9 to 5 Faith Podcast: Episode 23

Paige C. Clark 0:39
If need be. Okay, cool. Now we’re good. What were you gonna say? I was gonna say, I have a stream yard account for the company. Okay, so we can move it to the stream yard if need be. So this is good. I’m doing it to the cloud this time. So like, hopefully also, like, my computer’s like The Little Engine That Could. It is a very old computer. I mean, and by old I mean, it’s like 2015 2006

Ryan Wiggins 1:01
Oh, wow. It’s

Paige C. Clark 1:04
it is it like needs an AARP card and everything. It’s a struggle. And it just like, you know, it turns on, unlike Airplane Mode is something different from my laptop, where it sounds like you’re on an actual airplane, like, the engine star works lovely. Is

Ryan Wiggins 1:20
it windows? Oh, gosh, no, it’s an app. Okay. Okay. I was gonna say that’s

Paige C. Clark 1:25
woof. No,

Ryan Wiggins 1:26
you’re you’re running.

Paige C. Clark 1:30
Running a few decades behind myself. No, it’s an apple. I’m like an apple person through and through. So. Um, well, awesome. Welcome, Ryan. I’m so glad you can join us. Today. Friday. Right. Yay. Weekend. Where are you located at?

Ryan Wiggins 1:48
I’m in San Antonio, Texas.

Paige C. Clark 1:50
I just talked to someone from Austin. Oh, man,

Ryan Wiggins 1:53
we don’t we don’t claim Austin.

Paige C. Clark 1:57
Fair enough. Fair enough. All that to say it’s hot. Yeah, wherever you’re at and hot. Where I’m at, too. I’m in Arizona. So it Oh, nice. You know, I was almost in Arizona today. Almost really? Wait, hold on. How were you almost so.

Ryan Wiggins 2:13
So like I told you, we do consulting. And we had a podcast appearance in Arizona last night. So my boss is out there right now. And we were going to I think he has another one tonight as well. So we’re gonna be all in Arizona. This this past

Paige C. Clark 2:28
week could have done the first in person recording. And that would have been so much fun. But I’m just in my little like office in my

Ryan Wiggins 2:38
Well, my, my wife was at camp with the youth at our church and painted me to be with the dog. So I was like, I can’t go, Doug. And I’m a little upset about that. But you know, hey,

Paige C. Clark 2:48
you pick up the slack. And you’re just missing some smoldering he and some ugly weather right now. It’s dusty and Nikki outside. So yes, that.

Ryan Wiggins 2:59
I mean, I like a dry heat over this humid weather here.

Paige C. Clark 3:03
Yeah, I do too. I didn’t realize like how terrible it was until I just got back from Charlotte, North Carolina. And my like, I walked outside. My whole family lives on the East Coast. And I texted the like, family group text. And I was like, how do people wear glasses out here? Like seeing glasses? Like, how do you wear glasses? And they’re like, you don’t you wear a hat or you wear contacts? Like, right? Exactly. Like I would open the car door and like it’s I couldn’t see anything. It was absolutely ridiculous. It was insane. And I’m like, Yes. I like the South. I like my sister lives in North Carolina. My mom lives in Georgia. I have friends who live in Florida. And I’m like, Yes, but bugs and humidity. If you guys didn’t have the bugs and the humidity. I would be okay. I even lived in Texas for a while. Bugs and submitted the same issues. Yep. Bugs and humidity. That’s all I have to say. Anyways, so real it on back. So tell us a little bit about yourself.

Ryan Wiggins 4:09
So dogs in a wife and dogs and a wife. No kids have no kids. No kids.

Paige C. Clark 4:14
He’s doing like a kid thing though. Kids.

Ryan Wiggins 4:17
So she was at youth camp with with our church. She got searched in the youth. That’s middle school to high school. I serve in children’s church, which is newborn to elementary school. Gotcha. I’m actually going to children’s camp next week, Tuesday to Friday, which is you know, always interesting kids. Our kids are funny. So yeah, but for work work, like my paying job. I work at a company called building great sales teams. We just changed the name and our whole goal is to build better sales teams for companies and we have a podcast called building great sales teams. I recently started a A new a new offshoot of that. It’s called your podcast partner. So building great podcast is what I like to call it. And I’m kind of heading that up myself, but it’s still an offshoot of what we do everything here.

Paige C. Clark 5:14
Yeah. Sounds fun. How long have you been doing that?

Ryan Wiggins 5:18
podcasting or the building of this new

Paige C. Clark 5:22
working in this business?

Ryan Wiggins 5:25
Oh, I’m so. So with sales teams. I started with this company in 2017. Okay, so we were we sold at&t, we sold solar, we sold security, we sold everything we were like companies would come seek us out to sell their product for them. I was doing that in 2017, doing back in some marketing stuff for that. And then as far as the podcasting, we started the BGS T podcast in January of last year. So since we did that for a year, we’re at 200 Plus episodes, releasing three a day.

Paige C. Clark 6:00
Three week, three weeks still.

Ryan Wiggins 6:03
Yes, it is. It is it is wild. Yeah. And then so since we had all of our systems dialed in, we had our VA is doing some of the back end marketing stuff of that, like we can we can open this door up for a lot of people to start their podcast for marketing purposes, kind of tell them what, what the benefits of having a podcast is and stuff. So we started that up in last month, actually, last month is when we started charging people.

Paige C. Clark 6:31
That’s exciting. That’s really exciting. And yeah, you’re you’re we are like cut from the same cloth because I am definitely a digital marketer by trade. I’m a social media manager for a tech company. But also I am just I just started releasing, I just started. This is also the first time I’ve ever talking about it like publicly, I’m starting something called the IDEA Lab. And part of it is how to take your doing a zero to podcast strategy. So I feel you but that’s awesome.

Ryan Wiggins 7:02
Podcasts are important. People don’t understand the power of a podcast. Yeah, like it is crazy. The only reason why I started a podcast, I have a friend, his name is Dallin. He has a podcast. We were talking podcast, right. But he has a podcast. And the reason why we started was because I didn’t have a job. He hated his job. And so we were like, Hey, let’s just let’s talk every week, right? Like, yeah, let’s have a conversation about whatever is going on with our lives. And so we settled on music because we both do music. I do rap. He doesn’t anymore. So we just every week, whatever releases that intrigued us, we would talk about it on the show. Sometimes we were talking about movies, like I think the last Jedi just came out. Okay, we’re doing it. And I absolutely hate that movie. I love Star Wars. The Last Jedi. Okay, so we have that conversation. It was good. So that’s why I started podcasting. And I think that, that gave me a lot of the skills that I have today. Being in front of a camera, being able to just talk about whatever and yeah, leveraging that into business, I guess.

Paige C. Clark 8:10
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think too. Like, I mean, I don’t know if I just have the personality for it. But I’m like, is fun. Like, I absolutely love doing this talking to strangers on the internet, but in a podcast form. And it’s

Ryan Wiggins 8:23
it’s a little different because you can’t get catfished Well, I mean, with AI now, right? You can’t really get catfished on a video call.

Paige C. Clark 8:31
Yeah, very true. Very true. So what kind of got you started in the role that you’re currently at? Like, how did you kind of start with that company?

Ryan Wiggins 8:42
So I got fired from I got I got let go. Yeah, let’s go because they were doing a reworking. I was working at a college here in San Antonio. And they were doing a reworking of our department.

Paige C. Clark 8:58
It’s what they what they suddenly when this happens?

Ryan Wiggins 9:02
Yeah, absolutely love it. And then so Craigslist, I was like, alright, you know what Craigslist has some decent jobs mainly as a joke. And I had nothing else going for me except for the podcast. And I was doing some temp work here and there. But on Craigslist, I was like, Okay, let me just apply for this job. It was for an office administrator for this company. So I, I got hired. I was with the company for a year and a half. They let me go because they ran out of money. So I was doing real estate stuff. They called me back and they were like, Hey, can you be our marketing manager? I was like, Yeah, I got nothing else going on right now. So I came back and then COVID happened. So they let me go. And then yeah, they called me back. The CEO of the company, his name is Doug Mitchell. He called me back because we had set up an interview, but he meant to cancel it the day of so I ended up just showing up Anyway, and I Okay. I truly believe that that was God, I really do. I didn’t showing up anyway. And he was like, Hey, I canceled your interview. But hey, let’s just let’s just talk for a second. So I was like, Alright, cool. Like, I can talk. I don’t have anything else to do. I had just so I was with this company that I don’t want to say the name of because I have I have a little bit of bad blood with them right now. Fair enough. So there’s a whole nother story we could get into but so I was like, I’m trying to leave that job. God hasn’t released me to leave yet. He has released me to like apply places, but he hasn’t released me to leave. And that’s, that’s super big on me. Like I 100% believe that. If you are going through your ventures in work, even if you hate your job, like absolutely hate your job, you need to be prayerful, because you might be in that position for a reason. And if you’re in that position for a reason you don’t want to leave without fulfilling that purpose that God has you there for is kind of how I see it. So I was released to go apply for other jobs. And this one was just like, perfect, because like, I know the company, they’re looking for what I’m doing now. So God, if there’s any, if if it is your will, let me leave this position and let it be your Well, let it be your will write Jesus in the garden. Right. That’s, that’s how I approached it. Jesus in the garden. So we got into conversations, he was like, Man, I am so glad that, you know, we had we got a chance to talk. Because we weren’t close. When I was working here prior like, he lives in San Antonio, I was in San Antonio, but the company was in Corpus Houston. Like we were all over the place. So I hadn’t most FaceTime with him. But we weren’t like close, close, you know, CEO, lower level employee. So he was like, I’m super glad that we had a chance to talk. And the only reason why I went back was he changed his core values instead of work hard, play hard. It became work hard, pray hard. So it’s like, Oh, that’s interesting. So I might want to, I want to see what that’s about. Yeah. So we had a conversation. He was like, Hey, I’m going to Corpus I need someone to shoot content for me. Can you come with me to Corpus and then we’ll see how that goes. And we’ll turn that into like a full time position of you just kind of being my roadie. And we go, we travel, we shoot content. And I was like, Yeah, I mean, that’ll be interesting. I’ll pray about it. I’ll talk to my wife and see see what it is. And you know, the rest is history. I signed on we went to Corpus shot some some videos, we went to Dallas, Phoenix, Utah, like we were, we’d been all over the place. So it’s been it’s

Paige C. Clark 12:47
so much fun. And like really cool, kind of how that kind of fell into place. I’m glad you called yourself a roadie to and not just like a fan girl or something. Like, you should just take his name, like, you know how people like take the names like Swifties. Like, do that, like, just do that for your title and be like, I propose myself to have a new title. And this is what it is.

Ryan Wiggins 13:12
That would be interesting. It’s really funny. Like, I don’t know, if you’ve, like, have you? Have you been in a position where you’re like, following around a famous person, I put air quotes yada and see famous person.

Paige C. Clark 13:23
I mean, not like, yeah, like I have done that role, but not for like someone who’s like, famous or popular or anything. Yeah.

Ryan Wiggins 13:33
Doug is Doug is a very popular guy in his, in his circles, like, I won’t say like, Oh, if you look them up right now, he has a follow up. No, it’s not that. But in his circles, he’s like, very helpful. He adds value everywhere he goes, gotcha is a very popular guy. So like, in San Antonio, we went to a couple of events, and everybody’s like, Yo, is Doug Mitchell. They came it’s like, Can I get a picture with you? And I’m just like, Alright, here we go. This is Joe’s, I guess.

Paige C. Clark 14:03
Other Pete Yeah, it is kind of weird. I didn’t know what you mean, though. I’ve been around those kinds of people who are like these are just like normal people to me. And then to like other people, they’re like, oh,

Ryan Wiggins 14:14
ever it’s quite funny.

Paige C. Clark 14:16
I hear I’m gonna be like, Googling him. But you could be like the Dougie is or something like that. Right? Like he’s Wow, he’s the

Ryan Wiggins 14:27
dugout

Paige C. Clark 14:31
that’s the way you should he would love

Ryan Wiggins 14:32
that right? He would. He would absolutely love that. Oh, yeah. It’s me and my dugout Yeah. I’m not bringing that up to him. This is this episode and like, that’s the only time he’ll ever so what

Paige C. Clark 14:45
you’re telling me here is I should just email and this episode

Ryan Wiggins 14:49
or No, honestly, once it comes out, or if I get the back end stuff, we have a team of bas who are going to chop it up and put stuff out there so he will definitely be like, Okay, this needs to go out. Yes,

Paige C. Clark 15:00
absolutely, absolutely. So when talking about like your faith, you’ve talked a little bit about, like, having God’s like leading in terms of like leading, leaving and starting like job searches. Where did that kind of come from? And like, to anyone listening who might find themselves in a hard work position, like what would you say to them?

Ryan Wiggins 15:28
Okay, so I see. So this is the story about the job. I was actually okay. Yeah, it’s funny how that led into it. So I had just, yeah. So I had just gotten married last year, two years ago now, coming up with two years. And since Thank you, so I was doing consulting work for a couple of real estate companies. And the job was done, right. So I didn’t have any income until I found like my next gig, and my mother in law passed away. My aunt passed away. And my wife owns a business so like, she’s one of those if you don’t work, you don’t get paid time, right visuals, like she’s an entrepreneur, but it’s it’s very much a hands on job. She does softball coaching. Yeah. So I was like, Well, God, you know that we need money. bills don’t stop. So, like, what’s up? And so, I applied for a job at this company. And I got, I got an interview the very same day and I was like, Okay, guys, this shoe and I got an okay, so I went, I had the interview, talk to the guy, it was, it was great. And it was fine. I started my first day and I found out that he had nothing like as far as SOPs or policies in place for his staff, and we were a staffing company, which is really funny when you think about it. Yeah. So I was like, okay, cool. God, is this why I’m here because I have experienced in this, you know, that that works. guy, he was a he, he professed to be a Christian. And so in all of his offices, he had three that I was privy to one in Houston, one in Austin, one in San Antonio. And in all the offices the main thing was he needed worship music playing because worship music changes your, your, your outlook on life, right? Like even if you don’t believe in Christianity, you listen to worship, music, being positive, encouraging Caleb’s stuff. Okay, it changes your outlook. And it’s true, like faith cometh by hearing and you’re constantly hearing these positive things, especially these people who are looking for you know, construction jobs, who who just need temp work, or whatever the case might be. They come in with a spirit on them that is not not positive is the the nicest, cleanest way I can say it. They don’t have a positive spirit on them. And so I was like, This is awesome. And then, quickly, I found out that this this, I was there for a time, I was there for a few people, I was able to share the gospel with a couple of people lead them to Christ in that position. But I absolutely hated that job from Week Two on it was it was the absolute worst job I’ve ever had the displeasure of being at. And I stayed as long as I did, because I knew God was telling me know your stay like you don’t have a you don’t have a choice. And that kind of goes back to my my Jesus in the garden. That’s why I started saying that, because every day from work, it was a seven hour not seven. Wow, I had to be up at seven. So I can be there by eight. Because it was an hour long drive like alright, had to be up at six so I can get on the road at seven get there by eight. Right? And so that whole entire hour, all I did was pray. I was like, God, if I can just turn around right now. Like right now I will do it. you direct me to where I need to go. But if this is the job you want me to be at right now. Yeah, I’ll be there. And so that was the job he wanted me to be at and my prayer life had never been better than that. Three months that I was there enough. So that’s that’s where it all stemmed from is because like even if I decided to quit, like my mom, my wife, my brother, they’re like, Hey, man, you you don’t you don’t deserve that you don’t need a job. God will provide all your needs record news versus glory that all this Christianese that they were spouting at me, but I knew like if God is telling me to be here, there’s a reason right? There’s reasons why I’m here. Even if it’s for season, I need to be here. Because they’re right like I’ve never missed a bill even when finances are not there. I’ve never missed a bill. My whole tire life God has provided I’ve seen him provide for my mom she had cancer she was healed miraculously, I’ve seen him stop the weather for my brother. Like a lot of I’ve seen, I’ve seen that His Word is true. So like, yes, he would do that. But here’s the here’s the kicker, you need to be in his will. If you’re not in his will, then there’s no point in you questioning. Or there’s no point of view just moving without being in his will first, like you look at Jesus being tempted, and I’m sorry, I’m like rambling. But oh, I love it. Keep going. tempted. In the in the wilderness, Satan didn’t lie to him on anything. What he did was he spoken a miss truth, where he took stuff out of the word, but he did not lie to him. He said exactly what God said in those scriptures. And that’s why it’s important for you to know scripture for yourself, because the Bible did say everything that Satan said to Jesus, but there was context missing. And if you don’t know the context, that’s when you start to fall in August stuff. But yeah, that’s that’s kind of how I learned that is like, when you’re in a position where you absolutely hate it. The boss is trying to get you the CEO, he’s trying to fire fire you but he can’t because he has no grounds. Then you you, you learn quickly, like Okay, God, you want me here for some reason, and I don’t know what it is, but I’m gonna stick it out because I absolutely hate this.

Paige C. Clark 21:22
Yeah. Yeah. And I think too, like, there might be like this misunderstanding that, like, Christians have to like, where they were.

Ryan Wiggins 21:32
Right. Oh, 100%. You don’t have to like where you work?

Paige C. Clark 21:36
No, no, you don’t. And also, like, it doesn’t like, It’s okay as a Christian and Christ follower to like, call out toxic, toxic situations. And you’re kind of do that. Yeah. And be okay with like, leaving that situation and like, saying, like, hey, this workplace was bad. Like, that is an okay thing to do for whoever’s listening, who needs to hear that, like, it is an okay thing to say, like, you know what, like, this is not one good for me, good for my spirit, good for my health, good for my mental health. Good. Whatever the reason is, I’m just like, leaning on God through that, because then he will ultimately sustain you throughout that season. And like you said, like, I mean, Ryan even said, like, there were people there that you were supposed to be there for. But also, I don’t know if you noticed this, but you said your prayer life had never been better. Right? Right. But like, but it’s like, there’s like, multiple reasons why God can have you in that situation. To just draw you nearer and closer to him.

Ryan Wiggins 22:47
Yeah, I, yes. It had never been better. And I, I would love for it to be the same way as it was now. Or as it was then. But I mean, it’s a little bit less, but that’s because I’m busy doing the work. It’s not a Yeah, rested, me and I will sustain you is more of like, Hey, I given you something to do now. So you got to do it. But ya know, 100% I do believe that I was there for some people I can, I can point to those people and be like, Hey, I impacted their lives in this manner from being there. But yes, it 100% Don’t stay. So unless God is telling you to. And be very clear, don’t stay in a position where you’re where you’re just ingesting this toxicity all the time. It’s not Yeah, it doesn’t help you with anything. It’s, it’s possibly the worst thing that you can do as a Christian, like you’re supposed to catch your care. And if you’re constantly holding on to care or adding more care to yourself, then you’re not really following what Christ is telling you to do.

Paige C. Clark 23:50
Yeah, so yeah, for sure. I was in a situation about a year and a half ago, at a job where I was like, in tears almost every single day. And like, if you know me, I am not a crier. Like I like I do not cry. I have cried at one movie my entire life. And you know, it was also oh my gosh, is shameful it is. Okay. It’s so embarrassing, but like, also you have to like look at the context of my life. And like when I saw this movie, so it was Nicholas Sparks last song.

Ryan Wiggins 24:26
Oh, my. Okay, we can continue with

Paige C. Clark 24:29
that. No, we’re not going to because I have to justify this. So it came out when I was in high school. And the story is about a divorced parent, like divorced couple, and there was the daughter taking care of her. Like younger brother, and one of the parents is dying from cancer. Guess what was happening in my life. I was taking care of my little brother and my mom had cancer and my dad left like It was just a justify this my life sobbing in the theater at Miley Cyrus’s terrible performance anyways, I’m not a crier. And so in this season of my life, I was like, just so broken down and like I, my husband, I was yielding to my husband in that in the decision to leave my job. And I like had a crystal clear from Jesus like, but also like, you know, as a married couple, like I can’t just go off and like, you know, write I do something. And so I was yielding to my husband and I mean, hills Hill said to this to this day that he was also distracted by other things that, you know, weren’t from God in that season. But there was just this absolute, like desperation of meeting God in that moment. And the funny thing is, is like, my trust, and the peace that God gives us, has never been so impactful than it was in that season. And it was such a beautiful thing. And also, like, kind of funny, because I was like, Yeah, I’m gonna quit my job. My husband’s like, what are you gonna do tomorrow? I was like, I don’t know. I don’t know if God like God’s gonna tell me what to do. And, and he goes, Well, what is it? What is he telling you to do? I’m like, I don’t know. I’m gonna find out tomorrow. And if he doesn’t tell me tomorrow, this gonna tell me the next

Ryan Wiggins 26:30
day like, right, right. Like you can’t really,

Paige C. Clark 26:34
really nonchalant about it. But it was a really like, refining season. Do I want to go back to that season? Absolutely not.

Ryan Wiggins 26:43
Oh, yeah. Yeah, nobody wants to go back to the place that God brought them out of like, nobody. Nobody wants to go back there like 100%. Like, long story short with that job. The reason why I knew for a fact like I was done was because the CEO decided to have my coworker who technically was below me call me Sunday night, Sunday night at 8pm. And told me not to come in the morning. So, so I was like, Yeah, okay, God. Thank you. Like, that’s it. Thank you. And then I had a week to do all this stuff for my aunt’s funeral. Yeah, it was. I mean, it was it was perfect timing to from leaving this job to going to the job I’m currently at now. So it was it was perfect timing. I absolutely loved it.

Paige C. Clark 27:35
Yeah, yeah. And I think too, like, I think, and this might be like, so going off subject. But when we’re confronted by people who are hurting us in that situation, I feel like there is like this default to like, Oh, you have to love everyone. Like there’s like that default. Right? But like, that’s like,

Ryan Wiggins 28:00
Yeah, but what does love actually look like? Do you know what love is before you just throw that out there? Like there’s there’s studies on what love is like biblical love, and biblical love is not letting people run over you. Yeah. And like that is that is super important.

Paige C. Clark 28:14
Yeah. Yeah. And I think it’s like also okay to rejoice and righteous justice. Yes, I mean, things like that happen. I mean, I’m not like super proud of it. But also, it was like, a super sweet moment, pretty much like you say, you got restructured, my position got eliminated at this one. At this one company. When I was the only person doing this job. I was like, the Social Media Manager. And they’re like, No, we’re like, we don’t need a social media manager anymore. But then they hired another social media manager, just really fun.

Ryan Wiggins 28:52
And anybody who’s a business owner listening to this, and like, usually small business owners, do not hire a social media manager to do anything other than social media management. Because I think a lot of times why people fire and hire quickly for social media managers, is because they don’t understand that social media managers are not the catch. All right, like for computers, and

Paige C. Clark 29:17
so I had been working with this company for three years. And the person that came in did not like me, like had like, a personal thing against me. And and yeah, and but like afterwards, like, he’d be like, six months after that. And I had like, called it I was like, this person’s toxic this person is like, not healthy and reflective of the company culture, like nothing. No one believed me. No one heard from me. And then I found out I’m not the only one who’s like the canary in the coal mine about this woman. And then she got fired. And I was like, yeah, like that’s the justice. And it’s okay to have that sweet justice moment because I’m like, you know, God’s still led me through everything and it was

Ryan Wiggins 29:58
my boss my battle and I have to do either. That’s awesome.

Paige C. Clark 30:01
Yes, they have to be there for the fallout either.

Ryan Wiggins 30:04
Yeah, look at that. Look at God.

Paige C. Clark 30:07
Sure enough, I posted back to your social media thing I posted on LinkedIn the other day because I kept seeing these like job posts for people who like want social media managers, but that’s not what they really wanted. What they wanted was content creators, like your social media manager should not be on your tick tock like you.

Ryan Wiggins 30:26
Right? Right. If that is the case, you need to you need to clearly state that like you do want to, you want a content creator. And then a social media manager is going to take whoever created that content and then make it look good, make it sound good, have all the copy, they’re supposed to be in front of it, creating the

Paige C. Clark 30:42
can be but also like, that is not a social media managers job is so Exactly. Up and beyond that. Yeah.

Ryan Wiggins 30:51
100% 100%

Paige C. Clark 30:52
We’re besties now.

Ryan Wiggins 30:56
So funny thing like I have, I have another friend who does cheat consults on social media, management and all that good stuff and marketing, social media marketing. And it’s the same thing. Anybody who has done social media management. Anybody who has done social media management understands that it’s just the people who have never done it. Yeah, they just don’t get like, there is there’s, it’s different than what you expect. Like, yeah, it’s not a you post this thing that’s on trend, and you’re just gonna go viral. And like, yeah, you save the day. That’s not how it works. It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of planning, and it’s a lot of look like you sometimes hit the nail on the head, and sometimes you just don’t, that’s why not every Windies snap back on Twitter, or on x now this viral because it’s it’s not always going to happen for you.

Paige C. Clark 31:45
Okay, so are you on? Are you on threads? Aye.

Ryan Wiggins 31:49
Aye, I made threads. Okay, I made the threads.

Paige C. Clark 31:51
Okay. Also, it’s weird to say here that like plural, I’ve never heard anyone say it like out loud in a plural form. And like it’s so cringy. Okay, the sleeper on threads right now is the American Eagle account? I’m really Yes. Like, it is amazing. I like the clothing brand. If you’re listening to this, and you don’t follow American eagle on threads, go and follow them, especially if you’re a marketer, because it is absolutely downright hilarious. And it brings me so much joy. I might have to I might have to do like, for example, they typed like, like, ah with a bunch of ages. And then they’re like, sub tweet there, their sub thread on that was just checking the character count. It’s 500 for those who are asking

Ryan Wiggins 32:51
less, no 100%. So Oh, my goodness, like, what people need to understand about marketing and we just turned into a Marketing Show. happens, you need to be every time there’s something new, you absolutely need to be on it. You absolutely need to be on it. And you need to be the first one that does anything like you need to break the system. Because once you break the system, now you can be like, Oh, I know everything and people are gonna go to you and you’re gonna be the first one so even if someone does it better than you nobody cares about who did it next they care about who did it first or who dat loudest so like Yes, do it first do it loud.

Paige C. Clark 33:29
Yeah, so they’re like Like, they’re I’m looking at their threads account right now and their most recent post I guess is what is the max number of vacation IG stories per day before you meet them? Like absolutely hilarious and then it’s also like, oh, like there’s like this wolf and it says TGIF like Oh yeah, it’s just funny crap on there like I absolutely love it. Anyways, there’s the aside if you want a really fun like I appreciate Wendy’s and what they did yeah, like look out American Eagle. Like they’re they’re up and coming just when these threads Yeah, they ever threads.

Ryan Wiggins 34:12
Oh, I literally made it because my boss was like, hey, we need to be on threads and I have no idea how to work threads like I love Twitter. Twitter’s my my or x x is my go to rally. Yes. That’s the one social media that no matter what, I’m going to check in on there just because I get all my news from there really fast. Okay, fair enough. Facebook I have I have way too many people on my Facebook that I don’t really know. Okay. And that’s because Doug is famous and he keeps tagging me and stuff. So they come in they I’m like dude, like, I’ve met you one time we’re not friends. What I

Paige C. Clark 34:50
did is I converted my personal profile or my personal profile to a never professional profile or whatever. So people just follow me now instead of adding me as a friend

Ryan Wiggins 35:03
that probably won’t people follow me like that.

Unknown Speaker 35:07
Get outta here. It’s like

Ryan Wiggins 35:09
all these crypto dudes. So we’re in this it is so weird. It’s called apex and or he’s in this group, I’m not I just get to, I just get the benefit. And it’s very wealthy individuals in this group, very wealthy individuals. And they, the lower ring of that are being taught to find out who the people are around the people that you want to work with, and connect with them. So that way, you can have an easy in. So it’s a lot of people connecting with me. So if I haven’t shaken your hand, if I haven’t had dinner with you, if I if I don’t know you from Adam, like do not add me as a friend on Facebook, because I will not respond to it. Even people at my church if I have not served with them, or I haven’t been at a breakfast or a fellowship with them. Do not add me because I will not add you. It’s just it’s just real. I’m not going to like, give up my mental space for that if we don’t have a actual connection in any kind of way, which is kind of true or productive to me, but

Paige C. Clark 36:18
no. Well, I mean, like, and you also have like your I went to when I was in Charlotte, I was I heard Lisa Turkers speak and she goes, there’s a difference between privacy and secrecy. Like I’ve never heard, like, I know it, but like, I’ve never heard someone put it so succinctly. And I was like, yeah, like, people will want especially in ministry and like, stuff like that people want privacy around these things. Now, when it goes into secrecy, like that’s when you’re, you know, playing with the devil there. But privacy is, you know, something to be held dear. Right? Like, and

Ryan Wiggins 36:58
Jesus had 12 Friends, right. He had a multitude of followers. He fed 5000 men and their children who followed him to a mountain. He’d talked to them all, he was very open, but really, he had 12 friends,

Paige C. Clark 37:13
and even within those 12 He,

Ryan Wiggins 37:17
yeah, he’s three. Yeah, it was about three. He had his closest, I was gonna say their names, but I was gonna butcher that. I know. Peter was one. Peter, James and John, I think it was. But yeah, it wasn’t like that. Yeah, there’s there’s several of them. But yeah, those are the ones who he took to the garden with him. That’s it like you you need to have that you need to be able to break away and have those confidants that you can be like, hey, like, there’s there’s levels to our relationships. There’s levels to all of it. And yeah, there are people who I I shake a hand with because we’re at this conference that has 1000 people, and I don’t see you ever again. Don’t add me on Facebook, please.

Paige C. Clark 37:59
Yeah, I’m on Twitter instead. Or x.

Ryan Wiggins 38:03
You can follow me on x. I retweet some some funny stuff. Sometimes. I’ve been on there and

Paige C. Clark 38:09
react.

Ryan Wiggins 38:10
React. What is it now as it says,

Paige C. Clark 38:13
I record it. It’s either like it’s our E X E S. and like that’s either relaxes or like Rex’s, which just makes me think of like, it’s like a T Rex. Like the new logo should just be like a T Rex anyways,

Ryan Wiggins 38:29
that would work. I would, I would love that actually.

Paige C. Clark 38:32
Just like big dinosaur stampede. Anyways, let’s go back though, if you did say something, and I kind of want to go back to it, which was kind of like working with like the proximity and like intimacy and privacy within your like co workers and like your colleagues, and how does that look for you? In terms of like, you’re like, Yeah, I have like lead people to Jesus. And I’m like, Oh, wow. Like, that’s like a significant thing. Like, from being at work. So could you talk a little bit about that?

Ryan Wiggins 39:04
Yeah. So I’ve been fortunate enough to be in very small companies who have very intimate settings, right. Right now, in our office, there’s, there’s two people and if this was like a mobile camera, I would show you, but my desk is right next to my boss’s desk, like literally, we can high five each other if we wanted to in the middle of the day, and it’d be Yeah, it’d be fine. And that’s, that’s cool. The other offices, it was he professed to be a Christian, right? He professed to be a Christian. So that wasn’t an issue in that, in that sense. And then the college job, I actually got it from someone who was in our church, and she had watched me grow up and she was like, Hey, I think you’d be a great fit in our in our, in our company. So I’ve been fortunate in that in that instance. It’s but I also think that it’s okay to build relationships outside of the workplace. Right? I would hate to be somewhere where I can’t talk on a human level with my co workers. Like, even if it’s like, Hey, let’s go get coffee after work, what are you doing? Oh, you got nothing going on, I got nothing going on, let’s go hang out because like, you, you should want to have relationships with the people you do life with. And yes, it’s work, but you’re still doing some form of your life, you’re doing the majority of your life with these people. So I tried to, I try to be open and willing to grow relationships with the people I work with. And that’s kind of how I’ve been able to maneuver in that, in that instance, outside of like, all of them profess to be Christians, and I’ve just been fortunate to deal with that.

Paige C. Clark 40:48
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Now, do you have any like stories of like, well, actually, you already told one, which was the icky boss. But just like any situations, kind of above and beyond that, were like, being a Christian was hard. Oh.

Ryan Wiggins 41:13
Oh, um, I wouldn’t say it’s, it’s hard at all. So I grew up in the things of God, like, since I was born. Like, when we were in Germany, my mom was the children’s minister. So anytime we had any kind of issue, she would would have a scripture for it. Okay. And that’s just kind of how I grew up. So it was never hard. Have I decided to not follow that? Yes. And that was that was before my working life. Just because when you’re young, like, I’m only 28. Now. I had to check this morning, we had a meeting, and I forgot my age. So I’m 28. Now, right, right. But when I first started working, I guess I guess it wasn’t hard to be a Christian. What I was extremely literal about what Christianity is, right. And I had told someone like you’re not a Christian, and I’m not a Christian. Because to be a Christian means to be Christ, like, and neither one of us are acting like Christ. And that was that was, I’m not going to get into that story. But that’s what I said, I said to this particular person, and, and she went off on me like, she went off on me. And I was like, Hold on, why are you going off on me like this, this proves right now, you’re not a Christian. I’m not a Christian based off of X, Y, and Z. We’re just not Christians. And that’s okay. You can be a believer all day long, but you’re not a Christian. And so like, I think, what, what people can take from that is, you should understand how Jesus is like, study who Jesus was. And study, Paul, those two, those two people. And I say that because Jesus ate with sinners, but he didn’t let centers influence who he was. And Paul said, I’ve become all things to all men that way, I may win a few. So I personally have not had to deal with Christianity being hard. But I have had to deal with fair, cynical kind of thought processes. So I guess the hard part is not leaning into those first critical thought processes when you know a lot. Like when you’ve done this for a while, when you went to a school and graduated gave the class charge, like all that stuff, like once you, once you get to that point, don’t let that become your whole entire personality to where you can’t have a normal conversation with someone who might actually need some kind of real, real life experience real life conversation. One of my favorite lines that I like to tell the people that I mentee is or a mentor is be you in real time. And if if you are struggling with someone something like it’s okay to have that struggle, don’t tell everybody that right? That’s, that’s where the privacy comes in. Right? Don’t tell everybody that have your confidence, have your small core group that are going to actually pray for you 100% I believe that, but you got to be real about it. God can’t do anything with you being fake, he already knows. So just be honest about it, be real about it. And that’s how things get better.

Paige C. Clark 44:34
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I think too, like, there’s this tendency, like after having all these conversations on this podcast and whatnot. I have just like, I have learned how much I need to really be like, putting on the armor of God every day when I go to work, especially in the ability to feel equipped to go into the hard conversations to go into the heart situations and you know, all of that, and then you’re also it’s like yes and and then it’s that humility check that ego check that we need to have with our within ourselves so that we don’t become, you know

Ryan Wiggins 45:19
Westboro Baptist Church. You don’t want to be Westboro Baptist Church. Like that’s real. Like you don’t want to you don’t want to become that. And that I think, if I had to say there’s a part of Christianity, that’s hard. I think for me, that’s the hardest part is because like I said, I’ve, I’ve been in this for a really long time, I’ve, I’ve decided not to follow it, like I made the legitimate decision not to follow it. And I’ve made the legitimate decision to follow it. Like I’ve seen all aspects of it. And at the end of the day, I can say like, it’s not hard. But be be mindful of how you practice. Be mindful of that. 100%

Paige C. Clark 46:00
Yeah, well, I appreciate your vulnerability and honest honesty in that situation. Because I think like, that is, that is something that like, I might not personally struggle with, but like others out there might struggle with and hear that and also, like, the people listening to this, I just want them to understand whether or not they know, they know Jesus is just like, we’re not perfect. We don’t have it all together. Always like that is definitely not the case with me. And from what you’re saying to like, not the case with you have like I said,

Ryan Wiggins 46:35
this morning, when I was driving to the office, like, easy, I was like, man, where are you driving? You look crazy. Your tires about to blow I can smell it. Like I was just going off on this dude. And he was just, you know, trying to get to a tire shop I saw. Yeah.

Paige C. Clark 46:51
But yeah, there you go. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And like and just like checking yourself, I think like, one of the the beauties of being a Christian and knowing Christ is just that daily, and moment by moment, awareness of like, God’s presence and his voice in our life. And like, I think it just comes out of like, practice and discipline at the end of the day.

Ryan Wiggins 47:15
100% Yeah, it was an agreement.

Paige C. Clark 47:18
So how would you say like, is like, what does your faith practice look like? Other than just like living it out? In kind of like a practical sense. You say, you know, you work with the children’s ministry and all of that, what does that kind of look like, you know, day to day, week to week for you.

Ryan Wiggins 47:39
So I don’t just work with the children’s ministry. And it’s really funny, I guess the, the main advice that I want to give is, find a local assembly and be a part of that, right. That’s how you get those relationships to where you can have those confidants who are like Bible believing Bible, teaching friends who can, like build you up in the way that should go, right? You don’t want to have friends who are not following the same path that you are because one of two things can happen. Either you’re going to influence them or they’re going to influence you. And it’s a lot easier to influence someone outside of Christ than it is to influence someone into Christ. So that’s one find a good church home. But because of that, I’ve been at this church home since 2005. So it’s kind of 120 years. Yeah, that’s crazy. And I started, I started serving at that church in 2008, right, I think I was God, how old was I was in eighth grade. So I started serving in eighth grade. And that was from pulling weeds. beautification, keeping the house cleaning up after people. So I guess like, day to day, week to week. I’m pretty much always at the church, not so much now, just because we travel so much for work and my wife spend time with me sometimes, like she liked me a little bit. But, um, yeah, so, this this Saturday, we have rehearsals for our back to school rally next week. from Tuesday through Friday, I’m going to be in mo Ranch, Texas, with the children’s church when I get back from that I’m serving that Sunday in the children’s church. And then we’re setting up classes because we hold ministry classes at our church. So I’m setting up classes after service. On a Sunday I’m there from 7am to about 5pm On Thursdays I’m there 545 Until about 11 So I mean, it’s it’s just kind of what I do at this point. It’s just how I live my life.

Paige C. Clark 49:34
How do you find either like the balance or the rhythm in doing that and like, like me, I’m just like, I want to spend all the time with my hobby like that’s me. But like cuddling my dogs and like binging Netflix like that is my default. How do you kind of find the balance of like your, I guess desires or intentions and hobbies with like serving so Not much.

Ryan Wiggins 50:00
So I all my friends I serve with, right? So I, you really cannot be my friend if I have not served with you because it’s really it’s true. You need to decompress even when you’re you’re dealing with people at church because I mean church is a hospital right? Like people, you, you’re there with sick people all day. So you got to figure out how to decompress. So for me, I still enjoy those things. I watch Netflix with my wife. I play video games a lot. I make music still. Yeah, and a lot of that is you find a way to make it work. Like when you’re at the church from seven to five, like you’re not always serving a service is not always going on. So you can step back, you can check out a YouTube video, go talk to someone who’s there. It’s just like, yeah, now and then, you know, when the next service is ready to go. It’s like, okay, cool. Next service is here. And a lot of a lot of it is hurry up and wait, because we’re there so early. So that set in place, or the guests who are coming. So yeah, I find I find ways to do that, by just kind of making time for it. If, if your thing is video games, get handheld games, I have a switch device. If it’s if it’s Netflix, get Netflix on your phone, there’s an array. I don’t know. I I mean, that’s, that’s basically it. I’ve been doing it for so long. So I just kind of, I’ve learned how to fit it in when I can. And I’ve learned that sometimes you got to you got to pony up and be an adult and do the work of the ministry. Like,

Paige C. Clark 51:38
what am what I’m also hearing from you that like you’re not saying but you’re kind of working around is like integrating your community, with your church, in your church with your community. Yeah, 100% 100 of like having your friend like serving alongside your friends. And you know, like, instead of, instead of meeting out and like going out and like grabbing some drinks or something like that, like you can go and like surf together and still have that same kind of communal.

Ryan Wiggins 52:07
I told my wife so so before we started dating, I was like, I’m not hanging out with you, like you can come to the church and serve with me, but I’m not going to hang out with you. If I have something going on at the church. I told him that straight up like, I’m, I’m not going to stop what I was already doing. Right? Because, you know, I kind of want to hang out with you a little bit. Like, I’m not gonna do that. That’s not what’s gonna happen. All of her friends who wanted to hang out with me, because I’m just a cool guy. I don’t know what it is. All of her friends. I told them the same thing. I was setting up tables, and I’m like, Hey, Ryan, I got a question for you. I was like, Okay, I got a table for you to sit down. Like, it’s, it’s always like that. Because again, if if I’m gonna sit here, and I’m gonna be honest about who God is to me and the the place that he holds in my life, then I have to show that I have to, I have to show that in everything that I’m doing. And yes, I can go out with friends go to a movie, go hang out at the house, do whatever, go to a football game. I mean, I travel for work. So I’m not at every service now. Right. But like, even still, like, I make time to take off work for four days. So I can be at a children’s camp, I make time to ask for my lunch break when we’re having the summer, the VBS summer program to go on my lunch break, hang out with the kids and be like, Hey, I’m still here, which you guys learn? Are you having a good time? I make time to do all of that even while at work. So yeah, I think it’s just you find out the balance for yourself and you do that work? And then I guarantee once you start doing it, like it will grow it will increase when you make the conscious decision to do that.

Paige C. Clark 53:50
Yeah, yeah. And I feel that I think like there’s there’s the people who like don’t serve at all and then there’s like the people who do serve and and then I think there’s like this, like small segment to have like people who might like us to her serving as like, a way to run from their problems like

Ryan Wiggins 54:08
oh, yeah, no, like,

Paige C. Clark 54:10
there’s also that so I like not that you’ll always want to serve but like also just like, do a heart check of like doing this like why are you doing this? Like are you doing this to be obedient to God and like, what He has called in your life? Are you running away from an argument with your spouse? Oh, yeah.

Ryan Wiggins 54:29
Ministry is your is your household. 100 right. That is your first ministry. If you don’t know that, then you. You need to not serve and sit down and learn learn a couple of things before you jump into that because I agree 100% Like you don’t want to use you don’t want to use God as a way to escape something else. And I’m saying that as I know that sounds weird because most people turn to God during situations but I get what you’re saying. It should be a solution, not a not a crime. Ah, yeah, that should be a solution not a crutch, I think is yeah, like I said, or like

Paige C. Clark 55:03
an excuse. Or an excuse, right? Yeah, like, yeah, anyways. Yeah, well awesome. I’ve loved this conversation is definitely gone through almost all of my favorite things

Ryan Wiggins 55:18
did I miss? What did I miss? I like to talk about everything.

Paige C. Clark 55:22
My obsession with ice tea. Like we could talk about

Ryan Wiggins 55:25
ice tea was like no, no. Okay, good.

Paige C. Clark 55:31
Oh gosh, no.

Ryan Wiggins 55:32
Basic, right? No,

Paige C. Clark 55:34
it’s like, there’s so many like tannins in iced tea. It’s like are in Lipton tea. Okay, I had to admit this I drive like a half hour for good iced tea. One way one way so an hour round trip for good so then you

Ryan Wiggins 55:54
need to you need to get like a gallon or two so and then get like the 32 ounce.

Paige C. Clark 55:59
Oh, yeah, I get a big one. But so here’s the thing. It was China missed iced tea. And for the longest time they didn’t retail China miss it was only available for wholesale. But guess what? The lovely iced tea fairies came down and now they’re retailing China miss. So now I don’t have to drive an hour anymore. For iced tea.

Ryan Wiggins 56:21
You could have just ordered it online because it what I’m hearing

Paige C. Clark 56:24
No, I tried to they didn’t retail it like you couldn’t. They were like, like, unless you were like a wholesaler or like a restaurant or something. You couldn’t buy it.

Ryan Wiggins 56:33
You should have just like started a restaurant

Paige C. Clark 56:37
or the ice just for the ice. Now they retail it and so now you like I buy it online. But like now it’s like available for like a lowly peasants over here. See,

Ryan Wiggins 56:50
that was me in a red apple, Arizona. I’ve never had that. It’s it’s Arizona and apple juice is green tea and apple juice. It is phenomenal. That is phenomenal. And they did not sell that anywhere. Because so I lived in Washington and my obsession with tea came from Washington because there was like, okay, there was a corner store a chevron it was a chevron about a mile up the road. And so like in Washington, there’s nothing to do but go to the movies and get in trouble. And I got in trouble a lot. My escape from getting in trouble was going to Chevron getting an iced tea or a red apple, Arizona, and then getting back into trouble. So yeah, Arizona teas and all that good stuff was was my obsession for a minute and a half. Yeah, but yeah. Majority of it now.

Paige C. Clark 57:38
Here we go. I mean, we could have skipped over the whole Nicholas Sparks breakdown thing, but, but I’ll forgive you for that. Okay.

Ryan Wiggins 57:47
Please forgive me because I I’m sorry, you had to relive that atrocity of a movie.

Paige C. Clark 57:55
Like, the most dramatic thing in my life is probably because you saw that movie. That’s why I became so imprinted on me. Well, right, I love to finish off every episode, asking our guests What is one thing that our listeners can do to implement a faith building practice or discipline in their life?

Ryan Wiggins 58:18
So I already said you know, find a find a home church. That’s one to pray on your commute, because I know this is targeted towards Christians working nine to five, pray on your commute and start that day. Right. And, and pray when you’re headed home as well. I think a lot of people see prayer as just talking and not listening. But it’s supposed to be a conversation, right? Like, just like you would call your mom I call my mom. I’m making myself sound really sappy right now, but I call my mom every day after work. Yeah, just kind of, you know, see what she’s going with what she got going on and talk to her because I absolutely love my mom. But the same thing is with God like you can you can. I like to view prayer as like you putting the phone on speaker and when you’re before you get married or you’re like dating someone, you just want to be on the phone with them. You just like hearing them breathe and it’s really weird, but everybody does it. Yes. It’s the same thing in my head. Like when you’re when you’re praying. It’s like you set that phone on speaker and then it’s like, oh, I got something to say to you. Okay, I don’t got anything to say like this. Just sit here and watch whatever we’re watching on TV. And it’s like, Oh, hey, what are you watching? Oh, I’m watching this and it’s like, God will talk to you in those moments. And I think I think it’s super important to have that open open communication like when you can whenever you can. And I think the most people have that when they’re driving to and from work. Unless they got kids. They got to pick the kids up but even then you tell them to sit down, shut up and pray and there you go. Now you’re you’re good, too.

Paige C. Clark 59:57
So yeah, there you go. Awesome. Ryan Thank you so much for joining us. Where can people find you? Not on Facebook but anywhere else?

Ryan Wiggins 1:00:06
If you absolutely must follow me on Facebook, it’s Ryan, Elijah Wiggins on Facebook. For Instagram, it’s love X Ryan. And then on Twitter, it’s with love Ryan, I’m a rapper. So like love Ryan is kind of like my, my, my alias. And so like, love Ryan was not available everywhere, which kind of sucks. But as

Paige C. Clark 1:00:28
you go, the worst was when I married into like a basic last name and it Oh, my gosh, my maiden name is so cool. And I married into a Clark like I love my husband. I love the Clark family like is that but like my lot? My maiden name was Ferrari. Like it was your last name.

Ryan Wiggins 1:00:52
Okay, so like my wife’s maiden name is Ken to like so like, I love that because whenever whenever we were doing her, her marketing Yeah, I would tell her like you need to use Ken to like it’s like I can have you can have if I can hit bombs. You can too. It’s like it’s just super dumb. And then her dad runs a or he was a captain of ships that like fishing ships. So his his marketing was like if I can catch one you can too and I was like yes, that’s perfect. That’s amazing SEO and marketing. But Wiggins is not we’re just we’re basic so I get it I feel you.

Paige C. Clark 1:01:29
It’s the same with the Clark thank you so much Ryan for joining us and make sure you guys give him a follow on everywhere but Facebook, everywhere My face

Ryan Wiggins 1:01:39
is you have to

Transcribed by https://otter.ai