Rhett: 0:00

Imagine a world where every conversation feels like a genuine connection with authentic people, a place where you truly feel like you belong and where everyone's got a chair at the table. Friends, welcome to Armchair Authentic.

Justin: 0:18

Alright, rhett, so we talked about getting our buddy Mark on the episode today.

Rhett: 0:21

Yeah.

Justin: 0:22

So here goes the call. I think he's expecting us to call.

Rhett: 0:25

What is up, mark? How are you doing bud? I'm great. How are you Good?

Mark: 0:30

Doing good man. To be honest, what number was I? Was I like? Second choice, fourth choice?

Rhett: 0:37

First choice, of course.

Justin: 0:39

The only choice today.

Rhett: 0:41

First choice, only choice for the day that is today. How about that?

Mark: 0:46

I mean, that's rolling the dice. I got to tell you if I wasn't available you'd be up to three.

Justin: 0:57

No, have you listened to our podcast?

Mark: 1:00

We will find something to talk about Right.

Rhett: 1:02

It might be inflation, I noticed that yesterday.

Justin: 1:04

We're going to find something to talk about.

Rhett: 1:06

We will find something to talk about.

Justin: 1:14

I remember me, you and Rhett, connecting over coffee a while back and we were all giving updates to our life and you began talking about some of the stuff that you got going, you know, in August, and me and Rhett were talking. We were like man, this would be a great chance to kind of talk to our buddy first of all, but then hear about the, the, maybe give some advertisement, some updates to the podcast.

Rhett: 1:31

Okay, yeah, so I'm having to go into the Rodecaster Pro console mix and route the Bluetooth channel to pull you out of it in order, so it won't loop. Give me one second. You and Justin talk just for a second. Just nonsense. I'm going to EQ you just a minute.

Justin: 1:50

I love that he has to give us instructions to say nonsense.

Rhett: 1:52

Nonsense. Okay, let's see here Auburn football.

Justin: 1:54

How's Auburn looking this year? That's not nonsense.

Mark: 1:58

That's sort of nonsense. I'm sorry we're breaking up right now.

Rhett: 2:02

I think this conversation is going to end real quick.

Mark: 2:05

Yeah, I actually don't follow it. To be honest with you, I don't pay that much attention until the season starts. Yeah, I don't have any idea who we have. I don't know who's playing quarterback. I don't know anything. All I've heard over the summer is that Hugh Freeze is playing a lot of golf.

Rhett: 2:23

Yeah, people soundbite everything. The brother plays one round of golf and all of a sudden they soundbite that as if he's played golf every single day, you do wonder what the truth is.

Justin: 2:33

We don't know what the truth is. You know how media works, Mark. If anybody knows?

Mark: 2:39

I'm vaguely familiar. Yeah, yeah, it's all ridiculous, but you know, until they get on the field, who knows? Yeah, and it's gonna be. It's gonna be a weird, uh, football season for me, because my travel schedule this year is bizarre and I'm gonna be gone five weekends in a row, starting labor day weekend all the way through until the 1st of October.

Justin: 3:05

Wow. What all you got going with some of this stuff.

Mark: 3:09

The first week we're just doing a trip with some other families down to the beach for this weekend thing. And then we're the next several weekends. I've got client trips where we have to go film in different parts of the country. Okay, and then I'm doing that. I don't know if I told you, I think I've told both you guys, but I'm doing this, I'm really pumped about it. I'm doing this wilderness hike in the middle of September. Yeah, that sounds absolutely miserable. Yeah, that's what you told me before. I didn't tell you.

Justin: 3:46

But I know you're working out, working towards that though, from what I hear, yeah, where is that one, where's that one at?

Mark: 3:52

it's in the I think, I think I'm saying this right the pisgah or pisgah national forest in north carolina mountains very cool so, um, we'll be, uh, five days. We'll be five days. We'll be hiking 20 plus miles through the mountains, completely self-contained, camping and carrying your own food and building fires, and totally off the grid. Wow, so I'm really pumped about it.

Mark: 4:19

It's by a group. I'll give a little plug. Yes, this group is called the Restoration Project. It's a ministry out of Colorado Springs and it's kind of a men's ministry, and a good friend of ours, a couple that live up in Knoxville, are really involved with it and he invited me, and so it'll be 12 or 15 guys total and they do a lot of what they call story work on it. So there's a lot of critical discussions.

Justin: 4:49

Yes, there's story work. Is that I feel like there's an individual who I've heard his name.

Rhett: 4:56

Story brand no, it's not. Well, yeah.

Mark: 4:58

Is it like.

Justin: 4:59

Adam something maybe.

Mark: 5:02

Not that I know of, it doesn't have anything to do with Donald Miller.

Justin: 5:05

No, no, no, it's a different deal.

Mark: 5:09

But yeah, so it's going to be really good. I'm excited about it and so, yeah, it's been a big deal for me. I've completely I mean immediately I was like, okay, if I'm going to do this, I'm not going to be the weak guy on the trip. I love that this I'm not going to be the weak guy on the trip and you know, like we've talked about this last year has had a lot of change a lot of transition, a lot of new things happening and old things going away.

Mark: 5:37

It's been a hard year and I've gotten my physical care has not been a priority, and so, you know, I just was like, okay, I've got to get this figured out and I need a goal to work toward. And so when this came on the scene, it was like, okay, I'm going to be, I'm going to be a leader, I'm not going to be a, I'm not going to be a weak link.

Justin: 5:55

So yeah, you don't want to be the guy that the bear catches and everybody gets away.

Rhett: 6:00

Well, you don't want to be the weakest link either into the group. You want to be either mid-pack or somewhat near the front on this hike, and not the guy that you're like. God bless, will this guy keep up? Why did he even come on this trip? Did he even prepare?

Mark: 6:16

I mean honestly, I don't want to be the guy everybody's waiting on.

Rhett: 6:19

Yeah, I mean, nobody does Right.

Mark: 6:22

And I don't know what mid-pack means. I can't know what yeah Right, and I don't know what mid-pack means. I can't relate to that, but lead pack.

Justin: 6:27

Yes, I'm all about that, okay, oh man.

Mark: 6:28

I still go back to my bear reference. I think the bear reference Right, I summed it up, yeah.

Rhett: 6:33

You don't have to be the fastest you just got to be faster than the slower guy I'm sure is light years away from everybody else who's joining, and so that's going to be the leader. The mid-pack are the guys in the middle who are learning from the leader to learn how to grow, sustain and scale so they can help other people grow, sustain and scale. How about that Right?

Mark: 6:58

You always have the ability to put me in my place.

Rhett: 7:00

You like that.

Mark: 7:01

Okay, well, you might.

Justin: 7:02

You never know, you might be a Peter James and John in that group.

Mark: 7:07

You also might be James the Less. Well, I will say this the leader and I haven't met him yet, but the leader, as I understand it is like an Army Ranger guy He'll definitely be the leader, yeah, so are you bringing camera?

Justin: 7:20

Are you camera gearing this in capturing stuff, or is this just you participating?

Mark: 7:26

Oh, this is just me participating.

Justin: 7:28

I'm just going for my own personal benefit. Oh, that's man, I look forward to you. Okay, so we'll get to have another conversation with you telling us about that when you get back. Yeah, I'm excited about it.

Mark: 7:41

I think it's going to be a really great moment. It's going to be. I think it's going to be really a really great moment. And, um, usually in the fall, I try to go hunting with my brothers. We go to south dakota and do pheasant hunting and this year, um, that just wasn't. It just wasn't doable for myriad reasons. I was kind of disappointed in that. This wasn't going to work out and, uh, I couldn't make it work and my other brother couldn't make it work and it was like you, it's not going to happen, and I was really looking forward to it.

Mark: 8:06

And then, kind of right after that, this popped up and you know, jenda, in her infinite wisdom, and when she saw it, she was like I think there's something on this for you. I want to encourage you to look at this. And as soon as I read about it and watched a couple videos and whatever all they had, and I called my buddy who's involved with it, I just said tell me, you know, as a guy who's involved, tell me about it. And as soon as I heard about it, I was like I'm in. So I signed up that day and, um, that was probably, uh, mid-june, so about six weeks ago and, yeah, totally, and it's totally transformed my. I mean, I just I got off my butt, I started eating good, being well, you know, healthy, started working out. Um, I've joined this thing called another another shameless plug. I don't have anything to do with this, but I'm involved in it.

Mark: 8:55

It's called f3 and they have fitness groups all over the nation. I don't know how many. I think there's like 40 different chapters of it just here in Birmingham and it's free and it's group-led, different guys take turns leading and it's in Homewood Park, right behind my house. So I just walk over there 5.30 in the morning three days a week and it's like HIIT training and we do like ruck walking, hiking and it is kicking my butt but it's been super fun. And Gray in our men's group Gray's part of that too.

Justin: 9:29

Yeah, gray, he was just on two weeks ago. Yeah, at the time. Yeah, he told me that he called in.

Mark: 9:35

Yeah so, but yeah so, man, it's been awesome. I'm loving it.

Rhett: 9:40

I've lost about 20 pounds already. I'm going to say it again how many pounds have you lost?

Mark: 9:46

Just about 20.

Justin: 9:47

Let's go, dang, that's exciting bud Well it sounds like you're going to be, you are going to be hanging into the pack. I mean for you to dedicate 5.30 am workouts, training, rucking three hours a week. I mean three days a week.

Mark: 10:03

That's awesome, yeah, and I'm doing some of that on the weekend too, like I'm doing long, long rucks on the weekend. So I've been building up a little bit more each time. So, like this last Saturday, I did five miles up at Red Mountain Park.

Rhett: 10:15

Yeah, and for those listening that don't understand what rucking is R-U-C-K. It is weighted walking. Now I don't know why they call it rucking, because I think Justin and I have had this conversation before somewhere somehow.

Mark: 10:28

Yeah, I don't know where that word comes from. I think it might be an army thing.

Rhett: 10:33

It must be Probably an acronym for something.

Mark: 10:37

It probably is. Yeah, it's become a big thing lately. You'll see people with vests on out walking in the neighborhood or yeah, Like here in Homewood, you know every other person has got a vest on walking. I saw that the other day.

Mark: 10:49

I've had some friends do it and I wasn't really interested, but once I was, you know we're going to be carrying like 50-pound packs on this hike and so just to get used to that weight and start building up, I bought you know a vest that I can kind of change the weights on and build up that strength. And they say it's a lot better for you than running. Yeah, it is. It's sort of a cardiac version. This is a very layman's somebody who knows what I'm really talking about they're gonna say that's totally wrong.

Mark: 11:24

But the gist of it is it's like a good cardio workout heart rate is up, but you're also getting the benefit of weight-bearing exercise, which is good for bone density and core strength and all that stuff. And so you think, like my vest. When I first got it, I got plates that were for 20 pounds total, or 22. And you think, well, 20 pounds is not that much. Holy cow, it is so heavy.

Justin: 11:52

I do notice that people who can't run usually say that you know.

Rhett: 11:56

Hold on. Refresh that, Not can't run. Listen, I think people who say that they can't run they usually do say I hear walking's better.

Justin: 12:04

It's kind of like do you remember the movie Liar Liar?

Rhett: 12:07

Yes, I do, unfortunately.

Justin: 12:08

Jim Carrey's talking to his younger son and his son's, like Miss, says that beauty's really skin deep and he says that's just something ugly.

Rhett: 12:19

People say it's been really nice having you on this podcast. I'm glad we could really uh, you know, encourage you and make.

Justin: 12:30

That's just what people who can't run say right, well, no brother, I love you mark, I can run.

Rhett: 12:38

I choose not to run because if I can get a better cardio, workout and lose more if I can lose more weight and work smarter and not harder and take care of myself better, more manageable, sustainable, scalable. How many different leadership words can I throw into it? You know I mean Justin. You know I mean come on, let's be real here.

Justin: 13:02

You know walking is great, yeah, no, we don't all have to be the hero here.

Rhett: 13:06

We're the guides. We're the guides, not the heroes.

Justin: 13:09

That's right, thank you.

Rhett: 13:12

Justin's losing it over here. He's laughing at himself. I am. Yeah, two older gentlemen are like. Well, it's not so funny bro.

Justin: 13:27

I don't know what talking about. Yeah, but, but what mark is taking on, though is absolutely huge. Oh so, when you're talking about the wilderness, and you're doing your thing.

Rhett: 13:32

Props to you. But I mean I had to throw in the whole running and the walking. But that hike is the real deal. I enjoy it. I'd like to see justin do this hike just based off his running skill and see how that translates into the hike that you're about to do but see, I run and I and I hike, oh, you do hike.

Justin: 13:50

Oh yeah, I love hiking. Oh, that's, that's where you can really, when you're running non-stop, you gotta then go to have a walk mark.

Rhett: 13:58

Mark, this is justin's hiking. I'm walking to starbucks and then I'm driving over to the botanical gardens and I'm walking a walking path. Yeah, and then you go to the hills, oh, you go to the hill, oh yeah. Oh, that's a hiking. You walk Mount Brook Hills, paved hills, the hills in.

Justin: 14:15

Meadowbrook, mount Laurel, yeah, paved concrete.

Rhett: 14:19

That's hiking Oak Mountains. I love you. Paved concrete.

Mark: 14:24

I don't know, Justin. I don't know Justin. Sounds like a personal problem to me. I don't know. Rhett brought this up.

Justin: 14:33

I'm just saying I got mad respect for the hike. That was all I said. But I did talk about walking a little bit walking is a good ingredient. It's great. I hope I can walk till I'm 90 because 95 because it means I'm able to take care of myself.

Rhett: 14:49

Yeah, All right. Well, Mark, we're really proud of you. Man, I think it's great. I'm glad you would take time to you know, for us to have this conversation today over the phone, for us to you know, for Justin to give you a hard time.

Justin: 15:00

This is great, no no, mark, you know me and Mark sat down over coffee a few weeks ago and he actually told me about F3. He told me about this. I left fired up. Oh man, I'm truly inspired. I was like dang. I mean when you talk about getting 12 to 15 guys, wilderness fire.

Mark: 15:26

I mean that sounds awesome. Yeah, it does, and I'm really interested to meet them and I think we're going to start doing some Zoom calls as a group to start kind of getting to know each other and the guys who are facilitating all that. I think that's coming up in the next couple of weeks, so we'll have a few weeks of that. And then my buddy that I'm going with, he's going to be one of the leaders, he's one of the spiritual guides, yeah, and he and I are going to go do kind of a practice hike up in. They live up in Knoxville so we're going to go up there in the Smokies in a couple weeks in the middle of August and do one or two nights and just try to get used to it and nothing like the real thing. Yeah, I can, I can rock and all that stuff all day long until you put up, put the pack on and go do it. So we're going to go and um and do like a little pre, little pre hike here in August. It'll be hot.

Justin: 16:19

That's the key word. You're going to be in August in the South. Yeah, I was literally going to say I mean right now it's like heat, stroke like heat warnings like don't get outside the heat dome has been over this the past couple of weeks, over our state and our area. Yeah, well about the time this releases it should be a little cooler, but yeah, this will be the last week of August when people are listening right now. So it's yeah, you will have already done this.

Mark: 16:42

It's going to be interesting Even in well, yeah, the one in the first one. Yeah, yeah. And then you know, I mean September in North Carolina is still going to be warm, but up at that elevation I think it's a few thousand feet, four or five thousand, I want to say and again I might be way off, but I think I read that somewhere but it's going to be chilly, I think, at night that's real so that'll be, that should be, yeah, you know that is so. Uh, we'll see, we'll see what happens.

Justin: 17:24

Yeah, a lot going on, man so, people who have listened, if you're listening now, you can go back to previous episodes and you'll see where we actually had like a conversation in studio with Mark Clement.

Rhett: 17:36

Yeah.

Justin: 17:36

And he talked about how he had launched a business called the Roar Agency, and you can hear all about that if you want to go back and listen. But one thing we talked about when me, you and Rhett were having coffee several weeks ago is you were in the planning stages of releasing a podcast, and so there is a date that's going to release, and I'll let you say that at the time of this recording, I don't know, it might already be out there. So will you first tell us about the podcast and what date it's going to release?

Mark: 18:05

August, the 5th is the day it's going to be out, which, again, I know is in the past. When people are listening, that's right.

Justin: 18:10

Yeah, of course you can binge listen, that's right.

Mark: 18:14

A week from the day that you and I are, we are having this conversation. But yeah, it's called the Age of Lions and it's an idea I've had for a year and a half or so and the catalyst for it was, I heard, actually a guy named Daniel Floyd, a pastor. Daniel is actually the new pastor at Gateway over there in.

Mark: 18:38

Dallas, but he's been in a church in Virginia that he planted and he had a leadership podcast and I think it was one of his first episodes. Might've been the first episode and they weren't talking about this specifically, but it kind of came up as a sidebar and they were talking about. He was talking about an article that he had read that said the most impactful decades of our lives are, in order Number one the most impactful is our 60s, the second most impactful are our 70s and the third most impactful are our 50s. And by impactful, I think he was talking about being able to impact the world around us, do things to help other people, making your life count, that kind of thing. And the whole point of it was like it immediately resonated as true to me. I was like I immediately was like that's, that's absolutely true.

Rhett: 19:29

Hey, friends, just want to take a moment and say, if you are enjoying today's conversation, could you do us a huge favor? Would you take a moment and copy the link from your favorite podcast platform and share it with a friend? Email it to a friend. How about air dropping it over to your buddy or your sister right now? Man, that would mean so much to us. Thank you, all right guys. Back to the conversation.

Mark: 19:53

I'm 56, almost 57. I've already kind of crossed over into that section of life or that season of life, and what you kind of come to realize is you really do start thinking about I've probably got less years ahead of me than behind me. It's not morbid and it's not oh my gosh, I'm getting old. It's none of that Like. I feel as good as I've ever felt. I feel great. I'm not old at all.

Mark: 20:17

But I know there's a reality of time and you start to really think about what impact is my life having on other people my family, my friends, my church, my community, the business world at large? You know, whatever you're involved in and you know we have more resources at this season than we've ever had, you know we have more hopefully more money. You know, got some finances, maybe some financial resources, because we've been working a long time and saving up, we've got more control over our time. You know we're kind of higher up in our company or maybe we own a business or we've got just seniority somewhere and so there's a bit more flexibility and um and we've got more life experience and more wisdom, hopefully, and all those things. So we have all these resources. So this is and especially now, with the way we're more healthy than we've ever been as a, as a country and as really the world um, there's really no reason not to have great impact when you combine all that together.

Mark: 21:11

So I just really started thinking about it and I was like I kind of started looking like who's talking about this? Is anybody doing anything? And I couldn't find anybody talking like in podcast format. Couldn't find anybody talking about this. You can find stuff on health and wellness, about aging and taking care of your body and stuff like that, which is great, and there were some kind of women-focused things that I found that were a little bit more about also health and wellness, maybe some mental health things like that. They were all great, but I couldn't really find anything that was talking about doing this aging with purpose, especially as a believer, especially as somebody who wants to contribute to the kingdom. Just couldn't really find anybody having the conversation. And what's been really fun about it is everybody I've talked to, whether it's just casually, like you guys, just a conversation, or people I've been interviewing for the podcast, almost to a person. They're like this is so awesome.

Mark: 22:04

Like I think about this all the time. I might talk about it with my spouse or maybe a couple of close friends, but I'm not really having this conversation and this is so great that we're talking about. Hey, what can I learn from you? What can I learn from this person? How can I? What are some things I can put in my life to help me age well, age with purpose, make impact, do something awesome for the kingdom, fulfill my calling. Do something awesome for the kingdom, fulfill my calling. You know, a little saying I've kind of picked up during this process is you know there's no expiration date on calling. Yeah, yeah.

Mark: 22:33

There's no expiration date, on purpose and you know, especially when you're a child of God and you're a believer. So like he's got stuff for us to do, we have resources to do it and so how can we go about it? And it's been super fun to be interviewing people and, as we're kind of getting ready for the, the actual launch on the 5th, kind of going back through stuff and I'm like man, that was gold like this. This person said something unbelievable. This person said something great. Almost every single interview, you know, they're just dropping these nuggets of wisdom and experience and it's really powerful stuff.

Mark: 23:10

And I keep telling people like look, I'm not an expert at this at all, but I am aging, you know, we all are, and I just want to learn how to do it. Well, I'm just a student, I'm just the facilitator here. I don't have all the answers. That's the whole point. I'm trying to find the answers and so it's been really, really cool and I can't wait for people to dive in and check it out.

Mark: 23:35

So the fun thing is we're going to my podcast coach has been kind of helping with some stuff and you guys have given me some great advice too. Is hey, because you've got so many episodes already done, why don't you release five of them on the very first day? And so on August the 5th, we're actually releasing five episodes at once, and the whole thought process is because it's new. If someone listens to it and they really like it, have something else for them to listen to, so they're not waiting another week for the next episode to come out. That's good. We're going to drop five on day one, so, if you like it, you can listen for a long time.

Rhett: 24:10

You can really enjoy it and uh give us an idea some of your guests that you've already had in in line, who are some of the five that you're dropping?

Mark: 24:18

yeah, so, um, uh, william vanderbloman, uh, who owns vanderbloman search out of houston, he's uh, he's real well known in the church world Awesome. You know, I've been friends for about 20 years and he was amazing. Gina Cox, who you guys know Gina's not a like a well-known name in the greater public, but she's a brilliant woman. She's a theologian lawyer and is crushing life. She was working with us at the Highlands College and then she kind of finished what she intended to do. She's in this whole new season of life and she's just absolutely crushing it.

Mark: 25:00

Sean Lovejoy is the name some of your listeners might know. Sean owns a company called Courage to Lead, former church planner, mega church pastor, and now he's a consultant. A guy named Angus Nelson Angus lives over in Portugal he's from the States but he lives over there now and he is a very like a top 1% executive coach. So he coaches a lot of leaders of companies, ceos, founders and a lot of those guys tend to be a little bit older and she has some incredible wisdom that he's been gleaning from his clients as he's been coaching them. We've got a couple of different therapists, counselor therapists on there Wren Aaron, who used to be a pastor at church of the highlands and now works for this coaching ministry. Yes, um, he's on there, yeah, I mean uh, jeff moore, uh, who's a christian artist kind of from the 90s, jeff, and uh, he, he runs a thing now called fellowship adventures, uh, a big, a big ministry, kind of a men's ministry that runs out of. That's actually where we go hunting.

Rhett: 26:09

Usually in the fall there's two names on this list that haven't showed up yet.

Justin: 26:14

And I'm just curious when they're going to be listed. I was waiting for those, you know the Justin. Bradshaw and Rhett Borden from Armstrong.

Rhett: 26:22

But I'm not sure we're over that age group or demographic yet Maybe that's my answer.

Justin: 26:26

That's exactly right. I don't think we've entered into that. We're still young, young bucks who are figuring out life.

Mark: 26:32

You're too young, yeah, too young. You're too young. You're too immature, you're too inexperienced.

Rhett: 26:37

We're not aging. We're obviously not aging with purpose, I guess. Yeah, yeah.

Justin: 26:42

We're aging. We're just not in the age of lions. The age of lions, that's right.

Mark: 26:49

You're the age of cubs.

Rhett: 26:56

Can I tell you, Mark, how good it feels to be told that we're too young for it, because it gives.

Justin: 26:59

What I love about the whole deal that you're creating here and this is what fired me up when we were having coffee. You don't hear a lot of stuff about aging well and stepping into these decades that most will say it's your least impactful like in society. But for you to actually back up the data that shows, or the data whatever people think out there that would actually say that your most influential years and impactful years can be your 60s, 70s and 80s like that fires me up. Yeah, 60s, 70s and 80s like that fires me up, yeah.

Rhett: 27:31

Yeah, 60s, 70s and 50s.

Mark: 27:33

Yeah, it's interesting that the 50s is kind of the setup for the 60s and 70s.

Rhett: 27:37

From what I'm hearing and I love that I mean you're absolutely right, because in the culture, at least in the world that we've lived in and I'll speak specifically to churches and specifically to worship you know it's always younger, younger, younger, younger, younger and older.

Mark: 27:51

Nope, sorry. Go stand at the door, go do something else.

Rhett: 27:55

But we don't really, you know. Thank you for your time that you spent years ago but we're good 78, you know which is really according to the Bible and the biblical way to do it. It's really there is a lot of wisdom to be, you know, gained and learn and grow, and you know there's a lot of cultures out there, like even Asian culture, you'll notice that a lot your age is very.

Justin: 28:19

you're honored on your age.

Justin: 28:21

It's very much as you get older. There's a lot of honor that happens there, and so maybe that's not foreign to someone who's listening. You know from that side of the world, but you know someone in the United States. It really is from the mindset of the, the young, the energetic, and you jump in and then your time is out. And now you got to deal with the depression when you're potentially in your fifties or sixties, when you hit retirement, and all you're left with is this nice, here's, here's your Rolex watch that we want to give you to bless you because you've given 60 years to the company you know, or 50 years to the company and it's over.

Rhett: 28:59

Yeah, and a lot of people that I've talked to that I know personally who have walked into retirement or living in retirement. It's like, all of a sudden, everything that they've done up into this point of their life had a purpose, or it felt like their purpose and their best days were behind them and as if, great, I have this money and great, I could just sit around the house all day or go work in the yard. But like it's just all of a sudden, it's like their purpose just got sucked out of the window because their identity was so tied into what they did. That got them there and, you know, just repurpose themselves for where they are and trying to find the value add for the season of life they're in um is really difficult for for some people, and they do walk into this season of depression and they walk in and that's why I hear a lot of CEOs or people who've started businesses made multimillion dollars when they've sold it.

Rhett: 29:50

They get to a place where, like I, don't really want to sit on the beach all day and do nothing, you know, and drink mimosas but whatever. So they end up either ending it all or they either reinvent themselves and go I just got to go create another business and they go do that because it's like there's some fulfillment that comes from producing that God has wired us to and and for that age um, in which I'm two years away from, so I'm looking forward to getting the invite in two years.

Justin: 30:16

Into the Age of Lions podcast no it's fine If I never get invited.

Mark: 30:20

It will hurt my feelings, you know. You're 100% right. I mean, it's a thing and what's really interesting about it is and these are the conversations we're having. Like, if you're listening to this conversation and this is piquing your interest, I'm just telling you check out these interviews, because these are folks who are living out what we're talking about. They are they're 50 plus, maybe 60 plus. I've got a couple of 70 plus guys that we've talked to and these are people who are starting new things, building new businesses, starting ministries, serving at a high level in different places, leading in their churches. Like they're saying you know, we're not going down into the left.

Rhett: 31:00

We're going up into the right.

Mark: 31:02

We're getting better as we go. We're not declining, we're actually improving, we're innovating. And, you know, for people who are kind of on the fence with that or they're struggling with this transitional time of life, you know, maybe they're not empty nesters or maybe they're now retired or whatever. By the way, retirement is not a biblical concept. It's not in there. And so there's like one little mention about something with the priest in the Old Testament, but, like, as a general rule, it's not a spiritual concept. We're not designed for that, and I think that's why people decline when they get into those, like Rhett was saying a second ago.

Mark: 31:38

And the interesting thing is, with the coaching that I've been doing over the last several years, the coaching other people on starting and launching new things this is part of what's feeding us as well, because as we get older, you might have these great ideas. You've got resources, but there's a lot of fear around. Can I start something? Is anybody going to take me seriously? I don't know. I don't. I was an expert over here and I'm going to do something I've never done before. What's that going to look like? And I'm just telling you, man, when you, when you step out in faith, you know God. I think God is a God of risk. I think he's attracted to risk. He wants to meet you in that faith journey where you step out and do it, cause I'm just bigger than me. I don't have all the answers, god, I've got to have you show up here.

Rhett: 32:19

Yeah.

Mark: 32:20

And it's really exciting to see when people step into that. God meets them in that moment, takes them to the next level. And again, we're not talking about worldly success. I'm not saying your business has to make a million dollars or you have to reach a thousand people, like. It's not about that. It's about what how is he using you and the thing he's put on your heart, um, whether it's ministry or business or a combination of the two or whatever, whatever your thing is to to make a difference? And you guys, you know you, you called it like there's a big emphasis on the next generation, which I am 1000% behind.

Rhett: 32:53

I'm for that.

Mark: 32:54

I've got you know I'm substance 14. You guys have kids who are younger. Yeah, like a thousand percent about the new generation, and it's not a but, but it's an. And also, what about our generation? You know what are we doing? Yeah, uh, when you think about gen x, you think about the boomers. You know shocking statistic that I've learned through this process- is.

Rhett: 33:29

One third of the uS population is over 50. So good to have you with us. Could you take a moment look us up on Instagram or Facebook. You can find us there at Armchair Authentic, or you can go on over to X. Find us there as well, at Armchair Auth Pod. That's Armchair Auth A-U-T-H-P-O-D.

Mark: 33:48

All right, now back to the conversation 120 million people in the US are 50 plus, and so that's a big group of people. And you know, hey, we're Gen X, the three of us, the generation of drinking out of the water hose, the generation of no helmets, oh yeah, you know all this stuff, like we're tough, we have survived, we're kicking butt, and so, you know, you combine all that with the calling and the purpose that God puts in our heart, it's like, hey, we can do something really significant individually and as a generation. So I know, I'm on the soapbox.

Justin: 34:27

No, no, no. This sounds fantastic. It sounds awesome. And, Mark, what's the frequency? I know you're going to have five episodes released at once.

Mark: 34:42

What's the frequency of drop dates of these podcast episodes? Every, uh, every week, on Tuesday mornings it'll. It'll be like in the middle of the night, you know, going into Tuesday. So basically, Tuesday morning when you wake up, wherever you are, uh, there'll be a new drop.

Rhett: 34:49

So every every Tuesday. How do they find you? Where do they find you on social? Where do they listen? All the above, how do they find you? Where do they find you on social? Where do they listen?

Mark: 34:57

All of the above. Yeah, that's great. So ageoflionscom is our little podcast homepage and you can kind of see what's going on there. You can sign up for notifications ahead of time. That's what's been. Fun is we've been marketing in the last couple of weeks tons of people, but I don't even know who they are.

Mark: 35:16

I don't even know who they are, I don't even know how they saw this, just on Instagram or something. But they're signing up, they want notifications, they're in a loop and it seems to be a real touch point that people are like, hey, I wanna be part of this, because it's not just the podcast, it's really trying to build a platform and build a community of people who are saying, hey, let's do this together, let's figure this thing out together, let's grow, learn from each other and figure out how we can all step in and think God's calling us to do and see what happens next man Mark.

Justin: 35:44

that sounds so exciting.

Rhett: 35:45

So ageoflionscom social media handles, or Age of Lions, I assume.

Mark: 35:51

You know there's a few different versions, unfortunately. I couldn't get them all exactly the same. There's a few different versions. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them all exactly the same. It's all good, but you can always follow me at Mark Clement. Okay, so I know that's my Instagram handle. I think that's what my Facebook page is. Yeah, if you search, there's Age of Lions podcast. I believe is the handle for Instagram.

Mark: 36:12

Okay, and I think it's just Age of Lions for Facebook. That's awesome. And there is it's just Age of Alliance for Facebook. That's awesome. And there is a YouTube channel for this. It is a video podcast, so it'll be audio on all the platforms and it will also be on YouTube in video format for anybody who wants to watch. So, yeah, we're trying to be everywhere and do all the things and excited to see what happens.

Justin: 36:36

Man. This sounds exciting, Mark. We're so pumped for you and if you guys are listening on this week that this episode drops. You've got about eight episodes that you can go binge listen to right now, so I know I'm gonna go ahead and make my way and get ready to listen to it as well. This is phenomenal, Mark, and it's very encouraging. Talk about next generation. Let's be in our forties, thinking about our next generation of stepping into something great, and I know so many people listening right now. Let's get subscribed to the Age of Lions podcast and we're pumped to see what this is going to do for so many people, man.

Mark: 37:14

I appreciate it. Fellas, thanks for the opportunity to talk about it and thanks for all your encouragement as friends. You guys have been invaluable in your sounding, just being a sounding board to me and helping me think through this process and just being encouraging. You know, hey, we, I couldn't do it without you, couldn't do it by myself.

Rhett: 37:33

We love you, bro, I'm so proud of you, love you guys, and I was literally thinking this and um me, I know, justin and you go back a little deeper and I moved to Alabama back in 22, I guess, so it's been about three years and just to just to see the journey that you've been on in, in actually living through this season of your life and then implementing it, and in everything that you just said so, so beautifully, just said so beautifully, to hear the excitement in your voice and the vision of what God's birthing and doing, and I'm just so stoked for you.

Rhett: 38:03

I'm so stoked for those who are going to be joining in and listening and following along on this journey, because I know, just even in this little nugget of a conversation, I'm fired up and I can't wait to listen because I know it's going to be such a huge blessing to me and help pour into my own life, where I am, and on this journey and I'm looking forward to however, we can help come alongside you as Armchair, authentic Friends to see this thing grow and flourish on all fronts. Man, we love you bro.

Mark: 38:30

I love you, love you guys too. And I just want to say one last thing before we hang up, and this is a message to John Ross Aldridge Clement, to Aldridge one.

Rhett: 38:45

Clement to Aldridge one.

Justin: 38:47

Oh well, that will do it for this episode of Armchair Authentic. Hey to our audience. Thank you so much for listening to this. We will catch you next Monday. Oh bye guys. Audience. Thank you so much for listening to this. We will catch you next monday.

Rhett: 38:58

Oh bye guys on the next episode of armchair authentic.

Justin: 39:02

She comes into the auditorium and she says justin, you got a phone call because she was in the reception area. Yeah, she's like a girl named summer. There was a little bit of hope too, like what, if it's what? If it's the girl from math class? Yeah, she was like the dream of am I ever gonna see her again? I just remember uh hiking up my little uh robe skirt so I can run real fast in like context.

Rhett: 39:31

We're in a drama and we're playing the part of disciples. That's right.

Justin: 39:34

Disciples in that day would have worn a little of those, so I just kind of pulled it up running in my Teva sandals.

Rhett: 39:44

As you do that physically right now, like pulling it and making me feel a little uncomfortable.

Justin: 39:48

Well, you know, it went up above my knees. I needed to have some running power, you know, and I had the little back gripper on my Tevas so I could run fast in them things.

Rhett: 39:57

Man, we cannot wait for that conversation, but until then, we hope you have a wonderful day, stay safe and we will see you next Monday for a new episode of Armchair Authentic right here with your friends Rhett and Justin. We'll see you soon.