How did we get here?
You may be wondering how did we get here? I did too. So walk with me. I think a pivot point was when I was laid off by my most recent employer of thirteen years. That layoff gave me an opportunity to really slow down, recenter myself, and come to terms with who I had become up to that point in life. I wanted to refocus and go through a phase of rediscovery, who I was, and how close that person was to my original values, the ones basically ingrained in me from childhood.
I went down a long, very fun path of allowing myself to be curious about a lot of things. I was trying to grow myself in many areas: spiritual growth, financial growth, professional growth, personal growth, growth in my hobbies, growth in my friendship circles. In doing that, I spent a lot of time reading and a lot of time listening to podcasts.
I really had to go through a phase of relearning how to listen and how to read. I think much of my time growing up, I wanted to be the perfect learner. I would spend a lot of time trying to memorize the wording, or the main idea, of every single phrase or paragraph I read or heard. In this phase, though, I had to shift my mindset to reading or listening with the understanding that I could always read or listen to it again. You can read with the intention of digesting what's most applicable to your life in that moment. Doing that allowed me to free myself and live more freely in my learning and growth process. It made it more fun. It made it more interesting.
Learning became fun again. As I found growth concepts that were applicable to life, I couldn't wait to share them with my inner circle. Most importantly, I couldn't wait to share them with my wife. A lot of times I'd go to her during our couple sync-up time at the end of the day, or wherever we could fit it in, excited to tell her about the nuggets I picked up along the way. It really became something I relished being able to share with her. "Hey, this phrase or this quote or this passage really resonated with me, and here's why." A consistent response during many of those in-depth discussions was, "That's a powerful quote. That's a powerful phrase. That's a powerful message, you know, that should really be on a shirt. That could really help somebody. Some of these things you shouldn't keep for yourself." What I discovered is that most times, those phrases came from the domain of growth related to spirituality. There were things I felt relating to finance. There were things I felt relating to golf. But the ones that hit hardest, that resonated the most, lived in the domain of spiritual growth.
That's where I thought, you know what, this really ties back to my foundation, and to seeing my father in the way he impacted so many people. I may not be able to do it the way he did, from a pulpit, being a pastor for almost forty-seven years now, but that doesn't mean I can't still impact people, still influence lives, in my own way.
But there's a duality to it. Something else clicked. It's not only about influencing others. It's also about finding representation for the new me. A lot of times, when you discover who you are, you want to represent who you are on a daily basis. Not just at home, but everywhere you go, and especially without waiting for the room to give you permission. Loud or boisterous has never been my style. Lived experience has shown me that method is just as important as message. In my later years I discovered that when you decide to stop compromising who you are, you don't have to shout it from the mountaintops. You just live it, with quiet confidence, in every moment you get.
What do we do with it?
How do you live it? Start by wearing what you live. I'm an avid Houston Texans fan living over 1,600 miles away from Houston, which was a lonely thing to carry for the first three years. Then one day I decided to wear my Texans jersey out around Los Angeles. It sparked a lot of conversations, some good, and a lot not so great. But the win was that I got to share what I believed, and hear what other people believed too. That same concept resonated with me on this quest. In order to live these values more fully, I wanted to wear them. Wear it as a declaration, to spark curiosity and encourage growth-filled conversations with others. Wear it as a reminder to live true to my core values on a daily basis.
Why should this matter to me?
In one of Jesus' final directives to his disciples, the Great Commission, he charged them to go and make disciples of all nations. What does that mean, and what does that have to do with me? Making disciples of all nations, to me, means creating an environment where understanding can grow.
You see, Honor & Heir was never intended to be a top-five faith-based apparel company. The designs are built with the intention to provoke thought, while lending scriptural context for reference. But the apparel is just a medium. It's bigger than that. It's about sparking curiosity that leads to conversation, and conversation that deepens understanding. Belief, or faith, only grows through understanding. It's about building a community of people who choose to live their values with honor, wear them as a declaration, and leave it as a legacy for their Heir(s) to inherit and carry the work forward.
At its core, Honor & Heir is built for those committed to spreading our faith through the way we live, and the way we represent ourselves, every single day.
If any part of this is your story too, I hope you'll wear it with us.
— Founder of Honor & Heir