← Impact Podcast, Mentorship with Eddie Wilson
Impact Podcast, Mentorship with Eddie Wilson
67 - Your Purpose Is Closer Than You Think | Why Serving Others Changes Everything
00:31:21
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to the Impact Podcast. I'm Eddie Wilson, here to help you visualize what others cannot see, create opportunities where others have failed, and push you to build empires where once there was empty space. Let's embark on this journey together and make a difference in this world. Welcome to the Impact Podcast with Eddie Wilson. My favorite time of the week. As you know, I love bringing you great content. As always for young entrepreneurs trying to build their business, bringing you content that is really there to help you grow, not just in person, but in your business and your life and your relationships. The question I want to ask you today is most people spend their lives asking this question, what is my purpose? And we're going to explore that today as I've got a great guest today, Josh Hederman. Thanks so much for being on the podcast.
- [00:48]
B
Absolutely. It's good to be here.
- [00:49]
A
Josh is someone I've known since 2010, 11 and maybe even before that or I knew of you, knew your parents, things like that. And Josh was working in the world of real estate and investing with some friends and he was doing a lot of systems and processes. And I want to take you through a little bit of Josh's journey today because as you're exploring that question, what is my purpose? I think there's a direct answer. And today he and I are going to teach you how to find your purpose. So if you don't mind, walk me back through your 2011, I think we meet you're working for Real Estate Investor Systems and Processes. And now if you don't know, we're sitting in Lima, Peru today where Josh serves and many of you are part of Project Dakota. We did over about a thousand children last year here in Peru. We're making plans to maybe even go bigger this year. And so if you don't mind, walk us back through 2011 to now. I'm in a foreign country, no longer doing what I used to do.
- [01:50]
B
Absolutely. So I first met you and knew of you when you, you were there at our church just outside of Chicago and you were involved in the church and I had a couple classes with you where you were, you were teaching as I was studying in the, the, the Bible college there. But after my second, third year of Bible college, after studying for ministry, I felt I was called a ministry, but I didn't know where, I didn't have any idea where. And I took a five week missions trip to go to India. And then God opened the door for me to be able to go back and spend a year there teaching English, teaching morals in The Christian school are in the teaching morals in the, the state school, it's, it's a public school, but and, and just working there outside of my comfort, outside of my culture and I felt that God was calling me to missions. I felt that God was calling me to serve him that way. But I knew that that's not free and that's not easy to do. So I came back to the States and as you, as you stated, I started working a real estate company and God opened the doors for me to be able to start building out systems and learn that side of it. I was single at the time, so I had time to learn coding and fluent in building automated systems for companies. And I spent about two years doing that. And that is what eventually opened the door for me to be able to be a missionary now and be able to be on the field here. So that's making a long story very short.
- [03:15]
A
That's awesome. So why Peru? Like why, why did you end up in Peru? How did you end up in Peru
- [03:22]
B
after coming back from India? I knew God wanted me to be a missionary and I started a business and I was just looking for a place to serve, looking for anything to do. I went to Turkey for a month and I was there for a month and things were getting to the point in the business side that I could go places and I could work remotely. Even before COVID even before that became a normal thing, it was just I could go anywhere that I had a good Internet connection and building out automated databases for companies. And as such, I eventually went to my pastor and I said, hey, I'm free. I've got this, I've got employees that are running things day to day and I can just oversee the high level and I can go wherever. And the door opened for me to come to Peru for three months and it was just supposed to be a three month trip and it was just supposed to be from October to really Christmas time. And now 10 years later, I'm still here. And I just kept walking through the open door and kept God from three months. It then became a year and then I met my wife here and then we started talking, we got married and we've just stayed and it's been an incredible journey along the way. So it really wasn't a plan to stay here. But God continued opening the doors and that's where I am.
- [04:30]
A
That's awesome. And I think that that's kind of where I want to jump in. Right there is that purpose for you is typically found in service, right? Like oftentimes we ask the question, what do I want? And typically the average person thinks like, what do I want? And so therefore, if I just explore what I want, then my purpose will come out of that. And I think that that's a big misstep. And so I think if you're listening today, you shouldn't be asking, what do I want? You should be asking, who can I help? And when you ask the question, who can I help? I believe that that is the beginning part of finding purpose. So as you came to Peru, you're down here for two or three months, it lands, you know, it ends up going to a year. How did that question resonate? And what was kind of the experience of, okay, now I'm here, there's a group of people that I can help. How did that begin to translate into now you being here 10 years?
- [05:25]
B
Absolutely. Even in India and then in Turkey and then being here, it has always been, I lived in far south India, rural India, in an extremely poor little village and way outside of the map of anything. And I would try and say to try and tell people where I am, and they have to ask like six times how to spell it, just because it was way out there and way. The. The name was like 25 letters long. And it was a very miserable situation as far as what I was used to versus what I was living in then. But it was wonderful because of the people. And I loved seeing the people and helping the people and interacting with the people. The same thing when I came to Peru, the same thing being here. And you fall in love, more so with the than with the commodities, more so than with the culture. You fall in love with the people. And I'm very blessed. Lima is a wonderful city. I love living here in Lima, and I love the country of Peru. It's got amazing food. I came here skinny, and I'm no longer skinny. And it's just a wonderful place to live. But the best part about it is the people and being able to help the people. And so from very early on, that became the focus of our ministry and my ministry. And then once I was able to meet my wife, who she also came down here as a missionary in 2012 and then lost a husband and stayed. But she stayed because she loved the people. And so it's really been the driving force of our ministry. And every decision that we've made, we've always opted on the side of the where are we going to be able to help the most people directly, not just overseeing and not just directing from afar but actually getting our hands dirty and being able to interact in people's lives on a direct day to day basis.
- [07:01]
A
Yeah, I love that. I think if you could step back, you know, as a, as a listener or viewer today and step back and hear what he's saying. I think the most important part that I'd like to kind of draw your attention to is that he started by service, right? It was what can I do? So you go to India, you come back and it's like, how could I still help other people? Based on the gifting and the talents and skills that you had. And then you started building systems and processes, automations for business owners, helping people. Then you expand that and you end up in Peru. You know, you caught, maybe caught just a little bit of the story. His wife was also a missionary in Lima and then her husband passed in a tragic accident. These guys meet years later, past that point, end up getting married now have a son and are serving together. And I think that that's important because it's not about, it's not about the what, it's about the who. And all of us have a what. You know, like you are gifted in so many areas and that what was just how do I give it to others. Right. And it just began to expand. And I think that sometimes purpose, most people think it's like a lightning bolt. It's like this moment of like, ah, now I know what I'm supposed to do. And what it really typically is is little individual steps. Using what you're gifted to do that ultimately is in service of others. And purpose is just an expansion of who you are, not a singular moment or a singular thing. Could you put more context around there? I gave segments. Is there any other context you'd fill in that kind of like sheds light on that?
- [08:36]
B
Right. So I am a, I'm a pastor here. I'm a missionary. I have. The Lord allowed us to open a church in 2023. But the, oftentimes the terms like that, you just think of administrator over a business over, over just an organization. But I feel like in business, just like in ministry, it's all about the people that you interact with and it's all about the people that you serve. My job as a pastor is to serve people. It's not just to oversee the organization because the organization is the people. And right now, this year we're talking about what is according to the Bible, what is a church and what should a church be. And these last couple weeks I've been talking about what is the role of a pastor in a church. But it's so often that the Bible talks about a pastor. It talks about his direct relationship with the people that he's serving and how he should. Pastor is not just an overseer, even though it does have that overseeing type of idea, but it's also the idea of directly serving people. And that question and that drive to constantly be serving people is what has kept us doing what we're doing. And it's what continually allows us to do more and to prioritize more. It's how do we directly help the people that we have the opportunity to serve and what is the best way to help them. And so when opportunities come along, it's always evaluated along those lines of can we do this to help people? And there's times we say no. Even though it would be a help, it wouldn't be along that purpose that we go just because the goal is to help and to better the life of those that we are called to serve. And that has been our defining purpose here. Living in Peru and serving in ministry, it's awesome.
- [10:12]
A
You know, I, I think that obviously I have a more secular audience. Most of the people on here are business owners. They're people that are growing businesses or they're, you know, advancing in their, their job. And you know, many of you know that I work with a lot of pastors and we do a lot of ministry type related things. And then we also have the humanitarian side that oftentimes will t because typically the way that we work and interact with pastors and churches is because they already have a heart for the people that they're in that country serving. And that's where we, you know, essentially began the relationship with you. I knew of you, but it was when you began to serve the people and the general life that we live. It's not just about having a five year roadmap. And most people that watch and listen to me, they're similar to me. So they want the five year roadmap. But oftentimes living in purpose is about your next step. You know, having enough light to take one more step, not 100 more steps for you as you're serving here in Peru. What's a next step for you?
- [11:14]
B
I think backing up a little bit. I think you do have to have both. And I mean, I look at where we want to be in five to 10 years and we have a rented property right now. I would like to get a permanent property and establish that and that is down the road. But at the same time we Just moved to a larger property. We have a lot of opportunities now with what we have, whereas before we didn't, we just moved to a, a nice part of a poor area. And so we have a lot of opportunities as far as that goes as well. And something we've looked at here is both training adults and an institute both in, in faith as well as in practical life and, and family issues. Now that we have a bigger space and have more room to do that, start that. As far as giving people the tools to succeed outside of ministry, in their family life, in their secular life, in their business life, and then as well as starting an after school program, we've got multiple teachers in our congregation that would love to just come together and start something and have a free after school program for the kids of the area and tie a feeding center into that. Give them something there too. But also there's. Lima is a city of 12 million people. There's so much need and there's so many people that it's easy to get lost through the cracks and fall through the cracks. Especially for kids just growing up in the system. We have a ton of Venezuelans here as well. It's one of the highest concentrations of Venezuela outside of Venezuela, here in Lima. And there's, there's so many that just fall through the cracks because there's so many people and so specifically target them and try and reach those families and try and help those families in things that they need. They need education, they need direction, they need help child rearing and marriage and those direct helps that we can do now that we have a bigger place and a bigger space to, to work with in our church building, I feel like that's our next step.
- [13:09]
A
That's great. As you begin to serve others, I think it changes all perspectives. And when you begin to take away this thought of like, I'm here to serve myself or here to just serve my family or build a legacy, but you begin to look bigger to the, to the people surround you. I'm curious, what are some of the things that you see in Peru that someone in America would never see? You know, like the experiences that you have, like what are, what are some of the differences?
- [13:39]
B
It is the style of life is slower. We're in a capital city and so there's still the rush and there's still. People come from other places of the country here and they talk about how fast life is. But the Latin culture is very family oriented, it's very faith oriented, it's very close knit and it's One of the things I most love about the culture here is that once you win someone over your family. So much of what we do here is it's a very nocturnal lifestyle and it's not rare to be at a house until 10, 11pm and it's not rare because people will be working all day and then they'll invite you over to their house and you'll just sit there talking and chatting and drinking coffee and eating, eating and eating and eating. But it's, it's just such a family oriented and a very close knit culture and even in a big city there's just such a, a tie that you feel with people. And I love that my son gets to grow up in this. I love that for my family we have this. We left our family in the US to come here and we've been very blessed. We travel often back and see family and, and it's, it's not a complaint at all that we have. I know some people don't have that possibility and God has been very good to us in allowing us to. But even outside of that, somet we get asked by people in the States, what do we do with no friends and what do we do with no family. But I feel like the people are very much our family and very much our friends. And that close knit side of things is something that you often don't see in the US and that family, the, the family structure and the family orientation. But then at the same time the, the desire oftentimes in the US it's people are so independent and they want to make a name for themselves and there's no problem in that. They want to be known for themselves. But you almost become an island unto yourself and I like that the culture here breaks down a lot of those barriers. I can talk to someone who has a lot of money here and people are very successful here. Just like I can talk to someone. I just had a lady come over to the house and my wife and I talked to her. She's the vice president of the Chamber of Commerce here in Lima. And I had no idea who she was, but she's very concerned about her daughter, very concerned about issues that are happening there at home. And it was the same with her as it is with someone who's struggling to get by day to day. And there's just a breaking down of barriers that people aren't as self important sometimes as you see them otherwise. And I love that culture here and I love that feel here.
- [16:06]
A
It's awesome. What is this experience that you've had in being in the States, serving in India, serving in Turkey, serving here in Peru now 10 years in Peru. How has that changed your definition of success? And how would you define success today?
- [16:25]
B
I think success is influence, and I think success is. I was the other day doing a funeral for a man. He had nine kids and he was in his 90s. And I've done multiple funerals there. And I walked around to some of the. The graves of others who I had done funerals for there. And it was a very moving moment. My son was sick that afternoon, so I couldn't take my wife with me. I was just by myself. But those moments of success where you hear a family talk about how. How much that person meant to them, and you hear friends talk about all the little times that. That that person changed. And I think success is influence. And it might not always be on the big scale, but you can always influence someone on the small scale. You might not always be able to change the entire world, and oftentimes we look at it as black or white. Either I do everything or I don't do anything at all. But you can always have success in influencing and making a difference in someone's life today. And you build enough of those days together, and at the end, you'll have a successful life because it's talking about influencing and directly changing someone's life today and making someone else better. And at the end of it, you live a successful life by all the amount of people you're able to change and you're able to influence.
- [17:40]
A
I love that. The world teaches us that success equals significance. But what many people discover is that service creates significance. Right. Is what you were just talking about. It's like that influence you have in someone else's life and that service creating significance. And Josh's story is not about abandoning success. It's about redefining it. It's about following. Following this path of opportunity and then serving other people. And the greatest purpose often comes from helping people who never repay you. So how has serving others changed you personally? You know, I've known you since 2011. You still seem very similar to what I know, but I'm sure that that's been a journey for you. And so how has serving others changed you personally?
- [18:34]
B
I think the more you serve others, the more you want to serve others. The more you go down this path, the more the path becomes natural and the more you long for that purpose when you make a difference. I was. We have great people in our church, and they're. They're wonderful to my wife and I in last year, we were sitting at her birthday party and they made a big deal. They've tried the same way to surprise us for the last three years. And so we, we kind of know the surprise is coming now, but we still act surprised. But I sat there in almost in tears as they talked about individual ways my wife has helped them and so many little stories, so many inside jokes, so many things that no one else would know. Just talking about her. And I got to watch it as, I mean, I love my wife with, with all that I am. And she's, she's amazing and so much of what I am is due to her. But just talking about it from someone else's perspective, I got to watch how much she has individually impacted so many lives. And, and you start doing that, you start down that path and you start, it's not about the dopamine, but you start getting that feeling of I was able to help this person and that creates a need to do it more. And I think oftentimes people don't take the first step. And because they don't take the first step, they don't go down that road. Yeah, but the road becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. The road becomes a self fulfilling purpose and drive that the more you set out to help people, the more you will want to set out to help people. And I've seen that in my own life. The more that I live for me, the more I want to live for me, the more that I live for others, the more I want to live for others. And that's what I would say how it has changed me. The more that I lean into that side of wanting to help others, the more I want to lean into that side.
- [20:18]
A
It's awesome. Kind of brings me to my last point that I want to talk about, which is Project Dakota. You know, many of our listeners and viewers partook in, in some way. They may have given $5, $10, they may have given a thousand dollars. And if you're not already a part of that, that is something that was laid on my heart just about a year ago. And to take a day where most of us have abundance, Christmas, where you're celebrating with your children or your loved ones, and so many people around the world will not ever experience that love, that joy, that gift. And I had a special needs brother named Dakota who passed away, who I watched. You know, he went through a lot of difficulties in his life. He went through a period of his life when he was younger when people loved him and Then all of a sudden, as he began to have difficulties, I watched as his brother, the whole world, almost reject him, look at him with caution or fear or sometimes just curiosity. And it began to stoke inside of me, this need to, like, help people without a voice. And was really challenged last year to create Project Dakota, to go out to the less fortunate children, orphans, less fortunate children that are just never going to experience something like we experience. Not just not having like five or six or ten toys for your children, but not having one, not having a child that's never had a gift in their life. And last year we did 23,000. I thought we were going to do 5,000 and we ended up doing 23,000. And this year we're doing a big push to try to get to the next level. And if you don't mind, because I really would love for our viewers and listeners to take part in this, because maybe this is their first step, you know, like, maybe they've never been a part of something like this before. Maybe this is a step they could take. Would you mind just talking just for a minute about Project Dakota, what you guys did last year, the type of person or group that it helped. Any individual stories that you remember?
- [22:10]
B
Absolutely. And first, I'd just like to say thank you so much to all that did give and all that had a part in that we were able to have. Counting up the events, four or five of it. I think we had five events, plus a continual giveaway that's even still going on. We were talking about that, but in total, we gave just under 1400 gifts to children. And we had in our church two different events, one for the general public and then one for the kids of our church. And then outside of that, we had an event here at a work that we're starting in a little village about an hour and a half south of Lima, as well as a church that we work with in the mountains of Peru. And between all of those, in our event, the church, we had 500 kids that came from the community and then 100 kids from our church. And then from outside of that, I think we had three or 400 in the mountains. We had like 200 in the, in the village, an hour and a half south. And then we also partnered with a guy who goes into villages in the jungle, and they're villages of sometimes 15, 20 people, sometimes 120 people. But he, we gave him 300 toys so that as he goes on his trips, he can take them out and give them out to the, the children there and so many, I was looking at the pictures the other day, so many individual. You see faces, you see moments where they receive their gift or where they're, I'll actually share the worst part of it that looking back, it was probably the best part of it. In the city, in the mountains, they had, we had handed the project off to them. They were the ones who organized the whole thing and they did a good job. But they had, they got to a point where they had passed out all the tickets. There were no more gifts to give and they had to close the doors. But you see the, the desperation on the face of the parents who desperately want their kids to get a gift. And you can say as an American, and I'm very system driven and system oriented, you can say, well, the system was you're supposed to get here at 7am and you didn't. And there were people in line and you can, you can excuse all of the bad behavior away and say, well, you didn't follow the instructions, so this is why. And then you can make yourself. But then you look at the actual cases of the people and there were no more gifts to give. There were no more, there was no more that we could do there. We already given out 350 gifts to, to kids there. But you see just the desperation for people to feel loved and to receive something. We had as the kids came through our church and we had an event just under 750 people total and almost 500 kids that came through our church and they walked out as they, as they left and they were each receiving their gifts and just standing at the door saying goodbye to them as they went and watching them as they're comparing gifts and they're seeing who got the bigger one and the excitement on their faces as those kids knew that there was a church that loved him and knew that there was people that had given from people that they'd never meet, from places that they'll never go, but they had given to give them Christmas and the same thing in the little village an hour and a half south. It's a forgotten area of Peru. We have a work there and, and it's a blessing to serve there in that village as well. But it's the same thing. It's a village of maybe a thousand people. It's just a little farm town that, that is out in the middle of nowhere and if you didn't know how to get there, you, you wouldn't get there because you lose signal on the way. It's just in a mountain valley. That you have to drive through and you go there and the city of a thousand, we had 150 kids. I'm pretty sure all the kids, and probably some from neighboring villages came and just watching them on their dirt roads in the middle of nowhere, in extreme poverty walk away with this gift with the biggest smile on their face. And it's the biggest gift they'll receive. Some of them, it's the only gift they'll receive that year. And knowing that you made a difference person's life. And I say as a pastor, thank you all so much for all of you who allowed me to experience that moment. It's not fair because you don't necessarily get to see that and I do. And it's a blessing for me. It's. It's an incredible moment for me to be able to be the conduit, to take your gifts and your generosity and your donations and change the life of a child and change the, the outlook of a child in that Christmas season. It's amazing to see. And I wish you could live vicariously through us. And I know there' pictures and I know there's videos and it's never the same, but you look at some of those pictures, you look at some of those moments where you just have kids excitedly running out of the church. And we had to go clean up the sidewalk in front of the church because they're excitedly tearing open their toys. And just like Christmas morning in the States, we always had four or five garbage bags of just the wrapping paper. It's the same thing there. And they just have all the wrapping from the, the presents just strewn around. And we had to apologize to our neighbors after that. But just the excitement of a child to receive a Christmas gift. And they're incredible moments that Lord willing, will be able to repeat this year. And I mean, thank you all so much for your generosity and what you all have done, but thank you as well for that.
- [27:13]
A
Sure. It's. It's been the highlight of the last couple of years for me for sure, being able to be part of it. I was in India, got to see it. I know Dave, that's part of our team. He got to come here and see it. We've got some trips planned for people to experience it this year. Brazil and others, Egypt. And it is, it's. It's truly life changing. Not for the child alone, it's for the person who gave the gift. And so I would highly encourage you if you'd like to be a part of one of these trips or be a Part of giving, to Josh's point that he started with, every place we went, we ran out. And no matter how much, what you realize is you could sell companies for a billion dollars and walk out of the world and find more than a billion dollars worth of need immediately. And for you that are sitting there today and we're talking about living in purpose, making sure that you are living your life in purpose and that purpose is in some capacity service of others. And maybe you consider giving some sort of a gift to Project Dakota, because every $11 that's given provides a Christmas experience for a child. And so how many children could you give a Christmas experience to? How many could you give to Peru or to some of these places where they're not going to receive a Christmas gift and they'll receive love from you? But Josh, thank you so much for being a part. You know, we deal with a lot of the vulnerable community, the children, the destitute, the people in need. And to me, people like you and your wife are making a massive difference in the world. You know, I really do believe that you're making a dent in the darkness. You are, you're holding back that hopelessness that life in the world often brings us. And I see it in the people all around you. So thank you so much for the service that you have. Any just last words you have for an entrepreneur who's putting their all into a business and maybe not feeling fulfillment yet, maybe not quite understanding how they live in purpose yet. Maybe just some last pieces of advice and then we'll close up.
- [29:19]
B
I would say take the first step like we talked about a little bit ago. Oftentimes it becomes a self fulfilling drive. Once you start down that road, you constantly want to go farther down that road and see all that you can do along that road. But oftentimes we, there's, there's a million and one reasons why you shouldn't take that first step. But oftentimes those reasons go away as you start down that path. For so many I, I see so many people and I talk to people, talk to people that they always have a reason why they don't. But once they do, those reasons just disappear. And so I would just say to start down the path, find something to do today, to help someone else find something to do today to make someone else's life better. Not trying to get something in return, but just trying to in business terms, share value with someone else, give value to someone else. But even outside of that, share hope and share love with someone else that wouldn't have it otherwise. And once you start down that path, that starts to grow. And it's amazing to see what people can do once they get going. And that's what I would say.
- [30:22]
A
It's awesome. I think in the business world, business life, you know, there's 101 levels, there's 202 levels, there's 303. And I think that, you know, for those of you that are advancing in this space, your business is going well. You're. You're serving your community, you're giving to your family, you're providing. The question I would be asking myself today is what if the purpose I've been searching for isn't something you find, but someone you serve? Someone you find, someone you serve today. So whether it's tipping somebody a little extra at the coffee shop today, whether it's looking at your employees for how you can serve them versus what can you get out of them, or maybe it's taking the first step and being a part of Project Dakota and giving to some amazing children right here in Peru. We'd love to help you with that because there are stages, there are phases, and as you're growing, that is the ultimate phase. That is. That is the pinnacle. That is the top. So thanks, Josh, for being part of the Impact podcast today. Thank you guys so much for being a part each and every week. It's my privilege to serve you in this capacity. If there's ever anything we can do, please reach out. Make sure you share on all the social channels and we appreciate all that you guys do. And for being a part of this, and make sure you go check out impact others.com forward/project coda. Thanks so much for being a part of the podcast and for listening today. Love to connect with you further. And you can connect with me on social media at Eddie Wilson official on any of the social media channels.