of ours. Yeah. Uh, I know he does a similar thing every day. Okay. That he. Picks five people or something like that, but he kind of has it in a rotation. Oh. From what I understand. Like that, from what I gather from him. And so he'll just send a, uh, a random text.

I mean, it's not Yeah. You know what I mean? It's, but he's made a system out it Yeah. To make sure that he. He gets everybody in his life and, and sends him a message. I love that. Do you do something like that or is this more No, I'm my, I'm not as systematic as, as Tommy. I think that's great. I have, I had seasons, which I really need to get back into the season where, um, I have.

Each day people and things that I'm praying for. So I would have like maybe the pastors at our church, I, I pray for on Mondays, Tuesdays I'm praying for maybe extended family, Wednesdays business, whatever. So I've, I've done that before on a daily prayer schedule of people that I'm gonna pray for, um, from that perspective.

So I've, I've been pretty systematic about that in seasons. Not in that season right now, which that's kind of good. Maybe. Maybe I need to bring that back. But it's great 'cause I'd have it right in my Bible due to his little half half. So I just know I'm gonna pray for these people and then at the end of it is like, okay, what are the things that I'd write in there on that?

What are the things that, like if you said, if I said, Hey man, I'm gonna pray for you, then I'd put it on my, so I'm praying for Ryan on Tuesdays about this situation. And then what's cool? Is, then you can, it brings 'em back to mind 'cause you're praying for them and you can say, Hey, uh, how'd that go? You know, so, yeah.

That's awesome. So I wanna kind of go back to your transition into the business side of things. Yeah. Love it. Like you, you had. 10 years. Yeah. You, you had longer than that 'cause you went to college. Yeah. You, you said 16. Yeah. So 15, 20 years Yeah. Of this vision of your life and then through fault of your own.

Yeah. Yeah. You, you were forced to pivot. Yeah. That had to be a troubling time for you. A huge struggle on top. I mean, it's like uhhuh, people pivot and make the decision. Yeah. But it was forced on you. So how did you deal with that? Mentally and going to workforce at the same time. Yeah, man, that's so good.

Great question, Ryan. So for me, you know, one, the first part was dealing with. Man, I let down thousands of people. I mean, that's the thing when you're, when you're in a ministry position like that or you're in a public position, uh, and you're really trying to do the right things, you're trying to honor and glorify the Lord, man, I, I, I've disappointed hundreds of kids that were in my youth ministry.

I disappointed thousands of people that were at the church more, more importantly than all those I. I dis I disappointed my wife, you know, I broke our covenant. Um, and I disappointed God. So there was, you know, we went through some counseling and process and man, by the, by the grace of God, the hero here is my wife that was willing to say, I.

Okay. I'm not gonna let this moment define our family and our legacy, which is so powerful that she was so in tune with the Holy Spirit. And I'm not saying, um, if someone decides that their marriage needs to end because somebody did something that, uh, is, is worthy of breaking up that marriage. But I'm very fortunate that my wife was willing in that moment too.

Hear from God and ask for forgiveness or, or was willing to forgive me, right? Uh, so dealing with that process and then getting thrown into the business world, a lot of people don't know this. I, as soon as I was out of, I, I got this job connected with people, is with a national cleaning company. I'd been a pastor for 10 years.

I didn't know how to do anything. I was a guy that if a bunch of men were up talking about business, I had no clue what they were talking about. And I would look around and be like, are there teenager? Uh, and I'm down in the basement playing ping pong with the teenagers, right? Because I didn't even know how to have that.

Now I'm thrust into the business world and my very first company. Was this cleaning company and I was gonna go do sales for them because they're like, well, you're a pastor and you're a talker and you can go talk to people and do sales. Right? So, uh, I had that job for like three months, basically got fired.

Part part, partly because, uh. Anyway, there's a whole backstory, but I basically got fired from my, so now, not only did I fail as a pastor, not only did I fail my wife, not only did I, you know, fail my family, not only did I fail my church, the first job I got out of, you know, ministry I got fired from. Um, so next job, by the grace of God, I got, uh, uh, it was a, uh.

I came on as a consultant for Intuit. A buddy of mine allowed me to come on with Intuit as a, as a consultant. And so part of those shifts was one, it was a mindset shift. Right? Okay. All right. God, you know, I know I screwed up one. There was a, there was a time where I was like, I can't forgive myself. How can I forgive?

I, I, I did this to my wife, I did this to our family, I did this. How can I forgive myself? And I remember this moment where God's like, you can't forgive yourself because you didn't die on the cross for your sins. I did. Hmm. I am the only one that can forgive you for what you did. And you've asked for forgiveness.

I've given it to you. Your sins are white as snow. I've cast your sins as east is from the west. We're gonna move forward. That doesn't mean that I, doesn't mean I don't. There wasn't years of building trust back in our relationship. Our marriage doesn't mean that there weren't consequences. Consequences were still there, but Jesus was like, I've forgiven you.

Let's go walk. We're gonna, we're gonna move forward from here on out. So, um, that was a pretty powerful mind shift. And then being in the business world, you know, leadership principles transfer. Mm-hmm. Um, when you lead different, so for me, when I got that first job, um, I just, how can I serve? What can I do?

I remember one of the first things I did when I was working for Intuit is I, I cleaned out, reorganized the storage room. You know, and I remember talking to my buddy going, dude, I will, I will clean toilets. I will do whatever I need to do to, to get a job. I just, I need a job. So the humility and one of the key components of leadership, great leadership, is never losing that humility.

How can I serve others? It's not about me. It's how can I serve others and the greatest leaders of all time, Jesus. Was all about serving others. Gave his life up for it. Yeah, it's uh. Interesting. I don't know why it just popped in my head, but washing a feet while where you're saying that like, oh, so good.

He would humble himself all the way down that I'm like, man, I hate feet. Always like, my feet are cold. Yeah. Can I put my feet on? You warm them up, like, no. Well, well, when you think about people's feet in that time too, it's not like they just pulled 'em out of the socks and maybe they were a little stinky and sweaty.

I mean, they're walk, I mean, imagine the things that they were walking in, you know, in the filth of the feet. That is the lowliest. Thing you could do almost at that time was to wash someone else's feet. That was the, that was the servant's role, the loneliest servant's role to do, and yeah, it's powerful.

Yeah. It's uh, yeah. As much as I dislike feed. Every time I read that, I'm just like, ah. So, so you did that for, you were in business for 20 years or so? Yeah, yeah. 10 years and, and almost 10 years in full-time ministry. And it's been over, you know, I've been out of full-time ministry for 21 years, so it's been 20, 20 last 21 years have been in the business world.

Yeah. And now, yeah, started my own, started my own company a couple months ago. So. So, so talk about that you started your own company, but not only you started your own company, you're like you mentioned in the intro, writing a book. Yeah. You're mentoring Yeah. Uh, younger men or whatever. Um, trying, trying to build a, a leadership base.

Yeah. You joined, uh, that a couple different coaching programs. Yeah. I'm not gonna try to remember what they are. You know, so you're, you're getting coaching to give coaching to help people. Yeah. Yeah. You, you're your, you know, you have two boys raising two boys. Yeah. One of 'em is in ministry himself Yeah.

And stuff like that. So you're, you're really taking on a leadership role at this point in life. Yeah. I mean, kind of just break into that and how that's working and what you're doing. Yeah. No, that's good. So I think. Part, you know, the last 10 plus years I was at Sojourn. When we, we were at Intuit. I was Intuit for two and a half years.

Just learned everything that I could. How can I serve, what can I do? That servant kind of mindset. Attitude was the founder of our company had this idea to start this company called Sojourn. Um. Putting ads on boarding passes at the time, people would print off their boarding passes. When you print off your boarding pass at home, there was nothing, uh, below the TSA information in your name.

It was just empty space. Everyone would just stand there and look at that empty space. And his thought was, what if we put weather in events on this? Page and we wrap it with local national advertisers. Now, it could be a, an ancillary revenue for the Air Airlines. It would be valuable for someone actually holding the boarding pass.

'cause if they're flying into Vegas, it says, here are the five best places to eat, five things to do in Las Vegas, and here's the weather. That you're going into. Right. Um, and then, um, it's, it's a win for advertisers. 'cause they get this one-to-one kind of billboard, right? It's almost like a mini billboard that someone's holding.

So that was our idea. And so he came up with that idea, invited five of us to, handful of us to go start the company with them. So we left Intuit to go start Sojourn, uh, back in 2007. So part of that was being invited, but being invited in, started with that. Being a servant, what can I do? How can I, you know, like not expecting, not asking, not wanting all these things.

I think with young people, they get into the business world. They instantly wanna be promoted. They instantly want to be recognized. They like just serve. Just serve and learn all that you can. And I think even that mindset. Goes to even being 50 years old, how can I serve? How can I learn everything that I can to get better and better?

And so I'm kind of in that phase of my life where, um, success is followed by the grace of God. And, um, even reading halftime, read halftime last year for the first time, and it's. You know, shifting from this life of success to a life of significance. How do we leave, um, a legacy? How do we, uh, be men who, uh, live for significance rather than success?

'cause success has merit, has ruined many of marriages. It's, it's ruined many of men. And it's, um. It's ruined many families because men have been so driven by success and they missed the opportunity to leave a life of, of significance. Um, so that was, I don't even remember what the question was, but, but I think, you know, part of going from what is, what has kind of motivated me is just saying, Hey, I.

Got, and really it's kind of, uh, comes out, out of reading Luke 19, why I had it open. It's like the parable of, of the, um, of kind of the, the, the menace here. The, the, the pound, this is the money part, but like whatever, whether it's the, um, and there's other ones where it talks about the talents, whether it's the talents that have given you or the money, right, the influence that God has given you.

What are you doing with that? To honor and glorify the kingdom. And grow the kingdom and influence other people. And so I think for me, every day is just about, okay, God, how do I elevate, you know, how do I elevate you? How do I elevate others? How do I get better and better that I might be able to live, leave a legacy that's gonna go beyond this world, you know?

Awesome. Uh. I, I gotta ask, it's kind of a selfish question. Yeah. I think I know the answer, but outside of being humble, yeah. When you got into business, what do you think is your superpower? And I mean, from like a, a soft skill standpoint. Yeah. You got into sales. What, what helped you in sales? As far as soft skills?

Yeah. Yeah. That's good. So the biggest thing for me is one of the, one of the ways in leadership, we always gotta raise the lid. You and I, everyone listening to this, everyone is given a natural gifts, talents, and ability. My natural gifts and talents and abilities is to connect with people. Uh, I love to, I love to have a conversation like, this is awesome.

I'm excited to sit here and have this conversation. Um, so at in sales it makes a lot of sense. You're like, Hey, you like to be with people. You like to be around people. Um, you're good at communicating. You're good at talking like, oh, you should go into sales. What you learn is the backside and where you become a great salesperson is.

You learn to shut up and you learn to ask really good questions, and you learn to listen. That's the key of developing your growth and your soft skills. You're never gonna be a great salesperson. You're never gonna be a great communicator if you don't learn how to, um, listen and to ask great questions.

So, um, so that's what I would say that's, that's for me natural connection. But what I've had to grow and learn over the years and what made me great at sales is I learned how to ask the right questions, really listen, and my mindset has always been in a sales situation, how do I help them win? What is their win?

How do I create a win-win situation here? And what do they really need and what problem do they have and how can I solve it? And I really wanna solve it. And because I like people, it's, it's never a, a wasted, like if I'm on a sales call, it's never a wasted sales call if they don't buy. Because I just, I got a new friend.

I connected, I learned something, I found out something about their business. I was able to figure out what their pain point was, which is gonna make me a better leader, uh, a better person. It's gonna make me better for the next call. Like, I don't, I don't care if, if we didn't move forward and they buy from me, like, whatever.

I got a new friend out of it. This is awesome. So I think that's a key component. So for me, I'd say that connection piece, but the growth piece is learning how to ask better questions and learn how to really listen. Yeah. That's one thing I noticed that you, you do enjoy the connecting of people. Like, oh, I was just talking to Yeah.

Tim over here, he does the same thing. Let me, let me introduce you to Tim and connecting people. See, I, I've noticed that what, uh, if, if someone wanted to get on a role of leadership Yeah. Do you think, well, let me back up. Yeah. Do you think that communication is one of the key skills, especially in today's day and age?

Mm-hmm. Where we can, we have cameras, we're, you know, recording all this, we can, you know, see everybody, you can get out in front of millions of people. Yeah. Just, I mean, 16-year-old kid can record a TikTok and go viral and 10 million people watch it. Yeah. You know, like, do you think that skill communication skills is the number one?

Skill going forward, especially with AI and mm-hmm. All the fake stuff and just being able to have a real conversation. One of the biggest skills going forward. Yeah, I would definitely say, I mean, one of the key things, you, you can't be a great leader if you're not a great communicator, right? And so developing that, those skills, those soft skills of communicating, asking good questions, looking eye to eye with one another, I mean, and, and I, and you start to look at, um, you know.

What's, uh, I, I love Rory Vaden. He says, um, the devil doesn't have to destroy you. He just has to distract you. And you know, for me, 20 some years ago. The devil destroyed me with, um, you know, tried to destroy me and, and really threw off the ministry for years and years and years because of, uh, of temptation, right?

Well, each day the devil can destroy us by distracting us from what God. Is calling us and wanting us to do and be. And, um, the devil's trying to rob our identity of who we are. That you are a child of God, you were fearfully and wonderfully made, and God has a purpose and a mission and a vision for you to bring the kingdom of God here to this earth and to help other people have.

Eternity with Christ, right? So, um, I, I would 100% agree that one of the biggest leadership components is how you communicate, how you interact, how you connect, how you ask questions and listen and, um, and elevate others. You know, super huge servant servanthood is big servant leadership, right? That's, that's, that's leading different in this world.

A lot of people say, oh, you're a leader because you have all these, you have this big company, or all these people are following you. It's like, here's a great thing. I love the phrase, I think it was Andy Stanley that said this, is that, um, he, he, he had a comment that that was, um. Uh, if you don't, um, leaders, um, leaders that don't have, um.

What was it? Well, people that are around leaders, um, people that are around leaders, if people around you don't have any, uh, if people around you don't have anything to say, um, oh God, I can't remember. Anyway. We'll, we'll, we'll have to put it in there. But the whole concept is if you're a leader and no one has anything to say, uh, around you, you're, you're not listening.

And if. The people that are around you aren't actually communicating with you, aren't talking with you, aren't, don't have anything to say, then, then that means that you're not leading, you know, uh, you know, oh, leaders that don't, leaders that don't listen, um, surround themselves with people who have nothing to say.

Mm. And that's so powerful because, you know, if no one's talking to you, then that tells you that you're a leader, that you don't listen. If you don't really listen, you're not really leading people. They might be in your organization, but you're not leading them because you're not serving them. And so the thing is, if, if you think you're in a leadership position and no one has anything to say to you negatively or you know, not just lifting you, you're so great.

You're so great, but like pushing you and really ideas. You're, you're not really leading. You've got the title of the position of leadership, but true leadership is will people follow you when you have no title and you have no position. That's leadership. It's interesting, uh, I've had interesting time of, uh, leadership, so done the military 20 years.

I became a non commissioned officer at, I dunno how old I was. 22 years old. Yeah. Or something like that. So I'm, I'm leading people, some people are older than me, some people are younger than me by 22. You know, they're obviously, they're on both sides and big ego, big, you know, big head and all that stuff.

And I carried that for, for years. Like, I mean, 22, I got out when I was 20 or 39, so I'd say 15 years of that. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And now it's just the last. I know I've been out for five years, six years, and then last couple years of it, you know, I kind of started growing and learning a little bit more about what true leadership is.

Yeah. Like I've been in leadership schools and I've been to Yeah. This, and they teach you negotiation and, you know, tactical empathy enough. You've been, you've been trained leadership by, by the best people in the world, you know, around leadership principles. Right. And, and that's the thing is leadership principles.

And I don't know if it was just my ego, my whatever. It never took hold. And the strangest thing in the last week, eight days, Thanksgiving was last week and now we're, you know, so last Thanksgiving till this Thursday. Yeah. I've had three text messages in, in a week, like. Basically thanking me. Wow. Like, oh, you know, like, and I don't think in 15 years, you know, that span of leading in the military, I ever got that.

Yeah. And so it's just, you know, I mean, obviously for me as a person, I've grown spiritually in the last few years. Yeah. But it's been totally different. Like man, like yeah, money's good, business is good, all that stuff. But when people reach out to you. And say, Hey, I truly want to thank you. And I'm not talking about like a surface level.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, thank you. Like I truly want to thank you. Yeah. Hey, thank you for challenging me on this. Wow. Thank you for this. So it's been a interesting, from a leadership standpoint, interesting week. So yeah. What do you, what do you think for you, um, really created that shift in your, in your, your faith over the last few years?

In, in my face specifically? Yeah. So, yeah. And we talked briefly about this a few weeks ago, but I've never had that spiritual walk. Yeah. Like, like that boom, like, you know, like hit me and radically changed my life type thing. I grew up going to, you know, I was raised Catholic, baptized, went to Catholic school.

Yeah. Graduated Catholic high school, left for the military. I was, you know, I got the cross tattoo on my arm. Yeah. You know, like it was. It was there, but it wasn't in me. Yeah. Yeah. And uh, really it was talking about Bible plans. Yeah. Someone said something like, oh, there's a Bible app Bible in one year, or something like that.

And Wow. I was like, I'm gonna take the challenge. And I, all, it was, was a challenge to do it. Wow. And so that little bit of, I was maybe eight years ago Yeah. Or something like that. And so that developed a habit of reading the Bible every day. Mm. And then slowly it's just been. But I will say the biggest transformation yeah.

Has probably been business. Wow. Because I've been, I've surrounded myself with other business Christian businessmen. Yeah. It's cool. And I would say business has probably been, I never really thought of it until now, but yeah, I would say that's probably been my biggest spiritual growth has been business.

Yeah. And I think that's helped me be a better leader. Yeah. So why that? That's very interesting. Why? What, what about business and specifically do you think is challenging you more in your faith? I would s getting around higher level people. Mm. Yeah. You know, hanging out with people that are making, like I was talking to a dude making $120 million Yeah.

A year, like a month ago. Yeah. And, you know, seeing his faith. Yeah. And him saying his faith has been the center of, uh. Of everything he's built. Yeah. It's like, yeah, we're doing, you know, $10 million a month and Yeah. You know, like you're sitting there thinking like, God, that's, you know, if they can, yeah. And the funny thing is, this dude grew up 10 minutes from my house.

Wow. So we're both, yeah. Both from, uh, small town rain. Yeah. And he went, he is like right on the outskirts. So he went to a different school. Yeah. Uh, but like I know people that live in the same country street as him, you know? Wow. Growing up and stuff like that. So, I mean, we're different. We're a couple years apart.

Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, it's, uh, both left for the military. So he was a military guy and, uh, let's go. Yeah. So that's interesting. Yeah. That, and so for you, you would say. Would you say one of the things that's inspired you with business is seeing other Christian leaders that are doing it the right way?

They're, they're trying to lead by serving all that stuff and they're still, you know, this, this blessing on the backside. Yeah. I, I think it's being able to bless Yeah. People, I mean, I, I think we mentioned it earlier in here, you know? Yeah. We're both in rhyme. Uh, you know, you got the shirt on tent makers.

Yeah, yeah. Tent, make shirt shout Tent makers. We're both, we're both, uh. And so we traveled to some of the same events with Ryan. Yeah. And get to hang out and stuff like that, but just seeing not only his faith. Yeah. Because I mean, one person, we talked about this before and like it can be fake. Like I, I'm not having Met Ryan multiple times.

Yeah. Hung out with him. Yeah. You know, in his office, all that stuff. Like, I don't think he's fake, but I could see the perception of, mm-hmm. Someone that doesn't know him, never met him, never really had a conversation with him. I mean, like, oh, he's fake. He's trying to, he's trying to pitch it for whatever.

Yeah. But it's seeing all the people around him. Yeah. And, and going like, I went to Mexico with him last. December. Oh, good. Or January something good. You got, you gotta get on that trip. That was awesome. Yeah. And so like you see pictures of them baptizing people. Yeah. I'm standing there. Yeah. Yeah. Like I got the same pictures.

You know, him and Chris. Yeah. Baptizing people in. So powerful. Uh, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of America. Now, I guess it remind, it reminds me of when we're in Kansas City. Uh, we, we did the, I can't, I, I won't even say who it was. It was a, and this was 20 years ago, but it was a really popular, famous Kansas City player, and we showed up in the morning.

We all were, we, we built this playground and we were there all day, eight hours. We, we worked on this playground, we got it all going. There were maybe 20 of us. It was amazing. And this Kansas City player. Popped in 'cause he paid for it. Smiled, took some pictures and left. He was there for five minutes and you know, exact opposite of Ryan Pineda.

He was on the trip, he was serving, he was doing, you and I have spent time with him and um, and you know, people asked me, yeah, is he for real? It's like, Hey, I've gotta spend, you know, as both of us spend some in intimate time with him. The guy loves Jesus and he is trying to be fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit, and he's got a mission and a vision, and he is inspired other godly men to come along and help people, you know, further the kingdom of God, right through business and what they're doing and, and leading the right way now.

Is he? Is he perfect? No, nobody is. And the second that he starts thinking he's got it all together, that's when Satan can come. So, you know, as long as he stays humble and stays fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit, God's gonna keep growing the ministry and what he's doing. And uh, yeah, from what I've seen, the guy's, guy's the real deal, you know?

Yeah. I think that is. What he's doing and surrounding people. Mm-hmm. Kind of what you alluded to, what your ministry, what you didn't do. Yeah. I think that's the key and that's what helped me, like getting around, talking to somebody who's making $10 million a month. I'm like, man, like this dude grew up in the same rat hole as I did.

Yeah. Fest everybody from Louisiana. Yeah. You know, like I know where this dude grew up. Yeah, yeah. Like if he can do it. Yeah. Like why can't I? Oh man. Yeah. So. So good if, if people have restored their marriages. Mm-hmm. Why can't I? A hundred percent. If people have, you know mm-hmm. Done all this stuff, it is just getting in the rooms and seeing the mm-hmm.

Seeing what's possible. Yeah. And that's my biggest pet peeve with. People, parents, society, whatever, however you wanna, we tell our kids when they're eight years old, you can be whatever you want. Mm-hmm. From the time they're 16, you're like, oh, you don't want to do that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And we've pigeonholed them and yeah, put 'em down this path.

Like, yeah, no, you can truly be whatever you, yeah. At least in America, like, I can't speak for everywhere else, but yeah. You can truly be or do whatever you want. Oh man. So, so good. Yeah, it's, it's awesome. And there is, there's this different, you know, um. Great leaders, RA you know, you, you, you're only as good of a leader.

There's a lid on everyone's leadership, right? And so the key is if we're gonna become better leaders, we gotta keep raising the lid, raising get around people that are bigger, faster, stronger than you. Get around people that are smarter. You get around, you know, and that's the same way for you getting involved in, in Ryan Pineda.

You know, Ryan Sang was funny. I mean, I just. I was just in Las Vegas for work and Cap Chatfield. We were talking, he's a good friend of mine. He is like, Hey, you need a, Ryan's having this event. I'm like, Ryan, who? I don't, I'd never seen any of his videos. I never watched, I wasn't in any of his algorithm stuff.

I'm like, Hey, great. Met him. Oh, how are you? Cap told me I should come check this thing out. And that was the very first Kingdom summit they did. Alls I know is when I was there. Um, the gospel was preached. Holy Spirit moved in that room in a mighty and powerful way, and over a hundred people got saved.

Lives were transformed and changed, and, uh, it was obvious that, that God was there. And same thing, they, we had the second one this year where we hung out and. Oh, holy Spirit was even more powerful there in amazing ways. So God's moving and doing, doing great things and, and that's even inspired me being around Ryan and you and some other just great leaders also inspired me.

So I'm also a part of high capacity leadership. Um, group. I just started this mentorship, high capacity leader mentorship with John Maxwell and there's Ryan Lee and Chad Johnson who was uh. Uh, John Maxwell's, chief of staff for 23 years, and, um, Dan Martel's in that is one of our mentors, Rory Vaden. I mean, it's just phenomenal leadership group and there's a hundred of of us in this group for a whole year that we're mentoring and walking along and trying to grow and expand our leadership.

So just continuing to get into rooms where people are bigger, faster, stronger than you, and that have a faith that the reason why they do it. Is to serve others, to honor and glorify the Lord. It's not just for them, you know, it's a big piece. Hmm. Yeah. So kind of go into that. Yeah. What is your, uh, what is that leadership thing and what's it give you in the backside?

Yeah. Uh, for, for the high level, high, high capacity leader? Yeah. So, um, yeah. So what, what we do in that is, um, once a month we have a mentor. So there's three different events a year, once a month, we've got, um, you know. John Maxwell, I think four times a year speaks to our group in, um, online once a month.

We're one of the mentors are basically teaching us. And then, uh, one time a month we've got a group. So there's eight of us that for half the year I'm walking with eight other people and we're doing business life together, leadership kind of helping each other out, uh, for half the year. The second half of the year, there'll be another group of kind of connecting like-minded people together.

So, uh, part of it is doing life together with some other people. And then you get mentors come in and speak to our, our group individually once a month. And then we just got back from a two-day event that was in West Palm Beach. So we all come together. Two different times a year to, to get coaching and leadership.

So yeah, Rory was at that one. Mac Lake, who's amazing. So I'm also, I'm also in another coaching group with, uh, Jordan Montgomery, who's amazing. He wrote The Art of Encouragement. Is he a pastor as well? Um, no, he's not a pastor. He, he runs Montgomery Group. It's a, it's a coaching speaking group. Amazing. He actually spoke at our lead different, um, Mike O'Connell, who is now the lead pastor at Love Church.

Uh, did this event called Lead Different la um, for two years, but two years ago brought Jordan out. Jordan and um, John Gordon were the speakers for Lead Different, so that's where I met Jordan at that event. So I gotta spend some one-on-one time with him and John Gordon. And so then I reached out to Jordan, said, Hey man, you're doing what I want to do.

Will you coach me? Say, I'd love to coach you. You know, we can do one-on-one coaching, or I've got a coaching group, and in that coaching group I'm in this, I said, well, I wanna be in a group because I wanna be around others. I wanna just be indivi. It'd be great to be individually coached, but if I can be coached by him and be in a group, to me that's a win-win.

So that's allowed me to get to know, um.

I'll just restart it whenever you're ready. Okay. But yeah, you were talking about all your mentorship, uh, leadership, coaching. Yeah, leadership. So, um. Yeah, so I, I love the fact that just getting in bigger rooms, fast rooms, and part of that started off with the lead different event two years ago that Mike O'Connell kind of launched at Love Church.

And when I was there I met, um, John Gordon and Jordan Montgomery for the first time and gotta spend some quality time with them. I'm like, these guys are like. They're doing what I want to do someday, be on stages and inspire people and encourage people. And you know, I was writing my book at the time and I'm like, Hey, these guys are both authors.

Jordan just wrote his first book, the Art of Encouragement, and it's amazing. And John Gordon's written. 50 some books, you know, I mean, amazing, all these books. And I'm like, okay, I wanna spend some time with them. So I, I had reached out to Jordan, said, Hey, I wanna be coached by you. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing.

And it, it's amazing. It's, it's so when you talk about hit going to next levels, so I was fortunate to be around some really good leaders over the last 20 years. Most importantly is Ben. Being, being in the word of God and being in this thing on a daily basis. This is all that we need. I mean, everything is in here.

Um, but it's been really fun being at this next stage of my life where God has said, um, you got all the tools, you got the word, you stay humble. Stay in the word on a daily basis. But if you want to be a better leader, get around better leaders. So, uh, so I asked Jordan to mentor me. Um, I got in a, he has a coach, the coach group, how to coach coaches, you know, people who want to be coaches.

And so, uh, I decided instead of doing one-on-one coaching, I wanted to be in this group with these other coaches. And that's where I've gotten to know Mac Lake and, um, bunch of other kind of high level guys. Jeremy Foster, absolutely phenomenal leader. Just tons of great guys in that group. But doing that, that's really the first time, Ryan, that I paid for coaching.

Really in all these years, I'd never paid for coaching. Uh, before that, I've just got coaching on LinkedIn or been around others. I've read all kind, I've read all kinds of John Maxwell's books, I've read leadership books, all that stuff. I'll tell you, it's a whole nother level. 'cause when you pay, you pay attention.

And being in that group, I think I've missed it once. I've been in, all year long I've been in and we meet once a month for an hour. Um, it's stirred on other relationships with other guys. It's created this really good friendship with, with Jordan. But what it did is it Al also gave me the mindset and the belief that when I got plugged in with Ryan said, I want to be a part of this.

I wanna be around these other guys who are. Tent makers and I want to support this ministry and I wanna be a part of that, which then led me to, um, this year of high. So I've been in Jordan's Coaching Group for the last year this year, and I'll stay in Jordan's coaching group next year, but then this year I'm doing that high capacity leader year mentorship, so allowed me to do that.

And then lastly, because I want to grow and become a better communicator and a better speaker. Next week I fly to to Florida and I'm gonna get two days with John Maxwell and Ryan Leak. I think Ryan Leak is maybe one of the, John and Ryan I would say are probably a couple of the top five speakers in in the country right now, in my opinion.

Well, they're teaching you on how to be. A great keynote speaker, and so I'm gonna spend two days with them. I get to do a 12 minute keynote in front of both of them, which is gonna be scary. Uh, but hey, if you, and there's other 20 other leaders, um, other speakers that are gonna be speaking and then they're gonna kind of support us and endorse us and all that good stuff.

And so I'll be a high capacity leader. Not only that, I'm taking John Maxwell's high capacity. I'm gonna be a high cap, uh, certified, uh, high capacity coach, or a certified Maxwell coach and certified speaker. So, you know, just that first step as, as given me, uh, enough. Has gotten me enough excited to, to raise up, get in the next level, to get to the next level.

They get to the next level, and it's been super fun to get in these rooms with people who love the Lord and they're doing great things in their business. So you just gotta keep leveling up your leadership. What would you say to somebody who says, Hey, I need a level of my leadership. I need a level of my communication.

But I'm not ready to get in a room with John Maxwell. Yeah, yeah. Where would they start? Yeah, that's good. No, I love that. So I actually just, uh, for the last two years I've been writing a book, which is, uh, it's, it's kind of crazy now. I talk to people, I'm like, oh, I wrote a book in two days with Chad GPT.

I'm like, that, it was two and a half years for me. Good for you, buddy. But you know what? You, what? What they didn't get was the mornings after me being in the word, my writing, my nights, my weekends, how the Holy Spirit shifted that book, you know? And hey, I used some for some research and some different things.

God, I didn't even know what chat gp. T was until like six months ago or something. So there's been some refining I've been, oh, we could bring in this story, or, oh, you know, so I've used some of those tools, but I wrote this book for two and a half years. I'm like, well, good for you, but. What they're not getting is the two and a half years of God massaging this book that I've written called, uh, focus Growth.

It's a framework that I take people through for mentorship. So, uh, it's focus, growth become the mentor you wish you had. So it's a book that talks about, okay, when I mentor young men, or men in general, what are the most important things that they need to know about? Mentorship and leadership and to, to start it off on the right way.

So I actually wrote a book, I'd say in March 15th, get this book. And what's great about the book is it's not designed for you just to get it and read it by yourself. It's designed for you to get it and read it with a mentor or someone you are going to mentor. Mm. Because the first step is, is just find one person then.

If you're not ready to get in a room, who's someone around you that you respect and not just because they made a bunch of money. You watch, you've, you've been around them enough to watch how they treat their wife, how they treat their kids, you know that, that they're respected in the community that's around you.

Go to that person, take focus growth book and say, Hey, would you read this book with me? And, uh, I've designed it where you read it together, you read the first few chapters. And then, uh, each chapter is on, um, one of the frameworks of, of mentorship. First one is Foundation of Faith, faithfulness and Forgiveness.

You read that chapter and then I've got 10 questions. You answer and then you talk over those questions right there. So you, it kind of gives 'em that framework, because I met with a lot of kids and we, you know, guys in their twenties or thirties and you go to lunch or I'm like, okay, I wanna make sure I'm sharing the most important things where I'm just talking about anything, which still, still fellowship and being around one another.

But I wanted a systematic approach to mentorship in which then flows into discipleship. You gotta first start the mentorship piece. So I just say ask someone to mentor you. And I think there are a lot of men out there that would be willing to mentor. And that's the other thing that inspired me to write the book.

I think there's a lot of guys in their thirties, forties, fifties. I'd be willing to mentor, but like what would I do? I don't really know. What would I say? You know, like, oh yeah, we could just randomly talk. But now they got a framework. They got a book that they can go through systematically to mentor someone.

So that'd be the first thing. Find someone around you that is bigger bat, bigger, faster or stronger than you are, that they have a lifestyle that you respect and you want. Don't, don't just ask 'em to mentor you because they got a cool car. They might not even own that car, you know? So, um, don't, don't just ask someone to mentor you because, um, they throw up a bunch of stuff up on Instagram or social media, you know, because they, they say a few things or they say they have a bunch of stuff, like, ask people to mentor you that you really respect their lifestyle and you, you want that, you know, not, not the success.

A lot of people go up to John Maxwell and they'll say, um, Hey, John, I wanna do what, what, what you do. And you know, he will say to them, okay, but are you willing to do what I've done to be at the place to do what I do? Because if you're not willing to do what they've done to get there, people that have done the hard work, um, then even if you get on that stage like I did at 30, 33 years old and I'm speaking in front of thousands of people in front of my church, my character wasn't developed.

So when I got the platform, I wasn't able to keep the platform because I hadn't developed the character. I wasn't doing the things in the, in the secret. I wasn't putting in the time and the effort to build the character, be the man that when I got that, that I could keep it. Same thing happens with money.

You see all kinds of people make millions of dollars and they lose it all. Well, they didn't, they didn't do it the right way. They didn't develop the character and the integrity to hold onto that money. And not in all cases, sometimes bad things happen, you know, whatever. And God's, God's teaching you.

Maybe, maybe you were holding onto that money too hard, too tightly, and God's like, Nope, I'm gonna take that from you. If someone says, Hey, that's great. I need a mentor. Yeah. What would be to just ask? Yeah. Yeah. I've, I've got a, a young man right now that I've been mentoring for the last four years. Uh, he came up to me and he said, uh, Hey, would you, would you be willing to, to mentor me?

Uh, and one of the reasons why I said yes to mentoring him was he asked me to mentor him after he had showed up at our 6:00 AM prayer meeting for. Six months. So I knew if I was gonna pour into this young man, he, uh, was already building the character and the integrity to take what I was gonna give him and, and grow with it.

So, yeah, I think that's, that's part of that first bold ask is if there's someone in your life that you want to be mentored with you, you ask them, Hey, can, can you mentor me? Same way that I asked Jordan, Hey, I want to be where you are, Jordan. I want to, I want to, you know. Will you teach me? Will you mentor me?

So I think that's a big part of just, just asking people. Yeah, what I keep. Shutting off. Uh, apparently my disc space is too full, but So what if someone sees all this, they wanna reach out to you? Yeah. Say, Hey, you know, when book comes out Yeah. In, in three months. Yeah. I'd love to hear about it and stuff like that.

What if they wanna reach out to you? What's the best way for them to do that? Yeah. They go to my website. I've got a website called Chad ralphs.com. It's my first name and last name with two s. I put it down in there. Two Es. Yeah. C-H-A-D-R-E-E. LF as in Frank, S as in sam.com. That was from my, uh, living in Nebraska.

And you, uh, you know, working for the telemarketing companies in high school. Great story of paying for my, my wife's first ring working at for telemarketing. So yeah, they just go to Chad ralph.com. All the information's there. If they need a speaker, they want to be a part of. You know, we've got a mentorship community.

We're building also we're, we're doing some more things. Mike and I are also doing some more things with lead different, so we're gonna be running some mentorship stuff outta Lead Different. We did this live event two years in a row, and the biggest feedback we heard for.

 Okay. There we go. Well, Chad, before our, my computer fills up again, if, uh, someone wants to, uh, reach out to you, me do it from this side, sorry. Yeah, Chad, before my computer reaches, uh, capacity again, if you, uh, if someone's watching this and they say, I'd love to find out more about his book, about him, yeah.

About what he's offering or what he has going on, what's the best way to reach out? Yeah, that's great, man. Uh, Chad ralphs.com is my website, so it's just my first name, regular Chad, CHAD. Last name is R-E-E-L-F-S. Yeah. Chad ralph.com. So all that's on there. So if you have speaking engagements, stuff like that.

Yeah, that'll be on there if they want. I'm, I'm sure you're gonna put the book, uh, yeah. Where, where to find it. Yeah. Whenever it comes out, they can, they can, uh, pre-order the book. Right now we've got a legacy beyond community they can get involved in and, uh, you know, if they want to have me come out and speak and reach out for podcasts, you know, the book will come out.

mid-March is, is the plan? It's, it's already written. It's done. It's at the publisher. We're massaging all the, all the uh, uh, you know. Front of the cover, like all the amazing, you know, like, man, this is a lot of work. I, not only do I have to write this thing, we're figuring all this stuff out. So, uh, so hopefully mid-March, that's why you need to stick to eBooks.

Yeah. And you don't have to do all I know. I know, I know, I know. So. Well, Chad, I appreciate you coming through. Yeah, I apologize for, uh, my computer disk space freezing up and stopping recording. Hey, man, it's, it's all, it's all, it's all part of it, right? Thanks. No, I'm glad. Thanks. Thanks for the invite. It's fun.

I'm glad we get to connect this, this probably the most we've hung out together in. Our own town that we live in opposed to we're usually hanging out, uh, all over the country. So this is fun. We'll do it more. Yeah, that's uh, it's very interesting. Yeah. We see each other at different, different events throughout town, but yeah.

This is, you know, hour or two of, uh, sitting here and chatting is the most we've done in Omaha. Yeah. Yeah. It's awesome. I appreciate it. Well, thank you, Chad. Yeah, good seeing you. We'll do it again. Appreciate it. It's great.