August 15, 2023 • 45 mins
Chris Grainger is the Founder of The Lion Within Us and has a passion for serving others. He is building a community that provides Christian men encouragement to become the leaders God intends them to be. Chris connects with others by sharing personal stories of professional success, hurdles encountered and how every circumstance is an opportunity to build the Kingdom.
He helps men stand firm in the faith by strengthening areas of Health (Mind/Body) Wealth (Careers/Finances) and Self (Husbands/Fathers/Brothers in Christ). At home Chris is married to his wonderful wife Rebekah and has 3 awesome daughters (Chloe 12, Ava 10 and Lily 16 months) and a son Judah who was born in November 2022! He enjoys working out, Harley’s, serving at church, coaching youth sports and anything that involves getting outside.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Cartwright Morris (00:02):
All right, welcome into the men are forged
Podcast. I'm excited today tohave Chris Granger on with the
lion within us you can go toLion within.us To find out more
about Chris and what he's doingwith helping Christian men
become leaders. I mean, I justlove that tagline within itself.
(00:22):
And Chris is coming all the wayfrom up the road, North
Carolina. Chris is great to haveyou,
Unknown (00:27):
man. It's awesome to be here. Thank you so much.
Cartwright Morris (00:29):
Absolutely.
Well, Chris, I want to startwith this especially since man
you have so much of your lifeand right now your work is
around building men buildingChristian men and the leaders.
And last November you had a sonand so I'm like, do you feel the
stakes are a little higher nowthough? All these principles
(00:50):
you're instilling in a man nowyou got to you got your little
man that's gotta grow into oneso love to hear just your you
know what you felt with havingyour son and and yeah, what you
feel and a nother level thecalling up
Unknown (01:07):
a man, that guy has a sense of humor, I can tell you
that because I've been I spentmy entire life here for the last
12 years at least talking allthese guys about being a girl
dad and and I even went into thelast ultrasound. So I got three
three other daughters actuallyhad four. We talked about that a
little bit. But so I had allthese girls. And I went to the
(01:28):
last ultrasound and I told usthe little lady who does
ultrasound before she put thatone down. I say going through my
pain, man. Like I'm ready forit. Like just give me a thing,
man. I gotta know the outcome. Idon't even need to be here like
this is I've been here donethis, you know, got the t shirt
type of thing. And so she waswaving that little one. And she
was like, so you said you coachsoftball, right? Like, yeah, I
(01:50):
think Coach softball for mygirl. She's like, Well, you
better trade that in for abaseball. I'm like, oh. So at
that moment, man, my mom she'sgot all she has his
granddaughters my brother's gotthree girls. I said I've had
four girls. And she broke downwhen she found out we're having
a boy. So it shifted my wholethinking in this first six
(02:11):
months old now. But it's prettyawesome to have have another guy
around the house looking forwardto getting into all sorts of
shenanigans with him as much asmy wife will allow. And but it's
been it's definitely a differentoutlook is I mean, that's
there's nothing like being agirl dad, man. But holding my
son in my arms was was waspretty incredible.
Cartwright Morris (02:31):
Man. That's great. That's so cool. And Well,
Chris, I you know, so if wecould back up because I love
just hearing just, there's somuch of a, you know, I believe
we're all on this redemptivejourney. You know, I think we
have the core belief that Christredeems all things. There's
something in understanding thatstory. So speaking of
(02:54):
fatherhood, how would youdescribe your relationship with
your dad growing up?
Unknown (02:58):
Yeah, I mean, it was awesome man, my dad, he's, he's
still my hero, right? And he's,like, we never grew up going to
church or anything like that.
But he was just, he was alwaysthere, man. He was my coach. For
baseball, he was always there.
Right. And for willows, anddoing work in the yard,
whatever, we whatever he did. Meand my brother were with him,
(03:19):
you know? Yeah, he was he was avery involved dad. And it wasn't
ever it never felt forced man.
It was always he wanted to bethere. You know, he, I saw him
take the chewings from parentsat the ball field because they
didn't like how he was coachingthe team. And he did that all
volunteer for a volunteer basis,just because he had a heart for
for, for teaching and for forbeing there for me and my
(03:43):
brother and for teaching otheryoung men. So it's just been
always cool. And then we gotinto motorcycles as I got older.
1516 We started ridingmotorcycles together. And you
know, that got him back intomotorcycles. And that's what my
mom, she she'll never forgive mebecause she got them out of
motorcycles, man, she had, shegot them out of them. He had
sold all his bikes. And thenwhen I turned 15, I wanted to
(04:04):
start riding motorcycles. Andthen once I got a bike, my dad
was like, well, he needs to beable to ride with somebody. So
that could have just opened upthe floodgates. And we've been
riding Harley's together eversince, man. But it's been, you
know, it's been, it's beengreat. It's, it's always been
there. And I still know wake upevery day with the privilege to
be able to open my phone up andhit that number that says,
Daddy, and I know there's a lotof guys that can't do that man.
(04:28):
So I just, I'm just blessed tobe able to still call him and
get his advice and things likethat.
Cartwright Morris (04:34):
Man, that's great. That's, I mean, there is
such a beautiful thing when yourdad kind of moves in the advisor
role. You know, it goes from youto parent to that advisor even
friend role, which I think is sounique and like you said, and a
lot of guys don't have that.
Yeah.
Unknown (04:53):
I don't remember that transition rather. Well. I mean,
I came home from like, my firstyear of college. We were out on
the Dec. And he was like, Hey,you want to cigar? I was like,
Oh, yeah. Okay. So we lit up acigar and we're just talking and
it just like from that momenton, it was just like it was, he
was still my dad, like, I stillrespect him honor your mother
(05:16):
and your father like that theway the Bible teaches, but it
was just a different connection.
And then when I had my firstgirl, I remember man, three
months into after having myoldest daughter, I took him into
a room just me and my dad, Isaid, I don't know who you are,
or what you deal with my dad.
But I expect you to return himimmediately because I he flipped
like because when they turn intogranddad's man, everything
(05:38):
changes, like, so I was like, itwas hilarious to watch him
around around her and theselittle girls, but but he I mean,
it's been cool to see thedifferent stages and how
everything works.
Cartwright Morris (05:48):
Yeah, that's great. So you mentioned like you
didn't grow going to church wasso would you you didn't grow up
in a Christian home is that?
Well,
Unknown (05:57):
you know, I grew up in the South man. And so you know,
how to everybody, you know, youknow who Jesus is, you know, who
God is, you know, just like, youknow, you know that you like
NASCAR, and you like baseball, Imean, it's just the way it is,
right? So, you know, my family,they definitely have Christian
values. And then they arebelievers. They just never took
they've never really engaged ina church. They were they get
(06:18):
actually church heard a lot oftimes, you know, as kids and
things like that. So they wouldteach us things, you know, that
were definitely Christianvalues, but it's just something
we didn't do. We just didn't goto church, we would go to VBS,
and things like that. But Istarted going to church, you
know, when I was like, 1516,because my group, my high school
girlfriend was going to church.
So I wanted to go spend timewith her. So chasing her into
(06:39):
the church and then gettingcalled by Jesus, right. But it's
the I mean, our householddefinitely, there were a lot of
Christian values to definitelythis. I think he my dad, my mom
walked stuff out a whole lotmore than versus the actual
church experience. But I still,that's a wish, you know, I kind
of really want him still to getplugged into a local body. But
(07:01):
it's one of those things, man,just, you know, God's timing or
some of this stuff.
Cartwright Morris (07:07):
Absolutely.
And there's something too. Yeah.
I mean, I would say, despitewhat some people may say, it's
it. Those values have beenimprinted in our culture. Yeah.
And in like, just literallypeople even just not even wreck.
I mean, it's almost like, Ithink it was that in Romans one.
They didn't even recognize himas God, His invisible attributes
(07:28):
of just like, mean, they'recompletely evident. And that's
fascinating that you felt likethat was still instilled in your
home, despite without the act ofgoing, which is like, Man, I
would say that beats, you know,the, the the the following a
religion idea, but versus like,right. But, uh, yeah, so what I
(07:53):
would say, Yeah, wearing yourbackground, did you really start
when you really met Jesus, andit started really affecting your
life you started seeing itreally play out in? Yeah. As a
young man.
Unknown (08:06):
Yeah, I mean, for me in place, I got saved when I was
around 16. And then there was areal small Southern Baptist
Church, their youth group wasall one group and what they
weren't break, they wasn't bigenough to break out into
different ages. You know, it wasall who you are, if you're below
18, you're with you're in thesame Sunday school class. But I
mean, it was just that littlechurch, I just felt to toe, you
(08:28):
know, and surrender my life tohim right there. And that church
got baptized, did was veryactive in that. And then, after
high school, though, I went tocollege at Old Dominion in
Norfolk, Virginia. And fromthere, man, I didn't have anyone
connecting with me to, ordiscipling me to guide me
(08:49):
directly. And in that church tothat there just weren't any men
there, really, that were, youknow, talking to me at all, um,
that was with the youth thatwasn't with men, you know, just
it was just a big disconnect.
So, for my 20s, man, I did whatI wanted to do, and I live my my
life, the way that most of theworld is, by what pleases me
what makes me happy and not andit wasn't worried about anybody
(09:12):
else other than the three words,I got this almost as I got this,
I didn't worry about it, youknow. And that was just a way
that that and I knew and I couldfeel God so many times pulling
me like, this is not what Iwant. This is not what I got for
you, man. I just kept I justkept turning my back to him and
just kept turning my back. Andthat led down some paths that I
(09:35):
wish it hadn't led down. Butultimately, you know, I learned
a lot of lessons through those.
Cartwright Morris (09:41):
Yeah. So after college, you went into
business, right? What was yourinitial job right at a college?
Unknown (09:49):
Yeah, I was a co op engineers. I was an engineer,
engineer, Co Op engineer fordistributor. So I interned with
them. My last two years ofcollege and then I went straight
to work for him. I actuallystill work there, as I'm coming
up on 20 years with them. Theyjust it's been a good company, a
lot of different things. I'vegone from engineering to sales
to business development tooperations. So I've done a lot
(10:11):
of different things, but thecompany to now have more of a
marketing type role, podcasting,and writing and stuff like that.
So it's been, it's been a goodexperience, you've been able to
kind of live that, that the lifeof it is made, or how it's made,
rather than a TV show how it'smade, that's literally been
offered to plants and industryall over Southeast. So that's
(10:33):
really, you know, the, fromAfrica college, I've just been
with that company. And we've gota lot of different exposures to
different areas from anindustrial standpoint.
Cartwright Morris (10:43):
Gotcha. Hmm.
So you've been in that role for20 years you've been and then
doing the line within us on theside? That's interesting.
Unknown (10:51):
Yeah. started that in 2021, is when we started the
line with tennis. And that'sbeen a passion. And I see this
is full time, it's getting tothat point here. prayerfully
this year, well, this will be afull time. But you know, when
you get 10 eyeballs staring backat you, you have to do things to
right, we can't just be kneejerk, you have to be a little
slower. But, but that's okay.
Everything God's timing isperfect. He's just never early.
(11:15):
So I just have to keep tellingmyself that.
Cartwright Morris (11:18):
Yeah. But I could see, it sounds like you
know, when you're at college andnot experiencing that community,
or even brotherhood of menchallenging you, that's kind of
been a little seed of reallywhat you're creating. Now, what
were some of the other thingsthat really started happening in
your life in your 20s and 30sare realizing like, man, as men,
(11:40):
we need to call each otherhigher, I need to we need to
surround ourselves with otherwomen,
Unknown (11:44):
probably the first event would be when my ex wife
left. So we had a three and afive year old little girl, a
little girls rather. And all ofa sudden, she wanted out. And so
I'm standing in the house with athree and a five year old
looking at me, my five year oldlooked at me says Daddy, will we
do now. And I told her, I said,we got this, we'll figure this
(12:06):
out. And I was I was prettyinvolved with the church back
then too, because once we movedto North Carolina, I kind of got
reengaged with the church, whichwas the best thing that ever
happened. So just I leaned onthe church, and I had a lot of
guys there, too, within thechurch, and even in my
neighborhood that were reallythere for me. During that time,
(12:27):
literally, during that trial,who had to go through custody
trial and all that stuff. And wecame to through the other end of
that average, just remembersitting in that courtroom
brother, where they were gettingready to read the verdict. And I
had James open the book of Jamesopen, I mean, tears just pulling
out like, Okay, Lord, you know,there's nothing else I can do.
You know, I've been on thestand, I've done my testimony,
(12:49):
we've been through this trial,all the things that people come
up, and then you get down towhere you have to hear the
verdict, the judge has been islaying it out. And when he
finally said, basically, youknow, these girls are better
suited with the Father, and, youknow, he started working through
the visitation that the motherwould, would get. I mean, you
(13:09):
just, you just lose it, youknow, I just lost it, you know,
mentally physically drainedthrough that. And then the
importance of I just recognize,through that whole trial, the
importance of surround yourselfwith strong Christian men, that
can be there that can speak trueto you. Because I didn't need to
make any more mistakes again,particularly around
(13:30):
relationships. Yeah, I needed tobe definitely a little bit more
intentional about where I wasputting myself that people are
associating myself with and thesteps I was taking in the
future. So that and prayerfullythat led me to meeting my wife
now who actually my dadintroduced me to her so it's all
my dad's it went full circle onthat, man. So So yeah, it's just
(13:54):
it's it really was that was aseason and a trial my life that
that man, it's taught me a wholelot. I've been able to help a
lot of older guys go through.
Cartwright Morris (14:02):
Yeah, that's great. And there's something
too, you just said that, I thinkis men. It's there's a heart.
You know, something like thatdiscussion I've had with
actually, my Sunday school classwas interesting. It's really
it's like men generally look forwomen that make them feel good
(14:23):
or make them look good. And theydon't go be beyond that. Right.
And there's something powerful.
I mean, I would say this wassomething that me and my wife
were really intentional in ourdating was like, We need
confirmation from the peoplearound us. We need to see the
other person in their spacebecause you see the real person
around they're real people. Youknow, and I mean, yeah, just for
(14:44):
the young men out there that aresearching or even with their
potential spouse. Right. Howwould you Yeah, how would you
advise them and being incommunity and wanting a healthy,
strong marriage.
Unknown (15:03):
I think first of all, you got to stop trying to chase
tell the wrong girls. Yeah. AndBro, that's where I was. And
then you know, and also quickstart trying to be the man that
the future whatever your lastname is Mrs. Insert your last
name that that she's lookingfor, like because you can't
control the girl but you cancontrol you. Yeah, if you're
(15:24):
putting out the best version ofyou each and every day, bro, I'm
just telling you it makes adifference. And I mean, I can
just walk through that, like mytestimony with my wife now. I
mean, when I saw her obviouslythere was immediate attraction.
I thought she was hot. But thenI met her, I found that she was
only right and she was humble,she was hard working. And
there's a four H's right thereyou need to look for in a girl
(15:45):
right? And the hot is a verylast one you need to worry about
guys. Like that's a differentone. So we too must focus on the
looks. But man for her, it wasjust a natural pursuit. And like
her testimony, I want to see howshe was with her family. I want
to see how she was with others.
And the same thing she was shewas seeing what seeing that for
me. And and the first questionshe asked me on our date was,
(16:06):
hey, can you give me yourtestimony and just being finding
a woman who actually is onething to talk about? I'm I'm a
proverbs 31 woman, you know,there's no thing to actually
walk it out. Right looking forone that actually is walking
this stuff out. So I mean, Ijust I would just tell you guys,
if you're not seeing thosevirtues, you need to be careful,
because it's not gonna getbetter when you get married.
(16:29):
Very rarely as that stuffchanged. But I can tell you one
thing like for her, her values,she stuck to him. I'll be open
honest, because I've been openhonest on other shows too. Like,
for our dating was a truecourtship. There was no sex,
there was no sleeping together,there was no over spending a
night. If I did spend the nightat her, she was living her
(16:49):
parents. Like I would literallysleep on the couch. You know, if
we, I think we went on one ortwo trips together. While we
were dating, her mom went withthis athlete we do you have to
put boundaries up because atsome point, when you get two
people together that have thenatural attraction, your biology
is gonna outrun your theology.
(17:12):
So you can't just be doing thisstuff man like great way to say
it. Yeah, bro. I'm telling yougot to put these boundaries up.
But I was also had two littlegirls that were watching this
journey, right? Part of thisjourney all the way from when we
introduced Rebecca to them tothe town we we said I do. And I
was very open with them. Theywere so young, oh man, like six,
(17:32):
seven years old eight, nine forthe oldest to seen. Okay, here's
how you supposed to treat awoman. Here's a woman who values
herself. And here's what thislooks like, from a courtship
standpoint all the way up to theaisle. So I mean, and I'd say
these guys are talking aboutwhen you got test drive a car
for you drive and I'm like, Man,y'all complete in this
department? Are you missing?
Like if if you feel like that'sthat's the biggest thing in your
(17:54):
life, like what in the world youare completely get things so far
backwards. Because I'll just bestraight up. There has been
nothing more incredible thanthat the the connection, the
intimacy that I've had with mywife now, and I fully 100%
believe it's only because wehave done things his way. Now we
have gone through some outrightsucky trials. And we can talk
(18:16):
about those if you want. Butfrom a connection from an
intimacy standpoint, I havenever experienced anything like
this before. And I can I giveall the glory to God. And it's
just and I tell her all thetime, like girl that she's
putting, you know, we've had acouple of babies, you know,
things happen when when you havebabies, and you just women, they
sometimes they put on moreweight, and I tell her all the
time, like, Look, you are mydefinition of beauty. You're it.
(18:37):
So don't worry about what theworld says how you looking at to
peace or anything like that. I'mtelling you your definition of
beauty for me. And that's itnow. And I had to speak that to
her over and over and overbecause as a woman, they're
hearing all this negative stuffall the time. And yeah, we're
going to where you want to gohere with this.
Cartwright Morris (18:56):
I mean, you just hit on something big,
Chris, that I think they'rereally I mean, I think that
started in the garden of Adamtaking a back seat, his voice
being led by God, he pushed thataside to appease the woman.
Right? You know, it you know,you know, the man who was with
(19:16):
her like he was standing therethe whole time watching us not
saying a word not bringing theWord of God into the situation
not bringing what God had saidin here, I just thought that
what you said was a greatexample of we get to be that
messenger we get to bringdisruption and declare the
identity that God speaks overour wives and our kids and our
(19:38):
communities. And yeah, I wouldjust love you to just speak to
how Yeah, why men what why whyis that so important for us?
Just not only and we think ofthat in on stage, but also like,
especially in our homes.
Unknown (19:51):
Yeah. Guys forget the power that we have in our tongue
in the words that we say there.
There's no one in your house,period, this has the impact that
you guys have. And you have beenhandpicked by God to lead your
family. So if you may think, youknow, I'm a terrible leader. No,
that's, that's straight fromSatan. But the words we speak
(20:12):
and how we speak them, theymatter so much. So you don't
either build your relationshipup and build your marriage up
and constantly working on it.
Because there's no such thing asa perfect marriage. If you
believe it, then you're you'recompletely are delusional, I'm
sorry, I'll be praying for you.
But if you're worried you'remarried, you're going to have to
be working on it all the time,maintenance and doing the right
(20:33):
things, and speaking thesethings to her speaking
affirmations to her, letting herknow the positive things that
you see in her right, not justthe physical, but that
everything you know, have toalways be finding ways to build
up. And just remember howquickly we can tear him down.
And then that goes for our kidsto man. Like I see it all the
time at the ball field, bro.
(20:55):
Like, I'm because I'm a softballcoach, too. And it's like, I see
so many parents, and all they dois just correct them. Correct?
Correct? Correct. Correct.
Correct. And like this is allthe error here is like, I'm not
good enough, I'm not goodenough, I'm not good enough. And
for my girls, ask them all thetime. Look, I want you to have
fun, obviously, I want you to dothe best you can. But most
importantly, show the fruit ofspirit on the field, whatever it
(21:17):
is show some kindness. Sogentleness, show some self
control when that umpire makes acall that a blind man could see
right? All these things. Butthat's ultimately what we need
to do. And that's really whatI'm pushing with them. So if
they go three, for three, orover three, we still had the
same conversation on the wayhome. We talked about, you know,
how do we show Jesus? What doesthat look like? How can we or
(21:39):
our teammates be a betterexample of Christ? And I mean,
those types of things whenyou're talking about little
girls too, and building them upand wives, brother, we have so
much power as men, and we justdon't harness it, or we already
diminish it. Or we think youknow what, you know the words, I
just tell them that they shoulddo it. I know, bro, you got to
(21:59):
tell them then you got to walkit out to it's more it's
constant. All right, so you gotit to teach. But then you also
have to start walking that stuffout. Because it'd be no good for
me to hammer on why it'simportant to eat your vegetables
and have a good healthy diet.
And then there's just sittingaround eating Cheetos and
Hershey bars, man, that doesn'tmake any sense. Like they
wouldn't. They don't they don'tget that. So I think as as
(22:21):
Christian men, delete our homes,your words matter. And then your
actions better backup thosewords. Yeah, absolutely.
Cartwright Morris (22:30):
So I mean, I think it's kind of leading to me
to your the community you'recreating with men. And because I
think a lot of men maybe didn'thave obviously didn't have a
relationship like you have withyour dad. And in our stock. I
can't, I'm trying to rememberwho I was talking to. But an
author and someone who helps mendeal with pornography addiction
(22:52):
and sexual addiction stuff thathe kind of talks about the
training of men's eyes, butthere's this other piece of kind
of an emotional peace of, ofwhen men experience hardship,
resistance difficulty thatthey're most prone to look at
pornography, because there'ssome deep hole within them that
they didn't hear from their ownfathers of you're good enough.
(23:13):
Right? You're capable, like, andso I was just curious, just that
voice. I would love to hear justhow are you seeing that in your
community groups? And how Yeah,how can men we address that hole
of really desiring an older manto speak life into us? And you
(23:34):
know, where can we find that?
Unknown (23:36):
Yeah, I mean, I see that all the time. And I mean,
our community guys openly talkabout their addiction to porn,
you know, we and we don't havebehind it, you know, if you're,
if you have that going on yourlife, we need to know about it,
because the only way we can getany, any resolution to this, is
you got to expose it to thelight. So I actually have one or
two guys right now who, um,their accountability partner.
(23:57):
And when they look at porn, theyactually text me. I'm okay. And
I'm gonna be there for right andwe're gonna talk about it. But
I've learned through our showand the resources that build
things like that. It's not whenyou know, there were targeted so
much these days for for thattype of material, particularly
Christian man. I mean, it'srampant in the church. The last
(24:18):
stats I looked at was like an87% range man, like guys that
look at that stuff that go tochurch. I mean, it's pretty
high, that that's out there. Butthe core root of why we look at
this stuff is very little tiedto sexuality usually is tied to
some stress factor. Finances, oryour marriage is going bad or
things aren't going good atwork, or you're overweight or
(24:41):
you're just not doing you're notchecking the boxes the way that
you would hope. And this is howyou feel like you have a little
bit of control in your life iswhen you're looking at that and
you have those images and youjust feel like you can control
that moment. And then it's likea dopamine hit. You get it and
you need that hit again to toget picked back up. So sooner
than I try to help guys connectand realize, look, you did this
(25:03):
not because you know, this is asexually driven thing, it's
because my friend, one that I'mcoaching right now, you know,
he's going through college andthings like that, who's in
finals and he had a lot ofstress from his schoolwork is
like, this is how you respondit, like in the world is gonna
tell you that this is okay. Andso I'm trying to help people re
kind of re centered on what thatactually the damage that is
(25:27):
doing to us, and how we we needto recognize that for what it is
and how, as a as a man who haswho, for me, and we have all
older men as well, Americanunity, you got to expose that
stuff to light and let guys likeus come and speak some truth to
you to help you not beat youdown. But build you up, you
know, build you up and help yousee you know what? There's so
(25:48):
much better way than then goingdown that path?
Cartwright Morris (25:51):
Yeah, absolutely, man. Gosh, yeah,
there is something to that wejust want feel some level of
success or like you said, somecontrol something we can control
and know the outcome.
Unknown (26:02):
Yeah, no, no. Look at that stuff, man now have a
beautiful wife sleeping in theirbed. And there'll be in the
bathroom looking at this stuff,man. It's just like, bro, like,
you're 10 feet away from realconnection, real intimacy. i
What are you doing? It's justme, Tony, we this is this is why
this is a couple billion dollarmarket that's out there. I mean,
(26:23):
this we're being targeted, ourkids are being targeted. And we
have to be openly talking aboutI mean, I'm my oldest girls 12.
And I'm talking to her aboutpornography about because she's
gonna see it, it's gonna happen,there's nothing I'm gonna be
able to do to protect her. Soone day where she's going to be
exposed to it. I know that I wastrying to got to teach her up
now to recognize the value ofher body of who she is as a
(26:46):
daughter to King so that whenshe sees that stuff, she'll be
able to respond correctly, andrecognize it for what it is. And
this absolute darkness.
Cartwright Morris (26:55):
Yeah. Gosh, man, that's nuts. It's just it
really is like, like you said, Imean, I think it's just ramped
up in this day and age. And it'sand it's unfortunately, it's
been normalized, and totally,you know, having an in being
devalue and even demonized tonot look at, right, just like,
Unknown (27:16):
oh, yeah, I mean, now, it's like, you know, what do you
mean, I'll look at Pornhub orsomething like that, like, well,
I don't look at porn, I'm like,I actually have something called
a life. And I actually havesomething called a marriage that
I want to, to value, you know,what the world is gonna say, we
will, you know, it's okay tolook at it. And I will say, you
know, what the world is brokendivorce. Like, I don't want to
do the way the world does, youknow, I want to do things weird.
(27:38):
I want to do things with Jesus.
And Jesus is not going to be youknow, pursuing that I guarantee
it. So let's let's have let'sfocus on that sexual purity and
get these these immoral thingsout of our way out of our way.
Because then we can have theclarity to do what he's called
us to do, man, so it's just,it's really sad to see what's
out there. I mean, think about Idon't know about for you, but
for me growing up pornographywas like trying to find a
(27:59):
Playboy magazine or something.
You know, now, like, bro, Imean, if you had a kid and
unlock iphone, nowadays, youmight as well just hand them on
unlock Glock, fully loaded. It'sthe same thing. It's the same
danger. We don't think of itthat way. You know, we because
like you said, we've normalizedit and I don't have to normalize
anything. You know, I won't. Hesaid, I'm okay with being weird.
(28:22):
Because I won't have family asfunctioning together being weird
if that's what it takes. We'rejust gonna be the weird family
on the block, man. Yeah.
Cartwright Morris (28:30):
But there's something I mean, I hate to hit
her. Because there's other stuffI want to hit on with you Chris.
But yeah, I'm really it'sinteresting because I've had a
handful conversations where menthink it is sexual. Even wives
think it is sexual. And it'slike it's not it there's two
different things of you haven'tsex your wife and you look into
pornography, it's two differentthings.
Unknown (28:50):
Completely different broke completely different. And
that's the hard thing to getguys to see. Like, no, man, you
looked at that stuff. And youand you did that because you
know, your valuation at workdidn't go the way that you want
it. Or you got some bills comingup that you just don't know if
you how are you gonna cover it?
You know, I mean, I'm tellingyou, it's always related back to
something outside of sex, youknow, and usually and then that
starts impacting your sex lifewith your spouse. I mean, I've
(29:12):
heard I've heard and readstories. Well, there's people in
other countries right now. Ithink it was China or somewhere
like these guys that are soaddicted to it. They actually
have to look at it on theirphone while they're having sex
with their spouse just to stayaroused. And I'll send you're
like, Bro Do you think that youdon't recognize the problem
(29:33):
here? I guess they keyless youknow like, it's just so far from
what God created man. And again,marriage one man one woman for
life. That's the way he designedit. And there's something
beautiful about it because me mywife when she was younger, she
and we've talked over and she'stalked about this openly too.
Like I was the first man she wasever with. By she was able to
hand me a precious gift and Ihave treated that gift. Like he
(29:56):
did well like it like it shouldbe and I'm sure You have a
reference. And there's aconnection there. Nobody taught
her anything. But we shouldn'thave to look into this stuff,
man. Like God designed it, hedidn't have to detail and eat
how this stuff work. But hedesigned it. And we just feel
like we have to fill these voidswith so much of this empty dark
stuff. And until we, asChristian man start standing up
(30:17):
and stopping this stuff out, andreally taking the stance, man,
it's gonna be an uphill battle.
And we got here some more stuffin churches, too. Like, we don't
ever want to talk about thisstuff in church. We don't want
to talk about pornography, orthings like that man, like, we
feel like it's up to us. It'staboo. Like, we got to be quiet.
And I'm sitting here saying,like, No, we gotta talk about
this stuff. Because if we don't,more and more marriages, you're
(30:39):
gonna fall into more and moremarriages and fall, the more to
even want to smile, and I'mtired of that dude, smile, and I
want to I want to make him mad.
And oh, I know, to make him madand start standing with the
truth, man.
Cartwright Morris (30:50):
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, so I love just to
dive more on your story, andeven just the origins of the
line within us. community andhow what you're building? Yeah,
so I mean, this is kind of Imean, you kind of hit on just
then and I'm, I'm like, youknow, I don't want to speak ill
of the church. You know, I don'twant to feel it as platform but
(31:10):
in some ways, or do you feellike you're there is a? I mean,
it's something I've wrestledwith is how much are we? Are we
doing something that we feellike the church should be doing?
Or we feel like we're justadding to the church and adding
value? And so wherever you were,did you did you see holes in the
church? Do you feel like thiswas a need? And, and at what
point in your life did you seethe need and really felt like
(31:32):
God called you into, you know,filling that need?
Unknown (31:35):
Well, so far seen Anita? I mean, I think for me,
that's been fairly recent. Butlooking back, it was always
there. You know, I thinkchurches are highly feminized. I
think the reason they have isbecause men have stepped out and
women had stepped up. So I'm notblaming women. I'm blaming the
guys, we got to start gettingthere. And it's a lot of it
starts at the pulpit. And alsosay, like the line within us,
(31:57):
we're not a church man. Like,we're not a church. We are a
supplement, though. Because Ithink most churches, men's
ministries absolutely suck atthis things are bad. And most of
them get together on a Saturdaymorning, or Sunday morning,
they'll have a sausage biscuit,they'll have some ex football
players, they used to do drugs,he got cleaned up. And he talks
about how he did that. And thenwe'll break we'll say a prayer,
(32:19):
and we'll do it in a month, amonth later, we'll do the same
thing. And I'm saying you'relike, No, that is not Men's
Ministry, like men connect sideby side, shoulder to shoulder
sweating, usually doingsomething trying to to actually
achieve something. And let'stalk about the heart things.
Let's talk about the things thatguys actually want to engage
with. Don't just sit there andlecture Adam, actually engage
(32:39):
them in conversation that makesthem think that makes them get,
you know, get their hands dirty.
That's what the line within usis all about. That's how I'm
trying to help guys. So we willtalk about stuff, you know,
around health, wealth and self.
That's our three primary topics.
But we dig deep. I mean, we'regonna drop the plow man, we're
not just cutting the grass,we're trying to tear up the dirt
right and get into Word and andsee how we can take this, this
(32:59):
book right here that scares somany people to death? And how
can we simplify and apply it toour life, to be to take care of
our bodies better to take careof our minds better to be better
financial stewards? And let'sstart there? Because I mean, I'm
tell you what, outside ofpornography, the number one
driver for marriage for marriagedivorces is finances. So we are
terrible at finances. So we getso what's the Bible say? There's
(33:23):
a lot to learn there. And thenhow can we better husbands? How
can we better dads? Not justwhat is Chris say, what does the
word say? And then we startapplying that. So that's really
when I saw the need. None of ourstuff going on in our church, in
particular church that I visitedwas really addressing any of
this. And I found somethinginteresting. All right, where
it's, it's when we get guystogether, now we're all over
(33:46):
country we have we have memberin South Africa, we have members
in Canada. And when they gettogether, because of I don't
know if it's the discretion orjust the way that it's set up.
Because all of our events arevirtual, we have some live
events or ones coming inOctober, but right now
everything is set up on avirtual platform. I feel like
the guys come in immediatelymore transparent, immediately
(34:09):
more willing to share. They'rewilling to listen they're
willing to to actually just beopen and vulnerable man. Like I
mean, guys, right out the gatewill start talking about the
issues with their with theirmarriage or issues with their
kids, and they're looking forhelp. They're looking for
counsel, in the common redthread that keeps coming up over
and over and over is they'rejust looking for community.
They're just looking for someguys that they can be real with.
(34:31):
They're tired of the Yes, man.
They're tired of the guys thatare just showing up and saying,
you know, hey, I'm blessed andhighly favored who feel like
they always got it together.
They will some real vulnerable,actual connection. And that's
what we're trying to create. AndI feel like you can't even like
manufactured that It either isor isn't. And prayerfully God's
had his hand on it, and it'sthere. And we give these give
(34:52):
these guys an opportunity toactually show up and pin and
learn and grow. Row, we had ourfirst marriage that was saved
within the community. He joinedin November, the wife had served
divorce papers. He asked her foran opportunity told him that he
was joining this community. Andtwo weeks ago, he sent me a
(35:13):
message and she's actuallyshowed up to one of our events
his wife did. And she, she toreup the divorce papers. So it's
it's like, basic medical stuff.
It's nothing I'm doing is it'sjust getting gassed focus man
focused on what the Word says.
And then walking in and out. Andthat's really what we're
building, how we're trying togrow and how we're trying to
(35:33):
serve others.
Cartwright Morris (35:36):
Man, that's great. Yeah, I, I am kind of
just interested to hear morelike, because I think this is
what's unique. And I think a lotof young guys miss, especially
did this have, you go through ahard time or you go through a
seizure your life like a careerchoice, and you're like, God, I
feel like that was a wastedtime. Right? Now I get a point
(35:57):
in my life. I'm like, oh, no,God was using that I now use
that in my life. So how, youknow what, what was kind of in
the business world? And maybe inother areas? Do you feel like
God was preparing you to startthis community?
Unknown (36:10):
All for sure. Well, 100% Well, all the roles I've
had, ever since I was 14, or 15have always been leadership
roles. And I've been a manager,that service station, I mean,
all the way through mechanicleading leading mechanics. Then
when I came on the East Coasthas been manager role after
manager role after manager role.
So I've always been in aposition of leadership's and
(36:30):
that's taught me so manydifferent things. But then, I
think 20, let's see, in the2019, beginning of 2020, I
started the podcast format formy other company. And I went to
them, I said, I had an idea forpodcasts, they looked at me,
like I had three heads. And Ijust asked for a little bit of
seed money to get started. Andnow we have 250 episodes out for
(36:51):
that show. And we've connectedso many areas of our business to
the to the podcasts, it's been ablessing for that, for that, for
that business. And that wasopportunities. Looking back now
of growth, of learning, oflearning how to do this
learning, how do you set up apodcast? How do you actually do
it to so when we started Elian,it wasn't like a blank sheet of
(37:11):
paper, you know, I was able toactually take a lot of those
lessons learned and apply it forhim. Now the community thing has
been a blank sheet of paper. Sothat was something that I had
been learning kind of like thefly the airplane while you're in
the middle of the air. But I'vebeen able to be blessed to be
around other people who havedone it, and have shown me some
things I'm learning things, Imay have had to make some
investments in myself mylearning standpoint. But also
(37:33):
listen to what other people say.
So when the guys come in, Ilisten to the community very
close. And we build things andwe build things to serve them,
we build things to help them.
And I just think the more andmore we do that I have seen the
impact that it's had. And I justdon't know, because we're small
enough to be agile. But we alsohave enough, I guess, experience
(37:55):
or resources to we're not justputting junk out, man, we're
really putting good stuff outthis able to help these guys.
And then we have our first dadworkshop starting here next
week, and actually we havebusiness meeting once a month.
We have our Ask Me Anythingevents where we have guests come
in and they can actually thecommunity gets to interview the
guests. It's been pretty cool tosee how that works. Oh, wow.
(38:17):
Yeah, we have a couple's night.
And we do we have twomasterminds that are growing
right now, these things areawesome. So we just have these
different resources, like a bookclub, I mean, an every day in
the community, the way we builtthis, I do what's called a daily
spiritual kickoff. So what I dois I unpack a little bit of
(38:38):
Scripture every morning, I golive in our community. And it's
not on Facebook, or YouTube oranything like that. It's whether
it's all platform, it has itsown app. And these guys, they're
with me every morning. And itranges, you know, who shows up.
But basically, I read scripture,and I talk about what the Spirit
tells me, or how I need to applythis to my life. And body. That
(39:00):
has been the most positivefeedback that I've heard from
these guys, because part of itis I'm making their time in the
word every day, a little biteasier with some guidance. I
mean, they have to get intowhere they need to do the
reading. But this is justanother supplement. So I mean,
we do stuff like that to try tohelp people. Every Wednesday we
do lion lunch, so we'd have alion lunch on every Wednesday,
(39:21):
that's where guys just show uptheir lunch and we just break
bread and talk whatever theywant to talk about. So it's,
it's giving them opportunitiesto engage in different ways
that, you know, guys are notjust naturally gonna usually
reach out and check on eachother. But if you get an event
to come to or a reason to showup, and they're showing up and
they're there, they're actuallycontributing, they're engaging,
(39:42):
and I just keep praying that theLord is blessing it like that,
because there's there's so muchvalue there.
Cartwright Morris (39:49):
Yeah. And so for my listeners who are
interested is it I mean, is itlike basically a one month like
a monthly fee and you get all ofthis? Is that how It
Unknown (40:00):
works. Okay. Yeah. So we have two different options,
we have a spiritual kickoffonly, so where you can come in
and be part of spiritualkickoffs every, that's Monday
through Friday, every morning, Igo live. And then if you can't
make the last we post therecording, so they're still out
there. So that's $5 a month forfor guys that want to do this,
we have guys that do that. Theyget they still get into
(40:22):
community, they get to they getto chat, but they don't get
anything else, you should getjust a spiritual kickoffs. And
then we have our full blowncommunity. And that's everything
that I just listed all theevents, all that all the
activities, we do a 30 day freetrial to let guys experience it,
see what it's all about. BecauseI don't want anybody having to
put any commitment in upfront,you know, if there's something
(40:43):
that doesn't serve them, so weoffer that 30 day, basically
come check it out for free, seeif you like it. And then from
there, it's $49 a month, and wegot guys in there that are you
know, every month showing up.
And you know, you hear whythat's a lot of money. Well, is
it really though? Because Imean, if we start thinking about
all the subscriptions and stuffthat's out there, how much are
you investing in yourself togrow spiritually, and this is a
(41:03):
great way to do that. And wehave guys that just they they
pay annual or they pay monthly.
But either way, it's whateverworks for them with their
budgets. And for us, it's beenjust a great way to connect
other guys. Because if you'reputting some skin in the game,
you know, you have you have likeminded brothers in Christ that
(41:24):
are there. It's just incredibleto see how they're growing and
how they're serving each other.
Cartwright Morris (41:28):
Yeah, man, that's great, Chris, thank you
for coming on and sharing yourstory and sharing more about
what you're doing. Where I mean,you've already hit on a lot. But
yeah, I would love just to likewhat's the best place for people
to find you and find out moreabout the lion within us
community?
Unknown (41:45):
Yeah, I mean, easiest way is to go to the website, the
lions, don't forget the th e. Vline within.us as our website or
just an email me, I mean, I'mpretty open. So Chris, at the
lion within.us, you can email medirectly. I do a lot of times
where I'll just pop on Zoommeetings with guys and show them
what the community looks like.
So if you kind of got a feellike, what is this community
(42:05):
thing he's talking about, like,you know, just send me an email
Chris at the line with dan.usI'll jump on a quick zoom with
you. I'm not pitching you, allI'm gonna do is show it to you.
And then you can actuallyexplore on your own if you want
to join or not. But in thatthere's sometimes that's an easy
way to just see it because it'sto see what it's about. Because
it is its own app. It's its ownwebsite. So it's, it's
(42:27):
completely the cool part aboutthat is the guys don't get
distracted. So they're not onFacebook, and they get another
Facebook Messenger or somethinglike that, when they're within
the lion, they are there forreason. And like you can sync it
all to your calendar. Soeverything aligns very well to
make a very great customer userexperience. And it's just it
helps these guests stayconnected to the stuff that's
(42:50):
important to them so and it hasall the features that you would
think you know, the chatting theposting all that fun stuff is
kind of like a Facebook, butit's without any of the jump you
know, so it's it's pretty neathow it works.
Cartwright Morris (43:04):
Yeah, that's great. And also I Yeah,
recommend y'all checking outChris's podcast the the line
within his podcast. So, man.
Well, Chris, I appreciate youcoming on. It's been a blast
having you on I really enjoyedthis discussion and just hearing
some of the wisdom that you'veyou've gained over the years.
Unknown (43:21):
Hey, Cartwright. Thank you so much for this
opportunity, man. I hope you andyour listeners were blessed and
would love to serve any way Ican in future.
Cartwright Morris (43:30):
Absolutely.
All right, welcome into the men are forged
Podcast. I'm excited today tohave Chris Granger on with the
lion within us you can go toLion within.us To find out more
about Chris and what he's doingwith helping Christian men
become leaders. I mean, I justlove that tagline within itself.
(00:22):
And Chris is coming all the wayfrom up the road, North
Carolina. Chris is great to haveyou,
Unknown (00:27):
man. It's awesome to be here. Thank you so much.
Cartwright Morris (00:29):
Absolutely.
Well, Chris, I want to startwith this especially since man
you have so much of your lifeand right now your work is
around building men buildingChristian men and the leaders.
And last November you had a sonand so I'm like, do you feel the
stakes are a little higher nowthough? All these principles
(00:50):
you're instilling in a man nowyou got to you got your little
man that's gotta grow into oneso love to hear just your you
know what you felt with havingyour son and and yeah, what you
feel and a nother level thecalling up
Unknown (01:07):
a man, that guy has a sense of humor, I can tell you
that because I've been I spentmy entire life here for the last
12 years at least talking allthese guys about being a girl
dad and and I even went into thelast ultrasound. So I got three
three other daughters actuallyhad four. We talked about that a
little bit. But so I had allthese girls. And I went to the
(01:28):
last ultrasound and I told usthe little lady who does
ultrasound before she put thatone down. I say going through my
pain, man. Like I'm ready forit. Like just give me a thing,
man. I gotta know the outcome. Idon't even need to be here like
this is I've been here donethis, you know, got the t shirt
type of thing. And so she waswaving that little one. And she
was like, so you said you coachsoftball, right? Like, yeah, I
(01:50):
think Coach softball for mygirl. She's like, Well, you
better trade that in for abaseball. I'm like, oh. So at
that moment, man, my mom she'sgot all she has his
granddaughters my brother's gotthree girls. I said I've had
four girls. And she broke downwhen she found out we're having
a boy. So it shifted my wholethinking in this first six
(02:11):
months old now. But it's prettyawesome to have have another guy
around the house looking forwardto getting into all sorts of
shenanigans with him as much asmy wife will allow. And but it's
been it's definitely a differentoutlook is I mean, that's
there's nothing like being agirl dad, man. But holding my
son in my arms was was waspretty incredible.
Cartwright Morris (02:31):
Man. That's great. That's so cool. And Well,
Chris, I you know, so if wecould back up because I love
just hearing just, there's somuch of a, you know, I believe
we're all on this redemptivejourney. You know, I think we
have the core belief that Christredeems all things. There's
something in understanding thatstory. So speaking of
(02:54):
fatherhood, how would youdescribe your relationship with
your dad growing up?
Unknown (02:58):
Yeah, I mean, it was awesome man, my dad, he's, he's
still my hero, right? And he's,like, we never grew up going to
church or anything like that.
But he was just, he was alwaysthere, man. He was my coach. For
baseball, he was always there.
Right. And for willows, anddoing work in the yard,
whatever, we whatever he did. Meand my brother were with him,
(03:19):
you know? Yeah, he was he was avery involved dad. And it wasn't
ever it never felt forced man.
It was always he wanted to bethere. You know, he, I saw him
take the chewings from parentsat the ball field because they
didn't like how he was coachingthe team. And he did that all
volunteer for a volunteer basis,just because he had a heart for
for, for teaching and for forbeing there for me and my
(03:43):
brother and for teaching otheryoung men. So it's just been
always cool. And then we gotinto motorcycles as I got older.
1516 We started ridingmotorcycles together. And you
know, that got him back intomotorcycles. And that's what my
mom, she she'll never forgive mebecause she got them out of
motorcycles, man, she had, shegot them out of them. He had
sold all his bikes. And thenwhen I turned 15, I wanted to
(04:04):
start riding motorcycles. Andthen once I got a bike, my dad
was like, well, he needs to beable to ride with somebody. So
that could have just opened upthe floodgates. And we've been
riding Harley's together eversince, man. But it's been, you
know, it's been, it's beengreat. It's, it's always been
there. And I still know wake upevery day with the privilege to
be able to open my phone up andhit that number that says,
Daddy, and I know there's a lotof guys that can't do that man.
(04:28):
So I just, I'm just blessed tobe able to still call him and
get his advice and things likethat.
Cartwright Morris (04:34):
Man, that's great. That's, I mean, there is
such a beautiful thing when yourdad kind of moves in the advisor
role. You know, it goes from youto parent to that advisor even
friend role, which I think is sounique and like you said, and a
lot of guys don't have that.
Yeah.
Unknown (04:53):
I don't remember that transition rather. Well. I mean,
I came home from like, my firstyear of college. We were out on
the Dec. And he was like, Hey,you want to cigar? I was like,
Oh, yeah. Okay. So we lit up acigar and we're just talking and
it just like from that momenton, it was just like it was, he
was still my dad, like, I stillrespect him honor your mother
(05:16):
and your father like that theway the Bible teaches, but it
was just a different connection.
And then when I had my firstgirl, I remember man, three
months into after having myoldest daughter, I took him into
a room just me and my dad, Isaid, I don't know who you are,
or what you deal with my dad.
But I expect you to return himimmediately because I he flipped
like because when they turn intogranddad's man, everything
(05:38):
changes, like, so I was like, itwas hilarious to watch him
around around her and theselittle girls, but but he I mean,
it's been cool to see thedifferent stages and how
everything works.
Cartwright Morris (05:48):
Yeah, that's great. So you mentioned like you
didn't grow going to church wasso would you you didn't grow up
in a Christian home is that?
Well,
Unknown (05:57):
you know, I grew up in the South man. And so you know,
how to everybody, you know, youknow who Jesus is, you know, who
God is, you know, just like, youknow, you know that you like
NASCAR, and you like baseball, Imean, it's just the way it is,
right? So, you know, my family,they definitely have Christian
values. And then they arebelievers. They just never took
they've never really engaged ina church. They were they get
(06:18):
actually church heard a lot oftimes, you know, as kids and
things like that. So they wouldteach us things, you know, that
were definitely Christianvalues, but it's just something
we didn't do. We just didn't goto church, we would go to VBS,
and things like that. But Istarted going to church, you
know, when I was like, 1516,because my group, my high school
girlfriend was going to church.
So I wanted to go spend timewith her. So chasing her into
(06:39):
the church and then gettingcalled by Jesus, right. But it's
the I mean, our householddefinitely, there were a lot of
Christian values to definitelythis. I think he my dad, my mom
walked stuff out a whole lotmore than versus the actual
church experience. But I still,that's a wish, you know, I kind
of really want him still to getplugged into a local body. But
(07:01):
it's one of those things, man,just, you know, God's timing or
some of this stuff.
Cartwright Morris (07:07):
Absolutely.
And there's something too. Yeah.
I mean, I would say, despitewhat some people may say, it's
it. Those values have beenimprinted in our culture. Yeah.
And in like, just literallypeople even just not even wreck.
I mean, it's almost like, Ithink it was that in Romans one.
They didn't even recognize himas God, His invisible attributes
(07:28):
of just like, mean, they'recompletely evident. And that's
fascinating that you felt likethat was still instilled in your
home, despite without the act ofgoing, which is like, Man, I
would say that beats, you know,the, the the the following a
religion idea, but versus like,right. But, uh, yeah, so what I
(07:53):
would say, Yeah, wearing yourbackground, did you really start
when you really met Jesus, andit started really affecting your
life you started seeing itreally play out in? Yeah. As a
young man.
Unknown (08:06):
Yeah, I mean, for me in place, I got saved when I was
around 16. And then there was areal small Southern Baptist
Church, their youth group wasall one group and what they
weren't break, they wasn't bigenough to break out into
different ages. You know, it wasall who you are, if you're below
18, you're with you're in thesame Sunday school class. But I
mean, it was just that littlechurch, I just felt to toe, you
(08:28):
know, and surrender my life tohim right there. And that church
got baptized, did was veryactive in that. And then, after
high school, though, I went tocollege at Old Dominion in
Norfolk, Virginia. And fromthere, man, I didn't have anyone
connecting with me to, ordiscipling me to guide me
(08:49):
directly. And in that church tothat there just weren't any men
there, really, that were, youknow, talking to me at all, um,
that was with the youth thatwasn't with men, you know, just
it was just a big disconnect.
So, for my 20s, man, I did whatI wanted to do, and I live my my
life, the way that most of theworld is, by what pleases me
what makes me happy and not andit wasn't worried about anybody
(09:12):
else other than the three words,I got this almost as I got this,
I didn't worry about it, youknow. And that was just a way
that that and I knew and I couldfeel God so many times pulling
me like, this is not what Iwant. This is not what I got for
you, man. I just kept I justkept turning my back to him and
just kept turning my back. Andthat led down some paths that I
(09:35):
wish it hadn't led down. Butultimately, you know, I learned
a lot of lessons through those.
Cartwright Morris (09:41):
Yeah. So after college, you went into
business, right? What was yourinitial job right at a college?
Unknown (09:49):
Yeah, I was a co op engineers. I was an engineer,
engineer, Co Op engineer fordistributor. So I interned with
them. My last two years ofcollege and then I went straight
to work for him. I actuallystill work there, as I'm coming
up on 20 years with them. Theyjust it's been a good company, a
lot of different things. I'vegone from engineering to sales
to business development tooperations. So I've done a lot
(10:11):
of different things, but thecompany to now have more of a
marketing type role, podcasting,and writing and stuff like that.
So it's been, it's been a goodexperience, you've been able to
kind of live that, that the lifeof it is made, or how it's made,
rather than a TV show how it'smade, that's literally been
offered to plants and industryall over Southeast. So that's
(10:33):
really, you know, the, fromAfrica college, I've just been
with that company. And we've gota lot of different exposures to
different areas from anindustrial standpoint.
Cartwright Morris (10:43):
Gotcha. Hmm.
So you've been in that role for20 years you've been and then
doing the line within us on theside? That's interesting.
Unknown (10:51):
Yeah. started that in 2021, is when we started the
line with tennis. And that'sbeen a passion. And I see this
is full time, it's getting tothat point here. prayerfully
this year, well, this will be afull time. But you know, when
you get 10 eyeballs staring backat you, you have to do things to
right, we can't just be kneejerk, you have to be a little
slower. But, but that's okay.
Everything God's timing isperfect. He's just never early.
(11:15):
So I just have to keep tellingmyself that.
Cartwright Morris (11:18):
Yeah. But I could see, it sounds like you
know, when you're at college andnot experiencing that community,
or even brotherhood of menchallenging you, that's kind of
been a little seed of reallywhat you're creating. Now, what
were some of the other thingsthat really started happening in
your life in your 20s and 30sare realizing like, man, as men,
(11:40):
we need to call each otherhigher, I need to we need to
surround ourselves with otherwomen,
Unknown (11:44):
probably the first event would be when my ex wife
left. So we had a three and afive year old little girl, a
little girls rather. And all ofa sudden, she wanted out. And so
I'm standing in the house with athree and a five year old
looking at me, my five year oldlooked at me says Daddy, will we
do now. And I told her, I said,we got this, we'll figure this
(12:06):
out. And I was I was prettyinvolved with the church back
then too, because once we movedto North Carolina, I kind of got
reengaged with the church, whichwas the best thing that ever
happened. So just I leaned onthe church, and I had a lot of
guys there, too, within thechurch, and even in my
neighborhood that were reallythere for me. During that time,
(12:27):
literally, during that trial,who had to go through custody
trial and all that stuff. And wecame to through the other end of
that average, just remembersitting in that courtroom
brother, where they were gettingready to read the verdict. And I
had James open the book of Jamesopen, I mean, tears just pulling
out like, Okay, Lord, you know,there's nothing else I can do.
You know, I've been on thestand, I've done my testimony,
(12:49):
we've been through this trial,all the things that people come
up, and then you get down towhere you have to hear the
verdict, the judge has been islaying it out. And when he
finally said, basically, youknow, these girls are better
suited with the Father, and, youknow, he started working through
the visitation that the motherwould, would get. I mean, you
(13:09):
just, you just lose it, youknow, I just lost it, you know,
mentally physically drainedthrough that. And then the
importance of I just recognize,through that whole trial, the
importance of surround yourselfwith strong Christian men, that
can be there that can speak trueto you. Because I didn't need to
make any more mistakes again,particularly around
(13:30):
relationships. Yeah, I needed tobe definitely a little bit more
intentional about where I wasputting myself that people are
associating myself with and thesteps I was taking in the
future. So that and prayerfullythat led me to meeting my wife
now who actually my dadintroduced me to her so it's all
my dad's it went full circle onthat, man. So So yeah, it's just
(13:54):
it's it really was that was aseason and a trial my life that
that man, it's taught me a wholelot. I've been able to help a
lot of older guys go through.
Cartwright Morris (14:02):
Yeah, that's great. And there's something
too, you just said that, I thinkis men. It's there's a heart.
You know, something like thatdiscussion I've had with
actually, my Sunday school classwas interesting. It's really
it's like men generally look forwomen that make them feel good
(14:23):
or make them look good. And theydon't go be beyond that. Right.
And there's something powerful.
I mean, I would say this wassomething that me and my wife
were really intentional in ourdating was like, We need
confirmation from the peoplearound us. We need to see the
other person in their spacebecause you see the real person
around they're real people. Youknow, and I mean, yeah, just for
(14:44):
the young men out there that aresearching or even with their
potential spouse. Right. Howwould you Yeah, how would you
advise them and being incommunity and wanting a healthy,
strong marriage.
Unknown (15:03):
I think first of all, you got to stop trying to chase
tell the wrong girls. Yeah. AndBro, that's where I was. And
then you know, and also quickstart trying to be the man that
the future whatever your lastname is Mrs. Insert your last
name that that she's lookingfor, like because you can't
control the girl but you cancontrol you. Yeah, if you're
(15:24):
putting out the best version ofyou each and every day, bro, I'm
just telling you it makes adifference. And I mean, I can
just walk through that, like mytestimony with my wife now. I
mean, when I saw her obviouslythere was immediate attraction.
I thought she was hot. But thenI met her, I found that she was
only right and she was humble,she was hard working. And
there's a four H's right thereyou need to look for in a girl
(15:45):
right? And the hot is a verylast one you need to worry about
guys. Like that's a differentone. So we too must focus on the
looks. But man for her, it wasjust a natural pursuit. And like
her testimony, I want to see howshe was with her family. I want
to see how she was with others.
And the same thing she was shewas seeing what seeing that for
me. And and the first questionshe asked me on our date was,
(16:06):
hey, can you give me yourtestimony and just being finding
a woman who actually is onething to talk about? I'm I'm a
proverbs 31 woman, you know,there's no thing to actually
walk it out. Right looking forone that actually is walking
this stuff out. So I mean, Ijust I would just tell you guys,
if you're not seeing thosevirtues, you need to be careful,
because it's not gonna getbetter when you get married.
(16:29):
Very rarely as that stuffchanged. But I can tell you one
thing like for her, her values,she stuck to him. I'll be open
honest, because I've been openhonest on other shows too. Like,
for our dating was a truecourtship. There was no sex,
there was no sleeping together,there was no over spending a
night. If I did spend the nightat her, she was living her
(16:49):
parents. Like I would literallysleep on the couch. You know, if
we, I think we went on one ortwo trips together. While we
were dating, her mom went withthis athlete we do you have to
put boundaries up because atsome point, when you get two
people together that have thenatural attraction, your biology
is gonna outrun your theology.
(17:12):
So you can't just be doing thisstuff man like great way to say
it. Yeah, bro. I'm telling yougot to put these boundaries up.
But I was also had two littlegirls that were watching this
journey, right? Part of thisjourney all the way from when we
introduced Rebecca to them tothe town we we said I do. And I
was very open with them. Theywere so young, oh man, like six,
(17:32):
seven years old eight, nine forthe oldest to seen. Okay, here's
how you supposed to treat awoman. Here's a woman who values
herself. And here's what thislooks like, from a courtship
standpoint all the way up to theaisle. So I mean, and I'd say
these guys are talking aboutwhen you got test drive a car
for you drive and I'm like, Man,y'all complete in this
department? Are you missing?
Like if if you feel like that'sthat's the biggest thing in your
(17:54):
life, like what in the world youare completely get things so far
backwards. Because I'll just bestraight up. There has been
nothing more incredible thanthat the the connection, the
intimacy that I've had with mywife now, and I fully 100%
believe it's only because wehave done things his way. Now we
have gone through some outrightsucky trials. And we can talk
(18:16):
about those if you want. Butfrom a connection from an
intimacy standpoint, I havenever experienced anything like
this before. And I can I giveall the glory to God. And it's
just and I tell her all thetime, like girl that she's
putting, you know, we've had acouple of babies, you know,
things happen when when you havebabies, and you just women, they
sometimes they put on moreweight, and I tell her all the
time, like, Look, you are mydefinition of beauty. You're it.
(18:37):
So don't worry about what theworld says how you looking at to
peace or anything like that. I'mtelling you your definition of
beauty for me. And that's itnow. And I had to speak that to
her over and over and overbecause as a woman, they're
hearing all this negative stuffall the time. And yeah, we're
going to where you want to gohere with this.
Cartwright Morris (18:56):
I mean, you just hit on something big,
Chris, that I think they'rereally I mean, I think that
started in the garden of Adamtaking a back seat, his voice
being led by God, he pushed thataside to appease the woman.
Right? You know, it you know,you know, the man who was with
(19:16):
her like he was standing therethe whole time watching us not
saying a word not bringing theWord of God into the situation
not bringing what God had saidin here, I just thought that
what you said was a greatexample of we get to be that
messenger we get to bringdisruption and declare the
identity that God speaks overour wives and our kids and our
(19:38):
communities. And yeah, I wouldjust love you to just speak to
how Yeah, why men what why whyis that so important for us?
Just not only and we think ofthat in on stage, but also like,
especially in our homes.
Unknown (19:51):
Yeah. Guys forget the power that we have in our tongue
in the words that we say there.
There's no one in your house,period, this has the impact that
you guys have. And you have beenhandpicked by God to lead your
family. So if you may think, youknow, I'm a terrible leader. No,
that's, that's straight fromSatan. But the words we speak
(20:12):
and how we speak them, theymatter so much. So you don't
either build your relationshipup and build your marriage up
and constantly working on it.
Because there's no such thing asa perfect marriage. If you
believe it, then you're you'recompletely are delusional, I'm
sorry, I'll be praying for you.
But if you're worried you'remarried, you're going to have to
be working on it all the time,maintenance and doing the right
(20:33):
things, and speaking thesethings to her speaking
affirmations to her, letting herknow the positive things that
you see in her right, not justthe physical, but that
everything you know, have toalways be finding ways to build
up. And just remember howquickly we can tear him down.
And then that goes for our kidsto man. Like I see it all the
time at the ball field, bro.
(20:55):
Like, I'm because I'm a softballcoach, too. And it's like, I see
so many parents, and all they dois just correct them. Correct?
Correct? Correct. Correct.
Correct. And like this is allthe error here is like, I'm not
good enough, I'm not goodenough, I'm not good enough. And
for my girls, ask them all thetime. Look, I want you to have
fun, obviously, I want you to dothe best you can. But most
importantly, show the fruit ofspirit on the field, whatever it
(21:17):
is show some kindness. Sogentleness, show some self
control when that umpire makes acall that a blind man could see
right? All these things. Butthat's ultimately what we need
to do. And that's really whatI'm pushing with them. So if
they go three, for three, orover three, we still had the
same conversation on the wayhome. We talked about, you know,
how do we show Jesus? What doesthat look like? How can we or
(21:39):
our teammates be a betterexample of Christ? And I mean,
those types of things whenyou're talking about little
girls too, and building them upand wives, brother, we have so
much power as men, and we justdon't harness it, or we already
diminish it. Or we think youknow what, you know the words, I
just tell them that they shoulddo it. I know, bro, you got to
(21:59):
tell them then you got to walkit out to it's more it's
constant. All right, so you gotit to teach. But then you also
have to start walking that stuffout. Because it'd be no good for
me to hammer on why it'simportant to eat your vegetables
and have a good healthy diet.
And then there's just sittingaround eating Cheetos and
Hershey bars, man, that doesn'tmake any sense. Like they
wouldn't. They don't they don'tget that. So I think as as
(22:21):
Christian men, delete our homes,your words matter. And then your
actions better backup thosewords. Yeah, absolutely.
Cartwright Morris (22:30):
So I mean, I think it's kind of leading to me
to your the community you'recreating with men. And because I
think a lot of men maybe didn'thave obviously didn't have a
relationship like you have withyour dad. And in our stock. I
can't, I'm trying to rememberwho I was talking to. But an
author and someone who helps mendeal with pornography addiction
(22:52):
and sexual addiction stuff thathe kind of talks about the
training of men's eyes, butthere's this other piece of kind
of an emotional peace of, ofwhen men experience hardship,
resistance difficulty thatthey're most prone to look at
pornography, because there'ssome deep hole within them that
they didn't hear from their ownfathers of you're good enough.
(23:13):
Right? You're capable, like, andso I was just curious, just that
voice. I would love to hear justhow are you seeing that in your
community groups? And how Yeah,how can men we address that hole
of really desiring an older manto speak life into us? And you
(23:34):
know, where can we find that?
Unknown (23:36):
Yeah, I mean, I see that all the time. And I mean,
our community guys openly talkabout their addiction to porn,
you know, we and we don't havebehind it, you know, if you're,
if you have that going on yourlife, we need to know about it,
because the only way we can getany, any resolution to this, is
you got to expose it to thelight. So I actually have one or
two guys right now who, um,their accountability partner.
(23:57):
And when they look at porn, theyactually text me. I'm okay. And
I'm gonna be there for right andwe're gonna talk about it. But
I've learned through our showand the resources that build
things like that. It's not whenyou know, there were targeted so
much these days for for thattype of material, particularly
Christian man. I mean, it'srampant in the church. The last
(24:18):
stats I looked at was like an87% range man, like guys that
look at that stuff that go tochurch. I mean, it's pretty
high, that that's out there. Butthe core root of why we look at
this stuff is very little tiedto sexuality usually is tied to
some stress factor. Finances, oryour marriage is going bad or
things aren't going good atwork, or you're overweight or
(24:41):
you're just not doing you're notchecking the boxes the way that
you would hope. And this is howyou feel like you have a little
bit of control in your life iswhen you're looking at that and
you have those images and youjust feel like you can control
that moment. And then it's likea dopamine hit. You get it and
you need that hit again to toget picked back up. So sooner
than I try to help guys connectand realize, look, you did this
(25:03):
not because you know, this is asexually driven thing, it's
because my friend, one that I'mcoaching right now, you know,
he's going through college andthings like that, who's in
finals and he had a lot ofstress from his schoolwork is
like, this is how you respondit, like in the world is gonna
tell you that this is okay. Andso I'm trying to help people re
kind of re centered on what thatactually the damage that is
(25:27):
doing to us, and how we we needto recognize that for what it is
and how, as a as a man who haswho, for me, and we have all
older men as well, Americanunity, you got to expose that
stuff to light and let guys likeus come and speak some truth to
you to help you not beat youdown. But build you up, you
know, build you up and help yousee you know what? There's so
(25:48):
much better way than then goingdown that path?
Cartwright Morris (25:51):
Yeah, absolutely, man. Gosh, yeah,
there is something to that wejust want feel some level of
success or like you said, somecontrol something we can control
and know the outcome.
Unknown (26:02):
Yeah, no, no. Look at that stuff, man now have a
beautiful wife sleeping in theirbed. And there'll be in the
bathroom looking at this stuff,man. It's just like, bro, like,
you're 10 feet away from realconnection, real intimacy. i
What are you doing? It's justme, Tony, we this is this is why
this is a couple billion dollarmarket that's out there. I mean,
(26:23):
this we're being targeted, ourkids are being targeted. And we
have to be openly talking aboutI mean, I'm my oldest girls 12.
And I'm talking to her aboutpornography about because she's
gonna see it, it's gonna happen,there's nothing I'm gonna be
able to do to protect her. Soone day where she's going to be
exposed to it. I know that I wastrying to got to teach her up
now to recognize the value ofher body of who she is as a
(26:46):
daughter to King so that whenshe sees that stuff, she'll be
able to respond correctly, andrecognize it for what it is. And
this absolute darkness.
Cartwright Morris (26:55):
Yeah. Gosh, man, that's nuts. It's just it
really is like, like you said, Imean, I think it's just ramped
up in this day and age. And it'sand it's unfortunately, it's
been normalized, and totally,you know, having an in being
devalue and even demonized tonot look at, right, just like,
Unknown (27:16):
oh, yeah, I mean, now, it's like, you know, what do you
mean, I'll look at Pornhub orsomething like that, like, well,
I don't look at porn, I'm like,I actually have something called
a life. And I actually havesomething called a marriage that
I want to, to value, you know,what the world is gonna say, we
will, you know, it's okay tolook at it. And I will say, you
know, what the world is brokendivorce. Like, I don't want to
do the way the world does, youknow, I want to do things weird.
(27:38):
I want to do things with Jesus.
And Jesus is not going to be youknow, pursuing that I guarantee
it. So let's let's have let'sfocus on that sexual purity and
get these these immoral thingsout of our way out of our way.
Because then we can have theclarity to do what he's called
us to do, man, so it's just,it's really sad to see what's
out there. I mean, think about Idon't know about for you, but
for me growing up pornographywas like trying to find a
(27:59):
Playboy magazine or something.
You know, now, like, bro, Imean, if you had a kid and
unlock iphone, nowadays, youmight as well just hand them on
unlock Glock, fully loaded. It'sthe same thing. It's the same
danger. We don't think of itthat way. You know, we because
like you said, we've normalizedit and I don't have to normalize
anything. You know, I won't. Hesaid, I'm okay with being weird.
(28:22):
Because I won't have family asfunctioning together being weird
if that's what it takes. We'rejust gonna be the weird family
on the block, man. Yeah.
Cartwright Morris (28:30):
But there's something I mean, I hate to hit
her. Because there's other stuffI want to hit on with you Chris.
But yeah, I'm really it'sinteresting because I've had a
handful conversations where menthink it is sexual. Even wives
think it is sexual. And it'slike it's not it there's two
different things of you haven'tsex your wife and you look into
pornography, it's two differentthings.
Unknown (28:50):
Completely different broke completely different. And
that's the hard thing to getguys to see. Like, no, man, you
looked at that stuff. And youand you did that because you
know, your valuation at workdidn't go the way that you want
it. Or you got some bills comingup that you just don't know if
you how are you gonna cover it?
You know, I mean, I'm tellingyou, it's always related back to
something outside of sex, youknow, and usually and then that
starts impacting your sex lifewith your spouse. I mean, I've
(29:12):
heard I've heard and readstories. Well, there's people in
other countries right now. Ithink it was China or somewhere
like these guys that are soaddicted to it. They actually
have to look at it on theirphone while they're having sex
with their spouse just to stayaroused. And I'll send you're
like, Bro Do you think that youdon't recognize the problem
(29:33):
here? I guess they keyless youknow like, it's just so far from
what God created man. And again,marriage one man one woman for
life. That's the way he designedit. And there's something
beautiful about it because me mywife when she was younger, she
and we've talked over and she'stalked about this openly too.
Like I was the first man she wasever with. By she was able to
hand me a precious gift and Ihave treated that gift. Like he
(29:56):
did well like it like it shouldbe and I'm sure You have a
reference. And there's aconnection there. Nobody taught
her anything. But we shouldn'thave to look into this stuff,
man. Like God designed it, hedidn't have to detail and eat
how this stuff work. But hedesigned it. And we just feel
like we have to fill these voidswith so much of this empty dark
stuff. And until we, asChristian man start standing up
(30:17):
and stopping this stuff out, andreally taking the stance, man,
it's gonna be an uphill battle.
And we got here some more stuffin churches, too. Like, we don't
ever want to talk about thisstuff in church. We don't want
to talk about pornography, orthings like that man, like, we
feel like it's up to us. It'staboo. Like, we got to be quiet.
And I'm sitting here saying,like, No, we gotta talk about
this stuff. Because if we don't,more and more marriages, you're
(30:39):
gonna fall into more and moremarriages and fall, the more to
even want to smile, and I'mtired of that dude, smile, and I
want to I want to make him mad.
And oh, I know, to make him madand start standing with the
truth, man.
Cartwright Morris (30:50):
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, so I love just to
dive more on your story, andeven just the origins of the
line within us. community andhow what you're building? Yeah,
so I mean, this is kind of Imean, you kind of hit on just
then and I'm, I'm like, youknow, I don't want to speak ill
of the church. You know, I don'twant to feel it as platform but
(31:10):
in some ways, or do you feellike you're there is a? I mean,
it's something I've wrestledwith is how much are we? Are we
doing something that we feellike the church should be doing?
Or we feel like we're justadding to the church and adding
value? And so wherever you were,did you did you see holes in the
church? Do you feel like thiswas a need? And, and at what
point in your life did you seethe need and really felt like
(31:32):
God called you into, you know,filling that need?
Unknown (31:35):
Well, so far seen Anita? I mean, I think for me,
that's been fairly recent. Butlooking back, it was always
there. You know, I thinkchurches are highly feminized. I
think the reason they have isbecause men have stepped out and
women had stepped up. So I'm notblaming women. I'm blaming the
guys, we got to start gettingthere. And it's a lot of it
starts at the pulpit. And alsosay, like the line within us,
(31:57):
we're not a church man. Like,we're not a church. We are a
supplement, though. Because Ithink most churches, men's
ministries absolutely suck atthis things are bad. And most of
them get together on a Saturdaymorning, or Sunday morning,
they'll have a sausage biscuit,they'll have some ex football
players, they used to do drugs,he got cleaned up. And he talks
about how he did that. And thenwe'll break we'll say a prayer,
(32:19):
and we'll do it in a month, amonth later, we'll do the same
thing. And I'm saying you'relike, No, that is not Men's
Ministry, like men connect sideby side, shoulder to shoulder
sweating, usually doingsomething trying to to actually
achieve something. And let'stalk about the heart things.
Let's talk about the things thatguys actually want to engage
with. Don't just sit there andlecture Adam, actually engage
(32:39):
them in conversation that makesthem think that makes them get,
you know, get their hands dirty.
That's what the line within usis all about. That's how I'm
trying to help guys. So we willtalk about stuff, you know,
around health, wealth and self.
That's our three primary topics.
But we dig deep. I mean, we'regonna drop the plow man, we're
not just cutting the grass,we're trying to tear up the dirt
right and get into Word and andsee how we can take this, this
(32:59):
book right here that scares somany people to death? And how
can we simplify and apply it toour life, to be to take care of
our bodies better to take careof our minds better to be better
financial stewards? And let'sstart there? Because I mean, I'm
tell you what, outside ofpornography, the number one
driver for marriage for marriagedivorces is finances. So we are
terrible at finances. So we getso what's the Bible say? There's
(33:23):
a lot to learn there. And thenhow can we better husbands? How
can we better dads? Not justwhat is Chris say, what does the
word say? And then we startapplying that. So that's really
when I saw the need. None of ourstuff going on in our church, in
particular church that I visitedwas really addressing any of
this. And I found somethinginteresting. All right, where
it's, it's when we get guystogether, now we're all over
(33:46):
country we have we have memberin South Africa, we have members
in Canada. And when they gettogether, because of I don't
know if it's the discretion orjust the way that it's set up.
Because all of our events arevirtual, we have some live
events or ones coming inOctober, but right now
everything is set up on avirtual platform. I feel like
the guys come in immediatelymore transparent, immediately
(34:09):
more willing to share. They'rewilling to listen they're
willing to to actually just beopen and vulnerable man. Like I
mean, guys, right out the gatewill start talking about the
issues with their with theirmarriage or issues with their
kids, and they're looking forhelp. They're looking for
counsel, in the common redthread that keeps coming up over
and over and over is they'rejust looking for community.
They're just looking for someguys that they can be real with.
(34:31):
They're tired of the Yes, man.
They're tired of the guys thatare just showing up and saying,
you know, hey, I'm blessed andhighly favored who feel like
they always got it together.
They will some real vulnerable,actual connection. And that's
what we're trying to create. AndI feel like you can't even like
manufactured that It either isor isn't. And prayerfully God's
had his hand on it, and it'sthere. And we give these give
(34:52):
these guys an opportunity toactually show up and pin and
learn and grow. Row, we had ourfirst marriage that was saved
within the community. He joinedin November, the wife had served
divorce papers. He asked her foran opportunity told him that he
was joining this community. Andtwo weeks ago, he sent me a
(35:13):
message and she's actuallyshowed up to one of our events
his wife did. And she, she toreup the divorce papers. So it's
it's like, basic medical stuff.
It's nothing I'm doing is it'sjust getting gassed focus man
focused on what the Word says.
And then walking in and out. Andthat's really what we're
building, how we're trying togrow and how we're trying to
(35:33):
serve others.
Cartwright Morris (35:36):
Man, that's great. Yeah, I, I am kind of
just interested to hear morelike, because I think this is
what's unique. And I think a lotof young guys miss, especially
did this have, you go through ahard time or you go through a
seizure your life like a careerchoice, and you're like, God, I
feel like that was a wastedtime. Right? Now I get a point
(35:57):
in my life. I'm like, oh, no,God was using that I now use
that in my life. So how, youknow what, what was kind of in
the business world? And maybe inother areas? Do you feel like
God was preparing you to startthis community?
Unknown (36:10):
All for sure. Well, 100% Well, all the roles I've
had, ever since I was 14, or 15have always been leadership
roles. And I've been a manager,that service station, I mean,
all the way through mechanicleading leading mechanics. Then
when I came on the East Coasthas been manager role after
manager role after manager role.
So I've always been in aposition of leadership's and
(36:30):
that's taught me so manydifferent things. But then, I
think 20, let's see, in the2019, beginning of 2020, I
started the podcast format formy other company. And I went to
them, I said, I had an idea forpodcasts, they looked at me,
like I had three heads. And Ijust asked for a little bit of
seed money to get started. Andnow we have 250 episodes out for
(36:51):
that show. And we've connectedso many areas of our business to
the to the podcasts, it's been ablessing for that, for that, for
that business. And that wasopportunities. Looking back now
of growth, of learning, oflearning how to do this
learning, how do you set up apodcast? How do you actually do
it to so when we started Elian,it wasn't like a blank sheet of
(37:11):
paper, you know, I was able toactually take a lot of those
lessons learned and apply it forhim. Now the community thing has
been a blank sheet of paper. Sothat was something that I had
been learning kind of like thefly the airplane while you're in
the middle of the air. But I'vebeen able to be blessed to be
around other people who havedone it, and have shown me some
things I'm learning things, Imay have had to make some
investments in myself mylearning standpoint. But also
(37:33):
listen to what other people say.
So when the guys come in, Ilisten to the community very
close. And we build things andwe build things to serve them,
we build things to help them.
And I just think the more andmore we do that I have seen the
impact that it's had. And I justdon't know, because we're small
enough to be agile. But we alsohave enough, I guess, experience
(37:55):
or resources to we're not justputting junk out, man, we're
really putting good stuff outthis able to help these guys.
And then we have our first dadworkshop starting here next
week, and actually we havebusiness meeting once a month.
We have our Ask Me Anythingevents where we have guests come
in and they can actually thecommunity gets to interview the
guests. It's been pretty cool tosee how that works. Oh, wow.
(38:17):
Yeah, we have a couple's night.
And we do we have twomasterminds that are growing
right now, these things areawesome. So we just have these
different resources, like a bookclub, I mean, an every day in
the community, the way we builtthis, I do what's called a daily
spiritual kickoff. So what I dois I unpack a little bit of
(38:38):
Scripture every morning, I golive in our community. And it's
not on Facebook, or YouTube oranything like that. It's whether
it's all platform, it has itsown app. And these guys, they're
with me every morning. And itranges, you know, who shows up.
But basically, I read scripture,and I talk about what the Spirit
tells me, or how I need to applythis to my life. And body. That
(39:00):
has been the most positivefeedback that I've heard from
these guys, because part of itis I'm making their time in the
word every day, a little biteasier with some guidance. I
mean, they have to get intowhere they need to do the
reading. But this is justanother supplement. So I mean,
we do stuff like that to try tohelp people. Every Wednesday we
do lion lunch, so we'd have alion lunch on every Wednesday,
(39:21):
that's where guys just show uptheir lunch and we just break
bread and talk whatever theywant to talk about. So it's,
it's giving them opportunitiesto engage in different ways
that, you know, guys are notjust naturally gonna usually
reach out and check on eachother. But if you get an event
to come to or a reason to showup, and they're showing up and
they're there, they're actuallycontributing, they're engaging,
(39:42):
and I just keep praying that theLord is blessing it like that,
because there's there's so muchvalue there.
Cartwright Morris (39:49):
Yeah. And so for my listeners who are
interested is it I mean, is itlike basically a one month like
a monthly fee and you get all ofthis? Is that how It
Unknown (40:00):
works. Okay. Yeah. So we have two different options,
we have a spiritual kickoffonly, so where you can come in
and be part of spiritualkickoffs every, that's Monday
through Friday, every morning, Igo live. And then if you can't
make the last we post therecording, so they're still out
there. So that's $5 a month forfor guys that want to do this,
we have guys that do that. Theyget they still get into
(40:22):
community, they get to they getto chat, but they don't get
anything else, you should getjust a spiritual kickoffs. And
then we have our full blowncommunity. And that's everything
that I just listed all theevents, all that all the
activities, we do a 30 day freetrial to let guys experience it,
see what it's all about. BecauseI don't want anybody having to
put any commitment in upfront,you know, if there's something
(40:43):
that doesn't serve them, so weoffer that 30 day, basically
come check it out for free, seeif you like it. And then from
there, it's $49 a month, and wegot guys in there that are you
know, every month showing up.
And you know, you hear whythat's a lot of money. Well, is
it really though? Because Imean, if we start thinking about
all the subscriptions and stuffthat's out there, how much are
you investing in yourself togrow spiritually, and this is a
(41:03):
great way to do that. And wehave guys that just they they
pay annual or they pay monthly.
But either way, it's whateverworks for them with their
budgets. And for us, it's beenjust a great way to connect
other guys. Because if you'reputting some skin in the game,
you know, you have you have likeminded brothers in Christ that
(41:24):
are there. It's just incredibleto see how they're growing and
how they're serving each other.
Cartwright Morris (41:28):
Yeah, man, that's great, Chris, thank you
for coming on and sharing yourstory and sharing more about
what you're doing. Where I mean,you've already hit on a lot. But
yeah, I would love just to likewhat's the best place for people
to find you and find out moreabout the lion within us
community?
Unknown (41:45):
Yeah, I mean, easiest way is to go to the website, the
lions, don't forget the th e. Vline within.us as our website or
just an email me, I mean, I'mpretty open. So Chris, at the
lion within.us, you can email medirectly. I do a lot of times
where I'll just pop on Zoommeetings with guys and show them
what the community looks like.
So if you kind of got a feellike, what is this community
(42:05):
thing he's talking about, like,you know, just send me an email
Chris at the line with dan.usI'll jump on a quick zoom with
you. I'm not pitching you, allI'm gonna do is show it to you.
And then you can actuallyexplore on your own if you want
to join or not. But in thatthere's sometimes that's an easy
way to just see it because it'sto see what it's about. Because
it is its own app. It's its ownwebsite. So it's, it's
(42:27):
completely the cool part aboutthat is the guys don't get
distracted. So they're not onFacebook, and they get another
Facebook Messenger or somethinglike that, when they're within
the lion, they are there forreason. And like you can sync it
all to your calendar. Soeverything aligns very well to
make a very great customer userexperience. And it's just it
helps these guests stayconnected to the stuff that's
(42:50):
important to them so and it hasall the features that you would
think you know, the chatting theposting all that fun stuff is
kind of like a Facebook, butit's without any of the jump you
know, so it's it's pretty neathow it works.
Cartwright Morris (43:04):
Yeah, that's great. And also I Yeah,
recommend y'all checking outChris's podcast the the line
within his podcast. So, man.
Well, Chris, I appreciate youcoming on. It's been a blast
having you on I really enjoyedthis discussion and just hearing
some of the wisdom that you'veyou've gained over the years.
Unknown (43:21):
Hey, Cartwright. Thank you so much for this
opportunity, man. I hope you andyour listeners were blessed and
would love to serve any way Ican in future.
Cartwright Morris (43:30):
Absolutely.
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