April 3, 2024 • 31 mins
Embarking on a transformative journey, we're joined by Stuart McMillan, a beacon of leadership and faith, to illuminate the foundational principles of the Lighthouse Collective. Stuart's rich heritage within the Salvation Army and his ascent in the direct selling arena have crafted a unique perspective, blending unwavering spirituality with robust business acumen. As we navigate through his Canadian lineage to his sunny Floridian life, we uncover the pivotal moments that not only led to his U.S. citizenship but also to the creation of his visionary collective. Engage with us as Stuart shares the profound impact of Jamie Winship's "Living Fearlessly" on his work, and how it harmonizes with his commitment to fostering professional development alongside spiritual enrichment.
In this episode, the essence of the Lighthouse Collective comes to light, revealing how biblical scripture and life's intrinsic rhythms can coalesce with leadership lessons from Stuart's "Lessons from the Lighthouse." Stuart advocates for a seamless integration of work, faith, and family life through hard work and dedication. His candid reflections on ego in leadership and the personal significance of Maine's coastal serenity offer a heartfelt approach to guiding others. Join us as we discuss the intentional selection of speakers and the collective's digital incarnation, providing a compass for those aspiring to lead with conviction and clarity.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Collin (00:09):
Welcome to the Nonprofit Renaissance Podcast, where we
help nonprofit leaders gofurther and grow faster.
I'm one of your co-hosts, Colin, and I'm excited to share this
episode with you.
Today.
We're joined by Stuart McMillan, a man who embodies the essence
of leadership, of innovation,of discipline, of faith.
(00:29):
He's the creator of theLighthouse Collective, a unique
gathering that mergesprofessional leadership insights
with deep-rooted faith values.
In this episode, Stuart revealshow a legacy of service has
fueled a mission to guide othersin connecting their faith with
their professional and personallives.
So join us as we explore thepower of bold leadership and the
(00:52):
transformative potential ofliving authentically.
Let's go further and growfaster together right now.
Heredes (01:00):
Tell us who is Stuart.
Stuart Macmillan (01:03):
Wow, it's complicated.
Heredes (01:06):
Should we ask your wife ?
Let's talk to her.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you mightwant to ask her.
Stuart Macmillan (01:09):
Or my kids.
Outro (01:10):
Yes, yeah.
Stuart Macmillan (01:11):
Well, like I said, I grew up in Canada and
played hockey and all the thingsCanadians do and went to school
at McGill University and afterthat moved to Toronto.
I've been involved in church myentire life.
My cousins, aunts, uncles,grandparents on both sides are
(01:33):
pastors.
No way Salvation Army officersactually.
Outro (01:36):
Wow.
Stuart Macmillan (01:36):
So they were involved in the Salvation Army.
As a matter of fact, mygreat-grandfather worked with
William Booth to start theSalvation Army way back when,
when it was still called theChristian Mission.
So five generations of that.
Heredes (01:50):
Wow, that's a throwback .
Stuart Macmillan (01:52):
It's pretty crazy.
And so I moved to Toronto aftermet my first wife and had two
wonderful kids and yeah, it wasa pretty cool career in
telecommunications, candidly, tostart.
And so I was working for anumber of companies there and
then, I guess, got introduced towhat we call direct selling
(02:17):
through a company called ExcelTelecommunications, which is the
company I work for.
We purchased it back in 1999for $3.5 billion, the company I
work for.
We purchased it back in 1999for $3.5 billion.
And so that interests me tothat whole direct selling thing
which I always thought ofpejoratively.
But once I got into it I justsaw how that type of business
could impact lives in a cool way, you know, just impacting them
(02:43):
financially or from a communitystandpoint.
And so it was sort of into thatwhole direct selling niche for
a number of years.
That's how I met Deb.
Deb was a supplier to thedirect selling industry with a
training company.
So did you direct sell her?
No, she well no.
Heredes (03:01):
Or the other way around .
Stuart Macmillan (03:03):
Well we sort of danced for a little while.
Outro (03:05):
You know, it was a bit of a dance, yeah.
Stuart Macmillan (03:08):
And.
But you know, finally kind ofworked out and I moved to
Florida in, I think it was 2011,2012, I think.
So I haven't been in Floridalong, Became an American citizen
about three years ago.
So congrats, Thank you.
Heredes (03:26):
And Florida.
So welcome to paradise.
Yeah, it's not bad.
It's not bad.
Stuart Macmillan (03:29):
The funny thing is I've been coming to
this area for probably 25 years,unbeknownst to me that she was
even around.
My parents had a place inDunedin for many, many years.
Justin Price (03:41):
What drew them there?
Stuart Macmillan (03:42):
Toronto Blue Jays, oh yeah.
Justin Price (03:45):
That's right they train there.
Stuart Macmillan (03:46):
Yeah, exactly, so we still, deb and I, we can
bike from our house over to seethe Blue Jays and you know it's
a place where we both get to beat home, because almost
everybody in the stands isCanadian.
But you know we biked over fromour house.
That's so cool, so it's kind ofcool.
Justin Price (04:03):
My grandparents owned a house.
My mom grew up about two blocksfrom the stadium.
Stuart Macmillan (04:08):
Oh, really In Dunedin.
Yeah, how cool is that.
Yeah, yeah, we actually went toa game this past week.
Heredes (04:15):
Oh, that's cool.
So diehard Blue Jay fan, I'massuming.
Stuart Macmillan (04:18):
I'm a diehard.
I was a Montreal Expos fan andthey're gone.
So yeah, blue Jays, all the wayTook the yeah, I love it, I
love it.
Heredes (04:26):
We're chatting today in Florida in connection with some
of our friends and some of ournetwork here in Florida about
the Lighthouse Collective.
Stuart Macmillan (04:35):
Yeah, is that?
Heredes (04:36):
right, Tell us more.
I want to hear more about it.
It's caught our attention tothe point that we're like, okay,
we got to bring Stuart in totell us a little bit more about
what it is, how it sprung up anduh, and what people need to
know about it.
Stuart Macmillan (04:48):
It's kind of humbling even to hear you say
that, because it was, uh, it's,it's all new.
Um, after I stepped down frommy last company uh, stayed on
the board, but stepped down fromthe company last uh, summer and
uh, we have a home in Maine, sothat's where we pretty much
spend kind of the end of Maytill November.
(05:09):
And so we were up there andsomeone introduced Deb to the
book Living Fearlessly by JamieWinship and she read it.
I think she was in a Biblestudy with it or something.
And then she said you know, yougot to read this.
And so I read the book out inour three-season room every
morning and Jamie Winship alwaysasks.
He says like you have a chapter, and then he asks two questions
(05:33):
you know, what am I supposed tolearn from this and what should
I do about it?
And so you know, I was tryingreally hard to ask myself those
questions.
And so you know, I was tryingreally hard to ask myself those
questions and the LighthouseCollective just came like we
need to start something, and Iran upstairs to her.
I go, I don't know this hasjust come from God, but we need
(05:54):
to start something where we forme it's almost like guerrilla
warfare in that what I found,you know, I've got 35 years of
experience running a lot of bigcompanies and stuff and I've
learned a ton, and so what I'venoticed is that there are common
things like leadership, thingsthat people want to hear, and my
(06:16):
mentor is John Maxwell.
He's one of them and he tells meon a regular basis that
everything that he teaches on isactually scripturally based.
And so, you know, as a studentof leadership and, as you know,
as I, you know want to sharethings you know with people on
social media my ultimate aim isto get them to see Jesus.
(06:39):
But you know what People don'talways want to hear about Jesus
right away, and so really, youknow, I keep slipping it in.
You know what People don'talways want to hear about Jesus
right away, and so really, youknow, I keep slipping it in, you
know.
So I do a monthly message fromthe lighthouse we call it
Lessons from the Lighthouse, andI can get into why lighthouses
but yeah, I want to hear aboutthat.
Yeah, yeah, but almost alwayshave a scripture in the middle
(07:02):
of my message, even though themessage is, you know about like
this past month it was aboutMarch Madness and you know that
kind of thing but I always slipin some scripture and ultimately
want people to understand, youknow that there's no such thing
as no new truth.
You know, like you can't makeup truth.
Truth is forever.
(07:22):
We can discover it, right, butwe can't make it up, and so
always kind of pointing back tomy faith.
And so the LighthouseCollective, as it evolved over
the last few months and I wantit to evolve even more I don't
even actually know where it'sgoing to be next year.
I'm looking for people like youguys actually candidly to sit
with us and go, hey, we could dothis, this or we could do that.
(07:44):
But currently it has sort ofthree pillars.
The first pillar is this sortof digital presence, and then
the second one is I'm writing abook right now called Ego-Driven
Leadership how to Recognize itin Yourself and Others and Flee
from it.
Collin (08:02):
Wow.
Stuart Macmillan (08:03):
You heard it here first ladies and gentlemen,
right, I like that.
Justin Price (08:07):
It's a great title Titles are harder than anything
.
Yeah, got to have a hook.
Got to have a hook.
That's really good.
Stuart Macmillan (08:13):
Now there are people who say, don't have a
negative hook, but in this caseI talked to John Maxwell and
John Gordon from the Energy.
Bus and they both went, oh yeah.
Heredes (08:21):
And they have some experience.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, those guysare semi-qualified to give you a
size.
Stuart Macmillan (08:25):
And they said yeah, that's good, that's good,
That'll have people going hmm,yeah.
So the second pillar is reallywriting a book.
I have two in my head, and thenthe third one is these events,
and so the events have evolvedfrom.
In my last company, I wanted tobe bolder about my faith and I
(08:49):
decided just to go out there,and so we would have events, and
on the Sunday I would whetherit was a leadership event or a
big event which eventually had8,000 or 10,000 people at it I
would do an optional churchservice on the Sunday, and so we
threw that out there to be bold.
And you know that by the timewe were in Atlanta, we were at
(09:12):
where the Hawks play the AtlantaHawks, and we had 2,000 people
at the church service.
And then John Maxwell told me inhis voice I think we need to be
bolder.
And so he said we need to havean altar call, we need to use
the opportunity to have peoplecome forward, and I was like, oh
(09:36):
wow, that's OK, we're going allin now, 200 people came forward
that morning, that Sundaymorning, and including a really
cool picture that I have.
Of course, when you rent out avenue like that, you have to
have security, and I have thiscoolest photo of one of the
(09:57):
security guards leaving his post, going forward and then coming
back.
Come on.
Yeah, yeah, that's special,yeah, it was cool.
So that whole idea of, okay,let's find a place where
business people can, where wecan encourage them to be bolder
about their faith and how dothey weave their family life,
being a good spouse, being agood mom or dad, and their faith
(10:20):
into a successful business, Ithink that oftentimes we
apologize for one or the other.
One of the things I say all thetime is I don't believe in
work-life balance.
I think it's a fallacy.
I believe in rhythm, love thatRight.
To me, it's like an elastic, sowhen it gets pulled, and as
long as it gets pulled the otherway, if it goes back and forth,
(10:43):
then you're good.
If you stretch an elastic toofar and don't the tension stays
there, it will pop.
And so really wanted almost togive business leaders permission
to be bold or permission to go.
It's okay to work hard.
I mean, there's a I don't knowif you guys have heard this, but
(11:04):
lately there's this anti-hustlemovement.
Heredes (11:06):
Have you heard?
Stuart Macmillan (11:07):
I'm an anti-hustle and you know I'm in.
You know decades well above youguys.
But I could tell you this Ihave never seen someone who is
successful who hasn't had aperiod of hustle.
I think that's just anotherfallacy.
Like to think that I'm going tobe and success can be.
(11:28):
It doesn't have to be money,but to be at the top of your
game, to be significant in yourfield, it requires hustle.
I don't care what anybody says,but it's hustle in a.
You've got to give some to yourchurch.
You've got to give some to yourcommunity.
You've got to give some to yourfamily and your wife and kids
and stuff.
So the event was okay, let's dothis.
(11:51):
Let's get a bunch of speakerstogether, ted talky kind of 20
minutes each, and we'll get themprimarily couples who are
successful in business to talkabout how do they navigate that,
how do they, what kinds of tipscan they give this group of
people to?
How do I navigate, you know, afamily when I'm in a job that
(12:14):
isn't nine to five when I'mworking nights.
So we're, you know, we'rehoping realtors come and
mortgage brokers and a lot ofdirect sellers and people like
that who you know, insurancesalespeople, like people who
don't just work nine to five Imean, it's open to everybody,
but those are the people youknow where there's hustle, how
do they navigate, how do theyprioritize?
And then how do they, you know,use their faith and how do they
(12:39):
get it out there in a way thatis, you know, is that resonates
with people.
So that's what we're going todo.
Heredes (12:49):
I love and actually learned this from Craig, our
friend, pastor Craig Altman he'sa fellow subscriber and
listener here to the podcast butabout navigating the hustle and
that seasons in life and therhythm.
That and for our listeners whoare nonprofit leaders and
pastors, you don't sign up oryou don't answer the call to
join a cruise ship.
It's a battleship, right right.
And it's very different whenyou go on a cruise ship.
No, it's a battleship, right,right, and it's very different
(13:09):
when you go on a cruise ship andyou jump on a battle, so
navigate is very different.
You're on alert and the seasonsand the waves and the storms
how you're handling it.
So I love the one, the theme,the topic, and I think it's very
relevant for kind of nextgeneration of leaders coming up
quick exit, without the hustle.
Stuart Macmillan (13:27):
Yeah, that quite quitting is quite
something these days and I justyou know, we think that the
demographic is probably going tobe 30s, early 40s is probably
the.
Heredes (13:38):
So young, super young babies.
Stuart Macmillan (13:40):
Well, those are the people, though, on our
social media right now.
As we look at the people thatare listening to us and
responding, it seems to be thatkind of 30 to 45 demographic
that seems to be appealing toyou, and I thought, how cool,
I've got a white beard and I'mstill appealing to somebody.
That is cool, I love it.
Justin Price (13:59):
I heard two things that you said.
I want to make sure I'm gettingthis but, I heard that you were
basically trying to call outthe reality of people in this
position within business, thatthey can be bold.
Outro (14:15):
Yeah.
Justin Price (14:16):
So you're taking your examples from running
billion-dollar companies whichyou may or may not have you were
most likely not owner of, whichmeans you weren't the only boss
.
Outro (14:28):
No.
Justin Price (14:28):
And you had to figure out how to be bold.
I think sometimes people seethat and they're like, oh well,
he had all the power, you don'thave all the power, I didn't.
Which means you weren't theonly boss, no, and you had to
figure out how to be bold.
Stuart Macmillan (14:32):
I think sometimes people see that and
they're like, oh well, he hadall the power, you don't have
all the power, I didn't, Ididn't actually.
Justin Price (14:35):
So to be bold in that position, no matter what
ring you are in the business.
And then the second one Ithought was super important was
this idea of how you manage thework and the things that are
really practically applicable tothese people.
And I think it was so importantbecause when I heard you
(14:55):
talking, I was thinking aboutwhat we see on social and
especially in this group ofpeople that you were describing
insurance guys, real estatebrokers what are they posting?
They have got to portraysuccess that is part of their
business, and so they can't postwhat it took to get that
success.
They cannot post that theymissed their son's baseball game
(15:18):
.
They cannot post that theymissed out on so-and-so's
birthday because they weretrying to do this thing over
here, they cannot post thetension their marriage is
feeling right now because peopledon't buy that's not
aspirational.
Stuart Macmillan (15:30):
Exactly, they cannot post the tension their
marriage is feeling right nowbecause people don't buy it.
Justin Price (15:33):
That's not aspirational, exactly.
But you are combating that andyou're saying, for a day I'm
going to get people together andnot just one story, not just my
story, but a whole bunch ofpeople's stories, ted Talk style
, and I'm going to tell thataudience the truth of what it
really takes to survive in timesthat were good and times that
were bad.
I'm going to say this is whatit looked like to actually be
(15:54):
there and to kind of rip off thefacade of the social media.
Stuart Macmillan (15:57):
Totally agree.
Justin Price (15:58):
And I think that is more necessary than ever for
people who are aspiring to hitthe levels of success that
you've hit, whether it's as afamily man or as a businessman.
We need the truth.
We need to get rid of thisfacade because it's tricking us.
I think Satan's using it tocompletely deceive us and we're
(16:19):
making the wrong calls.
Stuart Macmillan (16:21):
I totally agree.
I talk about the differencebetween real life and real life,
because the reals that you see—Is that you see is that your
second book?
I like that yeah, you like that.
Okay, good, all right yeah, butbut that's, that's the truth
yeah that's the truth.
You know, we're almost forcedinto this um fakeness you know
(16:43):
there's nothing.
Everything's artificial.
And now I mean we've with ai.
I mean more so we.
You mean, I look at peopleposting something super eloquent
and I know them and I go,that's okay, Artificial yeah.
I think that was you, but okay.
But like we're getting to thepoint where nothing's real
anymore, and I think that putspressure on people to go, I'm
(17:06):
not good enough.
So that's part of what we'rehoping this day will do, and
we're capping it off with a.
I'm trying to use one of my oldmodels.
It's a day I'll tell you aboutJamie Winship because he's
coming, which is so cool, butwe're capping it off with a
church service at night.
(17:27):
So it's going to run fromapproximately 9 o'clock to 5.30,
go have dinner and at nightwe're having a church service.
Daryl Black is going to bringthe word, we're going to have a
worship band and what I'm hopingI told Eris this that I'm
actually hoping that at least25% of the people hopefully more
(17:49):
are not believers.
Outro (17:51):
Right.
Stuart Macmillan (17:51):
They're going to come and hear about business
and how do I navigate mypersonal life.
And then I want them to be ableto say after everything you've
heard I mean the call to action,after everything you've heard,
let's go worship together.
And you know what I want to seelives changed.
I want to see a security guardwaving a book saying, hey, I
made a decision.
Justin Price (18:11):
That's a big deal.
There's churches all acrossAmerica, 300,000 churches.
The average church is notseeing 200 salvations.
That story you told.
That's not a small number.
That's a pretty significantimpact.
There's pastors who are workingfor 365 days to see half that
much salvation work and you'recalling like the thing that
(18:33):
you're talking about is thatyou've accomplished and then to
see what can come out of theLighthouse Collective and these
events that you're talking aboutcould be really encouraging.
Stuart Macmillan (18:42):
Yeah, we're hoping.
You know, we're going into thisevent and we want to tweak it,
and it's our first.
And when I shared this withJohn Maxwell, you know, I said
like we want to tweak it andit's our first.
And uh, when I shared this withjohn maxwell, he, you know, I
said like we want to try thisand he goes no, no, you're like
no, you're not trying anything.
You know, you're gonna do it,you're gonna do it and then
you're gonna fine tune it, butyou're not trying anything, you
(19:03):
know.
And, um, he's just a great guyto keep me.
Keep me going but, so that's,that's the thing, you know, like
we want.
We want to see what's going towork and what's not going to
work, and maybe we'll do two ayear, maybe three, I don't know.
But it's really about how do webring business leaders together
and almost give them permissionto be bold about their faith.
Justin Price (19:24):
That's really cool .
I've never heard of anybodyelse doing anything like that?
Heredes (19:27):
Well, tell us where the name came from.
Stuart Macmillan (19:31):
It's an obvious connection to the
mission, as I'm hearing it.
So yeah, so I spent all mysummers from the time I was born
in Maine.
Every summer my mom and dadwould take us for two or three
weeks to Maine and they saved upto rent a place in this little
community.
A lot of people from the churchthat I grew up in would go
there, and a couple of ourbetter friends.
(19:54):
Over time I ended up buying aplace just kind of off the beach
and Deb and I were marriedthere.
My daughter, bethany and herhusband were married there.
It's just become a real cool.
Our dogs are buried there.
We have a little pet cemetery,but they were cremated.
It's not weird.
(20:15):
Well, we have to be carefulbecause it's on the water, so we
don't want things floating.
But I've always been.
I see God through lighthousesand there was a transition
because for a time it was thelighthouse to me, and that was a
transition because for a timeit was the lighthouse to me and
that was the little bay whereour cottage is.
(20:35):
I've been going to my entirelife and one of the things when
I made big decisions, when Idecided to ask Deb to marry me,
for example, I made thatdecision.
At that beach and sitting inwhat's called Casco Bay, there
are three lighthouses there'sone there, there's one there and
there's one there, and itdidn't matter whether I was 12
(20:58):
or five or 55, the consistencyof the lighthouse was something.
I would go down and I'd hear theocean, the consistency of the
waves and those lights that havebeen there my entire life, and
so there was this warmth that Igot about lighthouses and then,
particularly in the last five to10 years, I've been thinking
(21:19):
about how we have to belighthouses and so all the
metaphors.
For most of my speeches over thelast 10 years, the metaphor of
the lighthouse has come backbecause it's constant and
consistent and it doesn't justturn on when there's a storm,
it's on all the time.
And I talk about how we need tobe lights because we don't know
(21:40):
who's in a storm.
Right, we don't know who thatwe're talking to.
So our light's got to be on allthe time like a lighthouse.
And so for the last I guessprobably six or seven years I
end every talk with keep shining, be a light.
And so that has become part,and so our home in Maine is just
filled with lighthouses.
(22:01):
So there's lighthouse, salt andpepper shakers and lighthouse
and the little handles on thedoors are lighthouses and we
bring our grandchildren up thereand we make them count when we
want them to do somethingbecause we're busy.
Count the lighthouses.
Justin Price (22:14):
How many?
What's the biggest highestnumber Right now?
Stuart Macmillan (22:16):
there's 39 lighthouses in our house.
Outro (22:18):
That's awesome.
Stuart Macmillan (22:19):
Yeah, so in the little beach house, and we
keep adding them, you know so.
So that's how we got thelighthouse collective.
We like the word collectivebecause we want to.
We want to gather people.
I have in my head right now andI want to talk to you guys
about it at some point is likemaybe we have a group called the
lighthouse keepers, Cause alighthouse keeper, a lighthouse
(22:41):
keeper, is a really importantjob, right?
They're the ones who keep thelight going.
So I don't actually know whereit's going to go, but I'm kind
of excited about it.
Heredes (22:49):
That's really cool.
How did you curate the speakersand bring those together?
You know we know some of themexcited to hear.
Tell us more.
Stuart Macmillan (22:57):
Well, it's interesting.
You know we pray a lot about it.
It's funny enough.
I'll share this.
Last week it's at Grace FamilyChurch in Clearwater, and last
week, and now we're gonna dothis every Monday.
Deb and I we're reading theCircle Maker and so we decided
to walk around Grace FamilyChurch in Clearwater seven times
(23:20):
.
I love it, and so we're gonnado that every Monday for the
next little while.
And as we're doing that, we'rejust praying over these people,
and they just came to us in away like okay, that person would
be amazing and I don't knowwhere it came from, but they'd
be really good.
I've seen this indicators ofthis in their life or whatever.
And so these are the folks thatare kind of the lighthouse
(23:44):
collective live number, you knownumber one inaugural event.
Justin Price (23:48):
I love it.
I really liked that yourapproach was not the way we
would typically approach it,because I think the temptation
is to go who's going to bringthe biggest crowd?
Who's going to be what's thebiggest name?
What's the who?
Who has the most clout?
Yeah, who's going to be what'sthe biggest name?
What's the who has the mostclout.
So that way we seem like thisis a bigger deal.
Anytime you're starting, you'realways looking for like brand
(24:09):
association, right.
So what brands can I grab onto?
And I love that.
Your heart was not that, not tosay that that wasn't considered
, but what you just said waslike I mean, I'm praying over
who God wants to speak and whatthey can share, not what their
brand value is Like.
God doesn't need our brandvalue to build anything.
Stuart Macmillan (24:27):
Yeah, yeah, and it's scary sometimes because
if you know the story of thecircle maker, you know Honi, I
guess you know, stood in thecircle until it rained.
And you know, we're kind ofgoing out there with this going.
I don't even know if anybody'sgoing to come.
You know, like we're just we'reputting it out there, and so
Deb and I, you know, on that, onour circle walk, you know we're
(24:47):
really praying over, prayingover the speakers that they
would have something valuable tosay, but also praying for that
God would bring people intothese seats that really need to
hear what those people have tosay, that really need to hear
what those people have to say.
And then we have like a coupleof keynotes that you know Daryl,
who is one of the teachingpastors at Grace, just powerful
(25:08):
message.
And we thought, okay, and Italked to him about the event
and he was just like 100% in,like yeah, I could see myself
doing that.
And then Jamie Winship was soweird because this book drove us
starting this whole thing inthe first place.
There's a speaker couple calledthe Roths, derek and Rachel
(25:30):
Roth.
Well, they actually know JamieWinship.
So they connected Deb and me toJamie and we got on the phone
with them and I said you know,like we're not making any money
off this thing, so I don't knowif you'd want to come, or you
know, I was sort of throwing itout there, you know, after Deb
and I had prayed and he goes.
You know what's bizarre is,this is the only opening in my
(25:54):
calendar for the next four orfive months, like that weekend.
So he said I'll get back to youand sure enough he's going to
come.
So yeah, it's pretty cool.
I don't know if you guys haveread any or listened to any of
his podcasts, but on our wayhome, driving home from Maine,
we listened to Jamie Winship forlike hours and Todd and Deb
Duncan as well.
(26:16):
Yeah.
So Todd Duncan is a great guythat I've been working with for
a little while.
He was affiliated with Maxwell,john Maxwell, and he is really
well known in the mortgagebrokerage space and so his two
books that I always recommendHigh Trust Selling, in my
opinion, the best sales bookthat I've ever read.
It talks about the integrityHigh Trust Selling, yeah, and
(26:42):
Time Traps that's his otherreally good book.
So just, you know how do you?
How to prioritize your time andpragmatic exercises.
The thing about Todd that's socool is he's super pragmatic.
I didn't even know he was abeliever, but I should have
figured it out based on what Ijust said to you earlier,
because a lot of the truths inhis book I Trust Selling are
about integrity.
But we started using him as aspeaker and a trainer at Monat
(27:08):
and I got to know him better,got to know him and his wife
better and you know, strongbeliever but incredibly
successful author and businessperson, and so he agreed to just
come.
I mean his fee, typically tospeak, is in the tens of
thousands of dollars and I justsaid, like we're doing this.
(27:31):
He goes, deb, and I will bethere.
Heredes (27:33):
That's amazing.
Stuart Macmillan (27:34):
Yeah.
Heredes (27:34):
Obviously you have Clearwater and the beaches in
Florida.
Outro (27:37):
Yeah, attractive so for our listeners out of state.
Heredes (27:40):
Maybe you're freezing up north somewhere.
What a great time to come toFlorida.
Stuart Macmillan (27:44):
What a great time.
Justin Price (27:45):
Tell us yeah exactly the depression.
Stuart Macmillan (27:47):
Shake it off in the lighthouse.
Well, did you guys grow up inthe north at all?
Justin Price (27:53):
I'm a fifth generation native.
Floridian, but I left and wentto Ohio.
I couldn't do it.
I had to get out by February,like every year.
Stuart Macmillan (28:01):
Well, I brought Deb up to Montreal to
live for a little while and whenit snowed the first week of
June she said see ya, Bye-bye,I'll see you in Florida.
Justin Price (28:15):
I'll be there.
Stuart Macmillan (28:16):
I'll be in Florida, you know, I'll meet you
in Maine.
Justin Price (28:18):
June's not a good time for snow.
Stuart Macmillan (28:20):
No, no, but this time of year in Canada and
northern United States is whenall the snow melts and, like all
the salt and dirt that they usefor the roads is just sitting
there and all the dog stuff thatwas buried under the snow, it's
a good time to come to Florida.
Justin Price (28:39):
I love it.
Stuart Macmillan (28:39):
It's a great time to come to Florida.
Heredes (28:41):
How can somebody find out more?
We'll link everything on thepodcast here.
How can they?
Stuart Macmillan (28:45):
be a part.
Best thing to do is to go tothelighthousecollectiveglobal
and everything's there.
If it's today, the room blockis still open.
Today there's two of them, andso they're open.
Get a ticket.
We are going to have anabsolutely amazing time and I'm
so excited about it.
(29:06):
Actually.
Heredes (29:06):
I love it.
I love it.
Now, be sure to check out allthe links below and we're making
sure that this is airing withtime for you to still attend,
for you to still be a part andcome visit, come say hi to our
team, our gang there and allaround Florida, when we'll host
you around Clearwater Beaches.
Right, justin?
Justin's a tour guide, numbereight level on Google maybe.
Stuart Macmillan (29:30):
Well, the Clearwater campus is pretty
close to the beach actually.
Heredes (29:33):
It is.
Stuart Macmillan (29:34):
It's nice and west right.
Yeah, great sunsets here too,like you're not going to see
them.
Correct, nowhere on the EastCoast are you going to see
sunsets like this, oh no.
Heredes (29:43):
Well, Stuart, anything else I mean just the nuggets
you've dropped today is such agreat indicator of how awesome
the event's going to be, so Ican't wait.
I'm excited.
Anything else you'd like toshare with our listeners before
we wrap up today?
Stuart Macmillan (29:56):
Not really other than you know, just be
with the audience.
That you've described to me isjust you know, let's be bold.
You know, 356 times in theBible it says fear not.
And so I've learned, you knowwhat God has incredibly blessed
the money business when I wasbold, and so you know what.
(30:18):
It's not easy always, but Godwill bless it, he will honor it.
So I just say fear not, be bold, be strong, be courageous.
It's not easy always, but Godwill bless it he will honor it.
So I just say fear not, be bold,be strong, be courageous and
let's do it together.
Heredes (30:32):
Keep shining.
That's a great word.
Keep shining, be the light, bethe light.
Well, thank you so much.
That's it for us on thisepisode and we'll see you next
time on the NonprofitRenaissance.
Outro (30:39):
Peace.
Thanks again for listening tothe Nonprofit Renaissance.
We hope it ignites arenaissance in you and helps you
go further and grow faster.
Be sure to share, rate andsubscribe and if you'd like to
recommend or be a guest on ourshow, send us an email at
podcastatversecreativecom.
Welcome to the Nonprofit Renaissance Podcast, where we
help nonprofit leaders gofurther and grow faster.
I'm one of your co-hosts, Colin, and I'm excited to share this
episode with you.
Today.
We're joined by Stuart McMillan, a man who embodies the essence
of leadership, of innovation,of discipline, of faith.
(00:29):
He's the creator of theLighthouse Collective, a unique
gathering that mergesprofessional leadership insights
with deep-rooted faith values.
In this episode, Stuart revealshow a legacy of service has
fueled a mission to guide othersin connecting their faith with
their professional and personallives.
So join us as we explore thepower of bold leadership and the
(00:52):
transformative potential ofliving authentically.
Let's go further and growfaster together right now.
Heredes (01:00):
Tell us who is Stuart.
Stuart Macmillan (01:03):
Wow, it's complicated.
Heredes (01:06):
Should we ask your wife ?
Let's talk to her.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you mightwant to ask her.
Stuart Macmillan (01:09):
Or my kids.
Outro (01:10):
Yes, yeah.
Stuart Macmillan (01:11):
Well, like I said, I grew up in Canada and
played hockey and all the thingsCanadians do and went to school
at McGill University and afterthat moved to Toronto.
I've been involved in church myentire life.
My cousins, aunts, uncles,grandparents on both sides are
(01:33):
pastors.
No way Salvation Army officersactually.
Outro (01:36):
Wow.
Stuart Macmillan (01:36):
So they were involved in the Salvation Army.
As a matter of fact, mygreat-grandfather worked with
William Booth to start theSalvation Army way back when,
when it was still called theChristian Mission.
So five generations of that.
Heredes (01:50):
Wow, that's a throwback .
Stuart Macmillan (01:52):
It's pretty crazy.
And so I moved to Toronto aftermet my first wife and had two
wonderful kids and yeah, it wasa pretty cool career in
telecommunications, candidly, tostart.
And so I was working for anumber of companies there and
then, I guess, got introduced towhat we call direct selling
(02:17):
through a company called ExcelTelecommunications, which is the
company I work for.
We purchased it back in 1999for $3.5 billion, the company I
work for.
We purchased it back in 1999for $3.5 billion.
And so that interests me tothat whole direct selling thing
which I always thought ofpejoratively.
But once I got into it I justsaw how that type of business
could impact lives in a cool way, you know, just impacting them
(02:43):
financially or from a communitystandpoint.
And so it was sort of into thatwhole direct selling niche for
a number of years.
That's how I met Deb.
Deb was a supplier to thedirect selling industry with a
training company.
So did you direct sell her?
No, she well no.
Heredes (03:01):
Or the other way around .
Stuart Macmillan (03:03):
Well we sort of danced for a little while.
Outro (03:05):
You know, it was a bit of a dance, yeah.
Stuart Macmillan (03:08):
And.
But you know, finally kind ofworked out and I moved to
Florida in, I think it was 2011,2012, I think.
So I haven't been in Floridalong, Became an American citizen
about three years ago.
So congrats, Thank you.
Heredes (03:26):
And Florida.
So welcome to paradise.
Yeah, it's not bad.
It's not bad.
Stuart Macmillan (03:29):
The funny thing is I've been coming to
this area for probably 25 years,unbeknownst to me that she was
even around.
My parents had a place inDunedin for many, many years.
Justin Price (03:41):
What drew them there?
Stuart Macmillan (03:42):
Toronto Blue Jays, oh yeah.
Justin Price (03:45):
That's right they train there.
Stuart Macmillan (03:46):
Yeah, exactly, so we still, deb and I, we can
bike from our house over to seethe Blue Jays and you know it's
a place where we both get to beat home, because almost
everybody in the stands isCanadian.
But you know we biked over fromour house.
That's so cool, so it's kind ofcool.
Justin Price (04:03):
My grandparents owned a house.
My mom grew up about two blocksfrom the stadium.
Stuart Macmillan (04:08):
Oh, really In Dunedin.
Yeah, how cool is that.
Yeah, yeah, we actually went toa game this past week.
Heredes (04:15):
Oh, that's cool.
So diehard Blue Jay fan, I'massuming.
Stuart Macmillan (04:18):
I'm a diehard.
I was a Montreal Expos fan andthey're gone.
So yeah, blue Jays, all the wayTook the yeah, I love it, I
love it.
Heredes (04:26):
We're chatting today in Florida in connection with some
of our friends and some of ournetwork here in Florida about
the Lighthouse Collective.
Stuart Macmillan (04:35):
Yeah, is that?
Heredes (04:36):
right, Tell us more.
I want to hear more about it.
It's caught our attention tothe point that we're like, okay,
we got to bring Stuart in totell us a little bit more about
what it is, how it sprung up anduh, and what people need to
know about it.
Stuart Macmillan (04:48):
It's kind of humbling even to hear you say
that, because it was, uh, it's,it's all new.
Um, after I stepped down frommy last company uh, stayed on
the board, but stepped down fromthe company last uh, summer and
uh, we have a home in Maine, sothat's where we pretty much
spend kind of the end of Maytill November.
(05:09):
And so we were up there andsomeone introduced Deb to the
book Living Fearlessly by JamieWinship and she read it.
I think she was in a Biblestudy with it or something.
And then she said you know, yougot to read this.
And so I read the book out inour three-season room every
morning and Jamie Winship alwaysasks.
He says like you have a chapter, and then he asks two questions
(05:33):
you know, what am I supposed tolearn from this and what should
I do about it?
And so you know, I was tryingreally hard to ask myself those
questions.
And so you know, I was tryingreally hard to ask myself those
questions and the LighthouseCollective just came like we
need to start something, and Iran upstairs to her.
I go, I don't know this hasjust come from God, but we need
(05:54):
to start something where we forme it's almost like guerrilla
warfare in that what I found,you know, I've got 35 years of
experience running a lot of bigcompanies and stuff and I've
learned a ton, and so what I'venoticed is that there are common
things like leadership, thingsthat people want to hear, and my
(06:16):
mentor is John Maxwell.
He's one of them and he tells meon a regular basis that
everything that he teaches on isactually scripturally based.
And so, you know, as a studentof leadership and, as you know,
as I, you know want to sharethings you know with people on
social media my ultimate aim isto get them to see Jesus.
(06:39):
But you know what People don'talways want to hear about Jesus
right away, and so really, youknow, I keep slipping it in.
You know what People don'talways want to hear about Jesus
right away, and so really, youknow, I keep slipping it in, you
know.
So I do a monthly message fromthe lighthouse we call it
Lessons from the Lighthouse, andI can get into why lighthouses
but yeah, I want to hear aboutthat.
Yeah, yeah, but almost alwayshave a scripture in the middle
(07:02):
of my message, even though themessage is, you know about like
this past month it was aboutMarch Madness and you know that
kind of thing but I always slipin some scripture and ultimately
want people to understand, youknow that there's no such thing
as no new truth.
You know, like you can't makeup truth.
Truth is forever.
(07:22):
We can discover it, right, butwe can't make it up, and so
always kind of pointing back tomy faith.
And so the LighthouseCollective, as it evolved over
the last few months and I wantit to evolve even more I don't
even actually know where it'sgoing to be next year.
I'm looking for people like youguys actually candidly to sit
with us and go, hey, we could dothis, this or we could do that.
(07:44):
But currently it has sort ofthree pillars.
The first pillar is this sortof digital presence, and then
the second one is I'm writing abook right now called Ego-Driven
Leadership how to Recognize itin Yourself and Others and Flee
from it.
Collin (08:02):
Wow.
Stuart Macmillan (08:03):
You heard it here first ladies and gentlemen,
right, I like that.
Justin Price (08:07):
It's a great title Titles are harder than anything
.
Yeah, got to have a hook.
Got to have a hook.
That's really good.
Stuart Macmillan (08:13):
Now there are people who say, don't have a
negative hook, but in this caseI talked to John Maxwell and
John Gordon from the Energy.
Bus and they both went, oh yeah.
Heredes (08:21):
And they have some experience.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, those guysare semi-qualified to give you a
size.
Stuart Macmillan (08:25):
And they said yeah, that's good, that's good,
That'll have people going hmm,yeah.
So the second pillar is reallywriting a book.
I have two in my head, and thenthe third one is these events,
and so the events have evolvedfrom.
In my last company, I wanted tobe bolder about my faith and I
(08:49):
decided just to go out there,and so we would have events, and
on the Sunday I would whetherit was a leadership event or a
big event which eventually had8,000 or 10,000 people at it I
would do an optional churchservice on the Sunday, and so we
threw that out there to be bold.
And you know that by the timewe were in Atlanta, we were at
(09:12):
where the Hawks play the AtlantaHawks, and we had 2,000 people
at the church service.
And then John Maxwell told me inhis voice I think we need to be
bolder.
And so he said we need to havean altar call, we need to use
the opportunity to have peoplecome forward, and I was like, oh
(09:36):
wow, that's OK, we're going allin now, 200 people came forward
that morning, that Sundaymorning, and including a really
cool picture that I have.
Of course, when you rent out avenue like that, you have to
have security, and I have thiscoolest photo of one of the
(09:57):
security guards leaving his post, going forward and then coming
back.
Come on.
Yeah, yeah, that's special,yeah, it was cool.
So that whole idea of, okay,let's find a place where
business people can, where wecan encourage them to be bolder
about their faith and how dothey weave their family life,
being a good spouse, being agood mom or dad, and their faith
(10:20):
into a successful business, Ithink that oftentimes we
apologize for one or the other.
One of the things I say all thetime is I don't believe in
work-life balance.
I think it's a fallacy.
I believe in rhythm, love thatRight.
To me, it's like an elastic, sowhen it gets pulled, and as
long as it gets pulled the otherway, if it goes back and forth,
(10:43):
then you're good.
If you stretch an elastic toofar and don't the tension stays
there, it will pop.
And so really wanted almost togive business leaders permission
to be bold or permission to go.
It's okay to work hard.
I mean, there's a I don't knowif you guys have heard this, but
(11:04):
lately there's this anti-hustlemovement.
Heredes (11:06):
Have you heard?
Stuart Macmillan (11:07):
I'm an anti-hustle and you know I'm in.
You know decades well above youguys.
But I could tell you this Ihave never seen someone who is
successful who hasn't had aperiod of hustle.
I think that's just anotherfallacy.
Like to think that I'm going tobe and success can be.
(11:28):
It doesn't have to be money,but to be at the top of your
game, to be significant in yourfield, it requires hustle.
I don't care what anybody says,but it's hustle in a.
You've got to give some to yourchurch.
You've got to give some to yourcommunity.
You've got to give some to yourfamily and your wife and kids
and stuff.
So the event was okay, let's dothis.
(11:51):
Let's get a bunch of speakerstogether, ted talky kind of 20
minutes each, and we'll get themprimarily couples who are
successful in business to talkabout how do they navigate that,
how do they, what kinds of tipscan they give this group of
people to?
How do I navigate, you know, afamily when I'm in a job that
(12:14):
isn't nine to five when I'mworking nights.
So we're, you know, we'rehoping realtors come and
mortgage brokers and a lot ofdirect sellers and people like
that who you know, insurancesalespeople, like people who
don't just work nine to five Imean, it's open to everybody,
but those are the people youknow where there's hustle, how
do they navigate, how do theyprioritize?
And then how do they, you know,use their faith and how do they
(12:39):
get it out there in a way thatis, you know, is that resonates
with people.
So that's what we're going todo.
Heredes (12:49):
I love and actually learned this from Craig, our
friend, pastor Craig Altman he'sa fellow subscriber and
listener here to the podcast butabout navigating the hustle and
that seasons in life and therhythm.
That and for our listeners whoare nonprofit leaders and
pastors, you don't sign up oryou don't answer the call to
join a cruise ship.
It's a battleship, right right.
And it's very different whenyou go on a cruise ship.
No, it's a battleship, right,right, and it's very different
(13:09):
when you go on a cruise ship andyou jump on a battle, so
navigate is very different.
You're on alert and the seasonsand the waves and the storms
how you're handling it.
So I love the one, the theme,the topic, and I think it's very
relevant for kind of nextgeneration of leaders coming up
quick exit, without the hustle.
Stuart Macmillan (13:27):
Yeah, that quite quitting is quite
something these days and I justyou know, we think that the
demographic is probably going tobe 30s, early 40s is probably
the.
Heredes (13:38):
So young, super young babies.
Stuart Macmillan (13:40):
Well, those are the people, though, on our
social media right now.
As we look at the people thatare listening to us and
responding, it seems to be thatkind of 30 to 45 demographic
that seems to be appealing toyou, and I thought, how cool,
I've got a white beard and I'mstill appealing to somebody.
That is cool, I love it.
Justin Price (13:59):
I heard two things that you said.
I want to make sure I'm gettingthis but, I heard that you were
basically trying to call outthe reality of people in this
position within business, thatthey can be bold.
Outro (14:15):
Yeah.
Justin Price (14:16):
So you're taking your examples from running
billion-dollar companies whichyou may or may not have you were
most likely not owner of, whichmeans you weren't the only boss
.
Outro (14:28):
No.
Justin Price (14:28):
And you had to figure out how to be bold.
I think sometimes people seethat and they're like, oh well,
he had all the power, you don'thave all the power, I didn't.
Which means you weren't theonly boss, no, and you had to
figure out how to be bold.
Stuart Macmillan (14:32):
I think sometimes people see that and
they're like, oh well, he hadall the power, you don't have
all the power, I didn't, Ididn't actually.
Justin Price (14:35):
So to be bold in that position, no matter what
ring you are in the business.
And then the second one Ithought was super important was
this idea of how you manage thework and the things that are
really practically applicable tothese people.
And I think it was so importantbecause when I heard you
(14:55):
talking, I was thinking aboutwhat we see on social and
especially in this group ofpeople that you were describing
insurance guys, real estatebrokers what are they posting?
They have got to portraysuccess that is part of their
business, and so they can't postwhat it took to get that
success.
They cannot post that theymissed their son's baseball game
(15:18):
.
They cannot post that theymissed out on so-and-so's
birthday because they weretrying to do this thing over
here, they cannot post thetension their marriage is
feeling right now because peopledon't buy that's not
aspirational.
Stuart Macmillan (15:30):
Exactly, they cannot post the tension their
marriage is feeling right nowbecause people don't buy it.
Justin Price (15:33):
That's not aspirational, exactly.
But you are combating that andyou're saying, for a day I'm
going to get people together andnot just one story, not just my
story, but a whole bunch ofpeople's stories, ted Talk style
, and I'm going to tell thataudience the truth of what it
really takes to survive in timesthat were good and times that
were bad.
I'm going to say this is whatit looked like to actually be
(15:54):
there and to kind of rip off thefacade of the social media.
Stuart Macmillan (15:57):
Totally agree.
Justin Price (15:58):
And I think that is more necessary than ever for
people who are aspiring to hitthe levels of success that
you've hit, whether it's as afamily man or as a businessman.
We need the truth.
We need to get rid of thisfacade because it's tricking us.
I think Satan's using it tocompletely deceive us and we're
(16:19):
making the wrong calls.
Stuart Macmillan (16:21):
I totally agree.
I talk about the differencebetween real life and real life,
because the reals that you see—Is that you see is that your
second book?
I like that yeah, you like that.
Okay, good, all right yeah, butbut that's, that's the truth
yeah that's the truth.
You know, we're almost forcedinto this um fakeness you know
(16:43):
there's nothing.
Everything's artificial.
And now I mean we've with ai.
I mean more so we.
You mean, I look at peopleposting something super eloquent
and I know them and I go,that's okay, Artificial yeah.
I think that was you, but okay.
But like we're getting to thepoint where nothing's real
anymore, and I think that putspressure on people to go, I'm
(17:06):
not good enough.
So that's part of what we'rehoping this day will do, and
we're capping it off with a.
I'm trying to use one of my oldmodels.
It's a day I'll tell you aboutJamie Winship because he's
coming, which is so cool, butwe're capping it off with a
church service at night.
(17:27):
So it's going to run fromapproximately 9 o'clock to 5.30,
go have dinner and at nightwe're having a church service.
Daryl Black is going to bringthe word, we're going to have a
worship band and what I'm hopingI told Eris this that I'm
actually hoping that at least25% of the people hopefully more
(17:49):
are not believers.
Outro (17:51):
Right.
Stuart Macmillan (17:51):
They're going to come and hear about business
and how do I navigate mypersonal life.
And then I want them to be ableto say after everything you've
heard I mean the call to action,after everything you've heard,
let's go worship together.
And you know what I want to seelives changed.
I want to see a security guardwaving a book saying, hey, I
made a decision.
Justin Price (18:11):
That's a big deal.
There's churches all acrossAmerica, 300,000 churches.
The average church is notseeing 200 salvations.
That story you told.
That's not a small number.
That's a pretty significantimpact.
There's pastors who are workingfor 365 days to see half that
much salvation work and you'recalling like the thing that
(18:33):
you're talking about is thatyou've accomplished and then to
see what can come out of theLighthouse Collective and these
events that you're talking aboutcould be really encouraging.
Stuart Macmillan (18:42):
Yeah, we're hoping.
You know, we're going into thisevent and we want to tweak it,
and it's our first.
And when I shared this withJohn Maxwell, you know, I said
like we want to tweak it andit's our first.
And uh, when I shared this withjohn maxwell, he, you know, I
said like we want to try thisand he goes no, no, you're like
no, you're not trying anything.
You know, you're gonna do it,you're gonna do it and then
you're gonna fine tune it, butyou're not trying anything, you
(19:03):
know.
And, um, he's just a great guyto keep me.
Keep me going but, so that's,that's the thing, you know, like
we want.
We want to see what's going towork and what's not going to
work, and maybe we'll do two ayear, maybe three, I don't know.
But it's really about how do webring business leaders together
and almost give them permissionto be bold about their faith.
Justin Price (19:24):
That's really cool .
I've never heard of anybodyelse doing anything like that?
Heredes (19:27):
Well, tell us where the name came from.
Stuart Macmillan (19:31):
It's an obvious connection to the
mission, as I'm hearing it.
So yeah, so I spent all mysummers from the time I was born
in Maine.
Every summer my mom and dadwould take us for two or three
weeks to Maine and they saved upto rent a place in this little
community.
A lot of people from the churchthat I grew up in would go
there, and a couple of ourbetter friends.
(19:54):
Over time I ended up buying aplace just kind of off the beach
and Deb and I were marriedthere.
My daughter, bethany and herhusband were married there.
It's just become a real cool.
Our dogs are buried there.
We have a little pet cemetery,but they were cremated.
It's not weird.
(20:15):
Well, we have to be carefulbecause it's on the water, so we
don't want things floating.
But I've always been.
I see God through lighthousesand there was a transition
because for a time it was thelighthouse to me, and that was a
transition because for a timeit was the lighthouse to me and
that was the little bay whereour cottage is.
(20:35):
I've been going to my entirelife and one of the things when
I made big decisions, when Idecided to ask Deb to marry me,
for example, I made thatdecision.
At that beach and sitting inwhat's called Casco Bay, there
are three lighthouses there'sone there, there's one there and
there's one there, and itdidn't matter whether I was 12
(20:58):
or five or 55, the consistencyof the lighthouse was something.
I would go down and I'd hear theocean, the consistency of the
waves and those lights that havebeen there my entire life, and
so there was this warmth that Igot about lighthouses and then,
particularly in the last five to10 years, I've been thinking
(21:19):
about how we have to belighthouses and so all the
metaphors.
For most of my speeches over thelast 10 years, the metaphor of
the lighthouse has come backbecause it's constant and
consistent and it doesn't justturn on when there's a storm,
it's on all the time.
And I talk about how we need tobe lights because we don't know
(21:40):
who's in a storm.
Right, we don't know who thatwe're talking to.
So our light's got to be on allthe time like a lighthouse.
And so for the last I guessprobably six or seven years I
end every talk with keep shining, be a light.
And so that has become part,and so our home in Maine is just
filled with lighthouses.
(22:01):
So there's lighthouse, salt andpepper shakers and lighthouse
and the little handles on thedoors are lighthouses and we
bring our grandchildren up thereand we make them count when we
want them to do somethingbecause we're busy.
Count the lighthouses.
Justin Price (22:14):
How many?
What's the biggest highestnumber Right now?
Stuart Macmillan (22:16):
there's 39 lighthouses in our house.
Outro (22:18):
That's awesome.
Stuart Macmillan (22:19):
Yeah, so in the little beach house, and we
keep adding them, you know so.
So that's how we got thelighthouse collective.
We like the word collectivebecause we want to.
We want to gather people.
I have in my head right now andI want to talk to you guys
about it at some point is likemaybe we have a group called the
lighthouse keepers, Cause alighthouse keeper, a lighthouse
(22:41):
keeper, is a really importantjob, right?
They're the ones who keep thelight going.
So I don't actually know whereit's going to go, but I'm kind
of excited about it.
Heredes (22:49):
That's really cool.
How did you curate the speakersand bring those together?
You know we know some of themexcited to hear.
Tell us more.
Stuart Macmillan (22:57):
Well, it's interesting.
You know we pray a lot about it.
It's funny enough.
I'll share this.
Last week it's at Grace FamilyChurch in Clearwater, and last
week, and now we're gonna dothis every Monday.
Deb and I we're reading theCircle Maker and so we decided
to walk around Grace FamilyChurch in Clearwater seven times
(23:20):
.
I love it, and so we're gonnado that every Monday for the
next little while.
And as we're doing that, we'rejust praying over these people,
and they just came to us in away like okay, that person would
be amazing and I don't knowwhere it came from, but they'd
be really good.
I've seen this indicators ofthis in their life or whatever.
And so these are the folks thatare kind of the lighthouse
(23:44):
collective live number, you knownumber one inaugural event.
Justin Price (23:48):
I love it.
I really liked that yourapproach was not the way we
would typically approach it,because I think the temptation
is to go who's going to bringthe biggest crowd?
Who's going to be what's thebiggest name?
What's the who?
Who has the most clout?
Yeah, who's going to be what'sthe biggest name?
What's the who has the mostclout.
So that way we seem like thisis a bigger deal.
Anytime you're starting, you'realways looking for like brand
(24:09):
association, right.
So what brands can I grab onto?
And I love that.
Your heart was not that, not tosay that that wasn't considered
, but what you just said waslike I mean, I'm praying over
who God wants to speak and whatthey can share, not what their
brand value is Like.
God doesn't need our brandvalue to build anything.
Stuart Macmillan (24:27):
Yeah, yeah, and it's scary sometimes because
if you know the story of thecircle maker, you know Honi, I
guess you know, stood in thecircle until it rained.
And you know, we're kind ofgoing out there with this going.
I don't even know if anybody'sgoing to come.
You know, like we're just we'reputting it out there, and so
Deb and I, you know, on that, onour circle walk, you know we're
(24:47):
really praying over, prayingover the speakers that they
would have something valuable tosay, but also praying for that
God would bring people intothese seats that really need to
hear what those people have tosay, that really need to hear
what those people have to say.
And then we have like a coupleof keynotes that you know Daryl,
who is one of the teachingpastors at Grace, just powerful
(25:08):
message.
And we thought, okay, and Italked to him about the event
and he was just like 100% in,like yeah, I could see myself
doing that.
And then Jamie Winship was soweird because this book drove us
starting this whole thing inthe first place.
There's a speaker couple calledthe Roths, derek and Rachel
(25:30):
Roth.
Well, they actually know JamieWinship.
So they connected Deb and me toJamie and we got on the phone
with them and I said you know,like we're not making any money
off this thing, so I don't knowif you'd want to come, or you
know, I was sort of throwing itout there, you know, after Deb
and I had prayed and he goes.
You know what's bizarre is,this is the only opening in my
(25:54):
calendar for the next four orfive months, like that weekend.
So he said I'll get back to youand sure enough he's going to
come.
So yeah, it's pretty cool.
I don't know if you guys haveread any or listened to any of
his podcasts, but on our wayhome, driving home from Maine,
we listened to Jamie Winship forlike hours and Todd and Deb
Duncan as well.
(26:16):
Yeah.
So Todd Duncan is a great guythat I've been working with for
a little while.
He was affiliated with Maxwell,john Maxwell, and he is really
well known in the mortgagebrokerage space and so his two
books that I always recommendHigh Trust Selling, in my
opinion, the best sales bookthat I've ever read.
It talks about the integrityHigh Trust Selling, yeah, and
(26:42):
Time Traps that's his otherreally good book.
So just, you know how do you?
How to prioritize your time andpragmatic exercises.
The thing about Todd that's socool is he's super pragmatic.
I didn't even know he was abeliever, but I should have
figured it out based on what Ijust said to you earlier,
because a lot of the truths inhis book I Trust Selling are
about integrity.
But we started using him as aspeaker and a trainer at Monat
(27:08):
and I got to know him better,got to know him and his wife
better and you know, strongbeliever but incredibly
successful author and businessperson, and so he agreed to just
come.
I mean his fee, typically tospeak, is in the tens of
thousands of dollars and I justsaid, like we're doing this.
(27:31):
He goes, deb, and I will bethere.
Heredes (27:33):
That's amazing.
Stuart Macmillan (27:34):
Yeah.
Heredes (27:34):
Obviously you have Clearwater and the beaches in
Florida.
Outro (27:37):
Yeah, attractive so for our listeners out of state.
Heredes (27:40):
Maybe you're freezing up north somewhere.
What a great time to come toFlorida.
Stuart Macmillan (27:44):
What a great time.
Justin Price (27:45):
Tell us yeah exactly the depression.
Stuart Macmillan (27:47):
Shake it off in the lighthouse.
Well, did you guys grow up inthe north at all?
Justin Price (27:53):
I'm a fifth generation native.
Floridian, but I left and wentto Ohio.
I couldn't do it.
I had to get out by February,like every year.
Stuart Macmillan (28:01):
Well, I brought Deb up to Montreal to
live for a little while and whenit snowed the first week of
June she said see ya, Bye-bye,I'll see you in Florida.
Justin Price (28:15):
I'll be there.
Stuart Macmillan (28:16):
I'll be in Florida, you know, I'll meet you
in Maine.
Justin Price (28:18):
June's not a good time for snow.
Stuart Macmillan (28:20):
No, no, but this time of year in Canada and
northern United States is whenall the snow melts and, like all
the salt and dirt that they usefor the roads is just sitting
there and all the dog stuff thatwas buried under the snow, it's
a good time to come to Florida.
Justin Price (28:39):
I love it.
Stuart Macmillan (28:39):
It's a great time to come to Florida.
Heredes (28:41):
How can somebody find out more?
We'll link everything on thepodcast here.
How can they?
Stuart Macmillan (28:45):
be a part.
Best thing to do is to go tothelighthousecollectiveglobal
and everything's there.
If it's today, the room blockis still open.
Today there's two of them, andso they're open.
Get a ticket.
We are going to have anabsolutely amazing time and I'm
so excited about it.
(29:06):
Actually.
Heredes (29:06):
I love it.
I love it.
Now, be sure to check out allthe links below and we're making
sure that this is airing withtime for you to still attend,
for you to still be a part andcome visit, come say hi to our
team, our gang there and allaround Florida, when we'll host
you around Clearwater Beaches.
Right, justin?
Justin's a tour guide, numbereight level on Google maybe.
Stuart Macmillan (29:30):
Well, the Clearwater campus is pretty
close to the beach actually.
Heredes (29:33):
It is.
Stuart Macmillan (29:34):
It's nice and west right.
Yeah, great sunsets here too,like you're not going to see
them.
Correct, nowhere on the EastCoast are you going to see
sunsets like this, oh no.
Heredes (29:43):
Well, Stuart, anything else I mean just the nuggets
you've dropped today is such agreat indicator of how awesome
the event's going to be, so Ican't wait.
I'm excited.
Anything else you'd like toshare with our listeners before
we wrap up today?
Stuart Macmillan (29:56):
Not really other than you know, just be
with the audience.
That you've described to me isjust you know, let's be bold.
You know, 356 times in theBible it says fear not.
And so I've learned, you knowwhat God has incredibly blessed
the money business when I wasbold, and so you know what.
(30:18):
It's not easy always, but Godwill bless it, he will honor it.
So I just say fear not, be bold, be strong, be courageous.
It's not easy always, but Godwill bless it he will honor it.
So I just say fear not, be bold,be strong, be courageous and
let's do it together.
Heredes (30:32):
Keep shining.
That's a great word.
Keep shining, be the light, bethe light.
Well, thank you so much.
That's it for us on thisepisode and we'll see you next
time on the NonprofitRenaissance.
Outro (30:39):
Peace.
Thanks again for listening tothe Nonprofit Renaissance.
We hope it ignites arenaissance in you and helps you
go further and grow faster.
Be sure to share, rate andsubscribe and if you'd like to
recommend or be a guest on ourshow, send us an email at
podcastatversecreativecom.
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