It Always Paid Off | The Life Advice That Will Change Your Future

If you want to be successful. Don't think I want to go from nothing to CEO. Go and work hard. We would become lazy. You know what I mean? This generation, it's like, you see these tiktoks and these. These memes and everything about like, I should work a 9 to 5. I shouldn't have to work a 9 to 5. It's like, that is a blessing. No matter who you are, no matter what situation you come from or what you think you lack with God, you can make something huge of yourself.

Guys, have welcome my good friend, Christina Clark. What is going on? I'm so happy to see you. Hey.

I am so thankful to be here. I love your podcast. I've been watching it and I'm just honored to be here.

Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much. Well, check this out. So there's a lot of different directions we're going to go throughout the course of the show, but one of the ones I want to maybe hit on first is I'm in a new season of life. So I built a business from scratch from 98 to this past year in 2023, when I finally exited that company, turned the company over to some fantastic gentlemen that I've personally got to know and spend time with. So I've got a lot of trust in them. They're already killing it, which is great because I. I still have some. Some equity interest in the business, which is even better.

Yeah, even better.

Yeah. But in the grand scheme of things, you know, I spent the first two, almost three decades of my life super career focused, right? Especially starting a. Starting a company from the trash piles of a construction site than learning leadership and learning teams and learning business and learning sales and fulfillment, and the list goes on and on and on. I find myself and our mutual friend Randy. One of the things that I was sharing with him before, before I just relocated to Utah, was this next season of life. I'm not looking for balance. I'm looking for choice. And I choose to be more with my family than just focus solely on building businesses upon businesses upon businesses. Because I learned the hard way that money can only really. It doesn't really bring joy or fulfillment. It brings the ability to have stability. It brings the ability to be charitable. It brings the ability to be philanthropic at a larger level. It brings the ability to invest in things that could be created. So there's a lot of blessings, but purpose and meaning. I'm finding more. I'll tell you this much. So the girl I've been seeing has a three year Old son. And just before we hopped on here, he was literally in my arms with a little butt hanging over here, hugging on my neck. And I'm thinking to myself, this is amazing.

A.

So I share that story to say that I think a lot of the folks that watch and listen to the podcast, okay, they're awesome people. They're getting after it. They're building businesses, they're building careers, they're building meaningful lives. But the one thing that I would go back and maybe rework a little bit ten years ago was a bit more of choice of making sure I'm saying yes to the right things and no to the right things so I can have more of the special things.

Yeah.

So I know you made a similar decision, switching your own life. And I'm curious to know from your perspective why that's so important, because I know your. Your. Your podcast is uber successful. You're becoming massively successful in your podcast. And a lot of hope, a lot of light, a lot of generosity, a lot of love, but a lot of stuff around family and syner and. And marriage and. And being synergistic with what life is supposed to be. So maybe tell me how you kind of came to that, knowing yourself, and why you decided to pour so much energy into that new endeavor.

Thank you for asking that. Like, I don't think anyone's ever fully asked me that question. So that's. That's a deep one. But I will say there are several things. But there's. There's one defining moment that I will say that kind of. I've surrounded my podcast around, so a few years ago, actually, 11 to be exact, I was having a baby. My first child. And in the first six months of all this happening, my daughter almost died. She was on her deathbed, and by the grace of God, a huge miracle. She ended up surviving and against all odds. But in that same time, my brother was on the streets using heroin and meth. And this was the most devastating thing to me in my entire Life. We're only 15 months apart, and every day I was praying my heart up, please save my brother. And I would try to call these motels. And one time I got a hold of him, and then he was gone. And it was, you know, just very transient life, because that's what drug users do. And one of those people that was asking for money at the gas station because their car broke down or they ran out of, you know, whatever it is, panhandling. And. And this went on for a year. And every single Sunday, I was Fasting. And for those of you who don't know that, I'm sure most of you know what that is, but that, you know, when you give up food as a sacrifice and as a plea to God, like, please, in return, not that we tell God what to do, but please, in return, I'm begging for this thing, like, please save my brother. My family situation would come from is not the most stable situation. And so it was hard to rally together as a family when we're all broken up, you know, So I felt just so alone during this. And anyway, there was one Saturday morning, this is after a year of this going on, that I got a call, and it was a 480-number, and I'm from Arizona, and I knew right away this was Arizona, but I knew news, 8 o' clock in the morning on a Saturday. I knew this was my brother, and I knew he was in jail. And so I picked up the phone and sure enough, it was him. And he was going through withdrawals. And he's shaking and he's like, senior, Christine, you've got to bail me out. You got to bail me out. You know, help me. And I was like. I said, see if you can get one more call and call me back in 10 minutes. I'm gonna see what I can do. I get off the phone, say a prayer, plead my heart, you know, bleeding heart out to God, like, please, this is my one chance. Called every single person in my family and said, don't you dare bail him out. This is our 1 fan. He'd been bailed out before. And I was like, that's not going to help him.

It never helps you.

Never. No. And so. And he had gotten, you know, he'd been thrown in jail on a technicality. It was basically, you know, like a light was out on his car. And then they found out that his license was expired or, you know, suspended or something, because it always is in that lifestyle. And anyway, and so then I called the courts and I said, he's a flight risk. Keep him in as long as you can. He was so mad at me. Gives me a call back. And I said, josh, I love you so much. I'm so sorry. We're not going to bail you out. He was so mad. And when I would try to call, you can, you know, it's this whole process to try to call the courts or try to call the jail. And every single time I would call, he'd cuss me out. He was so mad. He's going through the most painful withdrawals and the way he describes it is it feels like every bone in your body is breaking. You're also super, super sick. You know, all these. All the things that are going on. Well, they kept him in there for over 30 days. Well, when those 30 days were up, I packed up my newborn baby. I. And I just loaded my car full of stuff, and I drove down to Arizona and I said, you are not leaving my side. This is right after you got out of jail. If you're going to the bathroom, I'm waiting outside the door. Like, I don't know how long I'd be here, but this is what we're going to do. He ended up getting clean. He's now been clean for 11 years. He broke the record, the world record in weighted dips. He now manages the largest student housing project in the state of Utah, very successfully breaking records for them. He's. He's married and has more children now. I mean, it's the biggest miracle. And to see, if you look at statistics, it's less than 2 to 3% chance that they'll ever get fully, fully clean. If it's heroin and meth and living on the streets.

Yeah.

I mean, he won't even take an Advil because he doesn't want to, like, change the state of mind at all.

Yeah.

And he just had a major elbow surgery. He wouldn't take any painkillers, and he was suffering, but he will knock. Go down that path ever again. And to see that you can come from the lowest, like the dregs of society and now be, you know, make. You're in the. You know, you're in the top 1% now, the money that you're making and you have this successful family and everything, to see that miracles do happen. When you put the two things together of faith in God, real faith, like, with evidence and hard work and determination, you can literally overcome anything. So that's been kind of the basis of my podcast, is hearing stories that of people who've overcome. In fact, Elizabeth Smart was on there. We all know her story. That's. Yeah, she overcame a lot, you know, so that. That's one of the many stories, but probably the biggest one.

No, I love that. In fact, it. It makes me think of something real fast. And I knew. I knew our conversation might go a couple different directions. I'm kind of leaning to this one for a second.

It seems to me that in my life and then in the lives of people that I know that have become uber successful, quote, unquote, on their own, like, we. We know there's a greater power that's driving the bus, right?

Definitely.

But I can't, on the top of my head right now, I can't think of one single person that has been uber successful that has not had to go through a crushing. Oh, and it reminds me of a friend of mine. My very first live event. My. I don't know, I can't remember if my audience. I don't even know if share. I've shared this modus before. My very first live event in 2017, I was supposed to teach for three days straight. I had 14 keynotes lined up back to back in a three day seminar called Transform you. The night before, I was notified that my then executive team had planned to try to take the company out from under me and embezzled like 1.7 million bucks. Okay.

We've definitely been there. Oh, sorry.

Oh, yeah, it's not fun. The, the crazy part was, is we had this, we had, I had a good friend of mine there that's, I, I, she's, she kind of walks in prophetic circles. That's kind of her, her way of connecting to God and stuff.

Yeah.

She walks in and I'm, and I'm, I'm about to lose it in tears. Oh. Like I'm supposed to step on stage and teach for three days straight. I have no idea what's going to happen to my business. I have no idea what's going to happen.

Anxiety right now.

Yeah. So. But she comes up and she says, and she says, oh. She goes, oh, no, honey. Oh no. I'm like, she kind of stunned me a little bit. And she goes, this is the cost of the calling. You can't go to where God's taking you to until you go through here. This is a gate. This is a life gate. You've got to go through this door.

Crazy part was I'll share this with you and I'll share with my audience publicly. Now, maybe I can't remember if I've done it yet before or not, but up until that point, I had been told that I was supposed to be a speaker and an author, do all these things that I am doing now and I'm supposed to do them at scale, but up until that point, I wanted those things for the benefit of myself, not for the benefit of others. After that point, everything that I did after that became for the benefit of others in spite of myself. Wow. You know what I'm saying? So I want to jump into the cost of the calling or the cost, because I again, there's a crushing phase that I feel like holds people back a lot for moving forward. They don't. They resist the crushing. And your brother's a good example of. I've resisted, I resisted, I resisted, I resisted. So much so that God wants your attention bad enough he will force a crushing upon you? I don't think so. Maybe kind of give me your sentiments on that because I know you got some vibe on it.

You know what? That's an interesting question. My husband says this all the time, that humans, we want to take the path of least resistance. It's just human nature. We want what's easy. And especially now. This makes me feel like such an old man. Like, get off my wand by saying this, but this generation, gosh, I feel so old saying that. But this generation, it's like, you see these tiktoks on these. These memes and everything about like, I have to work a 9 to 5. I shouldn't have to work a 9 to 5. It's like, that is a blessing. That is a blessing to be able to work. I was telling you this before we started. My husband and I just got back from Cambodia and Vietnam and just kind of eastern Asia. And just what they wouldn't give to be able to have just the run of the mill, nine to five job here.

Yeah.

We are so insanely blessed. And to shove that aside as if, no, I don't want to do that. Like, we would become lazy. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

So I had someone ask me this the other day. We're actually at the phone stores upgrading my phone, and I don't remember how. Oh, that's right. We started talking about, like, this. This is a college kid. I said, well, where do you live? Well, anyway, he happens to live in one of our housing projects, you know. And I was like, oh, my gosh, how funny. We all matter. He was like, you guys are the owners of that. And. And he was like, well, how do I get successful like that? And I could tell this kid was driven. He was this cute Hispanic kid. He was young. He had an accent, but he wanted it. And I said, do you really want to know? And he said, yeah, I really want to know. And I said, just exactly what I told you. I said, go and work hard if you want to be successful. Don't think I want to go from nothing to CEO. You have to go through, like you said, the crushing period. That's one of the things I love about you, by the way. You can just feel it just emanates from you're just like, do this, you know, the excitement for work. I love it so much. But one of the things, my brother, when he first got clean in those first two weeks that I was down in Arizona, I said, all right, this is the first thing you're going to need to be busy. Let's go get you a job. And he's like, no one's going to want me for a job. Like, I've been on drugs and I have a record. And I, you know, all these things. I said, stop thinking that way. Go start as a dishwasher.

Yeah.

So I said, you don't have a car. What's the closest place? He was staying at my mom's house, just for a few months there. And I said, there's an Outback Steakhouse right there. Go see if you can be a dishwasher.

Yeah.

He didn't. There's no pride in him. That was the first thing. Because pride is a barrier.

Pride, I love that.

Pride can be such. A. Pride is blinding. It talks about that in the scriptures. Pride is so blinding. We think we have to be this or we think we have to be that. No. Be humble. And doors will open. They will really, really open. So he goes and he says, you know what? Wherever you need me, that is where I will go. I don't have the greatest record. He was honest. That's another thing. He was honest. I'll be a dishwasher. So guess what? He did that for like six months. Well, they loved his work ethic. So then they bolted him up. Okay, fast forward like six years later. He was now managing and the most successful manager of any Outback.

Let's go.

In a six year period. But he started as just been clean for two weeks from heroin and meth. And so there's that. Well, then also take my husband. I don't, I don't usually say this publicly because for obvious reasons, but my husband is uber successful. Very, very successful. And I mean, people who know him know that, but he.

Absolutely nothing wrong with him being uber successful.

Yeah, right, right.

I know there's because you guys are uber. Because let's be honest, the audience doesn't know this, but I do. You guys are uber philanthropic. So.

Yes. Yes, he. He's actually. Yes. He is probably the most generous human you will ever meet.

It's called. I call it overflow.

Yes, I love that. I'm gonna use that. I'm gonna give you credit, but I'm gonna use that. That's awesome. But yeah, he's. But he went through the pressing period you're talking about, he talks about like when he first he raised his first million dollars. Well, first he started working for his dad and he grew that company like crazy because he's just the hardest workhorse you have ever seen and grew that. Well, anyway, they have a fallen and it was a really painful experience. And he decided, you know what? I. I'm going to show him. I'm going to go raise my own money. He raises money and he starts this business in the first year, fails miserably, but now he owes all this money, so. Million dollars. He's like, I've never in my life wanted to disappear. Like, I didn't want to die. I wanted to have never been born. That's how bad it was. Yeah, I want to never been born. I lost. Not only lost that money, but then some.

Yeah.

And so he's like, the only option was to either just quit and disappear or double down.

Yes.

Like, I'm just gonna have to double down, go raise more money, put myself more at risk, but just work as if my life depends on it, because it kind of does. And then he ended up being like record breaking sales for the, you know, he ended up being the number one provider of Dish Network. Remember Dish Network?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No one really uses that anymore. Right. But like they became the number one provider of Dish Network in the nation. And he became a multimillionaire, you know, like 31 or something, you know, and. But then Fast forward to 2008 and then another crushing period. Number. Hum. Another humbling situation happens. And when people are losing their house, you think they're going to pay on Dish Network.

Yeah.

No, everyone's losing their house. Everyone stops paying. And it's like the crazy amounts of money come coming in just stops. Then he has a fraudulent business partner too. So I'm like, there, yeah, I marry him at his lowest. So this beautiful thing because he got to see, like, I couldn't care less about the money because guess what? Not only was that all gone, all of it. All of it gone. Now there's a, you know, $6 million IRS lawsuit because of this fraudulent business partner. All the things are going down. Well, I marry him in the middle of this. And people have referred to him as a phoenix rising from the ashes because he could have given up and been like, I'm such a failure. I can't believe I have all this and it's all gone. Nope. He decided, you know what? I'm going to take whatever little amount of money I'm making Right now, I'm going to put this into a technology company. Well, that technology company he's built up has become one of the unicorns here in the state of Utah. And then he decided, well, since that's running smoothly and that's hired out, let me do this now. I'm going to do this company. And he's built it back up again. But that just proves that you can take no matter who you are, no matter what situation you come from or what you think you lack.

Yeah.

With God, because you better believe there was a lot of prayers. All. Another thing we did, too, in our religion, you know, we have the temples that you. Now that you're in Utah, I'm sure you could throw a dime, but yeah, we were going to the temple every single week. Anything that we could do to access the power of God in our lives, we were doing it, you know, and being honest, being super honest with our fellow man, too, is another thing we're doing. But it doesn't matter who you are, what you've come from, you can make something huge of yourself. But it does require those hard things, you know, having faith. Which is a lot easier said than done.

Yeah. You know, they say that even, even being atheistic requires faith.

Yeah. And something.

There's enough evidence now to say, hey, you're jumping out on it. You're jumping out on a limb here. Yeah, that's. So anyway, that's a whole another conversation.

But yeah, yeah, yeah, I've got a lot of opinions on that, too. I, I have close friends of every walk of life with love and adore me too. We have these conversations and it's, it's a beautiful thing, like, to, to believe in God. It really is.

I want to pivot just a little bit because I bet if we had your. I bet if we had your husband sitting right beside you right now, all this adoration and adornment and, and blessing you're throwing his way for his work ethic, telling us not to give out or give up.

Yeah.

I guarantee he would say that having you in his corner during the rebuilding phase would be incredible. And I say that because, you know, I'm fortunate to be seeing someone right now. That's. That has a Proverbs 31 mentality.

I've met her. She's awesome.

Yeah. So she's, you know, so I'm kind of like thinking through those types of things. I'm like, walking through. I'm like, you know, it's, it's, it's not impossible without a partner that's willing to stand beside you through thick and thin. But it's so much better. It is so much better. And you know, in the Bible, it talks about Proverbs 31, woman. You know, it says. It's in a roundabout way. It's kind of written to a. It's like written to a man from a man's perspective, but it's about the essence of a. Of a real woman. Right. So I'm going to jack it up a little bit. So a proverbs 31, a virtuous woman, a virtuous wife who can find for her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband can safely trust her, and he. And he will have no lack of gain. Okay, that's. That's phase one. Phase two is that she wakes up early, she has her own business, she's actually running her own teams, she's actually doing her own things, and she's building the family for the family. You know what I'm saying? And as. The more I get to know you and talk to you and, and learn more about you and what you guys have done, the more I see that, that synergy between the two of you guys, you know? And so as you're looking at that.

How important is it to have unbelievable communication in a marriage?

Oh.

Oh, gosh. I don't even know what avenue to take this, because that's such an important question. First of all, let me just say how inspired you are. And let me say thank you for saying that. That was so kind of you. Just, I mean, because I wasn't even thinking of credit towards myself, and that was so, like, generous of you to give that compliment. But let me just tell you how inspired you are. So I have a clip coming out today. I have a team that makes these clips for me for my podcast, and it's one I felt very, very inspired to do. And it's usually if you look at my podcast, you don't see me talking a lot. I like to really put the attention on other people.

You know, we gotta change. We gotta get you out there.

You are now the seventh person to tell me that. But I, I. Anyway, we'll talk later about that.

Yeah, and Randy knows I can help.

You do it, so I know you guys, you guys are the masterminds with this. I will gladly accept that help. But anyway, there's. There's this. I've had this feeling for weeks that I was supposed to post this clip of myself. I hate to admit this. I let fear hold me back a little Bit. And I finally was like, you know what? God, you want me to do this? I'm going to do this and I'm going to put it out there because I'm going to get so much hate for this. And I don't. I kind of don't care. I kind of feel like, you know what? If this is what's right, I'm going to do it. But it talks about. I know your question was about communication, but if you don't mind, I'm going to. Kind of the first part that I was thinking of when you started talking. So marriage and family. There is nothing, nothing on earth that matters more. And if you look at any social media or anything on the news or anywhere, there's a trend right now, especially towards women, it's geared towards women. I personally think it's coming straight from the adversary, the US Opinion on that, to make women not want to be interested in marriage and family and not having children. And they talk about what a burden that would be and how. And they glorify this life of singledom and, you know, all these things. And. And anyway, this clip coming out is me talking about, please do not give in to the lie that marriage and family are not worth your time. There is nothing on earth that will be more worth your time. And I can testify to that. So, yeah, I did these businesses and things like that before, and I always give my input to my husband on his businesses and things like that. And he likes to credit me with. With stuff. And I think that's very, very generous every time.

Yeah, no, no offense, but that's. It's. I was telling Chassis one time recently, I was like, you know what? Here's the thing is I want to know if you get, if you get a bad feeling or Spidey sense, I want to know. Yes, like, immediately. It doesn't matter if you know the inner workings of whatever deal I'm working on or whatever. If you get a bad feeling, we get. We go into a room and you. And you just get a bad feeling about so and so. I need to know.

See, you're such a good man. See, that's something a lot about you, though, that, that shows the humility we're talking about. Like, instead of like, I'm, you know, big successful Steven, because you are. You could easily take it that route if you wanted to, but you're willing to listen. Like, you know what, you have a lot to give too, even, like you said, even if you don't know those aspects of it. So there have Been three times that I told my husband, I do not feel right about these people. All three times I was right. There's only three times. I usually don't speak up. I'm. There's people tell them, like, I think, I don't know that I love them, but they'll be fine, you know. But three times I was like, no, they have very bad intentions.

Yeah.

And they did. It was proven later on that they did. And that's not to say like, oh, I'm so right all the time. It's not that. It's like, I feel like I'm going to give where I can get, but with right now, like, I had my businesses and stuff before and I, and I do have my podcast now, but I take all that energy and people have told me they think this is wasted. I totally disagree. I have all, you know, I have a degree. I, I ran these businesses and stuff and they're like, well, what are you doing now? In fact, I had an old employee come up to me. I ran into her somewhere and she said, so what are you doing now for work? And I said, oh, I'm still working, just in a totally different way. And they're like, what? And I said, being a raising leaders. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And she said, no, I mean like a real job. And I never real job.

So like, that's, that's what society thinks is like, you have to be in the workforce in order to be doing something credible. But if you're someone who was raised by a stay at home mom, I've never met anyone who did not appreciate having a mom. And if you were someone like me who did not have a stay at home mom, I've never met anyone who didn't wish that they did.

Yeah.

And so I take all the energy, the whatever expertise I have, my experience, everything, and I put it fully into raising my children and being the best wife I can.

Yeah.

Think about how much my husband appreciates that. I'm going to make every feminist right now throw up. And that's okay. But I have a dinner ready when my husband gets home from work. And not only just at dinner most nights it's like, I mean, the table set in a beautiful way because I'm going to put every ounce of energy I have into doing the very best I can for whatever my job in life right now is, and that's being a wife and a mother. And I can't tell you, my daughter, who was supposed to be special needs, she just skipped a grade. My other son just skipped A grade, they're saying my next two are, are projected to also skip a grade. And this is not to brag, but this is because it's showing the effort that I've decided to put into this and not waste on things that will have no fruit.

Yeah.

And, and that's nothing against working, mom. Sometimes you have to work. And even some women who don't financially have to work, maybe mentally need to. This is no shame in that. This is whatever your job is, put your full amount and effort into it and let's stop judging each other.

Yeah.

Know what I mean?

Yeah. 100% I'm going to do it. Well, yeah, it has me thinking too. Like, when I, when I first connected with Chass at a personal level, one of the things that she told me early on is she's more interested in a traditional based relationship, meaning future marriage, all that kind of stuff. Like, she's, she's like, I'm totally cool with being in a wife capacity and having a husband and a husband capacity. I was like, okay, well, that's, that's in alignment with how things tend to work best. Not saying. It's the only way. Not saying whatever. But the interesting part about that is what you just just shared about your own household shows the intentionality. And I think intentionality is what breeds momentum. So if your husband knows, for example, that the home.

Write that down. I love that.

Absolutely. So that if your husband knows, if the home is completely safe and sound and he has faith in that, then he completely let that. He can let that go out of his mind while he's doing his own. His. His business. Right. I'll also tell you flip side. For us, Chaz is very much the same way. She's huge cheerleader, loves helping me win, which is great. We also are in the process of shaping her brand. Rehearse show that's going to be coming out later this year. And a book and all this stuff.

Tell me about that. So cool.

Right? So you get, you take all of these different parts and pieces and you put all these things together. And what you see is it is possible to have two individuals operating in two different giftings and still have a partnership that operates in a succinct gifting.

Oh, yes.

And I think a lot of times that's the disruption because anytime you can create a division, you can separate performance. You see what I'm saying? So from my perspective, I personally tend to be more of a traditional mindset when it comes to marriage, relationships, stuff like that. And I'm that way because for me, for my. What I've witnessed is the comp. As the couples like Randy and Char, for example, are great examples as well. The couples that are unified, the children do really well. They do really well. Their businesses prosper, you know. And Char had her own business that they exited along a number of years ago. It's like, well, she did not saying, you can't, you can't. Totally uber successful profession and calling. Yeah, exactly. So I think that's, I think that's where people get it. Miss. I think, I think the, the lie is that you have to choose one or the other or some variation of it.

Yeah.

I think from what I've heard you explain and I know what Chas and I talked about, it's just getting clear on what each other expects for the role and responsibility and getting clear on what.

And this is goes back to God. And I know not everyone believes in God, but for me it's been getting clear on what is it that you want me to do?

Yeah.

Because might be, hey, I want you to start a business while you're raising a family. Great. Go do that. That's great. We need leaders. We need female and male leaders, you know, but like, for me personally, it's been, okay, let's hold off on that. And it's been way more successful. I know my husband's capability right now is going to be way more successful. Not because I don't have that capability, because I know that us together, me working on this and him working on that, we're going to have way more success and more fun. And way more fun. Yes. Way more. Like instead of us both coming home stressed, like he gets home and it. Not to say it's not stressful raising kids. Oh my gosh.

It's stressful in both camps.

Oh, yes, there is stuff, but it's a different kind. And so he's more excited, you know, to be with the kids when he gets home. And I'm needing a little bit of a break. I need adult conversation and want to hear about work. So I'm ready to be all ears about work and everything like that. And it's this amazing partnership. It's awesome.

Yeah. Oh, I think that's the key word. Relationships. If they're going to be. Relationships have to be partnerships.

They do. Yes.

Right. And a partnership reminds me of a bit like playing tennis. There's, there's always someone serving. There's always someone bouncing it back. Like there's, it's always a ping pong back and forth. I Think what I'm trying to make sure the audience fully appreciates. And. And I think the. My intent behind this particular show is again, not showing balance, but showing choice, showing depth of choice. Right. So getting to the place where we could illustrate that a defined partnership with intentionality that is actually unified together can grow a business, can grow a family can grow an impact, and all the philanthropic overflow that comes with it. And you guys are an amazing example of that. So I applaud you guys for that, for sure.

Thank you. I love the way that you said that, too. Because, let's be honest, is there actually really something known as balance? I mean, maybe there is from my. My life experience, more like a balance beam.

Like, feels like a teeter daughter. Like, there are times when it's like, okay, guess what? I just had a newborn. That means I'm not going to be balanced in my sleep or exercise or anything. I'm just not going to be balanced. That's just the way life is. But I can, like, you know, focus on this at the time and be heavy. Focus on this at a different point in my life. I'm going to be heavy focused on that. But it's like you said, choice. That just shows how inspired you are. Again, like, it's. It's choice. It all comes down to that. And that, that's one thing too, that my husband and I were talking about recently, we've been trying to teach our kids, is you are a product of your choices. You don't do the blame thing. In our house, you. If you hit your sister, it's not your sister's fault because she made you mad. No, you have a choice. Not on a very child level, but.

Even as an adult, it's still an adult level.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. There's so much blame going on, but the people you look at who are the most successful, I don't just mean financially. That is part of it.

Yeah.

You are actually, like, happy and truly joyful and feel, you know, you feel safe and you feel peaceful and you feel all the good things in life. Yeah. You are a product of your choices. And that's not to give glory to yourself. That. That's like a partnership with God, in my opinion, because like you, you're trying to do make good choices, but you're also relying on him. That. That's my personal opinion.

No, and I think that's spot on. In fact, I was telling the audience a few different times in a few different shows that, you know, I have the. I have the benefit of coaching and strategizing some nine and ten figure earners. And a lot of times in those, in those categories, there's a lot of missing joy, missing fulfillment, missing meaning. But they have everything under the sun, right, that they, they, they can go and do and whatever they want. And many of them are still philanthropic. It's not like they're not, they're not giving, but it's, it's what, what I've seen that's been missing a lot is the connection with the family.

Yeah.

It's like once I can get them reconnected with the family, get them reconnected with their spouse, get them reconnected with the partnership that, this, that, that thing can breed.

Yeah.

It's like the anchor of fulfillment then elevates everything. I love it, you know, so that's why I, that's why even though it's, it's outside looking in, it's like, okay, this is, we have a special marriage. It's great. It's awesome. I love it. It's unique. It's a unique positioning of what life could be like because, you know, you guys do enjoy the ability to be, you know, uber successful financially, philanthropically, the whole deal. But you guys have meaning and fulfillment.

Because you have each other and because we have God. And that's the thing too is like they're, they're, that. This is an entirely different podcast, but like, another factor to look at is families who are very successful and more unified. They go to church on a normal basis. Yeah, I mean, I know this every. I've said probably five things on your podcast. You're probably like, oh, these listeners are going to be so funny.

Now, about half our audience, Our audience comes from all walks of life.

Okay?

50% of them are believers and 50 are searching.

And I'm able to say this stuff as someone who went through periods of life that didn't live like this. Do you know what I mean?

And, and again, like I said, I came from a home where I had a working mother and, and a mom who wasn't really around that much, and, and maybe didn't love motherhood that much, you know, and so I'm saying this as someone who has actually lived kind of, you know, these lifestyle and stuff, and I've found for myself, if, if you're just asking my opinion, the things that have worked for us, take it or leave it, that's what's worked for us, you know?

Yeah, no, I love it. Well, look, I want to go back to the work ethic thing because I know that's something you're super passionate about. One of the things that I see with work ethic in general is most people won't put in the work because they don't think the work's going to matter. It's like that is, it's because they can't see the end from the beginning, you know, and for me, when I look at work ethic, I was telling my, my middle son this, who's now an adult and is married and the whole deal. When he was first got out, when he first got out of high school, he's like, I don't have my. I don't, I don't know what to do with my life. And I'm like, dude, you're gift. You're great with people. So I know for a fact it's gonna be something good with people. You're gonna be a pastor, an evangelist, an entrepreneur, a speaker, like the oyster is yours kind of thing. I said, but my, but my, my advice to you right now is to go knock something over.

Like, just get up and go knock something over. Go knock on a door, go shake a hand, go mow a lawn, go rake some leaves. Just do it. And that the momentum that's created by up leveling your work ethic over and over and again you mentioned earlier, opens the door for massive opportunities.

Yes.

Were there. Was there ever a time where you struggled with work ethic and then if so, how did you shift it?

Oh, definitely. I say this as I'm a workhorse and so is my husband, and we can both work circles around just about anyone we know. But I have been in that downward spiral, and I always call it that because it is one if you're not. It's like that, that phrase, God can't steer a parked car. If you're sitting around doing nothing and hoping for the right opportunity to come, it's not going to come. Yeah, have to get up and go. So I say this as kind of a hypocrite because I have been that person. So I remember when I was younger, I was wanting to start this business, but you need capital a lot of the times to start a business. I was like, I have this idea in my head. And I knew it was something I needed to do, but I wanted to, you know, spending so much time planning, which can also be a problem eventually if you're spending too much time planning. And. And I needed to go get the money, you know, so I actually needed to work. My family didn't have money, my friends didn't have money. So I was gonna have to go work to get it, but I spent so much time. And now we're into, like, months of, like, I'm running thin on whatever funds I had left just to, like, live, you know? And I remember, like, having this feeling, like, just go work. Just get up and go get a job. I don't care what it is, go get a job. So you're doing something. You will feel what. What I like to call the Holy Ghost or the Spirit, you know, you will feel that in your life. That's what creates comfort and peace in your life. You'll feel that excitement for life. You'll start getting ideas which I also think are from God. Start getting all these answers when you get up and do. And so, yeah, there's. But I can. There's a lot of times in my life where. Where I can say, like, some of them were pure laziness. That's what it was. Some of them was anxiety driven. Like, well, I need to do this, so I can't do this. So you get. So forget all that. Just get up and work. I have a friend right now who I love dearly, one of my very best friends. She's been out of work for over a year. She quit her job without having another job, which I think is a big mistake, without having a plan. Her hope was, I'm going to do some stuff from home. But she didn't have a clientele, bill, so don't ever do that, first of all. Most people know that. But she quit her job without having a job, and her plan was, well, within a couple months, I will have built up this clientele, which you have to be a realist, too. You know, you have to understand, like, you got to build that up first and then transition over. And you might have kind of a hard period there, but you can still make that work. Well, now it's been a year, and now she's, you know, having to stay at people's houses and stay in their room for free or on their couch or wherever, because she's gone down such a downward spiral. And again, I love this person dearly. But I had even said, hey, I found this lady who needs a nanny, and she's paying more than anyone I've ever heard of paying for a nanny. She's like, well, it's not quite what I want to make. And I'm like, just go work. Like, just go get something and start moving. And if you don't know what to do just yet, get outside, start running. Just start Running and then pray as you're running, just get in motion and ideas will start to come. And then just go where? Even if you have to go bottom of the barrel, that humility, you'll be so blessed for. It's like I said of my brother, just go get and do something, and you'll be so blessed.

I love it. I love it. Well, look, I've enjoyed hanging out with you for this time. This is amazing. Can't wait to get you guys know even further now that we're officially neighbors. Yes. In the meantime, where can the audience find out more about you? The podcast, all that good stuff.

Oh, thank you. So I just actually started it probably about four and a half months ago, and it, like you said, it's kind of taken off a little bit, but on Instagram, it's called Good Things Spotlight. On YouTube, it's good things Spotlight. We actually took it off of the. The podcast forums, and I'm quickly finding out that was a mistake because so many people have been like, I can't find it anymore. But we were spending so much on our camera and. And editing and our cameraman and everything that I was like, no, they need to see people's reactions and stuff and watch it on YouTube. And so we might be putting it back on those podcast forms this week. So on. On all of the forms, it'll be Good Things Spotlight.

Awesome. Christina, thank you so much for coming on. I can't wait to get to know you better and see you soon.

You too. You're awesome. Thank you.

All right, take care. I hope you liked that video. And if you did, make sure you check out this next video right here. Chronic illness is ultimately the leading cause of death in the United States. At 71%, we've accepted that normal is 69% of our population is either obese or overweight. At this rate, by 2030, it means that approximately 70% of the population will be obese or overweight.