The Grit Factor Podcast w/ Karl Jacobi

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Episode 019: He Lost His Wife, Raised Seven Kids Alone, and Built His Best Year Yet with Jeffrey Clark

/ 01:23:19/E19
Episode Summary
Jeffrey Clark has been selling online since 2006. He built a multiple six-figure business as a one-man operation from a rural town in northern Indiana, selling everything from empty toilet paper tubes to heavy construction equipment. He homeschools all seven of his children, is a grandad of two, soon to be three, plays trombone in four different bands, coaches thousands of people how to resell online, and speaks on stages. That is the highlight reel. Here is what it cost to get there.

In August 2014, Jeff's wife Dawn had a sudden brain hemorrhage. She was in a hospital bed for five days, kept alive by tubes and wires. Jeff prayed over her, spoke scripture, sang hymns, and did everything he knew to do. On Saturday, he knew. The Holy Spirit had told him in the ambulance on the way to the hospital that he would know when to shut the machines off. He did. He made that call just after noon. That same night, his kids sat him down and said, dad, we think you should go to the conference. Mom was really excited for you to go. On Wednesday, two days after the funeral, Jeff and two of his kids drove fifteen hours straight from the cemetery in northern Indiana to a conference in Dallas. His youngest daughter was eight years old and had no memory of a healthy, happy mom.

What followed was a year that shattered every financial record Jeff had ever set, a year of grief that reshaped who he understood himself to be, and several years of dark choices he has never talked about publicly until now. Drinking too much. Pursuing the wrong relationship. Lying to his kids to keep it going. Fracturing relationships with some of his children that have never fully repaired. Jeff is honest about all of it, unflinching, and genuinely at peace with where he is now because he walked straight through the fire instead of around it.

This is one of the most wisdom-dense episodes in the history of this show. This episode is for anyone standing in the wreckage of something they did not see coming, wondering if God is still good. Jeff's answer is yes. He has earned the right to say it.

In This Episode, You'll Discover:
  1. How Jeff started selling online in 2006 by buying discontinued RV parts off the factory floor where he worked and flipping them on eBay, eventually making fourteen thousand dollars his last year there
  2. What it was like to be in the ambulance when the Holy Spirit told him he would know when to shut the machines off, and how years of practicing listening to God's voice made it possible to trust that moment
  3. The night his kids sat him down two days after the funeral and told him to go to the conference because their mom had been excited for him to go, and how that one decision changed everything
  4. How Jeff hit his first five-figure month three months after Dawn died, his first six-figure year in his life that same year, and what that season of rebuilding actually looked like beneath the business wins
  5. The year of grief Jeff deliberately took, following ancient Jewish tradition, to process every notable date, figure out who he was without his wife of thirty years, and rediscover what was still him and what was theirs
  6. The dark years he has never shared publicly: drinking too much, pursuing a wrong relationship for too long, lying to his kids about it, and the fracture with some of his children that still exists today
  7. Why Jeff says relationships are the single greatest measure of wealth, how every major business pivot in his life has come through a connection someone else made for him, and what Rabbi Daniel Lapin's teaching on biblical economics taught him about what he is actually building
  8. The three words on the sign on Jeff's desk that he looks at every time he thinks he is the worst version of himself
Key Takeaways:
  1. God's Voice Does Not Come With Fear. Jeff has a simple filter for distinguishing the Holy Spirit from the enemy. If the thought comes with peace, it is from God. If fear, anxiety, and catastrophizing follow immediately after, it is not. This is the framework that let him trust what he heard in the ambulance, and it is the same framework he practices daily with small, inconsequential decisions so that when the big ones come, he knows the voice.
  2. You Fall Because You Keep Getting Up. Jeff asked God why he kept falling on an icy parking lot during one of the hardest financial stretches of his life. God said, because you keep getting up. That reframe is everything. Falling is not the evidence of failure. It is the evidence of persistence. The people who never fall are the ones who stopped moving.
  3. Take a Year to Grieve. Not just for death. For any significant loss, divorce, a business collapse, a season ending, a relationship breaking. Ancient Jewish tradition allocates a year because you need to hit every notable date once without the person or the thing you lost. Jeff applied this after his wife died and again after his second marriage ended. The year forces you to figure out who you are without them.
  4. Separate Your Circumstances From Truth. Circumstances change. Truth does not. Jeff does not tell people to ignore hard realities. He tells them to deal with hard realities from a position of victory, not defeat. Your circumstance is not your nature. Your nature in Christ is fixed. Approach the problem from that fixed point, not from the floor of the problem itself.
  5. You Don't Suck. Three words on a sign on Jeff's desk. He looks at it when he is convinced he is the worst businessman, the worst father, the worst human. Everything you do badly the first through fifth time does not mean you are bad at it. It means you are new at it. You don't suck. You're learning.
  6. Your Wealth Is in Your Relationships. Jeff is not talking about feel-good friendships. He is talking about the number of quality people who can connect you to the right resource, the right player, the right opportunity when you need it. His business doubled in 2025 because a friend dropped an idea on him. It grew entirely by word of mouth. Every major pivot in his life came through a relationship, not a strategy.
  7. The Dark Years Are Part of the Story Too. Jeff lied to his kids. He drank too much. He stayed in the wrong relationship far longer than he should have because he lied to himself first. He has estranged children who respond to birthday texts with one word. He is not hiding any of it. The path out of grief is not linear and not clean, and pretending otherwise helps no one.
  8. When It Stops Serving You, Package It and Sell It. Jeff loves his business, but he is clear about this. The day he wakes up and it no longer feels like it is adding to his life, that is the day he packages it up and sells it. He does not attach his identity to the business or to staying in it. That clarity is what keeps him building from joy instead of obligation.
Timestamps:
  • [00:00] Karl introduces Jeffrey Clark: selling online since 2006, homeschooling seven kids, grandad, musician, coach, speaker
  • [02:30] How it started: buying discontinued RV parts off the factory floor and flipping them on eBay, fourteen thousand dollars his last year at the factory
  • [06:00] The Lord tapping him on the shoulder to quit the factory, and his wife going along with it as the sign it was real
  • [09:00] The editing and ghostwriting detour: really good at the work, terrible at charging what they were worth
  • [12:00] August 2014: Dawn's sudden brain hemorrhage, five days in the hospital, and the voice in the ambulance
  • [17:00] How Jeff learned to recognize God's voice through small, inconsequential moments like buying wiper blades
  • [23:00] The filter: peace means it is from God, fear means it is from the enemy
  • [27:00] Saturday at twelve fifteen: making the call to shut the machines off
  • [30:00] The kids sitting him down that night and telling him to go to the conference to honor mom
  • [33:00] Driving fifteen hours from the cemetery to Dallas two days after the funeral
  • [36:00] First five-figure month three months later, first six-figure year of his life that same year
  • [39:00] Karl's ad break: the Playbook Method at theplaybookmfethod.com
  • [40:00] The year of grief: ancient Jewish tradition, hitting every notable date, rediscovering who Jeff was without thirty years of Jeff and Dawn
  • [45:00] The Starbucks moment: his daughter asked what he wanted to drink and he realized he did not know, he had always ordered what he and Dawn got
  • [48:00] Pulling the trombone out of the closet for the first time in thirty years, and why he plays in four bands today
  • [52:00] The dark years he has never shared publicly: drinking too much, pursuing the wrong relationship, lying to his kids
  • [57:00] The estranged kids: what he would say to them right now if they were sitting next to him
  • [01:01:00] His youngest daughter, best friends, getting married in October
  • [01:03:00] The second marriage in 2020, eighteen months, she left for Alaska, and choosing to take another year to grieve
  • [01:07:00] Separating circumstances from truth: approaching hard realities from a position of victory, not defeat
  • [01:12:00] Karl's ad break: the Playbook Method at theplaybookmethod.com
  • [01:13:00] God is always good: what made Jeff say this and how to believe it while standing in the wreckage
  • [01:17:00] You fall because you keep getting up: the icy parking lot prayer walk that changed everything
  • [01:21:00] Relationships as the number one measure of wealth: Rabbi Lapin, the Broadway Con, and how Jeff's business doubled through a single connection
  • [01:27:00] What Jeff is fired up about right now: grandad of three coming, new band, daughter's wedding, a business that is eminently scalable
  • [01:31:00] Seduced by success: why Jeff stays focused on obedience even when everything is going well
  • [01:33:00] The Sorcerer's Apprentice Facebook group and how to connect with Jeff
  • [01:35:00] Grit defined: getting back up. That is the whole definition.
  • [01:37:00] Subtraction: only keeping what is still serving you, dropping what is not, building a retirement plan around the day the joy leaves
  • [01:40:00] The directive: you don't suck
  • [01:42:00] Ryan's question from Episode 18: what are you working for?
  • [01:44:00] Jeff's answer: Genesis 41:38, can we find a man like this in whom is the Spirit of God
  • [01:46:00] Jeff's question for the next guest: how do you evaluate yourself?
  • [01:48:00] Jeff's message to the camera for anyone standing where he stood in August 2014
Resources & Links:
Connect with Jeffrey Clark:
Connect with Karl Jacobi:

Creators and Guests

Karl Jacobi
Host
Karl Jacobi
Host of The Grit Factor Podcast, Resilience & Performance Coach, Founder, Entrepreneur, Combat Veteran
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Jeffrey Clark
Guest
Jeffrey Clark
Business Owner
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Episode 019: He Lost His Wife, Raised Seven Kids Alone, and Built His Best Year Yet with Jeffrey Clark

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