Welcome to another edition of Issues and Answers. 00:00:31.80\00:00:33.87 Today our guest is Ashley Cobb. 00:00:33.90\00:00:35.45 He is a private investigator in 00:00:35.48\00:00:36.96 New York City and a much sought after motivational speaker and 00:00:37.00\00:00:40.50 we'll be talking with him about his detective cases as well as 00:00:40.53\00:00:43.93 his motivational talks. He has been featured recently in a 00:00:43.97\00:00:47.37 magazine Sharing Ideas which goes all over the United States 00:00:47.40\00:00:50.88 to motivational speakers. In addition, he has produced an 00:00:50.91\00:00:54.73 audio cassette entitled The Secret of Success Is the Union 00:00:54.77\00:00:58.56 of Divine Power with Human Effort. He also has a news 00:00:58.59\00:01:03.70 letter entitled He Is My Brother which because of him 00:01:03.74\00:01:08.46 I can be all God wants me to be. Very motivational news 00:01:08.50\00:01:13.15 letter. We'd like to welcome Ashley Cobb to our program today 00:01:13.19\00:01:16.92 Thank you for coming and joining us again Ashley. Thank you, 00:01:16.96\00:01:20.41 glad to be here. It's a real treat to have you. Yes thank you 00:01:20.45\00:01:25.32 So now tell me about your work as a private investigator for 25 00:01:25.36\00:01:30.25 years, 9600 cases, 98% success rate and you're a motivational 00:01:30.29\00:01:35.15 speaker. Well see Karen, I see you love 00:01:35.18\00:01:37.22 to talk about detective work. 00:01:37.25\00:01:39.17 Yes, it's intriguing. 00:01:39.20\00:01:40.17 It's exciting to me. Well I'll 00:01:40.18\00:01:43.24 tell you some more about me work as a private investigator, 00:01:43.28\00:01:47.15 but I want you to understand, I'm a Christian private 00:01:47.18\00:01:50.82 investigator. So my success rate has a tendency to be more 00:01:50.86\00:01:55.39 successful because I put the Creator in front and say I don't 00:01:55.43\00:02:00.51 know anything unless you lead me. As I stated before that God 00:02:00.55\00:02:05.36 knows the beginning to the end, so it's necessary for any 00:02:05.40\00:02:10.75 business person, whatever profession or business that they 00:02:10.79\00:02:15.62 are in, to call upon the Creator and say look, you lead me. 00:02:15.65\00:02:20.64 If you lead me I will not go wrong but if I lead myself I 00:02:20.68\00:02:25.60 have a tendency of relaxing, you know, depending on my wisdom and 00:02:25.64\00:02:31.60 many times, from experience, I've fallen down and I realize 00:02:31.63\00:02:35.61 that it's necessary to call upon the Creator when you're doing 00:02:35.64\00:02:40.20 anything. One of my cases I like to talk about that recently 00:02:40.24\00:02:45.78 occurred; one Friday evening as I was preparing to do an 00:02:45.81\00:02:51.43 investigation at a particular hospital and it was around 2 00:02:51.46\00:02:57.32 o'clock and the sun was setting late. It's my practice to be 00:02:57.35\00:03:02.90 home before the sun goes down on Friday because I worship on 00:03:02.93\00:03:08.24 Sabbath and it is my duty to be there. But it was 2 o'clock and 00:03:08.27\00:03:13.55 my staff and I were working on the case and we recognized 00:03:13.58\00:03:18.28 that maybe I could do this investigation and I'd have time 00:03:18.32\00:03:22.95 to come back and complete it and go home before the sun went down 00:03:22.99\00:03:29.45 Karen it's not my routine to travel down this particular 00:03:29.48\00:03:34.54 route and I'll tell you about that to show why I didn't 00:03:34.57\00:03:39.56 particularly care to travel this particular street. So I got in 00:03:39.60\00:03:44.20 the car and I started driving down the street in Brooklyn and 00:03:44.24\00:03:49.94 as I was driving I noticed that two strong men, very healthy. 00:03:49.97\00:03:54.48 I don't know, the men these days look healthy like they're 00:03:54.52\00:03:59.19 following all the health rules. And I saw this other man 00:03:59.22\00:04:02.93 standing against the fence. It seemed like they had him 00:04:02.96\00:04:07.79 pinned in and his eyes and body language spoke that I'm in 00:04:07.83\00:04:12.59 trouble; I need someone to help me. I drove about 20 yards away 00:04:12.63\00:04:16.63 and then I jammed on the brakes and backed up and I looked and I 00:04:16.66\00:04:20.63 realized that they were threatening him. So immediately 00:04:20.66\00:04:22.87 I jumped out and I pulled my ID and they said what are you, a 00:04:22.91\00:04:26.89 cop? I said, I'm a private investigator. What are you 00:04:26.92\00:04:29.94 doing. Well he broke into our van and stole a television out 00:04:29.98\00:04:34.79 and if you don't do something we're going to do harm to him. 00:04:34.83\00:04:38.93 You know what the harm was okay? He was frightened and he 00:04:38.96\00:04:42.78 said I didn't do anything. Now this individual appeared that 00:04:42.81\00:04:46.56 he was intoxicated with drugs and things. I had my cell phone. 00:04:46.60\00:04:50.11 I said, you are not the police, so let me call the police. Let 00:04:50.15\00:04:53.65 them do the job. So during the time that I was calling the 00:04:53.68\00:04:58.07 police we were standing there waiting for the police to come. 00:04:58.11\00:05:02.26 I guess their anger just overran them and they started beating 00:05:02.30\00:05:06.28 on him. I said, stop, you can't do this. So they stopped and 00:05:06.31\00:05:10.24 the poor fellow fell to the ground bleeding. The police and 00:05:10.27\00:05:14.31 the ambulance arrived about five minutes later. The police 00:05:14.34\00:05:18.45 talked to the guys as to what happened. They told him that 00:05:18.48\00:05:21.75 he'd broken into the van. It appeared that they weren't 00:05:21.79\00:05:25.32 paying the injured person any attention. I guess they felt 00:05:25.36\00:05:29.12 well you broke in the van and you got what you deserved. 00:05:29.16\00:05:32.85 I was persistent that he needed to go to the hospital. Well they 00:05:32.89\00:05:36.13 were going to take him to the hospital but there seemed there 00:05:36.17\00:05:39.88 wasn't a lot of speedy effort to do it. So they finally put him 00:05:39.92\00:05:44.40 in the ambulance and took him to the hospital. But after that 00:05:44.44\00:05:48.73 I went to the hospital and did my investigation and came back. 00:05:48.77\00:05:53.36 My heart was troubled. It said why did you let them beat him 00:05:53.40\00:05:57.56 up? Why didn't you stop it? Well I said I tried but there 00:05:57.59\00:06:01.68 were too many. But my mind said you could have done much more. 00:06:01.72\00:06:06.60 The question kept spinning around in my mind all that 00:06:06.63\00:06:13.41 Friday night. I talked about it and I told my wife. she said you 00:06:13.45\00:06:17.30 know I felt as a private investigator it was my duty to 00:06:17.33\00:06:21.94 uphold the law and prevent crimes. She said well you did 00:06:21.98\00:06:26.52 what you could. Later that night I got up out of my bed and I 00:06:26.56\00:06:32.09 drove to the precinct. You see when you're dedicated to do 00:06:32.13\00:06:36.97 something, Karen, you dedicate whatever it is. You put all 00:06:37.00\00:06:40.90 yourself in it and that's the way I am. I like to put whatever 00:06:40.94\00:06:44.81 I do and give 110% to what I'm doing. So I drove to the 00:06:44.84\00:06:48.57 precinct and I talked to a police officer. He was feeling 00:06:48.61\00:06:52.30 good, he was nice, he was friendly. I said sir I came here 00:06:52.33\00:06:56.20 there was an incident today around 2:30 that a man was 00:06:56.24\00:06:59.62 beaten up in front of this building and so I would like to 00:06:59.66\00:07:02.64 know his name. So he said okay hold on just a moment. He went 00:07:02.67\00:07:05.37 back to the back and came back. He said well they took him to 00:07:05.41\00:07:08.78 this hospital and this is his name. So immediately I realized 00:07:08.82\00:07:13.43 okay he didn't die. So I went back home and then went to bed. 00:07:13.47\00:07:17.78 The next morning I prayed for the young man and then I went 00:07:17.81\00:07:22.09 to church and I was out of church around 1:30. 00:07:22.12\00:07:24.61 Karen, usually on Sabbath after church I'm racing for the table. 00:07:24.65\00:07:28.92 I want to eat you know. A great dinner. Yes a great dinner that 00:07:28.95\00:07:33.75 my wife has prepared. But that particular Sabbath was just a 00:07:33.78\00:07:39.10 different day. My soul, just my inner part of me felt that I had 00:07:39.13\00:07:44.42 failed someone. So I went to the hospital. I went upstairs 00:07:44.45\00:07:51.72 and I asked the clerk what floor this particular person was in. 00:07:51.76\00:07:56.87 They said, up on the fifth floor So as I went up I approached 00:07:56.91\00:08:02.40 this young man, unshaved and oh he just looked like a human, 00:08:02.44\00:08:08.44 just a human not being taken care of. He was intoxicated with 00:08:08.48\00:08:14.42 drugs, but he has sobered up some. As I walked to him I felt 00:08:14.45\00:08:20.32 that he figured that I came to harm him. I assured him, I said 00:08:20.35\00:08:26.19 I'm the man that saved you yesterday. He said, Oh yeah. 00:08:26.22\00:08:32.07 I identified myself; I'm Ashley, God sent me to you. You have a 00:08:32.11\00:08:40.47 problem. You need to get off drugs and he said Mr. Ashley, 00:08:40.50\00:08:44.83 I prayed to God two weeks ago that if he would help me I would 00:08:44.87\00:08:49.31 do it. I said, do you want help? He said, yes I want help. 00:08:49.34\00:08:53.86 But I want to tell you when they took me to the hospital 00:08:53.90\00:08:58.43 yesterday, after a few hours somebody came in the emergency 00:08:58.46\00:09:02.51 room where I was and they threatened me. They said as soon 00:09:02.54\00:09:05.94 as I get out of the hospital that they are going to kill me. 00:09:05.98\00:09:09.69 I'm frightened that the hospital is going to dump me out as soon 00:09:09.73\00:09:13.41 as I get well. His jaw was broken and he was frightened. 00:09:13.44\00:09:17.55 I said, who were the people. He said the same people that I 00:09:17.59\00:09:21.14 broke in the van. I said, you can understand that they are 00:09:21.18\00:09:24.80 angry and in New York City breaking in people's cars and 00:09:24.83\00:09:28.51 vans is suicide. Man, you got to be crazy to do that. 00:09:28.55\00:09:32.16 I understand that drugs drove you to do this. He said, yes it 00:09:32.20\00:09:37.54 did. So I went over to the nurse and asked him what protection 00:09:37.57\00:09:42.88 he was giving this young man. They felt he's not so much. 00:09:42.91\00:09:46.42 They didn't say it but their body language told me that they 00:09:46.45\00:09:50.45 didn't care. I moved up closely and I kind of whispered in a 00:09:50.49\00:09:54.12 nice voice and I said, how would you like to be on the 6 o'clock 00:09:54.16\00:09:57.76 news today? She looked at me. I said someone if comes in to 00:09:57.79\00:10:03.13 harm this person in your care then you're going to be a 00:10:03.16\00:10:08.06 popular person this evening. They were scared. Who are you, 00:10:08.09\00:10:12.89 who are you, who hired you? I said well I am his protector. 00:10:12.92\00:10:17.69 Let me see the hospital administration. You can 00:10:17.72\00:10:20.55 remember seeing the important people come running down. 00:10:20.59\00:10:22.52 They said, sir, what can we do? What can we do? And I told them 00:10:22.56\00:10:25.89 the story. They posted guards downstairs. Nobody could get 00:10:25.92\00:10:29.24 upstairs, et cetera. I said who are his parents. So we went and 00:10:29.28\00:10:33.89 talked to him. The think about it, Karen, this young man told 00:10:33.92\00:10:38.58 me that his mother was a nurse. It was shocking. She didn't work 00:10:38.62\00:10:42.82 but a few blocks from where I attend church. So we got her on 00:10:42.86\00:10:46.73 the phone and told her that the son had been assaulted and she 00:10:46.77\00:10:50.95 needed to come to the hospital. So she thanked me for saving his 00:10:50.98\00:10:56.02 life. The next day she came down and at that time I called Cliff 00:10:56.05\00:11:01.06 and Freddie Harris. O yes, they do that drug 00:11:01.09\00:11:04.79 program, Drugs Close to Home. Yes. You know Cliff. Cliff is 00:11:04.83\00:11:08.76 energetic. He said, Ashley, I know you and I are friends but 00:11:08.80\00:11:12.16 you know from New York. You know how the New Yorkers are. I said 00:11:12.19\00:11:15.67 look come on Cliff, he's okay. I understand. He said, well I 00:11:15.71\00:11:19.56 don't know, but I'll just do that for you. And I said well 00:11:19.59\00:11:22.93 how come? He said, I need to talk to him. And knowing Cliff, 00:11:22.96\00:11:25.68 Cliff said well I was a former drug addict, so you know they 00:11:25.71\00:11:28.51 can lie, Ashley. You see you can't talk about that part. 00:11:28.54\00:11:31.89 You're a private investigator and I am an entrepreneur and 00:11:31.93\00:11:35.21 dealing with drug addicts. So he talked to him. He went through 00:11:35.25\00:11:38.62 the young man, he really put him on the carpet. I felt for the 00:11:38.65\00:11:41.72 young man. He looked at him and he said, now you know we're 00:11:41.76\00:11:45.03 liars, we can lie. You can jive actually but you can't jive me. 00:11:45.06\00:11:48.30 So the guy assured him that he wanted help. So I said well 00:11:48.33\00:11:51.83 Cliff if he wants help, I'll tell you what, I'll purchase 00:11:51.87\00:11:54.92 him a ticket. And Cliff said well now you're not going to 00:11:54.95\00:11:57.92 fly him man, you put him on a Greyhound bus and let him come. 00:11:57.96\00:12:01.35 I said, Well I'm not driving him to L.A. to pick him up. That 00:12:01.38\00:12:05.88 traffic is too heavy. And so okay. So Cliff was very careful. 00:12:05.92\00:12:10.69 He's experienced. So three weeks later we purchased some clothes 00:12:10.72\00:12:15.84 and gave him money for lunch and we took him to the bus station. 00:12:15.87\00:12:19.81 See the bus station in New York City is large as a small city. 00:12:19.84\00:12:24.02 So one mind said well leave him here man and go, but one mind 00:12:24.06\00:12:27.58 said you stay and make sure that he gets on the bus. So I 00:12:27.61\00:12:30.88 stayed and made sure that he got on the bus and I saw the bus 00:12:30.92\00:12:34.16 drive off and I walked away. I said now he's headed to 00:12:34.19\00:12:38.00 California to Cliff and Freddie Harris and I know they will help 00:12:38.04\00:12:43.05 him. As the evil one and darkness would have it to be, 00:12:43.08\00:12:54.20 I received a call the next day before this young man arrived 00:12:54.24\00:12:57.87 and it was Cliff on the phone. Cliff said, well Ashley why 00:12:57.91\00:13:01.28 didn't you tell me that the law is looking for this man, he 00:13:01.31\00:13:04.57 doesn't do this and he does that. I said, Cliff don't you 00:13:04.60\00:13:07.72 understand the evil one and darkness? You're not fighting 00:13:07.76\00:13:10.81 against flesh and blood; you're fighting with higher powers. 00:13:10.85\00:13:14.39 Sure they're going to say that. It appears that his brother had 00:13:14.42\00:13:17.76 called and said that he wasn't any good or anything. Wasn't 00:13:17.79\00:13:21.07 that helpful? We felt that the brother was just envious because 00:13:21.10\00:13:23.94 he didn't have it, you know. I said don't worry. He said okay 00:13:23.98\00:13:26.79 I'll give it a try. So this young man arrived and Cliff 00:13:26.82\00:13:30.10 cleaned him up and put him in his program. Cliff has a great 00:13:30.14\00:13:35.08 program, no messing around. They put him in the program and 00:13:35.12\00:13:39.62 assigned him to some of their supervisors and et cetera. 00:13:39.65\00:13:43.85 Karen, this young man began to grow. He began to grow. 00:13:43.89\00:13:48.02 He became hungry for the word of the Lord and he would write 00:13:48.06\00:13:51.43 me a letter. One of the letters I shall never forget, I don't 00:13:51.47\00:13:54.55 have time to show you that letter, he said Dear Mr. Cobb. 00:13:54.59\00:13:57.67 Thank you for coming and saving me. You didn't know me, you 00:13:57.71\00:14:00.76 didn't have to do it. But I am going to make a change. 00:14:00.79\00:14:04.08 God has called me. So it had been a year since that happened. 00:14:04.12\00:14:08.78 I stay in contact with him. The young man has joined the church 00:14:08.82\00:14:13.45 and he's baptized and he's an ordained deacon. So Cliff 00:14:13.48\00:14:17.90 called me one day and he said the other day about a week ago 00:14:17.94\00:14:21.18 and he said Ashley we want to help him get a driver's license. 00:14:21.22\00:14:24.46 The guy is so good. And I said, well Cliff why don't you let him 00:14:24.49\00:14:27.61 come back to New York. No, no, man, I'm frightened he might go 00:14:27.64\00:14:30.73 back. I said, Cliff don't tell me you figure I'm going to 00:14:30.76\00:14:34.14 steal him for an employee. But I still love you for that. Well 00:14:34.18\00:14:38.30 he told me well I am thinking about making him supervisor on 00:14:38.33\00:14:42.33 my program. And I said, young man, do you hear what your boss 00:14:42.37\00:14:45.98 is saying? That's a promotion. I said well we'll see what we 00:14:46.02\00:14:49.60 can do about his driver's license in New York. So I was 00:14:49.63\00:14:52.67 a little slow. Cliff called me early Sunday morning around 00:14:52.71\00:14:56.45 8 o'clock and it was around 5 o'clock in L.A. in California. 00:14:56.49\00:14:59.55 And I said what are you doing calling me? Now Ashley you're 00:14:59.59\00:15:02.33 moving too slow over there. Now we need a license, why don't 00:15:02.37\00:15:04.90 you do it? I said okay I'm going to work on it Cliff, so give me 00:15:04.94\00:15:07.56 the information again. I'm sorry So in the next two days Cliff 00:15:07.60\00:15:10.85 called me and he was praising God. He said, Ashley, God is 00:15:10.88\00:15:14.35 great, God is great! Now I had to calm down and wait till all 00:15:14.39\00:15:18.09 the excitement went down. Cliff is a very energetic, motivated 00:15:18.12\00:15:21.98 person himself who has succeeded in overcoming drugs and made a 00:15:22.02\00:15:26.00 good example of what God can do for you if you let God help you. 00:15:26.03\00:15:30.08 He said, this young man and I went down to the motor vehicle 00:15:30.12\00:15:35.17 department and they checked the computer and they said Vincent 00:15:35.21\00:15:40.13 there's nothing on your record saying that you owe tickets, so 00:15:40.17\00:15:43.75 you can apply for your license. So the young man said nothing? 00:15:43.79\00:15:46.92 They said well do you want us to put something up there? Just 00:15:46.95\00:15:51.00 apply for your license. Cliff was so excited. He said, well 00:15:51.03\00:15:54.64 Ashley, God is working with him. He is going to be my next 00:15:54.68\00:15:57.96 manager. I want to say this, Karen. That young man has grown. 00:15:57.99\00:16:01.24 I feel great about it. I just feel great. My outreach 00:16:01.27\00:16:06.19 organization is called HIMB, the work that I used there, 00:16:06.23\00:16:11.08 excuse the English, it may not be in line, he ain't heavy, he 00:16:11.12\00:16:16.17 is my brother. My wife and I called it, she looked it up and 00:16:16.21\00:16:21.13 saw it's a comporter ministry, not colporteur, but comporter 00:16:21.16\00:16:26.05 ministry. We checked it out. That means that something 00:16:26.08\00:16:28.64 existing we help them. So we helped this young man along the 00:16:28.68\00:16:33.52 way. That is my greatest point seeing this young man. So this 00:16:33.55\00:16:37.52 year I'm supposed to go out and I'm supposed to do one of my 00:16:37.56\00:16:41.14 favorite motivational speeches out there. So he's going to be 00:16:41.18\00:16:44.54 sitting there and he's going to say well Mr. Ashley, the private 00:16:44.57\00:16:48.78 investigator is one of the links that God used to help me to come 00:16:48.81\00:16:52.67 back to myself. He's doing great Karen; he's doing great. In fact 00:16:52.71\00:16:56.54 they wrote two articles about him. So we won't call his name 00:16:56.57\00:17:00.01 in here, maybe he wouldn't want me to do it, but maybe one day 00:17:00.05\00:17:03.25 I can be excused if Cliff's not listening to the program, I can 00:17:03.29\00:17:06.18 steal him from California and bring him to New York and let 00:17:06.21\00:17:10.33 him sit here and tell you what happened. How God used an 00:17:10.37\00:17:14.77 individual to bring him to God. As I look at that I see when 00:17:14.81\00:17:20.45 man has fallen from grace to destruction the angels themself 00:17:20.48\00:17:26.35 ask God could they come and pay the price for man. But God in 00:17:26.39\00:17:30.71 his great wisdom knew that they weren't capable of doing it. 00:17:30.75\00:17:34.83 God could have easily let the angels preach this gospel. 00:17:34.86\00:17:38.87 They would do much better than you and I because sometimes as 00:17:38.91\00:17:42.39 humans we get lazy along the way, we give up and we start 00:17:42.43\00:17:45.84 over. But God wanted humanity to be involved. So you get that? 00:17:45.88\00:17:50.19 He used this private investigator who comes short on 00:17:50.22\00:17:53.91 many goals that God has set for me, he used me to point another 00:17:53.95\00:17:59.25 individual to him. In that great day, we hope to see this young 00:17:59.28\00:18:03.64 man with you and everyone that's watching this program to stand 00:18:03.67\00:18:08.00 on the sea of glass and say we made it; thank God! 00:18:08.03\00:18:11.99 As the motto we sing and Dr. Martin Luther King, Free at last 00:18:12.03\00:18:16.91 thank God, free at last! That will be great, that will be the 00:18:16.94\00:18:21.39 final when we say free at last! Thank God Almighty! Free at 00:18:21.43\00:18:25.22 last! We hope to see this young man and many others that watch 00:18:25.26\00:18:28.97 this program. Let humanity work with humanity. There is no 00:18:29.01\00:18:33.14 better think that a human being can do for another one. As our 00:18:33.18\00:18:37.56 pride says, it takes humans to help humans. We were born for 00:18:37.60\00:18:41.97 one purpose; that's to serve each other. No man is an island. 00:18:42.01\00:18:46.35 That is just incredible. Now 00:18:46.38\00:18:49.11 you're also the president of the 00:18:49.14\00:18:51.38 Atlantic Union chapter of the 00:18:51.41\00:18:53.58 Adventist Laymen's Services and Industry Organization. 00:18:53.62\00:18:56.32 Isn't that what this is about? 00:18:56.35\00:18:58.68 Yes Karen. We call it for short ASI. That's what we're about. 00:18:58.72\00:19:05.76 We talk about witnessing in the work place. As I privately say 00:19:05.80\00:19:12.47 it that it is our responsibility to tell everybody that we come 00:19:12.51\00:19:19.15 in contact with about Jesus Christ and his saving power. 00:19:19.18\00:19:24.76 It's more than just about being a good entrepreneur, it's more 00:19:24.80\00:19:31.20 than that. God is the great I AM He is the great entrepreneur and 00:19:31.24\00:19:36.63 when we witness to others then we are doing what he put us on 00:19:36.66\00:19:43.58 this earth to do. When we help others as I say, when I became 00:19:43.62\00:19:48.99 involved with ASI, I thought it was a regular convention. 00:19:49.03\00:19:52.96 When you attend a convention it's to pass business cards. 00:19:52.99\00:19:57.12 This is what usually is done. After I found that was not 00:19:57.15\00:20:01.52 what it was about, I began to learn. I realized this is why 00:20:01.56\00:20:05.90 God had me to attend these sessions so many times so I 00:20:05.93\00:20:09.82 would be familiar with what he wanted me to do. I had no idea 00:20:09.86\00:20:14.10 that one day I would become the ASI president for the Atlantic 00:20:14.14\00:20:18.38 Union Conference. But God, being the one that knows the beginning 00:20:18.42\00:20:22.63 to the end knew what he had designated for me. So during 00:20:22.66\00:20:26.93 that time they did it different when we had out convention. 00:20:26.97\00:20:31.43 They would talk about witnessing in the work place and finding 00:20:31.46\00:20:35.89 new ways how to witness to others, how to bless others 00:20:35.92\00:20:39.67 and I began to learn little by little and pretty soon I 00:20:39.71\00:20:43.39 recognized when God blesses us he does it in a different way. 00:20:43.43\00:20:49.15 See, God's mathematics is totally different from my 00:20:49.18\00:20:52.21 mathematics. As I know 2 and 2 is 4; that's a fact to me. 00:20:52.25\00:20:56.88 but in God's mathematics he can multiply 2 and 2 may mean 8, 16, 00:20:56.92\00:21:01.49 32. So when we are witnessing to others and pointing them to 00:21:01.52\00:21:07.29 the creator then God opens the windows up and pours out a 00:21:07.32\00:21:11.37 blessing that we don't have room enough to receive it 00:21:11.41\00:21:15.29 providing we follow in all his requirements keeping his 00:21:15.32\00:21:19.13 commandments. This is what it's about and that's what I'm about. 00:21:19.17\00:21:23.53 Well it sounds to me from just listening to your tapes and some 00:21:23.57\00:21:26.87 of the things that you've been talking about as a professional 00:21:26.90\00:21:30.11 motivational speaker, something that you do in a volunteer 00:21:30.15\00:21:33.74 capacity and sometimes as well as coming into business groups 00:21:33.78\00:21:37.33 and helping them, you've talked a little bit about how you have 00:21:37.37\00:21:40.49 made Christ the center of your life and how you've incorporated 00:21:40.53\00:21:43.98 that into your business. You've also talked about it's important 00:21:44.01\00:21:47.43 to know yourself and to know Christ, to let God come into 00:21:47.46\00:21:51.48 your heart. Now I also want to ask you something. For that 00:21:51.51\00:21:55.21 person who's interested in having you come to their work 00:21:55.25\00:21:58.92 place; perhaps it's not a Christian work place, a 00:21:58.95\00:22:03.01 Christian setting but they'd like to have you talk to their 00:22:03.05\00:22:07.16 workers. What would you tell them about how they could 00:22:07.19\00:22:09.18 develop their gifts as employees? 00:22:09.21\00:22:10.67 Okay, that's easy, you know. We don't only do motivational 00:22:10.71\00:22:16.77 speeches to Christians. I do motivational speeches to every 00:22:16.81\00:22:21.69 one across the board because I feel that everybody is God's 00:22:21.73\00:22:27.26 people. Now in the work place a business owner or a manager may 00:22:27.29\00:22:32.64 need to have his employees motivated, may need his managers 00:22:32.67\00:22:38.18 need his executives motivated. Sometimes in life we continue 00:22:38.21\00:22:42.71 to do the same thing in the same manner until it becomes routine 00:22:42.74\00:22:47.59 and we lose the energy. It is my duty to come in and show them 00:22:47.62\00:22:52.19 which way that they can achieve in this particular department; 00:22:52.23\00:22:56.77 how they can overcome this obstacle in life. So when we 00:22:56.80\00:23:01.69 look at something at a different angle it can work out because 00:23:01.73\00:23:06.47 no one is right, no one person has all the answers. So I 00:23:06.50\00:23:10.72 usually motivate the people that I speak to. Pick yourself up by 00:23:10.76\00:23:16.19 the boot strap and pull yourself up. Don't let anybody turn you 00:23:16.23\00:23:21.63 around. You're great and you have a God that says you're 00:23:21.66\00:23:25.70 great. Live all that you can in this life. Live your dream and 00:23:25.74\00:23:30.96 live all that you can. When you live that live on because 00:23:30.99\00:23:34.56 there's much more to live. 00:23:34.59\00:23:35.94 That's wonderful. Well I tell you, in looking at your business 00:23:35.98\00:23:40.23 profile I noticed that you have incorporated that very principle 00:23:40.27\00:23:44.49 in your own company by giving your secretary a very special 00:23:44.52\00:23:48.00 title that I know would make her feel wonderful, Secretary 2000. 00:23:48.04\00:23:53.46 Yes, let me talk about that. I said that one day and I was 00:23:53.49\00:23:58.10 coming to the new millennium, 2000, and recognized that 00:23:58.14\00:24:02.68 I needed to motivate the office staff. You know I go all over 00:24:02.72\00:24:07.76 the country motivating everybody else. Sometime my own are not 00:24:07.80\00:24:12.81 taken care of. But I'm a different type of employer. 00:24:12.84\00:24:20.59 I talk to my people, I make little jokes with them. If they 00:24:20.63\00:24:24.51 come in the office looking down I say look it's sad enough to 00:24:24.55\00:24:27.82 be here, sometime I don't want to be here, but since we have to 00:24:27.85\00:24:31.23 be among each other, put a smile on your face. What can I do for 00:24:31.27\00:24:34.62 you today. I'll tell you what, lunch is on me today and we 00:24:34.65\00:24:38.31 both cheer up. So we talked about secretary 2000, they were 00:24:38.34\00:24:41.14 looking at me and said what do you mean about that. I said, 00:24:41.18\00:24:43.91 well I'm giving you a different title. You know we're going into 00:24:43.95\00:24:47.90 the new millennium and we want to come in and we want to pick 00:24:47.93\00:24:52.36 ourselves up by our boot straps. Is there anything I can do to 00:24:52.40\00:24:56.35 make your life easy while you're working for me. I know it's 00:24:56.38\00:25:00.77 always a raise and I always know if anything I can say to set 00:25:00.81\00:25:04.97 things in priorities because many times the boss is wrong. 00:25:05.00\00:25:08.92 Bosses are wrong, you know they're not right all the time. 00:25:08.96\00:25:12.56 You can get a lot of good information from your employees 00:25:12.60\00:25:15.98 and I make it my business to talk, to listen to what my 00:25:16.01\00:25:19.57 employees have to say. So I gave them that title. I say you 00:25:19.60\00:25:23.70 always can talk to me. Just tell me how you feel. Just say time 00:25:23.73\00:25:27.40 out, I want to talk to you. I can't fire you for that because 00:25:27.44\00:25:30.43 as long as you're on company time I won't fire you for that. 00:25:30.47\00:25:33.22 Just tell me how you feel. Then I'll know how I should do it. 00:25:33.26\00:25:35.98 So we have a good working relationship 00:25:36.01\00:25:38.42 I tell you Ashley, we're nearing the end of our program but 00:25:38.46\00:25:42.17 before we go I'd like for you to look into this camera over here 00:25:42.21\00:25:44.89 and I want you to talk to that person who is running their 00:25:44.92\00:25:49.40 company who may be torn between the bottom line as well as 00:25:49.43\00:25:53.00 having their employees feel happy about working where they 00:25:53.04\00:25:56.66 are and then the idea which you've introduced today of 00:25:56.69\00:26:00.24 incorporating Christ and doing unto others. What would you say 00:26:00.28\00:26:04.36 to that person? Well, Karen, I will say to that 00:26:04.39\00:26:06.94 person, it could be a man or woman, who owns a business or 00:26:06.95\00:26:10.17 is having people working for them, there are times that it 00:26:10.18\00:26:15.93 seems on the bottom line that the boss and the employees don't 00:26:15.96\00:26:20.86 see eye to eye. I would say to the employer, first you sit down 00:26:20.90\00:26:25.77 and you think about what can make your employees happy. 00:26:25.80\00:26:28.89 Now in order to have a successful business you must 00:26:28.92\00:26:31.94 have satisfied employees. You must pay them a fair salary, 00:26:31.98\00:26:36.74 you must listen to them because we have problems and they can 00:26:36.78\00:26:41.51 give good information that will cause a company to grow. 00:26:41.54\00:26:45.99 Most successful companies are not because the boss builds it 00:26:46.02\00:26:49.93 by himself. There is a group of individuals around him giving 00:26:49.96\00:26:53.98 him advice and he spearheads it up and he takes that advice. 00:26:54.02\00:26:58.47 Now I would say to that person first incorporate God into your 00:26:58.51\00:27:03.51 plans. Determine to live all you can. If you have a business and 00:27:03.55\00:27:08.52 that business may not be progressing as you think it 00:27:08.55\00:27:11.55 should, once you incorporate Christ in your plans and you 00:27:11.59\00:27:16.60 look for different methods and avenues. Get as much information 00:27:16.64\00:27:21.71 from people that know what you are manufacturing or what 00:27:21.74\00:27:25.32 services that your selling. A lot of your information comes 00:27:25.35\00:27:29.83 from your secretary or the warehouse person, the fellow 00:27:29.87\00:27:34.28 that may sleep the floor for you. Listen to that and you can 00:27:34.32\00:27:38.05 be a success along with God. 00:27:38.08\00:27:40.77 Well thank you so much for sharing your ideas today and 00:27:40.81\00:27:44.66 thank you for coming into the program. For our viewers, we 00:27:44.70\00:27:48.22 would like to hear from you. Please call that 800 number. 00:27:48.25\00:27:51.74 There is someone who is willing to pray with you. 00:27:51.77\00:27:53.66 If you're a business owner and would like to have Ashley come 00:27:53.70\00:27:56.90 to your company, please call that 800 number. 00:27:56.93\00:27:59.39 Until next time may God bless you. We look forward to seeing 00:27:59.43\00:28:02.89 you again on Issues and Answers. 00:28:02.92\00:28:05.35