Motivational Journey of Faith, Service, and Purpose: Living by God's Design with Ahmard Vital

And she needed a poster board to buy for her daughter, who was doing a project for third graders, teaching them about giving.

Like, tell me how you can make that story up.

SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Grit Grace and Inspiration.

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and I'm excited to welcome you inside.

What's going on?

And welcome to Grit Grace and Inspiration, your home for the inspiration, motivation, and encouragement you need to get through this crazy, messed up, yet ironically beautiful thing we call life.

What's up?

My name is Kevin Lowe, your host as well as transformation coach.

Question for you.

What are you in the mood for today?

Sport?

Faith?

Overcoming challenges?

A little bit of all of it?

Well, hopefully you said a little bit of all of it because I've got that for you today.

We're combining talk about sports with talk about faith with talk about life with today's guest.

His name is Ahmad Vital.

And Ahmad is a truly awesome guy who just totally kind of blew me away when we sat down to do today's interview.

The reason he blew me away is because, you know, as much as we say don't judge a book by its cover, we all do.

We can't help it.

We just do it.

And I've learned the same thing is true when we read about somebody.

We read somebody's bio.

And I've learned to never judge a person based on their bio.

Because when I read Ahmad's uh bio, the guy is incredible.

He has had some massive success in his life.

He's an author, three different books.

He's a public speaker, motivational speaker that has traveled all over the world, all over the country speaking to companies at big events.

The guy has done it all.

And to be honest, you could look at him and think to yourself, wow, this dude is on top of the world.

And maybe you form an opinion about that type of person.

And you think to yourself, Wow, I don't know if we're gonna get along all that well.

But then you meet the person, then you go beyond the bio, you'd actually open the book and you find out that well, he's actually just a person like me and you, just a normal person trying to make it in this life, trying to do what he thinks he should do, what he wants to do, what makes his creator proud.

Because what's amazing about Ahmad's story is listening to God.

It doesn't matter how far along we are on our journey, it doesn't matter how old we are, it doesn't matter what we've gone through, what we've done, we should never stop listening for God's voice.

Because, well, God's voice is direction.

It's leading us places that we don't even have a clue we should be headed in.

But Ahmad listened and well, Ahmad has found himself where he is today.

So that's when we enter into the talk about faith.

Because Ahmad, in amongst with working with athletes and writing books and giving motivational speeches, he's also an amazing teen minister at his church doing amazing things with the youth.

And well, that's probably one of my most favorite parts about my conversation with Ahmad is learning more about that.

And oh my goodness, the guy is truly amazing.

When I say it's a heartfelt conversation, I mean that with the utmost sincerity.

So if you're ready for just an awesome conversation with a really cool guy, then this is the episode for you.

Now, before you dive into the conversation with Ahmad, I do want to remind you, if you are ready to step into your next best chapter of life, well, my challenge is opened up for you to sign up.

It's called Blossom and Arise, happening on July 17th.

So do not delay in signing up today.

Head on over to gritgraceinspiration.com slash challenge.

That is gritgraceinspiration.com slash challenge to sign up today.

It's free.

And baby, I've designed this thing to give you a transformation inside of only five days.

So if that sounds like you and you want to take part in it, well, head on over to that web address and get signed up today.

For reference, that web address will also be provided inside of today's show notes, but that will make life any easier for you.

With all of that said, and my excitement out of the way, I introduce you to today's guest.

Here is my interview with Ahmad Baital.

SPEAKER_02: The helping part probably happened more probably in my late 20s, early 30s.

The foundation of writing started from the time I was basically born up to the time I could walk.

But the want to serve did come much later.

It came after many tragedies, as as many in your audience, and you would definitely know when adversities come and you try to do things your way.

Uh, it doesn't typically work out well.

You know, you try to do what you think is best and what you want to do, which is very self-serving.

And after a couple of tragedies, a couple of losses, a couple of, you know, some major adversities happen in my life, God called on me to do something greater.

And at that time, I pushed back a lot.

And of course, now we've come full circle and really leaning in to hear God's voice and sharing with me where he's calling me to be and where I currently am, working with youth, working with you know small businesses, working with different people all across the world through mental performance coaching and different things of that nature.

This is where I'm supposed to be.

But I do know that that that calling has been has been answered, and every day now I'm looking to see where he wants me to double down even more.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that so much.

So now when we look back on that that time period in your 20s, is there any specific event or maybe even a series of events that you could kind of unpack that you would say was that true pivot point?

SPEAKER_02: I think the breaking point happened somewhere between probably somewhere between 29 and mid and early 30s.

I was in a pretty nice relationship around that time.

Actually, the first one I took like completely serious.

And I had just come off buying a home, had a very nice near new car, living the American dream.

So I thought it by all measures, I was.

And I remember just getting a call from her that day and was like, this is over.

And I was like, Oh, you know, that's that's odd.

I had literally been in my house probably three weeks.

You know, I just bought this house.

And she was like, Yeah, this is we're no longer a thing.

And I was like, Well, can we talk about it?

And she was like, No, it's over, and basically hung up.

And I was like, Well, that's not awesome.

And I remember going into like a downward spiral from there and just really trying to figure out what had happened because again, this is the first relationship I ever had where I really leaned in and was looking for a future there.

And I remember just having a moment in my guest bedroom where I'm just just not handling life well.

I mean, I was, you know, still going to work, but I was a mess.

And I remember having a conversation with God and asking him, like, you know, how do you want me to get through this?

Because what I'm doing on my own isn't isn't working.

I tell you what, if you if you wake me up tomorrow, I'll I'll I'll I'll try a new way.

I'll try your way because your way is better.

And of course, here I am.

He decided to wake me up, and here we are.

And I leaned in on that moment, uh, went and hired, got me a mentor in my life, started reading more books, obviously, starting with the Bible and you know, books like Think and Grow Rich, Who Move My Cheese, Inspired Destiny, Richest Man in Babylon, all of those books were some of the ones that were sort of the foundation to get me started and get me moving forward.

And I'd say that that moment is what birthed in me of about a five-step process to where we are now.

That was probably ground zero, and we've just grown from there.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, when you look back on the period of life before this change and the life that kind of you've embarked on after that, how would you compare and contrast the two?

SPEAKER_02: I came out of college in 2004, extremely unhealthy.

From I was extremely overweight, a chain smoker, a drinker, just didn't really pay attention to too much of anything.

I still had my work ethic, but man, I was just kind of moving along at a very lethargic rate as much as I could from just being, you know, so unhealthy and doing so many damaging things to my body from an intake standpoint.

So before that wasn't good, but then I ended up losing the weight somewhere around the time in my early 30s.

So that transformation coming out of the other tragedy is what led me to a sort of a full new renewal of life.

And that started with, you know, a spiritual shift, a mental shift, a physical shift, and financially I was doing better as well.

So I would say right that right before time, it was it was pretty, it was pretty dark, though I didn't know it at the time.

But I mean, I was, like I said, I was really hit, I was really a heavy smoker during that time.

And it was it was not good.

And I I felt like I was just drifting along, stealing my hustle.

But from a spiritual and physical standpoint, I was pretty much a mess.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.

Now, when when you talked about that relationship that you mentioned a little bit ago, that the other partner in the relationship said, you know, she was done.

Had you been in that relationship for a long time?

SPEAKER_02: We were going on about two years up to that point.

We had knew each other in college, but never, you know, connected there.

But we ended up getting together later.

And, you know, we were both going through different challenges of life.

She was, she was a recent graduate.

I'd been out probably a year or so before, and just both trying to build our resources during that time.

And as much as I, you know, was very fond of that relationship, there were some things that had come along that didn't really sit well with me.

But at the time I was maybe a little bit too enamored with other things with her.

I mean, you know, obviously there was love there, but I don't think that if that would have continued on, which, you know, God obviously makes everything happen for the good.

But I really do think that like spiritually we didn't align really at all.

I don't even remember what religious practice she was a part of at the time.

But I just know at the time, even then, I couldn't understand it.

Obviously, it was, it was something, you know, on the, I don't want to say on the tree of Christianity, but it was, it was a Christian sect, but I just didn't understand their practices, their ideology, their way of moving.

And so, man, I mean, maybe it was a blessing in disguise, but at the same time, I just I wouldn't be able to fathom, I couldn't fathom what was really going on.

And since then, I don't even think I've even heard anyone who practices that version of religion at this time.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

So we talk about this relationship, we talk about this this change in your life that's occurring.

At what point in time do you begin this desire, I guess, to to I'm I'm assuming desire to maybe start out by bettering your own life, because I know you got into really in-depth in like the study of high-performing athletes for for basically a decade.

Talk to me about that.

Where did that come from?

What was going on?

SPEAKER_02: Well, the stuff the sports writing part, I was actually doing that through high school.

It was an editor of my newspaper in high school.

So I was writing about sports and different things around school, even during that time.

When I got to college, I leaned more in on photography, but I was still doing journalism classes, but I wasn't working for a newspaper.

I did more photography around that time.

And it was a good thing for me to lean in in that way and do that.

But I when I came out of college, I was working with a lot of athletes because I worked at a newspaper where I was covering sports for one area of town and I was covering news in another area of town.

And I've I've always just had a real close tie with athletes.

I mean, I was one.

And so, you know, the the jock mentality, the jock mindset was just something that I've always had.

And so I leaned in a lot on the athletes.

And obviously, coming out of the first job, I ended up landing a job with a startup company.

And we were helping young men and really helping athletes of all different sports help them get to college and helping them find scholarships.

And I did that with that company for right around five years before the company folded.

But during that time, I started doing work with college football recruiting and covering that.

And that's when I really started leaning in because at that time I was probably doing, you know, 40, 50 interviews a month and, you know, putting together the blogs and different things of that nature.

And it was good times.

And I just I've always had a very strong connection to athletes, being one myself.

But that would probably be the time when I first realized that working with the youth is something that not only I want to do, but I want to lean in on a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I love that so much.

Now, you're talking about athletes and stuff.

So were you big into sports growing up yourself?

SPEAKER_02: Yes, I was a three-sport athlete myself.

My father had me in track when I was probably around 10 years old.

So I was doing competitive sports very, you know, preteen age.

And I was a three-sport athlete all through my high school years as well.

So I was, you know, football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and then track in the spring.

So I did that, you know, off basically I was part of that for all my years in high school.

So sports has always been part of my life.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, very cool, very cool.

So where does it all kind of combine to set you off on this kind of thing of motivational speaker?

I mean, you you've traveled the world, you you've now written three books.

I mean, how does it all intertwine to kind of combust into this life that you've you've developed?

SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's a lot of prayer, and as you the title of your show, a lot of grace.

Yes.

Um, you know, late 20s, early 30s, was when I sort of jumped back in the spiritual side of my life and the personal development side of my life.

And that's obviously when Awaken the Baller Within was written as a means to be able to take on the newfound spiritual development and the relationship I had with God, along with the fact that I'm still a jock in and out of locker rooms.

So I'm trying to find a way to marry the two.

And so Awaken the Baller Within, you know, written in the same way Napoleon Hill's Thinking Girl Rich was was written, you know, studying high-performing athletes, guys I had a relationship with, and was able to speak with and understand what it was that made them successful mentally, not the end result of the talented side of things, but more so the mental side of things, because obviously there's a lot of people who are talented and end up, you know, failing because of their mental attitude.

And these guys had both sides of it.

And I wanted to know more about how they got to where they are.

And so that is where sort of the burn to know more.

And that obviously writing the book is one of the things that led to me getting my first speaking engagements, which uh which I believe my first one would have been at a school called Reagan Heights, now known as Heights High School.

I knew the coach that had a relationship with him, and he bought 80 copies of my book.

And so I came and spoke to his group, and that was the first time I did a chalk talk with a group of guys, and that sort of was the jump-off point to be able to do that.

Because, like I said, he bought the copies and then I came and spoke.

I always remember the first time I got paid to speak, not someone bought books, the first time somebody paid me to speak, it was at a camp in East Texas in a town called Tyler, Texas.

A guy had booked me to speak to his sports camp.

And he, you know, we worked out the deal, and man, I can't, I can't he look back at the numbers on that, and you're just like, wow, that's it's we've come a long way.

But I remember him, I remember him paying me to come out there, you know, even you know, putting the deposit down.

And I remember going all the way out there.

And I remember the night before, I think I was engaged at the time.

I was engaged, I was in a different new relationship at that time.

And I remember packing up everything, headed down to Tyler, and he called me right before, and he was just like, hey man, I don't know if you should come because I didn't get as many people signed up as I thought.

And I was like, Well, man, you you pay the deposit.

I'm already packed up, I'm already taking off work.

I'm coming to do this talk.

And he's like, he's like, I just don't want you to be disappointed because it's not, you know, many people going to be here.

And I was like, man, we're going to deliver to whomever's there.

I remember pulling up, I, you know, we stayed in the hotel next day.

We're going to this camp.

And I'm looking around.

And I remember I always look back that my first paid keynote was speaking to two middle school football players on a park bench in Tyler, Texas.

It was more coaches and family members there than student athletes.

And I just remember doing that talk, and I think I still have a recording of that thing somewhere, but it was just me and two guys.

And I remember giving everyone who was there a copy of my book.

And I just, I look back at that moment, you know, the humility and just the starting point for something bigger, you know, just looking at that time.

It's like there's two guys on a park bench.

And these guys were not even really, they're probably very introverted.

They didn't really say much.

They were kind of saying, I mean, they're middle school and they're they're at a camp by themselves.

So at the time I didn't really understand that, but you know, I'm trying to engage them or whatever.

And it's like it's going well, but at the same time, like I don't even know what we're doing right now.

Like, it just was one of those moments.

But I look at that as a key moment to show me to where all of this started.

You know, I just got through speaking to a tech company out in Austin.

You know, room is full of fill of with professionals of all different talents.

And it's like, man, this started from two middle school guys on a park bench.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: What a blessing.

SPEAKER_00: Dude, that is probably, I mean, that is literally like the most beautiful representation of just growth, of your journey, of just the impact that you can have going from two middle school kids on a park bench to where you are today.

That's just incredible.

SPEAKER_02: It is.

And man, I I I wish I could say it was me, but I know that there was something greater I was being called to do.

But there's been many times throughout my career, through my life, where there's those humbling moments where you're called to serve and you have no clue what you're doing there.

You just know that it's just the right thing to do.

You notice where you're called to be.

And luckily, it only took me three decades to figure out that you should lean in on those moments.

But, you know, you know, we have plenty of examples of gods in history who maybe didn't get it the first, second, third, fourth, or tenth time.

And so I'm grateful that God is the overwhelming presence in my life right now.

And I just can't imagine doing life without him.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the thing I can't I keep thinking of when you're talking, I'm like, it's the epitome of blind faith.

You know, that's exactly what that is is blind faith.

You might not be able to see it, but you believe it.

And you chase it and you keep going for it because you know, you know it's true.

And and that's you.

SPEAKER_02: You know, it's funny at this time that you you're saying that at this moment.

Moment in time.

And I it's funny, I think that moment of blind faith you're talking about is literally happening in real time right now.

When you're called to do something, you know, that there's there could be complacency and success, as well as, you know, everything is not all of it's about, you know, valley moments.

Sometimes you're doing pretty good and you're called to do more, and you're not quite sure what that looks like.

Probably the past year has been a real stirring uh in my soul as far as I'm doing what I'm called to do, but it's like I think God is like, yeah, that's that's nice, but I put you here at this time in human history for a reason.

And this is one of the first years, and I share this with the with the men at my church right now.

And I was like, I was like, this is a real, beautifully uncomfortable time and season for me right now, doing work in the ministry, doing work with the business, doing work with the with the job, and just managing my time as best I can.

And sometimes I feel like I am, and sometimes I feel like I'm not.

But this is one of the first years where I've I've allowed God to take not only the steering wheel, but the gas and the keys.

And I'm open to something new because I think where he's trying to take me, I don't have a clue what it looks like.

And as much as I want to write down as much on those plain tablets so that I may run, I'm more so in uh in a an expectation, you know, servant expectation right now, where I'm I'm I'm allowing him to kind of steer the way.

I mean, obviously I have I have a planner, I have, you know, daily things that need to be done, but I don't really have like a um a defined end game during this season of my life.

I'm in a lot of allowing, a lot of blind faith, a lot of Jesus show me the way moment.

And I'm test driving this right now, and and there's there's some there's some mornings where it's a little it's a little rocky in the morning because I like to have a full-fledged plan in place.

What are we doing?

And I I just think that he's calling me and showing me like things on a weekly basis, and it's beautiful and it's also a little nerve-wracking at the same time, I have to be honest.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.

And all I can sit there and think is is don't you have to think sometimes that God watches us and he says, Oh, oh, Ahmad, you and your little plans, if you only had a clue what was around the bend, and yet he's just there watching, waiting, and thinking to himself, he has no idea what's about to happen.

And and I think for myself, I actually take comfort in it.

I take comfort in the thought that there is a bigger picture at work here, there is a bigger play.

And you know what I do in my own life is when those days come when you're not sure how it all fits together, and you don't understand how it's all working out, and you don't even understand if you're headed in the right direction, is I think it's at that moment that it forces us to focus on just being present in the moment, you know, and understanding that at the end of the day, all the little pieces are gonna fit together one way or the other, and it's gonna form this beautiful

picture of life.

And I think that's why it's so important for us to literally just focus on the here and now and be sure that we're making the most of every moment because we're traveling down the path, whether we really know it or not, we're going down the path.

The path is moving, and it's the path of life.

And I have to say, with with the work that you're doing, the work that you've done, I think you're on the right path, man.

I I think I think some big things are gonna be happening for you, and and I love it so much.

SPEAKER_02: I thank you for that.

And kind of here we are, and you know, you're talking about like, you know, you God looking down and saying, like, oh, oh, Kevin, this is cute.

You know, you you you really think your your your limited self mentally is going to like even come close to what I have for you.

But it but but but I appreciate I appreciate your effort.

I just need you to be available.

And there is an excitement that comes along with it, but you know, when you come up like you know, entrepreneurs and and things of that nature, you know, you're supposed to have a business plan, you're supposed to have a marketing plan, you're supposed to have, you know, goals, you're supposed to, you know, tap into every area of your life, your physical, your spiritual, financial, business, mental, social, family.

Like, okay, what's your goals for all of those?

Like, right?

You're supposed to have those things.

I teach you're supposed to have those things.

Yet right now I'm like, you know, there's a couple of things that I'm not doing right now.

And it's like, it, and it's I told, you know, a couple of the guys at the church that's there's great men who pour into me in my church.

And I I share with them, I was like, I said, I'm I'm trying something new.

I'm trying a season of, man, I'm I'm I'm on the road and I'm like, Jesus, take the wheel.

Like all of it.

You know, I'm I'm just going to put the gas in the car.

And you do everything else.

You got the GPS, you have the steering wheel, you have the keys, you have the gas, how how fast we go, all of these things.

And I will say that right now, there are more than a few days, I'll be honest with your audience, where like I don't have a lot of hair on my head, but what little I do have, I may have pulled a couple of strands out here and there on some occasions, because I'm just like, okay, I'm following your lead.

Where are we going?

I don't recognize this scenery at all.

But when I told you I just got back from an event speaking, when I tell you I have no clue how that happened, I have no clue how it happened.

Like, not only did I had I never heard of the company I spoke to, I didn't had never heard of the company that booked me for the company I had never heard of.

So I'm like, whoa, uh, I don't know any of this exists.

Yet it all comes together.

We work out the deal.

Come to find out it was at a level and price point that I leaned in on that delivered in a way that was going to be beneficial for me and my bottom line of my business.

And yet I still sit back and say, How did we get here?

And then as soon as I get, and then as soon as I get back, I hear from them again saying, Yeah, oh, by the way, that city you were just in, you'll be back there in a couple of months.

Because they decided they wanted to go ahead and move forward with this.

We're working out the contract, we're sending the contract over to you here soon.

So just stay tuned.

It's like, okay.

Um, but at the same time, there's a lot going on in the world right now.

There's a lot of evil is on full attack right now.

Like, like heavily.

And I've noticed that as I'm completely, you know, tossing the entire vehicle over to God and God is making moves over there, I ask him every day, like, not only creating me what's needed in this hour, but you know, where do you want me to be in that regard?

And I can tell you right now that the amount of people, parents, teens, young adults who are looking for a new way and a new path is growing every day.

And for whatever reason, a large number of them are showing up in my life right now.

And I love it.

I do.

But at the same time, it's like when you when you walk into, you know, a place of business, you walk into the church, and someone's just like, hey, you know, I've been meaning to talk to you.

And I'm like, okay.

Then you come back the next day.

You know, I I meant to text you and call you the other day.

I need to share something with you.

And then most recently, I I was at one of uh one of the places I frequent, and someone was just like, I need to sit down with you.

I'm like, oh, okay.

Like, I don't have one scenario.

I have about four scenarios I need to lay out to you.

And so while God is like, I'll take care of all of this, you go take care of this work.

I'll make sure this is going to work out.

You prepare yourself in the way you need to.

But what I need you to prepare you for is this season of growth and healing, of restoration of those around you, some of which you don't even know yet.

I'm talking about people who just show up in my fitness classes and it's their first time there, and they walk out and say, you know, I'm so glad a man of God is teaching this class.

And they have a need in that moment.

And I and we were placed at that time together to be able to do something in that moment.

And it's just, it's beautiful.

It really is.

But at the same time, it's like you know that you're in a position where you're called to grow.

You must grow to be able to take on what he's asking of you.

And that's where I think it's not stressful, but I mean, you put a seed in the soil, you put a caterpillar in a in a cocoon, the old you has to die, right?

The old you has to die.

This version of you, this version of us on this call right now, we cannot remain where we are two weeks from now.

There must be growth.

And with growth comes pain.

A great pain.

It's a trade-off and a much needed one.

We are not going to be the same gentleman a week and a month from now.

And that is because God is calling us to be something more than what we are needed to be right now.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I agree a hundred percent.

I want to ask you when we were talking about your your deep study of these high-performing athletes, and you wanted to understand their habits, what they're doing.

What is the through line between the athletes that you study and let's say the people you're speaking with today, the the teenagers or the adults.

What's the through line?

What's the thing that maybe combines them all that you're able to take from that, you know, kind of chapter in your life and use it in what you're doing today?

SPEAKER_02: That's a great question.

Great question.

I would say that there's a hunger, there's a need for something more, something greater.

You know, I was dealing with athletes who were at the top of their game.

I'm talking, you know, top 10 in the country recruits.

Right.

So you're looking at 50 states, and you're one of the top 10 best in the entire country, which means that there's a lot of colleges wanting you to bring your services and talents to their school.

But the guys I interviewed who, and for the most part, most of these guys, not all of them were top 10.

There were a couple who were, you know, your Russell Shepherd, your Andrew Lux, those guys, those guys were top 10 in the country, uh, position-wise and sometimes overall.

But no matter what, when you talk to them and find out what they look to improve, they always had something that they wanted to improve.

They always wanted to be better.

And you know, you're looking at the tape and you're like, yeah, your game is pretty, pretty complete.

But these guys have have have a sense of wanting to grow all the time.

And I find that as well with people, you know, who may be plumbers, may own a landscaping company, maybe, you know, a ministry leader, an associate pastor.

There's always a next step.

There's always a growth process that they're asking for.

Because I will find it that a lot of them, and I'm seeing more of this now, is that they have uh a very servant attitude.

They want to make others better, right?

You're talking about you know, a level of altruism that is just amazing.

It's just selfless.

Like, I know, like nearly all the guys I interviewed for Awaken the Bottle within, man, these guys were, you know, they would find that teammate, the one who probably won't play one snap of college football.

But he would bring that guy and say, hey, you know, I'm going to go run some sprints.

I'm taking you with me.

Because he wanted that person to be better, right?

Even if they don't end up playing at the college level.

Or maybe they weren't slated to be playing at the college level, and now they can play at a lower college level.

But the idea that college football was even in their sights wouldn't have been there without this superstar athlete saying, Hey, I want to take you under my wing and I want you to come come with me and let's let's get some extra work in.

And these guys, when I say they were serving leaders, most of their actions, while it did benefit themselves, they looked to make sure and do what was best for the team first.

And I would say that's where the through line is: people who want to do better for their family, do better for their companies, do better for those around them.

Just like on a football team, wanted to do better for the for the least of these, for the guys who nobody knows their name.

But here's a superstar athlete who's like, let me, you know, let me, let me, let me take you over here and let me let's help level you up over here.

That's where I would say the through line is.

And it's it's refreshing to see people who operate like that because that is the sign of a true leader, one who's willing to serve first.

And I'm grateful that my mentor gave me that great piece of advice at that turning point in my life to where if he doesn't share with me where you're always looking to serve and give, I'm not on this podcast right now.

I'm not speaking in multiple venues, I'm not doing performance coaching, I'm not a team ministry leader, I'm not any of those things.

I'd just be a dude out here trying to make money and hustle, but with no true glue to bring something greater than just making a living or creating things for myself.

Like that's what brings those two together.

The people I work with now and the athletes I formerly and currently work with is that they want to see, they they're servant leaders, and and they and they always look to improve.

SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love that.

This whole idea of if you want to get ahead, if you want to better your life, you got to pour into those around you.

And I think that is just truly powerful.

And and like you said, we're not we're not talking just about athletes in terms of a team.

We're talking about your family, we're talking about your coworkers, the business, your community.

Pour into that.

And that's not only gonna build that, but it's gonna build you at the same time.

It's kind of like that that that term of you know, the a rising tide, it lifts all boats, you know, and that's that's powerful stuff.

SPEAKER_02: I have to agree with you, absolutely, did you leave so much room when people like people talk about like like like miracles?

You can't plan a miracle.

No, but you sure can put yourself in position to to make blessings happen.

I mean, you know, you and I have spoken offline before, and you're talking about a lot of the blessings you had going on, and like I was blown away.

And and there's so much that we cannot explain yet we can explain, you know, you know, with God all things are possible, right?

But you must be in line from the standpoint of knowing his word, knowing his presence, and and things will just be happening.

And they're not just happening, but I mean, on the on the surface, you're you're you're scratching your head and you're just like, I have no clue where these blessings are coming from.

But when you say that this life I have is not about me, like you said, family, coworkers, man, people you meet at a grocery store.

You know, I like to share those types of things with people.

It's just like, man, why don't you just go do something nice for somebody?

Like be in line and say, hey, what are you having?

Do you mind me taking this?

Right?

And when you get to the point where like you just want to operate at that level, man, a lot of things start to move in your life.

You you you move with a different flow because you you walk away knowing that someone is smiling, feeling better because you don't know those moments.

I remember I was at a, and I'm and I'll and I'll I'll say the store as well.

I was at a Dollar Tree.

So you know everything in there is a dollar 25.

So it's not that it's expensive, right?

But it's not about that.

Now I remember I was I was getting my things together and there was there was a woman behind me and her daughter, and they were in line, and I saw that I think it was like a poster board or something.

And I was like, ma'am, is that all you have?

And she was like, Yeah, I was like, I was like, you know, sir, you can add that with what I have.

Don't worry about it.

And the and the daughter looked at the mom and said, see, see, I told you.

And I was like, I was like, I have no clue what they're talking about.

And she said, man, my mom was just really down talking about how, you know, the world is just so dark and no one ever does anything for anybody, and no one cares to do anything for me.

And I I just I just was sitting there and the mom was just like, and she needed a poster board to buy for her daughter, who was doing uh a project for third graders, teaching them about giving.

Like, who tell me how you can make that story up, right?

Who can sketch and map out that story to happen in that moment to where not only did you show the love in giving, but the project to which you're buying is about giving.

Are we serious right now?

So that's the type of love that is needed to show and to serve, you know, the goodness of those around us.

SPEAKER_00: And that right there, that right there is exactly how we fight against the evils that are trying to destroy this world, that are trying to destroy the love in this world, is that it all starts the dollar general, one person helping one person that multiplies that's how we fight against it and change the world.

SPEAKER_02: I have to agree with you.

And and again, like you said, I'll I'll throw a question back at you.

What is expected of us?

Because I I think that the only thing that's expected of us is to is to allow, obey, and show up.

Am I missing anything there?

SPEAKER_00: Exactly.

Exactly.

You you nailed it.

That's it.

And but I think the biggest thing is to show up because it's so easy to not do the thing.

It's so easy for you to have not listened to the people behind you, to not have looked behind you, to have just paid attention to what you are doing to stay in your bubble and keep going on about your day, but instead to open your eyes and be aware of what's going on around us in the world, and that's the part of showing up.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's beautiful because we are called to do these things.

And for the most part, there's always opportunity.

Now, there have been times when you've when you'll make that type of offer and somebody will say, you know, no, thank you.

That's not what it's about.

It's about the willingness, right?

You know, there's many examples where where people try to do good unto others and they don't want good.

You know, the poor will always be amongst us, you know, evil will always, we don't know where somebody is.

But I would say at this point in time, man, about 85, 90% of the time, somebody will will lean in and be like, you know, thank you for that.

Thank you for that.

And I think the challenge is, and I've been working on myself over the past three to four years, is, you know, you enjoy doing that, but you also have to be willing to accept that.

And that that took me a while to get that concept of it, is to allow others to pour into you or bless you in that spot.

Because you're just like, you know, I'm good.

Like, I don't, I don't need this, I'm I'm I'm fine.

And it's just like I I had a gentleman share with me one time when he checked me on some good he was trying to do in my life.

And I told him, I was like, look, man, I'm gonna figure it out.

I got this.

And he was just like, he's like, why are you being so selfish?

I was like, you're not being selfish, I'm I'm helping you out.

He's like, no, you're not.

He's like, I'm trying to bless you, and you won't allow it.

So I'm trying to express the love and the gifts God has given me and extend that on to you.

But if you don't allow me to do it, then you're blocking my blessings, which is selfish.

And so now I'm I'm mindful of that.

And it's just like, don't get so wrapped up.

And you know, you're going to deliver some good, like you have to allow people to pour into you as well.

And that took me a little longer to quite understand.

And I'm glad he has shared that with me because I've never forgotten it.

Because he literally said, 'You're blocking my blessings by not allowing me to go buy you lunch, not allowing you to stay in my house, not allowing you to, you know, rebuild your life as you just went through some tragedies.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it.

I mean, think about it like the fancy champagne tower with all the fancy champagne glasses stacked up in the big pyramid.

The top one can't pour into the others without allowing the bottle to pour into it.

You know?

And all of us then can just pour into each other.

So I have to ask you talk to me about today.

Talk to me about your latest book because you didn't stop with one book.

No, that wasn't enough.

You kept going, you keep growing, you keep speaking all over the world to businesses, to colleges.

Talk to me about life today.

SPEAKER_02: Life today is uh is beautifully complicated and also beautifully blessed and favored.

Currently, I'm obviously still doing the marketing with my um with the home builder, but at the same time, uh I did come out with a with my latest book, Now What, Five Steps to Get Up and Create the Most of Life.

And that book was written pretty much in the summer of 2020.

I don't know if your audience maybe was around during that time.

Maybe a few things happened.

You know, you know, I don't, I don't know, how I don't know how how uh mindful they are, how much they were paying attention, but I think at that time there was no way you could get around not paying attention.

But there was a lot of things going on, and you gotta remember there was um a lot of um adversity, a lot of push-pull going on, you know, spiritually, politically, culturally, socially, sexually.

Like, I mean, I could just go on about how much division there was.

And I just remember kept hearing the a lot of terms of like, you owe me, you know, it's the reckoning, you know, this is, you know, you need to pay up, and I'm owed something.

And I was just like, I just had enough.

I was like, man, first of all, no one owes you anything, right?

You earn, not owed.

And so I remember hearing all of these conversations, and I was like, what is the profile of somebody who feels that way, who wakes up looking to say, who's going to give me something?

And who's put themselves in a position of where that's the dominant mindset?

And so I've built now what on the strength of you're in that valley, you're in a very dark place.

What do I share with someone who is looking to level up, looking to make a transition, looking to do something new?

And maybe where they are is pretty dark and grim.

And so we went through, so I broke down and I did a lot of studying on this and came up with five steps that no matter where you are on the pendulum of life, you can find a way to level up and get out of that.

And so our first step is to reflect.

You know, for all of us good, uh for the good Christian folks out there, this be the time when you spend a lot of time in prayer and sit in stillness, you know.

The main thing when you come to reflection is it's like you look around and see the mess you have and you say, okay, how did we get here?

How did all of this occur?

Because it didn't just show up.

You know, everyone has that closet, right?

The closet they keep shoving stuff into, the one that has been untouched for years, you don't even know what's in there, but you know it's not clean, right?

So think about that from a mindset standpoint and from your outer surroundings.

You know, there's just there's dirt, there's mess, there's piles of clothes.

You know, you look around and there's a fire going on in your kitchen.

There's a pile of dirty clothes in the living room, there's a kid screaming in the other room, and there's just, and then there's a there's a pink slip because you haven't paid something off.

You're about to get disconnected.

So you need to reflect on how you got there.

You know, I like to use the what's good here exercise and definitely can work for your for your audience and where you write down all the things in your life of where it's just terrible.

And when you talk to certain people who are faced with a lot of adversity, they have no problem sharing how many things are going wrong in their life.

That's just human nature.

You know, it's interesting.

You ask someone, how you doing, it's like they'll listen, oh, you know, this, this, this, this, and this.

And it's like, if it's a good day, it's like, oh, I'm okay.

They don't, they never go into detail how good life is, but they'll tell you all the bad.

So I like to work on an exercise that that does that and and really try to understand that like all the stuff that you see that is bad in your life may not be so bad.

A, it probably created in something in you to where you had to grow and become something because of that, even if it's self-inflicted.

And also, you may look on there and be like, why am I still worried about that?

You know, that, that person, that event, that moment in time.

It's like, why does that still have real estate in my mind?

That was 10, 12 years ago.

You know, somebody's still holding on the baggage from when something happened when they were in their adolescent years, their childhood years, something that scarred them.

It's like we have to look at those moments and see how they were a great moment in our life.

And after you come out of reflection, you need to decide.

That's step two.

You need to decide, okay, we see where the mess is.

What do you want to do?

What do you want out of life?

Right?

I know when you and I spoke before, you had some goals, some business goals and some family goals or whatever.

And so you decided that, like, okay, I want to do this.

And so you start laying out, you know, on plain tablets, you know, what do you want?

And you write it down in as much detail as you can.

Then when you come out of that, you go into step three, which is the planning phase.

Now you got your mind maps out, you got your business plan, your marketing plan, your strategies.

You start looking at different ways to be like, okay, I want to go into heating and AC repair.

What do I need for that?

Do I need some training?

Do I need a certification?

Do I need finances to go get the degree in the certification?

Who where do I go to be able to take care of that?

And so that's where you go into your planning phase.

And step four, obviously, is action.

You get into action, it's time to move, right?

Your plan that you laid out is probably going to change.

You know, we spoke about that earlier, how you know you have your plan laid out and God's looking at you like, haha, that's cute.

But I have something else for you, but but but you you'll soon know that.

But let me just go ahead and let you just play through the process as it's going.

And so you you act, and that's where you go into things, um, get into that kind of burn the ship moment where it's like, look, I need to make sure and achieve this goal and get to this place and make something happen, and it's going to be awesome.

And the last one, and I think is one of the most important of the things.

So we reflect, we decide, we plan, we act.

And the last one is to seek.

And seek is seeking counsel.

Build your tribe, get you some community, right?

It's not meant to be lived alone.

Life is not meant for anyone to be lived alone.

And this is when you go find the mentor, the AA member, right?

You get the expert in the field you're trying to go into.

You get with a pastor, a minister, a deacon, someone in an elder in the church who can help you from a moral standpoint.

So, right, you have your mentor who takes care of all things, kind of like a catch-all kind of guy, a guy who holds you accountable, has your goals, and knows what you want.

You know, you have an expert in your field, someone who's done the work you're doing and is doing that at a high level, right?

Whether you're going to teach in professional law, real estate, it doesn't matter, landscaping and all those different things.

There's a there's someone who's very good at that.

You want to connect with them and be an apprentice for them.

Then you need that ministerial person, that person who's gonna have what I like to call the moral barometer for you.

The person who looks at you and says, you know, this is not illegal, but it's not a great thing to do.

This is not something you really want to be doing.

And then, of course, the other person you want is just that that patriarch, you know, old school.

Somebody call some people call him papa, grandpa, uh, you know, the guy who's just seen a lot of life and just has timeless wisdom.

You want a collaboration of those types of people in your life to be able to help you bring you out of that place, which is why, you know, I speak big on community, on how we we need people.

We need people in our lives to pour into us, to pray for us, to stand with us, to guide us, to mentor us.

And so that is the five-step process that goes with now what, and hopefully uh your audience can find some value in that and knowing that those are going to be five steps that can get them from point A to point B and live a more powerful and fulfilling life.

SPEAKER_00: That is amazing.

Now, I think though we skipped one step in that process.

What's the process step to get the book?

Where do we go to get the book?

SPEAKER_02: Well, right now it is available on 33 different platforms.

So, whatever your favorite bookstore is, you know, everyone has their favorite.

Definitely can go do that.

To preview it, my publisher has made the link available to get a digital to preview a digital copy.

They can go to booknowhat.com.

That's booknowhat.com and get a preview copy and look it over.

Obviously, we'd love for you to be able to uh purchase your own paperback copy.

But for now, booknow what you can go go go check it out and then you know hopefully you get get your own copy and be able to make some notes and and level up and do some things.

But that's where you can uh make sure and pick up the book.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I love that so much, and I will be positive that that link is left inside of today's show notes uh for easy access.

Man, dude, I just want to to thank you in the most sincere way possible for for sharing your story, for sharing just your absolutely kind of eye-opening insights on life.

You're a truly awesome guy.

I love what you're doing.

And uh I truly thank you for sharing it with me and and my audience.

SPEAKER_02: I thank you for having me on.

I thank you for the platform you you have here.

I thank you for what you're doing and a contribution you're making to society.

I don't think it's any accident that men of faith connect and end up in the same room with one another to be able to do the the work we're we're called to do.

Because there's work going on all over the place.

And not all of it is to the to the benefit of future generations.

And I'm grateful to have ran into someone like you who's who's willing to lean in and be a light uh within the darkness.

And so I'm thankfully partnering with you on this journey and uh and just thank you for allowing me to share with your audience in this moment.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.

Well said, well said.

Well, well, thank you so much.

And for you listening today, my hope out of today is that you will just kind of open your eyes a little bit, pay attention a little bit more to your surroundings.

Look at people who you're doing life with differently.

Think of them as not just family members, not just friends, colleagues, but literally people on the same team as you.

Pour into them.

Because even if they got their guard up and you think that maybe they've got it all together, or maybe they just don't, you know, seem like the person to talk to.

I can guarantee you that behind closed doors, we're all struggling in our own ways.

And everybody needs somebody to lean on, some some support.

And so I would encourage you to use this as your kind of spark to be that person who starts to rise the tide in your community.

Start paying attention, start making a difference and in the same token, start focusing on you, paying attention to you, being sure that what you're doing when you wake up in the morning lights you up and that you feel good about it, like you're traveling down the right path in life.

And I guess my last kind of takeaway is to just truly enjoy this life every moment, every day.

Because I'm telling you, you were put on this earth, you were put in this place for a reason.

And I believe it's a reason far bigger and greater than you may even realize.

With that said, my name is Kevin Lowe, host of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration, as well as Transformational Life and Business Coach.

If you want to reach out to me or my guest, be sure to check out today's show notes where links and information will be provided.

With that said, it's your turn to get out there and take on the day.

Now that you've got a little bit more grit, grace, and then the race.