VISION: The Clarity Frequency

When leaders lose vision, they don’t just lose motivation, they lose restraint, momentum, and peace. We sit with the uncomfortable truth from Proverbs 29:18 and translate it into real life leadership: burnout often isn’t a workload problem, it’s a clarity problem. If you’ve been grinding, repeating what used to work, and feeling that creeping overwhelm, this conversation is a reset for faith-based entrepreneurs, pastors, and builders who want to flourish instead of drift. 

We walk through what vision actually is, how it shapes culture and team health, and why fresh vision is the only way out of the doom loop. I share how writing the vision down and making it plain (Habakkuk 2:2) turns the invisible into visible action, plus why your belief system has to grow to match what’s in your heart. We also talk about the power of aligned relationships and why the right people reinforce mission, sharpen execution, and keep you moving toward what God called you to build. 

Then we get practical with leadership tools you can apply today: create space on your calendar to be still and listen, draft a clear one-sentence mission statement, define core values that shape hiring and culture, and set BHAGs (big, hairy, audacious goals) with a three-year horizon. You’ll leave with a simple alignment question that exposes what’s real fast: does your calendar and your budget match the vision you say you’re pursuing? 

If this helps you, subscribe to Proximity, share it with a friend who needs clarity, and leave a review so more leaders can find it. What’s one BHAG you’re ready to write down today?

Transcript

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Welcome To The Clarity Frequency

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Proximity. I am your host, Ken Jocelyn, and this might be out of our 14 frequencies that we're hitting, this might be my favorite frequency. Super excited to talk today about vision. And I call vision the clarity frequency because working with entrepreneurs and being in ministry, building businesses over the past 25 to 30 years, the number one thing that I see that we struggle with as entrepreneurs, as pastors, as leaders is

Proverbs 29:18 And The Cost

SPEAKER_00 0:33

vision. And I want to go right into Proverbs 29, 18. And I want to open up with this. And I want to share some things with you. Exactly what it means in Proverbs 29:18, where it says, where there is no vision, people perish. Where there is no vision, people perish. And I heard someone do a message one time where they talked about this word perish. And in the Old Testament, sometimes in case of a capital punishment where somebody had murdered somebody else, they literally would take the body of the person that had been murdered and they would strap it to the body of the convicted murderer until the death and the decaying flesh of that body overcame the person who committed the murder, ultimately ending their life. And you're like, dude, that's nasty. That's gross. Yes, it is. But that is the picture that scripture gives us when we live a life with no vision. Some of the other translations say where there's no vision, people cast off restraint. They basically live however they want to, whenever they want to, which if you look at our culture today, it's a lot of what we live in today, isn't it? People just live however they want to. What is it? The YOLO, or you only live once, like get out there, do what you want to do when you want to do it. There's no reason. It's what can I do to take care of me? What can I do to take care of this thing that I want to do? Just really feed my flesh, feed my ego, feed all of those things. That's what it looks like when people live a life where they've cast off restraint. But Proverbs 29:18, guys, is very clear. Where there is no vision, people perish. I love to kind of flip that verse on its head a little bit in the Ken Jocelyn version, is where there is godly vision, people can flourish. Not perish, but flourish. And guys, as we talk about and kick off this section of 14 Frequencies of Proximity, talking about business, I want to talk about the impact vision has on every area of your life, including the relationship you have with your team.

Vision Drives Culture And Team Health

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Now, guys, I have the unbelievable honor and privilege. We just got back from a two-day, we called it Blueprint 2627, which is our two-day strategic planning retreat or meeting. We went up to Chattanooga, spent some time with one of my corner members, Gary Thurman. He's a wealth manager at Guardian Investments in Chattanooga and in Knoxville. He's got a beautiful building. We used his one of his conference rooms on his fourth floor for the last two days. And I had my good friend Josh Porter, who's been a corner member now for he's in his third year, and the growth is just absolutely amazing. And what we're seeing with Josh. But I had Josh come over and speak to my team yesterday for about 30 minutes. And what we what he talked about really was vision. He talked about vision. And guys, when we think about our relationship with our team, when we think about culture, when we think about the health of our organization, everything starts and begins with vision. If we don't have vision, guys, most entrepreneurs, they're not thriving, they're overwhelmed. And so what happens when we get overwhelmed? Jim Collins writes about it in Good to Great. He calls it the doom loop. You know, we we've got this S curve that goes on and we're growing, we're growing, we're growing. And then all of a sudden we're like, wow, this thing that we wanted to do is actually working. And then he calls it the law of diminishing return. You know, you're going down the other side of the of the roller coaster. You've hit the top of the hill, you're going down the, and it's speed, it's fast, it's fun, you're seeing the vision come to pass. Jim Collins talks about it this way: that when you're in that, in that S curve, looking across to the next S-curve, because what he says is when you get into that spot where you're not thriving, you feel overwhelmed, you've gone through a season of vision, you went through a season of where you've just you just reaped your business has grown, your numbers are up, your profits up. But then that next season, that next season for a leader, we have to look through to that next season, that next S curve is what he talks about. And scripture says, Scripture just calls it vision. We have to look through as leaders and be able to paint the picture for our team of where we're going next. Because when we don't, we don't thrive, we feel overwhelmed. And then what do we do, guys? Ladies, we work harder. We try to repeat the same thing that we did before. And working harder and trying to do the same thing that we did before doesn't create freedom. It doesn't create more momentum. What it does create, and Jim Collins calls it the doom loop. What it does create is it creates a system to where we're frustrated because we're not living off of fresh vision. We're not living off of, okay, God, what do you have for us today?

Big Targets That Keep Momentum

SPEAKER_00 5:52

The last two days with our team was vision, but it was also the mission of GSD. What is it, guys? It's to reach and impact the lives of a million faith-based entrepreneurs in the next five years, helping them become the best version of themselves in their core five areas: faith, health, relationship, business, and finances. How are we going to do that? We've got that broken down into four goals: 10, 5, and 1. 10 people in our community, five people in our circle, one person in our corner every month. Those are our goals every month. 1,200 people at Create, depending on the facility that we choose this year. 1,200 people at Create, a top 250 podcast. And I want to give a shout-out to all you guys. This week in Apple Podcasts, we were the 63rd ranked business and entrepreneur podcast in the country, which is amazing. Thank you. Because we could not do this without each of you guys. And in business in general, in as a whole, we're number 202 in Apple Podcasts. Apple only ranks the top 200, but we're 202. Our goal at the beginning of the year was to be in the top 250. We've already surpassed that goal. Our last goal is 10 and 10, 10, 10 corporate, 10 church speaking engagements over the next year. And we're on a massive, massive ramp on the church side to take care of those goals there. So our team understands what's the big vision. They understand what our targets are every month. Guys, let's talk a little bit about vision. What is vision? Vision sees what could be. And guys, the right relationships on our team, if we share that vision effectively, the right relationships on our team, the right relationships in our life bring

Relationships That Bring Vision Alive

SPEAKER_00 7:32

that to life. I've got a group text that I send out. I've shared about this before in the past, with five really, really, really amazing human beings. Every one of you guys know Gary Brecke did the forward for my brand new book. Um, Gary Brecker, Randy Garn, New York Times bestselling author, is on the board with Tony Robbins. Randy is the ultimate connector. Brian Covey, senior vice president with um cross-country mortgage. My good friend Brent Gove, he's the number one real estate agent in America. He has 49,000 agents in his organization with EXP. Missing somebody. Vic Keller. Vic Keller sold 11 companies to Warren Buffett for a gazillion dollars. And now he served as the CEO for Berkshire Hathaway Automotive for three years. Now he owns over a dozen companies. Christensen Arms, bought and sold Cantoni Furniture, just a bunch of amazing companies. It's what he loves to do. And I got a text today from Randy, and Randy has a picture. I'm sitting here looking on my phone. He has a picture of my book. I'd sent every all my guys out one. And he goes, Ken, can't wait to dive in. What can I do to help get out the word? And he goes, Gary, love the Ford. Gary said, Gary Brecken goes, Ken, I'm so proud of you for seeing this all the way through. And guys, that's the power of vision. And I literally said, thanks, guys. And I told them, I said, I could not have done this without you guys. I said, you guys have played a huge part in this journey. And I'm extremely grateful for both of you guys, or for all of you guys. I could not have done this without that group of men for over the past four to five years. Vision sees what could be. And then if you've been to any of our events, whether it be a proximity event, whether it be one of our masterminds, whether it be our flagship, which is create in January, we had 680 people there last year.

Be Still Then Write It Down

SPEAKER_00 9:22

I talk about writing the vision down and making it plain. That's Habakkuk 2-2. The three things that we talk about a lot at GSD are this. Be still. Be still, write the vision down and make it plain. Be still, listen to God, write the vision down. Three steps. Super easy. Habakkuk 2.2 is super clear. Write the vision down and make it plain that he who runs with it may read it. Guys, there is a supernatural law engaged when we write down what God puts in our heart. When we do that and we believe God, the invisible becomes visible. I've got five affirmations. I've talked about these a ton over the past several years, five affirmations that I do every single day. One of those affirmations is I will live a life where my heart, it's where I dream, my head, it's where my belief system is located. Because if your vision is bigger than your belief system and you struggle with fear, insecurity, scarcity, comparison, shame, success, any of those limiting beliefs, and there's more, what you'll see is your dreams and vision will trip over your mindset every day, and it will cause you to lose hope. And scripture is so clear: a hope deferred or hope deferred makes the heart sick. If you cannot get your mindset in alignment with your vision, you won't see it come to pass. And I had that affirmation for about a year or two, and then I added, I will live a life where my heart, my head, and my relationships are in alignment. Because when you get your heart and your head in alignment, what God starts to do is He starts to bring in the right relationships in order to help you fulfill your vision, in order for you to help fulfill the mission and the vision that God has for your life. Guys, this morning, the text from Gary, Ken, I'm so proud of you for seeing this all the way through. You know, Brian, Covey, Randy Garn, all the guys, all the guys in this group. And I'm got, guys, I this is a massive, a massive part of this being done, this book, our podcast hitting in the top 60, create becoming the number one faith-based entrepreneur conference in the world. All the things that I've watched God build over the past six years is a huge result, not just of vision, not just of my mindset of believing God that you want to do exactly what you spoke to me, not just writing the vision down. But as I did that, God brought the right people in my life. So here's what I'm going to ask you guys to do today. And I want you to write this down. If you're sitting at your desk, you're sitting there taking notes, listening to this podcast today, do not just ask God for the blessing, ask God for the building. Because when you understand that this isn't just about God breathing on or giving you favor so you can build whatever it is you want to build. But God, I want you to, I want you to show me what it looks like to really build an organization. And that's always going to start with you building you. Because more effort is not the answer. More clarity, more alignment, and more execution is the answer. That's why we call the core five framework the faith-fueled operating system. Just an FYI, that's going to be the title of my name book, my next book, The Core Five, the Framework for the Faith-Based Entrepreneur. It really is the faith-fueled operating system. Guys, here's what vision does: a couple things if you

Mission Values And BHAGs

SPEAKER_00 13:08

want to write this down. Vision, vision gets structure through three different tools. Number one, a mission statement, core values, and BHAGs. Mission statement, core values, BHAs. BHAGS are what? Big, hairy, audacious goals. It's exactly how we started our two-day strategy meeting on Thursday in Chattanooga. Guys, here's the here's the big mission statement. We're going to impact the lives of a million faith-based entrepreneurs in the next five years through their core five, helping them become the best version of themselves in their core five areas. Here's our core values as an organization. Our core values are faith comes first. Faith is the first and foremost core value in what we're doing. We just walk through all of our faith, growth, excellence, all of the core values that we have. We walk through because the core values are how we travel from in the starting point, point A to point B, being the big vision. It's how we operate and we carry ourselves. Our BHAGs, I just shared them just a minute ago. Um, 10, 5, and 1, 1200, top 250, 10 and 10. Those are goals we go after every single month. And we look at those every single day. So tell you a little story, and then we'll we'll continue in this podcast today.

A Workshop That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_00 14:21

I walked in about 1997, I walked into an acquire the fire event, but Ron Luz, who's been a dear friend and mentor now for over 25 years. I I literally had the worst youth ministry in America. I mean, it was terrible. It was the worst youth ministry in America. We had the it was terrible. We had about 15 kids, maybe 12 kids or something like that. It was it was terrible. We go down to acquire the fire. Somebody had said, Hey, you need to take your kids down to this big event. We walk in Atlanta. I don't even remember where it was at. I think it may have been at Phillips or maybe Omni or wherever it was at back then. So we walk into this massive event. There's 10,000, 12,000 students and youth pastors and senior pastors and leaders there. And one hour from that weekend changed my life. I walked into a leadership workshop with Ron. Didn't know Ron. Walk into this room. There's about six or seven hundred leaders in this room. And for about an hour, Ron shares those three things: mission statement, core values, and BHAGs. I'll never forget. I sat down. I had this big at-a-glance calendar. If y'all remember those big things, it was like one month. You open it up, it's massive. You open it up, and half the month is on one side, and each day has a big block, and in the back there's a place for notes. And I'll never forget, I wrote in the back this mission statement. God gave it to me in 45 seconds. Now, guys, this was 27, 28 years ago. Worship, change, teach the authority and truths of God's word with a resulting vision that creates an army of young people to make a worldwide difference for the kingdom of God. That was the mission statement God gave me 27 years ago. When I say it today, it's literally like I'm sitting in that seat 26, 27 years ago in Atlanta listening to Ron teach it. All of our core values God gave me that day, and three years of BHAGs. Three years of BHAGs. Now, guys, I'm I think I brought 17 kids to acquire the fire that year. 17. Now that's every kid we had, plus a friend for about half of them. I mean 17 kids. I the vision I wrote down for three years, guys. This is the power of Habakkuk 22. I wrote vision down for three years. Guys, everything I wrote down that day, with the exception of one thing, and that was to hire a full-time worship leader in Kelly. Kelly was my our worship, our worship pastor back then. That's the only thing that didn't come to pass. We built out one of the largest youth facilities in the country in 1998, 1999. Nobody was doing that back then. Like there was maybe two or three people in the country. We built out a full 7,200 square foot youth auditorium. Seat 300, 350 kids. Our AV in there, our lighting, our Martin intelligent lights, our sound system. We had an 80-inch, listen to this. This is in 1998, an 80-inch rear projection, high definition TV. That was our screen. Guys, listen, there was no LED walls. There was the the projectors back then really weren't that good. There was no flat screen TVs. We didn't have that 25 years ago. 80-inch rear projection high definition TV. That thing was $10,000. I still remember how much that thing was. 10 grand. Like when you walked in our youth facility, we had a, in addition to that, another 2,400 square foot. I had a 50s diner. I'm talking about full LED. It looked like you walked on the set of Happy Days TV show. We had PlayStation 2s, because that's what was out back in the day. PlayStation 2s, pool tables, ping pong tables. Walked outside on the patio, basketball courts outside. Guys, we lit and all of that came from that literally 60 to 90 minutes being in that leadership workshop with Ron. I came home, we raised nearly $75,000 from our community over the next several months to build out that youth facility. And what we saw God do over the next year was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen God do up until the last couple years of building GSD and create and our book and our book launch and the podcast and everything God's doing right now. It's absolutely mind-blowing to me what God is doing. So I want to I want to encourage you guys in and when we talk about vision, what is your vision? So, guys, vision gets structure through three tools. I just gave them to you. Your mission statement, where are you going? Your core values, how are you going to carry yourself? How is your team going to carry yourself as you go? Josh came in. Now listen, if you've not heard Josh's story, he is an optimize you franchise owner to uh nine employees to 37 employees, two locations to four locations, 1.9 million, 3.8 million, 5.6 million. This year they're on pace to do $8 million in revenue. And Josh comes into my team and he hits growth. That's one of our core values. How are you going to personally commit or commit to personally growing as a leader? Because GSD is literally, and we are, and I see it. And I and I can tell really because I'm looking at friends like Gary Breck, I'm looking at Josh's business that we've helped him and pour into him over the last three years grow. We literally are on a rocket ship. But how are we going to continue to grow and have impact and influence in the community of faith-based entrepreneurs? And Josh goes, guys, it is only going to happen either one of two ways. Either you're going to commit to growing as a leader, or somebody else will come in and replace you who will commit to growing as a leader. And I know that's not what Ken wants. Same conversation Josh has had with his executive team. I know that's not what you want. What you want, you want to be on this team. You want to be in this environment. Why? Because it is vision-led. So vision gets structured, three tools. Mission statement, core values, bhags. What is God telling you to do? And guys, be sensitive to the voice of God.

Fresh Vision Breaks The Doom Loop

SPEAKER_00 20:42

In January of 2020, I was speaking for Grant Cardone at 10X headquarters, and I had a Psalms 4610 moment. I'm sitting there, there's about 180, 185, Grant's entire team in Aventura at 10X headquarters. I'm speaking to his entire team that morning. Later that day, I'm speaking to Grant's senior leadership team. Later that day, I'm speaking to all of the licensees, everybody who had signed up to be a Cardone licensee. And at one moment throughout that day, I had that 46-10 moment. I'm standing there and I heard God say, Ken, I want you to build what Grant's building for faith-based entrepreneurs. And the reality of it is, is I couldn't have done this had I not already, I don't know, let me say this. I don't know that I could have done that had I not already experienced what God had done in my heart 20 years earlier at that acquire the fire event. But I knew, God, when you speak to me, again, guys, be still. Psalms 46, 10. Listen to God. God, what do you have for me? And some of us as entrepreneurs, when we get in that doom loop, like we talked about earlier, where we just think effort is the solution because effort's not the answer. Clarity, alignment. And execution are. And you can't have clarity, alignment, and execution if you don't know the direction that you're supposed to go. An entire organization will die if you don't have new vision, fresh vision. Guys, think about IBM. Think about Kodak. Think about all these companies. Think about taxi services. Think about Blockbuster. Think about Redbox. Think about all of these companies that 25 years ago were massive and today they don't even exist. Why? Because they did not continually have new vision. They perished. They literally withered away and died. So I'm standing there January of 2020 at Grant's headquarters, and God says, Build what Grant's building, I want you to do for faith-based entrepreneurs. I want you to go after and help. And I told Grant that the weekend before that. Grant, I know that God's called me to help pastors equip their business leaders so they can grow their businesses, so they can in turn fund the vision of their pastor. Because I planted two churches and it's the hardest thing I've ever done. I grew an eight-figure mortgage company and I took GSD to seven figures in three years. Like I know how to build a company. I know how to generate revenue. But I know what God's called me to do is to equip business leaders in the church so they can in turn fund the vision of your pat of their pastor. So here's a question I want to ask you right now. Is your life designed to match the vision that God has put in your heart? Is your life designed to match the vision that God has put on your heart? While you're thinking about that question, we're going to cut to a break. I'll be right back.

Practical Steps To Apply Today

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Okay, guys, how do we apply what we've learned already today at the beginning of this podcast? Couple things. I want you to create space on your calendar. If you don't have one of our GSD calendars, you can go to gross stackdrive.com forward slash free. Growstackdrive.com forward slash free, and you can literally download a digital copy of our planner for free. And this is it's it's the most important tool that I think that I've ever created. And it is, if you haven't seen one, daytime on the left hand side, I'm looking at mine sitting at my podcast desk now. On the right hand side are is your daily routine, two parts goals, gratitude, affirmations, and top three in the morning. Wins 1% better, goals a second time, and then a scoreboard on the bottom of the page. I want you to, if you don't have a planner, go to grossadrive.com forward slash free, grab a planner, grab a copy of this planner, and I want you to calendar time to get still, to listen to God, and then write what God speaks to you down on paper. So that's number one. Number two, if you don't have a one-sentence mission statement, who you serve, what you do, what changes because of it, I want you to write that down. Rewind. Josh shared this this this weekend or this this week with my team at our blueprint meeting, our strategy meeting. He talked about how a couple years ago they had to they closed. They actually had two locations that went to five, and they had to close the one in Roswell, Georgia down. And most people won't talk about the failures, but the reality of it is that failure helped Tim understand and grow and grow as a leader. Came in, they had to had to get rid of the their provider at that Roswell location. And Josh told me, he goes, I'm teaching their team. And I said, Well, tell me a little about that, Josh. He goes, Well, she wasn't a culture fit. Well, I stopped. I just went around the table. Bennett, Laura, another Laura, Mandy, Dr. Kevin. I'm going around the table and I'm like, tell me what your tell me what your culture is. Tell me what your culture is. Tell me what your culture is. Guess what I got? I got different answers from everybody. And when I got to Josh, Josh looked at me and he goes, We don't have clearly defined culture or core values, do we? And I said, No, you do not. Because if you have clearly defined core values and you know who you are as an organization and where you want to go, it's easy when you're hiring somebody to recognize this person's not a fit. It's easy if they do make it through all of that. It's easy to recognize very early in the in the in the process, they're not a fit, and you can get rid of them quick. But draft your one-sentence missing statement, number three. I want you to set one B HAG, maybe even two B HAGs with a three-year horizon. The specific SMART goals, specific and be measurable. Like what does it look like? I just shared with you impact the lives of a million faith-based entrepreneurs, helping them become the best version of themselves in a core five framework. How do we do that? Super simple. Four things 10, 5, and 1. That's our ecosystem. How do we do that? Create what's the number we want this year? Podcast. How do we do that? This podcast, guys, thank you again for helping us. It's I'm blown away at what God is doing right now. But this podcast, our goal is to be in the top 10 in business and entrepreneurship in the world, guys. Like that's a way that that is a specific and measurable goal. And then what I want you to do is share the vision with your team and ask this question Does our calendar and our budget actually match the vision and the direction that we want to go? It's massive. So just to review real quick, four things. Write the vision down. I want you to, I want you to calendar time to get still, to listen to God and put it on paper. I want you to draft your mission statement if you don't have it already. And guys, listen, I've seen some mission statements that are like a paragraph long. Nope. You need a you need a mission statement that is, that will roll right off your tongue, just like the two I shared with you. The one that God gave me 27 years ago, I can quote it as good today as I could 27 years ago when God gave it to me. Why? Because God breathed that into my into my soul. Set one or two BHAGs with a three-year horizon. Be specific and measurable. Guys, I've been writing down top 250 podcasts for two years. We just hit it. And then I want you to share the vision with your team and ask this question: Does our calendar and our budget actually match where we say we want to go? So let me recap the entire podcast today for you. Vision

Recap And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 28:19

is the clarity frequency that turns calling into execution. Vision is the clarity frequency, guys, that turns calling into execution. Write it, make it plain, and build the life designed to match it. That's exactly what God has called us to do. So if you have not ordered or gotten a copy of 14 frequencies of proximity, I want to encourage you, go to you can pre-order now, gross stackdrive.com forward slash 14. That's gross stackdrive.com forward slash one four. Guys, listen, next week, frequency number 11, servanthood. It's the leadership frequency. Guys, it earns authority that no title can give. Can't wait to see you next week on proximity. Thanks for joining. Appreciate you guys.