Transform Your Dreams into Reality with This Mindset

What's up, guys?

Thank you for that. Oh, trying to run.

Hear it? I ready? I got a list. I got a list. I've only been this one. I got a list. Mickey Mouse. Let's see here. Give me a second. Hi, Donald. Bugs Bunny. Don't know him. You said on demand. I said. I said cartoon voices. I didn't say which cartoons. Okay. Don't forget me. There you go. Can you do Shrek? No, I can't. Okay.

I can do Donald Duck. So there we go. First of all, I just want to thank everybody for being here. You guys are the chosen. You guys are the selects. You guys took the time out of your busy schedules, your busy family lives to be here and get poured into and find just one thing. Sometimes it can make all the difference in the world and change the game. Crystal. I can't believe it. Six months ago, seven months ago, you told me about this vision. He said, I got this vision. I want to unify all the businesses on the planet, basically.

And I want them to do it in Christ so they go out and serve the marketplace in a way that is healthy and wealthy and wise. Many times I actually share from stage that that's my mantra every day. I wake up each morning, I thank God for the opportunity to serve, just as I'm doing here, as I was doing backstage. And I'm always grateful because I am healthy, I am wealthy, I am wise. But most of all, I'm a steward of the most high. So stand up for a second. We're going to do this together.

I want you to use this mantra as often as you see fit, because by doing so, you're going to anoint something in your voice, in your mind and your eye, if you will, that will lead you to a better day fighting the battlefield of business. And I've been through embezzlement, making payroll, and all kinds of stuff on this journey. So repeat after me. I am healthy. I am wealthy, I am wise. I am a steward of the most high.

I am healthy, I am wealthy, I am wise, and I am a steward of the most high.

All right, be seated.

You know, as we start to walk this journey out, we are always trying to figure out as speakers, as people who kind of stumble our way into speaking is kind of what I did.

What it is that everyone needs to hear. You know, when you're starting your speaking journey, the first thing you do is you figure out, man, what is it I need to say? What do I need to say to get their attention, to get their heart, to get their mind and be, oh yay, they're looking at me.

Through maturity, you understand something different through maturity and crushing. I'll never forget this. I was about to step on stage in 2017 to do a conference for three days straight. I spent months in and months and months preparing for this conference. Months. And in doing so, one of the things that never happens is you get excited. You got all this curriculum, you got all this content, you're super excited, you're ready to get going, you're ready to make the day great. And that night I was notified that my executive team at the time was pulling the rug out from under my business, which at the time was about a 40 million dollar business, my entire executive team, because I chose to go out and serve without keeping an eye on them.

If you have an executive team, it's still your responsibility to make sure they're managing their responsibility.

It's not something you walk away from. It's not something you can be blind to. It's not something you can just kind of stick around and kind of hope it works out.

If you're going to be the founder, the president, the CEO, the creator, then you have to do everything in your power, everything in your power to make sure you mentor well. You know, I was listening to the talk just before this about hiring and importance. I got one subtle shift I'm going to recommend. I actually believe it's wiser to hire slow fire, fast, but more importantly, mentor. Often.

The core attribute of Jesus Christ himself was one of teaching and mentorship and guiding and being real with people.

He gravitated towards the humanness of humans that brought in the kingdom of heaven through the spirit of grace, wisdom and mentorship. He talked about stewardship. You know, I'm a big believer. I've done this. I'm very fortunate now and I've given a lot of resource away.

Sometimes to my detriment.

I've given resources away before trying to help someone in need or trying to help a family in need, or trying to help a business in need or a church in need. And the weight of the gift was far more than the character of the reception.

The gift that I gave crushed the house because they weren't ready. So as you decide to sow into businesses and communities and churches and families, I want you to actually think through the lens of stewardship. Don't ask how much money they need, ask what they need to know.

What do they need to know? What do they need to know to actually understand how to use that resource? And then by all Means bless them like nobody's business.

When I'm thinking through all these different levels and all these different things I've been through personally, I get lost sometimes. I get lost sometimes in which story to share. I was telling somebody just in the back of the room not that long ago, they were like, well, tell us about your life. I'm like, man, we do not have enough time for that.

My life's a lot like Forrest Gump, you know, I don't have a Jenny, but you know, I'm doing all right. Or Joseph. I've been in lots of pits. I've been in lots of darkness, including my own salvation experience.

I'm going to share a very quick story from the Bible that I think has a lot of weight into what I believe. I was called here and brought here to share with you. And as my pastor friend Jamal that I heard during his breakout session said, I'm going to call an audible, a Holy Spirit audible. I've been praying and thinking through this. I was on an airplane flying here yesterday, six hour flight from Utah with connection and trying to figure out, lord, what is it they need to hear? You know, we have to turn our slides in early and kind of get everything prepped up and kind of say, well, this is going to be our plan.

And then I get here. And some of you guys may have noticed I hovered in the back of the room during the worship service. Sound check. I was praying over the seats. There's a good chance I prayed in your seat for you, for your business, for your family, for your marriage, for your mate that you want. That hasn't arrived yet.

But more importantly, I'm praying for your shift. Let me explain where I come from from a shift perspective, I believe you cannot operate in the kingdom until you can operate in grace.

You see, there was this group of people 2,000 years ago, sitting in the desert in a temple of Jerusalem over in the side corner, watching Jesus and his disciples talk. And while Jesus is ministering and talking to people instead, what happened was these guys over here, these Pharisees and Sadducees, they're over here doing their thing. How can we get them? How can we get them? You see, they knew that Jesus was hanging out with tax collectors. They knew Jesus was going to the dark places. They knew Jesus was healing the sick, helping the blind see, allowing them to hear.

And yet.

How can we get him?

He's taking our authority away. He's becoming more, we're becoming less.

And Jesus minding his own business, doing what only Jesus does.

The kingdom of heaven is like the good seed. You see, Jesus deals in seed.

He doesn't. When you go to God and you say, God, God, I need a new table, I need a new business, I need a new business idea.

He doesn't give you the tree, he gives you the acorn to be to build the tree. Every single one of your businesses are just like that. But as these guys are over here, they're contemplating how they're going to kill Jesus or catch Jesus in a trap so they can accuse him.

This woman being drug in by other SA and Sadducees are being drug in. It's normal.

Jesus, she was caught in the very act of adultery. The Moses law says we should stone her. We should stone her, Jesus, what do you say?

Jesus kneels down and he starts doodling.

To this day, we have zero idea what he wrote in the ground.

But as he's doodling, some say he was writing the sins of everybody that was surrounding them.

Some say he was dotting the lines between that woman's journey of how she ended up there to begin with, what broke her heart in such a way that it prevented her from ever feeling loved and having to be chased or feeling like she had to find chasing or love in the arms of someone else, not realizing her entire love was actually built in Jesus to begin with. But here's the good part.

She is about to encounter Jesus.

She's about to look him dead in the eye.

And as Jesus doodles, he stands up.

And he says the famous line.

He who is without sin cast the first stone.

Now, I just threw a pebble on the ground. I'm very fortunate to have the name Stephen with a ph. My mother would chew you out if you called me Stephen with a V. But let me show you something.

The stone I just threw on the ground was not the stone they would have used at the time.

This stone bears weight.

This stone hurled from here to 10ft will do some serious damage, especially thrown as hard as you can. You see, Stephen, in the Bible was the first person to ever be stoned to death on behalf of Christ. Some say in the Greek it actually means crown or the crown one. I don't know what it actually means in Hebrew. I need to do that research. But more importantly, I want you to sense the stone.

The reason I want each and one of you to sense the stone is because if you're going to build a business empire, you're going to operate with people. You're going to operate with people in your business, you're going to operate in your home, with your family. You're also going to operate with people in the marketplace. And just in case you all don't know, some of us are crazy. I'm serious. I've been known to be that guy from time to time myself. Here's what I want you to understand.

When I was asking God and I was praying on the plane, lord, what do you want me to share? What do you want me to share? He says, I want unity.

I want unity.

I want you to stop bickering amongst yourselves. I want you to listen to what I told you.

Love one another as I have loved you. Abide in my love. Stop throwing stones at each other.

You are wounding the body. You're separating the body. You're causing the net to fray, which means fish are escaping.

He also said, I'm coming soon.

I am coming soon.

Your businesses are harvest nets. Not just for your way of thinking, not just for your team, not just for the marketplace. Your businesses are fertile ground.

Your business, what you say and your vision, your mission, your core values, decide what I stand for, what I stand against.

And all because you stand against something doesn't mean you pick up a stone and throw it at somebody with it.

It's a bigger thud.

You know, I was debating if I was even to get to the clicker, to be honest, because of what's burning in my heart right now.

You see, a lot of times I get a lot of credit for building businesses and building teams and traveling and speaking and writing books and helping thought leaders win, creating funnels and whatever the heck the stuff that we celebrate is.

Let me tell you who I really am. I'm a nine year old boy who took care of his grandmother while she was dying from cancer. I was an 11 year old kid when I caught my mom to contempt her first attempt at suicide. I dropped out of high school at 17 years old. Helped my family pay the bills because we couldn't keep the lights on.

I bounced around the construction industry. Then I worked at Waste Industries, which is a trash company, delivering trash cans.

Always getting recognized for having some level of leadership. Getting promoted often.

Me always trying to figure out who I was. Me answering the same questions you're answering.

Am I worthy of a voice?

Let it sink in.

Beating myself up with my own stuff.

Almost taking my life on a bridge. Until a little whisper on my shoulder said, no, no, no, no. I want you to call Mama Wama. Mama Wama got me off that bridge. I'd tell you the whole story, but we take up way too Much time.

Fast forward. I surrendered my life to Jesus while cleaning the litter box.

Because I was so sneaking broke. I needed 50 bucks.

And the harder I fought to you. You did this. You did this. Quietly surrendered. Good. Come on. Come on, kid. Let's get it out of you. Let's get it out. Come on. I believe in you. Come on, get it out. Finally surrendered my life to Jesus. Three days later, I start my first business out of the trash piles of a construction site on a second chance I did not deserve.

I use biblically based principles. When I say biblically based principles. I studied proverbs, I studied psalms, I studied the book of John.

I looked and said, what is what? For lack of a better word, Back in the day, they used to have these bracelets. What would Jesus do?

I stopped listening to man. I started listening to Jesus.

Jesus clearly states, I am the way, the truth and the life. There is no way to the Father but by me.

Meanwhile, we squabble over all kinds of dissension stuff that's stupid, that will not make a hill of beans in heaven.

Guys, it's time we wake up. Billy Graham said the greatest move of God was going to come through the businesses.

Before he passed away. That's exactly what he said.

This is the fertile field.

Let'S be honest. I'm going to show you something here. If I get the clicker to go with me here, this guy, George Stallings, AKA the Silver Fox.

You see, one of the reasons that I love that story about Jesus and the Pharisees is because after he challenged them to drop their stones, he went back to writing for a minute. He's like, let's see what they do with that one.

And as the people fall away one by one, slowly, piece by piece, Jesus still, while kneeling down according to the scriptures, looked over, saw this woman. And I would say, knowing him, he probably got really close.

Some translations say he calls her woman high person. Believe in the other translation where he calls her daughter.

Daughter. Where are your accusers?

There are none, Lord. Great. Neither do I condemn you.

Go your way and sin no more.

If we ever hope.

To win people to Christ, we have to stop being the impediment to them.

Because of whatever doctrine you grew up in, whatever environment that's based on religion.

Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. If it's not of Jesus, it should not be part of your life, period.

He's the one that told us about the power of the parable of the talons. He's the one that told us the Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. By the way, meekness is knowing you have the power but choosing not to use it.

My grandfather told me when I started this journey, I just started building the construction business and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make payroll. I mean, I did it to eat. Like I hadn't had a good meal, a week long meal in a long time. When I started that business, I darn sure didn't know anything about leadership or team building or payroll or HR or insurance or nothing. Cost management, return on investment, my favorite return on time. Rot.

I know exactly how much money it cost me to be here because I do the work. It's funny, as I'm going through this, I'm just thinking through all these different things and in this moment in time, I'm just, I'm scared to death. I'm like, it's working kind of, but it's kind of not working. My credit is tore up from the floor up. I have zero. Like, I can't borrow money. Which turned out to be a blessing.

I build all my businesses on cash, all of them.

And for you to believe you can't do it, you're telling yourself a lie. It will actually cause you to be a better steward with better resources because you will have to pick and choose your priorities.

And I'll never forget this to say in my life. My grandfather, he looked who's passed away, passed away in 2016. He is the reason that I found it to Jesus, because when I would meet him weeks and months before that, he would have these conversations. He said, son, you gotta be willing to dig past the answers that you want.

So when I was looking for confirmation bias about, I don't know, the dinosaurs and monkeys and all kinds of stuff, and he's like, well, let me ask you an easy question. I was like, sure, granddad, get me on his question. Easy question. Well, if we evolve from monkeys, how could we still have monkeys?

He said, I can find dinosaurs in the Bible. In job, it's called behemoth or leviathan. Like I never thunked that before.

But in the grand scheme of things, he's having these conversations and he said, I always want you to remember, if you're ever going to service at scale, whether it's business, whether it's relationships, whether it's now traveling and speaking, no matter what it is, if you're ever going to do that, you're going to have to become one part lion and one part lamb. More importantly, you have to determine or develop the wisdom to know the difference when you need to do one or the other.

Sometimes your team does need a big kick in the butt. You've been telling them, you've been telling them, you've been telling them. You've written them up, you've written them up and they're not getting it.

Sometimes you don't know this, but they're going through a divorce right at the moment and they have no idea. You have no idea they're doing it. Sometimes they need a hug.

My grandfather led me back to Christ. Cause I was baptized at 9. I lost my way. Cause I thought, don't we all think that because our life is not going the way we wanted, that somehow God is not there or doesn't love us in the storm.

Every storm shapes you. In fact, I'll tell you this much. I personally believe that the greatest purpose in life you will ever have is serving the person you used to be.

That's the only way you develop the traits and the character and the honor, the integrity to carry your lamb and your lion. It's the only way you ever develop the diligence, the understanding, the wisdom to know the difference.

There are times in your life when you can really again. There's tough love that's needed. There are other times you just need to sit and sit and hold somebody as they cry.

Jesus did all the above. He did all the above in that one story.

Think about it. Minding his own business, carrying the gospel.

Pharisees over here doing their thing. Sadducees doing their thing. Throw the woman down to her. He gave her the lamb. The Pharisees, he gave the lion.

Because of a couple things. Let me give you a couple little things here. The first thing I want you to understand is you need to match your emotional intensity to your Christ centered aspirational identity.

We all have a better way forward. We all have things we need to understand. We all have moments of where we need to become more like Christ, more like Jesus. That's how we're going to be ready when he returns. And he's coming soon. Guys.

Revelations talks about China and Russia. First time in the history that China and Russia are becoming little buddies.

Scripture doesn't lie. We may misinterpret it, but it doesn't lie.

So what does your emotional intensity mean? It means your passion, your purpose, your commitment being exactly dialed in to the next thing in hand. You did not come to this earth to live a passive life. You came to this earth to get something done in a way that only you can do it based on the journey that only you have lived.

I've been very blessed. I was listening to a couple of the speakers already share their times of when they were unfortunately unfaithful to their partners. And I was also listening to their stories privately about how their partners literally forgave them in the moments. You know how much courage it takes to share that kind of story.

So tell me, what's holding you back from sharing yours?

People are not going to come to Christ because you tell them to. They're going to come to Christ because you show them your way. How.

The lion and the lamb.

The love, the empathy, the grace, the mercy, the diligence. I've identified eight centered traits that I want to share with you real fast, the first of which is honor.

I want to start by. Obviously, I wanted to start by honoring Crystal and this vision that she's trying to carry forth. By the way, this next one, threefold bigger than this one.

The little bitty hairs on my arms are standing up. Okay? And here's one of the ways we're going to do it. Everybody write five names down of people that should have been here right now.

Other business owners that should have been here, other COOs and CFOs and executives. Write their names down.

It's your time to invite them.

I wanted to honor Jamal for those of you guys who missed his breakout session.

Son.

You missed an impartation. You might want to shake his hand before you leave today.

Honor. Honor is part of the lamb. It's part of love, fairness. Being fair, but being just.

I got news for you. One of the things I've discovered is being a father now to multiple children from different marriages and stuff like that. I biologically can't have kids. So when I was able to have kids, meaning through marriage, I was very blessed. I also learned that I'm somewhat of a father to the fatherless, which is kind of weird, but kind of a blessing at the same time. Since I grew up without a father until I learned about my father. Isn't that kind of cool? All right. Fairness the lamb. One of the things you understand is you cannot give a child everything they want. You have to give them what they need.

And when they're operating in obedience, then you can give them some of the things, some of the things they want. The worst thing you can do is over bless an adult, over bless a child.

Empathy. This is where your story is important.

I'm an ADHD dyslexic kid. I've never Graduated high school. The max of my stint is a ged. But God used a trash pile on a construction site and a willing heart to develop an incredibly large organization. I just exited last year.

And he will do the same for you, but only if you turn over your loaves.

Turn over your fish. Turn over your loaves. Justice the lion.

Justice doesn't mean growling.

Justice means I stand up for Jesus.

I stand up for Jesus. If Jesus finds it unjust, I'm going to stand in the gap, allow it not to be unjust anymore.

Jesus is tired of his body being ripped apart. The body has to choose to join back together. Aside of denominations, aside of different wedges, aside of all the things that the world is telling you we should separate over. Wake up.

Justice. What's injustice for people to go to hell, that's unjust.

What's just is helping people get there, not hell Heaven. For clarity's sake.

Get that one off of YouTube. Integrity the Lion. You know, also one of the things that happens when I do these events a lot of times everybody wants me to talk about business tactics and strategies and the five drivers you can focus on in building a business and the seven enemies of identity and all these different cute little phrases that, you know, know drive home certain pieces of content. And inevitably I'm always torn. And I was so grateful that Crystal asked me point blank, please don't do business strategy, please don't do business content. Please share me share with them about what Jesus says about Corinthians 3.

My. I sent her and Eric this like list of how I came up with the title of the talk, which, by the way, this is the first time I've done this with one. The title of the talk and everything like that and all that. And it all centered around unity. Building better teams, building better marriages, building better businesses. We're people guys.

And anytime we allow ourselves to feel bigger than someone else, that means that person feels small. What we should be doing is what Jesus did, which is raising people up. You can never reach the loss unless your hand is out.

Oath. Let your yes be, your yes, your no be or no. That's the lion and the lamb, which are designed to lay down together. By the way, Jesus said it first. We didn't coin the phrase one part lion, one part lamb. If you do want business content, you can take a screenshot of that real fast. I'll give you a couple seconds to do that if you want, and we'll keep moving on. But there's one thing I'm going to close with In a couple of minutes, this is going to be super important. But before we set the tone for that, I want you to be thinking about someone that you desperately love.

That doesn't know the truth about Jesus yet. Okay? So that's one thing I want you to see in your. The second thing I want you to think about.

Is the thing you haven't let go of yet.

The guilt you're carrying, the shame you're carrying.

Because if Jesus can do it for one, he does it for all. You got those seeds in your brain. I want you to marinate on those.

Diligence. We've heard a lot of talk about diligence the last couple days. I heard a great talk this morning about diligence and the importance of diligence. Diligence is putting your hand to the plow. It's not waking up when you want to, kind of hanging out when you want to. It's also not allowing yourself to get overly burdened in a day that you don't get anything done. It's about setting dominoes up in your favor.

So that priorities knock them down on your behalf.

Resilience. People of God, have you had to be resilient? I didn't hear you. That's what I thought. Me, too.

That's what it means to be one part lion and one part lamb. As we wrap this thing up, I want. Everybody stand up, please. I want you to keep your phones out. I want you to get your cameras out on your phone. I want you to turn them towards you, not towards me. I am not supposed to be the center of attention. Okay, Turn your little videos on.

You got those people in your mind? Yes. The people that need Jesus, that haven't met him yet? Yes. You got somebody. You got the thing that you haven't held onto yet. Maybe something a little bit left. It's okay to have a little bit left. Yes.

I want you to receive these words as if Jesus himself was speaking to you. I also want you to share it with yourself because I often wonder if that lady, even after receiving Jesus, took the next step. Repeat after me. I forgive you.

Have you ever forgiven yourself for the stupid crap you did? I know I did that. It took me another decade before I realized that. Let's do it one more time. I forgive.

You. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. And you're supposed to be the cup bearer. Go pour that cup of goodness in Jesus on as many people as you possibly can. While on this earth, do not hesitate. The time is drawing nigh. Get busy. I love you.