The GRIT Factor by Insurance Group of America

How Your Pain Connects to Purpose with Jamie Noe

• Insurance Group of America • Episode 6

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Leadership rarely looks like what we see on Instagram. Behind the motivational quotes and success stories are real people struggling with doubt, fear, and the crushing weight of responsibility.

In this vulnerable episode of The Grit Factor, Jamie opens up about hitting a breaking point during what he describes as "a level 13 stress week." With raw emotion, he shares how a seemingly random breakfast event became a divine appointment that reconnected him with his purpose. While attending a fundraiser for a local food bank, Jamie witnesses how a small idea he had years ago—during a season that seemed temporary—had grown into a nonprofit that had given away over 100 cars to people in need.

The story unfolds with beautiful synchronicity as Jamie realizes God orchestrated this reminder precisely when he needed it most. What makes this conversation so powerful is the honesty about leadership's brutal realities. As Jamie puts it, "Leadership is getting kicked in the teeth, getting blindsided, but having the humility not to say what you want to say, but to keep pushing and get back up."

This episode offers hope to anyone questioning whether their struggle matters. It reminds us that our purpose often extends far beyond what we can measure or see, that seasons which feel like failures might be planting seeds for future impact, and that surrender sometimes requires more courage than control. Jamie's transparency about his mental health challenges, his limitations, and his need for community provides a refreshing counterpoint to leadership narratives that glorify lone strength.

Whether you're an entrepreneur feeling defeated, a leader questioning your purpose, or someone struggling to find meaning in difficult seasons, this conversation offers perspective that could change how you view your current challenges. The greatest encouragement comes from seeing how our brokenness, when surrendered, can become the very conduit through which life-changing opportunities flow to others.

Ready for some honest truth about what leadership really looks like? This is it.

Speaker 1:

All right, jamie. No, we're going to just dive right into this one man. We the episodes. The podcast is called the grit factor. That wasn't a name we came up with because we thought it was cute or cool. This was how you lead, how you live your life, and part of it is the raw, the authentic, the real.

Speaker 1:

The truth of the matter is and we're going to get into this backstory we had a topic we're going to talk about today. You text me this morning. We're like we're not going that direction. I got some real, honest, raw stuff I want to talk about, and so I'm going to just kind of cut through some of the preliminary stuff and, first of all, just set the tone for this podcast. That we've been talking for probably 30 minutes and in the room right now is emotion like there's we're starting with. I mean, I'm moved by the story you told me you're, you had an impactful morning, and so we're just going to do a little something different on this episode. Let's just tell us the story and let's just see. I literally have nothing written down, no notes and I'm about to cry I'm.

Speaker 1:

I feel it too, but that's what. That's what gritty leadership is about. This is it's not about pretend, it's not about, you know, faking it till you make it. It's about being real and honest and raw, and even in weeks that are tough, there's's moments where, dare I even say, god reminds us of why we do what we do. So I'm just going to leave it at that and tee you up, man, tell me about your morning and kind of what you experienced today.

Speaker 2:

Well, I think I would lead off before I tell the morning and just like, part of the reason to tie into the grit factor and why I wanted to share this about leadership is that you get on YouTube or social media and you hear the rah rah of this and that, and there's a lot of truth in that. And actually one thing I didn't mention but I want to, I want to make sure that I hit, is I was reading a book and I'm literally blanking out because I'm so brain dead from from this week and this morning, the emotional movement of it, but the power of one more and I'll think of the author here in just a minute that's a. That's a that's a very genuine motivational speaker that I have a lot of respect for, genuine motivational speaker that I have a lot of respect for. But the point, I guess, is that leadership's messy and it's hard and it's it's it. You get your teeth kicked in, you get, you get, you get gut punched and and so I just I hope this shows some hope for somebody Right, honestly, from a perspective of recruiting people to IGA. This may be, this may repel people, and that's okay. If you don't like it, I get it. There's a lot of people who don't like me and that hurts me more than I want to share that. It hurts, but it's okay if this turns somebody off from me or from IGA, but it's as authentic and real and sincere as it can be. So the reason I wanted to share this is that it's tough and it's not fun. A lot of times Leadership is not sexy and so I'll kind of tie back into that in the story. But so on a level of one to 10, I would say that this week has been a level 13 of stress and anxiety and getting my teeth kicked in. And I want to say this for a move forward I'm not a victim. I knew 10 years ago what I signed up for. I know every morning what I signed up for, and so I'm not a victim. But it is what it is. It comes with the territory. So I want to be very clear about that. There's no poor me about any of this, but it's just, it's real, it's life and it can be really hard.

Speaker 2:

So this morning I went to a breakfast for a nonprofit here locally called OneGen, or One Generation Away, where basically they're a food bank, no questions asked. They feed people, people that you know they don't take any federal substances or anything Like it's just it's all private donations, individuals like you and I that donate to it. And so I knew that the speaker this year was going to be a gentleman by name Bob Goff, and so Bob for anybody watching this who doesn't know is a Christian author and speaker, a former. He calls himself a recovering attorney. He was a construction litigation attorney and I've had a mentorship with him, a paid mentorship for about four years now, I guess, and it's been a life-changing experience for my family, for my business, for me as a man, a father, a believer, all the way across, and there's been no it's cross-segmented of my whole life, from business to my family. So I knew he was going to be the speaker this morning, but I actually wasn't even supposed to be there. I was supposed to be out of town on a fishing trip out west with some other dudes and, just as I told you earlier, to make some lightness, I don't like the fly fish and I don't like sharing a room with a dude. So I bailed on the trip and so.

Speaker 2:

So anyway, so walked in the programs. The doors opened at six. Program started at seven. I was on two wheels, coming in at six, 59. My wife, carly, texts me right before I get there and says says hey, do you want me to grab you the breakfast? Because literally we're sitting up front, you know? In other words, don't don't look like an idiot coming in late and then needing breakfast. I walk in and there stands bob and and for you all who do know him, he's bigger than life, right, um? And? And so I give him a big hug. He comes to our table and says hello to everybody and and it just kind of gives me this peace and coming down. So obviously this is their big, one-gen's largest fundraiser, their one-time big deal, and so the goal is they're going to have a tell about the organization and certainly going to try to move you emotionally, and I get that, but it's all very, very, very real.

Speaker 2:

And so they they put a video up and post and there's a, there's a policeman on this video and he tells a story that he was driving by a shopping center or something, and this guy waves him down. He says can I help you? He says, yeah, man, like I got no. I got no water, I got no food, my car's broke down. He's, he was homeless living in his car, but his car's broke down so he couldn't go anywhere walked into the grocery store to get him some water and he ran into one of the founders of OneGen, Elaine Whitney. Elaine and Chris Whitney started OneGen and, per his story I don't know this guy. I'm seeing this video for the first time this morning.

Speaker 2:

I had no idea this was coming or the impact it was going to have on me today, but I needed it and said that he ran into Elaine Whitney he obviously knew her for many years but had not seen her in years and said hey, I need your help, like I've got this guy out here. You know, obviously he knew that they ran a food pantry and said his car's not running and she said well, so we have a friend named Brian Sweat that runs a nonprofit called Mechanics on a Mission and basically they didn't go to all the detail but for some background, mechanics on a Mission is a nonprofit that deals with transportation issues. So somebody's car doesn't work or they don't have a car. They'll take a car and get it put back together in a safe manner and give them away. They've given away over the last couple of years over 100 cars to single moms or to veterans. They've been at the National Predators and done things there with veterans and so forth and so on. And so I'll stop and go backwards for a minute.

Speaker 2:

So a few years ago during COVID, my wife and I started a home church and so again, bob Goff at that point was my mentor and he gave me the courage and if you know me and you hear five words out of my mouth, there's probably a good chance that three of them are cuss words and I may be yelling, and so I'm not what you think about somebody that is going to start a church. But I just had it. I had it felt like God was calling Carly and I to start a church and to do something different, and so Bob encouraged it. You know Bob's very eccentric, very out of the box Like yeah, why not, why don't you call it our church? And so we started a church named Our Church and we started it with another couple named Brian and Barbara Sweat.

Speaker 2:

Brian Sweat kind of backstory had led a small Christian school called Lighthouse Christian and that's where our son that we adopted from Cali, columbia, south America, went to school, and so I knew his heart for kids and so forth and he had been there for gosh 15 plus years and had recently left and was looking for his new venture. And I said, hey, man, let's start this church together. And he was very reluctant. His dad and I think his brother, both, both are ministers and he never looked into, he was always a ministry but never as a preacher, but anyways got talked him in to doing that and so we started this church, our church, and so the the the cool thing at that time was that every dollar that anybody donated to that church, a hundred percent of it, went back out the door to missions. It was very much, you know to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Speaker 2:

And so we had two members I say members Nobody was a member, but two people who regularly attended. One owned a Christian Brothers it's called Christian Brothers Mechanics or whatever. I think it's a franchise. And then another guy was a manager, a regional manager, for a place called Tire World in Murfreesboro, tennessee, and they would occasionally tell these stories about. A single mom came in and she had a flat tire and you know they would end up. She didn't have any air conditioning, it's 95 degrees out and had two children. So you know they would pro bono, do the air conditioner and I'm like man we need to.

Speaker 2:

You know this church is all about the hands and feet of Jesus and giving money.

Speaker 2:

You know supplying people that, like we need to give them, we need to put some money with both Tower World and both Christian Brothers that. So when that happens, that you know this is what we're built to do. You know that these people can, that they can empower the people that work there to be the hands and feet of Jesus and to fix these people's cars. So, fast forward. Carly and I were still amazing friends with Brian and Barbara Sweat and a lot of people who go to church there, but we were having kids left and right and it was just a lot being part of a very small church that we started, and so we parted ways and just kind of wanted to be in the back role of a church for a while, and so still an amazing relationship with those folks. That little idea that God gave me has turned into Mechanics on a Mission and over the last couple of years they've given away over 100 cars as I said so forth and so on.

Speaker 2:

So rewind I walk in this morning and to that breakfast, a broken dude and really beat up about leadership. Um, again, I'm not a victim. I know what I signed up for owning owning, owning a business. I know what I signed up for being an aggressive, hard driving, enneagram eight. Um, so not poor me, but I was beat up.

Speaker 2:

I a lot of moving parts and a lot of high pressure stress and had a lot of questions like is this stinking worth it? And I'm only saying stinking because we're on camera. And so I get there and I'm 10 minutes into this and they show that video of this guy I've never known, never met this police officer that got weighed down by a homeless man that literally didn't have water, didn't have food and didn't have transportation to get anywhere because his house, also known as his car, wasn't working. And god put elaine whitney in that grocery store he walked into that he hadn't seen in years and she says hey, I got a friend named Brian Sweat that runs a nonprofit called Mechanics on a Mission that helped that guy get back on his feet.

Speaker 2:

The irony of all this is kind of full circle. This even into you and I doing this podcast is. Bob Goff was the guy who gave me the courage to start the church and to do that, and our church is the reason. Mechanics was God's idea through me, was the idea behind mechanics on a mission. In fact, mechanics on a mission isn't in its own 5013C, it's still a DBA doing business as under our church, and so the guy that gave me the courage end up being the speaker today and talked about the policeman that did that and tied full circle and I said, okay, god, I get it yeah I get my why, I'll get back up.

Speaker 2:

I'll get donkey punched again, I'll take the blows, I'll get back up and I'll keep doing this because you're giving me an opportunity to be a conduit, to continue to do your work. So, when the business still doesn't go right, when the employee quits, when the partner leaves, when all those things happen, when, when all that's going on, I still gotta be a dad and my, you know, gotta come home to three girls, I'll do it, I'm in, I got it, and so, um, that's, that's leadership. Leadership's getting kicked in the teeth, getting blindsided, but having to have the humility not to say what you want to say, but say but, but to keep pushing and to get back up. You said before your daughters are sitting over in the background helping you today, and you, you basically said he's not very smart, but he's got big guts, and that's true, but, but. But it's all because of the faith, uh, of Jesus.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so this podcast isn't to recruit anybody. It's probably going to have some mixed responses, but I'm here to. I hope it gives somebody hope. I hope it gives somebody hope. That says man, I just got kicked in the teeth. I'm a new entrepreneur, I'm starting a new sales job, I'm starting new this, you know, whatever it is, but like God can weave all these things together and use the most brokenness of all of us.

Speaker 2:

You know, and I didn't know if I was going to say this or not, and I was going to blindside you and I decided not to blindside you. But now I've decided I'm going to blindside you again and I apologize and you can cut it out of the tape if you want, but I think it's important to know. You know, my relationship with you is because you're a minister to church and you were asked to leave and I have no idea why you're asked to leave and I'll never ask you. I don't care because I love you, and that's what it's about is picking people up when they're in tough spots. That's what one gen does from a food perspective. It's. It's what we're supposed to do and that's why I don't know what the rest of the afternoon at 2.30 is going to handle on a Friday afternoon, but I know I've got my teeth kicked in all week.

Speaker 2:

And again, I'm not a victim. I'm not a victim. I signed up for this. I created these problems in so many ways, but I'll continue to do it because I have the opportunity to be a conduit for Jesus and God's full-weaved here. Here you are as our marketing person.

Speaker 1:

It's crazy, you know that you're the reason.

Speaker 2:

I know Bob Goff I don't think I said that earlier. You are who, when you were the creative pastor at Crosspoint Church here in Nashville, you're the one who introduced me to Bob Goff, and always back, and we had this podcast set, not knowing all these things, and, um, it's it. That's what leadership is is is humility, is gratitude, getting back up and serving something bigger than you. And, um, I don't know hell, maybe we don't even put this online, but it needed to be told to somebody.

Speaker 1:

I needed to hear it today and I guarantee you there's so many people listening or watching right now that need to hear it. Because, you said earlier, we're broken people. We're humans. Every human is broken, and we live in a culture that glamorizes strength and leadership, and this is what it looks like. Like you said earlier, we see posts, we scroll through instagram and everyone's telling you how they did it and how to do it and whatever, and what ends up doing is it makes people feel well, what's wrong with me then? What's what's wrong with me that I feel fear?

Speaker 1:

I feel one thing I've always been drawn to you about is is your, your honesty and how real you are. Our first, our first, first interaction was that it was like oh my gosh, this guy's the real deal. We're gonna be buddies. But hearing you say this today for me, it gives me hope. And it's like what hope? He just told you how he was struggling, whatever. It gives me hope because there's so much going on that's bigger than us 100. There's so much going on that we, bigger than us 100. There's so much going on that we don't see in so many times. For me, I I struggle with control. I'm a big control guy. So I'm just like, if I can control this, the situation, the narrative, it's up to me. I got to carry the pressure, carry the weight, and it's almost like I picture god smiling and or smirking and just being like drew. When are you gonna understand?

Speaker 2:

You don't have to have it.

Speaker 1:

There's a level of surrender that I'm hearing in your voice of like and I'm not blowing smoke I see you as a strong person, strong leader, but when I experience you this way, I experience it as strength, because it's like here's a guy that knows his limitations, but also like I'm writing down notes as we go. How many little things had to add up for this to happen today.

Speaker 2:

It's unreal, it's unbelievable. And to that point about surrendering, like yeah, it is surrendered, and then you look back and you're like you're, you're such a dummy because God's delivered so many other times. And then you just you know, you, you try to grab that power back and and and do it and control it yourself and it's just like you just get punched. And you get punched. When are you going to learn, jamie? When are you going to figure this out? There's the Simon Sinek, the book why, and it's a great book. I encourage people to hear it. But everybody needs to figure out their why.

Speaker 2:

And you constantly reinvent that and you forget it and these things, like I was, you know I wasn't going to give up, but I sure as hell felt like it this week and you know I have a high stress tolerance. I have a high risk tolerance and I was maxed this week and I'm just done. And and um again pulled in at 659 on two wheels and just anxiety, I mean just running in. And here I see bob golf, that um I love, and and then this video and I'm just like that's unbelievable and it's crazy that we were scheduled to record we were scheduled to record and this was kind of a last minute thing anyway, correct.

Speaker 2:

It only got scheduled a couple days ago. I had no idea what we're supposed to talk about, but I text you. I caught, I'm sorry, I, I, I, I text you. Right after that I got out of that breakfast and said I don't know what the hell we were supposed to talk about. But but we're not talking about that. We're going to get real raw and real real about leadership today, because I don't know. I hope there's somebody someplace, somewhere that need to hear, hear that, but I'm not smart enough to put all those details together.

Speaker 1:

What would you say to the person that's listening or watching, that's struggling right now with their why so you have one. You might've lost sight of it a little bit this week. Their why so you have one. You might've lost sight of it a little bit this week, but you were reminded of it in a really beautiful way. But for some people who are like man, I'm out here grinding, I'm um, I'm trying to be gritty, I'm trying to work hard, I'm trying to whatever, I'm trying to close the deal, and they're just struggling with depression, lacking motivation, how do you encourage us in this moment to find, find that why I think it takes a village right, like I've always been open about my mental health, fight depression, never been diagnosed, but I'm 99% sure I'm dyslexic, I'm damn sure ADHD.

Speaker 2:

And so you know from Bob and, look, I recognize some of these things take money but there's also resources out there to help with that. So you know, from Bob Goff, as a mentor to, I've had the same counselor for 10 or 15 years to we have two business coaches that have very different skill sets within the organization Obviously my wife, you know and so it takes a village and and and and everybody. I have a. I have a real close friend, that's a really good dude, but he's in a position and I'll try to very much protect his identity but in a position that it's supposed to make sure it looks like everything's put together. And I don't live close to him, we're geographically very far apart and so he reached out to me a few months ago and he was broken. I was like, dude, you need to go see my counselor. And so, even though it's remote, I hooked him up with my counselor and so I say that, to say like don't try to do this alone, like I don't know how to tell you how to figure out your why.

Speaker 2:

But if you have enough people that surround you in the village, you know whether it's a. You know. Get somebody that's trained on the mental brain, get somebody that you respect in a personal, spiritual way, get somebody you respect from a business perspective and listen and take all those contexts in and then you know whether you're Christian or something else. I obviously am and I talk about Jesus a lot. But if, whatever it is for you I'm not trying to to to to to shame you about you, jesus whatever that is for you, take some time to process and figure out after you hear those opinions and try to pull it together to think about what your why is. But don't go alone. Everybody, you know everybody.

Speaker 2:

Your worst enemy is being alone about it and being quiet about isolation and letting the enemy think that you know they've got control of that. Like talk to people about it.

Speaker 1:

One other thing I wanted to get your take on and we don't have to belabor this, because I think this has been so powerful but you know, one thing that jumped out to me is you're talking about you starting this church and taking this risk to start this church, and it's out all these different things right. The theme that came up for me is man, pay attention to what, what god may have you do, or maybe it's again not to interject our faith, but maybe it's just what, what you feel like you're being drawn into for a season trust your gut, because people might have looked at that and be like what's jamie doing starting a church?

Speaker 1:

and then wacky well, even like, okay, because I was in church, you started church and the goal which it was never your goal, but a lot of churches go let's build a mega church, let's do whatever. Well, you did that for a season and then felt like, hey, I need to step back, and so it'd be easy for other people to say, well, what was that all about? Yeah, well, here we are down the road and and god did a lot of great things through your church, but at the same time, Well, and the church is still going.

Speaker 2:

What two things I'd say about that.

Speaker 2:

And I had a had a coworker decide that IGA wasn't the best place for them and we worked out a good exit strategy for them. And it was the same thing when we left the churches. Like endings don't have to be bad, they don't have to be ugly, they don't have to be messy, they don't have to be messy Like you. Can, you know, communicate and work through those things? I mean truly. Brian and Barbara Sweat were who started the church with us. Like I'm still great friends with them, right. Like I sent them a text after the thing and articulated the story, the short version of the story, and so, like those things don't have to be messy Like you can, so you can have separation of that.

Speaker 2:

It just that it was, our season was to start that and create an opportunity. Like I have nothing to do with mechanics on a mission. Now they have taken that. It was, it was God's idea that he funneled, conduited through me, but like they've scaled that thing, I don't, I don't, I don't take any of the success of that, but but I was supposed to be there for that season to open that door, to create. God used me as as to create that opportunity for Brian to get out of his comfort zone and get in, you know, in in more of a church, like running the church right, it's always in ministry, being the the head person at Lighthouse Christian School. And then that created Mechanics on a Mission and now you know I mean the compounding effect of what it's doing for humanity is very profound and very humbling.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's a reminder. For me is like sometimes you can look at a season and it just goes back to the whole theme of this episode in a lot of ways. Is man there's, there's things that work bigger than ourselves, if we're willing to surrender and we're willing to say, hey, I'm going to be open-handed with how I lead. I'm going to be honest with how I lead because it's really easy for me to look at a season and be like and try to label it for what it is, and sometimes we don't know until months, years later how the dots are going to connect. And that's true in business, that's true in life, a hundred percent.

Speaker 2:

And and the thing is that you don't look, I referenced earlier, I'm not that smart of a guy. I'm sincerely not that smart of a guy I'm. I'm probably the most broken human in the world. I have a lot of faults. I'm an Enneagram 8, which means I can be an absolute prick in the right situation. But as broken as I am, god gave me an idea and an opportunity and some dude I've never met and never will meet, nor will I probably ever meet that police officer. Life has changed and that's not about me. It's about something bigger than me and I'm grateful to. I'm just I'm just grateful.

Speaker 1:

Last word, final word, looking back on today, if you can kind of out of body and zoom out a year from now or whatever, what are you going to look back and tell Jamie today of what you want to remember about this this week?

Speaker 2:

That it's bigger than me. That IGA was created for an opportunity to create create opportunities internally for our coworkers and our investors and our and our clients. But it's also creating opportunities that I'll never see in my lifetime and that, when things get tough and things don't go my way and I feel defeated, that I've got to refocus on the why. Because this IGA was created as a conduit to create opportunities for the kingdom of Jesus.