Welcome to The Pillars of Purpose podcast with your host, PJ Crescenzo. This is The show where every week we have real conversations about what it looks like to improve our faith, our family, our fitness, our finances, and ultimately have a life of fun. If you're looking to build on pillars that last and you're looking to have a life of purpose, this is The show for you. Thanks for tuning in and look forward to today's episode. Welcome to The Pillars of Purpose podcast. Today, I have an incredible leader, mentor, educator, Ken Joslin, who is The founder and owner of GrowStackDrive, and also one of The best voices on The Five Pillars, which this entire show is based on. So Ken, welcome to The show, broTher. Man, it's good to be with you, my friend. Yeah. Grateful to have you. All right. So question for myself and for The audience, who is Ken Joslin Ken Joslin in 2006 was a mortgage broker. Okay. All right, let's go. One of The top mortgage brokers in The state of Georgia. We happened to finish 1st with SunTrust and Countrywide. Wholesale for about 3 or 4 years in a row in 2006 was one of those years where we were in 2 offices, 14 LOs. I had The number 1 LO in The state of Georgia. She closed about 22 deals a month. Wow. Yeah, so just doing mortgages. I'd spent about six years in full-time vocational ministry. A few years before that, I grew one of The largest youth ministries in The country. Went from There. I actually was traveling. Went from that to speaking on The road with a good friend of mine who played in The NBA for a while, and we were doing motivational high school assemblies. I spoke to about 320,000 students in a year. Wow. Yeah, but we were gone. We'd fly out on Saturday afternoon. We'd speak at churches on Sunday, high school assemblies Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. We'd do a big rally on Wednesday nights, and we'd have thousands of kids. We had some big rallies. We had 5,000 to ministry first, Then into obviously it's motivational because you can't mention Jesus in schools, but you could at The event that we did. Wow. Cars, PlayStation 2s, The sponsors that we had when we would come into towns were insane. That's incredible. I did my event before I went. on The road and partnered with him. We actually did one here in NorTheast Georgia at Banks County High School, which is like a very NorTheast, like small, we had over 5,000 kids How important was starting in ministry for The foundation that that laid Um, you know, I didn't, I really never understood vision until it, until it came to ministry. And once I got The, once I got The understanding of vision, Proverbs 29 says where There's no vision, people perish. I always flip that verse around. I go, but where There is vision, people can flourish. Wow. That's good. All right. You know, it's, it's, it's all about, it's just, it's what am I focused in going after? And if you have something All right, so you've done a lot of big things. So you had to have some form of vision, but when in your life did you feel like The vision became a Yeah, I, um, you know, for a long time, it was just, it was like this overflow when I gave my life to Christ in August of 93, six, seven, eight months later, They said, Hey, we'd love for you. I was 25. We'd love for you to lead this high school Sunday school group. you know, The church in NorTheast Georgia in Gainesville. And I said, sure. So I took it over. There was, I don't know, half a dozen kids. I'd grew it to about 40, 45 kids, like in Baptist Sunday school format. I grew The, it just grew like crazy. Then we planted a church and They said, Hey, you're our youth pastor. And I'm like, okay, I mean, I didn't really know. I knew I was called to do ministry. I knew I was called to pastor. I didn't know what it was going to be. And I had The worst youth ministry in America. And I'm going to tell you, it was The worst youth ministry in America. Like when a kid joined, we'd paint Their feet and put it on The wall. And we had Amy grant and DC talk posts. It was terrible. It was The worst thing ever. You know, we're doing stupid games with These kids. And it was, I went to an event, um, in Atlanta in 97 ish, October of 97, I believe is when it was. And it's called acquire The fire. Um, and Ron Luce, who was The one who started that, They traveled around The country and They did These large events, 12 to 20,000 students at a pop. And Then we did about 15 to 20 of These around The country. And so I take, I think we took 17 kids. I had about 10-12 of my own students that were in my youth ministry and some of Their friends. We went Friday, Saturday, and we did this Acquire The Fire event in Atlanta. Well, I walk into this leadership workshop with Ron Luce, who later became one of my mentors. Dear friend, literally, I just got married Saturday, and Ron's commenting on my post. Dude, congratulations, man. It's good to see you. And Ron was doing things at The time. He's probably The largest organization in The world when it came to touching teenagers' lives. And so I went to his leadership workshop and Ron taught on three things that day, mission statement, core values, and BHAGs, Big Hairy Audacious Goals, which is a term They use, you know, in Harvard Business School. Like I'd never heard. You heard it in a, in a spiritual ministry centered environment, Never heard. Well, that, and that was what, that was, that was Ron's place in my life was he taught me kind of The administrative side business side, if you will, of ministry through a spiritual context. And so literally, mission statement, core values, BHAGs. It's a two-hour workshop, and There's probably 600, 700 youth pastors, senior pastors, and leaders in that room. And I'm sitting There, and dude, when he gets on mission statement, within 45 seconds, I wrote These words down. Worship, change, teach The authority and truths of God's word with a resulting vision that creates an army of young people to make a worldwide difference for The kingdom of God. That was 27 years ago and I can quote it today just like that. Why? Because when we talk about being still, stillness before strategy, The whole Create Conference this year is about clarity. I had to get still before God and go, God, what is my mission statement? What are we doing? And literally, in 45 seconds, God dropped that mission statement in my heart, and I just began to write. There is something, dude, supernat, when you take a pen to paper, and you start writing things down, which is why I do my goals, gratitude, affirmations, top three in The morning, wins 1% better goals, scoreboard in The second half of The day, when you do that on a consistent basis, I'm telling you, There is, I really believe it, like, you're going, Hey God, I'm believing what you put in my heart. As a matter of fact, I'm writing it down so I can stay focused every day, and I'm trusting you with this. Habakkuk 2.2 says, write The vision down and make it plain. So when he came to The beehives, I had one of These big at-a-glance calendars, you know, that had like half The month on one side and half, They had The big, you know, two or three inch square days. I went to The back of this at-a-glance calendar, and I wrote three years of vision down. I mean, now I've got 15 kids, dude, like 16 kids coming every week. The worst youth ministry in America, and I'm sitting here writing all this vision down for three years. Everything I wrote down for The next three years except for one thing came to pass. I literally, I'll never forget, I walked back into The arena. I didn't know what a fog machine was or why These lights were changing colors and moving. I had no idea about anything. And I'm sitting with a young kid named Adam. He was in college. He was my worship leader for my 15 kids I had. I have so many questions. I'm sitting here and I'm like, dude, why is that light moving? Why is There haze and smoke in The room? I had no idea. And Adam's like, Oh, this is cool. This is a Martin eight, 12 intelligent light. And that's a hazer. It changed my life. It literally changed my life. We, I said, Adam, what does this cost? And he wrote everything down in a notebook paper, and it was $10,000. And I'm looking at it going, dude, I'm a part-time youth pastor on a brand new church. When I talk about being still, God said, God told me, he goes, you're going to raise this money. He goes, I want you to raise half of this 10,000 in your students from your kids. I'm like, God, I got 15 kids. They're broke. I'm broke. Like I'm a part-time youth pastor. God says, I want you to raise half of this. And he goes, I'm going to bring The oTher half in. And so I'm looking at it going, okay, God, I'm believing you. I've got all this vision written down. Dude, I came home from that event. I called my pastor on The phone. I'm like, pastor, you're never going to believe The vision God gave me for this youth ministry. He's like, well, tell me about it. So I'm telling him and I was like, here's what we're going to do. We were in a building that was rented. It was a rented church, old school. We were in The fellowship hall behind The building. Fellowship hall, kitchen, little bitty, I don't know, 20 by 25 room maybe with two side rooms that were like small 10 by 10, 10 by 12 Sunday school rooms. Well, I get back and I go, I need this much money. Here's what we're going to do. He goes, I don't have any money. And I said, no, you don't understand The vision God gave me this weekend. Like I've got this massive vision. We're going to change The world. That's great, but I don't have any money. I literally called my girl's mom. I called my wife and I said, Hey, I said, can I take some money out of our savings account? And here's what I'm going to do. The building was rented. So I had to call The owners and go, Hey, is it okay if I knock These two walls out? and make this one big space. And David Clark at Free Chapel, it was Jensen Franklin's, Their very first building, Jensen, They were ever in. Wow. 20 some odd years ago. And I said, David, can I do this? He goes, sure. So we knocked The walls out. We got, dude, we got, we put par cans up in The ceiling. We didn't even have enough money to buy a light board. One of my guys that played keys was an electrician. He literally went, we turned a closet into a sound booth. He literally went, we had this whole row of lights and They were The dimmer, The switchers. We had a two by four that was cut and that's how we dimmed our lights and turned our lights off and on. We had a hazer. We painted The room. Kids came in that night. Dude, I can't believe I'm getting this emotional telling this story. No, this is beautiful, broTher. Students came in that night and They're like, because God told me that weekend, he said, I want you to create a culture and an atmosphere in your youth ministry where it's cool and it's okay for kids to come in and want to know who I am. And it's Jesus. And I'll never forget, dude, we came in that night, we had worship. I preached and I preached a message of vision. Here's what God told me this weekend. Here's what we're going to do. Here's how we're going to grow. And I said in six months on April The first was a Sunday, April The first of that Sunday, we're going to take up an offering and we're going to raise $5,000 inside this room. And we just started, dude, I came back, we started preaching, our worship got better and better and better with our whole band. Dude, I literally saw God move. We went from 17 kids to 150 just like that. We literally could not, some Wednesday nights, we couldn't, we didn't have enough room for These teenagers to fit in this room. They literally would stand outside The door trying to get in to see what God was doing. It was absolutely The most unbelievable thing I've ever seen. And so our church is growing. My youth ministry, I mean, we're 150, 200 kids in a 25 by 25 room. I'm seeing kids get saved. I'm seeing kids get healed. It was The most unbelievable thing ever. We were moving into, we had bought an old Ingalls shopping center and it went around The corner and They were going to give me 2,500 square feet for my youth facility. And I said, I'm going to raise my own money. I need more space. And I never forget my pastor goes, okay, we're going to get, we're going to trust you. We're going to give you 70 to 7,200 square feet is what They gave me. I built out a 350 seat auditorium for students and a, and a, in a 50s diner. It was all like 1950s. We had PlayStation 2s, food tables, basketball courts. Dude, this was before, There was only one oTher, Blaine Bartell at 180 in Tulsa was The only oTher person in The country that had what we had. I went out in The community, I raised almost $80,000 in our community to build this whole space out. And The people that got sent to work on my team, a majority of those guys were home builders, commercial construction guys. We did The entire project by ourselves and we built out. one of The largest youth ministries, I hear two things. I hear The opportunity of obedience, The power of obedience. I want to go a little bit deeper on that. And Then I also am hearing The power of vision and when The word is clear and it creates conviction, how powerful that fuel source can be. So I want to, go a little bit deeper on two things. Because I think in The kingdom-driven entrepreneur realm, sometimes I get a vision, is this from The Lord, is this from The Holy Spirit, is this just something I'm trying to cast out of my own flesh? How does somebody discern wheTher The vision and The word is from The Lord or wheTher it's something that I'm trying to create out of my own flesh? That's one. I'll start I had a conversation with one of our board members at that church I was at. His name is Andrew Lewis. He was a great mentor of mine, Georgia Tech graduate, faTher was CEO of one of The largest aircraft manufacturers in The world. He had a beautiful four or $5 million home on Lake Lanier, The most unbelievable home on The entire lake in NorTheast Georgia. Beautiful. And I never forget, Andrew took me to lunch one day. We got in The car, we were coming back. He pulled in front of my building and he's about to let me out. And he said, Ken, never forget vision comes cheap to a visionary. Your responsibility is to find out which vision is God's and go after that vision. Wow. And I was a dude that was 27 years ago, 20, 26 years ago. I had that conversation with All right, so get practical for me, right? So your responsibility is to find out which vision is God. Is that quiet time? Is that worship? Is It's creative. You know, at Create, we do, in between our core five areas you talked about earlier, we do what I call 4610 moments. So I have my buddy Jake Hamilton, who led worship at Jesus Culture Forever. Jake comes in to lead worship, and at The end of each of those core five areas, I'll tell Them at The very beginning, so last year we had, we opened up with our faith component. A couple songs of worship, about 10-15 minutes, and Then we roll into our faith component. As soon as worship's over, I give what I call The State of The Union, which is, hey guys, man, thank you for being here. Create, here's what The next two days are going to look like. I just want to prepare you guys for what's going to happen. So at The end of each of These core five areas, today, my good friend John Maxwell is going to come up. He's going to open our conference up. John's opened four of The five that we've had so far. John's going to open this up. I'm going to come in and wrap up The faith component. And Then at The very end, I'm going to ask you to do three things. And I said, The first thing is going to be super counterintuitive to you as an entrepreneur. And Then my team will put Psalms 4610 up on The board. Be still and know that I am God. And guys, The first thing I'm going to ask you to do is be still. I'm going to ask you to turn your cell phones off. I'm going to ask you to disconnect from everybody in this room and on this planet. The only thing I want you to do is get still before God. And Then The second thing is, I want you to listen. God, what do you have for me in this area of my life this year? I want you to listen. And Then The third thing I want you to do is what? Is write The vision down. It's The same thing I did at that point 20 some odd years ago. I just got still. I heard God's voice and I took The vision down. And I said, Habakkuk 2.2, They'll put it up on The big LED panel wall behind me. Habakkuk 2.2, write The vision down and make it plain that The herald who reads it can run with it. And I literally will ask Them to do those three things. And at The end of faith, health, relationship, business, and finances, I bring The best people in The world in to spend those five areas. When I get to The end and we get to worship, Jake will lead worship. And you'll see about three or four minutes in, you'll see people start setting down from worship. They'll pick Their pen up and They'll start writing down. And really my heart is, is to put people in an environment to where They can be still and God's moving, The Holy Spirit's moving and God is freely speaking to people who will listen. And literally when we get done, people have a roadmap and They spent time in The presence of God for 2026. And when They leave, They go, this is what I'm going after. Because dude, when you understand that stillness precedes strategy, when you really embrace that stillness precedes strategy, when God speaks a vision into your heart, P.J., dude, you don't let it go. There is nothing in The world that will take that vision out of your heart. Absolutely nothing. I don't care how bad it is. I don't care how hard it is. I don't care what obstacles you face. I don't care what landmines, potholes come on The road as you're traveling on this way to this vision that God's put in your heart. There is absolutely nothing that will cause you to quit that vision when you know that you know that you know Guys, you got to, we got to listen to that again. If you miss that hit pause, hit rewind and capture stillness proceed strategy. It's something that I've said in The past when you spend too much time trying to solve, it's time to surrender. And that's absolutely beautiful. So you answered The question, but I want to ask it again to make it clear. If I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a leader in The marketplace, I'm mapping out my calendar for 2026 and say, I got too much going on in January. I got a busy February. I'm not sure if I can make it. Why should it be a priority? to attend Create in 2026 and make Because it gives you The opportunity to be in a room with a thousand of The top faith-based entrepreneurs who are believing God at levels. Like literally, dude, when we had our last, my corner is my highest level of guys. I have 10 guys in it. It's 5k a month. We're sitting, There's, I have everybody, There's two of Them didn't make it. So I think we had 12 total. We're in a friend of mine's house in Lake Norman, right north of Charlotte, beautiful$3, $4, $5 million home on The lake. We're sitting There and one of The guys in my corner goes, guys, this year was one of The toughest years that I've had struggling with anxiety. I have $20 million sitting in an investment account and I'm still struggling with anxiety. And we're just all These group of entrepreneurs and CEOs and business owners. We're in this room and These guys are all looking at each oTher like, holy cow. Like you got $20 million just sitting, that's just part of your network and it's sitting in an investment account, yet you still struggle with anxiety. It just, it proves, I don't care how much you have in your bank. It's not, it's never enough. There's never an enough moment where you- Even King Solomon and Like in what it did. And I mean, all The guys in that room, Their businesses are well over a million a year, some 10, some 20. This one was like $81, $90 million a year. And They're sitting There listening to this going, because what it does is it goes, okay, I'm not crazy. I'm not nuts. But when somebody says, my goal this year is to cross my net worth to be over a hundred million, my And They're believing in The kingdom. So it's that combination of being willing to chase beehives in The marketplace, but also know who The purpose for chasing beehives in The marketplace is to Fund The Kingdom. First conversation I ever had with Grant Cardone, October of 2019, in a private hallway where I went to have a conversation with The guy that was leading up Grant's licensee program. And Grant bebops down The hallway, and There's three of us There. And I've been There for a day and a half. And Grant makes eye contact with me. Dude, literally, he is beelined on me from 15, 20 feet away, bodyguard on each side. He walked straight up to me, and he points his finger right in my face. And he goes, why are you here? And I said, Uncle G, I said, I'm here to blow The lid off my mindset of what's a lot of money. Because in turn, I want to help pastors equip Their business leaders so They can grow Their businesses, so They can in turn fund The vision of Their pastor. Because I planted two churches, and it's The hardest thing I've ever done. I've grown a seven figure business. This one was seven figures in three years. My mortgage company was eight figures in about three, three and a half years. I've grown two very successful businesses. I know how to do that. But planting churches is The hardest thing I've ever done. And The majority of it is because of All right, so help bridge The gap here, because I think this is one of The biggest conversations in The faith-based community, which is how much should I be prioritizing what I'm accomplishing in The marketplace? I've had two conversations with two different loan officers. They both love The Lord. One is, hey, I've been a missionary and I don't need much to get by, so I don't need to close a whole lot. And The oTher one says, I'm on fire for The kingdom and I feel like it's my personal responsibility to fund every mission possible. So just speak into what should my mindset be based on biblical principles. If I'm in The marketplace and I'm an entrepreneur, how should I be approaching my work for The kingdom and The glory of Jesus? It goes right back to what Get still, ask God, God, what do you want me to do? And Then just obey. I tell our ecosystem inside of our GSD ecosystem, we do calls every week. I tell Them all The time, you're on some of These calls. I'm like, guys, it's your job to be obedient. It's God's job to build your business. It's not your job to build your business. It's your job to be obedient, and it's God's job to send The people to you to build your business. And when you have that understanding, you're like, okay, that's why we say our mandate at GSD is to help a million faith-based entrepreneurs in The next five years become The best version of Themselves in Their core five areas, faith, health, relationship, business, and finances. If I can help you, especially in those first three, because that really is, When you get faith, health, and relationships in alignment, it gives God a foundation to help you build a great business on. And Then accumulate wealth so you can do what? Establish The kingdom and give to The kingdom. There's a purpose. And listen, I've got, I don't have it on. I've got two nice watches in my room. I've got a new Range Rover. I mean, I've got a beautiful home. I have, I'm not, I'm not against nice things. I've got, I love nice things, but it's just not about it. You get to a point in your life where it's not about anoTher watch or it's not about anoTher car or something. I took my Valar in today and I'm like, Hey man, if you want to limit all this, I'll get one of those sports. That's 130 K. And I'm like, I, but I can't do it because I know that's not what God, I know that's, There's nothing But that's also The value of The obedience is because I think obedient has a great relationship with alignment, which is I felt in certain seasons when I'm not being obedient, even though it's related to kingdom Theology, it's not The timing and The season for where God wanted me to be, which is why I felt like I was striving and trying to So, you know, The thing is, especially as entrepreneurs, especially as entrepreneurs, dude, all we know is gas pedal to The floor, miles an hour. And sometimes God goes, not yet. As a matter of fact, I was just on The phone with Brian Covey. And Brian said, what did he say? What was The word he used? Oh, I was like, bro, you need to write a book on that. Oh, in The middle, in The middle. I know what God spoke to me, but when you're in The middle of In The middle of that is where most people, you want to know why people quit PJ is because The vision that They have, They're not sure wheTher or not it's what God downloaded on The internet. because They haven't spent The time with God that Look at The life of David. When he knew he had a word from God, There Look at Joseph. He went through his broThers and said, hey, FYI, which is stupid. FYI, one of These days you're going to bow down to me. They're like, no, we're going to throw your ass into slavery. Like, we're going to sell you. Like They said, we can't kill him, but let's just put him in The safe. 35 years later, he's walking And even when you said in The middle, not yet, that's even Jesus' first miracle, not yet. That time hasn't come. That's so beautiful. What did his mom say? Boy, I need you to do this So bro, this is incredible. You got me fired up. Well, I'm glad that I'm going to create and I'm glad that I invited my whole team because now I can't wait to get still and hear The vision from The Lord. Let's go deeper on The core five. So just as a quick context, right, this is The pillars of purpose podcast. So I went from $120,000 in debt, arrested three times in three months, my life completely falling apart, radically transformed by The life of Christ. I met my beautiful wife, two kids, built a seven figure business, did all of These things with identifying five pillars that I could actually start pouring into, because I like to go a hundred miles an hour and you are The best example I've seen yet of somebody that's speaking into those five pillars at a high level in The marketplace. So just touch real quickly for anybody that's listening to The pillars of purpose podcast. What are those five pillars? And Then I want to go a little bit deeper on what it looks like to start to win in These five pillars. Yeah. Faith is The, is The first one, obviously. I call it The foundation frequency. Like it is The, it's The first thing you have to have. It's, it's The beginning of everything. And some people are like, well, Ken, I'm not a, I'm not a Christ follower. That's okay. Like, and I tell people this, I do, I have Muslim friends that come to create like some of The, my go, my go high level guys are all Muslim guys from England. I bring Them in. I have my team do halal meals for Them. We don't have The same faith, but I want Them to come in and experience. And I'll never forget Atif. We got done last year and Atif called me next week. He goes, dude, this is actually, it was while we were still creating. He goes, dude, this is very similar. And so I'm able to share Christ with him. Absolutely. There's one name, The one name. given to men under heaven by which we must be saved." Just one, not five, not three, one. And it's The name of Jesus. And I'm able to share that. People are like, well, Ken, I'm not sure. That's okay. Wherever you're at, you're watching this podcast, listening to this podcast, wherever you're at, God's not afraid of your doubt. And it's not wrong for you to doubt. Like you wouldn't be human if you didn't doubt, God, is this really real? But here's what I've been saying to people for 25 or 30 years, is just ask God, God, if you're real, show me, show me yourself. Just do something where I'll know that it's you. And I promise you, I don't know that I've ever said that and somebody actually asked God to do that where God didn't show himself. And I think if you'll do that, Then let God be God. You said something just a minute ago, and I didn't get to answer this. And this was, if I've got somebody that is, you know, They only want to do a certain amount, or Then They want to do more, it's in that is, God, what do you have for me? What does that look like? And Then just be obedient to I want to share a story that I've never shared publicly, but The depth in which we're going is a good opportunity to share this. So October 30th, 2018, I had a court date lined up. It was a moment of peak anxiety when I was just trying to turn my life around. And two weeks previous to that, at The time I was going to East Cooper Baptist and The youngest person There was 60 years old, not The time I was 20. And it was during my rehabilitation season and I was starting to get antsy to start building female relationships again. So I remember praying to The Lord, God, I really want to go to Seacoast because that's where all The beautiful girls are at. And God said, stay at East Cooper Baptist. I will bring you a girl. I'm like, this sounds crazy, but all right. So I stay East Cooper Baptist because he said, that's where you're hearing from me right now. And that's where I want you to be. October 30th, 2018, my court date gets moved one day to October 31st, 2018. What's October 31st? All right, so I go to court in The morning. I said, well, I'm already downtown and I'm not going out for a while, so I might as well go see some of my friends while I'm down here. That night I met my wife. and was a confirmation where The first thing she said, she said, I only talk to Christians. I said, I'm a Christian. She's like, no, you're not. And I showed I showed her my phone screen, which for The first time in my life was a scripture, because I was facing so much anxiety The day before I said, Lord, everything I have, I'm giving you, I'm giving you my phone screen. and change it to scripture. And when I showed her my screen, she said, okay, I'll talk to you. MoTher of my children, Holy Spirit warrior, that absolutely changed my life. But The purpose and what I was sharing that is, that was one of The first times I heard a word from God. I'm like, you really want me to stay at East Cooper Baptist? I'm like, Lord, There's no women here. It's physically impossible. Unless They're on social security, those are my only options. And next thing you know, God brought me Ellen. So anyway, I just want to share that story with just a word that I got and The opportunity for obedience. So It starts with number one. Health is number two. You know, I've lost I just saw that before and after picture for The first time. That's incredible. Yeah. My favorite picture that I have is one from create last year where I'm on stage and on The big led panel wall is my before and after picture. When did your health journey start? When did you realize that you need to take that college baseball for years? And I went to The division, I went to The sec ACC camp to get a job. A couple of my buddies were one of my buddies already on staff. He's a former big league guy, minor league guy, big league guy. And I loved umpiring baseball. I was really, really good at it. And so I go to camp in September of 2019. I go to The camp down in Metairie, University of New Orleans. And I'm There, had a great camp. And Then Ray Gregson, who's in The SEC, he's worked a couple of college world series. He was one of my really good friends. Rusty was his partner in double-A baseball. And Ray comes to me and goes, dude, Ken, you have great instinct. Like, you know The game, like, you know, your rapport with The players, your rapport with The coaches, you handle things professionally, you're just, you're really good. But dude, you have got to lose weight. When you showed up, we were like, There's no way this guy can keep up. And it's just that you surprised us. Well, I went home, I got on The scale, I was almost 310 pounds. Wow. Dude, And what gave you The willingness to not respond with? I don't I am The way I am at that level. That's where I knew I could Listen, when you have somebody like that who's giving you constructive feedback and constructive, maybe even criticism, maybe They don't even have your best intentions at heart. You take that feedback and go, okay, what do I need to eat The fish, spit out The bones? What do I need to apply to my life? If you have a relationship, a mentor relationship with somebody like Ray, and I have a ton of those guys in my life. When you have those and They speak into your life, it's like that old commercial when EF Hutton talks, people listen. Dude, when you have a mentor in your life and They speak something, you better listen. I came home, I got on The scale. I was disgusted with myself, but I had to face The truth. Where am I? I never forget, took a picture of The scale, took a before picture, put it on my social media, I'm going to lose 66 pounds. And Then when I hit 60, it went to 86. When I hit 80, it went to 106. And now I'm in between, I fluctuate between 90 to 85 to 95 pounds down is about where That's incredible. But it also speaks to your ability to put out a message in I put it on social media. I put it on because now I don't have a choice. I Would you recommend for an entrepreneur today to be more Because number one, it's accountability. Number two, it's The word encouragement means to add courage to it. I talked to Brian today. It was, I was encouraging Brian. which literally means I am speaking life and courage into his heart. And so if you, number, I did it for accountability, but The second thing I did it for, and dude, I get one, two DMs, I'd say every oTher day from my gym workout or my, or my worship song I put on, I take a couple a day I get. And it's people going, dude, you're in my, in my incremental, not monumental concept that I created in The, in The process is dude, you just don't get you do. You're always doing your thing. One of my friends, she was being a little snarky The oTher day. She goes, can't wait for tomorrow. Get to see your worship song, your But what a great, what a great affirmation that you're on The right track and confirmation. Thank you so much for that beautiful word. Cause that means I'm doing exactly what I should be doing. She was being sarcastic, but she's a really good friend. And I was, I was like, listen, There are people out There that cause I tell people if I can do it. Dude, when I came out of that Acquire The Fire Leadership Workshop with Ron The first year, I went back and in a year, God completely transformed our youth ministry. I walked back in The next year, I was The first one in The room. And I get in The room, and it's just Ron standing up front by himself. And I just walked up, introduced myself. Ron, I know you don't know me. My name is Ken. I was in here last year, and I was in this session. Here's what you said, and I just want to tell you what God's done in The last year. And He said, do you think in 15 minutes and sharing that story at The end of this talk? So I get up in front of six, seven, 800 youth pastors, senior pastors, and youth leaders. I shared my story. I was in here last year, Mr. Statement, Core Values, BHAGs. The cool part about it was that kind of initiated our relationship with Ron being a mentor. The next year I'm There, same thing, I'm sharing. I get done sharing and There's anoTher youth pastor in The room who comes up to me. And because I tell people, listen, if I can do it, anybody can do it. You just have to I had anoTher youth pastor come up to me at The end of that session The next year and said, Ken, I was in here last year when you shared this and here's what I did. I went home and I told myself, if God, if you can use him, you can use me. And here's what happened in my youth ministry. And You say why be at Create? Yes. Because when you get in The room with people who think bigger than you do, it dude, it's like I told Grant, I want to blow The lid off my mindset. You get in a room like that, all of a sudden things become possible. I'd speak something into you and you're like, it's like with Troy Hoffman. You know, Troy gets up and speaks last year. This year I'm like, dude, we're going to have 1,000 to 1,200 people. Oh, dude, if you want to replace me on The business side. No, no, no, no, no, no, dude. I wouldn't. He's exited his last company for over a hundred million. Dude, I wouldn't have anybody else up There but you. Because when you're up There, you're so auThentic talking about how to invest, build, scale, and- And real practical examples of somebody that's not in The marketplace. You're so real, people go, So good. It's like one of my favorite Mark Madison quotes. He says, if your goals aren't big I hear that all The time. If you need an alarm clock to get out of bed, your Hmm. That's anoTher one. So guys, just to capture this, right? If you're listening to this show, you should have paused it when he said stillness precedes strategy. This is anoTher pause moment where you need to get still. If you still need an alarm clock to get out of bed, your goals are You can do that drives you out of bed every morning. Like I can't wait to get up in The morning. I'm ready to run through this Amazon desk right now that I created. five years ago. Dude, There's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of entrepreneurs that use this planner every single day. I tell Them, before you go to bed at night, you need to know what your next day looks like. My whole day timer is filled before I go to bed. I know exactly what I'm doing tomorrow. That way, my alarm clock goes off at five, or whatever time my alarm clock, I know exactly, boom, I'm ready to roll. All right, so we've gone through two pillars. Like everything's All right, I wanna ask you one question, but I gotta make sure we go back to The core five. We got faith, we got health, but you just touched on something that was really important. Before we get to relationships, you talked about The importance of planning for The next day. So one of The questions I wanna ask you, which I think is a good opportunity to do it, what do you think are The non-negotiables for an elite entrepreneur, The 1% of The 1% in 2026? What are your non-negotiables that So incremental, not monumental, is a concept I created when I started my health journey. Small, daily, disciplined decisions over time always equal monumental results. Success cannot escape you when you do The right things every single day. And December The 9th of 2019, Grant invited me. I was The only one Grant asked for. There's about 1,200 people in The mentorship program with Grant. I was The one he asked for by name. He asked for me. And There was anoTher, Sherry Ennis, who ran The thing for Grant. She picked out 11 oTher people. There was 12 of us that went in December The 12th and December The 9th of 2019. She said, Ken, Grant wants you to speak to his entire sales team that morning and to his senior leadership team. I said, great, I'd love to do that. So I go in, There's 12 of us in These horseshoe kind of table, and The second half of The day, it's Grant's whole team. Grant, Alan, Sherry, Jared, They're all teaching These 12 people that got picked out of 1,200, 1,400 in The mentorship program. And so I come in, and I'm speaking in this thing, dude, I really don't, I mean, I know what everybody in that is doing now, But nobody's done what I've done because nobody, you'll have guys that'll pop up and be like, Hey, I'm doing a new book. Hey, I'm doing a webinar. Hey, I'm doing a 21 day challenge. Hey, I'm doing this. And Then you don't see Them on social media for six months or nine months. And Then all of a sudden They're back with something else. Dude. every freaking single day. You're going to get a, I just said it. You're going to get a, you're going to get a worship song from me. You're going to get a gym post. You're going to get whatever's going on in, I mean, it is, it is dude, it is this right here. It is, it is every single day. That's beautiful. All right. So how do you discern favor and anointing verse work ethic? Like, what is The relationship between having a favor and anointing on your life versus being willing to do, be willing to Yeah. Um, faith is action. And so one of The things we're going to talk about at create this year is you can't have faith without execution. If you don't execute, you don't really have faith. And sometimes, dude, I'm telling you, sometimes I feel like I'm out over my skis. Like, dude, I have been off way more. I'm like, God, are you sure? I have been writing in my planner two times a day, all year long, 1,200 at Create. We had almost 500 last year. And here I am writing 1,200. I'm like, God, you have hit your head. I'm like, but I've been writing it down and I'm like, okay, God, this is where we're going to go. And I write my goals down twice a day. I may not do it 365 days a year, but I do it 300. So 600 times a year, I'm writing down 10-5-1, 10 in my community, five in my circle, one in my corner every month, 1,200 at Create, top 250 podcasts, we're in The top 2% now, and Then 10 speaking engagements in churches, 10 in corporate. Those are my four business goals I write down every day. Personal goals, lose 106 pounds, time with my girls, me, healed and whole, which is just my Therapy time and what I need to do for Ken to be who he needs to be, and Then my code that I live by. Every single day, twice a day, at least 300 times. And I learned this from Grant The very first bootcamp I went to in October of 2019. He said, how many of you guys write your goals down once a year? Every hand, keep your hands up. How many of you guys write Them down once a month? Three quarters of The room goes down. How many of you guys write Them once a week? There's 15 people out of five or 600 with Their hands up. How many of you guys write your goals down every day? No hand in The room raised. And Grant said, let me ask you a question. Let's just say I write mine down 300 plus times a year, twice a day. That's 600 times a year. If you're in The same business that I am, I'm going to crush you. because I know exactly where And that's The power of clarity, bro. I mean, clarity and Christ is like an unstoppable combo. All right, I'm going to finish The core five. You're live on a podcast. What do you Welcome to The show. This is Michelle, PJ. PJ, Michelle, you guys will meet each oTher at Create. So anyway, it's funny. She just took it. I said, come here. We're talking about relationships. Absolutely, bro. I love it. What can I do? It's The third, it's The third area of The core five. What can I do? What part do I have in strengThening The relationships that I have? I like to, I like to say this, we're going to, we'll talk, this will be in our Create talk this year. from my 29-year-old all The way down to my 17-year-old, all Their time from school. When I dropped Them off at school, picked Them up at school, and I dropped Them off, I'd say, what do servant leaders do? And They'd say, Daddy, servant leaders do three things. They put oTher people's needs before Their own, They do things without being asked, and They do things right The first time. Wow, that's beautiful. I'd pick Them up from school, bro, and I'd say, okay, baby, how were you a servant leader today? And They'd give me an example. We came in from recess. It's hot. I let Johnny go before me in The waterline. I took Ms. Green's trash out. And so listen to this at 20 years old, my daughter's in college in Birmingham. She's working at a brand new Chick-fil-A and she just keeps getting promoted and promoted, promoted, promoted. And now she's like The front end manager for like The cashier and The drive through and all this stuff. And she sends me a picture. And I was like, baby, people kept, The owner operator came to her, said, how do you get all These people to follow you? You're like, you're like 19 years old, 20 years old. And she goes, it's easy. My dad's taught me my whole life what servant leaders do. And They do three things. Well, he had her take a Sharpie marker. And The Chick-fil-A in Birmingham at 280 at Inverness, where They slide The nuggets and The french fries down that stainless steel is written and writing three characteristics of a servant leader. And it was one of The things that I taught Them her whole life. And so when you talk about relationship, do I lead? Do I put oTher people's needs before my own? Do I do things right The first time? And do I do things without being Bro, we barely know each oTher. I'm proud of you. I just want you to know I'm proud of you. From PJ Crescenzo and The Crescenzo family, I'm fired up. I'm inspired to do a dozen things at a higher level in my life, man. I can't wait to blow The roof off, create. All right, so we got three of The core. pillars, right? Core five. You're going to have to learn about The oTher two at create in 2026. So let me wrap on The last question for today's episode. And I legitimately could ask you a hundred questions and stay here all day. But again, I'm going to be respectful of your time. Yeah. All right. So when it's all said and done, you've hosted a hundred We've impacted millions of entrepreneurs, husbands, faThers, believers, bringing people to The kingdom when it's all said and done. What does Mr. Ken Jocelyn want Oh, man. You know, I think my gift is helping identify when I pastored, like our tagline for our church was connecting people with purpose. I think no different than a lot of mentors did with me in every area of my life. And my new book is 14 Frequencies of Proximity. And it's about The five most important relationships in your life. I think what I did was I had people who identified something in me that I didn't know was There. And all They did was call that forth in my life. They spoke to that purpose and made that purpose come alive. And I love in, um, I think it's in, it's in Luke or Mark when Elizabeth and Mary get togeTher. And in scripture says that when Elizabeth, when Mary greeted Elizabeth and Mary were first cousins, so Mary's pregnant with Jesus, Mary's, Elizabeth's pregnant with John The Baptist. So John The Baptist and Jesus were cousins. And so They're cousins. And so The scripture says that when They knocked on The door and Mary greeted her, it says that Elizabeth was filled with The Holy Spirit and The baby was left in her womb. So John's a Baptist, and this is what I liken it to. is when you get in a room with people, like we're going to do at Create in a month, it's been like six weeks. What you do when you get in a room like that and you've got people, when They greet you, when you get around people, it causes something on The inside of you to come alive that you may not have even realized. And it is that principle There, where when you get in There, all of a sudden you're like, you're not believing God for $100 million in production, you're believing Him for a half a billion dollars. You have no idea how you're going to do it. Like when God told me, I'm at Grant's place, January The 27th or 28th of 2020, speaking to all Grant's team again for The second time, and all of his licensees, which I was one of, And I'm speaking to These guys, and God says, Ken, I want you to do this. What Grant's doing, I want you to do this for faith-based entrepreneurs. And I said, okay. And people go, how did you do it? I started, I literally just, I sat in a meeting with one of my closest friends, who's The best ideator on The planet, who worked for John Maxwell for years. I met him at a coffee shop that day. I flew home from Miami. I said, dude, I need you. And we met for five hours and I just had a vision. And Nate wrote in a, in a, in a, in a, literally a journal, just like this for five hours. And people go, well, how did you build this? I started. Well, how did you do that? Well, we were going to do, this was February of 2020. We were going to do a conference in May of 2020 at 12 Stone Church and The John Maxwell Leadership Institute, The whole building They built for John. We were going to do it There. And Then COVID hit. Well, There's no conference. We were going to call The conference GrowStack Drive. That was The name of The conference. Wow. Now we've got to pivot. So now we've got to go online. So I started my own online community. And Then we just, we grew from There. Then we did this and we did this. And Then we do this. And Then I'm like, I'm now I'm going to do this conference. Well, how are you going to do it? I'll never forget. I called, I called Chad Johnson. I said, Hey Chad, I want John to come in Maxwell and speak at my first create January, 2022, very first one we ever did. And he goes, okay. Price was 85,000. I FaceTimed Nate who used to work for John. Chad was one of his interns. When Chad first went to work for John, Then now he's John's right-hand guy. And Nate goes, how much? I said, dude, Chad said, tell you, hey, he goes, how much? I said, what do you mean? He goes, how much does John want to come in? I said, 85,000. He goes, what are you going to do? I said, I've already signed The contract and sent it back to him. He goes, how are you going to pay for it? I said, I have no idea how we're going to pay for it. But we did it. My favorite, and I'll leave you guys with this because I know our time's out. My favorite Jim Rohn quote. is speed increases focus. The more you move in The direction of what you know God is calling you to do, The more clear things become. Speed, increases, focus. And people are like, how did you do it? I just started. When I became a card on licensee for 25 grand, I didn't have 25 grand. But what God did was he started sending me real estate deals. I met Grant, I wanted to become a licensee. I literally doubled my, I made $129,000 The last eight weeks of 2019. 129,000. That's what I started Gross Dad Drive with. That's what I started everything with. Increases focus. You can't have faith without All right, let's do it. Dear Heavenly FaTher, I just want to thank you so much for this opportunity of fellowship. I thank you for The opportunity to connect with a great mentor and leader and my broTher, Ken. Lord, today I just specifically pray over anybody that's listening to this message, wheTher it's on social media, wheTher it's on a podcast app, Lord, just let Them be touched. Let Them have The encouragement and The confidence to step into a room and to get uncomfortable so that They can connect with you so that They can get in your presence. Lord, we know that when you speak, it is louder than any oTher voice that we may hear, and I just pray that your voice is just written on The hearts of The entrepreneurs and The leaders that step in to create. Lord, I just specifically ask for blessing and abundance over Ken and over this business. May you continue to just shine your light through him and through his community, so ultimately that we can give you The glory. Lord, we love you, we praise you, we honor you, we thank you for this moment today, and in Hey man, and create tickets, 50% off all The way through January 1st. All right, so link below, create. We will be There. The Element Mortgage Team will be There. We're excited to connect with you, Ken. Thank you so much for your time today, broTher. Thank you so much for joining today's episode of The Pillars of Purpose podcast. If today's episode was entertaining, educational, or if it was a source of encouragement, please share this with a friend, a colleague, a family member, or anyone that would benefit from this message. Please subscribe and stay tuned for future episodes. We look forward to bringing you value every week. Hope you guys have a blessed day, blessed week, and let's go.