Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 05/07/25

Darkness and light. Two books are out today with interesting insights on successfully navigating this earthly life. I had the opportunity to speak with both authors.

In The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness, renowned crime novelist, screenwriter and cultural commentator Andrew Klavan tackles the subject of evil and suffering in the world through a Christian lens, offering his thoughts on how artful storytelling can illuminate a path through all the violence and brokenness around us to discover meaning. My conversation with him can be read at Religion & Liberty.

In Life of Your Dreams: How to Take Your Family, Fun, and Financial Freedom to a Whole ‘Notha Level, one-time high school teacher-turned- billionaire entrepreneur Mark Pentecost shares his blueprint for breaking through the barriers and obstacles of this life to enjoy all its opportunities.

Both writers are men of faith with life philosophies that may seem to differ to some degree in terms of their focus. Klavan stresses that Christians are called to maintain faith and a joyful attitude even amid an earthly world where evil flourishes and good people don’t always live to see justice (in this life). That’s why, he says, a belief in a beautiful, merciful and just afterlife is so important. Pentecost leans into the belief that we are empowered by God-given dreams and that we are called upon to confidently pursue success and victory in this life.

Ultimately, I think those points of view balance each other rather than contradict each other. We should avoid putting God to the test and requiring that things turn out as we wish as a condition of our faith. That’s a fragile faith, at best. On the other hand, it’s empowering and healthy to believe that God hears our prayers and that, if we follow a set of moral principles, we can greatly enhance our chances of successfully overcoming evil and personal obstacles to produce positive fruit in this life. To believe otherwise can lead to an attitude of defeatism that emboldens the world’s bullies and too easily accepts suffering as a normal part of life. It’s true that God uses the evil and suffering of this world to make us stronger but I don’t think we are called to passively lie down in face of darkness. It’s the struggle against those things that makes us stronger. We are called to light candles that help us avoid and rise above the pitfalls of Earth as we make our way to Heaven knowing in our heart that God is on our side.

My conversation with Mark Pentecost is below. I have to say I like the how he uses the pronoun “we” – to include his family – when talking about his life decisions and successes. To me, that suggests the humility of a successful man who knows his success isn’t all about him.

JWK: You’re life seems to be the epitome of not giving up in the face of obstacles, including cancer. Can you tell me about your journey?

Mark Pentecost: I started as a teacher and coach. It wasn’t like I did that for half a semester. I did it for like 16 years but there was always something inside me that thought I was kind of made for more. As a teacher and coach, you’re making a difference with the kids but, married with three kids, I couldn’t exactly provide everything I wanted on that salary. I was always looking for more. So, I did that for 16 years.

Then there was a direct sales company that was using coaches. I actually got offered just $500 extra dollars a month (to start). I found out I was pretty good at sales. We did really well. I was able to step away from teaching. It was in the nineties. I was actually (conducting business) from a wall phone. The generation today wouldn’t even know a wall phone. We did extremely well. I was making more a month at that than I was in a year of teaching…So, we started our own company. That was in Michigan. We moved the company to Florida. 

JWK: What did the company sell?

MB: The name of the company was IT WORKS! We were known for our Skinny Wrap. We had health products. We were a startup literally from my house in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Now, we’re in 41 countries and doing billions in sales. So, it’s kind of a cool story. 

JWK: How old were you when you discovered this talent for salesmanship?

MP: Well, I had been teaching for 16 years. So, I was probably about 35, 36.

IT WORKS!…wasn’t an overnight success. We worked really hard. A couple of times every month people would come and say “Hey, we gotta add some more money for payroll.” We had issues. You take a step forward and two back and another step forward. Then we made the move to Florida. I had this crazy idea of buying a golf course here (with) built-in restaurants. We could run all our outings there. That was a great formula for us. Then IT WORKS! started really growing and taking off.

Right when we took off is when I got diagnosed with cancer. So, that wasn’t in my best plan – but we had to start battling that. The book came about because I think people today can be stuck. They had big dreams, life starts to happen and then, all of a sudden, they feel like they’re stuck or it’s not meant for them. So, I did the book for two reasons. One was to leave a little bit of a legacy for the grandkids. Also, I really feel like, when I’m talking to people, they can feel inside they’re made for more. There’s something else for them – but some of them are afraid. I tell people there’s good risk and bad risk – but the biggest risk of all is doing nothing. 

JWK: Now, your cancer diagnosis was a big obstacle but you kept going forward anyway.

MP: Yeah. I think what cancer does is it makes us realize that life does end at some point. So, it makes you realize you want to make an impact. When I got the diagnosis I was in my fifties but it made me realize you don’t live forever. So, it made me kind of take a little bit of a snapshot of what do I want to be known for? How can I help change the world? You know, I coulda taught and coached basketball for thirty years and made a real difference in some people’s lives but by doing what we did with IT WORKS!, by going to the level we have – what we can give back to schools, hospitals, churches – it’s a much bigger group of people that you can really affect and be a world changer.

So, that’s what the cancer did for us. It makes you kind of take (stock). Then you gotta fight. I went through all the treatments, lost my hair and lost muscle tone. You’re like not recognizing yourself but we got on the other side of it. Then, just recently, we came out of remission but, you know, there are good discoveries every day. We’re funding and helping with looking for cures. We do a lot for pediatric cancer. It’s one thing to get it when you’re older but, when kids get it, it just breaks your heart.

JWK: So, how are you doing now?

MP: I’m in treatment now. I’m hoping to get the numbers back down and get back down into remission. That’s one of the nice things with the book. All the proceeds from it are going for cancer research and finding cancer cures. You can order on Amazon right now. I didn’t want to do the book before. (It’s not just) for me. It’s really more to get people unstuck and then proceeds go for cancer and to see if we can’t keep advancing our science and cures for it.

JWK: I’ll be praying for you. You talk in the book about the importance of perseverance.

MP: Great question and I appreciate that.

One of things I always say is “The dream that will make you most proud is the one you’re afraid out loud.” I found myself (that) I was always dreaming for something more but I was kind of afraid to put it out there. When we moved the company to Florida, we had been grinding for quite a while. We weren’t shutting the doors but we weren’t making great money at it. When I started saying I wanted to move the company to Florida, people said “Why?” I’d say “Well, the taxes are better for a business, there’s no personal income tax there and I could entertain in the winter.” In Michigan, people weren’t really excited to come up there. I would say all these reasons people want to come to Florida. What I realized is I wasn’t really trying to convince others. When I said it out loud I was really saying it so I heard it.

No matter what you do in life – whether it’s your health or whether it’s a business – you gotta have (the stomach for it). I have what I call the Resilience Quota in the book. It’s every time you get knocked down (compared to) how many times you get up. As long (the latter number beats the former number) by one, you’re in the game…It’s like Rocky back in the day. You gotta get back up. That’s what I found.

We just got the company going. We didn’t go out and get private equity. We bootstrapped it ourselves. Things would go wrong. Even when we had great success, we had a shortage of product. It’s like when you gotta get in line for an iPhone. We were having to do that for our products. I was like “Oh, my goodness! We’re exploding and now I can’t get the product!” Or your IP slows you up because you’re overloading it.

So, I talk about risk. You know, there’s good risk and bad risk. You want calculated risk. You want to really plan it out. I didn’t just walk away from teaching. I kind of put a budget out there of what it would take for me to walk away. So, when we did, it wasn’t just me going to Vegas and saying “Let’s put it all on the line.” We were taking calculated steps on how I could leave teaching and how we could be full time. You know, to go from zero to millions to billions is a crazy story but I truly believe that America is one of greatest countries for being able to do that. It’s not about your name or your education. It’s really about your grit and how hard you want to work for something. 

JWK: A lot of people are very concerned about the economy right now. What do you have to say to people who might be concerned about trying something in this environment?

MP: That’s one reason for coming out with a book. I totally agree with what you say. We really believe in (being) debt free. I think there’s an order to things. You know, I like nice houses and nice cars but you don’t go buy those on day one. You do it once you’re having success and the money’s there. I love debt free.

In 2008, the economy really went down. Stocks and bonds went down. People were saying to me “Oh, we’d better just huddle up and wait till this is over.” Well, we were debt free. So, we didn’t have to worry about the pressure of somebody that had a mortgage with a bad percentage rate. We were able to actually really grow during that time. So, I relate to that.  I think right now a lot of people are feeling what you just said. They’re feeling the pressure. They’re like “What’s going on?!” You know, politics is really unsettling right now. Stocks and bonds are up and down. I think that’s the perfect opportunity.

So, I try, with the book, to say here are my seven things that I think are really important (starting with) who you surround yourself with. If people are saying “The sky is falling!” (and are) doom and gloom or if someone says “Hey, it is tough out there – but it also means there is opportunity and let’s take that.” You know, when I read history of other countries, you had to be in a certain class. You had to have a certain name. Here we don’t have to have that. If you’ve got a dream and desire, you can go for it. There’s no one saying “Sorry, you don’t come from the right family. You can’t do that.” I look at that as an excuse. The excuse may be time, it might be money or it might be, what you just said, the (economic situation) right now – but I find opportunity. Whatever the economy is doing, you can find things that you can take and use it to build your dream.

JWK: So, sometimes adversity can be used as an opportunity.

MP: Exactly. I’ve seen that. IT WORKS! is 23 years old. During that period of time with our company, we’ve had many ups and downs. Moving to Florida from Michigan was really good for us. People like to come and see the ocean and the beach and go to Disney. It was – for me, growing a sales force – a perfect opportunity.

When I look back at different times when the economy went down, there were a lot of people looking to make extra money. I could give them the opportunity to have a business they could work right out of their home. So, you always tailor the conversation to the needs of people and how it can help them instead of hurt them.

I was a basketball coach. So, you got your starting five. I always say “Who is your starting five? Who do you surround yourself with?” I think there are a lot of people that are dream killers. They’re always gonna tell you what’s wrong and what doesn’t work. I use this quote quite often: “Planted in the right environment, dreams thrive. Planted in the wrong environment, dreams die.” I think sometimes people had a dream and maybe they died not because of something they did but by the people they surrounded themselves with.

JWK: In the book, you talk about the need to overcome dependency patterns. I guess some of that is being overly dependent on the opinions of other people. As you alluded to earlier, you provide seven steps for overcoming those patterns. Could you briefly run through them?

MP: Yeah. I’d be glad to.

The first one I call “Dare to dream or getting in the game.” So many people gotta give themselves permission to start dreaming again. They think they’re too busy or life’s too hard. First of all, you’ve got to give yourself permission to dream again.

Number Two, I call “Say it, see it.” What is it you really want to do? Some people, they need to see it right now. What do you want? Do you want to have a dream vacation? Do you want to have a business? Do you want a new job? What is it? Write it down. Some have to say it. That was me. I realized I thought I was telling other people (about my dream) but I was really telling myself.

The third step is one of my favorites. “Live on the offense.” When I was coaching, teams would go into prevent/defense so the other team doesn’t score. Well, that usually means the other team’s gonna score. I want to live on the offense. I want to start the business and going for my dreams instead of sitting home. Being on the defense I would just get ahead a little bit when I was coaching and teaching and the car would start making a funny sound or the washing machine wouldn’t work. It just seemed like I was always playing defense. Things were always happening to me, whereas, going on the offense you’ve got a plan and you’re taking it to ’em.

Then the fourth one is what you talked about. I call it “Getting back up.” It’s being resilient. It’s knowing that things are gonna happen and you gotta be prepared and fight back. ‘

Number Five is “Find your people.” I spent a lot of time on that. If it’s your own life or you’re starting a business, it’s the same thing. You want people that are positive. (Regarding) the kind of people you hire, you want people that have experience and have done it before – and are positive. It seems like you’ll find those people that haven’t done it and aren’t positive. Don’t surround yourself with those.

One thing I think is important is to celebrate your wins. I was so focused on growing a business that we hit a milestone and we weren’t celebrating it. I learned to…celebrate the wins. We’d say “Hey, we’re gonna work really hard for these two weeks but once we accomplish this (we’re celebrating!) It might be a vacation…It might be just going out to dinner at a special place or it might be “We are going to buy that new car.” I think celebrating your  wins is so important.

Then the last step. When I started, we wanted $500 extra a month. We got there and, all of a sudden, we started dreaming bigger. We started thinking, well, what if I could make $10,000? What if I could go full time? What if I could own my own business? So, your dreams get bigger. I think it’s like a muscle. The more you dream, the bigger it gets. That ($500) dream wasn’t a little dream when I started. It was the only one I had but now, looking back, it doesn’t seem so big with what we’ve accomplished. So, to me it’s get in the game and then “Dare to re-dream.”

We have a private island. We have a 10,000 acre ranch. I couldn’t dream of that when I was teaching. This all happened over time. I tell people there’s an order. You know, you get going, you get excited, you dream a little more and say “Wow! We did that! I think we can do this!”

So, those are my seven steps.

JWK: Is seeing the positive effect your success has on others – through giving to cancer research, employing so many people and that sort of thing – part of your motivation?

MP: I used to think if you’re a blessing – if you help others – you give back. Now, I don’t really think of it like that, like an exchange. I think of it as you’re more successful and the more you do, the more you get to give. You enjoy it so much, now you get more to give more. We started out with cancer research, (including) my own. I work with the V Foundation. Dick Vitale does so much for pediatric cancer. Then we started working with churches about being debt free. When you’re debt free nobody can control you. You sleep better in a house that’s paid for. So, I really talk to people about the order of spending and getting debt free. We’re working with churches. We’ve been able to work with schools to build new auditoriums, basketball courts or athletic fields. When I first started we were trying to take care of our own bills. I couldn’t think of giving back like this. Yet, it gets contagious. The more you give, the more you want to give. I think the world changers are the entrepreneurs. They are people that go out and take risks and they build something. People with big hearts are successful because of what they can give.

JWK: Does your faith help get you through your own cancer diagnosis – and inspire your dreaming?

MP: 100%. I truly, truly believe that. You know, in our new book Life of Your Dreams we talk about what I call the “secret sauce.” You know, I have the seven steps of what I think it takes to be successful but at the very end I say I really think our “secret sauce” is our faith. I think that the more we help others and give, it just seems like more comes back to us…I was talking to a young group the other day. They were saying “When is enough enough?” I said “I don’t think enough is ever enough.” If God’s  planted a dream in you, you’re supposed to go off and do it. It’s like the parable. You know, someone buries their talent. If you don’t bury your talent and you’re out there and God’s blessing it and business is growing more and more and more, I want to make sure someday He says “Well done” to me. So, I want to make sure I’m giving. I think the more I do that – and the more I can impact others – the more God puts those dreams in you to do more…He puts dreams and visions in people all the time.

JWK: You’ve gotten into the movie business last year with a movie called Florida Wild which you executive produced by Rick Eldridge who I’ve spoken to in the past. So, tell me about how that came about?

MP: You know, it’s funny because that wasn’t one of my dreams at the time. I kind of fell into it. I worked (as an executive producer and actor) on a movie called The Mulligan. A great movie, it’s on Amazon. I had a ranch and wanted to do a western. (Rick Eldridge) said “Let’s do it!” In Florida, he didn’t have any incentives. They wanted to do the movie in Georgia or somewhere else. I said “We can’t do Florida Wild in another state!” They said “Well, you don’t have a western town.” I said “Well, we’ll build one.” I might have been a little over confident in not going for incentives (and) building our own western set at our ranch but it’s a great movie. It tells the story of people who moved after the Civil War to Florida and started new ranches…I just put out a press release. You probably haven’t even seen it yet. We’re gonna do a western called Flint which is a Louis L’Amour (story). We’re doing it with the L’Amour family. We’re gonna film that one in Montana. It’s just something so that we can have good material – faith, family, something for myself and my grandkids, to tell them about the old days. I think we’re losing our cowboy (heritage). It was something fun to do but it wasn’t a life dream. It was more something I really enjoyed doing

JWK: So, are you gonna being doing more of those?

MP: I think so. I’m getting more and more calls as these come out. I never intended it to happen but it really has been a lot of fun.

JWK: I see that Lee Majors and Mira Sorvino are in Florida Wild. You also have a role, as does our new attorney general Pam Bondi. Are you gonna lure her away from the Trump Administration. Is she gonna be an actress now?

MP: (laughs) Yep! You know, we really had fun with it. (We have) Tyrus, who is a Fox News contributor and was a wrestler. We put people in it who we thought had a good following and would be fun. At the time, I never thought Pam was going to be our attorney general. That was pretty cool.

JWK: That is funny. So, what’s next for you?

MP: We’re gonna do the movie Flint. We’re launching the book. I’m really excited. I think it’s really gonna help people that are stuck. When I was teaching I felt stuck. I felt like I enjoyed what I was doing in life but I couldn’t make what I needed to get going and to feel more fulfilled. The book is gonna help people get unstuck…Then we’re going to concentrate more on things that we can do to be hope-change. It might be movies. We’re doing quite a bit with the ranch. You can go to the Pentecost Group website and see all the projects we’re into.

JWK: Anything you’d like to say as we wrap up?

MP: When I was teaching and coaching I was always reading books on how to get ahead or how to do more. We didn’t have podcasts then or I would have been listening to podcasts. I read (books) from people that had had successful lives. I think the idea of doing the book was “You know, I’m not talking theory. This is what we did.” We literally started with no money. We had a dream. My wife and I got on the same page with our family as they were growing up. They all contributed. We included them – and we went after it.

I think no matter where people are today, if they’re hungry, if they want more, if they feel like they’re made for more, I think this book is gonna give them definite insight. We’ve already been out there a little bit talking about this on a podcast. The notes I’ve been getting back from people (say things like) “Thank you, you’ve motivated me to go for it one more time” or “You’re steps were so good. I didn’t realize the people I was surrounding myself with were hurting me” or “I didn’t realize that the greatest risk was taking no risk at all.” I have a challenge for people at the end. Right now, pull your phone out, go to the bathroom and look in the mirror. Whatever dream that you’re afraid to say out loud is the one that will make you proud.

John W. Kennedy is a writer, producer and media development consultant specializing in television and movie projects that uphold positive timeless values, including trust in God.