Dr. David A. Jones brings a rare combination of professional athlete experience, military service, and psychological expertise to his work as founder of one of the world's largest Christian marketing agencies. After competing professionally in hockey across Europe, Dave founded M is Good in 2001, developing the innovative R7 process that helps leaders effectively communicate vision.

With a doctorate in Sport and Performance Psychology, he coaches elite athletes from the NHL, NFL, and other sports through his Mental Toughness Training system. As a four-year U.S. Air Force veteran, Dave now lives in Raleigh, NC with his family while running three successful companies that blend his Christian brand development expertise with performance coaching.

DAVE@THERESETAGENCY.COM

http://WWW.MISGOOD.COM

Welcome to 12-minute convos with Jesus Believers.

God chose first to have a conversation with us, his creation.

His truth spoken in one moment became an evergreen seed for our generation today.

The power of a conversation is eternal.

Our prayer is that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.

Good day, Dr. David E.

Jones.

Oh, a Jones in the house, a Jones speaking with a Jones.

Wow, hey, how are you doing today?

It's awesome to be here and it's a special time to be talking to another Jones from another place in the world.

This is cool.

Well, one of my goal is to put the DR in front of my name as well.

So thanks for the inspiration for doing that, especially just before the conversation started, you were mentioning you went back and I was telling you, I'm going back at this point, right?

So what's that been like?

I've always looked at like, instead of changing and going to do something entirely different, right?

So I would say that's like going wide.

I've always had this thought of go deep, you know, I come from a pro hockey background and I realized that, you know, to get better at something, you have to put the repetition behind it and just kind of instinctively knew if I want to get better at something, it's not changing professions, it's understanding the profession deeper.

And so that's where I decided, you know what, I want to understand behavior.

And so, you know, in 2013, I went back to school and I said, you know, I want to understand.

So I got a master's in counseling sports psychology.

And then, you know, I just said, I'm just going to keep going.

And so I did.

So it's been, you know, I just got my doctorate in December of 25.

So congrats again.

Yeah.

How has that affected your family life?

It's much better now because I have lots of time.

I want to say lots of time, I have more time than I did before, because literally go to, you know, go to work, come home, read, write, discussion board, read, write.

I mean, every day, just grind, get up early, you know, depending on the class.

And I was one of those people that just, you know, like I was there really to understand and learn.

So I read everything.

You know, I did the homework twice.

There were a lot of times where I was a crazy person, actually read the syllabus and I'm like, OK, and I bought the books.

And a lot of times the syllabus and the books didn't match up.

I'm like, like we got to figure out what book am I?

Oh, sorry, we need to update the link.

You know, that kind of stuff that happened a lot because I was actually reading and trying to understand.

And so the grade really didn't matter to me.

You know, I ended up with a 4.0, but the grade didn't matter to me.

It was really like, what can I get out of this class?

And in some classes, Angel, we're just like, this is dumb.

Like I've been through this so many times, but I always ask God like, all right, God, why am I here?

Like there's got to be something I can learn from this, right?

Whether it's my writing, writing style, my grammar, my APA formatting, or just spiritually, like I need to understand this topic deeper.

And I just always kind of looked at it as.

There's always a learning opportunity.

Hmm.

So when did the transition occur for you to actually activate that, that modus operandi of, Hey, this is how I'm going to actively learn as opposed to what I imagine was not the same application years ago.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I think, you know, I, I had a mentor early on that gave me this analogy.

And I, and I think I just, in the back of my brain, I don't know if I thought about it consciously, probably more subconsciously, but he said, like, you got to look at your life like a tomato, you know, either you're growing or you're dying, you know, like, you know, there's no in between.

It ain't just going to sit there.

It's either growing or dying.

And I just always kind of said, you know, I want to be in a growth mode.

I want to learn.

I want to grow.

I want to change.

And I think it with, with kind of the background of, you know, having a Christian background and God is my source.

I look at that as, you know, there are infinite opportunities.

There's never one solution.

You know, I think fear, you know, lately I've been on this research after I got my doctorate on, you know, the toxic motivators that hold us back.

And there are four big ones, fear, lust, anger, pride.

And so I look at that and go, okay, if I'm not in fear, what am I?

I got, I'm in faith.

You know, they can't coexist fear and faith, you know, so you're either one or the other.

And so I would just kind of look at that as that's kind of my backdrop of if I'm in fear, then the room is really small and there's only one door open.

Right.

But if I'm in faith, man, God's economy is awesome.

It's an abundance.

There's lots of doors.

There's lots of options.

You know the person I'm talking to now may not have that solution, but I'm going to go on and see if there is a different solution, you know?

And so, yeah, I've just always been exploratory that way.

And my wife kind of, and my kids are like, you can't sit still, can you?

I'm like, no, I can't.

I'm not going to.

I'm not going to.

When you think about the work we do as Christians on the earth, is there a parallel thought process that's saying, all right, life after death looks like possibly X, Y, Z?

Or is it simply focusing on, hey, I'm here on earth right now and I'm doing what I'm doing.

Yeah, that's what it is, man.

Like, there's so many things that are out of our control.

But I think through my studying, I realized on the psychology side of things, if I say something to you that's offensive, right, and you react to it, that's on you, right?

So like, I can say something and how you react to it is on you.

So you can react to it positively or you can be inquisitive about why would you say something like that, you know, tell me more.

Or you can be angry.

You can be upset.

So that first thought, first reaction is typically not a good one.

So we have to have a second thought, right, second reaction to what somebody says.

And I feel like the world is, as a Christian, the world is aimed or built around an algorithm to get us to buy stuff and to get us to do things and manipulate us.

And so the more we look around about how we're supposed to act, you know, I think right now in the US, like, it's very much polarized between Democrat and Republican.

You know, and long ago, I had a pastor, I asked a pastor, I said, you know, are you Republican or Democrat?

And he said, you know, one's just a faster train to hell.

They're both going in the same place.

You know, we gotta stop looking around.

Good political answer though, right?

For a pastor, yeah.

So we gotta stop looking around at the world and start looking to the Word of God and look to Jesus for answers.

And I think that's kind of what we can control and how we're influenced and how we're, how we're glorifying Him with our talents and abilities, even when we're in a valley, because life is about peaks and valleys, right?

100%.

Well, I'm seeing you wearing a t-shirt here on my prep screen, and there's M is good.

Is that M for manipulation?

So the original name was Marketing Ministries, and in 2013, we rebranded to M is good.

Wow, you went all out.

Wow.

That's boldness, right?

In the marketplace.

Wow.

Or is it that in North Carolina, it's an okay thing that you're putting marketing and ministries in the same line?

I had the same thing when God gave me that name.

I'm like, this is the dumbest name ever, man.

What in the world is happening?

And so, yeah, I just did the research and it was available.

And so, you know, today we're one of the largest Christian ad agencies in the world.

I agree with you, though.

Marketing and ministries, two common names slammed together.

And, you know, it's interesting you bring that up, Angel, because early on, I had many churches say, marketing and Christianity, what?

Get away.

Like, we would never market.

And then when I, that really pushed me and I looked at, you know, what Jesus did in terms of communicating the gospel, when he did, when he communicated, you know, he was advertising himself.

You know, when you talk to somebody and you talk about what happened in the miracles and the disciples and what they did, what Jesus did, that's a form of marketing and advertising.

They're talking about the miracles and wonders that this, that this son of God did.

I'll throw in there the negative psychology too.

Don't tell anyone what I did for you.

Right, right, right.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah, that's, that's awesome.

It's amazing.

So tell me about the agency for those listening, let them understand the professional side of you.

Um, you know, it's been 25 years.

Um, I feel like, you know, as a leader of this agency, like we have something very special, you know, our vertical is Jesus.

We do represent clients from all around the world.

We do do two things really well.

We, uh, we understand messaging really well and we understand KPI management, which stands for key performance indicators from the impressions of the click to the conversion metric, whether it's sign up, donate, attend an event.

Like we understand the digital space very, very well.

Feel like it's been successful.

And this is the honest truth, man.

Like early on I was, I was a pro hockey player.

So I feel like I messed up enough and was just dumb enough to stick around trust God in the process.

And now, you know, we, we've done a lot of different things in different ways and failed a lot and succeeded a lot, you know, and more failure than, than success in a lot of ways.

But, you know, today we're buzzing, you know, today it's, it's pretty awesome to, to be around men and women of God that are, that are chasing the idea of how to communicate the gospel of Jesus in their own kind of way.

Uh, my last son, his name is Angel David Jones.

When I saw the David E.

Jones, you know, I was like, Oh, this has to be a great conversation.

Yeah.

But he has a similar type personality, uh, that you're giving me, you know, like this coolness yet he's so driven.

All right.

Uh, for the person that's listening, who may have been, uh, in a similar situation like you, where you, I mean, it's from hockey to being the marketing guy, what would you say to them in terms of what they're hearing from God as what they should do with their lives?

I would say like, man, follow your heart and what you feel like God's calling you to do and be smart about it, you know, in terms of finding a mentor, a Christian mentor that you can bump ideas against, read the word of God and stay in faith.

Hey, Dr. David E.

Jones, folks.

Hey, links are in the show notes.

This was a pleasure, one I treasure.

Thank you for being on What Is Inspired.

Thanks for welcoming us.