Episode 1593: Interview with Michael Klassen About Morning Routines, Productivity, and Spirituality

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining us on episode 1,593 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Michael Klassen: I'm Michael Clawson. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to structure your life rather than leave it to chance is key.

And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Mader.

Like JD Rockefeller said that he had a hundred year plan for every dollar his company made, which means it could only be spent where it was allocated. Can we think of our time in that way? Where you wanna live to a hundred, maybe you wanna live to 120. And so if JD Rockefeller could have a hundred year plan [00:01:00] for his dollar bill.

Well, we could have a hundred year plan for who

Scott Maderer: we are. 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, 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.

In today's podcast episode, I interview Michael Clawson. I asked Michael about how productivity and spirituality intersect. Michael also shares with you how a morning routine fits into success, and I also ask Michael to share about his journey and his podcast, the 5:00 AM podcast as well. I have a great book [00:02:00] that's been out for a while now called Inspired Living.

Assemble the puzzle of your Calling by mastering your Time, your Talent, and your treasures. You can find out more about that book over@inspiredlivingbook.com. It'll take you to a page where there's information and you can sign up to get some mailings about it, as well as purchase a copy there. I'd love to see you get a copy and share with me how it impacted your world.

Michael Clawson is a veteran broadcast producer with extensive experience in news, sports, and film, and now podcast projects. Michael serves as the host and co-producer behind the Highly Successful 5:00 AM podcast. The 5:00 AM Podcast is cultivating a dedicated worldwide audience, helping many transform their mornings and maximize productivity.

Through strategic living and intentional morning routines Beyond broadcasting, Michael is a published Arthur with more book titles on the way. Michael has always [00:03:00] had a hunger for truth, community and spiritual filling. Michael enjoys combining his passion for truth and storytelling with practical insights for everyday life.

When not in his studio, Michael likes to express his creativity in the great outdoors. And as a woodworker, Michael enjoys crafting pieces that express his artistic eye and ideas. And Michael brings a unique blend of media expertise, creative vision, and technical production skills to every collaboration, ensuring quality conversations and content that will resonate with a variety of audiences.

Welcome to the show, Michael.

Michael Klassen: Thank you for having me, Scott. It's great to be here.

Scott Maderer: Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. I had the pleasure of being on your show not too long ago, so we've already had a few interactions. That's right. But at the same time I really enjoy you coming on. I look forward to learning more about what you do.

Thank you. So I shared some in the intro about some of the work you've been doing both before and now with the podcast. The 5:00 AM podcast [00:04:00] and the passions that you have. At the same time, I always think of intros like Instagram photos. Yes. We frame things up just right, true. And show just the parts of things true that we want people to see.

Michael Klassen: That's true. Yes.

Scott Maderer: So take us back in time a little bit and share a little bit about your journey and the bumps and bruises and what got you to the point where this is the message you're putting out in the world.

Michael Klassen: That's good. It's the the not camera ready talking points. Exactly.

Yeah. You and adversity. Is needs to actually be seen as a friend and a benefit. And if somebody goes to the gym and they have no adversity, they will not develop any muscles and they will not advance through the weight set. And I use that 'cause I enjoy going to the gym and I enjoy riding my bicycle and, the reason I mention those two things is they're a metaphor for my life and for others of, [00:05:00] oh, perhaps we run into some obstacles along life's path and we have to learn a new way of living or a learning not what to do from our mistakes. And I realized there was a thing, a school of hard knocks I heard a lot about when I was growing up and.

It's, I don't think it's a matter of planning. I think it's just a matter of how we learn in this world is we can be advised or we can be advised and not listen, be advised and listen, and then just follow through and then realize the advice we got. 10, five years ago would, was great advice. We go through things and we learn and we experience, we learn what not to do, and we learn those best practices, as they say.

That's not very speci. I feel like that's not very specific. [00:06:00] But that's, that, that's what's on my mind. I grew up in a agriculturally based home for generations on both sides of my families. Fortunately, they were also believers in Jesus Christ. So that helped as well. And when you don't have the money that you think your friend's parents have, and when you have to be up early.

To milk the cows and feed the sheep and the cattle. And you realize there's that bible verse in proverbs that says that some, a man or a woman, but the individual needs to know the condition of their flocks and the animals get fed before the farmer gets fed. And so when you have those experiences and you go through life realizing, ah, man I am the keeper of someone or something, and my responsibility to my God, but also myself, is actually to care and know the [00:07:00] condition of the flocks and the people that I'm responsible for.

Really changes your perspective and grows you up to realize that it's not all about me.

Scott Maderer: So when you grew up in an agricultural family and with that kind of outlook and that the the work you do was around broadcast and media. Yes. And that w what's the bridge from that to that?

Where did that interest come from? Yes.

Michael Klassen: I loved watching television. Even as a young boy too much. 'cause I was always told to go outside, but I loved the pictures. I loved the the magic as they say of the French have that word Trump loy for fooling the eye. Those paintings that are made to look real.

And when you're really young, you think the stories that you see on TV or the silver screen are real. You think those people are actually who they're pretending to be. And it was a great escape from the chores. And then of course my parents sold the [00:08:00] farm. When I was 10, I was convinced I was gonna be a cattle baron.

But then life just happens and you fall in love with certain things and passions and so that's how I got into TV land.

Scott Maderer: Okay. So talk a little bit more about your faith journey. You mentioned growing up in a religious home or growing up faith-based home, but I've also found that kind of our life journey and our faith journey often intersect.

And Murph morph. And most of it have gone for most of us. It's not a straight line. It's, yes it's jerky. So for you, how has your faith journey affected what you do and how you see the world and what you've done? And then how has that fed back into what you do and how you see the world?

Michael Klassen: Yeah. So my faith in Jesus Christ is definitely an anchor and a lamp to my feet. And we grew [00:09:00] up knowing about denominations and different groups and my mom was, her family was from the Dutch reform background. My dad was from the Mennonite background, so two totally clashing, theologies under the hood.

Same Jesus, of course. But we were not raised in either one of those traditions. We learned, I think that our faith had to be our own, that God doesn't have any grandchildren. And and so then going through that I was boy, I don't even know if I was in school yet. So kindergarten as we call it.

And I heard the story of Samuel. The prophet and how he was living with Eli and God was speaking to him. And I thought to [00:10:00] myself after, probably during, but after I thought, man, tonight when I go to sleep, I'm gonna listen. I'm gonna listen to hear if God's gonna call my name. And that really started me on a road to know what was important and what I wanted to be important.

And it wasn't even a matter of. Following the rules, it was, it actually became a priority that I wanted to hear the voice of God calling my name. I didn't wanna miss it. And so it wasn't about measuring up, it wasn't about ticking the boxes, it was about wanting a relationship. And that really that was the lens of my Christian faith was relationship, not rules.

Scott Maderer: Your podcast is the 5:00 AM podcast. Yes. And again, I've had the pleasure of being on there myself. Yes. But [00:11:00] tell us a little bit about what's the thought behind that? What drove you to start something called the 5:00 AM podcast? Do, are people only allowed to listen to it at 5:00 AM or that's

Michael Klassen: when we have to record and you get bonus points sent out in the ether.

To you if you actually listen at five. So the deal with that is I've always been a morning person. I love getting up in the morning and it's instilled in you when you have cattle and sheep that have to be fed. And let out of the barn. So it comes from, it's actually pro, it's definitely in my DNA getting up early in the morning having dairy farming as part of my background and experience.

So that's the first part. And then 5:00 AM it just had a nice ring to it. And as then you realize that mornings are the foundations for our days, and we can get so much done in those [00:12:00] morning times. And so I realize, and I got this from Andrew Womack, I'll give credit to where credit is due. He said that we are human beings, not human doings.

Doings. Yeah. And so human beings. I wanted to be intentional about life and what I was doing. And so when we set the foundation of our day and the Psalms, David talked a lot about mornings and then I began to realize that if I wanna good morning, I actually need a good night. And so my morning time.

It is actually because of my intentionality the day before. And my wife and I were actually just talking about this this past week. 'cause I was chatting with a fellow and he said in the Hebrew Jewish tradition, the day starts at sunset. So our day starts with rest. I thought, wait a second, then my 5:00 AM wake up call.

I need to make [00:13:00] sure that I'm preparing for that the evening before so that I can execute well. And then I realized, Hey, then my week, I can start my week on Sunday. So my week actually even starts with rest. And I thought, wow, that's, that is a great perspective to have, that I am a human being, not a human doing, and my day and my week start with rest.

And that's such a gift to have the right mindset of how we order our days and order our mindset. What have you found with productivity and working with people on starting their day, right? How does that fit in to. They're what they get done, but but also just what you were just talking about, how they see the world their mindset, their spiritual walk.

Scott Maderer: The

Michael Klassen: Yeah.

Scott Maderer: The stuff that maybe at first glance, people don't I think usually when people think about getting up early and getting stuff done, they're thinking about [00:14:00] work. Yes. But you're talking about something different. What? Yes. What, how does that fit together?

Michael Klassen: Napoleon Bonaparte said that leaders are dealers in hope.

And one of the things that my wife, Susan, and I wanted to do with 5:00 AM Podcast had to change the word dealers. So we went Purveyors of Hope. And the reason that I mentioned that hope is that. Because we wanna have hope for the day, hope for our families. Sure, I get that. And hope for the future. I get that.

But we can take one day at a time and we can have hope that we are going to navigate whatever comes our way. A truck crashing into the house, the death of a loved one. Or good things too. I actually had a client, she told me once that she said, my dad always told me, I was never allowed to ask why something bad happened to me if I wasn't going to say why did something good [00:15:00] happen to me.

And so what are our default settings? And so with that intentionality of. That early morning and knowing that we're gonna have a foundation for the day. It's not so much getting outta bed and getting straight to the tasks at hand. It's actually about being able to get outta bed and we determine the time we go to bed, we determine the time we get up, and that way, in my mind anyway, then we determine what our day's gonna be like, and I'm gonna have a day filled with hope.

And not misery. And I'm gonna believe the 23rd Psalm. And take that on faith as saying, you know what today? I am sure, and God is sure that goodness and mercy are gonna follow me today. And I'm gonna be like a tree planted by streams of water. And I could look around and say, oh, there's a desert all around me.[00:16:00]

But I would say, no, I'm getting up. I have hope that I am like a tree planted by streams of water. And I have deep roots.

Scott Maderer: Yeah. And I've always, I like to point out to people that if you recognize that, that psalm. Where it was written

Michael Klassen: Yeah. Is

Scott Maderer: in the middle of a desert.

Michael Klassen: Yes.

Scott Maderer: And so then they're talking about streams of water and green and trees and meadows and pasture.

Yes. That's not what they were seeing. They were not and yet that's what they're talking about because they were able to see past the reality that was around them. Into the future in a way that they were being promised so.

Michael Klassen: Yes. That is really good.

Scott Maderer: And so how does gratitude play out?

For me, I think gratitude is one of those fundamental muscles that I know for me that's one I've gotta work on it all the time. If I let it go even for a day that muscle gets flabby real quick. Yeah. So [00:17:00] how has gratitude played out for you in your life and keeping that focus on hope?

How does that, because everything's not always green pastures. It's true. So what happens when it's not? How do you hold onto that habit?

Michael Klassen: So I have learned that if it's not green pastures, it's probably because of my two feet or my mind. But there's two verses in the Bible. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

And then it also says that as Jesus was, so are we in this world? And I realize this is a lot of faith talk and scripture talk, but this is the foundation on which we can build our legacy and our generations. And I remember my grandfather, my dad's dad, I did not know him very well 'cause he was born in 1905 on Christmas day.

And I was significantly younger than him, but I received [00:18:00] something from him that said, I have no greater blessing than to know that my children serve the Lord. And gratitude is such an integral part. So as a man. Think it in his heart. So is he. So if I have gracious thoughts and thoughts of gratitude and thankfulness, that's who I'm gonna be.

I could have thoughts of curmudgeonly things, if that's a word. Curmudgeonly. It is, yes. You even using

Scott Maderer: it right in the sentence. That's right.

Michael Klassen: So it's up to us what comes in and out of the different gates that we have. But as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. So if I am gracious. If I am merciful and if I am thankful, then that's who I will be.

And in Proverbs it says that a man who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. And so gratitude's [00:19:00] a big part of that in my mind.

Scott Maderer: Which brings me to the next kind of question. You've talked about starting your day, spiritual, yeah. Having gratitude, having hope, those sorts of things.

But I also know through the show, you've had the pleasure of talking to a lot of different people. For me as well, that's one of the, one of the best things about. Doing a podcast is you get to talk to a lot of different people coming from a lot of different places, and you begin to notice the patterns and what keeps showing up.

What are some of the things that you've noticed showing up over and over again and the folks that you've worked with, the folks that you've interviewed that you know are at the keys or the core to some of the successes that you've seen?

Michael Klassen: Intentionality. And there is that saying that says. If we we how's it go?

Sorry. If we make the plan, we work the plan. So if we don't have a plan, we don't have anything to [00:20:00] work. And I know that there's many other thoughts and sayings about that kind of thing of having a plan and having goals and setting intentions of what we expect and. I think that's the biggest thing I know for me, even in elementary school, I had trouble setting goals and executing, but that's how you learn how to set goals and execute.

And so from the people that I've had on the show, man, there's just been so many great stories of people overcoming tragedy and sickness, dis-ease. We'll put a hyphen in between the DIS and the ease. Words are so important. They teach us spelling. To cast spells when we're in elementary school.

That's a little rabbit trail, but words are important. And when we're setting our days and we're planning, it's like JD Rockefeller said that he had a hundred year plan for every dollar his company [00:21:00] made. Which means it could only be spent where it was allocated. And so if we think of our time like that, can we think of our time in that way where, oh, you wanna live to a hundred, maybe you wanna live to 120 or 85.

I don't know. It depends where you set your sights. And so if JD Rockefeller could have a hundred year plan for his dollar bills, then we're God's treasure. Earth and Vessels. We could have a hundred year plan for who we are and then we can say, I'm sorry Fred, I know we're great friends, but I can't go out with you tonight because I'm getting up at five o'clock in the morning.

And Fred's gonna say, man, I was planning on going to bed around three or four don't wake me up when you get up. But it's just that intentionality of what do we want our life to look like, and then how are we gonna get there?

Scott Maderer: Thinking about intentionality and having a plan and those sorts of things.

How have you seen the balance [00:22:00] play out, whether it's in your life or folks that you've worked out? Because I think we have a plan.

Michael Klassen: Yes.

Scott Maderer: But then sometimes our plan isn't the plan that God has for us. That how do hold that balance between. Our plan and what we want and yet keep the spiritual mindset of, but I'm also doing what God wants and what God wills Yeah.

For us. Yeah.

Michael Klassen: That's a great question. And it is the power of no, and the power of priorities of being able to say no. And of course we hear there's movies about you go, you finally say yes to everything. And so I, I realized that premise of the world in that sense, but the ability to say no to things that look amazing or would taste amazing or would be an amazing experience, but then you stop and you say, no, I'm sorry, I [00:23:00] can't do that.

Because I have a higher purpose or a higher calling. And as far as determining in what you're talking about, the will of the Lord, what's God's plan for my life? We hear about Jeremiah 29 11 and God has good plans to prosperous and give us a future and a hope and be kind and good to us.

And even if we're not on the path, he says that, come let us reason together. You might have fallen into the ditch, but I can get you outta there. And so with knowing that, then we can test the spirits, we can weigh, we can listen to our intuition and the Holy Spirit and say, is this gonna get me closer to God or farther away from God and closer to where I think I need to be?

If you have a thought that keeps coming up over and it's a, and it's a thought that is good and it's pleasant and pleasing. Like that, [00:24:00] goodness and mercy we talked about. That's something to follow up on. And my dad would always, in decision making advice, he would say, does it give you peace or does it steal your peace?

We wanna pursue peace.

Scott Maderer: What what do you think for you has been one of the most surprising things that's come out of the work you do? Around the 5:00 AM podcast

Michael Klassen: is just, oh. Finding that resonance with other people where we've only been at this time, we started in January of 2025, and so in the time we've done since then of two or three episodes a week.

Mainly because we had the time and we were connected to pod match, so we had lots of people to choose from for guests. But it is the feedback we received we were [00:25:00] doing early on. Jessica L. Morris has quite the story and testimony, and I don't know if you've talked to her, but man, she is, she has a story of redemption and breaking cycles of abuse and addiction and.

I got off, I finished recording and my wife was sitting off to my right and I said, boy, if somebody doesn't get saved listening to this, I don't know what's going on. And wouldn't you know it that we put that up on YouTube and the very first comment we received was, thank you. I needed to hear this. And a stranger who knows where they are, heard some conversation that we initiated, that God enabled, that we put together, that we were a good steward of, and somebody somewhere.

Is directed to it and they find it and they think, wow, this actually keeps me vertical for another 24 hours. [00:26:00] So that is it. Just hearing that feedback of a life changed or set in a different direction.

Scott Maderer: And here's what's funny about it. Even to take it another step and I have no idea.

I'm just reading into the situation at times too. I've had feedback like that from whether it was a message I gave at church or whether it was a podcast episode, whatever. And then I've had the opportunity to say, so what was it you heard that was so powerful?

Michael Klassen: Yeah.

Scott Maderer: And they'll share something and sometimes it's something that technically was not even said by either one of us.

Wow.

Nobody, those words that they heard were never actually said in that exact way that they heard it. It's okay, that's God you know that wasn't me. That was definitely God. Oh, that's, if you ever get the chance to ask 'em what they actually heard, it would be interesting.

'cause sometimes, yes, sometimes the spirit works in a way that it's oh, that's right. [00:27:00] Nevermind.

Michael Klassen: Yes. That's good. It's, I will

Scott Maderer: It's human. It's you, it's humbling. In a good way, if that makes sense. Yes. Yeah.

Michael Klassen: Oh, yes, a hundred percent yes.

Scott Maderer: So what what's the most important thing for you with you've, I know you've been writing some, you've been doing the podcast some, and what do you look at as for right now with your, where you're at in the journey?

Yeah. What's some of the most important things to you to come out of it or to be heading towards?

Michael Klassen: Wow. Being a good steward. Of what I have been blessed with and the opportunity that I, at the end of October of last year I was expecting to work another 20 years at the TV station as a senior broadcast producer or something along in that vein.

And I was not I didn't see the meeting coming or they say, Hey, your position's gonna be terminated. [00:28:00] And, that's, that gave me a, it lit a fire under me to say that, wow, this is great. If this is happening, then God has something even better to do with more opportunity for impact.

With more opportunity to share what good news I have. Who I am and what God has refined in me and being able to just share the good news in a certain way. I had a fellow at church that said you're feeding God sheep, you and your wife with this 5:00 AM podcast thing. And then I heard another phrase, and I don't know if it's in the holy scriptures, but it says, teaching righteousness to the unrighteous.

I guess maybe that's another way to say making disciples. That great commission was not to go make converts it was to make disciples. [00:29:00] And so we have that opportunity in one way or another to share somebody's story. And certainly not everyone we have on has a Christian experience like I do or at all.

But they've got a very interesting story. Of overcoming something. And learning to get rid of the stinking thinking or to help people up out of the miy clay, so to speak. So that's really our goal, plan and purpose is to to keep doing that.

Scott Maderer: And what do you see as the people for folks that are listening to this, they obviously listen to podcasts, so I wanna give you a chance to Yes.

Give a pitch a little bit for your show. Sure. So you, for the person that's out there that's oh, this kind of sounds interesting, maybe I want to check it out. Who's the audience kind of that you're aiming that podcast at?

Michael Klassen: Originally because I'm a, I'm the [00:30:00] face, I'm the guy and I was thinking, I was talking to mainly.

Other fellas out there that are taking one step in front of the other, looking for where the light switch is on the, at the beginning of the long dark hallway. And, but we have hot more ladies that listen to 5:00 AM podcasts than men. And we certainly have a lot of people. Just getting into their twenties.

But that analogy of the long dark hallway and you're walking by faith 'cause you know that electrician somewhere along the way put a light switch on that wall and you're feeling for it and you're taking one step in front of the other and. I don't know if that answers your question. But certainly for me, that's 5:00 AM podcast. It's sunrise time. It's time for the light to come and conquer the darkness in our lives, in our business ideas, in our education, and [00:31:00] realizing we've got some, maybe some dark thinking that needs the light to replace it, or we have some stinking thinking and we need that, that sweet smell of victory in our lives.

And that's 5:00 AM podcast in a nutshell. That it's that moment of dawn and sunrise and the night is over and the day has come.

Scott Maderer: I love that. So I've got a few questions that I like to ask all of my guests, but before I ask you those, is there anything else about the work you've been doing around 5:00 AM podcast around any of the messages that you put out that you'd like to share?

Michael Klassen: Yeah, the Matthew 6 33 says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you, so our focus doesn't have to be acquiring. Assets and things. We live in that world where it's so media driven, commercial, commercialized, someone's trying to make our money, their money, and [00:32:00] yet so in the kingdom of God, we have this other idea where we can follow the vision that God has laid out for us and everything else will be added to us and seek first that kingdom of God.

And it's not the religious Sunday morning church thing. That's the kingdom of God. But it's a mindset and a way of life that we know that we enter into. Jesus said that he came to have life, that we could have it abundantly, and the alternative is stealing, killing, and destroying, and all of those things fit together so perfectly as he is.

So are we in this world, which means we get to be abundant. We get to be teaching righteousness and living, learning righteousness, not because of a have to, but because of an opportunity and a get to.

Scott Maderer: Absolutely. So you mentioned stewardship earlier, and of course my brand is inspired stewardship. Yes.

And that's [00:33:00] the lens I run things through. Yet at the same time, stewardship is one of those words that I've found over the years can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So for you, what does the word stewardship mean to you?

Michael Klassen: I'm glad you asked that question because I look at it differently.

I hear so many ministers usually at offering time that will say God owns it all anyway. But I do know there's a verse that says, the earth has he given to the sons of men, and Adam and Eve were told to subdue the earth, be fruitful and multiply. And so for me, this might even be some reformed Calvinist theology that comes from being on a farm and this idea of taking dominion.

And there is there's so much in the words that we use and so stewardship of understanding that, oh just like we heard [00:34:00] about the guys with the talents and one person buried it deep in the ground 'cause he was afraid he didn't have peace. Maybe he lacked skills and intellect and, he probably knew the other two guys in this parable that were given the talents and he was like, I can't measure up to Doug and Ralph, those two guys, they know everything.

And I don't want to be a failure 'cause that's all I've been called my whole entire life. So I'm gonna play it safe and bury this in the ground and at least the guy will have what he gave me and I won't have screwed it up. That's what I always. Thought that guy was. And he had the opportunity for stewardship and he may only have had the cap.

He didn't even have the capacity for a lemonade stand. In one sense, he might have had this feeling of, I, I'm, if I touch it, I'm gonna break it and if I'm just gonna screw it up, I'm probably [00:35:00] gonna drop the can that I just put the gold coins in anyway. So seeing it's all gonna drop 'em on the floor and lose them, I'm just gonna dig a pit in the ground and cover them up.

So that is one example of stewardship. The other two guys or ourselves and our own lives. So we get something that we have the opportunity to steward and make better and disseminate through our sphere of influence. And so to me that stewardship is that we have this mandate where the earth has been given to the sons of men and we get to dominion.

And so I, the, I may not know the exact scorecard, but in my own mind, I wanna make sure that I know that I've been taking dominion and being a good steward. So this is my favorite question that I like to ask everybody. Imagine for a moment that I could invent this magic machine. And with this machine, I was able to take you from where you are today and transport you into the future, maybe [00:36:00] 150, maybe 250 years.

Scott Maderer: 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. What impact do you hope you've left in the world?

Michael Klassen: I hope that first off well done, good and faithful servant, but being able to see lives that have the mark of love and personality and care.

And this idea of abundance in people's hearts and minds, that they realize that even a Rose Bush only knows to produce as many flowers as possible and flourish as much as possible, but also to walk the straight and narrow, the righteous life has so many rewards. And the apostle Paul said that with [00:37:00] with godliness, there's, I might be saying this wrong with godliness. There's contentment and great gain. And so I would hope that I could look back and see the people that have interacted with me and learned something would be content and have great gain.

Scott Maderer: So what's on the roadmap? What's coming next as you continue on your journey?

Michael Klassen: Wow. More 5:00 AM podcast episodes. We've got a bunch in the can. And just being able to share more stories. We've got, we have one coming up. He was a combat spy, worked in army intelligence, and he had some great stories to share and just being able to share these stories. As from a Christian perspective, the scriptures tell us we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.

So we just want, we want to be able to share more words of testimony of how people learn to [00:38:00] overcome. And learn to not let stealing, killing, and destroying be the course of their life.

Scott Maderer: So you can find out more about Michael Clawson and his podcast, the 5:00 AM Podcast over at the 5:00 AM podcast.com, and that's the five as in numeral five.

Of course, I'll have a link to that over in the show notes as well in case you missed it. Michael, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?

Michael Klassen: Wow. First Scott, thanks for the opportunity to join you and to speak to your listeners and this iron sharpening iron. And I would just say to your listeners, I don't know where you are in location or life, but the final chapters in your book haven't been written yet, and you actually get to put pen to paper.

And write that. And so may you seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is [00:39:00] near so that you can co-labor with God and other people. And when choices are presented, what gives you peace and what steals you? Peace and what path leads to abundance. That's the straight and narrow that leads to life and abundant life.

That's for sure.

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. Please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes.

Rate all one word iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review, and how to make sure [00:40:00] 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 and impact the world.