True North Man

When Dr. Benjamin Page was still a student in chiropractic college, he found himself internally nearing rock bottom. In addition to the stress of schooling and the overwhelm of deadlines, he struggled to navigate emotional problems and staying in the present moment felt near impossible. 

“I was kind of sick emotionally,” he recalls. “I was talking to myself in a way that I shouldn’t be talking to myself.” 

That was when he discovered the healing powers of gardening. He’d built a plain planter box, about three feet long and a foot wide, and he also found some flower pots that had been thrown away. After assembling and spending 15 minutes in that space — his first garden — he could already notice a difference. He felt better.

“I clearly remember that those 15 minutes of just hanging out with that planter box and these two flower pots with peppers and tomato plants was life-changing,” he said. “I started to feel that I could do it, and those 15 minutes brought me into the present moment. I was able to just focus on one thing.” 

As a chiropractic physician today, time spent in nature is a massive component of Benjamin's approach toward holistic health. In his book, “Playing In The Dirt: The Key to Sustainable Health,” he lays out eight ways that nature and gardening can help us heal in a multitude of ways — spiritually, physically, and emotionally. In this episode of True North Man, Paul and Benjamin talk about how nature helps the body, mind, and soul heal and the reasons ecotherapy can help men provide better for themselves and their families, too.

What You’ll Learn

• What Benjamin believes modern medicine can and can’t do
• Why it’s so important to go outdoors barefoot (and how that can help your body neutralize excess free radicals and reduce inflammation)
• What the Bible has to show us about the importance of gardening for health
• And much more!

Favorite Quote: 

“All our emotional problems will be demonstrated physically. Spiritual problems will demonstrate physically and emotionally — they’re all inter combined. It’s all one. You cannot have one without it affecting the other. And if we’re not well physically, we’re not going to be well emotionally and spiritually.” 

— Dr. Benjamin Page

Connect With Benjamin: 

Instagram

Facebook

The Wellness Farmer Podcast

How To Get Involved:

Discover all that Paul Beam has to offer at www.true-north-ministries.com 

Enjoyed the episode? Hop over to Apple Podcasts for more! Like and share to help spread the word. We appreciate your support—and we hope to return the favor: Leave a review to let us know what you want to hear from Paul next.

Demetrye Isoldi grew up in a broken home. 

His mother was verbally, physically and psychologically abusive to him and his sister, and she would sometimes sleep with men in front of them. His biological dad was a rapist and pedophile who spent most of his time in and out of jail, and his brother today is serving three life sentences for murder. But it was the harm done to him by his mother that left the biggest mark. 

“All she knew was hurt. All she knew was pain. And that's what she gave me,” he said.

Recovering from the pain of his childhood and eventually going to seminary inspired Demetrye to write his book “Son of a Whore.” It was in the seminary that he was finally able to leave survival mode, with all its scarcity and insecurities, behind him and embrace the man God wanted him to be. 

“I wrote that (book) because I wanted to give someone who may have had the same upbringing as me hope to realize that they can survive it, and not only survive but be the father, the husband and the individual that God created them to be,” he said. 

On this episode of True North Man, Paul and Demetrye talk about forgiveness and becoming the parent you didn’t have.

What You’ll Learn

• How Demetrye’s faith has helped him overcome the scars of his childhood, including fear, insecurity and sex addiction
• What it means to live a heart-centered life as a Christian
• What it took for Demetrye to eventually forgive his parents
• And much more!

Favorite Quote: 

“One of the things that I've really become comfortable with is embracing pain. We're quick to become averse to pain. We resist pain. We're quick to grab onto joy, happiness, all these things, because it feels good… look at Christ. He endured pain. if he hadn’t endured pain, we wouldn't have what we have today. So pain, if we allow it, can be a teacher to teach us something. Instead of avoiding the pain, sometimes you need to sit in that pain to learn whatever it is that we need to learn.”

— Demetrye Isoldi

Connect With Demetrye: 

demetryeisoldi.com

How To Get Involved:

Discover all that Paul Beam has to offer at www.true-north-ministries.com 

Enjoyed the episode? Hop over to Apple Podcasts for more! Like and share to help spread the word. We appreciate your support—and we hope to return the favor: Leave a review to let us know what you want to hear from Paul next.

James Jacobi felt he was following in his father’s footsteps when he entered the corporate world straight out of college. It was a life he went onto live for 11 years, and he did well in his career — but all the while, it felt like he was expected to be two entirely different people. 

“I struggled with that,” James said. “I mentally bring work home, and I mentally bring stuff from home into work. And so I always struggled with that mentality. I can’t be two people… that dichotomy felt weird to me, and I felt like many people live that life. It just didn’t sit well with me.” 

Something in his heart, which he now recognizes as a nudge from God, kept telling James he needed a change. A business could be done differently, he felt, in a way that allowed people to be whole people. That didn’t mean turning profit wouldn’t also be a primary goal — a business is a business. But it was time to redefine what doing well in business looked like and what values it promoted. 

Today, as the author of “Radical Integrity: 7 Breakthrough Strategies for Transforming Your Business, Sales and Life” and also the owner of his management consulting firm, James gets to help others live lives that are not only successful but holistic and integrated, too. In this episode of True North Man, Paul and James talk about the value of blending the personal with the professional and utilizing the gifts God gave you — no matter the amount of risk involved.

What You’ll Learn

• The one question that completely changed James life and sent him down a different path
• Why, as an entrepreneur, he says it’s so essential to pick your audience (and make it a niche one)
• How his faith helped him leave his corporate life
• And much more!

Favorite Quote: 

“This is my dream for my life… And it's got all the emotions mixed into it: the anxiety, the worry, the joy, the gratitude, the fulfillment. It's got all of it. In many ways, I think the entrepreneur’s life is very, very aligned with your journey with God. You’ve got roller coasters, you’ve got adventure, you’ve got seasons of abundance, and then you have seasons of scarcity, where you need to trust more.”

— James Jacobi

Connect With James: 

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

How To Get Involved:

Discover all that Paul Beam has to offer at www.true-north-ministries.com 

Enjoyed the episode? Hop over to Apple Podcasts for more! Like and share to help spread the word. We appreciate your support—and we hope to return the favor: Leave a review to let us know what you want to hear from Paul next.

Joshua T Berglan knows there’s value in owning your pain.

For too long, he found ways to escape his pain, as well as to escape the pain he caused others. Before he found God six years ago, he’d been arrested six times for a number of reasons, domestic violence, cocaine and alcohol-fueled fights among them. And yet, he’d never been in jail for longer than 12 hours at a time; “I didn’t really feel any pain,” he says. Meanwhile, having been abused, molested and abandoned earlier in life, he continued hurtling head-long down a dark path. 

Then, during his sixth time in LA County jail, while he was in the psychiatric ward’s isolation unit, he had a moment with the Holy Spirit. Since then, he’s lived by a “bold faith” and dedicated himself to a new mission as Chairman of the Live Mana Worldwide Foundation, a new media nonprofit that elevates passion and purpose through TV, film, events, vision consulting and brand development services. 

In his ministry career with Live Mana, Joshua works specifically with those who can also understand the hell of addiction, homelessness, living with HIV, abuse and more. Part of battling your demons, he believes, is not looking away from the pain.

“The whole point of what we’re doing is to make people feel the pain so they can really look inside and go, ‘Oh my god, this is my story’ or ‘this happened to me, here’s the solution,’” Joshua says. 

On this episode of True North Man, Paul and Joshua talk about finding redemption, giving a voice to those who’ve been rejected and left behind (including by the church), and embracing God’s truth.

What You’ll Learn

• How an encounter with the Holy Spirit in a jail’s psychiatric unit led Joshua to turn his life around
• Why finding God doesn’t mean your healing and recovery work is instantly over (“I had a month-long meth binge in the middle of me loving Jesus,” he says)
• Why he believes in the “supernatural power of truth”
• And much more!

Favorite Quote: 

“You can’t outrun your problems. You can’t outrun God. You can’t outrun any of it. Because every time you think you’ve escaped it, it’s going to come hit you in the face again. But guess what — that’s not the devil. That’s God giving you an opportunity to break through and heal.”

— Joshua T Berglan

Connect With Joshua: 

Facebook

Instagram

Live Mana Worldwide

How To Get Involved:

Discover all that Paul Beam has to offer at www.true-north-ministries.com 

Enjoyed the episode? Hop over to Apple Podcasts for more! Like and share to help spread the word. We appreciate your support—and we hope to return the favor: Leave a review to let us know what you want to hear from Paul next.

Nine years ago, as Aadam Adkins tells it, he had all the hallmarks of a successful life. He had a plush job in corporate America that let him travel the world and offered plenty of perks. And he felt he’d checked a lot of the boxes that were expected of him. 

“I lived the life I was supposed to live — I was that guy who just fell in line,” Aadam says. “I was the kid who got good grades in high school. I went to college. I got a degree. I got a good job, got married, had kids… It was the perfect life. I was successful by the world’s standards. And yet, something was awry.”

Despite his successes, at the end of the day, Aadam felt he was “really lost.” He was burnt out at work, seeking more and felt he’d been “wandering in the desert for a long time.” That’s when he found God, and everything began to shift.

With a new sense of direction in life, Aadam decided it was time to change his path even further. After 17 years in his corporate role, at the age of 40, he stepped out on his own to start his coaching business. It’s been both the “scariest thing” he’s ever done and also the most rewarding: “This is a dream life, doing what it is I believe I've been put here to do,” he says.

On this episode of True North Man, Paul and Aadam talk about taking on new adventures and finding the path God intended for you.

What You’ll Learn

• Why mastering your mind and making, per Scripture, “every thought be obedient to Christ” go hand-in-hand
• How Aadam integrates meditation into the way he practices Christianity
• How deciding to run 40 miles ultimately changed Aadam’s entire life
• And much more!

Favorite Quote: 

“I want to help other people say yes to their heart’s desires, because those are desires that we don’t put there. Those desires are put there by our Creator. I believe he puts those desires in our hearts and that those desires serve him, benefit mankind, and help to life up and unite humanity.”

— Aadam Adkins 

Connect With Aadam: 

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

How To Get Involved:

Discover all that Paul Beam has to offer at www.true-north-ministries.com 

Enjoyed the episode? Hop over to Apple Podcasts for more! Like and share to help spread the word. We appreciate your support—and we hope to return the favor: Leave a review to let us know what you want to hear from Paul next.

Rob Billingham knows it’s all-too-easy (and human) to stray from your sense of identity. For many men, in particular, he believes this goes back to harm done to their identities as children — by not having a supportive father around, for instance. 

He also knows that a strong sense of faith is one of the most transparent ways to guarantee and protect a strong identity. That’s why faith and identity are two of his main focuses as the founder of Resolute Men Ministries. A ministry that’s styled as a “training camp,” Rob had the idea to create Resolute Men after attending a men’s conference that brought together football players, retired football players, and head coaches to discuss their relationship with Christ. 

At that event, God gave him the vision to start his own men’s conference. But soon, he realized that standalone events like conferences weren’t enough to generate the kind of impact he was after. 

“It was mighty and moving, but what we found out over the years was that, with follow-up, there was a disconnect along the way,” he says. “There’s one big day, and guys would be high as a kite… but unless there’s somebody to push you, keep it moving and keep it going, it kind of starts to drop off over time.” 

Rob wanted his ministry to be a source of accountability for men as they created Christ-like lives and came to understand their own identities better. And today, that’s what he’s accomplishing. In this episode of True North Man, Paul and Rob talk about the importance of identity in understanding what you’re created from and where you’re heading.

What You’ll Learn

• How Rob defines a “resolute man.”
• How you can tell when God is trying to impart to you a message
• Why waking up early helps Rob be a better spiritual leader
• And much more!

Favorite Quote: 

“The Bible is our playbook… You got to get into the game, but you’ve got to be prepared to get into the game. What does that preparation look like? You’ve got to go through the process of training where you’re working your muscles, right? We’re working our spiritual muscles. That’s what we’re talking about here — developing our spiritual muscles, getting our minds in alignment with God, and getting our strength and our character built up in Christ.”

— Rob Billingham

Connect With Rob: 

ResoluteMen.org

The Resolute Warrior Podcast

Instagram

YouTube

How To Get Involved:

Discover all that Paul Beam has to offer at www.true-north-ministries.com 

Enjoyed the episode? Hop over to Apple Podcasts for more! Like and share to help spread the word. We appreciate your support—and we hope to return the favor: Leave a review to let us know what you want to hear from Paul next.

Today, “mindset” has become a majorly buzzy term, with plenty of self-styled gurus out there offering opinions on how to better it. For Dr. Nick Sotelo, a life and career coach and formerly a marriage therapist, sports coach, academic and corrections officer, his take on mindset is, at its root, both impactful and simple one: “Mindset is what your mind is set on.” 

Through his coaching process, The Upgraded Life, Nick blends his scientific knowledge of psychology with personal development tenets designed to help clients examine their vision and core values and clarify their mindset in particular. As Nick puts it, your mindset is profoundly shaping your lived experience, whether you’re aware of it or not. 

“You can’t escape it. Everybody has a mindset,” he says. “The problem is too many people are just unaware of it.”

And for a truly successful, fulfilled life, achieving that awareness is vital. In this episode of True North Man, Paul and Nick talk about the hurdles society has set up that keep men from reaching an understanding, the exercises he recommends for figuring out your mindset’s current state (and what’s needed to improve it), and how being a “drink-from-the-firehose” guy ultimately led Nick to find his calling.

What You’ll Learn

• How Nick helps men learn to integrate their feelings in meaningful ways (plus, how the “four primary feeling states” intersect with that)
• Why having mindset clarity will help shield you from external chaos, like COVID
• What Nick means by “negative-default mindset,” why most people have it and how affirmations can help
• And much more!

Favorite Quote: 

“To achieve meaningful success, it’s going to come back to your mindset and what your mind is set on. It’s about your attitudes and your beliefs. It’s about your fears and how you’ve learned to address your fears. It’s about your doubts and how you’ve learned to address your doubts… The problem is, too many people either don’t believe they have control over their mindset, or they’re just not aware that their mindset is one of the biggest factors responsible for the life they have right here, right now.”

— Nick Sotelo

Connect With Nick: 

Personal website

Facebook

Twitter

The Upgraded Life podcast

How To Get Involved:

Discover all that Paul Beam has to offer at www.true-north-ministries.com 

Enjoyed the episode? Hop over to Apple Podcasts for more! Like and share to help spread the word. We appreciate your support—and we hope to return the favor: Leave a review to let us know what you want to hear from Paul next.

Though he built a career working for some of America’s most giant corporations — including Coca-Cola, Home Depot, and David’s Bridal — Tracy Brinkmann has always been an entrepreneur at heart. It’s a love that goes back to his school days in Copperas Cove, Texas. 

From steering the supply and demand of pencils in his grade school classroom to selling art inspired by his father’s military career to pinstriping cars and working on stereos alongside a high school buddy, Tracy always had his hand in a side hustle growing up. But his true calling as an entrepreneur was, for a little while, put on hold while he served in the military and, as a new dad, embarked on his corporate career afterward. Like so many entrepreneurs before him, though, he knew he couldn’t stay in the corporate world forever.

“There’s always that thing in the back of your head going, ‘But I’m just not happy,’” he says. “It’s just not me. It’s okay for a while, and then you’re like, ‘Okay, I got this. Now what?’... You’re just not fulfilled.”

Working in Corporate America did give Tracy plenty of experience, however, in coaching and mentoring others. And today, this coaching has become his full-time job and life’s mission. As a business and success coach and host of the Driven Dark Horse Entrepreneurs podcast, Tracy gives other entrepreneurs the tools they need to kickstart business ideas and, as he puts it, “discover the joy of getting a dollar for something they’re going to be doing anyway.”

In this episode of True North Man, Paul and Tracy talk about why being passionate about your side hustle pays, the importance of picking the right partners, and some of Tracy’s most significant pieces of advice to new entrepreneurs. 

What You’ll Learn:

• Why Tracy believes in following the “Six Cs of Entrepreneurship.”
• The questions he recommends asking yourself to find clarity and get your business idea off the ground
• How to approach reinvesting in your business, gaining traction organically, and balancing multiple bank accounts 
• And much more!

Favorite Quote: 

“It’s all about building yourself a plan of action and then holding yourself accountable. You have to be committed to your success. This is usually where the help of a trusted partner or a coach will come in because there's a point where we'll be nice to ourselves — a lot nicer than someone else will be, right? And maybe you need a pat on the back, and a coach can do that. Or maybe you need a smack upside the head.”

— Tracy Brinkmann

Connect With Tracy: 

Dark Horse Entrepreneur Podcast

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

How To Get Involved:

Discover all that Paul Beam has to offer at www.true-north-ministries.com 

Enjoyed the episode? Hop over to Apple Podcasts for more! Like and share to help spread the word. We appreciate your support—and we hope to return the favor: Leave a review to let us know what you want to hear from Paul next. 

Erik Allen’s life started usual enough, full of Sunday school and Little League games. But when he was 11, his parents got divorced. That’s when things took a turn for the worst. 

His mom’s new boyfriend, an extremely abusive alcoholic, moved the family to a tiny town in Montana, a population of 1,200. It suited his purposes of isolation well; after arriving in Montana, the abuse “just got worse,” Erik says, “because we were so far away from the police and so far to town.” Eventually, he had to physically come to his mother’s defense, a night that ended with the cops arriving but no charges ultimately being pressed. For Erik, that drove home the message that he was on his own. 

“I've pretty much raised myself since I was 14 years old, and it led me down a path of darkness and addictions,” he said. “At 21 years old, I was $28,000 in debt... I’d moved 21 times between the ages of 18 and 21. I’d filed for bankruptcy. I’d already been in jail. Just a crazy path.”

Not long after, Erik moved to Seattle to try to make it in the music business industry. He didn’t get paid a lot — at Universal Records, he wasn’t paid anything at all for his first six months of work — but he did get a lot of free concert tickets. And they all came with open bar tabs. “It was about 175 concerts, and I never paid for a drink ever and got blasted every single time. It was just wild, man.”

But it wasn’t making him happy. Depressed, aimless, and still plagued by addictions, he knew he needed a significant change in his life. One day, that change presented itself when a woman, also from a broken home, walked into the Starbucks store he worked nights at and asked if he wanted to go to church with her. 

In this episode of True North Man, Erik tells Paul about how that woman became his wife, his path to becoming a successful entrepreneur, and how he’s rewriting the legacy of his upbringing for his kids.

What You’ll Learn:

• How Erik became an entrepreneur who helps other entrepreneurs and MMA fighters be successful (and what those two groups have in common)
• How he and his wife are “breaking the chains” of their childhoods
• Erik’s (literal) come-to-Jesus moment and the role his faith plays at home and in his work
• And much more! 

Favorite Quote:

“My faith is everything… I don't push the fact I'm a Christian on my shows, but I show it in love. Quit judging people. Just love on people the way they're. I've been there, and I know what it's like to be broken. But you can get through it.”

— Erik Allen

Connect With Erik:

Erik Allen Media

LinkedIn

Facebook

How To Get Involved:

Discover all that Paul Beam has to offer at www.true-north-ministries.com 

Enjoyed the episode? Hop over to Apple Podcasts for more! Like and share to help spread the word. We appreciate your support—and we hope to return the favor: Leave a review to let us know what you want to hear from Paul next. 

Ryan Hawk became a student of leadership at a young age. Benefiting from what he calls the “exceptional” leadership of both his high school football coaches and parents, he understood that an exceptional leader has the power to transform lives for the better. 

“When you see that a person can have that type of impact, I became much more curious about learning from other leaders in my life,” he says. “That curiosity has driven me to try to learn more and more, ultimately intending to impact other people and help them perform at levels that maybe they don’t think they’re capable of.” 

Learning is a crucial emphasis for Ryan. He is, after all, host of The Learning Leader Podcast, as well as a leadership coach and author. It’s his ultimate goal to, as he puts it, become a “learning machine” that can inspire others to elevate their own goals. And although he’s been in the leadership coaching business for years, he doesn’t consider that goal achieved yet. That’s because a true leader has “never arrived but is always becoming,” he says. 

In this episode of True North Man, Paul and Ryan discuss working on yourself as a leader and defining your leadership legacy. 

What You’ll Learn:

• The four-part framework for more effective leadership that Ryan developed
• Why good leaders are constantly “fueling their intake engines.”
• The difference between leading yourself and leading others
• And much more! 

Favorite Quote:

“There are leaders within businesses who have a title and think they’re leaders because of who they are. But really, they’re followed and complied with because of their title. And so I want to go beyond the title and become the type of leader that others choose to commit to because that’s what true leadership is: when people can choose to follow anyone, and they choose to follow you.”

— Ryan Hawk

Connect With Ryan:

The Learning Leader Podcast

LinkedIn

Twitter

Facebook

How To Get Involved:

Discover all that Paul Beam has to offer at www.true-north-ministries.com 

Enjoyed the episode? Hop over to Apple Podcasts for more! Like and share to help spread the word. We appreciate your support—and we hope to return the favor: Leave a review to let us know what you want to hear from Paul next.