Mark: 0:00

I think there's something about scars that are beautiful. You know people oftentimes with physical scars. They'll be embarrassed about them or they don't want to show or whatever. But the scar, if you look at it, it's all about how you look at it. It's a sign of healing.

Justin: 0:14

Yeah.

Mark: 0:14

It doesn't come until it's healed. So like it may not be the prettiest thing in the world just to look at or to talk about, but it actually is a beautiful thing that represents something that you've overcome or to talk about, but it actually is a beautiful thing that represents something that you've overcome. And the devil doesn't want us to tell our stories. That's why you put shame around it. It puts embarrassment around it. That's your evidence of what's happened in your life, and so I think when we tell those stories, show our scars, get vulnerable about it. Every time people share stuff or confess something they're struggling with or tell a backstory or whatever, inevitably somebody goes. Oh, me too.

Rhett: 0:57

What is going on, friends? Welcome back to another episode with Red and Justin right here at Armchair Authentic. It's great to have you back for another conversation. We're stewarding our stories and our relationships in a way that serve you having real conversations about real life with real people. Now, today, you're in for a treat. We welcome one of our good friends, mark Clement, along for the ride today on the episode.

Rhett: 1:25

Can't wait to jump into that, but before we do, just always want to take a moment and say thank you to every single one of you who've taken the time to follow us and to comment and to engage with us on social media. Now, if you're new here, hey, could we encourage you. Go to Instagram or Facebook, look us up and follow us. You can find us at Armchair Authentic that's at Armchair Authentic, on both Facebook and Instagram. Or you can go on over to X and find us at Armchair Off Pod that's Armchair Off A-U-T-H, pod P-O-D.

Rhett: 1:59

Now, one thing we've been asking all our friends to do, and that is if you've been enjoying the episodes, could you do us a huge favor. Would you take a moment to copy the link from your favorite podcast platform and text it to a friend man? That would mean so much to us. Thank you. All right, as we get ready to kick into this conversation, just want to remind you sit back, relax, throw up your feet. Let's get ready to have some fun as we sit down with a friend of ours today, mark Clement. Are you guys ready? Here we go. All right, justin, today's a lot of fun. We got Mark Clement in the studio with us. Hey, mark, what's up buddy, what's up dude, what's?

Justin: 2:37

up brothers, so Mark's a great friend of ours. We talk about our small group that we do, where we hang out with a bunch of these guys and Mark is one of our buddies who are really. I joke with him because as it keeps growing, I'm like you're kind of the third unofficial co-leader who's got to help us wrangle some of this stuff, because we're growing like crazy and we need to keep it small. So we were having some conversation before we kick off our small group for this semester. So Mark is hanging out with us in the studio today and whatever we say is just going to come out and we'll see how it goes.

Rhett: 3:11

And today we were telling Mark I said man, you're a good friend of ours. I mean we could really treat this episode as a special guest Mark Clement on a conversation with her about all the things that you do. But we're really trying to come at this from an angle, because we're already doing life so much with each other. We're like what would it look like just to bring one of our friends on here with us and to have just a dialogue, conversation that all three of us would naturally have anyway?

Justin: 3:32

So yeah, because what has he really accomplished?

Mark: 3:35

You know, we found Mark on the road the other day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, our special friend.

Rhett: 3:47

We found Mark on the road the other day. We were like, hey, come on, man, let's uh, no, let's throw him a bone.

Justin: 3:52

What's funny is me and Mark have known each other for years. Yeah, Matter of fact, so long ago me and my wife were like on what would? Be, the equivalent of like Facebook marketplace now.

Rhett: 4:08

And what would be the equivalent of like Facebook marketplace. Now, and we were looking for a couch, what was it on? Was it probably Craigslist? Wait, are you telling me you guys met on?

Justin: 4:14

marketplace.

Mark: 4:15

Facebook marketplace. It was like Craigslist, oh my.

Justin: 4:16

God, and there was this couch that we saw. We were like that'll work for our office. And so me and Summer went, you know, made the work the deal, to make sure that you know we could talk him down a little bit. He was probably a hard negotiator, I just know us. We would have tried to talk something down.

Rhett: 4:31

So you were already pre-planning before the actual meetup? Yeah, oh yeah, it's like, yeah, we were making sure that is this still available Would you take this.

Justin: 4:39

Yeah, I'll take that, okay. So we go to his house, get the couch loaded up, but I noticed when I'm looking through the garage it looked like it was a studio, like musical instruments and just really cool studio equipment. So that got us going and I'm like, hey, man, do you, are you you play music? Are you an engineer? And he said, yes, kind of the all the above. And I just remember walking into your studio, we see it, it was so cool, you know, of course, I learned, you know, that he had like a production studio just with his stuff. He can talk about that too. But we then go home, enjoy our couch, all that kind of stuff. I mean, rhett, when you and Linda would come from out of town, you probably slept on that, because I think it pulled out into a bed, didn't it?

Rhett: 5:21

I don't remember the couch back. What year was this?

Justin: 5:23

This would have been like 2005, 2006.

Mark: 5:27

Oh, wow, wow, this goes back. Maybe, I mean, I don't know exactly, but it was somewhere in that ballpark for sure.

Rhett: 5:33

Late to the halls. So you guys didn't become friends from that point moving forward. You just had met and gone your separate ways and it wasn't until probably Highlands college church of the highlands that kind of brought the yeah, because we, we, we bonded over, I mean we hit it off like yeah, it was a great guy but I never saw him again for a while yeah, yeah and, uh, worship and yeah, all this stuff.

Mark: 5:54

Well, fast forward a few years and I won't. We don't have to get in all this, but there was a season in my life that I was really far away from lord later and, um, so I'm in that season. This is probably 20, I don't know 10, 11, 12, somewhere in there. Yeah, my brother comes into town. He's also a worship guy. He knows Justin from worship world. He lived in Texas.

Justin: 6:15

He was coming in to visit church Great worship leader, by the way yeah, he's awesome, john Clement.

Mark: 6:19

And he was coming in to um, hang out with you at Highlands and kind of watch what you guys did. He was staying with me and I wasn't even going to church at the time and he was like you want to go with me and just hang out? I'm like, yeah, sure, I'd love to see what they do. So I go, you end up being the host and I don't know if we realized it right at first, but at some point in the day it was like man, I feel like we know each other and we made that connection.

Justin: 6:44

You're the guy with the studio that I bought a couch from.

Rhett: 6:47

You're the guy that ripped me off on the couch. I was going to ask he wasn't going to get ripped off.

Mark: 6:53

He made us feel like we probably got a deal.

Justin: 6:56

It was the win-win, the Dale Carnegie win-win. That's right, we both won.

Mark: 7:02

And so then you fast forward a few more years. Yeah, I've come back to the Lord. I've come to the Church of the Highlands, I'm getting involved in worship. Yeah, and I run into you, I think at a development night or something. Oh yeah, or a refuse at the time, yeah, infused in, I was like hey man, and so we just caught up, and then I came and saw you at your office and kind of told you my story, and then a couple of years later, when I got enrolled in Hans College evening.

Justin: 7:33

You ended up being the leader of evening and we really spent a lot of time together and I was one of your go-to. No, you were not. I mean no, mark was like the go-to guy Like he was. We would do a meeting every week after to kind of debrief everything. So Mark really was, I mean he was like a central part. He became right-hand man of that whole everything. So mark really was, I mean he was like a central part, he became right hand man of that whole season.

Mark: 7:48

So that was. That was really awesome, that was fun. Those were some late nights they were.

Justin: 7:51

That was like after that's my.

Mark: 7:52

That was my style too, and after everybody had gone, there was about 10 or 12 of us and daniel baker would get us coffee.

Justin: 7:58

Yeah, he would take an order well, it was funny because me and ret started that because back in the day we were playing music and we would have this. We would have one night of the week. That was like whatever band or whatever music we were writing at the time, we always have one night of the week. It would just go into the wee hours of the night, like there was no end time. It would start at six and we might end at midnight and then after that we would go to like TGI Fridays, cause they were open till 2am, yeah, and so for years there's always been that one night in the week and I carried that over even into ministry, even at Highlands with the worship teams. We would just have once a month these late night meetings. And it's funny to think now, because I don't know if people really do that. I think it was more of a personality I had in the team that I had. They just went with it. We'd drink coffee, get snacks and we would change the world together.

Rhett: 8:48

And I would say I don't know if we necessarily went with it. I don't think we had any other choice.

Mark: 8:53

If we wanted to be on the team. That's how I did it.

Rhett: 8:57

Justin led the meeting in a way hey, if you're really committed, stay until 11 o'clock, and it can be like oh man, I remember seeing 1 am and I'm like bro, I I got 30 minutes to drive to get home because red has a logistics, and then I gotta be at the office at like 6 30 the next morning. So all y'all that like today is you're like.

Justin: 9:14

You're off on friday, bro, like, but I was like working full time and then red would leave right when it's over at 1 am because he had to get home and go to bed. I'm like, yeah, he just doesn't have to get to. Yeah, I'm kidding, I never said that, man, I'll tell you. I look back at that. I'm like I would.

Mark: 9:29

You know, there was a grace, there was a season and grace for that.

Rhett: 9:32

But like now looking at it as a 47 year old man I'm like, yeah, I'm not doing that again no no, I don't but you know what?

Justin: 9:39

there's other ways to be, influential right now it's early morning it was now. I'll meet you at six.

Mark: 9:45

Oh yeah, I'm not meeting you not at night no, it's a whole new world.

Rhett: 9:48

I feel like, well, we were in our early 30s too at that point. Well, think about it too. You know it's different young. Well, think of no carol, yeah before two.

Justin: 9:56

So in 2008, before that market crash, yeah, things stayed open till like 11 o'clock, like barnes and noble where this you know, I know once again. We have 500 cities around the country. Listen to this. Everybody probably relates to a starbucks or barnes and noble. Yeah, but we have one in birmingham. It's beautiful, it overlooks our kahaba valley. We would meet at this barnes and noble and sit out just on the patio or go inside and literally take over the cafe. Yeah, but they would stay open late and that's why we'd be there. So, if you think about it, the world's changed so much because, around 2009, 2010, to cut budgets, these places began closing at like nine o'clock. And then, after COVID I mean, I was thinking about this the other day we went to. We're a Costco kind of family, so we'll go eat. We'll feed six for under $20, which is pretty amazing if you think about it A lot of hot dogs and pizza, but we would go do that and, as we're pulling out at Costco because they close on Saturday nights at 6 o'clock- Really.

Justin: 10:58

Oh yeah, saturday nights they close at 6. We're pulling out and I look over where our big mall is and it's already closing down. So even the mall after covid has not really recovered. Everything shuts down a lot earlier than it used to. So the it was a lot more normal like we were talking about girl scout cookies a couple of episodes ago. Yeah, there was something in the culture then that made it funny when we made these funny youth commercials. In the same way, meeting late seemed like a normal thing to do then. It just doesn't seem that way now.

Rhett: 11:33

And some of the 20-year-olds that are listening are going. Are you kidding me? I'm there to probably name and have all these different places around town that stay open late. I would love them to tell me we're unaware of it now.

Mark: 11:42

But coffee shops are not typically one of them. They're almost always closed at 3 or 4.

Rhett: 11:47

It's hard to find a coffee shop.

Justin: 11:48

Starbucks is probably the exemption, but they'll close still at like 7 or 8. You'll pull up to that drive-thru to get a coffee at 7.30 at night. Some people are thinking really, yeah, we do, some of us, and they're shut down. What world is?

Rhett: 12:03

this. There was that one coffee house over in the south side area of town. I don't think it's there anymore. It's called the Celestial Realm. I remember the Celestial Realm I'm not speaking to anything that was good about it. It was like the only coffee place we could find.

Justin: 12:16

It was a very interesting environment. It was very interesting. It was one of two coffee houses. It was called.

Rhett: 12:22

Celestial Realm.

Mark: 12:24

I know with a lot of blue lights it had a lot of lamps up in the corner had the beads hanging over the doorway.

Justin: 12:31

We probably didn't know.

Rhett: 12:32

It was insinuating certain things, so we'd be there every Saturday night among the locals.

Mark: 12:39

They were like hey these guys Getting a?

Justin: 12:41

cafe mocha and we just love people. So we're naturally just touchy, feely. I love you man. We're hugging people that we're meeting for the first time and they're like, hey, these guys are pretty great and so. But there was either Celestial Realm or across the street there was the coffee house.

Rhett: 12:56

Yeah, I think they had like a little coffee house. It was some weird pronunciation, all I know is I didn't drink coffee at that time yet because I hadn't entered into manhood enough, I guess. Obviously I was a man. I love coffee. Now I was a man, I would always go in and get the Italian soda.

Justin: 13:09

Like I thought I was something special You'd get.

Rhett: 13:13

like some Jones soda. I'll take that Italian soda.

Justin: 13:14

Like I thought I was something and I would get like a cafe mocha.

Rhett: 13:17

It's basically a Sprite, that's not a Sprite jones soda was one of them.

Justin: 13:26

They were really my son loved jones, so he collected all those bottles because they look, so they have a vibe to them. Yeah, there used to be a place in town this is before like internet was getting big and it was called liquid 360. It was in crestline village in the city that we live in, and it was an internet cafe that just sounds so fun to hear that now.

Rhett: 13:43

Did you have to pay 25 cents to use the computer?

Justin: 13:46

No, they actually didn't charge you, but you had to have a receipt of a purchase and you could type in the code so we would go in and get Jones sodas Because they didn't really have coffee, I don't believe, but it was like a soda fountain almost and we'd get Jones sodas. And I mean I had some crazy laptop. I mean I don't even know, I'm thinking back like it was hard to get on.

Mark: 14:07

It's probably a brick like 56k like you've got mail exactly?

Rhett: 14:14

have you seen the interview? That guy that you've got mail guy, he's just some like I don't know. I think he's in his 70s now the voice of the voice of. You've got mail, nothing. You know he's retired or whatever, but I think he. I think he got paid. I don't know, don't quote me on this, but it's somewhere like 200 500 bucks. Just record that was there any?

Mark: 14:33

and he didn't get any royalties or anything. No, it was. It was like hey do you record this, you record this really quick.

Justin: 14:39

He's like you got mail. That's pretty wild, it's crazy. It is, it is true, like the residuals, the stuff, the people who they take the risk and work that in that this might be successful.

Rhett: 14:50

Yeah.

Justin: 14:51

And it might not.

Rhett: 14:52

Just like you're saying. Just think if he got a penny, just a penny off every time that thing was said just a penny Like that's the least you could get paid, he'd be a gazillionaire.

Justin: 15:00

He would have it. He would definitely have it and it's like you were saying the Nike swoosh was this lady.

Rhett: 15:05

Yeah she created it got paid a couple hundred bucks. Ok, I'm going to throw something out here, completely shifting gears.

Rhett: 15:13

That's not like you, I learned something new. I'm going to ask you a question when it comes to brushing your teeth, did you know that you're not supposed to rinse your mouth after you brush your teeth, that you're supposed to spit and you're supposed to leave the fluoride on your teeth? So my, my question is at 47 years old, I just learned this two or three days ago. I actually saw it come up on like a reel or something and I was like no man, I gotta go verify this, fact check, you know. And I went and fact checked. I was like, oh my gosh, you know like you're. So my question is when you brush your teeth and I'm asking our friends online when you brush your teeth, do you rinse afterwards? Do you rinse, justin? I?

Justin: 15:52

I'll, I'll brush.

Rhett: 15:53

Yeah.

Justin: 15:54

I'll spit it out and then I put water on the toothbrush and let that be my level of rinsing, but I don't rinse my mouth.

Rhett: 16:00

Okay. So everything that the dentist would tell you is that you've just done your teeth no good. You've washed all the fluoride right off your teeth, although I've never had a dentist say that.

Justin: 16:09

I know they need to step that up.

Rhett: 16:11

Literally, this is what I was thinking about. So like anyway. So they're like floss before you brush your teeth. Yeah, cause I always would brush my teeth and I would floss. I think most people do, but what you said makes sense. So you floss before you brush your teeth and then, when you brush your teeth, you're supposed to leave the fluoride in, so you're supposed to spit and keep the fluoride on for at least 20 minutes.

Justin: 16:31

It explains all the root canals I'm having.

Rhett: 16:34

And so to Mark, to your point, think about this for a minute. To your point, I was like there's an assumption that as a grown adult, we're supposed to know this, but I'm paying you, as a doctor, to inform me of this. Now, I'm not throwing my dentist under the bus, but I've never in the history of going to the dentist have ever had anybody tell me they're like well, you need to floss. They don't really teach you how to floss.

Mark: 16:55

Yeah, they just ask, do you?

Justin: 16:56

Do you Do. You know why.

Rhett: 16:57

That's it, and they don't tell how to brush your teeth. They say you need a better toothbrush.

Justin: 17:02

Or they tell me a lot, uh, you need to floss. And every time I'm like I promise I'm going to start flossing.

Rhett: 17:09

Oh brother, I think about I think about you too, Cause you you started flossing two or three, four years ago. Yeah, 20, 21.

Mark: 17:17

I started flossing for the first time and I've always did was like I'm gonna do this I'm gonna create this healthy habit.

Rhett: 17:22

I put the floss out beside me and I would just do it every day and just stick to it and have a you know a small win that was turned into a big win for me in other areas to get that. But I just thought that was interesting. So I I literally so for the past two days. After I've read, I was like, all right, here we go, I want to try this, yeah, and so I would spit and then I'll like, okay, keep this film on my mouth, but you ready for this? Like it doesn't, like it's all gone when you spit it all out.

Rhett: 17:45

I know this might be gross and I'm sorry, I'm not trying to people are loving this but if you think about this for me, when you spit and you don't rinse, all of a sudden you look, you're like well, like there's. I thought there would be residue, I thought there'd still be toothpaste in my mouth, but there's not, and I'm like this is okay, yeah. So I'm not like usually I would just rinse and spit it all out and it's like there's pointless. You got the food off your teeth, but the fluoride is not doing its work.

Justin: 18:08

So do you know why the dentist doesn't tell you? Uh, I could assume because the hot dog companies and cahoots with the bond company and they make packs of eight hot dogs with 10 buns. Remember that scene.

Rhett: 18:24

Father of the bride packs of eight hot dogs with 10 buns. Remember that scene, father of the bride. Father of the bride, yeah, Steve Martin.

Mark: 18:28

He's not wrong, by the way. No, he is not wrong.

Rhett: 18:30

Yeah, cause that's frustrating enough. When you go to buy hot dogs, you're like, seriously, you're going to force me to do this.

Justin: 18:34

By the way, we went and had a grill out and it was a few months ago and I actually found eight hot dog buns, no Eight hot dogs.

Rhett: 18:42

I don't believe it.

Justin: 18:43

I took a picture. No, it's on my phone somewhere. I'm going to find it because I almost Instagram Steve Martin just to see if he would even Were you at the value mart, where the bread is like outdated and people have already opened it and kind of moved stuff around for you.

Rhett: 18:58

This is Publix right.

Justin: 18:59

Think about that for a minute though.

Mark: 19:05

We put a lot of trust in the bread, as if nobody's opened it.

Rhett: 19:06

Yeah, they don't really count the slices. They don't seal it interesting. Well, I do look for an. Even all they do I mean really, I mean come on.

Justin: 19:12

I don't know. Well, now you got everybody checking, everybody's going to count how many slices of bread are supposed to be in a loaf of bread.

Rhett: 19:18

Yeah, do you know the answer that? I don't, I don't either so where is our accountability to the bread people that Shouldn't they put more of something you can't just peel off and open and eat the free Plus it's just plastic, I mean you could just cut right through it or stick a needle through it.

Mark: 19:34

It's not exactly secure. Well, there we go, that's true.

Justin: 19:39

I mean it's not sealed in any way, shape or form.

Rhett: 19:42

It's not so if you were hungry, you could grab that. So there's a lot of trust. Yeah, there's a lot of trust there.

Mark: 19:47

Or we've just given a bad person a really good idea. I hope not, or it's the free grapes.

Rhett: 19:51

You know they have free grapes. You walk through the produce aisle and they're free grapes, you just sit in there, you just let the mist that's already hitting the produce and that are in my cart.

Mark: 20:00

I have done that, oh, in your cart as I'm walking.

Rhett: 20:03

Okay, oh yeah, by the time you get like five grapes off, you've saved yourself like five cents because they weigh those right.

Mark: 20:08

No, it's a barcode.

Rhett: 20:09

Yeah.

Justin: 20:14

It's like when I go to Bucky's. We go there to eat but there are no tables to eat. So we open the sandwich. We're the family we park laid in the basket and we're there eating our sandwiches.

Rhett: 20:30

Okay. So for those in context, we've talked about Buc-ee's a long time ago. If you're in the North or Midwest or West, you probably don't know what a Buc-ee's is. It's like 125 gas pumps and it's like a Walmart target had met like cracker barrel, cracker barrel, all kinds of stuff. And it's amazing to me and it's interesting you bring out that point because I would have never noticed that until you said it but like droves of people I mean talking like it sometimes it can take you 30 minutes to get in and 30 minutes to get out. Yeah, but there I mean there are droves of people and so within all the shop and all the food and they got all kinds of candies and food and barbecue and name it Swiss roll, like everything, cinnamon rolls, like this is good stuff.

Rhett: 21:07

So good man Not one table you can stay in and sit, there's something about the energy, and if you're slow, it really is, but I wonder if it was always that way, because I mean, like, if you're creating a culture and you're creating a business, you're thinking, yeah, I mean it's people coming in, but it's like gourmet food. I mean you're talking like, well, gourmet for a gas station, but it's really not.

Mark: 21:27

I mean, it's great.

Rhett: 21:28

It's unbelievable.

Justin: 21:29

It's super clean.

Rhett: 21:31

Yeah, and people go there for the bathrooms because it's like you want a high-end restroom man.

Mark: 21:36

that's what we're doing. The gas is always the best price.

Rhett: 21:38

That's true, but I mean, like I don't know, if I'm sitting around a business table and I'm dreaming up an idea, I'm thinking, guys, we got all this food. Why don't we like creating some kind of culture for people to hang out and stay in the store?

Justin: 21:48

Maybe it's in the development plans or maybe it's their their way of keeping the traffic flowing.

Mark: 21:59

And when you're standing up, maybe it's like, well, I'm going to go grab some if they linger.

Justin: 22:02

You're going to have them lingerers that are lingering in a chair, that's true, but it is a thing because it's not far from where we are right now, but I don't live near here, yeah.

Mark: 22:12

So, whenever we're coming this direction, we always are like do we need gas, let's go to because you want to get there.

Justin: 22:19

Well, here's what I'm tempted.

Mark: 22:20

What 20, 30 cents a gallon. Compared to most, it's usually pretty significant.

Rhett: 22:24

It's usually at least 20 cents.

Justin: 22:25

yep, I think we should consider when we close shop right now. You know, in a few minutes do we go eat at Bucky's.

Rhett: 22:33

I'm good. No, I'm good.

Mark: 22:34

I don't really care for their food honestly. I know people love it, people love it.

Justin: 22:38

Y'all can go get the table straight at Small Group. I might stop by, bucky.

Rhett: 22:41

I still can't believe they have their own little Bucky the Beaver Disney moment at the gas station. Have you been there when they showed the mascot. They come out. I'm talking you've got hundreds of people waiting in line to take a picture with Bucky.

Justin: 22:58

I love Bucky.

Mark: 22:59

Bailing suits and beach towels and umbrellas. It's a thing they got everything.

Justin: 23:06

We have the stuffed animals like around our house. Like I say, I got still a couple of younger kids, but we also, as I mentioned a couple episodes ago, we have a dog now or we have for, I guess, the past eight months. The dog that you share it's almost been a year but we don't anymore we have officially taken custody.

Mark: 23:22

We have custody. This is news, is news. This is news.

Justin: 23:25

I'm a bit personal. I don't talk about a lot of stuff like that, so I'm kind of now saying it out loud.

Rhett: 23:31

And the people that listen to this podcast are like what do you mean? You're not, you don't open up. You've opened up about a lot of things.

Mark: 23:37

Clarify that and also they're definitely going to want to know what does it mean to share a dog?

Justin: 23:41

Yeah, fair question. So we've just not, we've not been a dog family. We've never been ready. We love dogs, but we've never been ready to make the commitment. And we're I mean we're stepping into this April's 25 years of marriage, so I mean a long time no dog. But we love dogs. We love going to people's house Rhett, I love getting to come pet, you know, his dog, molly. It's great. But then I don't have to deal with the responsibility.

Justin: 24:07

Well, we actually randomly just were looking up dogs one day and we found a family who, I mean, she's such a great worker, just has a very demanding job. Kids are very athletic, they're out a lot doing these travel squads, and she was just looking for someone to kind of take. Let's just split some time. One you take the weekend, I'll take the week. And it was almost like she laid out the Bradshaw desire that no one ever would no vet fees, no food fees, she'll provide everything.

Justin: 24:42

So we took this dog beautiful, just, I mean white golden retriever, his name's Lito, so cool, and so we love him. So I mean he's trained all this stuff. It's like we're getting our cake and eating it too. We fell in love with this dog and it was one of those things of kind of swapping up more and more. I mean, she knew our boys loved him and she knew we they're giving him some great attention and care. Long and short of it is we kind of had this do we take him on full time? Because she was open to let that happen and we had already fallen so in love with him that it was hard to actually not see him in our life anymore, and so we took him and the vet bills come with it.

Rhett: 25:28

He took the land the whole time.

Mark: 25:29

The food, the food. It's kind of like, hey, let's get some Everything. The baths.

Rhett: 25:35

He's like she's getting free childcare and then the family that's doing the free childcare falls in love with the kid and it's like, hey, can we have your kid and you're like sure, why not?

Justin: 25:45

I've raised 10 of them. I was hoping you would ask. So that was our story, and he feels like he's a part of our family.

Rhett: 25:52

Yeah, they're sweet, he's a sweet dog.

Justin: 25:53

And it is. I mean, he is, he's amazing. And the cool thing is, if we go somewhere, she'll love to catch up with him.

Mark: 26:01

And so at least now there's potential free boarding, that's more something, and so the practical people are thinking about it.

Rhett: 26:08

Are you kidding me right now? What a blessing you hadn't had to pay for any vets. None of that. Like you got through the hard part, which is the puppy phase, which is fun, but there's a price to pay for it. Oh, it's perfect and you're just like hey, man, I got this perfectly great, healthy dog that's been taken care of. All I got to do is feed it and take him out.

Justin: 26:25

Breeder yeah, Some, some. I'll tell you we would have never been looking for. I'll tell you that, uh, all the shots, yeah, Prepping him, training, sending him. We always joke that he got sent. He got sent to the Academy because when he does bad things, we remind him like Lito, you're an Academy graduate. Don't do that.

Mark: 26:46

I mean, it's a thing Our dog is four.

Justin: 26:48

He just turned four a couple months ago.

Mark: 26:50

Yeah, and we've had him since he was a puppy and he's finally sweet. I literally said to my wife the other day he's finally the dog I wanted, like he's, he's calmed down. Yeah, you've been with him, he's very easy. He's very obedient, moses Very easy. It's like okay, finally, because we had gates up for like all the up until six months ago we had gates up to keep him in the certain part of the house. He didn't tear up anything, but he would just get on stuff and yeah, and shed on it.

Mark: 27:17

Yeah, and I hated those gates and it was like finally took the gates down it's like, oh, but it was a big price to pay to get to get to this point now it's like okay, it's worth it, but I would not.

Justin: 27:30

We would not do it again there's an etiquette I'm learning because I've never had to know it, but like going and walking the dog, like I'll go walk him, and if you were to picture my first couple of months, I knew to take the doggy bag where if he has to go to the bathroom, you know I can clean it up, but I just take him to every yard. He'd just pee. It was kind of the normal thing. I didn't realize that kills grass, had no idea until I let him do it in my yard and I wake up in a couple of weeks I've got this brown spot and we take care of our grass and I'm like what in the liquid acid?

Mark: 28:02

And I found out when people do that in our yard. I never knew In a walkable neighborhood. I never knew Walkable neighborhood. We did too, and I'm like for the love, never knew there's woods right there. Take him in the woods, I take him on his walks.

Justin: 28:15

I've learned every place in my neighborhood. Now I don't I mean, I don't even clean stuff up. Let me just go ahead and admit it. I've learned every place I can take him to the bathroom where I don't have to use the bathroom. Our neighborhood, yeah.

Mark: 28:34

And so a lot of the business happens in the alley in the back alley.

Justin: 28:36

You got to know this flow for it. But what I've noticed too is not even just us owning a dog, but when we put our garbage out. If you keep it out, like sometimes, we're just so busy. I might keep it an extra day where it's still out front. I haven't drug it back yet.

Mark: 28:47

People will put the bags in there.

Justin: 28:49

It annoys me. Annoys me, Mark. They'll take their little doggy bag and put it in your trash while they're on their walk and they'll dump it in there and it stinks like oh my gosh.

Mark: 29:02

I heard a radio show yesterday how rude Somebody called in and they were asking is that okay or not? No it's not. The guys on the show basically said it's okay if it's full of garbage and you know it's about to get picked up, probably that day or whatever. That's fine, yeah, not if it's empty or whatever.

Rhett: 29:19

Yeah, let's put it at the very bottom and let everything just stack on top of that.

Justin: 29:24

And that's what happened to ours, and it had that smell, that even once the garbage man dumps it out, it's. I mean, it smelled for months.

Rhett: 29:31

Yeah, that's when you pour Clorox in the bottom. Of it Ticked me off.

Justin: 29:35

I mean one day people just got happy. I literally in one day that I'm gone to work, the garbage man comes that night. I get it. It was a beautiful day. People, I guess, are walking their dogs.

Rhett: 29:50

I had like six bags in there of different colors, like you had a blue bag, so I knew there were different people. Oh my gosh, I just felt everybody click off the episode right now, all from being disgusted. So we've talked about flossing and spitting. Stay with us, guys, stay with us.

Justin: 30:01

And now dog waste. Yeah, I know, hey, okay, so when we were talking. Thanks for inviting me to this.

Rhett: 30:08

You're really getting the best of our conversations right now. I will say that when we were talking about Bucky's not having seats.

Justin: 30:16

Something that's changing up, though, is if you think about what made Starbucks so endearing to the people to want to come in because they built their brand off. We're second place. We're the second place. Third place, is it third?

Justin: 30:29

place, Third place yeah, yeah, because your first one's home then work Yep, this is your hand. So they wanted the third place experience where you can have your office, a hangout spot, whatever it is. So they always encourage you to come in linger. They wrote your names on the cup and they even what they didn't realize is even how it endeared people to it when they would misspell names like it's all the stuff, all the notes. Well, around 08, I remember reading an article where they're going to become like the next McDonald's.

Rhett: 30:59

Hey, friends, want to interrupt our conversation just for one moment to say thank you so much for joining us today and also ask if you are enjoying this podcast. Could you do us a huge favor. Would you take a moment, pull the car over to the side of the road If you're sitting at a red light, copy the link from your favorite podcast platform and send it to a friend? Text it to a friend If you're in the office. Airdrop it to a friend right now, encourage somebody, put a smile on their face and let them be a part of this conversation. All right, guys, it really means so much.

Justin: 31:35

It really does. Thank you for doing that. Okay, let's get back to the conversation. They're going to become like the next McDonald's. Remember, starbucks used to not have a lot of food items. They might have some of the coffee cakes, lemon loaf, stuff, like that. Around 2009, 10, 11, 12, you started seeing that boost up and now all we know is like you go to starbucks, you get coffee, you get food anything you want, they self-serve everything. And so they now are realizing they've they're losing, they they shifted away from that third place yeah, I read, uh, I read an article and they're they're seeing that it's affecting their brand yeah, they, they whole model went to the drive-thru that was sort sort of their thing.

Mark: 32:09

That was geared toward that.

Justin: 32:11

They brought in chairs that weren't as comfortable.

Mark: 32:13

Yeah, it was like they were trying to get you not to stay. Fewer chairs, fewer tables.

Justin: 32:17

Yep Closer together.

Mark: 32:18

I remember going into one when I hadn't been in a while and I was like this is weird, but they're flipping back because they've realized they've killed. Well, I mean, they're still doing fine, but relative to their growth.

Justin: 32:28

For their growth in the next season, because people are gathering again I mean for a few years now and there's so many more coffee shops to go to.

Mark: 32:35

They had the corner on the market, literally for years and now it's like you got, I don't. I choose Starbucks usually when we're on the road, because you can trust it's like a, it's a change, so you trust them to be be consistent and it's drive-thru yeah it's definitely not the best coffee. No, it's good, it's consistent, it's like going to Chick-fil-A, I mean it's great, but it's consistent.

Justin: 32:58

wherever you go, you can trust the brand is going to deliver on the product. I don't drink it black. I put some stuff in it.

Mark: 33:03

No, I've tried a couple times Like this is I rarely go to one, like our small group meets there.

Justin: 33:09

Yeah.

Mark: 33:09

But but I don't usually pick that to go meet somebody.

Rhett: 33:13

I there's 14 other places, cause you live on the bougie side of town.

Mark: 33:16

That's true. You got all the booze around.

Justin: 33:18

Can I? I live in Homewood, yeah.

Rhett: 33:22

Yeah, he lives on the moon. The moon over Homewood that you don't know, there's this big statue called the Vulcan and it represents a time in the city when it was iron the industry.

Mark: 33:35

The industry of iron.

Rhett: 33:36

We're also known as the Pittsburgh of the South, like the steel city, and so Vulcan, I guess, represented a steel god or iron god or whatever. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, so he lives over in Paganville. I'm just kidding. So the front side of this thing. If you can't visually see me, look it up Google Vulcan, birmingham, alabama, it sits on top of Red Mountain, which I think it's funny that we call that a mountain.

Rhett: 33:59

It's a mole hill, it's basically a hill, careful. You go out west and you're like that's a mountain. You come over here like that is not a mountain, dude, that is a hill. It's beautiful, I love it, but anyway it sits up on top of this what we call a mountain in alabama and, uh, the front side with his face and he's got his arm lifted. You know, it used to have a light on the top, yep, and I remember it used to have a light where it would be green or red and at least I don't know if this is true, it is but when it was green I think there was nobody died or something no one died.

Justin: 34:27

That that's it.

Rhett: 34:28

No traffic and then, when it was red, somebody died in the state or the city, I guess on the highway.

Mark: 34:33

Yeah, whenever we would come into town for like holidays we'd go out of town to see family and we'd come back through and every time my dad cause you can see it all over the city cause it's the only high point. Everything else is flat. And you see, you can see it from miles away. And he would always comment on oh, someone must have passed away. Okay, I'm glad that wasn't just a thing. My dad knows.

Rhett: 34:55

So anyway, but on the backside of this thing this guy's wearing like an Uber short, like cheerleader skirt, and so on the backside of this dude that's fully built, it's the moon over Homewood. So you use your imagination but, anyway. Yeah, the guy is fully exposed on the back end anything in the back I don't know what I'm saying, like it's almost yeah, maybe it's a loincloth.

Rhett: 35:16

Yeah, it's not yeah so, if you're, if so mark lives over in homewood, the bougie side of town. That's got the the butt over homewood, the moon over homewood yeah anyway, but you know, yeah so you've got the options. We just got a starbucks over here in moody. So we're, we're not bougie, but we've got yeah, but you know yeah, so you've got the options. We just got a Starbucks over here in.

Justin: 35:33

Moody. So we're, we're, we're not bougie, but we've got we're. You know, we've got that other place that you are you're boycotting, that you won't go back to. So we won't say that, oh, I'm never going back to Seven Brew.

Mark: 35:42

Okay, you did. I'm not doing that again.

Rhett: 35:43

So Seven Brew is a very popular up and coming thing. I'm obviously not their demographic, you know, or maybe I am, I don't know. Um, but at the last time I went through like some 16, 17 year old girls like, hey, cutie, what you want today? Hey, honey, I'm like don't, like, that's just so, walk awkward. I am old enough to be your great, great granddad. I get up. This is weird. I was like I told Linda, I was like I'm never coming back here again, coffee, okay, but it was just this fast-paced drive-through type, you know yeah, type dutch bros kind of feel.

Justin: 36:12

They got their style where it's all about really like relationship.

Mark: 36:15

It's like going to buckle yeah, you know, it's them all like they they build relationship with you it's like yo it's good.

Rhett: 36:21

Maybe I'll see you at a concert this weekend yeah, what are you up to today, man, where you going?

Justin: 36:25

hey, what's going on definitely what's the?

Rhett: 36:27

next thing that's happening 30 seconds seconds from now. Hey, can I sit in your car, like it's like this whole feeling of like way over the top, and if that's their thing, that's great. I'm obviously not their demographic, but they have, like they planted in that demographic though. That's the thing it's like. Come on, man, you got to. You know this is moody, you know how.

Justin: 36:44

Starbucks is getting personal again. They're bringing back the Sharpie.

Rhett: 36:48

Yeah, dude, I got one on the cup the other day, Did you really Okay?

Mark: 36:51

I heard it. I heard it's going to be.

Justin: 36:52

Cause now it's printed on the label. Right, yeah, it's printed. But they learned that there's something about the just the natural writing, the writing a note, like you got this misspelling your name. All these things outweighed having the quick computer who just prints out.

Rhett: 37:07

Let's talk about that for a second. It's interesting you mentioned that because when I went through the other day the coffee cup said made with love, and then it had exclamation point heart, heart, whatever, and and I was like I don't know who made this, but that actually put a smile on my face and I was like well there's care in that and I know it's something so simple, but I didn't feel like just another number coming through the drive through the psyche.

Rhett: 37:27

And then, uh, one of my buddies I buddies, I'm starting to, you know befriend over at this starbucks is uh jc. Shout out to jc again. That's two shout outs for you, bro. You listen to this podcast but uh, he put what's up, big homie. He wrote that on the cup.

Justin: 37:38

I was like well, I appreciate it, you're like, well, keep it homie, homie's. Fine. Just don't call me cutie and sweetie, pie and honey.

Rhett: 37:47

Don't call me big homie hey, big's fine, I'm fine with that. I'm you know, you like it when people call you Big Papa.

Justin: 37:52

Oh man.

Rhett: 37:57

What was that? I remember that skit.

Justin: 37:57

Saturday.

Mark: 37:58

Night Live.

Rhett: 37:59

There's a song in there somewhere Saturday Night Live skit like Will Ferrell did. I love it when you call me Big Papa. It's just so funny when Will does that.

Justin: 38:08

Moving right along. It's kind of like the Nate Bargatze SNL skits where he's George Washington.

Mark: 38:15

It's just so good. My wife showed me a video the other day of him in Nashville, where he lives, and he was at some kind of Christmas nativity play thing.

Rhett: 38:24

Oh, it's so good. Did he show up as the angel? He's the angel.

Mark: 38:29

He is the angel, but they're asking him all these questions and it's a takeoff from George Washington.

Justin: 38:33

It's the George Washington turn into the nativity scene, so why are we singing? About why is there a?

Mark: 38:38

Christmas tree. Yeah, he's just making a thing. We're going to celebrate with a tree.

Justin: 38:40

We will celebrate the birth of Jesus by putting trees in our living room and they're like but I'm confused. And then it's like Mary saying something. He's like there will be many songs made about you, mary, and Joseph's like and will there be songs made about me he's like, and there will also be, and he moves to another subject.

Justin: 39:00

Yeah, there are zero songs about Joseph, but the Washington the skit too is funny where he's talking about. We will name animals by their name when they're alive and they'll have a different name when we eat them.

Rhett: 39:19

We will now officially refer to like cow as beef, and what?

Justin: 39:20

was this other one, I don't remember. It was like it's been a long time. It was like cow is beef and pig as pork and they were like well, what about chicken? And he's like that one stays and he's like, but I am.

Mark: 39:31

I am happy to let you know that hot dogs will not be made of hot dogs well, what are?

Rhett: 39:36

they made of no one knows no one knows, it's such a good that was such a good skit man.

Justin: 39:45

But yeah, so it's it is? It started as we were talking about the whole starbuck experience and all these different things with bucky. So I mean now I'm getting hungry and I'm wanting bucky's. I'm gonna be honest with you. What do you get when you go? I get the um, I'll either get the sliced like a pork, the brisket or the brisket you get the sliced pig yeah yeah, you get the brisket, oh yeah love that brisket and then, um, sometimes you gotta get that fudge too. Get them to get you a sample.

Rhett: 40:16

Oh, are you kidding me? They give you samples.

Justin: 40:18

Oh yeah, it's like old school man, go, get there and give Ed.

Mark: 40:22

Have you seen what they pay their people A?

Justin: 40:24

lot of money it's insane. Oh yeah, it's on the,000 to be like some kind of this manager, and then it's like 150 to be this.

Mark: 40:34

I don't know if they work like dogs or not. They have to. They have to. They have to write in crazy money, but I can't. It's shocking how much they pay.

Justin: 40:41

Yeah.

Mark: 40:41

Shocking.

Justin: 40:42

Like it makes you go. I can see you in a Bucky shirt. I can see you in a Bucky shirt. You would kill that place in Bucky.

Mark: 40:50

Commuting from home. Whatever you can do that, those are my people. I mean to afford Homewood Mark might have to be able to work at.

Rhett: 40:57

Bucky's, it pays like that because he's bougie. You got to give it to them on their process, man, because every time you walk in there it feels like everything is, it's a machine. It's like you know everything is there. It's like they're never out of anything. Yeah, you walk in and there's more than enough of everything and it's super clean. Everything is in order, which creates comfort. Right, it's excellent, which is amazing. And I've never walked in there like, oh man, we're out of that, Not once.

Justin: 41:20

No, not once.

Rhett: 41:22

It's like a cut, and so the I mean if you, if you sit back on the wall and you just watch and you see they are trained and they know what they're doing and they look like they're having a lot of fun. Oh man, they really do Now either they're like we pay you a lot of money. You better put a smile on your face like. Disney type stuff before you walk out of this room, look in the mirror, put a smile on your face, but whatever they're doing, it's working.

Justin: 41:42

It's good leadership though. It is great leadership. It's training their people, getting everybody on the powerful and it works.

Rhett: 41:49

There was a kid walking out of the back you know stalking stuff and I said hey, man, do you enjoy working here? Like I'm really honestly I'm curious, do you enjoy it? And he kind of stopped. He looked around. He's like looking up, like he's looking at. Let's see if any of the cameras like the cameras are on. I'm like if you could see his eyes just do kind of a pan like where's the microphone? But yeah, yeah, I love it, man, it's like, yeah, like, will you help?

Mark: 42:12

me. They probably have people doing that. They probably, I bet they do secret shoppers, you know, yeah, and maybe maybe he thought I was one, but I wasn't.

Rhett: 42:19

I was like, no, I really want to know, because I might want a job here. Yeah, that was in that season of like oh god, what's gonna happen next? I don't know, but I'll work at bucky's you know I don't care, absolutely.

Justin: 42:30

There's nothing wrong. I'll be the guy that puts on the bucky suit. I'll work at Bucky's.

Mark: 42:32

I don't care, there's nothing wrong with Bucky's at all. I'll be the guy that puts on the.

Justin: 42:33

Bucky suit, I'll be the Chuck.

Rhett: 42:34

E Cheese of Bucky man. I'd have so much fun. Man, you would dominate being Bucky.

Justin: 42:38

Yeah, you would, you would.

Mark: 42:40

I'm just too tall Because Rhett's the guy when you go to get coffee, like where we go for our group, cause he will stand there and talk to the people on the counter for a long time. And I was literally talking about this to my wife the other day. We were talking about personality stuff and that's. That is not who I am. That's just, it's just not.

Justin: 43:00

How are you? How are you then? What's your personality, Mark?

Mark: 43:03

Polite and kind, but it's the. It's the rare person that I make that connection with, because I know like I'm never going to see you again, right.

Rhett: 43:11

Well, but that's the difference between that coffee house, though We've had three small groups there and we know these people now and I don't want them to be just as true. You do that everywhere. I don't know. It's who you are and it's a great. It's a great trade.

Justin: 43:26

I just don't have it.

Mark: 43:27

I do, I do agree People will cry and talk to her and tell her their life story. Wow, like in five seconds.

Justin: 43:32

That is true, it doesn't happen with me.

Mark: 43:33

I'm a, I'm a, I'm a. I've got to get to know you guy. And then they love me but they don't love me.

Rhett: 43:40

And so our listeners are going yeah, we're going to need a couple more episodes to see whether or not we put Mark back on this he's mean Rhett's great.

Mark: 43:51

Well, he did say he's kind I'm a deep pool there's a lot to learn about this guy.

Rhett: 43:59

There really is, and you know I do. First of all, you're getting the conversation end of us just hanging out with a friend, but the truth is, man, you're a great leader and tell us what your business is right now, though, I mean, as far as what you do, let's go there just for a second so people kind of get an idea of kind of what you're doing. Man, yeah, no thanks.

Mark: 44:20

Sponsor time. Here's the thing we're invoicing him later.

Rhett: 44:25

So yeah, the bottom line is, there will be an invoice sent to your agency for this plug.

Justin: 44:31

So you choose how much air time this is about to get. It is per second. Every word you say. Me and Red are like ching. So we're going to move from Aquafina to BGY. Right Bougie Speaking of bougie oh man.

Mark: 44:48

No, I appreciate it. I own a marketing and creative agency and we do a few different things. We do marketing creative. We do a lot of, you know, video production and branding and websites and anything in that creative space, marketing space. And then we um have a component of coaching. So I do a lot of business development coaching. Um, we have a service called dream year and we we coach people through to fulfill their dream or get it started.

Mark: 45:15

A lot of people don't know how to start their thing. Yeah, they have a big idea, they have a passion, a dream. Uh, we always say uh, you know, the normal saying is you can't see the forest for the trees. We say you can't see the trees for the forest. They have this big idea and they see the whole forest and what it could be and they just don't know quite how to start. And so so I'm this kind of weird left brain, right brain guy, so I get the creative and the dreaming and the romance of it and the passion. I get all that, but also know that a successful dream is a spreadsheet with skin on it. It has to the math has to work, unless you just have a lot of money that you can throw at something. So I help people kind of marry those two things together, walk them through the process. We call it going from dream to do to done. So usually we can do, we can do that in a compressed timeframe or typically we'll do it over a 12 month timeframe and just walk them through all the steps and the practicalities and the.

Mark: 46:02

If you're a nonprofit, you know you've got to get your 501c3 and you've got to get a board. And if you're starting a business, if you're starting a ministry or writing a book, or we've helped a guy do a short, his first short film, like just put a system and a process to their dream. And so we do a lot of that. And then we also do coaching with people who are typically small business owners, who are looking to scale or grow and they're kind of stuck in a in a rut, or they they've started something that's really going well, but they they're kind of doing it all themselves.

Mark: 46:27

How do I get to the next level? We help people do that. And then we also have a kind of tied into this. We have a software as a service that we offer, that's a full CRM. With you know, you can manage your whole, your whole business through the software with our full support and help you, help you do stuff, build your website in there and your socials and do your money and do your CRM and all that. So we kind of those are the three kind of prongs of our, of our business, what we do.

Rhett: 46:52

And thank you for sharing that because I think it does bring some context to the leader that you are around this table. But I think the common threat here for me in our relationship when we met was this worship and the pastoral type of leadership within the church, but that creative element too, because all three of us are creatives, so it's always been a common theme, in fact, you and I which blows me away I was thinking about this last night and I think it's ridiculous. It's great, I love it, but it's also ridiculous, and that is you and I, mark. We have led worship together at least two times, one in a church in Alabama and the other one we went up and served a church in Montana together and leading worship as well as preaching and those kind of things. And I'm over here with my best friend, justin, who we grew up doing this kind of thing forever, and I've been here what in Alabama? Almost for two years now, I think, and we haven't done it once, not one time.

Justin: 47:46

Well, I'm just playing a little hard to get.

Rhett: 47:50

Yeah, just playing a little hard to get know. Don't think it's not because I haven't asked the brother I'm just saying man like we told the story.

Mark: 47:57

I've known you for 20 years almost right at 20 years ish. And then I've heard about he. I heard you talking about you. Didn't know who he was. Yeah, didn't ever met him. He lived in idaho. Then you. Then linda moves back and works with me at the highlands college yeah, a couple of years, years or a year maybe. Before you came back you were kind of like this fan, like are you really married, do you?

Justin: 48:20

really have a husband. That is true, it's so weird. The phantom.

Mark: 48:23

And then I met you independent of Justin, not through. Justin through your wife and my wife and we had dinner and got to know each other and then got to know you guys together, but I knew you separately. So it's like this weird kind of trying.

Rhett: 48:37

It really is, and you and I have a commonality was just some personal family stuff that we've gone through in our own journeys too, that we opened up and I don't I'm not going to go there today but, in that kind of just brought us in like, wow, music, worship, church, pastoral church, planning, entrepreneur, creative, and I was like this is a new best friend in my life.

Mark: 48:56

Well, I think what's cool is before my whole goal is just to become the third.

Justin: 49:00

Yeah, I'm just trying to work my way. You're being auditioned right now. I'm just trying to work my way in there. We're grading you, we've traveled together.

Mark: 49:09

We've slept in a hotel? Yeah, and we've been in. Clarify that please.

Rhett: 49:13

We've gotten to know each other, for those new to our podcast, if you listen to a recent episode.

Justin: 49:18

This is the Mark that Rhett had talked about.

Rhett: 49:21

They traveled to Montana together and another church Mark has, you know you're getting close to somebody. When they wake up the next morning like did I snore and I was like nah, no, but you do.

Justin: 49:35

Got film on your teeth where you brushed, I'm telling you, which is evidently a good thing, yeah, it is a really good thing, but no one thing I remember and that's what makes it really, really cool is when you know, me and Mark were getting to know each other more in some of the Highlands college days and Highlands worship when you were still in Idaho, there were things I would begin to learn about Mark and I just thought, god, rhett would love this guy. So we'd talk about Rhett and for you guys now I mean, it's normal, y'all are doing things. I'm not even in the picture, and for me that's that rewarding deal of. It's cool to see new friends align and have true commonality and then to have us doing the small groups together. We naturally have our life together. We'll do our own separate lunches, but then we come together even at a table like this. It's fun because it didn't happen two years ago. And now look at this.

Mark: 50:26

Well, and the cool thing too is, like, you guys for me have been there at some key moments, Like Justin, you were there when I came back to the Lord. You were there when Jen and I got married. You were there at 8C with me. You handed your job to me. I took your job when you left. There's been some big moments of that. And then you guys came in later. You've been with me through other parts of my life, through transitioning out of that job back into business and small group together and, like, there's been a lot, a lot of conversations, a lot of sharing, a lot of wisdom imparted um, uh, me to you guys, of course but, but you know, just a lot of uh, a lot of um, uh, sharing and caring and texts and follow ups and cause.

Mark: 51:11

You know, as, as grown men and any man out there listening to this, I guess the women would know it too. But like men, it's hard to have close friends. As a guy it's not impossible, but most guys I've found don't they don't, they don't open up to that. I think we're probably unusual that way. We all probably have a lot of acquaintances and a lot of friends, um, because we're open to that and we'll share our story and we'll talk. You know we'll, we'll do it. But, like a lot of guys don't reciprocate when you meet them, even if you feel like you have something in common, it's hard to get them to open up. So to meet you guys individually and now together and have that, um, it's rare, it's very rare to have that there's.

Mark: 51:49

I can count probably my two hands a number of people in my life that I have that level of openness with in a relationship. Not because I'm not willing to be open. It's just hard to find people who will be open with you.

Justin: 51:59

It is. And then to find those connect points. Not everybody can just go there and to have some of that we've talked about it before that divine flow a little bit, that really enhances the opportunity to grow in a relationship.

Rhett: 52:15

Well and I know this is kind of a common theme, it will always be that way is Armchair Authentic is really centered around relationships and how life change happens in relationships. Everything that's good and I could say, everything that's bad happens with relationships too. But, leaning on the good side of things, the beautiful thing here was that you guys have already had the invested in, you know, relational equity, if you will, over time, and because of our relationship, justin, and equity we have, and because of Justin and Mark's equity, when you began to say, oh, you need to get to know Mark and you know, when I was hearing that, I was already basing it off of all right, well, of course I value what Justin has to say because of our friendship, and so I was like, yeah, well, absolutely, and I don't know. I feel like you said the same to Mark, and so when that opportunity presented itself, we both made the decision to do that, probably based off that equity.

Rhett: 53:06

And then once we and you know we made the decision I think it always comes back to a choice, right, but you, you have to make the decision. It didn't happen overnight. I think we ran into each other a couple of times at a staff meeting at Highlands college and the next thing we know we're like hey, let's try to plan a dinner or something with our families. And that took months before that happened, and then it just slow roll. But what are we? Two years?

Mark: 53:27

Well, because our wives were friends before we were and our sons were friends before we were and our sons were friends. My stepson and your son were friends because they were hanging out in the summer at Highlands College with their moms and so it was like a natural thing. And I remember when we had dinner the first time I said to Jen afterwards I can't remember the last time I met a guy that likes to talk as much as I do.

Mark: 53:51

But there was just this freedom of and it was loud in there and we were trying to yell at him, yelling these intimate things about our story and our history.

Rhett: 54:00

I can't hear you, Can you repeat that?

Mark: 54:01

But him trying to tell him like it just felt like I need to share this with you. It just felt like there's a reason to connect, and so, again, that doesn't happen every day, especially the reciprocal nature of it both ways. It doesn't always happen that way.

Justin: 54:18

So I'm sure, and I'm sure, when y'all both met each other, y'all were like, yeah, justin hyped you up a little much, but I can work with this. Good guys, I will say that I'm grateful to get to have this, this table.

Rhett: 54:37

It's funny that you said that, as far as talking like, I guess being in church for so long and being in positions where you're meeting people that are new, it's like whether or not you have a gift of gab or not, it's like I feel like it. You know you have to fill the, you have to fill it up. You know you've you kind of learned the art of trying to ask questions and hear people's story. And then, I think, when you began to open up and begin to get vulnerable, um, about some stuff that you'd gone through, I was like, oh man, I've gone through some of the same pain. You know, in that pain, it's amazing how that kind of that commonality brought us together a little bit more. And that's when I was like, okay, I can go there.

Justin: 55:13

And it's because you guys, you're not just going through pain that resonates you're, you're actually doing the work on the pain and so when you're talking together, you're already in the solution mindset. So it's not like this negative trauma bonding.

Justin: 55:24

It's like two guys who are on this journey of of not I mean healing, yes, but we're all going through healing. But just, you're getting to build up a relationship and God uses some scars to actually be some catalyst for a great relationship. Yeah, to help other people not have to go through it, or to even help them get out of stuff where they don't see the solution yet.

Mark: 55:47

Yeah, that's good. That's good. I think there's something about scars that are beautiful. That's good. I yeah, I like, I think there's something about scars that are beautiful. You know, people oftentimes with physical scars they'll be embarrassed about them or they don't want to show or whatever. But I think you know, when you meet somebody with a scar, um, I know we're talking about something emotional, but when you see a physical scar, there's all there's often like that conversation looks like a tattoo, it's like how did you get that? What's the story? But there's a story. You know, how did that happen? And I think emotional, mental, even spiritual scars are kind of the same way. But the scar, if you look at it, it's all about how you look at it.

Mark: 56:21

It's a, it's a sign of healing yeah it doesn't come until it's healed, so like it may not be the prettiest thing in the world just to look at or talk about, but it actually is a beautiful thing that represents something that you've overcome.

Justin: 56:35

Yeah, it's good.

Mark: 56:36

And so I think, a lot of times when we, um, when people are willing to do that. You know there's a. It's a little bit of a soapbox for me, but I'll, since we're on the topic, I'll just say you know, the enemy is such a a but, to use your word about how you know, revelation 12, 11 talks about uh, you overcome the enemy with the power of your testimony and the blood of the lamb. And there's, there's a power in this, in the stories that we tell. That's your testimony. There's a power in that there's a parallel Revelation 12, 11 and John 12, 11, or the verses around 12, 11 and John.

Mark: 57:08

Where's the story of? It's the second story of Lazarus that most people don't talk about. We all know about the grace from the dead. But fast forward, jesus is back in their town and all the people are congregating. He's starting to get all the heat from the leaders and all the things. Well, Lazarus was there and it literally talks about in those verses that people came not only to see Jesus, but they wanted to see Lazarus. And the reason you've got Jesus God here, but they want to see Lazarus. And the reason you know you've got Jesus God here, but they want to see this guy. The reason they want to see him is they know him, they know he was dead, they know he was raised from the dead.

Mark: 57:39

They've heard the stories. They want to see him. He's the evidence of what Jesus did. He's kind of the proof in the pudding, so to speak. And that influence of his story was so powerful that the Pharisees and the religious leaders say let's not just kill Jesus, let's kill him too, because a lot of people are coming to Jesus, because of him and because of his story.

Mark: 57:59

And the devil doesn't want us to tell our stories. That's why he puts shame around it, he puts embarrassment around it. He wants us to hide under a bushel to go. There's power, but there's other verses that tell us to confess to each other. Share your story. Your story has power. You know, revelation 12 11 says it's equal footing the blood of the lamb and the power of your story. And for the longest time, like I didn't even like how's that? On the same plane, the same sentence, the same level.

Mark: 58:28

And what I've come to learn is it's because your story is the blood of the lamb, it's the power of it in action. That's why it's mentioned equally Obviously, the blood of the lamb is the ultimate thing, but it's basically putting it right up there and go. That's your evidence of what's happened in your life. And so I think when we tell those stories, show our scars, get vulnerable about it. Every time people share stuff or confess something they're struggling with or tell a backstory or whatever, inevitably somebody goes oh, me too. I didn't know someone else had that, I thought it was just me and it just breaks down all the barriers and pulls everything into the light. And that's. That's where the real power is in divine flow. That's so good yeah.

Justin: 59:10

Well, it reminds me too. Another part on that verse says and they did not love their life so much that they weren't willing to lose it.

Justin: 59:16

And it's the same thing. You've got to hit that point where you've just died to yourself and you're willing to bring it out there and even tell that story Because you can protect yourself and we can guard ourself and our image. Yeah, but we have to hit that point where Jesus says you know you try to keep your life, you're going to lose it, but if you lose it you'll find it Right. And when you finally lose yourself, in that moment to disclose something and to confess something, you actually are healed, the scars formed and you do find your life and the best part of your life will end up happening. Yeah, 100%. You talked about what you did, mark. Go ahead and throw it out there. Like, how can people if, if that really struck a chord with them from the coaching, the, the whole business that you're talking about, that you're doing how can they reach out to you?

Mark: 1:00:03

Yeah, they can find us a couple of different ways. The roar roar like lions roar, the roar dot agency the roaragency and if you're interested in our, our software uh stuff, it's the roarapp app.

Justin: 1:00:17

Okay, we'll put that in the show notes, yep yeah, yep, well, and you know, once again we can't treat him like a guest. There's a friend hanging out with us, so we're not going to throw him all this special attention and be like it was great to have mark with us today rhett, we can just wrap this up seriously though though it's three friends hanging out at a table and we're about to go hang out at another table. So it's great having both of you guys here, yeah, I appreciate it.

Rhett: 1:00:40

Thanks for the invite. Look forward to hopefully many more conversations in the future, and who knows, what this circle might continue to grow over time We'll see.

Justin: 1:00:49

You're definitely a step closer to being part of. Yeah, yeah, that's it. He's going to be looking for equal partnership.

Rhett: 1:00:56

All right, guys, let's go to our small group On the next episode of Armchair Authentic. Those are the moments that really stood out and go, man. You know we did have fun yesterday, but, man, there's nothing like being in the presence of God, with God's people in in you know, until you experience it, man, like I'm telling you, man, like I, I know people argue this all day long, but I'm not at the mercy of an argument because I had the experience.

Justin: 1:01:23

We live in the now and the not yet. So when I say we live in the now, we have these opportunities for these extraordinary moments and these ordinary moments. You just described an extraordinary moment and it was great, but you described this ordinary moment that was eternal, and that's all we can do right now is be in the now. When you're living in the now, I feel like the reference to Spaceballs. We're in now, now.

Rhett: 1:01:47

When, then, right now, now now, what happened then? Missed it when.

Justin: 1:01:55

Just now, Now now.

Rhett: 1:01:55

What happened then?

Justin: 1:01:55

Missed it when Just now, but literally we live, we live in the now man we cannot wait until that conversation next Monday.

Rhett: 1:02:04

It's going to be so much fun, but until then, we simply want to say thank you so much for taking the time to share the link with a friend, texting it, emailing it, airdropping it, however you're doing so. It just means so much for taking the time to share the link with a friend, texting it, emailing it, airdropping it, however you're doing so. It just means so much to us. Thank you for your support and your love, friends. We cannot wait to continue this journey next week, right here at Armchair, authentic. Until then, have a great week, stay safe. God bless you and we will see you real soon.