Geared For Life: Making the Shift Into Your Full Potential

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. In a coffee shop drinking a pumpkin spice latte, half sweet with oat milk, with Bryce Kenny, monster truck driver, mohawk sporting man of God, and he has just handed me a copy of his brand new book. Bryce, this is amazing. Congratulations, brother.

I appreciate it, man. You talk about finding the next gear I never knew I had, right? So the book is called Geared for Life, and that's really what it's all about. It's finding that next gear, and man, this process of writing a book has really taken me for a spin.

No pun intended, but here you are. You've published a couple of your own, so you know the process, and man, what a wild ride it's been, but I'm really excited. The response I've been getting and the people's feedback that I've been getting that have gone through it already, it's helping people kind of navigate through that process of asking the question, is this really all there is to life, where our head hits the pillow, and we go, man, this can't be it. Maybe it's that sophomore in college can't decide what to major in, or the 35-year-old professional that's just thinking like, man, I thought this career would be more, or the 65-year-old that just retired going, man, I didn't think it'd be like this.

I thought it'd be better or whatever that might be. That moment that we've all had, this book really does hit that because it's all about, look, you don't have to have the secrets to life. You just have to find your next gear.

So what are your gears? Well, I share my seven personal gears, which are my seven foundational beliefs, and I'm hoping that by the time someone gets to the end of it, they're kind of processing through saying themselves, they're probably going to steal a few of my gears, right? Being purpose-driven, failing faster, becoming built for others. But my hope is by the time they get to the end, they find a couple and uncover some of their own gears of their own, and be able to kind of leverage that and say, all right, let's go do something and actually make our impact we've always wanted to make. Okay, so on this first segment, we're going to talk about who is Bryce, like the mohawk, the whole kit and caboodle, okay? How did we end up in a coffee shop with this amazing book and pointing people to Jesus and kind of your story. And then the second segment, we're going to go through each chapter, and you're going to give me a one sentence. It's going to be tough, but a one sentence, like knockout punch on each chapter.

And there's some great chapters in here. The book is geared for life, subtitle making the shift into your full potential author, Bryce Kenny. This guy's got some major endorsements like Dennis Anderson, who's the driver and creator of the grave digger monster jam truck. Wow. This is you're a monster. First of all, what is a professional monster jam driver?

I mean, Bryce Kenny, this is a whole other level. People see you like this massive monster truck, you know, climbing over major things here. Yeah. Yeah.

What is a monster jam driver? Good question, Stu. I don't know, because I pinch myself every day knowing that this is my career. And it's cool because I get to travel the world and drive something that weighs 12,000 pounds doing backflips.

And it's been fun watching God connect the dots along the way. And I just feel like growing up, that was my dream. I always had wanted to be someone who used the platform motorsports to impact the world. I watched my grandfather do it. And I talk a lot about him in this book, because I'm not somebody that is a self-made man. I'm a product of really great mentorship and watching my grandfather go through really difficult things and pursuing a purpose, his purpose, and then watching him get disappointed one day and fighting through that. Why am I equipped to fight through the hard stuff?

It's because I got to watch someone. Well, not everybody gets that privilege. Not everyone grows up with an amazing father like you did and I did. I have a great relationship with my dad. And not everyone has that grandfather figure in their life. Well, I hope this book serves as that for that person to kind of get them through that hard stuff. But yeah, what is a Monster Jam driver?

I don't know. A professional crash test dummy. That might be the easiest way to describe my career. But it's a lot of fun because that platform has continued to grow.

And I'm just learning every day on how to use it better. Okay. And he really does have a mohawk. I'm looking at him.

I'll post this picture. We're having coffee in a coffee shop in Kernersville, North Carolina Shout out to Kyle's Coffee Shop. He's grinding his own beans in there. This place is the real deal.

It is, yeah. He's a roaster. He does it all right here.

Kyle's the man. So people will see you on stage. Now they're going to read this book. But a lot of your message is your journey. Your journey of faith.

People see guys like you on all the big national TV, international TV star signing autographs. But it wasn't always like that. There's messy stuff. And talk a little bit about that, will you, about how you found the Lord and what he's done in your life through the different phases getting to where, you know, he's brought you today. Yeah, well, and man, that's a whole podcast, I would imagine. But, you know, I would say the short testimony is, I grew up in a Christian home, Christian school. And it wasn't until my junior year of high school that I was really asking the question, like, is this Jesus guy actually who he said he was? And if he was that, if he actually resurrected and he was the Messiah, then nothing else matters but that. Everything goes through that vantage point.

If it didn't happen and it's not true, then what a giant waste of time, right? And even Paul talks about that in Romans. He's like everything hinges on the resurrection. And so that's where I started.

You know, I picked up More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell. I started, you know, reading through these books by Habermas. Did the resurrection actually happen?

I started studying this stuff because I was going, I'm going to make a decision on whether this was real or not. And I went through it and said, you know what? This actually happened. This guy was who he said he was. He was the Messiah.

And so ever since then, no one shakes me from it. I just had a conversation 30 minutes ago with someone in Monster Jam that's saying, you know, hey, Bryce, I really, I think I want to get baptized. And I'm on this conversation with him going, well, what do you know about baptism?

Like what does that actually mean? And so we have this whole conversation for 30 minutes sharing the gospel with him. And, you know, somebody that he thinks he probably would have said before the call, I think I know what Christians believe. But until we actually talked about the gospel, then he gets in that position where he's having to decide, is this true?

Do I believe that or not? Because our foundational beliefs drive our actions. And we're in this society now where, you know, you're not able to share beliefs because it might threaten someone else's. Like, give me a break. You know, if we don't have foundational beliefs, we're gonna get chewed up and spit out, especially in what's going on in our world today.

And, you know, here, if we go into World War III, right, over the next 12 months, whatever, however, all this unfolds, if you don't know at your core what you believe, it's gonna be way harder for you. So I came out of high school and chased my dream. I wanted to be a professional drag race driver. So the top fuel dragsters going 300 miles an hour in four seconds, that was the original goal. That was the original plan. Got my teeth kicked in through that dream.

Absolutely failed. And I went into corporate America. And I said, you know what, if I don't, if I can't find the sponsorship to go and do that, make and make that dream happen, then I'll just go create wealth. And I'll be a team owner. And I'll do it myself.

That was, you know, my idea. So I went into corporate America, went down that path. And that's when Monster Jam called me. And Stu, I had the hardest time deciding whether I was gonna leave my corporate career. I had a good career going, right?

I could have done that for 30 years, made a bunch of money and actually gone down that path. And I was standing in my shop when I was talking to Monster Jam, trying to decide whether I would stay in my corporate job and go down this path or leave it for Monster Jam, because I had never grown up around monster trucks. When they first called me and they were like, have you ever been to an event?

Well, no. Well, that's probably the first place to start to see if you want to do this. And, but I was, I remember thinking, okay, am I going to leave this corporate career to eventually get back in drag racing and all that stuff for Monster Jam? And I looked around the shop and I realized all of my memorabilia, all of the posters, the banners, everything that was special to me had something to do with motor sports. And what happened is it, even though the, what I was wanting to do, meaning drag racing versus monster trucks and all that stuff, monster trucks didn't necessarily align with that.

Did it that right? That what looked different, but the, who I went back to who I wanted to become, which was someone who used the platform of motor sports to impact this world. I realized in that moment with all of memorabilia on the walls, it was like, Bryce, you were called to motor sports, not just drag racing. You were called to motor sports.

So just cause the circumstances change circumstances change, but that does not change the calling on our life. And so I got off of that phone calls on, I called Monster Jam right away and I was like, I'm in let's do this thing. And here that's been what, seven years later, since I, since I've since I've been full-time with Monster Jam. That's so cool. I want to make sure we shout out the live like warriors, a huge thing, a foundation you've started to really give back. You've touched a ton of kids medically in all kinds of ways.

It's just a big blessing. I want to read this from the inside sleeve. The first pages I read of your book really encouraged me because I think it's where a lot of people are living. And when we get into the next segment, we'll get into this deeper. This is right from Bryce, Kenny's new book geared for life, making the shift into your full potential just out. He says this, he says, find the gear you never had.

You never knew you had after a tiring day, you catch yourself mindlessly scrolling through social media frustrated. You think, is this really all there is to life? Monster Jam driver, former drag racer and motivational speaker, Bryce Kenny has been there in his new book geared for life.

He helps others get back into gear after life's inevitable stall outs, shifting their way to a more fulfilling life. So we'll get into that more. I want to break down each chapter, but this really is, give your website and maybe folks want to learn a little more about the live like warriors too. Will you do that before we get into this next segment? Absolutely.

Yeah. Live like warriors. And here's the best part about let's live like warriors.com. The best part about it, it's a coordinated effort and a volunteer army to go out there and fill very specific needs. So when we go and we find a need that's 2200 bucks, we go and raise 2200 bucks and all of it goes to that cause, right? We're just crowdfund, very specific needs.

Um, none of it's going to, you know, pay a salary or a rent on a building or any of that stuff. It's just going specifically to whatever needs we're filling. But here's what I think is so powerful. Like, yes, we're meeting needs, right? We're helping families in need. A lot of times it's pediatric cancer families. Um, but the cool thing is it's getting a lot of people that volunteer army I'm talking about.

I call it my warrior chain. Um, it's getting them off the sidelines because I think a lot of people would help out more and become built for others if they knew where to give or how to help. We give that, right? So we get people off the sidelines, get into the game and actually show them ways to make a difference. And we're doing it together with a whole bunch of people giving a little bit and it's making a big difference for these families as well. We were out there with our, our whole radio company was out there. All of our ministries were out there with you at Triad Baptist Church for a huge car show. It was an all day concert. It was powerful.

You spoke, tons of kids were touched, tons of money was raised and that was real. It was just so encouraging to see that we're going to come back and we're going to jump into shotgun with monster jam driver, Bryce Kenny, and it's going to be a blast. So stay tuned.

Don't touch that dial. More coming up and be sure to share this podcast with everyone in, you know, and be sure to get the book geared for life. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. The Mohawk warrior rolls out into the grandstand driving that big old monster jam truck is Bryce Kenny. I'm sitting with him right now.

Sue Epperson here on Truth Talk. Bryce, buddy, I got chills just hearing myself say that because I'm sitting with you right now. It's like we're riding shotgun in the big truck. And you said rolled into the stands. That'd be a bad day at monster jam.

But no, is there ever a bad day at monster jam when you're doing backflips and jumping 40 feet in the air? I don't know what to get you out to one by the way. Well, I got to come to one and now I have a reason because I got a buddy out there and you're a brother in Christ. So I got to stick with you. I don't know if I would actually hop in shotgun with you.

But if we were riding along, we were doing a ride along with you. What would we find as we go through each of these chapters? This is your brand new book geared for life making the shift into your full potential. Bryce Kenny is the author. Awesome cover art. Really cool gear shift there. Everything's on there. Great endorsements. We're just going to go each chapter starting in one.

And I just want you to give me a quick pithy sentence on each, okay? And just to kind of set the stage, just to whet the appetite folks. Chapter one, stalled. Get out of neutral.

Yeah. We all have been in neutral before. We felt stuck. And the right answer is not to solve it all right then and there. To find fifth gear, maybe we just get you into first gear, right? I like that chapter two, windshield, shifting focus. It's all about perspective. You know, when the perspective is right and you know who you want to be instead of just what you're wanting to go and accomplish, the who will drive the what.

And when you're able to go and find that best version of yourself, it's a lot easier to let the what you're wanting to go and do, be a part of that and kind of fall in line. So if we're in the truck with you, we'll go to chapter three next. But if we're in the big Monster Jam truck with you, Bryce, what are we seeing out the windshield? I can't even imagine.

Paint the picture for us, honestly. You're in there, you know, every week. Yeah. And that's funny because that's exactly how that chapter starts off with the ability when I'm 45 feet in the air in my Monster Jam truck and all I can see out of my windshield is the second level of a big giant football stadium. We actually have clear plastic panels down by my feet that I look down in because I've got to pick a landing spot. Well, I can't find a landing spot out of my windshield. I got to look down past my feet, past those big tires to figure out where I want to land this truck. And hopefully it works out. But yeah, the perspective, man, if the perspective is wrong and you don't know where you're trying to land, then good luck. Right. Good luck with that coming down and landing softly and pulling out. No, you're probably going to crash. But when the perspectives rise a lot easier.

Okay. Chapter three, burnout, first gear fail faster. What is that about? Hey, it's less of the successes will come if you get through the failures and most people don't make it through the failures. And so if once I learned that if I just fail as fast as I can, then the successes will come a lot easier. And so I talk a lot about some of my biggest failures. And then when all of a sudden this whole mindset shift happened for me and I started looking for failures, right? I had a mentor a long time ago said, if you will go and find ways to inconvenience yourself, you'll be doing what 99% of people don't do. Everyone else looks for the convenient.

You go look for the inconvenient and watch stuff change. And that's exactly what that chapter is all about. Okay. And we're going to jump up here to chapter four, pressure second gear, choose to believe rather than doubt. Oh, this was a big story about me getting lost in a cave as well.

Right. And, and you think about, uh, I still this day cannot go into caves Stu, uh, because of that experience, but it's all about, you know, if the moment you stop believing that the, that the next turn is going to have light literally at the end of the tunnel, or you're finally see that, that light, uh, peep into the cave. Uh, you know, you, you, what happens is you start to move slower and so you start to conserve and we're not built for conservation or built to go and create and to run as hard as we can at this life and, uh, and do as much as we can to make our impact. And so when you choose to believe, and it is a choice, right? When you choose to believe that that light is around that next corner, then you won't be able to keep yourself from running, uh, to get around it. And, uh, and that, that, that squelches the doubt as well. Okay. The fuel injection is going to steam and smoke is rising.

The fans are going crazy. So we've got to rush through here. Now chapter five thrash third gear, empty the tank, empty the tank, man.

You are much more willing to go all out. When you know where your pit stops going to be, where you know, when and how you're going to refuel, then you're not scared of spending every ounce of that fuel as you can to go as fast as possible. Okay. Chapter six, accelerate fourth gear drive with purpose. How do you, how do you talk about accelerating with a monster jam truck driver?

Wow. The Mohawk warrior drivers here, Bryce Kenny, what do you say about chapter six? Yeah, we're a man we've made purpose way harder to find than, than it should be.

Equip your passion and you'll find your purpose. That's what that chapter is all about. Chapter seven roadblocks fifth gear, prepare for resistance. Inevitably when you're going to run fast and the harder you run and the further you go, you're going to be, you're going to, you know, come up against quite a few obstacles and things that are just trying to take you out as a man and as a father, as a husband. And, uh, if you're not prepared for it, Ooh, good luck getting through it.

If you are prepared and you've got the right tool built on, you'll be okay. Okay. Chapter eight trophies, sixth gear feed memories, not egos.

Yeah. It's all about memories over egos. And when we slow down long enough to realize that the memories are the real things we're going to take out of this world. And whenever we're 70 years old and I'm sitting on my death bed and I'm looking back, it's not going to be about my, the things I accomplished. It's going to be about the times I went out and played soccer with my kid outside and, and, uh, cherish those memories.

And so when we change the mindset of the real trophies, the trophies that actually matter, it's going to be the memories we take. Okay. We're going to jump into chapter nine. We're in a coffee shop in Kernsville, North Carolina. I'm Stu Epperson with Bryce.

Kenny is brand new book. Everyone here is like, what are these guys doing? They have no idea.

They're a national. I have to tell this monster jam driver. He can't see the millions of people listening to truth talk right now. So he's not a little as nervous, but he's driven in front of him. Hundreds of millions in the, in the amazing Mohawk warrior monster jam truck.

He's, he's Bryce Kenny geared for life. Can you believe it? Make a little noise guys. Make a little noise.

Make a little noise. All right. They better not be grave digger. Yeah. Watch out for that now. Okay.

Don't even utter that name. Okay. Here we go.

And we're talking through his book. We're drinking our pumpkin spice lattes. I don't even know what you got.

What'd you get? A dirty chai. So chai with some espresso. Yeah.

So this is all hand ground, you know, unbelievable coffee grounds, everything delicious beans. So pit crew. Wow. Nine.

You got to throw a shot of those guys. Seventh gear become built for others. Yeah.

When you take your eyes off yourself long enough, put them on other people. You'll get everything you need in life. Wow. Strong 10, the last run. Make it count. This is the 10th chapter.

Talk to me. It's that, it's that quote. One of my favorite quotes on earth is it's not the two dates on your tombstone, but the dash in the middle that counts. That's what that chapter is all about.

Outlines it. And, and one day it'll be our last run. It'll be my last run, both in a monster truck, a drag car, whatever it might be. And, uh, but it's also the same thing in life. I'm going to have, it's going to be my last run at a goal, at a vision, at a dream. We've got to make that count.

You know, Bryce, Kenny life is short. You know, my dad went to heaven not too long ago and people are dying all over in the middle East. You know, war is broken out. There's all kinds of stuff going on.

What's your word? Like, you know, every time you get behind the wheel of this monster jam truck, I mean, your job is not just the ordinary, you know, you know, hang blinds or, you know, or pump gas or, or stand behind. I get to sit behind a microphone and talk to all these people.

You're behind the wheel of a massive wrecking machine. I mean, so talk about that and about how Jesus Christ makes all the difference as we get out of here. Yeah, it's, it's amazing because one day I always tell myself too, it's like my, my name won't be up in lights anymore. I won't get to be in stadiums.

I won't get to do it in front of 50,000 people. And so if my whole identity was just based on what I did for a living, well, that identity will change. If my identity is based on who I'm wanting to become and who I believe Jesus is wanting to me to become, because it says, Hey, we, I want to be like Jesus. But sometimes I think in the Western church, we, we hear that and say, we have to be Jesus. Well, we'll never be Jesus. We get to be seen perfect as Jesus. I want to be like Jesus, but God still created Bryce Kenny with my strengths and weaknesses and all of that stuff. To be able to go through this world and still impact the kingdom. The fact that we get to be used at all for the kingdom of God is, is grace personified.

Cause we don't deserve it. And all of the things that we don't bring to the table. Um, and, and our lack, he fills up with his strength. And so I know that one day whenever my identity is no longer based around a driver or driving a 12,000 pound monster jam truck for a living, what's going to be left. Well, what's going to be left are my foundational beliefs. And if my foundational beliefs are not solid rock solid, then I might as well just end, end it, end it right there when the career ends, because you know, but God's not done with me and he's not going to be done.

So everything we do when my feet hit the floor is going to be based into something bigger than myself. And I'm simply, I'm not going to have to figure out exactly what my life and all the secrets to life for the next 30 years. I don't know how life's going to go.

I don't know how life's going to go to the next 12 months with all the chaos going on. But I can tell you that I'm simply going to find the next gear and whatever that next gear looks like. That's my favorite, by the way, when someone's like, what's the, how do your seven years that you share in your book, which one's your favorite?

And I'm like, well, I do have out of the seven existing one, but my real favorite gear is whatever my next one is. I want to go and find that and run at a level and at a speed in which I never could have predicted in my own, not because out of my own strength or my own power, and certainly not for my own glory, but because I can look back and go, the only way I could have done this was because of the sovereign God who created me and put the things in my heart and the passions in my chest. And I had the faith to step out and actually act on those things.

He's the one that did it all, not me. So neat to see leading prayer, prayer services and Bible studies with all your guys out there. And it's like, you know, what's the no shame zone. Come in here. Let's get in the word.

We're all, we're all in God's image and we're all messed up, but we need the Lord. And this book has a very awesome, gracious spirit to it. The book is geared for life. The author's Bryce Kenny, monster, jam truck driver, motivational speaker. He's spoken all over the world, very gifted, very prolific, very encouraging. And we didn't even read the, you know, get to the epilogue, the finish line, which, you know, they got to read the book for that, but there's so much in all these chapters. We just did a little blow by blow.

Hope people will share this podcast. Hope people will get your book, your final challenge on what you want people to come away with after you read this book. You were built with more of a purpose than you realize. And God is right there in that process with you. He has not forgotten you. He cannot wait to partner with you and to lead you in that process of being able to make sure that you make this life count. And it starts today.

It starts with the decision and the humbleness to go to the father and say, I'm ready. God send me. I love it. Next time I interview you, I want to be sitting next to you in the monster jam truck.

Okay. Now I'm not saying it's going to be running. I'm not even going to say the ignition's on, but I think that would be really cool at some point.

I've never done my show from the cab or inside of a monster jam truck. So, but God bless you, man. This is lots of fun geared for life. Best way folks can get it. Yeah. Um, everyone buys everything off Amazon now, but it's on Amazon, Barnes and Noble books, million anywhere books are sold and it is on audible for all those audio book guys. It's on audible. I actually read through it myself as well. So if you're tired of my voice after this podcast, maybe you want to pick up a hard copy, but if all of a sudden this is soothing honey in your ears as I'm coming across for you.

And I obviously say that jokingly, but go pick it up on audible. I love it. Shout out to Kyle's for hosting our meat becoming our makeshift studio here, Kernersville, North Carolina, and for this delicious pumpkin spice latte half sweet. And you got the smoking hot chai or whatever that's called. Yeah.

Dirty chai. And then these awesome folks here in the coffee shop, who've been a great studio audience and Shiles, our new friend. That's kind of a cool name. He, he, he already listens to the truth network, but he's, he said, I'm going to go order this book right now. Thankfully he didn't take my copy. Thank you for this copy. And thank you for getting me coffee, man.

I just saw a coffee, a copy of your book and a cup of coffee and unbelievable, beautiful fall day. God bless you, man. Congratulations on the book and everyone give this book be encouraged and Bryce Kenny, keep sharing Jesus, man, everywhere you go. You're a blessing. Appreciate you guys, man. That's awesome. Thanks for listening. This is the truth network.