***Blast From The Past*** Entrepreneurship, Local Leadership, And A Faith-Driven Playbook For Change

Hey, Friends and Family.

Even in the months of the podcast season when things are slow, we got content for you. Our team thought it a great idea to start reviewing previous (but timely) episodes of our show during the times that Mista Yu is away from the microphone. All of these episodes (or beautiful Blasts from the Past) were previously broadcasted but we are sharing them with you for a time that you might need it most. Hope you enjoy!

If you’ve ever wondered where change really happens, this conversation makes the case for getting closer to the ground. We sit down with Dr. Curtis Merriweather Jr.—engineer turned entrepreneur, self-funded mayoral candidate, and ministry leader—to trace a path from Navy labs to city hall hopes to a mission that blends strategy with conviction. Curtis explains why he aimed for the mayor’s seat: it’s an executive role where decisions move from talk to action and results show up on the block. He’s candid about what self-funding taught him about independence, optics, and the power of community buy-in.

We go deep on education as a tool rather than a trophy. Curtis frames every post-grad degree as a targeted solution: an MBA to decode business after engineering, project management to stabilize federal programs, and a PhD driven by tough questions about healthcare outcomes. He argues for a balanced stack—STEM for rigorous problem-solving, humanities for ethics and perspective—so leaders can make good choices under pressure. On entrepreneurship, he shares how to create a “soft landing,” get alignment at home, and sharpen the value proposition that customers actually validate.

Then we open the door to the federal marketplace. With $1.8 trillion in discretionary spend, government contracting is a massive, often overlooked lane. From tech giants to landscaping firms, the government buys almost everything. Curtis offers practical entry points, common pi

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Chapters

• 1:08 Man of Many Talents
• 8:48 Navigating the World of Politics
• 19:32 The Value of Education
• 26:08 The Intersection of Business and Spirituality
• 36:07 Government Contracting and Deliverance Ministry
• 48:23 Balancing Work, Family, and Ministry
• 55:17 Culinary Preferences and Favorite Films
• 1:01:47 Engaging With Audience Feedback

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:19

Thanks again for listening to one on one with Mr. You and your inspiration station. I'm willing to sign up today's episode and share to share another company with all of you. I'm willing to share your mum. Let's not wait another minute. Wherever you are and however you're listening today, call me Mr. You. Thank you again for making us a part of your morning, your day, and your week with your weekly merit check before you change the world. Coming in this morning, hot and heavy, Dr. Curtis Merriweather Jr. One about one-on-one. Good morning, sir. How are you? I'm good.

SPEAKER_00: 1:28

How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_02: 1:30

I'm good, good, good. Gonna hear a lot about this man, but he's a man and many hats, man. But I'm excited for him to share some of that stuff with you guys. So if you don't mind, Curtis, a quick background on you, your time in Augusta, just kind of kind of gives an idea of what your life would like coming around.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44

That's good. No, I'm from Augusta, Georgia. My father is a pastor, so I am a PK. Um, I left Augusta, went to University of South Carolina, uh, 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, had some very uh 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_02: 2:19

All right, man. Well, there's a lot going on now. I want to get into some of that stuff, if not all of it. You differ a man of many talents, but 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 of your life?

SPEAKER_00: 2:38

You know, 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 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. Um, he has some, he got, he got some work to do. Um, but I believe everything, I believe everything is possible without question.

SPEAKER_02: 3:33

You could have went a lot of routes to on the political side to I guess maybe make some of those changes uh more realistic. Why'd you pick mayor out of the other option? You could have done 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_00: 3:49

Absolutely. I honestly believe I'm a great manager um in order to bring change. And so the mayor role is an executive job, it's a management job. Um, I think that's where you really see real change. So, you know, if you just kind of talk about it from 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. Um, we know that policy takes a little longer, very important, but takes a little longer. And so I felt like based on my skill set, based on my background, my entrepreneurial ship uh 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 gonna see those changes fairly quickly. Um if a mayor makes a change, it's not gonna take as long for the ship to turn as it would in the legislative process. So we're talking about Senate, um, Congress, U.S., 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 and we got a presidential election coming up this year. When presidents make changes, um, 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 we recognize that, but I really feel the decisions that my school board's making, that the state legislator or general assembly is making, I'm gonna feel those first. And so it's closer to the home front. So that was kind of my my logic. That makes sense. Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 5:43

I got a lot of friends that uh have tried to do the same thing, get involved where politics has been kind of the some of their dreams and stuff. You people are 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?

SPEAKER_00: 6:00

Did that make sense? Yeah, that's the only way I was gonna run. Um, and one of the things that might have been counterproductive in hindsight, I self-funded my entire campaign. Oh wow, I know it's good and it's to some it may be viewed as bad. And I'm extra I'm kind of unpack why. Um it means sometimes that you haven't gotten buy-in from the local constituent base when you self-fund. So you do maintain a level of control. So for me, it was 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 but because of that, you're kind of a long ranger, but that's the way that was how I wanted to do it. Um, don't get me wrong, I got we got some support. Um, and we did have a pretty to say it was my first time running. Um, we did actually do quite well by many people's standards. I did that. That community buy-in at a larger extent could have been greater. Um, but you know, one of the big things, especially in local politics, is um 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 um 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 gonna hear the plan, hear the strategy. Um, we even went on our website, we was running and we really did videos where we kind of at a very high level. I knew people weren't gonna sit there and watch an hour video me talking about one specific topic, but we went and did quick, you know, five to 15-minute videos where we addressed what my overarching plan was to address the different areas that I felt were plaguing um the city. And I was hopeful that people heard the message. And so it's so you know, the 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. Uh we'll we'll see what's coming in the future from a political standpoint.

SPEAKER_02: 8:13

Okay, well, that's that's kind of a good uh stick right to my next question because I got because I have 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 thick reasons why you probably don't want to live in DC, but that 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 that DC ever a part of the plan?

SPEAKER_00: 8:38

It wasn't, it wasn'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 armed for the Navy, they've now gone through a name change. They call themselves the Naval Information Warfare Center. And I'm with you, NAV Ware talking. Anyone knows names? Nav war, I know another one. I don't know. Same same, they just went through a name change about four or five years ago. So when I worked for the Navy, um, 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 office. I know the government has acronym suit, 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 DC. DC for a long time was probably one of my favorite cities, just the electricity in the air. Um, I am a Southern boy, uh born and raised. I raised my family down south. Uh, 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. Um, as of recent, I have had some thoughts about um where I could probably best um provide value. And so that thought has come up, but we'll see. I don't still don't consider myself a politician, I'm a business guy who just thought that my skill set could help solve problems. So TVD on DC. Don't worry, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 10:24

Don't worry, that sounds good though. I'm I'm invested in you hanging around, sorry. But I'd love for you to share on the White House prank if you can. I just not alone sound like it's like, oh boy, here we go. But yeah. Well, no, no, you know what?

SPEAKER_00: 10:40

I I got in um invited to the watch to the to the White House in 2020. This was right before the pandemic. I was actually uh in my PhD program at the time. Um, I was spending a good bit of time at Case Western Reserve University up in Ohio. And I remember becoming 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 game changer by the White House in 2020. I'm gonna go ahead and say it by the Trump administration. And I remember getting the email from the then White House policy advisor for entrepreneurship and innovation. Of course, we had some administration changes, so if I even told you the name, it probably wouldn't be as relevant because that person's not there in that seat anymore for obvious reasons. But I read the email and I felt like someone was pranking me. It's like I called my wife. I was like, I just got this email invitation to the White House um for a day of discussion around the expansion of opportunities for minorities. Then it was uh Black History Month, then it was a celebration for Black History, and I was like, I didn't think it was real. Uh so I read the email again. You had any tickets to go with it? Was it like a ticket? It was no tickets, it was just it was it was it was an invitation from our then president Trump to come to the White House. Well, and they had the date, and it was a little invitation. I still have the letter, I still have the invite, and I went. It was it was great. Now, since then, I learned in uh so I know I got more folks who are not you know fans of President Trump, but earlier this year, back in January, again, one of those same moments where I felt like I got pranked. I was notified in January. Uh, I was out of town. That's why I remember this vividly. I was out of town and I had got a text message this time from someone who told me that I had was nominated last year for the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award under Biden, and I found out back in January, end of January, that I had gotten the award. So now we're working on if we're gonna 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 we're going through uh election season, and we have to do a whole bunch of protocols and everything if current president, um, president Biden does it. And then that's you know some things happening in Washington right now. So I don't know if we're gonna do a public celebration or not, but I 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. Congratulations in this place. Thank you so much. So um, so I get that happened to me twice. Wow, I didn't know I didn't know it was too pranced.

SPEAKER_02: 13:39

That makes it even better. Yeah, one last uh question on the political front. Uh, 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? Then we'll move on to something else. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Hey guys, it's Mr. You. You know how much Mr. You loves his coffee. I think I found the answer for all you guys that are health conscious but still love coffee, strong coffee company. 15 grams of high quality protein, check, sustain energy throughout the day, check no jitters and crashes, check stress relievers like Ashwagonda for your morning commute, check and double check. It's also good for your skin. Come on now. A healthy alternative that actually tastes good. I've arranged the highest exclusive discount for my listeners. Use the promo code strongcoffeecompany.com forward slash discount forward slash TCMY. That's what they call me, Mr. You. StrongCoffeeCompany.com forward slash discount forward slash T C M M Y. The link is also in the show notes. Check out Strong Coffee. Let me know what you think.

SPEAKER_00: 15:37

You know, I'ma say this. When you're considering running, I I had never considered running for politics ever. Well, that's not true. I maybe had considered running after I retired. You know, late 50s, early 60s. Hey, you didn't win in, 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 uh the right opportunity came along. But the advice that I would give aspiring um politicians is a get involved in your local um political process. What do I mean? So whether you're uh conservative or liberal, republican or democrat, get involved in the local party. They're available in most cities. Uh there's normally a um 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, start meeting other people in the in the space. And I would say this if you're considering a run and you know you're and you're 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. Um, I would start, you know, if that's the boys' club, or if it's you know, being a pole worker, let people start understanding who you are in the space. In local politics, your popularity or the like 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. I think they said the um the education level in the United States is most people read on an eighth grade level or less. Even if you like, you read the paper, they write the they write the paper where eighth grader can understand the paper. So make sure you stay 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. 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 interest in 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, um, go in the opposite direction. So I would just advo admise you to engage early, make sure your messaging is clear. Um, and I would even tell you that if you're really serious about this, go help someone else who's running. So, you know, you got your door knocking, um, you know, going at your doors, go someone else who's running a campaign, go go volunteer, understand what's involved. I knew none of this, I knew nothing about you know what they call phone banking or door knocking, um messaging. Campaigns are very expensive, by the way. Let me say this. Okay, all the little terms of course are expensive. 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 uh as an involved citizen, I think the better. That makes sense. I like that.

SPEAKER_02: 19:08

Yeah, all right. Let's transition a little bit. I grew up in a household that strongly emphasized education. My mom was a lifetime student with numerous degrees. She stays in school. I'm like, mom, what are you doing? Like never here. So 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. So think about it. 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, I know her answer without even asking her, but what's your answer to that?

SPEAKER_00: 19:45

I think that's a narrow perspective. Okay. So let me let me unpack. I have a lot of degrees, and I do mean a lot of them. Um, other than maybe my first degree, my undergraduate education, I want to be a computer engineer. Um, before I even answer the question, let me say this. Um, even in my own house with my children, I have two getting ready to go up to college. I got one going to the Citadel, I have one going to Clemson. And so I've always preached STEM education. Um, so science, technology, engineering, math. And I you maybe we can throw STEM in there, the arts. Um Yeah, thought come on now. Yeah, get awesome there. You know, they they 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 other than my undergraduate degree, I went to be an engineer, didn't know any engineers in my family. Uh my father's a pastor. Um, we we grew up in first struggle ministry. Um, I grew up in pre-disc and well, my uncles hand me down, so 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 believed 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 um uh a government contracting where we do cyber IT into language operations for DOD in the intelligence community. I knew that I knew nothing about business. So if you go to engineering school, you learn all about technology. I'm computer engineered by training, so I knew how to code and I understood uh bits and bytes and hex code and binary and all this stuff, circuits and uh electronics and all the things that you learn in an engineering program, calculus one, two, vector cal, differential equations, linear algebra, all of the things I learned that. And so my first degree was me pushing out 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 nother 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 um start a new business problem and not wanting to fail. Um, after after my MBA, I got a master's in project management. I got a master's in project management um 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. And so, in order to manage something, my opinion, you need to uh you need to have 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 got I went through the Defense Acquisition University, got uh certifications in systems engineering, which is a collection of systems and how they integrate, and I got uh 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 or government contractors. The rules of engagement were quite different. So I went and got another degree from the Citadel in project management to better understand how to manage uh projects, set up what they call PMOs or program management offices. Um, 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 why is it that the case, but yet um misdiagnosis and um untimely death is still number three in the country with all of the technology we have. So 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. Uh 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. Um, I tell my kids we go to college to um to develop and refine ourselves. And I really try to explain to them why 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 um difficult math and science subjects. And just like in math and science, you're given a certain amount of variables, you got a certain amount of information, and there's a but 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. They attempted 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, we might, maybe not. We 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 uh often talk about your your uh financial success is often it's often directly relational to how well you interact with others. No man or woman is an island unto themselves. So I don't want to even, I don't even want to beat up the liberal education. Um, I'm doing a 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 quantitative thinker. And the 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, 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 as a as a as a person.

SPEAKER_02: 26:48

Yeah, I'm sure that this is helpful to those people who uh had that same question. I got multiple degrees, so I I'm not in a position to judge. I totally understand uh 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 don't want to spend too much time there 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_00: 27:31

Kind of just explained my story, maybe a little different. Um okay. If it's gripped, I knew 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. Um, but to answer the question, um 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. Um, as we all know, business has its ebbs and flows, it's ups and its downs. When it's high, it's real high. When it's low, it can be really, really low. Um, so if possible, create a soft landing for yourself. Meaning, um, 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. Um 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 and I'm also say this if your partner, your spouse is not on board, think very carefully about that jump. 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 dare, if I'm having a difficult time convincing my spouse that this is a great idea, and 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 receiving, is it that my spouse is against this? Well, it could be a best friend, whomever's close to you that can speak into your life, or is it that this idea just needs further refinement? And I think sometimes anytime we hear rejection, we automatically take it as negative criticism. The person's not supporting me, and it may not be that at all. Um, maybe maybe sometimes we jump too soon. Do you have an understation, 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 you're 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 could spend all day this.

SPEAKER_02: 31:02

I I know you can because I can too. That was gold. I I I wish we can spend more time on that. Because that that right there, it 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. And I had to convince the missus, you know what, this is a great idea. And like 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. Absolutely. You can't flesh it out, put more work in. I love that. Okay. I listened to some of your uh podcast episodes. I'm not quite sure how what kind of time frame they were in. Business profit, success prescription, confessions of a Christian business person. Describe the term business profit that you use many times and you you did some homework.

SPEAKER_00: 31:50

Okay, that was a podcast. Did you expect something different from me? No, no, I did. I didn't. I didn't. I don't get asked that question. I have I have kind of put the business profit podcast aside. But here's the here's the premise. The premise behind it was oftentimes um when we are um we are business people, we put aside our spiritual leanings. Oftentimes I see people compartmentalize, which I thought 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. Um and so the whole premise behind that was showing um entrepreneurships how to basically live out their Christianity in business. I think oftentimes we leave them to the side, and we should we should we should definitely bring those two worlds together. Um, so I'll I'm a I have a confession. I'm I am working toward my second doctrine in theology. And this is where I believe my life's work is. I believe my life's work is to show entrepreneurs how to live out their um spirituality and entrepreneurship. So it's two, it's kind of two premises 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 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 for your for your audience. Um, most of the Ivy League schools that we have today started out as seminaries, 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.

SPEAKER_03: 34:01

It was bigger than the city.

SPEAKER_00: 34:02

Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, pick your ivy. It probably started out as a seminary. John Harvard was a pastor. Harvard started as a seminary, and out of the seminary came out business, politics, international relations, all the different programs that Harvard is known for today. Now 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 uh leaning, then how much more can that happen today? So I think after um the postmodern era, after the 1960s, we got in many ways we divested of the Christian ethos that governed business and a lot of things that we didn't have we didn't have to discuss in the 30s and 40s and 50s that related to business. We found ourselves disentangling that web, and now we're having to have classes on ethics because we've just gotten away from the from the Christian economics. So so that that's my next project.

SPEAKER_02: 35:06

Okay, well that sounds pretty exciting. I'm actually interested in some parts of that. That's pretty cool. All right. So one last question in the realm of uh entrepreneurship. At least I think it's the last question in the realm of entrepreneurship. And you mentioned government contracting multiple times. I was a government contract over over uh I can't even say the place where I was at. Oh man, I'll just say I was over in uh Charleston on the on the on the old Navy base, uh doing government contract work. I'll just put it leave it at that. Uh doing passports and and all that stuff. That probably gave it away already. But um what what do you feel that government contracting is uh uh a viable entrepreneurship avenue? And if you do, why do you think that that is as opposed to something else?

SPEAKER_00: 35:54

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. Um, specifically, I worked for Westinghouse and back through. Started in high school, worked all the way through college, of course, went on the government side um at the college, and then of course started my own government contracting firm um and left uh federal service 2010-2011-ish. Um, so I absolutely think it's a very valuable um form of business. Okay. Last year, the the budget was 1.8 trillion, actually this year, FY24. Wow, um, 1.8 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 four and a half trillion dollars of money being spent. We get if we get to a spot where the federal government cannot pay their bills, we're in a bad spot. So, but 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 lines 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 how do things grow? You got a degree in horticulture, and he is doing about 35, 30 to 30 to 40 million a year cutting grass. So I definitely believe it's a viable tool. I think a lot of the Fortune 500 companies that we look at today, including Amazon, including um 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 toll in the government pine somewhere, some more than others. Microsoft, Google, they're all government contractors. So if you're in if you're in if you're in business and you're not looking at the government market, there 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 by.

SPEAKER_02: 38:12

So although we were acquainted prior, we've grown closer to a work that we've been doing in a very specific ministry. Not sure if we can get into this, but love 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_00: 38:30

Yeah, are you talking about the deliverance ministry or you're talking about the ministry we go to? Yeah. Oh, okay. I grew up, I grew up a PK. I've been a part of some of what many would consider to be mega churches in and throughout uh 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 call 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 marriage ministry there. Um actually I had shortly after I met my wife. And so I'd seen a lot of stuff and uh really got to a point where I was done with religion, not God, but done with religion, done with some of the um what's the word I'm looking for? Done with some of the just politics, politics of religion, and some of the things that I saw, quite frankly, um it bothered me. And again, growing up in church, what it 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 you know they talk about a prophet, you know, Jesus had honor everywhere but in his own hometown. So I think 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 to the search, I found myself no longer in Atlanta, Georgia, back in uh 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, um, I feel like we have great leadership. I like the direction that the ministry is going in as a whole. Um, there's no such thing as a perfect ministry. Every ministry has people, including myself. And so none, 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, uh, and being self, selfless and not selfish, that was a vision I can get behind. So my wife um is very much a very active deliverance ministry. It's a whole story about how that came about. So I was drafted by proxy. But, you know, the thing that I find most fulfilling about deliverance ministry, which is just kind of a cold word for spiritual warfare, the thing that I feel I find most fulfilling about um deliverance ministry for me personally is seeing men get free. You know, if you go to a church, you're always gonna see the women. The women are gonna be there, they're gonna they're gonna support the ministry, they're gonna volunteer, they're gonna do all the things, and we all know that women are the backbone of many ministries. Absolutely. And for me, seeing men get free through from their bondages, it's the most liberating and the most satisfying thing that matters. Um, we know that this physical world we live in is the Bible tells us it's subject to change, and the real world is what we see spiritually, which we can't really see with our eyes. But when you see men come overcome 20, 30, 40 years of bondage and become who they were really call and fashioned to be, that's what's most rewarding. That's more rewarding to me than the business success we've had, then the awards, the accolades, and the degrees, all that stuff is gonna fade away. Um, 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_02: 42:14

I agree. And I I stand on all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_03: 42:18

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 42:19

Starting something new has its own inherent challenges. We know that. Yeah, I want to kind of get behind the curtain a little bit because that's just that's just what I do. No matter what I'm doing, it's on this podcast. I always try to get right 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 us, I want people to be able to see that it's not all uh peaches and cream when it comes to doing something like this. There's a lot of things that we have to before we can uh diagnose and fix that. We gotta first acknowledge that it's there. Yes. So I want to kind of acknowledge the frustration that comes with something like this for those people who are maybe in deliverance 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 those frustrations may come from. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00: 43:12

No, no, that's that's 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, okay. They never really peek behind the hood. Um, 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. Um warfare, 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. Matter of fact, we did a session yesterday with a good friend of mine, friend of our family, and the deliverance ministry team helped us. And um, one of the one of the illustrations that was used, I think, was very timely, and I'll just share it here. We explained to the individual that we were getting ready to take through this uh deliverance ministry or spiritual warfare experience, and 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 gonna 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 um and fight for their destiny, and so that's what we're doing when we enter into deliverance. 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 uh 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, the the 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 uh 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 and making people sure people understand it. This is a process. Now it's not gonna take you 60, 50, 30, 40 years to get free. No, but it's gonna it may take more than two hours. It's just gonna take more than two hours. That's that's uh that's a safe. Yeah, it's gonna take more than two hours, you know. It may it may take, and it may be some additional things that we're gonna maybe ask you to do and walk through to to not only um 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 and cooperating and collaborating with it and not walking in opposition to it. So those are just a couple things.

SPEAKER_02: 47:12

So that's that's that's really things that should be helpful. If it's not helpful, I don't know why it don't help you, but it should. 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 politics 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, but I see a lot in podcasting 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 it's so I'm I'm I've I'm I'm frustrated with that myself because I feel like what we do here goes a lot deeper than that. I believe you 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 than that. And it's like people when they lump you together with everybody else, it's really, really bad. So I get what you're saying about the deliverance ministry because like people want to do this do stuff, but they don't want to do the thing that allows them to have the power to do the stuff. You know what I'm saying? And that's where that's what a big challenge is for me. So that's kind of just me, you know, my little my little chance to vent for a minute there. But I'm gonna 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. I that's something we could we can have a debate about, I guess. But how do you handle your role, leading 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? Because there's some people who are listening who are probably having the struggle of juggling a lot of balls and they get overwhelmed and they even shut down and they don't have to handle it, they have breakdowns even. I 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_00: 49:04

That's a real challenge. Uh, but I think I think it it comes with conversation. So we typically know when we're getting ready to enter a busy season, and I think it's a matter of I'm just talking about the family for a minute. I think it's a matter of having conversations with the family. Say, hey, you know, the next three months are gonna be extremely busy. I may not be able to do all the things that I used to do for this period of time, and but give me grace, and after we're done, we're gonna do A, B, C, and D and be 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. Um, but I think we all have seasons and we need to just communicate to our families. And I'm I'm gonna pick on families because normally where you see the neglect happening and say, hey, you know, dad is getting ready to do this. And sometimes, you know, not that you have to ask your children and your wife for permission, um, but I think you should because uh you want them to buy in, you want them to buy in, and you never want them to grow up in the field 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 um PKs tell me. I talk to a lot of PKs, I'm a PK, a lot of PKs feel like they were um not prioritized because anytime that the church had a need, their family had to respond. And I don't think any child, um, we don't want to create bondages and create scars for our for our family members. So I think of just having healthy conversations about hey, this is what I want to do, and uh, or 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. Um, I I I remember getting ready to pursue yet another degree after I got my PhD another one because I just love knowledge because I was doing, I was, I was preparing to transition um 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 gonna 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. And 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. 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 end 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 uh spouse and they are doing what's in the best interest of the relationship, um, and hopefully, whatever God's leading in direction is 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 direct direction, and what I actually thought I was gonna get doing A, I did B, and everything that I thought A was gonna give me, B gave me, if that makes sense. It does make sense. So I think I think it's just setting boundaries in our lives, um, 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. Um, we're gonna probably go out and eat after that, and we watch movies and stuff on 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 um in in 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 um overlooked, and I think it's extremely important, but I think it just goes back to the conversation.

SPEAKER_02: 53:39

Yeah, yeah, I definitely had to, I had to have I had to repent in the past, and I have to currently repent because I got you know, we got three daughters and they've all gone through that mill. Yeah. I was after the 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 is probably doing about two or three of them or four of them herself.

unknown: 54:01

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 54:02

So we drug the kids around different places, traveling and that kind of stuff, and you know, it leaves a mark. It is so we have to 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 it's all it's all good. We're going in the right direction, but that's that's what's happening. But a couple of few uh fun questions I want to ask you before we go ahead and close it out for today. So, what are your three favorite foods? I wouldn't notice for me. This is for this is just for me to three.

SPEAKER_00: 54:36

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

SPEAKER_02: 54:42

I love anything I would never just burritos, but Thursday's always taco. That that's not that's not a big stretch.

SPEAKER_00: 54:50

That's that's that's my thing, man. I love Mexican food, I love Japanese food, so sushi, hibachi. That's my thing. See, 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.

SPEAKER_02: 55:11

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

SPEAKER_00: 55:17

Drunken noodle is um a nice alternative to pad thai. So pad tie is my number one when we talk about the Thai category. Dude, I like I love food, man. I love food a lot.

SPEAKER_02: 55:29

That's okay. There's no shame in that game. I'm just kind of I'm I'm I'm surprised by some of that because it's so so if I had to if I had to if I had to specify number one would probably be tacos.

SPEAKER_00: 55:42

Um number two is love sushi.

SPEAKER_02: 55:49

Um I don't to a point I can't do I can't do the EO stuff, and and I'm not I don't want to love it. Love all of it. I don't want to all love it.

SPEAKER_00: 55:57

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 in, would be a place called Cold Downtown. Um, great food, great food, right there off King Street.

SPEAKER_02: 56:28

Great food, boy. I got I got I got super hungry super fast. How that happened, 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 it's your favorite. That's an easy one. I I know I want everybody to hear the story behind it. American Gangster is my favorite movie.

SPEAKER_00: 56:50

Wait, wait, wait, wait. You sure that's it? I got a bunch of them, but that's one of them. Okay, it's it's in the top, it's in it's in the top, it's in the top. Well, it's a couple of them. I like the equalizer, they still got some bangers.

SPEAKER_02: 57:04

Oh, not there was another movie that you meant that you mentioned that you liked, and there was a story behind it. Now we go now. We pivoting now. It's all good up. What which which movie did I mention? It was like a uh military one. Oh man. You messed that up for me, brother. So thank you for that. Go ahead, man.

SPEAKER_00: 57:21

American American gangster. It's one of my favorite movies by Denzel. Okay. Um my father, my grandfather was a um was is a um a moonshiner. Okay. So um I'm just fascinated by business people. So any business movies I seen, you know, Wall Street 1, Wall Street 2, boiling point, high, you know, margin code. Any kind of business movie or gangster movie is is up there for me. Are you watching it by yourself or somebody watching it with you?

SPEAKER_02: 58:00

Because I can watch it by myself.

SPEAKER_00: 58:02

That's what I thought.

SPEAKER_02: 58:05

Nobody else ever watched that.

SPEAKER_00: 58:06

You know, I did get my kids to watch uh my wife and kids to watch the movie Dumb Money about where the game stock um stock was being basically risen up through the Reddit, through the Reddit post, and it was pretty cool. So a lot of stuff, man. So all the business movies, um, and all the gangster movies. So Scarface, Godfather, one, two, three. That's that's my that's my jam.

SPEAKER_02: 58:30

All right, so I got I got a question about that then. My number two favorite movie of all times, nobody co-signs this with me except on my Twitter. I got massive followers out there. That's the Untouchables. Okay, I consider that I consider that a gangster movie. Some people don't, but I do. Number two all time, never change, can't get knocked out of that spot. Number number one is just locked in, you can't move tombstone out of the way. But untouchables, gangster movie. Do you like that one?

SPEAKER_01: 58:57

I don't know if I seen the untouchables.

SPEAKER_02: 58:59

Excuse me.

SPEAKER_01: 59:00

I don't remember this movie.

SPEAKER_02: 59:02

You got free time today, right? Yeah, you need to get you need to get in there, sir.

SPEAKER_01: 59:06

I don't know if I've seen that. And if I do, if I didn't know if I had seen it, I don't remember it. It was classic, man. I think we're like what was it '87.

unknown: 59:18

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02: 59:19

Kevin Costner. Kevin Costner and Robert Janeiro, man. What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01: 59:23

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02: 59:25

This is concerning.

SPEAKER_01: 59:26

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02: 59:28

Can you gangster? Starface. Can you can you go watch Untouchables again back with me? Let me know how you like it.

SPEAKER_03: 59:35

I would do that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02: 59:38

Right. So I love this discussion, man. This was awesome, man. I know that there are some resources that I think you probably would wouldn't mind sharing with a 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 comment section. Some resources on your your contracting website, your uh your business site.

SPEAKER_00: 59:59

Absolutely. I think uh the two big one 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. I think it's Dr. Curtis Jr. is my YouTube channel. You can type in my name, it'll come right up. I got about a hundred plus videos on various aspects of government contracting, all free. Definitely like, share, subscribe, hit the notification bell. Um, and then our big teaching platform is 8 Figure, the number 8 8 FigureGovCon. The GovCon is the short acronym for government contracting. So 8FigureGovCon.com. Great site. Go to our stores tab, you'll see some of the uh 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 uh the eight figure gov kind channels how you can connect with me if you choose to. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:03

Well, this was a great conversation, man. Thank you again for joining. I'm sure there's some education at Wentforth 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, uh, Dr. Curtis is 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 uh the LinkedIn link and of course the one to his uh DevCon website as well. So thank you again for joining us, everybody that's listening. Please forward your comments to us on the YouTube channel at TheyCallMe Mr. You. We 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 through the YouTube channel. I'll get him in his hands to him personally. So thank you again for listening, for joining us. We definitely appreciate it. And thanks for joining the show.