I Was Rich, Successful, and Falling Apart - Here's What Saved Me | Stephen Scoggins

I began to learn that a lot of us entrepreneurs and leaders, we want to force things into existence. I myself have forced things into existence. The overflow I created was not what I refer to as authentic overflow. While Saul was out conquering nations, building the house of Israel, while he was out doing this, he had the favor of the people. He was tall in stature. He was a big burly dude. He was a warrior's warrior, but Saul forgot his first love. This is very important. Saul carried the name of God, but not the nature of God. Please understand there's a difference in calling yourself a Christian and having the nature of a disciple. Jesus said very clearly, "My people do what I do. They essentially embody me." He modeled it for us so we could learn to embody it.

Hey there, welcome back to the show. As you know, more times than not, we spend a lot of time bringing on amazing guests and thought leaders to have great conversations, to add a lot of value. Recently, we've been asked by the community at large, a lot of our friends, a lot of our family, a lot of you guys in the, in the, in the world, to give us more insight into my own heart, my own journey. And for this podcast, we're gonna actually play back last year's speaking event. Now, what's really interesting about FounderCon specifically is not only will I be speaking there again this year, but as one of the signature providers. Uh, on top of that, uh, it was the first time I had been on stage in almost 2 years. Now, many of you guys have heard me talk about my Utah moment journey throughout the show, where I'm talking about, you know, kind of having everything on paper and still feeling very empty inside. And if I'm being honest with you guys, I wasn't entirely sure if I was ever going to grace the stage again during that season. Um, there was a huge part of me that still desired it and still wanted to serve at that level. There And there was another part of me that was just fried and burned out and overwhelmed of where my life was at that time. Now, what's really interesting about this specific journey is this is probably the most vulnerable keynote I have ever done. And the reason I say that is because during the keynote itself, you'll hear me go into a real-life story of where the What I Hear You Say journaling practice comes from, the birth, if you will, of becoming one part lion and one part lamb as it relates to contrasting King David and King Saul. But more importantly, the pain and the feelings that I was underwhelmed with during that specific season. So if you're in a difficult season right now and things are hard, this may encourage you a great deal. If you're in a great season right now, I still think it's going to encourage you because let's just face it, we need honest communication from honest people doing honest things. And that's what I hope you get out of this episode. I felt like it was time for me to show all of myself, uh, to the, to the marketplace, to these leaders, and actually be real with them for a change, which you're not going to see. So I hope you enjoyed this keynote presentation as part of our podcast this week. We are going to back to guests. We've got a bunch of filming this week. I hope you enjoy this episode. It's near and dear to my heart. God bless you. See you soon.

Uh, where do you even start, right? Um, I've been obviously in the, in the back and trying to serve as much as I could wherever I could. And it's not often you run into people who you think, oh, they got something there, and then you get to sit with them, you get to know them. And you're like, "Wow, they don't just have something there." They create the movement where other things become the things that have something there. It's the seed of multiplication. It's the seed that matters. And one of the biggest mistakes we make as entrepreneurs, as leaders, is sometimes we consume our seed for bread. The very thing that we're supposed to plant for other things to prosper is the very thing that we're consuming at any given moment. And this is part of what I wanna share with you guys today, but before I do that, I'm gonna take a big risk. I don't know if this is gonna pan out, so, this is my first time doing this, but is there a leader entrepreneur here with the birthdate of March 3rd? March 3rd, anybody? All right, that is what it is. We gave it a shot. Uh, Chris, you're fully funded, buddy. You said your need was 6, we're in for 10. God sees you and He loves you more than you could possibly understand. The purpose of creating your enterprise is to create overflow. I don't know if you guys know this, well, you guys would know this or not because this has been private conversations. Oh, by the way, just because I love you, but I wanna lighten just the hair. I've always wanted to say with this kind of microphone, go, "Aye!" Like Tony Robbins. You know, I just always wanted to do that. I know I probably scared some folks in the back row, my bad. But in the grand scheme of things, one of the things I wanna really lean into, so, I've been on my own journey for a long time now, right? 25 years ago, 1998, I'm digging in as hard as I can, as fast as I can. I was given a second chance that I did not deserve. I betrayed a man who put me in business for myself. I got involved in a toxic relationship, which we'll talk more about, and as a result of that, I end up basically consuming my seed for bread. I became arrogant, I became cocky. I became prideful. But when God wants you, He will do what it takes to get you. And as a result, I began to surrender myself over time, starting from the trash piles of the construction site, taking one piece of lumber, taking one nail, and driving a nail into a piece of lumber. The story's long, I don't have a whole lot of time, so we're gonna just kind of fast forward. In the grand scheme of things, that I began to learn that a lot of us entrepreneurs and leaders, we want to force things into existence. I myself have forced things into existence. The overflow I created was not what I refer to as authentic overflow. It might surprise you to know, 'cause many of you guys are, obviously, I heard in the back, I had a hard time hearing back there 'cause I'm A little bit deaf in my left ear. I know Jamal's probably gonna hook me up later, so that's good, right? But in the grand scheme of things, one of the things that I learned is we all have a financial need in many cases. What the things you probably don't fully appreciate and understand, 'cause I know I didn't, is that when you finally achieve all the things that you think you want, can go all the places that you think you want to go, can do all the things that you think you want to do, have all the time that you think you need to have rest. I'd like to share with you that rest is a choice. I'm gonna give you a practice that has changed my life. And for those of you guys who saw me, and I've had several of you come to me, by the way, which has been a blessing on my heart, at the last FounderCon I was part of in Raleigh, and even expressed to me that I'm different. That tells me that what I'm about to share with you can open doors for you that hell can't close. But it's not through force. A lot of times we think we have to push the doors open. Like, we've gotta get the deal, close the thing, do the thing. And the reality is, is divine energy, divine alignment. Only connects with an assignment when it's not forced but it's received. I want to give you a comparison. I believe in contrast. Contrast is a very powerful thing. And the good thing about contrast is you have ability to appreciate where something is, understand where it is now, figure out the delta or the difference, and then figure out what it's going to be over here. You begin to see patterns. And I know you guys don't care, but like Tony Robbins said, "When you can understand the patterns, you can change the behaviors that cause the patterns to happen to begin with." So, we read in 2 Samuel that there was— Israel wanted a king. Because the other nations had a king. So they had to have a king. Here's the thing. God gave them what they wanted and held back what they needed because their capacity and their character wasn't strong enough to understand or get it. I probably should have told you guys most of what comes out of me I won't be able to say again. And feel free to cut on any device you want, record whatever you want. 'Cause I'll get up here and I'll get into flow and I won't even remember half of what I said, by the way. 'Cause it's Him. From Him, through me, for you. As it should be. Any speaker who graces a stage needs to come from that energy. That is by definition what they refer to as divine masculine. The ability to bridge the gap between the divine masculine, divine feminine, and understand the difference, which is going to take us to our next point. While Saul was out conquering nations, building the house of Israel, while he was out doing this, he had the favor of the people. He was tall in stature. He was a big burly dude. He was a warrior's warrior. But Saul forgot his first love. This is very important. Very important. Saul carried the nature of God— I'm sorry, Saul carried the name of God, but not the nature of God. Please understand there's a difference in calling yourself a Christian and having the nature of a disciple. Jesus said very clearly, "My people do what I do, and they essentially embody me." My disciple— the reason he modeled it for us so we could learn to embody it. And when we don't embody it, we like to operate from pride in all these different places. The next thing that ends up happening is the kingdom that we thought we were created is often removed. 'Cause the only kingdom worth creating is the one that was created before we even got here. As a definition, you look at David, the shepherd boy, the forgotten. Even the day when Samuel came to anoint the new king of Israel, came to the house of Judah. 7 other brothers. Where's David? What? The little shepherd boy? Are you kidding me?

The shepherd boy?

David was in the field. Shepherding sheep. But his heart position. His heart position was about the Father. I was sharing something yesterday, and what I realized, I was on a podcast, and I kinda, this kinda came up. Every now and again, if you guys have dealt with me at all, sometimes I just get in the flow and I can't stop myself, and you know, like I see things, and part of this, one of the things I saw really quickly was this element of Dave, David, We like to think that kings— kings are given thrones because of name. Because of rank. Because of title. Because of choice. Because of money. Because of this. Because of that. David was made a king in a cave. It was the cave that created the king. It was the field that created the king. It's the heart posture when nobody's looking that creates it. David, known as a man after God's own heart. What made that possible? David tapped into something that most of us even don't even pay attention to, which is what I refer to as a divine frequency. Every time he played that harp in the middle of nowhere when nobody was looking, every time he fought a lion that nobody could even think that a little boy could do, Every time he showed up, he showed up with the faith before Goliath came. Not after. But yet a lot of us, what we'll do is just like I did. We'll run from the forge to prevent the pain. Not realizing it's the forge that creates the next thing. The next level. The next piece. Every leader in this room, I want you to walk out today with the heart of David. And I'm gonna give you a skill set to do that. Again, it's the thing that ultimately changed my life. See, you think you're in trial. You think you're in trouble. You think you've got these things going. You think all these things are not— are somehow trying to come against you. They are not punishment. They are a forge. So when hell comes after you, it can't touch you. I would rather have a divine reckoning with the Father. Let Him correct me. Than go another decade in absence of His presence. Someone shared with me yesterday. But one thing I love about this conference, by the way, there are prophetic words Everywhere. You put a bunch of us special people in different places and the next thing you know it's like pandemonium in the best possible way. Which also leads me to a quick point. This is a side note. And I'll do my— I will end on time. If I have to cut it short, I'll end on time. But this is in my heart. Because this has actually been— was triggered this morning. So I woke up weeping this morning. For those of you guys who watched me present in times past, it's always been something that I felt like God has called me to, was to be here and try to help and try to pour out as much as I can. However, there have been times where I wanted the stage more than I wanted your transformation, if I'm being honest. And I'm so grateful God crushed that. I'm so grateful to Him. So grateful. Some of you have gotten prophetic words that you've needed for a long time. Some of you have gotten prophetic confirmations that you've needed for a long time. And some of you got prophetic words you didn't want.

But are true.

So what do you do when you get the prophetic word, the prophetic utterance, but it's not what you want to hear? That's when you conduct yourself as David did. You take your heart before the Lord. Ask him where the truth is. Ask him where the element of transition is. That's when you enter the forge of your own free will. The quickest way through the fire is through the fire. I'm a stubborn one. I'll even share that in a little bit. I've always meant well. I've got a good heart and like I've always wanted to help. Like I'm wired that way. So much so that I didn't realize it was actually a pattern. It was a pattern that I hadn't discovered before. This pattern that I hadn't discovered before started when I was 9 years old when my grandmother comes to me when I have a G.I. Joe and a Transformer in one hand and she says basically, "I need you to essentially be the man of the house." 9 years old. She began using me as a crutch to walk her around the house. I began making meals for my little brother who was 3 years younger than me out of water and milk and pretty much anything I could boil or pour milk into, that's what we ate. Macaroni and cheese, boiled hot dogs, oatmeal, a little cereal here or there. I ate way too much cereal. But I didn't realize that that was anchoring and then I dropped out of high school to help my family pay the bills and then I Help my father pay this thing. And then I dropped out, moved out at 17 or 18 years old and went to work and then still paid, was going back and giving my parents money. This is what's called over-functioning. Let me tell you something that I learned. This is super important. 'Cause a lot of us face this. One of the things that I learned was every time you step in to rescue someone else, You're preventing the exact same thing that God is using to forge them in the first place. You are playing God. And he wants you out of the way. He can't change a heart if he can't get to it. There's a desire and a willingness to want to serve and want to help people. There's nothing wrong with that. It's doing it in overabundance in such a way that prevents the thing that they need to walk through from happening. Here's the crazy part. I haven't started a presentation I was gonna play, but I'd rather just tell you guys the truth. Is that okay? Alright, cool. Alright. Back to King David. Most of you know that— well, I assume most of you know that King David did life differently. Saul became about Saul. David became about his people. The reason that the chant was, "Well, David's killed his ten thousands and Saul has killed his thousands," was because David was a leader. He was a forged leader that was forged in a cave, forged in a field, and always took— He was always at the front of the army. Saul used to stay at the back of the army. The principle here is leaders go first.

Hey there.

I hope you enjoyed the episode.

Look, I love making great content for you, but more importantly, we like creating great resources. So before we get you back in the episode, I want to make you aware of the Aligned Leader Index, which you can find at stephenscoggins.com/leadership. This is a one-of-a-kind tool that I wish I had when I was actually building and scaling my own organizations. Why? Because a lot of times the bottlenecks that we think are actually in our way are not really the bottlenecks that are actually in our way. And what the cool thing about this specific thing is it's gonna let you know what the number one constraint is internally, the number one driver that's actually in your way or being disrupted, where chaos and dysfunction are showing up. And number three, probably most important, where your leadership blind spot likely is. So if you're tired of your business actually running you and you want to take operational control over your organization, make sure you take complete advantage of the Align Leader Index. It takes 5 to 7 minutes and it'll give you instant clarification on the thing that's holding you back right now.

Let's get back to the show. David is also something that— it's funny, where do you want to go, Lord? Where do you want to go? Okay. In 2021, the clip that you guys saw, I was at a conference I used to do called Transform Me. It was about 3 days long. The first time these words came out of my mouth, and this is maybe another reason I love Chris so much, right? Was, I was on stage, out of nowhere, one of those flow moments, I mean, you have to become, if you're gonna do anything in life, you have to become one part lion and one part lamb. Would you know I avoided that message for 3 and a half years? But it would come out of me and I'd say it every so often in different ways, in different formats. You know why? 'Cause I didn't understand what I was being given. You see, what made David so special that set the stage for Jesus is 'cause he taught us what it was like to embody a warrior and a worshiper. You know, David was one of the only people, now he got in trouble for this technically, Who was a warrior and then to get out of trouble actually put on the priestly garment called the ephod. But yet he wrote most of the Psalms. And when you see David writing the Psalms, you don't see a guy saying, "Lord, help me. I'm so broken." You see someone who is like, "You know me more than I know myself. Redeem me from myself." You see, I had this interesting epiphany. I woke up one evening in this— Gosh, there's so much I want to share. I woke up in this one morning and I saw this pendulum, okay? And on the left-hand side, I saw the word "lion," and on the right-hand side, I saw the word "lamb." And I saw this pendulum swinging back and forth. And what I wasn't really sure about was this element of how this swinging back and forth made any sense until I realized what happens is, is if we swing too far to a lion, we're egotistical, prideful, and hurtful to other people. But yet if we swing too far to the lamb, we're a pushover and passive. That showed me an element of maturity. Right? So, trying to figure out where to be in the middle and then I was like, I don't understand. Alright, so, how does one actually prevent themselves from going one to the other? How do you prevent yourself from going too far to the left or too far to the right so you're not domineering, you're not overly assertive, and you're not actively hurting people, and you're not giving away your power, your autonomy, and becoming a people pleaser and too passive? And I realized this entire time there's a model. His name is Yeshua. He's what it's like to embody truth with boundaries, to love unconditionally without being taken advantage of. There are character qualities of the lion and the lamb. Again, you can become overly assertive. Let me give you one. Just a quick contrast on the lion side. If you're too much lion and you're anchored in ego, then what happens is you're controlling and domineering. Okay? Let's go over to lamb for a second. Meh. Alright. The lamb, if you swing too far to the lamb, then obviously you got the passiveness. You get railroaded by people all the time. You're over-serving. Do you know that both of the reasons you're doing that is because you want to be seen? That you want to feel your worth? When we stop chasing worth and start chasing nature— I say nature, I mean nature of Jesus. When we start chasing the nature of Jesus, we start embodying that behavior. You can only embody what you practice. People want to actually be around you when you're authentically you. Otherwise, you're a counterfeit of somebody else. And God made you because he made you. He made you with your gift, with your talent, with your strength. And with some of the things that he's gonna refine off of you. My buddy Randy Garn has this statue. And in this statue, he got it as a gift. It's a marble statue. And it has a guy who is chiseling himself out of marble. I was sharing with Doug in a group, the Proverbs say, "Iron sharpens iron." If iron sharpens iron, why are we afraid of the heat? When you start leaning into these different principles, when you start understanding the variations of the swings, the back and forth, a lion who is mature It's a protector, not a controller. A lamb who is in maturity is compassionate and loving without being taken advantage of. For those of you who have been like me, I have gone from one extreme to the other. I'll just be transparent with you guys. The first 10 years I built a business, I built it on sure determination and will. It was either you're coming with me or get out of my way. I was tired of not having shelter, I was tired of not having food, I was tired of not having any money, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. So much so that I accidentally hurt my team. I don't use words like employees, I can't stand the word employees. They're my team. Speaking of the team, can you guys give a round of applause to everybody in this building that put this event on? Austin and the group, Daniel and Matt and the group, all the volunteers. All the table settings. There's 1,000 different things, by the way, that goes on to put in a different vent. When you understand what you're doing, because you become aware of your behavior patterns, you're able to essentially, it's kinda like watching, you ever seen that thing that swings back and forth and it goes boop boop and eventually it gets to its worth? That's what we want. That's what we're looking for. We want to have the courage of the lion, be the protector of the lion, be able to stand up for what is needed. And for the lamb, we want to express love and compassion and be real. How this shows up in your marriage, how this shows up in your relationship, how this shows up in your business is very easy. When you get the lamb and the lion balance correct, everyone around you feels seen, valued, and heard. You know, I was listening to Jason, and by the way, Jason killed it, didn't he? Yeah. And I was like, I wish that wasn't true that nobody cares. You know, and I've gone out of my way the last several years to like really try to be focused and present with people because I find that we all share common challenges. They come in different forms, and if you can learn something that can help somebody else shorten their journey, shorten their pain curve, You know what I'm saying? Like, it's a better thing. The reason I wanted to kind of bring up David and Saul is because I wanted to give you guys a contrast. It's a contrast of leadership. It's a contrast of functionality. It's a contrast helping you understand. Keep in mind, if we just take Saul and David, and we take the lion and the lamb, and we take the maturity of each. Was Saul a mature lion as Scripture says? Was he? No, he was not. It's okay to answer back. It's fine. Okay? Was David? Up until David's moral failure, which by the way, if you're doing anything worthwhile, that'll be the first place you get struck if you're not paying attention. So always be where you're supposed to be and never where you're not supposed to be. How about the lamb? How much lamb did Saul scripturally have? Is it safe to say next to nothing? Okay. How about David? He had no problem on his knees. Had no problem crying and bawling and letting God see all of him and any of him. So, I went through this process, you go build a company, you get lots of credibility, people are like, how did you do it, da da da da. I shared with the group back there that there are really 5 constraints, I'm gonna rattle them off. I recorded some of the stuff that's up there, if you guys want a copy, I'll give it to Tamra and you guys can see the whole thing. But essentially, when I began to look at the contrast between my own life, every dumb decision I ever made, and I lost millions of dollars at different points, by the way. Was out of what's called emotional dysregulation. This emotional dysregulation was the thing that kept me from identifying myself. I would react rather than respond. It's a difference, and most of us entrepreneurs, we are really good at making emotional decisions rather than getting the needed data, taking the needed steps, and moving forward. So, just to fast forward, I'll tell you, this is a really recent personal story. Some of you guys know this 'cause some of you guys were at the last FounderCon. The last FounderCon, I began seeing someone, a young woman that, well, I say young woman, she was, you know, kind of my age and stuff, but, and everything seemed beautiful on the surface. We were together for about 10 months, I even went as far as to propose, and as soon as I proposed, the whole thing blew up in my face. It blew up in my face because neither one of us were ready. Like, she had her own work that she was working, needed to work on, and then I had my own work that I had just recently discovered as a result of that. That's where I discovered the Rescuer program. That's where I discovered the fact of over-functioning. Functioning. That's where I discovered the fact that I was constantly trying to earn everybody's approval and basically performing. I hope that that's the difference that you see even when I'm giving you, when I'm trying to share my heart with you guys. For those of you guys who have seen me in the past, I'm not, I'm good. I'm whole. My heart is that you also become whole, that you will step into the forge willingly. As a byproduct of this, on September 21st, 2024, Connor, if you're around, go ahead and come up, buddy. September 2024, I didn't know what was going on. I had just shipped a lot of her stuff. I had relocated to Utah after selling the company, thinking I had it made, thinking that The world was my oyster and I was getting asked to speak and doing all these different things and getting, having some success with it. And then all this stuff came up out of nowhere. And as I was kind of going through this and seeing this, I began understanding that something was different. But I wasn't sure what it was. I wasn't sure why I was actually in that position.

I wasn't sure.

I thought I was getting punished. I'm like, I don't understand. I have no problem giving money away. I have no problem giving time away. I have no problem serving my family. I have no problem serving my team. I have no problem hugging on people. I have no problem with any of that. Why am I going through this again? And for the first time ever, I sat down and I began to do something I'd never done before. A good buddy of mine, Henry Amar. Guided me through a 5-minute meditation. All it did was get me centered. So, I want everybody to do this with me. Ready? Sss.

Hold it. Let it out slowly.

Shh. Again. Sss. Shh. He taught me to slow things down so I could speed things up. You see, the secret is not going faster. Or being impatient with where you're at. The secret is being present where your feet are planted. Being fully aligned. Being fully present. And I didn't know that. I didn't know that presence was the key. Until I went and looked at David. And David is in the field with his heart being present with God. I said, "Well, I know that David is a— I know that David is an illustration of Jesus. Did Jesus—" As it turns out, Jesus often went away to be still and be with the Father. But we get so caught up in rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing that we forget who we are and where we're going. I did a journaling practice. I'm gonna have to go through this quick. I got 2 minutes and 20-some seconds left, and I told you I'd finish on time, so it's gonna be super fast. All right, actually, can I have 3 minutes? I know. Alright, cool. Alright. So, before we do this, on September 21st— I'm going to read you part of this, by the way. September 21st, 2024, I sat down and I poured my heart out on a laptop to God. Lord, I don't know what this is. I don't know why this is. I don't know— Where did I go wrong? Where did I go wrong? And he was silent. Silent, silent, silent. And then I get to the bottom of this page. And I said, I changed the font color to blue and I said, God, I said, God, look, here it is. There it is in real time. I changed the font color to blue and I couldn't write fast enough. I could not write fast enough. I couldn't write fast enough. This journaling practice became a daily habit of mine for 6 straight months. I was asked in the back of the room before I came on today, how do you get the presence? You just sit still. You just sit still. I poured my heart out to God not knowing what tomorrow would bring, not knowing what today would bring, thinking I had it all, being the most empty I'd ever had even though I had millions of dollars. As Jason would say, "No one cares." What is the point of creating a kingdom if that kingdom can't create overflow and flourishing for other people? Here are just some of the things He said. Because I think some of the things He said are for you. In 68 days from now, the world will be renewed in a way that you did not expect or even think possible. I have been doing a work for you. Work for some time, and you— I've had my hand on you since the beginning of time. I created you before you knew me or could sense me. I will speak louder from this day forward. I will in fact make a way where there is no way, but it will look totally different than you expect. It will be greater and better than you expect. I am doing the work you have needed, but you have been too hurt and too scared to face it. Do you not know that the hurt was always meant to shape you? 'Just as it is now. I will never let the hurt last or stay. I will always remove the pain once the purpose is realized. I will not only do as you ask, I will blow your mind and soul by doing far more than you ask.' He said, 'You are a great steward, Stephen. I know that what I give you will turn into more. And if I test you, you will not lean away, you will always lean in.' There is no greater faith. Take my peace upon you now and lean not into your own understanding. A generation is nothing but a blink of an eye in eternity, and I have chosen to give you many, many blinks. You need not worry about what you will eat or drink in the natural on the soul level, because I will have, I will have so much more for you that you will be able to share it with nations. I love it when you lean into my chest just as much as the woman that you love Leans into yours. I too want intimacy with you, Stephen Scoggins, and within your soul. I want to teach you my ways for the last days. We open this conference with— there it is— don't underestimate small beginnings or painful transitions. 68 days. 68 days. The mountains I will move in your heart, your mind, and your soul. All because of the faith we're radically change the way you look at what I can do in this world and in the next. And what I want for you. Lean into your mentors I have surrounded you with and discern their counsel. When you talk, Stephen, I listen. Will you truly listen when I talk? Is that not a close relationship? My relationship with you and my other children is designed. Designed by eternity. To be close. Please pay attention. I'm speaking all the time, but they're seldom listening. This will make you laugh, made me giggle even through my tears when this was all pouring out of me the first time. He says, Peter was stubborn too, but look at what I accomplished with him on the earth. And you should see what he's now doing in heaven. You are a Peter, a David, and a Joseph wrapped up into one. I put them in you so you could triple the harvest I did with them. Why did I give you the grandfather's title, the soul winner, from the time of your birth? Because you will awaken the dead and feed the hungry and liberate the captives. The anointing I'm about to share on you and others will shape generations to come. Listen. Which is why I needed you to understand the full power and created value of your worth. Not the worth of any human aspired receive or concept. Today, the original core message was you can't scale dysfunction. You can't scale dysfunction if it's in your heart. You can't scale dysfunction if it's in your mind. You can't scale dysfunction if it's in your team. You can't scale dysfunction if it's in your business. But it starts with the positioning of presence in your heart. So today I went upstairs just before the event. There's my date, 11/7/2025. The journal session is called What I Hear You Say Is. What I discovered was, is we spent all this time asking for our laundry list, our grocery list, all these different solutions. We want all these things to happen, and lo and behold He's just like, "Just listen to me for a change." So I began to sit in presence. I began to understand what presence was by sitting still. Getting still. I'd come in the morning. I would cut on the light. And I would type date. I've got journals and journals and journals. Top date. What I hear you say is. Sometimes I would sit there for 10 minutes. In full transparency. Not hear anything. And all of a sudden. One word would form, and before I finished that word, the next word would form, and before I knew it, there were 3 pages of documents. 85% of what was shared 9 months ago, 6 months ago, 8 months ago, 4 months ago has already come to pass. This is not just for me. This is also for you. I'm gonna give you an opportunity to do this exercise yourself. In fact, I encourage you to do it, but before Before I do that, I went upstairs today because I didn't get a chance to do my journal session. I woke up weeping like I shared with you this morning because there's just so much in me. I don't know how to get it all out. He says, "My son, I have called you to this day and this craft. Know that you have come—" I probably need glasses. Oh, "You have become the nature of my frequency." It will carry far more than ever before, and you will never see the full impact. I'm convinced the best impact you can have is leaving a legacy inside of somebody else, not just around yourself. For the sake of time, I'm gonna skip down to some sections because he tells me— this is what I love about God— if you listen to him, he'll tell you about you, and it doesn't sound anything like what what the world says about you. Nothing like it. All right, here we go. This is the thing that I heard very clear. There are 13 men here today that never saw a father's love, have never received anything from the father but harm by the ones that they know. Please remind them that this is not fatherhood. I am, quote, not a representation of that father they have always known. Whoever these 13 men are, I know that at least 2 of them are not even part of this conference. Ladies and gentlemen, please Please, please do not judge God by man's issues. Someone who's— you got— this is not the news. If you're— if someone's hurting, they only know how to resemble what's already inside of them. Instead, embody the lion and the lamb. Become one part protector, encourager, Love. Get into that protective mode of the lamb. Being able to sit with somebody and hug somebody and love on somebody. Because just like your home, just like your kids, just like your workplace, sometimes your team needs a kick in the butt. They do. And sometimes you do too. Sometimes you need a hug. And sometimes they do too. So for the next few minutes, here's what I want to encourage you to do. Connor's going to continue to play for a couple more minutes. I'd very much like you guys to take me up on this offer. I'd like you to go, "Sss." Anchor yourself in presence. He wants to talk to all of you about whatever it is He wants to talk to you about. I mean, it's different for everybody in this room. And for anyone who's willing to step up and do what David did and take the first step in leadership, I'll see you guys in the baptism. See you guys.