Latest / Nightmare Success In and Out / Building Second Chances: Sean Stegeman's and Lee Loveall's CMC Journey
Transcript
- 0:02What happens when your worst fear becomes your reality?
- 0:05Hi, I'm Brent Cassidy, welcome to the Nightmare Success In and
- 0:08Out podcast where we explore how to overcome your fears and
- 0:12nightmares that set yourself free.
- 0:14We're going to be exploring this topic with guys that was in
- 0:16Leavenworth with and others who survived their own nightmare.
- 0:21These stories can be inspiring, sometimes sad, there's some
- 0:25humor, but hopefully you can come away with a nugget of
- 0:28something that'll help you knock down some of the prisons you
- 0:30built up in your own mind. All right, welcome back
- 0:37nightmare success, In-n-out listeners.
- 0:39This is where you come from. What happens when your worst
- 0:41fear comes? Your reality?
- 0:42How do you adapt, survive, overcome?
- 0:44Set yourself free, folks. Don't forget to follow and
- 0:48subscribe. If you if you if you like this,
- 0:50you know, share it out, like it up.
- 0:52I appreciate it. I want to give a big shout out
- 0:57to Rodger Faulkner, who is a guy that I met a few years ago and
- 1:02he connected me to Sean Stegman. And I want to say Rodger is a
- 1:07great man. He when I was trying and just
- 1:11getting out of prison, you know, I was all over Google and, and
- 1:16so it came up and he said, you know, can we, can we meet and
- 1:21talk? And we sat down at this
- 1:23restaurant and he said, you know, could you just tell me
- 1:25about the story? And so I just told him my story
- 1:28and he said, well, great, that's all I wanted to hear.
- 1:31And we went on and that's just the way Rodger is.
- 1:35And, and Rodger reached out to me a few weeks ago and he said I
- 1:41got a great guy and a great company down.
- 1:46These guys are doing incredible work down in Springfield, MO.
- 1:49And that really caught my attention because that's my old
- 1:51stomping grounds growing up as a kid.
- 1:54So he started telling me about Sean Stegman.
- 1:59And it's, you know, a great story because a lot of people
- 2:04have heard me talk about how difficult re entry is.
- 2:09You know, we just assume that people when they get out of
- 2:11prison, they'll just they'll be able to make it happen.
- 2:14And it's it's really tough, really tough.
- 2:17And it you'd find it a place to live, finding the right, you
- 2:21know, soft abilities to be able to do things that you need to
- 2:29do. Just the knowledge of where
- 2:31things are and what to do, getting a job.
- 2:34And Sean Stegman, when he got out, he was lucky enough to meet
- 2:42Lee Lovell. And these guys have taken a
- 2:46company and have exploded it over the last few years.
- 2:51And the really cool thing that they're doing, it's all about re
- 2:54entry. They've got over 187 guys and
- 3:00women that are part of CMC creative Modular Construction
- 3:07and they do the fabrication and installation for Seven Brews
- 3:11Coffee. A lot of you have seen that it's
- 3:13a national company kind of like Starbucks.
- 3:17It's an incredible story. It's inspiring to me because I
- 3:20love it when people not just don't talk about it, they put,
- 3:24you know, and their effort and actually, you know, walk the
- 3:27walk. And I can't wait to get into all
- 3:29this today with Sean. I'm actually going to have Lee
- 3:32Level here too when we talk about the reentry stuff and what
- 3:34these guys are doing. So before we do that, I want to
- 3:38recognize the show sponsor, Auto Plaza Direct.
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- 4:13experience you deserve. Auto Plaza Direct telling Brent
- 4:16from Nightmare Success sent you. Sean Stegman.
- 4:19Welcome in my man, how are you? Yes, Sir.
- 4:22Thank you. Just want to tell you I
- 4:25appreciate the opportunity to be on your show and just talk about
- 4:31a message of hope and give God the glory.
- 4:34And definitely a shout out to Roger.
- 4:39He's he's awesome. He's awesome.
- 4:42He is. Awesome.
- 4:43He he's just, you know, you for, for those out there, there's you
- 4:48can always tell just a good person.
- 4:50Why this is the way he carries himself when he walks in the
- 4:53room. He's always a tenant.
- 4:55He he wants to know about you and he's just a good guy.
- 5:00And they've got a great company called RK Excavation.
- 5:05It's growing and has family business and and it's done
- 5:08really well. And Rodger and Kyle, I know, but
- 5:11they're, they're great people. So, Sean, I've, I've been really
- 5:18excited about this interview because, you know, I'm in this
- 5:22space. I think this is the 158th
- 5:25interview I've done and I interview people all across the
- 5:28country and you're in Springfield, MO and I'm in Saint
- 5:31Louis. I didn't know about all this
- 5:33good stuff that you guys were doing down there.
- 5:36And I, I love it when there is a situation that we talked about
- 5:42on this show and I can actually go to someone that is actually
- 5:47making good things happen with people who are getting out of
- 5:50prison. Because it makes all the
- 5:52difference in the world from somebody who gets a real second
- 5:55chance start to somebody that goes back to prison because the
- 5:58recidivism rate, because somebody can't get a job,
- 6:01something they can't get set up to find a place to live.
- 6:05All the different things that happen and the barriers that
- 6:08happen send a lot of people back.
- 6:09But when we get in and talk about these programs, it really
- 6:13makes a lot of these are the type of programs I'd love to see
- 6:15that, you know, we could duplicate and make it national.
- 6:18But I want to take it back, Sean to you because you you've got a
- 6:22story here. You know, you're the kind of at
- 6:27the top of the food chain now with this growing company, but
- 6:29it wasn't always that way. Take take me back to Sean
- 6:33growing up, Sean, mom and dad, Sean siblings.
- 6:36Where Where were you and how were things?
- 6:40OK, so I'm from Jeff City, Missouri and I am, I'm 40 years
- 6:48old. And so my, my childhood, my, my
- 6:53parents, you know, they're still in my life.
- 6:55My both of them have, you know, it's not a real tragic story or
- 7:01a rough childhood or anything like that.
- 7:03It's I mean, we weren't, we were pretty.
- 7:07My mom, my parents got divorced. My dad wasn't an alcoholic and
- 7:13spent the majority of his life in and out of a A, but he was
- 7:21just after my parents got a divorce.
- 7:23He wasn't real super involved every other weekend.
- 7:26Not real, not real intentional about a relationship.
- 7:32As I got older, into my teenage years, I was pretty kind of
- 7:36taking my own path, a little rebellious, and I wasn't trying
- 7:40to hear anything that. You know, how old were you shot?
- 7:45When they got a divorce, were you young?
- 7:46I was in. I would say I was in second
- 7:47grade, so 7. Year old.
- 7:50So I was, I was pretty young. We, we lived with my mom.
- 7:54My dad didn't, you know, he was he, I, I didn't understand it
- 7:57then. I understand it now through my
- 7:59divorce and some of my own experiences, what it did to him
- 8:04and it kind of it broke him, you know, those things that had just
- 8:08happened that didn't go. I see it now for what it what it
- 8:12was without a relationship with the Lord.
- 8:14These things that happened throughout his life kind of just
- 8:17putt, you know, piled on top of him were very heavy and so made
- 8:22him somewhat resentful and, you know, and towards just the
- 8:28situation or life, you know, maybe that's just kind of my
- 8:31perspective. Yeah.
- 8:33And, you know, so he just wasn't real involved me and, you know,
- 8:42in our childhood, in my teenage years, probably when I needed
- 8:44him, needed a male role model in my my life the most that he he
- 8:48wasn't the one. My mom, she worked a full time
- 8:52job raising me and my brother. She wore night shifts at a
- 8:55factory and then for 20 years and they shut the factory down
- 8:59and she kind of bounced jobs for from there to there.
- 9:02And we, you know, as long as we didn't have the police knocking
- 9:09at the door or people complaining about it, She really
- 9:12didn't. She didn't know what we were
- 9:13doing most of the time. Yeah, we kind of just.
- 9:16Everybody was just getting by. Is you and your brother, right?
- 9:19Yeah, yeah. And so I had a stepfather that
- 9:23was in the picture for a little while, a few years.
- 9:26He is about the only person in my life that actually, you know,
- 9:33tried to try to teach me some work skills, some habits, You
- 9:38know, even he prayed he had a relationship with the Lord.
- 9:41It looked a little questionable now, but you know, when I look
- 9:46back on things, but he, you know, he, he prayed with us.
- 9:50He he prayed he talked about the Lord and things like that, which
- 9:53what I, you know, I realize now was stuck out the most.
- 9:59And once I surrendered my life to the Lord and came to the end
- 10:01of myself and the things that he had done and was trying to do in
- 10:04that short period of time that he was in my life had a very big
- 10:08impact on me now. Or or you know, so he was a he
- 10:15was a leader. He was confident in himself.
- 10:17He spoke, you know, and he was a hard worker and he no anyway, so
- 10:21all that was. That at the time, was that the
- 10:23same time period, Sean, that you were a teenager and you were
- 10:26kind of rebellious and getting in trouble?
- 10:28So he he, I think my mom married him when I was in 4th grade.
- 10:33And by the time I was a freshman in high school, he was kind of
- 10:37exiting the picture. OK.
- 10:39And, and that was hard on my mom, you know, and I'm sure and
- 10:42so and so she, you know, she drank and partied on the
- 10:49weekends. And I kind of grew up at like
- 10:52flow trips, a lot of adult things that I probably shouldn't
- 10:55have been engaged in, been around, but I was always adults
- 11:00drinking biker rallies every other weekend.
- 11:03Those are kind of the role models that I had in my life.
- 11:06They, the majority of them, they all, they worked hard and they
- 11:10played harder. That was kind of their, their
- 11:13life motto, you know, and that was kind of the direction I, I
- 11:18went. The one, the one person that did
- 11:22take. I had a my best friend called
- 11:25him my cousin. As we grew up, we were, we were
- 11:27pretty close. His dad, he was a, you know, he
- 11:31owned a business. He was kind of like the this
- 11:33outlaw biker, you know, and he was pretty intentional about
- 11:38giving us, you know, little Nuggets of wisdom that now
- 11:42probably questionable, you know, and but he was a role model to
- 11:49me. He was.
- 11:50He. Was tough.
- 11:51He didn't, he didn't take crap from anybody and even what a man
- 11:55was supposed to be in, in, in my eyes at the time.
- 11:58And that's what you know, So I, I took a lot from those people,
- 12:02those men in my life. And whether they knew it or not,
- 12:05they were molding me down a path as I took a little bit from each
- 12:11one of them, made it my own, and then tried to, you know, my
- 12:15pride myself, selfish ambitions, tried to, you know, build up a
- 12:20reputation or an identity in these things that really were
- 12:23founded on nothing and just crumbled.
- 12:28Well, when you got I know that your, your story is Shawn, that
- 12:32you your 20s and early 30s that you were, you were getting in
- 12:36and out of jail, out of prison. What, what was it just petty
- 12:43stuff that you you were hanging with the wrong crowd and, and,
- 12:47and you found yourself just not on not getting into the right
- 12:52lane and just kind of rotating back and forth between the.
- 12:56Well, I am, I guess I, I've always, I've always been, I
- 13:05guess I would consider myself always end up in leadership
- 13:08position, some position where people are listening to what I
- 13:11have to say. They're trusting me.
- 13:13I could always somewhat convince people because I would, I would
- 13:17back it up with some action. I was the oldest.
- 13:21I had a younger brother. I had, I have 5 male cousins.
- 13:26So all the boys in my in my, all the the men in my life, the
- 13:30their then kids, they were all boys.
- 13:32I was older than all of them. So they all kind of looked up to
- 13:35me. So I naturally developed into
- 13:38like a leader type role. And so, but the, the kind of, as
- 13:45I grew up, the problem with that was I always, you know, I always
- 13:51started to realize strategically that if I did a little bit more
- 13:54than the people around me, I would excel.
- 13:57I could, you know, put in a little bit more work, a little
- 14:00bit more effort, a little more intentionality that I, I just
- 14:07ended up in positions of leadership.
- 14:10I was, I was a leader, but I didn't, I didn't really have a
- 14:14moral compass other than what, you know, what got me ahead,
- 14:20taking shortcuts, stealing line, whatever I can make it look like
- 14:23or whatever, you know, at the in the moment that could excel me
- 14:27forward. That was kind of my moral, my
- 14:30compass. It was changing.
- 14:32It was nothing solid. And so as I started to use drugs
- 14:37and end up in the spiritual darkness, it developed into
- 14:41something much worse. And it, it, it was all
- 14:43essentially, it was all leadership.
- 14:45I was, and so, but kind of to to back up a little bit when I was,
- 14:55I was 17, I so well, when I was a juvenile, I kind of, I didn't
- 15:02fit in in school really. I wasn't real athletic.
- 15:06I didn't I wasn't popular. I didn't have a lot of nice
- 15:09clothes. So I didn't fit in really with
- 15:11the popular. Yeah, my own insecurities.
- 15:15What I navigated to was people that I did fit in, they were
- 15:18skipping school, smoking weed. That was really kind of the
- 15:22start of things that in my, from the freshman year, I, from
- 15:28there, I, I, I stopped going to school.
- 15:30I ended up getting sent to a, a, a juvenile boot camp called
- 15:36Shelby Challenge where I got my GED.
- 15:38So I was always around people that were searching for their
- 15:42identity, you know, a reputation and and so just kind of.
- 15:50Within the within that group though, Sean, was that where you
- 15:54were also a leader? Yeah, yeah.
- 15:57Yeah, well, yes, I mean, I, I, I started to pick up a lot of
- 16:00things. It wasn't really until my 20s
- 16:03whenever I so after I got a show me challenge and plan to go to
- 16:07the military because it was a quasi military boot camp at Camp
- 16:11Nevada. And I don't know if it's still
- 16:13around anymore, but I took a lot from it.
- 16:17And I was going to go into the military from there.
- 16:19But I ended up after I graduated, I had gotten a wreck
- 16:25drinking and driving with my best friend.
- 16:27He was 15 and he lost his life in the wreck.
- 16:31And so that changed the course of stuff in my, my life, the
- 16:36direction of my life, because I, I literally remember before that
- 16:41accident happened, thinking that I was somewhat invincible, you
- 16:46know, that things just didn't happen to me.
- 16:48Like I heard all these tragic things happen to people all the
- 16:51time. And I remember thinking about
- 16:52this relatively very right before this accident happened
- 16:57after I graduated. Show me challenge and that like
- 17:00I, I can just move through life carelessly and recklessly and
- 17:05nothing happens to me. I, for whatever reason, I'm, you
- 17:08know, favored or whatever. And I have this favor with me.
- 17:14And so anyways, the wreck happened, Zach, he was 15.
- 17:19After that, I ended up I got I went to prison, I got a
- 17:24involuntary vehicle or manslaughter.
- 17:27They gave me a five. It was my my first time.
- 17:30I was 17. You were 17 with A5 year
- 17:34sentence. Yeah.
- 17:36And I, I did 2 1/2 years on it. And so I, I went to, I went to
- 17:40prison, I mean. That's young.
- 17:41That's young, Sean. To be walking into prison at
- 17:45that age with 2 1/2 years, what was that?
- 17:48What was that like for you at that age?
- 17:50I was very, it was scary. Honestly, it was just a whole
- 17:54experience. Like even being in the, even
- 17:57whenever I talked about the show me challenge of being around all
- 17:59these people that were trying to find their identity and
- 18:01everybody's got some sort of reputation they're building.
- 18:04I was always able to just kind of get by like unnoticed, not,
- 18:10not like being picked on, not like a target.
- 18:15You know, I was able to always be like a figure it out, you
- 18:19know, be in the woodwork, in the mix of things and, and just, and
- 18:23I didn't involve myself in too many things that would get me
- 18:27targeted for whatever. And I then I went to prison and
- 18:30I kind of learned to adapt in that.
- 18:34I just, you know, I, I went through it and it kind of
- 18:40actually went through pretty unscathed, relatively.
- 18:44No issues. I mean, for the most part, I, I
- 18:46learned a lot. I pick up on things very fast
- 18:48what not to do and I don't, and I wasn't putting myself in
- 18:53positions that I didn't need to be.
- 18:55Don't gamble. Don't, you know, run around
- 18:57trying to pencil or do some stuff that's going to, you know,
- 19:01bleed you into a situation like that.
- 19:03So I just, I skated by basically I got out when I was 21 and then
- 19:12I just started. I went to work, I walked all my
- 19:15probation down the rest of my or my parole down.
- 19:18I walked that down no problems, walked it down, had a job.
- 19:23In the meantime, I still, I drank on the weekends and I
- 19:26partied. I did that.
- 19:29My little brother was a senior in high school when I got out.
- 19:31So kind of in the little party scene with him, he still looked
- 19:36up to me. He had a whole crowd of people
- 19:38that looked up to him that all looked up to me.
- 19:42So started to try to develop this, you know, this reputation
- 19:47or whatever on this identity. And my brother and I, we kind of
- 19:54decided that we would go into business.
- 19:56My stepfather that I talked about earlier, he had owned a
- 19:59couple different businesses in the short time so.
- 20:03Manu wanted to learn some skills and work for myself and make
- 20:07some money. And that was going to, you know,
- 20:09the amount of money and the work that I had that was going to
- 20:11give me my my value in life and my identity.
- 20:16And so I started working towards that still partied a lot on the
- 20:20weekends. And then I, we my brother and I
- 20:25started a residential tree business.
- 20:27We went to work for a company trimming trees in the power
- 20:30lines on the weekend. We did residential, we made
- 20:32money, we partied and kind of went through that.
- 20:35I started to I met my ex-wife, started having a bunch of bunch
- 20:42of babies throughout my 20s. I still drank the, you know, the
- 20:46the habit start really honestly as far I made it all the way
- 20:50till I was 33 and then I went back to prison.
- 20:54The one thing that probably made that I was able to function and
- 20:57make it as far as I did was because of her, the stability in
- 21:01my life. And so I kind of lived a double
- 21:05life with her. She worked, she was with the
- 21:08kids and then I I worked and then I did what I want and she
- 21:12didn't really question it a whole lot.
- 21:14I mean, she, you know, she wanted her marriage to work and
- 21:17she was waiting. She saw something in me and was
- 21:19waiting for that to happen and till finally she just got fed up
- 21:23with it. As things got worse over time,
- 21:26as I tried to build this identity and all the things that
- 21:30came with it and that misguided path that I was on, the partying
- 21:36got more, the drugs got harder, the compromises got bigger, The
- 21:41corners that I cut became more and more bigger compromises.
- 21:46And essentially it started with drinking the pills, eating
- 21:52pills, and then, you know, I did some went through a season of
- 21:58heroin and some just some things like that.
- 22:01And then it led to meth. And whenever I got to when meth
- 22:05stepped in the picture and opened the door for spiritual
- 22:08darkness and experience, that was that changed me and
- 22:15ultimately it led me to the end of myself and the end of that
- 22:19that marriage and led me to the Lord and here.
- 22:24So let's talk, let's talk about because you, you, I think at 33
- 22:27years old, did I forget how, what the amount of time that you
- 22:32spent in prison at that time? But I was, I was cute.
- 22:37How? How long was it?
- 22:382 1/2 years at that. 2 1/2 years so Sean, what at that time going
- 22:43back in when you were getting near the end of that sentence,
- 22:50what were you thinking about how you were going to re enter your
- 22:55world, your society, your. Second time or my first time?
- 22:59Your your your second time when you were 33 somebody.
- 23:03I did, I so I did two years on that time it was completely
- 23:06different. Every, well, everything was
- 23:09different. I wasn't the same anymore.
- 23:12I had whenever I got locked up at that point, I had basically
- 23:19that spiritual darkness that I had embraced and and walked in.
- 23:24It had turned me into something or someone that pushed every
- 23:28person in my life away. They nobody wanted me around
- 23:33anymore. Not my wife.
- 23:34She had restraining orders on me.
- 23:36I got a stocking charge I had in in all of that, just not willing
- 23:43to let go or like I heard me do a very, you know.
- 23:48What? They call a rock Rock bottle.
- 23:51Yeah. I was in a very, very dark place
- 23:53and I wasn't willing to take ownership or let go of what I
- 23:58had put all my effort and energy in.
- 24:02That was mine that I thought was mine.
- 24:05And so, and because I thought it was mine and I, I didn't respect
- 24:08what it really was. I didn't treat it the way I
- 24:10didn't care. I didn't, you know, it's just
- 24:12the way I showed love. It was just twisted.
- 24:16And I ended up I ended up with a charge with an assault charge
- 24:21with a separate incident from my wife, completely separate.
- 24:24At that point I was had no filter because she was not in my
- 24:28life. And that you know, and that that
- 24:30somewhat stability that I had from her.
- 24:32Once that was gone, it was only a matter of like six months and
- 24:37a complete out of control cycle or or spiral that I end up in
- 24:43Cole County jail with several charges throughout the that two
- 24:49years of every time they the they had ran into me, they tried
- 24:53to pull me off the street. They tried to hit me with
- 24:55something. They knew that I was, you know,
- 24:57become the kind of knew the situation could never catch me.
- 25:00I've always been able to kind of get by and and be somewhat
- 25:05slick. I thought probably too slick for
- 25:07my own good and get by for too long and until it just, you
- 25:15know, compiled crashed down on me.
- 25:18But I, I end up in Coal County and I'm at the end of myself.
- 25:22I have a, a charge that is 25 year sentence up to 2585%.
- 25:31I got a bunch of other little charges that are strung out in
- 25:34the three different judges and just that all added up.
- 25:40My wife was gone. We have four children at the
- 25:42time. One of my youngest was seven
- 25:47months old and I didn't know her like she didn't know me.
- 25:50And I had. So I was at the end of myself
- 25:54and everything that came out of me was just hate and anger and
- 25:59resentment and I was done. I've been trying to take my life
- 26:04and couldn't do it. I couldn't even do that.
- 26:06I was too scared to do it. But finally I'd come to a place
- 26:08that I was absolutely done. And I, I, I cried out to the
- 26:16Lord like I had a Bible. I had been running from him.
- 26:18I could feel in this spiritual darkness, I could hear him and
- 26:22see him the whole time. Just wanted nothing to do with
- 26:25him. And but I knew he was there
- 26:28because I'd experienced this darkness that was real.
- 26:31And because of that darkness, if that's real, he's real.
- 26:35And so I I I could tell the difference between light and
- 26:38dark. The spiritual thing that I was
- 26:40had embraced and. You came to that on your own,
- 26:43though, Sean. You were in, in jail or in
- 26:45prison and you were reading the Bible and that you came to that
- 26:48on your own. Nobody else said, hey, check
- 26:50this out, Think about this. You.
- 26:52You, you experienced that. No, yes, exactly right.
- 26:56And even before that up leading up that there were two instances
- 26:59that stick out strongly to me because of my mentality or where
- 27:02I was at with with the Lord or hearing about him.
- 27:05Someone had tried to talk to me whenever I told them that I was
- 27:08going to take my life. I they tried to tell me about do
- 27:12you know who Jesus is? And I and I flat out told him.
- 27:16Don't even bring you know that, that I'm not trying to hear it
- 27:20like I'm not the one for that. That's not you know, and I was
- 27:24not willing to hear it and whenever and wanted nothing to
- 27:27do with it. And when I came to that point
- 27:31and I knew even then in my heart that I'm, I'm running from him
- 27:35like I like, but I have nothing left.
- 27:37So these things that I put my like I have nothing left.
- 27:41All these things that I have my identity.
- 27:42So why would I, why would I need him now?
- 27:45Why, you know, and all this so that blue Gideon's Bible, I
- 27:50still have it with been staring at me and having like beaming
- 27:54its blue cover at me and so bright that I'm like covering it
- 27:58up and like I can't get rid of it.
- 28:01And throughout the six months that I've been in and out of
- 28:03jail, after, you know, I had the restraining order and this the
- 28:07charge, the stocking charge on my wife.
- 28:09And just to clarify, you get a stocking charge if you violate a
- 28:12restraining order three times. So that's with phone calls, it
- 28:16just and excessive communication.
- 28:18So I like, I was never mind. I'm not trying to minimize what
- 28:22it was, but I just want to clarify that so that, you know,
- 28:27every time I went to jail or not a jail got like every time there
- 28:31somewhere, he's speaking to me, he's there like writing on the
- 28:35wall and or a Bible or someone tells me something and out.
- 28:40I didn't want to hear that. I don't care.
- 28:43And but it was there and there was no denying it.
- 28:45And when I came to that point, I said, all right, listen, Lord,
- 28:50I'm going to I'm going to give you one.
- 28:52I'm going to read this Bible one time.
- 28:55I'll read the whole thing and you got to do something.
- 28:59If you don't show me something, I'm I'm taking my life.
- 29:02I'm done. Like I don't care.
- 29:04I'm already in hell. It's not getting any worse than
- 29:06this. You're not going to do anything
- 29:08worse to me than the situation I'm in.
- 29:10So it doesn't matter. And the moment I opened up, I
- 29:15opened up to the book of Proverbs because the one thing I
- 29:17did know about about the Bible, there was a king named Solomon,
- 29:21the wisest man. If I could take anything from
- 29:23anything in this book and that it was going to be out of the
- 29:27book of wisdom and I was going to still strategically in my
- 29:31mind, I'm going to take some little things and apply them how
- 29:33I want. That was my mindset when I
- 29:36started reading Proverbs. It was so convicting of the
- 29:41reason everything my life looks the way it is because I'm a
- 29:44fool, because I shook my fist at God, because I wouldn't listen
- 29:48to him, because I chose my own path.
- 29:50I have been bought by the world and my own selfish desires and
- 29:53lust and my flesh and I had sold myself to the world.
- 29:57I I'm not not even intentionally, but it bought me
- 30:01and that's what it was and and and I cried out to him.
- 30:07I bawled and and even up until that point, I remember thinking
- 30:11for years, there's something literally wrong with me because
- 30:13I can't even shed a tear not enjoy, not anything got 4 kids.
- 30:17I can't even cry enjoy. Why can't I can't cry in pain
- 30:22anything. It's my heart was stoned and
- 30:25that moment I bawled myself to sleep.
- 30:27And when I woke up, it was, I felt light.
- 30:31It was different. My up to that point, my face was
- 30:34stuck in a frown and people everywhere I went, people were,
- 30:39is everything OK, you know, and, and just who I am.
- 30:43It's what I've become. And it was gone.
- 30:46Like I couldn't stop smiling. I, I started to I couldn't get
- 30:52enough of it. I started, I had to get as much
- 30:54of it as I could in me. And I read, I read the, the I
- 30:59read the entire Bible within almost 30 days.
- 31:02I don't know the exact time, but it was under 40 days later on
- 31:06that down the road, that number 40 #40 days is very significant
- 31:10number in the Bible. But it happened before that and
- 31:13I experienced some things in that with the Lord that you
- 31:16can't explain now, but I, I could, I read, I was reading it
- 31:22so fast that the, the words were coming off like a magic eye.
- 31:26And if I was reading out loud, I don't even know what my, it
- 31:30would have sounded like to anybody.
- 31:31It was happening so fast. I was trying to, I couldn't let
- 31:34it down. I couldn't put this, this Bible
- 31:36down. It wasn't a book.
- 31:38It's something else, something much more than that.
- 31:41And that my night, literally my nightmares, the dreams, the
- 31:46things that have been haunting me and plaguing me and pursuing
- 31:49me, these these demons that I had invoked in my darkness that
- 31:56like whenever I put, whenever I put it down the Bible down, they
- 32:01start tried to come back in. And it happened like this for a
- 32:04period of time until finally I was able to be sustained by my
- 32:08relationship and my identity. And these things that I put my
- 32:11trust in, I didn't, I didn't need them to hide behind.
- 32:15I was hiding behind things. I was hiding behind a job by
- 32:18buying a reputation by whatever, just my family, my things, a
- 32:23nice truck, you know, or whatever.
- 32:25I was hiding behind these things.
- 32:27And that was what I put my identity in.
- 32:29And so anyways, I, I real that from there that began my
- 32:35journey. He, he, I went to, I went to
- 32:38prison. I got a five year sentence, got
- 32:40all my case in one. I did two years on it.
- 32:43And from there I, the Lord had told me that you had been bought
- 32:47and you have to give up everything that you you can be
- 32:50bought with. You have to give up fighting for
- 32:53your family for and I know this may sound it makes a little more
- 32:57sense later, but you have to stop fighting the way you have.
- 33:01And you have to allow me to work in your life and you have to
- 33:03allow me to bring things back in.
- 33:05And you need to stop doing things in your own strength
- 33:08because every time I grab a hold of it, this.
- 33:10Is all things that you're dealing with when you're getting
- 33:13ready to make. That's to.
- 33:16Be released from your your your five year sentence to prison.
- 33:20Well, that's just going into my my prison sentence.
- 33:23That's not even before I'm released yet.
- 33:26That's just what he's telling me at the beginning of this five
- 33:28year bid that I'm going to have to, you know, what to do and and
- 33:33I so you're thinking. Going into prison, I'm going to,
- 33:35I'm not going to waste. I'm not going to waste my time.
- 33:37I'm going to, I'm going to get all different, better.
- 33:42Yeah, I you cut out a little bit there on the end.
- 33:47Yeah, but. You came back.
- 33:52I can hear you. Can you hear me?
- 33:54Yeah, I can hear. You.
- 33:55Yeah. So, so when you're, when you're
- 33:59getting how, what did you do in that time period, this, this
- 34:03prison time? So I did you use it.
- 34:06I right out of the gate, I started to journal.
- 34:10I stopped talking. I stopped being able to because
- 34:13I realized that everything that I that who I was and everything
- 34:17that came out of my mouth was some sort of fabrication or lie
- 34:21based on what I could make it look like.
- 34:24The stories that I even would tell weren't even fully truth.
- 34:28They were just some sort of fabrication of what it was.
- 34:31I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop playing.
- 34:36Every time I would talk about my case or what it was, I'd either
- 34:39glorify something that I had done that I shouldn't have been
- 34:42glorifying, and that was some sort of fabrication, or I played
- 34:46a victim. I didn't take ownership for why
- 34:48I'm really here. I blame somebody else.
- 34:51And I, I stopped talking. I stopped letting that filth
- 34:55come out of my mouth of lies and I started to journal and and
- 34:59read my Bible and build my relationship with him.
- 35:02And as I as I did that, I, I, I got sent to treatment.
- 35:08God brought a lot of people into my life.
- 35:10And if you wanted to talk about the Lord when I was in prison, I
- 35:13was there. I was at the Chapel, I was there
- 35:15and wherever it was and it, I wanted to do more of them.
- 35:20And I knew that he had put me there.
- 35:24I was there for a time to focus on the foundation and
- 35:27relationship with him, 'cause I'm going to get back out.
- 35:29And when I do, if I'm not founded on something, 'cause it
- 35:33all of what I left, it still waits me.
- 35:35I mean the the mess that I left waits me.
- 35:38And I went to OCC a treatment and for a long term treatment to
- 35:45get out. I became the prison chaplain, a
- 35:48prison chaplain. I worked up there.
- 35:51I started to get to know, look forward, to look towards what it
- 35:56looked like when I got out. I did.
- 35:57I knew I couldn't go. I know everything in me told me
- 36:00I needed to go back to Jeff City.
- 36:02I needed to get my my wife back, my children back.
- 36:04I needed to fix this. And that time she divorced me,
- 36:08went move forward with the divorce.
- 36:10She moved on with her life is what it boiled down to.
- 36:15And I didn't talk to anybody from the outside for the entire
- 36:19time I was locked up until the very end.
- 36:21She brought the kids up there. Well, she came up first to talk
- 36:26to me to see where I was at. And then, and then she brought
- 36:30the kids up to see me. And I had, I wrote, I wrote a
- 36:36letter to a guy named John Stroop that has a ministry down
- 36:40here, freeway ministry. So I didn't know John
- 36:44personally, but I my some of the older, he was older than me from
- 36:48Jeff City. And he had given his life to the
- 36:52Lord. It's he was a, he was a, he was
- 36:55basically a thug and a criminal. And, you know, didn't nothing
- 36:58with his like the same path I was on.
- 37:01Yeah. You looked up because you saw a.
- 37:02Similar conversion transformation.
- 37:06Right. And he was the only one that I
- 37:08I'd heard of that had got out and, and did something.
- 37:14He, he had, he had come to Springfield and started
- 37:23something called Freeway Ministry, a recovery ministry.
- 37:26I didn't know what it was, honestly, my perception of what
- 37:28it was, was a cult or something like that, some religious cult
- 37:32on a farm. I had no idea what it was or
- 37:35what a relationship with the Lord look like, but I knew when
- 37:37I turned in my life to the Lord, God told me, I'm going there.
- 37:41You're that's where I'm sending you.
- 37:43And so I didn't pursue it. I let it come to me.
- 37:48I let, I stopped pursuing anything except for the Lord.
- 37:51And I, I ended up, I, I wrote John a letter in a testimony and
- 37:56I told him, this is what has happened to me in my darkness.
- 38:00This is what God is telling me. But what makes sense to me and
- 38:04what I have to do is I have to go back to Jeff City and I have
- 38:07to try to get my family back. I can't not do that.
- 38:12But God's telling me that I need to come to Springfield.
- 38:15I need to, I mean, I need to go somewhere else and the only all
- 38:18things point to Springfield. I read his book.
- 38:21That's what it was. It was called Pit to the Pulpit.
- 38:23And he talked about his story and what was crazy when I read
- 38:27it, like we didn't know each other personally, but I knew
- 38:29some of the people and some of the things that he had talked
- 38:32about. And I start to see his walk.
- 38:34And so I read him a letter and I told him and after I wrote that
- 38:40letter, I got subpoenaed for the divorce.
- 38:44My I didn't know that she was going through with it or
- 38:46whatever. And my ex-wife subpoenaed me.
- 38:49So that broke that tie for me. Having that would close that
- 38:53door. To Springfield.
- 38:55Yes. And three days later I got a
- 38:57acceptance letter to Freeway Ministry from him without ever
- 39:01filling out an application. And so that was very clear to
- 39:05me. I even go back there, but you
- 39:08know, this is the drag. You make a choice.
- 39:11Yeah. And so that was the start of my
- 39:15re entry process. So that that wasn't the
- 39:17beginning of your re entry that that you you had the you had
- 39:21your ex-wife that went for the divorce because that's where you
- 39:24thought you were going to go is back to Jeff City to fix
- 39:26everything. But you had this pulling and
- 39:29this book you read and you end up in Springfield.
- 39:31That's where I want to take a break, Sean, because when we get
- 39:34back, I want to bring in Lee, the guy that is your boss you
- 39:39work with, that you've grown this company with and all the
- 39:42stuff that you're doing with the re entering how Springfield, MO
- 39:45has become your second chance world.
- 39:49So we'll take a break here and I'll recognize a couple show
- 39:52sponsors. You know, for a lot of people,
- 39:57there's a lot of worry about how you show up online.
- 39:59If somebody Googles you, you know what are they going to see?
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- 40:55Drew Chapin is a brilliant man who knows what he's doing with
- 40:59helping people out with their reputation management and
- 41:01everything else it has to do with the online world.
- 41:05And I also want to say Nightmare Success Podcast is sponsored by
- 41:09the White Collar Support Group, the world's first support group
- 41:12devoted to people navigating the white collar criminal justice
- 41:16system. I'm a member of the White Collar
- 41:19Support Group and I can tell you that this is a bunch of people
- 41:22who help each other through the criminal justice journey for
- 41:25free. Whether you're just starting
- 41:28your journey or you made it through to the other side, this
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- 41:347:00 PM Eastern Time. For information, go to
- 41:38prisonis.org. That's prisonis.org.
- 41:41Start here. All right, Sean, we're, we're
- 41:45waiting, I think for LEAP and that's OK 'cause we'll what I,
- 41:52what I want to do anyway, Sean, is, is when you got that
- 41:56acceptance into the freeway ministry that did, did you know
- 42:04really much about what you were good, what you're going to or
- 42:08was it something that like, well, here it is, it's my offer.
- 42:11I'm going to Springfield, MO. I've read about this, but was it
- 42:16kind of a bunch of unknowns? It was absolutely a huge
- 42:23unknown. I had no idea what I was getting
- 42:25into with. With Freeway, I had an idea, but
- 42:30I still had my own plans. I still had my own goals, my own
- 42:34things that I needed to do. And so, yeah, I had no idea what
- 42:41I was going to do for work. I knew what I I knew how to do.
- 42:44I had ACDL at the time of Class B.
- 42:46So did you get the CDL while you were in?
- 42:49No, I had the CDL before. Because I know that some of the
- 42:52places like I was at Leavenworth and some of the guys got their
- 42:56CDL license while they were in. Yeah, that's a that's actually a
- 43:00big deal now that they do in prison systems for guys.
- 43:03And we we're we partner with the re entry process.
- 43:06We'll talk about that does that. But yeah, no, I had not.
- 43:12I had, no, I had my CDL before and I, I knew, I knew, I knew
- 43:16how to trim trees and I could do that.
- 43:19Well, but you know, that's not what if God wanted me to do
- 43:23that, he's going to send me back to just, I would go back to just
- 43:25city and do that. And so I had no idea what I what
- 43:31I was about to get into or what it looked like.
- 43:33I had an idea, a very narrow vision.
- 43:35Narrow vision because you just knew, hey, I've I've got this
- 43:38connection I've made. I know this guy and I've been
- 43:41given this application. He didn't even put an
- 43:42application in. It seems like Jeff City's got a
- 43:45closed door. I'm open to Springfield.
- 43:48And there you were. So Lee Lovell just joined us and
- 43:54he is the founder of CMC, which is that that stands for a
- 44:00creative modular construction. And you know, well, let's talk
- 44:07about it because I we're talking about Sean.
- 44:09You get it now. How did you and and Lee Lee
- 44:14welcome in, by the way? Thank.
- 44:16You. Appreciate it.
- 44:19How did you guys, how did you guys meet up?
- 44:21So I I went to when I got out, Base Freeway took me to one of
- 44:27their houses in Marshfield, MO. I was there for six months.
- 44:30I got a job at Mom's Kitchen cooking and for a part a part
- 44:37time job and I just started building relationships with
- 44:41people and not focusing on making money or anything like
- 44:45that. Just trying to let God to work
- 44:47in my life and trusting in him and trusting in the program that
- 44:51I was in and, and learning to respect authority, leadership
- 44:58and what leadership really look like.
- 44:59That was a big deal. I've learned in, in the
- 45:02treatment program, I learned that I started to learn those
- 45:07foundational principles and then what God wants that to look like
- 45:10as we're all called to be leaders in some form or fashion.
- 45:14And I then COVID happened when I was out in Marshfield, They shut
- 45:19down the, they shut down mom's kitchen, they shut everything
- 45:24down. And as soon as that happened,
- 45:29the day I lost my job or whatever, I got a call from
- 45:34freeway director and asked me to come be the leader of their main
- 45:41house in Springfield. And so all because I had been
- 45:48while I was in the Marshfield house, I was just, I was driving
- 45:50a van. I was making sure people got to
- 45:51work on time. That was my role.
- 45:53I wasn't doing anything outstanding.
- 45:55I was driving a van, making sure making the guys get there on
- 45:58time. And so they asked me to be the
- 46:02leader up there at the house. And so take on this whole huge,
- 46:06huge. It's a discipleship role, being
- 46:08responsible for other people actually and starting to apply
- 46:11these things that God was showing me in prison of what
- 46:15real leadership looks like and what I've been doing my whole
- 46:17life and the way he wants it done.
- 46:20And so and dropping the ball the entire time.
- 46:23Let me say it like I've never been really good at it this the
- 46:27whole time. It's very humbling.
- 46:29And when I got to Springfield, the director said, hey, we got
- 46:33a, a company that we're trying to build a relationship with.
- 46:36They reached out to us. They need some workers, probably
- 46:39some temp work or whatever. And so I want you to go down
- 46:42there. I was, I got to the house.
- 46:45They put, they brought 3 new people straight out of Greene
- 46:48County Jail into the house. So they were like 2 days behind
- 46:51me. And now I'm the leader acting
- 46:54like I know what I'm doing and they're following me.
- 46:56They're asking me for guidance. I don't know what I'm doing.
- 46:59And so we go to, we go to this place, Architectural Design
- 47:06Concepts, and it's a custom sheet metal shop.
- 47:11And I go in there, I interview with the, the shop lead, Steve.
- 47:17And Steve was a youth pastor, had been at the company for 20
- 47:20something years. And we interviewed, I got the
- 47:24job, I walked outside and I called Casey, the director and I
- 47:28said, man, I, I'm not working here.
- 47:31Like this is not what my plan is.
- 47:33I don't want this job. I'm not working in a factory.
- 47:36I'm going to go back to school. I have some resources available
- 47:39to me because through they're being locked up or whatever.
- 47:44And so I got some resource, I'm going to go back to school.
- 47:48I'm going to be a substance abuse counselor and blah, blah,
- 47:51blah. And he said, he said, Sean, you
- 47:55know, things are for a season, some things are for longer than
- 47:58that. But right now this is where God
- 48:00has you and this is the opportunity he's giving you.
- 48:02So you need to be faithful with that.
- 48:04Kind of gave me his story. It was similar.
- 48:06And he said another thing, you're not working at a factory.
- 48:09It's a it's a shop, It's a fabrication shop.
- 48:12He's like, that's where I work. And now I'm the director of
- 48:15Freeway. And so I like, I kind of blew
- 48:18it. Yeah.
- 48:19I OK. And I, I've, I've respected that
- 48:25and I submitted to that and that's what led me into ADC.
- 48:31What led the phone call on Lee's end and his wife Leanna and had
- 48:38reached they had been going through temp services and not
- 48:44having very good luck finding people or people that stayed the
- 48:47course. And so she reached out to a
- 48:51couple Recovery Ministries Freeway was one, another one was
- 48:54Freedom City and reached out to them and said if you got some
- 48:58guys, we got some work. And she had made that phone call
- 49:03and she's got it's a whole powerful testimony when she
- 49:05tells it from her view. And that's how I ended up at
- 49:09ADC. And then I met Lee.
- 49:12And then. So that's how you guys met.
- 49:14Well, the, and Lee, I, I always find it interesting because, you
- 49:18know, I, I'm a big advocate and people who listen to this show
- 49:21know that, you know, it's all about, you know, you can talk
- 49:25about trying to help this whole recidivism thing and, and you
- 49:30know, it's can rise as high as 75%.
- 49:33Three out of four people go back to prison.
- 49:35And a lot of it is is because people get out, they can't find
- 49:39work, they can't find a place to live.
- 49:42They might not have the skills that they need to be able to go
- 49:44do an interview or or do a resume or whatever those things
- 49:47are, and they can't find the resources to help them do that.
- 49:51How in the world did you find yourself in a position of being
- 49:55as open that somebody has to be to welcome the idea of growing a
- 50:04company where you're giving second chances to people that a
- 50:08lot of people are scared of? Yeah, I mean, great question.
- 50:13The the Lord works in mysterious ways.
- 50:15So we had a farm out in Lockwood, Missouri.
- 50:19We sold that farm and moved into the inner city of Springfield in
- 50:23kind of a rough neighborhood. And across the street from us
- 50:28was basically a halfway house, right.
- 50:30Well, I, I've always done St. evangelism and I've always been
- 50:34involved in some sort of door knocking, you know, I mean that
- 50:37sort of thing. So I started to talk to a few of
- 50:39those guys. I noticed they were always out
- 50:41on the porch. And what I noticed is, man,
- 50:43these guys were like the neighborhood watch over there.
- 50:46I mean, they were always out there wasn't any shady stuff on,
- 50:51they were just trying to stay out of trouble, right?
- 50:53I mean, they were trying to do the thing, you know, and so
- 50:56there was, and they had a leader that there that was a Christian.
- 50:59And so it kind of opened up our minds a little bit to that.
- 51:05And just, you know, I think that a lot of times employers will
- 51:08have, you know, the, the, you know, box on there that just
- 51:12says, are you a felon? And they kind of just put that
- 51:15aside if they see that, you know, there's, they think
- 51:19there's string. Put everybody in one box.
- 51:20Right, there's string attached with that.
- 51:22And and so again, I mean, God is a God of second chances, first
- 51:27of all, right. And if everybody was was really
- 51:30honest, probably most people would, if they were really held
- 51:33accountable for this nonsense they've done, they would
- 51:35probably end up in prison at one point or you know, for sure.
- 51:39So I just think that there was a a working the plan that the Lord
- 51:45had that that really kind of opened Leanna my wife's heart to
- 51:50it. You know what I mean?
- 51:52And then is that is that kind of cultivated in her.
- 51:56It really just, you know, the need was there to to good
- 52:01health. And so again, it was like, wow,
- 52:04we, we, we love the Lord and Gods have got us second chances.
- 52:08Let's see what this looks like. And and then when we got a few
- 52:12guys from freeway, we started plugging them in and, and you
- 52:16know, Steve Strader, who's our who was with the Sean said for
- 52:21over the better part of 20 years, you know, had a heart for
- 52:25these men as well. And he prayed every single
- 52:28morning for every single person in our company on his way to
- 52:31work. And so we had Bible studies
- 52:34going on weekly that were paid Bible studies.
- 52:37And we already had for years been trying to disciple men and
- 52:42a lot of problem men, men, the problems and issues just like we
- 52:45all have. But it really kind of became a
- 52:48passion. And it became something that we
- 52:51saw the Lord giving us some favor in, you know, And then
- 52:56once we saw that, we started seeing guys like Sean come in.
- 53:00And it was really interesting because when Sean first came in,
- 53:04I'd walk past Sean in the shop and he would just have this
- 53:07smile on his face. And I would just kind of
- 53:10thinking, what's up with this guy?
- 53:12You know, he's just got this smile.
- 53:14And I got to know him. And it was kind of awkward at
- 53:17first because I'm a, I'm more of an introvert.
- 53:20I'm not a real extrovert type person.
- 53:22And, and so, you know, I thought, OK, I'm going to talk
- 53:25to him. So Sean kind of instigated some
- 53:27conversations with me, and right off the bat, they were kind of a
- 53:31prophetic nature. And that intrigued me, you know,
- 53:34because they were really like, he was saying things like, God's
- 53:38got a plan for this, and it was like an insinuation that there's
- 53:42a plan here that's bigger than you realize.
- 53:44Lee I was listening and I was very focused on what Sean was
- 53:50saying and it, it just kind of resonated And it it was
- 53:54something that I started to recognize because I had been
- 53:59trying to mentor men at different phases.
- 54:01You know, I would try to take, always have somebody under my
- 54:05winging that I would be, you know, praying for and witnessing
- 54:09to and apologetics and all kinds of stuff, just trying to, you
- 54:13know, help them understand how to interpret Scripture, whatever
- 54:15it is. And so then Sean, when he got on
- 54:18my radar, you know, I just fell in love with him.
- 54:22I mean, I really felt like this man is a kindred spirit.
- 54:25You know, I saw his heart and when I saw his heart and then I
- 54:30think he got to see my heart and realized that this is genuine,
- 54:36that just that just started to to really cultivate, you know, a
- 54:41deep friendship, you know, and then out of that friendship, it
- 54:44was it was an iron sharpening iron, like what Scripture talks
- 54:48about, You know, I'm trying to pour into his life.
- 54:49I mean, I'm probably. Yeah, well, and, and you know,
- 54:52the the ironic thing is the Bible is all about prison.
- 54:56I mean, if you, if you see prison is comes in and out, in
- 54:59and out, in and out all the way through, through disciples and
- 55:02everybody else. But it's, it's always
- 55:05interesting when you, when you, when you blend in where we are
- 55:09today and you look back at the Bible and you look at prison
- 55:12and, and how it affects people as you read the Bible and how
- 55:16people who are part of the Bible experienced that come out into
- 55:20the world. And, and, and they're obviously,
- 55:24I mean, Jesus himself was, was someone who experienced that
- 55:30persecution. But I, I think it's just
- 55:32interesting for so many different reasons, because you
- 55:36guys have one of the things about people who are getting out
- 55:40of prison, you know, the, the unfortunate thing is, is that
- 55:44that for most people, they put them all in one box.
- 55:47You know, that persons an ex felon, they check the box and,
- 55:52and they're, they're dangerous for the most part.
- 55:56People who are getting out of prison are desperate to start it
- 55:58for a second chance. They're starved for it.
- 56:00They want to prove that this can be right this time and and
- 56:04they've had time to think about it.
- 56:05And, and a lot of people just don't get that to understand how
- 56:08great of, of an individual that can be for you, for a company
- 56:12that, that might be more hungry or starving for it then maybe
- 56:17anyone else that you could interview because they have a
- 56:19whole different mindset. But I, I, I think it's really
- 56:22something though, Lee, how you've been able to take this
- 56:25concept and you've also, you guys are building a really
- 56:29successful business. I mean, 7 brews coffee is
- 56:32something that you're seeing everywhere.
- 56:35You guys are fabricating those locations all across the
- 56:38country. And you know, from the time that
- 56:40I read the Springfield Business Journal article that was written
- 56:44back in 2022, I mean you guys are basically tripled in size
- 56:48and you know of your workforce of 100 and 85190 people.
- 56:54You know, you got a large percentage of guys that you're
- 56:56given second chances to that are part of your operation that are
- 57:02living out their second chance stream with you and and what you
- 57:05guys are doing and you're a big part of apply which is going in
- 57:13partnering and getting. Can you talk a little bit about
- 57:15that? Yeah.
- 57:17You guys talk a little bit about Apply and how that works and how
- 57:20it goes into prisons and how you guys work back and forth and how
- 57:24that works for you guys. This was something that I think
- 57:27really Sean kind of brought to the table and kind of made us
- 57:29aware of. And then once once I was able to
- 57:33go to the to the prison in Portland, MO.
- 57:37And really it was a job fair kind of a situation where we
- 57:41went in and sat down and talked with them.
- 57:43And then it really kind of was, it was really neat because we
- 57:47walked in there, we saw these guys get together and huddle up
- 57:50and pray right before they walked out on the floor where
- 57:55the where really the job fair was.
- 57:59So that I thought these guys, they're searching, they're
- 58:03looking for opportunities, exactly what you're saying.
- 58:06They're trying to, and you can see it, you can hear it.
- 58:08They they, they desperately want to change.
- 58:12They want to, you know, they want to make a change.
- 58:13And, and they recognize that that work is part of that
- 58:17equation, right? And and and really work is
- 58:21worship, right? I mean, whatever your hands fine
- 58:23to do, whether it's, you know, eating, drinking, whatever it
- 58:26is, it's, it's worship. And so to me, that really,
- 58:30really kind of my philosophy all along is, you know, if you're
- 58:34going to work, you want it to have an eternal value.
- 58:38Life is too short to go through pouring your life into something
- 58:42that doesn't actually have eternal purpose, eternal value.
- 58:45And So what this did, was it it coupled, you know, building 7
- 58:50brews and doing module reconstruction with this idea
- 58:54that there's no separation between secular and sacred.
- 58:58It's all one. You know, God Almighty has
- 59:00created us to work, you know, and said it was very good.
- 59:04And he created us to be innovators.
- 59:06He created us to be creative. I mean, we're his children and
- 59:09what what father wants a lazy child, right?
- 59:12I mean, what father doesn't wants to see their children not
- 59:16not thriving. And the Bible says all hard work
- 59:19brings a profit, but you know, idleness and laziness just
- 59:22brings it leads to poverty. And so, you know, a lot of guys
- 59:28that I saw coming out of really were on fire.
- 59:31They, a lot of them had relationships with the Lord
- 59:33already. And those who didn't, they,
- 59:35they're influenced by the ones who the guys who do.
- 59:39And so really it's just like a flywheel that just gains
- 59:42momentum over time. And now I mean 80% roughly of
- 59:47our employees are, are all, you know, we're convicted felons.
- 59:51It's, it's, it's an incredible number and I'm not run across
- 59:54it, Lee. That's what's like, I was so
- 59:57excited for this interview because this, this, this goes
- 1:00:00into 1100 prisons across the United States and, and you know,
- 1:00:04this, this show is about hope, but it's also about taking
- 1:00:07action. You know, talking is so easy for
- 1:00:10so many people to talk, but people who actually take action
- 1:00:13and you see real results. I you know, I'm wondering
- 1:00:17because Sean and I were talking earlier about.
- 1:00:20Springfield, MO has really become a Center for re entry and
- 1:00:24transitioning and and and job training and and and places to
- 1:00:29place people for jobs. Is that something Lee, that you
- 1:00:34think could or Sean, do you think could be duplicated that?
- 1:00:37Is that a is that a thing that that has a template to it?
- 1:00:40That could be. It needs to be everywhere.
- 1:00:44Could it be? Absolutely.
- 1:00:45I'm talking to business owners all the time about this.
- 1:00:47I've got today actually I have a potential investor in a company
- 1:00:53called Sun Solar that's coming into our facility to see what
- 1:00:56we're doing. So I'm always, I'm always
- 1:00:58inviting business leaders to come in and do our we every
- 1:01:02every month. We have kind of a, we have a
- 1:01:05Bible study every week and then one, one week out of the month
- 1:01:09we have, it's really a lunch in, but it's a, it's a milestones
- 1:01:13lunch in and we celebrate the victories in these men's lives,
- 1:01:16women's lives. And it's something like, hey,
- 1:01:20you know, they've got visitation rights for the first time.
- 1:01:23Some of them get their first car.
- 1:01:24When people recognize the small wins.
- 1:01:27That are big ones, those victories.
- 1:01:28And a lot of times it's just being sober for six months or
- 1:01:31being sober for a year, being sober for 3:00.
- 1:01:34So we constantly are celebrating the victories that we know the
- 1:01:37Lord is is doing, He's actually doing.
- 1:01:39That's such a big deal, Lee, because you know a lot of these
- 1:01:43guys don't have that to celebrate with and that you
- 1:01:46know, having that community, that family togetherness of
- 1:01:49knowing that somebody cares and somebody'd paying attention.
- 1:01:54You know that. Hey, I'm doing some things now.
- 1:01:56We. Have we've had senators, command
- 1:01:59commissioners, we've had, I mean, we've really, you know,
- 1:02:02we've had a drug court judge come in and speak to our men.
- 1:02:05And what's amazing about that is he'd actually sentenced several
- 1:02:10of the men that he was standing before.
- 1:02:12And he was, you know, he was opening the word of God and
- 1:02:15explaining how it was so difficult to send them to
- 1:02:18prison. But now he sees the fruit of
- 1:02:22what God has done in their lives and it's just amazing.
- 1:02:26So we, we have some people that have taken notice.
- 1:02:29I was able to speak at the the Springfield Business Journals.
- 1:02:34They have a symposium every year.
- 1:02:36I was able to speak there and talk about the applied program
- 1:02:39and really try to ignite a fire into some of these business
- 1:02:43leaders that, that love the Lord and know the Lord.
- 1:02:46But they have this, they have this kind of idea that business
- 1:02:50is business and and it's separate somehow from what, From
- 1:02:55your Christianity. That's not true.
- 1:02:58I mean it's. Well, the other thing too, Lee,
- 1:03:01is it, you know, business owners also know it's really hard to
- 1:03:04get people to work right now and has been for the last 2-3 years.
- 1:03:08The pandemic's been, you know, put it on steroids.
- 1:03:12This is a job market that if, if done properly and, and what you
- 1:03:16guys are doing and how the Springfield world is doing in
- 1:03:21Southwest Missouri, it's a process that you guys have put
- 1:03:24in place and partnered with the right people that, that these
- 1:03:29people that are coming out from 180 days in, from prison all the
- 1:03:33way through. Those are legitimate job market
- 1:03:39people that, that are desperately looking for an
- 1:03:44opportunity. And you guys are creating an
- 1:03:46environment that is not just a, you know, flash in the pan, but
- 1:03:49it's a real process. And that's what I love about it.
- 1:03:52Frank, can I, I want to hit on a couple of things about the re
- 1:03:56entry, just the process and, and everything like from my own
- 1:04:02experience, and you probably know just as well from being in
- 1:04:05prison yourself. The, the biggest scary obstacle
- 1:04:10in front of you is having a job. What am I going to do?
- 1:04:14Where am I going to? If you don't have that for you,
- 1:04:16you have you automatically coming out of prison or, or in
- 1:04:21this cycle, you're in a revolving cycle.
- 1:04:24And what's waiting for you is what what you left.
- 1:04:27That's what's waiting. That's what you know, and our,
- 1:04:30our spirit, our flesh and that it draws us back.
- 1:04:34The darkness is waiting for us to entice us.
- 1:04:38It's going to lure us back and it's going to prey on our, our
- 1:04:41vulnerability, our weakness, our insecurities.
- 1:04:44You're already in a, in a very vulnerable, insecure place,
- 1:04:48coming out of prison, trying to step back into the real world
- 1:04:51with nothing. I mean, the majority of people
- 1:04:53have nothing in their names in a new environment and to come out
- 1:04:58with a job already, you know, a job that's paying you $20.00 an
- 1:05:03hour walking out the door, you already have that solidified.
- 1:05:06That's a, that's a game changer. And instead of and that, that's
- 1:05:12where my heart has been with this the whole time.
- 1:05:14You know, the darkness stands there and waits for you to come
- 1:05:17back, come out of here. Well, so does the light.
- 1:05:20And we're, we're here waiting, you know, And that's what this,
- 1:05:22this place, we want it to be a place of accountability.
- 1:05:27I don't want to just skip over Sean is that I think it is such
- 1:05:30a big deal, Lee, that you are advocating to other business
- 1:05:34guys because you are having success and your company is
- 1:05:39growing and you're growing the way that that you guys have
- 1:05:42designed it to grow and that opens up people's mind.
- 1:05:45It's not a theory you're talking about.
- 1:05:48You're talking about real things that have happened with your
- 1:05:50company and real things that you're doing.
- 1:05:53Those are the things that make a difference to business owners is
- 1:05:57OK, that guy's doing it the way that maybe I could do it if I
- 1:06:01just did it that way. Exactly the way that they're
- 1:06:04doing it. The answers to the test I've
- 1:06:06just gotten before the test. All I got to do it is that way.
- 1:06:09But without your voice out there saying this is what I'm doing,
- 1:06:13guys, open your eyes to this. This is a real opportunity for
- 1:06:16both sides. It's a win win.
- 1:06:18That's the biggest that's a game changer and Sean, what you're
- 1:06:22saying is a is a game changer. But those two things going
- 1:06:25together are the things that really, you know, put put gas on
- 1:06:29the fire to make it burn. I, I want to also say, Brett,
- 1:06:33that just to clarify, this is not for any of us, not on my
- 1:06:38end, not on Lee's end. Been easy.
- 1:06:41It's a sacrifice that has to, you have to be able to step in
- 1:06:45faith and trust. It doesn't always go to, to
- 1:06:48plan. We've lost people.
- 1:06:51People come and go. We've had to have hold people
- 1:06:54accountable, hold their selves accountable.
- 1:06:56You really have to examine who you are and you have to change
- 1:07:00with it. You have to grow with it.
- 1:07:02And as long as you don't quit on it, right, That's I mean, that's
- 1:07:06the key. We, we have, we have a set of
- 1:07:08core values that we found it. But like I told you, we started
- 1:07:11as ADC. That was a we, this company
- 1:07:14created modular construction, the modular bin with seven brew.
- 1:07:17We founded it on a vision leaves vision and core values.
- 1:07:21The acronym is Christ, creative, honorable, respectful,
- 1:07:25innovative, synergistic and total ownership.
- 1:07:28And that's the foundation that this company moves forward in
- 1:07:33and applying those things into our work life, our home life,
- 1:07:37every bit of our life and teaching it.
- 1:07:40Our motto is we build buildings and we build people.
- 1:07:44And with the re re entry process, we've had to it's it's
- 1:07:48very expensive to train people. It's a there's a learning curve
- 1:07:52that comes with that and we've had to we're still, we still
- 1:07:55don't have to figure it out. We're still trying to weekly
- 1:07:58implement a structured training program.
- 1:08:02The re entry process, the applied program is a federal
- 1:08:05grant for because what's happened is people have realized
- 1:08:09in Missouri, Missouri at one point had the second or third
- 1:08:12most prisons in the United States.
- 1:08:15And so people are stuck in a cycle.
- 1:08:18They're building prisons and sending everybody to prison and
- 1:08:21there's no kind of real, real treatment.
- 1:08:23What you get is you get some connections and a network to go
- 1:08:26back out there and be worse than you were.
- 1:08:29And it used to be a. Worse, absolutely.
- 1:08:32You build more connect, you just build it builds on itself and
- 1:08:37there's not. And so the this grant for the
- 1:08:41apply program, they, they pay for half of the wages for up to
- 1:08:46180 days for us to be intentional with 20 people, but
- 1:08:50but they wouldn't. They wouldn't be willing to do
- 1:08:51that, Sean, if they weren't seeing results of the the
- 1:08:54positivity that comes from that. And that's.
- 1:08:57Absolutely. That's the thing, you know,
- 1:08:58having the willingness to put this thing in place, it takes a
- 1:09:01lot. You know, You, you guys are
- 1:09:04doing a lot. It takes a lot of effort.
- 1:09:06Like you said, you haven't figured it out yet, but as
- 1:09:07you're figuring out the company's growing, people are
- 1:09:10getting opportunities. It's changing people's lives.
- 1:09:13I'm sure it's filling you guys up seeing, you know, the lives
- 1:09:16that is changing and that's what this is about.
- 1:09:20You know, these things on re entry.
- 1:09:23I it's always so frustrating because I get to interview
- 1:09:27people of all across the country and I see different pockets of
- 1:09:31places that are doing good things.
- 1:09:33And if we could ever link up all those good things so that we can
- 1:09:37put an umbrella over the top of this thing, it would be very,
- 1:09:40very powerful. But these are the things that
- 1:09:42need to be duplicated. What you guys are doing.
- 1:09:45Got to find people that want to take the effort though, You
- 1:09:47know, it's it's Sean, your your points well taken.
- 1:09:49You got to keep figuring it out. You can't quit on it.
- 1:09:53There's going to be setbacks and there's always setbacks.
- 1:09:55There's setbacks in business, there's setbacks with anything
- 1:09:58in life. But if as long as you don't give
- 1:10:00up on it, you'll find some solutions for it.
- 1:10:03And that's, that's what I see you guys are doing.
- 1:10:05And it's if, if people want to reach out to you guys, they want
- 1:10:10to help, they want to find out more.
- 1:10:12What? How do we how do we do that?
- 1:10:15So you can go to thecmcmod.com. So the website seems so they can
- 1:10:23go there and essentially there's opportunities for employment
- 1:10:28they can click on. There's lots of opportunities to
- 1:10:30kind of get involved with that. And I'd say that really a lot of
- 1:10:37a lot of our, the guys that we're bringing in now, gals that
- 1:10:40we're bringing in through apply, we, we have a lot of
- 1:10:43applications, but we also interview a lot of people that
- 1:10:47are just coming in off the street, You know, so if you're
- 1:10:50in Springfield and you look up, you know, creative modular
- 1:10:54construction, you're going to find us and you'd be able to
- 1:10:56come in and God has brought us. This is the step of faith to go
- 1:11:01along with what you're saying. It's really, you know, it's a
- 1:11:05step of faith to say, OK, I'll deal with the time off to go to
- 1:11:10court dates to POS and do all those things that you have to do
- 1:11:14to comply. And at the same time, it's like
- 1:11:18those are so negligible to us because we're looking at the big
- 1:11:22picture, right? We understand where the source
- 1:11:24of the source of life is and who's the source of who
- 1:11:27establishes the work of our hands.
- 1:11:29And if you truly are, you know, in a situation where you put
- 1:11:33your faith and trust in Christ over profits and you realize the
- 1:11:36byproduct of hard work is is, you know, is always going to be
- 1:11:41some some sort of financial gain, right?
- 1:11:44You just can't go in it for the financial gain, right?
- 1:11:48You can't go into it thinking, OK, this thought they're going
- 1:11:51to pay half the salary for 1040 hours.
- 1:11:53And somehow that's going to it does help and it's huge and
- 1:11:57helping you pour into people to be able to, you know, invest in
- 1:12:02them, you know, right. And you but you got to have
- 1:12:05their best interests in heart over your own.
- 1:12:07Yeah, that's. The whole well, both sides are
- 1:12:09investing time, yes, and trust the time and trust is is
- 1:12:12something that's a big equation to this what you guys are doing.
- 1:12:16Yeah, yeah. I think it's easier in some ways
- 1:12:18to just try to hire someone qualified that doesn't.
- 1:12:22It's not going to maybe have some of the drama or some of the
- 1:12:24history, but man, I love seeing God work in peoples lives.
- 1:12:30I mean it's. Yeah, the turn around and.
- 1:12:31When you're doing your work unto the Lord and not just for for
- 1:12:35financial gain or for yourself, you don't burn out the same you
- 1:12:40have power behind. It's better you have the Lord.
- 1:12:43You know, strength behind you and that's what drives us.
- 1:12:45And now what I see in all, all our leaders at CMC is they've
- 1:12:50got the passion that comes from God Almighty himself.
- 1:12:54Holy Spirit's flowing through the veins of the leadership
- 1:12:57here. And they're, they're investing
- 1:13:00and pouring into the lives of the men around them.
- 1:13:03And it's not just one, it's every.
- 1:13:05Every single leader I know of has someone that they're
- 1:13:08mentoring. I love that.
- 1:13:11Constant, it's a constant thing. Lord, what are you saying?
- 1:13:14How do we get involved? How do you know?
- 1:13:16It's just like the Old Testament.
- 1:13:18You think about before the kings, God ruled that nation
- 1:13:23through the prophets. God ruled.
- 1:13:24I mean, he was the he was it. And and when, when Samuel was
- 1:13:29upset about the fact that they were going to that they wanted a
- 1:13:32king, God said, Hey, they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting
- 1:13:35me. You know, so we don't want to
- 1:13:37reach. We invite the Lord in.
- 1:13:40We have no apologies for being Christians.
- 1:13:43We tell, we warn people before they come in that.
- 1:13:47You've warned them. But there's people.
- 1:13:49Watch out. Yeah, there's people that have.
- 1:13:52Been in church in 20 years and I see their lives changing because
- 1:13:57of really the, the, the, the good infection, right?
- 1:14:01That, yeah, God is doing. And so it's.
- 1:14:05Well, I mean, God bless you, Lee, for, for being who you are
- 1:14:08and, and, and your wife. It sounds like to, to, to be in
- 1:14:12the position you're in to, to recognize the opportunities that
- 1:14:16you can provide. And, and then you get that, you
- 1:14:20get the, you know, the feedback that probably fills you out to
- 1:14:23see these lives changed. And it's just, it's just
- 1:14:25fantastic. I was going to ask you, Sean,
- 1:14:29this big transformation that's happened in your life and what
- 1:14:32you're and where you sit now, What do you think's your biggest
- 1:14:36take away through all this? Well, just in general and
- 1:14:43whenever I, I, I believe for all of us and a lot of the people
- 1:14:47that I deal with and I talk to and I listen and I try to give
- 1:14:50advice to is that the just taking ownership and everything
- 1:14:58is a like a choice. We're not in control of, we're
- 1:15:01not in control of what happens around us.
- 1:15:04The majority of the time. The only thing that we are in
- 1:15:07control of is the choice we make or how we react.
- 1:15:10And you know, there was, I listened to a lot of people and
- 1:15:14myself and at one point where I sound like a victim and I don't
- 1:15:19take ownership. And until you can finally, until
- 1:15:23you come to that point or a person comes to that point and
- 1:15:25they take ownership, not like, yes, some people legitimately
- 1:15:29are a victim, but we all play a part.
- 1:15:32We play a part in how that plays out, whether we and it's usually
- 1:15:35by establishing boundaries. We have to learn to say no.
- 1:15:40We have to learn to say no for other people.
- 1:15:42We have to learn to speak truth and we have to not run from
- 1:15:46things, but just make a stand. And these boundaries that we
- 1:15:50that we establish, they define who we are.
- 1:15:54They and the Lord gives us the strength to be confident.
- 1:15:57I don't need this in my life. I don't want it.
- 1:15:59I don't have to have that. I don't have to do that, you
- 1:16:03know, and I don't have to say this or like what's what's about
- 1:16:07to come out of my mouth right now.
- 1:16:09Just examine it, you know, is it the truth?
- 1:16:11Is it edifying? Is it building people up and
- 1:16:14just taking responsibility and ownership for that and our
- 1:16:17choices and the boundaries that we establish it, it changes
- 1:16:24everything. That is a great unbelievable
- 1:16:26take away. Shot everything you just said
- 1:16:30cause and and one of the big points you made there is about
- 1:16:33being a victim and and, and if you take if you're not if you're
- 1:16:36a victim, you're pointing fingers you're blaming people
- 1:16:38you're curling yourself up into a fetal position taking
- 1:16:41responsibility, saying you're a survivor stepping through the
- 1:16:44unknowns that scare you or the things that make you you know
- 1:16:47not give up and and and improve yourself.
- 1:16:51Lee, I thank you so much for doing what you're doing and,
- 1:16:55and, and giving people opportunities that you know,
- 1:17:01and, and not only that you're giving people opportunities, but
- 1:17:04you're also advocating why it works.
- 1:17:07What, how it can work to people who are outside of your bubble
- 1:17:11and the business community to try to grow it and duplicate it.
- 1:17:15Because it, you know, if you guys can do that, I, I got to
- 1:17:18tell you, I, it makes me so proud, Lee, that you guys are
- 1:17:21doing this in my, my childhood hometown.
- 1:17:24Because if this could be done, you know what's going on in
- 1:17:28Springfield and it goes and could be nationwide, it could
- 1:17:32really change so many people's lives for the better And, and,
- 1:17:35and it'd be good for business. Anyway, I was getting back to
- 1:17:41you guys as far as getting a hold.
- 1:17:43It's, is it CMC? The website is CMC mod yes.
- 1:17:50Dot com Yeah, creative modular, Creative modular construction,
- 1:17:54OK. And talking about being
- 1:17:57grateful, I, I've, I have all these fancy lights and cameras
- 1:18:01and stuff here at Homestead financial.
- 1:18:03They let me use this here. And, and it's a, it's home
- 1:18:06mortgage, Homestead financial. And if you've got home mortgage
- 1:18:09needs, Greg FDF is your guy. He knows everything.
- 1:18:12He just knows everything about it.
- 1:18:15If you're looking for a book out there, I've got one nightmare
- 1:18:17success. Check it out.
- 1:18:19It's Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
- 1:18:20Hey, it's, it's getting close to Christmas season.
- 1:18:22Just go ahead and buy them a book.
- 1:18:24I'd love it and if you got time, I know it's a hassle, but if you
- 1:18:28got time to leave a, a review on Apple, it helps the show grow.
- 1:18:33Check out my website, brentcassidy.com.
- 1:18:35I spell it wrong. I spell it with ATY, not a DY as
- 1:18:38I used to say to my people when I was writing my emails back and
- 1:18:42forth from Leavenworth. Stay strong.
- 1:18:45I'll do the same. Lee, Sean, you guys are great.
- 1:18:49Thank you so much for being here today.
- 1:18:51Thank you, Brent. Thank you for what you're doing.
- 1:18:54I'm your success in and out.