When it comes to being part of a group or an organization, accountability is one of the most desired traits that a member should possess. Whether you like it or not, your boss, your colleagues, your partner, your team members, and your community expect accountability as well as the responsibility from you as you fulfill your role to achieve your common goal. The same is true when you’re trying to attain your personal goals. But, it is hard to be accountable to yourself when you are alone in your journey, right?
Stuart Grazier and David Gutierrez of Storehouse Mastermind and Storehouse 3:10 Ventures, join us today to talk about helping others find, define, and live their “why” through a process of accountability that works. They help men find their highest and best through deep conversations of faith, giving, family, service, leadership, including entrepreneurship, financial literacy, real estate, and business. Listen now and learn how with partners and mentors, men can honor accountability in pursuit of an abundant life imbued by faith, family, service, and financial freedom.
Key Points From This Episode:
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Click to Find out more about our upcoming event: "Crafting Your Kingdom Investing Thesis"
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth by T. Harv Eker
Gospel Patrons by John Rinehart
Giving Together by John Rinehart
The Go-Giver series by Bob Burg and John David Mann
When it comes to being part of a group or an organization, accountability is one of the most desired traits that a member should possess. Whether you like it or not, your boss, your colleagues, your partner, your team members, and your community expect accountability as well as the responsibility from you as you fulfill your role to achieve your common goal. The same is true when you’re trying to attain your personal goals. But, it is hard to be accountable to yourself when you are alone in your journey, right?
Stuart Grazier and David Gutierrez of Storehouse Mastermind and Storehouse 3:10 Ventures, join us today to talk about helping others find, define, and live their “why” through a process of accountability that works. They help men find their highest and best through deep conversations of faith, giving, family, service, leadership, including entrepreneurship, financial literacy, real estate, and business. Listen now and learn how with partners and mentors, men can honor accountability in pursuit of an abundant life imbued by faith, family, service, and financial freedom.
Key Points From This Episode:
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Click to Find out more about our upcoming event: "Crafting Your Kingdom Investing Thesis"
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth by T. Harv Eker
Gospel Patrons by John Rinehart
Giving Together by John Rinehart
The Go-Giver series by Bob Burg and John David Mann
EPISODE 19
[INTRODUCTION]
ANNOUNCER: Imagine taking your generosity to the next level, impacting more lives, and leaving a godly legacy for generations to come. Get ideas and strategies to do just that when you listen to these personal stories from high-level Kingdom champions.
The Kingdom Investor Podcast showcases business leaders who have moved from success to significance, sharing how they use worldly wealth for Kingdom impact. Discover how they grew in generosity, impacted more lives, and built godly legacies. You'll find motivation, inspiration, and practical steps to grow as a Kingdom Investor.
Daniel White (DW): Hello and welcome to The Kingdom Investor Podcast. I'm your host Daniel White and today, I'm interviewing Stuart Grazier and David Gutierrez. Today, they talk about how they found a deeper community and meaningful life change in their intentional mastermind groups. They are the founders of Storehouse Mastermind and host the Filling the Storehouse Podcast. Let's jump right into the show.
[INTERVIEW]
DW: Hello and welcome to The Kingdom Investor Podcast. Today I have with me, Stuart and David. And we are so excited to get to know them and unpack their story and really hear how God is using them to advance His kingdom. So, David and Stuart, would you say hello and tell us a little bit about yourself and where you're coming from?
Stuart Grazier (SG): All right. So we are both here in the Denver Colorado Metro. I chose to live on the other side of Denver from David so we're not so close to each other. So, he's not like over at my house every single day knocking on my door.
DW: How close are you to Arvada?
SG: David's really close. I'm about 30 minutes away. So, I live in Parker, Colorado and David is in Lakewood, Colorado. And we both recently retired from the navy for 20 years and both moved our families back to Colorado. We’re in our hub now. We're actually in offices right next to each other. And, yeah, glad to be here, man.
DW: Awesome. So, Stuart or David, do you want to share a little bit?
David Gutierrez (DG): Yeah, sure. You know, Stuart, he likes to tell things like half-truths as we call them. And really, I lobbied the city of Lakewood and the school system in Jefferson County to ensure that his family could not establish roots anywhere near me. So, that's the true story. It took a lot of work, years and years of planning and preparation. But finally, the city of Lakewood officially banned the Grazier family from our premises. But, you know, all joking aside, Stu and I, you know, we did just retire after 20 years of navy service, but he didn't mention that we were roommates at the Naval Academy. So, we've known each other for 25 plus years, we were best buds back at the Naval Academy. And then you fast forward and all through the years, we've been involved in each other's lives, you know, best man at each other's weddings, and being around when our kids were born and have just maintained a very strong relationship.
DG: And about 2018, so four years ago-ish, we decided to go into business together as we'd been cultivating this relationship for, you know, at that point, 20 years, and, you know, decided to join in holy matrimony of business, and, and become a couple in that realm. And really, you know, the foundation relationship, we're extremely blessed, because I think it's very unique to have such a tight relationship with somebody, but also to be able to translate that over to a business relationship which oftentimes is vastly different. So, we've been doing a variety of businesses that will I'm sure we'll get into here shortly. And it's just been an absolute blessing and pleasure to be able to do these things with my best friend. I don't think I would do, not I don't think, I would absolutely not do them by myself. I'm a very team, partner-driven person.
DW: That's good to hear. Good to hear. So Stu, would you paint a picture of where you grew up what your background is and just kind of your history?
SG: Yeah, of course. I was born in Dallas, Texas, and lived there for about 12 years. My mom and my dad divorced when I was five years old. So I grew up for a large majority of my life without a dad; he actually moved away. And so it was basically leaving my sister and I. She's two years younger than me. We were living with my mom. She remarried when I was 12. And then we moved down to Central Texas, kind of in between Waco and Austin in a small town. I went to high school there and then from there, decided to go to the Naval Academy where David and I were roommates, and then commissioned there, joined the navy and became a pilot, flew helicopters for 10 years, flew Boeing 737s for a couple of years and then just moved all around. I got married in 2008 to my beautiful bride, Crystal, and then we have two children. We have a daughter, Colin, she's seven and a half and a son, Wells, who's four and a half.
DW: David, do you want to mirror that? Or one up that?
DG: Well, I want to give props to Colin. She also runs a podcast, which is pretty rad. So if you guys haven't listened to that, I would highly encourage you go check it out.
DW: What is it called?
SG: It's called Kid Books podcast. It's on Spotify. And she basically just finds - she loves to read - so she just finds her favorite books and she reads them and then kind of asks them questions and engages the audience. And so we got her excited about that, was kind of our summer project this year. And, yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
DW: That's so cool. And you said, how old's she?
SG: Seven and a half, almost eight.
DW: That's awesome. I love it!
DG: What's beautiful about it is she actually reads at a higher level than Stuart. So that's also just so...
SG: Somewhat true, somewhat true.
DG: But yeah, so you know, my history. My parents actually divorced when I was two. And so I actually grew up, they both started moving a lot for their respective careers. They remarried relatively quickly. And I grew up switching houses every year. So I'd go to a different location every year. And what's interesting is, you know, people, I tell that now and they're like, oh, it must have been horrible. It must have been hard. I mean, it's how I grew up. But that's, you know, I think it made me very suited for military life. Moving, that was never a challenge for me to change locations. And I actually was just talking to my wife the other day, I'm like, I'm a little bit nervous when we hit that three-year mark here in Colorado, that we're not going to be moving because it's literally my entire life.
DG: When I went to the Naval Academy for college, that was the first time I'd ever lived somewhere for four years straight and it was just a, you know, an interesting childhood. But, it was a huge blessing, it really helped me to, you know, it made me to, I guess I was probably inclined to be extroverted. But it really helped me to develop relationships quickly. And, that's something that has served for, you know, up into this point. My choice of people I choose relationships with obviously can be questioned with Stu here, but it's, everything has a blessing right? There's a blessing in everything and I'm a firm believer in that.
DG: So I grew up all over the place, I claimed California as kind of, you know, where I'm from. And that's just simply because I graduated high school there. And then from there, I went to the Naval Academy. I went into the intel field. I was a cryptologic warfare officer and basically, that means the fancy title for everything I did. Can't really talk about it on this podcast, it's classified and that makes it very easy to do a job description. And, so for me, you know, we moved around a bunch. I married a woman who loves adventure, and we've been all over the world, stationed all over the world, and started having babies in 2011. So, my daughter is 11 years old. I have a son who's nine. And then I have another son who is five. And that's, that's my story. Now we're here in Colorado, and, you know, planting roots, which, at 42 years old, is a new experience for me.
DW: Yeah, my dad was in the Air Force. And so I know, you know, every 18 months we'd move pretty much as a kid. Some of us like it, some of us didn't. I think it was a good experience, though.
DG: Yeah, no, we loved it. And it's really developed a sense of adventure in my kids, my wife, so it's something that we're intending to carry on through travel and experiences that you know, I think it's great, it opens our horizons. If you haven't gone overseas, I recommend all your listeners go overseas and see how other people live. It's a pretty rewarding experience.
DW: So, after you guys got out of the navy, you got into business. Tell us a little bit more about that.
SG: Well, we actually started business while we're still in the navy. We both were independently kind of doing real estate as a side hustle, if you will. I think we both have very entrepreneurial spirit. And, you know, we started learning about real estate, dabbling in it. I think we tried very different strategies, you know, we owned houses we turned into rentals. And, you know, over time, as we just continued to talk, we decided that, you know, we wanted to do something like real estate and be business owners, be entrepreneurs after we got out of the military. That transition from full-time active military duty to civilian life can be very, very challenging for a lot of people. And so we wanted to really get a head start on that.
SG: And so, you know, those talks started really early, prior to us getting out. And when we've both been dabbling in real estate. We both had some really hard lessons learned in real estate. And because of those hard lessons learned, we kind of came up with this model that we thought would be way better to help others, you know, learn about real estate and invest in real estate. One of the big challenges for us being in the navy, is we're typically stationed on coasts, and it's typically a lot more expensive there. And a lot of times the numbers don't really work from the perspective of just kind of long-term rentals. So we found a market through David's horrible experience in some investing, that, you know, we can tell if we have time for but we wanted to help others, you know, get into real estate, and use our lessons learned and hard knocks, and then serve that purpose.
DW: Alright, so I think we have time for one hard-knocks story. You got a really hairy one?
DG: Oh, man, where do I start? You know, for me, it was really interesting because it was I had chosen a company to do turnkey real estate with in Milwaukee. And I talked to the owner. And you know, Stu and I are huge on relationships. And so in everything I go into, I try to create a relationship, understand where they're coming from, and help them understand what I'm looking for. And then we try to find the commonalities and all that good stuff. And this guy was very big on, you know, I'm a Christian, and I love Jesus and all these things, and which resonated. I'm not one to judge anybody, but I would say the fruit is not something that, his fruit is not something I experienced. But that being said, just as a kind of final thing, we actually settled out of court for they gave me a check for $25,000 on rehabs that they didn't do. They literally would go and do a video of the house. And they'd avoid things like the dates on water heaters and say, hey, we replaced this water heater for you. And even went as far as like scratching the dates out of the water heaters.
DG: And so it just was a systemic lack of integrity in it, it resonated throughout everything. You know, I bought three properties from them. And it just was an all-around terrible experience that I thank God for almost on a daily basis because if it wasn't for that, I don't think we would have started our business. We wouldn't have been driven to try to create a better experience for our network. And we may not have jumped into business together, which has now morphed into something vastly different that I believe God, you know, God has driven us in a different direction. But I don't know if any of that would have happened if we both didn't have these absolutely terrible experiences in real estate. And we both had them at the same time with, you know, same type of thing, different parts of the country, but just, you know, just very, very shady, a lot of lies, and a lot of intentional deceit. You know, it was really interesting to observe that aspect of business and quite frankly, human nature.
DW: Yeah. Wow. That's pretty wild. I've got a couple of stories, but I don't know, that one probably tops 'em.
DG: Yeah, it was pretty special. It was a pretty special experience. And maybe it's because God knew that I'm so hard-headed. I'd really need an extreme to drive me to do something else. If it was something minor, like a $5,000 thing, you know, not that $5,000 is minor, but in the context of you know, four houses, it is. I don't know if I would have jumped as quickly into running a business especially since we were on full-time active duty at the time.
DW: So tell me how you guys got ramped up in real estate and what did that look like, your partnership and everything, and what do you guys do now?
SG: Yeah, so those lessons learned cause us to really sit down and talk about what we learned, what we wanted to do, and how we could serve others. And, you know, we started with just those simple concepts of integrity and in looking at our core values and figuring out, you know, how we wanted to use business in real estate in general to help others. So, you know, we, David primarily, had gone through this experience, and he had to, really out of requirement to go out and find new people to help him with these properties that were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And he started building out a team on his own. He had basically fired everyone from a turnkey company, and then go find other people that can help him. And so through that, we said, like, hey, we've heard a lot of bad stories about turnkey companies, I had some pretty bad experiences myself.
SG: We started building out this model, and we started with our core values and what we wanted to do with real estate to serve a bigger purpose. One, to help our network of primarily military and veteran investors get into the space, educate, offer opportunities, help them start building passive income streams. So, their transition now isn't as hard. But also, we wanted to give, you know, we wanted to make giving and tithing a huge part of our business. And so we came up with the title of Storehouse 3:10, which comes from Malachi 3:10 in the Bible. And in our business model, we said that the first 10% of all of our profits would go to nonprofit organizations that we supported. We started a donor-advised fund and so we just automatically would make that a part of the business process where you know, we would buy, rehab, and sell a house and the first 10% would go into the DAF. So, we started that in 2018. We started just with a few friends and family, we borrowed some money to buy that first house from one of David's really close friends. And then from there, we just kind of started telling people about it, and word of mouth spread. And they kind of figured out that we had a pretty good product. And it just like blew up. I think we sold 25 houses the first year of business, like 50, the next year, and it's been on about that pace since so let's say it was pretty interesting to see.
DW: So were you guys flipping houses?
SG: Yeah, so what we basically were doing was buying off market houses, primarily single- families and a duplex or two. And we would use private money for every single house. They were all off-market, they all needed major rehabs. We would buy them, rehab them, turn them over to a property management company that we've added there in Milwaukee, got renters in place. And then so we basically had a full turnkey product in a house that was fully rehabbed, rented and property management in place. And we'd sell that off to another investor who wanted that turnkey rental property.
DW: Gotcha. Cool.
DG: Yeah, one thing I wanted to emphasize, you know, Stu mentioned core values and these things, and we kind of, we kind of skirt over those a little bit sometimes. And, you know, for those of you out there listening, and really, whether you're entrepreneurial, you want to build a business, you already built a business, you know, this is, this is always germane, you know, something we can always go back to, but for Stu and I, we came up with the core values of service, giving, integrity and laughter. And that took a long time, right, that took but we did that before we bought a deal because we knew, and maybe some of it was from a military background and having a vision and a mission and things that that we knew to drive a team forward. But for us, it was important to highlight, okay, what are we doing this for? Like, one, what are we doing this for individually? And two, are we compatible to do this together? Because if you can imagine you jump into business with somebody, you're like, hey, I want to give 10 plus percent of our income to, you know, back to God, well, you better be equally yoked. You better agree with that whole idea of faith and giving.
DG: And then, you know, it really also drove all of our decisions. It drove how we dealt with hard, hard circumstances. You know, Stu and I, I mean, you know, I'd be a fool to think that Stu doesn't have a ton of opportunities outside of what we do together. So we talk about that, right? He's a very capable individual, he could go fly planes, you know, he's got other mastermind stuff going on. There are all kinds of focus on real estate. But through our core values, we had all these conversations two weeks ago, about okay, dude, like, here's what you got going on. Here's what I got going on. Here's where I want to be, here's where you want to be like, is this still gonna? Where are the conflicts, let's address them. And then ultimately, you know, handle them with integrity, and ultimately laugh about it. Laughter is a core value and if you hear our podcast or you hear the way that we interact, there's a lot of laughter all the time. Usually, it's at Stu's expense, but it's still laughter, laughter, laughter and these are all based on biblical principles that were also very important to us. So tied to, you know, specifically taking the effort to tie a core value to a verse that drives that, and then build out those core, you know. I won't go into it now. But each of those core values has like, a list of five different things that prioritizes what it means to be service minded. What does it mean to be a giving business and individuals? What does integrity mean? What is laughter? And it literally has bullet points that go down from there, all that was done before we bought our first deal. And I think that's really critical to highlight and point out.
DW: So where did you guys get those core values? Is that something that was kind of instilled in you at a young age? Where do you draw those from?
DG: Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's just what we, you know, we had, this was an exercise for us to dig internally, and then to match and figure out where those core values met. And I think, it was just having strong convictions of who we were and who he wanted to be. And it's a blessing, right? It's a blessing that Stu and I are like-minded in that way, and very growth-minded, and oriented. Because it wasn't something like I didn't get those, you know, those weren't military things, those weren't necessarily family values that I had, that we talked about in my family, at least. This was something that, you know, at that point, a 16-year military career, life and real estate, and all the things we were doing had built us to this point of, this is what's important to me, being self-aware of what's important. And then just, you know, acknowledging the other, the other half's contribution. Mostly, you know, we joke, but it's much like it's like a marriage. I mean, it really is like a marriage.
SG: And we're very different, honestly. I mean, we, I was an engineer in college.
DW: I can see that.
SG: Yeah, very, very, like checklist-style, like, you know, gotta have everything planned out. And David was an English major. So very, you know, very lovey, feely, squishy, loves to read books and write and, you know, lives on the clouds at 50,000 feet. But when you put those two together, I mean, you need both of those in a business. And, you know, we have a lot of different opinions and thoughts and feelings towards things, but it married up pretty well when we were looking at how to grow business.
DW: So you guys really are taking giving seriously. What was the Genesis story to that? And like, where did that come from? Why do you guys want to be generous?
SG: I think that comes from kind of my upbringing, for me personally. I saw something in my family, they were both generous, and not so maybe much from a monetary perspective. But both sides of my family gave a ton of their time, a ton of their effort, and put their heart and soul into people. You know, I saw my mom, as a single mom, like just pouring everything into us as her children to almost like a detriment, right? I saw my dad like running a business and like pouring into his employees. And really, like, you know, digging in at his expense to give and so I think that from like, a very young person saw that. And it just kind of pulled on me and just, it was a value that I kind of grew up with. And then you know, I wasn't I wouldn't claim to be a Christian early on in life. I really didn't kind of find that faith until after college. And through those experiences, and those values, you know, as I started to get into the Word, and get it, you know, be pulled by God, I think that's when that really came out of me even more so.
DW: That's good.
DG: Yeah, you know, I mean, that's, for me, it was just, I've always been a spiritual person. And I've also always been a rule follower. So, you know, as I matured in my faith, and really, college is a very formative time for me in my walk, and once I left college, and I started, you know, just spending more time in the Word and seeing the call to be a good steward. And then specifically, you know, Malachi 3:10, the 10%. And that whole premise, but really, from Jesus's perspective, just being generous because Jesus said, "Give it all" and so in really wrapping my mind around the fact that and this is even this is evolving, you know, even today, obviously. But the idea that God is, everything that I have is from Him anyways. And I'm only going to have it for a very finite amount of time and I'll be, you know, judged by how I use it. It being time, money, resources, where I give my effort, my love, all these things.
DG: And so just having an eternal mindset that this stuff is so temporary and I'm just borrowing it right and all the money, all that whatever I have is just, it's just gonna pass to somebody else. Whether it's my family, or, it's gonna go somewhere else. And so having that mindset of, you know, that eternal mindset has really shaped and helped me to get to this point of wanting to be a giver. But selfishly, very selfishly, how great does it feel to give? I mean, how much does that feed your soul, and when you see somebody, celebrate and enjoy the gift that you've provided, whatever that is, like, very selfishly, let's be honest here, it feels really good. And I think that's by design. And so generosity also has some, some very tangible impacts to us our mental health and our spiritual health, that, you know, that are less honorable than being generous, and they're very much self-centered. And so there's that aspect of it.
DW: What is your favorite place to give? Or do you have any stories about memorable experiences that you got a chance to give, and it just really lit you up, or just brought you great joy?
SG: And so we've found some pretty amazing organizations that we've supported, you know, in this journey through our business. And, you know, like David said earlier on, we really tried to get to know the individuals who are running these companies, and sit down with them and see where they're, you know, where they're impacting people. And one of the first organizations that we chose was kind of on our hearts, we had some classmates commit suicide in the military. PTSD is a really big issue. And we found an organization in Texas called Warriors Heart, and they have a large ranch where, you know, they help military veterans, first responders, come and get support with that issue, I had the chance to go down to the, to the ranch, and walk the property, and kind of see everything that they're doing, and then talk with the founders of the organization. And, just seeing, like, for real, like, what they're doing, you know, like the tangible stuff they're doing to impact people, and how they can really help these individuals and see all the different programs they're doing, you know, that they have like a huge metal shop or like, military, like the guys that like, they just go in there just like, make things and just bang on metal and make these cool, like axes and, you know, all these cool things and just go into the ranch and being there and seeing it like, to me was super cool to see like, hey, we're maybe a small part of it but we're a part of it. And to see the actual impact that we're doing is pretty cool to me.
DG: Yeah. And there's another organization that we have gotten to know the founders very well. The focus is, it's called Access Road, the focus is on human trafficking. And, so that for us, you know, just to see, we have a heart for, you know, just people in general who are exploited. We feel there's a call to action to try to address and to try to counter just that. It's huge, the number of modern-day slaves is 40 plus million. I mean, and we're talking about children here for a lot of it, too. And so that was something we were very passionate about giving to and, and I'll tell you what's, what's really, you know, it's a really good question, because it's something we've been digging in recently, on not just, I feel like the bar for giving a lot of the time stops at money, which is very important. It's very important and I will not downplay that in any way. But sometimes, a lot of times, time and being present, and giving of our busy schedules has, has a bigger impact. And so, Stu and I have actually just the last of couple days, been like hey, you know, we love giving money and we want to be committed to that. And we will be committed to that. Not want to, we are committed to that. But where can we give our time? Where can we bring the gifts that God has given us and pour in other people's lives and very directly hands-on impact?
DG: Checks are relatively nameless, outside the name on the check, you know, it's not, a lot of times, it's not the full impact. But if you get there, and, it's hard to give a hug through a check, right? But the power of a hug, especially someone like me who loves hugging, the power of touch and voice and presence is so real and tangible and powerful that, you know, we're looking for ways to do that more as well. And we found some outlets, you know, through serving other men specifically. And I say, serving, we're also raising this mastermind to support our families, you know, it's not free. But the act and the conversations and bringing men together has been so powerful, way more powerful than we've experienced through writing checks. And so the things that we're focused on now are in our businesses, and we can get to that as well, but where our business focus is going is into these more very relationally driven, hands-on, challenging fellowship, fellowship-focused endeavors.
SG: If you don't mind, I want to dive into that a little bit further because what we found, you know, we both love real estate, like we both walk houses, looking at what needs to be fixed up, taking a dirty, ugly house and making it nice again, and understanding that there's gonna be people living in there, and that's all good. But what we came to experience through these last four years of running this company was, it's very transactional. And it still is very money-driven. And, you know, as much as we felt like, we were helping others kind of build their income streams, build their wealth, there was something missing, there was like a fulfillment that we weren't getting out of that and it was relationships. And it was, you know, we wanted to be building stronger relationships with individuals and helping them grow in other ways besides just money. And so we kind of looked internally again, figured out, like, where our struggles are, as middle-aged men with, you know, wives and children, and all the challenges that come with that, and the faith struggles we have.
SG: As we get older, we start to lose our friends, because we just get so focused on our jobs and our families, and we don't have fun anymore. And so we kind of started building out this stuff, what we were looking for, and what we want and what we needed. And we invited just, what, like eight guys, ten guys, David to come and just start, meet with us on a weekly Zoom call, and just like start talking through some of that stuff. Because men don't really, they're not really good at talking about that kind of stuff. And so, we kind of started building out this men's mastermind group, and we call it the Storehouse Mastermind. And it's been so fruitful. There's been so many amazing conversations, and there's been so many breakthroughs, seeing some of these men just completely transform and not only just, you know, faith stuff, but you know, we bring up stuff like pornography and you know, not having any friends and, you know, living in a fatherless world. And you know, there's so many things that have come out of it that we've found a lot of joy out of.
DG: Yet, it's interesting, because the entrepreneurial spirit, when we went in, we invited these guys. We knew it wasn't going to be another church group. We knew it wasn't going to be, not that there's anything wrong with the church group, but we knew that we wanted it to be this thing that created opportunities to give and to serve and to laugh and to do these things and hang out. And so we really started from the perspective of, hey, let's find this mastermind, let's find this group that'll feed us in this way. And then we were like, dude, we're entrepreneurs, man, like, let's just create it, like, I don't have time to look for something that's gonna be exactly what I want to be. Let's just build it. And if we truly believe that there's value there, which is a huge,
DG: What I believe should be a huge driver behind being an entrepreneur and a business builder and a giver is if you're creating this value, then God is gonna bless and if he's put that on our heart, then it's gonna grow. And you know, yesterday when it seems so simple, but yesterday, one of the guys said, hey, I actually told a little fib to my work. Because we had a virtual meeting during the mastermind meeting and he was like, this conversation was just too powerful, I couldn't, I couldn't leave. So I told a little fib to not go to my work meeting because this is feeding my soul. And, it was just a very affirming, but also, you know, God uses other people to speak to us and Stu and I were in tears. If you ever joined a mastermind, which I encourage, you know, if you're interested, all you men out there, we do have a lot of crying, we cry a lot. But even that, it's okay. And, there's been a lot of tears, but we're told as men that we don't cry, and that's such a lie. And we cry together. And it's such a beautiful thing. Because there is value there. And we came at it from a perspective, we want this, but let's turn that, you know, we're entrepreneurs, like, there's, there's value to be added here. And let's, let's make this into a business. So that this is all we have to focus on, and it can feed our families, I don't have to go get another thing, let's create the thing that we want to create. And so it's become, it's been really awesome.
DW: Wow, that is really cool. And I've really seen in my own life, and through talking to different friends and, and other leaders and stuff that that is a huge need to have deep discipleship in community with other men, and really being able to discuss deeper issues and sin and challenges and, you know, really open up to what we're facing in, in our own lives and, and how we can encourage each other, build each other up, sharpen each other, and pray for one another, and not just talking about the weather, and the sports team or whatever.
DG: So, that's one of my favorite things to say is that I have enough people to talk sports and weather with that this is not, and I will also be clear for the ladies out there, we are looking at starting a women's group not that either one of us will lead but you know, we're talking to our wives specifically. And for anybody who's interested in running because it's impactful and powerful for everybody. But, our wives benefit, right, to your point, Daniel, our wives and our children benefit because as leaders, we are refining and sharpening ourselves to be better in that environment as well. And so, they're direct beneficiaries of us, you know, becoming better ourselves.
DW: So have you found that a certain sized group is best? Or do you have multiple groups or just one group? Tell me a little bit more about that.
SG: Yeah, so we have two groups going right now. We just started our second group. Our first group started with ten individuals, not including the three of us as the founders, so there's 13 total in our first group of men that we started back in February of this year. And then, we recently just opened up our next group. We're calling them Houses. So, House 1, we opened up in August, and there are 14 members of that group. So, I think you know that the smaller group I think is better because you're going to have more intimate conversations and relationships that are built out of that. Our target was like 10 to 15 per group for our houses. So yeah, it's been good so far.
DW: Yeah, that's really good. I've done Iron Sharpens Iron Groups before where I get, you know, six to eight guys, and, you know, over about a six-month period, you know, we go really deep and that's been very impactful. And I think it's something that we as men resist, but then once we commit to it, then we're like, okay, we're all in and then it's like, oh my goodness, like God can really use these other men to really sharpen me, hold me accountable and helped me grow even. Like, we've seen the most amount of growth during those periods of time where we're, you know, really encouraging and building each other up. So yeah, I love it. This is really cool.
SG: Yeah, it's funny because, you know, most, we're all kind of type A business, entrepreneurial, quite a few military veteran members in these groups and, and it's funny because we are always trying to, almost seems like we're always like, one-upping each other like trying to like, oh, you had a family meeting? Now you're like, have this you know, cool family crest. Oh, look at me, well, I'm gonna do something even better. And it's just it just forces us to like, be intentional with our actions and actually become better husbands, better dads, better leaders.
DW: Almost like springing on one another towards deeds or something. So, can you guys tell me more about Storehouse 3:10 Ventures and what you guys are doing with real estate now?
DG: Yeah, so Storehouse 3:10 Ventures was the original turnkey business that we started that we described. That has morphed into a couple of things which has been a huge blessing. But, we've had a lending fund, a lending branch that's kind of come off of that, which has been amazing to free up our time,
DW: Is that like hard money?
DG: Yep, yep. And then we sell, we still sell those houses to our network on the back end, in that same area and Milwaukee that we were, that we previously been focused, our efforts have been focused on. And now locally, now that we're finally together, you know, we're in the same state, we've taken a pretty awesome project down in Canyon City, which is a significant rehab. So we, you know, we're in the middle of that project and have done a couple other deals in that area looking to do more deals. And so now, we're because we do love real estate, we love that, you know, that Stu described it earlier, all those elements of it. And so we're gonna continue doing those things.
DG: But I think the focus with here locally is going to be Stu and I doing things for, you know, for us, for fun, for our family and, and maybe some partnerships with some very, very, you know, close tightly vetted individuals but the preponderance of the effort is really the Storehouse 3:10 effort, the mastermind effort. And, you know, all of our energy, a lot of our energy, it's a 90%, 10%, 20% is going to real estate, but really, the preponderance of our effort is going to creating, you know, the curriculum, we've got this amazing curriculum for the mastermind and setting up speakers and engagements and ways to serve. And we have our first in-person coming up September 12th which is going to be absolutely amazing to get these guys together. And yeah, so that's where most of our, our Storehouse efforts are going and just trying to strategically think what we want this thing to be because we do feel that God's gonna bless that effort, and hopefully change a lot of dudes' lives.
DW: Yeah, that's so cool. I'm really excited for you guys. So where do you see that going? Is that something that you want to like continue to expand or go deeper with the groups that you have? Cast a little vision for me.
SG: Go ahead, Dave. You're that like 50,000 foot... you're the visionary.
DG: You know, it's funny, because we're working through that right now. And we're trying to apply the same level of, not even the same level, this is significantly more time to be jumping off this going right into a strategic call with, you know, for the mastermind, and, and really, there are a couple of things. One, it's refining what we want out of life. And, and what's so amazing is that I think we've landed on where we have gifting and where we want to be and there's also potential to grow a successful business out of it. But, what do we individually want out of that, right? Like I personally could sit in, you know, back to back to back mastermind calls with 15 houses and do that, and that's my daily battle rhythm, and I love it. Well, Stu is a little bit different. So he's like, dude, I'm in like two and it's exhausting, because there's a lot of emotions, it's very deep, it's very intentional. And so we're really refining and having to look within how we want to create this thing.
DG: But I personally envision it being we love creating opportunities for others to thrive. So I think where we're headed is we want to bring people in that are that are as dedicated and love this mission as much as we do, to be coaches that we would pay a very good salary that they could, you know, live off of and thrive financially, and then start opening houses that they run, and whether that's five houses and there's you know, we're thinking from a business perspective and Stu's like well, we could do profit split blah, blah, blah. He has spreadsheets, and I'm like, dude, just tell me the answer. But it's, I think, creating all these creating opportunities for others to also thrive but while also maintaining this business and building it, because we want to scale right?
DG: We want to scale not for not in the traditional sense of money and business, but in the sense of the more dudes that we can get that we can get into this group and as the magic happens, it's not Stu and I. Because we're just you know, we're limited by what we're limited by. The other men pouring into each other is magic, it is absolute magic, it's jet fuel. And so the more we can create those opportunities, and realistically, we can't be in all that, but the more we can create those opportunities, that is really where we want to be. And so what that looks like, I don't know, I'm like, I'm a, I'm a glass is always full, you know, this terrible thing happened, but this is what we learned from it kind of guy. And so I see this being, I feel that we don't even have the tiniest inkling of what this could be where we currently are. That's where I am.
SG: And there's, you know, like David said, you know, there's just, there's some examples that we could use so far that we have from our original group. One of the men in our group is the COO of a nonprofit organization down in Mexico, and they help this orphanage down there. And I see, I see missions trips within this mastermind, going down to support that orphanage in Mexico. We have another individual who just retired as a Navy SEAL after 20 years. And he is helping a youth church group start a youth soccer in San Diego in like Southern San Diego, right on the border of Mexico. I see us running retreats and running Soccer Camps for you know, underprivileged youth for the summer, you know, doing soccer. You know, just stuff like that, you know, that's so exciting to us that has potential and, and oh, by the way, you know, we are pouring into this donor-advised fund that we created 10% off the top, you know, coming in from our real estate, from our mastermind, from our lending, from all these opportunities for all these buckets that are filling into this donor-advised fund, and then we can just go pour fuel on the fire to help you know, all these different missions.
DW: That's good. That's awesome. So encouraging to hear how God has worked in your life, and what you guys are doing, what you guys are up to. So to kind of wrap up, I just have a few questions about what you guys are doing right now as far as like, what books do you recommend? What kind of things can we do that will move us towards, I guess, taking the next step whether that be in our generosity, in our business, in pursuing God's kingdom?
DG: Yeah, you know, and you start asking Stu and I about books, you're gonna get into a whole nother podcast. But uh, yeah, I think for me, personally, I think all this stuff starts with knowing and acknowledging who you are, and who God created you to be. And I think too few of us spend too little time in really, really trying to dig deep in who we are and what we're so influenced by, whether it's Facebook, or LinkedIn, or your mom or your dad or whatever. We're so influenced by what others were concerned about what others think we should be. And I'll tell you since I've started really being just so introspective and intentional, my confidence has also soared, and I am who I am. And I believe God created me to be who I am. And I'm not perfect, and I have lots of flaws. But I feel very, very secure in my skin, in who I am and that empowers me to move forward on things that some people may say, well, that's really risky.
DG: I don't know what that is to me because I think God, the Storehouse Mastermind, there's probably way more people out there that are saying, that's sad or I don't know, then there are being like, go get it, you know, it's gonna be successful. And, I have no doubts about it. But I believe that that has come from not looking at business opportunities and it's come from spending time with myself and it's come from spending time with God and be like, God, and having faith to know that the door will close if he doesn't want me to do that? And so if the door remains open, then we're doing something right. And we're doing something that I believe is blessed and so my point to that is I read a lot but I really recommend first and foremost the Bible. That is a daily habit that is if I only read one thing that day. Stuart and I hold each other accountable through a Bible app and track each other's reading. And so we're doing that.
SG: I’m ahead of him.
DW: Oh.
SG: I'm just saying.
DG: No, you're not. If I look on the app today, it actually says, David, you are one day ahead. But anyways, not important. But, I think you have to, you know, I personally believe and maybe it's the English major in me, but I read everything. I read fiction, because fiction is going to present things to you, to force you in a decision-making process of what would I do in this fictitious thing, and it opens a different part of your mind. I'm reading you know, “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”. That book has been informative, and also transformative for me. Because it's not about the millionaire part that I was concerned about. It's the mindset and the way he challenges you to look at different things, he being T. Harv Eker. And it's been amazing some of just the tidbits that I've gained from that. And you know, just the concept of your financial blueprint, and addressing that, right. Like these things, when you dig into why you think the way you think you can see where shoot yourself in the foot. And I think it takes time, and I think you really need to dedicate time. And then once you figure out how you believe you are created, it empowers you to move forward. It gives you the passion and the confidence to move forward. Otherwise, you're just kind of in my, you know, my opinion are just kind of floating. And I've been there before, too, right? Like, I had no problem getting out of the navy, having a thought twice about it. I knew I was getting out of 20. Stu and I spent a ton of time talking about it. Zero regrets. But that was approached very confidently because of all the time we spent talking about the things we want from life and how we believe we're gifted, right?
SG: I'll give you a few answers that are less squishy, the engineer answer. I'll give you my engineers here. So we had a man on our podcasts, his name is John Reinhardt. He wrote a book called “Gospel Patrons”. Highly, highly recommend it for anyone that's listening to your podcast, because that's directly in the genre for where we're, you know, talking about here, using business to create impact in the kingdom. He also wrote a second book that's more of a small group-type discussion, that's called “Giving Together”. And you actually do it as a group. And there are questions at the end of each chapter. And there are challenges, like, like, he challenges you to go, like sell stuff, right? Like, go and sell stuff in your house that you're not using anymore, and then take that money and then give it away to charities. It's awesome. So we both have read those books. We did that small group together with the Giving Together. Amazing, amazing, and amazing dude who's just on a major mission.
DW: I love that. Yeah, I got to hear him on the Finish Line Podcast, I think it was. And just incredible story there. So definitely hope to get him on this podcast, too.
DG: Yeah, if they want one other book that I would plug in, that has been something that we've really it's been life-changing for us, not only from the relationship that we've created with the author and his wife, but “The Go-Giver series”, by John David Mann and Bob Burg. We were blessed to have both of them on the podcast at different points. But that book is, you know, it just is such a, you know, talk about giving time, and you talk about the principles to live by that are very outwardly focused. And then one other I don't want to forget is “The Wealthy Gardener”. Awesome book, too. Really good book by John Soforic. Had him on the podcast as well, and just was very enlightening. And talk about that was a really, and I didn't realize this until the podcast, but it was a love letter from him to his son. And so just really cool to you know, two other books that have been hugely impactful for us.
DW: Wow. Well, it has been a pleasure to have you guys on. Is there anything that we can be praying for you or anything that we can do to further your mission or the vision that God's put on your heart?
DG: Yeah, man, you know, all prayer is welcome and cherished. But I think specifically, you know, we have a big mission for the Storehouse Mastermind and that's really addressing this epidemic. What we believe is an epidemic of broken and fatherless homes. And, you know, it's a huge just cause. You know, a term I stole from another really good book “The Infinite Game” by Simon Sinek. But just, you know, the prayer that God will use, not Stu and I, but use the mastermind to be navigated, makes me emotional even thinking about the potential impact but to be a true light in this thing that's that both Stu and I experienced as kids, right, growing up and, and now as a dad. I take it so differently because I can't imagine how hard it was for my parents to let me go, right, to go to the other parent for Stu, you know, I can't imagine. I never want to experience what our parents must have experienced because of that deep love for our own children. But that being said, I think, just prayer that God uses and blesses and gives wisdom is really what would be a huge benefit. Because we need a lot of wisdom. So you learn how to just build and touch and create something that has enduring impact,
DW: Stu and David, thank you so much for coming on the show. Let me pray for you. And then we'll jump out of here. All right, let's pray.
God, I thank you and praise you for my brothers, Stu and David. God, I pray that you would be with them, that you guide them that you would give them wisdom as they forge ahead with this mastermind that they're creating. Lord, I thank you for the two masterminds that have already been created and the life change that's going on in those groups. I pray that you would further your kingdom, that you would develop fathers and husbands and that you would use these men and the tools that they're creating to draw people closer to you, that you would get all the glory, that we would worship you and that we would be able to take one step closer to being a true disciple of you. In Christ's name, I pray. Amen.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
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ANNNOUNCER: What if you could take your generosity to the next level, impacting more lives in your community and around the world, creating a godly legacy for generations to come?
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