In this episode, Nathan shares hard-won lessons from building a business, raising a family, and trusting God when the numbers don’t make sense. After losing a major contract, he reflects on how easy it is to second-guess the very decisions once made in faith.
Nathan talks about buying land, building for future generations, finishing 75 Hard with his wife, and the discipline required to keep moving forward when outcomes lag behind obedience. He also opens up about a conversation with Ben Greenfield that reshaped his vision for Tactical Household—shifting from selling digital products to creating real-world brotherhood rooted in faith, training, and community.
Linke:
[00:00:00] Opening — Reflections After the John Moody Episode
[00:01:00] Faith, Risk, and Real Estate
[00:04:00] Generational Thinking
[00:06:00] When Faith Feels Foolish
[00:07:00] Physical and Mental Discipline
[00:08:00] Business Disappointment — The $266K Contract That Didn’t Close
[00:10:00] From Wants to Needs
[00:12:00] Provision, Protection, and Preparation
[00:13:00] The Ben Greenfield Call
[00:15:00] Building Local Ops Through the Church
[00:18:00] Tactical Household 2.0
[00:21:00] Finishing Strong
Finishing 75 Hard and continuing discipline beyond the challenge.
Closing smaller contracts, staying sharp, refusing to quit.
“Don’t get down—get to work.
Nathan Spearing: [00:00:00] So, what'd y'all think of that John Moody episode? Huh? Talking with him about maybe making that a more regular thing. Got some good feedback from. Those in the inner circle at my church, et cetera. So, uh, anyway, I, I was trying not to doubleheader John Moody, uh, publishing in the life on target feed. I'm not saying that you particularly wouldn't be able to handle it, but there are weaker minds about if you just, uh, scroll on social media, you'll find, uh, proof of exactly what I'm talking about there.
But, uh, I just wanted to. Hop on here and talk about some of the unique challenges that I am facing with the business, with the family vision, with building something of value for multiple generations. Um, probably talked about this before a little bit, but one of the conversations or [00:01:00] themes of some of the conversations my wife and I have been having lately is the.
Belief that we kind of swung for the fences a little bit. We bought a lot of land and we moved into the bus and didn't really think that through super well, except for we will figure it out, we'll muscle it through. And then not only did we, uh, buy 20 acres, build a barn, finish out the bus. Then we also saw that, uh, he was surveying the land next door and we had the opportunity to buy another 34 acres at a lot more expensive price point than the 20.
So we had to liquidate some real estate and do that. We, uh, were able to do some tax, uh, stuff to [00:02:00] minimize the effects of that, but essentially liquidated. An asset and put it into a generational asset, if you will, that we wasn't gonna really pay off monetarily. It was gonna give us the fiscal location to build houses for our kids.
I think that we'll talk about that. I don't think we've talked about that here on life on Target, but I'm very much, I would say it's probably mostly influenced because of John Moody, uh, that the whole, like I made it on my own. Uh, my kids can do it. My kids can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and, and, you know, I'm gonna, that kind of boomer mentality of having, they're gonna spend all their money and, and, uh, you know, kids can sort it out for themselves.
That's just a, is a terrible mindset and, and, and methodology to approach family living. And so. You know, buying this land [00:03:00] being something, the reason that we're buying it, besides, I'm sure if you follow us on some of the social media channels, you'll see that we just did our fifth annual Feast of Tabernacles Camp out.
So some of it is here and now. I mean, we, we did our first annual Feast of Tabernacles camp out. It, uh, within a few weeks of us closing on the land, I think, I think we closed on August of 21 and, and it was like September or October of 21 that we had the first camp out. We didn't even have anything out there.
We just literally had the land, the raw land. We, or, uh, rented a of John had a camp out. So that has, uh, had yield, uh, relational yield right now. And has been something that has become culturally something that I think a lot of people at our church look forward to. And for sure my kids look forward to it.
It's a similar level of excitement to Christmas, uh, moving up to Feast of Tabernacle. So not to say that [00:04:00] all that we've done to this point has been, uh, without the yield, but in a lot of ways it's a liability because the cost of owning it exceeds the cost. Of that exceeds profits on the land and in the monetary sense.
So this is a, was a spiritual, uh, relational generational investment. It was not a, a real estate. I mean, it, it obviously it's gonna hold its value, it's gonna appreciate, but you're, and I maybe can use it to, uh, leverage it, uh, for strategic. Yeah, investments or whatever, but that the intent right now is not to do that.
The intent is to continue to pay that down and to essentially own the whole compound house and home and everything, cash and it to [00:05:00] essentially be, um, it's standalone, uh, self-performing place for us to live and for future generation. To give them a house is a goal. Um, we'll likely try to build a cottage first that one of our kids can use when they get married.
And then, uh, maybe follow on cottages that other kids can marry when they marry, can move into. But, uh, the overall goal will be, I think when my wife and I in our late sixties, seventies age, we'll move out of the house as soon as, uh, one of our kids gets to the point that. They have more kids than make sense for us.
Where us moving there, we'll just, we'll switch with 'em. They'll, they'll move into the big house and my wife and I will move out and move into the cottage. And, uh, essentially that vision we feel like is, is, uh, a good one. Uh, but where we are today, uh, it doesn't [00:06:00] feel like it was smart. Uh, the tendency can be to dig up in doubt.
What we planted in faith, uh, and that, you know, I think I've talked to you guys about how I, my friend told me about that and it's kind of just been something that's been ringing in my mind. Uh, doing 75 hard right now, day 74 for me. I just finished my second workout of day 74. And, uh, one more day, two more workouts.
Uh, another quarter of water today and I'll be done. Another, uh, gallon of water tomorrow. I think I still have to read my 10 pages stick to my diet. So looking pretty good that we're gonna finish that. The ruck that I just did, I did with my wife. I had a 45 pound ruck on. She had 20 pounds on. She, uh, she's a champ because she is literally did that ruck with 20 pounds on and, and right after lifting, uh, this morning she did [00:07:00] squat.
As well. And uh, so I was like, dang girl, like, uh, you're okay. Probably be okay if you just drop the ruck and did the, did the walk 'cause you did squats. And she said, I'm not phoning it in the last couple days. And that's, uh, literally what I like about my woman is she's, she's probably. Okay. She maybe isn't quite as intense as me physically, but she is, uh, every bit mentally is tough.
And, and you guys all probably know that because she let me move her into a bus for three and a half years. So anyway, um, wanted to get on here, encourage you. Uh, I had, uh, a $266,000 contract that I have been designing for some clients for, uh, the last three or four months. We do a des a paid design process, uh, specifically for instances like this.
So when the client calls me up in the morning and says, [00:08:00] Hey, uh, we looked at it, we trust you. We, uh, decided that it was gonna be you or nobody else, uh, that does this. And we looked at how you did this, and we like the process. We trust you. But we're looking at it and thinking ultimately this is a, a want and not a need for us.
And that we need to steward the resources we have and that the price point on this is a little bit higher than expected, which is understandable. And we're never gonna ask somebody to do it cheaper 'cause we know it's worth, you need to pay what it's worth and or you don't, uh, you don't get the results.
So everything for these clients is a. Perfect fit as far as our brand and what we do, but then ultimately not pulling the trigger on the job. And it, quite frankly, is the, the biggest thing that we have in the pipeline right now. Uh, not the only thing, we got lots of [00:09:00] things going on, but this was the larger contract that we were working on.
This is honestly the one that I was hoping to get and I didn't get it. And so it's providing a lot of opportunity for reflection. On the business, on the focus of what we're doing. Uh, I guess the, the huge win is the fact that, uh, I charged 12 grand for that job and didn't do it for free. And I, I preach that all the time that you should not be doing if you were in blue collar.
Um, specifically if you're a general contractor and you're trying to piece together a pretty complex set of trades and skills. Zero reason. You should be doing it for free, for a free estimate. And I have, uh, done some training with some individual, training with guys, some group training with guys to lay out that process.
And ultimately it works very well. It works very well to not end up at the end of this couple months of, you know, and, uh, I [00:10:00] think we were at. 80 to 90 hours or so of, of bidding the project and meeting. And it was the first time that we did this hybrid design agreement where it's a fixed fee hourly, so that it actually, at the end of it, you can feel like you actually made money at it instead of just basically covering costs.
So, uh, all around from that perspective, a win, but then not closing the contract. And so the reflection that I would have is. You know, what are the, the things, how can I tailor my business and my services that I offer to clients to really be needs? And so I guess tangibly what that means for me right now is I, I'm looking at what are some, uh, some smaller jobs that need to be done, that clients have to do it.
And the one example that really pops to my mind would be the, uh, I just did some window repair. For a guy. So basically every time it rained really hard, [00:11:00] it got wet in his house and we found out that they hadn't taped the windows and flashed them property properly. So I was able to charge, essentially a pretty high rate to go in there and do surgery on the siding.
We're still a little bit, we're still in the process of doing it right now because we end up having to do more siding work and uh. And we're gonna have to paint it and things like that. But yeah, we at least got him dry. So we've had a couple rains and he said, Hey, it's, it's dry. So that would be example of a need, you know, and that's a, that was, I think the price point on that job is 7,000, 7,400 bucks or something like that.
And uh, and you know, obviously a huge difference between that and the 260 something thousand dollars remodel and wanting to. Essentially I've, I've done this before. I've, I've kind of focused on doing, um, uh, service work and [00:12:00] short, smaller jobs, but it, it's harder to keep the pipeline full. It's more work.
And, and so anyway, those are, those are some reflections that I have there. Um, I also, uh, honestly, still feel a pretty high hard calling or, or at least at, maybe it needs to be a ministry. More than it needs to be, uh, uh, business, but to help, uh, families and particularly men develop the marshal skills through the theology of violence for the ability to have a mindset to protect their family.
Um, I think there's a lot of people teaching the provision aspect or the protection aspect, um, but maybe not pairing them together and, and holding them in tension, how you gotta make money. Uh, so that you have margin to trains, you have margin to buy, uh, the weapons and, and things like that to be able to set your house up to be secure, to be able to, [00:13:00] um, have margin to, you know, store fuel on your property and, uh, have water sources and power alternate power sources with batteries and solar and.
Uh, generators and, um, you know, durable food sources and, and all these different things, and I feel a real need. Uh, that's what I enjoy most of all is, is working through that with our own family, but then also talking about how we're doing that. And so I, I reached out to Ben Greenfield and uh, he was gracious enough to give me 20 minutes or so on the phone and talk me through, because I just honestly, guys just feel like, uh.
Uh, the sales and digital, Hey, buy this course, or, you know, do this, uh, ebook and this and that. It's just, it's so, um, so played out and it's so corny and even, and, and, you know, and, and I, I felt this, uh, going into the call, [00:14:00] but he confirmed that kind of saying, you know, that people are desiring community.
They're re desiring the analog experience, they're desiring. Uh, to be with other people. And I, I got that in that first Warriors Tending Gardens, uh, event that I held. I had 15 guys come out. We, and, and we shot out to a mile at this facility, this range, and that, that people said that was epic. But the feedback was, you know, being around a fire with guys and having the ability to talk about the issues that everybody's dealing with to build that community.
And I, and I don't wanna build something that is. Alternate to the church. I want it to be something that is building churches, guys from different churches and community. And, and that's really what's gonna scratch that itch is being in a church with lots of men and having that, uh, experience, uh, week in and week out.
I mean, I, I think we've talked about [00:15:00] this before. I'm at prayer meeting on Wednesday where Sunday and night and uh, Sunday morning worship. And then monthly Psalm sings with men and, you know, feast the Tabernacles camp out, and, uh, Pentecost Feast and, you know, all these different times, I mean, we, we are a Protestant church, but, uh, we, we use opportunities in the church calendar to, to celebrate, uh, and have, uh, you know, just get together and sing Psalms and, uh, eat good food together more so than hyper ritualizing it.
And getting our kids together and, and just really, I mean, interested in enjoying that and, and had a friend come and drive out that, uh, coincidentally went to my, or I guess not coincidentally, intentionally went to my, uh, first event that I had and then has stayed in touch and been a good friend and we had opportunity to work out together and, uh, work through and, uh, different things and talk about plans and, um, [00:16:00] he was able to come visit our alternate scout.
Event thing that we have, uh, on every other Monday night with a bunch of different churches, probably I'd say close to 200 kids showing up to this thing of, of girls and boys, different age groups. And we obviously it's, there's not a co-ed, um, scouting thing. It's, there's three girls groups and three boys groups.
But we do have, you know, dads and some of the older boys, uh, that have competencies in these areas, helping train. Uh, the girls and some of the skills, and it's just all very well executed with a lot of competence. And so it's fun to show that off with, uh, to people and, and give them help, uh, share some of our documents and what we're doing to do that.
And, and even, you know, candidly and honestly saying to this guy that's visiting, you know, I didn't build most of this. Uh, I'm, I'm just part of these, these different networks. We're able to facilitate 'em. I'm able to show up and [00:17:00] teach. I'm able to help, uh, but I'm not even the driving force for a lot of this.
And I, I want, uh, the church and I want men and families to be able to experience a life like I am experiencing it and, and, and put the effort in and being willing to do, to fight the battles that. Are needed to create space and to create, uh, time on your calendar to train with your children and to train with your church.
And I, I guess the other side is, we talked about is, is church security. It's just basically, hey, we gotta start training. We gotta, we gotta do more range time. So setting up days to go the range with the men in our church, having other men that are skilled, offering that to churches and security leads. So just trying to work that out.
So, uh, hopefully. I will, uh, try to start putting out a lot more free content after the, the very fruitful [00:18:00] call with Ben. Uh, it helped kind of connect some dots and, and I would say that I, I, hopefully he would say this, but I, I wasn't calling him, asking him to tell me all the things I needed to do. I, I was calling him with like a lot of.
Actual real learning of the last five years. I mean, it was, I think it was May, March, April or something like that, 21 that I did my first in-person event. I've tried to do some other in-person events. I've tried to do some digital products. I've tried to, uh, sell, uh, downloads and lead gen and, you know, I got a lot of experience that I would say, uh, gives me.
Context to be able to go into that call and really conceptualize something that he's doing at a, at a level and, and him saying, Hey, you know, uh, it was just real hard hitting practical. 20 something minutes. Gave me a lot to think about and a lot to do, and confirmed some [00:19:00] things. Gave me some good ideas about some other stuff.
So, you know, and then the ability to just, uh. Put it into practice now. And, and I got a, a podcast a while back of a guy that said, Hey, you know what, what guys that are experienced or, or ahead of you wanna see is they wanna see when they give their time to you, that it is fruitful in more ways than just, uh, you know, getting the, the feel goods they want to go out and execute.
And, uh, and so I think that as of right now, I'm planning on launching. I've already drafted the school community. Uh, but I think what I'll do is, uh, you be actually just kind of processing this right now. I think I'm gonna put the link to the school community. Uh, I'm gonna make it public and I'm gonna make it, uh, I'm gonna make it free.
Probably. Uh, I will, I don't actually know. I, I got it set up for. For a monthly [00:20:00] fee, but I think I'm gonna make it free. And I'm gonna, you're gonna probably have to apply, it's gonna be private. You are gonna have to ask to get into it. 'cause it's not gonna just be everybody. And I think I'm gonna ask you what church you're in and, uh, where you are.
And uh, and then we're gonna go from there. And I will have, uh, my first couple lessons of my pistol course in there. I will have. What has previously been behind the tactical household paywall? We'll all be for free. And my hope will be that we can, inside of that community together, figure out how I can pass on a lot of the learning that I've gotten. From my military career, from my entrepreneurial journey. 'cause I think that, that, that's a unique pairing there. Just the mindset of when you don't close a $266,000 contract, how you [00:21:00] immediately start going down the list of leads.
I'm literally gonna have to stop this podcast, uh, shortly because I'm gonna pull up to this other job that I sent a contract out, uh, on, I think, uh, a couple weeks ago. And they followed up. And so I got a $32,000 contract that is, is possibly gonna get closed in a few minutes. Uh, maybe I'll jump right back on and, uh, record on the way back from this meeting how that went. It may go terribly and I might not wanna say it, but anyway. Um. Just how to keep crunching, to stay on the path, to keep following up on leads, to not get down when you don't close, uh, a big job. And to accept the jobs you have, the leads you have, and, and push to close 'em and prioritizing the things that you need to do in a day and starting at the top of the list and knocking 'em out.
And I would say for me, the [00:22:00] last 74 days has been my health. It's been not drinking alcohol, it's been working out. It's been, it's been drinking lots of water. It's been following a diet. And, uh, it's, that's been hugely helpful for my mindset, for my sleep, for my, ability to work really hard during the day.
I'm 42, and so I think that there can be a tendency for some of that stuff to slip off. I'm not accepting it yet. I'm not accepting that I'm getting old. I am going to, uh, continue to, uh, take what I am doing and eating and supplementing and, and nutrition and exercise, and that's actually what the other John Moody podcast that I might just turn around and release that one same day as this.
And get it out and get it going and, uh, you know, working through how we can, uh, continue to improve each other's position. And I can use the lessons I'm learning every day, uh, to help y'all. So [00:23:00] look for that school link and the bio below. And, let's go further up and further in together.
All right, so it's been, uh, actually 48 hours since I recorded the other video, but I got the check, um, and we'll be starting the project next week. So, uh, had to answer some questions, send a revised contract with a couple different things. And get it paid or get it signed. And the client is a little bit leery about online a CH transfers.
So I went back and picked up a paper check. All good. And I'm headed to prayer meeting now. So. Pretty good. Uh, three days hard charging. Uh, I finished 75 hard yesterday. I, uh, am intending to take a [00:24:00] couple days off 'cause I'm actually feeling it pretty good with, uh, my elbow, tennis elbow a little bit. So I might go get a.
Deep tissue of the shoulders and elbows 'cause that's helped out a lot before. And, uh, hit it hard. Uh, the end of the week, this weekend, again, I am drinking water. I am not going to be taking a selfie today. Uh, and I will be, uh, drinking any alcohol still. And, uh, anyway, got the, got the check. It feels like a, almost like a, a full week and we still got two more days.
I still got two more days to break necks and cash checks, so probably be mostly breaking necks the rest of the week. So anyway, thank y'all and, uh, have a good one.
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