The David Laut Show

Everyone wants to go from good to great. Almost nobody wants to do what it actually takes.In this one, Garrett puts David in the hot seat on the gap between average and elite. David opens with a confession: at twelve he was a top-five diver in the state of Maryland... and quit because of a Speedo. From there it gets practical fast. Why "more content" is the easy answer and "less, better" is the right one. Why the number one differentiator in business is embarrassingly simple: do what you say you're going to do. Why your favorite "overnight success" spent ten years in the dark. And why David killed a fully-built acquisition campaign and turned down $5–8K a month in rent because God said no... three days before his family's Instagram accidentally did two million views.The thread underneath all of it: we are part of His plan. He is not part of ours.In this episode:The diving career that died over a Speedo (and what wasted gifting teaches you)Gary Vee's 100 pieces of content a day — and the 20 years nobody countsThe Kerux pledge: why returning phone calls is a spiritual disciplineCopy the greats first, have opinions later: David's 10-year apprenticeship rule"We are part of His plan. He is not part of ours."God said no: the acquisition campaign, the empty 3,000 sq ft, and the accidental viral weekSuffering, a COVID hospital bed, and the moment every metric fadesInputs over outcomes: shooting 79 by not caring, and why Phelps' 23 golds couldn't do itTimestamped Chapters:00:00 Two babies on the way, one question: what separates average from elite?01:56 David's confession: top-five diver in Maryland at 12... quit over a Speedo03:35 Is it okay to be average? Gifting, the body of Christ, and your actual lane05:45 "I was relentlessly seeking being the most successful person I knew"08:10 Worldly excellent vs. godly excellent: the Gary Vee math nobody does10:01 The Kerux pledge: why returning every call is the whole brand12:49 Study the greats: Tiger's swing at 120fps, and David's 10-year copy-first rule15:13 The overnight success myth: MrBeast, Ryan Trahan, and six invisible years17:59 "We are part of His plan. He is not part of ours."18:48 God said no: a killed acquisition campaign, $8K/month turned down... then 2M views24:20 Suffering: the only road from head to heart (and David's COVID hospital bed)30:28 Inputs over outcomes: shooting 79, public speaking reps, and Atomic HabitsSEO tagschristian entrepreneur, excellence, average to elite, faith and business, Gary Vee content strategy, overnight success myth, Atomic Habits, doing less better, christian wealth management, Kerux, David LautPull quotes"More is easy. Doing less better is much harder.""Doing what you say you're going to do is probably the number one differentiator in business. Because it sounds easy and it's not.""We are part of His plan. He is not part of ours.""Start taking things away. Serve fewer clients until you can serve every one of them perfectly. Then start adding.""You can be the greatest at something on earth. But if it doesn't matter in heaven, it's irrelevant."

Nick coaches the minds of MLB players, PGA pros, NFL guys, and business leaders. And the first thing he tells the pros might be the last thing you'd expect from a performance coach: "God does not care about your baseball career. Zero. He only cares about your heart. That doesn't mean He won't use your career to transform it." How does a pastor's kid end up here? Through his own suffering — and he tells the whole story. The double life: quarterback, point guard, good grades on one side; drugs from eighth grade on the other. The secret daily Xanax and opiate habit nobody knew about. And the vacation to Mexico where he prayed one of the most human prayers ever prayed: Lord, change me on this trip. Press the button in my mind that makes the addiction go away. No one has to know. God answered the prayer — with a withdrawal seizure, a Mexican hospital, his three-months-pregnant wife in tears on the floor, and a drive straight from the border to Betty Ford. "His ways are not our ways. I wanted the button pressed. He brought it all into the light. And I finally felt free."From there, a conversation that will not stay in your head — because that's literally its thesis: why intellectual knowledge doesn't transform anybody ("better a warrior of the mind than a librarian of the mind"), why the ultimate version of you only exists in the land of uncertainty, why God shares everything with us except His glory, what "pray for humility, expect to get humiliated" has looked like in Nick's year and a half of wilderness, the Michelangelo problem (chipping away everything that isn't you hurts, because you're the rock), and why Philippians 4:13 — the verse written on half the cleats in professional sports — means almost the opposite of how athletes use it.It ends with a handmade gift and the best metaphor of the season: how a mollusk turns an irritant into a pearl, one layer of grace at a time.Connect your faith and your finances → KERUXHQ.comChapters:00:00 — Meet Nick: mental performance coach to MLB, PGA, and NFL players — "I got here through my own suffering"02:27 — Pastor's kid, double life: quarterback and good grades on one side, drugs from eighth grade on the other04:15 — The Mexico trip: a secret addiction, a desperate prayer ("just press the button"), a seizure — and freedom06:23 — Sober but struggling: the mental health crash, leaving teaching, and building a coaching career from books14:37 — Head vs. heart: "God does not care about your baseball career. Zero. He cares about your heart."18:33 — How truth moves 18 inches: risk, stepping out of the boat, and the client who couldn't answer "where are you risking?"21:59 — "The ultimate version of you only exists in the land of uncertainty" — and why God shares everything but His glory24:38 — Hot seat: David's fear of the stage, the Sac State talk, and how to tell the Spirit's nudge from pride32:07 — Nick's wilderness season: "pray for humility, expect to get humiliated" — and the Michelangelo problem38:44 — The destination is never fulfilling 42:46 — The verse on every cleat: what Philippians 4:13 actually means45:28 — Closing: ruthlessly keep your word to yourself, integrity as workability — and the parable of the pearl

Quick test: what is money the root of?If you said "all evil," you just misquoted the Bible — and you're in good company, because David did too, for years. The verse says the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). And that one-word difference is the whole episode.Connect your faith and your finances → KERUXHQ.comChapters00:05 — Welcome: earthly success to eternal significance05:37 — VERSE 1 — Matthew 6:24: "No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and money."12:07 — VERSE 2 — Luke 16:10–11: "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much."18:36 — VERSE 3 — Matthew 6:19–21: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth… for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."26:15 — VERSE 4 — Luke 12:15–21: the rich fool 29:22 — VERSE 5 — Mark 8:36: "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?"33:48 — Outro: KERUXHQ.com + the Faith Forward framework

Scott Hanson co-founded Hanson McClain in 1993 with two sublet offices, one desk, and one assistant. It became Allworth Financial — over $40 billion under management as of the morning we filmed. He's hosted Money Matters for 31 years, run ultramarathons, raised four kids (two by adoption), and he's celebrating his 60th birthday by running 60 miles around Lake Folsom. By any scoreboard our industry keeps, he's in the hall of fame.So listen to what he says near the end of this conversation: "If you'd told me ten years ago that I wouldn't feel completely secure at the financial number I have now, I would have thought you were crazy. And I still feel like this could all be gone."In between: the phone-company pension play that launched the firm, the tree business he bought at 19 with no cash ("if you just show up on time, that's half of it"), and the story David can't stop thinking about — newlywed Scott, $7,000 in credit card debt, an empty living room, being asked to pledge $50,000 to his church's capital campaign. He prayed. He committed. God opened the floodgates — and a couple of years ago, the Hansons made a single gift 100 times that size.Plus the conversation from nine years ago that David never forgot: "If you were a cellist, would your friends tell you to quit practicing? Maybe God wants you to be the best financial advisor in the world."Connect your faith and your finances → KERUXHQ.com

Three months. Eight platforms. Three cameras (finally figured out). About 500 followers. And a plan to build a five-show media network anyway.In this behind-the-scenes episode, David and Garrett pull back the curtain on the David Laut Show itself: where it started ("follow me as I follow Christ — in business"), what's actually working on each platform, and the honest math of building an audience in 2026 — including Garrett's favorite finance YouTube channel with 700,000 subscribers… that started posting in 2006.Then the vision: why the show is becoming one channel of something bigger under Kerux — a market-outlook show, a technical financial-planning show, a big-family channel, and a "Proverbs 31 women" show led by the women on the team — modeled on the media-network playbook that took firms like Ritholtz Wealth and Root Financial from a few hundred million to billions under management.But the heart of the episode is slower than the strategy: Acts 1, where Jesus gives the disciples the biggest mission in history — and then tells them to wait. David gets honest about the difference between asking God to bless your plans and joining what God is already doing, why 7-going-on-8 kids taught him that hard doesn't mean bad, and the season of elimination he's in right now — cutting busyness, status-chasing, and alcohol — so that nothing separates him from the love of God.Plus: shout-outs to two friends whose accounts just went viral, the LinkedIn algorithm shift working in small creators' favor, and why the Jesus Christ Show was, regrettably, taken. Oh, and my friend Chris O'Brien!!We want your feedback — comment, or DM David on LinkedIn or Instagram.Connect your faith and your finances → KERUXHQ.com