Unveiling Purpose, Embracing Failure, and Impacting Lives with special guest Chris Meroff
Welcome to “The Redemptification Podcast.” I’m your host, John Marsh, and today’s episode features the remarkable Chris Meroff—a man driven by faith, purpose, and an unwavering commitment to making a difference.
Chris’s daily excitement centers around unlocking God’s plan, viewing opportunities as doors to be opened, kicked down, or jumped through. Failure, he believes, is a crucial part of the journey, leading not to regret but to lifelong friendships and invaluable lessons.
As the founder of a venture capital fund focused on commerce for the kingdom, Chris shares his mission of creating economic development in impoverished areas. The narrative unfolds with discussions about the purpose behind abundance, daily conscious decisions to earn it, and the pruning of ventures misaligned with the greater mission.
Chris challenges conventional beliefs about education and employment, advocating for the trades as a path to success. His efforts include inspiring high school students to join a journey offering more than just a career—a reflection of character and values.
The conversation explores leadership principles, emphasizing alignment within organizations and the transformative power of empathy and vulnerability. Chris’s philosophy of intentionally trading greatness for the benefit of others goes beyond traditional notions of success.
Join us as we navigate topics of work-life integration, power dynamics in leadership, and the profound impact of influence. Chris’s journey is not just personal but a testament to redemptification when one’s purpose aligns with a higher calling.
What have you read that we should read?
- Chris Meroff (56:12): So I just recently read it. I actually, and so I’m going to go back to the same, well here I’m sitting with Jon in the green room and we’re talking, and then of course his books come up and I had read several of his books, but one of his latest ones, Soundtracks had come out and I hadn’t read it yet. And so I read it, it’s so good. It’s right in line with where I try to spend a lot of my time with the men in my community, which is this area of men’s mental health. And Soundtracks isn’t obviously about necessarily just mental health, but it’s about the things that we lie to ourselves about all the time. And so these soundtracks, these things that we tell ourselves that are just not true, again, going back to what I said before, we rarely see ourselves the way God sees us. And so we tend to fill our mind with things that are untrue. And so this idea that we need to pursue things that are true, I love Soundtracks because it really is a great reminder that we’ve got to fill our mind with things that are authentic, things that are true. And we need to do that with our relationship with God. But then also through authentic communities where people can speak truth into how they see us, how God sees us so that we can remember and have mental health that is really a healthy mental health so that we can be that for those in our community as well.
- Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking by Jon Acuff
- Free to Choose by Milton and Rose Friedman
Who do you know that we should know?
- Chris Meroff (50:59): I just met him in October and got to spend some time with him. In fact, we put on an annual conference here in Austin, and so he was one of our speakers that we invited. And so we were sitting back in the green room just talking, and I think I was supposed to be more out in the audience and listening and engaging. Anyway, just back there captivated. We’re just talking and really sharing all aspects of life with each other. So the guy is Jon Acuff and what a great guy, what a fantastic guy. And in a short amount of time has become a good friend and we enjoy this journey that we’re on together. And I would say outside of speaking and books and all the other cool stuff he does, man, one-on-one with Jon Acuff is pretty spectacular.
- Jon Acuff – website
- Jon Acuff – LinkedIn
- Jon Acuff – Amazon Page
What have you done that we should do?
- Chris Meroff (52:33): I think one of the things that I’ve and continue to strive to do is figure out what prison do I exist in, that I’ve made for myself. And so for me, a prison that I made for myself is this idea of converting all emotion to anger and learning how to live a vulnerable life. And I believe that God instructs us to give each other empathy, mourn with those who mourn. Rejoice with those two rejoice. But what it takes is it takes a human to be vulnerable in order for empathy to exist. And so I just spent way too much of my life closed off, hidden behind this illusion of fine. Good. Okay. So that’s something that I’m having to overcome each and every, but it’s been so fulfilling.