October 17, 2024 • 31 mins
Picture this: you have dreams so big they scare you, but what if those dreams were placed in your heart by a higher power? Join us on this episode of the Certain Success Podcast as we return from a brief hiatus and dive into the transformative journey of pursuing God-sized dreams. We open up about the personal stories that have shaped our paths, including the unwavering support of loved ones that fuels our ambitions. The episode is filled with insights on aligning your aspirations with divine purpose and finding joy in the pursuit of your true calling. We're here to remind you that faith and perseverance can light the way, even amidst life's storms.
But what about the battles we face on this journey? It's not all smooth sailing. The episode also tackles the challenges of embracing our true identity, especially in the face of spiritual warfare. We explore the power of naming and how early experiences shape us, sharing stories that resonate with anyone who's ever felt misunderstood. We discuss the importance of wearing the "armor of God" to protect against spiritual attacks, and how reconnecting with our faith can lead to a life of co-creation with God. Tune in as we highlight the significance of community, direct relationships with Jesus, and prioritizing faith as the cornerstone of both life and marriage.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey guys, welcome back to the Certain Success
Podcast, Matt and Joe here.
After a little hiatus ofvacation and hurricanes and
madness, we are back with a newepisode called Dream Builders,
and it's a subject that's nearand dear to my heart, near and
(00:24):
dear to Joe's heart, andrepresents kind of what we do
here in terms of encouragingpeople and helping people to
chase the dream that God's puton their heart.
Not just run a successfulbusiness, but be chasing the
dream, running the race thatGod's put before you and going
(00:48):
and getting it Right.
Joe, I love it.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, it's been a.
It's been a crazy couple ofweeks from, like you said, from
your vacation to us running awayfrom two hurricanes here in
Florida and trying to put thingsback together again.
So I'm excited about thispodcast.
So I'll let you kick it off andlet's see where it takes us.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Well, I'm going to bounce it back to you quickly,
because right before we werehitting record, we were talking
about your stuff, the stuff thatyou're working on in your world
, some of which will wrap aroundyour book that's recently out
(01:34):
Average Joe, the Journey Homebut you were saying things that
are fundamental in terms of thecommitment level that it takes
to chase your dream.
You're dug in and you're likeI'm just gonna figure it out,
like I don't know anything aboutany of the details.
But that's not the way youchase your dream.
(01:54):
If it's a god-sized dream,you're not gonna know, you're
just gonna jump and go um.
So, to the extent that you'rewilling, I want you to talk a
little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well, I think the first thing that comes to my
mind is I am so thankful that Ihave my wonderful wife behind me
in anything that I do.
I've been with her since I was19 years of age.
It's been together for 40-someyears.
And if I didn't have hersupport, if I didn't come to her
(02:29):
with one of these ideas thatcomes to my mind and say I think
God's telling me to do this,and if, every time I went to her
and sat down with I think Godis telling me to do this and she
said I don't think that's whatGod is saying, she said I don't
think that's what God is saying.
Or, you know, go back in youroffice and get back to work.
(02:51):
We have bills to pay.
It wouldn't be a great marriageand in some of these leap of
faiths that I've taken as of thelast couple years have been it
involves being with the righthuman and making sure that I'm
aligned with the right people inmy life.
You know, you and I have had alot of these conversations about
(03:11):
just listening to God andasking God to invite us into
what he had originally plannedfor us from day one, to use our
gifts the way that he designedus and you were just saying a
few minutes ago, before westarted recording, is that you
were having a conversation witha friend about something that
(03:34):
you're building up in your mindin regards to dream builders,
and it was like man and you'regetting jazzed about it and
you're getting excited about it.
And when, when you know.
To get back to where I was lastyear at the end of the year,
when I really felt God wassaying hey, joe, you're going to
write this, this book, this 365day journal.
(03:58):
You know, and, as I said, for acouple of years he was nudging
me, but it really came on strongtowards the end of 2023.
I made that promise and said OK, I'm awake at five o'clock
every morning and I'm going tostart writing, and at the end of
the day, when I'm done with myregular work, I'm going to write
again.
(04:18):
So I would average between fourand five hours a day of writing
and putting this journaltogether.
And it was.
I was I was up at at first, matt.
I mean I thought I was going tolook back at 14 years of all of
my journaling, the thousands ofpages that I've written in my
morning walk with God, and Ithought that was going to be my
(04:39):
go-to cheat sheet to write thisbook.
Not one, not one page of thatof my past.
God put it on my heart and saideverything's going to be fresh
from right.
Here I'll breathe into you whatI want you to write each day.
And from there I started writingand I only had one morning
(05:01):
where I actually had writer'sblock and it didn't last long.
I just walked away from thewriting, probably grabbed, you
know, a drink out of therefrigerator and came back and
sat down and it opened back upagain.
So I think part of the piecethat I've had in this process is
that now I know that that'swhat he wanted me to do.
(05:21):
If that book didn't getcompleted, if that book didn't
make it to Amazon and I didn'thave people surrounding me and
praying for me, it wouldn't havehappened.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Man, you're making me think of notes to write down
and things I want to make surethat we talk about.
Um, people are always like,well, I don't know if I know
what my dream is, and the veryfirst indicator is how much joy
(06:21):
does it bring you?
How amped do you get whenyou're talking about it?
Right, we have had manyconversations about lots of
clients, but one client inparticular where, like, he
started talking about this dreamand you could just see him come
to life.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
It changed right in front of us in video.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
We watched it, but but then he like suppressed, he
was like I could never do that.
That would be irresponsible.
It's like what?
No, that's it.
That's your dream, and I wastelling you, joe, how connected
I am to this language of Paul'sin the scripture about running
(07:00):
the race that God's put beforeyou, and I honestly think that
the metaphor he was making therehas maybe nothing to do with
the way I'm interpreting it, butI think that God gives you a
dream, and whatever lights youon fire, that's what he's put on
(07:23):
your heart to do, and to theextent that you don't do, that
is actually disobedience.
And I'll take that a stepfurther.
I think that you just willnever become everything that God
(07:43):
created you to be If you willnot take up that challenge.
Because he knows, like, okay,I'm going to put you on this
path, I'm going to run you downthis road, and he knows all the
things that are going to happenon the way and like, those are
all the things that are going tomake you into what he made you
(08:04):
to be.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, it's almost as if you know and I actually you
know that scripture I think thatyou're referring to that Paul's
writing in Corinthians.
He's talking about that prize,and the prize that he's talking
about was the prize of anathlete which won't last.
It's the prize he was talkingabout is our eternal crown, the
(08:29):
crown of life that we are goingto win at the end of this life.
And one of the things I'veshared with you in the past is
that when God laid it on myheart to write this book, the
first emotion that I felt andthis might be me, typical
Italian, you know I'm veryemotional, I got my emotions on
my sleeve is I didn't want todisappoint God when I got to
(08:53):
heaven and I want to hear himsay well done, faithful servant.
You did what I wired you to do,and you didn't care if you're
going to live in a van down bythe river, and you didn't care
if you're going to live in a vandown by the river.
You did what I wired you to do.
Mother Teresa could haveliterally lived in a van down by
the river, but one of therichest women went on to become
(09:15):
a saint because she did what Godlaid on her heart to do.
She didn't have to take apassion test.
Passion was love.
Her passion was to take care ofhumans and and I don't know how
to express it anymore to anyonewho's listening to this call,
but when you can wake up like Iwas waking up to write this book
(09:40):
and I couldn't wait to get themy journal open to start writing
that excitement, if I cantransfer that to you and say if
you are loathing to get to yourdesk every day and you're dying
inside, it's time to startworking on your dream.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, when you told the story not that long ago on
the podcast, I think, aboutleaving a job a couple of jobs
ago and.
But you like walked into theoffice and you were just like
I'm done, like you could justfeel that the joy was gone and
it was time to jump and and andyou jumped.
(10:25):
And I think that that's, in onehand, on one hand, that is a
feature of entrepreneurialminded people.
But that's this, this thingthat God's kind of really been
grinding on me lately about, islike it's yeah, entrepreneurs
entrepreneurs jump more easily,but he's calling us all to jump.
(10:48):
He's calling us all to thisleap of faith.
He's like sell everything andfollow me.
That's for everybody, that'snot just for the entrepreneurs.
But we also talked about thefact that in the modern era, if
you say, okay, I'm going to selleverything and follow my dream
(11:11):
and follow God while chasing mydream, there's probably some
vocation there.
Right, it's.
You know I want to go be thebest cake baker in the world or
whatever it is, but there's somebusiness, there's some vocation
behind what you're doing there,even if it's nonprofit and I
guess there's exceptions to thatrule, but for the most part, in
(11:34):
the modern era it's going to betied to.
I want to go build some kind ofrevenue building business and
of revenue building business,and it's never been easier to do
that than it is in 2024, 2025,almost.
(11:57):
It's never been easier to dothat, yet it's incredibly
difficult, as you and I bothcontinue to explore.
There's nothing easy about it.
You need people around you, youneed help, you need inspiration
, you need encouragement and youneed all the tools and lots of
lots of skill that you have todevelop to do it, but yet it's
never been easier.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah and I.
It goes back to what I startedwith and what you just finished
with.
It's the people that yousurround yourself with.
They are.
They are so key because youcould be around people that are
going to suck their, theirvampires.
They're going to suck theliving energy out of you.
When you share an idea, becareful who you share ideas with
(12:35):
, because they may be the veryperson that's going to want to
put their foot on your neckbecause they really don't care
for your success.
In fact, they probably enjoyseeing you not be successful.
So be careful who you shareyour dreams with.
These dreams are so importantand they're given to you by a
(12:55):
loving God that wants you to dowhat he wired you to do to begin
with and I mean and Matt,lately, and as I wrote and as I
dove further into writing,average Joe, the Journey Home.
It made me start going back toplaces in my life where God was
(13:19):
saying that was a nudge.
That nudge that I did in infourth grade when you felt
embarrassed in front of yourclass because you wanted to do a
.
You want to do something goodfor one of the kids in the
community that that they, thefamily, needed help and the
peers, your friends in the classcalled you a brown noser
(13:43):
because you were trying to dosomething for someone that you
didn't even know, and I was likethat was the last thing on my
mind in fourth grade.
I'm like I wasn't trying to dothat.
I read an article in the localpaper.
This family needed help.
I went to my parents and askedhow can we help this family?
And my parents said ask yourteacher if you could do a
(14:03):
fundraiser in school.
I go to my teacher and all of asudden I'm being a whack-a-mole
where everyone's like you'rejust doing this to impress the
teacher.
I was like no, I'm not.
That was the heart that Godgave me when I was a kid and
throughout my life I can pointto those moments where that's
(14:26):
what was.
God was setting me up for thisand yeah, whoop-dee-doo, I'm at
60 years of age and a lot of20-year-olds already have
figured out what they want to do.
It took me a little longer, anda lot of 20 year olds already
have figured out what they wantto do.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
It took me a little longer, but here I am and it's
never too late, you, you, butyou've been doing it.
And, um, you know we talk a lotabout identity and um, um, uh,
if you get to know me forlistening to this, and you get
to get to know me, if your nameis in my phone, it probably says
something weird, cause I liketo make up names for people and
Joe's name in my phone is gentleheart, because that's how I,
(15:05):
how he is, not just how I seehim, it's how he is with
everybody, and which you justdescribed.
The fourth grade representationof that and and so that's part
of this whole dream chaser thingis getting really clear on,
like, who you are.
Who does god say you are?
What's the truest thing aboutyou?
(15:26):
And and then you know,embracing that in a way that you
maybe never have before.
Um, and I think maybe thebiggest thing that keeps people
from clearly, from fullyembracing what god's given them
as an identity, is that that'salways where the devil's going
to attack you, which is what youjust said about.
The fourth grade thing is youknow you were, you were being
(15:50):
gentle heart and everybodyattacked you, so the devil's
acting against you becausethat's your.
He wants you to not embraceyour true identity.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, sucker's been around for all thousands and
thousands of years.
And, as I was saying to youthis morning, matt, as I'm
working on this other project,first one out of the gates, the
devil saying yeah, this, thisisn't your wheelhouse, you
shouldn't be doing this.
And here comes those fieryarrows and it goes back to some
of the things that we've talkedabout as far as the armor of God
, and every morning now, beforeI even crawl out of bed, and I
(16:29):
really suggest strongly thateveryone goes to Ephesians 6.
I think it's Ephesians 6, andit starts around chapter uh,
verse 8 through 16 or 17, butit's the armor of god.
And so, before I roll out ofbed now, I don't verbatim do the
armor of god, but I know thearmor of god is the helmet of
(16:49):
salvation, it's the sword oftruth, it's the uh, it's uh,
it's the uh.
Righteousness, it's the shieldof faith, it's the feet
readiness with the gospel, and Igo through that in a typical
layman's way.
I'm not ever going to be theguy who says I have everything
(17:11):
memorized now, but I know enoughthat I need that armor on and
everyone who's listening to thisarmor up, because as soon as
you start to go for this dreamand you build this idea in your
mind of what this dream lookslike.
(17:33):
Do it with this armor, becauseyou're going to need it, because
it never comes easy.
If you think it's going to comeeasy, I mean well, I mean,
when's the last time you went toikea and bought something?
You had to put it together.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Nothing is easy I refuse to go to ikea for that
reason but uh, no, you're,you're absolutely right, yeah,
and and and I think one of themost uh compelling things about
understanding the armor of Godis understanding that where the
(18:09):
battle is.
We talk about this all the timetoo.
Right, I will ask you all thetime, joe, where's the battle?
And, um, you know, know thebattles in the spiritual realm,
the battle.
So when you were in fourthgrade and you were trying to do
that, that nice thing for thosepeople, those other kids were
attacking you and the devil waswhispering in their ear like
(18:31):
look at joe, he's just doingthis to be a brown noser and
whatever, but that thosethoughts were in the spiritual
realm and so you were beingattacked in the physical world.
But that those thoughts were inthe spiritual realm and so you
were being attacked in thephysical world, but that really
wasn't worth the battle.
They're not you, the kids werenot your enemy, it's the voice
in right but see how long itstuck though.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Look how long that has stuck yeah and that's
exactly what the evil one wantsto do.
He wants to leave those markersof pain in you as a reminder of
yeah, you probably shouldn't dothat.
Don't do that fundraiser, don'tput that on Facebook, because
people are going to look at youlike you're trying to, you know,
promote yourself.
(19:09):
I, as part of part of myreading in Proverbs this morning
, was about when you, when youspeak, speak with wisdom.
Don't, don't put yourself outthere in a way that it's about
you, it's, it's a, it's aboutthe heart and and that's it's
(19:31):
just.
Again, all of this and I know it, I just kind of veered off
course real quick, but all ofit's so important doing a quiet
time every day, putting on thatbreastplate, walking in faith,
saying God, you gave me a dreamand I veered away from itth 2024
(20:04):
, joe, you're going to write abook and it will be published by
September of 2024 or 2023, ayear ago and said, hey, this
book is going to be written byyou.
I would have laughed at you.
Yeah, well, this book is goingto be written by you.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
I would have laughed at you yeah well, god won Well
and you did it.
You know you do things.
You're a disciplined human, andso you do things in a
disciplined way.
Like for me, I would never havedone it five hours a day.
I know there's people that arelistening to this.
They're like five hours a day ohmy God, but that's a big part
of this stuff too is like do ityour way, like if it takes you a
(20:41):
year at 20 minutes a day,totally cool, you know.
Or, or you know, in my caseit's like write like crazy for a
month, put it down for a month,write like crazy for a you know
.
And so one of the devil'sschemes is to come in and go.
Well, if you don't do it theway Joe does it, then you're a
(21:01):
failure or you're never going towin, or all that stuff.
And none of that's true either.
I want to talk about co-creatingwith God, because you were
talking about when you werewriting the book, a.
It was pretty clear that godput it on your heart to write
book, but then your method wasto wait for the holy spirit to
(21:30):
give you specific thoughts andideas each day about what the
conversation was going to be,and I think that that is such an
incredibly important muscle tobuild, and what I've done way
(21:50):
too many times in my life is Iget this great idea pretty sure
it came from God and then, okay,here I go and I'm like running,
running, running, running,running for hours and days and
weeks and months, and it waslike, well, he told me that and
I ran and he's like wait, whoa?
Um, maybe every minute asked meagain what's next?
(22:14):
You know like we should stopright now and be like lord,
what's the next?
Lord, show us what's the nexttwo minutes of this podcast.
What are we supposed to talk toabout next?
And this is like moment bymoment.
Check it.
So talk about that.
How you co-created that bookwell, it is interesting.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
I and I wrote it throughout the the 365 days of
messages to people.
I would always remind them.
I say, just as just you know,big smile and kind of a shout
out.
When I wrote this yesterday, Ihad no idea that this was going
to be the scripture for today.
And look how the two of themmatched up.
And God, smiling at the factthat the two messages back to
(22:55):
back lined up.
Smiling at the fact that thetwo messages back to back lined
up.
And so there were days likethat.
That I was just like I getgoosebumps going.
Damn, that that's impressive.
Well, god's impressive.
But then there was times, matt,where I would start in a chapter
, and it might be, it may havebeen in Proverbs, and God laid
(23:21):
it on my heart You're going tostay in Proverbs for the next 30
days of messages because theyall line up to the next one.
So not every single day wasokay.
This is what you're going towrite.
I could have started aparticular message and God's
like you're going to stickaround, and then I'd go a couple
(23:42):
days into a particular, whetherit was Corinthians or whether
it was Romans, and after acouple days it became evident
that I was going to be stickingaround in Romans for the next
two weeks because everythingkept lining up for the next
message.
So it was cool how it happened.
(24:05):
But when two would cometogether back to back, it was
pretty cool yeah, um, that issuper um.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Last thing, and maybe I'll ask you if you have other
thoughts but I want to talkabout I wrote on my notes here
it's me and I think that it's soto have community of people
that you are talking to,connecting with, sharing ideas,
(24:40):
with getting gettingencouragement from, but, um, I
think we're shifting culturallyto a mode that it's, instead of
being focused on the leader andbeing in awe of the leader and
you know whether it's a coach ora pastor or whatever to back to
(25:05):
the direct relationship whereJesus is my coach and I'm going
to do my thing and and I'm goingto listen to that voice and all
the other voices comesubordinate to that.
Um, man, I think that's areally important part of the the
.
The whole dream buildersmovement, too, is just, you know
(25:30):
, got to get tuned to the voice.
It's really the co-create, adifferent piece of co-creating,
but I guess I want to bring itback to this understanding that
it's got to.
It's got to be between you andthe Lord and everybody else's
voice comes second.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Exactly, and it's just like in marriage.
I mean and Stacy knows this andI know it's the same for her I
love my relationship with Christand God more than I love my
wife, and that's how it has tobe.
And so God first my wife,second children, you know all in
that format.
(26:04):
And as far as again going backto you know, making sure that
you're with like-minded peoplethat really get excited about
your, your dream, and and theyand they just and they're
cheering you on.
Can you imagine being on anairplane?
And my brother has jumped outof several very, very good
(26:28):
operating airplanes.
He would tell you, uh, he wasairborne, he was a green beret,
uh, but could you imagine is,just before he was about to jump
, the jump master looked at himand said your parachute's not on
and my brother still jumped.
That wouldn't be a very gooddecision.
That is operating in a way thatis going to be a crash and burn
(26:55):
.
But because of what?
The airborne and the greenberets, before they jump,
everything has been meticulouslygone through for their safety
before they jump, christ, yourprayer, your trusting, is
(27:17):
meticulously putting thatparachute of faith together
before you jump.
Every one of us on this, youknow that's listening to this
call, has jumped at one time oranother.
Or maybe you haven't, maybeyou've really never jumped, but
your parachute is your faith.
Your parachute is your faith.
(27:37):
Your parachute is your is yourchrist.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Your parachute is trusting that he wired you for
something bigger and he doesn'twant you to jump out that
airplane without him yeah, and Ithink, uh, you just made me
think of one last piece, andthat's this radical dependence
that I've been talking about fora couple of weeks and really
(27:59):
coming to believe that God'syour provider, not in some
cutesy way, but like practicallylike down to like, what am I
eating today and what'shappening next?
Speaker 2 (28:14):
and, and I think you have to come to that heart level
, understanding, to really jumpor you're gonna quit, you're
gonna get afraid and you'regonna quit yeah, life has a way
of, uh, you know, being prettyreal with all of us and, um, a
(28:37):
way of you know being prettyreal with all of us, and it's
sometimes making these decisionsare gut-wrenching and I'll just
keep referring back to and,matt, it's actually something
that you've taught me to bebetter about, and that's to be
and and just listen, for God.
(29:01):
Sometimes I in a podcast, is avery bad example of this,
because you're pretty muchtalking the entire time, but
sometimes we have to stoptalking and start listening.
And I know for anyone out there, if, if it resonated with you
that the angst of sitting infront of a computer working for
someone else doing somethingthat really doesn't jazz you up,
(29:23):
resonated with you and you havethis idea of something that you
love and you want to make aliving doing, then you're in the
right place and I am excitedfor your.
I know you're going to dosomething later on that you're
excited to share later, butMatt's got this dream that God's
(29:46):
got on his heart and I love thename of it Dream Builders and
it's going to be somethingamazing for so many people and I
and I think people will find,uh, what they were wired to do.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yeah, well, you, you teed it up perfectly.
Um, and you know, today's theday that we go public with our,
our first event, and, uh, andsome other fun things coming
behind that for certain success,um called dream builders, and,
um, we're going to run our firstevent december 2nd, 3rd and 4th
(30:19):
.
So it's virtual, it's virtual,but you're hearing this.
Mark your calendars for that,and it's.
It's built for the people whohave finally decided to jump,
and it can be the first jumpyou've ever made, or it can just
be making the next, the nextleap, but, um, you need that
(30:44):
like-minded community around youthat has christ at the top and
that are all making the samekinds of leaps and building new
things, new businesses, newventures, and so, yeah, dream
Builders is going to come tolife in December.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah, excited for it.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Yeah, man.
Well, guys, thanks for beingwith us on the Certain Success
Podcast and we will see you backhere soon, soon.
See you, joe, see you, man.
Hey guys, welcome back to the Certain Success
Podcast, Matt and Joe here.
After a little hiatus ofvacation and hurricanes and
madness, we are back with a newepisode called Dream Builders,
and it's a subject that's nearand dear to my heart, near and
(00:24):
dear to Joe's heart, andrepresents kind of what we do
here in terms of encouragingpeople and helping people to
chase the dream that God's puton their heart.
Not just run a successfulbusiness, but be chasing the
dream, running the race thatGod's put before you and going
(00:48):
and getting it Right.
Joe, I love it.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, it's been a.
It's been a crazy couple ofweeks from, like you said, from
your vacation to us running awayfrom two hurricanes here in
Florida and trying to put thingsback together again.
So I'm excited about thispodcast.
So I'll let you kick it off andlet's see where it takes us.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Well, I'm going to bounce it back to you quickly,
because right before we werehitting record, we were talking
about your stuff, the stuff thatyou're working on in your world
, some of which will wrap aroundyour book that's recently out
(01:34):
Average Joe, the Journey Homebut you were saying things that
are fundamental in terms of thecommitment level that it takes
to chase your dream.
You're dug in and you're likeI'm just gonna figure it out,
like I don't know anything aboutany of the details.
But that's not the way youchase your dream.
(01:54):
If it's a god-sized dream,you're not gonna know, you're
just gonna jump and go um.
So, to the extent that you'rewilling, I want you to talk a
little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well, I think the first thing that comes to my
mind is I am so thankful that Ihave my wonderful wife behind me
in anything that I do.
I've been with her since I was19 years of age.
It's been together for 40-someyears.
And if I didn't have hersupport, if I didn't come to her
(02:29):
with one of these ideas thatcomes to my mind and say I think
God's telling me to do this,and if, every time I went to her
and sat down with I think Godis telling me to do this and she
said I don't think that's whatGod is saying, she said I don't
think that's what God is saying.
Or, you know, go back in youroffice and get back to work.
(02:51):
We have bills to pay.
It wouldn't be a great marriageand in some of these leap of
faiths that I've taken as of thelast couple years have been it
involves being with the righthuman and making sure that I'm
aligned with the right people inmy life.
You know, you and I have had alot of these conversations about
(03:11):
just listening to God andasking God to invite us into
what he had originally plannedfor us from day one, to use our
gifts the way that he designedus and you were just saying a
few minutes ago, before westarted recording, is that you
were having a conversation witha friend about something that
(03:34):
you're building up in your mindin regards to dream builders,
and it was like man and you'regetting jazzed about it and
you're getting excited about it.
And when, when you know.
To get back to where I was lastyear at the end of the year,
when I really felt God wassaying hey, joe, you're going to
write this, this book, this 365day journal.
(03:58):
You know, and, as I said, for acouple of years he was nudging
me, but it really came on strongtowards the end of 2023.
I made that promise and said OK, I'm awake at five o'clock
every morning and I'm going tostart writing, and at the end of
the day, when I'm done with myregular work, I'm going to write
again.
(04:18):
So I would average between fourand five hours a day of writing
and putting this journaltogether.
And it was.
I was I was up at at first, matt.
I mean I thought I was going tolook back at 14 years of all of
my journaling, the thousands ofpages that I've written in my
morning walk with God, and Ithought that was going to be my
(04:39):
go-to cheat sheet to write thisbook.
Not one, not one page of thatof my past.
God put it on my heart and saideverything's going to be fresh
from right.
Here I'll breathe into you whatI want you to write each day.
And from there I started writingand I only had one morning
(05:01):
where I actually had writer'sblock and it didn't last long.
I just walked away from thewriting, probably grabbed, you
know, a drink out of therefrigerator and came back and
sat down and it opened back upagain.
So I think part of the piecethat I've had in this process is
that now I know that that'swhat he wanted me to do.
(05:21):
If that book didn't getcompleted, if that book didn't
make it to Amazon and I didn'thave people surrounding me and
praying for me, it wouldn't havehappened.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Man, you're making me think of notes to write down
and things I want to make surethat we talk about.
Um, people are always like,well, I don't know if I know
what my dream is, and the veryfirst indicator is how much joy
(06:21):
does it bring you?
How amped do you get whenyou're talking about it?
Right, we have had manyconversations about lots of
clients, but one client inparticular where, like, he
started talking about this dreamand you could just see him come
to life.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
It changed right in front of us in video.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
We watched it, but but then he like suppressed, he
was like I could never do that.
That would be irresponsible.
It's like what?
No, that's it.
That's your dream, and I wastelling you, joe, how connected
I am to this language of Paul'sin the scripture about running
(07:00):
the race that God's put beforeyou, and I honestly think that
the metaphor he was making therehas maybe nothing to do with
the way I'm interpreting it, butI think that God gives you a
dream, and whatever lights youon fire, that's what he's put on
(07:23):
your heart to do, and to theextent that you don't do, that
is actually disobedience.
And I'll take that a stepfurther.
I think that you just willnever become everything that God
(07:43):
created you to be If you willnot take up that challenge.
Because he knows, like, okay,I'm going to put you on this
path, I'm going to run you downthis road, and he knows all the
things that are going to happenon the way and like, those are
all the things that are going tomake you into what he made you
(08:04):
to be.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, it's almost as if you know and I actually you
know that scripture I think thatyou're referring to that Paul's
writing in Corinthians.
He's talking about that prize,and the prize that he's talking
about was the prize of anathlete which won't last.
It's the prize he was talkingabout is our eternal crown, the
(08:29):
crown of life that we are goingto win at the end of this life.
And one of the things I'veshared with you in the past is
that when God laid it on myheart to write this book, the
first emotion that I felt andthis might be me, typical
Italian, you know I'm veryemotional, I got my emotions on
my sleeve is I didn't want todisappoint God when I got to
(08:53):
heaven and I want to hear himsay well done, faithful servant.
You did what I wired you to do,and you didn't care if you're
going to live in a van down bythe river, and you didn't care
if you're going to live in a vandown by the river.
You did what I wired you to do.
Mother Teresa could haveliterally lived in a van down by
the river, but one of therichest women went on to become
(09:15):
a saint because she did what Godlaid on her heart to do.
She didn't have to take apassion test.
Passion was love.
Her passion was to take care ofhumans and and I don't know how
to express it anymore to anyonewho's listening to this call,
but when you can wake up like Iwas waking up to write this book
(09:40):
and I couldn't wait to get themy journal open to start writing
that excitement, if I cantransfer that to you and say if
you are loathing to get to yourdesk every day and you're dying
inside, it's time to startworking on your dream.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, when you told the story not that long ago on
the podcast, I think, aboutleaving a job a couple of jobs
ago and.
But you like walked into theoffice and you were just like
I'm done, like you could justfeel that the joy was gone and
it was time to jump and and andyou jumped.
(10:25):
And I think that that's, in onehand, on one hand, that is a
feature of entrepreneurialminded people.
But that's this, this thingthat God's kind of really been
grinding on me lately about, islike it's yeah, entrepreneurs
entrepreneurs jump more easily,but he's calling us all to jump.
(10:48):
He's calling us all to thisleap of faith.
He's like sell everything andfollow me.
That's for everybody, that'snot just for the entrepreneurs.
But we also talked about thefact that in the modern era, if
you say, okay, I'm going to selleverything and follow my dream
(11:11):
and follow God while chasing mydream, there's probably some
vocation there.
Right, it's.
You know I want to go be thebest cake baker in the world or
whatever it is, but there's somebusiness, there's some vocation
behind what you're doing there,even if it's nonprofit and I
guess there's exceptions to thatrule, but for the most part, in
(11:34):
the modern era it's going to betied to.
I want to go build some kind ofrevenue building business and
of revenue building business,and it's never been easier to do
that than it is in 2024, 2025,almost.
(11:57):
It's never been easier to dothat, yet it's incredibly
difficult, as you and I bothcontinue to explore.
There's nothing easy about it.
You need people around you, youneed help, you need inspiration
, you need encouragement and youneed all the tools and lots of
lots of skill that you have todevelop to do it, but yet it's
never been easier.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah and I.
It goes back to what I startedwith and what you just finished
with.
It's the people that yousurround yourself with.
They are.
They are so key because youcould be around people that are
going to suck their, theirvampires.
They're going to suck theliving energy out of you.
When you share an idea, becareful who you share ideas with
(12:35):
, because they may be the veryperson that's going to want to
put their foot on your neckbecause they really don't care
for your success.
In fact, they probably enjoyseeing you not be successful.
So be careful who you shareyour dreams with.
These dreams are so importantand they're given to you by a
(12:55):
loving God that wants you to dowhat he wired you to do to begin
with and I mean and Matt,lately, and as I wrote and as I
dove further into writing,average Joe, the Journey Home.
It made me start going back toplaces in my life where God was
(13:19):
saying that was a nudge.
That nudge that I did in infourth grade when you felt
embarrassed in front of yourclass because you wanted to do a
.
You want to do something goodfor one of the kids in the
community that that they, thefamily, needed help and the
peers, your friends in the classcalled you a brown noser
(13:43):
because you were trying to dosomething for someone that you
didn't even know, and I was likethat was the last thing on my
mind in fourth grade.
I'm like I wasn't trying to dothat.
I read an article in the localpaper.
This family needed help.
I went to my parents and askedhow can we help this family?
And my parents said ask yourteacher if you could do a
(14:03):
fundraiser in school.
I go to my teacher and all of asudden I'm being a whack-a-mole
where everyone's like you'rejust doing this to impress the
teacher.
I was like no, I'm not.
That was the heart that Godgave me when I was a kid and
throughout my life I can pointto those moments where that's
(14:26):
what was.
God was setting me up for thisand yeah, whoop-dee-doo, I'm at
60 years of age and a lot of20-year-olds already have
figured out what they want to do.
It took me a little longer, anda lot of 20 year olds already
have figured out what they wantto do.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
It took me a little longer, but here I am and it's
never too late, you, you, butyou've been doing it.
And, um, you know we talk a lotabout identity and um, um, uh,
if you get to know me forlistening to this, and you get
to get to know me, if your nameis in my phone, it probably says
something weird, cause I liketo make up names for people and
Joe's name in my phone is gentleheart, because that's how I,
(15:05):
how he is, not just how I seehim, it's how he is with
everybody, and which you justdescribed.
The fourth grade representationof that and and so that's part
of this whole dream chaser thingis getting really clear on,
like, who you are.
Who does god say you are?
What's the truest thing aboutyou?
(15:26):
And and then you know,embracing that in a way that you
maybe never have before.
Um, and I think maybe thebiggest thing that keeps people
from clearly, from fullyembracing what god's given them
as an identity, is that that'salways where the devil's going
to attack you, which is what youjust said about.
The fourth grade thing is youknow you were, you were being
(15:50):
gentle heart and everybodyattacked you, so the devil's
acting against you becausethat's your.
He wants you to not embraceyour true identity.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, sucker's been around for all thousands and
thousands of years.
And, as I was saying to youthis morning, matt, as I'm
working on this other project,first one out of the gates, the
devil saying yeah, this, thisisn't your wheelhouse, you
shouldn't be doing this.
And here comes those fieryarrows and it goes back to some
of the things that we've talkedabout as far as the armor of God
, and every morning now, beforeI even crawl out of bed, and I
(16:29):
really suggest strongly thateveryone goes to Ephesians 6.
I think it's Ephesians 6, andit starts around chapter uh,
verse 8 through 16 or 17, butit's the armor of god.
And so, before I roll out ofbed now, I don't verbatim do the
armor of god, but I know thearmor of god is the helmet of
(16:49):
salvation, it's the sword oftruth, it's the uh, it's uh,
it's the uh.
Righteousness, it's the shieldof faith, it's the feet
readiness with the gospel, and Igo through that in a typical
layman's way.
I'm not ever going to be theguy who says I have everything
(17:11):
memorized now, but I know enoughthat I need that armor on and
everyone who's listening to thisarmor up, because as soon as
you start to go for this dreamand you build this idea in your
mind of what this dream lookslike.
(17:33):
Do it with this armor, becauseyou're going to need it, because
it never comes easy.
If you think it's going to comeeasy, I mean well, I mean,
when's the last time you went toikea and bought something?
You had to put it together.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Nothing is easy I refuse to go to ikea for that
reason but uh, no, you're,you're absolutely right, yeah,
and and and I think one of themost uh compelling things about
understanding the armor of Godis understanding that where the
(18:09):
battle is.
We talk about this all the timetoo.
Right, I will ask you all thetime, joe, where's the battle?
And, um, you know, know thebattles in the spiritual realm,
the battle.
So when you were in fourthgrade and you were trying to do
that, that nice thing for thosepeople, those other kids were
attacking you and the devil waswhispering in their ear like
(18:31):
look at joe, he's just doingthis to be a brown noser and
whatever, but that thosethoughts were in the spiritual
realm and so you were beingattacked in the physical world.
But that those thoughts were inthe spiritual realm and so you
were being attacked in thephysical world, but that really
wasn't worth the battle.
They're not you, the kids werenot your enemy, it's the voice
in right but see how long itstuck though.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Look how long that has stuck yeah and that's
exactly what the evil one wantsto do.
He wants to leave those markersof pain in you as a reminder of
yeah, you probably shouldn't dothat.
Don't do that fundraiser, don'tput that on Facebook, because
people are going to look at youlike you're trying to, you know,
promote yourself.
(19:09):
I, as part of part of myreading in Proverbs this morning
, was about when you, when youspeak, speak with wisdom.
Don't, don't put yourself outthere in a way that it's about
you, it's, it's a, it's aboutthe heart and and that's it's
(19:31):
just.
Again, all of this and I know it, I just kind of veered off
course real quick, but all ofit's so important doing a quiet
time every day, putting on thatbreastplate, walking in faith,
saying God, you gave me a dreamand I veered away from itth 2024
(20:04):
, joe, you're going to write abook and it will be published by
September of 2024 or 2023, ayear ago and said, hey, this
book is going to be written byyou.
I would have laughed at you.
Yeah, well, this book is goingto be written by you.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
I would have laughed at you yeah well, god won Well
and you did it.
You know you do things.
You're a disciplined human, andso you do things in a
disciplined way.
Like for me, I would never havedone it five hours a day.
I know there's people that arelistening to this.
They're like five hours a day ohmy God, but that's a big part
of this stuff too is like do ityour way, like if it takes you a
(20:41):
year at 20 minutes a day,totally cool, you know.
Or, or you know, in my caseit's like write like crazy for a
month, put it down for a month,write like crazy for a you know
.
And so one of the devil'sschemes is to come in and go.
Well, if you don't do it theway Joe does it, then you're a
(21:01):
failure or you're never going towin, or all that stuff.
And none of that's true either.
I want to talk about co-creatingwith God, because you were
talking about when you werewriting the book, a.
It was pretty clear that godput it on your heart to write
book, but then your method wasto wait for the holy spirit to
(21:30):
give you specific thoughts andideas each day about what the
conversation was going to be,and I think that that is such an
incredibly important muscle tobuild, and what I've done way
(21:50):
too many times in my life is Iget this great idea pretty sure
it came from God and then, okay,here I go and I'm like running,
running, running, running,running for hours and days and
weeks and months, and it waslike, well, he told me that and
I ran and he's like wait, whoa?
Um, maybe every minute asked meagain what's next?
(22:14):
You know like we should stopright now and be like lord,
what's the next?
Lord, show us what's the nexttwo minutes of this podcast.
What are we supposed to talk toabout next?
And this is like moment bymoment.
Check it.
So talk about that.
How you co-created that bookwell, it is interesting.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
I and I wrote it throughout the the 365 days of
messages to people.
I would always remind them.
I say, just as just you know,big smile and kind of a shout
out.
When I wrote this yesterday, Ihad no idea that this was going
to be the scripture for today.
And look how the two of themmatched up.
And God, smiling at the factthat the two messages back to
(22:55):
back lined up.
Smiling at the fact that thetwo messages back to back lined
up.
And so there were days likethat.
That I was just like I getgoosebumps going.
Damn, that that's impressive.
Well, god's impressive.
But then there was times, matt,where I would start in a chapter
, and it might be, it may havebeen in Proverbs, and God laid
(23:21):
it on my heart You're going tostay in Proverbs for the next 30
days of messages because theyall line up to the next one.
So not every single day wasokay.
This is what you're going towrite.
I could have started aparticular message and God's
like you're going to stickaround, and then I'd go a couple
(23:42):
days into a particular, whetherit was Corinthians or whether
it was Romans, and after acouple days it became evident
that I was going to be stickingaround in Romans for the next
two weeks because everythingkept lining up for the next
message.
So it was cool how it happened.
(24:05):
But when two would cometogether back to back, it was
pretty cool yeah, um, that issuper um.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Last thing, and maybe I'll ask you if you have other
thoughts but I want to talkabout I wrote on my notes here
it's me and I think that it's soto have community of people
that you are talking to,connecting with, sharing ideas,
(24:40):
with getting gettingencouragement from, but, um, I
think we're shifting culturallyto a mode that it's, instead of
being focused on the leader andbeing in awe of the leader and
you know whether it's a coach ora pastor or whatever to back to
(25:05):
the direct relationship whereJesus is my coach and I'm going
to do my thing and and I'm goingto listen to that voice and all
the other voices comesubordinate to that.
Um, man, I think that's areally important part of the the
.
The whole dream buildersmovement, too, is just, you know
(25:30):
, got to get tuned to the voice.
It's really the co-create, adifferent piece of co-creating,
but I guess I want to bring itback to this understanding that
it's got to.
It's got to be between you andthe Lord and everybody else's
voice comes second.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Exactly, and it's just like in marriage.
I mean and Stacy knows this andI know it's the same for her I
love my relationship with Christand God more than I love my
wife, and that's how it has tobe.
And so God first my wife,second children, you know all in
that format.
(26:04):
And as far as again going backto you know, making sure that
you're with like-minded peoplethat really get excited about
your, your dream, and and theyand they just and they're
cheering you on.
Can you imagine being on anairplane?
And my brother has jumped outof several very, very good
(26:28):
operating airplanes.
He would tell you, uh, he wasairborne, he was a green beret,
uh, but could you imagine is,just before he was about to jump
, the jump master looked at himand said your parachute's not on
and my brother still jumped.
That wouldn't be a very gooddecision.
That is operating in a way thatis going to be a crash and burn
(26:55):
.
But because of what?
The airborne and the greenberets, before they jump,
everything has been meticulouslygone through for their safety
before they jump, christ, yourprayer, your trusting, is
(27:17):
meticulously putting thatparachute of faith together
before you jump.
Every one of us on this, youknow that's listening to this
call, has jumped at one time oranother.
Or maybe you haven't, maybeyou've really never jumped, but
your parachute is your faith.
Your parachute is your faith.
(27:37):
Your parachute is your is yourchrist.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Your parachute is trusting that he wired you for
something bigger and he doesn'twant you to jump out that
airplane without him yeah, and Ithink, uh, you just made me
think of one last piece, andthat's this radical dependence
that I've been talking about fora couple of weeks and really
(27:59):
coming to believe that God'syour provider, not in some
cutesy way, but like practicallylike down to like, what am I
eating today and what'shappening next?
Speaker 2 (28:14):
and, and I think you have to come to that heart level
, understanding, to really jumpor you're gonna quit, you're
gonna get afraid and you'regonna quit yeah, life has a way
of, uh, you know, being prettyreal with all of us and, um, a
(28:37):
way of you know being prettyreal with all of us, and it's
sometimes making these decisionsare gut-wrenching and I'll just
keep referring back to and,matt, it's actually something
that you've taught me to bebetter about, and that's to be
and and just listen, for God.
(29:01):
Sometimes I in a podcast, is avery bad example of this,
because you're pretty muchtalking the entire time, but
sometimes we have to stoptalking and start listening.
And I know for anyone out there, if, if it resonated with you
that the angst of sitting infront of a computer working for
someone else doing somethingthat really doesn't jazz you up,
(29:23):
resonated with you and you havethis idea of something that you
love and you want to make aliving doing, then you're in the
right place and I am excitedfor your.
I know you're going to dosomething later on that you're
excited to share later, butMatt's got this dream that God's
(29:46):
got on his heart and I love thename of it Dream Builders and
it's going to be somethingamazing for so many people and I
and I think people will find,uh, what they were wired to do.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yeah, well, you, you teed it up perfectly.
Um, and you know, today's theday that we go public with our,
our first event, and, uh, andsome other fun things coming
behind that for certain success,um called dream builders, and,
um, we're going to run our firstevent december 2nd, 3rd and 4th
(30:19):
.
So it's virtual, it's virtual,but you're hearing this.
Mark your calendars for that,and it's.
It's built for the people whohave finally decided to jump,
and it can be the first jumpyou've ever made, or it can just
be making the next, the nextleap, but, um, you need that
(30:44):
like-minded community around youthat has christ at the top and
that are all making the samekinds of leaps and building new
things, new businesses, newventures, and so, yeah, dream
Builders is going to come tolife in December.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah, excited for it.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Yeah, man.
Well, guys, thanks for beingwith us on the Certain Success
Podcast and we will see you backhere soon, soon.
See you, joe, see you, man.
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