Beyond Remarkable: A Story of Resilience and Fearless Faith - Mary Grothe

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, uncommon leaders, welcome back. This is the Uncommon Leader podcast and I'm your host, john Gallagher. Today I've got an incredibly inspiring guest, mary growthy. Mary's an international speaker and author of destination remarkable. Overcoming the dark side of success, mary's journey is one of resilience, transformation and the power of faith in leadership. From overcoming a challenging childhood marked by financial hardship to becoming a top sales rep at a fortune 1000 company, mary's life is a testament to the strength of the human spirit. But Mary's success isn't just a tale of professional triumph. It's a story deeply intertwined with personal struggles and ultimate redemption. After battling unhealed wounds and addictions, mary found her faith at age 29, which catalyzed a significant transformation in both her personal and professional life. Mary doesn't shy away from her past, but uses her testimony to inspire and mentor others. Her story is not just one of survival, but of creating a remarkable legacy grounded in fearless faith, which just happens to be the name of the her new radio show. So stay tuned as we dive into the powerful narrative of Mary growthy and uncover new tools and mindset that define an uncommon leader. Let's get started. Mary growthy, welcome to the Uncommon Leader podcast. It's great to have you on the show. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2: 1:19

Thank you so much for having me. Today's been a good day so far. We happen to be recording on a Monday and you know Mondays can be hit or miss, but today's been a good Monday.

Speaker 1: 1:29

I always love Mondays cause they come. They come to an end at some point in time as well, and we drive, we dive into Tuesday, but that's good. Well, I'm glad to have you on here and I know our conversation is going to be great today as we talk about your new book and many other things, mary, where you're going, which is even more powerful. So, but I will start you off just like I started all my first time guests, and that's to ask you the question to tell me a story from your childhood that that still impacts you in some way as a person or as a leader today.

Speaker 2: 1:55

Wow, Well, anybody who's read my book knows there's probably 20 of those stories from my childhood that have impacted me and one that I think had created the biggest inflection point for me was when I was 14 years old. My parents were owners of a performing art school in Northwest Indiana. We had a really unique lifestyle. My dad was an opera singer and an actor he's been in a bunch of movies and my mom was a classical pianist, a choral director. I grew up on the stage. I've been on the stage since I was three. I was being trained classically trained as a dancer, a pianist, a singer. I was singing opera with my dad. By the time I was nine, I had a really interesting upbringing and a really unique way of life. It was everything and the only thing that I knew. My parents unfortunately had a lot of demons and vices and didn't do a great job running that business. Toward the end there and when I was 14, they had been in some pretty significant financial hardship and it caused them to make some really poor decisions. As far as taking money from the community is stealing from fundraiser, they were doing that. They ended up not being able to pay back. We were in a pretty rough financial situation and I didn't know. By the time I was 14, with very little window of notice, we were told that we were losing everything the business, the house, our possessions. We had a red and white tent put in our backyard like a big giant red and white tent. Of course I was 14. I was little so maybe it was not as big as my mind recalls, but big enough to display all of our heirlooms and personal items. Anything of value was auctioned off. The bank was taking our house, and I had only ever known the life I had up until that point, and I grew up in Northwest Indiana the Midwest is so different from where I live here in Colorado and it was a shocking moment to face the realization that my life would never be the same. My dog was going to get ripped out from underneath my feet. Life as I knew it would soon be forever changed, and we packed into a moving van with really just our clothes and the personal belongings that didn't have enough value to be auctioned off underneath that tent, and we drove to Colorado, somewhere that my parents had fallen in love with earlier in their life, and they were out here for a convention and I left everything my sisters, my nieces and nephews, my friends and I had to start over, and it was culture shock to my system. At 14 years old, my parents also had to admit that they had no money and they had lost everything, to the point of filing for bankruptcy and avoiding potential lawsuits, legal action. They took a minimum wage jobs and my brother and I were forced to support ourselves. So that summer that was 1998. That summer forever changed the trajectory of my life and it impacts me today, I think, getting through that and going into survivalist mode and becoming such an independent young woman and supporting myself fully while I was in high school. I do have that tendency today, when the rug gets pulled out from underneath me, when difficult things happen in business or in my personal life, I fall back often to the resiliency that I built during that period of my life and I'm grateful for it in an odd way, because I have high capacity for change, I'm fearless, I'm a risk taker and I don't have concerns that I'm not going to be okay. I firmly believe if I can make it through that and some of the other things I've dealt with in my life, I can certainly face what is in front of me today Wow.

Speaker 1: 5:47

I appreciate you sharing that, mary. The level of disruption that has to cause I mean, it's not a story that's easy to overcome, I'm sure, but again, how it drives you today is really powerful and that's what many of the stories that we hear on the first time, that these are the overcomers, and the experiences that they have, but yours clearly very unique. And you're right. Your book talks about that in terms of some of those changes, and it also talks about the positive side of where you went. So your journey from a challenging childhood to becoming a successful sales person early in your career was a big change. Was there a moment inside of that where you were able to A pivot over to that successful mindset? And it could have been just, you know, ultimately the survival mode, as you said, but something different that ultimately may have created your sales talent that you had at a young age.

Speaker 2: 6:48

A few things contributed to it. One when I got that job at that Fortune 1000 payroll and HR company, I was coming off the heels of four of the darkest years of my life, professions and activities and relationships that I'm not proud of. But through God's good grace, even though I didn't know him at the time, I survived it. I should have ended up dead or in jail but I did not, and I could feel the fire inside of me saying I was destined for something far greater than what I was doing with my life. I was married to my abusive ex-husband and I was not living a very good life. But I saw an ad on a newspaper for the sales admin job and I jumped at the chance to interview, even though my ex-husband did not want me interviewing for it. But I did and, against my soon to be new sales manager's best judgment, he offered me the position. I thought you have to be crazy. I have no experience, no college degree, and why would you even hire me for this role? But he did and put me on the fast track to changing my life forever. I studied very hard. I went back. Well, the company I worked for had a tuition reimbursement program, so they paid for the majority of my college education. But as I jumped into two years as an admin, I started to see people around me. We were actually the number one sales team in the country. I was just in an admin role at the time, but I supported the number one sales team in the country. I saw good salespeople day in and day out. You know back when people worked in an office, I listened to them tell the market. I watched how they were managing the relationships with their customers. It was outside sales. I'd see them prep in the morning, leave, come back, coming back with paperwork, celebrating the wins. And the most transformative activity that I did was file a commission report. And I saw that these reps were making more and sometimes in a month than I made in a year. And I asked my manager how do I get that? And he started to mentor me. I started to take advantage of some outside education, like Dale Carnegie courses, and also learned from Brian Tracy's psychology of selling. But I saw a ticket out of the life that I was living. I saw a chance to change my life forever. I got promoted into sales at 24 years old, so two years into being a sales admin, and I became the number one rep in 30 days. My quote of my first year was 150,000. I sold 758,000 the first year. I became this anomaly inside of the organization that was heavily called upon to coach, train, mentor, share. How in the world did I do that? What was difficult for me at the time that I see now, that I couldn't see back then, is my upbringing, especially from age 14 to 22, was disastrous and so dependent on me being a survivalist. This was my ticket out of that life and when I saw that I actually had enough talent and drive to do it, it became addicting. I grew up as a child of an alcoholic parent. I've battled with my own addictions in my life and this was just one of those things that I could get the quick hit of success over and over and over again. Additionally, I had a lot of unhealed wounds. One of those biggest wounds as a child of an alcoholic parent is that I was always in trouble, never good enough, always put down verbally, laughed at. I was a young get the four and I was always laughed at. In fact, I was called very inappropriate names that a child should or anyone should ever be called. I finally found something I was really good at and people liked me. In fact, they looked up to me, they commended me, applauded me. My name was on trophies and crystal and I was making so much money, which then that money bought me even more friends because I could pay for their vacations and buy rounds at the bar. This was a vicious, terrible cycle of success. To the world it looked like I had absolutely everything. I was winning. I was so impressive to so many people but I was still broken on the inside. But it was such a quick hit drug and this feels so good. A lot of people have asked me this and I have spoken on what it takes to be a number one sales rep. Undeniably I was a very talented sales person disciplined, organized, thoughtful, strategic, major hustle and grind. I did the work. Nothing was handed to me, but it's what fueled that. That gave me the energy to pursue it and the relentless pursuit of doing it until I pretty much passed out. And the not so nice behaviors of steam rolling over others and being kind of a monster and competitive in order to get the hit, the high or the win. It is interesting to look back at that period and time and say yes, I did it and to the world standards it was wildly successful. It looks great on paper. It really helped me when I started a sales consultancy business to tell this story. I mean, people definitely wanted to hire me but the truth of it is it's not able. Not all sellers can replicate what I had, because that inner desire to change your life, succeed, survive, and then also the dark side of that, which was truly that, the sales success was a drug for me and if you don't have that addiction and your personality and that codependence on that hit that high and the addictive personality, then you may not be able to experience it at the levels that I did.

Speaker 1: 12:40

Hey listeners, I wanna take a quick moment to share something special with you. Many of the topics and discussions we have on this podcast are areas where I provide coaching and consulting services for individuals and organizations. If you've been inspired by our conversation, that are seeking a catalyst for change in your own life or within your team, I invite you to visit coachjohngallaghercom forward slash free call to sign up for a free coaching call with me. It's an opportunity for us to connect, discuss your unique challenges and explore how coaching or consulting can benefit you and your team. Okay, let's get back to the show. All right, there's so much there. I mean, what came to my mind as you got to the end of that is, whether it's a facade or not, that the success doesn't equal fulfillment. I had just had a conversation with some folks at church this past weekend about the life of emojis that we live and how we can tell our common emojis the thumbs up, the smiling, the smile our common emojis, the thumbs up, the smiling, the laugh out loud, all those different emojis that are there, and oftentimes people put those out front, but it's really what's behind that emoji that they're not telling us as well with regards to what's there. So there's a piece of that hidden emoji as I'm listening in. There's the success that you were in the money bag emoji that was there, and the hands up with winning and the trophies that are all existing on emojis, and there's the cracked heart that exists inside of that emoji and the crying emoji that exists behind it that you may or may not have. One not had access to emojis that many years ago, back in 2004, but really, that cover up that was there, and I wanna get there. I do wanna dig just a little bit, going from the sales admin into the successful sales role. Look, what you said was you studied very hard, you sought out good salespeople. You went to classes Dale Carnegie, brian Tracy Like. How did you know then, though, to do that when you started out as a sales admin? You're going through the rough life. What was it that said? I need to go seek these people out and make it happen.

Speaker 2: 14:55

My sales manager. I owe him all of this. He was one of the best mentors I've ever had in my life. He saw so much potential in me, potential I didn't even know existed. He looked at me through loving and caring eyes that I'd never seen from my parents or siblings or really anyone in my life. I had never been believed in, invested in, guided and mentored like I was ever in my life. And still to this day I have never been. That sales manager played an extremely special role in my life and forever changed the trajectory. He saw potential and I gotta tell you, just side note, I've been on a forever path of pay it forward. There are so many people through my tenure as a leader now that I see similar look in their eyes. Forget it if it's on the resume or not. I can see potential in people and I want to invest in them. I want to take them down that same path. Now I think my former sales manager is 10 times the mentor that I am. I'm learning, I'm growing as a leader and figuring out how to do that, but it is within my heart to absolutely extend my hand out and find that person that is just looking to be given a shot and get them a seat and give them access so that they can grow and develop and let's unlock it and see what they can do and guide them through that journey. And I have been so fortunate to have had several budding professionals come into my life and I have seen them move on to some of the most extraordinary opportunities and careers. And I smile back and say I got to do for that person what was done for me and it's one of the most joyous experiences. But I would not have known. Well, I would never. I didn't know what Dale Carnegie was. I didn't know what any of that was. I had never been a part of any professional environment, let alone specific to sales. I didn't know what sales was, and it was through his guidance that I got put on that track.

Speaker 1: 16:56

Love that. I want to put a pin in that mentor statement here for one minute. We're going to come back to it. I want to move into a little bit more about your book that's out there Destination Remarkable Surviving the Dark Side of Success. Now I'm going to read this. I had this description on Amazon that I thought was frankly a little bit funny, but obviously fascinating. This is not an ordinary business book or an ordinary autobiography. It's not merely a roller coaster either, but an entire theme park full of emotion in terms of emotions that was going there Of being a daughter, a partner, a wife, a mother, a Christian, a founder and a CEO. So your book highlights the theme of finding faith in the role that it plays in your life, I mean in terms of what's there. You see, that story Can you share, if you will, that maybe that moment you recommended, even through that you had not really talked about yet, that you knew that your faith was as powerful as it needed to be. But when was it that you in essence found Jesus in your work and how has it impacted both your personal and professional life?

Speaker 2: 18:08

Well, it didn't happen until I was 29 years old and if you haven't picked up on it yet, I'm quite a stubborn young lady and I'm very type A. I'm a survivalist, I'm very independent and I was very strong headed. I mean, I still am, but at a whole different level. I thought I knew everything, as many 20 or mid 20 year olds do, especially if they're successful in their career. But I left my successful payroll sales job. I went to go work for one of my clients who was an accounting firm. They did actually all back office services for small businesses and they were taking the payroll solution that I was selling. They were adding that into their lineup. That's how they were my client. But I took a big title for a young lady. I was a VP of sales and marketing. It was my first chance to establish myself in my career outside of the payroll company and we had tremendous success Small company, 125, like startup, 125,000 annual revenue. We three of us, three founders there are three executives pardon me, it was me and one of the founders and another employee and we took this company, took the building blocks, rebuilt it, took it to market and we quadrupled the size of this firm in seven months, positioned them to take on capital. I fell in love with that kind of work and I started my first company. I acted as a business strategist. I was 28 years old. I was working with entrepreneurs and startups to help them build a business plan and give them that line of sight into profitability. It was an unbelievable ride for me to wear that CEO hat founder CEO hat at 28 years old. Yet again, another thing that the world told me if I do this and I'm successful with this, then I really am somebody, aren't I, john? Well, I did that for a year and, yes, I was successful and I had a lot of clients and those clients were successful and I was really proud of myself for what I had accomplished. I was experiencing extreme turmoil with my family and working through some of the end stages of those of that relationship. I had terrible personal relationships that I was facing. I was also facing a bottle of wine every night or two or three martinis until I would pass out. It was a very destructive lifestyle, but to everyone on the outside I just looked so successful and it was really a conflicting message. On the inside, I couldn't possibly understand how I got all this press and praise, but I hated myself and I hated the darkness that was inside of me and the unhealed wounds. I carried a lot of shame and guilt for some of the decisions that I made earlier in my life. I was still being torn down and manipulated through toxic behaviors, through my alcoholic mother, and one day, on a fateful night May 25th 2012, I did my normal habits. I had a great week, great month at work. I went out to celebrate and I had won too many and I drove home and I drove my car into my neighbor's front porch. I got to spend the night in jail and working through my concussion and facing this dark reality that my life is going to change. It was through that process that the alcohol was taken from my house. I entered into a period of sobriety and I got counseling for the first time in my life. And that counselor I'm so grateful for her. She was a sweet old lady and bless her heart and make being responsible for a whole bunch of alcoholics and DUIs in a room. And this woman with grace was so amazing and helped me get to the root of so many issues and wounds that I had. That I just never understood. And we started to unpack them one by one, one by one, and I'm on this journey of being sober and I'm still having challenges in my life. I'm still making mistakes, professionally and personally, and I'm confused still. I'm like but I got rid of the alcohol and I'm in therapy and I'm healing wounds, and why am I still not healed? Why is this still not working for me? And I felt so broken on the inside still. And finally, one day, on Christmas morning, I had enough and the book goes into way more detail on this but I went to my friend's house who was a former pastor and I'm just crying. It helped me. There has to be something more to life than this. I'm out of options. I've exhausted it all. He opened the Bible and we started from page one in Genesis and we started reading and he helped me understand everything. And I went to church that following weekend and they're singing the worship music and I'm looking at the words up on the screen and it's just so boring to me and they're singing about love and they're singing about this love of the Father and I am so stunned and so confused, like that's not the love I know. I don't believe that that exists. That's not what I've ever experienced. It's not what I know, and I just kept immersing myself in it and immersing myself in the word and going to church and making new friends there through the church and listening to people and I'm seeing so much peace in their lives and enjoying their lives. And I'm thinking to myself but I can't just be that simple, I can't right Like it. Shouldn't life be hard? My life's been hard because then when you win, it feels like you earned it, you deserved it, and I'm thinking it can't love. Something like this just can't be so freely given. It seemed impossible to me and the more I kept diving in and learning, I'm like but it is, and everyone is saying that it is, and I finally took that step and I surrendered it all and I just finally gave up and I welcomed Jesus into my life. And it's still to this day. It was 11 years ago. It's just to this day like. So much trauma, so many wounds, so many bad decisions in my life, so much shame, so much guilt, so much hardship and it's gone. It's just gone and I can. It's so supernatural. I don't know how to explain it, but believers know and Christians know. And I got an opportunity to not only clean up my life and be restored, but Christ redeems, and restoration and redemption are different, and he restored everything good in my life, but I got to experience pure redemption. He gave me an opportunity to relive my 20s and my 30s, this time as a saved woman. I got the same payroll sales career that I had before, and then I left again to go start a company very similar to the first one that I started, but also during that time he gave me the greatest gift that has ever been given to me, which is my husband and no-transcript. Everything changed. I still got to be a top 10 rep. I still got to sell millions of dollars, but this time as a woman who embodied the love and light of Christ and got to be the hands and feet of Jesus through my work. I got to start a second company, which I scaled up with zero debt, from zero to five million. I built the most incredible team of the hardest workers, of people that I absolutely loved and cherished. I ended up exiting from that company. I sit in my Chief Revenue Officer role right now and corporate America. I'm so grateful for the work I get to do, the team that I'm building, the success that we have. But all glory goes to God in the work and how he has redeemed my life, because I swear I have already lived this life. I did it in my 20s and I was broken and sad and I had all the success. Now I have the success, but my life is so significant In this chapter and where I'm headed and where I'm going as a woman of faith, it's a yes and it's not an or. Yes, I'm a Chief Revenue Officer. Yes, I'm an executive in corporate America. Yes, I'm a leader, but my heart is on fire for Jesus. He saved my life, he changed my life, he gave me a life worth living and he is worth it. All. Spreading the good news of the gospel and proclaiming what I know as my testimony and my faith is worth everything in my life because he is worth it all. I'm in this interesting era now with this book coming out. There's nothing to hide behind the guilt, the shame. It's all in there. I mean I've shared things my husband didn't know or anyone in the new family that I'm married into knew, and one day my son's going to read this book. But I'm proud of it and I know that I have people who message me without fail every single week, commenting on the story and my testimony, praising me for being bold and courageous and sharing this story. I get comments. I get more DMs than I do comments on my posts on LinkedIn and Instagram. I share so publicly about my faith and there are so many people still that are fearful. They have inner conflict, they don't know how to express their faith at work. They don't want to be labeled as a Christian, they're afraid to be canceled, they don't want to be judged, they don't want opportunity withheld, they don't want it to hurt their business. Many leaders who are Christians like oh well, we have to stay neutral because I don't want 50% of people to not buy from us. I'm like stand up for what you believe in and watch your business double, triple, quadruple in size. The Lord will reward your evangelism and going all in for him. And so I look at where I am today and as a leader and it's a yes, and for me. I don't even remember what your question was, but here I am rambling. This happens too often.

Speaker 1: 28:11

It was your journey, it was your story right, it was your testimony in terms of what was being there, Absolutely, and I love that, yes, and as it goes forward, Mary, because the other side of that is, as you said and you've documented in the book, so you now have written it down what was there before? What is the highlight reel of Mary before having Jesus in her life? And it's not easy that that highlight reel always exists. It doesn't go away. Those things are there. So what are some of the disciplines and or habits that you've put in place that will? Certainly? There's no guarantee. I mean again, we could talk about faith for a long time and our salvation doesn't make us free of sin. We're still there and all those things, all those challenges still exist, if not worse. But what are the things you've had to put in place to put a backstop there so you don't go and fall back into some of those old ways?

Speaker 2: 29:03

Well, it's very easy to fall back into old ways. The world makes it so easy on us. The enemy absolutely hates our love and commitment to Christ, and the enemy will find ways, especially through those well worn paths, to steal, kill and destroy. And he doesn't show up. The enemy doesn't show up and be like hi, I'm the enemy, I'm here and I want you to come follow me. That would be easy for us to say no, no, no, I don't want to do that. The enemy seeps in slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, warms it up and warms it up and starts building and stealing and kill it off and steal it and kill it. And that is where I have to put my intention, and I most commonly find my battle in the flesh versus spirit. The scripture in Galatians stands out to me the most. So this is Paul preaching and he's building the church and he's speaking to the Galatians and he's explaining what it is like to live in the flesh versus to live in the spirit. And for those not as familiar with scripture, this is where the fruit of the spirit comes from. So we're talking about love, patience, kindness, self control, joy, peace. These are all the things that come from the fruit of the spirit, and this is what I battle all the time, because those are the things I want. Those are the things I want flowing out of me. I want to die in the flesh, live in the spirit. But I work in corporate America. I did not become a Christian until I was 29. I have old ways of doing things, I have belief systems, I have well-worn paths that the enemy knows and I am competitive. I'm also capable, I'm talented, and the marketplace loves me and wants to present me with opportunities all the time and tempt me away from where I am on my faith journey. So what do I have to do? One, I have to find those well-worn paths. I have to identify the triggers, the areas of weakness for me. I identify those and I surrender those to God, and whether that's daily, weekly, monthly, hourly, it just depends on the season I know what they are and I surrender them to Him in prayer, in conversation, through my morning time, in the Word or in devotion or in prayer, and just saying take this for me and strengthen me where I'm weak, because I cannot do this without Him. And I armor up and I get my armor on for the day so that I can attack and go and do the day. But the other thing is there is a measure of not just surrendering that, but it is being able to be in full commitment to the surrender. There's a reason why the scripture says take up your cross daily. It's not a one-time surrender. Dear Lord, take all of my weaknesses and sin away from me. We're broken human beings. The only perfect one was Jesus. We are not Jesus. Therefore we are living in a fallen world and we're susceptible to sin and temptation, and the enemy, of course, is never going to stop His relentless pursuit just healing us away from Christ. So it is that commitment to be able to take that cross daily and to be a certain network there, but also abiding. Abiding in Him there's so much discipline and obedience and the Bible is such a great playbook for how to live our lives, and so taking up the word daily and understanding and abiding and living in obedience to Christ is a significant way to declutter, I would say, and bringing the good things in life. But the next I would say would be to listen. God will speak to us if we listen, and I know that there are times in my life when I have so much going on. I'm a high-power professional, I lead a big team, I'm scaling a company, I have a lot of distractions there's a lot of and I have a family. I mean, I am a wife and a mom and there's a lot of things that I could choose to listen to, but being intentional and making room to listen to Christ. And then the last thing I would say is to engage. It's one thing to listen and to hear from him, but how do you engage with him? One of my favorite scriptures is in Colossians Colossians 3, 23,. And that is whatever you do for work, do it for the Lord and not for human masters. And I think about how much of my career has been to impress people, prove people wrong, win the recognition, the title, make my manager happy, make his manager happy, win the award, walk the stage, get the crystal, do the thing, make the money. And I think about how much of my work and my career has been for recognition, to win the top CEO awards, to be on the list, to do the stuff. I hate to break it to myself and to everyone listening. It doesn't matter what we do. To further the kingdom and to honor God through our work is all that matters. And it is a stark warning and a lesson to all of us that we have eternal, eternal consequences when we don't. And that's the process I follow. So funny, if anyone was paying attention, that's my skill Acronym. Surrender would be the S, the C is commitment to commit every day to taking up the cross, the A is abiding in obedience, the L is listening and the E is engaged. You can learn more about my skill framework. It's coming out in my second book, which who knows when that's going to get published, john but for me, I have to do it every single day.

Speaker 1: 34:10

John Greenewald, right, and that's the thing I mean, that's how you keep the evil one from creeping back in too deeply is that you go at it every day. He doesn't want you to, he wants to distract you, he wants you to fall away from it. I appreciate you sharing that all the way through as a faith-based leader. How do you integrate those principles into your work, then, and the people that you work with? So how does that show up?

Speaker 2: 34:31

Yeah, to not walk around with my Bible quoting scripture and saving souls on lunch breaks, I mean that would be amazing. Sign me up, if that executive position exists in corporate America, but I do get to be the love and light and the hands and feet of Jesus and that's it. It's how I treat people, speak to them, honor, listen to them, exude my own self-control, patience, love, kindness and together, through my interactions, conversations, the way that I lead, and love creates experiences where people can experience the peace and joy that I have. And one of the biggest things, john, grace and mercy. Do you know how much grace and mercy has been extended to me in my darkest moments when I've really screwed up and I absolutely did not deserve it? I think, in corporate America specifically, and being a Christian workplace specifically, in the realm of sales, marketing and revenue generation, quota enforcement, pis, you're only as good as your last sales. There's so much to be said about grace, mercy, forgiveness, love, kindness, patience, self-control as a leader that is my compass. We missed our number. We're behind you to date. Right now and I was taking it personally I've actually been in a funk the last couple of months because merry growth he doesn't fail. I've missed the numbers. I've been grappling with my own and it's the enemy just coming in and you're not good enough. But my team is good enough. My team was hand-picked. My team works hard. My team loves their prospects and clients. My team does the right thing, my team communicates, we collaborate and they put in the work. Those are good seeds we're putting into the ground. We will bear fruit and I think having through my leadership, what I'm learning when I read the word, especially one of my favorite proverbs. If anyone's looking for wisdom, it's shocking to me that proverbs is as old as it is because it is so true and relevant. I can find wisdom and guidance and an answer to absolutely everything that I'm facing, of course, anywhere in the Bible, but proverbs for me, being a Christian in the workplace and an executive, has been such a guiding light for me. That is how I show up as a faith-based leader and all I want is for people to have a different experience with me than what they've had in the past. I want them to look back on this chapter of their career and say there was something different. Also, it starts a conversation If people are interested. Well now, with me being so openly faith-based and so vocal all my platforms I mean I'm shouting it from the rooftops but it does create a conversation that I'm really excited about, because if people say I want more of that, then they know who to talk to and I'll welcome that conversation all day long. It's one of my favorite things when people admit to me like once that relationship is built that they're also a believer, and they can sometimes be shy and quiet about it, and I'm thinking to myself this is my new mission. We should not be fearful as Christians. We need to be fearless Christians, unapologetically praising the Lord, worshiping the Lord, speaking of his goodness. I don't care where we are. It's so taboo in the workplace, but I'm not going to stand for that anymore. Fearless faith is definitely what I think Christians need and want more of, and that's where we're headed. But as a faith-based leader, I have to walk the talk and I think if people can experience that through me, it creates the next conversation.

Speaker 1: 38:24

Mary. Thank you. A couple more questions. I want to honor your time as we go forward. You mentioned something right at the very end, two words. You use fearless faith and I've often referred to that, sometimes as dirty faith. I just want to get my shirt dirty, dive in the mud or whatever I got to do to make that happen. Competitiveness, sports that we can go at that and use that faith just like that. So how are you continuing the message from your book Destination Remarkable. What are the things that you're doing to carry on fearless faith?

Speaker 2: 38:57

Destination Remarkable. Surviving the Dark Side of Success is my memoir and it is my testimony. That in itself takes us to near present day. I submitted the last chapter on January 15th of 2023. And from there stems everything else, so people can engage in that content. They hear what I'm about, they're learning what I'm about, but that was just to catch everybody up on everything you've missed in the last 39 and a half years of my life. And now, as I sit here proudly in this seat, what is fearless faith for me? This is the next chapter of my life. God willing, it could be the rest of my life that I am proclaiming the goodness of the gospel, the glory of God in all things. I have a Saturday morning radio show that's going to air through Crawford Broadcasting. That airs January 6th 2024. It's available on air radio in the Colorado and Alabama markets to start. It will continue to syndicate nationally in other markets as that Saturday morning time slot opens. But it also couples as a podcast. I'll be uploading it after the show is recorded so anyone can listen to that anywhere. It's also going to be the premise for my second book, where I am providing real, actionable frameworks for being a fearless Christian, unapologetic Christian, I think to. The scripture says you are for him or you're against him. John, it's not. You're for him in most things, especially your personal life most likely not professionally, because there's just a lot of risk there and then kind of just pick and choose what you like in the Bible and you should just stand for the things you really like and you should just argue for the things that you think are super outdated. It doesn't say that. But how many Christians live that way? Fearless faith is going all in for him. That's it. It's black and white. We don't get to pick and choose. If we have said yes to him, then we say yes to him. That's fearless faith. I cannot wait to be able to step into this next chapter of my life. And it's a yes and I'm not going anywhere. I love being a chief revenue officer, I love my team. If I said that enough on this show. I love them, I love them, I love them.

Speaker 1: 41:20

I want your team to listen, yeah.

Speaker 2: 41:22

But the bottom line is, this is what my next chapter is going to be about, and I'm excited to get people on the journey with me. I had yet another message come through today. I get these messages all the time. I can't get people commenting enough on my posts because people are still fearful, you know, of sharing our faces Openly on my social media posts, but I get gosh I don't know three or four of these a week and I'm going to read this to you. It says we connected a while ago. I noticed your name a lot Yada yada. You're such a respected voice in the community. I've enjoyed following your posts about your faith, personal struggles and victories. Thank you for your transparency and authenticity. I feel like God has been using you as a model for people like me who should be more open about their faith. I just have to play. I'm sorry. I didn't expect that to hit me. I was sorry. That was super odd. I didn't expect that to make me emotional, john. I get these messages like three, four or five times a week, but I'm just so honored that God's giving me a platform and he's giving me the voice and he's giving me the life and he's giving me the testimony and I'm so grateful that there are people sitting waiting to hear this message, holly, it just means. It means a lot to me.

Speaker 1: 42:56

I appreciate you sharing those messages. I'm sure you'll continue to get those messages as well Prior to January 6, which I'm looking forward to that day as well. How can people stay in touch with you? What's the best way for them to communicate with you?

Speaker 2: 43:10

Well, apparently you just slide into my DMs. Everybody else goes Like. You can find me Mary growthy, gro, the, if anywhere. I mean Instagram and LinkedIn are my biggest followings. Twitter is MaryL growthy, but I'm also on YouTube. You can see a lot of my work there. Marygroathycom has all of my blogs. I'm not doing this for myself. I'm not doing this to see my name in print. I'm not doing this to win or receive any more awards or accolades or recognition. This is all about spreading the good news of the gospel and I want to do this in the way that's going to serve our community. So I often welcome, when people are troublesome, needing that mentorship, that discipleship, access to resources Like. I'm here for that. I want to connect with my brothers and sisters in Christ and figure out where we can further the kingdom together and be on this journey together. But you can find me Just Google me. You'll find me everywhere.

Speaker 1: 44:08

I will put all the links in the show notes, mary, so that folks can get in touch with you. I encourage them to follow you. I do appreciate you taking the time to share with the Uncommon Leader podcast. I'm absolutely grateful for the story that you shared and, in the way that you've shared it, authenticity and that's the definition to me of Uncommon. You know sharing stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and you're doing doing great work, mary, for a great purpose, so thank you for that. I'll finish with one question that I finished all my first time guest with, and it's something that I've kind of prepared you for a little bit, and I think a lot of that message has been flowing through the billboard that I'm going to give you. You can place anywhere you want to. The message that goes on that billboard, though, is yours. What message do you put on that billboard, and why?

Speaker 2: 44:59

Yeah, well, it's a toss-up. I said to you earlier Jesus saves. The message is so clear and I love the connotation that has with the neon lights because you've seen the Jesus save signs. Taboo is it? Maybe you're seeing that sign or thinking what is this religion thing about? Or being Christian curious or hurt by prior experiences with religion and Christianity? Christ didn't say follow other Christians, he said follow me. And if I think anybody today listening to this is in an experience where they haven't fully jumped in at first into that relationship with Christ, the one thing I can tell you with all the certainty and betting my entire life on it is he saves and he can save you from anything that you have endured and that he is worth it.

Speaker 1: 46:01

All right. Thank you again. I know I put a pin in that story about your mentor beforehand and as I'd listened to your story from your early 20s to where you are today, I'm quite sure that God was involved in that story as well. Even before you knew him, he knew you, and I believe that that mentor planted seeds and to us, to probably a certain extent, was a guardian angel for you as you worked your way into that journey, and it was in God's time to find you. So I appreciate you being a guest on the Uncommon Leader podcast. I look forward to seeing your success for the kingdom moving forward and I can't wait to see what's going to happen. Best wishes Until next time. Go and grow, champions.