Join host Jim Burgoon as he engages in a heartfelt conversation with Joseph Graham, a seasoned sales professional and podcast host. Joe emphasizes that sales is fundamentally about problem-solving and building genuine relationships, rather than just transactions. He candidly shares his journey of balancing family, faith, and business, revealing how personal losses have shaped his perspective on life and work. With authenticity, Joe encourages Christian entrepreneurs to embrace their calling and take actionable steps toward their dreams, while emphasizing the importance of gratitude and intentionality in daily living. This episode is filled with valuable insights for anyone seeking to navigate the complexities of life while remaining grounded in their faith and purpose.

Joseph Graham shares a compelling narrative about resilience, purpose, and authentic leadership in this enlightening episode of Grace in the Grind. Through his journey, he illustrates how personal trials, including the death of family members and struggles with faith, have shaped his understanding of success and fulfillment. Joseph's perspective on sales is particularly striking; he argues that effective selling is rooted in relationship-building and problem-solving, rather than manipulation or high-pressure tactics. By shifting focus from financial metrics to the impact one can have on others, he invites entrepreneurs to redefine their goals. The conversation also emphasizes the significance of community and support systems in overcoming life's hurdles, encouraging listeners to seek out relationships that inspire and uplift them. Joseph's final message resonates deeply: every individual has the potential to influence the world positively, and by embracing vulnerability and taking intentional steps towards their dreams, they can create a life that aligns with their core values and beliefs.

Takeaways:

• Balancing family and business requires intention; being present is crucial for relationships.
• Sales should be viewed as problem-solving rather than a negative connotation of manipulation.
• Life is short, and personal losses can motivate profound changes in one’s priorities.
• Authenticity in relationships and being true to oneself leads to genuine connections in business.
• Christian entrepreneurs should give themselves grace and acknowledge their struggles without guilt.
• Taking small, consistent actions towards your dreams can create significant momentum over time.

Joe Graham

Imagine waking up to a life you love, one that was once just a dream. This is not only possible but highly likely if you pursue success in the right way. In this episode, Joe Graham shares his journey to becoming a 4-time Presidential Circle Award Winner for a Fortune 100 company and the lessons he learned.

Joe's Facebook page

@Joegrahamreal on Instagram

@Joegraha721 on Twitter

Joe on YouTube

Jim Burgoon

Links referenced in this episode:

• www.leadwithjim.com

You can also check out

• www.leadwithjim.live
• www.facebook.com/leadwithjim

Copyright 2024 Jim Burgoon

Welcome to Grace and the grind, the podcast where we dive deep into the journeys of heart centered and purpose driven leaders and entrepreneurs. We're here to equip and encourage you on your journey. So let's get started and find the grace within the grind.

This is grace in the grind, and now your host, Jim Burgoon.

Thanks for tuning in today to grace in the grind, where we're here to delve into the story behind the story of some of the most successful entrepreneurs in order to help, to equip, to empower, and to encourage you to do all that God's called you to do in this world and to get out there on your mission, on purpose. And today, my good friend Joseph Graham is here to his story. Joe, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Jim. I know we've been working on getting.

Together for a long time. It's an honor to be on your.

Show and more so to be your friend.

Absolutely. Same here. So, just so the audience has some context, why don't you tell me a little and tell them a little bit about you, about what you do. Sure.

First and foremost, I'm a husband and a father.

That is really where my world starts. I've been in sales for over 20 years. I've done every type of sale you can think of, from home improvement sales.

To B two B sales for a Fortune 50 company.

If you look behind me, you can see like the awards and stuff there. About three, three and a half years ago, I started a podcast called the.

150K podcast because I was doing so.

Well in the business space, making over one hundred k. I wanted to help dads take their kids to Disney as their wife to Hawaii.

That was our dream.

You know, you could enter whatever dream you want to go into that. And then as it developed, a friend of mine goes, you just need to.

Come up from behind the curtain.

You talk way more than just about money and business. So thus, the Joseph Graham show was born.

I do a little bit of sales.

Coaching on the side, and really, I.

Help people wake up to a life they love living. No rules.

So when I say that, what I mean is this, Jim, it's not that you had to be a multimillionaire.

Now, I'm not against it.

I have friends that are multimillionaires. I think having money is cool because it gives you a tool.

But what is it that makes your life happy?

You can make 100,000 and do a.

Bunch of stuff with your friends and.

Family and be happy and fulfilled. So that's a quick synopsis of what I do and who I help. But yeah, like first and foremost I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm a.

Guy just trying to live a life.

He loves waking up to with my.

Faults, with everything I know that goes.

On in the world. It's not perfect, it's just being better. One person or being 1% better each and every day.

I love the 1% thing. Ive been using that rule for a while to skip 1% better.

So heres one of the things, like you said, husband father, sales for 20 years and then you talked about no rules, living a life worth living. I love those things. So heres where im going to lean into the first question.

How have you balanced family and business where its the family became the priority or were they always the priority?

I don't balance so I'm not going to be your balanced guy, I'm intentional. Meaning that when I'm at work for the day, my nine to five, I'm doing that. I'm 100% present.

But that means I'm not like scrolling on facebook, I'm not getting distracted. I'm doing the things I need to do, pulling the levers I need to.

Pull so that when I'm with my.

Family I can be 100% present with them.

Because as high achievers, as entrepreneurs, as.

Business owners, we get our worth most of the time from what we accomplish and we can get into that go mode. So I had to learn and I've been married for 23 years so this has been a process.

Still hearing a lot saying not perfect but just learning over the process.

I had to learn to start being.

Intentional because there used to be those days where I would get up at six and go till 910 and be like I'm doing this for my family.

And in reality I wasn't spending time.

With them and that was just a lie because I was doing what I thought I needed to do and saying.

I was doing it for them.

But here's the thing. Your intention, your actions, how you live, what you do shows what you love. So if I say I'm going to.

Spend time with my family, then I need to actually spend time with my family.

If I say I'm building this business for them, great, then I need to.

Figure out how can I build this business for them and still be in their life. Like my daughter does ballet. My son did baseball so a few years ago.

Now he's graduated.

And those two years were phenomenal for me. I mean, it was just rec ball, but we got to do stuff together so it's not balanced as much as intention.

I absolutely love that. That is, that is good. So here's the question then.

Moving from working the full time job, working six to nine every night and then getting into a place of intention, what was the camel that broke the straws back? Maybe that's the saying for the southern saints. That was like, oh, man, I am so, like, in left field and I need to come back.

What was that thing for you that made you realize that you needed to shift your life?

It wasn't fulfilling. It was like, I'm very big on relationships. I'm very big on being authentic. I'm very big on doing what I'm saying I will do.

And I was looking, I'm like, I'm saying that I'm doing this for them, but I'm not having time to do things with them. So that was a thing there. And in reality, I wasn't making as much money as I thought I would.

By doing all the grind and trying.

To burn both candles, I started reading and listening to podcasts and different things and I realized, wait a minute, if.

I'm actually intentional in doing stuff that.

Move the levers forward, doing things that make it to where if I'm working on my business, it's something that's going.

To be a money making type of.

Thing, not a, oh, I'm doing research.

On this thing or, oh, I'm doing this or that. I started figuring out what is it that I needed to do with my.

Business to move forward and what I need to do with my sales job to move it forward. Because again, I had to prove proof of concept once I figured that out. Like I mentioned the awards before, I.

Won the President Circle award for Spectrum Enterprise, which is a Fortune 100 company.

Four years in a row consecutively. That's not luck. That's just knowing your systems and all. But in life, if you have your systems and processes in place.

Okay, I need to make 100 calls today. Cool. That means if I had to make 100 calls, I'm going to call them.

At the right time from eleven to two.

But I'm going to be intentional. Have my email off, do everything off. I do a lot with time blocking.

It was one of those things where.

I realized that I said, hey, this is my life. This is what I want to live. I'm going to make it happen. And then last year, actually, it's almost.

Been two years now. My sister passed cancer.

We talked about that and that was like a thing where I was just like, holy crap, life is short, I need to do more things.

And my mother in law surprisingly passed.

Like, we had two major things and my wife and I finally just looked at each other go, are we going to move toward our dreams or not? We left Texas with that great job. Everything was all set for a new.

Opportunity with T Mobile so we could get closer to our dreams of having.

A condo in Hawaii, having cabins in Montana, doing things that we want to wake up to each and every day. So there was that.

And I know I'm shifting it here a little bit, but there was that risk factor of, am I going to do what I said and chase after my dreams and take a risk or am I going to stay where it's comfortable and just give kind of that comfort, give up. I even feel icky fame. It's like being content in something that I knew most people would say was successful.

Jim, like literally I was making over that.

I'm not saying this to bright, but I was making over 200,000 a year. I was working from six to three, really. And I had all the time I wanted.

But that's not what I'm supposed to do.

That's not like my end goal. That was to fund my dream so I could do what I want to do. So again, I had to take the.

Risk with T Mobile.

I had to take the risk with doing sales coaching.

I had to take a risk and move myself into a place where I had the ability to step into that dream and put myself in a position where I had to take action on it more. Hopefully that answers your question. I know I went into a big circle there.

No, it's fine. It was great.

It was a great answer now, but it also opens up other questions, like how did you mitigate fear, like going into these things, the anxiety, the fear of that letting go of what you're used to move into something that you want that you're not used to a few things.

One, I've tested myself and I've taken baby steps in the beginning. So when I first started out and I was married, I was working in a factory, and I took a risk on sales, and I had to learn.

How to do sales, and I started.

Getting better at that. So I took a risk. You know how you start building up your risk tolerance because you bet on yourself and you win. But it wasn't that.

I just bet on myself and I won. I have also listened to tons of podcasts, read tons of book, networked with people that think differently than I have.

They're more successful than I am.

That can pull me up.

But here's the thing.

Here's the caveat.

I didn't just stop there. I started reaching out to other people.

And pulling them up as well, because I think you should have both.

You should have people that are pushing you, people that you're like your boys that you ride with, and then people that you're like bringing up, because that gives you that ability to step out and trust yourself.

Me being able to win four present.

Circles awards in a row gave me the confidence to go, I can go to any company, use my system and make sales. Now me training people how to do sales, which I've been doing with clients that I've started acquiring that new risk of.

Okay, cool, can I take what's here and put it into them there? But I have a high risk tolerance.

And I know that I would rather try something and then not work out.

Learn from it, then sit on the sideline of safety and not do the thing that I felt I was called.

To do, because for so long I.

Was caught up in trying to please other people. And what do they think? And what do they think and what do they think? And life is short. And like we were talking about faith.

And all, God gives you the desires of your heart. So if he's giving you desires of.

Your heart, you have to act on them. If you don't act on them, then.

You'Re not taking the seed that he gave you or the talent or whatever.

Words you want to use from the parables. You're holding it.

I'd rather take the risk and trust.

That he's going to catch me if I fall than not.

That's good. And you use the word call.

The primary crux of our listeners are all christian entrepreneurs, those people of faith, christian entrepreneurs, christian creators and leaders. How did you know, or how did you come to the conclusion that this is what you were called to do.

Prayer, meditation, breath work, walking, testing and trying, and then having a circle of friends and asking them, hey, what do you see? But caveat. The circle of friends had my best interest.

Weren't trying to get anything from me, wasn't in any group of theirs that.

They could benefit from it. These were just genuine friends that I knew or people I had networked with.

That could see the good in me to encourage me to step out. Secondly, it's called the walk of faith. I'll be honest with you, the last.

Two and a half years, really three, because of my wife had a miscarriage, we had all the death and all. I wasn't happy with God and I.

Were on good terms now, but there.

Was a while we were having intense conversations where I just didn't want to do anything with it. But it was still that, that voice, that simple. I got you, even though it didn't seem like it.

Because, you know, things happen and you can look at one or two ways either things happen to you or for you.

My sister passing sucked, but in a.

Lot of ways it happened for me to be able to propel me to take action because I'm like, life is short.

Going through all the stuff I've gone.

Through has actually increased my faith in God now. But if you talk to me a year ago, you might have thought I wasn't even a Christian at that point because I was just having to go.

Through what I was going through.

And a lot of times we don't like to talk about this, but church life and all in general, it's not perfect.

It's not always you're super happy with.

God and you're on the mountaintops and you're jumping and all think about it this way. David was about to get killed by his men.

If you look at the people in the Bible, they all went through crazy stuff and then God hooked them from there and called them to do what they were doing. Moses was hiding in the desert. God called him to do stuff. And I think sometimes you go through pivotal moments in your life, and I.

Use the term call because I know.

What the group of people we're talking to, if I was talking to someone else, it might be a feeling or whatever, but if you're supposed to do something and this is what God put.

In your heart to do and you.

Don'T act on it, you're not being a true Christian. I'm just going to be flat honest there, because if, you know, I'm not saying you're wondering or maybe, and I'm going to also caveat this.

Not all of you need to be preachers. Not all of you need to be worship leaders.

Not all of you need to do all this extra stuff. A lot of you need to go out and actually talk to real people and get outside your little church, bubbles, and actually be the church.

Because if you look at it, in the beginning, they went from house to.

House and they talked to their friends.

And families and shared their faith. It was an external thing. They would meet together once.

I say, hey, this happened.

This happened. But they would go out. Now it seems like we all want to huddle in our thing and say we're the right way, we're the only way, and no one's going out.

So check that too. If, if that lands for you and you feel annoyed or mad at me about it, check that one.

Because it might be that you actually need to go out and help someone else, without judgment, without thought process, without an agenda. Because when Jesus wouldn't help people, he just helped people.

And then that's what drew them to God, not go out and tell them, if you do it my way, then I'll help you.

Mandeh, man, that's good to manager. You weren't supposed to be a preacher because that was the zinger, man. I loved it.

Yeah, so we're going to touch that one. I grew up in a culture that said that was the only way you could be successful.

They tried to put me in that.

Box, but I've always been that square peg trying to put it, could I be a preacher? Yes. Did I even look to do it at one point? Yes, I looked into it, but it's just not what I feel I should do. I want to go and actually talk.

To people and reach the world around me.

I don't care about being the four walls, speaking to people that already know better or already know God. That's not my, that's not my thing. Like, I've never been that guy.

Now, if you said, hey, let's go talk to someone on the street, let's go do that, I've done that before.

I like that.

But I'm, in a lot of ways, the more I think about it, the more I've been going through this, I'm probably better talking to, and people might look this weird, people that are super successful, people that think they have it, but they haven't really understood what that was.

And they still haven't found God.

They still haven't had that connection. Because when I talk to them, I.

Don'T care what you make.

I know people that are worth millions of dollars that could care less. I know people that don't have any money could care less on that.

I care about people in their relationship, so I have the ability to go in and talk straight to them, and most people don't because, oh, he's worth 20 million. I can't talk straight. I'm like.

I'm talking straight, like we're talking right here, Jim.

And it's not a money thing. I'm only just saying, looking at my life, how I operate, I have the ability to connect with people, and I don't look at it from. From that standpoint.

So if. I don't even know if I would use the term calling.

But I think me being who I am, helping, who I'm helping, is way more effective in impacting people for Christ than anything I could do in a church.

Standing up there talking to people that have heard it a thousand times and taking no action because I wouldn't be the good one for them, because I'd be like, look, you sat here for, what is it, 52 weeks now, and you haven't told anyone about your faith? You're just checking the box, dude.

I'm speaking my language, man. Very on the same page. So let's dive into the one question. We're going to shift gears after this. You mentioned mad at God, then not mad at God.

What was the. What helped you navigate through that, and how did you come to be, like, the conclusion of saying, okay, God, I'm no longer Maddie?

What did that look like?

It was a long process, I'll be honest.

It's like a two year process. And I've gotten burdened in churches and stuff, too. So there's a lot of stuff I have to unpack, which I know.

I think it came down to just getting to the point of if God.

Knew me before the foundations of the.

Earth, if he called me like, there's that thing in Jeremiah, I think we said, he's called you by your name as a prophet to the nations or whatever, something to that effect. I didn't quote it.

You, so don't trip out, people.

But if you look at it and.

God is all knowing, then he knew.

I was going to be in this spot. He knew I was going to be mad. He knew I was going to yell, scream, cuss, whatever it was that I.

Was going through because of the pain.

The loss, the bitterness, the thing that life throws at you. But even when I did that, even when I hit my low. I still felt that pulling back to him. Not in a it has to be.

This way or that way or a.

Perfect way that maybe lines up with what everyone thinks with it, but in.

The fact that he loves me for me.

And even though I have faults, even though I have pains, I don't even think he was mad that I was upset.

I went through a lot of crazy stuff. Losing your sister, losing your mom or.

Your mother in law, that quick of a timeframe, having a. Losing a baby. Like all that stuff weighs on you.

And then all the other things are wife.

That happened. And I think we have to be perfect as christians.

Christians aren't perfect.

Look at every single person in the Bible. They all had issues. David should have been going to war, and instead he was on a rooftop looking at Bathsheba. Solomon was the wisest man in the.

World, yet his foreign wives led him away.

Peter denied Christ right after being called the rock. Like, we're fallen people in need of a savior. And it's not us that saves us.

You can't save yourself.

And I think I had to come to that revelation that it's God that saved me. And even in my weakness, in my brokenness, he loves me just as much as if I'm on the mountain.

And then just having those conversations with him every day.

Like, I try to get up in.

The morning and I read a proverb and I read another chapter, and I just started this about two weeks ago again. And there's times and seasons, but, like, lately, that's just been my thing.

And then I'll go for a walk and I'll do gratitude and I'll do prayer and I'll do meditation and I'll just have a real talk like we're talking here. So I'm not doing flowery. Oh, God, you're great. Like, I mean, I get that. I understand there's reverence for God, so don't hear what I'm not saying.

There's times like, I just talked to.

Him because if he's my father and he loves me, he knows I'm having a bad day.

He's not going to be like, oh, I can't talk to you now because you didn't do the right thing. Like, yeah, hopefully that answered your question.

It does, man.

It really.

You really have been hitting some really good points and for the listeners. Yeah. Just as a side note, God doesn't speak KIng James English, so you don't have to speak to him in King James, so it's all good.

My friends let's move over to sales. You had 20 years of sales and different things. How has what you've learned to sale in sales, the skill set, how's that impacted your life?

In ways, one way or another, positive, negative. Do you find that you sell to everybody? You find, and it's helped you in other ways, like help me understand that.

Sales is a relationship.

It's problem solving. So from my point of view, how.

I teach sales, how I engage in it, it's just helping other people fix a problem. You give them enough value, they pay you for it.

Everything in life is a sale.

I agree with that, Uncle G. Grant Cardone says that. But just because everything in life is.

A sale doesn't mean you're trying to rip anyone off.

But let's take the word sales and make it into problem solving. Everything in life is really problem solving. When you're in a relationship with someone, you're trying to figure something out.

You guys are working on a product together. You know, hey, where do I want to go eat with my wife? That's still problem solving, because you need to eat somewhere. What do I want to do?

How do I want Jim to respond to me in a relationship? There's still that the thought process of connecting.

And I just look at it as I'm building a relationship, I'm helping them out, and hopefully this relationship will make.

It to where they help me out as well.

Maybe it's monetarily. Maybe it's through introducing me to someone else. Maybe it's through me getting to go on a trip. I don't know. I don't. Sales is.

I think sales has a dirty connotation from it, because most of the time when you see it on tv or movies, the guy's sharky and he's trying to take advantage of someone. But if you're just trying to help people, you win.

That's the biggest thing I've learned. And then secondly, be inquisitive and curious about other people.

When you're on a sales call, talk to them about their problems, their needs, their wants. If you're talking more than they are.

You'Re losing because they don't care about your business. They don't care about what you want.

They care about solving their problem.

Now, once you've established the. That you have a relationship with them.

That you're there for them and you're.

Solving their problem, you win. And it opens up everything else, because now they trust you, which is huge in sales. They like you, so they'll buy from you.

It's just we have to reformat in our head that sales is not bad. Sales is a good thing because everything.

In life is a sale.

I have this Shaker cup because I.

Went to a George Bryan event.

My buddy George, but someone sold him.

Or he got someone to give those away.

I bought a second shaker cup because the one I got from George's was pink. This one is a red one when my wife took it. So I still like the cup.

So I bought one.

So that company, because they gave to George for his event, gave me the Shaker cup. Same type of thing. I'm just using little examples of it. I like coffee. It says Kawaii coffee. Why? Because I like to go to Hawaii.

There's a company there that has a brand they met in need.

I'm a coffee addict.

I have no problem. I will admit that till the day I die. I'm a coffee addict. It's okay. There's certain addictions that I'm cool with. I'm going to keep it.

So I have a mug because I like their coffee. If not, I think we just make it so hard. That would be the thing. Relationships, problem solving.

And then listen to your customer and get them to talk about themselves and you win. Like you win big.

So then how does one of you, speaking from 20 years of experience, who just gave an incredible perspective on sales and we have the christian entrepreneur who is struggling, maybe struggling with God. And I believe you answered that pretty well. Man, that was great conversation.

And theyre sitting there, im a christian entrepreneur creator and im struggling with sales and im struggling with my relationship with God and im struggling maybe even the relationship with money, what would you say to that person?

Give yourself grace. Give yourself grace to know that if God loves you and you're in the place you are for a reason. Secondly, don't stay in the mire.

Don't keep thinking on what you don't have.

Look at what you do have.

Get in gratitude.

Find something that you can be thankful for.

Maybe it's just I've gone on walks before and I looked and I've seen the mountains and all from where I live now. Or I, I was just thankful that I could be out and have breath.

Third, start to take action.

The steps you do now shows up.

2346 months from now.

So if you're building a business, start to take action.

Make the calls, send the emails, do.

The content, do the things you need to do. If your relationship with God sucks right now, own it. Admit it. Not a big deal. Secondly, ask yourself why that?

Is it something that is keeping you from that relationship? Is it something someone else did? Because normally, when you look at it, it's not really something God did.

Maybe a pastor kicked you off, maybe a believer said something wrong to you.

Maybe supposedly a Christian took advantage of you. Maybe you had a big tragedy in.

Your life, and you're just trying to understand, if God really loved me, why am I going through this? And then once you do that, get.

A circle of people around you that.

You can talk to, that you can trust very much.

Caveat that's make sure you can trust them.

They are safe to talk with. I've also, another friend of ours worked.

Through some of my trauma stuff with Brian Bogart.

Good friend of mine. Helped me a lot to deal with.

Stuff that I had inside of me.

That I needed to process.

The traumas, the life, the stuff.

Because none of us make it out of here perfect or unscathed or any of that.

We all have stuff we're dealing with.

We all have trials, pains, issues.

You're not alone.

And don't get around the whiny, combative. I am always right, Christian.

They're not your help. Don't do that.

Get around people that understand where you're at, that give you grace and help you get through it. Because at the end of the day, you need to be thankful for what you have. You need to have a group of friends around you that can support you.

And you just need to take a step forward.

One step a day. We talked about it at the beginning. 1% better.

Because if you keep trying and getting better each and every day, you're going to start getting wins.

And when you start getting wind, you get into momentum.

When you start getting into momentum, you get into flow. And when you start getting the flow, you get into who you are as.

A person and who you can help.

And even if you're having a bad day, even if you're having that, you still can rise up and still share your message. What you're supposed to do, who you're supposed to help, and then you get another one, and you can start building on that. And it's.

It's like anything.

Momentum goes both ways.

You can either stay in it, wallow in it, and get buried under it, or you can start stepping forward and start climbing out of it. And with the God thing, take some time. I like nature.

Nature works good for me.

If you don't like nature, maybe it's in your office or wherever you. No distraction, no cell phone, no nothing. And just say ten minutes and have a real conversation. And guess what?

If it's just you and God, talk how you want and maybe some of you won't like this, but if, if.

You'Re so mad, you're going to swear I don't think God cares. If you're so frustrated that you're breaking.

Down in tears, I don't think God's.

Going to be upset with that.

Don't take, let me rephrase that. He cares, but I don't think he's caring about what's coming out of your mouth if you're truly seeking his heart.

So I think that's the biggest thing because we think we have to be perfect or we had to come to.

God with all this stuff and he's.

Like, bro, Jim, I already know where you're at, Joe.

I already know where you're at.

I know what you've done.

I know the worst thing you've ever done in your life.

And guess what I died on the cross for? I forgave that. The worst thing, whatever that is in your head, the worst thing. It was nothing compared to some of the other people out there.

Don't beat yourself up. The worst thing you ever did, God looked at you and said, I love you.

I want to be a part of your life.

I want to call you by my name. You're mine. Like, that's crazy because I know I've done some pretty crazy things. I know you've probably done some pretty crazy things. Oh, yeah.

So don't ever think you're too far from God.

Don't ever think you crossed a line of you can't come back from it if you're even thinking about it or worried about it.

You've not crossed that line.

That's good. That's really good. Thank you for sharing all of that.

And as we start landing the plane, like couple minor, a couple questions left before we finally touch down. So what are you currently working on for you?

Right now I'm doing sales coaching and group sales coaching. It's my business. That's what I'm working on there. For me personally, I'm working on waking.

Up to a life I love living.

Love talking to people about that vision casting, figuring out what they want to do, but not just put casting the vision, but actually reverse engineering it so you can get to the place you want to be. So, like I talked about this earlier, one of the things I want is I want a, we'll do the cabin in Montana.

I want a cabin in Montana, but I don't just want a cabin in Montana. I want a cabin in Montana with 40 acres. I wanted to have a porch swing.

I want to be able to either.

See a river or a lake. I want to have animals going through it so I can go and have.

A place where I can go and write, rest or whatever.

But I also want to do it to where I can airbnb it when I'm not there so it can give me a positive cash flow. How am I going to do that? One, I do sales coaching. I do that type of stuff. Two, I have the day job. I can fund it that way.

Three, I'm looking into other real estate.

Deals and stuff so that I can fill the dream. That's the thing that I think most people forget. Like, they have this great vision and.

They pray to God and they believe.

God, do this for me. Do this for me and God's take action. What actions are you taking to get there? What steps are you moving forward with to get there?

Because if you don't take steps forward, you can't get there. The steps of a righteous man are.

Ordered of the Lord.

That means you have to take the steps. So it can't just be a dream. The graveyard is full of dreams. You have to have actions and steps toward it.

What book are you currently reading right now? Go for stupid by Steve Stimps. Go for stupid by Steve Sims. Steve Simms is a cool dude. He was a concierge for the.

For super rich people for a while, but, like, super cool dude. Like, he got. He got someone married in the Vatican, which is crazy.

He shut down the museum that has the statue of David in Florence so someone could have a dinner underneath. Like, he just learned to ask the questions.

Great book.

Great dude. You should check that out. The other one I'm reading right now is called Vivid Vision by Cameron Harold. That's a great book.

It's a reread for me, but that's.

Just about getting your three to five year plan out there because you don't want to have it too far out in the future. And then the Bible, of course.

Been reading that, too.

But, yeah, absolutely. And for all you guys who are listening, I would put all of that in show notes for you to have easy access and to find every bit of that.

And everything that we've mentioned in the show today will also be in the show notes. And then with that being said, my friend, sure.

I'm all over social media, so on.

Every platform but Facebook and LinkedIn.

I'm Joe Graham. Real r e a l because I couldn't get it on Instagram and so I just kept that little tag. My, my podcast is called the Joseph Graham Show.

I have a Facebook group there. If you dm me, reach out to me.

I'm on all those platforms.

It's me. I don't have a va. So you'll, don't forget to talk to me.

Sweet. And I will make sure to link those into the show notes as well.

And as I ask all of my guests, what is one piece of wisdom in a moment that you would share that says, here, take this with you.

We talked about a lot of stuff, and I want to go back to this. You're enough. You're loved.

You're enough. Quit beating yourself out for the things you didn't accomplish.

You can't go in the future. You can't go in the past the stuff you've done in the past.

Learn to forgive yourself about the stuff.

You'Re trying and worrying about in the future. Trust that God's going to take care of it. Trust that you set plan in place. Live your day to the fullest, know you're enough.

Love well, and just do your best.

Because that's all you can do. And I will tell you this, if you do that each and every day.

You will accomplish things that will blow.

Your mind and do things that will impact the world around you.

Great wisdom. So, Joe, thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you, listener, for hanging out with us.

First and foremost, my gratitude to my dear friend. Man, you were, you're awesome, bro. The stories you shared and everything really hit me home on some things, too.

So thank you so much for being here with me.

Thank you for having me. Appreciate you, Jim.

And then, sir and listeners, the rest of you guys, you've been listening to grace in the grind, where we're empowering equipment. Encourage you to get out there and do all that God's called you to.

So if so inclined, lead a rate and review on whatever podcast platform you're listening to or YouTube. And then I'll see you sometime on the next episode with our next guest.

This has been grace in the grind. Whether you're a christian leader looking for guidance or an entrepreneur seeking inspiration, it's Jim's passion to equip and encourage you.

Make sure to check out Jim's solo episodes where he shares practical leadership insights grounded in a biblical perspective. We hope you've enjoyed the show. If you did, make sure to, like, rate and review, and we'll be back soon.

But in the meantime, find us on social media at leadwithJem. And you can also hit the website at www.leadwithjim.com. take care of yourself and we'll see you next time on grace in the grindenne.