Full Transcript for E11 Tyler Todt - Being the Best Version of Himself

think I ever really had a real relationship and a personal relationship with you. So I said, at this point, I'm going to surrender my life to you. I don't know what that means. It was maybe 28 or 29, but I just want to put my trust and faith in you. And so from that day on, know, Christian life is not just like a get out of jail free card. Everything's magical when you accept Jesus, but That's been the foundation of my life since then, and that's been the bedrock since then. started praying for a great Christian gal, and he gave me more than I could ever ⁓ imagine. And my wife, we're coming up on 12 years of marriage ⁓ now with three awesome kids. And so that remains the foundation of our life, man, for sure. Greg Scott: And you know, right in middle of that, I'm reminded of just the concept that I've read and I'm terrible, so I don't know who I read it from years and years ago to give credit to, but that there's a piece inside us that the jigsaw puzzle, the only thing that fits that is a relationship with Christ Jesus. we spend, men especially, spend a whole lot of time trying to put a round peg into a Jesus-sized hole. And that's exactly what you just described. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Yeah, dude, isn't that the truth though? CS Lewis has a great quote that's like, the whole history of mankind is just us searching for other ways than Jesus to make us happy and then realizing there's nothing. There's nothing. you're right. I think we all have kind of a Jesus size hole in us. ⁓ nothing else fills it, man. People try everything, but nothing fills it. ⁓ Greg Scott: It's a great story. that's what we try to remind people of on the podcast is I hear all the time, well, you know, my story is boring. No one wants to hear my story. But no, everyone's story will resonate with someone else out there. Just like exactly what you just said, someone listening right now probably will hit skip or try to, because it's going to sound too familiar to what they're trying to navigate in their own life. So it's a beautiful story. I think I was in college and I almost had, ⁓ not almost, I had the entire movie of Tombstone memorized from start to finish. I watched it so many times and ⁓ that's toward the end of that movie. They're on Johnny Ringo. What's wrong with him? Well, he can't ever steal enough or kill enough to fill this hole. And I thought the same thing. thought this is a gospel opportunity. Not that Tombstone wanted to do that, but you're not going to find it otherwise. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): you Greg Scott: find the Lord late 20s or refine the as it were. And what a great foundation your parents provided and the family and support ⁓ that allowed you to more quickly find that than you would have otherwise. ⁓ And there are lots nuggets we could pick out there. But what I want to do is fast forward just a little bit into not too much longer. I think you were married and you had some small children and you start looking at yourself going, this is not the dude

I want to be though. You look at you now and you're obviously, if you follow you at all, a lot of your stuff is not just how to be a dad and a husband, but it's how to take care of yourself physically as well. And so what led to some of those changes for you and when did that start? Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Yeah, so you you fast forward, I was 34. So my wife, met my wife at 30 ⁓ and we got engaged within six months. And then we were told by multiple doctors that my wife couldn't get pregnant. So we kind of talked about, okay, we'll have a few year period. Then maybe we'll look into adoption. I wanted to be a dad, wanted to be a mom. So that was our plan. Well, we got pregnant on the honeymoon. we come back from that. And again, at the time I was a professional poker player. ⁓ And I just realized once we got pregnant, I don't want to do this. I don't see a lot of professional poker players. Not that there's none, there are definitely some, but the vast majority didn't have great marriages. And I just kind of thought about my life. Okay, I'm flying to Vegas, I'm leaving my family. I just didn't want that for my life, you So I went back to college, ended up passing, getting all the 4.0 when I go back, right? So much easier as an adult when you actually do the work. ⁓ Greg Scott: Always is, yep. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): ⁓ yeah, kind of crazy how that works. And then I just took a job at Chase Bank. Well, I've kind of brought the same work ethic I had from poker into Chase Bank. And I quickly realized, man, when you work really hard at a corporate job, you kind of stand out. So I ended up getting promoted three, four, five times within the first couple of years. I went from being a part-time teller earning $11 an hour to running my whole branch and having a staff of 14 people under me. Again, this will be a theme. I have a very... a tendency to be an all-in guy, which can be good and the Lord can use it when he gets ahold of me right. But I remember at this time just sort of work was my focus. I let that take over for a couple year period. Ended up, you my wife has all this on a burden of her with a young girl and you know, I'm working six days a week and we end up in marriage therapy and I'll never forget this. My wife kind of said something and I looked at her and I said, I've been promoted four times. What more do you want? You know, like I think that's winning, right? I think society kind of tells guys that sometimes. Well, as long as you're providing and making good money and your family's doing well, that's all you need. Never forget, my wife just kind of looked at me and she said, hey dummy, I don't want your money, I want you. I want a relationship, I want this or that. Kind of knocked me on my butt, man. And I had a come to Jesus moment one night again, about 34 and a half. I never forget this. My daughter went to bed, my wife went to bed. I was watching Sunday Night Football, it's Tom Brady. never forget. And something just came over me. halfway through that game. I turned the TV off, I looked around, I'm like, dude, I've been eating pizza today. I gained 19 pounds in my first two years of marriage. I didn't hit the gym, so this wasn't muscle. And I just didn't like my mindset. I was always complaining and grumbling, and I was a different version of Tyler everywhere I was. So when we went to church, I had the nice shirt on and I would be Sunday Tyler. But then I might be a totally different guy on Wednesday night, happy hour with my coworkers, right? I'd talk different, I'd be a lot different. ⁓ And so I just remember getting on my knees and recommitting my life at that point and saying, know, God, I have a tendency to for some reason think I'm smarter than the creator of the universe. I need to re-surrender. I need to get some things right. And so I wrote down some rules for myself that night and said, I'm no longer going to snooze my alarm. I'm going to get up at 5 a.m. and hit the gym. I'm no longer going to eat crap food every day for lunch. I'm going to meal prep and eat healthy food. I'm no longer going to take my wife for granted and I hadn't taken her on a date in two years. I'm going to prioritize date night with my wife and really kind of rekindle and reforge a great marriage with her. I'm going to read my Bible every single day. I had these set of rules for myself and it didn't take long before I started realizing this is just a much better life. ⁓ Living with intention and really selling all out to the Lord. There were areas before that I would say where I was a Christian, but God wasn't going to touch that. Greg Scott: Mm. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Tithe? No, no, no, that's my money. I'm not doing that. ⁓ Casual pornography, you know what, man, I'll go hide in the closet or the bathroom and I'm not giving God that part of my life. And so that was really the first time I would say that it was like all in. Like I sat my wife down that next day and told her, I know this is gonna hurt you, but I casually view pornography and I hate myself for it. I don't wanna do it anymore. And so this is what it's gonna look like, you know? Greg Scott: Hello and welcome to 315 Voices. I'm your host, Greg Scott. 1 Peter 315 reminds us to always be prepared to give an account when someone asks for the reason for the hope that's in us. And today's guest is Tyler Todt. You can find Tyler all over social media, whether it's posting his latest stories from raising kids, he's giving life-altering advice about marriage or fitness, or just interacting with others navigating the same life. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): That's when I got, I would say, addicted to self-improvement. I hired a coach named Zach Hamill. This guy just changed my life radically. And I remember telling him, I have like an addictive personality and this is bad. And he goes, oh no, this is great. Just get addicted to the right things. And I tell people now I'm pretty addicted to studying Jesus. If you look at my Bible app, I've

got just a crazy streak for reading the Bible every day. I'm addicted to cultivating a great mindset and peaceful. I'm addicted to being a great dad and a great husband. I'm addicted to... Greg Scott: Most importantly, Tyler is laser focused on being the man God has designed for him to be and leaning on his own personal relationship with Christ to live that intentional life. I just know you're going to enjoy the time we got to spend together, so welcome to today's podcast and our conversation with Tyler Todt Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): I'll be 43 this year and I think if you put me in other 43 year old dads, I'm in pretty good shape comparatively. And so I'm addicted to some of these things and then helping other men kind of get there too. But that was a big turning point in my life, man, for sure. Greg Scott: do you, that you've been down that road, how key was it that you had that coach ⁓ to go you and you weren't sitting by yourself in an office somewhere going, I think I can do this because that looks more like a new year's resolution that, ⁓ that makes to around January the ninth. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Boy, isn't that the truth. Yeah, he taught me systems for the first time in my life. Instead of waking up and kind of, I always say you're in the passenger seat of life and well, if my boss is mean to me, then I feel stressed. So then I eat that. And he's like, no, no, no, shift to the driver's seat of life. And if your boss is mad, you have the ability to take a couple of deep breaths. and consciously decide what's best for you in the direction that you want to drive your life. You be in control of your life. And I read this book, man, I always keep it close, don't know, Extreme Ownership by Jaco Willick. This is crazy because I didn't even finish the book. And I've gotten to talk to Jaco a couple of times on Twitter and thank him personally for what that book did. But that was probably a few weeks after Being 34. That was one of the first self-improvement books I read. I made it about 75 % of the way through. had five or six pages of notes. Greg Scott: Yep, I've read that. It's phenomenal. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): And I remember just that, I'm like, nothing is anybody else's fault, it's me. It's not my wife that I'm gonna ever blame her for anything. It's not my boss, it's me. I'm in control of it. I'm my biggest problem, but I can be the solution, right? And so that book radically changed the way that I viewed everything. I no longer was a victim. could say, know, 10 things could go wrong in the day and I could still just, hey, God, thank you for this gift. I can still choose to see something good about it and work on it, you know? Greg Scott: Man, I hope you enjoyed our time today with Tyler Todt as much as I did. There isn't an aspect of his life that isn't lived with purpose and intentionality, which provides such a challenge for all of us. And Tyler's constant anchoring life's priorities and his relationship with Christ certainly should give all of us a reason to slow down and take stock of how we live, and maybe give Tyler a follow for a great start to that. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): And that really radically changed me as well. Greg Scott: And, and that coach piece resonates with me and I've coached athletes for a long time, high school athletes for a long time. And the ones that have that you, you laughed about it. ⁓ when you, those that get addicted to improving and whatever you're coaching them in, that's the, I want to, if I could get nine, you know, I'm a baseball guy. If I could get nine of those, I become a ⁓ so much smarter. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Thank you. Greg Scott: You wouldn't believe what kind of coach I am with nine guys that are bawdy and are unselfish and are just dedicated to being the best version, baseball version of themselves. But you apply that to just your entire mindset and ⁓ what makes you keep those rules? how long that's been now seven, eight years ago. And, and you, and you are, have you added to those rules? Have there been some that are priorities over others? If guys are going, man, that's a lot. Share the link out to today's episode on all of your social media platforms. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and then anywhere else you get your podcast and then tell someone you know about today's episode or any of your favorite 315 Voices guests in order to encourage and inspire them. And then join us again when someone else will be prepared to give the reason for the hope that's within them on the next episode of 315 Voices. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): seven years. Yeah, definitely start small, right? And I always say like I my morning routine and I'm really big on when the morning, when the day, when the morning, when the day, how let's let's build some momentum and let's operate from a place of God and peace and make him the like, I remember reading this, this struck me like five or six years ago where it was a give your first fruits to God. And I always assumed that was money. So we, you know, we give our first 10%. Greg Scott: I can't do all of that. Talk about your mindset with the priorities there. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): And then I thought, well, what's even more valuable than money? And I remember journaling on this one night and I'm like, it's your time, it's your attention, it's where your heart and your mind go, right? So I'm like, okay, God, you're gonna get my first fruits every morning. And so how I used to wake up was my daughter might crawl into bed and now I'm, ⁓ man, okay, now I'm waking up and but my daughter needs things, my wife wants to chat, I've got clients, I've got work, I've got emails, we gotta make the food, we gotta, you know, and I'm operating from not a place of peace, right? That getting up a little bit earlier piece is real key, and I would tell men, you've got to do this. You've got to be the shield for your family, where I wake up every day and I'm going to spend a few minutes, just a few minutes in prayer. And a lot

of these is just a gratitude. God, thanks for waking me up again today. Thanks for this gift. Shift my mind onto my blessings instead of what I may lack, and just help me represent you. Just a real quick prayer, and then I always read at least a chapter of the Bible. Real quick devotion. just to kind of set my mind right and operate from that good spot of peace. I live in a desert, so you'll see me drinking a lot of water. But you know, these are things I can do that take my whole routines eight or nine minutes probably. But now I feel like man, I'm operating from a spot of calm instead of chaos. And so if any guys out there listen to this, I'd say man, write down a few of these real easy wins first thing in the morning, get up 10, 15, 20 minutes for your family. And you will just see that the absolute difference in the how this makes your day run. You're running the day, the day's not running you then. You're not being reactive, you're being proactive. And man, my goal is always by the time my wife wakes up, text her something kind. I want the first thing that she sees to be like, ⁓ I had this in my devotion, uplift her a little bit too, right? And so when you start taking that mindset of how do I make the people around me better? Well, I can only do that if I'm operating from better myself. And so you kind of put that pressure on yourself to get up before. I don't say all very often. I do think all. Greg Scott: Yeah. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Husbands and dads should wake up for their family. Even if it's 10 minutes. Even on vacation I do this, right? I need to operate from that good spot. So start there. Start right there with just one chapter of the Bible. You don't have to read for 30 minutes. You don't have to do cold plunges. You don't have to run until you puke. Just read one chapter of the Bible and maybe one little men's devotional and spend a minute in prayer and watch what that does to your day. Greg Scott: You you say that like it's groundbreaking, but could you imagine our dads and grand dads sleeping in past their wives and children? What would they even... I can't even... don't know what that looks like. All of the men that came before me, that's non-negotiable. It's almost, you know, inscripted on their life somewhere that you're up and you're going and you're providing and you're being that guy early. And you present it to today's dad. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Yeah. Greg Scott: Like, hey, I've got a new idea. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): My grandpa was one of my heroes. He's a farmer for 60 years probably woke up at four. You know, you tell him something like that. He will know duh, Greg Scott: Yeah. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): it's a crazy thing is not nobody's gonna say anything today. That's revolutionary. There's no way I'm gonna come on here. I got this brand new idea, right? If somebody's saying this, probably selling you something, you know, and so most of the good ideas now are, I think, 2026, to be honest, we've got enough information, any guy watching this out here, especially if they're watching your podcast, they're probably into self improvement, they want to improve a little bit. You've got the information. I think the biggest thing now and boy, I tell you, I can just lift this up. I journal just constantly man. mean every day I'm writing down writing how I want my day to go I'm kind of outlining it I do a thing called a monthly audit which I did two days ago first day of every month I sit down and I write faith and I look at my notes from last month How am I doing on faith? What goals did I set for this month? I wanted to pray with my kids more. How do we do with that? Okay, yeah, not great Okay, let's a system to make sure we pray with our kids a little bit more. Right? Okay, so Every Wednesday I'm gonna set an alarm in my phone where me and my kids are just gonna pray together. And then I kinda go down every category. I go fitness, how am I doing in fitness? Okay, marriage, how am I doing in marriage? These things that I want to be great at or world class at, I spend time every month kinda assessing me. And I always say the same prayer before, kinda same one as King David. Hey God, search me. Show me where I'm falling and show me where I can be better. And it hurts, it's not fun sometimes, cause he does. Greg Scott: That's true Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): You're like, man, know, many times after that, I've pulled my wife aside and said, I've been focused on my stuff for a few weeks and I'm really sorry. You haven't gotten my best energy. That's going to change. But just having, again, that little system of the first of the month, taking a half hour, 40 minutes to give yourself a little self-assessment, sit with just the Lord in some quiet time and get stuff on paper, that's a system that just made my life a thousand times better. Imagine if every dad and husband would do that Greg Scott: when we train new teachers, I've been in public education for 25 plus years and I've been a principal. So I've evaluated teachers. We tell them, Hey, take all of the noise out. the most simple process that you can develop for yourself is what am I going to, what do I want somebody to learn today? How am I going to get there? And then how do I check that they did? Well, apply that to what you just said. All right, so I'm doing my monthly audit. What did I want to do? How did I say I was going to get there? And how did I do at it? And if I can assess it and look back and go, I didn't get there. Hey, it might not be the students. It might be something in the way that you designed how they got there. And that's exactly what you were just talking about. I mean, I may need to redesign on praying with my kids because I wanted to start doing that more often. And I look back and we didn't do that as often as I wanted to. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): That's right, man. And I think that's so cool. And then even taking that extreme ownership principle we talked about a little bit with your

teachers, even if it's not their fault, how's it your fault? How can you improve? know, even there was a time in my marriage where, you know, I complained like five or six years ago, just my biggest complaint. You know, I'm just... Greg Scott: That's right. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): I never get time to just like kind of be a dad or to not be a dad. Like I love being a dad, don't get me wrong, but it's like sometimes I would just like to go hang out with my buddies. Like I don't golf, I don't have a lot of hobbies, I do work and family, right? It's really hard this season of life with three young kids. And instead of blaming my wife even subconsciously maybe, I remember sitting her down and saying, hey, do you ever feel overwhelmed? Like it would be great to have an afternoon off or an evening off. And of course my wife looked at me. Yes. And this just again, taking that ownership principle, we both talked about it. And now we do this once every five or six weeks. I will take a day off from being a dad. I'll always call a couple buddies. I'm real extroverted. So you will play pickleball or whatever it is, go grab a steak or whatever. And I'm always come back fired up to be a dad again. And my wife then will do that. She'd go to a women's conference or meet a friend for dinner or whatever that might be. Hey, she's off duty. Kids, you can't bother her tonight. Whatever it is. so Again, I think a lot of husbands will, if only my wife did this, or if only she did that, I would be better at this, or if only we were intimate more, this or that, whatever that might then I wouldn't look at porn, right? If you take that ownership piece into everything, maybe I need to sit down and have that hard talk. Maybe I need to have the hard talk with myself, maybe I need to have it with her, maybe I to have it with me and the Lord, whatever that looks like. But I always say, you know, too often with guys we kind of keep the peace. We're a little too passive. That's how I was the first couple years of marriage, and I think that creates a war within yourself. And so, you know, being a man in part and leading is having a tough conversation. If you don't like where things are, well, guess what? You can fix it. It just takes work. Greg Scott: I think a lot of faith-based couples and or followers of Christ even, we can make a big excuse and we can use Scripture to back up our excuse. We can get into Ephesians 5 and say, but I read and it says right here, wives submit to your husbands. Oh, by the way, I don't know what else it says. I'm sure it says some other good stuff. You know, Paul gets to rambling. We don't want to read the rest of Ephesians 5. is though, according to Scripture and according to how you operate? and you're headed there, so I'm just going to the conduit of that conversation going. What's the husband's role? Forget kids, forget dad for a minute. What's the husband's role to his lifelong mate? Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): And that's what Christ was for us, man.

You would die for her in a second. You'd provide for her in a second. You put her needs ahead of your own. If somebody's gonna be tired, it should be you. God gave you bigger shoulders, you're naturally stronger for a reason. So, know, ⁓ I think we're called to lead and I do think, I'm glad you mentioned it, because a lot of guys get it wrong and she should submit to me, she should this or that. it's, you know, let's flip that, man. If anybody has daughters, like I don't want my daughter marrying a guy someday who's just like, when I say jump, you say how high? Because the Bible says, I don't want that for my kid, you know? And so. ⁓ I go back to, know, inservant leadership can be taken maybe a wrong way, but I have it in my head where I'm going to set the tone for my family. And I think any dad who's really realistic with himself will say this, if I walk into a room and my family's already in the room, I'm either going to make it better or worse. It's not going to stay neutral. If I'm having a bad day and I'm grumbly and I'm just like kids are wanting to play and I'm like I just wanna watch sports, but it could bother me. The whole family is gonna deflate. But if I walk in the room and I thank my wife for being such a great intentional mom and for making dinner and I tell the kids, hey, let's go on a little walk and a scavenger hunt and see what we can find and. the mood just comes right up. And so I think every husband and dad, the biggest, one of our biggest roles I think we can lead in is like, I talk about this a lot. I want my kids to grow up thinking marriage is awesome. And being a dad is fun. It really is, you know? And there's this weird sect of society now that's like, don't get married young and don't have kids. It's a trap and it's a burden. And it's, I just, it's the most fun. Of course it's tiring. And of course there's hard parts. It's with anything in life. But like being a husband, Greg Scott: Amen. Yeah. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Like my wife picked me out of four billion guys to lead our family and she trusted me with that? Like, holy cow, man, that's like a really cool privilege and a really cool thing. And so man, know, leading in that area to me is making sure my attitude and my effort are always good. That I'm setting the tone for our family. I'm making sure that the things that we want to do, we're doing. It's, know, kind of that hierarchy and priority too of faith is going to be on top. And so, you know, if we have a sporting meet, But we have church, church is gonna win because that's what our family does, right? I'm gonna set the tone with those things. And I think sometimes you gotta be a guy and just say, no, this is the way it is. And again, I don't ask my wife's permission. I think this is a big one in this category. I don't like this happy wife, happy life kind of stuff. I'll just do everything to appease your wife and make her happy. It's not your job to make her happy at all. I don't think you can make other people happy, but I think what you can do is just be sort of that guiding light. be there for her and then ask her perspective on things all the time. I I value my wife's opinion. She's so smart. And then keep growing the relationship like you're dating. I always say to my wife, can we bring today like that second, third date energy? Remember like that third time we went on a date, man, and that, you know, I changed shirts three times and we were nervous and let's bring that kind of energy on the home today. What's that like, you know? And I think guys can lead in that. And like my wife knows I continue to pursue her. I continue to date her, I continue to ask a lot of questions, I continue to be present with her, and I think too many guys take their foot off the gas and just say, Bible says submit. And say, are you a guy worthy of submitting to? Number one, are you leading yourself adequately? She probably wants to follow you, but that's only if you're leading yourself first. think that's a big point of that is you do what you say you're gonna do. And if I look at the first couple years of marriage when we ended up in shambles, I used to tell my wife all the time, I'm gonna start the gym tomorrow. She'd see me hit snooze four times and not go. I'm so tired of eating bad, I'm done eating bad. She'd see me the next night ordering pizza. You know, and I'm gonna go out with my buddy, but I'm only have one drink tonight, I'll be home in an hour. She sees me coming home in an Uber four hours later, pretty drunk. Is that a guy worth following? You know, and looking back, I think my wife was begging me to lead, she was begging me to have that kind of discipline, and I think that's what got a guy's lack. And that's again, that ownership part, look in the mirror. I don't know one guy. who is on fire for the Lord, reading his Bible every day, trying to be a world-class Christ follower, in phenomenal shape, mind, body, spirit, just healthy, eating good food, hitting the gym, being very physically active, trying to be a really great dad, going 100 miles an hour at his business, or really passionate and building the things he's really proud of. It's like trying to, ⁓ man, but my wife just doesn't do this or that. Normally those guys are like, man, my wife is just all about it, you know? she's all right over me. And so I think again, you take that ownership piece and you control what you can. Greg Scott: I could probably ask, and as my head was going, I could ask six different questions and ⁓ points out of that. It was all great stuff. But the very first part of that reminded me of ⁓ from Batterson. If you're familiar with the author and ⁓ pastor the DC area, but Mark said, hey, a Christ follower should be a ⁓ thermostat, a thermometer. So when you walk in a room, you set the temperature. You don't just figure out what it is and... and mold into it. And then that really ties into what Peter said in 1 Peter 3.15, I've come in with such a hope that others ask me,

what is it about you? Well, there's a lot of things about me but the foundation of it is my relationship with Christ. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Amen, brother. Imagine if all Christians live like that too. If our goal was to exude the fruits of the Spirit so that people just said, dude, there's like wars going on and inflation and like, why are you joyful? And why do you have peace? Like, what is it? And then we just got to say, well, let tell you about Jesus. And I think we all took that mindset within our homes, outside of our homes, at work, wherever we are, being that kind of light, That's what we're really called to do. And I'll tell you, Greg, my best compliment I've ever gotten was about five years ago, I was playing at the park with my daughter and all of sudden I get tapped on the back and I had organized, it was like 103 degrees and a lot of people were just sitting down, but I had organized a big fun game of like freeze tag with water and I had 10 kids and we were all running around just playing, having a good time. And one of the dads taps you on the back and he says, I don't know you, but I feel prompted to come up and ask, are you by any chance a Jesus guy? I gave him big hug and I said, heck yeah, brother, you must be too, good to meet you. They're our real good friends now, man. And they actually, we've adopted two boys and they had previously adopted a couple of years before and they helped us through that whole process and saved him, but I didn't say it. He just kind of saw something of the way I was interacting with people and the joy that I kind of was exuding and was like, there's something different about this guy. even probably hard on myself, that should be happening more. Greg Scott: What a compliment. What a compliment. And that's exactly what... We don't live this life of trying to This ⁓ whole process of sanctification is not for paths on the back and for people to see it. But, ⁓ what encouragement for you to say, this guy saw me ⁓ and what was behind me. ⁓ man, fuel for the fire. ⁓ Or my wife says, man, thank you. A recent guest on our podcast, Donnie Boswick, coach at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, men's basketball coach. He said that was a turning point for him in his life when he realized his wife had just been waiting on him to take the steering wheel. And he went, and, and God completely changed his life through some of those moments. before get off of that, I think, I think you've alluded to this a little bit, but What about the husband that... So take my situation. We have four children, three still on the surf, and the youngest of those is a senior in high school. He's 18 years old. And if I'm listening to this podcast, going, well, that's neato mosquito there, ⁓ Tyler, but the ship has sailed for me. I've already messed that up. How do you answer that dad and that husband? Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): ⁓ man, best time to plant a tree was yesterday. The second best is always right now, right? And so, you know, I've had

relationships in my life where it was pretty non-existent with people, but it only takes one conversation or one, you know, just invite them for a walk. You know, maybe just write your kid a letter, ask to chat with them real quick, even if they're older, right? Just, you can always start to lay some of that groundwork right now. And then again, they might not be as receptive. Obviously, my two sons are five. So if I do say junk, they do say how high I get that much control right now, which is amazing, but it won't last forever. I know that. You know, I was in a season from probably 20 to 28, where my parents invited me to church 100 times. I didn't go. My parents invited, sent me devotionals with handwritten things in it and I never opened them. They didn't stop trying. I think that's the Christian life anyway is man, ⁓ I've never saved I don't know about you. I've planted a few seeds that thank God, God's got a hold of them and they've blossomed. All we're doing is planting seeds. That's it. Even like my social media and all the stuff I do, man, I just try and plant seeds and just try and show a different way and just try and... point back to the only thing that really saved me life or ever made any sense for me, which is Jesus. And so take it an opportunity, no matter how maybe your kids are working or they're in their own marriage or whatever that is, but send them the devotional. Just mention it. Just ask if they found a church and they might get annoyed, but you don't stop asking, you know, and it took eight or nine years for me to come back around. But I think no matter where you're at, man, start today. Today's the best time to have a conversation that might be uncomfortable. Greg Scott: if you could say, so I'm a dad and ⁓ my kids still in my home kind of like you, give me two, ⁓ maybe three things that I can apply right now to my family ⁓ as a dad of faith that wants to be that leader of my household and I'm just looking around going, okay, I may start reading my Bible more, but I don't really know what to do. What are two or three things they can put into action right now? Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Number one man is like get a kids Bible. They're awesome I actually get so much out of reading the kids Bibles with my kids where I mean, you know, the Bible can be challenging right? I'm reading it cover to cover like starting in Genesis this year and gonna get the whole thing that There's definitely parts where I'm reading in Leviticus and I'm like, what did I just read? Okay, I got to ask a couple of my preacher buddies. I don't understand this, right? But the kids Bible makes it so simple and it tells stories. And so my sons are obsessed with David and Goliath. I mean, we've probably acted out David and Goliath 3000 times. So, you know, read to them with the children's Bible. That's like just an absolute amazing thing. Make church Greg Scott: It does, yep. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): like just completely non-negotiable and hype it up and make

it fun and just talk about that. ⁓ this is an awesome time where we get to go give thanks to God. We talk, me and my wife talk about it all the time. We only have the things we have because of God. We live in an awesome home in an awesome neighborhood surrounded by awesome neighbors with cool parks and fun things to do. That's only because God allowed it. It's all His anyway. So we get to go back and give Him a couple hours a week to just say thank you. That's a gift. And then another thing I think is just, again, I always go back to this, but dads are gonna set the tone and maybe this isn't a faith thing directly, but I think it really is. ⁓ Invite your kids to do, always lead them on adventures, especially when they're young. I don't just say, hey, guys wanna take a walk? You guys wanna get off your screens and go take a walk? The answer is always no. But dude, if I come and I have a scavenger hunt ready and I'm like, hey. I got an idea tonight, guys. Let's go out and see if we can find these 10 things walking around the neighborhood. Think we could find dog poop? Think we could find a helicopter? Think we could find a cyber truck? Dude, you make it so fun and I think they can see, like mom and dad, they like life. They're happy. think growing up in a home that's sort of on fire, where the parents are just generally pretty happy and joyful, because man, why would we not be? This is all a gift. We're not here that long, so we might as well enjoy it. Just giving them that sort of gift and mindset of like, look, it's not like we're never down, we're not gonna be realistic, but like most of the time, we get to do this. This is so fun. my daughter, a a couple months ago, she said like, dad, you're always doing dishes. Why do you, like, doesn't that suck? I think she said something like that. You're always doing dishes. And I stopped and I said, Tinley, what a gift. That means we have ample food to eat. That means we actually have plates to put it on. There's people all over the world that like would kill to have ample food. then on top of that, I have an amazing thing called a dishwasher. I just wipe the thing off and put it in and it comes out clean. What an amazing thing, you know? And so I'm always trying, you know, my kids probably get a, she's 10 and a half. So she's like, okay, dad, you know, kind of annoyed. Of course, of course, but I'm still going to imprint that on her. Greg Scott: I was going say that, the eyes rolling physically yet or just metaphysically? Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): I say this all the time, I don't have to do anything, I get to do everything. ⁓ It's a big, big shift and I want my kids to always see that. like, man, life is meant to be, again, joyful and I want people to see that we are different. I tell my kids that a lot, we're very different. If you came into our home, did you just move in or are you moving out? ⁓ no, we just don't have a lot of stuff, man. We made our kitchen table. Greg Scott: Absolutely. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): And sanded it down and painted it. We bought our couch off Facebook Marketplace. We don't have a lot of fancy stuff. My daughter's the only one in her class, one of two kids that doesn't have her own cell phone. She won't for a long time. You know, we tell our kids a lot, we are different. We're called to be different. I'm not gonna do what the world does. That's not what we do in this family. And so, you know, we talk about that pretty openly too. Greg Scott: Yeah, it'd be great for people of faith to go, you don't look like the rest of the world. Oh, thank goodness. That's what I was shooting for, actually. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): I get called weird every day on social media because you you got a hundred thousand a hundred thousand You're gonna get trolled and I say the same thing every time. Thank you so much I am very very different and that's because the Lord is says you know I don't aspire to Average is overweight in debt You know ⁓ out on pills not in a great marriage like that's pretty average you think the average person in our in Western society now Greg Scott: Yeah, they can't be all your friend, can they? Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): And I don't aspire to be like that. My God didn't create me to be like that. He lives inside me. And so I'm not called to be like that. Yes, I am not average or normal. I wear that with a badge of honor. Greg Scott: I loved a, story that you put out. And we blown past this ⁓ on chronologically. ⁓ But I want to go back to you. You said that you worked in financial industry a time before you became a coach and an author But before that, when you were working in the financial industry, you even kind of reminisced back to your dad. and how your dad could have, as smart as he was and a hard worker that he was, done anything you wanted to in the company that he worked for. but he never advanced himself intentionally through his company. Talk about that for a little bit, because I love that story that you put out. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): I honor my dad so much because I think I was maybe seven or eight at the time and they asked him to, he was managing a auto parts store already and they basically said, man, we're gonna three extra salary. We want you to run this huge brand new branch that's doing one of the best in the country, but you gotta move and you're gonna be working 80 hours a week. But dude, it's like three times your salary, right? So I think most men would have just instantly gone home and bragged to their wives, I'm like, I'm killing it, I'm the king, I'm the, know, like this or that. And my dad had the foresight. He became friends with a guy named Bill Miller who had kind of done the career advancement thing and mentored my dad a little bit as a manager and kind of told him, I remember he said something like, I have five sons. I missed every one of their little league games. I never get a chance to go back and do that. And it hit my dad really, really hard, I think. And my dad was so wise,

you know, because back then he was in his late 20s. And he told him, no, I don't want the store. And it got to the point where I didn't even know this till recent. His boss told him, you will take no. said something like, nobody says no to me. You will go take that store. My dad quit a couple of weeks later, went and got a new job and ⁓ found his place in that company. And again, my dad was always the guy who he'd show up to work 10 minutes early, the absolute hardest worker in whole company at his next job. They wanted him to go up and up and up and he said, I'm okay here. I coach all my kids sports. I provide a great living for my family. We grew up in like a town of 700. So it was like my dad was my coach in soccer, baseball, basketball, football, cross country, you know, like he was the my friends to this day call my dad the legend. He's about to turn 70. Dude, I kid you not, he's been logging his runs for four decades. He's gonna go over 100,000 miles run in his life. He's mentored and coached youth. I mean, I can't talk to a buddy from high school and they'd do, how's dad doing, man? How's your dad? He's still getting after it. He was the only dad in high school. He'd run full court with us. We're a bunch of athletic. We had a good high school basketball team. My dad would play. All the other dads are sitting on the sideline, man. And I kind of almost took that for granted when I was in high school of just how awesome that was that I had that kind of dad. And so, man, that really made an imprint on me. And man, just, my dad was so wise and I think my mom too to have the foresight that money is like, you can't take it with you as long as you can pay your, I just, know, people obsess over money and. I always say like in your personal life, of course, if you don't have money to eat, money matters a lot. But after a certain point, and there's been all these studies on this, making over a certain amount doesn't even provide happiness. It doesn't, it's a moral burden after a certain point. And so my wife and I are real big on like, do we have kind of a number and a passive income number? Anything over that, ⁓ tie the 100%. I don't want to leave my kids $50 million. I have no desire to have like crazy amounts of money in my life anymore. Those things don't make you happy. And I'm just so grateful that my dad realized that at a age. And I got to grow up in a home like that where my best memories are just shooting hoops with him. Him hitting me fly balls and pitching, you know, like hitting balls all night. ⁓ He has had to have shoulder surgery a couple of times because he's baseball coach and pitching to me and all ⁓ my friends for hours after school. But yeah, man, that's role of a dad, to be present, not just give presents. And I think too many dads are just ATM machines, and the world would be a lot better if they were lot more intentional. Greg Scott: what's the what's the old saying you never see a hearse pulling a u-haul Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): And I Greg Scott: because there's absolutely nothing you can take with you. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Right, absolutely man. So what matters is anybody ever been on their deathbed like bring me my college degrees, bring me my work promotion slips, bring me my watch. They want to be around people. That's it. And so if you think about life with the end in mind and that's a good frame for dads I talk about a lot and I'm as guilty of this as anybody. It can be 730 and in my head I'm like, okay, let's just get through the third Bible story and the last book and say the prayers like I've been up before. I'm like, you know. Greg Scott: Sure. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): I'll take a deep breath and remind myself, 30 years from now, I'd give anything to go back to this one night. You ask anybody who's in their ⁓ 80s, what amount of money would you pay to go back and have your child sit on your lap and read him a story ask him about their day and pray with him? ⁓ What would you give? ⁓ Greg Scott: I know the answer. I'll give you a poker. It's all of it. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Yes, man. So it's, you know, it's important to that frame as busy parents because I do get it I'm not minimizing that. I pulled in a thousand directions by my children. Greg Scott: absolutely. Right. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): But man, most of the time, just being there, being present, loving on them. It's like the coolest thing you get to do too. Greg Scott: talked about fostering, that became something important to you even after you, know, hey we may not ever be able to have our own children. ⁓ yes we can. even so, you have been a foster family. ⁓ Talk about that briefly. You've ⁓ seven foster children so far two of them you fully adopted. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Yeah, so it's been a real gift, man. And this like any good husband, man, this is kind of funny. But my wife came up to me, had been six years ago, and said, hey, Ty, I feel this calling from the Lord that we need to foster. And I instantly said, no, I'm too busy. I'm building my business. We already got a great kid. Like, no, no. And then of course, that Sunday, was like three days later in church, the sermon was literally about like opening your door to the vulnerable, to whom much is given, much is expected. So I said, hey, I'm really sorry, let me pray on this for a few days. And it became very apparent that that was not just her calling, but our calling. And so we prayed about it and talked about it and did the licensing, did all that. So yeah, the first five kids we had, we were real grateful to just have them for a season, help out a family in need or maybe a mom with an addiction that couldn't raise them. We'd had them for some, some we had for over a year, some we had for just a couple of months, and then both of our sons man we've had them both since they were three months old we got him about a month apart ⁓ You know, sadly, it's a sad thing to say but there's nobody to take them There's no home to go back

to and so it was either you know Send them back the or adopt them and that was the easiest decision we've ever had ⁓ So that was one of the greatest days of our lives man. We got to officially you know adopt our two boys and they're They're awesome now, man. They're five. They're in a little Christian kindergarten right now learning about Jonah and the whale. Anybody who ever has any questions on that, feel free to reach out. I would love to see a world, I tell you, I hate politics, but if I was a politician, the first initiative I would have is I don't want anybody in foster care being raised by the system. You have an 89 % chance if nobody, if you haven't been fostered or adopted, if you age through the system and age out at 18, 89 % chance to be homeless or incarcerated. That's nine out of 10 kids. And so, you know, if we could put them in loving families, man, I would love to see more people step up and do that. and empty those foster homes. You'd see a reduction in crime. You'd see a reduction in poverty. All kinds of things would be an amazing thing from that. Yeah, God's really blessed us through that. It's been an amazing journey. Greg Scott: wife and I, our fourth son was adopted. ⁓ felt called, similar story to yours where one of us felt called and the other one had to work through it. And then we both had to kind of work through it. But foster families to me ⁓ are, it such a gift and a calling because it is for a season. ⁓ We adopted the intention of this, this is our son and he's never leaving. never heard the angle from a foster parent go, I wish this wasn't needed. In fact, this shouldn't be needed. such a need and I hope ⁓ just through some of these conversations with guys you that are coming on the podcast have adopted my friend Drew Maddox was on here several weeks ago ⁓ and and said the same thing about fostering and adopting and it's and we're all called 127 says pure and undefiled religion is this taking care of orphans and widows in their time of need ⁓ so it's not a It's not a, maybe some of you should. It's actually, this is what it looks like. What's your family supposed to do with it? Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): it's hard. It's a really emotional hard thing, ⁓ but it, you know, again, much needed. Greg Scott: Yeah, here it is. All of our guests, I know our time is drawing near and all of our guests go through a not so challenging 315 challenge, but it's super fun for me to hear. And the three in it is, three books outside of the Bible that you say have impacted you the most. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Yeah, Extreme Ownership's gotta be one by Jaco Willick. I think every guy should read that book and man, it's an awesome book. Second one, I would say James Clear, Atomic Habits. You ever read this book? Yeah, I've read that one three or four times. I got pages of notes on that one. That's when I was getting really into self-improvement, probably several months after the extreme ownership. And it taught me again how to build systems and how to make habits really easy and attainable. The third one, and this one came last year, my friend, Sahil Bloom, it's called Five Types of Wealth. And this one really got me very intentional, realizing what's important. ⁓ So I a big change from reading that. But he just talks about how, again, everybody chases wealth, which is just zeros on a bank account. ⁓ What are the real types of wealth? It's relationships, it's health, it's faith, it's things bigger you. And so yeah, that book had a big impact on me too. Greg Scott: Okay, so I gained one there. I've not read that one. always, if I can gain one and I probably, it's been at least 10 years since I read Atomic Habits and that means I probably need to go back and look at that one again. So the one in the 315 challenge is who in your phone is the most, I use the word famous, just throw it around, flip it, but the most recognizable name that would hit you back, not just that you're impressed in this, that you can flash the screen with it. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Thank Yeah. Yeah. When I read this earlier, I got one that I probably can't share because I coach him and he said I can never disclose it. So I'm not going to say him. Everyone would know him. one is Zuby. Do you know Zuby? I mean, this guy's got eight or 10 million followers, I think, across social media. And him and I have become really good friends. He's like a mentor to me, I would say five or six years ago. just a little bit, his faith is so solid. He's such a wonderful guy. No ego to him with 10 million followers. just... Anytime you try and give him a compliment, he points it back to God. He's one of the most grounded guys I've ever met. But he's a guy I can hit up any time ask for prayer. He'll do the same. But yeah, I think he's probably it. ⁓ Greg Scott: Yeah, I had, I've seen you interact with him. And when I did, I think I, I went down a little bit of a side trail chasing him and I went, ⁓ I should know this guy already. ⁓ Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): But it's. Greg Scott: the five in our 315 challenge is if you could spend minutes with anyone, ⁓ through all of history. And five minutes is a terrible amount of time, but that's what fits our 315. But if you could spend five minutes with somebody, who would that be? Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): you ⁓ mean, the obvious one is Jesus, right? Like, man, to be able to talk to him for five minutes would just, I think it would, I heard a preacher once say in a sermon, if you could just have 30 seconds to see into heaven right now, and then come back to earth, you'd never live the same way. And I think about that a lot. If you get five minutes talking to Jesus, think how different you live your life after that, you know? But if it wasn't him, I would say my grandfather, I alluded to him earlier, he's a farmer and big impact on my life growing up. Just really great man, Carl Murphy. He passed 21 years ago, man, and I would kill for him to meet my children. Just thank him for the impact that he had on me as a youngster and things like that. yeah, grandpa. Greg Scott: think all the time about my granddad's plural and how I did appreciate him growing up. But you really don't until you get to be an older adult and you look back and go, that was a cool guy. I wish I had time to go, you know, or not just had time. I wish the opportunity was there, both mine had passed and where you could go back and spend real time, not just listening. I've heard that story granddad. No, no, no, no. Now it would be, hey, tell that story again. I'd like to. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Yes. Greg Scott: I'd like to really take that in. So we've alluded to the fact that, or we just said it out loud, how you're all over the place online. So if somebody's listening today and they want to connect with you online, may need another 20 minutes to talk about where all they can connect with you. But showing in the way, point to Tyler. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): Thank Easiest spot, man, it just comes, I'm on Twitter or X, it's still weird calling it X, I think that's strange, but Ty Romper, it's down there, I'm on there every day and I've shared on there every day for about six and a half years or so, plan on doing that for the foreseeable future. YouTube as well, just my name, Tyler Todt, same with Facebook and LinkedIn, those are like the main spots, but you just shoot me a DM, shoot me a message, say what's up, I respond to everybody. I have no helpers or DM, everything is me, I'm real proud of that, because everybody gets. Greg Scott: I Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): over 100,000 followers and they hire people to tweet their content or this or that. I enjoy it. Everything on there is me. come say what's up, man. That's my favorite part is connecting with people. ⁓ Greg Scott: been an absolute joy. I'm glad we connected online. I'm looking forward to keeping that connection. I appreciate how you live your life out loud online and also from the time that you kind of squirreled away for us today and our listeners to set aside. It's been fun having you on the podcast. Tyler Todt (@TYROMPER): appreciate you brother. we'll connect here soon man. I appreciate it.