Latest / The Long Burn / Episode 22 - Corey Golding - Part 1

Transcript

Episode 22 - Corey Golding - Part 1 · The Long Burn

0:07
SPEAKER_00: Hello, everybody, welcome to the long burn.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: This is Joel Mallon, licensed therapist, along with dirty Dr.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan Wade in Nashville, Georgia.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Hello, Jonathan.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm just never gonna escape that, apparently.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: And then also we have a special guest today, Mr.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: Corey Goldman, correct?
0:27
SPEAKER_00: Golding.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: Golding.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: Golding.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Corey Golding.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: This is uh Jonathan brought him on today, so I'm I'm trying to catch myself up to speed.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: So uh welcome, Corey.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for joining us today.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks for having me on.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh Goldman's more of like a Jewish last name or something like that.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: Golding is more Australian.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I guess we I guess you get your last name from doing something.
0:47
SPEAKER_03: I guess my family found a lot of gold.
0:49
SPEAKER_03: There we go.
0:50
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
0:51
SPEAKER_03: I haven't seen any of it.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: This is our first rich guest that we've had on.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: His nickname's 24 Carrot back in Australia.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, well, glad to have Corey with us today.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: And so um I think just to kick things off, Jonathan.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, do you like what's the story?
1:09
SPEAKER_00: How did you and Corey meet?
1:10
SPEAKER_00: No, that that's the best story, I think.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: So the best story, okay.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: So it was we bought our second You were on a walkabout.
1:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
1:17
SPEAKER_01: Something like that.
1:17
SPEAKER_01: In Australia.
1:18
SPEAKER_01: In the bush.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: That's that's that's too long of a plane flight for me.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, we bought our Yeah, so uh we bought our second property up in Greenville, and um we had a plan for the the backyard.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: And so the day after we got in, um, I reached out to my realtor and said, Hey, I'm trying to find out who I can find, who who does backyards or who who can tell me about these fence posts that are in a backyard.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: And so he sent me a contact he'd gotten from the the selling agent, and I thought it was the neighbor next door.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: So I called and it was it was a qual care business that they did landscapes.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: I was like, Oh, cool, maybe this guy can help us do both, figure out what's going on with the fence and the backyard.
1:57
SPEAKER_01: Well, lo and behold, it was Corey in his company that I reached out to.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: So the guy I bought the house from is the guy that I called to say, hey, could could you do your backyard for me?
2:06
SPEAKER_01: So it it was it but it was awesome.
2:09
SPEAKER_01: And he did a great job, and he's he's working on our next one now.
2:12
SPEAKER_01: Um, but but some really cool stories, a really cool kind of friendship that's that's developed there um through through sort of a a love of of Greenville, of you know, short-term rentals and and the headaches and frustrations of that, um, but also the some of the fun fun stuff.
2:27
SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, so so Corey, yeah, give us a little little background on yourself.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, because you're from Kentucky, right?
2:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
2:33
SPEAKER_01: You've got that good southern draw.
2:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the northern, the northern parts of Kentucky.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: Northern Kentucky, the blue people of Clean Kentucky.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I've got an American hat on my flag, I'm gonna make sure I'm not offending you, you know.
2:42
SPEAKER_03: No, you're you're not offending me.
2:44
SPEAKER_03: Oh, no, okay.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: All right, I'm sorry.
2:46
SPEAKER_03: No, I am uh I'm Australian born, uh, lived there the first 19 years of my life, uh, and then moved uh to Cape Town, South Africa for four years, uh, where I met my wife, who is a Greenville, South Carolina local girl.
3:00
SPEAKER_03: Um, and we actually didn't like each other to begin with, uh, which is how all good love stories work.
3:08
SPEAKER_03: And then uh I slowly just reeled her in.
3:12
SPEAKER_03: Um and now we're married, uh living in Greenville, South Carolina.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: But see, see, back in the romance has changed so much back in the day it's called it was called persistence.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: Now it's called stalking, you know, it's a shame.
3:24
SPEAKER_03: Well, I was I was persistent.
3:27
SPEAKER_03: Um and uh I guess persistence stays uh pays off.
3:32
SPEAKER_03: So uh here we are.
3:34
SPEAKER_03: But but also just to add to uh Jonathan's story about how we met, I actually didn't go to the closing um because we had signed uh earlier.
3:43
SPEAKER_03: And uh when I found when I got the request to go and look at his backyard, I was like, I realize I recognize that address.
3:50
SPEAKER_03: And then I was like, wait a second, that's the house I just sold.
3:53
SPEAKER_03: And so I like awkwardly show up not knowing who I'm gonna meet and uh didn't know if it was a trap, that he hated the house he just bought, and he's just trying to get me in there.
4:03
SPEAKER_03: Um, but no, that's that's how our relationship started, and um I'm thankful for it.
4:07
SPEAKER_03: It's been a good one.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: So all the toilets were clogged, so then you knew the phone numbers you could collect.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: What'd you do, man?
4:13
SPEAKER_01: Like yeah, they didn't they didn't go backwards, right?
4:15
SPEAKER_01: Because it in in Australia don't they go the other direction?
4:18
SPEAKER_01: Upside down, yeah, yeah, upside down.
4:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, they're in the roof.
4:22
SPEAKER_03: That's what I tell people.
4:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we poop on the roof, you know.
4:25
SPEAKER_03: So um no.
4:27
SPEAKER_03: It's easier than flinging it up there.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a lot quicker.
4:32
SPEAKER_03: No, well, it depends, I guess, if the earth's a round bowl or flat, you know, but we don't have to it's hollow, hollow earth theory.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: Hollow earth.
4:40
SPEAKER_03: That's where it all goes, anyway.
4:43
SPEAKER_03: So when you flush, it goes to the center of the earth.
4:46
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
4:47
SPEAKER_03: So anyway, so that's how we met, and uh, and and obviously that's how I'm here in Greenville with my with my wife meeting her in Cape Town, South Africa.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: So you found all the you you've been to Australia lived in Australia, you lived in South Africa, and you found all the adventure in Greenville, South Carolina.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: That's that's bizarre.
5:05
SPEAKER_03: And I love it.
5:06
SPEAKER_03: I love being here.
5:08
SPEAKER_03: Uh I mean it's it's cool.
5:10
SPEAKER_03: I mean, uh I I think the other places Australia, and we can get into this probably I've shared with Jonathan a little bit about this.
5:16
SPEAKER_03: What I'm doing here, you just don't have the possibilities that you do here in Australia to own the businesses that I own um in the time manner and the ability that we've done it here.
5:26
SPEAKER_03: Uh and then Cape Town, I mean, the most beautiful place in the world, uh, but just dangerous and honestly has through some just a lot of political unrest, has really been let go of of just the once thriving metropolis of Africa that it was.
5:41
SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
5:43
SPEAKER_03: But yeah, Greenville, love it, and I don't plan on uh don't plan on leaving anytime soon.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: So well out of curiosity, what's the difference between you said you have more opportunity to be a business owner here in the US than you did in Australia?
5:55
SPEAKER_00: What's the big like barrier there?
5:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think uh the biggest uh I would say the biggest barrier is just uh you know government oversight and red tape and and and all that.
6:06
SPEAKER_03: And then just now there's a double-edged sword here.
6:09
SPEAKER_03: That there's goodness in this and also some really bad because it just discourages people.
6:14
SPEAKER_03: But the there is a lot of um education and learning and apprenticeships and everything you have to do in order to do anything.
6:23
SPEAKER_03: All these certificates, which are all great, I'm not saying they're bad things, um, but just just this last Wednesday, I went to uh the South Carolina uh residential home builders uh commission to sit in front of them and sort of plead your case to be able to go sit the exam to become a uh residential home builder.
6:41
SPEAKER_03: Um, and you have to have a certain amount of experience, which you know I have and I've I've proven all that.
6:47
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I will go sit my exam to be a licensed residential builder, which means now I can go pull my own permits and do all the things that come with that.
6:55
SPEAKER_03: In Australia, what I've done in the last 30 months, 24 months, would take almost eight to ten years.
7:01
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
7:01
SPEAKER_03: And and I just it and it's great, it's fine to like make sure that people are really qualified, but it's almost the best way I describe it is it almost feels like the government thinks you're stupid in Australia.
7:12
SPEAKER_03: Uh but it's just how it sort of is, you know.
7:14
SPEAKER_03: Um, I own multiple trucks, got F-350s, F-250s, 30-foot, 22-foot trailers, all that's elite, all that you cannot have in Australia.
7:23
SPEAKER_03: They're too big, you know.
7:25
SPEAKER_03: Um, and so it's just it's just the ever thought about moving to Texas.
7:29
SPEAKER_03: I mean, if you want to go bigger, I mean, it's this is big enough.
7:35
SPEAKER_03: I got plenty here uh to deal with.
7:37
SPEAKER_03: But you know, when my family or friends, anyone comes to visit, they're just blown away by the you know, just the ability.
7:43
SPEAKER_03: Even the I guess the the other part too is the economy.
7:46
SPEAKER_03: Like the economy for people to have excess money to, you know, buy nice homes, build out landscapes that are beautiful.
7:53
SPEAKER_03: Um what we do is in a landscaping sense.
7:57
SPEAKER_03: I I don't know of another company in Australia doing really what we do on the scale that we do it on.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: Um well, y'all are the second, I did some research.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are the second driest continent in the world.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, but you can still do hardscapes and still make your house looks pretty, but that's just rocks, man.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Dirt's a lot harder to work with.
8:15
SPEAKER_03: It is pouring gravel's easy.
8:17
SPEAKER_03: It's a very, yeah, very dry place.
8:19
SPEAKER_03: Um, a lot of concrete, I'll tell you that.
8:21
SPEAKER_03: A lot of concrete gets poured, and that's about it.
8:23
SPEAKER_03: Uh, but just the the the mix of almost government oversight, a lot of education, which is not bad, but uh, you know, I think I've learned and know more in two years, three years have been hands-on building houses with my friend who's who's taken me under his wing, which got me the ability to go sit in front of the commission, than anyone at you know, eight years in has just framed houses or just been an electrician for such a period of time that you you miss, you know.
8:51
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I would hate to be 35 or 40 trying to start what I started at 26.
8:56
SPEAKER_03: And so um there are a lot of good tradesmen in Australia, a lot of really good electricians, plumbers, all that, but like that's just sort of what they'll be.
9:04
SPEAKER_03: You know, there's no yeah, there's no drive to be more.
9:09
SPEAKER_03: Um, and and and some extra government oversight, and then I just think the economy doesn't create an environment in which people think that they can go and make more money.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: It's just a lot of is that why you have that MAGA hat on?
9:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm I'll he does not have a MAGA hat on this.
9:28
SPEAKER_03: I'm just joking.
9:29
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, very nice.
9:31
SPEAKER_03: Um no, I uh I am very thankful for this country, I'll tell you that.
9:36
SPEAKER_03: Um and I'm probably more patriotic than most Americans.
9:41
SPEAKER_03: Um I agree.
9:42
SPEAKER_03: And I think and I think that comes honestly from uh the perspective of uh my dad was an incredibly hard worker, still is a very hard worker, works on a big farm back home, shore sheep his whole life, which if you want to have a really hard job, go shear sheep for 30 years.
9:58
SPEAKER_03: Um and and he worked really hard, but there's the there's no fruits of that labor other than like he has a house, which is great, which is you know more than most of the world, but that's just it.
10:09
SPEAKER_03: That's it.
10:10
SPEAKER_03: There's no he's not and not that it's up to our parents to leave behind anything, but I just have this drive to I don't want to leave my kids money, I want to leave them something that they can go and take on.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: But maybe your dad was loaded, he was just trying to pull the wool over your eyes.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's a good thing.
10:25
SPEAKER_03: He might be living the yeah, well done.
10:27
SPEAKER_03: Yes, that was good.
10:29
SPEAKER_03: Now he might be living the high life, I wouldn't know.
10:31
SPEAKER_03: I'm 10,000.
10:32
SPEAKER_03: I wouldn't know.
10:33
SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, so just just the the mix the uh of that and just uh seeing Australia, coming here, having the kids that I have, and just hoping you know that I'll leave them more than money.
10:46
SPEAKER_03: That that's to me is irrelevant.
10:48
SPEAKER_03: Just uh an ability to go and make and do and create for other people.
10:52
SPEAKER_03: And um, yeah, so I that's I I think I think to say all that it's just it's just easier and better, and as you actually get rewarded for the effort you put in here.
11:05
SPEAKER_01: Walk us kind of through your journeys.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: Uh you you got over here.
11:08
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you we talked a little bit, you know, uh in our in our kind of conversations together about your your crazy growth that you've had recently, but kind of start us with the early days and get us to to where you are now.
11:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so um, you know, the the funny thing is the lie I believed moving here was I'm I'm on I'm uneducated, I guess, is what you'd say.
11:26
SPEAKER_03: I don't have any college degree.
11:27
SPEAKER_03: I left high school in the 10th grade, went and uh tried to play professional cricket at our local at our at our state uh cricket academy.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: As a vocational entrepreneur.
11:36
SPEAKER_03: That's that's right.
11:36
SPEAKER_03: That's what it is.
11:37
SPEAKER_03: The positive twist.
11:38
SPEAKER_03: Um and so I my my goal back home was to um you know go play professional sport.
11:47
SPEAKER_03: Um and which one works?
11:49
SPEAKER_03: Rugby?
11:50
SPEAKER_03: Uh cricket, cricket, yeah, and then uh I also played Australian rules football, which the biggest misconception American has Americans have is rugby is like our main sport.
12:00
SPEAKER_03: It's actually a very small sport in Australia.
12:02
SPEAKER_03: And when anyone does a rugby style kick in college football, the NFL, it's actually an Australian rules football kick.
12:08
SPEAKER_03: The commentators just don't haven't done their research to actually look at the sports back home.
12:13
SPEAKER_03: So uh, but we but I was playing sport, trying to go down that route, came here, and I just believed that like, man, I've got no college degree, I'm I'm not gonna be able to get a job.
12:22
SPEAKER_03: Like I just thought America, because of the emphasis on college, like I was like, I'm sort of screwed.
12:28
SPEAKER_03: And I got here and I'd come from working for a Christian nonprofit in South Africa, and a church here hired me to be a youth minister.
12:37
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I was making$29,000 a year and just killing it, you know, just barely above poverty.
12:44
SPEAKER_03: Just above poverty.
12:46
SPEAKER_03: Um, and and my wife at the time, we didn't have any kids at that point.
12:50
SPEAKER_03: She was a nurse, she was working night shift.
12:52
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I had asked this particular church for a pay raise.
12:57
SPEAKER_03: This is like in, I don't know, maybe June, July.
13:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
13:03
SPEAKER_03: Well, this church is like 12,000 people, 12 campuses.
13:08
SPEAKER_03: Like, there's no need for a love offering.
13:10
SPEAKER_03: Their budget's bigger than any business we probably run.
13:14
SPEAKER_03: So um, and I just asked them, I simply asked just to be able to buy plane tickets to go home and see my family.
13:19
SPEAKER_03: Um and they said we'll readdress that at the end of the year.
13:23
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, the end of the year is like eight months away.
13:26
SPEAKER_03: Um, and this is during COVID, 2020, or just before COVID had sort of started.
13:31
SPEAKER_03: And, you know, I come from a big farming background, I've driven machinery, I'm good with my hands, and and so I said, What can I do to just sort of do something else to make some more money?
13:41
SPEAKER_03: Right.
13:42
SPEAKER_03: And um so I knew a good bit about landscaping and machinery, and I was like, let me just go and start seeing up if I can get some tree work and and all that.
13:50
SPEAKER_03: The first job I got was with my father-in-law, it was an$8,000 mulch job, it was two semi-trucks of mulch.
13:57
SPEAKER_03: And so I got me and eight of my friends on a Friday, and we went and undid 120 yards of black-dyed mulch for 12 hours, and I paid them all 300 bucks and made a couple thousand.
14:08
SPEAKER_03: I was like, man, this is I like this better than working for the same amount for a month.
14:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
14:13
SPEAKER_03: Um, and a few things happened during COVID, and uh, I mean, you guys know how political it got.
14:18
SPEAKER_03: And I just believed our church was not uh our church became more political than it was a church, and being in being living in South African Australia, that just is sort of not how I churches are really ran.
14:30
SPEAKER_03: Um, and so I stood down from my role.
14:33
SPEAKER_03: Uh, I also had only been to one church service in 12 months because like the ministries I was running, the youth ministries are running simultaneously with all the services.
14:41
SPEAKER_03: Right.
14:41
SPEAKER_03: Um, so not going to church with my wife and like it becoming sort of bitterness towards that.
14:47
SPEAKER_03: Just I was like, it's time.
14:48
SPEAKER_03: Uh and a friend of mine who actually lives in Florida, I called him, I was like, hey man, I'm thinking about starting like going full-time into landscaping.
14:55
SPEAKER_03: What do you think?
14:56
SPEAKER_03: He said, Well, how much do you make right now?
14:57
SPEAKER_03: I said, 29,000.
14:58
SPEAKER_03: He said, Well, do you think you can make more than that in a year?
15:01
SPEAKER_03: I said, Absolutely.
15:02
SPEAKER_03: He said, Then don't even think about it.
15:03
SPEAKER_03: Like, your main priority is to provide for your family.
15:05
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
15:06
SPEAKER_03: Um and he said, The only advice I'd give you is don't do it if your wife's pregnant.
15:11
SPEAKER_03: And I said, Well, that's the other reason I'm calling you Morgan's eight weeks pregnant.
15:15
SPEAKER_03: He said, You got eight months to figure it out, go and do it.
15:17
SPEAKER_03: Um, and that's just sort of how it got started.
15:20
SPEAKER_03: And I just sort of went with it and uh went from job to job.
15:25
SPEAKER_03: And um, I also had like lawn maintenance at that point um to fill in a couple of days each week, uh, which is no longer part of my business.
15:34
SPEAKER_03: Um but yeah, that's sort of how I got started.
15:36
SPEAKER_03: I came here thinking I wasn't gonna have a job and got a job, but it was pretty much voluntary work with how much I was getting paid.
15:44
SPEAKER_03: Um, and then just started doing it on the side, and and now I'm here.
15:49
SPEAKER_03: And uh I think if you had asked me five, six years ago if this is where I'd be, uh I probably would not have imagined this.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: But you got you got mulch more than you anticipated.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: I got mulch more.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: They don't stop, they never stop.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: So I love I do I love that um that you you I because I did, I looked at, I found your website, the koala uh services, um, koala care services on online.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: And I love that you you know unashamedly bring up your faith.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Um because that's something that we we do, like uh you mentioned being a youth pastor and stuff like that.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: I was so I'm a vo I'm a vocal music degree.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: I was a music and youth pastor for many years during college and chaplain assistant in the army did a lot of that there.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: Um and now as a mental health therapist, excuse me, I get to bring up um spirituality and faith a lot because like psychology and spirituality integrate so incredibly seamlessly.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's bizarre.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: Any any psychological concept that you bring up, it's in the Bible.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: It's not listed as a psychological or you know, scientific term or something like that, but it's in there, you know.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: And so I I love being able to integrate that whenever possible.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, my job is not to tell people what to believe, but whenever they do believe something similar, I can often utilize that.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just curious from your perspective, how does your faith or that background with that with that strength?
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Because obviously this is important to you if you list it on your website and put it out for public knowledge, yeah.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: So, how do you integrate that faith aspect into what you do or why you do it?
17:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, I'm unashamedly a believer um and and probably have even become more stronger in that belief in the last two or three years, just um, you know, the time is now and there's no time to waste.
17:34
SPEAKER_03: And um, we we had a uh, which I think I've talked to Jonathan about this.
17:38
SPEAKER_03: Um, so our first child, Emmy, um, she died during childbirth.
17:44
SPEAKER_03: Um, and you know, I'd worked in youth ministry, you know, obviously a strong come from the mission field, strong believer.
17:51
SPEAKER_03: Um, it really had some real issues with the church that I left.
17:55
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I had actually not gone to church for four months, the last four months of of Morgan's first pregnancy with Emmy.
18:02
SPEAKER_03: Um, and we got to full term, 40 weeks, uh, went in to have our 40-week appointment.
18:08
SPEAKER_03: Morgan was already in labor.
18:09
SPEAKER_03: Uh, she had planned to do a home birth, and so we'd gone in to see the midwife.
18:14
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and the midwife sort of just like, let me just do a couple checks and I'll send you home.
18:18
SPEAKER_03: Uh, we had seen Emmy move the night before, heard a heartbeat, you know, two or three days earlier.
18:23
SPEAKER_03: Um, and she put the Doppler on Morgan's stomach and there was no heartbeat.
18:28
SPEAKER_03: So we got rushed to the hospital.
18:29
SPEAKER_03: They confirmed by ultrasound that Emmy had passed away, and then Morgan continued to labor for 16 hours and delivered her naturally the next morning.
18:38
SPEAKER_03: Uh, she'll actually she would have been five this coming Friday.
18:41
SPEAKER_03: And so we go away every year for her birthday.
18:43
SPEAKER_03: We'll head away this weekend.
18:44
SPEAKER_03: Um, and so like I was a strong believer before that, uh, but you have such a severe traumatic experience like that.
18:53
SPEAKER_03: You have two options.
18:53
SPEAKER_03: One, you either believe that there's hope.
18:56
SPEAKER_03: Um it's all a lie.
18:58
SPEAKER_03: Oh, it's all it's a lie.
18:59
SPEAKER_03: And uh when you lose a child, it's hard to believe that it's a lie and it's worth nothing.
19:04
SPEAKER_03: And so uh through that and just healing from that, and we've got three more kids under four, and um, you know, you just seeing the redemption that the Lord has had over our life, um, it's just hard not to speak about it.
19:17
SPEAKER_03: And um, you know, I think I longed for eternity before Emmy, but I think even more so now the Lord has used that for both Morgan and I.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that just that there is a reunification, the belief of the reunification that you will meet her and see her whole and everything one day.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Like, if you don't have that hope, then all you have is the sorrow and the loss.
19:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
19:37
SPEAKER_03: And and I and I we say, I mean, one of the biggest things we say is I just don't understand how you walk through this not knowing Jesus.
19:44
SPEAKER_03: Um and so I guess to answer your question, it's hard for it not to come up, and I'm unashamed about it.
19:50
SPEAKER_03: Um, because people ask all the time, you know, how many kids do you have?
19:53
SPEAKER_03: Where'd you come from?
19:54
SPEAKER_03: What'd you do in South Africa?
19:55
SPEAKER_03: And I think if you just look through my life, you know, the Lord has been constant and near, and I have maybe not been as constant and near to him, but um, you know, I just look back and I'm so thankful for his his faithfulness through our through our journey, and and then just, you know, I think some people get like scared to talk about the Lord blessing a business or whatever, because it can go down the realm of you know, prosperity gospel.
20:20
SPEAKER_03: But I think what we have done, it's not just me, it's it's Morgan as well, but we we've just taken the next step and just trusted that the Lord is gonna provide and and bring you know what we need.
20:32
SPEAKER_03: Um and and honestly, as as hard as losing a child has been, it's given us a real freedom to just make decisions and move forward.
20:43
SPEAKER_03: Because at the end of the day, like nothing's worse than watching your wife labor for 20 hours to deliver a dead child.
20:49
SPEAKER_03: And so I'm like, what's the worst thing that can happen?
20:51
SPEAKER_03: I go bankrupt.
20:52
SPEAKER_03: Okay, I'm still gonna go to heaven at some point and be in, you know, eternity.
20:57
SPEAKER_03: So it's it's a weird, it's weird, I guess, for some people to hear it that way, but I just think that the death of Emmy has really given me a freedom.
21:04
SPEAKER_03: Um, one of my guys literally said to me last week, he's like, You're the most decisive person I've ever met.
21:08
SPEAKER_03: And I said, It's amazing the decisions you can make when you live with no fear.
21:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:13
SPEAKER_03: And um, yeah, I just I have good people around me.
21:16
SPEAKER_03: The Lord has blessed us with just amazing people.
21:19
SPEAKER_03: Um, and uh, I I guess when you when you go through what we walk through, it's hard to not share that.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: Well, the thing, the thing that I think about so often, like my wife and I are making a transition to being a single-income family because we have a five-month-old son and eventually we'd like to have another child.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: And I'm getting a late start because I'm 40, you know, but we're we're still believing that this is we know what God wants for our family.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: You know, and of course I have questions, of course I have concerns, you know, about all this and everything else.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: But when I reflect back, if you go, you know, back into Genesis and stuff like that, whenever God called Abraham, Abraham's like, All right, where am I going?
21:54
SPEAKER_00: God's like, mm mm, I didn't tell you that.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: I told you to go.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I'll show you as you're going.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and like that's the Absolute hardest part is that when you start the journey, you're not really entirely you might know where you want to end up, you know, but you don't know where you're going to end up.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: And that's the hardest part.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: And even you you had mentioned, you know, having some problems with either the church that you were in or churches you have been in and stuff like that.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: I I know this may sound to some people heretical or sacrilegious, but I think that the moment that you first start to question or have issues with the church is the moment that you start to walk into authentic relationship with who God is.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: Because instead of accepting what someone else has handed you, you start to decide for yourself of like what does this relationship look like to me?
22:37
SPEAKER_00: What is God telling me?
22:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, and if we believe in a personal relationship, we should believe in personal callings and personal convictions and personal concerns, you know, versus following what an organization is telling us.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, because the church is largely corporate in America.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: It's mostly corporate, you know.
22:54
SPEAKER_03: And and nowhere in scripture, like, sure, planting churches are good and growing the church is good, but like nowhere in scripture does a human grow the church.
23:02
SPEAKER_03: Nope.
23:03
SPEAKER_03: Like the Lord, the Lord says, be faithful, go and make disciples, I will grow the church.
23:07
SPEAKER_03: And um, you know, I think just having it, I've probably got a unique perspective on American, I've got a unique perspective on the American church.
23:14
SPEAKER_03: And um branches make fruit, they don't make the vine.
23:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
23:19
SPEAKER_03: And and if you're more worried about the numbers and the budget and all that, then you've lost you've already lost me, you know.
23:25
SPEAKER_03: Um because sure, we need money to rent spaces or pay for spaces, sure.
23:30
SPEAKER_03: But um I just I I don't see two thousand people watching a pastor on a screen as as what Acts two talks about the church.
23:38
SPEAKER_03: Right.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: So I feel I feel very similarly.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Good.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: I like the small, the small, the smaller churches.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: They've actually done research that they said about I think two to three hundred is about the recommended size of a church because you can actually know that amount of people.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: Like they they have a there's a term, I forget what it is.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: It's like uh basically everybody has a capacity for how many people you can know and have you know connection with.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: And I think the number it was like 57 or 97.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: I haven't thought about this in a long time, but it was under 100.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and whenever you're constantly in an organization where you have hundreds, if not thousands, of people, you are not generating you know authentic connections and relationships with them.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: It's just oh, hey, hey, Corey, good to see you.
24:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and and the shepherding factor for me from the elders in the past is just like how do you how do you shepherd 600 people?
24:26
SPEAKER_03: Like I just you you can't.
24:28
SPEAKER_03: And then and so um we just walk through it, and I don't want to go down the rabbit, you know, no, you've probably got all the questions, but there we Oh, I love this rabbit hole, but you're right.
24:35
SPEAKER_03: We're just a starting topic.
24:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we we we just walked through a situation at the church we're currently at and we're sticking it out, but yeah, they essentially they were planting a church, didn't work out.
24:44
SPEAKER_03: We actually got asked to leave the church plant for no reason of sin.
24:47
SPEAKER_03: My wife and I were the first ones committed.
24:49
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I just kept asking the pastors, like, can you biblically tell me why that why?
24:54
SPEAKER_03: And they're like, well, we're just you know, maybe it's a relational issue with you and the elder going.
24:58
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, there is no relation.
25:00
SPEAKER_03: Like it just they couldn't ever get to a real answer because they're more worried about the corporate side than like the truth that I was asking for in this church.
25:08
SPEAKER_03: And um, you know, I'm made to look like the one that's bad because you're questioning, but it's like, no, I'm just not, I'm just not gonna sit here and accept that as an answer when that's not biblical.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: It was probably just the evil accent they're trying to get Satan out of that church, you know.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: You don't sound American or Christian, man.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to do with you.
25:26
SPEAKER_03: I do have an Australian friend that worked for me that goes to the same church, and he read scripture on Good Friday, and our main pastor told me and him afterwards, you sound way too jovial to be reading scripture on Good Friday, so you'll never read Australians will never read it.
25:38
SPEAKER_03: It's called Good Friday.
25:40
SPEAKER_02: It's good, it's good.
25:42
SPEAKER_03: So, anyway, so I'm locked in for Easter Sunday next week next year.
25:49
SPEAKER_03: So, anyway, I didn't I didn't want to go down that that road.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: No, I I I think that we don't emphasize enough, like like you said, what you do wouldn't make sense if you didn't believe what you believe.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I and I believe that that is such an important part that is overlooked because in today's culture and society, we don't want to offend anyone, we don't want to push what somebody else believes.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I can clearly, openly, and confidently state what I believe without trying to influence or convince somebody else.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you don't have to believe what I believe, but this is what I believe.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: That's the Holy Spirit's job, not mine.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
26:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and and I think it overflows into my business where we're we're honest, you know, we we try to be as upfront as possible, we do good work, and uh, you know, I think there's integrity there, and and I think the Lord blesses that, and then people see it.
26:36
SPEAKER_03: I had that that website you looked up, I only had that at the start of the year, January.
26:41
SPEAKER_03: So for six years, five years, I haven't had any website.
26:44
SPEAKER_03: I do no marketing.
26:45
SPEAKER_03: Um, it's all been word of mouth, and uh it's the most powerful form of marketing when other people tell you, but uh to be where we're at, and I've never spent a dollar other than like putting a koala on the side of my truck, you know, that's that's that's really it, you know.
27:02
SPEAKER_03: And so the website was some good growth because people can actually go see our work and we're about to have some more it is is legitimacy.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: That's all it is.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: That's all it is, yeah.
27:10
SPEAKER_03: Because then when we do the work, they're like, oh no, these people are really legit.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: And then the word of mouth is what travels it.
27:15
SPEAKER_03: Yep, yeah.
27:16
SPEAKER_03: So um, yeah, so I I think my faith, you know, like I said, unashamed, and it overflows into work.
27:22
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
27:22
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and the way I treat my employees and customers, you know.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: So I see you're so your wife's pregnant on the picture on your website.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: So is that your youngest?
27:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh we have that is the second youngest.
27:33
SPEAKER_03: So she's had four in four years.
27:36
SPEAKER_03: Um, or four and a four and a bit.
27:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we we would have Emmy who would be five, Addy just turned four two weeks ago, Shep is two, and then Ali is seven months.
27:45
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
27:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
27:46
SPEAKER_03: Man.
27:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, go forth and multiply.
27:48
SPEAKER_03: I don't know who's working harder, you or her.
27:51
SPEAKER_03: She is 100% working harder.
27:53
SPEAKER_03: So um, you know, we just we and I maybe we'll get into this, but we just bought another property.
27:59
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I bought it to Is it a daycare?
28:02
SPEAKER_03: It's big enough to be a daycare.
28:05
SPEAKER_03: Um, we we I've been fighting the county for uh to get a shop built on the four acres we live on here, actually just up the road from from the Airbnb Jonathan Borton.
28:14
SPEAKER_03: County's been 12 months.
28:15
SPEAKER_03: You know, this is the most government oversight I've seen in America.
28:18
SPEAKER_03: It's been an argument with this county to build a build a barn.
28:21
SPEAKER_03: And then a friend of I, of mine and my wife's, they were selling nine acres and a barn and a log cabin two minutes away.
28:29
SPEAKER_03: Um, and the barn and the log cabin are separate.
28:31
SPEAKER_03: And uh so we purchased that uh and we're turning the log cabin into an Airbnb that'll sleep 24 people.
28:38
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
28:38
SPEAKER_03: Um, and then the the barn is almost 3,000 square feet and big enough to house my trucks and all that.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: So you can you're competing with Jonathan, that's the plan.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't think I don't have one that big young.
28:48
SPEAKER_03: I think it's a different, it's a different uh party venue.
28:51
SPEAKER_03: It is a party venue.
28:52
SPEAKER_03: I'll tell you, it's got a pool.
28:54
SPEAKER_03: It's a true log cabin.
28:55
SPEAKER_03: It's awesome, but she is furnishing it and and designing it and read we're redoing the kitchen.
29:01
SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm calling my subs, but she's she and my assistant Shannon are the ones doing it.
29:05
SPEAKER_03: So she's doing that and full-time being a mom.
29:08
SPEAKER_03: Um and so she's definitely working harder than the than I am.
29:13
SPEAKER_03: So I get to come home and enjoy the kids for an hour, you know, night, hour and a half before they go to bed.
29:18
SPEAKER_03: She is you can just tell she has spent all day with three kids under four.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: And see, now you can be proud.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: Like, whenever this podcast comes out, you're like, babe, listeners, and you gotta listen to us.
29:28
SPEAKER_03: I've driving so much good info about you.
29:30
SPEAKER_03: Just trying to just work on brownie points.
29:32
SPEAKER_03: What if you're all right?
29:35
SPEAKER_03: I'm trying to have another kid, you know?
29:40
SPEAKER_03: That's perfect.
29:41
SPEAKER_03: Oh, I love her.
29:42
SPEAKER_03: Well, no, she's great, she's fantastic.
29:44
SPEAKER_03: And and there's there's something amazing about having a wife that's invested and and uh pulling her weight too, just to see my success and the business success and ultimately the family, the family success.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: So let's let's let's talk about that.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: I mean, so yeah, you you've grown this from kind of almost a side gig hobby of of sorts in in into this this company that I mean it's getting bigger now, not just landscaping hard scapes, you're gonna be building houses and and doing all this stuff.
30:13
SPEAKER_01: So, how how how did we handle that, manage that growth with this growth of a family too?
30:18
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I it certainly takes a strong woman, yes, absolutely.
30:21
SPEAKER_01: But kind of how did you handle that internally as a dad, as a husband, as a business owner?
30:31
SPEAKER_00: Hey, this is Joel real quick.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: We had such a good conversation with Corey that we decided to split this episode into two parts.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the conversation just kept going, and so uh we tried to keep it to about 30 minutes, and so since we went way over that today, we're gonna cut things in half.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: So stay tuned with us next week for the remainder of the conversation with Corey Golding.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: And so we will see you next week on the Long Burn.