#21: Jefferson Bethke
The BetterLife Podcast: Wealth | Real Estate Investing | Life
Brandon Turner and Cam Cathcart
4.8 • 767 Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2023
⏱️ 97 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jefferson Bethke is a best-selling author, poet, speaker, and content creator best known for his viral video, ‘Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus’, which has amassed tens of millions of views.
Jefferson also operates Primal Path, a discipleship program for fathers and sons; and Family Teams, an online platform that "equips families to live as a multigenerational team on a mission."
He and his wife Alyssa are raising their two daughters and son on Maui.
In this episode, Jefferson traces his journey from rebellious teen arrested for theft; to viral content creator, business owner, and family man – and shares his thoughts on self-development, faith, marriage, and parenthood.
Jefferson also speaks about:
-His experience growing up in poverty, relying on food stamps and Section 8 housing
-How his life took a positive turn when he encountered the power of Jesus' resurrection
-The viral video he made about Jesus being greater than religion
-How he turned his newfound fame into a successful career running various projects and businesses
-How buying an existing business and partnering with someone who has complementary skills can lead to explosive growth
-The importance of ritual in our lives and the concept of Sabbath as a day of rest and enjoyment
-How the Western view of time as a straight line towards the future produces anxiety and pressure
-The lost art of coming-of-age initiation ceremonies in Western culture
-Creating a mission statement for your family and assigning a special role to each family member
-How the stories we believe and tell ourselves shape our reality
-The importance of creating intentional and memorable moments as the leader of your family
-How men are silently suffering in society and what he's doing to lift them up
-The importance of reintroducing "play" into your everyday life
Jefferson’s charitable cause:
Forming Men: “A place for men. To heal. To be refreshed. To be encouraged. And to learn ways to exist in this world that are healthy and holy." The organization offers conferences, retreats, and a 6 month discipleship.
Books mentioned in this episode:
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Dan Coyle
Hold On To Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté
How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels by N.T. Wright
Connect with Jefferson on socials:
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So it's a spiral, though, where yes, you're going forward. Yes, there is stuff to look forward |
| 0:05.1 | to. Yes, there is hope. But a spiral does what? It goes forward, comes back. Goes forward, comes back. |
| 0:09.8 | Goes forward comes back. And to me, that's a really beautiful picture of how you actually want to |
| 0:14.0 | live your life. And that word for that would be rhythms, right? Rhythms, that life is not about endlessly doing things on a bucket list, but life is about incrementally |
| 0:22.4 | living and flourishing in a cadence and a rhythm that serves me well. |
| 0:29.2 | Welcome to A Better Life with Brandon Turner. That is me where world-class guests share their |
| 0:34.5 | wisdom on building a better life. Join me as we explore the habits to the actions and the beliefs that have guided their journey |
| 0:40.2 | with the aim of helping you apply those lessons to your own. |
| 0:59.8 | I'm assuming you want me to call you Jeff or would you like Jefferson on the thing? Well, how do you want me to... |
| 1:00.3 | Probably 50. I mean, people call me Jeff, but I feel like the internet name's Jefferson. |
| 1:03.8 | So take your pick. |
| 1:04.7 | Take your pick. |
| 1:05.4 | There's a funny story behind that, too, because my real name's not Jefferson. |
| 1:07.6 | No way. |
| 1:08.1 | Yeah, we can tell it on the podcast if you want. |
| 1:09.6 | Well, the podcast is rolling. Let's just start right now. All right. Bethke, man. I'm not even going to call you by your |
| 1:15.1 | first name. I'm just call you Bethke. Is it Jeff or Jefferson? Let's tell a story. So friends call |
| 1:18.8 | me Jeff. Okay. The internet name, for lack of hate that name. I didn't Jeffrey. But I don't like that name, but that's what the driver's license says. No one's ever |
| 1:29.9 | called me that except my mom when I'm, when I'm in trouble. Okay. So Jefferson was just a nickname |
| 1:33.8 | in high school because it was just kind of funny, you know, with guys and bros and stuff. And I think |
| 1:37.0 | I liked politics and Thomas Jefferson. I can't remember the etymology, but they just started calling me that. So then I made it my MySpace display name, remember those days? Then that jumped once I got a little older in college to Facebook display name. |
| 1:46.9 | Then I randomly had a video go viral. |
... |
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