Dr. Je

Hello! I'm the COO of Cast Your Nets, and your interim host. So we have a very, very, very special guest today for you. This individual is the chairman and CEO of Regent bank, also Oklahoma's past secretary of commerce and work development, a best selling author, and also an active small business investor. Not only that, this particular individual is a host of a nationwide podcast called Kingdom Driven CEO and also recently launched a nationwide faith in work movement called 94X. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Sean Kouplen.

Sean Kouplen

You got me excited, man. I need-, I think you could be my hype man. I appreciate it.

Dr. Je

Love it! Let's go!

Sean Kouplen

But thanks for having me. It's an honor.

Dr. Je

Yeah. So, so glad to have you. So there's a lot of accolades and accomplishments that I didn't even tell our listeners. But all that said, in your opinion, if you could just kind of take us into the backstory of Sean and kind of the things that you have gone through and even your relationship with God, how do you feel like that has influenced you and impacted your ability to even accomplish some of the things that you've accomplished so far?

Sean Kouplen

Yeah, as we were talking about before we jumped on here, guys, I was telling Dr. Je that all of the accomplishments are-. It's paper. It's stuff that's on paper that you can write down on a resume. But the most important moments of my life have all centered around Jesus Christ. And you can go all the way back. I'll just give a couple minutes just to give everybody a flavor for kind of my background and what I do today. So I grew up in a very small town on a farm. My grandfather and father both raised cattle. We were ranchers and raised wheat and hay. And that's really what I thought I was going to do, frankly, with my life. And I was getting ready to graduate from college and my dad informed me that I could work on the farm, but I was not going to get paid because there wasn't any money to pay me. So I thought, well, that is not a very attractive employment option. And so I ended up in the banking business. And if we have time later, I can get into how. But it was a wild chain of events that even got me into banking.

Sean Kouplen

I was promoted very early, was a bank president by the time I was 24, when I was 34, had the opportunity to buy, uh, Regent bank. And for the last 16 years, I'm 50 now. And so we have owned the bank for the last 16 years. It has grown enormously from $72 million in assets to now $1.7 billion in assets, 43 employees to 220, one location to seven locations. And the reason for that, I believe, is because we have absolutely committed our company to God. And honestly, the reason for that is because I wouldn't be in business if it wasn't for God. We had an amazing miracle in 2009 that kept us in business. So then, as it relates to 94X, we within the bank, we have done some things that other people think are very, very unique. It feels very normal to me. But we have a daily devotional, we have a prayer team, we have a chaplain, we have faith in business events in all of our markets. We of course, have a 94X roundtable. And this has created such a magical culture that has been the key to our success. That's not why we did it, but it's just turned out to be this. Now this is a place where people want to work. And so we get the best employees and then the customers follow those great employees and you look up and you're multi billion dollar company. And so I just wanted to explain to people, to business leaders that you can do this, that this is not illegal and this is not something that you have to have gone to seminary, you know, Dallas Theological seminary. To be able to do it is something we can all do. And it has just been a wonderful ride. So that, that kind of brings me to where we are today.

Dr. Je

Wow. I have to. We're going to have to dig into that. I hope the listeners, all you entrepreneurs out there, CEO's, if you're in a C suite or not, I want you to catch something. So, because we hear, and we may even see it in the media, there's. There's this belief, this underlying belief that almost like I can run a business, but I almost have to be like a closet Christian or I hear this and I see this a lot of times. Well, people know what I believe and you know, but it's not really permeating through everything that you're doing as a leader. Like no one else is getting engaged. So, Sean, what you're telling me is basically through the ownership of this bank, you have invited God in, in every aspect of your business. Is that what I'm hearing?

Sean Kouplen

Every aspect. Every aspect. Our purpose statement, for example, which is public, by the way. Everybody that's watching can go to Regent bank and see what I am telling you. Okay, so this isn't. I didn't change the website just because I was going to be on this podcast. Okay. This is, this is who we are. Our purpose is to show God's love to our employees, clients, and communities. That's our stated purpose. And, Jay, I honestly, I too thought that you couldn't bring in your faith.

Sean Kouplen

So just. Just a real quick example of this in the way that the Lord has worked in my life. So I was in church. This is been about eight, maybe nine years ago, and pastors preaching. I'm just like, you know, I'm sitting there taking notes, and I get this, I mean, super clear, like voice or leading that I need to start a daily devotional for my employees. Okay? Now, this is. This is crazy talk. I mean, I hear this. I know that I hear this from the Lord, but in my mind, I think-. In fact, this is what I said back to him in my mind. I said, this must be 1960s God, because you can't do this anymore. This is not. You can't do that. So I ignored it. Well, thankfully, the Holy Spirit stayed after me. I'd be driving down the road and I'd hear, you need to start that devotional. And I'd be eating. Start the devotional. Shooting baskets with my son. Start the devotional. Whatever I'm doing. So I started researching, and I found out that I was wrong, that the law is that I cannot force my religion on you. Okay? And I don't want to do that anyway. And I can't promote people based upon religion and all that stuff. I don't want to do that anyway, but I can offer all day long, okay? And that is a critical thing for people to understand.

Sean Kouplen

So I come back. So I come back to the bank. I work up. You know, what's my devotional going to be? I get it all set up. We had multiple locations. And so I got a 1-800 number set up where people could call in to it. And so I was petrified. I stood up in our employee meeting, and when we ended the meeting, I said, okay, everybody, one last announcement. Tomorrow, I'm going to start from 8:15 to 8:30. A daily devotional. Okay? And it is my personal devotional. It's optional. You don't have to join, but if you want to join, I'm going to email out the number. And if you're in Tulsa, where we're located, Tulsa, Oklahoma, you can come to the boardroom. But if you're elsewhere, just call the 800 number. So I did that. The next morning, I go into the boardroom. I log into the call in number. There's nobody on there. And there's six people came into the boardroom. Okay. So I was like, well, that was a lot of build up for six people. You know, I'm like, come on, God. I was really bummed out. And so, but I went ahead and did the devotional. I get back to my computer. I had sent out the wrong pin number to get into the call, so I had a typo. So the next day, we went from 7:00 to 7:57. And we've been doing this devotional every day for the last, I think it may be nine years. I need to look for sure, but let's say eight or nine years. And we have had over 270,000 callers into this devotional.

Dr. Je

Oh, wow.

Sean Kouplen

270,000. All 50 states, four foreign countries. And it doesn't even have a name. You literally-, it's just word of mouth. I mean, we've never marketed it. There hadn't been-. It's in my email line. So, and that's really it. And we have it on our website, but we don't-. We're not promoting it. We're just basically, that's one of our resources that we offer to people. So what the Lord can do in a business setting is, is crazy. Just, just one more quick, quick one. And I know this a bad, this is a bad interview guest when I just start rambling.

Dr. Je

Just go! Just go!

Sean Kouplen

One quick one. So, so about, oh, about a year ago, was it? Maybe, maybe a year and a half ago? I always get up early. I spend some time in prayer. I spend time in the word. It's essential for me to start my day. The way I think about business truly is I think I am in-, I am the chairman and CEO of Regent bank. That is my title. But I am really in middle management. Okay? So I am. So, so Jesus is really the CEO of Regent bank. And I'm, like, working for him and I'm in between him and the employees. So I'm really in middle management. So I'm trying to get up every morning and I'm trying to ask and hear, what does he want me to do that day? Well, on this particular day, I was, I was in prayer. And I felt you need to be a praying organization, and it needs to be more than just you. We need, you need prayer. So I was like, I wonder what that means.

Sean Kouplen

So I'm driving in and I got this idea that we should have a prayer team. So I immediately, I've learned. I don't fight it. Anymore. If the Lord places something on my heart, I just do it. And so I email out to all of our employees, literally this outwint. So I send an email out and I go, everybody, I really feel led to start a prayer team here at Regent bank. And so what we'll do is we'll pray for our employees and our clients and communities, anybody that needs it. So if any of you, you know our prayers, if your intercessors, if you like to pray for other people, please let me know. Okay. So I hit send. Well, I don't know if one person's gonna jump on or nobody's gonna jump on. I have no idea. And we had about 50 employees reply back and go, I would love that. Count me in, count me in, count me in. Well, I'm a great starter of things, you know, and I'm. But I'm not the greatest ongoing manager, so I needed to find somebody to run this, and it ended up being our internal auditor.

Sean Kouplen

So Pam, unbeknownst to me, she is leading the prayer team. She is also following up on all of our prayers. Okay. So she is documenting our prayer requests and the results of those. And she comes to me early in January of this year, and she wants to have a meeting. And I'm like, oh, man, it's the internal auditor, you know? So I'm like, what's wrong? What have we done wrong? You know? And so she comes in and she's got this document, and she hands it to me, and I look at it, and it's the results of the prayer team. And there are 157 answered prayers on this document. And I'm talking things that are miracles. Now, I'm not just talking about somebody's got a cold and they made it back to work. I'm talking about cancer survivors. My two year old daughter was deemed dead. She wasn't going to make it. The prayer team prayed for her, and she's back home now. I mean, I could cry when I get in to it. Over, over and over. So I just want to. I want to beg your viewers that they would really pray about this, because it changes everything. It changed everything.

Dr. Je

Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. I have to go back. We have some things to unpack. So two things. Number one, this just sounds like total make believe. It really does, and it shouldn't, because this is what God has called us to do. This is why he has put us here in the earth, but because it's not so evident, you know, in the things that we see in the different businesses. You know, I was just literally, as you were speaking, I was talking to God always. I'm always conversing and listening as the interviews are going forth. And it's like, lord, this sounds like make believe, but it really sounds too good to be true. It's the gospel, right? It's the power of the gospel going forth, and that's how it should be. And so, like, that's the first observation, right, that it literally seems like too good to be true. So we'll put a pin in that.

Sean Kouplen

Yes.

Dr. Je

And I want to go to the second thing. The second thing is how God strategically gives us and provides us gifts and people, puts people in our midst to do things or give us things that we need when we don't realize it. What better person to be over the prayer other than someone who loves God? But that's an auditor that's going to be very detailed, and it probably almost bugs them to a certain degree if they're not, that's the person that you want to be on the prayer call recording things. Because when you have an individual that can come back to you and tell you, we prayed on this, this, this and this, and look at how God moved. I'm almost, I'm getting really emotional even talking about it because that is what God does on a day to day basis. But we're just going through our lives unaware. But when we have an individual such as yourself that has been intentional and is listening on what God is saying and just say, all right, God, it's on you, you know, I'm going to do what you say, but I don't know what's going to happen. And you just let God be God. Miracles spring forth. And so if you could just, you know, being able to speak to those individuals, those entrepreneurs, those people that are even just on their job, but they have a significant leadership role.

Dr. Je

What do you say to those individuals that say, I hear what you're saying, but Sean is a unicorn. This is an anomaly. This is not something that I believe that I can realistically do or I'm scared. I'm afraid, like, what do you say to those individuals? Number one, to encourage them. And then, number two, for people, you know, that we are Christians and we are trying to move forth and listen to God and do what God is asking us to do. How can we be on the lookout for other individuals, other like minded individuals to kind of, to partner with? Because a lot of times what we need is already there, but we're just not either actively looking for it or, you know, if you could just kind of speak to those two things just based on your own experience.

Sean Kouplen

Sure. Yes. So, first of all, to the fact that I am a unicorn and this is make believe and too good to be true, I get all that. But what I have found since we launched 94X and 94X, by the way, in case you're out there going, what is that? It's 160 divided by 1.7. Okay, so 160 is the number of hours that our employees work in our companies. 1.7 is the number of hours that they go to church, on average. And so we have them in our care 94 times more than they go into the walls of a church, and that's those that go into a church. 60% of my employees didn't go to church at all. And so the Lord showed me that I. The reason he gave me the position and authority that he gave me wasn't to make money and make other people money and make our stock go up and blah, blah. It wasn't any of that. It was so that I could be a spiritual shepherd and leader to my employees. So it's a very, very. A big deal to me.

Sean Kouplen

Now, since we started 94X. Okay? Which serves to answer two questions. Number one, can you bring God into your business? So we have all kinds of legal background and study that shows that you can. And there has never, ever been a successful lawsuit against any company that offered spiritual or faith based programming in their company. There never has been. You. Now, now, if you go overboard and I tell you you have to pray my way and you're muslim and I make you pray to Jesus, that's whole different bar. But nobody wants to do that anyway. Nobody's wanting to do that. So that's one reason we exist. And then if you say, yes I am ready to take that next step. We provide resources for that. How do you do that? Here's a legal representative for free to help you if you do have concerns. Here's examples of many businesses. And that's the point that I wanted to make here. Once you get into this world, what you find it is not as unusual as you think. There are thousands of businesses that are doing what we are talking about. They are just not maybe as overt as I am, you know, or as visible as I am. But there are many. And it's not just Chic-fil-a or Hobby Lobby or Coca Cola consolidate and some of the big christian companies that we've heard of.

Sean Kouplen

Let me give you the best example. I talked with a young lady at our chamber of commerce here in Tulsa, okay? And she said she came in here to sell me sponsorships or something, but what she really wanted to talk about was 94X. She's like, I've heard about this. Tell me about, is it really possible to bring your faith into your business? And I told her it is. And I told her, you know, why and what we do. And she said, yeah, but, I mean, I'm just an employee, you know, I'm not... And our CEO..., you know, I don't think he would ever do that. And blah, blah, blah. And I said, Elena, you don't have to be the CEO to make a faith movement in your company. I said, I'm going to give you an idea, and I want you to just try this, okay? I said, do you have two or three co workers who are believers with you? Oh, yeah. She said, I got a bunch of them. I said, invite those people into a Bible study. Okay. Just do a daily Bible study. And I said, if you want, call them in at 8:15 in the morning and just dial into our daily devotional, you know, then you don't have to do anything. You can literally just put us on the speaker phone and listen in, you know, but I said, just call them into that and do it in a very visible conference room where everybody can see and will wonder what you were doing. Okay, just do that. And then call me in a month. So she calls me in a month and says, there were three of us in the initial Bible study. And she said, 8:15 didn't really work for us, so I did my own deal. By the way, the devotionals are recorded, so if any of you want to do this, but don't want to have the pressure of putting the content together, I'll tell you in a moment where to go when you can just play recording, no matter what time of the day it is, if you want.

Dr. Je

Oh wow, that's good!

Sean Kouplen

She did her own. It's on our bank website, which people also think is crazy that I would have devotional recordings on the bank website.

Dr. Je

That's amazing. That's wild. I love it!

Sean Kouplen

I'm just offering. That's all. I'm just offering. That's all I'm doing. She starts this thing with three people. She now has 88 people attending her Bible study. There are only 110 people in the whole company.

Dr. Je

Oh, wow.

Sean Kouplen

And they just saw her. They just went what are you doing in there? Well, we're having a Bible study. You want to join us? Yeah. Yeah, I'd love to join you. What time? So they come in, and then somebody else comes in, and then all of a sudden everybody wants to be in, and they have to move into this big auditorium to have the study. She's like, this is crazy. So my deal is all you gotta do is open the door, if you will just kind of crack the door just a little bit and just do something. Just, hey, can I pray with you? I know you're struggling. Can I pray with you? Let's have a prayer team. Let's have a daily devotional. Let's have a bible study. Just meet me in the lunchroom at such and such time. God will take it from there. It is not a unicorn. I'm not the only one doing it. It is very, very possible, and it will literally change your company. Because what has happened is, five years in a row, we've been the fastest growing bank in the country. Five years in a row, we've been the best place to work in the country. Okay? Five years in a row, we've had a return on investment, over 20% for our shareholders. I mean, this is not normal, because this is not a normal organization because Jesus is the CEO of this organization.

Dr. Je

Amen. Amen. So basically it's supernatural.

Sean Kouplen

Supernatural. Hundred percent it is supernatural. But it feels very natural. Like, what we're doing-, I'm not. I'm not anointing people's heads with oil in the bank. I don't have a baptismal dunk tank in the middle of the lobby. I'm not forcing this on anybody. All I'm doing is saying, hey, guys, just want you to know we have some resources. Okay? If you want to call in in the morning, call the devotional. We have a chaplain that if you need this person, reach out to them. They're going to come by and introduce themselves to you. We have faith in business. You can attend. We have the prayer team. If you want to join, join the prayer team. I'm not forcing anything on anybody. I'm just-. We, it's not just me.

Dr. Je

Yeah, yeah.

Sean Kouplen

We're just providing them with opportunities. And what's really cool and what I'm super excited about. So the 94X website is 94xmovement.com. I think by June 1st, within 30 days, we are going to launch 94X University. And what that means is that if I am a christian business leader-. Okay, if you're watching this and you go, man, I want to go to the next level. How do I do it? You just log in to 94X University. We've got a digital curriculum that's got everything you need to know in one spot. So we are so excited. This thing, it will be global, I promise you. The vision the Lord gave me, it's not just a regional deal right now we've got a large regional following here in the central US. It will be all over the world.

Dr. Je

I absolutely love this. And just last week, Sean, I interviewed a lady by the name of Krystal Parker and she's the president of the US Christian Chamber of Commerce. And I was thinking, my gosh, this 94X movement, the university, the curriculum, everything would be such an amazing resource for this organization.

Sean Kouplen

I'm writing that down. I'm writing that down right now. Yes. We'll reach out to her.

Dr. Je

And so I definitely. Yes. Yeah. And I will definitely make sure you two are connected because a lot of times that's, we get stuck. Like, we know, like what God is kind of wanting us to do or he's speaking to us, but then it's kind of scary. Or it can be scary because of either what we've seen or what we've heard. And when you're connected with other believers that are actually doing it, it becomes real and you're like, wow, like, I'm not alone because that's what the enemy wants us to believe, to like, keep us from doing anything is you're alone. You know, no one's really doing this. And that's why I wanted you to speak to the assumption that this is kind of like a unicorn type thing. I don't know if I can do this. It's okay for people to feel that way. However, help is here. Help is available through Sean, what he's doing with the 94X movement. We also encourage people, if you are feeling alone, get connected with the local chamber of commerce, local Christian Chamber of Commerce, if you have one. But if people don't, they can also get connected with the US Christian Chamber of Commerce because that resource is good because maybe you just don't know that the chamber exists. They'll be able to point you into the right direction. So I could really see something amazing happening here between you and Krystal.

Sean Kouplen

Me too. Thank you for that. I appreciate that.

Dr. Je

No, no problem. So as we kind of transition a little bit, your family man, you have three kids. What does that even look like? When I was speaking with Krystal and she has a daughter, and, I mean, you have three kids, you're married, and people are so busy. And even with the church where I go to, we try to try to build community and have people connect. And so when I see people at church, like, hey, you know, I didn't see you at small groups. Really miss you, whatever. But everybody's always saying, I'm so busy, I'm so busy, I'm so busy. So could you speak to the parent, to the individual, that they're like, I'm just trying to do the best that I can do. And now you want me to bring God into this? People who feel like God bringing God into the workplace may complicate things more than they're already complicated. What do you say to those individuals?

Sean Kouplen

Yeah. So on the parenting front, people ask me this a lot. You know, you're doing so much stuff. You know, how do you-. You must be sacrificing your family, you know, and that is not true. I have strict boundaries. At 6:30 every day, my phone is turned off and put away, and I'm focused on my family. I found, spiritually, for me, getting up a little bit earlier has been a game changer, because the world is very, very busy. You know, I think I'm booked here four and a half weeks out with no open times and just meetings, meetings, and, you know, and I've got work time obviously blocked off and that type of thing. But there's. There's a lot going on and there's a lot of noise. And so I need, personally, that early morning time before everybody gets up, when it's just me and Jesus and we can talk, and I can kind of get the focus.

Sean Kouplen

Now on complicating your life, I have a friend that gives a wonderful speech around living a God centered life, and one of the things that he talks about is, you know, it's not so much about I'm gonna spend more time exclusively with me and God. It's really about putting God in the center of everything that's already in your life. So what happens is it just becomes part of your life. You know, it's very normal now for me to log in and do the daily devotional from 8:15 to 8:30. It's 15 minutes. I need to be in the word anyway. And that has given me a discipline around doing that, you know, it's very normal. I've led a discipleship group for many, many years. Well, every other Wednesday for 2 hours, my family knows I'm going to be at the church with 15 or 20 guys, taking them through a discipleship program. These things become very, very normal. Now all of us have to battle over commitment, you know, and make sure that we keep our priorities. I've written four books, and my second one was actually called The Priority Promise. And it was an epiphany that a mentor shared with me that we have to keep our priorities straight. We have to do first things first, most important relationships first, make sure that we don't get over committed. I have a tendency to say yes to everything. And so I am a pleaser, so I've had to learn to keep the most important thing first. So I respect that. But I think living out your faith, it's not one more thing. It's just. It's just doing all the stuff you're doing now with God in the middle.

Dr. Je

I love it. I love it.

Sean Kouplen

That's it!

Dr. Je

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that was a setup question. Normally, like, when the guests come on and I'm praying, there's a certain level of discernment that comes from that. And I don't know if the viewers noticed, but go back and look at some of our previous episodes that we've done. Typically, the individuals that we've had on the show that have been exceedingly blessed in different areas, and they're high performers. None of you guys get on here looking like you do. Let your schedule is the way that it is. There's just a joy that comes from you. And I think that has everything to do with keeping God in the center, because when you keep first things first, God kind of helps you. He speaks you and helps you to manage those priorities and those things. And there's just a joy throughout the whole entire day. And I think a lot of times when we feel like, oh, my gosh, like my faith is something added is because we've compartmentalized it in the first place. Like, we do what we do throughout the whole entire week. We may pray a little bit or say, oh, God, help me, help me, help me. Oh, I just make it to Sunday, right?

Sean Kouplen

Right. Right.

Dr. Je

And I get to Sunday, you know, I offload, you know, dump everything, and then I start over again. And that's the sense that I get from people because I've gone through it. I think we've all gone through it in our growth as we grow in the Lord. But, you know, when you realize that, it's like, okay, God, I don't know everything. God, show me how to be more intentional. If I need to get up early, where are those areas throughout the day that I may have time, but I may be spending it worrying or trying to get ahead with additional work or something that I don't really have to do. But God will, you know, he'll work all that stuff out in a prayer that I pray because, like, help me to see myself and help me to connect with other people, bring other people into my life that see me like you do. That's one of the prayers that I pray. Yeah. Because I can get busy. You know, we all can get busy. And then, like our Aaron or whomever is there and we're just going on with, I'm just like, I got to do what I have to do.

Dr. Je

So that's a prayer that I pray for myself. And I thank you for sharing everything that you've shared today, that this is a, this is, this is a natural thing. And so at this point, this is normally the pivot point where we get ready to kind of close out and wrap things up. So I pitch it back over to you because we have something that you have not yet shared. And I did not forget about it. There is a miracle that God did. So I'm going to let you share that and however you need to share it. Share it however you wish to share it, and then we'll kind of wrap it up and close out.

Sean Kouplen

Yeah. Thank you. Because the reason I love to share this story is because in an audience like this, somebody is feeling hopeless. Okay? They are. They've hit tough, tough times in their life, and they just can't see the way out. And I just like for people to understand there is always a way. Okay. God always makes a way. So I'll give you that. I'm going to give you the quick version because I don't want to keep our folks on here too long. We buy Regent bank in 2008. Okay. April Fool's day of 2008 is when we close on the bank. Now, first of all, a bank is just like any other business. People always seem very perplexed by this. Any other business, it just happens to be money as our inventory. Okay? So we buy and sell money. So you buy a bank just like you buy any other business, we get the bank bought. It's appropriate that it's on April Fool's day, because immediately the world goes into the mortgage crisis. Okay? So we had about six good months, and then when we got to the fall of 2008, everything hits. And, I mean, the stock market collapses, credit collapses, customers, the economy collapses. I mean, it was for those of you that will remember, it was a bad, bad time.

Sean Kouplen

So by the time we got to February of 2009, we had lost a lot of money. Okay? Our customers were struggling. We had loans that were being charged off, and we had lost so much money that we were below the regulatory capital limit for a bank. So if a bank. A bank has to maintain a certain amount of capital, if it goes down too low, the regulators can and typically will come in and take over and shut you down or make you sell or whatever. So we were below that level. I had called my main investors. Well, I'm gonna get that in a moment. I called my main investors. They had said, we would love to help, but we can't. We're trying to survive, you know, in our own businesses, so we just can't put money out right now. I was broke, okay? So we were at a point where we had put everything into the bank. We had. I had not taken a paycheck in six months because we couldn't afford to pay me. My wife's job had moved to Houston, Texas, so she didn't have a job. We had a two year old daughter, and we didn't have enough money in the bank to make the mortgage payment that we had do on Thursday. So this is a Sunday. I am in church here in Bixby, Oklahoma, just south of Tulsa. We both taught Sunday school, my wife and I. So we got out a little bit late. We ended up on the front row. The band is singing the song Healer by Kari Jobe. I believe you're my healer. I believe you're more than enough for me. I am looking at the circumstances of my life, and the bank is going to be shut down in 40 days. We're going to have to file bankruptcy. I'm going to have to ask my dad for help to make my mortgage payments. I mean, and honestly, my wife does not understand the full extent of this because I don't want to stress her out. So I am sitting there, they're singing this song, and I am thinking, this is the biggest bunch of baloney I've ever heard, because there is no healing occurring in my life. Everything's getting worse by the day.

Sean Kouplen

As I am thinking that the Lord speaks to me. And he asked me a question. He says, do you believe I am your healer? And it was one of these moments. Now, I was raised Southern Baptist, okay? So this stuff doesn't happen. This doesn't happen to us. So, but it's a moment so clear that everybody's singing the song, but in the moment, all that noise goes away and all I hear is this voice. Okay? I mean, I remember it. I can never get through this without crying. I'm going to try real hard. So, so I break down crying. Front row of the church cannot stop crying. I've had this encounter with God. I've been under extreme duress. And I say to God, you know what, God, if this bank is going to be saved in the investment and the jobs and all that, it's going to have to be you. I give up. I don't know what else to do. I've been working 20 hours a day. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep. I mean, it was, it was very, very stressful. And all of us have been through a time like this in our lives.

Dr. Je

Yes.

Sean Kouplen

Well, my miracle happens two days later. So I'm at the bank that we bought in Nowwater, Oklahoma. My assistant is taking, and we had like ten job titles each, but one of them was, she was, she would help me. And so she is taking out 80 letters to our 80 shareholders. And I'm thinking, well, maybe that's the miracle that's going to occur. Maybe the Lord will change their mind. They will make the $3 million investment that we need to stay in business. And so she's taking the letters. The phone rings as she's walking toward the door, the phone rings over here to my left. And Arlene says, Sean, you have a phone call from the US Treasury Department, which is the group that shuts down the banks. So I yell at Sandy, and I say, hey, Sandy, bring those letters back. I think it's too late. And so she turns around, brings the letters back. I walk around to my desk thinking, this is it. This is this end of my life right here. So I pick up the phone. The lady on the other end says, Mr. Kouplen, my name is Lisa Taylor with the US Treasury Department. How are you today? And I said, well, Lisa, it kind of depends on how this phone call goes. And she laughs, you know, that's what everybody tells us, you know, and I'm like, oh, my God, my heart is just, boom boom.

Dr. Je

Yeah, I can't imagine.

Sean Kouplen

So she said, well, actually, she said, the reason I'm calling today is she said, you know, you may or may not be interested in this. But she said, Regent bank has been chosen for the capital purchase program through the US Treasury Department, and we would like to invest up to $3 million in your bank. And I say, what? I've never even heard of this program. And she says, oh, yeah, you know, we'll put money in to allow you to make more loans. And the idea is to spur the economy. And she said, you know, the, the interest rate is 1%. You have nine years to pay it back. No board seat, no dilution. You know, is this a program you think you would be interested in? And I'm like, you have no idea. So I said, we would love to take the maximum. And a $3 million wire comes into the bank that day and we are saved.

Dr. Je

Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

Sean Kouplen

That is a true story.

Dr. Je

Now, I don't know-. You know, just again, I have to, for our listeners, this time period is the worst, the absolute worst time to be in banking, especially if it's a new bank. Absolute worst. This is. I was just thinking, like, this would be like the 911 of, like, the banking industry. Like, it was so bad during that time. I didn't know what was gonna happen. It literally felt like the world was ending.

Sean Kouplen

It did.

Dr. Je

Because of what was going on. And I've never met someone till today that was in the midst of it. And not only that, a lot of banks, for people that may not understand, a lot of banks during this time went under, like, well established banks that have around for-.

Sean Kouplen

400. 438 of them.

Dr. Je

Yeah, they've been around forever. And so I just wanted people to kind of understand, for people who were busy working, whatever you were doing at that time and you didn't know, this guy went through this along with God and just look what happened.

Sean Kouplen

So that is why we. Everybody goes, man, you're so overt in your faith, and I just can't believe that you're out there the way that you are and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, you know what? I am playing with house money. I mean, if I, if it wasn't for God, I'm serious. I mean, we would have filed bankruptcy. The bank would have gone under. I don't know where I would be today. I wouldn't have been secretary of commerce and a best selling this and that. It wouldn't have been any of that. So I'm just so grateful to him. And it, and it, it cured me of scarcity. I was so fearful about my next day and everything was going to go wrong. I was always so worried that I wasn't as smart as people thought I was and all that, it cured me of that. It taught me how much God loved me and that he cared about me and he knew what I was going through and he cared enough to save me. It has literally changed my whole life. So I appreciate you giving me an opportunity to share it, because if you are in a difficult spot, I have heard a hundred stories from people that have shared with me that the Lord has taken them down to bedrock just to build them back up. It's like I had to get to the point where I realized I could not do it on my own and I had to turn it over to him. And it's like the moment that I did that, he came in and saved the day and saved my life. And so it is not impossible. What you are dealing with is not impossible. So thanks for letting me share.

Dr. Je

Thank you for sharing today. And for individuals who want to get connected with you further, the 94X movement and with the devotional that you do. Can anybody hop on that? How does that work?

Sean Kouplen

Anybody. Anybody. We got 270,000. We can take one more.

Dr. Je

Oh Wow. Wow. Wow.

Sean Kouplen

All they got to do is you just call 888-630-4807 there is no longer any PIN number. You go straight into the call and it's 8:17 to 8:30 central standard time. Okay. So you'll have to make the time adjustment. Every day, 365 days a year, I lead on Tuesdays now. On Mondays I bring in celebrity guest speakers. So, like these world famous leaders and pastors and speakers lead on Mondays. I lead on Tuesdays. I have other friends that lead the other days of the week. And if you want to get the recordings, you can go to our bank website. It's just Regent. Regent.Bank and go to resources. And we have a faith based resource section which includes 94X and the daily devotionals recordings as well. So there's a lot of stuff we have out there, but you can get those anytime. Listen to them anytime. Everything's for free.

Dr. Je

That's absolutely amazing. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I am so happy. A breath of fresh air is an understatement. I mean, we typically have some obviously amazing people on the show, but you've touched me in a special way because everybody has their own story. And just recently, with the past three years, I was also brought down to bedrock and I just literally couldn't do anything else but to rely on God. And he built me back up as well, and still in that process. So thank you for sharing that. All right, everybody, that concludes our show. Please go to the links below. We're going to add some additional links that Sean has shared as well for anybody who, you know, just for your own courtesy purposes, just so you have everything that you need, because we really want people to get connected into community with your local community and throughout the US and the world. That's what we're here to do. So again, Sean Kouplen, thank you for sharing your time with us today. And I'm looking forward to actually hopping on some of those calls as well because I really want to stay connected. You've really blessed us today. And so thank you for your time.

Sean Kouplen

My honor. My honor. Thank you.

Dr. Je

Alright. See you guys. We're gone.