Your Worst Moments Are Building Your Strongest Self For Men with Garr Russell

In this episode of the Revolutionary Man podcast, host Alain Dumonceaux delves into the transformative journey of Garr Russell, a faith-driven entrepreneur. Key points discussed include overcoming despair and addiction, using faith to find purpose, understanding and confronting childhood lies, the importance of stones of remembrance, and the growth of his RV rental business during times of adversity. If you're seeking inspiration to turn your setbacks into setups, this episode is a must-listen. Join us and explore how Garr's story can inspire your own path to living with faith, courage, and integrity.

Key moments in this episode:
05:47 Faith and Entrepreneurship: Overcoming Lies
08:18 From Pain to Purpose: Garr's Story
16:30 Building a Business Through Faith
20:33 Struggles with Alcohol and COVID
24:15 Repentance, Reconciliation, and Restoration
27:06 Faith, Hope, and Overcoming Challenges
31:38 Balancing Life and Preparedness
36:29 Life Happens For You, Not To You
38:03 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

How to reach Garr:
Website: https://garrrussell.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garr.russell
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garrjrussull
Book: My+HIS-Story - https://myhisstory.com/

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening: Pain, Purpose, Redemption
• 1:16 Mission Of Revolutionary Man
• 2:45 Meet Gar Russell And His Work
• 4:05 Defining The Hero’s Journey Moments
• 5:16 Faith Threaded Through A Messy Past
• 7:02 Exposing Childhood Lies And Finding Truth
• 10:52 A Fifth-Grade Label Reframed
• 14:15 From Pain To Purpose In Business
• 18:20 The RV Gift That Sparked A Franchise
• 21:10 COVID Coma, Drinking, And Passivity
• 25:05 Repentance, Reconciliation, Restoration
• 28:10 Stones Of Remembrance And Hope
• 32:30 Boredom, Reflection, And Clarity
• 33:55 All Work Works: Entrepreneur Mindset
• 37:05 Life Happens For You, Not To You
• 39:20 Closing Challenge And Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:00

Life can break us in unexpected ways. And maybe it's a business that collapses, it's a marriage that struggles, or a season where we're down and our pain and distractions. And we just know that they're slowly destroying us from the inside. And for many men, this weight of fear, of shame, and of disappointment, it builds until it feels impossible for us to move forward. But what if those very failures could become the foundation for something so much greater? And what if your story of brokenness was really the beginning of God's story of redemption in your life? And so today we're going to explore faith and courage and surrender. And we can transform our setbacks into the setups for our purpose. And so if you've ever felt stuck in the pain of your past, and I think this episode might be for you. So take a moment, smash that like button, subscribe, and leave a comment with your own reflections. And don't keep this to yourself, gentlemen. Share this episode with maybe with a brother or a friend, someone who needs some encouragement today, because it's going to be your engagement. It's going to help us spread this movement and equip more men to live with faith, courage, and integrity. And with that, let's get on with today's episode.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16

The average man today is sleepwalking through life. Many never reaching their true potential, let alone never crossing the finished line to living a purposeful life. Yet the hunger still exists, albeit buried amidst discuttered mind, dispatted beliefs, and values that no longer serve him. It's time to align yourself for greatness. It's time to become a revolutionary man. Stay strong, my brother.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45

Welcome everyone to the Revolutionary Man Podcast. I'm the founder of the Awakened Man movement and your host, Alan DeMonso. Before we get started, I just want to ask you a couple of questions. Have you ever looked back on the hardest chapters of your life and wondered if God is weaving something redemptive through them? And then if you thought of that, what lies have you been believing about yourself that may be holding you back from the freedom and truth of who you were actually created to be? All of us have a story that we carry of both brokenness but also with some beauty. And the real question is whether we are allowing ourselves to fear, be feel this fear of shame and allowing that to define us. Or are we willing to step into the faith that transforms pain into purpose? And today, my guest is going to talk a lot about that. And so Gar Russell is a faith-driven entrepreneur. He's an author, husband, and father of four. Excuse me. And he's also the founder of the Bireside RV Rental and National Franchise, helping families and entrepreneurs entrepreneurs find freedom and flexibility. He also owns Gladys's restaurant. Hey, I'm a restaurant guy myself, so can't wait to talk a little bit about that today. And he's a beloved local diner rooted deeply into his community. And so Gar has authored so many books, including My His Story and My Wheel Estate Story, where he shares his journey of overcoming addiction, setbacks, and business failures while learning to walk boldly with God's calling. And so today he's mentoring this next generation of kingdom-minded entrepreneurs and leaders, helping them to embrace faith over fear and then align with purpose and build legacies that impact eternity. And with that, welcome to the show, Gar. How are things, my friend?

SPEAKER_01: 3:35

Man, things are awesome. Thanks. What a beautiful introduction to the show, to our talk today. I literally just connected my last two books, both start with the word my real estate, my history. I don't know, they never connected in my brain that they both start with my story. And I love how my story can be used to connect and help other people in their story. So thanks for having me on, brother.

SPEAKER_02: 4:01

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm positive that is exactly what will transpire today. And to in our world here in this and the Revolutionary Man podcast, we always ask our guests to talk about their redemption story, their hero's quest moment, that moment where you know that your life had to change. And tell us about what how what happened to you at that moment and how that shaped you into the man you are today and the mission that you're on.

SPEAKER_01: 4:26

Yeah, what a great question. And I've come to realize the last couple of years, I've had several of those heroes moments. One in my walk with the Lord, one in just reconciling things that happened to me in my past, one as a Christian entrepreneur. And so it isn't, it's just, I just watched Superman with my kids last night, and it was like this new age sci-fi. And I'm like, what number Superman even is this? All these heroes' journeys that we're constantly going through, and just one level to the next. And yeah, most recently it was really solidifying what I call, I walked through what I call my COVID coma to my COVID comeback, and really the Lord just using that to solidify who I'm called to serve in the marketplace, which is Christian entrepreneurs. So that's my most recent hero's journey that I've gone through.

SPEAKER_02: 5:17

Yeah, let's let me tell you that lots of us have struggled through this COVID coma. I haven't heard it put that way. That's exactly what it's been. And it has challenged us to look at life from a different perspective and to finally, as men, we tend to live this lone wolf mentality. And I can do it myself because that's my sense of strength. But when we realize that with we need to be guided and are guided by something much more greater, much greater than who we are, and we tend to live much, much with a lot more purpose. And so you talk a lot about God and how He's been showing up in your life and how that has really transpired and changed your life. So can you share a little bit more about how that has come? Has God always been important and part of your life? Or is that something that has been growing as you've increased in your entrepreneurial journey?

SPEAKER_01: 6:06

So there's it's been interwoven throughout my story. And whether somebody is a believer or not, I'd encourage everybody listen to this that God is in your story. God is in your history, God is in your future. I was just uh just did a Facebook teaching on this the other day about how all these scriptures that talk about the lamb slain before the foundation of the world and how God predestined and all these things, right? The story has all been written already. It's uh just what version of it are we gonna walk in? Are we gonna walk in the reality of what we can walk in, or are we gonna walk in the lies? And just like you said, we're meant to walk in community, and when we don't do that, it's so easily for us to become isolated, and then those lies just get to get louder and louder, and we step into guilt and shame and all the things, and when there's nobody around to flip the light switch on, you stay in that darkness. And so I actually I gave my life to the Lord in 2003, December 23rd, 2003, and it was right after I had gotten out of jail for my second time of being busted for maintaining a drug home, and so I love this. I love the scripture that says the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. I was a successful entrepreneur before I gave my heart to the Lord. As success successful as you could be for a drug dealer, I guess. Eventually you get busted. And then when God got a hold of my heart in 2003, and one thing led to the next, and then I started my entrepreneurial journey with the Lord.

SPEAKER_02: 7:41

Yeah, listen, I think He doesn't he does present us with those opportunities to take a look at the gifts that he's given us. And do we choose to use them for good or for not? And because you were had that experience, he finally still allowed you that opportunity to use it for good. And so this really starts to lead into some of these lies you talked about a little earlier. And I think as men, we tend to have these lies that we carry forward from our childhood, and I know I do for sure. So, how are you helping others confront those lies and replace them with truth?

SPEAKER_01: 8:18

Yeah, so we just had our fireside retreat. This was in January, so not just had in January of this year. We had our fireside retreat, and in preparation for that, the Lord walked me through this beautiful experience, and that's what I talk about in my last book, My History. And uh, it's let me grab it here real quick. It's my history, it's from pain to purpose, my hit my story through God's eyes. And what happened was the Lord woke me up at 4 14 a.m. in the morning, told me to jump in my one of my God spots, which is my hot tub, and normally I do that without my cell phone. This time he told me to bring my cell phone. I opened up a Google document, and literally four and a half hours later, not all of it in the hot tub, but about 45 minutes in the hot tub, the rest of about four and a half hours later, I had a 53-page document, and it was the Lord walking me through these moments in my life. The first one was in second grade, where something happened. Just you talk about the hero's journey. So I he took me to this snippet of a movie in my mind and showed me a part of my life, and then in that moment, he showed me a lie that I believed from that moment, and then he showed me the truth of the moment, and he began and he continued to do that for four and a half hours. And I'll give the link here at the end. You can download my book for free. And it was such a beautiful story of God showing all these moments in my life where something happened and I believed a lie in that moment, and then he came in and he spoke the truth. And so at the end of that book, we talk about that framework, which really is as simple as just when you have a feeling arise, right? I love have you ever heard of that uh comedian Michael Jr.?

SPEAKER_02: 10:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 10:06

So Michael Jr. says, What knocked me off my nine is his saying. And so there's nine fruits of the spirit, and so Michael Jr. would be like, Hey, wait, I just lost my piece. Why did I just lose my peace? Something happened to where he lost his piece, and then he does, he gets curious in that moment. He says, Okay, why? And that's where he invites the Lord in the conversation, and the Lord can say, Oh, this is why. Because in fifth grade, how that person just ran up alongside you with a shopping cart, that actually happened to your mom in fifth grade, and you were next to her, and then you believe this life. It's just, and so I go over that framework at the end of the book of just getting curious when emotions arise in us that aren't godly emotions and allowing the Lord to take us on a journey to discover the root of it.

SPEAKER_02: 10:54

Yeah, for sure. So I like how you said about us getting curious. So I'd like to get I'm a little bit curious as well right now. Would you do are you all right with sharing with us one of those lies from your childhood that through that four-hour experience? Because maybe there's a guy, there's a man out there who's listening to this episode and he's having the same lie and how you overcame that.

SPEAKER_01: 11:14

Yeah, for sure. One of the big ones that I also write about in my real estate story, which is interesting because in my real estate story, I didn't yet have this new revelation about this lie. So in fifth grade, I went to my dad with a business proposal. I asked him for$500 so I could buy some lawnmowers to start a lawn care business. And he's why do you need lawnmowers? I said, Because I'm gonna have kids push to the lawnmowers, I'm gonna go sign up the accounts. Like, I'm a businessman, dad. I ain't gonna, I ain't got time to be out there pushing lawnmowers around. And in that moment, my dad called me lazy. And when he called me lazy, I had this lie that was attached to that about me and who I was as a man, who I was as an entrepreneur and an idea man as a businessman that rode with me for many years. Fast forward to my his story book, when the Lord actually took me back to that moment, he spoke some truth to me. And what he showed me was, yeah, your dad did call you lazy, but the rest of that story is, right? You go back to the Garden of Eden where the devil says, Did God really say this? Did he where he twists the truth? Yeah, the truth was my dad did call me lazy, but what my dad said after that was, hey son, I'd love to see you go out, start doing this yourself first, learn the business, and then hire people. That the rest of that story wasn't in my mind all those years. And so literally, I have two books that tell two different stories of that moment. The second book being the reality is my dad didn't think I was a lazy person. He thought the way I was approaching it was a little lazy. I was skipping some steps in the entrepreneurial journey, right? In the hero's journey, I wasn't gonna go on the adventure, I was going right to the mountaintop. I just want to encourage you guys out there, get curious when you have those lies come to surface. And really, all it is to get the truth on these lies, guys, is we got to slow down. We got to put our phone away, go on a car ride, go on a walk, whatever, get in your hot tub if that's your spot like me. Get in your hot tub, get in a position where all the distractions are removed and you can hear the truth. And I love uh John 8:32 through 836. Jesus is talking and he says, There's three times in the gospels where Jesus says, By this, the world will know that you're my disciples. They'll know you're my disciples by this. And then John 8:32, he says, If you continue in my word, then he goes on to say, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

SPEAKER_02: 13:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 13:48

And uh, you mind me sharing a little more on this?

SPEAKER_02: 13:50

I've yeah, keep going, my friend.

SPEAKER_01: 13:52

Oh, okay. And the thing I love about this is that word truth in the Greek is actually the word reality. So, what happens is if we get in the presence of the Lord and we look to seek the truth, what we actually walk away with is the reality. That's what I got in that moment when the God showed me the reality, was my dad wasn't saying I'm a lazy person. He just said that my route wasn't the proper route to the end I was trying to get to. And then also the thing I like to point out about that a lot of us who know that scripture, we we say, and you it you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. But the actual scripture says, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Yes, that's the actual word is make. So when we're confronted with reality, especially from our father in heaven, there's no other result than us being made free. And then we know that scripture who the Son sets free is free indeed. When you get a revelation straight from the from your heavenly father, you're free indeed.

SPEAKER_02: 14:55

Yeah, what I really like about that story that you're sharing, Gar, is that how that all of us have those moments in our childhood where we've taken a piece of a memory and we've attached it to our identity and we've forgotten the entire story around it. And for me, that happened more so in senior my senior year and uh and in a I grew up in a small in a smallish town, a mining town here up in Canada in Saskatchewan. And then we placed it came in second in the province for basketball. But I the story I took told myself was that I wasn't good enough to be first. And I carried that, I hate to admit, for decades. And the reality of it is that no other team before or since, at least a basketball team, has ever accomplished that feat. But it took an opportunity to do some deep personal work to hear and listen to the rest of the story. And how many of us gentlemen are carrying things like this, where we remember the piece that maybe the part that stung the most and we closed our ears to the rest of the message that's being there. And so I really like that you how you shared that. You explained for us, helped us under understand that if we just slow down, and I totally agree with that, just slow down for a moment and allow God to speak to us so that we can get a deeper, more profound message, one that is more fulfilling and it doesn't carry that weight and that burden. So thanks so much, Gar. I really appreciated that. Yes, you're welcome. You know, you're obviously you're an entrepreneur, you're busy with lots of things going on, and so you have this. I see the sign behind you there at Fireside, and that stands for this Fireside RV rental business that you have. And it's a one of your national franchises that you've built now, but you built this through faith and your personal transformation to tell us a little bit about that journey and how that has come to be.

SPEAKER_01: 16:53

Yeah, so most of my businesses that I build are what I call pain-to-purpose businesses. My first legit business after I started walking with the Lord in 2003 was a credit counseling company. And that was birthed out of me fixing up my own credit, having to pay back creditors that I owed money, figure out how to build positive credit, all the things I wanted to do to get in a position to purchase a home. And so I did that. And then fast forward to 2007, actually, the job where I literally prayed at the time clock to give my life to the Lord, I got fired from that job for sharing my faith. And when I got fired from that job, it kind of shoved me into my entrepreneurial journey. And I ended up starting a credit counseling company where our whole niche was helping create homeowners. And that company we ran that for over a decade. We won awards. I published a couple of books on credit, did some other fun things in the industry. And then while I was operating that business in 2016, I bought my wife an RV for our 10-year wedding anniversary. And at the time we lived up in Michigan, I brought it to Grand Haven, Michigan, State Park, set it up on all these beautiful things. I thought, okay, this is good. Like I nailed this. We're in a beautiful bunkhouse camper. We had three kids. My wife was pregnant with number four. And she walks this is how I remember it again. Maybe I'll get some more truth on this down the road. I don't know. I she walks out of the camper and tells me she's going home. First, it didn't really click. I just thought she was going home because I forgot something. But then I realized, no, she's not coming back. Like she's going home because she was not digging the gift that I got her. She was not happy. She was not into the moment that I was. And in her defense, she was seven months pregnant, it's the middle of summer, all those things. So it really wasn't anything to do with the camper. It was more just, hey, I'm hot, I'm miserable. I want to go home and sit in my AC. But in my mind's eye, it was like, oh my gosh, huppy failure, worst gift ever. I just dropped whatever$30,000 on this camper. And so in my mind, I remember I'm I'm sitting around the campfire feeling bad for myself, and there's a marshmallow on the end of a stick, and it falls into the fire. And I'm like, oh dang it, that was the last marshmallow. The night just falls apart, but no, it wasn't that bad. So anyway, I decided, you know what? At that time, I had built up a decent sized real estate portfolio. I had managed all my rental properties on my own. So I thought, I'm gonna rent this thing out. So I went ahead, and at the time it was Craigslist, was a thing. So I threw it up on Craigslist for rent. And literally within a couple hours, I've got people wanting to rent my camper. And it doesn't take me that much to be like, all right, this is a new business. So I here we go. So I literally start reaching out to my buddies. I'm like, hey, Jeremy, my best friend, you want me to rent your camper? He's yeah, sure, why not? I reach out to my buddy Darren, I'm like, hey, do you want me to rent your camper? He's like, Yeah, sure, why not? I reach out to my sister in law, Tiffany, I'm like, Hey, do you want me to rent your camper? She's no. That's gross. That's the worst idea I've ever heard. Why would somebody why would I let somebody sleep in the bed of my camper? Like you know, so I'm like, oh, I'm two for three, so I don't know. I think I got something here. And literally it just spiraled from there.

SPEAKER_02: 20:13

Right. And what a great concept. I see that all over the place. And for folks that are interested in wanting to participate in the R V world, but maybe you don't want to put out the 30 or 40 or 50,000. What a great way to test drive, so to speak, the RV life. And so I think you found a great niche with that. But I want to back up a little bit because you talked and touched a little bit here, and we've been teasing folks that you've had some other struggles in life, right? You've worked through things with alcohol and some of the struggles around that. And this COVID coma you talked about and the passivity that it really came upon you. So tell us about what advice you would maybe give men that get stuck in maybe these destructive patterns of their own and how to help them get through it.

SPEAKER_01: 20:59

Yeah. So when COVID hit, when the world shut down, I started drinking daily. When I had always gone back and forth with drinking, I wouldn't necessarily say that I had a problem drinking, but during COVID, I just I was drinking daily. Just my extrovert personality, I love people, I love all the things, and I didn't have a lot of those things. And so I was drinking daily, and I and it was easily justifiable because I wasn't hitting my wife, I wasn't neglecting this or that. In my mind, it was permissible. But what happened was I actually got that's a little further. So what happened was I just got very passive in my businesses. I'm drinking, I'm passive in my businesses, I'm just letting things do whatever they're doing. And come March 17, 2023, my wife and I just decided you know what, this drinking is too much. And I was actually listening to a Tony Robbins teaching at the time, and Tony Robbins was teaching on how pain is the ultimate motivator in life. The first reason we move is to avoid pain, and then we move to go towards pleasure, and just all these things with the drinking that I realized. I'm like, you know what? Uh hangovers, I realized when I was drinking, like my sex drive would be through the roof. And so I was beginning to not really honor my wife as far as just being balanced in our sex life, and I was very passive in my businesses. And back up to remember that real estate portfolio that I had built, I was actually selling that off now at this time in 2023 to keep my businesses afloat, but I was justifying it by oh, I bought that property for$50,000 and I'm selling it for$250 now. Wow, what a great return! But the reality, the truth will set you free. The reality was I had to sell that property to keep my businesses afloat. If that property didn't sell, I was gonna be in trouble. And it all came to head, so we actually quit drinking March 17, 2023, but it actually came to head in the end of May. I caught COVID, and I caught, which I had COVID once or twice before, but this round of COVID, and y'all that have had COVID before can resonate with this, like it's it hits you different every time. And this time when I had COVID, it hit me in my mind, and I was under this, I was having suicidal thoughts, nightmares. I called my buddy who's in the medical field, and I explained to him what was going on, and he literally said, You're the third person this week to have those exact symptoms. It was just mind-blowing. I had my wife change the code to our gun safe, like I didn't trust myself. And then during all that's when I realized, oh my gosh, what's happening? I'm literally going under. Like I'm a couple moves away from bankruptcy here. This is not good. And and I love this is in a book that I read. I can't think of the name of the book right now. I love to give credit where credit is due, but it's a book by Danny Silk. Oh, it's called Unpunishable, and it's the three-step process called repentance, reconciliation, and restoration. So as soon as I was confronted with my behavior in my mind, I repented to the Lord, I repented to my wife, and I just started to clean up my mess. I had investors that I owed money, I had multiple seven figures of real estate that people I owed, real estate I've sold off, all just this huge mess to clean up. And uh and God was faithful. I did that. I repented, I reconciled, and then the Lord, the last two years brought us through this beautiful process of restoration. And one of the ways to say how beautiful it is, literally, as of today, I have no investors that I owe, close to debt-free, and our fireside franchise has gone from about 12 to 15 locations at the time to 70 locations.

SPEAKER_02: 25:03

Unbelievable, unbelievable. Really I like that story that and how you shared that because I think there are these things that have had that have transpired through this COVID piece, and then whether it was just the from the isolation or getting it, I'm sure I'm positive. I had caught it at least a couple of times in some of this longering, long effects stuff still lingers. And I think when we recognize that some of the habits that we may have picked up and some of the things that how we're acting differently, if we're not having somebody to to catch that for us or to have a confidant that we can reach out to, which is why I think the community is so important, why we need to have this, not just a strong faith, but also have a community around us. And you talk also in in your books about stones of remembrance, and I really love that phrase. And so, why is that important for us men to remember and to reflect on the idea of stones of remembrance?

SPEAKER_01: 26:01

Yeah, I love that saying too. That's so beautiful. It's so easy to forget. I've heard the saying, if where you're at today five years ago, you would have done anything to be where you're at today, but then you're looking at where you want to be in five years. It's so easy to look at what we haven't accomplished instead of what we have. And Dr. Benjamin Hardy has some really good books about this. One is called The Gap and the Gain, phenomenal book about just how we're wired as human beings. You could write a to-do list of 10 things for the day, and you get eight of those accomplished. And what do you do when you're laying in bed at night? You think of the two things you didn't get done instead of the eight things that you did. And it's we're so prone to live out of the gap instead of live out of the gain. And so, yeah, these stones of remembrance really, it's how this all started for me. I talk about this in my history, but really, if you look in the Old Testament, it talks about this many times with the Israelites, and God would say, Okay, now put a well here, put an altar here, put some stones here, put this there, put that here. And it's just remembering the goodness of God. And this is something that I love talking about recently. Is for those of y'all that know the scriptures out there, Hebrews 11:1, where it talks about faith. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And so we talk about faith so much, but that part of the scripture that I love to point out is is where it says faith is the substance of things hoped for. And it all starts with hope. So when I was in that COVID comeback, I call it, and really trying to dig myself out. I it was, I remember my wife would be like, All right, babe, time to get up now, time to go on a walk. It tears me up right now, just thinking about it. Like her just rising up as the lioness that she is, and like, all right, honey, now it's time to start your start your meetings, love. It's time to do this. She would just help me to just get back into my rhythm and habit. And one of the things that helped of that was Isaiah 26, 3, where it says, You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon you because he trusted you. So I would keep focused on the Lord, but then I would keep hope. And I have this post in front of me that says, Hope does not know what's going to happen, it just knows that something will. And once hope creates expectation, that's when faith begins to look for the thing that hope is feeling. So the first thing we have to do is get hope. And to answer a long answer to your question there about the stones of remembrance is how do we get that hope? We get that hope by looking back at all the times where we thought, okay, this is it. My back is against the corner. There's no way out of this mess. This no, this is it, this is the end, this is where it all falls apart. But yet, somehow we get through, and and I go into more depth in this on the my history book because man, that four and a half hour time with the Lord, it literally one of the things was he brought me back to this moment where I was on a men's retreat in the woods, and there's a list of things to do, and it says, go on a walk. So I go on a walk, and as I'm walking, I see this white stone laying on the ground, and I hear that gentle voice of the Lord tell me to pick up the stone. So I pick it up, put it in my pocket. Then an hour later, I'm doing my reading assignment, and it says, turn to this scripture, Revelations 2, 17, and I turn to it and I read it. It says, And to him who overcomes, I will give him a white stone. And I'm like, What? Oh my gosh, that is if you don't believe in God at that point, you definitely are about to. And then, and so skipping over a whole bunch of details, I get to the end of this four and a half hour encounter with the Lord, and my little girl Isabella, who's eight years old at the time, comes down to my bedroom and says, Hey dad, oh, put my phone on silent, sorry. My little girl Isabella says, Hey dad, I got all these prizes together for the fireside retreat that's coming up. And so she hands them all to me, shows me all the surprises, and then she says, I've got one more thing, dad, but I just I really don't want to give it to you. And so I'm like, Okay, love, you don't have to give it to me. And uh, she's but God really wants me to. But and I asked him, I said, God, my best friend Coral gave me this. Do I have to give this to my dad? And God said to her, It'd be real special if you did. And so she she said, All right, so here it is, Dad. And what does she pull out of her little box of prizes? A white stone, and oh brother, I'm already a wreck, I've already cried 12 times. I just start bawling again. She's like, Wow, I guess I'm glad I gave you that stone, dad. And in to have moments like that, it was all a preparation because keep in mind, I'm preparing to lead this retreat with all my franchisees that are attending. So I'm getting prepared to minister to this whole room of people that says in Corinthians that we can give the same comfort that we ourselves have received. I think it's the simple fact that I was trying to prepare my heart and mind to go out and minister and encourage to others. That the Lord said, All right, I see what you're doing here. Let me minister to you and prepare you for that moment. And honestly, as I just said that, I feel like I just got that revelation. Since my heart was in a position to say, you know what, I want to go out and help others, that's when the Lord said, Perfect, let me actually help you on a couple things to go and help those others.

SPEAKER_02: 31:36

Yeah, I come, you know, I completely agree. And my takeaway from listening to this last story that you were sharing is that when I think about individu I think about us and individuals who are busy, we're husbands, we're fathers, we have maybe we have business, multiple businesses, and then we're trying to minister, serve in whatever capacity we are, and how do we balance all of that in our life? And I think it is through preparedness. And so I love that that you talked about how the Lord prepared you for that and was be preparing pre preparing you in all these different ways with your daughter Isabella, giving you the stone and the remembrance from the from the men's retreat, all of that was a piece. And I think if we're awake enough and if we can be revolutionary in our mindset, I think those are the things that really helped us transform us from the man that we are today to the man that we aspire to become. And so thanks for sharing that little that piece. I really appreciated that.

SPEAKER_01: 32:36

Yeah, yeah, most definitely. And one other thing on that, real quick, I just watched a video this morning on Harvard Business Review YouTube channel. It came out one week ago. It's got 3.1 million views already, and it's talking about boredom. And he said, if you allow yourself to get bored after about 15 minutes, that's when you start to unlock things inside your mind, and you literally begin to explore the thoughts. That really all we're trying to do was so much of the time we spent, we're just trying to not, we're just trying to stay busy. But if you allow yourself to get bored, that's when you can actually go into those moments where you can start to explore your feelings, your thoughts, all the things us guys don't want to do, right? Our thoughts, our feelings, our past, our whatever. Yeah, love that. Totally, that totally makes sense.

SPEAKER_02: 33:23

I know you've been ministering and you've been doing all this other work and leading groups, obviously. 70 franchisees, you're in a position where you're mentoring others. But I the question I have for you now is what's been the best piece of advice that you've been given? And maybe it was something that was from an from a mentor that you've had or a book, maybe something you've read. What would be you would you say has been the most profound or best piece of advice that you received, and how is it still serving you today?

SPEAKER_01: 33:49

I would have to say it's from my buddy Myron Golden, who says that all work works, and it comes back to Proverbs 423, and all labor there is profit. And the way I call it Uncle Myron, are you familiar with Myron Golden at all by chance? No, not at all. Okay, I always like to ask. Yeah, phenomenal teacher in regards to the Bible, entrepreneurship, all that kind of stuff. But what Myron says is that all work works, it either works on you or it works for you. And so, like that proverb says, in all labor, there is profit. And I especially love that being an entrepreneur, because as an entrepreneur, we can take an action expecting a result. And if we don't get that result, then all of a sudden we're like, okay, I must not be an entrepreneur. We don't say that as a dad. Most times we don't, like, all right, I tried this as a dad, it didn't work. I must not be a dad, I'm gonna go ahead and get rid of the kids. No, we try to figure out what's next, but some for some reason in the entrepreneurial journey, entrepreneurs do that. They're like, Oh, I tried entrepreneurship or I tried this, it didn't work, I must not be an entrepreneur. No, and what it is, there's just so many facets to being an entrepreneur, right? Sales and marketing and operations and understanding your finances, all the things, human resources, all the things that you're gonna have, maybe one or two that you're strong in, and the rest you're gonna struggle. So you either need to learn them or you need to outsource them. So I love what Myron says there because if something doesn't work for you, it still is working because you learned something from it. And that's where the SBA says 50% of first-time businesses fail. And that's a fairly common statistic. But one statistic of theirs that I love to share that isn't as common is 80% of those people who failed in that first-time business, they're done. They never try again, they go back to a corporate job. It's I tried to be an entrepreneur, it didn't work. But if you have the revelation that all work works, like we just had three months ago, we blew through$45,000 in ad spend in a month and made some big mistakes. And guess what? We learned some big lessons out of it, so we won't repeat those again. So I'm praising God I learned it at$45,000 instead of five years from now at$250,000. The work lurked on me, so all work works. I think that's one of the biggest things I love sharing.

SPEAKER_02: 36:11

I've never heard that. I totally love that I wrote it down, and especially the part that either works on you or for you, and probably a little bit of both. So that's outstanding.

SPEAKER_01: 36:29

I'd say to wrap all this up and just to just give one piece of advice, it would be what I have at the bottom of my latest book. There is life happens for you, not to you. When we talk about guilt and shame and condemnation and all these things that we step into, it's so easy to think that life is happening to us. But like you'll see, if you download my book or just get curious in your own life and just spend some time with the Lord, you'll see that life was actually happening for you. You just didn't get curious and quiet to figure out why. But when you get curious and quiet and you figure out why, and then you realize, oh wow, this is actually part of who I am, this is part of my ministry, this is part of my mission, this is part of my purpose. Then it's it just like Romans 8 28 says, all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purposes. Is it's all used together. It's the deck, the deck is stacked in our favor, but we have to realize that because Proverbs, I think 27-3, I think it is, says, as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Our life is going to be whatever we think it's gonna be. So just remember when life is happening, you've got to tell yourself, okay, this is happening for me. How is this happening for me? Because it might not be as easy to see how it's happening for you, especially when it's those valley low moments where it's really working on your character and all those facets.

SPEAKER_02: 38:01

Absolutely. I just want to say thank you so much, Garf, for spending time with me today and showing us that our past failures don't have to define us and we can actually prepare us for God's purpose. And so your story is truly a living testimony of faith and fear and redemption, and ultimately through surrendering. And so, if men are interested in getting a hold of you, maybe participating in some of your work or getting involved with the franchises, what's the best way for them to reach you?

SPEAKER_01: 38:29

Uh, jump on my website, garrussell.com, g-ar-r-r-us-s-e-l-l.com. You can learn about our RV rental business. You can download any of my books for free. You can also find me on Amazon if you'd like to hold a book in your hand. You can get linked to our YouTube channel. I've got about 700 different videos on there with different things in regards to studying the word of God, entrepreneurship, parenting. We're full-time family. We homeschool our four kids. We full-time RV'd for five years. So we've got some unique adventures that we love to share with others and encourage them in their adventure.

SPEAKER_02: 39:06

Absolutely. I'm going to make sure all that information's in today's show notes as well as wherever you are on social media and a link to your books. As we can so, folks, as we close today's episode, I want to leave you with this one challenge. And are you living your story as though it's over or through God or is God still working through you? And too many of us get stuck in shame, fear, and failure. And we forget that these setbacks can truly be the setup for our comeback. So if you're ready to step out of fear and faith and really lean into your faith, and I want you to visit our membership site, members.net, and start out and take our free integrity challenge. It's an opportunity for you to get on the path and live a stronger and more aligned life. And it just begins with one single decision, and that's just to live with intention and lead with integrity. And let's get started now. Once again, thank you so much, Gard. Loved having you on the show today.

SPEAKER_01: 40:00

Thank you, sir.

SPEAKER_00: 40:12

Thank you for listening to the Revolutionary Man Podcast. Are you ready to own your destiny? To become more the man you are destined to be? Join the Brotherhood that is The Awakened Man at theAwakened Man.net and start forging a new destiny today.