Lance-O-Pedia Episode 12 - Rise Again
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Well, hey, everybody. I'm Garrett Lille, excited to chat today with Lance Browning. Today, Lance, we're going to take a little bit different spin. We usually talk on the Lantopedia podcast about financial matters, but today we're going to talk about your book on the screen there. Rise Again. It's a really great read and you sent me a copy few. It's been a year or so ago. It's been a little while. I've read, read through it. It's a really interesting book and I really enjoyed it. You share a lot of your, I mean really the first quarter or so of the book is really you kind of sharing your journey. There's not a whole lot of financial content in the early going. You're kind of sharing with the reader your road to where you are today, which I really appreciate it because it's most people, especially I think, in the financial world, we like to paint our story or tell our story, paint our picture in a very pretty, glossy way that everything went exactly according to plan and we're superheroes of the world. That's not been the path a lot of people took. And you actually not the one. I told the truth.
You told the truth for sure.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and I wrote this about three years ago and I had just sharing some things. I'd gone through some major struggles that I was going through and had a spiritual kind of life mentor during that time that always encouraged me to let your misery be your minister.
Because he's telling me, look, there's going to be a time or times in the future where you're going to know somebody and they're going to be going through then what you're going through now. And you need to be able to encourage them. And I've kind of figured out that I have no discernible talent whatsoever. But I do believe one of my spiritual gifts, I think is going to be exhortation.
I have the ability to kind of motivate and encourage people. That's one of the things I wanted to do here. So the title of the book rise Again and Talk about My Journey back from rock Bottom. And that's a true statement through faith, family and financ. And we're going to kind of run everything through that filter of faith, family and finance. And family isn't always as we maybe define it, you know, from a genealogical standpoint. Family may be people that are there by your side through a lot of bad stuff. And so we talk about putting yourself in a financial Situation where you can survive a lot. And I really want to encourage people in their faith, if nothing else. You know, I think we read these stories. Garrett, if you read Scripture, you read these stories about all these people and everything they'd gone through, you know, Moses and Abraham and Joseph and all that these people went through.
And you see that, and, yeah, that's a great story. Yeah, I read it. I closed the book. I'm good. But when you live through similar situations, that matters. And I think it becomes a whole lot more real to you when you're the one going through it. Right?
That's like the old definition between minor surgery and major surgery, minors when it's done on somebody else, majors when it's done on you. And so you really kind of go through that. And I kind of lead in with a story about, you know, David's in the cave of Adulla, and he's writing this. Psalm 34 talks about it, but he's in the cave of Adam. He's hiding from Saul, who was his father in law, who was king of Israel, first king of Israel. And Saul gets really, really jealous of David and tries to kill him.
And so David's hiding out from Saul. He's hiding in this cave, and he's just kind of crying out to God, you know, hey, Lord, you know, I'm running from Saul. People are trying to kill me. I didn't do anything wrong, and it ain't fair.
And he just kind of lays out his heart in that and how God encouraged him through that. And that's kind of one of the things I really want to encourage people to do, is just encourage them through hard times. We've all got those stories.
But I think, you know, mental health in this country, there's very much a stigma.
If you called me up and said, hey, Lance, I have cancer, I wouldn't just tell you, man up and get over it. But mentally, that's kind of what happens. From a mental health standpoint, that's really what happens. And men in particular, because that's a sign of weakness, right? You don't share
your problems with other people or John Wayne. And so just really encourage, you know, find people you can trust, obviously, but find people you can trust and kind of share your struggles with them, and they can share struggles with you.
And just. Just finding that outlet for that, a healthy outlet for that. I found some outlets, Garrett, but they were not healthy. They were not good. I did not go about that the right way. And I just want to encourage people through my own storms. But encourage them maybe to handle it a little better than I did.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: One of the things that I really appreciate about you and the various ways that I've been able to communicate with you over the last year, year and a half, as I've gotten to know you, I mean, you. You text me devotionals on a pretty regular basis and text me some of your. Your. Your own thoughts and response to scripture that, that you're reading as you're. You're doing, as you're going through your own study time, which I really appreciate. We have these conversations, we talk on the phone, we text back and forth. And one of the common threads. And I don't say this to flatter you at all, but it's. You are one of the most honest human beings I've ever come across. And that's a. A rare thing, I think, especially among men. I talk about it in my Bible studies and stuff a lot too, that a lot of guys, we don't want to share what's really going on. And it's not necessarily that we're. It's not that we're trying to. To put the pretty picture up. So everybody thinks we've got a perfect life. We just don't really want to share that we've got struggles. Everybody kind of knows that everybody has them, but we just kind of gloss over them. But what's interesting about that in a mentorship or trying to help other people kind of way, is I use the analogy sometimes, probably not the best one. And if I go to a golf pro for a golf lesson and he tells me my swing is great, that's not doing me any good. I need him to tell. I need him to take a look at what's really wrong and tell me the truth and pick it apart. But in our personal lives, we don't do that necessarily. We try to make it look like we're as good as we can be. And that doesn't really offer a lot of opportunities for people to help us because they don't know we need it. And it also leads other people to think they're the only ones who have problems. So that's why we end up with these. You know, we don't. You don't know what's going on. But when you can find a group of people that you can be honest with, tell them what's really going on, you can learn from them, they can learn from you and you. And you find a lot of comfort in that, and you can help other people and they can help you, but you have to tell the truth, and that's a really hard thing for some people to do. But you do a great job of it in the book. I think as I was reading through it, you know, I just appreciated your willingness to share it. But also, I'm sitting back here looking at this guy who's got a great business, great personality, seems to be doing great in the world. I would have never had any idea you had any, Any. Any struggles in your life if you hadn't put it out there. But it is encouraging to say, hey, yeah, it's. Everybody struggles, and there's ways to get through it. And you share some of those ways in the book, which were. I just. I loved it. I really appreciated you being able to.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: I appreciate that, and I do. I hope it was an encouragement. And, yeah, I think you hit on some points there, because I think in business, particularly our business, you know, back when you were in the business, it's all about branding, Right. Life is about branding nowadays, and that's kind of our culture. And you never want to do anything to damage the brand. Right. We got to protect the brand. And kind of in here, I kind of pull the curtain back on the brand a little bit and just share, you know, But I think at the same time, that makes you more relatable and can be an asset and a benefit to other people, because I think you hit on this. You know, we're. We're professional problem solvers, right? I saw people's problems for a living, but we're not allowed to have problems ourselves, right?
[00:07:54] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: So, yeah, we just kind of. Kind of broke through that veil a little bit. No, no, that's not true. But, you know, I cannot tell you how many people have reached out. It's a golly, man, that ministered to me. I went through a similar situation and da, da, da, da, da. But I've been able to encourage others through that.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah. So I have a question for you. How long did it take you to write the book, first of all?
[00:08:18] Speaker B: Oh, gosh, probably nine months. And, you know, I talk about this in the book as well. If I had known, if somebody had told me how much work that was going to be, I probably wouldn't have done it. I'm glad I did now. But, you know, I tell people it's a process, man. It's like passing a kidney stone. It's a process. But, you know, it was a lot of work, but I think it was worthwhile. I mean, I think that just the feedback and I didn't get it. Do this for pats on the back or look at me or anything else, just to encourage others. Others that, hey, you know what? You know, it's real. And. And I'm just as screwed up as you are, and. And, yeah, you know, just makes you more relatable.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: So I've experienced this a little bit with some of the―the work that I. So I do a podcast with my pastor I've been on for the last two or three years, and there's a lot of times I. I try to be honest with. With him on the podcast, and we're all, you know, it's pretty good environment.
And there are times that I get done and I'm going back and I'm editing and I'm. I get to the very end and I'm like, am I sure I want to hit this publish button? Because this was all fine and good in a nice closed room amongst friends, but do I really want the world to know this particular thought or this particular thing that I'm struggling with or whatever?
So my question, I guess, to you is that how late in the process did you second guess? Am I sure I want to do this? Because I'm sitting there thinking, after nine months of writing the book, you probably think, well, I don't want to walk away from all this effort. But also, the closer you get to putting it out there, the scarier that can be. How late did you doubt yourself on it?
[00:09:51] Speaker B: Until I hit send, to be honest with you, there were some stuff in there that I share that I. That I touched on. But in the original kind of manuscript draft, I had gone into a lot greater detail on some of the really dark stuff. And just through encouragement, you know, really good friend of mine that actually wrote the foreword in this, and through just talking to my wife and family, they're like, man, maybe don't put that out there.
And so we did kind of walk that back a little bit. But, I mean, I think there's enough in there that you get the idea.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I think one of the coolest things I hope you will, you know, are okay with me saying this is it's not a.
Look, My life was a mess, but I found out how to fix it. And now I'm fixed, and now I'm all better, and now I have no problems anymore. And you can, too, kind of a book. You're honest about the fact that, hey, you're better, but that doesn't mean that everything is perfect now. Right. Like, you went through a tough time, and it's not as tough now. Like that's, that's there and that's clearly in there, but it's not a now. Everything is perfect in my life. And if you read this, you can be too, right?
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Not at all. Not at all. Not at all.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. Yeah.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Just like I say, just to encourage others through that journey.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: Was the biggie.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: Well, it's really appreciate you taking the time to share the story behind the story. Really. I think I enjoyed reading it myself, but I think this is the first time I've really talked to you at all about the process of actually writing it. So I really appreciate you doing that. For anyone who sees this, how can they get a copy? Not everybody's gonna be so lucky as to have a personally hand signed copy mailed to them like I was. So how can everybody else get their hands on it?
[00:11:32] Speaker B: I'll throw that in at no extra charge. How about that? Yeah, we don't charge for this. I haven't gotten paid to do this. Okay.
But yeah, just. You can click on the website www.lancebrowning.com, get a copy of the book. You can shoot us an email. You can call the office directly here on Troop highway and Tyler, what I call troopcom 903-787-8909. Just let us know you want a copy and we'll send it out.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: Awesome, Lance. Well, appreciate it. And I appreciate you taking the time to chat about it today.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: All right, man. Thank you. Appreciate it.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Thanks.
