Excellence Above Talent Podcast
The State of Man Is in Crisis—It’s Time for a Conversation.
The Excellence Above Talent podcast was born from pain, loss, and a deep need for change.
- Men are 3.6 times more likely to die by suicide than women.
- Men commit the majority of violence in the U.S., including domestic abuse and sexual assault.
- 90% of the prison population consists of men.
These are not just statistics—they represent broken families, lost lives, and a cycle of harm and abuse that must end.
As a BIPP (Batterer’s Intervention and Prevention Program) Director for four years, I’ve had countless conversations with men—men who believed abuse was necessary, men who didn’t even realize they were abusers. What I learned is that men want to talk, but they have no safe space to do so.
Society teaches men to suppress their struggles, to avoid vulnerability, and to uphold a toxic version of manhood. But silence is destroying us.
The Excellence Above Talent podcast is here to challenge the status quo. We’re redefining what it means to be a man—one conversation at a time.
Join me. Let’s fight for the future of manhood. Our sons are watching.
#ExcellenceAboveTalent #MensMentalHealth #RedefiningManhood #BreakTheCycle
Excellence Above Talent Podcast
Mind Games: Your Brain's Favorite Hobby Is Lying to You
Confronting the lies we tell ourselves requires recognizing the deceptive voice in our heads and actively replacing falsehoods with truth to renew our minds and find inner peace.
• The voice in your head that claims to know everything is often lying to you
• This internal voice was formed in childhood and shaped by experiences, education, and environment
• Most dangerous lies include thoughts like "I'm not enough," "I don't deserve good things," or "I'm not worthy"
• Spiritual warfare happens in our internal conversations, not just in our actions
• Taking captive every thought and making it obedient to Christ is our weapon against mental battles
• Process for defeating lies: spot it, cross-examine it, name the source, replace with truth, take new action
• Knowledge is a double-edged sword that can provide freedom but also breed arrogance
• Healing starts with honesty—you cannot hide and heal simultaneously
• Challenging the lies requires dragging them into the light and confessing them to someone you trust
• Replace lies with spiritual truths and repeat them daily to renew your mind
If anyone hasn't told you today that they love you, let me be the first to say I love you. You're awesome. You're amazing. You deserve the best that this world has to offer. Do not quit, do not give up. The world does not get easier, but you will get stronger.
#excellenceabovetalent #EAT #dontgiveup #youdeservethebest #youareenough ...
You're listening to Excellence Above Talent, a podcast where we have the hard conversations about the lives of men and what leads us to achieve greatness and suffer defeat. Hear from other men's journeys as well, as we all learn and grow together to become inspirations to ourselves and those around us. And now your host, Aaron Thomas.
Speaker 2:What's up, my beautiful people, aaron Thomas, with Excellence Above Talent man, I was laying in bed and Yanni asked if I was going to put out a podcast. I said no, because my goal this year was at least two podcasts a month. I couldn't sleep, tossing and turning, and I usually get up out of bed and go into the living room and watch YouTube and mindlessly scroll on my phone. But I made a commitment that I am holding myself to the fire when it comes to reading daily reading the Bible, reading a book, praying daily. And so I got up and I started to read. It's a book guide to inner peace and I read chapter six and it had so many nuggets I believe the chapter is about 10 pages and I wrote a page of notes and I thought to myself self this would be an awesome podcast to get out to the masses, the 15 to 20 of you who listen to my podcast. I thank you for that, thank you for listening, thank you for the motivation to know that there is someone out there that is hearing my voice and are being challenged by the things that I'm saying, or they just want to hear what I'm talking about, which is also awesome. So there is a voice in your head that sounds like it knows everything and you can't tell that voice anything. That voice has been created at a very young age, when you started to learn how to process, when your mom and dad and the environment that you were in taught you numerous things going to school, learning numerous things. The voice has grown over time to what you've been through in your life, your past, and that voice never turns off, or at least for me. But starting to understand that the voice is a lie, because you've heard that voice in your head tell you that you're not good enough, that you'll always be broken, that people are out to get you, that voice acts like it knows everything, but that voice is lying to you. How is that voice lying to you? Because if you never go out of your circle, if you never challenge yourself or push yourself to learn more, to do more, to be around different people, then you're never challenged as a man. And so when things come at you that are different, you get upset, you get angry. Then you try to protect the voice that's in your head and you try to protect the voice that's in your head. The voice in my head at one point told me that I was unworthy and didn't deserve love. To pick up a gun, load it and pull the trigger. That voice can be nasty, that voice can be vicious. And it's all a lie.
Speaker 2:And I'm starting to understand that most of my life I've been living a lie. You're staying up all night replaying the bad choices that you have made. You convince yourself that you're a lost cause. But there's a Bible verse that sticks with me, and it's Romans 12 and 22. And it reads do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The word renewing stands out to me because if your mind can be renewed, the liar in your head can be evicted. That's why you should never run from the process of what you're going through, because it's pushing something either out of you or in you to make you a better man, to make you a better person.
Speaker 2:So my question to you, my listeners what lies have you been calling the truth lately? What lies are you believing to be true? And I'll give you a few of mine. And again, these are my lies that I'm telling myself that I'm not enough, that I don't deserve good things, I am not worthy. I have done bad things in my life, so that makes me a bad person.
Speaker 2:People are out to get me. Am I really Christ-like? I don't want to be a Christian. I don't want to run around and try to be religious. I want to be Christ-like. When people see me, they see God, his love, his kindness, his grace, his mercy, not judging, but trying to figure out ways to make their lives better through my life.
Speaker 2:Because of him, yanni's going to cheat on me. That's a lie that I tell myself. I am a cheater. Porn is my stress reliever. I'm going to be just like my dad and those lies create symptoms. Because I am believing the lies in my head and not finding the inner peace of not renewing my mind. It creates these symptoms and from these symptoms I get these lies that I just told you that I sometimes deal with on a daily. The symptoms that create these lies are fear, anger, hatred, sadness, jealousy, conflict and separations between humans. You don't want to be alone and it's crazy because now I'm thinking about it If the voice in your head abusive or kind, and whatever voice that you have in your head that is who you are as a man, and I guess that's where that internal struggle comes from?
Speaker 2:Because I know I'm not these things that I'm telling myself that I am. I know I'm more than, but I can't see past it Because I am an abusive asshole to myself. So if I'm abusing me myself, the temple that God has given me, how am I not going to? Regardless of how hard I try to hold it in, it will slip out, and again it won't be the people that you don't know. It'll be the people that you swore an oath to love and protect and to provide and take care of for the rest of your days.
Speaker 2:Jesus did not mince words when it comes to where lies come from. John 8 and 44 says the devil has no truth in him. He is a liar, and the father of lies, for that voice that says it's just the way I am is a liar. People sometimes think that spiritual warfare is the action, the watching porn, the cheating, the screaming at your wife or kids, the excessive drinking, the doing drugs. But that's not the spiritual warfare that's really going on in your life. The spiritual warfare is the conversations you're having with yourself that then pushes you to the edge to do those things. So you're fighting this battle of what you think you know versus what God is trying to show you, who you are, and that's the battle that I feel like a lot of men are losing.
Speaker 2:I said it in my last podcast you cannot run around and blame the devil for everything when we allow the voices in our head to sit there unapologetic and we put up no fight. This is why it's important to have a relationship with God. This is why it's important to have fellowship with other men. This is why it's important to go to counseling, because a man who is unchecked is the most dangerous man in this world. Because he believes everything that comes to his mind. He acts it out instead of calling it out. God handed us weapons for this mental street fight.
Speaker 2:2 Corinthians, 10, 5 and 6 says the weapons we fight with demolishes strongholds. We take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. So we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ, which means you don't have to entertain every thought that shows up. Check it. Why are you in my head? Where is this coming from? Why do I feel the way I feel? Is this true in the moment? Because that's the only time you can assess something to be true or not. True is in the moment and if it can't pass that test, push it through your mind, kick it out, do what you need to do to free yourself from that lie that just pops in your head. So this is kind of what I do to help with some of these thoughts that pop up. I spot it. What did I just tell myself? I'm not enough, and be careful about the words you say, because I can tell you if it's a bold-faced lie or not.
Speaker 2:Lies often show up with extreme language like always, never, no one, nothing forever. It's going to be like this forever. So you spotlight the thought, you cross-examine the thought. Is this fact or feeling? So ask yourself where did this thought come from? Can I prove it? Would I say this to a friend I love has this thought ever helped me grow? So, for example, if there's a thought that you say but I'm not enough, ask yourself when was a time where you felt enough? And begin to have that conversation. Name the source. Whose voice? Does this sound like A parent, an ex, a bully culture? Does it sound like the world? Does it sound like the enemy?
Speaker 2:If it is shame, if it isolates you, if it's discouraging without pointing you towards growth, it is not of God, because God does not shame you. God wants you to be around people and God would never discourage you. So you have to replace that lie with a truth. What does God say about me versus what do I say about me? So the lie I am a failure. Romans 8 and 37, I am more than a conqueror. The lie I will never change.
Speaker 2:Second Corinthians 5 and 17,. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The lie I am too broken. The truth Second Corinthians 12 and 9,. His power is made perfect in weakness. Say it out loud, repeat it, rewire the words that you speak to yourself and then, step five, take a new action. What would I do if I believed the truth? What would I do if I believed that I am more than a conqueror versus I am a failure? Would you finish that project? Would you apologize to your wife? Will you hang out with your kids? Would you forgive yourself?
Speaker 2:Truth without action is just a theory. You have to put it to work. A new man doesn't have to recycle old lies. You don't have to be the same if you don't want to be. It is a choice that has to be made daily. That is why it is so hard, I feel, as men, because we are fighting through what this world says we need to be. World says we need to be, and then we're abusing ourselves by believing all the lies and talking recklessly to ourselves, that we bury ourselves in work and we think that providing and protecting is the only thing I am good at, not knowing that there's greatness lying inside of who God has called you to be as a man. You cannot hide what God has put in you, because it will come out of you one way or another. It will come out of you and you walking into the space that God has called you to walk into, or it will come out of you in frustration and anger and hurt and hatred and conflict, because you feel something inside and you know you're supposed to be doing it, but the voice in your head, the liar, is telling you you're not worthy, you don't deserve it, you're not enough.
Speaker 2:People don't talk about knowledge and how. So knowledge is a double-edged sword, because knowledge provides freedom where you know the rules. That lets you break cycles, you spot red flags in relationships, you teach the next generation to level up faster than you did. But it also brings arrogance. The more we think we know, the less we need to listen, which turns into I can't be wrong and pride kills growth. First, corinthians 8 and 1, knowledge puffs up.
Speaker 2:Knowledge can help you be efficient, but it can also create paralysis, where you never stop thinking about the what ifs, over-research. You miss a window or a door that got it open because you're playing the what if game. Knowledge is innovative. You can create so many things with the knowledge that you have but it's also destructive. Knowledge is self-awareness, but it's also self-sabotaging. So you're aware of who you are and who you're trying to become. You're aware of the voice that's in your head, but then the self-sabotaging you says it can't be this good. Something bad is about to happen. Someone's going to die or get a terminal illness and create all this chaos in life. And if nothing you can do about that at the moment, because it's not true. Knowledge builds connections, but you also compare yourself to others when you have knowledge as well.
Speaker 2:Information does not equal transformation. Head knowledge without heart change is like sharpening a you never learn to yield, to use, to strike. There has to be a heart change in order for you to use your blade the right way. Context controls consequences, so a fire cooks food, but a fire can also burn a house. It's the same element. One makes your food delicious and one destroys all that you own. So it's the same element different stewardship.
Speaker 2:God has given us free will, as men, to think how we want to think, to question or not to question. You have that power and you can use it for good by challenging the negative or the lies that you're telling yourself daily, or you can just let the lies play out. The person who yields or wields the sword will wield it to the character that they are at, to the character that they are at. So if a person has humility, accountability and purpose, they won't use the sword for bad. But if there is a person who always has to be right, who always has to cut deep, then that sword that they are wielding will hurt the people that surround them.
Speaker 2:I challenge you if you've made it to the end of this podcast, I challenge you to drag the lie into the light. James 5 and 16 says Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. Healing starts with honesty. You can't hide and heal. It's impassable. People sometimes ask me man, how can you be so honest, or, man, you're so real, because I want to heal Now. This doesn't mean running around telling everybody everything, but healing starts with honesty. You cannot hide. So I challenge you to drag the lie into the light and to write one lie you've believed and tell your wife, a friend, your counselor, and then swap it for one spiritual, grounded truth and repeat that truth out loud every day.
Speaker 2:This week the liar in your head just lost ground. Keep renewing that mind, keep fighting for who you know God has called you to be, and sometimes you don't know. But getting into his word, reading and praying and having fellowship with other men, going to counseling, having those heart to heart with your wife and kids, that will help in that process. Because, remember, healing starts with honesty. You cannot hide from this. As a man, you are the worst person to play hide and seek when it comes to believing in the lies that you tell yourself. No amount of hiding can protect you, your family or friends. No amount and I haven't done this before, but I feel compelled to do it is pray.
Speaker 2:So, dear God, I thank you for giving us a chance to live this life, this life that was created with billions of us trying to fight to be born. So, with that being said, you know that me sitting here behind this mic on this podcast, and the people listening to my voice, we are special. We were created to be here. We are loved and we don't want to take that for granted the life that you have given us to be great men.
Speaker 2:There is a battle that we are fighting a lot of us by ourselves, but we know that we're all dealing with this battle to push out what this world has deemed to be, what a man is, and to renew our minds to become the man that you have called us to be. There's nothing we can do without your presence, without your glory, without your love, without your mercy, and I'm asking you right now, god, to heal the broken men that have believed the lies their whole entire life, that they're not enough, that they are not worthy, that they are not deserving of all that you have called them to do and be. It is a fight, it is a struggle, but daily, if we look up to you and ask for your strength, you will freely give it to us, not saying it's going to be easy, but you will have the power to walk through what you're walking through with God. I pray that we stop believing the lies that we tell ourselves and start believing the truth that you have given us, and all we have to do is open up your word and start reading to see the truth that you have in us. We love you, we praise you. We give you all the glory, honor and praise for all that you have in us. We love you, we praise you. We give you all the glory, honor and praise for all that you're doing, have done and going to do in our lives.
Speaker 2:I pray for a stronger man in 2025. I pray for honest men in 2025. I pray for the men that are tired of hiding. We know that you can do it In your name. I pray Amen. So if anyone hasn't told you today that they love you, let me be the first to say I love you. You're awesome. You're amazing. You deserve the best that this world has to offer. Do not quit, do not give up. The world does not get easier, but you will get stronger, stronger. Y'all. Have a blessed weekend, bye-bye thank you for listening.
Speaker 1:Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode and for daily motivational and up-to-date content. Follow us on facebook and instagram at excellence above talent. And remember keep moving, keep moving forward. Never give up and you are never alone in this battle. We'll see you next time.
