From Engineering to Mayoral Candidacy: The Journey of Dr. Curtis Merriweather Jr

Ever wondered how a computer engineering student from Augusta, Georgia, ends up founding a successful government contracting firm and running for mayor? Join us as we chat with Dr. Curtis Merriweather Jr., a man who epitomizes versatility and ambition. From addressing critical issues like affordable housing and food insecurity to managing the complexities of a mayoral campaign, Dr. Merriweather's journey will inspire anyone interested in making a tangible impact through local politics. 

This episode promises to be a treasure trove of wisdom for anyone looking to venture into the political arena or understand the inner workings of federal roles and juggling the delicate work-life balance and the multifaceted value of education, the intersection of business and spirituality, and the art of balancing work, family, and ministry. Discover his entrepreneurial journey, spiritual endeavors, and even his culinary preferences and favorite films. This engaging conversation

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Chapters

• 0:50 Man of Many Talents
• 8:30 Navigating the World of Politics
• 18:04 The Value of Education
• 24:40 The Intersection of Business and Spirituality
• 34:39 Government Contracting and Deliverance Ministry
• 46:55 Balancing Work, Family, and Ministry
• 53:49 Culinary Preferences and Favorite Films
• 1:00:19 Engaging With Audience Feedback

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:51

Thank you, welcome back to the All Purpose Pod for an all-purpose life, wherever you are, and have your listen to the. Call me, mr Ubi. Thank you again for making us a part of your morning, your day and your week. We're your weekly mirror check before you change the world, coming in this morning hot and heavy. Dr Curtis Merriweather Jr. What about one-on-one Good morning, sir. How are you? I'm good. How are you doing today? Good, good, good. You're going to hear a lot about this man, but he's a man in many hats, man, but I'm excited for him to share some of that stuff with you guys. So, if you don't mind, quick background on you. Your time in Augusta Just kind of give us an idea of what your life was like coming up.

Speaker 2: 1:26

That's good. Now I'm from Augusta, georgia. My father is a pastor, so I am a PK Left. Augusta went to University of South Carolina studied computer engineering. I was recruited by the Navy. I was not in the Navy, I worked as a civilian for the Navy, did that for a variety of years, worked in several very high level positions throughout the federal government. I had some very strong roles as a very young man, left federal service. After about seven years started a government contracting firm and remain an entrepreneur to this day.

Speaker 1: 2:02

All right, man, there's a lot going on. I want to get to some of that stuff, if not all of it. You're definitely a man of many talents. For sure, we're getting to as much as we can. But recently, if it's okay to talk about it, you ran for mayor here locally. I did what made you step into politics? Why was that important to you at this time in your life?

Speaker 2: 2:26

You know, you said, you know, you said you know. My parents taught me that it is. We need to leave the world a better place than what we found it. So I saw some of the challenges facing North Charleston and I felt like and I still feel like I have some of the solutions to address some of the systemic issues that face that region around affordable housing, around food insecurity, crime and the like. And one of the big things is seeing the community get involved and rally around um the community, so seeing the community really get involved in a lot of the people. I believe that, uh, we all want something better, but I think we need a plan and develop an ecosystem to really truly affect change in that region. Um, as you know, we were not successful in that bid, uh, but many prayers go out to the current mayor. He has some, he got, he got some work to do, but I believe everything. I believe everything is possible.

Speaker 1: 3:15

You could have went a lot of routes on the political side to, I guess, maybe make some of those changes more realistic. Why'd you pick mayor out of the other option? You could have did a city council, you could have tried governor. Why'd you pick the mayor? Was there a reason why that was the right answer for you?

Speaker 2: 3:31

Absolutely. I honestly believe I'm a great manager in order to bring change, and so the mayor role is an executive job, it's a management job. I think that's where you really see real change. So you know, if you just kind of talk about it from a political perspective, I believe that you feel most of the changes in your local politics. And so when you work, when you go into something like House or Senate whether we're talking US or federal you're writing policies and procedures and, hopefully, laws. You're enacting laws, you're going through the debating process and you're really trying to move the needle on policy. We know that policy takes a little longer very important, but takes a little longer. And so I felt like, based on my skillset, based on my background, my entrepreneurship abilities, as well as some of my academic education, from a management standpoint, I felt I could be more effective in a management position, which is what basically a mayor is an executive position, but it's a management position and you're going to see those changes fairly quickly.

Speaker 2: 4:33

If a mayor makes a change, it's not going to take as long for the ship to turn as it would in the legislative process. So, senate, congress, us or federal but I really believe that the real battle is fought in local politics. So those are the things we feel. So when presidents, you know, get elected we got a presidential election coming up this year when presidents make changes, it does impact but we really don't feel it on the home front. What we really feel on the home front is what happens in our local state. Now we know that some of those policies trickle down to the state level. Local level, we recognize that. But I really feel the decisions that my school board is making, that the state legislator or general assembly is making, I'm going to feel those first and so it's closer to the home front. So that was kind of my logic. That makes sense, okay.

Speaker 1: 5:26

I got a lot of friends that have tried to do the same thing. Get involved with politics has been kind of some of their dreams and some people I connected with out in the marketplaces. Were you ever able to rationalize serving in politics but not being a politician in the ways that we've seen it play out publicly? Did that make sense?

Speaker 2: 5:43

Yeah, that's the only way I was going to run and one of the things that might have been counterproductive. In hindsight I self-funded my entire campaign. Wow, it's good, and to some it may be viewed as bad. I'm going to kind of unpack why it means sometimes that you haven't gotten buy-in from the local constituent base when you sell fun. So you do maintain a level of control. So for me it was.

Speaker 2: 6:14

I did not I wanted to do if I was elected. I wanted to do what was in the best interest of the people and not in the best interest of special interest. Uh, so what? Because of that you're kind of a long ranger, but that was how I wanted to do it, don't get me wrong. We got some support and we did have a pretty to say. It was my first time running. We did actually do quite well by many people's standards, but that community buy-in at a larger extent could have been greater.

Speaker 2: 6:45

But you know, one of the big things, especially in local politics, is it's a lot about popularity contest, and so the gentleman that I was running against just had way more popularity and I think sometimes the popularity sometimes outweighs in some instances the messaging. So when I ran I knew we had an uphill battle. I have a lot of respect for the gentleman that's in the seat today, but I knew we had an uphill battle. But I was hoping that people was going to hear the plan, hear the strategy. We even went on our website.

Speaker 2: 7:17

We was running, we really did videos where we kind of at a very high level I knew people weren't going to sit there and watch our video and we talking about one specific topic we went in and did quick, you know, five to 15 minute videos where we address what my overarching plan was to address the different areas that I felt were plaguing the city, and I was hopeful that people heard the message. And so you know that election is coming on and it's not uncommon for me to be moving through the streets and for people to recognize me or tell me hey, I voted for you, I like the plan. So you know, we'll see. We'll see what's coming in the future from a political standpoint.

Speaker 1: 7:55

OK, well, that's kind of a good segue to my next question, because I got some friends that's been trying to do that. They've been thinking about it Outside of your political efforts. Do you ever see Washington DC as a place you want to actually live? I mean, there's a lot of reasons why you probably don't want to live in DC, but was that ever part of the long-term plan or was it just your focus was on North Charleston only and kind of just, it meant change. There Was DC a part of the plan? It wasn't.

Speaker 2: 8:21

It wasn't't now just to kind of go back a little bit when I got recruited by the space naval warfare system center, which is the local navy engineer and arm for the navy. They've now went through a name change. They call themselves the naval information warfare center. I'm with you, you'll nap, we're talking. Anyone knows names nav war, I don't know same. They just went through a name change about four or five years ago. So when I worked for the Navy around about my second year I did a small stint with the assistant secretary of the Navy's office for research development acquisitions, chief engineers.

Speaker 2: 9:07

I know the government has acronyms, but that was the asn rd chain, so I was still living um in south carolina but I would go up there probably um every other week. I was in dc, so I'm very familiar with the washington navy yard at that and I actually enjoyed this. Dc for a long time was probably one of my favorite cities. It's the electricity in the air. I am a Southern boy born and raised, or what I raised my family down South. There's a change of pace that comes with being in cities like DC, so I did not foresee doing that at that juncture in my career. But we'll see what. We'll see what the tea leaves say going forward as of recent. See what the tea leaves say going forward as of recent. I have had some thoughts about where I could probably best provide value. That thought has come up, but we'll see. I still don't consider myself a politician. I'm a business guy who just thought that my skill set could help solve problems. Tbd on DC. Who worries? I'm skill set can help solve problems, so TVD on.

Speaker 1: 10:06

DC. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm.

Speaker 2: 10:25

I'm, you know well. I got invited to the White House in 2020. This was right before the pandemic. I was actually in my PhD program at the time. I was spending a good bit of time at Case Western Reserve University up in Ohio. I remember coming back from a trip. I remember coming back from a trip and I went to my email one day and I got an email that I was not anticipating and it was an invitation to the White House. I was named a gang changer by the White House in 2020. I must go ahead and say it, by the Trump administration, and I remember getting the email from the then White House policy advisor for entrepreneurship innovation. We had some administration changes so if I even told you the name, it probably wouldn't be as relevant because that person is not there anymore for obvious reasons. But I read the email and I felt like someone was pranking me me. I called my wife. I was like I just got this email invitation to the White House for a day of discussion around the expansion of opportunities for minorities. Then it was Black History Month, then it was a celebration for Black history, and I was like I didn't think it was real. So I read the email again. Did you have any tickets to go with it? Was there like no tickets? There was no tickets. It was just an invitation from our then President Trump to come to the White House and they had the date and it was an invitation. I still have the letter, I still have the invite and I went. It was great. Now, since then, I learned in. So I know I got my folks who are not fans of President Trump.

Speaker 2: 12:09

But earlier this year, back in January, again one of those same moments where I got pranked. I was notified in January. I was out of town. That's why I remember this vividly. I was out of town and I got a, a text message this time from someone who told me that I had was nominated last year for the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award and I found out back in January end of January that I had gotten the award.

Speaker 2: 12:40

So now we're working on if we're going to do a public celebration or not. So now we're working on if we're going to do a public celebration or not. I've already talked to the current mayor who's talking about giving us the award, because you know we're going through election season and we have to do a whole bunch of protocols and everything, if the current president, president Biden, doesn't mean there's some things happening in Washington right now. So I don't know if we're going to do a public celebration or not, but I was pranked again at least felt like it earlier this year to discover that I had gotten the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award for my work in this space. Thank you so much. So, yeah, that happened to me twice.

Speaker 1: 14:01

Wow, I didn't know, it was two places. That makes it even better, yeah. One last question on the political front. What advice would you give to somebody who is thinking about navigating the world of politics? What should they expect, what should they prepare for? What did you learn from your experience in that time? And then we'll move on to something else.

Speaker 2: 14:20

I'm going to say this when you were considering running, I had never considered running for politics, ever. Well, that's not true. I maybe had considered running after I retired you know, okay, late 50s, early 60s, hey, you didn't.

Speaker 2: 14:36

You didn't did your work. Let me go back and get back. That was always a thought I never thought and I figured out. You know, I think we set goals sometimes, especially goals like that. We always set them so far in the future and the right opportunity came along.

Speaker 2: 14:51

But the advice that I would give aspiring politicians is A get involved in your local political process. What do I mean? So, whether you're a conservative or liberal, republican or Democrat, get involved in the local party. They're available in most cities. There's normally a Republican party meeting or Democratic party meeting. Get involved with the local politics there. Understand what's happening on the party platform that you're with.

Speaker 2: 15:25

Start meeting other people in the space. And I would say this if you're considering a run and you know you're in your planning, it's not like me, I just jumped in the race, didn't learn, you know, trial by fire. If you know this is an aspiration, I would tell you to start getting involved in the community Sooner rather than later. I would start. You know if that's the boys club or if it's, you know, being a poll worker. Let people start understanding who you are in the space, in local politics, your popularity or the lack thereof could be a make or break. You have to understand that most people who engage in politics only engage when they have. To understand that most people who engage in politics only engage when they have to. I think they said the education level in the United States is most people read on an eighth grade level or less. Even if you read the paper, they write the paper where an eighth grader can understand the paper. So make sure you stay away from big words and plain talk. Be very reachable and touchable to the people and make sure people understand the platform you're running behind and why you. This should not be a vanity play. This should be a play where you really, really want to give back to the community and make it better than it was.

Speaker 2: 16:41

And I think a lot of politicians go into politics for the right reasons, but many are corrupted along the way. There's normally special interests and the such that are. You know they have their things, they want to get done, and I've seen many politicians who started out well-intentioned go in the opposite direction. So I would just admonish you to engage early, make sure your messaging is clear and I would even tell you that if you're really serious about this. Go help someone else who's running so you got your door knocking going at your doors someone else who's running a campaign. Go volunteer, understand what's involved. I knew none of this. I knew nothing about what they call phone banking or door knocking. Messaging Campaigns are very expensive, by the way.

Speaker 1: 17:30

Let me say this I've heard all the words of the force they are expensive.

Speaker 2: 17:35

So just make sure you got a strong base and the better you can to stay in front of the people and them get to know you first as a, as a involved citizen, I think the better that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 17:50

I like that.

Speaker 2: 17:50

All right, let's transition a little bit and I grew up in a household that strongly emphasized education.

Speaker 1: 17:55

My mom was a lifetime student with numerous degrees. You stayed in school. I'm like mom, what are you doing? You're like you're never here. I watched that grind up close, but you're clearly an educated man. I had this question for a while that I wanted to ask you. I got a lot of folks on here that want to hear this particular answer from you. Don't think about it. I'll ask you the question. But the question is what would you say to those who believe formal education is a sham or just a way to incur a massive loan debt? What do you think about that? Being an educated person like you are, I know how my mom would feel about it, because I know her.

Speaker 1: 18:24

I don't want to answer without even asking her. But what's your answer to that?

Speaker 2: 18:28

I think that's a narrow perspective. Okay, so let me unpack. I have a lot of degrees, and I do mean a lot of degrees, and I do mean a lot of them, other than maybe my first degree, my undergraduate education. I want to be a computer engineer. Before I even answer the question, let me say this Even in my own house with my children, I have two getting ready to go off to college. I got one going to the Citadel, I have one going to Clemson, and so I've always preached STEM education. So science, technology, engineering, math and you maybe can throw STEAM in there the arts.

Speaker 1: 19:10

Yeah, come on now.

Speaker 2: 19:11

Yeah, you know, the arts don't really get any love because they don't really quote unquote make money. So but you know now this but I do recognize the need for a strong humanities liberal education. But other than my undergraduate degree, I wanted to be an engineer. Didn't know any engineers in my family. My father's a pastor. We grew up in first struggle ministry. I grew up in a community college. My uncles hand me down I I know it all too well, so I went to school to escape poverty. If I'm just being honest, my very first degree I went to school to escape poverty and I believe that I was a great engineer, a good engineer, maybe not great, I was a good engineer and um, that was why that was my first motivation Every degree I got. After the fact, I did not pursue the degree quote unquote to move up, I pursued education to solve some of my own problems. So, for example, in 2010, I left federal service to start a government contract. I left federal service to start a government contract. We do cyber IT into language operations for DOD and intelligence community.

Speaker 2: 20:25

I knew that I knew nothing about business. You go to engineering school. You learn all about technology. I'm a computer engineer by training. So I knew how to code and I understood bits and bytes and Xcode and binary and all this stuff, circuits and electronics and all the things that you learn in an engineering program Calculus, one, two vector differential equations, linear algebra all of the things. I learned that. And so my first degree was me pushing that into my career. Every subsequent degree I got was solving a problem of mine. So, for example, I went and got an MBA because I understood I wanted to be an entrepreneur. That's a whole other story about how that came about, but I wanted to be an entrepreneur and I knew I knew nothing about entrepreneurship. So I got an MBA to solve start a new business problem and not wanting to fail.

Speaker 2: 21:22

After my MBA I got a master's in project management. I got a master's in project management because we were managing programs and projects for the federal government and I was trying to discover why some of my projects were more successful than others, was trying to discover why some of my projects were more successful than others. And so in order to manage something, my opinion you don't have to be an expert in it, but you need to understand something about it. Now I went through a lot of training through the government. I went through the Defense Acquisition University, got certifications in systems engineering, which is a collection of systems and how to integrate, and I got some training or certifications in program management. But what I learned very quickly was the skills I needed to be successful as a government employee were not the same skills I needed to be successful as a now defense contractor. Government contractors the rules of engagement were quite different. So I went and got another degree from Citadel in project management to better understand how to manage projects, set up what they call PMOs or program management offices.

Speaker 2: 22:29

My spouse passed away in 2014, so I went and got a PhD in 2023. I started in 2019 trying to figure out how all of the technology we have in the medical community, why that is, why is it that the case? But yet misdiagnosis and untimely death is still number three in the country with all of the technology we have. Again, I went and got a PhD because I was trying to answer some of my own questions. So I think education is great, but it needs to be properly balanced.

Speaker 2: 23:07

I do not even teach my kids that we go to school to get a good, safe, secure job, because that's just not the truth. I tell my kids we go to college to develop and refine ourselves and I really try to explain to them why does the educational system seem lackluster? In some ways, like as an engineer, you have to take calculus one, calculus two vector cal, differential equations, linear algebra because the school system doesn't have a good way of showing you how to solve difficult problems. So they make you go through these various difficult math and science subjects and, just like in math and science, you're given a certain amount of variables. You've got a certain amount of information and there's a little bit of information you don't have. How do I take what I do have to get the answer in the absence of what I don't have? And that's, I think math is one of the ways that education attempts. We can debate whether they do it well or not. It's not a framework for how to, how to how to solve difficult problems, and so I think if we explain that to our children, I think we might maybe not we may get a better outcome, at least a different perspective on how they look at education. But I think it's absolutely key. It makes you well-rounded, and I think I often talk about your financial success is often directly relational to how well you interact with others. No man or woman is an island unto themselves. So I don't even want to beat up the liberal education.

Speaker 2: 24:48

I'm doing an MDiv now at Duke, a master's in divinity. My father's a pastor, so I can't get away from my roots. But I'm finding that the MDiv is stretching me in ways that my business and my engineering education didn't. I'm a very quantitative thinker and more of the humanities, liberal arts education is now stretching me in different ways and I'm finding that I'm evolving because I'm having to look at different problem sets using a different part of my brain I'm a very quantitative analytical person, a different part of my brain. I'm a very quantitative analytical person and now I'm having to touch some of the abstractness that comes with some of these other subject matters like the humanities. I think it's super important to evolve as a person.

Speaker 1: 25:31

Yeah, I'm sure that this is helpful to those people who had that same question. I got multiple degrees so I'm not in a position to judge. I totally understand some of the feeling they have about education in general. Great, how you laid the answer. I appreciate it. So just a couple of entrepreneurship questions. I have a lot of background in that area too. I know you do so I definitely want to spend too much time because I know that we can roll on that. But every entrepreneur has a moment where they kind of figure out you know what. I'm in this nine to five. I'm in this system and it's time for me to break away. When's the right time? And all the questions that kind of plague somebody who has that entrepreneur spirit in them. I guess you could say so. Describe when you figured it out and what you did as brief as you can.

Speaker 2: 26:26

Kind of just explain. Explain, my story may be a little different. Um, okay, hi, this is good. In 2010, september, okay, I was supposed to quit my job. However, like many, uh, I got gripped with fear, so I actually did quit October 29th 2010. I walked away from federal service. Okay.

Speaker 2: 26:41

But to answer the question, I always say, if possible, if possible and it's not always possible if possible, create a soft landing for you and your entrepreneurial journey. I mean, as we all know, business has its ebbs and flows, its ups and its downs. When it's high, it's real high. When it's low, it can be really really low. So, if possible, create a soft landing for yourself, meaning I've had friends who kept working their nine to five until the business got to a certain level where the business could then take care of them. That's not always possible, but if you're in that situation, again, create a soft landing so you reduce the amount of stress that we place on our families. Financial insecurity really can test a relationship. Now, if you, if you're not married and you're single and you can tolerate more risk, you can be. You can be a lot more loose with that. But, as much as possible, create a safe landing If you know you're on a trajectory and I'm also going to say this if your partner, your spouse, is not on board, think very carefully about that jump.

Speaker 2: 27:51

If we cannot convince our spouses and I know we're men here but if we can't convince our spouses to in our vision, maybe that vision needs to be further refined so that the people that we love, the people who love us, who want to see us succeed, can get behind it. If I'm having a difficult time convincing my spouse that this is a great idea, this person loves me and wants me to succeed, I may have difficulty explaining to a stranger why they can support me. We got to really understand. Is it that I'm received? Is it that my spouse is against this? It could be a best friend, whomever is close to you that can speak into your life. Or is it that this idea just needs further refinement? I think sometimes, anytime we hear rejection, we automatically take it as negative criticism. The person is not supporting me. I think sometimes, anytime you hear rejection, we automatically take it as negative criticism. The person is not supporting me, and it may not be that at all. Maybe, and sometimes we jump too soon.

Speaker 2: 28:48

Do you have an understanding of the business environment. Do we understand what the value proposition is for the business? Sometimes there just needs to be some more work done. Do we understand the vision and the mission? The vision and the mission helps us govern who we are as an organization. It may be a great idea but, based on what I say I want this business to be, it may not be the right decision for this business. And then the value proposition tells the community hey, these are the things that I'm proposing. I'm going to provide value to you. So we as entrepreneurs do not get to determine if our services or products are valuable. That is a determination made by our customers. And so I think just really kind of putting some things in perspective and just really just doing the work to make sure that our messaging is clear and that people can understand what we're doing and get behind it or not. And someone not getting behind it is not a negative thing. That just may not be your customer, but I can spend all day there so I'm going to stop.

Speaker 1: 29:45

I know you can, because I can too. That was gold. I wish we could spend more time on that because that, right there, it hits me in a whole bunch of different ways because, being an entrepreneur, I had a whole bunch of great ideas, some fleshed out, some not. Fleshing it out is important. Put it like that before you have a business plan, you need to make sure that no, your spouse understands the plan too. You can't flesh it out. Put more work in. I love that. Okay, I listened to some of your uh podcast episodes. My question how, what kind of time frame they were in? Business profits success prescription confessions of a christian business. Describe the term business profit that you use many times.

Speaker 2: 30:31

You did some homework. Okay, that was a podcast. Did you expect something different from me? No, no, I didn't. I don't get asked that question.

Speaker 2: 30:41

I have kind of put the business profit podcast aside, but here's the premise. The premise behind it was oftentimes, when we are business people, we put aside our spiritual innings. Oftentimes I see people compartmentalize, which I teach compartmentalization. But however, we compartmentalize our business life and our spiritual life and I believe those two things are supposed to come together. And so the whole premise behind that was showing entrepreneurships how to basically live out their Christianity in business. I think oftentimes we leave them to the side and we should. We should definitely bring those two worlds together. So I have a confession I am working toward my second doctorate in theology and this is where I believe my life's work is.

Speaker 2: 31:42

I believe my life's work is to show entrepreneurs how to live out their spirituality in entrepreneurship. So it's kind of two-pronged to that next project of mine. It's A that part, the ethical underpinnings of what does it mean to be a Christian business person, and then part two is what does it mean to have Christian capitalism? And so those are the two things I'm seeking to explore. This is a future project, but those are the two things I'm seeking to explore. Oftentimes, capitalism is demonized, and it's been demonized since we got away from the postmodern era after 1960, where we got the ethical underpinnings away. Here's a fun fact for your audience Most of the Ivy League schools that we have today started out as seminaries.

Speaker 2: 32:36

So they didn't have to put as much emphasis on the ethical underpinnings back then because it was rooted in some type of biblical foundation Harvard, dartmouth, yale, pick your Ivy. It probably started out as a seminary. John harvard was a pastor. Harvard started out of the seminary and out of the seminary came out business, politics, international relations, all the different programs that harvard is known for today.

Speaker 2: 33:01

And I think we can all are we can all agree that a lot of our ivy League institutions have gotten away from those core foundational premises. But if all of that can emerge from a biblical leaning, then how much more can that happen today? So I think after the postmodern era, after the 1960s, we in many ways we divested of the Christian ethos that govern business and a lot of things that we didn't have, we didn't have to discuss in the thirties and forties and fifties that related to business. We found ourselves disentangling that web and now we haven't to have classes on ethics because we've just gotten away from the, from the Christian. So so that that's my next project. Okay, I'm actually interested in some parts of Okay, that sounds pretty exciting.

Speaker 1: 33:50

I'm actually interested in some parts of that. It's pretty cool. All right, so one last question in the realm of entrepreneurship. I think it's the last question In the realm of entrepreneurship and you mentioned government contracting multiple times.

Speaker 1: 34:02

I was a government contractor over I don't know if I can say the place where I was at, oh man, I'll just say I was over in North Charleston on the old Navy base doing government contract work I'll just leave it at that Doing passports and all that. That probably gave it away already. Do you feel that government contracting is a viable entrepreneurship avenue? If you do, what do you feel that government contracting is a a viable entrepreneurship avenue and if you do, why do you think that that is as opposed to something else?

Speaker 2: 34:37

no, I absolutely do um. First of all, I've been in government contracting since I was 17. I've never, worked for hardy's, or now it would be chick-fil-A or Taco Bell back in my day. I never worked for those places. My very first job was working for the Department of Energy. Specifically, I worked for Westinghouse and Bechtel. Started in high school, worked all the way through college, of course, went on the government side after college and then, of course, started my own government contracting firm and left federal service 2010, 2011-ish.

Speaker 2: 35:13

So I absolutely think it's a very valuable form of business. Ok, last year, the the budget was one point eight trillion. Actually, it's this year. That's why 24. One point eight trillion and that was in discretionary budget, not mandatory. If you look at the mandatory versus the discretionary, which is the total government budget, you've seen about $4.5 trillion of money being spent.

Speaker 2: 35:39

If we get to a spot where the federal government cannot pay their bills, we're in a bad spot. So the government buys almost everything, and I do mean almost everything. I have a friend I'll tell the story. There's a friend of mine who does landscaping services for the federal government. He does about 30 million a year probably a little more than that now doing landscape design Incredible Got a horticulture degree, which is basically you know how do things grow. You got a degree in horticulture and he is doing about $30 to $40 million a year cutting grass.

Speaker 2: 36:14

So I definitely believe it's a valuable tool. I think a lot of the Fortune 500 companies that we look at today, including Amazon, including Tesla they're all government contractors. Spacex they got contracts with NASA. A lot of the companies that we don't even think about have their toe in the government pond somewhere, some more than others. Microsoft, google they're all government contractors. So if you're in business and you're not looking at the government market, it could be a huge opportunity that you're missing. It's harder for me to tell you what the government does not buy than what they do buy.

Speaker 1: 36:52

Yeah, I like that. Okay, so, although we were acquainted prior, we've grown closer to a work that we've been doing in a very specific ministry. I don't know if we can get into this, but I'd love for you to share more about what led you to invest so much of your life into this area and how it's changed you by being a part of this ministry. Can you? Share a little bit about that.

Speaker 2: 37:13

Yeah, are you talking about the deliverance ministry? Are you talking about the ministry we go to?

Speaker 1: 37:17

Yeah, both.

Speaker 2: 37:22

I grew up a PK. I've been a part of some of what many would consider to be mega churches in and throughout the North Charleston, south Carolina area. I've seen a lot of stuff. I also was a part of a mega ministry in Atlanta. If I called the name, many of you guys would know it. I watched this on television for many years and had an opportunity to join and be part of the parish ministry there.

Speaker 2: 37:48

Actually, I had met after I met my wife, and so I'd seen a lot of stuff and really got to a point where I was done with religion not God, but done with religion, done with some of the what's the word I'm looking for? Done with some of the just politics of religion and some of the things that I saw. Quite frankly, it bothered me and again, growing up in church, what it also helped me see was how honorable my own father was as a pastor compared to the things I was seeing. I think sometimes they talk about a prophet. Jesus had honor everywhere, but in his own hometown, I think. I got very familiar with my father and did not realize how unique he was compared to what I was going to eventually see. So, through a quest and a search, I found myself no longer in Atlanta, georgia, back in Charleston, south Carolina, and very aware that I wanted something different, and so that's how I found myself at North Palm, and at North Palm I feel like we have great leadership.

Speaker 2: 39:01

I like the direction that the ministry is going in as a whole. There's no such thing as a perfect ministry. Every ministry has people, including myself, and so no ministry is perfect. But when you see the heart of people and you see what they're trying to do and the love for God and being selfless and not selfish, that was a vision I can get behind. So my wife is very much a very active deliverance ministry. There's a whole story about how that came about.

Speaker 2: 39:33

I was drafted by proxy, but you know, the thing that I find most fulfilling about deliverance ministry which is just kind of code word for spiritual warfare the thing that I feel I find most fulfilling about deliverance ministry for me personally is seeing men get free. You know, if you go to a church, you're always going to see the women. The women are going to be there, they're going to support the ministry, they're going to volunteer, they're going to do all the things, and we all know that women are the backbone of many ministries, absolutely and absolutely. And for me, seeing men get free through from their bondages, it's the most liberating and the most satisfying thing that matters. And we know that this physical where we live in is, the bible tells us, the subject of change. And the real world is what we see spiritually, which we can't really see with our eyes. But when you see men overcome 20, 30, 40 years of bondage and become who they were really called and fashioned to be, that's what's most rewarding.

Speaker 2: 40:38

That's more rewarding to me than the business success we've had, than the awards, the accolades and the degrees. All that stuff is going to fade away. What's most rewarding to me is seeing men find and connect and walk in their true purpose, and one of the ways they do that is through deliverance ministry.

Speaker 1: 40:57

I agree and I stand on all of that stuff. Starting something new has its own inherent challenges. We know that. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 41:07

I want to kind of get behind the curtain a little bit, because that's just what I do. No matter what I'm doing on this podcast, I always try to get behind the curtain and get a little deeper. What frustrates you about this ministry? Now, I'm asking that because not to throw shade and dirt, but I want people to be able to see that it's not all peaches and cream when it comes to doing something like this. There's a lot of things that we have to before we can diagnose it and fix it. We got to first acknowledge that it's there. I want to acknowledge the frustration that comes with something like this for those people who are maybe in the living ministry with us or in their own in their ministries, or they have an interest in it. I want them to get an idea of what it looks like to be frustrated with something like this and why or where the frustration may come from. Does that make sense?

Speaker 2: 41:55

No, that's a fair question. I believe the frustration comes from the ignorance associated with the topic. I think sometimes people think they know what deliverance ministry is. They never really peek behind the hood. I think another frustrating thing about deliverance ministry is when people don't spend time learning the art of deliverance ministry but they want to assist you in deliverance ministry and sometimes their well intentions um, their well intentions can be dangerous In spiritual warfare.

Speaker 2: 42:30

People can leave here and so this is not a game. This is something we take very seriously and sometimes people just don't want to put time in the craft and it's not something that we just do haphazardly. There are some things we do very deliberately to make sure we're placing ourselves in a position to be a vehicle in which God can use in that time, because there's a spiritual war happening in the heavens. As a matter of fact, we did a session yesterday with a good friend of mine, a friend of our family, and the Deliverance Ministry team helped us and one of the illustrations that was used I think was very timely. I'll just share it here. That was used, I think was very timely, I'll just share it here. We explained to the individual that we were getting ready to take through this deliverance ministry, spiritual warfare experience. We explained to him that what we see in the natural is subject to change. We explained that what we were getting ready to do was actually enter into the spiritual realm and there was going to be a war in the heavens. Although you can't see the war, there is a battle for your soul. And so we explained to this person, who was not raised in church, maybe didn't even understand all of this thing we call Christianity and spiritual warfare we explained that we were getting ready to war for their soul and fight for their destiny. And so that's what we're doing when we enter into deliverance.

Speaker 2: 43:50

You know, oftentimes, just because of life, we get bound up by different bondages and different obstacles, whether it's pornography or addiction or rejection or abandonment or, you know, self-esteem issues. We don't really know who we are because life maybe had to beat us up, not recognizing that. The scriptures are very clear we don't fight against flesh and blood, but we fight against spiritual wickedness in high places and against the hierarchy of the spiritual world. And so the frustration sometimes is people not recognizing that life is more spiritual than it is natural and we get caught up by these distractions of what we see with our eyes and we think those things define us and so really helping people just understand who they truly are and walking them through the process and you know.

Speaker 2: 44:40

Another frustration is sometimes people think that you know when they come over and walk into a spiritual life. They believe that in an instant and it can happen in an instant. But many people believe in an instant that 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years of bad decisions, that in 30 seconds they're supposed to be totally delivered and set free. And that's just not the truth. It took you 30, 40, 50, 60, sometimes 70 years to create just in your life and making sure people understand that this is a process. Now, it's not going to take you 60, 50, 30, 40 years to get free. No, but it's. It may take more than two hours.

Speaker 1: 45:20

It's going to take more than two hours. That's that's. That's a safe bet.

Speaker 2: 45:25

It's going to take more than two hours. It's going to take more than two hours. You know it may. It may take and it may be some additional things that we're going to maybe ask you to do and walk through to, not only to obtain your freedom but to maintain it, and oftentimes it requires a reconditioning and rewiring of the mind and kind of how we see this thing we call life and cooperating and collaborating with it and not walking in opposition to it. So those are just a couple of things.

Speaker 1: 45:57

That's really helpful. If it's not helpful, I don't know why it don't help. But we had a theme of education so far in this discussion and what you said about the deliverance ministry, and I think about that with the political part as well. People don't want to take the time to educate themselves. As a matter of fact, if the comparison is not fair, I see a lot in podcasts too. You know, people look at this whole entire medium and they look at it like oh, you know what Anybody can do. It Just get a microphone and a computer and press record and just say stuff and everything would be great. But it's like it's. So. I'm, I'm, I'm fortunate with that myself, because I feel like what we do here goes a lot deeper than that. I believe we bring something like just even beyond the faith-based part. I think we just bring more uh, thought-provoking materials to the table, uh, more uh ideas to the table, more ideas to the table than that. When they lump you together with everybody else, it's really, really bad.

Speaker 1: 46:55

I get what you're saying about the deliverance ministry, because people want to do stuff, but they don't want to do the thing that allows them to have the power to do the stuff. That's where a big challenge is for me. That's's kind of just me, my little chance to vent for a minute there, but I'm going to ask you a few more questions and then we'll go ahead and let you enjoy the rest of your day. But I'm not sure if work-life balance is a real thing. That's something we can have a debate about, I guess. But how do you handle your role, leaving your family, your education and the work you're doing in the marketplace too, and, of course, the ministry as well? How are you handling balancing that? Cause there's some people who are listening, who are probably having the struggle of juggling a lot of balls, and they get overwhelmed and even shut down and they don't know how to handle it. They have breakdowns even. I see this on my especially on my Twitter page. So how are you, how are you handling that and how can you help?

Speaker 2: 47:47

That's a real challenge, but I think I think it comes with conversation. So I know, typically know when we're getting ready to enter a busy season and I think it's a matter of just talk about the family for a minute. I think it's a matter of having conversations with the family. So, hey, you know, the next three months are going to be extremely busy. I may not be able to do all the things that I used to do for this period of time, and give me grace. And after we're done we're going to do A, b, c and D and try to be as honest and set a time limit. It cannot be, you know, you take on some new thing and you just disengage from your family forever. That's. That's not cool. But I think we all have seasons and we need to just communicate to our families. And I'm going to pick on families because normally, where you see the neglect happening and say, hey, you know, that is getting ready to do this, and sometimes you know not that you have to ask your children and your wife for permission. But I think you should, because you want them to buy in. You want them to buy in and you never want them to grow up and feel like so many of us have felt that our parents intentionally, unintentionally none of them was intentional neglected you or neglected the relationship because they were chasing X. And this is what a lot of PKs tell me. I talked to a lot of PKs, I'm a PK. A lot of PKs feel like they were not prioritized because anytime that the church had a need, their family had to respond. And I don't think any child. We don't want to create bondages and create scars for our family members. So I think it's just having healthy conversation about hey, this is what I want to do and this is what I'm feeling led to do, and having the conversation. And then, when you have that conversation, be open to what you may hear. And then, when you have that conversation, be open to what you may hear.

Speaker 2: 49:50

I remember getting ready to pursue yet another degree after I got my PhD, another one, another one, because I just love knowledge. I was preparing to transition in my career More from an entrepreneur to an investor and it's a different skill set and some different stuff that you kind of just need to do that successfully. I remember having a conversation with my spouse and that conversation didn't go well and I had to acknowledge that. Okay, this is going to cause problems in my relationship, and so I had to be willing to hear what I heard, although it went counter to what I wanted to do. I remember expressing to my spouse saying well, I'm doing this because this is in the best interest of the family. Long-term, this is what we're trying to do.

Speaker 2: 50:43

I had this very solid plan and my wife was just against it and I had to be willing to open up and listen to God. Tell me, I want you to go this way. And so we ended up pivoting and going a different direction and everything I thought I needed going the other way. I got going the other way and my wife was completely on board with that. So I think if you have a spiritual spouse and they are doing what's in the best interest of the relationship and hopefully whatever God's leading directions for your life, you have that, if you're fortunate to have a spiritual partner, I think we should just listen to them. And so I listened to my wife, I went a different direction and what I actually thought I was going to get doing A, I did B, and everything that I thought A was going to give give me, b gave me, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 51:33

It doesn't.

Speaker 2: 51:34

I think. I think it's just setting boundaries in our lives, healthy boundaries that we can stick to Like. For us, sunday is family day, so typically I go to, we go to, we go, we go to church, we worship, we're going to probably go out and eat after that and we watch movies and stuff on Sundays, our day. So I think you just have dedicated times where you do things and, as your life gets more busy, there may need to be more structure around the boundaries that you create for your children and for your wives and for the other things that you want to do. I think we all need to have hobbies, so I think we just have to create boundaries and structure around that and make sure no one is feeling overlooked. I think it's extremely important, but I think it just goes with the conversation. Yeah, I definitely had to.

Speaker 1: 52:25

I had to repent in the past and I have to currently repent because I got three daughters and they've all gone through that mill. Yeah, I think I was active in ministry. I was doing a lot of the roles that you would think ministry would entail. I was doing four, five, six of them at the same time and my wife was probably doing about two or three of them or four of them herself, right. So we drove the kids around different places, traveling and kind of stuff, and you know it leaves a mark. It is.

Speaker 1: 52:51

So we had to really, uh, you know, apologize for a lot of that stuff. I mean, those past issues don't get erased for the apology. But you know, those are the kind of things that we're working through and everybody's working on their testimony. So it's all good, we're going in the right direction, but that's that's what's happening's happening. A couple of fun questions I want to ask you before we go ahead and close it out for the day what are your three favorite foods? I wouldn't know this for me. This is just for me to know Three.

Speaker 2: 53:19

I would have to say the top of the list is anything Mexican.

Speaker 1: 53:25

I love anything.

Speaker 2: 53:27

I would never just burritos.

Speaker 1: 53:30

A third is always taco. That's not, that's not a big stretch, that's.

Speaker 2: 53:33

That's that's my thing, man. I love Mexican food, I love Japanese food. So sushi, hibachi, that's my thing. And then, um, I would probably say the third food group would be anything Thai. So pad Thai, drunken noodle I'm a foodie, man, drunken noodle.

Speaker 1: 53:55

I mean, I got a culinary background. I'm a foodie too, but drunken noodle is a term I've never heard before.

Speaker 2: 54:00

Drunken noodle is a nice alternative to Pad Thai, so Pad Thai is my number one when we talk about the Thai category. Dude, I love food'm like I love food, man that's okay.

Speaker 1: 54:13

There's no shame in that game. I'm just coming out. I'm I'm surprised about some of that because so so I had to.

Speaker 2: 54:19

If I had to, if I had to specify number one would probably be tacos um people.

Speaker 1: 54:27

Number two oh, I love sushi um, I don't to a point I can't do. I can't do the eel stuff and I'm not. I don't want that. I don't know.

Speaker 2: 54:38

I love it, um, I'm gonna say sushi and seafood. So there's a great fish spot that, uh, in my, in my hometown, called johnny's fish market in augusta. Great fish, great fish, fried, um boneless, amazing. And then last would probably be the uh, you know, kind of asian fusion stuff. One of my favorite restaurants, not high end, would be a place called cold downtown um, great food, great food right there off king street.

Speaker 1: 55:10

Great food I got, I got. I got super hungry super fast. How'd that happen? But I know that one of your favorite actors in the world is denzel washington. Yeah, I'd love to know your favorite movie that he starred in, and why is your favorite? That's an easy one, but I want everybody to hear the story behind it.

Speaker 2: 55:30

American Gangster is my favorite. Wait, wait, wait. You sure that's it. I got a bunch of them, but that's one of them, that's not the one you should. Okay, it's in the top. It's in the top, it's in the top. Well, it's a couple of them. I like the equalizer.

Speaker 1: 55:45

Denzel got some bangers. No, not. There was another movie that you mentioned that you liked, and there was a story behind it. Now we pivoting, now it's all good. Which movie did I mention? It was like a, it was like a military. Oh man, you messed that up for me, brother. So thank you for that man.

Speaker 2: 56:03

Go ahead man.

Speaker 1: 56:04

American Gangster.

Speaker 2: 56:06

It's one of my favorite movies by Denzel. Okay, my grandfather was a moonshiner. Okay, I'm just fascinated by business people. So any business movies I've seen I've seen Wall Street 1, wall Street 2, boiling Point, margin Call Any kind of business movie or gangster movie is up there for me.

Speaker 1: 56:41

Are you watching it by yourself or is somebody watching it with you?

Speaker 2: 56:43

I can watch it by myself.

Speaker 1: 56:45

That's what I thought.

Speaker 2: 56:46

I can watch it by myself. I did get my kids to watch, my wife and kids to watch the movie Dumb Money about where the game stock stock was being basically risen up through the reddit post and it was pretty cool. So all the business movies, all the gangster movies, so Scarface Godfather 1, 2, 3. That's my jam.

Speaker 1: 57:14

I got a question about that then. My number two favorite movie of all time nobody co-signs this with me except on my Twitter. I got massive followers out there. That's the Untouchables. I consider that a gangster movie. Some people don't, but I do. Number two all time never changed, can't get out of that spot. Number one is just locked and you can't move Tombstone out of the way. Untouchables, gangster movie. You like that one? I?

Speaker 2: 57:39

don't know if I've seen.

Speaker 1: 57:40

Untouchables. Excuse me.

Speaker 2: 57:43

I don't remember this movie.

Speaker 1: 57:47

You got free time today, right? Yeah, you need to get in there, sir. I don't know if I've seen that and if I do, if I did see it, that was a classic.

Speaker 2: 57:53

If I have seen it, I don't remember it that was classic man.

Speaker 1: 57:56

I think it was like what, was it 87? I don't remember. It's Kevin Costner and Robert De Niro man. What are you talking about?

Speaker 2: 58:05

I don't know this is concerning I don't know, can you? I'm a gangster.

Speaker 1: 58:13

Not a face. Can you go watch Untouchables and get it back with me and let me know how you like it?

Speaker 2: 58:18

I would do.

Speaker 1: 58:19

Thank you. All right, I love the discussion, man. This was awesome. Man, I know that there are some resources that I think you probably wouldn't mind sharing in the government contracting realm. Do you have anything you'd like to share? Of course, we'd be open to do that also on the YouTube channel in the comments section. Some resources on your contracting website, your business site.

Speaker 2: 58:41

Absolutely. I think the two big ones is, of course, for anybody out there who's watching, who are interested in the government contracting space, I do have a youtube channel called dr curtis jr. It's my youtube channel. You can type in my name, it'll come right up. I got about 100 plus videos on various aspects of government contracting, all free, definitely subscribe. Hit the notification bell and then our big teaching platform is Eight Figure the number eight. Eight Figure GovCon. The GovCon is the short acronym for government contracting. So Eight Figure GovCon dot com. Great site. Go to our stores tab. You'll see some of the content that we have from a government contracting perspective. Definitely check that out. Give me a follow on LinkedIn. I think I'm up close to 30,000 followers. I think somewhere around 27,000 followers on LinkedIn. So LinkedIn, youtube and the 8 Figure Gov kind of channels how you can connect with me if you choose to.

Speaker 2: 59:45

Awesome Well this was a great conversation, man. Thank you again for joining us.

Speaker 1: 59:53

I'm sure there's some education that went forth to our people. I look forward to hearing their comments because they're probably going to send me a whole bunch of them. So I'm looking forward to hearing that. If you haven't already, please subscribe to the show yourself so you can kind of see what's going on. I want you to stay in touch with what's going to be happening, the response to this episode today and, of course, Dr Curtis. He's going to go ahead and drop those resources in the comment section under this episode on our YouTube channel. He'll drop the links once you get the YouTube channel link and the LinkedIn link and, of course, the one to his Jeff Klein website as well.

Speaker 1: 1:00:19

So thank you again for joining us. Everybody's listening. Please forward your comments to us on the YouTube channel at. They call me, Mr. You would love to hear from you guys and hear what you think about this episode and any further questions for Dr Curtis. We can get all those sent to the YouTube channel. I'll get them in his hands him personally. So thank you again for listening, for joining us. We appreciate it and thanks for joining the show. We'll be right back.