In this episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, Sam Collier shares his remarkable story of finding his biological family on the Steve Harvey Show and teaching us how we can live a greater story. Sam Collier is a pastor, author, speaker, and host of A Greater Story Podcast.
Key Take-Aways from Episode 265:
Sam shares his remarkable story of being reunited with his biological mother on the Steve Harvey Show.
The Greater story that God has for us doesn’t just happen… We have a part to play in it.
We are the sum total of our influences. The reality that we experience today is more a product of those who influenced us than we think.
On the topic of stewarding influence, Sam quotes Andy Stanley: “Influence is hard to gain and easy to lose."
Influence puts limitations on you. Whenever you become an influencer, you’ll be limited by your influence.
Sam discusses racial reconciliation.
“The only way forward is conversation.” -Sam Collier
“The goal of a protest is to attract attention for conversation & dialog.” -Sam Collier
Sam talks about the racial problem in America being a conversation problem, which leads to a misunderstanding problem.
Important questions that are a preface to racial reconciliation:
“We have to hear each other." -Sam Collier
“What you don’t kill in your 20s will destroy you in your 40s.” -Andy Stanley
Links Mentioned
Sam’s brand new book: A Greater Story
Sam's reunion with his biological mother on the Steve Harvey Show
A Greater Story Podcast with Sam Collier
In this episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, Sam Collier shares his remarkable story of finding his biological family on the Steve Harvey Show and teaching us how we can live a greater story. Sam Collier is a pastor, author, speaker, and host of A Greater Story Podcast.
Key Take-Aways from Episode 265:
Sam shares his remarkable story of being reunited with his biological mother on the Steve Harvey Show.
The Greater story that God has for us doesn’t just happen… We have a part to play in it.
We are the sum total of our influences. The reality that we experience today is more a product of those who influenced us than we think.
On the topic of stewarding influence, Sam quotes Andy Stanley: “Influence is hard to gain and easy to lose."
Influence puts limitations on you. Whenever you become an influencer, you’ll be limited by your influence.
Sam discusses racial reconciliation.
“The only way forward is conversation.” -Sam Collier
“The goal of a protest is to attract attention for conversation & dialog.” -Sam Collier
Sam talks about the racial problem in America being a conversation problem, which leads to a misunderstanding problem.
Important questions that are a preface to racial reconciliation:
“We have to hear each other." -Sam Collier
“What you don’t kill in your 20s will destroy you in your 40s.” -Andy Stanley
Links Mentioned
Sam’s brand new book: A Greater Story
Sam's reunion with his biological mother on the Steve Harvey Show
A Greater Story Podcast with Sam Collier
[inaudible]
Speaker 2:What's up podcast family. And welcome to another episode of the L three leadership podcast, where we are obsessed with helping you grow to your maximum potential and to maximize the impact of your leadership. My name is Doug Smith and I am your host. And today's episode is brought to you by my friends at Henny jewelers. They are our jeweler of choice and they are awesome. And you can learn more about them@hennyjewelers.com and today's episode. You'll hear my interview with Sam Collier. If you're unfamiliar with Sam, here's what you need to know about them. Sam is a pastor speaker writer and host of the greater story with Sam caller, your TV show and radio podcast. He is a speaker and host at North point. Ministries founded by Andy Stanley. He also communicates nationally and internationally as a speaker and contributor to the rethink group, orange network, orange tour, alpha international leadership conference, Willow Creek, global leadership summit culture conference, and more. He's also been interviewed on numerous TV shows, podcasts and radio programs and lives at home with his wife, Tony and their daughter in Atlanta, Georgia, and Sam is just incredible. And he has a brand new book out called a greater story in which he shares his story, which is absolutely incredible. You'll hear him share his story in this interview, and you can actually watch part of his story on the Steve Harvey show. And I'll just, I'll just leave that as a cliffhanger for you to listen to this episode. But after you listened to this, I encourage you to go check out the clip on the Steve Harvey show. It's incredible, but you're going to love this. So we talk about his story. We talk about his new book. We talk about racial reconciliation and of course we take him through the lightning round as well. Um, you're just going to love this interview, but first I want to thank our sponsors, bare tongue advisors, the financial advisors at bare tongue advisors, help educate and empower clients to make informed financial decisions. Find out how bare tongue advisors can help you develop a customized financial plan for your financial future. Please visit their website at bare tongue advisors. That's B E R a T U N G advisors.com, securities and investment products and services offered through Waddell and Reed, inc. Member of FINRA, and SIPC bare tongue advisors, Waddell and Reed, and L three leadership are separate entities. And with all that being said, let's dive right into the interview. Here's my interview with Sam Collier. Enjoy Sam. Thank you so much for being willing to do this interview. I've been following you for years and it's been awesome to watch your journey and your leadership and your influence just really grow and develop. And now you're adding value to thousands and thousands of thousands of people every week. So, uh, just so excited to get, to spend some time with you and learn from you. Um, but for those who may not know you at all, can you just tell us a little bit about who you are and what we, what you do? Yeah, man, uh, I, I try to describe it in two categories, kind of media in ministry, media and ministry, maybe it's flip flop ministry and media kind of first spend a lot of time traveling around the country, speaking at different churches. And let me say, let me say it this way. I spent a lot of time before
Speaker 3:Traveling and speaking, and now it's starting to pick back up because, uh, you know, the virus in certain areas is starting to die down. People are trying to, you know, really getting used to kind of social distancing and all types of things. So it's exciting to kind of get back on the road and, and back in these churches and in these organizations. And so that's awesome. And then on the media side, um, I've got a podcast similar to yours, uh, and television kind of broadcast where we interview some of the largest Christian leaders, um, that has kinda kind of in our world. People like Andy Stanley, pastor Michael Todd, uh, Lecrae, so on and so forth just about their stories. Um, and it's kind of the preamble for, I know this book we're gonna talk about today, a greater story. It's the same name as the podcast. And we try to have people on the show that are living in what we call a greater story. Um, and we try to take them from little McRae up to where he is now. And so that's kinda a little bit about me and, uh, you know, and I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And that's exactly where I want to start off. So you have a brand new book out called a greater story and a, and I'd actually just listened to one of your interviews with Carrie new Hoff and you have an unbelievable story. And I want to dive into that a little bit, but why did you write this book? And then can you just kind of share your story with us? Cause I think it's remarkable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, you know, we started sharing my story at different churches and um, uh, businesses, nonprofits around the country and the reaction to the story was so electric, um, and emotional and, you know, uh, some would say spiritual that, um, I said, man, we gotta, we gotta put this in the book because you know, when you have a book of this size 200 pages, you, you know, you want to ask yourself, do I have enough to write about right? Is there, you know, cause you're writing and you're writing and you're writing and you're writing and you're hoping that you have enough to put in there and you want to ask the question, is this something that people actually would want to read? Because I always say every great idea is not a God idea. And so, um, we wanted to spend some time as a team figuring out is this a God idea? And I think for me, a couple of things make it a God idea. Right. And, but the biggest of them all is are people being impacted? Is there life being shaped in a, in a, in a greater way with the spirit of God and with these biblical principles, like never before. Um, and we started seeing that on the road and we said, okay, we got to write this book my little bit about my story. And this is really kind of the main premise of the book. It's about half story, half teaching, um, which is, which is really important because you know, I don't, I've read biographies before and unless you're really into the person, you know, you're kinda like, all right, well, how does this apply to me? So we, you know, we wanted to spend half the book telling the story, but then the other half of the book really saying, here's how this stuff applies. You. Here's how we write it. So instead of it being a biography, we wanted it to be a lesson about how to discover purpose and how to maximize life and how God can take a mess and turn it into a miracle. And we've leveraged my story to do that. Um, and so here's the story. So age 21, and I'll be an amplified sown in Pittsburgh and what we're telling them, we got a book tour that we're launching next week. Nobody knows about it. You know, so we're excited about it. Uh, met my biological family, um, for the first time after 25 years on the Steve Harvey show. And, um, this, this was a wild situation of how we got there. Um, the beginning of that was my, it was age 21. My mother was 21 when she had me and my twin sister, she had three kids already. So that's five kids age, 21, um, extreme poverty. Uh, dad left the picture, actually Paul's right here. And I'll say about three months ago, we lost him, uh, from COVID-19 in the hotbed of New York city. I've never met him before. I spoke to him twice in my life on the phone. And this was after we kind of reunited with a biological family. Um, but he had diabetes and he left the hospital, uh, in New York. Um, when Kobe was everywhere, it went down the street to get drugs, came back to the hospital and passed away from contracting the virus. But I tell you that to go back to age 21, when my mother was 21 and to let you know how long substance abuse was a part of his life. Um, and so he was on drugs and he left the picture. Mother is in the hospital having to make a decision. Do I raise them in poverty or do I give them up for adoption and hopes that everything will kind of work out? And so she does give us up. Don't get too sad. We get adopted by a couple who met in Washington DC a year prior. Uh, my mother, um, my adopted mom, who from now on, when I say mother, I'm talking about her. When I say father, I'm talking about the ones that adopted her, that raises my parents. If you will met, uh, in this laundry mat on a, on a Sunday afternoon, at 3:00 PM. And the night before my mother had been hit in the head with a hammer by her husband at the time he was extremely abusive. So she got up the next morning going by any means necessary. I gotta get out of this situation. Am she had a gun on her person was walking around the laundry mat because she needed an alibis. Like my enemy district. I get, I'm getting out of this. I'm rolling out and meets my dad. And they ended up walking out of the laundry mat. He was in the look, his second divorce. He goes through with his divorce. She goes through or figures out how to get a divorce. And then they start dating, give their life to Christ, get married, realize my mother can't have kids. And so they come down to Augusta, Georgia to adopt, wow. They walk over to our crib, me and my twin sister, we had just been given up for adoption and they said, we want them, the lady who's running the adoption homes as you don't want them where they come from. They're probably not going to be much cocaine, drugs, all the, you know, so on and so forth poverty. My parents said, no, we, we think they're going to be okay. The Lord has spoken to us, given us, given us a word. We think they're going to be all right. They take us home in spite of what was said about us and channel two action news, which was a news station here in Atlanta. Georgia came out to the house, found out about the story we got there about three days before Christmas and the headlines were at Christmas. Miracle twins have been rescued. Long story short. My sister gets all A's from kindergarten to 12th grade becomes an industrial engineer, Spelman, Georgia tech grad. And I'm here with Doug And all, you know, and all the things that, um, that God's been able to do fast forward to after that, you know, I really do think even in that moment, you know, realizing God took us from a mess and did a miracle. And if that wasn't enough around age 24, my adoptive dad kind of is doing the tradition, family tradition, NFL football. That's what we did, you know, Sunday afternoon. It's what it was. And there was one rule. Nobody talks to him in the game. So he breaks the rule and starts talking during the game. And he says, Hey, you need to go find your biological family. We're like, what, what are you doing? He said, well, you could grow up one day and marry your cousin. You'd never know.
Speaker 4:And I said, what you've lost your
Speaker 3:And God told me that Steve Harvey was going to help you do it. And I said, okay, you've lost your bike. I grew up on Auburn Avenue. My dad had a barbershop on Auburn. He would watch TV every day, you know, in between cutting hair. And he would watch Steve Harvey show. He said, why was watching it one day? God told him Steve Harvey was Noah. And so I got up and left because I thought he's lost his mind. He convinces my sister two weeks later to write into the show. And um, I I'm like, why did you do that? Cause she didn't even really want to. She said, well, he kept yelling and you know, they're not going to write us back a year, goes by my phone rings. It's my sister. I said, hello. She said the Steve Harvey show, just call me. They going to call you by hangs up the phone. My phone rings in another two minutes. Hello? Hey, this is Dorothy from the Steve Harvey show is my first week on the job. A hundred stories on my desk. Um, you also the top story we think we can help you find your parents. Do you want to do it? I said, well, let me call you back. Call my sister. Do you want to do it? She says, no, but I feel like we have to do it. This, this doesn't just happen. Um, they bring us up. Me and my parents, my sister, they say we didn't find anybody. We're so sorry. We go to commercial break. We come back after commercial breaks. Steve says, Hey, I know I said this. That's not the case, your biological mother's here. Eleanor, come on out. Our mother walks out and um, we reunite with her and our three siblings on national television. And so that's what the book is about. And that's really honestly, um, that's like the first, not only we'll say chapter, but kind of the, the intro. Um, and then from there we walk, um, we, we break into my life and okay, we know that this happened, but how did it happen and how did God move? And what, what obstacles did you have to overcome and how do you now view life? And, and when we jump into this greater story, um, cause I, I think the greater story that God has for us all doesn't just happen. We have a part to play. So
Speaker 2:Thank you for being willing to share that story. I do want to just ask some follow up questions. I am just curious for your mom and dad, you, you know, they got led to Christ. I'm just curious. How, how do they get led to Christ when they, after they met? Do you know?
Speaker 3:Um, you know, I don't, I don't know. I think my mother knew about church and had been on and off and I believe the catalyst for them that I often say, you know, their life was pretty hard up until then. And so I think, you know, when, even though, you know, the way home, you may not always go home, right? It's like, I know that there's safety here. I know that it's like a college student who knows their parents loved them and, but they don't want, it's like, no, I'm gonna make it on my own. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna try it. And then one day you go, all right, I gotta call mom. Right. I gotta pick up the phone. And so I think for them, it was that it was, we know the way home, we just hadn't gone there. And I think they had done it their way long enough in terms of their words. And um, and so they said, you know what, let's, let's try it. God's way.
Speaker 2:Thank you for sharing that. And I know in doing my research for the interview, um, you speaking to the subject of influence is important to you and you've learned a lot about influence. And when I heard you share your story, um, you just asked this question, you said, what is influence all about? This was in another interview. And can you just talk about that? I know you talked about the influence of your parents and they didn't have to adopt, but they did. Can you just start, I just want to hear you talk, tell leaders about influence and what they should be thinking about influence in their lives. Wow. Influence. Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think we are all the sum total of our influences. Um, I think, I think we would all like to believe that we chose where we are and that we created our, and to some extent we did, but honestly I think the reality that we find ourselves in today is more a product of our influences than we think. Right. Um, I think for the first 15 years of our life, um, or maybe even 16, maybe even first 18 years, I did become an adult. Um, we don't know what influence is. I mean, some of us do, depending on what our, what our parents do, but the far, but the vast majority of people living in America and just in life, we're not privy to really understand, okay, this is what influence is and this is it wasn't until I was, I mean, in my twenties that I really started to go, okay, what, explain to me this concept of influence and not only explained to me the concept of influence, but how has, how has influence been actually been actually, uh, determining who I am and helping me make my decision, you know? And so for, uh, you know, I have, I had a book before, um, a greatest store, which is a smaller book. Uh, I don't talk much about it. It was for a boutique audience it's called find your voice. But within it, it talks about, I actually opened up the book talking about influence and the idea that whether we like it or not, we are always being influenced by something. That's the power of influence that whether we are intentional about directing that influence or not, it still is in our life and it is still taking us somewhere. So we ought to get serious about what influences us and start directing the influence because it's going to be, something's always going to be influencing us whether we got intentional about it or not. And so I think, I think we have to be intentional, even, especially as leaders, um, with deciding, um, what is, what we're going to put around us consistently and what we're going to listen to, what we're going to read, what we're going to hear, who our friends are going to be, who we're going to date, and we're going to marry all of those types of things. Um, you know, influences.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's so good. I'm just curious. What are some lessons you've learned maybe about stewarding your influence? I mean, clearly God's continued to grow your influence more and more of a voice. How, how do you steward that as a leader? And again, you're a young leader with a lot of influence. I'm just curious how you view your day to day influence.
Speaker 3:Yeah. You know, um, I believe it was Andy Stanley that said influence is hard to gain and easy to lose influence is hard to gain and easy to lose. Um, and I think for me that has proven true. It doesn't mean that I don't step out their own issues that I need to speak out on. It doesn't mean that I hide, but I do think it means thinking twice before I lean into something, before I say something before I, you know, move on something, um, because influence is such a fragile thing. It's an, it's so easy to lose. Um, and so I think that's the, that's one of the biggest things as it pertains to stewardship that I have found is that when you build it, you have to build it carefully. Also you have to figure out what kind of influence you want, because there are all types of influences. Um, you can have influence in the business sector influence in the Christian sector influence, right? Uh, in the mainstream arena influence outside of it. Like, and all of those are different types of influences, different types of influences. And so with that being said, you got to figure out what kind of you want, because I I've seen a lot of people, if they're not intentional about building the type of influence that they want, or even identifying what they want, then they'll stumble into influence. And then they become a prisoner of their own influence. It's like, wait, wait, wait, I didn't want to be known for this. Like now I gotta do this. I gotta do. In other words, there are people, um, that, that, that one influence that there are people, um, that, that desire influence. Um, but, but just find themselves lost in it. And even on the Christians, on the Christian side, I don't know people that have gained a lot in the Christian sector. And then when the rules of that influence kick in, they're like, Whoa, it's like, wait, you mean, I can't like, I should watch how I drink in public. It's like, yeah. But, but isn't, I thought drinking, wasn't a sin. It's like, no, it's not a sin, but well wait, but so then why do I have to it's like, well, because there are people that, and it's like, what is like, I don't want to be a Christian influence, you know, because every influence comes, it comes with us. Then there are people on the business side. It's like, man, I want to share more of my faith. Right. I want to be, I want to be more here. I want to do more of this. I want to do more of this. And they say, well, how come I, I can't be as open as I said, well, I know for me, when I speak in the corporate environment, they're more there. The limitations are different when I'm in the corporate environment, I have to it's okay for me to express who, what I believe in, but I also have to be inclusive of what other people believe in that are in that mainstream space. It doesn't mean I have to denounce what I believe, but it does mean that I have to be careful about how I communicate things. Um, because this is not a Christian audience or a Christian platform, and they have a responsibility to be in a sense, kind of a moral if you will. And so in the corporate space, I have to be really cognizant of, Hey, depending on what you believe or where you land, this may mean something different to you. However, love is blah, blah, blah,
Speaker 2:Blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm not, I'm not quoting necessarily scripture in the business sector,
Speaker 3:Even though that as a Christian, I believe certain, uh, certain things. So, but, but what I try to do is I try to find,
Speaker 2:And the threads that we all can connect on and agree on, but again, those are limitations. And so I think we have
Speaker 3:Back to you, you gotta be intentional about figuring
Speaker 2:Out
Speaker 3:What kind of influence you want to have, and then after you figure out what kind of,
Speaker 2:Um, you know,[inaudible],
Speaker 3:You want to, you want to understand the weight that comes in.
Speaker 2:So good. Thank you for sharing that. Um, I do want to transition away from the book and again, for those of you listening, we'll post links to the book on the, on, in the show notes and make sure that you get a copy by copy for your team, share this with anyone that you know, that you think it would encourage. It's going to be awesome. And so, thanks again for writing it. Sam, I want to take a few minutes to just talk about racial reconciliation, uh, and just say one, thank you for using your voice and your influence to address the subject. You know, I've watched everything you did at North point, and I've listened to several interviews and you've been so helpful to me. And so I just wanted to spend a few minutes and just leave this really broad with the time we have left. But, you know, racial reconciliation is obviously at the forefront of issues going on in our nation. And, uh, when it comes to leaders, what would you encourage leaders to do when it comes to racial reconciliation in our world? And how can we make a difference? Wow.
Speaker 3:Racial reconciliation, where we're living in one of the greatest opportunities in our lifetime, um, at least in the last 40 years to, to solve racial tensions. Um, and it's, it is, it is because we are starting to pay more attention. It is because we are starting to, um, have the conversations that we've never had. Um, but, but you know, something that I said on a, on a show a couple of days ago, that I think is important is that I think where we've been going wrong in this conversation even as of late,
Speaker 2:Is I think we're putting the cart before the horse.
Speaker 3:Let me explain what I mean by that. Um, I think that the only way forward and Martin Luther King jr I'll often talked about this is conversation. You want to wait for, we protest and resist for the sake of having dialogue. That's, that's why you protest. Um, and if anyone protest for different reasons, then they're not, I would venture to say that they're not doing it right. The goal of protest is to gain attention
Speaker 2:And so that you can create change, but change
Speaker 3:Only happens through conversation. You got to sit down and go, okay, we're going to create change, but how, but what, what, what change are we doing? And, and so I would venture to say, you know, we're not what we have a conversation problem in America right now at, around our, where we have a, we have a conversation problem. And because we have a conversation problem, we have a misunderstanding problem. I mean, because we have a misunderstanding problem, we have an issue actually solving the, the, the, the racial issues that we have because we, because we're not talking. And so I, I, so what I tell leaders now, my biggest thing is helping people have better conversations, helping people have better conversations. Here's a couple of questions I ask and I won't give them mom, I'm creating a resource on it right now to try to get out to the country of, Hey, here's, here's a resource for racial reconciliation to have better conversations in racial reconciliation. One of the questions are, you know, um, do people feel like they can be 100% themselves around you without being penalized? It's a big question. We're not saying that anyone except anything, what we're saying is are you properly postured to have the conversation? Wow. The other thing is, uh, you know, how do you react when somebody says something that you vehemently disagree with as in politics, race, religion. So, again, we're setting the stage, the context for the conversation, because here's what I mean. So many other questions I could give you, but if we just start with those two, if you, if you have not worked out those two questions, then when you sit down to have the conversation, you are doomed from the beginning, wow. That's where we lose each other. Because somebody says something, we don't agree with something that we don't understand something, and we just go away and we just start freaking out. We start freaking out because we don't know how to respond. And, and when we do that, people don't feel safe. And next thing you know, we're fighting, we exit the conversation, we stopped listening to each other and we stop listening. We stop understanding. And if we can't understand, we can't actually stop. So then it leads to the protest and at least have the direct action that leads to the violence because we, because we can't, you know, we can't hear you, you know, Martin Luther King I've often said that a riot is the language of the unheard. He wasn't condoning riot. In fact, he's said that I don't condone riots, but what he was saying is that when a riot is produced out of the context of the law, you know, the language of the unheard. So we got to start hearing each other and we gotta start posturing ourselves to, to believe that maybe there's, maybe there's something we all can learn. I mean, we gotta be ready to have these combos, man. I don't know if that makes sense. No, no. I think that's absolutely huge. And I guess, yeah,
Speaker 2:I think that's awesome. Is there anything else that you, you asked this question in one of the toxic gave that I just loved and maybe the answer is just having a conversation and listening, but you said at the end of the day, we all just need to ask ourselves, like, what does love require of me? Can you, can you just expound more on that question? I think that was so profound, simple, but very profound and very hard to execute on. Can you talk about that?
Speaker 3:What does love require of me? Um, yeah. You know, again, an Andy Stanley, uh, ism, if you will, what, what does love require of me? Um, I think when I think about that, that is, you know, it's very similar to the story of the good Samaritan. And, um, when he's talking, Jesus is talking to some of the teachers of the age and they're asking him, um, what, How do I turn it in? How do I inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, you know, well, I mean, you gotta do the great commandment, love to get Lord your God, love you, love your neighbor as yourself. And they say, well, who's my neighbor, who's my neighbor. And he starts walking them down that question and they jump into the story of the good Samaritan. And obviously we know the story, a priest walks by leave out white walks by, and then, uh, the Samaritan reaches across and takes care of the Jew that has been beaten and so on and so forth. Jesus looks back at them and says, who was a neighbor to the man? And the story is why obviously the Samaritan. So we get the title of the good Samaritan while he's bringing that up, because at the time Samaritan and Jews didn't play together at all. So it's really a story about racism and some other analytes, other isms. Um, but it is specifically a story for sure about racism. He put down what his culture would say you need to do with the history has been attention has been, and he reached across lines and he did what love required of him. He became a neighbor to the man. And so I think for us in that conversation, um, we've got, we've got to always ask that what does love require of me? And, um, a lot of times it requires sacrifice. So
Speaker 2:Thank you for that, uh, with the time that we have left, uh, I want to take you through what we call the lightning round. A bunch of fun questions that I love asking leaders. And, uh, we'll just dive right into it. And the first question is what is the best advice you've ever received and who gave it to you?
Speaker 3:Best advice I've ever received was from a mentor of mine, Capriccio scats, he's a UN ambassador. And he said to me, there's a difference between effort and results. And that was really big for me because that's when I, you know, for me, I was like, if I just work hard, then I become successful. He said, that's not all it is. We're working hard. It's very important. But if, if you have not created a strategy, if you have not created a win, then you could be running around in circles. It never taken one step forward.
Speaker 2:Hmm. If you could put a quote on a billboard for everyone to read what it say
Speaker 3:That you were created for a reason and a purpose, and don't give up until you get it done,
Speaker 2:It's the best purchase you've made in the last year for a hundred dollars or less
Speaker 3:The best purchase, a hundred dollars. Can I say Jordan's
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I love the Jordans.
Speaker 2:Love it. Uh, other than your own, which we'll continue to promote, but, uh, what books have you read that have made the greatest impact on you? That,
Speaker 3:Well, I'm getting my master's right now in biblical leadership. So I'm reading the Bible every day. So it's getting, it's getting real. Um, I think, um, so the Bible is one, um, the book of, you know, ZKO, I would throw out there, which is a whole nother, we can get into that later. Um, that's on the biblical side, I think just on kind of a regular book side, in a sense, um, you know, 21 irrefutable laws of leadership, John Maxwell, one of his, one of the best books in the world for anyone trying to lead anything, he writes in such a tangible way and that book is old, but it's still it's basic leadership principles. There's something about the way that he writes that you can read and apply immediately read and apply reading apply. So that's an amazing, that's an amazing book.
Speaker 2:I'm with you, man. He's my, he's my hero hero. So a big, big John fan, you have your own podcast, but I'm curious will podcast. What are your one or two go to podcasts that you listen to frequently?
Speaker 3:Definitely Andy Stanley leadership podcast, for all things, leadership, Carrie new hall, for all things leadership. Carrie knew Hoff just had John Tyson on. You've got to hear that. Oh my gosh. Woo. An incredible episode. I literally listened to that episode two days ago and I mean, I couldn't, I couldn't stop listening. So please, if you're a leader after you turn off[inaudible] right. Go and go and listen to the Carrie new Hoffman, John Tyson interview love those podcasts. You know, I hate to say it. Um, and, and you know, Gary Vaynerchuk is just an amazing voice in the space. Now he's not a Christian. So if anyone's out there going Sam, wait a minute. I know I, listen. I think you can learn something from everybody, right? And so that's Gary V but excellent marketing mind. I love listening to what he's doing.
Speaker 2:Love it. I wasn't planning on asking this, but you've had the honor and privilege to work at North point and worked for Andy Stanley. Who's one of the greatest leaders of our generation. I'm just curious. Are there one or two lessons that come to mind that you've learned after sitting under Andy's leadership?
Speaker 3:Oh my God. One or two. It's like 1,000,001. I will change your statement too. I've been able to work with Andy because me and him were very, me and Andy are very close and so he takes that staff thing really serious. And so if you've worked for him, he's like, Oh, are you wearing? But we work with that. Basically. We just, we've worked with one another for a really long time. Um, in terms of a speaking capacity, consulting capacity, all types of they North point and large does it's our home. Uh, it would take me a long time to explain the relationship anyway. Um, what I've learned from Andy, for sure. Here's the biggest one that I've been thinking through lately. We were, we have an ongoing text thread with one another about race issues and political issues and all these other things, um, which hopefully nobody ever gets. Um, but one of the things that he said, and I'll never forget, we were talking about a leader. He said, you know, I said, what lesson do we learn from this later? He said, what you don't kill in your twenties will destroy you in your forties. Wow. Yeah. What you don't kill in your twenties would destroy you in your forties. And he was talking about doing your deep, emotional soul work. You're deep, emotional soul work, which you don't kill in. Your twenties will destroy you in your forties. He says, so Sam, and it's the same thing. It was, you know, thirties and fifties and forties and sixties and fifties and seventies. Um, it's the same principle. Um, but he's, you know, he's, you know, do your work, do your deep emotional work. And I think we all know what that means. The father wounds, the mother wounds the childhood disappointments, um, the low self esteem, the fear of certain things, the imposter syndrome, this is deep emotional stuff that we are having. We kind of sweep it under the rug. And what he's saying is that if you don't start getting rid of that thing now, then what will happen is in 20 years, it'll grow and it'll get to the point to where you can't control it anymore. And it will destroy you. And we've seen many leaders do that just because they have not done their deep works. We'll do your deep work. I'm doing my deep work right now. As much as I can, you know, you want to kill it before it kills you. Um, so anyway, I could go for three days on that, Oh man, I want to have a whole nother interview just on that. That's amazing greatest leadership pet peeve done by other people or by myself or done by other people. Let's do both. Let's do both greatest leadership, pet, peeve ownership. I think when leaders think they own their people, it's a problem. That's my greatest pet peeve, because it leads to all types of things. When you see, when you see people, when you see people as things that you own, rather things you steward people, you know, there's a, there's a whole diff you start getting the loyalty and then you should've did this and you owe this. It's like, no, no. Like we're all here for a limited amount of time. And I've been blessed with the opportunity to be able to Stuart you while you're in my space. Um, and while you're in the space that God has allowed for us to create, I don't own you. I don't, you don't owe me anything. We're helping each other. That's one of, that's another Andy lesson, for sure. Hey, we helped each other. You served us. We served you. We don't own you. You don't, there's no loyalty. Like, Hey, it's all good. Like, um, and so, but, but that's when you see people as, you know, things to be an opportunity to be stewarded, as opposed to thing, you know, um, owned. And so that's the biggest pet peeve. Um, I think for me, um, I think what people may, you know, Sam gotta have an assistant. I gotta have. Yeah. If Sam doesn't have an assistant, it's a bad day. I was texting somebody the other day we were booking something. Um, I was booking some different things and they were saying, Hey, she'll ship you. I need to reach out. Or how should I just, I said, you got to hit my assistant. I said, not, I'll be on a beach somewhere, running around, looking crazy when you're like, where are you? Are you on the zone? Are you on the zone? And I'm like the zone. What do you mean? What are we doing today? And so that's, that's something that's a, that's really important for me.
Speaker 2:What's a, what's one bucket list experience that you've had that you think everyone should experience
Speaker 3:One bucket list. Everybody should meet will Smith. I met will Smith. Whew. I never knew what a star was. I met him and I met some famous people. Wow. Wow. He's like, he walked in the whole room changed. It was like, who is he doing? Like, I don't know what he's on, but it was, um, everybody should meet a really famous celebrity, at least once in their life. A really like, super famous, like, you know what I'm saying? Like the queen of England, like just something like something, somebody huge Justin Bieber. I mean, I don't know how you feel about Justin Bieber, but will Smith, whoever, whoever your purse, Taylor, Swift, whoever your person is, you should, you should meet them. Who who's on your bucket list to meet STO Obama. Ooh, that's nice. Hey, don't happen. Let's go. If I met Obama. Wow. Wow. Obama. Alright, don't get this done. I love it. I love it, man. I'll pray for you. That that'll happen. That'll be good. What about y'all?
Speaker 2:To be honest with you, my, my bucket list and bucket list was John Maxwell and, uh, and I had the opportunity to have one
Speaker 3:January. So, so I think
Speaker 2:Number two, and these aren't like super rock stars, but man, I would love to have lunch with, with Dave Ramsey. He would be like number two on my list, but John was, John was incredible. So yeah. I don't know if that's boring, but though Jobie 70 million books sold worldwide. Well, I know about them. Well, Hey, we have to wrap up our time together. So I'll just leave. This really open-ended anything you want to leave leaders with today? This has been a great conversation. Yes. I'll say when your story connects to God's story, at least to a greater story, new book out right now. Um, if you are in a season where you need hope and you're trying to discover how God can turn up your mess into a miracle because he can get the book is for you. So, and just honored to be here, man, keep listening. The L three is going down. Oh, Hey, thanks Sam. And Hey for everyone listening our goal from this podcast episode, we want to sell 1000 of Sam's books. So let me know one, 1000, but if someone wants to buy a thousand, let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. And thanks again, Sam. And uh, people can watch the clip of you on the Steve Harvey and see Harvey show, correct? Yes. I want to see that. I know you shared about that, but if, if that, if Sam story impacted you, I can't imagine a not, you can actually watch that unfold if you just Google that. So there's and if you, if you're in the Pittsburgh area, I'm at amplified, I'm going to talk about it on the 11th and October. So October 11th, October 11th. Well, let's make sure we promote that and get that out there and we'll, we'll get some out through there and uh, we get a signed copy of your book. What's up? Oh yeah. Whole book tour, whole nine. It's going down. Well, Sam, thank you for stewarding your influence. So, well thank you for adding value to us today and everyone that are listening to this and hopefully we'll get to do again some time. Yes, sir. On the 11th baby. Hey everyone. Thank you so much for listening to my interview with Sam. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did go and buy a copy of his book, a greater story. In fact, buy a few copies for your team. Let's go and let's bless him. But also I promise the book will be a blessing to you as well. Um, you can find ways to connect with Sam and links to everything that we discussed in the show notes at[inaudible] dot org forward slash two six, five, as always. If this podcast episode made an impact on your life, it would mean the world to me. If you would share it with others and leave us a review and rating on iTunes, it really does make a difference and helps us to add value to more leaders. So thank you in advance for that. And as always, I like to end every episode with a quote and today I'll quote Dave Ramsey. He said, this is so simple, but so good. Surround yourself with people who add the fuel of advice and encouragement to your fire, surround yourself with people who lift you up and fire you up. We need to do that, especially in times like these leaders. So I hope that you'll do that in your life. I hope you have that in your life. So thanks for listening. We'll be back again. Next episode. I'm so excited to be with you again and thanks for listening. Have a great day.
Speaker 1:[inaudible].