I'm Changing the Narrative!

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This is the Truth Network. Once a world champion wrestler, now a champion for Christ. Once the Russian nightmare, now the devil's worst nightmare, and your tag team partner, Nikita Kolov. It's time to man up. Ever thought about being a king or being a queen?

Hey, if you're a Jesus follower, you are royalty. Coming up today, a rare interview with Rachel Barbeau. Welcome back to It's Time to Man Up with the one and only, not your Russian nightmare anymore, but the devil's nightmare, Nikita Kolov. And man, today is so special. Now normally, for those of you who are avid listeners tuning in from week to week, you know with a show titled It's Time to Man Up that, you know, a lot of times I have male guests on, but today it's an incredibly special interview I have today. And I know I probably say that all the time, but this, for real, this is like super special to me because I have an amazing woman online with me today, Rachel Barbeau.

Did I say that right? You did, you did. I was so nervous.

I'm like, I don't know how to say her last name. You were so gracious to kind of fill me in on that, but Rachel Barbeau, welcome to It's Time to Man Up. Well, thank you for having me.

And one, I gotta say your intro, I love it. You make the devil nervous. You scare the devil, right? You're the devil's biggest enemy. Every morning.

That's right. He's up again. Yes! And I say, I talk a lot in my movement, we'll get into it later, about be the kind of person that when your feet hits the floor, the devil goes, man, she's up again.

She's up again. Oh no. And so I love that. Exactly.

And no, it really is a privilege. I, you know, you had sent me a little bit of information and I was reviewing some other information and your background. And of course we have a mutual friend in Frank Shelton who's been on the show before. And of course he introduced me to you. And the minute I saw just what you're doing, I'm like, I have to have her on the show.

And your story just so intrigued me, Rachel. And 17 years as a sportscaster. And, and tell our listeners how you chose that career and just give us, you know, a few highlights of that career.

Yeah, absolutely. I had two brothers that played everything from baseball, basketball, wrestling, BMX, bike racing, swimming, football. I mean, they were matched at a match, at a track, at a meet, you know, at a game. And so I grew up being a spectator. My athletic abilities extended to church volleyball. I was not very athletic, but you know, I love being in front of people. I love singing. I love dancing. I love doing all those things.

And I went to school for general assignment reporting is what I thought I was going to do Nikita. And then I realized that God made me the kind of woman, of human being, a miracle that I just absorb things. I feel things.

I'm an empath. And so I knew that I could not do house fires and car wrecks. And that I would, you know, I would just feel it too much every single night. And around that time I was working for the campus TV station at Auburn and got sent out to do an assignment for a football game. And I was on the sidelines of a football game.

Boy, I got bit with the, with the bug and feed of the game, the crunch of the helmet, the, the adrenaline, all of it. And I was hooked. And that's what I did from that moment forward. And I've never set out Nikita, you know, goals and dreams. And I wanted to be a sideline reporter and then I achieved those goals, but, but I never set out to break barriers.

And that's exactly what I did. I, you know, thank God for that every day. I think about the women that have been little girls and big girls that I've inspired behind me that have said, Hey, if she could do it, I could do it. And just along the way, I ended up becoming the first female host on Sirius XM on the college channel. I was Heisman voter.

I'm still a Heisman voter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And then posted the college football playoff for the first five years of its inception. So really got to make history with the college football playoff in terms of how, if somebody's not a football fan, a college football fan, how the college world crowns a champion, they went from one system to another, to a true playoff. And I got to rewrite the history books alongside them for the first five years. And so it was an amazing career sideline, radio, television, all of it. And that was very fulfilling for, for many, many years. So you were a pioneer of sports for women breaking into all of what you just highlighted.

Yeah. You know, and again, it's funny that the path that God lays out for you. Cause I never, never, never set out to do that.

I was just Nikita. I think you can probably relate to this. You just got your head down and you're grinding and you're doing your thing right. And then along the way, these things happen and God brings these things to pass. And I think also Joe's telling somebody this morning in the midst of all that, I would say I'm conquering and pioneering and breaking feelings with a lot of fetal position and have you forgotten me Lord?

And can I do this? And I want to quit. And this is hard being a woman in the industry is still hard. And so I don't want anyone that hears this to think, wow, you know, her rosy life, a rosy career, because there were a lot of squiggles through a lot of ups and downs and turnarounds and stops and starts that, you know, he had a grand plan for my career and then it would all be a runway for, for what I'm doing now.

We're going to get into that in just a moment, but for the ladies listening and, and we do have a lot of women, believe it or not, who listen to it's time to man up because they're well, what are these guys talking about? I want to hear what these guys, so, so we do have a lot of ladies that, that, so just let Rachel's story for you today be an inspiration to you if there's yet an unfulfilled dream or something in your heart that you're maybe apprehensive to pursue. I hope that something Rachel says today will inspire you to maybe get off the couch and, and, and jump into action. And so Rachel, who are, give us a couple, give our listeners a couple, I mean, one or two highlights, like, you know, name drop, name drop for us, like who are some of the more well-known people that you've interviewed or you've had the privilege of talking with?

Share some of that. Yeah, I mean, Shaquille O'Neal, you know, Bo Jackson, many, many Heisman-Bators, any Hall of Fame coach, Coach Bill Snyder, at Kansas State and the College Football Hall of Fame is a dear, dear friend of mine. Bobby Bowden is a dear friend of mine.

You know, Gene Stallings at Alabama, you know, I was just very fortunate in my career to be around, you know, a lot of really neat people that accomplished a lot of things. However, I do want to say this, Nikita, you know, I never did the hero worshiping thing, and you being who you are, I think you can, there's some of this that I think you'll understand. It's that, you know, I said, listen, anybody that I interview, anybody that I'm around, they're a human being like me and they put their pants on the exact same way that I do, and they have problems and issues and triumphs and failures just like I do. So I'm going to treat them like a human being.

I'm going to say, hello, how are you? I'm going to say, Nikita, it's so nice to meet you. And this is an honor. And, you know, this is what I learned about you. And, and as you know, on this side, being the host of a podcast, when you do your research on somebody and really kind of dig out and find out things about them, you watch people open up like a flower and you watch people go, wow, thanks.

Hey, you really did your research. And so, you know, I just have learned along the way, Nikita, to treat people, you know, each one of us are God's creation and we're all a miracle. And sometimes we need reminding of that fact. And so, yeah, you know, I've been around some really amazing people, you know, Dale Jr. and Phil Mickelson and all these people and dines with these people and friends, but to me, people are people and we're all miracles.

Well, no, that's great. And you bring up an interesting point because I do know from my background, you know, of professional wrestling that it is easy for some people, you know, to become starstruck and, you know, and certainly rightfully so, but in your line of profession, what I'm hearing is, you know, it was never really that for you and what you just said about, you know, the people are people and so whether it's, you know, a Shaquille O'Neal or someone who's maybe even lesser known, but yet has, you know, has had a pretty, you know, stellar career that you never really got starstruck by that. You realize this is my profession, my chosen career, and I have a job to do and I want to respect that other individual while at the same time not get caught up in the whole stardom of it all, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's, you know, listen, I always said when I was a reporter, Nikita, that everybody has a story to tell. Some people just need a little help telling it and that is translated into what I do now as well, but yeah, I just felt like it was my job to be the conduit for people to tell their story and to dig a little bit deeper and, you know, listen, I love the S's and the O's, but I also love the Jimmy's and the Joe's, you know? And so for me, it was always, people said, please keep writing these, you know, personal interest stories, these human interest stories. Please keep writing this positive stuff.

Please keep digging and, and, and telling me the story behind the stories. There's always really my joy to do that. And here's the other thing that happened in my career. I was presented with a number of opportunities to do things that, that would have been, I guess, considered selling out. And for me, the relationship always came first. I respected the person always. And I would say to people that presented this and I'd say, Hey, listen, you know, I respect my relationship with X, Y, and Z too much.

You know, this is not gonna put them in a good light or, or, and, or, Hey, I'm not interested in the headlines and the immediate gratification of breaking story or being that person. So for me, I've said this my whole life and that is that, you know, you know, people are my currency, Nikita. And because of that, I'm a billionaire.

So for me, my relationships are Trump, everything, right? My human, the human connection, the people that I'm around, that I know that I love that I work with Trump, everything. And because of that, I believe in the industry. I gained a reputation of being a hard worker, being a people person, but somebody who you could trust and, and somebody that wasn't going to do you wrong. And so for me, at the end of the day, I have friends now in the industry, many, many friends, because I always held those relationships in the highest regard, above the story, above the opportunity, above the money, above the job. And for me, that's how I sleep well at night, knowing and looking back at my career. Well, good for you. Kudos to you for that. Cause again, it's easy to kind of get sucked into that other world.

Isn't it? If you're not really kind of, if you want to say on guard and, and have the right perspective and certainly, you know, at the end of the day, those relations, as you just testified to become very invaluable, especially if someone, if people begin to really understand you're, you're genuine, you're authentic, you're a person of your word, you, you, you operate with integrity and with ethics. And, and I, and just kind of meeting you and, and getting to know you a little bit, I sense too, that the Lord really, and knowing that about you and that he has really honored that and blessed you and, and, and taking that approach to what you're, what you're doing.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's it, you know, I mean, at the end of the day, you know, I've told people when I go to be with my maker, which I'm not afraid of at all, I've lost both my mom and my dad, Nikita and a number of people close to me in the past five, seven years. I'm not afraid for that day, but when, when I go and in that day, I want people to come together and tell stories about me. I want them somebody to take my journals. I want somebody to take my Bible, you know, and I want people to tell stories of the word came through in my life and, and, and how he worked in my life. And that at the end of the day, somebody told me one time, and I've loved this thing for forever. And it's, you know, my goal in life, and I will never achieve it, but my goal in life is to be a Bible with skin on it. Because the fact remains is that I will be the only Bible that some people ever see.

Some people will never pick up a traditional Bible because of what's happened to them, because people have hurt them, because the world has been unfair and life has been unfair. And so I know for a fact that I will be the only Bible that some people ever see. And so in that regard, I want every single day to try to reflect Jesus and the Bible as much as I can. And, and that's what I want. When I go to be with my maker, I want, I want them to say, Hey, that's, that's who she was. And man, let's tell some stories about her because she sure loved Jesus.

I love that. I like to say this, very similar. My goal is to be Jesus with skin on, right? Jesus, Jesus with skin on. And there's a quote, and I often give the credit to Sir Francis of Assisi, but it fits right here.

And that is this, at all times, preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and when necessary use words. Right? So that's awesome. Well, let's transition here. You know, you brought up a couple of things. I want to, let me just share this for our listeners. You're the founder of I'm Changing the Narrative and I like what you wrote. So you went from 17 years as a sportscaster analyzing players to now lifting them up through their struggles. I like that. Tell us about that.

Yeah. You know, again, for 17 years, my job was to analyze and break down and I felt like God was calling me and he was calling me about, about eight months before I actually made the jump. And I think many people that listen to your podcast can relate to that where, you know, God's calling you to something. He's calling you to carry your cross. He's calling you to take a leap of faith and trust him. He's calling you to leave the job. He's calling you to step into something new and to trust him, to bring him back into your heart, whatever that may be. And I fought him for a while and he had to shut a few doors on me, slam a few doors to get my attention and say, this is the way I want you to go.

But what he was really saying to me was all of that, as I mentioned, was a runway. And now your lot in life is to motivate and lift up. Your lot in life is to tell people that there's a king or a queen or royalty inside of each one of them. And what we believe that the movement is that there's greatness inside of every single one of us. There's legacy, there's purpose, but because of what we call funky junk, which is anger, bitterness, shame, unforgiveness, any of those things, trauma, we often wear it like a yoke around our neck. And we never fully see the potential that we are supposed to see in our life.

We never create the legacy that we're supposed to create. So my job now, and I call it my heavenly job title, is to help people find what sets their soul on fire and run towards it with everything they've got. It's my heavenly job title to help people look in the mirror and see past their face and their nose hair and their eared hair or their eyelashes or their makeup and see their soul. And what is their soul saying to them? Is they're so sad?

Is they're so happy? Is there things you need to drop off? Drop off the funky junk like a suitcase or like a suitcases and don't pick it back up. And so, you know, that's what we do. And it happened to start with athletes, Nikita. I started in college football and then it spread out to all athletes at colleges and then it spread out to corporations and churches and law enforcement. Now, this year, and I need to introduce you to this person because I think you would be phenomenal for one of their magazine covers, but we're getting into prison ministry in 2021. And this is the, I guess one of the most impactful ones because you have done magazines and had a magazine cover too before, but I'm on the cover of this magazine going into 1100 prisons, 40,000 copies gets passed a couple of times each one.

They think it passes through the hands, Nikita, 400,000 prisoners. And I said to somebody the other day, this magazine cover doesn't have anything to do with my vanity. It doesn't have anything to do with my pride. It has everything to do with telling the least of these that you can still change your life. You can still come back to God. You can still change your narrative. You can still make amends. You can still be accountable and live in such a way, even if you never get out of prison, right?

You can live in such a way that you lay your head on the pillow at night, wake up in the morning and feel proud of the person you are now, not who you were when you perpetrated the crime. And so it's crazy. And I'm sure this has happened in your life where you just, you start something in faith and you follow him and then you look back and you see where it started as this tiny seed. And now it's a forest and the forest has got a lot of foliage and you're like, God, what are you doing with this? This is amazing. So it's grown into something beautiful, my friend. If you feel you're receiving value from this show, it's time to man up and you'd like to support the show along with Koloff for Christ Ministries, go to koloff.org, koloff.org and make a donation of any amount.

A note, you want my latest book and you receive a personalized copy of Nikita, a tale of the ring and redemption. Well, that's amazing. And I have, I can relate. I mean, I've spoken in a handful of prisons over the years as the Lord has opened that door.

And I just really appreciate what you said. And for them, yeah, we've all, none of us are without having made mistakes and suffered different consequences for those choices we've made. Unfortunately for some, they've ended up in jail, ended up in prison. But yet I have found, it's been my experience kind of to tag onto what you said that, and I've said to them, some of those, look, you can do more being in here incarcerated with all the time you have on your hands than some who are supposedly walking free, but consumed by the world and everything around them, right? So in a sense, stay more focused. Well, let me ask you too. So in the same vein, be a king, be a queen.

One solution to help kids, teenagers, adults, as you have been alluding to, find their true purpose. And I saw, I watched a couple of videos. You had sent me a couple of videos and you're a very powerful speaker.

And I can see where through just your passion and excitement and even in watching those videos, how God, again, is blessing you to really impact other people's lives and make a difference. Can you just add a little bit more to the be a be a king, be a queen? Yeah, absolutely. And so we're in question there of everybody. So we say, be a king, be a queen or be Royal.

And really it's a holistic approach to the whole man or the whole woman Nikita. So we believe that that each human being was born to leave a legacy and born with a purpose. And so it happened to start with athletes, but again, you can, you can translate this to career men or career women. And, and I say, you weren't born to, to make money and die. You weren't born to work at a job and die.

There's more than that. And if you think that's all you were born for, then my gosh, what a shame that is. And so we talk about purpose, passion, platform, what were you created for? What gifts have you been given Nikita?

You were given extraordinary physical gifts and gifts of showmanship. And through that you're using your platform to change people's life. That's your purpose. So we talk about purpose, passion, platform. We talk about interpersonal relationships. What does it mean to be a king or a queen in your relationship? And then most importantly, I think right now we talk about what does self-care look like?

What does mental, mental health, positive mental health look like for yourself first, good luck for yourself and then others. And here's the reality. You do talk a lot to men, have a lot of men guests, as you alluded to. I want to say this, I say this to men. I'm not mad at your granddaddy and I'm not mad at your granddaddy's granddaddy or your granddaddy's granddaddy's granddaddy, but for a lot of men, not all, but for a lot of men, there is an idea Nikita that has been passed down that is so false and so dangerous that is killing men across this planet in record numbers. And that is that there is this idea of masculinity that means if I gotta be, if I gotta be strong, I gotta be tough, I gotta be masculine.

That means I gotta man up, shut up, put some dirt on it and keep moving and getting sure don't show emotion. And because of that Nikita, there are record numbers, as I mentioned, of men that are holding things in that are literally dying inside and walking around every single day, smiling at you, functioning in their jobs, but barely functioning. And this is why we have record numbers of depression and suicide because men think a lot of men, not all again, think that it's not masculine or strong to ask for help. And I tell men, you've never been so strong. You have never been so masculine. You have never been so attractive as when you say, I do not have the tools in my toolbox to be able to deal with this.

And what I do is I liken it. I use the illustration of you're in your garage and you have a job that needs an Allen wrench. If you don't have an Allen wrench in your toolbox, Nikita, you go get an Allen wrench, correct? And, and, and if you, so going to get an Allen wrench oftentimes looks like telling somebody I'm struggling.

It might be going, picking up the phone and calling the therapist, but there might be some baby steps before that. So going to get the Allen wrench, it's asking for help is what we call in the moment, taking off the proverbial mask, destroying this idea. Perfect. So, so for men, I break it down like that. And I say, baby, all, if you don't have an Allen wrench to finish the job, go get an Allen wrench.

It's as simple as that. If you don't have the tool in your toolbox to be able to function at a high level every day, be happy and not be miserable inside, then go get the Allen wrench. And so when I began to take off my mask, because I had what I call a dark night of the soul, Nikita, where I had her voice is telling me to kill myself after I lost my mother in, in may of 2019 to cancer. And, and I struggled with whether or not to talk about it afterwards, because I thought I would be seen as defective and weak and broken and people wouldn't book me and people wouldn't see me as, as, you know, somebody who wanted to teach them in this, in this area. But then the Lord reminded me that my girl, you are a warrior. I saved you for a purpose. You've got a purpose. Now you've got a story to tell, go tell your story and go carry buckets of water for people that are still in burning houses. And so Nikita, I feel like this is now my highest and best calling to help people become their most authentic self, to live at their best self, to have proper and good and, and positive mental health, to take off the mask, to destroy this idea of perfecting, to live their life as a king or a queen or as royalty.

Man, that is so good. Wow. I mean, and it's, here's what's amazing how, how fast time flies on this show. And, and there, there's so much more we can talk about. I'm going to have to have you back again sometime because there, there's more we can talk about, but everything you just said is really in line with, I know why we're talking today. Cause you know, one of my wrestling peers and I, you mentioned, you made a reference to a whole man or a whole woman.

And we do, we do a camp called Man Camp and it's based on 1st Thessalonians 5, 23 being whole in spirit, soul, and body. And you talked about men, you know, bottling things up. I recently did an interview with a wrestling fan actually about specifically the topic of suicide. So you are spot on in everything that you're saying. And, and I really do want to have you back because I had something else I was going to discuss with you, but maybe perhaps the next time you're back, we can even cover this in, in as a topic. And that is, I saw in your notes where, where you have, where you have been a, you were, you wrote in your notes, a victim of domestic violence, but you've overcome that. You've overcome that. And, and perhaps that's something that we can have you back on. If you'd be willing to come and talk about that, would you be willing to do that?

Absolutely. And I just got to say, before we jump off, I'm so excited. You and I are going to Holy Land together in 2022, and I'm just blown away that we're going to get to walk where Jesus walked. I've been once before together, and now we built this friendship and, and we'll get to walk with in the Holy Land together and, and whoo, I'm just so pumped about that. And I cannot wait to come back on your show. That'll be amazing.

Yes, that will be amazing. Hey, before we go, tell our listeners, how can they find Rachel Barbeau? How can they find you?

Yeah, absolutely. I am on every social media platform. I believe in the idea of social media. I'm not one of those people that puts an idea out in the world and then it's an echo chamber.

I don't talk back. I have created some of the best and most fruitful relationships through social media, best friends, people that are like family. So any social media, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Rachel Barbeau, B-A-R-I-B-E-A-U, or you can find out everything about the movement at I'm, and that's the letter I, the letter M, changingthenarrative.org. That's the letter I-M, changingthenarrative.org. And there you can find out about my online e-courses. You can find out about my retreat. You can book me to speak.

We can work one-on-one. So I just am so appreciative of this new relationship that we have today with you, King, and I can't wait to get to know you better. Well, thank you. For the listeners out there, there you have it, Rachel Barbeau, who is a woman changing the narrative. Thank you so much for coming on today, Rachel.

Thank you, Nikita. We'll see you next time on It's Time to Man Up. Men, I would like to challenge each of you to consider spending five days with Lex Luger and I at Man Camp, pursuing the heart of God. Ladies, if you're listening, we'll send your men home better equipped to be men of God, godly husbands, and godly fathers.

God appeals to you. Give them your blessing and encourage them to sign up today at mancamp.info. Pastors, if you would like to bring Koloff for Christ Ministries and Man Up Conference to your community, go to koloff.org and email me.

Remember this, it's time to man up. You've heard me talk about his pillows for a long, long time and no doubt big business is responding to Mike Lindell and all this generosity for causes for the kingdom by trying to shut down his business. You can't buy his pillows at Kohl's anymore. You can't get them on Amazon or you can't get them at Costco.

They're attempting to close his business because he stood up for kingdom values. What a chance to respond, especially if you need a pillow. Oh, I've had mine now for years and years and years and still fluffs up as wonderful as ever. Queen size pillows are just $29.98. Be sure and use the promo code TRUTH or call 1-800-944-5396. That's 1-800-944-5396. Use the promo code TRUTH for values on any MyPillow product to support truth.