Today, we're diving into the idea that if you're not willing to challenge conventional wisdom, you might just be missing out on what life has to offer.

Our guest, Mike Tharp, shares insights from his journey of questioning traditional beliefs and embracing a mindset that encourages dreaming big and thinking outside the box.

He emphasizes that many religious views can limit our understanding of what’s possible, urging us to explore faith in a broader context. We’ll discuss how embracing challenges and viewing them as opportunities for growth can truly transform our perspectives.

Plus, Mike shares practical steps for anyone looking to start their journey toward financial literacy and personal empowerment, reminding us that even small actions can lead to significant change.

Takeaways:

1. One of the most important lessons I've learned is to always question traditional beliefs and think outside the box.
2. Faith and the idea of dreaming bigger are essential when overcoming traditional religious perspectives.
3. The importance of financial literacy cannot be overstated, as it empowers individuals to take control of their own economic futures.
4. Embracing pain and challenges can lead to significant personal growth and transformation in one’s life journey.
5. We should focus on our own economy rather than relying on government systems that may not serve our interests.
6. Living life large means not conforming to societal expectations and instead pursuing one's own passions and interests.

You can connect with Mike on his social platforms at:

FB: facebook.com/mike.tharp.edu

FB Group Page - The Runners: facebook.com/groups/252115615960007

Instagram: @MichaelTharpEDU

YouTube: youtube.com/@michaeltharpedu/featured

X: MichaelTharpEDU

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/MichaelTharpEDU

A Warrior’s Spirit can be found on all the major platforms at lnk.bio/daryl_praxis33 as well as on ROKU via the ProsperaTV Network app. Be sure to like or subscribe so you never miss an episode!

The music in this video is copyrighted and used with permission from Raquel & The Joshua 1:8 project © 2025 All Rights Reserved. All rights to the music are owned by Raquel & The Joshua 1:8 project © 2025 All Rights Reserved. You can contact Raquel at https://YourGPSForSuccess.Net

That's probably one of the biggest lessons I've learned is if you're not going against the grain, you're probably losing in traditional, more traditional religious views was, I think they, a lot of times, like, cut God short of what he can do.

You know, when the Bible says, ask and ye shall receive, you know, all of a sudden they want to be like, well, that's not, you know, that's not specific.

That's not an.

They don't actually mean that.

And I'm like, well, why not?

You know, so that was kind of where that questioning comes in and, you know, having that faith and kind of dreaming bigger than like your.

What your traditional Christian might think.

I've walked through fire with shadows on my heels Scars turn to stories that taught me to feel lost in the silence found in the flame now we're my battle cry without shame this isn't the end it's where I begin A soul that remembers the fire within welcome

back to another episode of A Warrior Spirit brought to you by Praxis33.

I'm your host, Darrell Snow.

Let's dive in every once in a while.

When I do this show, I come across some people that just.

I'm really impressed with and fascinated by.

And today my guest is no different.

Mike Tharp is going to join me.

Mike is a teacher who wants to help others master their mindset and learn financial literature literacy to manifest their future the way they want.

And Mike lives life large and is excited when he can help others do the same.

And I'm excited to have him join us today.

Mike, thank you for joining us.

Definitely.

Darrell, thanks for having me on, brother.

Appreciate it.

Yeah.

We haven't known each other long.

We've been introduced through a crypto project that we both got involved in.

Texit mining, texit coin.

But I got to looking into, you know, who you are and what you do.

And first off, what impressed me was the fact that you are just a natural born leader.

Like in the group that we were introduced in, you just kind of stepped up and helped people regardless of where they were in their own understanding.

And so when I got to looking at you, I'm like, wow, he's really charismatic.

He's someone who really just wants to help others get the best out of themselves.

What made you get your edu?

Because you have your master's in education, so what made you go that route?

Because I used to help people get their doctorate degree and I understand what education takes.

So just wanting to be in education alone is a bold step What.

What led you in that direction?

Well, I think I get a lot of my leadership qualities from playing sports.

I was really into basketball and soccer in high school.

My dad was a teacher.

He taught English and Spanish for 33 years or so.

And so, you know, I got to my sophomore year of college, and it was kind of like, I guess I gotta decide what I'm gonna do.

And as we all know, the 911 hit.

And so all the teachers pensions and retirement funds went down.

And history is a really hard subject to get into anyways.

You know, PE and history are, you know, the hard ones, even when you're a coach.

So just kind of was a server substitute teacher.

I was like, well, I guess if I'm gonna be able to get a job, I got to go back and get my masters.

And I got it in special education, since that's obviously always in demand because it's a very tough field.

So even before I finished my masters, I got a job in Grand Rapids Public.

That kind of started my teaching career.

So I guess just always helping people.

You know, I have kind of a passion for truth, so I just enjoy, especially when it comes to history, so I really enjoy that aspect of it.

Now you're currently in Michigan.

Did you grow up in.

In that area?

Was that your starting point?

Yeah, I was born on the east side in, like, metro Detroit.

And then we moved to a really small city called Carson City, where I was there most of my elementary and high school career.

And then I've kind of been in the Grand Rapids area for the last 15 years or so.

Do you come from a big family or a small family?

Just pretty typical.

I just me and my one sister.

My dad had six brothers and sisters, and my mom just had a brother.

So just the average two kids.

Two kids, two jobs.

Yep.

Yeah, that's it.

Now, how old were you when you left Detroit?

Six.

Okay.

So I grew up on the streets of Minneapolis till I was nine.

And the parts of Minneapolis that I grew up in were not particularly nice.

I actually had to carry a knife to kindergarten, you know.

Do you remember much of Detroit?

Because that has a connotation like Detroit.

Yeah, well, I said metro Detroit.

It's.

It's technically Madison Heights.

So it was like, I would say, like, you know, lowerish class, working neighborhood.

I do remember getting just randomly.

Some kid threw a rock at me and I Still have a little thing on my nose from it when I was like five.

I remember that and running for my life a few times.

But, you know, it was just kind of your typical bullying thing.

It wasn't like, you know, I was running from a bunch of gang bangers for my life or anything.

Yeah.

So when you move to the, to the new city, growing up, were you one of those rebel.

Because I said in your intro, you live life large, and you do.

And I have, you know, some.

I have some examples of what that looks like today.

Like, this is.

This is Mike Tharp living life large.

Right.

Did you, did you do a lot of that as a.

As a child?

Were you bold and brash as a kid, or did you kind of grow into that?

I guess I would say kind of early.

I developed to not really care what other people think and to go against the grain and to do what you want and not to kind of like fall into the conformity that we see in our culture and society.

I went to smaller Christian schools my whole life.

I grew up going to the Baptist church.

So I was in a very small.

The high school I was in was I was going to graduate with four students.

I think there was less than 50 in the entire high school.

And so, like, some people might think, oh, well, that means you're gonna, like, not be, you know, out there or more introverted.

But for me, I.

It was kind of like I was a big fish in a small pond.

And so I just kind of kept that same mentality when I went to college, when I got into my, you know, work career or whatever, is to just kind of always think positive, always think big, don't worry about what everyone else thinks.

You know, follow your passion, do what you want to do.

That's probably one of the biggest lessons I've learned is if you're not going against the grain, you're probably losing because you're just basically following the herd.

That as a young man and as a child and even now as an adult, that takes a lot of really disciplined intestinal fortitude to live the life the way you want it to live and not be dissuaded by the noise that's around you.

Was that something that was instilled by your parents or did you just kind of like, that's just how you were going to be?

I think it's actually the opposite of my parents, like, specifically my dad.

My dad is like, very safe, very much like, go with the flow of what everyone else is doing.

Like, he thinks buying gold and Silver is just too extreme.

Even with the massive historical, you know, significance we have in gold and silver holding their value.

But, like, no bitcoin, no crypto.

He's like, put it in a 401k guy.

So I think it was kind of the opposite of that, of growing up in like a very traditional conservative household.

It was kind of like I just started questioning everything.

And then I just.

Whether it was history or religion, politics, business, finances, I just had to question everything that was kind of.

I would say even like, if you went back and asked my teachers, they would probably say the same thing.

That's the thing that I find people in a religious, strict religious household, they tend to go two ways.

They tend to either go super uber zealot religious or they go not necessarily anti religion, but certainly questioning, you know, the things around them.

So it seems like that's the path that you took.

Were you rebellious as a teenager?

Were you.

Nope.

So the big and bold didn't go as far as the rebellion.

It just the ideation.

Yeah, it was just, you know, again, just questioning and wanting to know why know we believe these things or we're supposed to do this or we're supposed to.

That never really had any big, you know, going out on a limb or anything like that.

So may I ask now, are you pretty connected with God or spirit or however you phrase it, or did you kind of go your own path?

So I wouldn't say, like, I kind of hold to a lot of the more traditional beliefs that like, you know, your typical Baptist would, which, I mean, it's changed drastically in my life, you know, from the 80s to now of what even a Baptist is and what they think, who knows?

Couldn't really tell you.

I was pretty heavily influenced by Rob Bell, who was the pastor at Mars Hill.

He's kind of written some big books and done some things kind of outside of the church.

So I think I learned a lot from him.

One of my favorite books is also Richard Rohr, Falling Upward.

He's a Jesuit priest.

He's technically Catholic, but kind of critiques the Catholic Church a lot.

And I would say probably my biggest one was like discovering Neville Goddard and how he kind of, at least for me, brought together my traditional beliefs.

I'd been taught with the Bible with kind of more of a positive thinking manifestation and, you know, how we can create our own reality and kind of not doubting or questioning what God can do for us.

Because that's kind of what I found in traditional, more traditional religious views was I think they.

A Lot of times, like cut God short of what he can do.

You know, when the Bible says ask and ye shall receive, you know, all of a sudden they want to be like, well, that's not, you know, that's not specific.

That's not an, they don't actually mean that.

And I'm like, well, why not?

You know.

So that was kind of where that questioning comes in and you know, having that faith and kind of dreaming bigger than like your, what your traditional Christian might think.

It is fascinating to me because I consider myself a reformed Catholic.

My mom and grandparents were uber devout Catholicism and my stepdad who was my dad, is evangelical.

So I had mass on Saturdays and church on Sundays.

And you know, I got to learn, you know, the difference.

And Catholicism to me was always about ritual and, and adhering to whatever the pastor said, not necessarily what God was saying.

And so that conflict between it became very evident as a young boy.

And as I got old enough to choose, I chose God over religion.

And I even in high school wrote a paper that religion was the worst thing to happen to God.

So it's interesting that you follow the doctrine of, and questioning, I think is part of natural, like the Bible, like people questioned the authoritarian of the religious right.

When you come across people who push back on that with you.

Because I'm always fascinated by the people who have a problem with money when money is a gift that God gives us.

And he says in faith, I will give you more.

I will take and tamp down and tenfold it.

Well, are you tamped downing and folding zero or are you tamped down and folding like a lot?

Like, so when people give you that biblical pushback, what do you say to those folks?

Well, I usually just, just go to different scripture because, you know, people kind of have, you know, they like to pick and choose and, and focus on like these two verses and ignore these three verses.

So typically it's just more of that of, you know, kind of like answering a question with a question and kind of looking at, like you said, I always ask myself that question of how Jesus would respond to the Pharisees.

That's kind of the line of thinking and questioning I had growing up in like a very religious household and, and church and, and school and stuff is if somebody told us to Jesus, which you have a lot of examples of that in New Testament, how would he respond to them?

Like, what were the questions that he would ask them?

Yeah.

You familiar with Richard Rohr at all?

No, but I'm going to be because I, I, I, I'M fascinated by people who, you know, can bring understanding.

I think one of the problems that people have with the Bible, a, it's not linear, like, so they, you know, what you're reading in this chapter doesn't translate to.

It's not like a regular book where it's just linear.

So you kind of have to know.

And that's where I think your history helps you as you know the history of what's going on at that time.

But also, like you said, people want to pick and choose their references.

So anytime I can find someone who can explain biblical principles in a fashion that isn't as much of picking and choosing but deciphering.

Religious scholars all differ on different parts of what the Bible actually says.

So we know that it's God's word to us, but we're not supposed to pick and choose which phrases we agree with or disagree with.

So I appreciate your, your insight to that.

What is his stance?

So I was just going to add, he really gave me a good way to understand this.

So he talks about how there's two stages of life and in the beginning stages, like we need rules and parameters and you know, when it comes to Catholicism, rituals, and of course being Baptist, we were taught like rituals are bad because you're just doing it because it's a ritual.

But like, so like typically like when people kind of break out of that religious mindset, then they want to go back and nitpick everything about the religion or whatever, you know, more of a rules based life.

And so Roar puts it really into perspective that those things are needed, especially when you're younger and you're learning things, you need to protect yourself.

And so they're not bad things.

So wherever you are in your spiritual journey, maybe you know, you are kind of realized like religion is the worst thing that happened to God, but I think it still serves its purpose, right?

And then in your second stage of life, it's kind of where it's more the freedom of Christ, right, that you've, you've kind of gone through, you've learned the ropes, right?

You understand the basics and now you're living in, in liberty through Christ.

And so he says a lot of times that happens, like from a big event in your life, it could be, you know, a death, a big tragedy, a divorce, losing a child, something like that.

And you kind of see that happen over and over again with people on their spiritual journey is a lot of people don't change and get to that second stage of life if they don't go through some sort of travesty or traumatic event.

That makes perfect sense, especially with the travesty and events I've seen in my life and most my wife's life.

You know, we've both had a lifelong connection with God, but through those trials is when we deepened our faith and our walk with God.

You know, that's when we really leaned into the faith and what God actually gives and provides us.

I do want to take a quick commercial break and then we'll come back and we'll pick this up because I love where you've taken your journey in regard to what we've talked about already.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to the show.

We're with Mike Tharp today and we so far have been covering the early part of his life, but we were talking about the Bible and religion.

But there's something that you brought up about money that I really think is biblical, and that is that we are supposed to be wealthy.

Like I've always ascertained, if I want to do something nice for you, if I want to go into any restaurant and buy everyone a meal, I can't do it.

If I don't have money, I have to have money.

Right, but you've taken your education a little further into money and you have this.

You have this quote.

Hi, I'd like a wake up call.

They print money out of nothing, devalue your savings with inflation, then tax you for using it.

The whole system is built to exploit you.

Is that your quote, or did you come across that somewhere?

I think I kind of borrowed it.

But that's, you know, what we talk about a lot with, with the runners.

And it really just blows my mind again that, you know, we have such division in our country.

And Ricardo, my, my partner in crime, you know, always says, you know, public enemy number one is the Federal Reserve.

And no matter what we believe, when it comes to politics, if people could understand that there's a private banking cartel that is charging us interest as they create dollars out of thin air and give them to the wealthy, the elite and rich first.

And by the time it gets to us, the inflation has happened, the value of that dollar has fallen.

Yet most people continue to work for dollars and save in dollars.

Which is why we see now, I mean, just houses aren't affordable.

You know, the getting married and having a home by 30 has fallen I think from like 70% to like 20% these days.

And it's, it's literally just because of inflation.

Like you can have all the economic theories of Republican and Democrats, high tax, low tax, welfare.

In the end, until we've solved this problem of a debt based fiat monetary system, nothing fundamentally is going to change.

I think this is where your history, love for history, plays into your love for acquiring wealth and helping others do the same.

Because unless you actually start looking into what the Federal Reserve is or what it was, you just think, I mean, most of us aren't history buffs, so we just think, oh well, this is just how it always was.

And we don't realize, you know, the history behind it.

Can you talk a little bit to the history?

Because you're very verse in it.

Well, let's see.

I don't, I could probably go a long time in this.

But one thing, you know, keep in mind, of course, is gold and silver have been money for thousands of years.

Typically it was about a 15 to 1 ratio, maybe 20 to 1, meaning one ounce of gold was worth about 15 or 20 ounces of silver.

And I mean it was that way for thousands of years.

Let me make sure I'm getting that right.

Yes.

So basically this is when they try to take silver away from being money.

And it was like, typically, you know, it was like some bill on, you know, near a holiday and it was late at night and they just kind of pushed it through.

So I mean, we're talking about 150 plus years of price suppression that we're finally just getting to see a little bit of, of a true fair market.

We're still not there yet, but I mean silver's at, you know, in the 90s today.

And you know, I think the gold to silver ratio is around 60 right now.

So again, 15 to 20 for thousands and thousands of years, the government gets involved.

You know, we have Chase bank rigging the silver market and now it's, it was like 90 to 1, 80 to 90 to 1 when I was, you know, talking about silver a lot and buying a lot of silver and teaching people how to do the same.

And then you know, obviously as we get into, you Know, the Great Depression and, you know, they kind of forced people turning their gold.

Now, a lot of people, most people didn't turn on their gold.

Like, you know, this would be like very few people, because a lot of people back then still were like, you're not getting my gold.

I don't trust the government.

But anyways, they buy the gold at $20 and right away reprice it to almost $40.

Right.

And then of course, we go off the.

I had never realized that.

And right now, I know that you're pretty diverse.

This is some of the things that you invest in.

You got the gold, the silver, the crypto.

Like, you are very diversified in what you do.

And I want to run through these iterations of your company.

This is one of the early ones.

I hope I have these in the order.

I tried to grab them in order, but this was one of the first iterations of your company.

And then you kind of went, you know, this.

This little route to help with financial literacy.

Then you went, you know, more along this line.

And by the way, as a graphic designer, I like the way you did your MT in the way of a spartan helmet.

That's pretty awesome.

And then now you're at this one, which is what you.

You talk about with the runners.

And.

But through each one of them, your foundation has been the same.

The mindset, the wealth teaching, and the health.

So what is this iteration with the runners?

Because I know you've mentioned that a couple times.

Yeah.

So the runners is just kind of an organic movement that happened.

Ricardo Hamilton, AKA Mims, him and I just kind of met randomly online and we had a lot of the same beliefs.

He would talk about inflation in the Federal Reserve.

He was big into gold.

I was buying more silver then.

And then when Covet hit and, you know, silver went down to $14, he just reached out to me and he said, hey, Mike, where are you getting your silver from?

And I told him, a company I'm still using today.

So we kind of started working together.

It has an Affiliate model to it.

And so, you know, Ricardo would just say, you know, some will, some won't.

So what, run with the runners, you know, find out who wants to change their life, find out who's ready to take this seriously, who's ready to, you know, build a business in precious metals and run with those people.

And so, you know, we did a couple 90 day runs and just kept marketing, advertising it and had a lot of success with that.

And of course that's, you know, I just kind of fell into network marketing.

I, even though I'm from Grand Rapids, where Amway is, I had never done it.

I didn't really know about it.

So I guess I wasn't caught up in that whole pyramid scheme, Ponzi scheme that like most people get.

Like they can't imagine that you can make money without touching a product, you know, by just marketing it.

So I was very fortunate and blessed to kind of fall into that, which eventually, you know, ends up to me retiring from teaching at 40.

So you're, you're retired and you do investing full time?

Yep.

So just however I want to do it, you know, whether it's through courses, one on ones, you know, marketing different affiliate programs that I think are valuable to people, just finding, you know, things that work, make sure they work for me so I can help, you know, other people have that same success.

And through it all, what I love about you, from the short period of time I've gotten, you know, view you from a three, you know, 300 foot level, you're very, like I said, leadership oriented.

So you, you help enormous amounts of people without, you know, expectation to what it does back for you.

But you also are very love.

Like you're, you're, you're wearing a medallion today with the flag, right?

Your very love of this country.

You're very love which this country was founded on a religion, theological basis.

So you still intertwine your connection with God, your love of country, and then not relying on the government to do right by you.

And at 40, I mean, I'm 61.

At 40, that's unheard of these days, you know, so kudos, first off, secondly, how do you feel or how do you find in your own life that all three of those intertwine?

So obviously I think I'm more appreciative and sometimes critical of America because I understand history So I know what it's like in other countries.

I like to talk to, you know, I have a pretty international team, travel a lot, so I like to talk to people as well.

But I guess just knowing, even though it's not perfect, even though we're violating a lot of our key constitutional principles today, still the best framework I think we've had in on this world and you know, kind of going back to, to Reagan's, you know, we're one generation away from losing freedom.

And I've seen that happen so many times in the, in through history that I know it can happen here.

So that kind of wants me to even go more, go harder to try to wake people up and educate them about preserving those liberties.

I mean, same thing like once you understand the mass toll war has had, the sacrifices so many people have made, I guess it just makes it real for me or real to me, you know, when I see these things happening, when I see our rights and liberties being taken away, when I see people falling for Marxism and critical race theory and critical Marxism, whatever you want to call it.

And I was calling this out like 15, 16 years ago, when even like people on the right thought I was crazy.

I mean, I would be telling my parents about the Frankfurt School starting in Germany.

And then they came over after World War II, infiltrated the universities in the 60s and then the 80s.

They really just let it out of the bag with critical race theory.

And you know, people just thought I was crazy.

I'm making this up.

Oh, it's conspiracy theory.

And now there's really no arguing it anymore.

I mean, they're basically admitting it openly.

You know, they use the nicer term socialist, but it's basically just cultural, Cultural Marxism that has captured the universities and pretty much all the major institutions that we that are in our country right now.

So that's kind of the, the thing I'm passionate about the most right now because I know exactly their plan and they're pretty much being successful.

I saw that happen in education as well.

And if you don't have those institutions, I mean, I don't care if you're on the right or even if you're somewhat religious, spiritual, you know, those things to the left.

The real Marxist left must be destroyed.

That's kind of their number one thing.

Destroy the family, destroy God and the church, and always create havoc to propel us towards that revolution that they so desperately want.

I find a correlation to when they started taking some of the what are now deemed religious activities out of schools.

You know, you can no longer say a prayer in school.

You can't even say the Pledge of Allegiance in, in many of the schools today also, you know, it became, you can't say Merry Christmas.

You have to say Happy Holidays.

And it like they PC corrected it so far that it destroyed any of the basis that that was there.

Do you in your view see any way of some of that coming back so that, you know, it doesn't massively crumble under us?

I mean, I think we, we should be fighting for that and hoping and praying for that.

I'm a little more positive about that happening than I was, you know, maybe 10 years ago.

While not perfect, I think Donald Trump has been a big change in that of him actually calling out another term they use as dei, diversity, equity and inclusion, which is really, it's just Marxism.

Like almost everything that we know that's evil is just Marxism.

Right.

They just put different makeup on it, they try to hide it, but in the end it just turns out to be Marxism.

So everything that you just described, like that was the first term people used was well, that's politically incorrect, right?

That was just Marxism trying to use peer pressure or social pressure to get those things out of our, you know, everyday nomenclature that people will be using because you want to get rid of the old guard.

It's the same thing that China did is anything old needs to be demonized.

And you know, to, to.

I can't imagine being a student today.

You know, I saw two videos last week of students being punched for being pro ice or pro law enforcement, which is just crazy that that's we've come to this point where saying I believe in a border and I want to defend it is, you know, gets you beat up in a public high school in America these days.

Well, and, and sadly it gets you ostracized in anything that we do.

Like social media is no longer social.

People hide behind their, their keyboard and their 30 second sound bites for their knowledge.

They don't do their own research to go deep enough to find the actual truth.

They rely on these 30 second clips for their knowledge and information.

And then they go out there as if that's their own thought and their own ideation and tout it and they don't have the critical thinking anymore.

I think critical thinking has as much as people get away from religion and their spiritual beliefs and their connection to God, they lose their critical thinking and start social thinking and then it becomes chaos.

My dad said when he was alive that we haven't had a true president since they Assassinated Kennedy.

Every other president since that time has been a puppet, a puppet for whatever is going on behind the scenes.

And none of them have ever had the American people's interest at heart or our best interests as their goal.

Their goal is to stay in power and to line their pockets.

So if that's the case, I don't care if it's a red, blue, green, yellow, doesn't matter what is in office.

Something behind it is what's running it.

And you know, you're a history buff, you know, many empires have fallen within that 250 year mark.

Well, we're coming up on our 250 year mark and we're imploding from within.

I travel outside this country, my wife is Portuguese.

We've traveled to Europe.

You can't get in or out of some of those countries without a process.

Like when we tried to leave Spain, we had to go through six security checks and we happened to stand in the wrong line because we came in from a European country instead of out of country.

So we had to go re stand in the line that allowed us to get out of Spain.

Like you can't do that here.

You can just willy nilly cross north or south border, does not matter.

And then you can roam about the country at will.

We had to carry our identification and our passports with us to prove that we had a right to be there.

And if that, if that, if they tried that here now, there would be so much blowback from it.

It's ridiculous.

Yeah, it's, it's pretty wild.

And then, you know, with, I guess I even, I underestimated the welfare usage of illegal immigrants.

And then I, I guess now the massive fraud that is not just in Minneapolis.

I mean, I'm hearing Ohio, there's a bunch in Michigan, Maine, California.

Obviously Chicago has always been corrupt.

So I mean, I, I think we're just on the tip of the iceberg.

And you know, I don't want to be hyperbolic here, but I think Donald Trump being president is, is probably the only thing that might have saved us.

That at least we have a chance now before someone like him who was willing to go against everything, every political power, I mean, he had to first beat his own.

The Republican Party, which doesn't, you know, they don't want anyone doing anything that's not out of the ordinary to the media, to Hollywood, to music.

If not for someone who was able to kind of break the system like he has, I mean, I don't think we last much longer.

That was all part of the Plan, I believe.

And how do you feel in all of that that God and religion plays its part to bring that back?

Because I don't think there's anyone who says immigrants shouldn't be here.

I think the word illegal is in the title of what everyone is mad about.

The illegal part.

My wife, when her family came here, it took them three years to petition to come here.

And then she was sick right before they came as a small child.

She was three, she got meningitis.

And they stopped their process.

They wouldn't allow them to come here until she was healed and well, and then they were allowed to immigrate here.

And then, you know, her and her whole family became citizens of this country through the process.

They went through the process.

And I don't think people have a problem with that.

I think they have a problem with the illegal part where you are just kind of living off the system and you are imposing that whatever was in your country now has to be in this country, whether it be the language, the holiday, the greeting, the whatever.

Like, you didn't come here to be a part of this country.

You came here to have the freedoms you didn't have in your country.

But with just bringing that over here, am I like just the old man, get off my lawn guy now, or is there any historical fact in that?

No, I think you're.

It really is just that crazy these days.

You know, where the left has gone since even Obama.

I mean, you know, you.

You've probably seen all the clips of Bill Clinton and Obama, you know, talking about, well, if you came here legally, we need to remove you.

You know, it's very basic stuff, but again, the left has used people's hatred for Donald Trump to just say, anything this guy does is horrible and it's a fascist and we got to resist it.

But again, that's out of the Marxist playbook.

Going back to Henry Marcuse.

And what is it?

Something tolerance where you can you tolerate anything on your side?

Right.

So that's why, like, leftists will support, like right now, Iran.

Right.

Even though it's illegal to be homosexual.

Iran, women have no rights.

They can't get education.

The left will defend that because they're anti west and they're anti imperial.

So they will allow that and be intolerant of just our own borders.

Right.

Because it's just a power play.

And feigning fake outrage is kind of how they control and manipulate the public.

This is the.

And I've taken this stance and I've lost, you know, dear friends and Some family for taking this stand.

I do not vote with party line.

I vote with who I think is going to do a good job for our country.

You know, I voted for Clinton the first time around.

Then he proved what he was and I didn't vote him for the second time around.

You know, the same with Donald Trump.

I think what people have a problem with is that he is not a politician.

He does speak too much.

He does do the blow hard bully, I'm the bully on the playground mentality than any of us who've been bullied see that.

But all that aside, you know, I think he's actually trying to do something good for our country.

And he went into office saying, I'm going to drain the swamp.

Well, anytime.

And I don't care if it's, I don't care.

And what, take politics out of it.

Take just natural human behavior.

Anytime someone comes in and starts disrupting what is, those that are in the what is get mad about it.

And the destructive nature of what he's doing disrupts their comfort and their mask.

And so then now everything he does, I fully believe he could give a million dollars to every citizen, every non citizen, every person in the world he could give a million dollars to and people will go, well, it's not a million one.

Yeah, you know, so there's just such blind hatred.

Do I agree with everything the man does or says?

No.

Have I agreed with anything any president has done or said?

No, but there's parts of it that I think are working or trying to work.

And that's where I, I don't look at the 32nd sound bite and make my decision.

I look at the situation and then go deeper and I don't go into what the news places here.

I've never believed that our news organizations here are going to tell me anything.

So I get my information outside of that and then I formulate the opinion.

And sometimes the opinion is, man, that really sucks.

But not everything sucks, right?

So there's a little discernment that I think people have lost their mind on.

And I'm sure that this episode, when it airs, because we've mentioned Donald Trump is going to get either shut off or blowback.

And you know, it is what it is.

We're not, we're not here trying to tout a policy or a politician or red or blue.

We're trying to be humans and humanity.

And you know, these are thoughts and feelings that many humans are now afraid to even express because there's such blowback from expressing it.

You Know, people don't want to lose their friends and their family over any of this, but they also don't want to lose their values in their life either.

Do you?

And so a lot of that had to do with being in the education system and seeing things change there.

I was a very big Ron Paul fan.

So, like, I basically already rejected the Republican Party.

I didn't vote for McCain in 08.

I wrote in Ron Paul.

I wrote in Ron Paul or maybe voted for Gary Johnson.

I can't remember.

Like, I, you know, I never really paid much attention to him.

And I was, you know, a big Rand Paul fan because he was running during that time.

And I don't know, whatever the latest, you know, hatred of Trump was, you know, I was just kind of laughing at the media.

And I remember one night I was like, they were saying this thing, and I realized Trump did what he did just to get them to look at this thing, right?

Like, if 10 million illegals came in, he'll say 12 million.

And he knows he's wrong, but he's saying it.

So then the media will be like, no, Trump's lying again.

It wasn't 12 million.

It was only 10 million.

Right.

But then they're repeating that, and then people are like, wait, who cares?

10 million is way too much.

Right?

And I, I saw him do this over and over and over again.

And then I finally realized, like, oh, he's just playing the media like a yo, yo.

And he really is doing the four deep trust.

I don't care if people believe me or not.

I've just seen it happen too many times.

But anyways, yeah, I could talk about that stuff all day.

And honestly, if anyone out there, I've been trying to get anyone on the left to do a live debate with me for.

For, like, a decade, because, of course, what do they do?

They name call, and they basically throw out, you know, things that just don't make sense.

Right.

Logical fallacies for everybody.

Yeah.

And this is what I've had a problem with.

I. I don't think either party is for the American people.

I think there's corruption on both sides.

And to sit there and say that your side never does it, and then you can go out and find evidence that they did it, and you're like, Ah, well, but your side's doing it worse.

No, injustice is injustice doing it.

Doesn't matter what red or blue.

You're, You're.

You're both screwing us.

Just someone give us dinner.

Like.

But.

But what I, What I do find, Mike, is that people become zealots on both sides, and then they stop talking, they start yelling, and they want to overpower you with their rightness or their correctness instead of their logic and their actual facts.

I've had many discussions with my son, who is not staunch anything.

He's just, he does his research like you do.

He's a little bit younger than you, but he's someone who just dives into information.

And we'll have discussions where he'll bring up points.

And I'm like, oh, that's.

That's actually valid and interesting.

And it will get me to change my opinion on something because he's doing it with logic and facts, not name calling and rhetoric.

And I think there's a huge difference.

Yeah.

And to.

And to kind of bring it back to the point is no one's coming to save you.

Right.

And if you're just relying on the government, you know, it's.

I'm glad we have some sort of a safety net, but it's probably not going to really give you the future that you want.

So we always talk about, focus on your own economy.

Right.

Like, I doubt we're going to stop using the dollar.

Right.

But I know, and I believe from studying history is the dollar will continue to lose value like it has for the last 112 years.

Right.

So what am I going to do and what am I going to teach and help people do to take control of their own finances and their own economy?

Because we can stop using the dollar.

We can start saving in, you know, whatever you want.

Gold, silver, crypto, bitcoin.

But that's up to you to decide where you want to go and what you believe in.

And that's why I get, you know, really passionate about financial literacy is, like you said, you do need money, Right?

It's the, the love of money is the root of evil, not that money is evil.

So keeping that in perspective, you know, having a giving attitude, preserving wealth for your.

For your family, for your future, you know, there's nothing wrong with those things, but you have to decide how you want to do it.

And to me, it's, yes, it.

I think it's smart from a financial sense, but to me, it is more of like a spiritual battle or a political battle.

Like, I think we are in a war when it comes to ideas, when it comes to money.

And so I think when people just blindly just be like, well, I guess I'm going to use the US dollar for everything.

I think you're kind of, if you believe anything like we do, I think you're kind of like giving aid to the enemy almost.

So you're in your 40s or 40. Who is the Mike Tharp today versus the Mike Tharp 10 years ago?

Let's see.

So, well, 10 years ago, obviously I was working full time job, my kids were a lot younger.

I was DJing a lot more back then I was married.

So a lot of those things have changed.

I would say I've become more decentralized and autonomous.

So I no longer, I still teach and help people.

I'm just not inside the school system.

Still a father, not married.

My boys now are 15 and 13.

Amazing, smart, intelligent, kind, caring.

So that's probably one of the things I'm most proud of.

So I'm just trying to enjoy as much time with them.

And that was kind of one of the reasons why I wanted to retire is I saw my dad teach until he was like 62, 63, and then retire and I was like, do I really want to do that?

Like just work, work, work, work until I'm in my 60s and then be able to retire and do what I want to do.

So being able to take my boys to school, pick them up, you know, help coach their team, stuff like that is what really drove me to, you know, find ways to make money online, find ways to help more people, to have that financial freedom.

And what do you want the legacy of this guy to be?

Having fun, not caring what other people think about and enjoying life?

Mike, you do that, you do that very well.

You live life large and you live it to your terms, which I admire and appreciate.

If someone came to you and said, Mike, I. I don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of, how do I get started?

What would you tell those people?

Well, I would first probably, you know, I'd have to ask them some more questions.

But I mean, I, I believe where, almost where anyone is at, they can find ways to start putting a little bit money away, even if it's $10 a week.

So I would probably ask them questions of like, what are your habits?

Like, did you go out to eat last week?

Are you buying, you know, coffee from a store every week?

You know, try to find somewhere where we can bring your budget down even if it's $10 a week.

So I mean, probably one of the easiest ones, right, is you can buy bitcoin every day or every week, automated.

So Even if it's $10 a week, you know, not anymore.

But back in the day, you used to be able to buy an ounce of silver for under $30, right?

So if somebody told me they couldn't afford one silver coin a month, I would, I would say, I don't believe you.

Right?

I mean, what is that, like eight bucks a week?

You know, now Silver's, you know, 90ish, so that could be a little more tough, but is just to get started like this as I've tried to help people no matter what it is, right?

Analysis, paralysis and procrastination, masturbation.

Those are the two things people go to.

And everything's got to be perfect until they get started or, you know, they got to analyze this thing over and over and over again.

It's like you just got to get started, right?

You just got to take that first step and then you just got to be consistent with it.

I mean, there's literally people who have gotten up to one Bitcoin buying $10 a week.

So it's.

It's not, you know, we say this all the time.

Too many people want to get rich quick.

Too many people want to have success, you know, instantly.

And if it doesn't happen, then they give up.

And those are the two things I see people do over and over and over again that, you know, don't give them success versus just getting started, no matter what.

Starting small and staying consistent with, you know, anything that you're doing, whether it's finances or whatever goals that you want to see happen.

So those are like, the two things that I try to focus on is if there's something that I want to do.

I mean, like my first YouTube was deleted, so you can't go back and find them.

But I mean, my first videos were horrible, right?

But I didn't care, right?

Because I.

Even then I had that mentality of like, I'm just going to keep doing it.

I'm gonna keep doing it.

I'll get better.

You know, I wasn't like, I've literally had people tell me this, right?

Like, well, I'll start my podcast and doing lives, like when I get this light and I need to get this microphone, that's, you know, just ridiculous, like twelve hundred dollars or something.

And they just use that as like an excuse to not get started on Whatever it is.

And you see the same and you know, in fitness and health, you know, once I can, I just, I don't have enough money to go to the gym.

You know, you can do a work full workout at home with nothing.

Right.

But that's just kind of the lies people tell themselves for whatever reason.

And that's why a lot of people stay stuck where they're at.

And I, I think that translates to everything, you know, people want.

You talked about the instant, you know, and I find that with whether it be their health, their wealth, their relationship, whatever they want, instant.

They don't want to do the work necessary, they don't want to go through the pain necessary, and they want just the instant.

God didn't promise us an easy life.

He promised us a way through the hardships.

I heard a long time ago, you shouldn't pray for an easy life.

You should pray to be strong enough for the life you're given.

And through that is leaning into your beliefs and your connection and whatever.

And the rest of that requires the co creation with that belief.

It's not just, oh, pray about it and do nothing, it's pray about it, do your part.

The rest happens.

Yeah.

And I think one of the biggest lessons I've learned is to actually pray for that pain.

You know, my, one of my favorite verses is consider it pure draw.

My brothers, when you face trials of many kinds and once you kind of like flip that script of I call it embracing the pain and getting excited about it is when I really saw my life change.

When I stopped getting mad about it and I started laughing about it of like a, you know, almost like, are you serious?

God?

Like you, you had this happen last week and now this has happened and you just kind of get to that point where like, okay, I know you're doing this for my betterment.

I'm gonna accept it.

I'm excited that you've put this challenge or obstacle in my way and I know it's gonna make me better.

I'm gonna come out stronger.

When you get that mindset, that's, you know, at least for me, that's when my life completely changed.

And I, countless people, you know, that have had success have said a lot of the same things of just embrace the pain and don't look at it as a negative.

And when you can change that perspective, you know, I think your whole world

changes and I think that's spot on accurate.

And I appreciate you coming to this show and sharing some of that, you know, insight and this time with us so I'm grateful for you.

I look forward to learning more from you as I get to know you better and just, I. I'm very grateful for people like you.

So thanks, Mike.

Yeah, Darrell, great to be on, you know, we didn't get it.

We could probably talk for another five hours, but hopefully people got some inspiration out of this and I guess I would just leave it of just get started, guys.

No matter how small, no matter, you know, what it feels like today.

It might seem insignificant, but just start taking those baby steps and have a curious mind, get educated about stuff we didn't even really get into.

Blockchain.

Right.

I'll just give you guys a little tip here.

The number one blockchain I'm excited about right now is called Tao.

Tao or Bittensor.

I think it's going to be huge for AI.

It's a decentralized AI, which is, to me, really important.

Unless we want to end up like, you know, the Terminator where the, the robots take over, we need to be very careful about how we're accepting AI, how we're using it, how it's built.

I think to safeguard the future as well.

We.

That's a whole other podcast right there, but you can basically find me anywhere.

Michael Tharp Edu.

It's kind of the name.

So Twitter, YouTube.

Oh, he's got it all.

Awesome.

Yep.

If you want to connect with Mike, you can do so at Facebook, on his Facebook group pages, the runners, Instagram, YouTube X and you can find all of his stuff on linktree.

So you, you can be sure that he's out there and he can get you handled.

So, Mike, again, this door is open.

We can come back in and fill another couple hours and do it more on the finance stuff, but I wanted people to get to know you and who you are and part of your journey as well.

So, you know, I just appreciate that.

Awesome.

Great to be on Darrell.

Happy to come back again, brother.

Thank you.

And I'm going to put this back up here so that, you know, if you do want to connect with Mike, find him on these.

That link tree is a really great spot to find all of his stuff.

And then, as always, thank you for joining us on this edition of A Warrior Spirit.

We're now on all the major platforms as well as on roku via the ProsperityV app and@breakthroughradio.net so be sure to like or subscribe to catch all the episodes.

As always, the journey is sacred.

The warrior is you.

So remember to be inspired, be empowered, and embrace the spirit of the warrior within.

It's not just about the fight.

It's how we rise from it.