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The Dad Edge Podcast

How to Raise Confident Kids Who Take Life Seriously featuring Jordan Raynor

Freitag, 9. Oktober 2026 · 1 h 05

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This week I sat down with Jordan Raynor, a bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, and one of the leading voices in the faith and work movement. Jordan wrote Called to Create, Redeeming Your Time, The Creator in You, and his newest book, Redeeming Your Goals, and he's the executive chairman of Threshold 360 after stepping down as CEO to write full time. He has been married since 2009, is a dad to three daughters, and he asks a much better question than most goal-setting gurus: who are we becoming while we chase these goals?
We started with the all-boys versus all-girls dad debate, and I told the story of a sold-out daddy daughter retreat that left me with serious FOMO. From there we got into the Tim Keller book that changed Jordan's faith, the day his kids' drawings of the family left him out and he gave his board 15 months notice, and the nightly ritual that keeps his phone out of his hands from 5 p.m. to a.m. If you're a dad who wants to stop compartmentalizing your faith, your work, and your family, this one is for you.

Timeline Summary
[] Larry welcomes Jordan, and the two compare life raising all girls versus all boys
[] Larry shares how a sold-out daddy daughter retreat with 12 dads and 12 daughters became his favorite event
[] Larry introduces Jordan: bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, and faith and work voice
[] Jordan explains how he became a Google Fellow running a political tech company
[] Jordan on his faith, his first campaign at 17, and why he left politics for entrepreneurship
[] Jordan credits Tim Keller and The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness with changing how he follows Jesus
[] Jordan tells the story of meeting his wife at Florida State and two years in the friend zone
[] Jordan on writing his first book, Called to Create, and betting on himself as a full-time writer
[] Why Jordan gave his board 15 months notice as CEO after his kids drew family pictures without him
[] Why Jordan refuses to compartmentalize faith, marriage, parenting, and work
[] Two practical steps: remember God cares about your work, and pray in short silent moments all day
[] Jordan's phone ritual: no phone from 5 p.m. to a.m. so his kids see his full presence
[] A study showing kids run the bases faster and make fewer mistakes when parents aren't on their phones
[] Redeeming Your Goals: seven principles, 58 practices, a no template, and kill criteria for strategic quitting
[] Jordan's family goal to love like Jesus, and his 12-year-old raising money to send two orphans to college
[] Jordan shares where to find him and how preordering Redeeming Your Goals enters you to win $4,000

Five Key Takeaways
• God cares about your work, so you don't have to live in separate worlds for your faith, your job, and your family.
• Short, silent prayers throughout the workday, even a sticky note that says pray, invite God into ordinary work.
• Turn your phone into a landline after work, and your kids get your presence instead of your leftover attention.
• Set kill criteria for a goal or strategy ahead of time, so you quit on purpose instead of on emotion.
• Write down a family goal and review it every quarter, because confident kids come from a clear target and a loving example.

Links & Resources
• Jordan Raynor: jordanraynor.com
• Redeeming Your Goals (preorder before October 16 to enter the $4,000 giveaway): jordanraynor.com/redeeming-your-goals
• The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Tim Keller: gospelinlife.com/book/the-freedom-of-self-forg…
• Dad Edge Alliance (October Bonuses): thedadedge.com/join
• Dad Edge Day at State Farm Stadium: thedadedge.com/nfl
• The Dad Edge Podcast: thedadedge.com/1549

Closing
Jordan said he can't imagine a more valuable present to give his kids than his presence, and that line has stayed with me. I've watched a mom at my son's soccer game barely look up while her little boy banged on the glass for attention, and I don't want to be that dad for even one day. If this conversation moved you, pick two hours tonight, put your phone in another room, and give your family everything you've got. Go out and live legendary.

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Welcome to the Dad Edge podcast. The Dad Edge movement creates leaders of men. Leaders of families and leaders of communities. We will not only impact this generation of fathers, but the next generation as well. The kids we are raising will have better chances and odds stacked in their favor because of the amazing example that their fathers emulated for them.

We are here to change the world. We are here to change relationships. We are here to positively disrupt this generation of fathers. So no man goes to their grave with regret. We disrupt the drift of busyness and replace it with razor focused intention, passion, purpose and direction. We are the dad edge and we're here to change the game.

Jordan. Rainer. What's up man? Welcome to the Mary. What's up to you? Thanks for having me. Dude. Thanks. Thanks for coming on, man. I'm excited to talk about this. Yeah. All right, I want to start with a very serious question. All right. Very serious. And this comes from a very selfish place. I have all boys. You have all girls?

Yes. How are you surviving raising these daughters, man? Let me in on it. I love it. And so. And and our third, we adopted at birth. It's always get the question. Like, dude, you could have chose boy. Girl. Like, why in the world did you choose to have a girl? Like two things. Number one. The idea of learning to parent an entirely different gender felt like 100% more learning.

I was like, not interested. Right? And number two, I think I'm probably a better girl dad than I am. Boy. Dead, right? Like, I love music way too much. I love creativity too much. Like my girls are constantly creating. We're playing the piano together. I'm a pretty good girl, dad. I think I'd be a pretty mediocre boy, dad.

But. Yeah, man. Like, right now, at their ages, it's pretty easy. By God's grace. My oldest is 12, so we'll we'll. I'm sure things will get more difficult soon. But what about you? I mean, I don't know, I got no experience in a boy, dad. It feels like constant chaos from when I look at my friends who've got all boys.

Is that true? Well, so I'll. I'll answer that question, but I want to reflect something back to you, man. I think you'll appreciate this. So this wasn't last. This wasn't this past summer. It was this. It was, it was. It was June of 2025. One of my business partners has he has two daughters, and he's been one of my partners in the dad Edge boardroom.

It's our entrepreneur group. He's been we've been friends and partners for ten years. Couldn't ask for a better partner. Yeah. And he he he approached me with an idea. He's like, hey, man. Like, you do all these events, you know, and you do like summits and stuff like that for men. And you've done Rites of Passage. He's like, what if we did a daddy daughter retreat?

I'm like a daddy daughter retreat. I'd know nothing about that. He's like, yeah, yeah. I was like, I'm I that's way outside. I, I'm definitely going to out kick my coverage on that one. I have no clue what I'm doing. He's like, that's okay. He's like, I'll run it. He's like, we'll be good. So I was like, sure.

So last June, we hosted a weekend for dads with daughters. It was very small and that was that's what it meant to be. It sold out. We only wanted 12 dads and 12 daughters, so 24 total. Yeah. And I was like, I remember getting to the Airbnb the day before and I'm like, I don't know what to expect with this.

This could flop. This could be terrible. Like, I don't know what. Here's the funny thing, man. I think I've ran probably 15 events over the past ten years. It was my favorite, really, and very unexpected. Yeah. Because like, so like, my wife always jokes like to answer your question. So I'm going to answer your question now, and then I'll explain why.

My wife always tells me I'm surrounded by ten balls and the only female, including the dog, but he doesn't have balls otherwise would be 12. But you know, I people have asked me all the time, they're like, what's it like raising four boys? Because it's a pretty unique thing. And I'm like, yeah, just imagine being in college and you're at a fraternity party, but you never leave and no one ever sleeps.

And you see things in your house and you say things out loud to human beings. You never thought you'd say, that's a big thing. Like my bathroom, man. Like in any except for our master bathroom. It is a roll of the dice of what I walk in on. It is just atrocious. Like, I feel like I need a full hazmat suit for a particular one of them.

That's not the case in my house. No, we're talking the upstairs of our house and the great hall from Harry Potter. That's what we do in the ringer household. Massive creativity. Oh, yeah. We have, like, floating lanterns outside my home office right now. Oh, yeah. Like, my kids are, like, crazy creative. It's it's incredible. It's dope. That is not my house.

Like, not whatsoever. I mean, dude, it's like I, you've never probably experienced this, but I have. I go into the bathroom to go pee, and I see that there's pee all over the seat, but not only all over the seat, but all over the shower curtain. And I'm like, how, how how? I had to walk out of my bathroom one time and I was like, how did you pee on the on the shower curtain?

Like, literally like college. This reminded me of college. Yeah. My college roommate did this at 3:00 in the morning, like thinking that that was the toilet, but it wasn't. So like, I'm not even kidding, man. And I'm like, how? How does that happen? Like, did you see something or did you. Was it squirrel? And you just pointed the wrong I don't know, but yeah, that's.

But to answer your question, boys, it is. But like I will tell you, man, seeing these 12 dads and we're going to do one next year in 2027, seeing these 12 dads with these 12 daughters I was I actually got to be more of a spectator instead of the facilitator because my, my, my business partner Jason ran it and I was like, oh my gosh.

Like, I had so much FOMO that I didn't have a daughter because like the the, the, the the environment was so different and in such a good way. It was like one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. But I think that what I'm, what I'm actually sharing is like, kind of like your life. It's my life and it's wonderful and beautiful and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Dude, I love that man. So much gratitude. So like, just hard question here. Yeah, yeah. Do you feel like, do you ever felt like I'm missing out because I don't have a boy or you just like, no, this is my this is my labor. Never like, by God's grace. Right? Because, listen, a lot of manly things that I don't do with my girls that I.

That I would have loved to have done with the son, but I just, I don't know, I don't I don't have a lot of regret or I never it never crossed my mind. It never crossed my mind. I think we're so busy, and not busy outside the house. We actually live, like, very slow lives, very slow lives, but just busy inside the house, creating and just doing fun stuff.

Together. We go. We live in Central Florida. We're at Disney every other weekend. I don't know, man. Like, life's pretty good. That's pretty good. I gotta ask you this question though, because I do. I do have an eight year old niece that has like my heart, like she's got me wrapped around her finger. Yeah. I've never gotten a pedicure in my entire life, but I did last February with her.

Yeah, but have you ever gotten pedicures with your daughters? My wife has given me a pedicure. This is the first and only time I've mentioned this publicly. Yeah. Oh, yeah. With. With my girls laying in, you know, sitting in the, in the master bathroom getting pedicures. It's a weird feeling. It is. I'm not a not a big fan.

So I told my little niece, Brinley, eight years old. She's literally like, I love her to death. And I'm like, Brinley. I was like, Uncle Larry wants to take you to get a pedicure. I've never gotten one. She's like, oh, that'd be great. So we we scheduled it. So I'm sitting next to her at this nail place and I'm like, all right, Brinley.

I was like, what? What is Uncle Larry getting? And she literally looks at the girl, at the woman doing my feet. And she's like, I want every other toe, one blue, one green and make a gel. And I'm like, okay, yeah. And she's like. And the lady looked at me. She goes, you want gel? And I'm like, I guess, I guess so.

So here's the funny thing. I come home and I show my wife and she's like, is that gel? And I was like, yeah. And she goes, Larry, you know, that doesn't come off right. Like what? And she's like, yeah, it doesn't come off. You need like a freaking scraper or something. And so like for three months, man. Oh my toes were messed up, dude.

I was terrific praying by May that they would be gone so I could go to the pool with no shame. But it was fun. I knew what she was doing, though. She did. Jen's. Have you been thinking about joining the Dad Edge Alliance? October is the month to do it. I'm giving away several things, and one is not even going to be available to the public until January 2027.

So inside the Alliance, just to share 35 call teams per week. So no matter what your schedule looks like, there's a place for you to connect, grow and get around other men who are committed to becoming better husbands, better fathers, and better leaders. We also have specialty teams focus specifically on marriage, parenting, faith, fitness, raising boys, raising girls, and even raising kids with ADHD and so much more.

But here's the thing if you join in October, I'm going to be giving you four bonuses. Number one, I'm going to send you a personally, personally signed copy of The Pursuit of Legendary Fatherhood in the mail mailed directly from me to you. Second, and this is twofold. You're going to get access to two of my courses that are $500 apiece, but you're going to get them for free in the month of October.

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Lead the change again. The date. Edgecomb. Forward. Slash. Join for the month of October for all these goodies and advance copy of my new book. Yeah, well, dude, I want to introduce you to the crew here. Everybody gets an intro on this on this podcast. So, like, yours is awesome, man, I gotta say. So, Jordan Raynor, your bestselling author, you're a successful serial entrepreneur.

You're one of the leading voices in faith in the work movement. For more than a decade, you've been helping millions of Christians around the world connect to the gospel through the work that they do pursue meaningful goals. And this is what I love without allowing achievement to become their identity. You've written 1010. If you said so. I've lost track.

Yeah. Yeah, sure. Yeah. But you became so including the ECP, a bestseller, Redeeming Your Time, The Creator in You, and your newest book, Redeeming Your Goals seven Biblical Principles for Achieving Your Goals with Christlike confidence, consistency, and Character. But what I really think, I think that's unique to your work, is that you're not telling people to dream bigger, hustle harder, or crush more goals like so many people on the internet tell you to do.

You're asking a much deeper question. I love this question. Who are we becoming while we pursue these goals? You've been selected twice as a Google Fellow, which I'm not even sure what that is, but I want to I want to know what that is. You've built and led successful businesses through it all. You continue to bring the conversation back to faithfulness over outcomes and becoming more Christlike in the process and beyond.

All the books, the business, the accomplishments. You're a husband you have been since 2009. Your dad, obviously a very proud dad to three wonderful daughters. So welcome to the podcast, man. I'm honored to have you. Yeah, Larry, I'm honored to be here. Thanks, man. That was a pretty good intro. That's not bad. I need to bring you around with me.

You know, I'll just be your PR person. There you go. Yeah. Great. What is a Google fellow? Yeah. So, it can mean a lot of different things. The most meaningful stint as Google fellow I was at the time, running a company that was raising money for political candidates online and using the internet to get out the vote.

Google really loved what I was doing with their tools, and particularly Google AdWords. Let's go back to like 2012. So yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so they they got really excited about like, hey, we want to give you a bunch of money to like in access to tools that nobody has yet to do even cooler things. And so we did and they gave me the title of Google Fellow.

I mean, there are tons of Google fellows, right? And yeah, I got to play in the Google sandbox for the purpose of mobilizing voters to get out and vote using Google stools. It was a blast. It was super, super cool. Whoa, dude, I'm learning something new on this podcast. That's so cool, I, I do, I didn't know about the political thing.

Can I ask you a couple of questions about that? Sure. Yeah. So we're not a I'm not a political podcast or I don't even I don't talk about my politics. I don't talk about my views on purpose because I just I never want anybody to do that and be like, yeah, it's like, oh, that's a conservative. That's a Democrat.

That's whatever. But, when did so before I ask about that, when did you get really entrenched with your faith? Yeah, yeah. So, I would have called myself a follower of Jesus by the time I was seven. I would say I wasn't really serious about following Jesus until I got to college. That's when I started getting really serious about my faith.

It's also around that time that I started to fall a little bit out of love with politics. So politics was my first professional love. My first job, I was 17 years old. I ran a countywide campaign for the Hillsborough County Commission here in Tampa. That, by God's grace, we won. We had no business winning. We won a campaign.

I'm like, I'm going to do this for the rest of my life. Took a semester off, went to the Bush White House of 2006. And that was the beginning of the end. I'm like, all right, politics isn't for me. I actually think you could change the world much more through business and culture than you can through politics. So I pivoted to political tech entrepreneurship.

That's where my Google stint was. It was still political, politically tangential, but it wasn't directly working with campaigns. And yeah, man, it was fascinating. But over time, I came to this place, probably in about 2013, of understanding for the first time just how much my work is. An entrepreneur mattered to God, and nobody had ever told me that before.

And it was so radical and life changing that it's what that that was the seed that led to all these books and all the content that I'm creating today. So I still have a foot in the world of tech entrepreneurship. I'm still executive chairman of threshold 360, this venture backed tech startup that I ran as CEO for two and a half years.

In fact, we had a board meeting this morning, but the vast majority of my professional time and energy today is going to helping followers of Jesus see just how much the God of the Bible delights in their quote unquote secular work, which I would argue is very, very deeply sacred. And then respond to that right and have that reality shape their goals and how they manage their time and everything that they're doing Monday through Friday.

Wow, that that's a that's an amazing journey. Thank you for sharing that journey. I the question that's a winding journey. It is that's like a that is definitely some twists and turns. Yeah. Oh yeah. The question I have for you though is did you find your faith challenged a lot when you were in the political realm, or did you were you were you pointing like your beliefs like, so I, I can't, I can't imagine you probably wanting to represent somebody who maybe didn't share in that faith or like, but I am curious, like, did you get a lot of challenges when you were doing that?

Yeah, for sure. And it was interesting. I looking back, my, my internship at the Bush administration was incredible. When I was there, I was I got a little jaded because I loved President Bush at the time. Now, today, my politics are radically different. Frankly, I don't follow politics at all anymore. I haven't read the news in ten years.

Back in 2006, I was really drawn to President Bush because of his faith, because of his social conservatism. And I was pretty jaded to get to the white House and realized nobody in my office at least shared that faith. And so people within the Bush administration were kind of hostile to my faith. No, not all of them. A lot of them were just curious skeptics.

Right. But for sure, I experienced that faith challenge. And I think if I had a better theological head on my shoulders back then when I was 20, I probably would have stayed in that industry, right? But I didn't. And I was like, oh man, this is a dark space. So I got to leave, which is a pretty immature response for a follower of Jesus.

But that was my response back in 2006. I can't even imagine what that was like, because I see obviously now it's such a triggered area of Christianity faith and like it's it's so polarized now and the co-mingling of it, it's a big part of the reason why I want nothing to do with it. Today. Yeah, I'm a 0 or 100 guy.

Right. So like when I was in college, sports and politics were my life. Today I watch sports and could not name ten members of the United States Senate. Right? Like, I've only got so much bandwidth in this head. I choose to be ignorant about the vast majority of things on the planet and master a very, very, very small handful of things.

Well, that's probably why your energy is so good, because otherwise it probably wouldn't be drained, right? Spread out all over the place. Yeah. I want to go back to college. Yeah. For you, because you mentioned that you got really entrenched in your faith. What was going on there? Yeah. So, I got involved with a really great church that I loved called Center Point Church in Tallahassee, Florida.

And around that time, I started reading books written by this pastor from Manhattan named Tim Keller. And this guy's articulation of the Christian faith was radical for me. He was wicked smart, clearly a once in a generation mind. And the way that he talked about Christianity without being judgmental towards non-Christians was like, so refreshing to me. And so life giving to me.

And I just ended up devouring all this guy's stuff. He died a couple of years ago. I we were getting close towards the end of his life, and I told him I was like, Tim, I don't think I'd be a follower of Jesus if it weren't for you. Maybe I would have called myself one. I would have been a quote unquote believer in Jesus, but certainly not following the teachings of Jesus if it weren't for Tim.

So yeah, man, it was an author. That I came across that helped me see these biblical texts that I'd been reading for years in a new light. And that's certainly, you know, part of the reason why I'm doing what I'm doing today, expounding upon these ancient texts in a modern way to help people see the goodness of Jesus and the hope of a life that is not rooted in achievement.

Right. Because Tim did that for me, man. So you had a mentor. You had a really powerful. Yeah. I didn't know him when I was in college. I didn't get to know him until, gosh. 15 years after I started reading his books. But yeah, I had a mentor from afar on the page that just changed everything for me.

Was there a certain, you mentioned pages and a mentor from afar? Was there was there like a a certain book or something that you're just like, oh my gosh, like, I can't get enough of this. What was it? Yeah, yeah. So the book was it's actually a super short, tiny read. It's called The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness by Tim Keller.

You read in 30 minutes and it's all about ego. It's all about, I think, what all of us want to be able to walk into a room and not have to puff ourselves up because we know that's a fool's errand, because we know that somebody is going to find us out for being a fraud, but also not, be so deflated that, like, what was me?

I don't believe I don't belong in this room. The book is about how followers of Jesus have unique resources to be able to walk into a room with the freedom of self forgetfulness. It's not thinking of myself less, not thinking less of myself, but thinking of myself less. So I could walk into a room, be fully present with others in the room and be more interested in them, and less worried about being interesting myself and as an egomaniac, even at, you know, 1920, whenever it was that I was reading that book, that was radical for me because I realized that my entire life I've been walking in a room praying that somebody would find me smarter and more successful than everybody else in the room. And even at that age, I was already getting exhausted by that never ending hamster wheel, and I had to get off of it. And I didn't get off of it when I was 20. But that was the start of me stepping off that hamster wheel and recognizing that if I believe the God of the universe calls me his adopted son, it doesn't matter what Larry Hanger thinks of me, it doesn't matter what these listeners think of me.

I'm good. I'm all set. And so I can just show up and serve and be free and be light and take life seriously, but not take myself too seriously because I already have everything I want and then some in a relationship with the only source of truly unconditional love in the universe. I love that man so much detail, so authentic.

I'm curious, did you got married in 2009? Did did you meet your wife? Like through this? Fantastic. In the middle of this journey? Yeah. For sure. How did you guys meet? Yeah. So we actually met my first weekend of Florida State. We met through a mutual friend. We were just friends. I was very much in the friend zone.

Kira's way out of my league. Did you want to be in the friend zone? I did not want to be in the front, you know? No, no, no, no, but I was solidly in the front zone for two years of college. What do you have a friend zone for two years. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my. Okay. More stories. Took me going to DC for care to be like, oh, I kind of like this guy. Come back for DC. Listen, when you take a girl you're interested in to the Rose garden, the white House like that, you know, I mean, yeah, that's that's pretty dope. Yeah. Right. Like that, that went a long way. And so, Yeah, that's what we started dating.

I came back for the white House fall of 2000, December 2006. But yeah, like, Kara was already seriously following. Jesus. I was, I was in the middle of that transformation of following Jesus more seriously. And that's what made it a great match. So did she. Did she know you like to. You obviously were really interested. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Was she dating anybody else? No no no no, she was just saying no to me. It's not even that she was saying yes or something better. It was just saying no to me. Yeah. So what what finally broke? Like, how do you have. So when I was at DC, we talked every night. Okay. And, you know, brought her up to DC with some friends at the end of my internship, and she and I kind of peeled off Rose garden downtown DC did the whole thing, and I think she was like, all right, maybe this kid's going places.

I don't know, like we're hanging out at the white House. That's pretty cool. And it was just God's grace. Like, I don't know, I don't know. I still don't know how I convinced her to give this a shot. She's two inches taller than me, so, like, that was, like a real deal. I was like, a real deal. Like, pretty explicitly. But I was like, man, take big swings, literally, and I wouldn't give it up. And by God's grace, yeah. We started falling in love that December and were engaged a year and a half later and married to two and a half years later. Wow. So you never, like, did a Ron Burgundy, like, while you're at the white House where you're like, I don't know how to tell you this right now, but I'm a pretty big deal now.

But implicitly, that's what the whole thing was. Yeah, 100%. 100%. Oh my God, it's way more subtle than that. How did you know that she was the one I, I, I reject the whole idea of the one. Okay, tell me more. Even then, I don't think I had language for it. Yeah, I, I just think that God and his grace has given us a lot of freedom to choose a spouse, a career, where to live.

I don't think there's one. And I would tell Kyra this right now. In fact, she can here me, she's like 20ft away from me right now outside the store. I don't think there was one magical person made just for me to be with forever. And I actually think it's more romantic to say no. I could have chosen a lot of different people.

I chose you, I chose you, I chose you because of your graciousness, because of your patience, because of your intellect. Care is one of 5% of people who passed the CPA exam. All four units the first time. She's way, way, way smarter than me. Had a very successful career in public finance. Before she started staying home full time with the kids and, Yeah, man, I was just drawn to her drive or grit. Her intelligence, her grace, her patience. Especially with me, who I'm not the easiest person person to live with and do life with. And she was able to put up with me during college. So yeah, man, it was a pretty easy choice. That is so cool, man. Like, I, I always love the, the stories about the friend zone thing.

Yeah. You know, like me and Jessica, we've known each other for 30 years as of last month. So we met and yeah, we met in 1996. We got married in 2003, and it was really funny, man. Like, I was, I didn't have the best reputation in college my freshman year because I, I was in a three year relationship.

And then the girl, we ended up going to college together. And then three weeks into my freshman year, she slept with my dorm roommate. Oh. Whoa. Oh. I'm sorry. My next door neighbor. Yeah. Now I remember, but. So I went through a really horrific breakup, and then I just went and dated whoever, you know, just kind of, like, sure stole my oats.

And then she came. The next year, I was a sophomore. She was a freshman. And, man, I was just struck by this woman. And I was like, you know, my my friends for months would like, give me crap about, like, are you ever going to talk to that girl, man? You see her all over campus, you're always talking about her.

And I'm like, I don't know what it was. I was just really intimidated. And then, like, when I finally, like, got together with or not got together, I was friends with her in the beginning. And dude, I couldn't read this girl for the life of me. I couldn't tell if she liked me or not. And she was dating somebody else and I was dating somebody else, but neither knew one of our relationships were serious.

And I'll never. This was actually the best man speech. I finally after like about a month like we went, we would hang out all the time. And then finally I was like, I got to make a move on this girl. And like, we were sitting on a park bench in a park at night, and we had just got done with a run, and she was sitting there talking, and I just freaking grabbed her and kissed her.

And she didn't kiss me back, man, oh man. Like just stone cold and I. And then she pulled. Then she kind of pulls away and I look at her, I'm like, sorry, I guess I shouldn't have done that. And she just started busting out laughing and I'm like, oh my gosh, like what? This couldn't get any worse. Now she's laughing now.

And then she grabbed me and kiss me back and I'm like, yeah, okay. Now I'm really confused. I'm very confused. She's like, I've been like, she's like, I've liked you for a while and she's like, but that was hilarious. And I'm like, what do you mean? And she's like, I'm right in the middle of talking. You just came barreling in, like with a kiss.

And like, I had no clue what the heck was even happening. Like, funny, but that. Yeah, that's how I guess broke the friend zone thing, but I thought I was there. It's a good way to do it. It's an awkward way to do it. I love it, very awkward. Very good. Yeah. There are no non awkward ways to do that.

Yeah, yeah. Well I want to. So you've written ten books, right. And, and I know your, your latest book as we, as we talked about, but, I know I've written, I've written three chapter books, I've written two kids books. And it's a lot of work to to be an author. And I'm curious when when you wrote your first book.

Yeah. Like, I, I always like to go back and I wrote my book first book 11 years ago, and I remember, like, how overwhelming that was. But when you wrote your first book, what was that like for you? Yeah. It was really play because at the time, writing wasn't the thing. And today it is. Right. And so I'd have blessed.

So I wrote my first book, this book called called to Create This Manifesto for Christian Entrepreneurs. I wrote it in 2016. It was published in November of 2017. And, at the time, I'm running my own business. And this was kind of just a playful project, kind of scratching an itch and asking some very selfish questions about what it means for my faith to shape my specific work as a tech entrepreneur.

And so it was just a blast. Like, I was doing tons of research. I was researching Christian entrepreneurs, art history like Arthur Guinness at the Guinness Brewing Company, and True Cathy of Chick fil A. I was going out and doing interviews with people, and I wasn't actually trying to write a book. I don't know, obviously, at some point in this process I realized I was.

But yeah, man, I was just having some conversations, filling up a moleskine and then realize, okay, this is a thing I think, I, I think I can write this. I self-published two tiny little books before that. That was my first traditionally published book. And so I knew I had some evidence that I was a talented writer. And I was like, all right, I'm gonna go for this.

And I know business getting a traditionally published book deal. I know business getting an agent. But yeah, I had no platform, but I went for it. And by God's grace, I got two offers. That's all you need. You only need one offer from a from a big publishing house and went for it. And it was a blast, man.

And so the book comes out in 2017. At the time, I'm running a company called threshold 360, which for a few quarters they were growing 50% a quarter revenue. And so thresholds growing like crazy. Then my art. But the book comes out, hits all the bestseller lists now. My author platform is growing like crazy. And that was really hard.

That was really hard. I had these two great things in my lap, and eventually I realized, I've got to put all of my eggs in one of these two baskets. I have to. I can't keep doing it both. Not exceptionally well. And so the great irony is I stepped down from my job as CEO of a tech startup to go write books full time, telling believers to stay in their jobs, running tech startups and as baristas and plumbers and whatever is a primary means of ministry in the world.

But man like writing code to create. I think that was the first time where I'm like, oh my gosh. Like, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm a good entrepreneur. I'm good at building companies. By God's grace, I think I could be great at writing full length nonfiction, but it was a bet, man. It was a bet. It was a risk.

I had to make that leap and really bet on myself as a writer, because I had I had a little bit of evidence. I was good at it, but not a ton. But man, I'm so glad I did it because now, gosh, I'm seven years past doing this full time. And Lord willing, I'll get to throw another 4050 years of this. So wait a second, you were a CEO of a startup and you transitioned to job. That's what I yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. So I was not this is the one company I was not the founder of this company. Threshold 360. It was founded by a fun.

Successful entrepreneur who was a part of a $6 billion exit about 20 years prior to that. And, Yeah. So he asked me to come run this company, help bring it to market. So he was the founder of it, but he never operated the business. And so was kind of a dream I have as an investor. I had this guy named Jeff Vinik as an investor.

Jeff Vinik ran one of the most successful hedge funds in global history. Owned the Tim Bay lightning, phenomenally successful guy. So I had some killer investors. It was a killer market. We had killer growth. I was having the time of my life. But number one, I wanted to write more. But number two, the tech startup was taking me away from my kids.

Way too much. Way too much. And, you know, I'm sure you've heard this story a hundred times on the dead edge. But when your kids start drawing pictures of your family without you in it. That's the end of the story. That's the end of the story. Right? And so I went to my board. I gave them 15 months notice.

I was like, hey, I'm out by my three year anniversary at the company. And they did not love that. They fought to keep me. But I was like, I got to do this. And by the way, I think the company's going to be better for it, which sure enough, I, I, I think it has been right. And so yeah, man, kind of entrepreneurial dream job.

But I also knew that my window of opportunity if I ever wanted to write was closing. Right. So we called the create came out, I hit the bestseller list, random House, and everybody was coming to me with like, man, what's the next book? How many books do you have in you? I was like, If I'm going to do it, it's now or never, which is usually not true.

But I felt like that in the moment. Like this is the opportunity. You know, it's interesting. I, people ask me, oh, did you feel the call to write full time? I did not, I, I viewed my work running that tech startup just as sacred as the work that I do, writing books, teaching people about the sacredness of their work.

It's not that it was better. It's not that it was a higher calling. It's that it was more unique. When I looked around at the world, I said, there's probably a thousand people in the world who could run this tech startup better than I can, but some I was looking at this, nascent space of faith and work content, and I didn't see anybody raising their hand who had the interest and the skills and the time to write 30 books on this topic and produce, you know, TV shows and podcasts and other media.

So it wasn't that it was a better calling, a higher calling, it was just more unique. And I don't know, man, like, I like running in unique lanes. Like it's exciting to me to think that, like, yeah, there's not a lot of people in this world who could do this thing. And so, yeah, sign me up like I'm in for that thing.

Guys, I need your attention for just a second, because this is one of the coolest opportunities we've ever had for the Dad Edge audience. I was recently contacted by the Arizona Cardinals, and they want to host an official Dad Edge day at State Farm Stadium. So on Sunday, November 15th, we are taking over Arizona for an absolutely epic day of Brotherhood football and celebrating the men who are part of the Dad Edge audience.

The Arizona Cardinals are taking on the Los Angeles Rams, and we have put together something really special for you guys. When you get a ticket through the data edge.com/nfl, you're not just getting a seat at the game. You're going to get a signed copy of my book, The Pursuit of Legendary Fatherhood. You're going to get an exclusive dad edge iron sharpens iron branded shirt.

And before the game, we are going to be doing a private meet and greet where I get to hang out with you, shake your hand, we get to take some pictures and spend some time together before we all head into the stadium. Gents, this is going to be an awesome day. I mean, think about it. Hundreds of men from the Dad Edge audience all to show up to one game.

We are all over the country, actually all over the world. And we're trying to become better husbands, better fathers and better men. But on November 15th, we actually all get to come together. We get to do the meet and greet, we get to celebrate the brotherhood, and then we get to walk into State Farm Stadium together and watch the Cardinals take on the Rams.

This is not something we've ever done before, and I have a feeling these tickets are not going to last long. So if you want to be a part of the first ever Dad Edge day with the Arizona Cardinals, go to the dad edge.com/nfl right now to get your tickets. Again. That's the data edge.com/nfl. Get your ticket. Get your sign book.

Get your iron sharpens iron shirt. Come hang out with me before the game. And let's make November 15th a day that none of us will forget. And I cannot wait to see you there. That is such. That's that's extreme bravery like that is really listening to a call or stupidity. No, I mean, it's obviously paid off. I, I really honor that decision, man.

I back in 2021, I made the same decision. I exited, medical device. I was I had worked my way all the way up to national sales director and great money, great career, super secure. And, decide to leave and do this full time. It was terrifying at first, but I'm so glad I did it. But that takes a lot of bravery, and I.

I understand what that takes firsthand. I really want to move into this. What you create and what you what you talk about, which is incorporating your faith into your work. Because I think what we do as human beings is we compartmentalize our life. So like, oh, I have my married life over here. I have my faith life over here, I have my parenting life over there.

And I have my my work life here, you know? So it's like we have all these spaces, but it seems like what you really like to what you talk about and what you really promote is like faith is at the helm, and it needs to be synergistic and it needs to be intertwined into these areas. Is that accurate? Yeah. That's it man. Like first and foremost, before I'm an author, before I'm even a husband, before I'm a father, I'm a follower of Jesus. And that informs every other area of my life. I can't compartmentalize my faith because truly following Jesus means that he has lordship and authority over my marriage, over my parenting, over my business. And I just don't want to go throughout life living in bifurcated worlds.

I did that for a long time, man. I would go to work as a tech entrepreneur and, you know, feel fully, you know, engaged in that work there. But then also knowing that, like, man, my friends at church don't really understand what I'm doing, kind of feel guilty that I'm not a pastor or a missionary, whatever. And then I go to church and yeah, worship of Jesus.

But like, nobody gets it here. It's tough. And what ridge these worlds for me was just simply open up my Bible and reading what the Bible has to say about work. And it says quite a bit. In fact, the the word work is mentioned more than 800 times of the Bible. That's more than every single mention of music, worship and praise combined.

And Christianity is also the only religion that ever has made the claim that God himself works. It's radical. Every other religion says that the gods created human beings to do the menial work in the world, to serve the gods. Only Christianity starts with the God who works. And so man, that was radical for me to hear that. I'm like, If God himself works in a way before he shows up as a preacher, he shows up.

I would argue as an entrepreneur, I would argue God was the first entrepreneur. When we look at Genesis one, then that assigns great dignity and meaning to the work that I do as an entrepreneur, and I no longer have to live in these two separate worlds. It's all sacred, right? And it's all integrated. So how do we do that?

So like, I feel like my work is intertwined with my faith now. Yeah, right. Because I, I, I speak very openly about my faith. You know, I, I, I'm in a Bible study every single day, you know, we and I'm not saying that because I'm like a box checker, like, I use a box checker, but, like, now I'm very passionate about the topic, and I really do.

I, I feel that like, I, I say this now a lot, which is God is the helm of this whole thing. And I just he just tells me where to where to go. Like, that's it. Like just complete and total surrender. But I, I got to tell you, when I was in, med device sales or, you know, any other profession that I can think of like a friends family that people are in, I would think that that's a hard bridge for them to connect.

Like like when I was a when I was a national sales director for Med Device, I definitely felt that I was compartmentalizing those things. But like, how does like, let's talk to the guys who are listening? Yeah. Like maybe the guys who are whatever journey they're at in their faith, whether it's, you know, they're fully in or they're just experimenting with it or like, how do they start to intertwine these things?

Yeah, yeah. So first you got to understand that that God actually cares about the work. Most of us don't believe that. Like, oh, yeah, God cares about the work of the pastor or, you know, the the missionary who's living in a mud hut 5000 miles away from here. But he doesn't care about my work in medical device sales or plumbing or carpentry or Uber driving or whatever it is that is a lie.

And the I can cite a bunch of reasons why I know it's a lie, but the best one is that when God sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth, he did not choose for his Son Jesus to grow up in the home of a priest and learn that trade or grow up in the home of a religious scholar, where he would learn that trade of the spiritual work of studying the Torah.

He chose for Jesus to grow up in the home of a small business owner and carpenter named Joseph, where he would spend his life learning how to make things with his hands. Right. So I think first we got into that God cares about the work. Jesus is Exhibit A that God cares about the work we do with our hands.

But then secondly, I think practically we got to think about, okay, what does it actually look like to do that work with God as a medical device sales rep, whatever. And this is a very simple answer, but I do think it is the answer. It's prayer. It's being mindful of God's presence with you as you're doing the work and taking time to pray not just before meals, not just in the morning, not just before bed, but quick little tiny silent prayers throughout the workday, inviting God into whatever it is that you're working on.

I showed up to this interview for five minutes early. I typically do that, and I used to check email during that time. Now I use an empty studio like here on Riverside or an empty zoom room to pray. It's a trigger. It's a reminder to pray when I go to take a leak. After this, there's a little phone holder outside my bathroom door.

I put my phone in there, and then when I get in there, there's a big sticky note that says pray. I pray every hour when I just go to the bathroom. I'm constantly working with God, practically. And you could do those things. You could steal those two little hacks, no matter what job you're doing. So that that's that's the story.

That's the foundation is, number one, recognizing God cares about your work. So much so that his son had a regular job when he came to Earth, and two, doing your work with him practically through prayer. If you're a person of faith, man, I just I love those little hacks, you know, I, I heard enough to be more complicated than that.

Yeah, but, you know, also think about the message that you're sending your girls and especially. Oh, yeah, me too. Boys. Like being that example of putting your phone in a holder right outside the bathroom. Oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they know it. They know it. They. Their dad has a radical relationship with this device. My kids have seen me on my phone in my house once in the last 60 days.

Oh, yeah. So talk to me. Talk to me about that. Yeah. So about, I don't know, seven, eight years ago, I was really convicted that, I was super focused at work when I was running Threshold and Phone. I do not disturb and really focus on the deep work I was doing at my desk. And then as soon as I got home, when my kids wanted to play dress up for the 97th time that week, I was there, but I was also scrolling through emails and text messages and shame on me, man, because the work I'm doing inside of my house is infinitely more unique than the work I do in my office.

And so, yeah, I just I create a little ritual that I still do today where I functionally convert my mobile phone into a landline when my workday is done. So when I was running that tech startup, what this looked like is I would come home, take my phone out of my pocket, put it in my master bathroom. At the time, I would keep my ringer on so that my board or my direct reports.

If they called, I could go in there and answer the phone because it was a do not disturb. But in the meantime, the phone was out of my pocket, off my person, out of sight, out of mind. Because if it was in my pocket, I would be distracted the entire time. And that was the seed of this habit. Today it's a little bit different. I actually keep my ringer off. I don't touch my phone from 5 p.m. until 6:37 a.m. every single day. And yeah, I've just resolved like my kids aren't going to see me on my phone in my house. Outside the house is all the time, right? Playing Spotify in the car, you know, looking up, playing fun things, building apps.

And Claude while we're in line for Disney. Like, I want them to see the device as a tool for creation, but not consumption, not distraction, not the destruction of relationships with each other. I want to be the most their dad that ever was, and that's just one practical way that I'm doing it right now in the season with my kids.

That's so cool, man. I, I've interviewed 1500 and some odd people on this podcast. I've never heard somebody have that much discipline around their phone. Really? What? Yeah, not not that much. That's that is a killer example. And those those are very solid boundaries. Just how long have you been doing this for? I mean, some version of this seven, eight years.

Wow. What was it hard in the beginning? Yeah. It's not as hard as you think. It was hard? It was hard to accept that I'm not the one that keeps the world spinning. That's what was hardest. Because here's what happened. I would put my phone away and cut back a couple of hours later and realize nobody needed me.

I'm not that special, right? That was the hardest part. It was humbling, right? But now I like love my insignificance. Oh, I love it so much because it allows me to be significant with the most significant people in my life, dude. And so yeah, listen, I, I would strongly encourage you don't have to. You don't have to keep it away from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. like I do today, but pick just like two hours a night from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m..

Whatever. Convert yourself into a landline. Put it out of sight, out of mind. Different room. Keep the ringer on or off your preference. If it's on, turn your phone on. Do not disturb. So only the VIPs in your life can get through. But for those two hours, man, cos you be fully focused on your children and doing the thing that only you can do as a dad, like I.

I can't imagine a more valuable present to give my kids than my presence. I love that man. You know, I've heard this a lot over the years, but, I don't know how you were raised, but I think, you know, the our parents, one of their biggest vices were cigarettes and alcohol. Yeah. Like, that was really common, like I remember.

How old are you, by the way? Are 40. Okay, so I'm a little head of you in life. I'm 51. And I remember being at literally games and it was totally acceptable, totally for your parents to bring a cooler of alcohol and just get hammered during your little league baseball game, like, everybody did that, right? And then they go drink afterwards.

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, you never see that now, but I've heard that these cell phones are what alcohol was for our generation growing up. It it was the thing that took our parents away from us. Right. Yeah. I had one podcast guest told me this that our our kids might not remember us, as parents who drank or did anything, but they'll remember us a hundred like this.

And if you're watching us on YouTube, it's facing the phone, right? Yeah. Like when I'm at my, when I'm at my kids practices. Like, I see this all the time, like, I, I've told this story once or twice before, but like my my youngest son, Colton, when he was, I think 7 or 8, he's ten now. He was playing indoor soccer.

And, you know, I'll have my phone with me, but I'll, I'll usually I'll have a face down just sitting next to me and kind of like, you like do not disturb, but the VIPs can get through. Yeah, yeah. And there was this kid that kept coming up to the glass. You know, the glass that's real thick. And the indoor soccer.

And he was banging on the on the glass trying to get his mom's attention, who was sitting next to me, and she was in her phone just like everybody else. And so he came up trying to get her attention, waving, trying to get her attention. Nothing. And then like, he came back, did the same thing. And then finally, the third time I nudged her, I said, hey, excuse me, I don't mean to bother you.

I was like, but I think your son's trying to get your attention. And she literally went like this. She looked up and she's like, oh. And she goes like this. She's like, what? What do you want? And he was just like, hey! He's like, did you see what I say? Yeah. And and she's like, yeah, yeah, whatever. Go go go.

And then she like, puts her AirPods back in and she looks at me, she rolls her eyes and she's like, God, what a weirdo. Like literally said that. And I was just like, yeah, damn, I was crazy. Yeah. So but I just read you'll appreciate this, sports guy. I just came across a study from this organization called Stupid God that they did in 2016 that proved that kids actually run the bases faster when their parents are not on their phones.

These researchers took 50 parent child pairs. Kids were aged 3 to 12, had the kids run the base on a small ball diamond, and some parents were told to watch stand gate stay off the phone. Others were told to be on their front of the entire time, and when the parent was paying attention to the kids, ran faster and they made fewer mistakes on the base pass.

We are wired to have our parents delight in us. As a Christian, I believe this is ultimately stems from our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Right? But when we're buried in our phones, our kids just perform worse, right? Like it's crazy. We are harming our children in the way that we engage with these devices. That's insane. I had no idea there was this.

I, I I'm kind of. I'll send you a link. It's, it's a fascinating, fascinating study. Yeah, I'm kind of a geek when it comes to statistics. Like, I got a degree in science, so, like, I love data. Yeah. And, you do a medical device for 20 years. I love data, so, like, it was just like that. That's crazy. You know, it doesn't surprise me, though. No. Like, it really doesn't. Like, if, you know, your parents are engaged watching you want to. Your kids want to delight you, right? That's right, that's right, that's right. So, tell me, tell me about your new book. Yeah, sure. Yeah, we'll. We can. Seven principles. So. Yes. So, I spent years trusting Jesus for the forgiveness of my sins while trusting, the world for the accomplishment of my goals.

And that led to a lot of striving, a lot of accomplishment, but in a pretty anxious way. And years ago, I was just like, man, I got to do this differently. I got to stop looking at Jesus as just my savior, but also as the wisest person who ever lived. And so I started digging into the gospel biographies of Jesus life of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And by the way, Christian or not, I think it's pretty hard to dispute that Jesus of Nazareth was the most productive human being to ever walk the earth. 2000 years after his death, a third of the world claims to follow his teachings. Right? And so I was like, man, like, let's just take into these biographical documents. How did this guy achieve so much in such a short period of time?

And the result are these seven biblical principles of this book for achieving your goals with Christ like confidence, consistency and character. But it's not just theoretical and theological, it's also wicked practical. So I take those seven principles and I map them to 58 practices that have worked for me in my context as an entrepreneur, to live out those principles over the years.

And it's not prescriptive. I hate how two books are like, oh man, you got to do things my way, and you got to do all the practices. Know, like you're going to do 2 or 3 of these practices that will be worth way more than the cost of a mission of this book. So it's highly, highly, highly practical. It's a sequel to a bestselling book we had a couple of years ago called Redeeming Your Time. Yeah, that's it man. Redeem your goals, help you accomplish a whole lot more by doing a lot less, and more importantly, doing it in a way that doesn't crush your soul. Can you give me a few examples of like, give me, give me three out of your favorite that are the part of the 58?

Yeah, sure. Yeah. Principle number two. Well, you want practices. You want practices. I will do practice. Yes, I, I might have to steal your bathroom. One for sure, man. Dude, that one's. I've been in there. That one's. I've been in there. But, yeah. It's great. I, one of the practice, one of the 58 practices, is crafting a no template that is unique to you to minimize the amount of time it takes you to say no.

In my experience, the reason why I get sucked down into the weeds of my to do list is because it takes me way less time to say yes than it does to say no to request for my time. Right? And so over the years, I've refined this template that makes it wicked easy for me to say no. It takes me and my assistant now five seconds to customize this template and send it so my tempo reads like this.

It's like, hey, I so wish that I could insert the person's request for right time, but unfortunately my schedule is fully committed right now. I simply can't say yes to you and still make good on the commitments I've already made to others. That said, I would be more than happy to insert small alternative, right? And that template is in the book.

My advice to you is like, take that, copy it, paste it into Gmail is a Gmail template, and put it in your own voice so that the next time you want to say no, you don't have to worry about the amount of time that it's going to take because it's right there. You just customize it and get it done, right.

What else man? Kill criteria. So one thing that's really tough for me is battling sunk cost bias when I'm in the messy middle of my goals. Right? I'm in between the start and the end. When resistance is increasing, results are disappointed. And I'm not sure if I should quit the goal or quit the strategy. One thing I found really, really helpful is setting and sharing kill criteria for that goal or strategy with somebody who's going to keep me accountable.

So, for example, a couple years ago, hardened ad agency to help us accomplish some goal related to book sales. For a while, the ad agency was crushing it. We were doubling budget every single day, and then eventually the ad stopped working and I was losing a ton of money every single day. And so to make sure that I didn't get sucked into sunk cost bias, I went to my team.

I said, hey, listen, if by April 30th we have not achieved profitability on the ads again, we're going to quit the strategy for the agency and just abandon the strategy altogether, right? So when April 30th came around and we still weren't profitable, me, I want all I wanted to do is pick one more month, we're going to do it.

We're going to pull through this month. But I couldn't do it because I had set those kill criteria, shared it with my team, and they were like, hey, you said we were quitting on April 30th and it forced me to quit. I want to be a strategic quitter. The problem is, most entrepreneurs are reactive quitters, right? They quit when it's emotional.

They quit when they think it's stupid. Right? I want to decide when I'm going to quit ahead of time, when I've got my wits about me, when I'm thinking rationally what I'm thinking on emotionally and kill criteria help. So those are just two of the 58 practices in the book. That is gold man. That is gold. Absolute gold.

I want to ask you one more question. Yeah. About being a dad of daughters. Yeah. So I've had many men come on the show and give advice. On what? It's what it looks like to raise a strong, confident young woman. And I would love to know, since you. You're so intertwined and you don't compartmentalize these areas of your life.

How does. How do you you personally and within your faith, what is the most important meaningful for you to raise? Daughters. Yeah, yeah. My goal. So our family's goal for our kids is explicit. It's in a Google doc. We review it all the time. Our goal is to love like Jesus. That's it. Our goal is to love like Jesus.

And part of that is that confidence that you're talking about. And man, I think a lot about within our we have a very detailed framework for how we raise our kids. But I think a lot about that confidence piece. And for me, I'm constantly reminding my girls that they can take big swings in life, not because they are awesome, but because an awesome God we believe is living in and working through them.

My 12 year old came to me about a year ago when she was 11. Like, I want to raise enough money in one year to send two orphans to college for four years. Let's get. And she did it. She crushed it. She crushed it. But it's because for years we've been instilling in her this belief that you can do anything not because you're awesome, but because you are the adopted daughter of the King who is awesome, and that King is working through you to accomplish his purposes in the world.

My kids take some crazy swings, crazy swigs, I it's like one of the greatest joys of being a father. Dude, I love it. How did how did she do that? Yeah, so she did a lot of odd jobs. She worked a little bit in our business where she made a lot of that money. She fundraised online. She sent a link out to other people.

Yeah. And she crushed it. Now, these orphans are that we're supporting are in a country where going to college, a legit college is pretty inexpensive, but still, it's like 12 grand that also raised to send these kids to school. And, like, these girls don't know that we did that. We don't want them to know. Jesus told us to give in secret.

But yeah, man. My kids are taking big swings. Big, big, big swings. I think because they're seeing their parents take big swings. Right? And, because they believe that the God of the universe wants to work with them until all is made new. Man. What? What a crazy story. Crazy good is what I mean. That is unreal.

Yeah, I know, I said I have one more question. I got one more question. Yeah. Your wife's name is Cara. Yeah. Okay. So. Here's my belief with raising young men. Yeah. My wife my wife subscribes this too, but differently. So it's my responsibility to show my kids what it looks like to love, honor, cherish, be devoted, create a safe environment for their mom. Communicate with her conflict, resolute with her, treat her with respect, and to develop an incredible relationship with her so that my kids, so that my boys know what it looks like for a man to properly love a woman.

My wife. Her belief is I want to love your lives. What she tells the kids. I want you to see me love your dad so well that the way I treat him, the way that I honor him, the way that I show respect to him, appreciation the way that I'm affectionate with him. So that when these knucklehead girls come and knock on our doors, the standard is already where it needs to be versus what you're going to settle for.

So for, for for a man who is deep in his faith and such a huge part of you and Cara's life, what do you want to show your daughters? I want to show my daughters Jesus, and not just with my words. I'm really good at showing them Jesus with my words. Cara's infinitely better at showing the girls Jesus with her actions and her love and her grace and her patience and her care. If I if my kids only see one thing, one thing in 18 years of my house and however many decades we get with them after that, it's Jesus.

It's all I want them to see. So how like, I'm just so curious. Like how so get really nerdy. So our family's goal is to love like Jesus. We believe that means five things. If my kids were sitting here, my six year old would be able to recite this verbatim. Number one, we love God with all of our hearts and minds. Strength. Number two, we love our neighbors as ourselves.

Number three, we especially love the marginalized other Christians in our family. We see evidence of that in Scripture that Jesus especially loved those groups. Number four, we love ourselves well. And number five, we love the things that God loves like work, the earth, it's a, etc. and so every quarter we have a process that we go through. We're underneath all those five aspects.

We have a bunch of indicators that we are loving Jesus well in those ways. So it's a whole cascade, right? So say all right, one indicator that you are loving the things that God loves is that you work hard at everything that you do. Right. And we look at those indicators, me and Carrie, together and say, okay, where do we need to focus as a family?

Where do we really need to put some emphasis over the next three months in the discipleship and training of our kids? And yeah, man, that's what it looks like. It's constantly taking stock of how do we think we're doing as a family loving like Jesus? Where do we need to be more intentional about strengthening our Jesus like muscles to show them the love of Jesus more accurately, and then getting after it, man?

And and by God's grace, doing the things that we think God is going to use to show them Jesus Christ in us. You know, not to compare this to a firearm, but it's like the first thing coming to my mind. It's like having a beautiful firearm, but even a better dialed in scope because like those those things that you mentioned, those six things that you mentioned, I mean, those are so focused, so precise, simple.

I love the simplicity of it too. It's not complicated, right? People can remember that. Yeah, but, dude, this has been amazing. I, I love your energy. I love the work that you're doing. I feel like this podcast has needed a guest like you for so long. And I'm so happy that we we got this opportunity to talk.

I want to make sure that the guys can find you if they want more. Like, where's the best place for them to connect with you? Yeah. Real easy. Best place is Jordan Rainer. Com if you go there soon, why don't we releasing this Larry do you know. Yeah. It's going to be the end of October okay. Amazing. We're probably still going to be giving away $4,000 to help you pursue your goals to somebody who, preorders.

The book was giving away $4,000 in cash so you could use it however you want to go pursue the goals that you think God is called to do. But yeah, the book is called Redeem Your Goals. It's available wherever books are sold, but lots of free stuff and a chance to win 4K at Jordan. Com. How do they win the 4K?

I've never heard of a book giveaway like that. I'm insane. Yeah. So yeah, you literally just go Jordan, there's a link to redeem your goals at the very top. Click it and there's a sweepstakes form right there that allows you to enter to win the sweepstakes. Wow, I have never heard of that. Yeah. That's remarkable. We do have for most of my books it kills.

That's so cool. Yeah, man. Well, guys, not to worry. We're gonna have all the links in the show notes. If you guys go to the Edgecomb forward slash 1549 for this show again. The dad. Edgecomb forward slash 1549. We'll have all of Jordan's links. Make sure you check out all of his books. All ten. But most importantly, what an amazing giveaway.

So generous. I can imagine the people that follow you home. You know, I, I don't want to speak for anybody, but they might just regift that money to something bigger and better, because I think that's one of the things we've heard from a lot of people, which I love. Yeah, I love that. It's so cool, man. Yeah. Thanks for coming on, brother.

Yeah, Larry, thanks for having me. You bet.

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