As The Leader Grows with Ken Joslin

Coaching with Ken | Faith, Purpose, and Business: Building the GSD Purpose Engine

• Ken Joslin

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What happens when faith and entrepreneurship collide at full speed? Ken and Nate reveal the journey behind building the GSD Purpose Engine, an ecosystem designed specifically for faith-based entrepreneurs seeking alignment in their core five areas: faith, health, relationships, business, and finances.

The story begins five years ago at a coffee shop in Georgia, where two men with complementary gifts – a visionary and an architect – forged a mission to help entrepreneurs see their faith as a superpower rather than a liability in the marketplace. Fast forward to today, their CREATE Conference just welcomed over 400 faith-fueled business owners eager to connect their Sunday beliefs with their Monday actions.

At the heart of their message lies a profound shift from conventional business thinking. While most entrepreneurs chase success hoping to find significance, Ken and Nate argue for the reverse: pursue significance first, and success naturally follows. Similarly, they challenge the growth-at-all-costs mentality by introducing an expansion mindset—focusing on WHO you surround yourself with rather than WHAT systems you implement.

"We're leaving the era of growth and entering the era of expansion," Nate explains, highlighting how this approach becomes particularly vital in today's "trust economy" where authenticity stands as the ultimate differentiator. As AI increasingly blurs the lines between real and artificial, the genuine purpose driving faith-based entrepreneurs becomes their most valuable asset.

Whether you're feeling isolated in your entrepreneurial journey, struggling to connect your faith with your business practices, or simply seeking a tribe of like-minded visionaries, the GSD Purpose Engine offers a refreshingly different approach. Their Proximity Series events, held monthly in Atlanta, provide a tangible entry point for those ready to embrace the process of building a business that reflects their deepest values and highest calling. No hype, no quick fixes—just authentic connection and purposeful expansion.

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

Speaker 1:

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of as the Leader Grows podcast. I'm sitting here with my good friend and cohort in crime, nate May. Guys listen, we wanted to get together. We just finished our fifth Create Conference here in Atlanta. We had an amazing time. We had our largest crowd ever. We had well over 400 faith-based entrepreneurs coming to join us for two and a half days, really focused on what we created and what we call our core five framework, which is faith, health, relationship, business and finances. Amazing friends, amazing worship. Guys coming in to speak on faith, like John Maxwell. Health my good friend, gary Brecka. Relationships we had Dennis and Colleen Rouse pastors here in the Atlanta area, unbelievable Henry and Tara DeMar. I wrapped up that day on talking about a community circle and corner, three spheres of proximity that every one of us need. And then, dude, saturday, we rolled into business and finance. You kicked it off with a little AI talk.

Speaker 2:

That was, yeah, I mean AI is. You know, it's not who we are, but it's something that we help people with. We believe the advent of AI and what's going on with that ecosystem in the world today is like, I believe, it's a freight train that's coming directly for faith-based believers, for the world in general, but I think the faith-based entrepreneurs or individuals, we hold on to that which is sacred often and we don't literally look at the progressive nature of what we're going to be doing in the marketplace to be disruptive. I believe, and it's part of the vision that we created, or the foundation of this. You know, when we sat down at a coffee table, you know, Community Cup in Cumming, Georgia. What was it? Five years ago now?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, December of 2019.

Speaker 2:

And you laid out a vision of what you wanted to accomplish. And you know that's the unique nature of us too You're a visionary. I'm an architect, you know. I like to take someone else's vision and actually build that out and see what kind of impact we can make. And you know, you said something that day. It's like, you know, god is not done with us yet, and that led us down a unique journey into what we've landed on today, which is, you know, we built a purpose.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, let's finish, create, and then we'll jump back in there, I'll create.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, sorry, yeah, we were talking about create. Nate did an absolutely amazing job talking about AI. It was one of the most talked about Our good friend, ryan D Lee, who's a part of our GSD Corner, our mastermind of high-performing, faith-based entrepreneurs. Ryan D Lee said dude, I came in the room a little late and the table was a buzz talking about Nate's talk on AI. We finished out business and finances that day. Good friends like Brian Covey, troy Hoffman, cole Taylor, eric Weir, ryan D Lee, who I just mentioned. On finances, we did our give back component to OV Children's Hospital in Kenya. We've raised well over six figures for Dr Iza now and her nonprofit.

Speaker 1:

But everything started gosh a little bit over five years ago. Dude, I was in Miami. I got asked by Grant Cardone to come down to his office. There were 12 of us out of about 12 or 1,300 that were in that mentorship group the very first one that Grant ever did and I'm down there and I'm the one speaking to the team that morning about 180, 185 of his staff. I'm sharing my story doing some leadership stuff for them. And then we sat through that day and that's when God began to really drop this vision in my heart about GSD, about what would it look like for us to create? And now you've coined the phrase an ecosystem or a purpose engine for faith based entrepreneurs. And I text you that day and I'm like dude, I'm, I'm flying home, I need to sit down with you. I've got this unbelievable vision in my heart and then we connected. Community cup coffee place in Georgia, man.

Speaker 2:

I'll never forget that meeting Um. It was unique because it was like at a really low season of my life, man, I was going through a divorce and you know I can own a failed marriage. You know I'm many of us you that are listening to this now, like you know, you might be in the middle of that brokenness and trying to figure out how do you get out of the and how do you get. Looked across the table and you said you know, god isn't done with us yet and so I would say from there, as you kind of, you know, brought me around the table to continue to discuss what you know GSD would look like. I wouldn't even name that at the time, you know, but we ended up coming up with Growth Stack Drive and you know that became some small events. We did that became some small events. We did that became some coaching and consulting you were doing, I was helping with. That came into full guard.

Speaker 2:

Now, when you look at what's happened since then is we've just got a lot more focused and one of the things we help companies with all the time and entrepreneurs is to get to the soul of their business, and I believe every business has a soul, if you're, especially if you're a faith-based believer and you truly believe that you're on divine assignment in the marketplace, that you're connecting the dots between Sunday and Monday and you really believe as an entrepreneur, that you are on a mission in the marketplace to not just be there, not just be status quo, to be a really bright light in that place. And I'm not talking about just wearing Jesus t-shirts and Jesus hats and, you know, like just proclaiming the gospel at the work lunch. That's not my point. My point is that our actions are done in such a way that nobody else has a choice. But there's something different about those people.

Speaker 1:

You know we talk about this a lot. You know I always say, dude, you're the greatest ideator I've ever been around. I've never been around anybody who has the ability to. And you said it just a minute ago and I had an aha moment just a second ago because I'm like holy cow. What you just said, in being able to pull purpose out of people, is exactly what you, and it's why we sat down and what you did was, dude, you just pulled out of me every bit of the purpose that God had put in me, and we sat for five hours and you just wrote and wrote and wrote in that little one-line journal the vision and dream that God had put in my heart.

Speaker 2:

Well, I think, based on my career right, actually, more than my career, I think it's a calling. I've always seen it as a career, but I see it very clearly now as a calling.

Speaker 2:

It's starting out to be a pastor, right, and you end up not being in full-time ministry part of the way where I grew up. I feel like I missed it a little bit, right? Hey, I'm not pastoring full-time and I'm not in ministry full-time, and so I saw myself in a career. But the reality is is, uh, what, what I was able to do with you is what I've always been trying to do with myself is like to get to the core and the heart of what I'm trying to accomplish with what I'm doing, with my work in my home and all the core five you know, in my faith, in my health, in my relationships, in my business, in my finance. And what I really loved about you is like you had a moment with god when you were in miami and you have moments leading up to that. It's like I always parlay that into the fact of like you were Moses on the backside of the desert and man God that's a great analogy, bro.

Speaker 2:

And you were on. You, you know you had built some businesses, you were doing some things, but you always knew deep down in your heart you were called to do something greater, bigger than yourself. And you know you as a Moses, seeing that burning bush in the side of the desert. Then you left and then you, you know, you began a journey to building something really unique that only God could help you build.

Speaker 2:

And I'm not a Moses, I'm an Aaron. You know, I'm always see somebody's vision and I even sometimes see it better than you see it, because I really know your heart and I know what you're all about. And that's when you get to the purpose, and I call it the soul of the business. You know. Get to the purpose, um, and I call it the soul of the business, you know, and that's. We always have companies with that right like get them to the soul of their business, which is their mantra, their mission and their manifesto. And they're like is that outdated? No, it's actually when you get to the soul of a business and you write foundational principles like that. What I've always loved and what we see with the companies with the purpose engine is, you know, we create an ecosystem where we get proximity to people, um, proximity to people that they might not be able to rub shoulders with all the time, but you get people around, other people that are like minded, have the same value sets, the same mindsets, and I wish I say this was unique to us.

Speaker 2:

It's a story as old as time. If you read the scriptures, you read about any other business. It was because a small group of people got together and said we are on this mission, we want to actually accomplish this, we believe God is great within us and we want to go somewhere and do something on his behalf and with him. And when you see that deeply and clearly and then you're able to express that by actually saying hey, my business is more than just a products or services company, but this is the heart and soul of what we do and why we do it and who I am. And when you get to that, the foundational piece you set for your business will then spearhead everything else. It'll be the foundation of how you write content. It'll be the foundation of how you interact with your clients, how you interact with your team. And the reality is we've moved away from that because nobody right now looks internal for their inspiration. We look externally all the time.

Speaker 1:

Because there's so many things out there to be able to look and there's nothing wrong with looking and modeling after what somebody does. But, dude, I think the one thing that we do and this is you, this is your gift is I curate amazing rooms and I know how to navigate what Jesus is wanting to do in a room of you know, four or five hundred faith-based entrepreneurs. I have that gift and I'm a connector. Your gift, dude, is drawing that Every time I watch you do this and you did it with me. I just realized exactly what you did with me December the 10th of 2019. Realize exactly what you did with me.

Speaker 1:

December the 10th of 2019 is, dude, your gift to be able to hear people how they articulate what their business is or really it goes back into their purpose and to watch you take that and turn that into this beautiful picture of this is why you're a plumber, john, and Brendan Neiman, like Josh Porter. This is why you're doing Optimize. You. You know when you think about all the people that are in our ecosystem, like dude, that's what you. Where did that come from?

Speaker 2:

Well, I would just say pain. You know, based on my upbringing and you know I would never dishonor my upbringing my dad was a wonderful man. My mom passed when I was young. I grew up with a brother. They're good people, man. Just broken people do broken things. Some people say it hurt people hurt people, but I like to say it more Broken people do broken things. It's the reality of this side of eternity.

Speaker 2:

I'm grateful that Jesus came and offered this amazing free gift called redemption. I always say this, and I lend to. This is like redemption to me is I didn't find God. He found me, and he stands at the door and he knocks. I was able to answer that door. There's no door handle on that side of it. Where Jesus is knocking, he's waiting for you to open the other side and for you to invite him in, and when that happens, you know you have this wonderful experience, and I've had that redemptive experience. Now I'll parlay this to the point. You're asking Is what I realized, though, is that, even though I had a redeemed soul, I had a shattered heart, and I had to go about the only work Restoration.

Speaker 2:

Redemption is a free gift. Restoration is a work you do with God, and when I started doing that, what ended up happening is I started to uncover things inside of me that really I saw to be divine gifts, divine insights, those types of things, and so, when I did that for myself and was able to pull out the best of myself and be able to begin my healing journey, which has been going on my entire life since my redemption moment in July 10th 1995. But I see a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of faith-based believers, specifically faith-based believers that are in the marketplace. They know that God has a plan for them. They know that their business is part of that. What they don't really realize is that God has them on divine assignment in the marketplace, and what they tend to do is, instead of literally lean into the uniqueness God created them to be and flex their creative muscle, which is, you know, we are created by a creator and so, inherently within us is we are creative.

Speaker 2:

And so what happens, though, is people begin to replicate and not create, and when you get into the mindset of replication, which is, hey, they're doing it this way, I just to do my unique spin on it and do it a different way, or the same way I got to take their frameworks, make them. I believe in all that. I mean. I'm all about learning from others and actually garnishing wisdom and ideas as part of ideation, but I think what we tend to not do is look deeper within, and that's what I do with entrepreneurs and business leaders, and when I sit down with you or anybody that we get a chance to work with I, I get to the soul of why they started their business.

Speaker 2:

I get to the soul of why they created those products and services, and when you get to the heart of that, what you create and this is a marketing um mentality is like we're moving now, with the advent of ai, we are moving into a I call it a trust economy. And if you want to live in a trust economy in business because we literally in due time, we already have it now that when we were talking with somebody or seeing something online, we no longer have to ask the question is oh man, is that really them? Or they brand themselves that way. Is that really what their life looks like or is that? No? You literally got asked the question is that really them?

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Is that really their words? Is that really their face? I heard gary v last year when I was with randy at the at the um silicon slopes in salt lake city. Gary v said he goes in the next year for the first time since video was created, television was created. You're gonna have to ask yourself if is what you're seeing on video actually real or is it AI? So how do?

Speaker 2:

you know that which is real of a person and what they're doing with their business, and I believe you know Gary Brekka talks about this you know the greatest frequency, we admit, and as a Christ follower and someone that understands the spiritual nature of things, but also I'm a student of the brain too. I understand neurology pretty well. I'm not a doctor, but to really not only renew my mind but to rewire my thinking, I had to have an understanding of neuroplasticity and how the brain works and the reality in a trust economy. What is going to shine through is the frequency of authenticity. You can't fake authenticity. You can't generate authenticity with AI.

Speaker 2:

I don't care how sentient it might become, it's not sentient yet. Care how sentient it might become, it's not sentient yet. It's not even intelligent yet. It's a great autofill. It's the greatest chef that human history has ever created. It's a great predictor when you understand how large language models work.

Speaker 2:

But on the other side of that, if you can infuse your humanity into it, if you can pull out the real nature of who you are and you can unfold that into your business modeling and how you do things, it will not only shape the culture of your current business but it will shape how people engage you and you will no longer walk into generating leads. You have messaging that attracts the people, that which you're trying to find, so what? And that's really get into. Like you know, I would find the soul of the business when you get into marketing. That moves the soul. Yeah, so it's, and that's what the purpose engine is. I mean, it's ultimately a great place where you can grow literally in your capacity of knowledge and then you can literally stack the wins in your favor, your days in your favor, and then from there, what you can actually do with the drive is like you can drive influence into the marketplace and you can actually become a disruptor in your industry.

Speaker 2:

So I just think we're beyond the days where believers need to play small, and they got to. You know, of course, humility and vulnerability is a strength, but at the end of the day, our boldness and the abilities and the gifts God has given us is not only awesome, but it's our faith, is a superpower in the marketplace. It is not a liability, it's our greatest asset. And so, with the GSD Purpose Engine, we bring people together through, create our events through our community gatherings, through our our events through our community gatherings, through our circle gatherings, through our mastermind experiences, the proximity series, we are always bringing people into center of this Purpose Engine to help them get aligned in their core five areas. And then our prayer and our dream is that then they scatter out and they go into the marketplace and create really unique impact.

Speaker 1:

You said something just a minute ago. You said you were talking about disruptors. I picked up my phone. I literally this is a text we got from john and brenda. John got the best of the best 2024 in griffin daily news and he texts back it has the and it had the finalist. And then they're a christian plumbing, a christian plumber that's the name of their company. They're a part of our, our corner, our mastermind, and he said just found this out. And he said the second place person had 46 trucks where I think they have four or five. And he goes dude for him to be able to win. He's a disruptor.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and he's a disruptor of impact, not income.

Speaker 1:

I mean he's doing really well. It's a seven-figure business.

Speaker 2:

So you know, john and Brennan, if you watch this, you guys are doing a great job, but the reality is this is like and part of what we teach believers we have to live in an upside-down kingdom as faith-based individuals. In the marketplace, we cannot see the average deal, we cannot see our customers, we can't see our potential clients, we can't see our coworkers, the teams we lead. We have to make a conscious choice not to view that as the world does and this is not being overly spiritual, this is just being very cognitive and understand that, based on what God has put inside of you, the same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells within you, and to enact that in the marketplace. What that ultimately will create is impact. And if you will chase the impact, what you'll find is the income will follow. And a lot of people get this mixed up. They chase success and they hope they'll find significance, which you talk about this all the time. If you chase significance, which is impact, you will always stumble into success.

Speaker 1:

You know and that and that comes off of you know this mantra I created a few years ago in my life that great leaders want something for people, not from people, and really that I think that's, even though I didn't use that vernacular five years ago. When we created GSD, we literally were in the process of doing our first conference in May of 2020. John Maxwell, me, you, our good friend David Pollack from College Game Day, we're going to do this conference in COVID hit. We kind of had to. Okay, now what do we do? Because everything shut down and we went online, and let me encourage you guys with this, those of you guys that are checking this podcast out maybe the first time you've ever even listened to us or you're watching some of these clips online. What you see today, even our studio, this is our first recording in the studio.

Speaker 1:

Let's go, even in our studio, it didn't look like this five years ago, guys. Like, even in our studio, like it didn't look like this five years ago, guys. My favorite Jim Rohn quote that I quote all the time is speed increases focus. That the more you move in the direction that God has for you, the more things become clear. We didn't have community circle corner like we have now. We had a online group and didn't even have a mastermind at the very beginning. It wasn't until June of 2021 that I went to speak at a mastermind where I met Randy Garn, where I met Troy Hoffman, where I met Kedma. All those guys are huge in our life. I walk into this mastermind for my friend that I'm speaking at and I'm like holy cow, I didn't even know what a mastermind was, never even heard of it before. But here we are. God gives me that, and so we just start putting the puzzle pieces together as we went, and I think this goes into what we talk about a lot in embracing the process. It's about the journey.

Speaker 2:

And when you talk about redemption and our journey for five years five years, dude, like I don't want to do that again. No, but. But I mean the lessons learned, but isn't?

Speaker 1:

it like. Isn't what you and I have walked through for five years. Isn't that really what we hope for? And we really have a desire for these faith-based entrepreneurs that we get to work with yeah, I've.

Speaker 2:

I've become a student of just not only history but scriptures and the fact of, like one of the darkest parts of my season. If you're an entrepreneur, watching this, or a faith field you're going to have seasons, man. You're going to have seasons and chapters in life that some that are from your own demise, your own choices, from other things that have happened to you, other people that have created harm. We all have a story, but what really settled me into this for Faith-Based Entrepreneurs is like it's not a you. Our story is unique to us, but it's not unique to time, and so when you become a student, hang on just a minute Time out.

Speaker 1:

Our story is not unique to us.

Speaker 2:

No, our story is unique to us, but it's not unique to time, and I became a student of David of the Old Testament, a student of Joseph, a student of Samuel. When you start seeing these lives, these were not perfect men, but they were relentless. Ruth, just go down the road. What it gave me is great peace to realize that for those of you that are watching down the road, and what it gave me is great peace to realize that for those of you that are watching, is like well, the pit. The pivot for me was literally when I finally saw that my mission on this side of eternity is not to accomplish something that which I think is great. My purpose on this side of eternity is to find the purpose God put within me and to live that out fully unleashed. And and part of what we do with theury is to help people find that in their core. Five, because we all know this.

Speaker 2:

And listen, we're not health gurus. You've had a health journey. I've had a health journey. We've been incremental in it. Man, you've lost over 100 pounds over the last five years Since my divorce. I've gotten healthier. I've lost lots of pounds. It's not part of a story I share much, but you've watched that, but over time I've done with our relationships and understanding not only how to own our own past mistakes but how to make the relationships right, that which give us an opportunity to do so.

Speaker 1:

And how to work on ourselves. Yeah, man, literally like we. We talk about Proverbs 27, 17, iron, sharpening iron. I always think about the old Marine commercial where you had this piece of steel and the blacksmith's beating on it and there's fire and heat and hammer and all this stuff. And then all of a sudden you hear the guy's voice may even be James Earl Jones, I don't know but he goes, the few, the proud, the Marines, and he flips that sword up and you're like holy cow, I want to join the Marines, but the process we just talked about it, the process can be difficult.

Speaker 2:

It is, but when you get aligned with others that are on the same mission, it's like you know one of our we don't share this a lot. Maybe we can we'll cut this out if I have to, but you know, one of the things that we set out to do, too, is like we've been a part of the self-help industry for a long time. You know, I've had a chance to work on some of with really good teams, but I also was a part of a lot of projects that were man, um, we created things that would not last because they're founded on the premise of just creating something that somebody would buy, you know, and uh, and that what that turned into is like a self-help industry. It's like it's hype and hope, a lot of bait and switch, but you know, foundationally for you and I's like we want to flip that upside down and we want to take the opportunity to find a way to do it differently.

Speaker 2:

We're not saying it's perfect, but one of our core values in our organization is there's always a better way, and there's a better way to serve and help people. There's a better way to serve entrepreneurs, and we've isolated that down to faith-fueled, and we use the word divine a lot, because if somebody's listening to this and you're not a Christ follower like us, that's okay. If you're pursuing that which is divine within you and you want to live that out, then guess what you're going to stumble into when you get around other people that alignment with others. And that's why I love how simple what we've done is. We don't have 75 courses, we don't have all these things. We made it real simple. Man, by the way, based on where you're at in life, you can be a part of a community, you can be a part of a circle, you can be a part of a corner.

Speaker 1:

And these give you access to different things at different times At different levels in your personal life, in your health journey, in your business journey. All of those things. It just gives you a different. One of the things I shared with Nate, cause we just we literally just reformatted. We're five years old right before create, nate came on staff full time and I'm like Nate's, like hey, let's.

Speaker 1:

I think the question you asked me was hey, would you be okay if we did away with the language that we do now? Because I've been doing a talk on community circle corner for three or four years and you said, dude, that's who we are. You said we're a community which is like entry-level entrepreneurs Circle, which is entrepreneurs that are making 150 to 200 K, and then our corner, which is our mastermind guys that are making half a million up to, I would say, revenue-wise in your business, a million bucks. Is where you is, where you need to be at before you consider that, but it's, it's a room where, if you just need one idea or one relationship, your business is one of those, away from the next level. It's a great room for you to be in.

Speaker 1:

And I remember I told you, I said, nate, I want a. I want to cause I'm a pastor, yeah, like I want a spot for everybody. I don't want any entrepreneur to feel like, oh, I can't afford to be a part of that. Or, like you said just a minute ago, I don't want somebody leveraging their last credit card and maxing it out to do something that we're doing, hoping that it's going, because the reality of it is is it's not going to change immediately. Again, embrace the process and don't just look at the destination or the big vision or the big picture that God's put in your heart.

Speaker 2:

Well, I think people get stuck. I mean, when I the uniqueness I talked about like we're not unique to this, like our stories are unique as individuals, but when it comes to like, when you look at the history of this stuff, that happens. What I know is this people that are watching this, you're going to feel alone, you feel scared, you might have some depression, might have some anxiety about your business. In those core five areas you have something. You have some mindset, some old thinking that is holding you back. And the reality is people are like well, I need to go buy the next course. I need the seven step plan that will turn me around in seven days. I need the 30 day plan. We don't promise that or offer that.

Speaker 2:

So it makes our um, what we do, unique is because all we're saying is the first step. It says in scriptures that it says that the Lord is a light, um, a lamp unto your feet and light into your path. But he says lamp first. That means that's the next step. A lamp doesn't light up literally the whole path. It shows you what you have to do next.

Speaker 2:

And I encourage entrepreneur, every business leader, if you don't know where to start, get around people that'll be truly transparent about where they're at, vulnerable, authentic in their faith, authentic in their approach to real build those real businesses of value that create real impact, that create real income.

Speaker 2:

And if they can just take the next step to get around those kind of people, what you'll see happen is your thinking begins to change. Then, from from there though, our next tier, right when you get into the corner, stuff dude, that's where I love to come in and help businesses architect how they create disruption in their industry with their current businesses, and we call that the expansion engine, which is people that really want to take a next step and go like, hey, not only am I trying to get these five areas aligned, I now want to take what I know, where I've grown, my purpose, where I see God leading me, and I want to go out and be a trailblazer. I want to be a pioneer, I want to do unique things. John and Brenda are great. He's 69 years old, already runs a seven-figure plumbing company.

Speaker 2:

Now the guy's like I'm ready to level this up again. I could just go down the road of all these people that are in the corner, that are making the choice to go out and pioneer new things. And that's what a million.

Speaker 1:

I'm missing right? Yeah, you say pioneer, new things. Josh Porter is going to be sitting in that seat Monday. I'm going to record with Josh on Monday. It is pioneer.

Speaker 1:

I remember never forget last year in Puerto Rico, rico, at our mastermind, when troy hoffman asked him the question what do you want? Yeah, and I will never forget the answer. The choice stood up and he goes. Did you guys feel the energy just shift in the room? And I'm like I did like it was like because he had the courage.

Speaker 1:

When you talk about being in the room, that room, in that environment that we curated for josh, gave him the courage and strength to say what he dreamed and believed in his heart, but was either too afraid to say it or I'm not really sure I can pull this off on my own. And then here we are, almost a year later and he's went from two locations to five, 10 employees to 21,. 1.9 million in revenue to 3.7 million in revenue and we gave him our first ever GSD Assassin Award at Create Conference this year. So when we talk about disruption and we talk about literally setting trends, I think the first thing is getting around people that help unlock inside of you, like we talk about purpose engine and help unlock the belief that, hey, if you do these things and you build your life, you architect and construct your life in such a way, any dream that God puts on the inside of you you can see come to pass.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, I think too, like Josh. What I think he saw is he understood individually he could grow his business. But I share this a lot. We are leaving the era of growth, we are moving into the era of expansion. For us believers I believe, and this is inherently in us when you read the scriptures God literally is expansive in everything he does. And for us, when we move away from the mindset of growth and then we say we want to expand, that means we want to create influence beyond what we can do on our own. We need other people to do that.

Speaker 2:

And what tends to happen when people want to grow their businesses, what they look for is another business that's like theirs, that's grown before. They then go find somebody that teaches how to grow that business, and they give them the steps here's your sales process, here's your marketing funnels, here's all these things, and what here's the reality is they're going to learn a system, but if they don't have the people, guess what they have? They have systems with nobody to operate them, and then what tends to happen is they'll build systems based on somebody else's idea of what they should build and then they'll piecemeal it together off with other people that do not resonate with their purpose. So when that happens and you create conflict and tension with an organization by the fact of, hey, I got this vision and this strategy and this process from somebody else, now I'm actually literally outsourcing it to everybody else. That does not get my purpose or my vision or my mission, and what happens is they can grow that way. But I do believe if you want to expand, your number one asset is who, not what it's literally chasing after. Who are the people that I need to surround myself? Who are the people I need to come alongside me, and that's one of the things we always talk about.

Speaker 2:

If you're an individual entrepreneur watching this right now and if you are alone on an island building your business and you don't have someone ahead of you that you can draw knowledge from and wisdom from to help you avoid the pitfalls that you're missing something, and guess what that is? That's a person, not a process. That's good and based on where you're at right now. If you don't have someone running alongside you. I'm running with Ken, we are running together, so we're iron sharpens iron in this process. Of course I get wisdom from Ken, of course he gets it from me, but, more than anything, what we do is we're iron sharpens iron, so I've run alongside him and then, if I'm not looking back to find others that are on the come up, the younger generation, the next generation of those that are looking to grow and expand, if I'm not reaching back and helping them, pull them forward, guess what I'm not doing?

Speaker 2:

As a believer, I'm not paying. So that's the point is like people, initially, when they have a problem in their business or they're struggling with something, the first thing they'll lean into is process and systems. I believe that is true. You have to process and systems are important. But I can tell you this, and my simple experience of the 47 year old man that's built a few businesses is that literally, your problem is not your process. It'll be who you are and the people you surround yourself with. It's always the people.

Speaker 2:

Because they'll all in, and so to me, that's why we made what we've done here with the Purpose Initiative. It's a simple step. We've made it palatable for people, so I get excited about that. But you know me my architect in me I love going deep with those in our corner. I love using AI to disrupt industries and that's really fun for what we do.

Speaker 1:

It's super fun. I know we mentioned John and Brenda earlier. It's fun. I mean, john's 69 years old, that's super fun, 69. And to watch him, he's my hero, dude. To watch him. It's humbling, to be honest with you. To watch him, trust us. Yeah, it's humbling to be honest with you to watch him, trust us. Yeah, to be able to help lead him and I mean he's already successful. Yeah, to help him navigate through. Okay, I'm successful. And I remember the one thing he said to us after it, after create, was he said I want to leave a greater legacy, and he knew that where he was at would be great and he could do something with his company, whether it's his son, his son-in-law, that works for them as well. But he wanted to do something greater and bigger and something that would outlast him in the kingdom and at 69 years old, comes and goes. Okay, guys, I want you to help us.

Speaker 2:

And what I love is at that age he's doing, I think, and it's the natural state of where we're at in the world. I mean, there's nothing. If you stop right now and you're like you got a business problem, you can either run to Google, run any search engine, you could run to a large language model AI, you can type in something, you could find something, but those things don't help. You find people and really you know.

Speaker 2:

The reality is, if you want to elevate your business and I would say more as faith-filled believers, I believe this Now, listen, there are lots of things out there. So I encourage everybody to garnish and gain knowledge all the time, but knowledge is only knowledge, you know. Imparting that into action is where you see tangible results. You can talk a lot, but until you take an idea and draw it what I love too, you know this is like taking someone idea on white paper, something to your mind. I love the concept. Like dude, I'm the guy that pulls your ideas off a white paper, yeah, and I put them into a model where you can execute it. We can architect that, but I just want always for people to see that they're not very far off, that they're just a next move or a next step. And you always said we're one idea away, we're one person away.

Speaker 2:

And I think what everybody inherently wants is the immediate fix. What is the seven-step process I need to follow to change my business? What is the new this, what is the new that? And instead, what I believe. First, that's what I call external information, that gives you external inspiration. But when you actually turn the mirror on yourself and you say man, internally, god, what is my purpose for myself, what is my purpose for my business? And then from there, what you're able to do is find the right people to align.

Speaker 1:

And I think it takes you back to what we talked about earlier. You're okay embracing the process, because even with us and what we've built over the past five years, it's been a process and every time we commit to getting better in an area of our lives, it's like God just elevates us. He continues to elevate us. One of the things that we did we talked about a little bit earlier is having space for every entrepreneur. So the number one thing I hear from CEOs.

Speaker 1:

I was on a flight coming home from Houston a month and a half ago. I sit next to a guy. He's British, so we're talking about Manchester United See if he's a Manchester United fan, because I'm a big Manchester United fan and we're having a conversation and this uh company about 45 million a year, he's, they're the largest consulting company for mining companies copper, gemstones, gold, all the, all the stuff that people mine for the number one consultant 40, some a billion. And I said, and I looked at him, I said I said Neil, I said what's your, what do you struggle with the most? Like, what's your, what's your biggest roadblock right now? And he looked at me and he goes loneliness, like nobody gets where I'm at as a CEO, which is why which is why we created what we created.

Speaker 1:

Listen, as a, as a faith-based entrepreneur, you don't have to do this on your own, Like you don't have to, no matter where your business is at. Guys, we literally have created this for you. This isn't a thing for me, it's not a thing for Nate. I'll say this People ask do you miss pastoring, ken? Because I pastored for about 12 and a half 13 years. I pastor. We pastor more people. Now we have more influence, pastoring faith-based entrepreneurs. We had 400 plus people at our conference this year. I don't know how many employees. That represents Tens of thousands, like literally tens of thousands of employees. We have that influence and our heart number one is for you not to have to take this journey on your own. It's not God's desire for you to take it on your own.

Speaker 2:

It's not. It's not how we intended from the beginning. You know, like you just go back to the very beginning of scripture. It's like nobody was meant to go out alone.

Speaker 2:

Now there'll be seasons where David chained through caves and there'll be seasons where you have to do the dark work and you have to put in the work to you know, work with God, to you know heal parts of your you know your things. I get that, but I I believe in the era of expansion. What's going to happen and this is a story as old as time too is like when you look throughout history, what happened when great movements and that's why people, what are we? We're a movement that's trying to reach a million faith based entrepreneurs to help them live out the best version of themselves in their core five areas their faith, their health, relationships, business and finance. And the reality is what we help most with. We're. We're good at business and finance. We. We have other experts alongside of us, but the reality is we want people to chase after that which matters most, and if you do that, which is your faith, your relationship with God, the next thing that's deeply important to you right, is going to be your health. You cannot live out your God-given reality if you're broken and busted and you can't do the things God called you to do because you don't have the energy. And this is no shame to this, guys, if you lack energy and you're out of shape. Listen, just serve this as a starting point. Start somewhere.

Speaker 2:

But then, last but not least, when you look at your relationships, like you know, are Ken and I relationship experts. Yeah, here's why I'm a relationship expert. I can tell you how to ruin a marriage. I can tell you the mistakes I made in raising five children. I can tell you how I hurt their hearts. I can tell you now also where the intention to work I do now to redeem that, to restore that which was lost, you know, and nobody's going to see it the way you see it, and you've got to commit to it.

Speaker 2:

But if you can literally pause long enough to evaluate your life for what it is and you could say I am scared, I am alone, I don't know where to go next, I got my moxie, I know what I'm about, and then you're looking for the next move or the next level up for yourself, I would just say chase who, not what, it's not what. You got it next. It's who you got to get around next. I love it, it's who you got to become next it's, you know, that's what you got to chase and and that that is.

Speaker 2:

I think it's not unique to us.

Speaker 1:

man, there's lots of great the point is, if we're not, for you, this movement's not for you.

Speaker 2:

guess what? Find one, that's the point. Find something.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, find, find you. You said the word tribe earlier. Find your tribe. I love that book that Seth Godin did. I don't know, gosh, probably 15 years ago, 20 years ago, seth Godin did that book called the Tribe or your Tribe. It's a phenomenal thing.

Speaker 1:

Listen, guys, one of the things we're going to wrap this podcast up today, one of the things that we are doing that we committed to after Create, is this new proximity series event, and this is why I moved back to Alpharetta area, because I told Nate when I moved. I said Listen, I want us to be the go-to people for faith-based entrepreneurs when it comes to growing in their leadership, personal development. You know our core five areas. I want us to be able to do this. So at Create this year, we launched our Proximity Series event. So the third Friday of every month listen, atlanta we've made a commitment for the next year Third Friday of every month, we're going to be at Lib Church Headquarters in Brookhaven with my good friend, pastor Mayo Soel. A lot of amazing, amazing guys. 10 am to 2 pm it's four hours. And I love what you said the other day. You said listen, if you're a business owner, invest in your team one Friday a month. Sure, you can go to grow grossatdrivecom forward. Slash proximity. Why would you not? Why would you not?

Speaker 2:

get around, help them think bigger, get around bigger things.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it's so important.

Speaker 2:

And it's local. You can do it and it's not expensive. The point is, it's very easy to get.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I agree, man, and it's connections, it's relationships, it's getting in the room with people who think bigger. We always add some kind of fun component. This next one that we're doing in March March the 21st is going to be at Live Headquarters. Then we're going to Josh Porter's Optimize you franchise location and then Roswell. He's got all the stuff dude, the biohacking, the hormone replacement, all the stuff that Josh does. And there's a really cool Italian place right next door.

Speaker 1:

We're just going to hang out and have some pizza and drink a cold adult beverage and talk about life. We would love for you to journey with us in that. So the easiest way to do that is come check out one of our proximity series events. March the 21st is our next one. Friday, the third Friday of every month, 10 am to 2 pm. And guys listen, we have made a commitment not only to do these events but to also bring you some of the best content when it comes to you as a human being, as a Christ follower, growing in your faith, health, business, relationships, all of those areas. Finances to be able to grow in those core five areas at an unbelievable pace because you're around other people who are doing the same thing. And that's where Proverbs 27, 17 and iron sharpens iron date really comes together. Final words for our audience.

Speaker 2:

I would just say this you don't have to run alone. Yeah, Um, I would say whatever you're going through, it's maybe new to you, but it's not uncommon to man. I believe that if you can dig deep enough within yourself and get out of your own way, I think you'll be able to get to where you want to go and give yourself grace yeah Right.

Speaker 2:

Live in the grace for today Remember that was a term I always said as I was on my healing journey post my divorce is just live in the grace for the day and don't get too far ahead, don't look too far back. Wherever you're at, let your feet be fully present. I think if you do that and you get around other people, I cannot tell you the importance to get around other people To rewire and renew your mind is when people around you and you find that there's a palatable energy in the room of goodness, humility. You know and you find people like that and you can sense it. Do not run away from it because it might be uncomfortable for you at first, but if you run to it, what you'll find is on the other side of those kinds of relationships true relationships, not only just in life but in the marketplace what you will find is magic, and I'm not talking about Harry Potter magic, I'm talking about the magic that only God can do so and that's super important.

Speaker 1:

Guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of as the Leader Grows. Again, you go to growstiredrivecom forward slash proximity Third Friday of every month. We've made a commitment. If you're listening to this and you're in Atlanta, you have got to show up. You owe it to yourself and to your team to invest in your team one Friday a month and I promise you it will make an unbelievable impact in your life. Again, thanks for joining us. We'll see you next week. Boom impact in your life.

Speaker 2:

Again, thanks for joining us. We'll see you next week. Boom, All right, hold on, don't hit record. And yeah, okay, let's do this. Just follow my lead.

Speaker 1:

You're good, okay, good.

Speaker 2:

Hey, how you doing this is Nate May. I'm actually serve as a chief growth officer of Growth Stack Drive. If you're watching this for some reason and you and you know what you're a faith-based entrepreneur. You're a person that's literally in the marketplace and you want to live out the best that God has for you. You want to live out your gifts fully unleashed and you want to create an impact. You don't want to be hyper spiritual, you don't want to be so heavenly minded. You're no earthly good. You don't want to walk into a room and just carry your cross on your back and wear your t-shirt. I believe in all those things, but I'm saying, if you are an entrepreneur and you literally are looking to level up what you're trying to accomplish in the marketplace, and you know that your faith is a superpower, it is not a liability and you want to live that out. My good friend Ken and I man, we've created this thing called a purpose engine. He's the founder, he's a Moses, I'm an Aaron. I'm here to lift his arms up and carry this vision forward. But what I want you to know is you don't have to run alone. You don't have to figure out what's next all the time by yourself. You can get around people. So, man, we do that in numerous ways. We have an event we do every third Friday of every month in the Atlanta area. You should check that out.

Speaker 2:

But also a lot of you that are watching this are my friends and my family, and you're seeing this on social, maybe an ad somewhere. Yeah, life has changed for me, life is different. Yes, I've turned my pain into purpose and, you know, I no longer live in shame. I no longer live in the mistakes of my past. I'm deeply humbled and I'm deeply grateful for the lessons I've learned along the way. But this is a new chapter both for Ken and I, and it's a new season that we've walked into and we've dedicated the rest of our lives to create as much impact we can help as many people unlock their purpose and live it out unabashed and unleashed in the marketplace. So I just wanted to share that with you. If you're watching this man, be sure to check us out at growthstackdrivecom. And Ken.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, growthstackdrivecom forward slash proximity guys. Third Friday of every month we're going to be in Brookhaven at the live church headquarters. Um, a phenomenal group guys, I'm like a hundred 200 faith-based entrepreneurs every month are joining us live to be able to become, and on the pursuit to become, the best version of themselves, and we'd love for you to join us, chris, at drivecom forward slash proximity. Listen, you can use the if you've come before or you're.