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1:18
This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast. I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it.
1:24
Josh Curly welcomed the show, but even though Satan apparently didn't want us to talk to each other,
1:29
because we had to basically between the two of us, every possible tech-snaf-fuse,
1:33
I don't know what you did to make it mad. What's wrong with you?
1:36
I must have been doing something right.
1:39
Yeah, I must have been doing something right. We usually when you're at the tip of the spear,
1:42
that's what's going on, but we're so happy to have you on here today. You are a member of Team 1,
1:46
and so we're going to get into all the Dominion stuff here just shortly, but
1:49
just so we can set the stage, how old are you, where do you live, and what is your current profession?
1:55
Yeah, so I'm 44 years old. I live and work in the Houston area in Texas, and as a profession,
2:05
job that pays me, I'm an engineer working for a major energy company in the US.
2:10
Okay, very good. Yeah, that's good enough. We don't need to make it to where everybody can
2:13
find you, unless you want to give out your address, you know, your social security number, blood type.
2:17
No, you're good to go. Okay. So let's kind of go back to before the Dominion program,
2:22
because you've been a monthly donor to Undaunted Life for a while, but how did you find Undaunted
2:27
Life? How did you come across our materials? Why in the world do you keep listening and reading the
2:30
stuff that we put out? Let's start there. Yeah, so I heard about Undaunted Life from one of my buddies
2:37
at church, and when he introduced me to the podcast, I took a look at the Bible app and also found
2:46
some of the daily devotionals, which I found to be pretty helpful. When I was listening to the
2:51
podcast, I got a lot more interested in just following for a longer period of time, a couple
2:55
years, two or three years, and I ended up getting an email as an invitation to see if I might be
3:02
more interested in digging deeper into pushing back darkness. Well, let's actually get into that
3:08
email, because I remember whenever I was still trying to figure out, you know, this Dominion thing,
3:12
I emailed a small group of followers and basically said nothing. And I said, if you're interested in
3:20
this, nothing that I'm saying, let me know. And a bunch of people responded back and it's like,
3:23
Oh, shoot, okay. So then I had some guys feel like a questionnaire thing and hop on a Zoom call.
3:28
And you know, by the time it was all said and done, there were 10 men from around the country that
3:32
agreed to be part of Dominion team one for a program that technically didn't exist yet. Y'all
3:37
were kind of like the pilot group that we're going to help set the foundation for the Dominion
3:42
program and really kind of help me figure out what is this going to look like for, you know,
3:46
however many men end up going through this program. And now we've got teams two and three and we're
3:51
building for teams four and beyond now. So I guess, what was it about the nothing that I said and
3:57
the nothing that I invited you to where you're like, yeah, that sounds good. Let's do that.
4:01
Yeah, I guess it was providential because I was at a place in my life when I was seeking something
4:09
to find more direction with a purpose. And when this came across my inbox,
4:17
I spoke with my wife about it. She knew that I've been praying for something to come in
4:24
to my path to jump onto. And so this opened up a door. So it was a leap of faith, honestly,
4:31
because I did not know very much about it. But I did know that the things that Kyle talked about
4:37
were they were aligned with things that I was interested in getting to know more. And if there
4:44
were some program that I could get into that could give me some structure around that, then
4:48
that's what I was looking for. Well, I like how you just broke the fourth wall and talked directly
4:53
to the audience just then as if I wasn't with the one here talking to you. Come on, Josh, talk to
4:57
me. I'm your buddy here. No, I'm giving you crap, giving you a hard time. See, the funny thing is
5:03
interviewing you guys for this. Y'all aren't like pros. Y'all don't do this all day every day. And
5:07
I'm normally talking to people that always do interviews. So I got to be able to rib you just a
5:10
little bit. But you mentioned your wife there, Josh. And so there's another element to this,
5:15
because I've had the privilege of meeting some of the wives for Dominion. And so I always know how
5:21
it goes, because I've had a long career in sales back in the day in a former life. And so if you get
5:27
one party excited about something, whatever is you're selling, whether it's widgets or
5:31
insurance or cars or whatever, you still have to worry about the other party that may not be there,
5:36
because they're not hearing all the features and benefits. They're not hearing about what it could
5:40
do for them or why they needed or something like that. So when you went to your wife with this program,
5:46
that which again was still pretty nebulous, it's way more defined now that we're this far into the
5:51
program. But what concerns did she have? Kind of give us an insight into how that conversation went,
5:58
because as I recall it, you were a yes pretty quickly. But obviously, every guy usually talks
6:04
to a spouse before they make a call like this, because this does require a financial investment,
6:09
a time commitment, an effort commitment. Otherwise, you're just not going to get anything out of the
6:14
program. Yes, so my wife was already pretty familiar with with Undana life, because I talked about
6:23
a lot of the stories, a lot of the interviews, a lot of the
6:27
biblical worldview on current events and things that are going on. And so my wife knew
6:35
she was close to my passion, I guess, for it. And she was also sensitive to what our future
6:43
looks like. So I think that she saw the fruit coming from some of the changes I had already
6:48
been making in my life. And so it was a pretty easy decision for her, it was a harder decision
6:53
for me. So she was pretty supportive, like along my side on the journey. But I think that my reluctance
7:02
was there was a piece of, is this something that I'm ready for? And that was the prayerful
7:10
thought that I had to give before I said yes. The commitment to at the time frame,
7:15
what I entered into, knowing that it was going to be a time commitment, I felt like it was pretty
7:23
manageable. I thought it was just right for the engagement time frame. I did not know what I was
7:29
going to be walking away with. And so compared to other programs that I've been involved in,
7:37
there's something up front that says, Hey, this is what you're going to walk away with. This is the
7:41
tangibility or whatever. And this was very different. This was literally being equipped to push back
7:48
darkness. And so that's, that's what I was, that's what I was anxiously and eagerly looking forward
7:55
to. Hey guys, real quick. I know a lot of you guys struggle with getting a consistent workout
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mountain tough.com promo code Kyle. Well, Josh, I definitely want to get into some of the things
10:19
that you feel like you're taking away. But I want to go back to the decision making process because
10:23
you said something very interesting. Your wife was fairly young ho and you were the one that was
10:28
kind of like hesitant. And I remember very early on in our time together, we had talked about sometimes
10:35
you were a little gun shy when it came to certain decisions. That could be very important decisions
10:40
where it's probably prudent to be gun shy. And even all the way down to decisions that weren't
10:44
really that enormous, they weren't earth shattering or life altering or probably weren't going to be
10:49
that way. So take me back to that. And so why ultimately did you say, yes, I'm going to take
10:56
the leap? Because especially for team one, it's different with team two and beyond. And however
11:01
much this goes, I hope we have hundreds of these teams eventually. But with team one, it's like,
11:06
yeah, I mean, there is a little bit of a risk. And I was really making sure you guys were relying
11:12
on the fact like, Hey, you can trust me. Like I'm I've been giving away hundreds of hours of
11:17
content for free just because I want to help guys. This is a way I can help individual guys. So it
11:23
has to feel different than, you know, free podcasts or free devotional on some Bible app, you know,
11:27
what I mean? But go back to that, that time period where you're like, okay, decision time,
11:32
like crapper get off the pot. What made you go for it? I think the I think it was the the the
11:44
coaching that I would receive. It was being able to lock arms with other guys who wanted to be a
11:50
part of something bigger than they are. I wanted to jump into that kind of like building a phalanx,
11:57
I guess. And it was important to me at that time, I did not know at the time that God was using that
12:06
as a as a bit of a test. You know, to pull to pull me in, if I was willing to get uncomfortable with
12:15
or get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And so that was really what drove it was just it was
12:22
it was faith just stepping into it and and being linked up with other guys and linked up with you
12:27
come. Yeah, and I would say comfort zone, where when men are the most comfortable is when they
12:35
typically are the least effective. That's why I don't like this whole fight that men have that
12:40
they're going to work, they're going to bust their butt for their entire life for decades and decades
12:45
and decades to what I just want to sit on a dock and fish. I just want to sit on a beach and drink.
12:50
I just want to whatever. And I've heard Jordan Peterson talk about that for it's like, okay,
12:53
you're on the beach for two weeks drinking pina coladas. You're drunk every single day.
12:57
You've gained weight. Now, what are you going to do? You've got the rest of your life to do
13:01
something. It's when men are comfortable. That's when they're on the couch. They're not in the game.
13:05
Satan's not all over him, right? But I do want to go back to what you're talking about in terms of
13:10
what you're walking away with, because team one is going to be wrapping here soon. We're going to be
13:15
launching some some new teams. And I'm super excited about that for the rest of this year and
13:19
things like that. What are some of those things for you that were the biggest either aha moments
13:26
or things where you made a significant shift in your life because of something that we did in the
13:31
program or something that you you did during an interaction with when your teammates or something
13:35
like that? Yeah, I think that for me personally, it was developing at least getting a lot stronger
13:46
in understanding the direction over goals and in like a vision. The reason why I say that is that
13:56
in my past life, I was very driven by achieving major goals only to get to the other side of
14:03
that awesome hill and then fall off because I didn't have any sort of a purpose or whatever.
14:08
So now what I'm seeing is a perpetuation almost on a daily basis around what what muscles do I
14:17
need to exercise that day with different guys and what do I need to do in that moment and whether
14:24
it's speaking life into them, whether it's pulling them into physical challenges with each other
14:29
or it's just landing in the air and listening, you know, or it's helping them walk out something
14:34
that they've been shackled by for a long time. So yeah, for me, it was actually understanding
14:40
that I had an actual direction instead of just like goal after goal after goal after goal.
14:45
Yeah, and really, it's that whole idea of, okay, do we have a direction or are we just relying on
14:52
vision? Do we have a standard of what we're going to be doing or do we just have some goals? And
14:57
really that gets into some of the six pillars that we talk about in the Dominion program and
15:02
again, guys, and Donna dot life slash Dominion, if you want more information, and certainly so
15:06
that you can go and apply. I did want to ask you as well, as it pertains to you feeling equipped
15:13
to be able to push back darkness, because here's the thing guys will constantly hear themselves say,
15:18
say things or their hill other things and like, Oh, that's nice. That would be cool if I could do
15:23
that, or wouldn't it be nice if I could have this type of a life or be seen in this type of way,
15:28
but very few men do the things necessary to become that person or to attain those standards or to
15:35
have those types of people that are surrounding them in their life, a foxhole, if you will, or
15:39
something like that. But for you, compare contrast, how you felt before the Dominion program in terms
15:46
of being able being equipped to push back darkness in your local community, local household, local
15:51
congregation, whatever, you know, how you're able to cultivate spiritual mental and physical
15:55
resilience on a daily basis versus today. Yeah, I would say that like the cows, or that the words
16:06
that you used, you know, for me cows, I was kind of all over the place. Yeah, at the time, yeah, I
16:12
was I had lots of ambition to do a lot of different things. And what this program has done is helped
16:20
me build up my confidence in the written Word of God and being able to recall Scripture to help
16:28
men to know when to lean on Scripture in prayer and how that goes and how it leads a mark on our
16:38
lives. And I would say that's probably the top thing. The other piece is overcoming the mental
16:46
challenges. You know, like I said in the beginning, just overcoming these obstacles being comfortable
16:56
with being uncomfortable and just constantly testing. And then learning that I can't control
17:03
the uncontrollables. And when I can control the controllables, I need to do a very good job doing
17:09
that. And then just, you know, the duty is mine and the results are gots. Yeah, I also want to talk
17:17
a little bit more about your level of preparation, because with with the Dominion program that we
17:23
have, there's a couple of different tracks. There's one where you get, you know, some more one on one
17:27
with me and there's one where it's more kind of the team focused. But before a lot of our one on ones,
17:33
like the your level of preparation to maximize our time on our calls together was fairly substantial.
17:39
And it seemed like and they're always thematic because you're right. Early on, sometimes your
17:45
questions and your feedback, I was just like, Josh, I have no idea what you just said, like what I'm
17:51
very confused as to what it is, like how I could help you ultimately. And that's basically gone.
17:56
That's basically gone now, like you're you're a lot more definitive in the things that you're
17:59
saying and the things that you want and the things that you need for me or the questions. So I guess
18:06
for some guys, there might be guys out there that just they're just kind of show up and you wing it
18:10
type guys. But why would you say to the guys, I'm assuming you would say to the guys out there,
18:16
that if you're going to go into something like the Dominion program, like make sure that you've got
18:20
your not only your head, you know, secured onto your shoulders, but also come prepared, come ready.
18:26
Come ready for the, you know, the changes that you'll have so that you can have an impact later.
18:31
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a really good point. Yeah. So I think that knowing that knowing that
18:41
the time that I was going to have with you was was finite, was a motivation for me. What I learned
18:50
over the course of the months was actually the discipline of focus. And that was a lot more about
18:58
not having to be reactive, but being more proactive. You know, understanding that because I'm not
19:06
looking to achieve a goal through this, I'm actually looking to build up the muscle to continue on
19:13
with honing in on these skills over time. So coming prepared to the to the to our meetings, you know,
19:23
was was pretty key. I needed to stay focused. If I wanted to get the most out of it, I don't want
19:28
to look back in 18 months and be like, what's that time? Well spent was that money will spent.
19:34
And for me, I know confidently, like over the last several months that this has been one of the
19:40
best investments in my life. Well, I mean, it's so good to hear you say that, especially because,
19:47
you know, when you guys signed up, it's like, okay, you were putting your faith in me,
19:53
not obviously for your salvation or just in general, but you're putting your faith in me for,
19:57
Hey, here's a place I want to get to. And this is a guide that is going to be able to help me.
20:02
Because that's the thing in in your story, I'm simply a guide. I'm a person that's going to point
20:07
to certain things. I'm going to challenge certain areas of weakness or unpreparedness to try to make
20:12
you better think about it this way. You know, I typically put things in like physical training
20:16
aspects, because people at least have some acumen of that. But let's say you paid a personal trainer
20:22
for six months to train you and to get you in, maybe you're not just trying to lose a bunch of
20:26
weight, but maybe you're like trying to get in shape for a particular event. Or maybe you keep
20:29
having a certain certain the same nagging injuries. And this person's going to show you how to strengthen
20:34
your body in a way that will help you avoid that. And then the moment you stop training with that
20:39
person, you just go back to the way you've always done things. Like, what a completely foolish thing
20:44
to do, what a tremendous waste of time, waste of resources, waste of effort. It's just like,
20:50
why in the world would you do that? That's another reason why I'm a big fan of standards. And I could
20:54
do without goals, because if you have a goal, you know, to do the Murph, right? You know, because,
20:59
you know, by the time you guys are here in this, you should have either done that. But, you know,
21:02
if you miss the Murph this year and you're like, okay, I'm gonna do the Murph next year, we'll say
21:05
you train your butt off through to next year. And then you stop training altogether after you do
21:09
the Murph. Like, how good is that? Like, it would have been much better for you to just have a
21:13
different physical standard and not do the Murph than to, you know, do all this training to do the Murph
21:18
and then sit on your butt for the next six months. But I know you got places to go and people to
21:22
see. So we'll make this the last question of the day. But there are guys, as with anything, as with
21:27
you, as you were, that were just on the fence, like, should I apply for this? But when you apply for
21:31
something, you know, you're not having your feet held to the fire. But there are people that have
21:35
gone to undaunted live slash dominion, they put in their application, they're talking with people
21:40
in our team. And there's people that are coming to decision mode, they're either in it now,
21:44
or they're going to get there soon. But for whatever reason, they're just on the fence.
21:48
They don't know if they should take that leap of faith. They're they're not sure if, you know,
21:52
this is a substantial commitment of my financial resources, my time resources, my effort resources.
21:58
Gosh, I just, you know, I want to make sure that this is going to be, you know, what I want it to
22:02
be. What would you say to the person that's on the fence? I learned a lot of wisdom from one of the
22:08
guys on my team is that the double loans offense. So yeah, stay on it and stay with him or get off
22:13
and make a decision and move forward. You know, I would say if the Holy Spirit is moving in you
22:20
and already pricking your heart to where you know that there's something bigger that you want to be
22:24
a part of, then the obedience to that call is really what should be the challenge. And stepping
22:32
out in faith and understanding that all throughout scripture, that that is what was very powerful
22:39
and high impact men have done throughout history is that they stepped into things that they didn't
22:44
know what the outcome was going to be. And then they trusted God that he was going to do his work.
22:48
Well, man, that's fantastic. I really appreciate your feedback. Thank you so much
22:53
for answering these questions and for giving this type of information to our audience. We'll chat
22:57
again soon. All right, thanks. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Wherever you're listening
23:02
to this, please subscribe, rate and leave us a positive five star review. If you want me to come
23:06
speak live at your event or on your podcast, you shoot me an email to info@undonton.life. That's
23:11
I-N-F-O @undonton.life. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook and check out our website
23:15
for everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like this coming your way.
23:19
Just go to www.undonton.life. And as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name for allowing
23:24
us to use their music for our content. The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua,
23:28
which is off their self-titled debut album on Face Down Records. The links are in the description.
23:33
I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual,
23:39
mental and physical resilience, keep seeking the lion of Judah.
24:03
[silence]
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