Thank you to everyone who has listened to this podcast. In this episode, Jason talks about why "The Salty Truth" will be limited to these 14 episodes.

Seven Things Great Parents Do 1. Great Parents Model What They Teach 2. Great Parents Follow Through With What They Say 3. Great Parents Take a United Front. 4. Great Parents Discipline Their Children 5. Great Parents Take Time To Be Fully Present 6. Great Parents Choose Their Words Wisely 7. Great Parents Give Grace and Unconditional Love

About Jon Hester Married with 2 teenage daughters. Celebrating 25th wedding anniversary in May 15 years in church ministry; 7 or 8 years now in professional counseling.  What are some of the benefits to going to counseling to improve your relationship? Many couples wait too late to get the help they need, all couples can improve their relationship. What do you think it takes to help a marriage that’s in trouble make a turn around? Honesty – with themselves, about themselves, and about where their marriage really is Humility – taking the steps to get the help the need, actually put in the work to become the healthiest version of themselves Forgiveness – regrets of the past will continue to haunt and linger until true forgiveness takes place. Forgiveness of spouse and of self.  What are some of the biggest misconceptions about marriage? That intimacy naturally fades over time. Intimacy only fades when we stop pursuing the other person.  That they are, by default, meeting the needs of their spouse. People change over time. What are some of the things that can sabotage a good marriage? Lack of boundaries – taking on too much and having nothing left to give your spouse. Or perhaps a lack of boundaries when it comes to children, extended family members. Couples should fearlessly protect time for the two of you to be alone. Boredom –  Couples should chase new & next together. Comparing their marriage to someone else’s – Social media has not helped here. Do all couples fight? People handle conflict in different ways. No one wants have to walk on egg shells around their partner If things begin to escalate, take a time out. How can we intentionally make marriage fun so that we have a lot of good times to mix in with the difficult times? Always keep something on the calendar to look forward to. The planning part of it alone brings a certain level of excitement. Engage in the interests and activities your spouse enjoys – and do so joyfully.  What advice would you give to couples willing to give it one more try? Decide to do something substantially different. Seek professional help.  Avoid negative voices – friends, family, internet, social media Return to the practices you were doing in the beginning. How important is it to be a student of our partner? Probably one of the most underestimated and often overlooked component of marriages. Check out the DISC personality profile and the Love Language assessment. If people want to learn more about you, or connect with you about counseling, how can they find you? www.psychologytoday.com - Search "Jon Hester". Email and phone listed.

This episode is in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic Top 10 Ways to Make the Most of your Quarantine 10. Invest in Your Family  9. Eat Smart  8. Practice a Skill  7. Read  6. Workout  5. Organize Your Life  4. Get Spiritually Healthy  3. Check on someone else  2. Get outdoors  1. Rest

5 Questions to ask when making tough decisions Have I Prayed about it?  Have I sought out wise counsel?  Have I considered alternate options?  Have I checked my motives? Don’t make decisions out of comfort or fear Have I considered the timing? Bad timing - when you’re upset or feel rushed. Good Timing - when you’re calm & have had time to think. Once you’ve had time to think it thru, pull the trigger. No decision is a decision. If you’ve done all of these steps and still don’t know what to do, ask yourself “What would I tell my best friend to do in this situation?”...and go with that.

If you are a team leader of any kind and want to build a great team there are 4 things to do (INVITE, INSPIRE, INSTILL, & INVEST). In the last episode, we covered INVITE and INSPIRE. In this episode, we talk about the last two - INSTILL and INVEST. 3. INSTILL Instill culture. The team leader gets to set the atmosphere of the team. 4 ways to instill culture in your team Be the Example – Culture is caught more than taught. You create culture by BEING culture. Don’t point the way; lead the way. We are thermostats, not thermometers. Explain their Role - A leader's #1 job is to equip people. People need to know what u are asking them to do. What’s the win? They can’t hit a target that’s not there. Communicate often – Communicate more often than u think you should.The more you communicate, the more your team will know what to do w/o asking you. Entrust & Empower - If u want a great team, don’t try to do it all yourself. Give others a chance to shine. It’s ok if they make mistakes; that’s how we learn. 4. INVEST 4 ways to invest in our teams: - Encourage - Catch them doing something right. EVERYONE works better in an atmosphere of encouragement. - Listen - Team members need to give their opinion & know it’s been heard. If we don’t listen to what our team members are saying, eventually they’ll stop talking. Let everyone talk, make a decision, then once a decision is made, everyone should get behind it. - Challenge - Care enough to have difficult conversations. We can’t help people improve by ignoring habitual issues. Don’t complain about things ur not addressing. Having high standards means having to address things when they aren’t met. Giving & receiving feedback is essential on any successful team. - Care - Let them know u care more about them than what they can do for u. If you want to build a strong team, there are 4 things to do (INVITE, INSPIRE, INSTILL, & INVEST).1. Invite - Recruit doers, one at a time, share vision not need. 2. Inspire - Communicate the why, Tell Success Stories, be enthusiastic, Believe the Best. 3. INSTILL - Be culture, communicate culture. 4. INVEST - Encourage, Listen, Challenge, Care. Bottom line: You’re only as good as your team, so build a great one. 

4 Blocks of Team Building (Invite, Inspire, Instill, & Invest) 1. INVITE Recruit. They are not going to magically come to us; we have to seek them out. 4 ways to find new team members Recruit one at a time, face to face. Don’t send a mass message; Look for people who would be great on your team > Listen to their story > Invite. Recruit with vision, not need. People don’t respond to need; they respond to vision Look for doers, not thinkers. It’s much easier to educate a doer than to activate a thinker. Constantly trying to motivate is exhausting. If you have the right people, they’ll be self-motivated. Look for people who are already doing what you are looking for. Tell them that you would like for them to join the team. People want to feel wanted. What if I can’t find the right person for a key position? When in doubt, wait. It’s difficult to remove people later. It’s better to leave a position vacant than fill it with the wrong person. Don’t choose someone who is the wrong fit just because they have been there a long time or work hard. What if I have the wrong person in a key position currently? Try moving them to a different role. If they still are not working out, make the tough decision to let them go. Waiting too long is unfair to them because you're keeping them from finding a better fit. If you’re not sure whether to let someone go, ask yourself “If they stepped down, would I be disappointed or secretly relieved?” Bottom Line: Before you go anywhere, get the right people on the bus (Jim Collins, Good to Great) 2. INSPIRE 4 ways to inspire your team Communicate the Why - Talk about what you are trying to accomplish but also talk about why. Don’t just hand out assignments; people commit to a cause, not to a task. An easy way to do that is to follow your statements with “so that”. Tell Success Stories - Stories inspire way more than principles. Talk about people's lives that are better off because of what your team is doing. Lead with Enthusiasm - Information doesn’t inspire people; passion does. Enthusiasm is contagious! Don’t expect to have a fired-up team if you’re not. Bonus tip: If you’ve got passionate people on your team put them together; don’t spread them out. Like burning charcoal, fire spreads. Left alone, the flame goes out. Believe the Best - Walk the halls looking for things people on your team are doing right. When we have a positive view of people, lots of buried talent begins to surface. Average people have a way of accomplishing extraordinary things when someone believes in them. If someone drops the ball, don’t jump to conclusions; try to understand the situation better. Believe the best.

On this episode, we interview High School football coach, Milan Turner. His experience in coaching and mentoring students gives us insights that apply to every day life.

We can make changes at any point in the year., but the new yr is a great time to assess your life - spiritual, health, marriage, career. People will say, “Don’t set goals; don’t set New Year's resolutions". Let me tell you who’s saying that — people who aren’t doing anything.  Don’t let anyone tell you not to set goals. We know most people don’t stick to their New Year’s resolutions. Mabye this make them hesitant to try again. I would rather fail trying to make my life count that give up and waste my life. There’s no shame  in failing. The only failure is quitting. We all need to grow & get better in some area of our lives.  You’re never going to wander into a better you. So to say you don’t need to set goals is the same as saying "I don’t need to get any better." That’s an arrogant thing to say. Setting goals is a good thing. You’ll never hit a target you don’t have. Goals help us stay challenged rather than in rut. Our Goals Need to be… 1. Visible Write your goals down. The more often we are reminded of our goals, less likely we will be to forget them. Habakkuk 2:2 “Write the vision & make it plain” If u haven’t written down your dreams, there’s almost no chance you’ll ever achieve them. Some people do vision boards - they print out pictures of their goals and put them on a board. 2. Measureable Not just “get better at…” Be specific, otherwise you won’t know if you’ve reached your goals. 3. Attainable Don’t set your goals so high that you get discouraged and quit. How I set my goals: - Write down top 3 to 5 goals for this next year. More than that is too many to focus on. - Break them into 4 parts. (Jan-March, April-June, July-Sep, & Oct-Dec.) - Focus on just the first quarter. (i.e. If you want to read 12 book in a year, you need to read 3 in the first 3 months) - Break each quarter’s goals down into steps (Read 1 book in first month, about 50 pages a week) - Break steps down into daily tasks (i.e. Read 7 pages each day) What goals should you focus on over the next 3 months? Send me your thoughts - [email protected]

After 4 episodes, we have over 1,000 listens! The podcast can continue to grow with your help. Please rate, review, and maybe even share your favorite episode on social media. Podcast Improvements: Now available on 8 platforms: Spotify, Google, Apple, & more. You can find them all at thesaltytruth.com We now have show notes for all of our episodes! You can now e-mail me: [email protected] or message me on instagram @jasoncomer as always. Please feel free to give suggestions to make the podcast better. Maybe you know of a guest that would be great on the podcast. You can also send questions, and I will make sure to take time to read some of your questions on the podcast. Questions should be in some way related to personal growth.