Certain Success™ Podcast
Welcome to The Certain Success™ Podcast, where faith, family, and business intersect to create a business (and a life) of purpose and design. Join your hosts Matt Fagioli & Joe Gaeta, both successful entrepreneurs, avid learners and disciples of Christ, as we share our stream-of-consciousness rants and interviews with fellow business owners & entrepreneurs to explore the unique challenges and opportunities of building and operating businesses while putting God first in life. Matt & Joe have dedicated much of their careers to helping entrepreneurs become more amazing humans that win big. If you're all about living intentionally and constantly growing and learning, this is the podcast for you!
Matt & Joe bring a fresh perspective to the world of business and entrepreneurship. Don't miss out on the chance to learn from experienced entrepreneurs and grow in your faith while building your business. Tune in to The Certain Success™ Podcast and discover the keys to living a life of certain success.
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Certain Success™ Podcast
Finding Your Joy (again): Biblical Practices for Entrepreneurial Success
Ever wondered how to find joy in the midst of life's chaos? What if the secret lies in something as simple as shifting your focus? Join us in this episode of the Certain Success Podcast as we uncover the true power of perception and the profound impact of prayer. I share a personal story of waking up feeling down after a presidential debate, only to be uplifted by a reminder from my friend Joe to seek joy instead of lingering on negativity. We dive into how being mindful of our thoughts can transform our reality and explore Joe’s heartwarming practice of offering prayers to strangers, illustrating how small acts of kindness can bring immense joy.
Entrepreneurs, ever feel bogged down by the relentless cycle of bad news? Discover how to channel your creativity for a greater purpose. We talk about the transformative power of prayer, the importance of focusing on spiritual practices, and how reflecting on personal and societal struggles can help us shift from distress to joy in Christ. Through an emotional recount of tears and a plea for help, we highlight the intricate layers of human emotions and the significance of positive, spiritual practices.
Feeling "stuck"? Let’s talk about shifting our focus from life's hardships to more positive, spiritual aspects. Drawing parallels to a child's reliance on a grandparent, we discuss the tree of life versus the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the concept of the kingdom of God versus the empire of the world. Inspired by Philippians 4, we underscore the importance of gratitude and focusing on the noble and admirable to achieve peace. Finally, take solace in the reassurance that God will meet all our needs, encouraging us to serve others and seek joy through acts of kindness, reinforcing the idea that everything will ultimately be okay when we prioritize spiritual fulfillment over worldly concerns.
Hey guys, welcome back to the Certain Success Podcast. This one's called Find your Joy, and I think it might be. It certainly could be a long one. This is being recorded and published, I think the morning after the presidential debate in 2024, which this is not going to be a political podcast at all but I woke up just like not feeling great about a bunch of things in my spirit, and at least a part of that was like.
Speaker 1:I stayed up late. I listened to this debate. Doesn't matter which side you're on, it's just like, uh, it's all, it's all not my joy. And so joe and I were talking and and I'm like explaining it to him and I'm like man, uh like I woke up feeling yucky, and but we were also talking about how really nothing changed from yesterday Today. Nothing really changed in the physical reality. It's just how I felt about it. And he was like, yeah, he's like, let's, let's find our joy, which we want to do every day, but sure is nice when your friend Joe reminds you, yeah, I think we get tripped up by the world.
Speaker 2:It's so easy. I mean, every single day, we are taught to put on the full armor of God, and it's, it's, throughout scripture. You know, be careful what you think about, be careful what you focus on. And you know just seeing the angst in your face this morning talking about the presidential debate between Kamala and Trump yeah, it's on either side, it doesn't matter everyone's yelling at the tv liar.
Speaker 1:That's not true it's like, it's like the, it's like the super bowl, right, if you're passionate about the team on one side of the super bowl and then you know there's a play, uh, in the end zone, and you know the call is made and, and no matter, like what has actually happened in reality, like you're going to call, you're going to see it your way.
Speaker 1:And anyway but here's the. Here's what I, what I think we wanted to get to with this is that, uh, for me there's always this challenge between yeah, yeah, we know those scriptures, yeah, be careful what you think about. You know all those things and but I don't know that we always translate them to our actual right, this minute reality, right. So I wake up in the morning, I open my eyes, I'm tired, I don't feel great, I'm like yuck, like, uh, the world is yuck, things are bad. Like that. When I'm being honest, like that was the first that you know the.
Speaker 1:If I had to embody the thought into a couple of words, or the feeling was like, oh, like, things aren't good today, and what I was saying to you before we recorded was like, thank God, I have learned to dismiss those thoughts because, like, okay, you open your eyes, that first thought hits you and now you have that decision tree that's going to unfold for the rest of the day. Like, did I get up and kick the dog and be like things are bad and then keep going? I did not like. I immediately arrested that. Thought the dog and be like things are bad and then keep going. I did not Like. I immediately arrested that thought and I was like wait a minute, lord. Like I asked the Lord, I gave it to him. I'm like and I think he gave me this new clarity this morning of like look how nothing changed from yesterday to today, really. And you just it's a decision Like am I going to go seeking my joy or am I going to embrace this Like yuck.
Speaker 2:I know I was telling you yesterday and you know how I love doing this on my walks. I I, if I pass someone walking, I have gone into this. It's a good habit, I love it. I take my earpiece out, I turn around, I look at that person. I say I'm in the middle of my prayer right now. Is there anything you need prayer for? And, matt, it's such a cool feeling when they say yes. And then I walk over to them, I put my hand on their shoulder, I said what are we praying for today? And that's finding your joy. And I shared with you yesterday that there was four people on my walk that I had that prayer with. That's finding your joy. I mean, if I can go the rest of my life. And Stacy said goodbye, honey. And I went walking for eight hours a day and that's all I did. I'd be in pure. I'd be a grin from ear to ear.
Speaker 1:I'd be just Well, I think, I think, if you did that, I think you'd be actual Jesus. Right, like that's all he did. Right, walk from place to place and get distracted by the people that wanted to talk with him. Right, right.
Speaker 2:Sometimes there's the ones that you want to pray with that aren't the ones that you want to spend the next hour with, because they'll make it difficult.
Speaker 1:You mentioned was that also yesterday. I think it was the day before. A couple days ago that you called me and you were like, hey, I asked this guy if he wanted prayer and it turned into a train wreck. But you know, that was. That was just as important. It maybe didn't feel all that great to you because you're like you know, couldn't I just give you the two minute prayer and move on, but that guy wanted it to be a longer engagement.
Speaker 2:It was really interesting how that played out. It summed up his life that the world needed to revolve around him and as tears were flowing off of his face, genuine tears, as I prayed with him and I think it was a realization of he was his own worst enemy. He made some pretty bad decisions in his life, but then it went from that to hey and get make me a sandwich. Uh, go home and do this, give me your phone number so I can call you. It went, it went.
Speaker 2:It was like yeah, this went from me praying for you to what can I do for you? It was a little odd, but I digress um well, that's actually.
Speaker 1:It's not a. It's not a digression, and I want to like my confession. There is because one of my thoughts this morning, when I was sort of unpacking this with the Lord, was like I'm like, I don't know, I want to, I don't want to explain what a and B were, but I was like rattling around in my brain Like what about this and what about that? And God was like both of those things are about you, right? Like maybe you'll feel better if there was a C that wasn't about you, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I, there was a sea that wasn't about you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I, you know, and I I know that a moment ago we're talking about the scriptures that we can point to, and as you land your feet this morning from last night's debate, your first feelings were ugh, just, you want to shake it off. But I had already gone to sleep last night and one of the last images you sent a text to me was of a sign in the yard that said Jesus 24, vote Jesus. And I woke up this morning to see that and, of course, I laughed, and I really know that's what it brings us to is our knees at times to say, okay, you know what we got, to put our focus back on Christ. He's our joy and that's how we find our joy. Because that's what you went to. I know you ended your night with sending me a funny text. You woke up this morning still feeling like your team was just, it was a I don't know, it was a cage match last night.
Speaker 1:I think you know, I think that the the world is is getting harder and harder and harder world is is getting harder and harder and harder and if and if you focus there, it's going to get harder and harder and harder and you're going to be, you know, more in trouble and there there is, there's no joy, there there just isn't. Do all, you know all those things have to happen and like we have to, you know, care and we have to, you know, have care and we have to, you know, have one eyeball on that a little bit. But if it's your focus, you know, you said when I was talking about this and you were like man, there's so much scripture about being careful, what you focus on, what you put your mind on, and of course that's true and I, like, I say I think it's the struggle is actually translating it to your life. So you wake up, you have that thought everything's yucky.
Speaker 1:I didn't like how the debate went, blah, blah, blah. And so the choice is am I going to turn to the Lord, am I going to turn to my joy? Am I going to go find somebody to serve Whatever, go find somebody to serve whatever, or am I going to turn on XYZ news and continue to just like grind on. You know the negative, and I don't know about you, joe. I know a bunch of people that that's their day is like let's get up and grind on hell again yeah.
Speaker 2:Man. I can't tell you how that's such a bad path to take every day, and because you know what we struggle with in our household. You know, during COVID, stacy was diagnosed with Parkinson's and one of the things Parkinson's is just not a fan of is stress. So one of the things we stopped during COVID was we stopped watching the morning news. It was just.
Speaker 1:It was like well, it's like anything else, it's a habit. And then you know cause I we had that happen for a long time. We're like, bam, the news is on in the background and whatever, and you know, and we don't do it at the house at all anymore. But I you know where I noticed it is. If I'm in a hotel room, sometimes I'll find, oh, I have the news on, like just in the hotel room, and and after a while I'm like, ah, like, why am I doing that to myself?
Speaker 2:Right, you know I love sleeping, stacey, and I need to sleep with white noise at night. We need that background noise and I think that there's a lot of times people have their TV on with that background noise. And that is noise. If it bleeds, it reads, it sells. That's how all of those news channels keep their doors open and selling ads, because of the audience that they turn that TV on every day and that's it. It's stuck in that same bad channel, same bad time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's right to business and entrepreneurship and you know the, as entrepreneurs, we have this freedom to decide what we're going to create with God, like we want to partner with the Lord, we want to go create something new in the world.
Speaker 1:Today, this month, this year, always, always, always, we're like what's what's new? What, what, what? Can we look out into the future and think I want that to become real and then make it a physical reality. So so, as entrepreneurs, we live in the spiritual world. We, even though we might not call it that, we live in the spiritual world where we're like I want to bring this into the physical world and then we go do it. Well, so what I want to create, I want what I create to be full of joy and love and wonderful this, and there's no way I could create from fear, sadness, that you know that Right. And so you know, for entrepreneurs, when we talk about, find your joy, like obviously it's going to make your day better, but there's this practical reality of you can't go create anything great until you find that mindset.
Speaker 2:I know I, I know you know, but I was thinking about that nice silent pause there.
Speaker 2:I was, I was.
Speaker 2:I was just thinking about my granddaughter when she was a little girl and she always say I'm stuck, really, yeah, because she's trying to figure out how to get out of something. You know, I'm stuck and I think we get stuck and, as cute as it was for her to be in those stuck positions and Papa joke, come over and rescue her from being stuck, our Papa, our father, he's there to unstick us and help us, say, okay, did you have enough of that pain? Let's shift and pivot from where you're focusing on and and focus on me, let's get back to what you really need to put your energy towards. So I I think it's uh, you know, using my granddaughter as an example is just, sometimes that's life. We get stuck in that stuff and we just need to be in the we talked about this the other day. We need to be in the right boat, with the right people that are going to help us in those moments of being stuck well, you know, and I think the the difference is, I got two metaphors rattling around in my head.
Speaker 1:One is the the tree of life versus the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And so if our focus is the tree of life, like everything wonderful and just philippians 4, you know, everything wonderful in the world is our focus like something that we're trying to create, something, some ideal that we're chasing, and like wonderfulness, like you're going to be full of that, and the opposite, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And in our current world would be like let's focus on politics and like all the bad things in the world and what like. If that's what's holding your attention, then you're living in the knowledge of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil versus a tree of life. Man, I'm so focused on that.
Speaker 1:And then the other metaphor um, um, you know we gosh how many times we reference jamie winship on this podcast, but he, um, he talks about kingdom versus empire and so all of the evil empire of the world, you know, from the romans on down to like, now, right, it's like, uh, I'm focused on the empire or I'm focused on the kingdom of god, like, and I don't know. For most of my life I had this difficulty imagining what jesus is saying. The kingdom is here, the kingdom is at hand, and I think this is at the root of what he meant. It was like it's literally just turn your eyes this way it's right there, or you can focus over here if you want.
Speaker 2:Right it is if we, if, if, uh, if we still have your attention, you're still listening to us and this you're in. You're digging this, dig this part. My buddy, matt, just brings up philippians 4 and he doesn't know what I'm looking at on my side of the screen and on on my screen, I have Philippians 4 opened up. There's so much cool stuff in Philippians. I challenge you, go grab your Bible. Go grab your Bible app. Open up to Philippians 4 and read it. So much cool learning there. And I had opened up because that's where, when, when you and I originally spoke this morning, I opened up the philippians 4, 8 read.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say well, 19 is what? Well, read a little bit just a little bit.
Speaker 2:I'll do. Um, let me, uh, let me do so I can get the whole chapter in there.
Speaker 1:I think it's eight, eight, nine or or 19. I'm blanking on which one.
Speaker 2:I'm going to start with the one that I've started with. I'm going to go six and seven and eight six, seven and eight.
Speaker 2:Okay. So six, seven is do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving. That's the tough one People don't realize. Gotta have thanksgiving in there, even in our, in our struggles, in our, in our stuckness. Present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. That's six and seven. Of Philippians, four, eight is what I had open to before you brought up Philippians and it says finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you. So I had that open and you want me to go to what verse? What?
Speaker 1:No, I think it was eight and nine is what I uh yeah, but now I want to know what night. Just tell me what 19 is, oh 19.
Speaker 2:Let's go to 19. And my God will meet all of your needs, according to the riches of his glory in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:That. So yeah, I mean this thought of like, no matter what's going on, you're like I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die. Everything's terrible. Whatever, the Lord is going to meet your needs and if you can, if you can actually believe that at a, at a soul level, it's like, well, it's all going to be okay, dude, so good. So so, guys, if you're still with us after that crazy rant, let's go find our joy today. Let's find somebody to serve, let's take our eyes off of the empire and refocus on the kingdom for one more day, amen.
Speaker 2:Amen, see you guys.
