Philip Poundstone - I Thought I Was Saved: SMS #173

0:00Success happen because of my weakness. And in I say success in this principle applies much more to than even Christian principles. But we as men, we as women, we as leaders in America that own businesses and have all these things. We deem that we must lead out of strength. We must lead out of we know the answer that we have it together. And the kingdom of God flips that on a tip. This episode is brought to you by Elevated Silence. As you guys know here at Shoot Me Straight, we are huge advocates of the Second Amendment and exercising those rights. And there's no better way to exercise those rights than going to the range with the best suppressor that you can buy. Which is why Elevated Silence is the sponsor for this podcast. I've been using their product now for years. This is my favorite can here that I use on my Novesque rifle. And I have had no issues with it. And I get comments every time I go to the range or put on a course just how quiet this suppressor is.

1:04Another reason why I love Elevated Silence is they're constantly innovating their product trying to make it better. They have these new 30 cow cans, which can handle any caliber up to 300 normal. And they are now working on cans for EDC carry. And what I love most about this company is not only the man that stands behind the company, Jim Hood, who is a true patriot. But the fact that he is always trying to elevate your experience at the range because nobody likes going to the range unsuppressed. So check out Elevated Silence and go to the range and shoot like a gentleman. Welcome to Shoot Me Straight. Dave Filz, Eddie Gallagher, today we have Philip Poundstone, good friend of mine, entrepreneur. Run that bag, I'm sorry. Okay. Right? I have a start. I have. Go. All right. Welcome to Shoot Me Straight. Dave Filz, Eddie Gallagher, today we have Philip Poundstone, a good buddy of mine. He's a successful entrepreneur. You've lived down here pretty much your whole life, right? I'm one of the few since 1997. One of the few since 1997. Native.

2:05Native. Move from Alabama when I was just 10 years old. Yeah. Which is very unique for around here. Almost every person's like an implant at some sort. Yeah. But he's taken a couple of businesses, scaled them up, sold at least one. Yeah. And started another one, so serial entrepreneur. But also has just, he's one of my really good brothers in Christ. And his story is very different than mine and Eddie's. But like very impactful. And I think, I think very relatable to a lot of people. And you're one of the most honest and like true seeking guys I know. And super respect you for that. Appreciate that. Let's start off with just some background in your story. Yeah. And just give us like an overview. You grew up here. Yeah, so to set the stage, if you're scrolling through Yolts Rolladex of people that you've

3:06done podcasts with, I'm very different. You know, it's like, why is this guy wearing a nice little polo that's crisp? And I haven't found his tattoos yet. But I'm unique in that way and just thankful for all that I have and who I am in the life that I get to live. Certainly not because of anything I have. But to back up, just give you my quick story. I grew up as a kid outside of Montgomery, Alabama. Move down here when I was just 10. So it was Christmas of 4th grade. Move down went to school in Panama City Beach, lived in Inla Beach. And just had a great upbringing. Wonderful Christian parents went to high school in Panama City Beach. And I think that's where my story begins. I think a lot of this is like a little bit of a Christian testimony per se. Because if we didn't have that, it's meaningless to a degree for you to understand the foundation of my story. But I became like a very good rule following kid.

4:11I was the best kid there was in school. I was a valedictorian in my high school. I never made a B like in all of high school. There was never a parent that heard me say a cuss word. I drank one time and nobody knew it except for my buddies. You could tell quickly that I was developing just this works based to my Christianity. My parents were wonderful people and follow the Lord. So that is the basis of being a kid growing up here. And a lot of fruit comes from being a good kid. Wonderful Christmas, wonderful birthdays, everybody patting on the back all the time. So I was trained more or less of like, and to be frank, I didn't really know what the gospel was. I thought being a Christian was you're a good person. So I was trained and then I was rewarded like a dog. And so I continued that path.

5:13What do you think? Like as far as, because that's, I find that pretty interesting because most, you know, I guess the guests that we've had on and just most people that I've known, you know, high school and just having kids in my own, it's kind of like a rebellious time, right? Like, it's like to, you know, end up rebelling in some form of fashion. It's just the nature of things. So what do you think kept you like, is it because your parents raised you in that type of home and do you think it was because you were rewarded for doing good things all the time that like you said, you were trained like a dog like, hey, if I do good, then I'm going to be rewarded this. Is that kind of like what kept you from rebelling and doing what you were doing? I think it was that. And I think it was also had a genuine relationship with my parents. So there was a, you know, my dad was my best friend, you know, and it was like, we'd go hunting together, we'd go fishing together. He'd take me golfing so it was like, I spent so much time with my dad that you also don't want to let him down. So I think that played a big role also. So I think it'd be a respect for my parents.

6:14They require this level of just output for me. So I want to meet that. And then also it was like, hey, no different than our own kids these days when our kids are pretty good and they're like, kind of ice cream. You know, I've got an 875 year old. You're like, you know what? Yeah. I was pretty smart, you know, and I was like, okay, well, this, you know, subliminally, of course, you're like, this is who I became. So so much so in my valedictorian speech, I quoted the scripture saying, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you all the desires of your heart. When I look back at my story, that I cringe at that. Because essentially what I'm saying is if you do a good job, if you do good works, you should expect to be the valedictorian. You should expect to be a millionaire. You should expect to have healthy kids. You should expect to get the promotion you always wanted. And that was what I created my own doctrine, if you will.

7:17And then to back up as a kid, I went to a big mega church. I was not involved in any youth program. So I'd go to church once a week and it was good. And it was entertaining, but it wasn't like, there was no real meat into their defense. I wasn't seeking it outside of that one hour on the Sunday. So I go to Auburn University, join a fraternity there. One of the best fraternities on campus and was super pumped about that. Didn't really know anybody. But now quickly you see the same story play out. I was a pledge. All of pledge ship. I did not drink one drop of alcohol. There was two of us that were pledges out of 45 of us that didn't drink. And did you haze for it? No. No. Surprisingly, people would be like, why? And you're just like, God, that's not me. I just want to live a life that's glorifying to God.

8:19But you're cool. I wouldn't like I was trying to. Yeah, no judgment. I don't want to do it. Yeah. And I was pretty fun with the guys. And I'd stay out as late as they did. Like, nobody really thought anything of it, which is cool. Different than most people perceive fraternities to be a certain thing. Like, we're all bros. You know, it was like, they didn't really care. Like, they were probably like, hey, and he's weird. But that's kind of my personality. So they're like fit right in. So play out that freshman year. I would do that. I would, I would, I would cuss, but I wouldn't cuss as much as my, for turning brothers. I'd still go to church pretty often. Now progress into that spring of that freshman year. I started to drink. Okay. But I'd drink beer. I wouldn't drink liquor, right? I'd hang out with the girls, but that was a very fine line. You know, this is how my college progressed. It's like everything was this proverbial works based gospel.

9:21And I really thought I was doing it right. And at any point in that, if you said, hey, Philip, how are you doing? And I'd be like, oh, it couldn't be better. And you say, one minute or less, I want to be asking you, how are you doing in your walk? I'd kind of like, I mean, obviously don't you think it's pretty good? I got a church almost every single Sunday. Nobody tells me I have to. I don't get blackout like all my fraternity brothers. A lot of them do drugs. I've never done drugs. You know, they even dip. I don't dip. You know, like you see this whole mentality. Yeah. And one of the turning points of that was it was either my junior or senior year. One of my best friends in the fraternity, he had a traumatic experience happening to him and I opening experience. And he asked me to come over to my house. And you're in college, you know, and you're like, my sister's dude want to come over, like,

10:23he's asking, can he talk? You don't do that in college. And he comes over and he's like, man, you know everything that I just went through. I said, yeah, he's like, I got to rely on you to help me get back to my faith. Like I got is waking me up and I've, I am broken and I need the Lord and I need you. And it was like this weird moment that I was like, okay, someone else is looking to me that I'm a spiritual authority of my peers. And that was weird to me because they were asking something of me. Whereas usually it'd be like, he's a good kid, he has good behavior, he's checking all the boxes. But now someone's like, I need you almost, I didn't, I would have never known this language at the time, but it was almost like, hey, I need you to disciple. I need you to lead. I need you to hold me accountable. And I was like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, of course, bro, I'm here for you. Let's do this together and he leaves and I'm like, what does this look like?

11:23So continue on in my story. I did great in college. I mean, I wasn't straight A's didn't want to be, but I majored in finance and entrepreneurship at Auburn. It was a wonderful experience, but I'm in the beginning of my senior year. And the abyserts I think, what am I going to do? And I'm talking to a lot of my friends in the fraternity that I graduated year prior and I did working sucks. Like I'm in this cubicle all day long in a finance job. This is awful. And I'm like, man, I don't want to do that. And then I went to a few schools and checked out their MBA program. I was like, okay, I can go do more school. I can go get my MBA and that's all cool. And I was like, man, I hate school. I don't want to study. Like, and I know getting an MBA is like real, you know, you're actually starting to do this. So I was a part of a ministry called crew. It was called campus crusade and then became crew as a college ministry. And there was a guy in my fraternity who had graduated the year before I was a pledge.

12:24And he had this crazy reputation about himself that he would black out every time he drink. And I mean, he had broken his foot from, you know, barefoot, punning a Jack Daniels bottle. Ladies galore like he was a fraternity legend. His fraternity legend graduated went to a Middle Eastern country, not Middle Eastern East Asian country for a year that that program at Auburn, that crew was partnered with to live for a year and to share the gospel with the people that lived in this country that I can't say which country it is and to share the gospel with these college students here. And then he came back to Auburn and joined staff. And then his full time job was to come meet with knuckleheads in the fraternity to disciple them. And somehow I had been partnered with him over the last few years and we'd meet once a week and everything was good because I'd kind of fly under the radar.

13:27And he was with two mother fraternity brothers that I met with and they were usually the ones in the hot box of like, man, you got this girlfriend. Did you go too far again and like, hey bro, do you want to keep getting drunk? You know, like, imagine a hard college minister their life is because you can't be like, stop doing these things. So he says to me, hey man, what are you doing next year? Like, I don't know. I don't want to work. I don't want to, you know, go more, do more school. He says, what if you go to this East Asia country like I did for a year and share the gospel and be a missionary? And I'm like, for a year. I thought about it for like a day and I was like, sounds cool. And really it built up in the exact same story that I had for the last eight years. I will, I knew that I'd be celebrated as this great Christian young man. I knew that it would bring some kind of favor to my own story, whether I was working down

14:30the road or whatever that I could always share the story of like, man, I was a Christian missionary overseas, not for a month, but for a year. And so I said, yeah, I'm in, bro. And then that was my senior year. It was like getting ready for this mission trip. And all the while I was celebrated, you know, I'd come back to my church, they'd bring me on stage and pray over me, you know, I'm like going around raising fundraising support. You know, like, we are just so proud of the young man that you are and who you've become. And all the while guys, I cannot emphasize enough the brokenness inside that it was, I didn't really, I wasn't broken inside per se like you could ask me that very day, how are you? I bet great. But my system was broken. Yeah. And I had created this internal system of like, I'm doing good if I'm doing the right thing. And so of course going to be a Christian missionary was it. And if I would have died in that moment and you said, Philip, pretend you were God at

15:34the pearly gates, where would you be? Would you be in or out? I bet in. And then I'd say, and if there was a line of 100 people, I'd be in the top three. You'd have a VIP pass. I'd have VIP pass, bro. Because you look at all my peers. You look at my Christian resume. You know, look at all these things I knocked out. But what's wild? I love, I love your story because think about like internally what's really happening. It's like this addiction to the praise of man, right? Well, it's absolutely. Anya, as I'm sitting here listening, it's awesome that you're talking about this and like, I'm excited to see where it goes. But I can kind of see like, your ego is driving you, right? So like all this, I'm doing good works to get good praise. That's feeding your ego each and every time, right? And then like you talked about, all I'm going to go overseas, do years worth of work and then I'm really going to like people will be like, oh, yeah, how great is I, it's funny as you're talking.

16:35Like I see this in society as a whole. Like, you know, even with today, with social media and all these other things. And, you know, I'm on social media and I have friends that are and like, there's, there's people that, you know, they have big followings and they're, they become, I, it's funny just the past six years because that's, I've kind of been in social media and like, have grown and kind of seen the different aspects of it and just knowing people that are big names on there. And what I see is like they become to these, they turn themselves into these characters to where they're kind of trapped because they're like, well, this is what the people want. And this is what gives like the people who praise me for doing this. And I, in their heads, I truly believe they're, I'm doing the right thing. Right. But it's like you're doing it and just like how you, you were talking about it before, like in compare, like, oh, I'm doing better than everybody else. And it's like, well, you're comparing what you're doing to the masses, not to the word.

17:36Like, and that's where if you compare what you're doing to the word truly, that will check your ego real quick because all of us are funny. Followed it, right? It's all of us find, you know, I, I have to check myself. It's like you can easily get, you know, whether it's, you know, I do an interview or post something and people like, dude, yeah, like speak the truth and do this and that. You know, you, you can see a lot of like, and, you know, positive stuff that comes back. And if you're not careful, like you can let that lead you into, well, this is what I'm doing good. So now I can, I should keep talking and I should keep saying things instead of being like, okay, is the next words out of my mouth? Are you going to be able to speak to the word and am I actually doing good? Like, or is it I'm fulfilling what I think is good? And what do people think is good? It's an eternal thing. It's a heart thing, you know, because it's like I can look a certain way on the outside but my heart inside. Yeah. The pride in my heart, the selfishness, the idolatry, whatever you want to go.

18:38Yeah. And I think it's, it's in all aspects of life. And I think that's why you need to stay in the words because you're constantly, we're human beings and we constantly have to check ourselves to be like, dude, am I? Am I doing the right thing? Or am I just doing, or do I, what I'm doing right now, am I justifying it as right? Yeah. So think about the currency that I had. Okay, well, like when we think specifically about ego, right? We all can stop and close our eyes. Everybody on earth. And you think of, man, I know these three people, guys and gals that just have a wicked ego, okay? We all can think about that. Those three people that we're all thinking of right now, they have a currency that helps them maintain that ego. And the older you get, that is usually money, that is usually a position of power or it is, you have things that other people don't have. At my stage of life, when I'm a college kid, a high school kid, and now exiting that, the

19:43only currency I could physically have would be my behavior, right? My praise of man, because I had no money, I had no stuff, as most high school and college kids do. So what was easily to be perceived as a good person? You nailed it, Eddie, was indeed my ego, but you're, we can identify someone that has a lot of money or things or power. You're like, gosh, there's just an ego maniac. It's easier when you're that age to be able to fit that mold and still to be praised and accepted by all. Yeah. You know, because the older you get, you get more haters on either side. So you don't, at that age, you don't have more than anybody else, a lot of the times, right? If you already have more and an abundance and then you're, yeah, you're going to, people are going to hate that. Yeah. They're like, he does, he has what I don't have. And that currency plays a big role in ego. So now transition, I fly across the world with our team from Auburn.

20:47We had 13, this is hilarious. 13 of us Auburn students, the team leader, he and his wife, who had been there several years, were having a child soon. So they had to come back to the States. So they said, yeah, it's cool. Since 13 of us, 11 of us had just graduated three months earlier. Two people, a guy and a girl had spent the last year in this country. So there was 13 of us that graduated Auburn with the most experienced two people being there for one year. And we're on the other side of the world. And what I as a father now, and like a business guy logistically, I'm like, that is ludicrous. So you'll see all the story pans out that you're like trusting in the Lord and how it provides. They split the 13 into two teams. And they made me one of the team leaders. What do you know? Phillips currency just gets a little richer. Wow, I'm a team leader.

21:48And you know, there was a girl who had been there one year prior, who was on my team. And then there was a guy who was there one year prior, and he led the other team. So we go to this country. All of the, you know, it's prestigious. If you go to college, for sure, that you must learn English. So the whole concept is we go over there. We learn, we, we're going to study this language of this country, and we're a student. But all the while, we're on a college campus, and pretty much everyone on the college campus speaks English because if you're prestigious enough to go to college there, you're going to know English. So we as Americans stand out where we were. It's a city you've never even heard of as millions of people, but we stood out so much in we were like a celebrity. People coming up, taking pictures of us, wanting to like, you know, do anything. So that part was really easy. So the goal of the first three weeks to a month was we go make friends. We go play basketball, we go play soccer, we go to the people's dorms.

22:52We do all these things, have people over to get them to teach us how to cook their meals, of their town, and you become genuine friends with these kids. And I say kids because like, I weigh 148 pounds and I'm 5'11, I'm a smaller person here in America. Over there, a big dude's like 5'5, 110. You know, so like, you kind of like, you feel like they're kids. And then on top of that, you're an American and you have this clout, you have this respect. This episode is brought to you by the one and only firecracker farms. If you guys have been following me, you know from day one, I've been a huge advocate of this product, not only because of its great flavor and the spice it adds to my food and for the health benefits, but because Alex, the owner is just an incredible human being. And when I support a product, not only do I look at the product itself, I look at the person behind the product. Alex is a patriot. He supports veteran-owned organizations such as Opt300 and My Nonprofit, the Pipeter Foundation.

23:53So if you guys are looking for a great product, definitely go hit the link below on the sponsor link and go try out some. And if you like it, please like, tag, and do a post form. All right. I appreciate your guys' support. Thank you and God bless. So we make all these friends and it becomes time to really get to know them. So in getting to know them, you sit down at a lunch table, okay? And you're like, hey, tell me about your life. And they say, I grew up in this town, which is an eight-hour train ride from here. My life was very difficult. If I did not make all-a's, I was punished, I was locked in my room. And I was 16. My father beat my mother so badly one day that this and that happened. When I was 17, I tried to commit suicide. And you're like, first time ever like really sitting down talking to someone one-on-one in

24:57your blown away, because we obviously don't do that. And then they look at you and then they say, what about you? And now I'm like, and you all've heard my story so far. Well, I have very loving parents. I grew up in the wonderful United States of America. I was a voucher touring in my high school. We were, have you heard of 30A? Have you heard of 30A? You know, I surfed and skimmed worded on the beach. And if you ever went to an Auburn football game, there is a massive disconnect. So you find yourself, well, I've got a brother. And he struggles with severe mental health issues. And my brother called me at least 10 times when I was in high school crying telling me he was about to kill himself. Let me tell you about this. Let me tell you about that. And I find myself telling this five foot four hundred and ten pound little guy across from me things that I have never told anybody in America, not even my best friends.

26:04No things that were wady for me, things that were heavy for me, things that I knew were wrong that I had done in my life. I'm telling somebody across the table for me that I'd never experienced a real genuine relationship. And if we're all honest, we all do this in America for the most part. So I want you to understand that context of like immediately you are, you are learning to become a genuine person because someone just spilled their guts in front of you. You start to spill yours. So these same two guys that I had just gotten to know and did that, we did that two or three times. And as a team, you meet every week and you're like, all right, who's kind of in your pipeline, how's your relationship? And it's genuine. I do want to make that clear. It's not like I have robot A that I must go share gospel with. It's genuine because when you have that relationship with somebody, like you walk away and you're like almost in tears about their story. And then you just shared things you never shared with anybody. It's real. So this same people a few weeks later, the team, we go through our pipeline and they're

27:07like, all right, hey, Philip, these two guys that you're friends with, it's time. This week you're going to share the gospel with them. You know, you've talked about all these family dynamics. You told them that you were a Christian. So now it's time to share the gospel. And you're like, okay, okay, okay. So we said a lunch appointment for whatever day of the week it was. And I go up into my apartment on the 15th floor that I shared with my roommate who also was from Auburn. And the two of us were going to go meet these two East Asian young men. And I like any good former valedictorian and dual major college graduate from Auburn, you must prepare. It was a little red booklet about yay big on one side was Chinese on the other, we got to edit that on one side. I can't figure that's where you're talking. I've used to live there. Yeah, exactly.

28:07On one side was a language that I can't talk about. And on the other side was English. Obviously, I can't read anything on that. And it says number one, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Okay, and what I want you to do is stop and think about me right now. I'm a 22 year old devout Christian. Okay, I was the model, I was the standard. Think about my college buddy coming to me being like brother, I need you, I need to follow you, I need to be like you. Check. God loves me and has a wonderful plan for me. Obviously, look how good my life is. Two, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3, 23 says this. Am I okay? Yeah, yeah, here by sins, you know, not really me, like it's kind of subliminal at that point in time.

29:08It continues on with Romans 6, 23. The wages of sin is death. And there's this little blurb in there that says, our destination is one for all of us to be without God for eternity without a solution to this problem. And obviously it does not say this here, but fast forward, we know the true gospel is that all sin and fall short of the glory of God. Every single last one of us. And I was having this reality moment of that, that's not me. I don't need a savior. And when you go on to step three, it then says to make this chasm bridged, to make God's wrath satisfied.

30:09He sent his one and only son, Jesus Christ, to die for the sinners. Yet while they were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. Okay? I get goosebumps right now telling this story. That is the moment that I broke. In that moment, it hit me like a freight train that I was an absolute fearsy. I was a hypocrite. I was my own savior. My works were my own saving. And then you go on to point number four in this little pamphlet that says, but there's hope. When you repent and you believe in this gospel, when you believe in this good news, when you believe that Jesus was the one that you were so lost, you were so condemned, you were destined for separation from Him forever, which we call hell, that Jesus bridged that

31:12gap through what He did on that cross. Repent and believe today and you may be saved. I broke, I wept. We see Jesus hanging out tax collectors. We see him hanging out prostitutes. We see him hanging out with all these people. As it says in the Bible, he reclined at table with them. Always find that so interesting. Imagine Jesus kicking back, hanging out with all these people that everyone's like, I cannot believe you're hanging out with them. Who did He never once speak kindly of the Pharisees? Or once He gave grace to the biggest transgressors there was, but never to the Pharisee. Whitewash tombs is what they call them. What is a whitewash tomb? It's a dead inside. Man, it looks great outside. Man, look how good this is, but on the inside they are dead as a door nail.

32:12Brothers that was me. I live my whole life knowing how good I was, how great I was, how I was a perfect person. I was the deadest among all of them because I blasphemed. I took cheaply the name of Jesus Christ because I wore it like a banner yet I had no need for him. I think it was in church this past Sunday, but it was talking, it shared the verse of, Jesus didn't come for those who are well. It's like a doctor. You don't need a doctor when everything's good, but my whole life I thought I was good. I didn't think that I was sick. I didn't think I had some terminal disease. In that moment, sitting on the other side of the world by God's grace alone, that's the one thing I want to share with you today. It was of no doing of my own that this reality happened. People get real keyed up with theology sometimes of like, I need to convince you Eddie enough. If my argument is convincing enough, and I know you enough that I can tweak it enough

33:17to just actually click in your brain, then you might be saved. That's called manipulation too. It's absolutely called manipulation. God doesn't call us to be sales reps for the gospel. We don't close people. We ain't close and deal, bro. There's only one that closes the deal and it's not us. It's the Holy Spirit. In that moment, in my fair sea nature, I am preparing to share the gospel. Oh, news flash. For the first time in my life. Wow, what a great Christian you, our brother. First time in my life, I got, I got got. And I composed myself, stopped crying. I know in that moment that I just became saved. And I genuinely feel confident that if I would have died a year earlier, I really don't think that the Lord said, you're mine. Is it says in Matthew 7, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness? I never knew you. You prophesied in my name. You cast out demons in my name.

34:18You healed my name. I didn't know you. That was me because I had no need for a Savior in Christ because I was my own. So I leave. I just kind of stopped right there. Go ahead. Do you think, I mean, so you're 22 at the time. Yeah. Right. And I know you said like a year earlier, I would have died, you know, Jesus would have been like, you didn't do this. But you're also 21 years old. Yeah. I think it's more amazing that at 22, you had this boom, like epiphany, like holy cow. I've been leading my life in a different way or in a way that isn't honoring God the way it should like the way I thought it was. I was honoring God at 22 years old, which dude, I think at that age, I mean, I think it's remarkable to even have that epiphany. But I also understand the circumstance as well. You were over in another country where obviously they have, I think, I think, I think I can only imagine whoever that kid was, it was telling you his story and you're like,

35:20oh my gosh, right. But I think that was part of it as well where you got to see how somebody else in another part of the world and all their, which are real problems to us because we're like, we don't have to deal with that. I also think like I could imagine just being at your age, like hearing that because I, what you're talking about, I grew up in those areas. Like I was a military brat. So I got to, I was among it and got to see it as well. And I was, it gave me a greater appreciation for the United States when I was little. Absolutely. I lived. But it also made me very open-minded to the being empathetic and also knowing like what the way other people live is those are real hardships. Like we don't face real hardships here. So at that age, I can imagine that also had something to do with your transition and like hearing that story and then now I have to go, now I have to go tell this guy that,

36:21oh, I'm a Christian and Jesus is your savior when I don't even have a quarter of the life experience this guy has. I can imagine that there was there any, any of that as well like pressure? Yeah, I mean, for sure. It's like, it was, when you look back at that, it was me figuring it all out on the fly. But I think the main thing is like we could say, wow, man, that was mature of you at that age. But like, that's where I want to get into the divinity of it is God ordained from the beginning of the world, from the foundation of the earth in that moment to open the eyes of my heart for a lack of better words to see clearly. There's no way that any person can see clearly without God opening their eyes. And that's why I am so passionate about this, I'm not a theologian. We started this off getting to know each other this morning telling you guys that man, I don't listen to podcasts, I don't read very much, which doesn't make for a good theologian.

37:25But I get passionate about this because when we say I'm fighting against my own narrative, wow, 22 years old, you were very mature to realize this about yourself. Who gets the glory? Myself, right? When we then say I'm later in life, I'm going to, I find this project of an individual who really needs to be saved. And I'm going to go share meticulously and do all these things and he got saved. Job will done, Philip, right? Who gets the glory? Yeah. I do. One is that's why that doctrine matters and that theology matters so much is that God and people don't like it. And I get it because then you have to answer the question of well, what happens to those that God doesn't choose to save or when he doesn't choose to save. And I'm going to give you the revelation today that I don't know. And I can rest in that. Yeah. Thank goodness that's your revelation because I find it hard when there are people like

38:25nope, this is what happens to them and you're like, how do you know? You know what I'm saying? I get that that's the thought process and I guess in order to go to heaven, you need to say by Jesus Christ, but then when people start dictating or saying, well, you don't do that. And this is, and it's like you haven't walked 10 feet in anybody else's shoes. Absolutely. So how could you speak for what's going to happen to them? And I don't get it. But what they'll say when they come back on that is they'll say, oh, well, you know, look at this scripture, look at this scripture. I'm not saying about me. It's here. And then you go, well, then look at this one and look at this one because it's way more complicated than that and it's above your pay grade. Oh, yeah. The most enlightening thing, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years ago in that range of five years, I got heavy in trying to land on some of these theology or doctrine items of these various things that we could think about. You know, if you're like, if you're Christian and you're in this world, you're like, well, we can talk about in times and predestination and all these various things.

39:30And I listened to a famous pastor on a YouTube one day and he answered it for me right there. He said, what is your appetite for mystery? Yeah. And it was a guy in my lane that I went to him to get the answer that I wanted. And that was what he said to me. And it was like that clicked for everything. And I was like, I don't know. What do you think I'm going to know? Do you think that I have the capability? I am not God and God leaves some of these things in mystery. So to tie that on a bow, Eddie, God saw fit to bring me into his fold that day. And this is how that day ended. I compose myself. I don't tell my roommate what just happened. And we go to lunch with these two individuals, had a good lunch and went somewhere private and we said, hey, we all talked a lot about what was important to us and the hardships. And I told you I was a Christian. I want to tell you today what it is to be a Christian. And what it means for my life and me and my roommate, we pull out these little gospel

40:33tracks and it was the same one, two, three, four with their language on one side and my language on the other of English. And we walk through it and I was able to share like what that meant to me, given the revelation that I just had an hour earlier and set the stage. I'm a Pharisee convicted. I'm a hypocrite. So convicted. Convicted, right? What business do I have to be a missionary? Zero. Okay. And I'm about to share the gospel for the first time in my life. Me and my roommate pull this out, spend 20, 30 minutes going through this track. Both of those dudes look across the table and they say, I believe this. I want this. On step four, it said, you must repent and believe in the gospel to be saved. They said, I want to be saved today. Former recovering hypocrite, Pharisee, fraud, whitewash tomb, given grace of God and forgiveness

41:42and pardon he didn't deserve one hour later. Just being faithful. Man, I got no tools in my toolbox, bro. Yeah. Two dudes come to know Jesus Christ. Okay. As far as I've kept up with them, I haven't spoken to them in the last several years. We lost touch. One of them went to work for a church after he graduated college and another one was still in the faith. That same grace that was afforded to those two kids was the same grace afforded to me of no doing of our own. And that is how God works. He uses the absolute least in the kingdom of God to make his name great. It's like we try to read stories with our kids now and go through this stuff and I even think now, look at the characters of the Bible. Yeah. They're all bombs like the hooligans. The hooligans. And then you look at Paul, I was Paul, right?

42:43I was Paul. Paul is just walking down the road to Damascus, gets blinded. And this always stands out to me. He hears a voice from heaven. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Do you guys know who said that? It's very clear, explicitly says Jesus said these words, not God. You know, it's always God that speaks. And he uses these people, the least of these in the kingdom of God to make his name great of no doing of our own. Yeah. And dude, I couldn't think of a truer statement either for the people that he does use and have, I think that have the strongest effect. I'm not saying this like saying that people who grew up in the faith and who studied it and like, you know, become theologians or whatever they can sit there and I have friends like that that can quote scripture forward and backward, right? I'm not saying that their work is not any less, but what I've found is, especially from the career field that I come from, a lot of the guys, you know, we get out, especially

43:48after 20 years of war. These dudes while they're in and I was one of them is we're, we're whoologians. Like we're not, you know, we have a massive amount of love for each other. We have a massive amount of love for the people that we're fighting for. I think we're, we are very empathetic, but we block it off because of the job that we have to do. And then obviously our job entails killing a lot of people in which we've all done. But I think when we get out, a lot of us, and I see, I see, you know, and I love to see it like a lot of my friends who have podcasts or who are doing things, they're starting to come out and speak like, hey, this is the way like the, and they're all turning to their faith a lot of them. And I think just from seeing it, they have a stronger impact than these people that, you know, grew up in it because they're speaking from experience and they're speaking from

44:49a place where it's like, I don't know, like I can't sit here in quotes scripture to you. And so this is why all I can tell you is, you know, and I do it with my testimonies, like this is what happened to me when I can finally release everything to God. And I can only speak to that. I can't tell you like, yes, you do X, Y and Z. And this will happen to you too. Like it's just getting the word, you know, start reading it. Do it, you know, do what you got to do to, if you're having, if you want to change your life. This is the only way to change it for better. And I'm not, and I'm not saying that in a way, either that, this is the only way to get into heaven. I'm saying this is a way to lead a good life and do good works. And I just, you know, what we were saying before, like you were like, oh, I was preaching the gospel to this kid from a place of like, I had nothing, but also you did have something because you just went through a revelation that you, you, you got saved the day before. And I think that same day and hour earlier, maybe an hour earlier, sorry, yeah.

45:51And I think that alone has more power than if you would have came in there and I'm like, all right, here's the three steps that we follow to get you saved. And it's absolutely cool, man. Like the steps on like those, those are human made. 100% so look at the common attribute though. In this is, okay, if there's people that listen to a lot of podcasts and there's people that are seeking to be educated, they're all after something, right? They're, they're all wanting to be better. They're all wanting some leadership quality or they're wanting to be better at this out of the other. I can say that's a fact because they wouldn't be really listening to it otherwise or studying something otherwise. The key attribute there was weakness. Success happened because of my weakness. And in I say success in this principle applies much more to than even Christian principles. But we as men, we as women, we as leaders in America that own businesses and have all these

46:58things, we deem that we must lead out of strength. We must lead out of we know the answer that we have it together. And the kingdom of God flips that on its head. So today I'm going to be doing a workout using this app that I've been beta testing from my boy Alex Witts called 104010. It's 10 minutes of a warm up, 40 minutes of a workout and 10 minutes of cool down. I've been using this app for the past couple of weeks and I'm really enjoying it one because I have a pretty strict regiment when it comes to working out and I don't like don't switch it up. It gives you all the movements and demonstrates all the movements. It has a timer on there. You gotta let you know how many reps you got to do. The one thing I love about these workouts is it really causes me to slow down focus on the movements, especially with the warm up and cool down period. It keeps me from overexerting myself, which I have a problem doing most of the time. So if you guys are looking to get into fitness or to switch up your fitness routine,

48:02definitely check out 104010 Fitness.com. We cannot be more proud to have that as sponsored on the Shooting Straight podcast. Appreciate you guys and God bless. Can you like to see the example you just gave Eddie? Can you imagine if I went into that room with those two kids sharing the gospel of you, if you really want to live, you must do this. And of course, I've done this. I came in broken and I had no clue what I was talking about because it just, I had a revelation an hour before in scripture is clear to that. Where are you? A week. He is strong. And I think that's a leadership lesson. I think that is a man we can get into some weeds today. We can get into marriage. We can get into parenting. Like the greatest successes came in my life is when I put myself last. When I realized boy, how do you, I don't deserve anything. I'm not owed anything. You want to talk about conflict? We all got conflict in our lives with former partners or, you know, current vendors

49:03are marriage or like friends. The conflict usually could be resolved if parties understood their true weakness and were willing to show their cards of that. Yeah. And scripturally, that is what we are called as Christians to do. And for me that day, God had to break a prideful stubborn knucklehead. And then you saw a fruit born out of that. People always, Jesus says that you will know them by their fruits, right? I was saved. And an hour later, people, I was a vessel used for salvation. Yeah. Again, very clearly it was not me, but you will know them by their fruits. That is, it's because I was weak. Yeah. When, let's talk about that first that when I strangely really relate with it, to be honest, at 18, even though my print like the former 18 years was completely different than yours. I was the black sheep. I was the filling out like I was the Indian out of rehabs in an out of jail.

50:07Like that was constant. I was in fact like I got, it was, it was, I never got any good recognition. Really like that. I fed off the dark stops. Yeah. Like bad. Like anything, anything illegal. Like I took the opposite approach. But when I think of it, 18, what happened to me in the lobby of that church in an instant was I was, I was running in a sense you were using God as like a, a shield to be your own God in a sense. Mine was more blatantly. I'm running everywhere away from him. And if you'd asked me at that time, Hey, your Christian, I'd say, yeah, I am, but I don't want to talk about it. Yeah. Yeah, I'll go to heaven. But like I did not know him and he grabbed a hold of me in that moment. And when I think of that moment, I don't think of like, Oh, man, like I was at this place that was at a great, all I can think about is that day was, it's just

51:12overshadowed by God reaching out and grabbing hold of me. Like it's a spiritual divine thing. Like it is not, it's not a conditional like you do these conditions. You get to this place. It's an internal heart where God grabs a hold of you and it's so drastic in a sense. But there, there's a commonality in all of our testimonies of that moment that we're like, OK, I know I'm saved. I can relate to Philip and what he's saying. I can relate to David. He's saying the commonality is we all broke broke. We all became as weak as we possibly could. In Philip sense, it was man, he realized he was in hypocrite. OK. Yeah. In other people sense, it could be I almost died. I about died. Someone else died. I lost everything. I mean, it can be significant. And some of us, the Lord has to take a lot further than others. Yeah. He probably, like with yours, it probably. He's himself. Yeah. Yeah. With me and Eddie, it probably broke our pride and idolatry, right?

52:13Like you'd worship the teams and this, you know, all that stuff. And it turned on you and that was your God of thumb. For me, I just absolutely lost, right? And so like it broke for me. It was that day was like holy shit. He's actually real. He's actually real. I never actually believed. And it was like he's actually real. Did the faith you have to have to be an atheist is off the charts. Like, he said, and I'm no theologian. If you're to put me up against some guy who could argue that things of the Bible are not true or whatever, man, I'm a simple guy. All I want you to ignore being a Christian. Can you explain your stance to me? And I'm just going to listen. And the faith you have to have is unbelievable. And that's why it's like, why does God, why did you save me in that moment? I don't know. Like prayer matters. People close to us matter. Like an eye pray that the Lord does the very same thing to me that he does. Others and then despite ourselves, right?

53:15You know, it's like, I'm still hypocrite. I still like, we can think about our tendencies that we all have our sentences. I still have the sentinancy of being a Pharisee of being a judgmental person. Oh, yeah, we're humans. We're humans. But it goes back to however many years that was when I was 22 and I'm 38 now. So do the math. Like if I don't say that out loud to you, Eddie, when we don't even really know each other, hey, man, here's my story in that great. Eddie, I need you know that I'm still a hypocrite and I'm still focused on myself more than other people and I battle it every day. And thank God for my marriage. A tool God gives us to refine us. Thank goodness for my church body for members of our church that have a lane in my life to speak clearly and my friends. But like the day that we think I've been saved. Now I'm good. We're gravitating right back to that power play that I talked about earlier. My currency's building. I have authority. I have money. I have success. I have wealth that, you know, all those things are good and fine.

54:16You know, they can be used for good. But those currencies that build up are the very things that will tear us right back now. And if I don't lead off right now of boasting in my weakness, as the scripture says, bro, I'm going to be so fast right back to where I was. Yeah. And it includes just a deep honesty about it. I think the most free or that I saw literally right after getting saved those next four months or so. That whole rehab that I was in turned completely around. We were doing Bible. I mean, these were like repeat it was repeat a fender program and text or can it Texas and like hardcore, I mean, some of those guys for from gangs and all sorts of stuff. And like he used my brokenness in that time because I couldn't shut up about it. I'm like, you know, he's actually, and they're like, dude, you're the craziest dude in here. Now you're running around talking about God's actually real and won't stop reading the Bible and you're crying all the time and talking about, you know,

55:17like it, he used that to completely turn around that whole place. And it wasn't out of the sense I wasn't doing a Christian duty. I wasn't checking off any box. It was a natural flow genuine of him grabbing a hold of me. Yeah. So to transition, that year was amazing. Because imagine there's 13 of you Americans. You're in the word every day, dude, I was shredding up my Bible. I never read my Bible in my life. Like it's amazing looking back that, you know, if somebody could have shot me dead so fast of like, Hey man, you're the best Christian round. What's your favorite verse? What have you read the last six months? You know, like John three, six, six, 16, obviously, but like knowing all that, that year was so sweet and fruitful of not only was I saved, the Lord then provided the next 11 months in genuine Christian community

56:18with all of the things that I loved in my life, my hunting, my fishing, my college buddies, my football games, my going to the beach, all these American things that fill the void of what we want, you know, getting the job, whatever, all that was taken away. And all we did every day was chair the gospel, hang out with other people who want to do the same thing and it man, it was refining. Tail into that year start on my team is my now wife. We started dating at the time. We went to Auburn together. We were always friends, but never had any connection like that. We start dating at the time way outkicked my coverage. But in the moment when you're in a place with millions of millions of people and you're, you know, start team people on our team and there's only six guys. You don't look so bad. We call those deployment goggles. That's exactly right. She had, she had, she had deployment goggles. Yeah. And so we start dating that year.

57:20We come back. She works in the regional crew office in Atlanta. I came back here. If you're familiar, there's a little restaurant in Rosemary Beach called the Summer Kitchen. It was the first business in restaurant in Rosemary Beach, think it opened in 1999. I worked there all as a kid. One of the best things you can do for your kid is go put them in a restaurant. I watched dishes, I waited tables. I was the cashier over the course of eight years from 13 on. So when I came back using my, I knew I always wanted to start my own business. I was an entrepreneurship major. I come back. I can spend a lot of time talking about how jaded, frustrated I was coming back to America and just how consumeristic everyone was. I can probably relate. Yeah. Well, we'll skip all that. But a man I was disgusted. But I wanted to open up this restaurant and, you know, imagine like a Zoey's or something which is like a Kava now, like just a quick casual restaurant order at the counter, go sit down. We were going to do that. And I worked there for six, seven, eight months.

58:23And that was the game plan. And then the owner of that now, his lease got shaky at the time. He's like, dude, I can't think about going to Birmingham, Nashville, Knoxville. Atlanta to open up these franchises with you running it like I'm out. And I was that, which a lot of people can relate to be in 24 years old, living in your parents' house, dating my girlfriend in Atlanta, having no money and just being like, what am I going to do with my life? This is, this is a cool story of how this business that I built up started. I had saw a bike rental shop right next door to the restaurant. I'd always lived at, worked at. And one day, you know, you get just like any other service worker, you get to be buddies with the guy next door and all that. And I can remember the time in the restaurant, a killer day, you know, in 2010, 11, whatever it was, it was like, man, we did eight, nine grand today.

59:26That was opening at seven and closing at 10 p.m. You know, when think about restaurant food, spoilage staff. And next door was a, a bike rental shop. And there was two employees that day. And they were gangbusters running bikes around, renting them, all that, all that stuff. And the guy walked by me at the end of the day. And he said, dude, that was a crazy day. And I was just starting my night shift, you know, six o'clock, whatever. I was like, man, what do you all do? Like what'd you do today? He said, bro, we did 17 grand today. And I was like, you know, kid, and I'm like, okay, we had 27 employees come through this restaurant today. We had food, we had tight margins. I'm an entrepreneurship major. And I'm like, you had bicycles and two members of your staff. And you made $17,000 running bicycles out. Boy, my wheels started turning long story short. There was a place next door that in the community right next door in C. Cress that there was a space I knew the lady.

1:00:28I was like, man, maybe I could rent this space and start a business. And at the time, my dad was working for Rosemary Beach, a realty. And, you know, my dad got hit really hard in the 2008, you know, bust. And my dad was getting his feet back under him in 2010, 11. And so like that plays a factor in the story. Well, I go to this person to meet with them and they're like, yeah, I will rent you the space for this bike shop. And I'm like, unbelievable. And I go to my dad and I'm like, Hey, dad, this is happening. I'm about to start my own business. For the first time, I'm sort of a bike rental shop. But in addition to bikes, I'm going to offer beach chairs and baby cribs and golf carts. No one else does that. You know, they have like siloed businesses at Duke. And I'm going to do it all. And my dad was like, son, you can't do that. If you open up a competing shop 400 yards away in the community next door,

1:01:28I will probably lose my job as sales manager for this real estate brokerage because the guy who owned the real estate brokerage also on the bike shop. I was crushed. I've been going to a Bible study at a mega church that I was a part of. And it was a business men's Bible study. I'd gone every week and just as a kid trying to get plugged in. Had nothing else to do. Listening to all these guys, Jim Hood was a part of it. That's all I know. But any who I told those guys right before I had the conversation with my dad, Hey, I've got an opportunity if you guys would pray. You know, and they're like, okay, cool. You know, the kid who never talks asked for his to pray. That's great. So then I had the conversation with my dad. My dad says, Hey, no, go. I was crushed. Like now I'm 24 going on 25 living in my parents were two bedroom house. You know, like I'm a loser, you know, like and I got no plan. I'm about to go get a corporate job is what it is. I go back to that Bible study that next Thursday.

1:02:32Head low, go to leave, going to work at the restaurant that night. And this guy never talked to my dad in my life. He goes, Hey, hey, hey, buddy, buddy. I'm trying to leave. Like, yes, sir, he's like, how'd that meeting go? I said, it didn't go great, but I appreciate your brain. He's like, whoa, what's your idea? I was like, man, it's all good. You know, it's not worth talking about. I didn't want to get in the weeds of my dad and you might lose his job and all this stuff. He said, no, no, what was it? I was like, Oh, I wanted to, you know, go to this community that had 200 homes. And I was going to open a bike shop there with beach sprinkles and all this stuff. And it's just not going to work. And he goes, buddy, I own a vacation rental company and we have 800 homes. He's like, come to my office right now. I'm like, okay, go to his office, massive three story, complex, and destined. And he goes on to tell me, he's like, Hey, man, I have three business partners. It's me and my brother and then two other brothers. And we have this business partner. We've grown this vacation rental company. We're looking for guys like you, young guys that want to start a supplement business.

1:03:34He's like, why don't you pitch your business? I said, okay, he's like, Hey, two weeks from now. It was Valentine's Day of 2012. I remember it clearly. And I had this business plan that my buddy helped me put together and I go in there with my suit on. I'd spent hours putting this plan together and boy, it was Shark Tank. Four men in their 50s at a big conference room and a three story conference. Like in a three story office building, looking at me and they say, you have 30 minutes go. Dude, I was nervous as a cat. I go through my spiel. I landed like right at the 30 minute mark. They didn't say a word. And you could tell those an outfit at the table and it wasn't the guy from Bible study. Yeah. And he looks at me and he goes, thank you. We'll call you if we have any questions. I'll walk out two or three days later. They call me. They say we have some questions. Come back. I go back. Did that song and dance two more times after that. So initial pitch meeting with question, meeting with questions, they'd ask six, eight questions.

1:04:39I'd be there 20, 30 minutes. They'd say, thank you abruptly and it was always the alpha leaf. So I'm like, this has got to happen or not. And at the end of the day, what we were looking to do was we start a business together and they'd be my investors. I didn't have any money. And so they asked for one meeting and I was like, this has got to be the final meeting. And notice I'm getting like a little frustrated. I've met with you guys four times. I've done everything right. Yes or no, sirs. I'll walk into this three story office building in Destin, massive conference room again. And the alpha looks at me and he goes, Philip, what do you know about firing someone? I'm like, well, sir, I've never done it. But I'll be sure to figure it out. Philip, tell me about the last time you signed up for workers compensation and the plan that you selected. Sir, I'll be sure to figure this out. Liability insurance and tell me about the last time that you were you dealt with lawsuit. Well, sir, obviously I haven't dealt with that.

1:05:40Philip, what payroll service do you use? What would be the percentage they would charge for that fee? Philip, if you hired anybody, what service are you going to hire people? What do you know about this? What do you know about that? What are all these very technical business questions that he knew the answer was I had to say I don't know because I didn't. And there was no faking it. There was no. And I said, every time, yes, sir, I'm going to figure that out. Well, this goes on for 20 minutes. I kid you not. And I started to get very frustrated and agitated. And he asked one final question. And I looked at him and I said, sir, I told you I don't know. But I told you I will figure it out. I don't know what else you want me to tell you. And he said, Philippine step outside. He said, you just stay here. And I step outside into the hallway sitting in a chair. All these grown men and women are walking by me as I'm a kid sitting in a chair in a suit.

1:06:41Walking past me, I'm like, I just freaking blew my opportunity to have these investors. I think I'm out off to them. You know, like I guess when he calls me back in, I'll apologize. I go in, calls me back in after like 15 minutes of sitting. Bro is ice me out. I go back in and I walk back to the head of the table standing up. I never sat down. There was another thing. And I was about to talk and he just puts his hand up. And he said, uh, Philipp, we've been praying for somebody like you. And I wanted to see how you would handle adversity. And he said, let's do a deal. So that day was we're doing it fast forward. We started a bike beach golf cart baby crib rental business. I started me myself a flip phone and a hundred bicycles. I then had my my pledge brother from Auburn joined me a year later who helped me write the business plan to become my business partner.

1:07:44We took that business from myself and a hundred bikes and five skin boards and two baby cribs and a couple boogie boards and a couple beach shares to selling that business. February 10th, 2020. Think about that date for a second. At the time I had 250 employees, 7,000 bicycles, 150 golf carts, 200 baby cribs. And that was a eight year grind that we took off like a rocket ship. Had negotiated that deal that I sold it from November to February, which we know in businesses are very fast turnaround. Close the business, sign seal deliver two weeks later, boom, everything shuts down from COVID. Oh, okay. And I stayed involved for a little bit of time and got involved in real estate development.

1:08:45Low key. Just I was no real estate developer. My business partner was really running that ship and I just supplemented that and tinkered with that for five years. Golden handcuffs, claws of some sort where you had they did to a degree. I still maintained ownership and was like a like a divesting. Yeah. And in that. That story, which we don't need to get in today into the disaster. Yeah. You should be shrewd who you enter into business with and selling a business and maintaining ownership is going into business with somebody. Nothing negative to say about them. We were not on the same page of who we were and the values of our life. All the things that we have talked about this today that are key to me and who I am now were not to them. And it's in it's okay. I prayed the same revelation happens to them too.

1:09:46But the way you live your life and the values have and the way you conduct your business often goes differently. And maybe the way they wanted it to go was more shrewd for more whatever reason. My point is I'm not here to cast shade on them, but it ended horribly. Lawyers, they quit paying us. This is a this is a kind of a cool story to end that chapter. This past year a year ago, everything's going bad. They're threatening to not pay us our seller finance note. It was a mess. We have attorneys involved, life less into anybody that's ever going to sell a business. Don't let your collateral be ownership in the business. Yeah. Because if the business starts to take your collateral is nothing. Yeah. Yeah. Rookie move 101, first time ever selling a business. So my collateral there, stop paying me. My collateral is the business that's dying. I by God's grace of no doing of my own negotiate with the big company in town who is our main competitor.

1:10:52Who I didn't have a great relationship with. Who now I have a wonderful relationship with. And there's a lot of life lessons that I repent of in that when you just are competing. Like I'm going to beat you like silly. I negotiated with him while I was negotiating with my former business partners. I negotiate for them to give me back the business. And there was a lot of little fingers in that for me to ultimately release them of any claims of liability that they didn't pay us. All the while I knew that I could sell the business to the big dog in town. Because there was no part of me that wanted to get back in that business. Yeah. By God's grace, I made it happen. Negotiated both deals came together closed to take the business back over two weeks later. Flipped it to the biggest competitor in town. Now he owns it. We're friends. Did you come out pretty? It was almost equal. So what was owed to me pretty much was what he did. So it wasn't like, man, I'm the smartest guy in the room.

1:11:52I profited. You just got where you were equal equal. Yeah, we're in that situation. Equal zero. I got equal and I was super grateful. Yeah. So a lot of life lessons there. And then now I've exited that and now I've started a new business venture with two guys from my church actually. And that service industry was my sweet spot. I'm a relational guy. Real estate is not real estate development is not relational. You know, you're kind of public enemy number one and you got to do a really good job. And you know, sell things and market SMB right. So then we started this new business. These guys came to me kind of seeking my business advice. I'm older than them because I bought so business. All these things and they're like, Hey, we're looking to do something else. We want to do a huge business, scale it, do it right. Yeah. And I said, well, what are you thinking? They're like, well, we're thinking about the cleaning business. We're thinking about the painting business. We're thinking about this business. We're also thinking about the pool business.

1:12:54I'm like the pool business. Well, tell me more about all these note of cleaning. Oh, can you imagine, you know, having that the employees and all the things and sand and that's a nightmare. Painting. Okay, I could see that. Okay, this other business I could see that pool business. Well, everybody's a mom and pop. Nobody really does what they say they're going to do for the most part. Nobody is educated enough to scale. No, no, not to any of my competitors. I hope they all do well. And there's plenty. First day I ever delivered my first bicycle by myself in 2012. The biggest baddest guy in town that everybody was afraid of pulls up behind me. He goes, I heard about you. He goes, I hate my competition. And I'm like, okay. And he said, but I like you. There's enough to go around for all of us. And he slams his door and drives away. That was the first bike I ever delivered in my life. So now I've gotten into these other businesses that I'm like, I don't want to eat this other little pool guys. You got a business, you know, like there's plenty for everyone to go around. It's my point. So now we're currently seven, eight months into this business.

1:13:56What's the contrast between doing it with guys that weren't believer, like didn't have the same to now doing it with these guys? That would require a second podcast. No, I mean, at the end of the day, it is, it is night and day. We pray before every meeting we ever have. And like I'd like to tell you, it's not me running point. These two business partners, I have run point. They are 10 years younger than me. They are literal geniuses. They use technology, AI within our business. Not like, hey, let me use chat GPT to give me an email response. Like automation integrated. We can have someone take, we take care of Dave's pool. I've experienced it. So I think of like previous pool guys would gone to two or three. One, you set schedule stuff and never get back with you. I mean, it's pretty ghetto, but also just the quality of cleaning and just little stuff like that that you notice. This one, we had several things happen.

1:14:59It was like a complicated issue with our pool. Not only that, Banks calls me, says, hey, I heard about. It's my partner. Yeah. So the owner calls me, says, hey, I heard that this happened. That it was misdiagnosed or something like that. He's like, that's our fault. Let me give you a free, you know, the next few months are free. And we're sending our top technician out right now. He'll be there in an hour, you know, and it was fixed within like 24 hours. So not only is it the customer service model has got to be off the charts. And that's like, okay, now let's transition into like a business podcast. It's like your, your service has to be off the charts. If you're wrong or even proceed to be wrong, you better move them out and make it right. The second is using AI in your business for quality assurance. Yeah. So these guys are so technologically advanced. We can do quality checks on when we go to Dave's pool to clean it. We can do quality checks of Dave's pool via photos and via tech notes that AI then flags it to say

1:16:06they didn't get the pool toys out of the pool, which a normal pool guy wouldn't necessarily do that. They're just making sure chemistry's right. But we blow out, we blow off the pool deck. We tidy the furniture, we pick up pool toys. We try to do more. Yeah. So the whole space is good. That's all good and fine. A differentiator, a unique, but we use AI to then notify us because our whole goal. We have a 10 year goal to have 35,000 pools. We run our business on EOS. If you ever heard of that, it is structured life changing for some like, it's like a program system of like how you go about your weekly meetings to your set and your goals. Fairly like, I mean, it's great. They say every person has a number. So like, let's say you're a pool cleaner. You have metrics every week that you're accountable for every week, whether it was how you're raiding from what AI gave you a rating on your chemistry that you did the pools or how coming on to work on time or fill in the blank every person has a number. And for someone like me who's Lucy Goosey relational, go with the flow, everything's good.

1:17:08It puts me in a box and it sets goals for me that gives you wickets. You need to hit. Oh my gracious. It's incredible entrepreneurial operating system. Anybody can do it. But my two partners were like, that's a non-negotiable. We're doing this. And of course, I'm like, yeah, dude, whatever. Well, Foucke, it puts fill up in a box that I have accountability that I, if we have a weekly meeting and I have a to do by the next weekly meeting, I can't shut my weekly meeting. But I go, yeah, I'll get to it next week. It's like you're rock. You get called out like, hey, man, you didn't do your, as a partner. So that has been really, really cool, really fun. Our company is called Pool Captains. You could check out the website. This isn't people listening to this. There's no like pitch for my business itself. The whole point is these guys that I'm partner with are like, hey, man, when we do this business, we want it to be a faith forward business. So you can go to about us on our website and we say that we want to glorify God. We want to honor the Lord. We want to honor our staff. We want to honor our customers.

1:18:09And here's the greatest thing about that. When you say that out loud, you have two different pathways you can be. You can be a former Philip Fierci Hippocrit as an owner. I'm living a faith forward business and we do everything right. And we all know what it's like running a business and how hard that can be and people have perceptions that they weren't done right as employees as customers. Or you are now forced because you are taking this stance of, I'm going to have a faith forward business. You are forced to live this life out and to be genuine and to show your weakness that we spoke about earlier. Yeah. So like, dude, I am the first person to, I don't interact with a lot of employees because I'm really just sales of bringing on new pools and contracts and all that. But like, I'm the first person. It's like, man, to my partners. I didn't do a great job on this guys. I'd been lying to you right now. If I told you I really worked hard on this project that I said I was going to do, I didn't. I'm the first person when something gets screwed up and these, these customers call me because I'm the one sold them on the pool.

1:19:11First thing I say is we mess up and I would appreciate your grace that I don't deserve right now. And we're going to give you free months. We're going to do this. I think we do better than anyone else service wise. But like, I now have to live out the very thing even in the business that I do. Yeah. So that's been so refreshing, so fun. And like the sky's the limit for this business. 35,000 pools is monumental. Yeah. I mean, we're over 307 months and we have not acquired a single pool. That's all straight up. So what's the name of the business? It's called pool captains. Blue, blue trucks. You'll see them everywhere. They're Tacomas and really good branding. So pool captains will come clean your pool, your deck. And then baptize you. That's right. Repent and believe. So I think the main thing with that would be giving thanks for where the Lord has brought

1:20:13me to be equally yoked with these business partners. And here's one thing that Dave and I spoke about this morning that we haven't talked about in this podcast is I say those numbers and people listen to a lot of podcasts. And they, like I said earlier, they want something more. Okay. 35,000 pools. You can do the math. You know, like at 35,000 pools, it's a several, several hundred million dollar business. Okay. Dude, that might happen. It might not. I can tell you one thing. It matters zero if it does or doesn't happen. We have goals. We have things that we want to do. I think goals are good. And I'm not like a big goal guy. But what I wanted to talk about briefly to people who are in business of any kind is this principle called the arrival fallacy. And it is everybody has an idea of where they're at. They quickly forget where they're at. But they always are looking forward whether it's six months, one year, five years,

1:21:15ten years, if then, if I have this, then I've made it. I can look at my life. Hey, guys, I'd like to take a second to thank our sponsor, Bautobars. They have one of the best protein products out there in America. If you guys are anything like me, I spend most of my day, either here in the podcast, out on the range or pushing myself physically in some way. And I'm always looking for that tasty treat and healthy treat to have in between my meals to keep me going. Bautobars is definitely the product that I endorse. Not only does the product taste great, but the ingredient center are as healthy as they can be. It's packed with 20 grams of protein, seven grams of fiber and zero alcohol sugars, all under 200 calories. So if you're looking for a great snack to have in between your meals, a healthy snack, go to Bautobars.com. Check them out. As always, we appreciate you guys listening. Thank you and God bless. Boys, I've had a lot of nice things.

1:22:16That's all the business that had 250 employees. I got a real nice paycheck off of that. I have lived on the bay. I've had a boat in my backyard. I have been to more countries around the world. I've stayed in five store luxury hotels. I have done this. I have done that. I drive a brand new truck a couple of years ago, like fill in the blank of all these things that I have. Okay. And it's always a temptation to be like, but next. Yeah. But next and nobody wants to address it. I think because that's what society pushes. It's just a natural order of things to, I think, in human nature. And that's just not in business. I see it. You can see it in every aspect of life. And, you know, I can only speak to what I've experienced through my life, but I've experienced the same thing to where like you take in the special operations field, right? It's we live in a different, we're not business minded. We're more like more like give us, I want to go to war.

1:23:16I want combat. And that's what we train for well, then it's never enough. You're just never a peak where it's like, I've made it. I've become like whether this warrior or this, whatever you want to call it, it's, you're never going to reach that. It's, is it like one more kinetic deployment or one more? Yeah, it's never. It's like I need to get it one more. I need to, it's, and then, but you can also, I can go to, like the physical aspect of certain things to where you, they're like, oh, I'm going to go do this race and it's going, you know, and whether, you know, because I like to push myself physically, it's like I, I'd like to break barriers in my own mind. And you think like, okay, now I'm going to do look at the 210 mile, you know, it's like, I've never done that. 10, you know, and you do that. It's never, it's like, okay, great. Now I want to do something else. And I think that the point of it is like if you're not in the word, trying to live that life and trying to be fulfilled in that manner,

1:24:17nothing is ever going to be enough, right? It's, you're never going to be fulfilled. And you can have, I'm like, from what I'm hearing, it's like you can have a successful business. And like you said, I have this car and I've traveled, you know, done all these things. And, but the reason you're fulfilled and the reason you feel the way you are is because you stick to the word of God. And you're like, I try to live my best, my way through that. But if you didn't have that, it would not, you'd be empty and you'd be like, what's the next thing that I think is going to fulfill? God of the minute. Dude, if you don't fight for that and if you don't have, like, let's say the three of us are boys, okay? If we can't say that out loud and hold each other accountable to that in our, in our past always says like your garden friends, you know, like the disciples were all tight with Jesus, but there was garden friends. There was those that he loved the most, right? If that tight group of friends, whoever that is in your life, if these things aren't common knowledge amongst you guys, you're, you are going to stray in a millisecond. And that's the thing I sold my business in 2020.

1:25:18For me, it was the largest amount of money I've ever seen. Okay. I hit refresh on my bank account because like the deal's done, the wires on the way, you refresh it for five hours as you're like, I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting. It finally hits. And think about this for a second. I'm looking at a computer screen, pigments of color in a screen formulate what we call a number. Okay. The number pops up in my bank. Do you know what it felt like? Literally nothing. And I can remember like sitting there, having this internal like, it feels like nothing. And I like thought there was going to be some euphoric. Yeah. Eight year journey. I did it six month negotiation. I did it. Absolutely nothing.

1:26:18But do you know if I said that out loud to anybody around me? I showed that everything I sacrificed wasn't worth it. All the days away from my kids, all the days away from my wife, all the trips that I couldn't go be with buddies. If I said out loud, it kind of is meaningless. It makes me to be a fool, right? And I say that now out loud to anybody I come in contact with because like, and I also really appreciate what you said, Eddie, it's more than like the house, the car, the, the bank account. It could be what your body looks like, the weight that you are. It could be a level of jujitsu. It could be, you know, a female goal of if my skin looks like this. I mean, like, dude, we all insert what it is here. You get there and it is literally meaningless without the context of scripture tied to it. One of my favorite verses is in Philippians.

1:27:19And it says, I've learned the secret of being content in all situations, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. And then TMTbo says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But you just see that last verse, you know, like, let's go, let's go win a national championship. You forget what just came before that. It's like, I am called to be content if I never meeting these goals. If I never meet any metrics. And again, this is, you got to be careful saying all this because you can't just throw the baby out in the bath water. It's good to own a business and grow it and sell it. It's good to have fitness goals. It's good to do all these things, but it's like, it's not the things that define you or you fill you. And I think what those things all have in common that you're naming like, it's good to have all these things and be successful and have this or that right. But all those things can be taken away from you at any time. The Bible can't say the word cannot do to turn these in the balance. Think about that. I think that is the difference right there to where, because I can, I can imagine,

1:28:22you know, there's people that are successful and I have friends that are successful, like, you know, way, way, way more than I am. And I'm, I'm like happy for them. And, you know, if we were sitting here, I could, you know, play the devil's advocate for them. They're like, well, dude, I feel, I feel successful and I don't have that feeling. And I, you know, I'm going to keep going and I'm going to do this in this. But I think at the end of the day, I'm like, well, anything that all that can be taken from you. Like, I'm not saying how, but it can be like all of that and can be taken from you at certain point whether God wants to teach you a lesson or there's, you know, life stuff that happens and I'm like, and if you don't have a foundation in the word of God, then you are in for a world of her. Because you're not going to know how to deal with that loss because you've, and I'm speaking from experience because that's just, it's kind of what, it's what happened to me. Yeah. Like everything that I invested in that I believed that, you know, and it was, and what I called righteous, I, in my sinful mind was like, this is a righteous thing that I believe in.

1:29:27This is a righteous thing that I'm doing. I'm deploying. I'm going to war. I'm doing, you know, for whatever X, Y and Z reason you want to call it. And then when all of that was taken from me, it's like, that's, I mean, obviously I give that test one of the time. That's when I got, you know, close to God and everything. But that was a massive struggle for me because I didn't have the foundation that I needed. It went all that was stripped from me. You also realized who was sitting on the throne of your life at that time? Yeah. Yeah, it's your identity. Yeah, it was my identity. You know, and that, and so for success for business guys or six, I don't think it's, I don't mean Jamie Winship have talked a lot about this. He's helped a ton with it because you're like, okay, what's your identity? Well, I know the Christian answer. Yeah. You want to be real or? Yeah. Like what, what, what is it really? And I don't think it's like he made you a warrior, right? Like that is that. So there's a part of that that it's like, Hey, it's okay for you to be that warrior.

1:30:30But when you, that, when you separate it from God, when God is not Lord over your identity, right? And, and, and it's like hit goals, like work hard. It'd be a part of your identity. Yep. But it is centered in God when it's foundational. Like you said, you know, and I know, and I, and when I say that, it's not that I'm saying, what I did in the teams or what I do in my career is bad. Like I truly believe, like God formed me and made me the way that I am and made me go in that, like direction, the way I was raised, all these things, you know, if I look back in my, my childhood and everything else, it was like, did you were driven towards that path? And there is nothing wrong with that. But the problem is when you go down that path and I don't care what's, you know, special operations unit you, you go to or do whatever they, they, they have a very good way of being like, this is your identity. And these are our rules that you follow by and you get wrapped up in that.

1:31:30You're like, okay, now I'm living my life towards whatever creed or whatever motto or whatever, you know, and you can get sucked into that and not, not have the word of God, like not be led by that. And so, and what I'm like is one trying to say is it's like, I know that it's not a bad thing. But and I still live my life that way. It's like I still live my life the same way I did when I was in the teams, but now I just have God at the center of it, knowing like, hey, yes, I know I am the way I am. And I'm not going to change that, but I'm also humbled to where it's like the only reason I am this way is because of God. Absolutely. And then in addition to that, Eddie, if you lead because you're an influential person in whatever circle you're in, right, you must lead from your weakness. Like if because the second that you sit here and say, you know, I'm a warrior, I have this story, I have this past, I have this following, I have this calling, people really get to know you.

1:32:33What are they going to say? And news flashed, he's the center. And he let me down. And he didn't come here. I'll make about an hour and you'll find that out. I'm not a new flash. But the point is we as men who are in three different professions to a degree. I don't care who you are. Male, female, what job you have if you're working at Burger King. Like we are called to live a life that is marked by repentance and faith. That's what I love when people came to Jesus and they're so blown away by them. They say, what do we do? He doesn't say go get cleaned up. He doesn't say you need to go to the temple right now. You know, they're Jewish and then you know, all these things that they perceive religious. He says repent and belief. And we can do that in the way that we run our businesses. If I looked at all of your businesses and I walked in and said, excuse me during a meeting. And I said, would you say this leader here at E. E. leads in the way that he knows that he is flawed and needs needs the grace of Jesus Christ to forgive him to the best of his ability to lead all of you.

1:33:34And he's not perfect. Yes or no, right? This one's really going to hurt. Now let's go to our wives, right? Like, hey, my wife, Evelyn, can you say you got some true ceremony and you got the poly going on? Does Philip lead your marriage in a way that he openly knows how flawed he is, how dependent upon God he is and how consistently he lets you down. And I'm not talking you forgot to unload the dishwasher. Right? Like, would you say that is a marker of his husbandry towards you? Yeah, I've had a revelation in the last three, four, five months. We've been reading a book together called Sacred Marriage. Highly recommended. Uh, dynamite. Like the tagline of the book is, what if marriage is to make you a holy not happy? Yeah. And he gets in to say, well, if you're holy, you're happy. But it's that whole concept of like, are we leading our marriages? Yeah. And everything we do from a position of weakness that I don't have it figured out that I'm not the best husband.

1:34:40Dude, I had a gnarly day yesterday that like I forgot like literal four things that my wife asked me to do that were all very easy things that are normal everyday tasks that we need to do. And I forgot. And like I said five times, like I cannot believe just how bad I've let you down today. Like I'm so sorry. You know, in like the very first thing she said to me was, it's totally fine. I didn't even notice. So now catch this, boys. Today we wake up a little bit of a frenzy trying to get the kids some stuff happen. We're a little bit behind schedule. Everybody can relate. And I didn't really perceive it to be anything bad. But my wife is a little on edge. You know, that's just how marriages sometimes you're about to get out the door. We're cool. Five minutes later, I'm driving and she texts me and she said, hey, I'm really sorry for being in a bad mood this morning. I shouldn't have I shouldn't have acted that way in front of you and the kids. Yeah. That didn't come out of anywhere. That started because I took the first step to start this new culture in my household of like, I ain't got to figure it out.

1:35:48That's actually what I think health looks like. Well, yeah, you know what's really cool about that too is you get to a place where if you're used, if you get used to doing that in your marriage, and being like, hey, hold yourself accountable and just, you know, letting your partner know that. Eventually, and what I found is like, well, because we're at an our marriage because we, you know, obviously we've been through every rocky thing in the marriage. Just like every we're going on 20 years. But it's now we don't even have to say it. It's like, I know, like I can feel when she's like she's off or she can feel when I'm off. And if she feels that I'm off, I can see her picking up the slack, right? And being like, okay, he's dealing with something. So I'm better. I'll do the same for her. And they're really like, we both look at it. Like we know we're doing it for each other. Like because we like, we're a team or a unit. And that's, I think that is like the most beautiful place to get to because it's like not. And I always, my institutionalized mind is like, you know, going back to my old career, like we do CQB or whatever.

1:36:48And a lot of it has to do, you know, you just see some verbal way of communicating when you're clearing houses. And like that's how you, that's how you start off learning your by verbalizing, like clear, clear right clear left. You know, so that everybody sort of knows what each other is doing. But then the point you want to get to where you are. And I say it's like one of the sexiest things you can ever watch is like just sitting back on night vision and watching a unit come in and clear with not a word being said. Everybody is reading and reacting off each other. And it's not that everybody's doing X, Y and Z. This is my position. It's like, hey, that person didn't do that. I'm picking up their slack and I'm going to pick up and that's how it free. You're like, you can move freely. And it's really cool. And that's kind of like when it's a cool place to be in your marriage where not a word has to be said. It's were a team and I'm picking up what you're putting down or by his person. Because I know for a fact, I know not very much about military stuff. Okay. I know that you as a leader of your military team that you lead in a way of like guys will let you down.

1:37:52Okay. You messed something up. The very first thing you do is accountable. Fellas, I'll let you down. I'm really disappointed. Not going to do it again. Right. For some reason, we think that's okay to do with our boys like in the workplace or you know, in these things. But like then I'll send we go home and it's like, ain't it meant to that? You know? Well, I think the reason for that one of the reasons for that is because your wife is the closest person to you and also knows all of your vulnerable spots. So there's that and I, I mean, you didn't want to admit it. You're like, I don't want to admit I did wrong. So I'm going to sit here and defend it because I think if I do admit it, then you're going to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I just handed it to you. Are you going to crush it? You know, and like, it's true. Yeah. And that's been just a, I'd love to tell you like, man, I'm about to write a Christian marriage book. You know, like this is not the trick, the case. I've been married almost 14 years and this is a revelation that we've kind of had in the last few months in like boy, I'm seeing the fruit of like friendship and relationship and like, next thing you know, when you're vulnerable and then you see that they then react the same way.

1:38:59And then like the first I texted right back. I said, Hey, it's all good. Thank you for saying that. Let me know how I can help you today. And like, that's the day we're having. You know, like, that's what God called us to do. But we're also prideful, selfish, self-preserving, insecure, insecure. And therefore we have crappy marriages because we're not leading in a way that's vulnerable. You know, and the trick isn't to not be insecure, to not be pride. It's like, you're going to be or for me, I'm going to be right. I have that. I mean, I need to be honest about it. I need to speak it out. I need to say it. I need to own up to it. Yep. You know, because you're, I mean, most of my experience around this is going, I took it. I did it the wrong way immediately. And then I come back to it and go, Hey, the way I responded to that, man, that was selfish. This is what's going on with me. I'm just going to just, yeah. I just also, you know, allowing giving yourself grace as well. Not just depending on God to give you grace, but also you need to be, you know, like, Hey, you are going to mess up, man.

1:40:03I think a lot of guys do in women, I'm sure struggle with when they do mess up in a marriage, then they beat them, but it's like they beat themselves up for it. And that can cause damage as well, too. It's like, it's, you got to, that's what you call one way street. Yes. You know, you got to be like, Hey, it's okay. You messed up. Tell your partner or your husband or wife that, Hey, this is what I did, but also allow yourself to have the grace to yeah, I probably struggle with that the most. I do too. That's, yeah, I think a lot of guys struggle with that maybe more than one. No hard on me. They're just so hard for humans to admit that they don't meet the more. I mean, it is literally self preservation. And if you're high perform like more high performer and it's like, I don't give myself any like, do better Dave, you know, like the internal dialogue in my head, yeah, round it. But think about it. We go back to scripture, as you said, Eddie, if that is our guide, scripture is the roadmap. Okay. And people get all keyed up about Ephesians, husbands, submit to your wives and all these things.

1:41:06And it's like, it is the way God made it that we set the culture. That is by no means that we're not equals in God, God's eyes. We have different roles. But the point is, we have the ability to set the culture. And if anything, that is a harder task that requires more vulnerability of us. And I think that's my encouragement. Today is like, whether it's business, whether it's your marriage, I mean, now it goes down to kids. You know, it's like, I apologize to my kids once a week. That's a whole another aspect that even I think is harder, not harder, but we'll have more of an impact on you as a human being. If you can first let your kids know that you are human and like, I make mistakes because I can speak to this from example. Like growing up, obviously my kids grew up in them. I was in the SEAL teams and you're the hero, right? It's like you're coming back from deployments, your home for a short time. I was a good time dad because I'd never wanted to like, it's like, I only have a certain amount of time with them.

1:42:09So it's like, cool, but they they looked at me like I'm, you know, like dude, this guy's the hero and like, he's indestructible and he come, you know, he's come back from these combat deployments and it wasn't until I got out or down struggling now. And I'm like, who am I? Probably all that stuff. And I had I found it very hard for me to let down my kids to be like, I'm not the hero you think I am. Like I am just as flawed as the next human being, just as weak as the next human being in certain aspects. But once I was able to cross that barrier, I think I did. And my kids able to see me as like, holy cow, you are, you know, a raw human being. And you're my dad and you're trying your best dude. I grew more from that than anything else because they probably it was able to have more of a real like dialogue and conversations with them as well. Right. Instead of coming from this place that's like, I know the best and well, you know, this is what I do.

1:43:10And you're like, no, man, that's that's not real. But what you were doing to that Eddie is setting a platform of the gospel to your kids. When you show your kids, when you show your wife, when you show your coworkers or employees, I don't have it figured out. I dropped the ball. I'm not the hero because we're all leaders, right? And we want to have this nice puffed up image. I don't. Therefore I need saving. Yes. And that's the gospel, right? If you don't need to be, if you have no sin, you don't need to be saved, right? And that was my whole testimony is like, ye with little sin needs ye of a little savior. And that's what I want my kids to see in me is, okay, I'm this vulnerable person. And I'm trying to like live life right and try not to be prideful and all these things that I still am. But I'm trying not to be I consistently, even as a quote unquote, good guy have to consistently apologize to my kids. It was literally last night, we started another new thing where we get together as a family for five to eight

1:44:13minutes every night. We call it circle time. And we go around and we say one thing we're thankful for. Read a little passage of scripture takes one minute. We talk about it for one minute with my kids. What do you learn? Then we go around and pray whoever wants to pray. But the other night I said, we was about repentance. And we're explaining that I said, is anybody want to say sorry for anything? You know, keep mine. I got a eight, seven, five year old. And my five year old Emmett was like, I'm sorry that I was mean to my sister. And like genuine is convenient. I do, this is amazing. And then I went next and I said to my oldest, who's eight Penelope, I said, Penelope earlier today when you did something and I, and I kind of yelled at you. And it wasn't anything inappropriate. If both of y'all saw it, you'd probably like, yeah, if the lips are good, dad. You know, it's like I was like, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. And then next thing, you know, my next kid's like, you know what? I think I'm sorry for something too. And then my wife is like, Hey, I'm sorry that I did this and we're trying to create a culture. That like dad and mom mess up to because mom and dad need to be saved.

1:45:15That's a pressure of accountability too. Accountability also. Yeah, because it's going to be weird if I show up every week and I just, my whole past is, well, I just, sorry. Yeah. Like, obviously that gets sniffed out a mile away and done last. No. So all of these things are new. So don't think that I've got it figured out. Don't think that I'm like, live this track record of it. But it's like things that are fresh on me that are like revelations of the Lord that are all based in scriptures of living a life that's vulnerable, that's open to criticism, that's open to being software who I am, which is somebody who doesn't meet the mark. But there is one who did make up the Delta and it is Jesus Christ who died in my place, who took the nails that I deserved. And I have to live that out in every arena in my life. And like, that's what gets me fired up. And that's why I give thanks every single day. Well, man, I'm glad that you came in today because I know this is like your first podcast, I think. First one, right? Dude, first time. Probably the last. It was a good one. Well, phenomenal job.

1:46:15I think honestly, just after hearing you talk, you should probably do more. But I, I think this will probably be one of the best ones because it's your first time and your role and you're like, Hey, and I like the fact that you ended on like, dude, I'm saying these things, but I don't have to feel like I'm going through them. And this is kind of like a revelation that I've had recently. And you know, I think those messages carry more weight than if you would have come in here and started quoting scripture or like just being like, Hey, X, Y and Z. And this and that, I think then people would be like, all right, dude, what? Okay, God, you had this planned out. This is your spiel where you just coming from the heart and being like, Hey, this is, I, this is what I've been going through. And this is what I've learned been going through it. I like, again, I think that speaks volumes. Yeah. And I'm hoping that the listeners, whoever, you know, overslept their listening is, I know they probably got a lot from this. And you know, I think there was a lot of like golden nuggets in this conversation that you should rewind the conversation and go through it again.

1:47:16You know, remind me to preach them to myself. Yeah. And same, same. Yeah. And so think of this though, most of our guests are like, I mean, we have different backgrounds, right? Yeah. Yours is so refreshing because so many people have your background. Yeah. So people, so many people need to hear your story. I think your story is incredible. You know, and so many people have that background where they're going, Hey, I'm doing church. I'm playing this role. But I'm self righteous. And I think I like, I don't actually need God. Like I'm doing all these good things, right? In heaven, I hope, I hope a lot. I pray that a lot of people that God will use your story to help a lot of people that had that background and that experience. Praise God. First, first step is admitting that you got a problem. The problem is yourself. Yeah. Speaking of having problems, you know, this I have an addiction that I want to pass on to you. This is a sponsor sponsor of our podcast, firecracker farms, Alex, who's a huge, huge believer

1:48:21a guy that I actually trained years ago. We formed a relationship and he was another serial entrepreneur that just, I mean, probably super successful everything he does. And I actually because he puts God first, but he created this company firecracker farm. They make hot salt. And if you're a foodie, you, you can put this on pretty much anything. I mean, there's people out there that put it on their fruit, coffee, everything else, different flavors. But this one is one of my favorites. I just picked these randomly off the shelf too. But this one is this pineapple express. It's got a little, a little bit of sweetness to it. But yeah, we want to give these out to our guests. Thanks, Alex. Yeah. Can't wait. Oh, awesome. Thank you, Phil. Thank you, fellas. It's been fun. Appreciate it, man. All right. Until next time. Until next time, out.