Episode 1483: Interview with Justin Winstead About Becoming an Improver

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode

[00:00:03] Justin Winstead: 1483 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. I'm Justin Winstead, and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasure to live out your calling. You have the ability to be more than just an average leader.

[00:00:23] You can be an improver. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my new friend, Scott Maderer. Part

[00:00:40] of my vision of the book, like what is it that I'm hoping to accomplish? And there's lots of things, including, I want the readers to have some lightbulb moments that lighten their mind, encourage their heart and equip their hands to be a better version of themselves. But I would say the biggest one is actually the very last page of the last chapter, and I said, it's a challenge to escape [00:01:00] average and unleash greatness.

[00:01:03] Scott Maderer: Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time and resources wisely. Your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:28] In today's podcast episode, I interview Justin Winstead. I asked Justin about what it means to become an improver as he describes in his new book. I also asked Justin to share with you how you can find a way to be content and also driven in a healthy way. I've got a new book coming out called Inspired Living.

[00:01:56] Assembling the puzzle of your call by mastering your time, your talent, [00:02:00] and your treasures. You can find out more about it and sign up inspiredstewardship. com. Inspired Living. That's InspiredStewardship. com, Inspired Living. Today, Justin is a leader in his field, having sold a successful insurance company to pursue his passion for coaching and consulting full time.

[00:02:24] Through the Improver Group, Justin is helping other faith driven business owners and leaders to achieve their goals and reach their full potential. His insight focused coaching, consulting and training has already helped countless individuals and companies to be better versions of who they were meant to be.

[00:02:42] Welcome to the show, Justin!

[00:02:44] Justin Winstead: Hey, good to be here with you, Scott.

[00:02:46] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. So even before I jump in and ask you the first question, I know when people are hearing this, it'll be a little bit before that, but it sounds like you had a pre launch party for your book. So how did that go?

[00:02:59] Justin Winstead: Oh man, it was [00:03:00] a fantastic thing.

[00:03:01] It was actually a group of friends of mine. I'm a part of a nonprofit organization that does men's workout groups outdoors at 5 30 in the morning for Oh, crazy people.

[00:03:12] Scott Maderer: Okay. Got it.

[00:03:14] Justin Winstead: And they heard I was launching the book. They said, Hey let's support you ahead of it. Get you some pre orders in.

[00:03:18] And so it was great having that camaraderie and support ahead of the official launch. Awesome.

[00:03:24] Scott Maderer: Awesome. And we'll talk more about the book and the launch and all of that and folks will be hearing this, be able to go get it. But before we go there, I talked a little bit in, in the intro about some of the things you've done and now that you're your coach, your consultant, and you have the improver group, that's where you are today.

[00:03:46] And I want to back up a little bit and talk about how did you get here? So let's talk a little bit about the journey that brought you to launch in the book, doing the improver group, doing the work you're doing today.

[00:03:58] Justin Winstead: Yeah the extremely [00:04:00] short version is That spent 10 years professionally in ministry, and then 15 years in business, and I've smashed those together to get the Improver Group, and so what I do now is really a combination of all the things I loved about ministry, with all the things I love about business.

[00:04:16] That's the extremely short story. The slightly longer story is that I was raised in Northeast Louisiana. So those who are trying to place this accent, this is what happens when you mix Cajun boy, country boy, and Texan together. It comes this weird twang, comes out. Raised in Northeast Louisiana overall, everything's relative and Relative to the world, we had a very comfortable, upbringing.

[00:04:42] We had a roof over our head, we had clothes on our back, food to eat. But compared to the other people in our circles we really struggled a lot growing up. We were lower class. My dad was a high school dropout who worked manual labor primarily in the oil field. So he was gone usually two weeks out of every [00:05:00] month.

[00:05:01] My mom worked in a low income public school district. I had siblings. Our financial literacy was low in our family and it was just tough. I can remember looking through the floor of our trailer house and seeing the ground underneath because we didn't have solid flooring and when it would rain, We would go gather the buckets and bowls to catch the leaks that were going on so our house didn't flood and, when the kids at school would wear their Jordans, my favorite player became Hakeem Olajuwon with the Houston Rockets because his shoes were sold at Walmart.

[00:05:30] It was like, I just felt like I was on the outside looking in and there were the haves and the have nots and I was on the have not side. So I ended up developing an animosity towards money and business and success. It was a coping mechanism. Went into the ministry because if you're not concerned about making money.

[00:05:46] Oh, you don't want money, there you go, that's a great

[00:05:48] Scott Maderer: field to go into.

[00:05:49] Justin Winstead: That's right, but I didn't want to do manual labor like my dad, so that seemed like a good in between plus I loved helping people, and you know what my family lacked for in financial resources, they made up for in a [00:06:00] caring spirit, and in grid, and determination, and so they did have those things, and, That really transferred into ministry.

[00:06:06] And that's what I thought my life was supposed to be about was working in the professional ministry world. And I had ideas of pastoring and large congregations. That was what I thought my life was. I was ignorant about money and business. I was afraid of it. But then as the way God does, a lot of times he calls us to our places of fear, ignorance, and weakness.

[00:06:27] And that's what he did for me. He said you're going to go into business. You're going to learn it. You're going to do it. And you're going to use that to fuel your impact. And the way that you're going to serve people is you're going to serve people in this business world, which is the world you look down on and scoff at.

[00:06:40] That's the place I'm calling you. And yeah, went through that journey launched a couple of businesses. The most successful one was an insurance agency, did a little bit of real estate, oil and gas Of course, I think most of us get called at some level some point in a multi level marketing pyramid kind of deal.

[00:06:54] I did one of those that didn't work out too well. And that

[00:06:57] Scott Maderer: simply means you didn't get into it early enough. [00:07:00]

[00:07:00] Justin Winstead: That's right. I didn't get into it. And I was I thought that selling the product to help people was the thing instead of recruiting people into my, yeah, no, if you want to make money in

[00:07:08] Scott Maderer: MLM, recruit people, that's the way to make the money.

[00:07:10] Yeah. You don't

[00:07:11] Justin Winstead: actually offer the service, but The thing that really did, I did well in was built a multimillion dollar insurance agency. I had a team of service agents and producers, and I sold that agency a couple of years ago and that's how I ended up where I am now.

[00:07:24] Scott Maderer: Yeah. So it sounds like you did.

[00:07:25] So did you grow up in a faith family or, was that something you were raised in? Went into the ministry. It sounds like that probably was there but how was your, Yeah, that was,

[00:07:34] Justin Winstead: it was an ish kind of thing. Early on in my parents marriage and things like that.

[00:07:39] They were what we would call some people called Christers, Christian on the Easter and Christmas, we were called CEOs. I call them

[00:07:45] Scott Maderer: CEOs Christmas and Easter only. Yeah.

[00:07:47] Justin Winstead: It was a Christian from a cultural context of. We participated in holidays, we did certain Christianly things, but it wasn't a true faith, and so they ended up slipping out of church, so all through elementary [00:08:00] school and middle school church was not a part of our experience other than the random thing here or there but whenever I was in 8th grade, that's when I became a believer, my family were not believers, and so 8th grade, and then as I got into high school, my parents ended up seeing what God was doing in my life, And they became drawn to church and ended up either recommitting their life or becoming Christians or everybody.

[00:08:25] It ended up being our entire extended family. This little small country church, I think at 32 in attendance was their average. And when my family all joined one day, it boosted their attendance to 55. It like almost doubled their church overnight.

[00:08:40] Scott Maderer: That, and I think that's interesting because it was then your call.

[00:08:44] actually opened up the door for your family to feel called, either called or called back, whichever way. And, I always tell people, I think our faith journeys are really complex. They're multidimensional. I spent 25 years telling people I was an atheist, and [00:09:00] because of things that happened in the church, I've been, yeah, I've been known to pray that prayer.

[00:09:04] Yeah. Lord, please save me from your people. It's that journey of in and out and what that looks like. I think it can be really complex for us as you went through the ministry field and felt called into business. How did your faith shape that? What did did you immediately respond to the call? Did you push back?

[00:09:21] What was that experience like?

[00:09:23] Justin Winstead: It felt like a long pushback because I'm by nature impatient and I live in the future. And when I decide something, I want to have it now. So I thought I wrestled for a long time, but it was really a period broadly a couple of years, but really a few months where the call was super clear.

[00:09:39] And I got into that and it started with some enlightening moments of personal finance. And I built on that. And then it was like, Okay. It's time for you to do the business thing. By the way, since your title here is stewardship, there really is a funny ministry story related to stewardship and finance.

[00:09:56] That, that happened to me during this, but not everyone will [00:10:00] appreciate this, but I know you will. I am sitting in the office at 20 years old. I'm in the ministry. I'm sitting in the office of a missions pastor. of a church that's not the church I'm employed at. I'm employed at a sister church around town, but this was the money church in town, and I'm visiting with their missions pastor, and you know what I'm doing there?

[00:10:22] I'm asking him for money out of their benevolence fund to support me because my utilities have been disconnected in the trailer house that I was renting. And so this pastor begins to ask questions, says do you not get paid at your other job? I said, yeah, they paid me. I said, but I use my pay check to pay off a payday loan.

[00:10:42] And he said, a payday loan. Why would you have a payday loan at your age? I said the credit card company who was harassing me and told me they were going to ruin my credit. I wouldn't be able to buy a house and be able to buy a car. And so I went out and did a payday loan to pay off the. Maxed out credit card.

[00:10:57] He said, Justin, why did you have a maxed out credit [00:11:00] card? I said I got it in case of an emergency. He said what was your emergency? I had broken up with my girlfriend and went and bought a flat screen TV with the DVD player and surround sound and maxed out a credit card on my entertainment system.

[00:11:15] So I was naive and ignorant and to the point where I didn't even realize the shame I should have had in that moment, but in my mind I was still the victim, right? And so here's what this pastor does to me. He says, Justin, he said, what I'm about to tell you is what the scripture says is speaking truth in love.

[00:11:35] He said, you may not feel like it's loving and you may not even agree that it's true, but just know that's my heart. He said, it's ministers like you. He said, actually, it's just Christians like you who give the rest of us Christians a really bad name. He said, you are called to live a life of generosity.

[00:11:54] of abundance, of sharing with others, serving others, self control, [00:12:00] stewardship. You're supposed to live that kind of life. And he said, the life you're living is selfish. It is foolish. It's lacking control. And here you are taking from our, trying to take from our funds. He said, our benevolence fund. It's here for people who are victims of their circumstances, not the primary creators of them.

[00:12:22] He said, our church loves you too much to bail you out of your your situation you've created. You need to learn how to get out of this yourself. He pulled off a money management book about getting out of debt. It was actually Dave Ramsey's total money makeover. He said, I encourage you to read the stuff on getting out of debt and budgeting.

[00:12:39] He said, if you need help navigating that, I'm here to support you and guide you. But he said, you need to get this up straight because you're called to live differently. I was mad. I was indignant. I was like this church, I'm walking out through the church lobby. And I'm like, I bet that vase costs more than the utility that I'm, I was really prideful.

[00:12:57] But I sat in my little pickup truck [00:13:00] and I looked at that book and I looked in the rear view mirror and it hit me. And I said, I have been an idiot. I've been a complete dummy. And that was what I call now my never again moment. I said, I'll never again be in this situation where I'm here taking from someone who's been abused, who's had a natural disaster, who's lost their job, who's been a victim.

[00:13:23] And I'm here because I've been so selfish and stupid that I didn't control my money and finances in a better way. So that changed the trajectory of my life and put me. On a path to stewardship.

[00:13:35] Scott Maderer: That, that is thank you for sharing that. That's a powerful story. And I'll put a pitch in here.

[00:13:41] I've actually had several pastors as clients. One of the areas that I help in is that stewardship of money. Obviously stewardship is bigger than financial but that is a big part of it for a lot of us. And, Jesus preached more on the kingdom of God and money than any other topic.

[00:13:58] It, we tend to [00:14:00] focus on one of those more than the other, I'm going to leave unsaid which one it is. We don't talk about them and I think it's important. So a lot of times I've found pastors that get, trapped in the situation of, and it's one of the reasons they're so uncomfortable talking about money in the church is because they feel like a hypocrite because, they're not able to walk the walk and then they're going to stand up there and talk the talk.

[00:14:22] And it's Oh, I, I'm not going to do that. And I, it is amazing how, when you change your mindset, you change the way you look at it, yes, there's practical actions and there's tips and tricks and all of that, but so much of it has to do with just changing the frame. How do you view money?

[00:14:40] How do you view the blessings that you're given? How do you interact with those things? And all of a sudden it's like, Oh yeah, okay. We can actually not have a payday loan and have a big screen TV at some point, but we can do it the right way instead of the way that, that, that ends up causing our electricity to be turned off.

[00:14:57] And

[00:14:59] Justin Winstead: I'll add [00:15:00] a little bit more to that too, because it was shortly thereafter where I was sharing some of what God was doing in my life. And I was introduced to this phrase that I know you've heard before. And the phrase is where there is no margin, there is no mission or where there is no margin, there is no ministry and what a lot of pastors do.

[00:15:17] And this is what I was doing. Cause look, that was a complete idiot in that particular area of my life. But when it came to teaching morals and talking about the spiritual disciplines a lot of those things, I was very skilled at that and was living that out in a good way. And my heart was huge and I was a fairly intelligent person and I was doing overall a good job in many.

[00:15:37] But the biggest issue I had was I was trying to minister out of a deficit. So I my time, I was overbooked on my time. I constantly ran late for appointments. I failed to keep my word on things and I depleted my trust so much with people because I was overextended in my time, my emotional and mental bandwidth.

[00:15:57] I really didn't have enough peace [00:16:00] and internal compassion to share compassion with others. For more UN videos visit www. un. org And then financially, I was overspending in my budget. And I didn't have money to truly give and share. I can remember buying people lunch through the ministry out of my personal account while my personal account was in a negative balance.

[00:16:19] And that's a lot of pastors, unfortunately, as we, the ends justify the means. And we are thinking I want to do ministry and mission, but we're not thinking margin, but margin is the thing that allows you to do the ministry mission. You have to steward in a way that the cup overflows. But if you've got an empty cup, you're really, you may look like you're pouring, but you're not.

[00:16:41] Right.

[00:16:42] Scott Maderer: That's actually one of my favorite prayers is the Jewish prayer of the cup and the saucer, where where they represent that of, taking the wine. A cup is sitting in a saucer, this is visual, so for those of you listening, picture that, a kind of deep dish saucer, almost like a bowl, and a goblet is sitting in [00:17:00] it, and they pour the wine until the goblet is full to the brim, almost going to overpour, and that represents God pouring into our lives and taking care of us.

[00:17:10] And then they start to pour again and it overflows and flows out into the saucer. And that represents exactly what you're talking about. That out of that blessing then flows out to take care of others as well. And it's not about being selfish and having all those nice toys and never giving and never no it's you have what you need.

[00:17:30] You're taken care of beautifully. and you have margin to serve and care for others. So I've always loved that image as well. So let's change gears a little bit. So you've got a book coming out, become an improver. And I wanted to talk a little bit about that. Having gotten through my own journey of writing a book, and I know that writing a book is an endeavor.

[00:17:53] So as you work through that process and began to put that Together. If you had to share, what would be the biggest lesson you [00:18:00] learned? Not necessarily a lesson in the book, though, it could be, but in the act of bringing the book to fruition. What's the biggest lesson you learned throughout that process?

[00:18:09] Justin Winstead: It's that's a great question. It's a little bit challenging for me and, right now, the people who are buying my book early they're getting a bonus, which is the seven lessons I learned writing the book. And I've got seven so I'll, what I'll do is I'll share a couple of them, but I don't know if they're the biggest ones, but they're, out of the seven, there'll be two or three of those.

[00:18:27] So one of them is that I say create first and edit later. Don't edit as you go. So one of the things I was doing at the very beginning of the book writing process was I was trying to type on the screen and edit as I went. And I started critiquing and interrupted the creative flow. So I would say, hey, dump it out, get it on the screen, get it on paper, and then go back and you can chisel it later.

[00:18:48] For those who aren't necessarily in the book writing phase yet, but you think you might be one day, one of the big lessons I learned was the importance of gathering content along the way and just organizing it so that I could pull from it [00:19:00] when it became time. But I guess the last one, and this was really maybe the most meaningful is just the reminder and the exhortation that everyone has a story.

[00:19:12] Everyone has a message, and you do have a book in you. No matter who you are, you've got unique experiences, you've walked a unique journey no one on the planet is exactly like you, and no one on the planet has the exact same phrasing and wording and understanding and opinions that you do. You've got a message.

[00:19:34] And let that message out, find a way to to get your book done and if it's not a true book through a publishing company or self publishing, find a way to put a book out there or do a blog or do a YouTube channel. But. But share that message.

[00:19:48] Scott Maderer: And

[00:19:52] Justin Winstead: the reason that was a lesson for me is because I thought I wanted to write a book because I had some ideas to share.

[00:19:58] I thought I had some [00:20:00] thoughts that would be helpful, but ultimately I didn't think there was anything super special. But then as I got into it, I realized no, God's really put something unique on my heart, and the world needs that, and I've become convinced by interacting with others along the way that God's given us all a story to tell.

[00:20:17] Scott Maderer: No, I agree 100%. They say that most people think that they would like to write a book, but very few people actually write one. And I agree with everything you just said in terms of both the process of the gathering content and working as you go and not editing and all of that, but also that idea of just trusting the fact that you actually have something, I'll give a, another example and it is having that abundance mindset, recognizing that your message doesn't have to be.

[00:20:44] Created whole cloth, totally unique. Nobody's ever had any of these experiences. It's still yours, which makes it unique, because I have coaches all the time, even coaches that work at the same area as I do, come on the show and people are like, why would you invite other [00:21:00] coaches that I'm like, Hey, somebody hears a message from them and gets help from them.

[00:21:04] Because that's the person that they connect with and that means they get help and they get blessed and they get to do what they need to do. As far as I'm concerned, that's a win. I, they don't have to hire me for me to see that as a win and yet it's a different way. It's a little countercultural way of looking at the way it is because we all want to, everyone tells you no, just hold on to everything that's yours, and it's no there's a big, there's a big, there's a lot of people out there that need help.

[00:21:30] Justin Winstead: That's right. And someone related this to me a couple of years ago. I thought it was really good, but they talked about the idea of everything that can be cooked or every recipe that can be out there basically has been like, there's very few new food recipes, but the fact is there's so much variance between recipes and there's so many unique parts of the experience of how you dine with someone.

[00:21:52] People need to be fed. And we also don't want to keep going back to the same restaurant over and over again. We love variety. When I grew up, I could [00:22:00] probably list on the, on two hands, the restaurants that were even in the bigger towns outside of our town. And you go into the city. But now there's dozens, no matter where you go.

[00:22:10] There's so many options because there's a growing population. There's a growing need and there's growing people want customization. They want variety. They want uniqueness. And it would be just like saying, Hey, you know what? Everything that's been cooked has already been cooked. No cook a meal and serve somebody it's coming from you.

[00:22:26] It makes it different.

[00:22:27] Scott Maderer: And they talk about like in fiction, they said that the truth is there's really only seven stories. Every fiction book that's ever written is a variation of one of those seven, and it's, and the Greeks knew all seven of them, thousands of years ago. So it's not a, it's not even new.

[00:22:43] It's been that way for a long time. So it's the same basic idea of, we, we just keep telling the same stories, but we just tell 'em a different way. So let's talk about your particular book. What, become an improver. What's the message of that? What is an improver? What are you. [00:23:00] Give us the back of the book blurb.

[00:23:01] What's the message that you're putting out, so to speak?

[00:23:04] Justin Winstead: Become an improver is a challenge to escape average and unleash greatness. And so the premise of that is, is that it's, it is a challenge that we all deal with, of not falling into the daily grind and just existing through life, clocking in, clocking out, working our entire lives, retiring maybe for a few years.

[00:23:23] That's average. And the premise is that we're meant to escape that and we're called to something greater. We're called to live an abundant, amazing life. We have a life of purpose and meaning and impact. And the book is partially me empathizing with everyone that, gosh man, it's a struggle. But then the second part of the challenge is that I'm challenging you to do just that, to rise above average and to unleash greatness.

[00:23:49] And so the way that's done is by establishing some mindsets and some habits. And so one of the mindsets is the mindset of being an improver, becoming an improver. And [00:24:00] in short, an improver is someone who grows themselves. They invest in their own personal, spiritual, physical development in an effort, in an attempt to improve the environment around them.

[00:24:10] Right now, everybody wants everybody else to change, but nobody wants to look in the mirror and change themselves. And so this is a challenge to say, if, what are the things I can do that help me? And as they help me, it helps them. So that's the mindset. And we juxtapose the word improver against the words exister and diminisher.

[00:24:29] So throughout the book, we're saying this is a diminisher behavior. This is an exister behavior. Don't do those. Do the improver thing. So one example of that would be is one of our daily habits we encourage is to show thanks. Now there's some talk about gratitude and feeling Thanksgiving in your mind and heart, especially this podcast is going to be coming out close to the Thanksgiving season, and that's going to be on our minds.

[00:24:54] But it's one thing to feel thanks. It's another thing to give it and show [00:25:00] it. And so one of the challenges that an improver does is makes it a daily habit of intentionally showing sincere and thoughtful appreciation for others. As the improver does that, it improves our outlook. It causes us to be a better person and to have more gratitude and contentment, but it also blesses the other individual.

[00:25:21] So the book is full of tips and habits like that on what are the things you can do that are going to bless you and others.

[00:25:28] Scott Maderer: So I talk about phases and one of them I talk about is invest in yourself. And the second phase is invest in others, because if all you ever do is invest in yourself, that's selfish.

[00:25:37] But if you do it so that you can invest in others that's the direction. Again, I think speaking of what we were just speaking about, I think we share a lot of the same things in very different ways, which is to me is awesome, because that means somebody's going to hear it from you in a way that, that they need to connect with.

[00:25:53] Another area that I talk. I know you have a take on this and I want to hear your take on it is [00:26:00] that idea of contentment of complacency or, being content versus being driven. And a lot of times, people if you're content, it means you don't want anything or you're not improving and that sort of thing.

[00:26:12] How do you see that sort of juxtaposition of contentment, which we're called to, especially if you're a believer versus complacency?

[00:26:22] Justin Winstead: Yeah, it is a, an interesting tension and it's one that we do face. Our tagline here is good and getting better. And that is our approach to things is have gratitude before growth, but you're having both.

[00:26:35] The challenge is if you just focus on growth, you just focus on the gaps and never the gains, it becomes discouraging. It can lead to hopelessness. It can lead to never being satisfied and you're always moving the goalposts. The problem with only having gratitude and contentment but being complacent and not growing is that you're not fulfilling your purpose and you're not living a meaningful life.

[00:26:58] And so you need to [00:27:00] have gratitude and growth in that order on it. One of the ways that I see contentment versus complacency is contentment is a state of your mind and spirit and heart. So you're choosing to be content. But complacency has to do with your willpower and your actions and what are you going to do?

[00:27:19] So someone who's content says regardless of my circumstances, I am at peace and I'm grateful But regardless of my circumstances, I'm still going to be moving. I'm still going to be I'm going to be intentionally improving and being going towards what we wou moving towards advantage. these

[00:27:38] Scott Maderer: ideas that you're s an improver, why do you t that for lack of a better there's a lot of folks th by

[00:27:53] that, that idea. Y it's, they feel like, you see it in two camps that maybe you could take each [00:28:00] of them. One is the, it doesn't matter. I, my, my life sucks. It's always going to suck. it sucked when I was born and it's going to suck when I'm going to die. And that kind of I'm stuck mentality.

[00:28:12] And then the other is the sort of feeling of, I've got it good. I'm doing great. I'm taking care of me, myself and mine but, everybody else can deal with theirs, that those sort of two frames of mind, what do you see from those versus what you're trying to get across and become an improvement?

[00:28:31] Justin Winstead: It is easy to be in either of those camps, but it's even easier if you are approaching this from a naturalistic worldview. And so those mindsets, you said, really, neither of those are wrong. If there is no God, and if this is all just some big random accident. At the end of the day, if you want to sit around Mon Greif and complain, no big deal.

[00:28:50] If you want to always be stretching for the next best thing and pushing forward, or if you're just, if you're just happy with where you are and you're just going to exist, [00:29:00] in the naturalistic way of viewing it, really all of those are equally valid. But if you do believe like I believe that there was a creator that, that launched this universe into existence and that breathed life into us and put us on this planet for a mission and that there's an eternity that we must think about, then now all of a sudden this stuff really matters and you go, my life is not my own how does contentment and complacency and growth and how does that play into, The mission that I should be living in, and so to me, that's where that whole paradigm, regardless of camp, gets shaken up.

[00:29:37] And in fact, the idea of content but not complacent, gratitude, growth, good, and getting better, I take that from my view of the scripture on our salvation, which is that Jesus makes us good. He forgives us. He cleans us. He makes us pure. We're justified. But then we move into being sanctified. We're supposed to be growing and reaching.

[00:29:59] And [00:30:00] so If you are supposed to be doing that in your whole being, then that's going to encompass your professional walk, the way you manage your money, the way you manage your body. It's all the same thing. You are good and there's something to be grateful for, but you're also supposed to be getting Pure, cleaner, more disciplined, more holy.

[00:30:20] Scott Maderer: Yeah. So I'm a Methodist and Charles Wesley's, one of his famous prayers is are sermons is called on to perfection. And it's about the graces, justifying, sanctifying, and pervenient are the flavors. There's really only one grace, but he talks about different. stages or kinds of ways of looking at it.

[00:30:39] And his, I and it's exactly what you're just saying, which is yes, you are perfect, but you're also not done being perfect. You're perfect because God made you perfect. Doesn't mean you're going to always be perfect. So you've got to be constantly striving towards perfection. So it's that weird, again, that both end dichotomy, I think that, that comes about sometimes when you start to, to look at the scriptures that [00:31:00] way.

[00:31:01] So I've got a few questions that I like to ask all of my guests, but before I go there and ask those, is there anything else about the book or the work that you do that you'd really like to share with the listener?

[00:31:13] Justin Winstead: Yeah, the thing that comes to mind really is part of my vision of the book. What is it that I'm hoping to accomplish?

[00:31:19] And there's lots of things, including I want the readers to have some light bulb moments that, enlighten their mind, encourage their heart and equip their hands to be a better version of themselves. But I would say the biggest one is actually the very last page of the last chapter. And I said it's a challenge to escape average and unleash greatness.

[00:31:39] I'm actually issuing a challenge to the readers to accept the identity as being an improver. So my vision is to create a movement of two and a half million people over the next ten years who say, you know what, I may not have even bought the book. I may not buy any of your coaching or your courses or any of that, but I like the idea of intentionally growing so [00:32:00] that I can better my environment.

[00:32:01] So my website improverchallenge. com is a website anyone can go to and see the heartbeat of an improver. And if you ascribe to that heartbeat, you can type your name and email and say, Sign me up. I'm an improver. And all it means is you you identify with that term and that spirit on there. And so that, that would be the other thing is just I want to invite all of your audience to become improvers and you don't have to buy the book to do that.

[00:32:28] Scott Maderer: And I've already pre ordered the book. So I did that part too. And I encourage those that are listening, if you're listening to it, and it's great. Pre order time, pre order. If it's already out, order it. Cause whenever you're listening to this it's definitely one that I think would resonate with folks.

[00:32:41] My brand is Inspired Stewardship and I run things through that lens of stewardship. And yet I've discovered over the years, you mentioned stewardship earlier. That's one of those words that it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So when you hear the word stewardship, what does that word mean to you?

[00:32:57] And what is the impact of that understanding had on your [00:33:00] life?

[00:33:01] Justin Winstead: The head part of stewardship means to me that God has given me certain things and entrusted me with those to manage those on his behalf. And that from the moment I became a believer, everything I surrendered to him, I gave him my life.

[00:33:14] And everything is yielded to him. And I'm to seek his wisdom and guidance. That's the mind part. The heart part for me is that one day I believe they're going to put me in a wooden box, lower me six foot under, and I'm going to be face to face with the creator of the universe, giving an account for the good and bad I did in this world.

[00:33:33] And I want to hear the words, well done, good and faithful servant. So stewardship in my heart is hearing the words, well done. You did what I told you to do. with your energy, your actions, your money, your time, et cetera, that's stewardship.

[00:33:53] Scott Maderer: So this is my favorite question that I like to ask everybody. Justin, imagine for a moment that I could invent this magic [00:34:00] machine.

[00:34:00] And with this machine, I was able to pluck you from where you are today and transport you into the future, maybe 150, maybe 250 years. And through the power of this machine, you were able to look back and see your entire life See all of the connections, all of the ripples, all of the impacts you've left behind.

[00:34:19] What impact do you hope you've had in the world?

[00:34:21] Justin Winstead: Yeah, so good. I love that question. My book was written for my four kiddos more than anyone else. And it was a hope that the messages of living, winning with integrity living in a way that serves others and that kind of thing, that would resonate with them and bless them.

[00:34:42] When I think about the ultimate impact, it's that same thing magnified. It is just that there were people that received a message that opened their eyes and it changed the trajectory of their life. It changed not only their potential financial or [00:35:00] health or whatever professional trajectory, but ultimately their eternal destination.

[00:35:05] That when I look back on it, there were, millions of people who lived a better life. Because of me being obedient, not because I necessarily did it myself, but that I was just obedient and God did it. So

[00:35:21] Scott Maderer: what's on the roadmap? What's coming next as you continue on this journey?

[00:35:24] Justin Winstead: Yeah when people sign up for the challenge, there's this optional free 40 day challenge to encourage people on that.

[00:35:30] And then after that, we have a course that's coming called Unleash Greatness that'll go really deep into a lot of this. So right now, we're finishing out the build out of that course. So on there and just looking for more opportunities to serve people through the improver group.

[00:35:44] About half my time is spent one on one with executives, with individuals, with leaders. About half my time is spent doing groups and cohorts and workshops and that kind of thing. I do in person and virtual, and so I'm looking to just do more of that. In the near [00:36:00] future, I'm getting ready to go on a trip to Patagonia.

[00:36:02] And so I'm really getting ready for I know your logo has little mountains in there and I'm super attracted to mountains I've done Mount Blanc and been up to Yellowstone Pacific Northwest all these places and Patagonia is So that's those are things right now.

[00:36:20] Scott Maderer: T be fun. Haven't, have myself.

[00:36:24] I've traveled som not all not th you can find out more abo over at his page, the imp Improvergroup. com. Of course, I'll have a link to that over in the show notes as well. Also drop a link to the improverchallenge. com so you can find that in case you're driving right now. Justin, anything else you'd like to share with the listener?

[00:36:48] Justin Winstead: Just the reminder that I do believe each person listening, you do have greatness within you. You know it's there. You've desired to make that impact. Don't fall prey to the limited beliefs, the fearful [00:37:00] thinking, the lies of the enemy in our culture. Do what you need to do to fulfill your purpose on this planet.

[00:37:11] Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe. Please do us a favor, go over to inspired stewardship dot com slash iTunes rate, all one word, iTunes rate.

[00:37:41] It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed. Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence [00:38:00] and impact the world.