00:00 Chris Grainger
Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast sermon, Christian men who are hungry to be the leader God intends you to be. I’m your host, Chris Granger. Let’s jump in. Alright guys. It is your meet episode of the week, and you know we’re gonna start every episode with scripture. So this week, the scripture is Luke 10, verse 37, and he said, the one who showed compassion to him, then Jesus said to him, go and do the same.

So guys, we’re gonna be digging deep into to a kingdom mindset around entrepreneurship in this episode. Now, if you missed the SKO o, go check that out. I’ll unpack that scripture in depth. But for this co, for this conversation, I’m excited because Riley Meek is gonna be joining us. Okay? He’s the founder of the Kings.

So what that is, it’s a community that, that designed to equip entrepreneurs with tools, systems, and frameworks that they need to discover, develop, and deploy their God-given vision into the marketplace. So look, for the last 10 years, Riley has helped entrepreneurs scale their business, scale their businesses, and they’ve created some transformational wealth.

It’s just been unbelievable with their company. So he’s got this company’s social dynamic settling. We we touch about on that a little bit in the conversation. And I’ll tell you what, he has just his methods that he has. They’re proven, the strategies work. They build relationships that last a lifetime and really make an impact on tons of customers.

So he’s helped hundreds of entrepreneurs gain clarity and create massive acceleration in their businesses and their brands. So guys, I’m gonna tell you what this is, this is a really great conversation with Riley. We go through a lot of, of, of areas that really are gonna shift and challenge your mindset and how you think.

About growing kingdom entrepreneur businesses. Okay? Now you may be thinking, well, Chris, I’m a W2 employee. I’m telling you, this conversation is for you. Okay? Cuz I am, I’m the same way. I’ve been a W2 employee my whole life. This conversation with Riley was very illuminating to the potential that exists for what God has in store for us.

So, GU guys, buckle

02:04 Rylee Meek
up.

02:04 Chris Grainger
Get ready for the powerful conversation with Riley Meek.

Riley. Meek, welcome to the line within Us. How you doing today,

02:13 Rylee Meek
my friend? Doing well, Chris. Happy to be here, brother. Oh

02:17 Chris Grainger
man. So happy to have you here. Very excited to have you, you know, share so much for our listeners, but they just heard me tell a whole, a whole bio, but that’s just Chris saying words.

They’re used to Chris talking, my man. Tell us your story, man. Give us a little bit more about who you are and

02:29 Rylee Meek
how you got to, to where you at with the King’s Council. Yeah, man, happy, happy to do so. So, um, I’ll, I’ll try to keep this under. Three hours and, uh, there you go. You got, we got plenty of time,

02:40 Chris Grainger
man.

This is long

02:41 Rylee Meek
inform content, so we’re good. . Well, I grew up in, in South Dakota, uh, great place to be from. I, I had, uh, become an entrepreneur at a young age, really, because I, I got my first job, an hourly paying job at the age of 15, uh, $5 and 15 cents was minimum wage at that time. And, uh, I was like, I thought I didn’t know any different, so I worked eight hours.

Uh, it was horrendous. Um, I was literally making pizzas at a, it wasn’t, it wasn’t like hard work, but just not, not my cup of tea. And, uh, uh, at, after the end of that eight hour shift, I did the math in my head and I just thought, man, there’s no way I’m doing that again. Mm-hmm. . And, and I quit. And it wasn’t in an arrogant sense, but I just, I realized at a young age that, um, there, there’s gotta be a better way.

And, and what really upset me was, uh, not that. Somebody else would put that value on my time. Cuz that’s essentially what, if you’re working an hourly paid job, it’s essentially they’re saying you’re worth this amount to them. Mm-hmm. . Um, so that’s really what, what upset me is that I allowed them to do that.

And again, not in an arrogant way, but I was just like this understanding of there’s, there’s a better way to, to do this. And, um, and that, that really started my entrepreneurship journey, man. Um, from, I, so I, I ca I say I gave my life to entrepreneurship at 15, but I actually gave my life to Christ at, at 16.

And uh, that was just through, uh, really kind of bottom of the barrel. Uh, I was, I was drinking a, a ton at a young age, obviously through high school. There’s not a whole lot going on in South Dakota. Um, I had like cheated on my girlfriend. Um, and I got, I just had to like, get out of the environment that I was in cuz I had ultimately become a product.

Of my environment and we all do, whether we like it or not. And so I, I moved up to Minnesota for the, the remaining of my, my summer of, uh, when I turned 16 essentially, and got involved with just some, some really cool people that I didn’t realize you could actually be cool and be a Christian. Um, yeah.

Cause , I mean, in all reality, like the, the Christians in my hometown were, were like broke, broken in, like this woe is me mentality. So, so it was like, mm-hmm. , I don’t want any of that. And, and now that I’ve actually read the Bible and I understand, you know, not entirely, but I, there’s new revelation that comes.

It’s, you know, it truly says as a, as a disciple that they will know us by our fruit. And there wasn’t any fruit that I wanted from those self-professed Christians. And, and so, um, and I think that happens a lot in, in the church, uh, and you know, just in society as, as a whole, unfortunately. But. . Um, and if you, if you go back to age of 16, I had that understanding and I thought you could actually like, have fun at life.

And it, it’s not, it’s not the things that I don’t get to do, but it’s the things that I can do in the, the freedom mm-hmm. of, of, you know, having a relationship with our creator. And it rocked my world, man. And so, um, from 16, I, you know, I, I got involved with, uh, a number of different network marketing companies, just to give you a fast forward.

I was, I was making a, a decent amount of money, um, by the time I was, you know, 19, 20 years old. I, I hit six figures, which is good amount of money for a young kid, right. Um, and through a number of different, that just led to multiple different opportunities. Uh, some, some successful, some a lot of failures through that process too.

Uh, I’ve, I’ve, at the age of 24, Found myself actually on an airplane home from Mexico. I’d moved to Mexico for five months for an, an opportunity there in business that ended up failing miserably, uh, to the point where I, I, I had found myself on a plane back, pretty much invested everything financially into this and, uh, actually leased out my condo here in the us.

So on the flight back after the government pretty much said, yeah, you guys can’t do that here anymore. Um, I realized that not only was I broke, but I was like homeless too, cuz I didn’t, I leased out my condo. I had, I didn’t have a place to sleep. So my wife and I found ourselves sleeping on my sister’s couch.

Uh, and this was really kind of a, one of those defining moments in my life of like, what am I doing? You know, I was only 24. Mm-hmm. , but I didn’t, I I started to revert back to this, you know, a mindset of, of like, Man, I don’t, I didn’t go to college. I didn’t get a degree, and I just thought that I, I’m not doing what culture or what society says is like what people are bought into.

Like, you go to school, you get a job, you work for 40, 50 years, you retire and you die. And like mm-hmm. , I, I didn’t want any of that in my life. Right. And got nowhere throughout the Bible. Do I see anything about retirement or this concept of, of working. Mm-hmm. a, a job. Uh, and I’m, I’m, I’d love to talk more about that man, but it’s, it’s, it’s what society and culture is just a taken on as like, what is norm?

Even though I, I wanted to go really literally by like, what does scripture tell us? If the Bible is supposed to be our example, if it’s our playbook, the operating manual, I wanna, I wanna live my life based upon that. And, and, you know, through that, I, I, I didn’t go back to school or anything. I just, I, I looked for another opportunity.

And a lot of people will tell you, Hey, uh, follow your passion. It’ll never work a day in your life. And I’m gonna be the first one to tell you that that’s a bunch of garbage. Uh, because , I, I know a lot of people that are passionate about a lot of things, but they’re freaking broke and, and, and miserable.

Like my business partner, his wife is extremely passionate about rocking newborn babies. She loves it, but she still has to work, right? Like that doesn’t pay the bill. So I, I’ve become a firm believer that, um, as an entrepreneur, we follow opportunities, uh, but always bring our passion with us. And no matter then what the opportunity is, you’re gonna approach it as a, if you are a, a follower of, of Jesus, you’re gonna approach it.

You should at least approach it with an attitude of excellence. And that whatever I put my hand to, I’m gonna work at it as if I’m working for the Lord, uh, and not for man. And so I’m gonna, I’m, I have no. I have no way to not be excellent at it. Right? Doesn’t mean you have to be the right the best at it, but you gotta be the best version of yourself at that.

Mm-hmm. . And, and that’s really what I did. So, and, uh, coming off of that, that trip from Mexico, I was introduced to a new opportunity of, of doing seminars, selling to groups of people. And man, this was what, like, it was like inventing fire to me. Uh, because everything that I had done prior to that was, was like selling one-on-one and mm-hmm.

I love sales. I love, I was always an in either an independent contractor, um, or I was selling some of my own products and things, but it was, you know, I could only do a certain amount of presentations in a day before I was emotionally just exhausted at, you even know doing all your podcasts, man, like, it’s draining when you’re, when you’re pouring out.

Uh, and so I never really believed into the, the full idea is that they’ll say, Hey, if you’re, you know, if you’re in sales, you earn what you’re worth. Like, cool, I like that, but. I never believed what they would say that, hey, the earning ability is un untapped. Right? Or untapped. Mm-hmm. like, you, you can earn mm-hmm.

as much as you want. And like, no, I can’t because I’m still limited by time. Right. And so when I realized what, yeah, when I was introduced to this concept, it was like, holy cats, I could actually leverage my time marketing dollars in time. I could do a presentation to many people, and then mm-hmm. only meet with those that wanted what I had to offer.

Uh, so I was like, sifting the sand, kind of building an offline funnel, if you’ve heard that phrase from a marketing standpoint and mm-hmm. . And that was like, dude, I was, I, I couldn’t, I couldn’t get that thing going soon en quick enough. So the, the challenge that I had though is I had 673 bucks in my bank.

And, um, of course I, I had a credit card, thank God, but also during this time, I did what any brilliant young kid does is I got my wife pregnant too, because we are, you know, we sleeping in my sister’s couch. Uh, you know, it’s like we’re broke. Why don’t we have a baby? Like, let’s just, yeah. Make, let’s make this, make this as stressful as possible.

Um, so, uh, which ultimately was, was amazing because sometimes when your back’s against the wall, you got no place to go but forward. Right? Right. And, and that was my mentality. It was like, uh, the ships were, were burnt and it was, I gotta make this thing work. And, and with that mentality, I, I paid for some marketing dollars.

Filled my first event, this would’ve been July of 2011. I, I hosted my first set of seminars and okay. I’d made a few sales and, and rein kept reinvesting back into it. And with the, over the next six months, through the end of 2011, we had done, uh, 2.1 million in sales. And, and that’s when things really took off.

I realized that, okay, this is, this is a system, this is what works. So I started a higher end train the following year we did 12 million the same the next year we were across, uh, I had 26 sales crews across 34 states. And um, that’s when I realized it was a system that worked. The product was irrelevant, still is irrelevant today, morally and ethically.

Has that be, has to be a good product. Um mm-hmm. , it has to be, you know, higher ticket cuz we’re, we do spend a significant amount of money doing marketing and fill in events with our ideal client and then we sell. And so I still to this day consult have our own companies. We’ve done nine figures, uh, over the last decade with our own companies, but then also we consult and we teach people how to do this as well.

And so, uh, man, that’s, that’s really what, where financially we’ve, we’ve done well with, but also it’s. It has afforded us the ability to do what I really love doing, which is, uh, what we coach Kingdom entrepreneurs now within the King’s Council. So long kind of intro, man. But that’s my story. man.

12:59 Chris Grainger
I love, I love that man.

I’m definitely more curious to hear about, you know, those seminars. I mean, are these day long events? Is are a couple hours? Like what, what, what is, just kind of break

13:07 Rylee Meek
it down that a little bit for us. Yeah. In an ideal world. So that company’s called, uh, social Dynamic Selling, and I, I called it that really because in any situation there’s a social dynamic that’s taking place in any scenario.

Like if you go out to a mm-hmm. , uh, at church, right? It’s like there’s a social dynamic. You’re, you’re getting greeted by the guest and there’s ushers and, and there’s the worship team and there’s the other people. Like, it’s, there’s a dynamic that PLA takes place. Uh, you go to a restaurant, right? There’s a social dynamic that takes place.

Um, and how what we’ve done is we’ve really real taken that concept and used it to our advantage to. Uh, speak to a group of people and, and ultimately create sense of urgency. And really, if there’s anything that we’ve done it, we help people make decisions because I think most people at the core of it are procrastinators.

Uh, and, and we just help people make decisions. Now, the decision can be yes or no. Uh, you know, it’s, hopefully it’s yes, but I know that my products, they’re for everybody, right? And we just have to accept that mm-hmm. . And what I want to do though is I wanna find out who they are for, and I only wanna speak to them, right?

So it’s, we, we, mm-hmm. create, um, you know, urgency, but we create reasons for people to make decisions to ultimately buy your products or services. So we’ve done this in, you know, financial advisors do a lot of dinner seminars. I’m not the one that’s created this method by any means, but I do think we’ve perfected it, uh, in controlling the whole process from.

From, you know, marketing to your ideal client to ultimately get them to show up for an event. And then how to craft a presentation, take people on that emotional journey to ultimately meet with them one-on-one and then, you know, close the deal. Uh, and we’ve done this in, uh, we have a solar company, we have walk-in bathtub company, we have regenerative medicine companies.

We have, we do this for investment, uh, um, certainly advisors as well, like I said, but, um, we’re kind of all over the board. The industry is, is pretty irrelevant, but it, you know, if you’re only selling like a $48 widget, it’s probably not the best program for you. Uh, just considering the, the ROI that’s needed to make this.

Right. Uh, function, so. Right. Yeah.

15:26 Chris Grainger
Well, also though, you’re, you’re pretty passionate around helping entrepreneurs and, and getting, you know, helping, helping them grow that entrepreneurial mindset. I’m curious just from, from your standpoint for our listeners, but how do you def define what an entrepreneur is?

What’s, what’s

15:39 Rylee Meek
your definition there? Ooh, I love this question, man. So, entrepreneurship, I believe we are all born entrepreneurs as we’re created in the image of, of God, uh, the ultimate creator has created us to co-create, right? Mm-hmm. We’re literally created in his image. So, uh, if you look at the root word of entrepreneur, uh, it’s a French word, entre, uh, pardon Pardoned my French.

Um, but that was awesome, man. That was great. li we, uh, but, um, at the core of it, that literally means two undertake, that’s it. Mm-hmm. , a lot of people think it’s like, oh, you must. Run a company or you’re a CEO, or something along those lines. And at the end of the day, you’re an undertaker, so you can be a stay-at-home mom, entrepreneur, right?

You could be a mm-hmm. . It doesn’t matter if, if you have the mindset, because this is where it all breaks down, is the mindset and, and the difference between an employee mindset, and again, nothing negative about being an employee, right? Mm-hmm. , I, I wanna make that crystal clear, but it’s the mindset that I’m here, uh, because scripture tells us that we cannot serve both God and money, right?

So, but unfortunately, I think a lot of Christians are serving money in their poverty, not allowing themself to actually serve their creator, right? Mm-hmm. , because I’ve, I’ve. I’ve gone round and round with this, with, with God, but also with, with others of like, how do you know who you’re serving? How do I know if I, if that’s telling me, if that’s what scripture says, how do I know?

And the only way that I’ve really determined that was by asking myself what or who is dictating the decision that I’m making? Is it money or is it God? And I think most people will find that the upwards of 35,000 decisions that we make on a daily basis, which is crazy to me, 35,000 decisions that, that most of the time those decisions are being made based upon, based upon money in the fact that I’m, I’m doing it to go get.

Or I’m doing it to save more, or I’m doing it to, uh, you know, whatever the situation is. It’s like, do I, do I go out to eat at lunch? Do I eat at home to save? Right, right. And, and ultimately that, that the spirit of mammon is, is a, is a powerful thing, man. The enemy’s done an incredible job at warping the minds of, of believers.

Uh, and obviously there’s, there’s wisdom in having, uh, uh, being proper stewards financially. Mm-hmm. . But at the end of the day, so many of us are preventing what I believe God can do and would do through us if we put ourselves in a position to be used by him. But unfortunately, for eight, nine hours a day, a lot of us are putting ourselves in a position where we’re serving man to ultimately get money thinking that, okay, I’m just gonna get through this thing of life.

Uh, save enough, I can tithe, you know, Potentially, most Christians don’t tithe. Uh, but I can tie, I can give maybe a little bit here and there. Uh, and then hopefully I can retire and then die. And again, I don’t see any of that in scripture at all. It, that it’s just not there. And so, right. Society though, has done a great job, man.

In, in 1913 and 1913, 3% of Americans were employees and 97% were entrepreneurs. Today it’s 2022. Man, that number is completely inverse. 3% of us are entrepreneurs, and 97% of our US are employees. And unfortunately, I think you can see what, what just society is happening in society and the, the wokeness that, that we’re dealing with right now.

Uh, because we’re taught not how to think for ourselves, not how to be creative, how we originally designed, but. Culture has done a great job at indoctrinating us of what we’re, what we should do. So I can go on and on, bro, but I’ll, I’ll leave it at that

19:48 Chris Grainger
man. This is powerful stuff. Hey guys, we’re gonna take a quick break.

We be right back.

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You’re speaking my language, brother. Okay. Yeah. And I just read a book and, and, and I’m, I’m unpacking in a future episode where I talk where it talks about, you know, the breakdown of, of the education system and how it’s basic. It’s just, it’s just pumping out worker bees, man. Mm-hmm. . It’s not teaching us to think.

And you’re just talking a lot right there about around the, the mindset. When you wrote mindset and when you, when you said mindset, I wrote down fear. You know, fear is preventing holding back so many, particularly in the, in the church, Christian men, man, what can we do? Because we, we’re not giving a spirit of fear.

We’re we’re supposed to be giving a spirit of power, love, and self-control, but man, we just live in this spirit of fear where we don’t want to take that step. Yes, this guy may be calling us to something, but fear is holding us back. So what do you tell that guy? When, where he’s, when he’s living in that

21:32 Rylee Meek
fear mindset?

Yeah. Oh, bro. So fear, fear is an interesting thing, man. And here’s the thing. It’s, it’s not that we’re never gonna experience fear, right? That’s it. Let’s understand that. Hey, we’re gonna experience it, but we are called to be, let’s go back and go through Joshua, right? We’re called to be strong and courageous.

How many times did, did Joshua tell, tell us how to do that. Uh, to be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. It’s like, good lord, I get it. We’re supposed to be strong and courageous, but also what I think is so interesting in the book of Joshua, Joshua one, eight, when I, when I first got into, uh, started to dive into the Bible where my heart was prior to from entrepreneurship, it was like, man, I just want to get rich.

Like I’m, I’m in this thing. I’m gonna go make money and do what I want to do, right? Uh, but as God, Softened my heart towards that and understanding like why, you know, a, a word that just that I loved when I was younger was like success. I wanted to be successful. And so I scavenged, like scoured the Bible.

I was like, where is success talked about in the Bible? Could I actually be successful? And a Christian, like, is that a thing or do I have to be a broke freaking driving a jalopy down the street, like living this, woe is me lifestyle because I don’t want to, I don’t want too much because I’m not greedy.

Right? Like, that’s the mindset I think a lot of Christians have. And at the end of the day, I don’t want that. Like I, I, I wanna drive a nice car, I want to have nice things. Can I do that in actually. Live a, a, a, a God-fearing life, but if of an on fire life for Jesus. So I searched out, where is success?

Joshua one eight tells us it, how to actually be successful. It’s so crazy to me that it’s, it’s like one of the most blatant plain things in the Bible of like how to do it. And it’s so simple, man. It is to meditate on the word of God, do not let it depart from our lips. Then you’ll be prosperous and successful.

And, and anytime you see the word then in the Bible, go back and reread what it just said because that’s a cause and an effect, right? It’s like, then this will happen. Like, okay, there’s, there’s a promises that we know are gonna actually take place. And then from there it goes on to be strong and courageous.

Strong and courageous. Strong, courageous, right? And I don’t think that that’s a happenstance by, like those are in the, the same actual. Chapter, because if you’re gonna take on this life as a believer, which I highly recommend, uh, not just a believer, but a doer, because faith without works is, is freaking dead.

Right? So if you’re gonna actually take on this, this cloak of like, I am not just a, a Christian, but I am a disciple. I’m a follower of Jesus and everything that I do. So I’m willing to stand in the gap for my brothers, or I’m willing to stand up for what is right and not mm-hmm. , sit there back and be a victim.

Then you are gonna experience some junk and there’s gonna be some fear that comes into play. But the Bible’s already told us, h how to be strong and courageous in, in actually how to be successful. But if you’re not spending time in the word of God, you ain’t gonna be successful. Right. And this was me, man.

For a good chunk of my life is I, I realized that, hold, hold, I wanna say you, you aren’t gonna be truly eternally successful because man, I realized that. You can be incredibly successful at a lot of things and still feel like a failure. Mm-hmm. . And what I mean by that is I, I have a treadmill in my, my home gym and it is incredibly successful at hanging my clothes.

It’s, it’s phenomenal. It’s, it’s, it’s a great, right. It’s very successful. But yeah. It’s not operating for why the manufacturer created it. Right. The, the, the manufacturer there, they’re like, dude, that’s what, that’s such a waste. What are you doing with that? Right. And sometimes I think God’s like, the same way.

He’s like, this, it’s such a waste. What are you doing? Right. Until we understand why we were created, it’s, it’s not then it, it’s not until then where we’re actually gonna find the fulfillment. And this is where I was at, uh, even man, I, I just mentioned I gave my life to Christ. But from, from 24 to 34, call it.

Bro, I didn’t, we’ve done millions and millions of dollars, but I went through a divorce. I was a, a freaking train wreck for a number of years in my life. Um, and God allowed me to grow through that process because I, I’m a firm believer. Money only makes us more of, of who we already are. And I’m, I’m so grateful that God allowed me to go through that process because when I started to make it, I realized I was not that great of a dude.

And, and thankfully, um, I was able to, uh, identify God was able to put the right people in my life to identify where I was. I was falling short. Why? I just had this continual feeling of unfulfillment. And it wasn’t until I really looked back to the most incredible days in my life was when I was like 18 and 19, and I was involved.

A freaking rockstar group of men, boys. We were, you were young boys then. But we were, it was a, a a men a, a bible study group called, uh, inner Varsity Christian Fellowship. And these are some rockstar homies that I don’t even talk to anymore, but I could almost promise you if I called any of them and was like, I gotta bury a body.

I, I can guarantee you the question would be not like, what did you do? It’d be, are you driving or am I where? Right, right. And, and it’s like, those are the people that I needed in my life that I, I just allowed myself to, to go down this path of, of being not the, we talk about, uh, ed Myla has a, a great analogy about being the thermostat versus the thermometer.

And, you know, a, a thermometer is, is simply a reflection of what’s going on in the environment. Right? Like it’s a, you’re, you’re just telling what the temperature. And if you’re a thermostat though, you’re actually setting that temperature. Right? Right. And I was, I was just, I became a thermometer and I was, I was letting people, uh, influence me in a, in a manner that was not fruitful in any way.

Uh, and, and ultimately, thankfully, God plucked me out of that and, and has, has grown me tremendously here over the past, what, three, four years of, of really not just looking to Jesus as my Savior, but to him as my Lord. Right. And I think that’s a big difference, man. Uh, with a lot of men in, in the church, in just in culture.

It’s like, yeah, we think we checked the box. Be we’re getting into heaven. And it is like that’s, you know, I, I’m doing my, my husband duties or my fatherly duties. And when at the end of the day, man, that’s a crappy way to live. If I can just. Be blunt about it because the fulfillment that you’re, you’re, you’re not having, right?

Even you’re listening to this right now and you’re just sitting, you’re, you’re one of those that’s just plain church. And what I mean by plain church is like you, you’re going on Sundays, maybe you’re, you’re, you’re tipping God a little bit in the, in the tithing offering plate, and you’re, you’re thinking, you’re checking the box and the rest of the six days you’re doing what you want to do.

And, and right. Like I’m telling you, that ain’t, that ain’t freedom. If, if, if you want to experience a freaking rockstar life that is, is second to none. It’s, it’s submitting your life to Jesus and knowing him more than just your Savior, but as your Lord, there is nothing more empowering than actually having that freedom.

And, and that was really the, the huge difference for me, man, uh, of, of understanding that and then operating in that manner. And that’s really what’s what, you know, how I’ve stepped into this role of leading, uh, kingdom entrepreneurs, uh, through the Kings Council.

29:20 Chris Grainger
Man, that is, that is powerful stuff, man. And I want to, I definitely wanna unpack that more because so many times when I talk to guys, particularly Christian men, it comes up, I, i, I just, the constant theme comes up of a scarcity mindset and you’ve already drilled that.

Like, you know, we, we are not called that scarcity mindset, you know? But so far as you, you’re taking it from not just being a savior, but lord, you know, talk, walk me through that. I mean, what does that look like for you? How do you go from Ari, he’s not just my savior, he is my Lord. What does that look like in your daily walk that maybe these guys can connect with?

29:52 Rylee Meek
Yeah. Yeah. So it’s, it’s really living a Matthew that, that 6 33 lifestyle of, of seeking first the kingdom of God, uh, in, in mm-hmm. , his righteousness. Right? And so some of, I, I love scripture because I can read the same verse 300 times and then it’s not until I read it that 301st time where there’s like revelation that takes place and you do this.

You become successful by meditating on the word of God. Right? Right. And then speaking it. Do not let it depart from your lips. There’s such power in that. Uh, and but the problem is, and this is where I just think it’s gotta be so frustrating for God to be like, I’ve given you guys the playbook, the operating manual here, and you’re just not doing it.

Like, I don’t know what else you want from me. Like, I, like you wanted me to rain down manna from heaven, you’re calling me from miracles. And he is like, I’ve given you this playbook on how to operate a miracle lifestyle if you just do it. Right. Right. So , it’s, it’s so interesting that I went, you know, 34 years of my life without really understanding that.

And my, my hope is to, to, you know, shave off some of those years for, for people that are, are, have just ex experienced this walk or maybe are, uh, living a life of, of, Hey, I’ve been, I’m, I’m saved. I’m pretty sure I’m getting into heaven. But at the end of the day, that’s just the start. Right by by mm-hmm.

And, and what I mean by that is we were created to work, don’t get it twisted by any means, is that, that, because when God created Adam, he, and then ultimately Eve, he created them in the garden with this innate ability. It wasn’t, that work wasn’t present, it was absolutely present, but it was just, they knew that they were created to work the garden.

Mm-hmm. Like, that wasn’t like something that God didn’t have to tell them. And a lot of people think that work is a, uh, like it’s because of the fall that we have to work. And it’s not actually true. Work was, work was present before the fall, but Genesis three, we fell, we jacked it up. We really messed this thing up.

And then God said, all right, well by, by the sweat of your brow, then you will toil and you will mm-hmm. stress. Right? And, and so that was, you know, uh, creation. Right? And so if we, if we look at the Bible as a whole, there’s creation. And then throughout the rest of the Old Testament, there’s, there’s a promise that has been given to us, uh, that of a messiah, a savior, somebody’s coming to save us.

It’s like, yes, great, great, great. Jesus comes on the scene, then He has saved, saved us, completely redeemed us. And when he returns, he didn’t talk about salvation, right? He didn’t talk about, uh, uh, like, um, what it even himself, right? He talked about the kingdom, the kingdom, the thing he said. He’s like, the kingdom of heaven is near.

And if you look at like what that actually means, king as in Jesus is king, uh, and then Dom, d o m comes from the word domain. In domain. If you think of a, uh, like a government or an entity that has domain over a territory, they’re ruling that territory. And the interesting thing though, when Dom is used as a, a suffix in a sentence, it’s actually as a state or a bean, Right, so people can experience boredom, right?

Or you see somebody famous, you’re, they’re stardom, right? Or in America we have freedom, right? It’s like a state or a bean. And so when the kingdom that Jesus is referring to isn’t necessarily a, a, it’s an a verb tense, right? And so it’s like the place is assumed, the kingdom of heaven. The place is assumed, but it’s a verb tense in that it’s God’s present and current rule and reign in our lives today.

And so it, a lot of people think, if I give my life to Christ, it’s like, cool, I get to start eternity when I die. No, no, no, no, no, no. The coolest thing is that you get to start that today, God’s rule reign in your life today. And that should be the most exciting thing. But so many of us are, are thinking, we’re gonna just wait till we die and then spend eternity in heaven.

When at the end of the day, if you walked in the authority, the freedom that Christ has given us, his rule is reigned today. There’s, uh, dude, we have every advantage as a kingdom entrepreneur. We have every advantage to be crushing at business, to be doing incredible things, but we’re just not tapped into that, that rule and that reign of what that actually means in the, again, the enemy has done a great job at warping the minds of, of you, you mentioned that abundance or that a scarcity mindset.

And, and again, at, at the end of the day, what we coach and, and what I’m, I’m so adamant on is we aren’t talking about like prosperity gospel teaching. Like, you aren’t gonna, you aren’t gonna get me to, uh, you know, So into me three bucks and I’ll give you a, a green prayer cloth type of thing. Right? Like, that’s not what I’m talking about at all.

But I’m absolutely not talking about poverty gospel because I’m talking about the gospel. If you believe the entire word of God as the infallible word of God, then you gotta believe it. You can’t truncate scriptures into just to cherry pick them out to fit the agenda, which is what we see happening a lot in society today, that that fits their, their what, whatever they want going on.

When at the end of the day, it’s like, no, no, no, no. You, you can actually, you can crush in business, you can be, uh, an incredible entrepreneur because it takes a lot of money, right. The, the, but at the end of the day mm-hmm. , knowing that what’s dictating my decisions is because I want to serve God and I’m gonna make money serve.

Not the other way around, which is what a lot of people do. Uh, when again, they’ve just come into this, this, they’ve accepted what culture has told them of what a good, uh, a responsible employee or a responsible husband is supposed to do. Meanwhile, right, they, they’ve handcuffed themselves and they’ve taken away the ability for God to use them in a manner that that could truly be impactful for the kingdom.

So, huge long answer, man. But that’s, at the end of the day, it’s a Matthew 6 33 lifestyle, which I, there’s no, there’s again, no, no happenstance of why leading up to that there’s, uh, there’s a lot of talk about worry and, and stress and even the fear that you’d mentioned earlier, man, of like, we don’t have to worry about that.

Because if we’re seeking first God’s rule and reign in our life and his righteousness and alignment with him, everything else is gonna be taken care of. We don’t need to stress about it, but we have to be obedient. And that’s where everything else breaks down.

36:37 Chris Grainger
Mm. You just see, then you, you just pulled up the, the main word there.

It has to be obedient, man. That’s it. Hey guys, we’ll take a quick break. We’ll be right back guys.

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So Riley, I’m curious, man, I I, you’re a passionate guy. You, when you were on that, that dissertation right there, you were, you were on fire, brother. And I’m curious, like when you, whenever you talk about money and entrepreneurship and, and acy and, and, and wealth and building, you know, building the kingdom so many times, and particularly in a church setting, like that message is just not delivered at all.

Like the, the pastors are not delivering it from the pulpit. We’re not hearing it as Christian men. And if we do, it’s this diluted down thing, like it is, it’s either prosperity gospel, like you just mentioned, or it’s scarcity mindset. You know, we have to bring everything like the, the woman with the two mic just give, give it all to God, right?

So we, so there’s usually, there’s not like a good middle ground. It’s you’re just drilling a middle ground. So, I mean, what’s the message that you would have to maybe to church leaders or to pastors that may be listening? What, what do we need be doing to, to get guys talking this way more and having

38:26 Rylee Meek
this type of mindset?

Yeah. So good man. And again, I’m gonna use the Bible as a, as a representation of what’s important, what’s not important, right? And Amen. The fact that money, wealth, and possessions is, is talked about 2,400 plus times, right? Like literally twice as more than faith and salvation combined. If, if it’s important enough for God to talk about it that much, then I think it’s important enough for us to talk about it, right?

Mm-hmm. And, and, and all, and not just important enough, but a priority, right? Because this, this spirit of mammon is a real freaking thing. And, and while, and, and I think even I’ll, I’ll go down this path, even Dave Ramsey, right? So Dave is, his concepts are great for somebody to get outta debt, right? Right.

But if that’s your goal, if your goal is to not be in. What the crap are you that ain’t, that ain’t a kingdom lifestyle right now. If you’ve made bad decisions and you got yourself in debt, like to get outta debt, cool. You can follow Dave’s, Dave’s concepts. But I didn’t get on this planet. I believe God didn’t put me on this planet to get outta debt.

He put me on this planet to, to be fruitful. I believe Genesis 1 28 is a freaking mandate for us to operate the kingdom culture, a authority that we have, right? We are called, first off, there’s six days of creation, right? God created everything. And then on day six he looks down and he is like, man, that’s very stinking good, right?

Right. Stinking is, is my, my version of it. But he’s like, that’s really good. Uh, and, and then he, he goes, it’s a mandate. He goes, okay, now be fruitful. Number one. So what does fruit mean? I mean, if you read throughout scripture, there’s a lot of references to fruit and, and, and. As disciples of Christ. That’s how they, people are supposed to know us.

Right. By our fruit. That’s right. And, and so if we’re to be fruitful and then we’re to multiply, people just think like, oh, you’re supposed to have babies. There’s so much more to it than just have babies. Right. Being fruitful and multiplying isn’t just to have kids. Because if that was the case, then why, why wouldn’t everybody just have kids?

Right. There, there’s there, there’s so much more to it than that. Right, right. It is to the, the culture, the kingdom culture that comes, comes through when we are fruitful, we multiply, we subdue this earth and ultimately have dough minion. Now we’re not doing that. Right. So cuz what happens is, obviously a fall came, but so many of us are still living.

Freaking BC days, old Testament days of like, Hey, uh, do you not know that Jesus returned and actually redeemed us? And so we now do have that ability to be fruitful, to multiply, to have dominion with kingdom concepts and culture. We’re just not doing it right. And so, mm-hmm. , and, and again, back to the enemy is just, has warped the minds that, that thinking that that money is bad, money is evil.

Uh, and, and actually, if you read the entire word of God and understand that you don’t get to just cherry pick scriptures or even, even, uh, skew them to your way or even remove certain words like the love of money, right? What does it mean when you, when people love something, it’s, when you pursue it, it’s, when you think about it all day long, it’s when you, uh, if you think about even, you know, your, your wife, man, When you first met her, you saw her in the dog picture, right?

You’re like, who’s that girl? And then, right, you, you fell in love with her. You thought about her all day long, right? Mm-hmm. , you, you, you think about any, anybody listening right now, like, what do you love? And it’s something that you, you take time outta your day to go to. You’re pursuing it, and when you don’t get it, it like consumes you.

It’s like, mm-hmm. , I gotta have this right? Take a look at that in money. How, how are you approaching that in your life? And it’s, it’s that love of money. It’s not money in itself. And at the end of the day, it’s, this is where not to ra on Dave a whole lot more, but he talks about Cassius, Cassius King, and dead is dumb.

I think it’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my whole life. Because if you look at a dollar bill, if you just take out your dollar right now, and you read right across the top, right across the top, it says Federal Reserve note. A note. Mm-hmm. , for those that don’t know, is that’s an instrument of debt.

So if you have cash in your pocket right now, you are in debt, you’re in debt, it’s a, because it’s not even backed by the, the gold backing anymore. It literally, they’re printing it. They’ve printed more in the last couple years, uh, than they have in the last 30 years prior. It’s nonsense. What’s happening, and, and this is where the breakdown occurs.

It’s our mindset and understanding of, of what, what money does the value that we put on it in exchange for it. And so, and this is again why I think we have to educate the Christian community. Like we, you, you have to understand this. If you want to have dominion, it’s gonna take a heck of a lot of money.

And this, Chris, is, is really what unlocked me with this understanding because I, I struggled with this. Four years ago, we’ve done nine figures in revenue. I’m sitting on my couch and I’m miserable. I’m absolutely miserable. From the outside looking in, people would think, oh, you got it going on. We live in a 12,000 square foot home, uh, on the lake.

And I heard this a lot. Like, it must be nice. Must be nice, right? It’s like little do they know how much freaking work that takes, but um, it, I, I heard that a lot and it’s like, uh, meanwhile I’m like, yeah, yeah, but I’m, I’ve had just this terrible feeling of unfulfillment in my life, and this is back to what I was saying.

Mm-hmm. , you can be incredibly successful, a lot of things unless you’re operating for the God-given intended purpose of why you were created. Mm-hmm. , and, and that’s when he, he got ahold of me and I got back into the Bible. Man, I hadn’t read it in like a decade, like no joke from, I mean, intentionally, I’m gonna say intentionally read it, right, because I was just off doing my own thing.

But I, I started to dive into scripture and I come across again. Parable of the Good Samaritan, which we’ve all, even if you’re not a believer, you’ve heard of this. Right? You’re like, you heard about this in school, I think, and I was reading through it again, and, and this is how I know the Bible is the living, breathing word of God.

Because you can read it a hundred times and then something new speaks to you. And the cool thing is that the Bible doesn’t change, right? It, it doesn’t change at all what changes is us and our perspective as we’re reading it. Mm-hmm. , that’s why we’re gonna be transformed by the renewing of our mind every single day.

And so when we can approach that and get into the, the get fed by the, the word of God every day, I, I open it up. I’m reading the parable, the, uh, or excuse me, the, the Good Samaritan and, and I’m reading this how the, the, you know, the gentleman gets beat up. He’s, he’s basically broken, broken on the, on the side of the road.

The religious priest comes walking along, he doesn’t want to be bothered. Right. He’s like, Ooh, I got an agenda today. I can’t miss my meeting. He’s literally steps across on the other side of the road to not have to be burdened with him. Right, right. The the priest. The freaking priest. Okay. Yeah. Um, uh, the Levi does the same thing.

And, and then along comes the Samaritan, and this is where my maybe twisted mind gets involved here is like, I gotta believe that this guy’s passing through, he is on a business trip, right? Right. Like he’s traveling to the next town to go to the next trade station or whatever, and he sees this guy, he have money with him, right?

Yeah. Right. Exactly. And, and he, he’s, he’s coming along and he sees this guy and he’s like, oh man, let me, let me help this guy out. He, so he took the time, number one, he had the time, Hey, if, if somebody else was paying you for your time to do, You couldn’t do it right? It’s like, I gotta get to work. I’m not, it’s my job.

Right? Maybe the, that’s what the priest was getting paid an hourly wage. Should do it. I don’t know. But this is where my brain kind of goes in thinking of this. He had the ability, he says, snap, I’m gonna help him. He puts him on his, says he puts him on his own donkey, right? Mm-hmm. . So he had funds, he had the availability to take him to the end.

He bandaged him up, put oil on his head, takes him to the inkeeper and says, Hey, uh, take care of this guy. Pays for him to stay there. And then says, I gotta continue on. I got business to do. I gotta continue on, but when I come back, even if there’s any debt due, I, I got it. Don’t you worry, I’ll take care of him.

Then there and Jesus then asks, Hey, which one showed mercy? Obviously the Samaritan showed mercy, right? The very next sentence was Jesus said to go and do likewise. And that hit me like a ton of bricks, man. And that’s when I fed the first realization that it is incredibly, incredibly expensive to be the good Samaritan.

And if I’m supposed to be that type of Christian that not just cares for my needs. Right. And I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve heard this, where especially those that are, that think entrepreneurs are greedy and it’s like, oh, you’re just greedy. You’re just, you know, I just, I’m not greedy. I just need enough for me.

Like I, I love to smack people upside the face with this, because that’s the greediest thing that I’ve ever heard, Chris. Like, if you’re not greedy, you only care enough just for you, what are you talking about? Right. Right. If so, if I have the ability, Deuteronomy tells us that it’s God that gives us that ability to create wealth.

And if he’s given me that ability, and I’m gonna undertake this thing at hand, I’m gonna do it with all of my might because I know that why I’m working for this, it’s, it’s not for, for what I can get, but it’s for what God can give through me. And with we have that entrepreneur mindset, knowing that it takes incredibly, uh, it takes a lot of money.

It’s gonna take wealth. To fully subdue and have dominion. We can sit back and we can pray about it and think that God’s in control, he’s gonna do it. Absolutely. I’m, I’m fully on board with that. But remember, God created us to work, right? The original creation of man was to work. And when we invite him in this process where he can co-create with us in this process that gives us divine downloads, divine wisdom as kingdom entrepreneurs to, to create businesses and ideas and concepts that provide tremendous value to the marketplace, you better believe we’re gonna get compensated very highly for that.

And when we do that, then we can steward those funds to be the good Samaritan, to, to pay for our brother and sister to take care of orphans and widows. And if, if, if I know that Christ is not returning until every word, every ear has. And, and, and experience the gospel. The good news, then I take that as a challenge, right?

Like, let’s freaking go create wealth. Let’s get the word out. Let’s tell people about the saving grace of Jesus, because don’t get it twisted too. It is by his grace. We are saved not by our works, but we are saved for good works clearly. And that that’s I think where it breaks down the person from Savior looking to Jesus as savior to the person as Lord.

And, and, and if we understand that why we are saved was to do good works and you, you submit to that, that now it becomes, you understand that it, it is by his lordship. That, that we get to go do good works. And I’m not just looking to him as a ticket to get into heaven, but I’m looking to him as Lord to bring the rule of, of heaven here today and now not waiting for it.

Eternal salvation, but accepting that it’s today the moment you give your life to Christ. Not as Savior, but but as Lord man. Not now. It gets exciting. That’s right. That’s

50:06 Chris Grainger
right, man. Riley, you are on fire, brother. Look, we’re gonna take our last break. We’ll be right back guys.

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I don’t even know, bro. You, you got me so fired up. I’m sure you got guys listening. They’re going back. They’re rewinding. They just want to hear this over and over and over, man. So I’m curious, how about a message before we wrap this up for the, the dads out there because we, we, we briefly touched on it. We didn’t go very deep though.

So, you know, our kids, they’re, they’re not getting taught this mindset, man. They’re just, they’re not, and it, it is completely flipped. We’re, we’re pushing out these worker bees. The, the education system has failed. It is not, it doesn’t, it doesn’t promote, you know, thinking, actual thinking thought, uh, we’re just, we’re just trying to, to basically pass a test.

So, man, what can we be doing at home? Yeah. For our children? Man to give them this kingdom mindset and to, to help, you know, foster that and, and, and just nourish that rather, and help that

51:53 Rylee Meek
grow. So good. Yeah. I’m, I’m glad you asked this, man, because first off, you said at home, and I just wanna be so crystal clear and the importance of that.

If, if some of you have kiddos and you’re, you’re shipping ’em off to school or you’re taking ’em to church and you’re, you’re, you’re saying that it’s their responsibility to, to teach your kid those lessons, uh, or concepts. Mm-hmm. , you’re failing. I’m gonna just tell you, you’re a failure as a parent. 100%.

Hundred percent. And, and some of you may get, you know, well, I got, I got other things going on. I’m, I’m just telling you, you got, you got you’re two most important priorities on this Earth. First off, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Right? Like that is our mm-hmm. . If, you know, if you wanna know what your calling is in this life, it is to do that.

Okay? Right. What you choose to do otherwise is completely up to you. Mm-hmm. , and, and this is where I think a lot of people even get. They’re, they’re like seeking their calling when at the end of the day, what you gotta do is seek your caller and, and mm-hmm. , what you do is kind of a me It’s, it’s not meaningless cuz it, it’s, it’s here to do good works, but understand second to then is your relationship with your spouse, right?

It’s, it’s it, if you’re loving the Lord, you got with all your heart. Now Christ actually gives us an example how, how Christ loved the church, right? That’s, that’s the bride and groom. That is a representation. Our, our, our relationship with our spouse is number one before your kiddos. Okay? Be crystal clear on that, like number one, and then number two, it’s your kiddos, right?

This is a responsibility. So part of being fruitful and multiplying, I’m not saying that it isn’t to have kiddos, but if you’re, if you’re having kiddos, it’s a, it’s a part of it because you’ve now, you now have to, it’s your responsibility to create the kingdom culture in your household. Right? Okay. And if, if, And so many times I see, we’ll see leaders or, or people that are even pastors and, and, and people that are pouring out so much yet their home life is a wreck because they’re, they have not saved enough energy to take care of priority number one and two in their lives.

And, and mm-hmm. , I would say that they’re failing it at life as, as well. And guys, I, I wanna be crystal clear. I’m only saying this so confidently because I’ve done it, I’ve lived it, I’ve gone through a divorce and I know all the stupid mistakes that that can be made. I, cuz I’ve done every single one of them.

I’m telling you. And, but also, I’m so grateful. I have a daughter, she’s 10 now. I, I, I get, I have the ability to, to really pour into her and, and to teach her these concepts and understanding of, of who Jesus is as, as ruler and Rayner in her life. Uh, but also then what do we do with, how do we operate in this fallen world?

And I actually, right. I had a great discussion with, um, Kyle, uh, with Undaunted life on, on his podcast about this. So last year we actually homeschooled Deli. She was in a private Christian school, a great school actually. I had nothing, no complaints about it at all. But I, I am a firm believer, if you have the ability to homeschool, do it.

I mean it, I believe it’s you. It’s a, it’s incredible responsibility. And if you have the ability, then take it seriously, because partly, I mean, it’s, it, it, there’s Ellie and Ash. My, so my, um, Ellie’s stepmom is Ashley. They’ve had such an incredible bonding relationship over the past year. It was unreal. Uh, just the connection that they’ve been able to, to form.

Um, but also we, we allowed Ellie to go back to school this year to tra, I’m gonna just call it traditional school. It’s a private Christian school. Right. Because we, we, you know, it was, it was a very prayerful decision that ultimately mm-hmm. . I made, um, in, in discussion with, with Ashley, with, with Ellie. And it was, it was very interesting, um, of just how to, how to make this decision.

And I’m not saying it’s right or wrong in, in any way. Mm-hmm. , it’s just what we did, what I felt Ellie wanted and needed, and, and to have those relationships, uh, within, within that, that community. But she’s also there. It’s a very good school, uh, here in Minnesota. Shout out to United Christian Academy, uh, if they ever listened to this.

Um, but, but ultimately, man, understanding, I, I went and I met with the, the head of school there, and I, I just said, I think the school system’s a, a joke. And he goes, I do too. And I was like, all right, let’s, let’s talk about this, because everything comes down to mindset and Right. And why I think that it, it is a joke, uh, is because what’s happened over the last 140 years, 150 years, man, if you just look at society, So many of us, we were living in society with blinders on, and we, we haven’t actually stepped back and taken a look and been like, okay, what’s happened?

It’s 2022, right? When, when we’re recording this right now, what was it like in, in, uh, you know, 1902? What was it like in 18 0 17? We can, we can kind of understand that, but then when you put yourself in those situations and see how things have just escalated so quickly over the last, right. 140 years and, and in specifically up until the early 19 hundreds, man, people went to the school was like to seventh, what we would know as like seventh grade.

And at that point in time, you start a business, right? Or you just take on the, the family business, whether you’re a blacksmith or uh, uh, you know, a farmer, right? That’s just what you did because everybody was an entrepreneur. Along comes the industrial revolution, right? Well, advancements in technology and, and now it was, we needed you used the, the term worker bees, right?

Like we, hey, right. I need people that are gonna, uh, show up on time. I need people that can take a 15 minute break it a recess. I need people that’ll take a, a lunch break. Okay? Come back in the afternoon, we’re gonna give them a recess again. And then at, uh, three 30 in the afternoon, the bell rings and they get to go home.

Do you guys see exactly the, the concept that we, we are instilling into kids at a young age to be an employee versus to to memorize things, to not, not think creatively on how to, how to start something from scratch. Prime example of this man is the Lego company, bro, and the leg, the Lego company, I mean, when we were younger, There was, there were Legos, but it was like, you just get a bunch of freaking Legos.

Right. You dump it out. Right, exactly. You miss one. Your parents hate your guts cuz they stepped down and won. Right? Um, that’s right. But you dump ’em out and then you just, you have to build this town. You build a city like you creatively build. So fast forward in the 1980s, man, now where this indoctrination has taken place for close to two, um, uh, what do I wanna say?

Two generations, right? So 19 hundreds Now we’ve got 40 year olds that are having kids. Lego companies, like on the verge of bankruptcy. Nobody’s buying their stuff because nobody’s creative enough anymore. They, they wanna be told what to. Along comes now, you can’t even buy a set of Legos like that anymore.

Now you buy them in kits, kits, exact kits, step by step what to do. So you, you open it up, you get it, you break the bag open, you throw your pieces down, you turn the page, step one d you turn the page, step two D, turn page, step three. They literally, and props to Lego company, they now have become a billion dollar company because they pivoted to what they knew people wanted.

Right? Right. Because it, but I don’t believe it’s a, a good thing, but props to them for understanding the market and, and, and how they can financially, uh, capitalize on it. But that’s exactly what has have had happened and why so many of us are, are just have become accustomed to going through the motions.

Go to school, get a job. Hey, don’t, don’t think creatively we’re actually told not to. But here’s another interesting step, man. and then I’ll, I’ll, I’ll stop. I, I just, I love talking about this. If you can’t tell, Vanderbilt University did a study and they, they, so these are obviously college students and they followed up with them a decade later and they, they had a students, B students, C students, and then B students who barely passed.

And like, they like that val valedictorian. And they followed up with them after 10 years, uh, after this study cuz they wanted to figure out, okay, how has college helped them? And here’s the crazy thing, man, those who had straight A’s in college, the majority of them were working for those that had b’s.

The majority of those were working for senior level management that, that graduated with cs. And the owners of those companies were the D players, . And so, yeah, it’s, and this is like this, if you have kiddos and they’re struggling in school, traditional school, Ah, you can actually take a, a breath of, of relief because you gotta create a little monster on your hand.

Right? Right. And, and that’s incredible just because the school is judging them on a certain way. I mean, you’ve earned this analogy, like you can’t judge a fish on how to climb a tree. They don’t Right. They don’t think that way. And that’s part of being the body of Christ. Right? And it’s not celebrating your, your, uh, your, your gender, whatever you want to choose to be.

It’s like, no, what are your God-given abilities and capabilities? And, and let’s, like, let’s celebrate how we can help be the catalyst for them to create with their creator and, and come up with ideas and concepts on how to bring value to the marketplace, right? That’s what entrepreneurship is. It’s God’s never given us the table that I’m sitting at right now.

He gave us the tree and then somehow, some way a creative entrepreneur realized how to make a tree. Right. Or how to make a table. And then somehow, right. Some way, it’s same thing, a car, A guy didn’t just randomly have a car show up. No, he, he put oil within the earth that, that helped us figure out how to make things from it and produce plastics and molds and that, that’s co-creating with our creator, giving him the glory in all of it, right?

Because it’s because of him that we get to do all of these things. And it starts though, at a young age, from your kiddos, if they can instill this and understand this concept to have the, a creative mindset to, to not, uh, not just go along with what culture, society, or, or school is telling them. Now, if you’ve got a little hell in, that’s disobedient and, and not, and breaking rules, right?

Like that’s something else. Right? I’m not saying that, that like, there’s, there’s incredible ways to, to, to parent your. Child to be obedient, but also ways to, to encourage them in their gifting and their talents to ultimately create the next. And, but here’s the, here’s why I get so excited about this, Chris, is because if not us, then who, we’ve seen what’s gone on over the last, even the last five years, last two years of what the crap’s been going on in America and in worldwide for that matter.

But if kingdom entrepreneurs don’t step up and start flipping some tables around here, I mean, I get it. Jesus turned the cheek, the other cheek in, in scripture. That’s, but also Jesus flipped some tables, right? That’s right. And I think it’s time where we, we gotta take a stand. You gotta get the freaking lion within us, out of us and actually stand for what’s important.

And what I believe is, is a part of our kingdom mandate to be fruitful, to multiply and have dominion until he returns. And if we don’t do that, if our kids don’t see us doing that, why would they do it themselves? Man,

1:03:41 Chris Grainger
you’re on fire, brother. Absolutely On fire. Riley, tell you what, this has been incredible learned so much, but I’m not gonna let you go yet.

We, before, before we end up, man, we have a, a lightning round. So if you’re willing to play, we’ll jump in a quick lightning round for our, for our listeners. This is just a fun way to, to wrap up the show. And then I definitely wanna make sure to give you a time to ch to, to share what you’re doing with the King’s Council and how guys can connect with you.

So, uh, let, let’s jump into this lightning round together. All right. Alright, brother, man. What’s your favorite thing about

1:04:10 Rylee Meek
God? Uh, his, his, he never changes. There you go.

1:04:16 Chris Grainger
Yeah. What’s your least favorite thing about

1:04:18 Rylee Meek
Satan? Hmm. How good he is. Like not, not in a good manner at, at crafty. How about crafty? He is, he’s crafty.

Terrible. He’s a piece of crap. right? Trample on him. But he’s, he’s crafty and he’s, he’s, and I hate even giving him credit on this, but he is willing to wait. And, and, and trample on us. Like a, like a, that, you know, he, he’ll, he’ll slow play us. He’ll think we’re waiting until everything’s going great in our life, and then bam, he’ll, he’ll strike us with tragedy.

And, and, and I think that’s a true, true, true test of a true follower of, of Christ in, in those moments. So, I know these are lightning rounds, but Sorry, . No, it’s

1:05:00 Chris Grainger
good stuff, man. It’s good stuff. What’s something that you’re currently struggling with right now?

1:05:05 Rylee Meek
Um, I would say time management. Okay.

1:05:11 Chris Grainger
Mm-hmm. , man.

So, so many guys get struggled with that for sure. Yeah. So, you know, speaking kinda on that same thread, what’d you spend too much time doing last year?

1:05:21 Rylee Meek
Ooh, pleasing people. Okay. Okay.

1:05:25 Chris Grainger
I can elaborate some

1:05:26 Rylee Meek
new habit. You ? Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, . So, I, I wanna, first off I said time management. Uh, because of that and Right, and back to I as an entrepreneur, I get shiny object syndrome and it’s like, there’s, there’s never enough.

The, the question isn’t necessarily should, can we do something right? Like, it, it, the question needs to be, should we do something? And so there’s an, there’s a never ending supply of ideas and opportunities that I had mentioned before. Mm-hmm. . But, um, it is really determining and prayerfully deciding where God’s leading you in that situation.

And sometimes I take so much on my plate because I want to help, I want to please people when, at the end of the day, right, I’m, I’m really hurting them because I’m taking away from, you know, maybe their giftings or, because I think I’m gonna help them in that process. And so that’s what I mean by all that.

1:06:19 Chris Grainger
I’m with you. Okay. Look, let’s do, uh, two more. What’s, what’s a new habit that you want to create moving forward?

1:06:27 Rylee Meek
Um, specific time. For content creation. Okay. Like blocking, blocking time for that. Right. Blocking that calendar. I’m

1:06:37 Chris Grainger
with you. Yes. Then last question, man. What’s one thing you hope that the people listening to our conversation today, remember the most

1:06:47 Rylee Meek
mindset?

I think if, if, if anything we become, whether we like it or not, we are the product of our environment and mm-hmm. , unsolicited, usually, like if you think about how you grew up and, and the, your, your closest friends right now, you are the product. I mean, you’ve, we’ve heard this like you’re the sum of their five closest people and as much as that’s like a cliche thing, it’s so real.

It’s so real. Mm-hmm. the mindset that you’ve, so if you grew up thinking that money was, was hard to get or money is evil or, um, you know, women. You know, trash, right? I don’t, I don’t know. I’m just thinking out loud of like what some men might have or that, you know, but it is hard to, to stress and toil to start business or I’m not good enough, right?

Like, I mean, so many of us grew up. If we had a, a father that had these mindset issues as well, and those are spoken over us, know that that can change the moment you choose to change it. And it right through the being continually transformed by the, by the renewing of our minds, by spending time in the word of God.

And in your mindset. I, I really believe how we view God is direct correlation to how we view our relationship with, with money. And so if, if you believe that you’re back, even like the parable of the talents, you can read through this like back understanding like, hey, if we’re viewing it as the, the one who just buried that talent and they didn’t do anything with it because his mindset was that his master was a hard man.

Right. Mm-hmm. where the other two that got, they got two and they got five. They went and put it to use, they took what God gave them. Mm-hmm. , the amount was irrelevant. They both wanted two, one at five. Right. So, but they put it to use because their mindset was what they wanted to, to, to actually, uh, bring back a something for their master.

And the master said, how, you know, well done, good and faithful servant. And like, that is why I wanna live this life with that mindset because there’s nothing more I want than when he calls me home to stand before him and to hear those words. Well done. Good and faithful servant. But it starts with our mindsets.

If, if we are viewing him as a hard man and, and, uh, somebody that we have to do things for versus get to do things for, uh, that can change. Right. But it starts with us.

1:09:08 Chris Grainger
Amen, brother. Man, this has been such an honor, Riley, thank you so much. So why don’t you give a shout to our listeners? Where do you, where should they go to connect with you to learn more, to, to, to learn more about the Kings Council?

Just to do all the, to see all the wonderful things that you’re

1:09:20 Rylee Meek
doing. Yeah. Yeah, man, appreciate that. So, the Kings Council, just so people are aware, this is a, it’s a community of kingdom entrepreneurs, right? So we focus on, on business coaching and strategies. And if it’s all right with you, Chris, I actually wrote a book, um, called The Kingdom Entrepreneur.

And, uh, this is the first of a, a three-part series, man. Uh, the seven Day Blueprint here, this is the Creation Blueprint. I talked Genesis 1 28. There’s six, six days of creating, and then the seventh day of, of Sabbath. This is a, a blueprint that God’s given us how to create anything. So whether you’re looking to create an incredible relationship, whether you’re looking to create a, uh, a rockstar business, or ultimately just a fulfilling life, God’s given us a template.

The Bible is full of blueprints and templates of, of how to do things. We’re just not looking at it in, in that manner. And so I’ve, I wrote this book for Kingdom Entrepreneurs to, to really understand how to create and, and it goes through each day, the structure and the order of how God created everything that we know today and why.

And so, if it’s all right, man, I would love to offer a free download for, I mean, if you want the physical copy, you gotta buy it on Amazon. But, um, for those, if they would just text the word seven, so, or the number seven to, okay, 7 2 7 4 7 2 3 8 6 0. Again, that’s 7 2 7 4 7 2 3 8 6 0. Um, that will provide them a download, uh, in which they could read that book.

Um, and I also haven’t, I gotta record the audible version of that, uh, and then I’ll make that available to people too.

1:10:57 Chris Grainger
And guys, don’t wreck your car. Trying to be like, write that number down. We’ll make sure it’s in the show notes for you fellas. And, uh, by the way, that’s spoiler alert for our Fun Friday listeners.

That book will be our featured book of the week. So we’re, we’re, we’re making that. So we’ll have a whole featured page on our website. Guys, go there, check that out too. We’ll, we’ll make sure we have all the links cuz we want you to not just download it. We want you to buy it and put that, have it in your hands and write the notes in it, and be that kingdom entrepreneur that, that Riley’s trying to to lead.

So, man, thank you so much, Riley. This has been amazing.

1:11:27 Rylee Meek
Thanks Chris. Really appreciate it, man.

1:11:32 Chris Grainger
Most men know what it’s like to do life in a back end and feel isolated on the journey. We believe every man needs a community to help them become the men they were created to. More than just a website or podcast. We are a community of Christian men who are committed to supporting and encouraging one another on our journey.

Become the best versions of ourselves. We are men who have fought the good fight and come out victorious. The lion within us is here to help you stop feeling lost, defeated, and alone. Instead, find community and connection with other men that will help you achieve your goals. Live a life of purpose and be the leader God intends you to be.

Visit the lion within.us to join the new Growing Lion Den community today.

Well guys, I warned you that conversation with Riley was powerful. I, I think you can just feel his. He’s definitely, uh, very, very well versed in what he does. He’s an expert, so I was so excited to have him come on the show, share this information with us cuz it’s going to make us better guys. It’s going to make us better.

I mean, we got so many different things, but the mindset that he talked about, that mindset is holding us back. We have to flip that and change it. Understand, you know, we are, we are created to do great things and we are created to create, right? We’re not created just to go through, uh, routine, day in, day out, check, just checking boxes.

We are supposed to be creative. So guys, I hope that lit a fire in you. Hope that you’re now thinking about what you could be doing differently and your in your walk to make the kingdom grow right now today. The question I want you to think about this week, particularly around your finances, do your finances reflect a kingdom mindset?

If they don’t, if they don’t reflect the kingdom mindset. Again, he had a great conversation about Dave Ramsey and debt and all that stuff. And look, I’ve, I, I drank the, the Ramsey Kool-Aid myself. I get it. It’s great for getting outta debt, but Riley is really talking about not just debt, but talk about living victoriously, making a real impact, okay?

If we’re just trying to get out of debt, we’re totally missing it. We’re missing it. So think about your finances. How do they reflect the kingdom mindset? So guys, I hope you enjoyed this conversation. If you did share it with someone, if you, if you’re, if you, if you wanna share it with a fellow entrepreneur, please do that.

If you just wanna share it with a friend who you think needs some encouragement around finances, this is for you. Okay? That’s what it’s all about. I would ask you, give us a rating, write a review, go to the line within us, join our community. Riley and I, we talked about this at length, how we need men around us.

Right at all times, helping us grow. So you can’t do this alone guys, if you find yourself saying, I got this. They are, they are three dangerous words. You need to be careful. You don’t got this. You need help. You need help from others to help you grow and be successful. So I’m just blessed and honored to have people like Riley come in and just pour out so much wisdom and insight for us to understand on how to we can unleash that line within, right?

So again, go to the line within.us. Join the community. There’s no chan, there’s no time like today to take action and be part of a group that’s going help you. We’re going help point you and guide you and give you that encouragement along. So I pray that you, I pray that you enjoyed this conversation, that this helped served you well and it was some entertainment as well for, I’m sure you had, if you were on a treadmill with this one, you probably got a few more extra miles in on this one cuz we were pretty, uh, amped up throughout this one.

But anyway, come back on F Friday for our Fun Friday episode on unpack some tips I think gonna help you along the way as well. But look forward to having you back here on Friday as well as a couple dad jokes that I’m never gonna get you laughing. So guys, have a great day, get after it. And don’t forget to unleash the lion within.