Christian Entrepreneur Robert L. Wallace : The Four Billion Customers Nobody Is Building For

In 2018, Robert Wallace and his wife got ownership. Six months, 40 countries, 100 ports. He was not on a holiday. This was a mission of research. He had already written eight books on entrepreneurship and decided that every single one of them had the exact same blind spot. They were all in American perspective. So he went and looked at the rest of the world. Listen, this conversation was so good. Robert came back with three findings and one of them, he had been told his entire career was not real. I'm Priscilla Shumba and welcome back to the Entrepreneur's Kitchen. In this episode, we get into how to build when you have nothing. Where faith actually fits in, not as an add-on, nervous fluff, but as the strategy. How he hears the voice of God and his answer is only two words long. And my favorite, why you build the structure of wealth before the wealth comes. Or you lose it when it arrives. Let's jump into the conversation. Welcome to the Entrepreneur's Kitchen. This is an absolute treat because Robert's not only understands business and entrepreneurship, he's a person of faith. And he has also been at the political arena. This conversation's going to help Christian Entrepreneurs think strategically about their businesses, where they have faith fits in, and where they fit into the political landscape. We don't usually go there, but we got Robert here. So we're going to go there today. Thank you so much, Robert, for joining us. Robert, you've done a lot of things. How do you introduce yourself? Absolutely. But I am a humble servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, a father of Christ. I am a Christian businessman who has created number of businesses to not only create wealth and create jobs, but to have impact on communities and people. I have been married for eight years to live in my life. I must be off in college, we met in engineering school at University of Pennsylvania, and we have five grown children. And we have 12 amazing grandchildren. So we continue to create jobs and have impact on our family, our community, and the world, quite frankly. So we're very excited to be here, be part of your program. And hopefully we can share something that may help some people. You've seen some exciting things in terms of entrepreneurship around the world. All listeners are from everywhere. What's your take on what you're seeing right now? There's a lot going on in the world that will impact all of us. Let me give you some context. So in 2018, my wife and I decided, I was working with my next book, which is called Global Entrepreneurship. I've written eight books, six of them published, but those books primarily looked at entrepreneurship from an American perspective, right? People call it an America, but yet an American perspective. What I wanted to do in 2018 was to start my research looking at global entrepreneurship. So expanding my realm, expanding my perspective from the US perspective to a global perspective. So 2018, we decided to hop on a ship and we actually sailed the world for six months. We visited over 40 countries. We started a hundred posts of calls in Australia, New Zealand, with your base net area, that part of the world, and throughout the entire world. And what we saw is a couple of things. One is that the entrepreneurship still has the power to change lives and to impact societies. Two, we saw that what we call the global south was now gaining speed on a production and creation of entrepreneurs from a different perspective than the global north has. That was a really eye-opening thing for me. And the third thing I learned from this trip was the intersection between successful entrepreneurship and spirituality, right? For a long time, a lot of experts said to me about the new connection between successful entrepreneurship and spiritual matters, and you should separate the two. For my research, I found that's not the case. I disagreed with them and disagree with them today. I believe there is a strong connection with interconnection there. And it's one that I've written about. So many of my books address the issue of success from a physical and national perspective and as well as a spiritual perspective. That is the direction of this mixed generation of young entrepreneurs. They want to see how can I be a capitalist? How can I create jobs and wealth at the same time, change my community? How can I use capitalism entrepreneurship, for example, to deal with climate change, right? Which is affecting all of us, especially in the US. How can I use my technical skills, my business skills, to feed the poor? Those who are hungry. That's a new trend that I'm seeing and for global trade. And the global North, you hear a lot of people saying, I don't know where this faith thing combines with business. And you're way ahead of your time because even now, people are still having that friction around that to say, just talk business. If you're talking business, just talk business. If you're talking faith, just talk faith alone. What was it? What were the moments that made you realize that no, the two must go together? Or what in New York gave you that conviction before now where this is taking over? Absolutely, the conviction for me started as a kid, in just some context, I was raised in South Baltimore, which is a tough city, tough neighborhood. And what we call US housing projects, this is housing for low income communities, right? And it's a tough neighborhood. The schools tend not to be as good as the other schools. There's economic scarcity, there's drug addiction, there's violence, there's all the things that people who are impoverished have to deal with. And so being an air environment, I saw the problems that our society has, right? That we need to address. But I also saw entrepreneurs in my community, who by the way, didn't live in my community, right? But people who live outside my community, who came into my community to make money off of us and then leave our community, I saw that. And I said, that's not right. The people who are benefiting from the dollars that circulate through the community, those dollars should benefit the community. So at a very young age, there's a teenager, I saw that dynamic. And then I saw, and then there's also, I saw the benefit that having a strong economic foundation the benefit that can have to a community. So when I saw, for example, at my community, we needed something we needed, or they start to feel, right? But we needed playground built, who we would go to, but went to the business people, right? To make contributions. We went to the government too. But we went to the business people. So I saw the power that business people had to do good. And so I said, as a young man, gee, one day I wanted to be a business person, I wanted to be a business person who's making enough money to take care of my wife and my children and my grandmas and my family. But we also can have enough resources left over that I can invest in a community to make the lives of people in the community better. And so throughout my career as an entrepreneur, I saw the opportunity to do just that now. To me, that parallels with the mission of Jesus Christ. I argued that Christ was an entrepreneur, right? He had a very proposition, and he had to convince people that one, they needed it and two, that he could revive what they needed. I think the same moral applies to entrepreneurs who have a spiritual foundation. They recognize that the gift that I've been given, in my case, is engineering science. I'm an engineer. My companies are in tech. I'm an information technology. I'm in energy. We do law skills, solar, battery engineering, micro-grid engineering, engineering analytics, all that engineering stuff, right? That's my gift. But my gift must be known and can benefit me, but to benefit the king of God. And so in doing that, I was following all the Christ fall, right? He said, "I'm using technology and processes." It was the same thing. I got a value proposition. I am selling it. And I'm trying to convince the market that you need what I have. And then I can help you in doing that. So it's a great principle. That's a very similar model, that Christ used. And so at a very young age, no, they have it there. But then I got into business as an adult and began making money. We started with mission trips all over the world in different countries, Africa, and Latin America, South Asia, and what did we do? It's the same model that Christ applied. That is, let me be people at their need. Let me be the path they need. For example, if a community in the world of systems, let me build the world of systems. If a community in the orphanage is for children who lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, let me build that orphanage. And then the hospital to kill for the sick, let me build that hospital, right? The way I fell on the process procedure and the Mrs. Marley here, that when I met them at their need, then it became easier for us to now do business together. Because now they would say, hey, they've just got by wireless in his group. They actually care about us. They care about us. So when we had another meeting, where they had money to spend going, who they think of. They think of people like by wireless. It's a, hey, he's in the union. They got a tech company. They got an energy company. Maybe we should talk to them and work with them because we were able to build that trust. That's the same in Christ's day. Christ was able to let me reach you at your need and reach your need. And then, And a process of us doing that, then we can pick it. We can pick it to the spirit of the mission. And that's the same thing that we do in our business. It's the same, Mark. I'm the father of the modern master. A lot of people who would listen to this would be that young Bob that feels like, look, I see what's happening in my community. I see the dollars are going elsewhere. I want to be that person who helps to change this, who helps to build up my community. But they don't quite see how it's going to happen or how they're going to manage to do that. But that seat is in them to want to do that. You worked for some amazing companies. When you're, I'll let you speak to that. Started working. And you walked away from that. What made you make that pivotal decision? - Yeah, I think it's a fundamental question. I tell young people, I wasn't going to, I mean, we'll call the 100 principles of your current is now a talk to you. But that's our next year. I was in the city of first names, first and words. You and I, all of us, we would go on. God puts a seed in us that is unique to us. It is a gift, it is your superpower, all right? And you have to find where this superpower is and it's been your life making it better and making me stronger. So I said first things first, that is, find that superpower, work on that superpower. In my case, it was the engineering science person. I was gifted a math and science. I'm not very good at engineering, shit, all of it works. Where there you go, my gift is math and science. That's what I do. All my businesses are tech businesses, right? Because that's what I do. That's my superpower. That's my passion. And you got to spend your early years like the physical guide for a person is called Black Love. And in that book, I talked about the stages of development and I tied the stages to the decades of life. For example, I said in book, when you're 10 to 20, these are things you should be focused on. In the 20s, 20 to 30, these are the stages you should be working on. This is not true for every guy you've been selling. But for my study, it kind of there was some commonality there. From 30 to 40, this is what you're doing there. 35 to 50, so on. And so first things first, build yourself. See, I think what I think I see some people make in Pazoa is that they try to do too much to soon. And I caution them because it's to me, it's in our DNA to want to help. It's not DNA for most people to want to extend their hand. It's in our DNA to take care of our sister and our brother, in most of us, not all of us, but many of us. That's great. But the first things first, you guys are going to do. So that when you grow up doing the marketplace, Pazoa, you are strong enough, you are confident enough, you are competent enough to compete. Because you compete well in the marketplace, and you can't sell your services or your products and all that, because it's tough competition, that we'll have resources necessary to do the thing, the vision that God has given you. So I remind young people, especially young entrepreneurs, first things first, welcome to you. Welcome to you. Get your skills, get your education, build your network, your mentors, you can do it by yourself, reach out and find mentors and men and women that will help you to accelerate the process, to show the learning cycle, right? So you can become more competitive and more competent, a lot quicker. And then we'll do the opposite. They'll be in a position where we can now have impact, building open adjusts, finding schools. We have kids in the intestine and kidney, that we've adopted over the last 30 years. And guess what? We pay for their education. We are paying for their education. So now in their college, we pay for their college. They're in kidney, they're in tens of years. They didn't go under, okay, because God has blessed us to have enough resources that we can do that. And I think the cellar like she is first things first, we're going to be first, we're going to be first. So you're strong, you're in an airplane, a cellar, and they're pretty much check where they tell you. And if the accident mass drops where first thing you do, they tell you, the view is on first. Because if you're unconscious, if you're unconscious, you can't help anybody else. So if you're economically unconscious, you can't help anyone. So you keep those first things first, we're going to sell first. - We run our heads of where we are. I don't understand that this starts right here. Don't try to go over there yet, build that. - Exactly, right. - First. - The first company that you started, Robert, if you can talk us through how the idea came about, how did you know that this is the idea to go for, what that process was like for you? - So first of all, person to recognize, I started a number of companies that failed. Okay, I got into leasing. I got into small business financing. I got into a small manufacturing and they didn't work out, right? I was saying for a cellar, I went through at least five of six businesses that did not pan out. And that's okay, that's okay. Okay, so there I did what didn't work for me. My first business really get traction was with group technologies. It's an information technology services company. In any case, you consider how I made that work. Prior to me starting that company, I was working as an employee for idea. So I was solving information technology problems, providing solutions for big customers, like journalists, fraud, major companies, out-of-the-body, efficient technology solutions as I was doing for IBM. So what I did for cellar, then was take what I was already doing in IBM, the skillset that I had learned as an IBM engineer, and I parlayed that into my own business. So then when I left IBM, I was able to take some relationship with me. I was able to take the skillset that I had learned while I was all over the world with my IBM. I had gone training all over the world for IBM. So I was prepared to give capacity, competence, right? In capability. I spent years building those three things. And so when I launched, I was in a strong position to be successful. And so that was my first company. It was an information technology services company. That company now, for sure, is almost 40 years old. I belong a running, I'm a chairman of the board. I've got people that run it. We've had police for that long period of time. And in some cases, so that we have second and third generation to be working in company. So we have people who started, and then they're children joined, and then they're grandchildren joined, right? So you see the ripple effect of having impact, right? And we'll notice specifically how far this will go, all we got knows. But I'm just saying that we were able to build a foundation that was sustainable and that could stand the test of time. So that we now could allow a new generation of people, we got young people that run business. And the old generation, we got young people, right? This is great. This is how it should be. Right? And so we were able to do that by God's grace. When you were starting these businesses and they were failing, starting these businesses and they're failing, what kept you starting another one? Because maybe to the person who's like, I'm the third one and it's failed. On the fourth one, it's failed. And they're just like, maybe this is the sign of this, not for me. What kept you going? Yes, great question, Priscilla. And I did have people doing those difficult times. People who love me, not my wife. My wife was, she's been, I would not be right in the day where nothing my wife. My wife is a biomedical engineer from Ivy League School. She's smart with the protein gamble, DuPont. She's brilliant. Why she married me? I never know. But I think God in the day that she did, right? There are people that just get in the kind of gift. So we grew up in difficult times. And this is a different thing, so that's very important. You've got very early on, find a handful of people that you can trust who have the skill set and the experience to help guide you. We call them mentors, right? It doesn't have to be many people, Priscilla. It doesn't have to be many. It can be two or three. And so that's what I was able to do, studying my wife was building me day one. And then other, I think it's for all the mentors during that time. So even in difficult times, not always with telling me, hey, God, go out and get a job. This is not working. You have five kids. You got a wife. You can't get a job, right? They're not well, they're not any harm. Just in their mind, they couldn't see the dream, they couldn't see the vision. And so from their limited perspective, they told me what they thought I should do to help me. But in the group, they're in the group. They're in a circle. They're like, okay, my wife, let's take the strategy. Let's pit it and let's see what else is out there that might make sense. And that's how it was able to keep going. And then my case with Sarah and my wife, this engineer, she was working. So we had steady income to meet the needs of children. We had health care. So she provided that foundation, which allowed me then to go out and take more risk, right? And that's important for Sarah. That's important to have a partner. And it doesn't have to be a spouse necessarily, but somebody that can give you some cover, right? That can give you a foundation that you can build upon. And now it's blessed to have that. Quick one before we start. If you're anything like me, you're listening to this on the go, commute, gym, school run, you catch a gym, and you think I need to remember that. And then it's gone. I got you. We break down every episode on our sub-stack. The must-nose, the actionable stuff, The things worth actually doing in your business this week's great to your inbox and it's free. Because listening is great, but we want you executing. Links in the description, join the crew. Now, let's get into it. Having that mentorship and that core group that understands who you are and what it is that you're trying to do and can help you see what you saw in the beginning when things are not working out is really important. Robert, for you, what do you think has been as you look back on the history of the company, the 30 years or so, that things that have made a really big difference in you personally and that you think for entrepreneurs as they are taking this work and building you find something that works. What do you do now to want to sustain that and to sustain yourself to keep going? Again, what is your passion and your superpower? And then, be clear on why you're doing it. So I have found for some of that, if the why when an entrepreneur asks themselves, why they're doing this? If the why is simply to make money, it doesn't work. It's a very short lift, experience, to make money, but if that's the end point, then you're going to be miserable. And I know you wanted to be miserable in doing business. So the why was for me, we're not only to make money, great wealth, but that good pack. So when I see, for example, my employees, we've said people to college, we've said people have to give their PhDs, we've said people with their children are now working with us in the grandchildren, as I mentioned. When we see communities, when they have a need, they can come to us to say, hey, can you help us with this? We can help everybody, but we can help somebody, and we do often. Those are the things that can be keeping going when things get difficult. And to clear on the why you're doing this, I always tell my employees, this may sound morbid, but I didn't mind them. I say, folks, one day is going to die, but that sounds pretty difficult. One day is going to die. What I mean by that is I want things to be clear on the why of what we're doing, and to keep things in perspective. Sometimes things happen around us, things don't work out so well, people talk about us, they criticize us, you know, in a knot with that, and I'm not myself an athlete, me one day I'm a die. And none of my deathbed about to take my last breath on this side of eternity. What is there I want to be thinking about? What is there I want to be remembered for? And that analysis helps me to put these things in perspective. So I can maintain a clear mind and clear thought as to how I work my way through these situations, and into that idea that we have mortal beings and we're going to die one day. And we're going to all this matter at that point. So it's like, okay, but in the time I had left, how can I best use that time to build the king of the god of his earth using the resources that I've been blessed with, right? And they help him make that happen. I really get that understanding of kingdom perspective. Sometimes we hear it, but we don't understand what does it look like practically? And I can see that in the way that you make your decisions. Robert, for people who are becoming entrepreneurs, there's a lot of noise, and then you don't quite know what is worth listening to. What does your day look like? And how much of that do you take as this is how entrepreneurship should be, hyper productivity, and all those kind of things? I've always said this so much. If we build a billion dollar business, find a solution that a big people need on the planet, and you have a billion dollar business. Now, to bring that whole closer home. So if you look at the world, and I think this is going to be looking at this real perspective, you can start small, but you got to think big. Start small, think big. I give you an example. So we've already done we're building solar plants, not only in the US, but in countries in Africa, in the Caribbean, and we're now looking at Latin America, because it's a global reality. And so that becomes really important for us that we have that perspective. I think if you look at the world, we got about eight to a billion people, right? The bottom four billion people who make less than $1500 a year. Dave's people have dramatic needs. And in fact, a lot of businesses that we've invested in, are businesses that target it the need of that four billion people on the lower levels of the world pyramid, right? That's a multi-trillion dollar industry. And so these are areas that young entrepreneurs need to be looking at, and saying, what can I do with fat market? That for all the intensive purposes is being ignored. That's changing though, because we have companies now that have come out, they have a business school, and Harvard Business School, people like yourself who are not American, but who came to America, I'm not saying you can record it, they're educated, but many did, and then they're back to their countries, and they say, hey, this is a problem, and I can solve. If I can solve this problem, I can create business, I create business, I can create wealth. If I create wealth, I can create jobs. If I create jobs, I can create impact on this communities. And so I think, for some of that's a wonderful opportunity that young people, young entrepreneurs need to be looking at, right? And then just following the pack, right? They need to get it to me there, but there's a lot more opportunity, in my opinion, and that for a billion people and the lower levels of that world permit. I as an African living here, for a long time, it was like we were all looking towards the Americas and Europe. As young people too, we were looking at that as young Africans saying, we need to leave this place of hardship and be over there. And now that we're over here, at this point in time, everything is shifting to look back to where we came from. Yes, man. It sure is. It sure is. And I think it's okay. This is my opinion. I think it's okay. Persona, too, if you have the opportunity to come to the States for education, like you would business school, or something, engineering school, something like that. I think that's okay. I think the mistake I see is that what you have that training education, if you only apply it to the American system or to the American environment, that's okay. And some people do that, and they do go with that. But I would argue there is a greater opportunity in that emerging markets. The for a billion people that I'm talking about, that bottom permit, that is in a mixing market. Because those people need and want the same things that everybody else wants, right? They want clean water. They want clean food. They want to send their kids to school and educate their children. They want good health care. They want infrastructure. They want to know that they matter and make a difference. Everybody want to, everyone being where they are in that skill has the same needs. Now, these four billion people are going to have the means that the other four billion have, or they're about, but they have the same desires and the same needs. And I'm saying that if you can find a solution to a problem that a billion people need, you can make a billion dollar business. You can create a billion dollar company. When you've got multiple opportunities that look good, that people are talking about AI, people are talking about the global south, so much is going on. How do you Robert decide on which opportunities to go after, or how do you think through it? I'm thinking for the novice fund, if it's not sure how to think through opportunity. The idea is as I start with, what is my superpower? If you came to me and said, hey, Bob, I'm going to open a series of restaurants. I'll say, I'm the wrong person for you, for that. I have no passion for that. No interest. I'm not good at it. And so I will be basing your time and your money. So the idea is to focus on what you're good at. What you're good at. What is your superpower and what is the need? So if you have a need, that you've identified and it's big enough for me, it matches your superpower. It matches your talent and your gift. And you're able to build a team that's nothing I'm going to mention to you. It's important for your listeners to recognize, do not try and do this by yourself. Right. Whatever it is that you think about. So whatever vision guys give in you, that's great. But you want to meet people to help you. And one thing that hurt me in beginning of my journey was I felt, um, total transparency here. I felt that I didn't need any help. I felt I had multiple degrees from good schools as a hard worker. Of all things I was tithing and offering any that was more in church. I have a lot to get right. And when I learned the hard way, it's not enough. It's not enough to be smart. It's not enough to have a good idea. You gotta have people that can help you. That will help you. And so it's important to build a team of people that can help you. There's nothing below the people. Like for them, you and I are meeting online here, right? In the year of Australia, I'm outside Washington DC. Who knows if I can help you down the road. Just if I use or make a connection with people like that, who knows? And so the key is to recognize that you need help. You need a team. That's why I wrote the book about strategic partnerships and how to build them. Because I learned That is critical to long-term success, and the sooner you master that, the sooner you master the art of building to teaching partnerships, identifying them and building them, the sooner you build your way to achieving your vision and making your dream a reality. I wish I learned that a younger age took me a while, but I finally did learn it, but it took a while. It's the education system that kind of makes you want to work by yourself or make someone trust in yourself only, and I think that's even more now with all these technologies that people are self-isolating. And I like that you point to the importance of that. And okay, I hear it. I don't even know how to go about creating these strategic partnerships. What should I look for in people, and how do I approach them, all those questions that people might have? Sure, so my easy answer to someone, how do you do it? If they can buy my book, I'm trying to do it. Let me get you something to book. How do you do it? Because I get this answer question all the time, and it's the right question. The first thing you do is you have to humble yourself. First, don't let me hear that. It's a humble yourself. We're going to be by that episode. You have to recognize and admit to yourself. You know what? I don't want anything. I've got some blind spots, and I need help. I need help. That's the humility part. You've got to humble yourself, right? So we wish you a humble yourself. Do you ever figure out, okay, what is the community that I think to be a part of? To what, in my case, for example, we got into renewable energy like solar and wind batteries. And we're going to do a late job at IT, but we want to be in the energy business. So what do we do? We didn't have energy, energy spreaders in a big way. What do we do? We feel our work communities and the energy sector like solar and wind, battery will continue to exist already in those sectors. And then we did what I want to recommend to your listeners, the immersed ourselves in that community. So when there was communities, when there were groups that were talking about solar energy, when there were groups talking about battery engineering, when there were groups talking about wind energy, we were in the room, we put ourselves in the room. Once you put yourself in the room, you were amazed at the opportunities that were unfold. And when we did that, when we took the effort to get out of our comfort zone and immerse ourselves, not just that little dab, immerse yourself in those industries. That means you become a member, you attend the meetings, you participate in that role of flower, you talk, you immerse yourself, what you will find is that the opportunity and deal streaming will find its way to you. It's an amazing and powerful principle, right. And to many of us, we isolate ourselves, we go even if from our computer, where they are all day, we are on social media and all that, that has this place. But nothing replaces the old school or fashion, getting the face, let me talk to you, let me buy you cup of coffee, let's spend you some human time together. That's the works, that's the best approach in my opinion. So I was at a sort of a start with that, it would be clear on the destination, like I said earlier, stop small, I think big, right. So we start small, and for example, in the industry, we did start doing small solar projects that we could handle, but then we immersed ourselves into the industry and began to meet people and began building alliances and partnerships, then we would do bigger and bigger deals. That's how it works, that's the way it works. Now, here's a big basil, that takes time, that takes time, it takes patience. And who wants to be overnight success, okay. Then I don't get it, I got to do it now, it's got to happen now. But I was talking, we are 20 years, overnight success company, right. I hope they had an increase, that's not how it works. So get comfortable, get comfortable with the fact, okay, this is going to take some time, this is going to take some effort, this is going to take some patience, get comfortable with that, and move with that. I think you'll find that when you find your way, it will make money, it will be more to you, it will be more significant to you because of the process that you use to earn that money. It's very hard for people in this world where you want things to happen really quickly. Yes, I don't know whether to calm yourself or find a way to enjoy the process, did you struggle with that a little bit drop it? That's to be expected, and that's normal, when I'm on the caution, you're listening to that, is that in moderation, so it's okay to have that intensity, it's okay to run it, to push push on, that's good. But recognize the process, the process is, it takes time. Now, every time that person, a young woman, a young man, they hit a home run, like my kids hit home runs early in the career, I would argue, they were able to hit home run early in the career because they had parents who gave them a foundation. See, my parents didn't do that, my mother was a janitor, my dad was a laborer, they didn't know about engineering, they didn't know about business, they didn't know about money, we didn't have any money. So, I had started from scratch, where my children are not starting from scratch, my grandchildren are not starting from scratch. So, it's okay. I'm staying in the process, though, the process, and I tell you, people I have studied and talked to, when he told the time, to build a structure of wealth, right? That is, the intellectual, the physical, the spiritual, okay, dimensions, to build the structure of wealth. Then, when the wealth came, they were able to, for it to be more impactful because they built the structure to handle it. When there's no structure, guess what? When it comes, you won't lose it, it's going to fall apart, and I've seen that time and time again. So, I remind young people, young entrepreneurs, take your time, take your time. It's okay to be pushing and driving and energetic and passionate all of us good and keep doing that, but just recognize that the process does take time and be comfortable with it. Oh, that was so nice. Right, all these things are going on and things are helping all these people, and then politics comes in. Yes. What was the moment of which you decided that this is the path to go and why? Absolutely, because one time, why would you go into politics and you build such a business, you make money, what are you? Sometimes God asks us to do things that we don't understand, right? That we don't get it. Hey, God, what are you talking about? Run for mayor Baltimore. Are you serious? Well, I think sometimes, Priscilla, in this case, the politics, I felt that the way that the city Baltimore was going, that it needed a different leadership model. It needed a different model that would impact the economic reality in the city of Baltimore. The city of Baltimore, for example, is like two-thirds African-American, right? But many of those people, many African-Americans, live in poverty, right? There's a very weak economic base, and I felt that we can change that. And we can fix the economic dynamics in Baltimore City, such that people of color participated more in the economic activities in the city. That would be a better city, that would be a healthier and thriving city. I really felt that way, and I felt that I was the best person to help usher in that era of economic prosperity across the board. Not just for the top ten percent, but for across the board, middle class, and working class people. And I felt that I was the best person who were vulnerable to make that happen. So I ended up getting Mr. Incubid mayor. I came in second place. I got about 50,000 votes. First time an independent candidate had ever run for mayor and had achieved that. And some of my ideas that I was putting forth during the campaign, the mayor who did win, began to adopt some of my ideas. And so that was a good thing. So it wasn't me in the office, but my ideas, some of them at least, had gained some traction in the conversation, debates, and all that. And to the mayor's credit, he was very open to pursuing some of his ideas. A lot of times as people of faith Christians, we try to shy away from the politicians. But the reality is it controls our experience of life. It does. It does. You know why I'm a sort of people, because in my church, I'm serving the event as a member of a certain event of church. And making my members say, Bob, if you do this, it will change you. And in other words, you will change the system. The system will change you. That was their fear. That is the possibility. Sometimes the forces of evil are so great. But I would firmly believe that the greatest of power in me, then the powerless in the world. So I felt very confident, hey, if I got gone on my side, I can go into this lion's den and be okay. I can slow these dragons because great is the power that isn't needed in the power of this in the world. But they're making people believe it's who feel it. like you should mix religion, politics, and I totally disagree with that. - I totally disagree with that as well. Bobby, you said something interesting as we're wrapping up. You said sometimes God will ask you to do things that don't make sense to you. And at times where you are not sure, what's that me thinking that? Was it God telling me that did I get it from an idea from somewhere social media and you're not really sure? How do you know that, okay, no, that's the voice of God. - Hi, my name's Richard Ewing, this is the voice of God. I'll tell you how I do it, Persona. First of all, I do a apostle Paul, told us to do a prayer without ceasing, just pray for everything. And I do, I pray about everything. And when I'm here in the morning, I'm talking to God. I'm praying for my children, my grandchildren, I'm praying for my employees, my community, my country, the world for you. People like you all over the world, 'cause God has full control of the entire universe. Now, secondly, what I do, I like some Christians who would say, I'm going to wait on the Lord until he tells me what to do. That's not my experience, Persona. My experience is I pray, I talk to God, these are the things that I'm looking at. This is the option that I'm going to pursue. And I'm going to pursue this unless or until you tell me there's a better way or some other way to go. In other words, I'm doing. So I'm praying and I'm doing, I'm praying and I'm doing. To me, it was pray and we stop and we just wait. So I'm waiting on the Lord. It's waiting on the Lord or being on the Lord. Okay, that's not how I built my Christian life. I pray, and then I do. I pray and I do. I pray and I do. I pray and I do. I have found, and I didn't, she wished, I just turned 70 years old, right? I have found my life in my journey. That God wished with me better. When I pray, do, pray, do, pray, do, pray, do, pray, do. I have found these in me better and quicker and efficiently into different places. That's what my coach is, Persona, too, what does God want me to do? - Thank you so much, Bob. What does Bob do to relax or what are your hobbies? Bob the person. - Absolutely, that's a good question. I take my day. So usually I'm up every morning around five a.m. Five o'clock, right? And the first thing I do is I talk to God. So I have talked to God and my devotion, right? 'Cause I need to go from God. I need to worry. I've got issues I need to deal with, I've got problems. I don't know what to do. So God, tell me what to do, right? So I do that and then I'm in the gym, right? After I have my devotion in the mornings. So I'm starting my day episode eight, nine o'clock the morning, my day starts, I've already had my devotion, I've had my physical workout, right? Now I'm ready, right? But again, throughout the day, pray, do, pray, do, pray, do. And I get to meet my guys. My wife and I, we went to travel. Our kids are all grown. My oldest child was 48. And our youngest baby, the girl is 32. We have 12 grandchildren, two of them in college. One of them as out of college is now for a bright scholar. Studying in Marta. So we have a lot going on and we still do mission work around the world. So we support and fund mission projects around the world. So it's a lot going on for so, it's a lot to do. And I will be busy. As long as the God gives me a sound, mind and sound body, I will be on the battlefield. So I told my kids, I have four sons who want to do it. I said, my time comes, you would lay me on my shield and take me off the battlefield. But you will find me on the battlefield. You will take me off the battlefield when my time comes. - What are you excited about for the future for Robert? - I'm excited about young people. Personnel, one of the things I like to do is I like to go to the schools. And across from our office is a nursery which is kind of like the kids are off in the mornings. And some days I would just go out in front and I would wash those kids. And I would listen to them play and laugh. And it gives me hope for the future. It gives me hope for the future. And I need a little child. I see, let me, I always ask myself the question, is he the one? Is she the one that will change the world? See, every child is born. God put a unique seed in that child. And that seed is something that if the world wakes up, and embraces it, that seed in that child can change the world. So when I see a child, when I hear them laughing and playing the joyous and their minds are open and wide, I think to myself, is that the child? Is that the child that will change the world? Is that the child will find a cure for cancer? Is that the child that will take us to Mars to develop new places on the planet? Is that the child that will address the needs of the full billion people on the levels of the global pyramid? Is that the child? And when I do that, Priscilla, he gives me hope. It gives me joy to say, "Man, there's hope. There's still a way that we can turn us around because these young children are going to lead the way." And that gives me hope and confidence in the future. - I've appreciated talking to you, Robert. I'm interested to know your current book that you said is coming out soon. If you can speak to us about that. - That book is called "The Lessons" from the Overcrumber's Number That Me. I'll give it again some context. So in 2024, as you've been keeping right, you're in politics in America, America elected again, President Trump, to be president in the United States. I get a call from my old granddaughter, the one that's a four-by-scale, and she's in your, and she's in tears. And she's like pop-hop, they call it pop-hop, they pop-hop. I can't believe that America has put this man in charge of our nation a second time. And she's what is wrong with the nation was formed to people. And so as I tried to console her and give her some peace about the situation, I've told her about how when we came up in the '60s and the '70s, we fought these same kinds of people, the same kind of evil in America. And we were able to overcome it. And she turned to me, she said, pop-hop, that's good. But she said, my generation, and she's a, I think she's a millennial ex-generation. She said, my generation doesn't know what those principles are, could be known they had to fight this beast before. Your generation pop-hop needs to educate us on what those principles are. And when she said that to me, Priscilla, I said, okay. Again, you know how I've taught, how God tells you something. I said, okay, you're telling me I need to write this book, such that the principles that we use, that my generation and my parents, and my grandparents, and my great-grandparents, and my ancestors used to overcome racism, sexism, classism, colors, all the angels of the world, that they were able to overcome them by impaling and deploying these principles, these 100 principles. And so the book, Priscilla, we'll talk about what those 100 principles are. And how this generation can use them to fight this battle. This is our only battle, this battle between good and evil, Priscilla, it's not going anywhere. Until Christ comes back, we can fight this battle until we take our last breath. So we gotta make sure that the people of good are equipped to fight the battle. And after my granddaughter encouraged me with that night, and she said that, I said, okay, honey, that's my mission. So for all of 2025, I spent writing this book and working with people and business that have known over years, and all the principles that we've used in the '60s and '70s in the US. And I wish you work in Africa. The female fighters in different countries in Africa what they use. So this saying 100 principles will be in this book. - The important question to answer, I think for this generation is that, we've become soft because we're so far from what made, what we're living in, so we don't have the tools to fight. - That's right, Priscilla. - Priscilla, I call it the power of struggle. What I mean by that is when you struggle, right? Someone said, struggle plus reflection on that struggle equals progress, right? And what the book will talk about is the struggle, the reflection on that struggle, and how we will make progress because of the struggle. That's where I need to communicate to this generation, so that they can use it to continue the struggle. - Like you said, the struggle will continue until Christy turns. - It will continue to Christy turns, this man. - Thank you very much. Robert Wallace, it's been a pleasure. Please, I don't know if you're active on social media. - Thank you, I'm Danny W. Got Robert Wallace.com. That's all the beauty, W-A-L-L-A-C-E. Robert Wallace.com. And that will take them to all our companies and my books and speeches and so forth. So that's a good place to start. I think there's a wealth of wisdom. I'm definitely waiting for that book because now is the time. - Now is the time. That's right. That's right. Thank you so much. - Thank you, God bless you. Take care.