Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Travis Hearn - Senior Pastor of Impact Church and Author | The Fire Is For You
Transcript
- 0:00I wouldn't be who I am today without it. I always say I went from jail to Jesus.
- 0:03So I just discovered my purpose in life. That was a wild day.
- 0:07Travis Hurn is the senior pastor of impact church in Scottsdale, Arizona,
- 0:11a fast growing church that began as a Bible study for the Arizona Cardinals.
- 0:15When I was a senior in high school, a basketball coach called me and he said,
- 0:18want to go celebrate? I'm buying all the alcohol you can drink tonight.
- 0:21It takes some room. I pour it in a mason jar and then put a bunch of Coca-Cola, the rest, drink it.
- 0:25Then it was time to leave, so away from my house, red and blue lights go off behind me,
- 0:30so he puts me in jail. Got suspended from my senior, your baseball team because of this that night.
- 0:35My mother picking up from jail, she was like, hey, you want to stop by my pastor's house.
- 0:39That was the trajectory changed my life.
- 0:42As team pastor for the NBA's Phoenix Sons and a former chaplain for the NFL and Major League
- 0:47baseball, Travis has spent decades guiding professional athletes and communities alike.
- 0:51The more connected you are, the more protected you are.
- 0:55I'm on my back. I look at this one firefight and I go, what do you think I should do?
- 0:59He goes, I think you should go to the hospital. That is amazing.
- 1:02I didn't know this man. I didn't know him into my church.
- 1:05He didn't know whose house he was walking into.
- 1:07If he did not say, I would have been dead within the hour.
- 1:10With over 25 years in ministry, multiple books and a powerful new release, the fire is for you.
- 1:15If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change,
- 1:19there's nothing in life that you'll ever go through that the Bible doesn't already talk about.
- 1:23Travis continues to inspire through faith, leadership and resilience.
- 1:27This is Pastor Travis Hurn and this is his story.
- 1:30Welcome to success story. I'm your host, Scott Clary.
- 1:32The success story podcast is part of the HubSpot podcast network.
- 1:36They have great podcasts, but they also have great tools for entrepreneurs.
- 1:39That's why I've worked with them for over three years now.
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- 2:04Because if you think about what a day in the life of a marketer is,
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- 2:09you have to contact them, you have to create content,
- 2:12you have to gather data and tomorrow,
- 2:14you have to do it all over again and then you have to wonder if it's even working.
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- 2:59Think of a place,
- 3:10a thing to happen growing up,
- 3:11this sort of really imprints in your mind
- 3:13that put you on the path that you're on today.
- 3:15For me, I always start with my mom because my mom,
- 3:19my mom is everything, man, like I like everything.
- 3:23My mom is my mom and my parent.
- 3:25Like she's my mom and my dad.
- 3:26Like she's, she raised me and she had a tough life,
- 3:29man, she was born in Frisco and never had a dad.
- 3:33She was honestly, she was born out of an affair.
- 3:37And then never knew her dad, never had a dad, never knew the dad.
- 3:40And then when my mom was 13, she lived in Southern California.
- 3:45And then her mother was raped and murdered and found in the hills of Southern California.
- 3:52And so that's really what got us to Arizona.
- 3:55So it's interesting because I'm not even alive yet.
- 3:57But then my mom moved to Arizona to live with her grandmother,
- 4:01her only, you know, person she could live with, a family member.
- 4:04And three years later, at 16 years old, she had me.
- 4:07And dropped out of high school and she worked,
- 4:11or she worked her butt off like my whole childhood.
- 4:13And so my mom has been an anchor for my life.
- 4:18And she's a woman of God.
- 4:20She wasn't always, she wasn't always a woman of faith.
- 4:25But around my middle and high school years,
- 4:27she really got like this fire for the Lord.
- 4:29Like she's going to church all the time.
- 4:31I was like, dude, this is, this is weird.
- 4:33Like I thought it was weird.
- 4:34I'm like, my mother is at freaking church every night of the week.
- 4:37Like she's a radical.
- 4:38Like who is this woman?
- 4:40And I was an athlete.
- 4:42So I think I found through brokenness, my mom's first marriage,
- 4:47a lot of alcoholism, a lot of a lot of stuff abuse,
- 4:50the verbal abuse, anger issues.
- 4:53But they were young and they were dumb.
- 4:54And they eventually figured it out.
- 4:56And that marriage didn't last.
- 4:58And the next marriage, my mom was in her second marriage.
- 5:01And I have two half sisters out of that marriage.
- 5:04But then he, in year 13,
- 5:08she didn't own my mom and got another woman pregnant
- 5:10that my mom worked with.
- 5:12And so that child is now in his mid 20s.
- 5:16And my mother took him in like one of her own children.
- 5:19I mean, she's, when I say incredible, dude,
- 5:22incredible, like incredible.
- 5:24And really shows love like what I think God would show love.
- 5:29Like, you know, just, so yeah, I grew up,
- 5:34I think I found therapy in like my affirmation in sports.
- 5:39And so I was the best.
- 5:40I was the, you know, the quarterback of my football team,
- 5:42the point guard of my basketball team,
- 5:44the catcher for my baseball team.
- 5:45And I don't know, like back in the days when we could all play three sports
- 5:49and not have to play one all year around.
- 5:52But I think I found like something that I needed
- 5:57because of the brokenness in my life.
- 5:59And I was like, dude, if I'm great at sports,
- 6:01then people like me.
- 6:02People love me.
- 6:03And realizing how surfaced that is.
- 6:06And man, party to high school, middle school,
- 6:09drinking part, I mean, smoking like many.
- 6:11Yeah, you know, you have fun most,
- 6:14probably like most.
- 6:15And yeah, man, I mean, just really was that kid
- 6:20from the outside looked like maybe I had my crop together.
- 6:24And I really didn't.
- 6:26And I was kind of chasing the wind.
- 6:28And like, you know, then when I was a senior in high school,
- 6:33it was a crazy story.
- 6:34But my basketball coach for one year,
- 6:36that one year, 45 year old man,
- 6:40he called me and he said my car broke down.
- 6:43And he's like, bro, can you give me a ride
- 6:44to the all whatever selections, all state,
- 6:47Arizona, all state selections.
- 6:49It's like, yeah, you know, sure.
- 6:50So I give him a ride.
- 6:52He comes out and he's like, an hour later,
- 6:54I can't go in there because I'm a student athlete.
- 6:56It just coaches voting on players.
- 6:58And he's like, bro, you made, you know, whatever it was.
- 7:00I don't remember what the exact name of the award is
- 7:02because they always change all state, all conference,
- 7:04all read like whatever.
- 7:06But he goes, you made and I said, man, that's awesome.
- 7:09And he goes, yeah, he's like, you want to go celebrate?
- 7:12And, you know, I mean, I'm,
- 7:15but you're, you're partying and drinking up to this point.
- 7:17It's not like no doubt. Yeah.
- 7:19But, but in my head, I'm 17.
- 7:21He's 45. He's a teacher at the school.
- 7:23He's a coach of a basketball.
- 7:24You know what I'm saying?
- 7:25So, and I'm, I'm kind of like, is this a setup?
- 7:28I'm like, you know, I'm kind of like like, like,
- 7:30and so I was like, you know, well, you know,
- 7:32what do you have in mind?
- 7:33And he's like, why got this, this girlfriend?
- 7:35He was a single dude, lives down the road.
- 7:37And, man, I'm buying all the alcohol you can drink to,
- 7:40like, it's our me and, but it's just you.
- 7:42He's us. He's under us.
- 7:43Me. Oh, that's weird.
- 7:44Yeah, that's really fucked up.
- 7:45Really weird.
- 7:47So, and at 17, I'm like, I mean, okay, like, I got a buyer.
- 7:51Like, at 17, you're trying to figure out who's going to buy my alcohol.
- 7:54So, I'm like, I got a buyer. Let's go.
- 7:56And so, we did be into this house.
- 7:58And, and, man, I just remember he was gone.
- 8:01I don't know what he was doing.
- 8:02He was in some back room with this girl.
- 8:05I think he was using probably some sort of drug.
- 8:08And so, I'm left out in the kitchen in the wet bar by myself.
- 8:13And don't really know what I'm doing.
- 8:15You know, this is all this liquor.
- 8:17It takes some rum.
- 8:18I pour it in a mason jar.
- 8:20And it may be 25% and then put a bunch of Coca-Cola, the rest.
- 8:24Drink it. And I'm like, man, I didn't do anything.
- 8:26You know, so next next round is like a half a jar of rum and half coke.
- 8:31And I'm like, that didn't do nothing, man.
- 8:34Like, I'm a machine.
- 8:35Like, give me some more.
- 8:36So, the next one was it was literally just an entire mason jar of rum.
- 8:41And, and crushed that thing.
- 8:43And so, then it was time to leave.
- 8:45And it's an hour drive home.
- 8:48And so, I'm like, let's go.
- 8:51We get in the car.
- 8:52I get about 30 minutes away from my house.
- 8:54And on a Saturday night, almost midnight, red and blue lights go off.
- 9:00Behind me, pull me over.
- 9:02You know, they give me every test that they give you.
- 9:06I mean, failed every one of them miserable.
- 9:08Like, I'm drunk, dude.
- 9:10Like, do we need to do this?
- 9:11And so, he takes me to the Phoenix Police Department, puts me in jail.
- 9:16And, and, and it was bad.
- 9:18I mean, it was a, it was a bad thing.
- 9:20Like, I got suspended from my senior year baseball team.
- 9:25Because of this, I got, you know, hit with suspended drivers license for a year.
- 9:29I got hit with 280 hours of community service.
- 9:33So, so that's, that's where I come from.
- 9:36And it was that night that my mother picked me up from jail.
- 9:40And I told you she was like, dude, crazy on fire for this dude named Jesus.
- 9:44And that night, she was like, Hey, we got back home.
- 9:48She picked me up and she's like, Hey, you want to stop by my pastor's house?
- 9:52And it's Saturday night, you know, 12, 30 PM or AM.
- 9:56And I was like, okay.
- 9:59And I didn't know what that mean.
- 10:01Men, all I know is that, you know, I've kind of screwed my life up here.
- 10:06And so, man, that night, I made a commitment and pray, pray to prayer to acknowledge Jesus as my
- 10:13savior. And that was the trajectory that changed my life.
- 10:17It's so interesting how like, you know, the people that sort of come in and out of our life,
- 10:23especially at a young age, they're so they can radically change the course of our life.
- 10:28And you would have hoped that as a kid playing sports, a coach would be a positive
- 10:34influence. And already the whole situation with him asking to come drink at his house alone
- 10:39is already very weird. Yes, it's already very weird. So all those days, a guy has like a
- 10:44slightly off moral compass already, because that's just not appropriate.
- 10:48Yes, but it's also interesting how when I've had other spiritual leaders on this podcast,
- 10:55and it's an interesting conversation that I love to have.
- 10:58And I'm sure that you have strong opinions about it. And this will sort of like, I think,
- 11:02probably weave its way into this chat. But I always find that when somebody does not have God,
- 11:07they find God in something else. And you were very young. And what I mean by that is they'll have
- 11:12not God in like the spiritual sense or the religious sense. But if they do not have God or
- 11:17spirituality in their life, they'll find it in in something. It could be it could be for you. It was
- 11:24it was sports and it was potentially partying. It could be it could be work. It could be women.
- 11:31It could be drugs. It could be gamble. It could be anything. But the concept is people find it
- 11:35somewhere. So I think that I think that when I speak to anybody who sort of leads a spiritual
- 11:41community, I always find it so interesting to just understand from your perspective, like even
- 11:46over your own life, how your version of God has has changed and who you look up to and what you
- 11:53hold like dear inside you. And I think it's actually, you know, hindsight's always 2020.
- 11:59I was even looking on your Instagram before and we're going to talk about all the things that
- 12:02happens to you. And there's one very traumatic health event. And you even said that
- 12:09you would never change that and not go through it again because it made you who you are. But
- 12:14the experiences that happened to us and shape us, I think it was actually very fortunate that it
- 12:19happens to you at a young age and that you weren't injured and it coupled you over as opposed to
- 12:23you killing yourself for someone else. And again, hindsight's always 2020. But at the moment,
- 12:27it feels like shit. But ultimately all that that is kind of what saved you for lack of a better
- 12:32definition. Yeah. I for me, exactly. I think like before that moment, like I didn't believe in God.
- 12:40I mean, I was like, you know, I'll be that typical like in the house like God, if you're real,
- 12:45turn the lights on and I'm like, see, see, like, yeah, you're real like see, you know,
- 12:49and like, like, I think like all of us, we'd like to know there's a search. There's a
- 12:54a search for it for purpose. There's a search for fulfillment success. So if you read,
- 13:00if you ever read through the book of Ecclesiastes, right, it was written by a guy named Solomon.
- 13:05It's considered the one of the wisdom books of the Bible. So like Proverbs is a wisdom book,
- 13:10you know, but so Ecclesiastes, the whole book is about Solomon on a quest to figure out purpose
- 13:17and fulfillment. So it's like it's as old as humanity. We all want it. I want to know what I'm
- 13:22supposed to be here for. Like I ended up on this earth. I didn't choose to be here. You didn't
- 13:27choose to be here. Like what, what am I supposed to do? What, what, what is it? You know, I always say
- 13:33that I'm created for purpose on purpose for purpose, right? What everybody is. So Solomon goes to
- 13:40all those things you just said, that's the book of Ecclesiastes. I know that. Yeah. It's litter.
- 13:43Like, dude, I'm going to try women. Like I'm going to try money. Now I'm going to try success. Now
- 13:48I'm going to try earthly possession. Now like the whole thing is like I didn't, he goes, I didn't,
- 13:53there's a script that says I didn't, I didn't, there's nothing that I didn't allow myself to try.
- 14:01You know, and I end up, I end up still like empty. It's a swing in a mess. Like what the freaking
- 14:07am I here for? What am I here to make money and die? To grow my Instagram, you know, numbers
- 14:12and die. Like what am I here for? And that's what I, that's what I found in, in my relationship with
- 14:20Jesus Christ. And I think like when you think about, when you think about that for a minute, think
- 14:26about this, there's, there's this story of how a hunter would hunt wolves in the snow, right?
- 14:32And what he would do is he would take, it's true. You know, it's, it's what, how they
- 14:36will hunt wolves. So you take a knife blade and coat it in animal blood and then freeze it.
- 14:42And then coat it with another layer of animal blood and freeze it. And then one more level
- 14:46of animal blood and freeze it. And then the hunter would go out and stick the knife in the snow,
- 14:51boom it in the nighttime boom, right? With the blade sticking up. So the blades up and the wolf
- 14:57can smell the animal blood. Doesn't know it's not an animal. And it goes over and it starts
- 15:03licking the knife blade and it goes to the first layer of, of ice. Then it gets to that,
- 15:09that, that blood. And it's like, oh, let's go, baby, like, let's freaking go. And then it gets through
- 15:14the next layer of ice and now more blood and now the third layer of ice and now more blood.
- 15:19Well, by this time, the wolf's mouth is all numb, completely numb, he can't even fill him
- 15:24somebody can taste the blood. Well, at the end, he's now licking the keen edge of the knife blade.
- 15:30And he's lacerating his mouth and his tongue and his, he bleeds to death, right?
- 15:36There's like this morbid story, but it's like, that's what we do in life.
- 15:39Like lick the knife blade, like, oh, dude, money, money, money, money, or success, success, success,
- 15:46success, women, women, men, men, men, relationship, drugs, drugs, drugs, alcohol, alcohol,
- 15:50and, and, and, and we end up kind of kind of like killing us, killing us, because we don't know,
- 15:57we're trying to figure this thing out. And, and I think that for me, that, that was what I figured out,
- 16:02man, like God's grace, God's forgiveness, God's unconditional love. I don't know if anybody's ever
- 16:08thought about that, but human love, human love, they're, it's all conditional, all of it.
- 16:13Dude, I'm a pastor. I've married hundreds and hundreds of people. We get on the, you know,
- 16:18the alter and it's our drivers take you Natalie to be my spiritually and lawfully wedded wife,
- 16:22and to have and hold a love and share, we say, for better, for what we don't mean for better,
- 16:25for we had to cut that out out of the vows, because worse can be really freaking bad,
- 16:29worse can be there. And we've all been through some worse, yeah, right? I mean, marriage is tough,
- 16:34freaking stuff, dude. I'm a pastor. Been married 27 years. It's still tough. Like you take two people,
- 16:41put them together, and it's like, dude, here we go, you know? And so I think like, man, it's,
- 16:47if, if, if we're real about it, the unconditional love part for me, for me is like, God loves me anywhere,
- 16:53anyway, that's the, that's the true unconditional. He loved me anyway. He loves me, inspire the fact
- 16:58that I failed and failed. And we'll fail today. It won't fail tomorrow. And we'll fail next year.
- 17:02And like he, he loves me anyways. And you know what I'm saying? It's like if I'm, if I'm,
- 17:07if I'm, you know, if, if I'm cheating on my wife, if somebody's cheating on their spouse,
- 17:13that's probably going to end. And, and it's going to take a lot of unconditional love for it,
- 17:18not to, you know? And so I think in a world full of hate, man, the light of love, just, it's,
- 17:25it's, it's, it would, it would shine so brightly. Honestly, it would fix, it would fix our,
- 17:30our nation. You got to, everybody pitted against each other, not everybody goes to the thing
- 17:34is. So it's bringing back to your story. You know, it's an interesting point. Not everybody
- 17:40goes through super traumatic life events. I think that most people die by a thousand cuts,
- 17:46kind of like the, the, the wolf story that you just mentioned, but like true, like in life,
- 17:50like, I mean, they, they lose themselves. And it's not that they lose themselves. It's not,
- 17:56like, this is not like a, a, a, a religious podcast. This is like a business podcast. But like,
- 18:00to drop parallel from what you're talking about to business, they lose themselves in their
- 18:04business because it's like one more deal or one extra comma. And then it's one less day with
- 18:11my family and one less day with my kids. And then all of a sudden, even though when they were
- 18:1620 to 30, they started out with the right mindset, I want to build a business. I want to make some
- 18:20money. I want to take care of my family. Then it's like multiple wives later and broken family
- 18:24later. They look bad. But they have not because it's not because one event, you know, it's like
- 18:28a million events. So I want to just, yeah. So let's keep telling your story. I think it's very,
- 18:31I mean, your story is fascinating. And actually, I want to bring this part to your story.
- 18:36So you have the DUI. This is a pardon the pun, like come to Jesus moment, where you go to your
- 18:42pastor's house. I want to take it back to sort of your story for a second. And I want to bring in
- 18:47something that I always find interesting. So you're writing a book, The Fire is For You. And
- 18:50that's really focused on your journey. And, and when somebody chooses a title for a book,
- 18:56it always has a lot of meaning and significance to them. So as we go through your journey,
- 19:02The Fire is For You. What does that mean to you as a title? And why did you choose it? But what does
- 19:08it mean to you as you go through all these inflection points in your life? Like, for example,
- 19:12when you go through that point where you have your DUI, you go to do your your mom's pastor's house
- 19:18for the first time, connect those dots for me. Great question. The Fire is For You title. The book,
- 19:24the book is not, it's not a, it's not a book of, it is about what happened and things that I've
- 19:30been through. The book is for you. The book is for the reader. The book is because every one of us,
- 19:39every one of us go through fires. Right. So you just said, like you have a business in or,
- 19:45you know, you're, you're, your chase, we all do that. Man, like, man, I want to build a great
- 19:48company. The church is a business. The church is a ministry, but it's a business. It is a,
- 19:54it is a corporation. It has money coming in, money going out. You know, we've got, I've got
- 19:5850 full-time employees, probably another 50 part-time employee. Like, the church is a business. You
- 20:04growing the church. Yes, it's ministry, but there is this business. We have HR department. We
- 20:08got, you know, conforming abide by laws and all these things. You know, so impact church,
- 20:14my church, it's entrepreneurial, entrepreneur, birthed out of a Bible study for the Arizona
- 20:19Cardinals. So the Arizona Cardinals football team start, you know, start a Bible study for the
- 20:23football team. Eventually, open it to the public and the rest is history. So going back to your
- 20:29question, my church is flooded with people going through fires. So is this nation? So is this world,
- 20:36I'm going through depression. That's a fire, anxiety, fear, guilt, worry, shame, shame. Oh my gosh.
- 20:44The times that we've done stuff in our life that we're not proud of and we know other people that
- 20:49hurt them and we can carry this shame, this guilt. And so those are fires, man, cancer. My stepfather
- 20:57was diagnosed with cancer given two to five years to live. It's my mom's, you know, third marriage,
- 21:04first great marriage. He's a good man. That's a fire. My sibling who is fighting fentanyl addiction.
- 21:12That's a fire. Like we all go through fires. Man, addiction, alcoholism, brokenness, divorce,
- 21:19failure, my business, dude, I, this is the fourth time I've tried to get a company off the ground.
- 21:24And all four of them have like, that's a fire, right? So what, what, what I have learned in my own
- 21:31life is that God, God, there are no wildfires in life. There are only controlled fires, meaning
- 21:42scripture, whether somebody believes in it or not, you can't, you can't deny the things that it
- 21:47says, the truth, the little nuggets of truth, like vow shall not murder. Maybe you don't believe in
- 21:52God or Jesus, but I mean, that's a pretty good rule to live by. No matter if you don't believe in God.
- 21:56Yeah, just don't murder. Don't commit adultery. I mean, that's kind of good. Don't lie. Don't cheat.
- 22:00Don't steal. Don't, you know, but, but one of them, one of those scripture, a couple of them,
- 22:04but that it talks about how we, we get put in the fires to be tested in that fire purifies us,
- 22:13right? It refines us. So the fire of brokenness that I went through, the fire of that failure,
- 22:19that's going to refine me because I'm not doing that ever again. So that's refining me, right?
- 22:25The fire of whatever and fidelity or the fire of cheating or and I get you get caught. Okay.
- 22:32Well, that sucks. We're human, man. We all, we have all done human stuff, but hopefully we learn
- 22:39from that and we go, man, I need to change some things about who I am. Maybe I need some therapy.
- 22:43Maybe I need some, some counseling, right? And so the fire, the fire being for you, it purifies you.
- 22:48It hopefully it burns out the, your own wings doesn't feel like it though. And the moment it's hot,
- 22:53it burns, it feels like the house is going to burn down. See in the Bible, it uses three metaphors
- 23:00for trial. It uses storms. It uses valleys and it uses fires, right? And so the fire is for you,
- 23:09is a book for people to go, dude, I've gone through some some hell and this book is going to help you
- 23:15get through your hell. I've gone through some hell too, you know, being a man of faith doesn't
- 23:20exempt you, doesn't put an umbrella of like, you know, like, dude, this is life. This isn't heaven.
- 23:25The, you know, the, it rains on the just and the unjust and good things happen to bad people and bad
- 23:30things happen to good people. And so going back to your story, the, the fire is for you. That's what,
- 23:36that's what that title means to me because like two years ago, I went through the fire of my life.
- 23:41My, my family, we went through the fire of our life and, and it almost killed me. So, and I want
- 23:46to, we'll talk about what that fire was in a second. I don't know whether they're just yet.
- 23:50I just want to, I want to just point out. So even when you're getting that DUI and kind of just
- 23:54like, talking back to something that I mentioned about, if it didn't happen, who knows when it
- 24:00would have happened, right? And that's like the perfect example of fires for you. And I think that
- 24:06without the, the, the, the biblical analogies, I think that when people go through stuff,
- 24:12when people go through really hard times, the people that I repeatedly see come out of that
- 24:17successful, because everybody goes through like, you might, everybody does, it's not like, uh,
- 24:20hopefully it doesn't happen to me. Like, life's going to have to have you and life's going to have
- 24:23you. Fire's going to happen. You're very harmless. Right. But it is how you come out on the other
- 24:26side of it. So, so how did you, how did you come out on the other side of, of that DUI? But I do
- 24:32want to, and, and I'll answer that question. I do want to say you, you literally just, you literally,
- 24:36you just, you were a preacher for a second, because, because here's why, because you said,
- 24:42he said, it's not if it's when. Yeah. Right. Well, David said and saw one of the most famous
- 24:47chapters in the Bible, uh, that, that every rapper has done a, uh, a segment on this chapter,
- 24:52is even though I walk, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, right? I
- 24:56shall fear no evil for you, you, you are with me. What does he say? He says, even though I walk,
- 25:00he doesn't say, I hope I don't. He doesn't say, maybe hope. Like, it might, no, he says,
- 25:05even though, and, and, and, and those are valleys. And so going back to that DUI, I wouldn't be,
- 25:11who I am today without it. I always say I went from jail to Jesus. Like, like, that was a wild day.
- 25:17I went from like, I had this cool accolade and, you know, got an award to like, dude, I got
- 25:22arrested, put in jail to like, dude, I just discovered my purpose in life. And, um, and yeah,
- 25:29it did, it did, it did, it did shape me. It did define me. Um, God, God has no, this is what I've
- 25:36learned, dude. I'm in the people business. Yeah. I, I have, I have billionaires in my church,
- 25:42you know, 500 millionaires, 200 millionaires, like, it's Scottsdale. It's the entrepreneurial hub
- 25:47of the nation. It's a very, they'll have a very wealthy city, very wealthy city, very effluent. Um,
- 25:53that I, I, I pastor pro athletes. I have for 23 years, um, the biggest names in sports, um,
- 26:00are in my church. They're in my phone. I pastor them, right? This, this is the thing when,
- 26:05when you talk about mine, mine was jail. I was like, dude, I, I screwed that up. But a lot of times,
- 26:12people have everything. And it looks seemingly good, realizing, dude, I have nothing. And a great
- 26:18example of that is, um, a friend of mine that I had on our stage in year three of the churches
- 26:23Rev. Run from Rundy, M.C., right? And I interviewed him and I go, dude, like, when did you become a
- 26:28Christian? Because he's obviously very vocal about his faith. And he goes, my top, he goes, my top
- 26:32was my bottom. And I go, tell him, he goes, you know how a lot of people, they hit rock bottom.
- 26:37And then like, oh, I found God and I found real. I'm like, yeah, that, yeah, I know about that.
- 26:42I know. And he goes, well, mine was the opposite. I'm run Rundy, M.C. at the peak of like,
- 26:47Rundy, M.C., right? He's like, dude, I got everything you can buy. I bought it. I've got everything
- 26:54money can buy. I've got any, any earthly thing that you want in this world. I got it. And he
- 27:00goes, and I felt so spiritually bankrupt that in my bathtub, I write then and there with a pile
- 27:09a pile of weed on the bathtub. He's like, I said, you know what? I'm going to give this,
- 27:14this Jesus thing to try. You know, and I think, what, what are we trying to do? I can tell you
- 27:21story after story after story Scott. I could tell you hundreds of stories of people who are trying
- 27:26to chase what many of us are trying to chase. And they've got it. I can tell you the hundreds and
- 27:32hundreds of people that have gotten it. And they go, dude, this is empty. This is lonely. I'm broken.
- 27:39I have 30, 40, 50, 100 million dollars, 200 million dollars in the bank. I'm broken.
- 27:45So what actually is the meaning of life? You know what I'm saying? And that's what I discovered
- 27:51from from from from me being put in jail. You know, it was like, dude, and it wasn't my first time
- 27:56in jail. Did I, I told you, I partied my face off. I, you know, I got, I got in trouble for
- 28:02stealing and I got in trouble. Like he's just broken this. And so the fire is for you is like,
- 28:09yeah, that was a fire. The DUI was a fire. Disappointing my mom. Man, that was dude, like that was a fire.
- 28:16And but at the same time, there was a fire going on before those moments and the fire was just like,
- 28:21dude, who am I? What am I supposed to do? Why am I here? What is this? What it's about? When awards?
- 28:27Get on a starting team. Be a star. That's what life is about. And I can tell you star after
- 28:31star after star NFL, MLB NBA, WNBA, who they look, they're all stars to us. But like, I know the truth.
- 28:40I know what's going on in their lives. You know what I'm saying? And like, life is tough. Man,
- 28:46hurt people, hurt people, broken people, break people. Like that's what life is. And so for me,
- 28:53the fire is for you is not about me. Yes, I'm telling many of my stories, but it's giving people
- 29:00tools to get through the fires that they're going through right now, tools like real tools.
- 29:05Like, how do I do this, man? How do I do this? Like, I had a player went my first year in the
- 29:11in the in pro sports. And I won't allow Iostring. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm 25 years old or something like
- 29:17that. And you know, I'm walking in the hallways of an arena. And I'm like, dude, there's Shaq.
- 29:22There's Kobe. They they're on the Lakers and they played the Suns that day. And I was stars,
- 29:26you know, like any I'm like star struck. I'm like, dude, that's I'm 25. I'm like, this is my first
- 29:30time ever doing this. I didn't sleep the night before I was like, this is crazy. And I called Natalie.
- 29:36I went around the hallway. I'm like, dude, Shaq's the biggest dude I've ever seen in my life. Like,
- 29:39I'm literally as big as his leg, you know, let Natalie's my life. And and so I'm star struck
- 29:45until like the third game. And we in the NBA, we have chapel before every game. By the way,
- 29:50the NBA is a business. Then I fell as a business. Major league baseball is a business. The WNBA,
- 29:56it's a business. They're a business multi, you know, million, billion dollar businesses, right?
- 30:02I think it's fascinating that they make space for like people to like have have a little
- 30:07devotional. I think it is interesting. I've never heard of this before I before I heard of you to
- 30:11be quiet on it. I didn't know I didn't know that exists. I didn't either until it, you know,
- 30:14until I got invited to be a part of it. I didn't even know it was a thing. But like both so for the
- 30:20NBA before every game, one hour before every game, we have a little 15 minute window of chapel
- 30:27and it's both teams come or invited. And you know, in that moment, we'll talk maybe a verse
- 30:32scripture, but just like you're getting centered. They're about to go perform. So no matter
- 30:37it's all it's all it's all centering. It's all like it's centering. It's routine. So hey,
- 30:42I'm my own a company. I'm my own a McDonald's. I'm my own an Arby's. I'm my own 15 of them. I'm
- 30:47own 3000 of them, but like, but, but don't, don't miss out on this, this, this kind of power to go,
- 30:55but you know what? I do need, I need to center myself because we just go. And then, you know,
- 31:02and then pretty soon, like what you said, we're going and blowing and then it's like, dude, now,
- 31:06like, man, I lost my marriage. I wasn't there for my children's games and, but man, I made a lot of
- 31:10wealth. Yeah, but then you wonder what's it for? And then you're wondering what's it for? You
- 31:14know, you mentioned like, okay, so you lay out a whole bunch of tools. I think that what is really
- 31:18interesting is throughout your life after that point, obviously, then you kind of have this upwards
- 31:25trajectory where, like, I'm sure that a lot has happened since that age, but you're, you're building
- 31:31at a church, you commit to this full time for lack of a better word on that journey. What is the
- 31:38thing? What does the thing that keeps you from maybe delineating from that path? Because I think
- 31:46that again, if people have these moments where something happens and they want to be better,
- 31:53I find that a lot of people just go back to their old habits. So I know people that have DUI is
- 31:58that definitely just keep drinking and go down. And now everyone who gets a DUI and gets arrested
- 32:04builds a great church and a life out of this, right? So how do you, what's the, what's the tool at
- 32:10least when people do have this moment and they're and they get dumped because they're cheating on
- 32:15their spouse or whatever it is? This is so great. Okay, so here it is. Sorry, look, look, look,
- 32:20look, this is so great because because there's a guy in the Bible in the New Testament. His name is
- 32:27Paul, the Apostle Paul, who wasn't a believer. He was a persecutor of Christians. He would drag
- 32:34Christians out of their house and go door to door and and would have Christians imprisoned and
- 32:39murdered, right? Well, then he then he becomes one and it becomes the greatest like Christian
- 32:43evangelists ever walked the planet, right? Well, he says in this book called Romans in the Bible,
- 32:48in Romans chapter seven, here's your answer. This is crazy. You're part of your answer. He goes
- 32:53in Romans chapter seven, he goes, I don't understand why I do what I say I'm not going to do
- 33:01and I don't do what I say I'm going to do. And then he goes, it's like this wrestle between sin
- 33:07and it's like this war in me, dude. Yeah, right? All of us, all of us pastors included,
- 33:13priest, popes, bishops, like everyone, everybody like we all have that that wrestle. And so like you
- 33:19said, a lot of people go back to it, what's the answer? What are the tools? Here's some tools.
- 33:25First of all, you got to get sick of yourself enough to do something about it. You got to come to
- 33:30a place where like, I'm tired of this. I'm sick of this. Then you've got to make sure that
- 33:36first of all, it's humility, humility. And then it's accountability, but you can't have accountability
- 33:42without humility and you can't have accountability without vulnerability. So those three things,
- 33:47humility, accountability, vulnerability. I'm going to say, hey, Scott, there's this area of my life
- 33:52that I'm struggling in. That's that's humble, man. To tell you like, dude, I got to, I got to issue.
- 33:57That's humility. To pick up the phone and go, I need to, I need to call a therapist. That's human,
- 34:02that's dude, that's humility, right? But once I, once I lay out that humility because I'm vulnerable,
- 34:09you can't, you can't have accountability without vulnerability. I can say, dude, I'll hold you accountable
- 34:14because you're never vulnerable enough to tell me you're crap. So you won't even know what to hold
- 34:16me accountable for. Yeah, exactly. And that's scary. It's vulnerable. It's, you got to walk in humility,
- 34:24right? But that's the key. So, so, so when I, when I decided to, you know, to go on this,
- 34:30Jesus route and like be called Jesus freak, like, I'm out playing basketball, you know, three,
- 34:36four weeks after that at the gym. And I'm, you know, trying to shake him, bake this dude and cook him
- 34:41and he reaches in and he fathom it hurt. And I said, like, and he's like, you mean shoot.
- 34:46And I looked at, because he, he was, he was a, he was a pastor. Yeah. Yeah. And I go, no, I'm, I'm,
- 34:50I'm, I'm finished. I said, you know, I said, that's not what I meant. And, and but that accountability,
- 34:55like surrounding yourself with people that are also for you and not against you. And there's that
- 35:02man that, that's tough to do, especially, you know, because everybody has motives. And what's your
- 35:09motive for wanting to be my friend? You know, what's my motive? So I think that the, the people that
- 35:14you, you, you're around, you, you got to be careful, careful about who's, who's in your circle,
- 35:19right? The old saying, show me your five closest friends. I'll show your future. It's the same with
- 35:23friends. It's the same with business. Hey, somebody's spouse make or break them. Somebody's wife make
- 35:27or break them. Somebody's husband make or break them. Like, dude, the, the, the people that, that
- 35:32you're around. So I think those three things, the, the, the, the humility, you know, the vulnerability
- 35:39and, and then the accountability is not the, the people piece is tough. People piece is very tough
- 35:44because I think that you mentioned like everybody has incentives. Everybody, everybody has like a
- 35:49motive, excuse me, everybody has it. But that's a great word too. Incentive. And then does all that
- 35:53other good work. When you think about the people that are impacted your life, what would be the
- 35:58main difference in the people that ended up being like a net positive versus in that negative?
- 36:03Like, how do you find those people? Because again, like, we're going through life. We don't always
- 36:06know until we know. And we, we trust the wrong people a lot. Yeah. Yeah. More often than we should.
- 36:12So when you look back at all the people that have had major impacts, I would say the people in your
- 36:16life have had not just like minor impacts, they've probably like, change a trajectory for better or
- 36:21worse over different seasons of your life. So what do you notice in those people? Or even in,
- 36:25you know, a concrete thing, our friend, our mutual friend, you know, Cody, we just had this,
- 36:31we just had this, this conversation this morning on the way over here talking about that very thing.
- 36:37The people that have, I was telling them, I said, Devon Booker's, Devon Booker's, you know,
- 36:45the star of the Phoenix Suns, one of the top 10 stars probably in the NBA, when, when Devon was
- 36:51interviewed about, I think it was a year ago, a month and two years ago, but I saw him say that the
- 36:55reporter goes, you know, you know, who's some new friends you've made this year and Devon goes,
- 37:00I don't make new friends. Just as serious as a heart attack. And I felt that because, you know,
- 37:06when, when I'm a nobody, then this friendship is it's pure. And I got nothing to offer you,
- 37:14but like who I am as a human being, you know, when you become somebody in the world's eyes,
- 37:21now it's tricky. Like, so yeah, who does, who would, who would a pro athlete that single date?
- 37:26Who would a celebrity go, yeah, like, you know what I'm saying? It's a, it's a tough world because
- 37:30of motives or incentives. What do I get out of it? And so my, my circle, dude, is super small.
- 37:38And, and I don't make a lot of new friends. I love everybody. You know, Proverbs talks about
- 37:45friends, a lot about friends. It talks about two types of friends, right? There's close friends,
- 37:49casual friends. You know, casual friends are a result of circumstance. They're on my team. They're
- 37:54in my club at the gym. They're in my family. I get lucky. I get to stay from, I don't own that
- 37:59person, but they're in my family. And they're a result of circumstance. And then close friends,
- 38:02they're a result of choice. I'm going to choose you to be my close friend. What am I, what
- 38:08of my choice dependent on is going to be your character, who you are as a human being. My pastor,
- 38:15that, that, that was my pastor at 17 years old. He's still my pastor. And he's not some big name,
- 38:21big celebrity pastor. He pastors a hundred people. Man, he is the most in, in highest character,
- 38:29man of integrity, still to this day that I know. Like, if he, if he were walking across the
- 38:35parking lot, and there was a gun wrapper on the ground, he's picking it up. Like he is, he is humble.
- 38:41He's just a people person. You know, so I've got a group like that that I've had man for 30 years,
- 38:49and it's still my group. They're still my people. My wife, you know, the Bible talks about not,
- 38:55this is do not be unequally yoked. Now in the Bible, it's talking about like, if you love God,
- 39:02you should probably marry somebody that loves God if you believe in church, but, but that's true
- 39:06for everything. Equally yoked in business, it could be like, well, I think this way, but I think
- 39:11that way. Here are my moral compasses of business owner, but I'm thinking about partnering with this
- 39:16dude who has no moral compass, right? That equally yoked also hold you accountable. So my wife,
- 39:22dude, she was a crystal meth addict coming out of college with the University of Arizona. She had
- 39:27the same experience where she discovered a relationship. We're quite well. We came together. You
- 39:32know, well, the equally yoked isn't just the God thing. It's like, okay, we're not going to drink.
- 39:38We're not going to use drugs. Not that we have a problem, people drinking like that, but we have a
- 39:43problem drinking. I mean, I got arrested. She turned into an addict. So it's like, what's right for
- 39:48me? Not might not be right for you. So that equal that equally yoked part. It's a big deal,
- 39:54you know, like, I'm running the same direction you're running. And I always say, listen,
- 39:59if anybody, the single that's watching and you're, you're looking to mingle and but your single
- 40:04like a pringle, you, you, you want to find somebody that's running the same race and preferably
- 40:11at the same pace. Now you got a beautiful marriage, man. I mean, I'm 28 years on, a 27 years into
- 40:18my marriage. And dude, I couldn't do it. And I wouldn't be where I am without Natalie. I mean,
- 40:23she is incredible, incredible. I think that it's so interesting how all the wisdom is already,
- 40:29all the wisdom is already there to help people live their life. They just need to discover it
- 40:34sometimes, but it's not like you have to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes you have to look back
- 40:37or it's already been discovered. So let's sort of keep going through your life. You've built one of
- 40:43the largest churches in fact, that's one of the largest churches in Arizona, right? Yeah. Yeah,
- 40:48so like, let's even like just talk about that career arc or that, that professional arc,
- 40:54how did you do that? What is the, what is the X factor that you brought to the table that allowed
- 40:59you to build something in half the time? 10X is big as whatever one else was trying to build.
- 41:05So I find that very interesting. I know nothing about the business of churches. I swear, yeah,
- 41:08no, most I don't. Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah. So what's the, what's the thing like the secret sauce
- 41:13when you build something like that? There's so many ingredients, right? But, but because I could
- 41:17just do the super spiritual thing. Oh, God, but like it, it's, it's, there's a lot of ingredients.
- 41:22So one is who you're doing it with, who's your team? I, I, I did not build this church. I mean,
- 41:29I was a part of it, but like a team of people that came together had, you know, equally yoke the
- 41:35same synergy, the same outlook, the same what we're trying to do as a, because you know, every church
- 41:41might have a different like might be about obviously God or whatever, but it might have a different,
- 41:45hey, we're a big on missions or we're big on, you know, you know, our, our local domestic
- 41:51missions, or we're big in this area of that area, discipleship and really go on deep. And so
- 41:55there's all kinds of different, but for, for, for impact church specifically in 2002,
- 42:02I became a pro sports chaplain. So in 2002, I started working with Major League Baseball.
- 42:10Arizona's like, you know, the spring training heaven of the nation, other than Florida,
- 42:15but so I started with Major League Baseball in the Phoenix Suns. So I'm still the, you know,
- 42:21pro chaplain for the Phoenix Suns. I let baseball go because the church got too big,
- 42:26but I did the Kansas City Royals spring training for eight years, majors and minors,
- 42:30and then I did the Oakland A's for four years, majors and minors, and the church has got too big,
- 42:34too many services. I had to let it go. And, and so I met a guy, Andre Wasworth, who's from Florida.
- 42:41He was a Florida state walk on. Nobody gave him a shot. Andre Wasworth, he not only becomes a
- 42:50walk on and earns a roster spot, he ends up earning full ride for the next four years. Then he
- 42:55ends up being the number three draft pick in the NFL, which is insane. Like a guy that didn't
- 43:00get recruited to, you know, four years later, it's the draft pick is Peyton Manning, Ryan
- 43:06Leif, Andre Wasworth. So Andre had a heart for for God too. He started a Bible study for pro athlete,
- 43:11for his friends, teammates, catered it, you know, did it NFL style. It's a big money cater,
- 43:16flying in preachers every Wednesday night. And so eventually around 2009 Andre and I met
- 43:24and I was helping the church before that. But then Andre and I met and dude, it was it was
- 43:29fireworks. I mean, it was like we're the we're like the brothers from another mother that never
- 43:34knew each other. Like, and then here you are. It's like, dude, this is this we're we're going to ride
- 43:38this thing out. So he and I started together. We had a Bible study together called impact pro athletes.
- 43:44And we had cardinals and sons and, you know, baseball guys and golfers and whoever's a pro athlete.
- 43:50And, and, and then so, so I wanted a one word purpose statement as, as the name of the church.
- 43:57That's where impact church comes from. Our Bible was you study was called impact pro athletes.
- 44:02I'm like impact like that's perfect, right? Like God would impact me and then my responsibility
- 44:07is to impact you, man, to like love you, to be there for you, to serve you, to honor you, to build
- 44:13you up, right? So that's the idea of impact. And we just started my first Sunday was, you know,
- 44:18we had 204 people July 25th of 2010. And it just kept growing. And so the business side of church
- 44:27like anything else, like if you got a great product is not going to just grow, you got to market it.
- 44:33You know, you got to brand it. You got to saturate it. And so we've done all of it, man, from news,
- 44:38you know, clips to commercials to billboards to mailers, direct mailers. And of course, all the digital
- 44:46and, you know, ads and this and that, like, and, and, and, and, you know, it just started to grow.
- 44:51It started to grow. It grew rapidly, but it started to grow.
- 44:55I just want to take a second to thank the Housebot podcast network for supporting today's episode.
- 44:59Now, if you like success story, you're going to love other shows in the network. One of my favorites
- 45:02is the Hustle Daily Show. It's hosted by Juliet Bennett Ryla, Rob Literist, Ben Berkeley, and Mark
- 45:07Dent. It's brought to you by the Housebot podcast network, which is really the audio destination
- 45:12for business professionals. Now, the Hustle Daily Show brings you a healthy dose of this
- 45:16a reverent, offbeat and formative takes on business and tech. I was just listening to an episode
- 45:21to give you an example of what they talk about. So they broke down how this 100 year old
- 45:25organization has created one of the most successful business models in the world. Not only does
- 45:30this organization teach young entrepreneurship, they generate over a billion dollars in annual
- 45:35cookie sales. And what I really love about the show is they take these stories and these businesses
- 45:40that we think we know. And then they reveal these surprising angles that we never considered. So
- 45:45I really think that you should go listen to the Hustle Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts.
- 45:48It's one of my favorites. You're not going to regret it. It's so interesting to me because I'm
- 45:52Canadian. I don't know if you knew that I'm Canadian. And like these very large churches,
- 45:57they're not really a thing in Canada like they are in the US. How do you balance that? I don't know.
- 46:03The best word I can think of is like modernization of a church with people that
- 46:08look at religion is something more traditional. Because there has to be that balance or that
- 46:13sea soft. I'm not in 100 percent. I don't think there's a wrong. I don't think there's a wrong
- 46:17like if you're doing the Lord's work, however you're called to do it, like do it on for you.
- 46:23So if that's a real traditional, I have no problem with it. I was born and raised going to those
- 46:28loosely, but like just real traditional, real, you know, they're trying to do good things.
- 46:34They're trying to do good things. The big churches, such as ours, you don't set out and go,
- 46:40this is going to be a big church. I'm just trying to help people. And then people like Scott go,
- 46:44dude, I freaking love that guy. And I'm bringing my friend and I'm bringing my co-worker. And then
- 46:48they're bringing their, I'm not. I had a guy ask me like, we grew from 200 to 400. And he liked
- 46:54the 200. And I did too. At 200 people, we had church and then we went to the park and barbecue
- 47:00together. Like then it's 400 is a little bit harder to throw a barbecue, but you know. And he's,
- 47:05well, what's your, you know, how big do you want the church to be? And I said, that's not,
- 47:10I have no idea. I don't have an answer to that. All I know of is one more person in the world
- 47:14than he's hope. Then they need to be one more person. So going back to your thought, though,
- 47:21yeah, there is a balance. You know, the balance is like, it's not about traditional or modern.
- 47:28It's about, it's the same message presented maybe in a different way. So even when you say
- 47:36traditional church, Canada or wherever in the U.S. or around the world, Canada is all Roman Catholic.
- 47:41That's all of that. Yeah. So it's a very traditional way. It's much like Europe and you know,
- 47:45and I preach in Europe and things like that. So I understand that. But their tradition today
- 47:51is cutting edge from tradition 100 years ago or 400 years ago or 500 years ago or
- 47:58when Jesus walked earth. So all of that's relative. It's like how you do it. Does it work? Yeah,
- 48:05it's working. How I do it. Does it work? Yeah, it's working. So to me, there's no wrong answer.
- 48:11It's like, do good work, man. You know, go. I'm for you. And I think that also, you know, I also
- 48:17think that in society, there's definitely, I think society is used towards more secular and less
- 48:24God in 2024. So I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to find new ways to say a message
- 48:30and to attract people, something that is like a net positive in there. So you know what I think
- 48:34about that? I think you're 100% right. But I don't think the world necessarily has an issue
- 48:42with the idea of God and his moral compass. I think it's church, not God church because churches,
- 48:53we have done historically a really bad job of representing the love of God, the grace of God,
- 48:59the forgiveness of God, trust and religious leaders. It's been broken, right? So I've found with
- 49:07our church, I can't keep people out of our church. So yes, what you're saying, I think, you know,
- 49:14society is that way at large, but I'm not experiencing that in Scottsdale, Arizona. Did we can't,
- 49:19we don't have enough room, we need more room now, like yesterday, like we're blowing out the
- 49:24scenes with people, right? I mean, now you, we, you know, we bought, you know, a fleet of Mercedes
- 49:30printers because we got a overflow park people and we've got 15 golf carts that see, you know, eight
- 49:35people, what I, so I'm not seeing that in our area as you're solving for the trust factor,
- 49:41I think that's the big one. And that's what I think. And, you know, I would say there's stuff we
- 49:46call church hurt, you know, and I think, I think we're all sick of that. I think we're all sick of
- 49:51that. I think we're sick of the religious and the, you know, the hypocrites and the scandals,
- 49:56the scandals, the financial, the sexual, the all the grossness, like we're, I'm sick of it, we're sick
- 50:03of it. So I don't blame the world for being like, you know, that's real talk. That's about as real
- 50:09talk as it gets. So for us that are in those roles, we got, we got to rise up. We got to rise up,
- 50:16man, and, and be true. And, and, and, and that's where we are as a world today. But I think, I think
- 50:23we, we don't want to sew the, the, the baby out with the bath water. Yeah. I agree. No, I think it's,
- 50:27I think it's, like I said, sort of bringing back to that first thought I had. If you don't have
- 50:31God in a traditional sense, I think you find something else. Something you don't, you're, you're
- 50:36fulfillment. You're gone. Yeah. And I don't think that's also very healthy for some people.
- 50:40So, okay. So you, this church is, is going incredibly well. In fact, it's going incredibly well.
- 50:46But this is where you had that sort of that second, you say the second major fire in your life.
- 50:54So talking to me about that, talking to me about what happened when you feel like everything's
- 50:58going in the right direction. Life is good. John, I'm so glad that you, you, you're talking about
- 51:02this because this is, this is the craziest thing I've ever been through and experienced in my life.
- 51:08The hottest fire, the craziest fire. On November 11th, which is a Friday night,
- 51:16impact church. So the way church works, like you have church of a preacher, you have a,
- 51:20like a worship team, which is the music team, a music leader. Well, ours is really good, man.
- 51:26They're fire good. Like they're so good. Like they're, I, I feel like church should be fun.
- 51:32Because church, for, for me, is historically like been painful. Like church has been like, you
- 51:38know, it's more fun to watch paint dry. Like church has been rough. So like when, when, when we
- 51:43decided to, to, to start this church, it was like, let's, it should be a fun, it should be a
- 51:47God-sized party. Are we here to celebrate like the resurrection? Like, like, let's have some fun.
- 51:53So our music is really good. And, and, and 2000 and 22. On November 11th, we released our first
- 52:03song that we ever wrote. It's called He Is the Miracle. And we, we wrote a song. We produced it
- 52:11recorded. It's the first time we've ever done this. We're like, this is fun. We, we, it went out
- 52:16on all music platforms. So it went on, you know, Spotify and Apple Music and everywhere. YouTube,
- 52:22the video of it. It's called He Is the Miracle. We are so excited. So then on Sunday, I preached a
- 52:29sermon titled, He Is the Miracle. And this is what I opened my ear marks with. So I said, I believe
- 52:35God still does miracles. Right? I believe it. I just still believe He does modern day miracles.
- 52:41And then our song, it started, it started to chart on the iTunes chart. So if you go in, if you go
- 52:48in like iTunes and go to the charts and then go genre and then they go to the Christian music genre,
- 52:53our, our songs started to chart. It went into the top 200 and we were like, dude, this is freaking cool.
- 52:57Like, what? Like, we didn't even know what we're doing. Like, this is fun. And then it went into
- 53:01the top 100 and then it went into the top 50 and then it went into the top 25 top 10. And it went
- 53:07all the way to number one on Sunday. Congrats bro. I know it was, it was wild. So like,
- 53:16man, life, what we were on cloud nine, we're like, you know, we're like, this is like the
- 53:20ultimate emotional and spiritual high. Like we're like, do we never done this? Look what, look,
- 53:24look what, look what's going on. Then Monday, my wife and I got up, we're exhausted from a long
- 53:31weekend of church. We go get ice plunges. We go sitting these, you know, metal tubs with sheets
- 53:36of ice and Dr. supervise and you gotta sit there for two minutes. I'd never done one.
- 53:42First one I've ever done. And like, I'm a competitor, dude. And he's like, you don't have to get to
- 53:46two minutes. I'm like, oh my god. I'm getting the two minutes and I got to two minutes and then
- 53:53almost died a few hours later. So, so I get to two minutes and then and then we leave and a couple
- 53:57hours later, we pick up my daughter, Jazzy, she's 12 at the time from school and we go to the church.
- 54:02And we get to the church and we're just hanging. We're never, we're never at the church on Monday.
- 54:09That's our day off. A lot of pastors, Mondays, they're day off. So we go to the church and
- 54:15Natalie, my wife, she's going to do some work that she needs to take care of and I'm going to take
- 54:19my daughter, Jazzy, to target. And she wanted to buy some stuff for school. So I have a handful of
- 54:28grapes, like big ones, like big green grapes. The land is, yeah, yeah. And I'm eating these grapes
- 54:36and then I dropped a grape right out of the bottom of my hand and I'm like, I just like my hand felt
- 54:42a little like sluggish. Like it, I thought it was like from maybe the cold plunge. So now I dropped
- 54:50another grape and I dropped another grape. Then we get in the car and we drive to targets about
- 54:5510 minute drive and I'm driving, but I'm still dropping grapes. As a matter of fact, I saved them.
- 55:00They fell between the seat crack. Those grapes, they're now two-year-old raisins, but I saved them.
- 55:07But I'm dropping. I dropped maybe five grapes. Then we're walking into, I said, you know, I'm on
- 55:11text Natalie and I pull out my phone and I'm like, I said, babe, I just want to let you know,
- 55:16I don't know, it's weird, but I'm dropping grapes. She calls me and she's like,
- 55:21trap, trap. You need to go back to the car. I'm coming to get you and I'm like, why? She's like,
- 55:27read back your text. Read back what she said to me. So I looked back and I thought I had said,
- 55:33I'm dropping grapes, but it was more like I'm grape and drops or I'm draping drops. It was confused.
- 55:42So I'm like, okay, but I'm thinking like, you know, she's just a protector. I'm thinking like,
- 55:48my wife's just like, she's crazy. I'm fine. She picks me up. She didn't want me to drive.
- 55:55So we go to the house, which is four minute drive down the road, but but she's thinking this.
- 56:00She's thinking that this is what's happening. She's thinking I'm having a stroke. I have no idea
- 56:04that she's thinking that and I don't even know how she's thinking that because I have other than I
- 56:09dropped some grapes and I did drop my cell phone at the house. There's no symptoms. I'm not slurry.
- 56:15My face isn't hanging. I have no headache. There's nothing. There's no, there's no symptoms.
- 56:20I was stroke. So I'm like, babe, I'm gonna go lay down. She's like, no, we need to call 911. We need to
- 56:26call 911. I'm like, Natalie. I said, babe, I don't, I'm not going to the hospital. I dropped
- 56:31some fruits and fricking grapes. Like, I'm gonna go lay down. Please, Travis, please, please,
- 56:36she's begging me, pleading, please, please, please, please, please go to the hospital.
- 56:41I said, I'm gonna sleep for one hour. If I still feel weird in an hour, then we'll call.
- 56:48So, mascot, I laid down for five minutes and I'm like, um, sounds not right. What do you feel?
- 56:56Super sluggish. Like, like, almost like a hungover sluggish without the headaches and all the
- 57:04weirdin' it, but like that. Like, like, I just feel heavy. Everything just felt like heavy sluggish.
- 57:11So I get up five minutes later. I didn't sleep and she happened to walk back in at the exact
- 57:16same time. She's like, I'm calling. I said, okay, she walks around the hallway and I hear her go,
- 57:22I think my husband's having a stroke. And dude, I was like, what? Like, I'm gonna have a stroke.
- 57:30And then they said, well, if he's have, if you think so, he needs to lay down on his back. So,
- 57:34I'm laying down on my back. Dude, paramedics were at my house within three or four minutes.
- 57:40That, that, that, like they must have been, happened, chance down the road because they were
- 57:44there so fast. And I got paramedics in my house. They do all the tests on me. I test out perfect.
- 57:51They even do a stroke test. And I, I passed the stroke test. So now Natalie's begging them
- 57:59that I should go to tell me to go in, you know, because she knows I'm, I'm not going in.
- 58:04So I'm on my back and I look at this one, this one firefighter. And I go, what do you think I should do?
- 58:12And he goes, pastor, tribe, as a member of your congregation, I think you should go to the hospital.
- 58:21And dude, that, that is a miracle. I didn't know this man. I didn't know he went to my church.
- 58:27He didn't know whose house he was walking into. And so he got inside my living room and saw me.
- 58:32And if he did not say, I think you should go, I, I would have been dead within the hour.
- 58:38If I would have taken a nap, they said I would not have woken up. So when he said, I think you should go.
- 58:48I said, okay, let's go. I'm on the stretcher getting wheeled out of my house. My wife and my daughter
- 58:54right here. I said, my oldest daughter is in San Diego. She played college basketball. My, my sons
- 59:00at Grand Canyon University going to college. So my wife and my younger sister. And I'm like,
- 59:05hey, I'll be okay guys. Like, I'm trying to comfort them. Like daddy, you can just get
- 59:08checked out. I'll be right back, you know, and, and brother, I got on the ambulance, put in the
- 59:14ambulance. I don't remember anything. That's how fast. That's one of the actually. Yep, five minute,
- 59:20five minute rides to the hospital. They do a brain scan. They call Natalie and they say, your
- 59:26husband's brain is aggressively bleeding. Um, this is a bad, bad situation. Um, matter of life
- 59:35and death, we need to helicopter him to a level one trauma center that specializes in, you know,
- 59:41neurology. So my wife met me at the hot at the helicopter. And I told you, Andre Wadsworth,
- 59:49who's my best friend. And, um, they were both at the helicopter. I don't even remember much
- 59:57of that. I mean, I do remember them being there. But I, it's almost like, it's almost like,
- 1:00:02the way I can know the stripes, like, you're, you're so drunk, almost blacked out, but not quite
- 1:00:06there yet. That, that's, it felt like I'm in there, but I'm like way down in there somewhere. And I'm
- 1:00:12like, um, I can't talk. Now I'm like, look, look, look, look, look, look, like, like, I've lost my
- 1:00:18speech. I lost my cognition, my memory, my motor skills, my wife took a picture of us right by
- 1:00:24the helicopter because she said, um, dude, I do this every time. It doesn't matter how many times I
- 1:00:30tell this story, I cry. But she said, um, I didn't know if it's the last time I was going to see you.
- 1:00:38I didn't know if it was the last time, the last picture, the kids would see you. You know,
- 1:00:44that's, that's how freaking crazy this was. So I get to the other hospital and, um, you know, they're,
- 1:00:52they're, I'm hospitalized. I'm an ICU. And, um, the very miracle we sang about in the very
- 1:01:00sermon I preached on, I needed it in my own life the very next day. I needed God, if you are really
- 1:01:09who you say you are, I'm in need of a miracle. But I'm in the state of a vegetable.
- 1:01:16So, you know, on, on one of the days, I don't even know what day because I, this is all what my wife
- 1:01:23has told me and other people that were in their doctors and stuff. They said, hey, listen,
- 1:01:29the particular stroke your husband had, it's the worst stroke you can have. It's in the worst
- 1:01:35area you can have it because your, your brain, you could bleed here and it might affect your
- 1:01:40memory. Bleed here, it might affect your, you know, your speech. Mine was in the basal ganglia area,
- 1:01:47the brain stem, the top of the brain stem. So it affects everything. And there's nothing they could
- 1:01:52do. They, they couldn't go in and do anything surgically or anything because of where it was.
- 1:01:58How do they keep you alive? I don't even know, man. I mean, they, they, you know, they, I was on
- 1:02:06medications. I was very closely monitored. They, they told the dark. So when I, when I can't talk,
- 1:02:13but you know, I can't lift my arm, my leg, I can't, I can't remember. I don't know anything.
- 1:02:20They told my wife, hey, we, we just want you to be warned that the effects of this particular
- 1:02:27stroke are irreversible. I can't imagine being by your wife's side or I'm just like a wife being
- 1:02:33by our husband's bedside and your doctor goes, yeah, by the way, this is your new husband basically.
- 1:02:38Meet me, you know, meet your new husband like he's, and so my, my wife is, is a woman of faith
- 1:02:45and belief in God and she was not going to own that because words are powerful and doctors
- 1:02:54are powerful and smart and they, you know, they're experts in what, what is normal. But so, so my
- 1:02:59wife said, I went to the Bible. This is crazy. Dude, this is crazy. I went to the Bible and I just
- 1:03:05needed something. I needed something like God, give me something hope and she was led to this verse
- 1:03:12in Acts 316 and it says this, dude, it says, by faith in Jesus' name, this man is made strong again,
- 1:03:22whom you all see and know. And it's the faith that is through Jesus that is given this man perfect
- 1:03:28health and the presence of you all. I mean, it's a big book, dude. It has a sea open. It has 66
- 1:03:34books in a book. Yeah, that's what she, and so she opened that up. She actually posted that.
- 1:03:39She's crawled into bed with me on the hospital bed. There's a photo of that and end up on every
- 1:03:46new station in Arizona, you know, 3, 5, 10, 12, everybody covered it though. The media covered
- 1:03:51that newspaper covered it is that picture. It's Natalie in the bed with me. I'm snuggled up on her.
- 1:03:57My Yahweh tattoos, you know, it's showing for everybody and she put that picture with that verse
- 1:04:04in her story that day. And I'm here to tell you that I'm in the fire of my life.
- 1:04:11The doctor came on like a Wednesday or something and said, the way they do stroke tests is they test
- 1:04:17you on the hour every hour. So they can't, you know, do a brain scam in my eye every hour. So they
- 1:04:23come in and they go, touch your nose. And I'm like this, you know, lift your leg, lift your arm.
- 1:04:30And I couldn't, I mean, it was just, they were just like stuck. And so the doctors,
- 1:04:36what's your name? What day is it? What year is it? Who's your wife? What's your wife's name?
- 1:04:39What's your children's name? He said, what's your, I didn't know. I'm just like this.
- 1:04:45And this is gibberish. And then he said, what's your children's names? And I said 40.
- 1:04:53But I made a word out is the first like I formed a word 40. And then I knew like it,
- 1:05:00well, I knew something deep down inside knew this was not good. And I started to weep. And I looked
- 1:05:08up at Natalie who's standing right by my bedside and I said, count it all joy. And the doctor goes,
- 1:05:15what did he say? And my wife said, because I said it plain as day. And my wife said he said count
- 1:05:24it all joy, which is a scripture from the Bible in the book of James that says, count it all joy
- 1:05:32when you go through various trials. Because those trials, they perfect your faith and bring you
- 1:05:40to maturity and wholeness. So the, the, the fire is for you is that, I mean, I'm like, dude,
- 1:05:48come on, that's crazy. I can't remember my kids names, but I can remember a Bible verse in context
- 1:05:53of what's actually happened. Like this is bad. This is a trial. This is a fire. And, and, and then,
- 1:06:00you know, by Friday, dude, miraculous. I got released from the hospital. So I went in on Monday
- 1:06:06and by Friday, five days, five days, five days, five days. And you quoted out a scripture that
- 1:06:14was directly relevant to your situation, plus your wife just opened the Bible on the random page
- 1:06:18that had another. And chapter one of the fire is for you is chapter one is called count it all joy.
- 1:06:26And I think that's powerful because count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Man,
- 1:06:31we're in some trials. Do we got trials? The world's got trials or marriage's got trials or kids got
- 1:06:34trials or wife got trial. We got internal trials. He says count it all. That's tough to do, man.
- 1:06:40It's like, okay, I'm going to be happy about this because I know, I know there's a bigger picture
- 1:06:45going on. There's something, man. Like, like the, the, the L.A. Tribune asked me, they interviewed me
- 1:06:52about the book a few weeks back and they said, they said, hey, if you could, if you could rewind time
- 1:06:57and go through it again, would you? And, and, and I thought that was such a fascinating question.
- 1:07:05And I said, yes, like, like, it was a quick yes, but it's a terrifying yes. And it's a hard yes
- 1:07:11because the yes wouldn't just affect me again. It would affect Natalie again or to affect my
- 1:07:15kids again and everybody that that that loves me that I know my mother. And, but the yes is because
- 1:07:20it's changed me for the better. And this book is, is about how to take your trial and turn it
- 1:07:30into triumph. The book is, dude, I'm in a mess, but turn this into a message, right? The book is,
- 1:07:37this is a test. How do I turn this test into a testimony? And that's, that's, that's the
- 1:07:44ingredients, the tools of the book because we all go through the other stuff, but usually what we do
- 1:07:49is we bury it. Do I've been through hell? I don't want anybody to know. I'm struggling with addiction,
- 1:07:54but I'm going to bury that. I went through a failure, whatever that failure, I want to sweep that
- 1:07:59under the rug and forget about that, but the power is when you're able to take it and use it
- 1:08:05to help other people, right? And so I always say, I ain't never wasting a pain, man. If I go through
- 1:08:10hell, I'm going to flip that thing and I'm going to use that that hell to help other people.
- 1:08:17That's the book. That's what the book is about. It's about, man, God, God, God can do big things with
- 1:08:23the stupid crap in our lives. He can do big things with our pain with our, with our, with our
- 1:08:29valleys, with our trials, with our storms, with our fires, and I truly believe, man,
- 1:08:34and the power of God and the power of people, man, I was surrounded by incredible people.
- 1:08:39I went through six months of therapy, six therapies every day for six months,
- 1:08:46minus Sunday, and we go on to physical therapy and hyperbaric therapy,
- 1:08:50speech therapy. I couldn't speak well. I'm a preacher, dude. Like, I kind of need that,
- 1:08:54you know, my, my, I, I type, write sermons. My whole, you could have stabbed me. My arm,
- 1:08:59I wouldn't even have known it. My leg, numb, talked to bottom. Absolutely, you know,
- 1:09:03you could have lit me on fire, and I wouldn't have known it. So I'm out two years later,
- 1:09:09and the whole right side of my body, it's, it's still got numbness, but it's not still now today,
- 1:09:15you still, still now, mm-hmm. But I mean, you function, you're, you're living. Yeah. And,
- 1:09:21and it's like figuring out how to do this, the, the same call a different way, right?
- 1:09:28Like, like, we, we reinvent ourselves, but the, the, my, my purpose is still the same.
- 1:09:34So it's like, dude, I'm getting frustrated writing these sermons because my hand doesn't
- 1:09:38function like it used to, you know, and I can't type, and I can't think it just comes out. Like,
- 1:09:44now I'm like, ugh, you know, so now I got this little headset, and I can talk and type,
- 1:09:49so I can be like, you know, hey, it's got, Claire, you got the coolest podcast on the face of the
- 1:09:53planet. And by the way, we had a great time hanging out, and it spits it out just as fast,
- 1:09:58you know, so it's just like kind of like, you got to, so many times in life, we got to pivot.
- 1:10:02This is the first thing that happened to you that you would consider a miracle. No.
- 1:10:07I could write a book called Miracles. My wife and I have been married 27 years, we got married,
- 1:10:12she got diagnosed with a female disease called endometriosis. Yep. And she's 27 years of
- 1:10:18dealing with it stills this day. Uh, it's bad. Doctors told us you'll never, you know, you're not
- 1:10:23gonna have kids. Well, we had, we had kids, you know what I'm saying? So like, I could go on,
- 1:10:29and on, and on, and on, and on about the miracles. What do you say to somebody who listened to your
- 1:10:35story and it's super inspiring, but they're like, they're kind of like you when you were a kid,
- 1:10:41and you're like, listen, I haven't seen a miracle yet in my life. I'm kind of just going through it.
- 1:10:47Life's okay. It's not great. So what's the message to that person? Life can be great. We are built
- 1:10:54to be overcomers, and we are built with the resilience in us, and for me, and, and, and, you know,
- 1:11:06thousands and thousands and thousands, like, you know, six thousand, six thousand people have been
- 1:11:12water baptized at impact church in the last 14 years. What that means is they go, I'm gonna try
- 1:11:18this Jesus thing, and then they get baptized. That's where a baptism is like, I go into the water,
- 1:11:22come up. It's like a symbol of my sins are washed away, and I'm dying to the old Travis, the old
- 1:11:29Scott, and I'm rising up in my new man in Christ Jesus. That's the whole point, right? So, so, so,
- 1:11:34so here's my thing. If, if you feel that way, give Jesus a try. That's my thing. We've tried it all.
- 1:11:43We, we tried it all. Man, we did, it didn't work. Alcohol didn't work. Prescription drugs didn't work.
- 1:11:50Depression doesn't work. Fear doesn't work. Worrying about life all day long doesn't work. Like,
- 1:11:54that doesn't do anything for us, right? I mean, I mean, you know, women, men, don't work,
- 1:12:00infidelity doesn't work. Like, we, we, I've done it. We, you've done it. We've all tried
- 1:12:05everything the world, the earthly, the one thing that I have found for me, and I will stand by it,
- 1:12:11and it's why I still do what I do today is is for me, Jesus Christ worked, man, it worked. And so,
- 1:12:16I would just encourage whoever might feel that way. Like, dude, stand strong. Know that life can be
- 1:12:22amazing. And, and give it a shot, man. What do you got to lose? You know, give it a shot. Like,
- 1:12:28if it doesn't work, you go, well, I didn't work either. But like, you can't say it doesn't work.
- 1:12:31If you've never tried, tried to, tried to let them work, right? So I think for me is, and I make
- 1:12:38sure you're surrounded by good community, man, good people, you know, that, that's, that's very
- 1:12:43important. Like, if you're around negativity, if you're around, or if you're isolated, man,
- 1:12:48don't get isolated in life, that's where our mind starts playing track. I don't know, that's
- 1:12:52under in COVID. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, COVID, no doubt, isolation, we're all going crazy.
- 1:12:58And the world's in a state of depression and stay connected. I always say like this, the,
- 1:13:02the more connected you are, the more protected you are. Right? So if I'm connected to good people
- 1:13:12that are there for me and not against me, and they love me for me, not what I can do for them,
- 1:13:18I can be vulnerable, I can be accountable, and, and I can walk with, with humility. So, man,
- 1:13:26you're, you're circle, keep your circle tight and keep them close.
- 1:13:29I want to take a second and thank Range Rover Sport for supporting today's episode. Now,
- 1:13:33let's talk about tools that match your ambition, that match the ambition of everybody who's
- 1:13:38listening today, who has taken risks, who has upleveled their personal professional development,
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- 1:15:04What would be the message for somebody who is never considered God at all? Not just somebody who
- 1:15:11is dabble, but somebody who's never considered God, somebody who is focused on
- 1:15:17making money, even supporting their family. Not the benefits, that's something like two sales,
- 1:15:23it only the word benefit. What's the practice that that person should include into their life
- 1:15:28that they're missing and why? Great. So first of all, it's okay to make money. It's okay to have
- 1:15:34great business or 500 businesses. It's okay to be insanely wealthy if that's the goal you have
- 1:15:38for your life. I look at this way. I've been teaching out of the Bible for 30 years. I didn't
- 1:15:44know anything about the Bible when I made this move at the end of my senior year in high school.
- 1:15:49And I've learned about it. And I'm still learning about it. There's nothing in life that will,
- 1:15:54here's the answer. There's nothing in life that you'll ever go through that the Bible doesn't
- 1:15:58already talk about. All of it, you know, all of it, everything. The challenge is the Bible's a
- 1:16:06big book. It's an ancient book. You know, once you're like, where do I even start? What am I looking
- 1:16:11for? And so I would just say this for those that maybe don't, maybe I was that guy. Like God,
- 1:16:19turn the lights on if you're real. Yeah, I see you're not real. Think about this. What we try to do
- 1:16:25is we try to logic or intel it, you know, we were trying logic. We're trying like like we have to
- 1:16:30yeah, yeah, we're trying to figure out our finite minds are trying to figure out like an infinite
- 1:16:37beam, right? Which is impossible. So you can be the smartest dude in the world. And you're gonna,
- 1:16:43you're gonna make we're skeptical as humans. We are like, I mean, I mean, I gotta see it to
- 1:16:50believe it. Well, that's not faith. Like what I would say, think about like that here's just a small
- 1:16:58thought. Who is I work with celebrities. That's a lot of my, you know, big name people.
- 1:17:06Who is today in 2024 the biggest name on planet earth, the biggest name?
- 1:17:13You can have your pick. You can do the Kim Kardashian or the Trump show that you lawns, but
- 1:17:18there's some, there's some big names that huge name. Yeah, huge names, right? Is the name Jesus Christ
- 1:17:22bigger than those? I'd say so far bigger, far bigger. Yeah, he's substantially better.
- 1:17:27In 2000 years from now, will anybody know the name Donald Trump? No, because they've already,
- 1:17:32they've already started forgetting the Queen of England already. So if you don't believe,
- 1:17:37I'm just saying I get it. I've been there, but that's pretty wild that 2000 years after this man
- 1:17:46walked earth. You know, we're in Florida today. I live in Arizona that people all over the planet
- 1:17:55all gather on a Sunday to not get an autograph from Jesus Christ, get a selfie, but to worship him.
- 1:18:04That's crazy. So it's either the biggest lie on the face of the earth and we're all that stupid
- 1:18:09to believe it 2000 years later, or it's the truth. And he is who he said he is because nobody's,
- 1:18:15nobody's going to remember. Like you said, nobody, maybe 200 years from now, 300, like let alone
- 1:18:23somebody that his public ministry was on three years, three years from Jesus. He was 30 when he
- 1:18:29started. You want to talk about building business? It tells you in the Bible. You want to talk about
- 1:18:35building business? It tells you building character, building marriages, building children,
- 1:18:40building people. The Bible's a book of building, you know, a book of building.
- 1:18:46Strategy talks about the Bible. The people you surround yourself talks, but like that's what I'm saying,
- 1:18:51like there's nothing it doesn't touch. We just get in our own way, I think at times. And you know,
- 1:18:57man, just seek, like just seek, search, discover for yourself, start knocking on some doors,
- 1:19:02especially, man, if somebody's like, hey, life's man, you know, life doesn't have to be man.
- 1:19:09You know, I'm a living, breathing, walking testimony of that. And that book,
- 1:19:14that book will definitely help people discover exactly what I'm talking about.
- 1:19:20Last thing I want to touch on is the concept of reversing the irreversible. You speak about that.
- 1:19:26And also this is the concept. So we sort of like tackle this from multiple angles and I love it.
- 1:19:31Because you're such a great storyteller. And I appreciate that thing that really helps drive
- 1:19:34the message home for people. But he's spoken about somebody who is sort of dabbling with faith,
- 1:19:39somebody who has no faith at all, talking about reversing the irreversible kind of like what you
- 1:19:45went through in the context of when your faith is testing. So talk to me about that. Because I'm sure
- 1:19:52there's moments when you were lying there and you're like, well, I thought I like gave up my life,
- 1:19:58not in a bad way. And like, this is what I can, you know, how does this happen to me? But you came
- 1:20:03out of it. So there's a lot of people who was partner, there's their parents, their kids,
- 1:20:10they pass away in this horrible fashion. And they don't come out of it. And then that's when it's like,
- 1:20:15well, how do I, how do I make, how do I, how do I fix this, how do I reconcile my faith when
- 1:20:21my kid was just taken away from me, hit by a card, God forbid. Yeah. So how do you, how do you,
- 1:20:26so I grew up with a mom, that's your life. That's my, that's my, my mother's life, you know,
- 1:20:31you never had a father. You were abused in every way you could be abused as a child sexually,
- 1:20:37physically. Then when you're, you know, 13, your mother's raped and murdered and left
- 1:20:42deadness streets of California. Three years later, you have a child at 16 years old, you know, me.
- 1:20:49And then, you know, you go into marriage, then you go into a second marriage, you've done,
- 1:20:53you've done your best, you're trying this marriage breaks and falls apart. That marriage,
- 1:20:57they call, I didn't choose to be abused. I didn't choose to be cheated on. I didn't choose. Now,
- 1:21:03I had a stroke in, in November 14 of 22, three months later, my nephew, my mother's grandson,
- 1:21:1012 years old, died. This, this was three or four months after, three months after my stroke.
- 1:21:16You want to talk about bad things happening to good people. Like, my family's been through
- 1:21:21hell and back and we're in hell still to some degree on earth, you know, and what I've found is
- 1:21:26this is that, is that if you allow, if you allow God to do what he's trying to do, there's still a
- 1:21:34reason even as hard as it is. There's a pastor in California. He's pretty, pretty well known,
- 1:21:40his name's Rick Warren. He's a friend and a mentor of mine. He wrote the book called Purpose
- 1:21:46Driven Life. It's a big book. He, he passed her to church in Orange County. He's retired since then,
- 1:21:50but he's still crushing it in the ministry. And he said, he, his son, Matthew was 28 and Matthew took
- 1:21:58his own life. And then Rick took four months off, you know, I mean, dude, devastating. His first
- 1:22:05sermon back, it was titled, it was titled this, how to get through what you're going through.
- 1:22:11And bro, if anybody, I mean, it's, it's Rick's not mine. It's so good. Like, if you're going through
- 1:22:19Google that sermon, it's so good how to get through what you're going through, which is really what
- 1:22:25the fire is for you is about like the fire is not against me. It's not here to burn me down. It
- 1:22:29feels like it, I want to curse the fire. I want to pray the fire away. I want to pray the fire,
- 1:22:34like, give me out of this thing, God. And, and, and, and, you know, we have, we have to understand
- 1:22:40that, you know, this is earth. It's not heaven. Bad things happen. And there are bad people.
- 1:22:47There are bad actors. And then there are great people where, where tough things happen. And,
- 1:22:52and I think for me, watching my mom firsthand be the anchor of our family, even though
- 1:23:00hardship comes, hardship is going to come. And then you're going to get through it. And then
- 1:23:04it's going to come again. And then you're going to get through it. And it's going to come again.
- 1:23:07And instead of asking why I ask what instead of me going, why guy? Why me? Why do I have, like, I go,
- 1:23:14okay, what? Because just like, if I, if I give you a million dollars and I go, it's got, I want
- 1:23:20to give you this, but I want, I want you to manage it well. Make it, make money. I'm going to give
- 1:23:25you this million bucks, but put it to work. You have this responsibility of stewarding what I gave
- 1:23:31you, right? Well, the same is true with God. God gave me a wife. My responsibility is to steward
- 1:23:37as a, as a husband. He gave me kids, but, but we always think of stewardship and managing
- 1:23:44in terms of great stuff, right? But you, you still got to manage a business even when it's bad.
- 1:23:50When an employee leaves you and it's your best friend and he's been rocking with you for eight
- 1:23:54years. And then he goes off and starts a company just like yours. And then, you know, gives you
- 1:23:58the, the, the, the, the bird, I'll call it the Christian bird. Yeah. The Christian bird. But, you
- 1:24:03know, I'm saying like, and, and, and, and you still have to manage it, right? Bad things are happening,
- 1:24:08but I still have a responsibility to, to steward this, right? And I think the same is true with pain,
- 1:24:15heartbreak, like, like cancer, like, dude, my, my stepdad's got cancer. And they give him two to
- 1:24:22five years to live. And it's not looking good. Um, how do we manage that? If you talked to him,
- 1:24:27his name's Kyle, he'll be like, I'm okay. Drive. I'm okay. I'm loving on the doctors,
- 1:24:31and I'm loving on the nurses. And I'm just showing him God's loving. I'm like, that's crazy, dude.
- 1:24:37That's crazy. And the perspective, have you ever heard this saying?
- 1:24:42If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change,
- 1:24:47no, I've never heard that, but I like it. I like it a lot. Yeah. Perspective. And, and I think
- 1:24:53that's what the Bible does is that it gives you that perspective. Okay, here's, here's, here's one
- 1:25:00quick story. I'm not trying to be all Bible, but it's what I do. It's the business that I built.
- 1:25:05The business, hey, of the Bible, you know, I'm saying, but listen to this. So the Apostle Paul,
- 1:25:10I told you, you went from, you know, nonbeliever, persecuting, murdering,
- 1:25:14to preaching Jesus. And the greatest event has ever lived. He's preaching Jesus. He goes on these
- 1:25:20three missionary journeys throughout, you know, scripture, he ends up getting put in prison.
- 1:25:25He's in prison, chained to a Roman guard for preaching the gospel, right? And in prison,
- 1:25:34chained to a Roman guard, he writes a book in the Bible that we know today. It's called
- 1:25:39Philippians. Okay, it's a letter that was written to the Church of Philippi at the time. So
- 1:25:45Paul, he ends up being an author of 14 books of our Bible. So 14 of the 66 were written by Paul
- 1:25:56because he was put in prison. We would not have some of those great words of wisdom today.
- 1:26:03If Paul, if Paul would have kept running around preaching audibly around the people,
- 1:26:07though, and he said, he said in scripture, he goes, I'm chained in prison. But while I'm here,
- 1:26:18people are giving their life to Jesus and finding hope. So is it really me in chains? Or is it really
- 1:26:26me being here so that my chains can set people free? Bro, come on. Like, that's good stuff. And
- 1:26:35any listeners that say, whatever I still don't believe are great. I mean, we are, well,
- 1:26:40human man, we can go our own way a lot of, there's a lot of, there's some crazy stuff in a lot of
- 1:26:44stuff you can pull from that. There's something to realize that I like to do. I'm in chains,
- 1:26:48but it's actually, I'm in chains to help just set you free. And then so the book of Philippians
- 1:26:53that I was talking about, it's only four chapters long, but you know what it's known as,
- 1:26:58it's kind of nicknamed as the book of joy. And he's doing it in prison. He's doing it in being
- 1:27:03wrongfully in prison for doing nothing. Like, you know, like, that's pretty cool. There's so much
- 1:27:08wisdom though. There's so much wisdom. So I think to the detriment of people when they hear
- 1:27:13stories, when they try and bring religion into their life, it's they look at it through the lens
- 1:27:19of this, this is only applicable to people that believe. And then they don't understand the
- 1:27:25actual lessons out of that. But if more people went through life with a mindset like that,
- 1:27:30like even when the shit is happening to me, there's things that are net positive. When I'm
- 1:27:36dealing with the fire, whether or not it's net positive, I can incorporate it into my life,
- 1:27:40because there's always things like that. But there's also things that I'm going through this right
- 1:27:44now. And that's wisdom that I can teach to other people. So they don't have to go through it again.
- 1:27:49That's just a beautiful way to live your life. But people don't listen to that message. And they
- 1:27:53don't understand that somebody's already sort of put out the playbook. How to do that? Playbook. We
- 1:27:58were just talking about that very word this morning, the playbook. And it is because it and not even just
- 1:28:03for others, but like I know for me personally, me, it that almost dying this near death experience,
- 1:28:10the miracle of God, the grace of God, like, dude, it changed me. And here's just like one simple
- 1:28:14way. I have an empathy now that I never knew existed until then, because before that moment,
- 1:28:23I felt pretty invincible. Just being honest, you know, I felt invincible. I had no health problems.
- 1:28:30I'm not on any medication. Zero. The Thursday before the stroke, dude, I was going through a life
- 1:28:37insurance application to update my life insurance. I got a plus rating Thursday, four days later,
- 1:28:44I had a stroke. Like, so, so, you know, so that I felt invincible. And, and when I mean,
- 1:28:51when I mean God did like, I'm on no medication today, none, nothing. I mean, no, no, anything.
- 1:28:57I know, man, and I'm just saying like, that that's how powerful that is, you know, you should be dead.
- 1:29:04You should be okay, you said reverse the irreversible. Well, you know, it's like when the
- 1:29:10doctor tells Natalie the effects of this particular stroke are irreversible. Well, he reversed them.
- 1:29:20So, so, you know, my first two sermons back after the stroke, one, my first one was counted all joy.
- 1:29:28And I preached a whole mess. And my second one was re-reverses the irreversible. Now, think about
- 1:29:32this, because some, the we're in our own way, man, we're, I think religion, we, we religious people
- 1:29:40have given it such a black eye, right? Like, because it's like, get away from me, like, stop preaching
- 1:29:45at me. Like, don't judge me. You know, we're all defensive. And we are. I mean, I am, I am too. I'm like,
- 1:29:50you get off. Like, like, dude, go easy on me. But like, the, the idea is like, Jesus said in John
- 1:29:56316, forgot to love the world that he gave his one only son, who never pleasing him, never die,
- 1:30:00have eternal life. But at the next verse, he goes, for I did not come into the world to condemn the
- 1:30:05world. And I think that's where we need to change our kind of our societal disposition on like God.
- 1:30:12It's like, he loves us. Man, he created us. He gave us life. We may not always understand
- 1:30:17everything. I don't, you know, there's an element of faith. It's belief. It's like, I don't understand
- 1:30:23it. But you know what? I'm, I'm going to step in faith. And so I think God reverses their irreversible.
- 1:30:29Like, you know, we all, we all talk about generational curses. But like, what about generational blessings?
- 1:30:35Nobody talked about generational blessings. Well, in my family bloodline addiction, you know,
- 1:30:42drugs, alcohol, all like, dude, so much curse. So like, reversing the irreversible is every day
- 1:30:50I try to turn to side. I'm not drinking alcohol. I'm reversing the irreversible because it's been
- 1:30:56irreversible in my family bloodline. Same with drugs. My mom's sister died of a heroin overdose.
- 1:31:04Her younger sister, her other younger sister died of drugs for only two siblings, you know.
- 1:31:11My cousin, he died of a heroin. Oh, like, dude, it's crazy. So reversing the irreversible is,
- 1:31:17yeah, listen, you might have gone through something tough. You might have gone through a divorce.
- 1:31:21And bro, that's, that's like two tearing. That's tough, man. That's hard. It's hard on marriages.
- 1:31:27We're on him, hard on hearts, hard on kids. But okay, okay, okay, we're through it. We're through it.
- 1:31:33So we're going to look forward now. And now, now we're going to learn some things that we maybe
- 1:31:38didn't know that first go around or that second go around, you know what I'm saying? But like,
- 1:31:42like, try to get into a state where we just go, man, not only do I believe in the supernatural power
- 1:31:48that God can reverse the irreversible, but also that we can play a role in that. I'm doing therapy,
- 1:31:54physical therapy, whatever the role is, like, man, we all have a part in making this world a
- 1:31:59better place, not just making money. I think that's part of it. I think that's why believing in
- 1:32:04something is good because then you realize that your purpose is not just to suck as much wealth
- 1:32:08and from the world or suck as much energy from the world is to give back to. And I genuinely believe
- 1:32:13I'm even a non-religious lens that people operate in their best self when they are teaching and
- 1:32:23helping people that are in a position that they were in like five or 10 years ago or even six
- 1:32:28months ago. I genuinely believe that's when you feel the most fulfilled. And I don't even think I
- 1:32:33realize that even like on a podcast right now. I don't even think I realize that. So I started doing
- 1:32:38this and then people started saying, oh, the, the, the stuff that you're talking about, the
- 1:32:41information that you're giving over in the, in the podcast and the content you create is helping me
- 1:32:46with X, Y, Z in my business and my life. And I'm like, damn, that's like rewarding making money
- 1:32:51yet ever felt that good. Yeah, yeah. It is because now, but now the money is like, that's cool.
- 1:32:57But like there's, there's so much, there's more purpose that it's about the purpose of it. And
- 1:33:02you're, you're, you're, you're right on with that. I mean, when you're a kid, it's almost Christmas,
- 1:33:07it's Christmas evening. I can't wait to see what I got. When you mature, you're like, I can't wait
- 1:33:12to give this. Yeah, because you want to see me. Yeah, I can't wait to eat. You know, the,
- 1:33:15I'm a wife free. I just want my kids react. And that's the heart of it, right? It's just like,
- 1:33:19man, how can I help? Is it a podcast? Is it training? Is it workshops? How, how can I give what
- 1:33:25I've been given away? I do, I had this crazy story. I'm on a plane. My best friend's little sister,
- 1:33:33she was 28 years old, a triathlete, a law student in Gonzaga. She got stomach cancer and four months
- 1:33:39later died. And this was, you know, 15 years ago or something like that, 17 years ago, devastating.
- 1:33:44So I get on a plane to flap the Spokane wash. It's like a last minute flight. So I mean,
- 1:33:49it's like, there's no seats at Southwest. It's like, you know, it's hell in the air. And so I'm like,
- 1:33:54I'm crying. I'm like, God, here's a funny one for you. When you don't get what you pray for,
- 1:33:59I'm praying, God, I just, I'm, I'm crushed. Dude, I'm crying. I'm broken. My heart's broken. I'm like,
- 1:34:04this, a God itself, freaking West. I do not, I don't want to sit by anybody. I mean, if there's
- 1:34:10any way, like, could I have an aisle to myself, right? And so I get on this plane. It's dude,
- 1:34:15like sardines packed. And I'm like, oh, so I go all the way to the back. And there's three seats,
- 1:34:22but it's not, you can't recline. It's the wall. It's the bathroom. It smells like urine. And I'm like,
- 1:34:27but dude, I'm by myself. Like God is good. And I'm sitting there. And nobody, you know,
- 1:34:33when you're like, please nobody else get on the plane. You're like 1000% you know,
- 1:34:37yeah, I'm like, God, and please, like nobody else get on the plane. Like this is, this is exactly
- 1:34:41right. I just want to, and nope, sure enough, the biggest dude, flash, yes, flamboyant dude,
- 1:34:47walks onto the plane. He's got his hat on. He's got a big gold chain. I mean, he's like,
- 1:34:54you know, talking to everybody. I'm not, dude, I am not exaggerating. And he is like flirting
- 1:34:59with people and chopping it up with dudes. I know there's only two seats left on this plane.
- 1:35:04And they're right by me, right? And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. Like this is God's sense of
- 1:35:10humor. He's up there with Moses, you know, like watch this. Watch what I do to try to. And I'm like,
- 1:35:15no, dude. So he comes and he sits by me. And dude, I got the biggest set of headphones on. And
- 1:35:20my, you know, got, you know, sunglasses. I'm like, just don't know to me. They don't talk to me.
- 1:35:26Ignore him. How's that for pastor tribe? Like just ignore this human being. And he sits,
- 1:35:31he sits down and he goes, hey, what's your name? Like really loud, super loud. Like I felt like
- 1:35:36the whole plane could hear it, you know? And so, you know, like in sales and stuff, if you,
- 1:35:40if you do the opposite, hopefully you can kind of pull him down. You know what I'm saying, right?
- 1:35:44Yeah, you try to, yeah, yeah. So I'm like, I'm like, you know, my, my, my name's Travis, you know?
- 1:35:48And he's like, ask me mine. And I'm like, no, dude, no. And I, I know, this is how I go, I go,
- 1:35:55what's yours? And he goes crocodile. And I'm like, dear God. And, and I go, when I meet you
- 1:36:02crocodile and he goes and ask me why? Oh my God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I go, why? And he goes,
- 1:36:08because baby boy crocodile gonna make you smile. Like this is, this is the beginning of the flight.
- 1:36:15And I'm like, dude, I'm just trying to go support my family, man. Like we, we lost our baby girl.
- 1:36:20And so we talked the whole flight up. Well, it turns out he's, he was, at the time, he was Mike
- 1:36:26Tyson's trainer. His name, yeah, his name's crocodile is Mike Tyson's trainer. He's got a big tattoo
- 1:36:31of Mike on his, says teen Tyson and, you know, and then we're talking. And he's like, he's like, man,
- 1:36:36you know, he said, you know, well, you're a pastor. And I said, yeah. And he's like, oh, my, you know,
- 1:36:41it ain't so much I'm a pastor. Somebody's got a connect life to me. So like, you know, my great
- 1:36:46grandma, you know, like she had a Bible. Like it was like, I'm like, that's cool, man. We're,
- 1:36:51we're literally the same. Like bro, are you kidding me right now? And so anyway, great grandma,
- 1:36:56out of Bible. We had a great time, you know, and he said, uh, he said, well, you know, I served some
- 1:37:01time. I served 20 year, I go 20 year. And I'm thinking in my head, like, this did just somewhere.
- 1:37:06That's what I think. And I go 20 years. I go, what'd you do? And he was manslaughter. And I was like,
- 1:37:11oh, yeah, man. But, you know, he was like, man, this dude crossed one of our friends. The girl,
- 1:37:17you know, basically beat him. We didn't, we weren't trying to kill him, but he died and selling
- 1:37:21this story. And the whole time, like, dude, how selfish am I to go? I just, I just need me,
- 1:37:29I just want to be by myself. And then there's this man who like, dude, he just need some love.
- 1:37:34He just needs some love, man. So I started expressing love. We're, we're descending. And I'm,
- 1:37:40I finally got Wi-Fi, you know, I'm texting Natalie about the, and she's like, do not,
- 1:37:45do not give him your number. She's Googling him. You know, she's like, do not, we land. And he's like,
- 1:37:50Natalie knows what's up. Oh, she, yeah, she knows what she was, yeah.
- 1:37:54Yeah, Natalie knows what I thought. That's been my life. And so, so I said, I said, okay,
- 1:37:58Bay, we land. And he's like, hey, man, can I get your number? You know, and I'm like,
- 1:38:03definitely dude, for sure. You know, and, but right when we were landing, he was telling so many
- 1:38:08stories. And he was saying, man, we're on this private jet. And man, you know, me and Mike,
- 1:38:12and this crew, we're on this jet. And he's like, dude, you know, we had the orders and, you know,
- 1:38:16all the food and all the women and blah, blah, blah. And he said, he said, Mike looked at me and
- 1:38:21I looked at Mike and said, Mike, we're, you know, we're living now, man, we're living now.
- 1:38:26And, and, and I said, man, that sounds like, I mean, that sounds like some fun times, you know,
- 1:38:30and I said, you know, the way I see life is and what I've learned is that true living
- 1:38:37comes from giving. Not stuff, not jets, not money, not, that's great. Money's, it's a tool.
- 1:38:44Money's not good or bad. It's a tool. It's indifferent. It's, it's what you do with it.
- 1:38:49And it's okay to have stuff as long as stuff doesn't have you. But how do you know
- 1:38:53stuff has you? Well, it's in, it's in your generosity, right? It's in what you give in life.
- 1:38:58So you hit that one on the head, man. Like life is about true living and fulfillment is about
- 1:39:03giving what you have away and, and helping people. So with you and, and the podcast and all the
- 1:39:08people you're helping, that it's making them a better them. And you're getting paid. Yeah, great.
- 1:39:13I mean, that's kind of what we all do in life, but you got, but that's the thing like it's easy
- 1:39:17to do when you're getting paid. It's hard to do it when you're feeling like shit on the back of
- 1:39:20a Southwest flight with no reclines, but that's, but that's the moment you got to do it. And that's
- 1:39:26real. Yeah, that's real. I mean, you know, I'm a human being and, and I have feelings or I have
- 1:39:33emotions and sometimes life's really freaking heavy. And the call of a pastor, you're always giving out,
- 1:39:39you know, and you can't stop giving out. I mean, I know what I found though, just because you,
- 1:39:44when you said that, it just, it hit me like, so, you know, I speak at conferences and stuff like
- 1:39:49that and, and definitely not talking religion, but talking business. And the second you step on,
- 1:39:55say, yeah, so my, my better half, Gina, show his last because he's like, I actually have to,
- 1:39:58I should like pull you away. So like, people ask too many questions and spend like, you're on
- 1:40:03sage for whatever 30, 45 minutes, second, you get off, people are pounding you. I'm sure it happens
- 1:40:07to you with other life questions or whatever. So I go, well, I should pull you away more and, and
- 1:40:14it's so easy to say, yes, you should pull me away. I should, you know, I, I spent my time on stage
- 1:40:20as it's going to be another hour and a half. If you just hang out there and talk to people,
- 1:40:24it looks like tiring and draining. And when you go into it, before you talk to that first person,
- 1:40:32you see people like kind of lining up to ask you some like, sometimes really hard questions about,
- 1:40:36let's talk about marketing and sales and they're like, I have this exact problem and this is
- 1:40:40exactly what I have to figure out. And how do you do it? And like, I'm already tired from just
- 1:40:44doing the talk and I have to think about how to fix your business in under 30 seconds. And
- 1:40:49you go into it thinking like, but then, but then the second you start to do it, it actually gives
- 1:40:54you a lot of energy. And it, and very, actually, I would say never after after, because you have to
- 1:41:00be super grateful that people are even giving you the time to help them. First of all, you have to
- 1:41:04sort of completely reframe what, how you look at the situation because it is a blessing. And
- 1:41:11after you do it, you, you actually always feel like it's just like this energy that just like,
- 1:41:18that you get out of it and it's just like a very positive experience. But it's very easy to,
- 1:41:24to close off and say, listen, I need to protect my own energy and I have to protect like,
- 1:41:29and I think that when you lean into those situations, it just goes to sort of prove that thesis that
- 1:41:34when you do help out other people, if people give you opportunity to help them out,
- 1:41:38like it's, it's what humans are wired to do. I truly believe that. And what a blessing that
- 1:41:43people see you as somebody that can offer them, it's incredible. I don't know, it's incredible.
- 1:41:49And, and the selflessness that goes with that, like for me, in Scottsdale, in Arizona, and because
- 1:41:55of, you know, the people that I'm associated with with athletes and stuff, say, say we're at lunch,
- 1:41:59and it's a well-known athlete, you know, one time there was a certain athlete and he was like,
- 1:42:05he's like, more people coming up to you than me, right? Well, that's my city. That's my city.
- 1:42:10That's my area. I said, we talked about the difference. I said, what's the difference is,
- 1:42:15they want an autograph and a picture from you. For me, they want to tell me their life story.
- 1:42:20You know what I'm saying? And, and that, yeah, that can get tiring, you know? And you can get to
- 1:42:24where like, dude, I'm drained. The, the people part of it is fun. It's rewarding. It's what it's
- 1:42:29about, but it's, it's tough, man. It's like, dude, I'm going through this. I'm going through that.
- 1:42:34I'm going, it's like, okay, you know what? Trying, trying to be available. And, and I think, you know,
- 1:42:40one of the things I'm reminded of, I don't know, you know, some of your, some of your listeners
- 1:42:45would know this and probably most wouldn't, but this is, this is a cool thought from the Bible
- 1:42:49that applies today is Jesus finds out his cousin was beheaded. So John the Baptist was beheaded.
- 1:42:57So the, it talks about how Jesus went to like withdrawal to like a, oh, just a quiet place. Man,
- 1:43:02he's probably just wanting to get away a little bit. And as he is, is walking, people start going,
- 1:43:07there's Jesus. There's Jesus. There's Jesus. And then all of a sudden, there's, you know, about 15,000
- 1:43:11people that show up. And, and this is the story where Jesus feeds, you know, the 5,000. And the
- 1:43:17Bible, they only counted men, but there was women and children. So there's a supernatural feeding
- 1:43:22number 5. So, so, so, then it goes all the way into the night, you know, and Jesus goes to his
- 1:43:28disciples, because you guys go ahead and leave all this, Mr. Krauts. Dude, what? Imagine that at
- 1:43:33the arena, right? Imagine the star athlete going, hey, I sure appreciate you guys all go me and my
- 1:43:38teammates. We're going to take care of this. Like that, that was Jesus, like flipping everything
- 1:43:42upside down, right? So, so then eventually the crowds just miss. And this is the story where Jesus
- 1:43:48he finally goes up to get some alone time. And then he comes down off the mountain and he walks
- 1:43:52on water, right? So, a lot of times we know little bits and pieces, but when you put that in
- 1:43:57context, so what am I saying? What am I saying? What I'm saying is he put aside his own
- 1:44:03pain to meet the needs of people. Man, I just need to give away for a minute. Like my, my
- 1:44:09cousin was with murder for me because of me. And all of a sudden, these people are showing up.
- 1:44:14It's like, okay, you know what? I'll get some time. I'll get some love. We'll make sure everybody's
- 1:44:18fed. Now he put the needs of others before his own. And I think when I think of you doing that,
- 1:44:25dude, that's what you're doing. It's not that you would never want to help somebody figure out
- 1:44:31their stuff. You're tired. Like, you came, you do a keynote or whatever and you're prepping fuel
- 1:44:36in. Yeah. And then people go, man, Scott's got some great stuff. If I could just get 20 seconds
- 1:44:42with them times 3,000 or whatever you know, and not 3,000, but it could be, but it might be,
- 1:44:49hey, don't be a you of little faith. Come on. 3,000's coming. And so, you know, but that's those
- 1:44:56things. I'm not, I'm not Jesus, but those encourage and challenge me because there are times I'm
- 1:45:03just like, dude, the plane. And then I'm like, man, he, he, he has somebody to sit by. I mean,
- 1:45:09they just needed some love. But I think that that that's what differentiates like somebody who's
- 1:45:13in for the right reasons versus not because the one thing that I never wanted to have happened,
- 1:45:17it's a big deal for me. I never want somebody to like meet me after listening to the podcast and be
- 1:45:21like, oh, that's why you never meet your heroes in person. Yeah. I never want that. Yes.
- 1:45:27And I like, listen, if I can, if I can, you know, figure out my shit in my business and it's
- 1:45:32worked. And if that helps you, like, even like a fraction of a little bit, amazing, glad,
- 1:45:37glad I was, you know, gifted the time to tell you that. Absolutely. But would be one thing that I
- 1:45:42should have asked you that I didn't ask you that you think you want to leave the audience with.
- 1:45:46I think for for anybody that would would want the keys to the kingdom, man, to help them through
- 1:45:51whatever fire they're in right now, whatever, whatever that fire looks like, whatever that fire
- 1:45:56is, no matter how hot that fire is burning, this book, the fire is for you. I am telling you,
- 1:46:02it is going to help you. It is going to help you. It is going to give you tools to not only stay
- 1:46:08in the fire while you need to stay in it. But as you walk out of the fire, it's going to give you
- 1:46:13the tools in life and that that can be purchased on Amazon or Barnes and Oprah or any platform.
- 1:46:20Use type in the fire is for or you can go to a landing page that's just my name, Travis Herndt.com.
- 1:46:26That landing page, you can actually pre-order and get on the pre-order for the book, even right now.
- 1:46:33But but that is that is the that is the simplest, quickest way and dude, refer it to everybody you know.
- 1:46:40It's almost like if I had the answer to cancer, would I keep it or give it? I'm giving it.
- 1:46:44Well, I got I got the answer to something far worse than cancer and and and and that is the hell
- 1:46:51on life that we all live through. I have the answer. So I want I want to give it away man,
- 1:46:56give the answer to the world. So Amazon Barnes and Oprah, Travis Herndt.com, any of those,
- 1:47:01where when's it coming out with the day? The official date where the actual book is going to be
- 1:47:05shipped out and is available for a purchase is is is in the middle of January right after the
- 1:47:12inauguration, but you can pre-order it officially on Amazon and all platforms on November 17.
- 1:47:19So it's out now. Yeah, it's out now. You know, Travis Herndt. Yep.com, you can go to Amazon,
- 1:47:23you can Barnes and Oprah, anywhere you can buy a book. It's out now. Okay, cool. Where should people,
- 1:47:28I mean, outside of Travis Herndt.com, what are your socials? Same at Travis Herndt on on on Instagram
- 1:47:35and that's my main one that I use. And and yeah, I love to I love to connect but at Travis Herndt.
- 1:47:41Amazing. Very soon on they can stop by after in their Arizona impact church and pull up back.
- 1:47:46Yeah, I just found out. So there's a guy named Mason Plumly that plays for the sons. He's 7 foot
- 1:47:52dude. He's 7 feet tall. He's big dude. Well, I know Mason and stuff before he came to the
- 1:47:57sons, but I just found out that he was at church, but he didn't want to you don't want to let me know
- 1:48:02and be like a new sense. So he just came like everybody comes. Well, you know, he's got a park
- 1:48:08and over over oversized over size. Overflow park. He's going to take one of this. He's got to take
- 1:48:12one of the sprinters. But he got to jump in a golf car. The guy, you know, he's like a celebrity.
- 1:48:16And what we try to do is because like we have we have big names to go to our church. I mean,
- 1:48:20one that I would be okay sharing would be like OBJ. OBJ goes to our church and he is a friend
- 1:48:27and his family goes to our church and he's like, bro, I'm just thankful that I can go to a church
- 1:48:33because I haven't been a he's like, I go to Germany and a thousand people line up and they're like,
- 1:48:37OBJ, OBJ is like, I can't go anywhere on the planet, right? He goes, but you've created a place
- 1:48:42where I can go and like a normal human being and just just sit and not have to worry about pictures
- 1:48:49and autographs. So we're very intentional about what, especially if people have big celebrity,
- 1:48:53like you want them to feel like a human man. Like I should be able to go to church without you
- 1:48:57asking for a picture for me. It's church. Like it's church. So, but that was funny about Mason. I'm
- 1:49:02like, I just found that out last night. Like you went to church and they hang in there. Yeah,
- 1:49:06the big old seven putter and a golf cart like well, he probably does stand out a little bit. He's
- 1:49:11definitely death is the time of it. The last thing I like to ask, I mean, you've gone through
- 1:49:14some of the different seasons of your life. You go back and and this question has I think extra
- 1:49:19meaning to you in particular because you've gone on records saying that you wouldn't change anything
- 1:49:23that's happened to you. But if you could go back and tell your whatever 18, 19, 20 year old self one
- 1:49:29thing, not to change it, but just to give him some wisdom. What would that thing be? Man, I would say
- 1:49:35if I were to give myself some form of wisdom, it would be to stay true to who you are forever
- 1:49:47because life has a funny way of hurting you. And then those hurts can change you for the worst.
- 1:49:56I can go through a relationship problem and now I become resentful. And then if the resent is
- 1:50:02not dealt with, I become bitter. And if I become, you know, bitter, you're in this ultimate state of
- 1:50:10brokenness. I think it's hard to stay true to you because half the time we don't even know who we
- 1:50:19are, you know, but get good people around you, surround yourself with good people, man, that you
- 1:50:26can ride with, that you can die with, that you believe in, that believe in you. And you know, maybe
- 1:50:34chart, like, you know, put a vision board for your life at 18, 19, 15, 14, what, what's the,
- 1:50:41it's going to change because we all know as adults, it changes. But like, man, this is the vision
- 1:50:47for my life. This is the dream, right? And then keep going back to that board and cut that
- 1:50:52dream up into bite-sized pieces. Man, I want to be a motivational speaker. Okay. Well, how are you
- 1:50:57going to get there? You're going to go to some, some, some, some training stuff, educational stuff,
- 1:51:02maybe go to school for I want to go into real estate. Okay. If I'm going into real estate, which I'm
- 1:51:07not, I'm a pastor, but I'm telling you right now, I'd be an instant gazillionaire because of my
- 1:51:13network, like life is about who you know, not what you know. I like what I can't remember. I
- 1:51:18think it was Mark Cuban. He said, I think it was Mark Cuban. He was interviewed. If you could go back
- 1:51:22to college again, what would you do differently? And he goes, I'd meet everybody on the college
- 1:51:28campus, every one of them. I'd meet as many people as I can meet and get to know as many people as
- 1:51:33I could know because life is about who you know, not what you know, you know? And so the power of
- 1:51:39connectivity, the power of network relationship, like who you're around, who you're around. Man,
- 1:51:44you're around knuckleheads. Dude, you're going to be a knucklehead. And we've all been around
- 1:51:48knuckleheads and we've all been a knucklehead. You know, but like find some, find some people that aren't
- 1:51:53and I think the biggest thing for me that changed me, yes, God, but was the new people I surrounded
- 1:52:02in my house. I was raised with my best friends are all elite athletes, right? And good people,
- 1:52:09good hearts, but still party and still at that time. Well, I had to get away from that. And so I
- 1:52:15started hanging around these church nerds. When I mean nerds, they're the nerds of all nerds.
- 1:52:18Like they don't play sports. I don't even know if they know how to sport is. They were just stupid
- 1:52:22nerds, but like they were good people. Yeah. And you know, they weren't doing it when I write
- 1:52:26people for you. They're the right people, right people for me. Yeah. Yeah. And I think just be
- 1:52:30intentional about that man networking surrounding yourself with good people. You know, so I have
- 1:52:34vision. Get yourself some people that can support you with division, but also who who and it just
- 1:52:40be a friend and because life is tough. You know, we're always looking around like is this
- 1:52:44what's this person doing? What's he want? What's the angle? What's her angle? So surround yourself with
- 1:52:49good people.