Setting The Theme: Sharpen The Axe

Chris Grainger 1:43

Welcome to The Line Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders God intends you to be. I'm your host, Chris Granger. Let's jump in. All right, guys, it's your meet episode time. Let's get into it. Okay, so the scripture of the week this week is Ecclesiastes chapter 10, verse 10. So 1010 says if the axe is dull and he does not sharpen his edge, then he must exert more strength. Wisdom has the advantage of bringing success. And guys, it took some time to unpack that scripture at length in our spiritual kickoff episode this week. Okay, so it's one back in your podcast feed. Go check that out, listen to it. And again, if you like how we do the spiritual kickoffs every Monday, we do them Monday through Friday. It's called a daily spiritual kickoff or daily SKO is what we've like to call it at the line within us. It's a free way to get connected with us. It gives you access to the daily scripture readings to get encouragement from God's Word every day. If you can't make it live, when we do those live streams every day, the videos are put there in the space for you to consume at your leisure. So whenever you want to go through it, we were whatever book we're working through, the videos are always there. You can get caught up. There's no rush or anything like that. It also gives you access to our prayer request space where we have guys putting prayer, I mean authentic, genuine prayer requests in on a regular basis. Okay. We also have a weekly prayer call open to anybody that's in the Lion Within Us, from our daily SKO to our Alliance Den members to our Mastermind members. So look, this is a great way. If you need to have some fellow brothers in Christ that are coming alongside and just praying with you, maybe you don't even know what to say. You just know you need you just want to be there just to be prayed over. Come. Come. This is an open invitation. Head over to thelionwithin.us. Guys, at this point, we have over a thousand guys in here that that are legit leaning in. I mean, God has been blessing it in a meaningful way. We'd love to have you. We'd love to have one more. Just come in, see what we're doing, and see if it serves you well. All right. See, look, look, guys, this is gonna be a fun conversation. This was my buddy Ryan Zook. He's the president of Men of Iron. I got connected with those dudes down in Florida when we were at Pastor Jovi's conference, and they had a uh uh they were set up outside with us as well, so we got a chance to talk with them a whole lot, but it's all about uh uh changing our culture one man at a time. That's their that's kind of like their vision, their tagline. But Ryan's just a solid dude. I mean, he's a solid guy as he he is on fire, he has a deep conviction for for seeing men's lives being transformed, uh, and and and what that can do, like in our work, at home community. Uh so great guy. He and his wife, Jenny, they live in Lancaster, PA. They got five kids, fellas. He's a busy guy, and uh he's just got a uh just a fun energy about Ryan. So I think you're gonna really enjoy this conversation. So sit back, have a good time listening to my buddy, Ryan Zook. Well, Ryan, welcome to the line within us. How are you doing today, brother? I'm doing good, man. Appreciate the opportunity. How are you? Oh man, I'm excited to have you on. I was looking forward to this one for quite a while. And I always like starting every episode with just something fun about you that maybe not many people know about. So, I mean, you got a lot of things happening, I'm sure lots of people know about, but what's something fun that maybe is is less known about you?

Ryan Zook 5:00

Man, I started out, I started out working at this uh boys' camp down in South Florida. So it's Gator Wilderness Camp School. Okay, and we would do like long hiking trips and long canoe trips. So because of that, I I had the opportunity to hop in a canoe in Georgia and canoe the whole Suwannee River all the way down to the mouth. Uh, so that's several weeks in a canoe, lots of alligators and manatees. Uh, that's probably I don't know, there's probably other interesting things about me, but I think that's one that a lot of people don't know. Bro, oh my gracious, that's incredible. How long ago was that? My goodness. Uh uh probably almost 20 years ago. That actually makes me feel old, but it's been a bit. It's been a bit, man. It's been a bit. I hear you, bro. You know what? It's it's it's really fun for like two and a half weeks. And then it's like, yeah, I'll be I'll be happy to get out of this canoe. That'd be that'd be all right. That's right.

Chris Grainger 6:01

We're just surviving that in that in that terrain. I'm sure that's quite a feat in of in of itself.

Ryan Zook 6:07

And anytime you're anytime you're hiking across Florida or canoeing across Florida, you're gonna end up with a couple of good stories in your pocket from things you experienced that you didn't know were gonna happen.

Chris Grainger 6:17

Yeah, yeah, I bet, man. Greatness. Well, that's a so that's a unique one. No one's ever had that on the line with it. It's a unique one. So there you go. There you go. So you get let the guy the listeners know out there. We got connected with some I got connected with some of your guys in Florida at Joby's conference. It was awesome. We had a great time, and and there was a lot of synergy there. And and and I learned a lot about men of iron. They were asking about the lion. It was like, man, let's just let's just figure it out how to help each other. And and for the guys who haven't heard of men of iron, like, would you just kind of break down what it what you guys are all about?

Why Mentorship Beats Lone Wolf Living

Ryan Zook 6:51

Yeah, so we believe every man needs a mentor. That's the core of who we are. We are setting out to make sure every man gets a mentor. So our mission is to change a culture one man at a time. Uh, we say that on purpose because every one man has one culture. And when we can get that man to take his relationship with Jesus seriously and turn it into action, right? We don't want to do Bible studies for Bible studies' sake. We don't want to try to out Bible quiz each other. We want to actually turn our faith into action, make a difference. We believe that when a man does that, everybody around him benefits. So his wife benefits, his kids benefit, his job benefits, and it makes a huge difference. So we've been doing that for 20 years. We started in 2006 up here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, with 10 mentors and 10 proteges. And we've been doing it ever since. So, you know, we have a lot of other resources that we offer. Uh, we we tell guys we want them to thrive in their core five. So that's your faith, family, friends, fitness, and finances. Okay. And for us, it's just kind of a simple way to evaluate your life and figure out what parts of your life need some attention and how you can move from a one to a two or a three to a five, whatever that looks like.

Chris Grainger 8:06

Right. Yeah, I'm curious. You've got you've been doing this for so long. What's any thing that has surprised you around mentorship that guys are just not aware of?

Ryan Zook 8:17

I think the the most interesting stat that I know today is it's something like, and we'll have guys that go back and check their homework and see if I'm saying the right thing, but it it's something like 76% of men desire a mentor in their lives. So I don't know what's going on with the other 24%, uh, but 76% of men, they they want it, but only 30% of men will ever ask for it or seek it in their lives. And so what I tell guys is listen, when you want a mentor, most of the men around you are in exactly the same spot. The the only gap we're trying to close is to get people to actually take action. Because if you're in a room full of 10 guys, seven or eight of those guys actually want to either be mentored or mentor somebody else, but only three of those guys are ever going to ask or put any legs to it. So what we do is just try to help spur that, help, help get you take one step towards that. And when it clicks, it clicks. And we have guys, I mean, we have guys that started a mentorship 15 years ago, and they're still meeting with their mentor for coffee every other week without stopping. And so when it clicks, it clicks, it makes a huge difference.

Chris Grainger 9:39

It does. I one of the the blogs, old school blog, like a couple years ago for the lion, that I it just resonated was I I wrote an article called Find Your Paul, Find Your Barnabas, Find Your Timothy. And I was just, you know, basic stuff, but nothing earth-shattering. But so many of the guys I talked to, like they they had some barnabacists, they had some buddies, you know. Maybe they would have a Timothy that, you know, someone a little bit younger than them, but very few, man, they had those paws in their life. And I'm like, bro, what is going on? But it's just we we don't think about that. It's almost like a blind spot, you know?

Ryan Zook 10:14

It's funny, Chris. I was uh, so before I came to Men of Iron, I was a pastor for 10 years. And I was I was part of this discipleship pathway discussion. We were trying to figure out where I was a large church, probably 3,000 people. We were trying to figure out how we could get people to have accountability in their lives, how to be challenged, uh, essentially like how to actually grow in their faith. Because we knew that we're broadcasting this message every Sunday. It's reaching lots of people. But when we look around the community, it doesn't seem like it's moving the needle. And so we spent a couple of years trying to figure out essentially how can we get one person investing in another person to actually make a difference. And over the course of trying to figure out how to do that, I found Men of Iron. I was like, seems like that's what they do.

Chris Grainger 11:02

Yeah.

Churches, Discipleship, And Real Accountability

Ryan Zook 11:02

Uh, and so now I've been with Men of Iron for three years and it is, it's it's what we do. And what's interesting to me is how many churches really struggle with the idea of mentorship. It's just there's there's not like a mentor-shaped box that a church is trying to fill. Right. And it's it's just a challenging conversation to say, hey, what if you just had one dude invest in another dude? Let's set up something around that. So it and when when it works, it works and it makes a huge difference. And it it the secret is it doesn't actually take a ton of work on your purchasing. That's right.

Chris Grainger 11:35

It was funny for me, my mentor. He's 87. And I love those guys when they get to that point in life because they can just sling it, they don't care, you know. I mean, he he just tells you the way it is. Yeah. But I mean, he reached out, I mean, he got connected actually. He read one of my Bible plans on the Bible app and reached out. He found it. Uh some of your listeners may have heard of C12 uh for Christian. So he was the he started the whole thing. And uh he reached out and we had a conversation. He was like, Who's mentoring you right now? I'm like, to be honest, the Holy Spirit, and that's it. He was like, Do you do you want one? I'm like, Love it. And we've met every week for an hour, hour and a half, since for two years now. And then it's been the most uh impactful, one of the most impactful relationships I have in my life right now is is just hit the time he took, he's taking to intentionally disciple. And he'll he'll but he'll he'll course correct me in a second. Like, I don't think Chris, you're thinking about this right. And here have you considered this? And I mean, but those he reached out, and I think I'm so so blessed that he did, you know.

Ryan Zook 12:44

So you have like kind of a rare experience. It's it's not a lot of dudes that are like, hey, I I came across you, I want to help you. Right. Uh but you can see in your own life how much of a difference it makes. And that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to get more men in those kind of settings. And it I love how you're pointing out like when you have a strong mentor, it's the best person in the world to course correct you because when you've known them for a while, it's it's not offensive, it's all about helping you be a better man.

Chris Grainger 13:10

That's right.

Ryan Zook 13:11

And when you take it seriously, guess what? You'll become a better man.

Chris Grainger 13:15

Any like for for the listeners out there, you know, we all always talk about red flags that we want to be aware of, but how about green flags? Got any green flags for or what to look for in a man that could be a mentor that you'd want to approach? Like, like what what are some some indicators like, yeah, I I think I want to go talk to that guy. I'd love to hear from that guy speaking my life.

Ryan Zook 13:38

One of the things I like to talk about with guys is hey, what we want to do is demystify this whole thing. Because even just mentor protege language is kind of like, I don't know if that's me.

Chris Grainger 13:48

Sure.

Ryan Zook 13:48

And so what we say is, hey, you're you're looking for a guy that's just a couple seasons ahead of you that you wouldn't mind hanging out with. So if if you can see a guy, you know, if say you're say you're a young dude, you just had your first kid, if you have a guy that's 10 years older than you that has two kids, that guy could mentor you. That's a green flag. Uh, if you like him, that's an even greener flag. And and we've had we've had pairings where it's like, yeah, you know what? Uh when we first sat down for coffee, that first and second session, I actually didn't really like the guy, but I found out that he's in my corner and he's pushing me forward and it's been really good. Right. Um, but that just to demystify it, yeah, if he's doing something you haven't done before and you're gonna end up there in the next five years, that guy could be a great mentor. Maybe he's not gonna mentor you for the next 40 years, but he's probably gonna help make a big difference in your life. Because guess what? He made mistakes that you haven't made yet. And if you don't have a mentor, you're probably gonna make those same mistakes and he can help head it off. And then two, I mean, if if you have the same hobbies, that helps. You like to hunt, your mentor likes to hunt. Guess what? That might be a good pair. That's right.

Chris Grainger 15:04

You know, find the commonalities and then lean into it.

Green Flags For Choosing A Mentor

Ryan Zook 15:07

Yeah, you lean into those commonalities and and you go from there. And I would say we have so our core five faith, family, friends, fitness, finances. We always tell guys faith is the most important one. We're not, we don't want to set out to just help you be better at managing your money. We want you to become a steward that manages God's money. That's different. So a guy that's taking his faith pretty seriously, that's a green flag. Like, go after that guy. A guy that you're watching and you can see his life and you can see some gaps there, that's a red flag. You you know, and it doesn't mean that he can't eventually be a strong mentor. It just means, like, hey, in the season that you're in, what you're looking for right now, that might not be the guy for you.

Chris Grainger 15:47

Right. Right. Love it. Great insights right there. Hey guys, we're gonna take our first break and we'll come back and keep digging in with Ryan. Let's just say it out loud. Marriage is one of the greatest gifts that God can give a man, and one of the most consistent places where we can feel unsure of what we're doing. Even the strongest marriages have moments where you look at your wife and you think, you know what? I love you. I'm so committed to you. But right now, I have no idea what I should do next. And that's why we launched something new inside the lion within us community. It's our very first support group, and it's for husbands. And we're calling it committed and occasionally confused. This isn't just a place for men in crisis. So if you're there, hey, you're welcome. This is for any man who refuses to coast and wants to take his marriage from good to great. So inside, you'll find an active chat and a feed, honest conversations, and brotherhood that says, you're not alone, we've been there. Let's bring this to God and grow. And we're also doing a monthly couples night where your wife is invited because we're not letting the world set the agenda for our homes. Now, if you want access to this support group, it's very simple. Go to thelionwithin.us and join the Lions Dan. Okay, that's thelionwithin.us. Start your 30-day free trial of the Lions Dan community, and boom, you have instant access to the committed and occasionally confused support group. We'll see you inside the deck. I am I am curious around on one thing. You know, mentorship's such a big deal. I'm trying to frame up the way I want to ask this. What's the difference? How would you explain the difference between mentorship and discipleship? Because I'm wondering, you know, are they coupled together? Are they completely separate? Like, how do you define that?

What Great Mentorship Meetings Include

Ryan Zook 17:41

Okay, so for us, like the gold star standard is when it's both, because it can be both. Um, the the easiest way to break this down is in like a true blue mentorship, you are becoming more like your mentor. So if if you're just getting mentored, say you're not a Christian, say there's no faith element at all, because there's there's lots of companies and businesses that do mentorship and it's not a faith-centered thing. They're just equipping you with the relationship that you need to help you become more like your mentor. Now, in discipleship, in a true sense, is when you are gonna become more like Jesus. It's not about your mentor anymore, it's about Jesus. And that's that's the root of discipleship. We want to be disciples of Christ. We want our lives to look like Christ's life. And the reason that I say the gold standard is when your mentor is a man who can say, like Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ, you're gonna get both. It's gonna be mentorship and discipleship. Uh, does that mean that sometimes, you know, sometimes it's gonna be more mentorship? You're just learning the practical steps of how to be a better dad. You're learning the practical steps of how to be better at your job. That's not a bad thing, but that's not discipleship. Discipleship is when your mentor is teaching you, hey, you're gonna honor Christ in your work. So, what this means is you are, you're actually gonna show up early. You're actually gonna put in more effort than they expect from you because that's what Jesus expects from you. That's mentorship paired up with discipleship. That's what we're shooting for. And to be honest with you, you know, sometimes we just have good mentors. You know, hey, I I got better at being a dad. I got better at uh being a little bit more physically fit because my mentor's physically fit. He helped me take a couple steps that way. Yeah, that happens sometimes. Um, but what we see a lot of times is where the protege is following their mentor and they're becoming like Christ because their mentor is becoming like Christ, and that makes all the difference.

Chris Grainger 19:35

Right. I mean, practically speaking, what is that? I mean, what do you a good mentorship session? Yeah, give us some fundamentals, like what's happening there? I mean, it's are there question answers? Is it pre-work that needs to be done? Is there post work? There's accountability, like just curious, get a frame up for a guy who's never had a mentor, what to even expect if he sits down with a guy for the first time.

Ryan Zook 19:59

Again, that it's a huge piece because a lot of guys are just afraid of what that looks like and they don't take the step. So for us, uh, we we have a book, and you know, our our book is not the gospel, it's just the framework for what to do. And our book, uh, the the protege sets the agenda. And so that agenda is always going to involve what was your goal from last week? Did you accomplish that goal or not? Uh, what are you reading in the Bible right now? What questions do you have about what you just read? Again, because to us, faith is at the center. We're not just trying to help you be a better dude. We're trying to help you be a godly dude. So, what are you reading? What are your questions? How can I help you? Um, what what do you want to talk about? Because this is a life on life thing. We want to be as real as possible. So, in every two-week period, we ask our mentors and proteges to meet every other week. In any given two-week period, things are gonna pop up that's just life stuff that you want some insight on. So it's like, man, my my uh, this happened to me last night. My son threw a giant fit at dinner time and ran away from the table. And I have no idea why that happened or how I'm supposed to handle it. Help me figure that out. And the mentor is gonna speak into hey, here's what I've seen happen. Maybe you want to ask this question, maybe you want to discipline this way. Uh, and then finally, we always ask our guys to score your core five. For us, everything that we do is build on scoring your core five because it's just a simple way of measuring where you're at. So it's one to five, where are you at in faith? One to five, uh, family, then fitness and finances, uh friends is in there. And just pick one area where you're gonna improve half a point, or if you're really ambitious, a full point. What are you gonna do in the next two weeks that's gonna move that score a point? And then when you come to the table next time, I'm just gonna ask you if you did it or not.

Chris Grainger 21:51

Right.

Ryan Zook 21:51

And that for us has been just incredibly transformational because that goes from we're just sitting over coffee just talking about stuff, to like, hey, we're actually gonna move the needle here. We're gonna expect that you're gonna grow. And because I love you and I want you to be a stronger, better, more effective man, I'm gonna hold you accountable to that.

Chris Grainger 22:09

Right.

Ryan Zook 22:09

So if your goal, I have I have a protege right now, his goal was to get a gym membership. That's it. So if you come to the table next week and I say, Did you get a gym membership? And your answer is no, then I am actually gonna be pretty pointed on, hey, you said that you were gonna take this seriously and you said that you were gonna put this step in place. I need to understand why that didn't happen.

Chris Grainger 22:28

Right.

Ryan Zook 22:29

That's not pass fail. Like I'm not walking away from the table. I'm not walking away from the mentorship, but I do expect you to to do well and to move forward.

Chris Grainger 22:36

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 100%. So the follow-up is is such a big deal. And you mentioned two of two-week cadence. Is that what you guys have found? Like what's the what's the right touch point where it's not too much, but it's not too far too far apart?

Cadence, Structure, And Staying The Course

Ryan Zook 22:50

So what we ask guys to do is to commit to every other week uh for a year. And at first, guys will be like, man, a whole year? I don't, I don't even, I don't even know this guy. I'm not sure I want to do that. Uh so for us, it's just structure and plan. So we provide the structure. It's it's a workbook, it's the same two worksheets every two weeks. You're filling those out, you're getting the cadence. And the plan is, hey, we're meeting every two weeks for the next year. Uh, we've seen that when guys stick to it and complete that, those are the guys that end up meeting for coffee, meeting for breakfast for years after that. Because just that simple structure makes a difference. Here, here's the secret, Chris. You could go out and get a mentor right now, and you don't need men of iron to help you with that. But a lot of guys that do that don't have the structure and the plan to help them maintain. That long term to make the difference that they need. So we just help provide the tools to be able to do that.

Chris Grainger 23:49

Hey man. Any success stories, man? What anything comes to mind you want to share of like you know you've seen it where it's just it it really worked well?

Ryan Zook 23:58

I'll I'll tell you we we have a few. Uh the one that I love right now, we have a guy, he uh he met a guy that worked in our organization back in 2015. And he he he heard about mentorship, he just kind of caught the vision, he got really excited about it. He wasn't local to where we are, so he took mentorship back to where he lives. He lives in Richfield, Pennsylvania, which is an hour and a half away from here. And he took mentorship up there, he got a protege, he walked through our kit. Uh, he's been mentoring guys now with Men of Iron since 2015. So just shy of, well, actually just over 10 years at this point.

Chris Grainger 24:36

Yeah.

Stories Of Lasting Change

Ryan Zook 24:37

Um, I led a men's retreat for his church last March. And at his men's retreat, we we always talk about mentorship because we're encouraging guys to get there. So at that men's retreat, there's probably 50 guys. I said, okay, who in this room has had a mentor? And 40 guys put their hands up. It's like, okay, I I'm curious, how many of you have been mentored personally by John? And it was 35 of those men. So you talk about a guy that has made a lasting measurable impact in his community. Wow. It it's massive. And you know, he he's a humble dude. He I probably won't love that I'm talking about on the pot, actually, but he's he's a humble guy. He it's not all about him. But if you would have been standing in that room and saw him see all those guys, yeah, it's it's massive. And and he's a guy, you know, he had a pretty good relationship with God to begin with. Like he his life was going pretty well. He just wanted to help somebody else.

Chris Grainger 25:40

Yeah.

Ryan Zook 25:41

Um, but it it's it's changed his job. He's a business owner, it made a difference in his company. Uh, it's changed his church. His church now has mentorship, it's a core piece of what they do. And you can see, I mean, he's invested in 35 different guys personally. That represents most likely 35 wives, who knows how many kids, 60 kids at least. Yeah. Um, I think that's the I just get so excited about it because that's the kind of impact that Jesus was making that so many of us are trying to figure out like, how can we do that? And and here's a guy that's got 35 men that he can say, hey, follow me as I follow Christ. We're gonna make a difference here. Wow. That's incredible.

Chris Grainger 26:18

What a testimony.

Ryan Zook 26:20

Yeah, we have we have another guy like on the other side of that, we have guys that are not thriving, are not in a great spot. And so we have we have some testimonials on our YouTube page. You can check them out. Um, but we had a guy that reached out, his marriage was completely falling apart. Uh, he was just actively involved in an affair. He had been asked to move out of his house. Um, he got connected to a mentor. That guy started to invest in him over 12 months. And my favorite thing about that story is there's a there's a short little clip with his daughter. I think his daughter's like 10 years old. And she said, when my when my daddy got a mentor and he started walking out this process, I knew that God loved me because my daddy loved me.

Chris Grainger 27:04

Wow.

Ryan Zook 27:05

I'm like, oh man, like what a powerful thing. Like what dad doesn't want that? Right. And so, you know, we can we can highlight all the the crazy things he was involved in that he's not involved in anymore. Um, but the thing that that just gets me juiced up is like there's a little girl that knows she's loved and cared for because her dad took a step to to get serious about his faith and care for his family.

Chris Grainger 27:29

Right. Man, what an incredible story. Right. That's that's awesome. You guys are making a just a huge impact. Now you're all over the East Coast, right? Is this prime where where is Men of Iron located?

Ryan Zook 27:40

Yeah, so we we uh we're strong believers in face-to-face. So we're trying to do what we can to get as many full-time, like we we have full-time reps, we call them iron reps, that represent our work in a given region. So we have a guy right now in Pinellas County, Florida, Scott Davis. Scott Davis is phenomenal.

Chris Grainger 27:58

That's why I met it.

Ryan Zook 27:58

Uh he's been you met Scott.

Chris Grainger 28:00

Yeah, that's how I met. Yep. Scott's awesome.

Regional Hubs And Online Growth

Ryan Zook 28:02

I'll tell you what, man. Um, we will not have the opportunity to get the thousands of guys that Scott has impacted in one room. Um, but I know that he is another man that has a story like like John up here in Richfield. Like there are so many men and so many families that have been impacted by Scott's work. Uh, it it just makes a huge, huge difference. So uh Scott uh is our full-time rep in Pinellas County. Uh he has a he has a huge um there's a huge circle of men of iron guys at Countryside Christian Church down there. Uh Mission City Church down there has uh a lot of men of iron stuff going on. Um there's there's just a lot of churches down there that are involved with Scott and what he's doing, uh getting guys mentored. Very good. Um so we have a full-time guy in Pinellas. Um we have another full-time guy up here in Burke's Schuylkill County. Uh so that's two counties next to each other. And he's running programs right now. He is he's running a man's game plan. So it's a small group program uh at a Dunkin' Donuts with a group of 20 or 30 guys. And a lot of them, I think, are just kind of wrestling through what it even means to be a Christian in the first place. Right. And so um that's Colton Herb. Uh he's he's phenomenal, he's done some great work over there. Um, and then finally, we've we've been here in Lancaster County for 20 years. So uh our guy in Lancaster is Tony Galati. Uh, he's working a lot with business guys. And so we have a lot of business guys right now that come to us and they say, Hey, I I want to know about what it means to have a mentor. And and what we tell those guys is, hey, we're not we're not business coaches. Um, if you want to grow your business, go talk to the guys at C12. Uh, but if you want to become a better, stronger, more effective man, like Men of Iron can help you because we're gonna get you to score your core five and and make a difference. So you're that was my long answer to your short question. Uh we're we're in Pinellas, we're in uh Burks at Schuylkill, we're in Lancaster. Uh but the the game for us is finding more guys that want to serve as iron reps and getting them to represent the work of men of iron in in more regions as we grow. And then, you know, finally, we're in the last year, uh, we've just got in contact with a lot more guys online. And so we're working hard on offering some things for guys online where you can get you can jump into a men of iron group, uh, you can get paired up with a mentor. Uh so we're we're working on that as well.

Personal Impact And Leading At Home

Chris Grainger 30:21

That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, guys, we're gonna take our last break. We'll be right back with Ryan. If there's one habit that can change your home, it's this when a husband prays with his wife, not because it's a magic formula, but because it recenters your marriage under God's authority and care. And let's be honest, a lot of guys want to do it, but most don't know how to start without it feeling awkward. Maybe you tried it before and it felt forced, or maybe you've never tried it because you don't even know what to say. Or maybe you're thinking, man, I'm not a pastor, I'm just a guy. And that's why we created this guide. It's our how to pray with your wife. Simple guide. It's biblical, it's practical, and it's designed to help you start praying with your wife in a way that actually feels natural. So it's a five-section guide, and it gives you a simple framework to get started. Okay, it makes sure everything is grounded in scripture, and it also has a powerful PDF that you can pull up whenever you need, especially when things get off, because they're gonna get off. That's normal. So this is all about reclaiming your marriage and reclaiming the spiritual leadership reigns of your home. Because praying with your wife is one of the strongest ways to fight for unity, to build trust, and to right to ship when life starts to pull you off a course. So if you're ready, get access today at the lionwithin.usguides. That's the lionwithin.us slash guides, and start unleashing the line within at home by leading your marriage through prayer. All right, I'm I'm I'm really curious as we're kind of ending our towards the end of our conversation, what what's been the biggest impact on you personally from Men of Iron?

Ryan Zook 32:13

I had a I had a conversation with my wife uh right when when I started at Men of Iron, because for me it was kind of a weird switch. Like I'd been a pastor, I knew church world. I was like, I I don't know much about what it means to work nonprofit, what it means to work with business guys. I'd never really done it before. Um, and I remember telling my wife over dinner, I was like, you know, I think if I take this job seriously, uh I'll probably enjoy my job and I'll probably become a better man. And so for me personally, like I do all the things that I've been talking about. I score my core five every week. I set goals on how I want to grow in those areas of my life. Um, probably the the biggest one. Um I I set a goal one week and then I carried it out across the month. I have five kids at home. And my goal was to spend intentional time with each of those kids every week. So the the more kids you have, the harder that gets. You have four, I think. So you kind of know what that's like. Uh and for me, it was the it was the first time that I had spelled out time on the calendar. Okay, this is what I'm gonna hang out with Joshua. I'm gonna ask him what he wants to do, I'm gonna go do it. Here's what I'm gonna hang out with Luke. I'm gonna find out what he wants to do, I'm gonna go do it. Um, it made such a huge difference in my relationship with my kids. And I started to get to know who they are, what they like. Um, you know, our house is crazy and it's busy. And so it was like focus time, just one-on-one to hear from them uh what's going on in their lives. And they're they're young, man. So sometimes I just hear about what's going on with the Ninja Turtles and hear about some new bluey episode or something. Uh, but it it's made a huge difference in how I parent my kids. And that's just just one little piece. I mean, the the other thing that I love so much is that we are in contact with guys every week that are getting to know Jesus for the first time and they're experiencing the difference that Jesus makes in their own lives as they come closer to him.

Chris Grainger 34:15

Yeah.

Ryan Zook 34:15

And I'll tell you what, for me, having a pastor's heart, like it it just amps me up. Uh, to me, we can't get to more men in new places fast enough. Uh, because to me, it's just God has put me in this place where I get to invest a lot in a lot of guys. Uh, and I think to me, it's a great way to fulfill the great commission. Like, hey, let's take this seriously. Let's go actually try to disciple every man, every place, and let's see what happens.

Chris Grainger 34:43

Right. Right. What's your message to the guy out there who's listening who doesn't have a mentor? Well, what's the one thing if you if you could just tell him one message, what would it be?

Lightning Round: Life, Habits, And Faith

Ryan Zook 34:53

Yeah, I would tell him you you need it, uh, but you don't have to be afraid of trying to get it. That's the biggest barrier. The biggest barrier is you don't think you're good enough. Uh, you think it might be too hard to get involved or or get plugged in with a mentor, and neither of those things are true. Um, when you get a mentor, he's not gonna be scary, he's gonna care about you, he's gonna push you forward, and you are gonna be a better man. I think the the biggest thing is just to take that step. And so, you know, you can find a mentor in your own community. You can go out and just ask someone to mentor you. Do it. Uh, if you need help in that process, we would love to help you. So, you know, you can reach out to me, uh, Ryan Z at menofiron.org. That'll reach me personally. Um, you can check us out on our website, but you do need a mentor. And, you know, the the reason I say like it doesn't have to be us. Like, we're not pitchy about this. We just believe in it. We want you to have another man that is pushing you and holding you accountable. It will make a difference in your life. And so just just do it. Um just take that step.

Chris Grainger 35:53

Amen, bro. Amen. Well, before we wrap up, we love to do a lightning round at the end of the lion every for every episode. So if you're willing to have some fun, we'll jump in with a quick fire. Awesome, awesome. Hobbies, what do you enjoy doing for fun? I love to just watching Bluey. You you already mentioned Bluey.

Ryan Zook 36:08

So I love to hunt. So if I can be out in a tree stand somewhere, that's gonna be me and my happy place.

Chris Grainger 36:14

I love it, man. And by the way, on the Bluey thing, my my four-year-old calls me Big Fella. So she doesn't call me dad anymore. I was like, well, she'll still call me dad, but she she walks around and called me big fella, and I'm okay with it. Like, I'm like, I get it, girl. We're channeling our inner bluey right now, you know? So you go, man. Love hunting in the woods, got it, brother. Uh so how about when you get to the to the dinner table? If you what's your favorite food? What's your go-to?

Ryan Zook 36:37

It's it's gotta be steak, right? It's gotta be steak. Okay, it's gotta be. Yeah. How are you cooking it? Medium. Medium. Okay. I don't love it cold in the middle. My my wife loves it cold in the middle. I uh that's too much for me.

Chris Grainger 36:50

That's too much, got it. I'll take medium. Just medium. There you go. Fair enough. Fair enough. What's your favorite uh favorite band all time?

Ryan Zook 36:59

Favorite band? Oh man. Uh I'm a I'm a country music guy. Okay. Can I can I get can I does it have to be a band? No, man. Go country. Yeah. So I'm a big Chris Stapleton fan. Okay. Um, really love George Strait. There you go. Uh, if if you want a band, I'll tell you, I'll take Alabama.

Chris Grainger 37:17

Oh, let's go. I'm there. Let's do it. I remember uh that was the first concert I went to as a kid. I was probably like five years old. And I've been to so many Alabama concerts, bro, it's unreal. But uh man, it's something about being seeing Alabama live. It was something else.

Ryan Zook 37:34

My wife and I are on this kick where we're just like every year we're trying to get to at least one country show, and we'll travel if we need to do it. So we uh we just saw Alan Jackson in Tampa. It was his second to last show ever. At least that's what they we'll see if that's a marketing play or not.

Chris Grainger 37:49

But right. Now I saw him in the 90s, bro, in Raleigh, North Carolina, back when Chattahoochee was a real thing. There you go. I mean, that's it. That's it. That's it. Awesome, awesome. What about any habits, Ryan? I mean, you're you're a in a pretty big role, leadership. You got five kids, you got a lot of things happening. We love to share habits at the line. Anything it could be from a fitness habit to a faith habit to you know wellness, whatever it may be. Anything that you that you do that you want to share?

Ryan Zook 38:20

The the biggest thing that has helped me in the last year. So I've been I've been doing a weekly review for probably two years. So at the at the end of every week, it's just what went well, what didn't go well, what did I learn? And then, like I said earlier, I score my core five and then I set a goal.

Chris Grainger 38:36

Okay.

Ryan Zook 38:37

Um, we had a we had a pretty challenging season the last six months, something like that. It just it just required more of me. And so I started doing a daily review, which I hated. Um, but it it really helped me just see what happened during the day. And I I don't know. I'm my own biggest critic. And so I have this terrible habit of at the end of the day, I just feel like it was miserable or I I just failed in a big way. And when I started to do those daily reviews, it just helped me see like, no, that's actually not true. Like, this was actually a really good day. And when it was spelled out on paper, it was really hard for me to lie to myself about what had happened. Um, because I I will lock myself in my head for days and just beat myself up. And so just spelling that out on paper helped me a lot. Wow. Um, uh I would, I guess to add to that, I I'm an early morning wake-up guy. I love getting up early, uh, get a quick workout in, uh, see what's what what's on the docket for the day. Um so that that rhythm of looking at what's coming in the morning and then evaluating how it went at the end of the day has been incredible for me.

Chris Grainger 39:47

Man, that's awesome. That's awesome. Well, I love asking this question. I and particularly with your background, I'm just curious where you're gonna go with it. What's what's your favorite thing about God? Very simple. What's your favorite thing about him?

Naming The Enemy And Guardrails

Ryan Zook 40:01

I think my favorite thing about God is that I can't screw up what he's doing. Um there are many times where I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do or how I'm supposed to do it. And over my life, I've just become so confident that he's got it figured out that I don't worry about it as much anymore. I'd be lying if I say I don't worry about it at all. Um, but I've just become more and more confident of God's will and God's plan for my life that I I can usually rest in it. Like I I know him, I believe him, and I do my best to follow him. I don't, I don't do it right all the time. Um, and so the the question that I ask myself is is there anything in my life right now that is actively against God's will for me? And usually that's hidden sin. So am I doing anything right now to wreck my relationship with God? If if any of those things show up, then yeah, I can screw up the plan that God has for me. But if I'm not falling into any of those sins, then I can be pretty confident that God's got me and He's taking care of me and He's moving forward. Right. Um I know this is this is a pod swap. So we you and I talked earlier about dark seasons of faith. I've had some dark seasons of faith, and one of the things that I appreciate and what I've grown to appreciate is I don't mind being mad at God. That does not bother me. And so I just appreciate that I can be open with him, I can be honest with him, uh, I can I can be furious with him, and he still has a plan for me, he still has a purpose for me, and he still got me.

Chris Grainger 41:39

Amen to that, brother. Now let's flip it one eighty. What's your least favorite thing about the evil one? He knows me too, right?

Ryan Zook 41:54

So we we could get into some theological stuff, but I think the evil one observes us and he watches us because he has he has um he's a prince of darkness, he's the ruler of the air, he knows what's going on. And so I think he knows uh how he can get me, and I think he knows how he can get me quick. And man, it bugs me a lot. I mean, obviously, all the things I hate about the evil one is that he's the evil one, he's drawing people away from himself, he's uh he's deceiving people. I think today there's there's any number of ways that you can be deceived quickly, and I think one of the biggest ones is pornography. It's so pervasive, it's everywhere. And man, when you start to fall down that hole, you fall fast. Um, but I I think the thing that bugs me the most about him is that he knows me and he knows where my weak spots are. And so for me, I have to I have to make sure I'm paying attention to those weak spots, and I have to make sure I'm being honest about where I'm failing, uh, particularly in a spiritual sense. You know, hey, it it was a busy week and I didn't spend any time with God. Guess what? I know that, Satan knows that, God knows that, and he can use that.

Chris Grainger 43:06

So, yeah, that's a good question. Yeah, man. Well, it's a it's a hard one to wrestle with and it's one to think about because now that you know, and I tell the guys all the time, if you were the evil one, how would you attack you? Like, how would you take you out? And then once you know that answer to that, and you just and then like you're truly being transparent, then you can start putting up the boundaries and the standards and all the everything in place to share that up. Because I mean, we all have weakness spots, man. And he's not gonna stop attacking just because you're tired. You know, so that's that's that's when he's gonna attack the most. So I appreciate your transparency.

Ryan Zook 43:38

He's good at it, man. He's good at it.

Chris Grainger 43:40

Yeah, he he knows how to raise to run the plays that that are gonna get us every time. So and this is this has been awesome. What what's the one thing you want the guys to remember the most from our conversation, Ryan?

Final Charge: Ask A Mentor Today

Ryan Zook 43:53

I'm like a broken record at this point, but you gotta get a mentor. You gotta get a mentor. And we can help you if you need help. If you don't, just text the guy. Uh, a lot of times you know who you want to be your mentor, and that's that's why I opened those stats. It's very likely that the guy you're thinking of is actually willing to help you. And, you know, it's possible that he doesn't have the time or whatever, so don't take it personal. Um, but I would say if you want to make a huge difference in your life right now, if there's a guy in your mind that you would like to be your mentor, text him right now. Um, because if he says yes, you are gonna see a difference in your life and you are gonna be closer to Jesus. You are gonna be a better dad, you are gonna be a better husband. It is gonna happen. Uh, you just gotta ask.

Chris Grainger 44:40

Amen. Amen. Now, where where can gas go? Can you already gave your email, but where do you want to send them to get all the men of iron resources?

Ryan Zook 44:46

Yeah. So if you go to menofiron.org, uh, we got it, we got tabs at the top for all of our resources. Uh, we have free resources you can jump into right now. So we have a free online daily devotional called Discipline Restored. Uh, that's that's on there. Uh, we regularly run small groups. We call it a man's game plan. You're just gonna spend six weeks trying to grow in your core five. Uh, there's a tab on our website to find that resource. Uh, you can jump into an online group or you can just buy it and run it at your church, buy it and run it with a group of guys. We'll help you do that. And then finally, if you want to mentor, check out our mentorship. It's called Strong27. There's a tab on our website for that. Uh, again, reach out to us. We can help you, or you can just self start it yourself. We'll send you the resources, we'll hook you up. So I'd love for you to check that out. Uh, and again, if you want to reach out to me personally, my email is Ryan Z at menofiron.org. I'd love to talk to you. I'd love to help you out.

Chris Grainger 45:38

Man, Ryan. Well, thank you so much for sharing. Sharing today, brother. Anything else you'd like to touch on?

Ryan Zook 45:43

No, man. I I appreciate the opportunity. I appreciate what you're doing. I know, like I said, it we bump into guys that are like, yeah, Chris Granger with the line within. Uh, it's made a difference in my life. So I I appreciate you and I appreciate what you're doing to firm up guys, man.

Chris Grainger 45:57

Man, brother. Thank you so much. May you have a great day.

Ryan Zook 46:00

You too, Chris. Thanks.

Wrap-Up, Resources, And Next Steps

Chris Grainger 46:03

All right, guys. I told you that was to be a fun. So thankful for Ryan for sharing that. And look, guys, the question of the week is where are you swinging harder instead of sharpening first? And look, we got to be careful. We have to be careful because it's not just about how hard can we swing, but let's make sure that we're sharp and we're precise when we do put that effort forward. We talked a lot about mentorship here with Ryan. We are 100% down down for this, guys. And look, even for men of iron, you know, guys at the line within us, we have our community and we also have our leadership mastermind. The leadership mastermind is a great place to have those mentorship relate conversations and relationships as well. So look, if that's of interest and you want to check out Men of Iron, at the same time, check out our leadership mastermind. It's a great way between the two of our organizations. We hope that we can serve you well and help you Chloe. And help you in your spiritual ship and your discipleship journey, rather. So, guys, check us out there. Uh again, thelionwithin.us is how you can connect with us. Come back on Friday. We're gonna have a great member spotlight for you guys. We you know how much we enjoy doing those member spotlights now on our Friday episodes. So come there again, daily spiritual kickoff, Lion's Den community. If you have our leadership mastermind, you can put in an application for that as well. Or pop over to the Bible app, open the Bible app up, search for the Lion Within Us. Just search for that on the Bible app. You'll see our page, follow us there, connect with our plans. The I'm just a guy series is very popular. Guys seem to be enjoying that. So check that out and see if it serves you well, okay? All right, guys. We'll get after it. Thank you so much for hanging out with us today. Give us a rating and review. Again, thelionwithin.us is how you can connect with us. Look forward to hearing from you. We'll see you next time and just keep unleashing the lion within. If you're like me, you don't need another book just sitting around collecting dust. What I enjoy is something to help guide me when my feet hit the ground in the mornings. And that is why we put together Unleashing the Lion Within. It has honest stories, scripture you can apply, and simple steps to help you lead at home, at work, and everywhere in between. So if you've been feeling stuck or scattered lately, you may find this resource encouraging. Read a few pages. Take one step and watch what God does with your obedience. Hey, and if reading's tough for you right now, no problem. The book is also available in Audible version so you can listen on the go. So if this sounds interesting, check out thelionwithin.us slash book or search for unleashing the lion within directly on Amazon. So there's no pressure here, just a resource that many guys are finding helpful. So grab the format that fits and take your next step.