Episode 18 - Nic Bittle, Why We Find the Bright Spot

This week’s guest is Nic Bittle. Nic is a speaker, trainer, and workforce development expert who believes values like accountability, work ethic, and personal responsibility are still essential to building strong people and successful organizations. Living with his family on a farm in Corn, Nic teaches principles rooted in integrity, discipline, and leadership both at home and in the workplace. Through his training systems and curriculum, Nic works to bridge the gap between retiring professionals and the next generation entering the workforce. Now as a nationally recognized voice on leadership and workforce culture, Nic is passionate about preparing future leaders to work with pride, lead with character, and create results that stand the test of time.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Waking the Wine, a podcast about uncovering the purpose behind life's crucible moments. Each episode, you'll hear from real people who turn their struggles into strength and their stories into light. If you are searching for meaning, walking through something hard, or just love stories that stir the soul, you're in the right place.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Hello, friends, and welcome to Waking the Why, where we discover the purpose behind life's crucible moments. My name is Stacy Peterson, and our guest today is Nick Biddle. Nick, thank you so much for joining today.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

No, everyone. I I'll say the first time I met Nick, I think it was a, I don't think it was the NICA convention. It might have been like our Nika annual meeting here. He is a phenomenal speaker. His stories are so engaging, so much so that Josh and I'm a business partner at Winward, decided to have him come and speak to our leadership team. And of all of the individuals that have come and spoken, our team still talks about the principles that Nick taught them that day. And so, Nick, I'm so grateful for you and your influence on me and the rest of our leadership team. Well, thank you. So to start, why don't you just tell us your story? Tell us a little bit about who you are and how you got to doing what you do today.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

You bet. Well, um, well, thanks, thanks for asking, and thanks for having me on. Yeah, my story, I people always ask me, how in the world do you become a professional speaker? And I always tell them, you know, it's a series of bad decisions. And I think a lot of us figure out what we're supposed to do in life through a series of bad decisions. But I I grew up, I live in western Oklahoma. I grew up on a farm. We worked, my dad worked, my brother and I, Mandy worked us, and I knew I didn't want a farm. And so I went to college at College of the Ozarts in Branson, Missouri to get a degree in hotel restaurant management. It's kind of a business degree with a hospitality emphasis. And and I'm not sure why. I I think I wanted to be a concierge in a big city hotel, and I don't know where I got that. You know, if I wanted to be the king of the hundred dollar handshake, if if you need a submarine to go down a river and and pop up and spray seven up on three nuns, you know, I wanted that to take about two calls. And oh my gosh. But you know, we we make plans, God laughs. So I I get into college and and I finish my degree, and and sometime during college, I got the the buzz to be my own boss. In college, I started to snow cone stands and I ran those during the summer. And then when I got out of college, I got married. My wife and I met in the seventh grade. I opened up an ice cream store, uh, marble slab creamery ice cream store. And then I opened up another one, and then I got into the restaurant business and opened up a franchise in Oklahoma City. It was the third busiest store in the nation. Um, opened up another one in a really high profile location. This was a maybe 22 years ago, and lost everything. Uh, lost over a million dollars in less than six months, had to fire 150 employees right before Christmas. And those employees lost their jobs, not because of anything they'd done wrong, but because of mistakes I had made. So then I find myself with a baby and broke. We were actually forced into chapter seven bankruptcy, which is liquidation, sell everything. Or you feel, you know, I'm sure I'll be depressed. And I finally got to that point where it's like, okay, God, what I've been trying to do, because all I was trying to do was get rich. I was just chasing money. I didn't love the restaurant business. It was just an opportunity. It's like what I've been trying to do is not working. You you open the door, I'll walk through it. And I was getting up every morning, I don't know, at 4 a.m., and I was just reading. And I was reading the Bible, but I was also reading anything else I could get my hands on. And and I remember I read this book, I think it was called Switch by Chip and Dan Heath. And in that book, they're talking they talk about bright spots. And one of the examples they gave is, you know, if you're if you're a married couple and you just you're not getting along, if they say, Where's the bright spot? You know, if for 23 hours and 45 minutes I can't stand this person, you know, what's the 15 minutes where you get along? You know, that's the bright spot. And I say, well, you know, when we're drinking coffee in the mornings, we get along great. And they're like, okay, well, duplicate that bright spot. Now instead of doing it 15 minutes in the morning, do it 15 minutes in the morning and create that same environment 15 minutes in the evening and fill your life with bright spots. And I remember thinking, I wonder if that works with a career. If anyone who's ever had significant failure in their life, you you forget all of the good. You only focus on the failure. I'd done a lot of stuff that was right, but all I remembered was going broke, letting everybody down, feeling like a failure. And boy, that's a that's a vicious cycle. And I remember a bright spot in my career, a couple of years before everything went away in the restaurant business, I was invited to speak at a commencement address at my old alma mater, Corn Bible Academy. It was a 20-minute keynote. And I don't know what I said, but I was like, I loved it. And it's like if I could do anything, if I had a blank sheet of paper and could do anything, I would be a professional speaker. And so that was kind of the moment that I decided this is what I want to do with my life. It wasn't about the money, it was really about trying something on that finally fit, that felt right. Now, wanting to be a professional speaker and becoming one, that was a journey in itself. I spoke for five years before I ever got paid.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Right.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

But but uh, but yeah, finally, finally the right person was in the audience and it and it opened the doors to the career I have now. And if you'd have given me a blank sheet of paper when I got started, I could not have created this this life career and the impact I get to have.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Isn't it amazing how our life's experiences kind of guide us in a way that we don't even realize where it's leading us at times, right? And I don't know about you, but at times like I want to plan it all out and I want to know what it's gonna be, and I want to execute to that plan. And and sometimes there's other other plans that I may not be aware of. I want to, I want to bounce back a little bit to when you find yourself at the point of having to shut down your business, right? Yeah, not only are you losing this money, but but now you're having to let 150 employees go. And and I remember, I mean, I I started my career in HR and ebbs and flows in business and market and economy has kind of always been part of my job. And I I take it very seriously when we impact people's lives. In the end, you still have to make the business decision, right? And so it wasn't until the first time that I had to lay off employees within my own company where I realized the full weight of it. So maybe talk us through that a little bit of how you how do you get to that like decision point and and how do you go about that and your approach to um your employees during that time?

SPEAKER_03 7:18

I mean, that's a great question. I probably didn't think about it at the time. You know, now I see I work with a lot of cut clients like like yourself and other companies across the country, and and and having to fire somebody because it's good for the business is a harder decision than having to do what I did, which was everybody, it's like Oprah, everybody gets fired uh because I did, I got fired. I mean, I I wasn't getting paid anything, I was going broke. I'm the one who carried the debt. So I didn't have the guilt I probably should have had when I made decisions that uh cost everybody their jobs. And so, you know, the I I haven't really reflected on that much, but but thanks for that. I will really start to dig into that some more.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Go back and figure no. You know what? I think what's interesting about it, at least for me, is just what it taught me of you still have to make those tough decisions, but the way in which we choose to part ways with another human being, we can do it in in a way that is respectful, you know, as much as we can. We can't control their reactions. And I will tell you, the employees that I had to let go were just they were a gift to me in how they handled that that situation. But I I will say it is so much easier to be a solopreneur where the only person you're impacting is yourself than when you go out on a limb and you start your own business and you've got all of these employees in their family and your own family. It's it's definitely a path that's you know not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. Because you know, I'm a person of of faith and I'm a person that believes that if God gives you an impression, there for sure should be a way to make it happen. And um, my what I've learned is that yeah, there's a way it's not easy and it's not going to be perfect, and there's gonna be ups and downs and hardships, and because that's the way we learn, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

No, you're exactly right. And you know, when when I when I have looked back and reflected on what really went wrong, it was I put off making the right hard decision. I should have let somebody go sooner. Yeah. And instead I dismissed it, I forgave it, I I made excuses on why I shouldn't get rid of that person. And then because of that, everything collapsed. It's ultimately my fault. But if I would have been willing to make a harder decision sooner, have harder conversations sooner, then it probably would have been a different story. And, you know, we made plans and God lasts, but so I'm I'm I'm glad I'm where I'm at.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

But no, I yeah, no, I do a lot of workshops on how to have those hard conversations that I I failed to have.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

That's exactly what I was just gonna say is that it's because of your life's experiences that you're now in a situation to influence and guide those clients that you work with, whether you're, you know, doing direct consulting or whether you're speaking to a crowd, you have experience. And I really believe that God gives us experiences one, for us to learn, but two, then to turn around and take those experiences and help others along their path, right?

SPEAKER_03 10:42

Um yeah, I don't I think it's really just for us.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

So, so you said that you want to be a speaker, but wanting it and becoming one are two totally different things. So help us understand kind of what that path looks like for you.

SPEAKER_03 10:56

Right. So, yeah, wanting to be a professional speaker, boy, it sounds good on paper. Getting somebody to pay you to run your mouth, that is incredibly hard. And and I found a mentor early on, his name's Mark LeBlanc, he's out of Minneapolis, and he was the he was the president of the National Speakers Association, and you know, he's got a long list of uh initials behind his name. And and and I told him before, I said, this is the the hardest business I've ever done, because always before I was selling a product or a service. In in my world, I'm selling me. And that that level of rejection, it just cuts deeper. You know, when someone critiques uh you know your your product, that's about your product. But when you get off the stage and they critique you, man, that that one cuts deep. And there's been so many times, there's been so many turning points in this career. But but one of the things that I did, I spoke for five for five years for free. And and I just took any job, any any audience that would listen, I would speak. And I wrote my first little book, uh, Small Business, Big Mistakes, and it was about the success and failures of being your own boss, and it's not even in print anymore. But I would go and I'd sell two books to an audience and I'd come home with $30, you know, like I'd done something. And I was welding on the side to pay the bills. And I and I just I quit a hundred times. And and my wife, Tarina, she knew this is what God wanted me to do with my life, and she made me start 101. And I remember there was I I'd been invited to speak. Let's see, it was the Oklahoma Association. No, the Oklahoma Society of Association Executives. So this is an association for everyone who runs an association. And they had a they had a the end of year thing, the governor was gonna be there. They needed somebody to be the keynote, they didn't have a budget. I showed up, put on my suit, and gave the best 45 minutes I had. And I remember we were so broke, we we couldn't afford to pay attention back then. And they brought me up on stage and thanked me and had me a little gift basket. And I'm just praying that there's an Applebee's gift card in there or something I can take home because we were so broke, and and there was a pen set and some golf teas. And I'm like, I I can't eat golf teas. And I wanted to quit. And I remember I walked to the car in the rain, and it was just pouring, and it was just one of those deals. I just broke down in the car and I was like, I'm done. This isn't it, you know. God is the closed door. I can't do this. In that room was a uh a guy named David Finley, and he was the association executive for the sheet metal world for SMACNA, and and he reached out and and basically said, Hey, we're doing an annual conference here in six months, and we want to pay you to come do three hours. So it's like, well, my first really paid gig, but I had to wait six months to do it, you know, and so it's like, well, okay, I'll God, I'll do this for six more months, but then I'm done. That opened the door to the career I have today. Uh, because I went and I did those three hours, and it was all about six personal success and failure and overcoming failure, and it was all professional development stuff. But David pulled me aside afterwards and after I delivered those three hours, and he said, Nick, I want you to come work with our apprentices. He said, Our apprentices don't look at this as a career, they look at what they're doing as a job and and they need some help. They need some communication training, they need some professional development and some professionalism. And I said, Man, that's not what I do. I don't even know what a sheet metal worker is. Right. And he said, Well, you don't need you don't need to know. I don't I don't need you to teach them how to balance heat and air unit. I need you to teach him how to show up and build a career. And I turned him down. I said no.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

Stupid as I was, because I, you know, I think sometimes we get so focused on this is this is the plan that I have, just like you said.

unknown 15:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

And I turned I told him no. And and thank goodness David's one of the best people in my life now. But he he called me back two weeks later when he said, Let's go to lunch again. And he said, Nick, you really need to consider this. He said, We have a need and we have a budget. And it was like, Okay, now you're speaking my my language. And and I even told myself, this is the profile of a good sale, but this is not a long-term career. I tried to talk myself out of it then, but it's like, you know, I'm gonna walk through this door because I need to check. And so I did. I started working with the apprentices and the sheet metal local in in Oklahoma City. And I'd work with them once a quarter, and we'd talk about professionalism and entrepreneurship and and self-leadership, communication, and and then pretty soon I started hearing stories about how their foreman, their bosses, were just they were great sheet metal workers, they weren't great leaders. And I came to David and I said, David, I said, you really need to find somebody to teach these guys how to be leaders. And he said, I think I already have. And I said, I can't do that. I said, I've never, I've never ran a big crew, I've never built a hotel or a casino. And he said, I don't need you to. He said, I need somebody that understands people. And he said, You've you've had teams, you you speak the language, and he said, But you're engaging, and he said, These guys will listen to you because he said their BS meter is on point. And he said, if you don't connect with them right away, you're gonna lose them. And he said, You know how to do that.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

And testify you do, you are so good at that. It's interesting what our limiting beliefs do, right? They get in the way of the path we're on or the path that we should be taking. Ah, I love it.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

So fast.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Yeah, okay. So, Nick, you do have to share my favorite story.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

Okay, which one's that?

SPEAKER_02 17:10

It's the why you chose as a family to live where you live, and then about your your son.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

It's been you know what other one I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

Yeah, I'll tell that one. Do it coffee shop.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

Yeah, okay. Well, I will tell that one. So uh so I I currently live in a little town of 503 people called Corn Oklahoma, spelled just like the vegetable. It's out here in western Oklahoma. I always tell people this is where God makes the tornadoes. He test drives them through Corn America, and then if they're a good one, he'll send them to more, Oklahoma or up to Kansas. But we we live this is kind of where we grew up. Torina and I were living in Oklahoma City. We lived there for about 15 years. When the kids were six and eight, we wanted to move back to Corn America because we wanted to raise the kids on a farm and in a small community. And there's a little Christian school down here we graduated from, we wanted them to go to, and and so we moved to Corn America. And and Corn's got nothing. We we don't have a gas station, there's there's uh there's not a Walmart supercenter, there's not a there's not a Dollar General, you know, there's a Dollar General on the moon. There's not one in Corn, Oklahoma. But we do have a post office that's open from noon to four, and we do have a cafe that's open all day, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, lunch on Sunday. And and when we moved to Corn, Oklahoma, kids were six and eight. And and there's a few things that I love about Corn, Oklahoma. Number one, my kids could ride their bikes all around town. I didn't have to worry about them. Because if and when they did something stupid, we would hear about it. Because you know, everybody's got our cell phone number. You know, that's that's accountability. That's how you develop accountability in in our children. And so we love that about corn. The other thing we love we loved about corn is is this is where we grew up and and our family farms down here. And and we wanted our kids to know after school and on weekends there's something to do. We wanted them to develop a work ethic. Because right now we're seeing a a group of individuals enter the workforce, and some of them, not all of them, but some of them had never worked before. Now we're putting them on our jobs and we're expecting them to work eight or 10 or 12 hours and they look at us like a dog in a new world. You know, it's like, what is this?

unknown 19:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

The other thing I love about Corn Oklahoma is most of the people there, not all of them, most of them, they say what they mean, they mean what they say. You know, they tell you something, you can take it to the bank. They believe their handshake's worth more than their signature. And and that's that integrity piece that's lacking in so many people in our country. And we wanted all of that for them. But one of the things, Cruz, when he when he uh, I say they were six and eight, they were seven and eight when we moved. But Cruz was seven years old. Now, Cruz, he's a little mini-me, but his favorite thing in the world is breakfast. Not his favorite meal. His his favorite thing in the world. I mean, you give this kid an option between Christmas and breakfast. He's like, breakfast, Daddy. He loved breakfast. He's also an early riser. He he thinks anything after 5:30 in the morning is a complete waste of time. And he's always wanted to get up and do stuff. That first weekend we were there. I was actually in Oakland, California, doing a bunch of workshops for for a contractor. And I was coming home on a Friday night. And I had a I had a layover in Las Vegas, and it was about nine o'clock at night, Central Time at home. And so I called, I called my wife and kids, tell them goodnight. It was gonna be midnight before my flight landed. It'd be about 2 a.m. before I pulled in the drive. And Little Cruz gets on the phone. He said, Hey daddy, we're gonna have breakfast in the morning. I said, Yeah, buddy, we'll have breakfast. He said, All right, I'll get you up at 5 30. I said, Don't you dare get me up at 5 30. I said, I'm coming from West Coast time. You're in Central Time. I said, I'm not gonna land in Oklahoma City till midnight. It's gonna be 2 a.m. before I pull in the drive. I said, let's go have breakfast at 7.30 or 8. When normal people eat breakfast on a Saturday, he said, Oh, Daddy, that'll never work. I said, actually, it works really well. He said, But daddy, we got to get there when they open. I said, No, you don't have to get there when they open. We just have to get there before they stop serving breakfast. I mean, have you ever tried to argue with a seven-year-old? Right. You know, doesn't work. I finally drew a hard line in the sand and I said, No more. I said, We're not going at 5 30 in the morning. So get that idea out of your head. Well, he got real quiet on the other end of the phone. He said, Well, Daddy, I just go by myself. I said, Really? You're gonna go by yourself. He said, I'll do it by myself. And I said, You know, I think that's a pretty good idea. Well, he hands the phone to mama, he runs off to bed. Now, mama was listening to about half of our conversation, and she said, What did you just tell our little man he could do? I said, Oh, sweetheart, don't worry about it. She said, You can't let a seven year old go to the cafe by himself. I said, Oh, sweetheart, I don't think he's gonna do this. She said, You know, Dad come to the city. Good and well, he's gonna do this. And you just gave him permission. Have you ever tried to argue with your spouse? You know, that that don't work either. Uh-uh. My flight was boarding. I jumped on the airplane. I landed in Oklahoma City. I pulled in the drive about 2 a.m. I don't think my head hit the pillow. All of a sudden I hear Cruz's alarm clock going off down the hall. I look down the hall, I see lights start shining underneath his bedroom door. I hear him sliding open his dresser drawers. I hear him shaking his piggy bank. And I'm like, this kid's gonna do this. Now Trina, she's got the boniest elbow on the planet. And she's working over my short ribs. She's like, hey, this was your idea. You get up and take care of it. And I said, sweetheart, let's just see what happens. See, I I knew 545 is the moment of truth. At 545, that little man's gonna open the front door and he's gonna look outside. What's he gonna see at 545 in the morning? It's dark. Dark. It's so early the moon's not even out.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

Right.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

Right. And little kids are afraid of the dark.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

And it and older kids.

SPEAKER_03 23:00

Yeah, we all are. So I'm like, this isn't a problem. Ed shirt out 545 comes. You can hear him walk through the front door real slow. You can hear him open the front door real slow. Trina and I were laying in bed. We are wide awake. Cruz takes one step outside, closes the door behind him, he is gone. Now Trina is freaking out. I said, sweetheart, if there's a problem, Susan will call us. Susan owned the cafe. I just didn't want to get out of bed.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Right.

SPEAKER_03 23:28

It's later that morning I went down to the cafe. As soon as I walked in, Susan looked at me. Now Corn Cafe is like any small town cafe in the country. In the middle of the cafe is about six tables all pushed together. And it's six o'clock in the morning. Who's sitting around those tables? It's the old guys. Right? It's the old guys. Sitting around the table, drinking coffee. They're telling lies. Right? Same lies they told last week. You know, this week they're bigger. They've developed them. Six you know, later that morning I walked in the cafe. As soon as I walked in, Susan looked at me. She said, Nick almost called you this morning. I said, No, I'm just I'm surprised you didn't. She said, This morning, your little man your little man walked in like he owned the place, pulled up a chair right there with those old guys. She said it was the first time everyone's old guys shut up at the exact same time. Then my little seven-year-old Cruz looked up at Susan. He ordered a short stack of pancakes, scrambled eggs, side of bacon, and a cup of coffee. And he started drinking coffee with those old guys. And he went down there. He went down there for the next seven years.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

And I always asked my audience, I'm like, Pop Quiz, you know, is he learning something from those old guys? Absolutely. You know, he he's learning some stuff he's not old enough to understand.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Right.

SPEAKER_03 24:40

But he's learning some stuff. And, you know, we throw the word mentorship around a lot in our business, but mentorship happens a whole lot more over a cup of coffee or a coke than it does a set of plans or a workbook. It's about relationships. And that's something that little man taught me. And uh now he's he's graduating high school. Can't believe it's been that long. I get to give his commencement address uh this weekend. So I'm looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

I love it. I can hear that story over. I think I've heard it probably five times already, but I'm not kidding. You I I just love it because I can picture what's happening and I can picture these these old guys sitting there engaging with this, you know, young boy and probably watching themselves maybe a little bit more, but also imparting wisdom. Like I just I love the whole scene of it. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

Well thanks. You know, when I talk when I go out and work with new hires and apprentices, I will I will ask them, you know, was Cruz welcome? And they always say, oh yeah, they loved having him there, but it's like, no, they didn't. He he cramped their style, you know, they had to watch what they said a little bit, you know, when they started getting him relationship advice, you know, they had to they had to tone some of that down. And what I'll tell new hires and apprentices is don't don't wait for an invitation. It's okay to just show up uninvited.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

Love it, which is so hard to do.

SPEAKER_03 26:03

Oh, it's so hard. Takes so much courage. And and you know, little seven-year-old Cruz, and I actually interviewed him on our podcast, and and I said, What motivated you? He said, Dad, I just wanted breakfast. He said he was scared to death, but he just wanted breakfast.

SPEAKER_02 26:17

Oh my head, I love it. Well, Nick, one last question. You know, life's hard. Sometimes we don't realize we're about to hit or enter into a hard period. And when we're done with the hard period, we can look back and gain so much. But when we're in the middle of the hard, sometimes we don't even think we're gonna make it, right? Um, you've had your fair share of hard, your fair share of middle. What advice would you give to our audience about the times when they're in the middle?

SPEAKER_03 26:47

I mean, it's tough, and it's tough. And and you get out and it's like, oh, that wasn't that bad, and it was horrible. You know, I I think, and I know, I know this podcast is all about finding your why and and and that purpose, and and I think that is so important. And I was actually speaking to a group of high school students the other day, high school seniors, and and and and they're trying to figure that out because we often get career and purpose intertwined, and what does that look like? And and and one individual said, you know, I feel like I've been told I gotta follow follow my passion. Whatever I'm passionate about, chase that. And I'm like, well, but there's some people who are very passionate about singing and they're not any good at it, you know. So passion alone, I mean, if they don't think so, turn on American Idol or whatever singing show is on. There's some very passionate people about singing, they're horrible. And so I said, Well, you could look at what you're passionate about, but we also need to look for what am I good at? But that's probably not enough because if you're passionate about something and you're good at it, it doesn't necessarily mean you can make a living at it. And so what I did for those seniors, I drew three circles on the board and they all overlapped in the middle. And I said, I want you to figure out what you're passionate about. What really fuel drives you, you know, and what and what what are you good at? What comes easy for you that's hard for others? And then what is the market willing to pay for? I was passionate about small business. I was pretty good at small business. When I got started as a speaker, I thought I'm gonna help anybody start a business and grow a business. And what I found out real quick is nobody who's an entrepreneur and is starting a business for the first time in their life is gonna hire somebody like me to tell them what they're doing wrong because those kids already know everything. It it wasn't until I found a market that found me finding your purpose or or your why. It's not a secret combination, but don't sit on the sidelines, get out there, do it. The only reason I'm doing what I'm doing today is because my wife kicked me in the rear and said, You can't quit. It was just keep staying out there, get out. And it's hard because when you're when you're in the middle, you're usually depressed and you feel like everybody's life is easy but yours. And you're the only one that's dealing with this. And and let me tell you, the more vulnerable I was on stage, the more open I was about my failures. People would come up to me and be like, holy cow, I went through that same thing. And so you're not alone, but don't sit on the sidelines. Get out there, do something, fail, figure out what doesn't work, and and and the right thing will find you.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

Nick, I love it. Thank you so much for being here. Well, my friend, you've heard Nick say it, don't sit on the sidelines and just realize that if you're making a series of bad decisions, it's all good, right? God can use those decisions to lead you to your passion that you're good at, that there's a market for. So just don't ever get up. And then also remember, don't forget the bright spots. I love that point that Nick taught us today. So find the bright spots in those moments of your life and focus there.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Thank you, everyone. Thank you for joining me on Waking the Why. If today's story moved you, share it with someone who needs it. And don't forget, your why is worth waking up for