The Unopened Present: Richard Battle on Grief, Faith & American Legacy (Inspirational)

In this deeply inspirational episode, Reginald D sits down with award-winning author, speaker, and leadership expert Richard Battle for a powerful conversation about grief, losing a child, faith in God, fatherhood, purpose, legacy, resilience, and finding meaning after unimaginable loss.

Richard discusses his latest book, AmeriCANS Who Made America: 19th Century – Growth, Division and Reunification, exploring the people, choices, leadership, division, and reunification that helped shape America—and what their stories can teach us about the legacy we're creating today. 

Richard also discusses his book: The Unopened Present. 

What would you want your child to know about faith, life, and purpose if tomorrow you were no longer here to teach them?

That question comes directly from the heart of Richard's story. At 45, after becoming a father, he worried he might not live long enough to teach his son life's most important lessons, so he wrote him a letter containing 43 lessons. Tragically, his son died three months later at only nine months old and never got to receive that gift.

What happens when the life lessons you intended to leave your child become the very lessons that help you survive losing him?

Richard became a father at 45. Concerned that he might not live long enough to teach his six-month-old son, John, everything he wanted him to know, Richard wrote him a letter containing 43 Christian and life lessons. Three months later, tragedy struck when John unexpectedly passed away. His son would never get to open the gift his father had prepared for him. 

That devastating loss eventually became the foundation for Richard's book The Unopened Present—a deeply personal work about a father's love, grief, faith, and the lessons we leave behind.

Richard opens up about the unbearable reality of grieving the loss of a child and how his Christian faith was transformed from something theoretical into something he had to actually live. He explains how Scripture, journaling, serving others, and his relationship with God helped him survive some of the darkest moments of his life. 

One of the most powerful moments comes when Richard explains that he doesn't grieve where his son is—he grieves where his son isn't. His faith gives him confidence that John is with Jesus and that they will one day be reunited. 

If you're experiencing grief, questioning God after loss, trying to find purpose in pain, thinking about the legacy you're leaving your children, or simply searching for an inspirational story that can strengthen your faith and motivation, this episode offers hope without pretending grief is easy.

For listeners dealing with loss, Richard offers an especially powerful perspective: instead of remaining indefinitely trapped by “Why me?”, begin asking “What now?”—what can you learn, how can you move forward, and how might what you've experienced eventually help someone else? 

Press play now and hear Richard Battle's inspirational story of unimaginable loss, enduring faith, and the 43 life lessons that transformed one father's unopened gift into a legacy for generations

Richard Battle's Contact Information

New Book: AmeriCANS Who Made America: 20th Century – The American Century

Book: The Unopened Present

Richards books can be purchased on his website or Amazon

Website: https://www.richardbattle.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richard.battle.359

 X: @richardvbattle 

Transcript

Speaker 2 0:04

Welcome to Real Talk With Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D. Today's guest is an award-winner author, speaker, and leadership expert, Richard Battle. Richard has authored 12 books and spent decades helping people grow up through leadership, personal development, faith and life lessons. But most personal and heartfelt work is the unopened present, a book born from both profound love and unimaginable loss. Richard joins us to talk about faith, grief, legacy, fatherhood, purpose, and the lessons we leave behind. Welcome to the show, Richard.

Speaker 3 0:40

Reginald, thank you so much for having us with you. It's our pleasure.

Speaker 2 0:43

Yes, sir. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you. So, Richard, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood and where you grew up?

Speaker 3 0:51

Well, I grew up northeast of Dallas, Texas, in a suburb there that was a small town then but a thriving city of a couple hundred thousand people now, and have lived the last several years down in Austin and just west of Austin, Texas.

Speaker 2 1:06

Yes, sir. So are you a Cowboy fan?

Speaker 3 1:09

Well, I have been my whole life, although the NFL is I'm not as thrilled with them as I used to be. So I'm more of a college football fan these days.

Speaker 2 1:20

Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, Richard, I'm gonna start out. I think I'm gonna go to your new book first. Americans Who Made America 19th Century Growth, Division, and Reunification. Can you tell us about your new book?

Speaker 3 1:37

Yes, and it is an inspired series back about when we were in COVID. I got sick and tired of hearing our media, our politicians and leaders disparage our country and talk about how bad our country is and talk about how our children could not have lives as good as we've had them when we have it in our hands for both of those things. And I got to thinking, and all of a sudden I realized what's really made our country succeed over these last 250 years are people of all kinds who had what I call that American do spirit. And they saw a need and they went out and took care of it. They didn't wait around for somebody to tell them it was okay or government or something. They took care of each other, they helped each other, they had a goal, they chased it. And so I wrote a book called Made in America by Americans, not Americans, first. And through some interviews like this, we ended up coming up to decide to write profile those individuals. And this volume is the second of the three profile books. The first one covered the 18th century. This covers the 19th century, and the 20th century volume will be out in July of 26, where I profile people from an 11-year-old boy to older people to men, women, all races, all faiths, uh, all types of people, because it took all of us with our American Do spirit to build this country. And I wanted to highlight those positives to inspire, especially young people, that they can achieve their dreams in the American dream.

Speaker 2 3:23

Yeah, absolutely. And that's very critical, you know, because like you said, we're living a time now where everything is saying everything, and people don't know what to believe or what not to believe, and things like that. And like you mentioned, COVID, it came to a point. I'm like, what do I do? You know, I I think stop living life, you know, because what you hear and what you see and things like that, you just have to move on.

Speaker 3 3:46

Well, that's exactly true, and that's why I think it's so important and it's so discouraging. The news is discouraging. There are so many negative messages we hear. People try to compare themselves to other people, and that's discouraging because there's always somebody better looking with more money or something that we don't have. And so I tell people the only comparison that counts is am I better today than yesterday? And what can I do today to make me better tomorrow? And when I do that, it's a much more positive message and it's more encouraging to try to go out and do the things to be better tomorrow than comparing myself to other people who I can't do anything about them.

Speaker 2 4:27

Yes, and I'll tell you, when you have vision, working forwards something, it changes a person's perspective on life. You know, being better tomorrow, man, that's a easy, well, a simple step, but you know, it's one of the steps that hey, just a little bit, just do a little bit better tomorrow than you did today. Reflect on the day, you know, what may I have done better today, and then do it tomorrow. So that's a positive note. So one of your books, The Unopened Present, is a powerful book born from both profound love and unimaginable loss. Richard, take us back to becoming a father at 45 years old. What did that moment mean to you?

Speaker 3 5:10

Well, and uh the story of the unopened present is about 24 years long. And that's one of the amazing things because again, it's inspired, and uh I had no ambition of writing any books at all. I tell people my English teachers in high school never dreamed I'd read a book, and I never dreamed I'd write one. And I did one and I never dreamed I'd do another one, and it took 14 years for the second one. And so when I became a father at 45, I was concerned that I might not. And first, my son was the first child with my surname and my family born in 28 years. So our family was ecstatic to say the least. And but one day I was concerned when he was about six months old that I wouldn't live long enough to teach him life's important lessons. And so I wrote him a letter in case I didn't survive and outlined 43 of those lessons for him to learn. He was six months old. Unfortunately, he passed three months later. And he never got to see the present of the letter and learn from that. Uh, and it was a crushing blow, despite my faith, because it made me turn from a theoretical Christian to an experiential Christian, if you will, because I had to live through those emotions like we see so many of the biblical examples do. And my way of surviving the grief was to read everything I could get my hands on about loss of a child, read and study scripture, and then journal. And about five months after my loss, we had a couple in church that lost a son, and I shared some of the things I had written in a journal, and they said, you should publish this and share it with others because it'll help them. And so what I did in 2002 was we put out the book Surviving Grief by God's Grace. And this was a grief book. And I included the letter uh in there, and that letter, you know, in parenting, when we parent, a lot of times it's reactionary. And the kid does something, we react. And so the letter was much more strategic and forward thinking of things I wanted to make sure he learned, not just react and teach. And so we put that in the grief book. We went on, and for 20 years, we didn't really do anything with that letter. And four years ago in June of 2022, I was doing several Father's Day interviews on radio stations and podcasts around the country. There was one that was four minutes long. And this show in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the segments are always four minutes long, and you understand what that means. And so I had to do it at 7:37 in the morning, and I dropped my truck off at a Ford dealership at seven and found the sales lounge where nobody was to do this four-minute interview. And while I was talking, I heard the door open and somebody walked behind me, but I didn't know who it was. And I'm driving my truck home, hour-long drive, halfway back, the phone rings. I don't answer it, but at the stoplight, I look and it's a message from the dealership. And the natural thought is, well, they messed my truck up. I got to go back and they got to fix something. So I called and this guy said, Were you the person talking in the sales lounge a few minutes ago? He didn't know I was on a radio interview. And I said, Yes, I was. And he said, Well, I just wanted to call and say thank you. Last night I prayed to God all night long that he would send somebody to say something that would comfort me. I was in so much pain and distress. And I think he sent you. I lost my daughter two months ago. Wow. And I was, every time I retell that, I'm humbled and get goosebumps because thinking what it took for God to bring together all of those different pieces and for me to say something that helped him, like other people helped me, was very humbling. And when I talked to a friend and who knew my son, told him about it, he said, you should take that letter and tell that story that was a God moment and put it into a book. And so that's what we put in the unopened present. And the reason I call it the unopened present is my son never got to open the present, but the readers can't. And so this has been very popular with parents, helping them think about things they want to make sure to teach their kids. It's an easy-to-read volume. Young adults can read it, you know, middle school and up. That's very simple. And we put scripture in there, and then we have some examples of the different lessons as well, in the hope that it will help others. And I'm a big believer in Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. quote that says, a mind stretched by a new idea can never return to its previous place. And so we never know when that one idea may change somebody's life. And so when we share, in this case, 43 ideas, we hope that each person finds at least one of them that makes a major change in their lives.

Speaker 2 10:31

Yeah, and that was so divine to be at the dealership doing that. Yes. And somebody heard it. That was so divine. That was none of the God, man.

Speaker 3 10:42

The people in Iowa didn't know somebody in Texas heard half of the interview. So, I mean, there were so many pieces to bring all of those things together at one time that I reflect some of those in the book as well. And it just it's another example to me of how God is involved even with the small things in our lives. A lot of times it's easy for us to think that he only cares about the big things, but he's involved with the small things if we're there and listen for him.

Speaker 2 11:13

Yeah, that's so correct. So Richard, I've heard a woman say this, an older lady one day. I was talking to her, she said, I lost a mother, I lost my father, I lost my brother, I lost my husband. She said, I lost my child. And she said the biggest pain she ever felt out of all of it was a child. So let me ask you this. Losing the child is one of life's deepest pains. How did John's passing change you as a man, father, and person of faith?

Speaker 3 11:48

Well, I think that's a great question, and I would agree. And I would add the caveat that I don't claim to have suffered more than other people. I had a guy I served in the State Guard with who lost three children in one night in a house fire. And I can't even imagine that. But I I hope I never experienced the pain of that loss, even being a believer and knowing that he was in heaven, the pain was unbearable at times. And I tell people I don't grieve where my son is, I grieve where he isn't, because he's not here with me, but he's safe in Jesus' arms in heaven, and I will see him again. And that helps me. One of the other lessons that helped me as well is when I thought about myself, I felt pain. When I thought about helping others through the situation, I did not feel as much pain. And that helped me and it encouraged me to spend more time focused on others than myself.

Speaker 2 12:47

Yeah, so was there a moment where the things you wrote down or you were going to teach your son, was there things that God actually taught you to do that?

Speaker 3 12:56

Well, I think so. And writing the letter because it it caused me to sit and think, what are the things I want to make sure he learns? Again, from a strategic standpoint. And even if I'm not here, I want to make sure his mother or somebody teaches him these types of things. And I think those lessons were inspired and they were positive. They were very broad in nature. I tried to think of as many as I could. Somebody asked me once, well, why were there 43? And all I could say was, Well, that's all I could think of at the time. So I'm sure there should have been more, but I didn't think of them at the time I wrote the letter.

Speaker 2 13:35

Yeah. So, Richard, many people believe they have more time to say what matters. What has this experience taught you about telling people you love them while you still can?

Speaker 3 13:46

Well, I think that's important for us to cherish the moments. And I'm better than I was, but I'm not as good as I should be, or wish I were probably in doing things like that. I think guys especially are distracted with trying to make livings for families, for example, and doing things that we need for our families. So it's easy to not spend as much time. I think ladies are much better than we are in the interpersonal relationships and things. They're smarter than we are in some of that, but I'm better than I was. I'm more intuitive. When I was in the corporate world, I was pretty much focused on achieving the goals that were set. And again, that goes back to a male thing. But since I left the corporate world, I'm much more in tune. And especially early in the morning, late at night, I try to reflect on the things. And every day, it's amazing to me how often I'll see things God did that I didn't plan for the day, but they occurred, and I can see his hand in it. And I look back on my life, every success has his hand in it. Every shortcoming or failure, he's not there. It's all me.

Speaker 2 15:03

Yeah, that's it. That's it. I mean, yeah, because you know, it's all about choices, right? Sometimes I always tell people, but that's the biggest thing that you have in life is a choice.

Speaker 3 15:15

You know, I'd like to share an example if I might here, because you introduced the book earlier, but on the the book Americans Who Made America, one of the profiles I do is Sam Houston, which he was the George Washington of Texas. And most people outside Texas don't know much about him, but he was the only person to be governor of two states. And he had a chance to be president of the United States. And I speak about him in leadership presentations because he was a great leader. But the story that I discovered researching this volume is one about choices. And when he was 19 years old, he was going to the War of 1812 with Andrew Jackson. His mother, Elizabeth, took him out on the back porch to say goodbye. And she said, Sam, if you show courage, you'll always be welcome home. But if you show cowardice, never darken my door again. But then she did something very unusual in encouraging choice. She gave him a small gold ring on the inside of it, so only he could see was the single word honor. I didn't learn about it again until a couple of years ago. Sam Houston wore that ring for the next 50 years, every day of his life. He died with it on his finger. It's at the museum outside of Houston, Texas today, but they don't even tell what I believe the impact is because I visualize him when he was going through as do I attack the Mexican Army tomorrow to win independence? Do I run for president of the Republic? Do I run for governor? Do we secede from the Union for the Civil War? I envision him making every big decision in his life, twisting that ring, and his mother's voice in his ear saying, honor. Honor. Honor. I think it affected every decision, especially important decisions he ever made. Well, his mother died in 1831, five years before Texas won independence. She had no way of knowing the influence of that ring on him. And it shows what we as parents and grandparents, the opportunity we have to touch our young people and help them for beyond our lifetimes.

Speaker 2 17:31

Yeah, that was good, man. That was good. Yeah. I read about them a little bit, but I didn't know about the ring part.

Speaker 3 17:38

I didn't learn about it. Here I'm a Texan. I didn't learn about it till I was researching this book, and it ought to be taught to kids when they learn Texas history.

Speaker 2 17:47

Absolutely. So Richard, you have 43 life lessons you wrote. What are the three most important lessons you think every parent should teach their child?

Speaker 3 17:59

Well, the first lesson was God exist, have faith, pray, listen. So that would to me, that's the most important one for all of us. And to me, the most important question in life is out of Matthew 16, 15, where Jesus asked Peter, Who do you say that I am? The most important question we answer in life is our answer of who Jesus is. Yes. So that to me is heads and shoulders above everything else. The next one was telling him he was responsible for taking care of his mother. And so I think that's something we need to make sure our children know their responsibilities to their families, which is so important. And most of the other ones were having to do with behavior and treating other people. Nobody's better. You're not better than me. I'm not better than you. We're all equal here. We all deserve to be treated the way we want to be treated. Things like that that are common sense, but you want to make sure they're taught proactively versus again reactionary or reactively to things.

Speaker 19:05

Yes.

Speaker 2 19:06

So let me ask you this, Richard. How can parents leave a meaningful legacy that lasts beyond their lifetime?

Speaker 3 19:14

Well, I think that's a great question. And when I speak, and I'll tell another story here, if I may, uh, that I wrote about as well. Part of my speech, just about every speech I'll give, I'll tell people, I'll guarantee you before you leave, you will know that you will impact 100 years from a day and beyond. And I believe that. So when I was a little kid, my mother would point out a table that was at my grandmother's house, and she would tell me about my great-great-grandmother serving milk and cookies on this table to my great-grandmother. And my great-grandmother lived till I was nine years old, so I had a relationship with her. But as I tell people, I was a good Texas boy, and 100% of that statement went in this ear, and 99.9% came out this side, but this one little nugget stuck. And so when my mother passed, I was going through things, and I found a picture of my great-grandmother when she was that teenager. And then I found this little booklet. And back when my great-grandmother was a child, they would have autograph books. So when friends came over, they would sign autographs, oh, you're such a cool kid, and things like that. And I looked in there, and the autographs were from 1884. And all of a sudden, one day I got to thinking that long before the term influencer came about, my great-great-grandmother was an influencer because when she was serving milk and cookies to those kids, guess what else she was dishing out? She was dishing out life lessons, even though they didn't know it. So she trained my great-grandmother, who trained my grandmother, my mother, me, my daughter. So six generations have been trained, if you will, on that table. And I'll tell people in the audience that you may or may not have a physical manifestation like a table that represents that, but I guarantee you every family's the same way. Think about the things that you learn from your parents or grandparents, and then you think, where'd they get it? Well, they got it from their parents and grandparents. And so the things we do today, we may not get the positive feedback we're looking for when we do it, but we're putting things into our kids and grandkids that they're going to use long beyond our lifetime, and that will be our impact on them minimum.

Speaker 2 21:31

Yes, because that's the way I am, that's the way I feel about my grandfather. You know, he taught me life lessons. I should stay with them in the summertime when I was out of school and things like that, because for a single parent house. So mom was working, so I get a chance, I go to grandfather's house, grandmother's house. My grandfather was a leader in the community and all that kind of stuff, but he taught me life lessons. And I'm fifty four years old now, and uh as a kid, he taught me that and it carry it's still carrying. You know, success. Is Karen because he said, Hey, do it this way, do it that way. Do it. I mean, it's it's crazy, but life lessons is the most important thing, I believe, Richard, that will get you to the next level.

Speaker 3 22:11

I'll tell people if experience is the best teacher in hindsight's 2020, then why do the people that have neither not listen to the people that have both? Right. Right. So and if we can get them listening, it could help them and add to our impact and influence. And that's what's so crucial. We get so sidetracked with materialism, monetary, uh things of this nature, uh all kinds of diversions that take us away from the opportunity.

Speaker 1 22:40

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2 22:43

So, Richard, when tragedy struggles, many people struggle with faith. What would you say to someone who is angry at God or question their faith because of loss?

Speaker 3 22:54

Well, and I don't begrudge anybody doing the questioning. What I discovered for me, and I share it hoping that other people can as well, the typical response when we have adversity or tragedy is the two-word expression, why me. And I do this with a little chart when I speak. And to me, why me looks into the past. And it's easy, and we all know people who've been trapped in the past where they never get over the why me question. And why me signifies, well, I don't deserve this. Why my suffering? Well, we're all going to suffer in life at some time. I also believe God is not there. I believe God's in the present and the future. He's already left the past. And so to me, the important question to ask is, what now? What am I supposed to learn so that I can live a better life? And what am I supposed to learn so I can help others? And I believe with every adversity or tragedy, there's at least one lesson to learn. And I want to have one adversity tragedy, one lesson. I don't want to have to have two adversity tragedies to learn that one lesson. And I believe God is in the present and future to help us to learn those. And that's a positive-looking place where we're looking to move forward and to help others. And so we're able to serve with that positive attitude and response. Now, I believe it's a transition sometimes that people have to make, but I've seen too many people get trapped and they never get over the why me. And you can't do anything positive with a negative attitude.

Speaker 2 24:35

That's it. You can't. You have to move. You have to do something, you have to move forward. You have to rise above it. That's what I call. You got to rise above it, or you're going to stay stuck. And that's a miserable place to be for years and years of your life. Because you got people connected to you too, at the end of the day, and it's C you, you're not performing like you should be, and everybody's just dragging, you just dragging everybody along with you.

Speaker 3 24:58

Yes, absolutely. And that's the thing. We lose all our impact and influence when we're stuck and we're lost, basically.

Speaker 25:06

Yes, yes.

Speaker 2 25:08

So, Richard, I have what I call quick fire questions. Bonus round. Yeah, bonus round, right? No right and wrong answers. Just your view on it, right? The first one. What's one life lesson every child should learn about adulthood?

Speaker 3 25:27

Wow, that's interesting. There's plenty of great answers. One I would say is don't rush it. I've got a 27-year-old daughter, and when she was younger, she'd be rushing it. Now she's experiencing adulthood and she wishes she weren't. And so too many kids, I think, try to rush into it without enjoying all of the childhood and all the adolescence. There's plenty of time for the adult situation. Thankfully, unlike our parents, we're not forced into it as early for the most part with the depression or war or things of that nature. So we need to take advantage of each season.

Speaker 2 26:05

Yes. Yeah, I remember, man, when I was what, I think high school or middle school. So I'm like, man, I can't wait until I get older and I can get out of the house and do it my way. Yeah. Yeah. When it happened, I was like, whoa. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So what's one thing grief taught you that success never could?

Speaker 3 26:25

Overcoming the depth of adversity is a is something you don't experience in success. Success can breed pride, which is harmful. And, you know, in the scripture where it talks about growing, being able to run not or walk and not grow faint in Isaiah 40, 31, I never understood what the walk and not grow faint meant. I understood what the run and everything did, but understanding when you're paralyzed and just being able to walk, being able to do something breath by breath and minute by minute, people always talk about we'll just take care of it day by day. Well, when you're in deep grief, a day is a long, long time. And every breath, when you're in the deepest grief, every breath is painful. And so it takes time to overcome all of that.

Speaker 1 27:19

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 27:20

Absolutely. So when life doesn't make sense, what's the one truth you hold on to?

Speaker 3 27:27

Well, I grab the scripture and look for the answer because generally there's usually an example of that situation somewhere if you look for it.

Speaker 2 27:38

Yep. It's in there.

Speaker 3 27:40

It's in there. When I read about somebody else that went through it, and usually the answer is Jesus, whatever the question is.

Speaker 2 27:47

Yep, absolutely. So, Richard, do you believe grief ever ends, or do you simply learn how to carry it?

Speaker 3 27:55

Well, like I mentioned, I don't grieve where my son is, I grieve where he isn't right now. So I believe in our heart we have a position for different people in our lives. And so when he passed, I've got a hole, if you will, in my heart that that piece of love I can't give to anybody else, and I can't give it to him physically here. But over time we're able to work through that and work around it and live our lives. I had dinner with a friend after my son's loss, and one of the things he told me when I didn't have hope at that time, and here I was a believer, but I didn't really have a hope where I wanted to really go and live. And he said, one of these days, you're gonna have a day where you enjoy it and you're going to feel guilty because you're not grieving like you have been. And he was correct. And so, but once I had that day, then I realized I can enjoy life here and still have him in my heart.

Speaker 2 29:01

Yes. Yes. So we talked about life lessons a minute ago. So what is one life lesson that you would give to the listeners? And what will it be?

Speaker 3 29:14

Wow, so many opportunities there. To me, I've learned that again, for everything I've done well, credit God, for the rest, me. And so I try every day to do something positive that reflects and serves him. And I pray to serve him and become the person he wants me to be. But I also realize that we're just preparing here for eternity. And so I asked to be prepared for the service in eternity that I'm going to be asked to do as well. And I think that's something important. And again, we lose focus and we think about just this life and this moment, but we're eternal souls. And so all of this is a warm-up for that long period.

Speaker 2 30:02

So let's talk about this. If every parent listening today sat down tonight and wrote a letter to their child sharing the most important lesson they've learned in life, what is the very first thing you believe they should write?

Speaker 3 30:18

Well, and we mentioned that a minute ago, and that was God exists, have faith, pray, listen. Getting a child on a spiritual path is a father's responsibility. I'll tell people that my mother and her mother were the ones that gave me spiritual direction more so than my dad did, even though he was a great dad and I loved him, giving spiritual direction, he had not been raised with spiritual direction, and so he didn't do it. But we as fathers have that responsibility to ensure our children are given that spiritual background and upbringing, and that's the best thing we can do for them.

Speaker 2 30:56

Man, you hit it right on the head. I tell people being a father and a leader in your house, it starts with God first, teaching God first to your family, you know, then the respect, the hard work, it all comes, you know, back to back, but God first. And you're gonna make sure family's over everything at the end of the day.

Speaker 3 31:18

Yes. Yes, and it's tough enough, even if that's the case.

Speaker 2 31:22

Yes, yes. So lastly, Richard, how can the listers follow your journey on social media and purchase your books?

Speaker 3 31:29

Well, I appreciate you asking that. My website is RichardBattle.com. All soon-to-be 13 books are there. Everything ordered there is signed. And if someone wants an inscription for gifts, etc., we're happy to do that. If they email me, Richard @ RichardBattle.com. Our X account is @ Richard V battle. And so we're on social media as well. And Amazon has all the books, including eight versions on audio and eleven on Kindle at this point.

Speaker 2 32:00

 Okay. Got it. Richard Battle. Man, I enjoyed the insight today. Been my pleasure, Reginald.

Speaker 2 32:01 Speaker 2 32:00

Alright. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Real Talk Reginald D. If you enjoy listening to Real Talk with Reginald D., please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. See you next time.