Nunn Better Podcast EP 6 Kelly & Bob Easterling - Swat, K.O.'s, & Jesus

In this episode, we sit down with Bobby “Bob” Sterling — a man with a story you don’t hear every day.

From full-contact karate and kickboxing titles to undercover narcotics and SWAT, Bobby lived for the rush… until he realized the “void” inside him could only be filled by Jesus Christ.

We get into:

• The underground fight era (and how it really worked)
• The undercover moment where he had to think fast to stay alive
• What cops don’t say out loud about stress, trauma, and survival
• The turning point that led him to faith
• Why he’s launching a kickboxing ministry for kids (self-defense + Bible study + discipline)

If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like when someone goes from adrenaline addiction to purpose, this one’s for you.

Guest: Bobby Sterling

Ministry info: Saint Pete Vineyard — 5000 10th St N, St. Petersburg, FL

Website: www.stpetevineyard.org

Phone: 727-804-6345

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, this is Kelly from the None Better Podcast. This week we're talking to Bob, who is a statewide champion in kickboxing as well as an ex-member of SWAT in law enforcement. We're going to be talking about his journey not only with faith, but how it changed and saved his life. Let's dive in. Today's guest we have is Bob, was it Easterling? I want to make sure I didn't want to butcher it. I'm terrible at butchering names here a little bit. But Bob and I have been friends here for a little bit now. We have uh we he comes to our church with Grace Connection, and we come up with the idea because I once I started to get to know you a little bit and some hear some of your story, I was like, this is really fascinating because you have a pretty big um virage of experience in life. Um talk with us a little bit about, like I said, your um your experience in the kickboxing world. Can you can explain like how did you get into the kickboxing world?

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Well, I I I graduated from high school. I had an offer to go to uh Western Michigan University play football, but my br cousin and I had already joined the military and I was kind of sick of school anyway. So we went in the military and uh I f the they I never had any training, but the uh when I was in boot camp, the can't the team would pick one person to go against one person from another company, and they picked me. That was my very first fight. It was just a boxing match, and I won it uh a decision won it, and that's that's my only fight that I won by decision. Every other fight I won by knockouts.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

But that was so w what what what got you into kickboxing?

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Uh uh traditional karate. Okay. I was in traditional karate first, and uh uh I uh I fought in a bad man competition, and I don't know if you know what that is.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

It's well I remember them, you know, obviously they're gonna be a big deal. Yeah, yeah. I I fought in the Orlando Was it bare knuckle at that time, or did you guys actually have a lot of things?

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Yeah, yeah. Uh I fought in the uh uh the Orlando Batman. Make a long story short, I knocked everybody out. I fought for the title fight. I went to a split decision which I lost, and the the guy that I fought was I was 220, he was 170. Uh white classes here or lack thereof. I snapped his head 26 times I got on tape. He was on, so I couldn't hurt him. Anyway, went to the decision I lost. Then I fought in the Florida State bad man and I won it. Okay. And when I won it, they gave me $1,000. I wasn't a pro, but they gave me $1,000. And then I started because of that, I'm thinking, oh, I must be pretty tough. So I went to this dojo in the trail in Orlando, which is a bad area town. And uh I fought against, well, the guy that went, I was the only white guy, and uh the guy that was there was Michael Bell, who's the world champion, middleweight world, a lightweight world champion, Alan Watson's uh the middleweight, and Herbie Thompson was the heavyweight champion. Well and me, my first day there, they kicked my butt. I don't even remember driving home, but I keep coming back and I got pretty good and I started fighting competitively.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

This like the early 80s? Oh, yeah, yeah. Back actually late 70s. Late 70s. Well, and for our viewers, most people don't really realize that. Like back in the 70s and 80s, they were doing a bunch of like amateur underground fights that were it was very popular. I think um if you remember, there's a movie with Clint Eastwood, Every Which Way but Loose. And it's about the same thing. He travels and he does these fights, these underground fights, bare knuckle kind of stuff, and uh the kind of stuff. I've always been really fascinated by that. I mean, seeing that movie was one of the, you know, one of my like, oh my gosh, I I don't know that I could do this, but it's really cool to see, you know, this kind of experience. So um yeah, because I don't think people I mean, I don't know that they still do that around anymore. I know that they do now where they do the MMA where they'll set up in a parking lot, they'll you know, people will come in amateur and see how long they can kind of win for the night and stuff. So, but that was a really big, a really big um I remember my my father talking about it because he used to do a lot of the bare knuckle fights. Um, you know, those are the tough guys.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Yeah. We wore gloves and had kick pads.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

At least they were sanctioned a little bit for safety and you're not uh trying to hurt or kill someone.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

So I thought I was tough. I won the bad man and I and I I went into the back then they called it kickboxing.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

I'm sorry, they called it full contact karate, they call it kickboxing.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

And again, I went to this school and I got pretty good and I started fighting competitively. And uh uh so I won I won the bad man, and then I I fought I went into which we're gonna talk about later. I was I was a deputy sheriff on the road, road patrol, and then I went into undercover narcotics. So I fought in the Florida State Golden Glove, but I was fighting under my street name because I don't know who was out there. And um I I I won districts and regionals, which qualified me to go to state. When I fought regionals, I knocked it out in the second round. One of the one of the judges or referees judges recognized me as winning the bad man because I accepted money.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

They said that's so they disqualified you for the section.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

They gave me the trophy, but they let him go to state, and he actually won the Florida State.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Well, it's funny, I'll give you a little bit of tip. I have one connection to the Golden Gloves. So um my so being from Louisville, uh, you know, Muhammad Ali, uh, you know, Cassius Clay. So my uncle, or my my my great uncle, God rest his soul, uh was a golden glove boxer um back in the Louisville days, fought Cassius Clay and beat him in uh there in uh Louisville. So the so what had happened was is my you know my grandmother told us this story. He he ended up perishing in a car crash. Um so he never really got to reach his full potential on what that looked like. But um my you know, my grandmother would tell us that we take we'd get knocks at the door from you know reporters because Cassius Clay was this, you know, I mean he was a golden glove fighter, and then he'd never been knocked out. And here's some scrawny white kid come in here and actually knocks him out. And my some my grandmother always told us that it seemed to be that he um he always said everybody, I didn't knock him out, he just was looking at himself on the television. I happen to get lucky at you. You know, it's you know, so but you know, you you see this kind of stuff, especially in in the golden golden glove era, you know. I mean, like if you can do that, you're bona fide uh gonna do well in the boxing world, you know. So it's super great to see.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

So then I went in to kickboxing okay and I fought for the uh WKA World Karate Association. I saw I fought ISKA also, um just regular match. I've been on television with with uh um fighting and I've been in commercials, fighting commercials. Okay. But I I won the Florida State Super Heavyweight WKA title and belt. Wow. And that was the I I fought I fought for the the guy I fought for the the US title to Austin King. Great guy, by the way. Uh he was uh the United States title and uh I got the got to call like a week before it could whoever he was supposed to fight canceled. They said, Do you want it? I said, Yeah. Anyway, make a long story short, I lost that fight. He then went on the next month to win the world title. And then I fought for the uh uh uh so my I have a lot of fighting under my belt and I I thought man I should I I as a as a crit I became a Christian and I I I I heard uh the church had the power team. I don't know if you ever heard of that. Oh of course, yeah, John Jacobs, yeah, yeah, and they put on a demonstration at a church and I went, man, that was so cool. With a bunch of athletes that lift weights and break bricks and then talk about the Lord. And I'm thinking, I can't do that with kickboxing. So I I'm still a cop at this time, deputy sheriff. And I I went to a guy who had a building on the bad part of town, and I said, I'm gonna start a kickboxing ministry here and teach us the Bible. And he says, Here's the building, you can have it, no cost, do it. Believe it or not, without spending one penny on advertisement, we had we had between 60 and 65 kids in this, and it was great. I put together a kickboxing ministry where we would go out and we put on kickboxing demonstrations at churches and and and parks. I remember seeing that. And let me tell you something. If you see two 10-year-olds sparring, everybody wants to come and see it. It's a great uh uh attraction for people. And then we witnessed to them. And then I came to Florida, I moved to St. Petersburg, and I I started this ministry in three different churches. As you can see, I I taught at the YMCA uh for uh 10 years. I fought, I I taught boxing, I was a certified boxing coach at the police athletically Pinellas County's PAL Center and uh for seven years, and then we had the virus and I had to stop everything up. And then I talked to my pastor about the big church, and he said, Yeah, let's do it. So that's our advertisement. You if you're interested in this ministry and you're interested in having free, because you can't beat free, uh, kickboxing and self-defense techniques, please uh write down my phone number, write down our address of our church. We're gonna start it next Tuesday. We're gonna do it twice a month at seven o'clock, and seven to eight will be kickboxing, and from seven uh uh uh eight to eight thirty will be just a Bible study for the kids.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

And you can see our church, our church, our shirts, instead of getting colored belts, you'd get colored bolts. Bolts.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Yeah, and those love that concept.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Let me tell you something. I've been doing this a long time. I've done it with hundreds and hundreds of children, and I had so many great responses from parents because to get your bolt, not only do you have to learn the hand and technique hand and foot techniques and the self-defense techniques, but if mom and dad tell me you're having problems at school, sure or you're having problems at home, or little Johnny Knox. If you've done everything right, but you're not correcting that, you don't get a bolt. And you it is amazing. Parents have told me how these kids have changed because they want that recognition, they want that bolt.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

So let me ask you this when what made you the decision to go into law enforcement?

unknown 10:29

I was.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

I mean, because that's a I mean, to be be fair, most people, I mean it takes a certain ideology to get into law enforcement as it is. And I know the the fighting background probably helped with some of that because you're like, oh, I can I can help take care, you know, take down some of the bad guys. I completely understand it. So, but what at what time what age were like, hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna make this conscious decision.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

My my c again, I had the offer of the scholarship to play football and I went in the military.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

What opposition?

SPEAKER_02 10:59

I was a mil I was what they call a middle guard, a monster man right over the center. Yep, yep. I was a second string fullback. Okay. Our our high school, this neat story. We I just got back this year. We had a 50-year anniversary. Our high school had never won the Big Nine Championship before, and they'd never won it since, and we won it. Oh well. So they got it, they put our our team, which's left of it, in the Hall of the City Hall of Fame. They had a big get together here uh about a month ago. And I see my people I was in high school with, uh I haven't seen, and you know, none of us have hair anymore.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Well, you got hair in the wrong places, isn't it? Yeah, that's exactly as my wife said.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

So when I graduated from high school, I went into the military and I took all these tests, and I qualified for Corman, which is like a uh a nurse, and dental tech. I'd never been to the dentist in my life. And I thought, well, that's interesting. I'm gonna do that. So I I spent went to San Diego for my A school, and I went to uh Orlando for my four years, and I spent four years in Orlando, Florida, where I ended up living. I always wanted to be a cop. So as soon as I got out of the military, I I I applied and I got uh hired on by the Orange County Sheriff's Office, and uh I worked the road for three or four years, and I got went into narcotics, and when I was in narcotics for a couple years, I ended up getting on the SWAT team. So I'm working undercover narcotics and SWAT. And believe it or not, because I was a dental tech in the Navy when I worked undercover narcotics several times I posed as a dentist because I could talk.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Oh, because you know the lingo. Yeah, I could talk about it. Well, hey, thank you for your service, by the way. Like I said, that's never doesn't go without saying.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

Yeah, if you if you can see my tattoo, my dad had this tattoo. It says death before dishonor. It means I die before I dishonor my country. I'm very red, white, and blue. And again, I should have been a Marine, but I had the opportunity to be what I was.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Shout out to my nephew. He just graduated boot camp. He's uh he's he's a Marine. Let me tell you something.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Anybody that makes it to Marine Boot Camp has my admiration. Let me tell you guys me both. You and me both.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Yeah. We I mean, you know, he um he made the conscious decision when he was a well, uh his junior year of high school. He's like, hey, I'm gonna go ahead and join ROTC. I plan on he had he had three offers, obviously wanting to go. They wanted, you know, I think it was I remember what he said it was Air Force or Army, Marines, and I think Navy, and he chose the Marines and he did it. So he's in weapons training now, uh, there in Pensacola, and now he's in his aviation uh, you know, training and stuff. So anybody that serves the military, you got my utmost respect. Um, because that's uh I mean, especially in your era, like that they didn't play by the same rules that they play now, so you have a whole different attitude when it comes to that. Like, what was some of the what was the positive of being in the military compared to the negative part of the being being in the military?

SPEAKER_02 13:45

You know, and the story I'm gonna read to you about my my story. And listen, everybody has a story. The greatest story in the world is you're you're coming to the Lord. And I encourage you to write it down and and and give it to the people you care about. And and I I've read this 50 times, 100 times, and it still gets to me. And I am really encouraged you to do that. Excuse me. What was your question?

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Oh about the military. What did you like about the military? What didn't you like about the military? Um teacher did you say four years?

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Yeah, I said four years. And uh I I again I was red, white, and blue. I I I should have been a Marine, but again, my dad was in the Navy, and I I I had a cherry job. I we went I worked my regular job and we pulled duty like once a month. It was easy. I had believe it or not, I had a big afro back then. I can't imagine when we had inspections, I'd take my hat and stuff all my hair up under my hat, and I could still have long hair. You never know I was in the military. Wow. Yeah, it was uh it was unique. But I always wanted to be a cop. And as soon as I got out, I went I went to the uh police academy and I got hired on. And uh I worked for those of you from the Orlando area, the South Orange Blossom Trail, which is zone 42, which is the worst zone area.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

They only let deputies work it for a year because you get burnt out or the severity of the calls you have. I worked it for three years. I absolutely loved it. I can tell you a story in every it's the smallest zone in Orange County and the busiest zone in Orange County, and I can tell you a story in every street corner of the of that zone.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Um what was some of the stuff that you used to deal with?

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Oh boy, where do I start? Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Share share a couple of those stories about this.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Well, the on the road, uh the the uh let's see, the I'll tell you that one.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Um compromise yourself or any of that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

I wrote down four of them for you, and then I try to keep them as clean as I possibly can. Sure, sure. Again, uh again, remember I wasn't I was not a Christian back then, right? But God was watching over me. I should be dead, I should be crippled, and these are the kind of the stories that I'm that I I was talking about that I I had. I let's see, bad guy gun. Um yeah, I'll use that one. Well, that was narcotics. I'm working, I'm working undercover narcotics, and we have a guy that's dealing cocaine. Okay, and uh I have a what's called a confidential informant that he could take me in, and he said, You can't wear a wire. Wires so your backup can hear what's going on. He said, You can't wear a wire, he's gonna check it. So I went in without a wire, and I got my gun is on my ankle. I I knock on the door, and this white guy comes to the door and he's coked out, no shirt, gun stuck in his thing and his belt. And we come in and you go from outside light to inside dark. It's like a flop house, and there's people laying all over the place, and you're stepping over them. We get to the back, and he turns to me and he says, You you got to do coke right now, because if you don't do coke, I know you're a cop. I used to wear a medical alert band that said I was diabetic. Back then, free base, which is crack, yep, was done by the inner city. And and it's I told him, I said, Listen, I can only free base because if you cut that with sugar, which everybody did, I I have diabetics. Yeah, you can spike out. Yeah, yeah. So I I can't, I can't.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Good. That's a good uh great cover. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Worked well. And he he said he started getting upset. So I now I won't tell you what I did, but I started cussing and swearing and saying, You sorry piece of you. You think I'm a couple of things? Come on, let's get out of here. The CI, the CI's actually gonna pee his pants. He's thinking we're gonna both die. The guy's got his hand on the gun. I turned my back and I'm waiting for the click because it was a revolver, and I'm gonna go to the ground, get my gun the best I can do. Well, obviously it didn't happen. I got out because I seen the drugs, we got a search warrant. We had three teams on SWAT, my team and two others. One of the other teams hit the house, the SWAT team hit the house. He then got out the back, got away, and we did a warrant and got him later. But I that I can't remember too many times where I was scared for lack of a better term, but I was kind of scared then.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

And and again, like I was wondering, like, I mean, there's adrenaline, there's things that go into play this, and not to mention the uncertainty, the the things of hey, I don't know what exactly is gonna happen here. Like, how did you train yourself to handle such high stress, you know, areas?

SPEAKER_02 18:02

I I think my athletic involvement helped my stress. And and it's I'm glad you asked that because uh anybody that's listening to this, I want to put you in a scenario. There's a car wreck and and a little child's been decapitated, and civilians come and they see this and they throw up and they start crying, and and and and the cop comes to that response, and he's human just like everybody else, but he can't do that. He can't cry, he can't turn around and turn off your emotions. Yeah, you have to bury those emotions. And what cops do, they they take those things that are crazy and and and make a joke out of them. They make it make light of it, yeah. And and it it in that respect it was it was tough for me. It was tough for me. And and when I I became a Christian my 15th year in law enforcement, and uh uh We're gonna talk about that a little bit, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Because like one of the ideas that was really came to my mind was A, you spent a very long time not in the circles of faith and or being a man of faith. And so I, you know, I can't imagine how difficult that trans, especially you said you what, 15 years in law enforcement before you became, you know, a you know, a Christ follower. Um, can you talk to us a little bit about, like, give us a little bit about your journey going into faith? So when you started in the cop world, what what became the catalyst to you to start with faith?

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Can I read this quickly?

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Yeah, please, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

By the way, guys, this is our first advertisement. This is this is a book that I wrote. Uh, and uh let me just prayer what's it called? The prayer of the evidence? The prayer and the evidence, what pastors don't talk about. And let me tell you how it came about. Because of my sports involvement, I had both hips replaced, knee surgery, I've had three back operations, six injections, uh, both of my shoulders are gone. Wow, and I can't run anymore. I ran a half marathon. I can't run anymore.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

I have been running for years, so I failed. So I swim. I swim now.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

I bought a swim spa. Okay. And I wear glasses, I go, you know, the goggles and the things, so I'm not turning my head. I'll swim for an hour. And in that hour, it blocks out the world. It's great. And I pray during that time. And after one of my swims, I walked in the house and I went, man, that's a pretty good prayer. I need to write that prayer down. I wrote the prayer down and I went, man, I need to back that up with scripture. So I took the Bible and I backed up my prayer and said, Man, I should write a book using it. And that's where this book came from. Okay. Uh from my from my prayer in my in my in my uh uh swim spa. But this is about me, and I it's in the book. And again, I encourage you to write to read this book. It has a lot of information. I don't make a dime on this book. I'm I'm advertising, but I don't make it. Any profits from this book go to charity, Christian charities. Right out of the military, I went into law enforcement and I was on the road. The worst in the worst part of Orlando, Florida, Orange County Sheriff's Office, Zone 42. The Sheriff's Office only let deputies work at that zone for a year because they would get burnt out. Not not only by the number of calls, but because the severity of them. I worked it for three years. It was the busiest zone in Orange County. I absolutely loved it. It fed my addiction. I can tell you a story on every corner of Zone 42. But when I went home, I had that void again. I had to fill it the next day at work. When I went and then I went into undercover narcotics. I worked undercover narcotics for seven, seven, several years. I could tell you story after story a rush I got from that. While working narcotics, I got selected to SWAT. So I was working undercover narcotics and on the SWAT team again, looking for that rush. You probably can't imagine what it's like being on SWAT, only responding to high-risk situations. And again, what a rush. Here again was the problem. My addiction. After the rush, I was still void until I got another rush. A lot like a drug addiction. Growing up, I can't think of one person I knew who was a Christian. I spent four years in the military, and again, I can't think of one person I knew that was a Christian. I was in law enforcement for 20 years. It was the 15th year in law enforcement before I became a Christian. Prior to me becoming a Christian, I could I could not tell you one person. Person I knew in law enforcement who was a Christian. Once I became a Christian and I spoke out loud about it, I met deputy very several deputies that were saved. I think the reason deputies don't talk about the Lord, they think it's not masculine and they are wrong. Approximately my 15th year while I was still in law enforcement, I started my own business part-time. The business was to protect me financially if I got hurt in law enforcement. I would be have something to fall back on to provide for my family. Because of this business, for the first time in my life, I was surrounded by Christians. And they all seemed to have this inner peace that I only had when I filled it that void with a rush. But I know now that void was shaped like Jesus the Christ. Greed brought me to want to know more about this Jesus because the inner peace they had all had. The common nominator was Jesus. I thought, well, maybe there's something to this Jesus stuff. So I picked up a King James Bible and tried to read it. Unfortunately, the language and the style of the King James Virgin made no sense to me. It was like reading Greek. And I thought I had to stop sinning, but I couldn't. I shared this story with a Christian friend of mine who shared this with me. He said, Picture Jesus Christ in a room. The room is perfectly painted white. Jesus is sitting on a perfectly white couch wearing a perfectly white robe and perfectly white carpeting on the floor. You knock on the door, Jesus says, Come on in. You say, I can't, I'm filthy. Jesus says, Come on in, I'll take you just the way you are. And when you come before him, the dirt is gone. My friend explained to me all I had to do is truly believe I was a sinner, and the penalty for that is death. I had to truly believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and He was nailed to a cross and shed his precious blood and paid for my sins that I can't pay for. He died on that cross, was buried, and rose again. And right now is sitting at the right hand of God alive. If I truly believe that, I would spend eternity in heaven with Jesus. At that point I confessed I was a sinner and I truly believed. My new addiction was Jesus, the Christ. My my void was full and it stayed full because it was shaped like Jesus the Christ. I couldn't get enough, and I still can't get enough of the Lord. When I truly believed what I said about Jesus, I was saved. Just after I was saved, still a deputy, I was coming back from Bible study, and I looked to my left as I was passing a church and I saw a huge cross on the side of the building. I'm gonna get emotional here, I'm trying not to. I looked at that cross and I I truly realized what Jesus Christ had done for me. I was so filled with the Holy Spirit I had to pull the car over because I felt like I was gonna float out of it. I'm sorry. I spent 40 years in different locations with my kickboxing ministry. And again, here comes another advertisement. I anybody that's listening to this, uh I'm gonna give you my phone number. Can I do that? Yeah, yeah, you go ahead. Uh my name again is Robert or Bobby Easterling. My phone number is 727-804-6345. We're starting our first kickboxing ministry class uh the Tuesday, May 12th. May 12th. Tuesday, we're gonna do it twice a month. It's gonna go from uh 7 o'clock to 8 30.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Um Shameless Plug is at the St. Pete Vineyard, 5000 10th Street North. 50010th Street North. Again, you can go to wwwspv.org and get more information if you need it, or you can give Bob a call.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

And and I don't know if you can see my shirt here. We're gonna have better shirts. This was mine. Let me tell you, the pastor here is he's amazing. He got this beautiful shirt, and we didn't we couldn't get him printed for this, but uh as you can see that this was the one I had at the YMCA and the other places, but instead of getting colored belts, they get colored bolts. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

And uh yeah, we'll look at like I said, I'm I'm hoping like I said, we'll we'll have to show the image of the new shirts on the podcast at the end. I'll make sure to get it to our producers and stuff to be able to put put out there. But let me ask you this question because this is I think this is something of real interest, is talk to us a little bit about your life before God as a cop and what that did to you. Because again, I think there's a different um you're dealing with the worst of the worst in inside being being copied. And most people don't realize that. Most people don't realize that most of the reasons why cops are the way they are is because the interactions that they have dealt with when it comes to dealing with. So there's always, you know, you this presumption of innocent until proven guilty, but a lot of these bad situations, they're they're guilty from the get-go because you're you're dealing with that.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

I put hundreds, hundreds of people in jail. I've never lost a case. Well, because with drugs, it's hand, it's usually right, right, right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

Yeah, yeah, you can't get out of it. So, but talk to us a little bit about that. Like, what is the mindset going into as a cop or going into as a as an undercover or detective, any of that kind of stuff? Because, like, I mean, if I'm being honest, if you examine it with what you know the scriptures look at and what Jesus is is asking of, it's very counter to what that is. So talk to us a little bit about that mindset that they teach you going into this.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

Well, my mindset was because of my fighting background, I felt I could fight my way out of just I'm gonna punch everybody I can. And let me tell you something. I'd much rather be a cop than a fireman, because I I can't fire, I can't fight a fire. I can't, but I I so give those firemen credit. But uh, I've been in several situations, and I'm gonna share a couple of them with you, where God was obviously watching over me. And when I came out of those situations, uh it was better more than luck, believe me. Uh I mean I had a I had a when I was on the road through a confidential informant that I befriended, he helped me put this guy in jail, arrested him, and he went to prison for robbery and burglary. They gave him probation on the burglary and put him in prison for the robbery. Okay. After about three years, he paroled out. I'm working undercover narcotics now, and the com center calls me and says, Hey, this guy wants to talk to you, one of my old CIs. So I get on the phone. He says, Listen, this guy, he broke into a house, he stole the gun, and he's on the trail right now with a gun gonna kill you. And he was at the Dunkin' Donuts, and it's true, cops do like donuts. And they gave us two free with coffee. So uh so this is so I drive by and at two o'clock in the morning, there he is sitting there. So I call the comp center, I have two uniformed deputies go in. I told them, told the girl to go in the back, lock herself in, don't come out till the cops get her. Okay, and and a deputy, uniformed deputy stops at the at the desk, and the other one's walking around like he's gonna go into the bathroom. Now you gotta remember, I didn't look the same. Had this big afro, this was black, I got tattoos. I come and I sit down right beside him. I can't even remember his name. I said, Hey, how you doing, buddy? He had his hands on the counter and he looked, and then he realized who I was, and he started. I said, I wouldn't. Both all three of us drew drew down on him. I this was a good-looking Hispanic kid, had a whole life ahead of him. Well, listen to what I I violated his probation on the on the burglary, I violated his probation on the parole. I I charged him with armed burglary to an occupied dwelling. The house he broke into to get the gun to kill me with, there were people in it. So it once you arm yourself in it, it's armed burglary to an occupied dwelling, which is like one under murder. I charged him. Yeah, yeah, that's a big yeah, yeah, yeah. I charged him with uh concealed firearm by a convicted felon, concealed firearm without a permit. He's probably and this was probably still in jail.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

And that that was that was kind of a unique situation. And then I was on the road. Again, God has been watching over. I I should be dead. Uh I'll tell you two more. I was on the road and we had it. This was back in the 70s, didn't have portable radios. All we had was radio in the car.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

Oh, sure, the little CBC.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

So I I we had an arson at zone 42, the bad section. They had an arson at a little store. So we had to stop traffic, this is like two o'clock in the morning, had to stop traffic and run it through a parking lot because they couldn't get through there because of the fire trucks and stuff. And uh I so I put my patrol car in the middle, turned on my PA system so I could hear in case of emergency. I put on my stupid hat. We had to wear these hats, and and I'm I'm directing traffic through these the the parking lot, and I look up and I see this truck coming at me with this guy going like this. So I'm thinking it's one of the one of the record drivers that we befriended, we deal with messing around. Well, when I realized he wasn't gonna be able to stop, I jumped up and he hit me with a flat Ford Ford flatbed, two and a half ton double axle pickup with a thousand pounds of sand and compressor in the back. FHP told me all this later. He hit me and drove me into my patrol car. And in that split second, I'm going, I'm never gonna play rugby again, I'm never gonna fight again. Sure. I'm all these things in the split second line. Yes. Yeah, yeah. And I hear my cut my car being crushed behind me. It knocked my passenger side door open, knocked the shotgun out of my shotgun rack into the street. And if you know anything about anything, which I didn't, when you get and you hit something, for that split second, it recoils. And I was I jumped up. He if I didn't jump up, he would have broke my knee. And and that split second it came off the car, I slipped out of it. Make a long story short, I went to the hospital, they did all these x-rays. I should, I should be crippled, if not dead. I didn't sustain one little injury. Well, I and you know, I was uh God was watching over me. And now I'll tell you about the SWAT. We had a new SWAT commander who didn't know his butt, and we had a call in the far east part of Orange County. And this guy was who just got out of the military, had better weapons than we had. Well, he had like military grade. Yeah, he was driving, he was shooting randomly in the woods, and he was in a mobile home. This is before regulation, so yes, yes, exactly. So me, me and another guy, we were gonna do re-cognization, we're gonna try to find where the trailer was, and we had a command post, and um and this guy was shooting, and I couldn't see him. They told us he was a white male with no shirt, long gun, blue jeans. And I I I felt the air of a bullet go by my head, and I'm thinking, in my mind, I'm thinking, I'm gonna get killed out here, and I'm not even getting paid for it. Back then it was comp time. We're in now we got a full SWAT, you get paid for it. Back then it wasn't. It was voluntary, like hard.

SPEAKER_00 32:07

You didn't get paid as a switch?

SPEAKER_02 32:08

All you got was comp team, comp time, time off. Wow. Yeah, it was it was that's uh kind of an odd trail.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Yeah, like you're gonna put in the most dangerous situations that you could possibly imagine. We're just gonna give you some time off.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

And let me tell you, it tipped dedication. And uh, and in the meantime, I I'm carrying an MP5 nine millimeter machine gun with a selector switch, takes it from semi-automatic to fully on. It's like it's a it's what a great weapon. And I hear somebody walking, and I look, and there's a white guy with no shirt on carrying a long gun. I take the safety off my gun, I put up and I go, I'm gonna soon as I holler sheriff's off, he's gonna turn, I'm gonna have to take this guy out. Right behind him comes one of my best friend deputies. What happened was he was a forest ranger and came to the command post. Again, our command post was crazy back then, and he says, I know where this trailer's at and I can take you to it. That's what they were. That close to shooting shooting this guy. And in the meantime, the bad guy got in the car, drove through our command post, and somebody goes, Isn't that him? To make a long story short, they they stopped him and arrested him without incident. So I, you know, I I I I I should be dead.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

I should none I should be crippled, I should be dead, and God has watched over me and and what time did at what point did I mean I said you started working with the other business, started seeing the infiltration. How long did it take to get out of the mindset? Um, because obviously I know being a cop, you're and especially 15 years into it, you probably had a lot of habits. Um my worst habit, which I still have, I cuss way too much.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

Sure, sure, sure. And let me tell you something. My my granddaughter uh was at my house, and I and I was witnessing telling her about the Lord, and she said, Grandpa, you you still cuss and swear. And I said, You know what? You're correct, and I I shouldn't do that. And let me tell you, uh, before I was a Christian, I did it. And now that I'm a Christian, I I do it. What's what's the difference? Before when I did it, I didn't give a rat's rare end about it. Now I realize I'm doing it, I try not to. And believe me, on my on my steering wheel of my car, and that's my let me tell you something both. That's my weakness. I want to drag people out of those cars and just anyway. Uh, and I got I got two verses on my on my uh on my car. Uh Philippians 2 verse 5. I should have the attitude of Christ Jesus. Nice. And uh Galatians 5, 22, the the the uh the the the beat uh not beatitudes, but the what the what you should and I have I have uh uh what's the word uh patience underlined. Patience is a key in this particular aspect of that. That's my it's and again Let me ask you this question.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

When you became a Christian and you're still working in law enforcement, did you have moments of of conundrums and oh hey, I gotta my faith has now made me look at this a little differently?

SPEAKER_02 35:05

Yeah, because when I I became a Christian my fifteenth year in law enforcement, I started in that business, I became very successful in that business, I became a senior vice president, and uh I want to tell you a story about that in just a bit. But uh one of the things that I really had once I became a Christian, if you work undercover narcotics, you're lying. You're telling a story.

SPEAKER_00 35:26

Sure, yeah, because you get you you have immunity to be able to do that. Yeah, so you can make up these things.

SPEAKER_02 35:30

And I had I had a problem with that. I I as a as a as a new Christian, I I had a problem with befriending someone knowing I'm gonna take you to prison. Yeah. And I had to act like I liked them, and you know, uh it's so that's fake, fake, fake it till you make it. That's when I left and went into my business. And uh let me tell you a little bit about this business. It's financial education, great company. Uh I'd be those are the people I around first time I was ever around, Christians. The man who found the company is strong Christian, and the man who brought me into the business was a strong Christian. His name was Ken Mitchell, he played Pro Ball for Atlanta Falcons. I'm a senior vice president, I'm not a fly. And I go into his office one day. He says, Bob, he's up above me. He says, Bob, tell me what we should be doing. And so I rattled off all this stuff. He said, Nope. I said, rattle off all this business stuff. He says, Nope. I said, Ken, what do you what what am I supposed to be doing? He said, I'll never forget this. He said, We're supposed to further his kingdom. And I went back after that and I realized what he said, and I we had a presentation book, and I went through my presentation and I wrote down verses that backed up everything in my presentation. And uh it's absolutely true. So again, God's been working in my my humble life uh in in in so many different ways. And again, I I I I shouldn't be here. If I'm here, I should be crippled. Uh I I I I can't get enough, and I'm sure you're the same way. Yeah, I mean, dude, you know there's not enough time in the day. Everybody has the same 24 hours a day. The the thing is, how do you use that 24 hours? And again, I had to give up a lot of things because I was just I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it to glorify the Lord because I was spread out so much, and and I'm doing it again. But that's okay. Uh my my my wife is is very understanding of me. She does not like that I call with a Christian song.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, again, it's it's it's one of those things, like my wife's same thing, like, you know, she, you know, because I mean again, I'm kind of like you. It's like where there'll be moments where I'm like, oh, I'm getting ready to unleash and I'm doing everything I can not to. The worst is so, you know, I've got two small kids. Yeah. And even with when when my daughter was young, there were a few times where, you know, she'd hear a word and then she would, you know, she'd hear me say it, and then she would say it, and I'd be like, I'd start to giggle, be like, hey, no, no, no, you can't say that. And I've seen that backfire on me a few times. And then now, but even my my oldest son, you know, anytime I say, like, let's use the word stupid, you just use that as an example because this this happened last week. You know, I said something, was that that's that's that's stupid. He's like, Oh, we don't say that word, that's the S word. And I'm like, You're oh, they're telling, oh, I get this now. I mean he's he's out of Christian school, so obviously they don't want to use derogatory terms and things like that. So I was I was kind of surprised and shocked because he's recognizing now that words matter. Um, I'll use this as a I I I think I spoke to this on on Sunday where he was having kids that were bossing him around. And this is one of the things why I'm really um really interested in the self-defense side of this. Not because, you know, I think uh nowadays there's you know, kids are are can be bullies. Um, you know, it's a big, big thing, but that's you know, they're learning it from from somewhere, unfortunately. But it is one of those things where we're recognizing it. And so my son is recognizing when someone's not being nice to him. He's very tenderhearted at seven years old. He's like me when I was that age. So he always wants a friend, he always wants people around him, but then he's recognizing that not everyone has his best interest at heart. Yeah. And and and it it breaks your heart at seven years old that he's having to realize, you know, we went to they they they went on a field trip and there's a couple kids in his class that are really, you know, kind of the, you know, I don't want to use the word leaders of the class, but you know, they're the ones that are telling everyone else what to do. And so I, you know, made the uh I just told him, I was like, son, don't ever let anyone tell you you're less than, you know, and I was like I'm like saying so. That's one of them. You know, and it's it's uh it's an important lesson. And so uh the next day at Car Line, you know, I see him, he's out there dancing. You know, I mean he's you know, he's super funny. He's seven, he's he's super energetic. And so he gets into the car with the biggest grin on, and he's like, Dad, I did I I told you I did exactly what you told me to do. I told them that they're not my boss, that they're not gonna tell me what I'm gonna do. Like, you know, try to give him, build him some uh some confidence. And so, you know, and it it you know, I've always been that with my kids. I've always tried to teach them that, you know, be around others that's that speak life into you. Also have uh people around you that are going to be honest with you when you are messing up. Because there's, you know, a a friend is not just someone that's gonna tell you everything's great. A friend is actually gonna tell you as well that, hey, you may want to reconsider, or I'm not going to go down that path with you because you're going to a destructive place I don't want to go. And I I growing up, that was my attraction to music was because I had never, I had experienced things. I was around people that were getting themselves in all sorts of trouble, and I wanted nothing, and I mean nothing to do with that trouble, because I'm like, you know, at the tail end of the day, either two things are gonna happen. I'm either gonna get, you know, go to jail, which I love my freedom. I have zero interest in going, you know, and getting that taking away. I mean, I, you know, I've had experiences growing up where, you know, I had to go visit family members in prison. I saw what the ramifications of what that does to someone. And so I knew from very early on I better keep myself some music is what kind of gravitated me to remove me because I I had some friends that were that were literally getting, I mean, they were robbing, pillaging. I mean, you know, you're talking, you know, stealing guns, and you know, like, dude, this is high crime. This you're gonna go to jail for a while, and they end up doing it, you know. So for me, it became this this opportunity. So I, you know, through my own experiences, have kind of taught my kids that same thing like, hey, if you find a friend, make sure they're speaking life into you and not taking life from you. You know, the sayings that I have, I'm gonna read.

SPEAKER_02 41:58

Yeah, please, please. Yeah. No, I want to I want to tell everybody a little bit about this, the ministry that the kickboxing ministry, because everybody will get a flyer, and if you call me, I can send it to you. Uh, but listen to what's in this this ministry through the Bible will show how special you are in God's eyes. It will teach self-confidence and self-worth through Jesus Christ. It will teach you how to protect yourself and and to fight, bringing self-confidence and realizing that you don't have to fight to prove anything. Amen. Uh, our long-term goals develop a team of young people dedicated to God, traveling to various locations, such as schools, churches, and neighborhoods, putting on kick-tack boxing demonstrations, attracting people and witnessing to them about our Lord Jesus Christ. This is our theme. Power is not the ability to hurt. Power is the ability to hurt. I'm sorry. Power is not the ability to hurt. Power is the ability not to hurt when you have the power to hurt. And I tell these kids, I say, listen, I'm gonna do this in our first class. I'm gonna say, I want you to remember how little you knew, how uncoordinated this is. Because you do this for a year or so, you're gonna become masters of this. You're gonna be light years ahead of everybody in your school, all your friends. And this the one time I hear you taking advantage of it, you're uh you're you're gone. Yeah, that's it. Again, fighting is a tourniquet, a last resort. But I tell them if you have to fight, it's a last resort, but you fight to win.

SPEAKER_00 43:25

Well, it's funny because you know, my my wife coming from uh she's from Colombia. So, you know, there's a lot of you know, a lot of rough stuff that you know. I mean, granted, there's there's there's kind of rough stuff everywhere, so it isn't that, but she was, you know, concerned in the sake of like, well, you know, what you know, why are you gonna be teaching the boys this? And I was like, well, at the talent of the day, it's really important, not because, you know, at any given point, you're you and you know this better than most that shenanigans, you know, just use that term, shenanigans is gonna happen. You're gonna have people. People in situations that just want to try to either attack you, um, try to hurt you. And the least thing that I want to do is to make sure that my my kids don't have the ability to at least defend themselves. That's what I looked at it more as like this gives you an opportunity, not to say that again, I'm with you. I am the I don't, I think the best course of action is to walk away if it's possible. But there are positions, and I I've been through a few of them myself where I couldn't walk away. There's there was no, they were going to become aggressive, and all of a sudden now I have to defend myself or something bad's gonna happen to me. You know, so I take that same same same approach with with my kids and having them kind of, you know, hey, this is a last resort, but I'm giving you the tools so to make sure that's that was when when when you brought this idea up, I was like, this is great. This is exactly what I was talking about with with my own family, is an opportunity and a way to be able to help protect yourself so that this way you can at least know moving forward, you have the tools necessary.

SPEAKER_02 45:03

And it really does build that self-confidence. I one of the kids in the uh police athletic league, I taught boxing there, but we had a minute, I had a ministry with it, and he actually got arrested, went to prison, and he got out and he came back to me and he said, Listen, had you not showed me what you showed me, I would have got killed in prison. Well because you taught me how to protect myself and fight, I I I want to and I want to thank you for that. I want to read this. Uh, this is the in the flyer that I'll send you also if you're interested. I believe kids who attempt suicide, kids who become pregnant, kids who use drugs and carry guns and are physically attacked have very low self-esteem and are not confident. This ministry is designed to show young people how special they are in God's eyes, to build their self-cont self-esteem and self-confidence. Many people have told me you can't bring about change. Some have said you can't help them. There's too many. And I believe they are right. I can't help them, but God can. One of our sayings, number 11, and they have to learn these sayings to get their bolts. Two can do anything as long as one of them is God. Philippians 4, verse 13. I really believe that. It reminds me of a story. I love stories. Could people you can tell somebody something, they won't remember it, but you tell them a story and they remember a story. That's right. There was an older gentleman who lived next to the ocean. After a very bad storm, he was looking out his window and he saw a young man picking up starfish from the thousands that were washed ashore. He was throwing them back into the ocean so they could live. The older gentleman made contact with the young man and told him that he was wasting his time. There are thousands of starfish. You can't save them all. Why, why are you wasting your time? Then the young man picked up a starfish and threw it back into the ocean, stating, I don't think you could convince that starfish I was wasting my time. And uh I'd like to, I know I'm doing a lot of advertising here. Oh, you're good, you're good. I'd I'd I'd like to read these that these are saying I love sayings. And these are just some of the sayings, not some of them, these are the sayings that oh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 47:07

Well, what's good about this though, Bob, is that you're allowing parents to hear what is going to be happening inside these classes that's going to uh help move uh you know kids' lives you know forward. So go ahead, please share with the case.

SPEAKER_02 47:20

You've touched on several of these already, which is really cool. Number one, I'll just read them off. Don't be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. First Corinthians 15, verse 33, I believe. And then a lot of these come right out of the Bible. And let me let me tell you, I worked in corrections for five years. And again, I worked that special detail, but I and and again, it there are Pinellas County Jail holds 4,000 people. That's a lot of people. It's a lot, yeah. And I I promise you, if I interviewed, 99% of them would say, if I interviewed them and said, let me ask you a question. If you didn't hang around the people you hung around, would you be in prison, would you be in jail today? Not over 99% would go, if I didn't pick them, that I wouldn't be here today. That's how important influence, yeah. That's how important it is, guys. Two persons can do anything as long as one of them is God. Never say words that make Satan think he's winning. Be kind is more important than being right. You know, you can be one of those guys that know everything and die. And people aren't going to remember you as knowing everything, they're gonna remember you as being kind. That's how people will remember you. Life isn't waiting for the storm to pass, it's learning how to dance in the rain. The task ahead of me is never as great as the power behind me. In happy moments, praise him, in difficult moments, seek him, in quiet moments, worship him, in painful moments, trust him, in every moment, thank him. You will always miss 100% of your shots you don't take. Remember, no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. The voice you honor controls your future. Here's another one from the Bible. As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.

unknown 49:11

That's a great one.

SPEAKER_02 49:12

If you think you're a loser, you're gonna be a loser. You think you're a winner, you're gonna be a winner. A fool vents his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control, Proverbs.

SPEAKER_01 49:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:22

Talent will not make you. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence and determination. Amen. It's not what you take when I stole this from a song. It's not what you take when you leave this world behind you, it's what you leave behind you when you go. And I have a little saying, it's a ladder. Faith equals salvation, salvation equals works, works equal rewards. Where are you on that ladder? I don't know if I did this one already. If Satan brings up, if Satan brings up your past, bring up his future. Okay, associations will bring on similarities. Change your thought and change your world. It's choice, not chance, that determines your destiny. Another one. I'd rather be struck by a friend than kissed by an enemy. To ignore the facts does not change the facts. It's not the elditude of the wall, but the attitude of the warrior. We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret and disappointment. Turn your pain into anger. Turn your anger into motivation, turn your motivation into success. Difficulties in your life did not come to destroy, but to help you realize your hidden potential and power. Everything we do in life comes down to what motivates us. Everything what motivates you. You should keep your words. I this is a good one for me. You should keep your words both soft and tender, because tomorrow you may have to eat them. One day we will all say, I wish I had, or I'm glad I did. Which one will you say? What did God make you to be and to do? The best you can be and the best you can do. Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up what makes it permanent. Don't give up. The beginning is always the hardest. If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. I use that when I interview people in law enforcement. Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow. Put your heart into it. Only only when it's dark can you see the stars. So being dark isn't always the worst. To go through what you've never gone through, you have to do what you never have done. Here's another one from Proverbs. Iron sharpens iron. I'm a big believer in that one. What does your word mean that God's word also means? Everything. Make the right choices now. You are one choice away from a new beginning. Boys make excuses. Men make changes. You will never leave where you are until you decide where you'd rather be. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. I like this one. If you see them as a loser, you will treat them with contempt. If you see a person as lost, you will treat them with compassion. Who or what can take away how special you are? No one or nothing. You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.

SPEAKER_00 52:52

And these are these things you're going to be implementing, implementing in the class? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 52:57

Each class, we'll have take one and we'll talk about it. We'll talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 52:59

Okay, great, great, great.

SPEAKER_02 53:01

If you're helping someone and expecting something in return, you're doing business, not kindness. Prayer is no guarantee against trouble, but it's a guarantee against defeat. Whoever cannot increase you will eventually decrease you. Again, pick your friends.

SPEAKER_00 53:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:18

You can only move away from bad through a deliberate move moving towards a good one. Your life will always move in the direction of your strongest thought. Pain is often a bridge, not a barricade to success. Character is how you get when nobody is watching. I want to just tell a story on that. One of the churches I taught in, kickboxing ministry, we had a big gymnasium. Had a lot of people in this class. What I did before class, I took a garbage can and I put a bunch of garbage on the floor. And and I had the class and we broke up and we went in different areas for different things. And one of the kids I'm gonna get emotional here, picked up that garbage and put it in a garbage can. And I went and made a big deal out of that. Where is it? Character is how you act when nobody is watching. That's right. He picked up that garbage and he put it away and nobody was watching him. He did it because that was his character. Character is how you act when no one is watching.

SPEAKER_00 54:21

That's a really good one. I think that's a real important one. I mean, I I I shared my with my son this recently. I was like, you know, the quickest way to to uh defeat an enemy, right? He's like, what? It's like make him your friend.

SPEAKER_02 54:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:34

That's the matter of fact, our pastor last week, when he got after you talked, he got remember that? Yeah, yeah. And I I I got a big chunk of my heart. That was great. Yeah, that was great. Your your pain becomes your passage to a greater part of your life. Those are those who are willing to lose, those who are unwilling to lose rarely do. Do you want to be a follower or a leader? A leader. Anyone can be a follower. One person can make a positive difference in a person's life, and we were put on this earth to do that. I would rather regret the things that I have done than things I have not done. If you live long enough, you'll have regrets. The ones that nag you the most are the ones where you had a choice and didn't take it. You will never possess what you are unwilling to pursue.

unknown 55:30

And that's true.

SPEAKER_00 55:32

Yeah. That's great. That's great. These are all lessons that are going to be part of the kickboxing course and stuff with that. So as we wrap up, you know, Bob, thank you for taking the time and sharing with us your story. Um, I mean, we could sit here and talk hours and hours about some of this stuff. So, but you know, one last time, let's talk about the kickboxing class. Like I said, it starts uh a week from today, next Tuesday, May May 12th. Um, it's gonna be at the church. Um, we'll do it there in the in in the auditorium, 5000 10th Street North, St. Petersburg, Florida, at the St. Pete Vineyard. Um, you can go to wwwspv.org or go ahead and shout out your your your phone number again if you want to call it.

SPEAKER_02 56:08

207 804-6345. That's my cell phone. Now, I get tons of calls. If I don't recognize the call, I don't answer it. If I don't answer, no, if I don't answer it, just leave me a message. I'll get back to you. One more time, phone number.

SPEAKER_00 56:20

727-804-6345. Great. Well, guys, thank you so much for being a part of the NoneBiter podcast today. We look forward to uh the next adventure. So thanks so much and God bless. God bless you.