Charge Forward Podcast

A Year of Charging Forward: Amazing Lessons One Guest at a Time

• Jim Cripps • Season 3 • Episode 9

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One year. So many unforgettable stories. 

In this milestone episode, host Jim Cripps looks back at the first season of the Charge Forward Podcast—pulling powerful moments, hard-won lessons, and practical takeaways from the guests who shaped our journey.

Featured guests & signature takeaways:

  • Bobby Hopkins — Career pivots done right: write the goal, work backward, take action. Plus, his brilliant “text-a-letter” safety code for parenting.
  • Valerie Kemp, CPA — Tax planning as a team sport: align your advisors, build strategy over chaos, and believe there’s enough success for everyone.
  • James Cripps (My dad) — The veteran who proved Agent Orange was used stateside. Courage, evidence, and advocacy that changed lives.
  • Kate Joyner — Founder of Outdoor Women of Nashville: community, confidence, and making the outdoors accessible to every woman.
  • Troy Sandifer & John Hughes (Hustle Recovery) — Beating the odds in recovery with urgency, family support, and systems that work.  Helping rebuild lives, relationships and hope. 
  • Jason Lewis — Leaving the “punch clock” for entrepreneurship: betting on yourself and building a business you’re proud of.
  • Jamie Steelman — Turning loss into life-saving purpose through an annual blood drive—why donating matters more than you think.
  • Josh Gifford — The “figure-it-out gene”: stacking skills, embracing new challenges, and owning the next chapter.
  • Nick Hiter — Confidence is the memory of previous success: practice it, build it, live it and be UnStoppable!
  • Carissa Oki & Amber Watering (Home Front Builders) — Resilience, energy work, and rebuilding belief after major life changes "One Home at a Time".
  • Bob Learn (“Mr. 300”) — From doubt to dominance: the power of a partner who believes in you and the habit of thinking bigger.
  • Bill Wilson (Mr. Murfreesboro) — Radical honesty in recovery, faith, and choosing the man you become—day by day.
  • Colby Jubenville, PhD — Purpose, Performance, and becoming the Person your goals require by working the "Framework".

If one insight from one guest helped you level up—mission accomplished. Thank you to every guest, and to you for listening, sharing, and applying these lessons in your own life.

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SPEAKER_10:

Hey, good afternoon, team. Jim Cripps here with the ChargeFord Podcast coming to you from Head Lab Studios here in Nashville, Tennessee. Now, I have something different for you today. This is a look back over the past year. So we've had a year's worth of episodes and we've had some amazing guests on this show. And I just I just want to say thank you. Thank you to all the guests. Thank you, all the listeners. Thank you if you're one of the many people who have taken a nugget from this show and made your life better. That's the whole purpose of the Charge Ford podcast is to share amazing guests with you, their stories, how life knocked them down, how they just persevered, and what they've the tools that they've used and the tips and tricks along the way in order to craft and build an amazing life. And my hope is that through their stories, you will find nuggets that you can take from their story and improve your own life. That's the purpose. That's the reason. Um, and it's because I've I've had the good fortune of being introduced to and knowing many people across the world, and you never know who you're sitting beside. You never know what amazing story they have. And I just want to help people tell those stories, and I want to help you become better than you were yesterday. So without any further ado, I want to dive in. So our first guest um was Mr. Bobby Hopkins. And Mr. Bobby Hopkins, he interviewed me about 20 years ago for a job, and we ended up working together for a number of years. Then we were kind of um colleagues in in the same space but at different companies, and some would call them competitors. I don't I don't know that I ever really saw it that way. And then uh I helped Bobby uh sell his business a couple years ago, and then fast forward now Bobby is a travel agent, and it lines up perfectly with what he wants to do with the rest of his life. And I think that that's just absolutely fantastic. They just got back from a uh a cruise on Virgin Cruise lines, and then uh they're headed somewhere else in two weeks. I forget where it is, Iceland or something of that nature. And so it's just it's fantastic to see someone uh, you know, build the life that they want to lead and have a career that joins with it. And I'll gotta tell you, Bobby did not want to be on the Charge Forward podcast. In fact, he was very reluctant. And I wanted him to be my first guest, and I did have to talk him into it. But since then, he's closed a significant amount of business from the podcast. It gave him some content and it gave him some credibility uh to get to get the information out there that he had changed careers and what he was passionate about doing. So I absolutely love that. One of the things that I take away from the conversation that I had with Bobby is some of the best parenting advice I've ever heard. And that is that he had a code, just a letter, that he and Zach and actually a couple of the neighborhood kids, um, they knew that if they texted Bobby a location and that letter, that he would come and get them. And his theory on that was to always foster an environment where your children or those that are those the the kids that are close to you feel comfortable allowing you to come get them out of what could potentially turn into a precarious situation. And he said, you know, if I if I come and get you before things get bad, I can probably get you out of it. If bad things have already happened, I may or may not be able to get you out of it. And so I I love that and that tip or trick that that Bobby shared. He also said that, you know, he had made several career changes, and he's done those in a way that has almost looked effortless from an outsider looking in. And he said that those those were very significantly planned out moves. And he so his suggestion is figure out where it is that you want to go and then work backward from that and then take action. But it's actually the two pieces together making the plan and taking the action. So that's a couple tips and tricks that I took from Bobby Hopkins. And um again, just uh incredibly thankful that Bobby was willing to be my first guest.

SPEAKER_09:

The best practice for setting a goal is you have to write it down. If you don't write it down, you've just got a wish. And wishes are fun, but it's just a wish. It's gotta be written down. And no matter how far in the future it is, you have to back up until you get an action that you take today that moves you toward whatever that goal is. And they can all you can do it with anything. I mean, I've had I've challenged people to try me, and then just I just back them down until we get what am I doing today to get to that goal that's five years down the road.

SPEAKER_10:

My second guest not only is just a fantastic person, but uh she's a longtime friend, uh a client, and and she's a professional that I work with. Uh so Miss Valerie Kemp. Uh I met Valerie on the very first day of kindergarten. So we've known each other quite some time. And she runs a fantastic CPA firm. And a couple of nuggets from there, because a lot of the people that we have had on the show are either coaches or entrepreneurs. A lot of the people that that listen to the show are either entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs or business owners. And um, you know, one of the big things that Valerie does is Valerie does tax planning. So not just reactionary CPA work. It's really working with that individual or their company and then the trusted advisors that they have. So if you've got a real estate agent, if you've got a uh investment broker, if you've got a banker, all those a lawyer, she wants to know all of those people so that they can work together, not to kind of conflict with each other, but to make the most harmonious um action plan to help you attain your goals and do it with the least amount of taxable liability. So that's one of my favorite things that that Valerie does with clients. Um, another thing with Valerie is she really gets that yes, there may be competition in the same space, but her success is not dependent upon somebody else's failure. And I think all too often uh a lot of people get that kind of conflicted. And so it's it's just refreshing to hear Valerie say it out loud uh that that that is absolutely true. One of the other things that um I love about Valerie and Valerie's story is you know, her dad was her mentor, and um just hearing her talk about Donnie Kemp. And and it does the same thing for me and and my dad. Uh my dad is just an absolute rock star. In fact, he was the uh he was on the show more than anybody else last year, and you know, I hope the same thing for for the this next season coming up. Um but we all need great mentors in our lives, and what what uh how special it is when when our our fathers or our mothers or somebody close is a mentor.

SPEAKER_05:

Like I believe that there's enough success in this world for everybody that my success is not dependent on someone else's failure. And so if I can help a young man or woman who it's their first job, like I get super pumped when I'm when they've never worked anywhere before, and this is their first job because we all remember that first job. And so I know when they're my age and they look back, they're gonna say, I worked for this little woman one time and blah, blah, blah. And I want them to take away from me and their job, their time with me with confidence that they can go out into the world and they can achieve whatever it is that they want to achieve, and that we've helped them form a foundation um where they do have a skill set to go out into the world with. And so I know a lot of them don't want to become accountants because a lot come in and they're like, oh, I was thinking I like Matt and I want to be an accountant. And then they work for like six months and they're like, Yeah, I this is not my thing, but I really like working with you. So uh that makes me feel good.

SPEAKER_10:

Uh guest three, I was just talking to him about him, is the rock star, my dad, James Cripps. And so my dad, uh, he was in the military, he was uh exposed to Agent Orange inside the United States, and that was classified information. And there's really several different versions of my dad. I remember my dad growing up, he was pretty passive in that uh, you know, he was just a regular guy and was absolutely my hero, but he didn't have to get, I don't know, in in the weeds with people, or that I don't know how I really want to say that. But, you know, on his 48th birthday, he had a heart attack, and that kind of changed the trajectory. And then he kept trying to figure out why he had so such kind of bad medical problems. Well, it turns out um he was spraying Agent Orange with a backpack sprayer while he was in the military, but it was classified information, so he couldn't even get medical benefits because it was classified. They wouldn't, they wouldn't divulge that they did it. And so my dad actually took on the government and proved that they used Agent Orange inside the United States and then he sprayed it with a backpack sprayer, and eventually they had to um declassify that. And because of that, not only did my dad get his benefits, but also many other veterans that maybe didn't have as much proof or uh maybe just weren't courageous enough to take on that kind of hill, to take on that kind of challenge to force the government to um admit what they did. So my dad is just an absolute rock star. If you don't know him, um check him out, pull him up online. Uh he has a website called uh VATheredneckway.com, and it's just real-world information on how if you are a former or if you're a veteran and you don't have your benefits, then it's kind of how you go through the process to you know prove um your case in order to get those benefits. And uh I'm gonna color outside the lines just a little bit, and I'm gonna ask you if you're watching this, I'd love for you to say a prayer or add my dad to your prayers. Um he's going through a tough time currently. Uh he's uh over the past year, actually, through the episodes, you can see uh he's had a tough year, and um currently he's battling uh liver cancer. And so uh as a favor to me, if if you don't mind, if you'll add him to your prayers, James Cripps, I would greatly appreciate that.

SPEAKER_07:

As it started out, you know, we came from the DOD put their finger in my face and they said, Mr. Cripps, we have never ever sprayed Agent Orange in the continental United States. Well, we now know I won the very first case of Agent Orange exposure inside the continental United States because I proved that it was used. You know, I got the aircraft tail number, the pilot's name, who they leased the helicopter from, how many gallons they were spraying. The helicopter had two booms, each boom being 26, each one having six nozzles, each nozzle was set on three. I know how many gallons of each agent, I know the exact strips they were making 50-foot swaths. There's no question about that now. But then finally they had to recognize well, maybe I guess maybe you you you you were involved in the in the testing of in the continental United States.

SPEAKER_10:

My fourth guest was actually here on the same day as my dad, and they got to meet. Uh, her name is Kate Joyner, and Kate is just an absolute rock star. All right. Um she got dealt some punches, you know, and and much like anybody else that's been on the Charge Forward podcast, she defaults to charging forward, not knowing what that looks like. And so uh I won't go deep dive into hers, but she started Outdoor Women of Nashville. So she helps women all over the state of Tennessee, and now uh they are expanding into the state of Alabama. I think they have I think they're around 25,000 followers currently. And when I say followers, I mean active members. So these ladies are getting together for hikes, for kayaking, for shooting, for turkey hunting, you name it. If it can be done outdoors, that's what it's all about. So check out Outdoor Women of Nashville. If you're in Alabama, they're expanding to Alabama and other states. So check that out. Uh, but Kate Joyner is just an absolute uh joy to work with and inspiration, not only to women, but uh but to people everywhere.

SPEAKER_11:

And something unique kind of about our events is there's not um an age demographic. We have everyone that you know is coming out of high school all the way to ladies that are retired and have to coordinate their babysitting of their grandchildren schedule to come play with us, and we're all shooting the big guns. Oh, it doesn't matter. Um, and you don't have to have any knowledge, we won't speak gun at you, we don't expect you to know anything. Um, you come in and then we'll walk you through what you need to know.

SPEAKER_10:

Yeah, really one of those environments where you meet them where they are.

SPEAKER_11:

For sure. For sure. So we and we try to demystify this stuff, you know. Hunting has been kind of a club for a long time, and if you're not in it, you you ain't in it.

SPEAKER_10:

Episode five was uh the guys from Hustle Recovery. So Troy Sandifer and John Hughes, and they came in, and I'm not gonna lie, I didn't know a lot about the recovery world, but just learning what these guys have been through in order to help other people, and it was not an easy path. Uh, these guys are absolute troopers when it comes to you know not accepting no as an answer. And the the most powerful thing about their situation is if you look at the recovery, I don't want to say industry, I guess you might say, the average recovery rate at 18 months is less than 10% nationwide. Well, at hustle recovery, it's over 40%, nearing 50%. And the reason for that is these guys, they've they understand that the the amount of time in recovery is an indicator as to how long people will stay kind of on the wagon or off the wagon. I don't I don't really know how you say that one. On the wagon, I think. Um and so uh these guys are passionate about helping people, but it's not just the people, it's also the family members and friends that are attached and that and go through this recovery process with their loved one. And so just amazing work being done by uh Troy and his team over at Hustle Recovery. Absolutely check them out. Uh they they have several different pieces uh throughout their process. They, you know, they have uh recovery themselves, they work with many other uh recovery facilities, um, but they are dialed in, they are all about helping people recover and live productive lives. It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02:

Um what I did is I I put a post on Facebook that basically said, Look, man, if you're struggling with this, you don't have to die. There are people out here who will help you. And if you don't know where to find help, here's my number. Not really knowing what I was gonna do to help. Um, I feel like this is kind of where God showed up in my story because that post took off. It was shared hundreds of times over the next few months. About the 20th day, I had that post up, my phone started to ring. The first day I got six calls, all the same, people I'd never met in my life, who said, Hey man, a friend of mine shared this post on Facebook, says you can get people into rehab. And I remember looking back at my phone and scrolling and saying, Oh my god, where did I say that? Because I had no clue how to get anybody into rehab. Um, I was thinking more along the lines of you know, we could go to a 12-step meeting or maybe go to church or have coffee and talk about it. I mean, I really had no idea what I was gonna do to help, I just felt driven to help. What we found is it was hard for people to get same-day admission. What we figured out through navigating 4,000 people to treatment was when these people call, especially opiate addicts, when they call me, I've got about a four to six hour window to make something happen. If not, they they usually return to use because they're sick, they don't feel good, they want to feel better. Once they return to use, they have a they're at a higher risk for overdose, and then it might be six to eight months down the road before I'm able to catch up with them again. And usually when I catch them again, they're calling me from a jail cell. Now they've really got some consequences. Um, not only that, we had five people die um over about a two-year period that were waiting on treatment beds. Uh, one guy we'd actually talked to that morning said, Hey, we're on the way to get you to take you to treatment, and he overdosed in the time it took us to get to the hotel room to get him. That day I told my staff, um, if someone is using fentanyl and they are motivated to get help, just bring them to my house and put them on the couch. And we did that for what about a year?

SPEAKER_10:

My next one is a good friend, uh Jason Lewis. Now, so Jason Lewis and I've known each other, oh my goodness, uh 25, 30 years. And there was from the time we met, and then uh we kind of met again later in life as he was he was teaching some CrossFit classes. And so we started talking and whatnot, and Jason is just a great guy, period. Um owns his own company, but he he worked in a an office job, and it's the kind of job that people don't leave, it's the kind of job that you get in there and you put in your 30 years. And it was inspiring to hear Jason talk about how he would be standing there by the clock out thing, and people were talking about how much time they had left. And in his head, it sounded like they were in prison because they were talking about I got six years left, I got 12 years left, I got eight years left. He had eight years left, and he got to thinking, do I really want to stand here each day at this punch clock, or do I want to go like try my hand at life? And he so he jumped out there, started his own business, and is is doing great things. He's got a thriving company. And because he's such a great guy, he's so plugged in with other great people that uh almost anything you need, you talk to Jason, and Jason knows a guy, and they do fantastic work. So big shout out to Hudson Tree Service, and then uh also uh on the grind, uh Josh over there doing stump grinding, just amazing guys. So landscaping, LG LG landscaping services with Jason Lewis. Um Hudson owns a tree service, and then Josh has on the grind uh stump grinding. Just fantastic guys.

SPEAKER_12:

What was the moment where you decided I'm open my own business? The big moment was like every day at the end of the day, we're standing there fixing the clock out, and we'd all say, Well, I got 10 years left, I got six years left, I got three years left. I'm like, are we in Shawshank prison? I mean, it just well, I can do what I want to do, you know, I'll have the insurance, I'll have this, and I'll have that. So I had like eight years for me to get my 30 year or whatever. And I thought to myself, what could I do in nine years? And I was like, I gotta go. Took my retirement, bought a truck and trailer and mowers and all that stuff, and said, Hey, I'll give it five years. Okay. You're you're just kind of a number, you know, and I think everybody can say, but you get comfortable in, you know, I've got benefits, I can retire one day.

SPEAKER_10:

Uh episode seven um is a touching story. Uh Jamie Steelman. So Jamie is a local um uh mortgage guy, and he and his team do amazing work. Um, but his his story that he told was a one of loss, and then how to how to kind of process that and the amazing work they're doing in their son's name. So his son, I believe, was 19 when he had a motorcycle accident, and it wasn't quite how you would expect it, in that um he didn't pass away because of the directly because of the injuries. He passed away because there wasn't enough of his type of blood in order to save him at that local um hospital. And so they do an annual uh blood drive. In fact, it's next weekend uh coming up, uh I believe it's August 2nd. And just what an amazing cause that Jamie and his his team are they're doing, and and they do great work as well. So if you need a mortgage, absolutely hit Jamie up. And then even if you're not able to um go to their fundraiser and and blood drive, please donate blood. I want you to do it selfishly, especially if you're a guy. Uh most men, so I'm gonna this is not medical advice, but I'm just gonna use it as a blanket statement. But most men, I know myself, my ferritin level was too high. And so the really the only way to reduce that ferritin level is to donate blood or to bleed. And uh, you don't want to cut a finger off or anything, so it's much easier to just go donate blood. That blood usually makes its way to a local hospital so that it can save someone else's life, and then uh you get the added benefit of your body going through the process of making new blood, which is healthy, and also reducing those ferritin levels.

SPEAKER_04:

So he was delivered emergency C-section and had to have two blood transfusions just to survive. Oh my gosh. And uh so he had AB negative blood, which is the the rarest. And uh they said, you know, this is 1994. So they told us, you know, if you wouldn't have been at Vanderbilt, you know, maybe in a rural hospital, may not have even had it on hand, and would they have been able to get it from wherever to where you were at? So literally, you know, blood donation gave us 21 years with him that we would have not had without. So we're forever grateful that we had that time with him, and we want to give other people that gift of life through remembering him.

SPEAKER_10:

Yeah, absolutely. Oh my goodness. Um it's just a God thing. You were in the right place, you know, and and got to spend 21 wonderful years with him.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah. So, so grateful for that. Um, our family has done that blood drive for the last eight years now, and we've just we've crossed paths with so many different lives, you know. I guess Kyle's telling you, just having the people come out and donate because they're just doing it to be there and to donate blood is one thing, but the the stories over and over that come out now that we're eight years into it, of people that have not just knew us from baseball, knew us from the community, but the impact of what we're doing.

SPEAKER_10:

Um Josh Gifford. Oh my goodness. So Josh was on the show, and Josh is a character. Uh Josh and I used to work together. He is a get it done kind of guy. Um I he's one of those guys you bet on because he's gonna figure it out. He can read a manual and then and then and then attack it. In fact, uh, I believe it's the South Carolina uh government just hired him for a new new uh and it's not just a new position, it's a new segment to their government. And uh that doesn't surprise me at all. Um but but Josh is a pleasure to work with and uh just a get it done kind of guy, and a lot of people can learn a lot from that episode and just his attitude.

SPEAKER_00:

Um but I've also been told, uh, in fact, more recently, that I'd that I've got the figure it out gene, right? So uh put all put all that together, uh my past experience. That that's that's why I'm I'm currently going through uh getting this uh project management professional certificate. Uh I think that those are the roles I'm drawn to. I think that's the that's the next challenge I I want to present myself with. Um we we live in a world now where the nature of work is is a lot different than it was in our parents' generation. Um you you could be a laborer and and make enough money to afford a house, car for yourself, car for your wife, put both of your or two or more kids through college, and have uh a pension or a retirement. And and that's uh I don't want to say unfortunately, it's just the way that it is now is that that that's not actually possible. Um uh it you're not you're not going to be able to afford all of those things uh working for working for the city digging ditches. Do I think that people that work for the city digging ditches don't have an important part to contribute to society? Uh I absolutely think that they have an important role to contribute to society.

SPEAKER_10:

Episode nine was Nick Heider. So Nick is actually the owner of this studio. And um we should Nick and I should have met like 15 years ago. How we didn't meet 15 years ago or 20 years ago, I have no idea. Uh, but we're connected through Randy Hooth, we're connected through uh actually my longtime uh friend uh Miss Leanne Sipkins. So big shout out to Miss Leanne. So she and Nick's wife, Rhiannon, they worked together uh for many years, and then there's other connections as well that we we should have met a long time ago. But uh luckily uh Randy Hooth introduced me to Nick Heider. I was on Nick's podcast. I met with Rhiannon, and Rhiannon thought it was hilarious because when she read my bio, she just starts laughing. And I didn't know Rihannon at the time, so I was a little like, oh, what's going on here? And what it was is Nick just thought I was a bowler. He did not know my business background. And uh so she goes, Does he know any of this? And I said, I don't, I don't know. And she just starts laughing and says, He does not know any of this. This is gonna be a great episode. How long can you be here? And I said, Well, they told me to plan on 30 minutes or so, and she goes, Oh no. She goes, This is gonna take a couple hours. And uh, so it was it was a great experience, had a great time on the show with Nick, and then now we're great friends, we do a lot of work together, and uh it's it's great being here in the studio. So if you've ever thought about podcasting, if you've ever thought about building a brand or growing your social media awareness, um, hit up HitLab Studios or reach out to Nick on nickhider.com. They do amazing work, it is a fantastic studio and just uh a great group of people to work with.

SPEAKER_08:

So um confidence is the memory of previous success, right? Um, so and you control your own thoughts. So if you're not if you don't have the ability to remember previous success, you're probably not a confident person. But for me, it's um it was it's a reflection of of your faith, you know, at the end of the day. So, and um, and confidence is a skill. You got to get good at it, you gotta practice it. And um, it's amazing what um, you know, if you're confident in yourself, other people might be confident in you as well. But what the one thing I do know is they won't be confident in you if you're not confident in yourself. They're probably gonna mirror it, right? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_10:

Well, I think just in in the world in general, uh not only do a lot of people tear each other down, but a lot of people tear themselves down, whether it's through dealt uh uh self-deprec deprecation or just not believing in themselves.

SPEAKER_08:

You know, that there's a key word in there, believing in yourself, right? So um when you believe something, right, it means that you there's some there's some trust earned there, right? So what do you trust? Something that you've heard one time or multiple times. The media is really good at that, about getting you to believe something that's not necessarily true. So there's again, repetition is required to build trust.

SPEAKER_10:

Um my next guess, I get uh I gotta clear my throat for this one because it was a rough episode. And the reason I say that is because uh I had technical difficulties, not the studio. I had technical difficulties. So I stopped and I bought a new thumb drive specifically for this episode. Uh had some some great guests coming in. So um Carissa Oki and uh Amber Watering were coming in. They are the uh the team behind uh home front builders in Clarksville. And so they come in and Amber was visually kind of shook. She was nervous, she didn't want to be in here, and I can usually break that down. That's usually no problem. Well, all my tips and tricks, they weren't really working. So we went ahead and we started recording. And I realized about 20 minutes in, we weren't recording anymore. And I didn't know when it stopped. So I I apologized. I said, hey, we're gonna get we're gonna that was just gonna treat that as a trial run. We'll jump back in here. Everybody went to the restroom, uh, got a glass of water, all those things, and we started again. And we did about an hour and 15-minute show, and I realized right as we were finishing that it wasn't recording again. And fast forward, I call and let them know hey, it did not record. It only meant it only recorded a minute and 18 seconds each time. It was actually an issue with my thumb drive. And so we rescheduled, and they came in a couple weeks later, and Amber was a different person. And she said, You don't understand what all happened to me that day. It was meant to be. And I was like, That's that's a strange thing to say. And she goes, No, you don't understand. Like, electronics weren't working near me. It's not surprising that that thumb drive was brand new and it didn't work, all those things, and my transmission went out on my way home in a pretty new car. So she goes, it was just meant to be. So she uh ended up, Krissa introduced her to someone who did Reiki, which is energy healing, if you're not familiar, and I know it sounds a little woo-woo, but Amber was a different person, and I Anna DeCarlo. Uh if you don't know Anna DeCarlo in uh Cheatham County, she is fantastic. She does Reiki, and my family absolutely loves her. And so I'm familiar with Reiki and energy healing, and Amber was a different person. And I gotta tell you, that re-record, that new episode was fantastic by comparison. Amber was engaged, she was part of it, all those things. So I just tell you that so that maybe you are a bit more open-minded to things, and sometimes things just don't work out. Um, I can tell you myself, just yesterday, yesterday I came in to record this episode, and I got an hour and a half in, and I realized that I didn't hit the record button. Instead of getting mad or any of those things, I just took it as it was God's sign that I was not supposed to do that that day. Packed up my stuff and went home and saw my family. So don't stress out over the little things. It's uh gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Chris and I actually did our our energy healing this past week and um kind of trying to help us center that confidence and trust and faith in ourselves, you know, because when you have that big of a difference in your life or change in your life, especially when it wasn't your idea to begin with, um, you know, it kind of hits your confidence, your, your just faith and and trust and everything else. And so it's it's been a challenge this past year to kind of get that back for me, for myself, to know, you know what, I've done this before. I've already built a business, I've already built one of the number one businesses in Clarksville for somebody else. So I can do this for myself. And this time I'm going to do it for myself. And so, you know, for us and our families, and at least now she she had told us Energy Healer, you need to give yourself recognition and you need to accept recognition. And that's something I've never been been good at. So I am I am working on that because she's like, people look at you and think you're doing amazing things. And I've been, I have been successful and young on in my life because I'd started young with doing designing and and architecture and building and stuff, but it's just very hard for me to accept. And so she's she's this energy healer is helping us bring it all together.

SPEAKER_10:

My next guest is one of my dear friends. Oh my gosh, Bob Lern. So if you don't know who Bob Lern is, please look him up. He's fantastic. Um, he uh he actually has the I think it's the highest recorded series ever televised. And he's held that record for 30 years. It'll be 30 years next year. And Bob was the uh coach for Team USA for many years. Now he's the coach for the Dubai World team. And backing up a little bit, I remember in about 2001, my dad recorded a video because I had just started bowling. He recorded a video and sent it to me, and it was basically these Hall of Fame bowlers giving some input and uh whatnot. It was a special on TV. And I'm so old that this was a recorded VHS. Um, but my dad recorded this and and sent it to me, and I can remember watching Bob Lern on TV thinking, oh my gosh, like this guy's larger than life. And just the idea that I would be friends with Bob Learn and that we would bowl together and put on shows together, and our our wives would get along and we would go to dinner, just um, that wasn't even a thought in my head. So I'm incredibly grateful, one, to the universe, but two to my dad for sharing that video with me all those many years ago. Um, but Bob tells an amazing story in that you know, his is about belief in yourself. And so Bob was raised in a family where you know people didn't really expect a whole lot. In fact, it was really kind of uh the opposite. It was kind of that the idea that the deck is uh stacked against you. And when he met his wife Stacy, Stacy believed in him and she challenged him to dream bigger. And that's what gave Bob the courage to get out on tour and to win. And he spent 27 years on the PBA tour, and I I I don't think that includes the years that he was on the senior tour, uh, but what an amazing career, and he's actually known in the bowling world as Mr. 300. And I don't know that that would have happened without Stacy. So Stacy, hats off to you. Um, you all are an amazing team, and I am I am so blessed and proud to to call you friends.

SPEAKER_06:

You know, they've trained uh, I guess, under that same belief system that all things are possible. And you know, it's my daughter's a softball player, uh, they won states in Pennsylvania, which is uh first state title for our school. Uh so you know, but she never, you know, thought any other way than, yeah, we can do this, you know, and she was big on that, and she's very successful in life. She's a head fashion designer in New York City, and uh, she never looked back. She believes that all things are possible. My son's really successful and uh believes all things are possible. And we just don't live in a space of negativity, you know. And what do you draw that's that it's good from that, right? So I think probably the greatest gift is the fact that not only was I introduced to more positive people, but then I was able to actually make that, you know, something that I get to pass on to my kids.

SPEAKER_10:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, because that's that's why we do these things, right? And don't get me wrong, there's there's a selfish part of it. We want to experience life, but as soon as you become a dad, then it becomes about how do how do I best represent to inspire them to live the best life they could possibly have. The next guest was Bill Wilson, so Mr. Murfreesboro. Uh he's got a column, he's he's got a podcast, and uh Bill's very open with his his challenges uh through recovery. And I think it's I think it's one of the most amazing things about him because I wonder just how many people are willing to seek help because of Bill's story. And he'll tell you that he was a he was a bad guy, that he was not the guy you wanted to see come in the in in the front door. And these days he tries to be exactly the opposite of that. And uh the number of years that he's in recovery and uh the passion that he has for the nostalgia of what it means to be uh in Murfreesboro and what a great city that is to live in. Um but look up Mr. Murfreesboro.

SPEAKER_03:

You've got to quit, you've got to change. From that day on, I've not had that compulsion to drink, it was removed. Um, I did reach down in my pockets of my blue jeans because I came to, I've just you know, had been in a blackout, and a blackout is where you drink so much you don't remember what you've done. Well, I reached down in my pockets, I had these two tickets. One of the tickets I was going 55 and the 40 mile an hour, and the other one had open beer containers. Why didn't I go to jail? You know, that song Jesus Take the Wheel. Um I should there's been many times I should not made it home or should have died. So you know, alcoholic poisoning. Uh, but for some reason God found it necessary for me, he wanted me to live. Now, faithful that works is dead. I had to go through a program, a 12-step program, which the co-founder of this program's name was Bill Wilson.

SPEAKER_10:

Um, my next guest was Colby Jubenville. Team is Jim Cripps here with the Charge Forward Podcast. I just want to tell you I love you. I appreciate you listening. I appreciate you for subscribing and sharing the Charge Forward Podcast with people you know and you love because that's what we're here for. We are here to share the amazing stories, the things that people have been through, the ways that they were able to improve their life so that you can take little nuggets from theirs and help improve your story and be better tomorrow than you were today. I hope that this is the tool you needed at the right time and that you find value in the amazing guests that we bring each and every week. Thanks so much, and don't forget new episodes drop every Thursday.