“Faith, Business, & Breakthroughs: A Conversation with Mark Collins”

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What's up, my good people? Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show, the podcast that brings you stories behind the success. Today we have with us business life coach and author Mark Collins. How you doing today, Mark?

I'm doing great, CJ. Thanks for having me.

Oh man, thank you for taking the time out your day, man, to be with us on the CJ Moneyway Show. Really appreciate it. So Mark, tell us a little bit about yourself, man, and about your background.

Yeah, I appreciate you asking. Like you said, business coach. I'm a husband, father, been married 33 years. You know, my story always starts with my wife and our life together. But my passion is being able to help people to really— what we say in our— with my course and book, understand who you're created to be so you can have the life that you're created for. And so what I do is spend my time investing in people so that they can really kind of maximize who they are in their life, whether it's in their business, their job, in their relationships or their life.

Mm-hmm. What I like about a lot of people like yourself that has come on the CJ Moneyway Johnson Show is how you guys can put everyone else above your own needs. You know, I'm not saying that you don't have needs, but it's just the serving that you guys are providing for communities, for worldwide, you know, just reaching out and looking beyond just yourself and your family, but want to help others and do for others. It's amazing to me, man, because I mean, I've had a A ton of people that come on here and just good-hearted people. Right now I got to put you in that category.

I really appreciate it. You know, CJ, it's like when you find something fantastic or amazing or something that you think other people will benefit, you always want to share with people you care about. Really, for me, it's just sharing something that I think really impacted my life. But I appreciate the compliment. It's definitely what I want to do.

Oh yeah. And on that note, you was talking about creating and being passionate for the things that you're doing. So tell us, you're passionate about helping others become the heroes that they were created to be. What drives this passion and why is it important to you?

Yeah, absolutely. And in fact, if you wanted to know what our tagline is, really being able to equip people to unleash the hero that they're created to be in their business, their job, their relationships, and their life. And, and for me, it comes from believing that about myself. You know, we can kind of unpack some of that if we want down the road, but what it comes from is believing that in myself but not knowing how to get there. And so really trying to figure it out in my own life and finding my own kind of roadmap from where I was at to the person I believed I was created to be. I felt like it was something that other people saw as well. And you know, you find it in your life, the people I talk to, the people I have the chance to work with, people that are in my church or in my work or in business. Wherever I'm at, I'm finding that there are people that are unleashed. What I believe is that everybody has created value, CJ. And in that place, what I want to do is really unpack that, help them to find the tools, what I call the blueprint for success, so that they can live it out in their life. It's a passion that came because I believed it in myself and I see it in people around me. So I'm just trying to provide the tools for them to be able to do it.

Mm. I mean, those are some key points too. You said something about A lot of times people don't see things in theyself. Or let's just say, like with Mark.

Yeah.

I see something in Mark. I'm encouraging you all the time. I'm encouraging you, you know, because I can see something in you. But a lot of times we don't see what other people see in us, you know?

Yeah.

And you know, it can go either way because sometimes you can encourage people to move on into the greatness that God has called them to be. Or sometimes people can shy away because they don't wanna reach that pinnacle. Or from what I found out, Mark, is a lot of times when it's something on the inside of you is not connected, then the outside of you gonna follow what's on the inside. But when it—

That is really good.

Yeah, but when the inside is connected, and so then now the outside, 'cause you know, we know what the Bible say. The Bible say that he don't look at man like how man look at man. He look at man from the inside. He looks at our heart. And so we have to be changed from the inside out. And so if we not changed on the inside, then our mentality of wanting somebody like yourself to mentor me or to coach me is gonna go to the wayside, man. And so I commend you and others who continue doing what you're doing because I know that you come across some people that just don't want the help. You know, sometimes people just don't want it. I don't want to get better. I want to stay the way I'm at. I am, I'm content. And so, I mean, I say that, but so tell me, have you ever came across, you know, where you tried to mentor and help people and they just don't want to see to get it right?

Yeah, absolutely. And if I could backtrack a little bit to what you said, 'cause it was really good, because you're telling our story really, you know, my course Life Mastery, the book Life Mastery, Living Life by Design. I know we'll probably talk about those, but really what they come down to is you're either living from who you're created to be or what your past has told you. I've never met a person yet, CJ, who wasn't living from one or the other. What my past, my experiences, the things I've gone through, what people have told me I was, right? We're either living from that place, we're living from who we're created to be. So really what we do at the very core is to help people unpack that, right, that God-given value on the inside and who you are. And which leads to the second thing you're talking about, which is interesting, because what I do find— people who say they're satisfied but really it's settled for, not satisfied with.

Yeah.

At the end of the day, what I find is people who have tried before, they'd hoped before, they'd wished before, they believed before, but because they couldn't, you know, they couldn't find a place from getting from, you know, hurt or dissatisfied to really being able to be unleashed into that person, what I call the hero in hiding, they just give up feeling like, you know, I guess I just need to settle for where I'm at. And that's what I'm passionate about, is, you know, I'd love to rekindle the fire in those people who are in that place. And for those people who haven't given up, Give them what I call that, again, that blueprint for success, being able to find out going from where you're at to where you're created to be.

Mm-hmm. I mean, man, we could sit here and talk about this all day, you know, because actually I wrote a book. Yes. You know, I got a book that's about to come out, my second one, and this one is entitled The Issues of Life. Like basically like what you're saying, and it's based around, I got 10 chapters, it's based around the scripture of the soil that's sowed. And so some goes to the wayside, some, you know, on stony ground and things of that nature. And so I kind of like break down individual lives that represents these seeds, you know, son, because they say that, you know, we go to church and we get excited because we had been through some things in life and we get excited and, you know, like, oh yeah, God gonna change things. And ooh, I was happy. But then the enemy come and persecution comes about, you know, and now that joy which you had, he snatches it away from you because it wasn't rooted, you know. And so that's a lot of things too. A lot of times people not rooted in the word of God.

Yeah.

And so that's what we talk about, that, that inner, that inner you, that inner you. Like when Jesus was at the temple and he say, man shouldn't eat by bread alone but by every word. That permit of out of the mouth of God, proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Because if you don't have the word in you when you come against certain situations, Mark, we gonna get taught. That's why he tells us in Ephesians to put on the breastplate of righteousness, because those darts gonna come. So, so, so I believe, you know, like same missions, just different ways of doing it. It's all about trying to bring people into the fold of God, into the kingdom, and do our kingdom assignment, you know. That's the bottom line, you know. Everybody got different assignments, different parts to the body. But as long as you doing, like, like you say, some sow, mean some water, some plant. We don't know which one we doing.

But God brings the increase.

God bring, don't mean nothing because it's God who brings the increase. And so I see behind you that you got your books laid out and everything. I, I like the poster board. And so tell us about your book, Life Mastery. Living Life by Design, Not by Default. What's the central message and how can readers apply it to their lives?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, if you looked at the title, the theme of the title, Living Life by Design, Not by Default, is really trying to do what I call a mindset shift or change in your thoughts and your thinking from understanding, you know, the normal circumstance in most people's life is life happens and I respond, right? Hurt happens, change happens, struggle happens, confusion happens, whatever the thing is, right? Life happens to everybody. You know, as we want to quote scripture, Jesus says, in this world you will have trouble. He guarantees it. He guarantees that he's overcome it and so can we, but he guarantees that you're going to have a walking into it. The problem is that a lot of times we think that we're the question, not the answer, to the circumstance we're walking into. Yeah, that life happens and I gotta figure it out, right, CJ? I pull out my favorite scripture, I try and find out how I'm going to get through this thing, I'm going to pay the bills, I'm I'm going to fix the car, how I'm going to fix the relationship, whatever it is. Yeah, but what I tell the people that I work with is I've never seen God create somebody so that they respond to life, but that they're the response to the life that's happening. What I tell the people I work with is you're the answer to the circumstance you're walking into, you're just the person who doesn't know it yet.

Mm-hmm.

I've never seen God equip somebody, invite them into their calling, their purpose, their passion, that, you know, the impact they're supposed to have on the world and then had them go to school afterwards, had them go to training, right? They didn't create David to be the champion of the Israelite people and then take him to school afterwards. Oh, you need to go learn how to fight and go learn how to be a general, go learn how to lead people, go learn how to use your weapons, right? He's created us so that we have the things inside of us for the circumstance we're walking into. And so, Life by Design, Not by Default is simply understanding that, hey, you're the answer to the life you're walking into. If you can do some of the things we unpack in the book, then you can start to see that and live that out so you can have the life you're created for. If you open up the pages, the internal theme of the book is understanding who you're created to be so you can have the life you're created for. Not what your past has told you, not the limitations that you believe, like you said, not the lies that Satan's told you, not the things that you're playing over in your head every time struggle happens, but who he created you to be. To be the victor in your life, to be the hero in your own life and the life of those people around you, to have an impact that the world has changed simply because you're living in it.

And when you step on ground, things gonna change just because of your presence. And sometimes we don't know that, you know, like the Bible say, having a form of godliness.

Yeah.

But denying the powers thereof. And you said something, you mentioned David, because I was just reading— I just been reading that. It came in my spirit to start reading that again. And okay, just how amazing, because like you say, he didn't send him there to learn how to fight, or he had to go to school to learn how to fight. We already know he the bear and the lion when he was tending to the sheep. But even in being anointed king, and even as being the king, he still went through some trials and tribulations that he had to deal with being who he was. And so here it is, he was a man after God's own heart. And so why at times do we feel that, as you said in the beginning, that we're not going to go through some things. Yeah, we think, oh, I go to church, I go to church, now everything gonna be fine. No, it's fitting, it's gonna get even realer because now, oh, you trying to get away from the foe? Oh, you want to believe the word of God and what God is saying to you is true? Oh, now you're gonna get attacked from all angles. So you better put your feet down, 10 toes flat, and stand on what you believe in. And then, you know, I just think that a lot of us don't stand on what we truly believe in. We give a lot of lip service, you know.

And the challenge is, CJ, at least with the people that I work with and the people I'm around, it's, it's not that we go through challenge, it's that we allow the challenge to tell us who we are. In that time when we're down or the time when we're struggling, you know, Joseph's another great example, right? From promise of God, right, to slave, to prison, to second in charge of the whole kingdom, saving his whole entire people and other nations as well. But we walk in through our path and we look at ourselves in slavery, in prison, in those places where we're forgotten about, right, when we've helped other people out. And we think that that's who we are, but the truth of the matter is we are beyond the things that we have. It's, it's just a point in our journey. And so we start to unpack in the book and in my course Life Mastery, understanding who you're created to be. It comes, it comes from scripture, it comes from Jesus, right? We start from the very beginning. You could start from Adam and Eve, where they were created by God, right, in His image and in His likeness, the only thing created like that. Or you could start with Jesus when He was baptized, and when He came out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and abided with Him, and this voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased." It was an identity statement over Him, not to Him, but to everybody else around Him. He already knew who He was. We know that because if I can fast forward to Matthew 4— I don't mean to get, you know, into the Bible so much.

Trust me, I love this type of talk. Hey, let's go.

So Matthew 4, Jesus is in the desert, 40 days in the desert. He's hungry, it says, and Satan comes to attack. And what you and I know, CJ, is that typically the first attack is the best one, right? You try and do your knockout punch at the beginning. So this was Satan's knockout punch: If you are the Son of God, turn these stones to bread. He attacks identity. He attacked identity with Adam and Eve, saying that God's lied to you, that there's more for you than what you're living. He attacks it with Jesus, saying, hey, if you are the Son of God, if you really are that person, then prove it. And that's the same attack that he's given us. So CJ, I know people all the time that I am my job, and if I don't have my job, then who am I, right? I am my relationship. And if we're having trouble, if we're having issues in the household, now all of a sudden I wonder who I am, right? If my kids are sick or they're acting up, or where— if I don't have the income, or if my car breaks down, or I can't afford that gift, or whatever, right? Our life tells us who we are when we don't know who we are. So We try and give tools so that you can understand that, which, by the way, if I could finish up that scripture real quick, Jesus's response was, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." It may have not been the last word that God said to Jesus, but the last word that was recorded that God said to Jesus before he went into the desert was his identity. "This is my Son in whom I'm well pleased." Isn't it interesting that the word he was living off of was the identity that God gave him? Just in reference to that, So if that's why, there's two things we do in my book and in my course: help you understand who you're created to be, not what the world says, not what the things that you have in your life tell you you are, but who you are. Because it's that person that is going to impact the world.

Mm, that's heavy, Mark. I like that. And you know what, I'm gonna throw something out there to you right now. We won't talk about it right now, but later on, let's talk about this. Let's get together and write something about Joseph, man, you know what I'm saying? Because yeah, I know he's revealed some things to I mean, for the longest, I've been reading Genesis 37 to forever. Like every time I get through it, go back and read it again. It's something that you miss. And every time I go back, Mark, every time I go back, I find something different that I didn't see the last time because now, you know, more things be revealed. You talk about Joseph. Oh, I love Joseph. So one day, man, you know, when that book's clear, man, let's brainstorm together, man, and put something together on that.

Phenomenal.

Hey, so Mark, you have also developed an online Life Mastery course. Can you share a little bit about that and how it complements your book?

Yeah, absolutely. And, and I don't know if I did this backwards, CJ, but I created the course before I wrote the book.

Okay.

And to be totally honest, I wrote the book because my mom and my wife told me I should, you know, because I was fully invested in the course and helping people through that. And The truth of the matter is the course is the fully fledged, fully fleshed out A to Z, right from where you're at to freedom course. It has all of this, the lessons, 14 teachings, 7 hours of teaching. There's some online things, some in-person one-on-one coaching as well. But what I tell people about the book is the book is what I call the quick start guide. Mm-hmm. So if you haven't invested in the course and you're not putting your time and energy into that, it gives you that ability to have a, tool that you can read in one of the chapters today, you can apply this week, and you can see change your life this month. So that's where the book comes in, is, is more of a kind of, hey, what's the things you need right now? What's the nugget I need right now that I can apply and have it worked out right now? Not that you don't get that from the, the course, but you get that and so much more from it. So the course is really me investing in people at the highest level. It's fleshed out a little bit in the book. It's fully developed in the course where we're starting to talk about identity. Who are you created to be? As a person of faith, and I know you are as well, the thing we do is we start with an I Am statement. And I start before they write their I Am statement with an invitation for them to have a conversation with God and say, God, who did you make me to be? Apart from my job, my title, my role, my business, my income, whatever the things you have, who are you apart from that person, whether it's a man or woman? Because it's that person that God has created you to be. And the second thing we do is we create a celebration list. And it's, it's CG. It's what do you celebrate about you? Not what things have you done, but what do you love about you? What I know especially about the guys that I work with is the hardest thing I can find is things to love about me. Right. Even in things I accomplish.

Yeah.

I find I could have done this better. Or, you know, like the book that you wrote, you've written two, I've written one. I mean, you know, I can always see like, oh, I could have, I could have changed that.

Yeah.

I could have added that. I could have taken that out. Right. You always find the things you're lacking or the things you haven't done well versus the things you do. But here's what I find, CJ, when we can start to see who we are and we can celebrate us, we start to see God in us. Because what I know about me is that whatever I have in gifts and talents and abilities and skills were first a thought of God. And so the more I see those in me, the more I'm amazed at God and in awe of who he is and how intimately and intricately he made every part of who I am. So we do a celebration list and we also do an accomplishment list. What have you done in your life? Right. I've written 100 things I've accomplished. I tell the people I work with to write 20. And it really comes down to this. It comes down to showing them that they have a track record of success. It's like you said, where struggle and issues happen in our life and we start to think that that's who we are. Oh, I lost that job. You know, I'm, I'm an idiot. I'm this or that, whatever word we use, right? My finances aren't working well. You know, you think you're a failure in some way in your life. For me, that was part of the challenge in growing up with a dad I couldn't measure up to, was feeling like I really didn't measure up in life even when I was succeeding. Interesting thing, CJ, I succeeded in business. I wrote a book. I'm a coach, mentor. I'm a pastor, you know, accomplishments that I'm rightfully proud of. But you know that that fear of failure, that imposter syndrome, never left. It just came along for the ride. And I find that with the guys and the gals I work with. I work with men primarily, but as you know, the word of God is universally true. It works for anyone who works it.

Yeah.

And so, yeah, that's what the course has. So we start with identity, we unpack transformational strategies, we have what we call the Four Pillars of Life Mastery, what life looks like lived out, and we show you how to apply it in your life so that you can actually— the thing I was missing when I was growing up, the thing I was trying to find where I could become that man I was believing I was but I wasn't seeing, right? The guy who was successful on the outside but nobody knew the stress I was waking up with at 3 in the morning, those doubts and thoughts that were coming in my head when finances weren't going well or the relationship wasn't going well, right? Those things that were lying to me about who I was because I had a past where those things were a challenge, had a past where in academics, in school, I was struggling in certain subjects. And you start to carry that into your life. So, I couldn't find the tools to really understand what transformation was. I found a lot of tools and personal development courses that led to great change, but they were just habits you used in substitute for the habits you had. But there was only transformation I could find in the Word of God, but not the Word of God as philosophy, but instruction. So we use a scripture in every lesson. We unpack what it means and how you can apply it to your life so that you have a blueprint to go from wherever you're at, right? I say bound to free or hurt to healed, so that you can be the person you're created to be.

Mm, that's powerful, man. That's deep. Like you say, you know, and I'm gonna get to that in the next question right here, is the transformation. And so can you tell us about one of the most powerful life transformations you've witnessed through your mentoring and coaching program?

Yeah, absolutely. And if I could quickly, I know we don't have all the time in the world, but I wanna talk about quickly two people because they're in two different areas. I see a lot of successes, but there was this person who was successful in business, a guy named Brett. Looked successful on the outside. He was bivocational, so he was a business person and a pastor. But he was one of those guys that was like me, right? You look good on the outside, but on the inside, you're kind of struggling a little bit. You're wrestling with your thoughts. And for him, it was that fear of failure, trying to be successful in things. And, you know, the higher the stakes got, the louder the voices got. So, he was successful in his life, but the challenge with the success was it was really more of a relief than a joy because, at the end of the day, his fear was that he was going to fail at it. He was going to bankrupt his family and whatever the things he was doing. So, he not only didn't enjoy the success that you hope to have from it, but he also held back from things that he could have done because when you stretch out too far, you may fall and prove yourself right that you are a failure. And so for him, it was really matching on the inside the guy that everybody thought he was on the outside. He wasn't pretending, but you know, with men sometimes we just don't share. And so when you're quiet, people think it's all right. And on the outside, he was— the bank account looked decently, the relationship looked good, he was a pastor and respected in his church. But on the inside, you have this voice that never leaves, and you think that you're awesome because you have all the dollars. The problem is you're tormented on the inside by the lies you believe because those voices you hear, the life that you live, the past that you've had that says that, man, you failed before, you're going to do it again. And so for him, it was really unleashing a guy so that he could actually have the life he had. And you know how it goes, CJ. We think we can compartmentalize our emotions. So I'm struggling at work or the business is stressing me out, but I'm cool at home. We think so, but nobody else does. Our wives, our kids, and everybody around us can feel like they have to walk around carefully because, you know, that unspoken stress is happening in his life. Which leads me to the second guy, a guy named Vance. A good, you know, business guy who works for a local governmental organization and, you know, really great high-level manager doing great things in his life. But he was totally checked out at home. Not checked out because he wasn't there, but checked out because he wasn't emotionally, relationally there. Right? His wife had a good provider. She just didn't have a friend she could talk to. She had a guy that showed up and paid the bills along with her. They're, you know, both of them are working. But you know, he did his part to do that, took care of the house, took care of the car, but never there in relationship, never let you go too deep. Right? Because his wounds, his issues were, he had been hurt with relationships in the past. So you can't let them in too far. And so there was this nice little wall that he put around his marriage, and he put around the relationship with his kids. So Dad showed up, but he wasn't really there. He showed up, but you couldn't relate to him. He showed up, but you really couldn't share with him because you didn't know the dad that was going to show up. And so for Vance, it was this understanding of he can actually be the person he's created to be. When I don't know who I am, my wife has to make up the difference for my past, for my disappointments, for the relationships that really let me down, and how I'm guarded against you doing the same. So things have to be perfect between us. He had that kind of relationship as well, where because he didn't understand who God created him to be, but what his past and his relationships and the letdowns told him he was, he couldn't really invest in his marriage. Well, come to find out, once you start to unpack those things, once you start to understand who you are and your created value, those I am statements, celebration list, and accomplishment list, now all of a sudden my wife gets to just be my wife. She doesn't have to make up for the past relationships.

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I've had, she can just be who she is, and I can actually invest in a way where I can show up. And so for him, it was the wife and the kids where the relationship totally changed, because their dad was there as a dad, not just as a provider. Her husband was there as a husband, not just as the pocketbook and the paycheck coming in the door. And in that place, their whole household changed.

Mm.

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We the head, you know, and we out front. And so therefore, you know, like I'm listening to you. And so the intimacy part of the relationship was missing. You know, like a lot of people get it misconstrued that intimacy is just about sex. No, it's just, it's the trust. It's just the, spending time together. You can be sitting on one side of the couch, I'm on another side, and you know, we could be doing two different things, but it's just that, you know, together, if we can talk, we can talk. And Pastor, I believe now that I've, you know, you put Pastor, so Pastor, I believe that a lot of times too, that's something that we miss with God as well. You know, we don't, we wanna say, oh, you know, God knows my heart. Yeah, you know, that is desperately wicked. And you know, above all, who can understand? Yeah, we know that, but, We don't understand that it's not just saying, oh, well, God loves me and I love God and God knows my heart. Now God wants us to have an intimate relationship with him. He wants us to know who he is, and we have to read the word because we gotta understand his requirements. Just like a job, you go on the job, you gotta— it's rules, it's requirements that you have to follow. And you know, God the same way. He said, I'm a jealous God, but We put a lot of things, like, you know, been talking about job and business, man. We put a lot of things above. Not only, you know, you got your business, you put your family, you know what I'm saying, first, and this and that. So a lot of times we just all out of place, you know what I'm saying? And so, but like we said in the beginning, it all starts with the end, and it all starts with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's what I believe, Pastor.

Yeah, absolutely. And the truth of the matter is there's a high calling on our life, but there's an identity that he's given us. When we settle for less, we get less. When we believe that there's more, we get more. And what that means is that there's this level— we call it life mastery, which comes from Genesis 1:26, where— and we talked about it— Adam and Eve, you know, God, Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ. God said, let us make man in our image and our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the earth so on and so forth. That word dominion can be defined as mastery, which is where we get the book from. So, Life Mastery is really taking back the thing God gave us in the beginning and Jesus paid the price for on the cross. If you wanted to get spiritual, if you wanted to get practical, it means that he's given us dominion, mastery over all of life. But, I can't master life if I can't master myself. We want to deal with the outside world and that means that I'm supposed to be the head of my household and I'm supposed to be the head and not the tail, the first, the most and not the least, and all of these things. And, and there's truth in all of those. But here's the truth of the matter: if I can't master me, I can't master anything. And if I don't master me, then everything is a substitute for that. Again, back to identity. Who are you created to be in that place? Like you talked about with relationship, right? Sometimes we're just roommates when God's invited us to be partners. But it's in that place of being able to unpack those things, uncover, and, and understand the lies we believe and overcome them with the truth, then now all of a sudden, at least in my own life and the people I work with, right, the Mark that I was created to be showed up. And everybody wins because I'm the husband that God created me to be, I'm the father, I'm the worker, I'm the business person, I'm the person at my church, I'm the person in every area of my life. Which comes back to the thing I tell people: you're the impact that God expects to have in the world He's just got your name on it. And in that place, now all of a sudden, the people that I work with, they're not just successful, they're fulfilled, which means this: they're living from who they're created to be in every area of their life. And it's so much easier than trying to prove who I am by my business, by my income, by my relationships, and the things I can control.

Mm, I like that too. We're the men that he's called us to be. Exactly. You know, he's the man. We are the men that he has called us to be, and we all got a purpose. And like you said, that identity— we all got a purpose. A lot of times we don't know what it is because we're not searching, or, you know, like, we just out of the realm of it. But one, like you saying, you know, with your coaching program and, and things of that nature, once you begin believing in yourself or knowing who you are, you know, as you talking, all I can keep thinking about is the scripture that talks about, uh, matter of fact, that's what I'm I'm gonna do my podcast on next year. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I reasoned as a child. But when I became grown, I put childish things away. And so that's one of the things that I meditate on, and he's put this on my spirit years ago, is that a lot of times we may be grown, Mark, but we're grown in age, but we still have a childish mentality. We still operate in childish ways. And I might be 50, but I'm still out here doing the things that I was doing at 20 or 18. How much have I grown? How much have I matured? You know, so we still have a childish mentality, but sometimes you can't tell. I'm grown, I'm grown, but you're acting like a kid though.

Yeah, yeah, you're holding on to things that you used to do and used to be successful when he's invited you into new things.

Gotta put it away, gotta put it away.

Yeah.

So, Mark, in your experiences, what do most people struggle with when it comes to overcoming fears?

The first thing I think is— great question, by the way— the first thing is believing that they can't, which is where my book came from, Life Mastery: Living Life by Design, Not by Default. A lot of times we think we're just supposed to manage our life, that he's given us the ability to master, right? We're supposed to work through the things in our life that he's given us victory over. And that's part of it is Satan, right? Satan in talking to Jesus, right? If this is really who you are, then prove it, right? It's trying to work out the things and deal with them. And unfortunately, a lot of programs and things that people used to help people with— I'm not putting them down in any way— but the problem is they tell you to manage something that he's given you freedom over. Right behind me, John 8:36: "He who the Son makes free is free indeed." It's a salvation message. You and I know that, CJ, right? And it's absolutely a call to Christ died for our sins so that we could be saved. But there's a lifestyle component to it, and it means this: that freedom looks like something lived out. Yeah, it's not just me having salvation so I can overcome sin, but then what? It's the person being lived out. It's living from a place of freedom. It's, it's not freedom from sin, it's freedom for the impact that God has for you in your life. And so in that place of freedom, it's that person lived out. But sometimes A lot of the messages we hear are just manage it, right? You need to just kind of, when stress comes up, deal with it. When fear comes up, deal with it. And I think the second thing is the other part that we unpack in our course, and that's where the voice and the noise from our past is louder than the beliefs that we're hoping for. So, you know, who I was, right, is who I am. What I tell the people, just to unpack really quickly, we have what we call the 3 transformational strategies, which is mastering your thoughts, words, and actions. Right? Let the words of my mouth and meditations of my heart, which is your thoughts and words, right, be pleasing in your sight, O Lord my God. But here's the truth that we don't unpack the instruction in it is, right, we take those scriptures, the words of my mouth and meditations of my heart, right? We think about like the way I speak with others and the way I think about the world and your— the things you have and the plans you desire and what you want me to do, right? Those are great on the outside. The problem is we never start on the inside. So with the people I work with, I tell them is this: what are you saying about you? What are you thinking about you? I tell them this: who you think you are, you'll become. So if your thoughts of you don't align with who God says you are, then they're lying to you. Why that's important and one of why it leads to fear is most people don't know that. They believe that, you know, my thoughts are my thoughts and I just fight off the bad ones when they come and I try and remind myself of the good ones. But the truth of the matter is who you think you are, you'll become. Proverbs 23:7, right? As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

So is he.

And so if I want to change who I am, if I want to do the things God called me to do, then I need to remind myself of who I am so that that person shows up. Who God says I am matters more than the life I've lived. Most people don't know that, you know, vast majority, CJ. That's why I've created the course. But once you figure that out, now all of a sudden you can apply it and all of a sudden that man or that woman shows up.

Mm, man. And that's a good point too. You know, like once you get out of your shell and you realize who you are, who God created you to be, like you say, so as a man think, so is he. And so if I'm thinking negative thoughts, as you've been alluding to, then that's who I'm thinking that I am. Because not only do you, you know, you know your past and you know what you've been through and you know your struggles, But people that's around you, I'm talking family, friends, well, so-called friends, associates, that's what I call them, they will remind you of who you were, what you used to do. You start, you know, getting into the word and God began changing you from the inside out. People want to remind you, you know, what you used to do and, you know, how you used to do that. Okay, but that's when you begin knowing who you are Because it's like, okay, that's who I used to be, that's what I used to do. So that don't have nothing to do with, well, oh, I remember you when we was in high school. Well, we've been outta school for 30 years, so you don't know nothing about me right now. I ain't seen you in 30 years. I'm not that little guy, you know that? But like you say, people always wanna put you in that box of where you used to be instead of where you are right now, you know?

Yeah, yeah. And unfortunately people close to you like you're talking about.

Yeah. And it's sad, you know? And so that makes the process even harder when you don't have people whom you love because, you know, as we know, God is love. And so we know in order to get past certain things, to get past certain anger, just as, you know, we'll talk about it one day about with Joseph when his brothers came to the palace and he revealed himself to 'em. It was some things that he had to get over. Because like he said, God sent me first. And so as you, Mark, Pastor Mark, know, and as some of us already know, is that because God sent us first don't mean that we can disown the people who have talked about us, people that tried to kill us, those brothers that threw them in a well, sold them into slavery, this and that. You still have to, because God made you who you are, We still have to have a level of compassion because we know what God is doing. We know where he brought us from, you know, but everybody else, they don't. See, one thing about the brother, I will say this, one thing about the brothers, Pastor, they had a part in history. They was jealous of his dreams, but they had a part in history because it's called the 12 tribes of Israel, right? So that's the 12 brothers. That was Jacob's sons. They had a part of history, but because of the dream that Joseph had and God sent him first, they got jealous of him and didn't even know that they was a part of it.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's a great point, CJ. So we talk about mastering your thoughts to overcome the lies of your past with the truth. And it's interesting that you talk about the 12 tribes, because if you look at that, they're the reason why Joseph was where he was at.

Mm-hmm.

It was the instigation of them throwing him in the pit, selling him into slavery, that brought that path to the place where Joseph was, which brought Joseph to say, "What you meant for evil, God meant for good." And so again, when you're able to see your past from the place of the truth of who you are versus the lie that you believed, now all of a sudden you can see that those paths have led you to where you're at. Doesn't mean challenge didn't happen, doesn't mean struggle and horrible things didn't happen. God never says to get over your past, to forget about it, that it didn't matter. Yeah, right. Hurt happens, pain happens, grief and loss happens. The only difference is he just doesn't want it to tell you who you are any longer.

Mm. Yeah.

My faith is foundational for everything that I do. It's in the context of the course, the book, every chapter, every lesson that I give has a foundational beginning. And in that place, we live out the thing that we're doing.

But yeah, Pastor, that was just the last question that I had for you, man, was the imposter syndrome. You know, how do you overcome that?

Yeah, absolutely. Two things I'd like to say, CJ. The first is, uh, what part has faith played in what I'm walking through? When I was a young person, you know, I was in church until I was 12 years old, and my dad said we didn't have to go if we didn't want to. It wasn't a place where I found relationship, but more rituals and rules, and so I didn't. When I became 27 years old, had my wife and children, I felt like I wanted to add a moral background. So one of the ways I knew that you could do that was in church. That brought me back to faith, which led me to my salvation. I say that because before that, I was trying to figure out how to become the person I was created to be, but that really came from personal development and trying to be successful at a job and business and school and all those. And whatever level of success I had in the business and job and in school and all that, I got second-degree black belt and all of those things that I did, fear of failure and all those issues came along. What I tried to do to overcome them was personal development, right? Those books and those teachings and those courses, and they all have value and they all have worth. The problem is they give you one habit for another. They give you change but not transformation. When I became a Christian, I started to treat the Bible as philosophy. It was just good words that you try and live out, not understanding that there are instructions to live it. So why is faith foundational? Because every lesson that we have, every chapter of the book, everything that I teach, whether it's the the areas of identity or the 3 transformational strategies or the 4 pillars of Life Mastery, it all has a biblical basis. I take a scripture that God's given us as instruction and show people how to apply that so they can live it out. So not only in my own life is faith matter to me more than anything, but it is the foundation of everything I teach. Even if you're not a Christian, the principles of God will work because God's truth is universal.. But even if you aren't, you can receive the value from it. But if you are a person of faith, you're a person who believes in Jesus Christ, you're a Christian, then it is going to be so much more impactful. Because it's different between telling somebody the truth— CJ, you know this— versus telling them the source of it, right? And so they can understand the depth of it versus just applying things that work. The scripture is those things that work, but the source is Jesus Christ. So it's everything for me. And so how do you come overcome imposter syndrome? We work with it. Mastering Your Thoughts, Words, and Actions. It's being able to overcome the issues that are standing in the way by changing your thoughts, right? By giving yourself the ability to do what we call— we call it meditations, affirmations, and activations. Mastering Your Thoughts is really those meditations, the things you're telling yourself about your world, your life, but mostly about you. It's, uh, The words you say, speaking out to yourself, is giving yourself commands to live by. What are you saying about yourself? It's those activations of aligning your words with what God says, not just about your circumstance, but about you. You can speak all you want about the circumstance, but if you still believe you're a failure walking in, you won't live out that victorious life that God has for you. And the actions, mastering your actions, is the activation. What does the hero Mark, what does the hero CJ look like lived out? When you're walking into your job, into your relationship, when you're trying to do something challenging, trying to start something new? What would the hero you show up as— what would they do? What would they say? Well, do those things. If you are that man, then do those things, and you'll see the results that God has for you. Last thing, and I'll end with this. It's interesting because throughout all of scripture, what I saw, CJ, was two things. God would tell somebody who they're created to be, and then he'd tell them what their purpose was, their mission, their passion. So he did it with David. That's the man after my own heart. He did it with Gideon, who was a mighty man of valor. He did it with Ruth, whose uncle told her, who knows that you were not made for such a time as this? Peter, who said, on this rock I'll create my church. Yeah, he said, hell will not prevail against it. God's always telling people who they are. Moses, who was the savior of all the people before he went into hiding, and when he came back, when he didn't believe he could, God already had created him for it. Joseph, in his life, having dreams where he was going to be over all people, including his family, when he was a 17-year-old who wasn't even trusted to go out to be with the animals by his family. He was already having the seeds on the inside of him to lead a nation and nations. So what we try and do with all of our strategies is help people understand who you're created for in the life that you're created to live, the impact you're supposed to have.

Man, that's deep, man. And I appreciate you coming on today and sharing your wisdom and your understanding, especially the biblical knowledge of everything and tying it all together with your book and with your master course, man, and the things that you provide for the communities and just trying to save lives and bring people into the fold of the Kingdom of God. I think it's awesome, and I pray that you continue being successful at what God has brought you to do or made you or created you to who you are. And you know, sky's the limit. So before we leave, Pastor, let me ask, where can we find you on social media, on your social media handles? And where can we find your book?

Yeah, absolutely. I try and be a one-stop shop, CJ. So you can find all my stuff on my website, which is freedom-for-life.net. It's freedom-for-life.net. You can find my course out there, Life Mastery. You can actually purchase my book through there, Life Mastery: Living Life by Design. I also have a free discovery tool. It's a tool where you just go out there, it's a one quick survey, you take 40 questions, add up your score at the end, and it'll tell you two things: where you're at in your life mastery journey and the next step you can take in your life mastery journey. That's a free tool out there. All my resources are out there. I'm on YouTube, FreedomForLife_ which is also for the Freedom Facebook page that I have. I'm on Instagram as well, which is @freedforlife_. So a bunch of stuff. I'm out there everywhere. But, you know, the website is where I try and lead everybody to because that's where all the important stuff resides.

Oh man, I appreciate it, man. I appreciate you giving us your information. I hope people go out and go buy your book Life Mastery, because I think that is some very valuable points in there. And so with that being said, is it any last thoughts that you had, any last things that you would like to share with us before we leave?

Two things that I always try and tell everybody. The first one is believe in yourself. That person on the inside that's screaming is really the spirit on the inside of you that's coming out. And really all it takes is you betting on yourself one more time. I went through multitude, 7, 8, 9 courses, read a ton of books trying to unleash the person that I believe I was created to be. It took for me creating a course for that to happen. You don't have to. There's a course out there created for you, Life Mastery. But what it takes is a person who's willing to bet on themselves one more time. Whether you've done 100 things, 20 things, 2 things, or none, there's always a great time to really start to become the person you're created to be. So don't give up on yourself. You'll get there.

Hey, you heard it right here on the CJ Moneyway Johnson Show from Pastor Mark Collins. Believe in yourself. Bet on yourself. Go look at his program, Life Mastery. Go grab the book off of, well, OfficeFreedom.com. Web page. He's a one-stop shop. Hey, everything you need, Pastor Mark Collins got you. You have been listening to the CJ Moneyway Show with your host CJ Moneyway. We out of here. Peace.

Thank you for listening to the CJ Moneyway Show.

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