Winston Harris is guest host today and interviewing Jim Piper about his new book, "Story: The Art of Learning From Your Past". Jim explains that in his opinion God "co-authors" our life story. The key is to properly interpret the story that God is laying out for us. The book is not so much about looking back on our lives but more about taking an inventory to help us become better people and better leaders.

Jim explains that the style of the book is not an instruction manual for life and leadership. His approach to coaching is more about learning a person's story and helping them learn from it or telling a relatable story. What's good that can be a building block to better things? What are the weaknesses or old wounds that need to be addressed to make way for improvement? Reading the book is like hearing Jim tell stories that illustrate life's journey. It's not always happy endings and good feelings. As Jim would say, "it's about the good, the bad and the ugly". Make Jim's book the next addition to your personal library. Learn something new today!

Jim Piper is the founder and leader of the Lead Today Community. His new book, Story: The Art of Learning From Your Past is available on Amazon.

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Jim Piper welcomes Dr. Joe Martin to the Today Counts Show. Dr. Joe Martin is the founder of Real Men Connect. The goal of Real Men Connect is to help GOOD men become GREAT men, God’s way. "Dr. Joe" has a contagious passion for helping men become great men.

Jim and Dr. Joe are kindred spirits in their belief that strong, masculine men are needed more than ever in today's world. Many societal problems can be traced back to the lack of a positive, male role model in the lives of children. That factor alone can have a long-term, negative impact on a child's life. Dr. Joe was able to overcome his difficult, sometimes tragic, childhood but only after a roller coaster ride of success and failure as an adult. By sharing his personal failures he is able to connect with fathers who are struggling to become better men. Jim and Dr. Joe both emphasize the importance of having mentors in your life. At least one mentor, if not multiple mentors, that will help guide and educate you in different areas of your life.

Dr. Joe also teaches that many, if not most, men have or will have an identity problem. This is because most men base their identity on what they do. Dr. Joe describes this as the "ations". For example, your occup-"ation", your compens-"ation", your intimid-"ation", etc. These are all faulty assumptions because there are more important things in life on which men should base their identity. Things like relationships, maturity and purpose, just to name a few. The message is clear: it's not about accolades or achievements; it's about being present, taking responsibility and being a rock for your family.

You can find out more about Dr. Joe Martin and Real Men Connect by visiting RealMenConnect.com. All of Dr. Joe Martin's books are also available on the website and if his message resonates with you, a personal "Breakthrough Call" can be scheduled with Dr. Joe himself.

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What is a ReLeader? Jon Chasteen is Jim Piper's guest today and author of the book, "ReLeader: How To Fix What You Didn't Break". In this podcast Jon defines the term "ReLeader" and also shares his thoughts on leadership in general. A quick explanation of a ReLeader is someone who comes into an existing company or organization to assume the leadership role. That may sound easier than building something new from the ground up but is it? To be a successful ReLeader requires a willingness to research the original vision and mission. If things have drifted away from that vision or mission, how do you correct that, should you correct that, should you steer the ship in a new direction? Most importantly, once you know what should be done, when do you do it and how do you do it? Was the previous leader a great leader or a terrible leader? How will you gain the trust of the people you are tasked with leading? Hmmm.... maybe this ReLeader thing isn't so easy!

This episode of The Today Counts is really packed with information and advice that leaders can put to good use in the real world. The scenarios Jim and Jon discuss are based on their personal experiences and those of their mentors. These are not hypothetical theories, these are stories based on living life as leaders. The best part is it's free! All you have to do is listen and learn.

Jon Chasteen has been the Lead Pastor of Victory Church, a multicampus church with campuses in both Oklahoma and Texas, since 2014. Jon was also President of The King's University from 2018 to 2023.

You can reach Jon Chasteen through the Victory Church website - https://victory.church/

Or, through his website - releader.co

You can find Jon's Book, "ReLeader: How To Fix What You Didn't Break" on Amazon, as well as his other book, "Half the Battle: Healing Your Hidden Hurts".

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Jim's guest on this episode of the Today Counts Show is Damon Nailer. Damon is the Family Resource Center Program Director for the Children’s Coalition for Northeast Louisiana. The organization is located in Monroe, Louisiana and offers many community services ranging from Early Head Start programs and teacher training to Parenting Education for individuals and groups. Damon works with families that have lost custody of their child, or children, and connects them with the resources they need to work towards putting their families back together. This may involve first helping a parent get through a substance abuse program or providing mental healthcare services. Most importantly, Damon teaches and coaches these parents, especially fathers, about parenting. Unfortunately, many of these parents grew up in broken families so they did not have a model to reference the role of a parent in a child's life. Damon also grew up in a fatherless home. That is what drives him to educate and break the cycle of broken families. It is important work.

Jim and Damon also take on the topic of communication. Damon shares a great, common sense tip on communicating with people. "Commonalities connect but differences divide". Work on training yourself to first look for things you have in common with someone instead of what is different. It is a simple concept but one that could really change how you approach communication.

Jim and Damon spend a lot of time on communication and how decisions concerning how much information to share can affect person communication, business communication and even media communication. Media communication and the public trust, or the lack thereof, sparks a whole discussion in itself!

You can find Damon Nailer on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damon-nailer-78932b17

Find out more about Children’s Coalition for Northeast Louisiana and how you can support their mission at: https://www.childrenscoalition.org/

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Angie Taylor started what would become Valor Global Foundation by holding what she thought would be a small meeting with about 10 parents to talk about her vision of a new model for educating our children. It turned into a meeting with about 300 people, many of whom paid deposits that night to enroll their children in a school that did not exist yet! That is the power of laying out a clear vision and the way forward to achieve that vision. Valor Global Foundation now has several brick and mortar schools in the US, several international campus locations and an online school.

Jim and Angie spend an hour or so talking about Angie's background and experience, the things that are wrong with the current education model and what motivated her to leave her job and start the foundation. She explains how the Standardized Testing Industry and the emphasis on test scores is driving a system that is not teaching our children to think, or to be creative, or to understand the connection between what they are learning and how it applies to the real world. Angie knew there was a better way. There is so much information presented in this podcast that these show notes could become a text book! But who wants to read pages of notes when you can get the information straight from the source.

Speaking of books, Angie Taylor has written a book titled, "The Way of Valor" that's all about the new movement in education. Most agree the current system is broken. This book lays out a new way forward that better educates and prepares children for the real world and life as a productive, responsible adult. The book is available on Amazon.

You can reach Angie Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angie-taylor-7a213712a
or through the Valor Global Foundation website: https://valorglobalfoundation.org/

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Jim's guest on this episode of the Today Counts Show is Ken Cochrum. Ken is the Executive Vice President of Field Ministries at East-West. The first words you see on the EastWest.org homepage are, "Shining God's light into the spiritually darkest places of the world". The mission of East-West is to mobilize the Body of Christ to evangelize the lost and equip local believers to multiply disciples and churches among the unreached. East-West deploys teams of missionaries and works with national partners in 44 countries across 10 major world regions. In his role at East-West Ken works with hundreds of staff and strategic global partners as well as, thousands of volunteers.

Ken and Jim have a great discussion that keeps coming back to how some of the finest examples of leadership theory and methods can be found in the bible. After all, Jesus is the most successful organizational leader in the history of mankind! Ken has a real passion for preparing the next generation of leaders. Helping young leaders become more confident and helping them get the knowledge and support they need to be successful. Also, Ken talks about all leaders learning to be more adaptive in their leadership roles. Ken believes in the concept of "commanders intent" when it comes to overall leadership philosophy. It's an idea that comes out of military leadership training. The guiding principle is this, "plan all you want, and it is necessary to plan, but once you hit the ground in the fog of war all plans change". Therefore, leaders involved in the mission must understand the objective of the mission, the parameters they are allowed to work within to achieve the objective and most importantly, be prepared to adapt and change the plan to achieve that objective when necessary. Being a leader who is able to adapt to changing conditions is more important than ever in today's world!

You can reach Ken Cochrum on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kencochrum/

Find out more about East-West and how to support this global ministry at: EastWest.org

Bonus book reference:

Jim and Ken both recommend...
The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert E. Coleman available on Amazon.

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The Today Counts Show is about a lot of things. Leadership, faith and knowing your purpose, just to name a few. Today's podcast, with guest Kyle Duford, covers a lot of ground in under an hour. Kyle is President and ECD of The Brand Leader, a branding, strategy and advertising firm with a national and international footprint. He is also a public speaker and author of the book "Twice Found".

Kyle teaches Jim, and all of us, about some of the terminology used in branding. Is your company culture part of your brand? Is marketing the same as advertising? Kyle presents a mental exercise for everyone to prove the power of a well established brand. Can you imagine what it would look like, or be like, if Nike started an airline? As crazy as that example may seem, I'll bet you can picture it in our mind! Nike has spent decades building their brand image and this exercise proves it works.

On the topic of leadership, Jim and Kyle have a lengthy discussion about the importance of adapting to the needs of the changing work force. Millennials were the first generation to make waves in the business world but Gen Z has really thrown many of the old-school management methods out the window. The interests and needs of Gen Z are simply not the same as previous generations. As a business leader, you still have to run your business and align your team but you may have to take a different road to get there. The bottom line here is that leaders should always be growing.

In the last segment of today's show, Kyle shares some of his story found in his book, "Twice Found". The subtitle of the book is "Getting a Second Chance at Life, Love, and Understanding God". It all started after losing his job, a failed marriage and thoughts of suicide. He took a trip to Maui to clear his head and find "whatever" higher power might be calling him. Almost every person, even complete strangers, that he meet in Maui seemed to be pointing him to Jesus. That lead him to reflect and realize that his whole life had been full of people doing the same thing. But there is another beautiful twist to this story. You'll have to listen to the podcast to find out what happened next!

You can find Kyle Duford online at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyleduford/ or...
https://thebrandleader.com/team/kyle-duford/

His book "Twice Found" can be found on Amazon or through ComingBackToGod.com

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Are you concerned about where your money is invested? Does it matter to you if a company you have invested in is supporting social and political agendas that don't line up with your personal values? Darryl Lyons, Jim's guest today, is an expert in the field of financial planning and investing. More specifically, he is an expert in investing from a Christian world view. Darryl is co-founder and CEO of Pax Financial Group in San Antonio, TX. He is also an author. His most recent book is titled, "Biblical Responsible Investing".

Jim and Darryl discuss many areas of personal finances and how important it is to have a strategy for your financial future. They talk about the difference between retirement and "pivoting", they talk about alternatives to traditional health insurance, they talk about figuring out how much is enough money for your future plans. They even discuss strategies for charitable giving. That subject really leads to some surprising insight from Darryl that you have probably never heard before. This information alone makes it worth your time to listen to this episode of the Today Counts Show!

You can reach Darryl Lyons through the Pax Financial Group website: paxfinancialgroup.com

His book, "Biblical Responsible Investing" is available on Amazon.

Darryl also hosts the podcast, Retire in Texas. You can find it here: https://paxfinancialgroup.com/podcasts/

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