Just Being Intentional - with Thomas Harris

Stewart White - Celebrating Our Wins

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In this episode of Just Being Intentional, I'm joined by my show's producer, Stewart White. We explore the power of community support and the incredible impact of connecting veterans and athletes. We talk about recent interviews, including our interview with Andrew Erwin from Kingdom Story Company. We then shift to a story about rallying around a family in need, emphasizing the importance of helping those facing overwhelming medical and funeral expenses. Our conversation then shifts to an inspiring interview with Nate Boyer, co-founder of MVP (Merging Vets and Players), who shares his journey and passion for supporting veterans by linking them with professional athletes. From Hollywood to heartfelt missions, Nate's story is a testament to the strength and resilience found in unexpected alliances. Join us as we delve into these meaningful connections and the ways we can all contribute to making a difference. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share to spread the word about these incredible initiatives!

Duration:: 31m
Broadcast on:: 25 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

No, you press through, you persevere and you actually get to use this in your story later to encourage other people and give them hope when they think their moment, their life is at its darkest point. Hello world, this is just being intentional with Thomas Harris. I am your host, Thomas Harris. Thank you for being with us today, welcome to the show. First thing I would like for you to do for us is to like, subscribe, comment please on our YouTube channel. That would help us get some feedback on what we're doing here, so greatly appreciate your feedback. Today, we're going to do something a little bit different. We are going to sit down with my lovely producer, Stuart White, and Stuart, tell us what we're going to be doing today, brother. We are going to talk about a recap on shows we've done, people you've interviewed and kind of what you have learned from that, what the feedback has been, and also just talk about some of your favorite moments on those episodes. So I'm excited about it because we've got to get some really good guests. I don't know many podcasts just starting out that get to get the kind of guests that you've gotten so far. We can chalk that up too, just being intentional. Absolutely, absolutely. We did a recording before just the two of us, we haven't released that one yet, it's on the shelf right now, but that's good material as well, but we wanted to do this little recap here to just talk about the episodes that we have out there already, so let's do it. All right. Well, so I wanted to ask you a couple questions, so let's go in reverse order actually. I feel like our most recent episode where you interviewed Andy Irwin, Andrew Irwin. And for those of you who haven't watched or listened to that episode or don't know who Andy is, Andy works for Kingdom Story Company, he's the founder of it, he's the CEO, he has produced, directed some of the biggest movies, faith-based movies that are out there. And they're really like one of the few out there who are making faith-based movies that, for lack of a better way of putting it, don't suck. They don't just not suck, they actually are really, really good. Yeah, we went as a church to see the latest one from Kingdom Story, unsung hero. And I told Andy in the interview that I was pleasantly surprised, I knew it wasn't going to suck, but it greatly exceeded my expectations that I'm sitting in the theater just misty eye, you know, I don't know if it's like pollen in the theater or anything, but it's probably just allergies. Yeah, but I was definitely suffering some eye leakage, if you will, but it was really good. So I would highly recommend people go out and see unsung hero and have the pleasure of meeting some of the small bone family who are the stars of the film. So yeah, go see it. Yeah, for those of you who don't know too, the small bone family, their music family here in Nashville, originally from Australia, you find that out in the movie, but Rebecca St. James is the oldest sister in the movie, and she is still a Christian artist, but she got her start back in the 90s. I remember her, I think I went to like half a dozen of her concerts, you know, because she would be, she was kind of ubiquitous. She was at all of these places all the time. And I just remember thinking, man, she's good. And she kind of came along along the same time that like Elanis Morcette had her big breakout. And a lot of people tried to say, oh, you're just copying her and she hadn't even heard her before. She's like, maybe she's been on the radio when I walked through somewhere, but if you watch the movie, you kind of see they didn't really grow up listening to other people's music and that. And then now you've got for King in Country, which are her younger brothers that they portray in the movie. And actually one of them plays the dad in the movie, so yeah, it's a good job. To that interview, there were some really great moments. I think for one, you love movies, you love cinema, but then there's Andy, who he kind of has like the trump card on loving cinema, like he knows all these like nerdy factoids that he can geek out on. Right. I'm a, I'm a, I consider myself a movie buff. I get really deep into, you know, what, what the movie is about and all of the whole production behind it. But Andy, Andy took me to school and now he's got a much greater, you know, understanding of the film industry. So I got some catching up to do. Yeah. I loved his one. He shared about how the Star Wars skull screen even became a thing. Yeah. That's so good. We actually, we made a YouTube short out of that clip. So, and I think it got almost 2000 views, like pretty quick, you know, probably because it's a Star Wars, you know, right, but that was, that was really cool. So go back and check that episode out and check out the YouTube clips too, because you can find those on our channel there. So before Andy, we've had a few different guests, who, who do you feel like is one that comes to mind that you're just like, man, that interview really stuck with me. I mean, obviously the Andy Irwin one, because Andy was actually the first guy that I asked to be a guest on my show. When, when I was strongly considering doing this thing, I had been chopping it up with Andy a lot because, you know, the connection with film, you know, I have, I have a script that I wrote years ago that I had him and his team take a look at, give me some pointers and see what, what, how much more work I need to do on those. So that's been incredibly helpful, but I wanted to make sure that I, you know, if I was going to do this thing, I was going to invite him as guests. And he said his words were, I'll jump on your show in a heartbeat, if that's what you're doing. So that's definitely something I wanted to do. And, and that's what I gravitated to. In my opinion, I thought that went the smoothest, one, him just being that guy that's so used to it being, you know, in that arena, you know, interviewing in front of a microphone. But yeah, I mean, I, I've, the other people I've, I've known, you know, for, for years longer than Andy, but initially that's the one. Yeah. Yeah. Well, something, one of the early episodes, actually the, the interview with Eve's, Eve's Kachuela, he was somebody you were connected to because of MVP, which is merging vets and players, right? Yeah. A little factoid. We think, you know, they're talking about getting a chapter started out in Nashville, which is where we're based. Yeah. So that'll be really cool. I'm sure you'll have a big part in that. But Eve's story and his experience and his, his life was heartbreaking. It was inspiring, but him going through the suffering that he had been through and just the fact that his story and we should say at this point, just trigger warning that this episode talks about suicide, but he tried to shoot himself with his own gun twice with two different bullets, two rounds that neither one went off and he showed them to us, right? That was like, what? Yeah. And so like seeing the dimples on the primer on the back and neither one of these went off like statistically the probability of two in a row, not working. Even one is absurd, but two, what, what were your thoughts on that actually? You probably have a better shot at Russian roulette, you know, than that, you know, just two shots like that's not supposed to happen. But thankfully, and I'm glad that Eve's recognized that this was not something he was supposed to do. Unfortunately, it doesn't pan out the same way for others that are, you know, attempting to take their lives. I'm very grateful to have met Eve's and got to know him, you know, unfortunate tragedy losing one of his twins. He's been through a lot, you know, for, from some of my peers that have gone through war and also had to come back and then continue to face those traumas of trying to fit in. You know, it makes continuing on that much more difficult. I'm just trying to do my part to continue to build on community here out here in the Nashville area, putting a lot of work into getting something going on with MVP here and I get feedback from the decision makers of MVP. And they know I'm the front runner out here and, you know, just something I'm passionate about. So I want to see us continue to succeed. It's not about me. It's about what the mission is and I'm just trying to be a tool to help further that mission. And I was just told that recently that MVP is now going to be recognized as a charity in Nashville. So that's a huge big step and I got a couple of events coming up that I'm going to attend myself to shake some hands and hopefully get my hands in some people's pockets, you know, so that's what we need. We need funding for that. Speaking of eaves, I wanted to just make mention that there is a GoFundMe page for his daughter, Kaya, and we'll put that link in there. It's in the first episode is mentioned the GoFundMe page, but I wanted to, you know, keep the awareness up on that and see how people can jump in and help them with their medical and funeral expenses. Yeah. We've seen a few people contribute to that and it's huge. You know, he lost his twin daughter who was born with all these complications and it's just one of those heartbreaking things. But if we can help alleviate the cost and the expense on that and give him some hope and see that, hey, there are people out there who really care who may not even know you, but they just have a heart for you. That's a big deal. The Nate Boyer interview, I thought that was really cool. Tell us about who he is. This kind of leads into it because of MVP. Yeah. Hollywood Nate started calling him Hollywood Nate because he's big time now. Yeah. There was a time where Nate was starting to grow in a little bit of popularity. I was like, hey, trying to tie you down for a second before you go to Hollywood on me. But fortunately, we've kept in touch and we check in because of mostly because of what I'm doing out here for MVP. So I keep him in the loop of all the efforts that I'm making as well as the executive in the program. I was so honored to meet Nate and to see his passion for helping our veterans and also linking in the athletes, you know, that's part of the program is linking up the veterans and the athletes and I'm very fortunate that I get to continue to have a relationship with Nate. And he's a great guy. He's a humble dude. We're going to keep working together. And if you haven't seen his movie, MVP, the movie, that was a great story as well. And I thought he did a great job with the shoestring budget that he had for the amount of money that was put into it. It was really done really well. So I'm proud of him for not only producing and directing, but his acting, you know, he showed he has some acting skills as well. But yeah, Nate is doing a lot of things, a lot of things. And I'm just glad I get to keep knowing him and keep growing this thing called MVP. It's always cool to see what a good story can do. Like, if you're decent at acting and you have a good story, you can make a good movie. You don't have to have this millions and millions of dollars of budget, you know, and that's what they had. They had a strong story and he told it well and he acted it well and he got people behind it. Right. Some big name actors to star in it. So that was pretty cool. And Sylvester Stallone. Yes, Sylvester Stallone. I had the pleasure of meeting him. Who is that? Again, I've never heard of him. He seems like a nobody. He was in a movie called Rocky, I think. Oh, is that what it was? Yeah. Was he the Russian guy in that? Stallone actually wrote the script for Rocky. I know. His story. It's kind of that he is sort of the Rocky of cinema, if you will, like his whole story is crazy. He's not tall, though. No, he's not. Not at all. That's so funny. Most of these, like, action hero guys are not very tall. Last week, there was an actor that I met and same guy, like, been around acting for a long time, but not tall. Like, it's just like the common thing. It's like all the women, six foot four. All the men, five, two. They're just super short. I don't know what it is about Hollywood. Good thing they have special effects. Let's talk about kind of where we want to go in the future with the podcast. We have some guests. We can kind of elude who some of those are, some people, some maybe aren't locked in, but we're working on them. You want to share a little about that? So one of the biggest challenges is the scheduling. I got Stuart White's schedule, I got my schedule, and then the potential guest schedule. Just trying to link all those schedules together. I got a bunch of verbal yeses, just a matter of tying people down. Some people were like, I'll be available in a couple months, but really powerful stories, great interviews. There are some people I really thought would be great as a guest, and some that people would love to listen to. People like Andrew Irwin, Nate Boyer, then some people that are not well known, but have a great story to share. We're going to keep moving with that, and I'm excited. Well, I think there's a couple ones that I'm hoping, and maybe we won't drop any names right now, but we've got some people in the music business with amazing stories, and currently, even still playing out how those stories will look, you've talked about a few different people who have gone through some of the cancel culture stuff to do with not saying the right words about the thing at the time, and getting completely dethroned from their role or their job, and then now it's like, oh, they were right, actually, and everyone else is wrong. Some stuff like that, but all of this under that umbrella of intentionality and intentional to speak the truth, intentional to tell the truth after the fact, and then even being intentional with not holding a grudge, and being intentional with making amends, being intentional with all that stuff, there's a lot of ways that intentionality comes in, and we've talked about this, too, is describing the show to people, okay, so being intentional for what reason, and really trying to say, you know, because you could be intentional to do a bad thing, but obviously that's not what the show is about, but intentionality, really, I find it coming up all the time now, it's like when you see a cyber truck for the first time or something, and then now it's like, I see them everywhere. Yeah. Right. If you want to lay your refrigerator down and put four wheels on it and push it, that's a cyber truck. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. You know, since I started, since we started doing this, I've been hearing the word intention or intentional intentionality has come up a lot more often since we started doing this. Even in conversations with people, I hear them say it, and it's just kind of the light book goes off and like, yeah, I'm like, I was really supposed to do this, you know, and just meeting you was like being intentional about meeting someone and then asking them what they do. And then they say, Oh, my wife and I, we help people with podcasts and I was like, Oh, okay. It was supposed to happen. It was meant to be. And that's one of the things you find out when you're being intentional is like, there are things that are meant to be, but how do you know that if you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing, right? And we all intuitively know those things we were supposed to do. We just, we, some of us are not self-starters, self-starters with that. And sometimes we need a good swift kick in the pants to get us going and we should encourage one another with this whole thought process to propel people forward and not just keep it for yourself because I mean, I don't know how you feel, but it's not fun for me to be successful by myself. I want to bring others along to share and celebrate your successes. Yeah. Yeah. It's like having all the money in the world and nothing to spend it on and no one to enjoy it with. Like it's just not the same. Yeah. Unless you're like Mr. Burns or something like that, in the sense. But okay, so thinking about where we're headed in the next, I mean, we're moving into the summer, but I'm already thinking of the fall, you know? And right now we're working on getting 10 to 12 episodes, you know, finished here. Yeah. And then that's kind of our first season at least and then rolling into more things. But we've been talking about this idea of sponsorship with people and figuring out like how can how can we make this show self-fund, if you will, like, it's not about making millions like Mr. Burns again. It's really just about being able to afford to keep making a show that if it's blessing you, if you're finding it encouraging, if it's helped you in any way. And I know there are those listening who are like, oh, yeah, I guess I've never really thought about that. But where are you at with that? Who have you spoken to and what has kind of been the feedback you've heard from people? First off, I mean, it's very encouraging to hear the feedback from folks that have listened to the show and subscribe. I mean, it's not a ton of subscribers, but it's all the platform. So I really don't know how many people have heard it, but I hear random people all the time that say, oh, yeah, I checked out the show, I'm like, oh, you heard about it? Like, you don't know who's paying attention, you know? You have to be intentional about subscribing or liking or sending comments. But for those that are not, which is most people, they're at least listening. And then I have those times where someone gives some some feedback. So I know I'm going to say I'm just going to start us out there. I don't think the show sucks. Yeah. I don't think it does because I think after every episode, I feel a little bit better about it. I feel more comfortable and those of you have heard the first one, which is probably the most people, at least on YouTube, they watched that one. That was the hardest one because it was the first one and I was the most vulnerable and to have a bright light and a camera in your face, it was very, very intimidating. And I got through it and I wanted to keep going. I just felt like this is something I'm supposed to do and I'm not looking at being at Joe Rogan level or Sean Ryan level, but being intentional about because it's something I'm passionate about and something that I have been assigned to do. And there are other things I need to do to bring more awareness to the show. We talked about that, some social media stuff, so I'll be doing that. But as far as the sponsorship side, I'm still learning this thing. I'm just trying not to mess it up too bad with my voice and my speech and the words I deliver, but just getting people on the show that I think are going to be important enough for people to know about and sharing their story. So I don't know, there's a lot to it. We will end the season at the 10 or 12 we talked about and I'm trying to just continue to nail down the schedules with those that I've already asked. I got verbal confirmation. But so far, I think we've got some really good guess for the show. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think something we've discussed a little bit and we'll maybe begin to introduce is adding like a Patreon type funding where if you enjoy the show, you can sponsor it for like five or ten bucks a month or whatever. And with that, you'll get a special access or a million, whatever. If you have that kind of money and around million dollars. Yeah, one million. And that would also give you bonus material like these, these types of episodes where it's the follow up and that kind of thing. We may end up having that be something only for subscribers. And that's just stuff we're kicking around. Also seeking people who are like, Hey, I really like what you're doing. I want to advertise my book or those sorts of things. I know there are people out there and then I've experienced this with my own podcast too. I start reaching out to you and sadly, for mine anyway, I would say 90% of the guests are people I would never want to interview because I'm like, I don't think you've even listened to this show because if you had, you would know, right? This is not your venue to go to, but who knows what else it could lead to. You know, I mean, I'm an optimist. I think I looked at the big picture. I'm always looking at, wow, there's, there's that horizon, you know, there's some greatness on that horizon. I just had to keep going on a journey until I reached that point that I'm journeying to. But to help from, from the audience, you know, word of mouth, all those things will help us to get to somewhere we haven't even explored, but I'm, I'm open to all the possibilities of doing something great with this thing. All right. So here's one that I think some people are interested in. Have you thought about writing a book that kind of tells your story and talks about intentionality, developing this idea with more detail than perhaps we can go into in any one episode? Yes, actually, I thought about writing a book years ago, but I felt like I wasn't ready at the time. I felt like there was some more work to be done before I get to that point, but I always had this idea that I'm going to write a book about my life. I don't know, I don't know how to write a book, if you will, but I've done a lot. I've experienced a lot and there's a lot that I haven't even told in that first episode. There's a whole lot more to the story that I didn't share, but it's who I am. It's what made me who I am, the good and the bad I embraced both because that's part of how my story was written. So I'm a firm believer in the idea that all of our lives, the stories I've been written already. The only thing I'm doing is narrating what's already been written in real time. I'm just big on that and I think my story is interesting enough. Even though at one time when I was younger, I didn't think it was interesting at all. But now that I'm older and I've paid more attention, we have the beauty of hindsight to see if this didn't happen, then that wouldn't have happened. None of it was wasted. People often give up at the point where it seems it's hardest at that moment and you're a testimony to the fact that no, you press through, you persevere and you actually get to use this in your story later to encourage other people and give them hope when they think their moment, their life is at its darkest point or something. I appreciate that because that really I think is kind of the power behind what you're really saying with just be intentional. Be intentional to not waste those moments, don't waste your life, don't let it fly by and think about where you want to go, where you want to be and aim for that, aim for something. If you have this history of struggles, of suffering or any of these things, those can be redeemed, those can be used to provide so much more power behind your story now. I think that's something too in your life, in the short time we've known each other. I've watched you, you've got a daughter who's getting engaged, you've got- Oh, she's engaged? Who is engaged? Sorry, I guess that's- Getting married in 49 days. 49 days. No one's counting on that, right? You've got this thing where you're working and you're helping veterans and you've got all these things, I'm like, "Man, this is really cool," but if you had looked at your life 20, 30 years ago, you might have been like, "Well, this guy's not going to go. Nothing will happen for this guy." Right. I think a lot of the times I'm being intentional. I don't even realize that I'm being intentional because it's become such a practice of mine. These are things I need to be doing and these are the things I was wired to do. I was built to do these things. Not perfectly, there's a lot of stuff I still need to work on and that comes with being a husband and a dad, the work never stops, but for the other things that God has created me to be, when I'm actively participating in those things, it's just automatic. It's just like I'm on autopilot and it just feels good when you're living a life of purpose and that's, through that, you're being intentional when you're living a life of purpose. When you know that you were created to do something, when you recognize that I've been given gifts and I need to actively work out those gifts. You don't get gifts to just keep them to yourself. Gifts are meant to share the Bible talks about it. Some people have the gift of hospitality. I think that's my wife. Sometimes I think she does too much when she's hosting. That's not important, but it is to her. To me, it's not. It's like you're doing too much, but that's her gift. It's not mine and I try to just continue to do what I know to do. That's awesome, man. We're coming full circle there. We've hit on the shows you've done and everything and where your life started, the very first episode and now where you are. What do you have to say to our listeners as we're closing out here? Obviously, the topic of suicide hits home for me, not only because of my dad, but because of our veterans and I've been connecting with some people that can share their stories about dealing with suicide, family members or veterans in general because it's such a heavy topic. I want to continue to do some work in that arena and keep connecting with people. I'm looking to connect with the woman who lost her son at the age of 20. He was in the military and so we're going to talk. I want to keep doing that. Also, on the storytelling side, I still want to write stories. I like the idea of writing a book. That was a great idea. It was already something on my mind for the future and the future could be today. Yeah. Who knows? Future starts now. Yeah. Just doing this and I want to shout out to my mom because I was just thinking of, just because we're talking about past episodes, touching on the topic of abortion. My wife, my mom, edit that out. My mom who made the brave decision as a 16-year-old to go on and do the right thing and have her child, even though she was going to struggle, so big thanks to her for bringing me into this world when she knew her life was going to be hard. Without her, I wouldn't be here, so I wanted to make sure I touched on that, the importance of that. I was given life. I didn't ask to be here like anybody else, but since I'm here, I might as well do something that's productive. Mm-hmm. That about sums it up. I mean, this has been a great chat. We try to sit down and do these things every couple of episodes, two to three. Maybe we'll do it more often and maybe we'll get the Patreon and the support stuff going, but for those listening now, if you want to help support the show, really, the biggest thing you can do is what Thomas said in the beginning, if you can like, if you can subscribe, if you can share it, if you can leave a review, leave a comment, any of those things on whatever platform you're listening on, and then share it on your social media stuff. If you're like, "Hey, this show really touched my life in some way," share that, tell people. That's one of the biggest things. We have it on YouTube and we have just the regular podcast, audio version, and YouTube kind of has its own natural built-in marketing a little bit, but podcasts really audio-wise don't. They don't have this medium to reach people based on their likes and their interests and stuff as much. It's more organic on discovery, so unless you're running ads or something on it, you're not going to get discovered right away unless somebody huge, like Elon Musk tweets about it or something like that. Maybe we'll be intentional and try and get him to tweet about it, but... Elon, what's up, brother? Hit us up. Yeah. We'll hashtag the heck out of this episode. We'll get somebody's Tesla and drive up and say, introduce a show through a Tesla. Yeah. All right, folks, we appreciate you listening and we greatly appreciate your support. Please remember to like, subscribe, follow, leave some comments, reviews, all that good stuff. We greatly appreciate it and love that you took the time to listen to us and just want to ask that God continues to bless you and until next time, adios. [MUSIC] (gentle music)