The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Dr. A. Jerome R. Butler

Episode Date: September 19, 2021

Dr. A. Jerome R. Butler

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. Chris Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. The Chris Voss Show.com.

Hey, we're coming to you with another great podcast. We certainly appreciate you guys tuning in. Thanks for being here. To see the video broadcast of this, they have it free on the internet. It's the latest thing. It's come out. The newest kids are watching it on youtube.com, 4chesschrisvoss. Hit that bell notification. When you hit it, there's a special feeling that washes over to you, like an enlightenment, like a beam comes down from the sky and says, we love you. But it's really just aliens that are going to anal probe you. So, you know, but still, there's that.

You have something to do on Fridays. Anyway, guys, go to couldreads.com. Forge, that's Chris Voss. See everything we're reading and reviewing there. Also, go over to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, all those places. There's a bazillion groups. I lose count on them all. Where we post and talk about the Chris Voss show and their guests and appearances and all that good stuff. We talk about them behind

their backs. No, I'm just kidding. We don't do that. So we're excited to announce my new book is coming out. It's called Beacons of Leadership, Inspiring Lessons of Success in Business and Innovation. It's going to be coming out on October 5th, 2021. And I'm really excited for you to get a chance to read this book. It's filled with a multitude of my insightful stories, lessons, my life, and experiences in leadership and character. I give you some of the secrets from my CEO Entrepreneur Toolbox that I use to scale my business success, innovate, and build a multitude of companies.

I've been a CEO for, what is it, like 33, 35 years now. We talk about leadership, the importance of leadership, how to become a great leader, and how anyone can become a great leader as well. So you can pre-order the book right now wherever fine books are sold. But the best thing to do on getting a pre-order deal is to go to beaconsofleadership.com. That's beaconsofleadership.com. On there, you can find several packages you can take advantage of in ordering the book. And for the same price of what you can get it from someplace else like Amazon, you can get all sorts of extra goodies that we've taken and given away. Different collectors, limited edition, custom made numbered book plates that are going to be autographed by me.

There's all sorts of other goodies that you can get when you buy the book from beaconsofleadership.com. So be sure to go there, check it out, or order the book wherever fine books are sold. Anyway, guys, we have an amazing gentleman who is on the show. He's going to be talking about his book, all the different things that he does, and everything else. And we'll be profiling him. And he even has a podcast, which is pretty cool. His name is Dr. Jerome R. Butler. And he is a motivational speaker, life coach, and ordained minister who has been a senior pastor and ordained bishop with the communion. Dr. Butler has one purpose, which is to use the wisdom of the ages and make life relevant for his time. He is simplistic and realistic teaching, helps to pick up the pieces in life that do not seem to fit.

He has contributed to transform, motivate, and cultivate thousands of lives through his teaching. His motto is success on purpose. Welcome to the show. How are you, Dr. Butler? Hey, Chris. How are you doing? I'm just so happy to be here with you, my friend. Good. And let me correct one thing. It's Dr. A. Jerome Butler. Dr. A. Jerome Butler. Everybody just misses the A, you know, because I'm not Michael A. Smith or anybody famous like that. So they just take the A out and go straight to Jerome. And my apologies. At 53, the eyes are going. Oh, buddy, believe me, I understand. I understand.

And the brain. If you notice, I was squinting when I was reading the bio. I used to blow it up, too, but I'm fighting a camera. So welcome to the show. Congratulations. You've got the new book out, Moments of Grace. They're on Anchor and of course, all major platforms. We're on all major platforms. And we have just written a dynamic book. You will not find us on Amazon. I don't want to put any more money in Jeff Bezos' pocket. So you'll have to go to my website to find it, which is www.drajrbutler.com. And so we're so excited about the latest book. Like I was sharing with Chris in the green room, we've sold over 10,000 books. I've written seven and co-authored with my 11 year old. Can you believe it? My 11 year old Chris has her own book out with foster parents and she wrote a book to help bring some awareness to fostering. That's us in a nutshell, Chris.

Wow. I just wrote my first book at 53 and an 11 year old's got me beat. She got to beat man. I'm going to go shoot myself in the forehead now. Anyway, guys, don't do that. So welcome the show. We certainly appreciate it. You've written actually a lot of books. How many books have you written? It's been seven. We have actually four out of print. They, the first, I think, five or 6,000 went out of print.

And I said, I made an agreement with the people that bought the last editions and I wasn't going to print any more. I hadn't. So we still have three that are out in print. Like I said, I co-authored with my, with my, she was nine when she wrote it with my 11 year old. So we, so she has a book out that's called the crystal kingdom and kind of highlights the misadventures that she had with some of her, with her foster sisters. So, oh, wow.

Congratulations to her nine years old to start writing a book. I wish I would have started earlier. Actually, that might've been a better idea because I couldn't remember half my bloody stories at 53. I'm like, what did I do again? So if you're going to write a book, we can still remember your stories. If I would have went into the 10 years, I would have been like, I can't feel my legs. What? What's going on? Which is probably where I'm headed. You've also got the podcast. You want to put a plug in for the podcast? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The podcast, like I said, is moments of grace. Now don't let it fool you because you know, Chris said I'm an ordained minister. I had somebody that I was talking to the other day and he's a magician. He said, I don't think I'm right for your podcastents of Grace is that, hey, buddy, hey, guys,

we are a collaboration of a million little miracles. We just want to be positive. We are a family-friendly show. It's not religious. Let me make sure people understand that because I think with the name, sometimes people get off balance because of them. But it is a family-friendly show. I want you to be able to listen to it with your 89-year-old grandmother and with your 12-year-old son or daughter and even your grandchildren. So it's a family-friendly variety of talk show. And we have had people on there. Ted Lange from Love Boat has been on there as well as Diane Steinberg. We really love Diane. She was actually, she was in the Beatles movie, not the Beatles movie, but the Bee Gees movie. She is the actual Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

And her name is Diane Steinberg. Yeah. And she is actually married to, and we're going to have him on the show. She is actually married to the drummer of the Steve Miller band. So we're going to have him on our show coming up next year.

So real excited about some of the people we've had on the show and it's exploding, man. We've had 70,000 downloads. We launched in January 5th, 2020, right when the pandemic hit and it was just the right time for Perfect Storm. And to include, let me add this too, if you don't mind, Chris, we're actually going to have a virtual appreciation in December for all of our listeners. Guys, I'm going to actually be giving away some cash and some prizes so you really want to connect with us if you want to get some of that some of that moolah moolah moolah is good moolah is good virtual appreciation is there like lap dance my wife would my wife if i could tie her up in the room somewhere then i could probably get away with that but magic let me get away with that, my friend. Sorry, I have to do the jokes.

I got it. We're not quite a family show, but I'll be better if I come on your show. Let's see. One of the other features you have, one of the other features that a feature, one of the great things that you do. Well, let me just share it. Let me share. It's not a sob story. It's the American success story.

I'm a prior military, an old veteran. When I say old, Desert Storm, old veteran. And when I got out of the military, Chris, I know you've seen the movie with Will Smith,

What is the Pursuit of Happiness? So I went through that for a little while because I was working for a company. I'd been hired with the company that didn't pay me. I had to get some licensing

and other stuff. So I was homeless for about six to eight months until I got my licensing and everything and lived in my car. And even though I was trying to work, really didn't make enough really to support myself. So I was living in my car and trying to get all my licensing. Once I got all my licensing and everything was great. But for six months, I actually experienced that being a veteran. We have guys that walk past veterans or walk over them or whatever. But that was actually me at one time. And I'm so thankful that after we got us 663 and 7, as well as insurance, my life changed.

And we have we've actually sold, flipped homes, everything else. We teach people how to invest. But about two years ago, we acquired three pieces of property. We were getting ready to develop them and get ready to rent them out, flip them or do something. And I just appeared in my heart to just remember where I came from. And I really felt that we needed to give these homes. So I told my wife, I said, I just feel like I'm being led for us to give these homes away. Now, let me put a pause in it here, Chris, because you can imagine you just spent all of this money on three properties and now you're telling your wife,

I don't know how your wife is, but I know some wives, you tell them, we're gonna give these homes away. They probably would flip out. But my wife is a woman of faith and she believes in anything that we're trying to do and hadn't led her wrong. She says, sure, if that's what you're being led to do.

So we started, it's called the Grace Project. And actually you can find it at Grace Projects Homes, graceprojecthomes.com. And we give away homes to people that are homeless and also to vets. So like I said, I never want to see any other vet go through what I did, what I went through. And we have a plan of giving away 100 homes in the next 10 years to homeless people and the vets. Because, buddy, I'm here to tell you that homelessness and all this stuff, it's getting ready to get worse than what it ever has been. And so we've got to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. And that's what we believe. Yeah, I'm with you there, man.

I think it's disgusting what we do to the veterans of this country. One of my early companies was a courier service. We used to have to do, we would do what they called stats, where we would run blood and urine samples in emergency rooms and doctors' operating ORs, which is big blood and testing lab. We'd run them back and forth. We were the courier company and we'd have to go to the VA. It was like a morgue back in the nineties going to the VA. You'd see poor veterans sitting there

for six, seven hours in the waiting room. The big joke was the VA is where doctors go to learn the trade and get a free license and then they leave and bail. I think things have gotten a lot better, but yeah, we need to do something about these homeless vets and people in the streets. The Reagan era that closed a lot of the, the, a lot of mental health institutions and the support social networks created a lot of this that comes out of it. Just people not giving a crap about people that are the whole notion of some of the politics in this country. They're like, you can, everyone can succeed and raise themselves up. No, there's people in this country that need help. Exactly. Exactly. I totally agree, my friend. Totally agree. So let's talk a little bit more about what you're doing with the nonprofit then too.

Oh yeah, definitely. So I feel it's absolutely beautiful because we combine one of our other businesses, which is Trade Academy Pro. And there we teach people how to invest in Forex stocks, buy investment property, everything else for a very low amount. It's almost laughable how much we charge, but we're trying to create not just financial literacy, but financial legacy. And with the homes in concert, we keep their rent. We don't just give the homes away. So let me back up. We say we give the homes away and it is given away at a certain point. There is an application process they have to go through and my board

of directors, they have to go through. But for 10 years, whether it's a one bedroom or three bedroom home, their rent is between four to $600 a month. We keep the rent as low as possible. And so for 10 years, we keep the rent there and then for the next 20 years they don't have to pay any more rent we want these homes to actually be legacy homes that go to the next generation so the homes are we're in partnership with them because we don't want them to sell them we want the next generation their kids and maybe their grandkids to live in these homes rent rent free mortgage free all they have to do is take care of the property. Can you imagine when we were coming up, Chris, if we actually didn't have to pay a mortgage or didn't have to pay rent, man, how far ahead you could be in life if you did. So it's not just getting them off the

street. It's partnering with a family for 30 years to help them any way possible to be a success. So we teach them life skills if they need them, how to get a job, how to dress for success and things of that nature, as well as, like I said, teaching them how to invest, how to save, how the banks, let me say it again, Chris, I don't know how you feel about it, how the banks are a rip off, how the banks are a rip off. You can make more money in the stock market by, I can take $5,000, put it in the bank for the next 20 years. You give me the same $5,000 and I can turn it over to 50 or $60,000 in the market just on dividends alone. So it's a big rip off my friends. So we teach them the power of investing and how to have legacy, not just literacy, but financial legacy.

And so that's what all of that program is all about there, Chris. I agree with you. I own a mortgage company for 20 years. I've seen those amortization tables. It's like the first mortgage payment you have, I don't know, five bucks goes to the principal. But a lot of people don't realize in this country, especially with its unbridled capitalism, and capitalism is good. I have nothing against it. Nothing against it, yeah. We've reached a point where it's turned into a denture of servitude, whether it's college

debt. I would see people that even if they got really good jobs as doctors, they still would be paying their college debt for 20, 25, 30 years. I'm 53 now, and I've got friends that are just would be paying their college debt for 20, 25, 30 years. I'm 53 now, and I've got friends that are just barely paying off their college debt and starting to live their lives now they got some more money. It's crazy. Same thing with cars and houses and people buy stuff that they don't really need. And, and they're always trying to one up the Joneses, we'll keep up with the Joneses and buy crap. You're right. If they wouldn't invest half the money they would spend you don't need the latest car every year you don't

need the latest mac whatever apple's selling this week put that money into like you say even passbook savings accounts probably don't pay anymore but put it in some sort of vehicle that can pay you like you said dividends and and don't necessarily put it in cryptocurrency give me a break unless you're like like a really seasoned venture investor who can do day trading like I can or something. Even then, I just assume play the stock market. I'd rather buy something that has a value to it so there is a bottom. I got you. I got you, my friend.

Tell us, we've covered kind of a gamut of what you've done a lot of things in Africa and AIDS support too. One of the questions I had for you, you can just throw this all in there, is where do you usually do this housing and stuff? And how can maybe investors or people that want to support or donate get a hold of you to help you with that project? Yeah, actually in the continental U.S. right now, I hope and pray that we can get to Africa, maybe in Alaska, but in continental U.S. right now. You can go to www.graceproject.info or like I said, www.graceprojecthomes.com and you can partner with us. We'll take property. If you're looking for a tax break, you can invest your property and get the tax break on that. We also take sweat equity as well. If you want to come in or you have a group that wants to come in and help refurbish a house like Habitat for Humanity, we'll take that.

We have a group out of Tennessee. I'm based out of South Carolina, and I have a group out of Tennessee that is donating some time that they're going to come and help us with one of our projects that we have in June of next year. So we'll launch that one in June of next year, and they're going to come and help us with one of our projects that we have in June of next year. So we'll launch that one in June of next year and they're going to come in and we just supply primarily supply the material and then they're going to help do everything else, trying to get it ready for the potential family that's going to get this home. Wow. That's really cool, man. I've always loved what President Jimmy Carter's done.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Just seeing him. At his age, man. He's still out what President Jimmy Carter's done. Just seeing him. He's still out hammering nails and crap. I would just be in a room somewhere going, here's some money. Someone go hammer some stuff. Exactly. I'd sit here and watch the TV and drool at the sight of my mouth, which I do now.

That's 53. That guy is much more a man than I am, so praise him. What a great representation of maybe what more of a president should be like. 100%. We hadn't had one like that since, but we won't be political and I'll leave that alone. So I'm apolitical. So let me say that. But I voted on both sides of the aisle and still do. I don't care. I'm about policy. I'm not about politics. So personality and politics, you're about policy. How do we get a chance to move our nation forward? Like I mentioned, Chris, I'm a veteran. I'm actually one of, we've had five generations of vets in my family since my grandfather. There's been 18 of us, including two of my older kids. So we're a military family. We believe in the American dream. And as you read in my bio, my motto is, and hear me closely, and somebody may get upset, I really don't care. Success is on purpose, but so is failure. I truly believe

if you have all of your accoutrements together and you have all of your senses together, I truly believe you can do anything in this country. I don't let anybody stand in my way and tell me what I can't do. My color is just a wrapping. That's all this garbage is. If that's what it takes for you to determine what I am, then shame on you for being a lesser person going to your lower place. I'm at a higher place and there's nothing that's going to stop me. And the people that connect with us, attach to us, we're all about making sure we leave this world better when we leave it than when we came.

And let me share this also, Chris. Let me ask you a real good quick question. Do you know what the statistics are for you to be born? Probably really rare. Very rare. In fact, I did a statistical study. It's in one of my books. You could win its lottery 27 times rather than be born in five generations.

Win the lottery 27 times. Why am I saying that? Because I want everybody to understand how rare you are, how great you are, and how beautiful and wonderful you are, that you were created to do something in this world, not just waste time sitting in front of a television or waste time, you know, with just kickback doing nothing. Let's help to make this world better

because you are a statistical impossibility. Being a statistical impossibility, man, how dare you not do anything with your life? Five generations, you would statistically beat, you would have to win the lottery 27 times than five generations of you being born. So I'm just in awe of that, man. And so that's the kind of energy I have. That's the kind of energy I like to bring and like to bring people along to understand what their purpose and their destiny is, man. Thank you, man. I feel like we're in a devotional right now. We are. We're always in a devotional when we're together, man. We're together. No, I was talking to my friends the other day about this in my private back channel on Instagram that people don't realize how rare or appreciate how rare it is. We are born and the universe is a big survival

game, really big survival game when it comes out, if you haven't checked lately, but yeah, definitely. So what haven't we touched on the Dr. Butler that we should touch on about you? Oh, like I said, I guess the last thing would be Trade Academy Pro. That's our business. Like I said, we teach people how to invest in stocks. We teach them. We do charting, the whole gamut. I'm a day trader. And if I had known what I did not know 20 years ago, I would probably be there along with Elon Musk or one of those guys.

But I'm so thankful for the opportunity to go into these markets, do what we can do. And you just mentioned crypto. I hate to tell you this, Chris. I really hate to tell you this. I hate to tell you this. We paid a house off with crypto. I hate to tell you that. Well, see, you're under the qualification of where I said a seasoned trader, right? Yeah, buddy. So we do foreign exchange. We do crypto stocks, options. And then the biggie, like I said, is trying to teach people how to buy property. We teach people mortgage hacks. And you've been in the mortgage business. There are certain hacks to get your house paid off in five to seven years. I just don't believe I believe that that we're meant to be debt free,

my friend. And that's what we push, becoming debt free, getting out of poverty, never looking back at poverty ever again. Even in this economic time, there is a way that we can get out of poverty, pay our homes off and use the equity in our house, even to move up to pay off that college debt, these things. There's so many ways that we weren't taught, Chris, on how to be financially free. And as long as I'm here, I'm going to continue to preach it and live it and show it. Preach. And like I say, I'm, I've known about crypto. I've owned crypto. As long as you're a seasoned investor, the thing I'm just against is I was trying to be a stockbroker. You don't let people invest in securities that they don't understand. Like I've met too many people that, yeah, I put all my money in, in the shorts and,

and, and ruin the kid's home and future and everything on the street. I just want people to be smart and be educated when they do that. But that's what you do. You help educate people. So that's awesome. It's been wonderful to have you on the show. Thank you for sharing anything you want to touch on before we go out. Yeah.

Do have one other thing. Actually, 2017, we were in a movie. The movie was the Christian movie of the year 2017. It was called Faith's Song. So if you're going Tubi or anywhere right now, Netflix or whatever, look it up. And then you can say, I saw that ball head guy that was on Chris Voss' show on the movie. I've always wanted, that was on my bucket list to be on a movie, and I had an opportunity. And, of course, I played pastor number two. Oh, yeah. Played pastor number two.

And so it was a great experience. And, in fact, my wife and my daughter both have credits because they're in the movie as well, I guess you say as plug-ins or whatever. But great opportunity, and I want to encourage your watchers and listeners, Chris, to go and check out the movie, and it's called Faith i think you'll enjoy it there you go there you go i certainly appreciate it dr butler geez man you have so much energy and you're doing so many things i feel like i need to work on things but i don't know i might go take a nap after this just trying to keep up with you oh my god oh my god it's been wonderful to have you on the show and make your acquaintance and become friends with you.

I just sent you social media friend requests all over the Internet there. And we'll talk some more about your show and what you're doing. But continue success, my friend, in what you're doing. Give us your plugs as we go out. Wonderful, wonderful. Again, you can check us out on Linktree if you need to contact us on Linktree. That's link.ee, Linktree, at D-R-A-J-R Butler. And all of our contacts are there. Social media is AJR Butler. Just what you see there,

take the doctor out. And that's me right there. Instagram, same thing. And like I said, with our website, D-R-A-J-R Butler, you can get our books there. All of our books there we have. I'm sorry we don't do Patreon and all these other places because again, I thank goodness that I've had, I got an audience of thousands that support what we do. And we want you to be one of them as well. Come and help us with giving these homes away, man. I'm telling you, we are our brother's keeper. And like I said, success is on purpose, but so is failure. So let's go out there and get it, my friend. There you go. There you go. I certainly appreciate it. Thank you for being on the show. Thank you, Chris, for having us. We're so honored to do what you

said, 53 years old, our 53-year-old new brother here. We thank God for you, man. And thank you for having us. Thank you. Thank you very much. And thanks, my honest, for tuning in. Go to youtube.com for Chess Chris Voss. Hit the bell notification button. Go to goodreads.com, Fortress Chris Voss. See everything we're reading and reviewing over there. Also go to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, all those different places. You'll see us. Be good to each other. Stay safe. And we'll see you guys next time. So we're excited to announce my new book is coming out. It's called Beacons of Leadership, Inspiring Lessons of Success in Business and Innovation. It's going to be coming out on October 5th, 2021.

And I'm really excited for you to get a chance to read this book. It's filled with a multitude of my insightful stories, lessons, my life, and experiences in leadership and character. I give you some of the secrets from my CEO Entrepreneur Toolbox that I use to scale my business success, innovate, and build a multitude of companies. I've been a CEO for, what is it, like 33, 35 years now. We talk about leadership, the importance of leadership, how to become a great leader, and how anyone can become a great leader as well. So you can pre-order the book right now wherever fine books are sold. But the best thing to do on getting a pre-order deal is to go to beaconsofleadership.com.

That's beaconsofleadership.com. On there, you can find several packages you can take advantage of in ordering the book. And for the same price of what you can get it from someplace else like Amazon, you can get all sorts of extra goodies that we've taken and given away. Different collectors, limited edition, custom- made numbered book plates that are going to be autographed by me. There's all sorts of other goodies that you can get when you buy the book from beaconsofleadership.com. So be sure to go there, check it out or order the book wherever fine books are sold.