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Built Through the Struggle with Martin Howard · Christian Business Growth Podcast

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the Christian Business Growth Podcast.
• 0:04
  I'm Rev.
• 0:04
  Lyle.
• 0:04
  I'm here with Martin Howard.
• 0:06
  So Martin, how did God get you into business?
• 0:11
  Yeah.
• 0:12
  So there's a long story.
• 0:14
  I have so many different God stories uh throughout my life that it's difficult to point down one, but let me, let me discuss this, right?
• 0:22
  So one of the most instrumental ones that has led me to become this coach I am today was in July of last year, my wife got sick.
• 0:30
  Unfortunately, nine months later, she's still not any better to say it's been a struggle.
• 0:36
  That would be an understatement.
• 0:39
  At the time I was working in a job that I hated for a company that I didn't align with my beliefs of the Christian.
• 0:45
  So when my wife got sick, I took a lot of sick time from work, taking our kids to their appointments, taking her to appointments, school activities.
• 0:56
  was whatever she would normally be doing, I was now doing as well.
• 1:00
  I was doing instead because she could no longer do that because of her condition.
• 1:05
  And even though I had over 200 hours of sick time available,
• 1:08
  It didn't sit well with my boss that I was gone so much trying to take care of my wife and our kids.
• 1:14
  And so by October of last year, my wife's condition hadn't gotten any better.
• 1:18
  so during that, by that time she had actually been hospitalized twice for her condition.
• 1:26
  With how much I couldn't stand my job and my wife's condition and the fact that I had to commute to work and an hour and a half each way, I knew my time with that company was
• 1:36
  coming to an end.
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  Now at the time I really didn't have a backup.
• 1:41
  Okay.
• 1:41
  And then God helped me to start putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
• 1:46
  See in 2018, I started my website, uh, instructor and grow.com as a place where I could write and post my work.
• 1:53
  And in 2021, I began writing, creating a YouTube videos in order to expand my skills just beyond writing, but into video editing and creating.
• 2:04
  And then at the end of 2024,
• 2:07
  I started a financial coach master training program.
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  I didn't even realize that this was all going to be grouped together.
• 2:15
  Now, initially I was taking that uh financial coach training course just because I'm a learner.
• 2:22
  I love learning, right?
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  It's my number five um strength.
• 2:28
  So I was like going, well, I just love learning.
• 2:31
  I thought it could help me, but then I realized something.
• 2:34
  Well, since I have a background in finance, right?
• 2:37
  Cause I was working for a broker dealer at the time.
• 2:39
  Uh, and I was going through the financial coach master training program.
• 2:43
  I realized that, you know what?
• 2:46
  I could put this to use and become a coach.
• 2:49
  So at the beginning of December, I put in my two week notice at my job.
• 2:53
  And so two weeks before Christmas, I no longer had a job that freed up my time to finish the financial coach training program and then learn as much as I could about.
• 3:03
  the whole coaching, you know, industry because of my, because of my wife's conditions.
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  I knew I had to do something that would allow me to work from home and coaching allows me to do just that while helping others.
• 3:17
  So long be, so we live in Florida now and long before we moved to Florida, cause you know, we moved here in 2022.
• 3:24
  So in 2018 is when I started the website.
• 3:28
  So long before she got sick, which was last year in 2025.
• 3:33
  and using the gifts that God has given me, I was able to launch a website, start creating content, and eventually that would all lead me to start a coaching business where I can
• 3:45
  help other Christian husbands with their finances and leadership in a way that I never even saw on the horizon.
• 3:56
  I knew that I wanted to help others.
• 3:59
  I knew I wanted to work for myself.
• 4:01
  because I had such difficulties working for others, but I didn't know how that was gonna look.
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  That's how God kind of like wove those different stories into where we are today.
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  It's amazing how God uses a tragedy to put you where He wants you to be.
• 4:19
  You already laid down the foundation and God started working on that foundation to build you up.
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  He's already given you the skills and the talents.
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  And now He just kind of opened the door and said, here's where I want you to be.
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  It's kind of a unique thing that God's already, He put that in your heart in 2018, even though it implemented in 2025.
• 4:35
  It's cool to see that growth.
• 4:37
  That's awesome.
• 4:38
  So what's God right now doing in your business?
• 4:41
  So right now uh I'm still working on, you know, trying to even get my first client.
• 4:48
  So, uh but God's helping me lay the groundwork for this coaching business, right?
• 4:53
  He's been putting different individuals and groups in my path to learn from, which is great because learner is the top five, my top five strength, right?
• 5:01
  And because I'm a Christian, my coaching program is Christian based.
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  And honestly, you know, I was hoping, you know, sorry, honestly, it was my upbringing.
• 5:10
  uh
• 5:11
  And the struggles that I've made in my life that led me to want to be a coach uh for other husbands in leadership and finances.
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  I grew up in a household where my dad worked three jobs.
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  He was gone all the time.
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  I never really saw him.
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  And so as Christian husbands, know, and fathers, Christian husbands and fathers, you know, were called to be the pastor, the protector, the provider and the pursuer of our families.
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  And so many of us get the provider aspect down pat.
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  You know, we go to work, we want to provide for our family and we work on the protector for when we're there at the house.
• 5:52
  Right.
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  But we forget about the protector with so many different other things like what's going on online.
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  You know, we all have these computers in our hands now.
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  Are we protecting our children and their minds and their eyes against what they're seeing?
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  Are we protecting them against that?
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  Are we pursuing them?
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  Right?
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  That's a pursuer.
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  Are we pursuing them like we are our jobs, our careers?
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  Are we pursuing our wife, our children, like we should?
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  Or are we kind of putting out the background?
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  Are we doing, are we being the pastor?
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  Are we providing the word, instructing them in God's word like we're supposed to?
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  Or are we allowing the church to do that once a week?
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  If we go.
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  Right?
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  That's our job.
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  Are we doing it?
• 6:39
  So, but long before I decided to become a coach, I knew I didn't want to stay in the job of my former employer.
• 6:45
  So I began paying off my debt and building a savings account to prepare us for the time when I eventually quit.
• 6:53
  And attending the financial peace university gave me the tools, which is Dave Ramsey's program to prepare for the inevitable.
• 7:00
  Right.
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  But it goes back even further than that.
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  See, God had been preparing me this path for years.
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  As I had mentioned,
• 7:08
  In 2018, I started the website, but long before that in 2009, I was injured while I was on active duty for the army.
• 7:17
  Now being a VA disabled, I get a monthly check from the government because of my disabilities that I sustained while on active duty.
• 7:30
  This helps my family and these funds along with savings is what allows us to stay afloat while I work on developing
• 7:37
  in my business and get clients.
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  So, you know, this is, this is a long time coming.
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  It's not something that just, it just happened, right?
• 7:47
  This is something that God has been preparing.
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  This goes back to the first question, you know, he's been preparing us all along for this.
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  I actually wrote my second book, started writing in 2008 and published it in 2012, which was My Purpose versus God's Purpose for My Life.
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  That was my second book, right?
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  And it was because of
• 8:07
  all the different things that I'd got to.
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  I have my own, uh you know, story of going away from the church and coming back.
• 8:17
  And so that's part of that.
• 8:20
  But what he's doing now, started so long ago that it continues to help in preparing me and being the coach that I need to be to help other men to be there for their families and
• 8:35
  their community.
• 8:37
  and to be who God has called them to be.
• 8:42
  That's great.
• 8:43
  And what are you doing right now to start your business up?
• 8:45
  What are doing those?
• 8:45
  What are those foundational steps that you're doing as you transitioning from being in a job to being in business?
• 8:52
  Yeah.
• 8:52
  So I went and got my certifications, different courses, you know, life coach certification, Christian life coach certification.
• 9:00
  I'm working on neuro-linguistic, uh, programming certification right now, because I want to help Christian men, you know, get past that transformation, get past those limiting
• 9:11
  beliefs, in order to, you know, be more, right.
• 9:17
  If they want to be more than who they are right now to be, cause, cause God calls us.
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  to be, know, Paul tells us that we are more than conquerors, right?
• 9:26
  And if we have that defeatist mentality, then we're not going to be able to be who we need to be.
• 9:32
  And sometimes we just need somebody to walk alongside us and show us that, know what, this is where you need to go.
• 9:39
  But as a coach, my job is to help to see them, you know, to help them see that within themselves, to get beyond those limiting beliefs so that way
• 9:50
  They can continue to go forward, you know, cause if I show them the path, but don't teach them how to get to the path, then when they get lost again, they're going to be like, I
• 10:00
  don't know where to go.
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  But if I teach them how to recognize the path in which to take, then when they come to that path again, they'll know which direction to go.
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  And so that's kind of what I'm trying to do as a coach, you know, to, to
• 10:19
  to be the best that I can be, if you will, to take from the Army, right?
• 10:23
  uh For others.
• 10:27
  And that's great because it's a whole concept of you can give a man a fish or teach a man to fish and you're empowering him is what it sounds like that transformation that you're
• 10:36
  offering.
• 10:37
  So we're not part of our podcast where we talk about business growth tips.
• 10:41
  What are you doing to grow your business?
• 10:43
  What are some tips you might give someone else that's trying to make that transition into business for themselves?
• 10:48
  Yeah, so my suggestion would be to never stop believing in yourself, right?
• 10:54
  Or the gifts that God has given you.
• 10:57
  Now, God gives each of us different abilities, different gifts.
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  And as we learn our gifts, as you learn your gifts and what God has given you and use them for His glory, you will prosper, right?
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  Deuteronomy 8 verses 17 and 18 says,
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  You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.
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  But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth." Right?
• 11:27
  So he gives us these abilities to be able to do so.
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  Now, when we talk about this, this isn't about, you know, because Jesus warns about the rich man.
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  uh Paul warns about it as well, because we are not to love money, because the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
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  So we are not to love money, but God gives us the ability to make this produce wealth in order to provide for us, because money is just simply a tool that we can use to help
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  ourselves, help our families, and help others in God's, to advance the kingdom.
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  So when you believe in yourself, because God has entrusted you with unique abilities to produce wealth and prosper, then as you, the more you believe in yourself and what
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  God has done for you and you believe in God who has given you the ability, the more that you will be able to move forward in your business, uh keeping your eye on the one who gave
• 12:26
  you the ability to create these things, which is God.
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  I'm asking a little bit of a pointed question here.
• 12:33
  You talked about belief.
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  Belief is where it all starts.
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  So what do you tell someone?
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  Maybe somebody is listening to this podcast and they're like, I've lost that belief in myself right now.
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  What would you tell that person?
• 12:44
  Yeah.
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  So, you know, the great thing is, is that even we, we all have our times where we, you know, are feel defeated, right?
• 12:54
  The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, right?
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  He, his job, right?
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  The, the evil one is to push you down and to keep you down.
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  Right.
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  Paul says you are more than a conqueror.
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  So
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  Because we know that we are more than a conqueror, even if in our times of dread, our times of woe is me, our times of, you know, I just can't get, seem to get a leg up, right?
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  You have to understand that there is more to your story.
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  Your story is not finished, right?
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  When Jesus, you know, came on earth, He taught us how
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  to live, He showed us the way, and then He died for our sins, knowing that those of us who believe will then, you know, die and have a second life, right?
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  So we have to live understanding that there is more to what we're going through right now.
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  God is using everything that we're going through because James tells us that, you know, call it uh
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  Consider pure joy when you face troubles, trials in life, because that means that you have been found worthy of those trials, right?
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  So God has given you the ability to get beyond whatever it is that you're going through, and He's trusted you with that because He's put you through it.
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  So what is important to remember is that you have the ability to get past it.
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  Sometimes it's we're stopping ourselves, we're our own greatest enemy.
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  But we have to remember that God doesn't give up on us, right?
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  We shouldn't give up on ourself either.
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  Whatever you're going through, okay, God has prepared you for such a time as this.
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  Go through it, right?
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  Because joy, you know, ah was the Psalm say, know, uh joy comes in the morning, but fear comes in the night.
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  No pain comes in the night.
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  Joy comes in the morning.
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  I'm sorry.
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  I'm butchering it.
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  But that's that's what the verse says is that, you know, even though you might be going through issues right now.
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  In the morning, joy comes right.
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  You will get through this is what that
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  script for saying you will get beyond this area of your, your life that you're going through.
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  And you're going to be able to look back and say, man, I got through it.
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  Right.
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  One of the things they teach us in the army is that your mind will, will try to limit you, you know, cause your body is like pain, you know, when you're running and you're, you get
• 15:42
  those pain in your, your sides.
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  If you learn that, if you just keep pushing through it, you are a lot stronger.
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  than you think.
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  know, half mile back, your body was saying, you're done, you can't do anymore, but yet you're still going.
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  And the more you go, the more you get beyond this, the more you're like, you know what, I can do this.
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  I am more than an overcomer.
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  I am more than a conqueror.
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  I can do this.
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  I will do this.
• 16:13
  That's great.
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  Yeah, lot of people when they even ask the question, am I struggling with my belief, the fact that they're listening to a podcast like this tells me that God's working on their
• 16:21
  heart.
• 16:22
  And I love that you shared those intimate moments because as guys, we don't like to talk about those things.
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  But sometimes you hear another guy saying, hey, I've been through it and I overcame and look at me, I'm coming out the other side.
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  It's important to hear those stories and everything.
• 16:37
  So as we end up here, what's a little bit of wisdom you want to live us with and then tell us how to get in touch with you.
• 16:43
  Yeah.
• 16:43
  Um, one thing I'd like to, I'd like to leave with is men, you're, you know, your, family needs you.
• 16:51
  Right.
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  And women, right.
• 16:53
  I'm not sure, but my, my coaching progress program is specifically for Christian men, but I would say your family needs you.
• 17:00
  Right.
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  If you're the provider of the family, just remember that the financial means you provide for them is great, but they need you in your presence far more.
• 17:11
  And as you show up for others, show up for your family.
• 17:14
  After all, if you do it right, they'll still be there long after your career.
• 17:20
  Now ways to contact me.
• 17:21
  I do have a podcast.
• 17:22
  It's called Clarity for Christian Men on Spotify.
• 17:26
  I have some videos on both Instagram and YouTube under Instruct and Grow.
• 17:30
  That's my company.
• 17:33
  It's Instruct and Grow, all one word, on Instagram and YouTube.
• 17:39
  My website is instructandgrow.com and if you're interested in finding more about my coaching program, it's www.instructandgrow.com slash coaching.
• 17:48
  And if you want to get it, email me, my email address is martin at instructandgrow.com and I'm on both LinkedIn and Facebook for social media.
• 18:00
  Great.
• 18:00
  Well, thank you for sharing your story today.
• 18:02
  I appreciate your time.
• 18:03
  Thank you, sir.