Faith filled Movie making with actor, Kevin Sorbo

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Today we're beyond excited to introduce a bona fide Hollywood legend,

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a man who has graced our screens in ways only heroes can. Kevin Sorbo.

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You've seen him as Hercules, you've cheered for him and God's not dead, but it's not just his acting

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chops that stand out. Kevin is just as mighty in his unwavering faith and commitment to living with

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purpose. He's spent decades entertaining us, while also boldly inspiring so many through his values

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and his voice. And now he's here to talk with us about storytelling, staying strong in your

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beliefs and what it really means to lead a life that's invested with purpose.

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Welcome to Invested With Purpose, making the most out of our time, talent and treasure. I'm Kara.

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And I'm Brian. And today we have with us Kevin Sorbo or as many of you may know, Hercules.

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We're just going to jump right in with it. Welcome Kevin. Thank you for joining us with

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Invested With Purpose. So Kevin, I read that you were at a Billy Graham crusade when you found

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Christ or Christ found you, we shall say. I'd love to hear just a little bit about that because

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I have such respect for Mr. Graham and there's so much that he did in all of his tours, his crusades.

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So yeah, could you tell us a little bit about that? Well, I mean, quite frankly, I've always been a

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Christian. I don't look at it as a rebirth or anything. I grew up in a Lutheran church in Minnesota,

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typical of the Scandinavian bloodline, St. John's Lutheran church. And two things happen

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that year actually when I was 13 years old, we got a new youth pastor that started this place

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called the room at our church where every Wednesday night at eight o'clock to 10 o'clock,

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it was seventh graders or 12th graders to hang out in this room with the pink ones, they pull,

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we would also read the Bible. And he was just a really cool guy because my pastor at that time,

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a much older gentleman, just really scared the hell out of me. He was just a pretty scary guy.

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And, you know, breathing was the same with this guy. So Pastor Lee was, you know, he's great with us.

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And then the Reverend Billy Graham was coming to town. It was August summer in Minnesota.

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I know people think Minnesota doesn't get warm. It gets very hot in here with just anywhere else

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in July, August. So it was a hot August night. It was a full moon. And we took about seven bus loads

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of our church to go see outside at the St. Paul Fairgrounds. And I know that Billy Graham,

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they had a lot to do. His company had like a production base up there in St. Paul,

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I think it was, and they had a big presence there. And it was 250 to 300,000 people outside.

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It was unbelievable. And it was just, I remember I was really moved by what he talked about.

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It was, I don't know, it was much moved as just being in awe of the size of the people and just

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the reaction to everything he was saying by everybody. It was like, it's just huge organism,

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you know, bodies out there. And at the end of it, he said, you know, please come up. If you want,

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we have a lot of volunteers, you want to pray, just talk, whatever, whatever's on your mind,

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you know, so for whatever reason, I was so moved to go up there. And normally at 13 years old,

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I never would have done something like that. I was a very good student. I was an A&B student,

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but I was the last guy to raise my hand. To me, it was like, why can't I just say something?

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Why would I raise my hand and ask for permission? That's one of my problems in public schools.

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That's a whole nother issue. But so I went up there and I remember my buddy, Jeff,

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said, where are you going? I said, I don't know, I got to go up there, man. I'm just,

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I'm just happy. So I went up there and I'm sitting on the grass with this guy that was probably 35

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years old. So he's really old for me when I was 13. And all of a sudden, the hand went on my head.

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I turned up and looked over my shoulder and it was a Reverend Billy Graham. And the moon was right

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behind his head. So I could raise a moon being coming up. I heard the choir music going and

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everything. And all I could think of, I just saw all those photos I've seen ever since paintings

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of Jesus where they all have this glow coming off of it. And we started talking and we talked a little

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bit about sports, about school. He spent about three, four minutes with me and he said a quick

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prayer. His body guards with him, of course. He's got it. There's a lot of wackos out there, right?

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And so it had a huge impact on me in terms of just meeting him. I told this for years ago to

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Franklin. And after I told that story, I was on the Larry King show. And I get a call from Chicken

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Soup with the Soul and I said, look, we're doing a hardcover book for the life of Billy Graham.

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101 people who've met and been touched by him. And they asked me to tell my story in it. And then

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I was very flattered by that, of course. And the Reverend, he loved it. At that point, I've already

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been doing my, you know, my faith based movies and stuff. So he was well aware of who I was.

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And they asked, I would do the publicity and fly around in the planes to do the

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publicity on the release of the book. So it was quite an honor to be able to do something like that.

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It's amazing. Yeah, Billy Graham is just such a hero of the faith. It's just incredible to hear

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the stories that are still, that people he came in contact with, you know, years ago. And I know

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at the same time, you also, you know, of course, read a lot about you, you decided or felt that

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you were going to be an actor at a very young age. Can you tell us a little bit about that as well?

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Like how did that come about? There was a, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis is very famous.

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Anybody in the Broadway world knows of the Guthrie Theater. A lot of Broadway actors start there,

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or they go out there to do performances. It's an amazing theater. A lot of people don't realize that

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there's more theaters per capita in Minneapolis, St. Paul's, than there's on Broadway. There's a lot.

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I didn't know that. They really invested in the culture, the arts, the cultural arts and everything.

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So in fifth grade, we took a field trip to the Guthrie to see the Merchant of Venice.

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And it was Shakespeare. I was 11. I didn't know what the heck they were saying because I was 11.

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And it was Shakespeare. It's Shakespeare. And I was put up to memorize. On the way home,

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my mom was a chaperone on our bus. And I sit next to my mom. She said, what do you think? And I said,

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no, mom, I'm going to be an actor. And she gave me that loving of mom, Pat on the thigh. That's nice,

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dear. So you're going to make a living doing this. But the seat isn't set. But the dichotomy of that,

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I'm sure it probably still exists today, which is kind of sad in a way. But I was like, okay,

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I got to be cool about this because I'm also a jock. And as a jock, you don't do any of this kind

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of thing. Those two things don't mix. You know, I was a drama class. I was a football back home

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baseball guy. And so I really didn't start. I was a closet test man, I should say. And it wasn't

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that I got to college that I had a double business major, but I started fooling around acting classes

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and stuff like that. And I signed an agent Minneapolis. A lot of people won't realize

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Minneapolis is home to a lot of big national headquarters or Best Buy Target. Got three Pillsbury,

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General Mills, I mean, this goes on and on. So I started doing a lot of commercials. I signed with

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an agent, an acting and modeling agency and started doing a lot of stuff. And I got my all

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important screen actually the guilt card. So when I did move to LA, I already had a commercial agent

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because I really had a good tape already like 15 commercials under my belt. So that was never a

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problem getting an agent out there. But I do, I do remember my old agent at the time told me,

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I have to go to New York. You have to do Broadway become famous. And I said, how many places Tom

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Cruise got? We can't, we can't do this without mentioning Hercules. Right. I mean, that's really

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what, what, what springs us into your, your, your launch to the world, right? Is Hercules.

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Did you know when you, when you were first starting in Hercules that it was going to be as big as what

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it ended up being, that it puts you on the map? Did you have any inclination? I had good feelings

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about what was going on with my career at that point. I know that, you know, God bless me in a

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lot of different ways. I never had to work on the job when I was out there. I worked very well

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commercially. I was getting guestpots and murders she wrote on a commission, cheers. I was getting

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spots. Things were starting to happen. And I also noticed that now when I got a call from

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audition to go to Universal or Paramount or wherever it may be, I was all of a sudden getting better

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parking spots. I didn't have to park. Well, the other actions were seven blocks away in March and,

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you know, big to get in. And I said, okay, things are starting to happen. Then did a couple pilots.

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I got leads in a couple of pilots, one through CBS, one through ABC. They didn't get picked up. And I

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took comfort in the knowing that fact that Tom Selekt had seven leads and pilots before he got

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Magma. Part of the routine. But things were starting to happen. When I got the series on Hercules,

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it was initially going to be just five two-hour movies. And they auditioned 2800 actors in North

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America as a role. I had seven callbacks on that. And when I got it, it was going to be five two-hour

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movies. The kicker for me, the biggest thrill for me, well, number one, we shot New Zealand, but

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more than number one, I got a whole year with Anthony Quinn. And I know a lot of younger people,

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I don't know Anthony Quinn is, but he was one of the bigger stars back in the golden age, back in

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the 40s and 50s and 60s. And the kids stories of guns and navarins, Orbo the Greek, Lawrence the

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Arabian, I mean, all the amazing movies he was in and become very good friends of the mountain,

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passed away nine years later. It was during the middle of, we, it was five tour movies.

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In the third movie, I, it just hit me and I called my agent and I said, I bet you they make this a

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series. And I said, why is it because there's nothing else like on TV at this time. Nothing like it.

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And sure enough, Universal called back about a month after that and said, you're staying down there.

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And by season three, we became the most watched TV show in the world. We were 176 countries.

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Yeah, that's just remarkable. Yeah. It was amazing. It was a blessing to be part of that. I did it for

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seven years. It was, it was great. Was there challenges in that as far as like, I mean, this

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is getting nuanced a little bit, but you know, just staying in a certain shape you had to stay in,

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did you have to stay on a certain diet? I mean, you had to obviously have a look to be Hercules

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the whole time. Well, you know, initially when they called me for the first audition, I kind of went,

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I'm in good shape. I'm six, I'm six, three, I was 225 pounds that worked out all the time. I lived

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right in the Santa Monica Venice border. I was at Gold's gym at least six times a week. I was

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rollerblading, biking all the way down Manhattan Beach and back every day. I mean, I was in great

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shape. And it was another way to defend off the frustrations of how they work out my aggressions

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that way. And I, you know, it, it was long hours. There's no question. A lot of days for me,

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probably 16 to 17 hours a day, door to door includes drive time on the set, lifting weights and

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getting out back home. I maybe average four hours of sleep a night because every night after getting

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home after working out, I'd have to memorize another eight to 10 pages of dialogues for the next

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day. So it was, it was a workout, but I'm not complaining. I had a blast on it. It was,

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and you managed to fall in love and get married with one of your co-stars. Yes, I did. We love

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Santa Monica. She was great. I did. She came, she came down. I'm very first day on the set. I

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looked and I said, how are we going to make this work, Sam? She looked at me over the top and I'm

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like, well, I'm in New Zealand and we got a water hazard. We call it Pacific Ocean. We

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turn off you and I lost Angeles and she goes, Kevin, I don't date actors. I wore her down.

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Famous last words. That's how we do it as men. You got to wear them down. You know, I have heard

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you speak before. I have gone to a Christian film festival here in Orlando where you spoke.

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And you had said that you were one of the first to be canceled before it was cool to be canceled.

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Can you tell us a little bit about that? Because when I think of, you know, Christian actors,

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producers, directors that are invested with purpose, you are at the top of that list

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because of everything that you have stood for in the face of persecution.

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You know, I was very fortunate. I think I was one of the first actors to really do

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more quality Christian movies than Christian movies. I also had kind of a get a horrible

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script, horrible acting. My first really unapologetically faith based movie was called What If.

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And I've done over 90 movies and What If in my book is my top three movies of all time. I think

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it's a wonderful movie. I told Dallas Jenkins directed it. He's doing a little thing about the

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chosen right now. Yeah, that little thing. He directed that movie and we shot it in Michigan.

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Same writers that did God's Not Dead a couple of years later was obviously it was a huge shit.

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What if it's better? That's in trouble with independent movies. How do you get them out there?

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You don't have a hundred million dollar advertising budget like they do for these

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three hundred million dollar Avatar movies. So we got to rely on Word of mouth and God's

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not dead. Got that Word of mouth. But What If is even better? But that really opened the door for me.

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And obviously mix that with social media and everything the growth of it. I've always been

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vocal but not in negative way where I stand conservatively and where I stand as a Christian.

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And my manager and agent 10 years ago called me and said we can't work with you anymore.

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I thought studios don't want to hire you. I'm going, why? What's going on? And they said, well,

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the things you're posting. I said, you mean the truth? Having trouble with the truth?

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And sure enough. And then, you know, obviously I'll know it's accelerated over the last six,

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seven years. Tremendous. Got insane. And now everything that I said, I can even bring up

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COVID. Everything I said about COVID ended up being true. And I actually posted on X not too long.

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I said, I need more conspiracy theories because all mine keep coming true. So,

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because there's going to be no apologies from all those people. Of course, that went after me and all

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these CNN and all these bozos. That just as you know, they slide every single day. And, you know,

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but yeah, I'm the first guy. I get actors last six, seven years. I get actors, not as active

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directors, camera guys, makeup people. They come up to me in a set individually,

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whispering like it's a drug deal. And they thank me for being a voice for them. And I said,

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be a voice for yourself. Because there's the biggest problem. I said, if we don't stand together

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and start getting more vocal about it. I said, then this stuff will not be as damaging as it is.

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And it is getting better. I think more and more people aren't waking up now and come out. So,

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I love the voices like a John Voigt coming out there and Neil MacDonald and

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those people are speaking up more and more and more. And we got to not be afraid.

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You know, fear is the government's favorite weapon. I tell, we got to wake up the lions,

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the sheep are in the sheep. Let's wake up the lions because we got a battle on our hands

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that Hollywood is winning that culture battle. But I'm going to keep making these journeys I'm

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doing to fight back as best that I can. So, what is your advice right now to a young,

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aspiring actor starting out in Hollywood that doesn't want to lose their soul in the pursuit

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of fame or success? What is your best advice to them? Well, I think it's easy to do. I always

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tell people to take acting classes. You don't have to go to college to be an actor. But I know

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there's wonderful drama, the things, you know, minors and drama, majors and drama, whatever.

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But there's, I think there's better coaches in LA or New York or something to learn the craft and,

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you know, keep up there and get some practice with it. I always encourage the guy getting a

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commercial agent. But we see how the commercial world has changed so much too. So, I probably

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wouldn't work at all in commercials right in today's world because I'm a white person.

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And I say that with this ridiculousness because I think the third highest guy in Disney,

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they caught him on tape and he got interviewed. He thought it was just interviewed by the woman

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who had a hidden camera going. And he said, and he said, look, we are told not to hire any

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straight white men anymore in Disney. And you're going, this is, it is so crazy. And you look at

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racism in a way, you know, it's not a one-way street. And it's just, it's not what we're doing

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to people right now. It's crazy. It's insanity. But I tell these young kids, they say, get a

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commercial agent, get yourself out there, put miles on a funny camera, anyway you can, do independent

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films. There's so many good Christian production companies out there. Not only the Sorbitur Studios,

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but you got the Irwin Brothers, you got the Kendricks, you got more and more people jumping on

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board. There was Sony Affirm, they moved on, they sold some GAC or whatever it's called, I can't

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remember, but I think they're there. But, you know, they're getting bigger and better. You're

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getting more actors. I want to get involved. We have more people on the other side of the camera.

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I get to Sorbo Studios, I recommend people go to sorbostudios.com and sign up all the time.

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And we got a lot of good things coming on the pipeline with that as well. And by the way,

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since it is Christmas, I know that post Christmas going on, I don't know. But you get this wonderful

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devotional book my wife and I wrote together and you get that by going to sorbostudios.com as well.

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We got a lot of good things on it from my books, my white books. Please sign up, we keep up the date.

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I've got four movies coming out next year in post production right now. Three documentaries coming out.

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You just had the firing squad come out in 2024 with Cuba Gooding, Jr. The firing squad, which just

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came out in 2024, which the message for this week, especially being Thanksgiving, is so apt

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because I just watched it. And I've, for anybody who hasn't seen it, it's about a group of gentlemen

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that are in an Indonesian prison and, you know, their faith story, basically. But it just is a

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reminder of the gratitude that we should have. And so tell us a little bit about which movie was

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it that you had spoken of? Oh, Elijah Peel. They just, yeah, just wrapping up here. Anything?

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Elijah Peel, we'll talk more hopefully by next year later. It's, you much, I'm going to say

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quickly on firing squad, that's a true true story. My character was an American kid over there when

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he was in 20s, killed a man, got life in prison, a lot of his imprisonment became a pastor. And he

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saved a lot of people's lives. He was actually ex-cuted in 2015. So it's not that long ago.

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Cuba Gooding Jr. is great in it as he marches out singing amazing grays. And it's just a wonderful

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moment. And Elijah Peel is a, I played the manager to, I guess, comparing the Justin Bieber or

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something like that. Justin Bieber doesn't have a drug problem, but he's famous like Justin Bieber

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or Justin Timberlake. And he is just lives a very, very typical rock and roll lifestyle with too

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much drugs, too much women, too much booze, too much everything. And he actually flat lines on stage.

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Justin Bieber Wow. And while he's in the hospital, he gets lucky and necessitated.

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While he's in the hospital, a semi-alcoholic girl peaks in on that, Sarah with leukemia,

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and she's going to treatment. And she walks in and starts telling them about Jesus and about God.

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And it's a very touching story. And it's, I don't know what's going to come up, but it was a cool

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movie to be part of.

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Justin Bieber And the common, the common thread through all these movies, and it's something

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I think like it's not just Christians, it's just people to just want an uplifting story

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with a, an ending that gives you something of a crescendo where there's hope, there's optimism.

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And yeah, I mean, that's what it is. I don't want to see a depressing sour movie. I mean,

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unless I'm really,

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Justin Bieber And that's all they want to do. That's all how we want to do.

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Justin Bieber You hit the key, I got two key words. You hit one hope. People are looking for hope

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and people are looking for redemption. I mean, you know, Jesus, God always have redemption on

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the table except who want to actually go for it. So I like the movies, I call them actors movies,

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where characters that people know about or can relate to, they walk on a movie and think about

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it. You don't think about it walking out of when you see Deadpool or an avatar or a partially

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caring, they're fun.

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Justin Bieber Right, they're fun. Most of the time.

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Justin Bieber Is it a tutorial in Russian that it's over?

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Justin Bieber It's not, it's not like you, boy, that character really touched me this way,

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that way. It's just fun. And I get it, why people want to go there. I enjoy them as well.

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But I like movies as an actor that make you think you can relate to that person and has

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the message that has hope in there because right now, our world's insane. And I'm so happy that

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President Trump, Trump got back in the office again. I see him quite often living out here

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in Florida as well. I've been to Mar-a-Lago a number of times. I've golfed with him before.

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And I really think that a lot of wonderful things are going to happen over the next four years.

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Justin Bieber We just got to know who can drive the ball farther.

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Are you allowed to tell us?

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And Kevin, I love how you brought up the raising the bar in Hollywood for Christian movies. And

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here at Timothy Plan, we have an anti-family entertainment screen. It's very near and dear to

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us that we do not own companies that would produce stuff like you've talked about with Deadpool and

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some of the other stuff that I wouldn't take my kids to go see. So we're very happy to hear the

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elevation in faith-based movies. Go back a little bit in your career. Back when you were doing more

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secular stuff, you said years ago you had a health issue where you had blood clots and basically,

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I mean, it could have all been over. Like, I don't know if any of this would have happened.

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Can you tell us a little bit about that scare and how that sure brought you closer to God?

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Justin Bieber I was doing most of my own stunts because I liked it. The athlete in me,

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we rehearsed fight scenes every day. We shot two or three every episode. So even on days we weren't

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filming fight scenes, I would, you know, I'd block the scene, they'd go light it and I got 30

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minutes over here with the stunt guys to work on the fights because most of them I'd have

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fight four guys, eight guys, 12 guys. So it's like a dance choreograph.

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Justin Bieber You're hercules.

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Justin Bieber But I started in Proud of where I left off with Pimpic was going out with it.

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When I came back home to LA, they found a lump up here where my left side is clavicle.

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And it was weird. I was doing publicity for my latest movie called Call of Conqueror called

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The Fathered Conan, the Barbarian. So Arnold played Conan and even though he's older than me,

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I'm apparently his father. But I was, I went to my chiropractor before they're going to buy

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up some of this lump they found up here. And a voice in my head said, don't let them crack your neck.

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And I was getting warned by God, I know I was and I didn't pay attention. And the chiropractor

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who's never cracked my neck, I let my neck actually, somebody's been cracked my neck that day.

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And I sat up and wanted to do that, you know, because I never liked it. Even a new chiropractor,

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I'll say, crack anything but leave the neck alone. He cracked it, which is weird. Well,

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they ended up being an aneurysm. They've been spitting blood, blood pasta down. But that cracked

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that way. On neurology is called retrograde slow and sent a series of clocks into my brain. It took

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me four months to learn how to walk and balancing it took me three years before we covered my silver

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10% loss of vision in both eyes. And but it was it was a long recovery for me. It's pretty tough.

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But I think that, you know, my fiance at the time, before we got married, Sam, was very strong,

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you know, for me. And my faith is strong for me. And I wrestled got a little bit. I was pretty

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angry. My career was really starting to fly. But you know, it's, I wrote a book, I wrote a book

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on the show right here. Yes, it's called Choose Strength, My Journey from Hercules, The Mermortal,

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and I'm Nearly Dying Saved My Life. Didn't want to write the book, my wife made me write it.

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And it's been a godsend since it came out 12, 13 years ago. And all of a sudden, I'm doing

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since then, I'm doing 12 to 15 speaking events a year, motivational speaking, health speaking,

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whatever it is, because we really, we all hit roadblocks in life. God never prompts anybody

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in easy life in this world. So how do you react to those roadblocks? You can blame the world

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friends family God, but the reality is you got to look in the mirror and say, okay, what am I

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going to do because Sam always said whenever I get down, Kevin, it happened. What do you do about

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it? And it just, it was motivation for me to fight back and get my health back. Well, you,

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I mean, you're speaking to the importance that I feel like I held out when I was younger and

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trying to find a wife and wanting to make sure I found a Christian woman. And I tell my son this

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all the time, he's 15. I'm like, you have to understand the importance of being equally yoked

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in your marriage and how much that matters to you because now you're both in your own ways,

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advocates for Christians and film and homeschooling and so many different areas.

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You know, how do you, how do you all balance all this? It's crazy. I mean, homeschooling helped

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a lot because once Hollywood kicked me out, I just got involved in the, you know, two sort of studios,

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but also other independent movie people came to me and say, Hey, we want to work with you.

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And so I would travel a lot while Sam would just travel with me with the kids. So they're

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always with the other, which is great. And Sam's so busy with homeschooling stuff. She's, I think

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she's wrote her fifth book on things right now. She's kind of ward up in Washington, DC, for her

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work in the homeschooling world. And we just said, speaking of that together in Milwaukee as well.

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So it's, you may get work, I still have a very, I'm a very driven person. I've always been that way.

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And I think a lot of those have been filled by my, my parents. They were, they grew up on farms

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in Iowa. They didn't have any money with there. They grew up just tough and strong and taught all

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five of the kids of my family and the fourth to five kids that you work hard. You don't expect

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handouts, you know, be part, they were JFK Democrats, you know, ask not what your country can do for

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you, but what you can do for their country. They're no Democrats that talk the way they JFK would

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be a conservative today. All they got to do is listen to this 1960 inauguration speech. It's

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pretty, pretty blatant. That's half the Republicans don't talk to that way. So it's, we live in a

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world now that is quite different than what my, what I grew up in. So we're quickened from our

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parents grew up in the 30s and 40s and 50s. Well, you are surely invested with purpose. So we thank

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you so much for being on the show today, Kevin. We value you. We value the work that's being done

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through your family, through your children, as well as your wife. We're watching from afar and

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admiring. So it's great to have you on the show. Thank you for joining us on invested with purpose,

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making the most out of our time, talent and treasure. Thank you. God bless you guys. Thank you.

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Invested with purpose is brought to you by Timothy Partners Limited, advisor to the Timothy Plan funds.

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Timothy Plan is a family of biblically responsible mutual funds and ETFs. For more information,

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please visit Timothy Plan's website at www.timothyplan.com. Some of our podcast guests may have a

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partnerships or sponsorships. However, guests are not compensated for their appearances and their

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opinions do not constitute paid testimonials. Please be aware that investments carry risks and

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