Do Good Talks 2025 was held in Scottsdale, Arizona last week. But it is far from over!
First, thanks to all of you who supported the event, whether by attending, registering, encouraging, praying or helping in any other way. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Second, deep thanks to the team that helped bring Do Good Talks to life. The primary movers and shakers were Kaitlyn, Mark, and Tod. We met (literally) for hours and hours, and when the event happened they all stepped up and did an outstanding job. Do Good U (and Talks) was blessed.
Third, huge thanks to the speakers. I’ll write about all of them in the coming weeks and share some video. They were awesome!
Finally, and most important, my thanks to God, who inspired and then orchestrated the event. More about that below, and you’ll love the story.
Was Do Good Talks a lot of work? It was, but the cool thing is that it didn’t look like it. That’s what every singer, every actor, every concert violinist, every professional athlete strives for. A lot of hard work behind the scenes makes the performance look “easy.”
A quick case in point: Fred Astaire. If you aren’t familiar with his work, you’re welcome for the introduction. He was known for being one of the most meticulous and committed — and best — dancers ever. The dance sequence “Puttin’ On The Ritz” (from the film Blue Skies) is 4 minutes and 34 seconds long. It is reported that he rehearsed the routine for several hours every day for five weeks before recording it. But watch it and it looks effortless.
OK, we didn’t put in that many hours. But we put in a lot of time. And we loved it.
How it started
At various places in the Bible you can find a phrase like, “And God said to (Moses or Noah or some other person)….”
How in the world did that happen? Was it an audible voice that everyone could hear?
A famous one of those is found in Genesis chapter 12, which starts like this:
Now the Lord said to Abram, Go out from your country and from your family and from your father’s house, into the land to which I will be your guide: And I will make of you a great nation, blessing you and making your name great; and you will be a blessing….
I don’t think that was an audible voice. But Abram (later Abraham) knew that God was “speaking” to him and telling him to get up and go.
Abram knew so well what was happening that we are then told, So Abram went as the Lord had said to him.
That is what happened to me. No audible voice from heaven, but the sure and certain knowledge that I needed to do something for Do Good U. Not knowing what, I “listened” carefully. When I “randomly” saw my friend Tye Dutcher, I knew we were supposed to host Do Good Talks. And confirmation for that kept coming.
I know. That sounds a little goofy. No voice, but God was speaking.
Abram’s wife, Sarai (later Sarah) probably thought her husband was a little off. Who could blame her?
“OK, husband. We’re packing up all these people and animals and belongings and we’re moving to another country, and you don’t even know which one it is or how to get there?”
Ours wasn’t that dramatic, but we did what Abram did. We started walking.
How it progressed
Abram was on his way to “the promised land,” (That’s where the name came from, by the way.)
We were on our way to an event. We did not know where we were going, but very quickly things began to fall into place. Within a few days we had a team, we had a likely venue, and we had a date. Soon we had our first speaker.
We would ask a speaker and get no response, then someone else would pop up and be available. Slowly but surely the list began to grow. One team member said, “We really need a woman to speak.”
Shortly after that I was having a conversation with Tracy Hanson, whose book we were in the process of publishing. We were talking a little about how she might promote the book and I said,, “You should do more public speaking.”
Only then did it occur to me that she should speak at Do Good Talks! She was not only our first woman speaker, she was an important speaker.
(Here’s the link to her book, by the way, which you should totally buy and read. It’s very good.)
God led, we followed. And we made great progress.
The event
When the day arrived we still didn’t know what to expect, except that the attendance would be smaller than we had hoped.
Within three hours of opening we knew it was amazing. By the end of day 1, we knew we had to do another event this fall. By the end of the event, we knew we had been blessed beyond anything we could ever have done on our own. It’s almost a week after the event, and I can still feel it.
More to come
We didn’t know it at the beginning of Do Good Talks, but we knew it before the second day: the event was not the destination, it was the first step on a path to the future of Do Good U.
We already know we’ll hold an event in Nashville in the fall. And it looks like God is paving the way for a Do Good Talks event in Asia!
That, without any argument, is more than we could ask or imagine.
You see, that phrase isn’t really about “more stuff.” It is about more opportunity to do good, it is about a broader sphere of influence than we asked for, it is about getting more good into more parts of the world in ways that we never imagined.
God can do that for you, too. He’s in the “more than you can ask or imagine” business. And it’s fun.
Do good. It’s in you!
