Jerry Dugan:

the folks who struggle the most and feel probably that

Jerry Dugan:

they're in the deepest of ruts are the ones that don't take time to know

Jerry Dugan:

who they want to be and like what?

Jerry Dugan:

Is it that makes me tick?

Jerry Dugan:

What do I believe in?

Jerry Dugan:

What are my values?

Tim Winders:

Welcome to Seek Go Create.

Tim Winders:

This is where we talk a lot about success.

Tim Winders:

We dig into it.

Tim Winders:

We're gonna be doing that today.

Tim Winders:

We redefined success in business ministry, but be talking about just

Tim Winders:

general success in life, I believe today that will pertain to everyone.

Tim Winders:

I'm Tim Winders, I'm your host coach.

Tim Winders:

I work with leaders, leadership teams.

Tim Winders:

So I dig this stuff I've actually got I consider him a buddy friend of mine.

Tim Winders:

We've known each other for a couple years and around podcast circles,

Tim Winders:

and he's got a lot of great things going on with a new book and all that.

Tim Winders:

And I'm gonna read his.

Tim Winders:

Official bio before we get started, just so I get it good and right

Tim Winders:

and then we'll we'll dive in.

Tim Winders:

I'm glad you're here.

Tim Winders:

Welcome to Seek Go Create.

Tim Winders:

This is Jerry Duggan and Jerry Duggan is a leadership consultant, training

Tim Winders:

facilitator, and public speaker host the podcast a great name beyond the rut.

Tim Winders:

He's just written a book also by the same name that we're gonna be talking about.

Tim Winders:

He helps build servant leaders by finding clarity and alignment

Tim Winders:

in their work and personal lives.

Tim Winders:

There's a lot more stuff to Jerry's bio.

Tim Winders:

We'll dive into that as we get going.

Tim Winders:

Jerry, welcome.

Tim Winders:

Glad

Jerry Dugan:

Thanks so much.

Jerry Dugan:

This is awesome.

Tim Winders:

Excited that you're here.

Tim Winders:

Excited that we get to have this conversation because I get

Tim Winders:

to ask you things that I may not have ever asked you before.

Jerry Dugan:

I know it's almost like payback, like when

Jerry Dugan:

you were on my show, right?

Jerry Dugan:

But different.

Tim Winders:

That's been, I was thinking about that.

Tim Winders:

That's been a few years ago.

Tim Winders:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

I was a

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

the Rut, and we had the conversation there.

Tim Winders:

Now he's, I've got him in my crosshairs and we're gonna go at it.

Tim Winders:

First question, Jerry, let's go ahead and get it started.

Tim Winders:

The way I like to, let's pretend that we don't know each other that well, but

Tim Winders:

I think this is a good question anyway.

Tim Winders:

And if someone bumps into you or if I bumped into you and they ask

Tim Winders:

you what you do, what do you tell people when they ask you that?

Jerry Dugan:

Oh man.

Jerry Dugan:

I tell them I play with three cats at home every day and I'm living the dream.

Jerry Dugan:

No, I'm kidding.

Jerry Dugan:

I tell them that for work, I help leaders become servant leaders and

Jerry Dugan:

find that success both in their career but in alignment with their faith and

Jerry Dugan:

also have success with their family.

Jerry Dugan:

So how do you have it all really?

Jerry Dugan:

How do IUC succeed in my career, in business, without

Jerry Dugan:

losing my faith or my family?

Jerry Dugan:

So that's what I do.

Jerry Dugan:

I do it through consulting, co coaching but the thing I love doing

Jerry Dugan:

the most is training workshops.

Jerry Dugan:

So team building workshops with managers and directors, all that good stuff.

Jerry Dugan:

So that's what I do.

Tim Winders:

Good.

Tim Winders:

I'm gonna dive into two things.

Tim Winders:

You brought up servant leader and also just we like to really dive into how we

Tim Winders:

define success here at Seek Go Create.

Tim Winders:

But before we do that I'm now hanging out with the RV with my granddaughters

Tim Winders:

and I was out walking them and a cat, a black cat, walked across our path and my

Tim Winders:

granddaughter gets dogs and cats confused, yet she hasn't distinguished that.

Tim Winders:

She goes, oh, there's a cat.

Tim Winders:

Can I go pet it?

Tim Winders:

And my comment was, no, cats aren't to be petted.

Tim Winders:

But being a cat guy, know nothing about cats.

Tim Winders:

Do I need to educate my granddaughters about cats?

Tim Winders:

What do they need to

Jerry Dugan:

Oh.

Tim Winders:

Stay away.

Jerry Dugan:

I don't know.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm on the opposite end.

Jerry Dugan:

But cats, unlike dogs, cuz dogs just run up to you.

Jerry Dugan:

They wanna be your best friend.

Jerry Dugan:

They've got no cares in the world.

Jerry Dugan:

No fears in a way.

Jerry Dugan:

But cats are a little bit more autonomous, so they choose

Jerry Dugan:

when they wanna come to you.

Jerry Dugan:

And I know a lot of kids like to run up and grab cats and hold onto them tightly.

Jerry Dugan:

Not the best way to approach them.

Jerry Dugan:

But if the cat does come up to you and wants to be pet, then pet it.

Jerry Dugan:

If they look like they wanna climb up, you then you can grab them

Jerry Dugan:

and hold them and carry them.

Jerry Dugan:

Our, one of our cats is a black cat and he's the baby in the family now.

Jerry Dugan:

He walks up to you, he gives a baby kind of cry.

Jerry Dugan:

He reaches up to you and you're like, oh my gosh, this is too cute.

Jerry Dugan:

We're empty nesters now.

Jerry Dugan:

So this is the closest thing we have to kids again.

Jerry Dugan:

But yeah, I would say yeah, for kids Cats like their independence.

Jerry Dugan:

They like to be free.

Jerry Dugan:

They like to choose when they get petted or picked up.

Jerry Dugan:

So let them come to you.

Jerry Dugan:

Don't go chase them down and grab them and please don't reach under the bed and

Jerry Dugan:

grab them by the legs and pull them out.

Jerry Dugan:

They don't like that.

Tim Winders:

Yeah, she was wanting to jump out of the little wagon.

Tim Winders:

I was carrying her around the block and say, oh, let me go after the cat.

Tim Winders:

And it's a, I guess it's like a neighborhood cat,

Tim Winders:

cuz I've seen it everywhere.

Tim Winders:

It's outdoors and it does its thing here.

Tim Winders:

We're right in Colorado Springs right now.

Tim Winders:

Anyway, it's good.

Tim Winders:

I'm always concerned that cats are looking at me thinking,

Tim Winders:

how can I kill this person?

Tim Winders:

But maybe that's not the case.

Tim Winders:

They, maybe that's my issues I need to address and we don't need to right now.

Tim Winders:

We've already offended a portion of the people here at Seek Go Create.

Tim Winders:

We apologize and we'll move on Jerry, man I'm excited you're here because

Tim Winders:

what this allows me to do, even though you and I have been on masterminds and

Tim Winders:

we've been in the Christian Podcasters Association for I guess two plus years

Tim Winders:

and I looked at the thing here, you've been podcasting for almost you're

Tim Winders:

like getting close to 10 years now.

Tim Winders:

Is that right?

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

I believe January of 2024 will officially be 10 years.

Tim Winders:

Wow.

Jerry Dugan:

particular show, beyond the rut, August, 2015 was when it started.

Jerry Dugan:

So yeah, it's been a while.

Jerry Dugan:

I've the equipment and the software has changed tremendously since those days.

Jerry Dugan:

And so like before, it used to be funny that you would

Jerry Dugan:

record a podcast on your phone.

Jerry Dugan:

Now it's, the, some of the microphones in these phones are better than the

Jerry Dugan:

microphones that we have in webcams.

Jerry Dugan:

And yeah, we've come a long way.

Tim Winders:

So we may have an og, like we may have someone who's been around, in,

Tim Winders:

in the beginning, before RSS feed even.

Tim Winders:

Anyone knew what that was.

Tim Winders:

But

Jerry Dugan:

I'm not that far back, but

Tim Winders:

anyway.

Jerry Dugan:

you were.

Tim Winders:

Jerry, one of the things I love about having this conversation

Tim Winders:

is that to me I don't even know if I've shared this with you, but a

Tim Winders:

while back, I listed out people that I knew that had podcasts, platforms,

Tim Winders:

things like that, that I felt their audience was aligned with the

Tim Winders:

target audience for Seek Go Create.

Tim Winders:

And to me, what you do with Beyond the Rut, with how you push the

Tim Winders:

boundaries of what success means and all that, to me it seems as if what

Tim Winders:

you're doing and what we're doing here is a pretty good alignment.

Tim Winders:

Am I right on that?

Tim Winders:

And it's okay to disagree.

Tim Winders:

You know me.

Tim Winders:

I'm okay for you to say, Tim you're wrong.

Tim Winders:

I can't believe you hate cats.

Jerry Dugan:

We gotta have the world balanced that way.

Jerry Dugan:

That might be the only difference though because we at the court,

Jerry Dugan:

we both look at what is success.

Jerry Dugan:

A lot of folks who we found over the years who feel stuck in a rut, when you

Jerry Dugan:

dig deeper into their story or their situation, they have all the boxes

Jerry Dugan:

checked for what success looks like.

Jerry Dugan:

They've got the job, they've got the income, they've got the house,

Jerry Dugan:

the cars the in-laws actually like them, whatever it is.

Jerry Dugan:

Like they've got the family, they're married, they've got kids, but deep

Jerry Dugan:

down inside, they don't feel like they're living a life of meaning or

Jerry Dugan:

purpose or that it really is gonna matter when things are over and

Jerry Dugan:

that's where they feel stuck in a rut.

Jerry Dugan:

Or they put so much effort into this job that they probably don't even

Jerry Dugan:

like, because they're concerned that if they lose the job, they lose the

Jerry Dugan:

income that loses all the stuff.

Jerry Dugan:

And so ultimately a lot of these guys are following somebody

Jerry Dugan:

else's definition of success.

Jerry Dugan:

I know for me, I was a pre-med student at a young age.

Jerry Dugan:

So I graduated high school, went into college originally, was

Jerry Dugan:

recruited for tuba performance.

Jerry Dugan:

I don't know if I ever told you that.

Tim Winders:

For

Jerry Dugan:

and tuba performance, so music performance, but

Jerry Dugan:

specifically the only instrument that mattered to me was tuba.

Jerry Dugan:

I didn't care about anything else.

Jerry Dugan:

I was in a heavy metal

Tim Winders:

on.

Tim Winders:

Hold on, man.

Tim Winders:

I'm a little bit, I'm a little bit taken back.

Tim Winders:

We went from pre-med to the tuba,

Jerry Dugan:

yeah.

Tim Winders:

and I have to bring this up.

Tim Winders:

This, I can guarantee you.

Tim Winders:

I have never mentioned this in any public forum for 50 years.

Tim Winders:

I started in band, in middle s elementary school, late middle school, braces.

Tim Winders:

We were, I was playing the trumpet because the trumpet seemed cool.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

because of where I sat in the band, which is down near the

Tim Winders:

end of the row, which anybody in music would know what that means.

Tim Winders:

I wasn't good.

Tim Winders:

And my buddy was there with me.

Tim Winders:

The band leader came to us and said all right, we need two guys, one to

Tim Winders:

play tuba and one to play baritone.

Tim Winders:

And he looked at the two of us and said, which one you doing?

Tim Winders:

My buddy got the tuba, I got the baritone.

Tim Winders:

And we didn't have to pay for it, it was like owned by the band.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

needed us to do that.

Tim Winders:

So I played the baritone for about whatever, not even as cool as the tuba.

Tim Winders:

At least people know what the tub is.

Tim Winders:

So you are a tuba player, man.

Jerry Dugan:

I was, yeah, so seventh grade, oddly enough.

Jerry Dugan:

And I told my dad, I want to be in the band and I wanna learn an instrument.

Jerry Dugan:

My dad's caveat was great, as long as I don't have to rent an instrument

Jerry Dugan:

for you, pick whatever you want.

Jerry Dugan:

And I, I don't know why I sat in the back of the room the day

Jerry Dugan:

we were picking instruments.

Jerry Dugan:

I, I originally wanted trombone cuz of the slide.

Jerry Dugan:

Looking back, my arms are short, so I probably wouldn't have been

Jerry Dugan:

that good of a two trombone player because I'd have to eventually

Jerry Dugan:

throw the slide and then that's it.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm done.

Jerry Dugan:

I have to go get the slide and put it back on the horn for those

Jerry Dugan:

who know what I'm talking about.

Jerry Dugan:

So as we're getting to the back of the room, my friends look at me.

Jerry Dugan:

I was four eight at the time in seventh grade, and my friends

Jerry Dugan:

were like, Hey Jerry, I dare you to play that thing back there.

Jerry Dugan:

We didn't even know what it was called.

Jerry Dugan:

And I was like, that, what is that again?

Jerry Dugan:

They're like, I don't know, but it looks cool.

Jerry Dugan:

It's bigger than you.

Jerry Dugan:

Go for it.

Jerry Dugan:

It was on a stand, so I'd have to climb in and sit in this chair and then play.

Jerry Dugan:

There was a sousaphone the marching tuba.

Jerry Dugan:

And so it was my turn.

Jerry Dugan:

And Mr.

Jerry Dugan:

Wright, he asked Jerry, what do you wanna play?

Jerry Dugan:

And I was like, I wanna play that thing.

Jerry Dugan:

And he looked up and he said, the sousaphone.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm like, sure.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

Is that the big thing with that Looks like a cobra.

Jerry Dugan:

And he's I got a bad feeling about this.

Jerry Dugan:

You're already calling it a cobra.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm like, yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

And I would do that, like snake attack people while I was in the band.

Jerry Dugan:

And he told me to stop doing that.

Jerry Dugan:

But that was it.

Jerry Dugan:

And then the next day we got to play the horns for the first time.

Jerry Dugan:

And I got to play that first note and he goes, bro.

Jerry Dugan:

And I was like, yeah, I'm gonna play this.

Jerry Dugan:

This is it.

Jerry Dugan:

And seventh grade, eighth grade my band director eventually buys a

Jerry Dugan:

concert tuba before me to use in the, so the school own the horn, not me.

Jerry Dugan:

And then I go on high school and I'm like, you know what?

Jerry Dugan:

I think that cheerleader's cute.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm gonna quit band.

Jerry Dugan:

I wanna play football because that's the only way to get

Jerry Dugan:

that cheerleader to notice me.

Jerry Dugan:

The band director in high school, my friends ride at me on, cuz

Jerry Dugan:

she needed another tuba player.

Jerry Dugan:

She wanted three.

Jerry Dugan:

And my friends were like Jerry, he plays tuba.

Jerry Dugan:

I don't want, I don't know.

Jerry Dugan:

Why is he not here?

Jerry Dugan:

And somebody said something about a cheerleader and football.

Jerry Dugan:

And he hobbles off the field, he's not that big.

Jerry Dugan:

He's probably gonna die.

Jerry Dugan:

And so my new band director was like we gotta save him.

Jerry Dugan:

And I'm making up all the dialogue.

Jerry Dugan:

I don't know if this is how it actually went down, but eventually I was

Jerry Dugan:

asked to be in the high school band.

Jerry Dugan:

I joined, they, they assigned me my horn.

Jerry Dugan:

My band director signs me up for something called Youth Music Monterey,

Jerry Dugan:

which is like an honors orchestra.

Jerry Dugan:

And so it's like select baseball, but for band.

Jerry Dugan:

So these are like the best from the local area, high schools and middle schools

Jerry Dugan:

coming together to learn orchestra pieces.

Jerry Dugan:

They assigned me a tuba instructor and this was like

Jerry Dugan:

when it really got cool for me.

Jerry Dugan:

This is all my freshman year.

Jerry Dugan:

And Jim Powell Letti, he's my tuba instructor in youth music, Monterey.

Jerry Dugan:

And I remember we're in his home studio and he tells me the story

Jerry Dugan:

about sight reading because apparently I wasn't that good at it.

Jerry Dugan:

I didn't know any of my scales.

Jerry Dugan:

And he's Hey, let me tell you about site reading, why it's so cool.

Jerry Dugan:

And he tells me about when he was in college, his tube instructor

Jerry Dugan:

performed for the orchestra that performed for the movies, the scores.

Jerry Dugan:

And so he got to go with 'em on recording day and he said it was just

Jerry Dugan:

so cool cuz we were like, in this studio the tube instructor got his

Jerry Dugan:

packet of music off a countertop, had his name on it and everything.

Jerry Dugan:

And he had a studio assignment.

Jerry Dugan:

And so they walked to that studio and walks in, closes the door,

Jerry Dugan:

puts the music up there, and he's just like flipping through.

Jerry Dugan:

Plays a couple of sections, and then after about five, 10 minutes

Jerry Dugan:

of doing this gives a thumbs up to a mirror, which he later realized

Jerry Dugan:

was the, I guess it wasn't a mirror.

Jerry Dugan:

But anyway the recording guys are on the other side of that glass and then

Jerry Dugan:

the red light comes on and they're live.

Jerry Dugan:

And the tube instructor of Jim pti who's a college kid at the time, the

Jerry Dugan:

guy just plays the whole stack of music.

Jerry Dugan:

One take nonstop.

Jerry Dugan:

That part was the spaceship and close encounters of the third kind.

Jerry Dugan:

And when he told me that was done in one take and it was a tuba player,

Jerry Dugan:

my mouth at the floor, like I'm not studying with that guy, but I'm

Jerry Dugan:

studying with the guy who studied with the guy who was the spaceship.

Jerry Dugan:

And I was like, I want to be the guy that is the spaceship and the

Jerry Dugan:

sequel of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which they never made.

Jerry Dugan:

But that was the inspiration to keep playing performing.

Jerry Dugan:

I was in honors bands, honors orchestras, got recruited to perform

Jerry Dugan:

at University of the Pacific.

Jerry Dugan:

But the last minute I switched gears cuz I had this nightmare that being a

Jerry Dugan:

super performer is not noble enough of a profession to make an impact on the world.

Jerry Dugan:

What are you gonna do play in polka bands the rest of your life?

Jerry Dugan:

And I switched, I became a pre-med student and I started taking classes

Jerry Dugan:

like organic chemistry four times.

Jerry Dugan:

I was not a quitter.

Jerry Dugan:

And yeah, it's what led me to join the Army because with a 2.1 gpa,

Jerry Dugan:

you're not going to medical school.

Jerry Dugan:

Which my faculty advisor knew, like I was tutoring people to get A's and

Jerry Dugan:

B's in the classes I was failing.

Jerry Dugan:

And he's the guy knows the concepts, he knows how to do this.

Jerry Dugan:

But he's bombing the exams.

Jerry Dugan:

He's not turning his stuff in the labs.

Jerry Dugan:

He does not wanna be a doctor.

Jerry Dugan:

He doesn't wanna do this.

Jerry Dugan:

This just isn't his thing.

Jerry Dugan:

And so he tried to encourage me.

Jerry Dugan:

He's this guy has a knack for teaching people.

Jerry Dugan:

Maybe I can encourage him to go into education and teach, and he'll

Jerry Dugan:

be employable and he'll be happy.

Jerry Dugan:

And I told him something like, you know those who can't teach?

Jerry Dugan:

And he just, from that point on, he just started signing off on paperwork.

Jerry Dugan:

Hey, get outta your kid.

Jerry Dugan:

Like he realized I was too proud to, to take his advice.

Jerry Dugan:

But yeah, from there, join the Army Surf four and a half years.

Jerry Dugan:

Went through a combat tour, came out of there, got hired

Jerry Dugan:

by a healthcare organization.

Jerry Dugan:

And it was about a year into that when they were ready to send me off

Jerry Dugan:

to nursing school and become a nurse, to become a nurse educator, that

Jerry Dugan:

I realized they didn't want to go.

Jerry Dugan:

And that was the aha moment of I've been pursuing somebody else's

Jerry Dugan:

dream and that was my mother's dream to be a doctor, not mine.

Jerry Dugan:

And I was like, wow.

Jerry Dugan:

So yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

At

Tim Winders:

the

Jerry Dugan:

court, yeah.

Tim Winders:

fascinating thing about that is just, let's just look at this

Tim Winders:

all within the aspect of success.

Tim Winders:

I love the conversation about the story because there was a lot of

Tim Winders:

lessons, I believe about success along the way I think they're

Tim Winders:

things that all of us deal with.

Tim Winders:

I love that moment you said, a girl, a cheerleader, I'm gonna go play football

Tim Winders:

because that's what that girl or the cheerleaders are more interested in

Tim Winders:

truthfully, and you can answer this question or not, you stood out more,

Tim Winders:

you were more unique, more whate, whatever words we want to use that

Tim Winders:

tuba instead of playing football.

Tim Winders:

What have you ever thought about what your life would've been like?

Tim Winders:

Had you the football route?

Tim Winders:

Would you

Jerry Dugan:

Oh.

Jerry Dugan:

I continue, I did both actually through high school.

Jerry Dugan:

It was, I was one of those kids that I would pref, I would play

Jerry Dugan:

my game and then I would be in my football uniform during halftime.

Jerry Dugan:

So I was one of those kids you would see in Texas halftime shows.

Jerry Dugan:

Now once I made varsity, it was, I was strictly a football player who

Jerry Dugan:

happened to march in the band cuz the band still did parade competitions and,

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah and a tuba player.

Jerry Dugan:

It's kinda like the bullpen catcher.

Jerry Dugan:

You're not gonna kick that guy out.

Jerry Dugan:

You need that guy, sorry.

Jerry Dugan:

A teammate of mine used to say that in college.

Jerry Dugan:

He's I'm the bullpen catcher.

Jerry Dugan:

He's not gonna throw me off the team.

Jerry Dugan:

Now the third string guy is in trouble.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm safe.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm the guy who always warms up the pitcher.

Jerry Dugan:

It's cool.

Jerry Dugan:

And I was like, I'm the tule player.

Jerry Dugan:

You're always gonna need me in competition.

Jerry Dugan:

The home crowd and the football game is not gonna know that Jerry

Jerry Dugan:

the tule player was not there.

Jerry Dugan:

The judges on a parade route are gonna realize you don't have

Jerry Dugan:

enough foundation in your sound.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah, I guess I had job security on the band.

Jerry Dugan:

But yeah, I didn't play through college high, I football that is, I stopped.

Tim Winders:

but a lot of us, a lot of us do just that, first of all,

Tim Winders:

we don't understand all the options available, which sometimes that's good.

Tim Winders:

Sometimes too many options is not a good thing.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah,

Tim Winders:

And then we choose a route that is, a family member thinks medicine

Tim Winders:

or some lawyers or things like that.

Tim Winders:

No, seems like no one says lawyers anymore to, to dig at the lawyers

Tim Winders:

that might be listening in.

Tim Winders:

Probably not.

Tim Winders:

pretty confident lawyers don't listen to podcasts, but that's a whole nother topic.

Jerry Dugan:

they do.

Jerry Dugan:

They do.

Jerry Dugan:

I know a few.

Jerry Dugan:

I, I know a lawyer by the way.

Jerry Dugan:

I know a lawyer who's in a family of physicians and he's considered the black

Jerry Dugan:

sheep in the family cuz he's not a doctor.

Jerry Dugan:

Poor guy.

Tim Winders:

Cuz you went down that path.

Tim Winders:

Oh my goodness.

Tim Winders:

But it really is this whole thing of success.

Tim Winders:

There's expectations that people place on us.

Tim Winders:

There's comparison to other people.

Tim Winders:

Joe did this, so I need to do it too.

Tim Winders:

Now we have comparison, to the nth degree with social media and things like that.

Tim Winders:

How does that feed into people getting into a rut?

Tim Winders:

How does that lead to what you consider or define as a rut?

Jerry Dugan:

Oh yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

So a rut I've had to look this up because Laura Paget, I

Jerry Dugan:

don't know if you remember her.

Jerry Dugan:

She asked me the actual definition.

Jerry Dugan:

I was like, you know what?

Jerry Dugan:

I know what it is, but I never actually looked it up.

Jerry Dugan:

So it's a pattern of behaviors that are unproductive and when we look at

Jerry Dugan:

what other people are doing, whether it's podcasting or entrepreneurship,

Jerry Dugan:

Self-employment, a career path.

Jerry Dugan:

There's a template we see in front of us and we think if I do those

Jerry Dugan:

things, then I will have that success and that's what's expected of me.

Jerry Dugan:

I need to go have that success.

Jerry Dugan:

And then we just start going through those motions without

Jerry Dugan:

really asking, is that who I am?

Jerry Dugan:

Is that what I want to do?

Jerry Dugan:

Because I do sometimes wonder what would life be like if I stuck with

Jerry Dugan:

Tuba and said, that is my passion.

Jerry Dugan:

I wanna be the guy in the back row, bust out the lowest note

Jerry Dugan:

in the Audi, in the crowd.

Jerry Dugan:

It's just, it's fun and, what would life be like?

Jerry Dugan:

And I'll never know cuz I gave it up to pursue something that wasn't my dream

Jerry Dugan:

and I wouldn't get, I wouldn't do it all differently because that path is where

Jerry Dugan:

I'd met my wife, had my kids, and had the adventures that I've had so far.

Jerry Dugan:

But I know if I'd followed my passions, Tuber would be the thing.

Jerry Dugan:

I probably would be in a polka band somewhere in Germany right now.

Jerry Dugan:

But I'd also be in an orchestra.

Jerry Dugan:

I'd be in a military marching band.

Jerry Dugan:

I would have seen the world through music and travel and all those things.

Jerry Dugan:

And I gotta remember what the question was oh, yeah, comparison.

Jerry Dugan:

There we go.

Jerry Dugan:

Bam.

Jerry Dugan:

I was like, what is the so after a while though, if you're following

Jerry Dugan:

somebody else's footsteps, you almost have that expectation

Jerry Dugan:

to have the same exact results.

Jerry Dugan:

And I see it in podcasting.

Jerry Dugan:

I see it in all these different walks of life.

Jerry Dugan:

Even the person who's just disgruntled at work I've been here for 15 years, why

Jerry Dugan:

did that person get promoted and not me?

Jerry Dugan:

And not really thinking about am I a right fit for that role anyway?

Jerry Dugan:

Am I in the right fit for what I am right now?

Jerry Dugan:

Is this what I even wanna do?

Jerry Dugan:

I hate this job.

Jerry Dugan:

And not really taking that time to look into themselves and understand

Jerry Dugan:

what is it they won their lives.

Jerry Dugan:

Like when their life is done, what would success look like for

Jerry Dugan:

them in the areas of their faith?

Jerry Dugan:

They're.

Jerry Dugan:

Family, fitness, finances, and their future growth,

Jerry Dugan:

the trajectory they were on.

Jerry Dugan:

And a lot of us don't take time to examine that.

Jerry Dugan:

And I think when we get into the comparison trap and we don't have a

Jerry Dugan:

grounding in who we are, who we want to be, and who we're becoming, then it's

Jerry Dugan:

easy to just fall into somebody else's path, which becomes a rut for us, cuz

Jerry Dugan:

it's not productive to what we want to accomplish and what we want to be.

Tim Winders:

Yeah, I think it's fascinating and in the world that

Tim Winders:

we're in today, we're recording this in 2023, we have access to so much stuff.

Tim Winders:

To look at other people and see where they're at, or at least their

Tim Winders:

best because we see it on social media and all over the world.

Tim Winders:

And then, we can tap into it with things like this, podcast,

Tim Winders:

videos, stuff like that.

Tim Winders:

And I think about like my grandfather, who, if I think about my grandfather's

Tim Winders:

life, I would say he was in a rut.

Tim Winders:

He was a guard that sat in a 10 by 10 room that was like a sauna in the

Tim Winders:

winter because it had this heater that kept it, pretty much 85 degrees.

Tim Winders:

And then when it was summer in Mississippi where he was, had one window unit that

Tim Winders:

kept it about 45 degrees so he could hang meat in there, and the windows were

Tim Winders:

frosted up and he went and did that.

Tim Winders:

But you know what?

Tim Winders:

I never picked up on any discontent or anything like that, and I'm

Tim Winders:

pretty sure this might be an interesting thing to bring up here.

Tim Winders:

I'm pretty sure had I asked him, granddaddy was what I called him.

Tim Winders:

If I would've said, granddaddy, what are you doing with your life?

Tim Winders:

What's your purpose?

Tim Winders:

What does it mean?

Tim Winders:

And all that.

Tim Winders:

pretty sure he would've said, what are you talking about?

Tim Winders:

I get up every day.

Tim Winders:

I go to work, I come home, I get to go fishing every once in a

Tim Winders:

while, and I get to see you and the grandkids every once in a while.

Tim Winders:

That was his life.

Tim Winders:

That was his world.

Tim Winders:

So I do think there is a bit of What we manufacture around us.

Tim Winders:

I think ruts a relative.

Tim Winders:

Does that make sense?

Tim Winders:

Just respond to that, because I do think we're in the world we're in today.

Tim Winders:

We almost have too much of an ability to, though, one other thing at

Tim Winders:

you I recently read, the story of Moses, and he was, for 40 years, he

Tim Winders:

was on the backside of the desert.

Tim Winders:

All indications were was a rut, but for 40 years he was there,

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

In a desert, those are,

Tim Winders:

so I'm poking holes at you to get you to real.

Tim Winders:

Let's talk about this and I'm, because I'm in agreement with you, but I also

Tim Winders:

want to know how do we know or not know, or when do, were we supposed to just

Tim Winders:

grind it out and just stick with what we're doing for 40 years like Moses did?

Tim Winders:

I don't know

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

to that.

Tim Winders:

So what are your thoughts?

Jerry Dugan:

Oh, man.

Jerry Dugan:

First, yes I think a rut for somebody is relative, for me, in the corporate

Jerry Dugan:

space, I know there are people who they think that success is the level of

Jerry Dugan:

attainment that they have in their job position, and they're satisfied by that.

Jerry Dugan:

But for me, I know that the moment somebody asked me to put

Jerry Dugan:

more than 40 hours a week in the office, I'm already resisting.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm like, you know what?

Jerry Dugan:

On my deathbed, I'm not gonna say, man, I wish I put five

Jerry Dugan:

more hours a week in the office.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm gonna be saying to myself, I wish that I found a way to sneak out of

Jerry Dugan:

the office and be with my family more.

Jerry Dugan:

Kinda like your grandfather.

Jerry Dugan:

He was content that he had time with his family.

Jerry Dugan:

And he had no aspirations to be more than a security guard in his profession.

Jerry Dugan:

He was fine with that.

Jerry Dugan:

My dad was kinda the same way.

Jerry Dugan:

He's fine with doing a nine to five type of job and chill out and just

Jerry Dugan:

relax and be a leisurely person.

Jerry Dugan:

And now relationship, relationship-wise, he's probably suffered, he doesn't

Jerry Dugan:

have the deep friendships he would've wanted or the career satisfaction

Jerry Dugan:

he probably would've wanted.

Jerry Dugan:

But for me though, like there's a certain set of priorities I've got, which aren't

Jerry Dugan:

gonna be the same as you or the same as, my previous boss or my coworkers.

Jerry Dugan:

And the same, my coworkers aren't gonna have the same priorities.

Jerry Dugan:

I think it's important to be in tune with what those are.

Jerry Dugan:

And I think the folks who struggle the most and feel probably that

Jerry Dugan:

they're in the deepest of ruts are the ones that don't take time to know

Jerry Dugan:

who they want to be and like what?

Jerry Dugan:

Is it that makes me tick?

Jerry Dugan:

What do I believe in?

Jerry Dugan:

What are my values?

Jerry Dugan:

What do I, what am I against?

Jerry Dugan:

What are my boundaries in life?

Jerry Dugan:

And if I know those things, I can now start answering questions

Jerry Dugan:

like, what is work-life balance?

Jerry Dugan:

Trevor Noah is a comedian who recently came out and said, there's no such

Jerry Dugan:

thing as work life balance, and there's just life and that's it.

Jerry Dugan:

And I'm like there is, in my book, I think there is a work life balance.

Jerry Dugan:

There is your professional life and you do things, you get things done.

Jerry Dugan:

But then you don't want that so much to get in the way of serving

Jerry Dugan:

a church, worshiping God, and connecting with your wife and children.

Jerry Dugan:

That is in my book.

Jerry Dugan:

And so if I scale back on doing professional work, So I can have

Jerry Dugan:

more time with my God and my family.

Jerry Dugan:

I will choose that, and I will be perfectly fine with that.

Jerry Dugan:

But there are other people that are like, you know what?

Jerry Dugan:

I can work a longer day today because I will achieve this

Jerry Dugan:

level of success at work.

Jerry Dugan:

And they're fine with that too.

Jerry Dugan:

But it comes at a cost.

Jerry Dugan:

It, they're choosing that work over the rest of the areas of their life.

Jerry Dugan:

And so for me, there is work life balance.

Jerry Dugan:

It is different for everybody.

Jerry Dugan:

It's just where do we put those fulcrums for that balance to happen?

Tim Winders:

I do think it's relative.

Tim Winders:

let's go ahead and throw some scripture at this conversation.

Tim Winders:

Let's go to, you know what the Paul, I was about to say, Paul,

Tim Winders:

I'll have to say the apostle Paul.

Tim Winders:

Let's go ahead and Paul said that.

Tim Winders:

That he is content wherever he's at.

Tim Winders:

And he's abounded and a based, and I think in our culture, our modern day

Tim Winders:

society, we are almost, we almost lean towards being discontent, malcontent.

Tim Winders:

I don't what's the right wording on that?

Tim Winders:

Not content.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

And and I think it's interesting coming

Tim Winders:

from Paul, I get abound.

Tim Winders:

I get a bass and all and I've gone through that, we've poked at the word

Tim Winders:

success a lot here I've had companies, businesses, and I know you've worked

Tim Winders:

in roles and things, that people would look at you and go, man, that

Tim Winders:

Jerry, is hitting home runs, but.

Tim Winders:

Maybe on the inside you weren't.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

And so how do we layer what we learned from the Apostle

Tim Winders:

Paul in, I guess one thing that, that I struggled with a little bit.

Tim Winders:

I worked corporate gig for nine years and after the second

Tim Winders:

day, I knew it wasn't for me.

Tim Winders:

I knew it.

Tim Winders:

I'm not meant to work for somebody else.

Tim Winders:

But it took me eight and a half years to get out of it I was

Tim Winders:

just working on other things.

Tim Winders:

I had businesses on the side, all that kind of stuff.

Tim Winders:

How do we know when we're just supposed to be content?

Tim Winders:

Suck it up buttercup, just sit back, be quiet, do the job, do the work, whatever.

Tim Winders:

Versus what we're about to talk about that you taught in your in your book

Tim Winders:

that just came out beyond the rut.

Tim Winders:

Create a life worth living in your faith, family, and career, versus putting

Tim Winders:

some things in place to move that rut.

Tim Winders:

How you know what, because I know you've interviewed a lot of people too.

Tim Winders:

How do we know when we should just hang tight or when we

Tim Winders:

should start pursuing things?

Tim Winders:

What's the indicators there?

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

I think the one question, probably the most important question is this really

Jerry Dugan:

what I want to do or is it something somebody else told me I needed to do?

Jerry Dugan:

A lighter example would be, I've got a friend who.

Jerry Dugan:

Every time everybody's challenging themselves to go achieve the goal.

Jerry Dugan:

This guy wants to do a cold shower challenge and get everybody on board.

Jerry Dugan:

Cold shower challenge.

Jerry Dugan:

And I'm like, why?

Jerry Dugan:

And the idea is, if I do the cold water challenge or the cold shower

Jerry Dugan:

challenge, I'm already tackling a very tough thing early in the morning, and

Jerry Dugan:

therefore I've got the confidence to go forth and conquer the rest of my goals.

Jerry Dugan:

And I'm sitting there thinking, I don't want to I, I will still pursue

Jerry Dugan:

my goals with or without the cold water, the cold shower challenge a.

Jerry Dugan:

And so the first time this guy proposed it, I was like, yeah,

Jerry Dugan:

sure, I'll get in on this.

Jerry Dugan:

And I did it for a week.

Jerry Dugan:

And then I started to realize everybody else in the group was lying.

Jerry Dugan:

They were not doing it.

Jerry Dugan:

And then eventually they fessed up.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm like, am I the only one doing this?

Jerry Dugan:

I'm only doing it because I wanted to support all of you, but it just,

Jerry Dugan:

I don't get any value out of it.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm not gonna do it anymore.

Jerry Dugan:

And so I stopped.

Jerry Dugan:

And so then in the future, when it kept up, Coming up over and over

Jerry Dugan:

again, I just politely declined.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm like, I, no, I'm just not gonna do it.

Jerry Dugan:

I have no desire to, and it doesn't add to or take away

Jerry Dugan:

from what I really wanna pursue.

Jerry Dugan:

So that's one thing.

Jerry Dugan:

And then I shared earlier that the realization that becoming a doctor

Jerry Dugan:

was my mom's dream, not mine.

Jerry Dugan:

And so I had some indicators there, like self sabotage.

Jerry Dugan:

I was the guy who had the ability to do well in science and understood

Jerry Dugan:

the concepts covered in class.

Jerry Dugan:

But I purposely made sure I didn't study the study guide for the exam.

Jerry Dugan:

I just wouldn't touch it.

Jerry Dugan:

I stayed away from all the bold print that would've gotten me the

Jerry Dugan:

grade I needed on the test, but I understood all the little things that

Jerry Dugan:

made all the big stuff make sense.

Jerry Dugan:

And it was just yeah, I just didn't prepare.

Jerry Dugan:

So that'd be another example.

Tim Winders:

I like

Jerry Dugan:

but.

Tim Winders:

the one thing about that cold challenge, first of all, we live in

Tim Winders:

an rv, so there's times I'm dealing with

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah, you have no choice.

Tim Winders:

Yeah, we woke up a couple mornings and ago, no propane,

Tim Winders:

and it was like 40 degrees inside.

Tim Winders:

We were inside there.

Tim Winders:

I felt as if at one point I was spending some time with the Lord and

Tim Winders:

I was saying, Lord, oh, what about this ice plunge and this cold water?

Tim Winders:

You know what, is that something I should do?

Tim Winders:

And and I felt as if now this is me.

Tim Winders:

I'm not giving a, a prophetic word to anyone here felt as if

Tim Winders:

the Lord said, why would you do that when I gave you hot water?

Tim Winders:

But that's a whole nother time,

Jerry Dugan:

Just wait for the propane tank to come in.

Tim Winders:

But the cool thing about what you're bringing up is

Tim Winders:

that I think you have to be owned don't necessarily be a follower.

Tim Winders:

I think there's times that we do that.

Tim Winders:

I know you've got military background on, there's times that

Tim Winders:

you just, you get in line and you go along with what's going on.

Tim Winders:

But I love that, what is it that Jerry is design created purposed for?

Tim Winders:

What's Tim supposed to, you know what, it may be two different things and we need

Tim Winders:

to embrace that and, do we find that out?

Tim Winders:

What's the, are some mechanisms or ways we can go about finding out

Tim Winders:

directions to go if we go, I don't know if I need to do this cold water.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

pretty confident.

Tim Winders:

I don't, let me just go ahead and say, not for me, I'm a, I love my warm showers.

Jerry Dugan:

So by choice I do not do 'em.

Jerry Dugan:

So one thing I love looking at is what I call the five Fs.

Jerry Dugan:

And I didn't come up with 'em.

Jerry Dugan:

I just, I wanted alliteration, so I changed all the words into.

Jerry Dugan:

Words I start with f and they're in order of priority for me.

Jerry Dugan:

So first and foremost, my faith.

Jerry Dugan:

So how am I doing in my walk with Jesus?

Jerry Dugan:

Am I spending time in prayer every day or all the time really?

Jerry Dugan:

When it comes to decision making, is that the first person I go to and, get quiet

Jerry Dugan:

and just listen for that tug on my heart.

Jerry Dugan:

Am I reading the Bible?

Jerry Dugan:

Am I reading books from other spiritual leaders?

Jerry Dugan:

Am I going to church?

Jerry Dugan:

Am I plugged in small groups?

Jerry Dugan:

Am I being fed and am I feeding others?

Jerry Dugan:

And am I serving others in my faith?

Jerry Dugan:

So that's the first thing I look at.

Jerry Dugan:

And if I find myself trying to do everything in my own power, not trusting

Jerry Dugan:

in God, then I'm like, ah, there, there's problem number one right there.

Jerry Dugan:

But then I also look at my family situation.

Jerry Dugan:

One thing my wife and I have been in agreement with since day one of us

Jerry Dugan:

dating was whoever we marry, that's the person we're gonna be married to.

Jerry Dugan:

And we want to be married to that person.

Jerry Dugan:

It's gotta be somebody who's willing to do what it takes to be a better

Jerry Dugan:

person, be a better communicator be a servant to each other in a sense.

Jerry Dugan:

And so that was something we were both very much in agreement

Jerry Dugan:

on before we got married.

Jerry Dugan:

And, 21 years later, that's still us.

Jerry Dugan:

And then because of that relationship, we could be better parents to our kids.

Jerry Dugan:

And then everybody else takes a backseat to those two relationships.

Jerry Dugan:

My marriage and my children.

Jerry Dugan:

And then so a lot of my guy friends were like, what?

Jerry Dugan:

You're gonna, you're gonna choose your wife over hanging out with us.

Jerry Dugan:

Yep.

Jerry Dugan:

Why?

Jerry Dugan:

Because I don't go to bed with you guys.

Jerry Dugan:

I go to bed with her and, 30 years from now, I'm still not

Jerry Dugan:

gonna go to bed with you guys.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm gonna go to bed with her.

Jerry Dugan:

And as far as who I want to look up to, me, my kids, I, they're gonna be

Jerry Dugan:

the ones that have grandkids for me, and I want access to those grandkids.

Jerry Dugan:

And I wanna be an influence on their lives too.

Jerry Dugan:

So my relationship with my kids needs to be better than my relationship

Jerry Dugan:

with all the everybody else.

Jerry Dugan:

And my boss, it's no, you sign off on the time card.

Jerry Dugan:

You give me guidance in my work.

Jerry Dugan:

But I'm not gonna spend more time than I have to or need to.

Jerry Dugan:

Now I'll seek, counseling and mentorship and coaching from you.

Jerry Dugan:

And, if we become best bud, sure, but you're still gonna

Jerry Dugan:

fall behind wife and children.

Jerry Dugan:

You're down there somewhere with all my buddies.

Jerry Dugan:

So I take a look at family and then fitness.

Jerry Dugan:

How am I doing not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually?

Jerry Dugan:

So tying back into faith as well.

Jerry Dugan:

And then finances, sometimes when my stressor might be, we've spent

Jerry Dugan:

more than we were supposed to this month, or that there's a pay increase.

Jerry Dugan:

How are we going to manage that?

Jerry Dugan:

Or we wanna take a vacation.

Jerry Dugan:

How are we gonna pull that off expense wise?

Jerry Dugan:

I set aside money for those big purchases.

Jerry Dugan:

And then future possibility, what am I doing every day as part

Jerry Dugan:

of my daily routine to make me better today than I was yesterday?

Jerry Dugan:

Maybe it's an exercise routine.

Jerry Dugan:

Maybe it's, the saver's acronym from Hal Elrod's Miracle Morning Routine.

Jerry Dugan:

So I, I do a blend of all those, so there's silence.

Jerry Dugan:

What's the a affirmations?

Jerry Dugan:

V is visualization.

Jerry Dugan:

E is exercise.

Jerry Dugan:

R is reading, S is scribing or writing or journaling.

Jerry Dugan:

I used to do all those things in the morning in a two hour block.

Jerry Dugan:

Now I just give myself two hours.

Jerry Dugan:

Choose any of those in any combination you want and enrich yourself.

Jerry Dugan:

And so that's so if I wanna spend two hours reading, I do that.

Jerry Dugan:

If I wanna spend two hours journaling or writing an article, I do that.

Jerry Dugan:

If I wanna walk for the whole two hours, I usually don't.

Jerry Dugan:

But if I wanted to, I could.

Jerry Dugan:

I think once I cheated and I spent like an hour doing pour over coffee in the

Jerry Dugan:

morning, and my wife's what are you doing?

Jerry Dugan:

I'm like, quiet time.

Jerry Dugan:

Just she's I'm going back to bed.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm like, okay.

Jerry Dugan:

And so I look at my life in those five areas faith, family, fitness,

Jerry Dugan:

finance, and future possibility.

Jerry Dugan:

And I look at, how are things going?

Jerry Dugan:

What are the things I want in my life in those areas, so I want to be plugged

Jerry Dugan:

into a men's group and a married couple's group and go to church every Sunday.

Jerry Dugan:

I wanna serve my church.

Jerry Dugan:

Those are four big things for me.

Jerry Dugan:

I want my wife and I to be closer than anybody else in the world fitness-wise.

Jerry Dugan:

I don't need to be like a muscle bodybuilder, but I wanna be able to go

Jerry Dugan:

three flights of stairs and not wheeze.

Jerry Dugan:

And I wanna be able to tie my shoes and not lose breath.

Jerry Dugan:

When my kids get married I have a vision that my father-daughter dance is gonna be

Jerry Dugan:

a really cool one that makes people cry.

Jerry Dugan:

And so I have these things I've visualized in my life and I make life decisions

Jerry Dugan:

based off of how will this support or hurt the, that vision in those five areas.

Jerry Dugan:

And, recently I, and you might be aware of this I left my corporate

Jerry Dugan:

job, I was at a director level.

Jerry Dugan:

I had a team reporting to me.

Jerry Dugan:

I not only impacted a healthcare organization with about 9,000 people

Jerry Dugan:

in it, but during the the pandemic.

Jerry Dugan:

I was able to collaborate with another healthcare organization

Jerry Dugan:

that had 40,000 people in it.

Jerry Dugan:

And so my work wasn't just impacting us, it was impacting another healthcare

Jerry Dugan:

organization as well in six US states, in four different countries.

Jerry Dugan:

And, the, these are good things.

Jerry Dugan:

It's yes.

Jerry Dugan:

But the thing that made me leave the job was my wife saying to me, cuz she saw

Jerry Dugan:

that things were getting heavier for me.

Jerry Dugan:

I was upset with something that happened at work.

Jerry Dugan:

They went against a lot of my core values.

Jerry Dugan:

And my choice was really stick around and endorse what happened or, and rebuild

Jerry Dugan:

or get out of there, let that person fix that mess and go do a different thing.

Jerry Dugan:

And my wife said to me, just quit your job.

Jerry Dugan:

I was like, wow, you're miss, we gotta have financial security

Jerry Dugan:

before I do anything else.

Jerry Dugan:

And she said, yes.

Jerry Dugan:

And I trust two things.

Jerry Dugan:

Three.

Jerry Dugan:

She's first of all I trust God's gonna provide for us two.

Jerry Dugan:

I know he has because we have a nest egg to fall back on.

Jerry Dugan:

And I know you know the numbers.

Jerry Dugan:

I was like, yeah, I know the numbers.

Jerry Dugan:

And she said, and third, I want my husband back.

Jerry Dugan:

And I was like, I never left.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm here.

Jerry Dugan:

And she said, no, you're not happy, Jerry.

Jerry Dugan:

You are angry at the world.

Jerry Dugan:

Angry at your boss.

Jerry Dugan:

Angry at the work situation, Jerry.

Jerry Dugan:

And it's so bad that our kids have come up to me and asked

Jerry Dugan:

in private, are you and dad?

Jerry Dugan:

Okay?

Jerry Dugan:

And when she pointed that out to me, I went through those five F's, I'm like I

Jerry Dugan:

trust god's, working in me and around me.

Jerry Dugan:

So that hasn't faltered, but wow, my family's at risk.

Jerry Dugan:

And, but this job, it pays good money.

Jerry Dugan:

It's a six figure income.

Jerry Dugan:

It's the highest I've ever earned.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm on the path to be vice president someday.

Jerry Dugan:

And I caught it there.

Jerry Dugan:

I was like, someday, like I gotta stick around six or seven years

Jerry Dugan:

to take this guy's job if I don't jump out of a window before that.

Jerry Dugan:

Cuz he was just, he was a pill.

Jerry Dugan:

I won't name the guy.

Jerry Dugan:

And, but anyway, it, it was a challenge and and I just realized I am putting

Jerry Dugan:

on the golden handcuffs because, Everybody's expected me to keep this

Jerry Dugan:

job and keep this paycheck coming in.

Jerry Dugan:

And my wife is telling me I don't care about the paycheck if I'm

Jerry Dugan:

losing my husband in the process.

Jerry Dugan:

And I was like,

Jerry Dugan:

Thanks for reminding me of that.

Jerry Dugan:

And I put in my resignation that it was a holiday weekend, so that Tuesday I put

Jerry Dugan:

in my resignation and everybody around me noticed, wow, you seem happy and

Jerry Dugan:

there's like a bounce in your step again.

Jerry Dugan:

And our kids, they came back to visit and they're like, dad's back.

Jerry Dugan:

And my wife's yeah, I got my husband back.

Jerry Dugan:

And and so it's just.

Jerry Dugan:

That is, the long way to answer.

Jerry Dugan:

Like, how do I know I'm stuck in a rut?

Jerry Dugan:

It is looking at those five areas of my life, faith, family, fitness,

Jerry Dugan:

finances, and future possibility, and really thinking about what do I want

Jerry Dugan:

in those ar those areas, how am I doing right now and what is impacting those?

Jerry Dugan:

And it, it's led me to quit a job to live off a savings for a few months and start

Jerry Dugan:

my own business and take a leap of faith.

Jerry Dugan:

So that's where the book came in.

Jerry Dugan:

It was like this realization that, for the last seven years of the podcast, it's

Jerry Dugan:

always been a dream and a written goal of the podcast to have a book published

Jerry Dugan:

that is the manifesto of the show.

Jerry Dugan:

Define your own version of success.

Jerry Dugan:

Recognize when you're in a rut.

Jerry Dugan:

Create goals to get outta there, create a life vision for yourself,

Jerry Dugan:

and then go take action to get there.

Jerry Dugan:

And we're a show that's gonna help you do all those things.

Jerry Dugan:

And we even put in a book for you.

Jerry Dugan:

So if you don't wanna listen to all our episodes, here is who we are.

Jerry Dugan:

In summary, it was meant to be a like a free download.

Jerry Dugan:

And I think you were on that call.

Jerry Dugan:

Like we were like we can make this a free download and just get it out there.

Jerry Dugan:

Somehow that morphed into a 124 page book available on Amazon.

Jerry Dugan:

And it's like in paperback Kendall, it's an audiobook form.

Jerry Dugan:

And I'm like, yeah, that got outta hand.

Jerry Dugan:

Like that was supposed to be a free giveaway.

Jerry Dugan:

And I wound up self-publishing this thing and it looks great.

Jerry Dugan:

I had professionals edit the document for me the cover design.

Jerry Dugan:

I had professionals do the artwork.

Jerry Dugan:

I had my friends and family help me select the actual cover and it feels real.

Jerry Dugan:

It's like tangible.

Jerry Dugan:

It's here are the thoughts and ideas and concepts behind beyond the rut.

Jerry Dugan:

This is the message of the show.

Jerry Dugan:

And because of that book I'm seeing like, being a guest on podcast,

Jerry Dugan:

like I now have a message that's coherent this is my message.

Jerry Dugan:

I can go to organizations.

Jerry Dugan:

Johns Hopkins reached out to me and said, we want you to talk to

Jerry Dugan:

us about what to do when you feel like your career's stuck in a rut.

Jerry Dugan:

And I'm like, What?

Jerry Dugan:

This is so cool.

Jerry Dugan:

Yes.

Jerry Dugan:

And by the way, is it paid?

Jerry Dugan:

And they're like, yeah, sorry.

Jerry Dugan:

We didn't mention that part.

Jerry Dugan:

And so it's really cool to see just by following that one goal, after quitting my

Jerry Dugan:

job, following that one goal, getting it out there I'm actually checking off boxes

Jerry Dugan:

on my bucket list and I'm feeling good.

Jerry Dugan:

And it's ah, wow, I'm doing what I wanted to do.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

thing, the cool thing I love what your wife did cuz I was around, we,

Tim Winders:

Jerry and I get to jump on a mastermind.

Tim Winders:

It's on the schedule once a week.

Tim Winders:

Sometimes we're both on there, sometimes we're not.

Tim Winders:

It but we connect once a month-ish might be a way of saying it.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

See each other.

Tim Winders:

Don't have deep conversations like this, which is fun.

Tim Winders:

But and I will say I was around when I remember that was going on we did see

Tim Winders:

a different Jerry begin to materialize.

Tim Winders:

Not that, it was like, oh my gosh, Jekyl and Hyde.

Tim Winders:

Now it's just like lighter area, a little more open and

Tim Winders:

definitely getting more focused.

Tim Winders:

Sometimes when a change like that occurs, it gets us focused on the

Tim Winders:

things that might impact that last one.

Tim Winders:

They're your future,

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

you know what?

Tim Winders:

I feel like now's an opportunity to write a book and all but before we get too much

Tim Winders:

further though, away from these five Fs, I wanted to ask a few questions around

Tim Winders:

that because when I see five things like that, I start wanting to force rank them.

Tim Winders:

And so what I'm gonna ask is over the seven, eight years of beyond the Rut

Tim Winders:

interviews and those over these five F's, what is, what's the one that you

Tim Winders:

see that have gotten beyond a rut?

Tim Winders:

What's the one that they've struggled with the most, if there is one or the one that

Tim Winders:

keeps coming up time and time again that you observe or notice, and maybe the five

Tim Winders:

F's have materialized over time and I'm, because I'm gonna share kinda where I'm

Tim Winders:

at now with the one that's working the best and the one that's working the least.

Tim Winders:

And I'm gonna ask you the same question too, because I think that's part of

Tim Winders:

our evaluation process as we go along.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

Family would be the one that we've heard the most in.

Jerry Dugan:

Over 300 interviews.

Jerry Dugan:

Family Impact has been the biggest thing, and it's somebody who was

Jerry Dugan:

pursuing a career, pursuing income, pursuing wealth and it took a toll

Jerry Dugan:

on the family and it was that aha, or maybe it was a divorce, that made them

Jerry Dugan:

realize I need to regroup who I am as a person so that my next marriage

Jerry Dugan:

is stronger, healthier, and endures.

Jerry Dugan:

And or a strange relationships with our kids.

Jerry Dugan:

And that it was the idea or that realization.

Jerry Dugan:

I don't want to die with my kids thinking I'm a total stranger and a monster.

Jerry Dugan:

I need to be a better dad for them.

Jerry Dugan:

And pulling themselves together to be that dad who's present, even if mom

Jerry Dugan:

and dad aren't together again, that they're present and engaged father.

Jerry Dugan:

And so family has been probably the one that stood up the most because

Jerry Dugan:

it's probably the most universal, it now the ones who are Christian

Jerry Dugan:

will also typically, once they've gone through that trial, Will

Jerry Dugan:

praise God and give credit to God.

Jerry Dugan:

And so that's where the faith comes in first and foremost.

Jerry Dugan:

So as they grew stronger in their faith, o other things started to fall

Jerry Dugan:

into place because they were, just from a Christian centric perspective.

Jerry Dugan:

Realizing that the closer I get to God, the closer I get to everybody

Jerry Dugan:

because I'm more aligned with the love and sacrifice that God is.

Jerry Dugan:

And I express that to other people.

Jerry Dugan:

And it's I see Christians bringing that to the table, and the rest is like the

Jerry Dugan:

extra symptoms that come into play.

Jerry Dugan:

I've talked to folks, once they got right with their family and their

Jerry Dugan:

faith their health got better.

Jerry Dugan:

The finances got into a healthy position.

Jerry Dugan:

They weren't pursuing.

Jerry Dugan:

They still make money.

Jerry Dugan:

They're still successful in their career or their business, but it's not the number

Jerry Dugan:

one driver for who they are as a person.

Jerry Dugan:

And they could lose the business and they'll still be happy with

Jerry Dugan:

who they are, and they'll go back and they'll earn that money back.

Jerry Dugan:

They're like that relationship with money has become healthier.

Jerry Dugan:

It's a tool, it's a vehicle.

Jerry Dugan:

It's not who I am.

Jerry Dugan:

And then the futures that it, for me I put them in order.

Jerry Dugan:

So family, fitness, finances, that future possibility is that kind of the rocket.

Jerry Dugan:

It's like what's propelling me forward?

Jerry Dugan:

It's all the other things I haven't covered yet in these areas.

Jerry Dugan:

All the things I haven't learned yet.

Jerry Dugan:

All the people I haven't met yet.

Jerry Dugan:

All the ways I haven't helped people yet.

Jerry Dugan:

You know that's future possibility.

Tim Winders:

Yeah, it's interesting for me as you were going through

Tim Winders:

those five Fs, and I did read the book too, but I actually read

Tim Winders:

the book about a month or so ago.

Tim Winders:

So it's actually not as fresh in my mind as usually have when I've read

Tim Winders:

a book that I'm interviewing someone.

Tim Winders:

But I do recall just the foundational principles that I,

Tim Winders:

in my mind that were valuable for anybody that picks the book up.

Tim Winders:

Is it something for leaders and people in corporate?

Tim Winders:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

But is it something for a teenager a 20 something?

Tim Winders:

Yeah, I actually think so, especially because the quickness of it,

Tim Winders:

the good examples and stories.

Tim Winders:

So great job on the book.

Jerry Dugan:

Thank you.

Tim Winders:

it, but as I'm, as you were talking about it, just then, I

Tim Winders:

was sitting there thinking to myself, one of these five is my high point

Tim Winders:

now, and which one is my low point?

Tim Winders:

I think I put faith and family right up around the top.

Tim Winders:

I happen to be parked right in the backyard of my daughter

Tim Winders:

and son-in-law and grandkids.

Tim Winders:

So when I finish clicking record over the top of my computer,

Tim Winders:

I just saw my three-year-old granddaughter come in from school.

Tim Winders:

I'll go out and we'll play and all that kind of stuff.

Tim Winders:

my wife and I are going at date night.

Tim Winders:

Anyway, things are and my faith is always a strong point, but my fitness

Tim Winders:

one is very interesting for me.

Tim Winders:

I've got this little knee thing that's been nagging at me and.

Tim Winders:

And so I, I immediately put that one at the lowest because I've just got a

Tim Winders:

little in a pain that's been bugging me.

Tim Winders:

And I only share that as a lob to put it back to you, which one right

Tim Winders:

now would you put as one's rocking?

Tim Winders:

I'm at a high point doing well here.

Tim Winders:

And then which one would you force rank to the lowest one that maybe you're having

Tim Winders:

to work on or there's something going on there, struggle or something like that?

Tim Winders:

Just, I think so that I think that's how we'd be true to ourselves by forcing

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

one are we doing well at?

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

So the top three where I'm doing really well would be faith,

Jerry Dugan:

family, and future possibility.

Jerry Dugan:

I still do my morning routine in some way.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm reading books, doing interviews on podcasts, grow

Jerry Dugan:

me like you wouldn't believe.

Jerry Dugan:

And people ask, why do you do so many?

Jerry Dugan:

It's I get to learn from people who were succeeding in life in one of these

Jerry Dugan:

areas, and I get to glean from them and it makes me a bigger, better person.

Jerry Dugan:

And in a way, at least better than it was yesterday.

Jerry Dugan:

The two that are lower finances would be one just because for the last

Jerry Dugan:

five or six months yeah, we made the decision, let's live off of our savings.

Jerry Dugan:

Either a look for a job or build a business.

Jerry Dugan:

And we chose build a business.

Jerry Dugan:

And so there are extra expenses that come with that.

Jerry Dugan:

It's oh, hey, yeah, this is getting a little nerve-wracking.

Jerry Dugan:

Okay, we got income tax return came in.

Jerry Dugan:

Okay, now how does this all work?

Jerry Dugan:

Now I'm like, boom.

Jerry Dugan:

I wouldn't put that at the very bottom though, because my wife and I talk

Jerry Dugan:

about money now better than we did five, six years ago, two years ago even.

Jerry Dugan:

Because this is it.

Jerry Dugan:

Like whatever revenue we generate, it's yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

But we're even talking through like, how does the money flow through the business?

Jerry Dugan:

When I was in real estate in 2006 through 2000, 2010, 2011, somewhere in there.

Tim Winders:

Good timing there, by the way.

Tim Winders:

Good

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

that.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

Right time to perfectly for the bubble to break finding out there

Jerry Dugan:

was a recession when I left my job.

Tim Winders:

the

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm that guy.

Jerry Dugan:

It's oh, there's a lion in this room, and I just closed the door.

Jerry Dugan:

What?

Jerry Dugan:

That's not a good idea.

Jerry Dugan:

But that's, but I'm that guy.

Jerry Dugan:

I walk into a fire pit without knowing it.

Jerry Dugan:

And Oh, where was I again?

Jerry Dugan:

Oh yeah, so you know, finances, we've gotten better at talking through that.

Jerry Dugan:

But fitness, I think would be the thing that's at the bottom of the

Jerry Dugan:

rung because while I was going through that season at work where I wasn't

Jerry Dugan:

happy, it was a toxic environment.

Jerry Dugan:

I put on 40 pounds.

Jerry Dugan:

Like I had lost weight, I was eating healthy, I was exercising every day.

Jerry Dugan:

But the stress of a project, the stress of work I stopped doing that and I

Jerry Dugan:

put 40 pounds back on, if not more.

Jerry Dugan:

And getting back to that, realizing and having that awareness of like, when

Jerry Dugan:

I'm stress eating, when I'm avoiding exercise when I'm using my friend

Jerry Dugan:

Mike as an excuse to, I gotta go walk.

Jerry Dugan:

It's oh, Mike canceled so I don't have to go.

Jerry Dugan:

And my wife's you can still go, just wait till the sun comes up.

Jerry Dugan:

You guys like to go at five in the morning and strengthen numbers and all that, but

Jerry Dugan:

wait for sunrise and still do your walk.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm like, Yeah, but she's right.

Jerry Dugan:

It's like there isn't anything stopping me from going from my walk at seven in the

Jerry Dugan:

morning as opposed to five in the morning.

Jerry Dugan:

But yeah, I would say fitness is at the bottom right now.

Jerry Dugan:

And and I've recognized that not just because you said something

Jerry Dugan:

here, but it was like, why is it tiring to walk up the stairs?

Jerry Dugan:

Oh yeah, I'm heavy.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

I'm finding it because I hit 60 this year and

Tim Winders:

and, have a three-year-old and a 11 month old granddaughter that

Tim Winders:

we're hanging out with a good bit

Jerry Dugan:

Oh yeah.

Tim Winders:

and we go on walks most afternoons and stuff like that, and

Tim Winders:

I'm just and I'm finding I'm not able to do some of the rhythms I like

Tim Winders:

because of this the little knee thing going on, but, one of the things

Tim Winders:

that I'm coming to terms with what I can and can't do, which I think is

Tim Winders:

an interesting thing in life also.

Tim Winders:

I think that's an interesting and funny thing, but I like the fact I've

Tim Winders:

actually, I'm meeting with corporate client, the leadership team this next

Tim Winders:

week, and one of the things I do often is I take our mission and values,

Tim Winders:

especially our values, and I cause the leadership team to force rank

Tim Winders:

them to do just what we just did right

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

It's okay, what's so you've admitted, and it could be a

Tim Winders:

season where just fitness might take a little bit of a backseat to finances.

Tim Winders:

We know it's gonna be interesting as you're starting a business and all

Tim Winders:

that, but it's just that time and that's good and it's all fine and all that.

Tim Winders:

We're good.

Tim Winders:

I want us to talk more about the book in just a moment before we wrap up and how

Tim Winders:

people can find it and everything, but.

Tim Winders:

This portion of the show sponsored by chat G P T I did something interesting

Tim Winders:

and at the time we're recording this.

Tim Winders:

I don't know where, I don't know what'll be going on.

Tim Winders:

When people listen at the time of recording, one of the big things going

Tim Winders:

on is chat G P T and things like that.

Tim Winders:

And I do want people to know that both Jerry and I are real people.

Tim Winders:

We're not ai, of this has been AI generated, including

Tim Winders:

our likenesses and all.

Tim Winders:

Cause truthfully, if I were gonna generate myself ai, I would look a heck

Tim Winders:

of a lot better than I currently do.

Jerry Dugan:

Gotta have more muscles.

Tim Winders:

But I did something Jerry, and I don't know if you've done any of

Tim Winders:

this with, the things you do in podcast.

Tim Winders:

I know there's a lot of tools and all out there, but took

Tim Winders:

your bio from your one sheet.

Tim Winders:

And I fed it into, I call it a her, that could be wrong,

Tim Winders:

it could be something else.

Tim Winders:

But my wife and I have a name for our chat.

Tim Winders:

G p t.

Tim Winders:

We call her Gertrude.

Tim Winders:

We fed it into Gertrude.

Tim Winders:

And we said, I said, Gertrude, I'm about to talk to this friend of mine.

Tim Winders:

I know questions to ask and no conversations to have, but me 10 questions

Tim Winders:

that I should ask based on this info.

Tim Winders:

And I'm gonna read some of 'em out.

Tim Winders:

I don't want you to answer them, but there's one that we're going

Tim Winders:

to use to show the challenges with.

Jerry Dugan:

Oh, nice.

Jerry Dugan:

This is gonna be awesome.

Tim Winders:

Because there was something in there.

Tim Winders:

Very fascinating.

Tim Winders:

There was some good questions like, what inspired you to start the podcast?

Tim Winders:

You faced adversity and redefining success.

Tim Winders:

You're, you went, I think family went through divorce, dad's

Tim Winders:

attempted suicide, stuff like that.

Tim Winders:

We I don't even know if we want to get into that now.

Tim Winders:

Why is it important for people to have vision in their lives and goals?

Tim Winders:

Some really good ones here,

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

but there was something that you mentioned about Proverbs 31

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

in your, and so let me give you the question.

Tim Winders:

This is sponsored by chat, G P T or Gertrude.

Tim Winders:

says, talked about the importance of being a Proverbs 13 man in a healthy marriage.

Jerry Dugan:

Oh,

Tim Winders:

What does that look like in practice and how can

Tim Winders:

men strive to embody this ideal?

Tim Winders:

Now what I did was I whipped out my Bible, cuz I'm thinking maybe she knows something

Tim Winders:

that we need to know from Proverbs 13.

Jerry Dugan:

right.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm scrambling here.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm like, I don't know.

Jerry Dugan:

Proverbs 13, I know.

Jerry Dugan:

31.

Tim Winders:

either, but I've got things like a wise son, he's his father's.

Tim Winders:

I'm trying to find something related to marriage.

Tim Winders:

We, we, I think people would know.

Tim Winders:

Proverbs 31, the soul of a lazy man desires and has nothing.

Tim Winders:

By pride comes nothing but strife.

Tim Winders:

But with the well-advised, his wisdom,

Jerry Dugan:

Oh wow.

Tim Winders:

wise men will be wise.

Tim Winders:

I've got all of things highlighted in

Jerry Dugan:

Here.

Tim Winders:

13, so I'm wondering if she is attempting to manipulate us

Tim Winders:

to go to Proverbs 13 and Proverbs 31.

Tim Winders:

What do

Jerry Dugan:

Wow,

Tim Winders:

here?

Tim Winders:

What do we have this portion of the show?

Tim Winders:

Sponsored by chat.

Tim Winders:

G P T.

Jerry Dugan:

man, maybe Gertrude's smarter than we realized.

Jerry Dugan:

Cuz I purposely said Proverbs 31 husband because, everybody's familiar

Jerry Dugan:

with the Proverbs 31 wife and they're not familiar that there's a husband

Jerry Dugan:

mentioned in three different verses there

Tim Winders:

does he do?

Tim Winders:

What's his role there?

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

It turns out he has full faith in her.

Jerry Dugan:

Like he, he trusts her.

Jerry Dugan:

Another verse, he's he's re he's well respected at the city gate.

Jerry Dugan:

So these are like the guys who are the movers and the shakers and

Jerry Dugan:

the leaders in their communities.

Jerry Dugan:

So this guy has a.

Tim Winders:

no slacker.

Tim Winders:

He's no deadbeat.

Tim Winders:

He's not just sitting around watching, Jerry Springer on tv.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah, exactly.

Jerry Dugan:

He's not the, Hey, bring me a sandwich guy.

Jerry Dugan:

He's the, Hey honey, I fully trust you got everything here.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm gonna go talk to the guys about pasts and some legislation

Jerry Dugan:

and maybe beef up security around here to make everybody safe.

Jerry Dugan:

All right, we'll see you when I get back.

Jerry Dugan:

And so then there's that.

Jerry Dugan:

And then he just praises her in front of the children.

Jerry Dugan:

And he's not like making fun of her.

Jerry Dugan:

He's not talking about her looks or intellect or anything like that.

Jerry Dugan:

He's praising his wife in a way that's modeling it for the kids.

Jerry Dugan:

And so that the.

Jerry Dugan:

So everybody says she's blessed.

Jerry Dugan:

Look at her.

Jerry Dugan:

And so those are the three verses I was aim amen at when

Jerry Dugan:

I say Proverbs 31 husband.

Jerry Dugan:

But in Proverbs 13, I guess you can't go wrong here like a wise

Jerry Dugan:

son, hes his father's instructions.

Jerry Dugan:

But a mocker does not.

Jerry Dugan:

And I think I got some highlights in here on the Bible app.

Jerry Dugan:

One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing, another pretends

Jerry Dugan:

to be poor, yet has great wealth.

Jerry Dugan:

And so for me that's always a great reminder.

Jerry Dugan:

Who you are on the inside matters way more than what you look like to everybody else.

Jerry Dugan:

And and so that ties in with what the conversation is we've been

Jerry Dugan:

having, which is like, how do you know that you're pursuing your

Jerry Dugan:

own dreams versus somebody else's?

Jerry Dugan:

How do you know you're in a rut?

Jerry Dugan:

And versus just needing to slug this thing out and keep on your path.

Jerry Dugan:

That's pretty cool.

Tim Winders:

Very good.

Tim Winders:

Yeah.

Tim Winders:

I'm glad when I first got that question back from ChatGPT, I said, okay, we're

Tim Winders:

gonna have a little bit of fun with it.

Tim Winders:

We're gonna mock AI that's so popular now, but.

Tim Winders:

You know what?

Tim Winders:

Let's spin it and make it positive.

Tim Winders:

Maybe the AI was pointing us to something.

Tim Winders:

Pretty much we can't go through Proverbs and find anything that would contradict

Tim Winders:

almost everything we've discussed here.

Tim Winders:

you talk about your future and what's that's really rocking

Tim Winders:

along for you and I know you've got podcast that's doing great.

Tim Winders:

Rocking along, you've got the book.

Tim Winders:

That is excellent.

Tim Winders:

Done very well.

Tim Winders:

What's coming up in the future that you're really super excited about?

Tim Winders:

And you've mentioned a couple things here, but something else about

Tim Winders:

the future before we wrap up here

Jerry Dugan:

The biggest thing is I'm pursuing the dream, like the dream

Jerry Dugan:

I've had and my wife and I were talking about it just a few days ago that

Jerry Dugan:

Because she had asked me no, we were talking about living in Dallas because

Jerry Dugan:

she's grown up in Corpus Christi.

Jerry Dugan:

I've grown up all over the world as an army brat.

Jerry Dugan:

And we were talking about how big Dallas is and how she never dreamed

Jerry Dugan:

that she would live in a city like this.

Jerry Dugan:

And I had said to her something like, I have, it's weird.

Jerry Dugan:

I never thought I was gonna move to a big city.

Jerry Dugan:

I just, ever since we left the army and I had that first job out of the

Jerry Dugan:

army, I always had into my head that we would be a family that lived in a

Jerry Dugan:

big city, empty nesters at some point.

Jerry Dugan:

And I would be traveling the world, speaking at organizations, speaking at

Jerry Dugan:

events, and that we would just, that would be our life, and it wouldn't be like a,

Jerry Dugan:

I gave up family for fortune or fame.

Jerry Dugan:

It was like in the dream, in the vision.

Jerry Dugan:

I am in a hotel, but I'm in a suit.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm getting ready to go downstairs to wherever I'm doing my talk, but

Jerry Dugan:

I'm calling my wife first just to tell her what I've been up to that

Jerry Dugan:

I'm about to go downstairs and I'll call her as soon as I'm done.

Jerry Dugan:

And I'll see her tonight.

Jerry Dugan:

That kind of thing.

Jerry Dugan:

And it's just like this very vague dream.

Jerry Dugan:

And I'm in it right now.

Jerry Dugan:

Like I've published the book.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm hoping the book leads to speaking engagements paid

Jerry Dugan:

keynote, present appearances.

Jerry Dugan:

And I've also started a company called B T R Impact because I wanna take all the

Jerry Dugan:

things I loved about my corporate job, which was doing leadership development

Jerry Dugan:

trainings some coaching, and really inspiring leaders to be servant leaders

Jerry Dugan:

in how they approach their teams.

Jerry Dugan:

So when we're looking at current events right now with quiet quitting

Jerry Dugan:

50 million people quit their jobs in the US last year in 2022.

Jerry Dugan:

And leaders are struggling, how do we keep our talent here as opposed

Jerry Dugan:

to running off to the competition and you got all these different ideas.

Jerry Dugan:

But Gallup did a survey recently and and I think about servant

Jerry Dugan:

leadership and I'm like, the seven pillars of servant leadership

Jerry Dugan:

fit that, and I love this thing.

Jerry Dugan:

And if I could just share that message with companies and leadership teams and

Jerry Dugan:

help them apply those principles, not only would they be leading like Jesus,

Jerry Dugan:

whether they knew it or not they'd be leading in a way that people respond

Jerry Dugan:

and say, I wanna work for this guy.

Jerry Dugan:

I, I wanna stay here and I wanna work here for as long as I can

Jerry Dugan:

until they realize they probably could have hired somebody better.

Jerry Dugan:

That's what I wanna do and that's what I'm working on.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm building the messaging around that so that I can better communicate

Jerry Dugan:

that out to different companies and yeah, just freelance as a leadership

Jerry Dugan:

development trainer and coach.

Jerry Dugan:

And also be out there as somebody who talks about getting out

Jerry Dugan:

of your rut, whether it's your career or something else in life.

Jerry Dugan:

So that's what's going on.

Tim Winders:

I like how everything revolves around that beyond the Rut brand.

Tim Winders:

I think that's good.

Tim Winders:

And I'm sure of people would say, oh, you've planned that all along.

Tim Winders:

And I'm, but I know better.

Tim Winders:

You stepped into the podcast years ago, and so has somewhat evolved, is awesome.

Tim Winders:

If you wanna have a little bit of fun with your wife, she know, she mentioned

Tim Winders:

she didn't see herself in Dallas.

Tim Winders:

Say, Hey, listen, I just talked to a buddy of mine and he just

Tim Winders:

wanted me to ask you, have you ever thought about living in an rv?

Jerry Dugan:

right.

Tim Winders:

It'll be a good conversation.

Tim Winders:

I'm sure it'll go well for you if you just bring that

Jerry Dugan:

Oh, I actually brought that up.

Jerry Dugan:

When we first interviewed you for Beyond the Rut it was probably the fastest

Jerry Dugan:

snow I heard come outta her mouth.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah, it was as far as living in an rv she'll go camping with

Jerry Dugan:

me if there's an RV involved.

Jerry Dugan:

I'm like, but I like going in the woods with a hammock and just bare minimum.

Jerry Dugan:

And she goes, yeah no.

Jerry Dugan:

If RV is in this, the conversation, yes, I will go camping with you.

Jerry Dugan:

I was like, oh, cool.

Tim Winders:

I do, I can see all of that stuff happening for you that

Tim Winders:

you brought up to Jeremy and I'm watching it as it unfolds and as one

Tim Winders:

that's done a lot of those things too.

Tim Winders:

I could definitely see your path down that.

Tim Winders:

And it's very exciting when one is outside of a rut, going down a

Tim Winders:

path that's a little bit different, unique, you can't see the edges, the

Tim Winders:

rims, the safety bars along the side.

Tim Winders:

I can see you doing that.

Tim Winders:

So that's very exciting.

Tim Winders:

Where do people need to go to find out about you to get

Tim Winders:

the book all of that stuff?

Tim Winders:

Just give all that right now.

Tim Winders:

We'll include it down in the notes, but where do they need to go?

Jerry Dugan:

Awesome.

Jerry Dugan:

So for the podcast the book itself beyondtherut.com

Jerry Dugan:

is the hub for everything.

Jerry Dugan:

If you wanna go straight to Amazon and buy the book just beyondtherut.com/book,

Jerry Dugan:

and I'll pull up the results right there for you on your browser.

Jerry Dugan:

And then if you're interested in me being at your organization or event as a speaker

Jerry Dugan:

or to run a workshop, btrimpact.com is that website and it gives you a

Jerry Dugan:

list of the different topics I cover as a speaker for keynotes and workshop

Jerry Dugan:

topics as well, what those entail.

Jerry Dugan:

Yeah, beyondtherut.com and then btrimpact.com.

Tim Winders:

Excellent.

Tim Winders:

Thanks Jerry.

Tim Winders:

We are seek, go create.

Tim Winders:

You know that.

Tim Winders:

I know you do.

Tim Winders:

I'm gonna give you one of those words to choose and why.

Tim Winders:

As my last question, seek, go, or create, which one do you choose?

Jerry Dugan:

Right now I am in create mode, so I'm going with create, yeah.

Jerry Dugan:

Taking all the ideas that I've sought.

Jerry Dugan:

And yeah now it's just making it happen.

Tim Winders:

Excellent.

Tim Winders:

Excellent.

Tim Winders:

Thank you so much, Jerry.

Tim Winders:

What a fun time we've had.

Tim Winders:

And the author of the book, beyond the Rut, create a Life Worth

Tim Winders:

Living in Your Faith, and Career.

Tim Winders:

Make sure you get a copy of that.

Tim Winders:

Go check 'em out over Beyond the Rut.

Tim Winders:

I am confident if people listen in here, they'll enjoy beyond the rut also.

Tim Winders:

And I appreciate you being here.

Tim Winders:

I'm glad we're able to have this conversation because it's a more

Tim Winders:

focused conversation than probably we get to have when we're all around

Tim Winders:

our masterminds and things like that.

Tim Winders:

Make sure you share this.

Tim Winders:

Listen, I bet some of you know somebody who's in a rut.

Tim Winders:

Some of you might be in a rut, but if you know somebody, share this

Tim Winders:

episode with them so that they can hear some of the things talked about.

Tim Winders:

Identify their five Fs that Jerry mentioned, and hopefully

Tim Winders:

get them out of that rut.

Tim Winders:

Appreciate everybody listening in here.

Tim Winders:

are seek go create.

Tim Winders:

Until next time, continue being all that you are created to be.