Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brennan Schmidt. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Brennan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission started with a calling to partner with God in making the world a better place through real and local impact. Over the years, that mission has taken shape across different parts of my life, from healthy cooking and regenerative farming to character development in young athletes and building meaningful community here in Surf City.

In food, I’m passionate about teaching people how to nourish their bodies through sourdough, fermentation, and whole, local ingredients. I believe in stewarding both our bodies and the land, and helping others rediscover rhythms of health, rest, and connection through food.

In football, I run Iron Sharpens Iron camps where we teach not just safer and more effective techniques that reduce head injuries but also virtues like humility and coachability. I’ve been deeply influenced by Tip of the Spear Football and the people leading it, like Scott Peters, Mike Pollak, and Todd DeLameliere. Football shaped my life, and I want to use it now to help shape better men.

In real estate, I see an opportunity to build authentic community. It is not just about buying or selling homes. It is about using my gifts to serve, connect, and make my town stronger. That is why I am starting things like a local F3 workout group, Bible studies based on the BEMA discipleship model, and even bluegrass jam nights. I believe community is built face to face, shoulder to shoulder.

One book that really lit a fire in me was The Go-Giver. It reminded me to focus not on what I can get, but on how much I can give. I trust that God blesses those who pour themselves out for others, and that is the path I am walking.

So whether I am teaching someone to bake bread, coaching football, helping a family find their home, or creating a space for men to work out and grow in faith, my mission is the same. I want to give, to build, to serve, and to love people well.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My mission really began when my professional football career ended and I was invited to coach in Naples, Italy. That experience changed my life. I lived with the families of my players and learned firsthand what it means to cook and eat well. The Italian way is simple. You start with ingredients that are fresh, in season, and grown with care. That simplicity opened my eyes to the power of good food and authentic community.

When I came back to the States, my brothers and I poured ourselves into our family farm in Southern Maryland. We started raising grass-fed and grass-finished beef, pasture-raised pork and poultry, and practicing regenerative agriculture. I began to understand how food can heal. When you take care of the land, it gives back. Food grown this way nourishes the body in ways you can feel.

That journey deepened when I became a chef. I started cooking for retreats, private dinners, and high-end catering events. I also began teaching. While working at a classical school in Charlottesville, I taught science through gardening and math through baking. That is when I discovered sourdough. At first it was just a way to teach kitchen math, but I quickly realized how powerful it was. Fermentation can transform simple ingredients into something deeply nourishing. I kept learning, kept baking, and eventually started teaching fermentation and sourdough classes. That led to launching my bakery business, which focuses on health, heritage, and simplicity.

Around the same time, I got involved with Tip of the Spear Football and began mentoring young men. As a former NFL defensive lineman, I knew the game inside and out. But Tip of the Spear showed me a better way to teach technique. Their system reduces head injuries and builds real confidence. I have been teaching those fundamentals now for eight years. At Iron Sharpens Iron football camps, we go beyond skills. We focus on building character. We talk about humility, coachability, and what it means to be a man of virtue.

Now that I live in Surf City, I am pulling all of this together into one mission-driven life. I host sourdough and fermentation classes. I lead football clinics. I am launching a real estate business that is focused on building authentic relationships. I started a men’s beach workout group and I am hosting Bible studies using the BEMA Podcast. I am even planning local bluegrass jam sessions. All of it is about connection, service, and community.

Whether it is through food, football, faith, or real estate, everything I do is rooted in giving. One book that really shaped my mindset was The Go-Giver. It reminded me that true success comes from how much value you create for others. I believe that when you give freely, you build something real and lasting.

My mission is to partner with God to create spaces of healing, connection, and growth. I am doing that in my kitchen, on the football field, in the neighborhoods I serve, and hopefully one day far beyond this place.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn is that you cannot be devoted to both comfort and goals at the same time. For a long time, I did not realize how much that tension was shaping my life. After I finished playing professional football, which was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life, I felt like I deserved a break. I had spent years pushing myself with drive and discipline, and when that chapter closed, I naturally drifted toward comfort.

When I moved to Naples, Italy to coach football, I was immersed in a culture that values working to live rather than living to work. That mindset has real beauty to it, and I learned a lot about slowing down and enjoying life. But I think it also fed into a new internal story that I did not recognize at the time—that comfort had become my new goal.

Recently, a friend told me something that really hit me. He said that goals and comfort cannot coexist. It reminded me of the scripture that says you cannot serve both God and money. They are constantly at odds. In the same way, I now see that you are either pursuing goals or pursuing comfort. You have to choose. I had been trying to do both, especially as I built my entrepreneurial businesses in food, football, carpentry, and community building. I wanted to grow these things, but I also wanted to protect a certain level of comfort for my wife and three kids. That desire is understandable, but I can now see that it was holding me back.

Another big lesson I had to learn came from a book called The E-Myth, which stands for The Entrepreneur Myth. It taught me that in any business there are three roles: the technician, the manager, and the entrepreneur. I had been living as the technician. I loved the work—cooking, baking, coaching, building—but I was not thinking or acting like a true entrepreneur. I was not creating systems. I was not building something that could thrive without me. I was working in the business, but not on the business.

Looking back, I see that those two mindsets held me back. I wanted comfort more than growth, and I saw myself more as a craftsman than a business owner. That has changed. I am now stepping into the mindset I had back when I played football. I feel that same drive again. I know what it means to chase something with everything I have, and I believe my businesses will start to flourish now that I have unlearned those old patterns.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Two books have had a major impact on my outlook as an entrepreneur. The first is “The E-Myth” and the second is “The Go-Giver.”

“The E-Myth” helped me understand that owning a business means playing three distinct roles: the technician, the manager, and the entrepreneur. Most people, myself included, start a business because they are good at a particular craft. In my case that was cooking, baking, coaching football, and carpentry. I thought I was starting a business, but what I was really doing was creating a job for myself. I was living as a technician.

That book opened my eyes to the fact that true business ownership means stepping into the role of the entrepreneur. It means building systems so the business can run without you. It means shifting from doing the work to creating a structure where others can do the work and the business can grow. That was a huge mindset shift for me, and it changed how I approach all of my ventures moving forward.

The second book, “The Go-Giver,” solidified something I already believed deep down. It showed me that the more you give, the more value you create in the lives of others, and the stronger your relationships become. This book gave me permission to stop worrying about what I was going to get out of something and start focusing fully on what I could give. It helped me take action on the kind of impact I want to make in my community.

There is a teaching in the Bible about having a good eye or a bad eye. A good eye sees the world as full of abundance. A person with a good eye believes that God has enough for everyone, so there is no need to hold back or hoard what you have. A bad eye, on the other hand, sees the world as scarce and closed off. It leads people to cling tightly to what they have and fear generosity. That teaching came to life for me through “The Go-Giver.” It reminded me that generosity is not just a virtue. It is also a powerful business principle.

Both of these books helped me reshape how I think about my businesses. They taught me to lead with systems and to lead with generosity. That combination is now at the heart of how I approach everything I build.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @SurfCitySabbath
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ZpV8CbhhT/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brennan-schmidt-58b9151a?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Image Credits

Brennan Schmidt, Sarah Elizabeth (wife),
Pippa (daughter), Bennett (son) Fitz (Son)