Welcome back to the Christianity and Business Podcast, an initiative of the RGW Dunn College of Business at Houston Baptist University. I'm your host, Derek Here, and the business of Joe that helps Christian Business Leaders integrate medical values into fitness. You can get more information about HB Center for Christianity and Business, and sign up there to see free access to all five issues of the Christian Business Review Journal by visiting our website at Christianitybusiness.com. Today we'll be discussing overcoming adversity in your career, and we're joined by John Ramstead. John is a former Navy fighter pilot. And actually, I don't know if John, if you're rolling your eyes at I said pilot. I know you Navy guys like to say naval aviators. Pilot works, man. And he's now uh leadership coach, international podcast host of the Eternal Leadership Podcast, which by the way is a show that I would strongly recommend everybody go and check out. I've been listening from day one. How many episodes now, John?
SPEAKER_01We're up to 148 there, and I can't believe it.
SPEAKER_00Incredible. Well, and it the gl the guests are first class, and certainly the interviewer is first class. It's a fantastic program. And he's also the author of a top 100 leadership blog for executives, managers, and CEOs. And he absolutely loves the Lord, and he's a key part of an initiative called Love2020, which is an effort to reach the business world for Christ. And that's really where I've had the privilege of being able to get to know John as part of this movement. And by the way, go to love2020.com forward slash workplace to find out how to get involved with that. We always like to give a plug when that comes up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00And as you'll hear about in this episode, John went through some life-threatening adversities that God has used to prepare and to position him for the work that he's doing today. Welcome to the Christianity and Business Podcast, John.
SPEAKER_01Thanks, Darren. So good to be with you, and thank you for all that you're doing, man. You are just um salt and light out there and just love being part of your world and appreciate everything that you're doing for everybody who you who you touch, man. You're just uh you're a special friend, and they and I'm just thankful that uh we've gotten to know each other.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you for that, brother. It's uh it's an honor to be able to do life together and make an impact together. So some of our listeners have had their career trajectory really thrown off the rails because of some sort of adversity that they've been through. And certainly you've been through uh a few things like that. So first of all, as we get started here, if you could tell us kind of what happened to your plans. So you were you were planning to stay in the military as a Navy fighter pilot. Uh what ended up happening to those plans?
SPEAKER_01Well, they completely, I got completely sideswiped, didn't even expect it. I it was my dream since I was a kid, Darren, to be uh a Navy fighter pilot. And I'll never forget, you know, we're talking a little bit about you know adversity and transitions. Uh I was in college on an ROTC scholarship, and somebody came in. I don't even know if this number was true, but what he said was of every 10,000 people that apply for the flight program, only one person will end up sitting in the cockpit of a fighter plane. And you know what? I did not see myself as that guy, and I checked out. And I was gonna go work on surface ships or maybe go on submarines. I was, you know, engineering major. And I gotta tell you, I was really, I feel like I'd given up on myself. And it was actually about literally six months later, I said, you know what, if I don't try to achieve this goal, I'm always gonna regret it. So I surrounded myself with just some great mentors, got some advice, and actually was able to get in and go all the way through the program and did well enough to, as you know, get into uh the fighter community. I flew F-14s, went over and was part of Desert Storm and Operation Um Southern Watch, and I was stationed in Japan at the time, and my skipper, our that's what we call our commanding officer, uh, I've been working really hard in the squadron. He called me and said, Hey, we're you're the guy that we're gonna send to Top Gun back at Miramar. And I gotta tell you, man, that was that is a dream come true because the movie Top Gun had come out, I think, when I was a junior in college, right? So this was you know, this had really colored my vision of of the future and things I wanted to accomplish.
SPEAKER_00And everybody wanted to be a fighter pilot at that time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, including me. So the thing is the competition was even more stiff. Oh, the competition back then was was was crazy. And if we we can always circle back to, but I got some life-changing advice going into the front end of that whole program that allowed me to really thrive. But um, so think about this, right? Your career is on track. I just got uh um nominated to, you know, uh my name was put in to be early promoted to the next level in the officer ranks, uh, just get uh orders to go to Top Gun. And I'm playing softball with some friends of mine, just a pickup game, and I get hit with a line drive right in my right eye, and I had an orbital blowout fracture of my right eye socket, had some nerve damage, so I had a little bit of double vision, just enough that it I was disqualified medically from any more flying, and I was done. So I I go back from Japan back to Miramar while they're processing me out of the Navy, and then six months later I'm out of the Navy, and now I'm walking, I'm trying to find a job. And the first job I could find was uh with a cell phone company, and I was going door to door in residential neighborhoods trying to sell cell phones when jets are coming in over my head into into come into Miramar to land. And I gotta tell you, that was probably one of the hardest periods of my life, man. I felt like my dreams have been ripped out from inside me. I had no idea what to do next. I had no rudder, no direction, no clue. And I was I was literally existing. I think looking back on I was just completely functionally clinically depressed, honestly.
SPEAKER_00And were you a Christian at this time?
SPEAKER_01You know, I was raised in the church, United Methodist Church, went to church every Sunday in youth group, but I would say I did not have a personal relationship with Jesus. And, you know, this is, you know, you talked about earlier about love 2020. This is where God, it's amazing as you connect the dots as you get older, but this is where God showed me the power of Christians operating authentically in the marketplace. Because as I was out and networking and trying to figure out a job, I met this wonderful group of men who started mentoring me, and they were all in business. And it was through these guys mentoring me and helping me find the right job and starting to get some direction in my life, and they were just sewing value into who I was. And you know, John Maxwell always says you have to connect before you can pull, and these guys connected big time, and it was this group of men that led me to the Lord about six months after I got out of the military. And I look back on that, and that was just a huge event in my life. And would that have happened if I stayed in the military? I, you know, I don't know if I can answer that question, but it did happen because of this accident and then this mentorship, this friendship, this love that was shown to me by a group of men in business.
SPEAKER_00Wow. And that is uh I was actually wondering that same question. I wonder what would have happened had you continued on the the trajectory that you were on. I mean, on the on the fast track, obviously you put in a lot of hard work and and and were were positioned to end up succeeding as a top gun pilot. I mean, so it's one out of ten thousand get a pilot slot, and then what is it, like two out of forty of the cream of the crop from those would make it to Top Gun, is that right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, per year, um, once you're in a fighter squadron, only one air crew gets to go through. Because the way the way Top Gun is structured, it's really a train-the-trainer course. So you go there to become the an expert in the air, you know, the area of air combat. And um you then take those skills and you go back to the squadron, and for the next year, you're the pilot training officer in addition to other responsibilities. And so the people that go through are the you know, they're they're hand-picked to go through and do that. Um, and my goal, my dream was to be a squadron commander. And one of my running mates, one of my good friends, stayed in. He's now a three-star admiral. He was the commander of a squadron, then the commanding officer of an aircraft carrier, then an entire battle group. And I followed his career. And, you know, the time that like my first 23 months in a fleet squadron, because this was because of Desert Storm, I was out to sea for 19 months. So imagine though what that would have looked like with my marriage, with my relationship with my kids, um, you know, if I had stayed in the Navy as a career. So I I know a lot of people might be listening to this, they're active duty. I don't want to denigrate that, but but for me, I don't know what that would have looked like. So, um, but that was the the track I was on, and it's it's a lot of hours, it's a tremendous commitment uh, you know, that you have to put into that path. So where I'd be today if I had not gotten hit with that softball would be in a a very different place than what I'm doing now, I'll tell you that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean when you start to get some of those designations, okay, you're a you're a pilot, and there's certain, you know, in certain career fields, based on my experience in the Air Force, pilots are typically the ones that get assigned to those higher level uh uh opportunities. And especially when you have that top gun identifier on your resume, you can as you said, you were looking at uh this other person who had had kind of checked those boxes, and when it comes time for promotion, it's it can be somewhat predictable, and so you are doing all of the right things to get where you want to be, and then just with the line drive of a softball, it's over.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, pretty much that fast too.
SPEAKER_00And and so I'm I'm sure that there's somebody out there that I I've heard it said that you're either you're either in a transition, you're going into a transition, or you just came out of one. And so and so certainly this is a very extreme uh situation, but I'm sure that it's something that everyone can can relate to. So that's kind of one of the stories, and there's a lot that happened in between here, but but then there was another major adversity where things were hitting on all cylinders, moving forward. You have uh visions, goals, things that you're working toward, and then there was another accident that happened. What was the the situation there?
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, I got out of the Navy and kind of found my stride and ended up doing three tech startups and um ended up then be doing financial consulting and uh moved out here to Denver, Colorado from Minneapolis, uh where I had been, and uh had just left working for a big Fortune 100 company to uh to build another company. And man, in anybody out there that's familiar with startups, man, they're it's crazy hours. You do whatever it takes. And I was five months into that, that transition into um this new company, and I got invited by a friend of mine who was on Dr. Dobson's board, Dr. James Dobson. He had less fo left focus on the family to start a new ministry called Family Talk. And um, I had a small plane I was using for business because I kept flying. Flew myself up to Montana to this ranch for this retreat, uh Darren. And when I was up there, we got in on Thursday and on Friday, uh, we were going to ride a horseback to the back of this big, beautiful property and have lunch and talk some more. And my horse all of a sudden bolted and took off. And at a full gallop, bucked me off into a steel corral fence. And I remember right before we hit the fence, I I remember like everything slowed down, and I remember thinking to myself, this is not gonna end well. And that's the last thing I remember till I woke up in the ground when the the horse went into the fence full speed. I don't know, I still to this day don't know what the horse was thinking. Um but as it was going to the fence, it bucked and flipped over and slammed into the fence rump first. And when he did that, he launched me. So this three-inch rolled piece of steel, the top fence bar hit me across the face. Um I lost eight teeth and shattered my skull and broke my neck and my shoulder and crushed my rib cage, punctured my lung. Found out later from multiple doctors that what happened to me should not have been survivable. And best case scenario, I should have been a quadriplegic. I ended up spending uh six weeks in ICU and then down here at a specialty hospital in Denver for 20 months with a severe traumatic brain injury. And at the accident, when I I woke up and I could people were holding me down, my head, my shoulders, my hips, and um I was uh I didn't realize I was doing this, but I was yelling and kind of screaming and moving around a lot because I was trying to get away from this pain that I was in. That was just this overwhelming pain. It was beyond my breaking point that I that I could handle that I was feeling. And then one of the guys said he was watching me, and all of a sudden it looked like you relaxed so completely, it looked like you were sinking into the ground. And he thought he had just watched me pass away. But it was in that moment, Darren, that I just felt God's presence completely surround me. And it was the most pure and unconditional and personal love between Jesus and John. It was like the fabric of the universe was made out of this love, and I had this privilege to touch it. And I remember as soon as I felt God's presence, the first thought that crossed my mind, and I didn't know how bad it was, uh, was I'm not worthy of somebody loving me like this. That was the first thing I remember thinking to myself.
SPEAKER_00Well, that'll stick with you. I mean, um and and certainly you've gone through adversity since then, but do you do you often go back in those times to that moment, to that encounter, that testimony, and just re-experience that that touch from the Lord?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because I think, you know, going through this, right? Because this, I mean, it first of all, it wiped us out financially. You know, it was almost three years until I could earn any money, um, and we had all our bills to pay, plus medical bills. My wife was a physical therapist and was not able to work because she'd been home with the kids, so she had to retake the medical boards to be able to go back to work. So imagine you're starting out with nothing, um, is how it maybe how the secular world might view it, right? Your health is gone, your finances are gone. I still can only work part-time just because some limitations that I have. And, you know, you want to do something that only, you know, that uh from my perspective, right, that honors this amazing gift of the life that I've been given. And that's a perspective I should have had before the accident, right? And I shared that with a friend of mine that, you know, I felt like I have this amazing gift of a second chance. And he looked at me and goes, you know, I would argue every single one of us, every day when we wake up, has a gift of a second chance is whether we want to take it and open it. I thought that was a really powerful insight. And but being in God's presence in that moment shifted everything about, I think, one of the most essential questions that we can ask ourselves, and that is who is God? And prior to this, Darren, I had I trusted God, um, you know, I accepted the Lord, you know, this was back in the the mid-90s, um, 95, April of 95, when I became a Christian. But I had never really come to understand still that personal relationship with God. And when you don't have that connection, it's hard to keep God, for me, it was, as that really that true North that you're always moving toward or moving into the future in a in partnership with. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I think, you know, so that m I think one of the most important questions we can really ask ourselves is who is God? And to understand, especially in scripture, when I read that Jesus wants to call us friend. And he wants us to call him friend, right? If you obey my commands, and that, you know, he wants to share with us his master's business. And to realize that that is that I that that's what showed up the action. The thing that really that I think about and dwell about quite a bit in that moment when I felt his love, I knew with total certainty that his love toward me had nothing to do with anything I'd ever done in the past, man. Because I've I have, you know, we all have that stuff, right? That causes fear, shame, guilt in our closets, you know, things that we don't want to share with other people, you know, things that we don't want to acknowledge in front of God. And it was like that wasn't even relevant. And I gotta tell you that that was so powerful to me that here is somebody who loves me for who he created me to be. And that led to the second question I had to answer. I was with my coach as I was kind of going through this whole process figuring out what's next. And I said, you know, I think I need to really figure out how I'm wired. And he said, you know, let me let's what if you ask that question a different way? What if you ask yourself, how did God wire you, and then try to figure out what he wired you for? And that might sound like a subtle distinction, but for me, that honestly was a huge shift in everything. It was how I was able to take my understanding of the person of Jesus who loved me and the and the savior and the the the you know Jesus as God and understand all that, but how that actually really lives out in the life that I now was just excited to live.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Well it's so amazing to me that your first response when you woke up is is how could God love me this much? And and so you know, any listeners who are going through this transition, maybe that is precipitated by some adversity in your life, to just go back to to that moment or a moment. Maybe there have been few, maybe there obviously there have been a a lot because his mercies are new every morning, but go back to a time where you encountered the faithfulness of God and how he came through for you, how he came through for your family, and bring that into your present situation and and how much because otherwise, what do we have to truly hold on to? I mean, I think that's why in the Bible we see the children of Israel laying stones of remembrance and and constantly reminding each other of the faithfulness of God and how we came through again and again and again.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, and I don't know if I shared this before, but um you know, God spoke to me at the accident, and the first thing he said to me was um because his voice what didn't come to my ears, it was like this voice that was all around me. And he said, All things work together for good for those that love the Lord. And then he told me he was gonna heal me and use this for his glory. And I as I was recovering, I had 25 surgeries as I recovered, and I was there there was literally days sometimes just trying to get through the next five minutes because of the still the pain I was in just recovering was just almost felt insurmountable. But I think you know, it you know, we and we all go through things in life, right? Whether it's health or relationship challenges or a business failure, moral failure. I mean, there's so many stories that you know you and I have all heard. But man, I gotta tell you, I had to really lean into those words and and trust God before I had clarity, before I figured out what's next, is trust that everything that's happening in my life, everything that has happened, will work together for something that's good. And what that did, that gave me enough hope in each little moment to move forward. Instead of letting what happened to me, you know, and you know, I had a business that I'd worked 90 hours a week for three years, almost cost me my marriage, and when the internet bubble popped in the early 2000s, that that entire company was wiped out. Right? And so, you know, I've had all these ups and downs in having the realization that everything and nothing is a mistake, and everything in life that's happened to us, both good and bad, are preparing us for what we're called to do in this season. Right? And I look at you know, Ephesians 2 10. If we actually embrace the fact, acknowledge that we are Christ's workmanship, so let's think about that. He created us, knows everything about us, our passions, our values, our our our spiritual gifts, our strengths. And he, you know, he prepared works beforehand for us to do. So think about that. If there's something that we feel like we're called to do, or it's a long that's on our heart, do we really need to take years or months sometimes to you know to get ready, to get ready, to get ready? Or what if we acknowledge the fact that you know what, we're equipped right now to at least start taking those small steps forward into what that what we're called to do in this season? And that is where I operated from. And that honestly, for me, Darren, has been the difference I think this time going through this this last five years has probably been one of the most challenging things I've ever done in my life, but also the most rewarding periods I've ever had in my life. Um, and it prepared me to walk into this season of my life with a completely different outlook, mindset, attitude, focus, everything.
SPEAKER_00Wow. You know, it makes me think of when the Lord first introduced himself to Abraham and he said that I am your exceedingly great reward. And in and so first he he he answered this question, who is God, as as you were advised to do, is to wrestle with that question. And then how am I wired? And and not necessarily trying to like figure out what am I supposed to do right now? You know, what is the what's the cause in the military we're we're so conditioned to look to the next assignment and the next uh the next base where we're supposed to go, uh the next opportunity. But the Lord said, uh go to a land that I will show you. And and so it's there's this journey of going with God and discovering, and it sounds like that's such a key part of how God has redeemed uh this uh these adversities that you've gone through. What else would you say about how God took the thing that looked like everything was I mean, your bank account was wiped out, I mean you're you're in the hospital. What was it for two and a half years? You were uh I mean you you were in a very severe critical condition, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, my wife my poor wife, this was harder for her, but I mean, literally for the f almost almost 18 months, she was truly my caregiver. Um, and as you as you go through that, you start looking at well for me, I don't know, you know, I kind of have a you know an engineering background, so I started looking at, you know, what do I have in my life? What you know, well, here's kind of the process I went through. Maybe this will be helpful to people too, as I as I really tried to figure it out what's next. Um, I was really praying into wanting to get clarity. I wanted to, if I'm gonna do something, I want to make sure I'm it this time for the first time, like going down the right path. And I think that line of thought honestly was holding me back, and I think it holds a lot of people back. Um I think we're we're we're we're trying to get clarity before we put in action, and what I have found is actually action and moving towards something is actually what brings you the clarity. It's kind of counterintuitive. So what I started doing is really, as I started really spending time reading scripture and and journaling and meditating and praying on those, I think those two essential questions, who is God and who is John? And then the third question is, now what do I do with that? It's what Lance Wall now calls convergence when those two pieces really come together. So I really got in touch with, you know, what am I passionate about? What are those things in my life, those really bright moments where I just felt fully alive, right? John 10 10. Christ says, I've come to give them life so that they may live it to the full. What does that look like to even live life to the full when it doesn't look like a full life is even an option for me? So what are little pieces and parts of that, little glimpses of what that is? What am I passionate about? And what is that in my life? Because as I really started looking at that, you know, it started giving me a direction. One of the other things I did is I sat down, because I was there was a conversation that happened my first six weeks in ICU. I had post-traumatic amnesia. I remember almost nothing of those six weeks. I have three memories. Each one of them had a significant emotional component, and it kind of got through, you know, it sunk in with everything else going on. But one of them was right before I had to have my first brain surgery, and the doctor came in and was talking to Donna and explaining what was going to be happening. And it sounded what I heard was that my chances of surviving were not very good. And he asked Donna if if I had a will, and and Donna explained to him that we actually had just redone our will and we were going to sign it right when I got back from this trip. And he said, Well, we can wait till the morning because I really want to have John sign his will and his living will before we do the surgery. So now imagine I'm laying in the hospital bed, this conversation is over, and what I'm convinced of is that next weekend is going to be my funeral. And I started thinking, you know what? In the front of the church, everybody's going to say nice things, but what are they going to really say in the back of the church? And what are they going to really say a year and two years later about my impact in the lives of the people that you know I got to touch? And I started thinking, you know, from an inheritance standpoint, life insurance and savings at the time, down on the kids, they'll be fine. But I started thinking about from a legacy perspective, what have I left in my wife and in my kids and in this world around me that really honored God and was something, you know, was I living my life so the use of my life outlived my life? So what I did is I sat down and I said, Okay, I survived this and I get a chance to completely rewrite my epitaph. So I wrote that and I said, Okay. And it wasn't just a general one. This is like, what if Donna was at the front of the church? How do I want to live my life? So the words that she says at my funeral someday, does would she share that she's the most loved woman in the world, that she always felt that way, that she always felt like her relationship with me was the most rewarding, life-giving, safe place ever? I don't think she would have said that if she was being honest, if I died five years ago. And what do I want my kids to say about me? What do I want my business partners and pastors? And I started writing all this down, and I started looking at my passions and where is this being represented. And then now what that did, it didn't give me the exact destination like you'd put into a GPS system. But what it did, Darren, it gave me that direction of how I want to be living my life. And am I doing things every day that's gonna bring that vision of how I want to be known to pass? Right? Am I that guy that just introduced tens, hundreds, thousands of people to a personal relationship with Jesus? Am I that person that was a catalyst for people to experience a life fully alive? And then that is then what guided me, and I just started taking small steps toward trying to do that with one person and then a second person and then a third person and then a group of people, and then that is how everything that we're doing today started.
SPEAKER_00Wow. As I look at your story as a whole, and obviously we're just getting kind of two uh major episodes from your from your life here, but the first kind of the first act is really answering that question, who is God, and how it was the the crisis of the softball uh and the damage that it caused and the the the tailspin that it put you your career into and how God used that to uh bring you into this community of of Christian men who discipled you and truly helped to reveal who Jesus is to you, where you began that personal relationship with Jesus answering the who is God question, and then after the second accident, uh that's when you began to wrestle with this question of how am I wired? And and and and not not just how am I wired, but as you said, how got how has God wired me? Because this is really God who is trying to s reveal something to me. So anyone who's in a transition, I would there's no coincidence here that it's during those transition seasons that you have that window of opportunity to make the most critical discoveries of your life.
SPEAKER_01I couldn't agree more. And you know, I think another if you're looking at you know how to successfully navigate a transition, also, Darren, you have to do it in community. Because as you are really starting to almost kind of peel back some of the layers of you know, let's let's just take the topic of identity, right? And I think this is where a lot of us get hung up. Our identity is we're allowing it to be given us from the world, you know, uh how we see ourselves growing up, um, you know, limiting beliefs, our self-image, a lot of these. And we're in and we're transitioning that, you know, to being that transformed mind, right? Not conforming to the world. So, and for me, this wasn't this was a process still. But to, you know, as you become aware of a mindset or a behavior or how you're acting and really starting to look at that, but having men that you can share that with. Say, this is what I'm learning, this is what I'm going through. I give you permission to hold me accountable or to ask me about this. Hey, how's it going with Donna this week? Do you think this week she feels like the most loved person in your life? You know, and then, you know, you know what, this week I I I totally let her down on that score, and here's why. I need to go back to her right now and and apologize to her and let her know that I'm gonna work on this and she can continue to hold me accountable. But having, you know, I um I went through halftime, and one of the things that they really talked about was having a personal board of directors, and so I asked three men in my life to be that personal board for me that I share everything with. Um, you know, things that in the past I wouldn't have shared with people because I would have been worried about either being judged or not looking strong, or you know, you don't want to be fallible, or maybe it's embarrassing. And I think having those true deep relationships, even if we just have one that's at that level, uh, can be so meaningful and so powerful in navigating a transition, you know, and have somebody else that will just speak truth to you, right? Hey, John, you know, here's some feedback, but I see you doing this, and you know, how's that working out for you? Is that serving you forward? Like, wow, Darren, thank you for sharing that with me. I didn't even know that that's what I was doing, right? And so those, I think doing it, you know, in real, you know, especially men that have a that also have that personal relationship with Jesus, because you know that the counsel is coming from that that found that foundation, that rock, um, for me was um a huge difference maker.
SPEAKER_00Wow. You know, John, you're leading a lot of leaders. Is there an example that you'd like to share, maybe a testimony of somebody that you have helped, or maybe that you're still kind of on the journey with, helping them in light of the transition and how God has taken you through what you've been through, how you're helping them to navigate uh this transition uh with in a spirit-led way, where they don't get disillusioned or uh just just depressed, but that they they actually redeem those transitions for something powerful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it makes me well, just I guess I have so many great stories, but you know, one that really jumps the front of my mind, it was uh a client that hired me. Um he had started a company a couple years back. He'd been in this industry for 30 years, and finally figured out, you know what, I can do this as good as the people that I've been working for this whole time. And the company had really kind of been flat for a couple years, and they were having some problems with employee turnover, and just a lot of these external metrics were not really, and he he wasn't really feeling satisfied. Um he thought he would, uh, but he wasn't. We went down and we kind of went through this process that I've been describing to you and really connected to his personal why. You know, what what is the re you know? I asked him, why did you start the company? And every time I ask a business owner that question, you know what they answer almost 100% of the time is what they do. Um, you know, I have I coach people or I, you know, sell this or I do this. Well, okay, that's what you do. You know, why do you do it? And why, you know, why does this company exist? And it literally took us a couple months of some really in-depth searching, getting some things aligned, because I really think your inner game is going to completely determine your outer game, right? That inner game is really connecting to those passions, your core values, your strengths, your gifts, and how and what it all looks like when they come together. And at the end of this process, he said, you know what? I am absolutely called to be running this company in this industry. And for the first time in my life, he was tearing up. He said, I am proud to say that this is what I do because I know why I'm doing it. And when he took that clarity and that passion now into his company, everything changed. The culture, the relationships with the people, um, how they did business, how they treated everybody. They started having clarity on how they wanted to be known, the impact they wanted to have on the community. So now, this is two years later, the the profits of that company have gone up by over 400%. Nobody has left that company in the last two years. They've hired new people. Their impact on what's happening here in the local in Denver uh is measurable. And, you know, that is the power of just you know going through a process like this. Whether, you know, whether you're in a transition, and it could be right, yeah. I think we have different options, right? It's like, am I right where I'm at right now in the seat that you're in at work, let's say, is that where you're supposed to be? Maybe you're you're feeling totally discontent, but maybe all you need to do is shift your perspective about why you're doing it. It can make all the difference, and then the joy comes flooding back in. Or maybe you realize that something's missing, that this is what I need to be doing for a season, and I need to do something on the side to start maybe exploring or doing some probes into other areas that could be fulfilling. And it doesn't mean that I'm gonna leave what I'm doing full-time, but you know, is there something else that I need to add in here very intentionally? Because I love the book Essentialism, the disciplined pursuit of less. It's not about just adding more to our plate as a way of trying to seek more joy. That that is that is not gonna work for you. But it's you have to understand why. And then for me, I was trying to go back to work for that company I was at before. My partners were amazing. They were trying to help me get back to work on a very limited part-time basis. But my Darren, my heart wasn't in it. I knew it was a different path. And for me, going through this process led to a complete pivot and shift, and that was starting the Ramstead group where we started doing leadership and executive coaching, and it grew into the podcast, and now we're we're doing so many more other things beyond anything I ever even envisioned or imagined three years ago when we started this.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Well, John, we have some high-impact leaders who are listening to this right now, and if if they're interested in working with you on helping to navigate a transition of their own, or that they're one of those people that says, you know what, I'm not gonna just wait for that crisis to happen to me. I'm gonna go ahead and start to wrestle with these uh these tough questions and really the foundational questions of our existence in a proactive way. What uh what would be the next steps for them uh to reach out to you?
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, the best thing is just shoot me an email, John J-O-H-N at eternalleadership.com, and I get back to all my email personally. And if there's anything I can do to serve and support you forward, just have a conversation. If you want to talk about coaching or any of the resources that we've put together over the last couple of years that would be helpful to you, that's always you know my goal is just connect people to what's going to help them the most wherever they're at.
SPEAKER_00Excellent. So eternal leadership.com is a website, and John at eternal leadership.com is the email address or reach out to John, and I'll make sure that we have those in the show notes. Uh John, is there a final uh piece of advice or anything else you'd like to say before we sign off here?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know what, Darren, I think you know, if people out there and they're just maybe trying to figure out what's next, I think the biggest, the best piece of advice that I can help people, because I was forced to do this, um, sitting in a hospital room for you know over two years. But for us to be able to move forward effectively, intentionally in the areas that are gonna bring us that you know that full life, we have to slow down to be able to do it. And what I would really encourage people to do is get everything in alignment. Look at your vision, look at your purpose, look at your mission, and then are your goals, your habits, your act, you know, what you're doing on a daily basis in alignment with that. And if you can just go through a process like that, that to slow down, you've got to be able to slow down to speed up and have more impact and more influence. I think that would be uh the best advice I could give people that are just, you know, almost maybe even feeling stuck about what to do next.
SPEAKER_00Well said. John, thank you so much for sharing your time and your story, your expertise here today, and just for allowing God to redeem uh these these things. I can't, I just can't even imagine going through what you've been through. Um, but it is it makes me so thankful for the redemptive power of God as I watch your life. Um, may God continue to bless you and your family and everything you put your mind to.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Darren, and the same prayer out to you and for everybody listening because there's there's so much out there for all of us.
SPEAKER_00We hope you've enjoyed this episode, and if so, we would greatly appreciate it if you'd read us a quick rating and review for the Christianity in Business podcast on iTunes. You can get more information about HW for Christianity in Business at Christianity in Business.com. Thanks for listening and keep integrating biblical value into your business.