EPISODE 37 — 5 Hard Truths I Wish I Had Accepted Sooner

Some lessons you learn through wisdom. Others you learn through consequences.

In Episode 37 of The Genesis Podcast: The Renaissance of Manhood, CY and Ken Bishop sit down for a transparent conversation about five truths that become clearer through age, experience, failure, faith, and growth.

CY reflects on something deeper than simply “knowing better.” Sometimes the issue is that we haven't developed enough self-awareness to accept the truth about ourselves. Without it, we can mistake impulse for instinct, ego for confidence, isolation for independence, and rushing for ambition.

THE 5 HARD TRUTHS

1. IDENTITY — Know who you are before the world tells you. If you don't define who you are, achievement, relationships, titles, environments, and other people's expectations will try to do it for you. Sonship comes before assignment.

2. DECISIONS — Your life is built one decision at a time. Your future isn't created by your intentions. It's shaped by your repeated decisions. Every decision is taking you somewhere—even the small ones.

3. ENVIRONMENT — Stop depending on willpower. Your environment isn't neutral. The people you walk with, conversations you entertain, routines you establish, and content you consume are reinforcing who you're becoming.

Proximity produces patterns.

4. PATIENCE — Stop rushing. You're not behind. Comparison can convince you that somebody else's season should be your schedule. Sometimes you can obtain something before you've developed the character and capacity required to sustain it.

5. ACCOUNTABILITY — You need people who can tell you the truth. Independence sounds powerful until you recognize that everyone has blind spots. Real accountability means giving trusted people permission to challenge your inconsistencies—not just affirm your decisions.

CY and Ken unpack these truths through the lens of manhood, faith, maturity, relationships, and lived experience—challenging every man to examine not only where he is, but who he is becoming.

Proximity produces patterns. Decisions create direction. Patience develops capacity. Accountability exposes blind spots. And growth requires truth.

🎙️ EP. 37 — 5 Hard Truths I Wish I Had Accepted Sooner

Watch. Listen. Subscribe. And share this episode with a man who may need these truths before life has to teach them through consequences.

GO BEYOND THE EPISODE

The conversation doesn’t stop when the episode ends.

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📕 THE DISCIPLINE TO FINISH

Starting is easy. Finishing requires discipline.

Get CY’s book “The Discipline To Finish” and go deeper into the principles of focus, discipline, overcoming distraction, and finishing the assignment God gave you.

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Watch. Listen. Go deeper. Finish what you started.

The Genesis Podcast — The Renaissance of Manhood

Rev Leon didn't set out to build a movement. He set out to survive Oakland.

Long before "Stop Scrolling and Let Me Pray For You" became a viral prayer movement reaching millions, Rev Leon's story was being shaped through childhood pain, faith in God, prayer, and a grandmother who taught him that prayer wasn't religious formality—it was power.

In Episode 37 of The Genesis Podcast, Rev Leon sits down with CY for a raw conversation about faith, childhood trauma, healing, purpose, obedience to God, and what it means to turn pain into an assignment that serves other people.

Before millions encountered his prayers on social media, there was a young boy growing up in Oakland learning how to survive. His grandmother deposited something in him before he had the words to explain it: prayer was access to God, and his circumstances couldn't take that access away.

Years later, God would interrupt an ordinary moment and lead Leon to do something simple: pray for strangers, out loud, on camera.

That act of obedience became "Stop Scrolling and Let Me Pray For You" a prayer movement that has reached millions across social media.

But this conversation isn't about the numbers.

It's about the pain behind the prayers.

Rev Leon opens up about the experiences, wounds, faith, and spiritual formation behind the man people now encounter online—and why carrying a public assignment requires protecting a private relationship with God.

If you've ever wrestled with your past, questioned your purpose, struggled to hear God, or wondered how God could use what you've been through to help someone else, this conversation is for you.

WHAT YOU'LL HEAR:

• Rev Leon's story of growing up in Oakland

• How his grandmother shaped his understanding of prayer

• The childhood pain that helped shape the man he became

• How "Stop Scrolling and Let Me Pray For You" began

• Why small acts of obedience can become bigger than you planned

• Turning pain into purpose without allowing pain to define you

• How to recognize God's assignment in your life

• Creating from calling instead of chasing the algorithm

• Carrying public influence while protecting your private prayer life

• Faith, healing, purpose, obedience, and spiritual formation

This one will preach to your pain before it ever gets to your potential.

THE GENESIS PODCAST Inner clarity for sustainable external momentum.

FEATURING: Rev Leon — creator of "Stop Scrolling and Let Me Pray For You," a prayer movement born out of obedience that has reached millions across social media.

CONNECT:

Rev Leon Instagram: @itsrevleon https://instagram.com/itsrevleon

CY Instagram: @iam8020nation https://instagram.com/iam8020nation

Subscribe to The Genesis Podcast: https://youtube.com/@mindsetuniv

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BALANCE IS A LIE: Why Chasing Balance Keeps You Broke, Busy & Stuck

Everybody talks about work-life balance like it’s the goal. But what if chasing balance is actually keeping you from making progress?

In Episode 36 of The Genesis Podcast, CY and Ken Bishop challenge one of the most accepted ideas in modern culture: that every area of your life deserves equal attention at the same time.

The biblical model isn’t balance. It’s stewardship.

Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us that life happens in seasons. There is a time for different priorities, different responsibilities, and different assignments.

The issue isn’t whether everything in your life matters—it’s whether you have the clarity to recognize what matters most right now.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Why being busy and being productive are not the same thing • How trying to give everything equal attention can leave you making progress in nothing • Why “a little sleep, a little slumber” in Proverbs 24 becomes a warning about neglected stewardship • What Mary and Martha teach us about good things becoming distractions • Why Nehemiah refused to “come down” from the work he was assigned • How to recognize when a season has changed—and stop dragging an old assignment into a new season • Why Jesus modeled obedience, priority, rest, and intentionality rather than an equal distribution of attention • How internal clarity creates external momentum

This isn’t permission to neglect your health, marriage, family, or rest. Scripture gives all of those their proper place.

We’re challenging the idea that everything deserves the same amount of attention in every season.

Sometimes faithfulness means saying no to something good so you can give your full attention to what God has assigned you now.

The question isn’t:

“How do I balance everything?”

The better question is:

“What has God entrusted me to steward in this season—and what deserves my full attention?”

If this conversation challenges you, share Episode 36 with someone who has been carrying too much, doing too much, and wondering why they still feel stuck.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

What season are you in right now?

What is God asking you to give your full attention to—and what distraction do you need to let go of?

LISTEN TO THE GENESIS PODCAST

The Genesis Podcast — The Renaissance of Manhood is available on all streaming platforms.

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GET THE DISCIPLINE TO FINISH

Stop just starting. Develop the discipline, focus, and structure to finish what God has assigned you.

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FOLLOW & CONNECT

Follow Ken Bishop: @Ken_bishopspeaks Follow CY / 8020 Nation: @iam8020nation

The Genesis Podcast — The Renaissance of Manhood

Inner clarity for sustainable external momentum.

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What happens when you stop overlooking what others consider worthless and start seeing opportunity?

On Episode 35 of The Genesis Podcast, Carlton Young sits down with entrepreneur David “The Trashpreneur” Simes to unpack his journey of turning trash into treasure building businesses in an industry most people would never consider. David shares the mindset behind entrepreneurship, recognizing opportunity, betting on yourself, building from the ground up, and turning an unconventional idea into a profitable enterprise. But this conversation goes beyond business. It’s about vision having the ability to see value where others see waste, possibility where others see problems, and purpose in places other people overlook.

In this episode:

• Seeing opportunity differently

• Building in an unconventional industry

• Entrepreneurship and calculated risk

• Turning knowledge and experience into enterprise

• The mindset required to build something from nothing

• Why your starting point doesn’t determine your destination Sometimes the treasure isn’t missing. You just have to develop the vision to see it.

🎙️ The Genesis Podcast: The Renaissance of Manhood

Connect with David: “The Trashpreneur” Simes on Instagram: @iamdavidthetrashpreneur

https://universityoftrash.com/bookyourfreecall-810479-page

Connect with CY on Instagram @iam8020nation

Subscribe, comment, and share this episode with someone who needs to be reminded that opportunity can exist in the places everybody else ignores.

📘 The Discipline to Finish

Starting takes intention

Finishing takes discipline. Learn how to protect your focus, eliminate distractions, and finish what you started.

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Genesis Podcast Ep. 34

Survival scripts are your issue.

Not laziness. Not a bad attitude. Not "that's just who you are." The distrust. The hyper-independence. The emotional walls that never come down. The constant need to stay in control. Those may not be personality traits. They may be "survival scripts" internal rules you wrote to survive something, and they're still running your life. In Episode 34 of The Genesis Podcast, Carlton Young and Ken Funderburk unpack how father wounds, childhood pain, rejection, and unresolved trauma shape the beliefs that quietly govern our relationships, leadership, faith, and identity. What once protected you may now be preventing you from becoming who God created you to be. Because the truth is... The body keeps score. Your nervous system remembers what your mind has tried to forget. When trauma goes unresolved, your body stays armed. That's hypervigilance. It keeps scanning every room, every relationship, every disagreement, and every opportunity for the next threat even when the danger is long gone. The body isn't malfunctioning. It's doing exactly what it was trained to do. It just never got the memo that the threat is over. Powerful Quotes from the Episode "What you call your personality may actually be your protection." "Hyper-independence is unhealed pain wearing armor." "Some people don't have a work ethic problem—they have a nervous system that never learned safety." "Not every guarded response is discernment. Some of it is unresolved survival." "You can leave the trauma physically and still psychologically live there." "Discipline without healing eventually becomes another survival strategy." "Survival mindsets are installed before they're understood." "You cannot build Kingdom leadership on survival reflexes." "It did its job. Now it's time to write a new one."

Episode Partner This episode is proudly sponsored by Sean Insures Gregory State Farm Whether you're protecting your family, your home, your business, or planning for the future, Sean Insures provides trusted insurance solutions with personalized service you can count on. Wise stewardship includes protecting what God has entrusted to you.

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Continue the Journey If this episode resonated with you, go deeper with Carlton Young's book, The Discipline to Finish. Many people don't struggle because they're lazy they struggle because they're living from scripts that were written long before they ever pursued their purpose.

The Discipline to Finish provides a biblical framework for breaking unhealthy patterns, building lasting discipline, and becoming the person God created you to be.

📖 Get your copy here: [https://buy.stripe.com/eVq00j3jj1xE77...](https://buy.stripe.com/eVq00j3jj1xE77...)

🎙 Subscribe to The Genesis Podcast for weekly conversations on faith, identity, healing, leadership, personal growth, and becoming who God has called you to be. The Genesis Podcast The Renaissance of Manhood

#GenesisPodcast #SurvivalScripts

Tero Roberts lost his marriage, lived out of his vehicle, built a million dollar business from nothing, then watched it collapse a second time. This is how he stayed standing. In this episode of the Genesis Podcast, Tero Roberts opens up about divorce, homelessness, rebuilding wealth, losing it again, and the wilderness season that tested his faith and his identity. If you are searching for a real comeback story, a wilderness season testimony, or how to stay level headed through loss, this conversation is for you. In This Episode We talk with Tero Roberts about the full arc of his story: the collapse of his marriage, the season he spent living out of his car, the grind of rebuilding a seven figure business, and the gut punch of losing it a second time. We unpack what actually kept him level headed when everything visible in his life was falling apart, and why his faith became the load bearing wall of his identity instead of just a decoration on top of it.

Episode Partner: This episode is brought to you by RCS Construction Team.

Learn more at www.rcsconstructionteam.com

Connect With Us Watch more episodes of the Genesis Podcast: www.youtube.com/@mindsetuniv

Follow: Tero Roberts on Instagram ​⁠@wefittero

Follow CY: on Instagram @iam8020nation

Follow: Ken Funderburk on Instagram @ken_bishop_speaks

​​⁠ If this episode helped you, subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss a conversation on leadership, identity, and building a life from the inside out.

From Anger To Assignment

In 2019, Reggie George’s fourteen year old daughter was stabbed in the head with scissors by a classmate at school. Three months in the hospital. Two brain surgeries. A stroke. What Reggie did with his anger afterward became the foundation of a movement. During the legal proceedings, Reggie discovered the boy who hurt his daughter had grown up without a father figure. Instead of letting that fact fuel more rage, he turned it into a mission. He became an advocate for a solution, launching The Father Figure Movement and Father Figure Apparel around one simple standard: Be Present, Not Perfect.

In this episode, Reggie sits down with Carlton Young and on the Genesis Podcast to walk through how he processed unimaginable anger and turned it into an assignment. This is a conversation about fatherhood, trauma, forgiveness, and what it actually looks like to build something redemptive while you’re still standing in the middle of the crisis. If you’re a father trying to figure out what to do with pain that has nowhere to go, or if you’ve ever wondered how anger and purpose can occupy the same room, this episode is for you.

Connect with Reggie George and Father Figure Apparel: IG: @fatherfigureapparel @thef2podcast https://www.f2apparel.store/pages/abo...

Connect with the Genesis Podcast: @i​⁠am8020nation

www.carlton-young.com

#Fatherhood #FatherFigure #GenesisPodcast #Forgiveness #MensMentalHealth #DadLife #FaithAndFatherhood

Am I Worthy? From Orphan To Heir | Pastor Isiah Williams | Ep. 31

At 3 years old, CY asked his mother one question: “Where’s my dad?” That question wasn’t just about a father. It was about identity. Belonging. Whether he had been chosen. Pastor Isiah Williams wrote a book called Adopted and it’s not about a courtroom or paperwork. It’s about a God who looked at broken, rejected, wandering people and said: I choose you anyway. In this episode, CY and Pastor Isiah go deep on the question every man carries but few ever say out loud. Was I wanted? Am I worth staying for?

What we cover:

• The orphan spirit — what it is and how it shows up in grown men

• Why a man can grow up with both parents and still feel abandoned

• The difference between legal adoption and spiritual adoption — what the cross does that a courtroom never can • Why so many men live beneath their sonship — striving, performing, trying to earn what’s already been given

• The difference between a son and a servant in the Father’s house

• How to begin shifting your identity from orphan to son

Get the book: Adopted by Pastor Isiah Williams — http://payhip.com/Adopted

Get the book: The Discipline To Finish by Carlton Young, MBA — https://buy.stripe.com/eVq00j3jj1xE77...

📖 About The Genesis Podcast The Genesis Podcast is a men’s leadership and formation show hosted by Carlton Young (CY) — Army veteran, speaker, author of The Discipline to Finish, and founder of Mindset U with co-host and producer Ken Funderburk, who is a Minster, Motivational speaker, musician and all around rennaissance man. Every episode is built around one mission: the Renaissance of Manhood. Real conversations. Kingdom foundations.

Men built from the inside out. 🔔 Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode 👇 Drop a comment: Were you chosen — and do you believe it?

You start strong. You always do. Then somewhere between vision and finish line, it dies.

This episode is the diagnosis and the path forward. In loving memory of Greg Eichelberger (1952–2026)

In Episode 29, Carlton Young and Ken Funderburk expose the two patterns quietly killing your execution — Chronic Starters and Perpetual Incompleters — and deliver the 3-step framework to close the gap between vision and follow-through. If you’ve ever launched the project, started the business, opened the document, joined the gym, declared the vision… and watched it stall out before completion — this is for you. You don’t rise to vision. You fall to systems.

▸ What you’ll learn:

• Why you start strong but never finish (and what’s actually broken)

• The difference between Chronic Starters and Perpetual Incompleters • Why finishing isn’t a motivation problem — it’s a formation problem

• The 3-step framework to close the gap: Reduce the Field → Build a System → Train Identity

• The identity shift that makes finishing automatic ▸ Ask yourself: • What have you started but not finished?

• Where are you avoiding completion?

• Do you trust yourself to follow through?

📖 Order The Discipline to Finish (rooted in Nehemiah 6)

→ https://buy.stripe.com/eVq00j3jj1xE77...

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Why Men Stay Stuck | Fear, Self-Deception & The Courage to Grow | The Genesis Podcast

Most men don’t stay stuck because they lack talent. They stay stuck because fear masquerades as logic, comfort replaces conviction, and the need to be seen quietly drowns out the call to become. In this episode of The Genesis Podcast, Carlton Young sits down with guest conversationalist Billy Grubbs (@bgoat04) for an unfiltered conversation about the hidden barriers keeping men from the life they were created to live and the uncomfortable truths required to break through. In this episode, we cover: • Why fear disguises itself as logic — and how to call it out • The accountability gap that quietly keeps men stagnant • How self-deception sabotages progress before it starts • The danger of chasing validation over purpose • Why real growth only happens in discomfort • The role vulnerability plays in healing and transformation • Practical steps to break destructive cycles and build real momentum One of the most powerful moments in this episode comes when Billy shares the story of hearing his father say that he and his brother were his greatest accomplishments. In a world that measures men by titles and trophies, that moment reframes everything — legacy isn’t built through accolades, it’s built through presence, investment, and the people you show up for. If you’re done surviving and ready to start growing, this conversation was made for you.

📚 The Discipline to Finish — Build the discipline, consistency, and follow-through to complete what God called you to start:

👉 https://www.carlton-young.com/thedisc...

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👉 https://www.grip-golf.com 🎙 About The Genesis Podcast The Genesis Podcast exists to help men grow — spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and professionally — through authentic conversations, practical wisdom, and biblical truth. Subscribe for episodes on faith, leadership, accountability, emotional intelligence, and what it means to be a man of purpose.