You don't have to lose everything
before you become willing to change.
Sometimes it’s obvious. Addiction. A broken relationship. Financial collapse. A health crisis. Depression. Loss. Trauma.
You can have the career, the money, the family, the body, the house, the title, the success — and still know that something inside of you isn’t right.
I’ve experienced both. I’ve rebuilt my life from places I once believed were impossible to come back from. And I’ve also learned that rebuilding your life on the outside doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve rebuilt the person living inside it.
My story isn’t a straight line from adversity to success. It’s a story of falling, getting back up, building, falling again, and eventually understanding that I couldn’t keep trying to save myself through my own strength.
I experienced serious trauma early in life. I watched my family go from financial abundance to losing virtually everything. I experienced instability, family separation and the divorce of my parents.
As a young man, I found ways to escape what I didn’t know how to deal with. Eventually, that became addiction. Drugs took me into places I never imagined my life would go. Broken relationships. Homelessness. Destructive environments. Consequences. And eventually treatment.
At almost the exact moment I was leaving to enter treatment, my father died from cancer. I never got to say goodbye. That loss stayed with me for a long time. But somehow, I started rebuilding.
I went through treatment. I lived in transitional recovery. I became involved in recovery communities. I went back to school. I rebuilt my career. I rebuilt my health. At one point I lost approximately 100 pounds and eventually became a bodybuilder.
I became an entrepreneur. I built companies. I created financial success. I led teams. I raised capital. I spoke on stages. My life became almost unrecognizable compared with where I had come from.
But there was another side to that story. I relapsed. I got back up. I stayed sober for years. I compromised again. I rebuilt again. And eventually I learned something that fundamentally changed the way I understand transformation.
For much of my life, my solution to adversity was simple: work harder, become stronger, make more money, get in better shape, develop more discipline, control the situation, push through it.
And to be fair, those things helped me accomplish a lot. Discipline matters. Responsibility matters. Mindset matters. Goals matter. Action matters.
But eventually I discovered the limitation of building an entire life around self-will. I had spent years trying to become strong enough that I wouldn’t need anyone. Eventually, I realized that included God.
Years after my earlier struggles with addiction, a series of physical injuries and surgeries introduced prescription pain medication back into my life. What began with treating legitimate physical pain eventually became severe physical dependence and addiction.
And once again, everything I thought made me strong wasn’t enough. The entrepreneur wasn’t enough. The discipline wasn’t enough. The money wasn’t enough. The physical transformation wasn’t enough. The years of previous recovery weren’t enough. I needed help.
I finally reached a point where I got down on my knees and asked Jesus Christ to save me. Then I asked my wife for help. I asked doctors for help. I went through detoxification and hospitalization. And I experienced one of the most difficult physical, emotional and spiritual periods of my life.
I want to be clear about this part of my story. I’m not a pastor. I’m not an evangelist. I’m not a theologian. I’m not a doctor, therapist or addiction counselor. I’m a man sharing what happened to me and what I believe. And I believe Jesus Christ saved my life and my soul.
For years, I was uncomfortable saying that publicly. I believed in God. I attended church at different points. I had moments of faith. But there was a difference between believing something intellectually and surrendering my life to it.
Today, I believe Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I don’t say that because I’ve mastered Christianity. I haven’t. I’m studying Scripture. I’m learning. I’m praying. I’m changing. I still make mistakes. I still struggle. I still have difficult days. I am not speaking from a position of perfection. I’m speaking from experience, faith, survival, transformation and service.
My priorities changed. My mornings changed. My relationship with Scripture changed. My relationship with my wife changed. My understanding of success changed. And the question I was asking about my life changed. For years, I asked: What can I accomplish? Now I find myself asking: God, what do You want me to do with the life You’ve given me?
Born Again came from that question.
Addiction is part of my story. It doesn’t have to be part of yours. You don’t have to be homeless. You don’t have to lose everything. You don’t need to have experienced my trauma. You don’t even need to be at the lowest point of your life.
Maybe your health is deteriorating. Maybe your marriage is struggling. Maybe your finances are out of control. Maybe your business has consumed your life. Maybe you’re carrying fear, anger, resentment or shame. Maybe you’re depressed, anxious or lost and need qualified help alongside spiritual support. Maybe you’re successful in six areas of your life and completely broken in the seventh. Maybe nobody around you even knows.
Or maybe you’re simply looking at one area of your life and saying: I cannot keep living this way.
Born Again is the personal transformation program I’m building from the lessons, tools, faith, experiences and practices that have helped me rebuild my own life. It is unapologetically rooted in Jesus Christ. But it isn’t a program that demands you arrive with perfect faith.
You can arrive questioning. You can arrive skeptical. You can arrive angry. You can arrive hurting. You can arrive uncertain about what you believe. You can simply arrive willing.
Born Again begins with a simple belief: before you can rebuild your life, you must become willing to honestly confront it. And once you’ve rebuilt something, what you’ve learned can eventually become useful to someone else.
You cannot rebuild what you refuse to confront. Before setting another hundred goals or trying to manufacture another version of yourself, CLEANSE asks you to stop and look honestly at your life.
Where am I really? What’s hurting? What am I hiding? What keeps repeating? What am I blaming on somebody else? What happened to me? What have I done? What belongs to me now? What needs to stop? What needs to be forgiven? What needs professional help? What needs to be surrendered? What needs to change?
Your rock bottom doesn’t have to look like mine. It can be spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, financial, relational, professional — or several of them at once. CLEANSE isn’t about shaming yourself for your past. It’s about becoming honest enough to stop repeating it.
Build your life with God.
Cleansing isn’t the destination. It prepares the foundation. REBUILD is where willingness becomes action. Born Again uses Seven Pillars to help you examine and intentionally rebuild the major areas of your life.
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This is one of the foundations of Born Again. I don’t believe transformation means sitting back and waiting for God to do everything for us. And I no longer believe it means trying to do everything without Him.
There are things we need to surrender. There are things we need to accept. There are things we need professional help with. And there are things that require us to get up and take action.
- You may need to pray.
- You may need to get treatment.
- You may need to find recovery support.
- You may need to establish a boundary.
- You may need to stop drinking.
- You may need to apologize.
- You may need to see a doctor.
- You may need to leave an environment.
- You may need to change how you eat.
- You may need to ask someone for help.
- You may need to forgive.
- You may need to work with a therapist.
- You may need to repair a relationship.
- You may need to change how you work.
Transformation cannot remain entirely about us. Eventually, our experiences can become useful to someone else. Pain can create empathy. Failure can create wisdom. Recovery can create hope. Success can create opportunity. And your story may become the exact thing another person needs to hear when they believe their own story is over.
Service doesn’t require a stage. You don’t need a ministry. You don’t need followers. You don’t need to become a coach.
- Serve your spouse
- Serve your family
- Show up for a friend
- Share your experience when it can help
- Serve your children
- Encourage someone who's struggling
- Give when you're able
- Pray with someone
The cycle
CLEANSE → REBUILD → SERVE. Then life happens. Another season begins. Something else needs attention. Another part of your life needs cleansing. Something needs rebuilding. Someone needs what you’ve learned. So you return to the process.
Cleanse what is destroying you. Rebuild what has been broken. Serve with what you have been given. Then keep walking.
I want to be responsible about what Born Again is — and what it isn’t. Born Again is a faith-centered personal transformation framework. It is not addiction treatment. It is not medical care. It is not psychotherapy. It is not a substitute for a physician, licensed mental-health professional, treatment program, recovery organization, pastor, counselor, rehabilitation program or other qualified professional when that support is needed.
I believe deeply in prayer. I also believe in asking for help. I’ve needed both. Seeking professional care doesn’t mean you lack faith. Sometimes asking for help is one of the most courageous and responsible things you can do.
Born Again should complement the appropriate support in your life, never replace it.
Born Again isn’t something I wrote and handed to everybody else. I’m living it. I’m continuing to rebuild my health. I’m continuing to work on my marriage. I’m continuing to grow spiritually. I’m continuing to examine my relationship with business, money, ambition, discipline, fear and control.
I’m studying Scripture. I’m developing daily practices. I’m working through the Seven Pillars. I’m documenting what I’m learning. And I’m going to share that journey — the good days, the difficult ones, the lessons, the Scripture, the workouts, the conversations, the mistakes, the progress, the work.
Because I don’t want to build a transformation brand around pretending I’ve arrived. I’m walking too.
I’m currently building and filming the complete Born Again program. My intention is to make the core program available without charge so that money doesn’t become the reason someone who genuinely wants to change cannot begin.
If you’re struggling with an area of your life, rebuilding, falling and needing to get back up, searching for God, already found Christ but know parts of your life still need work — or if life is good and you simply know you’re being called to become more — you’re welcome here.
Join the waitlist and I’ll send you the teachings, worksheets, videos, daily practices and resources I’m building as they’re released. And when Born Again is ready, you’ll be among the first invited to begin.
Trauma. Addiction. Loss. Homelessness. Recovery. Relapse. Financial collapse. Physical transformation. Injury. Business success. Physical dependence. Hospitalization. And rebuilding. More than once.
But today, I don’t define my life by the worst things that happened to me. And I don’t define it by the biggest things I’ve accomplished either. I’m a husband. A businessman. A trader. A recovering addict. A student. A sinner. And a follower of Jesus Christ trying to become the man God is calling me to be.
I don’t know exactly where this part of my journey leads. But I know I’m supposed to share it. I’ll share my experience, my strength, my hope, what I’m learning, and the tools that are helping me. And I’ll keep pointing back to the One I believe gave me another opportunity to do it.