: Your call has been forwarded to an automated voice messaging system. 9-3-9-5-5-5-0 is not available. At the tone, please record your message. I know what to do at the tone! My gosh! Welcome to the Aggressive Life. We are just days away from Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday of the year. I mean, of the year. I love this holiday. It's the one holiday that hasn't been completely commercialized. And it's a holiday that has exclusive faith roots. Traces way, way back to the early days, the founding of America. and people being thankful for the grace of God, for having the pilgrims come all the way over on a rickety ship or ships and have an arduous journey and God take care of them after many of them died. Most of them died actually that first winter and they had a Thanksgiving. And all throughout the Bible, which is the key cornerstone informant of my faith as a believer, as a Christian, is to be thankful again and again and again and again. It's really cool. when science verifies the Bible. It happens a lot. Science is catching on to the benefits of gratitude. Studies have shown that expression and gratitude is associated with a host of positive mental and physical benefits. It improves sleep, influences mood, raises immunity. Gratitude has been shown to decrease feelings of depression. lessen anxiety, decrease chronic pain, and even lower your risk of disease. I want us to all consider this. I think we would all agree that America is not doing well. We are more judgmental than we've ever been. We're more divided than we've ever been. Men's life expectancy is going down. Suicide is going up all over the place. We are more contentious with one another. We're more hateful towards one another. There's so much confusion and animosity in every corner of our country. And maybe that's why there isn't enough gratitude. Maybe if we had more gratitude, we'd have less of those negative responses. Maybe, maybe what we need is a healthy dose of Thanksgiving. You can't be angry and thankful at the same time. It can't happen. You can't be judgmental and grateful at the same time. It can't happen. You can't look for something to pick apart and something that's wrong with some point of view while the same time you're looking for something to be thankful for. So I love Thanksgiving. It's the, it's the anti-modern American curse holiday. The curse of cynicism that's with us. Cause you're intentionally looking for something positive. So around this time of year, we should be. looking to feel grateful. When it comes to people who matter the most in our lives, we tend to rarely share to them why we are thankful for them. So this Thanksgiving, I'm practicing aggressive gratitude. But I'm going to pick up the phone. I'm going to make calls. And I'm going to use my words to express just how much other people mean to me. Interesting that in a study published by the New York Times, they claim. The gratitude doesn't just improve the well-being of the person being grateful. It's also good for those who witness it. So today I'm going to help improve your mood and your gratefulness. Today, you're going to witness me telling people that I'm thankful for them. Now, some ground rules. I'm going to be calling people who you probably don't know. I'm going to tell them ahead of time that this is, they're on the podcast. They're not surprised. And these people I call, just about all of them have a nickname and I will be referring to them as a nickname. So it may sound odd to you. I'm using as an excellent nickname. People who are close to me know you're close to me, you get a nickname. So it would just be too odd and stilted if I use their actual given name. These are real phone calls. They're unscripted. They're with my actual family and friends. And I have no idea what's going to happen. I should also say that as we call people just to save time, we're not going to have the phone ring six times before it goes to voicemail. And we're also going to eliminate that stupid, you know what I hate when you call somebody, you hear the message that says, well, how does it say? There's like four seconds of wasted computer talk. What is it? And then it's like at the tone. At the tone, you leave a message. I know that. I know how this works. Everyone knows that. Why are you wasting time? My time. So we're going to eliminate all that stuff too. And I also, have no idea who I'm gonna call. Dirt, you gave me some potential people here to call. We did, yeah. But the choice is up to you. Yeah, why did you choose these people versus others? Who came to mind for me, and I asked some of your co-workers and family members who you should call, and I collected names that way too. Interesting. You're the best. Totally up to you though. You're the best, Dirt. Thank you, thank you. I would not, I could not. There would be no aggressive life if it wasn't for Dirt. Aw, thanks. Yeah, it's really good. Didn't even have to make a phone call for that one. All right, so let's try here. I think the first one I'm gonna call here is just the easy button. It's my wife. It's my wife, Libby Tome. Let's give her a call, see how this works, okay? Here we go. Here she goes. Hey hey what's going on little girl what's what all about I thought I was about ready to go to voicemail I didn't know that you were gonna answer so the reason I'm calling is you're actually on my podcast welcome to the aggressive life It's not true. It is true. It is true. And it's true because I'm giving a bunch of gratitude calls to people who I'm thankful for and you're the very top of the list, sweetie. I'm giving it to you first. Oh, thank you. Yeah, let me tell you. We were watching last night that, the show Crown. And do you remember when the one lady, it was Queen Elizabeth's sister, was bemoaning that she wasn't married and she wasn't allowed to get married by the crown and her life isn't as full because everyone she knew who was married, they had someone who was backstopping them, somebody who was pulling at the best of them. Do you remember that? I do. That's exactly what you've been for me. Exactly. I mean the things that you allow me to do and you equip me to do are crazy. Not just holding down the house when I went on that El Conning trip last week, but then going with me to different sites yesterday and just being a great woman and people love you and I love you and I can't imagine being married to somebody else who gives me the freedom and support that you do. That's the truth. Oh, that means a lot to me. I appreciate you saying that. Well, it's true, honey. I love you. Well, thank you. What a great phone call. Yeah, well, I love you, sweetie. More of that is going to come around the Thanksgiving table, but I just wanted to start it right now, so I'll see you later, okay? Okay, love you. Love you, sweetie. Bye-bye. Let's, uh, let's, I'm going to do this fan-fan. I'm going to do my youngest daughter, who just had a child recently. Here we go. Hey, how you doing? Where are you? Driving home from your house for my house. What are we doing over there? I asked mom if we can borrow your blower today. We'll bring it right back, but we are going to attempt to get up all of our leaves and use our blower and yours. We'll see if it works. No worries. Hey, you're on my podcast, The Aggressive Life right now. What? Why? Because I am calling people on this Thanksgiving week who I'm incredibly thankful for, and you cross my mind I want to call you, sweetie. I am so thankful for you giving us our fifth grandkid. being a great giver as a daughter, you give like nobody else. You give and you give and you give and you give with an amazing positive attitude. And just giving us another grandson is really beautiful. And I just see your heart, I see your work ethic, I see your heart for people and for Ben and for your little guy. And I love you for it and you inspire me. Thank you. I love you. Thank you for finally featuring me on your podcast. The last family member. I just get a rinky-dink phone call. But look at all the encouragement you got. When those other folks get in the podcast, they just get ridiculed. But you, I called you just because I'm proud of you, honey. Thank you. I love you. All right, sweetie. I got a lot more words for you too, when we get together on Thanksgiving, but that was just a start. So I love you, Love you too. All right, bye honey. I'm going to call Vivian Bechtold. That's what I'm going to call. I'm going to call Vivian Bechtold. I could tell you why I'm calling her, but I'll just let the call do the explanation. Let's go. Hey, BT, what's up? Viviana, how are you today? I'm great, what's up? Well, you're on the Aggressive Life podcast right now. I am. Yes, you are. You are because I'm doing a special Thanksgiving edition and I'm just calling up some people who I wanna express gratitude to and you are one of the people I wanted to say thank you to. Oh, that's wonderful. I just made my day. Well, I might make it even more by telling you why. You know, there's not a lot of people who have been in my life for nearly 28 years. You've been in my life for 28 years. There's not a lot of those folks. Then there's not a lot of people who have given me a job offer, an opportunity that's changed the course of my life. You were the chair of that committee brought me to Crossroads to be the founding and senior pastor in Cincinnati. And you know, you got to know, I never forget that, that you took a shot on a very, very rough dude who was very, very different from you all those years ago. And you've been a consistent, positive presence. And I'm just thankful for you. I love your joy. I love your energy. I love your infection. And most importantly, I love how you've believed in me. Well, Bryant is one of the best choices in my life because it had a profound effect on me and my family. I mean, crossroads and the whole thing. And so I love running after the lost together. And I love who you are and you're my friend. So, yeah. Amen. All right, Bivers. Well, I got more of that because I'll see you live sometime this week. But I just wanted to give you that shout on the phone because Too many good things happen, we're thankful, and I'm thankful for you. Thanks. All right, I love you, sister. We'll see you later. Yep, love you too, bye. Bye bye. All right. So far, this is going pretty well. I'm going to call Ron Rossetti. I lived with Ron Rossetti in a leadership house when I started to when I was in college and I was learning how to just how to do ministry and he and I lived together for a while. He was kind of an older brother figure to me. He's been a steady force in my life. I'm gonna give him a call right now. Here we go. Hey buddy. Ronnie. What's happening? Not a lot, Ronnie. What are you sucking on? My wife and I are out at lunch with our granddaughter, Corey, on a little birthday kind of celebration moment. Yeah, cool. Well, I got a little mini celebration moment right now. First of all, you're on the Aggressive Life podcast right now. Perfect. I'm doing a Thanksgiving edition. I'm just calling up some people who I'm really thankful for. And you popped on my radar, man. I just want to tell you I'm thankful for you. You've been a guiding, older brother, positive influence on my life since I was 17 years old. Right? I don't know. That's 41 years. You've been in my life to one degree or another. And we've gone long periods of time. We haven't had much confi- contact, but I just wanted to tell you, man, every time I'm around you, I feel supported and challenged and I'm impressed by your spiritual maturity. I'm impressed by the grace that you give me. Man, I'm just for you and I'm thankful for you. Thanks, man. So, that was it. No long conversation. Just I'm thankful for you. You're on my top list and I love you, buddy. Thanks, buddy. I love you too. I'll see you. Bye-bye. All right, let's try, who else should we try? Dirk, who would you like to see me? Because there's so many people, I don't know who's right. Is there anybody you're going to, oh I hope Brian thanks this person. Well, I don't know how this is gonna go, but I thought either Gil Hopkin's wife or Danny Patton's wife to express the importance of their husbands in your life. Oh man, that's a good one. Let's go up. Let's try Gil Hopkins' wife. I haven't talked to her for a long time. OK, calling Jillian Hopkins. Beep We're not able to answer the phone right now, but please leave a name and number and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Joanne, Joanna, Dana, this is, uh, Brian, Ryan calling you. Gosh. I haven't called you for a while. I'm really sorry for not calling you more often. And when I do call you that voice of, of Gil, just, uh, just wrecks me every time. So anyway, I was calling to tell you I'm thankful for you and thank you for the legacy that you and Gil have had in Cincinnati and in my life. You guys have been there for me. You've given me unbelievable amounts of grace. You've served in so many different ways and you've just been a lot of fun to be around. I know things are hard for you with... with Gil being gone now for many, many years. But I'm praying God's grace for you. And I'm telling you, I'm thankful for you. You're a blessing in my life. So give me a call whenever you can. And let's catch up. And I hope to see you later. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving. Bye now. All right, let's do... EQ, who has, he's in a men's group of mine, and he's had a real catastrophic illness with his youngest child. And I've seen him go through a lot of stuff this year. And I want to tell him I'm thankful for him. What's up, man? EQ, what's the word? Oh, not much, man. Just enjoying the holiday week and wrapping things up at the office here. How was your trip? Trip was great. I'll give you a deep dive on it later. But first, you got to know that you're on the aggressive life right now. Oh, okay. You're on the aggressive life because I'm cherry picking people. I want to tell them thank you. And you popped in my mind, I just, we're gonna do this later on this week when we get together, but I just want to tell you right off the bat, man, I'm so thankful for you. I've seen you lead your family incredibly well. I've seen you take so many shots this last year. And you're just faithful. You don't know if someone's faithful or not until shitty stuff happens to them. And you've been taking punch after punch in so many areas of your life. And man, I'm just impressed with you. You're standing, you're going forward. You're always a supporter of me. You give me great wisdom. And I'm just thankful to be your friend. And I'm grateful for you. And I just, I don't want you ever to doubt that. Yeah, I appreciate that. That made, that makes my Thanksgiving, I feel like a million bucks now. And I appreciate you. I appreciate you standing alongside me over the last year too. It's a lot easier to take those body shots when You've got to backstop those people that have your back. So thank you. Well, you know, faithful people, they do the right things. They're not faithful by accident. They do the right things. And so you've insulated yourself with some really quality people who were able to stand you up when those shots started coming. And that's just what I mean. It's not like you have superhuman abilities. You've got abilities to be faithful, faithful to get with the right people, faithful to have the right friends, faithful to have the right time with God, faithful to... to be open and becoming of your challenges. And you're in the top 1%, man. I love you and I'm thankful for you. I love you too, man, I appreciate it. All right, well, I guess we'll see each other a normal time this year, and I'm gonna have eggnog made, so get ready. Amazing, I've been looking forward to it for the last couple of weeks, so I'll come thirsty for sure. All right, brother, I love you and I'll see you then. All right, talk to you soon, bye. Let's get a, uh, let's get a, uh... here who would be good? I'm gonna do Otis Williams, man camp speaker who always makes me look like a weenie boy when he talks. This is Otis. Otis, what's the word, big dog? It's BT. BT, what's happening, man? Nothing much on my end. Well, welcome to the Aggressive Life. You're on it right now. Oh, am I really? Yes, you are. We're doing a special gratitude episode. And you're one of the people I wanted to call up and express gratitude to. So, man, I got to tell you, you know, you were in my life. I don't know when we first met. How long, when we first met, was it 15 years ago or so? Yeah, it's been a while, my friend. It has been a while. So to go from 15 years ago, just sort of casually knowing each other to now, you're a rock, a cornerstone in the man camp movement, given a talk on Sunday morning. that is always better than my two talks. So actually, I don't know why I'm even thankful. I should be calling you up picked off. But you do it because you serve so much. It's just like going up that last session that I spoke at this last man camp. I was just worn slap out. And I just asked you, hey, man, I need you to give me a one man pep talk. From here, from the campfire to that tent, I need you to fire me up, right? And you did. And you did, because Otis, you always do whatever I ask. Everything. Talk for 10 minutes, talk on Sunday morning, ask you to do things audio visual-wise, ask you to always do, man. You always rise to the challenge. And I'm just thankful for you and your faithfulness and your friendship. I appreciate it. I feel the same way, man. I have no problem following your leadership. You are. a blessing to Crossroads. You are a blessing to me and you're a blessing to the world. I mean, cause we're talking about taking more ground and expanding the kingdom for Jesus and you are right in the fight, my friend. And so I am right with you, right or die. Thank you, Otis. You're welcome. Well, you have a great Thanksgiving and I can't wait to give you a hug live and in person sometime soon. That sounds good, brother. Hi, bro. Bye now. Love you. Love you too. Today's episode is brought to you by AG1. I gave AG1 a try because I was feeling a bit sluggish, not confident I was getting all the nutrients that I felt that I needed. And I thought maybe this is an easy solution. So I drink AG1 in the morning. I love doing the morning. I do it on an empty stomach. It forces me to get 12 ounces of water into my system. I love doing something proactive and aggressive to make me feel better and at least give me peace of mind. AG1 is designed with this kind of ease in mind so you can live healthier and better without having to complicate your routine. Each scoop has 75 vitamins, minerals, probiotics, and whole food sourced ingredients of the highest quality. If you want to take ownership of your health, try AG1. and get a free one year supply of vitamin D and five free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase. So go to drinkag1.com slash aggressive life. That's drinkag1.com slash aggressive life to take control of your health. Check it out. I know what you need on your plates this holiday season because I've had it on mine recently. Flying K Ranch Beef. Oh my freaking goodness. Holy schnikes. There's benefits to having a podcast that's growing. One of them is the people send you free stuff, hoping you'll like it and then talk about it. That's what happened with Flying K Ranch Beef. They sent me a smorgasbord of steaks. They're mouthwatering. The burgers are incredible and the roasts make family dinner a breeze. They're located in Finley, Ohio, and they have no hormones. Let me say that again. Flying K Ranch has no hormones or antibiotics. So it's basically like when I go elk hunting or deer hunting or something like that. It's pure, pure meat. They raise their cattle on pastures just the way cattle like it. Flying K Ranch is a family business partnering with Ohio State Nutrition Program. beef quality assurance and certified Angus beef national, ensuring happy results for both cattle and people. That's a lot of words. Just to say this, the beef is amazing. Order it now, get it on your table over the holidays, and you will not be disappointed because I have not. Find out more and place your orders at FlyingKRanchAngus.com. That's FlyingKRanchAngus.com. And now I'm hungry. up Matt Massey, who is, I think he pastors the largest church in Cincinnati behind the behind Crossroads, the one I started. And he's just an amazing guy. He pastors the vineyard of Cincinnati. And I'm going to give him a call. And I'll tell you why once you hear it. Okay, here we go. Hi, you've reached your voice on Matt Massey with Vineyard Cincinnati Church. Please leave your name and number and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks for calling. Mattias Macias. Hope you're doing well. Give me a taste of my own medicine because it feels like you're always leaving me messages and now I'm leaving you a message. And that's part of why I'm calling, by the way, you're right now on the Aggressive Life podcast, or at least your answer recording is. And I just want to give you some encouragement and thanksgiving. The reason why you leave messages for me so often is you call me frequently. You're a better friend to me than I am to you. You call me regularly to encourage me. You'll call me if you have something you've been praying about when you want to tell me about it. I'm thankful for you. And you're the most selfless kingdom leader I know. You're not about your own thing. You're about God's thing. And there's never any hint of competition that I've ever felt with you and me or anybody else. You excel in that. And you push me in that. And you challenge me in that. And you've been there as a friend. You've been there for me as a co-laborer. And I'm just impressed with you. And I'm thankful for you. Keep being who you are. And may God bless you this Thanksgiving, you and Kim, and the rest of the kids. I love you, buddy. We'll see you. Bye bye. All right, let's call Steve Smith. Let's give him a call. Beechley. Log, log, log. Log. What is going on? Just had finishing up a staff Thanksgiving Day feast. Perfect, because you're on the Aggressive Life right now with the special Thanksgiving edition. Excellent. I'm just calling up some people to give them gratitude. And that's what I want to do. I want to tell you, man, I'm thankful for you. You've been a steady, consistent force in my life. And just doing things like our hunt together, like negotiating the new camp property and being deep in the weeds on that. You're just such a faithful friend. and everything you touches turns to gold seemingly, it's because you've got a heart of gold. And I gotta tell you, I love you, I'm impressed with you, I respect you, and I can never spend too much time with you. Thank you. Thank you, brother. I praise God every day for our friendship. It's been a true blessing. Yeah, yeah. It has, deep and rich. Yes, yes, yes. All right, man. Well, I'll give you more of that when we get live. But that's I wanted to tell you. Thanks for being such a great friend. All right. Thanks, brother. All right, bro. Bye bye. Let's do another female type, a lot of male types on here. Let's do another female type. Oh, I have the, I have the, yeah, here we go. Here we go. She's here in the room right now. I'm calling her phone anyway. Okay. I better just shut mine off and I'll tell you right here. JPS, JPS. Wow. What a great year it's been for you and for I, your, your work ethic has been astounding. I call you JPS because you're like a GPS. You make great decisions. have great strategic calls. And what I also love is you're not just making great strategic calls, but there's been time this year I've treated you like a baseline admin. Like, could you go get this for me? Could you go call this for me? Do that. And there's no ceiling for you on what's beneath you. You just committed to the mission and committed to me and committed to the podcast and the man camp stuff, all that stuff. doesn't happen without you, so thank you. I have so much to be grateful for. Oh, I'm coming closer to the mic so everyone can hear me. Yes, yes. I'm thankful for your leadership and what you've done in my life. So it's an honor to get to do this work with you and be under your leadership. And the way you've changed my family, you, um, you know, you know, all that story. And I'm, my family is different because of you and because of this church. And that was long before I was privileged to get to do this work with you now. So thank you. You're welcome. You're too kind. All right. See, this, this Thanksgiving thing actually works, Dirk. It does. It's. What the Bible says will happen is what science says will happen. Imagine that. Oh man. Well, I could keep going. And I will keep going if you want. I got, I got, I've, this is one thing. I'm so rich in my life. I've just got a very, very deep. a deep bench of people who I love and I'm thankful for. And I probably just thank God for that right now. Just thanking for the rich experiences of the rich people, even just you, Dirk, just keeping the room, right? I mean, progressive life is so easy for me because you do a great job by just walking the room and look at your notes and away I go. You're lining up all these people, you're interacting with folks, you're editing. You're helping me with books, you're copywriting, you're a, I would say, jack of all trades, but that means jack of all trades, master of none. That's not true. You're a jack of all trades and a master. I never see you do any work that isn't good. And your commitment level and your faithful level, faithfulness is inspiring to me. I'm thankful for you, Dyrd. Love you, buddy. Thanks, man. I love you. And just like JPS said, I mean, the things that you have taught me have changed my life. I just wish I would have bumped into you when I was 20 instead of when I was 30 something. I think my life would be different, but my life is better now because of Brian Tome. So it's an honor to work with you, man. All right, I'm gonna call maybe one more person here. Let's see. Let's go. Yes, sir. Marty. How you doing? I'm doing very good yourself. You were out you were out hiking last week. I was elk hiking. We did do elk hunting. Jake actually got one down on the ground. I had a yeah, it is nice. I got a heartbreaking story. We'll probably ought to make a podcast out of it, which is by the way, what I'm calling Welcome to the aggressive life podcast, Mort. What? Yes. You're on the podcast right now. It's Thanksgiving week. And I'm just calling up some people to tell them I'm thankful for them. And you're the one of the folks who's popped the top of my mind. I'm thankful to have been in a group with you for actually years now, a men's group for years, that actually started coming out of Phantom Lake. You're one of the guys that got the top of Phantom Lake in that special we did. And now you're a board member. And I would have never thought in four or five short years, you'd go from being just a good guy to being a necessary guy in my life. I love your faithfulness. I love your wisdom. I love your energy. I love your humor. All of those things are oftentimes rare in corporate America, but yet you excel at it at the highest level. So thank you, man. My life is richer because of you. Thanks, PT. I appreciate it. You've been a key leader in my life and in my family's life for a long time. Way before you knew you were that leader. We've been around crossroads a bunch and got invited to your house long time ago, like 2005 or something, which you probably wouldn't remember. But... But you've been building into us and my family and my in-laws. And so it's been great to now be up close and personal with you. And I appreciate just the blessing you've been to us. You're faithful, and we love you, and we're behind you. You're too kind. Well, one other piece of good news is you'll be getting some of my eggnog this week. That's always good news. Good, sweet. We on Thursday? Yeah, yeah, we're on Thursday. Perfect. All right, brother. I love you. Get back to your day. We'll see you Thursday. Thanks. Appreciate you. All right, man. Bye-bye. Bye. All right. That's enough. I will just say that there's some people who I called and I did not leave a message. And we haven't included in this episode because something else went wrong technically or their voice wasn't on the message or whatever it was. So if you think I should have called you, I probably did. It just didn't make the cut for any reasons. Let's recap here what we're about. Christ of Life is about doing things, not thinking things. It's not good enough to think nice thoughts. You have to verbalize those thoughts. You have to say them around the Thanksgiving table, whoever you're with, whatever friends or family you're with. I encourage you and all week to take your words and notice things about people. and tell them loving, affirming, grateful, positive things. You will elevate their game. And the crazy thing is too, is you'll elevate their game and they'll end up elevating your game. Be somebody in the 1% who is a person of gratitude. Have an attitude of gratitude. Notice that God is working in your life and that a good future is ahead of you. And you know that because of the things that have happened in the past. that you're thankful for. You have a great Thanksgiving. We'll see you next time on The Aggressive Life. Thanks for joining us on this journey toward aggressive living. Find more resources, articles, past episodes, and live events over at bryantome.com. My new books, a repackaged edition of The Five Marks of a Man and a brand new Five Marks of a Man Tactical Guide are open right now on Amazon. If you haven't yet, leave this podcast a rating and review. It really helps get the show in front of new listeners. And if you want to connect, find me on Instagram, at Brian Tome. The Aggressive Life is a production of Crossroads Church, Cincinnati, Ohio.