Faith

Episode 190 - Franklin Beach - Leaders On Leadership

Tremendous Leadership | Franklin Beach | Purposeful Life

Despite facing challenges and questioning his path, Franklin Beach, a pillar of his community and a man of unwavering faith, shares his journey towards joy and living a purposeful life. Through his experiences, Franklin emphasizes the importance of faith in navigating life's difficulties and the power of forgiveness in letting go of burdens. He highlights that overcoming challenges can be a source of valuable lessons and growth. Inspired by his dedication to his church, an international children's charity, and his long-standing service as a local alderman, Franklin underscores the profound fulfillment found in serving others. Whether you're facing challenges or simply seeking a deeper meaning in life, Franklin's message offers a beacon of hope. He reminds us that with faith as our guide and a commitment to helping others, we can all discover the path toward joy and live a truly purposeful life.

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Franklin Beach - Leaders On Leadership

Welcome to the show where we pull back the curtain on leadership and talk with leaders of all ages and stages about what it takes to pay the price of leadership. I am tremendously excited to introduce you to my guest, Mr. Franklin Beach.

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Franklin, welcome.

Thank you so much. It’s good to be here with you and your guests.

Thank you. Let me tell you a little bit about Franklin. He was adopted at less than a year old. Franklin Beach was raised in a Christian home attending a Salvation Army Church where he is still active. Franklin has been a lifelong businessman owning an accounting firm and is involved in other community and international endeavors. Frank is an elected alderman in the city of Rockford, Illinois for 44 years, devoted to servant leadership. He and his wife, Sonja, have been married 64 years and have 2 married daughters, 2 granddaughters, and 1 great-grandson. Franklin, thank you again. I’m so excited to have the honor of meeting you.

Where did you learn all of that stuff?

Tremendous words get out about tremendous people. Speaking of which, Franklin and I have only recently been connected. We were connected to the Lord many years ago. Do you want to tell the folks about your connection with my father and how we found each other?

It’s unbelievable that we are talking to one another. I keep asking myself, “Dear Lord Jesus, why would it be that You’d allow this connection to happen this time in our lives?” The truth of the matter is I saw you on Facebook. It was an email of some kind. I called you on the phone to get the connection. I was like, “Is this truly Charlie Jones’ daughter?” It’s true that I did that.

It was many years ago that I met your father in Rockford. He came through for some seminars. I was a young man at that time, but we had a liking for each other. We spent a lot of time in person on the phone to talk about each other. The thing that really drew me in was that one day, your father called me on the phone and said, “God told me that you’re in the process of selling your business.” I said, “How in the world would he know that?” because I never talked to anybody about it. I hadn’t talked to my wife about it. It was in my thoughts that this was something that I needed to do.

I stood there in my kitchen startled to say, “What do you mean God told you to call me?” He said, “That’s what I did. Are you in the process?” That was the direct question he asked me. I said, “I am.” He said, “That’s good. Meet me up in Minneapolis. I want you to come up. I want to talk to you about some books.” I said, “I don’t want to talk to you about books. I’m not a reader.” He said, “You will be when I’m done with you.” I can still hear that.

He said, “I’m telling you one thing right now. You get this straight in your head. Promise me one thing.” I was like, “What’s that?” He said, “I’m only going to ask you to read fifteen minutes a day. Please understand.” He made a big deal out of that. He said, “Don’t read on the weekends. Please promise me no Saturday or Sunday, but read fifteen minutes a day.” He knew what was going to happen. You can’t eat 1 potato chip and not eat 3, 4, or 10.

There is a famous line about how five years do not make you different as for what you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read. I’m different from meeting you. How true that is. My life is being enriched at this moment. I heard a man tell me, “I’d rather be an inch from hell going away from it than 1,000 miles from it going towards it.” If you take that principle and extract that into other areas of your life, who it is, it doesn’t matter how deep or down you are. If you’re headed in the right direction, it’ll all be fine.

That’s how this thing all started. I went up to Minneapolis and met him. I wish I could remember that couple up there. They were a nice couple. I forgot. Maybe some other day. We talked about books, and your dad was there, “Tremendous” Charlie. How I loved that man. When I traveled around the country, I always took the time to call him. I knew your brother, Jerry. I met him. We went to Minneapolis. I have all kinds of stories about him. That’s for another day.

I remember that I once started a book business called Harvest Time Books. I thought, “This is great. Since God was in it and Charlie was in it, things are going to work out wonderfully.” I’ll tell you the truth. It didn’t work out wonderfully. That’s where my story begins. That’s where loneliness begins. That’s where the abandonment begins.

All of those things that say, “Are you going to go for it or not?” Leadership, as his book outlines, has nothing to do with personality, title, or other things that people think you have to have as a leader. Your dad said in the first seminar I ever attended with him, which he made a big deal and you know that, The Seven Laws of Leadership. He said, “You get your pencil. You’re going to write this down.” I can still hear his voice saying, “The first law of leadership is work.” You’ve heard that before, right?

Yeah. Nothing works unless you work it. He was like, “Get to work. What are you doing here?”

Exactly. You don’t have to put your sign up that says you’re the president, this, or that. Get your butt to work.

I love when you said, “Are you going to go forward?” There are readers out there who are like, “You’re speaking to me right now.” How do you deal with that when you’re in something? You feel called to it. You feel the Lord has given you confirmation. You said something didn’t work out. We’ve all been there. The question is, are you going to go forward? You do get that loneliness. Can you unpack that for us?

Loneliness And Finding Peace

The loneliness comes in all the relationships you’ve made in the community, your church, or whatever. You start going inward by thinking, “What are they going to think about me? They think I’m going to be a failure.” Everything starts going about me rather than getting on with it. I had to reach that point. Let me say this to you. I remember that one evening, I came back to my office because my inventory was in the basement of this building, about 4,000 square feet. I saw all my inventory, the last hope of trying to recover funds floating in the water. There must have been at least half a foot or more of water.

What had happened was that during the snowfall, the exhaust system in the building that we were at was drawing the snow in the building and melting it. I was so angry. I was angry at the Lord. I was angry at everything. I was like, “This isn’t working. What am I going to do, Lord?” I walked up into my office and left the darn book floating in the water. You know Jesus lives in my heart. I’ve been growing gracefully with Him through the years. I said, “Dear Lord Jesus, with friends like you, who needs enemies?” That’s exactly what I said. The Lord said, “Do you have anything else you want to tell me?”

We’ve all been there.

I let go of a whole bunch of things. He said, “Now we know who you are.” I said, “Who am I?” He said, “You’re a traitor.” I said, “What?” He said, “The first time you run into a concrete wall, I’m the first one you want to throw out.” I went and got on my knees, laid down on that floor, and said, “God, now I understand there is no set of circumstances that we can carve out that’ll produce a lasting joy and a lasting peace other than a right relationship with you.”

I asked Him to forgive me for those words. I didn’t want to say them, but they came out of my mouth. I told my friends. They said, “How can you be so happy losing all this money?” I said, “That’s a cheap lesson.” It’s a tremendous lesson to learn that there are no circumstances that bring peace and joy other than a right relationship with God. That’s been helpful to me all through my life. Time doesn’t permit us to go through other stories, and I’m sure your readers don’t want to read all of those kinds of things.

You may have known this about Charles. In ‘72, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, we had Agnes, the flood of a lifetime. Charles had the bookstore at 10 North 2nd Street in Downtown Harrisburg. He couldn’t even get across because of the floods. When he finally got there, he looked in the basement and the inventory, his plaques, and all his board recognition from when he was with Mutual of New York were gone.

He had that same thing where he looked at the Lord and was like, “It’s yours to give. It’s yours to take.” I’ll never forget him coming home and crying. I was only nine at the time. I’ll never forget that. That was such a lesson for him. He was like, “God, You can take it at any point,” but when your life comes up like that.

I didn’t know that about your dad. Maybe this is going the wrong way, but I can also remember the tender heart of your father. I remember sitting with him at the airport. He said he was going home to sell his boat. I said, “Why in the world would you go sell your boat?” Your father started crying right there. We were sitting on suitcases in the airport. He said, “There are many people that need help. I can always buy another boat, but right now, they need money. I’m going to go sell it and give it to them.” Lessons to learn from a young man.

He was very convicted about that. That was like, “You got to do this.” I have nothing against people who want to spend their wealth doing fun stuff. He was terribly convicted about that. The other thing he said was, “While I’m out in my boat having fun, other people are on dry land recruiting my clients.” That was the other thing. People used to laugh too. He was like, "Leisure is great, but you have to be careful because you’re trading your time off with somebody else.”

Thank you for sharing that. The Lord really softened his heart. I want to get to abandonment after that because you talked about that. How do you deal with weariness? we got to run and not be weary. It is exhausting. You get beaten when you look at your last hope of recouping revenue. Pretty much, 99% of our audience have felt that, especially as entrepreneurs. They are like, “Lord, this is it. I’m so tired I can’t even see a weight out of this. How do You stay strong? “

It’s interesting. I told my kids not long ago, “I remember an illustration that we’ve all had. You’ve gone to a restaurant, and it’s got really dark lights that you could hardly see. After you sit down and they serve you the water, pretty soon, your eyes adjust to it. You can see in that dark room real clearly. It is wariness in business. Nobody wants to go in that ditch. No one wants to go in that pit. No one, including Joseph, who was sold into slavery out of a pit. Once you get down in the pit and your eyes get adjusted, it’s easy to say, “I like it down here. I have no responsibilities. I don’t have to do anything. Put my thumb in my mouth and have a pity party.”

Even when friends came, they tried to pull you out of that pit. You fought to go into it, and then you’re fighting to get out of it. I had a friend who came by and helped pull me up out of that pit and put me on the ground. That’s when I reconnected back with your dad and all of that kind of thing. That’s true. Are you in the pit? Do you want to stay down there? Do you want to keep sucking your thumb? Do you want to let life pass by? Are you going to take the God-given gift you’ve gotten? Get up and move on. That’s my story as far as that motivation. I’ve been in those pits. The good thing is when you go to a pit, you’re only there for a few minutes because you know what the past was. You get yourself up and go. I don’t know if that answers your question.

That’s beautiful. When you’re down there, you think about how long you used to stay in it when you were either spiritually immature or too prideful to ask for help or give yourself grace. The older you get, you’re more seasoned as a leader like most of our audience where you realize, “We’re still going to get in the pits and the ditches.” We don't have to stay in them for any length of thought.

Learning Opportunities

That’s right. That’s the exciting part about it. At this point, it’s not that you’ve arrived or I’ve arrived. We won’t arrive until we’re there in glory. The point of it is the experience comes by saying you can either stay there or get out. How long do you want to be there? How long do you want to be miserable?

You said the word miserable. Charles would say that you can be happy miserable or miserable-miserable. Somebody said to me, “Pain is a fact of life. Misery is optional.” I thought, “Isn’t that true?”

Pain is a fact of life. Misery is optional.

That’s exactly right.

If you are all the negative emotions, the guilt, the shame, and the misery, that’s all self-imposed. It’s going to be a pain. People say, “You’re going to act like everything in life is going to go right.” You are never going to hear me say that. Who wants to tune in to a show where everybody’s life is perfect? I wouldn’t find anybody to interview.

I’m a little suspicious of, “My life is perfect.”

That’s a good point.

We can enjoy our life on the journey. There were times when they were having a good time, and there were other times when they were in the pit. Jesus told me, “Get out and move on.” Those are choices that we make. I have to tell you this. I could still remember this one man. He was the vice president of a large aerospace company from our church. I said it before, but he said, “How can you be so happy losing money?” I said to him, “God was gracious enough to only let me lose this amount.”

There was a lesson that we all have to learn. I might as well learn it there than go someplace else and really have to learn at a much more difficult level. I do believe in my heart there are lessons that we all have to learn. We are either going to learn them from our parents as we grow up, the ones that love us the most and that give us the most slack, if you will, or if we don’t and the guy says, “I don’t like discipline,” I’m sure he’s going to love it and pamper it. I believe in my heart that we all have basic lessons we have to learn and we might as well get on with it. That’s what I learned from your dad. He was the same way.

Tremendous Leadership | Franklin Beach | Purposeful Life

Purposeful Life: God is gracious enough to bring us lessons to learn.

He knew about pits. He is going to pump you up. He is going to smack you, pull your thumb out of your mouth, and then give you a big hug. That was it. There was no going back. Otherwise, you were going to have to deal with him. You did not want to go back to him thumb-sucking a second time.

One of the gifts God gave your dad was to shake people up a bit off of the normal things you get or hear in leadership seminars. It’s not that they’re wrong, but they’re not in the right direction. That’s what was good about it. He gave a new perspective on what was really real. The truth of it is with any embarrassment, Jesus Christ was a part and parcel of every one of those decisions.

Have it in your heart, first of all, who you’re going to serve, and then move on with it. Everything we do is an act of worship. I don’t care what it is. This interview is an act of worship. Selling books is an act of worship. Digging a ditch is an act of worship. No matter what we’re doing, this short time on Earth is an act of worship. That’s my view of it.

People might feel like, “I got to worship and go to church, sit in the field, fold my hands, say two prayers, and memorize a verse.” Those are all good things, but there’s more than that. The salvation we get through Jesus Christ is his gift to us. What we do with that is our gift back to him, no matter what it is. There’s nothing more than loving our kids.

Tremendous Leadership | Franklin Beach | Purposeful Life

Purposeful Life: The salvation we get through Jesus Christ is a gift, and we should give back to him.

Loving our Heavenly Father.

That’s what He did. He loved them.

You alluded to or hit on in the beginning the word abandonment. Charles’ term of abandonment was not walking away from something. I’m like, “How’d you get so successful?” He’s like, “I do more in a day to contribute to my failure than my success. It’s only by the grace of God I’ve had any success.” His point was that most of the time, we are busy with what we like and want to think about and not what we ought and need to think about. It was this real pruning, capturing every thought, every word, and every moment, and being very intentional about the highest use of our time for the service of God. How do you stay abandoned to your truest and highest calling?

Letting Go Of The Past

I’ll try to answer that for you here. It’s very easy to look backward and say, “If I would’ve only done this, that would have solved blah.” If you get that thing going in your mind, it can destroy any forward movement. I had to come to the place in my life where I say, “Lord, thank You for my past, thank You for the future, and thank You for today. God, what is it that You want me to do today to get to tomorrow?”

I told someone this not long ago. They asked, “How is it that you and your wife can be married 64 years?” I said, “First of all, understand one thing. I couldn’t be married yesterday. That’s over with. I can’t be married tomorrow. That hasn’t happened yet. I’m married today. I take care of it today.” That’s the same way in my walk with Jesus. I can’t be in love with Jesus yesterday. That’s gone. I can’t be in love with him tomorrow. It hasn’t got here. Take care of your relationship with him today, whatever that is.

The point of it is if there’s a problem between you and someone else, get forgiveness. Don’t sit there and hold it. It’ll destroy you. Jesus said over and over, “Forgive.” He even said, “When you go to the altar and there, you realize you are all against your brother or your brother is all against you, get off of that altar. Go make it right.” I can tell you stories about that in my life. That’s how I move forward. It’s not that I’m perfect, but that’s in my mind. Do you have to plan? Yes. You plan for you. God says, “Plan the state of your businesses,” but I can’t live it until it happens. I don’t know if that answers your question, but That’s where I’m at.

It did. Charles wrote a book called Forgiveness is Tremendous with Dan Ledwith. For our audience out there, it is one of the most profound books. It talks about what forgiveness is and what forgiveness isn’t. We’ll get you a copy of that. I narrated it too. It’s so powerful. That’s one of the things if you do nothing else, is abandon that sense of animosity, enmity, and anger even towards yourself. You’ve got to forgive yourself, and you have to forgive others.

Charles in the book and Dan really unpack what it is. They’re like, “If Christ remembers our sins no more, what are you doing? Why do you keep dragging this up? Is there something Jesus left? He died for every sin that ever was, will be, and ever committed. End it. You don’t need to spend your time on that.” I’m so glad you brought up forgiveness because that is one of the things that a lot of people cannot move forward from. Blessed are the peacemakers. They’re still stuck in that past and that anger. That’s a devil. The devil may not be able to get our souls, he loves to keep us in that sense of anger and hostility.

One of the things that God has helped me understand through the years is understanding that grace has settled it as far as us and Him. He doesn’t remember anything any farther than the East from the West. I thought that was interesting. There’s no ending to the East or West. There’s an ending to the North and South, but not the East and West. There’s still a memory there that helps you remember what He saved you from, but we’re not supposed to live in that. We’re not supposed to let that be the thing that defines who we are. That’s what happens so often. If Satan gets a hold of our minds and keeps whipping over, tell him, “Take a hike.”

It’s done. It’s already been covered. Christ being omnipotent and omniscient has already seen the end. He has already seen the end of the story. We already know from Revelation what the end of the story is going to be, but get out of it. I keep going on about this because even up until about a few years ago, I really did not understand the concept of forgiveness and what it is. It’s not that you erase it out of your mind, but you don’t live in it. It makes you more empathetic. You talked about Charles’ tender heart. It’s because he knows what a scoundrel he was. He knows what scoundrels were in his life. When he found Christ, nobody was more thankful for, “You’d love somebody like me than Him.” He realized how rotten he could be and how much forgiveness he needed.

It certainly is not a passing passage in scripture. I have to bring up to my own family from time to time when things go sour with other relationships not just in the family but with other people, “You have to let go of that. Give it to God.” If it’s true that if thy enemy is hungry, feed him. Give them something to drink. God said, “I will repay.” If that’s true, if the Creator of the world says, “I will repay,” it is going to be better than anything I can think of. He’s like, “Take care of yourself, Frank Beach.” It’s like the old adage. If you’re only 1% wrong and the other person is 99%, take care of your 1% and leave the 99% to God. I think that’s true. What do you think about that?

If you're only 1% wrong while the other person is 99%, take care of your 1% and leave the 99% to God.

I love it. I’m writing that down because that is so good. We’re worried about being right. It’s like Christ, “We don’t know the other person’s motives. We can’t even mend out justice.”

That’s right.

It’s more important to be relational than right and to focus on yourself. When we do that, everything takes care of itself. Charles would say that. Nobody wants to be told, “You brought it on yourself.” People will call me, even salespeople, and tell me how I messed up and how wrong my website is. I’m like, “If you were within arms reach, I would slap you. If you show me what’s wrong, I’d understand.” That was his thing. He was like, “Focus on yourself and let God fix everything else.”

What is this song we sing in church? Trust and obey for there’s no other way. Those are simple words to be happy in Jesus.

That’s how we lead and grow teams. The disciples were loyal to Him because they trusted who He said He was and then they obeyed. That’s it, these two things. Whatever you’re committing to. That’s what Charles would do too. He’d be like, “I’m not going to tell you what to believe or where to go to church,” and he would challenge you, “but you better know where you’re planting your flag and be able to defend it because otherwise, you’re living an inauthentic life.”

You better know where you’re planting your flag and defend it. Otherwise, you're living an inauthentic life.

That’s exactly right.

It was a very good challenge.

That’s a brief story.

I love it.

I get to meet Charlie’s daughter after all of these years. What a treat that is for me.

This is crazy.

I hope that we can continue to communicate with each other.

We will. That brings me to the last point, vision. What is the future for Franklin Beach? We’re getting started.

I don’t see anywhere in the scripture that gives me permission to retire. It tells me to occupy until He comes. As long as it gives me strength, I'll keep moving on. I may sleep a little later, maybe an hour, or I may do my scheduling a little differently, but I’m far from being done. The vision for me is that most of my activity is centered on my work with the Salvation Army. I’m on the board of directors and an active charter member for Kids Around the World. They’re an international organization that builds playgrounds, does feeding projects, and leads kids to Jesus Christ all over the world. It’s in about 137 countries. You might want to look it up on the website, Kids Around the World.

I will.

We got through our springboard meetings. It’s exciting to see what’s going on. We’ll probably do pretty close to ten million meals this 2024 with kids and see how they come to learn about Jesus. We’ve created a new way to tell stories for kids. I spend a lot of my time with that and then the city council. I’m still on the city council as an alderman in the city of Rockford. I said, “As long as the people want me there, that’s fine.” That’s a story in and of itself someday on how in the world I became an alderman. Someday, we’ll talk about that on the phone. That’s where I’m at. I’m excited about life. I love my kids. I love my wife. We do stuff together when we get a chance. That’s it. You can call me Frank too.

I will.

My adoptive mother changed my name from Frank to Franklin because my biological mother was like, “I’ll call him Frank.” She changed it to Franklin. When my mother was alive, I always had to sign Franklin to make her happy.

That’s beautiful. Have you ever met your biological mother?

I met my biological aunt. The long and short of it is I called my aunt on the phone and said, “I don’t expect you to talk to me, but please let me say one word. If my mother had been alive, I would want to thank her for not aborting me and giving me life.” She started crying. She said, “Come to me. We have been praying for you ever since. We didn’t even know our sister was pregnant.” I came to find out that my biological grandfather had been a Pentecostal minister for 37 years. To see how God had taken me from the womb of one woman and put me in the arms of another to where we’re talking to Charlie Jones’ daughter, are you kidding me? Am I excited or what?

It’s unbelievable.

If I could go near you, I’d take you in my arms and give you a big hug and kiss.

I will take a rain check on that. I used to live in St. Louis. We would’ve been a lot closer. I get out in the Midwest. We will connect and hug this side of Heaven. I promise you that.

I can’t wait. Thank you so much for taking time with me.

You’re welcome. I want to say to our audience, thank you so much. Frank, this has been such an incredible blessing. You spoke to my heart. I know you’re speaking to other people. I look forward to talking about many more books with you and many more tremendous connections. To our audience out there, if you like what you’ve read, please hit the like and the subscribe button.

We’d be honored if you would leave us a review and share this with other people who need to know about what it takes to pay the price of leadership and how life gets more tremendous. They need to meet Tremendous Frank because Frank is proof positive that you’ll be the same person five years from now that you are today except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read. Thank you again.

Thank you for your time. Thank you to your audience as well.

Have a tremendous rest of the day. Bye.

Thank you. Same to you. Bye.

Important Links

About Franklin Beach

Tremendous Leadership | Franklin Beach | Purposeful Life

Adopted at less than a year old, Franklin Beach was raised in a Christian home, attending the Salvation Army Church, where he remains active today. Frank has been a lifelong businessman, owning an accounting firm and participating in other community and international endeavors. Frank has been an elected City of Rockford, Il Alderman for 44 years, devoted to servant leadership. He and his wife, Sonja, have been married for 64 years and have two married daughters, two granddaughters, and one great-grandson.

Episode 154 - Allen Joines - Leaders on Leadership

If there is one thing constant in this ever-changing world, it is that nothing is impossible with God. Today’s guest, Allen Joines, is proof of that. Despite life’s obstacles, he reinvented himself from being a dock worker and janitor to a Pastor and successful business owner in the telecommunication industry. All of his success, he owes to God’s grace. He joins Dr. Tracey Jones to share with us his journey and the price of leadership he had to pay. Allen gives insights about loneliness, weariness, abandonment, and vision. At the end of the day, he reminds us that no matter how tough being a leader is, our faith in God and our purpose will always be greater. And that God will see us through it all.

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Watch the episode here



Listen to the podcast here

Allen Joines - Leaders on Leadership

I am so excited because my very special guest is Allen Joines. Allen has been a lifelong learner and follower of Christ for years. Despite life obstacles, he reinvented himself by God's grace from dock worker and janitor to regional HR Manager of a Fortune 500 company to a Pastor. He relocated a small congregation to a 46-acre campus to a successful business owner in the telecommunication industry. For many years, Allen has been a high-energy communicator sharing his belief that anything is possible with God. He lives in South Central PA with Diane, his wife of 43 years. They enjoy time with their 6 grown children and 11 grandchildren. Allen, it's such an honor to have you here.

Thank you so much, Tracey. It's a pleasure and a joy to be here.

For our readers out there, you've read Allen's background and he's going to unpack the Price of Leadership for us. Allen, you've been in the Jones family for many decades. Could you share a little bit about your interaction with my father?

It goes back a long way. First of all, my love for books brought him into the executive bookstore. I was discipling men at the time, so I was buying books for other men, and we were talking about books. That's how I started. Walking into that bookstore, you didn't walk out with one book. You walked out armfuls. Over the years, Tremendous and I developed a friendship there because of the love for books and reading. That's how it started.

It became my monthly journey to the bookstore to get my shot of enthusiasm and encouragement along the way. That's how my relationship with your dad grew. It was an amazing journey. I loved your father. He made you think. I love the way he phrased things and the way he presented things. You walked out of there encouraged and thinking differently than when you walked in. It was such a blessing to know your dad.

It's wonderful still to have you as a part of the Tremendous Family. We're going to talk a little bit about all the wonderful things God has going on in your life, but first of all, let us unpack the Price of Leadership, a speech my father gave years ago that still continues to be one of his most requested topics because everybody bemoans, "Where are the good leaders?" There's a price to pay. That could be why most people shy away from leadership, but let's unpack that.

The first thing he talks about in the Price of Leadership, he has that little booklet is he talks about loneliness. We've all heard that it's lonely at the top or heavy as the head that wears the crown, but can you talk to me about what loneliness means for you as a leader and perhaps some insights for our readers out there, if they might be in a season of loneliness?

The big thing about loneliness is realizing that you're never alone. You think you are, but you're not.

The big thing about loneliness is realizing that you're never alone. You think you are, but you're not. Our faith and our purpose must be greater than our feelings. With the different work I've done and jobs I've had, our emotions sometimes get in the way. We think we're alone, but we're not. I often asked God to help me. "Give me enough courage to keep moving but not too much to make me proud."

He's good at that. Sometimes we need that sense of downtime or loneliness in our life, so we can quiet ourselves and be in a place where he would want to take us or where he's leading us. The other thing about loneliness was different times in my experience, and it's in my book, whenever he would bring special people into my life to help me during a certain time to remind me, "You're not alone."

Elijah thought he was all by himself and God said, "What are you babying about?" There are 7,000 that had to bow a knee. You're not alone, but he didn't know and realized that. That's the one thing that we need. In our work world or spiritual journey, that is a key lesson to learn and realize that even though we feel lonely, we're not alone. That has helped me on my journey through whatever I've been journeying through.

We are never alone. People say, "Where is God?" No, it's where you are. He's right there. Stop pushing him away. We have the ultimate advocate and the Holy Spirit. Stop thumb sucking, as dad would say.

It's like you're here standing out in the rain getting rained on and the whole time there's an umbrella you can move under. Too many times, we allow our emotions to dictate circumstances.

I love that when you say faith and purpose have to be greater than feeling. “As a man thinketh, the mind of Christ,” Romans 12:2. Feelings follow the mind. Feelings long. Feelings fade. It's like happiness. It's such a weird thing, but joy is real. Thoughts are real. Feelings respond and manifest. I'm glad you said that because a lot of it is mental. You're going to want to thumb suck and feel like you're a little martyr. Nobody gets you.

Charles would say that too, that he'd never say to Gloria anything going wrong because she'd say, "I told you so. Why do you think you can start your own business?" He just suffered in silence. There's an element of truth to that. The other thing he would say is, "You want me to tell me your problems? I'm going to tell you my problems. You opened your big fat mouth." I truly appreciate that. Now, let me ask you this. When did you meet the Lord?

Faith In God: “Don't you know that if the pastor leaves, the problem stays, but if the pastor stays, the problems leave?”

I was fifteen years old through a bus ministry of a church. This is all in my book. My dad was on probation and my grandfather was in the Federal Penitentiary for bootlegging, and my mother was involved in sugar-gathering, the sugar for the alcohol making, and all of that. They got caught and that whole operation got shut down. What happened was my mom remarried. This is amazing. She married a guy twenty years older than her who was a World War II Vet. I was raised by World War II Vet. We talk about Memorial Day happening.

Life wasn't easy. One of the things was working on the farm and you had a choice. You either did a chore Sunday morning or you went to church. I had a problem, a dilemma. I hated going to church and I hated working. Sometimes I ended up being forced to go to church. These religious people around us, I didn't want anything to do with that. Finally, they moved again, and lo and behold, I'm fifteen years old, and a neighbor asked, "Would you guys like to go to Sunday school?" I can't get away from these religious fanatics. They're everywhere.

It was amazing because I had moved from one school district to another. For fifteen years, I went by my stepfather's last name illegally. They never had my name changed. They said, "We're going to call you this." When I went to the new school and they saw my birth certificate, I had to legally get adopted or go by my real name.

For the first fifteen years, I went by completely different names. When I went to the new school at age fifteen, my name changed. They forced me to go by Joines, which was on my birth certificate. It was simply three months later when their life literally changed. It was amazing because my friends from the old school would talk to friends in the new school and they say, "This guy, you'll have fun with him. He likes to party, and this and that."

The people were like, "There's nobody here like that. There's this guy only wants to talk about Jesus," it's completely different. My name and life changed, and all that changed at age fifteen. My changes, by the way, I was not perfect. I was a mess for years. I had to work through so many different things, but God was gracious, and that's how that started.

I asked that because you right away went to it. The numero uno point means you had to have been walking with the Lord for quite some time.

It's amazing. My book came out in my 50th anniversary month. I got saved in March of 1972 and my book came out in March of 2022. It took 50 years to live and a couple of years to write.

Our faith and our purpose must be greater than our feelings.

The next thing after loneliness, he talked about his weariness. There's a good weariness like, "Job well done." There's a weariness that's draining. He would always say, "My problem isn't motivating myself. It's keeping other people from de-motivating me." If you're a leader, you're always going to have some people that aren't pulling their weight. Yet we have to stay at the top. We have to take care of ourselves. How do you deal with weariness? What would you recommend to our readers?

A couple of things over the years with weariness, I learned to pace myself. It's a marathon. It's not a sprint. You've got to pace yourself. I have to say the biggest failure of my biggest weakness has been in trying to rush ahead and do so many things. I could burn myself out, but you have to pace yourself and make sure your pace is good. Take regular breaks. Make sure that you recharge yourself. That's why we've been given the blessing of sleep. Sleep is to recharge your body and mind and all that. Not only with sleep, I think we need time off and vacations. Not a whole life of vacations, but a time to recharge. That helps.

The other thing about weariness, and this is two things, and it goes to my relationship with Charlie, is reading encouraging books because there are other people who have gone before you, and being around encouraging people. Find a handful of people that give you energy and will take energy from you. That type of thing is so important.

One of the biggest lessons I remember about your dad was when I was in the ministry. I went through a very hard time where there were some things that needed to be dealt with in the church, and I dealt with them, then it seemed like everything backfired on me. I went from this huge church, then it shrank. We were looking at buying land. It looked like all was lost. My board was divided. Everybody was telling me, "You shouldn't be a pastor. You need to move on. Forget it."

I contemplated. Maybe I need to give up. It says, "Don't be weary. Keep going because of the rewards at the end." Somehow, that information got leaked to your dad. Somebody told him. I didn't tell him. I remember walking into the store to get some books. He walked right up to me and he had a very firm and stern look on his face. He said, "What's this I hear you're leaving ministry? What's this I hear you're quitting?"

Your dad was a big guy. He grabbed me. He's known for his hugs, but that day, it wasn't a hug. It was a shakeup. He grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me like I was a little kid. I'm a grown man. He shook me like a little kid. He said, "Don't you know if the pastor leaves, the problem stays, but if the pastor stays, the problems leave? What are you doing?"

What your dad did there shook me to the core. When we talk about weariness, every now and then we need a wake-up call. That was my wake-up call and it's your dad. What happened was I didn't quit. I went back. That moment that happened, I was on a little mini-sabbatical trying to figure out what it was going to do. I went back and the church got healed. The land was bought. A new building was built. Now, there's a beautiful church on a 46-acre campus that is making an impact in the community. They designated 20 acres for a community park to outreach to the community, and the vision continues that we started there.

Faith In God: When it comes to weariness, too many of us give up too soon. We give up right before we get to the finish line. We give up right before it's going to happen.

Here's the thing. I almost gave up. It was that encouragement that your dad gave during that moment of weariness that inspired me to keep going, and I did. The rest is history. That's the thing with weariness. The Bible says, "Don't be weary because in due time, you'll reap the reward.” When it comes to weariness, many of us give up too soon. We give up right before we get to the finish line. We give up right before it's going to happen. To me, that was the big thing of weariness. Take moments of rest, but also be around people that can inspire and encourage you. Keep going and don't quit.

That reminds me of Russell Conwell's Acres of Diamonds. You could have gone to find another church, not realizing that the diamonds are right underneath your feet. I've been told that for a leader, the difference between a pat on the back and a kick in the rump is 18 inches. That did that. I would get calls from people. When I first came back and they were like, "Tracey, I came in there and your father grabbed and screamed at me. I started crying." I thought, "Here we go," because I have known that for a long time. They're like, "That was the best thing that ever happened to me," and I'm like, "Okay."

It's so beautiful that you share that because people are going to drag us down. Remember new levels, new devils. The devil is going to hit you hard. This is the other thing he'd say to me every time I'd be like, "This is it. I'm tired of dealing with these betrayers and naysayers. Is it anything worse than what Jesus went through?" He's like, "What is your problem?" You don't get to complain about it until you're the one that suffered. It was maddening, but he lived that. He knew what people would do to the people that tried the hardest. It is a sad thing, but again, look at Jesus. We don't worry about that. We thank God that he's gracious and go right back in there.

Along with that weariness, the other thing I have to give credit to is my stepfather, who I did not get along with. For 15 or 16 years of my life, it was nothing but a head-butting, struggles and all that, but the one thing I learned from my stepdad was this. Sometimes you've got to do things, whether you feel like it or not. You've got to have a bulldog tenacity.

As a young child, he made me do things work ethic-wise that I hated doing, but he forced me to do them. Looking back, it was the best character-developing thing that he could have done for me because what I went through in the work world and church world, all deals with that tenacity, not giving up and doing things whether you feel like it or not. Successful people will do things where they feel like it or not. Successful people go with the flow, but that's an important part there too.

A new common denominator of success. Between failure and success is that success has made a habit. Your habits have nothing to do with your feelings. Habits are, whether you feel it or not, you go do it. I'm glad that we can learn from people. Tenacity and grit, I watched Charles do that, and you too. You'll at least get an A on your report card if you don't quit. I'm like, "I'll take an A. That's fine." I totally appreciate your take on the weariness and what that took. I love that. Pastors leaves, problem stays. Pastor stays, problem leaves. That is a leader for anything.

That's a quote from your dad.

Take moments of rest, but also be around people that can inspire and encourage you. Keep going, and don't quit. 

I never heard him say that and I love it. That's beautiful. We talked about loneliness and weariness. Next, let's talk about abandonment. A lot of people think that abandonment is a negative thing, but in the context of leadership and for my father, that was focus. That was pruning away what you want and like to think about, like quitting, the thumb sucking, and how to mean everybody is to you in favor of what you want and need to think about. Can you talk to me about how you get all the distractions, all the enemies have created a way, and stay focused on what's next?

Here's the thing. When it comes to abandonment, we all have to be abandoned to something. We can't do everything. Sometimes the world tries to sell it. "You can have it all." If you try to have it all, it's going to kill you because you can't possibly do it. You've got to decide what you're going to be abandoned to. To me, that was a thing of abandonment. When I was working up in the work world, I was abandoned to a certain job, or in the ministry, I was abandoned to ministry. This one was what my focus going to be. In fact, when you look at scripture, as the Apostle Paul was abandoned to Christ and he said, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain," that was his focus.

I'll be honest with you in this day and age, we have too many focuses. We try to do too much. I'm guilty of that. You ask my wife and my children, they will you. We have to determine what's the main thing. What do we abandon to, is it really our time and our energy? When we're young and we go through the young stage where we're thinking about money, making money, surviving, and all that, and as we get older, we shift from wanting to make money to wanting to make an impact. Making an impact is so much more powerful than making the dollar.

Your dad was an example of that too. He impacted a lot of people. I thought about my interaction with him. Like the books, it was not about the money or the book sales. It was always about impacting people. Knowing that if he gave them a book or encouraged them, their life would be changed forever. This whole thing about abandonment is what we abandon or what we are doing and making this decision.

Here's the hard thing. I've reinvented myself three times now. Reinventing myself from a janitor work, in HR, in a corporate Fortune 500 company, then you go from that to a twenty-year ministry, then to a business owner in telecommunication, it's completely different fields altogether. The thing that I learned was that it was a stress point because I had to come to a point where I had to realize I had to give up one thing to gain another thing, that I could not keep both.

Too many times, we try to do that. We try to keep both things going and we end up stretching ourselves and getting to the point where we're going to stop, but we have to be willing to give up one thing to gain another. Even Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters." You're going to love one and hate the other. You're going to hold one and despise the other. That's the same way with our life purpose and things in our life. This might sound counterintuitive, but we can't have it all. We got to decide what we want and be abandoned to that. That's when the blessings will flow.

That is a lie that the world tells us. It is counter-cultural and it will burn you out. It will be disappointingly satisfying like sin. It’s like after they ate the apple, “This isn't so good anymore.” The other thing is we're all collectively all different parts of the body. When the nose tries to do what the stomach or the toe does, it's a no. Stay in your lane of anointing.

Faith In God: God gives us grace in the transition, but then it gets to the point where that transition now must happen.

Focus is not meant to be plural. You said, focus. Focus, one. There should be no such word as foci. I love that you talked about that too many focuses. We do have to be abandoned to something. That's what Good to Great, Jim Collins is all about. You can be good at a lot of things, but what is the one thing, that one thing.

I have five different careers like you. Charles would always say to me, "Tracey, you're leaving that," and I'm like, "Yes, dad. The calling is different.” Whenever I was in, I was all-in, but that made it clear, unlike dad, who built on what he did, he had a major life career change when he left Mutual New York and other insurances agency. He had three pivots. For some people, God has you only doing three layovers before you get to your final destination. For other people like us, it's 4, 5, or 6. We're just getting going.

Anybody out there reading, I like to encourage them. If you're restless in your spirit and you're struggling with what you're doing now, it's not a momentary thing but an ongoing thing. It could very well be you're being called in a completely different direction. When I made my transition from the corporate world to the ministry world, one thing I had done was, when I took over the church, I was part-time for a few years. God gave me grace for that time, but guess what happened at the end was that grace was removed. I had to make a decision.

I'm not going to kill myself trying to do a couple of things or am I going to let go of one or the other? That's what happens. God gives us grace in the transition, but then it gets to the point where that transition now must happen. It seems like he removes his hands. It makes it hard. You're in a corner. You now have to make a choice. You can't keep struggling with that.

I like that you called that out because I'm calling from and calling to. You'll always have a calling. God will call your heart to one thing that's different than quitting. It's important for the readers to know that quitting because you're irritated or having a spirit of discontent is a beautiful thing. It’s like loneliness, weariness, and abandonment. There's good and bad.

There's quitting because you're mad, but then there's also God will say, "You're done here and move on." You got to be discerning with the Holy Spirit. That's what I would tell my dad, "I'm not quitting this job, dad. It's very clear that this is the calling and it's over and it's time to move on to something else." As long as you know that and you're not quitting because you're mad or you're running away.

I appreciate you clarifying that because that is what we do. Sometimes people around you will misunderstand that.

If you see a problem, that means you must be the solution.

Only you know in your heart and God, and be honest with it. It may appear, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got and that's what leaders do. They listen to the calling. Loneliness, weirdness, abandonment, and the last of all is vision. I would hear all of these wonderful people growing up talking about vision. It always intimidated me because that's not my gig. That's not my gift. Dad explained vision as seeing what needs to be done and then doing it. It's so pragmatic. Many people say, "That needs to be done," and you're talking. It's a Post-It note. It's visual. Can you share with me what vision means to you and how you get clarity on your calling or anointing?

First of all, as a pastor, I'd have people come up to me all the time and say, "Pastor, you'll be doing this in the church. You need to do it." "No, I don't want to do it, but I know what needs to get done." If you see it, then that means God's calling you to do it.

You could've saved me a lot of heartaches, but that's okay. If you see it, that means God is calling you to do it.

Some people can see all kinds of problems, "God must have called you to do that." If you see a problem, that means you must be the solution. Too many people want to pass that solution off to somebody else. Here's the thing, faith and fear are exactly the same things. People often miss this. Fear is false evidence appearing real. You're thinking of a negative outcome. You're thinking of something bad happening. Where faith is fully anticipated, it will happen. They're both the same thing.

It's your response to it.

It's amazing, 365 times in the Bible, it says, "Fear not." One for each day of the year. Also, faith is believing. This is in the book. When I was eight years old, we lived on the farm and I was given the job of hoeing field corn. I was not using a tractor. “Here's a hoe. I'm going to work when I come that come home. I expect this field to be hoed.” While I'm out there in the hot sun hoeing this field corn, I started to dream.

I still remember it as if it was yesterday when I dreamed it. I dreamed that someday I would be in an air-conditioned corner office. I would be a personnel manager hiring and firing people. I'm eight years old and I had this vision. I'll be talking to people. Another vision I had was out of the woods. I stood there and I read about Abraham Lincoln and how he worked out in the woods and all that. Imagine talking to people and encouraging them.

Discovering the Good Father: How God's Love and Grace Transformed a Broken Life

Here's the thing. I was eight years old when I had that vision. When I was 30 years old, I was promoted to a personnel training supervisor in the trucking company where I was involved in all those things. It grew from there, but it started as a seed. God puts the seed in each of our hearts when we're young of something that he wants to fulfill in us. We have to believe it. Dream it and believe it, and hang on to that, and now there were a lot of curves and changes.

One pastor that mentored me said, "The Mississippi River runs north a lot of places. If you look at it, it runs north someplace. It doesn't all flow south. Sometimes you might think you're going in the wrong direction, but you might be flowing in the right direction because of everything you're learning and developing." All the different experiences I had all consummated into those different opportunities I was given in life. That happens to us too. Faith and fear are the same things. It's our response to the circumstance.

Even if you're going, you may be flowing. There are going to be some backtracks at times that life, even with the vision. Just stay on target.

You might think you're going in the wrong direction, but you might be floating in the right direction.

You should pay to read this. There's so much wisdom. We talked about loneliness, weariness, abandonment, and vision. Anything else while we have our readers that you would like to share about leadership that we have not touched on yet?

Here's a living token and this was a note of encouragement that your dad had sent me in one season of life. I'll never forget that. I'll never forget the friendship I had with him and the impact he made on my life. It still does. This is so true. This is a famous quote. I think you all know that. You're the same person today as you were yesterday, except for two things. The books you read and the people you meet. That is so true.

When I look back, I am where I am now of the full investment of thousands of people into my life. None of us are self-made. All of us have been invested in by different people. It'll start with our mom and our dad changing our diapers. It goes from there to reading and writing. It goes from there learning different skills. The value of relationships, you can even learn from people and situations that you don't like because there's something there to be learned.

Each of us is a combination of all the influences that come into our life.

Learning from all of those becomes like a funnel into our life. Each of us is a combination of all the influences that come into our life. Along with that are also the books that we read. I had an aunt who had the old encyclopedia, the Britannica. We'd go to visit her and I was always fascinated by all these books that she had. I made it my goal that I was going to read through the pretend Britannica encyclopedia set. Every time I went there, I started with A and then with B. I don't know how far I got, but every time I get it, I go through that.

Later when I came to faith, I started building a library and started reading books. I realized people from previous generations were impacting me. They were helping me think differently. I was one of the things that made your dad so unique. He knew that. That's why he promoted books so much. That's why he did book publishing and selling and all that because he knew the impact of that. I've literally read thousands of thousands over the years, but also the people that I met that made that. To me, when it comes to leadership, those two things can help take you to another whole level if you're going to apply them.

You're living proof of that. It's so interesting that you were like a little sponge, even early on. Clearly, God has his hand on you. He has it on all of us. You let him work his way. You haven’t talked a lot about your book. Can we talk a little bit about that? Where can people pick up your book?

They can pick that up at Amazon. Go to Amazon and type my name or type in Discovering the Good Father, and you can get a copy of that there. It's a combination of a little bit of my bio, but also some life lessons from business and my spiritual walk, and all that, and all the different things I've learned on that journey. I originally wrote it for my children and my grandchildren because I wanted to leave a legacy. I didn't want them to lose all my stories of the amazing things that the good father has done for me.

Why it's called Discovering the Good Father is I was raised by three fathers. Robert Kiyosaki has Rich Dad, Poor Dad. While I have a good father, I was raised by my stepfather. I was abandoned in my younger years by my biological father, but I had a Heavenly Father who was there the whole time. It took me a while to discover all that, but now that I've walked for years. I look back like, "It's amazing."

We're never alone. We might think we are, but we're never alone. He said, "I'll never leave you nor forsake you," but there are times when you feel like you're alone because it's a test of faith. Do you believe it? The thing is, we're never alone and we need to work through that. I gave the synopsis of the book.

What's the best way for people to get in touch with you?

They can be in touch with me in a couple of different ways. I have LifeMessages.net. You can email me at Allen@LifeMessages.net or AllenJoines.org or DiscoveringTheGoodFather.org. Any of those will get you to me. I'd love to hear from people. If I can be an encouragement to you or your group, I'd love to do that. I've been communicating for years and I would do seminars and conferences and stuff like that. Also, many years of being a pastor. If I could be of any service encouragement, please let me know. The book came out a couple of months ago, and I'm already getting amazing reports of people who are encouraged and impacted. That blesses my heart.

To our readers out there, please make sure and connect with Allen. Get his book and give him a review on Amazon. We love that. Let him know how that's changing your life. Allen, it has been such a joy chatting with you, learning from you, sharing with you, getting caught up. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with our readers.

Thank you so much, Tracey, for this opportunity, and hope you have a blessed day.

To our readers out there, thank you so much for being a part of the show. If you like what you read, please be sure to hit the subscribe button. Sign up at Tremendous Leadership. We've got a few weeks of free eBooks, and you can pick up a copy of the Price of Leadership. Also, we'd love the honor of a five-star review. Drop us a note or share it with somebody that you think may be encouraged with paying the Price of Leadership. Thank you so much. Keep up the tremendous work and have a tremendous rest of the day.

 

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About Allen Joines

Allen Joines has been a lifelong learner and follower of Christ for fifty years. Despite life obstacles, he reinvented himself by God's grace from dockworker and janitor to regional HR manager of a Fortune 500 company, to a pastor who relocated a small congregation to a forty-six-acre campus, to a successful business owner in the telecommunication industry.