As The Leader Grows with Ken Joslin

Red Taylor | From SEC Football Coach to 7-Figure Entrepreneur

• Ken Joslin

Share episode

Red Taylor, the spirited CEO of Red Taylor Insurance and host of the Red Hot Read podcast, joins us to share his riveting story of resilience and redemption. With over 25 years of experience in the insurance industry and ventures in real estate investment, Red opens up about the lessons learned from his journey as a serial entrepreneur, coach, and podcast host. This episode is packed with inspiration as Red recounts his dedication to helping others learn from his past mistakes, and how his faith and determination have shaped his path to success. You'll hear about the significant influence of his high school football coach and his transition from coaching college football to mentoring budding entrepreneurs.

The journey takes an unexpected turn as we explore the transformative power of mentorship. Listen to the compelling narrative of a former college football player whose career-ending injury led him into coaching, encouraged by his mentor Curtis Stewart. Despite the tragic loss of Curtis, our guest's passion for coaching only grew stronger, leading to a pivotal role at Auburn University. This story underscores the profound impact a mentor can have and the life-changing opportunities that arise from embracing unforeseen challenges, offering valuable insights for anyone navigating their own career path.

Throughout the episode, Red shares insights into entrepreneurship and leadership, drawing parallels between the worlds of sports and business. We explore the significance of self-belief, authenticity, and gratitude in achieving success. Red discusses his mission to empower faith-based entrepreneurs and his vision to impact 1 million lives through personal and professional development. If you're seeking guidance and inspiration on your entrepreneurial journey, this episode is a treasure trove of wisdom and actionable advice. Join us as we unravel the stories of resilience and success systems that can pave the way to your dreams.

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:

a treat for you. Today I have got my good friend Red Taylor, ceo of Red Taylor Insurance, host of the Red Hot Read podcast. Overall just glamour king, best hair in Atlanta. I think you won best hair in Atlanta 10 years in a row, am I wrong? Sounds good.

Speaker 2:

Let's go with it, David Redd. What's up, my friend? What's going on? Brother, man, it's great to see you again. It's been too long. I know we really hadn't talked and caught up here in a few weeks, man, so it's great to see you again. How you been.

Speaker 1:

Good man. We just got back from five days in Sundance for our mastermind that we hosted, and then five days in Orange County with my friend Taki Moore and about 60 or 70 coaches. Wow, they're all doing between $100,000 a month to $1,000,000 a month in revenue. Yeah, some of the top guys in the world. It was really really cool and varied and I learned a lot, so it was good.

Speaker 1:

Dude, take a minute, because this show ain't about me. This show is about you. Take a minute and talk to your audience. Red, tell everybody a little bit about you, what you've got going on, because you're like mover and shaker in Atlanta. Dude, tell everybody a little bit about you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I appreciate it. Glad to be here. And just a little bit about me, man. I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a serial entrepreneur. Just a little bit about me, man. I'm an entrepreneur, I'm just. I'm a serial entrepreneur. I'm a guy that enjoys business. I enjoy coaching. I enjoy making an impact on people.

Speaker 2:

You know I've been an independent insurance broker for about the past 25 years where I've just ran an agency where we sell and service health insurance and life insurance for people who are self-employed and own their own small businesses. Man, we help them to make really good financial situations. Outside of that, my wife and I we own a real estate brokerage where we invest in real estate throughout Georgia. We've dabbled a little bit along the coast of Alabama we really like the Gulf Coast, the panhandle of Florida, a couple of areas there, man and then we've been doing a podcast now for about the past six, seven months and decided to get out from behind my little wall of anonymity and try to take some of the blessings that God's given me over my life, some of the mistakes that he didn't make, as a life sentence for me, because, brother, I can promise you I have made a ton of mistakes For the people out there that are gonna watch this show today.

Speaker 2:

If you feel like you are less than, if you feel like you aren't worthy, if you feel like you have done the unthinkable and you've put yourself in a situation where you can't overcome it, well, if you're not six feet under and you're not behind bars forever, then you can overcome. Okay, Because this old knucklehead right here, this sorry old dog right here, has been forgiven. My story is a story of redemption, of grace and a guy that if I can overcome it and if I can put those things behind me and learn from them to be better today than I was yesterday and to desire to be better tomorrow than I am today, and to desire to go help as many people on planet Earth as I can possibly help, then you can too.

Speaker 2:

And so that's really the reason that we're here today, I think.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, one of the things I love, don't go to your office. We actually shot your podcast, I don't know probably about three or four weeks ago, and I came back to your office and I walked in. Your amazing wife was sitting at the front desk. She runs the show, which that automatically makes you a smart guy in my book, because you understand who needs to be happy and who needs to run the show. But meeting you, doing the podcast and then connecting with all your, you've got a team of young sales guys your son was one of them A lot of D1 athletes, quarterback at Samford, d1 baseball player. You have a ton of D1 athletes in there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, and literally I remember leaving that day and I want you to dive into a little bit of your story. I remember leaving that day and I'm going. Dude was a college football coach. Now he's just coaching entrepreneurs. He's just taking D1 athletes and showing them how to live life and do business as a faith-based entrepreneur. Talk about that journey for you, red, of being a coach at Auburn and just the journey it took for you to do what you loved to do and what you knew God was calling you to do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. So you know, I began as a young man with really a desire to make an impact, and I don't know why, man, it's a God thing for sure, because I didn't come from anything. You know, as far as you know personal my story, my dad was an alcoholic addict. He kind of walked out on my mother and us five kids when I was eight, nine years old. She was the type of person where she just wasn't really strong mentally and didn't have a lot of. She'd had a hard life herself and so she had some mental issues. And you know, realistically, I've been on my own since I was about 13, 14 years old and not really a whole lot of guidance.

Speaker 2:

But the one man that did make such a profoundly positive impact in my life was my head football coach at Robert E Lee High School in Montgomery Alabama, and there's stories behind all that as well. But his name is Spence McCracken, and Coach McCracken, who's become a great friend of mine, is just a phenomenal human being. He made an impact in so many young men's lives. He's gone on, you know, to impact literally thousands and possibly hundreds of thousands and maybe millions. You know he just believed in me, man, he believed in us. He, he, he thought that there was better in us. He wanted us to be winners, he wanted us to be champions and he pushed us beyond anything that we ever thought that we could be.

Speaker 2:

And man, that, that that was born into my spirit and born into my soul and it resonated in me and something that I thought that I had as well to be able to inspire other men. And so, you know, after I was, you know, after I got hurt playing college football and I was so bad, they didn't renew my scholarship. I went back and I was bouncing around from job to job, trying to go to night school because I didn't have any money. But I met a guy who was kind of an angel to me. His name was Curtis Stewart. Curtis happened to be the third fourth-string running back at Auburn University behind Bo Jackson. Nobody had ever heard of Curtis Stewart.

Speaker 1:

Not while Bo Jackson's there. They won't.

Speaker 2:

That's right, that's right, bo was the show. So, anyways, curtis and I developed a relationship and he was a volunteer football coach over at the local my rival high school there in Montgomery called Jefferson Davis High School. Imagine that Robert E Lee High School, jeff Davis High School two rivals, the largest high schools in the state of Alabama, on the exact same road, about three miles from each other, big football powerhouses back in the late 80s and early 90s. But Curtis is like Red, you need to be coaching, you need to be coaching. You got it, you got it, you need to be coaching.

Speaker 2:

I was like man, I can't afford to go to college. You know, I'm working in this warehouse, I'm trying to, you know, take a night class here, a night class there. So, anyways, you need to call this lady over at Alabama State University. I'm like what he says? Dude, you didn't hear. I was like no, he said the Supreme Court of the state of Alabama just ordered the historically black universities to desegregate and you can go to Alabama State on a minority scholarship because you're white. I said what, what?

Speaker 1:

He said I swear.

Speaker 2:

He said I'm telling you, call this lady, she she's gonna get you hooked up. So boom, I called, went, met with her. Next thing you know, two weeks later, I'm enrolled in classes at alabama state university on a minority scholarship. Yeah, I didn't have to pay a dime, um, and I was well on my way to fulfilling my dream. I left there. I went and talked to the coaching staff over at my old alma mater, robert E Lee, and asked them if I could volunteer. They said shoot, yeah, come on. So I started volunteer coaching. Well, less than six months later, curtis died in a one-car automobile accident late like 3 or 4 am, on his way back from a job. He owned a janitorial cleaning supply company and so he left an office building, selma, alabama ironically, uh, heading back towards montgomery, and lost control of the vehicle, probably went to sleep and passed away but, you know it was.

Speaker 2:

It was god sent curtis to me to help me to fulfill my, my, my destiny, and, and, and. So I went on to coach there at Robert E Lee in high school and evidently I was pretty good at it. A lot of guys come in there and they would say you remind me of a young Spence McCracken, you remind me of your passion, your energy, your intensity. Because I was very. I'm an intense guy, I'm a passionate guy. I think that caught some of the attention of Auburn University's brand-new staff Coach Tommy Tuberville and that group who had just gotten hired on at Auburn from Ole Miss, and they offered me a job coaching there. And man, what I'm telling you right now, I'd only been coaching in high school for three years, two of them as a volunteer, only one as a paid teacher assistant, and then I got on at Auburn University. So to say that I was in over my head is a dramatic understatement.

Speaker 1:

So tell me what that's like. So you're coaching a pretty large school in Alabama, in Montgomery. It's a pretty like you said, it's a powerhouse. It's big-time high school ball. Yeah, it's big-time high school football. Well, big-time high school football and in the SEC are two totally different things, bro, you have no idea, so tell me what were some of the?

Speaker 1:

so a couple things I want to ask on this. Yeah, so obviously your coach made a huge impact in you, made you understand. I want to have the same influence and impact in kids' lives that he had in mine. What were one or two of your favorite moments coaching high school?

Speaker 2:

before we get to the Auburn story, oh man, you know, I tell you, I can remember the second year that I was a volunteer assistant and coach had he had given me the defensive ends and linebackers, ok, and we were in a playoff game and you know, and I coach those guys hard and I was, I'd get after it, man, and I was, I was, you know, I thought so much of myself, heck, I'd challenge our defense coordinator, you know, like a dummy, like a young, you know, 23 year old, four year old guy that you know is full of himself and piss and vinegar and all that stuff. But you know, I coach those kids hard and I and I expected a lot of them, I demanded a lot of them, but I loved them. You know, and I can remember, we were in the second round of the playoffs and you know we worked on this and worked on this and worked on this. But one of my defensive ends play came down the line of scrimmage. He did his assignment perfectly. He came off, he hit the quarterback, jarred the ball loose my other defensive end was coming, scooped it and, you know, ran it back for a 48-yard touchdown return and, dude, I am on the. I'm off the sideline running down the numbers to the end zone with these guys behind. Of course I was a few steps behind them, but I mean it was.

Speaker 2:

It was one of those like moments where you've worked it, we've drilled it, we've practiced it so hard so many times and I've built this vision. I've shown if you do the work, if you put it in, if you put your effort and focus into it and you execute, then success will happen. You at least have a chance to be successful and at that point in time it's up to you to perform. When the lights are on and you have that opportunity. Man, they performed and I was just so excited, and it wasn't anything about me, it wasn't winning championships, it was just seeing those guys to experience.

Speaker 2:

Man, that may be to this day, one of their greatest moments that they've ever had in football, you know, or in sports period, because those guys didn't have, you know, mamas and daddies that were coming to the stadium on Friday nights to watch them and, you know, making sure they had clean clothes every day to come to school and did their homework and all that kind of stuff. You know these were hard luck kids. They didn't always come from good neighborhoods and neither did I, so I really, really related with them and I just wanted so passionately for them to feel success and feel joy and feel the elation of, you know, overcoming a hard nose, bitchy ass, hard, hard headed coach that there that only expects the best and expects excellence out of them, and for them to be able to feel that and experience that joy. Man, it just meant so much to me personally.

Speaker 1:

So what's the deepest playoff run y'all had?

Speaker 2:

The last year I was there, which was 1998, we ended up losing in the semifinals. So that's actually the story of my coaching career, to be honest with you. So my senior year in high school, we got beat in the semifinals okay, which you know. The next round we went to the state championship and Robert E Lee's won a ton of state championships.

Speaker 2:

I think we've won, you know, six or seven state championships since the 80s the year after I left, you left when I was coaching there. We went to the semifinals, lost. The year after I left, lee went to the state championship and won it 99. When I was at Auburn. We were terrible. Good Lord, we were bad. We didn't even make a bowl game that year.

Speaker 1:

So hang on a minute. So back up just a bit, before you get started talking about wins and losses, tell. So hang on a minute, so back up just a little bit, before you get started talking about wins and losses. Tell me about the phone call where they said hey, we want you to come to University of Auburn and we want you to be one of our coaches in the SEC.

Speaker 2:

So I'd met these guys. I was really good friends with. One of my buddy's dads ran coaching clinics okay, the Nike coaching clinics and whatnot and as a young coach he would bring me and Brian in and Brian's a D1 college football coordinator now and has been for many years. But he'd bring me and Brian in and we would help. You know, we'd go get you know food and set up the hospitality suite liquor, whatever for the coaches. We'd go to the airport and pick up coaches and if they wanted to go eat wings or whatever, we go, you know, and we would be in man, we got to be in all the meetings and we got to be up there in the hospitality suite when coaches were coming, they'd relax and still talk ball, cause that's football coaches, that's all they do is talk ball. I mean that's you know they're.

Speaker 1:

They're single-minded people, you know they're like entrepreneurs they just talk about business. All they do is talk about church, that's it.

Speaker 2:

Guys are really simple people.

Speaker 1:

Yes, we are.

Speaker 2:

But anyway, I'd met some of those new guys that were coming in to Auburn from Ole Miss through these coaching clinics and the old line coach, a guy named Hugh Nall just as hard-nosed a human being you've ever met in your life. I asked him if I could come down to Auburn and meet with him because I wanted to run some of the stuff that they were really good at doing and I wanted to learn how they were doing it. So I went down there, me and him, sat in his office and I mean I'm walking in the Auburn football facility. I'm like, oh my gosh, dude. I'm like this is legit man and I'm going into his coach's office and I meet with him and I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa. We all went out. He took me and the rest of the offensive staff, the offensive coordinator and all was owning. We all went out and ate wings that night and had a couple of beers. So it was about a week later, I guess Maybe he called me up and he was like hey, no, I think I called him.

Speaker 2:

I called Coach Nye. I said, hey, did you ever get those cut ups? Did the GA ever get those cut ups for me? He said, man, he just took another job. I said, oh crap, okay, okay, well, good for him. And um, he says, uh, he said you want to be my GA, you want to coach, you want to coach in Auburn? I was like, yeah, well, what is, what do I got to do? He's like, well, you got, you got to get into grad school. I said, well, how do you do that? I'm like, I'm like dude, I just graduated undergrad at at alabama state, you know. So, anyways, it was, I came down there. I met with coach toberville, I met with noah mazzoni, those guys you know, they offered me the job. They said, okay, go get into grad school. Um, and once I got into grad school, that was it. And so, you know, I moved down there and I mean, it was just, and it just, within about one good minute I realized how much I did not know about being a football coach as a professional.

Speaker 1:

What, was it like walking on the field for the first practice, first time ever?

Speaker 2:

Complete and total intimidation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2:

Really. I mean, it's just, you know, I'm a small, I didn't believe that I deserved to be there number one. It's almost like how did I get there? Because you know, back in those days you only got two GAs. Ga stands for graduate assistant. So they paid for me to go to graduate school to get my master's degree, but my job was to coach football. So we had one for the offense and one for the defense. You had nine position coaches and two GAs. Now they've got 170 GAs, it seems like at every school. So that GA job was harder to get than the position jobs.

Speaker 2:

And I'll never forget, when I got there first day, the director of football operations, a guy named Eldon Hawley, old man, and I think that he had coached Coach Tuberville's dad back in Arkansas, you know, 182 years ago or something like that. So he called me up to his office and I walked into his office and I sat down across from him. I was scared to death. He didn't say nothing to me. He reaches down in his drawer and he pulls out a book, bam, slams it on the table. I'm telling you that book was that thick. He says you see that right there. I said yes. He says yes, sir. He says you know what it is. I said no, sir. He says that's all the people that want to get your damn job. He says I don't know how the hell you got here and I don't know if you're qualified, but these are the guys that are going to be here when you screw. Well, he said, when you f it up okay.

Speaker 2:

So I was like, oh my, my gosh, you know. So I mean, that was day one, initial meeting. Hello, introduction, welcome to college football, welcome to the SEC. And then my next job I went. My next job was to break down all ten game films from Alabama the year before so, and I didn't even know how to break down film at that time. So luckily for me, there was a guy that had come in named Dan Warner, who GA'd with Coach Tubbs. Dan was the offensive coordinator at James Madison. He had just gotten fired, he was still on payroll, so he was there and Dan taught me how to break down film all summer.

Speaker 1:

I love that. So what was that like? Like walking on the field the first home game at University of Auburn.

Speaker 2:

So there's a legend of this story around my little small circle. So, all right, so here's the way it went. So we went on Thursday for game practice. Our first game was at home we're playing App State at home and on Thursday we went and had a test run. You know, coaches good coaches they're going to practice everything. I mean they're going to practice putting the headsets on guys, going up to the box, all that stuff. Well, for the first game, I was going to be on the sideline. Coach Nall was going to be up in the box so he could see everything. Good, he would communicate. And to me, I would make adjustments to the guys when they come off the field. And I was fine, that's what I'd been doing, you know, whatever.

Speaker 2:

So game time comes and we go out there for warm-ups and you know there's not a ton of people in the stands for warm-ups. You know, guys, you're an hour before game, blah, blah, blah, whatever. So we go in, you know, kick the field goal. Everybody goes into the locker room, right? Well, we go in the locker room and I go into the bathroom to pee. You know I've got to go to the bathroom, so when? But I'm waiting on all the players, right, obviously, and these guys are giants. So I'm waiting on all the players. So by the time they start weeding out, I go in there and I go in the bathroom. Well, when I get done, I come out of the bathroom and it's quiet as a church mouse. Everybody's up on a knee. Coach Tubbs is giving the speech. So I tighten up and I start looking around and I had an oh shit moment. I'm looking around and there are no other coaches in there. Okay, all the coaches stayed outside. They didn't come inside.

Speaker 2:

We didn't practice that we did not practice that so suit, and I'm trying to squirm my way around the crowd to get to the door so I could try to get out and get through the tunnel and get over. You know, squirm my way on the sideline and it didn't work out that way. So they break it down, boom, and it's just a glob of 105 big giants hit the door, they get in that tunnel. I'm in the tunnel, I'm like, oh man, this ain't good, this ain't good. So you know, boom, soon as they hit it, they roll out of the tunnel. I come out there and our equipment manager, frank Cox, is standing right there on the side waiting on me.

Speaker 1:

You stupid, I mean just dog cussing me, he's got the headset.

Speaker 2:

Put this on you, stupid. I don't know what you're doing. The guys are running through the A, the flags are all going, band's playing. I'm squirming around the sideline over there on the bench area. He's got this. As soon as I put it on, I'm getting dog cussed by Coach Knob. The whole offensive staff is wearing me out. I'm just like all right, let's go. Can we please kick this thing off now? That's funny. So anyways, that was great. We ended up coming back and winning that game. We were so bad we had to come back and beat.

Speaker 1:

App.

Speaker 2:

State with like a minute and 49 seconds left.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm a Michigan fan, so we weren't lucky enough to come back and beat App State, but we did come back that year. Do you know who Michigan beat in the bowl game that year? Bad, badly who? Florida, tim Tebow's senior season.

Speaker 2:

Okay, okay, that's saying something.

Speaker 1:

Busted that ass, I think it was that Outback Bowl.

Speaker 2:

That's saying something, no doubt.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, because, especially the way that season started, that season did not start good whatsoever. Yeah, losing that state. Some of the things that you learned, red, coaching high school football, even that, even the moment where you're like, holy crap, I'm not supposed to be in this locker room. What were some of the transferable principles that you learned from those experiences where you made mistakes? Because a lot of people, it's hard for them when they make mistakes to rebound. How did you take some of those mistakes and build on those?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the great lesson about being involved in sports is that that you got to come back and play the next play. Okay, you have to if you're going to be successful. Then you got to have a short memory and you got to get focused on the next play. Okay, that's in business, that's in our relationships, that's in your, your, your personal fitness journey, that's in your finances. How many of us have never made a mistake with money? Okay, how many of us I have? Okay, I can tell you, you know, a lot of mistakes that I've made with money. I can tell you a lot of wins I've had, but I can also tell you a lot of mistakes. What about relationships? Okay, guys, I'm a dummy, I screw it up.

Speaker 2:

My wife, if she was here right now, she'd tell you my kids, my team, you know, my, my, uh, I lost a team member recently, okay, and we had to part ways and I'm just going to tell you man, that's a death to me.

Speaker 2:

That's my fault. I don't give a dang what that person did to make themselves not be available to my company anymore, want a position within my infrastructures anymore, but either way, that's my lack of leadership, that's my lack of coaching, of teaching. So if I would have done a better job of inspiring that human being, if I'd have done a better job of teaching, making standard operation procedures absolutely, abundantly clear, my expectations day in and day out abundantly clear, and if I would have been led more by example, maybe had more empathy, maybe cared a little bit more, maybe asked a few more questions to see what their expectations or what their definition of success was, then we wouldn't have maybe had to part ways. Okay, so, at the end of the day, what sports has taught me is to, to, to own it. Okay, there's a guy that's going to line up across from me and a guy that's going to line up and he's going to try to whip my ass every single play.

Speaker 2:

And he's good, guess what guys? In business, we have competition. Okay, somebody's going to get the business all right, and so it's the same theory. And what I've learned over the years is if somebody has a better business than I do, if somebody has a better team, if their revenue is above mine and their productivity is above mine, then, whether I like to admit it or not, they're better at the game of business than I am right now. Okay, and I better learn what their edge is, what their methodology is, or what methods that I can utilize in my businesses to become more effective and more efficient and more successful. And you know, in business, let's be honest the goal of business is to earn a profit. Okay, that's it.

Speaker 2:

Simple, point blank. I don't run down for profits, okay, and so if somebody's making more money than you are or somebody's making more money than me in business they're better at the game of business than I am all right, and it's my goal to be the best there ever was. I don't know if I'll ever achieve it or not, but I'm having a great time trying.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but you, just you continue just to strive to get to the next level from high school you know, being a football player back into coaching. I mean back into going to college and then going to Alabama state and then coming back and taking a job there and then working with the kids and really just pouring back into, or giving back what you received in high school and then understanding. And I love this John Maxwell's book, failing forward, where John talks about you know, failure isn't final Like you. Only fail when you quit. And you didn't, I guarantee you. When you figured, when you realized that first home game at Auburn you weren't supposed to be in there, I bet you were like I have, what am I doing?

Speaker 2:

oh gosh, yeah yeah, it's literally one of the more frightening moments of my life. Yeah, um, I think one of the things that you hit on there, ken, is it's. It's been important to me to learn how to redefine the term failure. Okay, because I have had so many failures in my life, as everybody has. Guys, failure is very simply defined as undesired results, that's it.

Speaker 2:

And so you're not failing unless you quit. So, as long as I don't quit, I ain't failing and I ain't ever quitting. Okay, I can tell you that right now, there ain't nothing in me that's ever going to quit. I'm going to keep coming back, I'm going to keep outworking you, I'm going to keep tweaking, I'm going to keep finding new ways and I'm going to keep coming back to win. Now, I don't care what the game is. I don't know what the man I'm telling you right now, half the time, I don't know what the definition of winning is, but I do know what the definition of quitting is, and that ain't me. I ain't ever going to do it, and that's what I encourage everybody to do.

Speaker 2:

Don't get beat down by your failures, because they're not failures, they're just undesired results. We have another opportunity to come back. You do, I'm telling you. If you're not dead, then that means that God has more work for you to do. Your task is not complete, okay, that your job is not done. If you are not incarcerated for the rest of your life, then you have a chance. Heck, I think some guys that I've read stories, some guys that have been incarcerated and they've been locked up, man. They've led massive ministries and they've made huge impact and, at the end of the day, if we're not on this earth to make an impact on others, then what the heck are we doing? Come on, man.

Speaker 1:

You know.

Speaker 2:

I mean, that's what we're called for, Ken, you went 12 years as a pastor and preacher and you've turned it into a coaching brother. You're done. I'm so thankful that I've met you and, in our short relationship, the people that you've introduced me to have just been phenomenal, and I look forward to growing long-lasting relationships with a lot of these people and I'm going to beg forgiveness because I'm going to screw it up with them too. Man, Listen, if you hold your friends, if you hold your family, if you hold your coworkers to a level of only excellence, of expectation no mistakes the imperfection then you're going to be let down. I mean, people are going to let us down either way, right, Because nobody is perfect. If you're, a level of expectation is perfection for the people that are in your life you're setting yourself up for bad.

Speaker 1:

There's always disappointment when you set expectations, because, especially when you're a high achiever, red, and you are a coach and you want impact and you're looking for influence, when you do that, you tend to place the same expectations on other people that you have for yourself, and those are very high. So you get out of Auburn, you come back to Atlanta, you get ready to get your insurance brokerage license and you start this firm and you've taken it to one of the largest med share, I guess underwriter or insurance group.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we've been really, really fortunate man. God set us up to work with Christians a long time ago in a way that I certainly couldn't have done it myself. Product if you're a service-based business, then you need customers, right, you need leads, you need clients, and I don't care what type of business you're in. When times are really good, guess what you want more of. You want more customers. You want more leads. When times are really bad, guess what you need. You need more customers, you need leads. So I was able to form a relationship with one of the top financial Christian consumer advocates, financial advisors on the planet about 20 years ago and that's a guy named Dave Ramsey. So we were able to start helping Dave's people that were in the state of Georgia with their health insurance. Dave called us and endorsed local providers back then ELPs so he'd hook us up in our neighborhoods and our communities. That's evolved now to his trusted pros and we really are able to help people nationwide. We've just been doing it so long. So through that relationship we were able to tap into the largest faith-based healthcare sharing program on the planet, a Christian ministry called MediShare or Christian Care Ministry, and that's really in simplest terms, it's health insurance for Christians and through the two relationships my firm has become the largest producer of Metashare on the planet and you know we're really, really passionate.

Speaker 2:

I have it for my family. I recommend it for you know any, if I hear Ken y'all heard Ken do his his ads out there. If you're a faith-based entrepreneur and, realistically, man, if you're a faith-based entrepreneur, you're self-employed, you own your own business, a small business, you work for a small business. You're in a position where you need to buy your own health insurance and you're just a relatively healthy Christian. I've got a PhD in health insurance for 25 years. Now MediShare is your best option. Period, point blank, end of story. I know them all. I still get checks from UnitedHealthcare, blue Cross, blue Shield, humana, aetna, cigna, coventry, oscar, all of them. I've got them all all. But I've had my wife and my family, my six children we've been on MediShare now for almost 10 years.

Speaker 1:

How many kids did you say, bro? We've got six children, four grandchildren, three dogs. Come on, I love it. Talk to me about some of the things you've learned as a faith-based entrepreneur and how that ties back to playing football, being a football coach at the highest level. What are some of the transferable principles from the two?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the one thing that I've learned and I love entrepreneurs okay, entrepreneurs are the go-getters of society. Okay, these are people who are dreamers, they have big ideas, they have courage, they have belief in themselves and they're just usually dumb enough to be able to lay it on the line and roll the dice and just bet on themselves. I tell my guys all the time I don't want guys that want to bet on the S&P 500. I want guys that want to bet on the S&ME 500. Belief in yourself. If there's one thing I've learned as an entrepreneur for the past 25 years, it's you have to believe in yourself. Okay, god put a dream in your heart. When you're quiet, when you're still, when you're laying in bed, when you're reading, when you're driving down the road, and you hear that voice and you feel that pull, you feel that tug, you feel that desire, whatever that passion is. That is God putting that belief, that dream inside of you, in your soul, in your heart. And it's there for a reason. Okay, he didn't put it in there for you to say I'm not good enough, I ain't got no hair, I'm not smart, I got red hair and fat face. Okay, you know, I'm too overweight, I'm out of shape. You know, I ain't got no money, I don't have no friends, right? I didn't go to the best school.

Speaker 2:

Y'all went to Alabama State. I went to a historically black university in Montgomery, alabama, where the Montgomery bus boycott was born and executed. Out of the same halls that Red Taylor walked, and I'm here to tell you right now. They accepted me All the people there, and I was pretty much the only white guy. Okay, they accepted me as a human being and I accepted them as a human being. Racism I don't believe in no racism. Okay, people that are racist, they're the fringe, they don't, they're not around us. Ok, you don't know people that are racist. I don't know people that are racist. So put all that crap behind you. So, as an entrepreneur, as a person that wants to accomplish things, that has dreams and goals and desires, believe in yourself. Ok, then find a system. Ok, success leaves clues. Ken, you and I both know this.

Speaker 1:

When you say system, talk about some of the things, talk about kind of unpack that a little bit for our audience and talk about some of the things that you've used to get better.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, great question. So so in my business, in a lot of sales-based businesses, okay, you're going to have to find systems that work, systems that are going to be. You can reproduce them and have a really good chance of reproducing success, right? So what does that mean? So, it means how many calls a day do you have to make? Where do you get your customers? Where do you get your leads?

Speaker 2:

Okay, we're in an age right now where branding and scaling has become something that is really, really attainable for average everyday Joes. Right, listen, I'm on here, I'm on a laptop and a stinking little camera talking to you on this app that we don't even pay for this app and it's going to continue. It's going to help us to produce really high quality content that somebody may see. And this, we may go viral. This may get a million views, okay, and we may be up there. Elon Musk could retweet it and it could get 100 million views. You know what I'm saying. So you have just as good a chance at getting attention these days, at reaching an audience these days, as the guy that's got a million followers does, because we have access to the worldwide Internet.

Speaker 1:

OK.

Speaker 2:

And because your story is authentic. Your story needs to be told, and nobody on planet earth is qualified or as good as you at telling your story. And I think it was Ed Milet said this and it resonated with me so much. He said that we are most qualified to help the person that we once were Okay, so Red Taylor is most qualified to help that scared, intimidated, insecure coach and leader that I once was.

Speaker 2:

That came from really nothing no money, no real parenting, no real leadership. I just had one man, one man that spoke inspiration into me, and really that inspiration turned into aspiration. Not only did I, not only did it inspire me to be more than I was, but now I aspire to be more like him and I aspired to have the impact that he had on so many others. And so that is one of the things that I've just taken in my life and I've just said man, I'm just going to chase that, I'm going to continue to try to do that. So in my business, what have I always done? I don't try to sell insurance, I try to help people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean, that's it.

Speaker 2:

I try and I tell my guys all the time and, like you said, I got a lot of young lions in here young beasts, okay, and they want to make money. And as a young entrepreneur, as a young business person, as a young salesperson, I challenge you it needs to be about money, because success is tied to your money right now in our society. But as you gain that success, as you make more money, as you get older and have experience and pray for wisdom, pray for wisdom, and God gives you wisdom. That money, the attainment of the money, kind of diminishes a little bit and the ability to impact others. What the hope is is that it grows and expands and becomes more important to you. So in doing that systemically, my system was always to try to help people and I think it's one of the things, especially in the insurance business. It set me apart a long time ago in that people that came to me I had a reputation of integrity and character. I was going to do what I felt like was the best thing for them.

Speaker 1:

That's good. So tell me real quick. So in the business you've been uber successful. You've got a great team, an amazing wife, great kids, home in 38. Dude, what is Red Taylor grateful for today?

Speaker 2:

Brother, I am grateful that I wake up in the morning healthy. I'm telling you, when I wake up in the morning, I challenge everybody to do this. You want to change your life right now. You want a simple one action to change your life and set you on a trajectory for goodness. Wake up in the morning and spend the first five minutes thanking God above for little things, little things. Man. God, thank you that I woke up in a bed that was comfortable. Thanks for giving me good sleep last night. I'm grateful that I get to walk right from my bed right next like 10 steps and go to the bathroom, go potty okay. And I'm so thankful that when I flush that toilet, that everything that's in there leaves okay, god. I am so thankful that when I flip that switch, that hot water comes out. I mean, really, really. I'm thankful for my dogs. I love them. They're like you know.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if I love them more than I do my kids. You mean Georgia Bulldogs. What kind of dogs are you talking about?

Speaker 2:

Oh, we ain't no time for no Georgia Bulldogs. Man, I don't get down with those front runners.

Speaker 1:

At least you're not a Tennessee fan this morning.

Speaker 2:

Whew, right, I don't know, I did coaching at Tennessee, at Neyland Stadium, as a bear man, yeah, but yeah, the dogs got after him Saturday night for sure, but no man, I just I think that so much that I'm thankful for right now, man, I'm telling you, let me tell you what's so crazy. I'm thankful for the hard stuff, thankful for the challenges that are ahead of me that I don't know nothing about, okay, and I'm thankful that, god, that I'm prepared for, I'm thankful that I'm ready. Okay, and it's going to be hard and it's going to be tough. You know, I'm thankful that I've learned to practice self-discipline and understand what I just said there. Okay, because self-discipline is not normal. Okay, as humans, our brain's natural desire is to conserve energy and do things the easy, you know, most least resistant manner possible. Okay, and so you know. That's why, as a coach, as a leader, you have to reinforce certain behaviors over and over and over again. I tell these guys all the time.

Speaker 2:

John Maxwell said great leaders are not people who say one thing and be done and move on down the road. Great leaders are people who say the same things to the same people over and over and over again. Nick Saban what does he say Constantly? Okay, the same exact things. Tom Brady, you go to practice every single day. They ran the same drills. So that's you know. Thankful about self-discipline that I've learned self-discipline in that you know I'm able to practice things on a regular basis that are hard, that I don't want to do. Okay, I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to lift heavy things. I don't want to take my fat butt out there and walk 10,000 steps a day. All right, I don't want to not eat the cheese dip and the ice cream and the cake.

Speaker 1:

Now you ate the cheese dip when I was with you.

Speaker 2:

Buddy, I tore it up. That's just what you left me. You didn't leave me much it. That's just what you left me.

Speaker 1:

You didn't leave me much. I'm telling you man chips cheese and salsa and guac are my and a good margarita is my weakness Love it. How could you not oh, I know right, Tell everybody what's the best way to connect with you, Red, Best way to follow you on Instagram, your podcast, all this stuff?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thanks so much, man. So I would love it, it would mean the world to me, if you guys would tune in to the Red Hot Read on YouTube, on Apple, on Spotify, anywhere you get your podcast we're trying to get that thing out and if you would rate it and review it and share it with somebody. Man, it'd mean the world to me. You never know, it might mean the world to somebody else. And then on all the socials Instagram, tiktok, facebook, all of them at Real Red Taylor and at Red Taylor Insurance, real Red Taylor Dude, I'm excited we got connected.

Speaker 1:

man, I'm excited about what God's got coming down the pipe.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, me too, brother, I appreciate you more than you know. Coming down the pipe yeah, me too, brother, I appreciate you more than you know. Look forward to continuing this relationship a long way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's good Guys. Thank you for joining us on another episode of as the Leader Grows, my good friend Red Taylor. Go check him out RealRedTaylor on Instagram, his podcast the Real Red Read. Is that right? The Red Hot Read? The Red Hot Read baby, is that right?

Speaker 2:

The red hot read. The red hot read, baby, the red hot read. You gotta get the red hot read.

Speaker 1:

We'll put links to everything on there so you guys can catch that in the show description and, as always, listen. Thank you so much for joining us. We would love for you to connect with us at a deeper level at growstackdrivecom forward slash free. It's a free community that we put together for faith-based entrepreneurs. Our mission and goal in the next five years is to impact 1 million faith-based entrepreneurs and helping them become the best version of themselves in their faith, health, relationships, business and then their finances. And one of the ways I told our team about a month ago I want to give away as much free content as we can to help people. You can go to grossdrivecom forward slash free. It's absolutely exactly what it says. It is free. Somebody's going to ask you for a credit card number or nothing like that. It is. If you're going to binge on something, binge on something that helps you become the best version of yourself. We'll see you next week on Ask the Leader, gross Boom. Talk to me, baby you there Did I lose you Did, you hop out.

Speaker 2:

Did I lose you, bro? Where'd you go, homie?