Encouraging the Encourager with Mitch Matthews

I’m honored to share and showcase our new friend, Mitch Matthews, who is going to inspire you, equip you, and bring you to another level of wisdom and activation. It can be hard to find the right kind of encouragement in this world of influencers and coaching these days, but Mitch is one you definitely want to follow and stay connected with. 

Thank you Mitch for inspiring me and encouraging me on my own walk! Enjoy this episode friends!

Go check out our brother’s newest release, Glory, on all of your favorite music platforms! 

About Mitch:

Mitch Matthews is an Entrepreneur, Success Coach and Podcaster.

The name of his podcast is “DREAM THINK DO” and that’s his approach to life too!

Whether it’s through his coaching, his podcasts or his speaking & training, Mitch helps fun, successful people to push through their fear to DREAM bigger, THINK better and DO more of what they were put on the planet to do!

Mitch proudly lives a “highly-caffeinated” lifestyle in Des Moines, Iowa with his wife and their two sons.  The Matthews have a wildly creative household and are very active in their church and community!

Where to Find Mitch:

https://mitchmatthews.com/

Where to Find Tamra:

Let’s Connect! Book a Call today to see how I can help you share your message! https://calendly.com/sharon-tamraandress/45min

Work with us! https://tamraandress.com/

TEXT Me (yes, it’s really me!) at 📱757-906-3734

Free Masterclass? Yes, please! http://tamra.live/

Looking for your own revival in your heart? Come with us to the Dominican Republic in September to revive your own fire! https://tamraandress.com/wellness-retreat

Show Notes: 

Mitch Matthews.mp3

Speaker 1 (00:00:01) – Well, get your cheek massagers ready, not your butt cheeks, your chin cheeks, because you’re going to be smiling a lot in this episode. This is an incredible human that I am so excited to introduce you to. He is brilliant. He is hilarious. He is a kindred spirit when it comes to Marketplace ministry. He’s an encourager and a dreamer, and he doesn’t just dream. He thinks about it. He prays about it, which is more important, and then he does it. We need more people in the kingdom that are doers and not just dreamers.

Speaker 1 (00:00:38) – I’m honored to share and showcase our new friend, Mitch Matthews, who is going to inspire you, equip you, and bring you to another level of wisdom and activation. Mitch, you are a gem and a friend and someone I’m very honored to have as an encourager in my neck of the woods. Thank you for being here. You guys, please, surely share this out and tag Mitch and tag myself and make friends with people in the kingdom. Know that this is not about competition. It’s about community.

Speaker 1 (00:01:16) – If you’re looking for a coach, if you’re looking for someone who will help just bring you to a new level, I encourage you to check out Mitch Matthews and all that he offers to the world and maybe as a speaker, maybe as a trainer or whatever that looks like. He’s the real deal. Thanks, Mitch, for being here. Listen up. For such a time as this, we must grow our faith and business muscles. The self-help industry is trying to own spirituality and well-being.

Speaker 1 (00:01:48) – The entrepreneurial space is becoming flooded with business pursuits focused on success instead of sustenance. But the only one who can make us fully whole, fully free, and fully alive is Jesus. So I’m ecstatic you walked into this hypothetical gym today. I’m your trainer, Tamara Andress, also coined an entrepreneurial rabbi, teaching the pursuits of God, which unveil our purpose and ultimately unleash our desired provision. This fit acronym is for founders, innovators, and trailblazers.

Speaker 1 (00:02:17) – Here, Marketplace ministers conversate and educate to build others from the inside out while also sharing their testimonies of endurance. So while it’s not a fitness broadcast, I do surely care about your mental, physical, emotional, relational, financial, and spiritual health. You’re going to hear all about it. If you’re passionate about your becoming journey, leading others to greatness, and living a life of abundance and joy, then you’re well on your way to being fit in faith. Let’s hydrate.

Speaker 2 (00:02:48) – Oh, man, I’m hyped right now. I haven’t got to see my trailer in a while.

Speaker 3 (00:02:53) – Oh my gosh, I feel like such a lazy podcaster compared to you. Oh my gosh, my heart’s racing. Not even possible. I’m ready to go. You are amazing.

Speaker 2 (00:03:04) – Not even a little bit.

Speaker 4 (00:03:05) – He’s just called himself a lazy podcaster and he drops a podcast every day, people.

Speaker 2 (00:03:11) – Not even possible. I am so excited to chat with you today, Mitch. I have not yet got to introduce you to my community formerly other than being on your show and we didn’t even showcase the Dream, Think, Do podcast that I had an opportunity to be on, which was such a gift.

Speaker 4 (00:03:26) – So cool to just chat with people who are showing up in the vibrancy of who they’re made to be and having no qualms about it, though I’m sure there’s been a journey and a road to get to that place of freedom. We’re going to unpack all the goodies and put you in the hot seat today.

Speaker 3 (00:03:42) – I can’t wait. You’re awesome. It is. Just have at it. Have at it. I love it.

Speaker 2 (00:03:46) – Let’s go. Let’s poke and prod. So we came on here and Mitch was like, yeah, I used to be a drug salesman. I’m like, stop. Don’t talk about selling drugs until we get on the podcast. I need to know.

Speaker 3 (00:03:58) – That’s exactly right. It’s so funny because I was in pharmaceuticals for quite some time. Our son, our older son’s kindergarten teacher called us once and said, hey, you need to talk to Ben about what he understands about your day job. And I said, well, why is that? And she said, well, we went around and I asked everybody, what’s your mom do? What’s your dad do? And Ben said, my dad sells drugs out of the trunk of his car, which is somewhat accurate, but also somewhat misleading.

Speaker 3 (00:04:32) – He did, like, I think his social cred went up just a little bit like, whoa. Yeah. So yes, I did do that for a number of years.

Speaker 5 (00:04:42) – I got promoted into a bad fit job which wound up being one of the best gifts ever and it changed my trajectory and I’m so grateful for that.

Speaker 4 (00:04:50) – He is good and I think I process as you’re doing it cuz we were just down in Costa Rica and blues.

Speaker 5 (00:05:00) – Yeah through and through just so amazing pictures.

Speaker 4 (00:05:04) – Will i say that because near the concept of blue zones are that they don’t have far may have farms right and it’s amazing right i wanna be i wanna create one i don’t even know if that’s possible like i think we got help probably but i love that thought not interrupt you but i love blue zones like i think what you’re doing what i’m doing.

Speaker 5 (00:05:29) – Like we create blue zones that are not geographically right but more cold her based or community based right because it doesn’t understand these things. We’re not limited by geography anymore it’s more mindset it’s how we live in our lives so i love the idea of like your whole community being the first ever virtual blues.

Speaker 4 (00:05:53) – So cool well and your processing this before we came back into what could be that hustle hard which i know farm pharmaceutical sales and i wanna know more about this bad fit job and what that exactly means but i was processing with the women saying how do we go back into with rhythms of grace. How do you go back into your life and experience what you’ve experienced this week regularly why is it have to be a timeout in order to do something why can’t always be a time in with the lord.

Speaker 5 (00:06:25) – I love that i think that is so important especially on what i could see and again in a not in a stock or level like friendly boy your experience of seeing some of the pictures and videos from your experience just look so amazing and i love your heart to say. This was a mountain top experience how do we bring the mountain back to us how do we make it so that we don’t just have these isolated one off experiences how we bring back and it’s so funny cuz i love that.

Speaker 5 (00:06:55) – I actually i’ve been trying to bring more song twenty three in my life and not have it be like almost like we’re talking about the blue zones not have it be geography based. But have it be wherever i’m at so we went my wife and i went to an outlet mall this weekend right and i literally like hustle bustle i’m an introvert. Not learn to do extra things but i’m in a server and so i’m like i was just feeling kind of amped and somewhat depleted by being surrounded by so many people on my day off that can stephanie like we.

Speaker 5 (00:07:27) – I can experience on twenty three right here god’s pursuing me so i went found a really nice chair in this you know kind of. Outlet mall area common area and i just let the sun shine down on me and i’m like wow some twenty three and i want you are not limited by anything this is like how do we bring the mountain to us as opposed to having to go far off for a mountain. Yeah you’re wrong mountain experiences are fantastic. But how do we do that more more i love that that was a goal for you after life changing retreat like you guys had.

Speaker 4 (00:08:02) – Yeah and i want like people who are even listening now to be able to experience that because it’s hard for somebody put their feet in those places if they didn’t experience it right and so what is that mean how does transformation exist now you know where in the midst of what some of the country is experiencing as a revival right and i’m sorry i’m so cool is possible and it’s happening in the most unexpected places right like a tiny little university. No smoking mirrors talk about how.

Speaker 4 (00:08:33) – There’s been moments like that i know in your life where it hasn’t been fantastical you talked about this bad job that ended up being. Exactly what god wanted you to do yeah it was a catalyst right so i mean that was that was kind of the beauty of it was that and and i try to infuse prayer let prayer be the thing that drives me you know my relationship my connection with god but.

Speaker 5 (00:08:57) – Where is that like ongoing conversation right and i try to use that throughout my life in my business and my family just throughout let it let it direct me guide me all of those things right and. So it’s it’s amazing when it happens but i know for me for my pharmaceutical experience i went into that industry it had been a goal it was kind of like i was like alright we were living in montana.

Speaker 5 (00:09:26) – At the time when i first started in that industry add so i wound up getting a position that was an incredible position overseeing a territory i said i got that the upper half of louisiana purchase i had montana idaho wyoming shot like my my territory was literally gods.

Speaker 6 (00:09:42) – Like I literally one time I was driving once.

Speaker 5 (00:09:45) – I’ll never forget it. I’m not too embarrassed to say I was playing Enya I was driving through this mountain pass.

Speaker 6 (00:09:52) – I look out and there is an eagle flying alongside me I’m like, how does it get better than this? I’m getting paid to do this.

Speaker 5 (00:09:59) – This is insane But later on I started to get the nudge that I was called to do something different, right? I was called to build I didn’t even fully understand it, but I was I was starting to get an essence of what I have now The kind of business that I have now But I was in a pretty comfy situation, you know, good job Company car provided everything benefits galore the whole deal, right?

Speaker 5 (00:10:24) – Plus we were living a sitcom life, which was a single income two children oppressive mortgage So like I couldn’t just quit and and just follow my dreams and that kind of thing But I got promoted into what what I thought was gonna be a good fit and it wound up being a bad fit and at The time I was kind of mad at God because I felt like I felt directed to this vision position I thought you were telling me to go for it and almost immediately I knew it was not what I was called to do.

Speaker 5 (00:10:53) – It was a real wake-up call It was kind of just a number of things that made it a bad fit and I was I was kind of grumpy with God I think it was that teenage Rebellious spirit like you did this to me you big grumpy mean God But I look back and go whoa One it was a position that taught me some things that I still needed to learn but more importantly It was a position that was not going to allow me to get comfortable Like it was one of those things.

Speaker 6 (00:11:20) – It was a catalytic thing It was a little bit not to not to say that I’m with Joseph But when I look at Joseph story, you know the highs and the lows God Prepared him in the lows for that next high and that definitely was the situation for me.

Speaker 5 (00:11:36) – So it really allowed me to Wake up and say what do I really want? It allowed me to go and get additional training that I needed it allowed me to start building something on the side which did not go well initially, but I started coaching and speaking on the side and that started to get traction and it took off and That was back in 2002.

Speaker 5 (00:11:58) – So we’ve been doing it for 20 years and I know that God had his hand Even it like I don’t believe that God causes pain I don’t believe that God causes disease But he certainly can work through tough situations to prepare us for what we need and where we’re needed, right?

Speaker 6 (00:12:15) – So I love that so yeah, so that that’s a part of the bad fit job scenario But God has done wild and amazing things ever since You know to help us to get to where we need to go.

Speaker 4 (00:12:25) – Well, yeah and I I guess my curiosity that stems from that because there’s a lot of Transitions and experiences that happen in the midst of that and even just hearing from the Lord I think people get confused on what that is And we can make it our desire of our heart and our will to step into something Even though we feel like we heard from the Lord, right? So there’s like friction obviously we’re in the flesh and in the spirit.

Speaker 4 (00:12:51) – Especially in the Holy Spirit dwells with us So how do you hear from God even now you mentioned all the prayer in which you stay in that rhythm of prayer with the Lord? How do you feel like you decipher determine who and what is God versus who and what is Mitch?

Speaker 6 (00:13:07) – Yeah Yeah, it both end right like yes, he putting desires on my heart and when I’m hearing from him all that stuff So yeah for me, I don’t know about you.

Speaker 5 (00:13:17) – But for me, I am an introvert who’s learning to do diverted things And so I need my introverted time just being with God right like being with Papa Doing my thing and sometimes that means sitting on the couch or sitting on my desk And just really diving into the word those kinds of things. Sometimes that means I’ve got a big dog And so we walk every day. He needs a walk. I need a walk Yeah, so, you know some of the best times are you know hearing God in in motion right in movement?

Speaker 6 (00:13:48) – Those kinds of things so a big part of it is creating space and it’s not always perfect, right? I would love to say that every day I you know achieve Tranquil and just peaceful, you know all this stuff.

Speaker 5 (00:14:01) – It’s not every day right like I do make time for it I make space for it every day, but it’s not always it doesn’t always feel perfect But God can move in two minutes or 20 minutes or two hours all of those things. So first off it’s it’s trying to make space In a realistic way on you know a regular basis But then it’s also surrounding yourself with a few people where you can check those nudges Right because sometimes it is you are hearing a download from God and it’s go time.

Speaker 6 (00:14:28) – Sometimes it was last night’s burrito You know, so like it is it’s always important to have some people to be able to say Hey, I’m getting this as a nudge.

Speaker 5 (00:14:39) – What do you think and those need those people need to be people who are for you? right people who You know also get into the word because I always say that God’s not going to ask us to do something that violates Right what his spirit the things he teaches us from scripture, right his spirit But he can call us do some pretty wild amazing things and then sometimes he calls us to sit or sometimes he calls us to rest or you know That can be some of the most radical things sometimes is just to say hey, I don’t want you to do anything, right?

Speaker 6 (00:15:15) – Yes, so I think you know It’s so important to you know Make time get into the word because that’s also a good way to double check and make sure a nudge might actually be from God Is to go wait has he done something like this before he’s not restricted to doing it exactly the way he’s done it before But has he done something like this?

Speaker 5 (00:15:33) – Yeah, there are their stories Are there examples of people that have done something like this?

Speaker 5 (00:15:38) – But then to have you know a group of people or at least one of the person you can run these things past So you’re not in isolation in this so those are some things that I found that that you know make a difference because I Really believe like you and I I believe are in the biggest mission field on the planet Like my brother is a missionary in Sydney, Australia Doing some incredible work there and I love it like he is legitimately that is his day job and I see what I’m doing is see what you’re doing as being a Missionary in the biggest mission field on the planet, which is the marketplace, right?

Speaker 5 (00:16:12) – We’re not again It’s one more example of something where we’re not limited to a geography And I think that is one of the biggest and most amazing opportunities because of the era that we live in the season that we live in so yeah, I completely agree and one of the things that you You do on a regular basis in this process is associated to your podcast And it’s the the one that you’ve more recently launched.

Speaker 4 (00:16:38) – Yeah, it’s encouraging the encouragers and That’s a part of of getting that insight getting that wisdom from other people And so sometimes I think people don’t feel like they have a safe place They don’t have when you talk about the Jim Rohn quote the some of the five people are associated with they’re like I’m not I shouldn’t be with these people and they don’t know where to run there in that Transition season or they don’t have wisdom associated to marketplace ministry or business Yeah, and so that you’re giving them this outlet with the encouraging their encouragers podcast Tell us more about why this because it feels like it feels pretty cumbersome Actually when you shared it with me the first time I was like, that’s a that’s a yes to God right there That’s right unions right there.

Speaker 6 (00:17:18) – Well, yeah talk to me about that Yeah So that one that was fun because that’s probably one of the the major moves of God that when he first dropped it on me I almost did the shake-off.

Speaker 6 (00:17:31) – Yeah, right Like I was never a pitcher but I understand the relationship with the pitcher and the catcher catcher You know says hey this what the next pitch should be and if a pitcher shakes him off like it’s like oh, right um, so a little backstory encouraging the encouragers back in 2019 I Was doing a lot of speaking about 80% of our business Revenue was from speaking and I loved it and we were doing events all around the country is fantastic I was traveling a ton that kind of thing, but I was starting to get weary and I prayed about it I was like Lord, you know, I’m getting dry I’m like not a lot of people could see it but I could feel it like the foundation was I could see some cracks in the foundation and and Somebody give me a word that summer that you’re gonna hear from God in the mountains now.

Speaker 5 (00:18:21) – I live in in Iowa now Right, so not a lot of mountains around so when somebody gives me a word like that.

Speaker 6 (00:18:27) – I’m Here up like what am I going around? Yes, please. I love the mountains, right?

Speaker 5 (00:18:33) – I get five bars of service in the mountains with what I’m praying with God and all that Right. So I’m like, I love that but when I got that word, I didn’t have anything scheduled for the mountains but sure enough and an event came in where I was gonna speak in Oregon and So what I did was I made arrangements to speak but then they didn’t know it but I wound up sticking around for two days Afterwards I was staying in an Airbnb.

Speaker 6 (00:19:00) – I did the event, you know said goodbye to everybody everybody assumed I was going right to the airport, but I went back to my Airbnb And then I just found ways to get up into the mountains and do some hiking and things like that There’s a fun story of how I found this actual trail.

Speaker 5 (00:19:17) – I there God literally dropped an angel And and who worked at a Goodwill of all places to get me to a trail that I could never have found on my own So much fun. It’s kind of a funny story all of that stuff, but we won’t go there But I wind up on one particular day I Get to this trail and God just kind of nudges me.

Speaker 5 (00:19:40) – He’s like I want you to experience on 23 And I was like, okay, you know, I’m in I want to feel what that would feel like because I’m a recovering worrier I don’t know about you Tamra, but I’m like, I know worry I like I would worry myself sick as a little kid and like missing weeks of school and at how I.

Speaker 5 (00:20:02) – Wow!

Speaker 6 (00:20:02) – Yeah. So like, I know worry.

Speaker 5 (00:20:04) – So it’s one of those things of to know rest, like David was talking about in Psalm 23. I’m just like, I would love to know that kind of rest. I would love to know that kind of trust. So show me, Lord.

Speaker 6 (00:20:16) – So I wound up going on this hike, and literally he took me along cool waters.

Speaker 5 (00:20:24) – This trail took me along this river that was absolutely breathtaking and gorgeous. It was not a well-traveled trail, but I found myself taking a nap by this river and just having this experience and continuing to walk and just having this one-on-one with God on where He was guiding me and all of those things.

Speaker 6 (00:20:48) – I finally came out.

Speaker 5 (00:20:49) – This trail led me to this lake, this crystal clear, beautiful lake.

Speaker 6 (00:20:55) – It was truly one of those hallmark movie moments where you’re like, come on, does this really happen? Like, come on! But I wind up coming out of this trail.

Speaker 5 (00:21:06) – There was literally a big rock I could sit on, and I sit down and I’m like, God, this is amazing. This is absolutely amazing.

Speaker 6 (00:21:18) – I was like, what do you want me to know? What do you want me to know for this next season? And I heard him.

Speaker 5 (00:21:24) – I don’t always hear the voice of the Lord, but this was just clear to me.

Speaker 6 (00:21:27) – Encourage my encouragers. I was like, I like that. I don’t even know what that means, but I like that phrase a lot.

Speaker 5 (00:21:36) – Can I have more?

Speaker 6 (00:21:39) – What does that mean? Sometimes after you ask, can I have more? Or what do you mean by that?

Speaker 5 (00:21:46) – Sometimes what you get, you want to retract the question. Because what I heard next was stop selling speaking and start encouraging my encouragers. I’m like, Whoa, Whoa.

Speaker 6 (00:22:01) – I love you. And this is awesome. Beautiful lake, gorgeous hike, stunning day. But selling my speaking, do I need to remind you that that’s 80% of our revenue? I think one person that’s her job is to navigate my speaking, planning, all those things. So literally I said, well, what about Lindsay?

Speaker 5 (00:22:24) – That was my team member that oversaw speaking.

Speaker 6 (00:22:26) – And he said, I have good plans for Lindsay.

Speaker 5 (00:22:29) – You need to talk to her about what’s on her heart. I’m like, okay.

Speaker 6 (00:22:33) – And he said, stop selling speaking today. I’m like, okay. And then he started to hit me with how would I encourage the encouragers? Now we’ve done coach training since 2008 and we took it online in 2011.

Speaker 5 (00:22:48) – So we’ve helped thousands of coaches, but I can really feel this was different.

Speaker 6 (00:22:52) – This was next level stuff.

Speaker 5 (00:22:55) – So I walk this hike back and I start just continuing to hear of what it’s going to be. And it starts in my spirit of this doesn’t make any sense, but we’re going to do it. So I checked with my wife first because that’s always, I’m married up. So it’s one of those words she knows. She hears from God at amazing levels, but she knows when I hear and she feels it in her spirit too. She’s just like, yep, do it. Got to figure it out. If that’s what he’s telling us to do, that’s what we’ll do.

Speaker 6 (00:23:27) – So I get back to the Airbnb. I text Lindsay, my employee that’s in charge of selling my speaking. And I say, hey, I just got something wild in the mountains. Do you have a second to talk? She’s like, that’s amazing. I do.

Speaker 5 (00:23:39) – I’m like, no, I’m not right now.

Speaker 6 (00:23:41) – And I said, yes. So we get on the horn and I said, hey, I got something amazing in the mountains in prayer. I want to tell you about it, but I also got the nudge. I’m supposed to ask you, is there something you’re wanting to do? And she’s like, oh my gosh. Well, I didn’t know how to say it, but I’ve actually been wanting to ask you if it’s okay if I go half time and start doing what I do for you for other people. Cause I want to build a business.

Speaker 5 (00:24:09) – I was like, that’s amazing.

Speaker 6 (00:24:11) – Right? Like absolutely.

Speaker 5 (00:24:13) – And so I started to explain to her that we’re going to stop selling speaking, that we’re going to start ramping up some of the things we’re going to do in the virtual and digital space, ramping up our training, all of those things.

Speaker 6 (00:24:22) – Now what’s wild about that is we did, we started that day making switches. We stopped selling speaking.

Speaker 5 (00:24:28) – We started to ramp up all that we were doing to support coaches, all of those things. Now what’s crazy about that Tamara, and this is, this is so wild. Like it still just makes me scratch my head is fast forward. We had sold a bunch of speaking, right?

Speaker 6 (00:24:40) – Because you know, you sell speaking and sometimes it’s three months, five months, six months, a year ahead, right? The last event that we had sold, I’m driving home from that event in the spring of 2020.

Speaker 5 (00:24:53) – I’m talking with the event coordinator of that event on my way home.

Speaker 6 (00:25:00) – And she’s like one that was absolutely the best event we’ve ever had. I said absolutely was so amazing. She’s like two. We would like if we had the event today we wouldn’t have been able to do it. Because now we know what came in the spring of twenty twenty right. I had no idea why god knew right now yeah we all. Then had about five six months to pivot our business which looks like shear insanity to just about anybody else that i was talking to about what we were doing.

Speaker 6 (00:25:32) – Right but god saved us and put us on this new trajectory and we’ve been encouraging the encourages in different ways. Ever since and so we just launched this podcast because that’s that’s the next initiative that’s the next wave of these endeavors with. You know what god’s been directing this day when it’s been absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1 (00:25:53) – It’s so rich and so necessary for people to realize like one the connection to obedience and like the timeliness of god’s word right it’s not just like a maybe someday you should maybe someday you can maybe it’s not really a suggestion.

Speaker 6 (00:26:14) – Good good father like and i don’t know about you but a lot of time i thought oh he’s a grumpy grumpy father father who doesn’t really like me all that much but he is actually a father who adores you like everybody that’s watching this or listen to this. He loves you so much and loves to talk with you whether you’re bitchin and moanin which i do like if you read half the songs.

Speaker 6 (00:26:42) – David and all the guys were all love there’s a lot of bitchin and moanin in there right he’s okay with that he’s a big enough father to go yeah you’re adorable you’re adorable when you’re mad talk to me about that you know all of that right but it’s that whole thing of like he is also a god that’s got every solution we need.

Speaker 6 (00:27:01) – Sometimes he’s gonna give it to us when we need it other times he’s gonna encourage us in the seasons where we don’t have it yet because something else needs to line up all those things but it’s amazing that we are a part of his solution for this crazy crazy world and these wild wild humans right like we’re a huge part of his solution especially is encourage us like you are doing such incredible work to like you are changing lives you are helping people be.

Speaker 6 (00:27:31) – More of who got god created them to be in the need people like you people that are listening right like they need your unique voice to inspire them encourage them in the day to day and so yeah it’s so cool thank you and i do i think sometimes when i process like my business plan right add so many businesses over the course of the last two or what is it not to yet decades but i think about like the business plan and the business model is so different than what i ever imagined that it would be right and.

Speaker 1 (00:28:07) – Honestly the more i follow the will of god associated to it the more simple it becomes and the more abstract it becomes to the point where i’m like i actually don’t know what i’m doing right and that’s okay it’s one of those things where i probably gonna murder this quote that dwight d eisenhower who is an incredible commander over our armed forces during world war two he would say that planning is essential while most plans don’t ever come to pass right it’s the process of planning and that’s what i found when we talk with god sometimes he will like put.

Speaker 6 (00:28:45) – Like a strategy on her heart or will go and learn a tactic or whatever a sequence of activities that kind of stuff will go learn those things. Add it will be a part of what we need but sometimes god’s gonna use it the way we thought right sometimes gonna use it entirely different way it’s that whole thing of. Focusing on our part doing our part but also being warm and forgot to do some amazing things.

Speaker 1 (00:29:14) – Yeah alright we’ve got some news for you we don’t just come together to talk at one another we also worship alongside one another and our brother jay who is a part of this incredible movement is also a vocal artist and he’s dropping a new song or it’s dropped by now it’s called glory by revival music co and jay is the lead singer the vocalist the one of the authors of the song and. When i asked him about it he said the intention was to purify and declare a space for the lord to move.

Speaker 1 (00:29:45) – And that’s ultimately what the heart of the founder collective is it’s to create spaces especially for founders who are doing the lord’s work every single day and found it in him and there’s this like dichotomy of being in the world and of the world every single minute of every single day.

Speaker 1 (00:30:01) – And when you get a part of this song, when you’re immersed in it, and you recognize the holy ground in which we stand and the holy ground in which the Lord wants to have an encounter, a supernatural encounter with you, it changes everything that you do and how you see the world and what your message is and how you’re on mission every single day. So all of that to say, you’ve got to come to founder con because you get to experience Jay worshiping alongside you.

Speaker 1 (00:30:27) – And just the sound of heaven that resonates in these conferences are incredible, but more so today, right now, download the Glory song by Revival Music Company, by Jay Stallings, Joseph Stallings. It’s going to blow your mind, maybe wreck you a little bit. So be in a heart set to receive and a heart set to just thank the Lord, glorify Him. Glory, glory, glory to the Lord God Almighty. All right, y’all back to the show.

Speaker 2 (00:30:52) – And I think when you associate it to worry, which is often with the speed in which we can exist, with the circumstances in which we can exist, with the society and cultural scenarios like COVID, like, well, we could enter so many things even since COVID that have transpired. But we can get in that state of worry being our reset, worry being the preset and the reset of like, are you just keep going back, keep going back to worry.

Speaker 2 (00:31:23) – And what are some ways in which you have released that, whether from your childhood and moving into it, but this unknown territory in which we often exist, knowing God and being known by God for sure, but not understanding exactly what we’re supposed to be doing day to day, minute by minute here.

Speaker 5 (00:31:41) – I love this.

Speaker 6 (00:31:42) – We got four hours.

Speaker 2 (00:31:43) – Is that like, we’re going to be like, ask Barry, you’re like, this thing was supposed to be an hour.

Speaker 6 (00:31:46) – It’s going to go four days. Okay. So, uh, we got a revival.

Speaker 3 (00:31:51) – Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 (00:31:51) – Exactly.

Speaker 1 (00:31:52) – I love it.

Speaker 6 (00:31:52) – So one thing is if, if, if somebody that’s listening or watching is a worrier or they know worriers, right.

Speaker 5 (00:32:01) – First and foremost, what’s important to remember is we’re in good company.

Speaker 1 (00:32:05) – Right?

Speaker 3 (00:32:05) – Like, I don’t know about you, but I love Joshua. Like that story in the old Testament, I mean, buried in numbers where he and Caleb stand up against 10 scouts saying we can’t take the promised land. Caleb, mostly and Joshua quietly are saying, heck yeah, we can.

Speaker 6 (00:32:22) – God says, it’s ours. Let’s go take it.

Speaker 3 (00:32:23) – Right. And you, you know, you wait a few years.

Speaker 6 (00:32:27) – Joshua is tasked with running the whole show, right?

Speaker 3 (00:32:31) – Leading the Israelites into the promised land that God created.

Speaker 5 (00:32:34) – And if you look at Joshua one, right.

Speaker 6 (00:32:39) – God tells Joshua three different times, be bold and courageous for I’m with you wherever you go.

Speaker 5 (00:32:46) – Now you don’t tell somebody that’s already bold and courageous to be bold and courageous.

Speaker 6 (00:32:50) – That’s good. Which means Joshua was not bold and courageous.

Speaker 3 (00:32:55) – I like to think that Joshua was worrying a little or a lot. And God’s saying, Hey, kiddo.

Speaker 6 (00:33:01) – Hey, I got you be bold and courageous. Walk this thing out because I’m walking with you. And it’s that I’m with you every step of the way. So keep, keep your eyes on me.

Speaker 5 (00:33:14) – I got you.

Speaker 3 (00:33:15) – Right.

Speaker 6 (00:33:15) – So I, you know, and you look at the disciples, I mean, crime and he stakes a lot. Like those guys would freak shows.

Speaker 1 (00:33:22) – I love them.

Speaker 6 (00:33:22) – Like, Oh, I do think that God selected them because, Oh, we need that kind of screwed up. We need that example of screwed up.

Speaker 3 (00:33:30) – We need that kind of case.

Speaker 2 (00:33:31) – We can all see ourselves.

Speaker 6 (00:33:33) – Pick your disciples.

Speaker 3 (00:33:35) – Are you a doubter?

Speaker 6 (00:33:35) – Are you a go getter that makes tons of mistakes? Are you somebody that puts your foot in her mouth? All that stuff like pick a disciple.

Speaker 3 (00:33:42) – We got examples.

Speaker 6 (00:33:43) – Right. And it’s that whole thing of, so know that just because you are having fear does not mean that you are disqualified.

Speaker 3 (00:33:52) – Right.

Speaker 6 (00:33:53) – God works through us and God actually designed our brains to have a little bit of fear. I mean, there is literally a part of our brains about, you know, an almond size part of our brain, the Megillah. That is something that keeps us aware of things that we should be afraid of.

Speaker 3 (00:34:15) – Right.

Speaker 6 (00:34:15) – Saber tooth tigers, dark alleys, all of those things. I just think that part of it, especially if we are worriers, we have built that muscle up. So it’s hypersensitive. So it’s, it’s so funny to, you know, think about that.

Speaker 5 (00:34:31) – Like when I am tempted to worry, I will often say, whew, I’m going to say, whew, I’m really tempted to worry about that.

Speaker 6 (00:34:40) – Right. Because even that kind of allows me to catch it before it fully hits me.

Speaker 3 (00:34:45) – It’s a little bit of like, do you remember dodge ball?

Speaker 6 (00:34:47) – I bet you’re like, you’re, oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (00:34:50) – Love dodge ball. Did you?

Speaker 2 (00:34:52) – But I definitely got hit in the nose a couple of times. Like by the cool kid, like the jock that’s just trying to show off. And I’m just like, I’m the cheerleader. I get hit in the nose. It’s like perfect case scenario.

Speaker 6 (00:35:04) – Exactly, it’s like that kid, Chad, who in fourth grade already had tattoos and muscles. Yeah. And like, like, you know, the mustache, the whole thing, right?

Speaker 3 (00:35:11) – Like dodge ball is a little bit like the temptation to worry.

Speaker 6 (00:35:15) – Like we cannot control what gets thrown at us. All we can do is catch it and say, huh.

Speaker 3 (00:35:21) – What am I going to do with this? Right.

Speaker 6 (00:35:23) – The enemy’s going to throw.

Speaker 3 (00:35:25) – Like legitimately, you know, like before we were getting on my computer, out of the blue started to have issues.

Speaker 6 (00:35:31) – My internet, all of the blues started to have issues. And I’m like, come on, the enemy’s a punk. Lord, take care of it.

Speaker 5 (00:35:36) – This is nuts, right?

Speaker 6 (00:35:37) – Something gets thrown at us to be able to say, okay.

Speaker 5 (00:35:40) – I love my wife as she heads up the prayer ministry at our church. And one of her favorite prayers to teach people is a two word prayer. And it is to breathe in and say, Jesus, breathe out and say, help Jesus.

Speaker 6 (00:35:57) – Help. That’s great. How awesome is that? So it’s that old thing of going, whoop. Whoa, I caught something.

Speaker 5 (00:36:02) – I saw a headline or I got that email from that one client that just pings you or that whole thing of some prediction of some calamity or whatever to go. All right.

Speaker 6 (00:36:14) – That is a temptation like that is, I am tempted to worry about that.

Speaker 3 (00:36:20) – Lord, is there anything you want me to know about it? Is there anything you want me to do about it? If I can let me to do my part, right? If I can’t, then let me help me to let it go. Just help me to let it go.

Speaker 5 (00:36:32) – And so it’s truly one of those things that has made a difference from me of, of just being able to go, whoa, do I really want worry to be my habit?

Speaker 3 (00:36:42) – Yeah.

Speaker 5 (00:36:42) – Do I really want worry to be my default or do I want to say, all right, I’m aware.

Speaker 6 (00:36:49) – That some things I’m tempted to worry about are things I need to pay attention to, like there might be shifts in our industry or there may be things that are happening that by seeing them in my heart racing, it’s like, oh, I’m tempted to be afraid, but maybe there’s an opportunity in that. But if I can stay out of fear and look more towards, you know, with an eye of love or an eye of all right, Lord, you’re the ultimate strategist. Where’s the opportunity? Is there an opportunity in that it can make all the difference in the world?

Speaker 6 (00:37:21) – I do have a fun story. Do we still have time? Can I share it? Yeah, please. I’m so excited. This is one that it’s, it’s kind of funny because, um, there’s, there’s a story, uh, from the Olympics that I absolutely love, but I think it helps to illustrate this so well.

Speaker 5 (00:37:37) – So there’s, there’s a story of, uh, an athlete in the mid sixties who went out for, uh, the high jump. His last name is Fosbury, probably heard about him.

Speaker 3 (00:37:49) – Right.

Speaker 6 (00:37:49) – But when he first went out for the high jump in Oregon in the mid sixties, everybody said, you got to go for the high jump, right?

Speaker 5 (00:37:57) – Yeah. He went out for track and they said, you know, you’ve got, you’re, you’re about six, three, uh, you weigh about 110 pounds soaking wet, you’re a high jump.

Speaker 6 (00:38:07) – And that was because you had to be super tall and super slight at the time, because you either, you probably know this went over the bar, either like a high kick scissor kick or a barrel roll.

Speaker 3 (00:38:17) – The whole idea was that you needed to land on your feet on the other side of that bar because of what you dropped into, you dropped into a pile of sawdust hello, right?

Speaker 6 (00:38:29) – But then somebody changed something somewhere along the way.

Speaker 5 (00:38:34) – I don’t know whether it was a nervous parent or a protective coach or an aggressive lawyer.

Speaker 3 (00:38:40) – Right.

Speaker 6 (00:38:40) – And all of a sudden they made a change and Richard Fosbury, this tall, skinny athlete started to change.

Speaker 5 (00:38:48) – He started to adapt his style and he started to go over the bar backwards. Now it’s funny because if you read in his autobiography, his coaches actually said, rich, stop doing that. You’re embarrassing the team. You look like you’re having a seizure in the air.

Speaker 6 (00:39:02) – Like literally that’s, they told him, but he went on to win state and high school, went on to win nationals in college and won a seat on the Olympic team for the U S for Mexico city in 68.

Speaker 3 (00:39:13) – He literally is the only high jumper to go out.

Speaker 5 (00:39:17) – He, he goes over the bar backwards, uh, you know, in Mexico city stadium full of people, stunned silence.

Speaker 6 (00:39:25) – They don’t know how to take it.

Speaker 5 (00:39:26) – Right.

Speaker 3 (00:39:27) – Like he has done something nobody else is doing ever.

Speaker 6 (00:39:30) – Um, and all of a sudden they wrapped in this universal LA, like they just love it.

Speaker 3 (00:39:35) – They start getting behind him.

Speaker 5 (00:39:36) – He not only takes gold, he sets a new world record and now they call it the Fosbury flop, right?

Speaker 3 (00:39:42) – Like they have named the move after Fosbury and nobody has won gold.

Speaker 5 (00:39:46) – Nobody has broken a record in any way using any other strategy in the Fosbury flop. Now, what I love about that is I have not been able to interview Fosbury, but I was able to interview one of his peers, somebody who almost made the first.

Speaker 6 (00:40:00) – The Olympic team and I went and I interviewed him.

Speaker 5 (00:40:03) – He was a coach.

Speaker 6 (00:40:05) – And I got to interview him right before practice and he agreed to meet with me. Literally is under a shade tree. It was so funny.

Speaker 5 (00:40:12) – We’re just having this conversation and I had a ton of questions that I had for him, but I really only had one.

Speaker 6 (00:40:18) – So I was asking about what it was like, you know, to try out for the Olympic team. What was it like to be a high jumper at that time?

Speaker 5 (00:40:26) – But the question that I want to ask him, I asked it. And his response shocked me. And I think it shocked him too, because it was just a nanosecond kind of response. I asked him, what did you think of the mat? Because that’s what had changed. They decided to use mats instead of that pile of sawdust. So I asked him, what do you think of the mat the first time you saw it? And in a nanosecond, he said, oh, I hated that mat. And I think I’m a terrible poker player.

Speaker 6 (00:40:58) – So I was like, he saw the shock and I said, why? And he goes, I literally thought, great, now everybody can do the high jump.

Speaker 2 (00:41:09) – Wow.

Speaker 6 (00:41:10) – Right. And I didn’t get it at that time, but when I was walking to my truck after this interview, God dropped on my spirit.

Speaker 5 (00:41:18) – I wonder how many times you’ve missed an opportunity because you were first offended by the mat.

Speaker 6 (00:41:25) – So now I ask myself all the time, if I see something that initially scares me or offends me or frustrates me, I try to give myself a couple of breaths.

Speaker 5 (00:41:38) – But then I come back around and say, is there a mat in there? Is there an opportunity in there?

Speaker 6 (00:41:45) – And what that does is that allows us to start looking around and be curious with God’s help to be able to say, oh, maybe there is, in fact, something exciting. Maybe there is something that is scaring most everybody, but just a few people can see it from a different way and see the possibility and opportunity galore. It’s a little bit like with coaches and speakers right now. It’s so interesting. There’s a lot of people who are thinking about coaching, but you see the headlines, you see your scroll, whatever.

Speaker 6 (00:42:15) – It’s like, oh my gosh, there’s so much going on. There’s so much competition.

Speaker 5 (00:42:20) – Yeah, there is.

Speaker 6 (00:42:20) – But at the same time, there’s never been more people trying to figure out life than right now.

Speaker 5 (00:42:25) – Completely.

Speaker 6 (00:42:26) – There’s never been more need than right now. But I also say in some ways, as a coach, as a speaker, your biggest competitor are not other coaches and speakers.

Speaker 5 (00:42:35) – The biggest competitor is the couch.

Speaker 6 (00:42:37) – It’s the comfy life. It’s the thing that is the would be that they know they shouldn’t hold on to, but they do. Right. Like it was my pharmaceutical job. God had me to a place that was uncomfortable so that I would wake up and say, all right, what really is next?

Speaker 5 (00:42:55) – I can’t stay here.

Speaker 6 (00:42:56) – So what is next? And so that’s what I always say is like there are opportunities galore. We just need to really manage how we’re looking at them.

Speaker 2 (00:43:04) – My goodness, I have like so many things to say. I have to say, as you were talking the first time and you said the word, warrior, I immediately thought warrior. And the play on words and the fact that it’s just such a short shift that puts us into defense rather than offense, which is so powerful.

Speaker 6 (00:43:27) – So good.

Speaker 2 (00:43:28) – And then the other thing…

Speaker 5 (00:43:29) – I think that’s prophetic, my friend.

Speaker 2 (00:43:31) – Well, hey, you said it, I just received it. I was like, oh, that was good. And then the second thing that I heard when you were just talking about the element of the mat and the element of curiosity associated to that is that when we are offended, we are usually angry or we’re in a place of friction. And I just recently learned through Exodus when God was talking about himself to Moses for the first time, revealing his character. He talked about himself being slow to anger. And I found out through a book by John Mark Comer, who is a brilliant writer.

Speaker 2 (00:44:09) – I want to interview him.

Speaker 6 (00:44:10) – Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (00:44:12) – He shared about the fact that the original Hebrew language to slow to anger is actually long nostrils. And it allows you to do what? Right? If slow to anger, long… Breathe. And God’s name is Yahweh, which ultimately is associated to inhale and exhale. And I thought associated to worry, associated to anger, associated to offense, associated to all these things that we can do even in the pace in which we can live is if we just breathe a little better. If we just like… We need some nasal nose strips and we all need to just…

Speaker 6 (00:44:56) – This is spiritual nasal nose strips. That’s right.

Speaker 2 (00:44:58) – Really?

Speaker 5 (00:44:59) – Yeah.

Speaker 6 (00:44:59) – It’s so true. I mean, isn’t it amazing though? I feel like science is finally catching up with God.

Speaker 6 (00:45:05) – Right? Like, like I, I truly believe that there’s, there’s the war between science and God is totally made up. Like God’s kind of like, it’s okay.

Speaker 3 (00:45:14) – I created all of it. You know, some of it you’re going to get right away.

Speaker 6 (00:45:17) – Some of it you might not get for a while. But like how literally the brain is designed or how our lungs are designed or how our stomach is designed. There are certain things. I am sure some of the activities that you did in Costa Rica, right? Activities that are actually like a physical experience is something that you were doing through breathing or you were doing through silence. Right? What you were doing is you were tapping into the bodies that God created us, right? In that we live in all this stuff to be able to go, Oh, whoa.

Speaker 3 (00:45:54) – If we understand those things, we actually can hear better.

Speaker 6 (00:45:58) – Right? And, and so I really do. I think it’s interesting. You know, the enemy is a punk, but he’s really good at what he does. And he doesn’t want us to have this revelation. So I think there’s certain things, certain topics where he’s like, Ooh, if I can just put a little bit of, you know, uh, whatever bad juju on that, or make people think, Oh, that we can’t talk about these things. Then I can keep them out of this whole toolbox that they have at their disposal. Right.

Speaker 6 (00:46:26) – And I think what we’re doing is we’re starting to catch up and say, Oh, wait, like if we understand how breath can actually, you know, increase serotonin and a sense of dopamine. It’s like that actually changes our bodies at a deep level so that we can actually rest and hear from him better. Right? Like how fricking awesome is that?

Speaker 4 (00:46:49) – And so simple. It goes back to what we were talking about from our business plan process. Like it doesn’t have to be so magnificently complex. And he, God does that work for us, right? In the way that we can’t comprehend. We just get to say yes and amen in the process if we’re willing to release what we think as control and that that’s the worry. If we’re willing to release the war, the worry he will war on our behalf.

Speaker 6 (00:47:14) – I love it. So true. Can I tell them that fun story?

Speaker 3 (00:47:18) – Okay. All right.

Speaker 6 (00:47:19) – This is kind of fun because I love to brag on God because I think for me when I first started the business journey, um, I was, I wasn’t necessarily a new Christian, but I was definitely new to prayer. Okay. And so I think when I look back, I it’s, it’s almost comical, but when I look back, I wouldn’t have told you this out loud, but at a subconscious level, I think I was starting to get good with the idea that God would work miracles. Like that God could heal someone. We’d seen God work healing in my life and my wife’s story.

Speaker 6 (00:47:54) – Um, I I’d seen God pull off all sorts of miracles of healing and hospitals and different all that stuff. So I felt like, you know, God’s good with miracles in the hospital, but I almost felt like there was a line in the business world where God would walk up to that line and go, Oh, sorry boys. I don’t work over there.

Speaker 3 (00:48:12) – Like, but God’s like, no, I work everywhere.

Speaker 6 (00:48:15) – Like I want to, I want to work everywhere. So, um, I tell you this from the standpoint that later on in our business, we started to hold these events that, uh, we called big dream gatherings. There’s a fun story behind all of that. Um, but you know, a few years into doing that, um, we’d kind of hit a little, like I started to feel stuck. I started to feel like there wasn’t real breakthrough and I wasn’t necessarily hearing from God on what was next. I knew my part. We were supposed to bring excellence.

Speaker 6 (00:48:46) – We were supposed to allow for an incredible experience for anybody who attended these events, but I felt kind of stuck and out of the blue, I get an email from somebody, uh, an old friend, uh, who had been really helpful in our past. All of those things. And he was working at a small, uh, private college and he said, Hey, Mitch, I just moved over to this private college. Could I do, could you come and do a big dream gathering for us? He’s like, I don’t have much of a budget. Uh, and it just, is there any way you could do it?

Speaker 6 (00:49:18) – He’s like, I don’t like to ask for personal favors. I feel like, you know, just, I want to, you know, I just, I just need to ask you for help. And I’ll tell you what, when I first got it, I was a little offended.

Speaker 3 (00:49:28) – You know what I mean? Like when somebody’s like, can I get your absolute best stuff?

Speaker 6 (00:49:32) – But could I get it for a reduced rate?

Speaker 3 (00:49:34) – Because for just 17 hours, I’m like, God, look at this. I feel stuck. And this guy’s asking me for free stuff. Like what the crap?

Speaker 6 (00:49:46) – So like there, there are times where God has definitely called me to have solid boundaries, especially on our pricing, right? Like we’re not a charity. It’s not a nonprofit. Even nonprofits should hold true to their pricing, all those things. But I also believe that there are times where God might call us to violate a policy like that.

Speaker 6 (00:50:04) – So instead of just immediately staying in that offense, I took some breaths and said, All right, Lord, what do you say?

Speaker 5 (00:50:11) – And God said, Absolutely do it.

Speaker 6 (00:50:13) – Do it. And do it like He paid your top rate. Like give Him the moon. I’m like, huh, but I want to give Him the moon, but okay. All right. If you say so, all right. So here’s what’s wild. Okay. So we do this.

Speaker 5 (00:50:27) – It winds up being a joy.

Speaker 6 (00:50:29) – But in the midst of that, right, we’re getting set and He says, Hey, have you ever heard of American Family Insurance?

Speaker 5 (00:50:38) – Okay.

Speaker 6 (00:50:38) – Now American Family Insurance is an insurance company.

Speaker 5 (00:50:41) – It’s a $2 billion plus insurance company that I think they’re in 19 States. All of that. And I said, yeah, I’ve heard of them because they oversee Iowa where I live. So I’ve seen some of their ads.

Speaker 6 (00:50:52) – He goes, well, their ads are, you know, dream big and you know, go get your dreams and we’ll insure them. I’m like, yeah, it’s pretty cool. That’s good. I like it.

Speaker 4 (00:51:01) – That’s great.

Speaker 6 (00:51:02) – He goes, well, one of our students, their dad is an agent and she asked if she could tell her dad about the event. And I’m like, sure, that’s fine. Right. And the dad then emails and says, Hey, this is so cool. I’m going to send this up to corporate. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty optimistic, but I’m also a little grounded and pessimistic. You know, I’ve heard things like that before.

Speaker 5 (00:51:24) – You never know all of that stuff.

Speaker 6 (00:51:26) – Now all that to be said, that agent sent an email to corporate. Now I think literally on any other day, had that email gone to a different person, it probably would have sat there and either gone to the immediate delete or in that folder. It’s like, Oh, I’m going to check that out someday. And then never gets read, but it wound up getting to the desk of somebody who had just come over brand new role in the marketing department, literally their first day trying to make their mark, looking for the thing that would help them do it at the next level.

Speaker 6 (00:52:01) – He saw this and was like, I love this. Went to his VP said, Hey, this is really cool. We just heard about this from the agent.

Speaker 5 (00:52:08) – Could I go check it out?

Speaker 6 (00:52:10) – She’s like, that sounds amazing. That’s great. He calls me says, Hey, we just heard about this. I was like, Oh my gosh, this is great. I said, and they’re based in Madison, Wisconsin. And I said, Oh my gosh, you guys are in Madison, Wisconsin.

Speaker 5 (00:52:22) – Right.

Speaker 6 (00:52:22) – He goes, yeah. We’re going to be in Madison, Wisconsin next week. I said, that’d be great. We could talk about this. He goes, really? What are you going to be a Madison?

Speaker 5 (00:52:28) – I said, anytime you’ve got an open appointment.

Speaker 6 (00:52:33) – And so literally this next week I go to Madison. I talk with them about the big dream gathering.

Speaker 5 (00:52:38) – I talk about what we’re doing, all that stuff.

Speaker 6 (00:52:40) – He comes to the event again, the event that I didn’t want to do, but God said, do anyway. He brings about 10 people from the company to all check this thing out. That event then set us up to a three-year agreement where I won’t go into specifics, but we generated more than seven figures in corporate sponsorship from that one event that I didn’t want to do that God directed me to do led to seven figures in sponsorship dollars over the next three years.

Speaker 5 (00:53:09) – Absolutely amazing. And it’s one of those things that it also forged great relationships that I’m so grateful for to this day.

Speaker 6 (00:53:16) – All from something that violated one of our rules of price protection and honoring and all those things. But God said, Hey, how about we stay out of offense?

Speaker 5 (00:53:28) – And listen to me, I got something good for you.

Speaker 4 (00:53:32) – Yeah.

Speaker 6 (00:53:32) – So good.

Speaker 4 (00:53:35) – It goes to the point of service always wins in my opinion. As much as it might feel like you’re breaking a boundary or you’re twisting your arm or you’re giving more of yourself again, and we love to do that, don’t we? This idea of value has always reciprocated goodness. I’ve never done something where I’ve regretted, whether it’s a transformation, whether it’s a revelation, whether it’s my own personal learning lesson.

Speaker 4 (00:54:06) – And even if it doesn’t feel like it’s received well or reciprocated or any of those things, I know that the Lord’s going to use it and at the same time, want to make sure that I’m not overly giving something that I shouldn’t be giving.

Speaker 6 (00:54:19) – It’s good to have good and healthy boundaries. But what I love about this, and again, I’ve done some healthy stuff with you. And what I love about it is if you go back to your earliest episodes of the podcast, you’re still working on what it was going to sound like, all those things, but you brought one billion percent heart from day one. And what I always, it’s so easy to predict success. If somebody is giving their one billion percent all, and there’s a chance that maybe one person, their mom or their dad is listening.

Speaker 6 (00:54:57) – But you were all in from day one, whether there’s a hundred or a hundred thousand listening, and you still bring that same heart today, but I love it.

Speaker 5 (00:55:07) – That’s one of the reasons why you’re so successful is you’ve brought amazing, your absolute best and your best keeps getting better because you’re learning new strategies, you’re trying new things, you’re constantly innovating, all of that.

Speaker 6 (00:55:22) – But you have brought your very best of that day from day one.

Speaker 5 (00:55:27) – And I think for anybody that’s listening, that’s the way to do it.

Speaker 6 (00:55:30) – And that’s the way we represent God in the marketplace too, is to bring our best.

Speaker 4 (00:55:34) – Completely. And I think you said the word excellence when you talked about your own event and the way that you showed up. And that’s something that I was telling people and our team, we talk about this all the time. Like we might not have everything that other people have. Our events might not have the whatever, it doesn’t matter. We always talk about all that matters as we show up in excellence.

Speaker 4 (00:55:54) – And because that is an emulation of our excellent God and it’s not perfection driven because we know we’re not going to be perfect, but he’s going to show up and fill every gap when we show up in our excellence. And so it was funny that you heard that same year, and I know many, many Christians who heard from the Lord at the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020. And at the end of 2019, after my first year doing only community-based storytelling and podcasting, the Lord was like, you’re going to go national.

Speaker 4 (00:56:20) – And I was like, I don’t even know what that means. I don’t even know how to do that. How am I going to get in touch with strangers and who am I going to interview? I don’t know anybody in other countries or states or anything. So it was amazing to see what God did with his obedient children connected to COVID and our business flourished and our podcast flourished since then.

Speaker 4 (00:56:41) – So I’m just excited for people who are listening to know that this is something new, like recession, revival, whatever our word, whatever situation, whatever worry you’re in the midst of, like God’s going to show up if you are willing to listen and then for you to respond. And that’s the listening and responding are two different things.

Speaker 6 (00:57:00) – Yep, that’s exactly right. And it’s also one of those, what I love about it is God is infinitely patient. So I am so grateful literally for his grace because he is willing to be with us as we’re learning to bring excellence, as we’re learning to innovate when we get it right, when we don’t.

Speaker 5 (00:57:19) – Like he’s right there with us, guiding us, encouraging us, all of those things.

Speaker 6 (00:57:24) – And part of it is our expectation of that. If we think, Ooh, he is a grumpy, distant God, then we’re going to see examples of that. That’s what our brain is going to look for.

Speaker 5 (00:57:34) – But if we’re in the expectation, which I absolutely believe is truth, if we’re in the expectation that he is a good, good father who absolutely loves you, adores you, wants to talk to you about everything, all of those things, then he’s going to guide us.

Speaker 6 (00:57:50) – But what I do love, and I’m not like a masochist, and I’ve had to work on this because again, as a lifelong worrier, I am better, but I’m not where I want to be yet, but I’m getting better every day. But I even had a deep conversation with somebody last week. He was deeply concerned about recession.

Speaker 5 (00:58:16) – And I said, recession can be a very real thing, but I said, you also realize there are certain businesses that thrive during times of recession. And what’s wild is that just because certain industries might get hit by that doesn’t mean that all industries are going to get hit by that.

Speaker 6 (00:58:38) – And it’s that whole thing of what are you going to see? Because right now I am working with a number of organizations, they almost feel bad about talking about how things are going well. Like, I’ve got some of my organizations are seeing 40 times increase, 200 times increase, 300 times increase. And they kind of feel bad about talking about that because they know a lot of people are afraid. Some people are not experiencing that, but just know there’s a lot of people who are thriving right now, whether you’re hearing about it or not.

Speaker 6 (00:59:10) – So that’s one thing to think about. But also, I love the Bible because how many countless stories are there where God was working through tumultuous, crazy times? And sometimes those tumultuous, crazy times help to set up God stories that are incredible. And it’s one of those where it’s like, okay, some of those things happened thousands and thousands of years ago, but they’re still as relevant as they are today.

Speaker 6 (00:59:40) – So to be able to say, okay, God can work through any economic season, God can work through any setback to set it, I believe, to set it up for a setup, a breakthrough, all of those things.

Speaker 5 (00:59:53) – So part of it is just to be able to say, all right, what am I seeing? God, what do you want to talk about today?

Speaker 1 (01:00:00) – Well, you did it well. I’m never going to forget the new analogy of playing dodgeball and just the sound effects.

Speaker 4 (01:00:07) – I don’t even know if I can do it like, whoop.

Speaker 3 (01:00:10) – Yep, exactly. I actually have one of those big red rubber dodgeballs over in the corner of my… It’s funny. They don’t really call those anymore because now they use like certain nerfs, like, come on, when we play dodgeball, you would leave a welt.

Speaker 4 (01:00:23) – It actually hurts.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25) – Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:00:26) – But I just think it’s necessary for people to do exactly what you said, which is that that pause, that breath, that curiosity piece, and then the respond versus react, right? Because response comes out of a place of really reflection and ultimately what you shared at the very beginning, which is that consistency in prayer, because we could spend every day offended. We could spend every day worry, but it’s literally a command not to do that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52) – And so I’m hopeful that as people are listening to this podcast, not only do their cheeks hurt like mine, because I love when you storytell and my cheeks hurt from smiling, but that they also have some new tools that they’re armored with to go to war. And it’s going to be a good season ahead for these people knowing that there’s somebody like you encouraging them because we definitely have a community of encouragers. And I’m grateful to know you and have you as an aid in that and just a partner in crime. It’s fun.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21) – I’m honored. You are truly a juggernaut of good stuff. It’s one of those, I bring a lot of energy, but I’m like, you inspire me. So I love it. I love it. I love what you’re doing. And I so honor what you’re doing and just know that I’m praying and pulling for you because God’s working through you in huge, huge ways.

Speaker 4 (01:01:41) – Thanks, brother.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41) – Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42) – You too. We’re going to see each other sometime together. We’re going to be in person.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46) – So y’all keep your eyes peeled. All right, Mitch, thanks again.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49) – Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53) – Thank you. Hey, y’all, it’s me again. Before you go, let’s solidify the flame that was ignited within you today by sharing the spark with your own community. Whether it’s mentally, physically, emotionally, relationally, or spiritually, I would love for you to take the step right now by declaring your takeaway. Snap a pic of the episode and share it on your stories or posts and you can tag me and the guests and we will surely feature you on our instas. Hey, you might even unlock a new accountability buddy in me or them.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23) – We’re totally in this together and we appreciate the extra step taken. I would be so grateful if you even took the extra step. Come on, give me that extra size and leave a review on iTunes for the podcast listening app that is of your choice. I’m going to be featuring your thoughts and facts and this will be so fun in upcoming episodes. So you’ll not only hear your name on the show, but maybe even your passion project or whatever big shout out you want me to make.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48) – So please, as a fellow writer, leave some words that I can attest to and I can’t wait to read what you have to say. Thanks again for being a loyal listener and I hope to meet you in person soon at one of the events that we are speaking at or hosting and I say we because the Fit and Faith team could not do this without you. Until next time, blessings over your joy, health, wealth and wholeness. This is the Fit and Faith way.