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Ep.17 Scattershot Development: 6 Traps Keeping High-Potential Christian Professionals Stuck in 2026
13 Plays13 days ago
If you’re a Christian young professional constantly investing in your growth—but still feeling anxious, scattered, or spiritually stuck—this episode is your wake-up call.
Patrick Lowndes breaks down the six traps keeping high-potential believers from real development in 2026—from the Alignment Doubt to the Accountability Blind Spot—and exposes why your current self-help approach is statistically built to fail. Using data, story, and Scripture, he shows how to trade the world’s “scattershot” growth plan for a faith-driven structure that actually works.
Learn how to identify where your development has drifted, discover what the research reveals about sustainable change, and explore how community, mentorship, and accountability unlock the kind of excellence that lasts.
📊 Topics Covered:
- Why Gen Z’s self-development habits lead to burnout, not breakthrough
- The 6 Traps of Scattershot Development—and how to overcome each
- The biblical pattern for clarity, purpose, and consistent growth
- How to replace isolation with structure, access, and accountability
👥 Join the Community:
Ready to stop doing everything and start doing what works?
Join the free Frontier Operators community for faith-driven young professionals. Get frameworks for strategic development, connect with peers who share your convictions, and gain access to mentors building impact-driven businesses worldwide.
👉 Are you a Christian Young Professional? Join our Community
👉 Want a structured program for professional development & missional growth? Young Professionals consider The Collective and mid-career professionals consider The Forge.
Also consider Faith Driven Entrepreneur for startups and Faith and Work movement for Christian ERGs at big companies.
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Transcript
Introduction to Buried Talent Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Buried Talent, the show for young professionals that tears down false beliefs about faith and work so you can unbury your God-given talent right where you are.
Concept of Scattershot Development
00:00:10
Speaker
I'm Patrick Lowndes, and today we're going to be talking about scattershot development, six traps keeping high potential Christians stuck in 2026.
00:00:21
Speaker
now if you're hearing this and you're you're listening to several of our episodes here you're subscribed to the show you know that you you need to develop yourself if you're a christian a young professional even deeper in your you might say an experienced professional but if you're striving to grow more like christ and also to build your skill set your talent you might feel some anxiety about all the options in the market about whether or not what you're doing is actually working.
Complexities of Self-Development
00:00:48
Speaker
um There's money involved in developing yourself. There's lots of questions that come up when when you talk about developing yourself and this scattershot development that that
Gen Z vs Millennials on Development
00:00:59
Speaker
we're gonna hit on today. But I just wanna call out as I was doing my pre-show research, the Gen Z versus millennials have an interesting view of investing in themselves. So here's three statistics to kick us off today.
00:01:10
Speaker
Stat number one is over 68% of Gen Z report attending or planning to attend professional development or therapy for mental health.
Purpose Over Pay: Gen Z's Focus
00:01:20
Speaker
um Again, 68% you've normalized seeking expert help and other generations haven't. Stat number two, you Gen Z, you're prioritizing impact.
00:01:33
Speaker
there's a study that said 77 of gen z prioritize purpose over pay when choosing a role which means you're willing to invest in alignment and doing something not that just pays the bills but something that matters and stat number three uh you're also practical gen 70 of gen z are actively developing skills oftentimes favoring targeted training, certifications over slow traditional development, which might be like, well, you're gonna get development, you're gonna you know do on the job training for the next five years or 10 years. you're kind of You don't wanna take that approach and just and be stuck with that.
Six Common Traps for Christian Professionals
00:02:12
Speaker
So today um we're gonna look at what do a lot of young professionals do? And there's I've tried to break it down into six areas. We call them traps that I would say keeps high potential ah Christian professionals stuck. And we're also going to talk about some of your attempts to get out of those and statistically how they are often going to fail or you'll struggle at best. So ah let's think about this together and we'll just go one
Trap 1: Alignment Doubt
00:02:38
Speaker
by one. So number one, we're going to start with kind of this big, the the big ones around direction and purpose or calling. Okay.
00:02:45
Speaker
And this is where your faith meets your career. So ah trap number one is the alignment doubt. Okay, I have a degree, I've got ah the job title that I wanted to get into. Maybe you're a couple jobs in on the career path that you're thinking you're wanting to on, but you have no clear faith-driven framework to confirm that this role is a good fit or that you're bringing the right value to this company or you think that, man, somehow this role is the right step towards my ultimate purpose. So you might be feeling a little bit unsure or maybe even guilty of like, ah, maybe I just took a great offer, but now there's I'm questioning my alignment with, is is this actually a good step on the path to where God wants me to grow?
Effectiveness of Self-Help Books
00:03:29
Speaker
And so usually what we end up doing is we kind of just buy some more self-help books. We might listen to some vocational calling podcasts. You might be listening to this one and thinking this yourself right now, or maybe I'll just spend more time praying about purpose.
00:03:43
Speaker
which by the way, it's good to get more insight. It's good to get more purpose. But eventually, um i think you're hoping that you're gonna get clarity through your osmosis. And check out this data point. There's like $350 million dollars a year spent on self-help books But studies show that 3% of readers, like reading a self-help book, finish a personal development book and implement lasting change and doing that outside of having a structured way to do that.
00:04:14
Speaker
Right? So 3%. So information is not really transformation.
Trap 2: Impact Gap
00:04:19
Speaker
all right trap number two, the impact gap. Okay, so maybe you have a vision for a global impact or a vision for maybe a product or a type of company that you envision helping build one day. And you have this vision for it, but again, you don't really have a a concrete plan of how you're gonna get from, hey I'm in my first job, my second job, to how am I gonna move towards this, the impact that I want to have? We talk a lot on college campuses with students who I ask them that question, what do you think in maybe three, five years out, maybe even like 10 years out? where Where do you see yourself? What does your job look like? What is the impact you're making? and And some students do have a good answer. like, I think I'm gonna be doing this. And then I say, cool, well, what happens between graduation and that in 10 years? And usually it's a lot of
00:05:07
Speaker
ah I'm not quite sure, right? It's this impact gap. what do i What are the steps to get there? And so usually the way that we, many times if you're a professional listening to this, you're in your, again, first couple of jobs here, you're thinking, well, maybe I'll just work a little bit harder on this job and try to make it fit square peg into the round hole of the thing that i think I'm supposed to be doing. I know I've fallen to that. I've taken a job and like, oh, going to do this and try to make it accomplish what I want to do.
00:05:32
Speaker
Also, there's like side projects and volunteer roles. So sometimes that's a great way to test out ideas and hypotheses on the side of your day job. But if that's just again, kind of unstructured, many times we lose steam, we get distracted.
00:05:47
Speaker
And that effort that we put on the side of the day job is not always driving us toward the the place where we feel like we can make a high impact. And so here's the data point is 70% of high performers feel dissatisfied when they lack a clear connection between their daily tasks and a long-term strategic mission.
00:06:06
Speaker
Okay.
Trap 3: Community Void
00:06:07
Speaker
so that usually means is like, I've got my job, I'm working hard, but I'm not really sure that the mission of this company, like that I'm really making an impact on that. This happens a lot when you get to kind of mid-size or large companies and you're like, I'm just a cog in the wheel.
00:06:21
Speaker
If you're at a smaller company, you might see, directly see how what you're doing affects that mission. But what's interesting though is like, there's a gap many times, we call it the impact gap. That's number two.
00:06:32
Speaker
Number three, trap number three is the community void. Okay, so maybe maybe, again, you're in a job that you like, but you're struggling to find this group of peers, right, that is serious both about professional excellence and living out my faith authentically, right? And so I might feel a little bit isolated.
00:06:53
Speaker
This happens especially if you're more in an entrepreneurial circle or calling. But even if you're like, let's say a software engineer or a finance group, I mean, if you're a software engineer, you might find like FaithTech. If you're at a big company, you might try to find some of those communities that care about the craft that you're in, but also care about developing you in that craft. and and and doing that in a way that honors Jesus and makes you more fruitful and faithful in that work, in that industry. right So that's another big thing to to focus on. And so a lot of people will start with, well, I'm i'm at my church, I'm at a small group, and sometimes that community group.
00:07:33
Speaker
They just don't get you, right? You have things that you care about that are kind of big. And maybe, again, you might have this thing that that you want to do that God's called you to do that just doesn't match up with what the you know the five other, or six other people or families that you're hanging out with are. Now, I'm not saying don't be a part of that group.
00:07:51
Speaker
That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is be a part of that group. But still, how are you developing yourself and the things that God is calling you that again, the people like you can't expect your church to be all things to you in your development. They're going to be a critical part, right? Obviously, getting plugged in, committed, connected and community. A ton of important part of there. But the community gap you might be feeling is more of like, who are my comrades who are care about the same thing that I care about going in the same direction?
00:08:20
Speaker
And a lot of churches, especially the average size of a church today, 80 to 100 people in America, you're probably not gonna find it. And so it's critical to think about, you know what are those new opportunities where you could find the community that is going in that same direction? so I already listed out a few examples of that. So that's um that is number three, is is that community gap.
00:08:43
Speaker
Let's talk about trap number four now.
Networking Challenges
00:08:45
Speaker
Now this one here, I'm going to call it the structured access ceiling. You could almost call this trap like the networking gap as well. right So this one is like, okay, I'm blocked out by some exclusive, maybe high level networks. um You all have probably seen examples of like networks where you have to like actually buy in and you pay a bunch of money. It's almost like a networking country club of some kind, but even just going to events,
00:09:10
Speaker
um ah Events and conferences is a great way to meet people, but doing so is tricky. It's the average cost of an event, like going to a conference, if you have to fly somewhere and all the travel and expense, it's somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000.
00:09:26
Speaker
ah just to go and hang out and you are like hoping that you're going to make all the connections find all the people that you want to connect with and if you're a hyper networker you might feel like no i think i can pull that off and and that'd be cool but a lot of us when we're looking at how do i get access to a community of people that are like me that are they're going the same direction you might find that it's going to take you three four five six conferences and before you know it you're maybe 10, 12 grand into this thing before you found a community that you're interested in. And not everyone's got 12 grand to to spend in the time to go do that.
00:10:03
Speaker
But um the point here is that what you wanna do is think about how can i find groups that I care about? How can I get to know them as much as I can without maybe having to travel to them just yet? And then you can narrow down your selection towards an area that could be ah closer and you're not feeling like there's a ceiling of how you can get in to those groups. That's also the place where we want to find ah mentors and and people that are further down the path that could inspire you and encourage you. So that's number four.
Balancing Faith and Professional Growth
00:10:33
Speaker
Number five, trap number five is the professional development dilemma.
00:10:38
Speaker
Now, a lot of you would say, hey, um I'm already getting some on the job training, but I know that like getting some extra training, maybe a certification, maybe ah some kind of a outside of my, maybe a professional coach. There's a lot of options out there.
00:10:53
Speaker
And quite frankly, like you can, there's so much content today. mean, you can spend everything from, you know, 30, $40 on a Udemy class to thousands on a, you know, mastermind peer group, depending on what you're looking at, right?
00:11:07
Speaker
And but what's tricky is that a lot of those groups, while they might be really focused on one part of your profession, many times they also do not overlap and and connect with, well, yeah, but how do i do that faithfully as a software engineer, as a marketer, or as an accountant, or as an impact investor? um So it's tricky because if you want to develop yourself, usually you you find yourself doing what?
00:11:30
Speaker
Spending $2,000 to go to a conference. And it's not bad to do that. But what's tricky is if I'm relying on those big conferences, then you're expecting to make a big investment and then figuring out, okay, which one of these conferences is going to be the place where I can, I'm getting that for two days, but what do I do the other 363 the year?
00:11:51
Speaker
right that becomes the challenge is how do i follow up after that and you've probably heard the staff that when you go and hear a bunch of talks like 30 days later only five percent of the information that you heard is actually retained and and used right so that is tricky so again thinking about how can i have a regular uh input of all of the of the things that I care about, the things that are professionally develop my skill set, um that's hard to do. um And so that's one of the things we bring up is there's a lot of money spent on professional development.
00:12:25
Speaker
And then there's a lot of free stuff on the discipleship side and churches and communities and even faith and work fellowships. There's fellowships all over the country that are like a, you know, faith and work, ah you know, a Bible study on steroids. And they're really great for discipling and forming you with the theology of work. But there's no professional development usually. And so it's tricky to try to find the marriage of those things. And that brings us to our last spot, our last trap, which is trap
Accountability and Value-Aligned Community
00:12:53
Speaker
number six.
00:12:53
Speaker
the accountability blind spot okay that's ah that's the last one so imagine let's say you did find a professional development group and or you did find a conference or you did find some of those communities but then it was all kind of flash in the pan event base so i go and grab one of those events now what do i do This was me. i mean I actually formed lot of what we do, with ah the Pragma Advisor stuff, and ultimately the Frontier Operators work because I realized, man, going to conferences is not cutting it. I have that kind of flash in the pan, and then usually two, three weeks, a month or two after the conference, is like, man, a lot of that goes away. I lose the relationship. And so it's tricky to try to have accountability to grow.
00:13:37
Speaker
Now, some of you um have invested in coaching or mentoring where a goal setting and accountability against those goals is a normal part of it. And if you've done that, I mean, you have to invest in that, right? And that that's usually somewhere between $1 and $200 a month, ah you know depending on how much, if it's one-on-one, it could be $300 or $400 a month, but if you can do group coaching kind of stuff.
00:14:01
Speaker
But the the tricky part is what is the way that you are holding yourself accountable? And again, if you're doing that in a group setting, are people in the group also interested in the same kind of impact and the same kind of kingdom-minded growth and development that you are?
00:14:17
Speaker
Or is it more just general professional development goals? Is it general be a good Christian anywhere type goals? And so I'd have you think about um where are you getting accountability that's also relevant to your longer term purpose?
Structured Community for Growth
00:14:30
Speaker
Okay, so those are the six areas. Let me just hit them back again, the six traps. One is the alignment doubt trap. Number two, the impact gap. Number three, the community void gap. Number four, the structured access or network ceiling. Number five is a professional development dilemma. And six is the accountability blind spot.
00:14:52
Speaker
Now, as you're hearing all those and kind of reflecting, i just shared as ah as we were going some of my own experiences where I felt like I've been trapped in some of those. I'll say i'll say you know loops and cycles where I'm not really getting much value. And that's why we call it scattershot development, right? You can go and play the field across tons of different groups and networks, and but the problem is you're not going have sustained growth and development and relationship outside of a place that's actually built to ah create a communal ah drive towards that that destination. And so usually you've got to be in some kind of program that is going where the outcomes of that program are going to form you into something you want to be like.
00:15:36
Speaker
And so, like I said, there are some places and spaces to do that. There are some shorter term groups if you're an entrepreneur. There are some longer term groups if you're you know a CEO or if you're just like an employee at a big tech company or big Fortune 500 company. There's some groups there with Faith and Work Global.
00:15:54
Speaker
um the global movement. So there's a lot of options. I'll put a few of those in the show notes. But what I want to do with you here at the end is let you know part of what we do and what we're passionate about here on the Buried Talent podcast is is connecting you. if If these topics are interesting to you, um Don't do scattershot development for a whole nother year. Like just jump into our free community and get some of that, get a taste of that. And maybe ah a taste of that within our community will help you find a community that will give you the the things that you actually need to develop and grow.
00:16:27
Speaker
Clarify your calling, grow professionally. And the end result is you'll be more faithful. You'll be more you'll be able to execute at a higher level at your job. you Probably if you do professional development, you'll probably get a raise and you'll probably advance in your
Wisdom in Time Management
00:16:39
Speaker
career. but ah you'll do that in in in a way that you're not just um lining your own bank account but you're asking these big questions of god how am i building and developing your kingdom how am i making your name famous in the marketplace and the workplace where i work and so those are the things that we care a lot about we have that community we'll put the the link in the community there as well but let me just implore you don't do another year of scattershot development
00:17:06
Speaker
Like your life, we don't know how much time we have here on the earth and your life is is only, again, it's it's only so long. and And James says it's like a vapor.
00:17:17
Speaker
So it's like, oh Lord, let us use every day that we have, every breath that we have, every year that we have, to to develop ourselves into more faithfulness, saying yes to Jesus, doing so in community, and to try to find a community that is going to go in the same direction and push me to become more like Christ in my calling.
Episode Wrap-Up and Future Topics
00:17:36
Speaker
So that's the episode for today. I'd love to um keep you posted on some of the events coming up. We'll keep talking about that as we head into 2026. But thanks for joining us today on Buried Talent.