I sent this out today:
Hey gang,
I need your help.
When I look at the fruit in my life, there is something amiss. With all the stuff going on with Jordan, I am doing some hard reflection to see if my own junk isnt causing all of this stuff. We have been wandering around in poverty, wafare and affliction for too long, and things need to change. This is not the Kingdom.
I sent an email to Brian Cork, a dear friend, who will speak truth with no mercy, which I think I need right now.
At issue is what am I supposed to be doing in terms of where to live and work. I have explored all kinds of stuff: my own gig, my own ministry, others’ ministries, colorado, atlanta, etc. It’s all over the place. What I need is to focus on a direction and move in that. I need to discern what job I like to do and am good at. And, I need to come up with a plan, and the counsel of many is the way to go. I owe it to my family.
You guys are among my most trusted and have walked with me in one way or another over the last years.
As for work, the last two years have found me helping out small companies to formulate their business/marketing strategy and get sales going. I really enjoy the marketing strategy side of things and the day to day sales less. I do like selling, but I hate trying to find business. But, that’s just part of sales. I am good at presenting and really dig having to creatively come up with answers to problems. What does that look like to you in terms of work for John Stein? Brian says go sell. He might be right, and I have to get over what I dont like about it. Maybe, there is a variation to that. What about CO? Laura, Jack and I are ready to be there today. Jordan is all over the place with it but with where she is right now, I dont know how to discern the LORD in her voice.
I have included the email exchange below to give you background.
I believe that I need to change. God has been giving me some dreams about joy, work and the like. He has taken the focus (dreams) off of wafare, witchcraft and all that stuff. I think that I have a little “handle” on what He wants with raising kids. We are in process of working that out now, and its a mountain. But, I sense the root of the issue is me and what I am supposed to be doing for work. I am neglecting my family in my terms.
Please review this and give your most brutally honest feedback and what you would recommend in terms of action.
You have total freedom to just say it as it is. I will respond with the collective direction and allow you to hold me accountable until change comes.
Thank you.
The verse that came out of yesterday’s dream:
Deuteronomy 16:15
“Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
Begin forwarded message:
From: brian patrick cork <brian@briancork.com>
Date: February 11, 2011 9:33:21 AM EST
To: John Stein | elevate29 <john.stein@elevate29.com>
Subject: Re: question
1. You and I have wrestled over Colorado for almost ten years now. I had come to the conclusion, long ago, that you can’t “…see the forest for the trees”. Joanne and I moved to Colorado back in 1993 for no particular reason other than we did not want to raise kids (Haley Anne was born in Louisville in 1996) in Los Angeles. We picked up and went there and created a life. If you want to go to Colorado, go to Colorado. The only thing stopping you is you (and, that is nothing new). The longest argument against it was laura. But, now she’s on-board.
2. Short-term revenue generation. Wise.
CEO’s only hire other guys to “change” what they do if they have a referenceable background doing just that. They typically want to call the expert, not be solicited by someone that says they are expert. If you want CEO’s to sit at your knee you have to get other CEO’s to tout you. Experts and pundits (like mission specific bloggers) need to exthole your virtu. Otherwise, you are like everyone else.
Your last sentence is the most invocative. Of course I can help anybody. But, it depends on what they want to do.
You need to come to terms with four questions:
1. What are you good at?
2. What do you want to do?
3. Who needs you?
4. Why?
I do know in my heart that you are at a stage in your life where you believe you want to be affirmed by leaders coming to you for wisdom. But, that takes us back to the beginning of this email. What have you done with your life, other than walk in the desert that would make a CEO come to you for guidance? From a fiduciary standpoint, they are required to look for “credibility markers” (I’ve made that term up and enjoy using it a lot).
I have long believed that John Stein should pick up a product or service and evangelize it. That means forgetting a title and just selling the heck out of something. Salesmen make a lot of money when they get behind a product people actually need, will pay for, and helps them. A slight variation of this theme is Tim Barker. He built a business out of pride. God took it away from him. He owed $1m and could not sleep at night. I told him to just get a job and give his wife a break. He decided to work for someone else. He knocked it out of the park, paid off every penny, and is now respected by everyone as a business man first and a man of God second (that is who we are as a people). But, he gets people attention as a business man and then they listen to him as a witness.
I think he finally did it Gods way. I believe you are trying to interpret what God is telling you until you like what you hear.
Brian
On Feb 7, 2011, at 5:02 PM, John Stein | elevate29 wrote:
Hey,
For some reason, you keep coming to mind with regard to a question flowing through my mind.
Two early points:
1) It is the heart of my family to move to CO.
2) Rob is great, and it provides, but working with him is way below my talent level. He has no vision or unction for defining industries, which is perfectly fine. But, I want to change the world. He knows that I am moving on to something bigger, and our relationship has been highly beneficial to each party.
But, something needs to change. You may have a key.
Let’s just say that I have no clue as to where we should be. I am very gifted at building strategies for taking products/services into the market. I would say that I am best at looking at a company and productizing what they do in a way that maximizes revenue potential. This feels to me to be more marketing related than sales, and I enjoy it a lot. I dig business development in the traditional sense because it pulls on that gifting. I have no desire in my heart for day to day sales. But, I love meeting with companies and helping them solve issues.
The stuff with event-based marketing is an example of this. For some reason, I can just put the pieces together that make a lot of sense. Perhaps, this is part of what God has been doing with me all these desert years. I have interviewed with several CEOs where I knew how to get them traction better than what they were doing. You certainly dont want to come across arrogantly or threatening, but I think that the smaller companies tend to get started by smart guys who dont know how to build and put the pieces together. I dont know. Maybe, I am wrong.
All said, the question for you is, “where do I go work?” You know my story.
You know what God has been doing with me, even if neither one of us understands it. Colorado would be ideal, and I need to put an end to this wilderness walking. I am so very tired of it all. We would move anywhere cool for the most part. I think that we would even be happy here if we could settle down.
I want a job that draws on what I do well and like to do, and I want to build wealth for my children’s children.
Can you help or am I just to flaky for you to utilize?
Peace & Favor,
John J. Stein
(678) 333-6693 c
(404) 939-4329 d
www.elevate29.com