Work Life Purpose – Men’s Roundtable Series Podcast (Part 1)

Work Life Purpose – Men’s Roundtable Series Podcast (Part 1)

Speaker: [00:00:00] 1, 2, 3, 4.

Speaker 2: That music gets me every time. I’m so hype.

I’m sorry. Welcome to the Men’s Round Table Series podcast. I’m your host, Mr. You in the house. We some warriors up in here, man, representing today. We did a poll on the topic that we doing today, work, life and purpose. The grind versus the gift, and this was the runaway winning. The poll smashed. All the other options that I put out there.

I’m like, wow, these guys wanna talk about this. So guess what? That’s what we are gonna do, man. That’s, we got guys coming in through. Good to see you guys chance. Good to see you bc. What’s up man? Going on now. Good to have you guys in the house up in the right hand corner of your screens, the QR code if you wanna be a panelist.

On the future episode of [00:01:00] the Men’s Round Table Series podcast, click on the QR code, get the interview going, get you in the box, man. But beside that, guys can do quick intros, you know how we do it, who you are, where you at, and what you’re doing. Be as quick as you can, and we’re getting to our topic for the night.

Speaker 4: All right, I’ll start. Steve Mayner here in Greensboro, North Carolina, uh, founder of, uh, communicate the Lead Consultant and Strategies. It’s a new venture I’m getting into. Oh, congrats brother. Uh, I’m, thank you. Congrat, uh, co-author of a book. I’m a full-time communications instructor, husband, dad, grandpa.

Speaker 3: So basically you kill

Speaker: it, that’s what you’re saying?

Speaker 4: Yeah, I’m trying. I

Speaker 5: heard that. Good. Who’s next?

Speaker 4: That’s right.

Speaker 5: Should I go man? I’m Dustin Larussa, AKA dl, the Low Life. I’m the host of the Low Life Show where we talk about war [00:02:00] on pride and uplifting humility around the world. Man, I’m just a servant to all, a master of none, and I’m just here to be a brother and walk with whoever’s watching this and walk with my brothers right here on this panel, man.

All the way to the finish line where the Lord says, good and faithful servant. Well done.

Speaker 2: You are one of ’em, brother.

Speaker 6: Thank you, man. Who’s next? I’ll jump in. Um, I’m Jacob Seba. I’m the founder of Modern Manhood. I’m a, I’m a coach for men. I love seeing guys who are willing to step into their purpose, their fullness become better husbands, better fathers, better connected in their lives and better leaders in their communities.

So that’s great. I’m happy to be here.

Speaker 2: That’s a real, that’s that’s a real, that’s a real man right there, y’all. Who’s next?

Speaker 7: Well, I go, I am, uh, rod Corbett, also known as RL Corbett, right here in, uh, Charleston, South Carolina. I am a analytical [00:03:00] chemist, chemist for a engineering lab. Um, also, I’m just a, I just like to motivate people. I, I try to do three things. That’s to cultivate and inspire and achieve. Been doing that for a while, just trying to help people be the best version of themselves by unlocking that gift that’s on the inside of them.

Um, so that’s basically what I, I just push positivity all day long. All day long.

Speaker 2: That

Speaker 7: man is

Speaker 2: positive, man. Who’s next?

I’m Brian

Speaker 8: and, uh, I’m, I’m down here in, uh, beautiful Santee, South Carolina. Um, I’m the owner of Palmetto Procurement and, um, we are in an, uh, commercial industrial power generation. And, um, I am a husband to a wonderful wife, very beautiful, fine wife. And, uh, I’m a Popeye as well, two grandkids, you know what I mean?

And, and I love them to, to, to to life. [00:04:00] And, uh, I enjoy these conversations. Um, iron does sharpen iron and, uh, brothers need brothers. Men need men, and we need each other. And I, I appreciate the community that’s being created here. So I’m looking forward to the conversation. Yeah, you’re a big part of it, man.

Thank you for being here.

Speaker 2: Who’s next?

Speaker 3: Al

Speaker 9: Shit. I’ll go,

Speaker 2: come on here. What y’all doing?

Speaker 9: I’ll go. Uh, chancellor. K Jackson is the name. Um, at Atlanta Georgia. Bestseller author and publisher Educator. High school football coach, um, content creator, you know what I’m saying? Wear a lot of different hats like a lot of y’all. So consider myself a jack of all trades.

Speaker 2: So glad to have you here, Matt. That man sought off the man in America. I thought he was for nothing. Finally got him here, man. He’s here. So chance, thanks for jumping in, brother. Little appreciate you, man. Alright. Bd, you, you’re the last person in here, man.

Speaker 10: [00:05:00] So don’t need to wait. Let’s go, man. What you got? My name’s Brent.

I’m men’s relationship and podcaster. Oh, I can’t even introduce myself today, bro. My name is Brent. I’m a men’s relationship coach and podcaster. I am the host of four different podcasts and my entire company is built around just helping men grow into the lives that they’re meant to lead. And I’m excited to be here, man.

I, I, I love hanging out with you. You know that. Feeling this be true, brother.

Speaker 2: Man, this is a fun topic, man. You guys don’t get confused because I already felt like I, I forgot something in the intro I did. Normally if you watch this podcast at all and you follow us, but you should, if you don’t, what’s wrong with you?

What’s your problem? If you are following us, you, you already know we do one monthly, uh, broadcast every month. Well, every month. One, one a month, right? This month it’s a little bit different. We doing two, but this is gonna be a part one. I know it’s gonna be a banger, I tell by the topic, so it’s gonna be a part one.

Part two’s gonna air on the [00:06:00] 22nd live at 10:00 AM EST If you’re on the panel, but you’re not in that box jumping a live chat, still help us out, man. It matters. You’re getting eyes on the product, man. That’s all that matters, man. I got a buddy of mine coming in from Cali, my double A in here. What’s up, fa?

Jumping in, man. You any, uh, questions or you have from the topics, man, jumping. And we’ll put ’em on the screen and shout you out first chance we get. Alright, so we’re talking about the topic that you guys one and you guys fought for. I’m talking about flood and storage. You guys pull out the worst to get this topic to go.

This is it. Work life purpose. Love to hear from you guys. A few things on the topic, but we’ll get into some questions about this. You guys are gonna bring the heat confident about it. But for me, I feel like when we talk about this kind of stuff, when men talk about it, you talk about men right now, there seem to be a tension between what we do, who we are, and why we do it.

So we’re talking [00:07:00] about your why, purpose, identity, and then the actual work and why if it does at all, why does it matter? So I wanna get into some of that. So here’s my first question for you guys to think about. When did work? Stop feeling like purpose and start feeling like pressure. When did work? Stop feeling like purpose and start feeling like the pressure.

I ain’t got no Jeopardy music. You are on your own guys. Alright, so come on. What you got?

Speaker 4: Well, I’m, I’m a retired Marine, and, uh, there was never a time I didn’t feel pressure because if you were two, two E ones, two E twos in the same room, somebody’s responsible, somebody’s in charge. So I live my entire adult life feeling, uh, feeling that pressure. It’s almost ingrained in marines, uh, your why or your purpose.

And everybody kind of gravitates towards, you know, the direction [00:08:00] that their life is gonna take them. Uh, say later on in my career, the higher I, uh, I got up in ranked, uh, more times I got promoted. Uh, I felt, I felt the why. I always knew the why, but I felt. The purpose. Once I started seeing the people that I had trained, thriving, and excelling and getting promoted and getting recognized, now it’s like, okay, it ain’t about me no more.

It’s about them. ’cause you know about, you know, fruits are known by, you know, the saying, right? That’s how I feel. Seeing those folks that I trained, that I held to a standard that I was super hard and strict on trust the process and make it through. So that’s, there wasn’t a specific time when my, when my, when I felt that purpose, but I knew it when I started seeing those kind of results.[00:09:00]

Yeah.

Speaker 5: Yeah. That’s good. That’s good. Um, I agree with that. When we look outside, I, I would say for me, um, it becomes pressure when our why is found outside of ourself. Um, and when I say that, it’s kind of like, like what Steve was saying, you know, when we forget about our why, when our why becomes, okay, now my, why am I doing this is to keep up with the person next to me, or to keep up with the person ahead of me, right?

Because then you’re no longer identifying who you are. You’re finding your identity in a bar that somebody else has set, right? You’re not, it’s not you anymore. You know? And it’s not to say that, that it’s not a good thing to look outside of yourself, right? We don’t wanna be completely self-centered where we’re the only one that we’re focused on.

But if we forget about our why, and our why becomes because I wanna be better than the next person. When it becomes a competition, right, then all of the joy goes away. All of the, you know, the [00:10:00] reason that, that first feeling that gave you fulfillment where your heart was full. And I enjoy doing this right now.

It’s, it’s like if you don’t measure up to someone who might be more naturally gifted than you. Someone who might be a little bit faster than you, who might be just better at these things, right? You find yourself miserable and the pressure just never stops mounting until it becomes crushing. Um, so I would say that, man, that for me, if I, if I start to compare and compete and look anywhere else other than, you know, within my heart and find the fulfillment there within God, and find my fulfillment and my joy there, right in his presence, there’s fullness of joy.

When I find it anywhere else, all I’m finding is, is a weight that I can’t bear.

Speaker 2: Hmm. Interesting brother. Next, when did work, stop feeling like purpose and start feeling like pressure. That’s the question on the floor. For us.

Speaker 9: For me, I would say, um, [00:11:00] just constantly wanting to continue to elevate. Um, I had a lot of success when I dropped my first book, 14 days in Beijing.

For those that don’t know about it, it is about my experience getting locked up in China for 14 days. Um, I’m pretty sure that probably didn’t shook the room with me saying that I get that shit all the time. But, um, I had, that was like the, I wanna say the highest I’ve ever had or I’ve ever been in life.

Um, especially just creating, I always played football my entire life, so I identified as a student athlete, as a four out player. Once I took that as far as I could, which was division one football, I knew the league wasn’t gonna be in the picture. So now it’s like, okay, how can I redefine myself? Who am I really?

You know what I’m saying? So just that whole identity crisis. Um, and then going to China, getting locked up, writing this book, and then the book having a huge success, I was like, okay, how can I continue to just build on top of it, you know what I’m saying? Wrote more books. They didn’t do as well as 14 days.

Um, ’cause 14 days is [00:12:00] just a, it’s a staple. Um, so it’s like, okay, well what else can I do to, you know what I’m saying? Keep the momentum going. ’cause I ain’t writing books left and right. You know what I’m saying? They coming out periodically. Uh, I’m like, well, coaching people through the writing publishing process has success with that a little bit, but it’s still a lot of inconsistency and inconsistencies with that.

So it’s like, okay, that a lot of people wanna write books, but a lot of people not really serious about writing ’em either. You know what I’m saying? So how can we, alright, what can we take from this and apply to something else, or what’s gonna be the next thing started? Content creating was slow at first.

Started doing numbers and then it’s like, okay, people just got used to just seeing my face regularly, you know what I’m saying? On their time, on their timelines. And it’s like, wasn’t enga starts, just the engagement started decrease more and more. So, okay. Well I, it felt purposeful at first, but now it’s like, okay, people not really even responding to, it’s like, do I need to revamp it or do I probably just need to take a break from it?

You know what I’m saying? [00:13:00] Just that whole. That whole process. So just constantly trying to elevate and try different things and put yourself out there and try to see what sticks and, and build off on top of that.

Speaker 2: That makes sense. Thanks. Chance, who’s next? We’re gonna do worse stuff, feeling like purpose and stuff don’t like pressure.

Speaker 7: I’m gonna speak on that, but uh, I’m gonna go in reverse. Okay. Work for me has always been pressure from the beginning, meaning, uh, you know, you go to school and the reason for going to school is so you can get a good job and you get a good job so you can provide. So pressure has always been there to be able to be that provider, especially once I got married and once I got had a child, we had a child.

The pressure intensified. I need to be able to provide for their needs. I wanna be able to provide for their, their the wants. I, I, I do not want. My family to no lack. I do not want my [00:14:00] family to, I, I basically wanna break generational curses, you know, break poverty mindset. So the pressure has always been there and it only intensified.

However, it began to switch. When I stopped chasing profit and I started chasing purpose at that point, then it began to sw to switch. Okay, what message am I leaving? I, and I always say, it is a good thing to study. History is a good thing to read history, but it’s even better to make history. So what, what legacy am I living for my leaving for my son?

What inheritance am I leaving for him? So then I began to read more because outside of wealth knowledge. So if I can teach him how we, we have a goal that by the eight, by the time he’s 18, he’s gonna be buying his first house. He’s gonna be debt free. No, you know, he’s gonna go to [00:15:00] school for free. But we’re starting to make those, those changes now.

So now that’s my

Speaker: purpose,

Speaker 7: you know, he is my why, my wife is my why purpose. Outside of that, I’m also chasing, okay, God, what do you have for me? Okay. I have ability to write, I have ability, uh, you know, there’s books inside of me. I need to get those out because if I can reach one person, that one person may reach a thousand.

And it’s all about getting his purpose out, which has become my purpose. Uh, so it’s like I say, it started out as pressure from the beginning because that’s what, as men, that’s what we ingrained, you ingrained that you are supposed to provide, period. You are supposed to protect, period. So you go to work to do those things.

A man don’t work. He don’t eat. Pressure has always been there. But now it has shifted from chasing profits to chasing purpose.

Speaker 2: I love it and great comment from you, uh, in the comment section, uh, s enlightenment [00:16:00] kind value to the outcomes that’s, we make that first mistake for sure.

Speaker 10: Alright,

Speaker 2: who’s

Speaker 10: next? You can I jump in here for a second?

And, uh, one of the comments caught my attention. It was, pressure starts when you give resistance and negative meaning. And while we’re on this, looking at this topic, I wanna pose the idea why does purpose and pressure have to separate? Why is pressure a bad thing? Men thrive under pressure, the majority men, and we’re talking broad, broad spectrum, right?

We can’t obviously get everybody, but the majority of men function better with pressure. Pressure does not have to negate. Purpose. It doesn’t have to separate you from purpose. Right. I left my job in the corporate world to pursue something that I’m more passionate about, something that is in line with the purpose of who I am.[00:17:00]

And there are days that there’s a lot of pressure, right? Being a content creator, full-time, being a podcaster full-time, there’s a lot of pressure and making income. I do a lot of freelancing on the side to help pay the bills, yo. And so there’s a lot of pressure all the time. There’s a lot of financial pressure all the time.

’cause I stinking well, do not, I’m trying not to swear in your show. I do not make near as much money as I did working corporate IT guys. Watch this show, man. I know I’m trying to be good. My mom’s watching, but, uh, I, I try so hard, but it’s like the financial difference between doing my own thing and the corporate world is huge, right?

So the pressure’s always high and it’s always there, but it’s not a bad thing. Pressure isn’t this evil thing that’s sent to derail us. Hmm. There’s this thing that is sent to refine us, right? That’s a straight up biblical precedent. I like it. We are built under pressure. God puts us in pressure to refine us into something better.[00:18:00]

So if you’re feeling pressure instead of purpose, it doesn’t mean that you’ve lost your way or that it’s a bad thing. It just means that you aren’t, you’re trying to let the two separate your each other, but it’s not necessarily a this or a that.

Speaker 2: I like it. And there’s a comment from pain enlightenment.

It’s pressure. Bad diamonds were formed in pressure. It’s really hard to, uh, argue that, but at the same time, you know, for some reason we seem to avoid it. I think our very first podcast together, our very first broadcast, we were talking about. While we avoid some of the hard things in life, and that was probably our most popular episode, men were coming out the Woodward.

I was getting texts and emails from everywhere. So it’s like, it’s obviously a, a suchy subject, but we still keep doing it for some strange reason.

Speaker 10: No one hurt. I’m sorry, go ahead. No one wants to hurt. That’s why. [00:19:00] Right? It is, it is a base core neurological reaction. Our brain is designed to keep us away from things that hurt mentally, emotionally.

It doesn’t separate it. The same thing happens in your brain, whether you get a physical cut or you get an emotional wound. The same exact thing happens in your brain. Our brains are hardwired to keep us away from it. So we feel pain, we withdraw. It’s that simple. No one wants to hurt, but sometimes you gotta change your perspective and, and look at, you know, what?

Is pain really a bad thing all the time?

Speaker 7: Yeah.

Speaker 10: Yeah.

Speaker 7: There you go. I, I agree with you on that. And I, I say the thing with pressure is, like you said, pressure is not necessarily a bad thing, actually, like you said, it is a, it is a necessary thing. The problem is, or the question is, it’s how do we respond to the pressure?

And I think that’s, that’s the key. [00:20:00] Pressure does make diamonds, but pressure also bursts pipes. Yeah. So how do you respond? Do you know when to relieve the pressure or how to relieve the pressure? Do you know how to use the pressure to motivate you to, uh, to use it into something constructive? So it’s all about our response to the pressure.

Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I wanna just add really quick, because Brent kind of touched on it, uh, perspective too, right? Is super important. How are you defining the pressure? What do you define as pressure? Because Yes, like you just said, Ariel. Pressure makes dimes, but it bursts pipes, right? You know, when we think about pressure, we can look at muscles, right?

In order to build a muscle, it takes a stretching, it takes a little bit of stress on it, right? It takes a little bit of that tension, that pressure, right, in order to build it. And, and I love what you said, Brent, why do we have to separate the two, right? Why do we have to? I think we have [00:21:00] to because we are creatures of comfort first and foremost, right?

We look at separating the two because who wants to be stressed out? Who wants to be pressed for anything? Like if I’m naturally gifted at something, I’m gonna just go in that direction. If someone’s a little bit too hard, naturally I’m like, eh, let me go over here. You know, uh, we talked about this before.

It’s like, it’s like walking things out in God’s will, right? You know what? I know you’re there, God, and I know you want me to do this, but it’s way easier to do wrong over here, so I’m gonna do that because it makes my body feel good too. I don’t have to hurt, I don’t have to stress, I don’t have to sweat.

Right. So I, I think the, the perspective on it is super important. Um, because if we’re looking at pressure from a negative lens, yeah, we’re gonna run from it. Like you said, Brent, like you said, or like everyone is saying here, we are gonna run from it because we don’t wanna do that. Like, nah, I don’t got no time for that.

Speaker 2: We had the mic open. Were you gonna say something?

Speaker 11: Uh, yeah, if I can. And I, [00:22:00] I love what you guys are talking about right now. I think some great points been brought up here. The, um, you know, the only thing I want to add, uh, in terms of just maybe a little bit different perspective on it, is the, um, where the pressure comes from.

And you know, with me, I’m from that older, you know, gen X hustle and grind type of thing, where your value is intrinsically tied to how long you’re working and what you’re doing and everything else. So putting in an 80 hour work week is a badge of honor, you know, for people who have that mentality. And that’s, that’s how I’ve always been.

So for me, in order to have value to the people that you know, that I love and to myself when I look in the mirror, I’ve always put more pressure on myself to go out and do that than anybody else was ever gonna put on me. And now healthy or not healthy, we can have that debate all day long. But you know, when you’re looking at facts that, that was a really big deal with, with pressure in my life.

Uh, even, you know, now, I mean I’m self-employed. I do this full-time and I’m [00:23:00] still working 12 to 16 hour days by choice now because it makes me feel like I’m getting the job done and like I’m doing something of value. And you know that it’s a hard, hard thing to. It’s a fight and it’s a hard thing to kind of counteract when you’ve been in that soup for so long.

But the pressure, you know, for me at least, comes from me more than anybody else.

Speaker 2: Did you guys help with something on this next piece right here? Because there’s a lot of debate about this and I hopefully this goes, well, I’ll be putting this out here, but tell me in your opinion, what is work life balance and do you believe it’s actually possible?

Or is it a myth? What is work life? Is it, is it a real thing or something somebody made up?

Speaker 4: What do you, uh, in, in theory, uh, it, it sounds good to say that, um, but in reality it’s, it’s so subjective. Everybody on this panel, what [00:24:00] our definition is of work life balance is exactly that, and we have to be our own gauge and not.

Uh, measure ourselves about what somebody else is thinking about you. It, it is, it is too subjective to say it’s, you know, it’s black and white. Yes, it, it is, or no, it’s not. And I think at various stages in our lives, we may find it. And then there are other stages in our lives where we won’t have it. Uh, my instance is my time on active duty.

The, the Marine Corps came first. My wife understood that. My kids understood that, and it sucked. Then when I transitioned to the retired side, I did make a choice to do something that I really, really enjoy doing, which is teaching. It fulfills me. I don’t make nearly enough or as much money as [00:25:00] I could have if I had.

Chosen another path, but I feel fulfilled now. And the, all of the comments that you guys mentioned about pressure. Pressure, yeah. It, you just, you gotta find how much pressure you could take and how much pressure you can’t take and not measure yourself against how much weight somebody else is carrying your, the gym analogies were really good.

I’m not worried about the guy next to me benching 400 pounds because that ain’t me. That ain’t for me. Right. No, I’ve tried that. Now I’m good. I’m, yeah. And we do that to ourselves all the time. It’s self-induced, uh, you know, most of the time, like, what you got going don’t have no bearing on me. You know, God bless you on your journey to get there, but I know what my load can bear, so I, I digress.

Speaker 2: I love that. No, that’s good. That’s [00:26:00] good. Alright. Work life balance. Real thing. Myth. What are we doing?

Speaker 10: Somebody, you might as well have yelled, fight dude. Like, I mean, you might as well as well just like throw that out and be like, fight. Uh, because you’re gonna get a different take on that from any given person.

Uh, I know it Steve Row entirely. Um, and I’m gonna say is not a, after hundreds of interviews, talking to people in every walk of life. The only time work-life balance actually truly exists is if you want to live a life of mediocrity.

Speaker 3: Oh boy.

Speaker 10: Ouch. If you want to be mediocrity mediocre and never excel at anything, then work-life balance is possible.

Can somebody put that in the comments? Is that possible? Can

Speaker 2: somebody put that in the comments?

Speaker 10: I, I know I just like kicked a few people, but

Speaker 3: all around the country,

Speaker 10: but [00:27:00] lemme work this out for a second. Reality is, I had been catched. The best you can do is to be present in any given moment. So I’m, I’m a huge fan of block scheduling, uh, because that’s how I function my day, right?

You and I have talked in the past. I have time for my daughters. I have two daughters. I’ve got a 11-year-old and almost 14-year-old, and on Monday nights from four o’clock till they go to bed, there’s nothing else on my calendar, but it is blocked. You cannot schedule on my calendar that night is theirs exclusively, right?

Speaker 2: I can’t touch either.

Speaker 10: I do the same thing with my wife when we put down a date night, right? That’s on my calendar, just like any other meeting and that is exclusive. No one else can touch that. The best you can do is be a hundred percent where you are when you are right. Make sure that when you’re spending time with those people you love, [00:28:00] you are a hundred percent with them and be the best you can be in that moment when you’re at work, when you’re working on whatever you do.

Be a hundred percent in the moment, but if you try and spread yourself and balance. You will never be great at anything. Mm-hmm. You won’t be a great father, you won’t be a great husband, and you won’t be a great whatever you do.

Speaker 5: Oh, everybody wants to go

Speaker 2: ahead. Go ahead, Rory. Why would, why would, why would you even try to come behind that? But go ahead.

Speaker 11: Honestly, because I’m, I’m just so happy right now. I can’t even contain myself. Um, because I thought when you asked this question, I was gonna be the only guy in the, that was, you know, um, having my, uh, point of view so far though, uh, Steve and, and Brent, both you guys, uh, I love what you both had to say.

Uh, I’ll be honest with you, and I’m gonna throw this out there. I think that by and large, not every time. Not every time, but by and large, what I’ve run into and what I’ve seen, um, [00:29:00] is it’s an excuse and I hate it. And the reason I say that is because I don’t see men doing what Brent’s talking about, which is what needs to happen.

And that is you have a work life balance and you say, I’m going to be, uh, you know, really here I’m gonna focus, I’m gonna be purposeful with my time. What I see is guys going, you know what, uh, I need my me time, man. I, uh, I gotta get to my softball league. Uh, I gotta go, you know, do this for me. I gotta get to my bowling night.

Hey, you know what, I, I need some time, man. I need a little time to watch Netflix and chill alone. Oh boy. You know, that type of thing. And that’s what I see unfortunately too often is that it’s not taken the way it’s supposed to be taken and it becomes this excuse. And the bottom line is, look, you know, I’m not gonna say don’t take care of yourself and don’t take your me time.

But if you haven’t done the them time first. Then you have no right to your meantime. You have no right to time for you if you haven’t taken care of the people who depend on you. And that’s always been a big thing of mine. And I just, you know, absolutely [00:30:00] agree that the, the fastest way to mediocrity and to not taking care of the people that are depending on you is to put yourself first in pleasure, uh, and things like that.

So, I, I just can’t stand the work life balance. Your work life balance is whatever it has to be so that you can take care of the people that you have to take care of. And that’s balance. I’m,

Speaker 2: I’m shocked. I’m shocked that you’re shocked that we didn’t have your back on this topic. That’s, that’s what shocked me.

I just

Speaker 11: didn’t know, brother. I didn’t know it’s been a long day.

Speaker 5: Can I say, uh, can I say I, I agree with all of that, minus the mediocrity part. Only because of this, Steve said it first. It’s very subjective. Very subjective. Meaning what if work is 90% and life is 10%, but they weigh the same. You know what I’m saying?

What if you put in all of this work but your life is so smooth that it doesn’t weigh, you know, it doesn’t carry that much weight in a way that it would require that [00:31:00] much effort, require that much time. Um, I’ll share something that my father taught me long ago, and this is like something that I kind of hold to, and it speaks to subjectivity.

Definitions are attached to people, not to words, because through our experiences we define everything differently. Through our backgrounds, we define everything differently. We might find one thing on this panel that we can all agree on, and I’m pretty sure it’s God. Aside from that, there’s gonna be some nuances that are gonna be different.

Aside from that, there’s gonna be some different lenses and different perspectives. I mean, that’s what makes this panel so great. I think because we have so many different types of people. All have the same goal. We’re here trying to uplift men, build each other up. But at the end of the day, like I, I look at it like that.

I mean, if we look at a fulcrum, right, we can put imagery to it. If we look at a fulcrum, right? The board doesn’t have to be 50 50 split for it to be balanced, the weight just has to be the same. [00:32:00] You know what I’m saying? It could be longer on this side, so we might spend more time over here, but if the weight’s the same, then there’s a balance.

Um, so I would say that, man, like if we’re looking at it at like, it has to be 50 50, then yeah, then that is a very fast way to mediocrity, very fast way. Um, but if we’re looking at it from our own personal lenses, like me, my work actually is part of my life, you know, like I podcast, but I’m also a case manager helping people, and that’s my heart.

So it, it fulfills me in every way, shape, and form. Um, and it happens to pay, you know, so. I don’t find, sorry, Brent. Uh, but I don’t find myself mediocre. I, I don’t, you know, but I do agree with, if we’re looking at it as a 50 50 split and we’re saying, okay, it has to be balanced as everything has to equate metrically, then yeah, that’s a really easy way to be mediocre.

Um, but for me personally, you know, the metrics don’t equate in that way.

Speaker 10: Can [00:33:00] I tell in on that deal? Absolutely. You can be really good at something, but the measure is greatness, right? If you are not willing to be a little bit selfish when you’re focused on a project and just be on that project, you’ll never take that project as far as you could possibly go.

It’s not that you can’t be good, it’s not that you can’t do great work, but you’ll never be achieve greatness in any said thing.

Speaker 5: Okay. I could agree with that. I could agree with that a hundred percent right, Brian? Because the, it’s taking it to that next level, right? So yeah, I agree with that. Alright,

Speaker 2: Brian, what you got,

Speaker 5: brother?

Speaker 8: I mean, first of all, I’m enjoying the conversation, man. This is great stuff.

Speaker 2: You

Speaker 8: like that? Not say nothing, you know? Say that again.

Speaker 2: You wanna say, I say

Speaker 8: nothing

Speaker 2: you know about.

Speaker 8: Listen man, listen, I’m enjoyed [00:34:00] listening to you guys, but, um, I think, I think it’s, um, I know for me personally, I, I I like what, um, what Dustin just said, you know, it’s, it’s, and uh, Steve, it’s, it’s subjective.

It is subjective and so, but for me is to always be aware and mindful of the fact that the life part of me feeds the work part. And I do need both. Without the life part, I’m not gonna be great over here. So that’s where my balance comes in, is understanding where both parts fit together and how they connect and, and, and always, always being mindful of the fact that I need both.

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: And

Speaker 8: then when you, when you live life being mindful of the fact that you need both, then you understand where both come into play and it’s up to you. It’s not gonna be the same for [00:35:00] another brother that it is for me. It’s up to him to find that. It’s up to him to be mindful and understand what that is for him.

But for me, I know what it is, you know? And, um, it’s, it’s really, it’s, and I think Brent was the one that said this, being present in the moment, you know, we might not, we might not get it perfected, but if we understand every moment. And what needs to be in every moment, then we can find that, um, that balance at times.

It may not be there all the time, but yeah, we just need to stay mindful of that.

Speaker 2: I love that. I got a few more questions I gotta get in, man. These are so good man. This one’s gonna be probably the vulnerability question on the broadcast. We always have at least one of those. In what ways has your work shaped your identity as a man?

Negative or positive?

In [00:36:00] what ways has your work shaped your identity as a man, either negative or positive?

Speaker 8: Um, for me it’s in a positive way. It really, it is really putting me on the fast path of creating legacy. It it gives me, it gives me a sense of purpose. It, it lets me, it. You know, I, I, I understand why I’m doing what I’m doing.

I’m not just out there working. Because if you’re just out there doing things and you are tall and you’re not working, that’s where you know you are, you are really finding your, you’re gonna burn yourself out. But the more you are working with the mindset of creating something for somebody else, and, and you, you find your purpose in that.

Because as men, I really believe that we were built and created to meet, to, um, to solve problems. You understand? That’s what we are created for. I believe we, we are designed to, to fix things and, and so with [00:37:00] me and my work, I’m solving a problem for someone else. And now I can use that to create something for my, for the generations after me, and that’s where it is a positive impact on my life.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Speaker 2: Who’s next? You asked that question again. Will you? Of course. In what ways has your work shaped your identity as a man, either positive or negatively?

Speaker 10: My work shaped my identity as a man negatively because I mistakenly accepted that as who I am.

Speaker 2: Okay.

Speaker 10: Not a man. I’d say 97% of men, that’s that.

I’m making up numbers here. Full disclosure, uh, derive their self-worth based on what they do. They define themselves based on what if, if I walk up to, if I was to walk up [00:38:00] to you, one of guys right. As a complete stranger, and I was like, rl, my name is bru. Tell me about you. The first thing you’re gonna lead off with is you’re gonna tell me what you do for a living.

Yep. It has taken years. Years of my life to start to separate and I’m still working on it. This is a work in progress, but I was just having a good conversation with my brother Oliver the other day. He’s a podcaster and we were talking about this very subject. I, I’m doing well, my family is, well, I’m healthy.

I we’re in a great place. Business-wise, we’re struggling. Mm-hmm. Right. Finances we’re struggling. Mm-hmm. I’ve achieved more like my podcast. I got de platformed last year. I basically got shut down and started over, went from a top 1% podcast to [00:39:00] starting over, basically, um, no explanation. Right. The hit to my ego, the hit to my self-worth was epic.

To go from 20,000 plus downloads a month to four or 500. After four years and hundreds of shows I’m approaching, or right at 400 episodes on my main show. I have four shows I’m approaching, I think I’m right at 400 episodes on my main show. There’s a 1.3% chance of that happening for most podcasters to get to 400 episodes.

Speaker 2: Oh yeah.

Speaker 10: That is the, that is the industry statistics, right? So, yeah, I got there. But my podcast is struggling. Right. I’m not struggling. Brent. Brent is good. I’ve been married for 24 years. I have, that’s good. Healthy children that love me and [00:40:00] love to spend time with me and want to be with me. I am blessed.

My business is struggling. Right, and this is the problem. Men get their self worth. From what they do for a living instead of seeing themselves as value. It’s the whole reason I have a show. You are innately valuable because you were born, let me say that to all the men listening, you have value for this world, to this world because you were born, you were made for a reason and the world needs you to get there.

What you do for a living does not define who you are, and it does not certainly that define your value.

Speaker 7: I love it. Anybody else wanna chime in here? Well said. I’m gonna jump on the end of that. [00:41:00] Um, ’cause you know, you, uh, Mr. You, me and you recently just had this conversation, um, to where. I’ve been in the science field doing organic chemistry for about 20 years now, and it all, when someone calls me a scientist, it is like, I don’t identify with that because it is like, that’s what I do.

That’s not who I am and my job. And I get frustrated. I’m at a point of frustration now. ’cause though I, I’m successful in what I do, it provides for my family. The frustration comes because I always felt like, okay, I’m doing this, but it’s not who I am and it doesn’t align with my purpose. So there was always a, a struggle there.

And like I said, me and Mr. You just had this conversation and um, and I always felt it was in my purp. It bugs me. So, ’cause that’s my purpose, is to help people find their [00:42:00] purpose. And I always tell people that what you just said, Brent, I always said that you were born on purpose. With purpose for a purpose and everything that you need is already inside of you, is not outside.

And we have social media, we have culture and everything that try to define and tell us who we are or what a man is supposed to be. When the first place you have to go, you have to go to God. And God says, seek you first. The kingdom of of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Then you have to ask, well, where is the kingdom? He already told you. The kingdom inside is inside of you. So I need to look inside of myself, his righteousness, what does he say about me? And then I define my purpose that way, and I live through that, not by what I do, not by my occupation, but what was inside of me.

That needs to come forth because all the [00:43:00] creation is waiting for the manifestation of us. You know, there is a purpose inside of us, God’s purpose that is for the masses. And I, and I think that’s why my frustration was come, because like I said, though I excelled in the science field, it doesn’t align with my purpose, so to speak, although I do find my purpose in there because I’m helping people while I’m there.

So I I, I’m with you on that all day, Brent.

Speaker 4: I love it. I, I would, I would tell you guys, and if there are any active duty members of veterans watching this, this is a great question because military guys, military people oftentimes identify themselves by their rank and their billet and transitioning from being wound so tight in the military because you address each other by your rank and your [00:44:00] name.

Right. Or you just address it by the bill itself. But man, uh, I had to find, and I kinda was always grounded on, I’m Steve Mayer first. I respect everybody in their rank and their title, but I’m Steve Mayer at the end of the day, and I tried to never lose myself in being defined, uh, by my rank. I am a Marine.

I’m gonna always be a Marine, but that don’t, that’s not all I am, I’m still a regular old dude that’s struggling to try to, to figure it out and, you know, unwind. This the mindset that a lot of military people have, and you have to have it in order to wear the uniform. It just comes with the territory, right?

Man, when you make that transition. And as confident as I was in [00:45:00] myself, knowing who I was outside of the uniform boy, when I took that uniform off, whew. It was rough. ’cause I’m, I’m trying to find how do I identify myself now? Do I identify myself as a husband first or a professor first? And as I have, the longer I have been away from the uniform and doing what I do now, the more I identify first as a husband, dad, granddad.

’cause those priorities really had to come back and focus because I couldn’t give that to them while, uh, fully, while I was wearing a uniform. And I just hope somebody listening to this understands that their value is not in their rank. Because when you take the uniform off, people do not give a shit what rank you were.

They don’t care. Thank you for your service. Get in line you a [00:46:00] regular old Joe, and the faster transition vets get that through their heads, the better off they’ll be. And I think the mental health of, uh, of veterans and the large number of suicides we have in the veteran community will go down if we start teaching these guys not to stop identifying themselves solely as a Marine and their rank and their title.

Speaker 5: Hey, Steve. Thank you for your service, bro. I forgot to say that at the beginning of this thing, sorry, Mr. UI just was really excited to jump in rl. Thank you for that scripture. I live my life on that. Matthew 6 33. Uh, you guys have been talking about purpose For the listener out there, man, that is a good way to start finding your purpose, seeking ye first the kingdom and its righteousness, and all the things would be added unto you.

Um, I wanted to speak to one thing. A negatively impacting thing for me when it came to the job was money. Man. I made a lot of money, [00:47:00] and so when I stopped making a lot of money, I stopped feeling like I had any kind of value, right? So the person out there who, who might identify with the dollar signs on their paycheck, stop it.

Stop it. You’re more valuable than a seven figure paycheck. Right. We’ve talked about this throughout this, the whole course of this thing, man, you are so much more valuable than that dollar sign. And the problem is, is we have a media, we have social media, we have the news, we have all of these different things that point at statistics, that involve money.

You know, money makes the world go round fast. Money is important. We need it for things. We need it to buy things. But that does not define who we are as people. I went through a probably a 10 year stretch after, you know, I made disclosure, this is not a boast, but it, I had a six figure income, and it was great.

When I lost that, I went on the biggest downward spiral of my life. Granted, there was a [00:48:00] lot of loss involved in that, but it started there because then I started being upset with everything that I saw. I’d look and I’d see someone doing well, and I was no longer happy for them. I was unhappy for myself because I didn’t have that.

So it became a thing where I became covetous. I wanted all the things that I once had. And it was like, okay, all I gotta do is get back to that six figure paycheck and I’ll get there, but no amount of money was able to get me there. Um, so the person out there, who’s, who’s impacted in this way, man, just know that you’ve heard it time and time again throughout the course of this, this panel discussion here, you’re way more valuable than any amount of money can, can provide you.

You know, there’s an old song, A wise person once said, more money, more problems. Just consider that, man. You are so much more valuable than that price tag though.

Speaker 2: Thank you so much. C, b,

Speaker 6: what’s going on guys? Man, I’m, uh, I’m soaking it in this [00:49:00] evening. I’m learning a lot of stuff. I love all the different perspectives here.

What’s really interesting though, despite the the different perspectives, is that there is this unifying thread through all of these men. Uh, work is definitionally part of who we are. It was part of. I’ll speak for myself, my inheritance as a young boy. You know, my dad, one of the things he, he taught me a lot of stuff I don’t wanna remember, but there was one thing he taught me that I really do, and it is that a man provides for his family.

You know, it’s, it’s in my definition of what it is to be a good man. And there was never any question that that’s what I was going to be. I was going to be a provider. Um, DL what you were talking about was really interesting because for me, one of the negative side effects of the work that I was doing is that, um, I was making good money in my last job and that job was also sucking so much of my time away, [00:50:00] that it was keeping me away from my purpose, from the creative, uh, urge inside of me that is unique to who I am.

That need that I had to get out and, and work with men to, uh, to. Come alongside them, to walk alongside them and to bring them to, um, the place where they truly could be. And it was one of those things that I almost had to, to struggle to separate those, uh, those labels, right? That that job is, that, that my work is only about providing, but actually finding a way to turn it into a creative conduit and to allow it to be an extension of the expression of who I am as a person.

And, uh, you know, we were talking about work-life balance a little bit ago and I realized I haven’t thought about work-life balance in a really long time. The last time I thought about work-life balance is when I felt like the work I was doing was draining me instead of energizing me. And, um, [00:51:00] you know.

If, if we’re asking that question, if we’re trying to do the avoidance mechanisms, if we’re, uh, seeking out pleasure, um, instead of doing the work, I think maybe it’s a signal, at least it was for me, that the work you’re doing maybe isn’t the highest calling you could have for yourself. So, mm-hmm. Work is definitely a vehicle for me, but I don’t see myself as a coach.

Uh, I don’t see myself, I, you know, first and foremost as the work that I do, I see myself as a creative force, a vehicle for, uh, for love and impact in this world. And the money that I make is a direct measure of how impactful I’m being.

Speaker 2: I love it. We, in the bonus round, gentlemen, last question for the night.

I want to hear from everybody on this one. All right. Uh, and just think about the people who are listening and watching that potentially need to hear what you have to say. Frame it with that in mind. If you don’t mind, please, but. Here’s the question. Hopefully [00:52:00] I won’t. It’s gonna be clunky. I dunno what I wanna say, but it’s just clunky in my head right now.

But we’ve, we’ve, we’ve normalized so many sacrifices in the name of success, things that we had to give up or things that we had to, whether we found ourselves neglecting, was it worth it? Think about all the things that were sacrifices on the road to success, whether it is good or bad. Was it worth it?

Kind of share what those things were, what the, uh, response was from those around you who watched who make them sacrifices. How do you feel about it? Now, kind of just get into that, whether your personal story kind of, uh, intersects with that. So what sacrifices have you normalized in any of success? Was it worth it?

Was it not worth it? Go ahead and share popcorn style, whoever’s first. Go ahead.

Speaker 11: All right, I’ll jump in on that one, please. Um, yes. A hundred percent it was worth it. [00:53:00] Um, I don’t spend any time on regret. Uh, it’s an absolute waste of time ’cause we can’t go back and change anything. Um, you know, if I could have done that, would I have done some things different? I don’t think so. Um, because all the decisions that I made and whether they were bad or good, they shaped who I am.

They shaped who my children are. And, um, as a father of grown children, I have, you know, three fantastic grown kids that have wonderful lives. They’re all, uh, fearless. They’re all out there fighting. And with all of my kids, if they encounter any kind of adversity at all, I don’t have any doubt in my mind that they learned something from watching me suffer all these years that will help them overcome it.

Uh, and, and so, you know, yeah, it was worth it. We’re not perfect. We’re never gonna be as parents who do the absolute best that we can with what we have. And, uh, so yeah. Absolutely worth every single minute, no matter how painful it might have been. [00:54:00]

Speaker 2: Thank you, sir. Before the next person jumps in, drop this comment real quick From our friend and fellow, uh, round table panelists.

I believe that there are segments where you have to sacrifice home life time for a season to complete certain goals. On the flip side, I also believe that that plan should be the exception, not the rule that, so Brother Mark, huge. One of our panelists on the Men’s Roundtable Series podcast. Thanks, mark, for jumping in.

Appreciate the comment. You guys can respond to the comment or you can go ahead and just make your point in regards to the sacrifices. Go ahead.

Speaker 10: I’m, I’m with a hundred percent into it, man. It’s, I, I’m in season of sacrifice. Like I said, I went from a very successful in the world’s eyes. Like I, I made a good living.

My wife didn’t have to work. My kids, you know, we weren’t rich, but my kids didn’t want for anything. And, uh. The last several years have been hard since we chose to pursue this. My wife and I prayed about it, and we thought about it and we talked about we have sacrificed, [00:55:00] right? Mm-hmm. Financially, from an outside perspective, we are in a horrible place, but the trade off is I’m at home and I’m helping men all over the world.

My podcast, I know at one point we were in 53 countries and my wife and I said from day one, if our episodes, if one episode hit helps one person, right? If I can reach one brother out there and say, and it’s what they needed to hear in that moment to take that next step for them, then it’s worth it when you can say that you’ve been blessed to reach 53 countries and hundreds of thousands of downloads, right?

All over the world. I can’t help to say I’m blessed and that it’s absolutely worth it because somewhere out there. Somebody is closer to their wife, somebody is showing up as a better father. Someone is showing up as a better human being because I [00:56:00] got to do this. And yeah, it’s hard, but at the same time, my children, my children are still learning, right?

I hear them laugh. We homeschool our kids, I’ll hear them laughing, or they’ll come show me a test while I’m in here working. Uh, and I get to be a part of that, and that’s amazing. But they also get to see me in the struggle. My children are gonna learn more about life, more about success, seeing me deal with the struggle.

Then they will ever learn from worldly success. So it’s a hundred percent worth it because. When I meet my maker, I can say I did everything I can to try and make the world a better place, to further the kingdom, to help other people and to set the example I was supposed to set for my kids.

Speaker 2: Love it. Who’s next?

Speaker 5: I’ll, uh, I’ll go ahead, Ariel. Go ahead. Okay.

Speaker 7: I [00:57:00] was just gonna say, I, I’m gonna address this comment there, right here at the bottom. Are you sacrificing mindset, as Dustin said, it’s the meaning you give the words is what God gave us. Choice. Uh, I agree with that and uh, and just as, uh, my man was just speaking, because I don’t see na sacrifice as anything negative.

I see sacrifice as something that is necessary. You will not succeed in anything in life unless you are willing to sacrifice. That’s whether you are looking at your purpose, your employment, your relationships, you are going to have to be willing to give certain things up. You are gonna have to willing to mitigate.

Uh, well put a little more time over here, less time over there. Whatever the season calls for, you have to be willing to make that sacrifice. If you want to see success, if everything is always comfortable for you, you are never gonna grow and you’re never really gonna amount to anything. You have to [00:58:00] be willing to make the sacrifice.

It is a necessity. There’s no success without sacrifice. That’s, that’s basically what the ball’s down to.

Speaker 2: Thank you, sir.

Speaker 5: Who’s next? Uh, I, I wanna agree with that and I wanna offer a suggestion to the listener. Maybe we’re looking at sacrifice and confusing that for martyrdom. Maybe we’re looking at it and confusing it for martyrdom.

Because like my man just said, sacrifice isn’t always a bad thing. And like for me, for me on the outside it might look like sacrifice. You know, I might be giving up time that I would rather be doing, doing something else, right. Uh, I’ll use podcasting as the example, like Brent, right? I spend a lot of time, I do it all.

I edit the, the audio, I edit the video, I have to curate the content, I have to do all of that. And it takes time when I could be out hanging with the fellas, right? My service in the church. It takes time. And, and, and I would rather be doing other things at times, right? But [00:59:00] all of that to say there are 1200 facilities across the country, jails, prisons, and juvenile facilities right now.

I get to hear the gospel because I sacrifice that time. And I would do it every second of every day of every week to set people free even when they’re behind bars. So is it sacrifice? Yeah, but it’s not martyrdom. ’cause I do it joyfully. I call it willing obedience, man. I

Speaker 2: think Brent wants to unmute so he can scream.

I think he

Speaker 4: is that, that’s a really good perspective on sacrifice. Uh, everybody is gonna sacrifice something and we all have a threshold to how much we are willing to sacrifice to achieve those goals. Uh, and to answer the question, I wouldn’t change a thing. I have zero regrets. Uh, I, the, [01:00:00] the Marine Corps gave so much to me and I sacrificed so much.

I was willing to do that. I was willing to do things some of my colleagues wasn’t willing to do to get to the rank that I wanted to be. Education wise, I sacrificed a lot and it was good because I couldn’t be doing what I’m doing now if I didn’t sacrifice time and energy, writing papers, recording speeches, doing all of this stuff in order to achieve my educational goals.

So, absolutely not, and I think we as men set the kind of work ethic example for our kids to emulate. Uh, I have a high threshold for work. It was, it’s in my DNA working, providing [01:01:00] all of the things that the gentleman have said earlier that we are programmed to do. I got a extra boost of it for my dad. I wear it with a badge of honor.

It’s just trying to find how much sacrifice am I gonna self-impose, uh, in order to achieve those goals. And without the help of, uh, therapy and absolutely without the help of my wife, I, I couldn’t have made those sacrifices because then she turned around and sacrificed over and over and over and over again for the wellbeing of our family.

So, no rl, kudos, brother. Sacrifice is necessary. That was well said.

Speaker 6: Thank you, Stu. Sibo. Yeah, I, you know, when I hear the word sacrifice, what I really hear is, uh, prioritization, right? I think that one of the most important things I [01:02:00] ever heard is that every yes is a no to something else. So be very intentional with what you say yes to.

Um, I think the question I ask myself is, what life do I want to create? And I have to understand what components, uh, of that future that I’m manifesting right now are the ones that I want to be there and which are the ones that I don’t care for. Um, so yeah, I guess you could say that there are things that I’m sacrificing, but I don’t even really see those anymore because they’re not part of what I want.

Um, if, if I find myself in the place where I feel like I’m sacrificing, I think that’s a moment. It’s a, it’s a signal for me to go back to the drawing board and say, Hey, do I need to reprioritize? Is there something that’s changed? Um, but yeah, as far as I’m concerned, every sacrifice that I’ve made has been worth it.

Speaker 2: Thank you, sir. Chance and cap. It’s the tug of war between you guys [01:03:00] who’s gonna take the, uh, taking the flag here.

Speaker 9: Well, for me it is just with coaching, coaching high school football. I coach six eight football down here in Georgia. And if you know about Georgia football, we take this very, very serious. Um, yeah. And it’s, it takes a lot of sacrifice, you know what I mean? Especially in season, it’s crazy. Seven days a week, literally like Monday through Wednesday, we practicing Thursday, JV plays Fridays, varsity Saturday, we gotta watch and grade and breakdown film.

And then Sunday we beat as a staff to put together a game plan for the next opponent. And it’s just a repeat cycle for weeks. You know what I’m saying? I’ve been going hard since July, late July. Um, and it’s crazy. You know what I’m saying? Especially for high school, it’s like you don’t really get paid like that for real.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Um, it’s just all added the love for the game. Um, but it’s like the impact you have on the kids. That’s what, you know what I’m saying? It’s most important like. Plenty of y’all spoken [01:04:00] or said earlier when y’all were speaking, is those that you are impacting, those you have effect on.

You know what I’m saying? That’s what keeps you going. That’s what’s purposeful you. I mean, especially for the youth, you know what I mean? Not to discredit anything that y’all do with, you know what I’m saying? Other grown men, but it’s like the youth is the future. So it’s like being happy to have an impact on them.

And then of course, you know what I’m saying? You coach high school football, you’re still a teacher at the end of the day, you know what I’m saying? So you’re still dealing with a lot more kids and teaching curriculum outside all of that. So yeah, it is a handful, especially, and fortunately for me, I don’t have a wife or kids, so I get to live, enjoy my life a little bit more.

You know what I’m saying? And I’m probably the youngest cat on this podcast too. So you know what I mean? It is, it has its pros and it cons and it’s, it balances out well for me. Um, so. But like I said, it’s, it’s very time consuming, but it’s all worth it at the end of the day. You know what I’m saying?

Doing this seven years, and we’ve had classes come and go at this point. Um, so it’s been a [01:05:00] revolving door. Um, and it’s like I meet and run into former players of mine, you know what I’m saying? Playing flag football just in life. And it’s like, man, it’s just crazy to see them out and thriving and just doing their things.

Some joined the military, some went on to play college ball. Some just enter the workforce. Some of them fell short too, you know what I mean? You know what I’m saying? That you ain’t gonna reach everybody, but it is those that you do have impact on, that’s makes it all worth it at the end of the day.

Speaker 2: Thank you.

Chance. All right, Brian, I guess you wanted the mic drop moment. You waited, you waited for this, so you waited it out. Well,

Speaker 8: I know for me, um, I’m, and I’m just thinking about me walking away from my, uh, when I was in the Air Force and, um, thriving career making ranked and all of that stuff. And, and I remember.

You know, the Lord telling me to just walk away from it. It was challenging. And I’m not saying it was easy for me, but that was challenging because I knew my career was taking off, but then God was stealing with [01:06:00] me to do something else. And so, yeah, I, I, I, for me, when I think about that in, in the sense of sacrifice, I think about exchange and I think about what I’m giving up, but also to get what is in the hands of God.

And, and I think about it as an exchange. And so for me, I, I let, I walked away from that career to step into something else. And what I stepped into is so much for better. Didn’t feel like it, didn’t seem like it in the moment, right? But as I walked with God, he began to show me, you know, so much better. And so this is, for me, I just encourage men to look at it like this, you know, stay connected with God.

And your sacrifice is just in exchange. You know, you’re, you’re, you’re putting something down to pick something else up, but what you’re picking up is gonna be so much better, and you’re going to see your purpose in, in the journey, [01:07:00] and God is gonna walk with you, man. So be encouraged in it. Be encouraged in it, and move without fear.

Walk by faith and not by sight. Trust God the whole way. Your kings. Your kings.

Speaker 2: Amen. All you guys are kings. In my eyes, man. Thank you guys for jumping on here and doing this. I know a lot of meat left on the bone, just about this conversations about legacy and cultural norms, about masculinity and purpose and providing for our families.

I mean, there’s so much meat on the bone. So we’re gonna grab this thing on the 22nd at 10:00 AM EST and finish this thing off, hopefully with a bang. There’s so much more to talk about. We’re gonna reframe the work on the 22nd. But thank you guys for jumping in here and doing this. For you guys watching and listening, of course, if you wanna be a panelist in the future on this podcast, the QR codes the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Grab it. I’d be happy to have a chat with you. See if we can get you in a box with us, man. But you guys have been fantastic, [01:08:00] man. Thank you for doing all. Thanks deal. Thanks for all that you guys put into this, uh, podcast. I wanna just say this to you guys while I got you here so you can hear this from me personally.

I hope hopefully I sent a message from the beginning what I was trying to accomplish with this. I wasn’t at the analytics, never mentioned data, never mentioned likes or subscriptions, right? I said the only goal I wanted to see happen was that every day when you walk around in your neck of the woods doing what you do, and there’s three to five people that are men that are walking past you, I just want you to grab ’em.

Keep ’em off of the ledge. Keep ’em off of the bridges, let ’em know that somebody actually cares about them. That’s all I wanted from this whole podcast from the beginning. And I’m about to get emotional. I’m gonna, I’m gonna shut it down real quick, but I’ve been getting testimonials so much lately from you guys that are panelists, you starting groups in your neighborhood, men are being [01:09:00] pulled out of the fire theoretically and probably literally two, and, and you are.

I didn’t say this. You’re telling me that they’re hearing this stuff, they’re hearing these conversations and it’s changing their lives. What can I say or do, man? I just wanna say thank y’all for doing what you’re doing, doing your part in your neck of the woods. Man, we can rely on algorithms and rely on having reach through podcasts and social media, or we can put boots to the ground, get the song out your head, put boots to the ground, and try to do something where we live, where we have community, where we have a spirit of influence.

So for you guys that are doing that, thank you for you guys that having been doing it. I’m counting on you, man. Thank you guys for being a part of the Men’s Roundtable series podcast. You know, I loved it. If you don’t know though, now you know. Love you guys. Have a great day. Follow us on YouTube, Facebook, and where you get your podcast from.

Where outta here. Enjoy the music I [01:10:00] love.