Chris Grainger 0:02

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, meet episode time. Let's get into it. The scripture of the week this week is 1 Timothy 1, verse 2. It says, Timothy, my true son of faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. So, guys, we we uh took some time this week to unpack that verse, really speaking to the importance of mentors, spiritual elders, people who are speaking into our life. So if you missed that SKO episode, go back one in your podcast feed. Hopefully you'll be encouraged by that. And I kind of gave a little uh prelude in that episode about for the Wednesday episode, which is the episode you're on right now, you guys will be hearing from my spiritual mentor. I'm just so excited for this one, okay? And and again, uh we we we have lots of ways that we uh we try to serve and Buck Buck Jacobs, who who you're getting ready to hear his story, he has helped me think through so many things from the lion, from the mastermind groups to daily SKO, all the different things that we've done to the lion. Many of these things I've had conversations with Buck about, and and uh so having an opportunity to have Buck on uh it's just a blessing. It is an absolute blessing. And uh I just uh I think you're gonna enjoy this one. So he is the founder of C-12, uh the one of the largest Christian leadership peer groups in the world. I mean, this just the wonderful things from C-12. And uh, he's been a mentor of me. We're gonna talk about how we got connected uh for two years. And uh, he's been just pouring in me usually every week or every two weeks. We don't we never go more than two weeks without

Welcome And Why Mentors Matter

Chris Grainger 1:43

talking to each other. And it's been just one of the just the greatest relationships of my life, and and I'm just so thankful for him. An amazing story, just of how God has moved in his life, continues to move. He's 87 years old. Uh him and Miss Bonnie, you know, just their marriage, I think 52 years. Just just just a great testimony. So I had a lot of fun with this one. And look, this is not not your typical line within this episode, just gonna be straight up with you. Okay, there's a there's a deep relationship that Buck and I have. And you know, most of our Wednesday guests, lots of times there, I'm meeting them for the first time, maybe a second, third time, but for for repeat guests, but very rarely do I have ongoing relationship. That's not the way it is with this one, okay? So uh there's there's no uh scripted questions. We just we just talk, you know, and we just just share uh what God is doing and how God is moving and how God has moved in his life, and how God continues to move in his life. And I just I was blessed with this one. So hopefully you'll be blessed as well. Uh, you know, so guys, just check it out. Sit back, enjoy this one. Again, if you're not in a daily SKO or Lion Stand at the Lion, just head over to the website, thelionwithin.us, get connected with us there. Go to C12, check out the C12 website, fellas, and and particularly for you guys are in leadership positions, CEOs, founders, things like that. Check out C12. I'm telling you, they have those groups all over the world, a worldwide worldwide uh organization at this point, fellas. So big, big deal. Uh, I cannot speak enough about what they do and how they do it. And just very thankful for Buck for taking the time to sit back, enjoy this conversation with my mentor, my friend, and my brother in Christ, Buck Jacobs. Well, Buck, this has been a long one in the making for me. Uh, it's a special episode as well, just to have you on. But just kind of start off, how are you doing today?

Buck Jacobs 3:37

I'm doing really good today, Chris. Believe it or not, I'm walking around with uh without my wheel eater or cane, and uh I'm thinking I'm getting some real progress when I hit my my hip heel. But uh technologically, you know, I stumble around a lot. But I'm excited, I'm honored to be your guest, and I'm looking forward to uh our conversation.

Chris Grainger 4:00

Me too, Buck, and and uh I talk about you a lot on the show, and there's a date I want to to uh run by you. So April 24th, 2024, uh is a day that my life was forever changed for the good. Do you happen to know what was significant about that day by chance?

Buck Jacobs 4:21

April 24th? Yeah, 2024. 2024. Now tell me, I'm if I know I'm I'm not able to recall it.

Chris Grainger 4:30

Well, that was the day this guy named Buck put in a submittal at the line within us on one of our plans, and I got connected with him. And uh it's heavy. That's right. I went back to the back.

Buck Jacobs 4:44

I thank the Lord for that, brother.

Chris Grainger 4:46

It's been a good connection. It has been. And uh, I look back this morning and it was funny back then, Buck. Um, we weren't getting the emails that we were that we are today. I mean, God has blessed the lion in the last two years, but back then, every email that came in, I saw it, and I would I would you know do all I can to make reach out. And I think

Meeting Buck And C12 Intro

Chris Grainger 5:08

yours, there was a misprint or something in the Gmail account. So I actually just reached out to you directly. I said, I think this is supposed to be the email, and you emailed me back very graciously, and we just from there it just snowballed. But yeah, that's uh that's when it all started a couple years ago.

Buck Jacobs 5:24

Praise the Lord.

Chris Grainger 5:26

Well, I I I know many of our listeners know about you and and and some of your the wonderful things God has done in your life, but some of them may not. So, do you want to just share a little bit of your testimony with our our listeners out there today, Buck?

Buck Jacobs 5:41

Just a little bit. You know, that's really hard for somebody 87 years old. I've been walking with the Lord 52 years. I got a lot to say about yes, I was raised in an agnostic home and didn't know anything about the Bible and uh or Jesus until I was 35 years old. And uh then uh God orchestrated a whole bunch of circumstances which I won't take the time to tell you about today, but they're all included in a book I wrote called iradical that is available in UVersion or in the C12 bookstore. And uh anyone that's really interested can pick up a copy. It's all there. Anyhow, I was living in Los Angeles, I was uh 35 years old, been divorced twice, uh, started a couple companies that were failing, and I was about at the end of my rope when uh someone uh told me about the gospel, a guy that would never have expected to, and events happened so that I got up the next morning, that was November 18th, 1973, and I flipped on the TV to watch a football game, and what came up but a sermon. And I had never watched a church sermon on TV before, and the pastor was just starting his uh his uh sermon, and the first words out of his mouth were, Life is nothing but a series of problems. And that got my attention because I had plenty of problems. So I sat down with my coffee and listened in, and he said he said, you know,

Buck’s Conversion And Surrender

Buck Jacobs 7:21

life has inevitably a series of problems that come to us. It doesn't matter how good we are or how bad we are, that's the cycle that's gonna happen. And uh if we try to deal with those problems in our own strength, uh eventually they'll weigh us down and break us. And that's I was just about at that point where carrying the problems of my life was uh was breaking my back. And uh he says, but God sent his son, Jesus, into the world to pay the penalty for your sins. And y'all know the story of the four spiritual laws. He he preached it and and I prayed it. And uh as I prayed it, I felt something stir inside of me. I don't know what what it was, but it was like things fell into place or something like that. And I prayed the prayer, he suggested, and the only thing that I said was any different is I said, Lord, if this is real and it's for me, and you want my life, you can have it, and I'll do whatever you want for the rest of it. And when I think back, that had to be some sort of a key to what happened after that, because I surrendered. I didn't say I surrender, but in my heart I meant you can have it. I've I've had my fill of it. And uh things went on for the next 24 hours, and uh I was trying to tell my wife what had happened. She had been out of town on that Sunday, on uh Monday evening, and uh I didn't know the words, I didn't know born again, I didn't know the Christian terms, I just said, you know, I've got to tell you, I I gave my life to God yesterday, and I know things are gonna change and get better for us, but I don't know how. And I started to tell her about this friend of mine named Bob. It was the only Christian that I knew. He was the only Christian that ever even tried to witness to me. And uh I turned him down because I was in the midst of my big career move and and I didn't have time for religion, you know. But I remembered him as I was going through this period, started to tell Bonnie about Bob and the phone rang. And it was Bob calling me from Illinois. We were in Los Angeles, as I heard his word, I'd I mean, I had his voice. I knew it was him because I'd known him for at that time over 40 years. Now it's over 70 years, and he said, Buck, this is Bob. And I said, I I was kind of choking, you know. I I said, I know. And he said, uh, hey, what's new with you? And I said, uh, well, Bob, I I gave my life to Jesus yesterday. And then he started choking up. Now he was the fullback, I was the halfback on the football team. That wasn't something we practiced together ever. He says, Buff, we've prayed for you every night for four years and so happy, he said, You got to come see me in Chicago. He said, I've committed my business to be a Christian company, and I want to show the world that a man can be a success in business and uh in the in the church in faith. And I said, But Bob, I I don't know anything about that. He said, Don't worry. Come, we need to talk. You need to come here. So he sent me a ticket, and less than a week later, I was sitting with him and uh the rest of his strategic leadership team, two other guys, and we were sharing it. It was it was obvious it was a fit. I mean, uh, he didn't have to pay me. I mean, I would I would have swept the floors, I wouldn't I didn't care what he wanted me to do. Just as a brand new born-again Christian with my older born-again buddy for forever, you know, but work with him and fellowship with him and be with him. I didn't money ceased to be important to me, which was very unusual for me, and it did show a real change in my life because my life had been all about money for for many years. So uh we just loaded everything we had in a little trailer and ran it from U-Haul and drove across the country in a mostly a snowstorm with my uh U-hole hooked to the back of my rented Cadillac. And we showed up in the snow at Bob's front door a couple days later. And I joined him and we worked together for 10 years in that chemical business that he had in the Chicago area, trying to find out how do you lead a company for Christ and how can you use the platform that the business is as a missionary outpost or a way of illustrating and sharing Christ. And Chris, it was the most exciting 10 years of my life. We went through all kinds of trials. We had our building torched, and it uh we went through uh trial that was during the oil embargo days in 73 to 80 something after Reagan got elected, uh, interest rates went up to 20 percent. We couldn't borrow money, we didn't have any insurance. It looked

Building A Christ Centered Company

Buck Jacobs 12:36

like that the building was gutted in May. I joined it in late uh December. So just four or five months later, looks like oh, this is all this is all going. You know, and I remember uh I was an avid uh avid reader in those days, and I had been given a book called Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting, written by Derek Prince. And I had read it while I was out of town on business that night, and in there he told the story of an event during World War II when uh Hitler was just about to go across the English Channel and take over England, and England was terrified. People were just sure that it was going to happen every day. And there was this little church in England near the coast, and a pastor said, you know, we have no arms, but we have one mighty weapon, and that's prayer. And that church gathered together and they agreed that somebody in that church would be praying and the others would be fasting uh every day, the that that Hitler would turn away from the English Channel, and they began to do that, and sure enough, and just a couple weeks later, Hitler made the decision that ruined the war for him. Thank God. He chose to uh attack Russia, and the Russian winner closed in on him. And make a long story short, it was the worst military decision maybe in history. Well, I had read that, so and I'm a little pumped up. I'm a new Christian, nothing's impossible for God. So I said, well, I just read this book, and maybe we don't maybe we should just pray and fast and ask God to sustain this business so we could really go on and find out how do you run a business for Christ. So we all agreed that we would pray, and somebody would be praying all day, every day, we broke it up in the time, and we'd all fast on Wednesdays, uh, and ask God for deliverance uh from this fire, which was arson, by the way. Uh-huh. And so we sit doing that, and uh that month, that next month, turned out to be the highest sales with the highest profit in the history of the company. Now, I I'm not this is not a prosperity message. We didn't know what was going to go, how he was gonna do that, but things happened. Like people called us and asked us if we had certain chemicals in inventory, you know, and we had bought a big bunch for a customer who would cancel an order just the week the month before that. We said, Well, we can let you have some of this. We sold every benefit. And so anyway, we've got enough money. The four of us in leadership decided that we wouldn't take any salary. We just split whatever profit God provided. And if that was enough, we'd keep going. If it wasn't enough, we'd say, Well, he doesn't want us to do that. And you know what? Every month we had just enough for each of us, all four of us, to take what a one-fourth of what it was and meet our bills. And then things began to turn around a little bit, and God built slowly over about the next three years, uh, and we uh ended up being invited to investigate a different product line, uh, which we did, and that was a turning point in the business. So I don't need to go on from there, but uh that was that was God's way of uh implanting his providence in my heart. I watched him do it day by day, month after month, to supply our need, enough for all four of us, and we we we paid all of our bills on time, we paid all of our employees, and then we showed up, and then this other opportunity came on, and then we met another challenge. That was like a challenge of uh want and poverty because we didn't know about the about the order of then things began to turn, and some of our accounts that we were working on started to come through with some orders, and then we got this opportunity, which was to create a a unique product for forming aluminum beer and beverage cans. That's something we knew nothing about, and God provided the information. And wouldn't you know? There were two companies in the country that were trying to develop that kind of product, and one of them was in the Chicago area. And we called them and happened to get a hold, just happened to get a hold of the research director, told them about our company and what our emphasis was. He says, Well, he said, that's interesting. We're just about to start a trial looking for a new product that uh can make a synthetic a synthetic product and make beer beverage plants. And so the next day, Bob whipped together some product. We didn't even have a product, we were just looking for somewhere to try something. He put together a product that was an alternation of a floor cleaner. But anyway, I carried it into Chicago and went into the research lab and saw it, and it worked. And long story short, we were given a contract to develop this product for large companies, uh, research development versus all kinds of huge companies who we competed with. And that product ended up taking us to a worldwide uh position of uh 40% of the market. And we started, we went from being totally broke to having so much money we didn't know what to do with it. And there's lessons all throughout that. And those are we learned how to be in want, we learned how to be in plenty. We did good during the want stage, we got a little cocky during the plenty, and God had to bring chasings to the business, and he did. And two of our salesmen sold a third of our business, and then we went through another training process. But that's how it all started for me, and that's I got my discipline was in on the job training. You know, how do you integrate your faith with your life, whatever it is, and how do you look for God in those circumstances? I remember standing next to machines. We were running trials and they weren't working so well. And I lay my hands on them and pray off and they start working. Now I'm not saying anybody else should do that. I don't I don't believe in name it claim it because we went from want to a lot of money, but that wasn't our purpose. Our purpose was defined in our our company mission statement that we created in my first week on a job. And that statement said this company exists to bring honor and glory to God and to do business in a way that his son Jesus will be able to say, Well done, good and faithful servant. And we look for opportunities within our business lives to integrate the faith that we carry with us into all our circumstances. So that's a real quick kind of overview of how it all started. Uh we sold the business and uh I went out to look for ways that I could share what I had learned in the ten years that we worked together and uh took another took another ten years before God opened the door that I started C twelve in uh 1992. The reason I did that is because I found during my time in and uh working in the sales department that I met a lot of Christians, but very few of them had the perspective of your business as a platform for ministry, you're a a steward and an owner, and God's gonna hold you accountable for how you use his um his uh possessions that he puts in your hands to manage for. And uh I wanted to share that message partially because I had enjoyed the ten years of working with Bob. You know, I'd call him at the end of every day and um he'd he'd say, Well, how'd it go today? Did you get the did you get any uh sales uh opportunities? No, Bob, I didn't I didn't get any today, but you know what? I witnessed to the cab driver on the way to the airport and he received Christ. And Bob would just get all excited about that. You know, it was it was an integrated life with Christ at the head, but doing business just like everybody else. And it was a joy. It was a joy, it was fun, and I wanted to share that. And I looked around, it took me 10 years to get uh the opportunity, and I started what we call the C-12 Group in 1992. By that time I'd used up all the money that I had gotten for sharing

Prayer And Fasting In Crisis

Buck Jacobs 21:15

my share of the business when we sold it, and uh was about to start looking for something else to do, and God opened the door and I started C-12 in 1992. And the little bit of money that we had left, we pushed it all in the middle of the table and we said, Okay, God, we're all in it. So that's enough from me. What what what else can I tell you about?

Chris Grainger 21:40

This is I'm just blown away. I I hadn't forgot about that story, about about that first 10 years and how you had that mentorship and how it sounds like he was discipling you so along the way, and then that put you in a position for God to create something pretty incredible with C12. I'm just curious. I mean, as you start it down. The path. I know for me with the lion, it was very clear what what the at least the first step guy wanted me to do with the lion. Well, for C12, how much you how far out did he was he showing you on the day, one day at a time.

Buck Jacobs 22:18

I had the vision and uh I did, but I didn't have uh a way to find a a way to express it to people who could use it because it's you know, of all the business owners uh in the world, uh we estimate that only about six or eight percent of them are actually Christians that are serious enough about their faith to commit their whole life, including their business, to God. So and they don't usually advertise, so it was a real challenge. And uh so that wasn't uh uh an easy decision, but uh things just kept happening. People I'd be out talking to a group about one thing, and somebody there want to talk about a Christian business or something. And uh we got uh enough of an idea together to want to start at least one beta group and try it to see if a group of twelve, a C12, twelve Christian business owners, chief executives sitting around a meeting table, learning new things, talking about things they're strategically trying to do, and holding one another accountable for things that they said they would do, and that there'd be a synergism, you know, among that group of like-minded, because they're all Christians, different kinds of Christians. We we had we were non-denominational in our orientation. And so you'd have Catholics and Protestants and Presidents, uh everything in the group. Some of them would be still in their 20s, some would be in their 60s, some of them were looking to grow their businesses, some of them were looking to sell their business, but the combined wisdom of God built into them in their lives in Christ was shareable and it would be valuable. So that's the idea. We get together a group uh and charge them to be along. We I I fell formulated the company as a for-profit business. I felt that uh I'd had experience trying to give it away, and something for nothing is just worth nothing. There's got to be skin in the game to make something valuable. So I had been making presentations of the concept of of Christ in business in the area. So I knew a few people, and they were the ones that I started with. And one friend of mine um was a very high-integrity guy. I asked him if he would invite some of his friends to come see a presentation. He did. He was 12 guys that met around the table at a country club. I shared my vision for um uh C-12 with them, and all 12 of them said they would join, which nobody that's ever come into C-12 since then can believe that story. Because it's a lot harder than that. And uh anyway, we told so very quickly got three groups started, and uh this is now this is um in 1993, the third one got started, and it wasn't until what not uh 1997 that I was able to recruit my first associate that wanted to do what I was doing. So that was

From Broke To Market Breakthrough

Buck Jacobs 25:35

five years of uh presentations and talking to people, and it was weird because everybody thought it was a great idea, and they'd all pat me on the back and say, yeah, we'd like to we'd like to think about some and they just could think a long, long time because they didn't make decisions to join. But uh finally in 1997, the first other leader, the first we'll call him chairman, joined and it began gradually to add uh leaders in other areas, and that's that's how it kind of got started.

Chris Grainger 26:11

How'd you come up with with with 12? I'm just curious. I mean, what was the j the reason behind the the number 12? Is there any significant?

Buck Jacobs 26:19

There's two levels. Uh the first level is we were doing a study on small group efficiencies and and uh how the size of the group and the format and the agendas would impact their effectiveness. And uh in this particular resource, it says they found that the largest group you can have is 12 to maintain innacy and openness, trust and so forth. So we, okay, and well then the second level is well, Jesus chose 12, so that's probably a pretty good number. You know, he had 12 in his first small group, so we said, okay, so we're gonna call it the the Christian 12 group. And somebody at that meeting said, that's too long. Let's just follow C12. So that's been C12 from day one practically. It's actually changed now from C the C12 group to the C12 business groups. And of course, the the company has grown unbelievably that uh that little start on a whole card table in my rec room turned to a company now that's a global leader and providing small peer group experiences to Christian CEOs and owners. There's right at 5,000 members of our organization that pay every month to go to a meeting and share with our peers and give spur one another on and share their experiences. And I think it's 11 or 12 different countries all over the world, from Brazil to South Africa to Malaysia to you know um Canada and the United States. So and all the glory goes to God. It was just a a simple idea that I had that he liked. It's a I think it was his idea that he shared with me uh and I liked it too. And so uh it's been an unbelievable pleasure for me to grow in my faith at the same time we were growing a couple different businesses.

Chris Grainger 28:27

And one thing I I know we talked about.

Buck Jacobs 28:31

Go ahead. I learned one thing that I know for sure. Two things. One, God is intensely interested in being involved in our life uh uh in all aspects of our life. And we can't uh we can't be successful without his involvement. And the second thing is is it sounds so simple, but I've I've learned that this is uh profoundly true. As a Christian, I will always have everything I need to

Why C12 Exists

Buck Jacobs 29:08

do anything God asks. And that's true for me and every single Christian. All we have to do is recognize our purpose. God sent us here for a purpose. And uh if we ask him what that purpose is, and we begin to try to follow it and piece it out, we'll always have everything we need. Uh C-12 started with hardly any money at all. We had a policy right away that we would not borrow money to grow the business. We've never borrowed a dime to grow from nothing to a worldwide operation. Uh we will we have developed a board of directors that uh add as a key principle we won't borrow money, and all of our decisions will be made in unity. So uh we've followed those two things and several others that we've we've committed to, and uh a lot of people say that's well, doesn't that slow you down? Yes, it does, and that's a good thing. Keeps you from making bad decisions quickly, and having to be in unity with the people that are in oversight, our board of directors actually operates the business. They hire a CEO and evaluate him or her, and uh when we when we've come up to a decision where we can't agree, well then we have to pray until we can. So it slows us down, but you know, sometimes a b a slow decision will be better in the long run than a quick decision.

Chris Grainger 30:48

Yeah. I know we've talked about it at length in the past, in the past as well in our conversations where I I'm making so much content for the lion and I'm I'm writing and constantly building, and you and it reminded you of the early days for C12, where it literally was month to month. You'd finish a meeting from what I remember us talking, and and you'd sit down and I have to come up with the material for the next meeting and just bring me kind of relive those early days. What do you miss the most about that? I guess there's some pressure there, there's some tape, but there's also some fun, unique creativity there that you got to just bring in.

Buck Jacobs 31:24

I had no background, think that I could write materials that C12 level uh business owners would pay attention to. Um, I was probably the least educated anyone in the room by far. And it was it wasn't until one day when I was complaining to God about that, I had established the resource to provide the materials to get it started, and then lost it just three months away. Couldn't find a replacement, and I was grumbling. You know, Christians are good at grumbling about God. And God, why won't you do this? Why won't you do that? And I heard him say in my heart, I said, but he said, Buck, you write him. And I thought, well, that can't be God. That must be the pizza I had for lunch or something. But it just persisted until over a weekend I sat down with a uh like yellow tablet and a ballboy pen, and I sketched out one segment. We have two in every monthly meeting. And the next day I did another one and I put them together and got them put uh into form and took them to the meeting scared to death, thinking that these guys are gonna laugh at me. Uh who do you think you are, Buck, writing stuff like that for I knew all that when I was a freshman in college, you know, or some things of that nature. But it it didn't happen. Uh the meeting went really well, and at the end of the meeting I was waiting, saying goodbye to everybody. But yeah, one of the members came up and said, Buck, where'd you get that stuff today? And I said, Well, as a matter of fact, I wrote it. He said, Well, it was good, keep it up. Okay. And so that started, and every month I'd be on my knees praying and say, God, what do these people need? What do these guys need? What can I write about that will help them? I knew I knew the problems of small business, small to mid-sized business owners. I couldn't function in a Fortune 500 company. But in a company of 50 million, 100 million, 10 million, 2 million, all those levels I was comfortable with and had working and those levels. And and God would say, Well, maybe they have a trouble with receivables. Maybe the collections are a problem. Okay, well, what should I write? I never And God gave me a system for turning your receivables into collections based on principles of scripture. The whole system was based on the golden rule.

Why The Group Size Is Twelve

Buck Jacobs 33:52

I thought about it this way. Well, I've been a small guy that had had to decide what I was gonna do with my cash. Was I gonna play my soci suppliers, or was I gonna pay myself, or what was I gonna do? And what how did I want to be treated by those people that I owed money to? And I thought, well, it should be nice if they're a little bit understanding that everybody goes through hard times and so forth. So our our prints, our say our collections was based on first asking our customers, have we done something wrong that's preventing you from paying your bill? We're we're asking them, is it is it our fault? 99.9% of them would always say, No, it's you're not your fault. It's because blah, blah, blah. And they would say, uh, my customer isn't paying me or whatever. And we'd say, Oh, I'm so sorry to hear. I said, but if they do pay, would you then want to pay us? And I'd say, absolutely. And then we would say, Well, you know, we're an unusual business. We've committed our business to honoring Jesus in the marketplace. And part of what that means is every morning we have a a little time of prayer in our in our conference room for our leaders and our employees. And one of the things we pray about is our customers, because we know that we depend on you for our living, and we want you to prosper, even as we prosper. So we're gonna start praying if that money comes in for you. And when it does, would you call us and tell us? They said we would they always would say, yes, of course we would. And so we found we, you know, just by using the the golden rule, do to others as you'd have them do to you. And we ended up making friends of people who owed us money, and some of those relationships grew up beyond that situation into profitable business arrangements that lasted for years. So those kinds of things that that would come to me, and right up the members would start employing them and they would start benefiting from them. We talked about how you set wages, how you pay bonuses, how you hire somebody, how you fire somebody, all the little gut-level, you know, level things that every small business owner has to deal with at some time and way. It would always try to bring in a scriptural perspective on it. Not necessarily always quoting a scripture, but having a scripture underneath it to quote. But we often did quote the scripture. We were very, very overt about the testimony for Christ. Um we had uh communion with all of our salesmen before sales meetings. Uh we had a little giveaway golf shirts with our company logo on the C on the sleeve. And under the logo it said, Jesus is Lord. And you know what? No one ever turned down a shirt when I'd offer them. We'd buy

Principles That Shaped C12 Growth

Buck Jacobs 36:56

nine. They were nice shirts. You know, they were classy shirts. They didn't care if Jesus was on the sleeve as long as it was on their back. So we would look we looked and looked for ways to do excellent world-class business and witness at the same time. And God gave me the gift. Uh there's many times, you know, as like you said, I'd we'd I'd finish and present all the materials, three meetings in one month, and then I take a deep breath and sit back and I think, oh no, I have to start now and get the materials for the next month. And God supplied new materials to study for nine and a half years. And uh it got to be such a joy. I knew I knew it was yeah. You know, it was there's no question that I had the ability to do that, and I think you know, all along God has loved uh to put me in a position where I know I don't know how to do it, and if it works, it'll be because he made it work, not because I did. You know, and it's been consistent for 50 years. You know, so that's I'm pretty used to it now.

Chris Grainger 38:15

Well, and when the early days, at what point did you did it did it finally get enough momentum where you you you knew that uh you know this was sustainable and and at that point it was just a matter of of how far was God gonna take it? I mean how how long was that before you reached that point?

Buck Jacobs 38:34

Yeah, it was only a couple of years, about two and a half, maybe three years. I had three uh key key uh key markers that I was looking at from the startup. And first one was and really a critical one was do the members stay in the groups? Because I've been all kinds of Christian groups, you know, and uh they start off with enthusiasm, but they six months later uh the gas would leak out of the booth. So I knew if if I was gonna get them to pay a significant amount of money, uh, and and they weren't getting value, but they would leave. And they should, because as a for-profit business, we identified them value more than they were paying for. So at the at the end of one year, we had 85% retention. 85% of the members who started the first year went into the second year, and about all but one or two of them went into the third year. So I knew actually in the second year, based on that, there was a good chance we were scalable because we could grow, you know. And the second question I had was how hard is it to replace a member when one leaves, either by selling their business or going broke or whatever? And it wasn't hard after the six months or so because the existing members would refer new members. And so that was you know, that was a sin. But the third one was a sense, and that was is there eternal fruit being produced in the lives and companies of the members that they say is because they're a part of a C12 group. Eternal fruit is people coming to know Christ, people being encouraged to grow in their faith, uh giving uh discipleship training, or just being a generous giver. Those things are if those things are growing in someone's life that's studying the basically the Christian religion, you know God is encouraging that because the the devil never will. He'll he can encourage giving you money if that money will knock you off the trail. So but he doesn't ever do that. And so as I saw that I started to look around. How are we gonna grow? And uh God had given me a a board of directors, uh, they were really a counsel and advisors, more in the beginning. And uh we threw praying and and meeting together every month around my dining room table and finally fixing lunch for us. God kept encouraging us on and showing us

Writing Monthly Materials By Faith

Buck Jacobs 41:14

this, and people that I'd known from business before would call me, would ask me what I was doing, and why tell them, they'd ask, You think I could do that? And well, I'd say, Come live with me for a week and we'll pray about it, we'll see. And they would come and I'd take them to a couple meetings. If they looked like they had uh the ability to succeed, they'd become C twelve chair. So by 19, by 2000, uh I was let's say in 2000, I think I was sixty sixty-two. Uh I I was fifty-four when I started C twel. I was sixty-two and began to realize that I wouldn't be the one that took us into the new century. And we began to pray for a new leader. And uh we thought we had one, it was the wrong guy. I was in my home one day on a Monday afternoon, the phone rang. The guy said, uh, Buck, you don't know me. My name is Don Barefoot, and I think I'm supposed to help you build your business. I said, Well, tell me about that. And uh turns out he was uh a super talented, educated guy. He had an MBA from MIT, and he was the youngest plant manager in Pontiac Motor's history and so forth, and he was into his late forties by this time. And God had told him, I want you to quit making money for worldly people, I want you to work in my kingdom. So he'd stepped off that race that track and began searching for what God wanted him to do for the rest of his life. Making a long story short, we connected, he came to my house, we visited a day. I invited him to have dinner with our board of directors, and they asked him if he would put together a strategic plan for how he would scale and grow C twelve if he were the CEO. He did a wonderful job. And we said, okay, that's great, but we don't have any money to pay you. So uh the only way we can help you do this is we'll give you the territory of uh Greensboro, North Carolina, and surrounding territory, and you can lead a group yourself. They'll help you understand what it's all about and make a little money while you're at it. He agreed, which was a big plus sign for us. It said to me he's not in this for the money. He's got the vision, he can see it. And he did, and uh before tomorrow, North Carolina became C-12's biggest territory until Texas jumped out being up for a while, and then Brazil didn't do that anyway. So Don Barefoot, who was my successor, came out of nowhere from leading against someone in his quest to find God's will for his life. He was thinking about being Becoming a college professor, and this other person said, You don't need to do that, Don. You need to talk to Buck Jacobs. He said, Who's Buck Jacobs? He never heard of me, never heard of C. Well, a friend of mine gave him some literature. He said he's never been in a small business. He'd always gone right from uh college at MIT to work for a Pontiac. And he said, I just can't imagine myself a bootstrapping startup. And so he said he tried to throw that stuff away and throw it in the wasteback and he couldn't let go of it. And finally his wife said, Don, why don't you just go? We're going over to see my mom and dad, who live just across Tampa Bay from us. Uh, why don't you go see Buckware there? He did. We spent a day together. I invited him to the board meeting. He ran the company for 12 years as my successor. Yeah. Wow. And then when his time was over, God had brought a young man into the business as one of our area leaders who had obvious great promise. And he was selected as Don's Barefoot. Don't Don Barefoot's follower's Mike Sherrow. I believe Mike might have been. Well, probably 35 at that time. So God supplied everything we've needed.

Chris Grainger 45:23

Financially, personnel wise, locale and everything else. Wow. And I mean for you, so now you've transitioned, and I'm sure just you know to this role of Zachin, which I want you to talk about that, because I think that's really cool of what where you're at now. So what what and but you fully embraced that too. You didn't you didn't try to hold on to something too long that God was blessing. You recognized that, you know what, that there's a there's a limit to to where I to my ability. And I think there's a there's tremendous value in that.

Buck Jacobs 45:59

Yeah, actually in my pre-C12 life, I had uh a couple of opportunities to learn about successful successions. And uh I knew one of the things that really is uh a problem for businesses that are started by a founder and led by a founder is that a founder won't let go of it to release it to someone that has perhaps more talent and ability than they do that can grow the business in a way that the founder won't. So I was already primed for that. I and and I didn't start the business until I was 54, which was an advantage in some ways, because uh I'd been out knocking around on leading companies and doing startups and turnarounds for ye for years before I had the chance to do that. And uh so I was I was ready to to release it. And um when the when the board met and uh we uh discussed it, I I told him I I'm ready to bring in someone well. They didn't want him to come in too fast. Uh so he came in uh not as CEO, he came out as COO. But I'd have been a stupid fool if I had recognized. He had way more background education and abilities than I did. So it only took about six months for me to say, we don't need two executives in C12. You take over as CEO and I'll be COO and Field Ops. So I I traveled and did presentations, he tightened up all of our internal resources and he did a great job. And we worked well together for 12 years. Then Mike came on. Now Mike's this young hotshot, you know, and he started as a chairman in C 12, and circumstances were that he had to I had to train him because both of our trainers were sick, and so he came and I trained him over in uh uh uh Georgia and where we lived up in uh uh uh Denver, Georgia. And uh I was kind of skeptical, he was kind of young, even to be the chairman, but he brought the best business plan I ever seen, and anyone who was applying for that job easily had thought through it and done uh expressions on based on facts of our past in experiences. And uh watched him. I worked with him after training to do a tremendous job in the field. And then when Don left, we did an internal search, and all of a sudden there was 12 to 15 people in our organization and outside of it recommending that Mike become CEO. So he he became Don's successor, and he's leading C12 today. To far greater, he is he uh the where we are today is far beyond anything that I dreamed. And I think it's releasing to to the better, get

Retention Referrals And Eternal Fruit

Buck Jacobs 49:04

better every time you grow, get better. And uh I don't know how we're gonna ever talk, Mike. I hope he stays around for a long time, that he's made us better.

Chris Grainger 49:19

And now you're this this new role.

Buck Jacobs 49:22

So talk about as I saw him and the potential that he was bringing to the thing, I started to ask the Lord, what well what's for me, Lord? Uh I know I'm old, but see, I must have been he's been there. Yeah, I was probably 70 78 or 9 by this time. And uh what can I be? And I had learned of a a Jewish term called Zakan, C-A-K-E-N, years and years before. And it refers to the members of a community that get too old to farm or fight, which is about all the men in the Jewish culture did. They either farmed or fought. And but the Zakan were the elders of the tribe, and in that day, if you had white hair or no hair, it was assumed that you had wisdom because you'd lived quite a while. You know, people, men usually didn't live beyond 30 or 35 years back then. So if you lived old enough for your hair white, you would have probably had uh gathered up some wisdom. So they called a Zakan, and then every community would have these older guys, and there was nothing for them to do but stay home. And they would gather around the city gates in the mornings having their tea and fellowship, and the young men be going in and out, and they'd know the Zokan were there, and uh so they would ask the Zhockham questions, and they knew that Zok were happy to talk with them and give them answers. And I thought when I read about that, I thought, man, that'd be a great way to end your career. Just offer yourself to those that need help. Yeah, don't charge them, not looking for contract or agreements, just I'm here, yes, I am old. And no, I don't know everything, but I do know some things. And if you think you'd like to know what they are, I'd be glad to talk to you. And so that's kept me busy. Now let's see. I think I've been I've been about three and a half years, four years away from C12 completely. Stepped off the board of directors and just wait for the phone or the Zoom call. Well, that's how we met, isn't it? They're calling you to say, hey, what are you doing? And um, yeah, so I'm I'm thrilled that that God's done that. And there's there's a group of uh people around the country and overseas that call me on a regular basis. Not every week, you know, most of them are maybe once a month or a quarter. Some I don't hear from me in six months, but they call me for a purpose. They'll say, How is it that you've been able to scale and grow your business when no one else in that market space really has been able to? Or how did you pick your board of directors, or how do you do your pays and scale and so forth? And then so we just talk about that, and then that may lead them to want to talk about something else. Some of them call up and they have, you know, my wife is driving me crazy. You know, I said, Well, I never had that problem, but I know people who have. So, I mean, it could be anything that they want to talk about. And we pray together until some of them have become really deep and really meaningful relationships. And so it's not something that I'm busy doing 24 hours a day. You know, it's uh a few every week. And some repeat and some don't. So it's kind of keeps getting renewed. So that's what a Zaka does. A Zaka and I had it printed on my business card. I gave my card to a guy yesterday. He looks at my car and says, Oh, what's this after your name? Zaka. So I explained it to him, and he said, Well, then it says ASC, what's that? I said, Ambassador to Christ. That's who I am, what I do. So I'm I'm having fun with it, I'm having fun doing it. I'm 87 years old, and I'm still as excited about being a part of the gospel, and of course, today being the day after Easter. I don't know if you'll keep that in, but I don't like to date things, but I'm just filled with appreciation for Jesus and what he's done. What he did, he took me from uh an alcoholic, uh kind of a guy wasting his life, uh, and set me in a new life. And the new life has been so much better, so much richer. Now I've got the a wife and three wonderful girls and six wonderful grandkids and a wonderful great-granddaughter, and they're all all of them since I

Succession Planning And New CEOs

Buck Jacobs 54:05

gave my life to Christ.

Chris Grainger 54:11

I mean, and that whole Zaken um I think it's just a goal. I I never even heard the the term until you introduced it to me, but I just think what a what an awesome goal that could be for many men out there who are in leadership positions to to to get to that position in life to be able to just you know pour into others. You've been you've been the biggest impact on me for sure.

Buck Jacobs 54:35

Well, you know, I think that in the the point of fact is the every man is in training to be a Zaka. Learning to use our life experiences and take them to the Lord, following the Lord, seeking his will. After we've done that for 30, 40 years, farming or whatever, we have seen God do miracles, we've seen him chasten us, we've seen him encourage us, pick us up, you know, and there's always going to be people out there that need to hear about that. And so every man is actually training to be a Zaka, and it won't won't necessarily be in the people that I'm in, it'll be the people that God's prepared for that person, and they'll find that it's such a joy. You don't have to worry about, you know, am I going to get paid or not? Because you don't have that kind of a relationship. And you pretty soon you're just speaking from your heart to people who want to hear that.

Chris Grainger 55:34

And uh that's an offer. I'm curious, Buck, because I mean I talked to so many guys and and they're just working towards their they got this retirement goal, and they're trying to get to that point to where they can stop. And I just with you, it's just not there. And if and I and I feel like I'm the same way. I don't I don't think there ever gonna be a day where Chris doesn't want to work and provide value to some level to people. And that for you, that's getting to that doc. And I think that's so many guys, you hear stories over and over. You know, you work for 40 years and then they retire, and then uh, you know, six months or a year later they they they they pass because of the purpose of gone. They took it. Do you think there's I think there's a connection there?

Buck Jacobs 56:16

Yeah, I I don't, you know, I I I just think it's kind of the way God dealt with me uh in my life and brought me into the body of Christ to trust him financially in the Mac company, and I was with the company with with Bob, and we went through such trials financially, and we saw God can turn nothing into money. Give you an example of that. We uh we got into this can business and we it started to grow, and we were unable to financially uh cash flow the growth that we're getting. So how were we we couldn't get any money, we couldn't borrow it. We were not in a position to be borrowing money. So now I don't know when he thought of this, but one day Bob said in one of our meetings, I'm gonna ask uh Air Products if they'd give us 90-day terms for the money product we're buying from them, which is substantial. And if they will, we can get it, manufacture the product, sell it, and collect, and order again from them. So he went to them and they said, sure, if you'll let us add two points on the selling price, we'll do that. We'll roll it with you. Bob said, well, that really worked well. Let's go to our second biggest supplier, third and fourth. Finally, we had deals in place with all of our major suppliers if they were giving us 90-day terms, and they they funded the growth the uh probably from around 2 million to 14 million in six years.

Chris Grainger 57:54

Wow.

Buck Jacobs 57:55

But they don't teach you that

The Zakan Role And Elder Wisdom

Buck Jacobs 57:57

in the Bible in Harvard, you know, but the Lord had that, and Bob Bob didn't know it before I just came to him. So I saw that, and I saw how when I joined Bob, Bonnie and I had very little money. We had only a few hundred dollars left after we got to Chicago, and Bob was only able to offer to pay me a thousand a month, which wasn't enough. And I had past debts that uh I wanted to pay, and I I called everybody that I owed money and told them I'd become a Christian and I couldn't pay them. But I would send them what I could every single month until their bet was that was fully paid, that they'd go along with me. Every single one of them said they would, and I had a five-year plan. Think I was $28,000, that was a credit card debt. That was all I had, just credit card debt. And we had a five-year plan to get out of it. Well, God did things during the first two and a half years, we were out of debt in two and a half years. Companies that I was calling on that had a long ramp-up sales experience ramped up quicker. I mean, it's just money just started to come in and we paid all that debt off in two and a half years. Well, that's that spoke to me, you know, that hey, if you're doing what God wants you to do the way He wants it, money's really not a problem. And so when it came time to start C-12, I'd used up almost all the money that we'd gotten from when Bob and I sold the the um Bob sold the Mac company, I had a minority share. I made some money off it, but not a lot. And by the time C-12 is uh three, four years old, I'd used it all up, uh funding the business. And uh we said we're either gonna have to set up trusting God again for this, or we're we're gonna have to go as well. We're gonna trust God. New members came in, members that were behind their desk started paying, and they started rolling again. We never missed a bill, we never laid out a payment, never laughed for anything new. Raised our two girls uh all through high school, through college, married them both off, and uh never never missed anything. So having seen that, when C 12 came and it started growing and money started coming in, I didn't have a retirement plan because we never thought we'd have any money to retire before God started doing all

Retirement Purpose And God’s Provision

Buck Jacobs 1:00:32

this, but he showed us. I didn't I didn't want to retire for one thing. I couldn't imagine stopping what I was doing to serve the war uh just for money. And uh I didn't I didn't uh have a plan to to do it any different. So we just kept going along doing it. And uh then I got a chance to sell my stock in C-12, and I was shocked when that happened. I never imagined that uh C-12 would be a source for retirement funding. I prayed to God and I said, Lord, what is this? This money coming in as a big pile of money, and I said, I don't have need of it, and uh I said I never planned on it. And God said to me, Yeah, I know you didn't plan on it. You kept giving as you always had during this time of growing. And you weren't saving Buck, but I want you to know I was saving for you. That money is for you, and Bonnie now enjoy it. So that's what we're doing. And uh uh I didn't need a plan. God's plan was better. I would have never saved as much as He as He gave me.

Chris Grainger 1:01:44

Well, you've you've mentioned Bonnie a few times. I I don't I don't want to to leave this episode without you just speaking to I mean she saw you from this is a vision, this is an idea. You know, you're having a board your abort uh meetings at the kitchen table where she's fixing lunch and and now you know she's seen this thing from from the concept to the blessing. Just speak to that, to the you know of how your marriage you know was was central to to where God was calling you, where God was calling you to take it, but ultimately that that was your your primary focus as well.

Buck Jacobs 1:02:16

Sure was, and I couldn't have done it without her. Uh Bonnie's by nature thrifty. And so she kept the books, and you know, they did a really great job of that. But more than that, she encouraged me when I would be a little discouraged early on. And she reminded me that uh, you know, we believe God's called you to do this. You know God can provide all you need and will, so just press on. And so, yeah, well, there's been all kinds of different circumstances where she's been the rock and she's been the encouragement. And of course, we have uh a marriage between two sinners, so uh we have our ups and our downs and our disagreements. But uh early on, uh after maybe a couple, three years, the marriage wasn't really going the way I thought it would as a Christian. And so I shared that with Bonnie. I said, you know, I think we're not getting all that we should from our marriage. And she agreed with me that we needed to go before God and say, God, we want our marriage to be the best that it can be in you, and we'll do what you show us to do. So we committed

Marriage Partnership With Bonnie

Buck Jacobs 1:03:24

to God's best. We started doing things that we hadn't been doing. We go to marriage retreats, marriage meetings, small groups with our married couples, uh just so just things that to stimulate our marriage, and and all one of us, each of us is uh accountable. Uh she started being able to have quiet time after the girls left the house. And so we have our quiet time together. We don't make any decisions on our immunity, just like our board of directors. I don't spend any money or do anything that she doesn't know about. And so I said uh a godly wife is a blessing that can't be measured, and I think you know that too, Chris. So it's just we've we've been it together. I mean, it's she knows most of the people C-12 as well as I do or more. She loves to travel with me because you know the one thing about C-12, the culture of C-12 from the beginning, I wanted to create a culture based on relationship, not on contract. And uh so that's been the goal of building an organization of people who are like-minded, who get along well together. And you know, and God's been really good, he's he weeds out the ones that we let in that don't really fit. And so C12 is an extremely welcoming culture to people. New new employees come in, they feel welcome, not competed with. And Bonnie is so all those area leaders are screened with that same sort of a standard, and their wives tend to be really good wives, too. So when we you know we travel together for probably 10, 12 years or more. Uh, and we go to the towns where we had leaders and meet with them, often stay in their homes. And we just made better and better friends. So it's been a it's been a joy. Bonnie's still to this day, she's talking to at least two of the chairman's wives, maybe three, on a regular basis, sharing, you know, their needs and prayer and so forth with them. A couple of C twelve employees, too. Wow.

Chris Grainger 1:05:52

Well, Buck, you've been just uh uh an inspiration to me, an encouragement. I mean, the fact that you take time every we Meet, if not weekly, every other week, and for almost two years now. It's just been I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. You mean so much to me. You pick me up when I uh when I make when I make the getting ready to make that bad decision. You've you've checked me a few times and it has been not been easy to hear. But uh it's been it was necessary. I just want to just say thank you for that. And our friendship and relationship is just uh you've made me better. I just want you to see that.

Buck Jacobs 1:06:26

You know, Chris, you're you're my brother in Christ, and uh I think we're very like-minded, and it's rare to find someone that I mean we started talking, we haven't stopped talking yet over two years. And so I enjoy it. I feel honored that you trust me to just talk to me and uh we we kick things around, and so you just press on, brother. I'm looking for uh some great growth in the lion and for the lion over these next few years. And I look I look forward to being able to watch it.

Chris Grainger 1:07:02

Amen. Well, but we always at the end, we like to do a fun lightning round. If you're willing to play, I'd like to do one with you and just uh a couple little fun questions as we wrap up, and then we'll be done here for day. Are you good with that? All right. Well, Buck, what do you enjoy doing for fun right now? What's your hobby? Any hobby that you enjoy doing? Maybe you and Miss Bonnie enjoy doing together.

Buck Jacobs 1:07:23

This will be our 52nd anniversary cribs. And uh we've taken cruises, we've done a lot of things, but we're just gonna go out for a nice dinner together at a nice restaurant, be together, and relax. So um, if my hip gets well enough, we will continue to do bigger things, cruises and travels. If not, we're gonna experience and enjoy smaller things.

Chris Grainger 1:07:56

There you go. Nothing wrong with smaller things. What about your go-to meal? If you and Bonnie sit down for a meal, what's your go to there, Bob?

Buck Jacobs 1:08:03

Bonnie loves fish. So we're going today to a restaurant that's known for good fish and good steaks. I'm a steak guy, and she's a fish guy. And this apartment complex now that we live in, they always have a fish and uh and some other kind of meat on the menu. So we're we're well paired.

Chris Grainger 1:08:23

There you go.

Buck Jacobs 1:08:24

We also both struggle with really loving ice cream and sweets. So we hold each other accountable ourselves.

Chris Grainger 1:08:34

There you go. Now, what about you and her able to sit down and watch a movie? What what's your what's your all-time favorite go-to that you're gonna pull up?

Buck Jacobs 1:08:42

Well, I kind of have a hard

Lightning Round And Favorite Movie

Buck Jacobs 1:08:43

time thinking of one, but uh I've sort of been charged with finding a chick flick for uh uh Friday night, so I've been uh pretty successful in that. A few bummers, but mostly that.

Chris Grainger 1:08:55

Okay.

Buck Jacobs 1:09:01

It's a movie called The Mission. It's a uh mission, it's a story about uh in the 1700s, a Christian mission in uh upper Central America, and uh slave traders were going in there and capturing slaves and taking them back and shipping them over to Europe. And uh the uh Jesuit priests had started a mission village, and they were really applying Christian principles in this village. The natives were getting along, they quit killing their neighbors, and they sing, and they were it was beautiful, just beautiful. And uh there was this guy, uh Robert De Niro played him. He was a uh knight, a soldier, and he had killed his brother in a fit of jealous rage, and so he was uh carrying a a bag of his armor over his shoulder in a fish net as his penance. It was a Catholic penance. And uh he went to go on with these other guys up to the visit the mission colony. And uh what the story of that, you should watch the movie. I don't want well, it's a wonderful movie. That's probably one that both of us would say. That really touched our hearts, the the whole story, the theme of it, and uh the ending of it.

Chris Grainger 1:10:26

Okay.

Buck Jacobs 1:10:28

We like Forrest Comp, but we like hat we don't like a lot of violence, at least Bonnie doesn't. Um uh she likes uh kind of romantic comedies that have happy endings. So we do put some popcorn and watch a movie. That's pretty much what we'll watch. We watch now we got a TV where we can watch old castle movies. You remember Castle? Yeah, well we both like that, and there's uh 10 years of that. So we never has worry that there's nothing to watch, there's always something.

Chris Grainger 1:11:01

There you go, there you go. Well but when you think about God, what's your favorite thing about my favorite thing about God his grace his love for me which I'll never deserve.

Buck Jacobs 1:11:23

I love him for him, I don't what about I love him for his gifts. My favorite thing is he doesn't care He takes me the way I am and uh Yeah especial What about the evil?

Chris Grainger 1:11:45

When you think about Satan, what's your least favorite thing about him?

Buck Jacobs 1:11:49

Well, he's my enemy because he's my father's enemy. And I climb against him every night. I mean I pray against Satan and ask God to confuse him, to make him uh reveal what he really is to people so that they'll know what they're up against. Yeah. And um and he's he's been at me a time or two, so yeah. Have no no use for sweet. In fact, Chris, at this point in my life, I have no worldly goals, I want nothing from the world. I

Final Charge And How To Respond

Buck Jacobs 1:12:23

want to finish the race that God set before me so that He'll be able to say, Well done, good faithful servant. That's all I really care about. Everything that I do, think about doing if it doesn't fit in that, I don't do it.

Chris Grainger 1:12:42

That's all that matters.

Buck Jacobs 1:12:43

That's eternal. You know? I'll be living with that forever. But i I owe him. He he doesn't think I owe him. I know he doesn't think of it that way. He loved me before he made the earth. He created good works for me to walk in before he created the heavens and the earth. I want to walk in those good works, good uh works and finish like I'm supposed to. I never do it till eighty-seven or eighty-eight or whatever he he's got in mind.

Chris Grainger 1:13:23

Well Buck, what what do you hope the listeners as we wrap up here, what do you hope they remember the most just from our chat today?

Buck Jacobs 1:13:30

If there's one thing I guess that would be what I said before about I will always have everything I need to do everything God asks. And of course, that's all based upon a relationship with God that's established in Christ. So if they don't know Christ, do what I did when I got on my knees in front of a television set and said, Jesus, if it's true that you died for me and you want my life, you can have it, and I'll give it to you, and I'll do what you want, what you ask for the rest of it. I've never done anything better than that, Chris.

Chris Grainger 1:14:09

Amen. Amen. Well, Buck, thank you for taking the time and for sharing your story. It's definitely an encouragement. And uh anything else you'd like to say before we wrap up today?

Buck Jacobs 1:14:21

No, I can't think of anything. God bless those who are listening. I prayed before we spoke and said there'd be at least one person out there that would be held for our conversation. I pray that'll be you.

Chris Grainger 1:14:36

Yeah, amen. Well, Buck, thank you, brother. I love you.

Buck Jacobs 1:14:40

Love you too, Chris. God bless you. See you soon.

Chris Grainger 1:14:44

All right, guys. I told you that was gonna be amazing. And I, as as I knew, Buck did not disappoint. Yeah, phenomenal, phenomenal. So hopefully you guys enjoyed that one again. You can go connect with Buck. You can go see things on C12. Uh, he is Buck is also a writer on the Bible app. So if you want to check out some things on the Bible app, get connected with him there. And the question of the week this week is who is currently speaking truth and wisdom into your life. Okay, guys, you gotta have those guys who are speaking it into your life. Now, Buck is one of the key guys in my life right now. I'm just so thankful for that. But look, you have to have those those men yourself. And if you need help, if you need support, if you need encouragement, if you can't find them, guys, the lion within us, we have guys all over the planet, all over the world that are ready to just encourage you, walk with you, just be able to be that that that uh that source of of hope. And when you feel all this despair around you, hey, we're ready to step in and just walk with you. Okay, so the lionwithin.us is how you get connected with all those guys, fellas. Your daily SKO, your lionstin, your leadership mastermind. Maybe you want to get connected with us on the Bible lab or come to one of our live events. There's so many different ways that we're trying to serve, but it all starts by visiting thelionwithin.us, okay. So, guys, this is one you want to share with others. I mean, Buck's story is phenomenal. Share that with others. If you are a CEO or a founder and you would like to learn more about C12, send me an email. I'll connect you directly with the people who can help you. And I guarantee you those guys will be ready to walk with you. Okay. So send me an email, Chris at the linewithin.us, you can shoot an email there. Happy to connect and serve

Connect With The Lion Within Us

Chris Grainger 1:16:25

any way I can. Okay. So other than that, fellas, give us a rating and review. That would be huge. You would do that. That just helps share this, just kind of get the the platforms to push our content more and then share it out. I mean, share conversations like this out, and that would be wonderful. Okay. All right, fellas, we'll see you on Friday for another for one of our upcoming member spotlights. Cannot wait for you to meet this member. It's gonna be a great story there. And other than that, have a great day. Get after it and just keep unleashing the lion within. If there's one habit that can change a 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've 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 the ship when life starts to pull you off a course. So if you're ready, get access today at thelionwithin.us slash guides. That's thelionwithin.us slash guides. And start unleashing the lion within at home by leading your marriage through prayer.