Adam Steen: Restored by Faith, Called to Lead

In this episode of the Courageous Crossroads Podcast, host Jeff Johnson sits down with Adam Steen—former college athlete, investment banker, pastor, state government executive, and now gubernatorial candidate—for a powerful conversation about faith, leadership, and what it means to live with courage. Steen shares deeply personal moments from his life, including his surrender to Christ at age 30, the challenges of parenting a child with a rare genetic disorder, and his
decision to leave a high-ranking state government role to run for governor of Iowa. He defines courage as the willingness to do what you’re called to do, even when it’s hard, and encourages listeners to act boldly in truth and faith. Adam Steen, a former pitcher drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies and, most recently the director of Iowa’s Department of Administrative Services, is now running for Governor of Iowa. A devoted husband and father of two, Steen is passionate about service, spiritual leadership, and stewarding resources with integrity. Supporters can learn more or get involved at www.adamsteen.com, follow his campaign via linked social media, or contribute via check to Adam Steen for Iowa, P.O. Box 11, Reynolds, Iowa 50237.

Thank you for listening! We hope you feel inspired and encouraged by our conversation today. If you did, be sure to share this episode with others.

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See you in the next episode! Be blessed!

Full Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Courageous by Crossroads Apologetics, a look into what motivates us to step out and courage, and the everyday bravery of men and women like you. In each episode, we hear a personal story of bravery centered around this question. What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done? And now your host, founder of Crossroads Apologetics, Jeff Johnson.

Jeff Johnson: Hey everybody, this is Jeff. Welcome back to another edition of the Courageous Crossroads Podcast. Can you hear that in the background? I got a little Christmas music playing. Today, we’re coming into the season. And November is all about gratitude and thanks-givings coming. And then here comes Christmas and man, God is good. And he’s especially good given our next guest. I’ve got Adam Steen that’s going to answer the question, what’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done? And boy, you’re going to be blessed when you hear his story.

Adam is busy in the process of running for governor of the state of Iowa. And it was a blessing to be able to get him to carve out a little bit of time and come on the program and share with us his answer to that question. And you’re going to be edified and encouraged as with all of our guests with what he has to say about that and his ideas on the topic of courage. So what a guest, what a blessing to sit with Adam for an hour and without further ado. Here he is, Adam Steen.

Well, Adam, it is wonderful to have you on the courageous Crossroads podcast today. It’s just such a blessing to get to see you and get to visit with you and hear more about your story. So welcome.

Adam Steen: It’s an honor to be here, Jeff. I appreciate this very, very much. Honor to be here.

Jeff Johnson: I got a question for you. I’m going to jump in the deep end right away. How busy is it running for governor?

Adam Steen: It is crazy busy. It’s crazy busy. I can’t even, I get home. So it’s what Wednesday right now is we’re doing on this interview. I got home last night at 9:30 at night. My wife was outside looking at the northern lights and I stood out there and we’re looking at the northern lights together. And I said, it’s nice to be home at a decent time because I’m usually getting home at 11:30, 12:30. So at 9:30 at night, it was like it was an early evening home.

Jeff Johnson: 9:30 was early.

Adam Steen: Yeah. And then this morning, I was at a meeting at 7, I had to leave at 6:15. So it is just, it is go, go, go 24-7, six days a week. We take Sundays off. That’s my family day, obviously church and family. But it is crazy. It’s awesome. But yeah, it’s, it’s very, very busy.

Jeff Johnson: Oh my goodness. And you got, I assume you got a good group of people around you that are saying, okay, Adam, stop doing what you’re doing right there and come do this instead and carrying in, handling in everything.

Adam Steen: 100%. I’ve got a, so I’ve got a group of guys that are retired and they drive me around. So I can get in the truck and text Paul and then they drive me to where I’m going. My campaign manager is usually in the back. And just last night, one of my drivers said, Adam, are you getting enough rest? Like you better start to rest, you better eat, you know, so I got a lot of guys and Gals taking care of me right now. It’s, it’s very humbling.

Jeff Johnson: Are you able to find that a little bit of margin, a little time here and there because you know, that is, that’s such an important thing to be able to press and fill your tank so you can pour back out. But it’s an unforgiving campaign trail.

Adam Steen: Yeah, it, it is unforgiving. And I can find margin. What, what I’ve learned is that I’m finding margin in the, little gaps of time. So, and that kind of adds up. So there’s moments where I’ve got 30 or 40 minutes between phone calls or a meeting. And I’ll take, you know, 15 minutes and just sort of sit and stare out the window or sit and just flat out stare at the wall just to kind of clear my head. And honestly, I’ll sit there and I’ll just pray, just pray in the spirit like Lord, just, just refresh me, energize me. And ultimately what happens is is by the time I’m ready to go make a call or get in front of a group, I’m reenergized. So I’m learning how to get reenergized in small gaps of time right now.

Jeff Johnson: Oh, that’s good. Well, hopefully this little conversation we’re going to have here is, is a little bit of a life giving and less of a pouring out. Although you are going to be serving us today and our listeners are going to be blessed. I’m sure with what you have to say. But we, we, so here at the courageous crossroads, we come down on the one question. What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done? And I’m going to ask you that question here in just a minute. And before I do that, I want to calibrate just a little bit so people know who we’re talking. Some people might not know that you’re running for governor. I don’t know who that would be. But maybe they’re going to be listening in other states and different areas and that sort of thing. But you’ve got a really interesting background too. So could you give me whatever you want to give me from the time you were born to who you are right now?

Adam Steen: Yeah, no, I love it. I’ll try to make it somewhat succinct to I do. I have a very interesting background. And when I was five years old, I wanted to be a baseball player. It’s all I cared about. It’s all I focused on. Like my identity from T ball on was sports and mainly baseball. And I was very, very fortunate that I was able to play was some good high school teams at Indian Ola. And then was offered a small scholarship up to Minnesota State, Mankato to be a pitcher for the Mavericks. And in ’02, I was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies. And I thought that that was going to be, you know, my life, my career. I’d finally made it into the major leagues.

And well, what most people don’t know is when you go into the minor leagues from division two. It’s such a stark contrast between division two baseball. And I mean, these are the top talent from all over the world, really. And so I only lasted two minor league seasons. And I got sent home in 2004. And I thought that my life was over. I mean, honestly, my entire identity was in baseball. I was a baseball guy. I was an athlete. And now I was nothing.

And so I spent probably six years floundering with my sort of who I am as a person. I was very fortunate that my father mentored me into the investment banking industry from really ’04 till about 2010. And I took my athlete aggression into the business world. And I still had and I say this on the campaign trail, a Jesus sized hole in my heart. And a lot of people would understand what that what that means. I would go home as a business person. People would say you’re he’s extremely successful. He’s got all these different things going on. But I would go home and I was lonely. I was miserable. And I just had that hole in my heart.

And at 30 years old, I hit my knees. And I said, Lord, I am done doing things my way. I want to do things your way. And quite literally in a puddle of tears on the ground, I completely surrendered everything to the Lord. And I stood up and I was I was a brand new man. I felt that hole in my heart filled. And I knew at that moment that I had changed. I just I just knew it. I was a different human being.

And then the Lord laid on my heart that he wanted me to plan and prepare for high levels of leadership. Because I just I knew the Lord had something in store for me. But I didn’t know what. But I knew I needed to learn the history of the country. I knew I needed to learn my worldview. I knew I needed to learn my faith. So I started studying American Heritage series David Bart material started studying the truth project. Dell Ticket started teaching those classes across really deploying. And then I started studying my faith and became a pastor in the assemblies of God network. Now I don’t pastor church. I’ve just got the credentials. And that really was a rocket ship into where I’m at today. I mean, I’ve just had a ton of really awesome business experience. Awesome business experiences that have led me to where I’m at today.

And I’ll say one more thing and then I’ll shut up here. But I even got very intentional on who I was supposed to marry. So I started praying for who I was supposed to marry. And I walked into a panero bread and West Des Moines and run into my now wife Casey. And we met kind of reconnected eight months later. We were married. We married for 13 years now. We have two boys 10 and 8 and it has been an amazing experience. And so when we decided to jump in the race and run for governor, the planning and preparation. Really, when I announced it all felt normal because we just it was we just looked back and went, yeah, this is a straight line into exactly where God wants us to be. And we haven’t looked back.

Jeff Johnson: That’s a fascinating story, Adam. I’m going to back you up though, because people say, I just knew I was being prepared for so I just knew I was supposed to do. How did you know? You said you knew that God was putting something on your heart, preparing you for leadership. And clearly that’s happened. So we can trust that.

Adam Steen: Yeah. So for me and I kind of get that question a lot from from some folks like, how did you know? How did you hear from the Lord? You know, and when somebody asked me, how do you hear from God? I mean, first and foremost, I say, I go to the word. I go to the Bible. I mean, if we want to know what God is trying to tell us, just just read the Bible. I mean, it’s right there for us. Right. So I dug into the word immediately. And I started to see around me just different miracles. You know, people would say, oh, that’s the coincidence. Well, I don’t believe in coincidence. At all.

But I started to see different miracles happen around me. And I was hearing the Lord, you know, do this, do that. And so I finally just stopped. And I said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And I felt like it was clear as day. He said, I want you to plan and prepare for higher levels of leadership so that when you speak about me, people will listen. And again, I, because I’ve got that athlete sort of mentality, I took that very, very seriously. And said, OK, if this is you, Lord, I’m going to, I’m going to believe it. And I’m going to plan and prepare right now so that as doors open and doors close, I’ll be ready. And so yeah, I felt like I heard him tell me that. And again, I didn’t look back.

Jeff Johnson: I, I would imagine along that path, which is such an interesting backstory, you bumped into courageous endeavors, week after week, month after month, you know, constantly all the time. I can’t imagine navigating through the major leagues and doing that and feeling that disappointment and then picking yourself back up again and pressing in. I’m curious, how do you define courage? What does courage mean to you?

Adam Steen: That’s a great question. I, you know, for me, without really thinking through too much there, it’s a willingness to do what you’re called to do. And to get to that point, you’ve got to be able to, you know, discern what it is that you’re supposed to do. I mean, when I hit my knees and I share this, I’ve shared this on a couple different podcasts. I don’t sort of fly this banner around, but when I hit my knees, I had two choices. One in my head in my mind was suicide or the other one was Christ. I mean, I was that miserable. I was that low. Now I didn’t contemplate the other for more than just like a split second. It’s like, you know, now I can kind of understand how people can get to such a spot where when they feel like they have no hope, that’s the choice they make. Now split second didn’t contemplate it, you know, beyond that. And that’s when I made what I felt like was the courageous decision and chose to completely surrender my life to the Lord.

And why I felt feel like that was courageous. And again, making the decision that you’re, you’re kind of called to do. I got rid of every single distraction. So I was I was drinking. I was chewing. So I quit drinking, I quit chewing. I quit watching TV. I had a big screen in my in my place, a very nice big screen. I donated that to my church so that they could actually. Now I got rid of everything. Every single distraction. And I just focused on the word and started studying the Bible. And the first three months of that kind of self isolation, I read the Bible covered a cover in three months because I was I had no distractions around me. I was pouring into it. I wasn’t running around late nights, whatever.

And so what happened in that is I had a lot of, you know, friends calling and hey, you know, what what’s going on? And so I had to make the decision that I was going to change my life completely and be prepared for whatever the Lord had me versus what I had for myself. And so I felt like that was probably the first and most important courageous moment of my life courageous decision.

Jeff Johnson: Oh, wow. You’re reminding me, Leonard Ravenhill is one of my favorites. And he said something along the line. It can’t quote it directly, but he said something along the lines of how do you expect to have the courage to pull down strongholds in your life. You don’t have the courage to put down the remote.

Adam Steen: Yeah. I mean, that’s just it.

Jeff Johnson: John Lennox told me the same thing. We were people were asking him, how did you get so smart with all this apologetic stuff and everything with your ten year professor ship at green temple. And you know, with mathematics and stuff. And he said, I shut off the television. I mean, that’s impressive.

Adam Steen: Well, what’s funny is I’ll never forget it. I was so single at the time. As big old big screen. And I was watching the King of Queens. And I love the King by the King of the solarios. And I was laughing at something on that show. And I felt like, what am I doing? Like, like I am focused on this right now. I need to be focused back on the word. And that’s when I shut the TV off. Just so happened a few days later. The church was having an auction. And I’m like perfect timing. So I got the big screen put in the truck, drove it down to Indian old of the church and donated it for their auction. So it was just it was a big move, but it was life changing in a very, very good way.

Jeff Johnson: Is this okay? I’m going to get back to the big question. I promise. But I’m going to ask you again. Is this run that you’re making for the to be governor? Is this part of that calling? Is this a very clear mandate? You know, do you feel it strongly that the Lord said, I want you to go do this? Or is this fitting in with everything else that the trajectory that the Lord has put you on? Do you know what I mean?

Adam Steen: 100% it’s this is 100% the Lord. The Lord is all over us. He’s in this. This is exactly where I’m supposed to be. And I can kind of give you a quick scenario. So the last yeah, for the last five years. Again, just, you know, the Lord’s plan, the Lord’s path. I was recruited into Governor Reynolds cabinet to oversee and run one of her departments. So for the last five years, I’ve been running the Department of Administrative Services, which is the operational entity of the state. So there is not a better training ground than running the Department of Administrative Services for the state. I saw the ins and outs of our tax dollars and our legislative decisions from top to bottom in every single agency in state government. I ran some of the largest projects that the state has ever tried to execute in my department. And I executed them very, very well and successfully. So in the five years of running the state. Just the training ground again is you couldn’t have paid for this type of education.

And when the governor announced that she was not going to run it, I think it took a lot of people off guard, including myself. She called the cabinet and she said, hey, today I’m going to announce I’m not going to run. And I called my wife after the cabinet meeting and I said, gobs not going to run again. And she’s like, are you kidding me? And she goes, well, you know, is this the time? And I said, I don’t know. We need to obviously pray about it and figure that out. So then my mom called my grandma called. And so I had like family members saying, hey, are you going to run for governor? And to me, that’s not demand poll, you know, that’s like family and friends calling. And so my wife and I decided that if we got a call from a legitimate organization entity person or persons that we’d really start to pursue it. And about a week and half later after we started praying, we got a call from some pretty influential folks. And they said, hey, we’ve known for 15 years that this has been on your heart is now the time. And I said, well, let’s, let’s talk.

And so after several conversations and folks saying, hey, you’re my guy. My wife and I prayed. And we determined that it was absolutely the right thing to do. And so where it took a little bit of a twist was, I had to resign my position in order to run for governor. So it’s a, it’s a well paid position. You know, I’ve got a home. I got two boys. I got a wife. I got to take care of. And so we made the decision that, yeah, I’m going to resign and jump into the race.

And the one confirming sort of factor on that was, I’ve got a little home gym. And I get up early, you know, four or four 30 to go get try to get a workout in before the day starts. And the day that I was going to resign my position, I was sitting in there and I just was consumed with fear. Just overwhelmed a fear like this is a big move. You know, this is a, this is a scary move. And I felt like the Lord showed me a picture of the disciples and the boat and Peter getting out of the boat. And I felt like the Lord told me, Adam, you’ve got to be the guy that gets out of the boat. And in that moment, I realized that this wasn’t a risk that I was taking. It was a leap of faith. And so, you know, the story, you know, Peter gets out of the boat. He starts to see the storm. But guess what? Jesus was right there to pick him up. And they didn’t struggle to get back. And they got, they just got back in the boat. So it’s like, you know, the Lord’s there. When he showed me that sort of a picture in my mind, I realized that, yeah, we’re going to do it. So I resigned at 10 a.m. that morning and launched my campaign at 6 p.m. that night.

Jeff Johnson: Okay, there’s a handful of courageous things already. So people have already been enriched and blessed. We could end this here. But we’re not. Okay, last question before I ask you the big one, Adam. Thank you so much. Who do you reference when you think about courage? You know, who do you look up to? Historic figures or people that are contemporary to you now or relatives, friends, anybody?

Adam Steen: There’s some. Sure there’s a bunch, but I’m going to try to not to cry when I tell you this. But my son, my 10 year old riker. Man, there is. I can’t think of a person that has more courage, more joy, more faith than my 10 year old. When he was four months old, he was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder. It’s called Jubeir syndrome, J-O-U-B-E-R-T. And we were told that he’d likely never walk, never talk. And so when you get a diagnosis like that, especially as a, you know, a former athlete who was just assuming his son was going to be a baseball player too, you know. And I googled the syndrome and all the worst stories and images show up about the syndrome. I was, I was crushed, you know, because it’s like, like I’m not, I’m going to quit golfing. I’m going to quit coaching baseball. I’m just, if he can’t walk, if he can’t talk, I’m not going to do any of these things, you know.

And that lasted for about a week and a half and a buddy of mine texted me John chapter nine out of the blue. It was right. He didn’t know what I was kind of going through.

Jeff Johnson: Yeah.

Adam Steen: Well, chapter nine is the story of Jesus, he owned the blind man and the disciples and Jesus are walking and the disciples said, Lord, why was this man, why is this man blind? Is it, was it his sins or the sins of his parents? And Jesus said he was born this way so that God’s works could be shown through him. And it completely released me from that anger, the frustration, the, the sense of giving up. And we started to pray, we started to plan and prepare for why Riker was born this way. And so we took him to every therapy we could, we prayed and prayed, we had prayer chains going all over the place. At two and a half years old, Riker took his first 12 independent steps at a therapy down in Georgia, Dekeola, Georgia. He’s now walking, he’s talking, he is so full of joy.

In first grade, he’s in fourth grade now in first grade. He was, he came home, he said, Dad, God told me to preach. And I said, what? And he said, I was getting my water bottle. He heard somebody say preach and he said, I looked at my friends and he said, God told me again to preach. He said he heard it twice. And so we started to say, okay, buddy, you’re going to be a preacher. So here’s this kid who wasn’t supposed to walk, wasn’t supposed to talk. Now he feels like God’s telling in the preach. And this last March. So it’s 20, 25 right now. But so as March, 25 Riker gave a five minute sermon in front of over 500 people at reach church in Des Moines. Just knocked it out of the park. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. And so for him to have the disability that he has. For him to persevere, go to school, deal with people, deal with, you know, people that aren’t necessarily kind to him all the time. And to get up every day, so full of joy and so encouraging is he walks around that kid. I look up to him. Man, I mean, he he’ll change your day instantly just hanging around with him.

Jeff Johnson: Wow. Wow. I don’t know what to say after that, Adam. That’s fantastic. It’s a big, big deal. Okay, Adam, steam. What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?

Adam Steen: Yeah. No, I, I’ll say I believe fully when I absolutely surrendered to the Lord, that is incredibly challenging because you have to give up what you think is the right way. You’ve got to trust in a God that sometimes you can’t see. You get a trust in a God that sometimes is tough on you. You get a trust in a God that sometimes makes you wait. You got to trust in a God that when you start going down a path, he’ll correct you shift you change you and it kind of forces you to sit back. But when you absolutely surrender to the Lord and the Lord’s will. And get rid of what you feel like you are supposed to be doing and and seek what his will is for you. It is not just courageous. It’s very, very scary to me.

My father three years ago, he passed away of cancer. Kenny cancer, just hit him in he was, he was, he got diagnosed stage four. He’s dead two, three months later. And I had to realize in that moment that my mentor, my hero, the guy that I went to on a regular basis, was not going to be healed here on earth. So I had to as part of absolutely surrendering to the Lord. I had to realize that my dad, who’s a believer, was praising the Lord as he was dying and saying, thank you, Lord, something good is going to come out of this. I had to realize that the Lord had a better plan through this. And this was going to be part of my testimony and that he was going to be healed in heaven, not here on earth. And again, seeing my son healed here on earth, I know that I know I don’t just believe I know that people can be healed here on earth. I know it because I’ve seen it. But then realizing and reconciling that my father, my hero, was going to be healed in heaven, not on earth. Absolute surrender commands me to accept that.

And I’ll share this with you too. I can’t believe I’m not crying right now. But again, my 10 year old, Riker, so he was seven when my dad, his grandpa, passed away. And I was getting ready to take the boys down to see my dad one last time. And my brother, it’s funny now looking back. My brother text me, he said, hey, dad, dad’s gone. And I’m thinking, what’s our call my brother? I think he’s got a point like he sends me that text message. I could probably not the right text to send. But when I called and realized that my dad had died, I looked at my boys and I said, hey, hey, boys, grandpa, grandpa went to be with Jesus. And my, my, so Riker, my seven year old at the time. I said, grandpa went to be with Jesus. He goes, he started cheering, just this joyous cheer. And I’m like, wow. At first, I thought, wait a minute, but then I’m like, no, that’s exactly how we’re supposed to react. That’s exactly how I should, I mean, he, my dad was an agnostic for 50 years. So at 50 years old, he came to the Lord. And we’ve been praying as kids that he would find the Lord. So now here he dies at 68. But he’d been a believer for 18 years. I know he’s in heaven. I know he’s healed in heaven. And for my son, to be so happy that grandpa’s with Jesus. We should all be that same way.

Jeff Johnson: It’s tough. Right. It’s tough.

Adam Steen: But that’s how we should view this. Cause this life, you know, this life’s temporary. And so again, to be courageous and absolutely surrender. And oftentimes commands us to realize that, hey, your hero, he’s in heaven now with Jesus. And you need to be happy about that and share that as a testimony versus something that can often derail people from the Lord.

Jeff Johnson: Yeah. So it’s a big challenge to do and can be, can be really scary too. What does that decision do to people around you? Cause you made that decision when you were in your late 20s, when you were 30.

Adam Steen: That was 30 years old. Yep.

Jeff Johnson: And, and that happened to you. So what happens? Cause I’m curious if courage is like contagious. But you’ve got your courage wrapped up in your, in your faith endeavor. And what the Lord did when he touched your heart. So what happened to people around you when you changed?

Adam Steen: Yeah. So it’s a great question. Immediately there was, there was sort of a shift between the buddies that I used to hang out with and drink with and go hang out with late at night and all that good stuff. There was a shift because they didn’t understand why I didn’t want to hang out with them. Why I didn’t want to go here go there. Now it’s not that I didn’t want to hang out with them. It’s just I had to make sure that I was solidified in my newfound faith before I tempted myself with sort of the nightlife again. Now I don’t, I still don’t go to bars or hang out later or whatever. But it instantly kind of separated me from some of the friends that I’d had and some of the things that we’re doing, which was all very positive. Now most, if not all of those friends, I still have his friends. And we do coffees, we’ll do lunches, things like that. Some of them early on were like, you know, you just you got really weird, you’re goofy. You know, what do you mean? You’re going to church. What do you mean? Like you’re praying, things like that.

What’s really neat is a lot of those friends after now 15 years are now coming back and they’re going, hey, I just realized that God’s real. Tell me more about this, tell me more about that. So now it’s all kind of coming full circle where I’m answering questions and I’ll get calls from people and saying, hey, we haven’t talked in a while, but you told me something years ago. That never left me and now I’m down a different path that I just want to appreciate. So I was just planting seeds and I didn’t know it. So I did separate from some friendships, but I never lost friendships. My family was the same way. I still got some family members that kind of aren’t, you know, down the the sold out path. And I still, you know, we still interact and and get along. But yeah, it has separated, but not severed relationships. And it ends up always coming back full circle, though.

Jeff Johnson: So, so faith is not a necessarily a leap into the unknown, you know, because we have confidence in God, but we don’t know how things are going to turn out, you know, like your current endeavor right now, you know, so you’re operating in faith. And like you said, that takes a lot of courage because you you’re not sure, you know, I mean, not and you got to take that step. So I’m curious, does courage breed confidence when you make that when you make that courageous step and embrace your faith and do all that sort of thing. But you are kind of walking into something that you’re not sure how things are going to turn out. Does it breed confidence then?

Adam Steen: 100% and I’ll give you a little bit of a longer answer on that too, because I think it’s important to kind of understand to that 100% courage breeds confidence. Now, one thing that I had to cut completely out of my life is best as possible is pride. I had so much pride built up within me. Again, you know, here I am, this this athlete that made it to some very high levels in the athletic world. That pride ultimately led to my downfall.

Now, as I is, is I make steps or leaps of faith. And I do feel courageous about them. I can feel confidence build up. And I’m always very, very careful to make sure that that confidence is Holy Spirit confidence. It’s spirit led, not Adam led. Because about the time I start to think that this gubernatorial race, this run that I’m in about the time that I think this is about me is about the time that I think I need to be very, very careful because that’s going to cause this is not about me. Yeah, this is I am a vessel for a time such as this and I am constantly reminding myself and having others remind me that this is this is not about me. This is about the Lord. And and yeah, I am a very confident person, but I make sure to check my pride at the door before I speak before I do a podcast before anything because I do not want this to be about me. This isn’t about Adamstein. This is about the message that Adamstein is carrying. And I joke, but I feel like Frodo carry in the ring sometimes, you know, it’s like for sure, it’s burden to carry what I am, what I am sort of messaging across the state right now, because right now this country in this state, this we need, we need to be a wake and prepared for Holy Spirit revival coming through here. And if I can be a vessel to deliver that message and get to the highest position in the state of Iowa to carry that message forward, I’m all in, you got to be courageous, you got to be confident, but it can never be about me.

Jeff Johnson: I’m sure being involved in government already as a part of Kim Reynolds cabinet, you ran into courageous endeavors, things that were difficult and baffling and can you share with us one or two of those.

Adam Steen: Yeah, so we’ve had a couple, a couple scenarios where I was in the belly of the beast. So I got to see how transactions were made good and bad. Otherwise, there is a very real lobbying presence in state government. So they’re lobbyists that come in and try to convince you to buy certain products. And there were several moments where against the grain, I refused to sign on to certain contracts, the certain situations that one wouldn’t have been a good steward of taxpayer dollars. So like from a black and white perspective, it didn’t make sense for the taxpayers. So I wasn’t going to sign on to it.

But then there are situations where it’s like, hey, you know, this is the political thing to do. Do you not understand the politics of this or your personal convictions outweighing the politics of the situation. And three or four times I said, no, my personal convictions are 100% outweighing the political ramifications of this. I can I’ll resign if you know. So those are moments that I would call my wife on the way over to say no to different things. And it wasn’t wasn’t with the governor. But to say no to certain things and I’d say, hey, you know, I may end up resigning my position here. She’s that’s how we roll. That’s what we do. And so she’s like, you don’t even need to call me anymore. She’s like, I trust your decision. So so there’s some moments like that where, you know, I had to make the right call based upon my personal convictions and based upon the stewardship of our dollars. Then there were moments where I was given some of the largest projects in in state history. And the challenge was out of me have to get these done. And it’s like, okay, let’s figure it out. Well, one of them. I love sharing this story. It was Toledo, Iowa. So team of county, kind of near Marshalltown. Big packet got put on my desk and governor’s office said, this is now your project. And I opened it up and it was the old Iowa juvenile home. And we had the state had shut that down several years ago. And when I got the project, the entire property had set dormant for 10 years. And there’s a giant administrative building and then about 10 or 11 sort of dilapidated buildings on 27 acres just sitting in the middle of Toledo, Iowa. 10 years, nobody did anything with it costing us $250,000 a year of our tax dollars to mow the yard to keep people from burning it down. And so nobody had no one’s able to get this accomplished in 10 years.

And so it gets put on my desk and I kind of look through it and I’m like, all right. And so I said a quick prayer said Lord, let’s do this thing. Let’s get this figured out. And I called the county, Catherine, Alondec answered the phone. And I said, hey, I’m Adamstein with Das. I’d like to get find a way to transfer this property to your county. And she goes, I cannot believe you just called. She said last night we had a meeting about this exact same thing. And now you called today about this. I’m like, well, you know, coincidence. So I said, well, here’s the deal. I said, I would be willing to put a project plan together to figure out a way to get this property transferred to you so that you guys can do what you want with it for the community. And so I put a project plan together, put single points of contact in place. And in nine months, I was able to transfer the property to the city for a dollar. The city then took the giant administrative building transferred it to the school. The school had funds to renovate the building. It is now a functional junior high school. Six seventh graders are going to school there. And then we used economic development dollars to raise the dilapidated buildings. And the city is now selling the bear lots to people who need homes who work at the beef processing plant right down the road.

So in nine months, my department was able to get done to get this project done and do something that nobody was able to accomplish in 10 years. And it was just us rolling up our sleeves, putting the project plan together and not stopping until it was done. And that led to many other projects across the state that grew in size after that. But that was a big moment. And it took courage of our team to take that project on and fearlessly attack it until the project was completed. And there’s there’s many moments in that nine months stretch that is like, oh, like, didn’t know about the asbestos. Like, what are we going to do? And then we solve the problem and move on. We didn’t know about this. We saw the problem. So it wasn’t a clean project. But we got it done. And in the city of Toledo is just head over heels about the whole thing.

Jeff Johnson: See, something like that has so many qualities of excellence that are that are all sprinkled around it. I mean, well done, Adam, but for sure, courage is right there at the at the beginning, you know, that catalyst to make it happen and to follow through. And do you feel like courage is is in abundance in our society today or is lacking?

Adam Steen: I believe it’s lacking. I see generations of, I’ll call them young people, they’re the generation on 45. So there’s a generation below me that I don’t see them taking risks. I don’t see them wanting or seeking challenge. And I used to speak professionally in different settings. And I would challenge people that if you don’t, if you don’t have a problem in your life, you need to go create one so that you can solve that problem and get better and improve. And I was asked by my church to lead a young adult group. And I’m not the type of guy that’s going to sort of sit back and, you know, woe is me, you know, type of thing. And I sat in this young adult group. And just hearing like these problems that weren’t problems. And I’m saying that because I, you know, I’ve been through a lot. But I’m not going to be able to do that. My pastor came up and he said, Hey, like, is this something that you want to, to help with going forward? And I was kind of him, Hans, I didn’t want to tell him no. And he was kind of making observation and I said, yes, you can. He said, I know you don’t want to tell me no, but I also know that you were absolutely miserable. When you were sitting there, he said, you’re the type of guy that is going to grab a group and say, we’re going to go take that mountain. We’re going to go climb that mountain and we’re just going to go and let’s go. And he said, this generation of young people, they need somebody to help them think through what color of rope they want, what size of rope they want, what you know, and that’s just not me.

And so I do think that right now there’s a generation of young people that are unwilling to take those risks. And I think I think it’s a lack of courage and it’s a lack of taking a step out and being a little bit risky and attempting to solve a problem. I do though see a generation younger than them that are starting to rise up. And I think that that generation is going to leapfrog the generation below me, because they’re now, they’re now seeing the benefits of using their hands, using their feet. Using their feet, using their minds. So I think we lost the generation, but I think the younger generation is going to leapfrog them and we’ll have some very powerful leaders in short order.

Jeff Johnson: Yeah, that’s wonderful. And I might get so much respect for you. I mean, I, yeah, I just really appreciate you taking time with us here today. Somebody out there is wrestling with the courageous decision. You know, somebody’s at the crossroads and they’ve got to turn left or turn right. You know, we talk about in government about how there’s people that are willing to compromise and they’re willing to go against their morals or ethics. And I mean, we just see that day in and day out and maybe suffer for a lack of courage to just say, I know everybody else in the world wants me to go left, but I know that it’s supposed to be right. You know, how do you encourage people like that to stand up and to make the right decision and do embrace courage?

Adam Steen: Yeah, the first thing I try to point out to people that are getting ready to make a step is, you know, right or left is that. And I try to point this out of the campaign trail like there is good and there is evil that it is very real. Good is real, evil is real. Evil is trying to infiltrate good. And we need to call that out in what I’m telling groups on a regular basis. We need to speak truth into situations truth and from my perspective, that’s biblical truth. That’s the word of the God that’s the sort of the spirit. We need to be willing to speak truth in situations and oftentimes people get frozen in fear and aren’t willing to be courageous or take that leap or take that step in the right direction. Because they don’t really believe that God is real. They don’t really believe that truth is truth because they’ve just kind of, it’s been masked. It’s sort of faded. It’s a gray area for them.

And so I try to point out that there is absolute truth. There is a God that cares for us deeply. He gives us free will, but he will be there for you. And if they’re willing to just take that either little step or that giant leap. They will find that he is there and may not look like they think it’s going to look it may take a little bit longer, but but every single time somebody takes that leap in faith for the Lord trusting that he’s going to be there and catch them. It always comes back in a positive light for them. And that’s what I try to challenge him. Like you got to understand there is truth. There are lies. There’s good. There’s evil. But you need to be able to take that step and trust them because it will come back in a very, very good way in the exact right time.

Jeff Johnson: Exactly. And your life is such a testimony to that last last question and then I’ll leave you alone. And I’ll be praying. Adam, of course, I pray for you all the time anyway, but I don’t mean to be tongue in cheek, but I’m praying that the Lord gives you some rest and fills up your cup because it’s something to stick your chin out there and to say, send me, Lord, I’m happy to go. And I, that’s another reason why I got so much respect for you. The question that I have for you is from the baseball diamond to business success to governor Reynolds cabinet through your situation with Ryker and what you’ve gone through with your family to where you stand right now. It seems like a ribbon a courage that the Lord is kind of knitting through that whole thing. Describe that. What is the, what’s the purpose? Do you see that as it’s gone through your whole life? You know, do you see purpose there? What’s the courageous ribbon that the Lord is knitting through your life?

Adam Steen: Yeah, when I, when I give a stump speech, it usually, it’s anywhere from seven to 15 minutes long and it details where I started to where I’m at today. And when I look back, what seemed like a sort of zigzag back and forth, when I look back, it’s a perfectly straight line. And every single challenge, every single moment, every single career shift, seemed odd at the time, but looking back, it makes perfect sense. And I shared, I did a stump speech at my brother and sister loss house not too long ago. And my little niece was in the room. I didn’t realize she was in the room. And during the Q and A portion of it, I think she’s, I should know this. But I want to say she’s four or five years old. She raised her hand to ask a question. And I said, well, yeah, Chase, what, what’s the question? And she said, you have bravery.

And it was like, whoa, whoa, from the mouth of babes. I mean, that’s right. It was like it everybody in the room kind of pause and look back at her. It was like this, this moment that I described my life. And here’s this child that raised her hand and she said, you have bravery. And it’s just like, wow, that’s, that’s pretty cool. Now again, I have to stay humble. I can’t let that get to my head because the bravery that I have the courage that I have flat outcomes from the Lord, flat outcomes from the Lord. His, his spirit, his word is so interwoven in my life, especially over the last 15 years that this purpose, this calling, this mission that I’m on. Yeah, I feel like it is brave. I feel like it is courageous. But at the end of the day, here in Lord send me, and I’m trusting the outcome to him, knowing I’m doing the best possible things I can do every single day. Working hard, putting into time, putting in the effort, putting in the training, studying, learning, answering questions. And I just know that the Lord is going to show up at the exact right time. And things are going to move forward according to his will.

Jeff Johnson: Yeah, it’ll be, it’ll be amazing to see how the Lord continues to take you on this journey at him. I mean, wow. And she’s absolutely right to call out bravery. And that isn’t that beautiful. We’re acknowledging God’s fingerprints in your life. And that is absolutely good and right and true. And we should recognize that in in your life and everybody else’s life when you see something. I was at a, I was at a forum meeting. I don’t mean to turn around and make this about me. I was at a forum meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming one time. And we had hired a facilitator. And my forum group was probably about 10 people. We sat around this dinner table. And the forum group leader said, tell me what’s amazing about you. And everybody around all these business leaders sat around the table and they were sitting on their hands. And I was kind of looking and smiling. And I raised my hand. She called on me and I said, absolutely everything. And she said, you guys said, no, me, they laugh. And she said, why do you say that? And I said, because I’m the only Jeff Johnson that God ever made. And all of human existence. And you get to have dinner with me. And she was like, that’s fantastic. I love it. You know, that’s not a prideful thing. Either Adam, that’s just true. You know, either either we are children of God or we aren’t. And you and I know that we are. So how do people get ahold of you? How do they support you? We’ll put this in our show notes for sure. But I want to give people a chance to, to help lift you up.

Adam Steen: I appreciate that very, very much. So Adamstein.com, Adamstein, S T E N dot com. We have our social media channels that are attached to that website. There’s a donation link. I mean, I may flat out grassroots candidate. So it takes money to win these races. I’m building the business. And so the capital has to come through individuals and donors. So there’s a, there’s a donation link there. If people don’t want to donate online, Adamstein for Iowa is where checks can go. P O box 11. Runnels Iowa 50237. P O box 11. Runnels Iowa 50237. That’s Adamstein for Iowa. That’s a, that’s a simple way to get involved. But yeah, follow us on socials. If you see events that we’re coming at. I’d love to meet people. That this is going to, we’re going to win through the people. And we’re going to win through folks rising up and feeling led to get involved in the campaign. And again, I’m just trusting that the Lord’s going to, going to provide that along the way. And he is showing up in big ways. We feel very, very good about where we’re at, considering we’re about two and a half months into the race. And yeah, we’re winning some polls out there. So it’s, it’s pretty fun right now.

Jeff Johnson: Awesome. How many years you’ve been married?

Adam Steen: At 13.

Jeff Johnson: Please tell me that you spend every anniversary date at Panera.

Adam Steen: Yeah. I wish I could say that. It’s the easiest one in the world, Adam. If I told you where we typically spend our anniversary, I think people wouldn’t feel sorry for me in this campaign. We got married in the Hayman Islands. So every once in a while, we’ll swing back there. We haven’t in a while. But no, we still share the Panera story. We had Panera cookies that are wedding, that are wedding. So it was just a really neat deal.

Jeff Johnson: Of course you did. Well, Adam, steen. Man of many talents, wonderful father, wonderful husband, and wonderful child of God. And man, a great courage. Thank you so much for sharing with us today, Adam.

Adam Steen: Jeff, thank you. Absolute honor, absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.

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