Ep 221 | Willie Robertson's Wild Ride from Worm Farms to 'Duck Dynasty' Fame | The Glenn Beck Podcast

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Speaker 3 And now, a Blaze Media Podcast.

Speaker 2 The beard and the bandana are a little more than an accessory,

Speaker 2 a symbol of the man whose name is synonymous with family and faith and the great outdoors. He is the CEO of Duck Commander.
He is the face of one of the most watched reality TV shows of all time.

Speaker 2 He's one of the biggest shows here on the Blaze. He is a true embodiment of the American spirit.

Speaker 2 I can't wait to talk to him because

Speaker 2 his stories from early age. He not only developed a deep appreciation for the outdoor way of life,

Speaker 2 but also

Speaker 2 there's a reason why he's the CEO. And Duck Dynasty and all of it happened

Speaker 2 thanks to his father also, who hasn't been without serious trials and tribulations of his own,

Speaker 2 he found redemption and they share it all the time. But this man's story is more than, you know, duck calls in hunting gear.

Speaker 2 It's about resilience, entrepreneurship like crazy, and the power of faith to overcome life's challenges. He has captivated audiences all around the world.
He is charming. He is friendly.
He is fun.

Speaker 2 I love him.

Speaker 2 And somehow or another, he and his family have survived reality TV.

Speaker 2 Beyond the cameras and the fame, he is a devoted husband to his wife and a loving father to their six children.

Speaker 2 He's a best-selling author now, sought-after speaker, philanthropist with a heart as big as

Speaker 2 Louisiana Sky, author of a new book called Godspeller.

Speaker 2 If you stay until the end, you will learn the secret behind the man that took a simple duck call business and turned it into a multi-million dollar enterprise.

Speaker 2 And you're also going to have a lot of laughs. Today, welcome to the program, Willie Robertson.

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Here we go with Willie.

Speaker 2 Willie,

Speaker 2 we've been sitting here as they were trying to fix a light. Yeah.
And for a while. And we, yeah, I know.
And

Speaker 2 you started talking about Florence, Italy. You're going to Florence, Italy.
I am. And

Speaker 2 I love it, it is just history there and the art there is amazing. And

Speaker 2 you're going back. You studied there, right?

Speaker 3 I lived there. My wife and I lived there.
We did a college program and I lived there for like four months.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you know, that's how I'm so that's how I'm so cultured. That's how I'm so no, well, back then, see, we had a little thing called the old bait and switch.

Speaker 3 So, when I married Corey, my hair was really short, no beard,

Speaker 3 very preppy.

Speaker 3 Preppy? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah, oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 And then over the years, I just slowly, she got the real.

Speaker 3 I looked at my dad and I looked at me. I was like, oh no, that's what you ended up getting getting at.

Speaker 2 You went to Florence, which is studied there, yeah. One of the great, and you studied,

Speaker 3 well, yeah, we had to do that's where we got our credit for art appreciation, music appreciation, foreign languages. We did take them there.

Speaker 3 And I don't know that I would have passed any of those classes had I not been there.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. Because you had to.

Speaker 3 You lock in. You have to go order your own coffee.
You have to go. And so I had to learn.

Speaker 2 You go in on art.

Speaker 2 You know, I was like, there's the fake statue in the square of the David.

Speaker 3 Right.

Speaker 2 And you're like, I have seen it and I've seen it a million times. And, you know, somebody I know in the family probably has one, you know, sitting on a shelf.

Speaker 2 And then you walk in and see the real David. Yeah.
And it is

Speaker 3 completely...

Speaker 2 I don't even know how to describe what the difference is.

Speaker 3 It's, yeah, there's, I mean, there's a lot of art there.

Speaker 3 And sadly, when I was there, I was so sick of art because we've been doing it all like for college, like all the way from Amsterdam to Paris. Like, we've been, and I didn't have the,

Speaker 3 which is ironic, the class was called Art Appreciation, and I didn't have the art appreciation like I would now.

Speaker 2 So, so, what did you get your degree in?

Speaker 3 Uh, okay, now

Speaker 3 you got to stay with this one because it's not going to make a lot of sense, but I'll explain it. I have a non-certified to teach PE degree.

Speaker 3 You could teach PE. No, I can't teach PE.
No, you can't because you're not certified.

Speaker 3 I spent like six years getting a degree that every time I just tell people the name of it, they start laughing.

Speaker 3 Here's the degree.

Speaker 3 I can't legally teach PE, which is PE is essentially rolling some balls out in the gym going, all right, kids, get after it. I can't teach that.
Wait, but that's how I spoke.

Speaker 2 What was that degree supposed to give you?

Speaker 3 Okay. Okay.
So

Speaker 3 here's how we expired it.

Speaker 3 If you wanted to learn about, like,

Speaker 3 so you weren't going to be a teacher, but let's say you were going to run a health club. So you needed to know some business.
So instead of the education classes, we took business classes.

Speaker 3 So it was like a business side of physical education. Okay.

Speaker 3 And I did ask the school I went to, I said, do y'all still have that degree? And he said, no, no, that one's going to be gone.

Speaker 3 He was like, no, that's a shit. That was created for you and all the football players

Speaker 3 who needed to really get through school.

Speaker 2 You, though, are like, you are a fascinating guy when it comes to business.

Speaker 2 You were.

Speaker 2 Tell the story about you selling

Speaker 3 candy on the

Speaker 3 candy in elementary school. Fifth grade, yeah.
Yeah. Big year, fifth grade.

Speaker 2 Big year. Big year.

Speaker 2 I don't even remember my fifth grade.

Speaker 3 Fifth grade. Fifth grade changed my life.
Fifth grade was the reason, I mean, 100% why I got the job as CEO of Duck Commander because of fifth grade. When my dad,

Speaker 3 my dad said,

Speaker 3 I said, dad, I think I can turn this company around. I think I can take us to the next level.
He goes, yeah, in fifth grade, you did shut that concession. I think he referenced that.

Speaker 3 He didn't read a resume. He didn't ask about the degree that I had.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 3 that would have convinced him. No, we had a guy give, so a guy came down.

Speaker 3 So where we live is like the end of dad still lives there. It's a dead end road.

Speaker 3 And people would come down there looking for duck calls and they would, you know, and we just failed, just sell them to him right there. So we had this dude come down.
He wanted a duck call.

Speaker 3 They're chit-chatting and he said he was a candy distributor. And I just happened to be standing out there.

Speaker 3 You're how old? I'm in fifth grade. That's fine.
Well,

Speaker 3 10. I have no idea.

Speaker 3 And I'm just standing there. And so he starts explaining what he did.
He said, I'm the distributor of candy. And I didn't understand how distribution worked.

Speaker 3 And he was like, you know, like when you go in a gas station, you buy this candy. Well, I'm the one that sells it to them.
And then they sell it to you. They're the retailer.

Speaker 3 And I was like, oh, that's brilliant. And then he handed, he had a box of Hubble, bubble, bubble gum.
And he just handed it to Phil. And I'm standing right there, right place, right time.

Speaker 3 And Phil just leans over and said, here you go. And he said, that's for the boys, which I'm like, no, this is for me.

Speaker 3 So I took took that gum and I went to I just laid there I just remember I sit on the bed and I was just like God do I just eat you know like just all of it like it just back to back to back to back you know because we were so poor we didn't have any money and I was like and I thought no I'm gonna sell this I'm gonna sell this gum I'm gonna be the retailer and and I've got this I got no money in it so this will be my you know my start yeah my seed money so I get on the bus man start selling and they're

Speaker 3 you know talk about a hot market I mean, I mean, because the school didn't sell gum.

Speaker 3 They didn't sell gum. And I'm like, that's a miss.
And so I sell all that out. Then I go to mom and I say, mom, I need more candy.
And I had this cash, you know.

Speaker 3 And so she took me to like what they called cash and carry where you could buy a box, which I Costco. Samsco, yeah.
So I go up there and I buy me, you know, some boxes of candy.

Speaker 3 So I just looked at what the concession stand had and I just ordered the opposite because their selection was crappy anyway. So

Speaker 3 I just, I just start shoving all this. I got a big coat on.
I'm wearing this stuff. So in my locker, I put shelving in.
I had all my candies, my gum and stuff. You know, I had a lock on it.

Speaker 3 So I would just go and I'm dealing. I was like a drug dealer, but it was candy.

Speaker 3 Because

Speaker 3 here's the flaws of the concessions, Dan. The selection was crappy.
They didn't open till 2.45. So it was the last 15 minutes of school is when you could buy.

Speaker 3 By 245, I've got everybody's money in the whole school. They're out

Speaker 3 and they're chewing gum.

Speaker 2 How much do you remember how much you made?

Speaker 3 Oh, hundreds of, I mean, hundreds and hundreds of dollars, man. I was like, mom's like bumming money off of it.

Speaker 3 A little rolling cash and like a rubber band.

Speaker 3 Then they started like popping up like competitors. The yaunt boys up the road started their little can.
I'm like, ah, this is getting out of control, you know.

Speaker 3 And so everybody, you know, and then the principal called me in his office and

Speaker 3 shuts me down. Why?

Speaker 3 Well, he said, because he said he met with a concession stand and he said their, their sales were down. I mean, that's literally what he told me.

Speaker 3 I'm sitting there as a fifth grader, and I'm like, well, I can tell you why. You know, like they have, they need a better.
And he goes, I'm banning you. You can't sell anything.

Speaker 3 I always say it was my first run-in with the government. So

Speaker 2 what did you do?

Speaker 2 I mean, you obviously knew

Speaker 2 you were an entrepreneur.

Speaker 3 Well, I knew that. Well, I had a worm farm probably out

Speaker 3 the year before.

Speaker 3 So in fourth grade, I was a worm farmer. And so I had,

Speaker 3 that's probably where I knew, like, that's where I really built a business like from the ground. Fourth grade.
Fourth grade. So I had this boat.
So dad had this old boat.

Speaker 3 It was kind of sunken a little bit in the creek because dad was fishing pretty much like Duck Commander was small, but mostly we got our money from fishing, commercial fishing, nets.

Speaker 3 And so, I had this, he had this boat, and I said, Dad, can I have that? Can I use that boat?

Speaker 3 It doesn't work for a boat anymore. And he said, Yeah, so I drugged that thing.
I don't know because we had no equipment. I still don't know how I got that thing on these saw horses.

Speaker 3 Uh, because we had no tractor, we didn't have nothing. But I put this boat up on two saw horses, and dad said, Worms love manure.

Speaker 3 So, uh, old man Lee, about a mile up the road, had all these cows, and so I took a wheelbarrow, walked one mile,

Speaker 3 you know, barrel by barrel and filled this thing with cow manure and dirt. And then I just went out and found all the worms that I could.
So I knew all the spots where the worms were.

Speaker 2 You went out and found all the worms.

Speaker 3 Yeah, they're free. I mean,

Speaker 3 you just got to find the right, so it's the right moisture content with the leaf

Speaker 3 content. There were other ways, like you could take two sticks and like you could kind of agitate them up.
But I knew where to find them. I was finding earthworms last week.
Like I still do it.

Speaker 3 It's fun. It's awesome.
Do you still sell them? No, I don't sell them now, but I have a bucket at home. And now I'm having to text people like, make sure you water my worms.

Speaker 3 And so I had all these worms in there. And I put, dad said they like cornmeal.
So I spread a little cornmeal, had them covered up. I'd water them every day.
And then we lived on a boat dock.

Speaker 3 And so we lived right at the, where the creek comes off the river. And so granny, granny had the big business.
She had the boat dock.

Speaker 3 So she had put the landing in and she had a mailbox that said a dollar for a deal. And they'd stick a dollar in there.
And I could take two stick. I would fish some dollars.

Speaker 3 But then I set up on her boat dock and it said Willie's worms. And then I'd count them all out and I'd put them in old cans.
So all the cans, like, was we saved every can.

Speaker 3 That would spit most of them, but it was like all the corn cans and all that. So I had cans and I'd have like, we'd count them out.
And so I'd sell the fishermen the worms.

Speaker 3 You had to get up at like daylight. So that was my first business.
But that was, you know, it was only Saturday, it was hard work.

Speaker 3 They were nickel apiece, and I knew I was destined for something bigger than this. And then the candy thing happened, and I'm like, oh, yeah,

Speaker 2 so

Speaker 2 where did that

Speaker 3 well? Was that

Speaker 2 you think that started because of necessity, or because that's who you are?

Speaker 3 I think it was necessity, creativity, um,

Speaker 3 just a willing to work. Um, I wasn't.

Speaker 2 That's a big one now.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 No TV. No, we had a TV with three channels, but and they were only watching whatever dad watched.
We could watch Dukes of Hazard.

Speaker 3 But we had to work. We had to phone boxes while we did it.
So we couldn't. But we did all the jobs of Duck Commander.
Like we dipped all the calls. I mean, there was no employees.

Speaker 3 It was when it first started, it was us, you know.

Speaker 3 Answer the phone, customer service. I'd pick up the phone.
It took me a decade to stop saying Duck Commander when I answered my phone. You know, Duck Commander, Commander, how can I help you?

Speaker 3 You know, and then we were like 10. Like, we're writing down orders, you know,

Speaker 3 and we would ship them. Mom would ship them out.
We'd put the orders up. And so, but then we would sell fish.
So I probably learned more about selling from selling.

Speaker 3 Well, I sold the gum, but that was a great. But when you can sell fish, like.

Speaker 3 They weren't cleaned, you know what I'm saying? So we'd go to the fish market and they would take them. If the fish market didn't take them, we'd go to the street corner.
Fresh fish, like super fresh.

Speaker 3 Like you got to clean them fresh.

Speaker 3 So, buffalo, catfish, but the catfish, usually, the catfish was the that was the king. So, they got you got like 70 cents a pound for those.
The buffalo was like 30 cents a pound.

Speaker 3 Then, you have all the trashy fish, you know, the goo and the guard. We'd try to sell them all, man, but you had to, but I would watch that.
Dad was such a good salesman, like dad would sell anything.

Speaker 3 He was just a, you know, I think now people see him because he's gotten older, and you know, he's, but back in the day, man, that dude could, he could sell, man.

Speaker 3 He was, they keep, we would, we, he had these, so we'd catch German carp where they're yellow and they taste horrible. And dad's,

Speaker 3 I remember dad was talking to these guys. He goes, you know what that fish is? That's a golden buffalo.
He just changed the name of it. And that sounds way better.

Speaker 3 Like, German carp. Ain't nobody want to eat a German carp, golden buffalo?

Speaker 3 I'll try.

Speaker 3 So, so I had a knack for it.

Speaker 3 And then, but you know, Glenn, I was always like, I'm out of here, man. I'm getting out of here.
I'm never going to work for this business.

Speaker 3 And then it was so crucial

Speaker 3 who I married. So I married Corey.
Her family were big. They were big business people.

Speaker 3 They had bought

Speaker 3 chains of restaurants. I mean, chains of retail stores.
And so

Speaker 3 it was just a perfect combination, man, because they taught me. She understood it too.

Speaker 3 Really smart. So she's smart.
Her degree is not

Speaker 2 to not be able to teach teach PE.

Speaker 3 She actually has an art education degree, which is hilarious that she got that degree. But Corey's really smart.
And so, yeah, you just had a great combination, man.

Speaker 3 She's the, she's more of the detail. Like, she reads like the papers.
And so I went to college. So here's what's even, here's what's even more stupid.

Speaker 3 And Corey's like, Willie, for some reason.

Speaker 3 You got this dumb degree, but you feel like you're so smart because you like I feel like I pulled one up. I was like, how about that? Like, how smart am I?

Speaker 3 No, by the nature of your degree, it's saying you're not, but I feel like I'm like, I pulled something off the place. You know what?

Speaker 2 I take degrees, I think, are worthless.

Speaker 3 I mean, according to what you're getting it in, I guess. I mean, if you're going to be a doctor, well, yeah, I mean, if you're like,

Speaker 3 so Corey and I went to college at the same time, which was that was clutch. I mean, you had, we did all this, so she would take all the notes, and like, it was very helpful

Speaker 3 to, you know, because she would do all the details. But then, as our jobs ended up, everything we've done in life, it's been the same way because we worked together.

Speaker 3 But I learned a lot from her family, a lot from just about general business and how to do stuff.

Speaker 3 And yeah, that's where it kind of, but when I, true story, when I went to dad at 30, I said, dad, I think, because I went away and then I worked for her family.

Speaker 3 And then I came back to dad and I said, dad, I think I can, I think I got what it takes, you know, because I saw something. I was like, something's here.
I could see how people reacted to Phil.

Speaker 3 And I just, I knew, and he had done all the heavy lifting, but they were kind of tired and were like, I think we've sold all the duck calls we're gonna ever sell. And

Speaker 3 I came in and told him that he said,

Speaker 3 You did shut that concession down in fifth grade. I said, I did.
And he goes, This is Phil, nice contract. Phil goes,

Speaker 3 You're the man. I said, Okay, I'm in charge.
And that's how I gotta tell you, that's how I got in charge.

Speaker 2 I remember

Speaker 2 at the height of it, I was driving across the country, and every truck stop, every 7-Eleven,

Speaker 2 everything

Speaker 2 had

Speaker 2 tons of Duck Dynasty merchandise. I just, I, like the fifth place I stopped for gas, I just thought, who is running this?

Speaker 3 This is genius.

Speaker 2 And that's all you.

Speaker 3 No, not me. I mean, it was, there was a lot of.

Speaker 2 You were the CEO.

Speaker 3 Well, yeah, but I mean, I was, you know, the TV show definitely helped, you know.

Speaker 2 Oh, Oh, no, no, no. I know that.
But, I mean, the merchandising of it.

Speaker 3 Well, it was both. It was Duck Dynasty and it was both of us.
So I didn't own Duck Dynasty. That was, that's A ⁇ E's mark.

Speaker 3 And so our mark is Duck Commander, which was even more challenging selling against yourself in the market. Wow.
Because they had the rights to my face just like I did.

Speaker 3 They had the rights to feel, you know, our likenesses, the things we said. And so,

Speaker 3 but yeah, but I mean, I played my part, but even with the company, I played a part. I mean, I wasn't the, you know,

Speaker 3 I think I've made more mistakes, like, I've done more stupid stuff than I have smart stuff. But if you get one, it works,

Speaker 2 it only takes one.

Speaker 3 But see, when I went into dad, so when I took the company over, and so dad's like, all right, you know, you're the guy, you're taking over. And I said, all right.

Speaker 3 And so I just, I had some things happen right. You know,

Speaker 3 I got somebody to pay us to use their products, like an endorsement.

Speaker 3 We didn't have that. And so that was key.
And so I had like a camouflage company and then a shell company. And well, dad's like, this cat's on fire.

Speaker 3 I'm like, hey, I just made this money to the bottom line and you get free stuff. So it was like, they were like, this is cool.

Speaker 3 And so we started moving towards this, you know, because dad had done, nobody really knew who Phil was. Like, he was this mysterious bearded dude at the end of the river.

Speaker 3 And they knew he was kind of like a preacher, but he just, he didn't go network at the show, the hunting shows. And so I was able to get in there, do more of that.

Speaker 3 And then television was interesting because so Corey, my wife, says she watched reality TV and she's like,

Speaker 3 Willie, y'all should have a reality TV show. And I'm like,

Speaker 3 I don't think. I said, Corey, we're just normal people.

Speaker 3 And Corey said, Willie, y'all ain't normal.

Speaker 3 I said, you think? She was like, I'm telling you, I think y'all could do a, you know, she was like, your family's just so bad.

Speaker 3 were you ever concerned that that would

Speaker 2 destroy your family? Because

Speaker 2 those family relate, those families.

Speaker 3 People warned, like, a lot of Christians told us, like, oh, you can't do this. You're going to destroy your family.
But I was like, if, if not us, then who?

Speaker 3 Like, who, who's going to have the slot if we're not in it? You know, I mean, I was looking at people who do TV and I said, it seems like.

Speaker 3 There's not a lot of bright lights on the TV, you know? And I said, maybe we should. But no, I mean, I felt firm in our faith and who we were.

Speaker 3 And, you know, like, and, you know, I think you, you, you get a chance. And I felt like, I'm like, oh, maybe God led us to this and said, hey, here's your opportunity, and here's something to do.
So

Speaker 2 the movie, the movie, The Blind,

Speaker 2 you know, it's one thing

Speaker 2 because I, I'm a, I was a raging alcoholic, and oof, did I need redemption?

Speaker 2 But it's one thing to talk about it, it's another to see it acted out on the screen.

Speaker 3 It is.

Speaker 3 How was that?

Speaker 3 How did that impact you guys? It was difficult on every level.

Speaker 3 We made the movie, and I say we,

Speaker 3 Corey and I and my cousin, Zach Dasher, my first cousin, who

Speaker 3 his mom is Aunt Jan. She's the one who got the preacher to go talk to Phil.
So he was making it, you know, as just as crucial as in his mom's honor.

Speaker 3 You know, she passed away, and so sadly, she didn't even get to see the movie.

Speaker 3 But we made the movie. It was our first movie to make.
So we had these meetings and we're like, we started a production company after Duck Dynasty because we knew, we said, man, we got to...

Speaker 3 There needs to be more shows, you know, positive, because we heard the people going, we want more TV and movies like this. And so

Speaker 3 didn't necessarily, I mean, we knew TV. I knew how to make that, but

Speaker 3 movies different. Yeah.
And so we jumped in and we had all these ideas. And one of the ideas was actually Phil and Kay's story, you know.

Speaker 3 And I was like, with dad gun, do we want to start out with more of our family? Because the idea was going to be like, we need to tell other people's stories, not just ours. And,

Speaker 3 but it was just so, such an incredible story. And so we go to Phil, we say, he actually said the same thing to me with the TV show.
I went to dad. So when Corey said, hey, y'all should do a TV show.

Speaker 3 And then

Speaker 3 somebody wanted to do one. So I went to Dad and I said, Dad,

Speaker 3 they want to do a tv show fil's like ah that'll never work and i said well it could help business ah

Speaker 3 it could help us get the gospel to more people and he looks up and then again phil gives me the hey if it'll get the gospel out i tell you that is why and the movie was the same way that that is that was what attracted me i heard people talk about you guys They said, there's this show, and they pray at the end.

Speaker 2 They sit at the table and they pray in the end.

Speaker 2 That's what attracted me.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I don't know how you pulled that off with

Speaker 2 television A ⁇ E and all of that stuff.

Speaker 3 It wasn't as bad as what you think it was. Really?

Speaker 3 Like it was like the idea we just, because we were sitting with the production company, and you're right. I know these people are obviously Christians.

Speaker 3 I mean, some may be, I don't know, but not overtly.

Speaker 3 But we just thought it'd be a good idea.

Speaker 3 And they were like, yeah, so it wasn't as combative as what you may think.

Speaker 3 I guess is what people may think it is. Now, they did, they would edit out in Jesus' name, which,

Speaker 3 and they stopped doing that. They finally quit doing that.
Feel so bad.

Speaker 3 So they would do that.

Speaker 3 You know, so that kind of bothered us. But yeah, they, you know, I mean, if it, once it started working,

Speaker 3 a lot of people got out of the way and say, okay, that's what they, but I think they always struggle with what made it work, you know, like what exactly made that work?

Speaker 3 So I guess, for instance, instance, they would put shows behind it that were, you know, I won't say anti-faith, but definitely, you know,

Speaker 3 superworldly. And they wouldn't work.
They would flop, you know, they were like, your viewer would literally turn the channel because they knew, like, bang, go to another one. So, um,

Speaker 3 um, so yeah, they struggled with knowing. I think, uh, especially, I think, the faith part and the prayer part, you know, how much that played into it.

Speaker 3 And uh, but it wasn't a religious show, you know, no. Phil was what was the Phil wanted it more religious.
Phil was like, Willie, we need more preaching on here.

Speaker 3 I said, Dad, there's another Robertson family that has a TV show that preaches. That's a 700 Club.
Let them, like, if they want to know more, let them come. But let's just laugh.

Speaker 3 Like, I think we have a gift and a talent of

Speaker 3 being able to do television like this. Because, I mean, to be honest, no one had ever done a show quite like that because

Speaker 3 Doug Dynasty was a sitcom. It wasn't a reality.
It was more, it was a sitcom.

Speaker 3 But we weren't actors. We were real people.

Speaker 3 but it played so we we it was filmed like a sitcom like i would walk in the door walk in the duck car room that's what seinfeld does yeah right so you would enter the room so we filmed it just like a sitcom and so

Speaker 3 but it was hard to you know it was hard to keep doing that because our lives started changing like when you're driving around seeing us in all the truck stops and everything like it was just weird that we didn't know because we don't they wanted it was like we were in a bubble right but it was strange like like we'd be shooting a thing at the grocery store and it would be like,

Speaker 3 I've run out of gas. Like, how do what do I do? But I'm like, I could see myself on People Magazine.

Speaker 3 It's kind of weird, you know,

Speaker 3 to stay what was real, what was kind of

Speaker 3 call it guided reality, because it was like, it's real. I mean, and so I think other people doing reality shows would probably have a hard time shooting it like that.
And so, um,

Speaker 3 uh, but it worked, you know, it's the combination worked. And so what was you just had some real.

Speaker 2 What was, if you can boil it down in a sentence,

Speaker 2 what was the secret of the show? Why did it work?

Speaker 3 I think it was a combination of

Speaker 3 authenticity, faith, and funny.

Speaker 2 That's a good combination. That's a hard combination.

Speaker 3 Especially funny. Funny's hard, man.
Funny's really hard. And so,

Speaker 3 and the way they edited was really funny. um uh the guys out there in la that edited that stuff it just they they did these pauses and it's these long you know more kind of uncomfortable uh

Speaker 3 and then sighs super funny and especially sigh edited is funny i mean because you could just like but sigh uncle sigh like you could plug in anything you want into that man and now this is a guy who spent 25 years in the military in the army

Speaker 3 graduated from high school only

Speaker 3 worked at a golf course, and then dad ends up hiring him to build reeds for us. You know, he's retired.
Life's over, you know.

Speaker 3 He's 63 years old, I think, when the show started.

Speaker 3 And then this guy fine. And then the first thing I wanted to do, you should talk about how smart I was at business.
The first thing I wanted to do was fire sci. So I come in.
I'm the new CEO.

Speaker 3 I'm looking at our, here's our payroll expense. We have four employees.
One of them lays on the couch every day, sleeps, farts, belches. And I'm like, dad, we need to let your brother go.

Speaker 3 You know, we just need to trim it up. Right.
And he wouldn't let me fire him.

Speaker 2 And I was like, my wife won't let me fire my son either. And he does the same thing.

Speaker 3 Well, so here's the deal. So dad said, no.
So then Doug Doncy comes along.

Speaker 3 Cy is gold. I mean, just TV gold.
Yeah. And I'm thinking, I almost fired him.
And so here's the lesson for that. Sometimes you may have a diamond in your company.
You've got them in the wrong spot.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you got them. So Sy, when he came there, but when we filmed, man, when we filmed that show, and these are long days, you know, because, I mean, it was long.

Speaker 3 This, this stuff took a long, because it was more like a TV show, like, like a long TV show.

Speaker 3 But like, most of the stuff Sy would say about me, like being fat and all that. Most of it was my, like, I would tell him like Sai, say, and I would just come with these zingers.

Speaker 3 And, and then the harsh part was just not to laugh at him the whole time because it was so funny, you know.

Speaker 3 Like we were filming this part. We were in Nashville filming this thing.
We were at this studio and Sy was, he's going to sing this song. And so I got with him and the bra said, Sy,

Speaker 3 when you start singing the song, just start talking, like talk through one of your poker hands and act like that's a song, you know? And so I was like, all right. So we go there.
Sy goes, so I was.

Speaker 3 We were playing poker and they dealt a card and I'm looking at a stack.

Speaker 3 And then, so I'm sitting there.

Speaker 3 So I'm straight facing this thing. I'm going, Sai, you're just talking about a, you're talking about a hand.
You're not even singing the song. He goes, no, hey, Jack, I'm singing the song.

Speaker 3 And so the hardest part was to keep it straight while he, and let him just do his thing. And he could, he was brilliant, man, the way he could do that.

Speaker 3 With a full-time Army guy who worked at, you know, and who would have known he was going to have this new lease on life? And just

Speaker 3 he was awesome. It was, it was unbelievable.
But you just had such a combination of like Phil being this like, like, I think that's what people saw themselves.

Speaker 3 Like, they weren't like us, but it was like, ah, I see,

Speaker 3 that's like my dad. You know, that's like my grandpa.
You know, he is just the same way, like, says stuff that's, you know, sometimes totally inappropriate.

Speaker 3 I'm like, oh.

Speaker 2 I just hit 60 and I decided.

Speaker 2 I'm going to say whatever.

Speaker 3 You're getting there, right? You're getting there. That's the way Phil is.
It's like, well, can you get your dad to not say that? I'm like, no, that's pretty package.

Speaker 3 Whatever you love about him, he's going to say something. Like, no matter what, like, and here's the deal.
I can't understand this about Phil.

Speaker 3 Phil lives at the end of a dead end street, in the, I mean,

Speaker 2 street, road.

Speaker 3 It used to be, it was dirt up until, like,

Speaker 3 until Duck Dynasty Avenue. I think they finally paved our road.
Um, he's down there. He has no cell phone.
He's never owned a cell phone. Good for him.
He has no computer. Wow.

Speaker 3 He has a landline that I think they just got back because it got destroyed by something. So he didn't have a landline.
And

Speaker 3 for some reason, Phil can get his message out all over the world. And I'm like, how does, like, I'll hear about somebody like, how does Phil Robertson keep getting these messages out?

Speaker 3 He has no cell phone computer and lives on Danny's Tree.

Speaker 3 And next thing I know, I'm reading something in the, you know, online. I'm going, oh boy, what'd Phil say now?

Speaker 3 Yeah, I just, you never know what's going to, but it's, you know, I think he's,

Speaker 3 he's earned it and that's, he says what he is. And he's, but he's authentic, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Whether you're growing. He reminds me a little bit of Billy Graham in the way I became friends with Billy Graham the last five years of his life and

Speaker 2 great guy and and he told me

Speaker 2 You know, we were talking about him being on Carson and everything else and he said it made him all uncomfortable. But the first thing I talked about was Jesus Christ.
He said because

Speaker 2 May, that may be the only question I get. So no matter what they ask, it's about Jesus Christ.

Speaker 3 Interesting. Yeah.
Yeah, I got to meet him as well right before he passed. It was amazing.
Yeah, I was such a, so honored.

Speaker 3 In fact, when I met him and his daughter had set it up, and so they're right there in his little house, you know, in North Carolina, and she says, Daddy,

Speaker 3 this guy's from Duck Dynasty.

Speaker 3 He came all the way from Louisiana to see you.

Speaker 3 And Billy Graham looks up and goes, came to see me? Why would you see me? I'm a nobody. And I thought, wow, that's the right attitude.
That's the right attitude.

Speaker 2 He was really, he was the real deal.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 2 He was absolutely the real deal.

Speaker 3 Fascinating what he did. And so,

Speaker 3 but he, and he even said, like, it's, like, it's going to change. I think the way to get the message of Jesus out would change.
He even talked about the workplace.

Speaker 3 And so, yeah, I think we all play our parts on getting this out. But Doug Nazity was a way, which is what I told Phil.
I said, it's a way to get the gospel out.

Speaker 3 And you don't have to read Bible scriptures. You can do it in a fun way, bring people to the table.

Speaker 3 But even just giving people um just a form of entertainment you know because people just that you can laugh at you can watch together you don't have to worry about it um it's really it's really funny i spoke the other night at us recently at a place and they had a house for me and someone's house they'd let me stay in and there's a there's a duck dynasty channel where you can apparently just watch it all the time and they had that on when i got there and they thought it was so funny you know so i walk in there i'm at this house and so i can i can hear my i walk in i hear myself talking i'm like like what

Speaker 3 and so i sit there and i'm speaking like the next morning and it's probably 11 o'clock at night i got sucked into the duck dynasty vortex i'm like five episodes i'm like i've got to go to bed and i got up that's at this speech and i said guys let me tell you what i sat up watched that duck dynasty for five episodes everybody's laughing and i said you know what i learned about that show It's a really good show.

Speaker 3 It's a funny show. Like, I didn't watch it in so long.
But it was, it was funny. And just, you know, man, I've talked to more people.
We're just just like,

Speaker 3 my mom passed away.

Speaker 3 We watched that together. I mean, I hear it almost every week.
Just like,

Speaker 2 yeah, it's just like, my dad was a big fan and we would watch it together and he's passed away.

Speaker 3 And it's, I mean, it's like he was in the hospital. And

Speaker 3 he wanted to watch that Duck Nasty.

Speaker 3 I get, because I get. flagged whenever the the name pops up and so interesting.
I get a lot of obituaries like like that's in some paper like in Richmond, Virginia. And they'll say, you know,

Speaker 3 Betsy Connor, she

Speaker 3 loved her needlework watching Dr. Holly.
Like it showed up in no bitch wear. So

Speaker 3 pretty cool stuff.

Speaker 2 Have you tried to see a doctor lately? And I don't mean for serious issues.

Speaker 3 I mean at all.

Speaker 2 There was a time when my grandparents told me when the doctor came to the house, that's not done anymore.

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Speaker 2 so

Speaker 2 god speller

Speaker 2 you uh

Speaker 2 this book is

Speaker 2 in a way

Speaker 2 kind of anti-phil because phil will go scriptures full-on scriptures and

Speaker 2 This is

Speaker 2 live it, share it,

Speaker 2 bring it into the culture. This is kind of like

Speaker 2 the anti,

Speaker 2 it's the, I hate to say this, but you know, like the,

Speaker 2 what's his name, Kendi, that, you know, you have to be anti-racist. You can't just not be racist.
You have to be anti-racist and all of that woke crap. And this feels like the antidote.

Speaker 3 Wow.

Speaker 3 You didn't feel that way. I still know that, well,

Speaker 3 maybe that's the secret. Maybe that's, it's, you know, maybe that's the becoming all things to all men to try to snatch some from the fire.

Speaker 3 It's, uh, it was just like, I still think the scriptures are there. Well, I tell you this, I actually printed out for Phil before it even came in book form because I wanted to read it.

Speaker 3 And Phil read it, and I didn't know what he was going to say. Phil said, that's the best explanation of how to share the gospel I've ever read in my life.
And I was like, wow.

Speaker 3 And this is so annoying, Phil. This is so funny to me.
He goes, and you were so nice about it.

Speaker 3 Which i knew that's what he struggles to because you'll get into that like yeah and i was like we don't have to you know you don't have to necessarily uh do that and so um

Speaker 3 yeah i i think certain people they have a hard time talking about it and so i taught this class on it it was right after covet it wasn't pe No, it wasn't PE. No, it was about it.

Speaker 3 I was actually teaching people how to share their faith. And because COVID had happened, and so we weren't, I wasn't speaking.
And

Speaker 3 these guys at church asked me about sharing your faith and they said can you teach a class I said yeah I'll teach one so I started gathering other stuff but I was talking to people like what holds you back you know and it was it was almost the same answers it was like I don't know the Bible well enough

Speaker 3 I don't know where to start and they had the desire they were just like and no one's ever taught me how to do like how do you do this I thought we were supposed to keep it to ourselves we do this a lot of stuff uh to disqualify ourselves from even talking about it you know and what a beautiful And I don't want to feel like the weirdo that's yeah, you don't want to be weird.

Speaker 3 And that's why I was like, you know, I mean, I may be the weirdo.

Speaker 3 And a lot of people are like, when they come to the Lord, no one ever tells them that that's part of the deal. Like, hey, you need to go share this.
So if you think about it in the Bible, like when

Speaker 3 Jesus calls Peter, He just says, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men, you know, and he follows him. So he obviously knew that was going to be part of of the deal.

Speaker 3 And so what I wanted to try to do as I was writing was like, how can I break down these things and make the argument? One, should we do this? And so

Speaker 3 from the Great Commission, so like Jesus was living his life. Once he died, he came back from the dead.
I was really interested. What happened then? What happens? What were they talking about then?

Speaker 3 Jesus was here for a little while. And he says in the Great Commission, go make disciples of all nations, baptize people, teach people three things, which is a mission.
That's a mission.

Speaker 3 Well, a lot of people I knew, they're nowhere near those three things. They're not doing any of those.
Any of them. So the question is, was that just for them? Or is that for us today?

Speaker 3 With them, and I'll just like, well, then I think we think like the people in the Bible, like those fishermen, those people he was talking to, were like some kind of super duper.

Speaker 3 We think them as like.

Speaker 3 religious, like the highest you could get. When Acts chapter four, those two of those same guys was talking and said their peers, here's how they saw them, as regular, unschooled, ordinary men.

Speaker 3 So they didn't, more of a non-certified teacher.

Speaker 3 That's the way they saw them, right? It wasn't like they were like some, you know, knew all this. So, and he's telling these guys and he goes, this is the mission.

Speaker 3 And then we see them start living that out. So all of, and especially in the book of Acts, I wanted to see what these conversations were like because we really don't have that.

Speaker 3 We have conversations with Jesus in the gospels. We have the book of Acts.
Then we have letters. So these are letters to churches with problems.

Speaker 3 And so we can gather, but I want to see that like, what's that like conversation look like? And Acts chapter 2 is one of the first ones. You get that.
And then they just start going through.

Speaker 3 And I want to know, what did they say to people?

Speaker 3 What was the reaction? What were the questions they asked? And so, and then want to put that into a modern day and say, okay, what would this look like to have these conversations?

Speaker 3 And what would it, what do you ask people? Where do you start? Where do you start? Where would you start with someone?

Speaker 3 um john chapter four is a great one jesus talking to a woman at a well she's from a different area he probably shouldn't be talking to her i know that because when his dude showed up they were like what are you doing talking to her you know but just by talking to her he showed that he cared about her the big question he asked her is like well how do i start this thing jesus said can i get a drink of water That's where it started.

Speaker 3 So that's where it can start. It ended with the whole village, her whole village, knowing Jesus.
They all came down because she went and said, y'all got to go meet this guy, man.

Speaker 3 He got got her story, which is usually how I do it. I just ask people their story.

Speaker 3 Most people love telling you their story, you know? So I'm like, hey, you got a relationship with Jesus or wherever that, where to start, you know? Well, seven years old. Wow.

Speaker 3 How's it been since then?

Speaker 3 And then we start going through the story. He goes through her story.
Hey, go get your husband. I don't have a husband.

Speaker 2 But he pushed in.

Speaker 3 He pushed in and said, ah, is that true? And I was, I asked myself, why did he push in? Why would he want to know more?

Speaker 3 Because it's kind of embarrassing because I think Jesus knew if you don't deal with this story, you're never going to understand. You're never going to get past it.

Speaker 3 And so for a lot of us, we have to get past this thing of where we're at. That'll hold us back from telling someone else because we're like, oh, I'm so screwed up.

Speaker 3 I'm the last person to be talking to anybody else. And that's why, even in this book, I wanted to tell, hey, this is my story.
This is where it's at. This is what can happen.

Speaker 3 I really want to connect you to the Bible.

Speaker 3 I don't want to just tell you my opinion. I just want to connect you to that.
Like, you can read it. You can decide.
If I never see you again, you've got the New Testament.

Speaker 3 You maybe know some start and pass and go. I'm not the judge.
I don't know who you are.

Speaker 3 I don't know if you're going to heaven. I have no idea.
That's you, but even if I do know you. God, I will tell you, though.

Speaker 3 I will show you some scriptures, though, that say, this is where they started. This is what they said.

Speaker 3 Peter said in Acts 2, he says, repent and be baptized. I can explain those two terms to you.
I can explain what he meant, you know,

Speaker 3 from other sections of the Bible. Because a lot of people, I feel like they, you know, raise a hand somewhere and they're like, hey, I'm in, you know, but they don't know.

Speaker 3 They walk out of the building. They're like, what just happened? I don't know.
I know, I know. And then, and then we're, you know, and they don't know their mission.

Speaker 3 They think the mission is, you know how many people I run into? They think the mission in life as a believer is to try to go to church as much as they can and try to be a good person.

Speaker 3 That's not the mission. That's not like that was never, I never read that.
I never read, they don't even talk about going to church. I don't even know what going to to church means anyway.

Speaker 3 We are the church.

Speaker 3 Yeah, church is. What are we going? Because if I feel like I'm going, then I'll leave it, right?

Speaker 3 Well, then I may act one way there and I may act a different way. I don't even like the terminology.

Speaker 3 I always leave churches.

Speaker 2 In my mind, it's like a hospital or a clinic that I have to go to once a week because I'm just beaten down by the world and it recharges me. Yeah.

Speaker 3 It's just a, yeah.

Speaker 3 It's like a fellowship, right? It's just like where you get, but it's not the end. It's just one.

Speaker 2 It's supposed to charge you for the.

Speaker 3 We can. It can charge.
It can be, yeah, there's a lot of, but the church moves around. The church is happening everywhere, you know, all over the globe.
Yeah. The church is moved.

Speaker 3 The church is happening on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Fridays. This book is for people.
This book is actually not necessarily for Sunday morning. This book is for like.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Saturday morning in the deer stand for Friday night at the football game for Thursday morning at work. And, you know, when your friend comes in, they're bawling and crying.

Speaker 3 They're going, oh, what's the problem? Oh, I've got, you know, my uncle's just got hit by a car.

Speaker 3 And now you may want to know some answers to

Speaker 3 share with them.

Speaker 3 The Bible says, always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have. Always be prepared.

Speaker 3 So there's a certain amount of preparation that we make to be able to talk to people. Because if

Speaker 3 I don't know a lot about something, I'm not going to talk about it. If you start talking about mountain biking, I'm like, I don't know.
I have no idea. I can't even talk about that.

Speaker 3 But I, when I get into people's stories in their lives, I start becoming, I think we, we become, you know, we're ambassadors for Jesus, right? We're ambassador. So we're representing him.

Speaker 3 We're on this earth. So then we become maybe like the counselor, you know.

Speaker 3 So sometimes when I'm talking to people, I feel like a counselor.

Speaker 3 You know, I'm trying to walk them through, you know, sometimes maybe like a great physician, like you're like a physician where you're like, okay, let's talk about, I mean, at the end of the day, day the physician just goes I know a lot about this but

Speaker 3 here's a diagnosis here's what we're gonna try to do you want to do it or not yep you know yep I can give you the medical terms now one year after that you'll know more about that whatever you know you'll know more about it than anybody because that's what you got you're gonna read other people's stories you're gonna watch videos you're gonna you know I feel like that's kind of like Christianity at the beginning you may not know a lot but you're like I know

Speaker 3 what I've been doing ain't working and so we're gonna try something different yeah which is where phil was and that's where i started the book which is phil's story and what i was so blown away by phil's like it really hit me glenn even in making the movie and watching the movie that was it was even hard to watch really hard to keep less than rated r uh because his life was not you know his life was like that but i thought

Speaker 2 can we stop on

Speaker 2 it was hard to watch it because i

Speaker 2 i asked you that before is it were you reliving it? Was it, I mean, I can't imagine Phil watching it.

Speaker 3 I think it was hard for him, really hard for him. I bet it was.

Speaker 3 We watched it together, and then the movie's got there like, hey, we've got another one set up. And Phil said, I've seen it.
I'm good.

Speaker 3 One's enough. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Because it's so against everything in life.

Speaker 3 Like, think about Christianity. Your past is behind you.
We're looking forward. But I even think, not even Christianity, in general, in life, like we can't dwell on the past.
You gotta move forward.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's gone. Like, you know, I think that's a great thing unless they make a movie about it where we just live in it.
Right.

Speaker 3 We just live there now. And the worst part of your life, we're going to make a whole movie that looks really realistic.
And you just got to remember that. So, man, you're ripping off

Speaker 3 scars there that were just rough. So it was hard for him.
But again, he said, if it helps people see, then I'm willing to, y'all can put it up on the

Speaker 3 hard. He was so embarrassed.
He was like, because the person he was so mean to was my mom, you know, and us.

Speaker 3 And like, it was just like, yeah, so it was just, it was hard to, yeah, I cried every time I watched it. And, you know, at different parts, too, it was like, it was weird.

Speaker 3 By the end, I was crying like when he came up with the duck call. I was like, because I thought, wow, that was such a, you know, had that not happened.

Speaker 3 So just very hard. And then, and then to my other point, I was saying was like, what if that hadn't happened? What if Phil doesn't come to the Lord? Right.

Speaker 3 My whole life is completely different. Yeah.
We're not, we're not talking. Right.
I'm not here. Right.
I don't, there's no Duck Commander. There's no Duck Dynasty.
There's no TV show.

Speaker 3 There's no, you know.

Speaker 2 Do you think you would have found the Lord without his

Speaker 2 redemption the way you have?

Speaker 3 Well, I guess I would say this. It would be impossible for me to know, but I would say probably not because I feel like a lot lot of people, I'd say most people don't.

Speaker 3 Right. So just by the numbers, you know, because how many people coming out of broken homes, coming out of

Speaker 3 trauma and all this stuff,

Speaker 3 dad was going to go to jail, I mean, for sure. He was wanted by the law.
I mean, what the numbers are, people that come out of there who have great success in a Christian life

Speaker 3 slim, right? I mean, probably not. So I was wrestling with the same thing.

Speaker 2 I I always wrestle with,

Speaker 2 you know, there's no waste with God.

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 you're in his carpenter shop. There's no sawdust on the floor.
He uses all of it.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 2 All the wrong cuts.

Speaker 2 He is like, oh, no, no, that works. And it's more beautiful.
Yeah. And

Speaker 2 I don't know if my relationship with him would be as deep as

Speaker 2 it is if

Speaker 2 I hadn't so desperately needed him.

Speaker 2 You know what I mean? And it wasn't like, hey, please, you know, heal or please, it was, I was done.

Speaker 2 I was done as a human being.

Speaker 2 And when you're truly broken, I kind of feel bad for people

Speaker 2 who haven't been truly, truly broken because

Speaker 2 I just have this different

Speaker 3 understanding of

Speaker 3 it's gone. Right.

Speaker 2 But you can still

Speaker 3 have that. Like,

Speaker 3 it's so interesting you say that because I always thought, like, with Phil, I was like, my story's not as cool as Phil's, you know, like I'm like, right, right, right.

Speaker 3 I took it to the end, and then he's like, right, this almost

Speaker 2 you have changed because you witnessed it.

Speaker 3 That's why I was saying you don't have to be as broken. Right.
Because I think we're like, oh, but because you may not come back.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 3 You may not find it. In your brokenness, Phil could have ended up dead for sure.
Right. Killed in jail.
Like,

Speaker 3 you know, if mom doesn't forgive him, Phil could have said, okay, I'm ready. And mom said

Speaker 3 double middle fingers in him going, I'm out. Like, I'm sick of the way you, and so, man, it was so crucial.
Like, the movie was.

Speaker 3 It was just so much mom's story, like,

Speaker 3 how she forgave and stuck with this guy. Saw some vision of something in the future.
But I think you can,

Speaker 3 I don't know, I think about, you know, probably the, the, the workers and the wages, you know, I think when you were saying that, it was like,

Speaker 3 you don't have to, you know, but there may be something in your life where you find you, it may be something else that you pull from where you're saying the brokenness, but it's either pull from appreciation or pull from something else that just, because you can have a great relationship with not

Speaker 3 screwing up your whole life.

Speaker 2 No, I know. And I know a lot of people who are like that.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 I mean, it's like, you know, hey, my wife and I, we, you know, we both had affairs on each other, now we're just closed. You don't have to do that, you know, yeah, yeah, no, find that place.

Speaker 2 I know, I struggled with this with my kids because you know, I wanted them to know my story, but I'm like, but don't do that, yeah, right, it's not find God, yeah, don't, yeah, don't do the things that, yeah, and so so when I when I think of,

Speaker 2 and again, this goes back to the book,

Speaker 2 I think

Speaker 2 Mars Hill

Speaker 2 is,

Speaker 2 at least it was for me, so impactful if you understand.

Speaker 2 He didn't come to Mars Hill and say, as it's written,

Speaker 2 you know, you're too religious.

Speaker 2 He came and said, you're so religious. You're so,

Speaker 2 he said, I know your poetry. I know.
He got to know them

Speaker 2 and love them in their own way

Speaker 3 before

Speaker 2 he started

Speaker 2 talking. He found the way in,

Speaker 2 but it wasn't scheming. And sometimes I think people don't share

Speaker 2 the gospel or maybe

Speaker 2 more likely, at least I've seen,

Speaker 2 they share the gospel and it's like, I want to help him get redeemed and I want him to get baptized. And if he's not going to, I'm not really his friend.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 probably been guilty of it? Right. And it's in my past, you know, I've probably been guilty of that.

Speaker 3 Where it's like, because I'm so like, because I want to tell that story and I want to tell that story. I don't want to say like, oh, this person here.

Speaker 3 And like, sometimes there's people I work with all the time that I'm just like, ah, sometimes these conversations are 20 minutes. Sometimes they're two days.
Sometimes they're two hours.

Speaker 3 Sometimes they're 20 years.

Speaker 3 There's people I've been sharing with that long. I'm still here.
I'm still here. I'm still texting.
I'm still talking. I'm still being kind and friendly to people.

Speaker 3 And I'm still coming at maybe a different way.

Speaker 3 Like the Apostle Paul said he was praying, or he said, pray for me that the mystery of the gospel can come out of my mouth more clearly.

Speaker 3 What is he? What is that?

Speaker 3 Pray that the mystery, nobody knew the gospel better than Paul.

Speaker 3 So how did, how is it not coming out? Because I think it's more like art and less like science.

Speaker 3 So science is like, Glenn, here's the deal. But I can tell Glenn that, and Glenn can say, I desperately need you.
I can tell Johnny that, and he can say the complete opposite thing.

Speaker 3 So it's like, hmm, there's a story in my book about Bill. And Bill,

Speaker 3 I kept wanting to preach the gospel to this guy. And he would say the same thing every day.
He's like, hey, he who had not sinned cast the first time.

Speaker 3 Every time I brought it up, I'm like, dang, come on. So I'd say, hey, Bill, you know,

Speaker 3 you know, you're talking about going to get surgery. You know, I was just going to talk to you about your relationship with you.
He who had not sinned

Speaker 3 every time and it wasn't until we were in new york city we just had the big meeting was that would bring a lot of people to their knees by the way

Speaker 3 with some business people we're talking about business we're talking about money and

Speaker 3 he was so excited we're in a car i finally got this guy like to himself and

Speaker 3 i just said he was smoking i mean he was smoking like a burger

Speaker 3 I said, but how old are you? And he told me his age, like 58. And I said, I think you're going to be dead in 14 years.
You're going to be dead.

Speaker 3 He just looks at me. His eyes are big he's like what i said i don't know i'm just spitballing here but i think you're gonna be dead why would you say that and i said

Speaker 3 he goes i've never thought about that

Speaker 3 and i said well you may should start thinking about it you know the way you're living the way you know so we pull up to the hotel we're in this nice hotel and he said will you come tell me more about that I said, I will.

Speaker 3 So I'll go get my Bible. You know what he didn't say? He who had not sinned cast first on.
I tried a bunch of times, but finally picked another way that made him think about it.

Speaker 3 So it could be physical death. That could be work for somebody.
Some people wouldn't.

Speaker 3 We both know Marcus the trail. I remember talking to Marcus about physical death.

Speaker 3 Whole different, I never even heard, you know, imagine his take on that.

Speaker 2 Like, I know.

Speaker 3 You know, and so what works for some people doesn't work for others.

Speaker 3 I could say, Glenn, you could be part of a church, a group, and you could have friends, and you could, and you could say, yes, that's what i've been looking for right and then i tell somebody else and they go i will never step foot in there when i was a child i was hmm so that doesn't work so it's like ah not that way and these are the way these conversations the subtitles turning darkness into light one conversation at a time so as we have these conversations i just uh you know i think i've got the holy spirit living in me so that's going to guide me It's probably what guided me to tell Bill, you're going to, I think you'll be dead in 14 years, you know?

Speaker 2 Because that wasn't something you planned. The way you just said it a minute ago, like, I tried a different angle.

Speaker 3 I'm just trying to get in and have a conversation. And then if they don't want to know, like, I think you have to be authentic,

Speaker 3 but you also have to be looking for change. When Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus' house, it's a bold move, right? Now, everybody hates Zacchaeus.
They're like, we hate this guy.

Speaker 3 And everybody's like,

Speaker 3 he's hanging out with this cat, you know. Jesus walks in.
He's looking for change. Zacchaeus, I don't know what exactly he said to the man, but he's like, okay, new rules.
I'm giving

Speaker 3 I'm paying back money which is repentance right he's like saying i'm going to repent jesus says this is why i came to seek and save what was lost for these kind of people because i think that was such a message for everybody send that going we hate this guy so glenn i think it starts you have to start with caring about people yes because what i see in this country more than ever we just don't care about each other How many videos am I going to have to see of somebody walking down the street, step over somebody who's dying or just got mugged?

Speaker 3 They don't care. They don't care.

Speaker 3 I just got back from downtown Seattle.

Speaker 3 Ooh, there's not a lot of people caring about other people there.

Speaker 3 And I'm standing there going, how would I, you know, oh, what a mess, you know? And so we have to care about people because.

Speaker 3 Is it really attractive to you to get into other people's problems too? Especially when you, you know, you're like, that's hard.

Speaker 3 It's that, that's a, I think this book would be hard for people because they're like,

Speaker 3 I've read some books where I'm kind of uncomfortable because I'm like, shoot,

Speaker 3 I feel like I need to do that, be better at that. And so I read some that I'm like, oh, man, this is a different level.

Speaker 3 Because a lot of people kind of got it where they're, well, nah, I try to go to church. I'm, you know, I live a good life.

Speaker 3 You know, I love Jesus and cuss a little too, you know, whatever, whatever the t-shirt says.

Speaker 3 I don't know, you know, the way I see this country going in our world is just chaos and just darkness. And man, we got to have, you know,

Speaker 3 all the people who were out sharing their faith in the New Testament got killed.

Speaker 3 So I'm real careful about when I say, you know, if you do this, man, he's going to take care of that little thing for you.

Speaker 3 And your life's going to be a little bit better unless you're in North Korea, unless you're in China, you know.

Speaker 3 We got to help you. Possibly what's helping people.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, this could be.

Speaker 3 So I think the timing's right.

Speaker 3 But I'm just trying to figure out, you know, how the message is the same. The methods can be different.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 So the method of how you tell it.

Speaker 2 It has to be different now.

Speaker 3 i mean at least it can be different for different people right right right but i mean generally speaking i think the churches

Speaker 2 have just gone silent um they're just they're just rotted they always this always happens when there's you know a reformation and it it's just rotted from the inside and it's the church outside that matters and the church outside right has to lead the way it can be i mean yeah i mean it can be both.

Speaker 3 I think there's some, some church, I think they just, what happens is you get off the path and you get into these, you know, all kind of different things and different, you start meeting.

Speaker 3 All your meetings are about not the things that you need to be meeting about. No, but people aren't preaching the gospel anymore.
Here's the biggest thing. Being a gospeler is about being outward.

Speaker 3 Yeah. And what I see is, I think a big struggle right now, people go to church.
Everybody's looking inward.

Speaker 3 Tell me something to help myself so I can, it's like a self-help.

Speaker 2 You remember just a minute ago you said somebody will say something you're like oh geez

Speaker 2 I just told you about church being a hospital for me

Speaker 2 I'm having one of those moments like oh

Speaker 3 so well that's why

Speaker 3 well I'm trying to like no it's good go to a hospital but I don't go to one every week yeah I don't even want to go to one every week you know I know I just feel so beaten down by the world at times that you just like I just want to go and just

Speaker 2 nothing is sacred in the world. Nothing is nothing is above man in the world.

Speaker 2 You know, it's until you know, maybe because where you live, but like you don't see all the stars and everything here in Dallas. You certainly don't see it in New York City.

Speaker 2 And I go to my ranch and I see the, it's completely dark and you can see the stars everywhere. And it just ought,

Speaker 3 it's like the the campfires.

Speaker 2 We don't have campfires anymore where you can sit around, look up and go, why am I here? What is all of this?

Speaker 3 But, but, but, okay, you need the chapter called Hope Yeller.

Speaker 3 I know that there's a bunch of bad. I feel like here's the problem with Christians to me.
We're all just screaming about how bad everything is. Where's the good?

Speaker 3 We're supposed to be teaching people good news. Where's the hope? Where's the and so I feel like like uh this is the second time now I'm going

Speaker 3 so we're just So what it is you're looking at, because if you say you can't see the stars in Dallas, but there's somebody in

Speaker 3 probably in some part of California or New Jersey going, Dallas is like heaven. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.
You know what I'm saying? We're slack, you know,

Speaker 3 yeah, Idaho is like, no, no, no, but I'm not.

Speaker 3 Here's the thing. Here's the thing.
If those are the worldly parts, you imagine somebody in Yemen, like some believer that's like, you know, and so a lot of this will pay off

Speaker 3 in the beyond this thing this thing we're in lasts like that i know i mean we're getting older i mean it's like whoa whoa whoa i'm trying to pump the brains like this thing it's life is so fast while we're here on this earth like we're only here for just a little more time and then we're going to be able to do all kind of things that's what we live for that's why the it's a desperate measure to get the good news out while we're still here on this earth because if we're just running around on earth trying to get the net you you know, I'm just trying to stay, you know, once you go on a mission, man, once you turn it around, well, you mentioned Billy Graham.

Speaker 3 Think about that mission. Look at what, you know, look at him.
He was like, there's, there's millions of people all over this planet that would not know the gospel had it not been for that dude.

Speaker 3 I know. Just saying, let's go.
And so one of the last things. So we got to yield hope.
We got to yield hope and positivity and good, not just the bad. I get you.

Speaker 3 Like this world, this whole world is going to hell in a handbasket. Okay, what are we going to do about it? What are we going to say about it? What did Jesus do about that? You know, it's not.

Speaker 2 You know, have you found, though, that when you say that to people, because I've been saying for the last

Speaker 2 maybe two years now,

Speaker 2 we've passed all the exits. We've passed all the

Speaker 2 rational exits politically and socially and everything else.

Speaker 3 We're now

Speaker 2 almost at the gates of hell.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 2 the only thing that will save us now now is Christ. That's it.

Speaker 2 Us returning to God,

Speaker 2 asking, recognizing what we've done,

Speaker 2 and truly changing our life and trying, and it has happened before to societies.

Speaker 3 It just well, and it may have to get bad before it gets good.

Speaker 3 People's lives starting to look like that. It may have to get bad before it gets, you know.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Before it can get better, it may have to get way worse. I know.

Speaker 2 As an alcoholic, I worry about that. What's your bottom?

Speaker 3 Right.

Speaker 3 And so in this country, yeah, it may have to be very uncomfortable, which would, I would, which would lead people to something bigger. Oh, yeah.
You know, it usually does. I mean, 9-11

Speaker 3 next week, more people were in church, I think, than

Speaker 3 in a long time, right? There was a coming together.

Speaker 3 When you get scared,

Speaker 3 when there's fear and there's true fear.

Speaker 3 And that may be what has to happen to get, you know, a lot of people. And if that's what...

Speaker 2 You will have a humble people.

Speaker 3 In the eternal sense, that's what has to happen. So like, I mean, to understand eternity and, you know, I think I put this story in the book.
My daughter was in fifth grade.

Speaker 3 She actually just graduated from college a couple of weekends ago. And she was in fifth grade.
And Corey's like, will he go help her with that assignment, which is very unusual.

Speaker 3 I wasn't normally that guy to go. So I go in there and I'm like, here, give me this thing.
And I'm going to like fifth grade. And I'm like, I ain't got a clue.

Speaker 3 I mean, I literally, I don't have a clue how to answer this question. I lay it down.
I i said bella here's the deal

Speaker 3 this test doesn't matter she's crying i said this doesn't matter in fact fifth grade doesn't matter you know who cares about you know unless you're selling gum unless you got a yeah i definitely you know unless it's a mode of like business

Speaker 3 so i'm like you got it she's like yes sir i got it so i go back there and watch tv my wife comes in like what did you just tell our daughter and i said what do you mean she goes she said you just said her test didn't matter and and her whole grade doesn't matter i said yeah i'm sticking with that too

Speaker 3 now i think she knows she just graduated college i think she understands what i was saying to think back to fifth grade so i think once we live with the eternal mindset we have that heavenly mindset man this is like a you know and it also it's here he doesn't waste anything

Speaker 2 i mean so something screws up no

Speaker 3 jambaline

Speaker 3 throw everything in there like yeah i'm using stuff from i've told you stories about fourth grade fifth grade like who would have thought i would have even but now they're in you know now they're like oh i can use this you know yeah i think he uses that's the beauty of christianity is that you can use even the bad even the stuff like oh this is bad right and yeah it's like when we used to like reality tv it reminds me of that when the thing happens that's going to shut down the thing and i always say but you never can see it and i would say whoa whoa whoa whoa this is what this is what this is the show This is the show.

Speaker 3 Right. You're like, no, no, we can't film the show because this happened.
I'm like, that is the show. That's the show.
You're right. The first time I ever did reality TV, my, my phone froze up.

Speaker 3 I missed my alarm. I was supposed to be down there duck hunting, feeling them, slept in.

Speaker 3 And they're down there, Phil, and them are getting all ready. And the director's looking around and goes, okay.
He goes, oh,

Speaker 3 where's Willie?

Speaker 3 And Phil does not miss a beat. Phil's like, oh, I might, he's still asleep.
And like,

Speaker 3 and they're like, we can't film this show. And they're like, well, we're going hunting.

Speaker 3 If y'all want to not film don't film and the guy's like really screwed this whole thing i wake up like at nine o'clock i'm like oh no the college i'm like i gotta get out there i need a p-ro which is a small boat i go go to get a small boat there's a boat it's the size of this tape like but it's this big and i'm like huh how are they riding this thing I come to find out later.

Speaker 3 It's a serving tray for crawfish. It's not meant to.

Speaker 3 So I get in this thing. Like, it's literally the size of my hips.
And I get in there and and I'm like, okay. And as soon as I did like this, it was just, and I paddled that thing out there.

Speaker 3 And you see me shoot out of the woods and hear, and I feel like, what's he riding? And Jason's, I see nothing but his body. We don't even know what's he.

Speaker 3 So when I pulled up to the deal,

Speaker 3 that was the show.

Speaker 3 None of that was scripted. But that, so sometimes it's like, that's the thing that you're looking for.

Speaker 2 Would you

Speaker 2 close in prayer? No, No, well.

Speaker 3 Father, we're so grateful

Speaker 3 to be in your presence.

Speaker 3 I just pray for Glenn. I pray for just the audience he has, all the

Speaker 3 everything he's built, Father, just in this world and all the people he has around him. And Father, I just pray that you always give him hope and always give him the insight,

Speaker 3 Father, to make things clear to people. And I just, I know he

Speaker 3 gets beat down, Father, and I just pray that you be with that. Give him hope,

Speaker 3 positivity,

Speaker 3 renewed energy.

Speaker 3 And Father, just give us all that. Give us all the vision to see things and

Speaker 3 see the future, see being with you, see eternity and seeing something beyond this earth that we know is hard to see.

Speaker 3 Be with our faith.

Speaker 3 I pray that we all become better gospelers. We just have the gospel on our lips all the time.
I pray for all those around the world who are sharing their faith,

Speaker 3 even at the possibility of peril. And

Speaker 3 Father, I pray for them and I just pray for, give us strength, be with this country, Father. We know it's just so screwed up in so many ways.
But Father, help us to be voices.

Speaker 3 Help us to be voices to try to make that change.

Speaker 3 Even if not for us, for our kids and our grandkids and Father, I just pray that you'd be with

Speaker 3 Be with us in this year. What a nutty year, Father.
We just pray that you give us wisdom and understanding.

Speaker 3 I pray for all the leaders, and we know that you're in charge, and we put these people in and move them out. And thank you for this show.
Thank you for this time, this conversation, Father.

Speaker 3 And I just pray that we always have an answer for the hope that we have, and that you and we give you all the praise through Jesus. Amen.
Amen.

Speaker 3 I love you, brother. Awesome, buddy.
Thank you.

Speaker 2 Just a reminder: I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast and pass this on to a friend so it can be discovered by other people.