Richard Walsh: Acting on Epiphanies, Trust vs Belief, & the Only Time a Marine Should Surrender

“It’s not about being relevant, it’s about being revenant.” ~ Richard Walsh

Guest Bio: Richard Walsh is a 30-year seasoned entrepreneur. He’s the best-selling author of Escape the Owner Prison, the contractor’s new way to scale, regain control, and fast-track growth while loving life. A speaker and podcast host, he’s a husband and father of six children, a US Marine, champion boxer, black belt, and an internationally recognized steel sculptor. His expertise lies in combining both the strategic and the tactical. He’s able to deliver immediate, problem solving results (tactical), along with strategic, long term implementation of systemization and scalability. With over 30 years in business himself, Richard has embraced time compression, sharing the secrets and strategies that bring rapid and lasting results to the companies he works with.


Richard Walsh | Acting on Epiphanies, Trust vs Belief, & the Only Time a Marine Should Surrender

SHOW NOTES: 

• Website: https://www.sharpenthespearcoaching.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-walsh-866ab237/
• Order your Escape the Owner Prison book: amzn.to/37MUDgH
• FREE BONUS EPISODE WITH RICHARD WALSH & DAVID PASQUALONE, "Leaving It All on the Mat" > Click Here to Listen Now! <

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Transcript

Richard Walsh: Acting on Epiphanies, Trust vs Belief, & the Only Time a Marine Should Surrender | 26 August 2024

Hello, friend. Welcome to this week's episode of the Remarkable People Podcast, the Richard Walsh story. This week, we're talking about acting on epiphanies. We're talking about trust first for relief. We're talking about the only time a Marine should surrender or ever will if they're right with God.

David Pasqualone: We're going to talk about so much of Richard's life, but it's going to be in a way as. Always where you can take it and run with it practically in your life so we don't just hear about what Richard was able to achieve or overcome, but what you can apply to your life so you can too. Enjoy this episode.

[00:00:40] David Pasqualone: Take notes, but more than anything, apply the notes. Also, we did something that we've never done in film. Actually, second time we've done it in five years. At George Hoffman, we talked about him overcoming depression through biblical meditation, and we put a side episode in with this meditation guide.

[00:01:00] David Pasqualone: Today, right at the end of the episode, Richard and I are talking, and I started thinking about quitting and how we should never quit. And the results Of quitting versus losing. And we talked a little bit about winning. We talk about the real difference in this side episode, which if you're a member of our community, you go to our website and get it for free.

[00:01:22] David Pasqualone: It's RPP plus sign up at DavidPasqualone. com or RemarkablePeoplePodcast. com. Sign up, it's your name and email. And you become a community member and you get episodes. There's two dozen episodes we're about to release this quarter. Plus there's maybe a dozen episodes out there now. And then you're going to have this extra teaching with Richard on leaving it all on the mat.

[00:01:45] David Pasqualone: How we are going to leave it all on the mat. And then we're talking about the practical differences. Mentally, you and I know, and if you think about it, they're there. That if we quit. The baggage we take with us and the seed that's planted versus if we lose and how it's a forward thinking mentality. So ladies and gentlemen, get ready for this episode.

[00:02:04] David Pasqualone: Don't forget about the sub episode and we're going to take a short affiliate sponsor commercial and get right into the Richard Walsh story to help you as much as we can with the rest of your life.

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[00:03:19] David Pasqualone: Hey Richard, how are you today, brother? 

Doing awesome, David, man. Great to be here. I'm excited. 

[00:03:25] David Pasqualone: Good, we're excited too. I just told our listeners a small bit of your story and what to expect today, but out of the proverbial horse's mouth, if they listen to this episode, what do you guarantee by the end of the episode, they'll be able to take and run with And apply to their lives to have a better life.

I'm going to hit a couple of things. First is going to be people talk about resilience a lot and all that, but they really don't tell you how you can, how you can strengthen that ability to be resolved, right? To have that resilience and get through stuff. So I want to hit that for sure. And then the other thing is going to be.

Really accomplishing something that you've always wanted to do regardless of the obstacles that you're going through, because there's always obstacles, David. So we all know that, right? There's always a hump and a bump on the road. It's just the way it is. You can never walk a straight line. You can't ride a bicycle in a straight line.

And we're going to show that that navigation, that left and right veering from the straight line is how you actually get to where you want to go. So we'll be hitting that too. 

[00:04:25] David Pasqualone: Well, I think every human on the planet needs these key points and these life lessons and we need to do them, not just talk about them.

[00:04:32] David Pasqualone: So, before we get started with the practical, we're going to go through your life story briefly, and we're going to share, I'm sure, a bunch of gold that me and our listeners can take and run with. While we get started, talk to us about your life. Well, where did this come from? Was your life always a quote unquote success?

[00:04:53] David Pasqualone: Did you have a different kind of upbringing? You know, good, bad, ugly, pretty, pretty ugly. Where did Richard's life [00:05:00] start and what was it like that turned and eventually developed into the man you are today? 

Yeah. So while let's go back a bit. So growing up was interesting. That's the word I use. I had a good family.

We moved a lot. My mother, very young, she was married very, very young, got pregnant, got married to my father of course, and, and started having kids. And I have two brothers and myself. And through that journey, my dad was working three jobs, trying to make things happen. He was in the golf course business, you know, rising up to become a superintendent and he's working as a cook and he's doing all this stuff.

So, you know, he was just always working. That was one thing. So my mother was kind of, In charge, if you will, at home for the most part. And being that young and having three kids all of a sudden actually had a fourth through that didn't make it. And that was tough to navigate. As a kid, you don't know what's going on.

So she was a little rough to say the least. And we navigated that. We moved a lot for some reason. So we moved actually, Dave, by the time I was out of high school, I think that number was like 30 times. Okay. So you can kind of get the feeling of, I didn't really attach to much. Right, going through like, I always know I'm leaving after a while, you're just like, well, what's the point?

So with school and things like that, too, it was always, well, I just got to get through the next six months and I'm going to move, you know, so I kind of, I was a clown, got attention, stuff like that. Didn't really attach to a lot of people. I'd maybe have one friend, two friends or something out of school and that would move on.

So that kind of went through got into high school, went through high schools, almost a fourth decided not to go to a fourth and finished where I was got out of that and then said. Well, I guess I'm supposed to go to college. And I remember I was, I went to a community college and I'm standing with my check and my little schedule on the line.

I'm walking up to the counter and I'm looking around David. I'm like, yeah, this isn't happening. This is not who I am. I'm not going to be around. So I tore that stuff up, threw it in the trash and went out and I joined the Marine Corps. And from there, it's like three weeks later, I was in the Corps and I'd gone through basic and all this, which is great.

That was a great experience. I went through that got out, then things kind of really started to happen. So I got out of that and had to make something happen. I'm working, I'm swinging a pickaxe, digging trench for five bucks an hour. You know, we're doing cable, we're laying cable. You got it down, down in Tucson, Arizona.

We're digging this stuff. And, and I didn't see a lot of future in that, Dave. It's five bucks an hour. And which was not like a low amount then, actually, because we're going back in the eighties, you know, but still it was not a lot of money. And a guy asked me to do a side job for him, you know, we spread this granite, about a 35 ton pile of granite out in the front yard, like a crushed granite.

And I had to take it to the backyard, spread it, you know, do all that. So yeah, okay. I did that. It took about 10 hours, about a hundred degrees out. This is in Tucson, Arizona. And the best thing though, David, was I got done. And did you put a thousand bucks in my hand? That's what he paid me for that job.

And I'm looking at that thousand dollars. I'm like, wow, like I did about the same thing yesterday for 50 bucks. You know, so that kind of set the set the tone. I know my future. I'm going to work for myself because I can get this. So I wanted to get into that. So I started a landscape business, started to evolve a few different businesses like that, growing that turned into a custom water feature business, which I really expanded, became the best in the country.

I won a lot of awards and did everything. Taught myself how to be a steel sculptor. So I started doing that, started these massive projects, ended up, you know, having great commissions from like the. John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I built world class exhibits did some really, really cool stuff with that.

And it was all just humming along. I met my wife had six little kids. So we have six, six kids within about three and a half years or small story to that. But then 0809 hit. And, you know, the economy collapsed. So just so people 

[00:08:44] David Pasqualone: know within America, we had a housing crisis from corruption and inflation, inflation, inflation of rates.

[00:08:52] David Pasqualone: In the sense of house prices, people were given mortgages for every reason under the sun, most fraudulent, and then everything burst and the real estate market, people's investments, tons of things happen. So what Richard's talking about, if you're not from America, that was a rough economic time in our country.

Yeah, for sure. 

[00:09:10] David Pasqualone: Did 

I 

[00:09:10] David Pasqualone: miss anything? Correct me 

or clarify. No, no, that's spot on. And I was no. So the interesting thing for me, David, though, even though all that's happening and everyone's suffering, right? And no one needs a water feature. Oh, by the way, I do want to 

[00:09:23] David Pasqualone: say one thing. I wasn't saying Richard was corrupt.

[00:09:26] David Pasqualone: I was saying the government and the banks were corrupt. So if you're listening, I wasn't saying the people involved in it were corrupt. It was the banking and the U. S. government falsifying documents and allowing just shenanigans to happen, not Richard. So just to me, he wouldn't be on the show if he was corrupt.

[00:09:43] David Pasqualone: We don't get no Pelosi's, no Obama's, no Biden's, no even Bush's. No, no one that's corrupt. I don't care what political party you're part of. If you're a liar, you're not on the show. 

for the clarification. But yeah, so it was, it was a wild ride. I mean, it did affect people globally also. So [00:10:00] so, but for me, what really happened, I do take ownership of this because it really wasn't the, the economic collapse, because if it was everyone would be out of business.

And everyone didn't go out of business, right? So it was really the things I didn't do in my business, David. So I was an artist, I'm out front, I'm winning awards, I'm being, you know, I'm being published, I'm, I'm doing these world class exhibits, I'm all this stuff, making great money, but I didn't pay attention to things that need to be paid attention to in my business, you know, which is what I call the hard work, because actually making money in business is the easiest thing you can do, you know, everything else is difficult.

So so that hurt. So I lost my home. Okay. Lost the business. Everything's just done here. I'm six, six, small kids, four years old and younger. My wife and we had to really kind of start over and figure out what we're going to do. Didn't know what I wanted to do. I knew I didn't want to do what I'd been doing for 20 years.

I had built over a thousand water features and all the steel sculptures. So I sold everything I had completely started at zero. We wrote, relocated to another state, went from Illinois, Chicago area, and To Wisconsin and try to decide what I want to do because I didn't want to do what I did. So that was one of the bigger challenges.

I love to work out. I'm big in the fitness. I'm, I love to train people. I've done it for a long time. So I went and started being a trainer, went to an anytime fitness, you know, they're all over the country and stuff. So I, I went to one of those and started being a fitness trainer. They kind of had a subcontractor thing with that.

You can kind of come in for this company. I'm like, I'm the only one there. So I had to build a program there. Okay, so I did next thing you know, seriously, a year later, I'm trainer of the year. Okay. It's like, Oh, that's good. Cause I'm pretty good at what I do. And of course, what that means to an entrepreneur, David is go start your own gym.

So that's what I did. So I went and did a bootcamp style training gym. Very interesting. I built a whole body weight, kind of like a belt system progressions. I would take people through, and that was great. Scaled that, that was a lot of fun. I kind of got back on my feet with that. That was really good.

Then I started a contracting business as well, doing roofing, sliding windows, did that. for a bunch of years. That was great. And then really started seeing people would ask me, like, how'd you do that? How'd you go from like being on top to losing everything, all the kids and thing, and then starting over rebuilding.

And now you're here. So I started helping them, mentoring them, coaching them. And that really turned into the full time coaching business. You know, cause again, as an entrepreneur, I'll turn this into a business instead of working and sort of working with people. And that was, and it really started the skill that to sharpen the spirit coaching as my business.

Now I really get to help business owners create freedom, profit, and impact in their business, because when I went back to 08, 09, The big thing, yeah, everything was collapsing. It was my fault. I get it. But I also realized one morning I woke up and had this epiphany. Here I have these six little kids who just love to be around me.

Come home, they attack me. You know, I leave, my one son's chasing me down the driveway crying as my truck's pulling out of the driveway. I'm, of course, I just keep going, you know, and. The epiphany was, you know, if I stay on this course, business first, win, win, win, get the awards, be number one, make the money, have all the stuff, I said, I'm actually going to destroy my children's future.

You know, they're going to have broken marriages, failed relationships, right? They might be good at business, right? But every, every other aspect of their life is going to be just in the trash because they don't know balance. They don't even know what's important. And that day, David, I walked into the office and I said, we're done.

It says collapse in any ways. Yeah. Maybe we can milk it for a while. Maybe I could turn things around, but I'm like, I'm not going to do this because my identity got wrapped up in that business. Okay. So the thing for me, so that the second part of that epiphany was, man, like if I don't do this, my company's name was Rick Rock.

I go, yeah, it even has my name. You know, I'm like, if, if I don't do this, like, who am I? I didn't know who I was. You know, that's, that's a commonality with a lot of business owners, especially men in business is we start to become what we do, right? What's the first question you ask them? Well, what do you do?

What do you do? That's all what it is, right? It became who I was. I was never not, you know, uniform shirt or a hat or something. All my trucks and cars are wrapped, everything else, you know, and, and I realized I get with my kids, they don't care about any of that. They don't care what I'm driving. They don't care what kind of house we live in.

They don't care what I do for a living, right? So I had to really readjust all of that. That was a big thing for me. That's why I didn't know what to do. So there's that kind of limbo time after that because I'm lost. Like what, what does the person do? Spent 20 years being who I was. It was all about me.

You know, so that, that was just such a huge thing. And the time, you know, from a faith standpoint too, at that time, David, it's like, I didn't, I didn't know the Lord. I was a Christian. I'm what do you call a Sino. I was a Christian in the name only at that time. [00:15:00] Right. So I went to church, did stuff like that.

And I'm like, okay, I'm checking that box and doing all that. But I didn't really know what that, what, what it was until we relocated. Started going to different churches, and all of a sudden I started hearing about being saved, and I'm like, well, what's that? And this relationship with Jesus, and I'm, and I'm like, Well, what is that?

I mean, I never heard that. And he said, I've been, I've been in some big churches. You know, I never heard this stuff. So I'm typing one day to the, to my pastor asking my wife walks up. She goes, what are you doing? I go, I'm sending an email. She goes to who? I go to Pastor Tim. She goes, about what? I go, well, about being saved.

She goes, what about it? I go, well, Everyone's got this date, and everyone says, you know, I was saving this date, and they did this, and I'm like, I don't have a date. They go, do you have a date? And she goes, yeah, I got a date. I go, I don't have a date. Let me know what this means. She's like, David, she looks at me, she goes, I don't even know you.

Like, who are you? I'm like, well, I guess I played the part pretty good, but I don't know what this means. You know, so we traveled down that road, and that was the big life changer. Right. That's when, when, when I understood that, when I, when I accepted Christ, when I understood, it's all about relationship, you know, again, that epiphany I had thinking about my kids and everything else, that was like the precursor.

I saw relationship was important. I saw this and this, there's a lot of different things I learned at that time. And this is just the magnificence of God is taking me through all those steps, all that hardship. You know, I mean, obviously he didn't put me in it. He just helped me through it. Even not even known to me, right.

I'm just doing this, but my own persistence to get through this thing was pretty interesting. So then, then I really started to understand what I should be doing, you know, in my businesses, how I run my businesses, you know, how we treat people. It is, is quite, quite life changing on that in that aspect.

And that really gave me a new trajectory. And if it wasn't for. My own ability, for whatever reason, I've had a lot of resilience, right? I went through a lot as a kid. Things like that, you know, again with my mother and abuse and stuff like that, but whatever it was, I just wasn't, sometimes I say, well, I'm a Marine, so I'm really too dumb to quit.

You know, that's kind of, so I'm not smart enough to say that's enough. You know, I keep pushing through and getting through it. It may take me twice as long and twice as hard, but I get there. Right. So the important thing with this is like, now, well, how do I utilize that? And this has actually brought me to where I'm at now.

You know, so I'm really thankful to have not just the resilience, understanding the path that I was walking. Because a lot of times we do things and we don't really know where we're going. We just walk, but we're also called to take the first steps, right? The Lord will direct our path, but we got to take the first steps, right?

And then we veer, you know, we can go left and right. We're going to be pulled back to the straight line. So that kind of brings us up to where we're at today, I think pretty close. 

[00:17:53] David Pasqualone: Yeah, then let's talk about this because you hit some important topics. Number one, like you were referring to all those moves as a kid and a teenager kind of built you for adulthood.

[00:18:04] David Pasqualone: So even though it didn't make sense, God prepared you because I'm sure in the Marines you never moved. You stayed totally stationary, right? 

Yes, adaptability was the number one primary concern. 

[00:18:15] David Pasqualone: Yeah, yeah. And then when you're talking about how there's a lot of people that have religion, They go to church.

[00:18:22] David Pasqualone: They've heard about God. They believe there might be a God. But religion versus relationship is a dramatically different thing. And church doesn't get you saved, but it's a great place to grow if you're at a quote unquote good church. But your relationship with Christ is personal. And that's where even the demons believe there is a God.

[00:18:44] David Pasqualone: They don't trust him though. And that's the difference between trust And belief. We don't just need to believe there's a God, we need to trust Him with our souls. So that salvation that you mentioned, getting saved, and you mentioned how people had a date. Talk about that date, Richard, so people understand it.

[00:19:04] David Pasqualone: It's not that you need a number, but it's a specific point in time when you what? 

Yeah. So, cause I don't have a date still. Yeah. I have, like you're saying the point of time, that's what it was. And what that is, is when you had the realization that you need a savior, like we live in a sin filled fallen world and there is no overcoming it.

You know, we, that's what we're in now, but we're, we're to be, we're to be in it, not of it. Right. You hear that often. We're going to be in the world, but not of the world. Well, what does that mean? How do you do both? Well, we keep our focus on eternity, on that relationship with Christ. He's who we give our burdens to as we struggle.

And I'd spent this 20 plus years, right? I'm going through all this collapse and all this stuff. I didn't know. I didn't have that go to. Okay. Like a man. I'm thinking, man, if I just knew Jesus. You know, flip it a whole. Different story, but at the same time, [00:20:00] this is the best story. You know, like I, you know, a lot of times we have to go to the bottom, right, before we can really start coming back up.

And that was one of those things that had to happen to me because I was so, I was a tough dude. Okay. I mean, I can, I can get pretty much pushed through anything, man. I'm a boxer. I'm a black belt. I'm all this stuff. And I've been punched in the face more times than I count. I got plates and wires in my face, new nose, and I can take some abuse, you know, all the stuff I grew up with.

So all that, but I never knew that I could, I could have someone help me with that. Like give those burdens to, to Christ. Like, you know, his, his yoke is light, right? His, his burdens are light and you can give that to him. So I think what happens, like we're talking about is there's a point when you realize.

It can't all be up to me. There has to be something else. If I just have to work and suffer and move through all this stuff and then I die and go back to dirt and that's it. You know, like, okay, you can believe in Buddha, but Buddha's just dirt. Okay, he's not, he's not living with, with, with the Most High God, right?

He can have all that stuff. He said, religion isn't going to get you there. Plus, it doesn't create the relationship. And when you begin a relationship, it's like if you meet your wife, I met my wife, walked in the video store and going to get a video. And there's this, Beautiful blonde behind the counter.

And that was the moment, right? There was a date. It was like, and I, you know, I chatted her up for three months in that place, you know, so I finally proposed to her, you know it was a really cool story. And I just literally across the counter, you know, hadn't been on a date yet. I proposed to her, but that's a similar relationship, right?

You've got to create this relationship. And then, and then when you're asking the Lord into your heart, right? And you learn about the Holy Spirit and that's who's in you and works in you, you just see things different. It's like when the scales came off of Paul's eyes on the roads of Damascus, right? That kind of thing.

Like all of a sudden it's just this, this whole new world has opened up to you, you know, that you never saw before. I'm so. There's empathy, right? And there's a scale. I'm like zero to minus one on the empathy scale. Okay. I, I haven't done all right. Especially especially pre pre being safe. Right. But now, and I'll tell you, even that, even if it took a while, but I remember once a church where heaven, all these people were about the altar, man, people on their knees are praying, they're repenting.

I mean, demons are being cast out. You're seeing this stuff and I'm standing there and I'm looking down like, I don't know, 50 people, 60 people. And I'm like, Man, the world is broken. I said, all these people, everybody's got something, you know, everybody has something, you know, they have to deal with, and that like changed my heart in a really big way, David.

It was like, you know, before I'm like, well, you know, I just suck it up and, you know, get through it or whatever. That was kind of always my thing, you know, rub some dirt on it. You'll be okay. But I saw that. And again, this is just how God works, man. He can put these things in front of you and you have this realization When I speak to people now, I see them completely different, you know, because everyone, no matter how put together they look, you know, there's brokenness in all of us because of where we live in this sinful world.

So that was those little things, those little events like that start to compile, you know, and then, then you start to get this whole new sense of it's love, right? I mean, but love is an action. Right? Love isn't really a feeling. We don't think of it as a feel. We think of it as an action, right? When we read in Corinthians, you know, first, you know, Corinthians 13, you read that, it's like, yeah, you know, all this up above all is love.

And then like, okay, but it's really an action. So you start to do things differently. You know, you start to see like, wait, there's a better way to do things all the way together. And as I read through scripture and I've read the Bible, you know, a lot of times I spend time every day studying it. I see business principles.

I see the principles of God and how things should be. Then you take those couple of things, you put them together and I'm like, oh, wait a minute, like all God's principles work, whether you're a believer or not. That's the good thing, right? If you adhere to those principles, even if you're not a believer, they're going to work because it's God, right?

So I started applying all that to what I do and how I help people. You know, and organize your businesses and systemize things and do things like that. And you know, that was a really fascinating and compelling reason to even strengthen my relationship with Christ. Like, I just want to be, you know, better in that aspect.

And it's worked out well. It's still working well. And I think that, did I answer the question? 

[00:24:41] David Pasqualone: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I want to talk about the epiphanies Because we all have moments of clarity. We all have moments, you can call them aha moments, and it doesn't matter if it's our personal life or our business life, there are moments where it's like, [00:25:00] oh, that is inspired thought.

[00:25:02] David Pasqualone: And for people who trust Christ, we know it's the Holy Ghost. For people who haven't trusted Christ, but God's reaching out and trying to lead you, he's there and he wants you to be saved. He doesn't want you to have pain and suffering. That's all Satan. Anything negative we experience in this earth, from physical, emotional, spiritual, that's all evil Satan.

[00:25:21] David Pasqualone: That's it. The devil. But when it comes to God, he's love, like Richard said, and he's peace, and he's joy, and he only wants good for us. It's like when people say, why does God cause bad things to happen? He doesn't. Never has, never will. He might allow something to happen because it's ultimately going to make us better, but he doesn't cause pain, sickness, illness.

[00:25:41] David Pasqualone: He doesn't cause any of that, unless it's in righteousness. So. When you were talking about these epiphanies, ladies and gentlemen, if we don't act, strike while the iron's hot, it not only cools off, but we can become calloused in our minds and hearts and lives, and it gets seven or twenty times harder to act on.

[00:26:10] David Pasqualone: So Richard, talk about when you have these epiphanies, The importance of action and maybe the steps like, okay, this is a new thought. You never had it before. Now what do you do? 

So, yeah, that's, that's a great point. So it is. And, and I'm a, I'm an imperfect action guy. So I want people to really take away imperfect action because so many people get stuck in, they're either getting ready to get ready or they got to be perfect before they roll something out.

And to combine life and business, it's the same thing, right? You, If you get a realization for something, it's important. Just start. I also call it ignorance on fire. Okay. It's a, when guys, people start a business, like they get this, this feeling of movement, like, Hey, I can really do this. I can help people.

Like whatever it is, whether it's nonprofit for profit, it doesn't matter. You take the action to do it because guess what? You're going to screw up. You're going to make mistakes, but you're going to be moving forward. You're still going to be able to run with the ball, right? So it's important that we begin those steps.

Now you can do a certain point of measurement. It's not just reckless abandon, obviously. Right. But want people to understand, like there's, there's a lot of, there's a lot of great places to begin. And today, especially now, like 35 years ago, when I started, there wasn't coaches, there wasn't the internet, there wasn't anything you didn't get.

You couldn't watch YouTube and figure stuff out. So now you have so many low barriers to entry. To do something with an epiphany. And it doesn't mean it has to be a business. This could be a relationship issue, right? You can get information on this stuff easily, right? You can look this stuff up and hear stories like on your show.

You can listen to people's stories and you can take action for what they've shared, what they've been through. You know, one of the things I learned to do early on, David was. Read books of people who have done incredible, have suffered and achieved through really hard things. Ernest Shackleton, two, two years on the ice, brings 28 guys back to life.

Stuck in the South Pole, right? Touching the void. These people who just go through these un, un, un, unbelievable hardships and they get through this stuff and you, you read the story. So in your little thing in our You know, depending where you're at, if you've got an issue, you can draw on that kind of stuff.

One of the things that's really helped me is understanding, I go, well, this isn't as bad as that. Those guys made it through that, I can get through this, you know some of the other steps I take too, and that I do try to train myself to do hard things often, right? I really, I challenge myself in the gym each day.

I want to do hard things in my business. I want to go out and make something, do something I haven't done because I know I'm going to be terrible at it and just get better or get through it, right? Those are some of your first steps. Okay. When you have these epiphanies, you ha you have to leave the fear behind and you have to move forward.

Okay? Now, thing I do now is I always go, I always go for counsel in prayer. That's where I begin. So that's the Lord. I said, just give me the wisdom. Let me see, let me hear. Okay? I'm gonna be open to that and let the Holy Spirit work. Bring what I need, bring what I need to me, put it in front of me. I'll see it.

I just, I just want the wisdom and the, and the clarity to see it, right? Because that's gonna help me take the next step. So that's really important to understand. Now if we go into from a business standpoint, you want to start a business, there's a lot of steps you can take prior to even launching, right?

There's things to get your ducks in a row and begin to go. And, and it's important that we understand that reparation is key. Again, it's another biblical tenant, right? You got the five virgins, the 10 virgins, five had the oil, Right? Waiting for the bridegroom. They got the extra oil, everything else ready to go.

Then the call comes. It's dark. What do the other five want? Hey, hook me up with your oil. We didn't prepare. And they [00:30:00] said, sorry. You're not going. Okay. That's a pretty harsh parable. You know, I don't, you know what, 

[00:30:07] David Pasqualone: I know what you're saying, but I don't think it's harsh. I think it's reality. And I think we're so weak today as a society.

[00:30:13] David Pasqualone: They're like, how could you do that? Within the church, you got pastors preaching this weakness and these lies when this is how God says to be. And it seems harsh. But it's like, these five prepared, these five didn't, they knew better. I mean, am I being overly harsh? No, dude. You're the Marine, but I'm just, I'm 

with you.

Here's the thing. I tell people, I go, I say exactly what you said. Like you can sound, it sounds harsh. But it's reality. 

[00:30:41] David Pasqualone: Yeah, we had 70 years, like our lifespan on average is 70 years. It's proven generation after generation. And we have this life is a test for eternity. And when it's done, we got, it's appointed to man wants to die.

[00:30:56] David Pasqualone: And then the judgment, we're going to close our eyes here, wake up in front of the Lord and be accountable. So myself, you, every human listening to not my voice, but God's truth, we had 70 years of a test on average. To get things settled. And so that's why when it's like you're a hundred percent right, it does seem in our society, oh, why wouldn't you share your oil?

[00:31:19] David Pasqualone: Because then they're both going to go out and die. Listen, you had 70 years to get ready. If you didn't do it, tough luck on you, lazy bum. 

I'm with you. That's why I tell like with my kids, same thing. It's like, you got to be ready. They have to be prepared. We train for things. I keep my skills sharp physically, right?

I run our security team at church. Okay. I train people. First thing I ask them, like, okay, how many people have been punched in the face? Okay. 

[00:31:44] David Pasqualone: Yeah, that's huge. That's real. Listen to Richard. If you haven't been punched in the face in a real fight, in a real way, It doesn't matter how much martial arts training you have, you're going to get toasted.

That's right. That's right. When, when, you know, it's Mike Tyson said it best, right? Everyone's a gangster till they get punched in the face. You know, I tell people the same thing. Like I said, I have, I've been punched so many times. I have artificial parts in my head. Okay. So I can, I can take some shots, but you have to, whether it's business or life, even the proverbial punch in the face.

You know, and I had the same podcast. Well, give me like a little philosophy. Well, I think it's good to taste your own blood spilt by others from time to time. You know, you need to get in the ring. You got to get in there and you got to fight and you got to, you got to taste it. You got to, you got to, you know, you have to go through that suffering.

Suffering creates, it creates growth. Okay. It creates bonding, especially if you can suffer, suffer with someone else. It's the number one way to connect. That's why we have battle buddies. That's why guys who have served in combat together have a lifelong brotherhood because they've suffered at the highest level.

And I think it's really important. I want people to embrace that too. You don't have to go out and look for it. Right? But you need to understand what that struggle is and what suffering is. Even if it's, you spend an hour in the most grueling workout you've ever been in, but look, you're still alive. Go figure.

Right? You thought you were going to die after the thing, especially if I'm training you. But, but you made it through, right? And you can breathe and you're good and you want to keep going. So I think the biggest thing is understanding your own personal resilience, meaning your body can take a lot more than you think.

When you think you're at the end, you've, you've just scratched the surface. Again, that's why you read about others. We've had to do it right and push through so you can in your mind, start to build that you understand, no, there's more in me. I can go like when I'm working out, David, I mean, I'm talking to myself, I'm a nut job.

You know, I'm rocking a bag for 10 straight rounds, you know, I'm doing stuff. And the good thing is most people don't talk to me at the gym. So my workouts don't get interrupted. But it's the same thing, though. Every day I'm challenging myself. And I'm pushing. I think if people can embrace that, it doesn't mean you have to go hit the heavy bag.

It doesn't mean you have to be, you know challenging yourself physically all the time. What I mean is every day should be another level. Like you're pushing for that level. You know, I don't care if it's on the keyboard, if you're working on the, on the computer and doing something, it's the same thing.

Work is work. It's not defined by how physical you are. You know, it's the demand to accomplish and get results. Right. So when we talk about resilience, now we want to get through in a resilient way is to continue to get results, regardless of how small those little small results compound, and they become the big results at the end.

So we have to be able to push forward and through to make those little gains, take each step at a time, and then we're able to overcome that. Now, I didn't know this as, you know, five year old, eight year old it was, I was 30. I had to be about 30, 31, and I did [00:35:00] hypnotherapy. A friend of mine, she's like, man, you need help, man.

You're pretty messed up. You know, and she's like, you got some, you know, woman issues and stuff like that. She goes, go talk to this guy. She gave me this doctor's name, you know, he's a hypnotherapist and stuff. I'm like, okay, remember, I'm not saved at a time yet. So I go, and the guy was great. We did this hypnotherapy and You bring up all of this stuff, the abuse and everything else you tend to black, you know, block out and everything else.

I mean, there's a period of my younger life. I don't even remember. And you get through that stuff and then you start to learn. Okay. Okay. I did two years of that three days a week. I dropped some cash, but I could have never been married if I didn't go through that. Because I had to understand my, my bitterness, my, my, my lack of respect for women, stuff like that, you know, so it was the oddest thing.

But again, you take counsel from someone who directs you. Do you, do you take action on that? Do you say, yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm okay. If he keeps saying you're okay and we all deal with some form of trauma, we've all been through something in our life, right? And I've got my share and that alone, just continuing to go through that and get through it really was a life changer for me as well at that point.

You know, then, then look, Hey, two years of that. And I met my wife and then I'm able to talk to her and I can get married and do all that stuff. So I think it all kind of wraps together when you're moving forward. You know, it's not a, it's not a simplistic method. No, I think you're, you really have to look at the, the whole, right.

Because especially if we know the Lord. And like, I can look back now and I just, I praise God. He like kept me alive. Okay. Because I did a whole bunch of stupid stuff. You know, it's like, how am I even like still here? But now I got that whole, like second chance. You know, we hear about that, you know, yes, all my sins have been washed away as far as the East is from the West.

I've got all that. But now I was like, what do I do now? Oh, I've got these six kids now. Now I have to raise his children. Right? With a biblical worldview. How do I do that? Oh, homeschool. Oh, homeschool my kids. Okay, we'll do that. And we started on the whole thing. And this is like the whole next journey.

It's like a second life, you know, from all the stuff I did first, collapse of business, lose everything, still have six kids and a wife. Start over. It's like another blank slate. It was kind of cool. I mean, it wasn't fun at the time, but that ability to like, just understand, well, okay, well, I'm starting from zero, so I got nowhere to go but up.

So that was helpful. 

[00:37:28] David Pasqualone: Yeah, and anyone who I love and give my complete life and eternity to God, and I love the brothers and the brotherhood, the brothers and sisters in Christ, but there are so many lies within the church and there's so many misconceptions because people aren't really have a relationship with God, they have a religion.

[00:37:52] David Pasqualone: So I am not against a good godly church. I am not against pastors, but there's so many churches that preach this fake Everything's going to be great if you're right with God, things go well. If you're not right with God, you have struggle. Go read your Bible. Don't be ignorant. Talk to Job. Talk to Job.

[00:38:11] David Pasqualone: Anybody. Old Testament, New Testament. The difference, if you don't know, is Old Testament's before the birth of Jesus Christ. And the New Testament's after Jesus Christ, and it talks about his life, and his future, and our future, and Revelation. But there is no godly character I can think of in the Bible that didn't experience struggle.

[00:38:35] David Pasqualone: Jesus Christ himself, struggle. Every character in the Bible, struggle. So that doesn't mean, well, why would I want to be a Christian? Well, because Everybody has struck on earth, but if you're having, I guess, gangbanging fun for 70 years in this earth, but you're going to burn for eternity, that's like a piece of dust off a piece of dust off a piece of dust off a piece of dust off a cockroach turd, right?

[00:39:00] David Pasqualone: This life is nothing, but eternity is forever. So you want to have a great eternity. You can have a great life and a great eternity. But what Richard's saying, is don't think that struggle means something's wrong. It very well means probably you're moving the right direction. And like you said, you went two years to hypnotherapy three times a week, and that helped you at that time, but you also didn't know Christ.

[00:39:27] David Pasqualone: So right now, Richard, as a man who has years of experience behind him, doesn't mean you know everything or have everything settled. But for your life, you're talking to yourself, your kids, or our audience. They have trauma. You didn't talk about this, and you don't have to. But you were carrying trauma and bitterness towards women.

[00:39:47] David Pasqualone: If your hands are full of junk, you can't receive a gift worth 20 billion dollars. Right? So Richard's arms, ladies and gentlemen, were full of junk. He couldn't accept a godly woman that was a gift. So he had to let go of the [00:40:00] junk so he could accept that beautiful wife God had for him. Now they have six kids.

[00:40:05] David Pasqualone: For all of us, for Richard, for me, for you, we gotta let go of the baggage. We gotta move on. So Richard, now being a Christian, You probably don't need two years of hypnotherapy. What would you recommend in practical steps of, Hey, if you're struggling with bitterness, if you're struggling with trauma, if you're struggling with all these depression and things that, that are real, this is what I did to get overcome it.

[00:40:28] David Pasqualone: You can try it too. What would you say? 

Yeah, so it's, it's going to be a couple things. First, you're going to start with, I think one of the biggest hindrances for people, and this is, and I'm going to walk you through the, these are incredible important steps, is unforgiveness, right? You hear a lot about forgiveness.

I mean, that's what separates Christianity from all the other religions, right? But you'll also hear, excuse me, a lot of times they'll, you just have to forgive people. Well, then ask for forgiveness. Well, you have to forgive them anyways. Okay. And on the surface, that sounds right. Okay. Cause that's what we're commanded to do.

Forgive those who ask forgiveness. So I struggled with this for a long time, David. I'm like, okay, okay. Didn't ask for forgiveness, but I got to forgive them. So I forgive them. And people do that. They have incredible trauma. I mean, whether it's incest and rape and all this stuff, right. And these people are never going to come back and, or their, their fathers did that to them or the mothers.

And now they're gone. They passed away. They're never going to ask for forgiveness. They're dead, but you're supposed to just forgive them. Okay, and you'll hear this a lot and I said, well, there's a problem with that. So I'm thinking as I'm growing in my faith, I'm like, okay I love justice. I love that God is a just God and he's the just right.

He's the judge, right? So I'm thinking, well, does God forgive you if you don't ask for forgiveness? He doesn't. He can't. He's a just God. Just like when you're talking about, God can't give you what he doesn't have. He can't make you sick. He doesn't, he doesn't bring all his best, but that's not who God is.

He can't do that. That's Satan, right? That's the enemy. But in forgiveness, and I think this is a, this changed my life, David. So this step is so important. Someone's hurt you very, very deeply. They're never going to ask forgiveness or they've, they passed away. You can't ever, well, what's, what do you do? Oh, I forgive him.

Yep. I'll be okay. You're not, you're going to feel good in the moment. That's a little taste of sugar. That's all that is. Until that stuff is dissolved off your tongue, then you're just going to want more of that. So it's not going to work and you're going to have the bitterness, you're going to have the anger, it's still going to be there.

So the method, the step is, okay, Either they can't or they won't or they can't or they're gone. They can't ask for forgiveness. My job is to give that to the Lord. Say, okay, Lord, my father did this. My mother did all this stuff. She's gone now. She's never going to ask for forgiveness. I want you to handle this, even if they're still alive.

I need, I need to give this to you, Lord. I'm going to continue to pray for them. You know, that they will come ask and we say, whatever it is, but Lord, I have to give this to you because your burdens are light. Only you can take care of this. I'm it's not my job to make them ask for forgiveness. My job is to, if they did, I'm going to forgive them.

That is, that is what we're called to do, right? But if they don't, you can't just sit around waiting, being miserable and hurt because of what they did. So you've got to understand, you have got to give it to the Lord. And I, when I did this the first time, the second and the third time, it was when you, you know, POs hear about people, stuff being lifted off their shoulders.

They felt like a weight was lifted. That was like the first time I ever experienced that. And I've been through some stuff. Okay. Now that I go, that's amazing. Like that's God taking your words, you know, yoking up with him, right. And doing that kind of stuff. So that is like an incredible step to begin to get away from your trauma to start the healing because you can't just say, I forgive them even though they haven't forgiven.

If you think it just, it doesn't work. You don't have that ability. Only God does. So if you give it to him, let him do the work. He can handle it. Okay. It's way above your pay grade. Okay, you give it to the Lord and let Him handle it. And I'm telling you, that final step in the forgiveness process is critical to understand.

It will change your life. 

[00:44:30] David Pasqualone: Yeah, I think that's excellent advice. And it goes back to the women, you know, they're waiting for the groomsmen and five worked and prepared and five didn't. You don't hold a grudge against them. You don't not forgive them. Hey, I understand you're really sorry that you didn't prepare your oil.

[00:44:46] David Pasqualone: I, you know, I, you made fun of me for working so hard. I forgive you. But now you get all over your consequences still. I mean, there there's that balance we get, you know, so giving it all to the Lord. We hear [00:45:00] that all the time. Oh, just move on, just move on. And it's not that easy. So what are some ways you learned Richard to give it to the Lord?

[00:45:07] David Pasqualone: And again, I'm sure you don't just give it once. Sometimes it jumps back on your back or we pick it back up. You just keep doing that every day. How do you release it and long term get that freedom? 

So another thing I did, that was an incredible encounter with God. So some friends of mine I had met, I'm reading some of their stuff and they're talking about, like you mentioned about when your arms are full.

You can't take more. Same thing with your hand. If you have a closed fist, not much is going to fit in it, right? And nothing else definitely can go in it because it's closed. So it's opening, opening your hands so God can remove what might be there and also put new things in. Right? So it's understanding like this is just the analogy, right?

So that's the, so if you have your hand closed, can't get anything to have it open, that's good. But okay, well, great. I'm gonna stand here with my palms up to the sky and everything's going to be okay. It doesn't quite work like that. What I did, I'm on my knees and I'm praying and I'm repenting too, because I'm asking God to feel me like, bring stuff to me that I'm not even thinking of.

Right? Like God will like drop stuff in you. It's, we call it listening prayer, you know? So I asked and I'm quiet and I don't even have a notebook and a pen. I'm Right? And it may be a word, it may be a sentence, it may be three pages of stuff, right? But what I do understand is I'll, I'll say with my, my hands open, like take whatever these burdens are or this stuff and give me what you need to give me.

Because God knows exactly what you need. But if you're unable to receive, Okay, it doesn't matter, you know, if you don't have the space for it. So I'm doing this, right? I'm weeping because I'm thinking about this stuff and I'm repenting about stuff like 25 years ago. This stuff is coming to help me. It's just, it's just clearing my soul, right?

Next thing you know, I'm all like, I'm standing up because I was kneeling. It's my bed. My palms are like on the ceiling. Okay, I'm kind of tall, but my palms like on the ceiling, right? And I'm praising God. I think this went on for like an hour and a half. It was unbelievable. You know, I mean, it's just this, this feeling of the, of, of the Lord's presence in this, when, when you're willing to surrender.

So I guess the real, the real thing is surrender, right? And that's, that is a difficult thing. I'm a man, I'm a Marine, I'm a boxer, I'm a black bike. I've, I've, I've been in the mix, right? A lot. I've done so much stuff to actually surrender to someone that's antithetical to who I was. Okay, I will not take a knee.

I will not, no one is, no one is doing that. You know, so that was another big change. But this was like that complete surrender and understanding what that is. And I don't even say I was perfect at it, but that moment that I experienced it was, I mean, the room was filled. I was filled. It was, it was pretty incredible.

So I really think you have to, from a step standpoint, like, it's good to do things physical, like literally like open your palms, right? Open the hands. And face them to the sky, right? Face them to the Lord and just say, fill this, fill this, you know, just let go of that stuff. Just release it and let it go.

And that goes for anything. It's not, Oh, fill it full of money, fill it full of this good stuff. Give me the new ride. You know, it's not bad. It's literally, it's, it's so much more important to understand what's inside you. It's not about things. You know, it's about your being. It's about, it's about your past and everything that you deal with on a day to day basis.

I have for 30 years, 50 years, whatever it is. That's what's really important to take those steps to be able to do that because that's the relational aspect of you and Christ. Being able to have that exchange. He says he knocks at the door, right? But he's a gentleman. He's not forcing himself on you. He knocks on the door.

He ain't barging in, telling you to put that nasty stuff away. Send that girl away. You know what I mean? He doesn't do that. It's all, he's a gentleman. You know, he's not going to force you to do anything, man. That's the relationship part. You know, you don't force your wife or husband to love you. That doesn't work, right?

That doesn't work that way. But that ability to surrender, I think, is a key step to making all of this happen. 

[00:49:15] David Pasqualone: Yeah, and that's the date. That is the moment. Like, I don't remember the calendar date, but I know there was a day and time where I was sitting with Tony Stefanini, the guy who was discipling me, teaching me about the Bible.

[00:49:29] David Pasqualone: And I was like, I understood I'm a sinner. No doubt there. I understood that if I were to die today, if heaven and eternity is perfect and holy, I am not holy. I don't belong there. I don't deserve there. I can't enter in or I'd ruin it. And by complete surrender and trust to God, that he's going to forgive me and cleanse me.

[00:49:51] David Pasqualone: And now I can be in eternity forever and joy and peace. That's amazing. But that surrender, what Richard's talking about, [00:50:00] if you've never experienced it, is if you don't, if you half surrender, if you 95 percent surrender, and you picture, you know, picture a king with a sword, like old medieval times, and you have a knight kneel down, head down on both knees, That king can just stab you with that sword.

[00:50:17] David Pasqualone: If you don't fully trust him, you're not going to take that posture. And when you do fully trust, you don't just go down on your knees, but you're like a child, completely empty, no burdens, joyful, and you can just breathe. And there's not a better place in the world than before your king and submission. So if you're struggling with, I don't want to submit to anybody or anything.

[00:50:40] David Pasqualone: It's because you've never met Jesus. I mean, anything else you'd like to add to that, Richard, to try to explain until you experience it? You can't really understand it, but what would you say to our listeners in countries around the world? Well, they don't know Jesus. They've never heard of him. This is new to them or they've heard, but it's just another man to them.

[00:50:59] David Pasqualone: How do you explain salvation? 

Yeah, so I, I'll go, I have a, obviously all the stuff I do, I have a very warrior mentality, right? Now I understand today that it's more of a, it's a spiritual war that we really fight, but I've, I've been raised and brought and trained and done all this stuff from a warrior standpoint.

Full surrender to Christ. It's the highest level of courage you'll ever have to exude. Okay. And I've been against some tough dudes. I've been knocked out. I've been broken. I've done all this stuff, right? Nothing. None of that. was even close to the courage it takes for a complete surrender, like you're saying David, it's the complete surrender.

It's not one knee, it's both knees, right? It's, it's, it's sprawled on the ground. And just for a warrior, 

[00:51:51] David Pasqualone: go back because you are a warrior. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're in a fight and you're on one knee, you got a lot of reflex left in you. You can jump up fast. If you're on both knees, there's not a lot.

[00:52:00] David Pasqualone: So that's why when Richard says two knees, when you're on two knees to someone, you're fully surrendered. 

It's, and I'm telling you the courage it takes. I still battle with it. I'm not perfect. There's times when I'm just, you know, when you spend 40 years of your life, 45 years of life fighting and it's all on you, everything's me, me, me, me, me, the whole time, man.

You want it. And you're just going to give it up. Like, it's not an easy transition. That's why that relationship is so important. That complete trust, like you're saying, David, you need that. That's 100 percent trust, but that's also courage to do that. The courage to do that. So as a man, especially, obviously I can speak from that, that is, it'll be one of your hardest challenges ever.

And that's like you said, that's the date when you do it, that's, that's when you, when you reach holiness. Okay. You are now set apart. Right? Righteousness. Right relationship with God. You're in right relationship with God. That's righteousness. All right, let's understand that. Like you have to get to that place.

You know, that's how everything that's, that, that God speaks about in the Bible becomes fulfilled. And that can be healing. That can be deliverance. It can be all these things, but it has to start there. It has to begin there. And then all All this promises are open to you, you know, and that's faith, right? I mean, that's the only thing that pleases God is faith.

So you need the faith. You need the courage. There's not, it's a manly stuff just men and women. When you think about what you have to do to get and maintain a relationship with Christ, I was on a podcast the other day and we were talking about doing these things. And I, I called it romance. I mean, stuff we do as a men, you know, like, We, we fight, we shoot, we learn, but we studied the Bible and we, I listened to classical music and opera and we cook and it's romantic because these are things that people won't do because they're in these little boxes that people don't do that.

When you can let go and create, there's a romance there. Okay. There's a romance in that relationship with Christ. He is the bridegroom, right? That weird, right? That we're, he's our bridegroom and we're men like, how does that work? Right? So, I mean, there's this whole thing that you have to start to grab, but when you do, it's so freeing and it's just, I think it's, it's, it's kind of odd.

I'm just thinking of this right now, David, but I've always been kind of a contrarian, not kind of, I've been a lot of a contrarian, you know, so herd goes that way, I go that way, you go off that cliff, I'll be over here, you know? So, so. It, however weird this is, that actually works even better for me with the relationship with Christ.

Cause you, you have to be a contrarian. The world is all going this way. And you want to have complete faith in Christ and build that relationship and stand for Him when they, when they have a sword into your neck. Okay, and you're not going to deny Christ. Okay, that's being a contrarian. That's doing the hard [00:55:00] things.

That's what it's about. You know, so that's, like I said, it's, ah, it's big when you think about it like that. You know, it's a, it's something. 

[00:55:09] David Pasqualone: Yeah. And it's just one of those things. If we're being truthful and honest with ourselves and with God. He's going to give you the answers, you know, he will show you the answers and you will find that piece that Richard and I are talking about.

[00:55:22] David Pasqualone: But even in worse situations in my life, and I'm sure Richard, you can chime in and maybe as a listener, you know what we're talking about, but we can go through years of pain, things we never want to experience, never want to experience again, but there's moments that God delivers. When we have that full submission, that it's the best moment ever felt, and it's worth those six years of struggle and pain.

[00:55:50] David Pasqualone: And it really is that good. And then if that's a taste and a small touch of eternity, I can't wait. So, Richard, before we transition to where you are today and where you're headed next, between your birth and today, we're on the topic of people starting the process of finding that date. and submitting their lives to God.

[00:56:13] David Pasqualone: Is there anything else you want to wrap up before we transition into where you are today and where you're heading next? 

I was going to encourage you to, to get into the word. The scripture is where the power is. That's God's word. Okay. And, and here's the thing. I always tell people, well, I read it cover to cover, didn't do anything for me.

Got news for you, that's not how the Bible works, right? It's the living Word of God, right? I've read the Bible cover to cover 13 times now, okay? But that's not where I got. That's not where I get, I get from studying. It will come from one verse or one line in one verse. That's the living Word of God. So I want to encourage people, because you hear this often, you need to spend time in the Word.

Okay, again, people always have cliches, and they got these sayings, and they have no how tos. Okay. You need to start out very small. There's Bible in a Year apps, you know, programs you can take. Great. It's 10, 15 minutes a day. That's only part one. And once part two is go pick a verse, get it, reread what you did, pull out what was in that daily reading.

Okay, you're in Proverbs. You're in Ecclesiastes. I'm in Ecclesiastes right now. Well, what? It took me years, David, to figure out what vanity under the sun. This is all a bunch of complaining and I didn't know. I'm like, what is this? This guy's like doing this. What do you mean? It's no good. I didn't understand it.

So one day I'm reading, studying, looking at a commentary. I'm like, Oh, above the sun, eternity. Oh, focus on eternity. You still do this stuff. But it's not for that reason. So it took years to figure out that you can achieve, you can do great things. You can do all this stuff. You can have ambition, as long as it's kept in the right place.

The focus is on eternity. It's the focus on who you're serving as I do these things. As I do this, am I serving David or am I serving the Lord? Okay. All things unto the Lord, right? So the time in the word is really the studying part. It's not just reading it, you know, it's good and I've done it and it's, it's really important and, but you have to apply this.

So you have to get into it, you know, so that's kind of the, that's kind of my, the biggest suggestion I have. Because people will say it all the time, but they kind of, it's a big book, and you don't know where to begin. Oh, just open it and start reading. I mean, I, you hear it all, right? We've heard, I, I heard it for years.

And then, you know, then, then you start like understanding. I just want people to, to understand that God's word is in there and it will speak to you, but open your hands, be ready to receive. Don't go into it with a closed mind. Don't go there and judging these things and, and saying it's not, Oh, that, that was back then.

That's not now. This was cultural. It's all God is. Was, is, and forever will be. He doesn't change. Okay. It's not about being relevant. It's about being reverent, reverent to the word. You know, Noah spent 120 years building an ark. Everyone talking smack, right, about him till the rain came. So he wasn't relevant for 120 years till the rain came down.

And then he was the most relevant guy on the earth, right? Because he had the only boat. Right, they're never going to experience rain, so that kind of stuff is what I'm talking about. Be, be reverent to it, but be open to listen and let God speak to you through his word. 

[00:59:38] David Pasqualone: And that's beautiful and so powerful and true.

[00:59:46] David Pasqualone: When people are going through a hard time right now, Richard, and they're hearing you talk about this reverence and this relationship [01:00:00] with Christ,

[01:00:04] David Pasqualone: some people have been burned by people who say they're Christians. But they're not Christ like at all. Christian means to be Christ like, and there's nowhere in the Bible where they call themselves Christians, actually. It says they were first called Christians at Antioch, right? So Christians didn't, quote unquote, Christians didn't call themselves Christians.

[01:00:21] David Pasqualone: Other people call them. You are Christ like. You must be a follower of Christ. It's an honor, right? So whether people have been burned by religion or a relation, people have been burned by religion and don't know a relationship with God, or whether people have You know, been raised in a religious environment.

[01:00:43] David Pasqualone: When we read the Bible, I agree with you. If you read three verses that really ponder and think about what it means and how God's speaking to you, he's going to speak to you and you don't have to bulk read. Like I agree as a Christian, I should be reading my Bible every day because Richard, you're into fitness.

[01:01:01] David Pasqualone: You go to the gym once and you, I went to the gym today. I'm good for three months. No, you got to keep going. How long would you say if someone's not fit? And they work out consistently every day. How long would you say it takes the average person to really start turning things around? 

You'll be at the six month mark.

You'll start seeing things in three, four, six. Now you're like, Oh, you might keep going. So yeah, it's time in for sure. 

[01:01:29] David Pasqualone: Yeah. And our relationship, while your emotional relationship and spiritual relationship can change fast, those habits, those sins, those things that we've been holding on to for 47 years, You can't just say I went to the gym one time.

[01:01:45] David Pasqualone: I read my Bible today. I'm good. No, you go every day over and over again. I can say firsthand, I was just reading 1 John today. You know how many times I've read 1 John? When I first got saved, the guy had me read 1 John chapter 1. It's like a short paragraph. He had me read it every day for a week. And then the next week, he had me read 1 John chapter 1 and 2 every day for a week.

[01:02:08] David Pasqualone: And then third, so I've read 1 John so many times over and over again through my life. And even ringing it today, God speaking to me. And that's what Richard's talking about, ladies and gentlemen. It's not just a one time thing. It's forever. So, the moment of conception, boy has penis, girl has vagina, they have sex, boom, you're made.

[01:02:27] David Pasqualone: That's when a baby's made, creation's born. The moment of salvation is when, like Richard said, we submit to God and say, I fully trust you, please save me. That doesn't mean we don't have growth and development. Alright, so just keep that in mind. Reach out to Richard and I if you have any questions. And then at this point, though, Richard, anything else you want to say to tie that up?

[01:02:50] David Pasqualone: Share. If not, let's transition to where's Richard today? Where are you headed next? And how can we help you get there now that you've helped us? 

Awesome. I would just say to wrap that up is Again, just the timing of the word. One thing I do every day, David, that's kind of, it's almost odd, but it goes back to the relevancy of the Bible when people think, you know, Old Testament, that's, you know, 2000, 3000 years ago.

I said, yeah, but every day I can see something happen in the world and apply it to a story in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament. You know, I think about King David, okay, again, I'm going back to my warrior mindset. But the things they did, you know, like you're going to take on saying, I'm like, well, David, like killed a lion with his bare hands.

And if they hadn't killed a bear, that's a bad lad. Okay. You might think you're a Navy SEAL or something. You ain't going down to a snow covered pit to kill a lion. Okay, like some of these guys. You don't have a sword and you're killing 700 people at one time, and the sword is frozen in your hand. You know, you're battling for the Lord.

Okay, because that's what they were doing, right? The whole thing into the promised land with Joshua and everything else. So, I just want to encourage people that there's so much richness in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, that when you have the right approach to this thing, you're looking for these things and listening and understand what you're reading, that it comes to life today.

in your life. That's what's so amazing. That's why it's the living word of God, you know, we're able to learn from it. So continue to stay in that and do that. It's a, It's a game changer for sure. 

[01:04:27] David Pasqualone: Yeah, and I agree. There's not one, not one contradiction in the Bible I've ever found. There's not one mistake.

[01:04:36] David Pasqualone: There's not one part that doesn't apply today that applied when it was written. It was written over hundreds of years, I think over 40 different authors from four, from different countries, spoke different languages. There's no way. They could have coordinated this effort. They didn't have the internet.

[01:04:54] David Pasqualone: They didn't even have telephones. They didn't even have carrier pigeons that could fly that far. So this is the inspired word of God [01:05:00] without flaw. You can trust it completely. And when you're reading your Bible, it's giving you applicable advice for your moment in life. Right now. It's not stuff that's past.

[01:05:12] David Pasqualone: And if you start reading your Bible and give it a chance, I love people no, I love, I do love people, but I hate when people, it breaks my heart when people make fun of the Bible and how false it is and how it's like like sci fi. It's all mystery. And yet they believe in evolution. Evolution by its own standards makes no sense.

[01:05:33] David Pasqualone: There's no proof of evolution. There's no common sense in evolution. If you want to believe in aliens, if you want to believe in anything, God gives you free will to believe what you want. But when someone comes to me and says, follow the science, Dude, there's no science in evolution. There's no common sense in evolution.

[01:05:52] David Pasqualone: And when people read the Bible, don't read the Bible, but make fun of it, I challenge you to start reading it. Start in John, just start reading and ask God, say, God, if you're real, show me yourself and see what happens. But I know God's never failed me, forsaken me, and there's not one lie in there. Richard, have you ever found one mistake in the Bible?

No, it's the inerrant word of God. A friend of mine, we're having a discussion one morning, I think it was New Year's Day. He's talking about the Bible. It's just stories. It's just a bunch of stories. He goes, he goes, really, do you think some guy could be swallowed by a fish and like staying in it for three days?

And I said, so let me ask you, do you believe God created the heavens and the earth? He goes, well, yeah. He goes, so wouldn't you think putting a dude in the fish for three days would be light work for him? And he just like, just saying, dude, what do you actually believe? How big of a God do you serve? How small of a God do you serve?

You know, like, I mean, if he, if you actually believe he made all of this to drop a dude inside a fish for three days and spin them up on the shore is not a big effort. Okay. So it's just sometimes you got to look at things very logically, very rudimentary. Like, yeah, well, if he did this, you know, where do you begin?

Where do you end? Where do you start at? And like you said, the evolution thing is all, that can't stand up for like five seconds on its own. It's worse than a three month old trying to walk and not having it. Right. And it's 

[01:07:16] David Pasqualone: just, it's like when people believe. They're just trying to believe something or they want to believe nothing.

[01:07:21] David Pasqualone: So they're not held accountable, but I mean it. If that's saying, I don't know, is acceptable saying you believe something else you have that free will, but to present a trash flawed science fiction. As science, that's just stupid. That's just retarded. Something comes from nothing. It breaks its own concept.

[01:07:47] David Pasqualone: So anyways, we'll move past that because even Darwin on his deathbed renounced his own work and his wife and friend quote unquote forced it to keep because they wanted money and the lie. But Going back to what matters is God and people and Richard, you helped us. How can we help you? Where are you today?

[01:08:07] David Pasqualone: And where are you headed next? My friend. 

So Sharpen the Spirit Coaching is my coaching business. My movement, I've kind of created a movement within my own business here is to help 10, 000 business owners create freedom, profit, and impact in their business, right? So I have a book I wrote called Escape the Owner Prison.

And what that is, David, is people start a business. They work really hard for the first two years which you have to be wearing all the hats, doing all the work, selling and doing all that stuff. But then next thing you know, 10 years goes by and they've repeated the first two years five times. They're trapped.

They don't have freedom. They're not making a lot of money. They're making some, and they're definitely don't have any impact. Okay. And the impact's really, really key. So what my, what I've seen, I've seen the patterns. These are very, very common patterns for most businesses. That especially that I work with, I want to give them that freedom, the freedom to be with their families.

Like I did, I didn't have that freedom. I was great. I was awesome. I was winning awards. I was on committees. I was doing all this cool stuff, but I had no freedom. All that was before my family. Okay. That's not freedom. If I didn't unlock the door on the day the business didn't start, no matter how much money you're making.

So I want to give them the freedom first. And then from there, the profit, because when they do that, it's about systemizing their business and making it all run right. They get to do what I call the five F's. If you're familiar with those as faith, family, finances, fitness, and friendships. When people talk about work life balance, David, that's what balance is being able to focus on those.

And that's in the right order. It's faith. It's family inside your family. It's you and your spouse first, then the kids, right? Finances. You got to focus on that because anything you don't pay attention to tends to go away and that's relationships. That's money, things like that. Fitness got to be fit. You got to be healthy, right?

You got to, you need the energy to make all this stuff happen. And then friendships. You [01:10:00] know, cultivating true friendships, not just acquaintances, right? So we want to do that. So, so I want to give business owners that that's what I do, right? Then the impact is once you've got the first two dialed in, you have freedom, you have profit, now you can make impact now is I train my people who work for me, not just to be competent in what they do, but to be better people.

They take that home to their families, their families are in the communities. So now if I help 10, 000 business owners, I'm actually affecting millions of people. Because of who all they come in contact with. They're the living example. It's like, it's like the walk with crutched, right? We talked about it.

You, you can go up and knock on a door and say, do you know Jesus and all that? I get it. There's a way of that. You want to really know how to witness? Live it. Just have people feel the, the Spirit of God in you. The Holy Spirit is in you. Live it. Walk it. Be righteous. Be holy. You know, understand, spend time in the Word.

That will draw people to you. That's what started my journey back to Christ, was someone's example of how they lived. You have to live it. So we go deep. Let God handle the breath. You go deep. God will handle the breath. He'll bring people to you and they'll say, well, why are you like that? There's the open door.

Now you can talk, right? Same thing in business. If I can get them to fix their business, then work on the five F's. They become a role model, a witness, right? And that faith is number one, it's strong to be able to share that, right? And people will listen because you've lived by example. No one cares. I say this about my kids all the time.

I could tell them all the right things, but more is caught than taught. They'll only default to what I did, not what I said. So you jump ahead 30 years, maybe I'm not even around anymore. My kids will default to what I did. So, when they see me every morning, they get up at 5 o'clock to go to work and stuff, still to this day, I'm in my chair, I'm, I'm studying the Bible, I'm doing the holy, they see every day, every day seeing that, that's caught, that's, I've been dedicated to that right for the last eight years, nine years, right?

They've seen all that, something wrong with that. So I just want people to understand that, that impact that you can make is about you living it. It's about action taking. It's about doing it. Just like we talked about before, imperfect action, you're never going to be perfect. And it's not, we, we, we look towards perfection, but we're never going to have that until we join the Lord.

When we're all said and done here, right? And I just want everyone to be able to join the Lord. Because remember that's a narrow gate. That's a real narrow gate and it's narrow for a reason. So just like the extra five versions into oil, it's the same thing. I said, I want one thing, David. People ask me, like, what's your legacy?

Yeah, it's my kids. It's not business. It's my kids. But the only thing I want is when I stand before the Lord, I just want to hear the one sentence. Well done, good and faithful servant. Like that's all I want. That's the most meaningful thing to me ever. When Christ came up, when John baptized and God said, this is my son with whom I'm well pleased.

That is like. That's the greatest, you know, there's nothing else that you could ask for. There's nothing that could top that. Nothing in this world, nothing. It's just so my movement to help these people, I want them to be able to understand that and have that be part of what they want to do. Cause that's what we all want.

Really. You know, let's please our maker, the God who created us, who put me, put us here for a purpose, for a time such as this. I'm here for a time such as this. I am finally, I'm 52 years old. Eight years old, I'm finally doing what I've been called to do. It's like, it took all that time to prepare me to be fulfilling this and helping these people.

And it's amazing. It's the most rewarding thing I've done in my whole life. You know, next again, raising my kids. So yeah, that's where I'm going with it. So if I can help people do that, if you're in business, right, you're in business, two years, five years, whatever it is, you're struggling, you're stuck.

You can just sharpen and spare coaching. com go to that. Set up a discovery call, drop me an email, whatever you want to do. That would work. Awesome. Could I give your listeners, could I give your listeners a gift? 

[01:14:25] David Pasqualone: Absolutely. And we'll put links in the show notes to your website and social media and this gift, whatever you want.

Awesome. Here's what I'm going to do. Go to sharpenerspiritcoaching. com, go to my contact page, send me a one sentence email. And said, I saw you on David's show, Remarkable People Podcast. I'd love to get a free copy of the audio version of Escape the Oedipus and I'll send it to you just to listen to this show.

[01:14:54] David Pasqualone: Awesome. Well, thank you. So ladies and gentlemen, where do they go again, Richard, to do that? [01:15:00] 

SharpenTheSpiritCoaching. com. 

[01:15:02] David Pasqualone: All right. So go to SharpenTheSpiritCoaching. com. Go ahead and go to the contact us page and form. I take it, put saw you on the Remarkable People Podcast. We'd love your free audio book.

[01:15:13] David Pasqualone: Thank you. Whatever else you want to say to Richard, you know, I'll send that to you. So thank you, Richard. That's a huge blessing. 

You bet. You bet. They'll love it. 

[01:15:21] David Pasqualone: All right, well, before we wrap up this episode, is there anything else, Richard, that God has in your heart or anything else that we forgot to mention before we wrap things up for today?

You know, we talked about resilience and stuff a lot, and it's kind of one of the points you wanted to hit, kind of showing that. So let me leave you with my favorite quote. I learned it about 25 years ago. As I'm going to credit a guy named Steve Ilg. He wrote The Outdoor Athlete. Don't know if it was actually him, but there was no credits for the thing he had.

He had written this, so I'm giving it to him. And here it is. Dedication to a goal that never wavers. Resolution. This is the basic principle in the life of every truly great character. He who resolves upon any great and good end has by that very resolution, clothed himself in power and has scaled the chief barrier to it.

I just love that. It's just, you got to stay in the game. If you're breathing, you're in the fight, you know, whatever that is in your life. That's the one you should take away, man. Like there's no, we don't quit. The only thing worse than losing is quitting. You may have heard that saying before, but, but just you don't do it.

Don't give it up. Don't give up on the Lord, especially, you know, all this stuff is there for you. Just give your burdens to him, cast those burdens on him and understand that peace that surpasses all understanding. I didn't know what that was forever and now I know what it means and it's incredible and you get it.

You get to experience it, man. Again, there's that date. It's awesome. 

[01:16:54] David Pasqualone: Amen. Well, ladies and gentlemen, you know, the slogan for the Remarkable People Podcast is Listen. Do. Repeat. For Life!. Don't just listen to great content Richard shared with you. Do it. Repeat the good each day so you can have a remarkable life, not just on this earth, but more importantly, in eternity to come.

[01:17:13] David Pasqualone: So I'm David Pasqualone. This is our remarkable friend, Richard Walsh. Richard, thank you again for being here today, brother. It 

was awesome. I really appreciate the time, David. What an honor. 

[01:17:24] David Pasqualone: Yes, yes, absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, we love you. Talk to Richard, talk to myself, especially about salvation. If you need some help understanding being, you know, just helping start the process, like someone helped me.

[01:17:36] David Pasqualone: Sure. Someone helped Richard. If we can help you, let us know. Also share this with your friends and family, not because we're trying to be big and famous, but because we want to help as many people as we can. And then you have a great day. We'll see you in the next episode.

[01:17:50] Thanks for Watching!: The Remarkable People Podcast. Check it out.

[01:18:02] Thanks for Watching!: The Remarkable People Podcast. Listen. Do. Repeat. For Life!.

[01:18:16] Thanks for Watching!: The Remarkable People Podcast.