Goated Podcast
The "𝐆 𝐎 𝐀 𝐓 𝐄 𝐃" podcast is a show dedicated to discussing and celebrating greatness in various aspects of life, such as sports, entertainment, business, technology, and more. Each episode features in-depth conversations, interviews with accomplished individuals, and explorations of what it means to achieve the tag 𝐆 𝐎 𝐀 𝐓 𝐄 𝐃!
Goated Podcast
Goated Podcast Episode 26 - Marco Ruidiaz
On this episode of the Goated Podcast, Kevin VanDuser and Marco Ruidiaz trace a path from sports internships to front office roles, launch a card-breaking brand, and discover the habits that rebuilt their faith and family. The talk moves from Ohtani hits and live selling mechanics to fasting, unity across church lines, and accountability that lasts.
• Internships with the Rays and the A’s leading to front office experience
• Realities of sports pay, commutes and passion-driven roles
• Liberty memories, intramural football and competitive drive
• Optician expertise powering Goaded Shades
• Live selling and sports card breaks explained
• Ohtani gold pull and value of curated chaser packs
• Rule changes as a signal of GOAT-level impact
• AI deepfakes risk for creators and brands
• 21-day fast leading to daily scripture habit
• Fatherhood, grace and accountability over hype
• Unity over denominations with scripture as anchor
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Get in touch: Team@thegoatedpodcast.com
Stay 𝐆 𝐎 𝐀 𝐓 𝐄 𝐃!
I think I really was sick one time. You could get out of it being sick, Charlie. Like a lot of times. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But not frequently, right? Yeah, so I started actually in Fort Myers Miracle. I did a uh I did a summer internship uh with the Fort Myers Miracle here. Um and I did everything from field crew uh to um Yeah, we did the tarp, we did all that, um, to the in-between inning games and stuff like that. The only thing I refused to do was be the mascot. I didn't I didn't I didn't dress up as the mascot. But yes, uh we I did that, and then from there, uh I did I was a sport management major at Liberty, as obviously you are too. Um, and then I from there got an internship for the Tampa Bay Rays, and I did uh the front, it was box office internship, and that was six months, and then from there I got a seasonal sales job, which was that was another six months, and that was there to kind of teach you how to sell and teach you the industry to then get you to that next step of a full-time job.
SPEAKER_00:Goaded podcast, welcome back. Thank you for listening again. I've got a special guest today, my best friend Marco Rudia is in the house, uh a Naples Florida legend, also known as Highlight. He has joined the Goaded family, so pumped to have him, and now we got him on the Goaded Podcast. It's about time. Pleasure to be here. I'm pumped. Um he's got uh a great background in sports, he's got a great uh background in life in the greatest city of all time. I talk talk about Naples, Florida like that frequently. Um and uh I'm excited to talk through some things today. So Marco just joined us, like I said, at Goaded. He's doing uh a lot of shows for us on whatnot. If you don't follow on whatnot, I'll plug it today. Um he's also in charge of the Goaded Breaks channel because he has some card background. So breaks are a big thing in the industry of uh or breaks are a big thing in the live selling industry. Uh TikTok, eBay, uh whatnot has a lot of card breakers now, and people are hitting million dollar cards every once in a while. There's some big cards off a$20,$50,$100 entry and winning a team. So interesting industry. I don't know much about him learning. Um he's running that for us. We have goaded breaks official on Instagram, we have it on TikTok, on whatnot, so go check that out. And we got some big things coming from that. Maybe we'll talk about it today. Yeah, that'd be cool. Um, and then he also is a licensed magician.
SPEAKER_04:Optician. Optician.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I say helped us form goaded shades. So goaded shades uh is awesome. They're on the website, it's an awesome extension of goaded golf. Golfers need sunglasses, we're outside all the time. So he has the brains beyond behind the uh goaded shades you see on the website. So I'm pumped to talk about that that something today. We joke around the magician uh optician because I can never remember. Ophthalmologist?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you get yeah, there's optician optician, optometrist, ophthalmologist, and you just landed on magician.
SPEAKER_00:What's the one that Ross wasn't, Friends?
SPEAKER_04:Ross wasn't either. He's a dinosaur guy. No, yeah, he's a paleontologist. Paleontologist. It's uh it was uh Monica's uh boyfriend, Richard. Oh, Richard. He was an optometrist. Yeah, love friends. Really?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, love friends. I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's like that in the office, it's what I we circle through at night uh falling asleep. Love friends.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you're right. But she never clapped to friends like like you and I did. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, she well we do now, but she realizes now that she wasn't the first. And so that hurts her.
SPEAKER_00:We've known each other since high school, and I gotta tell you the story. Middle school. Don't insult me. Oh yeah, middle school. Was I in I was in middle school.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you were in middle school at one point.
SPEAKER_00:Barely, eighth grade. Yeah. Best best six years of my life. Um, but we went to we went to high school youth group together. We didn't go to high school together, but pretty much high school together, two different schools. We went to college together in Liberty, at Liberty University. Um, and shout out, we have a Liberty Collab on the website too. It's been awesome. Um But when we were at Liberty University, we stayed in the same dorm. I'm a year older, so I was a year, I was a year there before. But his wife still jokes about how we would watch Friends at night and the part where they do the clap. We would do that together. Yeah, you're supposed to. Um we have to insert the audio.
SPEAKER_04:But um so she still, even last night, was saying Yeah, last night she was upset because we and again I had I had friends on, Kevin called me, and she's definitely bitter. It's one of those like passive aggressive comments that she makes just to be like peanut butter and jealous.
SPEAKER_00:I know where I stand, yeah, peanut butter and jealous, yeah. Um so that was a great time of our lives. So let's talk about that first. Liberty. Liberty East Campus uh at the time was like the Taj Mahal of college dorms.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah, it was beautiful. I mean you had your own bathroom. Well, you shared, I shared, I actually roomed with your brother, Kyle. Painful. And uh yeah, I love Kyle, but uh being a roommate with him at times, loudest person on the earth. Loudest person on the earth. Oh, dude, he would uh wake up early in the morning uh because he was walk-on. He walked on to Liberty University for football. And uh I'd be sleeping, I wouldn't have class till later, and Kyle would wake up to get ready and he'd go to the bathroom. He would, you know, when I go to the bathroom, if someone's in my room or something like that, I go, I don't turn the light on until the door is closed. When the door is closed, then I'll turn the light on, I'll do whatever I have to do. This man just turns on the light, leaves the door open, he's like, Oh, I forgot something. Walks into his walks into the closet, gets stuff, brings it in, slams the door, opens the door when he's done with the light on. I love it. And it just wild. Yeah, but I love him. Love him. Um this might turn into a little fashion of cop. He was also in his uh uh our closet. He would do his laundry, but he wouldn't fold his laundry. And we had a we had a uh like a little like I don't know, like four by four room, like a small closet, uh walk-in, and I had one side, he had the other, and his uh he would wash his clothes and then he'd throw them on the ground in the closet, wouldn't put them in a basket, they were just fresh, done on the ground, and I'd wake up, I'd walk, go to get on and then go get dressed. I'm like, Kyle, are these clothes clean or dirty? He's like, Oh, they're clean. I'm like, Well, do you want to move them? I gotta get dressed. I was like, You could stand on them. And I'm like, what? He's like, Yeah, go ahead. And I'm like, all right, man, you got it. Kyle. Yeah, sorry, Kyle, dude. This was this wasn't intended, but uh kind of just where the route went. But uh yeah, living in the the East Campus Dorns room, incredible. And sharing the quad with me, you, Kyle. We also had uh Jordan, if you remember. Jordan Cox. He was also from uh from Naples, and J do was uh a new friend of mine. Obviously, you knew him, but uh that was some really good times. So good.
SPEAKER_00:With the the air conditioning battle. I'm I'm we had one guy in our dorm that in our quad that didn't like the AC really cold, and it's Virginia, but I wanted the AC. We weren't paying for it, it was college tuition or campus, I don't know who paid for it.
SPEAKER_04:And we all agreed. We all agreed to that, I think. We all liked except for him that we liked it.
SPEAKER_00:And I'm like, because it was cold in the wind, and I'm like, I still want the AC on, I'm not coming into the to the house to be warm. Yeah. And I eventually took the thermostat off the wall. I set it at 68 and just broke it so that no one could change it.
SPEAKER_04:And you would put a little or you even put a little note, broken, don't touch. Like it was from the maintenance team. Yeah, trying to get them not to touch it. You gotta innovate.
SPEAKER_00:If you want to be successful, you gotta think of things that you are an innovator.
SPEAKER_04:I you are not, I tell you that.
SPEAKER_00:I would wake up sweating and I'd be angry and I'd wake him up. I'm like, bro, what are you doing? 80 degrees, I don't care how cold it is. I love Virginia. I would I would lift the windows when it would snow and let snow come into the quad.
SPEAKER_04:It's the best. Florida. When you got the blankets, you can get warm.
SPEAKER_00:Warm up as much as you want. You can always get warmer. It's very hard if the AC's not on to get cooler. You can't cool your you can't put anything on to cool your snow. Exactly. Yeah. Now there are cooling blankets.
SPEAKER_04:I love cooling blankets, but um You know, we talked about Liberty at Liberty, though. This is also not our first uh our first talk show that we've done.
SPEAKER_00:We did have details. When we got to Liberty, no, it was it was in Autumn Woods, was it? My nature's house. No, no. I was at Liberty. No, it was at Liberty.
SPEAKER_04:It was like my I had that Superman necklace. Yes. Plastic necklace.
SPEAKER_00:Don't remind me. Yeah. Hey. So we were we could talk about it because we'll talk about where we're at today, but our first podcast actually will never be aired. Ever and hopefully it's burned. Yeah. Um we're just freshmen in college talking about what our goals were out of nowhere. I mean, we just had a camera and thought it was funny. Yeah. But um talking about not the right stuff for sure. And what our goals were as 19-year-old kids, like most 19-year-old kids that were not in the word like they should have been. Yep. But um some funny videos in there because you saw us as we saw we s look back and see us as kids. Yeah. First of all, I mean, both of us have said what our goals were, were pretty sad, but yeah. Um and then the stuff that was happening around, like just seeing interactions in the dorm. Yeah. As married guys now, you don't have five or six guys just walking in to mess with you or s start a fight or whatever and some good footage. The camaraderie. Um iconic moments in there too.
SPEAKER_04:There was uh we were we were filming, yeah. That's right. Well, some moments you just never forget. And uh we were filming and met talking, and this is take like seven. We had gone through so many takes all in one night, and uh we just both were watching this like fly go around and it was bothering us, and then finally Kevin just like this, and we both look at each other, we're like, No chance, you caught it. And he opens, and fly comes out, and we're both like ah and you just catch us that like organic moment. I mean, we're we're built for this. This is where we should be. This is where we should be.
SPEAKER_00:If that was 4K, I'd probably be viral from that. And then eventually, yeah. You ain't kidding. I'm a ninja. Wow. Reflexes like a cat. Alright, speaking of actually, this is perfect. So at liberty, also, so Marco and I are both vertically challenged. He's like five, six and a half. I'm sorry. Five eight. You know, after I'm tired. And I'm like five ten, five, nine and a half. I say five ten. By the way, if anyone ever gives you a half in their height, they're usually pretty short. And no one does the hat, the halves. Um but we can also pretty much dominate at any sport out there. I don't know what happened, but both of us since we were kids, there were times a long time ago I used to get picked last because of my size, but that never happened once. They did it once, it never happened exactly. There you go. And I'm not I'm not just joking, I'm actually that serious. Naturally. Um ping pong tennis we picked up pretty quick, the baseball we played together.
SPEAKER_04:We used to play uh stickball or whatever at your bottomwoods in the tennis court.
SPEAKER_00:In the tennis court. Yep. Jacking home runs. Oh, like Otis. Kind of like Otani, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Switch hitters.
SPEAKER_00:The I mean the but the uh you've always had the elusiveness. I'm not elusive. Yeah. Well, flag football, I learned some ways to be in you were in your own way. You're good with the hips, you know. And you would joke about not being able to catch catch you, and we really a lot of people couldn't catch you. There's like 20,000 people on Liberty's campus. Yeah. Probably seven or uh no, fifty percent. It was pretty even guy-girl ratio. So let's call it 10,000 people on Liberty's campus. Hundred of them, 150 of them play football, the rest of them play intramural football, big intramural football uh league at Liberty University, right? This dude, Marco, he would play quarterback for the team and for his flag football team. Yeah. And his own teammates would be trying to pull his flag because he wouldn't pass. He didn't need to pass. He would just run around like people were trying to catch a slippery snake or something. I don't know.
SPEAKER_04:You know, I was I I love to throw. I I love baseball. Baseball is my favorite sport, and I love I I was a pitcher, so I like to throw, but I also, you know, in football, even flag football, I understand, but you gotta have some anticipation on your throws and stuff like that. And I didn't really have that, like, so I just I didn't really trust who was coming open, and I was like, well, it's better if I just run. And why throw it, risk it being picked off or something, and if I can just run it myself, and so yeah, I would I would just run around. And it was I I will say, not to be bragging or whatever, yeah, but freshman year was like a coming out party. Like people were like, Who is who is this kid?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I don't compliment him much, but it honestly was impressive. I I've never seen plays last for like 90 seconds, just like running around people. It was like Michael Vick when you when you play Madden with Michael Vick, where he could just run backwards and run. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding.
SPEAKER_04:I remember you were saying uh, because you were also you were head of the Inner Mural League, like the refing, the refs that were out there, like he was basically running it. And uh he told me the story after the first game. He's like uh he was telling, I don't I don't remember who specifically it was, but he was talking to some a player or one of the girls scorekeeping or something like that, and uh they're talking about like who's this team? They're gonna be terrible or whatever. He's like, no, no, no, just watch what happens with this one. And the very first play, I went like 70 yards on like a touchdown run. And I remember just kind of that being the thing. So funny. But uh yeah, it was I mean, I I went to uh regionals, we won. I got picked up in my freshman year. We did the all-star travel flag travel travel flag football league. We won regionals in Maryland and then got our way paid to nationals in uh Tampa here in Florida. But uh those are my glory days for sure. I won't there's no denying.
SPEAKER_00:That team took it serious. Like if you didn't if you drank soda, like flag football. Yeah, if you drank soda, you were in trouble. Or he didn't he didn't like it.
SPEAKER_04:He just he was I mean, he was a really good quarterback. I mean if we were gonna do that, we were gonna be we were gonna play serious. But that was uh and I that was the first time I ever played rusher, like as a defensive line. Like I didn't I didn't play quarterback, I just ran. I was a rusher, and he told me by the end of his he was like, I've never seen anybody as a better rusher than you are.
SPEAKER_00:And those years you were so fast. You were fast in high school too. But yeah, it was different, but that was fun. The high school, well, we won't even go back to high school. High school days, you're point guard, but you worked in the sports world. I always say it wrong, but I know you were in Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Heat.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so I started actually Fort Myers Miracle. I did uh I did a summer internship uh with the Fort Myers Miracle here. Um and I did everything from field crew uh to um, we did all that um to the in-between inning games and stuff like that. The only thing I refused to do was be the mascot. I didn't I didn't I didn't dress up as the mascot. Yeah. Well we don't need to talk about that. But yes, uh we I did that, and then from there, uh I did I was a sport management major at Liberty, as obviously you are too. Um and then I from there got an internship for the Tampa Bay Rays, and I did uh the front, it was box office internship, and that was six months, and then from there I got a seasonal sales job, which was that was another six months, and that was there to kind of teach you how to sell and teach you the industry to then get you to that next step of a full-time job. And if they had openings, then you had a chance to get hired there. If not, it was to go some to send you off to another team, and we had probably I think 12 of us uh in the seasonal sales job. So we would do that, and then after by that six months um kind of interesting story, I getting toward the end of my time, I didn't have a full-time job yet, and I finally got I went, I had a bunch of interviews. I had an interview with the Braves, that was like my dream job. I had an interview with uh the athletics, and then I had an interview with Sporting KC, the soccer team. And I got to the point, I had the interview with Oakland, and I didn't hear back from them. So then I decided to I got my other interview with Sporting KC, and some of the people that worked there, my bosses knew them, and they got me the job offer from Sporting KC. And I was I'm terrified of tornadoes, so I was like, I really don't want to go to KC, but I also want to be in professional sports. So I took uh I told I accepted the job. I accepted the job, then that same day, I'm telling everybody, my other boss calls me into his office. He's like, Hey, did you ever hear back from Oakland? And I said, No. I said, I would love to go like work for baseball, like that would have been a dream. And he's like, uh, okay, I'm gonna call him and I'll I'll I'll get you back in here. I was like, okay. So he called them, calls me back in. He's like, Hey, I think you should call them back. And I was like, and tell them what? He's like, I just talked to some of the guys there, I think you should call them. So I said, okay. So I called him and I said, Hey, I did just take this job with Sporting KC. If I could, I'd much rather work for you guys, but that's up to you, like whatever. And he's like, Okay, I'll get back to you. And by that day, by like six o'clock, I remember in my cut my apartment, I got the phone call, and they're like, Hey, we want to offer you to Oakland. And I remember he told me, he's like, Hey, I'll pay you, we're paying you$33,000 a year. And as a first-time buyer, first-time job like in the sports, I'm like, Oh, I'm pumped. Like, that's more than enough. I'm very frugal, I don't spend a lot of money. Like, that's great. And I remember getting pumped, and he's like, Well, calm down, it's not that much money. He told me, and he was like, and I was like, Oh, I don't care, I'll do it anyway. Um, but I got that job, I took it, but then I went back the next day, I had to call Sporting KC and tell them I wasn't taking it. And my one of my other bosses was furious with me because I he helped me out and all this stuff, and I was like, I I mean, I know and I'm sorry, but this is my future, yeah, and I want to be in professional sports.
SPEAKER_00:So was the soccer just as much money or more?
SPEAKER_04:Truthfully, I don't even remember. It wasn't even it wasn't even like a photo, like I was just going like the only reason why I took sporting KC is because I wanted to be professional sports, and although it wasn't baseball, football, or whatever, like I'm still professional soccer. So I uh I don't remember, honestly, but that's that's a good question.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And cal I mean, California's not cheap to live. Yeah. And I used to come out there once a month. At least that was I used to visit, or I visited twice, I think. Uh I think I paid once and your mom flew me for your birthday.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, my mom flew you once, and then I think maybe you came out once.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, or I was there for someone else. Yeah, probably you didn't get it. It was uh no, I didn't. I was not happy. I wanted Atlanta so I could at least drive the car. Tampa was fun. I came up to Tampa. Tampa was yeah, you came up a lot, Tampa a lot. Um but amazing. I mean, the industry, I was amazed with like you're in the front office, technically, right? It's a front or an extra.
SPEAKER_04:We were in the executive offices.
SPEAKER_00:And I was amazed that like you weren't paid you had to commute like 40 minutes or an hour. You're not paid a ton. California's hard to live anyways. But um there's a lot of people in that front office like working for almost free. Yeah. Oh, it's dirty. Some interns. Yeah, that's what a lot of interns are.
SPEAKER_04:That's what they do in sports. It's like, hey, if you can't, if you won't do it, we'll get somebody else that will for that price because that's how badly people wanted to do it.
SPEAKER_00:That's kind of how we're goaded at. I need to start having some I'm serious.
SPEAKER_04:Like, not me, not that, but I mean like that that is that makes a franchise. Yeah. Like people when you get it, when you have a job that people want to do, they will sacrifice pay because they enjoy for sure. Enjoy it at times.
SPEAKER_00:But being the resume builder or the Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, oh now that was also before I had a family, so it was easier for me to be like, oh, I don't need the money, I'll do this. You know what I mean? Yeah. But it's uh it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But yeah, I I lived like 40 minutes away, but also because you didn't want to really be in the heart of Oakland all the time.
SPEAKER_00:That and then you moved from there to Tampa? No. Miami. No.
SPEAKER_04:Well, well, yeah, yeah. So I went I went from Tampa to Oakland. I was in Oakland for about four years. I worked for the A's for about four years, and then from there I came and worked for the Miami Heat for about a year, and then that was that was the my final stop in sports.
SPEAKER_00:I loved that too. Because you were there during the LeBron years. No, no? No, it came after. After LeBron? I went to one game, he hooked it up. Only hooked up one game. That's one. That's it. That's all you get. But it was on the court, like close by.
SPEAKER_04:You know what's interesting though, like like basketball compared to baseball, like we would have like so many tickets on hold and all that stuff, and we could in advance, like, okay, hey, we got you these tickets and stuff like that. In basketball, a the ticket prices were significantly higher. Yeah. And on top of that, you know, I I as I worked in the premium area, so I had the courtside seats, the seats at half court, and stuff like that, and the suites, those would be released on holds an hour before the game, and I wouldn't have access till then because those are technically all sold out, but then our accounts would message us and be like, hey, we're not coming, you can get rid of them and stuff like that. Or we'll text them and be like, Hey, are you guys coming? If not, when you get on that list, we can drive we can drive over there.
SPEAKER_00:Let's do it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we're working on some heat elite putters. Yeah. My buddies, my other buddy still works in in Miami, and we're trying to get uh some of their premium clients. It's still for the Miami Heat, but it's for the their premium seats and stuff like that. I had Doug comes through knowing him. He's a good guy. Kidding.
SPEAKER_00:No, I'm pumped for that. I'm Miami have everything. Um okay, so from there, quickly, because it's boring, the optometrist. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I uh so my my stepfather started uh optical stores back in '83, I think. And he had three of them. And they for the longest time he always wanted me to work for him, and I was like, well, I'd I'd rather not. Like I wanted I don't want to f ride the family coattails. Yeah. Um everybody in my family worked for him. My brother did, my two cousins did, my stepbrother did. Uh like all these people worked for him.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he's got a couple locations in that of Naples.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and he's got one, it's in Mercado uh Mercado Spectacle.
SPEAKER_00:That's an awesome spot.
SPEAKER_04:Um and uh so we did so he they went in the market. You got licensed and within two years. Uh it's well a year and a half. It's usually like you have to get 6,300 hours, is what it is, or 6280 before you can even sit for the board to get uh license. License. So you either go through school for uh two years and you do that, or you uh or you do the apprenticeship hours. But I did both. So I did went I took classes and I was apprenticing, so I was able to quit.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, make it fast. In your um with your license, you can do what? You can do prescriptions?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so I'm I'm like uh like a pharmacist, essentially. So you'll bring me you'll bring me a prescription and then I fill the prescription, I check it, I have to do that. Only a licensed person could do that, as I is absolutely illegal. In Florida, there are some states that they don't, but it is illegal to su for someone to dispense a pair of prescription eyewear um without being a licensed optician.
SPEAKER_00:Good to know. Yeah, we're gonna do that soon with goaded. So this is gonna reference this podcast. Our support team will just go go watch the podcast. You don't need to hear why we're doing this. Um and then from there, or you came here to go to goaded breaks. I want to so last night or two nights ago, the best card we've pulled was an Otani card.
SPEAKER_04:25 out of 25. It was a twenty, it was a Topps Chrome uh hobby box that we pulled it out of, and it was a gold parallel, which is the gold border. And uh we pulled a 25 out of 25. And I just uh Shohei Otani. And uh he just one of the guys that we that we that bought it that won it in the break, uh just messaged me and he's like, Yeah, I just sold it for$700 un ungraded, so which is pretty big. You know what I mean? If he would have got it graded, I think it I think it could have gone for like at least$1,500,$2,000.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And he paid$20, probably$15 to get in that.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, probably honestly, yeah, right or maybe even less. Like he he was also a guy that he bought like every every almost every he was like he was a guy he's like, I want that box kind of a thing.
SPEAKER_00:And so that thing's gonna be worth some money. Otani the other night, so this is gonna air in a in a week or two. Um recently, just hit three home runs in a game and had 10 strikeouts. He's a freak. I think he's a great he's gotta be the go to baseball now, right?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we're that we're gonna have to do a drop eventually for him because that guy is just unreal. Insane. I mean, you don't see I mean people talk about like Babe Ruth because Babe Ruth did the same thing, but it it's again, it's different times, different eras, and since Babe Ruth, nobody's ever really done that. But now you saw there's another guy I saw coming up doing the the same thing. I can't I uh and he's here in America. Uh I can't remember who it was, but I did see Kevin Van Doozer? Yeah, that's how that's actually exactly exactly right.
SPEAKER_00:Um that so you know what's interesting? I was telling the guys at the office, goats historically, like if you have a hard time identifying goats, I don't know, I'll help you if you do, but if you have a hard time identifying a goat, look at his surroundings and look at like what he what field he works in. And if the rules are having to be changed because of him, that's usually a good sign of a goat. They've changed the rules in baseball a couple times, small ones, and they're talking about training changing another rule in baseball where you can come in and relieve and stay you can DH and come in and relieve, which is not allowed right now. No. So they can't let Otani come in and relieve, or if they took him out, he'd have to stop hitting.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So that is trying to grow the game, isn't it? Yeah, and it should be changed, right? Because all of us want to see him, the people want to see him come in and relieve, or it to be an option every single game. Yeah, exactly. Um but amazing. So keep that in mind. And the same thing happens, those things I was telling the guys at the office the other day, like we've had a lot of times the whatnot rules have been changed.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, dude.
SPEAKER_00:Because we're the goats of whatnot. That's right. Put it out there, it's proven, it's whatever. But if the rules are changing around you, that means and you're and you're doing the right things. It means you're breaking the industry and you should be trying to look for things in your in your field. If you're listening, whatever you do, you should be trying to look for things to improve for your boss, for your if you own the company for yourself for sure. Um, and then for your family too. You want to look at improving your home life and making your or your house a place that is edifying, a place that other kids from the neighborhood come in and they see a change. And they come in and they see, oh, there's rules here. I'm not allowed to just be in my room with the door closed. I'm not allowed to watch anything I want on YouTube. There's rules in this house.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, so let me challenge you to do that. Make the rules around you change. Um, the card breaks, back to that. We have a s we have some cool stuff happening. And I just sent over an email today of a business we're gonna work with, I think, to have our own packed goaded breaks. Game changers. Which would be awesome, because then we can choose baseball's going on right now. Our baseball drop this month is by the time it releases, I can say. Are you sure? Yeah, because it's released. You want to risk that? You no one knows while we're filming this, but or a couple people, but uh Cal Ripkin we're celebrating this month, and it's sick. The baseball shaft, the baseball grip, yeah. My favorite drop. It's sweet. Absolutely, yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, I'm also biased. Baseball.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, the baseball shaft, the butter shaft, the the grip, like all that. Um biased.
SPEAKER_00:No, we can shout Kyle out. Kyle killed it on that one. Kyle's the designer. We shouted him out already at the beginning of this podcast. Yeah. Um But we'll be able in months like this to pack a hundred packs of cards that are legit cased cards. Like hits graded in cases. And then the chaser be the Cal Ripkin chaser that's worth thousands of dollars, right? Yep. Um, so really cool development. If you're listening to this, it probably it will be announced in a couple days. But um we're finalizing all the details there, and that'll be sick because then all day and night these shows go on all platforms. Yeah. TikTok, whatnot, uh, eBay. Yeah. People are hunting down cards, they're hunting down chasers and uh love the the thrill of opening packs and stuff. And it's fun.
SPEAKER_04:And like, I mean, for me as a as a ripper too, it'll be fun. And in those packs, I wouldn't know what is in the card. I'll know the drop, so I'll know that that card is coming, but I won't know what other breaks are in there, or what other hits are in those, and there's gonna be some good hits in those packs as well. So it's gonna be pretty pretty exciting.
SPEAKER_00:Because right now the industry, and I'm learning, but tops like the tops fad that just happened. Uh, you're guaranteed an auto, but it could be like a guy that's never played. Could be a guy that like and they say, Oh, you're gonna get it. There's one guaranteed auto in this box, but it could be a junker. And now we can control that no matter what, one of the packs has a couple thousand dollar card that's themed after our putters and yeah, and our our core business.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, or even one of the past goats and stuff like that. There's a lot of a lot of pot and endless possibilities that we're gonna be able to do with that.
SPEAKER_00:Pump for that. Yeah. And we could do a a goats-only series or box or whatever, and then we may even have cards of our us of ourselves of ourselves in there.
SPEAKER_04:It's gonna be the real hit. Yeah. The real chaser is the reality. That's where God's gonna check us on our pride, I'll tell you. That's where he might check us on a pride.
SPEAKER_00:But the AI uh cartoons of myself, I'm not, I don't feel practical about, I'll tell you that. They've always got me round and shit. Yeah, yeah, I'm with you. I don't want to edit the shape.
SPEAKER_04:Fried Meatball sent one the other day, though, and AI's scary, man. Sent one of it's a picture, I want to show it to you, of me in like uh a pile of baseball cards and like just my head and I got a smile. And I'm like, that looks exactly like me. Yeah, and that wasn't me. Like, I've seen AI stuff be like close or messing around, especially in the car the cartoon versions, but that's terrifying. It is.
SPEAKER_00:Well, the uh mastermind I just went to, these guys are all really concerned with it because you get a couple hundred thousand followers on Instagram or TikTok, and these and people are taking their like Mr. Beast, his his face is being used all the time. All over the place. And they're moving his lips, making him say whatever they want to say, and it's not actually his business. No. Um, or it's anything he even knows about. So it is kind of scary.
SPEAKER_04:How are they gonna check on that? To get off topic, but how do you check all that? Like, because people all they always want their uh royalties and stuff like that, but like with AI being able to produce all that.
SPEAKER_00:The answer is even scarier. To check AI, the only answer is to AI. They have to build another AI cell furniture to check all the AIs.
SPEAKER_04:We're gonna get to iRobot soon. We're just gonna stop there.
SPEAKER_00:Alright. Um pumped for that. The uh last thing I want to talk about is um kind of we joked at the beginning or towards the beginning about the freshman year we had, and both of us have dads now were bl very blessed with amazing women, Proverbs 31 women, that um are our our rock and have helped us become the men we are and are still working on us, they would both say. And then our kids are the exact same ages. Uh you got a junior, I have a both boy and a girl and a boy, and our girls are the same age, so God has blessed us more than we deserve. Yeah, especially looking at those videos we had freshman year, we did not deserve to even make it out of college and to what we have now. Yep. Uh God's grace is is amazing. Um, so I wanted to talk about like kind of where you're at and the journey uh you've had spiritually, or actually start with where where you remember first being like making a decision to not live for yourself. The the not the renewed one, because I know your journey, but like when you first started going to church and when you thought you were saved and what you thought you were dedicated. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Well, you know, I kind of tell people, and you'll hear some people talk about stuff like this, but I grew up, uh my dad got saved, and then it introduced me and my brother to Christ at like I think I was like four or five, so it was really young. But then we grew up in the church. Uh we went to a couple churches here, and then the FBA started, First Baptist Academy started, and they put me there in fifth grade for school. And yeah, and so I was there, but it was more of just like the things we do. Like it was we go to we go to church, we go to school at a f at a Christian school, and then we would go to youth group. I mean, you and I were there every day after school and we'd hang out till nighttime. Um, and so did you do a wanas? I never did awanas, yeah. I didn't do awanas. I think maybe I went to like one or two, but it wasn't like a consistent thing.
SPEAKER_00:Marco's high uh high energy iguanas, they would have been handling it. My dad's youth group was perfect for you because start with dodgeball and end with dodgeball.
SPEAKER_04:But he really did such an incredible job. And again, obviously Kevin and I have been basically brothers for since um middle school, um, high school, if you ask him. But his dad is also like a second father to me. I've been blessed. I have my father, I am my stepfather, but I consider Coach V one of my other fathers. And uh, but the thing the way he had set up uh youth group was so like inviting and people wanted to be there. Yeah, like we like it was always packed. There was never like, oh, there's only like 15 kids here, 20 kids here. Like there was hundreds. We would do the lock-ins, like the all that stuff would be great. But we yeah, we would get to play, we'd have volleyball, we'd have football. Dad would come out there and play with us and stuff.
SPEAKER_00:The punishments for kids were like you couldn't go to youth group on Wednesday. Yeah. Like, I'm in trouble, I can't. That's exactly crazy.
SPEAKER_04:That's really how it was. And uh those are good times. But anyway, so we grew up in that that realm, and that was great. Then went to college at liberty with you and well, high school.
SPEAKER_00:High school we had some pastors. We had some youth pastors, several youth pastors that came in. That's right, forgot all that. I'm sure a lot of people watching, like, this happens. I mean, youth pastors are not uh usually sticking around. There's not many guys that are like, I want to be a youth pastor for a living. They want to be the head pastor and they want to plan their sermon and speak one day a week, two days a week. They don't want to speak to 13-year-old kids that aren't listening. So, nothing against them, but we did recycle a couple youth pastors, which didn't help your brother, your brother's age, my age, or yeah, yours, really, because guys are like, Oh, these I count on these guys and then they're out.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, like they you guys, I mean you had your dad, obviously, but you the your age group didn't grow up with Coach B as their youth group leader. Yeah, like your dad was there, then I think like you said, that that's important, like the consistency was there. Like your dad was there for us for three years of middle school and then continued through high school. Yeah, so like he was he was always a part of our lives, and uh rather than like you said, yeah, some of the high school pastors were there flipping, like we didn't have a steady high school pastor at all. Like it, I think it changed literally almost every year. Yeah. Um, and like you said, like not not doesn't mean they were all bad people or anything like that, but trying to grow the the youth, like we just like you need a parent, you need a father in the home, you need uh the pastor, a youth pastor that's there that's gonna kind of help nurture and grow and teach you and correct you and disciple you and love on you and let you know what's right and wrong. And you know, when you're flipping pastures like that, it's not always the the easiest to go through.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and that I think it's not an excuse, but it it definitely in a in a world of um very or increased divorce, increased uh attack on the home and other stuff too. It's hard when you're one relief for a lot of friends of ours and a lot of families, like there's that Wednesday supposed to be like my guy that I can count on, right? Or that I can hear from and I can tootle, I can be tootled under, whatever that word is, right? And be discipled. Yeah, tootelage, I was gonna say. Um but and that that didn't help a couple of our friends, and then of course, us not having a good circle of influence, yeah, high school wasn't the same. I didn't want to interrupt you, but we skipped from middle school to college, but like high school we weren't really dedicated to like it was really our testosterone making every decision, and it was sports high school is whatever, and and uh we both had times during high school. I don't want to interrupt your story, sorry. But we both had times during high school. We were in the word, like I started a Christian club my freshman year and then got sidetracked, and then senior I came back and was leading FCA and other stuff, but I was still living however I wanted to live. But both of us weren't really obviously um where we wanted to be now or where where we want to be now. Well it's interesting.
SPEAKER_04:I mean it's like the we were living selfishly, you know what I mean? We were i you're you know that the age of accountability is always the question, you know what I'm saying? And like we were young and we knew, but we also didn't, you know, you know what I mean? We were very, very ignorant to all that stuff, but yeah, like in high school, we were just we we had at least for me, I had Jesus in the back of my mind, like, oh I love you, God, and like okay, at h at night, it was in my mind it was acceptable to live how I wanted to during the day, and then at night be like, oh God, forgive me for that. Like, okay, I know you'll forgive me, so we're good. Like, and that rather than feeling that conviction um all the time. And you know, in middle school, we were in a Christian middle school, and I know that middle like Christian schools nowadays and even back then can aren't always the best. Uh and there's still problems, yeah, there's still problems within Christian schools, but that compared to a public high school that we then went into. I mean, I went to a public elementary school, so I at least had a little bit of that. But going from a private to a to a public like high school, and then we just you're just submersed in everything. Yeah. And that's where you start, you know, trying, you start thinking other ways, you start looking for certain things and doing th certain things, and yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Both of our schools had 3,000 people in them too, right? Yeah. 4,000 people. So we went from my dad being four doors down the hall. Yeah. I only spent half a year in eighth grade at that's why I always go to high school. I'm realizing, but at FBA, we weren't getting away with anything. Yeah. Like your mom was gonna know before we got home. Exactly. At Naples High and Barron, we no idea. No, parents had no idea what that was at all. Um, but then college, I was off to college, but you had um Liberty was kind of the plan. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So well, what's funny is I I really wanted to go to the University of Tennessee because I just love Tennessee. Like I wanted to do it, but I also was super lazy um and didn't want to like apply for colleges. Applied to Liberty, got in, I knew you were there, and I was like, Well, why do I care to go to any other college? Like, I don't care to go, like, I'm in, I go home with my best friend, like I'm in, done. And so Liberty was a choice, and I went up visited for the college for a weekend in the middle. I believe that, yeah. But uh, and honestly, I couldn't have been happier with my decision too. And even to be in that like Christian environment and just like being around like-minded people for the most part. Again, it was a big university, so there's a lot of different uh people there and stuff like that, but yeah, for the most part, and that was good.
SPEAKER_00:It's crazy. Liberty, we have a collab with now, and I went, we've been visited, we donated to the golf course, um, and we have a hole at Liberty University or a driving range now. We got the super exciting support of the driving range. But man, I go back and we both said this. We went back for alumni or homecoming last week. Last year. Yeah. That was my first time back. Oh, really? Since we left? First since we left. That was my first time. That the amount of things I avoided when I was at Liberty that were there for me. Crazy. Like Convos, we tried to you had to go to Convo three times a week. Yeah. You had to make your bed if you're on campus. Yeah. You had to make your bed, you had to take all the trash, or you get written up or fined if you didn't do those things. So in our mind, it was a military school when we were first there. But what a good thing it was for us, because uh obviously it taught taught us things, doing hard things is something now I preach to my kids, and they're six and four. Um, but the convo speakers that we missed, I'm so mad about. Yeah. Like when we were there, we we missed the uh Yates family, we missed the TDJ, or we missed a bunch of people that back then were pillars. And still their family lineage, still pillars. The Grams were there a bunch, movie stars, WWE wrestlers that were pro proclaiming to be Christians that were using their platform. Yeah. And we were skipping those convocations. I wasn't.
SPEAKER_04:No, yeah, no, I was skipping too. I mean I would freshman year, when you're on campus, you had to go, they would check. You still found ways to somehow avoid it. I couldn't believe how you could do that.
SPEAKER_01:But yeah, the best way. Yeah. I'll tell you the best way, sorry.
SPEAKER_00:No, please elaborate. No one knows this. I told the guys at Liberty. So they would check your whole room, but they never checked the laundry rooms. So I would make my bed and I would bring my sheets into the laundry room and sleep on top of the dryer because I want to stay asleep. I want we were up till three in the morning, four in the morning. Oh my goodness. And I would wait and hear it, he'd check the rooms, and then I would literally take my blankets, go to the laundry room, lay on top of the washer and dryer, sleep, and then I would go back to my bed until he was done checking our room. Almost all the time. But I didn't tell anybody because then there would have been more people on the washer and dryer.
SPEAKER_04:How do you come up with that? Like, how do you like you don't want to go, right? So, like, what what possesses you to say, I know. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go see if I lay down in the laundry room, if they're gonna come check on me.
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna let you all in on a secret. Okay? I'm a loophole loophole person, and it's done well for me, and I'm trying to use it for God's glory now. Um data's your friend, so you always want to try to find data and study data and see if it's accurate. If it's accurate, then it's you should be your best friend. That's right. So I was sick, I think I really was sick one time. You could get out of it being sick. Sure. Like, a lot of times. Yeah. But not frequently, right? Um so I was sick one time and I watched our RA how what his process was, because he had to still check the rooms and realized this the areas that he didn't check and wasn't gonna check. And I'm like, oh, he didn't even of course he's not gonna go in the laundry room, and he's doing it quickly. So the data for me was where's this person check? Check every day, and this is the area that in this room I could hide and still sleep. The other problem was they could check. Convo is from 9 a.m. to 10 30. We leave around 8 30 to walk there, wouldn't be back till eleven. So he had three hours to check. So you didn't I didn't want to hide somewhere. He checked the closets and other things where we tried, but you didn't want to hide somewhere that you'd have to be there for three hours without it being comfortable. Yeah, exactly. So I found I used and during the winter I would turn on the dryer so it'd be warm and I'd just lay on top of the on the massage as you're laying there too. It was nice. And I wanted to be able to sleep for that three hours because that's the goal. That was the goal of skipping, not to just skip and be a rebel, it was so I could sleep. We're up too late. So data. Just figuring out where he went. If I could have put a tracker or a camera in the like if cameras around back then, I would have been like, oh, he doesn't even check underneath the couch. I'm gonna sleep underneath the couch. I don't know. Interesting. Yeah. But then we after college, well, y for me, and we had a talk, which is crazy. Not not many people have heard this part of it, which is the great story, is it was what, a year and a half ago or two years ago? No, yeah and a half ago.
SPEAKER_04:Probably probably about a year, honestly. I would say a year, maybe a year and a half, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:The we had we went to a movie, I think, with the kids. Moana. Moana live movie? Or two movies? Uh Moana Two. Um, is there a live Moana? No, there's gonna be one. There's supposed to be a good one. Sorry, my daughter's gonna be upset. Yeah. You should know, Dad. Um we went to a movie, we were talking in the parking lot after, too late. It was probably on the on the weekend. But um, and we both just started talking about like, man, I'm in this or Marco, uh I don't remember it accurately. I know we both at one point said, um, man, I'm just hungry for like knowledge. I'm hungry to grow closer to God, I'm hungry to to know more because there's so much out there that you read through the Bible and you're like, Why did why are we so set on dancing? Why are we so set on same-sex marriage? Why are we so set on this and and so condemning and so judgmental when God just preaches love and and right and everyone's welcome and everyone and not everyone's welcome too at his feet, right? But there was some things we were talking about, and you probably remember better than I do in that parking lot. But it challenged both of us, and then we decided uh to do accountability.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's kind of interesting. So I the way it started for me is um, you know, I obviously we had our kids, and I had always felt convicted about the reality, I was partying, I was drinking, and then I always felt convicted I would also, you know, when I would drink, I would cuss, and so I always felt bad about that. And uh me and my wife started dating, and when we started dating, I was like, listen, if we're gonna be, if we're gonna be doing this, we gotta be able to trust each other. So if we're gonna go out and party, we don't do it without each other. You have to do this, and that progressed till when we were married and stuff like that, and then we're like, what are we doing? Like, why are we even doing this?
SPEAKER_00:Kidding.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I would I would say, hey, you go over there, I'm just gonna go do my thing over here. You just be gonna dance over here. Yeah, I'm gonna dance over here in the corner. Um so, but then I just again felt God convicted. But here's the thing like the conviction from God, the Holy Spirit had always been there. So like I've always I always had that, but I never listened. And that's where though, as it I kind of listened on my time, which was very selfish, and not everybody gets that opportunity. God thankfully allowed me to have this opportunity that I was able to listen what or what I would perceive as my time and not God's time. I was like, okay, I got married and I had kids, now it's time to change. You know what I mean? Yeah, but the the that was always there, but I also, like you said, like okay, why are we we're so firm on no dancing, so firm on same sex, so firm on this, like why? And I had always all in my mind it had only been from what uh your dad, Coach of V had said, my dad had said, people around me, but never my own research, never my own reading and stuff. And uh it got to the point where we started to find a church. I didn't want to go to First Baptist anymore, not because anything is wrong with First Baptist, but I knew too many people there. I couldn't separate God and people and what I had seen and stuff. So I did uh I told Alexandria, I was like, I don't I don't want to go there anymore. Oh yeah, so she wasn't happy about it. No, she wasn't happy. She grew up in a yeah, she still was going there consistently. But as the head of the household, I was like, if you want me to be able to lead and uh in a godly way, I need to be fed in a way that that that helps me. And uh so she shout out to Alexandria, she's great. Um, and we tried every single church, and then we finally got to a church, it was Destiny Church, which I didn't want to go to because I was like very I grew up Baptist and it's very charismatic and not very, but it is charismatic, and so there are some things that not especially Baptists don't necessarily agree with. But I was like one of my buddies went there, I was like, okay, I'm gonna go. And who loved it? Patrick. Uh Patrick's okay, great. Yeah, no, uh the uh Patrick, the small bald head. Oh, yeah, Patrick. Yeah, um, sorry, Patrick. My bad. So uh anyway, we went there and I was very hesitant, but I loved it. People felt genuine, it didn't feel fake, it was just people loving people, and like when they prayed, they it wasn't crazy, it was praying though with passion that they believe that God is gonna move. And I respected that. And I felt I was missing that passion for myself. Like, where is that like the belief, the faith, right? Yeah, so we went there, and then that's when we were there for a little bit, and they did a corporate fast. And this is where I was like, okay, I started to feel God calling me a little bit more. Um, and then when we did a corporate fasting, I was like, I'm not gonna not eat, I'm gonna not watch TV, is what I'm gonna not do. And I'm gonna make sure that I read every day because I'm tired of listening to what everybody tells me and not really understanding why. I want to I want to understand, I want to have my own foundation, I don't want it to be others. So what time what time of year was that? No TV. January. Playoffs. Titans were in the playoffs, which I'm a big Tennessee Titans fan. Yeah. I can't do it too. I'm sorry, Lord. But that's sacrificing. I can do it, I can do it. That's that's crazy. So for a month? For fasting, that's what it was. 21 days. 21 days. 21 days. No TV. January 1st, no TV.
SPEAKER_00:If the TV was on at the restaurant, you were looking the other way?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I no, I'm I but seriously, like I was I was trying to be able to do this.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah to pray, right?
SPEAKER_04:And that's where it was with like food. I knew that like if I was hungry and breakfast, I'm not gonna sit there and not eat and just pray for like before lunch. Like, I needed to be changed, like I had to change my my habits first. So I did that, and it was the greatest thing I ever done. I I couldn't encourage anybody more to do it. Like, if you have the ability, if you're struggling to read, I hate reading in general, loathe it. But I knew that it was important, and if I wanted to get that, like I said, that foundation, I was like, I'm not, I'm just gonna do it. So I cut out TV. My wife and I would she wouldn't watch it either, she was forced because of me. Nice. And I would sit down and I'd read. And I would read a chapter. And if I could just read a chapter, and I did it for 21 days straight, and now if I'd miss it, I feel like something's off. Like if I miss that time. Um, but that's still to this day still to this day. I you can ask my boys a couple years ago? Uh dude, that was 2021. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Four years.
SPEAKER_04:If you would have told me, I'm not kidding, like, and and you can ask her to this day, I'll still every every single night I go and I'll like uh it's at it's at night, I put the kids to bed, and she'll be in bed or whatever, and we'll talk, or I'll watch the game. I'll I'll watch the game until halftime, and then at halftime I'll stop and I'll go out in the living room and I'll and I'll do it.
SPEAKER_00:Um and you've done and haven't missed for four years from that you can recall.
SPEAKER_04:I have never missed like a week or anything like that. It's been like I'll miss like maybe like three days. We go on vacation, so I'll miss like three days. But I know I and I I hate talking about it because I don't want it to be like bragging. Oh, that's awesome. But like, yeah, like I for the entire I have if I have been home for a week, I've had I haven't missed I haven't missed even close to a week. Like now, my devotions may be some days an hour, and then there's other days it's five, ten minutes because I just can't concentrate, you know what I mean? And like the enemy attacks, and I'm not doesn't mean which doesn't mean I'm more holy than anybody else or anything. Yeah, I was just intentional. I was just intentional about it.
SPEAKER_00:But that's the living proof of uh of making a habit or I mean mythbusters, whatever you want to call it, it's not mythbusters, but they prove that it doesn't take twenty-one days because there's all kinds of things. Like you want to learn piano, it takes longer sometimes for some. But if you if you make if you're intentional about changing something, our bodies, no matter what we have, we're over uh medicated and over everything for ADHD. Everyone thinks they have ADHD, everyone thinks they have anxiety. Our body was beautifully and m wonderfully made, so I gotta preach right now. Go ahead. That that's a testament because I don't do that every day, and I haven't had a stretch of four years of doing anything consistently. Besides, I'm very good for four years, I know for a fact. I've thought about myself. We all do that. I still do that too, don't get me wrong. Um, but that's awesome. That's a testament to like even the 21 days uh has turned into a lifestyle for you for four years. And then imagine if you're listening, those times, and especially if you're in other states where you're not as free as we are in Florida, that's not easy to stick with that uh through COVID, through uh everything else that's happened the last four years, five years. There are disasters and there's questions and there's um all kinds of stuff. So that's pretty awesome. Yeah, don't don't feel bad about that.
SPEAKER_04:No, I mean not feel bad, but saying it's a big thing. It's the boasting that I like. I don't want it to come off as boasting, but then you know, I just I was reading, as I told you, I've been reading cover to cover from the Bible, and I'm in Second Corinthians, but now I'm in Galatians, but it was Paul is talking about uh that sometimes he now he's boasting out of necessity because he needs to show you what Christ is doing in his life, and he's boast boasting out of his weakness, not out of his strength. So he's talking about how I am weak in these areas, and you talk about the thorn in the flesh, right? Like God allows you to be weak so that his glory can be proved that much greater. And that's like I've tried a lot of different fastings since, and nine times out of ten, I didn't even finish the fastings. So it was intentional, it was something I wanted to do, and God, it was the time that God had called me to do it, and it has changed absolutely drastically changed my my walk and my life. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:No, I don't for me, um I don't at all. You've I've heard you say that twice. I didn't know about the time or had the time span how long, but I don't at all maybe it's my stance, but I don't think it's at all sounding boastful. It's almost humility, it's so much humility that it's that it's challenging for for me, so I'll tell you that because I haven't told you that yet. I don't I don't and no piece of me was like, Oh, he's bragging. Okay, good. Because we grew up in probably because we grew up in areas where we had people going, I haven't done this and whatever. Yeah, but exactly. Um and we see it on TV or on Instagram, you don't post it on like whatever. But yeah, um no, that's amazing. And now as a dad, like that 21-day fast at your church, and this is something we battled, we talked about I'll come back to on the church situation or the church thing that we talk we joke about now. But like now, your kids' lives are changed forever because of me growing up, my dad never missed a day. Like we'd be up, we'd go to Disney, drive through the night to save money on the hotel, get there, go to the parks. Before we went to the parks, he'd want to re he had to read the Bible, and I'm going, Dad, Disney's right there. What are we doing? And he's like, No, I gotta spend time, I spend time. And not that he would make us, but it was in a loving way, like, hey, let's all spend time. Let's this. Yeah. We'd go to a beach vacation, the sunset, and the best tide was at 5 a.m. for his his shelling. He'd wake up at 4 a.m. Crazy to be able to spend time with the Lord first. And I'd as a 38-year-old, I can say, I don't remember a time he missed. And I'm like, Dad, you gotta be exhausted because I'm exhausted, and I'm 16, I don't even get exhausted. And he made it a point. So it affects your kids, which is amazing, because now um you got a six-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl that are watching daddy or that know to daddy does that, and it's it's oozing out of out of you. But I want to say on the church thing, so for all of you listening, I grew up Baptist church as well. And when Marco, my best friend, was going to a church that was uh charismatic uh charismatic and uh whatever that entails, dancing tongues, uh backflips, whatever it is that they're celebrating. No backflips, that's all yeah. No backflips. You can do backflips though. I could.
SPEAKER_04:Uh it's been a long time.
SPEAKER_00:I used to say it like that, and now we joke about it because I'm like, praise God, because my kids wouldn't have two really good friends that I know they can grow up with, and I hope that we s we spend a ton of time together. Because if you didn't do if you didn't go to that church, and if you didn't do the 21-day fast, you might not be in the position you are, and your marriage wouldn't be as strong, or your kids wouldn't be. So I challenge you because I was that a couple years ago when you told me, I was like, oh boy, he's he's lost his mind. Yep. And the same thing with like I don't know, I don't draw lines, I try not to draw lines anymore, because I grew up in churches that drew lines that women, women pastor, no way could that be. Oh yeah. That was like uh I'm like, what? Anyone can anyone can if God's gonna speak through somebody, gonna speak through somebody. Do I choose to go to that?
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_00:No, but I'm not gonna draw a line. I definitely wouldn't go, I'm not going to that church out of town because there's a female pastor. I sat in a couple churches with female pastors that were amazing. So I would challenge you, don't draw lines unless it's actually biblical. Yeah. Uh in New Testament law. Because we draw lines in Old Testament law too that uh are crazy. Yeah. Not crazy.
SPEAKER_04:I will I will say kind of like what you're talking about with uh like and you you know being Baptist growing up, me growing up Baptist too, and like the difference and what also started that journey for me. I I said I believed in God, and if I believed in God, I felt like I wasn't showing it. And by showing it, I meant like I didn't believe in the supernatural. And that was a line that stuck to me. I don't know where I like I God gave it to me. I'm pretty sure. I don't remember, I don't think I heard it from somebody saying it. Like it was just something like I can't believe in a supernatural God and not believe in the supernatural. And that was something I'm like, okay, because people would come in to oh I got healed, I did this, and I'm like, oh red flag. Yeah, I'm like, sure you did, sure you did. Or I did this, and I'm like, well, I don't really believe it. So it's like, and so and I used to pride myself saying loudly, I'm doubting Thomas. Like, I'm doubting Thomas. And like you see the proof, yeah. Like that haunted me like for my whole life, I feel like, because now I was so much like everything is skepticism, and and now like chasing after God for that supernatural, like I wasn't afraid as much of like what I was gonna see going into a charismatic church. Like I remember somebody said, I'm not gonna put them on blast on here, but somebody told me when we started going to Destiny, they're like, Oh, they love Jesus there. Like, they don't just love Jesus, they love Jesus. Like, like that was a negative. Yeah, and I remember being like, that is exactly why I want to go there. Yeah, is it gonna be the perfect church? I don't know. Are they absolutely the best? I don't think so. No, I love them and I love Destiny Church, but you're always gonna find churches that whatever.
SPEAKER_00:But that's what you needed at that point.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and it's and it has been such a blessing. And so, like, like you said, drawing the lines, you don't draw the lines, let God draw the lines. Yeah, and let the Holy Spirit convict you of what is right and what is wrong. But back it up with the word. The word is there as our guide. It's the it's the law, right? And again, I'm in Galatians, and that's what it's talking about. The law doesn't save you, it's Christ that saves you, it's the faith in him and Jesus that saves you. Exactly. And so we'll always debate. That's why there's six million different denominations, yeah. Which is so dumb. Like, oh, they they're not gonna they they believe in speaking in tongues, they ain't going to they're not going to hell. I mean to heaven. Yeah. They're doing this.
SPEAKER_00:True. No, don't put God in a box. That's a good, it's unfortunately a closing word, but we gotta do it, we'll have to do another one. But I will say that's the it was so good for me. I'm pumped that God has given us grace. There's no there's no more grace than what God than what God gives. And I've said it before on this podcast even. I'm uh I'm the Draymond Green of of our team, typically, of our family, right? I want to I want to call uh family out when they're doing something wrong, and I want to be, I want to cut somebody out when they've wronged me. I used to, and I've be tried to be a lot better about that because of God's grace. God, we betray God all the time. We live for ourselves, and he's still waiting there with arms open, and I'm like, hey, I'll give you two strikes, not three, uh, and then I had to grow to this a hundred strikes, right? And and have that grace. But and then the last thing to cat to encapsulate all of it too is as you said, is the Bible, I don't talk about enough, is uh the acronym that we used in youth, my dad uses, is the basic instructions before leaving earth. So the Bible, B-I-B-L-E, basic instructions before leaving before leaving earth. If you can get in the word, I promise you your life will get better. Yeah. Um I would start in the in the New Testament. If you're looking to be discipled, you can send us an email, we can tell you where to start if you're looking to grow, because you jump into some of the old testament. Um you could get lost, you could get a little confused, but I can tell you the word I've never opened. I've never opened the word, and it's returned void, and God promises that. So you could flip to any page in the book, and there's no other book in the world that could do that, that returns something valuable, that returns something, and God's speaking through it daily, every second, to people all over the world. So open the word, put good people around you. That was what I wanted to close with on this. It was my best friend, accountability partner, and there were times when we were best friends to each other, we shouldn't have been around each other as much as possible. And now, if we can get each other stronger and hold each other accountable and help each other grow as dads, as people, uh, put good people around you, your life will get better. I'm blessed to have you. Blessed have you on the podcast and love you. And uh we'll have you on have you on again because I got excited about the talking about God and we just needed we need to run this back. Yeah. Love you guys. Thanks for listening, thanks for watching. Go to mentality. Uh like, share, comment, subscribe, please, and uh, we'll see you next time.
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