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Overcoming Adversity with Devin Schubert | Stories to Stages, Influence, & Adoption
16 Plays2 months ago
In this powerful episode, Russell Jones sits down with Devin Schubert — internationally acclaimed coach, speaker, international best-selling author, and award-winning entrepreneur — to dive into his extraordinary journey of overcoming personal and professional adversity. From being selected out of over 100,000 applicants to appear on two reality TV shows for entrepreneurs, to sharing stages with icons like Eric Thomas, Pat Quinn, and Willie Robertson, Devin's story is one of grit, passion, and purpose. Devin is the founder of Influence Academy and the visionary behind Stories to Stages, a legacy project with a mission to help 1 million people share their stories through media, social platforms, and live stages. But beyond the spotlight and success, Devin opens up about his most meaningful role — becoming a dad through adoption of three beautiful children. This episode is a heartfelt and inspiring look at fatherhood, resilience, purpose, and creating lasting impact in the world. 🔔 Don’t miss this one — whether you’re a parent, entrepreneur, or someone navigating your own challenges, you’ll find real inspiration and practical wisdom here. 💬 We’d love to hear from you: What part of Devin’s journey inspired you most? Leave a comment, review, or DM us on social! 👉 Know someone who needs to hear this? Share the episode with a friend, parent, or leader who’s building something meaningful. 📲 Connect with Devin Schubert: www.stories2stages.com 🌍 Explore Russell’s mission and resources: www.russelljonesspeaks.com 🎧 Tune in now for: How to build influence through adversity The power of story in business and life Parenting through purpose Using platforms to create generational impact 👍 Like, share, and subscribe to stay inspired and empowered each week! #fatherhood #entrepreneurlife #overcomingadversity #adoptionjourney #influenceacademy #StoriesToStages #motivationalpodcast #parentingpodcast #businessinspiration #RussellJonesSpeaks #DevinSchubert #podcastforparents #StageInfluence #socialmediastrategy #kidsandparenting
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
00:00:30
Speaker
Welcome to Russell Jones Speaks, where we explore big issues that matter to parents, grandparents, and kids. We tackle intergenerational issues. Everything that affects parents, grands, and children is on the table.
00:00:44
Speaker
That includes health and fitness, relationships, attitude, family unity, vision, adversity, God, and anything else that might arise. The goal is for you to take away something that you can use in your life immediately.
00:00:58
Speaker
I really want to help improve the lives of families, especially those with 10 to 13 year old middle schoolers. Let's talk. Go to RussellJonesSpeaks.com to get an amazing gift and then jump on a call with me.
00:01:11
Speaker
Today, i have with me Devin Schubert. Devin is an internationally acclaimed coach, speaker, international bestselling author, and multiple award-winning entrepreneur.
00:01:23
Speaker
His journey to success has been nothing short of remarkable. as evidenced by his appearances on two TV reality shows for entrepreneurs, where he stood out among over 100,000 applicants.
00:01:35
Speaker
In addition to his television success, Devin is a prolific coach after launching his Influence Academy, imparting cutting-edge strategies and transformative wisdom on being influential, especially through social media and stages.
00:01:50
Speaker
Sharing stages with greats like Eric Thomas, Pat Quinn, and Willie Robertson are just a few of his memorable moments. His newest show called School of Influence goes right along with his mission to help a million people share their stories across media in his legacy project called Stories to Stages.
00:02:10
Speaker
None of this compares to his personal journey of adopting three children, which highlights his profound dedication to transforming lives both professionally and at home.
00:02:22
Speaker
So welcome, Devin.
00:02:25
Speaker
Hey, Russell. Thank you so much for allowing me to be here. It's an honor to be here with you. hey listen, um we've known each other for a while now, um but I think for our listeners today, i'd just like you to just kind of jump into your story.
00:02:45
Speaker
um And that part where you came home from a long weekend,
00:02:54
Speaker
and just buts let's just start there. Let's be let's the jumping jumping off point today. Yeah.
Life-Altering Personal Events and Challenges
00:03:03
Speaker
Well, ah being a youth pastor for almost seven years at the time, I was ah away on a trip doing a and evangelistic conference with some of the teenagers at at my church that I was working with.
00:03:17
Speaker
And we had just an amazing weekend. And a lot of the kids came to know Christ. And then we went out and we evangelized on the street. And I remember ah there at that conference, and they had us as youth pastors stand on top of this chair.
00:03:33
Speaker
And then they had all the kids come and lay hands on us. they say and And they just said, you know, these people give everything they have to the teenagers and to you guys as as kids.
00:03:46
Speaker
And we just want you to spend time praying for them. And I'll tell you, that was one of the most impactful moments that I've i've felt ever. and in all of my life was just my teenage kids of of my youth group praying for me. And it was just like, wow, what an aha moment, like ah, was in tears.
00:04:06
Speaker
And so we come home from that and i get pulled into my road, get up to my driveway. And I recognize that there's a vehicle in the driveway.
00:04:18
Speaker
It's like, hmm. This is weird. It's not my vehicle. I don't know whose vehicle this is. And I go inside the house and I find my wife at the time with her boss.
00:04:30
Speaker
And it was, you talk about going from very high to my life could end right now. Like, this is terrible.
00:04:41
Speaker
Oh, man, I can't imagine what that must have been like.
00:04:45
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was so difficult to you know think of this forever family that we had. We have we had three adopted children. um Two of the boys that we adopted were from foster care.
00:04:57
Speaker
And you know here here we are. you know I'm in the ministry, pretty successful in ministry. And ah it it just it blew my mind. And there were red flags beforehand, and we had talked about them.
00:05:10
Speaker
But ultimately... rus she She wanted to move up in her job. She wanted to move up in her job. And so she took the choice and that's what she chose. And she chose to ultimately stay with him.
00:05:24
Speaker
And i remember that, you know, for the first probably three to four months, ah we tried more me than her to figure it out.
00:05:35
Speaker
And but she would be with him until two o'clock in the morning and then come home, sleep for a couple of hours and then go to work. And ultimately I just said, yeah, this isn't going to work. Like, so this isn't going to work.
00:05:47
Speaker
So she, ah she got her own apartment and started living with him. And ah so the kids were just devastated and it was very, very difficult time for us all.
00:05:58
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. All right. So, okay. So were the kids with you or was it the classic back and forth with the kids in terms of custody? Yeah.
00:06:11
Speaker
Yeah, so a lot of times right away at the beginning, the kids were mostly with me. i had done most of the parenting in the in our marriage anyways. But then we ended up doing a 50-50 switch.
00:06:22
Speaker
um And it worked out fairly well until she decided that it was the right time to introduce. So our daughter is her biological daughter.
00:06:33
Speaker
And i adopted her when we had gotten married. And at that point, she decided it was the right time to reintroduce. her biological father into the picture. And so talk about confusion for a nine-year-old girl who had this dad who's raised her since she was two and was ah everything to me and I was everything to her and then reintroduce her biological dad who lives across the country and and So she started to get angry at me, taking it out on me. And so our daughter ended up living mostly with with her mom ah for a while.
00:07:14
Speaker
And then the boys, we we shared 50-50 for a while until one of our sons, Jacoby, who was ah probably ah seven or so at that time,
00:07:28
Speaker
And he he began getting pretty physically aggressive.
Family Struggles and Behavioral Issues
00:07:34
Speaker
And over a two-year period, he got so physically aggressive and so many acting out, so much acting out that she ended up not being able to handle him. And it was our relationship was that I was very nurturing.
00:07:48
Speaker
And she was not at all. And so one of his triggers, because he had prior abuse, prior mental health and ah prior struggles that he went through, um he he could not be physically touched or he would just explode.
00:08:05
Speaker
And so she wouldn't honor that. She wouldn't recognize that. And so if he got upset, she would grab him, ask him to go to his room, and he would just haul out and punch her or he'd punch the wall or any of those types of things. And so...
00:08:19
Speaker
It was a December morning and i was in a deer stand and I was three and a half hours away and I get this phone call and she's like, I'm done. I'm done. I'm done.
00:08:31
Speaker
ah kicked him out. He's never coming back. Come and get him. And I said, what what are you talking about? And she said, yep, no socks, no shoes, no coat. I kicked him out of the house, locked the door behind him. He's yours.
00:08:42
Speaker
Take care of it. Whatever. i He was nine years old at this point? He was nine years old at the time. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Yep. And so I said, I'm, I'm in a deer stand. Like I'm, I'm three and a half hours away. There's nothing I can do. I don't even have a vehicle here because I was here with a group of guys.
00:09:00
Speaker
And so she called the police and they brought him back. And then the next day I went and I picked him up and he never, he never went back for the next number of years, even though we only live seven miles away.
00:09:15
Speaker
Um, and his, his aggression started to get worse. His, um, other outbursts started to get even worse. And, you know, when it comes to teenagers, a lot of times you'll see that they either act out when they're at home or they may act out when they're at school, not usually both.
00:09:35
Speaker
And so it's, they, they, they trust one place or another more for one reason or another, not that it's right or wrong. um But for me, it was he would act out both places because he trusted me enough to know that he was safe to act out.
00:09:50
Speaker
And he would act out at school because he just didn't want people yelling at him or touching him or telling him what to do. And so um did anything, did anything prefer, did any, I'm sorry to interrupt, but did anything prepare you for this? Like in your,
00:10:09
Speaker
previous life or whatever in terms of, I know you, you, you know, you worked with teens and you worked with kids and, um but like at this level, I mean, were you getting help, professional help or were you community help? What, what, what was going on like at that point?
00:10:30
Speaker
Yeah. After the divorce, ah you know, I was i was also a social worker. I had been a social worker across the state of Iowa for 15 years. So I had a lot of resources, a lot of connections in the community.
00:10:42
Speaker
ah You know, the church was still there um in certain circumstances, but they didn't fully understand. You know I was a leader in the church, and yet I'm going through a divorce with an affair. And so that that was a touchy subject with the church.
00:10:56
Speaker
Yeah. And then when it comes to mental health and trauma, you know, churches really don't understand that a lot of times. And so they they they didn't really know how to be able to best assist. They were there to support when I needed it, somebody to listen to.
00:11:09
Speaker
But there wasn't any um type of solutions. And we had been through every type of counseling. um up to this point to try and help to try and vocalize. And you know, counseling is great. Therapy is awesome.
00:11:22
Speaker
I believe even now I still go to two different counseling sessions as as needed, um because we need a safe place to be able to release and process things in a healthy way. and But there's also times to where there's just cookie cutter answers.
00:11:35
Speaker
And for my son and i there wasn't cookie cutter answers. There wasn't triggers. There wasn't anything on the outside or inside that we could find that would cause these types of outbursts.
00:11:48
Speaker
And so it began to be a very, very lonely, lonely road. And for three years there, it was it was terrible. It continually lost relationships because we would go someplace and he would act out.
00:12:00
Speaker
And those people didn't feel safe with us coming around anymore. Or people would come over to the house and he would act out. and theyd end up I mean, could you imagine? i remember the last time at my At my house, we were having a big dinner and everybody knew, you know, the situations that were going on.
00:12:17
Speaker
And remember that we were all sitting around the dinner table. There's probably 15, 20 of us. And ah Jacoby got up and he went to go get, don't know, think he grabbed like a whole plate full of cookies.
00:12:30
Speaker
It was something like that, you know. Okay, buddy, we're not going to do that. And when I said, no, we're not going to do that, he threw the plate at me and charged at me. And so it ended up being a huge restraint hold right then and there because he was trying to punch me. he was trying to kick me.
00:12:45
Speaker
And everybody was just kind of freaking out, not knowing what to do. And my friends ended up having to call the police. And so you can you can imagine, you know, other people witnessing that and then being like, ah yeah, I don't think I want to go around there anymore.
00:13:00
Speaker
And so it it really did. it really was a hard circumstance to be able to walk in and around and through myself and with with my son. Yeah.
00:13:11
Speaker
Goodness. All right. So now, ah obviously, you know, you're bringing all this stuff into you working with him, um trying to work with him.
00:13:25
Speaker
what Then there was a big event, right? Like that really... Like, like just took stuff to another level, as they say. Yeah.
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah. Well, before we even got to, to a whole nother level, we, we ended up. So God had told me that my one and only assignment was my son. And for me, when it comes to my purpose and my lifestyle and and living it for God, ah that meant that everything had to align with that.
00:13:56
Speaker
And so when I didn't have any resources, I had no community, I had no family left there where we were at. I knew I needed to seek out higher support. And so I felt led to move to Des Moines. We're in Iowa. And so I moved three and a half hours away to the capital to where I believed that there was going to be more help.
00:14:17
Speaker
And I believe that God told me that if I moved, he would he would step in and he would help. And I needed to be obedient. And so that's what we did. We packed up everything that we had, everything that we knew.
00:14:29
Speaker
And we left. We left my other kids and we left our friends. We left everything to go start new. and talk about a hard decision of you know, feeling like you have to choose between your children.
00:14:46
Speaker
And while that's not really what happened, it is logistically what happened. And my other kids understood they got it, um but it wasn't easy.
00:14:58
Speaker
And so we moved and over the next year, i' spent close to a hundred grand trying to get help from anybody in the nation to help us.
00:15:10
Speaker
We'd been through court systems. We'd been through ah the Department of Human Services. We'd been through everything and nobody would help us. It was getting to be where there was restraint holds every single day.
00:15:22
Speaker
The acting out was starting to get aggressive to other people. He then started to run away, and then he started to vandalize things, and then it was running away for the whole night.
00:15:34
Speaker
and And just to give you an image of what this kind of looks like, I would have to restrain him at least five times a week. And it would be between a 15 and a 30-minute restraint until the police could get there.
00:15:47
Speaker
And then it would take between five and six police officers to hold him down on the ground to get him cuffed. And so imagine, you know, the trauma that he's going through in that.
00:15:59
Speaker
But in the meantime, I'm being traumatized um in that. i have I have 27 cameras in and outside of my home just to keep us safe, to keep him safe, but also to keep me safe for when he went to school and said, oh, dad did this. Oh, dad did that. Well, I got the cameras to show you that I'm not beating my kid. i'm not doing anything wrong. And, but um,
00:16:24
Speaker
And so it was just a so this turmoil of back and forth and not sleeping. I was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder because of the the lack of sleep, because of all the issues that we were having. He started threatening to kill me.
00:16:39
Speaker
um And it was it was one night where he ran away. and he he ah ran away and then we searched for him for about six hours and finally they found him after he ditched his bike he started running down the street with one shoe he lost one shoe somewhere and the other shoe flew off while he was running down the middle of the street and this is like a a decent sized highway and finally they got him off the road and he climbed up this tree And there's, they call me and they say, Hey, we found him. You need to come help us.
00:17:14
Speaker
So I drove there. And as I drove there, i just, I knew that something was just different. Like, man, this is extreme. I get there and there's about 20 officers with their flashlights shining up in this tree.
00:17:31
Speaker
Like, you know, I used to go ah raccoon hunting. That's what it looked like. It looked like they were just standing there with flashlights, shining in the coon, waiting for ah it to come down. and um And so they're just like, got to come down.
00:17:44
Speaker
and I was like, you know what? Forget it. I took off my flip flops and I started to climb up the tree. And not knowing any idea of what I was going to do once I got up there. um But I started climbing up the tree. He started climbing up even higher.
00:17:58
Speaker
And so here we are probably 30, 40 feet up in this tree. And I get above him and I say, hey, buddy, you we got to go down like we got to go down. And so I just slowly started to finagle my way down as he would slowly go down underneath me because he didn't have a choice. I was coming down and, you know, i was kind of coming over top of him. And ah so he had to be able to move in order to keep his footing.
00:18:21
Speaker
And finally, he got down to the bottom branch and the police officers grabbed him and ah they they were able to put him into handcuffs and get him onto a hospital bed and stabilize him. And this was the first time in my life that I was actually afraid because he went from the police car area to the ambulance.
00:18:44
Speaker
And when he did, they said, you want to ride in the ambulance with him to the hospital? And as he rolled by, He sat up a little bit and he looked at me and Russell, his eyes were the blackest of black of darkness that I've ever seen in my entire life.
00:19:04
Speaker
And he said, I'm going to effing kill you. And that was the first time. i mean, he's threatened me. He's, you know, come at me, all these things before. That was the first time that was like, oh, snap, he's serious right now.
00:19:21
Speaker
And I recognized him like, oh, man, this is this is real. No, I don't think I'm going to ride in the ambulance with him. No, no, I'll drive. It's okay. <unk> And so we've I followed him to the hospital.
Health Crisis and Spiritual Awakening
00:19:34
Speaker
And literally three hours later, he was fine. It's like, okay, yeah, let's go home. And that that there was no support. There was no help. Doctors wouldn't send us anywhere, wouldn't give us any treatment, nothing.
00:19:48
Speaker
Sorry, there's no place that will accept him. And so we'd go home. So it was about three weeks later, Russell, that I made my first mistake. Five years I've had him one-on-one and I never made a mistake.
00:20:03
Speaker
I had such, you talk about military veterans that come home and are so hyper vigilant that they know where everything is at. They know where all their surroundings all the time.
00:20:14
Speaker
That's how I lived my life. And i let the dog, I was cutting up chicken ah for dinner and I was going to let the dog outside. I come back in and I recognized that the knife I was cutting the chicken with was not in my hand.
00:20:31
Speaker
It was supposed to be on the counter where I was cutting out the chicken and it was not there.
00:20:38
Speaker
And so I knew, ah knew that he had it. And he was in his room. I asked him, I said, hey, buddy, did you happen to take the knife for the kitchen? He said, yep, and I'm going to kill you.
00:20:52
Speaker
So you can imagine all those thoughts, all that fear, no sleep, all the trials and things that we had gone through. And now it's come to this one mistake.
00:21:04
Speaker
I just gave my son the weapon to do what he said he's going to do. And so I called the police and I said, hey, you guys going to to help.
00:21:15
Speaker
So they came and they walked in the door and they said, okay, so what do you want us to do? Well, go in and get the knife. And they said, well, it's not an imminent risk. And I said, okay, well, we can either make it an imminent risk by me going in there and getting it, or I'll go sit outside, tell him I'm outside. He'll give you the knife because I'm the problem, not you guys.
00:21:37
Speaker
And ah you guys can take him to the hospital like we do every other time. And so we did that. And, you know, I know, like, I wish that a lot of counselors and therapists and and people would, when their parents are really interactive with their kids, when they really want to help their children, listen to the parents.
00:21:56
Speaker
Because I know my son. I knew what was going to work and what was not. And so it did. It worked. They walked in. He handed him a knife. He literally walked out to the police car and drove to the hospital.
00:22:09
Speaker
And that night I followed him. And, yeah. when When they – when you – you said it a couple times. Like, okay, so he had to get picked up, handcuff him, and and they they would stabilize him.
00:22:26
Speaker
what did What did they do to stabilize him? Was it like drugs or something? Yeah. Yeah, no, that's a great question. Yeah. In order to stabilize him, what they would do is they would, they would either handcuff him like to the hospital bed so that he couldn't get up so that they didn't have to continually chase him or run or anything like that. They may put him inside of the police car.
00:22:49
Speaker
um But most of time when he would get it, if the hospital had to, or if the ambulance had to come and actually check him out, they would stabilize him by just either strapping him down or cuffing him to the, um to the hospital bed.
00:23:02
Speaker
Okay. So it was, it was stabilized would be like restraints. They weren't, was he on any kind of medications or anything or like ongoing? We had tried so many medications, so many medications, but ah the only time that they ever gave him any type of like, and it's it's not a tranquilizer shot, but you know, to be able to calm him down immediately, they only did that twice.
00:23:24
Speaker
And that was at the hospital. Okay. Sorry to interrupt, but I was just kind of like, okay, stabilize. i was like, what is this? What's a stabilizer? Yes, sir. No, that's good. and That's it's a great question. I don't think I've ever been asked that before. So that's good. That's good. okay um So this time when when they started taking him to the hospital and I followed him my truck like I normally do, I just, again, i knew that something was different. And this time I thought like this was going to be a breakthrough. Like this was something that was like, how can they not help him when he's like threatening to kill me and he has a weapon?
00:23:57
Speaker
Like, come on. And so I go into the hospital. They won't let me see him because he's still actively threatening to kill me. And so I go sit in my room, which is, you know, only they might as well put my name tag on this room by now because it should it should have been my office there.
00:24:13
Speaker
And so I'm sitting in this private waiting room and the nurse comes in and she says, so what happened this time? And that's the last thing I remember because what I remember next was me waking up in a hospital bed ah with needles in me and I'm shaking convulsively.
00:24:34
Speaker
And they're telling me that ah he's awake, he's awake, he's awake. And they don't know what's wrong with me. And so they started asking, you know, what, what happened? What's going on?
00:24:45
Speaker
And the only thing I could say to them was check my amen clinic records. Because my son, Jacoby, and I had been checked at the Dr. Daniel Amen Clinic in Chicago.
00:24:58
Speaker
And that was about three years prior to that. And they did what was called a brain SPECT scan. And what that does is it it checks youre um all your brain waves and how they send, how they receive.
00:25:12
Speaker
And they saw so much trauma in his brain. And then they said, well, Devin, we want to check you. I'm like, I'm fine. I'm a man, right? I don't got nothing wrong with me.
00:25:24
Speaker
And so they checked me out and the doctor said, ah if you don't get serious help, like him not being in the house or somebody living with you 24 seven in the next six months, you're not going to make it.
00:25:38
Speaker
And this was three years prior to me passing out. And I said, you know, can, can, will you go to court? Will you fight with me? And she's like, absolutely. I'd love to. And so we went to court, she testified and they said, so where's your credentials from? And she said, well, Chicago, Illinois, like, yeah, this is a court in Iowa. So we're not going to recognize your statements because you're not licensed in the state of Iowa.
00:26:01
Speaker
I'm like, this is an internationally credited whole entire operation, one of the top notch places in the world, and you're not going to recognize, give me a break.
00:26:14
Speaker
So they ended up looking at those, um, those files and her her results were that my brain and my nervous system were stopped, were, were starting to compete.
00:26:27
Speaker
And what had happened that night was that my brain and my nervous system completely stopped communicating because of the trauma that I had endured. And they diagnosed me with a thing called trauma shock and,
00:26:40
Speaker
they they They asked me, and they said, so ah we're going to send you to a residential treatment facility so you can have 24-7 care because at this point, it looks like you're not going to make it another three months. I'm like, what? Oh, my goodness. like Yeah, we're giving you three months left to live and you need 24-7 care because you won't be able to walk. You won't be able to do anything on your own.
00:27:03
Speaker
And I said, wow so wait, I fought for five years for my son to get help or I would die. And then who would take care of my son? And now you want me to go to a treatment facility?
00:27:17
Speaker
No, that's not happening. And so my son ended up going to a shelter. ah They ended up getting him help about three days after that. And I went to go stay at a friend's house.
00:27:28
Speaker
And Russell, I'm telling you that it was so dark. it was so I was so lost. I slept for 18 out of 24 hours a day.
00:27:40
Speaker
I would be up having a conversation for maybe five minutes and I would collapse on the floor and my friends would have to take me back to my room. know Were you getting any other type of counseling at this point? Was it like from the church or from the hospital people, whatever.
00:27:58
Speaker
This was just you and nope your friends. Okay. It was just me and them because there was nothing anybody else could do. And I had nobody else. Even my family wouldn't come around us anymore. And so these, these friends were friends that I had helped raise up and amazing um people that I had done life with.
00:28:15
Speaker
ah gone through some hard times with them. And so just for them to accept me and, and, and I mean, it's not that people didn't love me, but they had no idea what to do with us. And I don't, I don't blame them, like put, switch the roles. I understand. And I have no hard feelings against anybody in those times.
00:28:32
Speaker
Um, and so here I am, I'm, I'm, I'm basically on my own death row. Right. And, um, I remember laying in my bed one night and just thinking, what do I have left to live for? Like, God, you had told me that my one and only son or my one and only assignment was my son.
00:28:52
Speaker
Well, he's not with me anymore. So he's taken care of. So that assignment seems done. And my other kids, well, they're with their mom and they're they're okay. mean, not the best, but you know, they're, they're, they're good.
00:29:06
Speaker
And so what do I have left? i have no ministry. I have no business. I have no money. Well, I mean, I do. i have a hundred thousand dollars debt and you can, I mean, God can take care of that some other way. Um, and so I, I laid there in bed and I'm like, God, just take me home. Like I'm done.
00:29:21
Speaker
I've done nothing. I've, I've, I've got nothing left. Wow. That's, that's, uh, an end point, you know, after, uh,
00:29:33
Speaker
especially after years of being in the word and, um you know, being around ah Christians and to get to that place where, you know, you just don't feel like you, there's anything else, you know, I don't know. how old were you at this point?
00:29:55
Speaker
ah This would have been, this would have been four, years four years ago now. So 37. Okay. okay.
00:30:09
Speaker
Yeah. So, I mean, just think about the difficulties that, that parenting is on its own. ah Think about, you know, how difficult certain kids can be and other kids are, you know,
00:30:21
Speaker
Don't have many flaws at all. they And so every child has their own ups and downs and positives and struggles and all those types of things. And we as parents, we get to learn and grow as as we go through it all.
00:30:34
Speaker
And I think I learned during this time, Russell, that I read this book by Danny Silk. And I believe it was it was the one called Loving on Purpose.
00:30:44
Speaker
And it was all about the way that God loves me is the way that I need to love my kids. The way that God feels about me is the way that I need to feel about my kids. The way that ah the father has grace on me is the way that I need to have grace on my kids.
00:31:00
Speaker
And that took me to a whole different level of understanding the father's love for my son. While everybody else called him a monster and told me to drop him off at the police station and never pick him up, just kick him out like his mom did.
00:31:14
Speaker
was like, my father would never say that to him me. And so I got to to recognize, and the Lord just showed me how to love people spirit to spirit.
00:31:26
Speaker
not flesh to flesh, soul to soul, imperfection to imperfection. I got to see past the behaviors. I got to not put band-aids on the behaviors to rip off and just re-wound again.
00:31:40
Speaker
got to see him for who he truly, truly was and who God created him to be. And so people would be like, wow, I don't know how you can do that. I can't. I can't.
00:31:51
Speaker
It's only God through me that brought me to this spot. And it's only God threw me that he said that if I moved to Des Moines, he would take care of it. And yet here I am now lying in my friends am my am my ah room at my friend's house and I'm lying in the bed and I'm ready to give it all up.
00:32:10
Speaker
And i just said, God, I'm done. Take me home. And I remember that that night hi ah I was just saying that prayer. And i remember lifting my head up a little bit and I just, I felt this peace come into the room.
00:32:28
Speaker
And ah just, it was an overwhelming piece of like, whoa, like a rushing wind of peace coming into the room. And when I sat my head up a little bit, I saw this, the silhouette of a man come walking in the room, pitch but pitch dark in the in the in the room. But I saw this, the silhouette, but it was like a white outline come walking around the foot of my bed up to my head.
00:32:56
Speaker
And it was Jesus.
00:33:00
Speaker
And Jesus said, Devin, it's not time for you to come home yet. You have a legacy to leave. You have a story to tell. And you're going to go to the nations and you're going to share your story.
00:33:15
Speaker
And I said, and don't want to. I want to. I've given everything I have. I got nothing left. And he said, but I want you to share your story. I need you to share your story.
00:33:32
Speaker
And I said, okay, I will. Let's do this. And then he said the word, but you know, that word, but Russell, like it means that you have something in your mind of what's about ready to happen.
00:33:45
Speaker
And there's about ready to be a big old pivot happen in this conversation. He said, but yeah, You're going to go through the process. I was like, what?
00:33:57
Speaker
ah No, no, no, no, no. I want one of these, these types of healings, you know, the instant healing. sure And he said, Devin, if you get an instant healing, it's going to be completely different.
00:34:11
Speaker
If you go through the process, you'll be able to help thousands, millions of more people by going through the process because not many people, maybe 1%, get that instant healing.
00:34:25
Speaker
And that's okay. And you want to know what the Lord has shown me. lot of people don't necessarily get that instant healing because they will learn and grow and step into their character so much more by going through the process because God is a jealous God that wants us to grow and and step into the fullness with Him, intimacy with Him, reliance on Him instead of ah just getting that instant instant healing, which is great. I definitely would take it at any point.
00:34:53
Speaker
Right. um but and that was what you want When He was walking the earth, that's what Jesus, I mean, it was selective, right? He didn't just... blanket heal everybody, right?
00:35:05
Speaker
And there was a purpose to the ones that were instantly healed and the ones that had to go through steps like you're talking about. Very cool. Yeah.
00:35:16
Speaker
Yeah. So over the the three years prior to this, I had been given this word ah from stage. And I'm not sure if if like the listeners understand a little bit about what prophetic words are, but somebody explaining from stage, know, kind of what they hear from God.
00:35:31
Speaker
And so from this stage, people had given me this word of, I see you as a grave digger. Does that make any sense to you? And every time, I mean, I'm in a crowd with hundreds of people i'm like, no, no,
00:35:44
Speaker
No. but Why? No. Gross. Yuck. I don't want to dig people out of the grave. That's wrong. ah And so here Jesus is in my room, and he's telling me that I'm going to go through the process.
00:35:59
Speaker
And he said Devin, I'm anointing you with the gravedigger anointing. And I'm like, there it is again. Okay, if Jesus is saying it, okay, tell me what that means. And i'm I'm not like the most intelligent person. So I like, like people need to use two syllable words or less, and they need to explain it to me like I'm a four-year-old.
00:36:20
Speaker
So to help me, tell me a little bit more about the grave digger anointing. Picks and shovels.
00:36:28
Speaker
So he told me, he said, I'm anointing you with the same anointing that came upon me when I raised Lazarus from the dead. That you're going to pull hopes and dreams and and life out of people.
00:36:42
Speaker
To bring them out of the grave and into life and to life abundantly. You're going to do that physically, spiritually, emotionally, ah psychologically.
00:36:54
Speaker
You're going to pull. And what he showed me is he said, you're going to grab inside of their spirit the same way that I saw my son. You're going to grab their spirit. That's perfect. And aligned with their spirit, you're going to grip them together.
00:37:07
Speaker
You're going to pull it out and you're going to show them this is who God said you are. That's what the Grape Digger anointing was. i was like, whew.
00:37:18
Speaker
So good. And so Jesus and I started to go on a journey. Over the next four months, we went on this journey. I went to a camp and I stayed in the basement of this camp lodge.
00:37:32
Speaker
And through there, I went out to the woods. I would lay in the bed and there was the the owner of the camp was living in the the space above me so he could help with whatever I needed. But I literally journaled for four months of just my intimate conversations with the Father, with Jesus, with Holy Spirit, of what that all got to look like.
00:37:53
Speaker
And it took me to a whole new level of understanding the Father's heart, understanding the Father's heart to carry a true Father's heart to release not just for my own kids, but to people all over the world.
00:38:10
Speaker
Sweet.
Recovery and Rediscovery of Purpose
00:38:12
Speaker
Really nice. All right. So, okay. So, all right. So you're in the basement journaling. What happens next?
00:38:21
Speaker
I mean, but are you, are you in any contact with your son at this point? No, no contact. okay He ended up going about nine hours away to a treatment facility in Missouri.
00:38:36
Speaker
And, um, and at that time there was this wonderful thing called COVID that just happened. And so now after spending five years one-on-one with my son, now I can't even see him because of COVID and talk about like withdrawals of like, man, I'm used to having this kid next to me, next to me at all times.
00:39:05
Speaker
And now there's nothing. Um, But god God gave me the grace to be able to to be able to work through this. And I processed through it. And after four months, I went in and got rechecked. And all my scans, everything was completely healed.
00:39:19
Speaker
And God told me about about His redeeming love. And all that CPTSD, all that hypervigilance that I was walking in in the natural, God had redeemed in the spiritual.
00:39:33
Speaker
And so now instead of me being, you know, so super cautious of like where, where the silverware is, where where do I need to sit when I walk into a room, where is everybody? Now I can start to feel and see things more in the spirit realm to be able to talk to people, to communicate with them, to love them.
00:39:51
Speaker
you know, as a father, to see them the way that God sees them. And it was just, it was such a great redemption um opportunity and for me to be able to walk in that and to be able to help other people see who God has called them to be.
00:40:04
Speaker
And so after the scans, after all that, ah that's when I knew that
00:40:12
Speaker
That's when I knew that I needed to begin to to earn some income because everything was gone. And so I started jumping into the entrepreneurial in the to the entrepreneurial journey of helping people as Coach Gravedigger at the time to be able to get live out their hopes and dreams of all the things that they had been called to.
00:40:33
Speaker
Okay, so...
00:40:36
Speaker
Before you go any further with this, I have to hear the orange story. Because people refer to you in that context, right? Because ah people that are watching this for the first time, well, if you're just listening, Devin is wearing this bright orange blazer jacket.
00:40:57
Speaker
ah And I've seen him in or shoes of seeum orange orange. So what's the story? Everything orange. Oh, orange coffee cup.
00:41:10
Speaker
What's up with that? You know, Yeah. You know, most people who know me know that I love stories and I love storytelling. It's what I do. And then they ask me about the orange and they're expecting this extravagant story. I'm so excited to tell you.
00:41:26
Speaker
Well, I decided not to really just craft something super amazing. It was my high school colors. And I was, we, my high school colors ah were orange and black and we're in the top five in the world for the ah most unique ah mascot most unique mascot, unique mascot.
00:41:49
Speaker
We were, are, the Freeport Pretzels. Talk about intimidation coming to town, Russell. The Freeport Pretzels are coming to town, baby. Oh, Lord.
00:42:03
Speaker
did you play Did you play sports? I did. i played ah basketball a little bit and then i injured my ah I injured my knee and ended up having reconstructive surgery on my knee my freshman year.
00:42:16
Speaker
And so that's kind of how it started was I bought my first pair of orange ah basketball shoes. like, this is awesome. And then as I got growing up and doing church ministry and traveling around and speaking and then, you know, getting into leadership stuff and entrepreneurial stuff, people are like, ah yeah, you you you might want to just stick with the black and blue, you know, to fit in and, you know, look professional.
00:42:40
Speaker
And Russell, I tried that. I tried to fit in with with the high execs and all that stuff. And you know what? It wasn't me. It wasn't me. And so somebody sent me this this picture one time of this orange blazer.
00:42:54
Speaker
And I was like, oh, snap, that is me. And so I went immediately and I got it. I think I paid like 300 bucks for it. I had never spent that type of money. I didn't care because I was like, this is me.
00:43:06
Speaker
And I'll tell you that putting on that orange jacket at the time, it wasn't like everything orange. Putting on that orange jacket was like Superman putting on his cape. It was like I was turning from Clark Kent to this Superman that could stand up and do anything that God called me to be. Why?
00:43:25
Speaker
i believe that God brought orange into my life to stand in the fullness of my identity because I'm uniquely and creatively made just like everybody else, but specific to me.
00:43:39
Speaker
And so now when people see orange, that's why I have cups. That's why I have any, like people send me orange stuff. I get stuff in the mail. I got an orange hammock outside because somebody found it on Amazon and sent it to me for my birthday one year.
00:43:53
Speaker
But they don't only think of orange and think of Devin Shewitt. No, they do. But they think about Devin Schubert as a father. They think about my story.
00:44:04
Speaker
And so orange is a brand. Brand is so important to be able to know who is the person behind the brand. And I absolutely love it. Wherever I go, I went to Best Buy to get a different computer this weekend.
00:44:18
Speaker
And this lady came up to me and she said, ah orange shoes, orange truck. Do I know you from Facebook? i was like, ah I don't know. like i don't know many people around me.
00:44:29
Speaker
I was like, it's Well, where we live here in South Carolina, we're not far from Clemson University. So there's a lot of orange here, but ah you take it to a whole other level.
00:44:41
Speaker
we you know but But it's awesome. It's very cool. And one other thing I need to know about too, ah before we get back into something serious, is the, i forget where i I was reaching out to you and there was video footage of you on in ah inline skates.
00:45:03
Speaker
I think it was. Or was it a skateboard? You were doing like cartwheels or something? Yep. Yep. Roller skates. Quad skates. Is that a... it's i mean not I mean, you're a fit, strong-looking guy. um You don't look like the prototypical um skater, backflip, cartwheel guy.
00:45:26
Speaker
how How did that come about? Yeah. Yeah, so when I was in high school and college, I was a manager at a roller rink. And we really wanted it to grow.
00:45:38
Speaker
And so one of the things that I did is I learned how to what we call jam skate. And so it's really dance on skates. I could break dance. I had a couple of partners and then we had a team.
00:45:49
Speaker
And so we would travel around and do competitions for this jam skating. And that was what you saw was a video from a year ago. And my daughter was in town with her boyfriend and she said, dad, ah there's ah we should go skating.
00:46:05
Speaker
And I said, yeah, we should. She's like, never mind. You're too old. I said, forget that. So we went to a park and I showed her I still got it. Took me a couple of times, but I still got I could still do a cartwheel.
00:46:15
Speaker
Yeah, there was a couple of ah outtakes there where I was like, look, look at this guy. I was showing my wife. he said Look at this guy. He's got no helmet. He's got no gear on or anything. And he's like, he's crashing and flipping and everything else. I said, this guy's dangerous.
00:46:33
Speaker
It was great. It was great. All right. So i let's go. Okay. okay So now you're um you're big in the online world.
00:46:44
Speaker
And, um, So this has always been a coming from my background. I started, you know, doing, you know, speaking in public and schools and camps and wherever else ah in the early 90s. So everything was in person, like, at that you know, schlepping equipment, doing all kinds of stuff.
00:47:03
Speaker
The online world is is really interesting and intriguing. And I'm just wondering in terms of making real connections, like people will argue that um you're not real You're making like virtual friends. you're not You're connecting with virtual people, not real people.
00:47:24
Speaker
um how do you how do you How do you see that whole scene? Because you know it's the world we live in now, but in-person versus online world.
00:47:37
Speaker
What are your views on that? Hmm.
00:47:40
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it is it is a whole different realm. You know, doing ministry for so long, that's you know I was spending time at the skate parks. That's what I was doing. That's how I grew ministry so big, was spending time where people were at.
00:47:53
Speaker
And now it's just the same. It's just virtual. Where are people at? People are on social media. And so I believe that, man, if if some of the biggest influencers back in the day had social media, if Jesus had social media, if Mother Teresa had social media, man,
00:48:10
Speaker
Think about what they did without it. And now, you know, we have that opportunity. And so how do you differentiate between real life and virtual? Well, again, believing where the where the connection truly is.
00:48:25
Speaker
And it's for me and what I train my students is it's not about a superficial. I'm just trying to get a client. I'm just trying to make an impression. I'm just trying to get a share. I'm just trying to get a like. None of that matters to me.
00:48:37
Speaker
I've never well I shouldn't say never. I've only gone viral a couple of times and it wasn't me trying to do anything special because I don't care about that. What I care is about. These three things, and every single person should do this when you're engaging with people and wanting to build your social media, is that you need to get them to like you.
00:48:56
Speaker
And you want to ah get them to like you, ah meet them where they're at. And so what you know what are you going through? What are you struggling with? how What are some things that are that are happening with you?
00:49:07
Speaker
Be relatable. So what ah get them to like you, ah get them to meet them where they're at, and then don't leave them there. And so whether that's a coaching program, whether that's ah just even in the conversation, like encouraging people. I send people ah messages all the time. it just like, hey, how's your week going? You popped into my mind. Or hey, you popped into my feed. How's how's it going?
00:49:28
Speaker
No matter how big you are, no matter... ah how big of a following you are no matter how small or single stay-at-home dad or single stay-at-home mom like people still want to be checked on people still want to be cared about and so when you do that you form a real connection with people ah just like you would if you were in person and then when you do get to meet in person oh my goodness it's like you've been best friends in person forever yeah cool All right, so um what's the status of your son now?
00:50:00
Speaker
um what's sir What's the latest update on that on that story?
Son's Progress and New Projects
00:50:07
Speaker
Yeah, so we've been ah three and a half years now in treatment, ups and downs, and he ended up getting some charges in the middle of it. And, ah you know, there was a lot of rough patches.
00:50:19
Speaker
And I'll tell you that a lot of people are like, man, that must be so hard. And while it is hard, it has been. Have to recognize that I'm fully at peace because I know that I've given my all.
00:50:32
Speaker
Like I literally gave my son everything and he's in a safe place. I'm in a safe place. We're getting the help that we both need. And so now three and a half years later, ah it's so awesome because ah he's been amazing over the last almost eight months to a year.
00:50:48
Speaker
And he's actually in the process now at 17. He just turned 17. He's in the process of coming home in the next three months. Oh, wow. Oh, very cool. Very, very cool.
00:51:01
Speaker
ah young And you mentioned, too, he's got some aspirations of his own, entrepreneurial or just... Yeah. Yeah. So one of the things that that I get to do is help people share their stories to help them to to build out their stories and and to do it on social media, on stages and all that kind of stuff.
00:51:20
Speaker
And so I have this whole studio set up to be able to do that and help people. And he comes home one time for a weekend visit. He's like, Dad, are you doing reality TV again? Are you recording TV shows?
00:51:31
Speaker
Like, not not really to that you know caliber um here yet. And he's like, well, can I do one? Do one what? He said, can i can I have my own show?
00:51:43
Speaker
I'm like, well, what what would you talk about? Like you're introverted. He's high functioning autism. He doesn't really like people. so it's like, what would you do?
00:51:56
Speaker
I'm scared right now. like you gonna What's going to come out of your mouth? right And he said, no, dad, like I've been through so much. And he said, I just want to help people.
00:52:10
Speaker
said, I want to help people not have to go through the things that I did. He's like, people don't understand what it's like to go through it. People don't understand what it's like to um to struggle and to be aggressive and what to do in order to change it. And I want to change families' lives so that they don't have to go through the same thing I did.
00:52:31
Speaker
And it was just, it's this full circle moment of God saying, Devin, you're doing what I called you to do and going to the nations and sharing your story. And in the meantime, I'm working on your son because your one and only Simon is your son.
00:52:48
Speaker
And you've entrusted him to me because God entrusted him to me. And so he like put his finger down and said, watch what I'm doing with your son.
00:53:00
Speaker
And so the full legacy of me going to the nations is still being fulfilled within my own son, not even being in my own care, not even being in my own home, him not even knowing what I'm doing.
00:53:12
Speaker
It's like, okay, all right, I see it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very cool. So just give us a give us a brief thing on stories to stages.
00:53:27
Speaker
I know it follows along with here you know your vision but just what that's about. like how's that going like what ah explain to people just where you know but what that's about Yeah, so Stories to Stages was was built out of a ah part of that encounter with Jesus.
00:53:50
Speaker
And I was giving what's called a Kim 10 talk, and it's Kingdom Impact Message in 10 Minutes. What is your kingdom message? It's basically a Christian version of a TEDx talk.
00:54:01
Speaker
And he took me back to that encounter with Jesus, and he Jesus had said to me, I'm you're you've given up the 99 to save the one. Now I'm going to give you the 99 to go to the nations and share your stories.
00:54:17
Speaker
And I was like, okay, that's that's cool. And so tell me a little bit more because, you know, explain it like you're like I'm a four-year-old. And he said, no, I told you, you gave up the 99 to save the one. Now I'm going to give you the 99 to go to the nations and share your stories.
00:54:34
Speaker
I'm like, wow, that's big. And so ultimately he said that I'm going to start your legacy project. Your mission is to help 1 million people share their story across all of media.
00:54:47
Speaker
And so in March, mid-March, we launched Stories to Stages, It's a full seven day boot camp of teaching people how to be able to share their story, how to craft their story, how to write their story, how to present their story.
00:55:01
Speaker
And then you can send it in to my team and we give you every single step and we'll edit it. We'll publish it. We'll give you all the promotional things that you need. So your story can go to the nation because I know that my story is transformational, which means that what I get to do is take the seed of story inside of me and place it inside of everybody who listens.
00:55:23
Speaker
And if we could all do that, we could all place the seed of a story of transformation inside of the inside of the social media and the in the media world.
00:55:34
Speaker
world the world is going to be a much much different transformed place and so that's what we get to do more compassionate for sure just just um just think of reflect on this a little bit i when uh when i started with uh kingdom builders and this last year um I've really been avoiding telling my my major oh heart story for 30 years
Therapeutic Storytelling Insights
00:56:07
Speaker
um because I compartmentalized what happened. um I was telling other people's stories. I was given snippets of my story. So now I'm telling this the story. of of now I've now written about I'm starting to speak out about it more.
00:56:27
Speaker
The more you repeat it, I know it's...
00:56:35
Speaker
ah Do you have to anything that you do? i'm sorry, let me rephrase this. I'm like garbling my words. ah What do you do to not get caught, like go back to that place of super pain, of super confusion, of super being lost? Like, how do you...
00:56:56
Speaker
How do you refresh yourself? What do you what do you do not to to dwell there? There's so many people, whether they tell their story or not, that dwell on that one big event.
00:57:07
Speaker
They haven't figured out how to ah make it into something that will bless other people, a story that will bless other people. Mm-hmm.
00:57:19
Speaker
Yeah, it's a great question. And what how I like to describe it to people is only share the parts of your story where you're healed enough to heal other people. And so when we think about where we're at in our journey, you know, there was times where I didn't share about pieces of my divorce.
00:57:39
Speaker
Why? Because there was still resentment. There was still hurt. There was still pain there. And so instead of there being transformation for good, there would be me putting my garbage on somebody else.
00:57:50
Speaker
That's where the heaviness would come on of somebody else. And so what I encourage people is your story is still being written. Even though there's things in the past that have happened, ah there's still healing that is happening for those. And until you've hit the spot to where you feel like you can confidently share it or ah even just to be stepped, even just to feel nervousness and and and anxiousness, it's it's okay to share that part of your story.
00:58:17
Speaker
But if you're not healed from it, be very careful sharing it. And so slowly integrate new parts into your story. You know, for a while with, with my son, Jacoby, uh, I, I, I didn't know how to end.
00:58:30
Speaker
People would say, well, tell me about him now. Um, well, he just got charges. He was arrested. Um, you know, what what do I, I couldn't, there was no healing in that part. And so I'd say, well, he's still just in treatment and working through the program three years later.
00:58:44
Speaker
Um, And so I think it's very important that you share what you're healed so you can heal other people through it. Awesome. All right.
00:58:56
Speaker
Well, that's good. Um, and I'm going to leave, uh, going to leave it there because, so
00:59:05
Speaker
I think, uh, you gave us plenty, uh, of encouragement, uh, with, uh,
00:59:12
Speaker
what life throws at us and coming out the other side and, uh, excited to have you. So, uh, that's a wrap. I hope everyone enjoyed today's episode and you got some takeaways that you can use.
00:59:25
Speaker
More information on Devin Schubert is at www.stories2stages.com and will be in the notes. Please share this with your friends and don't forget all my stuff at russelljonespeaks.com.
00:59:38
Speaker
If you're a parent or a grandparent or mentor to attend a 10 to 13 year old Check out our 60-day transformational interactive video series, Top Secrets of Success for Kids and Parents.
00:59:50
Speaker
It's amazing. It will equip and encourage parents and kids. Yes, topsecretsofsuccess.com. Get on our email list. Jump on a call with me. And in the words of the inimitable Hulk Hogan, say your prayers, take your vitamins, and you will never go wrong.
01:00:05
Speaker
Then you can all go and make it a great day. Bye for now.