As The Leader Grows with Ken Joslin

Coaching with Ken | Fear: The Silent Saboteur

• Ken Joslin

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Fear whispers rather than shouts—and that's precisely what makes it so dangerous for faith-based entrepreneurs. In this revealing episode launching the "From Fear to Courage" series, Ken Joslin tackles the number one struggle reported by high-performing business leaders: the paralyzing effect of fear on decision-making and vision.

Drawing from Joshua's repeated command to "be strong and courageous," Ken uncovers a profound truth: you can't experience courage without first facing fear. The silent saboteur doesn't yell "STOP!"—it subtly whispers "play it safe," "you're not ready," or "who do you think you are?" These whispers are particularly effective because they mimic the still, small voice through which God often speaks, creating a discernment challenge for purpose-driven leaders.

Through compelling stories and practical insights, Ken identifies five ways fear manifests in leadership: overthinking, perfectionism, procrastination, control, and playing small. Each manifestation comes with strategic counteractions, including the powerful reminder that "speed increases focus" and that God-ordained visions should occasionally make you question whether you have what it takes. The episode distinguishes between harmful fear that paralyzes and healthy fear—the reverence for God that positions us for purpose and breakthrough.

Ready to move from fear to courage in your business and leadership? Ken closes with three penetrating questions to help you identify where fear is costing you opportunity and influence. Join our community of faith-based entrepreneurs at growthstackdrive.com/free and experience the transformative power of purpose-driven business in a supportive environment.

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. I am your host, ken Jocelyn, super excited to be able to kick off this new series From Fear to Courage. The number one thing that I've been hearing lately that keeps coming up for people inside of our community at our Proximity event last month, the number one thing that's discussed and these are high performing, faith-based entrepreneurs is the subject of fear. It seems like it's the number one thing that we struggle with. So let me rewind just a little bit Back at Create. Back in January of this year we made a commitment to the city of Atlanta to host monthly leadership events for faith-based entrepreneurs and we call those our GSD Proximity Series. So last month I had some good friends come in to speak, like Jake Hamilton, my friend and pastor Mayo Sowell from Live Church, and at the end of each is almost TED Talk style about 20-minute talks. And then we did a little Q&A. We actually gave each of the tables we had about a little Q&A. We actually gave each of the tables. We had about 55, 60 people in attendance. We gave each of the tables two questions to talk through regarding the talk that they just heard. So what is the number one thing that's coming up for you, and then what is an action plan or what's the thing you're going to do to be able to take action on that one thing Every single speaker, every single table. We had one person from the table stand up. Hey, give us what your consensus is at your table. Six to eight entrepreneurs at each table.

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And the number one thing we kept hearing over and over the theme of the day was fear, was being afraid. Well, we walked out of that. We walked out of that proximity series. And, man, my brain is going a million miles an hour. And what kept coming to my heart and my spirit was the book of Joshua, where God said three times be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous. And what kept hitting me was this that you can't have courage without first having had fear. You can't have courage without first having to had fear. And here's the deal If you're a faith-based entrepreneur, you're trying to grow a business, you're trying to become the best version of yourself in your core five areas in your faith, health, relationship, business and finances the reality of it is, guys, is there's going to be moments that can be fearful. There's going to be moments where and here's the deal I want to talk about today.

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The title of this talk today, or this podcast, is going to be Fear the Silent Saboteur. As a matter of fact, while I was teaching these notes to our community is when this kind of revelation, if you will kind of came to me. Because fear doesn't yell that you stop. You can't do this. Fear is not loud and aggressive, fear whispers. Fear says play it safe. What are you going to do if you fail? You're not ready for this. You're not talented enough. Who do you think you are? Do you remember what environment you grew up in? Fear whispers.

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And as I'm teaching this, as I'm teaching this to our community a few weeks ago, the thing that kept hitting me was when you think about fear, you you think it's loud, but it's not loud, it's a whisper. Hey, you're not talented enough to pull this off. You're not gifted enough. Who do you think you are? What gives you the right to think this vision that you've got, this massive thing that God's called you to do in building this business? What makes you think you have what it takes to do it, this business, what makes you think you have what it takes to do it?

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I'm telling you one of the things I really felt like the Holy Spirit told me was that the reason that fear whispers is because that's the exact same way God speaks to our heart as a Christ follower, as someone who has placed their faith in Christ, and we go back. We can go back to the Old Testament, when Elijah's running from Jezebel and he's in the cave he's hiding. It says God came in the earthquake, god came in the wind. And then, finally, it says God came to Elijah in a small still voice. It was just a whisper. It was just a whisper. It's never. Fear is never loud, it's just a whisper. And fear will say play it safe. What if you fail? What if this doesn't work out? What if you lose everything? And, guys, I want to talk about some of the things and some of the ways that fear shows up in our leadership, and here's five things. If you're listening to this podcast and you're sitting down, not driving a car, I would love you to write these down.

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Number one is overthinking. Fear will cause us to overthink. Instead of making a decision, fear will cause us to overthink. Whatever the decision is that we need to make, fear will cause us to overthink. I love the word decide D-E-C-I-D-E. When you break that word up into the two roots that it comes from, d or die means to divide, which means you have two choices. The word C-I-D-E side comes from the same root that we get homicide, suicide, genocide. It means to kill off. So really, when you and I are faced with a decision, we're killing off one opportunity. I've got two opportunities in front of me, but I know I can only go one way.

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Fear shows up in our leadership as overthinking. You sure this is what you want to do. You sure you have what it takes. You're not talented and gifted enough to be able to pull this off. Who do you think you are? Second thing is perfectionism. Fear will show up in our lives as perfection. We try to do things so well, because here's what happens in most of us and I've done this in my own life and I've seen other people and this is probably something that you're going to resonate with Fear will whisper in perfectionism. We want to make it so good.

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People are like all the time people are like how'd you start a podcast? I just started it. Like you see my studio and the way things are set up now. If you went back five years ago and you looked at my camera set up and our backdrop and everything. It was terrible. Like my microphone was terrible, everything we had was terrible. But the one thing that I learned was I wasn't going to wait for it to be perfect, like it's never going to be perfect. People are like I had this in my community all the time. I've got some coaches and speakers and those kinds of people in our community. We have pretty much every vertical of faith-based entrepreneurs.

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But people will say, hey, I'm a life coach or I'm a financial coach or I'm a this and I want to go do this course. Here's what I tell them, and I learned this from Grant Cardone and I think this is brilliant. Say what you will about Grant. This is one thing that I absolutely agree on. Commit first, figure the rest out later. Go find 10 people. I don't have a course. You go find 10 people to sign up for a course on finances or whatever it is. You teach health and wellness, I don't care. You go find 10 people to say, hey, listen, I'm going to do this course for the next 90 days. This course is normally 997. I'm going to take 20 people through it. I'm going to do it for $297. I'd love for you to be a part. Here's a brief overview of what we're going to do. Are you in? And if you do that and you're going to find 20 people, but most people are afraid they're like my course isn't done yet, or I don't have this done yet, or I don't have a podcast studio, listen, just go start.

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My favorite Jim Rohn quote is speed increases focus. I love that I wear glasses. Some actually wore them at Create this year on the last day because my eyes were getting tired. But at nighttime, if I fly in late and I'm driving home, I wear my glasses because I can see really, really well. But before I put my glasses on, I just had to get closer to the sign so I could make sure what the sign says. And I remember I'm leaving Atlanta Airport one late it's like 1130. And I've been out of Atlanta Airport I don't know probably two, 300 times in the last 30 years a lot. And I'm leaving the airport and I can't read the sign because it's like I'm looking for 85 North to come back to 85 to 400 so I can get back to Alpharetta. I can't read the sign. I have to find my glasses real quick and put them on, but the closer I got to the sign, the more I could read what it says.

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The reality of it is, guys, is fear will whisper to us. You're not ready, your product's not good enough, your systems aren't good enough. Stop trying to be a perfectionist. Third thing is procrastination. We refuse to make decisions or we refuse to take the steps because we don't know what it's going to look like, because fear whispers to us. You're not ready, and so when we hear that or we don't think that we're good enough, what happens is we'll procrastinate. The fourth thing is fear will show up in your leadership, in control. You'll try to control everybody. I'll never forget I sat down with my mentor, ron Luce Wow, 1999, 1998, 1999.

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It's before I did my first national youth leadership conference. And I'm sitting there with him and my good friend, tony Elrod, who still pastors the church today, and I remember Ron took a napkin and he wrote. He literally took a napkin and he took and he did this. He wrote 80. And I'm going to show, for those of you guys watching this video, this is what he did he wrote 80 times three. Actually, he just wrote 80 and a three. And I'm looking at him and he's talking about? He's talking about delegating authority, not delegating tasks, and he's talking about being able to give up to delegate authority, to be able to give up to delegate authority, to be able to give up control, to be able to outperform just what you can do on your own. And then he wrote an equal sign like this, right here, and he said what's 80 times three? Turn the paper, never forget it, turn the paper over to slid it to me. And I wrote it down that's easy, that's 240. And this is what Ron said that changed my life. He said Ken, he said let's just say that what you do, you do at 100%. Your effort is perfect, what you do is perfect, it's done with a high level of excellence. He said let me ask you a question what if you have three people on your team that do it at 80%? Do you want 240% of results or do you want your 100%? And that's when I realized, holy cow, I have to learn to be a better leader and delegate. That's control.

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The fifth thing is fear will come in and it'll get you to play small. It will get you to play small. I said this on our call this week in our GSD community and if you're not part of a faith-based entrepreneur community, I'd love to invite you. You just go to growsthatdrivecom forward, slash ecosystem and learn about the three levels. We've got our community, our circle corner. There is a spot for every faith-based entrepreneur, I don't care where. You can have a brand new startup and we have a spot for you. You can have a business making a million to 10 million a year. We have a spot for you Playing small.

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I said this the other day on our call. I said, guys, if you don't look in the mirror about every four to six weeks and you're not like God, I'm not sure I have what it takes to be able to pull this off. I would dare say and doubt that the vision that you have in your heart came from God. I'll never forget the very first Create Conference we did in 2022. I'm standing there, john Maxwell gets off the stage. I come up behind John, and this was even before our core five.

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I come up behind John and my whole talk was. I just said, guys, the title of my talk is Behind the Curtain, a glimpse behind the curtain, I think is what it was. And I said, guys, you see the conference, you see the hundreds of people, you see the band, you see the lights, you see all the LED, you see all the stuff. But what you didn't see was, two weeks ago, me laying in the bed in the middle of night at 2 am, sweating, wondering if I had enough money in the bank to be able to pull this whole conference off. And here's what I would say to you when it comes to playing small, if your dream, if the vision that God's put in your heart doesn't cause you to stop from time to time and say do I have what it takes to pull that off? I'm not a hundred percent sure I have what it takes to be able to pull that vision off, because that vision is massive. And, guys, I promise you this If you will lean into the voice of God and not the voice that whispers and says you're not ready, you're not talented enough, play it safe. What if you fail? If you will lean into what God has and you will I love Romans 12,. One and two. Renew your mind, renew your God. What do you have for me, god, you speak. It's why, guys, every year at create conference, we do our 46, 10 moments.

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I get up at the, every year the beginning of the conference. I did it this year before John Maxwell got up and spoke. I got up and I said guys, here's what we're going to do this weekend. Thank you so much for being here. We had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of faith-based entrepreneurs there. This year, I get up on stage and this is what I said guys, listen, here's what we're going to do the next two and a half days.

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What we need more than anything in our businesses and in our lives our faith, health, relationship, business and our finances is we need a God-inspired and God-breathed vision. That is the prerequisite of being able to do something great and have impact for the kingdom of God. So here's what we're going to do At the end of each of our core five areas faith, health, relationship, business and finances the worship team is going to come up and we're going to spend seven to ten minutes in worship and I'm going to ask you to do three things. And the moment I say three things, the team on that big 60-foot LED panel wall behind me puts up in these giant block letters Psalms 4610. Be still and know that I am God, and you can see it in the crowd every year. Like I said, I'm going to ask you to do something that is counterintuitive to who you are as a faith-based entrepreneur. I'm going to ask you to be still. I'm going to ask you to listen to God. God, what are you speaking to me when it comes to my health? What are you speaking to me when it comes to my relationships? I'm going to ask you to be still. I'm going to ask you to listen to God and I'm going to ask you to write the vision down.

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I love Habakkuk 2.2. Write the vision down and make it plain, guys. It's why I write my goals down twice a day, every day, literally twice a day. Every day, I'm writing my goals down. I may not hit it 365 days a year, but guess what? I hit it 300 plus times a year, which means every year, I'm writing my goals down close to 600 plus times a year, and what that does is I am so focused on, so locked in on, what God wants me to do, that it's hard for the enemy, or that voice of fear, that whisper, to come in and go. Ken, you don't have what it takes, because I look at my goals, I'm going. Okay, god listen. Faith-based entrepreneur. If you're listening to this podcast today.

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I want to question. I just want to ask you this. I want you to question yourself. Question I just want to ask you this. I want you to question yourself Is the dream that I have big enough that it's going to take God to breathe on my life in order for it to come to pass? Or is the vision that you have and that you write down once or twice a year? Is that vision so small that you really don't need God to show up, or not? So fear shows up in leadership as overthinking perfectionism, procrastination, control and playing small. Fear doesn't stop you by force. It stalls you by distraction.

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I'll never forget I was in Miami. It was the first Cardone licensee meeting. It was the first Cardone licensee meeting. Grant had asked me to come down and speak at this Cardone licensee. I don't know, we had 20, 30. Then it was small, it was only like maybe 40 or 50 people in the program. And I remember I went down there and I remember Jared Glant I think he's president of Oversales and all this stuff. Jared goes around the room and he asked because it cost $25,000 for me to become a licensee. Then he goes around the room, he starts on the left-hand side of the room and he goes around the room.

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How long have you had your licensee? How much money have you? No, how long have you had your licensee? What do you want to make off of it? It was, you know, nobody had made any money off their licensee yet. Zero, zero, zero, zero.

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About four or five, maybe even 10 people, about the seventh, eighth guy they get to. This guy's a state farm agent. I'll never forget this and he looked at him and he was one of the. He had had his licensee for a year. I'd had mine for six weeks. I had already turned $25,000 into six, $25,000 a year paying one-on-one clients First clients I ever had, and I'll never forget.

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He's talking to this guy and he goes. You've had your licensee longer than anybody else. It was over a year. He goes. How much money have you made? He goes zero.

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And I could tell Jared was getting frustrated. He goes. Why he goes? Because I'm not finished with my courses yet and this is one of the things that I learned Fear doesn't stop you by force, guys. It stalls you by distraction. Hey, you're not ready, your product isn't good enough, you're not wise enough to build a business. It'll whisper all these things that keep you stagnant. And still, speed increases focus.

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Jared looked at me. I'm on the right-hand side of the room. I was one of the last ones to go. He looks at me because he knew I'd already was crushing it. He looked at me. He goes Ken, how much money have you made off your licensee? I said I have six one-on-one clients, 25k a piece. I've turned my 25 into 150 in less than six weeks. And I'll never forget the guy who sat there, who had he'd had his licensee longer than anybody else over a year, was the first one to get one looked at me and he said this is verbatim what he said. He said what makes you think you're worth $25,000? What makes you think you're worth charging somebody $25,000 to be a one-on-one coach? Then and I looked at him and I said and I wasn't trying to be arrogant I said oh, make no mistake, I'm worth way more than $25,000 a year. I said but I just started. So that's where my price point is going to be.

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Fear doesn't stop you by force, it stalls you by distraction. Guys, can I say this to you today your next level is just on the other side of your thought life. Your next level is just on the other side of your thought life. Your next level is just on the other side of your thought life. I love Romans 12, 1 and 2. Paul says man, I'm begging you, brethren, for the sake of God, renew your mind. Be transformed and renew your mind. What With the word of God? God, what are you calling me to do, god? What are you telling me? The giftings and callings? God, if you call me, you equip me. Guys, listen, I don't care what it is God's called you to do. I don't care if everybody around you looks at you when you share your vision. This is the one thing I love about our GSD community.

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I'll never forget last year at our Puerto Rico mastermind, when somebody asked one of our guys the question hey, what do you want? And he said I want to buy the entire company. And I was like whoa, you can feel the energy. Troy Hoffman was leading the session. Troy stood up at his desk, stood up at the chair and he went like this he goes, did anybody else? I have goosebumps right now. He goes, did anybody. So that was a year and about two months ago that person was at two locations, two franchise locations. Now he's at five. That person was at I got balloons on my Zoom Way to go balloons. He was at 10 employees. Now he's at 21. He was at 1.9 million in revenue last year. This past year he did $3.8 million in revenue last year. This past year he did $3.8 million in revenue. Why? Because he had the audacity to go with the vision that God put in his heart.

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2 Timothy 1.7. I love this. God has not given us a spirit of fear, spirit of fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power of love and of a sound mind. Fear is not a signal from God. It is a weapon used by the enemy to try to divert you from your destiny. It is something the enemy because listen, guys, if you are a purpose-driven, faith-based entrepreneur and you understand that significance is greater than success, that you understand God. You've called me to build and create an environment inside of my workplace culture and in the community, or whatever widget it is, you sell culture and in the community, or whatever widget it is, you sell God. You've called me to do this with such a level of excellence that it will make impact on the people, it will solve problems and it will make people's lives a more enjoyable experience because I'm helping them solve, solve problems. Fear is not a signal from God. It is a weapon used by the enemy to delay or divert you from your destiny. Now, I love this.

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Psalms 34.9. This is the proper fear. So not all fear, guys, is harmful. And listen, we know this. We're only born as humans. We're born with two different fears. Number one, the fear of loud noises, and the fear of falling. Which, if we're only born with two fears loud noises and falling what does that make all the other fears that we have? That makes them what Learned? And if I can learn that fear, then subconsciously I can do what I can unlearn. Those same fears, fear of loud noises, fear of falling the only two fears that we're born with as human beings.

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Psalms 34, 9,. Fear the Lord. You, holy people. For those who fear God lack nothing. And this isn't a terror fear. This isn't like oh my God, if I don't know Jesus, I'm going to die and go to hell. Or if something happens and I don't behave, god's going to strike my car with a flat tire or my washing machine's not going to work. God doesn't operate that way. I don't know why? Well, I do know why we believe God operates that way. Because a lot of religious circles will tell you, if you jump through hoop A, b, c and D, you and God are okay.

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But the gospel tells us a completely different story. The gospel says listen, it's impossible for you to be able to come to God. You can't come to God because you were born with a sin nature. Then, if you're listening to this podcast, you're like Ken. What does that mean Sin nature? Let me ask you a question If you've got children and you're listening to this podcast, you're like Ken. What does that mean Sin nature? Let me ask you a question If you've got children and you're listening to this podcast, when's the last time you had to teach a two-year-old to jerk a toy out of another two-year-old's hand and say, mine, never, you don't have to do that. Why? Because that sin nature is born in us and so, as Christ followers, as people who have placed our faith in Christ, there is a reverence to God, a reverence Like I would describe it as this because we're at a place right now, inside of Growth Stack Drive, that we've never been Our Create Conference largest attendance we've ever had.

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Our revenue numbers, the impact. I mean the stuff that we're doing, we're seeing God do, is absolutely mind-blowing. I am like every day God blows my mind. And here's the deal. When it comes to that reference, I would describe it like this there's a weightiness, or a heaviness, if you would, not in a negative way, but in the responsibility way. Like God, you've called us to create a movement of faith-based entrepreneurs, unlike this country has ever seen before God. That's the call, that's what you've. So there's a heaviness, there's a reverential fear, if you will, of oh wow, god, man, you, you put something unbelievable on my life.

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So, guys, I want to explain to you the difference between healthy fear and harmful fear. Harmful fear paralyzes your decision. You can't make a decision, you can't decide, you can't kill off one option or the other. You're paralyzed. Here's how healthy fear does. Healthy fear inspires obedience.

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You understand, we just had this on our GSD call this morning. I had 30 some entrepreneurs on our Zoom call this morning and here's what I said when we understand that the outcome and the results in our business, they're not our responsibility, that the outcome and the results in our business they're not our responsibility, that's God's responsibility. Our responsibility is to walk in obedience For God to bring the clients and bring the customers and bring the revenue. That's all on God, that's not on me. So it frees me up from having to carry a weight that God did not design you and I to carry. That's on him. Our responsibility is to walk in faith. Unhealthy fear pushes you away from God. It drives you because you're afraid, like, oh my God, I didn't do all the things, I didn't spend time with him this week or I missed three days of my quiet time.

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I've shared this in the past, but I think this word picture will kind of help you. This story will help you. Gosh, emma's 16 years old. My youngest daughter is 16. She's 5'11". She's 5'11 and a half. She's taller than I am now and I remember she was probably three, three-ish, maybe four, and I walked down the hallway one day at the house and I look over at the door and there's Sharpie marker all over her sister's door Emma, emma, kate, daddy. I said come here, baby. She comes in, she comes to me. Guess what? She's got all over her hands Sharpie marker, I said. I looked her in the eye and I said baby, did you write on your sister's door with a Sharpie marker? And then they get that fear of God look on their face. No, daddy, I didn't do it, even though she's got Sharpie marker everywhere.

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Well, we walked through that issue and then Sunday I told my team. I said listen, between our second and third song during worship, I want you to bring one of the chairs out of the foyer. I want you to put it on the stage for me. And so they did. We've got a few hundred people that worshiping with us and I'm on stage during that little welcoming time.

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And they brought Emma in from the nursery. She's probably three years old and she'd been in my auditorium a million times. She'd been on stage. She'll grab the mic and be like, look, daddy, I'm preaching. And so she came up on stage. She's looking at me like, oh my God, dad, why am I on the stage? And all these people are in the room. And so she comes on stage and I'm sitting in the chair. I said come here, baby.

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So the ushers brought her up to the top step and then she came over. She sat in my lap and I looked at her in the eye and I've got a handheld mic plus my little over the ear mic. Baby, did you draw on your sister's door with a Sharpie marker. This week Guys, I can't even begin to describe she was like I know you're not calling me out for writing on my sister's door with a Sharpie marker in front of all these people in this service during worship, and you could hear people kind of chuckle when she looked at me and I said baby, this is exactly what I told her. I said baby, daddy loves you and he forgives you and daddy wants you to know that you're always welcome in his presence.

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And I said some of you guys you're in here today to worship and you don't feel like you're eligible, if you will, to worship because you missed quiet time or you raised your voice at one of your kids or you said something harsh to your spouse Listen, that doesn't make us eligible to worship God. God's love for you isn't predicated on your performance. He loves you because he created you as a son or a daughter. That's the only prerequisite I need. I'm a son or a daughter and I can come to the Father through Christ through faith, understanding that his death burial and I can come to the father through Christ through faith, understanding that his death, burial and resurrection is payment and sacrifice for my sins.

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So healthy fear, harmful fear. Harmful fear causes insecurity. A healthy fear produces confidence. Harmful fear delays purpose. Harmful fear delays purpose. We're a healthy fear. A reverence of God aligns you with your purpose. When you understand that, god, I can't do this on my own. I have to have you. What happens is it drives you to be aligned with your purpose. So here's a key takeaway from the very beginning. We're going to run through one more thing and then I'm going to leave you guys with some notes to be able to study and some things to take away for yourself.

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The wrong fear stops your leadership. The right fear, a healthy fear of the Lord, positions it. Let me say that again. The wrong fear will stop your leadership, it will castrate your ability to be able to make decisions and be confident. But the right fear will position you not only in your business, but it will position you in front of the people you need to be in front of to take you, your business and your life to the next level. So here's where fear hides in business.

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I'm going to walk through this real quick and then I'm going to ask you some questions and I'm going to give you some time to just reflect on this. Here's where fear hides. Fear looks like procrastination, but it's really a fear of failure or judgment. I'm not going to be good enough. What if I fail? What will people say about me? What will my family say about me? What will my community say about me?

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Second thing is perfectionism. Fear of not being enough. I'm not going to be enough. It doesn't matter what I do, I'm not enough. Fear of overworking. The fear of overworking is the fear of being replaceable. I'm going to work, work, work, work, work, because they can't replace me. Listen, you know the one thing I've learned 99.9% of people on the planet we're all replaceable. It doesn't matter if you own it. It doesn't matter if you're the face of the movement. It doesn't matter. We're all replaceable. God will find someone else to come do what he's called you to do.

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Playing small is a fear of rejection or ridicule. The reason we play small is because we're afraid to be rejected. I'm going to be really honest with you. I was just having this conversation today on my call. This morning we're running our ads for proximity series. Hey, are you a faith-based entrepreneur in the Atlanta area? My name's Ken and I've created a community. Just for all the comments, I'm literally trying to figure out how we turn comments off of my ads because I get freaking, hammered, heretic. I mean it's just, it's nasty, and so I just I can't look at him anymore. But one of the things that one of the reasons we play small is because we have a fear of rejection or ridicule and it hurts Like it hurts, like I look at it and I'm like man, if these people only knew my heart. But it's not them. I mean, it's not me, it's them. They don't want to know, they're just in the enemy guys.

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He will put the people on the wall to be able to try to distract you from doing what he's called you to do Control. We control because we have a fear of being disappointed, because we grew up and we've had some trauma where people have disappointed us in the past. And so what do we try to do? We try to control things because we don't want to be let down. Fear loves to hide behind logic, planning and the magic word timing. Fear loves to hide behind logic, planning and timing.

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But anything that consistently delays you from your calling isn't strategic, it's demonic. Anything that tries to delay you from your calling tries to stop you from your calling. That's not strategic, that's demonic. Anything that tries to delay you from your calling, tries to stop you from your calling, that's not strategic, that's demonic. There is a real enemy out there who is trying to fight what you're doing in your business or in your church or in whatever it is you do. When you are a faith-fueled entrepreneur who lives for purpose and impact and influence for the purpose of the kingdom of God, the enemy is not going to stand by and just let you build what you want to build. But fear is eliminated when you walk in God's presence and purpose and not your own. Fear is eliminated when you walk in God's purpose and his presence and not your own. So here's the three questions I want to ask you. I want you to write these down. Number one what's fear costing you? What's it costing you right now? What's the decision that you know you need to make that you haven't made because you are afraid? What decision are you delaying right now? What's the biggest decision you're delaying because you don't know what to do? Where is fear influencing your strategy? Where is fear influencing your strategy? Are you dreaming? I never forget this man.

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When I was in youth ministry, we used to have this saying. I used to say to my kids hundreds, we had hundreds of kids come every Wednesday night and I would say y'all are supposed to remind me of something. I would do this, and they would go it's big, they would shout it. I had people who bought me things for my wall that said it's big why? Because the vision was so freaking enormous that it was like God, there's no way we can do this unless you show up in an unbelievable way. But I tell my teenagers and I tell my leaders I say y'all supposed to remind me of something? And they would say it's big and dude, they would shout it. Why? Because they believed in the vision. How did we grow one of the most unbelievable youth ministries in the United States of America 25 years ago? It's because the vision wasn't like well, we just want to do this. No, no, no, no, no. The vision was we want to have the most threat here. Let me tell you what the vision was. The vision was worship, change, teach the authority and truths of God's word, with a resulting vision that creates an army of young people to make a worldwide difference for the kingdom of God. God gave me that mission statement in 45 seconds at an acquire the fire event inside of the leadership session with Ron Luce, who would later become one of my closest mentors.

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What's fear costing you?

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What decisions are you delaying right now, and where is fear influencing your strategy?

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Guys, take some time. Process through those three questions. I'm super excited. I made it about halfway through this message today or through this talk I've got this entire month. We're talking about moving from courage, or from fear, to courage in everything that we do.

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Listen, go to GruffStattdrivecom forward slash free. I'd love for you. If you need a community, it's absolutely free. Guys, all of our digital products we give those away for free. We'd love to connect with you. You can go to growthstattdrivecom forward slash ecosystem. Find out a little bit about who we are, what we have to offer for faith-based entrepreneurs and guys. Come join the movement.

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We are having a freaking blast and if you're in Atlanta and you the third Friday of every month, I'd love for you to come be our guest at the Proximity Series. You can go to growstackdrivecom forward slash proximity. If you use the code guest, you can get in as my guest. I think the seats are 47 bucks. They're not much, but guys, there's close to 60 to now we're growing. Every month we get more and more and more 60 to 80. I mean unbelievable faith-based entrepreneurs in attendance. We'd love for you to join us.

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Third Friday of every month growstackdrivecom forward slash proximity Actually be Good Friday. This is actually dropping this week, so Good Friday will be the next one that we're doing April the 18th, the Live Church Headquarters in Brookhaven. I'd love it. It'd be me, my good friend Pastor Mayo Sowell, brindley Tucker, and then my dear friends Pastors Dennis and Colleen Rouse from Victory Church in Atlanta. It's going to be an amazing time. Love you guys. I appreciate you guys. A ton Growstackdrivecom forward slash free. Come join our free community, check it out. Let us just add value and breathe life into you. Guys, thanks again for joining us on another episode of as the Leader Grows. Again, I am your host, ken Johnson, super, super excited that you joined us this week and I'll see you next week.