Dr. Charles B Redd Jr. | Learning, Living, & Never Giving Up on Your Dreams

Dr. Charles B Redd Jr. | Learning, Living, & Never Giving Up on Your Dreams | S4 Episode 69

EPISODE OVERVIEW: 

Have you heard the story about the hyperactive young man from Detroit who is sent home with a note from his teaching telling his mother he is illiterate? You know, the one where the boy grows into a man, learns to read, understands the different between living and learning versus learning and living, and becomes a successful Fortune 500 businessman, author, coach, and transformational leader?

Ladies and Gentlemen, enjoy this power packed and exciting episode of the Remarkable People Podcast and be ready to take notes. Today’s guest not only teaches us how to overcome the fear of failing, but how to never give up on our dreams. Welcome my friend to the Dr. Charles B Redd Jr. Story!

GUEST BIO: 

Dr. Charles Redd, Jr. is a nationally recognized Fortune 500 business leader, adjunct professor, speaker, and ministry founder. With more than 30 years of exceptional performance in both business and ministry, Dr. Charles has a profound approach to developing successful leaders. His track record of transforming underperforming sales teams at The Hershey Company, PepsiCo – Frito-Lay, and Coca-Cola Enterprises has made him a national leader in operations, sales leadership, and sales revenue. 

FEATURED QUOTE(S): 

• “Players win games. Teams win championships.” – Dr. Charles B Redd Jr.

EPISODE PROUDLY SPONSORED BY: 

• Rob Jackson, Christian Counseling & One-on-One Life Coaching |  The Iceberg Model of Christian Spiritual Formation | Phone 719.440.4893

SHOW NOTES:  SPECIAL OFFERS, LINKS, GUEST CONTACT INFO, & OTHER RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.drcharlesredd.com/
• Podcast: https://drcharlesspeaks.com/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drcharlesredd/ 

Special Offer(s):

• Visit https://www.drcharlesredd.com/contact for One Free 15 minute discovery call for mentoring or Life coaching.

HOW TO SUPPORT THE REMARKABLE PEOPLE PODCAST:

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Transcript

Dr. Charles B Redd Jr. | Learning, Living, & Never Giving Up on Your Dreams | S4 Episode 69

Hello friends! I'm David Pasqualone and welcome to this week's episode of the Remarkable People Podcast. The Dr. Charles B Redd Jr. story! 

Dr. Charles is a remarkable man. Not only is he a fortune 500 business leader, that's work for companies or works for companies like Hershey's Coke, Pepsi Frito-Lay, but he's also a coach.

He's also an author. He's also an internationally known [00:01:00] speaker and he does all these things like our podcast. To help you grow. So today, Dr. Charles is going to take us on his life journey from illiteracy, his teacher telling his family, his mother who became a single mother with three other sisters in him that he needs to learn to read.

And then he goes home. I'm not going to tell you, you're going to have to listen to the episode, but see how Dr. Charles did it. And you can too. He talks about so many great life truths. He relates it back to the Bible and how all truth comes from God. And you're going to see how step-by-step you overcame these obstacles in his life.

And then you're gonna be able to take notes and apply them to yours. So at this time, we're going to take a couple minutes to thank our sponsors, make sure you check them out and [00:02:00] buy from them. If you can, they support us, which means they support you. So if you can't, you support them, right. It's a beautiful circle.

We all help each other. And then at the end of those sponsor, no. You're going to get to hear Dr. Charles and his remarkable story. So I'm David Pascoe alone. Your you enjoy this remarkable episode and please stay in touch. Let us know what's going on in your life. Shoot me an email. Go to the website, hit a contact us page and let us know what's going on in you.

How you're growing, how we can help you. 

Ladies and gentlemen, today's episode, we talk about learning and living versus living and learning. We also talk about a literary. And the transformation through God's word into working, running, and being a visionary for [00:03:00] focus, fortune 500 companies with all this said, we need to make sure we understand that inside of us, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, every aspect of our lives, we need to have balance.

And with that said, you're about to hear a tremendous episode on balance on never quitting on just learning and growing and being the best shoe God intended you to be with that. I know that in my personal life, you've heard Rob Jackson on other, on an episode of the remarkable people podcast. Rob is a great human Rob is a godly man.

He's worked and works with focus on the family. He's worked personally with Dr. James Dobson on projects, he's counsels and coaches, depending on what state [00:04:00] you're in. And he is a man who loves God and loves people and loves you. So if after listening to this. Episode of the podcast. You're looking for someone to help you along your journey of growth and balance and peace and joy in the Lord.

Rob Jackson is fantastic. So you can contact Rob. And you can look at the show notes to get his email address, to get his phone number, to get his website. If you have any questions or problems, like getting in touch with them, let me know. But Rob's a great guy. God's personally helped him, used him to help me in my life.

And I hope he will help you too soon. Enjoy this remarkable episode of the podcast. Give Rob a call, reach out to Dr. Charles, if you need to reach out to me, if I can help you in any way. And at this [00:05:00] time, enjoy the episode.

 Hey, Dr. Charles, how are you today? I'm doing fantastic day. Thanks for having me. Oh, I am excited. I just told our listeners a little bit about you. And I know in this episode, the longer it goes, the more they're going to learn, the more content and valuable life lessons we're going to glean. So I am excited to get started.

So just as a recap, our listeners know we've been blessed with a family and a community around the world of order 80 countries. All different worldviews and demographics and people groups, but man together where United our purpose is to grow and to glorify God. So when you share your story, just go from the past, through to the present and then we'll transition into the future.

But all the things that you've had to overcome and the things that you've achieved, what we'll do is like we did in our pre-filled. You just go ahead and break those down in practical steps. So we just not hear about your success, [00:06:00] but me and the listeners can achieve it too through your guidance. So that's it.

My friend. Are you ready to tell your remarkable story? Yes, I am Dave, and it's a pleasure to do that and I think it will bless some people out there that's listening and certainly help change some minds for the better. Amen. Let's do it, man. As long as we all point to God, we're good to go. Absolutely.

Absolutely. You know, when I think about my story, I think about a kid who had a reading deficiency going into the first grade, the teachers, they said to my mom that he's behind on his reading versus the other students. And we're going to have to hold them back and they have a course. They call reading readiness.

I didn't know anything about it. I was too young, but my grandmother took a special interest. She said, you know, son, I'm going to help you with your reading. And what does she do? She said, son, reach over there to my nightstand and grab that Bible. That's sitting on that nightstand. And I want you to turn it to the very beginning.

And [00:07:00] we started at the book of Genesis chapter one verse. And of course, I didn't know all the words, but she would help me along the way as I'm reading those words off of the paper. And at some point we got to a point, she looked at me and she said, son, you can read. And something right there just resonated with me.

That was an aha moment. Even being at six years old. That moment was the competence that she instilled in me that I could read. So I went on to summer school and I caught back up to the people my age in the right grade at the right time. So that was the beginning of the journey of trial. Faith and hope of reaching a place where I felt like I did want to be left behind.

And so that was so important to get that taken care of. Now, having that taken care of, I was this hyperactive kid who [00:08:00] would get my work done and bother the other. And they have some of the greatest leaders are just that way. Right? Well, that's what I was and I can remember, oh my God, we used to, you know, every morning we stand and we say the pledge of allegiance to the flag and I'm going to play a prank on one of the people in front of me.

And, and right when we get to the end, I pulled a chair from them and they fell on the floor. Everybody got a great laugh. But the teacher grabbed the whole of me and said, what hand did you pull that chair with? And back in those days, they had paddles and she spanked my hand real good and told my mom when I did.

And so it all boiled down to this. Kid's got all this energy. He likes to have fun. It gets his work done, but he's bothering the other kids. So they didn't give me any medicine. And at that time they said, well, here's the suggestion. He told my mom, I only learned this later. Is that what he gets home from school.

Just give him plenty of work to do, give him chores to do this has gone on [00:09:00] help tire them out a little bit. And when he gets to school, he's not going to be as high hyper. Well, my mom did two things she gave me chores to do. And when we went to the store and she dressed me up, what I mean by that?

Is that I started wearing a shirt and tie to school. So I felt a special going to school with shirt and tie and doing my chores. And. And so that was something I learned a little bit later. I might've been a, what they call a nerd then, but it didn't bother me. Cause I felt like I was a business guy and going in this class and hanging out with the students and being studious with my homework and with the pay attention in school.

So that was a, that was a life-changing thing for me. The reading and then settling down, not being so hyper and bothering you. And the thing that I did with that, I come from a background of [00:10:00] teachers. Grandmother's a teacher. My auntie was a teacher, a lot of teachers in a family. So I would play school sometimes in my grandmother's basement because my aunt lived with her mom there.

And she was a music teacher or an auditorium teacher, I should say back in the day, they called it auditorium where they would work with students and have plays and things of that nature. And I would invite the kids over to the house and we would go in the basement and I would be the teacher and the way I would get the kids over to the house, I would bribe them with candy box.

I would take my allowance money and buy candy bars. And then I would bribe the common, listen to me and I would be the teacher. So I just began in my life to really want to be about helping people and, and teaching became a part of what I really wanted to do. So when I graduated from [00:11:00] high school and, and was going on to undergrad to Western Michigan university, Mid sized school there midway between Detroit and Chicago and Kalamazoo.

I went in thinking I would be a history teacher because I just loved history. And I can remember as a kid ordering books on world war two and world war one to read up on. And I was just always interested in history. And I started off with that major. But during that particular time, at least in Michigan, there were plenty of teachers and teachers who hard to land a position.

And I didn't want to spend the extra half a semester to do the student teaching. So I switched gears in my junior year and switched from going after being a teacher to business administration and communicating. And that was a change that I look back on and it ties in what I do [00:12:00] today because I'm a business guy and I communicate a lot and I can remember the very first time Dave, that I was really put on a spot to really communicate.

I was working inside of the youth ministry in the church. I, to. And we had decided as a church organization to have a youth revival. And I was content on, you know, just being a fly on the wall, just participating in being there. But wasn't thinking about speaking at all. And what happened was the speaker for the evening, got cold feet and didn't show.

And one of the organizers came to me. I don't know why to this day, but they picked me out of the crowd out of all the youth. And he said Charles the speaker didn't show up. So we're going to be chief speak. Now I had no time to do anything, but what I did was I turned just [00:13:00] like my grandmother had returned.

The book, the holy Bible, and I did, and I told the story of Abraham and Isaac, and I just read the scripture. And that was my first public speaking engagement impromptu called upon. And, and I look back on it and I says, wow, that was nobody. But God, because literally I should have been scared to death.

Pretty. But I went on and did it. So when I switched gears in college and went from being a teacher to business administration communication, I can see how that ties in today. Now, eventually I did get a chance to teach at the community college level there at Michigan at Oakland community college, Wayne state Wayne county community college.

I did get a chance to do some adjunct teaching there. And so I did fulfill that aspect of it. When I entered corporate America, graduating from undergrad, before you go on, you impact a [00:14:00] lot of stuff. So let's, let's go back and let's make sure we touch on that. So the listeners, again, they're not just hearing your story, but we're kind of reverse engineering, how you did it.

So first thing is where were you from? Where was your growing up? Hometown? Yes. So I agree. In Detroit, Michigan, the motor city, Mo town. That's where I grew up. And you know, I grew up in a my mom and dad were married at a very young age. I believe my mom was 18. My dad was 21 and I am number four. And so by the time my mom was 24.

She had four children by the time she was 30, my dad and mom split. And so my mom had to raise three girls in a, in a bad boy and a boy. And but she had help. I would, I often say that we were raised by a village because that was. But in the beginning it was tough and I didn't realize how tough it [00:15:00] was until I became older, but my mom took on that responsibility.

But my, I remember my grandmother, my dad's mom, my dad's sister. They took us like, we were their own. And they stayed with us. My dad was touch and go. I would see him when he would come and visit his mom and his sister. And that would be the time. And then of course, my mom at the time was wasn't too pleased about being left with four kids.

And she was always bitter about that situation. And she, at some point had really. Kind of poisoned us against my dad and you know what? I am going to tell you, Dave, every boy needs a dad needs a father figure in their life. Now my, my mom did eventually be married but I miss my dad and I bought the stories.

What my dad would've could've should've may have done, but it was later on in life. I say I was probably 30, maybe [00:16:00] 31. You remember of the organization promise keepers or promise keepers? I had an opportunity to attend one of their conferences build the whole football stadium here in Atlanta, Georgia.

And that's where I moved to from Michigan and I attended. And it was powerful to have 50,000 plus men and young men. They're all worshiping the Lord and taking in great teaching. And I can remember one speaker. I can't remember his name specifically, but he was talking about the dad son relationship.

And I'm going to tell you it was so impactful tears of my eyes. And I went home from that experience. And I said, you know what, I'm Fort Wayne, Indiana. Or I am going to invite him to come down to Atlanta where I lived and he decided to come down and visit and we [00:17:00] connected and thank God he did. We establish a relationship there and that intense.

I brought my three other sisters along with me and we realized that we love mom. We love dad. And, and you know, we're, we're just going to get the best of both worlds going forward. What a life changing experience. And it made me a better man. It made me a better father for my own. Yeah, absolutely.

Everybody. We sadly live in a society and a generation that divorce is rampant. I recently myself this first time on publicly saying it. I recently went through a divorce and man, I fought for six years to keep our family together, did everything we could, you know, God hates divorce. There's only one biblical reason for divorce.

And you know that the whole thing hurts families. But despite what my ex-wife did or [00:18:00] didn't do, or what any spouse does or doesn't do we need to kind of keep our relationships with our children? Separate from the spouses, because I did say some things that were true, but I was just pissed off and an anger.

And then now, like it hurt my kids and I didn't see it then because I was in so much pain so I can understand. Bitterness your mom was going through, but you're right. Boys need dads. Girls need moms, but boys also need moms and girls. All right. Dads. That's why God created the family. This isn't his model of divorce, but yeah, man.

So that's, that's tough. And I mean, and that's really cool that your mom. Your dad's mom, your grandmother step up saying like, okay, my son's prided on making good decisions, but these are still my grandkids and we're going to this. Oh. But you know, they, that same, I guess that generational thing took place with me.

I [00:19:00] was married for 23 years and divorced and it was painful. And I only have the one daughter. So imagine. Three people, this family unit. And then we split up after 23 years. And I told my daughter, I said to her you're going to get the best of both worlds because I love you. Your mom loves you.

We're going to take the high road and we're going to move on. It hurt. I'm telling you it was like a death to say the least. And, and what's in staying in how things came a law you know, just this past week. My dog and me, we're standing there with my daughter, our daughter, and the grand baby taking a picture, a photo.

And it was just beautiful. We were there at the wedding. She got married just over a year ago and we were there together and, you know, early in that situation, when she went on with her life and I went on with my life, I did not want to be in the same company [00:20:00] of of the other people. And, but yet God gave me a piece.

That surpass all understanding on the wedding day and then now to see the grand baby, what a wonderful time. But I, I pray to God that my daughter doesn't go through what her mom and dad went through and her grandma went through, you know? So yeah. No, that's a good point. And let's try to help you because I had a 21 year marriage that now is over and it breaks my heart.

And there's people out there listening who are maybe going through it still right now, they're in the middle of the chaos or they've went through it. Are there any steps or advice? I know it's different every situation, but how did you heal where you could move on with your life? Because in the next thing we're gonna go into is generational.

I came from an unmarried home, you know, and then my wife's parents were [00:21:00] divorced and then she made the same mistakes or, yeah, I guess, whatever you want to call it. She did the same thing. Her mom and grandmother did, it was generational. And I pray to the Lord of breaks with our generation and my daughter and center free.

But what steps from the divorce to today? Did it take, or did you take the guns. Instrumentally lead you to be free. So you could take that picture together. Yes. You know, I went through all kinds of emotions at first. No question about it. My daughter was the reason, partly because I wanted to be heard grow up and have a life better than what I had.

But what helped me is I think back was talk therapy, talk it out. And that was very helpful for me, because then it helped me understand, as you might've heard the expression, there's three sides to every story, her side, his side and the right side. And so [00:22:00] I was able to own up to some of my shortcomings and what I could do better.

And so when I shifted and says, oh, I made a era or I could have done better. Then I went into a little small depression, just a little bit, because then I never forgave myself, I think gave her, but I didn't forgive myself, but the top therapy helped me through that process to forgive and to move forward.

And that was a release of, of what I call bondage because on one side of that, I was upset about the breakup and the other side, I didn't forgive myself. But when I was able to look within myself and really take ownership then I decided that God's going to get the glory out of this somehow. And the, my daughter though, she wanted us to stay together.

I just loved on her and [00:23:00] never talk ill about her mom and her mom took the same approach. And that has worked for us. And I'm so glad it did because I look at my daughter today and wow. What a beautiful woman that's, she's come to be. So that's what I did talk therapy. That was. That's fantastic. Okay.

And then we'll again, in our show notes, we put different keywords and different links, and I know there's a great counselor. That's been on our show. That's actually helped some other guests on our show, restore and recover from all sorts of family crisis and personal. You know, addictions, his name's Rob Jackson.

So if you're listening and you want help with some of this therapy, I'll put a link to Rob Jackson in here. So you can look in the show notes and get connected with somebody qualified to get help. So let's go back even further. I want to reverse, you talked about so much good stuff, learning to read illiterate.

[00:24:00] So you are being told you're illiterate, your grandmother gives you a Bible which can make excuses. Oh, Ababil so hard to read this and that that's all crap. I'm just going to say, sorry for the crudeness, but I know another man who is a pastor literally learned to read when he was 25, went through high school, went through the military, totally illiterate.

And then he met this girl and she's like, if you're going to date me, you're going to learn. And then as he read the Bible, he saw God for who God is trusted him as a savior. And that being a pastor and his whole life changed, but he learned to read from actually a king James Bible too, which is, you know, people make fun of the language in it.

Right. Same as you king James.

Yeah. Hey, I'm sorry. We didn't have the living Bible version back then. Yeah. Yeah. And I love it. I, the, the internet is going really [00:25:00] slow, so I hope you can hear me and for our listeners. I might actually stop the video. So for our YouTube listeners, our connections week, I might stop it to make sure we get clean audio.

But keep watching. Cause we'll play the audio even via YouTube. Charles, can you hear me okay? Yeah. Okay. Good. Good. All right. So we'll press on. So going back to the illiteracy or the just needing to be focused, what were the steps your grandmother took and what did you do each day? What can people who are don't know how to read right now?

We have listeners all over the world. What can they do to learn to read that you did? That was success. One

already and could have hung everything on that. I just can't read. But my grandmother said you can read son and that was the turning point. And so practice makes perfect, as someone said, [00:26:00] and so continuously reading and stumbling over words and getting the correct pronunciation of the words, it made the difference.

I was able to learn as I go. So it was about people taking interests and that's all what it takes. Everyone on this earth has something of value to offer. And my mom saw something of value and they connected her and teamed up together and says, we're going to help our, my son and my grandson, and he's going to get through this.

And so that encouragement, that was the difference. And, and, and taking it one day at a time. And to this day, I'm an avid reader. I love to. And I went back to school and obtained several degrees because that became very important because at a young age I could have given up, but I'm still reading and I'm [00:27:00] continuously learning and.

Yeah, and I definitely definitely advocate reading and I'm not talking about smut or reading. Like, you know, even non-fiction, if I'm reading, I'm constantly reading, you know what people call self-help self-development, you know, life stories of Abraham Lincoln or somebody. I respect that way. We're redeeming the time we're getting entertainment, but we're also learning and growing it's constant growth.

But like you said, you, you get good. You play, how you practice. That's the old sports analogy and you practice reading now. You're not only good at it, but you get advanced degrees and you actually enjoy it. So that is fantastic. Dr. Charles what about this too? You mentioned some that's very important.

You mentioned a lot of things are very important, but you talked about when someone values. So as a kid with, you know, they might classify you now is add or all these things, they'd say, [00:28:00] you know, they put you in a box, give you a drug. Now, some kids need drugs. I get it. But a lot of kids are on drugs because they have a lot of energy.

So focusing in school, how did your mom and grandma. Rein you in, like you mentioned that phenomenal steps, like they put chores. I don't hand her a devil's workshop. They made you dress up. Really?

Go ahead, man. Sorry about the delay. What were the things when I think back and it's funny because yeah, that's all right. It's funny because one of the chores was to cut the grass. And during that time they wouldn't let me use the the, the, the real what do you call it? Grass cutter. But anyway, I had the hand more and the hand more didn't have the catch basket to catch the grass.

And so they made me first rate the grass of the leaves and the sticks then cut the grass. [00:29:00] And then rake it again and pick it up and put it in the bags. And I think back on it, oh, you know, with the motor a grass cutter you just go one time across and that was it, but that was kind of way of slowing me down and not rushing through and taking the proper steps to get the job done.

So it was a three-part step to do. And you know, I didn't think about it until later in life. And then the dress-up part I remember going to the store where those clip on ties and the sh the white shirt, and it looks clip it on and I would go in and the kids didn't think back, the kids didn't make fun of me because it was elementary school.

But by junior high middle school, I got rid of the tie. I, and by that time I was okay. You know, really, you know, in, with the group. And getting school work done, but elementary school, it worked. And that was key because that was a springboard to get me through middle school and high school. [00:30:00] Yeah. So you had like your mom and grandma gave you the Mr.

Miyagi approach, right. Going a long way. And I think that I really, that works for me, man, in my life. Even like what you talk about reading from the Bible. I read and again, there's one. And there's one truth. Man's made a bunch of different versions of the Bible, but I love reading the king James, because it does use old English.

So it slows me down where I have to think about what it's saying. I'm not just reading a book, it's the living word of God. And when I read the. I like to go slow because it makes you think through so much that's in there just waiting for us that God wants to reveal. But it's interesting that you said the clothing can just on clothes, you have to iron and get ready and then mowing the lawn.

You didn't just run over the electric lawn mower. Or the gas, power lawnmower. You had a Moet and then rake it. I mean, that's great. Whether they even realize what they're, I [00:31:00] bet they did realize what they were doing. That's just amazing. So for our listeners out there, low down, slow down, do what you're doing, stay focused.

And do you ever hear do you know anything about, oh, my mind just went blank. The coppersmith, one of the founding fathers of the revolution. Paul Revere. Did you all review? I haven't read in depth about him, but I remember in history reading upon about, yeah. So Paul Revere, I grew up outside of Boston.

So we heard about Paul Revere all the time. And one of the things significant about Paul Revere was they said, when someone spoke with him, it didn't matter what he had going on. It was a project he was working on. You know, his art or his in his industry, his trade. It didn't matter if it was the state of the nation.

When you were in the room with Paul Revere, even if it was discussing. [00:32:00] He was focused on you a hundred percent. He just slowed and pushed out everything and he focused on what you saying and what he was doing. So I think that's a really great tip you brought out and some of the most successful people in history have followed it.

So, okay. So now we got from your birth through you were going from the transition between college and your career. But one more question I have for you. Two questions I have for you. One is during that time, up to the college, into. What do you think was your most proud achievement? Like after you learn to read, you went through from being illiterate to graduating, what was something you were really proud of that you were able to achieve during that time period?

You know, when I, you, you talk about being raised in a village and what I'm most proud of is really there were some guys in the neighborhood that had great parents. And I remember those parents when we would go outside and play all day and we would, they would [00:33:00] invite us into their home and they would tell us, go wash up and sit down and we're going to give you a dinner or lunch.

And I think back we would get those dinners and then they would give us ice cream and cake. But then at the table, I remember a dear friend of mine's mom would teach us and talk to us. And the little bit that I know she really was preparing us. And I think back on that those experiences were impactful in my life because it resonated with me and I saw through their children, how they responded and carry themselves.

So the lesson learned from me is gravitate and hang around the, the, the folks that are doing good things making their lives better. And that right there really helped shape me is the company that I kept and the people that I associate, I remember in college and of course I attended some of the parties, but I never would really go to the really [00:34:00] active parties because those were the times when it was time to go back to the dorm and do your work, do your homework and get ready for the exam.

And I remember that. And then when four years passed by some of those folks didn't walk across the stage because they party too much. And we did. So when I look back on it, I would say the wisdom to listen and learn and to associate myself with people who were focused on what was important, what mattered that helped me become the person I am today.

Yeah, once again, great advice. And I think statistics support that. They say that, you know, if you take the 10 people closest to you and average them, that's. Circle. That's your net worth? That's your mentality? So, you know, one of my friends said it, it's probably a saying everybody knows, but I never heard until a few years ago, you said you can't learn to fly like Eagle.

If you're always hanging out with the turkeys. That's right. [00:35:00] Keep a good class of people. You know, you love everybody, but if you've got people that are just. Yeah. If people just want to smoke weed and drink and watch Jerry Springer, you're not going to do much with your life. So get out there and get with the five, 10% doers and become that.

So continue your story. I'm excited. You guys, can I shut my video off to save some bandwidth? I apologize for the technical glitches, but. You graduate from college, you go into your first career pick up there. Yes. So you know teaching was out because I didn't do my teaching, a student teaching, so I'm going into the area of sales and marketing.

And my very first job out of school was with general foods and I worked for the Maxwell house coffee division, selling coffee to retailers. That was my first job. And I felt really good about that. Actually, my sister helped me get the job. She heard about an opening and [00:36:00] sent my resume over to them and they interviewed me and I took that position.

So that began the career of my corporate experience in what we call the CPG industry, consumer promise, good industry. I didn't stay with journal foods that long, maybe just two years. And I was recruited by the Pepsi-Cola company and I went to the beverage business also in sales and then I had the opportunity to also work for Coca-Cola and Frito-Lay and now presently the Hershey company.

So all over these 30 plus years, I've been involved in leadership managing coaching, leading teams. I've also set across from buyer representing my company, selling them product across the desk. And I've also been involved in sales training of other sales people and helping them to become a better sales consultants.[00:37:00] 

So I enjoy the journey and still am today in the area of sales. You know, in the business of sales, we have to answer the question every day. Why that's the name of it? Why, why, why should I, we have to answer that every day and we learn in our business that no doesn't mean, no, always, it just simply means not.

Exactly. Exactly. I always tell until Sony pulls a restrainer on me, a restraining order, it's just the non that's, right. It's not yet. And you know, fact-based selling and relationship selling. They go hand in hand and sometimes. People need to hear just the facts that this I'm here as a consultant, I'm here as a collaborator building an Alliance with you to help you succeed.

And at the end of the day whether what company [00:38:00] you work for, it's about increasing sales growing profit and growing market share. And so when I can help. And it, and those areas, then it makes business sense to work with us. Yeah. And a lot of times I think you can disagree with me or you can agree, but the relationships that are the hardest to form the longest life relationships, and they usually cross over into the friendship cause PLC, you sincerely help them.

You're a patient, you worked for the relationship and sure enough, it always, you know, like the Bible says you reap what you sell and it picks up. I do recall, you know, when I used to call on a chain headquarter customer it was about the relationship to some degree, but it was all so about the cash money or the checks, I would bring to get them to do what we needed them to do.

So we had to pay some folks to do, and we're probably still paying today. I've just got on that side of the business, but that was an experience too, working with buyers to [00:39:00] see it your way knowing they know that. Your product is good, but then it's about squeezing you and get more out of you so that their bottom line is that much more profitable for them.

Absolutely. So now you get out of school, great career mega companies. Beautiful. I mean, I know people who personally have worked or worked for Hershey's and Pepsi Cola and Frito-Lay and Coke, and those are great organizations. What are some of the. Like business life lessons you've learned from those organizations.

Well, the great organizations and the people, quality people people who are driven to succeed leadership you know, I would say what the difference that I noticed today versus in the beginning of my experience in corporate America. In the beginning, it was more of you remember the game king [00:40:00] of the hill and.

The purpose of the game king of the hill was to knock everybody off the side of the hill so that you can get to the top and raise your hand and say, you want, oh man, every time they built a house in your neighborhood, that was the best game in the world. That was the best game, but it was only one person left standing.

That was the king. Right? Well today the leadership now is that everyone has something to contribute. And has some experience of diversity of experiences. And now it's about being an orchestra leader and bringing all of the creativity and talent together that we all may arrive on the top of the hill together.

And so that's what I get the most out of today is that you you know, as someone said this quote, they said, players win games, but team. Wins championships. And that's the difference is that the [00:41:00] fact that the matter is that we are out to win championships, not just games. And in order to do that, you can't do it alone.

There's not enough time. There's not enough hours in the week. Everyone has something. Now the leader must have a vision. Of course. But once they're able to sell and articulate that vision, then people aligned themselves in the best position to give the best results, because it takes a leader to identify the strengths and the weaknesses within themselves, and then identify the talent that has that.

That can close that gap. So you can't be someone who knows it all. You got to realize that I don't know it all, but I have great people and we can come together and together we can accomplish so much more. Yeah. Definitely well said, and I always wondered [00:42:00] where that went because you had the big moguls of the twenties and thirties and forties, like Carnegie and Rockefeller.

And they'd say, man, we don't know what we're doing in the sense of our business, but we know people, we know how to hire the right people and train to what we can do, but that guy is the expert. I'm hiring him because he's yet. I'm not, you know, and they they'd make what we consider billions and trillions of dollars today is what they were making back then.

So it's weird how, you know, everything seems to go full circle in life. But how did we go from that mentality to just using people for money to back to back to that mentality? Right. You know, people, you can say that what I have seen, I've been with the Hershey company now going into my 14th year.

Great organization. We sell candy. We do a lot of great things pretty much you know, when you think about something that we don't bright enough on, you know, we have a huge school there in Hershey, Pennsylvania, some 2200 students there [00:43:00] from K through 12. And we paid for everything their clothes, their food, they stay in dormitories.

It's just a marvelous thing that we do. So every time you purchase one of our products, you have, you're actually adding and helping out those kids as Milton Hershey founded the school for boys. So the orphans, but now it's open to boys and girls and it's just phenomenal. It's like a college campus.

Yeah. I've been to Hershey, Pennsylvania several times and I love it. It's so fun. You even have a little Hershey park and you got like, the streetlights are like Hershey's kisses, but the background of the company, like you said, Mr. Hershey himself, he was a philanthropist and cared and you know, you guys don't make candy.

You deliver happiness. No, but you use it for good. So that's awesome. All right. Well, doctor. So now you're working for these great companies or learn these great values. Talk about your journey and bring us to where you are today. [00:44:00] I can take it, my education. I didn't stop it undergrad. While I was working in corporate America, I went back for my master's degree in management and supervision and that gave me some more skills in terms of learning how to lead and manage a team.

And then let some years go by and went back to school again, because I pursued the ministry and through my organization, the, I was brought up a Methodist and, and I went to seminary there in Ashland, Ohio and actually got a seminary degree in religious studies. That was another master's degree.

And then several years later I decided to go with. And get my doctorate in transformational leadership. So when you add it all up, Dave, this beyond high school 12 years of advanced degrees and learning so a quarter of a century of education, and I still don't know at all. I'm still grasping to [00:45:00] learn and to grow.

And, and so when I look at my career and where I'm at, I use something tangible like the triangle, if you can vision a triangle and coming up one side of the triangle on the left side it would be more of the corporate America the ability to lead and teach and manage and work with sales consultants to make them better.

But then on the other side ministry has been about discipleship helping people to become a disciple and then graduate to a discipler. And then the real thing that I'm really passionate about today is life coaching. And that is something that really resonates with me because it's different from counseling.

I'm not trying to tell people what to do, but in life coach, I am asking. Powerful questions and asking them to look at themselves and see the [00:46:00] potential, the diamond in the rough and, and to set goals and be there and go alongside of them, holding them accountable and encouraging them to reach their goals.

So I, I take great pleasure in helping people get unstuck in my Pacific area of helping people get unstuck is helping them uncover their purpose for life and the passion for. And that's a big deal. For me, I mentioned earlier about the divorce that I went through after 23 years, but doing the ministry aerial training, I did have the opportunity to counsel people in premarital counseling.

Now, when the divorce took place, I stopped because I didn't feel I was worthy enough to help anybody counsel. When I couldn't save my own marriage, I waited and waited and it might've been. Six years after that divorce, a couple was referred to me and my initial thought was now I don't [00:47:00] do that anymore.

But my spirit said, you know, you can do it because you can share your story and your story with the word of God will make a difference in helping other couples. And I reluctantly did it, but I did it out of obese. And it really was a blessing because I was blessed and getting healing and I was providing wisdom to couples that were about to get married.

I don't do it a lot. I do it on case by case where someone would ask me. But it was intimidating because I didn't want to feel like a hypocrite. I didn't want to feel like the, you know, what could I say? You know, but really, you know, if someone said from our mistakes in life, they said, it's not the mistakes that we're going to be judged by, but how we've overcome the mistakes.

And that helped me because I can acknowledge those things and then I could go forward and be better. [00:48:00] And then people can see. Yeah, I can remember when he did so-and-so but look now, and that was that was something that helped me get through. So the coaching aspect of it, the life coach, the mentoring, and then I just wrote a book a year ago called don't stop now.

And that book really is about no matter where you're at on life's journey. Don't you dare stop. Don't you think about retirement, you continue to follow your passion, your purpose for life. And then I use the analogy of this. You know, we all have our favorite artists who makes great music and they play wonderful songs and we, some of them have gone on to glory, but their music still plays.

So I'm about really striving to live a life of significance. And at the same time, leaving a legacy for generations to follow. So the music [00:49:00] must continue to play on you and I we're making music now. And when we're gone, that music will continue to play. And so I don't think about retiring in a sense of Duda.

But retiring in the sense of following my passion and, and, and just from earth to heaven, just blaze away versus wilting away. That's how I look at it. Amen to that. Amen to that. That's yeah, I don't, I don't personally think retirement's a healthy concept, not the American retirement. The American retirement is.

Like a doll. I don't know why that worked like a dog. What does that mean? My dog is a lazy man's best friend. Yeah. But you know what I'm saying? You work hard then after you've gone past your best years, then you retire and then you twiddle your thumbs. That's a whole stupid concept. I'm with you. Find your passion, live it every day and then die serving [00:50:00] God like someone put it this way.

Die. That's nice. Yes. Yeah. That's beautiful. All right. So between your birth and where we are today, is there anything we didn't cover in the Dr. Charles story that you want to hit on or something that's valuable that you want to share with the audience? Well, you know, I think about teamwork and team management, I think about.

Well, my mom became that single parent and raising four kids. She knew a little bit about teamwork and management. She split us up in half. She took my oldest sister, worked with my youngest sister and the second sister worked with me and they were kind of like a surrogate and helping us cope and manage through.

They would provide cooking and cleaning and preparation. And, and so it took a lot of the burden [00:51:00] off of. My mom, so we can make it in those situations, as we said, coming up a village. But then I saw within my own family, how we work together and all three of my sisters, we all became teachers and administrators, because we learned at a young age.

That teamwork, as they would say makes the dream work. And my mom knew something about teamwork because she got the best out of us working together in spite of being a single parent. Yeah. And that's beautiful. You were without her saying, this is teamwork. This is leadership. This is delegation. You're just learning that man.

It's just second nature. That's so insightful. All right. Well go back to. The fear of failing. That's one of the things you specialize in. Yeah. What do you have to say for our audience? They're listening now, statistically, supposedly over 70% of the population is looking for their [00:52:00] purpose. A lot of that pers part of that population, it's a fear of failing.

That's what's holding them back. What do you have to say to our remarkable community to unleash them? So they become. Something worth talking about. So they become remarkable. Like our, our little logo says it was superheroes inside of us all, you know, God put greatness in every one of us. How do we unleash it?

How do we get past that fear of failure? Yeah. Yeah. There's a couple of things that come to mind. One I read a book from John Maxwell leadership guru about that book was entitled or is entitled a failing. And what he talks about and failing forward is that we all are going to fail at something.

You know, we just talked about the Hershey company. Well, the founder of Milton Hershey failed at least three times before he got it. Right. And, but, but the thing about failing, you can become paralyzed and it mobile and throw in the towel in front of the [00:53:00] experience and continue to grow. Now what are the things that came out of the book?

The second thing that I wanted to say that resonated with me was that either we are living and learning, or we are learning and living, and the difference between living and learning, living, and learning, we are going along life and we're trying this and trying that, and we make a mistake here. We got the bumps and bruises.

So show for those mistakes and some we've passed on and we were better, but look what we went through to get to where we were going. But from the other side of that perspective, learn and live, learn, and live is taking a pause of what we failed in and learning from the experience and gathering questions that we may go to the experts.

And ask them so that we can avoid some of the pitfalls by not asking [00:54:00] questions to the people who have made it. And so I've found that that's more wiser to always have your questions in your back pocket and identify the experts. Because if you run into them, it's not about getting their autograph. It's about having prepared questions.

To ask them at the time and they very well may give you wisdom. And as you go along your life journey, you will have been learning and living and being that much more effective and wise as a result of it versus living and learning and going along, making mistakes, and may even put you out of business because you spend all your capital by making a mistake that you could have perhaps supported by learning from.

And then living, that's what I've learned. It's beautiful. And I think that's well said and very true. And one thing I'd add to that, not add like it's needed, [00:55:00] but you tell me Dave, you're wrong or you agree. It doesn't have to be people we even like or respect. There's a lot of people out there that I think are horrible humans, but they're good at what they do.

And we can learn from everybody and everybody can learn from us. So like you could take, I don't even want to say anybody cause I don't want to, I don't want to get hate mail, but you could take somebody that's in the media. That's a totally horrible human, but they know something about, let's say. Or they know something about marketing or they know something about, you know, getting famous on social media so we can glean truth from ever.

It might be 1%, but what Dr. Charlotte is seeing is man so solid and so important, learn from everybody and be prepared. I remember one time I ran into mark Cuban and were like, I don't know the guy, but from what he puts out publicly. We're polar opposites politically. Right. But he's a billionaire and I ran into [00:56:00] him and we're sitting there talking and laughing because both our kids are like doing things that were like, don't even understand.

Right. But we're sitting there talking. So it was an opportunity to ask questions to a billionaire that when do you get that opportunity typically? You know what I mean? So Dr. Charles is saying, I agree with completely be ready, be prepared, and don't be afraid to ask us, what's the worst thing. Yeah. I mean, I have been connected on LinkedIn and I have met some amazing people, even such as yourself and others.

And they have expertise in certain areas that I don't. And so the questions that I'm asking them is engaging because I'm learning and living and there's, there's always an exchange because I always say that there's something in you that I need and something in me that you need. And when you when you're putting that together, we grow together.

And that's the beauty about it? There's that there is an exchange because we can learn from everybody. Absolutely. Oh, that's awesome. Dr. [00:57:00] Charles. So you've brought us through a lot of your life and you brought us through today. So talk to us. Where's Dr. Charles today and where are you going? And how can we as a remarkable community help you get there?

Yeah. Well, I tell you what, I'm beginning to write my second book. It's going to be called the five key. So living a significant life, and I'm really excited about that as it's still in emphasi stage, but I've got it. It's on the top of my mind. The, the thing about me is that I am a giver and I like to give back.

And so if there's someone from your audience is interested in coaching in mentoring I would be open to give them one free session, no charge whatsoever and help them get on a track that will open their eyes and help them dream out loud and realize their full potential. You know, I talk about [00:58:00] my sports heroes a lot, and I admire them a lot of great athletes out there, but you and I, we are a brand.

And so we can put our names on the back of our Jersey and and live out our brand here on earth. And I want to help people realize that, look, you have something and I want you to live it to your maximum and be the very best you, and then help somebody along the way after you made it. Yeah. Well, again, well said, and thank you for that remarkable offer.

So I'll put a link to that offer in the show notes. What's the best way for. Community to connect with. You can reach me at my website you know, Dr. Charles red.com. That's the best way to reach me. And they can reach me also through LinkedIn. You know, I'm on LinkedIn. That's a good way to connect with me.

I'm always talking to people from LinkedIn. It's a great connection. There. You'd be amazed with all these great folks around the country. And [00:59:00] for that matter, the world are doing some great things. So I'm happy to be a part of that committee. And it's been, it's been certainly positive and well worth it.

Oh, wow. Well, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for that offer. You're leaving our listeners with, if you're listening today, take up Dr. Charles on it. Listen, you know, like our slogan says, don't just listen, but do what you know is right. Do it each day. Repeat it so you can have a great life.

And in this world, And most important attorney to come. So Dr. Charles, before we sign off for the day, I thank you for being our guests. You truly are a remarkable man. Is there anything else that you want to share with our audience? Any last minute, parting words of wisdom, anything you want to share? Well, you know, Dave, thanks for having me on.

And just like my book says, don't stop now. No matter where you're at on life's journey, never, ever give [01:00:00] up. That's what Winston Churchill said. Never ever give up. Amen. One of my favorite heroes and great quote, great story. And Dr. Charles, it's been an amazing privilege to have you on the show today for our listeners.

Listen to this episode, share with your friends and family. Let's just help each other grow. Have an abundance mindset. If you are a web designer, if you were an attorney, if you're a cook, you can literally give clients to your friends and still have plenty for you. Just give, give, give, give, give. What's good.

Don't give a bad, but give what, because we reap what we sell, right? That's right. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, this was Dr. Charles red Jr. I'm David Pascoe alone. You're you go make a difference in the world. If we can help you reach out to Dr. Charles, reach out to myself. If not, [01:01:00] again, listen to this episode again, go back and listen to other episodes, and then we'll see you next week.

We love you and have a great day. I'm David again, Dr. Charles, take them up on that remarkable offer. Thanks for being here, doctor. My pleasure. All right. And everybody, we love you and chow. So your next week,