This YouTube interview features Kary Oberbrunner recounting his shift from a youth pastor to full-time entrepreneur. He describes an early mentor relationship with Chet beginning in 2001, a catalytic blunt phone call in 2012 ("you can't take the ring and stay in the shire") that prompted him to leave the church, and practical pressures he faced (replacing income, health insurance, supporting three young children). The transcript also contains a separate anecdote about using blockchain and smart contracts to timestamp and protect ideas ("Abracadabra means I create as I speak").
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Abracadabra means I create as I speak. So it's I create as I speak. It came to pass as it was spoken. So I believe that we should be able to have an idea and create it and not wait one to three years, which it takes. Takes a patent and wait and pay 20k. Well, I looked at blockchain and I'm like, oh my gosh. If we take an idea and put it on chain, it creates a timestamp and it creates a. It's immutable, which means nobody can ever change the smart contract, even the creator. And so I'm like, whoa, what if we took books, ideas, logos, and we literally turn them into smart contracts? I'll coach people to the level that they want. If there's hungry people, I'll tell you what you want to. You want extra coaching and mentoring? I'm going to lay into you.
I want you just to kind of start. Just give us a little highlight of the story your go backwards. Bring us up to like where you are today and kind of talk about how Built to Lead was sort of a catalyst for you to like, launch.
Yeah.
Yourself as. As who you are today.
So I started out meeting Chet when I was his kids youth pastor and that was the year 2001. So I mean I was brand spanking new. I had just celebrated my one year anniversary and here I was in this church and I. You know how Chet kind of knows Peter people? Like, he can see through people, man. I think he just said, hey, we should meet. And you know, we started to meet and he's like, look man, you need a lot of work. Yeah. I mean he just straight up and he said, I'll coach you for free because you're a pastor. And this was just when he was starting to go and leave his job. So I think the pastors became one of his first quote clients. And man, everything he was sharing, I was like writing it down. And I, I thought, man, this guy's totally different because, you know, in our, in our world, well, Chad, Chet, you know, Chet cusses. And so in our world that was what, you know, like here he was unafraid of anything. If he wanted to wear jeans and a T shirt, he'd do it. If he wanted to cuss, he'd cuss like there was no masks or pretense. And now looking back, Chad, I remember a lot of times in the beginning with Chet, I'd say, now just between us. And then I would go into something. And finally I remember one of them. Early on, he's like. He's like, why are you saying that? And, you know, like, searing truth. But at that point, I kind of had, like, this life. And this life. Like, this life was the pastor, which is awesome. But then I had this, like, entrepreneur thing in me that I didn't even know at the time. And. And so he got me interested in my first writing of my book because we both read this magazine called Relevant magazine, and I just remember him constantly just calling me out and. And being like, you're scared. You're scared. You know, and it all. It all culminated because I had some mild success where, you know, I wrot. Wrote book 1, 2, 3, 4, did my doctorate. I had some mild success. And I'll never forget the day that. It was in 20. It was 2011. No, it was 2012. 2012. It's in May. Everything's cool. I get a random call from Chet, and I'm at the church, and I'm like, oh, I better step outside for this one. So I pick up the phone, and he said, oh, I saw you online. You just got back from speaking, traveling. And I said, yep. He's like, is. Is the. Is. Is the church cool with that? I said, oh, yeah. Rick knows everything's cool. He's like, is your wife cool with it?
Yep.
He's like, is God cool with it? And I'm like, what are you talking about? And he's like, I think you're full of crap, except, you know. You know, he said other words. He said, I think you're living off the church's dimension because you're living your own life and you're scared to go pro. And he said, I think you're going and speaking at all these events and telling everyone to live a big game and you're spineless. I mean, he just starts. And I'm like, you know, and then he says, you can't take the ring and stay in the shire. And then he said, when you grow up here, call me back. Boom. And then he hung up the phone. Yes. Yes. And so I literally, after that call, I felt like I had a vomit because I knew I would never, like. He called me out, and I knew I could never go back and, like, play the game.
Right.
And so literally, within 48 hours, I told my senior pastor. I was like, I'm out. Wow. Yeah, I needed that push because I had connected with John Maxwell in 2011 and kind of started to build, like, this side thing, and it was getting to the point where you could tell, like, there was some tension going on between the church and. Nothing against the church. I loved it. But I hated the meeting part of it. I hated the slow speed.
Were you feeling the dissonance inside too?
I thought I had people fooled. Meaning, like, eh, I'll take this speaking gig. I'll write that book. I'll do that. But I mean, you gotta remember I had three kids. Still do, but like six, four and two. And I remember, oh my gosh, like I gotta replace the church income and get my own health insurance and my own retirement and my kids go to the Christian school. Like you start adding it up and then there's. And you know, if you're never an entrepreneur, you're like, whoa, yeah, that's a big step to leave. But it's a mindset. And even my new, My newest book called the E. Mind how to Think like an Entrepreneur and Gain an Exponential Advantage. Like you literally can think like an entrepreneur in, in my opinion, in any industry. But most people aren't willing to think that way.
Most people aren't thinking.
Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So.
So you, so you left the Shire?
I left. I told them I was out and they, they said, whoa, you know, we got to transition this well and slow. And I'd been there, I'd been there 12 years.
