Finding Your Fire with Scott Bowen

Josh (00:00:00) - And. Good day, fellas. Welcome to Uncensored Advice for men. This episode has been kind of like brought to you by one of our mutual friends, Robbie Engel, who I grew up with and now who's one of his buddies. And, uh, we just decided to come on here today, talk with you guys about dude stuff with my friend. My new friend. Welcome to the show, Mr. Scott.

Scott (00:00:29) - Thanks for having me Josh. I am excited to be a part and looking forward to the to our time together.

Josh (00:00:34) - Yeah, so uncensored advice for men. Uh, when you see that uncensored advice for men, like, what's the first thing that pops in your head when you hear that title?

Scott (00:00:45) - Uh, good question. Uh, you know, uncensored. I think that's what that's what I think about. So, you know, you know, the movies that are uncensored, the things that are uncensored in this life. So anything goes. There's no rating, there's no, uh, you know, regulations on what can be said or talked about.

Scott (00:01:03) - Yeah.

Josh (00:01:04) - I am wearing pants. And, uh, this is a podcast, but, uh, also on YouTube. But the uncensored thing, do you think that men are getting censored advice, or do you think that they're just censoring themselves? Like, what are your thoughts on like the how, what what kind of input do you think us men are getting from today's world?

Scott (00:01:27) - I definitely think it's censored for sure, because I think everybody, not everybody, shouldn't say that. But most people are just a little bit afraid to say what's on their mind. Um, for fear of getting canceled, so to speak, you know, and that cancel culture. Mhm. Um, so I definitely think it's been filtered. Been censored. Uh, for sure. And um, yeah, I think there's, there's a lot of opportunities for men to, to grow and to, to, to get away from that and just be real and be open and be honest, take off the mask kind of thing and talk about life.

Josh (00:01:57) - Yeah. So let's start to do that in our in our conversation as we, as we start to take off our own mask, kind of give us an idea of the last time that you wore a mask in terms of like hiding yourself or vulnerability transparency. Talk to us about the last time you did that and why.

Scott (00:02:18) - It's.

Josh (00:02:20) - Um.

Scott (00:02:22) - You know, I think I'd do it often. Honestly, I think it's just kind of. You put on your clothes, you get ready for the day, and you put on your mask, and you go outside and you do it. Um, and that can be in business. That can be in a lot of different areas. I think I can do it potentially just even with my kids and my wife. Um, because I want to be like the good father that does the right things that, you know, that shows no weaknesses or vulnerabilities. Um, so the better question may be, when have I not done it? Um, because I think that's, you know, that's just kind of life.

Scott (00:02:57) - Uh, for most men, it's it's, you know, you got to get to work. You got to act like you got your act together and those kind of things. And so, um, you know, specifically, you know, maybe, um, yeah, specifically, maybe just work related things, you know, um, having conversations with people at their asking for advice. And so it's like, okay, I'll give you something to hear, you know, and it may not be true or may not be right, but I'm going to act like I know what I'm talking about. So things like that. Yeah.

Josh (00:03:27) - What kind of work do you do?

Scott (00:03:30) - So I do two things. Um, I am in real estate. That's what pays the bills. Um, I'm a real estate agent. I'm an investor. Um, and I coach other real estate investors as well. That's that's kind of the 75% job. And then, um, 12 years ago, I started a a nonprofit.

Scott (00:03:49) - We work with kids in Uganda. So, um, I'm very involved in that, um, from a time perspective. And, uh, and so, uh, the, the non-profit and the in the mix with, with real estate is, is what I do.

Josh (00:04:03) - Is the jam. Now you're so you have a non-profit. It's a ministry focused on serving people in Uganda. Kids. Right.

Scott (00:04:12) - Kids, uh, specifically boys, uh, middle school to high school aged boys in Uganda. Um, just our ideas that we want to pair them up with, uh, a good Christian male influence that's going to walk through those critical, formative years of middle school and high school with them. Um, give them, you know, just guidance mentors, so to speak. Um, but we do it all around, organize soccer leagues. So we're, we look on the outside like a sports complex, but really on the inside, we are a mentoring slash discipleship, uh, ministry focused on those middle school, high school age boys.

Scott (00:04:51) - Yeah.

Josh (00:04:51) - Cool. So you and I are hanging out, maybe having a scotch or a rum or something like that. We take a globe and we spin it. We go, boom, Uganda. I'm gonna build a a non-profit. They're like, how in the world did did that happen? Was it, you know, just by chance, or was it like God had ordained? Like, how did that happen, man?

Scott (00:05:10) - Yeah, well, it's obviously a long story. Um, but but the short version is, uh, someone in my sphere of influence had a connection with someone in Africa, and they said, hey, we're going on a trip. And we want you to come. And so I didn't really want to go. I didn't really travel at that point. I was 30 years old. I was 18 years ago. And so I wasn't like a world traveler at that point. And, uh, you know, I didn't really want to go. And I, I kind of thought in the back of my mind, hey, I'm going to go home, talk to my wife, and she's going to say, yeah, that's a bad idea.

Scott (00:05:44) - Let's not do that. It wasn't an organized trip. It was just three guys going over to. I would be the fourth guy going over on this, on this adventure kind of thing. And immediately when I talked to her, she was like, you know what? I think you should do it. I think this would be good for you, and I think you should do it. And so I was like, okay, um, let me think about it, pray about it, that kind of thing. And, uh, and I came to the conclusion, yeah, let's go. And literally that was, you know, in, you know, what was that 2005 and that, that one, that one decision changed my life, um, in a lot of different ways, but obviously for the best. And, um, long story short, we ended up doing a lot of work. Uh, this country we were in and was in Zambia, that led us to do some work for specifically these boys in Uganda, just through some relationships there.

Scott (00:06:32) - And, um, we've been in Uganda ever since. So that's the that's the short version.

Josh (00:06:36) - Yeah, I love it. Good job, by the way. But we're going back to the story. In the story you and I are hanging out. We just spun the, you know, globe and we just got invited to go to Uganda. And you know, I'm dropping you off at home and and you're like, hey, babe, wife. Some guys are going over to Africa to do some stuff. And she goes, I think it's a good idea. What was going on in your life where your wife would say, it's a good idea for you to go to freaking Africa with no plan, like the very little note, no structure, nothing. What what's going on in your world where your wife was like, that's a freaking good idea.

Scott (00:07:12) - Well, I mean, yeah, so I didn't know this, but, um, so at that point I'd been married for years. I got married when I was 26, so I was about 30 at that point.

Scott (00:07:23) - And, you know, I was kind of just doing the typical suburban, you know, work for a real estate company. I had a good corporate kind of job, you know, we were, you know, I was playing golf all the time, you know, just living kind of like, this is awesome. Like going from college to professional life, you know, having money, not no kids, that kind of stuff. And, um, and I think what I didn't know and I know now and what she told me after that moment was that she had been praying for years for like, really just God to, like, light a fire in my faith. And, um, it's not like I wasn't a believer in, in Jesus or the Lord or anything like that. Um, but I think there wasn't a spark and there wasn't like a fire that I think she obviously wanted, you know, or felt like it would be good for me to have. And, um, and so I think when I walked home and I asked that question, she was like, this might be the spark for that fire, you know, and, uh, in Scott's life.

Scott (00:08:22) - So, um, so that's what she would say looking back on that. And obviously that's what I would say because I think it's true. But, um, but yeah, that was the that was it.

Josh (00:08:30) - Yeah. I think a lot of us dudes find ourselves in this, the American dream white picket fence, you know, 4% interest rates on our house and and, you know, 401 K maxing out do a rollover. My kids now have dental insurance, whatever. They're on breaks. Whatever the case may be, we get caught up in this stuff and we show up to work and we have fun. We cheer a game or a sport that we watch other guys, you know, exercise in. But I think that if we really ask ourself like, hey dude, what are you on fire about? What are you passionate about? Um, it'd be like, well, I love my wife and my kids, my job, my dog. You know, I like to fish. You're like, yeah, that's cool.

Josh (00:09:13) - Right? Especially the wife and kids thing. But, like, I think that there's this fire missing and dudes of like, nah, I'm willing to fight for this. I'm willing to invest in it. I'm willing to lose it all on this. Like so she diagnosed it as maybe and she's been praying about it for years, and you just didn't know that it wasn't there, right? Right. So you go to Africa and you said it was the one decision that changed my life forever. What was it about that that started to light a fire in you?

Scott (00:09:44) - Yeah, I think it was just, you know, I think, like I said before, you're just kind of I always use the analogy of, like the lazy river of life. You know, you go to the water park and you get in the lazy river and you don't do anything. You just float around and you see what's around you. And, you know, and I think that's where I was. I was just like sitting in this lazy river floating through life.

Scott (00:10:03) - And I think when I, when I, you know, hit the soil of Africa in that moment, it was just a big sense of purpose. And I and I saw things that I took for granted of just even the simple things of like, how do you plan things on your calendar and budget and like, do different things like it was revolutionary to the people we were talking to and investing in, and we were trying to help them? Uh, we were trying to help them at the end of the day, start a school in an orphanage and things like that. So, um, I just felt like there was so much purpose around, like, the things that I took for granted. And for me, it just it really didn't light a fire in me. And I was like, man, I can really help these people in like, this. Like, I just thought I was, you know, Joe Blow from northern, you know, Atlanta, you know, doing my thing and and like, no, no, I can see I can really impact somebody specifically.

Scott (00:10:52) - And I think that's where it started and then just grew from there. I just got really passionate about, um, you know, other cultures and people groups and like learning about how they view the world. It just wasn't around and didn't really expose myself to a lot of, um, to a lot of those kind of things at an early age. And so, um, so it just became a passion of mine, and it just drove growth in terms of like what I wanted to know and wanted to learn from these people. Um, which which fell to me got me to that point. But, um, you know, I just don't, you know, I just didn't have any of that. So I think once I saw it and tasted it, I was like, this is what I want. Like, this is it. And, um, it became the most important thing to me other than, you know, family and things like that.

Josh (00:11:37) - When that happened to you. Like you unplug from the matrix and you're like, oh my gosh, like there's a need here.

Josh (00:11:44) - I could fulfill it. It starts to light a fire. That little spark turns into a fire, turns into a purpose, turns into a mission, turns into an academy. What kind of impact have you guys had through your your soccer and academy and mentorship?

Scott (00:11:59) - Man, it's been awesome. Um, and here again, like, you know, long story short, I ended up partnering specifically with another guy named Tom Carson. Uh, he's now the executive director. Our organization, by the way, is called Champions United. Um, champions United fc.org is the the website. But, um, but he's our executive director. When we started this thing together and literally had no idea what we were doing or how we were going to do it. We were in Uganda. Um, and we were like, okay, let's just buy a piece of property and put a field on it and we build it. They will come. Um, that was that was not as easy as we thought it was going to be.

Scott (00:12:37) - Number one, buying property in a foreign country, um, developing property, you know, 4 to 5000 miles away, you know, trying to get, you know, contractors out there to do the things. And we weren't living there. So it definitely made it tough and, and, and those kind of things. And we started to question at least I did specifically was like, I don't know if this is what I mean. This is like a lot harder than I thought. There was times I was over there and I'm just like, I just think this, you know, we, we, we essentially raise money from donors to do this project. And I'm feeling bad about the donor money because I watch it literally just wash away as rain came and washed our fields away and, and things like that. So I'm like, this is this is hard and this is not fun, and I'm not getting paid for this. So I don't know why I'm here. You know, just started questioning a lot of these things.

Scott (00:13:25) - Um, but you look back, I mean, that was 12 years ago. We finally got through it. It's one day, one step at a time. Steady progress. Um, we've got ten campuses that we operate right now in Kampala, the capital city. Um, over 17,000. You know, boys have been a part of our mentoring and discipleship programs. Um, we employ over 70 of our staff, which we call coaches. So 70 coaches. Um, so, you know, it's like looking back, we're like, man, this is amazing. Like, you know, and we look forward and we see, you know, double that impact for sure. Um, but I remember those first the first months and first year of being just like, hey, this is what have we done? There's a reason people from America don't come over here and do stuff like this.

Josh (00:14:12) - If you build it, they will come. It's a Kevin Costner movie, field of dreams. You and your boy Tom.

Josh (00:14:17) - Which one of you guys is Kevin Costner?

Scott (00:14:20) - Tom definitely is. Yeah.

Josh (00:14:22) - Shoeless Joe Jackson in that movie, right, I got it.

Scott (00:14:26) - Yeah. No, Tom's a vision like he was. I remember one time being, like, literally, like, I don't think I can do this anymore. And he said, that's fine. He was real cool about it. He was like, that's fine. I understand. Like I'm it's stressful. If you don't do it, I'm still going to keep going forward. At that point, I was like, I don't want him to keep going forward and me not be a part of it, you know, because we've gotten this far. And so, um, so he really motivated me to or just encouraged me more or less is like, you can do this. And now is when I was a skeptic. He was the optimist. And it really helped get through the tough times.

Josh (00:15:00) - Is that really how it went? Or you're like, hey man, it's hard.

Josh (00:15:03) - I'm not getting paid. It's not fun. This kind of sucks. What's it really like? I understand, buddy, you do what you gotta do. Obviously. Like, come on dude, toughen up man, get over here. We're doing this. We're going.

Scott (00:15:14) - I think his response like that, in his mind, he was saying that. But his his way of doing that would be to to go on the other opposite side of the spectrum, just like, that's fine. Whatever you do, whatever you want to do, I'm just going to keep going. Yeah, I think I'm.

Josh (00:15:28) - Going towards this. You could come or not. Yeah. And you decided to go. Looking back, ten campuses, 17,000 boys, 70 staff member changing. Changing the continent. Right. Like, good job boys. Um, you're. Let's go to the day you almost quit. Yeah, right. When you're at that point almost quitting. Like what? How do you know that you're on the right path? How do you know that you're you've got the right fire? How do you know to rekindle the fire? Like what is your what's your advice to the dude right there who started I'm on Fire.

Josh (00:16:03) - Got to the point. It's not fun anymore. I'm not getting paid. I don't know if it's going to work. How do you know when to put a bullet in it or to keep going?

Scott (00:16:14) - I mean, it's a good question. I don't know if there's one right answer, you know what I mean? Everybody's situation is probably a little bit different, but, um. I just think for me it was it was the it was the it was my wife, the family, the it was the it was all the money that we had raised from donors of like, this is what we're doing. And for me to be as is kind of like, you know, I don't think I can do this. I had to go back and think about all those things that contributed to where we were. And I do think that's where I got a little bit convicted of, like, I owe it to these people, you know, to to at least see this thing through and not just quit because it's hard, um, but really persevere and see it through.

Scott (00:16:58) - And I feel like, honestly, like we this is a ministry, like the Lord's put this on our heart to like, this is not just, you know, something I want to do for my own, my own gain. This was like something I felt like the Lord's put on my mind and my heart. And so, um, so I think it was like, yeah, owe it to all these things to, to persevere through this. And I don't think I developed that muscle very well as, um, you know, as a kid and, you know, growing up with our family dynamic of, you know, there wasn't a lot of lot of suffering and things that I had to really push through. Um, and not that this was either. It was definitely wasn't suffering. But, um, it was a hard thing that I, I didn't exercise that muscle. Well, I think looking back, you know, now, you know, whenever that, you know, 12, 13 years ago, whenever that was.

Scott (00:17:46) - Um, and to see like number one, the faithfulness of the Lord through that. But then also just the, you know, I, my family gives me a hard time because I could talk about compounding interest all the time, because our kids are young and, you know, I'm in real estate and investing and that's like always a topic of conversation. But even in this, it's like just seeing the compounding interest of faithfulness over those years of just doing whatever the next right thing was for us and what we were doing. Um, you know, that's a that's a muscle. It's a faith muscle being built. Um, and it's painful at times. But I think that's when you grow like that's obviously when you grow, when you work out like it's painful. Like, those are I think I read somewhere, it's like, you know, the, the last what was it, 20 or 10% of those reps that you do like working out or ones that, that actually are building the muscle. Yeah.

Scott (00:18:35) - And so if you do lightweight and you don't really max it out and those kind of things, you're not really building the muscle. And I think that's the truth, um, that I experienced, um, and making those decisions to persevere in the hard stuff.

Josh (00:18:47) - So you've been doing this a while. How long have you been running these programs?

Scott (00:18:53) - Our 2012. So about 11 years.

Josh (00:18:56) - All right. So the boy he was a middle school now. He has a family of his own. Yeah, right. He looks you in the eyes and he says, this is how specifically you guys help change my world. What does that look like? Because I have no freaking clue about Uganda or the the situation these boys are going through. I don't know what it looks like, and I don't know the pain points that they have. I could make assumptions, but I'd probably be wrong. So what would that boy say to you and I if we were interviewing him together?

Scott (00:19:29) - Yeah. And honestly, we have stories like that for sure.

Scott (00:19:33) - You know, boys have come through. We have some of our coaches, you know, probably 10% of our coaches were boys that were once in our program and things like that. So, um. You know, at the heart of what we were trying to do was like, we literally wanted to connect a middle school boy with someone who was about ten years older, that had gone through the same things that they had gone through when they were middle school. And for those for the context in Uganda, especially that time period coming off of the HIV Aids epidemic and things like that, um, a lot of these boys are just being raised without fathers, number one. Um, a lot of them just orphan orphanages, you know, being raised by grandmothers and, uh, different people in the community. And so they just didn't have a lot they didn't have a model for for them to like a lot of us here, we'll look at our dads or we'll look at our uncles and people in our life that are older and we'll just say, okay, that's the kind of guy I want to be.

Scott (00:20:33) - They're not really identifying those. Or if they are, they're the they're the people that are maybe not the best, you know, in terms of a model for them. And so, um, so I think what ultimately what they would say was like, you know, I feel like at the critical and formative years of my life, someone stepped in and they cared about my grades. They cared about my family, they cared about the decisions I made. And and they were there for me when when I didn't know where, what, what to do or where to go or how to turn. Um, and then then, you know, everybody's a little bit different. Everybody's trajectory after that is different. But a lot of these kids will just grow up and and they'll just know that and like, okay, I saw that that coach model for me, what it means to be a father to his or a husband to his wife or a father to his kids. And, and I watched him do that.

Scott (00:21:25) - So now that's what I want to do. Um, just to give them a different vision, a different way, um, forward as a, as a, as a just a young adolescent. Yeah.

Josh (00:21:36) - What what language do they speak in Uganda?

Scott (00:21:39) - Uh, they speak Lou Grandin.

Josh (00:21:42) - Do you know any Lou Gordon?

Scott (00:21:44) - Oh, you don't want me to. You don't want me to try that?

Josh (00:21:48) - Can you say welcome to uncensored advice for men in Ugandan?

Scott (00:21:52) - I can say a bunch of things, but I would think it's London. And then a Ugandan would hear it and say, no, that's not there.

Josh (00:22:00) - What nickname do they have for this white boy going on over there and starting soccer league?

Scott (00:22:05) - So Mungu is the is the name for like white person. So that's that's usually what you just get called everywhere you go. It's an it's an endearing term for sure. Yeah.

Josh (00:22:16) - Yeah. Because I mean you go over there and they, they might not have ever seen a white man in their life.

Josh (00:22:22) - Right. Like the population is, is primarily, you know, much, much darker. So that's so cool. So you go over there and like Mungo Mungo, my dad went to Africa and they were doing the same thing, but they were speaking Swahili.

Scott (00:22:34) - It's similar. Yeah. It's similar. Real similar.

Josh (00:22:37) - Super cool. So you go over there and you have. So before you go you have insecurity. What is this guy going to go in and do you know over there. Right. Like what what what do I have to offer. Right. Like so we go back to your 20 year old, what however old you were when you went over there? 30 years old. Yeah. And, you know, like, talk to us about the insecurities before you jump on that plane, like you've already bought the ticket. You're freaking out a little bit. What was going through your brain?

Scott (00:23:06) - Yeah. I mean, so the experience that I had before we started, you know, our specific organization there just hear a lot of stories about, you know, people coming over from America who are well-meaning.

Scott (00:23:21) - They want to do good and they just get taken advantage of, you know? And, you know, it happens all the time. It's it's not good, obviously. Um, and I think it was just that's what I was like, you know, are we the right people to do this or are we equipped to do this? We don't know the culture. We don't know the the we don't know a lot. Um, and Tom and I had a, had a specific, um, desire and that would be that this thing is 100% indigenously led, and we just want to offer support. We just want to offer, um, guidance. We want to give, you know, feedback where we can, um, and, you know, 11 years, 12 years later, I think we've we've done that for the most part. We don't have really any staff to say for some, you know, we lead trips over there. So we have some, some support staff here to help facilitate some logistical things.

Scott (00:24:14) - But um, but all of our staff and all the operations and all the things that happen, you know, for the organization happen over there by Ugandans. Um, I didn't get into the self-sustaining piece of this, this whole thing, but that's a whole other piece of it. Um, so it's 100% self-sustaining using Ugandan dollars. So it's everything is, like, supported by them. And, um, that's huge.

Josh (00:24:39) - Let's not brush over that for a second. So self-sustaining. What do you mean by that?

Scott (00:24:43) - Yeah. So we we will raise the funds in the US for a campus. Um, campus typically cost $250,000 to kind of set it up, get it going. Um, that campus will reach about 700 kids, um, 700 families. Really? Because it's it's deeper than just the children, but, um, about 700 kids and, um, in a given year, and then it just keeps going, obviously year after year. But we we developed a campus, we developed the we bring over field turf, you know, and lay it down.

Scott (00:25:15) - And, you know, they play on this pristine grass, you know, field with the with all the markings and stuff like that. So we plop that down and uh, we, we kind of build a, that's kind of the epicenter of all the things that are going to happen in that community. Um, but at night we rent it out to local people. So guys, you know, like you or your buddies, they get together, they want to play pickup soccer. They go and they rent it out for the hour. They they split the, you know, the fees and and they just play for an hour and they, you know, enjoy themselves and leave. Um, and so we rent it typically from 5 p.m. to midnight every night, you know, all the campuses are rented and, um, all the revenue that we generate from those, from those rentals, um, covers all the programming, all the coaches salaries, all the operational costs and support that needs to happen inside, um, inside our ministry there.

Scott (00:26:08) - And so that's one has been awesome to do that and to have these guys who are not only doing ministry, but they're also like running a small business, essentially. Yeah. Um, which is cool because Tom and I are both business oriented guys. So it's kind of like we're doing ministry and business and they're doing ministry and business. And so the conversations we have as a leadership team and as a staff and those kind of things are all are geared around, you know, similar, similar ideals. Um, but yeah, it's it's every, every campus is 100%, you know, self-sustaining from that perspective. Obviously we we do the seed capital to get. To go in, but once it's up and running, they do the rest.

Josh (00:26:45) - I hear this a lot. Ministry or business? Right. Like I hear these business guys. I can't wait to retire. I'm going to go do business, you know? I'll get in the ministry somehow. I'm going to go serve. My wife and I are going to go on a I can't wait to retire.

Josh (00:26:58) - I only got 27.5 more years. You're saying ministry and business, right? Like there's a combination. Your your ministry is your business. Your ministry. You know, your business is your ministry. What does that look like? And what's that, a mindset shift for you?

Scott (00:27:15) - Yeah, I think, um. I think I just like both and I don't. I'm not going to say like everyone needs to do both, because I definitely think that's not necessarily the case. But for me and Tom and and for us, when we started this thing that's just that was like we're both business guys at heart. And I just think there's so much to learn from both sides. Like there's there's so much to learn how to do business by doing ministry and being relational and like being open and connected and like and like, you know, that kind of thing. And then there's so much you can learn about ministry, about, you know, by running a business and being strategic and process oriented and things like that.

Scott (00:27:56) - And so I just feel like they work really well together. And when you overlap the two into something that, like we're both passionate about. So like underprivileged youth is one of the things we're, you know, we're passionate about. You know, when you connect ministry business and you do that Venn diagram of like your passion in the middle, that's essentially what happened with us. And, um, I think it's been perfect for us, honestly. Yeah.

Josh (00:28:23) - How do you find that passion? Because I think a lot of us are just walking around like fricking robots clocking clock out. Hey, Bob, how are you doing? Good, Jim. See you next Friday. Right. Like. Waiting for that thing to spark and, you know, light us up inside. How do you find that?

Scott (00:28:40) - That's a good question. I mean, I have a 17 year old son, and we have my wife and I have conversations about that with him. You know, it's like and I think back to myself, when I was 17, I didn't have that passion.

Scott (00:28:49) - Like that wasn't on my radar. So, um, so it's interesting to because we're having these conversations, like, when does that come? How does that look? And honestly, I think. I think it's just experience, you know, like, if I didn't say yes to the guy who asked me to go to Africa, like, I don't know that I would have experienced what I've experienced. I know I wouldn't have. Yeah. And so to me, it's like being open, being like surrendered, like open handed, like, okay, whatever the Lord has for me today, like I'm just going to be open to it and not necessarily be closed minded to it. And I think through those experiences and walking through different doors, I think you just start to kind of curate your own like palette of like what's. Special, what's unique and what like the the fingerprint that God's put on you. Um, and like, we were just talking about, I think it's for me, it's business ministry and underprivileged kids.

Scott (00:29:43) - And, like, you know, I'm that's the trifecta for me. And, you know, I'm 48, and I can identify that, you know, when I was 30, I don't think I had I maybe I didn't have any of those, honestly. Like, I didn't know.

Josh (00:29:56) - You didn't have the miles on. You know, you didn't have the miles in to to really figure it out. Yeah. Um, are you good at soccer?

Scott (00:30:04) - No. I'm terrible. I, I don't even.

Josh (00:30:08) - I.

Scott (00:30:08) - Don't even like soccer, honestly.

Josh (00:30:12) - Like, do you watch Ted Lasso at least? Like, do you like.

Josh (00:30:15) - I tried, I tried.

Josh (00:30:17) - Clue about soccer. Yet you have 17,000 soccer players that you guys have helped build and such like that. I think that's pretty cool. What that shows me is everyone's like, well, I don't know a dang thing about that. So they avoid it rather than, hey man, let's give it a shot. Let's see what could happen from this.

Josh (00:30:35) - Yeah, you don't know. Dang thing about soccer. You don't even like soccer. But you've helped impact 17,000 boys.

Josh (00:30:41) - Um.

Josh (00:30:42) - Through soccer. Yeah. Nice work dude.

Josh (00:30:45) - Well, I.

Scott (00:30:46) - Mean, it's, you know, soccer is what they love, you know what I mean? It's like for them, they they would do that all day. I wouldn't say everybody, but, you know, for the most part, the boys, the middle, the target audience of what we're looking for is super passionate about soccer. And so we're like, okay, let's create a soccer brand. Let's make it look cool, let's make it look like something they're excited about. And let's just open the doors and see what happens. And so, you know, it was more about the net that's going to catch those kids than it was about anything else. It was like, this is just our strategy to connect. Like, how are we going to connect this kid, you know, to this kid.

Scott (00:31:22) - And so we felt like if they can come in the door, feel good about where they are, and then get connected to a mentor, um, and then we'll just let the rest of, you know, let the rest happen, how it happens. Um, so, yeah, it was more just a hook or the net that would catch them, you know? And so we just designed it around soccer. Now, Tom knows more and like, soccer more than me, but. Yeah, um, but I'm a sports guy. Like, I love sports. And I know the impact of sports on people's lives and coaches on people's lives and things like that, for sure. Um, I just never was a big soccer guy.

Josh (00:31:55) - That's so funny.

Josh (00:31:56) - What does FC stand for? So I'm looking at the website Champions United fc.org.

Josh (00:32:03) - Uhhuh.

Scott (00:32:04) - So that's football club I do know that much. Um, so.

Josh (00:32:08) - I should have known that it's right.

Scott (00:32:10) - You got like Atlanta United FC. You got, you know all the like a lot of the European clubs or, or FC football club.

Scott (00:32:18) - Um so we went with that from our uh, from like a branding perspective.

Josh (00:32:22) - So I'm looking at the site and I see a kid with a really cool Champions United shirt on. I want a shirt, I want to buy a shirt. And I'm sure that there's other dudes out there wants a shirt with the QR code that says donate here or something like that. Can I get a shirt? Could I order a shirt champion United because I want to rock the club? If I give you a certain amount of money to you guys for sure?

Scott (00:32:45) - Um, yeah. For sure. Right. We want to do is not on the site like, you know, so we'll have to figure that out. But, um, but for sure you can we have, we have a lot of different styles and shirts and things like that that we could.

Josh (00:32:58) - Uh, yeah.

Josh (00:32:59) - Dudes, for, for any of you soccer players or Ted Lasso fans out there, look at this. Like, go on to the website Champions United FC org.

Josh (00:33:06) - And there's this really cool looking kid near a video, but he has a cool shirt I want. That shirt has a crest on it with a lion in this thing. Anyways, I want a shirt. All right. And if you guys want a shirt too, maybe we'd get enough of them. I'll order in bulk. Um. All right. Sorry, I, I think, uh, I chased the squirrel, uh, as we were going, Mr. Scat, um, for the dudes out there who are maybe, like, walking around dead man, waiting for that fire to start waiting for that spark, man. What? What's a what's one thing that you could just say to them that that encourages them to to go out and look for those experiences to to be like the Jim Carrey and go, yes, man for a little bit, you know, and to try things like to take a risk to go into the unknown, like what's what's a piece of advice.

Scott (00:33:53) - Yeah for sure. I mean, I think that's the big thing is like, just be open.

Scott (00:33:56) - I think, too, I mean, like my wife did, you know, just praying for those opportunities and praying for that fire. I think those are like the prayers that God really, really appreciates. It's like having a posture of surrender and saying, okay, I'm open. I'm willing to learn. I'm willing to risk a little bit, um, just give me some opportunities. And I think when we're looking for those opportunities, we'll see them. And then, yeah, like Jim Carrey just say, yeah, you know? Yes, whatever comes your way, say yes. And just I mean, not everything is going to fit, um, and those kind of things. But, you know, I've been going to Africa for a long time. I've invited probably hundreds of people to Africa to go with me. And, you know, I kind of just joke and we kind of just joke. It's kind of a funny thing that's like, it's really hard to get someone to go to to Africa.

Scott (00:34:46) - And I get it because I was there. As you heard in the story, I didn't really want to do it. Um, but I'm, you know, there's there's probably lots of opportunities to just do something that's abnormal or that's uncomfortable. And I think that's where we're going to grow. And I think that's where we're going to see, like, God, work. And for some people, it might just be like donning the doors of a church, potentially for some people it might be like, yeah, I'm going to go, you know, and try to find a men's group or a group of guys that I could connect with. Um, it could be a small step. That doesn't have to mean you're going to Africa, but just something to take. That next step, I think, is very important.

Josh (00:35:24) - Used foreign language. I think you're speaking Ugandan. You said, donning the doors like breaking the like breaking the thresholds. What do you mean by dawn? Like where did you even like.

Scott (00:35:33) - I don't even know if that's the right phrase or not, but I think that means just, like going in the door.

Josh (00:35:39) - It's probably close. Yeah, well, I mean, you're right.

Josh (00:35:42) - It's an old.

Scott (00:35:42) - Man phrase we have to.

Josh (00:35:43) - An old man.

Josh (00:35:44) - Old English. You're you're speaking to me.

Scott (00:35:47) - Hear ye on the doors. Yeah.

Josh (00:35:49) - That's right. So as we.

Josh (00:35:51) - Dawn our dresses and walk through the doors on our doors. Uh. So, Scott, where could dudes learn more about you, your real estate, your real estate investing, your real estate coaching and champions United FC football club? Where can they go to know more?

Scott (00:36:06) - Yeah, I mean, you mentioned the website. So obviously there for the ministry stuff. Um, the only social media stuff that I do is on LinkedIn. And if you just search Scott Bowen Real Estate, I think you will find me there. Um, I talk a lot about real estate investing, um, starting as a, as a kind of a small time, you know, buy a rental property here, buy a rental property there, and build a strategy and a strategic system around, um, you know, growing a small portfolio that hopefully will grow into more, um, so that's a lot of the content that I talk about.

Scott (00:36:37) - But, um, that's probably the best place is to just go to LinkedIn. Also there on LinkedIn, we'll talk about Uganda and things like that as well. But um, but yeah, that that's the best place.

Josh (00:36:48) - Super cool guys as freaking always reach out to our guests and say thank you if they're saying something that's cool to you, that sparks your heart, that like, even has a little bit of an interest to you. Take action, go to the show notes, reach out to them and say, hey, you said something cool and I want to chat about it. I want to give you money. I want to be involved, I need help, whatever it is. Reach out to our guests and say thank you. Let's be guys of gratitude in action. Uh, if you are someone out there who likes to talk to dudes and you have something to say that you think would be helpful, head on over to Uncensored Advice for men.com. Fill out a quick form, maybe get you on the show next.

Josh (00:37:26) - Till then, we'll talk to you all on the next episode. See you guys!