Doug Elks' Journey from D1 Basketball to Kingdom Mind Entrepreneurship

Embark on a transformative journey with me, Lorayne Michaels, as I converse with the remarkable Doug Elks on the latest Bite Size Podcast episode. Doug, once a D1 basketball prodigy, now a health and wellness virtuoso and the brains behind Kaizo Supplements, unveils his path to self-discovery and how a spiritual reawakening has been the cornerstone of his life. From his turbulent childhood to finding respite on the court, and ultimately his entrepreneurial ventures, hear how Doug’s unwavering faith has directed his every step toward a purpose-driven existence.

In our exchange, the spotlight shines on the power of nurturing a positive community and fostering personal growth, especially during life's trials. Doug and I delve into the excitement of our upcoming men's retreat, a sanctuary for sharing and growth, and discuss the enlightening role of mentors. With inspirations like Steve Weatherford guiding our ethos, we dissect the essence of true mentorship and the profound influence of faith-driven endeavors in carving a path that's aligned with one's deepest convictions.

Wrapping up this soul-stirring session, Doug and I cast light on the intricate balance between physical wellness and spiritual fortitude. We dissect the athlete's perspective on health, touching upon the critical role of gut health and suitable supplementation. As Doug shares his expertise, we underscore the importance of connecting genuinely in both our personal and professional spheres. Stay tuned for the tales of triumph over adversity and the promise of future collaborations aimed at fostering hope and inspiration across our communities. Join us for this heartfelt episode that weaves together the threads of faith, fitness, and finding one's true calling.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, it's Lorraine. As you know, it's my joy and passion to teach and encourage others through this podcast, but my heart is actually at live events. Currently, I'm available for booking, so if you're organizing a live event, I'd love to share my story. Your audience will walk away with tangible tools on how to overcome limiting beliefs, break down obstacles and discover their gifts, talents and abilities in order to live a life that God created them to live. It's not the size of the audience that's important. It's the connection and impact that I will bring. For more information, email me at Lorraine at theboldbeginningscom. What's up guys? Welcome back to the Bite Size Podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:53

I'm your host, lorraine Michaels, and today I am so excited to finally have him on this episode. His name is Doug Elks and I met him at FounderCon back in. I don't know how long ago it was now, but it was an event put on by Tamara Andrus and Aten Raleigh and it was just an incredible faith-based event and I got to meet and connect with a bunch of people and Doug was so humble and I had no idea who he was, what he was about. He was sitting at my table. I got to meet him, talk to him a little bit and obviously started following him then and oh my gosh, am I impressed and I'm so excited to continue follow him and see what he's doing. Doug is a speaker, a former D1 athlete and the host of the AIM Podcast, as well as founder of Kaizo Supplements. I cannot wait for you all to listen in on this conversation and hopefully grab some value. I don't know how you wouldn't be able to, but welcome, doug, I'm so happy to have you.

Speaker 2: 2:11

Wow, thank you so much for the kind introduction. You were too kind with that, and I just want to say thank you for bringing me on the show. I'm so encouraged by what you're doing and your heart to serve and help people, and so I'm absolutely honored to be here today, and I can't wait to dive into things with you.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Awesome, thank you. I know a little bit about your journey, but I would love for you to briefly just touch on your journey, like how you got here. A former D1 athlete, I think, and an athlete that's pretty incredible and you are an incredible athlete and I see what you're doing and all the marathons and the things that you're training for and doing. Talk to me a little bit about your journey, like how you got here.

Speaker 2: 2:56

Yeah, it's funny because I feel like I've lived two lives. My entire upbringing, through college, was basketball and that was a big part of my identity. Honestly, most of my friends, my family, people around me knew me as a basketball player. Now, obviously, I've made a big transition. God's shifted my path and I'm doing a lot more in the health and wellness space and doing some stuff with brands and businesses and now speaking but it's funny that was my upbringing.

Speaker 2: 3:23

My upbringing was around the game of basketball. I had a rougher home life, I'd say. I grew up with a father who was addicted to drugs and alcohol, and I think God really used basketball as a place for me to have an outlet. I think that was something really powerful and special for me. I loved the game and the purity of it, so there was a lot of enjoyment in it, but I also used it to go play it when I needed it.

Speaker 2: 3:50

That was a big part of my growing up and was super fortunate to have a chance to play at the Division I level at Western Carolina, where I attended and had a chance to live out that dream of playing college basketball. Since then, a lot's happened. God has opened up a lot of really cool doors and I'm so grateful, but started AIM, the platform Ambition of Mind, where we host our podcast and have some exciting stuff we're doing this year with community and retreats, as well as building out the supplement company and starting to speak. Like I said, that's where I'm at right now and it's been a fun journey. There's been a lot of challenges in a way, but God's hands been in it and it's been really special.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Yeah, I can totally see the aspect of how you're living, or felt like you've lived, two different lives. Was there a point where? Talk to me a little bit about your faith? How did your faith come into play in that? Was it something that you really thought your basketball was? It was life. You were going to go pro, you didn't know anything else. Talk to me a little bit about how the faith aspect played in that and how that transitioned and how you shifted into what you are doing right now.

Speaker 2: 5:02

Yeah, that's a great question, Honestly one of my favorite things to talk about, because I'm just grateful, the way that God's really transformed my heart and really brought me out of a lot of the things that I was struggling with, and it's been so cool to just not be perfect but to continue to seek Him and try to know Him and walk with Jesus. But growing up I would say I would tell people I was a Christian. We would go, my mom and I would go to church. I would read the Bible from time to time, but it was super surface level and I tell people all the time. The way I would describe it is the difference between knowing about God versus knowing God. And I knew about God. I understood that the Bible is what Christians read and most Christians. If you're a good Christian, you'd go to church and like I knew these things about God. But I didn't know Him intimately.

Speaker 2: 5:48

And it wasn't actually until my freshman year in college where I really gave my life to the Lord and I said I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to put my identity in the things of this world. I'm tired of this. It's not fulfilling, like there's highs and lows and I just feel like it's so empty. And a guy came into my life, joe Simi. This dude has literally been such a godsend and he just was walking with the Lord and he was just so different, like there was something so different about him, his joy, his passion, like the way he cared about people.

Speaker 2: 6:15

And I was like, bro, like what is going on with you?

Speaker 2: 6:18

Like how are you so happy all the time? And he's like it's not that I'm happy all the time, it's just that I've got Jesus in my heart. And he just like discipled me. He took me under his wing, he started inviting me to Bible studies and I'm just so thankful that God put him in my life at a time where I really needed him. And so that's when I truly came to know the Lord and I was able to kind of shift from knowing about God to knowing him more intimately. But a big kind of full circle part of the testimony, I think, has been in even in the last few months where God's kind of showed up in some pretty radical ways in my life and in my prayer life as well, and I've just had such a deeper desire to serve him and to kind of keep him very at the front of everything I do and be more intentional about trying to bring him into all the areas of my life instead of just believing in him. But now really like living it out.

Speaker 1: 7:06

That's so good.

Speaker 1: 7:07

I love that and I can totally resonate with that, because I also grew up in faith and I found it, I guess you can say. I mean, I didn't have the background of a parent struggling with drugs and alcohol. My parents divorced when I was very young and my mom moved around a lot, and so I really didn't have, I didn't, I never had a connection with my mom, and so I was in sports as well and then I kind of fell into the faith because I just wanted, I desired that connection and I lived my life up until my 20s the same way, like I was a Christian, I did all the Christian things but I really didn't intimately know God and I never, like, brought him into the places that I was. So I definitely resonate with that and now, as an adult and just just having that total transformation, having walked through abuse and addiction myself and just the craziness of what not having God like interwoven in my life did and where it brought me, and then having just having that complete surrender and bringing God back into your life.

Speaker 1: 8:26

And then watching how, when you do that, when you intimately know him and weave him in through your life and invite him in along what doors open and the connections you meet, and just the incredible journey that it kind of just blossoms into is is encouraging and it's just I love connecting with other people that share that, that know, that have walked that, you know that's so good, yeah, it's, it's incredible, it's difficult, like walking in faith is so, so difficult because you're literally walking blindly and it's hard being torn like between the world and what we know we're supposed to do, which kind of leads me to the, the AIM project and mission and what you're doing with that.

Speaker 1: 9:17

So talk to me a little bit about that.

Speaker 2: 9:20

Yeah, no, I'd love to. So aim is something that I really did feel like I put on my heart in 2020. It was actually, you know, april of 2020, you know the world gets shut down. Everyone's at home, and up until that point, I really thought I was going to be either. Well, I want my first goal is to be a professional basketball player. And then I got to the point where I was like, you know, I've really been impacted by the coaches and the trainers in my life. So how cool would it be to either coach in college or do like player development, like training for NBA guys, and have that relationship where I love basketball and I know that's an position of authority in some of these guys lives that you can really speak into their life and help them, and so, up to that point, that was like my dream.

Speaker 2: 10:03

I grew up on, obviously, in Raleigh and I was around some really powerful basketball schools. Coach K was a huge like person I looked up to, and so like I'm around all this stuff. But, like I said, april of 2020, the world gets shut down. I'm sitting at home in my mom's, in my mom's house in the basement. I'm just praying. I'm like God, what do you have for my life? Is it the coach? Because if it is, I'm going all in and I just kept feeling on this tug to start a platform, to start a community of people that can just resonate with the idea of having ambition and taking ownership of their life. I saw the the darkness in our world at the time with COVID, with race relations. There was so much tension and negativity and I was like how can I, with just the little bit that I'm capable of, step out and just say, hey, let's just put out some positivity, let's just put out some encouragement, let's just put out some, you know, healthy ways of living, not perfectly, but just in the best that we can do.

Speaker 2: 10:55

And that slowly turned into. You know, me and a couple friends is starting an Instagram and we started posting content motivational content, workout content, health and nutrition content, all this stuff and through that we started a podcast. We, you know, we started merge. But the whole idea and the whole concept of aim is building a community of like-minded people that want to make the most of their life. And you know, take ownership and not make excuses and keep moving forward, because the better you show up for yourself, the better you're going to show up for others. And I think a lot of people want to help the people around them and say they care about the people around them, but they they rarely take initiative to lead themselves. Well, and I think you, it has to start with you being the best version of yourself, because if you want to show up for someone else, you got to take ownership of your own life. And that's been like the message we've been trying to encourage people with.

Speaker 2: 11:43

And since then, man, it's just been so much fun. God's blessed it. You know we've done, I think, 140, 42 podcasts or something in a couple of years. Yeah, it's been a, it's been really fun, it's been a lot of cool open doors. And then this year we actually later today we're going to announce we're doing our first men's retreat and hopefully we'll do about three this year. So it's just been so cool to see it kind of grow, but it's, it didn't happen overnight and it's been something that the Lord's just kind of been having me step into over time.

Speaker 1: 12:11

That's incredible. That's, that's incredible. I love the, the aspect of literally walking by faith and not and just letting, just surrendering that, and just you're like, okay, god, what do you want to do with it? You know that's so hard.

Speaker 2: 12:28

It's been.

Speaker 1: 12:29

I love the obedience in that it's because that's, that's when you're going to get. You're going to get blessed, and it's not that we do it in order to get blessed. We're not, you know, taking that step of faith like, okay, well, now what do I get from it? But just inevitably, by walking in obedience, we do get blessed. We do, and it's things that we've never even dreamed of or can imagine. It's right, it retreats. Those are all going to be in Raleigh or are you going to go in different locations?

Speaker 2: 13:03

Yeah, so the first one will be in Raleigh. I think it only is right to just do it where I grew up. I'm excited to bring some of my friends from you know different parts of the country into Raleigh to experience it. We've got some really cool activations planned and then obviously have some local community here too that will participate. But no, the goal is to to travel with these, to take them to people. I think this year will probably stay in North Carolina. We're still mapping out the one in the fall it could be in Tennessee, but eventually I think it'd be really fun to have these you know different parts of the country and bring different communities along, along for the ride.

Speaker 1: 13:34

Oh my gosh, that would be amazing. I know I saw you were doing some things with Steve Wetherford and he's on the West Coast, so I'm sure you all can link up and get some type of retreat together out there.

Speaker 2: 13:51

Yeah, Steve, I'll give him some praise.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:55

Steve has become a really, really powerful mentor in my life over the last couple of months. I'm just, I'm so grateful for him. He's been a big part in this. You know my fire for wanting to be more unashamed and more public about. You know, sharing the gospel through my platform, because I've just seen the way that he's walked with the Lord, not as a perfect person, but as someone saying like, look, I need Jesus and I just want more people to have Jesus as well. But Steve's been incredible and I'm so grateful for him.

Speaker 1: 14:24

Yeah, yeah, I started. I became aware of him back in. It was before COVID, I think it was in sometime in 2019, early 2019. I was a part of like a online I don't want to say retreat, it was just kind of like a challenge, if you will. I'm pretty sure that's what it was, and Unsworth I think it's Nick Unsworth, Nick and Megan, Anyway, so he was like a speaker in it and he was a little bit. I mean, the whole concept was a faith-based challenge, and so that's where I first like became aware of him and I started following him and everything. But just from that point in 2019 till now, and seeing his growth and what he's doing with men and men's retreats and masterminds and him speaking and everything his transformation I'm just like whoa, it is incredible. So that's pretty cool that you're like getting mentored and working with him and everything, because he's definitely on fire for God and, like you said, unashamed. So that's amazing. He's doing amazing things.

Speaker 2: 15:37

He is. It's cool to see the way that God's using him. I actually went to one of his events and I mean I highly recommend him and I truly believe in him and what he's doing and the way he's serving and it's, yeah, he's been great, that's. You know, that was a big part of like and I would encourage this to anyone listening like. This is something I didn't fully understand.

Speaker 2: 15:54

But you know, if you really want to walk with the Lord like, you need someone to pour into you. Obviously we're all following Jesus, but like you need a spiritual leader, you need a spiritual mentor. It's great to have people you know on my side you encouraging your friends, and it's great to pour into other people, but that's what I was missing for a long time was someone that was consistently pouring into me, and Steve's been really great. I've got another guy, garrett, uncle Bach, who actually met through Steve. So I've got a couple guys right now that are kind of pouring into me. But I know that if I want to lead men or lead others, I need to be led myself, and I think there's a big disconnect for a lot of people where they want to be leaders but they're not being led by someone, and I think really successful leaders are also following someone that they give authority to speak in and challenge them, and so it's just this cool circle. But yeah, steve's been great.

Speaker 1: 16:39

That's good. That's really good. I couldn't agree with you more. A lot of people do want to step into that role and take on that platform, and it's like, okay, who's pouring into you?

Speaker 1: 16:49

Like where are you, where are you getting filled from? That's a huge, huge missing piece, I think. So we've talked about aim and what you're doing there and what your vision is, or God's vision that you're being obedient to. I should say Talk to me about Kaisos, because I didn't know about that until just recently, and that is super exciting. Also, I mean, it goes hand in hand with what you do, with the whole athleticism and everything.

Speaker 2: 17:22

Yeah, thank you, it's been a really fun journey. You know, we're about a little over one year in. Right now. Kaisos is a nutrition supplement company. We have we have two products right now. We have a really awesome cocoa mix which I'll share about, and then we have an unfavorite collagen protein powder which we're currently in the process of restocking.

Speaker 2: 17:41

But our whole mission with the brand is to is to help people, and I was super fortunate to get to do this with two of my best friends, lucas and Brilin Joiner. They're they're so incredible and they have such a heart to serve and help people, and so we wanted to come to market with, you know, products that really enhanced the quality of people's health and wellness and actually made a difference, and not just to come and say, hey, we're a supplement company, we're selling supplements, come buy our stuff. We're like no, we want to actually create products that really make an impact, and so our cocoa mix is interesting. It's got four main functions that it's designed to help you sleep, so there's all natural ingredients that help with sleep and calming. So we've got ashwagandha, magnesium, chamomile. We stay away from ingredients like CBD and melatonin because, personally, we just feel like they're better options for, you know, keeping things healthy.

Speaker 2: 18:30

We also have a digestive enzyme blend in the product to help with gut health, which is really cool because the more you study, kind of about what that does like a lot of diseases are formed in our gut. And so, having this digestive enzyme blend, not only are you getting the sleep benefits, but now you're getting gut and you know, preventative stuff for diseases. And there's fruit powders to help, obviously, with your immune system, the antioxidants and there's some collagen. So it's just really cool Like health and wellness blend packed into one. It's a cocoa mix you can drink. A hot or cold taste amazing and there's zero sugar. So yeah, it's been. It's been a really fun thing to kind of work on. We've learned a lot. Obviously, we've made some some really fun successes. We also made some really, you know, tough mistakes. I mean this has been a learning process, but our goal is to just help people get after and live a healthy life.

Speaker 1: 19:17

I love that. That is so. Those are such a beautiful concept of all of the things that we need mashed into one. That's exciting to watch that come together and like birth it and give it out Like you're just like okay, here it is, that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 19:36

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:38

No, send me the link. I definitely want to purchase them, but you said it's on, you're currently restocking, so that's good.

Speaker 2: 19:46

We have the cocoa we're restocking our collagen which is it's a grass-fed, unflavored collagen. It's great, but our cocoa is like our staple product that we brought to market that we're super pumped about. It's kind of unique because there's some similarities in the market, but it's kind of unique in a lot of ways.

Speaker 1: 20:03

Yeah, no, I definitely want to try some because, ironically, I mean nothing's by coincidence, but I was just reading about Ashwagandha and I was going to go on Amazon literally today and see like what type of pill powder, what, and I was going to get some. So that's awesome. I would much rather get it from you.

Speaker 2: 20:24

I don't want to be so much upset about it my mom.

Speaker 2: 20:28

During COVID she kind of had a really cool transformation with her health and wellness and just taking it really seriously and obviously from a fitness side, but also just like the nutrition and supplement side, and just learning what's really important for our body to consume. So she's really fun because she's like really kind of more I'd say more obsessed with it than I am and she has all these different powders and all natural stuff and we'll talk a lot about it. She loves Kaisa's too, so it's been fun to get her stamp of approval.

Speaker 1: 20:53

Yeah, oh, that's so sweet. I also I love the journey that my fitness journey and watching it kind of like from a broader lens perspective of how it's transformed. Essentially, I've always been an athlete and into fitness and health and wellness, but it hasn't been until, I would say, this year that I really have gotten serious about it and the aspect of researching more products and what I'm actually putting into my body and being more meticulous, of it being clean, and I've learned a lot about gut health. I mean before, like back in what was it I think it was 2013 is when I started competing and I did it so unhealthy and I got, yeah, on the outside, like I looked great, you know, I was up on stage and whatnot, but inside, oh my gosh, I wrecked my body and mentally it just it totally wrecked me. And so now, learning about the right supplements and a collagen and and gut health and all that stuff, I love it. I love diving into it and finding other people that I know now that are creating products, and I just love supporting the smaller businesses and not like the big box brands and whatnot. So fitness has been a huge part of my life.

Speaker 1: 22:26

Yeah, yeah, absolutely that, and I love. I love the fact that that has still been a part of your story, right like it wasn't just that you were an athlete in college and now you're not, and now you're an entrepreneurship and business and whatnot. But I love the fact how God has really shown you like, yes, this was who you were at this point and this season, and now this is who you are and in me and in Christ right, but we're still using that athlete aspect of it. But now I'm gonna have you like reach athletes and and we have this whole faith aspect into it. That's incredible. I absolutely love that. I want to know a little bit more this is kind of we're kind of gonna take a turn but how you've gotten to where you are, what has made the biggest impact? But I want to know both good and bad.

Speaker 1: 23:26

So what has made the biggest impact in who Doug is now and what Doug is about now.

Speaker 2: 23:31

Yeah, that's a good question. I, you know I'd say there's a couple of ways I could kind of take this, but you know, the thing I think I feel really led to share is there's so much power and experience and exposure and I think you know a lot of people want to go out and do something and I think that's great. But I think if you can find ways to go alongside someone, maybe that's doing it. Something you want to do at a high level or something someone where you can learn, especially if you're younger, trying to understand, like, how things work, like gaining exposure to things is such a powerful way for you to just open up your mind and like figure out, okay, this is how it actually works, because there have been countless times throughout my short years after college where I've just been super blessed and fortunate to be around some really successful people that have given me really powerful exposure to certain things they do and given me small opportunities to serve and probably roles that most people wouldn't want to serve in. But that gives you kind of some really cool experience to be around someone that you can then take and go do it on your own. And so you know, I would say part of, I'd say part of the things that have gone well is just trying to learn from others and really kind of honor the people that go before you and say, look, I'm, I'm in this and I'm still like. I still have this kind of mindset, is like I want to learn, like I want to be a sponge. I want to be around you know the most successful people I can, because I know that just being in proximity to them will help me grow as a person and make me in a better position to do things you know on my own or to help others, and so I'd say experience and exposure are really powerful and and also just a power of relationships. I think that's something that you know.

Speaker 2: 25:08

It's tossed around a lot in business is like the word networking and you know that's. That's an interesting word. But I was with a guy actually who does I'll never forget this it was his name is Paul, being Cardi. He works for ESPN. He does like all the. He ranks all the top 100 basketball players in the country and he's got a really pretty big job with ESPN.

Speaker 2: 25:27

And we were eating dinner one night and he said you need to learn if you're gonna go, and this was before I went into business, but it still applies. This is when I was trying to coach and he said you need to learn the difference between networking and connecting and I said I don't know what you mean by that. I said it aren't. I'm I supposed to network with every coach and like, like you know, he's like no, no, no, throw that word out the window. You need to connect with every coach.

Speaker 2: 25:45

You need to find a way to connect with people that's genuine, where there's like actual care towards them and, ideally, you're able to provide them some sort of value. You know whether that's, you know, monetary, just encouragement. You know some sort of introduction, like whatever it is, and not everyone can, you know, do it monetarily. But you know, I want to surround myself with people that are encouraging, that are positive, like that to me is value, and so I think, no matter who you are, there's some sort of value that you can offer someone. But I'd say those are probably the two biggest things I've kind of learned quickly is experiencing exposure, trying to find ways to get exposed, but also just really understanding the power of relationships and what kind of doors can open from just fostering a relationship in a healthy way that's genuine. And yeah, it's been a process. I'm still trying to understand and learn better, but it's been really cool to see how those two things have played a role. And I guess where I am right now yeah, that's good, that's good.

Speaker 1: 26:37

I love that man. I really love that what he said, because it's so true, because when you're in this space, that's all that's talked about is networking and networking and meeting people and networking. But it's not just that, because it's not what can you do for me? It's really about making that connection. And unfortunately, I find that so many people are trying to network that it's a little bit harder and I don't know if this is for you, but it's a little bit harder to make that connection because people are a little bit guarded and they think, like, okay, why are you approaching me? What do you want from me? That type of thing I know for sure.

Speaker 1: 27:22

Like Facebook requests, like I will accept everybody all day because it's networking, right, it's connecting there. But then, like I get these random messages and it's like it's for an ask and ask and ask and ask and I'm like, no, I don't want your services, I don't want to do anything, like you have no connection, and so I'm very, very intentional. I don't really connect on Facebook, it's all Instagram but I'm very intentional about, like, who I'm following and interacting with and you know, I'm trying to build that connection. And I'm trying to build that relationship, because the last thing I want to do is immediately jump into an ask, like I want to develop that relationship and I'm not saying that I'm trying to develop that relationship to like tee up and ask but, it's just a matter of building relationships, because we're not meant to do any of this alone.

Speaker 1: 28:23

I love connecting, I love hearing people's story, I love sharing people's wins and journey and their mission. So that leads me to your mission. If you can just I don't want to say pitch me, but tell me, tell us the audience like, what is your mission? What are you all about? I want to hear Doug's mission.

Speaker 2: 28:49

Yeah, I would. You know, I would say where I'm at right now, it's truly to advance the kingdom. You know, I think that looks. It looks different for some people. And I think this is cool because, you know, for the longest time I'll be completely honest Like I thought if I wasn't a pastor, if I wasn't, you know, working in a church, that I wasn't really able to share the gospel.

Speaker 2: 29:09

And the truth is, like God calls us to be, in all kinds of categories, all kinds of industries, all kinds of jobs and roles, and whether you're in the gym, you're a trainer, whether you're in the hospital, whether you're a teacher, it doesn't matter. Like you have an opportunity to share and be a light in someone else's life. And there are times where you're going to need to, you know, use your mouth and use your words, but there's time for you, it's going to be. You need to lead by action and I think you know one thing I really feel like the Lord's called me to is to kind of do that in the health and wellness space with the brands I'm involved with, with AIM, and you know, it's not always about saying that we're Jesus every day, but it's about, like, doing my best to live for him and to show people that, you know, he's transformed my heart and he truly has changed my life, and I just want more people to experience that, if that's something they're, they're open to or interested in. But that's certainly my mission is to advance the kingdom and I think I'm going to hopefully be able to do that through through AIM, through Kaisos and you know, some speaking opportunities to just encourage people and just hopefully just inspire hope in people's lives that maybe you're, you know, in a tough position.

Speaker 2: 30:08

And I think the last point of that is and I meant to say this earlier.

Speaker 2: 30:11

I hope you don't mind if I kind of circle back a little bit, but one of the things that I learned too, when I started following Jesus was not that my life will be perfect, and in fact it's actually very difficult to follow him in terms of the things we go through as Christians and just anyone.

Speaker 2: 30:27

So I think there's so much peace knowing that the suffering, the hard challenges that we go through are actually seasons where one we can walk through it with him, knowing that he has overcome everything, and a lot of times those hard seasons are seasons where we're being built up. We just don't know it yet, and there's seasons where we're going to look back and say I went through all of that because now I can help those type of people, and so I don't know if someone needs to hear that as well. But you know, a lot of the things I grew up, you know, through, I think, are now areas of my life where I can go back and serve and I'm stronger in a lot of ways because I had to go through some hard times and now I can give back and I can say, look, I overcame this through Jesus and now I can go and serve someone else that maybe be going through and maybe they're in a tougher spot and I need that hope and encouragement. So I'd say that's my mission right now.

Speaker 1: 31:12

Wow, powerful. That was a mic drop moment, for sure. That was super, thank you.

Speaker 2: 31:20

Thank you so much, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 31:22

Yeah, absolutely. I don't even know what better way how to wrap this up, because that was so good. I love it. I'm so excited for you. I'm so, so pumped for you and what you're doing and the connections that you're making and just everything. How God's just really rolling out the carpet for you and I love the fact that you're just inviting God along in this and inviting others along in this journey with you.

Speaker 1: 31:57

And I would say I can unequivocally say that your talk matches your walk and you are walking in alignment with what you are called to do. And it's evident and it's God's hand is in it, and I hope you are encouraged. And in the times where it seems like what am I doing? Am I doing the right thing? Did I hear from God? Was this right? Be encouraged that you are. It is and God's hand is in it, because it's evident and there's a lot of fruit from it. So, to wrap up, I just want to give you an opportunity. I know we've talked about AIM and Kaisos and everything, but is there anything that you're working on or that you want to promote or let anyone know about? I just want you to have that opportunity right now to let everyone know.

Speaker 2: 32:52

Well, I really appreciate it and first off, before I even do that, I just want to thank you for having me on the show. This has been great and I love your heart to serve people. I'm so. I think it's so fun when you get to meet like-minded people that are literally just wanting to help others, and I think you taking time out of your day to do this podcast Like it's so powerful and it's such a kind act of service to do something that you go out of your way to create this conversation that can hopefully be used to impact other people. So I just want to encourage you to keep going, because it's super cool. But, no, you've done an amazing job, kind of working through some stuff.

Speaker 2: 33:24

Aim has been a really big part of my life and so, if you guys want to check that out, we have at Ambition of Mine on Instagram, our podcast page is AIM underscore podcast and Kaisos is at Kaisos KAIZOS.

Speaker 2: 33:38

So those are kind of the two focuses right now for me, and then you know it's been fun. I think the Lord has kind of called me to speak more, so I've been lining up some speaking opportunities in 2024 with some FCA's, with some conferences, some schools, and so again, it's not about me, I just want to bring encouragement and just help people, and so it's been fun to see kind of the doors being opened, to speak more and just to be around people and just bring some encouragement. I mean, I think it's a lot of people can use it. I know I enjoy encouragement in my own life and so it's like how can we just make the world a better place a little bit by some positive energy and encouragement? But that's that's the focus for 2024. So we're going to get after it and I can't wait to follow along your journey to and help people together.

Speaker 1: 34:16

Awesome, awesome, doug. It's been an honor and a privilege and I am so excited for you. Thank you for your time, thank you for sharing your heart and your mission, and I can't wait to see all, the, all the glory God's going to bring to this. So, all right, guys, thank you for hanging out with us, and if this episode has been encouraging, I would just love for you to share it with someone and tag myself, tag Doug. We would love to connect with you as well, and until next time, we just remember, guys, you were divinely created. Thank you for your time. Thank you for being created for a divine purpose. Thank you.