Archive Journey Principles Radio Show Episode 103 | Professional Wrap Up

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Guiding you to become the hero of your own story. This is the Journey Principles radio show where you are the warrior and we are your weapon. Now here are your hosts, Josh Bledsoe and master life strategist, Steven Scoggins.

Welcome back everyone to the Journey Principles Radio show. We are so excited to be back in the studio with you. Broadcasting to you live from that beautiful city of Oaks, Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm joined today and co hosting with the seed planner himself, Mr. Steven Scoggins.

What's up buddy?

Welcome back, sir.

Love the new airplane technique here. We got the whole feel like I'm flying an airplane 30,000ft. So it says please check on the cabin.

Yeah, this is great. I love the new headsets too. They're, they're comfortable, they're easy for people to hear us. Brian can make my voice sound any way he wants to, so it doesn't sound bad.

Alright, so today's show we're gonna wrap up the Professional Pillar. We've had some fantastic guests. Yeah, I mean it has been killer guest after killer guest after killer guest. I just enjoy being the front row seat guy asking two or three questions and just letting them roll. But I really want to give you the opportunity to teach on Professional Pillar. That was a. It was a fantastic pillar at Transform youm Live and is now inside the online school Transform youm Online. Where people can go and learn about their own unique selves within professional world. Right. But you have a different spin to it than most people think about professional.

Well, let's, let's start off with this question. Where do you spend most of your time every day?

Hmm, that's a good question. Where do you spend most of your time? We'll wait. Yeah, I'm just kidding. Honestly, most people spend most of their time at work.

Right.

Or if they're in school, they spend it at school.

Of course. Yeah, it's the second family of sorts. And I've realized a long time ago that if you enjoy what you do, you're more likely and have a. Just a long, a longer lifespan. Yeah, you're not coming home stressed and beat up. Stuff like that.

Exactly.

Most of us I think do the same thing we do in relationships and we settle, you know, we, we, I think start off out of college or out of high school in my case. Or off a bridge in my case. Really start off, you know, with a sense of purpose. We're going to do this, we're going to do that. I'm going to be a NFL player or I'm going To be a garage or not garage guy, but a guitar guy or. Yeah, you know what, stuff like that. And then I think along the way, life kind of smacks you in the face.

So why do people settle? I've heard that so many times. I've met lots of people who've had jobs. I've had jobs where I settled. My own personal reasons were. Heck, I just needed some money. What are some reasons people aren't settled?

I think there's three reasons that people settle, the first of which is just flat out impatience. In the Journey Principles book, one of the chapters, it's actually named.

I forgot actually what the name was. I just had a brain toodle.

Well, it's been a while since you wrote the book.

Yeah. No. Impatience may come, but grace will follow. You know, and the reality is, is if you're not. Look, he's actually looking it up. And then patience may come and grace will follow.

Oh, that's very good. Good job.

I did write this.

It's almost like you wrote it, right.

No, no, I mean my case, many times I've ever settled have been because I've been impatient and I'm not known for being a patient person. I've got. I'm known for having a lot of drive, a lot of energy, a lot of passion, a lot of tenacity.

Yeah.

Patience is not one of my God given virtues. It's something I have to work at. Big.

Yeah.

You know, so a lot of us will rush into something, you know, a lot of that is driven by need. You know, your physiological needs. I need, I need to eat.

Yeah, yeah.

I need to have shelter. I need clothes.

Yeah.

Some of us have more clothes than others. But you know, you know, it's. You know, those are the things that I think that kind of play a part is the impatience thing. Your physiological needs kind of get met. Another one could be pressure, just flat out pressure. Or spouse, a mother, a father. You know, something along those lines are you should be this far along by now. Why aren't you this far along?

So it's either your impatience or someone else's impatience.

Yeah, I didn't think about it like that. That's actually brilliant. Yeah. Here you got everybody. It's, it's, it's one of the two impatiences.

Yeah.

The other one is trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Yeah. Trying to keep up with.

Yeah.

So you think have it all together?

Well, not only all together, but there are people that are already where you want to be, even though they may have been at the game for five to 10 years longer than you've been there.

Yeah.

You know, which I guess in a roundabout way, is another form of impatience.

That's right. I guess so.

So it all comes down to impatience.

Coming down full circle.

Yeah. Right. So, you know, that third one, I think. I think a lot of us do. I mean, even when I started speaking a long time ago, I think in your heart of hearts, you want to serve the public.

Yeah.

And you're really. And you're really passionate about that. And you really want to give to the public. At the same time, I think there's always this little thing in the back of your mind where. Yeah, I can't wait to talk to more people.

Right, right, right. You know, and that vision yourself, you.

Kind of envision yourself, some would call it. I mean, in some cases, it's an actual calling and it's going to come to and stuff like that, which is fantastic. However, in some cases, you. It kind of. It can motivate you a little bit in the back of your mind, you know, and that, in that alone, makes you compete with people you may never met. I found myself competing with speakers, and speakers I've never met before. Likely never meet.

Yeah.

Just because I thought they were phenomenal speakers. I'm like. I want to be like them.

Yeah.

I want to have the impact they have. You know, not realizing that I was in. When it came down to speaking, I was better in my own lane.

Exactly.

Not trying to pretend to be somebody else. Now you can be influenced by all kinds of people. We've talked. Talked about shows about influence before. Many, many times. But, you know, when it comes down to that, I think those three things are probably the most important.

Yeah.

That kind of hold us back or kind of really help us, you know, not get where we want to go.

That's fantastic. That's a great way to actually start the show. And honestly, we should have started the show on August 1st like that. But Delane did a fantastic job talking about finding her dream job.

Talk about a little rock star. Holy cow.

A rock star, indeed. Exactly. I was actually telling somebody about her the other day and how as an emcee, I had the privilege of introducing her, but I knew that as soon as she stepped up on the stage. And she probably gets this all the time.

Yeah.

They see this. Cute as a button girl is now about to teach me about profession. But she nailed it.

Yeah.

And she nailed it again on the radio show on August 1st, and she talked about the.

Things that she gained from transform you live from the professional pillar as well as being an attendee there. Not only just a speaker and the life strategy sessions, one in specific. She actually had a shift. You like to call it a shift.

Yep. Surrender and shift.

People call it transformation. But she had a moment where she was and she let us all know. She said, guys, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm facing this shift right now in my life. Do I keep the great job that I have?

Yeah.

Work with some great people, a fantastic CEO, It's a dream job. Or do I take this other opportunity to work at Wildwood which if anyone's heard her story, you know that Wildwood is a place that just completely transformed her life. She would only be a statistic today if it wasn't for Wildwood. Statistic, Statistic. Did I say that wrong?

Statistic.

What he said. She would only be that if she, if she had not gone to Wildwood. But she got the opportunity to work at Wildwood as an event coordinator, something that she had never done before. And it was so beautiful to watch her at Transform you live. During that life strategy session, she was in front of the room being vulnerable, but the rest of the room, I remember having just front row seats at the rest of the room, asked her questions, didn't make any statements, asked questions and she wrote things down on the board. She used the stuff that was in her transform you live playbook to come up with her answer. So we talked about that on the show at the beginning of the month.

And that was during her life strategy session. During the breakouts, I think.

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And she got to share with us how life has been since she took that transition. And she loves it. She says, I'm in a job I've never done before, never thought about before, but I am in the profession of my dreams right now.

That's what makes transform you so special, is because it's so personal.

Yeah.

Like you can be anybody from any walk of life and. And you're gonna get some transform you live or online for that matter, just because it's incredibly personal.

Yeah.

It's built off of you and what your responses are. And I think, I mean, let's face it, she's 20 some years old.

Yeah.

How would you like to be 20 some years old and already have a very good idea about what you've been called to do and what you should be doing?

I'll sign up for that.

Right. How many of us? I mean, I'm, I'm put. I'm, I'm over 40, barely, you know, but it took me. What I mean, I started Che when I was 21 and some change.

I struggled for five years, just built. Just kind of getting that business off the ground. Then it began to get some traction, and then I don't think I was. I was in business probably 12 years before I realized that I had a different knack for building people when they're. When they were going through a tough situation.

Yeah.

And, you know, I would have given anything to be mid-20s and already figured that out.

That's kind of what I'm hoping to do right now with the, with the show, with. Obviously with. Transform you live is a great place for people to come see us and now transform you online. Fantastic. But even now, if they're out there watching or listening right now, the audience can gain that same type of knowledge that she had to make that shift, and you had to make that shift right here, right now. So from someone that wants to shift from their everyday job to their dream job.

Yeah.

What would you say to them if you had like a couple minutes with them?

Well, first of all, you need. You need to put down a strategy. You don't need to just jump out of the boat and immediately go to the next thing. I made that mistake. Most people, obviously who've read the book have, have known this, but my first business that I ever started was actually given to me by Steve Myrick.

Mr. Steve Myrick?

Yes, sir. Steve Myrick. He's in the book a couple handful of times. And it was interesting because the first time, because it was all given to me. I had no respect for what I'd been given. And I did very well, very quick and got pretty cocky, pretty arrogant, lost it all. And I jumped ship. I actually jumped ship because of a broken relationship. I was in a bad emotional space at the time. And some of you guys have, I'm sure, have been through bad relationships or breakups and things of that nature. And they. Some, just. Some of them just, you can kind of like this, like, I'm glad it's over. And other ones are like, oh my God, like I'm dying, you know, and that's kind of where I was. And, you know, I didn't realize what I had when I had it. And I think that the secret is, is understanding that you should not jump ship without a plan of action.

Right.

You should spend some time getting to know who you really are. And most of us don't do that.

That's so huge, especially when it comes to talking about your man, there are.

So many people who are doing what they're doing now not because they want to do it, because someone told them they had to do it. Yeah.

And they're not spouses.

I mean, here's the deal. You won't be happy. Even if you're making less money, you'll be happy. I've learned this the hard way. Like, I've been. I've had the blessing of being poor and in life, and I've also had the blessing of not having a want. You know, And I can tell you right now, even in the seasons of life that I've been walking through in the last year or so, learned that money means absolutely nothing.

Nothing.

Yeah. It means absolutely nothing.

The.

There's. There's no amount of wealth that will ever bring you enough joy in your own heart and in your own. In your own. Your own lifestyle.

Yeah.

What you find out of the profession that you're meant to have is something called contentment.

Mm.

You know, you can make. Maybe you live in a smaller house. So what? There are people in Africa don't even have houses. Yep. I mean, we talked about this. We had African kid. We saw African kids one time, and they're playing soccer out of a ball they made out of leaves. Tape.

Yep.

And they were just laughing. Exactly. No.

Stress free.

Yeah. Our culture is built on trying to make us feel insignificant on a regular basis.

Yes.

And unfortunately, that. Because we're not. Most of us aren't aware of that.

Yeah.

We spend all of our time chasing that.

Whatever stuff, whatever it is out there in social media that the latest and greatest thing is.

Yeah. So, I mean, you're a lot of folks are. I mean, most of the world. I'd say most of the world. I'm being very, I guess, ambiguous. That's a word. Way I said it. Anyway. You know, I think most of us, a good majority of the public is probably in a position or doing something they probably don't really enjoy doing.

Right, Right.

Or something that's. And there's a difference in enjoying it for. And having a temporary stressful season and then just flat out not enjoying it altogether.

Right, Exactly. Got to be honest with yourself. Is this a season that you're not enjoying, or is it the whole caboodle that you don't enj.

The urge is always to go ahead and throw in the towel and move on. Right. The problem is, is that could do a lot of damage to your lifestyle, especially if you have a family that's much easier. Obviously, if you're single and you're working at Starbucks, you're like, man, I want to go. I want to go put on tires for a living. You can leave Starbucks and go. Probably put on tire somewhere.

Yeah.

You know, but to leave a. I had a team member one time over at Che that was probably. Probably making 70s in their. In their overall salary. And then they took it upon themselves to leave che and then the next two years after that had struggled to make ends meet and put them. And so when. When they came back to che, because they eventually wanted to come back.

Yeah.

That financial decision had taken a major toll on them personally. Debt was there, credit card debts out there. I mean, it was just like it turned into a bad situation. So one of the things that I think it's important is one, discover who you are.

Yeah.

Align your gifts and your talents and your passions. We've talked about that a thousand times here on the show.

We'll talk about a thousand more, probably.

Yeah. Because it's real.

Yeah.

Like, it's. I'm not. It's not generic. It's real. You know, you need to understand what makes you special.

And it actually serves people exactly like it serves Delaney at the Life strategy session.

Yeah.

She learned at the live event who she really was. Like, she learned some more stuff about it. Right. And you're absolutely right. Start there and then what the next.

Thing is, you have to have the strategy. You have to have a strategy of how you're going to shift. So even when we launch the Journey principles.

I tried a. Unfortunately, I tried and failed. But it's what I do. It's. I learned from failure.

The only way to.

So I don't. I don't believe in failure. I believe in learning. I put a leadership team in place to run my other business so I could be here. But that would, that didn't. That wasn't an overnight decision.

Right.

That was about two and a half years ago.

Years in the making.

Yeah, several years in the making. Two and a half. Three years ago, I began transitioning. I began sending them the emails, watching them take care of it. I began watching them answer the, you know, kind of watching. And if, as I felt more comfortable with what they were doing, I would take a step back and I would take a step closer to here.

Yeah.

And then I would keep. And that progress happened until, you know, most of last year, I had most. I was spending most of my time here.

Right.

You know, we were building. Transform you the content. We were very passionate about it. You know, but that was a strategic plan of Moving from one place to the other.

Yeah. You had a strategy in place because.

The strategy was in place when the lead, the previous leadership team didn't work out.

Yeah.

I was able to step back into the business without feeling completely like I was isolated from the business, if that makes any sense. Y. Now it's unfortunate because, I mean, you still have to go and pick up the pieces and all kinds of stuff, and it's. That's never fun.

Yeah.

But if you don't have a strategical plan in place and just jump ship all together, it could just fall apart.

It's going to be trained on the scene. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, so make sure you have a plan in place. Spend some time with mentors and counselors, coaches that. That are around your life that are near you.

That's so key. Yeah.

I mean, really. I mean, I don't mean this like people. I say that people all the time.

Like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm gonna call my mentor. You remember mentor. And I'm here from once a year.

Right.

You know, it's like if you're. If you're. The bigger decision, the more. The more perspective you need to gain. We've talked about that. The bigger decision, the more influence you need to have.

Yeah.

Based on people who are already where you want to be and have done so with integrity and character.

Yeah.

Not have stolen their way to the top or bribe their way to the top or whatever. Whatever the top is in your life. Some of us, a top might be just being. I want to be. We might have the guy from the USO one time. I think his name was John. Right. I want to. I just want to be a great dad.

Yeah.

Dude, you're a rock star dad.

Yeah.

You know, he had no. He had no perception of, you know that. But.

Yeah.

I don't mean to ramble. I can't help myself. I just. I remember John popped in my head. Hey, John.

He's a good example, though. He. He really wanted to be a fantastic dad. He didn't have the greatest of dads. His was pretty hard on him from what I remember his story. But when you started to ask him questions and learn more about who he was, it came to light that John was a pretty stellar dad.

Oh, absolutely. He would have been a rock star dad in my book.

Right. So that's just that. Just like, you can translate that into profession. We feel like we need to be this certain type of person, a certain type of performer in our profession.

Yeah.

We're comparing ourselves to either fiction or Comparing ourselves to other people. But what I love about. And Karen even talked about this on August 8th, and her show was all about finding your specific purpose, your specific brand, versus comparing yourself to other people. Because if we always compare ourselves to other people, I think it was Einstein's quote, if you judge a fish for its ability to climb a tree, it'll live. You gotta live always unhappy or something like that. I know I just butchered that, that quote. But that speaks to me in the sense of stop judging yourself, comparing yourself to other performers. Really just compare yourself with how you.

And that's incredibly difficult for a type personalities who are credibly competitive.

Right, right. And that's how people will shift from job to job. They may think that they need to be doing this this minute. They may think that they need to be doing that this minute. What they really need to focus on, what you're saying is learning more about themselves specifically, and then coming up with a very detailed, well thought out, patiently planned strategies for that. Right?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think I'll add one more thing to this if that's okay. This is something I've discovered recently. There will. There will likely be a season where it's not going to be comfortable. There's going to be a season where you yearn to be somewhere else, and that is going to just gnaw at you and gnaw at you and gnaw at you.

You got to walk it out. Yep. You know, put the plan together, Try to put a strategic plan together and then follow the plan.

Yeah.

Don't cheat it, you know, don't circumvent it.

Yeah. Yeah. Don't try to shortcut. Shortcut.

Yeah. I could have started che, what, three years earlier or two years earlier had I actually done that the first time. So most of what we get to share but are all the stuff that I screwed up.

So it's all. It's all good lessons that we all share every single week. So Karen talked about finding the right job for me. Right. Finding the right job specifically. And I love her job acronym Journey of the Broke. Mentally, physically, financially and psychologically broke. And she's so right. Because if you're in that wrong job or something that is not really meant for you, you feel like you're just always empty. You feel like you're always chasing something.

The more you chase after wealth and money.

Yeah.

The less hap. Well, the least amount less happy you'll be.

Yeah.

And I. And I really mean that. And that's, you know, and I normally don't like the word job.

Yeah.

Because I've heard people say the job. Until I heard her break down her acronym, I was like, okay, that's cool.

Yeah.

I even a che. And even here you guys have heard me say I don't believe in jobs. I believe in opportunities.

Yep.

Because everything is what you make of it.

Absolutely.

You know, and the, the deeper you dig in yourself, the deeper you dig towards profession, the better off your be kind of deal. The one thing that I that when. Because I was able to catch part of that show with her and with you guys on air, the. One of the things that I remember most about that is coming up with a handful of questions. And I strongly suggest you go back and watch that show with Karen Gilliam if you haven't already seen it because we come up with some really killer questions.

Yeah.

About discovering kind of what you need to be doing.

And that's just simply go to journeyprinciplesradio.com that's a brand new page. It's out journeyprinciplesradio.com and you can catch all the shows right there live or itunes. Itunes. Got the podcast and the video cast. I guess what it's called.

Video cast. Video cast, Brian. Video cast.

You know, one of the things we talked about was a handful of questions. Here's a, here's three of them that really can help you out. Try to really discern what profession you should be in. One is what do your friends and family say that you do very well? Right. What are your. Not what you think.

Yeah.

What do they think?

The second one is kind of a similar question that you asked to yourself. What comes naturally to me.

That's a good one.

Right. I'm a short guy, but I got a big mouth. Speaking comes naturally to me. Right. And the more I did it, the less obviously the less, the less fearful you get before you go and speak somewhere.

Absolutely.

And the third is kind of similar. It's like if money was no object, what would I do?

That's the biggest one. I love, love, love, love. Proposing that question to people is typically, money is what drives them.

Yeah.

Because it's a need, really. It's a need that drives the need for money and then that drives them to make the decisions that they're making. But what you're asking there is if money was no problem at all, everything was paid for, you had the lifestyle you want, what would you do with your time? Is that right?

Yep. Exactly. And you know, if it's a stay at home mom, she Might say, well, I would spend time with my kids.

Mm.

You know, some people enjoy cleaning the house.

Mm.

I mean, those people might be good to start a business called Molly maid or something like that, you know?

If you do, please comment below. Facebook message.

Josh will give you his address.

I'll give you my address. My wife will not like it, but she does a fantastic job. But she's way too busy here. Way too busy here. Way too busy with our son. Help a brother out.

Right. So, you know, all those things are. All those things are beneficial. Like I said, there's a ton more questions that we. That we actually talked about on air during that show. I think we had, like, 15 or 16 questions. And, yeah, even Karen. Was Karen even writing a few down because, you know, it's just. You learn from one another.

Yeah.

You know, and I think that's a big part of it.

Yeah. And she was able to help a young man, also a participant of. Transform your life. Make a shift right there.

And he had a doozy that day. We had an online coaching session with him.

Yeah.

And then he comes here, gets coached again by Karen.

He was walking out with his head down. I said, dude, you okay? Goes, yeah, my brain's just heavy. I can't hold it up anymore. It was a fantastic show. And honestly, that. That set us up so well to find the right job for you as an individual. You're asking yourselves these questions that Steven proposed in that show with Karen, and then she proposed other questions with that. Those are. Those are available to you. That sets you up so. Set all of us up really, so beautifully to talk to angel and Amanda. All right. Our friends from Trinidad love it.

That didn't sound like Trinidad.

No, it's not at all. It's not at all. It's like my exaggerate way of saying. Right, whatever. That. I love that show with them because they had the bravery to step out into a passion of theirs, turn a passion of theirs into a career. And I love the fact that their passion is serving people. Yeah, man, they are just full of.

Dude. When angel was here, obviously we were sitting there and he'd been. He was going through transform you and stuff like that in the breakout sessions, because we know him, we actually hung out with them kind of after hours, so to speak. And I'll never forget this. He was like, sitting there like, you need to. You need to tie your business into. I'm like, angel, we're sorry, you know, do you need to tie your business into this? I can see it marketed over here. I think other people need it over here.

He was thinking about ways to serve.

He was. Yeah. It's just like he was thinking about ways to serve us and get the Journey Principles in front of more people to help them because he was experiencing the stuff himself. But a couple things that I think that I picked up on watching their show specifically, was the need for priorities.

Yes.

Most of us pursue the professional pillar like it's going out of style.

Right. Because of the stuff we've already been.

Because we've already talked about the reasons why most of us do that. However, I can tell you that even the personal season I'm in right now, I miss my family.

Yeah.

I have barely seen my family for almost four months.

Yeah.

You know, and I miss them terribly. You know, I've barely been able to see the Journey Principles team for the last four months. And I miss you guys terribly.

Yeah.

You know, one of the things that I've been learning during this particular season is the importance of priorities. And I was able to listen to what they were talking about, and I was like, that's priorities. Yeah, that's priorities.

Yeah.

You know, and then the other thing that I. That I. That I also realize is every profession. Okay. That you pursue or ignore, doesn't matter which one. Pursue, ignore. Will have two things in common.

What's that?

The first of all, they'll all require a level of sacrifice.

Yes, that's true. Okay.

They will also, for the second one, also have a level of matching reward.

Yeah.

But only for the tenacious.

And what you have to be very careful with is how much sacrifice over an extended period of time. Right.

Well, if you notice, the one thing that you can take away from angel and his wife and what they did very well is they were in complete agreement with how they were going to develop and start both businesses.

Yeah.

Doesn't mean they probably didn't have some conversations along the way and some. Some, you know, some more difficult discussions. But one of the things that you can pick up from them is they were both in each other's corner.

Supportive.

Exactly. You know, in. In the season that I've been in recently, Karen has been very supportive at times, and other times she's been kind of angry at the things that we've had to face together. But we're still connect. I mean, we are still unified. Does that make sense?

Yeah, absolutely.

And there's a level of sacrifice that hopefully will bring a future reward.

Yeah.

And I just. I just feel like that because I, you know, we're. We're big into service as a whole here at JPM with Che.

And we had the saying that the customer is not always right, but they're always important.

Yeah, that's so true.

Right. So think about some of the people we've had to work with that we've actually had a chance to work with here at JP that have been going through difficult seasons of life, trying to figure out who they are, trying to figure out their identity, trying to figure out their passions and all this kind of stuff. All this stuff that kind of really makes us. Us.

Yeah.

You know, and many of them would come in the door and they would perceive the world a specific way. And the first thing we have to do is help them shift that. Because many times, most of us are all in Worst enemy.

Oh, every time. You know, Every time.

So, you know, those are a couple things. And the other thing that I felt like that angel and Amanda did really well was they both pursued knowledge.

Oh, man. They pursue it like it's going out of style. Yeah.

So he's a knowledge junkie like me.

Yeah.

My wife. We were sitting down at dinner last night. We have a guest in from out of town. Hey, Heather. What's up? From Michigan. And she was there last night, and Karen got me talking about the Bible as a whole and things in the Bible. And Heather was just like, how do you know all this stuff? I was like, I don't know. I read it a lot, I guess.

I don't know.

But, you know, it was just kind of funny. And one of the things I most appreciate about those guys is their hunger for knowledge.

Yeah.

So you match knowledge with service. Yeah, that creates opportunity.

That's what created opportunity for Amanda. She had a desire to learn a little bit more about diabetes and glaucoma, because while she was a nurse, she was working with patients that had those horrible diseases and things that you can break free of. It's just very challenging. And what she came across was that it wasn't that these folks lacked willpower, they lacked knowledge.

That's right.

They lacked the right type of knowledge. So she put her efforts into helping educate them in a very unique way that would stick. I love this. She puts it in rhymes, especially when she speaks it in her beautiful Caribbean accent. It is so sweet. Like, she'll read you a line from her book and you'll never forget it because it rhymes. And she's written four books, a couple for adults and a couple for kids, all centered around medical education.

That's cool.

You know, I can't imagine, you know, she's doing that right next to Angel. Yeah. And he's like, wow, I gotta. I gotta do something great too. So he starts the 12 minute conversation podcast where he gets to talk to people all over the world.

And I hear he's given John Lee a run for his money. As far as quantity of shows.

He is. He's like, at least right now he's over 1100, almost 1200 shows.

And we're only two of them.

We found this big two little drops in this gigantic sea of population.

Whatever raindrop fills a bucket.

So that's right. That's right. And he's just killing it out there with that. And what they've done is they've been able to identify things that they were most passionate about and put them into an entrepreneurship package and build a profession off that, because they've already done the things you talked about before. They've learned about who they are, what are their unique strengths and gifts and talents and stuff that they would do for free if money was no option. And he and his wife put in a. I think he told me 11 month plan to get out of debt. And they got out of debt in less than a year. Doesn't surprise me on the good old Dave Ramsey financial piece. And there's not a better program on the planet.

I'm sorry, Dave Ramsey has got it on lockdown.

Nikki and I are on it too. And we just slayed three pieces of debt last week. And it feels so good. We're on a plan. We're on a strategy.

Yeah.

So they followed that strategy. They follow strategy to get their careers in line, in tune with their passions and they are just killing it down. The beautiful.

So the funny thing is, everything you just described is one of the things we just mentioned a minute ago, which is sacrifice.

Yeah.

Right. So the people that want to get to. From A to B overnight, or even A to Z for that matter, it just doesn't happen that way.

No.

You're going to have to pay a price to get to that point.

Right.

Whether it's moving from opportunity or profession, maybe you're not crazy about into the one you really want.

Yeah.

Or whether or not it's discovering what you need to get, or the knowledge you need to get, or the training you need to get, it doesn't matter. You're still going to have to pay a price. So if you're more prone to sitting on a couch or sitting in a car or just sitting somewhere and contemplating life, we actually had someone not long ago who would spend all their day thinking. Oh, wow. And they had some pretty intelligent thoughts. I mean, they were not. They weren't stupid at all.

Was it Plato? Did you meet Play?

No, it wasn't Plato.

It was a Sir rising neither. Brian.

Brian. That just makes my brain hurt to sit there and think about thinking.

I. Yeah. The funny thing is, I wish I could shut my brain off. It just doesn't shut off. Literally, when I'm sleeping, I'm still thinking. It's crazy.

Not that you guys care about that. It's my train of thought.

If you were thinking, you wouldn't have lost your turn.

That's right. I was too busy thinking.

Somebody was thinking all day long. That's what they found. Yeah.

So. Yeah. So they. They forgot to do one of the most important steps after creating the strategy, which is take the action.

Yes.

You got to take action. You can't sit there. I mean, it's. Even if it's a baby step or one step a day by day. We've already talked about this. It doesn't matter. What. You can apply this principle to everywhere in your life, which is very, very simple.

Yeah.

Nothing more than if you take a step a day.

Yeah.

By the end of the year, you've taken 365 steps. Yeah.

Right.

Go outside right now. Well, maybe after the show. Not right now. Walk and count your steps. 365 steps out to wherever you want to walk. You can walk to the grocery store, you can walk to the diner. Whatever you want to do. You just go for a walk.

Yeah.

But count your steps and see how far you are away from your home.

That's a good practice. It's getting people outside. Get a little bit of vitamin D action, and it's getting some exercise. Don't worry. We're talking about the physical pillar here. In a couple months.

Yep.

And it also shows a great visual that they actually can cover some ground. Yeah. With just some physical steps. Taking one step every single day. And some of that steps. You know what I like to make it sound like, because when you say sacrifice, it makes folks like me go, ugh, I gotta do something I don't want to do. Another way I like to look at it is investment. It's investing.

It's funny you said that. Look at it.

I just wrote the word invest, and I did not. Did not read it on his paper.

Well, that's because I didn't read it. I didn't read it yet. I didn't write it yet. Read it.

That he's a professional speaker.

Not today.

I like to look at it as investment. I'm investing this time. I'm investing this education into something that I really, really want.

Right.

I'm investing the money into the training I need to go be a part of. I'm investing the money in. You name it. To make that extra step forward, you know, to get me closer to my goal. And I've watched you do this. I've watched other people do this. I've watched angel and Amanda, Karen Delaine, all of our great guests this month do that. One thing. They invested some time or money or resources just in general, to move forward another step, and they were happy with that step. Angel has helped me so many times over the phone, and it's. I don't know if it's because he's coming from the Caribbean or he's just angel.

He's had 12,000 or 1200 different influences, so that might have something to do with it. He may have learned a few things.

And he just tells me it's a part of the process, Josh. It's part of the process. It's cool, man. It's part of the process.

Yeah. It's always, always nice and easy. It's cool.

It's cool, man.

Yes, you're right. I need to be proud of what I just did. Not look forward to the next two or three things so much, but it's all about investment.

Diligence always brings rewards, and nothing strikes me. And I've seen this in many companies, including my own. You see people, and they could be doing something diligently.

Yeah.

And they can be rewarded for. And you'll know they'll be on YouTube or they'll be looking at their phone. In fact, they say that. And I don't know if this is true or not, so don't get mad at me. I'm just. I'm just saying what I heard is that most millennials actually do their work like this with their phone right in front of them. I think Simon Sinek actually said that they did a study, and that's. And that's where they keep their phones, right here.

I think I was just literally doing that 20, 30 minutes ago.

Well, I guess it makes you a millennial now.

I'm on that cusp. I am. I will own it. I'm on the cusp of I'm a grandfather millennial.

I'm an old Gosh Mother Hubbard. I mean, old Father Hubbard.

I will do that. I'll put my phone in front of me sometimes I'll do my work, and then that's how I'm social media. Part of my work is social media, so I'm connecting. We'll call it that. I may have been watching a cool video too, at the same time. But, yeah, I mean, millennials are. And most of the younger generation, we're multitaskers.

So even this past week, diligent. I'm. Diligence brings rewards. And if you work now, you get to play later. I'm just. That's kind of what I believe. I don't believe in playing first, then working later. It doesn't get you anywhere. You just stay stuck and you're frustrated. Yeah. I mean, just. It's. I don't. I don't rationally understand it. Not saying that my way is perfect, but I was told this week that my level of diligence is. What's the best way to say this?

Astronomical.

Yeah. Yeah, that's what I was told. You know, but it's commitment, because I've had the experience of what a true commitment can bring.

Right.

And that's. And that's one of the things that you've also seen with angel and Amanda is that commitment showed through their diligence, which led them to future rewards.

That's right.

You know, I consider angel just as much as a friend. Even. Even what we call the ping pong buddy, a ping pong style mentor where we can bounce stuff off each other, you know, because I can value where he's already been and what he's already done and the sacrifice he's already paid.

Yep.

Those that sacrifice a great deal can always sympathize or empathize with those that also can sacrifice a great deal.

That's right. That's right. And speaking of sacrifice and being very diligent, man, we had some fantastic folks on the show last week. In the group conversation, which was a bunch of fun, we had a young lady out of Chapel Hill and the sacrifices that she's made. Her and her husband have decided to move away from their daily professions and follow their passions. They were fantastic. Talking about empowering other people through their. I think he's a freelance writer and she. She helps women.

Yeah.

Through the. The art of being beautiful and helping them realize. Helping them realize that they're already beautiful.

They. Tell me the truth.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. I'm so sick of magazines and TV shows.

And we were able to work in the hashtag, you are worth more. And that just resonates with people because they just. They need to understand and know that they are doing a good job.

You know what? It's. It's funny you say that literally. As you were saying that, I was like thinking to myself, hey, how cool would it be to actually start a movement where you just walk up to somebod, see you're worth more?

Yeah, I just. Well, it's kind of like the guy walk away. Kind of like the guy who. I think he was up in New York and he had a shirt said free hugs. Yeah, right. That was that kind of a cool movement that started. We honestly need to be telling each other that you're worth more.

Yeah.

And you may not believe us, but just borrow the belief that we have in you right now.

Wait till you have about 100 strangers come up to you in a given day so you're worth more, you know, because we start a movement that would be ideal, and then you want to doubt that anymore.

Eventually.

Most of us have been told the opposite.

Yes. Which most of us have been told, which is what's been holding people back. And I remember talking with Liz Layman before she even got on the show about juice vibes and kind of where it got started and where her self esteem was, where herself. Excuse me, where her self worth was before she even started. Even when she got her first store open in Clayton, it was. It was not really, you know, where it is today. Obviously, once she realized that she was worth a whole lot more and she could accomplish a whole lot more, man, she's booming right now. She's about to open maybe another store in Raleigh. And she's got talks of. I'm not even gonna say it. She's got talks of other stores, all other parts of the country.

Yeah.

Because she's finally understanding and she realizes.

She'S got a recipe down.

Yeah, she's got a recipe. Hey, it's pretty good. She actually blogs about healthy recipes.

Her stuff is really good.

It's very good. And those. And what we learned about from her and the Step up Ministry folks was that people are just so. Are so talented and they have a whole lot to give. They have a whole lot to offer. However, if we follow what the world tells us, if we follow what we tell ourselves, most givers quit giving because.

Takers have taken too much.

Yeah.

So here's what I would say to you givers out there. You need to figure out a way to give healthy in a healthy manner.

Yes.

I was doing it. We did an online training today for transform you online. And I got to. I kind of. That's why it's in my soul. But we spent A lot of time talking about givers and takers and what that boundary system is and how to do it. Well, I know for a fact even the season that I'm in right now with myself and Karen, Karen has really, really tried to walk really closely through.

Wanting to give.

Yeah.

You know, wanting to put herself out there and wanting to give back because she's watched as people have taken from us on a regular basis. But I've told her, you know, this. It's a season. And I feel like. And I still feel this way. I don't know when or how, but I feel like the fact that we have been giving all these years to people that desperately needed it, even if. Even if it was over giving, in some instances, I feel like it'll be honored.

Yeah.

I don't feel like. I never feel like I give anything wasted. Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, but that. That giving piece is a huge part of, really, of a healthy lifestyle as well as a healthy profession. Yeah.

I was reading a blog the other day. It was about giving versus taking. And the gentleman was talking about. It was an entrepreneur.com blog. So it was geared more towards success in business and prosperity and stuff. But he said that there's been studies done. Folks that actually give more gain an average of $375 more a year. Now, why is that? Why is it that people that give more tend to gain more?

You know what? I can't say it, but. All right, so I'm going to go faithful on you or faith on you real fast.

God teaches us in the way he does things that he blesses those that give blessings to others. And he calls it stewardship.

Yes.

Stewardship is a way of accountability, and those that steward well always receive more.

That's true.

So you're essentially seeing the same thing. I. Like I said, I've been blessed in many, many, many different ways all these years, for the last 20 or so years. And I was blessed before that. But as far as where I was aware that I was abundantly blessed and I was walking in some kind of level of favor and stuff like that.

Yeah.

Now it's one of those situations. It's like how the journey principles is. All right, so the journey principles, for example, is all about helping people become aware of and obtain the life that they were meant to live.

Yeah.

Short and sweet.

Yep.

That's what we do.

Yep.

That's. That's what we're about. Because I believe that everybody deserves to walk out their life and the way in which it was designed to be Walked out. You know, they were designed to walk it 100%. I've also come to know and come to be aware of that this moment someone starts that journey, to actually begin to walk out that journey, you're going to be hit with all kinds of different things. Which is why I was talking about sacrifice, we were talking about angel and Amanda, is because I want people to understand that sacrifice is part of the journey. You are going to stub your toe. Sometimes the soles in your feet are going to wear off. Sometimes you're going to have that sciatica hit that back again.

Yeah.

You know, but you need to keep walking. And I'm preaching to the choir right now. I'm in the season now I'm having to force myself to walk through some stuff that I'm not crazy about that I found, you know, detracting on a regular basis. But at the same time, experience has taught me when walking with this guy up here and if I just keep walking and keep trusting.

Yep.

That eventually I'll be able to see what he was doing the old time. I mean, before this brand new season that we're in now that I've been in this recently, I have been talking about, even wrote about it and spoke about it about all the different things where he hooked me up and all the different miracles along the way up into that point. Yeah, I can. I can go immediately back to the bridge. I can immediately go back to the litter box. I can immediately go back to my mom's bedside.

Yeah.

I can immediately go back to some of these key areas even now and still resonate in that moment. And I can't tell me times those moments have helped other people. You see what I'm saying?

There you go.

So it's a matter of trying to be okay with, I guess, be okay with that.

Yeah.

Because he's not okay with the side.

He's not going to load you up on the bus of life and then leave you stranded at a bus station somewhere with no plan, no future whatsoever.

He will break you. I believe that one of our biggest holdbacks in profession and just life in general, is stubbornness. Yeah, we're prideful and stubborn.

Break you and then if you submit, build you to something.

Oh, absolutely.

Build you something greater.

You know, like we. Even when I started going through this, this recent season, one of the first things I asked is, number one, have I done something wrong? Because if I have, I want to make it right. Nothing came directly to mind in this particular case. I have asked that question before and he's definitely put some stuff in my heart for me. My bad.

Go fix it. Right.

And then I asked, what do you want me to learn? Yeah, I don't. I've learned not to say, why me? Why me? Woe is me. But I have learned to say, what do you want me to learn? Because I find that if I, if, if I ask that question first, a lot of times I'm given what I'm supposed to know.

And that's such an important question to ask yourself is what is there for me to learn in this? When you're going through a hard time, it's easy for me to say that on the outside because I'm not going through the hard time. But I know based on my time spent with you during the good seasons and time spent with other great mentors during good seasons that there's always something to learn. You don't go through certain, some hardship, adversity, whatever you want to call it. You don't go through that without a purpose of learning something. Right. And if you're looking for it, you'll find it a lot faster than if you just wait until it hits you across the head like a two by four later down the road when you're old and gray and go, oh, I guess there was a purpose for me going through that. Ask yourself that question.

Always a purpose.

Ask yourself that question a lot. You know, and that's. I found that it helps you get to that solution much faster.

Yeah.

That way, you know, that's.

This whole thing is one of the reasons why I so much love the Step Up Ministries.

Yeah.

You know, I know that they were, they were on. It was kind of a cool experience. But yeah, I never forget this. I was, I first met Step Up Ministries when I was still, would see it, still doing che quite a bit. And we were going to go, I was trying to figure out. I bumped into the guy, got him, Steve Swain. Now he's, he's since moved on to do entrepreneurship for himself again. But I met him and he got to tell me, he's like, yeah, you know, the people that we serve are formerly incarcerated, formerly homeless, trying to get back and we teach some life skills. I'm like, these are people that were me. How can I help? Yeah, you know, kind of deal. Yeah, we sent him to a cane's game a few years ago. Like, like 200 people to a cane's game. It was just, it was really cool, but it was just one of the situations where people are operating or gifting and passion if you feel like you matter, you'll matter.

Yeah. That's the main thing is you got to believe it yourself that you do matter and you are worth more. Right. And it's something that we, that you talk about a lot in your talks. It's definitely in your book Riddled through there. You know, you don't actually call it out in here, but by the time you're done reading, you feel like my life does matter and there is purpose to it.

Yeah.

And definitely through the online school right now. Transform you online.

By far the best way.

That's, that's the number one way to check it out. Transformyouonline.com and you can find out exactly what we're talking about. And I want to challenge you to check it out and give it a trial. If you go in there right now, I think you can get a one day free trial and you'll discover that you're worth way more than you think you are. Just if you simply take the time to invest. Stephen may say it's a sacrifice of your time. I say it's an investment of your time. It means the same thing. We're talking the same language, actually checking out and finding out exactly what you're worth. If you find out exactly what you're worth now personally, then your job is just going to be a pro. It's going to be a byproduct. Your profession after that is going to be a byproduct and you won't feel like you work a day in your life if you're working in a job, in a profession you're meant to do. Right.

That's right. That's right. You know, I love the online part just because it's so.

What is the best way to explain it? It is so easy. Yeah, it is so easy. Like it's, it's. You can go in when you want, you can do what you want wherever you want.

It's on.

We made it easier.

IPads. Yeah, Anywhere you can get connected to the Internet.

So we went on a tangent. So I apologize. We have a few minutes left. We got to talk about Liz some more.

Yeah. Yes. She's killing it, honestly. And. And it should intimidate a lot of guys. It should intimidate a lot of people.

She's one heck of an entrepreneur, I can tell you that.

Firecracker. Making it happen. Because she just doesn't want to be stuck.

Yeah.

She don't want to be complacent. She didn't want. She asked herself the question, is this all that there really is. And she was not satisfied with the answer of yes. She said no. And now she's pursuing that. She's another one that has figured out who she was, and she's put together a strategy, and as she grows, she's trying more. You talk about making steps. It's something you touched on earlier, that you failed a lot. Right. And you learned from your failures. But that's the same thing that I see from all of our guests, especially the ones we talked about in the professional pillar. They've learned who they were, they've tried, they've taken a step, and when they fall, they learn from it. Then when they go through a tough time, just like the season that you're going through, when they're going through that, they learn from that moment, that season, they apply what they learn to the next step.

That's right.

And it tends to be a stronger step.

That's right.

Tends to be a much more concrete, even further out step. Right.

Absolutely.

You've done that.

Absolutely. You know, we've tiptoed around this on a couple shows about some of the stuff that I'm going through personally. Season being. I mean, you know, the reason we haven't got on the radio show himself or blogged about some of the things that we've been going through is because I wanted. When I go to share about it, I want to be able to extrapolate everything that was learned. Because it's not the circumstance that's going to define anything. No, right. It's. It's what's learned, it's what's gained. I heard somebody once say it's. It's not who we are that makes us happy, it's who we become. I love that that's, you know, and I really believe that that's at the essence of our DNA and a big part of who we should strive to become.

Yeah.

At some point in time, I will share. It might be the next book.

Oh, it's gonna be the Journey Principles.

The next leg that's gonna be. Which is the name of the next book, by the way. So we'll hopefully have that out next year. We'll see what happens. But I got a lot to write, you know, but the whole essence of everything is just making sure that before you voice your pains, you can voice your learnings.

Yeah.

You know, and I think that's incredible. That's incredible. Step that we all need to make an experience has taught me. I'll give you a perfect example. I know we only got a couple minutes Left. And I'm sorry if I took control of the show.

No, it's just your show.

It's actually your show. It's actually there. It's your show. So there's a lot of us hanging out with us for a couple days.

I've learned. I actually learned a valuable lesson when that book came out. Two years. Almost three years ago.

Almost three years ago.

Almost three years ago.

And that was when the book first came out. Chapter nine, I believe. No, it's either chapter eight or chapter nine was about my divorce that I went through in 2000. Well, settled in 2013.

Yeah.

Okay. The first chapter, I remember when I had some help orchestrating a lot of the pages because I'd never written anything before. I didn't actually know how to orchestrate it. Where you kind of actually read it. It was a bunch. It was actually one long run on sentence.

Yeah.

So I reached out and got some help with that. But.

I actually went back when I got that chapter back and I began to monkey with it some more.

Yeah.

And I learned. I don't know, it was probably six months. We'd already moved to a handful. A handful of books. A thousand or so books and whatever. And a buddy of mine reached out and said, hey, man, I would love to support you. I'd love to write the forward for the next book, but, man, this chapter. This chapter is killing me. I'm like, why? He goes, man, it's.

It just.

All I see is your pain.

Oh, man.

And lo and behold, I told you about this. I'd been on the fence about whether or not to change that chapter even before the first book came out.

Yeah, you did.

And I even told the team here, and I was like, well, we've already got so many in print there already. So many circulations. We'll have to get with Amazon and Barnes and Noble and change everything and the Kindle. And I'm like, okay, well, so worth it. So. Point being, one of the reasons I'm not intentionally not sharing a whole lot about what I've been walking through and not. My marriage is fine. I love my wife. We're doing fantastic. The businesses are doing well.

Yeah. She's the wonder woman.

Right. But there I've been, you know, but it's life. I'm gonna walk through life, and I'll be glad to share about it when. Later on. But I learned not to ever release information unless it had been filtered first.

Yeah.

Which means I have to walk through the season. I have to identify what I learned. Okay. I then have to take what I learned and apply it moving forward. So when I go to tell the story, it can be used to help someone else. If I tell the pain without telling the learning, or if I tell the pain without telling how it helped me overcome something else, then one, no glory is given to God. Yeah, right. Which I'm all about that. And two, all you'll read is the.

Pain, and then you'll take it in the negative direction, the positive direction. And that's a fantastic way to end the show, folks, to talk about that. You know, every week we bring in an awesome guest, and then we wrap it up with the seed planner to talk about what they talked about. Right. And this is all influential information. You still have to take it and apply it how it fits you best. Everything that I spit or Steven spits and our guest spits is not exactly how you should do it. It should spark something in you, and it should get a little flame going, but that's really. Then it's up to you to take it and apply it. Just like he's talking about there, in a way that's gonna benefit you. The best man. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Always.

This has been fantastic. I know you're busy.

I do have stuff to do.

I know you. You have a lot on your plate, and for you to just come in and bring it to us and be able to provide knowledge and kind of shift your brain, that's just. That's huge for us. We really appreciate it.

God willing. I hope it was. It was valuable. So.

Absolutely. Every single time, folks. Thank you for tuning in. We can't wait to see you next time on the Journey principles radio show. Have a great week. See you guys.