Life is Tremendous

This is Andy Thomas from the Masculine Journey Podcast where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Welcome back to It's Time to Man Up.

Nikita Koloff, no longer the Russian nightmare, now the devil's nightmare. And man, do I have a special guest today. It is such a joy, such a pleasure, such an honor to have this mighty woman of God, Tracy Tremendous Jones on the show with me today. Tracy, welcome to Man Up.

I'm so excited, Nikita. It is tremendous to be with you and all your wonderful listeners today. I want to jump into your story and more of your story and what you're doing and just how you're impacting the world, because you are. And we go back a number of years that I was first introduced to you, and I think through a mutual friend Jeffrey Gitimer, if I'm not mistaken, I think that's how I was first introduced to you. But then the last couple of years, you and I and some other authors and book writers and speakers have been doing a monthly call where we just learn and glean from one another and share ideas with one another, right? Absolutely.

Yeah, it's been a couple of years now, the Godly Guide Group. That's it. But you know what's great? Obviously, the Man Up Podcast, but I love having ladies on, love having women on the show, because a couple of reasons. One, it just brings a different perspective. And I do have lady listeners, so it's not like it's just men listening to the Man Up show, right?

Right, right. And so I'm excited to have you on today just to bring a different perspective for both men and women, just to glean from some of the things that you've done and things that you're doing. But before we get there, before we get there, if the listeners are listening, they're like, Tracy Tremendous Jones. Well, that's an unusual name. But there's a backstory to that. There's a backstory.

And let me just quickly fill our listeners in, and then you can fill in the gaps for us, okay? You grew up with, in my eyes, a famous father. And his name was Charlie, and had the nickname Tremendous Jones, hence, Tracy Tremendous Jones, as you have taken over his, extending his legacy. Charlie Tremendous Jones, over 50 years, just had, just some research here, Tracy.

And I love what this says. He had a simple yet powerful mission to help people improve their lives through reading. Now, that's something that has shifted and changed over the years, but we're gonna talk more about that, specifically what you're doing. And he entered into the world of business in the insurance industry at just 22 years of age. But by 23, he was awarded his agency's most valuable associate award. That's pretty amazing, age 23. There's a lot of really cool quotes.

I'm gonna hold off on the quotes right now from your dad. And in fact, a speaker, I mean, he loved to motivate people. A book author, in fact, one of his books, I found out, Life is Tremendous, has sold more than two million copies printed in 12 different languages.

That's pretty amazing in and of itself. But Tracy, what was it like to grow up in the house of Charlie Tremendous Jones? Well, Nikita, I think the best way to describe it is that it was a cross between a sitcom and bootcamp.

Okay. So everything was like, for those of you that watch Seinfeld or any of the comedies, he, anyone that knew him, he was hysterical. He had this unbelievable sense of humor, which most salespeople do.

And hopefully most Christians do have this beautiful joy emanating. But he always had this brilliant sense of humor. So everybody that he would meet, we couldn't go anywhere. And he would be connecting with people.

If you came within a 50 yard orbit of him, that was it. There was hugging, there was getting to know, there was probably conversion praying, you know, buying books, all that good stuff. But because he came from such a difficult background and he knew the value of work, it was very disciplined, very regimented. So I grew up learning how work and fun are inextricably linked. And that was a wonderful thing to learn as a child because so many people they're in their J-O-B and I hate it. And then I go to leisure and you almost have these two non-congruent sections of your life and you're bounced between one and the other. Hence we have this weird work-life balance, which you never really achieve.

It's just every day you kind of pick up and balance. But it was, it was wonderful. Of course, as a teenager, I did not like it because he was, we were odd ducks, you know, he was just an out there Christian. There was no way I was even going to date because there was no way I was going to bring a little boy to the house to meet him because he would scare him off. And it was just, as you can relate Nikita, like any good father would do, right? He's like, you've got time for all that stuff when you become an adult. Right now it's working, reading and, you know, and growing in the Lord. So he took our TVs out of the house when we were in high school.

He's like, trash in, trash out. You can get a job. We all had jobs from 13 on. I got, I got a job. You can be reading, you can be volunteering, you can be playing sports.

You're not going to sit in front of the boob tube. And this is back in the seventies when there wasn't even any really tough on TV. We were like, we were like guinea pigs and, uh, our summers were spent traveling with him to meetings. He put us all in a Volkswagen camper with a pop up top, you know, six kids, two adults and boxes of books. And we drove from Montreal down to Mexico city and we'd park at K away campground and then he'd go speak. And then we, uh, somebody come pick him up and then we'd hang out at the campground.

Then we'd go work the book table. So it was just, yeah, it was just really very, very interesting way to grow up. A work, so a work ethic with a sense of humor. That's a, what a great combination that is right there.

And wow. Some of the things you said, you know, I, of course I can relate to and thinking raising four girls of, of my own. Um, when I was, you know, introduced to guys like Jeffrey, get him or like your dad and Jim Rohn and, and others who, who, uh, you know, were not only motivational, but inspirational had, you know, rock solid foundations and, and try to instill those same things in my daughters as well. Now I didn't take the TVs out of the house, uh, but, but I motivated them by actually offering them, uh, cash money.

If they would like watch certain certain programs and, or read or read books and, and that sort of thing. So I can kind of relate to that a little bit, a little bit. Yeah. We had that. Yep. Yep.

Yep. Reading books and writing book reports to earn allowance. So that was a big thing too.

You know, personal development, a faith-based book, you know, or an autobiography, an autobiography. And, uh, yeah, that's how we got motivated to read too. That, that is exactly, exactly what I, they had to write a little summary.

They had to write just, it didn't have to be a full length report, but they had to read, write a little summary on maybe one or two nuggets that they took away from each book that they, that they read. So that is really cool. Well, I have, you know, I have a special surprise for you that I think will encourage you, Tracy. All right. You ready for this?

Okay. So, so Robbie, uh, who before the show just opened up with a word of prayer for us, Robbie Dilmore, who, who makes all this work for me. I mean, he is the man when it comes to the recording these shows and programming and podcasting and that sort of thing. And, uh, I, I, a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned, Hey, I might have Tracy Tremendous Jones on the show. And he's like, what? And he tells me this story. So Tracy, I'm going to bring Robbie back on and have him share just a brief story with you that I think is going to encourage you and bless you and our listeners as well.

Robbie, take it away. Yeah. So I'm guessing we must be pretty close in age because I grew up in the sixties and seventies as well. And my father was a car dealer. And so early on when I was like 17, 18 years old, he wanted me to, you know, learn how to sell and stuff.

So what does he do? He signs me up for Tremendous Jones conference, which actually until Nikita just said, Charlie, I'd, I didn't know there was a Charlie involved. I just thought it was Tremendous Jones. I mean, that's, that's great.

And it was the first conference like that of any kind I ever attended. And, and the thing that I would say about your dad, that anybody that ever heard him would have to agree with me. He could say Tremendous in a way that only he could say Tremendous. He would, you know, anytime that somebody would say something, he'd go, that's Tremendous. You know, and he just had this booming way of saying, did you ever hear it, Nikita?

I have, I've actually watched videos, YouTube videos, and yeah, so I, and listen to some recordings. And what an effect he had on me. And I'll never forget the humility of the man, because one of the things he said that just totally caught me off guard that I remember to this day was he, he said, God didn't give me six kids so I could teach them. God gave me six kids so they could teach me.

Right. And then he went on all these stories on the things that you guys weren't teaching him and in the hard way, like, like my kids have taught me. So I understand all too well now, you know, having had three of my own, but I have to say that, you know, that it was one of those early influences in my life. I wasn't a Christian. I didn't read books. And you were how old, Rob? You were like 18, 17, 18.

I mean, these were things that were just unique concepts to me. And he sent you where, where did you go to first hear him? He went, it was like the Coliseum in Albuquerque. It was New Mexico, right? Wow.

Yeah. So it was a big deal and there were thousands of people. I mean, it was a huge deal and I could still see him and he didn't stay on the stage. As I recall, he was walking all around going, that's tremendous.

That's right. He was larger than life in so many ways. So I'm so glad that I have a chance to share that with, with one of those kids he talked about. I can't believe it.

I thought you'd be blessed by that. And that was Robbie. That was back in the 70s. I think you told me, right? It was like 78 maybe somewhere in there. So, Tracy, I thought that story all these years later, Robbie still remembers.

It still impacted his life then and has impacted his life now. I thought that would really bless you to hear that. Well, Rob, that is, that is what a blessing because I'll tell you what, you guys know new levels, new devils. And every time I'm about to go, you know what, I'm not really sure if this whole tremendous thing is working out, I'll get a comment like that from somebody like you.

And I'm like, that's it. You know what I'm saying? So Robbie, thank you so much for that word of, word of encouragement. What a blessing.

Oh, he was. Thank you. And how cool that I get to talk to his daughter. I mean, it really is for me too, a real treat. I've been so excited about it. Oh my goodness.

Yeah. Well, let me do this. Let me, I want to, I just want to share a couple, a couple of his quotes and then let's, we're going to jump in, transition into, you know, some, some of what you're doing as well.

We so appreciate our listeners. If you will support this program with a financial gift of any amount, I will send you a personalized copy of my latest book, Nikita, a tale of the ring and redemption. Go to colof.net. That's colof.net, colof.net and make your contribution today. Nikita Koloff here.

If you're needing to buy a car and have marginal credit and considering using buy here, pay here, that's worse than taking the Russian sickle. Winston-Salem motor cars will put you behind the wheel of a car you can rely on while helping rebuild, repair, or establish your credit score. Conveniently located on Silas Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem. Be sure to check them out today at wsmc1.com because you are number one. A couple quotes that I, that I found, you'll be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read, quote number one. Quote number two, leaders are readers and quote number three, I like this one as well, no one is a failure until they blame somebody else. Wow. Imagine, you'd probably go to jail for saying that in public today. You know, I know, right? You're like, it's, we're, we're the blame society. Wow.

That's exactly right. So, so there's some of the quotes. Are there, is there anything, is there maybe a quote that you remember one more than the other growing up in that household, Tracy? Well, well definitely the people you meet in the books you read and, you know, growing up, I was like, Oh Lord, you know, I tell people, I think I had to read the, um, how to win friends and influence people before the pokey little puppy, you know? So, I mean, it was books, books, books. I'm like, can we just, can I read a, can I, you know, can I just not read a book? And it was, he's like, no, you need to read books.

You need to read books. So, um, I, I never really understood that until I got, I got older. Uh, but I love that you never fail until you blame somebody else. Um, you know, another one of the things he'd say when I would lament about, um, you know, somebody had hurt me or somebody had betrayed me or why was this happening? And he would just look at me and say, is it anything worse than what Jesus went through?

You know, he threw the Jesus card out and I'm like, no guys, you're right. And he was always, there's no thumb sucking, you know, and he grew up in the depression era, poverty, blunt out of school in the eighth grade, mother left them. This was not a pleasant upbringing by all rights.

He was not privileged at all. And he had every marker against him, but he met my mother, Gloria, and he found life insurance and then he found Christ. And so it, he was always about, it doesn't matter where you start.

It matters what imprints on you. So when people would complain to him, you know, Nikita, he had this and Roberta too, he had this beautiful way. He epitomized tough love. And, uh, he always said, thank God he was never a preacher because if somebody would have come to him with an affair, he's like, it would have been murder. He was more, he was not the shepherding type. And that's a blessing because not everybody's called to be a shepherd.

He was very much a slap you don't talk so stupid. You're a new creature. Get with the program and especially men.

And I'm telling you, women love this too. Um, you just sometimes need somebody to shake you and say, get out of your, get out of your own way. You're a, uh, a son or daughter, the King stop this thinking, thinking, you know, as they used to say, you need a checkup from a neck up. Come on now you get the mind of Christ. Um, and the other one was, he would tell me, uh, things don't go wrong and break your heart to break you down so that you can give up. They happen to build you up so that you can be all that Christ intended you to be.

And he got that from Oswald Chambers. And so whenever something bad would happen, either by my own doing or something completely just God put it into my life for whatever he would tell to me, this is not about you. This is meant to make you a greater friend, a more compassionate ear, just a confidant to somebody that years from now or days from now is going to be going through something and you're going to be able to walk alongside them. So growing up, I had this really just healthy respect for failure and suffering that I thought, well, God, you sure are putting me through a lot of, I'm going to be a blessing to a lot of people, you know, someday because, uh, these things that he taught us that they make us and they make us more, more sweeter in Christ and more dependent on him. So that was really, um, really what, what, what he let us know. And, uh, yeah.

And I love the, I love that you're not a failure until you blame somebody else. I mean, and the other one was everybody out there looking for the perfect job. I need a job. I needed this, the perfect job.

And he's like, no, no, no. Um, the job doesn't make you, you make the job so you can be in the worst job with the biggest idiot boss that doesn't matter. We are called to Christ to be excellence in everything.

And so he was very much, you own it all. And it's up to you until you decide you're working for yourself and not somebody else. You're always going to be looking for the next best job or best pay or best whatever. So very much taught me it's where you are right now, live in the present, do the best you can, because all these things are unfolding.

You don't see them yet, but be patient, be diligent, and it will, you know, do the job thing and it will come eventually. Wow. Well, to, to play on where what, what a tremendous upbringing, Tracy, you, you have had like for real, I hope people were listening to what you just said, because there was a lot of rich nuggets in, in those words. And, and well, let, let's, let's, uh, let's transition and talk a little bit more about what you're doing. So, I mean, I know you picked up the reins so to speak when, you know, in his passing a number of years ago and stepped in from the publishing to the book writing. So tell our listeners a little bit about what you're doing presently, currently.

Absolutely. Well, I just want to share with the listeners, uh, for those of you that are in possible potential legacy businesses, you know, my father and I had always, I think in the back of my mind, I had always hoped that I would come back, but I mean, I was in high tech. I was in the fence, I was in the air force.

I was in these big organizations and there are, they were also very bureaucratic floated organizations, which anybody in a big thing knows. I was always in the back of my mind hoping that I could get back to run the business. Uh, we would talk about it, but it never happened while my father was alive.

For whatever reason, it's a lot of different reasons. It didn't happen. And by God's divine timing, I now, I now see that, but right when he was going to pass about two days before he was going to pass, he still hadn't asked me to come on back and take over the business.

So this is, this is, uh, hitting on Tracy's ego side. Why wouldn't he? I've run, you know, I've been to war, but you know, what does he think? I can't do this. And I finally realized he knew it had to be my decision because like any business, family's no different than any other bureaucracy out there.

As a matter of fact, sometimes it's worse because you expect it to be better, right? Cause your blood. Um, and it wasn't until two days before he passed that I just said, dad, I, I, I'm going to come back. And he just squeezed my hand and said, I know you'll take it places I never could. And that was it.

That was our succession planning. It wasn't a, how am I going to fill his shoes? I was always, uh, very clear.

God let me know. Uh, because when my father passed, I sent in the corner of the room, a presence that just let me know whatever you go and whatever you do. And I knew this in my heart, I know it, but to actually get almost, um, an angelic presence there, just let me know, Hey, all this stuff he talked about, it is for real. And you're going to have all these supernatural cloud of witnesses on your side because I got saved when I was a little girl by Nikita, my faith walk was sorely, sorely lacking. You know, I was a Christian in name only saved.

Yes. I never doubted Christ, but not rich in the relationship. So God knew I needed that to know that this is the real thing. So coming back and I thought, you know, what am I going to do? And I just had this unbelievable support network of people like Robbie and you and Jeffrey. And I thought, well, we're just going to figure this out. So coming from an engineering background into the small publishing creative world of personal development, when I got to see where all those experiences that happen tomorrow, I now had a chance to share them, you know, cause you can't listen to a motivational speaker if they haven't done anything, you know what I'm saying?

Cause they're only talking theory and you're like, well, you know, obviously you've never worked with people for you to make a statement like that, or you haven't had your heart broken or you haven't been hauled a quarter or anything like that. And so it was a back to where we're doing wholesale distribution for people that love tremendous books. We're doing publishing. We have online courses, a podcast speaking. So just so blessed to take what he did and just to continue it, you know, 12, 12 and a half years later, by the grace of God, it's all God. He is just, just so blessed us. So that's what we're still doing. Yeah.

That's pretty me. I mean, so from publishing to, to authoring your own books, writing, speaking, I know you're making such an impact. What would you say, Tracy? What would you, what do you feel like if you could pinpoint narrow down one thing, just say, okay, this is what I feel like where I'm making my biggest contribution or my biggest difference at this juncture of your life?

What, what take a minute and what could you pinpoint something? I would, well, I definitely publishing because I get tremendous joy and this is where God has really prospered us. So I know this is where he wants us to be publishing, helping people that to get their expertise out to the world. Because that can get places, you know, what if nobody would have written down a world that where the Christ said the Bible is still the number one bestseller of all time, because somebody took the time to write it down. So publishing, but also my online courses, my Spark course.

Just the richness, we have different cohorts going through that. And just the time where we read books together and get to do group and one-on-one coaching and developing so people can really fire up the Imago Dei within each one of them has just been just unbelievable. So those are the two biggest things where I feel like, you know, God is just really showing up in a mighty way. Well, for the listeners out there, I mean, if you're looking for someone to coach you or looking for some good resources and just to glean from an amazing woman, Tracy, tremendous Jones is one resource for you to check into. We'll make sure she gives you her information where you can find her. Tracy, let me ask you one more question. We got a few minutes left here.

The time goes so fast, but you're giving so many nuggets here. What would you say, okay, take a minute and what would you say to someone who maybe doesn't feel like they're making a contribution? What would you say to that person listening? Oh, I would say you probably are suffering from one of two things, either the gift of complication, which is a terrible spiritual gift and that you're spread too thin and too broad. And so you feel kind of depleted. So I would really, I would really work with them to really nail down what is your God-given aspiration and purpose. When you get that singular focus, nothing can stand in your way.

And then you get the energy, you can combat the weariness, you start having the right conversations with people. So the biggest thing is to narrow in that focus. The other thing is to realize that is a lie straight from the devil, okay? Even if every day the only thing you do is fall deeper in love with Christ, guess what? That's what thrills him the most.

So if at the very minimum you are actually doing the maximum. So I would just let people know, God doesn't need us, okay? He's got this all done. So fall deep in love with him. And then the more you do that, the more he's going to unveil to you what your singular purpose is going to happen. And then you aren't going to sit there and wonder if you're making a difference anymore. You're going to live it. You're going to have trouble sleeping. You're going to be so infused with it.

Oh man, that's a great word. Thank you. And hey, thank you for serving in our military, by the way, as well.

I just want to make sure and thank you for that as well. And some great words of advice from Tracy Tremendous Jones. And Tracy, where can people find out if they wanted coaching or wanted to find out more about what all you're publishing and writing and all that, where could they find more about you?

Absolutely. Well, there's two websites. One is tremendousleadership.com, and that's got all the links to the YouTube channel. You sign up for that. You get two free weeks of ebook. Our podcast is on that and all our Tremendous books that you can order.

You can also, there's a button on there if you want to publish with us. Then there's also a site, Tracy C. Jones, T-R-A-C-E-Y, see for Colleen and Jones. And that's my speaking, these little miniature booklets we're doing, courses, all that different stuff.

So that's more the speaker side, but the book and writing side is on Tremendous Leadership. Wait a minute, Tracy C. Jones, I thought your middle initial was, I thought your middle name was Tremendous. I know, that's my unofficial, you know, dad named me after his first pastor, Tracy C. Miller.

So I'm Tracy C. Jones in that pressure. Gotcha. I gotcha. Well, what a joy and a pleasure to have you on the show today. I know our listeners are going to be super blessed by all the things that you've shared.

I'm guessing, Tracy, they're going to go back and listen to this more than once, just because of how many nuggets that you shared, things that people can take and apply to their lives. And I can't thank you enough for being on the show today. Wow. Thank you so much. What an honor, Nikita.

Thank you. Well, and it's been fun. I'm looking forward to how we are going to continue to glean and learn from one another and work with one another. And let me just say to all of those of you listening out there, one thing that really resonated with me that Tracy mentioned when I asked her the question, if you're out there and feel like, I don't feel like I'm contributing anything. I don't feel like I'm doing anything that's worthy.

Make note to self. She said, fall in love with Jesus. I mean, if you did nothing else and just fell more in love with Jesus each and every day, that as she said, to reiterate, he's going to open up a world for you that you'll, she said, you won't be able to sleep at night.

You'll be so excited about walking in your purpose, walking, knowing, understanding your identity. I mean, if you haven't surrendered your life, you're listening to this show today and you can tell this is a woman of God. And if you haven't surrendered your life to Jesus today, man, now would be a good time to do that.

Pull over or stop whatever it is you're doing and just make that decision and surrender your life to Jesus. And, and, and email me, email me and let me know that you made that decision and I'll pass that information on to Tracy as well. So Tracy, thanks for being on the show today. What a blessing. Thank you so much, Nikita, Rob, and all our tremendous listeners out there.

All right. God bless you. And tune in again next time for another great episode of 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.

That 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.

Or to sing and serving you sing. This is Nikita Koloff and I want to thank Clemens Karp for supporting my new show, Man Up, Saturday afternoon at 1230 on the Truth Network. Nikita Koloff, the Russian nightmare here for Crescent Automotive. If buying a car is a nightmare for you, my friends Brian and Jamie Johnson at Crescent Automotive make it simple to find your pre-owned dream car with no hassle, affordable windshield pricing. No matter where you live, they will get your American dream car to you, baby. Drivecrescent.com is all you need to know. Their whole inventory is right there with the right price. Everybody drives a Crescent. You should too. Drivecrescent.com. This is the Truth Network.