How Faith Changed Cassian Bellino’s Life

Wendy & Rich 0:01
Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios, Hartford County Living presents Conversations with Rich Bennett. 

Rich Bennett 0:27
What do you do when you spent years searching for answers but nobody seems to be explaining things in a way to make sense? For today's guest, that question led to a journey she never expected. For more than two decades, Cassie and Bullina wanted to understand the Bible on a deeper level. But instead of finding clarity, she often found confusion. She wasn't a theologian, she wasn't playing in the started podcast and she certainly wasn't trying to build a platform followed by more than 100,000 people. She was simply looking for answers. What happened next is a story about faith, persistence and saying yes when God places something on your heart. And rather than waiting for someone else to create the resource she wished existed, Cassie stepped forward and built it herself. At decision-led to hundreds of conversations with respected biblical scholars and so many other experts and ultimately became biblically speaking, a podcast dedicated to helping people understand scripture in a way that's clear, approachable and meaningful. Cassie and I am happy to have you on here because I have a funny feeling you're going to be able to answer a lot of things. I've had so many people on talking about God and the Bible and everything. And I know you can answer a lot of things. Are you okay? 

Cassian Bellino 2:02
okay? That was 

Rich Bennett 2:03
Are 

Cassian Bellino 2:03
like a movie 

Rich Bennett 2:03
you 

Cassian Bellino 2:04
intro. 

Rich Bennett 2:05
I 

Cassian Bellino 2:06
was in it. I was like, what's good. 

Rich Bennett 2:07
I thought you were I thought you were still sitting there crying. 

Cassian Bellino 2:10
I might. We have some leverage. I'm going to be right. 

Rich Bennett 2:15
For those of you listening, Cassie didn't realize how good her podcast was doing. 

Cassian Bellino 2:22
I didn't know. 

Rich Bennett 2:24
Hey, when I told her about a couple of sites to look at, she's like, what? What? What? No way. Oh, no. 

Cassian Bellino 2:32
apparently people are listening. Thank 

Rich Bennett 2:34
And God. Yeah. God told you to do it. And look. He's making things happen. 

Cassian Bellino 2:39
Yeah, he truly is, which is so funny because one of the reasons I didn't start this podcast for six months, God put it on my heart for five years, then he's like, now it's time. And then I like sat on it because I was like, God, you got the wrong girl for like all these reasons. The thing that like broke me to do it was I was like, what if no one listens? And then that's embarrassing that I am public and on social media. And I'm like online with this content. And then no one's listening, like how humiliating. And this girl that I was talking to was so smart. She was like, well, if no one's listening, then no one heard it. So they don't even know about it. I was like, Oh, you're right. Yeah. No one's listening. But like it doesn't matter. She's like, I don't think God wants you to start a podcast. I think he just wants to hang out with you. Like I think he wants you to get to know him. And I was like, Oh, oh, oh, yeah, I can do that. And then that's what really like, I was like, okay, I'll do it. And then what also happened as a pastor was like, you're being disobedient by not doing the podcast. You sat on this for too long. And I was like, I thought I had a choice. And he's like, I don't think you have a choice anymore. And so then we did it. 

Rich Bennett 3:40
All right. So first of all, I gotta, I gotta argue with you here. A minute. Did you listen to it after you recorded 

Cassian Bellino 3:47
my podcast? 

Rich Bennett 3:48
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 3:49
Uh, yeah. Obviously. 

Rich Bennett 3:50
All right. Then then you had somebody listen me. 

Cassian Bellino 3:53
One listen. 

Rich Bennett 3:55
Yeah. So here's, here's the funny thing. I'm going to ask you that point blank. After you recording, did you learn something from what you recorded? 

Cassian Bellino 4:05
I 

Rich Bennett 4:05
had about the script, 

Cassian Bellino 4:07
you know, 1000% because when you're hosting, you're thinking about a million other things, 

Rich Bennett 4:12
right 

Cassian Bellino 4:12
timing, question, cadence, intonation, like are you reacting appropriately? People tell me things on podcasts. And I'm like, I am genuinely speechless, but I have a show. The seconds are ticking by. And I'm like, we will come back to that later. Like you just have to keep going in the show. But you're like genuinely mind blown. And so you have to listen back. You have to go back and say, wow, that, that was crazy because all I was was just reacting in the show. 

Rich Bennett 4:38
And you learned 

Cassian Bellino 4:39
Oh, 1000% 1000, 

Rich Bennett 4:41
there you go. There you go. And obviously if you're in the top 5% globally, 

Cassian Bellino 4:49
insane, 

Rich Bennett 4:50
or listen, 

Cassian Bellino 4:51
insane. I know. I think it's 190 countries. Actually, I think that's spot 

Rich Bennett 4:56
Oh, 

Cassian Bellino 4:56
if I can. 

Rich Bennett 4:56
yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 4:58
100 

Rich Bennett 4:58
because you're because it's not explicit. 

Cassian Bellino 5:01
What's I mean? 

Rich Bennett 5:02
Okay. I love this. I feel like I'm a teacher in class. So, some. 

Cassian Bellino 5:09
I like it. Woisters. I'm just here for five. 

Rich Bennett 5:12
So some countries if a podcast is marked explicit in other which foul language, some 

Cassian Bellino 5:19
Oh, 

Rich Bennett 5:20
there's one I carry it. 

Cassian Bellino 5:22
Oh. 

Rich Bennett 5:23
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 5:23
Oh. 

Rich Bennett 5:24
So my podcast is marked explicit because as you saw before we started recording, I talked to people in recovery. Uh, I, I talked to all types of different people and I have to, I just marked the whole podcast as explicit. So it's only in 140 countries. 

Cassian Bellino 5:42
Oh, okay. 

Rich Bennett 5:44
Then. 

Cassian Bellino 5:44
So you marked it explicit because I've talked about like demons and position and giant. 

Rich Bennett 5:48
That's, not foul language, though. 

Cassian Bellino 5:50
Oh, okay. 

Rich Bennett 5:51
Yeah, it's explicit is the foul language. 

Cassian Bellino 5:54
Okay, okay. 

Rich Bennett 5:55
So 

Cassian Bellino 5:55
Wow. 

Rich Bennett 5:55
yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 5:55
That's. 

Rich Bennett 5:55
But that, no, that's awesome. 190. You must be using bus spare for your hosting service. 

Cassian Bellino 6:00
Aren't you? No, I use anchor. I use. 

Rich Bennett 6:03
Oh, 

Cassian Bellino 6:03
for creators. 

Rich Bennett 6:04
And that shows you how many countries 

Cassian Bellino 6:06
the best, I wouldn't say it's the best, but it does what it needs to do. It's enough. 

Rich Bennett 6:11
Right. 

Cassian Bellino 6:11
And it tells me 

Rich Bennett 6:12
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 6:13
where all my RSS feed is and then also 

Rich Bennett 6:16
identify. 

Cassian Bellino 6:16
But I mean, the websites you just showed me are amazing because it, it 's all the reviews in one place. 

Rich Bennett 6:23
That's. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that' only two of them. You'd be surprised to have many different websites there are that I use for my podcast. 

Cassian Bellino 6:31
I need all of them. I need to know my rankings. This is bragging rights. I'm going to come. 

Rich Bennett 6:35
Well, we'll connect. I'll I'll help you up. I'll give. All right. So, all right. So God spoke to you, do you need to start 

Cassian Bellino 6:43
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 6:44
this? You know, besides you. Who do you know of was the first one to listen to it? And what did they say? 

Cassian Bellino 6:55
I know my dad did not listen for a long time. He's like 

Rich Bennett 6:57
Okay. 

Cassian Bellino 6:57
too long. 

Rich Bennett 6:59
It's too long. 

Cassian Bellino 7:01
I don't listen to things for an hour. Um, you know, I lived with this girl and she was very new age. I don't think she would call herself that, but she was definitely atheist. And 

Rich Bennett 7:12
Okay. 

Cassian Bellino 7:13
she was my best friend. We've kind of drifted now that she's left Hawaii. But um, she was not Christian and she would listen and she would tell me about it and she was overminded and it was so amazing. Because I honestly, I thought I would lose friends and yet my friends like God changed the heart of my friends. All my friends are atheist and, you know, Luke, Um, Christian maybe goes to church. 

Rich Bennett 7:34
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 7:34
But they all were so supportive. So other than my mom and my family, maybe like my Godmother, but like my friends, they were so supportive. 

Rich Bennett 7:44
Your dad still hasn't listened? 

Cassian Bellino 7:47
All 

Rich Bennett 7:48
right. So 

Cassian Bellino 7:49
No, he definitely had you for sure has. 

Rich Bennett 7:50
I was going 

Cassian Bellino 7:51
My 

Rich Bennett 7:51
to 

Cassian Bellino 7:51
dad 

Rich Bennett 7:51
say 

Cassian Bellino 7:51
is very 

Rich Bennett 7:51
tell you. 

Cassian Bellino 7:51
supportive 

Rich Bennett 7:52
Tell your father this. Tell him the big difference between say a podcast and a radio show or whatever. A podcast has something that radio doesn't have. 

Cassian Bellino 8:03
of 

Rich Bennett 8:03
If 

Cassian Bellino 8:03
me. 

Rich Bennett 8:03
he 

Cassian Bellino 8:04
what 

Rich Bennett 8:04
thinks it's I do, but if he thinks it's too long, he can hit the pause button 

Cassian Bellino 8:10
and 

Rich Bennett 8:11
come back and finish listening to it later. 

Cassian Bellino 8:14
No, you know what I did is my dad's orthodox. So I brought in orthodox priest and then my dad was all about the podcast. 

Rich Bennett 8:21
Wow. 

Cassian Bellino 8:22
Yeah. Well, it was my aunt. So his sister goes to an orthodox church and she's like, you've got to talk to my priest. He's really cool. He's a bodybuilder and father Michael Butler is the coolest of the cool. 

Rich Bennett 8:33
All right. So crazy question. Have you talked to your father about him coming on a podcast? 

Cassian Bellino 8:41
Why am I not a phylogian? Wait. 

Rich Bennett 8:44
Did 

Cassian Bellino 8:45
you see my father? 

Rich Bennett 8:46
Yeah, why not? 

Cassian Bellino 8:48
Well, because he's not a PhD or a theologian. 

Rich Bennett 8:50
I know, but to see if he learned anything while listening to your podcast. 

Cassian Bellino 8:56
That's just a dinner conversation. 

Rich Bennett 8:58
It's 

Cassian Bellino 9:00
funny because my mom's Protestant and my dad is orthodox. So we start getting into religion. And it's just a fight. 

Rich Bennett 9:08
It's really fun. Uh-huh. 

Cassian Bellino 9:09
Maybe I'll 

Rich Bennett 9:09
that. That's 

Cassian Bellino 9:09
record 

Rich Bennett 9:10
really fun. 

Cassian Bellino 9:11
I'm problematic. 

Rich Bennett 9:13
Well, I mean, because you're always you're doing this talking to experts at this time. Correct. So I would think eventually, depending on how long you want to keep this podcast going, eventually you may run out of experts. 

Cassian Bellino 9:27
People. Yeah. I'm to talk to every single one until I get to West half. 

Rich Bennett 9:32
But then I would just go ahead and talk. I found this this to be fun talking, especially to your listeners to see what they've gotten from it. 

Cassian Bellino 9:45
Well, I think you're just thinking, like, iterations that this could become. Like, I would love to build a community. I have a private WhatsApp 

Rich Bennett 9:50
Oh, yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 9:50
community right now, and like, I would love to build something where, like, people like me access scholars. Like, I think that's the next iteration, but like, you're right. I will run out of content. Content will have to evolve all that stuff, right? 

Rich Bennett 10:01
Wait a minute. You have a community on what? 

Cassian Bellino 10:05
I've got a private community on WhatsApp, and it's just like a group of Christians in a group chat that can pray and support each other. 

Rich Bennett 10:13
Okay. Now, I taught you something in the beginning, and then you're teaching me something how into a world you create a community on WhatsApp. 

Cassian Bellino 10:20
Well, I tried doing it on school. I did all the paid versions, and 

Rich Bennett 10:23
wanted, 

Cassian Bellino 10:24
nobody 

Rich Bennett 10:24
right? 

Cassian Bellino 10:24
That. You know, you like, you know, you build those communities, you teach courses, you charge people 

Rich Bennett 10:30
Yeah, 

Cassian Bellino 10:30
money. Yeah, I'll do that did not work. I spent so much money, and it did not work. And then I was like, I went to a networking group and they were like, if you want to do something, do it free, and then evolve it into paid. I was like, they're like, you want to build a community just make a group chat on WhatsApp? Everybody that follows you is global. It has to be WhatsApp. And so now I created it, and I created a female version so you could talk about like female issues or like female prayer requests, but honestly, I'd never even comment because the community has taken on a heart of it to own and the 

Rich Bennett 11:03
right. 

Cassian Bellino 11:03
people, I just every single week on social media, I'm like, Hey, there's a private community, if you want to join, here's the link on my social media story. People join people leave. People stay. They post prayer requests. They post links. They post devotionals. My assistant, she lives in the Philippines. She's like, there's a tsunami. People pray for her. Someone's going through a divorce. People pray for them. I comment, and they're like, who? Hey, welcome. I was like, this is my group. Like, people aren't like own it. Like, it is owned by the members at this point. 

Rich Bennett 11:32
I never see. I only use WhatsApp to call my best friend in Italy. That's it. I didn't know you could do it. 

Cassian Bellino 11:39
Right. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 11:41
All right. So when you're home class, 

Cassian Bellino 11:45
that was like, that's an easy way to have a community, I think. And like, yeah, it's, it's special to have that. But I think like, I don't know, content-wise, I would love to do diary of a CEO style where he has multiple experts on one topic. 

Rich Bennett 12:00
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 12:01
Like I would love to like talk about dinosaurs, but have the multiple people that I've had talk about it or, you know, open these and like freedom and free will and free choice, you know, have multiple, you know, people to talk on that. And honestly, I think as hosts, you understand why people don't do that is because you want each person to talk a lot, but you have to cut off people and 

Rich Bennett 12:24
right. 

Cassian Bellino 12:24
That would be difficult, especially remotely. 

Rich Bennett 12:28
Yeah. Well, yeah. That's true. I'm going to have to look into this. 

Cassian Bellino 12:31
Yeah. I just interviewed two people a couple weeks ago. And I very quickly, when you ask a question, you have to say, rich question. And then, or because if you just ask a question, nobody's going to talk. They're going to wait for the other person. So having multiple people is a little different than just one 

Rich Bennett 12:48
on one. Yeah. But yeah, okay. I'm still going to have to try that and play with it now. 

Cassian Bellino 12:55
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 12:55
Right. 

Cassian Bellino 12:56
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 12:56
So I want to get back to the podcast here 

Cassian Bellino 12:59
Sure. 

Rich Bennett 12:59
because you just blew me away. There. 

So, so you said 

Cassian Bellino 13:04
Five 

Rich Bennett 13:04
that. 

Cassian Bellino 13:04
percent podcast right there. 

Rich Bennett 13:07
So 

you said you said for more than 20 years, you felt lost reading scripture, right? So which is kind of weird, but since you're only. 

Cassian Bellino 13:19
I know, girl, what? 

Rich Bennett 13:20
Yeah, but I would. What, what did that struggle look like on a day-to-day basis? 

Cassian Bellino 13:27
So I come from 

Rich Bennett 13:28
a Christian. 

Cassian Bellino 13:29
And I think that you're raised going to church and then you say prayers at every meal at night. We were like the Christian family, too. Like we 

Rich Bennett 13:37
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 13:37
had a lot of rules based on our faith. And so you kind of feel like a performer at some point because you're like, I'm doing all the things I'm supposed to do. And you're like, okay, it's time to read my Bible because that's what they say. Read your Bible every day and you're like. 

Okay, we'll start here and you do that flip and open and you're like, kind of wanted me to read that, but you have no idea what you're reading. You're like, okay, that was a create, I have no context. No one's explaining this context. You know, like if I like today, I don't say I'm going to say. I'll say, okay, I just open up to Joel. I don't know, actually, I love Joel. But okay, Joel, Joel, to 12, even now it declares a Lord return to me. Oh, that's actually crazy. We open up this verse. Oh my gosh, it's happening. So much even now declares the Lord return to me with all your heart with fasting and weeping in the morning. I have a lot of history with that verse, but if I was a, you know, when I was a 

Rich Bennett 14:29
right. 

Cassian Bellino 14:29
Sunday school Christian, I'm like, okay, so God's clearly calling me to repentance. I wouldn't know anything about Joel I wouldn't understand the history of Christianity. What was going on when this book was written? Who is Joel? Who is he talking to? That those are the questions that I had and I never got answered and it's not like my parents knew like I said my parents are at theologians Nobody in my place in any of that like theology and so I was like Okay with sin because the the word couldn't reach me. I had so much logic and yes the Holy Spirit is a moving But I think the Holy Spirit took me on a journey that was this this confusion and included this confusion because it brought me to this podcast and and I I Didn't get these answers in church you know, it's not like you could raise your hand and be like hey back it up Can we go over the context of Joel historically speaking? What was going on geopolitically and like where were they in the world Going on what was the context of like who is Joel talking and so when I was 23 3 I was in Thailand and I was like 

Rich Bennett 15:30
college 

Cassian Bellino 15:31
out of in my first job Deciding who I wanted to be as a woman and I knew I wanted to be a Christian woman like my mother and I was like Partying it up. I had no qualms with my sin. I had no conviction about it and I I love doing like I've done all the things and so I was like I am nowhere near a godly woman, but like I want that so like How do I love a god? I don't know 

Rich Bennett 15:57
and right? 

Cassian Bellino 15:57
How do I get to know that god and I 

Rich Bennett 16:00
He felt disconnected from God. 

Cassian Bellino 16:02
I just it was a stranger to me like 

Rich Bennett 16:04
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 16:04
it was a god and then there's me And I like couldn't talk about God without crying because I was like that entity is so far from me And I'm so undeserving of this love. How can I possibly feel connected to him? 

Rich Bennett 16:17
Right 

Cassian Bellino 16:18
Like I felt so undeserving really and And so I just kind of got honest I feel like the humility was like the key that unlocked my faith where I was like I got I would know you I would love you if I knew you and I would want to obey you if I knew you But I don't know you and I don't know how to know you So if only there was a podcast where a really smart person that new theology and context could answer a really funny person's questions and it wasn't a sermon and it wasn't a come to Jesus alter It wasn't academics. It was like a conversation surely that exists. It's not a crazy idea Couldn't find it for five years Five year five years. I'm watching YouTube. I'm joining these Bible studies. I'm I'm going to through podcasts and God is like slowly molding my heart He's introducing these books into my He's introducing me these prayer warriors. I'm like on fire forgot all the sudden and I remember was going I like knew I was changing because I was going through a breakup and we broke up I'd go through this change. I reconnect with the person and I'm like he's like what are you up to and I'm like Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and he's like oh, I don't know like what about Buddhism? What about this? And I was like oh, we're different now And so I knew that I was changing and then I had this vision and so when I got out to Hawaii, I was like Girly where is this thing and I brought up to my sister and she was like, "Cas" I think you're the one that's supposed to do this because like Like you haven't found it because it's supposed to come from you and I was like me like you saw me in college All the things. You want me to start a Christian podcast. I'm like the least Christian person ever And then you know the rest is history but Like that's where the confusion It's like and I went out to my pastor. I was like hey Love your service. Before we go into John. Can you like do a little five-minute on who is John? Where is John? How old is John? What is he doing if he lived today? And she's like no That's 

Rich Bennett 18:14
job really 

Cassian Bellino 18:14
not my 

Rich Bennett 18:14
Yeah 

Cassian Bellino 18:15
Yeah, I mean, it's not her job if I'm being honest like I didn't know that at the time But she her job is me to me. Her job is to know what she was taught which is mostly New Testament And I'm asking for a lot of isogetical You know practical theology connecting it to Old Testament And she was never never taught that nor is that her job and so she was like hey It sounds like you have a level that deserves seminary and I was like I'm not going to seminary She's like, well join the Bible study and I'm like I am in the Bible study like I just want 

Rich Bennett 18:44
They won't teach you that 

Cassian Bellino 18:45
At to me Bible studies are crazy like Bible studies are community They are not studying the Bible because no one is qualified to help you study the Bible Like unless I mean again another iteration of content I would love to have a scholar lead a Bible study I'm trying to build a devotional 

Rich Bennett 19:00
worth right 

Cassian Bellino 19:00
right now Hey, the bleeding woman is actually referencing Jewish cleanliness laws Where is that stated in the Bible like I've had to talk to scholars about that because I didn't know Jewish cleanliness laws Wow 

Rich Bennett 19:13
So where are you finding these scholars to talk? Because I 

Cassian Bellino 19:17
not 

Rich Bennett 19:17
know they're 

Cassian Bellino 19:17
Charlie spirit that's for jar. I just I don't know they're like falling from the sky 

Rich Bennett 19:23
I was gonna say because I knew you're not gonna be finding a lot of them on pod match 

Cassian Bellino 19:27
i don't know, i'm asking you that. [laughs] I had no idea, and then, you know, by the grace of God, I'd like one of the things God's like you should do this. And i was like, 

Rich Bennett 19:33
anybody 

Cassian Bellino 19:33
I don't have 

Rich Bennett 19:33
to enter 

Cassian Bellino 19:33
your country 

Rich Bennett 19:34
with you. 

Like, yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 19:56
All I have is my questions, that's all I had, I didn't have a mic, I didn't have software, all I had was my questions. And I was dating this guy at the time, and he was being a good boy for him, he was bragging about his girlfriend starting a podcast because he took people on tours, you know, to why all we do is going, 

Rich Bennett 20:11
right. 

Cassian Bellino 20:12
And the people he took on Hikes, he was bragging about me and they were like, "Oh, worthy ologians." Like, we have tons of people that would be willing to come on her show. And so that I just called them and I was like, "Oh, how does this work?" And they're like, "I don't know if I can answer your questions because I'm philosophical." And, you know, this level theology, but my friend can. He can actually tell you all that demons. You should talk to him. 

Rich Bennett 20:33
So 

Cassian Bellino 20:33
I called a strange man, Christopher Carr. And I'm like, "I heard that you know demons." And he was the coolest guy who's my first episode. And I was like, "He's like, I could tell you about demons." And he's like, "We can talk about Luke and Mark and Legion." And I was like, "Okay." And so then we just had this amazing conversation where I was like, "Okay, so what's going on with Legion?" And I'll never forget this conversation. I learned so much. And it was our first episode. And then at the end, I was like, "Do you wanna come back and talk about angels?" And he's like, "Yeah." And then I just kept asking, like, well, who else do you recommend? And then I would go to, you know, Wheaton College, academic list of teachers. And I would just email every single person on that list. And then I found reasons to believe, which is like the coolest thing ever. It's like, scientists that believe in God. And it's a whole network of them. And I just bothered them until they would share their emails with me. And then I found Hugh Ross, the astrophysicist 

Rich Bennett 21:26
of- "Oh, yeah." 

Cassian Bellino 21:27
I saw him on Instagram. I was like, "That's a perfect guess." Looked him up, he was on "Koi" the next weekend. I flew to "Koi." I cornered him at a church service and I was like, "Really? Come on, man, you don't." And he's like, "Yeah, that's a percent." And then he recommended all of his scholars. And like, Dr. Mark Clark came on, and like an astronaut came on. And then I saw his Genesis history on Amazon Prime, which is a crazy documentary of, like, scientist talking about, like, Genesis, and like, what just… 

Rich Bennett 21:55
Hm. 

Cassian Bellino 21:56
Rock formations talk about Noah's blood. And then I just emailed everything a person on that list. And now it's easy. I mean, it got to a point in my first year where I ran out of guess. And I was like, "Okay. That was a good run. But we're done." Like, I'm not going to do this solo. I don't have like, this isn't- there's a show anymore of it, it's just me. And then this guy from India emails me, and he's like, "Please let me work for you. I'v done a similar show like you. I know what you're doing. I'll work for you. Here's the people I've interviewed." And I was like, "I cannot pay you, because I do not make money. But send me your list of people that you've interviewed." And he sent me like 12 people. And then it helped me keep the show on for six more months. And now that just keeps happening. Like, I just kept getting guess. And now I'm booked out the 

Rich Bennett 22:40
That's 

Cassian Bellino 22:40
rest- 

Rich Bennett 22:41
amazing. 

Cassian Bellino 22:41
It's insane. It's insane. It's almost as insane. It's more insane than the 5%. Like, it's like, "What is God doing?" Like, this is too successful to 

Rich Bennett 22:49
him- 

Cassian Bellino 22:49
come to 

Rich Bennett 22:49
It's driving! 

Cassian Bellino 22:50
From my brain. The none of this is by my own doing. 

Rich Bennett 22:53
Yeah. It's... 

Cassian Bellino 22:55
Crazy. 

Rich Bennett 22:56
And I think of that song who sang it, "Carry Underwood." Jesus take the wheel. God took the wheel. He is driving, leaving you to all these fantastic guests. 

Cassian Bellino 23:06
Yeah. And I 

Rich Bennett 23:06
Especially 

Cassian Bellino 23:06
don't know about- 

Rich Bennett 23:07
for somebody that just started a podcast? 

Cassian Bellino 23:10
Especially for an idiot like you. 

Rich Bennett 23:12
I did not say that. 

Cassian Bellino 23:14
No. 

Rich Bennett 23:15
I didn't know seriously, a lot of people, when they first started a start a podcast, especially today. Because, like I said, there's almost 4 million podcasts out there. It's hard to try to get some of these big names on. You know, and you had some big names 

Cassian Bellino 23:32
it. 

Rich Bennett 23:32
on 

Cassian Bellino 23:32
I did have some big names. That is crazy. Yeah, because I... Yeah. I mean, I could go on and on about how I got, like, Lee Strobell. How did I get Frank Turrick? How did I get Coach Dungee, like, all God. It's insane. Coach Dungee? I don't know anything about football. 

Rich Bennett 23:48
Oh, I... 

Cassian Bellino 23:50
How 

Rich Bennett 23:50
Have 

Cassian Bellino 23:51
did... 

Rich Bennett 23:51
you reached 

Cassian Bellino 23:51
out to... I'll coach all my podcasts, and I don't know anything about football. 

Rich Bennett 23:54
Well now, just now you mentioned, uh, attorney Dungee, have you thought about Tim Tibo? 

Cassian Bellino 24:01
Ah. Wes Haft, Tim Tibo. That would be... Well, that'd be so cool. It's one of those... It's a weird niche. Like, who are the gods, 

Rich Bennett 24:09
know? Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 24:09
you Who...who would be ideal? 

Rich Bennett 24:12
And you're...and you're shoes only an hour long. 

Cassian Bellino 24:15
Only an hour. I appreciate you saying that. Only an hour. 

Rich Bennett 24:19
Not seriously, because... I mean, if I sat down to talk with some of those people... 

Cassian Bellino 24:23
Really? 

Rich Bennett 24:23
I...I could be talking for hours. Oh, God 

Cassian Bellino 24:25
Really? 

Rich Bennett 24:25
yeah. yeah, I mean, I gotta admit, 'cause, I mean, my longest episode was 2 1/2 hours. And it took me while the learn to cut it down to an hour or less. 

Cassian Bellino 24:36
Uh-huh. 

Rich Bennett 24:37
And because you just get so wrapped up in the conversation. 

Cassian Bellino 24:41
Yeah. I 

Rich Bennett 24:41
You know, 

Cassian Bellino 24:41
mean, I've got like a pretty strict schedule. I like structure 

Rich Bennett 24:44
yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 24:45
behind like I'm following notes. But like tonight, I'm interviewing Dr. James Sedlisseck again. And that man and I could talk for four hours. But I'm like from a content perspective, this is going to suck. We have to cut it down at two. But like that's somebody that will just go and go and go. 

Rich Bennett 24:59
Well, that's just four episodes then. 

Cassian Bellino 25:06
No, you're 

Rich Bennett 25:07
It 

Cassian Bellino 25:07
thinking-- 

Rich Bennett 25:07
just means your father has to hit pause several times. 

Cassian Bellino 25:11
Oh my god. I'll listen to that. He likes the Orthodox ones and there's many of those. Those are good. 

Rich Bennett 25:18
I just, it's just amazing because, first of all, congratulations, because a lot of people, and I see it all the time. I get people that are starting to pockets. I've had people contact me because they want to start a podcast. And I always give them the cons before the proofs. 

Cassian Bellino 25:35
What are the cons? The hard work, the hours, the editing, 

Rich Bennett 25:38
the heavy work, the editing, the-- I always tell people-- I think where a lot of people mess up, they keep looking at the downloads, ignored 

Cassian Bellino 25:50
the downloads. Oh yeah. No. 

Rich Bennett 25:51
Downloads 

Cassian Bellino 25:51
You 

Rich Bennett 25:52
don't 

Cassian Bellino 25:52
say-- 

Rich Bennett 25:52
equal lessons. 

Cassian Bellino 25:53
With your podcast and your winning. Like the goal is, if your podcast and your winning, like the goal is the podcast. 

Rich Bennett 26:00
The 

Cassian Bellino 26:02
goal is to do what we're doing. We're already winning. We've done it. Like you can't say it until I reach 5K until I reach 500K till I reach 5 million. Like we're doing the damn thing. Now we were explicit. Like this is, sorry. It's knocked out 50 countries from hearing this episode. 

Rich Bennett 26:21
You're fine. 

Cassian Bellino 26:25
But you know, well, 

Rich Bennett 26:25
The 

Cassian Bellino 26:25
like-- goal. We're doing it. We've already reached the goal. 

Rich Bennett 26:28
Yeah. You just gave me an idea though. 

Cassian Bellino 26:32
What? 

Rich Bennett 26:33
We use a podcast and a wedding. 

Cassian Bellino 26:36
Oh, I just saw that though. There's a podcast out of wedding. And it was like to interview guests at the wedding, so the couple could 

Rich Bennett 26:43
Memories 

Cassian Bellino 26:43
like-- of like, talking story. 

Rich Bennett 26:47
See, my son and I retired a few years ago from DJing weddings. 

Cassian Bellino 26:51
Oh, fun. 

Rich Bennett 26:52
Yeah. Yeah. It can be. It can be a headache too. But I never thought about that podcasting wedding. 

Cassian Bellino 27:03
That 

Rich Bennett 27:03
could be 

Cassian Bellino 27:04
Honestly, 

Rich Bennett 27:04
interesting. 

Cassian Bellino 27:05
no. That makes sense for DJing and podcasting. This is-- 

Rich Bennett 27:08
Oh, no. I want to combine it too. 

Cassian Bellino 27:10
I mean, you have 

Rich Bennett 27:11
Well, 

Cassian Bellino 27:11
a history of weddings. You already have 

Rich Bennett 27:12
Oh, yeah, 

Cassian Bellino 27:13
a-- 

Rich Bennett 27:13
yeah, yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 27:14
You have a 

Rich Bennett 27:14
All right. 

Cassian Bellino 27:14
skill. 

Rich Bennett 27:16
Have you actually seen somebody do that? 

Cassian Bellino 27:18
I just saw that actually very recently on social media. So I haven't seen it in person, but it's like they take-- I feel like it'd be very awkward to pitch,but  the 

Rich Bennett 27:25
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 27:25
guy-- Have a back room with the whole podcast studio and then they bring guests back and they haven't on-- like, they record at video. And so then the couple can watch their friends be like, "How'd you meet the couple? What's your best story?" I mean, 

Rich Bennett 27:39
That 

Cassian Bellino 27:39
A 

Rich Bennett 27:39
could be-- 

Cassian Bellino 27:39
year, but-- 

Rich Bennett 27:39
A year or two, 

Cassian Bellino 27:40
It's 

Rich Bennett 27:40
then-- 

Cassian Bellino 27:41
like a confessional. 

Rich Bennett 27:42
Yes. Which 

Cassian Bellino 27:43
is cool. 

Rich Bennett 27:44
I don't know about that. You may get some scary stories 

Cassian Bellino 27:49
Definitely 

Rich Bennett 27:49
that they're like-- 

Cassian Bellino 27:51
exposed 

Rich Bennett 27:51
that. Yeah, Billy Wim it. You did what with what? 

No. 

Cassian Bellino 27:59
Break up the way I got through that. 

Rich Bennett 28:01
Yeah. It's like, uh uh, no, forget it. You mentioned something earlier. You said when you moved to Hawaii. 

Cassian Bellino 28:09
Mm-hmm. 

Rich Bennett 28:10
So where are we-- 

Cassian Bellino 28:10
from? 

Rich Bennett 28:10
Where 

Cassian Bellino 28:11
I 

Rich Bennett 28:11
are we 

Cassian Bellino 28:11
don't know. I know. 

Rich Bennett 28:12
Oh, come on. 

Cassian Bellino 28:14
We were talking about food, I'm like, you know, skyline. 

Rich Bennett 28:17
Do what? 

Cassian Bellino 28:18
You're talking about food in every state. You've got to try the cuisine of everywhere you go. And I was like, I wonder if he's tried skyline chili? 

Rich Bennett 28:25
No, we're part of Ohio now. 

Cassian Bellino 28:27
Cincinnati? 

Rich Bennett 28:28
Oh, uh, bangles. Okay, sorry. My father was from-- 

Cassian Bellino 28:34
Disappointment. 

Rich Bennett 28:35
So. So we brought you out to Ohio. We brought you out to Hawaii. And don't you dare say a plain. 

Cassian Bellino 28:43
No, no. I've lived everywhere. I've lived all over 

Rich Bennett 28:45
Oh, 

Cassian Bellino 28:45
the world. Ohio is just my 

Rich Bennett 28:47
wow. 

Cassian Bellino 28:47
childhood. And then I moved to California. I lived in Thailand. I lived in Columbia. I lived in Arizona. And then I just recently moved here three years ago. So I just, you know, I'm a traveler. I just-- I-- I just find work all over the world. 

Rich Bennett 29:02
Ooh. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Have you thought about? Well, probably not yet. Because you've only done little over 100 episodes. But it could be fun. I know you'd record virtually 

Cassian Bellino 29:15
a-- 

Rich Bennett 29:16
with But you have you thought about taking it on the road. 

Cassian Bellino 29:20
To do what? 

Rich Bennett 29:21
To record with some of these scholars and all. 

Cassian Bellino 29:25
Let cost money rich. 

Rich Bennett 29:28
All 

Cassian Bellino 29:29
we're good. All right. So 

Rich Bennett 29:29
right, 

Cassian Bellino 29:30
sponsors aren't here yet. 

Rich Bennett 29:32
Cass, Cass. We'll talk about that one when we're finished, okay? 

Cassian Bellino 29:35
Well, oh, okay. You like raincheck, huh? What are we doing? 

Rich Bennett 29:38
I'll tell you how they monitor your pie. I was monetizing my pie case before I recorded the first episode. 

Cassian Bellino 29:44
What the 

Rich Bennett 29:44
Out. 

Cassian Bellino 29:44
heck? Red? 

Rich Bennett 29:45
Why didn't 

Cassian Bellino 29:46
we talk in April? 

Rich Bennett 29:50
It's not as hard as you think, 

Cassian Bellino 29:53
Really? Cause I have been in the 

Rich Bennett 29:54
yes. 

Cassian Bellino 29:54
struggle bus for a year and a half. 

Rich Bennett 29:58
I 

Cassian Bellino 29:58
Just, 

Rich Bennett 29:59
have many 

Cassian Bellino 29:59
ideas right now, but that's like at the last four weeks, update. 

Rich Bennett 30:05
All right. So let me issue this, and what have you been trying to try to monetize your pie case? 

Cassian Bellino 30:10
Everything. Digital assets, subscription model, uh, courses, uh, paying for my time, donations. Um, I've tried to do the sponsorships like reaching out to brands. And now I've just settled. 

Rich Bennett 30:25
What? When you said reaching out to brands, what type of brands? 

Cassian Bellino 30:29
Like brands. I've done both. I've done like the brands that 

Rich Bennett 30:33
national, 

Cassian Bellino 30:34
uh, yeah, mostly national. 

Rich Bennett 30:36
Okay. 

Cassian Bellino 30:38
But like Christian brands, like a devotional company just doesn't have a lot of digital spend. Um, and then I just don't have the time or repetitions, like get a brand. I don't know. Like if I wanted like beats, headphones to sponsor me like, I don't know. I, I, I, like, it is a headache. And so I have something else. Like I, I want to, I'm going to, I just have my first publishing contract for a devotional. And so I'm going to make a devotional, which is so exciting. 

Rich Bennett 31:07
Oh, who's that with? 

Cassian Bellino 31:09
With made for success publishing. 

Rich Bennett 31:11
Oh, awesome. 

Cassian Bellino 31:12
I know. Thank you. So I'm going to make a devotional and I feel like that will be like a part of the ownership. But I hope to make an 

Rich Bennett 31:18
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 31:18
app one day, but I feel like we're probably like a year out from that. And I'm, I'm marketing the books, you know, it makes sense that somebody who's publishing a Christian books, these are Christian influencers. So I'm going to, I'm promoting a couple of the authors and like those, that's what makes sense. So if there's like, 

Rich Bennett 31:34
Okay. 

Cassian Bellino 31:34
I'm turned key way to monetize, I haven't found it. I have it, I've had to be very creative. Um,and  I'm, 

Rich Bennett 31:40
Are you? 

Cassian Bellino 31:40
I'm okay. Sorry. 

Rich Bennett 31:42
Are you in, are you a of your local chamber 

Cassian Bellino 31:46
of commerce? No. 

Rich Bennett 31:48
Alright, cast. We're going to be, we'll talk after we're finished recording. 

Cassian Bellino 31:51
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 31:52
I'll give you my secrets. I can't give them the everybody listed. 

Cassian Bellino 31:59
It's 

Rich Bennett 32:01
not, no, seriously, it's not that hard. I think what happens with a lot of pie casters when 

Cassian Bellino 32:05
people are salivating rich. 

Rich Bennett 32:08
Well, here's what happens. There's a lot of pie casters when they go to monetize. I, I think they're thrown off by a lot of other pie casters because they're told you need to have so many downloads first. That 

Cassian Bellino 32:20
is correct. 

Rich Bennett 32:22
Which is wrong. You don't need to have so many downloads 

Cassian Bellino 32:25
it. 

Rich Bennett 32:25
for 

Cassian Bellino 32:25
I have like a met with podcasting agencies. And they're like, you need at least, 1500, 1000 per episode. 

Rich Bennett 32:31
yeah, 

Cassian Bellino 32:32
I have 800. 

Rich Bennett 32:34
Nope, you know how many you need? You're listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. We'll be right back. If you're a Maryland and thinking about real estate, you've got to check out Daniel McGee and the victory team, the close friend of mine sold their house with them. And honestly, I was blown away by the smoothness of the process and the level of care they received. And it's not just them. Several others in my circle have had similar experiences. Daniel and his team have this personal touch that's just so rare these days. They actually listen and tailor their services to fit exactly what you need. And with fees way lower than the industry standard, you really feel like you're getting luxury service without that hefty price tag. So whether you're buying or selling, go to victoryteamsells.com. And get started with Daniel McGee and his incredible team. Believe me with them, it's not just a transaction. It's a relationship. 

Cassian Bellino 33:38
One, 

Rich Bennett 33:39
zero. 

Cassian Bellino 33:41
Rich. 

Rich Bennett 33:41
I'm serious. 

Cassian Bellino 33:43
We got to end the call right now, actually. We have to talk. This is crazy. 

Rich Bennett 33:50
It's, yeah, it is. Like I said, I've been doing this for over 10 years And I've had sponsors since I before I recorded the first episode. And I've always had sponsors still do to this day 

Cassian Bellino 34:03
and they're 

Rich Bennett 34:03
and 

Cassian Bellino 34:03
not. 

Rich Bennett 34:03
still keep animals. Huh? 

Cassian Bellino 34:05
They're not affiliates. 

Rich Bennett 34:07
They're businesses. 

Cassian Bellino 34:08
Like you're not an affiliate of the business. They're actually paying you for host 

Rich Bennett 34:11
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 34:12
right 

Rich Bennett 34:13
ad. 

Cassian Bellino 34:14
Yeah. Are you only doing host red ads? 

Rich Bennett 34:16
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 34:18
You're not doing because I have a newsletter. I'm like offering. 

Rich Bennett 34:20
I mean, I do. No, for the podcast, I'm only doing host red ads. And I list all my sponsors on the website. 

Cassian Bellino 34:28
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 34:28
Now some people also 

because of the host and platform I'm using, I can put in what's called dynamic ads. So I can also create ads and put it in the beginning, the end, or the middle. My host for it, ads stay with the episode forever. 

Cassian Bellino 34:46
To it because you 

Rich Bennett 34:47
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 34:47
manually put them. 

Rich Bennett 34:48
It's baked in. Yeah. So yeah, well, we'll definitely, we'll definitely 

Cassian Bellino 34:54
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 34:54
talk. So 

so what's what's your next big thing for the podcast besides monetizing it, which I'll teach you how to do that when we're finished. 

Cassian Bellino 35:05
Yeah. Wow. Big day. Big day with Rich. I would definitely say the devotional. That to me is like a huge thing. I met with my publisher. Yes, he's like, okay, so by next week let's write the first couple chapters. I thought you, I thought I was paying you to write. I'm writing a book apparently and it'll be fine. It'll be like my top 10 episodes. I'm just kind of reusing the script, the transcript and then creating a devotional that I've always wanted. Kind of my qualms with Bible study. I'm like, so girl who is two years older than me is leading me in Bible study. Or I'd go to Bible study. I'd be like, how is your week? Which is cool. I think Bible studies serve some purposes. Community, 

Rich Bennett 35:44
yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 35:44
Poor prayer. I 

want it to study the Bible. I like forgive me for reading too clearly, but like we're Bible studying. And it's just like I never, I've never met a Bible study teacher or leader who could take me exegetically where I wanted to go. And so I want to build the devotional that creates that structure because I have the transcripts. Like I already have the. 

Rich Bennett 36:05
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 36:06
Just have to be the person that organizes it. 

Rich Bennett 36:09
Wow. Yeah, I could see this is just going to be. 

Cassian Bellino 36:14
I hope. 

Rich Bennett 36:16
audition. 

Cassian Bellino 36:16
It'll be an 

Rich Bennett 36:16
I'm saying with any year with any year, you're going to be in the top one percent. 

That'd be crazy. If you keep it going, the way you're doing, I can see it being in the top one percent, maybe even the top half. 

Cassian Bellino 36:33
That'd be so crazy. Oh 

Rich Bennett 36:35
god. 

Cassian Bellino 36:35
my I mean, 

Rich Bennett 36:37
doing and 

Cassian Bellino 36:39
you're 

Rich Bennett 36:39
the thing you have a passion for 

Cassian Bellino 36:42
it. Yeah. I mean, God's plus the you 

Rich Bennett 36:45
have to create this person driving. 

Cassian Bellino 36:48
Yeah, I really do. 

Rich Bennett 36:49
I mean, you can't have anybody better than God driving that for you. With all the different guests you've spoken with so far on the show, is there one particular one that really had a big impact on you and just really like, open up your eyes and your heart even more. 

Cassian Bellino 37:15
That's a good question. I think there's, 

that's a hard question because I feel like there are episodes, like a single episode, I think about forever, but then there's conversations that lead to more episodes. And now it's like, oh, this whole concept has changed my life. If you know, like the 

Rich Bennett 37:33
concept of yeah, 

Cassian Bellino 37:34
or the concept of the unseen realm, but honestly, I always go back to the bleeding woman. I think that was a perfect episode. And Dr. James Sedlisseck, I love him, because he is one of the smartest people I've ever met. He came on and he's like, let's talk about the bleeding woman. And I was like, it's like two lines. It's like two lines. What are we going to talk about for an hour? And that was one of those episodes that were like three hours long. I get to cut content out. And it was a perfect episode because he added so much context of what was going on that isn't said in those two verses of like her cleanliness laws. What that means that she was bleeding, how society treated her. And like, why there was, there a blue cord in like the corner of his cloak. Like, where was that originated from and why is it relevant? What goes back to the Old Testament? And like, well, why was it placed in the Old Testament? The reasoning with Moses. And then like, what did the bleeding woman think about? Like, what did she know as a Jewish woman when she reached out to touch Jesus? Like, the question was she had faith, but what did she have faith in? 

Rich Bennett 38:34
Right. 

Cassian Bellino 38:34
A weird question like she's faith in Jesus that he's gonna heal her, and he's like 'but she needs a basis for her faith'. So like what knowledge made her have faith? She was a Jewish woman, she knew Torah, she knew the references to a healer in, I think it's Micah, eh, he knew she knew about Ruth and spread your canath over me that covenant with the Christ Redeemer, and she knew about the covenant that Moses made with, or God made with Moses, of like, you stiff-necked people, to know and remember and obey my laws, put a blue cord in the corner of your cloak. And so when she touched him, not only was Jesus making her whole, he was unaffected by her unclameness, and so I feel like it was this beautiful, like, that's the power of knowing, like, I am the woman, you know, like, that's the power of knowing God, and like, knowing your Bible, because you can act in faith. And I think it was, like, w, how do I live a Christian life, I know my Bible, like, how did she get healed, she knew her Torah, and so, and then you'd like keep going, like, Jesus just came for healing a demon, he cleansed that, he was, you know, he healed the bleeding woman, s blood for 12 years, he goes and raises a 12-year-old from life, the entire life of that girl he just raised from the dead, that woman was bleeding for, he restores both. Like, you know, that's where he gets, like, the preachingness of it, but like, that to me was like, yeah, that and, like, probably the demonic episode, like episode number one, to me, there were so many levels because I had that conversation with Dr. Carr. 

Rich Bennett 39:59
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 40:00
Another conversation about Legion with Dr. Sablesak, again, like, hit every time with him. And now that entire, like, Legion story blows my mind because, like, there's so much richness there, and it's like, I can nerd out about the Bible, because it's, like, what a good person does. We could talk about the Bible all day because that's, like, what a good person does. But then you, like, learn these things and the layers of the faith and, like, 

Rich Bennett 40:21
mm-hmm. 

Cassian Bellino 40:22
So much more going on. You're like, wait, this is a dope thing to believe in. This is just, like, objectively so cool to be a part of. Um, yes, it means I'm a good person, I guess. I don't think I'm a good person. I think I'm a pretty wretched person that is unbelievably loved by God. Like, I am so much grace for me with how horrible I treat God, and I analyze myself and, you know, all the things. But when you learn about her faith, it is objectively so dope, so 

Rich Bennett 40:47
so 

Cassian Bellino 40:47
cool, and 

Rich Bennett 40:47
yeah, 

Cassian Bellino 40:48
and, like, what else is possibly more important for my time to be spent setting anything else but 

Rich Bennett 40:56
this? Yeah, so first of all, I got to tell you this, because you said you didn't think you'd be able to talk that long about two lines, you're about to believe in woman, and he came on and told you that that's what he wanted to talk about, right? 

Cassian Bellino 41:13
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 41:14
And now, be honest, if he would've came, and that was the first time you talked to him, 

Cassian Bellino 41:19
no, 

Rich Bennett 41:19
no, 

Cassian Bellino 41:19
no, 

Rich Bennett 41:19
no. Okay, okay. So let's say it's the first time you get an email from him, and he says, that's what he wants to talk about those two lines. Would you have responded back and said, well, no, maybe not because you didn't think it would take it would last long. 

Cassian Bellino 41:34
No, I always get on a phone call and we, 

Rich Bennett 41:37
okay, good 

Cassian Bellino 41:37
the entire episode before. 

Rich Bennett 41:39
Okay, the reason I bring that up is because a lot of podcasters, unfortunately, they would think women, two lines, what's this going to be like a 10 minute talk and could last all, and they wouldn't respond back. They would just ignore it or whatever, which is wrong because you never know what that can lead to one word. Just one word, if you go deep in the meaning, can become an hour long episode or even more. Well, prime example, God, you know, but no, I gotta congratulate you 

Cassian Bellino 42:13
thank 

Rich Bennett 42:13
on that 

Cassian Bellino 42:13
you, 

Rich Bennett 42:14
because that is awesome. Since you started the podcast, has your faith really changed a lot? 

Cassian Bellino 42:22
I hope so. Yeah, I think I feel like I approach this from a very like data-centric. I just need more data, the more data I 

Rich Bennett 42:30
have. 

Cassian Bellino 42:31
I think there is, I have more facts in my tool belt that I can be like, yeah, well, because of these three things, of course I believe in God more. But I think there is something with my soul and my spirit happening. I do think that my conviction, my sensitivity to the spirit increases. And so things that I wouldn't pray for or think to pray for, and now I do. Simply because 

Rich Bennett 42:52
I 

Cassian Bellino 42:53
think about it more and I feel like the Holy Spirit. I don't think dwells more, but I have a bit more conviction about things and, you know, I feel like I'm more receptive to the Spirit and that changes your life, you know, having 

Rich Bennett 43:05
Yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 43:05
God-- Noticing God, like that's on me to seek Him, and He's always been there, but I mean, I think my life has significantly changed now that I like focus on Him rather than myself. And when I started the podcast, I didn't need God. I had a good job, I had good friends, I was successful, I had good money, and then I lost 

Rich Bennett 43:24
You're 

Cassian Bellino 43:25
my-- 

Rich Bennett 43:25
in a tech field, right? 

Cassian Bellino 43:26
I was in tech, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 43:28
Okay, yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 43:29
And it was awesome as my dream company. And then I lost all that. I was like, "Well, God, I have a Christian podcast. Why would you take this from me?" And like, he like broke my legs. Like, that's like the only way I could, like, God broke my legs because, so I could, so I had to depend on him. 

Rich Bennett 44:00
Okay, so now you're not into the tech field. You're doing the podcast. Are you actually working? You got to have income coming somewhere, right? 

Cassian Bellino 44:07
I have a nine to five. Yeah, I work 

Rich Bennett 44:08
rate. 

Cassian Bellino 44:08
for I heart 

Rich Bennett 44:08
Okay. All right, so something tells me that this is going to become your full-time job. 

Cassian Bellino 44:16
I hope so. I really do. 

Rich Bennett 44:17
It will be. 

Cassian Bellino 44:19
It will be. 

Rich Bennett 44:19
It will be. I guarantee you, it will be. Yeah, absolutely. It's my full-time job so it's going to be your full-time 

Cassian Bellino 44:27
job. It is? Is your full-time job? You make a living off of this? 

Rich Bennett 44:31
So 

Cassian Bellino 44:32
Do 

Rich Bennett 44:32
what? 

Cassian Bellino 44:32
you make 

Rich Bennett 44:33
I'm not. 

Cassian Bellino 44:34
more 

Rich Bennett 44:35
It's 

Cassian Bellino 44:35
money? like, 

Rich Bennett 44:36
So, 

Cassian Bellino 44:36
it is. 

Rich Bennett 44:36
you're 

Cassian Bellino 44:36
earlier than I made a podcast or that gets to do it full-time. 

Rich Bennett 44:39
So, here's how I so back in 2012, I left radio. And I started a good 

Cassian Bellino 44:45
I 

Rich Bennett 44:45
news. 

Cassian Bellino 44:45
don't know. It's a girl. 

Rich Bennett 44:46
I'm 

Cassian Bellino 44:47
in radio. It's a great basis. 

Rich Bennett 44:49
You're doing? 

Cassian Bellino 44:51
I 

Rich Bennett 44:51
What 

Cassian Bellino 44:51
work for-- 

Rich Bennett 44:51
do you do? 

Cassian Bellino 44:53
I work in broadcasting. 

Rich Bennett 44:55
Are you a broadcaster? Are you on air? 

Cassian Bellino 44:58
I'm trying to be. I think that's like the next step. I have a very supportive president. So I'd probably get like the 12 to 2 hour, you know? 

Rich Bennett 45:06
That's where that when I started. That's how I was on air. And I didn't like it. 

Cassian Bellino 45:11
I've been sales. So I'm mostly selling your 

Rich Bennett 45:12
I 

Cassian Bellino 45:13
time. 

Rich Bennett 45:13
loved sales. 

Cassian Bellino 45:15
Really? 

Rich Bennett 45:16
Oh my-- 

Cassian Bellino 45:17
It's 

Rich Bennett 45:18
Huh? 

Cassian Bellino 45:18
so-- I like it. It's fun. It's really 

Rich Bennett 45:21
God. 

Cassian Bellino 45:21
creative. 

Rich Bennett 45:21
Oh, cast, cast, cast, 

Cassian Bellino 45:23
Oh 

Rich Bennett 45:23
cast, cast, cast, cast, cast, cast. We're going to have a good talk when we're finished here. Oh, boy. 

Oh, boy, boy, boy. 

Cassian Bellino 45:31
my 

Rich Bennett 45:31
Yeah. 

I think things happen for a reason. And I-- 

Cassian Bellino 45:37
Yeah, well, th next big thing in my life is meeting you, apparently. 

Rich Bennett 45:41
And 

Cassian Bellino 45:41
That's 

Rich Bennett 45:41
I--

Cassian Bellino 45:42
driving. 

Rich Bennett 45:43
You said devotionals, you're going to be writing devotionals. But have you actually written a book yet about your journey itself? 

Cassian Bellino 45:49
No, I haven't read a children's book, though. 

Rich Bennett 45:52
Oh, come on. 

Cassian Bellino 45:53
I have. 

Rich Bennett 45:54
Really? 

Cassian Bellino 45:55
It's called Frazier the Fur. 

Rich Bennett 45:56
Uh-huh. 

Cassian Bellino 45:57
It's called 

Rich Bennett 45:58
Frazier 

Cassian Bellino 45:58
Frazier. 

Rich Bennett 45:58
the Fur, about a tree. 

Cassian Bellino 46:00
About a tree, understanding the meaning of Christmas. It's a very good book, and it's 

Rich Bennett 46:03
Amazon. 

Cassian Bellino 46:03
on 

Rich Bennett 46:03
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Are you serious? 

Cassian Bellino 46:06
Yeah. I wrote that in during COVID. 

Rich Bennett 46:10
Oh, cast. 

Cassian Bellino 46:10
It's a really good book. My friend, 

Rich Bennett 46:12
Cast. 

Cassian Bellino 46:12
it was-- 

Rich Bennett 46:14
Cast, 

Cassian Bellino 46:15
What? 

Rich Bennett 46:15
Christmas, you 

Cassian Bellino 46:16
You 

Rich Bennett 46:16
have to-- have to fly out to Maryland. And read it for the kids that I play Santa for. 

Cassian Bellino 46:24
No way. Oh my gosh, it's a perfect book. I'll send you one. I'll send you one of the books. That's great. 

Rich Bennett 46:30
I actually sort of won 

Cassian Bellino 46:31
This 

Rich Bennett 46:31
place-- 

Cassian Bellino 46:32
is crazy. 

Rich Bennett 46:32
Where I do Santa professionally, I-- It's Fortnite, and I bring in children's authors. 

Cassian Bellino 46:38
Oh my God. 

Rich Bennett 46:40
Yeah, and I had this friend of mine, young lady on, and she-- It's funny. And she had Michelle Love-- Michelle, yes, I'm dropping your name again-- She had a restaurant, awesome food. She closed down the restaurant because God told her to write a book. She didn't know how to write a book. 

Cassian Bellino 46:56
Crazy gamble. 

Rich Bennett 46:58
So she wrote a book about-- It was her recipes from the restaurant but the meaning behind the recipes. 

Cassian Bellino 47:04
Oh, that's so cool. 

Rich Bennett 47:06
And she came on and she talked about it. And it just-- all kinds of amazing things happened during that episode. But then it was-- Later on, I asked her, "Hey, Michelle, crazy questions." I said, "I think you could write a children's book in time for Christmas." I think it was like September or whatever. She said, "God wants me to, I will." And she within, like, a couple weeks emailed me, asked me my thoughts. She had already written something. It was like, "This is perfect because it has nothing to do with Santa." It's the true meaning of Christmas. 

Cassian Bellino 47:43
Oh, oh, my gosh, you're going to love my book then. 

Rich Bennett 47:46
And she got it done in time and came and read it. And it's like, and it asks she's written, I think, four books, maybe now? 

Cassian Bellino 47:53
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 47:54
Three or four books. But so you got to put your-- Is your book on-- The book's not on your website though. 

Cassian Bellino 48:01
No. 

Rich Bennett 48:01
Is it? Why not? 

Cassian Bellino 48:03
I don't know because that's not "Bibbically Speaking" affiliated. It's like something I did. 

Rich Bennett 48:09
So put it on there. 

Cassian Bellino 48:11
Okay, where would I put it? Like on the front page, I was like, "Hey, here's Bibbically Speaking" and I wrote a 

Rich Bennett 48:16
Create 

Cassian Bellino 48:16
book. 

Rich Bennett 48:17
a page called Books. Put it on there because what you can also do, I believe Tony Dungee has a book as well, right? 

Cassian Bellino 48:24
Probably. 

Rich Bennett 48:24
I'm sure a lot of people you talk to have books. You could be coming to Amazon affiliate and put affiliate links on there for some of your, your guest books. 

Cassian Bellino 48:36
Your, 

Rich Bennett 48:36
Just, I mean, easy way to, I mean, it's not a lot of money you'll raise, but still because they always say, "If you ever want to become an author to become rich, don't become an author". 

Cassian Bellino 48:45
yeah. 

So, so try to pay myself back for my book. 

Rich Bennett 48:51
It's, it's, it's a, becoming an author per door is hard, 

Cassian Bellino 48:55
Well, becoming an author is just hard work, like, 

Rich Bennett 48:58
yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 48:58
so many steps to becoming an author. 

Rich Bennett 49:01
Oh, that's, yeah, well, that's another story. I will talk to 

Cassian Bellino 49:04
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 49:04
that. but, all right. So, with, with the podcast, have I been on you away so far today with just 

Cassian Bellino 49:13
later, 

Rich Bennett 49:14
certain things a bit 

Cassian Bellino 49:14
a... 

Rich Bennett 49:14
like 

Cassian Bellino 49:14
I'm recording, right? 

Rich Bennett 49:16
No, we're still recording. [laughs] 

Cassian Bellino 49:23
can't wait to share this episode 

Rich Bennett 49:24
I 

Cassian Bellino 49:24
with everybody. It's like, 

Rich Bennett 49:25
All right, so this, this is what I wanted to ask. And now I remembered 

Cassian Bellino 49:28
okay. 

Rich Bennett 49:28
because I, I've had, uh, like I said, I've had Michelle love one. I've had several other people on talking about religion and everything. And I've been wanting to do an episode on this. But I've never really, I don't think I've ever asked, I guess, the question. So I'm gonna ask you the question, especially because of your journey, all the different people you've been talking to. And I want my listeners to pay very, very, very, very close attention to this question. It's a two-part question. How do you talk to God and how do you listen to God? 

Cassian Bellino 50:08
I didn't know and then my boss taught me and I was at work at iHeartRadio and walked into the president's office and I was like, "I'm really struggling with something personal." And I don't know what to do. And he's like, "Okay, well, have you talked to God?" I was like, I mean, like I'm praying about it but like, haven't heard any answer and he's like, "Well, do you know how to hear God?" I was like, "Sometimes when I get a lot of reminders, it feels like it's like confirmation." And then like, in iHeartRadio office, me and the president prayed and he taught me how to hear, Like, how crazy is that sentence? Like, I sat at a secular company and prayed with the president because he taught me. I just, and he's like, "And you know, Cass, I would have never done this if no one was here, but like, apparently no one's in the office today so we could do this." Like, because he's a pastor. 

Rich Bennett 50:56
"Right." 

Cassian Bellino 50:56
But, 

he, I think the interesting thing about hearing, talking to God and hearing God is like one thing and I think we all know how to pray. I think we all know how to ask for what we want. And I think that maybe we could be more or less specific. And there's definitely, I think, an emphasis on being very specific and what you talked to God about. And my question was, "God, what do you want me to do with this podcast?" Because you're clearly in control, but like, I don't know which way to go. I have a couple options ahead of me. What do you want me to do with this podcast? And then we sat in silence he's like, any inclination that you have, a weird idea, a sudden urge, a desire, something you feel passionate about, go with that. And I was like, "Okay, well, like, nothing's coming up yet, to be honest, and mostly because I feel weird that I'm in front of my president." 

Rich Bennett 51:48
and 

Cassian Bellino 51:48
Like, it's an insecurity thing. I feel I'm like, "I'll do this in my private time. Thank you for showing me." And he's like, "Okay, you will get a response and then go with it." And I thought that was so funny because I was like, "I mean, I might get a response." And I think that like, the part that I missed for the longest time was, "No, part of this prayer is having faith in God." And when we look at the Scriptures, see a God that wants us to have knowledge, wants us to have wisdom, and wants us to have clarity. So when I ask God, I will get a response. I have faith that God will get a response. I don't get the privilege anymore of saying, "I might get a response." 

Rich Bennett 52:28
Right. 

Cassian Bellino 52:29
Will. So when he responds, act. And I think I missed that up until last week. Like, that is a very recent, very recent thing. 

Rich Bennett 52:37
Oh, wow. Wow. I do have to disagree with you at one point, though. 

Cassian Bellino 52:42
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 52:43
I don't think everybody knows how to pray. 

Cassian Bellino 52:47
Yeah. I think it was close their eyes and talking their head. 

Rich Bennett 52:49
Uh, yeah, but I don't think they actually know how to pray. I think, and this is what I mean about that, because 

you hear a lot of people say they're going to pray to God, and they only pray when they need something. 

Cassian Bellino 53:05
A thousand percent. And I'm 

Rich Bennett 53:06
them. 

Cassian Bellino 53:06
one of 

Rich Bennett 53:07
Him, I pray all the time every morning, when I wake up, every night for a good of bed. 

Cassian Bellino 53:12
When you say all the time, what does that mean? Like, you are making your coffee praying. You are driving praying. 

Rich Bennett 53:17
Oh, I will whenever I mean, I do that a lot. 

Cassian Bellino 53:20
You pray before every conversation. Like, like, to you. 

Rich Bennett 53:22
Not before every conversation, but certain conversations, I will. 

Cassian Bellino 53:26
It's hard to remind yourself to do it all the time, because I think we all want to be praying all the time, but it's like I'm in 

Rich Bennett 53:31
It 

Cassian Bellino 53:31
the moment. 

Rich Bennett 53:32
used to be hard for me. Um, but 

Cassian Bellino 53:35
How 

Rich Bennett 53:35
I... 

Cassian Bellino 53:35
do you remember? 

Rich Bennett 53:37
I'm, because I like today, when we're finished here, I will pray, but I'll pray to God and thank him because I think that's what a lot of people don't do. I think they're always asked for something. I do thank him a lot. I thank him all the time. 

but a lot of times, every night, I always thank him for something. 

Sometimes maybe the same thing. And then I also, whenever I wake up, I always say what I'm grateful for too. And I don't think people do that enough. You know, even just walk and bear foot in the grass, feeling that. You know, be grateful for that because not everybody gets to feel grass under her feet. 

Certain little things. 

Cassian Bellino 54:36
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 54:37
Boy, okay, I'm going deep now or not. 

Cassian Bellino 54:40
I got 

Rich Bennett 54:40
of 

Cassian Bellino 54:40
a wave cushion while you were talking. 

Rich Bennett 54:43
I was fine. 

Cassian Bellino 54:45
Yeah, right, you're talking about And I'm like, 

Rich Bennett 54:47
me. 

Cassian Bellino 54:47
yeah, that's right. 

Rich Bennett 54:48
But I never used to be that way. Never used to be. I was a man at God. At one point because we lost our first daughter. And I was upset. Then it took me, and it's like, you know what? Here's a reason this happened. And to this day, 25 years later, my God, 25 years later, I swear that she's sitting here. She's my guardian angel. And I there's it's weird. I don't want to say it's weird. I censor it times. I sense my brother. I sense my parents at times. I sense my dog at times. The last dog I had it just I feel like there's guardian angels everywhere around us. And a lot of times is the people we don't expect or even animals that we wouldn't expect. They're looking out for us. And I think that's God talking to us in a way as well. 

Cassian Bellino 55:44
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 55:45
yeah. Wow. Okay. So. Cas? Sorry about all that. This is supposed to be your show. Not mine. It's just my name. I'm random. 

Cassian Bellino 55:55
We're both just really good at listening being podcasters. That's the. 

Rich Bennett 56:00
Oh, 

Cassian Bellino 56:00
That's the soft 

Rich Bennett 56:01
God. 

Cassian Bellino 56:01
skill. It's like I could just shut up 

Rich Bennett 56:03
like. 

Cassian Bellino 56:03
and just 

Rich Bennett 56:05
What 

Cassian Bellino 56:05
do I do? I just let people talk. 

Rich Bennett 56:08
Something very important. Tell everybody the website so they can go listen to the podcast and eventually buy your children's book once you get it up there. 

Cassian Bellino 56:15
Exactly. I'm going to email my web guy right now. It's bibspeak.com. B-I-B-S-P-E-A-K dot com because Biblically speaking was taken. So go to bibspeak.com or just type in Biblically speaking podcast. And I'm sure it'll come up. I hope my SEO is well. But that's going to be everything. Like that's going to be everywhere that the podcast is hosted. You know, Apple Spotify YouTube. It's also going to be all the guests. You know, we've talked about a couple, but you know, you should go check out my guest. Listen, see who Dr. James said less. And you'll see a couple on there that you might recognize. It'll have all my social media and that's kind of where I'll probably put the devotional, put the children's book, put some of the ways to partner if you want. There's definitely a partnership. but honestly social media is probably the easiest way I try to create clips from each week's episode because it comes out every Tuesday, three weeks 

Rich Bennett 57:07
Okay, 

Cassian Bellino 57:07
out of each month. And you know, it's kind of like last week I had Dr. Kevin Grasso on the CEO of Biblingo and we understood Isaiah 53 line by line in original translations. And so I take clips from that and I put on social media each week. Follow me engage. You can DM me. Like there's not a social media manager. And then yeah, I would check out the podcast. I would definitely, like, just and it's like where do I start? I don't know, start with number one. I love number one. Episode number one was great. And then there's just I try to make the topics pretty obvious, but there's divorce in there. There's demons in there. There's giants in there. There's dinosaurs in there. And you just, you know, there's. And then there's like super, I said other cool understandings like the history of Judaism to Christianity and like the Orthodox Catholicism, like, you know, there's a lot of stuff in there that like I am getting to the point where I'm like I can't remember every single guest and I used to be able to because it's just, it's too much, you know. You know you're like, do you listen? And I'm like, I have to. I also don't learn either. And 

Rich Bennett 58:10
know,

Cassian Bellino 58:10
then you 

Rich Bennett 58:10
well , you have to when you're edited too. 

Cassian Bellino 58:12
No, I know. 

Rich Bennett 58:14
Oh, you don't edit. 

Cassian Bellino 58:14
I give it to my assistant. I hate editing. it. Hate it. It would take me like 

Rich Bennett 58:20
I love 

Cassian Bellino 58:20
six hours. Six hours on a Sunday editing. 

Rich Bennett 58:23
Oh, no, one. 

Cassian Bellino 58:24
It does. Yeah, for my podcast, it is. 

Rich Bennett 58:28
For an one hour episode. 

Cassian Bellino 58:30
Yeah, I mean, I'm just I'm cutting clips at the same 

Rich Bennett 58:33
do 

Cassian Bellino 58:33
time. I had to 

Rich Bennett 58:34
one. 

Cassian Bellino 58:34
One video, one 

Rich Bennett 58:35
plus you're doing video. 

Cassian Bellino 58:36
Yeah, so honestly if you guys if you're going to my website and you want to help a donation each month even one dollar absolutely helps because that adds up none of this is free all of this is out of pocket. Or if you don't want to pay me that's totally fine. I would say subscribe I would say rate the show any engagement that helps boost the algorithm and that 5% that like people actually engage with it. So two options there if you're going to listen pay me with the like please, I'm begging please that's my marketing is begging. 

Rich Bennett 59:12
Oh god. I love that. 

Cassian Bellino 59:14
Or just share it sharing is helpful you know. 

Rich Bennett 59:20
I'm 

going to have to add your podcast. I'm re I also start a podcast network which I'm changing to help independent progress or so I'm going to ask if you're going to add you to the network. I don't charge a podcast or it's free. 

Cassian Bellino 59:37
Please thank you. 

Rich Bennett 59:39
I will. Is there anything you would like to add before you pick the last question. 

Cassian Bellino 59:45
No, I'm good. I'm having fun. I have nothing to add I am here and I'm podcasting. I've won. 

Rich Bennett 59:52
So this we're going to see how good you are now. 

Cassian Bellino 59:56
Great. 

Rich Bennett 59:57
it's funny. I have a hundred different questions here and all 

Cassian Bellino 1:00:02
Oh, 

Rich Bennett 1:00:02
my guests some I want to say lately some of them have not coincided with what we've been talking about. So I'm going to say maybe 95% of the questions whatever whichever one my guest picks somehow another crow in size of what we've been talking about. So we're going to say I need you to pick a number between one and five for four. Everybody always good for. Alright now I need you to pick a number between 61 and 80 

Cassian Bellino 1:00:33
62 

Rich Bennett 1:00:35
62. Oh, come on. 

Are you serious. 

Cassian Bellino 1:00:45
I'm very. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:46
I think I know what your answer is going to be. And if you could have a one hour conversation with any historical figure. Who would it be. 

Cassian Bellino 1:01:02
Do you think I'm going to say Jesus. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:06
Oh, that would be a good 

Cassian Bellino 1:01:08
one now. Oh, I. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:11
Wow. Okay. Oh, that. 

Cassian Bellino 1:01:16
Probably 

Rich Bennett 1:01:16
Mary. 

Cassian Bellino 1:01:16
like mother 

Rich Bennett 1:01:17
Let's not. Well, that's not what 

Cassian Bellino 1:01:19
what? I love to talk to Mary. I think that she's got a lot to say, you know, I would love to talk to Mary, 

Rich Bennett 1:01:25
which 

Cassian Bellino 1:01:25
is like I don't know. I feel like that's lot of ways again. So like of course you picked at Jesus figure. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:30
No, that's I would I was expecting you to say pick a figure from the Bible. But oh my God. Yeah, that would be a good one. 

Cassian Bellino 1:01:40
Wait, I did pick a figure from the Bible. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:42
I know. 

Cassian Bellino 1:01:42
I did exactly. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:43
But I wasn't expecting. But I did, but I was not expecting Mary. 

Cassian Bellino 1:01:47
Who'd you expect? 

Rich Bennett 1:01:50
I thought we're going to say God to be honest with you. For some reason, 

Cassian Bellino 1:01:54
I mean, the presence of God, I thought that was like not even an 

Rich Bennett 1:01:57
Well, 

Cassian Bellino 1:01:57
option. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:57
yeah. 

Cassian Bellino 1:01:58
I 

Rich Bennett 1:01:58
But 

Cassian Bellino 1:01:58
would also love to talk to Noah or Jonah. Those would be sick or Joe. I love those characters. I love the 

Rich Bennett 1:02:05
John. 

Cassian Bellino 1:02:05
story of 

Rich Bennett 1:02:05
No, it could be a fun. 

Cassian Bellino 1:02:08
Jonah 

Rich Bennett 1:02:08
Fun. 

Cassian Bellino 1:02:08
is one of my favorite episodes ever with Holy Ghost stories. I love. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:11
Oh, yeah, that could be good too. 

Cassian Bellino 1:02:13
Oh my gosh. Yeah, I don't know. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:15
I it's hard to say when it comes to that. I could I mean, wow, wow. Yeah, that's a hard question. It's not a hard question. There's too many answers for it. 

Cassian Bellino 1:02:29
Yeah, I mean, there's. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:31
But you picked 

Cassian Bellino 1:02:33
I 

Rich Bennett 1:02:33
it. 

Cassian Bellino 1:02:33
don't know Bathsheba. I don't want to talk to her. 

A couple of things. I'm going to listen back. We were going to talk about books monetization and what's the other thing. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:49
Oh, you mean when we're finished. 

Cassian Bellino 1:02:51
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:51
Oh, oh, let's wrap it up first. I can. We already did. Cass, I want to thank you so much. And I just want to let you know the door is open anytime you want to come back. 

Cassian Bellino 1:03:05
We would love to come back. Please, help me back. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:07
Oh, the door is open. We'll talk about whatever you want to talk about. 

Cassian Bellino 1:03:11
Amazing. Yes, let's do that. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:14
Sounds good. Thanks. 

Cassian Bellino 1:03:16
Thanks so much for having me, Rich. This was so much fun. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:18
What I love about conversations like this is that they remind us we don't have to have all the answers before taking the first step. Cassie spent years searching for someone who can make scripture easier to understand. When she couldn't find that person, she eventually realized God was calling her to become that person for others. She didn't start as a theologian or a biblical scholar. She started with questions, a willing heart, and encouraged to say yes. There are so many takeaways from this conversation, not just about the Bible, but about faith itself. We talked about listening for God's direction, trusting in His timing, building a community that serves others, and remembering that success isn't always measured by numbers. Sometimes it's measured by the lives you touch, the conversations you start and the obedience it takes to simply keep going. I also have to admit, I think Cassie and I may have ended up interviewing each other a little bit today. And honestly, those are usually the conversations I enjoy the most. We've managed to swap podcast ideas and monetization tips and somehow ended up talking about children's books, weddings, and what's app communities? That's a beauty of a genuine conversation. You never know where it's going to lead. If today's episode encouraged you, challenged you, or simply made you think a little differently, I'd encourage you to check out Biddle Play Speaking and connect with Cassie, whether you're someone who studied the Bible for years, or someone who's always felt intimidated by it. I think you'll find something that speaks to you. Until next time, I'm Rich Bennett. Thanks for listening and remember, every great conversation starts with someone willing to listen and someone willing to share. Now it's your turn. Join the conversation by sharing this episode, leaving a comment or reaching out to me directly. Take care, be kind to one another, and I'll talk with you again soon.