SHOW NOTES
What is the adversary actually using against you? Dr. Dave sits down again with Bryce Johnson from Unpackin’ It to dig into the FLAP framework from Dave’s new book Plan to Win: How to Manage Your Fear, Lust, Anger Pride While Building Your Christian Organization. These are the four toxic motivators that quietly undercut leaders, entrepreneurs, and ministry workers — and in this episode, both Dave and Bryce get uncomfortably honest about where each one has shown up in their own lives. If you have ever felt paralyzed by fear, crushed under the weight of pride, or stuck on a hamster wheel you cannot seem to stop, this conversation is for you.
What Is a Toxic Motivator?
A toxic motivator is anything driving your behavior that is not rooted in glorifying God. It is the force behind ineffective decisions, reactive choices, and the quiet drift away from the vision God has given you.
Dr. Dave Jones identified four of them through his doctoral research and built the FLAP framework around them: Fear, Lust, Anger, and Pride. The name is intentional. These are not abstract concepts. They are the specific tools the adversary uses to get in the way of your calling.
Think of it the way Dave approached opponents in professional hockey. Before every game, you scout the other team. You study what makes them dangerous. You prepare for what they are going to run at you. The adversary does the same thing. He studies your specific vulnerabilities and brings the pressure exactly where you are weakest.
That is why naming your toxic motivators is not just a spiritual exercise. It is the first move in the Plan to Win.
What Does Fear Look Like in Ministry and Business?
Fear rarely announces itself. It shows up as busyness, as FOMO, as the inability to rest, as a funnel you keep filling even when you know it’s too full.
Bryce Johnson has been in ministry for thirteen years. And for most of those years, he has struggled to take time off because he is afraid that if he pulls back even slightly, he will lose momentum. Fewer listeners. Less funding. A ministry that stalls the moment he steps away.
He is honest about what that fear has cost him: disobedience to rest. God calls us to refuel. Fear says the wheel stops spinning the moment we get off it. That is a lie, and Bryce knows it is a lie. But knowing and feeling are two different things.
He also named the fear of not making payroll as a donor-funded ministry. God has always provided. There have been bleak moments where the numbers looked impossible and something miraculous happened. And yet the fear still comes. That tension between what you know theologically and what you feel practically is exactly where FLAP does its damage.
Dave added his own version: a fear so specific and physical that it shapes how he moves through the world. After seven concussions — the last one leaving blood in his brain and a cracked skull — he lives with a real awareness that another serious head injury could kill him. Golf balls. Objects in the air. He pays attention in a way most people never have to.
What both stories have in common is that fear shrinks the room. It makes the possible feel impossible. It makes God feel smaller than the problem. And it keeps leaders running faster and harder on a wheel that never produces the peace they are chasing.
How Does the Adversary Scout You?
When Dave played professional hockey, every team did a scouting report before a game. Fast wingers. Weak goaltender. Defensive gaps. You knew what you were walking into.
The adversary is not random. He does not throw generic temptation at everyone and hope something sticks. He studies you. He knows whether your weak point is fear or pride, lust or anger. He knows whether you are most vulnerable when you are exhausted, when a client leaves, when the numbers are down, or when they are up.
FLAP gives you your own scouting report. When you know which of the four is most likely to get you, you can prepare for it before the pressure arrives. That is the entire premise of Plan to Win. Awareness first. Strategy second. Victory is available, but not to the leader who has never drawn their own map.
What Does Fear Do to a Leader’s Decision-Making?
Dr. Dave identifies three specific ways fear shows up in leadership behavior: hoarding, risk aversion, and unhealthy competition.
Hoarding is the fear that there is not enough, so you hold tight to what you have rather than investing it. Risk aversion is the fear that moving forward might cost you what you have already built. Unhealthy competition is the fear that someone else’s success means less for you.
All three are rooted in the belief that God is not going to provide. That the room is limited. That you are on your own.
Faith is the antidote. Not faith as a feeling, but faith as a practiced conviction: God has provided before and he will provide again. Dave has twenty-five years in business behind that statement. When one client leaves, another one comes. He has kept the funnel full, yes. But the underlying belief that God is in it has been the difference between gripping the wheel with white knuckles and leading from a place of actual peace.
What Does Pride Cost You?
Bryce named something about pride that most leaders do not talk about: it is paralyzing.
When you are carrying all the weight yourself, when you are the solution to every problem, when pride is the engine running your leadership, the stress and anxiety you carry is overwhelming. It has to be. You are functioning as if God is not in the room.
Dave illustrated it with a story from the airport. A man ten rows behind him was certain he could will himself onto a connecting flight. He pushed past everyone, hyperventilating, convinced that if he just moved fast enough and stressed hard enough he could change the outcome. He did not make the flight.
Pride works the same way. It convinces you that your intensity and effort and control are what determine the result. They are not. And the crash that comes from leading that way is predictable.
The antidote Bryce offered was simple and direct: his most common prayer is three words. I need you. Spoken to God. Repeated until it is true not just in the head but in the moment, in the decision, in the day.
How Do You Stay Humble When You Are Successful?
Dave’s answer to this question was not philosophical. It was practical.
He intentionally puts himself in situations where he knows nothing. Every couple of years, he picks something completely outside his experience and commits to learning it from scratch. His most recent example was a long-range rifle class at a range in North Raleigh. He showed up knowing almost nothing about ballistics, scopes, wind, or grain count. He had to ask questions. He had to be a beginner in a room of people who knew more than him.
He passed the class. Hit a target at a thousand yards. But that was not the point.
The point was the posture required to get there. Humility is not just a spiritual attitude. It is a practiced discipline. You build it by choosing learning over comfort. By staying curious. By refusing to let past success become a reason to stop asking questions.
For Bryce, humility is maintained through a daily, moment-by-moment dependence on God. Not a morning devotional and then back to self-sufficiency. An actual ongoing conversation. I need you. I need you. I need you.
What Is the Plan to Win?
Plan to Win is Dr. Dave Jones’s new book built around the FLAP framework. It gives leaders a practical tool for identifying which toxic motivators are most active in their lives and building a real strategy for leading from vision instead of fear, pride, anger, or lust.
The book is available on Amazon. There is also a free FLAP assessment at plantowintoday.com that helps you identify your primary toxic motivator and get a personalized starting point.
Key Takeaways
– FLAP (Fear, Lust, Anger, Pride) are the four toxic motivators that derail leaders from their God-given vision
– The adversary is not random. He studies your weaknesses and applies pressure exactly where you are most vulnerable
– Fear shows up as hoarding, risk aversion, and unhealthy competition, all rooted in the belief that God will not provide
– Pride is paralyzing because it places all the weight of outcomes on you rather than God
– Humility is a practiced discipline, not just an attitude and requires putting yourself in positions where you do not have the answers
– The antidote to pride is not willpower. It is dependence: “I need you. I need you. I need you.”
– Knowing your toxic motivators in advance is the first move in the Plan to Win
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the FLAP framework? FLAP stands for Fear, Lust, Anger, and Pride — four toxic motivators identified by Dr. Dave Jones through doctoral research. These are the primary forces that derail leaders and organizations from their God-given vision. Each has a corresponding antidote: Faith, Love (giving), Forgiveness (patience), and Humility.
What is a toxic motivator? A toxic motivator is anything driving your behavior that is not rooted in glorifying God. It is the force behind reactive decisions, ineffective behavior, and the quiet drift away from your calling. Toxic motivators are not random — they are the specific vulnerabilities the adversary targets in each person.
What is the Plan to Win book? Plan to Win is a book by Dr. Dave Jones that teaches leaders how to identify their primary toxic motivators and build a practical strategy for leading from vision instead. It is available on Amazon and comes with a free assessment at plantowintoday.com.
How do you identify your toxic motivator? The free FLAP assessment at plantowintoday.com walks you through a series of questions designed to surface your primary toxic motivator. From there, the Plan to Win framework gives you a practical roadmap for addressing it before it derails your leadership.
Who is Bryce Johnson? Bryce Johnson is a ministry leader and the host of Unpackin’ It, a podcast dedicated to honest conversations about faith, sports, and the mental and emotional dimensions of leading and competing. He has been in ministry for thirteen years and brings a rare combination of transparency and depth to conversations most leaders avoid.
What is the R7 Christian Marketing Podcast? The R7 Christian Marketing Podcast is hosted by Dr. Dave Jones, founder of M is Good, a Christian marketing agency based in Raleigh, NC. Each episode explores the intersection of faith, vision, and strategy through conversations with leaders and practitioners building meaningful organizations.
About the R7 Process
The R7 Process is a God-inspired framework that walks leaders through seven steps — Destiny, Vision, Strategy, Brand, Communicate, Think, and Action — to clarify their purpose and build a marketing strategy that actually works. It was built specifically for Christian organizations who want to stop guessing and start leading with clarity and rigor.
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