Welcome everyone to the empower you podcast where we are empowering you to make a difference
in the world wherever God has called you and today we have my son Daniel Holt my first
born son my second born child out of seven so he had to learn how to be a leader really
quick but what we try to do at empower you with our podcast is interview people who are
successful in a particular arena that is making a kingdom of God impact making a kingdom of
God revolution happen where they are at and so we are going to have different people all
the time from different fields and today I want to talk to Daniel about the financial
arena because first of all being his dad I never could believe that Daniel doing what
he's doing today so successfully but Daniel has been super successful in the financial
realm he became one of the quickest six-figure earners within the regional sector of senior
managers of the company he works for he recently reached the $250,000 ring and he is now helping
just hundreds if not many I don't know it might be thousands now of people around the
country helping them really and you're gonna you're gonna elaborate on this more Daniel
with me but it feels like from talking to you and Chandler so many times around the
fire in the kitchen at the church and different places we're at that one of your passions
is to make people as healthy and wealthy as possible as Christians I mean to take their
Christian faith now you're not working only with believers but you with believers you
try to bring a kingdom of God revolution through their faith that their faith should be having
an impact and that God's empowered them to have dominion over the financial areas of
their life and I know that many conversations had about how hard that is sometimes because
of people's view of either the end times everything's gonna go to hell in a handbasket soon or just
laziness and then they kind of spiritualize their laziness let me just start back let's
when did you as a young man maybe you were a child I don't know because we I've never
even asked you this question but when did you get an inkling that you might have an
interest in the area of being an entrepreneur finances those kind of things yeah well thanks
for having me dad yeah I think for me I actually don't think I ever really had an interest
to be an entrepreneur I think for me I was more interested early on in numbers I really
was fascinated me statistics strategic thinking was something that I was really kind of naturally
into I really never really had an interest in entrepreneurship but I think I started
to have an interest more in the type of kind of character that different people in the
entrepreneur space kind of exemplified and that's really what kind of caught my interest down the
road I even getting into finance I really wasn't thinking oh I want to be an entrepreneur is more
like oh I like numbers I like different aspects about that and then I kind of learned it as I
started to go I think that was something that I had but one thing I will say is growing up as a
PK as a pastor's kid I saw you be about as close to an entrepreneur as you can be without being an
entrepreneur building a whole church and so when I started to get older and to start out different
jobs I started to realize like I think a little different than other people and I started to
realize like the whole job thing wasn't really my cup of tea so it was almost it was almost I
wasn't thinking entrepreneurship I was more thinking I don't really like this whole corporate
thing and then I realized oh I'm supposed to be an entrepreneur now you had someone come up to you
at church you had graduated with an art well it was an archaeology degree but archaeology was kind
of a focus of yours yeah archaeology and Hebraic languages you had been on an archaeological dig
you enjoyed that but not exactly the major to get you land you like top jobs so you were just doing
anything you could to make money after college
You're getting ready to marry Chandler.
So that was an incentive too about what you're going to do.
But then someone took an interest in you, and I'm talking about Mark.
Mark came up to you and he began a conversation.
Talk to me about what he said.
The reason I say that is because this involves you, but I think because of Mark and his mentorship,
you've been able to mentor others.
He's kind of modeled something that we want to see in a kingdom of God revolution happening
all over the place.
Yeah.
Well, actually Mark didn't walk up to me.
I actually indirectly reached out to him.
So when I was running the youth group, one of the, so I was a youth pastor for those
that don't know, I was the youth pastor at the road for a couple of years.
And that was right when I got into finance.
And I asked my leaders there who are older adults, just about like, Hey, do you guys
know of anyone looking in the financial industry?
At that point I had decided I wanted to pursue a career in the financial industry.
And so I was kind of looking for someone who would take on someone like me with no experience.
And there was a gal there who is, was very close to Mark's wife, who Mark's wife had
mentioned that Mark was looking for some people and then she got me in touch with Mark
and then that's how we got connected.
So it was totally like just secondhand connection.
If Mark's wife had never mentioned it to Dina, Dina never mentioned it to this particular
leader, I would have never known about the company that I've been with for eight years.
Wow.
So then what was Mark's response when you talked to him?
I think he was nervous.
Why that?
Well, he, you know, not, not from me, but he was very nervous.
I think the idea of, you know, of, of working directly with the pastor's son and he had
been a, you know, a member for many, many years of the church.
And so, you know, he didn't want to screw it up.
He didn't want to bring me in and I flop and it looks poorly on him.
So I think he was very concerned and probably a good way that like, Hey, I want to make
sure that if Daniel kind of blows it, that that's not a reflection on Mark to you.
Cause there's a lot of people that, that do blow it in a lot of different ventures.
And so I think that was kind of his, his initial reaction.
So what did he do to start helping you?
Cause you had no experience, zero.
You didn't even take accounting when you were in college.
So only reason I can relate to the fact that you were good with numbers was the fact that
you played baseball cards on the floor and may, and then wrote out all these statistics.
So my son still has a box full of baseball cards.
He's really into it.
Guilty.
And he, he relaxes.
Everybody relaxes in different ways.
Right.
Daniel relaxes with looking at statistics of baseball players and kind of thinking through
the, the, the ideal team or something.
And he's always said that if he could make enough money, he would love to own a major
league team.
Definitely.
So what did he do to start helping you?
Cause you didn't know anything about anything in relation to this.
Yeah.
So this particular company is really good at training people.
Mark was an excellent trainer.
So he would basically take me through two different types of training.
One was hands-on training, learning the financial services where we'd go out and he would first
show me what to say to people and I'd kind of shadow, and then I do it with him.
And then after that, I do it in front of him until I was so good that he could kind of
check me off on these different types of appointments.
And then the other way is, is he would run classes at his office that would teach different
types of these products.
So it's like financial services, a lot like a foreign language.
So if you can immerse yourself in the language, like if you drop yourself in a foreign country,
you know, you can get really good at it.
And the whole reason why, one of the big reasons why I was interested in it is there's such
a need for it.
There's not a lot of people that know how money works.
So, so how old were you at that time?
I was 24 when I first started.
Okay.
Yeah.
So you found that you were pretty successful at it.
Yeah.
What was the key to your success?
The biggest thing was I was very competitive.
And I also really felt like this was something that I could do that took out the frustrations
of my competitive.
nature of the past. So like when I was in high school, you know, I didn't grow very fast. You
know how much I was into baseball. I really wanted to be good at sports and I couldn't be because I
felt like I was physically impaired. Not like, you know, cause I had some impairment, but I just was
short, a lot shorter. There just wasn't, there's only so much athletic ability you can practice
and mold into yourself. And then it kind of comes like, Hey, you're actually not that good.
So when I got into financial services, I was able to take that kind of competitive edge
and go like, Hey, I can be short, tall, fast, slow. Like it doesn't really matter. It's whoever
works the hardest. And so I just found that I outworked a lot of people and I was very aggressive
with the way that I operated. And I'm still that way. I think that's, I think that's one of the,
the God-given gifts I have is I'm very aggressive and I'm very I get very, very focused
on my routine and my schedule and my, on the way I do stuff. And then I'm constantly trying to get
better at my interactions with people. And yeah, I'm just, I think I'm one of those people that
really focuses on trying to grow as a person and, you know, meet people and hang around with people
that are ahead of me. So when Daniel and Chandler and the family are over to our house and we might
have scheduled it a week before, we always know that Daniel's going to be on a phone call either
right before we eat, or he's going to have the phone call go through the meal for part of it.
And then he comes in or he has to leave early to go make a phone call. So you're very regimented.
You keep a very regimented schedule. And you and Chandler have really worked out
a great arrangement with the kids and watching the kids and having the kids there. I mean,
I think back on when Chandler went to New York during COVID to be a nurse. Chandler, his wife,
is a nurse. Both, this is really before she's become so powerful really in her communication
in relation to healthcare, that's diet, it's exercise, it's supplements, it's what you eat,
all that stuff. They went to New York and she went there to help in kind of ground zero for COVID
in New York City. And then Daniel still had his business to run too. So he, you were Zoom calling,
right? So you were doing Zoom calls, holding a baby, having another one crawl on the floor. I
mean, it was just crazy. It was a crazy time for you guys, but you did it and you grew your
business. Matter of fact, you were telling me the other day that you think that because of COVID
and seeing the power of the Zoom call concept, it's really enabled you to reach more people
because you're not running all over the city in your car.
Well, I think today when it comes to business, you can do things so much quicker than you used to.
You know, when you had to, I was just listening to a podcast this morning, like this guy was
talking about how he had to use, what is it called? The Rolodex. Like there's Rolodexes people had to
do. Yeah. You had maps, like you had to pull up to figure out where you're going to. And now it's
like, it's so much quicker. And I think with business stuff, people can make a lot more
money a lot quicker in business because essentially prior to COVID, I would go into an office,
I would sit at my desk, usually in a suit and tie. And then, and then I meet with people and
all my clients were about that lived about 20 miles from where I lived.
Okay.
Now about 70% of our clients are out of state.
Wow.
And there's no way that could happen without the technology we have. And it was always there,
but no one wanted it because everyone was so under this idea that I drive into job and all this
stuff and most industries have changed now. So that was huge. And one thing I want to hit on,
you were mentioning schedule. Schedule has been hugely important to Chandler and I, because we
have a three and a half year old, we have an 11 month old. And so like, you know, one of the big
things that we've been growing in is this idea of your schedule starts in the evening. And I think
it's a biblical example in Genesis, but like, you know, we do our quiet times, we do our times with
God in the evening now. And then, and then I'm up at 4 AM every day and working, getting stuff done,
Chandler and I both get up and then we're working all the way until the evening, but we kind of
have our, our time to be in the evening. We listen to podcasts, have time with God. And then we have
the time of doing in the morning and then throughout the day. So that's been really important.
And then I watched the kids at Symes and she's got them and then we're passing them off,
checking them across.
It's your turn, my turn, trying to keep everything up to speed.
So I guess what I want to know is, do you take an ice bath in the morning?
Because that's really where your testosterone gets impacted the most.
No, I don't.
Are you eating liver?
Like raw liver?
Oh yeah, raw liver every day.
Like liver king?
Oh yeah.
You do do that, right?
Yeah.
So you wake up.
I was right.
Okay.
Take a little shot of that.
But you're not doing ice baths in the back with six inches of snow on top of it?
No.
But I'm glad you do.
I don't respect you as much as I thought I could.
I'm glad you do though.
You know, someone's got to do it.
So let's talk about why you feel like it's important for people to have financial freedom,
for them to have control of, but also growing their wealth.
Anything you do is all about what you focus on.
And with money, there's so many Christians that almost see money as a bad thing.
And so they're going to naturally deflect the blessing that God might want them to have.
I mean, our whole school system's built to make employees and workers.
You have to really get out of the matrix, and it really is a matrix, and get into this
whole different way of living.
And so if you want to make a lot of money, and I think it's a God-given thing for most
people to do that, not everyone, but most people, you've got to have it as a focus for
you.
So I think that's one thing.
But then I think another big thing is, you look at what's going on today, and my set's
going to be off a little bit, but there's $640 million that, I think it was 2019, $640
million was spent by Marvel to make those Marvel movies that year.
The last election, I think it was $2.1 billion spent on campaigns.
I mean, it's an insane amount of money.
And how much of that money was represented by Christians and believers?
Like virtually none.
And then how happy are we with the way our country's turning out?
Pretty unhappy, or I hope you're unhappy.
So the reality is, you can be a complainer, or you can make a change, but you can't do
both.
And so with money-making, it's bigger than just, I want to have a nice car and a nice
house.
I mean, it's got to be about-
Impact.
Impact, making change, cultural reform.
And money, outside of the Holy Spirit, money is the biggest mover and shaker of culture.
And so if you want to change culture, change who has the money.
And so that's, to me, the biggest thing with money.
And so that's why it's got to be a movement of people focused on making money.
How do you make, how do you encourage people in the arena of making as much as they can
and being as successful and effective as they are with money and keep their relationship
with God strong?
Because so many people just get prideful, they get arrogant, especially as they get
more and more wealthy.
The problems we see today are because of money, a lot of them.
So there definitely is that, greed is probably one of our biggest problems as our country.
We used to have 40% of Americans that were farmers in the 1960s.
And now we have, I think, five companies that represent all the food.
So if they want to make a change or they want to make a law on something, they're going
to make it happen.
I think there's reality to people that have money, not doing good things and getting too
focused on just growing their income.
But I think the big thing is, is ethical economics is what I call it.
But my thing is, is I want to do everything I possibly can that's moral, ethical and legal
to get to where I feel like God wants me to be in terms of my finances.
I think when pride comes in, pride is a reflection of a small vision.
Because if you have pride, the problem with pride is you can't grow anymore because you
think you know everything.
But if you're humble, humility is, I'm going to continue to be teachable and coachable,
and that's going to allow me to get to higher and higher levels, even financially.
So a lot of people that are prideful, I feel like are actually hurting themselves more
than anyone else, because it's like they could be called to be a multimillionaire and
they get stuck at a couple hundred thousand of income a year because they're prideful.
And I see it all the time in my company, and I've had it at different times too.
But it's like the more humble you can be, the more teachable you can be, which is going
to help you scale everything you're doing.
So let's talk about that, because that's something I note about you and Chandler more than anybody
else in our family.
guys are always listening to podcasts. Chandler's always researching stuff. You research stuff
in a different realm, but you're doing that too. You're always turning me on to a book
or to a podcast that you're listening to, and they're not necessarily even Christian.
I mean, they're different guys that you listen to and different people that Chandler listens
to. And you've heard me say so many times that all truth is God's truth, no matter where
it comes from. So just because Albert Einstein was not a Christian, we can still believe
in the theory of relativity. So that's true in anything though. There's actually kingdom
truths coming from secular, non-Christian, even atheistic minds that they've tapped into
the kingdom of God. Not the kingdom of God to salvation, but at least kingdom of God
to a realm of effectiveness that works. So what was it and what is it in you that drives
you forward to continue to want to learn and grow?
That's a good question. I think for me, it's just, I know how much is possible and how
much I see these different people doing. And I think for me, it's like, if you have all
these secular business people or business women that are reaching these heights of success
way more than we are, it's like we have the Holy Spirit. So we should be smoking everyone
in any industry as Christians. And so like, for me, the learning is that that practical
wisdom, success leaves clues. There's not a lot of people you'll hear that'll tell you
something new after a while. You might hear a little thing here and there, but the reality
is, is like, you know, people that do A, B, and C usually end up being successful.
And the biggest thing is, is with learning is there's experiential learning, and then
there's the book learning. Most people do book learning. And so the key is, is how do
you take the book learning and then actually implement it? And so I think you have to,
with learning, you have to hear it sometimes five, six, 10, 20 times before you really
get it. And I think too, you relate to different people, whether they're Christian or not,
that remind you of yourself. You are the people you hang out with. So if you're hanging out
with four millionaires, you're probably going to be the fifth. If you're hanging out with
four broke people, you'll probably be the fifth. So it's like when you're reading and
learning and listening to podcasts, it gives you almost the ability to like, hang out with
these people through their knowledge.
That's good. So yeah, so it's almost like you've got these allies that are in your life.
You can actually have a relationship with them. You know, and I love history and I read
a lot of biographies. And I've often said that I've learned some of my best lessons
from dead people. But I've also learned a lot from some good mentors. I've had good
mentors in my life too. There's something right, there's something about someone says,
well, you need to have good habits. If you have good habits and you have a day, each
day is planned out well toward the focus of what the vision is that you have, that sounds
great. But there's nothing that can replace someone who actually does it, who actually
lives it out each day that you can either hang out with, read about, talk to, have a
relationship with. So who would be say, two or three mentors in the financial area? And
why?
Eric Olson, who I work directly with out in San Jose, California. He's taught me a lot
of leadership stuff. And he is, you know, he's my coach. So, you know, a coach isn't
someone that you're buddy buddy with. Sometimes it can be that way. But there's a there's
a healthy distance between a good coach and kind of a trainee like me. But he would be my
number one. I think too, you know, there's different guys in business I look up to that
I've never met. Ed Milet is a big one. Andy Frisella is a big one. And I'm sure I'll meet
them one day. But those are the people that I would say, on a big scale, I look up to the
most in business. And I think, you know, the last one will be Mark. Mark Onstott. You know,
Mark, he's always saying, you know, you wasn't the fastest person to it. But his
stick-to-itiveness in the industry was really key. Because, you know, I, he came out here
and established everything with our company. And if he hadn't done that, I never would be
here. So I would say those are kind of my,
those are caliber people. I do hear you quote them or reference them a lot. Yeah. Do you feel
like that?
I mean, do you feel like that as the years have gone by, you've been able to keep that
edge and keep growing?
Oh yeah.
And I think, uh, I think it's getting more.
Yeah.
It feels like it.
Yeah.
Because-
It feels like there's more of an incorporation of the kingdom of God and a vision for, um,
like you just, the references you gave about finances and politics.
Yeah.
There's no doubt that, that money can influence a lot.
Like I was just in a conversation with someone on my way in who is a financial consultant
with top political leaders in Colorado.
She's been, she's had a quite an illustrious career too, been in the last, um, presidential
administration.
She was a part of that.
Yeah.
Anyway, she and I were talking and we were talking about who's got the money for the
mayoral race.
So you got this mayoral race, you got a dozen people running for mayor of Colorado Springs.
And I've been doing the research on who's got the money because you hate to say it,
but of that, those top four, one of them is going to win.
Yeah.
Because they got the money.
Yep.
And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,
Yeah.
And all these other people, most of them are actually friends of mine.
Yeah.
It's probably not much of a chance.
Yeah.
If you can't advertise.
Well, it's all about, it's all about exposure and money gives you exposure.
That's right.
So talk about the kingdom of God revolution.
So you, you've got it, you caught it.
What does that mean to you?
And then how is that being expressed through you?
You know, God gave me a vision for the Joseph initiative.
So for those that don't know,
the Joseph initiative is a initiative that God gave me as a literal vision I got
last year,
and it was all about basically transferring the wealth into believers hands
and the non-believers hands,
but people of good moral character that can help transform culture.
And one of the best examples is how Joseph transformed culture with the
Egyptians where he took, you know,
God gave him a vision of these bad years of famine coming.
And then literally he planned it out and basically invested the,
the money of the Egyptians for seven good years.
And then the bad years came.
And so when the bad years came, you know, these other groups,
these other cultures weren't ready for it.
And so they ran out of money, they ran out of food.
And so they ended up coming to the Egyptians.
And then what it ended up saying happened was literally the Egyptians took
basically all the land, the physical land, all the money.
People sold themselves as slaves.
There was a permanent tax.
I think it was 20% tax on the people of like that area forever.
It was like a permanent thing.
And not that you would want to do that,
but think about like the cultural shift of power that occurred at that time.
And I believe like Christians, believers,
good moral people are called to compete in the marketplace and all these
different areas,
all these things where people are upset about social media platforms.
They're upset about, you know,
the entertainment industry and the business industry and all this stuff.
It's like,
so that should be God telling you that you should probably get into that
industry and bring reform. And so you've got to be successful.
You can't just pray about it.
You've got to actually compete in it.
And you've got to be so good at what you do that you're actually beating these
other groups. And so like, you can't go, I'm going to take down, you know,
these big organizations. And then, you know, you're,
you're pansying around on the way you're doing it. And,
and then you're praying like, God, why isn't this working? It's like, well,
you're not even doing the basics.
All these people that you're complaining about, they've done the basics.
They've put in the hours, they've put in all this hard work.
So you're supposed to be, do that. And then God's going to show up.
Kind of reaping and sowing, right?
All about reaping and sowing. God doesn't, God doesn't.
What about revival, man?
Just kind of falls down and it just kind of hits you and everybody falls down
and start speaking in tongues. I mean, I don't, I don't mean to be negative,
but there, there is a mentality that comes out of my experience. Okay.
I've been just around so much of a revivalist mentality
that isn't putting in the work.
It's like God's going to somehow sovereignly just show up one day and,
and then everything's going to start to happen when the reality is,
is that 99% of anything that happens is because you salt the Lord.
You prayed, you made the phone calls, you built the church. I mean, you gotta,
there's a reaping and sowing concept there.
And a big,
a big reason why that is is because we've been programmed since kids to think
that way. Yeah. Like, like forgive.
at church for a second. And it's like, literally, we are programmed from very
early on, our parents have, have W-2 jobs. You grow up in this school system,
and the whole school system says, go to college, get a degree, you're going to
get a great career, a career with benefits. And literally, that's all
they're taught. So, so if you look at control, they have basically zero
control of their future, zero control of their life. And so it's hard for them
to wrap their head around this idea of like, oh, maybe revival is a choice.
Yeah. Maybe revival is me deciding it's time for revival. Yeah. In my own life,
in my family's life and all this. But no, we just wait, we just want God to show
up. And it's like, when in Scripture, does God just show up? I don't think
there's one example of that. I mean, even when, during the Israelites, God
shows up and opens up the Red Sea. I mean, think about leading up to that
they had literally broken out of Egypt, they had left their homes, they had been
traveling for days on end, then God shows up. But what we do is we like that
Scripture and go, see, God, you know, opened up the floodgates and they were
able to walk through the Red Sea. But it's like, there's nothing talked about
leading up to that of all the things that Moses and the Israelites did, you
know, taking of the promised land, all that stuff. So it's like, really revival
is us deciding it's time for revival and us actually doing it. Well, you know,
let's just take parenting. I mean, parenting is hard work. Marriage is hard
work. Yeah. Building a business is hard work. And so the reality is, is that God
gave us this earth, God gave us his kingdom. He gave us the Holy Spirit to
live in our hearts. And then he tells us to have dominion. He tells us to have
dominion over the earth. And he tells us that he will build his church
through his people, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He talks
about the increase of his government without end. But every example we have in
Scripture is men and women casting their crowns before the Lord, getting humble
before the Lord, and working hard. Yeah. I mean, the book of Acts is about the
church outworking and outpraying the Jews and the Romans of that time, and
suddenly the church is exploding left and right because of their work and
their effort. So you're pretty devoted to helping people become
more disciplined and to understand these kingdom principles. Yeah. How do you do
that? Because I see you on the phone coaching people every day. I mean, every
time you're at our house, there's at least four or five calls. Yeah. It seems
like that you've got either a Zoom call with or somebody. And what I hear you
saying is things like, now make the call. You know, this is what you say. And then
if they say this, you say that. So you're literally coaching them through
specifics. Obviously, I have my own business stuff. So I'm training and
developing people there. But I think too, you know, if you look at money, the
biggest way to increase your money is your cash flow. So it's like, if you can
find ways, and I'm a big believer in this, I think everyone should have a
part-time or full-time business, because you can't make the same money you used
to. I mean, economically, statistically, any way you look at it, with inflation,
with technology taking away jobs, people are losing jobs left and right, and
they're getting paid less, and there's more competition to get paid less. And so
I think the biggest thing is, is people need to start businesses. They need to
have a trade. They need to have something that they bring to the
marketplace that's outside of the whole matrix system of this W-2 world that we
all live in. We've got to have people going out there and making this happen.
So I think that's my big passion, whether it's directly in my financial services
industry that I'm training, or just helping people kind of get things off
the ground. There's a lot of people online that'll tell you like, oh,
business is easy. You know, I always joke it's like the 12-year-old in the
Lamborghini telling you he made a million bucks this year, and he's living
with his parents, and he took that Lamborghini for rent to post this thing.
But everyone's asking him for coaching help, right? But he's never built
anything. He's never done anything. He's making money, and you see this a lot.
He's making money out of telling people how to make money, but he's never had a
job. Exactly. He just read a bunch of books and go, oh, here's some good
principles. I mean, isn't that a lot of the motivational speakers, too? It's like they made all their money off being
motivational speakers, but they never actually built anything from the ground
up, except themselves being a motivational speaker. Exactly. Their
business is motivation. Right. That's it. So I think like, you know, that's a big
problem. So for me, outside of that, I want to
help create reform? Because I really see, I felt like God told me, this was a few
months ago, that business entrepreneurship is the spearhead to
everything. Because if you can, if you can have, you know, that's where the money's
at, right? That's where the, the greatest influence of culture's at. It's, it's
more the, it's more the backside though, because, you know, you see a political
leader, they're the front side, they're who you see, and you're voting for them.
But who are all the people that funded them? And then take that a step further,
those people worked their tails off to get to where they were. Whether you agree with
them or not, on maybe the ethics of their business, they worked really, really hard
to get them there. And so, if you go back to the very beginning, you're probably
looking at someone who had a normal job, who decided to be an entrepreneur, and
worked its tail off for many years, built up a huge company, and then had all this
money that then they shifted over to that politician. So it, it really comes back to
competition. Everything's competition. And so it's like, you got, you got him,
who's the competition? That person, you know, is there a Christian competing against it? Or is it,
you know, the Christian neighbor who was given the same business opportunity as that guy and said,
no. And I see that a lot. They say, no, they're focused on, I need to have balance in my life.
I need time to pray. I need time to do all this stuff. And yeah, we need to pray. We need to do
all that, but we need people that are willing to pay the price the same way other people paid
the price. So no freebies, right? No freebies. Just because you're going to heaven doesn't mean
you still, I mean, the, the, the idea of starting with a little and then being faithful with a
little is a kingdom principle for all time, for everybody. And then God multiplies that.
As he sees faithfulness, he gives you more. Doors open to those who knock. Knock, seek,
ask. That's what Jesus said. So even, I mean, throughout the kingdom revelation of Christ,
he's constantly talking about these kingdom principles that relate to business. So Daniel,
when you look at where we're at right now as a country and what, you know, the last election
was interesting. The one before that was interesting. We had COVID. What do you feel
are some of the answers as we look, as we talk about a kingdom of God revolution, what I mean
by that is that there is a explosion of men and women who are great commandment believers,
loving God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. The neighbor is himself.
Penetrating different arenas, different, different fields of endeavor and bringing the kingdom there,
bringing the power and the reign and the rule of Christ into that. So are you hopeful? Are you
depressed? I mean, how, how do you, how do you navigate all these strange things that are
happening in our country right now? And you're young. I mean, I've only, I've got a few more
years, but you've got your whole life before you. Yeah. No, I mean, I think, I think I'm,
I'm in some ways neutral about it. Like there's some very bad things going on. What I think God's
going to do is he's going to wake up the church. And I think he's already doing this wake up to
the church, to our own greatness and what we're called to do. And we've had, we have a lot of
churches, a lot of pastors that preach a very passive gospel, preach a very safe gospel. You
know, they don't want to offend anyone. You know, I've got people that won't even speak up about,
you know, abortion. They won't speak up about just a lot of different things. And they're,
they're so fear-based, you know, the reality is, is, is they are not the leaders of the church.
They're not, these types of pastors are not the leaders they think they are, but they're not.
The leaders are those that are willing to get out there. You know, the whole idea of ecclesia,
you know, that's the, the word that Jesus said, ecclesia, the, the chosen ones, the, those that,
these were people that were creating reform. And in Athens is first coined, I think it was 580 BC.
These were people that would get together in like a town hall meeting and they create change in
their cities and their statehoods. And those are, that's the church. If you are hearing this
whole view of like, you know, the church is over here and then culture's over here, I'd run from
that church. That's the exact opposite of what it should be. We're supposed to be the forefront of
cultural reform and change. To me, it's an evolution. We've never really operated from
that before. Probably since the first century, regardless of how it all came about, there's a
reason why the church ended up becoming the main religion at a certain point in the Roman empire.
And again, I'm not saying that everything
was done correctly in that, but naturally the gospel is something that grows. And so if you
let it grow and you unleash it in these different arenas, it'll take over everything. That's why
we're called the salt of the earth. Like how good is it to have a steak and have no salt on it?
I mean, that's like insanity.
What if you're eating liver and you put salt on it and you still don't like it?
You're probably normal then because liver still tastes like liver.
No, but it's true. What you're saying is that if we just even look at the creation account,
if we look at trees, if we look at flowers, if we look at corn, if we look at wheat,
God has naturally built everything to multiply and to multiply exponentially. So why aren't we
seeing more churches that have exponential growth, powerful impact? What do you think?
Yeah. I think the enemy knows who his biggest challenge is, which is the church. And so
think about this Chandler and I were talking about this today. If you can pacify the church
where you actually make people think it's bad to have money and you actually think it's holier to
not have money. And then you also have this theology that everything's going to hell in a
hand basket and you have no control over what's going to happen in the world.
Like their eschatology.
Their eschatology, right? Like think of how powerful those two viewpoints are. You're
going to have zero motivation to make money or be successful and actually be turned off by the idea
of it. And then the other part is it's like, what's even the point if everything's going to
hell in a hand basket? So to me, that's why there's these, it's a spiritual issue of passivity.
The enemy is trying to pacify his greatest foe. I mean, there's a reason why it says
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Gates is a, that's a defensive place. That's not
an offensive place. So we are right now the opposite. It's like we're trying to fight off
the enemy, but that's, we're not operating the way we should. Like it's, you know, we're operating
where we should be going into enemy territory and taking it first back, but then also moving
into areas that has never been given up by the enemy before. But the only way that that's going
to happen is if people stop being passive and start having this, stop having this viewpoint
that, you know, everything's going to hell. We need to have a full blown takeover of culture.
And the thing is, is if we do that, because again, and this is operating in the Holy Spirit,
we can do that for people and be better for people, whether they're Christian or not.
Like if we had a bunch of Christian leaders running different areas of the market and
they're following the Holy Spirit, it's not going to be this type of thing that people throw out.
Like, Oh, think about the Crusades and all this stuff. Maybe read about the Crusades. That was
something that was very human based. There was no real God view on that. And so if we actually
are coming from where God's coming from, we're going to be, we're going to be the most ethical
in different areas. We're going to be the ones that are helping other people. We're going to
have the best school systems. We're going to have the best political leaders and it's best for
everybody, regardless of their beliefs. That's what I truly believe.
Those kingdom values beginning to penetrate the culture are kingdom values that really do work.
Like Chandler's work, she's discovering that the closer we get to God's way of growing food,
God's way of eating the food that God has made without all the preservatives and pesticides,
and the way we rape the land and the way we treat the farmland, then the healthier you are.
The food is better for you, the healthier you are. That's like a kingdom principle.
So that affects finances. That affects how you do your business. That affects me as a pastor and
how I run my church. So we, we, we, we treat people well. We love them well, but we also
challenge their socks off because we want them to reach their full potential. Well, do you see
yourself kind of in a dualistic role then? There's one part of you that's a visionary
entrepreneur. I'm going to say, actually, I see three fronts with you. I see one
is the visionary entrepreneurial part of your company. There's another part of you that's a
visionary entrepreneurial side of you that is motivational to others to go for it and to make
an impact. And then third, you're actually coaching some people. Are you coaching some
young men and women, you and Chandler, into these areas? Definitely. And how do y'all do that?
I mean, I think, you know, we do, we do different ways. Some is practical where,
you know, I think our big thing with coaching.
is those that do more, get more of our time, right? I mean, it's, it's kind of a biblical
principle, right? So you're looking for fruit. Yeah, I'm looking for fruit. And, um, I'm also
looking for drive. If someone's got no drive, I can push them a little bit, but ultimately they've
got to decide that for themselves. So I think with coaching, that's a big thing. Um, but I think,
you know, overall the, the mission is the Joseph initiative. It is creating cultural reform
through helping people increase their wealth, helping people grow their money, helping people
invest smartly. And, um, you know, my company is a part of that, that vision and, um, you know,
stuff I I'll do at the church. It's, it's part of that vision, but it all comes into that focus.
Cause for so long, I thought I was going to build a big business up in finance and then move into a
nonprofit world type work. Cause I love ministry and now it's all synergized together, which is,
yeah, it's, it's all under the same banner of the Joseph initiative, making cultural reform,
making impact, um, through money. So that goes into entrepreneurship that goes into investing
that goes into, um, coaching and all this stuff. But, you know, wealth is very closely tied to
health. Um, because again, as humans were, were meant to be wealthy. I truly believe that like
we're, and that's in every area, we're not meant to have bad relationships. We're not meant to
struggle financially. We're not meant to, you know, be under the thumb of someone else. Like
we're called to create and grow. Like you're saying multiply. Well, that's pretty radical
because it seems like America ever since the industrial revolution has been built largely on
making workers obey employers, become employees of employers, workers for masters, kind of an
indentured servitude sort of system. So you're really trying to come against that and call out
the greatness in the individual. Even, um, when you had the Knights and the Lords
ruling over the people and we give you protection, it's always about protection and benefits.
And the reality is, but all of it's about safety. Safety is one of the biggest problems. Everyone
wants safety. Everyone wants, you know, predictability. And it's like, that's not,
that's not actually how we come alive. That's not actually what we're called to be as humans.
We're called to be creators. We're called to be innovators and we're called to, um, we're called
to work. And so, you know, the, uh, Andy Frisella has this great quote. He says, um, personal
excellence is the ultimate rebellion. And, you know, everyone, everything in our culture today
is focused on making you fat, lazy, um, not driven, all this stuff, you know, I mean,
porn's out, you know, people are just looking at tons of porn. It's like, well, what's your
motivation to find like a good wife? If you're just looking at porn, right? Like everything's
built to pacify you because if they can pacify you, they can feed the message that you have no
control. Right. But as soon as you start to go, Oh, actually I do have control. And I start
operating in that space. Then their hold on you disappears. Wow. I love that. It's so it's,
it's a message we've got to get out and we've got to encourage people that there's this,
the Holy Spirit within the King. I mean, there's like a King in everybody. There's,
there's a priest and King in each one of us. And, um, and a King is one who fought for his
territory. He was one who was, you know, we were just, uh, we were just having a devotional
with the staff team here at the road, um, a couple of days ago. And we camped on Psalm 144,
one and two, where David writes, Lord, you, you've, you've trained, you train my hands for war.
You, you train my fingers for battle. And then the rest of the Psalm is just one
kind of battle theme after another. And then at the very end, the last verse there is happy is
the man who is in such a state. So happiness actually comes through battle, fighting for
stuff. And, you know, when you talk to men who've literally been in battle, they will just tell you
that how meaningful it was to be on that battalion or to be in that unit. And what they did was
significant because that called out, at least in men, especially that masculine heart for war.
And, um, and yet we're always praying for peace, but war is what really makes us who we are having
to fight and battle for everything that we have. Well, thank you, Daniel. Yeah. Thanks for being
here. Yeah. Thanks for having me on. And I love you and I appreciate you and I love Chandler and.
The little ones too, and Harvest and Cohen, and what a joy to see you grow into the man that you are.
And even some of the hard things that you had to go through as a kid that made your forehead like flint.
So you could, you're not a quitter, you know, you're a fighter for sure.
Yeah.
Well, let me pray for my son. Is that okay?
Yeah.
Well, father, I want to just thank you for Daniel and Chandler and Cohen and Harvest.
I want to thank you for their company. I want to thank you for their vision.
I want to thank you for their stick-to-itiveness.
I want to thank you for the vision that you've birthed in Daniel and Chandler to bring health,
to bring financial integrity, to bring success and effectiveness into people's lives,
and to bring a kingdom of God revolution here in America and wherever you send them.
And I just thank you for the impact they're having in Colorado Springs, the impact they're having across our country.
I pray it would increase. Lord, I just pray increase upon them.
I pray, Lord, for them to have greater wisdom, foresight, vision, and knowledge than they've ever had.
And Lord, I pray that as they navigate being a young family, and in this case, a young entrepreneur,
and Chandler's the same way, that they would just do it together.
I pray they'd be a great team. Lord, strengthen them as a team.
And as they seek the kingdom first, Lord, use them to be one of those kingdom revolutionaries
that is bringing the kingdom of God with such anointing and power, humility, and love
that the gates of hell are falling down before them because they're pushing into territory
and taking back the darkness and the light is shining through them.
So give them boldness, continued boldness. In your name we pray. Amen.
Love you, son. Well, thanks for being a part of the Empower You podcast.
Look across our website at all the different programs and shows that we're developing.
Our vision, again, let me just say it is empowering you, you know, in the arena that God's called you
to be a difference maker, to make an impact there.
There's been this idea really since medieval times that the real, you know, Christians are the pastors
or the missionaries or something, and we want to break that mold and say, no,
you're called to bring the mission of Christ wherever you are and however God has wired you,
you make a difference there. So I hope this has been helpful to you.
God bless you. Thanks for joining us today.