Michael was born and raised in Manhattan, in a great Orthodox Jewish household, and attended Jewish day school and high school. His father was a rabbi and lawyer. His mother was an entrepreneur. Today, he has 8 children and 3 grandchildren. He joined us as our guest on Episode 96 of the Agents of Innovation podcast, which can be found on Apple Music, Spotify, Stitcher, Audible, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

While he has written five books, in 2021, Michael released a new book, The Tree of Life and Prosperity: 21st Century Business Principles from the Book of Genesis. Throughout the book, he creates a framework that uses the words and actions of the Hebrew patriarchs to lay the foundations for a modern growth economy based on timeless business principles and values. 

Perhaps Michael learned these principles in his first job, which he started in the eighth grade at a cheese and fish store called Miller’s Cheese. He did everything from slicing cheese and fish and doing deliveries. 

“Retail is a great way to meet people,” said Eisenberg — including difficult people in New York City. He did this all the way through high school. He began college in 1988, at Yeshiva University, and took a gap year to go to Israel. While he majored in political science, he also studied the Torah. 

“One year turned into two,” said Eisenberg. “That was a transformational experience for me.” He then went back to New York and finished college at Yeshiva University. Within 8 weeks after graduation, he got married, and he and his wife moved to Israel.

During his youth, Michael was always bothered when his mother used to say that “she prayed to have mediocre children.” But later in life, he understood his mother’s prayer, especially her added statement that “the line between amazingly accomplished and intelligent and crazy, on the other hand, is a thin line.” 

During the two gap years he was in Israel, an interaction with a rabbi there “changed my views on a lot of things,” admits Eisenberg. The rabbi told him one of the ways he could use his faith was to move to Israel and open up a factory and employ 10,000 people to help them earn an honest and decent living.  This was an “economic empowerment argument from a rabbi,” said Eisenberg. “I had never heard anything like that before from a faith figure.” 

While he said the pursuit of creating jobs for more people in Israel remains his life goal, the way he has set about achieving that goal has shifted a few times. He began his work life in Israel in political consulting. “But a year plus in political consulting taught me that you don’t create jobs with that.” In his latest book, he takes off on this point further. 

“Most politicians focus on present needs. In general, they react. They contend over today’s voters, not over what kind of society their children and grandchildren will live in. I prefer the approach of entrepreneurs who see the world in terms of what could be and tackle a problem that they want to solve. These entrepreneurs think of their product in terms of how much it will help and how many people will buy, use, adopt, and gain benefit from it.”

So he decided on a route of venture capital, where he says the role of a venture capitalist is to “service entrepreneurs.” In the interview on the Agents of Innovation podcast, he added that he thinks “the role of venture capital is to provide the capital for some of the most ambitious projects out there, stuff that normal financial instruments don’t fund. At the same time, it’s to help the entrepreneur build a company, build the management, find the talent, build a network that helps the entrepreneur because we’re in this in an iterative game — meaning we fund a lot of companies — and the entrepreneur has a singular focus.” Quoting one of his business partners, Kevin Harvey, he said the role of the VC is to “lower the mountains and raise the valleys” for the entrepreneur “because this is a helluva roller coaster to build a company.”

In his book, Eisenberg positions many of the Biblical figures we know such as Noah and Joseph as not only people who were great moral leaders (and, at times, moral failures), but also as great innovators, as they lived in pivotal periods of human history. 

Eisenberg said we kind of lose sight of these men of the Bible as “innovators” because we treat them as individual protagonists. “Most people know Noah as who was he? He built the ark and got out of the flood,” said Eisenberg. “Noah clearly invented the plow or something like that, that uncorked human prosperity for a meaningful period of time, causing humanity to grow.” 

Noah was responding to an ancient version of Thomas Malthus who, in more modern times, believed there would not be enough food if the population kept growing. 

“That happens in every generation,” said Eisenberg. Noah didn’t only get past this by inventing the plow, allowing people to grow and cultivate more food, but he also invented fermentation. “We all know that when there are floods, there’s no good drinking water, and wine was the water of the ancients because it was alcoholic and clean.” 

“But both of these innovations which could be used for good could also be used for bad,” said Eisenberg. “In the case of the plow, humanity destroyed itself from prosperity. In the case of wine, his son abused him.” 

During the time of Noah, people had kids but “begin to become rapacious beasts,” said Eisenberg. “Societal trust becomes eroded as people begin to cheat each other. And so, Noah invents the plow and humanity unleashes itself but begins to destroy itself.”

Through these two innovations, the plow and wine, Noah uncorks both good and bad. Why did these innovations become bad? Eisenberg says it’s “because [Noah] didn’t accompany these innovations with timeless principles and those timeless principles only come into the world with the advent of Abraham, ten generations after Noah. And so, in a world devoid of morals and timeless principles, Noah’s innovations will go bad.”

Eisenberg says this is a lesson for us in modern times, with modern innovations. “If they are not undergirded by timeless principles, they will necessarily go awry.” 

In another case, “Joseph innovates long-term storage of preserving wheat, which was, before that, unpreservable,” said Eisenberg. “Through this, he manages to get [Egypt] through the seven-year famine.” Joseph saved the Egyptian people initially, but because he injected so much liquidity into the economy, every shock to the economy shocks the system systemically. 

“Therefore the kind of unforeseen unforeseens are more dramatic than ever because the whole system is centralized and thereby very fragile. And so Joseph was unable to foresee a lot of the negative consequences — some of them psychological, some of them population transfer, and some of them economic — because of his policy, and it became hard to restart the economy after the depression, after the famine. When it became hard to restart the economy, they started to look for a scapegoat. That often happens. People who are in trouble after economic depressions look for a scapegoat.” 

Eisenberg argues that the failures that stemmed from the centralization of the economy caused the Egyptians to blame the Hebrews and enslave them. 

“The thing I’m advocating for,” said Eisenberg, “is the Torah, or the Bible, has timeless principles that have stood the test of time. The Bible has more unique users than Google and Facebook combined. These are the things that have stood the test of time and created successful, cohesive, responsible societies and economies.”

“The responsibility economy is really what the Bible is advocating for,” said Eisenberg. But he says the Bible clearly is not looking to “redistribute the playing field. The Bible does not believe the economy is a zero sum game … it believes the economy can grow through empowerment and what we are looking to do is empower more and more members of society … that’s fundamental to the Biblical outlook.” 

“Also fundamental to the Biblical outlook is the importance of being creative and creating, thereby advancing the economy, thereby advancing humanity” said Eisenberg. “The Bible thinks that general human impulses can be used for good and can be used for bad. And so the Hebrew Bible puts limits on general impulses.”

Eisenberg talks about the story of the Garden of Eden, as a place that really embodies what some today might call the Universal Basic Income. Everything is provided and everything grows. Man has everything he needs to live.

“Interestingly, in the Garden of Eden, man makes nothing,” said Eisenberg. “He doesn’t make products and he doesn’t make babies … not only that, they are so bored because they don’t know what to do that his wife never says a word to him nor does he say a word to his wife. She only talks to the serpent. They are terribly bored.” 

“The Garden of Eden is more like a failed experiment than it is some sort of idyllic future that we aspire to,” said Eisenbrerg. “It’s a place where man fails and has moral failings and kind of breaks boundaries by eating from the Tree of Good and Bad. Once expelled from the Garden of Eden, man has children, the highest form of creation. Man makes bread.“

Eisenberg points out that while many believe that when the man is expelled from the Garden of Eden that man is cursed, that the Bible actually says “the land is cursed.” And so man must work the land.  

“By being forced to work, man becomes creative and this begins to advance humanity. Man left to his own devices on a subsistence income will create exactly nothing.” 

“There’s a notion that we work to make money so if we give people money they don’t need to work. No, we work because the human being needs to create,” said Eisenberg. “We need to work to advance the world. And not just that. When we work, we achieve dignity because we created something and made it ours.”

Eisenberg also turns to the role of philanthropy. “The Jewish view of charity is that you enable people to work with dignity,” he said. 

“The Bible is primarily worried about prosperity and not poverty, which is the Bible wants people to be prosperous, but is afraid of the impacts of prosperity that people will be haughty, rapacious, not helpful to others, selfish, etc,” said Eisenberg. 

“All the patriarchs of the Bible are extraordinarily wealthy people. There’s an expectation there that as the people enter the land of Israel they will become wealthy — and this is an aspiration, by the way — they will become successful and wealthy, etc. We aspire to that, but we don’t aspire to it without the responsibility that comes with it. And this responsibility is not just about kind of managing it paternalistically on behalf of others as Andrew Carnegie suggested in his famous treatise about wealth, but rather to empower other people to become successful as well.”

Eisenberg lifts these ideas from the Book of Leviticus that “it is my civic responsibility, when you become successful or as you are becoming successful, to enable other people to become successful.” 

“Freedom is an important part of this because, if you’re not free, you own nothing. That’s an important lesson of the bondage in Egypt. We need freedom. Freedom is the engine of curiosity. Freedom is the engine of aspiration. Freedom is the engine of ownership and ownership gives me the opportunity to be responsible for somebody else.” 

Pivoting from the Book of Genesis to modern times, Eisenberg says today is “the absolute golden age of Israel innovation. I’ve been doing this for 25 years and I have never seen anything like what’s going on right now. Entrepreneurs are aspiring to global greatness in ways that wasn’t true before.” He adds that, “right now Israelis are aspiring to build world-scaling companies” and that “the other thing we discovered along the way is that Israel is really about innovation with a soul.”

“The 20th century was about factories,” said Eisenberg. “The 21st century is a digital economy and so it’s about brains … it turns out that brains are connected to bodies and bodies have hearts and souls. And so, if you want to attract the best brains you probably ought to talk to people’s hearts and souls. It’s not just an intellectual challenge, it’s: what do you connect to humanly, what do you aspire to do?”

In his book, Eisenberg says that venture capital is “a business steeped in faith. Faith that the future will be better. Faith in people, entrepreneurs, and changemakers.” In our conversation on the podcast, he added that “I think that people in faith in general think that the future is better.” He added that, “You invest in entrepreneurs because they make the future better. And sometimes it takes a long time and there are ups and downs. It’s a real roller coaster to be an entrepreneur. But if you have a belief and an optimism and a resilience to get through it, that the future is better, there’s no better place to be an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist because you can create the future, and you can create that better future.” 

One of the ways investors and entrepreneurs are creating a better future is through what’s called ESG investing – environmental, social and good governance investing. While he believes this renewed focus on ethical investing is good, Eisenberg has a bigger vision for it.

“I much prefer to think of this in terms of longer-term value and more important even than that is that the principles are built into the business themself … it makes the companies themselves much more valuable.” He said, as a venture capitalist, he looks particularly for entrepreneurs who have timeless principles built into the product or brand rather than external to it. 

Michael Eisenberg’s biggest advice to anyone, including innovative entrepreneurs, is to have children. “The reason to have children is you learn to love people unconditionally, adapt to the diversity of different people and different kids, and be optimistic about their future and plan for a better future. We need as many people as possible engaged in creating a better future.”

You can listen to the full interview with Michael Eisenberg on Episode 96 of the Agents of Innovation podcast on Apple podcasts, Audible, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, or wherever you listen to podcasts (and please don’t forget to write a review on any of those platforms!) You can also follow the podcast on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. 

For those looking to directly connect with and learn from the many guests of the Agents of Innovation podcast, please consider joining the Fearless Journeys community today!

Dr. Tom Fame is a physician in Salem, Virginia. He has made over 50 trips to Haiti since his first visit there in 1995. He has overseen the O.L.P.H. Haiti Project since establishing it in 1996. He previously served as a pediatrician in the U.S. Force before having his own practice in Salem, Virginia. Dr. Fame joined us as our guest on Episode 95 of the Agents of Innovation podcast.

As a Catholic, Dr. Fame would typically volunteer about once a month at a free health clinic back in Virginia. The woman who ran that clinic  invited him to volunteer at a medical clinic in Jamaica, and later in Haiti, where he first visited in 1995.

“There was something about the Haitian people,” said Dr. Fame. “Anyone who has gone to Haiti gets that bug – most people.” Dr. Fame recounted how the Haitian people “like to tell stories, they like to joke. I just felt like a connection there. It’s just a fascinating kind of a culture.” 

While he enjoyed the people, on his first visit there he was so busy visiting with patients – he saw 275 kids in 5 days — he didn’t have time to get to know the people outside of the patients he saw in the clinics. He decided he wanted to do something more relational in Haiti.

Before he even went to Haiti, someone had sent him a letter. They didn’t know he was going to Haiti. But he had never opened the letter. He merely stuck it in a book and later opened it on his way back from Haiti. It said someone was coming to their parish from the Catholic Diocese in Richmond, Virginia to speak about a “twinning project” with Haiti, where some parishes in Virginia would become sister parishes with some parishes in Haiti. Most would just send money and supplies. But Dr. Fame ended up doing much more. 

“I was just on fire,” said Dr. Fame. The woman who gave him that letter in 1995, Adele Della Valle-Ruth, later wrote the foreword to both of his books on Haiti, published in 2008 and 2021. The Lambi’s call is a concept based on the “Lambi,” a conch shell that the Haitian people would blow to tell people they are free.  

“Haitian people are so unique,” said Dr. Fame. “It’s a little piece of Africa in Central America. It’s a different culture.” He reminded us that Haitians “were the only people who every freed themselves from slavery and then continued to have their freedom.”

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and is usually listed in the top 25 countries that have issues with poor health, access to clean water, and other problems.

However, the Haitian people do have a remarkable history and the United States has benefitted from the help of the Haitian people in the past. During the American Revolution, the U.S. employed French people to help them. At that time, Haiti was a part of the French empire and Haitians helped Americans fight at the Battle of Savannah in 1779. In Savannah, Georgia today there is a statue commemorating those Haitians.

A few decades later, as Haitian slaves were fighting for their freedom and for their independence, France had its hands full. That was part of the reason that the French, under Napoleon, were so willing to make a deal with the United States that led to the Louisiana Purchase, which allowed the U.S. to more than double the size of its territory at the time. 

Dr. Fame understands this history and he also sympathizes with the plight the Haitian people find themselves in today. 

“The core of the whole twinning thing – for me anyway – is relationships; getting to know people,” said Dr. Fame. “The interesting thing is how the relationship has sort of guided the project.” His parish in Salem, , Our Lady of Perpetual Help, twinned with a parish in Lascahobas in Haiti. 

“From a Catholic standpoint – the key to the Catholic – the source and the summit of the faith is the Eucharist, when you celebrate the mass. I kind of feel like it’s a connection – you celebrate the Eucharist at your church and you’re offering this up for everyone … when you have a twinning relationship … we are really connected with this group down here.” 

For any kind of system, said Dr. Fame, “There needs to be a source of energy that sustains the system. So for an automobile, you need gasoline … the earth requires the sun … with us, it’s food.”

“With certain community projects, you want to look at the source of energy. Haiti at one time was called the NGO capital,” said Dr. Fame. “Because there’s hundreds of NGO people with projects and stuff. But what keeps those NGOs going is the outside funding. There’s stories of NGOs that do good things but then the funding dries up and they leave.” 

“You need to find a source of energy that’s going to be sustainable, that’s going to stay there forever. And the source of that energy is what I call human power. The power of the individual human being is the same whether you’re American, African, European, Chinese, whatever. That human potential – that energy that is inside a human being – is the energy you want to tap into and it’s sustainable.” He added, “The people in the community – that have a vested interest – that’s the energy you gotta tap into.”

Dr. Fame has used this philosophy to try and train local Haitian leadership. “When you build up local leadership – I call it human potential – that’s the key.”

Dr. Fame recounted one day walking by the side of a metal water tank in Haiti and watching students using rocks to do their organic chemistry homework. He was amazed. And it was a sign that while they might be poor, these are not stupid people and they have a willingness to learn and move forward. 

He has never understood how he could possibly find the resources to help them, but he reminded us that “If you step out in faith, it kind of keeps going.”

On a trip to Haiti, he learned the community he was working with had a desire to build a school. They wanted to employ local people to build it and teach in it. The building of the school would cost $60,000 USD. He was just one man, but when he returned to Virginia, he met with the priest at his church in Salem and asked for permission to make his case to fellow parishioners. He held fundraising dinners and meetings and people stepped up.  

“It was like the loaves and the fishes,” said Dr. Fame. He needed $60,000 and the people in his parish and local community came together to raise $90,000. So, they were able to make the school a little bit bigger than originally planned. His parish priest was amazed.  “He said, ‘I don’t believe it.’ I said, ‘you have to have faith.’” 

Dr. Fame grew up Catholic and went to church with his family growing up. He went to a state university and occasionally attended mass. While in medical school, he had a group of people he would go to church with much more often. But then as his family grew and he had some kids, he became a little more involved in the church. 

“My faith was kind of growing. Sometime around the time I went to Haiti – I think it was right after my first visit – I read a book on Saint Francis … and I love this guy! Sort of a wild and crazy kind of guy. He wanted to live the Gospel life and just went out and did it. So I became a secular Franciscan. My secular Franciscan journey is sort of parallel with my Haitian  journey, they kind of compliment each other.”

Saint Francis was popular for saying, “Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.” Dr. Tom Fame seems to embody this. And after more than a decade of doing good works in Haiti, he finally did also use words. 

In 2008 he published his first book,The Lambi’s Call: A Haitain Journey. In that book, Dr. Fame said that “Haitians have joy in the midst of unbelievable suffering.” In Haiti, about one of 10 children die by the age of six because of one of three things: pneumonia, diarrhea, or malaria. Yet, he still finds the people have incredible faith and their joy comes through in their obsession with singing and dancing. 

Since 1995, Dr. Fame has seen how innovations in technology, especially in telecommunications have improved lives for Haitians. Cell phones have helped Dr. Fame to be able to stay in better touch with the people he has served, especially when he is back in Virginia. And for those people, they also have more access to information and people outside their community.

“Cell phones have been huge in public health,” said Dr. Fame. “In Africa, they have different ways to use them for monitoring things.” And now since COVID shut travel opportunities down – Dr. Fame hasn’t been in Haiti since January 2020 – he is able to stay in touch with the people there through the power of the cell phone. 

But the medical system is still suffering from a lack of resources including medical doctors. “In Haiti, if you get sick, there are local people that know herbal things,” said Dr. Fame. So when it comes to treating their health, they first start “by going to a local healer. If they have money, they can go to a clinic somewhere or a hospital.” 

“We are doing this public health thing now and I think it’s doing more good than a clinic with medication. I think you have to start with the foundation first,” said Dr. Fame. “We forget how important the water system in our community is. You kind of drive by this thing and some guy works at the water plant, like whatever, but if we didn’t have that, we’re in trouble.” 

Dr. Fame said that one of the biggest concerns for Haiti is “public health – things we take for granted – that’s the foundation of things.” So he then went and studied public health so that he could be of further leadership for the people he loves. 

“Education is the foundation of public health,” said Dr. Fame. He cited the importance of education about nutrition and clean water. 

“And now a lot of these kids that I had in my school are the ones that we are setting up businesses for. I realized a lot of them had gone to my school back in the day. Now they are older, we have sent them on to training, and they are becoming the leaders of the community. I’m building this little nidus of leadership.”

In addition, the communities he serves in Haiti’s Cabestor Valley – and beyond – are working together towards better public health care and information. They have a care group network of 120 Haitian volunteers. Each volunteer represents about a dozen households and 15 of them come together every other week to meet and share information. 

“And so every two weeks we get information about what’s going on in the valley and they learn things and they spread it back out. So, it’s information in and knowledge going back out to every household,” said Dr. Fame. “If you want to make a community healthy, you have to involve the entire community, not just people just around the clinic.”

Leadership is coming into place and public health care is improving. And that school he helped start more than two decades ago is now on a path of self-sustainment, mostly due to an endowment fund he created for the school.

“My whole thing is sustainability. If I die, what’s going to happen to the teachers?,” he said. The endowment fund, which is currently worth $1.1 million, is now “creating money to pay the salaries of the teachers, some of the workers at the school, and now my health care worker. That sustains the project. That’s the source of energy that will keep going to pay their salaries.” 

Dr. Fame also has taken the approach of helping the local people in Haiti help themselves. He has provided resources to help create jobs — not to take the human capital way, as so many well-intentioned volunteer groups and NGOs have done over the years. Those sorts of things lead to dependency, much of which is documented in books like Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton. 

While some might view a poor country like Haiti as unsafe to travel to, Dr. Fame said, “I’ve never felt uncomfortable there. What I tried to put in the book too are stories of people, the richness of it – as opposed to what a crappy little country this is – but just the richness of the culture and the people. It’s just hard to describe unless you’ve been there.” 

“The Haitians love to sing,” said Dr. Fame. “And one of the things we do in public health is we teach them songs … because a lot of these guys and gals can’t read and write, but they’ll remember the songs and that’s how they will learn what to do in a public health situation.” 

There are also hundreds of Haitian proverbs and Dr. Fame incorporated many of them in his books, including his new one published in 2021, titled The Lambi’s Call: Breaking the Chains. Those Haitian proverbs are sayings “that also tells you a lot about their culture,” he said. The Haitian people are descended from France and many places in Africa and the proverbs are built on some of those cultural roots. “It’s just a way of explaining things sometimes, why bad things happen and ways to deal with things.” 

Over his more than 25 years travelling back and forth to Haiti, Dr. Fame has learned some creole. He says he speaks it just ok. “I can get by but there’s things I can’t say, there’s things that I can’t express.” But he has learned enough to communicate with his friends on this Caribbean island. And he has also discovered what we can learn from the Haitian people

“There are classically four substitutes for God: It’s power, pleasure, pride, and possessions. None of them are bad in their own right, but too much power, too much pleasure, too much pride, too much possessions – if that’s what’s most worth to you … those things are never going to satisfy you. The one thing that is not a substitute for God is God himself,” said Dr. Fame. “And since [Haitians] don’t have the luxury of these four other things, all they have is their faith, and it’s so powerful, it’s so real.” 

He talked about how when things have been bumpy in his own life, the faith of his Haitian friends have gotten him through. 

“What has to motivate someone is love. It can’t be guilt, it can’t be some concept of ‘justice is a good thing so I’m going to be a justice warrior,’ you’ve got to really fall in love and if you love your children, you’ll do anything for them.” 

***

When Tom Fame was ten years old, he started his first job working at a corner bar in upstate New York, owned by his father. “We’d go in on Saturdays and Sundays and sweep it up, clean it up, he taught us to do a good job, clean it. Later, even when I was working at the bar, he never paid us because he said. ‘hey you get food in the house.’”

Dr. Fame encourages people to follow their passion, but also to consider getting another job that pays the bills. “And don’t be afraid to make mistakes because that’s how you learn things. Mistakes are a good thing. I certainly made a lot of mistakes during this process.” 

Dr. Fame admits that going to a place like Haiti isn’t for everyone. Some people can’t handle it. “There’s a certain percentage of the population – and it’s a fairly high percentage of the population, that is very risk-averse,” he said. He is not one of those people. And when it comes to Haiti, he said, “I see past the physical poverty. I see the life of the community.” 

“Thinking outside the box is another thing” that Dr. Fame recommends aspiring entrepreneurs learn to do more. Of course, Saint Francis would probably advise us that Dr. Fame didn’t need to use those words to tell us he is an outside-the-box thinker. It’s pretty obvious.

You can purchase a copy of Dr. Tom Fame’s books here. All funds go to support his project. You can also watch some of his YouTube videos about his project in Haiti here. And you can learn more about those projects at: Haiti.OLPHsalem.org.

You can listen to the full interview with Dr. Tom Fame on Episode 95 of the Agents of Innovation podcast on Apple podcasts, Audible, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, or wherever you listen to podcasts (and please don’t forget to write a review on any of those platforms!) You can also follow the podcast on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. 

For those looking to directly connect with and learn from the many guests of the Agents of Innovation podcast, please consider joining the Fearless Journeys community today!

Chris is a native Floridian who grew up in Broward County. He moved to Orlando to attend the University of Central Florida, earning his degree in Health Service Administration – and he has been in medical sales since graduating from UCF two decade ago.

Chris currently works for Masimo as their VA Strategic Account Specialist for the east. “Being able to serve the VA and the veterans of our nation is an honor and a privilege – and being able to bring our advanced technology to them is a lot of fun.”

While at UCF, he became a disc jockey at some gigs in downtown Orlando and at fraternity parties. He still does an occasional gig here and there on top of his day job. During his time at UCF he also put together some parties and concerts, hosting bands such as Tabitha’s Secret, featuring lead singer Rob Thomas (which later became Matchbox Twenty) and Sister Hazel. In fact, this was Sister Hazel’s first gig outside of Gainesville. He became close with some of the band members as their influence grew.

“It was kind of silly some of the stuff I got to do in the first ten years of their run, with those guys, because I hired them to play a stupid fraternity party,” said Chris.

In 2016, Chris started Orlando Music Live, a website with corresponding social media sites on Facebook and Instagram. Orlando Music Live keeps a running calendar showcasing where you can find live music – any given day – in the greater Orlando area. It features artists playing in coffee shops and pubs to large venues like arenas and stadiums.

This passion project all started in 2016 when a friend called him on a Tuesday and asked him “who has live music tonight?” Chris wasn’t sure. Other than larger concerts and ticketed live shows, there was really nowhere to go and find your local singer/song writers or your local cover bands playing at smaller venues and bars. His friend told him, “It would be cool if there was a place where you could go and find out where live music was.” So Chris decided to be the change agent his Central Florida community needed.

Soon after, he started using Facebook and Instagram to promote the local music scene. And it grew. “I do it all free of charge. I do it all for the love of music,” said Chris. If he can get one extra person to go see a local singer/songwriter or go out and download a song from a local artist, “then I’ve done my job.”

Orlando Music Live isn’t just great for the locals to find live music, but also for the millions of visitors that come here on a weekly basis, during normal times.

“I feel like I’m providing a service to the local musicians where they can have a central place to put out their stuff and promote their gigs,” said Chris.  “There’s so many different venues in town that have live music on a regular basis. Before I started this, I didn’t realize that. We all live in our own little bubbles,” said Chris. “There’s so much talent in this town.”

Chris is a hard-working guy and he shared with us that his first jobs as a teenager included being a bag boy at Publix and working at a movie theater. It instilled in him a work ethic that continues to this day in his day job in medical sales and his passion project building Orlando Music Live.

He also said learning to work from an early age doesn’t just instill work ethic, but it also help you in “just trying to find out where you fit, what’s going to motivate you, and what’s going to make you happy – because the happier you are at what you’re doing, the more productive you’re going to be, especially as you become an adult, you spend a lot of your time at work, so no one wants to be miserable.” He added, “There’s a couple of things in life that are important – you have a good mattress, you spend a third of your day in bed – and really enjoy what you do for a living, because if you don’t, that’s going to make for a miserable life.”

Chris grew up playing baseball and now coaches his son’s little league team (who is now 14 years old) and they went for a nice run at the state and national level. A proud father of a great athlete, he told us his son is “way more talented than I was.” Perhaps he has a good coach.

While live music was sidelined after COVID19 shut down most of the world, Orlando Music Live continued to grow. During the pandemic, Chris grew more than 1,000 followers on Instagram in 2020, with hundreds of unique hits to the website each week. During the pandemic, Chris found himself with more time, since he hasn’t been able to travel as much for work. He put a lot of that spare time into Orlando Music Live. “I’ve really grown the platform in the past six months, making things more automated, to where musicians and venues can email their stuff, where it automatically populates into the website, which then triggers me to automatically populate it into social media.”

When COVID19 shut down in-person events, including concerts, Chris reached out to a lot of local artists and encouraged them to do live stream events on a regular basis – and he promoted those on Orlando Music Live.

“The music community has really embraced what I’ve done,” said Chris. “I get thank you’s on a daily basis from venue and musicians. It makes me feel like what I’m doing is helpful and beneficial.” 

Lately, Chris has also built a playlist on Spotify for Orlando Music Live, which features Orlando-area artists “to get to people to understand who is out there and go listen to them.”

“Venues have slowly but surely started to bring music back into their venues,” said Chris. “I have more gigs today – listed for tomorrow night – than I ever had beforehand. So, music is back out there.”

He shared with us the many innovations going on to help bring back live music experiences safely. The Dr. Phillips Center has started doing a front-yard series, where artists play outside, while fans are physically distanced in seated pods. Each individual pod seats about four or five people and you have to buy the pod. It fits about five folding chairs, pretty tightly. Temperature checks are given at entry and masks are required when you move about the venue. Every pod has its own QR code to order food, drinks, or merch.

The Plaza Live does a front porch series on Thursday nights from now through about March, and the City of Apopka has an event every Saturday at their outdoor amphitheater.

Artists have faced an especially difficult time during the past year. “From an innovation perspective, you are somewhat limited by your audience. If you have this great live stream and no one is watching it or no one is tipping you, it doesn’t matter,” said Chris. “Part of what I’ve tried to do is just centralize the music scene in Orlando in one spot. If you have one social media page you go to every day, it should be Orlando Music Live so you can figure out what’s going on.”

“It’s been a very challenging time, but I’m hopeful that what will come out of this is a lot of great music,” said Chris. For live music fans who go through the same struggles, Chris believes there is more hope on the way.

“In normal times, my non-work life revolves around sports and music, and both of those things were taken away,” said Chris. “Thank God we had live streams to keep me sane throughout that period of time.” After attending his first big music show recently, Chris said “It felt so good … it was exactly what my soul needed.”

Chris believes live streams will continue beyond the pandemic and he “wouldn’t be surprised if even some of the larger touring acts will incorporate some type of live stream into their concerts moving forward,” with different ticket prices for live streams and the in-person experience. “I really do think this pandemic is going to change how we do business for everything, and music is no different. I do expect to see more live streaming even when live events come back.”

He also thinks big concerts will be back in full force in 2021. “I fully expect things will be normal-ish by the end of Q2 [of 2021]. I’m hoping much of the summer concert tours that normally happen will go on as scheduled this year. That is my hope, especially as the vaccine rollout picks up momentum and steam.”

Venues, especially large ones, might even require something like a vaccine passport card to attend events. Chris says, “I have no problem whipping out my vaccine card if that means I can get into concerts sooner and get back into baseball stadiums sooner and travel again.” Since he works in the medical field, he was fortunate to get his first vaccine shot in January.

Chris does his best to help fans discover new local music. Every month or so, Orlando Music Live puts up six featured artists and six featured venues. He tries to rotate this to introduce artists and venues to people.

“My advice is not to promote one particular artist but to try to get out and expose yourself to as many different artists and venues as you possibly can because until you go out and listen to someone you’re never going to know,” said Chris.

Chris recently partnered with a local merchandise company, Impress Inc, to develop Orlando Music Live shirts, hats, and other merchandise. Five dollars from every purchase goes back into the local community. His first donation went to one of his favorite local music venues, Will’s Pub. “I want these places to be there when things are truly back to normal.”

This highlights the fact that in addition to artists and fans, venues have been struggling as well. “Thankfully Orlando has done relatively well,” said Chris. “I haven’t seen too many venues go under yet … but I know many communities have not fared as well.” As one example, Austin, Texas – noted as the live music capital of the world – has already lost about thirty percent of their music venues.

His advice to everyone: “Get out and see some music. At the end of the day that’s all I want. Get out and see some music.”

You can listen to the full interview with Chris Gonzalez on Episode 88 of the Agents of Innovation podcast, on Apple podcasts, Amazon podcasts, Stitcher, and SoundCloud. You can also follow the podcast on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Please consider supporting the Agents of Innovation community by becoming a member of our Patreon page today, starting at just $5 a month!

Founded by Kelly Shackelford 31 years ago, First Liberty Institute is a nonprofit organization supported by donors from all over the country. While today they have 50 people on staff with national headquarters in Plano, Texas, they take up cases around the country, often with the help of affiliated attorneys doing pro bono work on behalf of clients wishing to defend their First Amendment rights.

“Our mission is to restore and protect religious liberty for all Americans. We will defend any religion anywhere in America, so long as that person is simply seeking to live according to what they believe, in keeping with the law and the Constitution, then we’ll defend their right to do so,” said Watts, who has a focus of expanding public awareness of First Liberty’s mission, legal matters, and educational projects by coordinating communication with community leaders, influencers, policy makers, and the public at large. Watts, who was born and raised in Jonesboro, Arkansas, also has a legal background himself, receiving his J.D. from the University of Mississippi and has worked in various political capacities as well as for other nonprofit organizations.

“I tell people I practiced law just long enough to know I didn’t want to practice law,” quips Watts. “However, that might have been different had I known about First Liberty Institute back then.”

Some of the innovation they bring: a mix of national legal experts on the subject matter, combined with local knowledge from affiliated attorneys around the country, with a focus both in the courtroom and highlighting issues in the press. They have an extremely high rate of success. “Our first goal is always to win for the client,” said Watts. “But sometimes the case takes on a bigger impact – especially if you get to an appellate ourt level or a Supreme Court case – where you create a better precedent going forward for everyone.”

First Liberty Institute has been very busy during the COVID19 pandemic, where government at various levels has been treating religious services very different than they are treating other businesses or other organizations.

Lathan describes his role as more behind-the-scenes. “I’m kind of legal’s man in our marketing department and marketing’s man in our legal department,” said Watts.

“Most law firms shy away from press. We incorporate it into our legal strategy,” he said. It’s not only a way to bring public pressure to their opponents in the legal case, but also “a way to educate the public about what their rights are.

“A lot of times people are willing to stand up what they believe in but you need to understand what your rights are and how to do that,” said Watts. Many times they get calls from people who saw a story in the press about a case that First Liberty Institute is involved in – that is similar to a situation they are experiencing in their own lives.

Another innovative thing that Lathan and his team have brought to First Liberty Institute is a new YouTube series called Legal-Ease. “Basically, my job is to translate legalize into English,” said Watts. One of his colleagues said “That’s what we have to call it, it’s legalize, but we’ll make it ‘e-a-s-e’ as in we are making this easy to understand,” recounted Watts. “We wanted to do short, legal explanations of what we do, how it impacts you, but deliver it in a way that’s entertaining to people, so they learn a little bit of something, but it’s also a little more light-hearted.”

During COVID19, they even had a funny video about their COVID19 victories, and asked whether they were allowed to be funny again, and laugh at some of the ridiculous measures that caused the hardship so many of their clients had been going through during the economic lockdowns which prevented them from expressing their freedom to worship, especially during a time of a health crisis, increased isolation and loneliness, and a spike in mental health cases and suicide rates.

“The government clearly has an interest in protecting public health but the primary purpose of the government, according to the founders, is to protect the rights of the people, and so anything they do has to balance those interests and that’s really what our position in all the cases we’ve engaged in has been,” said Watts.

“People want to be together, it’s a natural human instinct, and particularly people of faith,” said Watts. “I mean we talk about public health; since when is spiritual health not part of health?”

First Liberty Institute filed the very first lawsuit in the country regarding religious liberty and COVID19 – and won. “It really set the tone going forward that, yes government, you do have an interest in protecting public health, but you have to balance it against protecting the God-given rights of the people and the very first one is religious liberty.” First Liberty Institute hasn’t lost a single religious liberty case related to COVID19.

There are many religious liberty cases that First Liberty Institute takes up that go beyond church services, but also protects the right for citizens to run their businesses, pray on the job, or in schools, and still have the right to their freedom to exercise their beliefs. These cases often also impact people’s livelihoods.

“Even people who are not religious should care about religious liberty – you still have a set of beliefs you want to live your life by,” said Watts.

If you or someone you know are experiencing a religious liberty violation you can get legal help from First Liberty Institute by filling out a form on their website. You can also help support their work through a tax-deductible donation.

For those who might be seeking a legal career in helping people with religious liberty, Lathan recommends reading The Federalist Papers, which were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, in support of the U.S. Constitution at the time it was being debated. He also suggests reading some of the correspondence between the founders during that time, such as the letters between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. “Those original sources will give you a better education, in my opinion, of what the Constitution was intended to do and how it should be applied, even today, than anything you will learn in law school,” said Watts.

You can listen to the full interview with Lathan Watts on Episode 87 of the Agents of Innovation podcast, on Apple podcasts, Amazon podcasts, Stitcher, and SoundCloud. You can also follow the podcast on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Please consider supporting the Agents of Innovation community by becoming a member of our Patreon page today, starting at just $5 a month!

But perhaps it was a mistaken phone call he received in 2005 that started it all. Rivers was sitting at his desk when he received a call from someone was calling because they thought Rivers’ daughter was diagnosed with cancer. The caller had been mistaken. It wasn’t Rivers’ daughter, but another girl about the same age.

“But it moved me so much, that I remember telling Monica, my wife, ‘We have to find out who this family is and we have to find a way to help them.’”

Rivers reached out the family to try to find a way to help. He decided to host a barbecue for the young girl, Megan, at the family’s church. He told them to invite whoever they wanted, and he would be the pit master. And whoever wants to donate money could do it to help raise funds for her treatments.

450 people RSVP’d for it and Rivers only had ten days to prepare for the event. “That was the genesis of our barbeque ministry,” said Rivers.

At the time he received this call, Rivers was nearly twenty years deep into a successful career in the health care industry. During that time, while he traveled around the country for work, he had the opportunity to taste many different regional variations of barbecue. It helped inform the food that 4 Rivers customers would later encounter in his restaurants.

“When you look at our menu today, every item that is on there … comes from a different region of the country,” said Rivers. “That was strategically important to me. I didn’t want to be pinpointed just into one particular flavor profile.” The pulled-pork comes from Alabama, the chicken comes from Georgia, the ribs come from North Carolina, the brisket comes from Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas City, and the Tri-Tip comes from California.

“Back in 2009, 2010, when we opened, no one in Florida really did brisket,” said Rivers. “No one really knew about it and how good it was – and that’s why it’s on the front line of our restaurant when you come in. I had to educate people about how good brisket was.”

John is married to a Texan and claims that about nine out of ten Texans who have eaten brisket at a 4 Rivers restaurant have thanked him for bringing Texas barbecue to Florida.

While still a busy executive in the health care industry, that first fundraiser he did for the young girl stricken with cancer opened his eyes that perhaps his passion for barbecue could be used for good. “That was the very first time that I took this passion,” said Rivers, “and I lined it up with my actions.”

“So many times, we think that happiness comes with money or titles – and it’s not. I know a lot of rich people who are very unhappy,” said Rivers. “Happiness comes when you are lining up your passion with your occupation and your actions and especially if you are doing it to help other people.” Reflecting on that first fundraiser for Megan, he said, “That was the first time I had ever done anything like that, and I became alive.”

Over the next four years, he continued his barbecue ministry for all sorts of fundraisers and causes. “During those four years something happened,” said Rivers. “I was one person Monday through Friday when I went to work, and I was a completely different person on Saturdays and Sundays when I was running the ministry.”

“The disparity between those two people became so great. I did something that shocked everybody. I retired,” he said. “Sometimes you have to take yourself out of the wrong position – literally – to allow yourself to see the opportunities that get you into the right position that you need to be in life.” Rivers retired as president of a $1.5 billion health care company.

“If you’re doing something you’re passionate about, first, bring passion into what you’re doing and if that still doesn’t satisfy you then go find something that is going to make you happy and bring passion into your life,” said Rivers. “Life’s too short. You ought to do something you really believe in.”

In the last year of doing the barbecue ministry from his garage, they served over 40,000 people. The first restaurant he opened in 2009 wasn’t supposed to be a restaurant. It was supposed to be a commissary that we could run the ministry out of, said Rivers. “God blessed us and here we are today with a bunch of restaurants.”

And blessed they are.

4 Rivers Smokehouse quickly became one of the fastest-growing restaurants in the Southeast. At their pre-COVID peak, there were 23 locations of 4 Rivers around Florida, with just shy of 1,000 employees. He also has a few other restaurants, The Coop, which was named Central Florida’s “Best Southern” restaurant by Orlando Magazine. He also started the 4 Rivers Cantina Barbacoa Food Truck, a Latin-infused cantina barbacoa at Disney Springs, which has garnered national recognition.

MSN named 4 Rivers as the #1 barbecue restaurant chain in the country and Nation’s Restaurant News recognized 4 Rivers as one of their top five breakout brands.

Restaurant Business has named John Rivers a “power 20 leaders” in the restaurant industry. The Orlando Business Journal has named him the philanthropist of the year in 2019. John is a graduate of Florida State University. Today he serves on the board of governors of FSU’s College of Business. 

John lives in Winter Park with his wife Monica and two children, Jared and Cameron. He also serves on the boards of his church, numerous schools, and charity organizations, including one he established: the 4R Foundation.

Rivers said the “barbecue ministry” itself has nothing to do with religion. “My ministry is to give back to people, to help the community, be it from food, be it from education, be it from mentorship. People leaned into my life when I was down and out, and I know they changed the trajectory of my life. And to have the opportunity, when God has given you a platform to touch and affect so many people, it’s to be able to use that.”

“You can make an impact in people’s lives in the place you are today,” said Rivers. “Every person you meet, every single day, you have a chance to impact their life, just by the way you treat them.”

“Business is a relationship – it’s a relationship with the community that you’re serving. If you’re not willing to form a bond with them and understand what those needs are – and especially if you’re not willing to step in and help fill those needs – how can you expect the community to come and fill your needs of buying your product and supporting your business?” He adds, “It has to be sincere.”

Due to the impact of COVID-19 on the restaurant industry, 4 Rivers lost 50 percent of their business overnight, said Rivers. “There were weeks we were burning over a million dollars a week in cash. We had to pivot very, very quickly. This company, 4 Rivers, was built out of coming out of the trenches and beating all the odds … so there’s been a galvanization, a determination on this team, that we’re going to fight for everything.”

“This was a big test,” admitted Rivers. They were forced to make a lot of layoffs, “which was incredibly sad because we don’t call our employees ‘team,’ we call them family, but we had to do it in order to survive.” He did make a promise to every employee that once they built the business back, they would welcome people back on their team who wanted to rejoin.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, 4 Rivers has pivoted all over the place. They instituted virtual drive-thru windows, they started selling grocery items like that much-coveted toilet paper.

“We had all these assets, catering facilities, vans, trucks, and people – we were laying off people,” said Rivers. “But I said: we aren’t going to stop the ministry effort. This is now more important than ever.”

They reached out to their school partners at Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) and offered to fill the gaps of feeding kids in the community. “Gaps started popping up all over the place. We started feeding these kids and these families,” said Rivers.

John and his team sent emails out to other restaurant companies all over the state and let them know if they had any extra food, 4 Rivers had catering kitchens that were empty and could be used to feed those in need.

“It started coming in from all over the place.” He then learned about all the produce that was going bad on farms all over the place because no one was buying it. So, they started a vegetable and farm rescue program. “We took all this food in and turned it into meals.”

As of the time of our interview for Episode 85 of the Agents of Innovation, which took place in early October, 4 Rivers had already hired back over 400 people and served over 1.5 million meals to those in need and rescued over 500,000 pounds of produce that would have otherwise gone to waste.

“The people that we brought back – not only were they happy to just have a job again – but they went from frying fries in a smokehouse in a restaurant to building meals for people who needed food. And you talk about fulfillment – they were happy as could be.”

The 4R Foundation was established well before COVID19. It is focused on the core principles of supporting education, creating jobs, and feeding people.

The 4R Foundation works with OCPS and saw the horrible nutrition that students, especially those on free lunch, were eating in schools. John learned that one out of every five students live in food insecurity – meaning for many of those students, it’s the only meal they get all day. “So that meal is so important,” said Rivers.

While John works with great food bank charity organizations like Second Harvest, he repeated a line from a friend of his who runs that organization: “You can’t food bank your way out of hunger,” said Rivers. “Giving food away is not the answer. It’s a piece of it, but you have to go deeper. You have to educate kids and families about where does food come from and how do you create a healthy balance?”

The 4R Foundation helped two inner city schools in Orlando build gardens on campus, where students learn how to grow food, sell it to the school’s cafeteria, where it is served for them.

The 4R Foundation also set out to build a farm campus. The 4Roots Farm Campus resides today on John Young Parkway in Orlando. In partnership with Dr. Phillips Charities and the City of Orlando, they will be breaking ground on it in December and bringing in 40 students from all around the state and bringing in farmers from all over the country, to teach them about regenerative farming practices, to show them how to give back to the soil and how to increase their yields, and how to sequester carbon to stop the impact on climate change, and bring in health care workers and teach them about culinary medicine. They also want to build a national institute for culinary medicine.

“330 farmers in the U.S. lose their property every single week. The average produce we eat today has traveled 1,872 miles to get to your plate,” said Rivers. “So, think about the fossil imprint that you’ve made in bringing that product all the way over here. On top of that, think about all that nutrition you’ve lost because it’s been sitting in a truck, and think about all the farmers that are here that are losing their property that you could have been buying from.”

When you can’t make it to a 4 Rivers Smokehouse, you can find 4 Rivers barbecue products at grocery stores like Publix and Winn-Dixie. This was a strategic move, about two and a half years ago, to diversify their portfolio. In addition to the restaurants, they started a manufacturing and retail division. They ship some of the food they manufacture to other restaurants around the country as well as cruise lines and stadiums and convention centers.

With all the pivots he has made to keep his company afloat, as well as the strategic moves to diversify 4 Rivers, John Rivers seems to be a natural entrepreneur. His advice to those who want to become entrepreneurs: “If you start stepping out, you better be willing to put your heart into it. If it’s too easy, then it’s not worth doing.”

A couple of philosophies he offers: “Invest a little and learn a lot.” All those years of doing the barbecue ministry out of his garage was “testing, testing, testing,” he says. Through testing, one learns a lot about what customers want and what market is available. “You’re going to make mistakes, might as well make it on small investments and instead of a big one.”

During our conversation, Rivers reflected on his first real job when he was 16 years old. It was at a pizza place in Jacksonville called The Loop. He applied to be a cook. “Even back then, as a kid, I loved to cook,” he said. The manager gave him a job – but it wasn’t to be a cook. It was to wash dishes. “I was so young and naïve I turned to him and I said: I’m sorry sir, on the application, I think there’s been some sort of mistake, I filled out to be the cook.” The manager told him: you have to work for what you want. You don’t just get it. While he found a way to lift his spirits and work hard as a dishwasher, and even receive a promotion – to bussing tables – he never did quite find his way to be the cook at The Loop.

“The one thing I learned is that when you’re in a position you’re not enjoying is to become the best there’s ever been in that position and once you start to excel at it, people are going to notice, and you create the doors that open for you that give you the opportunity to move on.”

Those positions at The Loop taught him work ethic. He finished high school, paid his way through college, and worked twenty years in the health care industry, before finding his way back to his passion as a cook through the barbecue ministry. It eventually led to him to establishing 4 Rivers restaurants at the age of 42 years old – and later the 4R Foundation.

“The joke is that I had to open my own dang restaurant in order to be able to get in there and cook and do it,” said Rivers.

It may have taken him a few decades to get back into the kitchen and become the pit master. However, once John Rivers found a way to align his passion for cooking good barbecue with the actions built on the mission of his barbecue ministry, it allowed him and his team to not only feed people in his community, but teach them how to become their own cooks too.

You can listen to the full interview with John Rivers on Episode 85 of the Agents of Innovation podcast, on Apple podcasts, Amazon podcasts, Stitcher, and SoundCloud. You can also follow the podcast on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Please consider supporting the Agents of Innovation community by becoming a member of our Patreon page today, starting at just $5 a month!

In 2019, Glen was named one of Central Florida’s CEOs of the year by the Orlando Business Journal in recognition of his leadership at the Central Florida Urban League. This is even more remarkable since this was the first time that a CEO of a nonprofit earned these honors.

The Central Florida Urban League is an affiliate of the National Urban League, which was founded in 1910 and was birthed out of the Great Migration movement, when African Americans were moving from the South to the North to compete for jobs in the industrial north. They realized that segregation and racism had no boundaries so organizations like the NAACP and the Urban League were formed to help blacks overcome discrimination and finds jobs, education, health care, and other opportunities.

When Gilzean took over the Central Florida Urban League, he encountered an organization that was in debt by $1.2 million. He turned it around, found new partners in the community, and built new programs. In 2018, the Central Florida Urban League was recognized as “affiliate” of the year by the National Urban League. While Gilzean was at the head of leadership, he stresses that “there is no ‘I’ in team” and gave much of the credit to everyone on staff and on the board for working together to turn the organization around. And they haven’t just gotten by, they have soared to new heights.

While many Urban League affiliates are city or even county based, the Central Florida Urban League is “the affiliate of the future,” said Gilzean, with programs and outreach covering seven Florida counties: Polk, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, Brevard, and Volusia. With headquarters in Orlando, they will soon open a satellite office in Sanford (in Seminole County) with others that will follow.

Born and raised in Broward County, Glen Gilzean has gained experience all over Florida and knows the challenges African Americans face. “I was on the verge of going down a path too many African American boys follow,” said Gilzean. “I have friends who are in jail and I have guys I grew up with who are not even around anymore – they are six feet down.”

He credits his mother from saving him from a life from destruction by teaching him the value of earning an allowance by doing his homework every day, doing house chores, and helping his mother sell Mary Kay products. With Gilzean’s contributions to his family, that included his three siblings, his parents were able to put him in a small private school and after school tutoring.

He ultimately graduated from Nova High School, a public school that was an early innovator in educational choice by bringing together students from around the entire county, despite their zip code. He was even able to do some on the job training through a program set up by Nova High School. While he has always told people his first job was at Circuit City, he revealed to us that “technically” his “first job was working, helping mom sell Mary Kay products in the community” when he was in middle school.

One of his most memorable experiences as a youth was doing a high school semester in Israel. To pay for the trip, he went to the local Jewish Community Center (JCC) and persuaded one of the directors there to fund his trip to Israel so that they could have an African American perspective. He sold them on this concept, and he was accepted and spent four months being educated in Israel. “That was the most amazing trip and also prepared me for life – living in a dorm and working independently,” said Gilzean. “It really transformed me to see life outside of the South Florida bubble.” He is hoping to one day set up a fund at the Central Florida Urban League to help other African Americans have an opportunity to visit the Holy Land.

Glen graduated from the University of South Florida, earning his B.A. in Biomedical Sciences and his M.A. in Entrepreneurship from USF’s Center for Entrepreneurship. He told us these two degrees helped build his analytical mind and his creative side. Ultimately, he formed a passion for educational policy.

Following college, he worked for U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, in an unpaid position. From there, he went to Tallahassee to work for the Florida Department of Education, beginning in the last year of Governor Jeb Bush’s term. He served for three and a half years and then went out on his own to start a nonprofit organization called Educate Today. They grew from three volunteers to a staff of 42 employees with $8.9 million, in the first year. Educate Today received additional support from state and federal grants. They infused academics and homework with fun, engaging activities. The nonprofit was later acquired by a for-profit tutoring company called Quantum Leap out of Jacksonville, Florida.

Glen was then tapped by Governor Rick Scott to fill a vacancy on the Pinellas County School Board. When that term ended, he was recruited by Step Up for Students, a nonprofit organization that administers scholarships to low-income families to attend the school of their choice through the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program. This organization now serves over 100,000 students each year. Governor Scott also appointed Gilzean to the Board of Trustees at Florida A&M University and to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission.

In November 2015, Glen moved over to Orlando to help run the Central Florida Urban League and get them out of $1.2 million of debt. He “jumped out on faith” and didn’t take a salary for over seven months, living off of his savings alone. He finally collected his first paycheck from the Central Florida Urban League on July 4, 2016 and was permanently named President and CEO.

“You should be interviewing my mom. She’s the innovator of change. I’m always quoting her,” said Gilzean. He emphasized the fact that his mom is the one who instilled in him the importance of learning to read and acquiring work experience. He’s been putting that philosophy to work to help other black people in Central Florida. With his board of directors, the Central Florida Urban League revamped their mission statement to be more meaningful and impactful. “The way we are doing that is now through the three E’s: Education, Employment, and Entrepreneurship,” said Gilzean. “We believe the three E’s will really eradicate generational poverty.”

On Episode 80 of the Agents of Innovation podcast, Gilzean provided us with “breaking news” for the Central Florida Urban League, announcing that they just became an approved Microsoft Office Specialist provider – a first for any Urban League in the country. This means that they will be providing programs to train those in the IT industry to become certified to be a Microsoft Office Specialist. “We realized that if you have this certification, you can demand roughly about $17,000 more a year (in salary),” said Gilzean. And in today’s COVID world, with so much being digital, this makes this skill set even more important. “We are working to get people … gainfully back to work as soon as possible,” said Gilzean. Their first Microsoft Office Specialist course kicks off in September 2020.

“Our target community is the African American community because we are one of the oldest civil rights organizations, but we don’t discriminate against anyone,” said Gilzean. “Anyone who comes through our doors, if they need any services, we’re here for them.”

The Central Florida Urban League is also always willing to partner with organizations and companies. Most recently, they began a partnership with the NBA to host COVID testing at their offices in the Pine Hills neighborhood in Orlando.

For over four years, Gilzean and the CFUL have been out in the community bridging the divide between law enforcement and the black community. They started a program, “Coffee with a Cop,” where they would have opportunities for black youth and law enforcement to meet in a friendly environment over a cup of coffee at a McDonalds to have open conversations.

They also asked black youth what they could do to improve this relationship with law enforcement and the young people came up with the idea of giving awards to police officers who have had a positive impact in their lives and in the community. “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem,” said Gilzean.

Lt. Deborah Clayton, a black female officer, received one of the awards in the first year of the program. She was later killed on duty while responding to a crime. CFUL has renamed the annual program in her honor. Since these programs have been put in place in Pine Hills, crime has dramatically decreased there and then-Sheriff Jerry Demings released a report attributing some of the decrease in crime to the CFUL’s programs.

Last fall, Gilzean and the CFUL hosted an event with Ashley Bell, the White House Policy Advisor for Opportunity Zones and the Regional Administrator for the Small Business Administration. That day, Gilzean and Bell both signed a Memorandum of Agreement to partner in developing Opportunity Zones here in Orlando – the first Urban League in the country to be a partner with the SBA. “The concept behind it is how can we incentivize private capital in underserved communities” with tax incentives for businesses and access to capital for entrepreneurs of minority-led businesses and impoverished areas.

Recognized by the sheriff and mayors from many counties, as well as Governors, and even the White House, Glen Gilzean has brought a lot of innovation to his role leading this nonprofit organization, one with a 110-year history. As he said, all of his contributions have been built on the foundation of his experience of “using entrepreneurship skills, analytical skills, customer service jobs, being an entrepreneur selling Mary Kay – using all of that experience – to a social service job that can make an impact in the lives of so many.”

Gilzean is often recognized for the integrity and professionalism he brings to his work. In 2019, Gilzean was appointed to the Florida Commission on Ethics by Governor Ron DeSantis. And, in 2020, the Governor also appointed Gilzean to serve on the State of Florida’s 2020 Census Statewide Complete Count Committee. He was also recently appointed to the Reopen Florida Task Force, following the COVID19 lockdowns.

“I am the product of the American Dream,” said Gilzean, who is the son of two parents who did not go to college and grandparents who are immigrants from the Caribbean. He also has a grandfather who was born in Cuba and migrated to Jamaica, where he met Gilzean’s grandmother.

His advice to entrepreneurs: “Dream big, know that you will get knocked down,” said Gilzean. “What’s interesting is people see all these wins. They don’t see all the failures, all of the hard work, and the struggle and the challenges.”

“I remember going funders and telling them I was this new, fun innovative guy,” said Gilzean. “I had well over a hundred proposals that got denied before I got my first proposal accepted and it was only for $5,000.”

“What I can say to any entrepreneur is it’s not going to be easy. But trust me. If you stick to it and you work hard, it will pay off. And people will see that you’ve overcome the odds and the obstacles. And whatever you’re doing … you’ll transform people’s lives,” said Gilzean. “Try, try, try, but don’t give up … it will pay off, and you will be so happy that you didn’t give up.”

You can listen to the full interview with Glen Gilzean by tuning into Episode 80 of the Agents of Innovation podcast, on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, and SoundCloud. You can also follow the podcast on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. We welcome your comments below and encourage you to write a review on Apple podcasts.

Nate Amaral is experiencing this right now. He lives on the small, densely populated island of Bermuda. And despite the many different kinds of business ventures he has going on – he is a photographer, owns a photo booth rental company and a laser light show company – all of which require events for his entrepreneurial activity to even be able to happen. In addition, Nate also works for a construction company and and competes in Muay Thai fighting.

He was the hired photographer for the Bermuda Entrepreneurship Summit in November, where Francisco Gonzalez, host of the Agents of Innovation podcast, first met him. The island of Bermuda, a British overseas territory, is very small, only about 21 square miles. It is two miles at its widest point and about 24 miles long. Nate is considered both a Bermudian and British citizen. In addition, because one of his parents is from Canada, he also has Canadian citizenship.

His first job, at about the age of ten, was working at his dad’s construction company. “I learned good work ethic from that job; I learned it from watching the guys I was working with, watching how hard they worked, how diligently they worked, day in and day out. And I found what I was doing tough,” he said. “And seeing what they were doing really inspired me to get an education because I definitely didn’t want to do that for the rest of my life.”

As a teenager, he held jobs at a shoe store, retail at a large supply store, and after he turned 18, he worked as a bartender. He later graduated from a university in Halifax, Canada.

He returned to his native home of Bermuda and began working as an insurance broker at AON, a large insurance company. The number one industry in Bermuda is insurance and reinsurance. Bermuda is considered the “world’s risk capital.”

During his experience at AON, Nate said, “I feel like I gained a ton of insight into the insurance industry. I understood how important it was … There are certain companies that wouldn’t take the risk that they do if they didn’t have insurance backing them.” While he learned a lot, “after a year and a half of giving it my all, I realized it was not for me.”

“I think working for myself has always been my end goal,” said Amaral. Both his father and grandfather worked for themselves. “I think something about being my own boss always just resonated with me. It just attracted me. There’s something about setting your own hours and only having to report to yourself that just drives me.”

After leaving his job with AON, Nate told us he did not miss a beat. “The day I woke up after quitting I went straight to it. I knew what I wanted to do.”

But what he wanted to do didn’t actually come to fruition. He had started out wanting to be an alcohol importer – importing certain alcoholic beverages that were not yet in Bermuda. He attempted to do this with several different brands and nothing seemed to work out. So, he moved on to something else he was passionate about: photography.

As a professional photographer he is hired for many events. He also started managing a photo booth rental company for about three months. He learned it was profitable and that the owners wanted to sell it. He ended up buying the company, Bermuda Photo Booth Rentals.  They provide a mobile photo booth for events, such as weddings and conferences. While Nate or another employee from his company manages the photo booth, the participants at the event work the photo booth themselves, with many fun props provided. The client is the person hosting the event and they hire Bermuda Photo Booth Rentals to be able to provide the participants at their event an opportunity to make memorable moments.  

At one point, Nate also tried to get into the fireworks business but the fireworks industry completely died in Bermuda. “The government was just putting up too much red tape,” he said. “They were making it hard for the people to import, they were making it hard for them to set them off.”

Not wanting his passion for creating a bang at events go unquenched, he transitioned his focus to providing laser light shows, which he does for events and also for advertising. His company, The Beam Team, strives to meet almost any request a customer has for using laser lights. In addition to lasers, they also provide fog machines, which creates more particles for the laser lights to bounce off of and make it easier for audiences to see. “There is no typical event,” said Amaral. “We are happy to accommodate any requests.”

The Beam Team was part of the Christmas parade in Bermuda in 2019. They were also invited to provide a laser light show for the 2020 CARIFTA Games, which was scheduled to take place in Bermuda in April 2020. These annual games involve all the countries in the Caribbean free trade agreement. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 coronavirus, the 2020 CARIFTA Games had to be canceled. “We were super excited to host all the Caribbean nations,” said Amaral. “It was going to be a big stimulus to the economy.”

And this is the first example of a major event that his company was hired for being shut down due to this pandemic, which has left many entrepreneurs with a feeling of uncertainty on the survival of their businesses, and in many cases, their very livelihood. “I don’t think anyone knows what’s about to happen in these trying times,” said Amaral.

With several entrepreneurial ventures that all revolve around events, the economic shutdown due to this pandemic “is definitely impacting the bottom line.” Every one of his clients who have events coming up over the next few months has canceled. “In an effort to be a positive force within the community, we have given back all money to people who have canceled their events,” he said. “We have no hard feelings against people who are wanting to do that. We totally understand. Unfortunately, it’s going to hurt us … the only question is how long this will last? But I guess another question to ask is: how long will this impact people’s perception of social gatherings?”

“Just two months ago, I would have never guessed this would have impacted not only my business, but my country, to this extent,” said Amaral.

His girlfriend Ashley runs a company called Vivid Elements. Through that company, Nate is a performer as a fire dancer. They provide fire performances for events and can even provide them for private groups, such as they did for select attendees at the Bermuda Entrepreneurship Summit. This is also another entrepreneurial venture and small business that is being immensely affected by social distancing.

Not to be outdone by a virus, Nate is using his time in other ways. “I am taking full advantage of the free time to create videos that I am going to use for marketing. That’s my 100 percent main focus.” He is also showcasing his photography and working on a social media plan to start marketing his products and services as soon as the time is right to do so again. “I am creating laser light show performances in my one-bedroom apartment and posting them online.”

One of the other things he has to fall back on is another job he has been doing as of late that goes back to his initial experience as a 10-year-old. Nate works for a construction company doing retail sales and marketing. He sells materials for anyone looking to buy some and creates videos and photographs for LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook, just to drum up some business.

But he remains wildly passionate about continuing to follow his passion through his entrepreneurial journey.

“I feel like you just need to follow your heart. Whatever you’re passionate about, you gotta do it,” said Amaral. “At the end of the day, if you just want to make money, find something that makes you money. You don’t have to love it. You just have to love the outcome. I honestly do not love making money. I do not love money. My goal is not to make money. My goal is freedom. But, the tool to create freedom is money and that’s why I do what I do.”

“I’m passionate about photography and that’s why I jumped into the photo booth services. I was passionate about creating experiences and making people feel excited and that’s why I got into lasers. I don’t necessarily love every piece of what I do, but there is love embedded in what I do in one way or another, so that’s why I continue to have this drive, I continue to push myself, and at the end of the day as long as you’re making yourself happy and you’re excited about what you do, I think you can also make your clients excited and happy about the services you provide them and if that’s what you’re doing, then you’re not going to fail.”

A pandemic might have shut down Nate’s businesses for the time being, but it clearly hasn’t shut down his entrepreneurial drive. You can follow him on Instagram at @my.mate.nate, where he posts his photography, examples of his photo booth and laser light show products and services, and also his muay thai competitions. He certainly knows a thing or two about kicking it into high gear, even after a temporary knock down.

You can listen to the full interview by tuning into Episode 74 of the Agents of Innovation podcast on Apple podcasts, Stitcher, and SoundCloud. You can also follow the podcast on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. We welcome your comments below and encourage you to write a review on Apple podcasts!

Alex was born in the Soviet Union and came to the United States as a teenager in the 1980s. He joined us for Episode 71 of the Agents of Innovation podcast to talk about his entrepreneurial experience as well as the topics discussed in his new book, Fearless Innovation.

“Most people in Silicon Valley were born somewhere else: be that in another country, or in another city, or in another state,” say Goryachev. “What makes it a special place and the hotbed of innovation is really the inclusion and diversity. It’s the fact that there are a lot of people that come there and that are willing to challenge the norms,” he said. “When I came to the United States, I wasn’t the one challenging norms. The norms were challenging me. It was a radically different experience.”

That experience helped form his approach to the world.  “Disruption can come at any time,” said Goryachev. “The fall of the Soviet Union is a great example. We can argue about whether or not it was predictable or forecastable but at the end of the day it just happened practically overnight. And that’s an interesting observation that stayed with me for the rest of my life.”

When he arrived in the United States in the 1980s, the personal computer and the internet were just coming into being and he joined a hacking community and learned about technology and information systems.

“When we think about the early adopters of the internet, it’s really the entertainment industry; when we think about digitization and the growth and digital business models a what a lot of the traditional companies are going through, that’s something that the music industry, you know, went through for 20 years ago and I was lucky enough to be a part of it,” said Goryachev.

When he was with Liquid Audio from 1998-2002, he tried persuading Billboard to start tracking digital downloads, “which was not an easy sell to the traditional media magazine that was tracking CD sales.” From there, he moved on to Napster between 2002 and 2004, “with a very honorable mission … working with them to track the digital downloads.”

While there may have been much disruption being created by companies like Liquid Audio and Napster, they were actually pioneers in trying to get the music industry to see that change was coming, and instead of resisting it, they should innovate. The one thing even those “disruptive” companies didn’t really predict is that we would all have smart phones – and instead of simply digital downloads that we would own, music would become a service that we could stream.

In his new book, Fearless Innovation, Goryachev says that “innovation is a horrible word.  The term has become so buzzy, it seems to have lost all practical meaning.” The word ‘innovation’ seems to be everywhere these days – and because of the overuse of this word, “we remain utterly confused by the concept.”

“Innovation happens when agents of innovation come together,” said Goryachev. “Innovation is a team sport; it doesn’t happen in the basement. The lonely innovator is a myth. There could be a lonely inventor, but at the end of the day innovation happens with teams.”

Innovation “takes courage and it takes embracing the unknown and it takes not getting no for an answer,” say Goryachev. “To me, innovation is an ability to stay open and act on it and create something new and not being settled in the dogmas.”

“When I think about fearless innovation, I honestly think that my innovation here is my son. He’s five and a half years old and he does not take no for an answer because he doesn’t know that ‘no’ exists,” said Goryachev. “I think we’re all born innovators. And then somehow, as we become adults, somehow perhaps we lose that. So, when you talk about artists and musicians and philanthropists and entrepreneurs, a lot of them are really in touch with their childlike curiosity, so of course they are agents of innovation.”

Goryachev also stressed that, “Innovation is definitely a mindset. It’s a mindset of being urgently curious. It’s a mindset of not denying change. And it’s a mindset of embracing the unknown.” Goryachev said companies need to innovate and adapt to remain relevant and successful. “It’s a mindset of where change is coming and how we can adapt to it.”

“In order for larger organizations to remain innovative, it needs to be more of a team sport,” said Goryachev. “It goes back to breaking the silos and connecting people, connecting people together. When you think about a startup, one of the biggest assets are people and their knowledge. And if you look at large companies, there’s way more people and their knowledge is tremendous. It’s all about connecting employees with each other and connecting them cross-functionally. I go back to that concept of inclusion and diversity and the concept of just getting a different opinion. Of course, if you have a diverse team, with people from different backgrounds, what you will end up with is a better product, and as an employee, you’ll end up with a far better experience.”

“Connecting employees to strategy and connecting them with each other is, I think, one of the key ways to keep innovation going in any organization, big or small. It’s just that in the startup that often happens naturally,” said Goryachev.

In his book, Goryachev points out that “Change happens naturally, but innovation doesn’t.” On the podcast, he added that as organizations grow larger Goryachev, he believes “the real unsung heroes of innovation are the middle managers of the companies … because there’s so many things that they need to hold together; they need to balance the workforce needs, and the executive needs, and the Wall Street needs,” he said. “I think the middle managers are the ones who have the most influence when it comes to innovation.”

While he believes many companies should hire Chief Innovation officers, he does not think companies need to hide innovation in some special corner of the company. “It belongs to everyone and there is a potential and a need for every function in a company to be innovative.”

Goryachev also talks about how we’re witnessing the emergence of companies that are as passionate about social impact as they are about profits. “I’m seeing that happening with large and small businesses,” said Goryachev, “and that makes me hopeful.”

He also said that for individuals and organizations to be productive and creative, we sometimes need to pause and reflect. “The one thing that I would encourage everybody is to disconnect from time to time … because at the end of the day, in order for us to be innovative, in order for us to be curious and in order for us to create something new, we have to have space in our heads, in our lives, and in our brains and that requires slowing down and breathing,” said Goryachev.

That’s sound advice from a man who continues to be filled with life and professional experiences that have witnessed rapid change, while embracing that change as an agent of fearless innovation.

You can listen to the full interview by tuning into Episode 71 of the Agents of Innovation podcast on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, and SoundCloud. You can also follow the podcast on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. We welcome your comments below and encourage you to write a review on Apple podcasts!

Will Dowell joined us for an interview for Episode 67 of the Agents of Innovation podcast, that took place at his headquarters in Dallas.

Before coming to lead Behind Every Door, Will started his career in two different entrepreneurial startup ventures. “It’s just a big part of who I am, I think, seeking to bring outside the box, innovative solutions is just in me.”

Will says that Behind Every Door wants “to change the narrative and the experience of poverty.” They believe that there is both a physical nature to poverty, what we might call “asset poverty” and a mental nature to poverty, what we might call “the scarcity mentality.”

Asset poverty is the lack of ownership, the living day to day trying to find food and shelter and other materials things needed to survive. But the scarcity mentality is something that can affect anyone, no matter their means. “It’s a belief that there’s not enough, there’s not going to be enough,” said Dowell. “That can rear itself in two ways. One would be, you know, greed: let me keep more for myself because I’m afraid that that I may run out. And the other one is: I’m not worthy of that or I don’t have access to that. And so I just kind of isolate myself or sometimes I’m forced into isolation and don’t have access to those resources.”

“I don’t think scarcity mentality is isolated to one group people,” said Dowell. “I think anybody can have it.”

To achieve their mission, Behind Every Door runs community centers in low-income neighborhoods. “Through those community centers, we do two things really well,” said Dowell. “We operate the community center and so we want to build deep relationships in the neighborhood with people who live there and really understand the stories. That’s where our name comes from. There’s a story behind every door. You want to learn the stories and until you learn, you can’t help. So, we learn the stories and then we leverage that building and the relationships to bring resources in.

“And the other thing that we do really well is we operate a program for kids and families. It’s an afterschool program that runs year-round, about 46 weeks out of the year and we focus on four areas: social / emotional health, literacy, spiritual health, and what we call discovery or you could call it enrichment activities.”

Behind Every Door has operated five community centers and are currently operating two that are owned by the Dallas Housing Authority that have community centers inside their apartment building. They are in the process of purchasing one of their own, which will be the third community center they are running simultaneously, with plans to keep adding more over the next three years.

“We’re really excited about this community center that we’re, we’re going to purchase and renovate. We think it’s a model that can be scaled up. We think there’s been a huge impact in the last 10 years and now we think this is a way to grow it going forward,” said Dowell.

“Who we have on our team are absolutely amazing, overqualified staff members who believe this is work that either God has called them to do or just part of their own inner drive. And they’re giving up other opportunities to be here. We’ve got a lot of master’s degrees, people who could be doing something else, but they are choosing to be here,” said Dowell. “They’re very innovative, very entrepreneurial in spirit. The way that we lead because of the culture that we have is that we want to build big people and not build a big organization.”

“Faith is absolutely the why. It’s what drives us. It would be a common thread for this organization. We believe that God has created everybody with unlimited freedom and that he wants us to experience that freedom in the fullness that he intended for it to be. And that, through Jesus and through the Holy spirit, we now have access to be able to manage that freedom well,” said Dowell.

A very typical story of someone using a community center run by Behind Every Door, “would be a single mother who is working two jobs, trying to keep her kids fed and into a good education and trying to get somewhere, who was born to either a mother and father or a single mother who was also in asset poverty who was born to somebody who was in poverty,” said Dowell. “Typically, you’re talking about two or three generations deep of poverty.”

“And so even the way that we’ve designed our programs, it’s designed where we say to anybody who would come through our doors: Hey, you’re a powerful person and you have freedom so you can make whatever choices you want,” said Dowell. “We expect you to use your freedom and we want to do everything we can within what we call a choice-based environment, supportive of freedom, to train you to use it well and then let you go. So, I think that idea of freedom is direct for us. It’s directly attached to how God created us to be. And it definitely drives everybody here in what we do.”

“We want to enter in as peers. People are not a problem to be solved. We just don’t believe that,” said Dowell. “We believe there’s a story behind every door. So, we quite literally are knocking on doors and we think it’s a way to honor somebody. I want to come to your home and you don’t have to let me in your home and you’re certainly not going to let me in your home before I earn your trust. Just like I wouldn’t let someone in my home without earning my trust. And so we honor that and we work to build that trust.”

“Ultimately what we believe is that when somebody begins to pull themselves out of poverty, they’re the ones who should be celebrated. Not us. We didn’t do anything. All we did was restore things that should have been there to begin with,” said Dowell. “We’re here to restore and walk alongside and really let people be who they were made to be.”Reflecting on his experience leading Behind Every Door, Dowell says, “What I’ve learned more than anything else is that when we sit with other people and have dialogue and listen, truly listen, not just to hear, but to understand what’s being spoken, I have seen more common ground. I’ve seen more friendship It’s amazing what happens. I think that’s my biggest thing is just to see more of that. That we would go knock on somebody’s door, figuratively or literally, and get to know that person, seek to understand where we disagree, seek to understand a little more. And just the beauty that it brings when connections are made like that.”To listen to the full interview with Will Dowell, tune into Episode 67 of the Agents of Innovation podcast, which can be heard on Apple podcasts, Stitcher, Google podcasts, SoundCloud, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also follow the podcast on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. We welcome your comments below and encourage you to write a review on Apple podcasts!

With more than 30 years of experience in wealth management, it was only five years ago that Bob inverted his business from a focus on life insurance to one of financial advising. This was mostly a response to his clients’ needs, the evolution of the market demands, and how he zeroed in on the types of clients he wanted to focus on.

For the most part, Rubin’s ideal clients are 50-something year-olds that are successful and comfortable with technology, who want things done quickly and easily. Rubin Wealth Advisors also services many baby boomers who are reinventing retirement. He told us the story of a client who retired at age 75 but was quickly bored and decided to go back to working a few days a week. Bob is also interested in working with entrepreneurs, especially those who have start-up businesses that are in the $5 million to $40 million revenue phases. With this focus in mind, most of the marketing material from Rubin Wealth Advisors is prepared for these kinds of clients. It helps keep Bob and his team focused on the kinds of clients they want to work with.

“We are really all about the entrepreneurs,” said Rubin. He takes a keen interest in asking entrepreneurial clients about the obstacles they face and the ones they have overcome to help them be the best they can be in both their business and their personal finances.

“The thing that makes this country really cool is we have the ability and the right to be unequal, to be better than the person next to us, to work harder, and we don’t have a caste system, we don’t have a class system here. It doesn’t matter who you are. You don’t even have to have a degree, you can just work really hard, maybe a little bit of luck, a lot of elbow grease, and you can build a business, and overcome those obstacles, because building a business is really hard. It’s a really hard thing to do, and being able to overcome those obstacles – and it’s not just about going around the wall, or over the wall, but it’s going through the wall. I admire that.”

“Entrepreneurs really are either just optimists – everything is great – or they go into depression,” said Rubin. “Being an entrepreneur is a very lonely existence sometimes because you don’t have somebody to talk to; you might need to go out and raise money. When you go out and raise money, you gain a superpower. You learn who your friends really are.”

He also reminded us that, “All the aspects of being an entrepreneur – the risk-taking, it’s both exciting and exhilarating, but it’s also scary and lonely at times. So, a lot of times we offer emotional support to these guys because they just need to talk something through. They’re scared, but ready to do something big.”

A graduate of the University of South Florida, Bob has served on the board of trustees of Florida Atlantic University since 2010. He spoke to us about the two charter schools that are located on Florida Atlantic University’s campus in Boca Raton. The K-8 school, Alexander D. Henderson University School, has been rated the second-best school in the country; it is also a Google lab school. FAU High School has been rated the seventh best high school in the country. Both of these schools are in their own unique school district under Florida’s Department of Education.

“It’s great for the kids at Henderson and for the FAU (college) students,” he said. Because it’s a charter school, it’s a sampling of about 800 students of all ethnic and economic backgrounds who are getting exposed to a college environment. And, in some cases, there are students at FAU High School who are graduating high school and college at the same time.

FAU also has an innovation and entrepreneurship program called FAU Tech Runway. Start-ups will house themselves there, with complimentary space and mentorship. In the FAU business school, led by Dean Dan Gropper, there are entrepreneurial programs such as start-up competitions and elevator pitch programs, with cash prizes, along with trying to get many of their students into internships and learn things that are useful to employers. The FAU business school will bring in employers of large industries in the area to ask them what they are looking for in future employees.

Bob’s son, Scott, who is 27 years old, has Autism. “Scott is the coolest,” said Rubin. “He didn’t speak until he was 14 years old, he was completely non-verbal.” Scott now works two jobs. He rides his bike to the bus stop and takes the bus to work.

For the past seven years, he has worked for Alltech, where he tags and sorts clothing. “This is pretty special that a special needs adult has a job that long because the unemployment rate in the special needs community is somewhere between 80 and 90 percent,” said Rubin. Scott also works at Rocco’s Tacos as a dishwasher and “he brags about it,” said Rubin. “He laughs while he works, he thinks it’s the greatest thing.” A proud father of three boys, Bob lights up when talking about Scott. “What God gave him, he uses better than all of us,” said Rubin. “He’s just a special, special person.”

Bob’s wife, Michelle, founded a group called Autism After 21, which works on lifestyle changes and employment training to help people in the special needs community to get jobs. She has a camp that runs on the FAU Boca campus that serves about 120 young adults with Autism each year – they generally range from high school to college age. It is funded by private donors and also gets support from a state agency called Vocational Rehab.

“She’s having some success with both teaching employers the special things you need to do to have to employ a person like this and then teaching the potential employee the potential employee, the applicant, what they need to do to be a good employee,” said Rubin.

Bob Rubin closed his interview on the Agents of Innovation podcast by talking to us about what he believes are the keys to success for any businessperson. It all revolves around customer service: Show up on time, do what you say you’re going to do, say please, and say thank you for the business or thank you for the opportunity.

“I think if you if you do those four things, it’s a key to success in business,” said Rubin. “If you do those four things, you’re ahead of 99 percent of the people.”

To listen to our full interview with Bob Rubin, tune in to Episode 65 of the Agents of Innovation podcast, which can be heard on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, SoundCloud, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also follow the podcast on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. We welcome your comments below and encourage you to write a review on Apple podcasts!