God Stepped In For This Appearance At Jobseekers

He says, no, not a CEO, it's way bigger than that. He said, is it the governor of North Carolina? And he says, no, it's not the governor. He says, well, if it was the President of the United States, I would know about that. And he said, no, much bigger than the President of the United States.

He said, well, who in the world did he pull over?

He said, I think it's Jesus.

And he says, what, Jesus? What in the world are you talking about?

Why do you think it's Because he's got Billy Graham for his chauffeur. I don't know how you're going to segue into that one.

Have you seen me?

Oh, well, yeah, Glen Gould is here today, and he's usually in at least a sport coat and open collar.

I got an open collar.

That is not a sport coat, sir.

Well, it's an open collar, though.

You got on gym shoes and shorts. I do. Oh, for goodness' sake.

Why not?

Does this go along with your speech this morning?

I think it does.

Well, I can't wait to hear what it is.

Here's Glen Gould.

He is founder of Inspiration Agents, and he's also the VP of the Gwinnett Chamber. So let's say good morning, Glen.

Good morning. Thank you, Dave. Well, good morning. Good morning. I wish y'all could have seen your looks on your faces looking at me when I walked in the door. It was great. It was great. Okay. So I guess we'll get started. All right? So, how are you? Are you expecting great things today? You know, I chose this Bible verse about expectation. And perhaps you've heard it before. It's Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Will you pray with me real quickly? Father God, thank you for today, for these leaders in this room, for the opportunity to be with them and to speak the words that you would have me speak to them. Lord, as we go through today, give us eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart to serve, and feet ready to move us in the direction that you would have us go. In your name we pray. Amen. Are you expecting good things? I don't know about you guys, but in high school I hated PE. I don't even think— do they offer PE anymore? I'm talking about physical education. Yeah, this is a respectable group. Come on now. All right, so I hated PE. Why did I hate PE? Why did anybody else hate PE, physical education?

Why?

You had to take a shower. Boy, you are— who was that? Lisa, you are right on the money. I hated that. I mean, in junior high it was okay because they didn't— because we didn't stink up the place. They just let us run around and all sweaty and everything. High school, you had to take a shower. I mean, I expected it just to be a horrific experience, and it was. Well, you know, the fact is that, um, y'all came here today and you expected for me to have a certain appearance, and I didn't. And I didn't for a couple of reasons. I'm gonna share with you a couple of them now and one at the end. The first reason I didn't meet your expectation of my appearance is because I wanted to get your attention. And if I looked like everyone else looks, well, you pretty much already expect what I'm gonna say. The second reason that I didn't is because more importantly, this is about you. And the fact is that you, when you're in front of a potential employer, when you're dialing a phone number, when you're looking through the want ads in the paper, when you're going through the LinkedIn list, whatever it is that you're doing in your job search, do you know you've already built an expectation of failure? You have. There's a part of you that already thinks, not today. It's not happening today. You look at jobs and you go, ah, I couldn't get that one. I don't have this. Or ah, you know, that's probably not going to work. I don't have that. It's about preparation, right? But the fact is that some of you have already gotten to the point where you expect that today is not the day. And yet the Lord has great plans for you to enrich you if you will only allow him to direct your actions and your thoughts and your words. You see, God has an amazing way of putting you in the right place at the right time if you'll just let him. And I'm going to share how that is absolutely 100% positively true in just a second. As a matter of fact, I'll show you firsthand how it happens. Are you with me? Are you expecting something amazing at that point? Okay, so first of all, about in 2004, 2005, I lived in Punta Gorda, Florida. Anybody know where Punta Gorda, Florida is? Punta Gorda, Florida is 100 miles south of Tampa on the west coast of Florida. And in 2005, we had 4 hurricanes come through, but the major one was Hurricane Charlie. Hurricane Charlie acted like a daisy cutter bomb. Everything 16 feet and above was just gone. And the good news is in Florida they built those little Fred Flintstone houses, so there wasn't a lot of 16 feet and above. But anything below 16 feet was wet and nasty as well. So as it turned out though, I was in a unique position because I owned a dry cleaning company down there, and my brother and I were not doing as well as we needed to in order to make a living for both families. And a job came open for the president of the Punta Gorda Chamber of Commerce. Now, I was on the board at the time, so I was in the right place at the right time. And I was about the only person in the community that could see beyond the vision of the community because frankly, I was one of about 7 people under 80 in the community. I mean, everybody was old, right? They really didn't have a vision for what we could do with the city. And I applied for the job and I got it. And I'm getting to my point, I promise. So I applied for this job and I get this job. And in the 1-year anniversary of Hurricane Charlie, on Friday, August 12th, we hear that on Saturday morning, the Today Show is coming. Now, the word was Punta Gorda was dead.

It was over.

Never going to resurrect. Well, as fate would have it, I was in the right place at the right time, and I knew somebody who was able to do this. And we printed bright green t-shirts, Punta Gorda open for business. Right? Now, I'm going to tell you something interesting about this t-shirt, and I'm going to show you how the Lord will put you in the right place at the right time. You ready for that? Because it's amazing. I'm stunned by this. I mean, I'm literally— the hair on my arms is standing up from this experience. Because you see, last night I put this t-shirt on. And my wife, I said, "Gosh, I haven't seen this shirt in forever!" She goes, "Yeah, it was in the bottom of a basket that, you know, we were just putting away some clothes." And I guess it was the winter clothes from last year, and it just kind of got there, right? And I hadn't worn it in a year. This morning, I'm driving over to Peachtree City. It's 7:15. You with me? I look like this. And guess what I forgot? I'm speaking at John Seegers this morning. No kidding. Oh, crap! The buzzer goes off on my phone, reminds me I'm supposed to be here, but I'm on my way to Peachtree City. Gee, that was convenient. You know why I'm on my way to Peachtree City? Because yesterday some, some one of my customers, my wife's customers in the dry cleaning business, forgot to put his bag out, and so I had to go get it last night and bring it over here this morning so it'll be ready tonight so he can go on his trip tomorrow. Accident? Really? Really? Come on. You don't think God had a hand in that? You don't think God had a hand in me wearing this shirt that I didn't even know how it tied into it until I started talking this morning? I'm sitting here rifling through my phone. What does God say about expectations? What does God say about commitment? What's God say about credibility? I'm trying to find anything that applies. 20 minutes ago. Honest truth. I'm not making this— you can't make this kind of stuff up. My point is this, okay? I had a choice to make at that point. I've come here how many times? For those of you that— almost every time I'm here, I tell you, don't ever go out looking like this. You never know who you're gonna run into.

You didn't ask that one, sir.

I know! Do you think that these things happen by accident? Come on, people! If you will get out of the way and just say, "Okay, God, I guess, you know what, that crazy guy with the goofy shirt with the holes under the arms, who knows, maybe he has on to something. Maybe he was here to talk to me today." Now there's one other part to this and then I'll let you go. I got one other part to this. Okay, let's hear it.

Um, I connected with him on Facebook yesterday or the day before so that I could put an announcement on Facebook.

That is bizarre.

Last night to say, I'm looking forward to seeing you at Job Seekers tomorrow because you're so inspirational. And when I hit post, it didn't post. It said something failed. And so he would have gotten the warning if, uh, because he would have gotten an update on his Facebook. She would have gotten a warning last night if that Facebook didn't fail.

Accident? I think not. But here's the part that I want to add to this, okay? The fact is that I am a professional speaker.

Okay?

I do this for a living. People pay me to speak. So at any moment, I am prepared. What are you a professional at? That's where you need to be in front of people. Don't be afraid to be in front of those people that can give you success because of your qualifications. And as it turns out, the Lord put me in the right place. He made me go to Peachtree City this morning to deliver dry cleaning for somebody else, to serve someone else, because he knew that my life's been crazy lately and I was going to miss this. And at that moment in time, I had a choice. And you know what? Of all the people that I've known since I moved to Atlanta, Dave O'Farrell is one of the people that I met first. And of all the people that I don't have a phone number in my phone for, it is Dave O'Farrell. Because the first thing I was going to do is call Dave. Oh, God. Dave. I'm so sorry, Dave. I woke up late. Don't feel good. Sorry, whoever has to use this next. But seriously, I'm telling you, you don't make this stuff up. And I had a decision to make. My commitment is always— I love coming here. I love you guys. I love God. And I'll tell you, if you didn't watch the Billy Graham thing last night, find it online. I promise you it's somewhere. It is so inspirational. And I just want to encourage you today. I want to tell you that, you know, you— if you If you'll just let God do it for you, you'll find that everything works out for his greater good. And I hope y'all have a great day today. Thanks so much for listening.

Hey, here's my card if you ever need to call.

Thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah.