As The Leader Grows with Ken Joslin

Coaching with Ken | Be Still

• Ken Joslin

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Ever wondered how a touch of stillness can revolutionize your entrepreneurial journey? Discover the profound impact of early morning routines and how embracing moments of calm can bring clarity and focus to your life. Inspired by our recent Create conference, we share how moving from mere information to transformational experiences can enhance your faith, health, relationships, business, and finances. Listen as we recount personal stories, including a missed opportunity with Elena Cardone, and explore the importance of balancing passion and drive with moments of reflection, guided by the wisdom of Psalms 46:10.

Tune in to learn how to structure a powerful morning routine that aligns with your larger purpose. From the biblical principle of Jesus rising early to practical steps like worship music and gratitude affirmations, we explore how faith-based entrepreneurs can seize each day with purpose. We discuss the discipline of living by a code that encompasses thought life, language, energy, money, and desires, and how small, consistent actions can lead to a life of fulfillment. Join us in expressing gratitude for our podcast's journey and be inspired to subscribe, like, and share to spread the transformative power of stillness.

Welcome to the ATLG podcast I am your host Ken Joslin, former pastor turned coach & host of CREATE, the #1 Faith-based Entrepreneur conference in America. My mission is to help faith-based entrepreneurs become the best version of themselves by growing in our Core 5: Faith, Health, Relationships, Business & Finances. You can get more information as well as join our FREE Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/676347099851525

If you enjoyed the podcast, come join our FREE GSD Community of hundreds of entrepreneurs & a ton of FREE Content including CREATE Conference recordings with Ken, John Maxwell, Gary Brecka, Ed Mylett & more. growstackdrive.com/free

Speaker 1:

Good morning, welcome to another episode of as the Leader Grows. It is early am as I record this podcast the last two days up at about. Well, yesterday I was up at 3.06 am, woke up, was hoping it was 4 or 5, and it was not, so we went from 3 am until late yesterday. But I just wanted to talk about I was just processing through this morning my alarm. I beat my alarm up again today. I was wide awake, worship time, quiet time, and then I just had some moments just to be still and I wanted to share some things with you guys as entrepreneurs.

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I remember at our create conference this year, one of the things I felt like the Lord had shared with me was to transition create from just being informational to transformational. And when I say informational to transformational, guys listen. We have some of the best and most amazing communicators and friends on the planet Dr John Maxwell, erwin McManus, ed Milet, brendan Burchard, gary Brekka, vic Keller, randy Garn, brent Gove, amberly Lago, just Amy Lacey some phenomenal, phenomenal female and male entrepreneurs who just happened to love Jesus like crazy. And this year we did something a little different and I got up the first session this year at Create our faith component we have. Our core five is what we teach on, it's what we do. We literally start at faith and we work all the way through our core five, which is faith, health, relationships, business and finances. We do that at our Create conference every January. We do that at every mastermind. We've got an upcoming mastermind here in Atlanta in August growstackdrivecom forward slash Atlanta. You can get some info. We do the same thing. We start at Faith, we work through our core five and so we started Create this year with Faith.

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It was myself and my good friend, erwin McManus, who has been one of my favorite communicators on the planet for about 25 years, and at the end of that well, at the beginning of my talk I got up on stage. I was like how many of you entrepreneurs love being still? And they looked at me like I'd lost my mind Because as entrepreneurs, we really don't know how to be still. We just. We have a go mode. I guess people tell me all the time my friends are like dude when your feet hit the ground, it is insane to watch you. Within five minutes, 10 minutes, you are a hundred miles an hour. Now, on the flip side, my good friend Phillip always tells me, he goes dude, you can be in the. When you're ready to go to bed, you're going to bed, you're like you can be in the middle of a conversation with Ken and when it's time to go to sleep, he will fall asleep in the middle of a conversation. And that's 100% true.

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But I told those entrepreneurs I said, who loves to be still? And obviously nobody I was kind of making light of. And and obviously nobody I was kind of making light of. And I'm like God, you put too much in our heart. There's too much vision, too much call, too much purpose, too much passion. God, you've called us to live lives of impact and influence, to help those around us become the best version of themselves. God, I don't have time to be still. And I said but this week, these next three days, at the end of each of our core five areas, we're going to do what I call 46, 10 moments. And for some of you guys, as soon as I mentioned 46, 10, you knew exactly where I was going and that Psalms 46, 10, where it says be still and know that I am God, be still and know that I am God, be still and know that I am God. And let's just be honest, guys, as faith-based entrepreneurs and that can be difficult I remember when I was pastoring and I would go in four days a week, five days a week, I'd walk in the auditorium, I'd turn the music up and I would spend about an hour to an hour and a half in prayer.

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And I remember, man, because my brain would just. I mean, as entrepreneurs, most entrepreneurs probably have a little touch of ADHD or ADD or OCD or AD, a, b, c, d, e, f, g. I tell them, I do it, I got them all. And it's hard sometimes for your mind. And I remember my coach and pastor, sean Lojo, told me he goes, dude, he goes.

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What you need to do is you need to grab, like an offering envelope or a scratch piece of paper and a pencil Don't look at your phone scratch paper, piece of paper, pencil and just write when you have a thought, just pull it out, write it down and then just move, just keep moving. Um, and so I did that. But I said, guys, what we're going to do is we're going to, at the end of each of our core five areas, the team's going to come up, we're going to play a couple of worship songs and you're like worship songs in an entrepreneur conference. You better believe it. We're going to play a couple of worship songs. We're going to give you an opportunity to get still, because as entrepreneurs, we do not know how to be still.

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And even this morning there was some direction I needed. I was supposed to board a flight tomorrow, headed to LA, and this morning I'm just quiet before God and I'm like look, it's like I can see. It's like I had this 10,000 foot view of my schedule for the next few weeks and leading up to in a month. We've got our mastermind, I've got my new book getting released. I've got so many things going on and it was just like, oh okay, I don't need to go. I need to do this here in Atlanta with a friend of mine. I need to cancel this trip. This is the person it's literally.

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As I was posting my video on Instagram this morning, my reel one of my friends popped up in my mind and I'm like, oh, that's who I can give my tickets to. He lives in LA. My tickets were a little bit over a thousand bucks for the event that they're doing at YouTube theater Um, with my good friend Dave Meltzer, and Rob Riggle and Dane Cook and some other guys uh, marshall Falk, just some. You know it's going to be an amazing night and I'm like dude there's. I just don't have the time to invest in going out there for a couple of days and then red eye flight to New York city with Dave and doing the aspire tour. I'm just like man, I just I have to be here.

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But I didn't have that clarity and I struggled for two or three days getting clarity on exactly what I was supposed to do. So much. In fact, day before yesterday I just booked my ticket from Atlanta to LA, la to New York and then New York. Sunday back to Atlanta, and I'm like, okay, this is not what I'm supposed to do. But I and I had extreme clarity. I knew I had a piece about what I was supposed to do. And how'd I get that piece? I got still. I got still. So that create 46, 10 moments.

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I spoke on faith. Irwin did a phenomenal job speaking on faith. Team comes up. I said they're going to lead us in worship for about seven minutes, eight minutes, a couple songs. I just want you to do three things. And I put them up on the big led board behind me and I said I just want you to be still. We're going to do this five times this weekend. Be still, hear God and write the vision down. Be still, hear God and write the vision down. And for those of you guys who are faith-based entrepreneurs, those of you guys that are listening, that spent time in full-time ministry, vocational ministry, man, there is no greater lifeline or thing that will fill you with purpose and vision and passion than being still hearing God and then writing down what he tells you to write down. When you go into Habakkuk 2, it says write the vision down and make it plain that the herald who reads it can run with it. Write the vision down and make it plain. There is something, there is a supernatural principle that is enacted every time you write vision down.

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I can go all the way back to my student ministry days when I built one of the largest youth ministries in the southeast, one of the largest in the country, one of the first guys in 1998, 1999 to have our own facility 7,200 square feet, several hundred students, a 50s diner that looked like you walked back into happy days Neon, red metal, flake booths and tops and, man, we had the best burgers and milkshakes in our whole city Basketball courts, patio, all the stuff that we did Like it was just unheard of back then. And it all started at an Acquire the Fire event with my good friend Ron Luce Doing what? Writing down vision. The first time I ever heard Ron speak on mission statement, core values and vision. The first time I ever heard Ron speak on mission statement, core values and vision.

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I remember sitting there and this was, excuse me, in 1997 or 1998. And I wrote the mission down for our student ministry and I can tell you what it is today as clear as I did 27 years ago, 28 years ago Worship change, teach the authority and truths of God's word, with a resulting vision that creates an army of young people to make a worldwide difference for the kingdom of God. Immediately God gave it to me, boom wrote it down, and then I wrote down three years of vision that God was just downloading in my heart that day. Why? Because I took time to be still, because I took time to go. Okay, god, it's not what I want, but it's what you want, jesus. Is that not one of the most amazing prayers ever? Jesus said, god, not my will, but your will. Jesus didn't want to go to the cross. There's nothing in him, in his flesh that wanted to go to the cross. The spirit side, the God side of Jesus knew exactly what his mission was and what his role was, and he was on a rescue mission for you and I.

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And I want to go to Mark, chapter one, verse 35, and share this with you and this may be the first podcast I've ever done. It's like like a Sunday morning sermon or a Sunday morning message, but I love this scripture in Mark one, 35. It says before daybreak the next morning, jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. Think about this and I love some of the. This is the new living translation. I'm actually reading out of my Bible I used to preach out of new King James says early in the morning, before the sun rose. New living translation says before daybreak. So Jesus was up before the sun rose. So you know, beat the sun up. It's not a Grant Cardone saying like Jesus was beating the sun rose. So you know, beat the sun up is not a Grant Cardone saying like Jesus was beating the sun up, way before Grant even existed. Before daybreak the next morning, jesus got up and went to an isolated place to pray. What did he do? He got still. What do we need? More than anything else as faith-based entrepreneurs, we need to be still. We've got to find space in our day to be still One of the most holy cow. I can't believe it. I missed it. Moments of this entrepreneurial journey.

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For me, the last four years was when I learned that Elena Cardone had signed up with EXP, which is one of the top real estate companies in the country, fastest growing over 90,000 agents right now. And I learned that Elena had signed up with EXP, um, through another person, lisa, that I knew. And, man, when I heard it I was like kicking myself in the tail. I'm like, how did I miss that? Like Grant and Elena were such good friends, I could have presented this opportunity to them way before she did, and that cost me probably 50 to a hundred grand a year in residual income. And why didn't I see it? Because I was going too fast, because I was in a hurry, because I was full of passion and vision and drive. But no time on my calendar to reflect, no time on my calendar to be still to dream, to think okay, god, what do you have around me that I'm missing. So my morning routine this is what I want to jump into is my morning routine, because I think this is a game changer and I want to focus on that.

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Psalms 46, 10,. Be still and know that I'm God. Be still and know that I am God. And as entrepreneurs, I want to encourage you. We look at the model of Jesus in Mark 1, 35. And for every faith-based entrepreneur that's listening to this, even if you're not a faith-based entrepreneur, even if you don't believe, jesus said who he says he was, no one can deny that the man was one of the most phenomenal men that ever lived in the history of the world. One of the most phenomenal men. And you can look at his principles that he lived his life by and see the leadership principles, the transferable qualities and principles of Jesus that we can transfer into our lives today. And one is before daybreak the next morning. The sun hasn't even come up and Jesus is up and he's ready to roll. Why? Because he's driven, because he has a mission.

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At my conference, at create conference every year in Atlanta in January, I had these giant floor stickers with my quotes all over the building, and you'll find a couple through there that say, if you need an alarm clock to get out of bed, your goals aren't big enough. If you need an alarm clock to get out of bed, your goals aren't big enough. There should be something pushing you, driving you out of bed. That snooze button shouldn't ever even be a possibility for you. And again, like this morning and yesterday morning, yesterday morning was a little insane because it was 3 0 6 AM when I got up.

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I usually beat my alarm clock up six out of seven days because I'm passionate about what God's called me to do. I'm passionate about helping faith-based entrepreneurs become the best version of themselves in their faith, health, relationship, business and finances. I'm passionate to help faith-based entrepreneurs grow in their influence and their impact. I'm passionate to help faith-based entrepreneurs grow in their influence and their impact so what God's called them to do in the business realm, as they grow their businesses, as they grow their team, as they create opportunities for other human beings to work with them so that they can become the best version of themselves, then, in turn, growing their business so they can finance the vision and the mission of the kingdom and the pastor that God's planted them in a local church, in which is what I told Grant Cardone the first day I met him. I want to help pastors equip their business leaders so they can grow their businesses. Then, in turn, they can fund the kingdom and the vision and the mission that God has given that pastor. That's why I do what I do Morning routine Before daybreak.

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The next morning Jesus got up. I just want to encourage you and I've talked to people that are like, well, that's just not my rhythm and I get it. Some people have different rhythms and I'm not going to argue against your rhythm. I know some people that are successful that do it. But the vast majority of my friends that are in the same space or as faith-based entrepreneurs that are crushing it when it comes to business they're crushing it when it comes to their faith, their health, their relationships, their business and their finances are people that get up before the sun comes up. They are people who cannot wait to grab hold of the potential that tomorrow brings.

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Like what it's morning, let's go. And you're like Ken, you get too much energy for this. Early in the morning I told you, man, five seconds after my feet hit the floor I'm ready to go. Then I just want to encourage you, I just want to walk through real quick and then I'm done for today. I want to walk through real quick what my morning routine looks like as I sit here and drink my pre-workout in my studio. There you go, you got a good. You got a good sound effect of my, of my good Redmond's relight pre-workout, my alarm. If it goes off which normally, normally it doesn't I wake up.

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I usually have some worship music playing in the background while I sleep. I hone in on one worship song. I play that. Um, I screenshot it. I go over to my Instagram account. I don't scroll through Instagram, I go straight to my stories. I screenshot it. I go over to my Instagram account. I don't scroll through Instagram, I go straight to my stories. I post that worship song on my story. I've done that probably. It's been years. I've done that now and I probably don't miss one day a year. I mean, I guarantee you, if you look back, it's 360 to 364 days a year for years. First thing you see from me every single day Friends know it, man, what songs can God? I'll tag some friends on it. I did this morning. I tagged like 20 different friends and they'll reshare. So just that, that impact and an influence of people who aren't Christ followers or faith-based entrepreneurs get to hear things that are going to encourage them.

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And then I opened up my YouVersion app. I walked downstairs, I grab my pre-workout out of the refrigerator. I put it in the refrigerator the night before so I know it's ready to go. I walk downstairs, I plop a couple big blocks of ice in it so it stays cold because I like my stuff cold. I walk back upstairs, I make my bed, I get dressed while I'm listening to my quiet time on the YouVersion app, which is the Bible app. So if you don't have that, I'll put a link in there to the app. I think it's biblecom or YouVersion. You can go there and listen to it and I listen to. The ones that I love to listen to are the like I'm right now. I'm in the middle of Luke Explained, and what Luke Explained is is it is pastors out of, I think, calvary Chapel, maybe in California. They're very good teachers and it's about 10 minutes, 11 minutes on every chapter, and so today I think I listened to Luke chapter 11. And I listened to Luke chapter 11 today and they take about 10 to 11 minutes to teach on the chapter. It's just one chapter at a time, and I do that almost every single morning.

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I think I'm a hundred and some odd days in a row right now. In my app it's a bunch like one, 50 or one 60. I haven't missed a week in this app in close to 20 years. The only week I missed in this app was when I was gone on a business trip and had no self-service for a week. Other than that, I'm 131 days in right now. Other than that, I haven't missed a week. I haven't missed time in a week in 15, 20 years. It's been a long time. So I do that drink my pre-workout, I walk right up here to my podcast studio, I sit down, I've got my Bible sitting here, I've got my GSD planner and I go through my planner and I write down my goals, my gratitude, my affirmations and my top three. What are my goals? What do I want to accomplish?

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For those of you guys, then, this is the one thing I learned from Grant Cardone that I absolutely love, and I think it is on the freaking money, if you are an entrepreneur, especially a faith-based entrepreneur, because the responsibility for me, I believe, is greater and larger, because you're not just building a business, so everybody knows who you are and you can have an extra home, a car, a jet or whatever it is you want. And again, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with any of those things, but it is. It is an understanding for faith-based entrepreneurs that return on mission is always greater than return on investment. Always, god, I'm not doing this. I just listened to this. It was in my YouVersion thing yesterday. Listen, god's not sharing the glory with anybody.

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This business and building what I build isn't about me. Somebody said something to me the other day and they're like oh, you're famous. I said, listen, that's way overrated In the of Instagram. Dude, that is so overrated right now it's insane. All you have to do is have a little money. You can go buy followers store. You can buy all the stuff and make yourself look as famous as you want to. You can rent the Lambo, the jet, you can do all the stuff and come out and look famous. I'm not trying to look famous. Genesis 1.27 and 1.28 says God created us in his image, male and female. He created them, and that scripture, literally in the Hebrew, means that we reflect Like a mirror reflects your image. We're called to reflect the image and the character and the nature of God. This isn't about me, it's about God.

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So I come up goals, gratitude affirmations, top three. What are your goals? What are you writing down every day? I have three different. I've got my real estate business, I've got GSD and I've got personal goals.

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Super easy One team lead, which is chase um 12 personal deals I want to close this year on the real estate side. I just got, I just moved to Alpharetta about two months ago from Birmingham. So I'm back in Georgia where I'm from all my friends, all my family relationships. So my goal this year is to close 12 personal deals on the real estate side. I haven't closed a deal in years. Chase has been running the entire deal, All the past clients. I mean. I finished seventh out of 3,725 agents in 2019. I was one of the top real estate agents in the state of Georgia three, four years ago, was one of the top mortgage brokers in Georgia for about six years in the mid 2000s with SunTrust and Countrywide, one of their top wholesalers in the state of Georgia crushing it. But I haven't done real estate. So I'm like I'm going to close 12 deals, 15 FLQAs. That has to do with my revenue, my rev share from EXP, my revenue, my rev share from EXP. I'm at five or six right now, so I have rev share that comes in every month from EXP. It's about I don't know in between, I would say on an average it's about 24 to 25K a year. Right now is what I have coming in and that's just what we call mailbox money that comes in every month regardless.

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Gsd 75 people in our collective, which is our online group, 75 people in our mastermind and you can check either one of those out at growstackdrivecom 500 people at our Create Conference in January and then 12 Create One Days. This is brand new. This is the first time I've ever shared this public. So Create One Days. We're partnering with 12 churches around the country to go in on a Saturday and what we do at our Create Conference in three days we're going to do in that church. That local church will connect us with all the other churches in the area and the business leaders in those churches will come in. We'll do a one day create. So how we do three days of faith, health, relationship, business and finances. We're going to condense that into one day and come into that city and expose what we do in GSD with our collective, our mastermind and our create conference to that city. We're going to do 12 of those that will 500. It creates probably load. That's probably going to be close to a thousand this year.

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Personal goals lose 106 pounds. I'm in day 31 of our next 60 goals as I record this. We set these at our mastermind in Puerto Rico a few months ago. So my health goals were lose 25 pounds, no alcohol. My peptide therapies, which I just started about 29 days ago or no, 31 days ago, cause we're in day 31 time with my girls. I literally this morning booked an unbelievable condo in Gulf shores in Alabama. We're going to the beach next week for about four days. Cannot wait. Me healed and whole. I write these down every single day, twice a day me healed and whole.

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What does that look like for Ken to become the best version of himself, not just outwardly, but internally, because internally is what really matters, right? And then my code. I live by code. My affirmations I have a millionaire mindset. I will live a life where my heart, head and relationships are in alignment. I am whole. I choose to use past pain to help others find healing. I am enough because I am his child. And finally, my fifth affirmation every single morning and I do mirror work I'll look in the mirror, I'll flip my camera around on my iPhone and I will look at myself and do these things every single morning.

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Can you live by a code? You are aware of your thoughts, your language, your energy, your money and your sexual desires as a man. Those are the five things that God's put on the inside of you that allow you to create. Let me say those again. Can you live by a code? You are aware of your thought, life, your language, your energy. Your thoughts become your language, your language becomes your energy. That the scripture says in Proverbs the power of life and death are in the tongue. I am aware of my money and I'm aware of my sexual desires. Listen, those five things are what we use to create. Those are my affirmations.

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Gratitude what am I grateful for? I usually pick them. I've already sent three people texts this morning Voice text hey dude. One of them is my good friend, jake Hamilton from Jesus Culture. Used to be one of the top worship pastors in the country. Now he's doing a men's movement that is unbelievable. Jake's going to be leading some worship for us at our mastermind in Atlanta. Gr, or a mastermind in Atlanta. Gratitude affirmations, top three. What's your top three? Big rocks you need to move today. What can you do today as a faith-based entrepreneur, as an entrepreneur, to move the needle the most in your revenue and in your business? So that's the first half of my day. Second half of my day wins 1%, better goals.

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Scoreboard at the bottom of every page. You're like scoreboard yes, scoreboard at the bottom of every page. You're like scoreboard, yes, scoreboard at the bottom of every page. Like every one of us have been to a t-ball game, like we've watched little kids. There's 30 kids on the field. Right there's mom, dad, aunts, uncles, brothers the whole family's there. There's a ton of energy. You know, a little six-year-old hits the ball at the tee runs. The third base coach grabs him and points him. He goes johnny, run over here and's running. The coach Coach is waving at him for first base and he's running to first base and everybody's going crazy and at the end of the hour everybody leaves and you've had all this excitement and energy and fun but you have no idea who won, why? Because you don't keep score. Because I've been keeping score for over three years, every single day.

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It is incremental, not monumental. Small, daily, disciplined decisions over time always equal monumental results. Success cannot escape you if you do the right things every single day. Consistency and being persistent these are the two things that I see that most entrepreneurs lack. They're not consistent, they take too many days off. They take too many weeks off. Some guys that I've seen, even some of the guys four years ago that I met through Grant in the 10X community some of those guys take months off. You won't see them for two, three, four months on social media. Then, all of a sudden, boom, hey, I'm back, I'm doing a webinar. Boom, hey, I'm back, I'm doing a webinar. Boom, hey, I'm back, I'm writing a book. No, no, no, it's consistency. It is small, daily discipline, decisions over time always equal monumental results. We, we, we always, always, always overestimate what we can do in the short term, but we tend to always underestimate what we can do in the longterm.

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So there's my morning routine. I come in here, goals, gratitude, affirmations, top three. Then I hit the gym. I'm back in my studio by 730. After I've had breakfast, showered, I'm sitting in my studio at 730 and it's time to roll, and I know what my day timer looks like in my calendar, because I've done that the night before. I've already looked at my Google calendar. I've already looked at all my appointments. They're handwritten in my planner and then I've got a note section in that planner for you to be able to track what you're doing that day. So that's morning routine. I want to encourage you guys Be still. You're like Ken. That doesn't sound like you're still much. No, I put time throughout the day Yesterday because I got up at 3 0 6 AM. I scheduled 15 minutes for me to sit in my chair and take a nap. I literally I've got one of those Herman Miller air on chairs that are like Uber comfy and I just kicked my chair back and I'll just shut my eyes for about 15 minutes, listen to a little worship music and set me a timer on my phone and just chill and just be still. Mark one 35,.

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Before daybreak the next morning, jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. How much time, faith-based entrepreneur, how much time are you committing to being still? It's a game changer and I promise you, when you do this, you will see God do the most ridiculous things in your life, more ridiculous than you could even imagine. I love you Can't wait to see you next week, hear you next week, or can't wait to be with you guys next week on as the Leader Grows. Do me a favor. You guys have helped us reach the top one and a half podcasts in the entire country Unbelievable 25,000 downloads. Just got the email the other day Insane Blows my mind of how many downloads. And the only way we do it is because of you. So if you'll do two things for me, if you'll subscribe, like, subscribe and like this episode and our podcast and then share this on your social media, then I'll tag you as well. Love you. See you next week.