Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Veteran, Honey Mogul, I Am Second Founder – Now Fighting for Clean Food | Ron Simmons & Nate Sheets

Starting point is 00:00:00 If you are looking to refinance or maybe you are looking to get into the home that you need or your family wants right now, then you need to call my friends at Fellowship Home Loans. Mike and Brian are the real deal. They are going to bring you excellent service and help you get in the financial position that you need to maybe get some extra margin in your finances. If you need to refinance or to make sure that you get the mortgage that you need for the home that you are looking to purchase, They do their business by the book, not just by the book, but by the book, but by biblical principles. Those are the kind of people that you want to trust with such a big decision like this.

Starting point is 00:00:40 If you go to fellowshiphomeloans.com, you'll get $500 of credit at closing. That's fellowship homelones.com slash alley, term supply, see site for details, fellowship home loans, mortgage lending by the book, nationwide mortgage bankers, DBA Fellowship Home Loans, equal housing lender, NMLS, number 819-382. Well, welcome Nathan Sheets to the relatable podcast. And I know you'd much rather have Allie doing this. I get it. But I'll have to be second fiddle today.

Starting point is 00:01:20 So thank you so much for coming on. I know you've got a limited amount of time. You're a busy man right now without with Governor Abbott traveling the state. But what we wanted to do, and we're interested, of course, in what's going on right now in your candidacy. But I wanted to also give you a chance to talk a little bit about your background, Nate. Just give us just a, you know, a couple of minute overview of, you know, the Nate Sheets, first early growing up story. Where did you grow up and maybe your parents, that type of thing?

Starting point is 00:01:49 Yes. My dad was an Air Force pilot, and so we moved every two years growing up, you know, always on Air Force basis up until high school. But my parents actually met in North Texas. My dad had just gotten out of the Air Force Academy and met my mom when he was up in Sherman in flight training. And my grandfather had been the Sherman band director for 55 years at the high school up there. And so our roots were always in Texas.

Starting point is 00:02:15 I'm a fifth generation Texan. But grew up, went to high school and down in Hayes County, down south of Austin, and went into the Navy the day after I got out of school to pay for college and came back and went to Southwest Texas State University and then moved up to Dallas. Yeah. Moved up to Dallas. That's great. You know, my dad was a band director as well.

Starting point is 00:02:35 Was he really? Yeah, in Arkansas. and in fact he turns 90 here in a couple of months. So there's 90th birthday coming up. So yeah, so I'm very familiar with high school band and all that type of stuff. And so you got out of the Navy, went to college, and then where did life take you right after college? Yeah, so I moved up to Dallas. My brother and I had started a little pen and pencil company, kind of serial entrepreneur.

Starting point is 00:03:02 And so I moved up to Dallas and then started attending Presum of Baptist Church, where you and I actually knew each other from and met there. But I also met my lovely wife, Patty Sheets there. And we got, it's buried in 1996. But right after we got married, we had a couple things that we did that kind of set a course for life that had no idea where it was going to take us. But one thing I did is I went on a mission trip. And so went down to Valencia Venezuela with a ministry called E3 partners. And that resulted in me spending 12 years in full-time Christian ministry. But also right after Patty and I got marriage. She told me that we needed a hobby together. And I think she was thinking like scuba diving or antiques or, but I wound up buying a beehive. And so that one beehive turned into what today is the

Starting point is 00:03:47 largest honey company in America called Nature Nates. Tell us a little bit about your salvation experience, Nate. When did you, did you grow up in the church and did you later? Tell us about that. Yeah. So my parents were believers. And so we were raised, you know, in a Christian home. And when we were at Tinker Air Force based in Oklahoma City. I remember at First Baptist Del City going down at front and fifth grade and committing my life to the Lord. And then I'll tell you, just, you know, again, we moved every two years. And so we grew up in Baptist churches, Methodist churches, Presbyterian churches, Pentecostal churches, kind of wherever my parents had relationships with friends because we were there for such a short period of time. But really the

Starting point is 00:04:30 place where I experienced the most spiritual growth was after I got out of college and actually joined Presbyville Baptist Church. And I was in a discipleship group with some guys. And one of them challenged me to get in this class called evangelism explosion, which teaches you how to go out and go share the gospel. And so that probably had the greatest impact on my life. And, you know, there's nothing, you always hear that the teacher learns more than any student. And so just having the opportunity to really learn to be able to represent the death,

Starting point is 00:04:58 burial, and resurrection of Christ and understanding that salvific experience with him, you know, really transformed my life from a maturity standpoint. And really God brought me on that mission trip to actually go out and go learn how to do evangelism. And so that just became a massive part of my life. And tell us about, you know, coming out of that, you said, okay, I'm going to join this mission field full time with E3, what became E3 partners. And then I want you to also tell us just a little bit about I am second and also the

Starting point is 00:05:32 of anjukear, because I know those were things that came out of that as well, and just maybe how that all happened. Yeah, I'll tell you, it was such an awesome experience. You know, I never wanted to go to seminary. I never even thought I'd be in full-time ministry. I was just a business guy that went on mission trip that changed my life. And so when I wound up going on staff at E3, I was asked to come on staff, and I guess that was in the fall of 1997. And I asked Mike Downey, who was the founder, He was also the guy that led my mission trip when he said, hey, why don't you come on staff with us? I said, you guys have to raise support like a missionary, right? And he said, yeah.

Starting point is 00:06:07 And I said, well, I have to think about that. Yeah. So we prayed about it for a couple months and we felt like that's what the Lord wanted us to do. And so it was such a great experience for me because I felt like I was giving to live out my personal testimony of both learning how to articulate the gospel and then mobilizing people in short-term mission trips. And so God gave us in 2000, this idea for this one thing called an Evangy Cube. It looks like a Rubik's cube. And it's got seven pictures that represent the death, barrow, and resurrection of Jesus. And so we started equipping believers all over the world.

Starting point is 00:06:42 It was amazing. We'd go to India and train 20,000 Indian pastors and give them Avangecubes to be able to go out in their communities and share the gospel. And then the second evangelism tool that the Lord allowed us to create was a platform called I Am Second. And it's an online evangelism platform. Norm Miller had called me up and was sharing with me about. And Norm was the president of interstate batteries at the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, he was his CEO of interstate batteries.

Starting point is 00:07:09 And he was just sharing with me that he was having a conversation with the Lord in his backyard on his 70th birthday. And just asking God, what do you want for me for the rest of my life? I got maybe 15, 20 years. And he felt like God said, well, have you ever gone for broke in your Jerusalem? And he's thinking, well, you know, I funded the Jesus film project in Romania and Russia. but, and he's telling me this on the phone. He says, but Nathan, if I was going to go try to sell more batteries, I'd probably do an advertising campaign.

Starting point is 00:07:35 And if I was going to do an advertising campaign in Dallas, Fort Worth, I probably use Tony Romo and made, as soon as God's, as soon as he said that to me, the Lord put this idea in my head. And I said, all right, Norm, imagine you're driving down the tollway and you see this billboard. And it's got Dirk Nurekinski on it. He's the man. He's number one. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:07:52 And that says, I am second. And it drives you of this website. and we show you Dirk's testimony, share the gospel with you, and try to hook you up into a local church. And said, Norm said, all right, let's get together in a week and see and let's talk about it. So I hung the phone up and this guy, Adam Lidek, who worked with me at E3, was sitting on the other side of my desk. And Adam was a creative genius and said, man, that's huge. Walked out of the room with a, came back with a white piece of paper and wrote, I am second. And that was the beginning of what turned into I am second.

Starting point is 00:08:22 We went over and showed it to Norm and he gave us three million bucks. And so it was an amazing thing. Yeah, and those of you that are watching, listen to this, if you haven't heard of that, just all you have to do is Google it or search for it. It's on there. There's some great testimonies through there. But then also during this time, your wife still, you and my are still doing this, you know, small honeycomb business.

Starting point is 00:08:45 And then you said, okay, well, the next thing was to take that bigger. Is that right? I know it was part of it had to do with one of your relatives that had some health issues, right? Yeah, my mom had Alzheimer's and cancer, and so she had been negatively impacted by that. But I took that one beehive and started getting into it. And, you know, Ron, I hate this, but the governor, they're right here. You got to go. I've got to go.

Starting point is 00:09:15 Okay, 10 seconds left, though. I want people to, they can look up Nate's honey, but tell us what you're doing at public service. What's your trying to get done? Listen, I'm running to be a Texas Agriculture Commissioner because we're losing agriculture like never before. And we have a pandemic of health crisis related to the food that we're eating in America. And so I've come alongside to be able to run for the Texas Ag Commissioner. I've been endorsed by Governor Greg Abbott. I want to make agriculture great again.

Starting point is 00:09:44 And we're going to get out there and help farmers and ranchers. We lost 68 farms this week. And we don't have to continue to do that. So you can go see more at Nate Sheets.com. and show, and you can see how we're trying to impact Texas and help clean up the food that we all eat. Well, thank you, Nate. I appreciate it. Give my best to the governor and just be safe out there.

Starting point is 00:10:04 Thank you, buddy. All right, bye-bye. Thank you. Nathan then decided that his honey business was growing, and he built that into the largest honey company in the world, put his cell phone on every jar of honey, and he would answer his cell phone in the middle of the night. I've heard him tell the stories about that. put a nice Bible verse on every one of those. So like Chick-fil-A, like Norm Miller, he followed in the footsteps of those businessman and like the Greens with Hobby Lobby,

Starting point is 00:10:39 that not only talk to talk, but walk the walk in their business world to help build the kingdom. And then he's been called in to potentially be a part of public service. Nobody knows what's going to happen, the primary elections next week. And I don't sure if he'll win or not. I'll support him, but you never know. Sometimes God calls us into something. I remember when I first decided to run for public office, I didn't know if I would win or not, but I knew for sure that God had called me to be in the middle of it. And so I did that and was fortunate enough to win. I'm not sure whether they will or not, but I know that this whole experience has probably changed him.

Starting point is 00:11:21 and he's probably seeing a lot of good and a lot of bad, but he's committed to trying to help Texas, you know, live a healthier life. And the Department of Agriculture in Texas is a big part of doing that. But I just thought it was an interesting interview. Even though it was pretty short, there was some real nuggets in there. So I hope you'll take those and listen to it.

Starting point is 00:11:41 And maybe we'll be able to have Nate on again in the future. But thank you for supporting Alley's podcast. Don't forget to get your share the arrows tickets. They're available. online and we'll look forward to seeing you soon. Take care.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Veteran, Honey Mogul, I Am Second Founder – Now Fighting for Clean Food | Ron Simmons & Nate Sheets

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